as it were inflamed with a desire 〈◊〉 imitating them and expressing he love to God in as high and perfeâ—â— a manner as they did and wouâ— grow unsatisfyed with her self for nâ— having followed the inclinations shâ—â— had in her tender age of entring inâ—â— a religious state till she was secure by those that guided her consciencâ— that her obedience to her parents iâ— the choise of her course of life was more acceptable to God considering how maturely and piously they had weighed all circumstances then a compliance with her own desires though they seemed to sway her to that which carried an appearance of greater perfection To the end therefore that she might serve him with as much perfection and in the exactest manner that was consistent with her calling and to prevent her love to him from proving cool in the least measure she often and with great favour renewed her good purposes of all her daily pious exercises and employments and especially against great and solemn Feasts when his greatest mercies and benefits were celebrated by the Church and she would be then particularly sollicitous to crave the advise of her spiritual Directour what acts of pennance or other devotions she should use whereby to solemnize those holy times in the most agreeable manner to his divine Majesty to the end she might gain encrease of his grace whom she with all constant gratitude owned to be so large-hearted in bestowing his favours upon all such as begged them devoutly and prepared themselves worthily to receive them In fine so great was the love which this most pious Lady bore to her Lord and God that it put her upon making purposes of fasts and other austere and laborious acts of virtue that far exceeded her strength and ability and so little indulgent was she to her self out of her desire to perform any thing though never so hard that she thought tended to his honour on whom her love was only bent that she was willing to look upon all those purposes as obligations in conscience till she was assured by those who were her guides in spiritual matters that they were not such but that she was rather tyed from doing any thing that might be prejudicial to her health wherein the good of many were concerned And though the same love of God prompted her to obey her spiritual Directors for his sake who for hers and all of us was obedient to the death of the crosse yet had the memory of those sufferings of his such an influence upon her heart that she was desirous to imitate him as much as she might and carry her crosse after him according to his divine invitation as far as her weak strength would permit and therefore would come as near to the observation of any penitential purposes as she was in any manner permitted so that where fasting was denied as to the matter of the quality of her meat she endeavoured to supply it by moderating the quantity thereof and the abstaining from all kinde of delicacies in her diet and the like she did in all other purposes that tended to mortification But in all others not judged by reason of inconsistency with health and ability unfit she was most zealously constant in the performance of them and particularly in her recourse unto the holy Sacraments at certain times when any special favour of God to her self or this Nation in particular or the Catholick Church in general invited her grateful heart to expresse a resentment of his mercies Her Charity to her Neighbour FRom her most ardent love of Almighty God and her constant desire of expressing it proceeded her so eminent practise of that most agreable virtue to him I mean her so very exemplar Charity to her neighbours which mounted to so great an height that she was never satiated with imparting all both spirituall and temporal comforts that were possibly to be offorded by And to descend to those particulars which may convince this truth she was never seen or known to refuse an alms when it was asked neither was ever the necessity of any person represented to her to the removal of which she did not contribute with a most cheerful and bountiful hand And it was a matter of complaint and grief to her whensoever any of her domestical servants as sometimes it hapned concealed the requests of any necessitous persons although relieved by themselves and she was so zealously fearful of losing any occasion of feeding and cloathing Jesus Christ in his little ones that to prevent it she always lodged moneys in the hands of her Porter and others for relief of the poor over and above that plentiful alms which was constantly given at the gates And besides these accidental expressions of her great charity which were nevertheless very frequent and as it were daily she had diverse persons her constant Pentioners whom she wholly maintained and though sometimes by reason of her change of dwelling they were far absent from her person yet they were never so from her thoughts for she was as sollicitously careful to see them provided for in all kindes as if she had been expresly obliged to do it under pain of sin and she descended so far as with the labour of her own hands to make many necessaries for their cloathing the which she also frequently did for many of her poorer servants over and above their comperent usuall allowances she was so exact an observer of the laws of true Christian charity that she was never willing to hear those who demanded an alms for Gods sake suspected for counterfeits for she was as tender in preserving their good names as she was in relieving their necessities and therefore as much as possible hindred the strict examination of things oâ— that nature And although some times some were discovered and proved to be such yet upon consideration that the true motive of Alms was not to whom but for whose sake it was given she would not dismiss them without being made partakers of her charity for she would urge that most probably their great want was the true cause why they dissembled lameness blindness and such like infirmities and that therefore to take away such a temptation their necessities were to be relieved And my Lord her husband was very complying with her in this compassionate relieving of others necessities and particularly when he was a winner at horse-races or other Divertisements he most cheerfully upon her suggestion and request which she never failed to make him employed no small part of his winnings upon these charitable offices Neither was her charity only expressed in relieving the pecuniary wants of the poor but also in an extraordinary diligence to contribute to the cure and ease of the sick To promote which pious work she provided her self yearly at fit seasons of all those medicinal things which are usually applied to the relief of corporal infirmities and she was no less carefuâ— in providing then liberal in bestowing them whensoever necessity
A Compendious NARRATION OF THE Most Examplar LIFE OF THE Right Honourable and Most Virtuous Lady Mary Late Countess of Shrewsbury Faithfully Collected out of the Writings of a most Learned and Worthy Person who attended her many Years By a Gentleman who by reason of his long acquaintance and much conversation with her can testifie the truth of all that is here related Printed in the Year 1677. Her Birth and younger years IT was in the year of our Lord 1599. on the 4th of October that this our Island and particularly the City of Westminster was honoured by the birth of this Lady truly Noble by all Titles It was in the house of her great Uncle by the half-bloud Sr. Thomas Parry Chancellor of the Dutchy that she first began her course of mortality which she so holily past over and it fell out to be in a room which had been formerly a Chappel dedicated to God in honour of the most blessed Virgin Mary his Mother and on the Feast of the glorious Patriark St. Francis a proper time and place for the birth of a person so much addicted to passe her time in the house of God and so true an Imitatresse of the vertues of that great Queen of Heaven and that humble Saint And as this happy creature whose life I am now exposing to publick view was far from giving trouble to others throughout the whole course of her life so also did she give none to my Lady her mother in her very birth who though she had suffered hard labours of all the rest of her children and of some of them dangerous yet in bringing her into the world seemed as it were exempt by particular dispensation from that common curse layd by God upon the whole sex Her descent was very Noble on all sides her father was Sir Francis Fortescu of Salden Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath a Gentleman of a very ancient knightly Family he being an heir of Sr. John Fortescu of the Privy Council to Queen Elizabeth and King James and descended lineally through a race of noble Auncestors many of whom had served their Princes in eminent charges both Military and Civil and were allyed by their marriages to several of the Nobility in the 15th generation from Sr. Richard Fortescu Knight who came into England with the Norman conquest Her Mother the Lady Grace Fortescu as eminent for her virtue as her birth was of the most illustrious Family of the Mannors Earls of Rutland and Lord Roos she being grandchild to Thomas Niece unto Henry and Aunt to John all Earls of that place To this advantage of bloud God had added that of so amiable and sweet a disposition and of so solid and lively wit and judgment that she was grateful to all persons and very capable of any knowledge which her sex is wont to possess this she made appear in her perfect and easy learning even of those ornamental qualities which took up the least of her thoughts and in which according to the fashion of other Ladies of condition in those times she was in her younger years brought up Though after her being married out of her great modesty and almost continual application of her self to employments of a higher strain she never but in just and unavoidable occasions spent any time in things of that nature But it is not my business here to play the Herald and to blazon her extraction or to dwell upon those inferiour transitory advantages of flesh and bloud my aym is to paint out the ornaments of her minde and to shew how near she was allied by her vertues to those Princes of heaven the constant attendants on the Throne of God Of those great virtues which were so eminently practised by her in her riper age she gave many auspicious prognosticks even from her infancy her love thereof and inclination to all actions of piety growing up in her with her years and even preventing them No child could be more exactly dutiful to her parents in compliance with whom she applyed her self with that zealous diligence and success to the gaining of a perfect knowledge and understanding of all the mysteries and articles of her faith and duties of a Christian as also of the grounds of all the Ceremonies used in the Holy Church that she was capable in her very childhood of declaring and explaining them to others and even then gave so great a testimony of so unusual a maturity of judgement both in her comportment and all her actions that she was thought fit and actually had leave of judicious and learned Ghostly Fathers to receive the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar before she was yet arrived to ten years of age And finally she grew to that degree of Christian perfection even before she could write young woman that she had an ardent desire to give over the world as soon in a manner as she was entred into it and dedicate her self to God by imbracing a religious life for love of him But her parents neither giving way rashly to those desires of hers nor daring expresly to oppose them in regard of their great piety caused the case to be consulted with Learned Religious men And upon the casting up of all circumstances wherein her delicacy of constitution and continyency in point of health had a great part they advised her to satisfy her self with leading a virtuous life in the way of a secular calling whereupon she knowing that obedience in some cases is better then sacrifice and weighing this truth in her wise heart that no body since he is a party is fit to be a Judge in his own ways applied her self to walk as perfectly as she could in that state to which her parents both spiritual and temporal advised her And in consequence to these counsels and advise she was bestowed by her friends in Marriage at the age of 16. upon that Noble Person John Tallbot then Esquire and afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury Nephew and Heyr to that most Saintlike and Learned Lord George Earl of Shrewsbury who resolving to live wholly to God even in the world as to all mens admiration he did disposed his Nephew in Marriage to this Lady and setled his whole Estate upon them and theirs And in that condition she lived most happily and holily as will hereafter appear above nineteen years The manner how she daily and constantly spent her whole time after she was married WHen once this Lady was setled in the state of Marriage she did so order and frame the course of her life that living here upon earth her conversation might be truly said to be in heaven Of this not only all her days but even hours and moments were convincing testimonies As soon as she rose in the morning which was Winter and Summer at an early hour before she thought of her dresse the first and chief business of worldly Ladies or spent any the least time in that or any employment or discourse
required and so great was her charitable compassion of sick persons thaâ— she not only afforded them bountiful remedies for their diseases but eveâ— charged those servants about her owâ— person not to fail of giving them aâ—â— necessary attendance and to encourage them in so good an action by example she did frequently visit thâ— meanest of her own domesticks anâ— others even when the loathsomnessâ— of the disease and rooms where theâ— lodged were capable to divert thosâ— who were indulgent in pleasing theiâ— senses from coming near them aâ—â— did both minister remedies and otheâ— assistances with her own hands anâ— spend much time in praying by theâ— bed-sides and endeavouring to givâ— them all spiritual comforts that shâ— was capable of affording them Neither was her compassionatâ— sense of the sufferance of prisoners lesâ— â—hen that which she shewed to have of the wants and infirmities of others for she was highly charitaâ—le in the relief of all those although meer strangers whom she â—eard to endure that great calamity of restraint of liberty All her promises made even in her â—oung and tender age that tended to â—he relieving of others necessities or â—night be conducing to their advanâ—ages either spiritual or corporal â—hough not made with that delibeâ—ation that might oblige her under â—in to performance were as religiâ—usly observed as vows and even so â—xactly if not scrupulously that â—he was hardly ever satisfied to have sufficiently complied with those noâ—way-obliging promises without the â—udgment and authority of her â—piritual Directour and she would â—requently regret her own too dull â—mitation of that famous patriarch of Alexandria John sirnamed thâ— Almes-giver for his great liberality in acts of charity If then Alms be of so great force and virtue as to cleanse and purifâ— the soul which no Christian caâ— doubt of that gives credit to holâ— Scripture where it is said Give Almeâ— and all things be clean unto you Lukâ— 11.41 and as water quencheth fireâ— so doth Almes extinguish sin and 〈◊〉 the mercifull shall finde mercy Maâ— 5.7 and he that giveth but one drâ—â— of water for the love of God shall nâ— lose his reward Mar. 40 10.4â— How pure must her soul be who bowels were so full of compassionâ— and whose hands were ever open 〈◊〉 the poor and what accumulated râ—wards shall she receive from tâ—â— bounty of God who was so meroâ—ful and bountiful to his poor 〈◊〉 cheerfully cloathing feeding and vâ—siting them or rather him in theâ— For it may be truly said fo this Lady what Job declared of himself that she denied not to the poor what they desired nor made the widdows eyes expect nor did she eat her bread aâ—one but made the poor partakers with â—her This therefore being so great a â—ruth and so known by all that knew her there will remain no wonder if when she was taken out of this world and translated to a better there to enjoy the reward of â—hose great virtues which the mercy of God had plentifully infused inâ—o her happy soul The poor people â—n all places where she had lived but especially in Worcestershire where â—y reason of her longer abode she â—ad met with more occasions of â—xercising her Charity did generalâ—y lament their losse with all possiâ—le expressions of sorrow as conâ—eiving themselves by her death deâ—rived of a most indulgent Mother which part she truly acted to the life amongst all whose necessities obliged them to have recourse to her assistance But her charity was not only exercised in relieving the corporal distresses of others but flew an higher pitch and made it self appear in a most ardent zeal of assisting the spiriall wants and remedying the maladies of the soul Her ever constant and as it may be truly called inflamed desire of reclaiming all persons from sin whom she knew it concerned and procuring them all those helps from others which her sex rendred her incapable to afford them in her own person were undeniable arguments how extraordinary heâ— zeal was of gaining souls to God Of this truth many of her actions of this kinde might be particularized were it not too unnecessarily to swell this Relation with endeavouring to make that appear whereof all that knew her were sufficiently convinced Howsoever it it will not be impertinent to touch briefly upon one of these her Acts of charity in regard Almighty God did give such a signall evidence how grateful it was in his divine eyes by a most wonderful if not miraculous preservation of her from a strange and dangerous accident which followed immediately after the performance of this good work For having been to visit a Noble Gentleman her near Kinsman whom she knew to have fayled contrary to his judgment by humane frailty and to have led a life too conformable to such a failing and having which was the sole end of her visit with earnest pious admonitions and fervent prayers powred forth to God by his bed-side to which his infirm condition had confin'd him proved successful in her endeavours and wrought so good an effect that he became a most perfect penitent by reconciling himself to God and so made a most happy end having I say done this most charitable work in her Return to her own House in a certain steep descent near an high unfenced bridge of stone her coach-horses grew so unruly that one of them kick'd down the coach-man from off his box and ran violently to the bridge and running in their full carrier over it the coach fell suddainly into the River and so high was the bridge that it turned twice round in the falling and at length lighted directly upon the wheels in the River and in such a part of it as was shallow though very near the deepest part which was capable to have overwhelmed it had it been many yards higher then it was In the fall the foremost horses broke their tackling and escaped the precipitation but of the two wheel-horses both of which fell with the coach the one and he who did the main mischief by kicking down the coachman broke his neck and was killed the other fell with the coach without the least hurt All those who knew this place and particularly those who attended her and were eye-witnesses of the accident and saw how free from all harm their Lady and her Wayting-Gentlewoman which was all the company she then had with her in the coach remained after it would not call this so total a preservation by any other Name then that of a Miraculous deliverance and certainly it can admit of no other interpretation but of a malitious attempt of the Devil against her for having got a soul out of his power of which he had been too long possessed and a most particular tract of the divine Providence in rendring his malice ineffectual For God was only in her thoughts when she was falling as she confessed to one who had power to ask her she being then actually employed in making acts of love to
his divine Majesty to render thanks to whom for his so highly merciful a preservation from this so great disaster was the first thing she did after her return home before she spoke to any one whomsoever she repairing immediatly to her Oratory to this most Christian-like Exercise and there reciting with great Devotion that pious Hymn called Te Deum composed by those great Saints and Doctors of the Church St. Ambrose and St. Augustine and used by all the faithful in solemn Thanksgivings to God for his blessings and manifold mercies these her high acts of charity so universally extended render it needless to relate how incessant the care was that she took in the instruction of her children in all the mysteries and duties of Christian Religion which she would personally perform her self as soon as they came to those years that rendred them capable thereof Even as soon as they began to make any shew of speaking she was sollicitous that before any other word they might learn to pronounce the holy and divine name of Jesus to which all knees bow whether in Heaven or Earth or elsewhere and that their prayers might be the first discourses that they might use that so they might begin in the first place to speak to God to whom the first and chief honour is due and in their Nurses arms when they were at any time brought home her first caress was to signe them with the signe of the Cross and immediately to carry them to her Oratory to offer them to his divine Majesty and beg blessings for them And as their age encreased she did not fail to encourage them no less by word then example to the exercise of all virtues and particularly to a liberal and compassionate relief of the poor which Christ doth so expresly own as done to himself Neither was she wanting to act the part of a Mother in this kinde towards the meanest of her servants to whose being catechised and taught all Christian duties she with constant zeal contributed even personally when need required and of whose exact performance of all those Obligations to which either the laws of God or of his spouse the holy Catholick Church tye her children she was so piously sollicitous that they wanted neither frequent admonitions to encourage them to good nor such reprehensions as were requisite to alter them from all evil And all things relating to the discharge of their domestical employments were by her most Christian-like providence so ordered as that they might not prove any hindrance to their attending to the service of God or rendring him all due honour by being present at divine service and all other holy exercises at times appointed by that authority which he hath left here on earth assisted by his holy spirit to guide and govern the spirituall kingdome of humane souls Seeing therefore it hath been made appear so evidently how high and even supererrogatory a charity she shewed both in relieving the corporal necessities and also in contributing so efficatiously to the spiritual advantages of others It cannot certainly enter easily into the suspition of any rational person but that she was equally careful not to do any one the least imaginable Injury I am sure it would be injurious to her for any person to harbour such a doubt in his breast For how sensibly tender her conscience was in all that concerned the reputation of others there are as many witnesses as persons that knew her who all with one mouth avow that she was never heard to speak any the least word that might tend to the diminution of the credit of any one whatsoever nor ever to use any deriding expression or reproach even in the reprehension of the meanest of her servants But on the contrary side her tongue was ever ready how wary soever she was in avoyding much discourse to defend the reputation and excuse the faults of others against those many who are too apt both to misrepresent and misconster the actions of their neighbours and too uncharitably to rip up the memory of their failings And all her reprehensions even for the greatest faults were according to Christs counsel privately given for the concealment of their imperfections and were seasoned with so much sweetness that her anger was not only innocent but virtuous And in composing all differences which sometimes happen in such numerous Families as hers between her servants she was a very Angel of peace and was exactly careful that even those of the best quality that attended her might do right to the very meanest without all partiality Her Other Virtues WHen good principles are laid the consequences are generally ever clear so that it seems a kinde of demonstration that so lively a faith and so exemplar a Charity as her soul was adorned with must necessarily be accompanied with all other virtues so fervent a lover of God could not but take delight in the practise of all that which is agreeable in his sight Howsoever I will endeavour briefly to shew how eminent she was in all kindes And to begin with that rarely to be found perfection in the feminine sex of this latter age modesty she excelled therein in so high a degree that her conversation and comportment might seem commendable ever in a veiled votary much more in one of a secular calling nothing ever appeared in her habit or dress that might not merit a praise from the most scrupulous observer of the rules of that virtue And so careful was she that none under her charge might offend therein that she permitted not her children to reade any books without an assurance from her spiritual guides that there was nothing in them contradictory to faith or destructive to modesty much lesse did she allow them either to haunt any company or use any divertisement that might in the least degree endanger the violation of that so much praised virtue by all pious persons and particularly commended by St. Peter the holy Apostle in these words that the chaste conversation of Christian Ladies was to be in fear and their trimming not to be outward as consisting in the curling of their hayr 1 Pet. 3.4 adorning themselves with curious and costly clothes but in the inwardness of heart which is hidden and the incorruptibility of a quick and modest spirit which indeed is highly rich in the sight of God Neither was her humility lesse celebrated by all that knew then her Modesty For she not only made appear this high virtue truly high because so eminently practised by the highest of all Creatures the Mother of God in avoiding as much as possibly her condition would permit all things either of oftentation or pomp whether it were in apparel or any other real vanity and in treating all persons of what rank soever with all imaginable sweetness and affability though without any indiscreet diminution of that dignity in which God had placed her and which no Lady knew better how to comply with then her self but