where he addeth much more concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I were able to give the sum of it it needeth not if your Lordship have Plato if not except London Stationers now furnish I can with much conveniency send down to Tottenham any Book I was lately with one Mr. Boyse whose Notes are on Chrysostom with Mr. Downes's he is now comparing of Nicene Syn. in Greek with an old Manuscript which was by great chance offered to him he is very learned in the Greek Authors and most willing to communicate tho your Lordship needs not those Excellencies he is but four Miles dwelling out of Cambridg I intend to go over of purpose to him concerning the same Queries which your Lordship propounded because he was Mr. Downes his Scholar I shall intreat him to furnish me with all the Notes if he may conveniently that he gathered from Mr. Downes My Lord if I be not over-bold to desire such a Favour I wish I had that Table wherein your Lordship hath compared the Hebrew Greek and Latin Alphabet which sheweth plainly the right Pronunciation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the whole consent of the rest When I have done with Mr. Boyse and have obtained any thing worth your view I will by that Messenger desire your Servant to copy out that Table for me which would give great content to my Scholars which study the Languages And thus craving pardon of your Lordship I humbly take my leave and rest Your Lordship's humble Servant to his Power Abraham Wheelock Clare-Hall July 12. 1625. LETTER LXXXVI A Letter from Dr. Sam. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received a Note from Dr. Lindsell written by your Lordship wherein you desire to have a Book out of Trinity-Colledg Library which you intitle Psalterium Gallicum Romanum Hebraicum MS. in magno Folio There is no such Book there as the Master telleth me but he shewed me the Psalter in Hebrew MS. interlinear with a Latin Translation and two other Collateral Translations in Latin but there is no French and it is but in a little Folio The Catena in Psalmos 50 priores Daniele Barbaro interprete I cannot learn where it is Whereas you desire some old Impression of the Greek Psalms in Trinity-Colledg Library there is Augustini Justiniani Episcopi Nebiensis Psalterium Octaplum in which there is the Greek Translation also the Arabick and Chalde Paraphrase but I suppose you have that Book already Also they have a Manuscript Psalter in Greek a very good Hand which it seemeth was Liber Theodori Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis If you would have any of those I will procure them from Dr. Maw I had purposed to have seen you e're now and now this Week I had purposed to have brought my whole Family to Mundon but this day I received a Letter that one of my Workmen at my Parsonage had a Sister who is suspected the last Saturday to die of the Plague at Standon I thank God we are yet well at Cambridg If you please to write unto me your mind touching the Books aforesaid I will do what you would have me Thus desiring the Lord to mitigate this grievous Judgment which hath seized upon our Mother-City and from thence is diffused to many other Towns in the Land and to stay it in his good time and in the mean time to sanctify this Correction unto the whole Land that it may have that powerful working for which God sends it to make us sensible of our Sins and of his Wrath for our Sins and of the Miseries of our Brethren under the Cross and so to move us to true Repentance and new Obedience which He effect in us for his Mercy 's sake Thus with my best Service to your self and Mrs. Usher and my kind Love to Sir Gerard and his Lady I commend you to the safe protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordships in all observance Samuel Ward Sidney-Coll Aug. 3. 1625. I am careful that the Letter be conveyed by Persons safe from all Infection LETTER LXXXVII A Letter from Dr. James to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After the remembrance of my humble Duty MAY it please your Grace to pardon my long silence and neglect of writing according to my Duty occasioned partly by Sickness partly by Discontent and Discouragement from our great Ones But being now freed from both God be thanked I address my self wholly to the care of the Publick long since by me intended Wherein now more than ever I must be bold to crave your Lordships furtherance that as it had its first beginnings from your Grace so it may its final end and a fulfilling by your Lordships good means It is true my Lord of Litchfield is intrusted with the whole direction and managing of this Business but had your Grace been near there would have been none more able nor willing than your Grace I do therefore most humbly intreat your Lordship that sometime before your Grace's departure into Ireland you would be pleased upon conference with my Lord of Litchfield to settle the whole Business what Authors we shall begin with in what order and after what manner As for the Canon-Law which I have looked unto not without the vocation and approbation of Mr. Vice-chancellor I must confess my forwardness therein upon a supposal of sundry Additions unto Gratian and my Fellow-labourers are as earnest as my self upon that little which we have hitherto found Doubtless Gratian was one of the first Compilers of the Popish Religion in his hotch-potch of the Canon-Law but yet he is not so bad as he is made the Corruptions are of a later hue and came in long since his time I have given a taste as of all that I have hitherto done in certain rude Papers overhastily perhaps sent up to pass your Lordships Censure and Judgment and from thence to the Press that I may have a taste to present unto my Lord the Bishops and others that have already promised their helps If this of almost an hundred places corrupted in point of Religion not taking all upon an exact survey but a few to give proof of the faisibility of the Work to the common profit of the Church shall be thought fit to be printed and an hundred places of flat contradiction Men if ever will be stirred up to advance this Work for the doing whereof with some jeopardy of my Health and loss of all worldly Preferment I am most willing to be imployed to the uttermost of my simple Endeavours having nothing to promise but Fidelity and Industry Good my Lord what can be done by your Grace let it be done to the uttermost the Work is in a manner yours to God be the Glory and if the Church of England receive not as much profit by this one Work being well done as by any thing since Erasmus's Time I will never look hereafter to be
of some Pasture Grounds which I held I have forgone but the main Matter of my Estate lying in Mony I cannot yet recover At my coming up hither I left one of my Children sick of an Ague which he hath had these three Weeks and if he should be recovered he cannot be presently fit to travel neither are the Ways and Weather indeed seasonable thereto But that which to deal plainly doth most of all trouble me is the report of the new Broils in the Colledg which I see partly in other Mens Letters for to my self as if I were but a Cypher in Algorism they vouchsafe not a word That some Fellows are displaced by the Visitors others placed by Mandate of my Lord Deputy old Grudges and Factions revived malè sarta gratia necquicquam coit rescinditur I never delighted nor am made for it ignum gladio fodere Some of my Friends represented to me the Examples of Mr. Travers and Mr. Alvey and that comes to my mind Better sit still than Rise and Fall I have now an honest Retreat with that form Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites It is written hither and I have seen it with mine Eyes That I am said to be a weak Man and so thought to be by wise Men. This Witness is most true In all these regards I humbly beseech your Grace by your undeserved love to me which God knows how much I value and that it was no small encouragement to me to enter into this Business by your love to the Colledg which I know is great by your love to our Lord Jesus Christ whereof he takes that proof your love to his Lambs Since you know now my weakness a little better than when you first nominated me to that place and the want of the Colledg of an able Head dispose of my place as you shall think most fit for that Colledg University Church and Kingdom For my part I do here absolutely resign all my Interest unto it into your Grace's hands or the hands of those whom it may concern Assuring your Grace that I shall account your freeing me from this burden the greatest favour that you can do me under the which if it had not been for the fear of offending God I think I had never put my shoulder so far as I have done But if you shall esteem in Conscience I cannot go back I beseech you be pleased freely to set down your Opinion touching my Case propounded in my last I desire of God that neither my Living nor my Life may be so dear unto me as to finish my Course with joy and the Ministry that I have received of the Lord Jesus Upon the receipt of your Graces Letters I shall resolve presently if God let not to come or stay Touching the Parliament-Affairs I know your Grace hath better advertisement than I can give you The beginnings yet go marvellously well the Lower House excellently tempered Nothing hath as yet been so much as put to question The Upper House joined with them insomuch as when they had received the Motion for a publick Fast they added a Motion to petition to his Majesty for the putting in execution all Laws and Acts of State against Recusants This Petition was penned by the Bishops of Norwich and Litchfield and presented to his Majesty by both Houses The former is appointed by Proclamation to be April 21. The latter the King hath taken into consideration with good signs of approbation The Lower House is now employed about the Liberties of the Subjects which they deduce even from the Conquest and so down They purpose it seems to proceed to the examination of the infringing of them and of their Causes and Remedies It is resolved among them that the Grievances of the Subjects shall go hand in hand with the Supply of the King's Wants which are so great as his Majesty when he received the latter Petition told them March 3. That without present Supply he could not set forth one Ship c. God of his Mercy grant that the Progress and End may be correspondent In which hearty Prayer I end recommending your Grace to the Lord's Protection and my self to your Prayers and rest Your Grace's in all Duty W. Bedell London April 1. 1628. LETTER CXXV A Letter from Dr. Bainbridge Professor of Astronomy in Oxford to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend and my very good Lord HAving so fit opportunity I am bold to remember my Service to your Grace and withal my former suit concerning Hipparchus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being both in the Vatican and Escurial I marvel that Patavius did not procure a Transcript thereof certainly it would have helped much in his Doctrina Temporum contra Scaligerum Whereas now the neglect of that and other ancient Monuments hath left that Work imperfect and given just cause to others of a more curious search wherein I purpose to bestow my best Endeavours not doubting of your Grace's Favour Mr. Selden hath written some Notes upon certain ancient Greek Inscriptions which were brought out of Turky for my Lord of Arundel amongst which one doth promise some light in the Persian Chronology I mean of the Persian Monarchy which of all others I most desire to be illustrated being so necessary to the connexion of Sacred and Prophane History concerning which I will yet forbear to signify my Opinion daily expecting a view of Mr. Selden's Book Your Grace's most obliged Servant John Bainbridg Oxon April 7. 1628. LETTER CXXVI A Letter from Dr. Bedell to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord HAving the opportunity of this Bearer's return from his Friends my Neighbours to Kelles I thought fit to send by him if it were but the Duplicate of my last to your Grace from London the first of this Month sent as Mr. Burnet told me by one Mr. Goodwyn of London-Derry who had special occasion to repair to your presence Wherein I satisfied you I hope of the rightness of my Intention in the restriction of the Statute for Batchelors Probationers to seven Terms standing and represented to your Grace the chief exercise of my Thoughts since my leaving Ireland I mean the Draught of a new Patent and new Statutes to be procured for the University which I hope you have safely received You may perhaps esteem it a pragmatical unquietness of Spirit in me that would busy my self with things beyond mine own line But since it hath pleased God to embarque me by their means in the Affairs of that Country I take my self bound to further the Voyage what I may not only for mine own safety and the rest of the Passengers but for the honour of your self that are the Pilot and the Glory of God especially unto which Port I am well assured all your Course is directed I suppose it hath been an Error all this while to neglect the Faculties of Law
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
were the less careful in passing it because they accounted it did rather concern my Predecessor than them I shewed the false Latin Non-sence injustice of it prejudice to them contrariety to it self and to the King 's Grant to me I shewed there were in one Period above 500 words and which passed the rest hanging in the Air without any principal Verb. I desired them to consider if the Seal hanging to it were the Bishop's Seal They acknowledged it was not Therefore with protestation that I meant no way to call in question the sufficiency of Mr. Cook or his former Acts I did judg the Patent to be void and so declared it inhibiting Mr. Cook to do any thing by virtue thereof and them to assist him therein This is the true History of this Business howsoever Mr. Cook disguises it I suspended him not absent indicta causâ It was his Commission which was present that I viewed with the Chapter and censured which if he can make good he shall have leave and time and place enough And now to accomplish my promise to relate to your Grace my purpose herein My Lord I do thus account that to any Work or Enterprize to remove Impediments is a great part of the performance And amongst all the Impediments to the Work of God amongst us there is not any one greater than the abuse of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction This is not only the Opinion of the most Godly Judicious and Learned Men that I have known but the cause of it is plain The People pierce not into the inward and true Reasons of things they are sensible in the Purse And that Religion that makes Men that profess it and shews them to be despisers of the World and so far from encroaching upon others in Matter of base Gain as rather to part with their own they magnify This bred the admiration of the Primitive Christians and after of the Monks Contrary Causes must needs produce contrary Effects Wherefore let us preach never so painfully and piously I say more let us live never so blamelesly our selves so long as the Officers in our Courts prey upon them they esteem us no better than Publicans and Worldlings and so much the more deservedly because we are called Spiritual Men and call our selves Reformed Christians And if the honestest and best of our own Protestants be thus scandalized what may we think of Papists such as are all in a manner that we live among The time was when I hoped the Church of Ireland was free from this Abuse at least freer than her Sister of England but I find I am deceived Whether it be that distance of place and being further out of the reach of the Scepter of Justice breeds more boldness to offend or necessarily brings more delay of redress I have been wont also in Ireland to except one Court as he doth Plato But trust me my Lord I have heard that it is said among great Personages here that My Lord Primate is a good Man but his Court is as corrupt as others some say worse And which I confess to your Grace did not a little terrify me from visiting till I might see how to do it with Fruit in that of your late Visitation they see no profit but the taking of Mony But to come to Mr. Cook of all that have exercised Jurisdiction in this Land these late Years he is the most noted Man and most cried out upon Insomuch as he hath found from the Irish the Nick-name of Pouc And albeit he came off with credit when he was questioned and justified himself by the Table of Fees as by a leaden Rule any Stone may be approved as well-hewed by that little I have met with sitice I came hither I am induced to believe it was not for lack of Matter but there was some other cause of his escaping in that Trial. By his pretended Commission and that Table of Fees he hath taken in my Predecessor's Time and seeks to take in mine for Exhibits at Visitations and his Charges there above the Bishop's Procurations for Unions Sequestrations Relaxations Certificates Licences Permutations of Penance Sentences as our Court calls them Interlocutory in Causes of Correction c. Such Fees as I cannot in my Conscience think to be just and yet he doth it in my Name and tells me I cannot call him into question for it Alas my Lord if this be the condition of a Bishop that he stands for a Cipher and only to uphold the Wrongs of other Men What do I in this Place Am I not bound by my Profession made to God in your presence and following your words To be gentle and merciful for Christ's sake to poor and needy People and such as be destitute of help Can I be excused another day with this That thus it was e're I came to this place and that it is not good to be over just Or sith I am perswaded Mr. Cook 's Patent is unjust and void am I not bound to make it so And to regulate If I may this matter of Fees and the rest of the Disorders of the Jurisdiction which his Majesty hath betrusted me withal Your Grace saith truly It is a difficult thing if not impossible to overthrow a Patent so confirmed and I know in Deliberations it is one of the most important Considerations what we may hope to effect But how can I tell till I have tried To be discouraged e're I begin is it not to consult with Flesh and Blood Verily I think so and therefore must put it to the trial and leave the success to God If I obtain the Cause the Profit shall be to this poor Nation if not I shall shew my Consent to those my Reverend Brethren that have endeavoured to redress this Enormity before me I shall have the Testimony of mine own Conscience to have sought to discharge my Duty to God and his People Yea which is the main the Work of my Ministry and my Service to this Nation shall receive furtherance howsoever rather than any hinderance thereby And if by the continuance of such Oppressions any thing fall out otherwise than well I shall have acquitted my self towards his Majesty and those that have engaged themselves for me At last I shall have the better Reason and juster Cause to resign to his Majesty the Jurisdiction which I am not permitted to manage And here I beseech your Grace to consider seriously whether it were not happy for us to be rid of this Charge which not being proper to our Calling nor possibly to be executed without Deputies as subjects us to the ill conceit of their unjust or indiscreet carriage and no way furthers our own Work Or if it shall be thought fit to carry this Load still whether we ought not to procure some way to be discharged of the envy of it and redress the abuse with the greatest strictness we can devise For my part I cannot bethink me of any course fitter for
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
is the Bishop of Rome And the Title whereby he claimeth this power over us is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole World because he is S. Peter's Successor forsooth And indeed if St. Peter himself had been now alive I should freely confess that he ought to have spiritual Authority and Superiority within this Kingdom But so would I say also if St. Andrew St. Bartholoâ—ew St. Thomas or any of the other Apostles had been alive For I know that their Commission was very large to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel unto every Creature So that in what part of the World soever they lived they could not be said to be out of their Charge their Apostleship being a kind of an Universal Bishoprick If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himself to be one of this rank the Oath must be amended and we must acknowledge that he hath Ecclesiastical Authority within this Realm True it is that our Lawyers in their Year-Books by the name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope But if they had examined his Title to that Apostleship as they would try an ordinary man's Title to a piece of Land they might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects therein For first It would be enquired whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special Commission which being personal only was to determine with the death of the first Apostles For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this Commission we find that Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the room of Judas yet afterwards when James the Brother of John was slain by Herod we do not read that any other was substituted in his place Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no Successors in this kind Neither did any of the Bishops he of Rome only excepted that sate in those famous Churches wherein the Apostles exercised their ministry challenge an Apostleship or an Universal Bishoprick by virtue of that Succession It would secondly therefore be inquired what sound Evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleship as it were in Fee for him and his Successors for ever and that the other eleven should hold the same for term of life only Thirdly if this state of perpetuity was to be cast upon one how came it to fall upon St. Peter rather than upon St. John who outlived all the rest of his follows and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his Successors for ever Fourthly if that state were wholly setled upon St. Peter seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome we require them to shew why so great an inheritance as this should descend unto the younger Brother as it were by Burrough-English rather than to the elder according to the ordinary manner of descents Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment but only that St. Peter was crucified in it which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it Seeing therefore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome appear to be so vain and frivolous I may safely conclude That he ought to have no Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority within this Realm which is the principal point contained in the second part of the Oath JAMES REX RIght Reverend Father in God and Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor We greet you well You have not deceived our expectation nor the gracious opinion We ever conceived both of your abilities in Learning and of your faithfulness to Us and our Service Whereof as we have received sundry Testimonies both from Our precedent Deputies as likewise from Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin and Councellor the Viscount Falkland Our present Deputy of that Realm so have We now of late in one particular had a further evidence of your Duty and Affection well expressed by your late carriage in Our Castle-Chamber there at the censure of those disobedient Magistrates who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Wherein your zeal to the maintenance of Our Just and Lawful Power defended with so much Learning and Reason deserves Our Princely and Gracious thanks which We do by this Our Letter unto you and so bid you farewell Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the eleventh of January 1622. In the twentieth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland To the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor the Bishop of Meath This discourse had so good an effect that divers of the Offenders being satisfied they might lawfully take those Oaths did thereby avoid the Sentence of Praemunire then ready to be pronounced against them After the Bishop had been in Ireland about two years it pleased King James to imploy him to write the Antiquities of the British Church and that he might have the better opportunity and means for that end he sent over a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland commanding them to grant a Licence for his being absent from his See part of which Letter it may not be amiss to give you here Verbatim JAMES REX RIght Trusty and Welbeloved Cousins c. We Greet you well Whereas We have heretofore in Our Princely judgment made choice of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to imploy him in Collecting the Antiquities of the British Church before and since the Christian Faith was received by the English Nation And whereas We are also given to understand That the said Bishop hath already taken pains in divers things in that kind which being published might tend to the furtherance of Religion and good Learning Our pleasure therefore is That so soon as the said Bishop hath setled the necessary Affairs of his Bishoprick there he should repair into England and to one of the Universities here to enable himself by the helps to be had there to proceed the better to the finishing of the said Work Requiring you hereby to cause our Licence to be passed unto him the said Lord Bishop of Meath under Our Great Seal orotherwise as he shall desire it and unto you shall be thought fit for his repairing unto this Kingdom for Our Service and for his continuance here so long time as he shall have occasion to stay about the perfecting of those Works undertaken by him by Our Commandment and for the good of the Church c. Upon which Summons the Bishop came over into England and spent about a year here in consulting the best Manuscripts in both Universities and private Libraries in order to the perfecting that noble Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum though it was not published till above two years after when we shall take occasion to speak thereof more at large
though upon a sad occasion of his Majesty's excellent conversation in the same House who received him with his wonted kindness and favour Whilst he was here the Lord Primate preached before him in the Castle and when his Majesty went away and that the Lord Primate had taken his leave of him I heard him declare that nothing came nearer to his heart than the imminent danger of the King and Church with the effusion of so much Christian Blood His Majesty's necessities now not permitting him to leave many men in Garrisons he was now forced to unfurnish this as well as others of its Souldiers and Ammunition so that Sir Timothy Tyrrel was forced to quit that Government by reason of which the Arch-Bishop being forced to remove was in a great strait whether to go the ways from thence to Oxford being all cut off by the Enemy so that he had some thoughts being near the Sea of going over into France or Holland to both which places he had been formerly invited as hath been already mentioned But whilst he was in this perplexity the Lady Dowager Stradling sent him a kind invitation to come to her Castle of St. Donates as soon as he pleased which he accepted as a great favour But by that time he was ready to go with his Daughter the Lady Tyrrel the Country thereabouts was up in Arms in a tumultuous manner to the number of Ten Thousand as was supposed who chose themselves Officers to form them into a Body pretending for the King but yet would not be governed by English Commanders or suffer any English Garrisons in the Country this gave the Lord Primate a fresh disturbance the Welch-men lying upon the ways between that place and St. Donates but there were some at that time in Caerdiffe who would needs undertake to convey the Lord Primate and his company through by ways so that they might avoid this tumultuous Rabble which though it might be well advised by the then Governor of Caerdiffe and was faithfully enough executed by them that undertook it yet happened very ill for my Lord and those that were with him for going by some private ways near the Mountains they fell into a stragling Party that were scouting thereabouts who soon led them to their main Body where it was Crime enough that they were English so that they immediately fell to plundering and breaking open my Lord Brimate's Chests of Books and other things which he then had with him ransacking all his Manuscripts and Papers many of them of his own hand writing which were quickly dispersed among a thousand hands and not content with this they pulled the Lord Primate and his Daughter and other Ladies from their Horses all which the Lord Primate bore with his wonted patience and a seeming unconcernedness But now some of their Officers coming in who were of the Gentry of the Country seemed very much ashamed of this barbarous treatment and by force or fair means caused their Horses and other things which were taken from them to be restored but as for the Books and Papers they were got into too many hands to be then retrieved nor were these Gentlemen satisfied with this but some of them very civilly conducted him through the rest of this tumultuous Rabble to Sir John Aubery's House not far off where he was civilly received and lodged that Night When he came thither and had retired himself I must confess that I never saw him so much troubled in my life and those that were with him before my self said That he seemed not more sensibly concerned for all his losses in Ireland than for this saying to his Daughter and those that endeavoured to comfort him I know that it is God's hand and I must endeavour to bear it patiently though I have too much humane frailty not to be extremely concerned for I am touched in a very tender place and He has thought â—it to take from me at once all that I have been gathering together above these twenty years and which I intended to publish for the advancement of Learning and the good of the Church The next day divers of the neighbouring Gentry and Clergy came to Visit him and to Condole this irreparable loss promising to do their utmost endeavours that what Books or Papers were not burnt or torn should be restored and so very civilly waited on him to St. Donates And to let you see that these Gentlemen and Ministers did not only promise but were also able to perform it they so used their power with the people that publishing in the Churches all over those parts That all that had any such Books or Papers should bring them to their Ministers or Landlords which they accordingly did so that in the space of two or three Months there were brought in to him by parcels all his Books and Papers so fully that being put altogether we found not many wanting those most remarkable that I or others can call to mind were two Manuscripts concerning the VValdenses which he much valued and which he had obtained toward the continuing of his Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione As also another Manuscript Catalogue of the Persian Kings communicated by Elikmannus and one Volume of Manuscripts Variae Lectiones of the New Testament And of Printed Books only Tully's Works and some others of less concernment Whilst the Lord Primate was at St. Donates till he could get his own Books and Papers again he spent his time chiefly in looking over the Books and Manuscripts in the Library in that Castle and which had been collected by Sir Edward Stradling a great Antiquary and friend of Mr. Cambden's and out of some of these Manuscripts the L. Primate made many choice Collections of the British or Welch Antiquity which I have now in my Custody Within a little more than a Month after my Lord Primate's coming hither he was taken with a sharp and dangerous illness which began at first with the Strangury and suppression of Urine with extremity of torture which at last caused a violent bleeding at the Nose for near forty hours together without any considerable intermission no means applied could stop it so that the Physicians and all about him dispaired of his life till at last when we apprehended he was expiring it stanched of it self for he lay a good while in a trance but God had some farther work for him to perform and was pleased by degrees to restore him to his former health and strength but it is worth the remembering that whilst he was in the midst of his pain as also his bleeding he was still patient praising God and resigning up himself to his Will and giving all those about him or that came to visit him excellent Heavenly advice to a Holy Life and due preparation for death e're its Agonies seized them saying It is a dangerous thing to leave all undone till our last sickness I fear a Death-bed Repentance will avail us little if we have lived
in the accounts of Time Names or Numbers of men difference of some Words and Phrases c. whilst they still agree in all the main points both of the History and Doctrine which I think ought to satisfie any sincere considering Person that God's Providence has taken sufficient care to convey these Sacred Records and Foundations of our Faith clear and uncorrupted to us a reasonable allowance being still given to the Mistakes and Errours of the Copiers or Translators which were not Divinely Inspired so as to secure us from all mistakes in a Book which has been so often transcribed in so many hundreds of years and that out of a Language which is thought by divers of the learned to have been written without any of those Points which in most of these Eastern Languages stand for Vowels But to other of the Learned of the contrary Opinion and what our Primate thought of this and some beside him skill'd in this point we may understand among the Collections hereafter unto which I refer the Reader and to return from whence we have digressed The Lord Primate being once importuned by a Learned man to give some directions in Writing for the advancement of solid and useful learning as well Sacred as Prophane he said it might be thus performed 1. By learned Notes and Illustrations on the Bible 2. By censuring and inquiring into the Ancient Councils and Works of the Fathers 3. By the orderly Writing and Digesting of Ecclesiastical History 4. By gathering together whatsoever may concern the State of the Jews from the destruction of Jerusalem to this present Age. 5. By Collecting of all the Greek and Roman Histories and disting them into a Body And to effect all this he proposed That the most ingenious and studious men of both Universities being preferred to Prebends in Cathedral Churches should be enjoyned and amply encouraged to prosecute this design for the advancement of this most profitable Learning And how much the Lord Primate desired the performance of these so useful works appears by what he had long since recommended to the University of Oxford touching the revising the Works of the Ancient Fathers of the Church What his design was in this kind the Reader may best judge by this passage in a Letter written 1626. recommending this design to the University of Oxford which I shall here insert The business of Revising the Ancient Fathers works in Latin so long projected and so many years followed by Dr. James I do greatly approve and judge it to be as the times now are and the Books now printed at Cologne and else where most necessary tending to the great honour of this famous University the benefit of them that shall be imployed therein and the great good of the Church And if the Heads of the University would be pleased or might be intreated to incourage and imploy some of their Younger Divines herein whereof I see so great store and some I have found very painful in another kind I shall think my self greatly honoured by this University as I confess I have been very much already if by my means they may be the rather encouraged to the performance of this great work And indeed he had so great an esteem of the Ancient Authors for the acquiring any solid learning whether Sacred or Prophane that his advice to young Students either in Divinity or Antiquity was not to spend too much time in Epitomes but to set themselves to read the Ancient Authors themselves as to begin with the Fathers and to read them according to the Ages in which they lived which was the Method he had taken himself and together with them carefully to peruse the Church Historians that treated of that Age in which those Fathers lived by which means the Student would be better able to perceive the reason and meaning of divers Passages in their Writings which otherwise would be obscure when he knew the Original and Growth of those Heresies and Heterodox Opinions they wrote against and may also better judge what Doctrines Ceremonies and Opinions prevailed in the Church in every Age and by what means introduced So likewise for Prophane Authors his advice was to begin with the most Ancient and so to read them in the order of time of which they writ which was the Method he used in the composing of his Annals Nor did he advise Students in Divinity to spend more time than was necessary in the subtilties of the School-men only so far as might serve for the understanding and answering the Controversies between those of the Church of Rome and us saying That they were good to puzzle mens heads with unnecessary doubts but bunglers in resolving them and that their Writings had done more mischief to the Church than brought advantage either to Learning or Religion That they might serve for Controversial Disputes in the Schools but were very improper for the Pulpit and altogether useless for the Functions of a Civil Life And whom one would think Prudentius had on purpose thus described Solvunt ligantque quaestionum vincula per Syllogismos plectiles fidem minutis diffecant ambagibus c. As for the Heathen moral Philosophers he advised young Divines not to spend too much time in them for they were much mistaken in many great points of Morality and true happiness the best rules of life c. and the shortest and plainest for all moral Duties being delivered by God in the Holy Scriptures In Theological Treatises and Discourses he was displeased with new wording of old Truths and changing the Terms used by the Ancients to express the things they meant he would have the old form of sound words retained for Qui nova facit verba nova gignit Dogmata and ever suspected that those who purposely used new coined words had no very good meaning or else affected too great singularity But I think I need say no more to prove the Lord Primate's great knowledge in all parts of useful Learning since besides the Suffrages of the most knowing men of this Age his many and learned works of which I have given you a short account in this Treatise sufficiently declare it to the World but let us look back a little and survey at once those various parts of Learning he was skilled in First his Sermons Treatises Theological and Writings against the Papists do sufficiently shew how great a Doctor he was in Theology as well Practical as Polemical his Theological Bibliotheke as imperfect as it is together with the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp which he put forth with learned dissertations concerning their Writings as also his Treatise of the Ancient Apostolical Symbol of the Roman Church declare how well he was versed in all the Ancient Monuments of the Church as his works of the Succession and state of the Christian Churches and of the Antiquities of the British Church do his knowledge in Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity his Syntagma of the Version of the Septuagint
and his Epistle to Lud. Capellus concerning the various readings of the Hebrew Text speak him a great Critick in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues and his Annals of the Old and New Testament do shew how great a Master he was in all the Ancient Authors both Sacred and Prophane besides several other smaller Treatises as well in Latin as English viz. Of the Macedonian Year the Geographical Description of the lesser Asia c. each of which shew his great skill either in Astronomy ancient Geography or the Civil Laws of the Roman Empire besides divers other smaller Works of his too many to be here particularly inserted and therefore I shall refer the Reader to the Catalogue added at the end of this Account Yet must I not omit particularly to take notice of two excellent Posthumous Treatises of his which have not been yet mentioned as being published since his death the first is that of the Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject which was written by the King's Command during the late Wars but forborn then to be published because the corruption of those Times still growing worse and worse would not bear this sound Doctrine nor did he think it proper to do it in the short time of that Usurper lest he or others might have interpreted it to his advantage but not long after his late Majesty's happy Restauration it was Published and Dedicated to him by the Lord Primate's Grandson James Tyrrel with an excellent Preface written by that learned and good Bishop Sanderson in which he has given as true a Character of the Author as of the work it self in which he says with a great deal of truth That there is nothing which can be brought either from the Holy Scriptures Fathers Philosophers common Reason and the Laws and Statutes of this Realm to prove it altogether unlawful for Subjects to take up Arms against their Sovereign Prince but is there made use of with the greatest advantage The other Treatise is written in Latin entitled Chronologia Sacra which the Lord Primate never lived to finish but was as much of it as could be found though somewhat imperfectly published by the Learned and Reverend Dr. Barlow now Lord Bishop of Lincoln The occasion and design of this Treatise was to prove the Foundations of the accounts of time in his Annals and that his Chronological Calculations made use of in that work agreed with the accounts laid down in the Scriptures and Prophane Authors which could not be done in the Annals themselves without interrupting the Series of the Work In this he hath solved several difficulties relating to the History and Chronology of the Bible he began with the Creation though the first Chapter is lost being not to be found among his Papers yet in the next he gives an exact account of the differences between the Jewish Samaritan and Greek Calculations from the Creation to the Birth of Abraham which he carried on as far as the time of the Judges but was then interrupted by death Yet he had before happily perfected the account of the Reigns and Synchronisms of the Kings of Judah and Israel from Saul to the Babylonish Captivity which being more perfect than the other part was thought fit by the Printer or Publisher to be set before it though it be indeed contrary to the order of time It was great pity that my Lord did not live to finish this work which would have been of excellent use for the clearing of many difficulties and reconciling the differences between the Sacred and Prophane Chronology and History I may here likewise take notice of those many Volumes of his Collections and several of them all of his own hand on particular subjects both Theological Philological and Historical most of them extracted out of several Manuscripts in the Libraries of the Universities Cathedrals and private mens Studies there being scarce a choice Book or Manuscript in any of them but was known to him nor was he conversant in the Libraries of our own Nation alone but also knew most of the choice pieces in the Vatican Escurial and Imperial Library at Vienna as likewise in that of the King of France of Thuanus at Paris and Erpenius in Holland as still appears by the Catalogues he had procured of them divers of which I have now in my Custody and out of which Libraries he at his great cost procured divers Copies for his own use which made the most considerable Ornament of his Study But to return to his own Collections above mentioned which were the Store-Houses and Repositories from whence he furnished himself with materials for the writing of so many learned Treatises and out of which might be gathered matter towards the performing much more in the same kind though divers Volumes of them were borrowed by Dr. Bernard and never restored by him as I have already said Yet those that remain are thought very considerable by the several Learned men who have perused them and in particular the late judicious Lord Chief Justice Hale having borrowed several of them did out of them Transcribe those four Volumes which he bequeaths in his Will to the Library at Lincolns-Inn among divers other Manuscripts of his by the name of His Extracts out of the Lord Primate's Collections And for the satisfaction of the Reader I shall give you the Heads and Subjects of some of the most considerable of them at the end of this account So that the Lord Primate was like the wise Housholder in the Gospel who brought out of his Treasure things New and Old And a Learned man of this Nation compared the Arch-Bishop of Armagh not only to a careful Surveyor who collects all sorts of materials for his building before he begins his work but also to a skilful Architect who knew Artificially how to frame and put together the materials before Collected till they became one strong entire and uniform Structure Nor does any thing more express the great strength of the Lord Primate's memory than those Collections which though promiscuously gathered by way of Adversaria according as those Subjects offered themselves yet could he as readily call to mind and find out any particular in them which he had occasion to make use of as if they had been digested in the more exact method of a Common-place-Book So that he certainly deserved a much higher Character than that Dr. Heylin Sarcastically puts upon him Of a walking Concordance and living Library as if he had been only an Index for such wise men as himself to make use of but greater Scholars than he had far higher and more Reverend thoughts of him there being scarce a Learned Writer of this present Age who does not mention his great Piety Learning and Judgment with honour and veneration I had once collected a great many Elogies of this kind from the Writings of divers considerable Authors but since I find that done already by others and that it would swell this work
Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day And St. Paul tells us Ephes. 2. 8. For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God So Phil. 1. 29. And that likewise it is the greatness of God's Power that raises Man's heart unto this Faith Ephes. 1. 19. So then Faith being the work of God in Man's heart which he bestows on whom he pleases all the question now is Whether Christ has obtained Reconciliation and Remission of Sins from his Father for those whom God foresaw would or could not obtain this saving Faith and if not consequently not for the Reprobate as the Lord Primat hath laid down they being only Reprobate for want of this Faith Nor will this be contradictory to my Lord Prim at 's other Proposition against such 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 Since this is to be understood of the Supralapsarian Opinion which makes Reprobation to be antecedant to the Fall of Adam and not only at a Praeterition but a Predamnation for actual Sins Whereas the Lord Primat held that Mankind considered in massa corrupta after the Fall of Adam was the only Object of God's Election or Reprobation so that it is in this sence that he is to be understood when he says that our Saviour hath obtainedat the hands of his Father forgiveness of Sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only Nor does he say that this proceeds from any deficiency in our Saviour's Death and Satisfaction which is sufficient to save the whole World if they would lay hold of it and apply it to themselves but the reason why all Men were not thereby saved was because they do not accept Salvation when offered to them Which is the Lord Primat's express words in a Sermon upon John 1. 12. concerning our Redemption by Christ. So that those passages in our Liturgy and Catechism before cited by the Doctor of Christ's being a sufficient Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World and in the Catechism of his redeeming all Mankind must certainly be understood in this restrictive sence viz. to as many of the World of Mankind as God foresaw would lay hold of this Satisfaction by Faith and good Works or else all Men must have a like share therein whether they contribute any thing to it by Faith or Repentance or not And now I shall leave it to the indifferent Reader to judg whether the Lord Primat or the Doctor are most to be blamed for breaking their Subscription to the 39 Articles as the Doctor would have him guilty of in this Point because the Church of England in its second Article says expresly that Christ suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original Guilt but also for the Actual Sins of Men. In which says he as well the Sacrifice as the effect and fruit thereof which is the Reconciliation of Mankind to God the Father is delivered in general terms without any restriction put upon them neither the Sacrifice nor the Reconciliation being restrained to this or that Man some certain quidams of their own whom they pass commonly by the name of God's Elect. The Sacrifice being made for the Sins of Men of Men indefinitly without limitation is not to be confined to some few Men only Yet after the Doctor has said all he can it seems still to me and I suppose to any unprejudiced Reader that these Christ suffered c. to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice c. for the actual Sins of Men to be not general but limited Propositions since by reconciling his Father to us can be understood no further than to us that are not Reprobates every Man supposing himself not to be of that number and in this sence the Lord Primat himself makes use of the words we and us in his Body of Divinity when he speaks of Justification and Reconciliation by Faith tho he there supposes that all Men are not actually justified nor reconciled to God by Christ's Sufferings And as for the last clause it is no more general than the former for tho the word Men be used in that place indefinitly yet it is not therefore a general Proposition it being still to be understood of those Men who truly believe for otherwise it had been very easie and natural for the Framers of this Article to have added this small word all and if they had the question would have been much as it was before Christ's Death being a Sacrifice that did not actually take away the Sins of the whole World for then none could be damned tho vertually it hath power to do it if it were rightly applied the Sacrifice having such virtue in it self that if all the World would take it and apply it it were able to expiate the Sins of the whole World as the Lord Primat in the above cited Sermon very plainly and truly expresses himself on this Doctrine The fourth Point which the Doctor accuses the Lord Primat not to hold according to the Church of England is that of the true and real Presence of Christ's most precious Body and Blood in the Sacrament Which Doctrine of a real Presence he first proves from the words of the distribution retained in the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth and formerly prescribed to be used in the ancient Missals viz. The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto Life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. It is proved secondly by that passage in the publick Catechism in which the party catechised is taught to say that the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received of the Faithful in the Lord's Supper Now if a question should be made what the Church means by verily and indeed in the former passage it must be answered that she means that Christ is truly and really present in that blessed Sacrament as before was said the words being rendred thus in the Latin Translation viz. Corpus Sanguis Domini quae verè realiter exhibentur c. verily and indeed as the English hath it the same with verè and realiter that is to say truly and really as it is in the Latin He likewise cites Bp. Bilson Bp Morton and Bp. Andrews all of them to maintain a true and real Prefence of Christ in the Sacrament and likewise Mr. Alex. Noel in his Latin Catechism makes the party catechized answer to this effect That the Body and Blood of Christ given in the Lord's Supper and eaten and drank by them tho it be only in an heavenly and spiritual manner yet are they both given and taken truly and really or
Arbitrary Innovations not within the compass of the Rule and Order of the Book of Common-prayer and that he did not take upon him to introduce any Rite or Ceremony upon his own Opinion of Decency till the Church had judged it so p. 147. What the Lord Primat's behaviour was in England in relation to some of these Ceremonies of lesser moment either to the peace or well-being of the Church the Lord Primat needs no Apology he having reason enough for what he did if he conformed himself no further than the Doctor would have him But to give one Instance for all of the Doctor 's want of Charity towards the Lord Primat Dr. Bernard having asserted his Conformity to the Discipline Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England and that many of those who were called Puritans received such satisfaction from him as to concur with him in the above-said particulars The Doctor immediatly makes this Remark For this says he might very well be done and yet the Men remain as unconformable to the Rules of the Church their Kneeling at the Communion only excepted as they were before Now what other Rules of the Church the Doctor means I know not since I always thought that whoever had brought over a Lay-Nonconformist to conform to the Service and Orders of the Church had done a very good work and I know not when that is done what is required more to make him a true Son of the Church of England But I shall say no more on this ungrateful Subject since I doubt not but the Lord Primat's great Esteem and Reputation is too deep rooted in the hearts of all Good Men to be at all lessened by the Doctor 's hard Reflections tho I thought I could do no less than vindicate the Memory of so pious a Prelate since many ordinary Readers who were not acquainted with this good Bishop or his Writings may think Dr. H. had cause thus to find fault with him So avoiding all invidious Reflections upon the Reverend Doctor long since deceased I shall now conclude heartily wishing that whatever he hath written or published had never done any more prejudice to that Church which he undertook to serve than any of those Writings or Opinions of the Lord Primat's which he so much finds fault with FINIS A COLLECTION Of Three Hundred LETTERS Written between the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH and most of the Eminentest Persons for PIETY and LEARNING in his Time both in ENGLAND and beyond the SEAS Collected and Published From Original Copies under their own Hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the Time of his Death with whom the Care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI THE CONTENTS LETTER I. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Richard Stanihurst at the English Colledge in Lovain Page 1. II. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. William Eyres 2 III. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 3 IV. A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 11 V. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Mr. James Usher 13 VI. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 14 VII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 15 VIII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Dr. Challoner 16 IX A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 17 X. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Samuel Ward 18 XI A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr James Usher 22 XII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to Mr. James Usher 32 XIII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 33 XIV A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 34 XV. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 34 XVI A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 35 XVII A Letter from the Most Reverend Tobias Matthews Arch-Bishop of York to Mr. James Usher 36 XVIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Mr. James Usher 37 XIX A Letter from Mr. Robert Usher to Dr. James Usher 38 XX. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 39 XXI A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 43 XXII A Letter from Dr. James Usher concerning the Death and Satisfaction of Christ. 46 XXIII An Answer to some Objections against the said Letter by Dr. James Usher 49 XXIV A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 53 XXV A Letter from Mr. William Crashaw to Dr. James Usher 55 XXVI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Dr. James Usher 56 XXVII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 57 XXVIII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 59 XXIX A Letter from Mr. James Warren to Dr. James Usher 60 XXX A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 60 XXXI A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 61 XXXII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 62 XXXIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. William Camden 63 XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher 65 XXXV A Letter from Mr. Thomas Warren to Dr. James Usher 66 XXXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Chester to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 68 XXXIX A Letter from Dr. James Usher 71 XL. A Letter from Mr. Edward Browncker to Dr. James Usher 72 XLI A Letter from Dr. James Usher Bishop Elect of Meath to the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh 73 XLII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 75 XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 76 XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 77 XLV A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVI A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVII A Letter from Sir Robert Cotton to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 79 XLVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 80 XLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Mr. John Selden 81 L. A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 81 LI. A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Oliver Lord Grandison 83 LII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 84 LIII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward 85
sanxerunt post istorum quatuor auctoritatem omni manent stabilita vigore quorum gesta in HOC OPERE condita continentur 2. Annotatio 6. principalium Synodorum item Annotatio 19. Synodorum quarum gesta in HOC CODICE continentur This is to be found in Gratian Distinct. 16. Cap. 10. 11. with some Additions at the end Whereof see the Roman Corrections in that place Now seeing in this Catalogue many Councils are reckoned which are not to be found in Isidore's Collection and some also in Isidorus which are not to be found in this Catalogue which seemeth to be the cause why this Catalogue was omitted by Crab as not agreeing to the Collections now extant it appeareth that Annotatio Synodorum quarum gesta in HOC CODICE continentur was translated hither out of some other Collection of Councils not now extant For beside the Book which had the Greek Canons there is no doubt but there were others which contained also the constitutions of the Western Councils One of which was used by Ferrandus who beside Concilium Cellense or Zellense which is the same with Concilium Tilense sub Siricio P. in Isidore and Crab citeth 7 other Councils not now to be found as I suppose Marazense or Marizanense Macrianense Suffetulense Incense Tusduritanum Thenitanum and Septimunicense But to return to the Printed Isidorus There follow there 3. The Epistle of Aurelius to Damasus and of Damasus to Aurelius extant also in Crab and the Copy of your publick Library which Epistles Baronius sheweth ad an 374. § 11. to have been counterfeited by this counterfeit Isidorus 4. Isidorus his Preface which is extant in Crab and the MS. of your publick Library Where he is called Isidorus Mercator for peccator Whereof see the Roman Correct of Gratian Distinct. 16. Cap. 4. and Baronius in Martyrolog Roman April 4. 5. The 50. Canons of the Apostles as they are in your Benett Copy 6. The Decretal Epistles of the Popes from Clemens to Melchiades inclusivè as in order they lie in the former part of the first Tome of the Decretal Epistles set out by the Authority of Sixtus V. at Rome An. 1592. fol. as also in your two Manuscripts 7. The Discourse De Primitivâ Ecclesiâ and Edictum D. Constantini Imperatoris which is the Lewd Donation fathered upon Constantine extant in Crab immediately before the Nicene Council 8. The Nicene Council with a Preface prefixed in your Copy of the publick Library as I remember The Acts of the Nicene Council are more largely set down than in the Printed Copy of Isidore I pray you make a Comparison with your Crab and Write unto me what you find 9. The Canons of Councils from Nicen. I. to Hispalense II. as in your Bennet Copy For in the Copy of the publick Library all this is wanting 10. Concilium Romanum sub Silvestro as in Crab pag. 271. the Counterfeit Epistles of Athanasius and the Aegyptian Bishops to Pope Mark c. in Crab pag. 299 with other Decretal Epistles from Marcus to Gregory the first in whom Isidorus ended his Collection as himself in his Preface signifieth Yet in the end are further added the Epistles of Gregorius Minor Vitalianus Martinus Gregorius III and Zacharias as they were found in the Ancient Copies of this Collection But enough or rather too much now of Isidorus Beside these Ancient Collections there were kept in later times greater Volumes of the Councils containing both Eastern and Western Councils Old and New not much unlike the first Edition of Crab set out at Colon. An. 1538 fol. Such a one have I seen fairly Written with Sr. Robert Cotton and such a one is that which you enquire of in Sr. Thomas Bodley's Library Pag. 34. c. 1. n. 7. Such a one also is that of Lorrain in bibliothecâ Canonicorum Ecclesiae Virdunensis mentioned by Fronto Ducoeus the Jesuit apud Baron An. 811. § 19. And hither do I refer the great Book of the Acts of the Councils of which Petrus de Aliaco about the end of his Book de Reformatione Ecclesiae wisheth care to be had Ut magnus Codex Conciliorum generalium qui modo rarus est saith he licet sit perutilis necessarius à Metropolitanis in magnis Ecclesiis reponeretur And sure a Faithful Record of the Acts of General Councils would be a matter of great moment We have long expected them from the Roman Press Where the good Fathers have been mending them a longer time than Nature requireth for bringing forth an Elephant Anno 1591. or about the Year 1593. at the farthest the Work was under the Press as appeareth by Baronius ad An. 360. § 17. ad An. 431. § 112. Jo. Antonius Petramellarius in his continuation of Onuphrius his Book of Popes and Cardinals set out Anno 1599. signified unto us that the work was Printed pag. 355. But that it was not yet finished Baronius after that maketh known unto us ad An. 787. § 9. 811. § 19. And whether this Birth of theirs as yet hath seen the Light I cannot learn We read in Socrates lib. 1. cap. 5. lib. 2. cap. 11. 13. lib. 3. cap. 21. that one Sabinus a Macedonian Heretick gathered together the Acts of the Councils But it seemeth that Work is perished except that be some abridgement of it which is extant in the Library of the Patriarch of Constantinople and intituled Sabini Monachi Epitome omnium Synodorum as it is in the Catalogue of Constantinople set out by Antonius Verderius in Supplemento Epitomes Gesnerianae But what should we talk of Works which we have no hope to come by J. U. LETTER XI A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutem in Domino plurimam Good Mr. Usher I Received your large Letters c. As you were confirmed in your Opinion touching the Ancient Canonical Code by the Parisian which I sent you So I having long since observed the place of Dionysius Exiguus in his Epistle to the Bishop of Saling which is extant in Casiodorus was glad to see you jump with me which place I much marvel how it escaped our Parisian being a far better Evidence for the Ancient Code than is that of the Council of Chalcedon considering it setteth down exactly the Number of 165 That this Collection of the Council of Nice and the 5 Provincial was before the Council of Constantinople besides your conjecture from the placing of the Provincials after that General of Nice which you make out of Dionysius and is also in the Titles which are in the Greek Canons and in Codex Moguntinus methinks that may probably be gathered out of the 16th Action of the Council of Chalcedon When after that Constantine the Secretary of the Consistory had read the 6th Can. of the Nicene Council out of the Canonical Code which was in the Custody of Aetius the Arch-Deacon which no doubt was the same which is mentioned both in the 4.
Spain will satisfy your longing therein some of the first places are amended according to the Prescript of that unholy Inquisition but farther they proceed not all the rest and in one place a whole leaf or two are to be expunged but untouched in that of Lyons We have fully finished the Collation of the Opus imperfectum hereafter more of that matter mean time I have taken pains for trial sake to compare both our Basil and it with the Manuscript for one Homily I find wonderful need of a second review I have sent you a Proof of some few Differences from both the printed Copies whereby you may perceive how this Book and sundry others have been tossed and tumbled by ignorant Men what and how great mistakes and need of a diligent review for this is but lapping I do send you up also in thankfulness for Dr. Goad's Project a Fancy of mine which I pray you to impart to the good Bishop if he give any liking to it let it go forward if otherwise let it be remanded it is both fesible and possible in my judgment If Cambridge will set up or set forward the like I dare undertake more good to be done for the profit of Learning and true Religion than by building ten Colleges I have of late given my self to the reading only of Manuscripts and in them I find so many and so pregnant Testimonies either fully for our Religion or against the Papists that it is to be wondred at Religion of Papists then and now do not agree How many private Men out of their Devotion would singly be able to found such a College much more jointly considered but I leave all to God's Providence it shall suffice and be a great comfort to me if this cannot be effected that by my Lord of Canterbury's Letters which I have long'd for we may have a quasi College and the whole benefit of that which is expected in Dr. Goad's refin'd Project I my self by my intreaty have set twenty or thirty a-work how may the Lord Archbishop command our Heads of Houses and they their Company or at least one out of a College or Hall I have or shall receive this week three quire of Paper of my Workmen for which as they finish the quire I lay out the Mony 20 s. for each quire of Gu. de S. Amore I have received one quire and so of Wickleph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is harder to read and the other in English of Wicklephs I look for this day Platina is almost done Alphonsus à Castro respited a while and Cajetan likewise till I hear from the Learned Bishop Touching Wicelius I thank you for your Advertisment I now perceive my Conjecture fails me not that Cassander was much holpen by him and his Judgment confirm'd by reading his but if I read his Epistles I will tell you my mind howsoever in the interim Wicelius is of more authority than Cassander and his Books concealed purposely or made away quantum in illis by the Inquisitors I have ever been of Dr. Ward 's mind touching the publishing those Books which they make away so fast ut jugulent homines furgunt c. Fisher de natura Dei is in one of their Indices impudently denied to be his tho some one in the Council of Trent say nay Upon the fifth of Matthew is but a scantling to those great Volumes which I have ready if any Man please to come hither he may see the whole My Lord of Meath's return and earnestness for the Plot both before and since as also Dr. Goad's forwardness to print ought hereabout I pray God the News be not too good to be true glads me much as the Sickness of my Lord of Ely doth some no less It were not from the purpose if Dr. Sutcliff do see this whole Project of our College and Purpose and if he did turn away his mind wholly from Chelsey I durst presume of more fasibility and possibility here of doing good Lastly for the Catalogue it is a great and painful Work but hath well requited my Pains in that I find some Books that I have long sought after and could not find as Stella of the Popes and such like If any thing be printed I would print only those that are not mentioned in our present Catalogue But where is the Encouragement for the printing or doing any thing If our Genevians had sent us over that of Gregory at this Mart how seasonable had it been to have put an egde to our great Business I am sorry it came not but see no remedy What of the Enchiridion nothing my Judgment you have and it is free to alter that do nothing at pleasure but sure I am some things are past question lay aside and expunge all doubtful Treatises till our College take them in hand which shall rivet them in after another fashion if God give Life I have now at length recovered the Spanish Book of Mr. Boswell the Book is a Commentary upon our English Laws and Proclamations against Priests and Jesuits spightful and foolish enough but especially about the Powder-Treason laying it to Puritans as Cobham Gray and Rawley or to the whole State or a Policy to intrap Them and their Estates I would my Lord of Meath did understand the Tongue that from him the King might understand the Mystery of Iniquity contained in the Book No Place or Time when or where it was printed Was he asham'd of that he did and it seemeth it or the like like hath been divulged in many Languages But I end and pray God That the Clergy give us not a fair denial that is a delay to our Businesses at this Session Let my Lord prevent as wisely and timely as he can God have you and all yours in his safe keeping and remember my Service in dutiful manner to my Lord and Commendations to my Cousin with whom if I had had the Spirit of Prophecy Dr. Featly should not have coaped withal but God send the Truth to take place if the President be faulty to be punished if innocent to be delivered And so once again I bid you heartily farewel Your most assured Friend Tho. James Oxon the 23d of May 1624. If my Lord of Meath nor any other there hath Wicelius it shall be written out unless my Lord please to speak with Sir William Paddy who was the Donor of the Book and may command it to London where it may be reprinted LETTER LXVII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My very good Lord YEsterday being the 27th of September I received this inclosed Letter In reading whereof it presently came into my mind that this was the Man at whose Sermon his Majesty was so much offended when I was last at Court Whereupon I sent for the party and upon Conference had with him found indeed that I was not deceived in mine Opinion I put him in mind that his Conceits were contrary to the
of my Collations your Lordship shall not want the Heydelburg Edition which I will take care to have sent unto you I have been this Morning with Mr. Patrick Young who cannot give me satisfaction concerning those Books till he have been in the Princes Library For the nameless Annal I conceive that your Amanuensis mistook your meaning for where you say that it begins at the year of our Lord 744 and ends in the year 1100 I cannot see how Asserius Menevensis could be the Author of most of it Mr. Young will make search for it and return an Answer as soon as conveniently he may As for Asserius de rebus gestis Alfredi he tells me that they have only a Transcript of it but Sir Robert Cotton hath an ancient Copy the same he tells me of Florentius Wigorniensis and Simeon Dunelmensis Of Eusebius Chronicle they have three or four Copies and if you please shall have all of them or which you please Sir Rob. Cotton doth daily augment his store he hath gotten lately a Book of St. Edm. Bury By the next return I hope to send the Books which you desire and perhaps to play the Carrier my self There is a rumor of the Adjournment of the Parliament till April but no Proclamation yet come forth There is a new Secretary Sir Albertus Morton to be sworn in the place of Sir Geo. Calvert I have not heard any thing out of Ireland since my last to your Lordship Mr. Young tells me that he received lately a Letter from Paris from one Lucas Holstenius a young Man whom I mention'd sometime to your Lordship being acquainted with him here in London the last year he writes to him that a Jesuit there doth publish a new Edition of Eusebius in Greek and Latin for the furtherance of which Work Mr. Mountague and Mr. Young sends thither their Notes and Observations upon him Petavius is busy about his work de Emendat Temp. which will shortly come abroad Holstenius is printing Scylax Artemidorus Ephesius with divers other old Geographers some of which were heretofore publish'd by D. Haeschelius and some till now never publish'd I doubt not but D. Ryves hath sent your Lordship his Answer to the Analecta I have read him over and approve the Work but not in every particular as where he makes Sedulius among others pag. 46. lib. 2. to be one of St. Patrick's forerunners in the plantation of Christian Religion in Ireland I do not see how that can be The best Authors making him contemporary if not later than St. Patrick Some other passages I could censure both of ancient and modern times but I will spare that labour till our meeting In the mean time with the remembrance of my Love and Service to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher and my heartiest Wishes and Prayers for your Health I will remain Your Lordship's most affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier Lond. Jan. 17. 1624. LETTER LXXVI A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath AFter my Duty in humble manner premised I hope and am right glad to hear of your Lordship's Recovery I have received from your Lordship two Books whereby I have not been a little benefited yet of Boston I hear there is a greater Catalogue extant I forbore to write all this while for fear of trouble I have laboured ever since in the common business as your Lordship shall perceive by an humble Supplication printed which your Lordship shall receive by Mr. Calandrine which could I have had the happiness that it might have passed your learned Censure would have been much more perfect but ut quimus aut quando non ut volumus I have done it as advisedly as I could and doubt not to give every Man good satisfaction in good time If our Friends of Cambridge will joyn with us the Work may be well atchieved within half the time they taking half the Points mentioned and they both sending to us their Observations to be revised by us we ours to them to be revised by them that it may be the work jointly of both Universities My Zeal and Knowledg cannot match Dr. Ward 's yet I will endeavour to do my best I deâ—ire to have my Service remembred to my Lord of Ely I have upon a Letter of your Lordship's imployed some in transcribing Guil. de S. Amore not that which your Lorship sent but another greater and fuller Work that is done and a great deal besides More had been if we had not been compell'd for want of Mony to have surceased and my poor Means would not serve to supply Wants and I am indebted for that which is done Your Lordship by Letter if I mistake not undertook for my Lord of Ely's 20 l. per Annum had all promised been paid I had had 20 or 30 quire in readiness that which I have shall be fitted against the Parliament in the exactest manner that it can be done for the Press I have in the Press at the present these things A Confutation of Papists out of Papists in the most material Articles of our Religion whose Testimonies are taken either out of the Indices Expurgatorii or out of the ancient Books especially the Manuscripts An Index librorum prohibitorum 1ae 2ae vel 3ae Classis vel expurgatorum quovismodo chiefly for the use of our publick Library that we may know what Books and what Editions to buy their prohibition being a good direction to guide us therein I have cast them into an exact Alphabet My Cousin Rich. James desireth to have his Duty remembred to your Lordship he hath reviewed and inlarged his Book of Bochel's Decanonization a Book so nearly concerning Kingly Dignity and so fully opening the History of those Times that I know not where a Man shall read the like I would he might have the happiness that your Lordship might see it being now fair transcribed that it might pass your Lordship's Censure before it pass any further And I am perswaded over-weaning perhaps in love to my Cousin that if his Majesty saw it it would please him having so many good pieces of Antiquity in it it is his and shall be my chiefest Study I have here found upon search thereof Petrus Minorita's Homil. upon Matthew and two Books of St. Augustins coming here into England which are of good note but I make no doubt your Lordship hath seen them already I leave therefore to trouble your Lordship any further being right glad to hear of your Lordship's Preferment as I am informed for the good of the Church and so I rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Thomas James Oxon Febr. 8. LETTER LXXVII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My humble Duty remembred to your Lordship I Am incouraged by your Lordship's Letters to go on chearfully in my intended course and discovery solus aut quomodo what is one Man able to resist when
for to get a License of Mortmain for the holding of 240 Acres of Capite Land which a Gentleman would give to our Colledg but I find great difficulty in effecting it so as I fear me I must return re infectâ If you would be pleased to send Mr. Lively's Chronology I think Mr. Whalley would see to the publishing of it And thus with tender of my best Service and my best Wishes and Prayers for the happy success of your good Designs and prospering of all your Endeavours and for the publick Peace and Safety of both the Nations Yours and Ours in these tottering and troublesome Times I commend your Lordship and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all Service Samuel Ward London Feb. 13. 1626. LETTER CXVIII A Letter from the Right Honorable the Lord Deputy Falkland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord YOur judicious apprehension of the Perils which threaten the Peace of this Kingdom which your dutiful consideration of the King's Wants through his other manifold Occasions of Expence together with your Zeal to his Service is clearly manifested by conforming your Tenants to the good Example of others to join with the rest of the Inhabitants in contributing to the relief of the new Supplies and other Souldiers sent hither for the publick Defence notwithstanding your Privileges of Exemption by Patent from such Taxes which I will take a fitting occasion to make known to his Majesty for your Honour And where your Lordship doth complain that other Country Charges are imposed upon your Tenants whereof you conceive they ought to be free by virtue of your Patent I can give no direct answer thereunto until I be informed from your Lordship of what Nature they be but do faithfully assure your Lordship that neither my Lord Chichester nor my Lord Grandison did ever shew more respect to your Predecessors than I will be ready to perform towards your Lordship as well in this your Demand as in all other things which lie in my Power not being prejudicial to the King's Service which I know is as much as your Lordship will ever desire and do pray your Lordship to send me a Copy of their Warrants for my information what hath been done in that behalf before my Time I have kept Sir Charles Cootes Company from that County as long as I could and will remove them thence as soon as I can conveniently But your Lordship may please to understand that by the earnest intercession of some well-willers to that County it hath been less burthened with Souldiers than any other within that Province saving only Fermannagh which is much smaller in scope than it And for the Distinction you desire to be made between your Town-Lands which you alleadg are generally less by one half than those that are held by others that Error cannot be reformed without a general admeasurement and valluation of the different Fertilities for we all know that a hundred Acres in a good Soil may be worth a thousand Acres of Lands that are mountainous and barren and therefore it will surely prove a Work of great difficulty and will require a long time to reduce it to any perfection so as it is best to observe the custom in usage until such a reformation shall be seriously debated and agreed upon For the Bridg to be built at Charlemount it was propounded to the Board by the Lord Caulfield he informing that the old one was so decayed that it could hardly last out another Year The usesul Consequence of that Bridg in time of War guarded by a strong Fort which Defence others want being well known to the Table did make it a short Debate every Man concurring in Opinion with an unanimous consent that it was most necessary for the King's Service that a substantial Bridg should be erected there with expedition Then the Question grew At whose Charge whether at the King 's or Countries Which upon mature debate was ordered that the Country should bear as well for that it is a place of equal conveniency with any other that is or can be made elsewhere for passage of the Inhabitants over that deep River in times of Peace as because they shall enjoy great security by their Neighbourhoods to that strong Fort of Charlemount in times of Combustion built and maintained without their Charge These Considerations did move us to give direction to certain of the Justices of Peace of each of these Counties of Tyrone and Armagh to view the place and treat with Workmen which they accordingly did Upon whose Certificate we gave Warrant to applot the same according to their Agreement with Workmen which I wish may be levied without opposition or interruption and do make it my request unto your Lordship to give way and furtherance thereunto for this Work tending so much to the Service of the King and Country which I shall take in very good part from your Lordship and you cannot want your Reward in Heaven for it it being a Work of that kind which is accounted pious And so I commit your Lorship to God's protection and rest Your Lordships very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle March 15. 1626. I have given order for the preparing a Fyant for the passing of those Particulars your Lordship desired by Mr. Singe Falkland LETTER CXIX A Letter from the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Send unto you Mr. Sibbes who can best report what I have said unto him I hope that Colledg shall in him have a very good Master which hitherto it hath not had You shall make my excuse to the Fellows that I write not unto them You shall do well to pray to God that he will bless his Church but be not too sollicitous in that Matter which will fall of it self God Almighty being able and ready to support his own Cause But of all things take heed that you project no new ways for if they fail you shall bear a grievous Burthen If they prosper there shall be no Thanks to you Be patient and tarry the Lord's leasure And so commending me unto you and to the rest of your Brethren I leave you to the Almighty and remain Your Lordship's loving Brother G. Cant. Lambeth March 19. 1626. LETTER CXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir MAY it please your Lordship to take a view of my Proceedings for the procuring of such Books you gave me order for such as I could get and have in readiness to be sent by our next Ships which may depart this Port about four months hence are certain Books and loose Papers in the Samaritan Tongue of what use or value I cannot learn The Old Testament in the Chaldean which after seventeen months time is written in a fair Character wanting only the Book
forbore to answer I yielded to the Example and Condition so much the rather because I remembred my self a Debtor to your Grace by my promise of writing to you more fully touching the Reasons of my difference with Mr. Cook and now a Suitor in your Court at his instance And first I beseech your Grace let it be a Matter meerly of merriment that I skirmish a little with your Court touching the Inhibition and Citation which thence proceeded against me as you shall perceive by the inclosed Recusation For the thing it self as I have written I do submit it wholly to your Grace's decision And to enlarge my self a little not as to a Judg but a Father to whom beside the bond of your undeserved Love I am bound also by an Oath of God I will pour out my Heart unto you even without craving pardon of my boldness It will be perhaps some little diversion of your Thoughts from your own infirmity to understand that you suffer not alone but you in Body others otherwise each must bear his Cross and follow the steps of our high Master My Lord since it pleased God to call me to this place in this Church what my Intentions have been to the discharge of my Duty he best knows But I have met with many Impediments and Discouragements and chiefly from them of mine own Profession in Religion Concerning Mr. Hoil I acquainted your Grace Sir Ed. Bagshaw Sir Francis Hamilton Mr. William Flemming and divers more have been and yet are pulling from the Rights of my Church But all these have been light in respect of the dealing of some others professing me kindness by whom I have been blazed a Papist an Arminian a Neuter a Politician an Equivocator a nigardly House-keeper an Usurer that I â—ow at the Name of Jesus pray towards the East would pull down the Seat of my Predecessor to set up an Altar denied burial in the Chaneel to one of his Daughters and to make up all that I compared your Grace's preaching to one Mr. Whiskins Mr. Creighton and Mr. Baxter's and preferred them That you found your self deceived in me c. These things have been reported at Dublin and some of the best affected of mine own Diocess as hath been told me induced hereby to bewail with Tears the Misery of the Church some of the Clergy also as it was said looking about how they might remove themselves out of this Country Of all this I heard but little till Mr. Price coming from Dublin before Christmass to be ordered Deacon having for his memory set down twelve Articles among a number of Points more required satisfaction of me concerning them Which I endeavoured to give both to him and to them of the Ministry that met at our Chapter for the examination of Mr. Cook 's Patent Omitting all the rest yet because this Venim hath spread it self so far I cannot but touch the last touching the preferring others to your Grace's preaching To which Mr. Price's answer was as he told me I will be quarter'd if this be true Thus it was Mr. Dunsterveil acquainted me with his purpose to preach out of Prov. 20. 6. But a faithful Man who can find Where he said the Doctrine he meant to raise was this That Faith is a rare Gift of God I told him I thought he mistook the meaning of the Text and wished him to chuse longer Texts and not to bring his Discourses to a word or two of Scripture but rather to declare those of the Holy Ghost He said your Grace did so Sometimes I answered there might be just cause but I thought you did not so ordinarily As for those Men Mr. Whiskins and the rest I never heard any of them preach to this day Peradventure their manner is to take larger Texts whereupon the Comparison is made as if I preferred them before you This Slander did not much trouble me I know your Grace will not think me such a Fool if I had no fear of God to prefer before your excellent Gifts Men that I never heard But look as the French Proverb is He that is disposed to kill his Dog tells Men he is mad And whom Men have once wronged unless the Grace of God be the more they ever hate Concerning the wrongs which these People have offered me I shall take another fit time to inform your Grace Where they say your Grace doth find your self deceived in me I think it may be the truest word they have said yet for indeed I do think both you and many more are deceived in me accounting me to have some Honesty Discretion and Grace more than you will by proof find But if as it seems to me that Form hath this meaning that they pretend to have undeceived you I hope they are deceived Yea I hope they shall be deceived if by such Courses as these they think to unsettle me and the Devil himself also if he think to dismay me I will go on in the strength of the Lord God and remember his Righteousness even his alone as by that Reverend and good Father my-Lord of Canterbury when I first came over I was exhorted and have obtained help of God to do unto this day But had I not work enough before but I must bring Mr. Cook upon my top one that for his Experience Purse Friends in a case already adjudged wherein he is ingaged not only for his profit but reputation also will easily no doubt overturn me How much better to study to be quiet and to do mine own Business or as I think Stampitius was wont to bid Luther go into my Study and Pray My Lord all these things came to my mind and at the first I came with a resolution to take heed to my self and if I could to teach others moderation and forbearance by mine own Example But I could not be quiet nor without pity hear the Complaints of those that resorted to me some of them of mine own Neighbours and Tenants called into the Court commonly by information of Apparators holden there without just Cause and not dismissed without excessive Fees aâ— they exclaimed Lastly One Mr. Mayot a Minister of the Diocess of Ardagh made a Complaint to me that he was Excommunicated by Mr. Cook notwithstanding as I heard also by others the Correction of Ministers was excepted out of his Patent Whereupon I desired to see the Patent and to have a Copy of it that I might know how to govern my self He said Mr. Ash being then from home should bring it me at his return Himself went to Dublin to the Term. At the first view I saw it was a formless Chaös of Authority conferred upon him against all reason and equity I had not long after occasion to call the Chapter together at the time of Ordination I shewed the Original being brought forth by Mr. Ash desired to know if that were the Chapter-Seal and these their hands they acknowledged their Hands and Seal and said they
were many good parts would become an Instrument to oppose the Work of God which I was assured he had called me to c. This was all that passed He offered himself to the Lord's Board and I gave him the Communion After Dinner he preached out of 1 Joh. 4. ult And this Commandment have we from him that he that loveth God c. When we came out of the Church Dr. Shiriden delivered me your Grace's Letters And thus Mr. Dean thinks he hath healed all as you may perceive by his next Letters of August 30. Only he labours about Kildromfarten Whereabouts I purposed to have spoken with your Grace at my being with you but I know not how it came not to my mind Whether it be that the Soul as well as the Body after-some travel easily falleth to rest or else God would have it reserved perhaps to a more seasonable time It is now above a Twelve-month the Day in many respects I may well wish that it may not be reckoned with the days of the Year that your Grace as it were delivered to me with your own hands Mr. Crian a converted Friar To whom I offered my self as largely as my ability would extend unto though I had already at your Grace's commendation received Mr. Dunsterville to be in my house with the allowance of 20 l. per Annum The next day before my departing Mr. Hilton made a motion to me that where he had in his hands sufficient to make the Benefice of Kildromfarten void if I would bestow it upon Mr. Dean he would do so otherwise it should remain in Statu I answered With profession of my love and good opinion of Mr. Dean whereof I shewed the Reasons I added I did not know the Place nor the People but if they were meer Irish I did not see how Mr. Dean should discharge the Duty of a Minister to them This Motion was seconded by your Grace But so as I easily conceived that being solicited by your old Servant could do no less than you did and notwithstanding the Lecture he promised your Grace should read to me in the matter of Collations would not be displeased if I did as became me according to my Conscience and in conformity to your former motion for Mr. Crian Dr. Dean after pressed me that if without my concurrence your Grace would confer that living upon him I would not be against it Which I promised but heard no more of it till about April last In the mean while the Benefice next unto that which Mr. Dunsterville was already possessed of falling void Mr. Crian not coming to me nor purposing to do so till after Christmass and whensoever he should come my House as I found not affording room for him and Mr. Dunsterville both whose former Benefice was unable he said to maintain him chiefly he promising Residence and taking of me for that purpose an Oath absolutely without any exception of Dispensation I united it to his former and dismissed him to go to his Cure Wherein how carelesly he hath behaved himself I forbear to relate To return to Mr. Dean About mid April he brought me a Presentation to Kildromfarten under the Broad Seal I could do no less but signify to the Incumbent who came to me and maintained his Title requiring me not to admiâ— Whereupon I returned the Presentation indorsing the Reason of my refusal And being then occasioned to write to the Lords Justices I signified what I thought of these Pluralities in a Time when we are so far overmatched in number by the Adverse Party This passed on till the Visitation wherein Mr. Dean shewed himself in his Colours When the Vicar of Kildromfarten was called he said He was Vicar but would exhibit no Title After the Curat Mr. Smith signified to me that his Stipend was unpaid and he feared it would still be in the contention of two Incumbents Upon these and other Reasons I sequestred the Profits which I have heard by a Simoniacal Compact betwixt them should be for this Year the former Incumbents Neither did Mr. Dean write or speak a word to me hereabout till the day before the Communion in the Inclosed That very Morning I was certified that he purposed to appeal to your Grace which made me in answer to his next to add Quod facis fac citius Here I beseech your Grace give me leave to speak freely touching this matter so much the rather because it is the only Root of all Mr. Dean's despite against me Plainly I do thus think that of all the Diseases of the Church in these times next to that of the Corruption of our Courts this of Pluralities is the most deadly and pestilent especially when those are instituted into Charges Ecclesiastical who were they never so willing yet for want of the Language of the People are unable to discharge them Concerning which very Point I know your Grace remembers the Propositions of the Learned and Zealous Bishop of Lincoln before Pope Innocent I will not add the Confession of our Adversaries themselves in the Council of Trent nor the Judgment of that good Father the Author of the History thereof touching Non-residence Let the thing it self speak whence flow the Ignorance of the People the Neglect of God's Worship the Defrauding of the Poor of the remains of dedicate Things the Ruin of the Mansion-houses of the Ministers the desolation of Churches the swallowing up of Parishes by the Farmers of them but from this fountain There may be cause no doubt why sometimes in some Place and to some Man many Churches may be committed But now that as appears by the late Certificates there are besides the Titulary Primat and Bishop of Priests in the Diocesses of Kilmore and Ardagh 66 of Ministers and Curats but 32 of which also three whose Wives come not to Church In this so great odds as the Adversaries have of us in number to omit the advantage of the Language the possession of the Peoples Hearts the countenancing of the Nobility and Gentry is it a Time to commit many Churches to one Man whom I will not disable and he saith he hath a very able Interpreter and I think no less which made me once to say that I would sooner confer the Benefice of Kildromfarten upon him than upon himself which Resolution I do still hold in how ill part soever he takes it But what hath he done in the Parishes already committed to him for the instruction of the Irish that we should commit another unto him He that cannot perform his Duty to one without a helper or to that little part of it whose Tongue he hath is he sufficient to do it to three No it is the Wages is sought not the Work And yet with the Means he hath already the good Man his Predecessor maintained a Wife and a Family and cannot he in his Solitary he had once written Monkish Life defray himself Well if there can be none found fit to
Quotis ad R. D. Tuam unà cum Eucharisticis missimus rectè redditas esse Ita nunc etiam pro novissimis duabus Quotis quae 185 libras Sterl 8 Solidos continuerunt hic nostrae Monetae florenos 1231 confecerunt Catalogum hisce adjunctum mittimus Ut hanc distributionem non minùs quà m priores duas fideliter à nobis factas esse inde constare possit In quem finem etiam Apocham pro acceptis pecuniis non tantùm à nobis collectae Administratoribus sed etiam ab aliis Primariis Viris subscriptam ad opt humaniss Virum Dom. Christianum Bor. Mercatorem Dublinensem missimus Habemus praeterea hîc ad manus diligenter asservamus singulorum Participantium Chirographa quibus se portiones in Catalogo assignatas accepisse attestantur Si fortè ad probandam Accepticum Expenso congruentiam iis aliquando opus sit Quod restat quod unum gratitudinis argumentum edere nunc possumus nos non tantùm pro salute incolumitate tuâ seduli ad DEUM precatores verùm etiam tuorum in nos meritorum laudumque tuarum grati buccinatores apud homines futuri sumus ita ut quocunque terrarum nostra nos fata deferent fidelem tui memoriam nobiscum simus ablaturi Bene vale Pater eximie venerande DOMINUS JESUS opus manuum tuarum confirmet ad nominis sui gloriam Ecclesiae suae incrementum Amen Norinburgae die xiii Septembris Anno Dei Hominis facti M. DC XXXI Reverendiss Dom. Tuam Subjectissimo Studio colentes Sacrae Collectae pro Exulib Archipalatinatus Superioris Administratores Fratrum omnium nomine Ambrosius Tolner quondam Pastor Ecclesiae Tursehennentensis Dioceseos Waldsassensis Inspector unde nunc exul in agro Norico suo Ln. Georgii Summeri nomine jam absentis Gebhardus Agricola Ecclesiae Aurbacensis quondam Pastor Inspector nunc in Marchionatum exulans c. Jonas Libingus Judex quondam Archipalatinus Caenobii Weisseno nunc in Exilio ad facrae Collectae negotia Deputatus Norimbergae LETTER CLXXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury My most gracious Lord WHen I took Pen to write the first thing that presented it self to my thoughts was that saying in the Scripture Why are you the last to bring the King back to his House For methought I could not but be much blamed for coming thus late to congratulate both his Majesty's safe return and your own advancement joined therewith unto the highest place of Church-Preferment that is within his Highnesses Dominions Wherein I may truly say thus much for my self to begin withal that since the time I received the Letter you wrote unto me the day before you began your Journey for Scotland no day hath passed hitherto wherein I have not made particular mention of you in my Prayers unto Almighty God who hath graciously heard my Request and granted therein as much as my Heart could desire But thus in the mean time did the Case stand with me Upon the arrival of the Lord Deputy I found him very honourably affected toward me and very ready to further me as in other things that concerned the Church so particularly in that which did concern the settlement of the Lands belonging to the Arch-bishoprick of Armagh Wherefore not being willing to let slip so fair an opportunity I presently obtained a Commission for making an inquiry of all the Lands that remained in my quiet possession and took my Journey though in an unseasonable time of the Year into the Northern Parts of the Kingdom Where beside the speeding of the Offices that were taken in the three several Counties of Armagh Tirone and London-Derry there was offered the opportunity of solemnizing the translation of the Bishop of Raphae and a Consecration of the Bishop of Ardagh in the Cathedral Church of Armagh where no such Act had been before performed within the memory of any Man living And much about this time had we the News of your Grace's Election into that high Dignity which his Majesty hath called you unto for which as this poor Church in general so none more than my self in particular have great cause to rejoice God having no doubt given you such high favour in our Master's Eyes that you might be enabled thereby to do the more good unto his Church and especially to put a happy end to that great Work which hitherto hath received so many Impediments of setling the Reversion of the Impropriations of this Kingdom upon the several Incumbents Whereunto I assure my self your Grace will easily work my Lord Deputy who every day sheweth himself so zealous for the recovering of the dissipated Patrimony of the Church that mine Eyes never yet beheld his match in that kind By the death of your Predecessor our University of Dublin was left to seek a new Chancellor whom I advised to pitch upon no other but your self which they did with all readiness and alacrity If your Grace will design to receive that poor Society under the shadow of your Wings you shall put a further tie of observance not upon that only but upon me also who had my whole breeding there and obtained the honour of being the first Proctor that ever was there I am further intreated by our Lord Treasurer the Earl of Corke to certify my knowledg touching the placing of his Monument in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick's in the Suburbs of Dublin The place wherein it is erected was an ancient Passage into a Chappel within that Church which hath time out of mind been stopped up with a Partition made of Boards and Lime I remember I was present when the Earl concluded with the Dean to allow thirty Pounds for the raising of another Partition betwixt this new Monument and the Quire wherein the Ten Commandments might be fairly written Which if it were put up I see not what offence could be taken at the Monument which otherwise cannot be denied to be a very great Ornament to the Church I have nothing at hand to present your Grace withal but this small Treatise written unto Pope Calixtus the 2d by one of your Predecessors touching the ancient Dignity of the See of Canterbury Which I beseech you to accept at the hands of Your Grace's most devoted Servant J. A. 1632. LETTER CLXXIII Another Letter to the same May it please your Grace UPon my return from my Northern Journey I wrote unto you by Sir Francis Cook declaring the cause of my long silence together with the extraordinary Zeal of our noble Lord Deputy I may justly term him a new Zerubbabel raised by God for the making up of the Ruins of this decayed Church who upon an occasion openly declared himself an opposite to the greatest of those that have devoured our holy Things and made the Patrimony of the Church the Inheritance of their Sons and Daughers I likewise made bold
Auctarium or Gruter can I find it no nor in Boissardus who puts together all at Rome by their places not in method of their quality as the rest do Sigonius A. ab V. C. DCCLIII hath Caius and Paulus for Coss. on his Fasti and Onuphrius lib. 2. Com. in Fast. the same DCCLIV neither of them mention this Stone But Onuphrius cites indeed another C. Caesar Augusti F. Cos. vias omnes Arimini Sterni as divers other Stones remember him by that dignity But for that mentioned by Lipsius and Casaubon I see no sign of it after a careful search again through the places also which your Lordship mentions or the Auctarium of Gruter of Magistrates Your Lorship 's most humble Servant J. Selden White-friers Aug. 13. 1653. LETTER CCLXXIX A Letter from the Learned Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord STephan Pighius in U. C. DCCLIII hath no other Inscription than that in Gruter pag. 1075. 2. C. CAESARE AUG FIL. L. PAULLO COS. LARES AUGUSTOS c. Nor any thing that further concerns the Matter more than every Body there have Touching his mention of Junius Gallio I neither find him or that Province in the time of Nero which he runs through Who that Gallio in the Acts was indeed appears not clearly whether the adopting Father or adopted Son Gallio the Father you know was banished by Tiberius That M. Seneca had three Sons whereof L. was the second appears in Epist. 8. Sic mihi sic Frater Majorque Minorque superstes As likewise in the Titles of the Controversies and Declamations Novatus Seneca Mela so reckoned whence Novatus is taken for the Eldest That L. Seneca had a Brother called Gallio appears by himself in his Inscription of his de Vita Beata and also in that of Statius in Genethliaco Lucani Hoc plus quà m Senecam dedisse mundo Aut dulcem generasse Gallionem And in that of Tacitus Annal. 15. under Nero Junium Gallionem Senecae Fratris morte pavidum pro incolumitate supplicem increpnit Salienus Clemens besides the mention of him by the Name of Junius Gallio Frater Senecae in Eusebius num MMLXXX where that ridiculous Mistake is of propria se manu interfecit mortem ejus Nerone in suam praesentiam differente in Editione Scaligerana aliisque for Olymp. 211. non est acta Nerone in suam praesentiam differente And afterward MMLXXXIV L. Anneus Melas Senecae Frater Gallionis bona Lucani poetae filii sui à Nerone promeretur And Tacitus also lib. 16. Mela quibus Gallio Seneca parentibus natus c. Which of these three were Eldest is not altogether clear But it is a good Argument taken from the enumeration by their Father that their Births were agreeable to that Order And then Novatus or Gallio must be eldest And Tacitus proves Gallio's priority in the place now cited Hence Lipsius in de Vita Seneca cap. 2. and divers times on his Works makes Novatus the Eldest But in his Elect. 1. cap. 1. he makes him the second and L. the first So doth Pontacus on Eusebius pag. 573. And Grotius ad Act. 18. 12. Erat hic Frater Magni Senecae dictus cum junior esset Novatus sed adoptatus postea à Junio Gallione But I confess the Father's Enumeration sways most with me Touching the Adoption I can find no unlikelyhood that M. Seneca should give away any of his Sons by adoption which was usually made for advantage And Junius Gallio the Father might well deserve it And that of Seneca ad Mareium rather confirms the reasonableness of it and the like use Now for that Gallio in the Acts whom the Arab calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dio Galonus the Father Gallio it sorts very well with all Circumstances that he should have been Seneca's Brother as Baronius Anno 53. § 33. Pontacus in Eusebium Grotius c. doubt not Seneca's Power in Court will warrant it and his Comfort to his Mother of her two Sons cap. 16. Alter honores industriâ consecutus est alter contemsit plainly meaning Novatus or Gallio and Mela. And of Gallio's greatness in Praefat ad Nat. Quaest. 4. Solebam tibi dicere Gallionem fratrem meum quem nemo non parum amat Etiam qui amare plus non potest alia vitia non nosce hoc etiam adulationem odisse And it doth not well appear what became of Gallio the Father likely enough before lost upon his Banishment But neither doth it clearly appear that either Father or Son was Proconsul in Achaia there being no necessity that the mention of Gallio and Achaia together only with relation to his Sickness contracted there Epist. 104. should prove him Proconsul of it And it may be as much wondred at and more that Seneca after his way had not mentioned or touched his dignity when there was an unavoidable mention to be had of Achaia whence he speaks of his coming as of an ordinary Traveller more I say than that he calls him Dominus meus Gallio Whether he were his elder Brother or not he might by reason of his Dignities which he so had and affected as Seneca expresly takes notice of in that to his Mother complementally call him Dominus meus though Lipsius refers it every where after he grew of the mind that Novatus was eldest to the Eldership Pardon my thus troubling your Lordship and especially my ill writing and blotting which I could not mend by transcribing because I was to dispatch it away as soon as I had done Your Lordship 's most humble and most affectionate Friend and Servant J. Selden Whitefreirs Octob. 13. 1653. Golius his Lexion is come My second de Synedriis is done only it wants the dressings previous to it And the third is begun in several Sheets and will I hope be soon dispatched That Salmasius is dead is by every Body undoubtedly believed and I am afraid it is too true For the Name of Dominus you best know the frequent use of it in Compellations and Appellations out of Martial lib. 2. Epig. 68. ad Olum and enough of Seneca's Time Quod te nomine jam non saluto Quem Regem Dominum priùs vocabam Ne me dixeras esse contumacem c. And Lib. 1. Ep. 113. In Priscum Cum te non nossem Dominum Regemque vocabam Cum bene te novi jam mihi Priscus eris And Lib. 4. Epig. 84. In Naevolum Sollicitus donas Dominum Regemque salutas This was frequent in Salutations and mutual Expressions though the Emperors sometimes avoided it as too much earnest or seeming so to the rest it being in jest or complement Truly Seneca used not a less expression of that kind to him when he began his Books de Ira with Exegisti à me Novati ut scriberem quemadmodum ira possit leniri c. Exigere is actus Dominii as exigere Tributum Vectigal c. in
immediatly that R. Judah and R. Nehemiah both said that there was a twofold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Judah said one out of Aram Naharaim and another out of Aram Nachor R. Nehemiah said one out of Aram Naharaim and Aram Nachor and another when he blew him from between the cloven Sacrifices to Haran back again To wit according to Seder Olam as I conceive it Which I would not omit to put down because it evidences a calling out of Ur according to the old Rabbies a M as Abenezra To which purpose there is another Midrash afore upon Jerem. L I. 9. in the Name of Rabbi Azariah We have cured Babylon to wit in the days of Enoch Prusthel was not healed in the days of the Flood Let her alone at the division of Languages And let us go every Man to his own Land in the days of Abraham For here Abraham's going forth is from Babel that is from among the Chaldeans This is all that I have found for Zoar is not to be found in our Colledg Library and therefore I purpose to write to Mr. Pocock to look into it at Oxford to the same purpose My Lord I have dealt with Dr. Walton as in a Business that I am affected with He shewed the difficulty to be doubled by the Arabick following the Roman Copy I proposed to change the order of the Roman Copy retaining the Text. To which he answered upon consideration that the inconvenience was incurred already because many transpositions are passed in the Kings and Proverbs so that it is too late to avoid it in Jeremy I proposed to print a twofold Greek one to answer the Hebrew out of the Antwerp Copy another to answer the Arabick in a space below But he stood so hard upon the foresaid Reasons that I am afraid I shall not prevail As for Manasse Ben Israel I had agreed with Dr. Walton upon a day and hour to go to him But meeting him occasionally the day before he proposed to him but could not learn from any thing that he knew concerning any received number of Marginal Readings And for the saying of Elias he utterly slighted it not acknowledging or not discovering any thing he knew of it Hereupon I thought it not fit for me equally a stranger to him to meet him in the same thing till I have got some introduction to him for I hear he is like to stay here a time and then I shall remember your Question of R. Judah which I count desperate unless Broughton had told us what he hath written or that he is one of them that are recorded in the Talmud This is that which I have at present for answer to your Grace's Letter And if there be any thing which you please to command me further I shall be very glad to be imploy'd in it In the mean time with my humble Service commending my self to your Grace's Prayers I pray God to keep your Grace in good health and take leave to rest My Lord Your Graces humble Servant in Christ H. Thorndike Novemb. 10. 1655. LETTER CCXCVIII A Letter from the Learned J. Dallaeus to the most Reverend James Usher late Arch-bishop of Armagh A Monsieur Monsieur USSERIUS Archevesqued ' Armach QUam ante aliquot menses accepi eruditissimam de Septuaginta Interpretibus disputationem tuam Reverendissime Usseri postquam ex Calandrino nostro intellexi eam à te mihi destinatam ac dono missam fuisse primum fateor vehementer in Domino sum laetatus me apud eum virum quem ob summam doctrinam in omni literarum genere eruditionem cum eximia pietate atque probitate singulari candore conjunctam plurimum semper suspexi in aliquo esse numero ac pretio Nunc vero quod superest quantas possum gratias pro tua illa bonitate ago qui hominem peregrinum ignotum tuo munere dignum esse existimaveris Ac libellum aureum ego quidem avidissime legi legam ut spero postea non semel servabo quo ad vivam habeboque inter literaria mea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carissimum Sed gaudeo mihi hanc occasionem fuisse datam tui per epistolam affandi atque salutandi à quo me hactenus pudor ut opinor justus ex mea tenuitatis conscientia scilicet ortus deterruerat Ac nisi hic me a limine tuo submovisset erat profecto causa our te adirem grati animi sensum apud te profiteret Noli enim putare Vir maxime me nunc primum bonitati tuae novissimo hoc dono fuisse obligatum Jampridem sum in aere tuo sed alia ob nomina Nam jam inde a primis adolescentiae meae annis fateor me plurimum in iis libris profecisse quos tu velet ex inexhausto quodam eruditionis ac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnigenae fonte multos immortali quidem laude dignos in publicum bonum effudisti ac etiamnum in hac senecta effundis Tua quaecumque nancisci potui studiosissime collegi eaque in manu oculis fero Ac id quidem ipsum jam neque uno loco loquuntur illae nostrae qualescumque de lucubratiunculae quas amicorum favore provocati edere ausi sumus Sed testabuntur in posterum siqua ejusdem generis à nobis prodierint Habeo enim quaedam parata quae amici quidem protrudunt sed nasutiores typographi fastidiunt Ea si quando eruperint nomen tuum venerationem in te meam pluribus pagitis praeferent Nunc hoc unum te rogo SENEX Reverendissime ut tibi persuadeas neminem vivere qui eximias tuas virtutes vel admiretur sanctius vel veneretur diligat impensius qui ve Dominum Iesum ardentius precetur ut tibi facilem longam senectam largiatur omnemque Consolatoris Spiritus copiam affatim affundat Vale. Tuus ex animo J. DILLAEUS Dab Lutetiae Paris A. D. 1656. d. Jan. 12. LETTER CCXCIX A Letter from the most R. Ja. Usher Archb. of Armagh to Dr. Arn. Boate. Good Doctor SInce I sent unto you the approbation of Monsieur De Muys his Works which were to be printed by Mr. Vlack which I do not know whether they be yet published I received but one from you In that which is miscarried I suppose you wrote unto me therein what is like to become of Justellus his Geographia Ecclesiastica so long expected and such other of his Works as he left behind him The Papers which I lent him and his own Collection of the Greek Canons I received at several times But the Collection of the Canons I am forc'd to send back unto you again because I can by no means procure any of our Printers here to intermeddle with it And indeed the Work is as yet imperfect The Latin Interpretation as well of the first Collection of Johannes Antiochenus as of that other Simeonis Magistri ac Logothetae
credited of your Grace or any Man clse But to the well-doing and perfecting of this Work two things are requisite First That the Fathers Works in Latin be reprinted the Vindiciae will not serve wherein I desire to have three or four able Doctors or Batchelors of Divinity to be my Assistants in framing the Annotations Secondly That there be provision either in Parliament or out that the Copies may be sent from any Cathedral Church or Colledg upon a sufficient Caution non obstante statuto both these being granted as at your Lordships instance they may be I doubt not of a most happy success of the whole Business Which that I may not be too troublesome to your Grace I commend unto the protection of the Almighty praying for your Lordships health and happiness and resting as I am in all Bands of Duty and Service Your Grace's in all Duty Tho. James Oxon 27 Feb. 1625. I have a Pseudo-Cyprian Arnaldus Bonavillacensis Work collated and restored by the MS. and printed here under your Graces Name of Authors falsified it is the greatest instance that can be given the whole Treatise fairly written forth is at your Grace's dispose your mind being signified It hath sundry foul Additions and Diminutions in many Points of Controversy LETTER LXXXVIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Was glad to have occasion to send to your Lordship that I might so hear of the good Estate of your Self and your Family to which certainly all good Men wish happiness I was the last week with Sir Robert Cotton at Connington at my parting from him when he was with his Son to go to Oxford to the Parliament he gave me leave to send to your Lordship to spare me the two Saxon Chronicles you have of his which I beseech you to do and to send them me by this Bearer together with my Matthew Paris Baronius his Martyrologie and Balaeus I exceedingly want these five Books here and if you command it they shall be sent you again in reasonable time I presume too my Lord that by this time you have noted the Differences between the Texts of the received Original and that of the Samaritan I beseech you to be pleased to permit me the sight of those Differences if they may with manners be desired especially those of Times I shall desire nothing more than upon all opportunity to be most ready to appear and that with all forwardness of performance in whatsoever I were able Your Lordships most Affectionate Servant J. Selden Wrest in Bedfordshire August 4. 1625. LETTER LXXXIX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu SIR Robert Cotton did assure me that the Psalterium Gallicum Romanum Hebraicum was in Trinity-Colledg in an extraordinary large Folio but hereby you must not understand any Text written either in the French or in the Hebrew Language but by Hebraicum the Latin Psalter translated by St. Hierom out of the Hebrew and by Gallicum the Latin Psalter translated by him out of the Greek which is the very same with our Vulgar Latin Edition so called because it was first received in the French Church as the other Romanum because it was used in the Church of Rome which if our last Translators had considered they would not have alleaged as they do in their Epistle to the Reader for confirmation of the translating of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue the Testimony of Trithemius that Efnarde Einardus they mean about the Year 800 did abridg the French Psalter as Beda had done the Hebrew If this Book cannot be had as I much desire it may I pray fail not to send me the other two Manuscript Psalters which you write unto me are in the same Library viz. the Greek thought to be Theodori Cantuar. and the Hebrew that is interlin'd with a Latin Translation for Aug. Justiniani Psalterium Octaplum I have of mine own When you remove to Munden if it be not troublesome unto you I wish you did bring with you your Greek Ganons Manuscript I understand that Mr. Boyse hath gotten lately into his hands a Greek Manuscript of the Acts of the first Council of Nice I should be glad to hear how it differeth from that of Gelasius Cyzicenus which we have and whether he can help me with any old Greek Copy of the Psalms or any Commentary upon them So ceasing to trouble you any further at this time I commend you and all yours to God's blessed direction and protection ever resting Your own in Christ Jesus Ja. Armachanus Much-Haddam Aug. 9. 1625. LETTER XC A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord IReceived your Lordship's Letter and according as you will me have borrowed the two Books you mention Dr. Maw would intreat you to set down some limited time for which you would borrow them and to signify the receipt of them in some Note under your hand There is as I remember a part of the Psalter in King's-Colledg Library Manuscript in a great Folio which was brought from Cales I will look into it When I come to Munden I will bring the Books you mention Mr. Boyse his Manuscript of the Acts of the Nicene Council is surely the Collection made by Gelasius He came to me to borrow the printed Copies I lent him two of them and withal told him there is another Manuscript of Gelasius in Trinity-Colledg Library The next time I speak with Mr. Boyse I will know whether he have any Greek Copy or Commentary upon the Psalms Thus hoping to see you e're long if God will with my best Service remembred I commend you and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty in these dangerous Times resting Your Lordships in what he may Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. Aug. 11. 1625. LETTER XCI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend my very good Lord I Received your Letter and the enclosed which I will deliver to Dr. Maw This day I met with one of King's-Colledg and he tells me the great Volume they have in Manuscript of the Psalms in Latin which was brought from Cales is but half of the Psalter I willed him to compare it with the Vulgar Edition and to tell me whether they differ He promised me he would I received not the Letter â—ill six a Clock this Night and this Bearer is to be gone early in the Morning so that I cannot compare it with the Vulgar now but I verily think it is no other but the Vulgar Edition it is the greatest Folio that ever I saw Yesterday after I sent you the two Books I hit upon the Book you desired Psalterium Gallic Roman Hebraicum at one of our Stationers set out by Jacobus Stapulensis with his Commentary which I here send you