stood in the Church of England at the time of the making this Homily and therefore he has put down the Proem of an Act of Parliament of the fifth and sixth years of Edward the 6th concerning Holy-days by which he would have the Lord's day to stand on no other ground but the Authority of the Church not as enjoyned by Christ or ordained by any of his Apostles Which Statute whosoever shall be pleased to peruse may easily see that this Proem he mentions relates only to Holy days and not to Sundays as you may observe from this passage viz. which holy Works as they may be called God's Service so the times especially appointed for the same are called Holy-days not for the matter or nature either of the time or day c. which title of Holy-days was never applied to Sundays either in a vulgar or legal acceptation And tho the Doctor fancied this Act was in force at the time when this Homily was made and therefore must by no means contradict so sacred an Authority as that of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament because this Act tho repealed by Queen Mary he would have to be revived again the first year of Queen Elizabeth and so to stand in force at the time of making this Homily whereas whoever consults our Statute-Book will find that this Statute of King Edward the 6th was not revived nor in force till the first of King James when the Repeal of this Statute was again repealed tho certainly the reviving of that or any other Statute does not make their Proems which are often very carelesly drawn to be in every clause either good Law or Gospel But tho the Doctor in other things abhors the Temporal Powers having any thing to do in matters of Religion yet if it make for his Opinion then the Authority of a Parliament shall be as good as that of a Convocation But I have dwelt too long upon this Head which I could not well contract if I spoke any thing at all to justifie the Lord Primat's Judgment in this so material a Doctrine The next Point that the Doctor lays to the Lord Primat's charge as not according to the Church of England is a passage in a Letter to Dr. Bernard and by him published in the Book intituled The Judgment of the late Primat of Ireland c. viz. That he ever declared his Opinion to be that Episcopus Presbyter gradu tantum differunt non ordine and consequently that in places where Bishops cannot be had the Ordination by Presbyters standeth valid And however saith he I must needs think that the Churches in France who living under a Popish Power and cannot do what they would are more excusable in that defect than those of the Low-Countries that live under a Free-State yet for the testifying my communion with these Churches which I do love and honour as true members of the Church Universal I do profess that with like affection I should receive the blessed Sacrament at the hands of the Dutch Ministers if I were in Holland as I should do at the hands of the French Ministers if I were at Charenton Which Opinion as I cannot deny to have been my Lord Primat's since I find the same written almost verbatim with his own hand dated Nov. 26. 1655 in a private Note-Book not many months before his death with the addition of this clause at the beginning viz. Yet on the other side holding as I do That a Bishop hath Superiority in degree above Presbyters you may easily judg that the Ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from their Bishops cannot possibly by me be excused from being schismatical And concluding with another clause viz. for the agreement or disagreement in radical and fundamental Doctrines not the consonancy or dissonancy in the particular points of Ecclesiastical Government is with me and I hope with every man that mindeth Peace the rule of adhering to or receding from the Communion of any Church And that the Lord Primate was always of this Opinion I find by another Note of his own hand written in another Book many years before this in these words viz. The intrinsecal power of Ordaining proceedeth not from Jurisdiction but only from Order But a Presbyter hath the same Order in specie with a Bishop Ergo A Presbyter hath equally an intrinsecal power to give Orders and is equal to him in the power of Order the Bishop having no higher degree in respect of intension or extention of the character of Order tho he hath an higher degree i. e. a more eminent place in respect of Authority and Jurisdiction in Spiritual Regiment Again The Papists teach that the confirmation of the Baptized is proper to a Bishop as proceeding from the Episcopal Character as well as Ordination and yet in some cases may be communicated to a Presbyter and much more therefore in regard of the over-ruling Commands of invincible necessity although the right of Baptising was given by Christ's own Commission to the Apostles and their Successors and yet in case of Necessity allowed to Lay-men even so Ordination might be devolved to Presbyters in case of Necessity These passages perhaps may seem to some Men inconsistent with what the Lord Primate hath written in some of his printed Treatises and particularly that of the Original of Episcopacy wherein he proves from Rev. 2. 1. that the Stars there described in our blessed Saviour's right hand to be the Angels of the seven Churches 2. That these Angels were the several Bishops of those Churches and not the whole Colledg of Presbyters as Mr. Brightman would have it 3. Nor has he proved Archbishops less ancient each of these seven Churches being at that time a Metropolis which had several Bishops under it and 4 that these Bishops and Archbishops were ordained by the Apostles as constant permanent Officers in the Church and so in some sort Jure Divino that is in St. Hierom's sence were ordained by the Apostles for the better conferring of Orders and for preventing of Schisms which would otherwise arise among Presbyters if they had been all left equal and independent to each other And that this may very well consist with their being in some cases of Necessity not absolutely necessary in some Churches is proved by the Learned Mr. Mason in his defence of the Ordination of Ministers beyond the Seas where there are no Bishops in which he proves at large against the Papists that make this Objection from their own Schoolmen and Canonists and that tho a Bishop receives a Sacred Office Eminency in Degree and a larger Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than a Presbyter yet that all these do not confer an absolute distinct Order and yet that Bishops are still Jure Divino that is by the Ordinance of God since they were ordained by the Apostles and whereunto they were directed by God's Holy Spirit and in that sence are the Ordinance of
God But if by Jure Divino you would understand a Law binding all Christian Churches universally perpetually unchangeably and with such absolute Necessity that no other form of Regiment may in any case be admitted in this sence we cannot grant it to be Jure Divino And much of the same Opinion is the Learned Bishop Davenant in his Treatise So that you see here that as Learned Men and as stout Asserters of Episcopacy as any the Church of England hath had have been of the Lord Primat's Judgment in this matter tho without any design to lessen the Order of Bishops or to take away their use in the Church since Mr. Mason in the said Treatise tho he grants the French Churches having a constant President of the Presbytery to enjoy the substance of the Episcopal Office Yet whereas their Discipline is still very defective he wishes them in the bowels of Christ by all means to redress and reform it and to conform themselves to the ancient Custom of the Church of Christ So that I hope after all this Question Whether Episcopacy be Ordo or Gradus will prove only a difference in words rather than substance between those of the Lord Primat's Judgment and those of the contrary since they are both agreed in the main Points in controve sie between them and the Presbyterians viz. That Bishops were ordained in the Church by the Apostles themselves from the direction or at least approbation of our Saviour himself being the Stars which St. John saw in his Vision in our Lord Christ's own Hand and that they are permanent immutable Officers in the Church which cannot subsist without it but in Cases of pure Necessity And lastly that those Presbyters which in Churches founded and setled with Bishops do separate from them are guilty of Schism These things being agreed upon on both sides I think the rest of the Controversie is not worth contending about But if any Learned Persons of the Church of England who are well vers'd in the Writings of the Fathers and other ancient Monuments of the Church have already proved or can further make out that Episcopacy has always been an absolute distinct Order as well as Office in the Church I suppose the Lord Primate were he now alive would be so far from opposing them that he would heartily thank them for giving him greater light provided it could be done without unchurching all those Protestant Churches abroad vvho want Bishops And I hope however if the Lord Primat may be thought by the Doctor or others not to go high enough in this matter nor sufficiently to magnifie his own Office yet that he may well be pardoned since it proceeded from his excess of Humility and Charity towards our neighbouring-Churches to whom no good Protestants ought to deny the right-hand of fellowship The third Point which the Doctor will have the Lord Primat to hold contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England which he says maintains an Universal Redemption of all Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of Christ as is proved by the Prayer of Consecration of the sacred Elements in the Sacrament which declares that God hath given to his Son Jesus Christ by his suffering death upon the Cross and by the Oblation of himself a full and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World And also that in the publick Catechism the party catechised is taught to believe in God the Son who hath redeemed him and all Mankind But that in this Point the Lord Primat is of a contrary Judgment to the Church of England For as he seems not to like their opinion who contradict the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World so he declareth his dislike of the other Extream as he is pleased to call it by which the benefit of this Satisfaction is extended to the Redemption of all Mankind The one Extremity saith he extends the benefit of Christ's Satisfaction so far ut reconciliationem cum Deo Peccatorem Remissionem singulis impetraverit as to obtain a Reconciliation with God and a Remission of Sins for all Men at his merciful hands p. 21. which tho they are the words of the Remonstrants at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1611 and are by him reckoned for untrue yet do they naturally result from the Doctrine of Universal Redemption which is maintained in the Church of England not that all Mankind is so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe which the Lord Primate makes to be the meaning and effect of that Extremity as he calls it p. 2. but that they are so far reconciled unto Him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto And here the Doctor thinks he finds out two notable Contradictions in the Lord Primat's Letter of the Year 1617 since in one part thereof he seems to dislike of their Opinion who contract the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any kind of interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World as before was said And in the other he declares that he is well assured that our Saviour hath obtained at the hands of his Father Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only p. â—1 Now the Doctor has done his worst Yet I hope to prove that tho there may be a difference between my Lord Primat's way of explaining this Doctrine and that of the Doctor 's which proceeds indeed from the different Notions they had of Election and Reprobation Yet that there is no such formidable Contradiction in these two Propositions of my Lord Primat's by him laid down as the Doctor fancies or that the L. Primat hath maintained any thing in this Doctrine contrary to that of the Church of England for 1. the Doctor owns that all Mankind is not so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe but that they are so far reconciled unto him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto Now what will the Doctor get by these words if they are so far reconciled to him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith which is required thereunto since the Question still remains between the Lord Primat and those of the contrary Opinion Whether all Men can obtain without the aid of Grace this saving Faith which is required thereunto Our Saviour says the direct contrary Joh. 6. 44 65. No Man can come to me except the
After his coming over again he was for some time engaged in answering the bold challenge of Malone an Irish Jesuite of the Anno 1624 Colledge of Lovain which Treatise he finished and published this year in Ireland which he so solidly and learnedly performed that those that shall peruse it may be abundantly satisfied that those very Judges the Challenger appealed to viz. the Fathers of the Primitive Church did never hold or believe Transubstantiation Auricular Confession Purgatory or a Limbus Patrum Prayer for the Dead or to Saints the Use of Images in Divine Worship Absolute Free-Will with Merits annexed with those other points by him maintained And though about three years after the publishing of this Treatise when the Colledge of Lovain had been long studying how to answer it the said Malone did at last publish a long and tedious reply stuffed with Scurrillous and Virulent Expressions against the Lord Primate his Relations and Calling and full of quotations either falsly cited out of the Fathers or else out of divers supposititious Authors as also forged Miracles and lying Legends made use of meerly to blind the Eyes of ordinary Readers who are not able to distinguish Gold from Dross all which together gave the Bishop so great a disgust that he disdained to answer a fool according to his folly and made no reply unto him though some of his worthy friends would not let it pass so But the learned Dr. Hoyl and Dr. Sing and Mr. Puttock did take him to task and so fully and clearly lay open the falshood and disingenuity of those his Arguments and Quotations from the Ancient Records and Fathers of the Church which had been cited by this Author that he had very little reason to brag of his Victory After the Bishop had published this Treatise he returned again into England to give his last hand to his said Work De Primordiis and being now busied about it the Arch-Bishoprick of Armagh became vacant by the death of Dr. Hampton the late Arch-Bishop not long after which the King was pleased to nominate the Bishop of Meath though there were divers competitors as the fittest Person for that great charge and high dignity in the Church in respect of his own great Merits and Services done unto it and not long after he was Elected Arch-Bishop by the Dean and Chapter there After which the next Testimony that he received of His Majesties favour was his Letter to a Person of Quality in Ireland who had newly obtained the Custodium of the Temporalties of that See Forbidding him to meddle with or receive any of the Rents or Profits of the same but immediately to deliver what he had already received unto the Receivers of the present Arch-Bishop since he was here imployed in His Majesties special Service c. Not long after which favour it pleased God to take King James of Pious Memory out of this World Nor was his Son and Successor our late Gracious Sovereign less kind unto him than his Father had been which he signified not long after his coming to the Crown by a Letter under his Privy Signet to the Lord Deputy and Treasurer of the Realm of Ireland That Whereas the present Arch-Bishop of Armagh had for many years together on several occasions performed many painful and acceptable Services to his Dear Father deceased and upon his special directions That therefore he was pleased as a gracious acceptation thereof and in consideration of his said Services done or to be done hereafter to bestow upon the said Primate out of his Princely bounty 400 pound English out of the Revenues of that Kingdom But before the return of the said Arch-Bishop into Ireland I shall here mention an accident that happened about this time to let you see that he neglected no opportunity of bringing men from the darkness of Popery into the clearer light of the Reformed Religion I shall give you his own relation of it from a Note which though imperfect I find of his own hand writing Viz. That in November 1625. he was invited by the Lord Mordant and his Lady to my Lord's House at Drayton in Northampton-shire to confer with a Priest he then kept by the name of Beaumont upon the points in dispute between the Church of Rome and Ours And particularly That the Religion maintained by Publick Authority in the Church of England was no new Religion but the same that was taught by our Saviour and his Apostles and ever continued in the Primitive Church during the purest times So far my Lord's Note What was the issue of this Dispute we must take from the report of my Lord and Lady and other Persons of Quality there present that this Conference held for some days and at last ended with that satisfaction to them both and confusion of his Adversary that as it confirmed the Lady in her Religion whom her Lord by the means of this Priest endeavoured to pervert so it made his Lordship so firm a Convert to the Protestant Religion that he lived and died in it When the Lord Primate had dispatcht his Affairs in England he year 1626 then returned to be Enthroned in Ireland having before his going over received many Congratulatory Letters from the Lord Viscount Falkland then Lord Deputy the Lord Loftus then Lord Chancellor the Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin and divers others of the most considerable of the Bishops and Nobility of that Kingdom expressing their high satisfaction for his promotion to the Primacy many of which I have now by me no way needful to be inserted here Being now returned into his native Country and setled in this Anno 1626 great charge having not only many Churches but Diocesses under his care he began carefully to inspect his own Diocess first and the manners and abilities of those of the Clergy by frequent personal Visitations admonishing those he found faulty and giving excellent advice and directions to the rest charging them to use the Liturgy of the Church in all Publick Administrations and to Preach and Catechise diligently in their respective Cures and to make the Holy Scripture the rule as well as the subject of their Doctrine and Sermons Nor did he only endeavour to reform the Clergy among whom in so large a Diocess and where there was so small Encouragements there could not but be many things amiss but also the Proctors Apparitors and other Officers of his Ecclesiastical Courts against whom there were many great complaints of abuses and exactions in his Predecessor's time nor did he find that Popery and Prophaneness had increased in that Kingdom by any thing more than the neglect of due Catechising and Preaching for want of which instruction the poor People that were outwardly Protestants were very ignorant of the Principles of Religion and the Papists continued still in a blind obedience to their Leaders therefore he set himself with all his power to redress these neglects as well by his own example as by his Ecclesiastical
Church may still either by preaching or writing maintain any point of Doctrine contained in those Articles without being either Heterodox or Irregular It was likewise reported and has been since written by some with the like truth that the Lord Primate should have some dispute with Dr. Bramhall then Bishop of London-Derry concerning these Articles Whereas the contest between the Lord Primate and that Bishop was not about the Articles but the Book of Canons which were then to be established for the Church of Ireland and which the Bishop of Derry would have to be passed in the very same form and words with those in England which the Lord Primate with divers other of the Bishops opposed as somewhat prejudicial to the Liberties of the Church of Ireland and they so far prevailed herein that it was at last concluded That the Church of Ireland should not be tyed to that Book but that such Canons should be selected out of the same and such others added thereunto as the present Convocation should judge fit for the Government of that Church which was accordingly performed as any man may see that will take the pains to compare the two Books of the English and Irish Canons together And what the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's judgment was on this affair you may see in a Letter of his to the Lord Primate published in this Collection About the end of this year the Lord Primate published his Anno 1639 long expected work entitled Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates In which also is inserted a History of Pelagius and his Heresie which Work I suppose my Lord kept so long unpublished because he still found fresh matter to add to it as you may see by the many Additions and Emendations at the latter end of it and as it was long in coming out so it did fully answer expectation when it came abroad into the World being the most exact account that ever yet was given of the British Church beginning with the earliest notices we can find in Ancient Authors of any credit concerning the first planting of Christianity in these Islands within twenty years after our Saviour's Crucifixion and bringing it down with the Succession of Bishops as far as they could be retreived not only in our Britain but in Ireland also as far as towards the end of the VII Century collected out of the best Authors either Printed or Manuscript and is so great a Treasure of this kind of Learning that all that have writ since with any success on this subject must own themselves beholding to him for his elaborate Collections The Lord Primate having now sate Arch-Bishop sixteen years Anno 1640 with great satisfaction and benefit to the Church about the beginning of this year came into England with his Wife and Family intending to stay here a year or two about his private Affairs and then to return again But it pleased God to disappoint him in those resolutions for he never saw his native Country again not long after his coming to London when he had kissed his Majesty's hand and been received by him with his wonted favour he went to Oxford as well to be absent from those heats and differences which then happened in that short Parliament as also with greater freedom to pursue his Studies in the Libraries there where he was accommodated with Lodgings in Christ-Church by Dr. Morice Canon of that House and Hebrew Professor and whilst he was there he conversed with the most Learned Persons in that famous University who used him with all due respect whilst he continued with them so after he had resided there some time he returned again to London where after the sitting of that long and unhappy Parliament he made it his business as well by preaching as writing to exhort them to Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince endeavouring to the utmost of his power to heal up those breaches and reconcile those differences that were ready to break out both in Church and State though it did not meet with that success he always desired This year there was published at Oxford among divers other Treatises of Bishop Andrews Mr. Hooker and other Learned men Anno 1641 concerning Church Government the Lord Primate's Original of Bishops and Metropolitans wherein he proves from Scripture as also the most Ancient Writings and Monuments of the Church that they owe their original to no less Authority than that of the Apostles and that they are the Stars in the right hand of Christ Apoc. 2. So that there was never any Christian Church founded in the Primitive Times without Bishops which discourse was not then nor I suppose ever will be answered by those of a contrary judgment That unhappy dispute between his Majesty and the two Houses concerning his passing the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder now arising and he much perplexed and divided between the clamour of a discontented People and an unsatisfied Conscience thought fit to advise with some of his Bishops what they thought he ought to do in point of Conscience as he had before consulted his Judges in matter of Law among which his Majesty thought fit to make choice of the Lord Primate for one though without his seeking or knowledge but since some men either out of spleen or because they would not retract what they had once written from vulgar report have thought fit to publish as if the Lord Primate should advise the King to sign the Bill for the said Earl's Attainder it will not be amiss to give you here that relation which Dr. Bernard had under his own hand and has printed in the Funeral Sermon by him published which is as followeth That Sunday morning wherein the King consulted with the four Bishops of London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was not present being then preaching as he then accustomed every Sunday to do in the Church of Covent-Garden where a Message coming unto him from his Majesty he descended from the Pulpit and told him that brought it he was then as he saw imployed about God's business which as soon as he had done he would attend upon the King to understand his pleasure But the King spending the whole Afternoon in the serious debate of the Lord Strafford's Case with the Lords of his Council and the Judges of the Land he could not before Evening be admitted to his Majesty's presence There the Question was again agitated Whether the King in justice might pass the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford for that he might shew mercy to him was no question at all no man doubting but that the King without any Scruple of Conscience might have granted him a Pardon if other reasons of State in which the Bishops were made neither Judges nor Advisers did not hinder him The whole result therefore of the determination of the Bishops was to this effect That therein the matter of Fact and matter of Law were to be distinguished That of the
alteration that every year should afford matter enough to be taken notice of in this account therefore I shall only here give you in general the more remarkable transactions of his Life from this time till his going over into England not long before that unhappy War After his being Arch-Bishop he laid out a great deal of money Anno 1627 in Books laying aside every year a considerable Sum for that end and especially for the procuring of Manuscripts as well from foreign Parts as near at hand having about this time by the means of Mr. Thomas Davis then Merchant at Aleppo procured one of the first Samaritan Pentateuchs that ever was brought into these Western Parts of Europe as Mr. Selden and Dr. Walton acknowledge as also the Old Testament in Syriack much more perfect than had hitherto been seen in these Parts together with other Manuscripts of value This Pentateuch with the rest were borrowed of him by Dr. Walton after Bishop of Chester and by him made use of in the Polyglot Bible All which Manuscripts being lately retrieved out of the hands of the said Bishop's Executors are now in the Bodleyan Library at Oxford a fit Repository for such Sacred Monuments About this time the Lord Viscount Falkland being re-called Anno 1629 from being Deputy of Ireland was waited on by the Lord Primate to the Sea side of whom taking his leave and begging his Blessing he set sail for England having before contracted an intimate friendship with the Lord Primate which lasted till his death nor did the Lord Primate fail to express his friendship to him on all occasions after his departure doing his utmost by Letters to several of the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council here for his Vindication from several false Accusations which were then laid to his charge by some of the Irish Nation before his Majesty which Letters together with the Vindication of the Council of Ireland by their Letter to his Majesty of his just and equal Government did very much contribute to the clearing of his Innocence in those things whereof he was then accused This year the happy news of the birth of Prince Charles his late Gracious Majesty then Prince of Wales being brought into Ireland Anno 1630 by an Express on purpose the Lords Justices and Council order'd a Solemn Day of Thanksgiving for that great happiness and the Lord Primate was invited as I find by their Letter to preach before them on that occasion as he did accordingly My Lord Primate published at Dublin his History of Gotteschalcus Anno 1631 and of the Predestinarian Controversie stirred by him being the first Latin Book that was ever printed in Ireland Wherein after a short account of Pelagianism which had then much spread it self in Spain and Britain he proceeds to the History of Gotteschalcus a Monk of the Abby of Orbais who lived in the beginning of the IX Century and his Opinions shewing out of Flodoardus and other approved Writers of that Age that the points then held by this learned Monk and that were then laid to his charge by Hincmar Arch-Bishop of Rhemes and Rabanus Arch-Bishop of Mentz and which they got condemned in a Synod held in that City as also in another at Quierzy were notwithstanding defended and maintained by Remigius or St. Remy Arch-Bishop of Lyons and the Church of that Diocess as consonant to the Scriptures and Writings of the Fathers And that indeed divers dangerous Opinions and Consequences were imputed to this learned Monk which he was not guilty of And after an account of the heads of a Treatise written by J. Scotius Erigene in defence of Free-will and the contrary Opinions to those of Gotteschalce the Lord Primate then likewise gives the sum of the Censure which Florus Deacon of Lyons writ against the same in the name of that Church As also of several Writings of Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons Pudentius Bishop of Troyes and Ratramus a Monk of Corbey in defence of the said Gotteschalce's Opinions and against the extravagant Tenets of Scotus Which Disputes produced two other Synods at Bonoil and Neufle in France wherein the Opinions held by Gotteschalce were asserted and the contrary as maintained by Scotus were condemned Though those Councils were still opposed and censured by Hincmar in a large Book dedicated to the Emperour Charles the Bald the heads of which are there set down out of Flodoard Which yet did not at all satisfie the contrary party nor hinder Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons and his Provincial Bishops from calling another Council at Langres wherein the Canons of the Valentinian Council were confirmed and those Propositions maintained by Scotus were again condemned Which Canons were also referred to the judgment of the General Council of the XII Provinces assembled at Thoul and being there debated were not by it condemned as Baronius and others will have it but for quietness sake were again referred to the judgment of the next General Assembly that the Doctrines of the Church and Fathers being produced those should be agreed on that should then appear most Sound and Orthodox And in the Conclusion my Lord there shews the great constancy of this poor Monk who notwithstanding his cruel whippings and long imprisonment to which he had been condemned by the Council of Mentz till his death yet he would never Recant but made two Confessions of his Faith which are there set down and by which it appears That many things were laid to his charge and condemned in those Councils which he never held In this Treatise as the Lord Primate has shewn himself excellently well skill'd in the Church History of those dark and ignorant Ages so he there concludes that men should not Dogmatize in these Points And indeed there ever have been and still will be different Opinions concerning these great and abstruse questions of Predestination and Free-will which yet may be tolerated and consist in any Church if the maintainers of either the one side or other will use that Charity as they ought and forbear publickly to condemn rail at or write against each other About this time the Romish Faction growing there very prevalent Anno 1631 by reason of some former connivance by the State as also for want of due instruction as hath been already said and likewise that divers abuses had crept into the Church not only among the inferior Clergy but the Bishops themselves all which had been represented by the Lords Committees for Irish Affairs to his Majesty who thereupon thought fit to send over his Letters into Ireland to all the Arch-Bishops of that Kingdom as well to put them in mind of their duty as to strengthen their Authority which were as follows CHARLES REX MOst Reverend Father in God right Trusty and entirely Beloved We Greet you well Among such disorders as the Lords of Our Privy-Council Deputed by Us to a particular care of Our Realm of Ireland and the Affairs thereof have observed and represented to Us in
that Government as well Ecclesiastical as Civil We have taken in special consideration the growth and increase of the Romish Faction there and cannot but from thence collect That the Clergy of that Church are not so careful as they ought to be either of God's Service or the honour of themselves and their Profession in removing all pretences of Scandal in their lives and conversation wherefore as We have by all means endeavoured to provide for them a competency of maintenance so We shall expect hereafter on their part a reciprocal diligence both by their Teaching and Example to win that Ignorant and Superstitious People to joyn with them in the true Worship of God And for that purpose We have thought fit by these Our Letters not only to excite your care of these things according to your Duty and dignity of your Place in that Church but further to Authorize you in Our Name to give by your Letters to the several Bishops in your Province a special charge requiring them to give notice to their Clergy under them in their Diocesses respectively That all of them be careful to do their Duty by Preaching and Catechising in the Parishes committed to their charge And that they live answerable to the Doctrine which they Preach to the People And further We Will that in Our Name you write to every Bishop within your Province That none of them presume to hold with their Bishopricks any Benefice or other Ecclesiastical dignity whatsoever in their own hands or to their own use save only such as We have given leave under Our Broad Seal of that Our Kingdom to hold in Commendam And of this We require you to be very careful because there is a complaint brought to the said Lords Committees for Irish Affairs That some Bishops there when Livings fall void in their Gift do either not dispose them so soon as they ought but keep the profits in their own hands to the hinderance of God's Service and great offence of good People or else they give them to young and mean men which only bear the Name reserving the greatest part of the Benefice to themselves by which means that Church must needs be very ill and weakly served of which abuses and the like if any shall be practised We require you to take special care for present redress of them and shall expect from you such account of your endeavours herein as may discharge you not to Us only but to God whose honour and service it concerns Given under Our Signet at Our Palace atWestminster the twelfth of April in the Sixth year of Our Reign By which Letter it is manifest how highly his Majesty was offended at the increase of the Popish party in that Kingdom and therefore would have all diligence used to prevent it as also other abuses reformed which had it seems crept in by degrees amongst the Protestant Clergy there But how little his Majesty liked the Romish Religion the Lord Primate was before very well satisfied by this Memorandum which I have of his own hand writing in a Book of his viz. The King once at White-Hall in the presence of George Duke of Buckingham of his own accord said to me That he never loved Popery in all his life But that he never detested it before his going into Spain But to return to the matter in hand the Lord Primate in pursuance of his Majestie 's Command which so fully agreed with his own desires set himself diligently to put in execution what had been committed to his care as well for the good of the Church as his Majestie 's Service He therefore endeavoured to reform first those disorders which had been complained of in his own Province and which had been in good measure rectified already as has been already mentioned and in the next place he made it his business to reclaim those deluded People who had been bred up in that Religion from their infancy for which end he began to converse more frequently and familiarly with the Gentry and Nobility of that perswasion as also with divers of the Inferior sort that dwelt near him inviting them often to his House and discoursing with them with great mildness of the chief Tenets of their Religion by which gentle usage he was strangely successful convincing many of them of their Errors and bringing them to the knowledge of the Truth And he also advised the Bishops and Clergy of his Province to deal with the Popish Recusants in their several Diocesses and Cures after the same manner that if possible they might make them understand their Errors and the danger in which they were which way in a Country where there are no Penal Laws to restrain the publick Profession of that Religion was the best if not the only means which could be used Nor was his care confined only to the conversion of the ignorant Irish Papists but he also endeavoured the reduction of the Scotch and English Sectaries to the bosom of the Church as it was by Law established conferring and arguing with divers of them as well Ministers as Lay-men and shewing them the weakness of those Scruples and Objections they had against their joyning with the publick Service of the Church and submitting to its Government and Discipline and indeed the Lord Primate was now so taken up in Conferences with all sorts of Persons or in answering Letters from Learned men abroad or else such as applied themselves to him for his judgment in difficult points in Divinity or resolutions in Cases of Conscience that whoever shall consider this as also his many Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions together with the constant course of his Studies must acknowledge that none but one of his large capacity and who made a constant good use of his time could ever be sufficient for so many and so different imployments About the end of this year I find the Arch-Bishop was in England by his publishing and printing at London a small Treatise of the Religion Anciently professed by the Irish which comprehends also the Northern Scots and Britains which he writ in English to satisfie the Gentry and better sort of People that the Religion professed by the Ancient Bishops Priests Monks and other Christians of these Kingdoms was the very same in the most material Points with that which is now maintained by publick Authority against those novel and foreign Doctrines introduced by the Bishop of Rome in latter times The next year Anno 1632. the Lord Primate after his return into Ireland published his Veterum Epistolarum Hybernicarum Sylloge containing a choice Collection of Letters out of several Ancient Manuscripts and other Authors partly from and partly to Ancient Irish Bishops and Monks Commencing about the year of our Lord 592. to the year 1180. concerning the Affairs of the Irish Church in those times which abundantly shew the great esteem the Learning and Piety of the Bishops and Clergy of that Church had then both at Rome France
matter of Fact he himself might make a judgment having been present at all proceedings against the said Earl where if upon the hearing of the Allegations on either side he did not conceive him guilty of the Crimes wherewith he was charged he could not in justice condemn him But for the matter in Law what was Treason and what was not he was to rest in the opinion of the Judges whose Office it was to declare the Law and who were Sworn therein to carry themselves indifferently betwixt Him and his Subjects Which gave his Majesty occasion to complain of the dealing of the Judges with him not long before That having earnestly pressed them to declare in particular what point of the Lord of Strafford's Charge they judged to be Treasonable forasmuch as upon the hearing of the proofs produced he might in his Conscience perhaps find him guiltless of that Fact he could not by any means draw them to nominate any in particular but that upon the whole matter Treason might justly be charged upon him And in this second meeting it was observed That the Bishop of London spake nothing at all but the Bishop of Lincoln not only spake but put a Writing also into the King's hand wherein what was contained the rest of his Brethren knew not From all which we may observe my Lord Primate's modesty who would not set down his own particular judgment in this matter but only that it agreed with that of his Brethren but also his charity and fidelity who would not though to acquit himself betray his trust and accuse the only person of that company who was supposed to have moved the King to the doing of it Nor is the reason those men have supposed why my Lord Primate should perswade the King to do this less false and improbable viz. Revenge because the Earl of Strafford whilst Lord Lieutenant of Ireland had outwitted him and made him the Instrument before he was aware of abrogating the Articles of Ireland above mentioned the falseness of which Calumny may sufficiently appear from what hath been already said upon this subject for the Lord Primate did willingly and upon due consideration without any surprise propose the Admission of those Articles of the Church of England nor was he ever convinced neither did my Lord Strafford ever insist upon it that the admission of these Articles was an abrogation of the former and if the Lord Primate had any private grudge against the Earl upon this Score he carried it very slyly insomuch that the Earl himself nor any of his friends were ever sensible of it for whilst the Earl continued in Ireland there was never any dispute or unkindness between them but they parted good friends as will appear by some Letters which you will find in this Collection The Earl writ to him after this business and not long before his going for England full of kindness and respect So likewise after the Earl's Commitment to the Black-Rod as also when he was a Prisoner in the Tower the Lord Primate frequently visited him and the Earl was pleased to consult with him in divers matters relating to his defence at his Tryal And certainly had the Earl believed that the Lord Primate bore any malice towards him much more had advised the King to put him to death which could not have been well concealed from him though we may suppose the Earl had so much Christian charity as to forgive so great an injury yet it is not very likely that he should exercise such a piece of mortification as to chuse him whom he believed to be the promoter of his death to prepare him for it and to be the man to whom he addressed his Speech upon the Scaffold and whose assistance he desired in that his last extremity But I shall speak no farther of this matter till I can in order of time tell you what the Lord Primate himself said unto me concerning it when he lay as he thought on his Death-bed and not likely to live an hour and also what his Majesty declared when he heard the report of his death Not many Months after the Execution of this great and unfortunate Earl there came over the unhappy news of the breaking out of the horrid Irish Rebellion in which as his Majesty's with the English and Protestant interest in that Kingdom received an unexpressible blow so likewise the Lord Primate bore too great a share in that common affliction for in a very few days the Rebels had plundered his Houses in the Countrey seized on his Rents quite ruined or destroyed his Tenements killed or drove away his numerous Flocks and Herds of Cattle to a very great value and in a world had not left him any thing in that Kingdom which escaped their fury but his Library and some Furniture in his House in Droghedah which were secured by the strength of that place notwithstanding a long and dangerous Siege by those Rebels which Library was some years after conveyed over to Chester and from thence to London This must needs reduce him to a very low condition happening not long after Michaelmas when he expected a return of his Rents so that he was forced for his present supply to sell or pawn all the Plate and Jewels he had this though a very great Tryal yet made not any change in his Natural Temper and Heavenly Disposition still submitting to God's Providence with Christian Patience and Magnanimity having long before learned to use the things of this World as if he used them not and in whatsoever condition he was therewith to be content Yet these afflictions were sufficient to move compassion even in the breasts of Foreigners for some Months after his losses the City and University of Leyden offered to chuse him their Honorarie Professor with a more ample stipend than had been formerly annexed to that place And Dr. Bernard in the above cited Sermon likewise tells us that Cardinal Richlieu did about the same time make him an Invitation to come into France with a promise of a very noble Pension and freedom of his Religion there and that this is not unlikely though I never heard my Lord Primate speak of it may be proved from the great honour that Cardinal had for him which he expressed by a Letter full of kindness and respect accompanied with a Gold Medal of considerable value having his own Effigies stamped upon it which is still preserved these were sent him upon his publishing his Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum which Present was also returned by the Lord Primate by a Letter of thanks with a handsome present of Irish Grey-hounds and other rarities which that Countrey afforded But it pleased his late Majesty to provide for him much better in England by conferring on him the Bishoprick of Carlisle lately void by the death of Dr. Potter to be held in Commendam this though very much abated by the Scotch and English Armies Quartering upon it as also by
About this time whilst his late Majesty was kept Prisoner at year 1648 Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight the Lord Primate was highly concerned at the disloyal actions of the two Houses towards their Lawful Prince to express which he preached at Lincolns-Inn on this Text Isa. 8. 12 13. Say ye not a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a Confederacy neither fear you their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Wherein he sufficiently expressed his dislike of those Covenants and Consederacies which they had now entred into contrary to that Oath they had taken already and that we should not fear man more than God when we were to do our Duty to our Prince or Country Not long after which the Presbyterians finding the Independant party too strong for them had no way left to secure themselves but by recalling their Votes of Non-Addresses and to Vote a Treaty with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight And because the differences concerning Church-Government were not the least of those that were to be setled and concluded at this Treaty and for which it was necessary for his Majesty to consult with some of his Bishops and Divines the Lord Primate was sent for by the King among divers others to attend him for that purpose when he came thither he found one of the greatest points then in debate was about the Government of the Church The Parliament Commissioners insisting peremptorily for the abolishing and taking away Arch-Bishops Bishops c. out of the Churches of England and Ireland His Majesty thought he could not with a good Conscience consent to that demand viz. totally to abolish or take away Episcopal Government but his Majesty then declared that he no otherwise aimed at the keeping up the present Hierarchy in the Church than what was most agreeable to the Episcopal Government in the Primitive and purest Times But his Majesty since the Parliament insisted so obstinately on it was at last forced to consent to the suspension of Episcopacy for three years but would by no means agree to take away Bishops absolutely But now to stop the present career of the Presbyterian Discipline the Lord Primate proposed an expedient which he called Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned and which he not long after he came thither delivered into his Majesty's hands who having perused it liked it well saying it was the only Expedient to reconcile the present differences for his Majesty in his last Message to the Parliament had before condescended to the reducing of Episcopal Government into a much narrower compass viz. Not only to the Apostolical Institution but much farther than the Lord Primate proposed or desired even to the taking away of Arch-Bishops Deans Chapters c. Together with all that additional Power and Jurisdiction which his Majesty's Predecessors had bestowed upon that Function Which Message being read in the House was by them notwithstanding voted unsatisfactory So that the Presbyterian Party was so absolutely bent to abolish the very Order of Bishops that no proposals of his Majesty's though never so moderate would content them till at last when they had wrangled so long till they saw the King's person seized by the Army and that the power was like to be taken out of their hands they then grew wiser and would have agreed to his Proposals when it was too late and so the Presbyterian Party saw themselves within a few days after forcibly excluded and turned out of doors by that very Army which they themselves had raised and hired to fight against their Prince which as it was the cause of his Majesty's destruction so it proved their own ruine But since some of the Church of England have been pleased to judge very hardly of this Proposal made by the Arch-Bishop as if it too much debased the Episcopal Order and levelled it with that of Presbyters To vindicate the Lord Primate from which imputation I desire them to consider these particulars first the time when this Expedient was proposed viz. When his Majesty had already consented to the suspension of Episcopal Government for three years absolutely as also for setling Presbytery in the room of it for that time and for quite taking away Arch-Bishops Deans and Chapters c. as hath been already said whereas the Lord Primate's Expedient proposes none of these but supposes the Arch-Bishops or Primates ought to be continued appointing them to be the moderators of the Provincial Synods of Suffragans and Pastors And though it is true he mentions Bishops as to be only Presidents of the Diocesan Synod yet he no where denies them a Negative Voice in that Assembly and though he mentions at the beginning of this Expedient that the Bishops were wont in the Primitive times to do nothing of moment without the advice of a Synod of their Clergy as he proves from divers quotations out of the Fathers and Ancient Councils yet he does not assert this practice as a thing of Divine or unalterable right but only as the custom and practice of the Church in those Times which being only prudential may be altered one way or other according as the peace and order of the Church or the exigency of Affairs may require and though in Sect. 11. of this Expedient he proposes the making of as many Suffragans in each Diocess as there are Rural Deanries in the same and who should assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or Ministers of their Precinct yet their power was only to be according to the Statute of the 26th of Henry the Eighth whereby they are expresly forbid to act in any matters but by the Authority of and in Subordination to their Diocesan Bishop nor does the Lord Primate here extend their power farther than to be moderators of this lesser Synod where matters of Discipline and Excommunication only were to be determined still reserving the power of Ordination to the Diocesan this being no where given from him in this Expedient neither was this power of Excommunication left absolutely to this lesser Synod without an Appeal to the Diocesan Synod of the Suffragans and the rest of the Pastors wherein the Bishop was to preside only I shall say thus much That it was not the Lord Primate's design or intention in the least to rob the Bishops of any of those just Rights which are essentially necessary to their Order and Constitution and without abasing Episcopacy into Presbytery or stripping the Church of its Lands and Revenues both which the Lord Primate always abhorred for he was of his Majesty's mind in his excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Presbytery is never so considerable or effectual as when it is joyned to and Crowned with Episcopacy And that the King himself was then convinced that this was the best Expedient for the setling of the differences of the Church at that time You may
judicio praeterquam suo Praesul verè Magnus Qui Ecclesiam Veterum institutis Clerum suo Exemplo Populum Concionibus Affidue instruxit Chronologiam sacram pristino nitori restituit Bonarum artium Professores Inopia Afflictos Munificentiâ sublevavit Denique qui Haereses repullulantes calamo erudito contudit His ingenii dotibus his animi virtutibus ornatus Praesul optimus piissimus meritissimus Cum inter bella Civilia Ecclesiae Patriae suae funesta Sibique Luctuosa Nec Ecclesiae nec Patriae diutius prodesse poterat In Christo pacis Authore placide obdormivit Anno Aerae Christianae 1655. Aetatis suae 76. Riegat in Comitatu Surrey Martii 21. Obiit Sepultus apud Westmonast In Hen. 7mi Capellâ Apr. 5. 1656. A Catalogue of the Lord Primate James Usher's Works and Writings already Printed In Latin DE Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione Statu cum Explicatione Quaestionis de Statu Ecclesiarum in partibus praesertim occidentis à tempore Apostolorum De primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge Historia Gotes-Chalci Polycarpi Ignatii Epistolae Graec. Lat. cum desertatione de eorum Scriptis deque Apostolicis Canonibus Constitutionibus Clementi tributis Appendix Ignatiana De Romanae Ecclesiae Symbolo Apostolico vetere aliis fidei formulis De Anno solari Macedonum Epistola ad Lodovicum Capellum de textus Hebr. variantibus Lectionibus Annales Vet. Test. Annales N. Test. Chronologia Sacra De Graecâ Septuaginta Interpretum versione Syntagma Desertatio de Cainane In English AN Answer to Malon the Jesuits Challenge The Religion professed by the Ancient Irish and Britains A Sermon Preached before the House of Commons Westminster A Sermon of the Visibility of the Church Preached before King James Jun. 25 1624. A Speech delivered in the Castle Chamber Dublin concerning the Lawfulness of taking and danger of refusing the Oath of Supremacy Nov. 22. 1622. A Speech in the same Place upon the denial to contribute for the Supply of the Kings Army for the defence of the Government April 30 1627. Immanuel or the Mistery of the Incarnation of the Son of God A Geographical Description of the lesser Asia A Discourse of Bishops and Metropolitans A small Catechism entitled the Principles of Christian Religion with a brief Method of the Doctrine thereof His Annals of the Old and New Testament Translated into English with the Synchronisms of the Heathen Story to the destruction of Jerusalem The Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject stated with a Preface by Dr. Robert Sanderson late Bishop of Lincoln Published from the Original Copy written with his own hand by James Tyrrell Esq Grandson to the Lord Primate A Body of Divinity or the Summ and Substance of Christian Religion by way of Question and Answer collected by himself in his younger years for his own private Use and through the Importunity of some Friends communicated to them but not with a Design to be Printed though afterwards published by others with good Acceptance A Volume of Sermons in Folio Preached at Oxford before his Majesty and elsewhere published since his Death These that follow were gathered out of the Fragments of the Lord Primate and Published since his Death by Dr. Bernard HIS Judgment and Sense of the State of the present See of Rome from Apocal. 18. 4. Ordination a Fundamental His Sense of Hebrews 6. 2. Of the use of a Set form of Prayer in the Church The extent of Christs Death and Satisfaction with an Answer to the Exceptions taken against it Of the Sabbath and Observation of the Lords Day His Judgment and Sense of John 20. 22. 23. Receive ye the Holy-Ghost Whose Sins ye Remit c. A Catalogue of the Lord Primate Ushers own Manuscripts of various Subjects not Printed Lemmata Manuscriptorum CEnsura Patrum aliorum Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum five Bibliotheca Theologica Historiae dogmaticae Quaestionum inter Orthodoxos Pontificios Controversarum Specimen in Quaestione de Communi Sacrarum Scripturarum usu contra Scripturarum lucifugas De veterum Pascalibus Scriptis de ratione Paschali quibus computi Ecclesiastici in Universo orbe Christiano ante Gregorianam reformationem apperiuntur ex vetustissimis Manuscriptis codicibus notis Illustratum Veterum de tempore Passionis Dominicae Phaschalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Variae Lectiones Collationes Vet. Nov. Instrumenti 1. Genesis Longe antiquissimum exemplar Graecum Cottonianum cum editione Francofurtensi Collatum 2. Collatio Psalterii à B. Hieronymo ex Heb. conversi à Jacobo Fabro Parisiis An. 1513. editi cum aliis exemplaribus Manuscriptis Impressis 3. Annotationes variarum Lectionum in Psalmis juxta Masoreth Judaeorum five cum notâ aliquâ Masoreticâ 4. Psalterium cum versione Saxonicâ interlineatâ in Bibliothecâ Salisburiensis Ecclesiae 5. Psalterium Gallicum cum Romano collatum Hebraico 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oppositum Manuscripto in Westmonasteriensis Ecclesiae Bibliothecâ 6. Collatio Canticorum utriusque Testamenti cum editione vulgatâ Latinâ 7. Variae Lectiones Collationes N. Test. ex vetustissimis Exemplaribus 8. Collatio editionis Chronici Eusebii à Josepho Scaligero edit cum Manuscripto è Regiâ Bibliothecâ 9. Collatio variorum Pentateuchi Samaritani Exemplarium cum notis Observationibus 10. Chronologia Legum Codicis Theodosiani Justiniani collata cum Malmesburiensi Manuscripto Julianae Periodi ad Juliani anni usum vulgaris aerae Christianae ad anni Juliani pariter Gregoriani Methodum accommodatae fixa jam Epochâ cum Tabulâ reductionis dierum Anni Juliani veteris ad dies Anni Gregoriani Novi hodie usitati in pluribus partibus orbis Ratio Bissextorum literarum Dominicarum Equinoctiorum Festorum Christianorum tam mobilium quam immobilium De Institutione Chronologicâ viz. De Tempore illius Mensurâ de Die ejusque partibus de horis scrupulis de Hebdomadibus Mensibus de Anno Astronomico de variâ Annorum Supputatione Secundum Graeca Exemplaria De differentiâ circuli spherae de cursu septem Planetarum Signorum Coelestium de quinque Parall in sphera Zonasdistinguent Veteres Observationes Coelestes Chaldaicae Graecae Aegyptiacae Insigniorum Imperiorum Regnorum quae ante Christi adventum in orbe floruerunt successiones et tempora ad usum veteris Historiae studiosorum eorum praesertim qui exoticam Chronologiam cum Sacra conferre cupiunt Series Chronologica Syriaca Regum Imperatorum Babylonicorum Persarum Graecorum Romanorum à Nebuchadnezzar ad Vespasianum ab Anno Mundi 4915. ad Annum 5585. De fastis Magistratuum Coss. Triumphorum Romanorum ab Urbe Condita usque ad excessum Caesaris Augusti ex fragmentis Marmoreis foro Romano effossis à doctissimis nostri temporis Chronographis suppletis Catalogus Consulum ex variis Authoribus De Ponderibus Mensuris De
Consecrated and thereupon desire Justice I shall be ready to shew reason and yield account of my Opinion as well in the King's Courts as in Theological Schools For to pass the general words of his grant cum omnibus Jurisdictionibus which grant him Jus ad rem but not in re The Statute of 2 Eliz. cap. 1. expresly forbiddeth all that shall be preferred to take upon them receive use exercise any Bishoprick c. before he hath taken the corporal Oath of the King's Supremacy before such person as hath Authority to admit him to his Bishoprick As for the Statute of Conferring and Consecrating Bishops within this Realm I find not the words you have written viz. That he which hath the King's Letters Patents for a Bishoprick is put in the same state as if he were Canonically elected and confirmed But that his Majesties Collation shall be to the same effect as if the Conge delire had been given the election duly made and the same election confirmed for the Dean and Chapters election in England is not good until the King have confirmed by his Royal assent then it followeth in the Statute upon that collation the person may be consecrated c. Afterward in the same Statute it is further enacted That every person hereafter conferred invested and consecrated c. shall be obeyed c. and do and execute in every thing and things touching the same as any Bishop of this Realm without offending of the Prerogatives Royal. Now by an argument à contrario sensu it appeareth that it is not I which stand against his Majesties Prerogative but they which exercise Jurisdiction without the form prescribed in these Statutes Confider again how impertinent the opinion of Canonists is in this case where the King's collation is aequivalent to a Canonical Election and Confirmation The Confirmation which the Canonists speak of is from the Pope not from the Prince Gregoriana constitutione in Lugdunensi Consilio cautum est Electum infra tres menses post consensum suum electioni proestitum si nullum justum impedimentum obstat confirmationem à superiore Proelato petere debere alioqui trimestri spatio elapso electionem esse penitus irritandam When the See of Armagh falleth void the Dean and Chapter have Authority by the Canons to exercise Jurisdiction which the Bishop elect hath not until he be consecrated as you may read in Mason's Book and elsewhere and so it is practised in England Behold the cause which maketh the Dean capable namely the Authority Canons and Custom of the Church So is not the Bishop elect warranted and standeth still in the quality of a simple Presbyter until he be further advanced by the Church When Jo. Forth shall bring his Libel I will do the part which belongeth to me In the mean time I commend you to God and rest Your Lordships very loving Friend Armagh 13 July 1621. LETTER XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MY duty to your Lordship remembred This Messenger so fitly offering himself unto me albeit it were the Sabbath Even and I cast behind hand in my studies by absence from home yet I could not but in a line or two salute your Lordship and thereby signifie my continued and deserved remembrance of you and hearty desire of your welfare By this time I presume your Lordship in setled in your weighty charge of Over-sight wherein I beseech the Lord in mercy to bless your Labours and Endeavours to the glory of his own Name and the good of his Church never more in our times oppugned and opposed by mighty and malitious Adversaries both at home and abroad never in foreign Parts generally more distracted and distressed than at the present Out of France daily news of Murthers and Massacres Cities and Towns taken and all sorts put to the Sword Nor are those few that stand out yet likely to hold long against the power of so great a Prince having no succours from without In the Palatinate likewise all is reported to go to ruine Nor do the Hollanders sit for ought I see any surer the rather for that the Coals that have here been heretofore kindled against them about Transportation of Coin and the Fine imposed for it the Quarrels of the East-Indies the Command of the Narrow Seas the Interrupting of the Trade into Flanders c. are daily more and more blown upon and fire beginneth to break out which I pray God do not burn up both them and us too I doubt not worthy Sir but you see as well yea much better I suppose than my self and many others as being able further to pierce into the state of the times and the consequents of these things what need the forlorn flock of Christ hath of hearts and hands to help to repair her ruines and to fence that part of the Fold that as yet is not so openly broken in upon against the Incursions of such ravenous Wolves as having prevailed so freely against the other parts will not in likelihood leave it also unassaulted as also what need she hath if ever of Prayers and Tears her ancient principal Armor unto him who hath the hearts and hands of all men in his hand and whose help our only hope as things now stand is oft-times then most present when all humane helps and hopes do fail But these lamentable occurrents carry me further than I had purposed when I put Pen to Paper I shall be right glad to hear of your Lordship's health and welfare which the Lord vouchsafe to continue gladder to see the remainder of your former learned and laborious Work abroad The Lord bless and protect you And thus ready to do your Lordship any service I may in these parts I rest Your Lordships to be commanded in the Lord Thomas Gataker Rothtrith Sept. 19. 1621. LETTER XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswel to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord IF your Lordship hath forgotten my name I shall account my self very unhappy therein yet justly rewarded for my long silence the cause whereof hath especially been my continual absence almost for these last eight years from my native Country where now returning and disposed to rest I would not omit the performance of this duty unto your Lordship hoping that the renewing of my ancient respects will be entertained by your Lordship as I have seen an old Friend or Servant who arriving suddenly and unexpected hath been better welcomed than if he had kept a set and frequent course of visiting and attendance With this representing of my service I presume your Lordship will not dislike that I recommend my especial kind friend Dr. Price one of his Majesties Commissioners for that Kingdom and for his Learning Wisdom and other Merits which your Lordship will find in him truly deserving your Lordships good affection The most current news I can signifie to
the Princes About this there is now much consultation in what manner to proceed Salvo legatino jure and Sir Robert Cotton as you know his manner is hath been very busie in ransacking his Papers for Presidents Of this more hereafter This day my Lord Treasurer makes his Answer about the beginning of the next Week we shall know his Doom Our good Friend D. Lyndsel was cut on Munday and is yet God be praised well after it there was a Stone taken out of his Bladder about the bigness of a Shilling and rough on the one side I am now collating of Bede's Ecclestastical History with Sir Robert Cotton's Copy wherein I find many Variations I compare it with Commelyn's Edition in Folio which is that I have All that I expect from your Lordship is to understand of the Receipt of my Letters which if I know I shall write the more confidently I should also willingly know how you like your Dwelling My Lord of Bristol is come I pray you present my Love and Service to Mrs. Usher And so with many thanks for all your kind Respects I will ever remain Your very affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 28. 1623. Sir Robert Cotton is like to get a very good Copy of Malmsbury de Antiquit Glaston It is a Book I much desire to see I pray you remember the Irish Annal which you promised me before your going out of Town LETTER LV. A Letter from Mr. H. Holcroft to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My Lord IT hath pleased his Majesty now to direct this Letter to the Lord Deputy to admit you a Privy Counsellor of that Kingdom I am ashamed it hath staid so long in my hands before it could be dispatch'd But if it had come at the first to me during the Duke of Buckingham's being here it had not staid three days but gone on in the plain High-way which is ever via sana After the Lord Deputy was pleased to put it into my Hands at my first Access I moved his Majesty and shewed his Lordships Hand But the King willed it should stay and it became not me to press it further at that time I know the Cause of the Stay was not any dislike of your Person or Purpose not to grant it But if the Duke had come home in any time you should have been beholding to him for it I pray your Lordship not to think it strange that about the same time his Majesty dispatch'd the Letter for Sir Edward Trevour to be a Counsellor The Grant was gotten by my Lord of Buckingham before his going and by his Commandment I drew it I do strive to give your Lordship a particular Accompt of this Business and do pray your Lordship to endeavour to satisfie the Lord Deputy of whose Commands herein I was not negligent So soon as I acquainted his Majesty with his Lordships second Letter I had his Royal Signature of which I wish you much Joy My Lord Grandison is in reasonable good Health So I remain Your Lordships most assured Friend Henry Holcroft Westminster June 13. 1623. LETTER LVI A Letter from Dr. Goad and Dr. Featly Chaplains to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Admodum Reverende Domine HAving so convenient a means we send to your Lordship which perhaps you have not yet seen translated and thus Armed with a Preface by a worthy and learned Gentleman Sir Humphrey Lynd our Neighbour To whose Observations concerning the Censures upon this Tractate de Corpore Sang. Christi if you will add any thing which he hath not espyed we will impart the same from you to him whereby your Lordship shall more encourage this well deserving Defender of the Cause of Religion to whom in other Respects the Church and common Cause oweth much For at this instant upon our Motion he hath undertaken the Charge of printing the particular passages of many late Writers castrated by the Romish Knife The Collections are made by Dr. James and are now to be sent unto us for preparation to the Press We shall begin with Polydore Virg. Stella Mariana and Ferus Proeterea in eodem genere alia texitur tela The Story of the Waldenses written in French and comprising Relations and Records for 400 years is now in translating into English to be published Before which it is much desired that your Lordship will be pleased to prefix a Preface for the better pass which we think will be very acceptable and the rather because we hope your Lordship will therein intimate that in the same Subject jamdudum aliquid parturis whereto this may serve for a Midwife unless the Masculine birth deliver it self before this foreign Midwife come Thus desiring to hear from your Lordship but more to see you here upon a good occasion we take our Leave and rest Thomas Goad Your Lordships to be commanded Daniel Featly Lambeth June 14. 1623. LETTER LVII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Salutem à Salutis fonte D. N. Jesu Christo. Most Reverend in Christ THough I have little to say more than the remembrance of my love and best respects I could not forbear to lay hold on the opportunity of this Bearer our common friend thereby to present them as many ways most due from me to your Lordship You have been so long expected here that your Friends Letters have by that means come more rarely to your hands We have little News either of the great business or any other though Messengers come Weekly out of Spain And I conceive that Matters are yet very Doubtful The new Chapel for the Infanta goes on in Building and our London-Papists report That the Angels descend every Night and Build part of it Here hath been lately a Conference between one Fisher a Jesuit and one Sweete on the one side and Dr. Whyte and Dr. Feately on the other The Question was of the Antiquity and Succession of the Church It is said that we shall have it Printed All our Friends are in good Health namely Sr. Robert Cotton Sr. Henry Spelman Mr. Camden Mr. Selden and the rest and Remember themselves most Affectionately to you Mr. Selden will send you a Copy of his Eadmerus with the first opportunity which should have been done before this time had not his expectation of you here stayed his hand Philip Cluverius is lately Dead at Leyden of a Consumption Before his Death he was so happy as to finish his Italia which they say is done with great diligence and the Impression so forward that we shall have it this Autumnal Marte My Lord Chichester is to go within a Fortnight to Colen to the Treaty and Meeting there appointed for the Restitution of the Palatinate But some think that the Armies now a-foot in Germany will much hinder it Bethlem Gabor troubles the Emperor again in Austria The Duke of Brunswick in
he wavering or inconstant of which he gave good Testimony at his end professing in the Exordium of his last Will and Testament that he died as he had lived in the Faith Communion and Fellowship of the Church of England His Library I hope will fall to my share by an Agreement between his Executors and Me which I much desire partly to keep it entire out of my Love to the Defunct The original Copy of the second part of his Elizabeth is in my hands which is intended to be shortly printed Within a day or two Sir Robert Cotton and my self intend to go into his Study which is yet shut up and there to take a view of his Papers especially of such things as are left of his own writing I desire to be remembred by your Lordship in your holy Prayers to God to whose gracious Protection I commend you and ever remain Your Lordships most affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London Novemb. 22 1623. LETTER LXIII A Letter from Dr. James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath MY Duty in most humble manner remembred unto your Lordship I am informed that your Lordship passed this way not far from us to London where you have remained for some few weeks I should have been glad to have known of it sooner or rather to have waited upon your Lordship here in Oxford I have traced the Steps a far off about the Succession and Visibility of the Church wherein your Lordship hath gone a far Journey I do but glean where you have reaped a plentiful Harvest Nevertheless if my poor and weak Labours may any ways stead your Lordship I would be glad to contribute my Pains You ascend as I perceive as far as our St. Aug. of England and not unworthily for if our Records be true not only the Irish as you shew but also our Britains and Scots continued averse and heretical as they are called to the whole World almost till the time of S. Bernard Many Scots and French were orthodox in the substantial Points of Religion long before Waldus I mean P. Waldus for there was another Waldus Orthodox some hundreds of years before P. Waldus in Berengarius's time I have collected as much as I can find in all likely Authors to this purpose as in the Catalogue of Writers and Witnesses of the truth of the last Age of Goulartius Wolfius Rhoanus Balaeus de scriptoribus out of the History of the Waldenses both by Lydius and Camerarius out of Lombard Dr. Powel and others printed out of sundry Manuscripts as Gascoigne Canter Mapes P. de Vineis Becket Sarisburiensis which have been diligently read over by a learned Kinsman of mine who is at this present by my direction writing Becket's Life wherein it shall be plainly shewed both out of his own Writings and those of his time that he was not as he is esteemed an Arch-Saint but an Arch-Rebel and that the Papists have been not a little deceiv'd in him This Kinsman of mine as well as my self shall be right glad to do any Service to your Lordship in this kind He is of strength and well both able and learn'd to effectuate somewhat in this kind critically seen both in Hebrew Greek and Latin knowing well the Languages both French Spanish and Italian immense and beyond all other Men especially in reading of the Manuscripts of an extraordinary style in penning such a one as I dare ballance with any Priest or Jesuit in the World of his Age and such a one as I could wish your Lordship had about you but paupertas inimica bona est moribus and both fatherless and motherless and almost but for my self I may say the more is the pity friendless For my self I am not so far gone in Years as in Sicknesses yet my Body is not so weak but my Mind is as strong and my Zeal great to see somewhat acted against the Papists in matters of Forgery and Corruption which are matters of Fact whereto my Studies have always aim'd and shall during Life if God will I find infinite Corruptions in the Fathers Works especially of the Roman Print in the Canon Law and Decretals I can convince them of shameless Forgeries by the Parchments But that which hath amazed or amused the World and made it turn or continue Popish hath been the want of Censurers of the Fathers Works which made our Magdeburgians and some of our best learn'd to lance the Fathers and not to spare them whereas they are but Pseudo-Fathers indeed But the notedst cozenage which is rife and most beguiling in these days is a secret Index Expurgatorius and therefore the more dangerous that is the reprinting of Books not making mention of any Castigation or Purgation of them and yet both leaving and adding and otherwise infinitely depraving them as is to be seen in hundreds of Books of the middle-Age and later Writers I instance in Sixtus Senensis and Alphonsus de Castro and Antoninus Summes There are about five hundred bastard Treatises and about a thousand places in the true Authors which are corrupted that I have diligently noted and will shortly vindicate them out of the Manuscripts for hitherto they be but the Conjectures of the Learned For this purpose I have gotten together the Flower of our young Divines who voluntarily will joyn with me in the search some fruits of their labours if your Lordship desires I will send up And might I be but so happy as to have other twelve thus bestowed four in transcribing Orthodox Writers whereof we have plenty that for the substantial Points have maintain'd our Religion 40 or 50 l. would serve four to compare old Prints with the new four other to compare the Greek Translations by the Papists as Vedelius hath done with Ignatius wherein he hath been somewhat help'd by my Pains I would not doubt but to drive the Papists out of all their starting-holes But alas my Lord I have not Encouragement from our Bishops Preferment I seek none at their hands only 40 or 60 l. per Annum for others and their Lordships Letters to incourage others is that I seek which being gained the Cause is gained notwithstanding their brags in their late Books And thus craving pardon I rest in humble Service Your Lordship 's in all Duty Tho. James Oxford 28 Jan. 1623. LETTER LXIV A Letter from Mr. William Eyre to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Reverende in Christo Pater Domine mihi mult is nominibus colendissime NUperrime de adventu tuo in Angliam deque morâ per aliquot menses audivi à Ramo nostro quem tamen nondum mihi contigit videre ex quo tecum fuit Londini Solummodo per internuntium me de quibusdam certiorem fecit Gratulor verò tibi tuis nobis etiam omnibus vitam valetudinem tuam qui tam auspicatò foeliciter his funestissimis temporibus illa arma sumsisti quae non carnalia sed
Judgment of the Church of Christ from the beginning of the Gospel unto this day and that of old they were condemned for heretical in the Nazarites But finding that for the present he was not to be wrought upon by any reasoning and that long a dies was the only means to cure him of this Sickness I remembred what course I had heretofore held with another in this Country who was so far ingaged in this Opinion of the calling of the Jews tho not of the revoking of Judaism that he was strongly perswaded he himself should be the Man that should effect this great Work and to this purpose wrote an Hebrew Epistle which I have still in my hands directed to the dispersed Jews To reason the matter with him I found it bootless I advised him therefore that until the Jews did gather themselves together and make choice of him for their Captain he should labour to benefit his Country-men at home with that Skill he had attained unto in the Hebrew Tongue I wished him therefore to give us an exact Translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew Verity which he accordingly undertook and performed The Translation I have still by me but before he had finished that Task his Conceit of the calling of the Jews and his Captainship over them vanished clean away and was never heard of after In like manner I dealt with Mr. Whitehall that forasmuch as he himself acknowledged that the Mosaical Rites were not to be practised unto the general calling of the Jews he might do well I said to let that matter rest till then and in the mean time keep his Opinion to himself and not bring needless Trouble upon himself and others by divulging it out of season And whereas he had intended to write an historical Discourse of the retaining of Judaism under Christianity I counselled him rather to spend his pains in setting down the History of Purgatory or Invocation of Saints or some of the other Points in controversy betwixt the Church of Rome and Us. So far I prevailed with him herein that he intreated me to become a Suitor unto your Lordship in his behalf that the loss of his Living and those other Troubles which he hath already sustained might be accepted for a sufficient Punishment of his former Offence and that he might have the Favour to be restored only unto his Fellowship in Oxford where he would bind himself to forbare intermedling any way with his former Opinions either in publick or in private and spend his time in any other Employment that should be imposed upon him How far it will be fitting to give way unto this motion I wholly leave unto your own grave Consideration Thus much only I have presumed to propound unto your Lordship in discharge of my Promise made unto Mr. Whitehall with whom I could have no long Communication by reason I way presently to begin my Journey for the visitation of the Diocess of Meath Until my return from thence I have stayed the printing of the rest of mine Answer unto the Jesuits Challenge the former part whereof I humbly make bold to present unto your Lordship's view as unto whom above all others I most desire my simple Labours in this kind may be approved And so craving pardon for my boldness in troubling you thus far I rest Your Lordship's in all Christian Duty ready to be commanded Ja. Midensis Dublin Sept. 28. 1621. LETTER LXVIII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath MY Duty remembred unto your Lordship I am much beholden to your Lordship for your last Book which I received before the Act by my good Friend Mr. Calendrine I have punctually perused it and do render unto your Lordship both common and private thanks for the same and expect your Lordship 's of the Britains ancient Religion wherein as I see no difficulty so I would be glad to assist with my Pains if any thing were worthy yet of my Cousin Mr. Rich. Jame's who remembreth himself most dutifully to your Lordship I send a Taste or Essay of what may be done by him I will say no more of him or it but this That I know no Man living more fit to be imployed by your Lordship in this kind than himself his Pains incredible and his Zeal as great and his Judgment in Manuscripts such as I doubt not but your Lordship may use to the great benefit of the Church and ease of your Lordship may there be but some course taken that he may have victum vestitum independant from any one This if he may have from your Lordship or by your Lordships means I know his Deserts and Willingness to deserve well of the Church For my own Business I know not what to say whether to go onward or to stay Guil. de s. Amore is transcribed and wants but the three Books from your Lordship whereof Mr. Calendrine hath given me good hopes Wickleph de Veritate is the better part done I have hitherto laid out the Money but my Purse will hold out no longer to defray the Charges If it would be so that I may receive the Money to recompence their pains I would not doubt before the next Session but to have most of Wickleph's Works transcribed but I fail in the burden and refer all to God's Providence and your Lordship's Direction being not idle in these Businesses And so in haste with my own and my Cousin's Duty to you I end and rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Tho. James Oxon the 27 July 1624. LETTER LXIX A Letter from Thomas Davies to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MAY it please your Lordship to take notice that your Letter of the 24th of January in London came to my hands the 14th of July unto which I have given due perusal and perceiving your Lordship's pleasure thereby omitted no opportunity neither any time but the very day that I received it began to lay out for those Books you writ for The five Books of Moses in the Samaritan Character I have found by a meer accident with the rest of the Old Testament joyned with them but the mischief is there wants two or three leaves of the beginning of Genesis and as many in the Psalms which notwithstanding I purpose to send by this Ship lest I meet not with another yet I have sent to Damascus and if not there to be had to Mount Gerazim so that in time I hope to procure another which shall contain the five Books of Moses perfectly I sent a Messenger on purpose to Mount Libanus and Tripoly for the Old Testament in the Syriack Tongue but he returned without it and brought word that there I might have one after two months but could not have it time enough to send by this Ship The reason why they sent it not was that they wanted Parchment to copy one of the Books and so not being perfect
all Monuments of Antiquity hath emboldned me at this time to put your Lordship in mind of a present occasion which may much conduce to the general good of all of us that employ our Studies in this kind of Learning That famous Library of Giâ—cono Barocci a Gentleman of Venice consisting of 242 Greek Manuscript Volumes is now brought into England by Mr. Fetherstone the Stationer Great pity it were that such a Treasure should be dissipated and the Books dispersed into private hands If by your Lordship's mediation the King's Majesty might be induced to take them into his own hand and add there unto that rare Collection of Arabick Manuscripts which my Lord Duke of Buckingham purchased from the Hens of Erpenius it would make that of his Majestys a Royal Library indeed and make some recompence of that incomparable loss which we have lately sustain'd in the Library of Heidelberg We have 〈◊〉 a poor return unto your Lordship of our Commission in the business of Pbeliâ— Mâ—â— Fâ—â—gh Birr and his Sons And because the directions which we received 〈◊〉 the Lords required the dispatch thereof with all convenient expedition 〈◊〉 we have made more haste I fear than good speed fully purposing in our selves that the examination which 〈…〉 taken should have come unto your 〈…〉 your Lordships Resolutions 〈…〉 have been notified before the beginning of Hilâ—â—y Teâ—m That things have fallen out otherwiseâ— iâ— that I confess wherein we shall be hardly 〈…〉 â—â—â— selves 〈…〉 that this important Business might in such 〈◊〉 be 〈…〉 that the Honour and Dignity of his Majesty 〈…〉 might withal be very tenderly respected for the least shew of 〈…〉 that may 〈…〉 he given from thence 〈◊〉 Authority will add encouragement to such â—â— are too apt to 〈…〉 his Majesty's Ministers here from being so forward as otherwise they would be in prosecution of such publick Services of the State Which I humbly leave unto your Lordship's deeper consideration and evermore rest Your Honour 's in all dutiful Service ready to be commanded Ja. Armachanst Dublin Jan. 22. 1628. LETTER CXXXIV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Have received your Grace's second Letters and with the Letters from Dr. Barlow a Man known to me only by Name and good Report I have upon receipt of these a second time humbly presented Dr. Barlow's Suit to his Majesty with all fair representation to his Majesty of the necessity of a good Commendam to the Arch-bishop of Tuam And tho in my judgment I hold it very unfit and of ill both Example and Consequence in the Church to have a Bishop much more an Arch-bishop retain a Deanery in Commendam Yet because there is as I am informed much service to be done for that Arch-bishop and because I have conceived this Man will do that Service for so he hath assumed and because much of that Service must be done at Dublin where that Deaury will the better fit him as well for House as Charge and because it is no new thing in that Country to hold a Deanry with a Bishoprick I made bold to move his Majesty for it and his Majesty is graciously pleased to grant it and I have already by his Majesty's special Command given order to Sir Hen. Holcross to send Letters to my Lord Deputy to this purpose But there two things his Majesty commanded me to write to your Lordship The one that young Men be not commended to him for Bishops The other that he shall 〈◊〉 be drawn again to grant a Deanry in Commendam Any other Preferment though of more value he shall be content to yield I am glad I have been able to serve your Grace's desires in this Business And for Dr. Barlow I with him joy but must desire your Lordship to excuse my not writing to him for between Parliament and Term I have not lenure So I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest Your Graces loving Friend and Brother Guil. London Jan. 29. 1628. My Lord Arch-bishop of Tak Dr. Barlow's 〈…〉 that was is of my 〈◊〉 for holding a 〈…〉 LETTER CXXXV A Letter from Dr. William Bedell to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Drogheda Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord SInce your Graces departure from Dublin I began to peruse the Papers you left me of Dr. Ghaloner's hand about the first foundation of the Colledg which although in some places I cannot read word for word yet I perceive the sense and have transcribed so far as they go without interruption But they refer to some Copies of Letters which I have not nor yet are in our Chest as namely the City's Letter to Queen Elizabeth and the Lord Deputy and Comisales and hers to the Lord Deputy here for the founding of the Colledg All which if they might be had would be inserted into the History of the Colledg ad Verbum And which is worse the third Duernion is wholly missing noted it seems in the Front with the Figure 3. This makes me bold to write to your Grace to search if you can find any thing more of this Argument that there may be somewhat left to Posterity concerning the beginnings of so good a Work I have also since your Grace's departure drawn a Form of the Confirmation of our Rectories from the Bishop of Clougher in conformity to two Instruments viz. the Resignation of George Montgomery sometime Bishop thereof and Derry and Rapho and our Colledg Patent I have used all the means I can to know whether any Predecessor of your Grace did in like manner resign into the King's Hands any Patronages within your Diocess and what their Names be which if I could understand I would entreat your Grace to go before in your Diocess and to be our Patron in the soliciting the other Bishops to follow in theirs I send your Grace the form of the Confirmation and the Names of the Rectories in our Patent referring the rest to your wisdom and love to the Colledg This is a Business of great importance to this Society and hath already been deferred so long and Mr. Usher's sudden taking away to omit my Lord of Kilmore admonishes me to work while the day lasts Another Business there is which enforceth me to have recourse to your Grace which is this Yesterday as I was following Mr. Usher's Funeral there was delivered me a Letter from my Lord Chancellor containing another to his Lordship from Mr. Lloyd together 〈◊〉 a Note which I send herewith He demandeth of the Colledg not only his Diâ—t in his absence which the Statute expresly denies to a Fellow and which a your Grace and the Visitors intended to grant him you did him a Favour instead of a Punishment but Wages for being a Prime-Lecturer whereas his Year came out at Midsummer and he had till then his Allowance although he performed not the
Privy Counsellor who was present and assistant in all the Consultations about setting it forth and privy to the Resolutions of the Board thereupon But since this is come to my hands from another I do hereby pray and authorize your Lordship calling to your assistance Mr. Justice Philpot who is now resident there to enter into a serious examination of the Premises and to give me a full information of what you find thereof by the first opportunity So desiring to be remembred in your daily Prayers I am Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle Apr. 14. 1629. LETTER CXL A Letter from Mr. Philpot to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord I Have had some Conference with my Lord Deputy about those Matters wherein your Grace and I were lately imployed he telleth me that this day he will advise with the Counsel upon the Informations sent by us and afterwards will take such course therein as shall be thought fit His Lordship insisteth much upon that part of Mr. Sing's Information where he saith That the Titulary Bishop of Rapho did make a Priest at a publick Mass in an Orchard He saith That the said Bishop is as dangerous a Fellow here in Ireland as Smith is in England and that he hath good Bonds upon him and would be glad to this occasion to call him in and therefore I pray your Grace to wish Mr. Sing to be ready to make good his Accusation for the said Bishop is bound not to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction I told my Lord Deputy how careful you were to see him before his going from hence and that your Grace intended to make a journey of purpose hither having now no other business here He told me that if your Grace had any such purpose that you need not make any great haste for he hoped to have time enough before his going to make some good progress in the Business begun concerning the Jesuits and their Houses c. and that he had not his Summons yet to go away which could not come till the Wind turned and if it came then he said he would stay ten days after at the least in which your Grace may have notice time enough to perform your desire I told my Lord that your Grace was somewhat troubled at his Letter for which he was sorry and blamed his Secretary protesting he did not intend to give your Grace any cause of discontent His Lordship told me that the News of Mantua is true which is relieved and the French King returned but there is no certainty but a common report of any Peace concluded with France I shall be ready upon all occasions to do your Lordship any acceptable Service and will for ever remain Your Grace's faithful Servant Jo. Philpot. Dublin April 27. 1629. LETTER CXLI A Letter from the Lord Deputy c. to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our right hearty Commendations to your Lordship BY your Letters of the 6th of this Instant which we the Lord Deputy thought fit to communicate to the Council we perceive and do well approve the care and pains you have taken as well in searching out the truth of the Matter concerning the Titulary Bishop of Raphae as in endeavouring to inform your self of the Proprietors and Possessors of the Popish Conventual-Houses in that Town Touching the Titulary Bishop we rest satisfied by your Lordship 's said Letters that at that time he did no publick Act nor gave Orders to any But as yet remain unsatisfied whether there were any great Assembly of People at that Meeting and what Persons of Note were among them wherein we desire to receive further satisfaction from your Lordship As to their Conventual-Houses we have given his Majesty's Attorney-General a Copy of the Paper enclosed in your Letters to us and gave him direction to put up Informations in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer against the Proprietors and Possessors of those Houses that thereby way may be made to such further course of proceeding as the several Cases shall require And this being all for the present we bid your Lorship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin May 15. 1629. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends H. Falkland A. Loftus Canc. Anth. Midensis Hen. Docwra W. Parsons Tyringham LETTER CXLII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Am glad Mr. Bedell's Preferment gives your Grace such contentment Your former Letter came safe to my hands so did your second I see nothing is so well done but Exceptions can fret it for I hear that which I looked not for concerning Mr. Bedell's Preferment whole Name was never put to the King till both the other Competitors were refused by his Majesty as too young Ardagh is not forgotten in the Letter for since upon receipt of your Lordship's last Letters I spake with Sir Hen. Holcroft about it Beside those of your Lordship's I have received Letters from Mr. Bedell and from the Fellows about their freedom of election of a Provost My Lord his Majesty would fain have a Man to go on where Mr. Bedell leaves I am engaged for none I heartily love Freedoms granted by Charter and would have them maintained If they will return which are come hither and all agree or a major part upon a worthy Man that will serve God and the King I will give them all the assistance I can to keep their Priviledg whole The King likes wondrons well of the Irish Lecture begun by Mr. Bedell and the course of sending such young Men as your Grace mentions I hope before our Committee for the establishment of Ireland end I shall find a time to think of the Remedy your Lordship proposes about scandalous Ministers in which or any other Service I shall not be wanting For the particulars concerning Clark I have your inclosed and if he stir any thing while I am present you shall be sure I will do you right Now my Lord I have answered all your Letter save about the Arch-bishop of Cassa's for the old Dean I have done all I am able for that reverend and well-deserving Gentleman but the King's Majesty hath been possessed another way and it seems upon like removes hereafter will move more than one And at this time he will give Cassils to my Lord of Clougher if he will take it and so go on with another to succeed him of whom he is likewise resolved And who shall be Cassils if my Lord of Clougher refuse There is nothing which the Dean of Cassils can have at this time unless he will with a good commendam be content to take Kilfanora To which tho I do not perswade yet I would receive his Answer And I add it will be a step for him to a better As for Betts the Lord-Elect that was he hath lapsed it by not proceeding to
he understood by me how much you esteemed and loved him he desired me to return his humble Thanks with desire that you would imploy his Service in whatsoever he is able to perform His Majesty has conserr'd on him the Prebend in Canterbury which lately was Dr. Chapman's He is now settling himself in it he saith he hath received a late Advertisement of the Death of Bertius who over-lived his own Credit and Reputation Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour hath long slept under the Press by reason of his long close Imprisonment but now he tells me it shall go forward and he thinks within two Months it will come abroad The War in Italy is like to proceed the French King raiseth a great Army for that Expedition Here was a report that the States had taken Gulick but it holds not for a certain Truth One thing I must not over-pass and that a strange and monstrous Accident lately happened here in England One Dorington a younger Son of Sir William Dorington of Hamp-shire and Grand-Child to that Dorington who brake his Neck from St. Sepulchres Steeple in London being reprehended for some disorderly Courses by his Mother drew his Sword and ran her twice through and afterwards she being dead gave her many Wounds and had slain his Sister at the same time had he not been prevented I presume your Grace hath heard of the Death of Dr. Tho. James his Nephew Mr. Rich. James is fallen into some Trouble by reason of his Familiarity and Inwardness with Sir Robert Cotton I suppose you have the last Catalogue of Francfort which hath nothing of note But I fear I have been over troublesome to your Grace's more serious and weighty Imployments wherefore with the remembrance of my Love and Service I will ever remain Your Grace's most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London December the 4th 1629. LETTER CXLVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Have received two or three Letters from you since I writ you any Answer I hope your Grace is not of opinion that it is either idlenesi or neglect which have made me silent for the plain truth is I fell into a fierce burning Fever August the 14th which held me above three Weeks It was so fierce that my Physicians as well as my Friends gave me for dead and it is a piece of a Miracle that I live I have not yet recovered my wonted Strength and God knows when I shall yet since I was able to go to the Court tho not to wait there I have done as much business as I could and I think as your Grace hath desired of me for the Church of Ireland as your Lordship will see by this brief Account following And first my Lord I have obtain'd of his Majesty the new incorporating of the Dean and Chapter of Derry and I think the Dean is returned At the same time the King was pleased to give order for confirming the Election of Dr. Usher to be Governour of the Colledg in Dublin Thirdly upon the refusal of my Lord of Clougher his Majesty gave in the time of my Sickness the Arch-bishoprick of Cassills to the Bishop of Killally and the Bishoprick of Killally to the Dean of Rapho And whereas your Grace in the close of one of your Letters did acquaint me that there was a fear lest some cunning would be used to beg or buy some Patronages out of the King's Hands I moved his Majesty about that likewise and he made me a gracious promise that he would part with none of them And now my Lord I give your Lordship thanks for the Catalogue of the Bishopricks of Ireland which I heartily desire your Grace to perfect as occasion may be offered you And for the last business as I remember concerning the Table of Tything in Ulster I have carefully look'd it over but by reason I have no experience of those parts I cannot judg clearly of the Business but I am taking the best care I can about it and when I have done I will do my best with his Majesty for Confirmation and leave Mr. Hyegate to report the Particulars to your Grace I have observed that Kilphanora is no fertile Ground it is let lie so long Fallow Hereupon I have adventured to move his Majesty that some one or two good Benefices lying not too far off or any other Church-Preferment without Cure so it be not a Deanery may be not for this time only but for ever annex'd to that Bishoprick The care of managing that Business he refers to your Grace and such good Counsel in the Law as you shall call to your assistance And I pray your Grace think of it seriously and speedily and though I doubt you will find nothing actually void to annex unto it yet if that Act be but once past the hope of that which is annex'd will make some worthy Man venture upon that Pastoral Charge and so soon as you are resolv'd what to do I pray send me word that so I may acquaint his Majesty with it and get pow'r for you to do the Work These are all the Particulars that for the present I can recall out of your Letters sent unto me in the time of my Sickness So with my hearty Prayers for your Health and Happiness and that you may never be parch'd in such a Fire as I have been I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Grace's loving poor Friend and Brother Guil. London London-house Decemb. 7. 1629. LETTER CXLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord I Have received your Grace's Letters concerning Mr. Cook I do acknowledg all that which your Grace writes to be true concerning his sufficiency and experience to the execution of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction neither did I forber to do him right in giving him that Testimony when before the Chapter I did declare and shew the nullity of his Parent I have heard of my Lord of Meathe's attempt and I do believe that if this Patent had due Form I could not overthrow it how unequal soever it be But falling in the essential parts besides sundry other defects I do not think any reasonable Creature can adjudg it to be good I shall more at large certify your Grace of the whole Matter and the reasons of my Counsel herein I shall desire herein to be tried by your Grace's own Judgment and not by your Chancellor's or as I think in such a case I ought to be by the Synod of the Province I have resolved to see the end of this matter and do desire your Grace's savour herein no farther than the equity of the Cause and the Good as far as I can judg of the Church in a high degree do require So with my humble
Cook 's Patent to be void and so judicially declâ—â—ing it I wish you would not be too forward in standing upon that Point To 〈◊〉 in a judicial manner of the validity or invalidity of a Patent in no office of the Ecclesiastical but of the Civil Magistrate and for the one to 〈…〉 the Judiciture of that which appertaineth to another you know draweth near to a 〈…〉 Complaints I know will be made against my Court and your Court and every Court wherein Vice shall be punished and that not by Delinquents alone but also by their Landlords be they Protestants or others who in this Country 〈◊〉 not how their Tenants live so they pay them their Rents I learned of old in Aeschylus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if they 〈…〉 the like Authority will be ready to receive such Accusations against their Brethren every one will judg that there is less cause why they should be pitied when they are served so themselves The way to help this is not to take away the Jurisdiction from the Chancellors and to put it into the Bishops hands alone All Bishops are not like my Lord of Kilmore I know a Bishop in this Land who exerciseth the Jurisdiction himself and I dare boldly say that there is more Unjustice and Oppression to be found in him alone than in all the Chancellors in the whole Kingdom put together and though I do not justify the taking of Fees without good ground yet I may truly say of a great part of mine own and of many other Bishops Diocesses that if Men stood not more in fear of the Fees of the Court than of standing in a white Sheet we should have here among us another Sodom and Gomorrah Your course of taking pains in keeping Courts your self I will commend so that you condemn not them that think they have reason why they should do otherwise As for my self mecum habito and am not ignorant quam sit mihi curta supellex My Chancellor is better skilled in the Law than I am and far better able to manage Matters of that kind Suam quisque norit artem runneth still in my mind and how easy a matter it is for a Bishop that is ignorant in the Law to do wrong unto others and run himself into a Premunire and where Wrong is done I know Right may more easily be had against a Chancellor than against a Bishop If my Chancellor doth Wrong the Star-Chamber lieth open where I will be the Man that will cast the first Stone at him my self as I did for the removing and censuring of him whom I found at my first coming into the Diocess of Meath And as for my late visiting of your Diocesses your Lordship need not a whit be terrified therewith It is not to be expected that an Arch-bishop passing through a whole Province upon a suddain should be able to perform that which a Bishop may do by leasure in his every years Visitation Neither may the Arch-bishop meddle with the Reformation of any thing but what is presented If any such Presentation were made and reformation of the Abuse neglected there is cause to complain of the Visitation But as for the taking of Mony your Lordship will find that when you come next to visit your self there will be great odds betwixt the Sum that ought to be paid unto you and that which was delivered unto me and yet if your Clergy can get but half so much for their Mony from you as they did from me they may say you were the best Bishop that ever came among them When the Clergy of the Diocess of Ardagh was betrayed into the hands of their Adversaries à quibius minime omnium oportuorat and like to be so overborn that many of them could scarce have a bit of Bread lest them to put in their Mouths I stood then in the Gap and opposed my self for them against the whole Country and stayed that Plague In the other Diocess of Kilmore when complaint was made against the Clergy by that Knave whom they say your Lordship did absolve I took him in hand and if the Clergy had not failed in the prosecution would have bound him fast enough without asking any question for Conscience-â—ake whether he were of our Communion or no. And whereas they held their Means as it were by courtesy from the State I took the pains my self to make up the Table of all their Tithes and Duties and at this very instant am working in England to have it firmly established unto them by his Majesty's Authority And yet the Sums of Meâ—â—y which they paid me were not so great but that I could make a shift to spend it in defraying the Charges of the very Journey I am a Fool I know in this commending or defending rather my self but consider who constrained me The Writings which you sent me I had long before from the same hand which sent them unto you I should be glad to hear your judgment of them and would be glad also to go on in further answering of the remain of your Letter but that I am quite tired and what I have written I fear will not be so pleasing unto you What resteth I partly refer to Mr. Dean's Relation and partly to our Conference when we shall next meet where many things may be more fitly delivered by word of mouth than committed to a Letter In the mean time I commend you to the Blessing of our good God and ever rest Your most assured loving Friend and Brother notwithstanding any unkind Passages which may have slip'd from me in this Letter Ja. Armachanus Drogheda Feb. 23. 1629. LETTER CXLIV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Thank your Grace heartily for your Letters especially for the Preface of this your last It is true my Lord God hath restor'd me even from Death it self for I think no Man was farther gone and scap'd And your Grace doth very Christian-like put me in mind that God having renewed my Lease I should pay him an Income of some Service to his Church which I hope in the strength of his Grace I shall ever be willing and sometime able to perform I have not yet recovered the great Weakness into which my Sickness cast me but I hope when the Spring is come forward my strength will encrease and enable me to Service In the mean time my Lord as weak as I have been I have begun to pay my Fine but what the Sum comes to God knows is very little Your Table of the Tithes of Ulster and the Business concerning the Impropriations are both past and concerning both I leave my self to Mr. Hygat's Report As touching the Deanery of Armagh I am glad to hear that any place of Preferment in that Kingdom hath so good means of subsistence without Tithes But I must needs acquaint your Grace that neither my Lord
of Wiâ—chester that now is nor Dr. Lindsell did ever acquaint me with your Grace's purpose of drawing Johannes Gerardus Vossius into those parts had I known it in time the Business might have been easier than now it will be For First Upon an attempt made by the Lord Brook to bring Vossius into England to be a Reader in Cambridg the States allowed him better Maintenance and were unwilling to have him come and himself was not very willing in regard of his Wife and many Children being loth to bring them from all their Kindred and Friends into a strange place And if he were unwilling upon these Grounds to come into England I doubt whether he will venture to Ireland or no. But secondly my Lord since this my Lord Duke in his life-time procured him of his Majesty the Reversion of a Prebend in Canterbury which is since fallen and Vossâ—â—s came over into England in the time of my Infirmity and was installed and I was glad I had the happiness to see him After he had seen both the Universities he return'd home again and within these two days I received a Letter from him of the safety of his return thither The Church of Canterbury notwithstanding his absence â—â—ow him an hundred pounds a Year as they formerly did to Mr. Casaubaâ—â— Now I think the Prebend of Canterbury would he have been Priest and resided upon it would have been as much to him as the Deanery of Armagh But howsoever my Lord the King having given him that Preferment already will hardly be brought to give him another especially considering what I could write unto you were it fit Nevertheless out of my lovâ— to the Work you mention if you can prevail with Vossius to be willing and that it may appear the Deanery of Armagh will be of sufficient Means for him and his numerous Family if your Grace then certify me of it I will venture to speak and do such Offices as shall be fit And now my Lord for your own Business Mr. Archibald Hamilton who it seems by your Grace's Letters is your Agent here hath not as yet been with me but whensoever he shall come he shall be very welcome and I hope your Grace knows I will be very ready to do that Church and you the best Service I can As I had written thus far Mr. Hamilton came to me so that now I shall inform my self as well as I can of your Lordship's Business which he tells me is perpleâ—d by some to whom it was formerly refer'd His Majesty is now going to New-Market so that tâ—â— his return little or nothing can be done but so soon as he comes back I will not be wanting to that part which shall be laid upon me I formerly writ to your Grace about divers Businesses and I have received your Answer to the most of them only to one particular you have answered nothing which makes me think that Letter scarce came safe to your hands It is about the Bishoprick of Kilfanora which is so poor in it self that no Man asks it of the King and his Majesty is graciously pleased that your Lordship would think of some good Parsonage or Vicariâ—g or Donative that might for ever be annex'd unto it And though nothing be now perchance actually void to fit this Purpose yet I conceive the Annexation may be presently made though the Profit arising from the thing come not to the Bishop till it become void I pray your Grace take as much care of this as possibly you can and let me hear from you what may be done This Letter my Lord is a great deal too long but so many Occasions would not suffer it to be shorter I wish you all Health and so leave you to the Grace of God ever resting Your Grace's loving poor Friend and Brother Guil. London Loâ—d House Feb. 23. 1629. LETTER CLV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord THe Superscription of your Grace's Letters was most welcome unto me as bringing under your own Hand the best evidence of the recovery of your Health for which I did and do give hearty thanks unto God For the Contents of them as your Grace conceived they were not so pleasant but the Wounds of a Friend are faithful saith the Wise Man Sure they are no less painful than any other Unkindness cuts nearer to the Heart than Malice can do I have some experience by your Grace's said Letters Concerning which I have been at some debate with my self whether I should answer them with David's Demand What have I now done Or as the Wrongs of Parents with Patience and Silence But Mr. Dean telling me that this day he is going towards you I will speak once come of it what will You writ That the course I took with the Papists was generally cried out against neither do you remember in all your Life that any thing was done here by any of us at which the Professors of the Gospel did take more offence or by which the Adversaries were more confirmed in their Superstitions and Idolatry Wherein you could wish that I had advised with my Brethren before I would adventure to pull down that which they have been so long a building Again what I did you know was done out of a good intention but you were assured that my Project would be so quickly refuted with the present Success and Event that there would be no need my Friends should advise me from building such Castles in the Air c. My Lord all this is a Riddle to me What course I have taken with the Papists What I have done at which the Professors of the Gospel did take such offence or the Adversaries were so confirmed What it is that I have adventured to do or what Piece so long a building I have pulled down what those Projects were and those Castles in the Air so quickly refuted with present success as the Lord knows I know not For truly since I came to this place I have not changed one jot of my Purpose or Practice or Course with Papists from that which I held in England or in Trinity-Colledg or found I thank God any ill Success but the Slanders only of some Persons discontented against me for other Occasions Against which I cannot hope to justify my self if your Grace will give ear to private Informations But let me know I will not say my Accuser let him continue mask'd till God discover him but my Transgression and have place of Defence and if mine Adversary write a Book against me I will hope to bear it on my Shoulder and bind it to me as a Crown For my recusation of your Court and advertisement what I heard thereof I see they have stirred not only Laughter but some Coals too Your Chancellor desires me to acquit him to you that he is none of those Officers
I meant I do it very willingly for I never meant him nor any Man else but thought it concerned your Grace to know what I credibly heard to be spoken concerning your Court Neither as God knows did I ever think it was fit to take away the Jurisdiction from Chancellors and put it into the Bishops Hands alone or so much as in a Dream condemn those that think they have reason to do otherwise nor tax your Grace's Visitation nor imagine you would account that to pertain to your Reproof and take it as a Wrong from me which out of my Duty to God and you I thought was not to be concealed from you I beseech you pardon me this one Error Si unquam posthac For that Knave whom as your Grace writes they say I did absolve I took him for one of my Flock or rather Christ's for whom he shed his Blood And I would have absolved Julian the Apostata under the same form Some other Passages there be in your Grace's Letters which I But I will lay mine Hand upon mine Mouth And craving the blessing of your Prayers ever remain Your Grace's poor Brother and humble Servant Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore March 29. 1630. LETTER CLVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Lords Justices My most Honoured Lords I Received a Letter from your Lordships without any Date wherein I am required to declare what Motives I can alleadg for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent Whereunto I answer That I cannot nor need not produce any other reason than that which I have done and for the maintenance of the sufficiency whereof I will adventure all I am worth namely that for the Particular now in question Sir John Bathe's Letter hath been gotten from his Majesty by meer surreption and therefore no Patent ought to be passed thereupon For although I easily grant that my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer might certify unto his Majesty that there was no other thing left to be passed here but Impropriations though Sir John Bathe I think hath found already somewhat else to be passed in his Book and may do more if he will not be so hasty but take time to enquire Yet how doth it appear that either of these two noble Gentlemen did as much as know that his Majesty had taken a former Order for the settlement of these things upon the Church To which Resolution had they been privy I do so presume of their Nobleness and care of the Publick Good that the remittal of a Matter of two thousand pounds would not induce them to divert his Majesty from making good that precious Donation which by the Example of his Father of never-dying memory he had solemnly devoted to God and his Church such an eximious Act of Piety as is not to be countervalued with two or twenty thousand pounds of any earthly Treasure But whatsoever they knew or knew not of his Majesty's own pious Resolution and constant Purpose never to revoke that which he hath once given unto God I rest so confident as I dare pawn my Life upon it that when he did sign those Letters of Sir John Bathe's he had not the least intimation given unto him that this did any way cross that former Gift which he made unto the Church upon so great and mature deliberation as being grounded upon the Advice first of the Commissioners sent into Ireland then of the Lords of the Council upon their report in England thirdly of King James that ever blessed Father of the Church and lastly of the Commissioners for Irish Affairs unto whom for the last debating and conclusion of this business I was by his now Majesty referr'd my self at my being in England I know Sir John and his Counsel do take notice of all those Reasons that may seem to make any way for themselves But your Lordships may do well to consider that such Letters as these have come before now wherein Rectories have been expresly named and those general Non obstantes also put which are usual in this kind and yet notwithstanding all this his Majesty intimateth unto you in his last Letters that he will take a time to examine those Proceedings and punish those that then had so little regard to the particular and direct expression of his Royal Pleasure for the disposing of the Impropriations to the general benefit of the Church Which whether it carrieth not with it a powerful Non obstante to that surreptious Grant now in question I hold it more safe for your Lordships to take Advice among your selves than from any other bodies Counsel who think it their Duty to speak any thing for their Clients Fee As for the want of Attestation wherewith the credit of the Copy of a Letter transmitted unto you is laboured to be impaired If the Testimony of my Lord of London who procured it and the Bishop Elect of Kilfennora who is the bringer of it and of a Dean and an Arch-Deacon now in Ireland who themselves saw it will not suffice it will not be many days in all likelihood before the Original it self shall be presented to your Lordships In the mean time I desire and more than desire if I may presume to go so far that your Lordships will stay your hands from passing Sir John Bathe's Patent until my Lord of London himself shall signifie his Majesties further Pleasure unto you in this Particular And it my Zeal hath carried me any way further than Duty would require I beseech your Lordships to consider that I deal in a Cause that highly concerneth the good of the Church unto which I profess I owe my whole self and therefore craving Pardon for this my Boldness I humbly take leave and rest still to continue Your Lordships in all dutiful Observance J. A. Droghedah April the 3d 1630. Instructions given to Mr. Dean Lesly April 5. 1630. for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent 1. YOU are to inform your self whether Sir John Bathe's Patent be already sealed and if it be whether it were done before Saturday which was the day wherein I received and answered the Lords Justices Letters touching this business and at which time they signified the Patent was as yet unpast and use all speedy means that the Patent may not be delivered into Sir John Bathes hands before you be heard to speak what you can against it and if that also be done I authorize you to signifie unto the Lords Justices that I must and will complain against them to his Sacred Majesty 2. You are to go unto Sir James Ware the younger from me and enquire of him whether he gave any Certificate unto my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the King had not of Temporal Lands the annual Rent of 300 l. to grant in reversion but that of necessity must be supplied with the Grant of the reversion of Tithes impropriate And withal learn
Treatise de tribus Symbolis as any thing else which cometh from your learned Pen be pleased I pray you so soon as it is printed to send it unto my Son-in-law Mr. John Attwood Counsellor at Law in Grays-Inn who will speedily hasten it unto me unto whom likewise I intreat your Lordship to deliver the Key of my Study lest when I come to Town I should miss of it if your Lordship go into the Country Thus with remembrance of my ever bounden Respects I take my leave remaining as ever Your Lordships truly devoted Friend and Servant Pat. Young Broomefield the 25th of June 1647. LETTER CCXX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to D. Fredericus Spanhemius Admodum Reverendo in Christo Fratri D. Frederico Spanhemio Academiae Lugduno-Batavae pro tempore Rectori dignissimo Leydam ET tuam de gratiâ disputationem uberrimam funebrem Aransicani Principis laudationem accepi Spanhemi Charissime atque in utraque tum ingenii acumen tum facundiam singularem perspexi admiratus sum Quas tamen dotes in priore argumento adversus communes Gratiae adversarios intendendas multò magis optavissem quà m adversus amicos idem bellum adversus Pelagianos Semipelagianos nobiscum professos licet in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumstantiis quibusdam nonnihil dissidentes de quâ controversiâ quaenam moderatiorum apud nos Theologorum fuerat sententia ex inclusâ doctissimi Davenantii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schedulâ poteris cognoscere Pro amplioribus vero donariis illis tuis de Symbolis dissertatiunculam meam tibi remitto munus sanè levidense sed quod tu ex mittentis affectu aestimabis si tanti videbitur D. Salmasio D. Heinsio Jo. Latio ac D. Riveto quoque si commode poteris communicabis plurimam illis salutem verbis meis nunciabis Tuus in Christo Frater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 J. U. A. Scripsi Lundini xiv Kal. Sextilis Juliani Anno M. DC XLVII LETTER CCXXI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Johannes Gerardus Vossius Viro Clarissimo Johanni Gerardo Vossio Historiarum apud Amstelodamenses Professori celeberrimo Vir Eximie QUod post acceptos eruditissimos tuos de Diis Gentium Commentarios qui in Mythici Temporis Chronico quod ante multos Annos congesseram recognoscendo mihi magno fuerant usui nihil hactenus ad te rescripserim etsi culpâ liberare me nequeam excusationem tamen asserere possum aliquam non justam illam quidem sed quam humanitati tuae aliquantulùm probari posse non diffidam Subitò incendio tempore illo correpta est nostra Hibernia quod nedum deflagravit sed serpit quotidiè potiùs adaugescit In eo praeter calamitatem publicam Religionis Reformatae Professorum lanienam post homines natos immanissimam crudelissimam externis istis bonis quae appellantur exutus sum omnibus solâ Bibliothecâ è flammis illis ereptâ à quâ ipsâ tamen ad hunc usque diem etiam exulo Exceperunt enim me deinde novi in Angliâ furores qui me Oxonio in Cambriam depulerunt ubi per integrum XVIII Septimanarum spatium gravissimo afflictus morbo aegerrimè tandem ex ipsis quodammodo sepulchri faucibus summâ Dei Misericordiâ sum revocatus Quomodò Londini posteà acceptus fuerim commemorare non libet Neque priorum illorum malorum omnino meminissem nisi ut inde intelligeretur quae animum meum necessitas à literarum literatorum omnium consortio hucusque penè alienaverit Ubi vero primum colligere me caepi ut illam neglecti in te colendo officii culpam aliquo pacto expiarem brevem hanc de Symbolis notissimâ tibi materiâ dissertationem tuo nomini inscribere visum fuit in quâ quia deinceps te alloquor hic finio totus tuus maneo De Mariano Scoto edendo nùm omnem cogitationem abjeceris admodum scire aveo J. U. A. Londini xiii Kalend. Augusti Anno M. DC XLVII LETTER CCXXII A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Barlow now Bishop of Lincoln to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Did receive by the hands of Mr. Tozer your Grace's Tract de Symbolis for which great Honour done unto me this piece of Paper comes to return my most humble and hearty Thanks I confess I have ever been inquisitive after your Grace's Writings and thought my self happy when I had found them for I was never deceived in my Expectation but ever found old Orthodox Truth maintained upon just and carrying Grounds which elsewhere I have often sought but seldom found I wish Vossius in putting out and composing his Tract de tribus Symbolis had used the same Judgment and Diligence your Grace hath done in this For tho your Grace be pleased to give that Tract of his a civil Commendation yet 't is undeniably the most indigested thing that ever Vossius put out And here well knowing your Lordship's unparallell'd Skill in Antiquity and your Candor and Willingness to communicate your Knowledg to the Benfit of others I shall take the boldness humbly to desire your Grace's Opinion concerning the 13 Can. of the Council of Ancyra the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find no various reading in any Greek Copies Balsamon Zonaras Tilius Justellus c. all agreeing only Salmasius Apparatu ad lib. de Primatu pag. 78. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it seems Dionysius Exiguus reads it so too The Latin Translations make it quite another thing than the Greek imports as your Lordship may see by those two Translations in Grabb followed by the rest and that of Justellus in his Codex Can. Ecclesiae Universae pag. 2. which runs thus Chorepiscopis non licere Presbyteros vel Diaconos ordinare Sed nec Presbyteris Civitatis sine literis Episcopi in alienâ Parochià aliquid agere Where Justellus adds these two last words Aliquid agere as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or some such thing were in the Greek which I find not I confess Fulg. Ferrandus in Breviat Cano. Can. 92. reads it as Justellus Ut Presbyteri Givitatis sine jussu Episcopi nihil jubeant nec in unaquaque Parochiâ aliquid agant tho the Greek is otherwise and the old Latin Translation vid. Cod. Can. veterem Ecclesiae Romanae Mogunt 1525. postea Par. 1609. agrees exactly with the Greek So then the sense of the Can. seems to be this That the Chorepiscopi and Presbyteri civitatis may not ordain Priests or Deacons without Commission from the Bishop but with it they may Here first I shall make no question but the Chorepiscopi might ordain with Licence first had from the Bishop for tho it hath been the general opinion of the World that the Chorepiscopi were only Simplices Presbyteri
assignata fuerunt ut haeserit istis temporibus circa priores partes Geminorum Perspicuum est jgitur quâ ratione quaestio de Solaris apogaei motu huc pertineat quòd Cydo meo LXX annorum nullus detâ—r 〈◊〉 Superest ut coâ—â—odior quoque ostendatur isto 33 annorum Nam per 〈…〉 tempora per quam oportunum est nec infrequens Divinis Oraculiâ— quae non solum exitum Israëlitarum aetatibus sed aetatem hominis LXX annis LXX annis sabbathum terrae sanctae totidem annorum hebdomadibus Unctionem Messiae praesiniuint Proinde quemadmodum Hebraeorum Jubilaei septies septenis annis distinguebantur ita nostra aetas spetuagenis Cyclus seriarum septies septuagenis annis absolvitur Imò si Matthaeus Evangelista praecipuas mundi aetates generationibus distinguit atque in eo septenarium numerum affectat licebit nobis mundana tempora aetatibus metiri septenarium sacrum sponte oblatum amplecti qui Naturae humanae familiaris est adeò ut non solùm integram nostram aetatem coronet sed in partes digestam insuper Climactericis insigniat Deinde promtum facile est cuilibet in Arithmeticis leviter versato progressionem septuagenarii numeri memoriter continuare quo in 33 annorum periodo vix procedat quemadmodum distributio cujus bet annorum summae multò facilior est in Hebdomecontaëteridas quà m in Triacontatrieteridas nam aequè facile est multiplicare vel dividere per 70 atque per 7 nec minus facile per 7 atque per 4 quare operandi facilitate Cyelus 7 orius vix cedit ipsi quatuor annorum periodo Ac licet ex 33 37 annorum Cyclis componatur meus LXX annorum hujus tamen utpote rotundi observatio commodior accidit imaginationi quae naturaliter non acquiescit prius quà m imparem numerum multiplicando ad rotunditatem perduxerit Postremò quanquam periodus feriarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sequitur ultrò Cyclum LXX annorum etiamsi nemo illud curet adeòque nullam prolixitudine suâ difficultatem parit tamen absque hoc foret periodus septem aetatum non tantùm aequè facilè sed commodius etiam sive per literas conservatur sive traditione propogatur atque ista 231 annorum quâ videlicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque ideo corruptioni vel abolitioni minus oportuna est Hisee o decus ingens Anglae velificari in praesens debui sublimi tuo favori quo ut porro adspirare meis studiis digneris supplex oro Reverendissimi atque Illustrissimi Domini mei devotus cultor Nicolaus Mercater Hasniae Martii 4 14. 1653 4. LETTER CCXCI. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Henricus Valesius Viro Doctissimo D. Henrico Valesio Lutetiam Parisiorum Vir Clarissimo MItto ad te non Eufebium solum sed caeteros quoque Ecclesiastieae Historiae Scriptores à D. Henrico Savilio cum Manuscripto suo codice quem in bombycinâ papyro descriptum publicae Oxoniensis Academiae Bibliothecae donavit diligenter collatos Ubi lacunas in libris de vita Constanti suppletas invenies Plura ad te scribere volentem caligantes oculi prohibent Hoc tamen supprimere non valentem Seldenum nostrum jam septuagenarium Pridie Kalendas Decembris Julianas magno nostro cum luctu ex hac vitâ decessisse Te vero ad Reipublicae literariae bonum diu velit Deus esse superstitem quod ex animo exoptat Studiorum tuorum Fautor Summus Ja. Usserius Armachanus Lond. xiii Kalend. Januar. Anno Christi 1654. Stylo vetere LETTER CCXCII A Letter from the Right Reverend Jos. Hall Bishop of Norwich to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and Honourable WIth never enow thanks for this precious Gift which I receive from your Grace's Hand I have with no small eagerness and delight turned over these your learned and accurate Annals wondring not a little at that your indefatigable Labour which you have bestowed upon a Work fetch'd together out of such a World of Monuments of Antiquity whereby your Grace hath better merited the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than those on whom it was formerly imposed But in looking over this admirable Pile of History my curiosity cast me upon the search of two over-famous Persons Simon Magus and Apòllonius Tyanaeus the particularities of whose Story seems so much to be concerned in the disquisition of that Antichrist lately set on foot by Grotius and Dr. Hammond I had hoped to have found a just account both of their Times and their Actions and Events in this your compleat Collection Which missing of I have taken the boldness to give this touch of it to your Grace as being desirous to know Whether you thought good to omit it upon the opinion of the invalidity of those Records which mention the Acts and Issue of those two great Juglers or whether you have pleased to reserve them for some further opportunity of Relation Howsoever certainly my Lord it would give great satisfaction to many and amongst them to my self if by your accurate search I might understand whether the Chronology of Simon Magus his Prodigies and affectation of Deity may well stand with St. Paul's Prediction of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as following it in time after the writing of that second Epistle to the Thessalonians I must confess if the Times may accord there may seem to be some probability in casting Antichrist upon an Age not so far remote from the Apostolick as hath been commonly reputed since the Apostle speaks of it as a thing so near hand that the ordinary Christians of Thessalonica were well acquainted with the bar of his Revelation I beseech your Grace to pardon this bold importunity of him who out of the consciousness of his deep devotion to you and his dependence upon your oracular Sentence in doubts of this Nature have presumed thus to interrupt your higher Thoughts In the desire and hope whereof I humbly take leave and profess my self Your Grace's in all Christian Observance and fervent Devotion Jos. Norvic Higham May 1 1654. LETTER CCXCIII A Letter from the Right Reverend J. Bramhall Bishop of Derry afterward Primate of Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend I Thank God I do take my Pilgrimage patiently yet I cannot but condole the Change of the Church and state of England And more in my Pilgrimage than ever because I dare not witness and declare to that straying Flock of our Brethren in England who have misled them and who they are that feed them But that your Lordship may be more sensible of the Churches Calamities and of the Dangers she is in of being ruin'd if God be not mercifull unto Her I have sent you a part of my Discoveries and it from credible hands at this present having so sure a Messenger and so fit
characterum mutationem longe antea factam somniet Morinus Cloaca quo magis agitatur eo Mephitin exhalat magis Morinus Samaritanis antiquis Samaritanior etiam evasit Illi enim teste Eulogio Jesum filium Nave Prophetam praedictum Mosi similem futurum profitebantur Librum ejus pro Canonico certò habuere qui hanc illi gloriam tribuebant At hunc librum nobis eripuit cùm aliis prophetiis Dositheus Morini antecessor Det nobis Morinus charactere Samaritano scriptos Prophetarum libros aut fateatur se plures scripturae sacrae codices quam dederit abstulisse Sed nec ferendum est hominem Christianum Samaritanos Dei hostes Judaeis Dei populo in libris sacris tuendis anteferre Praecipuè cum constet Prophetas fuisse post commentitiam characterum mutationem in populo Judaico in Samaritano nullos Cur non ergo Samaritana Biblia nobis reliquere Prophetae Cur de tanta mutatione silent Cur apud Haereticos sepulta Biblia in lucem Spiritu Divino eos illustrante non producunt Ut taceam Morini in Sacris Literis tractandis magistralitatem qui eodem jure in his quo Sorbona in aliis censurâ afficiendis utitur Hoc placet illud displicet quandoque Samaritanus codex quandoque Latinus Graecus semper nunquam illi Hebraicus approbatur Si prout meritus est verbis asperioribus nonnunquam castigetur Morinus nemo nobis vitio vertat neque enim cum Haeretico aliquo res est qui articulum fidei unum aut alterum negat aut textum peculiarem aliter quà m veritas posuit interpretatur sed cum eo qui fontes sacros in universum abripit pro Deo Israelis falsi Messiae adulteria nobis obtrudit Nec ignorantiam nobis objiciat quis quòd Jesuitam eum appellemus Indignaretur sat scio Morinus si Congregationis Oratoriae Iesu Christi Presbyterum titulo isto non dignaremur Liber certè totus Jesuiticum spiritum frontem perfrictam Societati illi familiarem nimis prodit Si quid sit quod ulteriorem disquisitionem requirat totum illud si respondere Morino visum fuerit in replicatione fusiùs tractabitur Prelo aliàs impraesentiarum vacante oblata vulgandi opportunitas festinationem operis urgebat Haec interim habui quae tibi dummodo id placeat quod pro singulari tua tum pietate tum candore nullus ambigo in perpetuum erga Dominationem tuam studii observantiae meae monumentum dedicarem Deus verbi sui majestatem contra omnes impiorum latratus potenter ipse tueatur per totum orbem indiès ampliùs diffundat Te verò Hibernae gentis ornamentum in Christianae Religionis emolumentum diutissimè in terris florentem conservare tandemque sero tamen in gloriam sempiternam recipere dignetur Claphamae Calend. April 1635. Reverendissimae Dominationi tuae addictissimus Franciscus Tailerus LETTER CLXXXIV A Letter from the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Thank you heartily for your Letters and am as heartily glad that your Parliament and Convocation are so happily ended especially for the Church and that both for the particular of your letting Leases which is for Maintenance and for the quiet and well-ordering and ending of your Book of Canons I hope now the Church of Ireland will begin to flourish again and that both with inward Sufficiency and outward Means to support it And for your Canons to speak Truth and with wonted liberty and freedom though I cannot but think the English Canons entire especially with some few amendments would have done betterly yet since you and that Church have thought otherwise I do very easily submit to it and you shall have my Prayers that God would bless it As for the Particular about Subscription I think you have couched that well since as it seems there was some necessity to carry that Article closely And God forbid you should upon any occasion have rouled back upon your former Controversy about the Articles For if you should have risen from this Convocation in heat God knows when or how that Church would have cooled again had the cause of Difference been never so slight By which means the Romanist which is too strong a Party already would both have strengthned and made a scorn of you And therefore ye are much bound to God that in this nice and picked Age you have ended all things canonically and yet in peace And I hope you will be all careful to continue and maintain that which God hath thus mercifully bestowed upon you Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother W. Cant. Lambeth May 10. 1635. LETTER CLXXXV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Good Doctor I Have been almost tired with continual attendance on out long continued Parliament and Convocation which being done they would needs impose upon me also the moderating of the Divinity Act and the creating of the Doctors at our last Commencement I am now at last retired from Dublin to my old Place where I begin at length Redire in gratiam cum veteribus Amicis I send you herewith Harrys his Book against the Friars and our New Canons The Articles of Religion agreed upon in our former Synod Anno 1615 we let stand as they did before But for the manifesting of our Agreement with the Church of England we have received and approved your Articles also concluded in the Year 1562 as you may see in the first of our Canons But while we strive here to maintain the Purity of our ancient Truth how cometh it to pass that you in Cambridg do cast such stumbling-blocks in our way by publishing unto the World such rotten Stuff as Shelford hath vented in his five Discourses wherein he hath so carried himself ut Famosi Perni amanuensem possis agnoscere The Jesuits of England sent over the Book hither to confirm our Papists in their obstinacy and to assure them that we are now coming home unto them as fast as we can I pray God this Sin be not deeply laid to their charge who give an occasion to our blind thus to stumble I thank you most heartily for communicating my Lord of Salisbury's Lectures unto me they are excellent learnedly foundly and perspicuously performed and I hope will do much good here for the establishing of our young Divines in the present Truth Will you not make us as much beholden unto you for your own Lectures upon the other Questions You may not think that the same accurateness is expected in the Writings which you privately communicate unto your Friends as in that which you are to commit unto the Press after you have added supremam manum thereunto Neither were it amiss that you should make a Collection of all your Determinations as you see the Bishop of Salisbury hath done and cause your Lectures of the Eucharist to
be transcribed and left in a safe hand that it may not as I have heretofore warned you periclitari in unico exemplari Of these particulars I desire to hear your Resolutions in your next Letters and in the mean time recommend you and your godly Labours unto God's good Blessing evermore resting Your most assured loving Brother Ja. Armachanus Drogheda Sept. 15. 1635. LETTER CLXXXVI A Letter from the Learned Ludovicus de Dieu to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Amplissime Celsissim◠Doctrina juxta ac Pietate excultissime Vir PAulo minus est Biennio quod literis meis amplissimam tuam Dignitatem salutavi additis etiam meis in Acta Apostolorum observatiunculis quas amplissimo tuo nomini etsi tanto honore non dignas inscripseram Nihil exinde literarum ab amplissima tua dignitate videre contigit Interceptas itaque in itinere aut meas aut tuas aut utrasque fortasse suspi cor Interim saeva nos hic exercuit pestis quae una semel hebdomade ad mille quingentos anno integro ad viginti hominum millia prostravit Deserta erat Academia abrupta commercia urbs horrori omnibus tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulgiebant quibus fugere dabatur nos quibus non tantum fugere per munus licebat sed trepidantibus animum addere cum morte luctantes solari ac corroborare oportebat sanis aegris operam navavimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec defuit nobis benigna eius clementia qui nos in mediis quotidie ver santes ignibus ita est tutatus ut cum universa familia incolumis hactenus evaserim Et ut ut nondum penitus extinctum sit contagium ita tamen deferbuit ut jam per septimanas aliquot defunctorum unius septimanae numerus tricenarium vix excedat Viget rursus Academia vigent commercia refulgescit pristinus Urbis splendor nec quicquam restat nisi ut revirescat quoque vera pietas conemur omnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod ut largiatur nobis qui vitam hactenus produxit 〈◊〉 votis contendimus Ne autem Vir maxime labores nostros literarios apud Dignitatem tuam dissimulemus inciderat quum jam pestis grassari coepisset in manus nostras Historia quaedam Evangelica ex quatour Evangelistis Persico idiomate ab Hieronvmo Xaverio Jesnita ad Mogolense Regnum propagandae Rel. Christ gratia Anno 1595 ablegato isthis contexta Regi Acabaro Anno hujus seculi secundo dicata atque oblata In qua quum mala fide actum suspicarer quid enim ab istiusmodi Antichristi mancipiis exspectari possit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opera dedi ut lecta primum ex Pentateucho Persico Constantinopoli olim impresso Genesi Xaverii librum aggrederer Nec efficere potuit saeva lues quin legerim in Latinum Sermonem converterim confectòque Dictionariolo bis jam versiones meas reviderim emendaverim prolixaque praefatione peregrinas Historias fabulas ineptias audacias quibus scatet excerpserim perstrinxerim Librum Arabico titulo inscripsit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Speculum Sanctitatis Ac in Praefatione ad Regem alium etiam librum promittit jam tum fere ad umbilicum perductum cui nomen sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est speculum monstrans veritatem in quo quae in Christ. Rel. difficilia sunt credenda nos videntur sit enodaturus propagatione Evangelii per Apostolos fusè enarraturus Quem librum jam innotuisse didicimus ex Gallo quodam Pierre Bergeron dicto qui libri sui Relacion des Voyages en Tartarie indigetati Lutetiae ante Biennium editum tractatu de Saracenis pag. 63. narrat Persam quendam Ahmed ben Sin dictum adversus librum cujusdam Jesuitae cui titulus est speculum veritatem monstrans scripsisse librum cui titulus sit Politor speculi in quo Mahometismum adversus Christianam Religionem tuetur hunc autem refutasse Franciscanum Patrem Gadagnol libro Romae impresso An. 1631. Quos omnes ut nobis comparemus operam damus Incitavit ad haec quem ab aliquot annis familiarem habui Joh. Eligmannus Silesius Chymicus incomparabilis medicus eximius de nostra Urbe durante hac lue optimè meritus plurimarum Linguarum inter eas Arabicae ac Persicae bene peritus quem magno mihi in hoc opere adjumento fuisse fateor Et vide hîc singularem quandam Dei Providentiam Dum enim haec scribo idem ille Amstelodamo quò ante quatriduum concesserat jam jam redux novum Xaverii librum Persicum se mihi adferre ait à se jam dum Amstelodami fuit lectum quo vita Apostoli Petri tum ex sacris tum aliunude desumta comprehendatur Prurit jam mihi animus ut hunc priori addam utrumque simul Persicè ac Latinè edam additurus etiam suo tempore speculum veritatem momstrans speculi Politorem si haberi unquam à nobis possint Deusque vitam otium largiatur Ut autem ad praefatum amicum meum D. Eligmannum redeam nos minus sibi quà m mihi opportune nunc advênit qui enim laetum quod dixi nuncius mihi attulit idem laetus accepit esse me in exarandis ad amplissimam tuam Dignitatem literis Postquam enim singulari tua pietate universali eruditione inaudivit quomodo non inaudiisset qui familiarissimus nobis est vere intimus non potuit utpote doctorum omnium amantissimus Antiquitatum praesertim curiosissimus humillima sua officia Dignitatis tuae per me nos offerre simùlque inquirere deturne ulla Lexici Irlandico-Latini aut Latino-Irlandici habendi copia Quum enim praeter Cebetis Tabulam quam ex Arabico longè locupletiore nobis brevi est daturus atque habuimus hactenus praeter etiam Persicam Chronologiam quam ex praeclaro Authore Persa cum Annotationibus suis paret coeperit paulatim Linguam Germanicam per omnes ejus Dialectos Latinam item Graecam cum Persica conferre quippe quae cum istis praesertim cum Germanica nostrâque Belgica ingentem quod experti loquimur affinitatem habeat Irlandicae quoque Genium explorare cupit si haec fortassis propius caeteris ad eam accedat Non gravabitur spero Dignitatem tuam verbulo monere num quid Irlandicè exstet quod in usum ejus facere possit qua via comparari queat Impensae ut per Amplissimum Dominum Boswellium restituantur curabimus Perlegit jamdudum Epistolas tuas Hybernicas quaeque ibi recurrunt nomina propria spem faciunt deprehensum istic iri quod in Germanica deprehendit Juvat certe experiri quid nobis Europaeis cum remotis illis Asiaticis affine sit Publica jam hîc gaudia faciunt campanarum tinnitus facturi sub vesperam laeti ignes per