Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/inquiryintoliterOOdisr AN INQUIRY, 4c. AN INQUIRY INTO THE LITERARY AND POLITICAL CHARACTER OF James tf)e jffet BY THE AUTHOR OF CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE, fa. fa. Beati Pactfici. The, King's Motto. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET; by w. bulmer and co, cleveland-row, st. James's. 1816. The whole reign of James I. has been represented by a late celebrated pen (Burnet) to have been a continued course of mean practices; and others, who have professedly given an account of it, have filled their works with Libel and Invective, instead of History. Both King James and his ministers have met with a treatment from posterity highly unworthy of them, and those, who have so liberally bestowed their censures, were entirely ignorant of the true springs and causes of the actions they have undertaken to represent. Sawyers Preface to Win- wood's Memorials. ADVERTISEMENT, The present inquiry originates in an affair of literary conscience. Many years ago I set off in the world with the popular notions of the character of James I. ; but in the course of study, and with a more enlarged comprehen- sion of the age, I was frequently struck by the contrast of his real with his ap- parent character ; and I thought I had developed those hidden and involved causes which have so long influenced modern writers in ridiculing and vilify- ing this monarch. viii ADVERTISEMENT. This historical trifle is therefore neither a hasty decision, nor a designed inquiry ; the results gradually arose through successive periods of time, and were it worth the while, the historv of my thoughts, in my own publications might be arranged in a sort of chrono- logical conviction. I will not suffer a cowardly silence to warn me from encountering all that popular prejudice and party-feeling may oppose ; and this were incompati- ble with that constant search after Truth, and the independence of its character, which we may at least ex- pect from the retired student. I had originally limited this Inquiry to the literary character of the monarch ; ADVERTISEMENT. but there was a secret connection be- tween that and his political conduct; and that again led me to examine the manners and temper of the times, with the effects which a peace of more than twenty years operated on the nation. I hope that the freshness of the ma- terials, often drawn from contemporary writings which have never been pub- lished, may in some respect gratify curiosity. Of the political character of James I. opposite tempers will form opposite opinions ; the friends of peace and humanity will consider that the greatest happiness of the people is that of possessing a philosopher on the throne ; but let profounder inquirers hereafter discover why those princes are X ADVERTISEMENT, suspected of being but weak men, who are the true fathers of their people ; let them too inform us, whether we are to ascribe to James I. as well as to Marcus Antoninus, the disorders of their reign, or place them to the ingra- titude and wantonness of mankind. llth April, 1816. I. DISRAELI • [ Xi ] CONTENTS. Of the first modern assailants of the character of James L Burnet, Bolingbroke and Pope, Har- ris, Macaulay, and Walpole, - p, 6 His pedantry, - - 10 His polemical studies, - 1 how these were political, 25 The Hampton Court conference, - 27 Of some of his writings, - 45 Popular superstitions of the age, - 52 The King's habits of life those of a man of letters, 58 Of the facility and copiousness of his composi- tion, 66 Of his eloquence, - - 68 Of his wit, - - 72 Specimens of his humour and observations on human life, 74 Some ev idences of his sagacity in the discovery of truth, 85 Of his Basilicon Doron, - 94 Of his idea of a tyrant and a king, - 99 Advice to Prince Henry in the choice of his servants and associates, - 101 xii CONTENTS. Describes the Revolutionists of his time, 103 Of his idea of the royal prerogative, - 115 Of his elevated conception of the kingly charac- ter, - - 129 His design in issuing " the Book of Sports" for the sabbath day, - - 133 The Sabbatarian controversy, - 138 The motives of his aversion to war, - 145 James acknowledges his dependence on the Com- mons ; their conduct, - - 149 Of certain scandalous chronicles, - 160 A picture of the age, from a manuscript of the times, - 172 Anecdotes of the manners of the age, - 181 James L discovers the disorders and discontents after a peace of more than twenty years, 202 The King's private life in his occasional retire- ments, - 205 A detection of the discrepancies of opinion among the decriers of James I. - 209 AN INQUIRY, | C . If sometimes the learned entertain false opinions, and traditionary preju- dices, as well as the people, they however preserve among themselves a paramount love of truth, and the means to remove errors, which have escaped their scrutiny. The occasion of such errors may be complicate, but usually, it is the arts and passions of the few which find an indolent acquiescence B [2] among the many ; and firm adherents among those, who so eagerly consent to what they do not dislike to hear. A remarkable instance of this ap- pears in the character of James I. which lies buried under a heap of ridi- cule and obloquy ; yet James I. was a literary monarch at one of the great aeras of English literatuie, and his con- temporaries were far from suspecting that his talents were inconsiderable, even among those who had their reasons not to like him. The degradation which his literary character has suffered, has been inflicted by more recent hands ; and it may startle the last echoer of Pope's " Pedant-reign, " to hear that more wit and wisdom have been [3] recorded of James I. than of any one of our sovereigns. An " Author-Sovereign," as Lord Shaftesbury, in his anomalous but em- phatic style, terms this class of writers, is placed between a double eminence of honours, and must incur the double perils ; he will receive no favour from his brothers, the Faineants, as a whole race of cyphers in succession on the throne of France were denominated, and who find it much more easy to de- spise than to acquire ; while his other brothers, the republicans of literature want a heart to admire the man who has resisted the perpetual seductions of a court-life for the silent labours of his closet. Yet if Alphonsus of Arragon [4] be still a name endeared to us for his love of literature, and for that elegant testi- mony of his devotion to study expressed by the device on his banner of an open book, how much more ought we to be indulgent to the memory of a sovereign who has written one, still w r orthy of being opened? We must separate the literary from the political character of this monarch, and the qualities of his mind and tem- per from the ungracious and neglected manners of his personal one. And if we do not take a more familiar view of the events, the parties, and the genius of the times, the views and conduct of James I. will still remain imperfectly comprehended. In the reign of a [5] prince who was no military character, we must busy ourselves at home ; the events he regulated, may be numerous, and even interesting, although not those which make so much noise and shew in the popular page of history, and escape us in its general views. The want of this sort of knowledge has proved to be one great source of the false judgments passed on this mo- narch. Surely it was not philosophical to decide of another age by the changes and the feelings through which our own had passed There is a chronology of human opinions which unobserved, an indiscreet philosopher may commit an anachronism in reasoning. When the Stuarts became the ob» [6] jects of popular indignation, a peculiar race of libels was eagerly dragged into light, assuming the imposing form of history ; many of these state-libels did not even pass through the press, and may occasionally be discovered in their MS. state. Yet these publications cast no shade on the talenU of James I. His literary attainments were yet un- disputed ; they were echoing in the ear of the writers, and many proofs of his sagacity were still lively in their recol- lections. Burnet, the ardent champion of a party so deeply concerned to oppose as well the persons as the principles of the Stuarts, levelled the father of the race; we read with delight pages which warm and hurry us on, mingling truths with rumours, and known with sug- gested events, with all the spirit of secret history. But the character of James L was to pass through the lengthened inquisitorial tortures of the sullen sectarism of Harris.* It was * The historical works of Dr. William Harris have been recently republished in a collected form, and they may now be considered as enter- ing into our historical stores. Harris is a curious researcher, but what ap- pears more striking in his historical character, is the impartiality with which he quotes authori- ties which make against his own opinions and statements. Yet is Harris a writer likely to im- pose on many readers. He announces in his title pages that his works are " after the manner of Mr. Bayle." This is but a literary imposition, for Harris is perhaps the meanest writer in our lan- guage both for style and philosophical thinking. The extraordinary impartiality he displays in his [8] branded by the fierce, remorseless republican Catharine Macaulay, and flouted by the light sparkling whig faithful quotations from writers on opposite sides, is only the more likely to deceive us; for by that unalterable party- feeling which never forsakes him, the facts against him he studiously weakens by doubts, surmises, and suggestions; a character sinks to the level of his notions by a single stroke; and from the arguments adverse to his purpose, he wrests the most violent inferences. All paity- writers must submit to practise such mean and disingenuous arts, if they affect to disguise them- selves under a cover of impartiality Bayle, in- tent on collecting facts, was indifferent to their results, but Harris is more intent on the deduc- tions than the facts* The truth is, Harris wrote to please his patron, the republican Hollis, who supplied him with books, and every friendly aid. "It is possible for an ingenious man to be of a party without being partial" says Rushworth; an airy clench on the lips of a sober matter-of- fact-man looks suspicious ; and betrays the weak pang of a half-conscience. Horace Walpole.* A senseless cry of pedantry had been raised against him by * Horace Walpole's character of James I. in his " Royal Authors," is a9 remarkable as his character of Sir Philip Sidney; he might have written both without any acquaintance with the works he has so maliciously criticised. In his account of Sidney he had silently passed over the " Defence of Poetry;" and in his second edition he makes this insolent avowal; that " he had forgotten it ; a proof that I at least did not think it sufficient foundation for so high a character as he acquired." Every reader of taste knows the falseness of the criticism, and how heartless the polished cynicism that could dare it. I repeat, what J have elsewhere said, that Horace Walpole had something in his composition more predomi- nant than his wit, a cold, unfeeling disposition which contemned all literary men, at the moment his heart secretly panted to partake of their fame. Nothing can be more imposing than his volatile and caustic criticisms on the works of James L; yet it appears to me that he had never opened [ 10] the eloquent invective of Bolingbroke, from whom doubtless Pope echoed it in verse, which has outlived his Lord- ship's prose. " Oh, cried the Goddess, for some pedant reign ! Some gentle James to bless the land again ; To stick the doctor's chair into the throne, Give law to words, or war with words alone, Senates and Courts with Greek and Latin rule, And turn the Council to a Grammar School !" Dunciad, B. IV. v. 175. Few of my readers, I suspect, but have long been persuaded that James I. that folio volume he so poignantly ridicules, For he doubts whether these two pieces, " The Prince's Cabala" and " The Duty of a King in his Royal Office," were genuine productions of James I. The truth is, they are both nothing more than extracts printed with those separate titles, drawn from the King's Basilicon Doron. He had probably neither read the extracts, nor [ 11 ] was a mere college pedant, and that all his works, whatever they may be, are monstrous pedantic labours. Yet this monarch of all things detested pedantry, either as it shews itself in the mere form of Greek and Latin ; or in ostentatious book-learning; or in the affectation of words of remote significa- tion ; these are the only points of view in which I have been taught to consider the original. Thus singularity of opinion, vivacity of ridicule, and polished epigrams in prose, were the means by which this noble writer startled the world by his paradoxes, and at length lived to be mortified at a reputation which he sported with, and lost. I refer the reader to those extracts from his MS. letters which are in " Calamities of Authors," where he has made his literary confessions, and performs his act of penance. [ 12 ] the meaning of the term pedantry, which is very indefinite, and always a relative one. The age of James L was a contro- versial age, of unsettled opinions and contested principles ; an age, in which authority is considered as stronger than opinion ; but the vigour of that age of genius was infused into their writings, and those citers, who thus perpetually crouded their margins, were profound and original thinkers. When the learning of a preceding age becomes less recondite, and those principles general which were at first peculiar, are the ungrateful heirs of all this know- ledge to reproach the fathers of their literature with pedantry? Lord Boling- C 13] broke has pointedly said of James I. that " his pedantry was too much even for the age in which he lived." His Lorsdhip knew little of that glorious age when the founders of our literature flourished. It had been over-clouded by the French court of Charles II., a race of unprin- cipled wits, and the revolution-court of William, heated by a new faction, too impatient, to discuss those principles of government which they had estab- lished. It was easy to ridicule what they did not always understand, and very rarely met with. But men of far higher genius than this monarch, Sei- dell 5 Usher, and Milton, must first be condemned before this odium of pe- dantry can attach itself to the plain [ 14] and unostentatious writings of James L, who, it is remarkable, has not scattered in them those oratorical periods and elaborate fancies which he indulged in his speeches and proclamations. These loud accusers of the pedantry of James, were little aware that the King has expressed himself with energy and dis- tinctness on this very topic. His Ma- jesty cautions Prince Henry against the use of any " corrupt leide, as book- language, and pen-and-ink-horn termes, and least of all, mignard and effeminate ones." One passage may be given entire as completely refuting a charge so general, yet so unfounded. " I would also advise you to write in your own language, for there is nothing left to [ 15] be said in Greek and Latine already; and, ynewe (enough) of poore schollers would match you in these languages ; and besides that it best becoraeth a King , to purifie and make famous his oivne tongue; therein he may goe before all his subjects, as it setteth him well to doe in all honest and lawful things." No scholar of a pedantic taste could have dared so complete an emancipa- tion from ancient, yet not obsolete, prejudices, at a time when many of our own great authors yet imagined there was no fame for an Englishman unless he neglected his maternal language for the artificial labour of the idiom of ancient Rome. Bacon had even his own domestic Essays translated into [ 16] Latin ; and the King found a cour- tier-bishop to perform the same task for his Majesty's writings. There was something prescient in this view 7 of the national language, by the King, who contemplated in it those latent powers which had not yet burst into existence. It is evident that the line of Pope is false which describes the Kino: as in- tending to rule, " senates and courts 5 ' by " turning the council to a grammar school." This censure of the pedantry of James is also connected with those studies of polemical divinity for which the King has incurred so much ridi- cule from one party 3 who were not his contemporaries ; and such vehement [ 17 ] invective from another, who, to their utter dismay, discovered their monarch descending into their theological gym- nasium to encounter them with their own weapons. The affairs of religion and politics in the reign of James I., as in the preced- ing one of Elizabeth,* were identified together; nor yet have the same causes in Europe ceased to act, however * I have more largely entered into the history of the party who attempted to subvert the go- vernment in the reign of Elizabeth, and who published their works under the assumed name of Martin Mar-prelate, than had hitherto been done. In our domestic annals that event and those per- sonages, are of some importance and curiosity, but were imperfectly known to the popular writers of our history. — -See Quarrels of Authors, in the third volume, C [ 18 ] changed or modified. The govern- ment of James was imperfectly estab- lished while his subjects were wrestling with two great factions to obtain the predominance. The Catholics were disputing liis title to the crown, which they aimed to carry into the family of Spain, and the Puritans would have abolished even sovereignty itself ; these parties indeed were not able to take the field, but all felt equally powerful with the pen. Hence an age of doctrines. When a religious body has grown into power, it changes itself into a political one ; the chiefs are flattered by their strength and stimulated bv their am- bition ; but a powerful body in the state cannot remain stationary, and a divided [ 19] empire it disdains. Religious contro- versies have therefore been usually coverings to mask the political designs of the heads of parties. We smile at James I. threatening the States-general by the English Am - bassador about Vorstius, a Dutch pro- fessor, who had espoused the doctrines of Arminius, and had also vented some incomprehensible notions of his own respecting the occult nature of the Divinity. He was the head of the Remonstrants, who were at open war with the party called the Contra- Re- monstrants. The ostensible subjects were religious doctrines, but the real and concealed one was a struggle be- tween Pensionary Barnevelt, aided by [20] the French interest, and the Prince of Orange, supported by the English; even to our own days the same opposite interests existed, and betrayed the Re- public, although religious doctrines had ceased to be the pretext.* * Pensionary Barnevelt, in his seventy-second year, was at length brought to the block. Diodati, a divine of Geneva, made a miserable pun on the occasion ; he said that " the Canons of the Synod of Dort had taken off the head of the Advocate of Holland.'' This pun, says Brandt in his curious History of the Reformation, is very injurious to the Synod, since it intimates that the church loves blood. It never entered into the mind of these divines that Barnevelt fell, not by the Synod, but by the Orange and English party prevailing against the French. Lord Hardwicke, a statesman and a man of letters, deeply conversant with secret and public history, is a more able judge than the ecclesiastical his- torian or the Swiss divine, who could see nothing [21 ] What was passing between the Dutch Prince and the Dutch Pension- ary was much like what was taking place between the King; of England and his own subjects. James I. had to touch with a balancing hand the Catholics and the Non-conformists *■ — in the Synod of Dort, but what appeared in it. It is in Lord Hardwicke's Preface to Sir Dudley Carleton's Letters that his Lordship has made this important discovery. * James did all he could to weaken the Catholic party by dividing them in opinion. When Dr. Reynolds, the head of the Non-conformists, complained to the King, of the printing and dispersing of Popish pamphlets, the King an- swered, that this was done by a warrant from the court, to nourish the schism between the seculars and Jesuits, which was of great service. Doctor, added the King, you are a better clergyman than statesman. — NeaUs History of the Puritans, Vol. I. 416, 4to. [ 22] to play them one against another ; but there was a distinct end in their views. cc James L/' says Burnet, ic continued always writing and talking against Popery, but acting for it.'' ' The King and the bishops were pro- bably more tolerant to Monarchists and Prelatists, than to Republicans and Presbyters. When James got nothing but gunpowder and Jesuits from Rome, he was willing enough to banish, or suppress, but the Catholic families were ancient and numerous ; and the most determined spirits which ever subverted a government were Ca- tholic.* Yet what could the King * The character and demeanour of the cele- brated Guy or Guido Fawkes, who appeared first [23] expect from the party of the Puritans, and their " conceited parity," as he before the council under the assumed name of Johnson, I find in a MS. letter of the times, which contains some characteristic touches not hitherto published. This letter is from Sir Edward Hoby to Sir Thomas Edmondes, our ambassador at the Court of Brussels — dated 19 November, 1605. " One Johnson was found in the vault where the Gunpowder Plot was discovered. He was asked if he were sorry? He answered that he was only sorry it had not taken place. He was threatened that he should die a worse death than he that killed the Prince of Orange ; he answered, that he could bear it as well. When Johnson was brought to the King's presence, the King asked him how he could conspire so hideous a treason against his children and so many innocent souls who had never offended him ? He answered, that dangerous diseases required a desperate remedy ; and he told some of the Scots that his intent was to have blown them back again into Scotland !" — Mordacious Guy Fawkes ! [24] called it, should he once throw himself into their hands, but the fate his son received from them ? In the early stage of the Reforma- tion, the Catholic still entered into the same church with the Reformed ; this common union was broken by the im- political impatience of the Court of Rome, who, jealous of the tranquillity of Elizabeth, hoped to weaken her government by disunion ;* but the * Sir Edward Coke, attorney-general, in the trial of Garnet the Jesuit, says ■ There were no Recusants in England — all came to church how- soever Popishly inclined, till the Bull of Pius V. excommunicated and deposed Elizabeth. On this the Papists refused to join in the public service. —State Trials, Vol. I. 242. The Pope imagined, by false impressions he had received, that the Catholic party was strong [25] Reformed were already separating among themselves by a new race who fancying that their religion was still too Catholic, were for reforming the Reformation. These had most extra- vagant fancies, and were for modelling the government according to each par- ticular man's notion. Were we to bend to the foreign despotism, of the Roman Tiara, or that of the republican rabble of the Presbytery of Geneva? It was in these times, that James I., a learned prince, applied to polemi- enough to prevail against Elizabeth. Afterwards, when he found his error, a dispensation was granted by himself and his successor, that all Catholics might shew outward obedience to Eliza- beth till a happier opportunity. Such are Catholic politics and Catholic faith ! [26] cal studies ; properly understood, these were in fact political ones. Lord Bolingbroke says, " He affected more learning than became a King, which he broached on every occasion in such a manner as would have mis- become a school-master." Would the politician then require a half-learned king, or a king without any learning at all? Our eloquent sophist appears not to have recollected that polemical studies had long with us been con- sidered as royal ones ; and that from a slender volume of the sort our sove- reigns still derive the regal distinction of < c Defenders of the Faith." The pacific government of James I. required that the King himself should be a mas- [27] ter of these controversies to be enabled to balance the conflicting parties ; and none but a learned king could have exerted the industry or attained to the skill. In the famous conference at Hamp- ton Court which the King held with the heads of the Non-conformists, we see his Majesty conversing sometimes with great learning and sense, but oftener more with the earnestness of a man, than some have imagined com- ported with the dignity of a crowned head. The truth is, James, like a true student ; indulged, even to his dress, an utter carelessness of parade, and there was in his character a constitu- tional warmth of heart and a jocundity [28] of temper which did not always adapt it to state-occasions ; he threw out his feelings, and sometimes his jests. James, who had passed his youth in a royal bondage, felt that these Non-con- formists, while they were debating small points, were reserving for here- after their great ones ; were cloaking their republicanism by their theology, and, like all other politicians, that their ostensible w ere not their real motives. 5 * * In political history we usually find that the heads of a party are much wiser than the party themselves, so that, whatever they intend to ac- quire, their first demands are small ; but the honest souls who are only stirred by their own innocent zeal, are sure to complain that their business is done negligently. Should the party at first succeed, then the bolder spirit, which they have disguised or suppressed through [ 29 ] Harris and Neale, with the sectarian spirit, inveigh against James ; even Hume, with the philosophy of the eighteenth century, has pronounced that the King was censurable " for policy, is left to itself; it starts unbridled and at full gallop. All this occurred in the case of the Puritans. We find that some of the rigid Non- conformists did confess in a pamphlet, " The Christian's modest offer of the Silenced Ministers, 1606," that those who were appointed to speak for them at Hampton Court were not of their nomina- tion or judgment ; they insisted that these dele- gates should declare at once against the whole church-establishment, &c. and model the govern- ment to each particular man's notions ! But these delegates prudently refused to acquaint the King with the secret opinions of their mad con- stituents. — Lansdowne MSS. 1056, 51. This confession of the Non-conformists is also acknowledged by their historian Neale, Vol. II. p. 419, 4to. edit. [ 80 ] entering zealously into these frivolous disputes of theology." There is reason to believe that James, as a private student, cared little about them, but as a monarch at that time they gave him many cares. Lord Bolingbroke de- clares that the King held this confe- rence " in haste to shew his parts/ 5 Thus a man of genius substitutes sug- gestion and assertion for that real know- ledge which never reached the writer. In the present instance, it was an attempt of the Puritans to try the King on his arrival in England ; they pre sented a petition for a conference, called " The Millenary Petition,"* * The petition is given at length in Collier's Eccles. Hist. Vol. II. 672. At this time also the [31 ] from a thousand persons supposed to have signed it ; the King would not refuse it; but so far from being " in haste to shew his parts/' that when he discovered their pretended griev- ances were so futile, " he complained that he had been troubled with such importunities, when some more private course might have been taken for their satisfaction/' Lay Catholics of England printed at Doway " A Petition Apologetical," to James X, Their lan- guage is remarkable : they complained they were excluded " that supreme court of Parliament first founded by and for Catholike Men, was furnished with Catholike Prelats, Peeres, and personages ; and so continued till the times of Edward VI. a childe, and Queen Elizabeth a Woman:' Dodd's Church History. [82] The narrative of this once celebrated conference, notwithstanding the absur- dity of the topics, becomes in the hands of the entertaining Fuller, a picturesque and dramatic composition, where the dialogue and the manners of the speak- ers are after the life. In the course of this conference we obtain a familiar intercourse with the King ; we may admire the capacity of the monarch whose genius was versatile with the subjects ; sliding from theme to theme with the ease which onlv mature studies could obtain ; entering into the graver parts of these discussions ; dis- covering a ready knowledge of biblical learning, yet it would sometimes throw itself out with his natural humour, in [ 33 ] apt and familiar illustrations, indulging his own personal feelings with an un- parallelled naivete. The King opened the conference with dignity; " he said, he was happier than his predecessors, who had to alter what they found established, but he only to confirm what was well settled. 5 ' One of the party discovered that the sur- plice was a kind of garment used by the priests of Isis. The King observed that he had no notion of this antiquity, since his party always call it "a rag of popery." " Dr. Reynolds/' said the King with an air of pleasantry, " they used to wear hose and shoes in times of popery, have you therefore a mind to go barefoot V Reynolds D [34] objected to the words used in matri- mony, " with my body I thee worship." The King said the phrase was an usual English term, as a gentleman of wor- ship, &c. and turning to the doctor, smiling, said, " Many a man speaks of Robin Hood, who never shot in his bow ; if you had a good wife yourself, you would think all the honour and worship you could do to her were well bestowed." Reynolds was not satisfied on the 37th Article declaring that "The Bishop of Rome hath no authority in this land." And desired it should be added, " nor ought to have any." In Barlow's narrative we find that on this his Majesty heartily laughed — a laugh easily caught up by the Lords ; but the [35 ] King nevertheless condescended to reply sensibly to the weak objection, u What speak you of the Pope's authority here? Habemns jure quod habemns ; and therefore inasmuch as it is said he hath not, it is plain enough that he ought not to have." It was on this occasion that some " pleasant dis- course passed," in which " a Puritan" was defined to be " a Protestant fright- ened out of his wits." The King is more particularly vivacious when he alludes to the occurrences of his own reign, or suspects the Puritans of re- publican notions. On one occasion, to cut the gordian-knot, the King royally decided — M I will not argue that point with you., but answer as kings in par- liament, he Roy s'avisera" [36] When they hinted at a Scottish Presbytery, the King was somewhat stirred, yet what is admirable in him (says Barlow) without a shew of pas- sion. The King had lived among the republican saints, and had been, as he said, u A King without state, without honour, without order, where beard- less boys would brave us to our face and, like the Saviour of the world, " though he lived among them, he was not of them." On this occasion al- though the King may not have cc shewn his passion;" he broke out, however, with a naive effusion, remarkable for painting after the home-life a republi- can government. It must have struck Hume forcibly, for he has preserved part of it in the body of his history. [ 3T 1 Hume only consulted Fuller. I give the copious explosion from Barlow. " If you aim at a Scottish Presbytery, it agreeth as well with Monarchy as God and the Devil. Then Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick shall meet, and at their pleasure censure me and my council, and all our proceedings ; then Will shall stand up and say, It must be thus ; then Dick shall reply, Nay, marry, but we will have it thus. And therefore here I must once more reiterate my former speech, Le Boy s'avisera. Stay, I pray you, for one seven years before you demand that of me, and if then you find me pursy and fat, I may hearken to you; for let that government once be up, I am sure I shaD be kept in breath ; then shall we all of us have work enough : but, Dr. Reynolds, till you find that I grow lazy, let that alone." The King added, " I will tell you a tale; Knox flattered the queen regent of Scotland, that she was supreme head of all the church, if she suppressed the [38] popish prelates. But how long, trow ye, did this continue ? Even so long, till, by her authority, the popish bishops were repressed, and he himself, and his adherents, were brought in, and well settled. Then lo ! they began to make small account of her authority, and took the cause into their own hands." This was a pointed political tale, appropriately told in the person of a monarch. The King was never deficient in the force and quickness of his arguments. Even Neale, the great historian of the Puritans, complaining that Dean Bar- low has cut off some of the King's speeches, is reluctantly compelled to tax himself with a high commendation of the monarch, who, he acknowledges, on one of the days of this conference, [ 39 ] spoke against the corruptions of the church, and the practices of the pre- lates, in so much that Dr. Andrews, then dean of the chapel, said, that his Majesty did that day wonderfully play the Puritan.* The King, indeed, was * The Bishops of James I. were, as Fuller calls one of them, " potent courtiers," and too worldly- minded men. Bancroft was a man of vehement zeal, but of the most grasping avarice, as appears by an epigrammatic epitaph on his death in Arthur Wilson : Here lies his grace, in cold earth clad, Who died with want of what he had. We find a characteristic trait of this Bishop of London in this conference. When Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor, observed, that " livings rather want learned men, than learned men livings; many in the Universities pining for want of places. I wish therefore some may have single coats (one living) before others have doublets, [40] seriously inclined to an union of parties. More than once he silenced the angry tongue of Bancroft, and tempered the (pluralities) and this method I have observed in bestowing the King's benefices," Bancroft re- plied, " I commend your memorable care that way ; but a doublet is necessary in cold weather." Thus an avaricious Bishop could turn off with a miserable jest, the open avowal of his love of pluralities. Another, Neile, Bishop of Lincoln, when any one preached who was remarkable for his piety, desirous of withdrawing the King's attention from truths he did not wish to have his Majesty reminded of, would in the sermon time entertain the King with a merry tale, which the King would laugh at, and tell those near him, that he could not hear the preacher for the old Bishop ; prefixing an epithet explicit of the cha- racter of these merry tales. Kennet has preserved for us this " rank relation," as he calls it ; not, he adds, but " we have had divers hammerings and conflicts within us to leave it out." Rennet's History of England, IL 729, [41] zeal of others ; and even commended when he could Dr. Reynolds, the chief of the Puritans ; the King consented to the only two important articles that side suggested, a new Catechism adapt- ed to the people — " Let the weak be informed and the wilful be punished," said the King; And that new translation of the Bible which forms our present version. " But," added the King, " it must be without marginal notes, for the Geneva Bible is the worst for them, full of seditious conceits; Asa is censured for only deposing his mother for idolatry, and not killing her." Thus early the dark spirit of Machiavel had lighted on that of the ruthless Calvin. The grievances of our [42 ] first Dissenters were futile — their innovations interminable; and we dis- cover the King's notions, at the close of a proclamation issued after this con- ference. " Such is the desultory levity of some people, that they are always languishing after change and novelty, insomuch that were they humoured in their inconstancy, they would expose the public management, and make the administration ridiculous/' Such is the vigorous style of James the First in his proclamations ; and such is the poli- tical truth, which will not die away with the conference at Hampton Court. These studies of polemical divinity, like those of the ancient scholastics, were not to be obtained without a [ 43 ] robust intellectual exercise. James instructed his son Charles,* who ex- * That the clergy were somewhat jealous of their sovereign's interference in these matters, may be traced. When James charged the chap- lains, who were to wait on the prince in Spain, to decline, as far as possible, religious disputes, he added, that " should any happen, my son is able to moderate in them.'' The King, observing one of the divines smile, grew warm, vehemently affirming, " I tell ye, Charles shall manage a point in controversy with the best studied divine of ye all." What the King said, was afterwards confirmed on an extraordinary occasion, in the conference Charles I. held with Alexander Hen- derson, the old champion of the kirk. Deprived of books, which might furnish the sword and pistol of controversy, and without a chaplain to stand by him as a second, Charles I. fought the theological duel; and the old man, cast down, retired with such a sense of the learning and honour of the King, in maintaining the order of episcopacy in England, that Henderson's death, which soon followed, is attributed to the deep [ 44 ] celled in them ; and to those studies Whitelocke attributes that aptitude of Charles I. which made him so skilful a summer up of arguments, and en- vexation of this discomfiture. But the veteran, who had succeeded in subverting the hierarchy in Scotland, would not be apt to die of a fit of con- version ; though vexation might be apoplectic in an old and sturdy disputant. The King's con- troversy was published ; and nearly all the writers agree he carried the day. Yet some divines appear more jealous than grateful : Bishop Ken- net touched by the esprit du corps, honestly tells us, that " some thought the King had been better able to protect the church, if he had not disputed for it." This discovers all the ardour possible for the establishment, and we are to infer that an English sovereign is only to fight for his churchmen. But there is a nobler office for a sovereign to perform in ecclesiastical history — to promote the learned and the excellent, and re- press the dissolute and the intolerant. [45] dowed him with so clear a perception in giving his decisions. We now come to some of the King's writings. James L has composed treatises on devils and witches ; those dramatic personages in courts of law, till only in the last reign they were for ever banished from those courts by act of parliament ; and James and his council had no idea that they could get rid of them so quietly. " A Commen- tary on the Revelations/' which was a favourite speculation then, and on which greater geniuses have written since his day. " A Counterblast to Tobacco!" the title more ludicrous than the de- sign.* His Majesty terrified " the * Not long before James composed his treatise [46] tobacconists/' as the patriarchs of smoking clubs were called, and who on " Daeuionologie," the learned Wierus had published an elaborate work on the subject. " De prcestigiis Dcemonum et incantationibus et Vaneficiis," &c. 1 568. He advanced one step in philosophy by discovering that many of the supposed cases of incantation originated in the imagination of these sorcerers — but he advanced no farther, for he acknowledges the real diabolical presence. The physician, who pretended to cure the disease, was himself irrecoverably infected. Yet even this single step of Wierus was strenuously resisted by the learned Bodin, who, in his amusing volume of " Demonomanie des Sorciers," 1593, refutes Wierus. These are the leading authors of the times ; who were followed by a crowd. Thus James I. neither wanted authorities to quote nor great minds to sanction his " bsemonologie," first published in 1597. r l o the honour of En land, a single individual, Reginald Scot, with a genius far advanced beyond his age, denied the very existence of those witches and daemons in the [47] were selling their very lands and houses, in an epidemical madness, for " a stinking weed/' by discovering that curious volume of his and as he once wrote, " post-haste," what he composed or designed for practical and immediate E [50] use ; and even in that admirable trea- tise on the duties of a sovereign, which he addressed to Prince Henry, a great portion is directed to the exigencies of the times, the parties, and the circum- stances, of his own court. Of the works now more particularly noticed, their interest has ceased with the me- lancholy follies which at length have passed away ; although the philosophi- cal inquirer will not choose to drop this chapter in the history of mankind. But one fact in favour of our royal author is testified by the honest Fuller and the cynical Osborne. On the King's arrival in England, having discovered the nume- rous impostures and illusions which he had often referred to as authorities, he [51 ] grew suspicious of the whole system of " Daemonologie," and at length re- canted it entirely. With the same conscientious zeal James had written the book, the King condemned it; and the Sovereign separated himself from the Author, in the cause of truth. But this apology for having written these treatises need not rest on this fact, however honourably it appeals to our candour. Let us place it on higher ground, and tell those who asperse this monarch for his credulity and intellec- tual weakness, that they, themselves, had they lived in the reign of James I. had probably written on the same topics ; and felt as uneasy at the ru- mour of a witch being a resident in their neighbourhood ! [ 52 ] This and the succeeding age were the times of omens and meteors, prog- nostics and providences — of " day- fatality/' or, the superstition of fortunate and unfortunate days, and the combined powers of astrology and magic. It was only at the close of the century of James I that Bayle wrote a treatise on comets, to prove that they had no influ- ence in the cabinets of princes: this was, however, done with all the pre- caution imaginable. The greatest minds were then sinking under such popular superstitions; and whoever has read much of the private history of this age will have smiled at their ludicrous terrors and bewildered reasonings. The most ordinary events were attri- buted to an interposition of providence. [53] In the unpublished memoirs of that learned antiquary, Sir Symond D'Ewes, such frequently occur. When a comet appeared, and D'Ewes, for exercise at college, had been ringing the great bell, and entangled himself in the rope, which had nearly strangled him, he resolves not to ring while the comet is in the heavens. When a fire happened at the Six Clerks' Office, of whom his father was one, he inquires into the most prominent sins of the six clerks : these were the love of the world, and doing business on Sundays ; and it seems they thought so themselves ; for after the fire, the office-door was fast closed on the Sabbath. When the Thames had an unusual ebb and flow, [54] it was observed, that it had never hap- pened in their recollection, but just before the rising of the Earl of Essex in Elizabeth's reign, — and Sir Symond became uneasy at the political aspect of affairs. All the historians of these times are very particular in marking the bearded beams of blazing stars ; and the first public event that occurs is always con- nected with its radiant course. Arthur Wilson describes one which preceded the death of the simple queen of James I. It was generally imagined, that " this great light in the heaven was sent as a flambeaux to her funeral ; M but the historian discovers, while u this blaze was burning, the fire of war broke [55] out in Bohemia." It was found diffi- cult to decide between the two opinions ; since Rushworth, who wrote long afterwards, carefully chronicles both. The truth is, the greatest geniuses of the age of James L were as deeply con- cerned in these investigations as his Majesty. Had the great Verulam emancipated himself from all the dreams of his age? He speaks indeed cautiously of witchcraft, but does not deny its occult agency; and of astrology he is rather for the improvement than the rejection. The bold spirit of Rawleigh contended with the superstitions of the times; but how feeble is the contest where we fear to strike ! Even Raw- leigh is prodigal of his praise to James [56] for the King's chapter on magic. The great mind of Rawleigh perceived how much men are formed and changed by education; but, were this principle admitted to its extent, the stars would lose their influence ! In pleading for the free agency of man, he would escape from the pernicious tendency of predes- tination, or the astral influence, which yet he allows. To extricate himself from the dilemma, he invents an ana- logical reasoning of a royal power of dispensing with the laws in extreme cases : so that, though he does not deny " the binding of the stars," he declares they are controllable by the will of the Creator. In this manner, fettered by prevalent opinions, he satis- [ 57 ] fies the superstitions of an astrological age, and the penetration of his own genius. At a much later period Dr. Henry More, a writer of great genius, confirmed the ghost and demon creed, by a number of facts, as marvellously pleasant as any his own poetical fancy could have invented. Other great authors have not less distinguished themselves. When has there appeared a single genius, who at once could free himself of the prejudices of his con* temporaries; nay, of his own party? Genius, in its advancement beyond the intelligence of its own age, is but pro- gressive ; it is fancifully said to soar, but it only climbs. Yet the minds of some authors of this age are often dis- [58] covered to be superior to their work ; because the mind is impelled by its own inherent powers, but the work usually originates in the age. James L once acutely observed, how u the au- thor may be wise, but the work foolish." Thus minds of a higher rank than our royal author, had not yet cleared themselves out of these clouds of popu- lar prejudices. We now proceed to more decisive results of the superior capacity of this much ill-used monarch. The habits of life of this monarch were those of a man of letters. His first studies were soothed by none of their enticements. If James loved lite- rature it was for itself ; for Buchanan [59] did not tinge the rim of the vase with honey; and the bitterness was tasted not only in the draught, but also in the rod. In some princes, the harsh disci- pline James passed through has raised a strong aversion against literature. The Dauphin, for whose use was formed the well-known edition of the Classics, looked on the volumes with no eye of love. To free himself of his tutor, Huet, he eagerly consented to an early marriage. i% Now we shall see if Mr. Huet shall any more keep me to an- cient geography!'' exclaimed the Dau- phin, rejoicing in the first act of despotism. This ingenuous sally, it is said, too deeply affected that learned man for many years afterwards. Huet's zealous gentleness (for how could [ 60 ] Huet be too rigid?) wanted the art which Buchanan disdained to practise. But, in the case of the Prince of Scot- land, a constitutional timidity combin- ing with an ardour for study, and, therefore, a veneration for his tutor, produced a more remarkable effect. Such was the terror which the remem- brance of this illustrious but inexorable republican left on the imagination of his royal pupil, that even so late as when James was seated on the English throne, once the appearance of his frowning tutor in a dream greatly agi- tated the King, who in vain attempted to pacify him in this portentous vision. This extraordinary fact may be found in a manuscript letter of that day,* * The learned Mede wrote the present letter [ 61 ] James, even by the confession of his bitter satirist, Francis Osborne, " dedi- soon after another, which had not been acknow- ledged, to his friend Sir M. Stuteville; and the writer is uneasy lest the political secrets of the day might bring the parties into trouble. It seems he was desirous that letter should be read, and then burnt. " March 31, 1622. " I hope my letter miscarried not ; if it did, I am in a sweet pickle. I desired to hear from you of the receipt and extinction of it. Though there is no danger in my letters whilst report is so rife, yet when it is forgotten they will not be so safe ; but your danger is as great as mine " Mr. Downham was with me, now come from London. He told me that it was three years ago since those verses were delivered to the King in a dream, by his Master Buchanan, who seemed to check him severely, as he used to do; and his Majesty, in his dream, seemed desirous to pacify him, but he, turning away with a frowning counte- nance, would utter those verses, which his [ 62 ] cated rainy weather to his standish, and fair to his hounds.'' His life had the uniformity of a student's ; but the regulated life of a learned monarch must have weighed down the gay and dissipated with the deadliest monotony. Hence one of these courtiers declared, that, if he were to awake after a sleep of seven years continuance, he would Majesty, perfectly remembering, repeated the next day, and many took notice of them. Now, by occasion of the late soreness in his arm, and the doubtfulness what it would prove ; especially having, by mischance, fallen into the fire with that arm, the remembrance of the verses began to trouble him." It appears that these verses were of a threaten- ing nature, since, in a melancholy fit, they were recalled to recollection after an interval of three years ; the verses are lost to us, w ith the letter which contained them. [63] undertake to enumerate the whole of his Majesty's occupations, and every dish that had been placed on the table during the interval. But this courtier was not aware that the monotony which the King occasioned him was not so much in the King himself, as in his own volatile spirit. The table of James I. was a trial of wits, says a more learned courtier, who often partook of these prolonged con- versations; those genial and convivial conferences were the recreations of the King, and the means often of advancing those whose talents had then an oppor- tunity of discovering themselves. A life, so constant in its pursuits, was to have been expected from thfe temper of [64] him, who, at the view of the Bodleian Library, exclaimed, cc Were I not a king, I would be an university man ; and, if it were so that I must be a prisoner, I would have no other prison than this library, and be chained to- gether with all these goodly authors."* Study, indeed, became one of the businesses of life with our contempla- tive monarch ; and so zealous was James to form his future successor, that he even seriously engaged in the edu- cation of both his sons. James L offers * In this well-known exclamation of James I. a witty allusion has been probably overlooked. The King had in his mind the then prevalent custom of securing books by fastening them to the shelves by chains, long enough to reach to ^he reading desks under them. [65] the singular spectacle of a father, who was at once a preceptor and a monarch : it was in this spirit the King composed for Prince Henry his cc Basilicon Do- ron or, " The Golden Image," — a work of which something: more than the intention is great, and he directed the studies of the unfortunate Charles. That both these princes were no com- mon pupils may be fairly attributed to the King himself. Never did the character of a young prince shoot out with nobler promises than Henry: — an enthusiast for literature and arms — that prince already shewed a great and commanding spirit. Charles was a man of fine taste : he had talents and virtues, errors and misfortunes ; but he F [66] was not without a spirit equal to the days of his trial. The mind of James L had at all times the fulness of a student's, delighting in the facility and copiousness of compo- sition* The King wrote, in one week, one hundred folio pages of a monitory address to the European sovereigns ; and, in as short a time, his apology, sent to the pope and cardinals. These he delivered to the bishops merely as notes for their use ; but they were de- clared to form of themselves a complete answer. " Qua felicitate they were done, let others judge ; but, Qua celeritate — I can tell," says the courtly bishop who collected the King's works, and who is here quoted, not for the [ 67 ] compliment he would infer, but for the fact he states. The week's labour of his Majesty provoked from Cardinal Perron about one thousand pages in folio, and replies and rejoinders from the learned in Europe.* * Mr. Lodge, in his " Illustrations of British History," praises and abuses James I. for the very same treatises. Mr. Lodge, dropping the sober character of the antiquary, for the smarter one of the critic, tells us, " James had the good for- tune to gain the two points he principally aimed at in the publication of these dull treatises — the reputation of an acute disputant, and the honour of having Cardinal Bellarmin for an antagonist." — Did Mr, Lodge ever read these " dull trea- tises ?" I declare I never have; but, I believe, these treatises are not dull, from the inference he draws from them : for how any writer can gain the reputation of " an acute disputant,'' by writ- ing " dull treatises," Mr. Lodge only can explain. It is in this manner, and by unphilosophical [68] The eloquence of James is another feature in the literary character of this monarch. Amidst the sycophancy of the court of a learned sovereign, some truths will manifest themselves. Bishop Williams, in his funeral eulogy of James I. has praised with warmth the eloquence of the departed monarch, whom he intimately knew ; and this was an acquisition of James's, so manifest to all, that the bishop made eloquence essential to the dignity of a monarch ; observing, that " it was the want of it that made Moses, in a manner refuse all government, though offered by critics, that the literary reputation of James has been flourished down by modern pens. It was sure game to attack James I, ! [69] God."* He would not have hazarded so peculiar an eulogium had not the * This funeral sermon, by laying such a stress on the eloquence of James I. it is said, occasioned the disgrace of the zealous bishop; perhaps also by the arts of the new courtiers practising on the feelings of the young monarch. It appears that Charles betrayed frequent symptoms of im- patience. This allusion to the stammering of Moses, was most unlucky ; for Charles had this defect in his delivery, which he laboured all his life to correct. In the first speech from the throne, he alludes to it: " Now, because I am unfit for much speaking, I mean to bring up the fashion of my predeces- sors, to have my lord-keeper speak for me in most things." And he closed a speech to the Scottish parliament, by saying, that " he does not offer to endear himself by words, which indeed is not my way." This, however, proved to be one of those little circumstances which produce a more important result than is suspected. By this substitution of a lord-keeper, instead of the [70] monarch been distinguished by that talent. Hume first observed of James I. that