Cephas perdere debes I speak now onely of the spoil made under this Bishop scarce were five years past after Baths ruines but as fast went the Axes and Hammers to work at Wells The goodly Hall covered with Lead because theRoof might seem too low for so large a Room was uncovered and now this Roofe reaches to the skie The Chappel of our Lady late repaired by Stillington a place of great Reverence and antiquity was likewise defaced and such was their thirst after Lead I would they had drunk it scalding that they took the dead bodies of Bishops out of their leaden Coffins and cast abroad the Carcases scarce throughly petrified The Statutes of brasse and all the ancient Monuments of Kings benefactors to that goodly Cathedrall Church went all the same way sold as my Authour writes to an Alderman of London who being then rich and by this great bargain thinking to have increast it found it like auruin Tholosanum for he so decayed after no man knew how that he brake in his Majoralty The Statues for Kings were shipt for Bristoll but disdaining to be banisht out of their own Country chose rather to lie in St. Georges Channel where the Ship was drown'd Let Atheists laugh at such losses and call them mischances but all that truly fear God will count them terrible Judgements These things were I will not say done I will say at least suffered by this Bishop but I doubt not but he repented hereof and did pennance also in his banishment in sacco cinere But some will say to me why did he not sue to be restored to his Bishoprick at his return finding it vacant but rather accepted of Chichester I have asked this question and I have received this answer by which I am half perswaded that Wells also had their prophecies as well as Bath and that this Bishop was premonstrated that I may not say predestinate to give this great wound to this Bishoprick There remain yet in the body of Wells Church about 30 foot high two eminent Images of stone set there as is thought by bishop Burnel that built the great Hall there in the Raign of Ed I. but most certainly long before the raign of H. 8. One of these Images is a King crowned the other is of a Bishop mitred This King in all proportions resembling H. 8. holdeth in his hand a Child falling the Bishop hath a Woman and Children about him Now the old men of Wells had a tradition that when there should be such a King and such a Bishop then the Church should be in danger of ruine This falling Child they say was King Edward the fruitfull Bishop they affirmed was Doctor Barlow the first maried Bishop of Wells and perhaps of England This talk being rife in Wells in Queen Maries time made him rather affect Chichester at his return than Wells where not onely the things that were ruined but those that remained serv'd for records and remembrances of his sacriledge Of Bishop Thomas Godwin Of Bishop Gilbert Bourn I can add nothing and of the other Gilbert but a word that he was a good Justicer as saith the same Author nisi quatenus homo uxoris conjugis importunitate impulsus a veri ac recti tramite aberravit saving that sometimes being ruled by his Wife by her importunity he swarved from the rule of Justice and sincerity especially in persecuting the kindred of Bourn his predecessor The fame went that he dyed very rich but the same importunate woman caried it all away that neither Church nor poor were the better for it But for Doctor God win of whom I am to speak I must with my Authors leave add a word of mine own knowledge He came to the place as well qualified for a Bishop as might be unreprovably without Simonie given to good Hospitality quiet kind affable a Widdower and in the Queens very good opinion Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri if he had held on as clear as he entred I should have highly extold him but see his misfortune that first lost him the Queens favour and after forc't him to another mischief Being as I said aged and diseased and lame of the Gout he maried as some thought for opinion of wealth a Widow of London A chief favourite of that time whom I am sory to have occasion to name again in this kind had labored to get the Mannor of Banwell from this Bishoprick and disdaining the repulse now hearing this intempestive Mariage took advantage thereof caused it to be told the Queen knowing how much she misliked such matches and instantly pursued the Bishop with letters and Mandats for the Mannour of Banwell for 100 yeers The góod Bishop not expecting such a sudden tempest was greatly perplext yet a while he held out and indured many sharp Messages from the Queen of which my self caried him one delivered me by my Lord of Leicester who seemed to favour the Bishop and mislike with the Knight for molesting him but they were soon agreed like Pilat and Herod to condemn Christ Never was harmless man so traduced to his Soveraign that he had maried a Girle of twenty years old with a great portion that he had conveyed half the Bishoprick to her that because he had the Gout he could not stand to his Mariage with such scoffs to make him ridiculous to the vulgar and odious to the Queen The good Earl of Bedford happening to be prÌ„esent when these tales were told and knowing the Londoners Widow the Bishop had maried said merrily to the Queen after his dry manner Madam I know not how much the Woman is above twenty but I know a Sonne of hers is but little under forty but this rather mar'd then mended the matter One said Majus peccatum habet Another told of three sorts of Mariage of Gods making as when Adam and Eve two young folks were coupled of mans making when one is old and the other young as Josephs Mariage and of the Devills making when two old folks marry not for comfort but for covetousness and such they said was this The conclusion to the premisses was this that to pacifie his persecutors and to save Banwell he was fain with Wilscombe for 99 yeeres I would it had been 100. and so purchased his peace Thus the Bishoprick as well as the Bishop were punished who wished in his heart he had never taken this preferment to foile himself in his decrepid age with that ftain that all his life he had abhorred and to be made an instrument of another mans sacriledge and used like a leaden Conduit Pipe to convey waters to others and drinke nothing but the dreggs and drosse and rust it selfe wherefore right honesty and modesty and no lesse learnedly writes his owne sonne of him in the forenamed Treatise O illum faelicem si faelix maneâ—e maluisset quam Regi â—inis ecclesiastici labo is tum susciper cum laboribus iâ—par fractus senio
A BRIEFE VIEW OF THE State of the Church of ENGLAND As it stood in Q. ELIZABETHS and King JAMES his Reigne to the Yeere 1608. Being a Character and History of the BISHOPS of those times And may serve as an Additionall Supply to Doctor GOODWINS Catalogue of Bishops WRITTEN For the private use of Prince Henry upon occasion of that Proverb Henry the eighth pull'd down Monks and their Cells Henry the ninth should pull down Bishops and their Bells By Sir JOHN HARINGTON of Kelston neer Bath Knight LONDON Printed for Jos. Kirton at the Kings Arms in Pauls Churchyard 1653. TO THE NOBLE LADY and his honoured Friend the Lady JANE PILE The sometimes vertuous Consort of the late worthy Baronet Sir Francis Pile of Colingborne in the County of Wilts deceased The publisher of these Relations wisheth all presperity in this world and the world to come Most honoured Madam I Had fully designed another Discourse viz. concerning the Nature Work of Conscience for your Ladiships Patronage But understanding of preparations by an abler judgement on that subject I have for some time suspended the publishing of my own conceptions And therefore though at present I shall not entitle your Ladiship to my own yet make bold to prefix your name to the labours of another viz. This following supply to a former Catalogue of Bishops A work that calls him Authour whom my mother call'd father and in which I presume your Ladiship with delight will read the duly merited Commendations of that Reverend Prelate Dr. John Still whom your Ladiships children call Great Grandfather This Author stiles his acquaintance his Friend his Instructer his Diocesan whom the Diocesse of Wells once knew their worthy Bishop and the poore of the Almes-house of Wells still remember their bountifull benefactor Now as this Authour in the following relations hath avoyded the needlesse multiplying of words and hath industriously studied a compact brevity So I shall not widen the entrance to them by rarifying these dedicatory lines into any large compasse either by an importunate craving your Ladiships acceptance that were to wrong your goodnesse or else by any ample declaring the reasons that guided my thoughts to the publishing this tract or entitling your Ladiship to it Yet that I may somewhat satisfie the Reader I shall give a briefe account for the one and other And thereby let the World know that an equitable gratitude to the dead Authors memory and a good will that aimes at the pleasure and profit of the living hath engaged my desires to lend a helping hand to midwife this discourse which hath layen ready for the birth above 40 yeers now at last unto the publique view It being the ingenious off-spring of his braine who was a remote instrument of my being And indeed the discourse it selfe is so full of profit and delight mixt together as acquainting us with many and choice occurrences of former men and times that it would have engaged the greatest stranger to greater labour And therfore prevents a needless commendation from my related Pen since it will abundantly commend it selfe to the ingenious Reader To whom it likewise will sufficiently be justified even in those passages that seem most likely to offend Since such that are ingenious are supposed duly to consider The nature of the Discourse A History the greatest commendation of which is impartiall truth The quality of the Author A Courtier that writes to a Prince the sonne of that King who held that Prophetick Axiom as a sure truth and we see it fulfilled No Bishop No King The time when and the subject of whom this Tract is So that if any should take what is not intended offence at the honour he gives those that have been since lesse honoured or at the zeal he shews against some whom he supposed their adversaries The Publisher desires such to consider that in those daies when this discourse was penned those principles which now ap peare publiquely as the Sun and have burnt as a flame were then but a small Candle newly lighted and that carried in a dark Lanthorne not to be seen by all or in all places and not at all to be seen in the Court where the Authour lived Which considered the most displeased Reader if any such be must impute those heats to the Authors zeale if not according to truth yet according to his knowledge and the then apprehended true principles of Ecclesiasticall Policy And as for my prefixing your Ladiships name to this discourse I shall onely adde That as I conceive it not incongruous to entitle one of those Bishops grandchildren to the relation of the lives of those Bishops so am I exceeding glad by such an opportunity to have the advantage of letting your Ladiship know That in what soever may fall within the compasse of any capacity to be any way serviceable to your Ladiships concernments your desires or command shal not meet with a readier or more industrious compliance from any then from him who craving pardon for this boldness takes the liberty to write himself without complement or vanity Madam Your Ladiships most humble and respectfull servant JOHN CHETWIND Wells May 1. 1652. A Supply or Addition to the Catalogue of Bishops to the Yeare 1608. And first of Mr. PARKER WHen I consider with my selfe the hard beginning though more prosperous successe of the reformed Church of England me thinks it may be compared to a foughten battell in which some Captaines and Souldiers that gave the first charge either died in the field or came bleeding home but such as followed putting their enemies to flight remained quiet and victorious Or I may more fitly without offence liken that to the successe of them of the Primitive Church wherein the Apostles and their immediatc Successors were one while honoured and magnified by their followers the Christians As St. Peter at whose feet the believers layd down all their goods and St. Paul who was received as an Angel of God another while tormented and persecuted by Jews and Heathen as the same Apostles whipped by Jewes hanged and headed by the Romans sometimes I say a Centurion a Lieutenantâ— a Proconsull favouring them straight a Priest a Scribe and a Lawyer promooting against them A few of Caesars houshold wishing well unto them and believing them But the Caesars themselves for 300 yeeres except a very few detesting and suppressing them For in such sort Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Rogers Coverdale and many others enduring great conflicts in those variable times of King Henry the Eighth King Edward and Queen Mary suffering by fire by imprisonment banishment losse and deprivation with many fights many flights and many frights for their conscience sake those that died had the glory of valiant Souldiers and worthy Martyrs such as survived have since in a long and happy peace enjoyed the comfort of their victory and are like still to hold the same if some mutinous souldiers of their own camp doe not by disturbing the
Soveraign and preferrer the last spirituall comfort she took in this World I hope to her eternall comfort and after that he not onely joyned with the other Lords for the proclaiming of King James but on St. James his day following did set the Crown on his head and anointed him with Oyl and so having first seen the Church setled under a religious King and the Crown established in a hopefull succession he fell into a Palsey to which he had been formerly subject and with no long or painful sickness he yielded to nature deserving well this Epitaph written by a young Scholar of Oxford who was with me at the writing hereof Candida dona tibi Whytâ—gifte sunt nomen omen Candidior a tuis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedit Nomen habes 〈◊〉 inscriptum nunc ergo lapiâ—â—o Et stoâ—â— pro meritis redditur alba 〈◊〉 Doctor Richard Bancroft Upon the death of Arch-bishop Whiteguift divers worthy men were named in the vacancy His Majesty not after the manner of some Princes seeking to keep that vacant but rather hastning to fill that The Bishops of Durham and Winchester were as it were voce populi made competitrs with the Bishop of London rather by their eminence of merit and Learning then by any known desire or endeavour of them or their friends Wherein methinks by the way envy it self cannot but gratulate the Church of England that is so furnished with learned Bishops as if choyce had been to be made not by a judicious Prince but by the fortune of a lot among those three and many more beside that could not have fallen amiss But his Majesty had long since understood of his writing against the Genevising and Scotizing Ministers and though some imagined he had therein given the King some distaste yet finding him in the disputations at Hampton Court both learned and stout he did more and more increase his liking to him So that although in the common rumour Thoby Matthew then Bishop of Durham was likest to have carried that so learned a man and so assiduous a Preacher qui in concionibus dominatur as his emulous and enemy wrote of him yet his Majesty in his learning knowing and in his wisdom weighing that this same strict charge Pasce oves mes feed my sheep requires as well a pastorall courage of driving in the stray sheep and driving out the infectious as of feeding the sound made especiall choyce of the Bishop of London as a man more exercised in affaires of the State I will add also my own conjecture out of some of his Majesties own speeches that in respect he was a single man he supposed him the fitter according to Queen Elizabeths principles of state upon whose wise foundations his Majesty doth daily erect more glorious buildings But I lose labour to repeat these things to your Highnesse better known then to my selfe I should onely speak of the former times Of his beginning therefore and rising I will boldly say that which I would I might as truly of all that follow in this Treatise viz. that he came to all his preferments very clearly without prejudice or spoile of his Churches He was Tutor in Cambridge to the Lord Cromwell who had cause to wish and as I have heard hath wisht he had staid with him longer though he were sharp and austere My Lord Chancellor Hatton made speciall choyce of him to be his Examiner Est a liquid de tot Graiorum millibús unum a Diomede legi By his means Queen Elizabeth came to take knowledge of his wisdome and sufficiency He both wrote as I touched before and laboured earnestly by all good means for the suppressing of the fantasticall Novellists After the strange and frantick attempt of Hacket and his fellows which practice though the branches thereof were easily cut off yet was it thought to have a more dangerous and secret root But for these his travels as the Queen and State favoured him so the seditious Sectaries to use Judge Pophams word that would not have them call'd Puritanes they l say no lesse maligned-him in Libels and Rimes for they were void of reasons laying the imputation of Papistry unto him some of them were punished in the Starchamber namely one Darling the last Starchamber day in Queen Elizabeths time was sharply censured And it is no wonder if they lov'd him not for indeed he had stoutly opposed their chiefest darlings As for the imputation of Papistry which they lay on all men that crosse their designes he is so free from it that I can truly affirme the greatest blow the Papists received in all Queen Elizabeths time came from his hand or at least from his head For having wisely observed the emulation ambition and envy that lurked in the minds of their secular Priests and the Jesuits one against another he found the means by the same policy and with the like spirit that St. Paul set the Pharisees against the Sadduces to set the Priests against the Jesuits Watson against Parsons Impar congressus but yet thereby he so divided their languages as scantly they can understand one another as yet These things acted before the King your fathers happy entry I thought good to touch though more sparingly then my particular affection his just deserts do give me occasion Of his late imployments of his great care in setting forward and setting forth all his Majesties godly proceedings though I know much yet if I should say all I know perhaps it is lesse then your Highnesse knowes therefore I will conclude with that which the truth rather then my kindnesse enforceth me to say that no Bishop since I can remember hath been counted more vigilant in looking to his charge Ne quid Ecclesia detrimenti capiat Of the Bishops of London and first of Bishop ELLMER MY purpose in this work from the beginning and my promise to your Highnesse being to adde to this Author a supply of some matters that he purposely omitted writing in the latter yeers of Queen Elizabeth and my relation being to write plainly without feare or favour of those I doe write I will proceed confidently as I have begun in which I perswade my selfe I have some advantage of the Author himselfe for freedome of speech both in the time and many other circumstances For he was no foole that gave that rule Mitissima sorsâ—est Regnorum sub Rege novo Againe I being a Lay-man am not so obnoxious to their apprehensions that may be offended with that I shall say as he was being a Churchman Thirdly I lived in a place where I might know many things without enquiry which had been scarce safe for him in that time to enquire after Lastly he writes to the world publiquely and I but privately to your Highnesse Therefore I will proceed quoad sciam poteroque The first Bishop of London I have to write of is Mr. John Elmer of whom my Author hath spoken-too little and I perhaps shall seem to say too much yet
manifest falshood will out at last The Bishop that feared never a Knight nor Lord in England sends for the Knight contrary to the Squires expectation boults out the whole matter finds there were treacherous tricks put on his Daughter but no Meretrix and being too wise to publish his own disgrace and too stout to indure that I have credibly heard and believe that to be true that with a good waster he so mortified this old Adam of his Son in Law Squire that he needed no other pennance but this which was according to the old Canon per Disciplinam verbera In his Sons he was more fortunate than many Bishops in England have been thought to have been his eldest being a civil Gentleman and well left another an excellent Preacher that hath preached oft before the King and namely one Sermon on this Text out of the 2d of the Canticles verse 15. Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that destroy our Vines for our Vine have small Grapes which Sermon so pleased his Majesty that besides other approbations of that he said to me that if Mr. Ellmer had not had his Fathers collections and notes against Puritans he could never have made so good a Sermon and so much of Bishop Ellmer Of Bishop Fletcher There succeeded in less then one years vacancy as hath been already told Mr. Richard Fletcher a comely and courtly Prelate but I may say as Tully said when he had commended King Dejotarus to Caesar by the name of Rex frugi a frugall or thrifty King he straight addeth this parenthesis quanquam Reges hoc verbo laudari non solent although said he Kings are not accustomed to be praised with this word thrifty so I might say that comely and courtly are no fit Epithetons for the true praise of a Prelate I remembred before how Ely had been long vacant almost 20 years and Bristol and Oxenford though both new erected Bishopricks saved as it were out of the ruines and ashes of the Abbies were thought in some danger again to be lost for Bristoll was held in Commendam and Oxford not much to be commended wherefore about the year 88. that same annus mir abilis some of the zealous Courtiers whose devotion did serve them more to prey on the Church than pray in the Church harkened out for fit supplies to these places and sent their Agents to find out some men that had great mindes and small means or merits that would be glad to leave a small Deanry to make a poor Bishoprick by new leasing out Lands that were now almost out of Lease but to free him from the guilt of it the poor Bishop must have no part of the fine There was then a Deane whom I may not name but to give the story more life I will name his place for names sake of Coventry a man of great learning but of no great living To him was sent one of these Foxes the little Foxes that destroy our Vines and make small grapes with this favourable Message that his honourable Lord had sent him to him to let him know how much he respected his good gifts in which word also there might be some equivocation and though that was hard in those times to pleasure men of his worth according to their merit yet my Lord in favour of him hath bethought him of this course that whereas Salisbury was then like to be void by a Remove if this Dean would for the present take the Bishoprick of Oxford which was then in a long vacation also and make Leases c. â—he should the next year be removed to Salisbury the honest Dean that in his soul detested such sacriledge made this mannerly and ingenuous answer Sir I beseech you commend my humble service to his honourable Lordship but I pray you tell his Lordship that in my Conscience Oxford is not my right way from Coventry to Salisbury what became of Oxford I shall touch and but touch hereafter I come now to Bishop Fletcher that made not so much scruple to take Bristol in his way from Peterborough to Worcester though that were wide of the right way upon the sinister or bow hand many miles as the Card of a good Conscience will plainly discover I fottuned to be one day at the Savoy with Mr. Secretary Walsingham where Mr. Fletcher was then upon his dispatch for Bristoll a familiar friend of his meeting him there bad God give him joy my Lord elect of Bristoll which he taking kindly and courtly upon him answered that it had pleased indeed the higher powers so to dispose of him but said his friend in his eare do you not lease out tot tot to such and such He He clapping his hand on his heart in a good gracefull fashion replied with the words of Naman the Syrian Herein the Lord be mercifull to me but there was not an Elizeus to bid him go in peace What shall I say for him Non erat hoc hominis vitium sed temporis I cannot say so for your Highness knowes I have written otherwise in a Book of mine I gave you Libro 3. numero 80. Alass a fault confest were half amended but sin is doubled that is thus defended I know a right wise man sayes and believes where no receivers are would be no theeves Wherefore at the most I can but say Dividatur He was a well spoken man and one that the Queen gave good countenance to and discovered her favour to him even in her reprehensions as Horace saith of Mecaenas Rerum tutela mearum cumsis prave sectam stomacheris ob unguem for she found fault with him once for cutting his beard too short whereas good Lady if she had known that she would have found fault with him for cutting his Bishoprick so short He could preach well and would speak boldly and yet keep decorum He knew what would please the Queen and would adventure on that though that offended others Once I remember there had been two Councellors sworn within compass of one year and neither of them had a gray hair at that time whereupon he glawnc't in his Sermon at it with a sentence of Seneca Which Mr. Daniel upon a better occasion did put into English verse in this sort That we may truly say these spoild the State Young Councel privat gain partiall hate The Queen as I said found no fault with his liberall speech but the friends of these Councellers taxing him for that I have heard he had this pretty shift to tell the friends of either of them he meant it by the other Being Bishop of London and a Widower he maried a gallant Lady and a Widow Sister to Sir George Gifford the Pensioner which the Queen seemed to be extreamly displeased at not for the by-gain of a Bishop for she was free from any such superstition but out of her generall mislike of Clergy mens Mariage this being indeed a mariage that was talked of at least
OF this Bishoprick may be observed that which hapned I think to no other in all Queen Elizabeths raigne that from the first yeere of her entrance what time she made them all new she never after gave this Bishoprick but once and that was to Doctor William Overton the one and twentieth yeer of her reigne he being then of good yeeres so as one may probably conjecture that he honoured his parents well because he had the blessing promised to such viz. that his daies have been long in the Land I can make no speciall relation concerning him but the generall speech as I have heard travelling through the Countrey which is not to be contemned for Vox populi vox dei est Two speciall things are commended in him which very few few Bishops are praised for in this age One that he keepeth good hospitality for the poore the other that he keepeth his house in good reparation Both which I have seldome heard a married Bishop commended for and I will be bold to adde this further that if they would doe both those I think no man would take exceptions either for their marriage or bigamy The Churches also are very well kept and for those of Coventry they are of Parish Churches the fairest I have seen though as I partly noted before they have had sometimes another kind of superintendency for the Bishops keepe most at Lichfield The pavement of Coventry Church is almost all Tombstones and some very ancient but there came in a zealous fellow with a counterfeit commission that for avoyding of superstition hath not left one penny-worth nor one pennybredth of brasse upon the Tombes of all the inscriptions which had been many and costly Further I note this that whereas in Bishop Langtons time there were many Parks belonging to the Sea in which the Prince committed some disorder in the time of Edward the first now it is much altered for he hath not past one the rest being perhaps turned to pastures and the Deere into tamer beasts Of SALISBURY Bishop Jewell OF how great antiquity this Bishoprick had been in former times two things doe especially declare One that ever since the conquest Ordinale secundum usum Sarum was received over all England another that the Clergy of Salisbury were able of their owne charge to erect such a goodly Church and stonesteeple as that is which now stands which at this day a subsidy were scarce able to performe To omit how Sherborn Castle and the Devizes were both built by one Bishop of Salisbury and in this State that continued till the yeer 1539. what time Doctor Capon was translated from Bangor thither a man for learning and wit worthy to be of Apollos crew but for his spoile and havock he is said to have made of the Church-land more worthy to be of Apollions crew for he is noted to be one of the first that made a Capon of his Bishoprick and so guelded it that it will never be able to build either Church or Castle again The place being in this sort much impoverished Bishop Jewel was preferr'd unto it the first yeere of Queen Elizabeth a Jewel indeed as in name Re gemma fuit nomine gemma fuit He though he could not maintaine the Port his predecessors did finding his houses decayed and Lands all leased out yet kept very good hospitality and gave himselfe withall much to writing books of which divers are extant and in many mens hands viz. His Apology of the Church of England His challenge answered by Harding His Reply to the said Answer all in English and all in such estimation even untill this day that as St. Ofmond in William the Conquerours time gave the pattern for form of service to all the Churches of England so Mr. Jewels writings are a kind of rule to all the reformed Churches of England and hardly is there any controversie of importance handled at this day of which in his works is not to be found some learned and probable Resolution One thing I will specially commend him for though I shall not be commended for it my selfe of some and that is whereas he defended the marriage of Priests no man better yet he would never marry himselfe saying Christ did not counsell in vaine Qui potest capere capiat He had a very reverent regard of the ancient fathers writings and especially St. Augustine out of which books he found many authorities against some superstitions crept into the Roman Church Why he had such a mind to lie by Bishop Wyvill I cannot guesse except perhaps of his name he had taken a Caurat to keep himselfe without a wife For the whole course of his life from his childhood of his towardlinesse from the beginning and how he was urged to subscribe in Queen Maries time and did so being required to write his name saying they should see he could write which shewed it was not ex animo Doctor Humphrey hath written a severall Treatise Doctor John Coldwell Doctor of Physick Though Doctor Guest succeeded Bishop Iewell and my Author makes him a good writer yet he shall not be my guest in this discourse having nothing to entertaine him with or rather your Highnesse with in reading of him But how his successor Doctor Coldwell of a Physician became a Bishop I have heard by more then a good many as they say and I will briefly handle it and as tenderly as I can bearing my self equall between the living and the dead I touched before how this Church had surfeited of a Capon which being heavy in her stomacke it may be thought she had some need of a Physician But this man proved no good Church Physicians had she been sick of a Plurisey too much abounding with bloud as in ages past then such bleeding Physick perhaps might have done it no harm Now inclining rather to a consumption to let that bleed afresh at so large a veine almost was enough to draw out the very life bloud your Highnesse will pardon my Physick metaphors because I have lately look't over my Schola Salerni I protest I am free from any desire to deface the dead undeservedly and as farre from any fancy to insult on the misfortunes of the Living uncivilly and in my particular the dead man I speake of never hurt me and the Living man I shal speake of hath done me some kindnesse yet the manifest judgements of God on both of thē I may not pass over with silence And to speak first of the Knight who carried the Spolia opima of this Bishoprick having gotten Sherborne Castle Park and Parsonage he was in those dayes in so great favour with the Queen as I may boldly say that with lesse suit then he was faine to make to her e're he could perfect this his purchase and with lesse money then he bestowed since in Sherborne in building and buying out Leases and in drawing the River through rocks into his garden he might have very justly and without
speak much good of all and no ill of any and say for mine excuse I doe not know them Accordingly of the Bishoprick and Bishop of Exceter I can say but little namely that it is since Bishop Harmans time as my Author noted pag. 337. reduced to a good mediocrity from one of the best Bishopricks of England so as now it is rather worthy of pitty then envy having but two Mannors left of two and twenty and I will adde thus much to your Highnesse that as in publique respect your Highnesse should specially favour this Bishop in whose Diocesse your Dutchy of Cornwall and your Stanneries are so the Duke may uphold the Bishop and the reverend Bishop may blesse the Duke Of NORWICH Concerning Norwich whether it be the praise of the Bishops or the people or both I know not or whether I have here a partiall relation But by that I have heard I shall judge this city to be another Utopia The people live all so orderly the streets kept solemnly the Trades-men young and old so industrious the better sort so provident and withall so charitable that it is as rare to meet a begger there as it is common to see them in Westminster For the four Bishops that were in Queen Elizabeths time I know nothing in particular but that they lived as Bishops should doe Sine querela and were not warriours like Bishop Spencer their predecessor in Henry the fourths time nor had such store of Gold and Silver as he had that could leavy an Army But for the present Bishop I knew him but few yeeres since Vicechancellor of Cambridge and I am sure he had as good Latine as any of his Predecessors had and accounted there a perfect Divine in both which respects he is to be thought very fit for the place being a Maritine Town and much frequented with strangers very devoutly given in Religion and perhaps understands Latine as well as English WORCESTER Doctor Gervase Babington WOrcester hath been fortunate in this last age to many excellent Bishops of which but two in an hundred yeeres have died Bishops thereof the rest having been removed Also in lesse then fourteen yeeres that had one Bishop became Pope namely Clement the seventh another that was a Protestant as Hugh Ladymer Of the seven therefore that were in Queen Elizabeths time I shall in this place speak but of one and that is him now living who by birth is a Genman of a very good house for Learning inferiour to few of his rank Hee was sometime Chaplaine to the late Earle of Pembrooke whose Noble Countesse used this her Chaplaines advice I suppose for the translation of the Psalmes for it was more then a womans skill to expresse the sence so right as she hath done in her verse and more then the English or Latine translation could give her They first were means to place him in Landaffe neere them where he would say merrily his true Title should be Aff for all the Land was gone thence He came back over the Sea to the Sea of Exeter and thence on terra firma to Worcester a place where both the Church and Town are at this day in very flourishing estate and the Church especially in good Reparations which I take ever for one good argument of a good Bishop for where the sheep be ragged and the folds rotten there I straight suppose is no very good shepheard yet as every generall Rule hath commonly some exceptions so hath this in some places in England and many more in Wales of which I shall in their due place note somewhat in the insuing Treatise And thus much of Worcester Of HEREFORD John Scory OF this twice Bishop Scory I have heard but little yet it hath been my fortune to read something that will not be amisse to acquaint your Highnesse with that you may see how Satan doth sift the lives and doings of English Bishops with the Quills sometimes of strangers and Forraigners For whereas this our English modest writer onely reports how he was first Bishop of Chicester being but Batchelour of Divinity and deprived for no fault but that he continued not a Batchelor whereupon he fled for Religion as the phrase was till comming home in the yeare 1560 he was preferred to Hereford the French writer stayeth not there but telleth how that being setled there though he professed to be a great enemy to Idolatry yet in another sence according to St. Paul he became a worshipper of Images not Saints but Angels belike he feared some future tempest and therefore â—his hâ— to provide better for himselfe then he had at Chichester so as what with pulling downe houses and selling the Lead and such loose ends what with setting up good husbandries what with Leases to his Tenants with all manner of viis et modis he heaped together a great Masse of wealth He that hath store of mettle must have also some drosse and no marvaile if this Bishop then according to his name had much Scoria with this Treasure A Noble and Honourable councellour and thenLord President of Wales hearing so frequent complaints made of him for oppressions extortions symonies and the like caused a bil to preferred into the Star-chamber against him in which bill was contained such matter as was enough not onely to disgrace him but to degrade him if it had been accordingly followed His Sollicitour of his causes brings him a Copy of the bill and in reading it with him seemed not a little dismaid in his behalfe much like to the servant of Elisha that came trembling to his Master and told him how they were beleagred with a huge Army But this Bishop though not indewed with the spirit of a Prophet yet having a spirit that could well see into his profit bids his Sollicitour who was his kinsman perhaps his sisters brothers sonne to be of good comfort adding it may be the very words of Elisha for there are more of our side then against us But when his Gehezi for the comparison suits better to the man then to the Master could see as yet no comfortable vision The good Bishop did not open his eyes to let him see as Elisha did the Chariots of fire on the tops of the mountaines but he opened his own bags and shewed him some legions or rather chiliads of Angells who entring all at once not into a herd of Swine but into the hoard of a Lady that then was potent with him that was Dominus fac totum cast such a Cloud into the Star-chamber that the bill was never openly heard of after This or the like and much more to the like effect writes this French Author of the said Bishop of Hereford though the Treatise it selfe was not specially meant against the Bishop but against a temporall Lord of a higher ranck that was not a little netled with the same In so much as many travelling Gentlemen and among other this Bishops son was called in question for the
may and perhaps ought to be in verse as good Linguists affirme Moses and Davids Psalms to be originally yet I am almost of opinion that one ought to abjure all Poetry when he comes to Divinity But not derogating herein from the travels of my betters and the Judgement of mine Elders I proceed or rather post to my next stage OF GLOCESTER Dr. Thomson AT Glocester I shall at this time make a very short bait the last Bishop thereof being but lately removed to London and the present Bishop scant yet warme in his seat yet this I must say that I have heard some students of good judgement that knew him in Oxford affirme that in his very young yeares he gave a great hope and good presage of his future excellency having a rare gift ex tempore in all his Schoole exercises and such a happy wit to make use of all occurrents to his purpose as if he had not taken the occasions as they fell out by accident but rather bespoken such pretty accidents to fall out to give him the occasions I have often heard him before Queen Elizabeth and it was not possible to deliver sounder matter nor with better method for which cause he was greatly respected and reverenced at the Court But for his latter Sermon before the two most magnificent Kings your Highnesse Father and Unckle I cannot praise him no for I am a Cambridge man but I can envy him that in two judgements omni exceptione majoribus did carry the commendation of the pure Latine Language peculiar as I thought unto Cambridge to her younger sister of Oxford and thus much for him whose vertues no doubt will give matter for some further Relation under some other title hereafter Of PETERBOROUGH Dr. Thomas Dove I should doe both this worthy Prelate and my selfe much wrong if I should not commend him for many good parts being one whom I have long known to have been greatly respected and favoured by the late Queen and no lesse liked and approved in the more learned judgement of his Majesty How beit the ground on which I would build his chiefe praise to some of the Aristarchy and sowre censures of these daies requires first an Apologie For I remember that even in Cambridge about twenty five yeers since and I am sure he remembers it too a question arose among the Divines scarce fit for the Schooles lesse fit for the Pulpit yet was it both handled and determined in the Pulpit whether Rhetoricall Figures and Tropes and other artificiall ornaments of speech taken from prophane authors as sentences adages and such like might be used in Sermons and not rather the plaine naked truth delivered out of the word of God The precise fort that would have the Word and Church and all goe naked saving some Apron perhaps of Fig-leaves were not onely earnest but bitter against the use of all such humane or as they call them prophane helps calling them paintings fitter for Strumpets then for chaste Matrons But the graver and more Orthodox were of the other opinion and namely my learned Tutor Doctor Flemning by appointment of the heads of the Colledges in an excellent Sermon determined the controversie That seeing now the extraordinary gift first of tongues then of miracles was ceased and that knowledge is not now Infusa but Acquisita we should not despise the helpe of any humane learning as neither St. Paul did who used the sentences of Poets and hath many excellent Tropes with exaggerations and exclamations in his Epistles for chastity doth not abhor all ornaments for Judeth did attire her head as curiously as Jesabel c. About twelve yeeres after this the very same question in the same manner was canvased at Oxford and determined in the Pulpit by Dr. House against Doctor Reynolds who held the other opinion But upon occasion of this Sermon at which my brother that had been his scholler and my selfe hapned both to be present he retracted to us his opinion or rather disclaimed as my Lord of Duresme that now is but then Dean of Christ-church doth well remember This opinion then being sound that Eloquence may serve as an handmaid and Tropes and Figures as Jewels and Ornaments to this chaste Matron Divinity I must say as I began that his Sermons are as well attended and adorned in this kind and as plentifully as any of his predecessors have been or his successours are like to be and that they were wont so to be long since sufficeth this testimony that her Majesty that last raigned when she first heard him said she thought the holy Ghost was descecded again in this Dove Of BRISTOL Dr. John Thornbury BRistoll being a Bishoprick of the later erection namely but 66. years since no marvaile it never had any Bishop thereof Cannonized for a Saint yet it cannot be denyed since to have had one Holyman and if copulation with a Bishop might make them holy it hath had also in his short time more then one holy woman Ispent a roving shaft on Fletchers second Marriage I would I could as well plucke out the Thorne of Doctor Thornburies first Marriage out of every mans conscience that have taken a scandall of his second For my part whatsoever I think in my private it becoms us not to Judge our Judges the Customes and Lawes of some Countries differ from other and sometimes are changed and mended in the same as this case of divorce is most godly reformed in ours and as Vincentius Lirinensis saith well of St. Cyprian who had before the Councell of Carthage defended rebaptizing The Author of this errour saith he is no doubt in heaven the followers and practifers of it now goe to hell so I may say of this Bishop his remarriage may be pardoned Et in hoc saeculo et in futuro but he that shall so do again may be met with in hoc saeculo But it was the Bishop of Limbrick in Ireland and not the Bishop of Bristoll in England that thus married what doth this lessen the scandall I suppose it doth For I dare affirme that most of that Diocesse are so well catechised as they thinke it as great a scandall for their Bishop yea rather greater to have one wife as to have two and though for Lay mens Marriage their Priests tell them it is a holy Sacrament in them which they count a Sacriledge in a Bishop and they conferre to them out of St. Paul {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} there is a great Sacrament yet their people and some of their Peers also regard it as slightly and dissolve it more uncivilly then if it were but a civill contract for which they draw not onely by their bastardies and bigamies many apparent scourges of God the heavenly Father but also a peculiar pennance unto their Nation of one fasting day extraordinary from their holy father the Pope But setting aside this misfortune rather then fault which is God and the King pardon him for who
no lesse For hospitality which is a speciall praise of a Bishop he shewed in Oxford his disposition thereto in that lesse hability and for both at once at the comming of divers great States and lastly fifteen yeares past of the Queen her self before whom he preached and to whom he gave so good entertainment as her Majesty commended the order and manner of it long after which commendation of well setting out and ordering a feaft I should have thought of the lesse moment if I did not finde in Plutarke in the life of Paulus Aemylius a great Captain and Conquerour and otherwise a man of much vertue and temperance the well ordering of a feast to be esteemed not one of his least commendations But I will conclude with a greater and more worthy commendation and which I could wish as it is exemplar so it might be followed by all ensuing Bishops For whereas Durham house had been granted to Queen Elizabeth only during her life when few thought that such a house would have proved too little for her estate It fortuned after she was Queen this house to be neglected according to the proverbe not unfit to be applyed to his Learning that first built it Praestat esse caput asini quam cauda leonis Among other roomes the Chappell was not onely prophaned but even defaced This good Bishop the first thing he doth at his comming repaires this Chappell and and furnisheth it within in comely and costly sort for which good mind and act I doubt not but God wil build him a house toward which he shall ever have my best wishes Of CARLILE and the Bishop Dr. Henry Robinson THis Bishopricke as my Author hath touched page 540. and 543. hath beene so fortunate to have yeilded two singular examples of fidelity and loyalty of Prelats to their Soveraigne one of especiall marke worthy to be cannonized with the Patron of Venice St. Marke was also named Merks commended here by my Author and no lesse worthily extolled by Mr. Samuel Daniel in his excellent Poem of the civill Warres of Lancaster and Yorke The other was Bishop Oglethorpe who when all the Bishops of England refused to Crowne Elizabeth because of her Religion yet he being himselfe of a contrary Religion performed it neither of these received their reward in this world that they were worthy Merks being removed from Carlile to Samos in Greece viz. out of Gods blessing into a warme sunne as the saying is Oglethorpe enduring deprivation because even at the Coronation he would not omit the ceremony of elevation howbeit it is supposed if he had not so suddenly after dyed of the griefe her Majesty would have had some speciall respect of him above all fellowes which I speake not upon meere conjecture but upon some speech of her Majesty used to the present Bishop that now is for when shee received his homage she gave many gracious words to him of her good opinion for his learning integrity and sufficiency to the place concluding that she must ever have a care to furnish that place with a worthy man for his sake said she that set my Crowne first on my head and many words to like effect as the Bishop himselfe hath partly told me He seemes a man of great gravity and temperance very mild in his speech but not of so strong a constitution of body as his countenance doth promise but having seen his Sea never and himself but seldome I must content me of him with this short relation Of CHESTER and the present Bishop Dr. Flood OF this new Bishopricke and new Lord Bishop also I have very little to say and I need say the lesse because your Highnesse hath heard him Preach often and very well I call him a new Lord Bishop because though he were a Bishop before yet was he not thereby a Lord of the Parliament House howbeit his Title before sounded to the vulgar ears more universall then either Rome or Constantinople namely Bishop of Man but from thence he was translated to Chester the chiefe City of that Shire that some call chiefe of men which Shire having a speciall temporall blessing to abound not with milke and honey as the Land of Promise but with milke and salt a matter more necessary in sacrifice I wish it may also flow in spirituall blessings and doubt not but that by the irrigation rather then inundation of this Floud they shall encrease in them and as our Saviour commands to joyne peace with salt and especially I wish that blessing to their Neighbours beyond the salt water I meane in Ireland who though they have milk and are so weake in faith they cannot yet digest hard meat yet for want of this salt and peace they make many goe of Pilgrimage to Westchester against their wills from both Realmes some of whom the Bishop of Chester was wont to entertaine in kinde sort as my selfe can testifie and this Bishop I heare doth herein succeed also his worthy Predecessor Doctor Vaughan THus have you most highly esteemed and most entirely beloved Prince this unworthy supply of mine to the worthy worke of a more worthy man It is growne into greater length then I expected by reason I tooke some kinde of pleasure with the paine of writing hereof supposing I was all the while telling a story as it were in your Highnesse presence and hearing Now if any that favour not the persons I write of nor the purpose I write for happen to sport at this my fashion of writing to your Highnesse as Tigranes jested at Lucullus Army saying if he came as an Embassadour his Traine was to great if as a Warrier his Troop was too small So if they say this Treatise for an Epistle is too long for a History too little I will also hope that this whether long Epistle or short relation shall have like successe in your Highnesse approbation as that contemptible Army had to conquer their contemners FINIS An Alphabeticall Table according to the Sir-names of those Bishops who are discours'd of in the fore-going Relation Bishops Names Place Page Andrews Chichester 140 Babington Worcester 128 Bancrost Canterbury 10 Barlow Bath and Wells 106 Barlow Rochester 147 Bennet Hereford 138 Bilson Winchester 71 Chatterton Lincoln 81 Coldwell Salisbury 70 Cooper Winchester 34 Cotton Salisbury 93 Cotton Exeter 124 Day VVinchester 67 Dove Peterborough 153 Elmer London 14 Fletcher London 22 Flood Chester 209 Gardiner Winchester 42 Godwin Bath and VVells 110 Godwin Landaff 164 Grindall Canterbury 5 Heaton Ely 76 Hutton York 186 James Durham 203 Jewel Salisbury 85 King Bath and VVells 97 Matthew York 169 Overton Coventry Lichfield 85 Parker Canterbury 1 Piers York 182 Ravis London 31 Robinson Carlile 206 Rud St. Davids 159 Sands York 172 Scory Hereford 130 Still Bath and VVells 118 Thompson Gloucester 152 Thornbury Bristoll 156 Vaughan London 29 Underhill Oxenford 148 VVatson Chichester 140 VVestphaling Hereford 134 VVickham Elder Winchester 35 Wickham Younger Winchester 65 White Winchester 59 Whiteguist Canterbury 7 Young York 169 FINIS