of the Church and owe it a protection and therefore God forbid that You should be so much as Passive in her Ruines when You may prevent it or that I should behold it without horrour and detestation or should forbear to tell Your Majesty of the sin and danger of Sacriledge And though You and my self were born in an Age of Frailties when the primitive piety and care of the Churches Lands and Immunities are much decayed yet Madam let me beg that you would first consider that there are such sins as Prophaneness and Sacriledge and that if there were not they could not have names in Holy Writ and particularly in the New Testament And I beseech You to consider that though our Saviour said He judged no man and to testifie it would not judge nor divide the inheritance betwixt the two Brethren nor would judge the Woman taken in Adultery yet in this point of the Churches Rights he was so zealous that he made himself both the Accuser and the Judge and the Executioner too to punish these sins witnessed in that he himself made the Whip to drive the Prophaners out of the Temple overthrew the Tables of the Money-changers and drove them out of it And consider that it was St. Paul that said to those Christians of his time that were offended with Idolatry yet committed Sacriledge Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Supposing I think Sacriledge the greater sin This may occasion Your Majesty to consider that there is such a sin as Sacriledg and to incline You to prevent the Curse that will follow it I beseech You also to consider that Constantine the first Christian Emperour and Helena his Mother that King Edgar and Edward the Confessor and indeed many others of Your Predecessors and many private Christians have also given to God and to his Church much Land and many Immunities which they might have given to those of their own Families and did not but gave them as an absolute Right and Sacrifice to God And with these Immunities and Lands they have entail'd a Curse upon the Alienators of them God prevent Your Majesty from being liable to that Curse And to make You that are trusted with their preservation the better to understand the danger of it I beseech You forget not that besides these Curses the Churches Land and Power have been also endeavoured to be preserved as far as Humane Reason and the Law of this Nation have been able to preserve them by an immediate and most sacred Obligation on the Consciences of the Princes of this Realm For they that consult Magna Charta shall find that as all Your Predecessors were at their Coronation so You also were sworn before all the Nobility and Bishops then present and in the presence of God and in his stead to him that anointed You To maintain the Church-lands and the Rights belonging to it and this testified openly at the holy Altar by laying Your hands on the Bible then lying upon it And not only Magna Charta but many modern Statutes have denounced a Curse upon those that break Magna Charta A Curse like the Leprosie that was intail'd on the Jews for as that so these Curses have and will cleave to the very stones of those buildings that have been consecrated to God and the fathers sin of Sacriledge will prove to be intail'd on his Son and Family And now what account can be given for the breach of this Oath at the last great day either by Your Majesty or by me if it be wilfully or but negligently violated I know not And therefore good Madam let not the late Lords Exceptions against the failings of some few Clergy-men prevail with You to punish Posterity for the Errors of this present Age let particular men suffer for their particular Errors but let God and his Church have their right And though I pretend not to Prophesie yet I beg Posterity to take notice of what is already become visible in many Families That Church-land added to an ancient Inheritance hath proved like a Moth fretting a Garment and secretly consumed both Or like the Eagle that stole a coal from the Altar and thereby set her Nest on fire which consumed both her young Eagles and her self that stole it And though I shall forbear to speak reproachfully of Your Father yet I beg You to take notice that a part of the Churches Rights added to the vast Treasure left him by his Father hath been conceived to bring an unavoidable Consumption upon both notwithstanding all his diligence to preserve them And consider that after the violation of those Laws to which he had sworn in Magna Charta God did so far deny him his restraining Grace that as King Saul after he was forsaken of God fell from one sin to another so he till at last he fell into greater sins than I am willing to mention Madam Religion is the Foundation and Cement of humane Societies and when they that serve at Gods Altar shall be exposed to Poverty then Religion it self will be exposed to scorn and become contemptible as You may already observe in too many poor Vicaridges in this Nation And therefore as You are by a late Act or Acts of Parliament entrusted with a great power to preserve or waste the Churches Lands yet dispose of them for Jesus sake as the Donoâ—s intended let neither Falshood nor Flattery beguile You to do otherwise but put a stop to Gods and the Levites portion I beseech You and to the approaching Ruines of his Church as You expect comfort at the great day for Kings must be judged Pardon this affectionate plainness my most dear Soveraign and let me beg still to be continued in Your favour and the Lord still continue You in his The Queens patient hearing this affectionate Speâ—â— and her future Care to preserve the Churches Rights which till then had been neglected may appear a fair Testimony that he made hers and the Churches Good the chiefest of his Cares and that she also thought so And of this there were such daily testimonies given as begot betwixt them so mutual a joy and confidence that they seemed born to believe and do good to each other she not doubting his Piety to be more than all his Opposers which were many nor his Prudence equal to the chiefest of her Council who were then as remarkable for active Wisdome as those dangerous Times did require or this Nation did ever enjoy And in this condition he continued twenty years in which time he saw some Flowings but many more Ebbings of her Favour towards all men that opposed him especially the Earl of Leicester so that God seemed still to keep him in her Favour that he might preserve the remaining Church Lands and Immunities from Sacrilegious Alienations And this Good man deserved all the Honour and Power with which she trusted him for he was a pious man and naturally of Noble and Grateful Principles he eased her of
this years resolutions he therefore did set down his Rules in that order as the World now sees them printed in a little Book call'd The Countrey Parson in which some of his Rules are The Parsons Knowledge The Parson on Sundayes The Parson Praying The Parson Preaching The Parsons Charity The Parson comforting the Sick The Parson Arguing The Parson Condescending The Parson in his Journey The Parson in his Mirth The Parson with his Church-wardens The Parsons Blessing the People And his behavior toward God and man may be said to be a practical Comment on these and the other holy Rules set down in that useful Book A Book so full of plain prudent and useful Rules that that Countrey Parson that can spare 12 d. and yet wants is scarce excusable because it will both direct him what he is to do and convince him for not having done it At the Death of Mr. Herbert this Book fell into the hands of his friend Mr. Woodnot and he commended it into the trusty hands of Mr. Bar. Oly. who publish't it with a most conscientious and excellent Preface from which I have had some of those Truths that are related in this life of Mr. Herbert The Text for his first Sermon was taken out of Solomons Proverbs and the words were Keep thy heart with all diligence In which first Sermon he gave his Parishioners many necessary holy safe Rules for the discharge of a good Conscience both to God and man And deliver'd his Sermon after a most florid manner both with great learning and eloquence And at the close of his Sermon told them That should not be his constant way of Preaching and that he would not fill their heads with unnecessary Notionsâ— but that for their sakes his language and his expressions should be more plain and practical in his future Sermons And he then made it his humble request That they would be constant to the Afternoons Service and Catechising And shewed them convincing reasons why he desir'd it and his obliging example and perswasions brought them to a willing conformity to his desires The Texts for all his Sermons were constantly taken out of the Gospel for the day and he did as constantly declare why the Church did appoint that portion of Scripture to be that day read And in what manner the Collect for every Sunday does refer to the Gospel or to the Epistle then read to them and that they might pray with understanding he did usually take occasion to explain not only the Collect for every particular day but the reasons of all the other Collects and Responses in our Service and made it appear to them that the whole Service of the Church was a reasonable and therefore an acceptable Sacrifice to God as namely that we begin with Confession of our selves to be vile miserable sinners and that we begin so because till we have confessed our selves to be such we are not capable of that mercy which we acknowledge we need and pray for but having in the prayer of our Lord begg'd pardon for those sins which we have confest And hoping that as the Priest hath declar'd our Absolution so by our publick Confession and real Repentance we have obtain'd that pardon Then we dare proceed to beg of the Lord to open our lips that our mouths may shew forth his praise for till then we are neither able nor worthy to praise him But this being suppos'd we are then fit to say Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost and fit to proceed to a further service of our God in the Collects and Psalms and Lands that follow in the Service And as to these Psalms and Lauds he proceeded to inform them why they were so often and some of them daily repeated in our Church-service namely the Psalms every Month because they be an Historical and thankful repetition of mercies past and such a composition of prayers and praises as ought to be repeated often and publickly for with such Sacrifices God is honour'd and well-pleased This for the Psalms And for the Hymns and Lauds appointed to be daily repeated or sung after the first and second Lessons were read to the Congregation he proceeded to inform them that it was most reasonable after they have heard the will and goodness of God declar'd or preach't by the Priest in his reading the two Chapters that it was then a seasonable Duty to rise up and express their gratitude to Almighty God for those his mercies to them and to all Mankind and say with the blessed Virgin That their Souls do magnifie the Lord and that their spirits do also rejoyce in God their Saviour And that it was their Duty also to rejoyce with Simeon in his Song and say with him That their eyes have also seen their salvation for they have seen that salvation which was but prophesied till his time and he then broke out in expressions of joy to see it but they live to see it daily in the History of it and therefore ought daily to rejoyce and daily to offer up their Sacrifices of praise to their God for that and all his mercies A service which is now the constant employment of that blessed Virgin and Simeon and all those blessed Saints that are possest of Heaven and where they are at this time interchangeably and constantly singing Holy Holy Holy Lord God Glory be to God on High and on Earth peace And he taught them that to do this was an acceptable service to God because the Prophet David sayes in his Psalms He that praiseth the Lord honoureth him He made them to understand how happy they be that are freed from the incumbrances of that Law which our Fore-fathers groan'd under namely from the Legal Sacrifices and from the many Ceremonies of the Levitical Law freed from Circumcision and from the strict observation of the Jewish Sabbath and the like And he made them know that having receiv'd so many and so great blessings by being born since the dayes of our Saviour it must be an acceptable Sacrifice to Almighty God for them to acknowledge those blessings and stand up and worship and say as Zacharias did Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath in our dayes visited and redeemed his people and he hath in our dayes remembred and shewed that mercy which by the mouth of the Prophets he promised to our Fore-fathers and this he hath done according to his holy Covenant made with them And we live to see and enjoy the benefit of it in his Birth in his Life his Passion his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven where he now sits sensible of all our temptations and infirmities and where he is at this present time making intercession for us to his and our Father and therefore they ought daily to express their publick gratulations and say daily with Zacharias Blessed be that Lord God of Israel that hath thus visited and thus redeemed his people These
from a Natural beauty He never failed the Sunday before every Ember-week to give notice of it to his Parishioners perswading them both to fast and then to double their devotions for a learned and pious Clergy but especially the last saying often That the life of a pious Clergy-man was visible Rhetorick and so Convincing that the most Godless men though they would not deny themselves the enjoyment of their present lusts did yet secretly wish themselves like those of the strictest lives And to what he perswaded others he added his own example of Fasting and Prayer and did usually every Ember-week take from the Parish-Clerk the Key of the Church-door into which place he retir'd every day and lockt himself up for many hours and did the like most Frydayes and other dayes of Fasting He would by no means omit the customary time of Procession perswading all both rich and poor if they desired the preservation of Love and their Parish Rights and Liberties to accompany him in his Perambulation and most did so in which Perambulation he would usually express more pleasant Discourse than at other times and would then alwayes drop some loving and facetious observations to be remembred against the next year especially by the boyes and young people still inclining them and all his present Parishioners to meekness and mutual kindnesses and love because Love thinks not evil but covers a multitude of Infirmities He was diligent to inquire who of his Parish were sick or any wayes distrest and would often visit them unsent for supposing that the fittest time to discover those Errors to which health and prosperity had blinded them and having by pious reasons and prayers moulded them into holy resolutions for the time to come he would incline them to confession and bewailing their sins with purpose to forsake them and then to receive the Communion both as a strengthning of those holy resolutions and as a seal betwixt God and them of his Mercies to their Souls in case that present sicknesse did put a period to their lives And as he was thus watchful and charitable to the sick so he was as diligent to prevent Law-sutes still urging his Parishioners and Neighbours to bear with each others infirmities and live in love because as St. John sayes he that lives in love lives in God for God is love And to maintain this holy fire of love constantly burning on the Altar of a pure heart his advice was to watch and pray and alwayes keep themselves fit to receive the Communion and then to receive it often for it was both a confirming and a strengthning of their graces this was his advice And at his entrance or departure out of any house he would usually speak to the whole Family and bless them by name insomuch that as he seem'd in his youth to be taught of God so he seem'd in this place to teach his precepts as Enoch did by walking with him in all holiness and humility making each day a step towards a blessed Eternity And though in this weak and declining Age of the World such Examples are become barren and almost incredible yet let his memory be blest with this true Recordation because he that praises Richard Hooker praises God who hath given such gifts to men and let this humble and affectionate Relation of him become such a pattern as may invite Posterity to imitate his vertues This was his constant behaviour at Borne so he walk't with God thus he did tread in the footsteps of primitive piety and yet as that great example of meekness and purity even our blessed Jesus was not free from false accusations no more was this Disciple of his this most humble most innocent holy man his was a slander parallel to that of chaste Susannah's by the wicked Elders or that against St. Athanasius as it is recorded in his life for that holy man had heretical enemies and which this Age calls Trepanning the particulars need not a repetition and that it was false needs no other Testimony than the publick punishment of his Accusers and their open confession of his Innocency 't was said that the accusation was contrived by a dissenting Brother one that endur'd not Church-Ceremonies hating him for his Books sake which he was not able to answer and his name hath been told me but I have not so much confidence in the relation as to make my Pen fix a scandal on him to posterity I shall rather leave it doubtful till the great day of Revelation But this is certain that he lay under the great charge and the anxiety of this accusation and kept it secret to himself for many months and being a helpless man had lain long under this heavy burthen but that the protector of the innocent gave such an accidental occasion as forced him to make it known to his two dearest friends Edwyn Sandys and George Cranmer who were so sensible of their Tutors sufferings that they gave themselves no rest till by their disquisitions and diligence they had found out the fraud and brought him the welcome News that his Accusers did confess they had wrong'd him and beg'd his pardon To which the good mans reply was to this purpose The Lord forgive them and the Lord bless you for this comfortable News Now I have a just occasion to say with Solomon Friends are born for the dayes of adversity and such you have prov'd to me and to my God I say as did the mother of St. John Baptist Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the day wherein he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men And oh my God neither my life nor my reputation are safe in mine own keeping but in thine who didst take care of me when I yet hanged upon my mothers breast blessed are they that put their trust in thee O Lord for when false Witnesses were risen up against me when shame was ready to cover my face when I was bowed down with an horrible dread and went mourning all the day long when my nights were restless and my sleeps broken with a fear worse than death when my Soul thirsted for a deliverance as the Hart panteth after the rivers of waters then thou Lord didst hear my complaints pity my condition and art now become my deliverer and as long as I live I will hold up my hands in this manner and magnifie thy mercies who didst not give me over as a prey to mine enemies Oh blessed are they that put their trust in thee and no prosperity shall make me forget those dayes of sorrows or to perform those vows that I have made to thee in the dayes of my affliction for with such Sacrifices thou O God art well pleased and I will pay them Thus did the joy and gratitude of this good mans heart break forth and 't is observable that as the invitation to this slander was his meek behaviour and Dove-like simplicity for which he was remarkable so his Christian
Sonnet to usher them to your happy hand Micham July â—â— 1607 Your unworthiest Servant unless your accepting him have mended him Jo. Donne To the Lady Magdalen Herbert of St. Mary Magdalen HEr of your name whose fair inheritance Bethina was and jointure Magdalo An active faith so highly did advance That she once knew more than the Church did know The Resurrection so much good there is Deliver'd of her that some Fathers be Loth to believe one Woman could do this But think these Magdalens were two or three Increase their number Lady and their fame To their Devotion add your Innocence Take so much of th' example as of the name The latter half and in some recompence That they did harbour Christ himself a Guest Harbour these Hymns to his dear name addrest J. D. These Hymns are now lost to us but doubtless they were such as they two now sing in Heaven There might be more demonstrations of the Friendship and the many sacred Indearments betwixt these two excellent persons for I have many of their Letters in my hand and much more might be said of her great prudence and piety but my design was not to write hers but the life of her Son and therefore I shall only tell my Reader that about that very day twenty years that this Letter was dated and sent her I saw and heard this Mr. John Donne who was then Dean of St. Pauls weep and preach her Funeral Sermon in the Parish-Church of Chelsey near London where she now rests in her quiet Grave and where we must now leave her and return to her Son George whom we left in his Study in Cambridge And in Cambridge we may find our George Herberts behaviour to be such that we may conclude he consecrated the first fruits of his early age to vertue and a serious study of learning And that he did so this following Letter and Sonnet which were in the first year of his going to Cambridge sent his dear Mother for a New-years gift may appear to be some testimony But I fear the heat of my late Ague hath dryed up those springs by which Scholars say the Muses use to take up their habitations However I need not their help to reprove the vanity of those many Love-poems that are daily writ and consecrated to Venus nor to bewail that so few are writ that look towards God and Heaven For my own part my meaning dear Mother is in these Sonnets to declare my resolution to be that my poor Abilities in Poetry shall be all and ever consecrated to Gods glory And MY God where is that ancient heat towards thee Wherewith whole showls of Martyrs once did burn Besides their other flames Doth Poetry Wear Venus Livery only serve her turn Why are not Sonnets made of thee and layes Upon thine Altar burnt Cannot thy love He ghten a spirit to sound out thy praise As well as any she Cannot thy Dove Out-strip their Cupid easily in flight Or since thy wayes are deep and still the same Will not a verserun smooth that bears thy name Why doth that fire which by thy power and might Each breast does feel no braver fuel choose Than that which one day Worms may chance refuse Sure Lord there is enough in thee to dry Oceans of Ink for as the Deluge did Cover the Earth so doth thy Majesty Each Cloud distills thy praise and doth forbid Poets to turn it to another use Roses and Lillies speak thee and to make A pair of Cheeks of them is thy abuse Why should I Womens eyes for Chrystal take Such poor invention burns in their low mind Whose fire is wild and doth not upward go To praise and on thee Lord some Ink bestow Open the bones and you shall nothing find In the best face but filth when Lord in thee The beauty lies in the discovery G. H. This was his resolution at the sending this Letter to his dear Mother about which time he was in the Seventeenth year of his Age and as he grew older so he grew in learning and more and more in favour both with God and man insomuch that in this morning of that short day of his life he seem'd to be mark'd out for vertue and to become the care of Heaven for God still kept his soul in so holy a frame that he may and ought to be a pattern of vertue to all posterity and especially to his Brethren of the Clergy of which the Reader may expect a more exact account in what will follow I need not declare that he was a strict Student because that he was so there will be many testimonies in the future part of his life I shall therefore only tell that he was made Minor Fellow in the year 1609. Batchelor of Art in the year 1611. Major Fellow of the Colledge March 15. 1615. And that in that year he was also made Master of Arts he being then in the 22 d year of his Age during all which time all or the greatest diversion from his Study was the practice of Musick in which he became a great Master and of which he would say That it did relieve his drooping spirits compose his distracted thoughts and raised his weary Soul so far above Earth that it gave him an earnest of the joyes of Heaven before he possest them And it may be noted that from his first entrance into the Colledge the generous Dr. Nevil was a cherisher of his Studies and such a lover of his person his behaviour and the excellent endowments of his mind that he took him often into his own company by which he confirm'd his native gentileness and if during this time he exprest any Error it was that he kept himself too much retir'd and at too great a distance with all his inferiours and his cloaths seem'd to prove that he put too great a value on his parts and parentage This may be some account of his disposition and of the employment of his time till he was Master of Arts which was Anno 1615. and in the year 1619. he was chosen Orator for the University His two precedent Orators were Sir Robert Nanton and Sir Francis Nethersoll The first was not long after made Secretary of State and Sir Francis not long after his being Orator was made Secretary to the Lady Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia In this place of Orator our George Herbert continued eight years and manag'd it with as becoming and grave a gaity as any had ever before or since his time For He had acquir'd great Learning and was blest with a high fancy a civil and sharp wit and with a natural elegance both in his behaviour his tongue and his pen. Of all which there might be very many particular evidences but I will limit my self to the mention of but three And the first notable occasion of shewing his fitness for this employment of Orator was manifested in a Letter to King James who had sent the University his Book
called Basilicon Doron and their Orator was to acknowledge this great honour and return their gratitude to His Majesty for such a condescention at the close of which Letter he writ Quid Vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hospes Unicus est nobis Bibliotheca Liber This Letter was writ in such excellent Latin was so full of Conceits and all the expressions so suted to the genius of the King that he inquired the Orators name and then ask'd William Earl of Pembroke if he knew him whose answer was That he knew him very well and that he was his Kinsman but he lov'd him more for his learning and vertue than for that he was of his name and family At which answer the King smil'd and asked the Earl leave that he might love him too for he took him to be the Jewel of that University The next occasion that he had to shew his great Abilities was with them to shew also his great affection to that Church in which he received his Baptism and of which he profest himself a member and the occasion was this There wâ—s one Andrew Melvin a Gentleman of Scotland who was in his own Countrey possest with an aversness if not a hatred of Church-government by Bishops and he seem'd to have a like aversness to our manner of Publick Worship and of Church-prayers and Ceremonies This Gentleman had travail'd France and resided so long in Geneva as to have his opinions the more confirm'd in him by the practice of that place from which he return'd into England some short time before or immediately after Mr. Herbert was made Orator This Mr. Melvin was a man of learning and was the Master of a great wit a wit full of knots and clenches a wit sharp and satyrical exceeded I think by none of that Nation but their Bucanen At Mr. Melvins return hither he writ and scattered in Latin many pieces of his wit against our Altars our Prayers and our Publick Worship of God in which Mr. Herbert took himself to be so much concern'd that as fast as Melvin writ and scatter'd them Mr. Herbert writ and scatter'd answers and reflections of the same sharpness upon him and them I think to the satisfaction of all un-ingaged persons But this Mr. Melvin was not only so busie against the Church but at last so bold with the King and State that he rayl'd and writ himself into the Tower at which time the Lady Arabella was an innocent prisoner there and he pleas'd himself much in sending the next day after his Commitment these two Verses to the good Lady which I will under-write because they may give the Reader a taste of his others which were like these Causa tibi mecum est communis Carceris Ara-Bella tibi causa est Araque sacra mihi I shall not trouble my Reader with an account of his enlargement from that Prison or his Death but tell him Mr. Herberts Verses were thought so worthy to be preserv'd that Dr. Duport the learned Dean of Peterborough hath lately collected and caus'd them to be printed as an honourable memorial of his friend Mr. George Herbert and the Cause he undertook And in order to my third and last observation of his great Abilities it will be needful to declare that about this time King James came very often to hunt at New-market and Royston and was almost as often invited to Cambridge where his entertainment was suted to his pleasant humor and where Mr. George Herbert was to welcome him with Gratulations and the Applauses of an Orator which he alwayes perform'd so well that he still grew more into the Kings favour insomuch that he had a particular appointment to attend His Majesty at Royston where after a Discourse with him His Majesty declar'd to his Kinsman the Earl of Pembroke That he found the Orators learning and wisdom much above his age or wit The year following the King appointed to end His progress at Cambridge and to stay there certain dayes at which time he was attended by the great Secretary of Nature and all Learning Sir Francis Bacon Lord Virulam and by the ever memorable and learned Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester both which did at that time begin a desir'd friendship with our Orator Upon whom the first put such a value on his judgement that he usually desir'd his approbation before he would expose any of his Books to be printed and thought him so worthy of his friendship that having translated many of the Prophet Davids Psalms into English Verse he made George Herbert his Patron of them by a publick dedication of them to him as the best Judge of Divine Poetry And for the learned Bishop it is observable that at that time there fell to be a modest debate about Predestination and Sanctity of life of both which the Orator did not long after send the Bishop some safe and useful Aphorisms in a long Letter written in Greek which was so remarkable for the language and matter that after the reading of it the Bishop put it into his bosom and did often shew it to Scholars both of this and forreign Nations but did alwayes return it back to the place where he first lodg'd it and continu'd it so near his heart till the last day of his life To these I might add the long and intire friendship betwixt him and Sir Henry Wotton and Dr. Donne but I have promis'd to contract my self and shall therefore only add one testimony to what is also mentioned in the Life of Dr. Donne namely that a little before his death he caused many Seals to be made and in them to be ingraven the figure of Christ crucified on an Anchor which is the emblem of hope and of which Dr. Donne would often say Crux mihi Anchora These Seals he sent to most of those friends on which he put a value and at Mr. Herberts death these Verses were found wrap't up with that Seal which was by the Doctor given to him When my dear Friend could write no more He gave this Seal and so gave ore When winds and waves rise highest I am sure This Anchor keeps my faith that me secure At this time of being Orator he had learnt to understand the Italian Spanish and French Tongues very perfectly hoping that as his Predecessor so he might in time attain the place of a Secretary of State being then high in the Kings favour and not meanly valued and lov'd by the most eminent and most powerful of the Court Nobility This and the love of a Court-conversation mixt with a laudable ambition to be something more then he then was drew him often from Cambridge to attend the King who then gave him a Sine Cure which fell into His Majesties disposal I think by the death of the Bishop of St. Asaph It was the same that Queen Elizabeth had formerly given to her Favourite Sir Philip Sidney and valued to be worth an hundred and twenty pound per