the Chancellor and he paid the Officers and the poor Knights of Windsor the Surplus the King had formerly granted to Sir Henry de Vic and it was quietly possest by him till he died out of which he was to defray the Charges and Fees of Admission of foreign Princes and Noblemen who were elected into that Order For this also the Bishop of Salisbury had the Kings Hand which Grant had been firm and irrevocable had the Bishop Seald it with the Seal of the Order which he kept in his possession or causd it to pass the usual Offices which had been easie for him to have done then being in much favour at Court But he made use of neither of these Corroborations and afterwards smarted for it sufficiently In the last Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second and the first of the precipitous decay of the Bishop of Salisburys Intellectuals some sagacious Courtier found out a Flaw in this Grant whereupon the Bishop was sent for up to London and obliged to refund the uttermost peny which in so many Years amounted to a considerable Sum all which his Majesty took without any scruple or remorse CHAP. XV. Concerning my Self YOU may remember at the beginning of the last Chapter I threatned to treat at large of two or three of the Bishops second rate Friends and here as the Saying is I will make bold to Christen mine own Child first for Charity begins at home and take this opportunity to put in my claim to that glorious Title I say therefore and proclaim it to the World that I was his hearty intimate and unfeigned Friend I doubt not but that this proud Assertion will provoke some testy old-fashion Filosofer to take me up severely that such an inconsiderable Fellow as I should presume to stile my self a Friend to so great a Prelate since it is evident out of Aristotle that Amicitia est inter pares Where there is no Equality there can be no Friendship But I pray you Sir have a little patience and hear how I defend my self against Ipse dixit I will make use of the Shield of Horace who lived in a greater Court and may be presumd to understand good Manners as well as Aristotle and I make no doubt but that he had as much Wit too This I rather believe because he did not think fit to trouble the World with entelecheias entities and quiddities and such other abstruse unintelligible Metafysical Notions I say this Horace uses the word Friend reciprocally betwixt Mecenas and himself Quod te sortitus Amicum i. e. That you are my Friend And in another place Iubesque esse in Amicorum numero That is You have orderd me to be registerd amongst your Friends Nay he goes yet farther and boldly averrs that he deservd to be so and that whoever doubted of it must esteem Mecenas a Fool and not able to choose a worthy Friend when he took so much care and caution about it Presertim cautus dignos assumere That is You do not choose your Friends hastily and hand over head But I shall not bear pace with Horace so far I only assert that there was not a greater inequality betwixt the Bishop of Salisbury and Me than betwixt Mecenas and Horace Our Poet was meanly descended and Poor Mecenas had the Etrurian Kings Blood in his Veins and was immensly Rich and what is yet greater chief Favourite to Augustus the most happy and glorious of all the Roman Emperours and Governour of Rome the Queen of Cities and at that time the greatest and richest Town in the known World Having thus made the way plain I hope I may say without contradiction that I was the Bishop of Salisburys Friend and he was mine But some may yet object how will you make this appear Have a little patience and read on I did him all the Services in my power I sufferd Cold with him upon Salisbury Plains and Heat in his Chamber where there was always a great Fire tho he did not use to sit by it I made it my business to delight him and divert his Melancholy nay I may truly say I profited him too I presented him with an excellent Pad Nag in whom he took much delight not permitting any one to ride him besides himself and valued him so highly that he refusd fifty five Guineas which Mr. Baptist May Privy Purse to King Charles the Second profferd for him but this Nag afterwards unfortunately died by a tread upon one of his hinder Heels notwithstanding the joint endeavours of the best Farriers to cure him But I forget my self I am writing the History of Horses This Nag was given me by my honoured Friend Charles Lord Clifford whose kindness I can never enouf acknowledge and whose death I can never sufficiently lament I presented him also with some curious Books which I had collected in my Travels and I taught him French and Italian and went through several Treatises with him in those Languages I read to him frequently till my Eyes by a vehement Inflammation were useless to me and renderd me less serviceable to him for above a Years time This Malady was perfectly curd by Gods blessing upon Dr. Turberviles application as I have gratefully acknowledged in the eighteenth and nineteenth Stanzas of the First Part of the Salisbury Canto I hope therefore t will not be thought that the Bishops kindness to me was wholly undeservd for Amor ut Pila vices exigit That is Love like a Ball or a Shuttle-cock must be returnd and held up on both sides I acknowledge he was very kind and obliging to me but yet I would not have the Reader run away with an opinion that he heapd mountains of Gold upon me I had I acknowledge my Diet and Lodging with him as long and as often as I pleasd and when we Traveld together or to speak with more respect when I accompanied him or attended him in any Journey he defrayd my Charges as one of his Retinue Besides this I never received of him directly or indirectly in Money or Moneys-worth to the value of Ten Pounds and after his death my Name was not so much as mentioned in the Will and it cannot be imagind that I expect any Reward for writing his Life now so many Years after he has been bereavd of it tho' I confess he did more than once proffer me Money when I was Sick in London To what I said before that his Favours were not wholly undeservd I will take the boldness to add here neither were they wholly cast away for they fell into good Ground and have produced a Gratitude in me which lives and encreases still tho' he is dead 'T is not every one that will continue his Devotions and Thanks-Offerings when the Altar is turnd to Dust and the Saint removd He did as great and greater Favours to many others which puts me in mind of that Saying in the Gospel Nonne Decem facti sunt mundi Sed ubi
THE LIFE OF THE Right Reverend Father in God SETH Lord Bishop of SALISBURY And CHANCELLOR of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER With a Brief Account of Bishop Wilkins Mr. Lawrence Rooke Dr. Isaac Barrow Dr. Turbervile And others Written by Dr. WALTER POPE Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY Quid foret Iliae Mavortisque Gener si Taciturnitas Obstaret meritis Invida Romuli Hor. LONDON Printed for William Keblewhite at the Swan in St. Paul's Church-yard 1697. To the Honourable Colonel JOHN WYNDHAM of DORSETSHIRE SIR I Might easily bring into the Field and Muster a Brigade if not an Army of Motives which compelld me to Dedicate this Book to you but because I know you love Brevity I shall content my self to declare to the World only one of them viz. Amongst the few Friends I have for Old Men generally out-live their Friends I could not pitch upon any Patron so fit as your Self For you were intimately acquainted with the deceased Bishop the Subject of this Treatise lovd him and was intirely belovd by him I appeal therefore to you as Competent Iudge and an Eye witness whether what I have said concerning his Hospitality his humble and obliging Conversation in Salisbury be not rather less than more than it deservd You also as I find by Experience bear no small Affection to me which I humbly beg you to continue as long as I shall approve my self SIR Your most humble obliged and Grateful Servant Walter Pope ERRATA PAGE 17. Line 23. Read London p. 44. l. 5. for Town r. College p. 45. l. 19. r. Protector p. 76. l. 11. r. is our p. 80. l. 8. r. Chaplain p. 82. l. 18. r. ten pounds p. 145. l. 3. r. omnium or panfarmacon p. 151. l. antep r. Multum p. 156. l. penult r. Absentem THE LIFE OF THE Right Reverend Father in God SETH Lord Bishop of Salisbury c. CHAP. I. The Introduction THE Motives that incouraged me to write this ensuing Treatise were such as these viz. 1. The deceas'd Bishop had conferred many Favours upon me and I thought this was a fit opportunity to publish my Gratitude for them 2. That his Life was worthy to be transmitted to Posterity and that it would be more acceptable to the Learned that it should be done by me as well as I could than not at all for I have not yet heard of any person who has designed or attempted it tho there are more than eight years past since he died 3. I am not altogether unprovided for such a Work having during my long Acquaintance with Him and his Friends inform'd my self of most of the considerable Circumstances of his Life 4. And in the fourth and last place because I shall run no risque in so doing for tho some may blame my Performance yet even they cannot but approve my pious Intention and the worst that can be said against me if I do not attain my end will have more of Praise in it than Reproach 't is what Ovid says of Faeton Magnis tamen excidit ausis i. e. 'T was a noble Attempt but the Success was not answerable I at first design'd to have written it in a continual Narration without breaking it into Chapters making any Reflections or adding any Digressions but upon second thoughts which usually are the best I steer'd another Course I have cut it into Chapters which may serve as Benches in a long Walk whereupon the weary Reader may repose himself till he has recovered Breath and then readily proceed in his way I have also interwoven some Digressions which if they are not too frequent forein impertinent and dull will afford some Divertisement to the Reader But I fear the Gate is too great for this little City CHAP. II. Of the Bishops Parentage Birth and Education till he was sent to Cambridge I Think it not worth my pains to play the Herald and blazon the Arms belonging to the numerous Family of the WARDS or to tell the World the Antiquity of it that that Name came into England with William the Conqueror that there is at present one Lord and very many Knights and Gentlemen of very considerable Estates who are so called For supposing this to be true as it is it makes little if any thing to the Praise of the the Person whose Life I am now writing Vix ea nostra voco Vertuous Actions not great Names are the best Ensigns of Nobility There are now always were and ever will be some bad Men even of the best Families I shall therefore go no further back than to his Grandfather who lived near Ipswich in Suffolk and had the misfortune to lose a considerable hereditary Estate whereupon the Bishops Father whose Name was Iohn settled himself at Buntingford in Hertfordshire following the Employment of an Attorney and was of good Reputation for his fair Practice but not rich His Mothers Maiden Name was Dalton I have often heard him commend her extraordinarily for her Vertue Piety and Wisdom to whose good Instructions and Counsels he used to say he ow'd whatever was good in him And that this Character was due to her I have the testimony of that worthy Gentleman Ralph Freeman Esq of Aspenden in Hertfordshire who has faithfully served his Country as Knight of the Shire for that County in several Parliaments this Mr. Freeman liv'd in the same Parish and well remembers the Bishops Mother I never heard the Bishop speak of his Father possibly he died before his Son came to years of Discretion on the contrary I find Horace never mentions his Mother but is very frequently praising his Father but to proceed Iohn Ward left three Sons and as many Daughters the Sons were Iohn Seth and Clement Iohn died a Batchelour Clement left three Sons and several Daughters to the Care of his Brother Seth who had then no other Preferment or Income than the Place of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford and even then he gave two hundred pounds to one of his Sisters in Marriage which Summ he borrowed of a Friend of his whom I knew who lent it him upon his own Bond without any other Security 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which let me thus translate since 't is not è Cathedra nothing doubting or not despairing to be repaid as he was in a short time with Thanks and Interest This Friend of his perceived evident signs of a rising Man in Mr. Ward which must infallibly advance him if Merit alone can elevate as it has often without Friends under some Kings and some Archbishops and it will certainly at long run if as the Saying is The Horse does not die before the Grass is grown For all these Male and Female Children and Relations before mentioned he provided more than a competent Maintenance binding some of them Apprentices breeding others at Schools and Universities till they were fit for the Ministry and then placed them in good Benefices whereof he had the Presentation He also took
at Cambridge he revers'd his Censure The Reader may imagine his Fault was not great when so severe a Judge as Bishop Cousins should impose no greater Punishment upon him and take it off in so short a time I had not mention'd this his Suspension neither ought I had it not many years after made a great noise at Oxford which we shall mention in its proper place Both Dr. Cousins and Mr. Ward were not long after Fellow Sufferers in another and far greater Cause and he certainly suffer'd without any Fault then whatever he did before The Civil Wars breaking out the Effects of them were first felt by the Bishops and afterwards by the Universities Cambridge suffer'd first lying in the associated Counties and subject to the Parliaments Power Oxford which was then a Garrison and the Kings Head-quarters drank of the same bitter Cup some years after At Cambridge several Heads and Fellows of Colleges and Halls were imprisoned for refusing the Covenant some in the Town and some in St. Iohns College made a Gaol by the Parliament Forces commanded by the Earl of Manchester and amongst the rest Dr. Samuel Ward Master of Sidney College was imprisoned whither Mr. Ward accompanied him voluntarily and submitted to that Confinement that he might assist so good a Man and so great a Friend in that Extremity I have heard him say that Imprisonment seem'd at first to him very uneasie but after he had been a little time used to it he liked it well enouf and could have been contented not to have stir'd out all the days of his Life The great Inconvenience of so close a Confinement in the heighth of a hot Summer caused some of Doctor Wards Friends to mediate for his Removal at least for some Weeks which was granted and in the beginning of August the Doctor was permitted to go to his own House to which also Mr. Ward accompanied him and carefully ministred unto him Within a Months time after his Inlargement the good old Man fell into a dangerous Distemper caused by his Imprisonment whereof he died the seventh of September following in the year of our Lord 1643. Mr. Ward who never left him was with him in the last moments of his Life and closed his Eyes after having received his last Words which were these God bless the King and my Lord Hopton who then commanded a great Army in the West What befel him afterwards during his stay at Cambridge shall be the Subject of the next Chapter CHAP. IV. A Continuation of the Precedent Matter UPON the Death of Dr. Ward the Fellows assembled to chuse a new Master Mr. Ward with nine of them gave their Suffrages for Mr. Thorndike of Trinity College for Mr. Minshull there were eight Votes including his own but while they were at the Election a Band of Soldiers rusht in upon them and forcibly carried away Mr. Parsons one of those Fellows who voted for Mr. Thorndike so that the number of Suffrages for Mr. Mynshull his own being accounted for one was equal to those Mr Thorndike had Upon which Mr. Mynshull was admitted Master the other eight only protesting against it being ill advised for they should have adherd to their Votes Two of them whereof Mr. Ward was one went to Oxford and brought thence a Mandamus from the King commanding Mr. Mynshull and the Fellows of Sidney College to repair thither and give an account of their Proceedings as to that Election this Mandamus or peremtory Summons was fix'd upon the Chapel door by Mr. Linnet who was afterwards a Fellow of Trinity College but at that time attended on Mr. Thorndike On the other side one Mr. Bertie a Kinsman of the Earl of Lindsey being one of those who voted for Mr. Mynshull was also sent to Oxford in his behalf this Gentleman by the Assistance and Mediation of my Lord of Lindsey procur'd an Order from the King to confirm Mr. Mynshulls Election but he not thinking this Title sufficient did corroborate it with the Broad Seal to which Mr. Thorndike consented Mr. Mynshull paying him and the rest of the Fellows the Charges they had been at in the Management of that Affair amounting to about an hundred pound The next Spring Mr. Ward and Mr. Gibson were summoned to appear before the Committee of Visitors then sitting at Trinity College and tender'd the Covenant and other Oaths which they refused declaring themselves unsatisfied as to the Lawfulness of them Then they desired to know if the Committee had any Crime to object against them they answered they had not they declared the reason why they ask'd was that they understood some were ejected for not taking the Covenant and others for Immoralities to which they received this Answer that those were words of course put into all their Orders of Ejection Such was the Carriage of those Commissioners not only to take away the Livelyhood of those they expell'd but also their good Name and Reputation and so render them unpitied and not worthy to be relieved In the Month of August following Mr. Ward who was then absent received the news that his Ejection was voted and put into Execution Being now exil'd from Cambridge he diverted himself with Dr. Wards Relations in and about London for a season and sometimes with the Reverend Divine and Learned Mathematician Mr. William Oughtred invited thereto by his Love to those Sciences in which Mr. Oughtred had shew'd his Ability and acquir'd a great Name by publishing his Clavis Mathematicae a little Book as to the bulk but a great one as to the Contents as the understanding Reader must acknowledge Mr. Ward was so well known and of so good a reputation at Cambridge that in his Exile he wanted not places of resort and refuge He was invited by the E. of Carlile and several other Persons of high Quality with proffers of large and honourable Pensions to come and reside in their Families Nay I have heard him say that even then when he was in those straights and might have truly said Silver or Gold or Preferment I have none he was proffer'd several rich Matches but he had no inclination to Matrimony whilst he labour'd under those Circumstances At last he chose to accept the Invitation or to speak more properly to yield to the importunity of his Friend and Country-man Ralf Freeman Esquire of Aspenden in Hertfordshire in the Parish wherein he suck'd his first Milk and imbib'd his first rudiments of Vertue about five and twenty mile distant from Ladon he instructed his Sons and continued there off and on till the Year 1649. Then he was earnestly invited by my Lord Wenman of Tame-Park in Oxfordshire about ten miles distant from that City thither he went and liv'd some time with him rather as a Companion than Chaplain it being more safe for him to be near Oxford than Cambridge and as it prov'd in the event much more advantageous for this was the first visible step to his preferment He was not in
in great esteem and treated him with intimate Familiarity I remember when we were at Astrop Wells he sent the Bishop a pleasant Letter by his youngest Son wherein amongst other things he strictly enjoyns not to infuse any Mathematics into him for fear they should render him unfit to be a Politician To which the Bishop return'd in answer That he would obey his Lordships Commands and principally because De Wit was a famous Instance That a good Mathematician could not be an able Statesman The Gentleman who brought this Letter together with my Lord Faulkland my Lord Roxborough and several other of the Nobility of England and Scotland perished in the memorable Shipwrack of the Gloucester which was then carrying the Duke of York to Scotland upon the Lemane Ore on Friday May 5. 1682. This Story is so wonderful and honourable for the English Seamen that I cannot forbear telling it here 't is an amazing thing that Mariners who are usually as rough as the Element they converse in when inevitable Death was before their eyes and to be incurred within a very few minutes that Mariners I say should have that presence of Mind that inestimable value and deference for the Duke of York as being of the Blood-Royal and Brother to their King as to take care of his safety and neglect their own to put him into a Boat and permit no other Persons to enter into it but those he called out of the sinking Ship for fear of over-lading it and as soon as they perceiv'd the Boat clear of the Ship and the Prince out of danger that they all of them should throw up their Caps and make loud Acclamations and Huzzas of Joy as if they had obtained some signal Victory over their Enemies and in this rapture sink to the bottom immediately at the same instant concluding their Lives and their Jubilation Many Reflections may be made upon this remarkable Story but I being in haste leave that work to others I cannot positively determine whether my Lord Clarendon was in earnest and believed that Mathematics would render those who understood them unfit to manage State Affairs but if he did I put into the Scale against him another great Man and Politician I mean the late Duke of Lauderdale who has often declard in the presence of divers Persons of Quality from some of which I had it that in his opinion the Bishop of Salisbury was the best Speaker in the House of Lords I will muster but one more that shall be Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury who was for a considerable time a great Friend to our Bishop they enterchanged many Visits as they might conveniently do their Houses in the Country being but at a small distance one from the other and often consulted about Public Affairs nay after they went several ways in Parliament tho their Intimacy was at end yet their mutual Esteem continued I have seen a printed Speech of the Earls wherein he Treats the Bishop very honourably preferring his Speeches before the rest of his Opponents as having more of Argument in them and being closer to the purpose CHAP. XIV A Continuation of the former IF I should persist in this way of enumerating the Bishops Friends There 's one there 's two and so on like Faggots I should tire the Reader and my Self therefore as to those that remain I shall serve them up in Clusters excepting two or three concerning whom I intend to treat more at large The Bench of Bishops had that esteem for him that they selected him to observe and reply to the Earl of Shaftsbury if he should move any thing to the detriment of the Church for this Earl was a Person of great Ability and had a peculiar Talent to promote or hinder any thing passing the House of Peers To mount a step higher our Bishops Probity Wisdom and Ability to manage the great and Arduous Affairs of State was in so great esteem for a considerable while that he was spoke of both at Court and in the City as the fittest Person to supply the place of the Archbishop of Canterbury Lord-Keeper or Lord-Treasurer if any of them should become vacant And I am confident it pleased him more to be esteemd worthy of such Trusts than to have enjoyd the best of them I well remember the time when he told me he had the proffer of the Bishopric of Durham after Bishop Cousins death Pray my Lord said I accept it we shall have brave Horses there and the long Journey betwixt Bishops-Auclands and London will conduce much to the meliorating of your Health He replied I just now enterd it in my blue Book that this day I refusd it I replied and pray my Lord why did you so Because said he I did not like the Conditions but what they were it would have been unmannerly for me to inquire and he did not think it convenient to tell me This is refusing so rich a Bishopric is so great an Act of Self-denial that I have reason to fear 't will not be credited upon my single Testimony I shall therefore call in another Witness against whom there can be no Exception to corroborate mine he shall be no lesser a Person than the present Bishop of Durham whom not long after I met at Reading being then there with the Bishop of Salisbury in his Visitation I having had the honour to have been acquainted with the Bishop of Durham even from his first admission into Lincoln College in Oxford laid hold on this occasion to felicitate his promotion to Durham He replied 'T was proffered to your Bishop meaning the Bishop of Salisbury but he did not think fit to accept of it And here now I should add the Nobility and Gentry of Wiltshire Berkshire Devonshire and Cornwal whose Diocesan he had been but I remember my promise to ease both the Reader and my Self I proceed to the greatest of his Friends situated in high Places He was very much in favour with the King and the Duke of York before he declared himself of the Romish Perswasion whom he Treated magnificently at Salisbury and also with the Archbishop of Canterbury who used to entertain him with the greatest kindness and familiarity imaginable in his common discourse to him he used to call him Old Sarum And I have heard the Archbishop speak of him more than once as the Person whom he wished might succeed him About this time as it is notoriously known there were Intrigues carried on by a Party at Court to introduce the Romish Religion and make the Power of the King Unlimited and Arbitrary whereunto all Persons were to obey without reserve which words were in one of the Proclamations sent to Scotland But the Bishop of Salisbury not swimming with the Stream he lost at least one of his great Friends and with him his favour at Court the Effects whereof appeared not long after the manner thus The Revenue belonging to the Order of the Garter was usually received by