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THF 
 
 LIF E 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS KEN, D.D. 
 
 DEPRIVED BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 
 
 VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH PUBLIC EVENTS, AND THE SPIRIT 
 OF THE TIMES, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS, IN WHICH HE LIVED. 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FORTUNES 
 
 OF 
 
 MORLEY, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, 
 
 HIS FIRST PATRON, AND THE FRIEND OF ISAAK WALTON, 
 BROTHER-IN-LAW OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 "Persecuted, but not forsaken; as poor, yet making many 
 rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 R E V. W. L. BOWLES, 
 
 M.A. M.R.S.L. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1830. 
 
• t " 4 • « * ' 
 
 t • • t ■ 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, PARLIAMENT STREET. 
 
TO 
 
 THE MOST REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM, 
 LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 
 
 AND PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD, 
 
 I know not to whom this Life of Bishop Ken 
 could with more propriety be dedicated than to 
 Him, who learned the same lessons, at the same 
 distinguished school, where Bishop Ken was edu- 
 cated, — to Him, who was Fellow of the same 
 College in Oxford — elected Fellow of the same 
 College of Winchester — from thence advanced to 
 the Episcopal Bench, like Bishop Ken and Bishop 
 Lowth — and who from thence has been advanced 
 to the highest station in the Episcopal Church of 
 Christ, like Chicheley and Warham, educated in 
 the same illustrious Seminary. But, independently 
 of these circumstances, I am persuaded this offer- 
 ing will not be unacceptable, as coming from one 
 
IV DEDICATION. 
 
 of your Grace's oldest friends and schoolfellows, 
 equally attached with yourself to that school where 
 our studies began, and the Communion of that 
 Church over which you so auspiciously preside. 
 
 Without presuming to think your Grace will 
 agree with me in all the opinions, political or reli- 
 gious, expressed in this work, I am sure, at least, 
 of your candid construction of them. 
 
 I have only to pray that your valuable life may 
 be long continued, to exhibit that exemplary piety 
 and virtue, those qualities of heart and understand- 
 ing, which distinguished the character I have en- 
 deavoured to describe ; and I remain, as from our 
 early days, till called away for ever, 
 
 Your Grace's 
 
 Most sincere and affectionate Friend, 
 
 W. L. BOWLES. 
 
 Canonry House, Salisbury, 
 January ], 1830. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Introduction . . . . . . . . . • . . ix 
 
 Errata, and Preliminary Explanations , . . . xxxviii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I 
 
 Birth — Family Connections 
 
 Pedigree . . . . . . . . • • • • 5, 114 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ken a College -boy, at Winchester School — Catherine 
 
 Hill— Election-Chamber— Reflections on Public Schools 15 
 Note on Thomas Russell . . . . . . . . . . 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Ken at Oxford — Antony Wood's Musical Club (see also p. 
 229) — First acquaintance with Thynne of Christ-Church, 
 afterwards Viscount Weymouth — Connection of the 
 Family of Thynne and Packington — Morley, afterwards 
 Bishop of Winchester, the means of Ken's acquaintance 
 with Thynne . . . . . . . . . • . . 30 
 
 Observations on the authorship of the Eacuv BaviXiKi] 45,122,217 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Retrospective View of Religious Parties in the Seven- 
 teenth Century, from the opening of the Long Parlia- 
 ment, 1640, to the Death of Cromwell, 1658— Presby- 
 terian Domination — Episcopal Clergy oppressed — 
 Prayer-book proscribed — Prayer-book of Isaak Walton, 
 Ken's Brother-in-law — Independants — Milton — Crom- 
 well's Death -51 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Oxford, after the Restoration— Ejected Ministers restored 
 
 —Morley, ejected Canon, made Dean of Christ-Church 
 
 — Connection with Isaak Walton, Ken's Brother-in-Law 
 
 — Ken's Patron — His rise in the Church — Fellow of 
 
 Winchester — Party at the Episcopal Palace . . . . 88 
 
 Dramatic Scene at the Cottage of Isaak Walton . . . . 99 
 
 Morley *s Farewell to the Cottage of Isaak Walton . . Ill 
 
 Pedigree of Floud ..114 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Life, Fortunes', Character, and Times of Bishop Morley, 
 Ken's First Patron — Parentage — Early society — Chap- 
 lain to Charles the First — Last interview — Expelled 
 from his Canonry of Christ-Church by the Parliamen- 
 tary Visitors — His wanderings, after leaving Walton's 
 Cottage — Character — Reflection — Domestic groupe in 
 the Palace Household when he was Bishop of Win- 
 
 chester 
 
 Lines on the Funeral of Charles the First 
 Pedigree of Morley 
 
 115 
 
 129 
 152 
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Persecuted Clergy 153 
 
 Lilly and Hugh Peters— Predestinarianism and Astrology ibid. 
 
 Joice, Executioner of Charles the First . . . . 155 
 
 Milton the suggester to Cromwell of the King's Trial, as a 
 
 grand national spectacle of justice . . . . . . 155 
 
 Cheynell over Chillingworth's Grave . . . . . . 158 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Piety of the Episcopal Church of England contrasted with 
 the spirit of Puritanism — Presbyterian and Papal perse- 
 cution — Historians — Concluding Reflections . . • 165 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 HISTORICAL AND MISCELANEOUS 
 DOCUMENTS AND REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Concluding observations on the Eikiov BaatXiKt] . . . . 217 
 
 Oxford after the Parliament- Visitation in 1647, to 1652; 
 
 Decline of fanatical feelings through the Nation ; 
 
 Causes, &c. . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 
 
 Suppression and Revival of Cathedral Services . . . . 229 
 
 Lines on the poor Blind Man of Salisbury Cathedral . . 232 
 
 Domination of Presbyterian and Independent Puritanism 233 
 
 The Trial ofJames Nayler, the Quaker .. .. .. 239 
 
 Progress and Domination of Puritanic Intolerance . . 245 
 
 Cheynell's own account of his conduct at Chillingworth's 
 
 Funeral . . . . 249 
 
 Concluding Reflections . . . . . . . . . . 254 
 
 Lines addressed to the Widows of Seth Ward's College, 
 
 Salisbury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 
 
 PLATES. 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Ken To face the Title. 
 
 Isaak Walton's Epitaph on his Wife, from the MS. draft 
 in his Prayer-book Page 73 
 
 Isaak Walton, Kenna his wife, and Morley, afterwards 
 Bishop of Winchester, at Walton's cottage in Stafford- 
 shire Page 97 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Morley . . .. .. .. Page 115 
 
 a 4 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 There are some errata to which I "would particularly call the 
 reader's attention, as, by the omission or addition of a f&vo 
 letters, the sense of the passage has been completely altered. 
 
 Page xx. note \,for "this," read, "The intolerant Prelate 
 (Laud), who " — 
 
 P. 56, at the foot, read, " had condemned millions and mil- 
 lions of human beings to eternal torments, merely for his own 
 good pleasure ! " 
 
 P. 170, line 4, read, " doubly affecting and tender." 
 
 P. 178, line 16, for "lift up," read "say." 
 
 P. 182, last line, for " the," read " them." 
 
 *** When, in speaking of our Articles, I said the word 
 " Decreed " was not Scriptural, it is to be understood that this 
 word, in the sense of Calvin, was not Scriptural. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The eminent position which the Episeopal 
 Church of England holds, and has held, among 
 the Protestant Churches, since the Reformation, of 
 which Reformation her own Wycliff was the morn- 
 ing-star, cannot be better illustrated than by the 
 lives and example of some of her most illustrious, 
 learned, and pious sons. Among this splendid host, 
 few will be found, in practical holiness of life, in 
 humility, gentleness, yet uncompromising integrity 
 of virtuous intrepidity, under all trials, more worthy 
 of record and imitation than the subject of these 
 pages. 
 
 When we consider his character, his station, and 
 his fortunes, it is singular that so little should have 
 been recorded of Bishop Ken. When we turn our 
 attention, more particularly, on the great events 
 of the period, and remark him, equally dignified by 
 the death-bed of one expiring Monarch,* or in im- 
 prisonment on account of his uncompromising op- 
 position to the mandates of another, both of whom 
 expressed an equal personal regard for him ; — when 
 we consider him calm and consistent in prosperity 
 or in prison ; — when we see him, on account of his 
 
 * Charles. Even Burnet says he spoke like one inspired. 
 VOL. I. b 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 conscientious principles, voluntarily relinquishing a 
 large revenue and baronial palace, reduced to find 
 his only asylum in the mansion of the noble friend 
 of his early days ; — when we look on his grave, 
 not among the sculptured monuments of the Prelates 
 of his own cathedral, but that of a poor man among 
 the poor, in the open church-yard of a country- 
 town, the nearest consecrated place of Christian 
 rest* in his former diocese ; — whilst all these sin- 
 gular circumstances crowd on our reflections, as we 
 think of the life and death of Bishop Ken, it seems 
 still more extraordinary that there should be only 
 one meagre record "j- of a life so truly Christian, of 
 fortunes so varied, which, to every Christian heart, 
 and to all who reflect on the changes and chances 
 of this mortal course, teach a lesson as important 
 as impressive. 
 
 The only relation of his life, authentic, indeed, as 
 having Ken's "imprimatur" before he died, is that 
 by William Hawkins, published after his death, an- 
 nouncing an intended collection of all his works. 
 Four volumes in consequence appeared, containing a 
 series of sacred poems, written chiefly in his retire- 
 ment at Longleat, and two eloquent Sermons. Of 
 the poems more will be said in another place. 
 
 The Life of Ken bears the affix, in the title- 
 page, of " William Hawkins, barrister," from which 
 
 * Frome, in Somersetshire. 
 
 f By William Hawkins. All the Lives are based upon this, 
 as to mere Jacts. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 a general reader derives information as satisfac- 
 tory as from the meagre facts called the " Life.'' 
 Of this William Hawkins * and his family an ac- 
 count is given in the first chapter of this volume. 
 
 His hooks, the most valuable treasures of his 
 varied life, Bishop Ken left to the lihrary of his 
 generous friend at Longleat. In the last volume a 
 catalogue will he given. 
 
 To Dr. Hawes alone I am indebted for the 
 novelty of the information which the reader will 
 find in the chapter of Morlcy ; and to Dr. Hawes, 
 my friend from school-days, inheriting his ances- 
 tor's active benevolence, "primitive"-^ piety, and 
 love of the Church, I have expressed my obliga- 
 tions elsewhere. 
 
 I must next return my thanks to my kind and 
 esteemed friend the Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
 for the information contained in the MS. Life of 
 Ken's successor, Bishop Kidder, of which use will 
 be made in the second volume. This work, never 
 
 * The information given by Hawkins is so scanty in conse- 
 quence of Ken's extreme delicacy. In the second volume, we 
 shall show how anxiously he concealed the names of those on 
 whose account he left abruptly the Court of the Prince of 
 Orange. The names of the parties, and circumstances of this 
 interesting event, will be detailed, for the first time, in the next 
 volume. 
 
 f Izaak Walton's epitaph of his wife. 
 
 1) 2 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 published, is a very curious and valuable document, 
 preserved in the episcopal palace of Wells. 
 
 To my old college friend, the Rev. Mr. Dallaway, 
 of the Heralds' College ; and, through him, to Mr. 
 Young, York Herald, I am indebted for the revisal 
 of the Ken pedigree, now first accurately submitted 
 to the public, and the other pedigrees. 
 
 To Dr. Shuttleworth, Warden of New College, 
 Oxford, I return thanks for an original letter of 
 Ken, the onlv one known to be in existence. 
 
 To my friend Dr. Ingram, the learned translator 
 of the Saxon Chronicle, President of Trinity Col- 
 lege, Oxford, on this, as on all occasions, I profess 
 no common obligations. 
 
 To my friend, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the Illus- 
 trator of the Antiquities of our County, I return 
 my especial acknowledgments for a beautiful copy, 
 expressly taken for this work, of the best original 
 portrait of Ken, preserved at Longleat.* 
 
 To my friend Mr. Callcott, R. A. the thanks of the 
 public are due, as well as my own, for the sketch, 
 from his exquisite pencil, of a scene described in 
 the work. 
 
 Mr. Todd, from his well-known kindness of dis- 
 position, and the interest he takes in all literary 
 subjects, favoured me with the life of Ken by Haw- 
 
 * To which the engraver has done complete justice, this 
 being the best engraving of Ken in existence. How intellec- 
 tual, mild, yet dignified, is the countenance, bespeaking the 
 placidness of genuine piety. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 kins, containing some curious MS. notes by Bishop 
 Kennet. 
 
 As Ken, after his deprivation, passed the remain- 
 der of his days chiefly with his friend Thomas Vis- 
 count Weymouth, at the seat of that nobleman, 
 Longleat, near Warminster, I had hopes some of 
 his letters might have been preserved, as well as his 
 books ; but, to my disappointment, I was informed 
 that Dr. Birch had arranged the papers, and that 
 no letter, or written memorial, of any kind, had 
 been found. 
 
 I might here be pardoned for mentioning some 
 incidental circumstances connected with this me- 
 moir. The name of Ken was associated, in my 
 mind, with feelings of respect and regard, almost 
 from infancy. Stanzas of his Morning and Evening 
 Hymns were taught me by my mother. 
 
 Removed to Winchester school, and rising before 
 the other boys, as junior of the chamber, at five 
 o'clock in summer, and as soon as it was light in 
 winter, I had no English book to read, at the dim 
 window, but Ken's Manual, consisting of prayers and 
 admonitions, composed when he was Fellow of the 
 college, for the use of the scholars on that founda- 
 tion. 
 
 Added to these incitements, almost all who are 
 nurtured at the same place of education have, if I 
 may say so, through life a Wycchamical feeling. 
 The names of poets, divines, and prelates — of 
 Young, Collins, &c. — of Warham, Chicheley, Lowth, 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 &c. — are familiar to them. As life proceeds, the 
 recollection of such characters mingles more warmly 
 with their feelings, — with a distant hope, perhaps, 
 that they also, though obscure in life and connec- 
 tions, may thus be enabled, Apwteu&v, to become 
 not unknown themselves in their generation. 
 
 Young and Collins, Lowth and Ken, are, in after 
 life, "freshly remembered." These are Wycchami- 
 cal feelings. Let me add to these feelings, the cor- 
 diality, kindness, and hospitality which I have ex- 
 perienced in the very palace at Wells once inha- 
 bited by Ken, now with happier auspices in the 
 possession of Ken's living successor, where, under 
 the placid portrait of Ken, the conversation has 
 often turned on his fortunes and virtues. These 
 various causes and circumstances have contributed 
 to animate me in attempting to exhibit a truly 
 Christian character ; to exhibit this character calm 
 and dignified in every station, and under every trial ; 
 and to place the beautiful features of genuine and 
 unaffected piety in contrast with the half-ludicrous 
 and half-hideous aspect of its puritanic counterfeit. 
 
 Let me acknowledge as a further incitement, 
 the thought that, if I had not held the pen, the 
 story of Morley and Izaak Walton, which alone 
 explains the cause of that long singular friendship 
 between them, and also explains the origin of Ken's 
 preferments, would have remained, probably, after 
 the death of the last descendant of the family, for 
 ever unknown. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 With respect to the execution of this work, it 
 must he remembered that the life of a statesman 
 or soldier must be, from the nature of the subject, 
 more interesting than that of any Christian Bishop. 
 I have therefore thought it right to spread my 
 canvass somewhat wide .* Indeed Biography, like 
 that of Hawkins's Life of Ken, confined to the 
 mere narrative of birth, individual acts, and death, 
 is a mere skeleton. He who paints, to give any- 
 thing like a breathing charm to his picture, must 
 catch the lights and shades of various connected 
 circumstances, in order to give greater effect, va- 
 riety, and interest to his composition, — still, how- 
 ever, making them all subservient to the chief sub- 
 ject of his pencil. The character I have thus en- 
 deavoured to delineate, I now submit with diffi- 
 dence to the public, well knowing the different opi- 
 nions of different parties, but conscious of having 
 said nothing but what I am persuaded was the truth. 
 
 I would here willingly have closed all I have to 
 say as an introduction to what the reader will find 
 before him, but some late publications have in- 
 duced me to speak more explicitly with regard to 
 the sentiments, political, moral, and religious, deli- 
 vered in this work. In writing the Life of an 
 English Bishop, a vindication of Protestant Epis- 
 copacy, and the constitution of that Church, must 
 be expected. I have expressed toy own sentiments 
 
 * This must be my apology for some lighter parts of this 
 Biography. 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 warmly, I hope not uncharitably. I have adduced 
 no fact but such as will bear, I trust, the strictest 
 examination. I have quoted only two passages from 
 Presbyterian sermons, to show the style and temper 
 of the enemies of Episcopacy in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, and I have done this reluctantly. I might have 
 quoted a thousand passages of the kind, but those I 
 have adduced are not for the unwarrantable purpose, 
 at this time of day, of reflecting on any class of con- 
 scientious dissenters, but to show, in comparison, 
 how little the Episcopal Church of England deserved 
 the revilings and the bitter lot to which in Puri- 
 tanical times she was doomed. 
 
 When, however, the intolerant tone of some of 
 the revilers in the seventeenth century is revived, it 
 becomes us to meet the proudest adversary firmly, 
 particularly when the Clergy are represented as 
 hostile to every feeling of enlightened humanity, 
 and when the University of Oxford has been made 
 the peculiar object of sneering acrimony, as marked 
 alone by that servile and intolerant spirit, poetically 
 described as "still expelling Locke!"* 
 
 There is a passage in the Preface to Lord King's 
 Life of this great man, on which I shall take leave 
 to make some comments. 
 
 " The friends of freedom," says Lord King, 
 "will feel for the men and the cause which he 
 (Locke) defended ; and they will be anxious to 
 know more of one who so much promoted the 
 
 * Pope. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV11 
 
 general interest of mankind: they will learn with 
 pleasure that his character was as pure as his talents 
 were great and excellent. 
 
 " There are others who would fain keep mankind 
 in a state of pupilage, who, carrying their favourite 
 doctrine of passive obedience into all our spiritual 
 as well as temporal concerns, would willingly deli- 
 ver us over, in absolute subjection, for the one to 
 the Rulers of the Church, for the others to the 
 Rulers of the State. 
 
 "These men cannot be expected to exhibit any 
 admiration for the champion of reason and truth ; 
 nor from them can I hope for any approbation or 
 favour in the present undertaking." 
 
 For the comments which I shall offer on the 
 preceding sentiments I shall make no apology. 
 Here are evidently two classes of men distinctly 
 pointed out — one class, the "friends of freedom" 
 the other, those who would " keep mankind in a 
 state of pupilage," &c. and "would willingly deli- 
 ver us, (that is, his Lordship and those of kindred 
 feelings,) in absolute subjection, for the one to 
 the Rulers of the Church, for the other to the 
 Rulers of the State." 
 
 Now I must observe, respecting the opinions of 
 the noble relative of a man in the highest sense 
 noble, that when a descendant, be he who he may, 
 thus speaks of the men who would deliver "us" 
 that is, Locke, his relative Lord King, and the 
 friends of freedom, " bound and captive," and identi- 
 
XV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fies himself (as " us!") with a man whom every good 
 and wise man admires, venerates, and loves, and none 
 more than he who now comments on his Lordship's 
 sentiments — it behoves "us" to enquire why he 
 imagines the Clergy of the Church of England 
 may not and do not admire Locke as much as him- 
 self? and why he, standing behind this illustrious 
 relative, ("York, you're wanted!") thinks his own 
 opinions, or language, or conduct (as far as these 
 are public, and no further do I venture to say a 
 word), to be exclusively in accordance with that 
 mild, modest, wise, and venerated character ? As to 
 "those others'''' who would "willingly deliver us 
 in absolute subjection," his Lordship has not been 
 pleased to specify who those "others'" are, but, 
 from the tone of patrician sarcasm, so worthy a 
 person of his Lordship's station, and of the descend- 
 ant of the great but unpresuming Locke, it is ob- 
 vious that this descendant of this most illustrious 
 character alludes to a body of men of whom I have 
 the honour to be one, the Clergy of the National 
 Church. I must first remark, that I think I know 
 their general character better than his Lordship ; 
 and I am confident that, so far from their feeling 
 any offence that his Lordship has published memo- 
 rials of that great man, Locke, they will be among 
 the first to admit that he has rendered a service to 
 their country and mankind ; for, whatever may be 
 their religious or political sentiments, they do not 
 differ in the highest possible respect and veneration 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 for a person so illustrious for learning, integrity, 
 and moderation, as John Locke. 
 
 But, besides the affinity of natural relationship 
 between his Lordship and the illustrious subject of 
 his memoirs, his Lordship complacently assumes 
 a closer affinity, from kindred views, principles, and 
 manners, whilst we (the Clergy), opposed to " us," 
 (to wit, his Lordship and Mr. Locke,) are held out, 
 as a body, as possessing the same sentiments which 
 actuated him who so basely complied with the com- 
 mands of a Royal Visitor to deprive Locke of his 
 studentship ! 
 
 Some writers have not hesitated to say that this 
 great and excellent character, the subject of Lord 
 King's memoir, expressed his regret that he "lost 
 so much of his time at Oxford!' 1 '' Lost so much 
 of his time ! On what authority is any thing so 
 preposterous to be believed? Locke was deeply 
 attached, as he might well be, to the University 
 where he was educated — he showed this attach- 
 ment through life — his intimate friends from 
 school-days were there — there was the cultivated 
 society, and the literary leisure he loved. It 
 is indeed true that at one time he might have 
 well said he found not the advantage of this estima- 
 ble society — and when was that ? When the im- 
 mortal Francis Cheynell was among her leading 
 members, of whose toleration, and peculiar religious 
 feelings and principles, much will appear in these 
 pages. Locke was entered at the University of Ox- 
 ford Student of Christ-Church in 1651, when the 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 persecuting Puritans bore sway; and yet at that 
 time there were scholars not unworthy to be his 
 associates. Here he found such men as were not 
 often met in other societies — Dr. Petty, Dr. Wil- 
 kins, Robert Boyle, who settled in Oxford solely 
 for the advantage of such society, &c. As the 
 fanatic yoke, towards the end of Cromwell's days, 
 grew lighter, such scholars mused in the "shady 
 spaces " of our " Academe " — for none of these 
 were of the race of Cheynell and the Puritans. 
 And let me here inform Lord King, what he does 
 not seem to suspect, that it was from the expelled 
 members of that Church he affects to think would 
 " deliver him " and his friends " bound," that Locke 
 learned the principles of toleration which he after- 
 wards so powerfully advocated. He studied, and 
 revered, and succeeded Chillingworth, as the philo- 
 sopher of truth and acutest reason. Locke's prin- 
 ciples, as his Lordship might learn from better 
 authority than mine, (Mr. Hallam,) — were only 
 those which had been advocated by the illustrious 
 but defamed members of the Church of England — 
 by Jeremy Taylor,* Hales of Eton,-}- and Chilling- 
 worth of Trinity ! No historian, except Mr. Hal- 
 lam, has done these names noble and generous 
 
 * A most unfounded charge brought against Taylor, that in 
 his prosperity he forgot the lesson he taught in adversity, has 
 been completely answered by Bishop Heber. In his adversity 
 he found refuge at Golden Grove, near Carmarthen. 
 
 f This intolerant Prelate, who was hunted to death by the tole- 
 rant Covenanters, was the Patron of Hales and Chillingworth. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 justice. Had not the Puritanic frenzy interrupted 
 their progress, their principles would, probably, 
 have been established before the Revolution, if 
 they had not prevented the abuses which caused 
 that Revolution ; for persecution grows out of per- 
 secution. The King-killing Republicans produced 
 the Non-Jurors and Jacobites. 
 
 As to the base compliance of those who obeyed 
 the King's mandate, if the bench of national justice 
 has exhibited some unworthy characters, shall we 
 forget how many, on the seat of " British Themis," 
 have sat as dignified and uncorrupt as my Oxford 
 contemporary, Lord Chief Justice Tenterden ? * 
 And, if there has been a Fell, shall we forget the 
 names of those whom Christianity and humanity 
 equally revere ? 
 
 Lord King seems to think (I ought to ask par- 
 don for the involuntary association) — "Can any 
 good come out of the Church of England and Ox- 
 ford?" But let me inform him that, in the very same 
 college which nursed the high intellect and tolerant 
 principles of Chillingworth — in the same college,-}- 
 and by Church of England preceptors, — were edu- 
 cated a Sommers and a Chatham ! Lord King 
 will determine whether Chillingworth, Sommers, 
 and Chatham, all of the same college, might not be 
 
 * When Lord Tenterden and the Author were "pauperes scho- 
 lares" they were competitors for the prize given by the Chan- 
 cellor for Latin verse. Was he the worse lawyer, for his youth- 
 ful and classical laurels ? 
 
 f Trinity College. 
 
XX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rceived as specimens of a University and Church- 
 of-England-education, as well as the base and un- 
 worthy Fell. 
 
 I mav here observe, that there never was an 
 opinion so unfounded, as that either the Presby- 
 terian or Cromwellian Puritans promoted the cause 
 of learning, or religion, or liberty. The Presby- 
 ter, it is true, cast down and destroyed, for a 
 season, the Episcopal Church, and the Indepen- 
 dents put to death the King ! If these facts prove 
 their religion and love of liberty — they doubt- 
 less promoted the cause of both. But, after the 
 Episcopal Church was destroyed, what service did 
 either party render to genuine.piety, when they made 
 the very name of religion abhorred and loathsome by 
 their hypocrisy and bigotry, and caused the reaction 
 of impiety through the Nation ? What service did 
 the Independents render to freedom, when, after 
 they had brought to the scaffold their Sovereign, the 
 Nation was far more arbitrarily governed than it 
 had ever been before, to support those who tole- 
 rated, indeed, most of the discordant sects, not 
 from defined principles, but necessarily , and when 
 one man had the power to say "Sic volo — sic ju- 
 beo," as despotically as the Grand Seignor himself? 
 What service did either the Presbyterian or Inde- 
 pendent Puritans render to knowledge, when the 
 one scarce looked beyond the Synod, and the other 
 sent out illiterate hordes of inspired ranters — (all 
 human learning being ungodly!) — when public 
 schools were vilified, as they arc now — and when 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xxiii 
 
 a Society which had been instituted to promote 
 science and knowledge, in 1641, was obliged to be 
 suspended, by the progress of frantic enthusiasm, 
 till near the Restoration — so that science dared not 
 raise her head, amongst the fury of frantic tongues. 
 
 But how glorious a testimony to the learning 
 and piety of the proscribed Episcopal Clergy — 
 how glorious? — I might say how immortal a tes- 
 timony to their piety and learning — was the monu- 
 ment which they completed amid obloquy and per- 
 secution — amid revilings and threatenings — in 
 poverty and sorrow ! I allude to the splendid Po- 
 lyglot Bible of the pious, learned, and noble 
 Bryan Walton, afterwards Bishop of Worcester. * 
 
 This stupendous work goes by his name, but he 
 was assisted by scholars, all suffering for the same 
 cause, at the. saddest period of their calamities — 
 Archbishop Usher-}- — Thomas Hyde, the great illus- 
 trator of the ancient Persian religion- — Pocock, the 
 learned traveller, and commentator on Hosea, &c. 
 — Hammond — Sanderson, and others — all of them 
 
 * The following is the manly acknowledgment to Cromwell 
 for leave to print it, which had been granted by Charles previ- 
 ously : " Primo autem commemorandi, quorum favore chartam a 
 vectigalibus immunem habuimus, quod quinque abhinc annis, 
 a consilio secretiori primo concessum, postea a Serenissimo 
 Protectore ejusque consilio, operis promovendi causa, be- 
 nignk confirmatum et continuatum est." Selden and Lenthall 
 were among the promoters. 
 
 f Such men Mr. Hume would pay with stinted stipends ! 
 Despicable, heartless cypherer, the King's treasury could not 
 pay them ! 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 involved in one common deprivation — all of them, 
 except one, Dr. Bruno Ryves, silent on the subject 
 of great wrongs, all of them "patient in tribulation," 
 all of them subjected to insults and scorn, and some 
 with their lives hourly in danger. 
 
 This stupendous and splendid work, the Bible in 
 the Hebrew, Chaldee, Samaritan, Greek, Latin, Ara- 
 bic, Ethiopic, and Syrian tongues, completed by one 
 set of men, and in one age — of one Episcopal com- 
 munion — (when Episcopacy was proscribed as anti- 
 christian!) — eating the same bread of adversity, 
 "unfainting" alike in tribulation, as intent on their 
 " great Master's task," — must of itself have made a 
 great impression, when the public mind began slowly 
 to recover from its late delusions ; and yet how few, 
 generally speaking, know any thing of the circum- 
 stances under which this work was composed, or the 
 great talents combined in its execution, by scholars 
 whose lives were as pure as their learning was 
 wonderful.* 
 
 If the Clergy thus, in their miseries, raised this 
 immortal monument of learning and piety, it was 
 
 * Bryan Walton was sequestered from his Living of St. 
 Martin's, plundered, and forced to fly. Two Members of Par- 
 liament, in the spirit of Lord Mountcashel, drew up articles 
 against him themselves, though no way concerned in the parish, 
 and sent these articles to be witnessed and subscribed. " He 
 then (says Salmon) fled to Oxford, having reason to fear he 
 should be murthered." So inveterate was the malice of that 
 meek set of men to orthodoxy, though it had for its advocate 
 so much piety, learning, and innocence of behaviour, as Dr. 
 Walton was adorned with. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 not the principles either of the Presbyterians or 
 Independents which triumphed at the Revolution, 
 it was the principles of Hales, of Chillingworth, of 
 Jeremy Taylor* — which then, and not before, had 
 time to work, and find their level. These principles 
 were nobly maintained by that great character Lord 
 Sommers, educated, as I have said, at Oxford, at 
 the same college with Chillingworth. 
 
 After the death of Queen Anne, the High* 
 Church Tories and Jacobites endeavoured to bring 
 back to the abdicated throne the son of him whom 
 the Nation had expelled ; but the circumstances of 
 the times were completely changed : if the Father 
 had been a traitor to the laws of his country, it did 
 not follow that the Son would be, and Oxford only 
 spoke the feelings of the Nation, from 1714 to 
 1745, when the last effort was made in favour of 
 the descendant of the bigoted James the Second. 
 
 But the cry is now — "Intolerance! intolerance!" 
 and Lord King has produced a solitary Prayer, com- 
 posed in the time of Charles the Second, to prove 
 the intolerance of the body of English Clergy ! 
 
 I shall say nothing in defence of "the prayer" 
 which his Lordship has brought forward with such 
 satisfaction, as becoming a Turkish Divan, rather 
 than a Bench of Christian Bishops,* except that I 
 
 * The prayer which Lord King has produced, as the most 
 triumphant proof of the intolerance of the Church of England, 
 ■was composed probably by Sancroft, at a time when it was uni. 
 versally believed there had been a conspiracy against the life of 
 (Jharles the Second. 
 
 VOL. h Q 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 would wish his Lordship to compare this prayer, 
 in spirit and in language, with those passages from 
 sermons which the vindication of the Episcopal 
 Church has caused me to lay before the reader. 
 After his Lordship has compared them, and shall 
 have judged which compositions are more in the 
 spirit of a Turkish Divan, I will assert, and I know 
 not whether the declaration may surprize his Lord- 
 ship, that, respecting the unfortunate Russell and 
 Sydney, the opinions of the Church of England, 
 and of the University of Oxford, are generally the 
 same as those of his Lordship, and every thinking 
 and virtuous man in the kingdom. These principles 
 the University has publicly attested, by rewarding 
 that animated poet with the academical laurel, who 
 in the Theatre spoke the noble verses " On the 
 Love of our Country;" from which I extract 
 the following. 
 
 Lo ! Sydney pleading o'er the block ! his mien, 
 His voice, his hand — unshaken, clear, serene. 
 Unconquer'd Patriot ! form'd by antient lore, 
 The love of antient freedom to restore ; 
 Who nobly acted what he boldly thought, 
 And seal'd by death the lesson that he taught! 
 
 Let such sentiments as these, which were ho- 
 noured with the Chancellor's prize at Oxford, go, 
 in some part, to avert the noble Lord's disdain to- 
 wards this Tory and intolerant University.* 
 
 The Turkish intolerance, in the solitary prayer 
 
 * These lines were written by a Bishop, an Irish Bishop, 
 and who that reads them does not read them with melancholy 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV11 
 
 his Lordship has produced, had at least the concur- 
 rence of the whole House of Parliament, and the 
 prayer was evidently composed under that idea 
 which induced, whether true or false, the whole 
 House of Commons to resolve, " that there has been 
 and is a damnable and hellish plot carried on by 
 Popish Recusants, for assassinating the King." 
 
 This was voted October the 31st, 1G78, and un- 
 der this impression, which was stronger afterwards, 
 this prayer was composed. 
 
 As to the Oxford declaration in the year 1 683, I 
 know of none among the Clergy of the present 
 day (and his Lordship is pleased to make no dis- 
 tinction) who do not admit the famous twenty-seven 
 articles condemned by the University, to be one of 
 the greatest reflections upon that learned body. I 
 shall merely add, that the spirit which dictated that 
 decree in 1683, was the reaction arising from the 
 persecutions in 1643, when such doctrines as these 
 were professed — that, " after the sealing of the 
 Scripture Canon the people of God, in all ages, 
 are to expect new Revelations, for the rule of their 
 actions, and it is lawful for a private man, having 
 an inward motion from God, to kill a tyrant ! " # 
 
 interest, to think such a poet should, in the morning of youth, 
 have laid down his poetical pen for ever ! He was educated, like 
 Ken, at Winchester ; where also were educated the living 
 Bishops of Salisbury, Norwich, Hereford, Down and Connor, 
 St. David's, as well as the excellent Prelate to whom this Life 
 is dedicated. 
 
 * Declaration of Oxford. 
 
 c2 
 
XXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The principles of " passive obedience and non- 
 resistance" acquired additional strength from the 
 position, that "Presbyterian Government is the 
 sceptre of Christ's Kingdom, to which Kings, as 
 well as others, are bound to submit!" 
 
 It is a reflection, not so much on the character 
 of the Church of England, as upon human nature, 
 that all bodies of men are inclined to proceed, per 
 saltum, from one extreme to another. So the Puri- 
 tans could not fly too far from the purest ordinan- 
 ces of the primitive Church, because some of these 
 ordinances were retained by the Church of Rome ; 
 and the violent Tories and High-Church partizans 
 of the reigns of Charles the Second, thought they 
 could not go too far from the principle of taking up 
 arms against the King ! It is the bigot only, whe- 
 ther in the Church or out of it, who does not 
 make this distinction, though I am far from apply- 
 ing such a term to his Lordship. 
 
 It is true Locke w r as expelled from his Student- 
 ship of Christ-Church, to the disgrace of those who 
 showed themselves such tools in the hands of a 
 Royal Visitor, more especially to the eternal dis- 
 grace of Fell. Well might the facetious Tom Brown 
 
 have written — 
 
 I do not like thee, Dr. Fell ! * 
 
 * So popular, however, at the time, was Dr. Fell, that a 
 loyal Oxford apothecary left eight pounds a year for a prize- 
 composition, at Christ-Church, " In laudem Doctoris Fell ;" 
 and it is awarded every year to the successful candidate. The 
 name of the apothecary was John Cross, not the " starched 
 glyster-pipe " whom Wood describes so facetiously. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 But the University has deplored the circumstance 
 ever since, as much as Lord King. 
 
 Mr. Hallara justly observes, the power of College 
 Visitors was not defined: but the Dean of Christ- 
 Church, instead of showing himself a mean-spirited 
 sycophant, when the King, as Visitor, commanded 
 the expulsion of a member, should have answered, 
 "Sir, I have eaten the bread of adversity, rather 
 than comply with what my conscience told me was 
 wrong : I have done this in the face of Parliamen- 
 tary power, and I will not consent to expel an in- 
 nocent man, notwithstanding the command of the 
 King of England, if I eat the bread of adversity 
 again." This I am sure would have been the an 
 swer of Bishop Ken. 
 
 I shall now take the liberty of addressing you, 
 my Lord King, personally. 
 
 When a comparison is made, not only injurious 
 to " us," but so complacently flattering to yourself, 
 at the expense of "others"''' — the "others" may be 
 tempted to ask, on what affinity in sentiments 
 and manners with your illustrious relative is this 
 comparison founded ? Is the resemblance seen in 
 the mildest and purest Christian feelings of your 
 great relative, which your Lordship so eminently 
 partakes ? Is it in that peculiar modesty and hu- 
 mility of manner which accompanies, in your Lord- 
 ship, kindred endowments of mind? Is it in 
 those patrician gibes with which you entertain the 
 admiring Senate ? Is it by the sneers which in 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 any one else I should call vulgar, vulgar in phrase 
 and in spirit, with which you turn the point of 
 your wit on those whose age, station, and cha- 
 racter protects you, as you seem to know, from 
 chastisement, let those dignified gibes be ever so 
 personal? Leaving your Lordship to answer, I 
 only say, for one, and I believe I may say the same 
 for almost all of the only community you can insult 
 with impunity, that they, as a body, venerate and 
 esteem Mr. Locke as much as you, my Lord, his 
 relative, can do. They disdain as much as you the 
 base compliance of those who, in the exuberant 
 feelings of servile loyalty, disgraced themselves and 
 the Universitv. 
 
 Let me now allude more, good-humouredly, to 
 some circumstances in the present position of that 
 Episcopal Church which has been thought so pecu- 
 liarly illiberal and intolerant. 
 
 If I might introduce for a moment the well-known 
 characters in a popular tale, Lord Peter, Jack, and 
 Martin — I might say that the fate of Martin* 
 has been rather hard. Many of his family were 
 burnt by Lord Peter, for reading a wicked book 
 called "the Bible;" and, when Jack got the better 
 for a little while, he turned the children of honest 
 Martin upon the parish, because he said they were 
 fond of Lord Peter's fine cloaths, who burnt 
 
 * Churches of Home, Geneva, England. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 them alive! It is true Martin tried to make 
 Jack swallow the Prayer-book ; and Jack, in re- 
 turn, crammed the Covenant down Martin's throat ! 
 When Martin got the better, he told Jack that he 
 must give up the places he held so long from the 
 right owners — unless he would say the " Lord's 
 Prayer," put on a surplice, and read out of the 
 Prayer-book, which Jack never would do, and has 
 remained somewhat testy ever since. 
 
 If Martin humbly hopes Lord Peter will not 
 barn any more of his children, he (Peter) declares, 
 " Burn them ! why, you varlet, you meant to burn 
 us!" — and then he swore a great oath — that 
 nothing could be easier to prove ! A newspaper is 
 found, by which it appears that Ridley and Latimer, 
 who perished in the flames, were only served as 
 they ought to have been, for they "intended" to do 
 the same by others ! * 
 
 Every body knows that, in the quarrels between 
 the three brothers, Martin at last got the upper 
 
 * Dr. Lingard. Cranmer did not know that it was intended 
 to burn him, till, being on a raised seat at St. Mary's church, 
 in Oxford, in front of Dr. Cole, who preached his funeral-ser- 
 mon, he heard the appalling intimation, and burst into tears. 
 Dr. Cole, to comfort the miserable victim, in his sermon pro- 
 ceeded thus: "But, least he should carry with him no com- 
 fort, he would diligently labour, and also he did promise, in the 
 name of all the Priests that were present, immediately after his 
 death, there should be Dirges and Masses in all the Churches 
 of Oxford, for the succour of his soul ! "—Life of Cranmer, 
 1556. 
 
XXX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hand. With the assistance of Jack, he put Lord 
 Peter in the stocks ; and then Martin said to 
 Jack, " My good brother, you are a sober, indus- 
 trious workman, as any in the town, and, if you 
 will only go to Church * once in a way, you shall 
 come into the Corporation." Jack said he would 
 never go to Church, for he hated organs, surplices, 
 and kneeling! so Peter remained in the stocks, 
 and Jack never got into the Corporation, and both 
 of them declared that Martin had used them very 
 ill ; but Martin said to Peter, " Why you know 
 how you kicked and cuffed when you was at liberty." 
 Peter replied, " Kicked and cuffed ? I don't know 
 what you mean ! I did nothing but for the good 
 of your soul ! " " Now," said Martin to Jack, " I 
 should not so much object to your coming into 
 the Corporation, but I am sure, when you were 
 once got in, I should never be Lord-mayor any 
 more, and you would turn out me, and my wife 
 and children, to beg our bread, as you did before " 
 Then Jack said, " Brother, you may do what you 
 like, for I will come into the Corporation in spite 
 of you!" 
 
 It happened that a great Serjeant of Dragoons -j~ 
 came into our town, and seeing Peter in the stocks, 
 said, " I will take you out ; but remember, Peter, 
 if I do, you must not take upon yourself the name 
 of % Lord Peter any more." Upon which Lord Peter 
 
 * Test Act. f A certain Duke. 
 
 \ One of Mr. Feel's conditions. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXX111 
 
 was let out of the stocks; and immediately after he 
 cried — " I am a Lord, and a Lord I will be called ! " 
 And one of Martin's old Parsons got up, and said, 
 " How do you do, my Lord? I hope your Lord- 
 ship has taken no cold, in sitting so long without 
 refreshment." * 
 
 So Peter got out of the stocks, and Jack into the 
 Corporation, by the help of the Serjeant and his 
 Drummer -J~ — and there, for the present, we will 
 leave them. 
 
 But we must make this remark — that, if Peter 
 had not put a great many things into his Father's 
 Will (Bible) which were not there, and acted so 
 cruelly with the family of Martin, because they 
 would not add or diminish from the Will ; he 
 would never have been put in the stocks at all, 
 but would have remained in possession of his in- 
 hetance, as elder brother. And we may say of 
 Jack — whom we should rather call now, Mr. John, 
 that he would not have been prevented coming 
 into the Corporation at any time, if he had not 
 turned out his brother Martin's children to starve. 
 
 Now, every one must hope and pray, that, if 
 these brothers cannot entirely agree, they will for- 
 get and forgive, and live in peace and charity — but 
 up rides EsauiRE King, with a great book under 
 his arm, about a relation who, he says, is one of 
 " us," and this Squire tells the brothers that 
 
 * Bishop of Norwich's late letter. f Mr. P. 
 
XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 neither Peter in burning, nor Jack in kicking his 
 brother's children out of their houses, is half so 
 intolerant and oppressive as Martin — thereupon 
 taking out his great book, he produces "sprayer" 
 written by a relation of Martin's a hundred and fifty 
 
 years ago!* 
 
 To return. If in exhibiting faithfully, from 
 documentary evidence, many of the baneful and im- 
 moral fruits of Calvinistic Puritanism-}- in the seven- 
 
 * But not only is this unfortunate prayer, according to my 
 Lord King, worthy a Turkish mufti — a literary correspondent 
 of mine has absolutely proposed the example of the pious and 
 tolerant Mahometan to the imitation of the Druidical and bloody 
 Christian priesthood ! Godfrey Higgins, the historian of the 
 Druids, who, from his benevolent exertions in the cause of 
 the Lunatic Asylum at York, I imagine is still 
 
 A sad, good Christian at the heart! 
 has put forth a work, called " Mahomet," showing the injus- 
 tice that great Prophet has received from Christian Giaours, 
 and the Author sets before them a circumstance admirably 
 adapted to teach them humanity and toleration. The circum- 
 stance is this : — A traveller from England was going to kill a 
 viper. " Hold ! " says the venerable Mufti, " what are you 
 about? The same God that made the viper made you. Surely 
 the desert is wide enough for both." All will agree this is 
 a very pretty, and, what is more, a very instructive story ; and 
 it were only to be wished that the children of the tolerant and 
 humane Mohammed had thought of it when, in cold blood, 
 they put to death every man, woman, and child, of the unfor- 
 tunate Sciotes, and left a whole populous and beautiful island 
 a desert to the viper! Such are the lessons of toleration and 
 brotherly love we are to learn ! Such reasoners are those who 
 accuse the Clergy of bigotry ! 
 
 t Scotland exhibits a most moral community, and the reli- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 tcenth century, contrasted with those of genuine 
 piety, I may be thought to have had in my eye 
 some correspondent traits of religious profession 
 in the present day ; I can only say, of this every 
 one must judge for himself; but I am sure no per- 
 son of genuine piety, or charitable feelings, will 
 think himself affected by any facts I have advanced. 
 I beg to add, lest I should be accused of being 
 an intolerant High-churchman, a name for which 
 I feel no great respect, that my sentiments, politi- 
 cal or religious, have never veered, on important 
 subjects, from the time I have thought on such 
 subjects at all ; and if, by the kindness of friends, 
 I am now placed in a dignified station in the even- 
 ing of my days, I have been a "working" Cu- 
 rate for seventeen years (if this be to be one of 
 the "working" Clergy!) but I entered the gates of 
 our Sion voluntarily, and should think I had no 
 right to complain if I were a "working" Curate 
 
 gion of the country is Calvinistic. Yes; but in Scotland, 
 among the intellectual classes, the scholars and professors of 
 the cities and universities, how many are strict Calvinists ? 
 
 In the villages "on Tweed," the baleful effects of this dis- 
 tempered creed are practically corrected in consequence of 
 the greater power possessed, by Synods and Elders, of en- 
 forcing the strictest moral discipline, and a constant superin- 
 tendence of Pastors, almost parental. The hyena crouches under 
 such a regime; but what must be that system of Christian it u 
 that requires practical and moral control at all ? — how terrible 
 was the hyena when the unfortunate Archbishop Sharp excited 
 its rage ? 
 
XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 still. I feel compelled to say thus much, to obviate, 
 as frankly as I may, sarcasms which I foresee may 
 be cast on a Clergyman, defending from a cathe- 
 dral-stall the spirit of his Church, and not con- 
 cealing his scorn of Iconoclasts and Puritans of 
 whatever order. I close these remarks in front of 
 the beautiful cathedral of Salisbury. May it still 
 look to heaven uninjured ! May its devotional ser- 
 vices be heard, and its solemn bell note the depar- 
 ture of hours, days, and years, till time shall be no 
 more, when sub-lapsarian and supra-lapsarian sys- 
 tems, which have hid the Bible and the shrine of 
 truth, shall be but as the dust on Bishop Davenant's 
 tomb. # 
 
 The late Life of Locke, and other publications 
 breathing a still more intolerant spirit — together 
 with old charges lately revived and some most 
 extraordinary parallels in the spirit of the seven- 
 teenth and nineteenth centuries — must be my 
 apology for devoting so much attention to these 
 
 subjects. 
 
 With this view, notwithstanding such gain say- 
 ings, I have endeavoured, in times abounding with 
 
 * The inscription on his monument is truly in character with 
 
 his theology : 
 
 " Monumentorum omnium Johannis Davenant — minime pe- 
 renne — quod loquatur, audi." 
 
 As if what was eternal could be more or less eternal ! A 
 finer satire on his works could not be devised.. By a curious 
 reversal of the inscription, this monument has remained long 
 after his works have been forgotten. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXV11 
 
 gainsaycrs, faithfully to pourtray the character of 
 a Christian Bishop, and to set in a just light, some 
 of the circumstances of the time in which this 
 great example shone. The portrait, such as it is, I 
 humbly and gratefully present, as an offering of 
 attachment to the school in which I was educated, 
 and to the Church of which — through " evil report 
 and good report " — I am proud to be a member. 
 
 The Life of Ken, in this volume, is brought down 
 to his return to Winchester, as Fellow of that col- 
 lege. The sketch of the life, fortunes, and character 
 of his patron, Bishop Morley, is most essentially 
 connected with the subject, as are the views of the 
 character of the times. The historical notes are 
 subjoined, not only as throwing a light on questions 
 of literary discussion, in connection with the sub- 
 ject, but as furnishing information on some of the 
 most interesting portions of English history. 
 
XXXV111 
 
 ERRATA, 
 AND PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 
 
 Page 5. In the pedigree of Ken, the Bishop is called eldest 
 son by the first wife. This is afterwards explained : when the 
 pedigree was taken there were two sons, Thomas the eldest, 
 and John the youngest. 
 
 P. 9. Creighton, the composer, is said by Sir John Haw- 
 kins to be son of Creighton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, not 
 nephew, as I imagined. 
 
 Page 43, note. Mrs. Reynolds was forcibly removed from 
 Christ Church, not at the Restoration, as it is said in the note, 
 but on Dr. Reynolds refusing to take the Engagement to 
 Cromwell. 
 
 P. 52, 1. 22, for " 1633," read *' 1637' 
 P. 53, for Roy, Attorney General, read Noy. 
 P. 83, 1. 15, for " in the age," read " of his party." 
 P. 91. I was premature in giving Morley a new palace at 
 Winchester in 1666. His new palace was not begun till 1684. 
 I was led into this mistake in consequence of a stone in Canon- 
 street, with the inscription, 
 
 Has aedes extruxit — G. Morleius. 
 P. Ill, Morley's Verses to Kenna, line 4, instead of 
 " For many a year, now mute " — 
 
 read, 
 
 " Through the long year, now mute " 
 
 P. 112, note, birth of Izaak Walton's daughter Anne, for 
 " 1677," read 11 1647." 
 
PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. XXXIX 
 
 P. 124>, note, for "unexampled," read " unexpected." 
 
 P. 14-9, for "Ken singing with," read "with Ken singing." 
 
 P. 178, for Burgene, read Burgess. 
 
 I have spoken of the magnificent lines of Shirley — 
 "The glories of our birth and state" — 
 as having been set to music by Orlando Gibbons : the compo- 
 sition, equal in pathetic sublimity to the words, is by Edward 
 Coleman, but it is much in the majestic style of Gibbons. 
 Gibbons died in 1625. To the play in which the lines are 
 found there is no date, but it was probably acted before 1625 . 
 the name is, " Contention of Ajax and Ulysses." It is said the 
 song was a favourite of Charles the Second — more probably of 
 Charles the First, with such feeling and taste as he manifested 
 for poetry. They are also said, in his latter days, to have made 
 a deep impression on Cromwell, and well they might; for how 
 must such affecting and sublime images as these have been felt 
 by him to his inmost heart : 
 
 The garlands wither on your brow ! 
 
 Then boast no more your mighty deeds ! 
 Upon Death's purple altar now 
 
 See where the Victor-victim bleeds ! * 
 
 The music of Coleman was published by Henry Laws in 1669 
 in a book entitled, " Select Ayres and Dialogues, to sing to the 
 Theorbo, Lute, and Basse-viol. John Playford, at his shop in 
 the Temple, near the Church dore." 
 
 I have taken the words I found in Izaak Walton for the 
 songs I have given to Kenna, in the 5th Chapter ; but I had 
 originally written a song to suit the scene, which the reader 
 may substitute : 
 
 When summer comes, with calm content 
 
 I wander on the banks of Trent, 
 
 Happy, but thinking, with a sigh, 
 
 Perchance, of happier days gone by ; 
 
 * See Percy's Collection of Oid Ballads, p. 290. 
 
xl PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 
 
 Yet let me bless the God above, 
 Who leaves us friendship, peace, and love — 
 For, with a quiet mind, and health, 
 Contentment is the poor man's wealth. 
 
 And though at evening we deplore 
 
 Friends scatter'd, and now met no more 
 
 Afflicted, but not murmuring 
 
 Or exiles for their God and King, 
 
 Still let us thank the God above, 
 
 Who leaves us one poor home of love — 
 
 For, with a quiet mind, and health, 
 
 Contentment is the poor man's wealth. 
 
 I would here, also, insert one stanza omitted in the Lines on 
 the Funeral of Charles the Second: 
 
 And buried Kings, a spectre train, 
 
 Seem'd in the dusk to glide, 
 As fitful, through the pillar'd fane, 
 
 Faint Miserere's died. 
 
 To the errata, and occasional oversights in expression, I 
 have thought it necessary to subjoin a brief preliminary expla- 
 nation of some sentiments which might be liable to miscon- 
 struction. 
 
 Certain scholastic opinions, which others hold almost inse- 
 parable from Christian faith, I deem to have nothing whatever 
 to do with Scripture truth. " Beware lest any one spoil you 
 through philosophy." (St. Paul.) 
 
 That eternal Providence, for one great and awful purpose, 
 so directed the stream of human events that the promises which 
 God vouchsafed in mercy to fallen man should all be fulfilled, 
 the Christian truly and firmly believes — but that every indivi- 
 dual comes into the world with his fate determined — that 
 a dire decree controls and governs him in all events of his 
 life, small and great — this opinion, so entirely K-wpts 'Euayye- 
 Xiov — is at once so horrible and so preposterous, that, con- 
 sidering its origin and consequences, it might well move, in 
 
PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. xli 
 
 the humble Christian, "alternate derision, and horror!" 1 
 premise this in reference to what may be considered as levity, 
 in speaking of the pious and good Baxter. 
 
 There is another point on which I am most anxious to pre- 
 vent any misconception. Of the necessity of seeking God at 
 all seasons in prayer, under all emergencies of life, no one 
 is more deeply sensible ; my remarks apply only to that osten- 
 tatious piety when on every trifling occasion "the name of 
 the Lokd is taken in vain !" — when ostentatious profes- 
 sion is more apparent than humility and sincerity. 
 
 Hymn of St. Ambrose, "We praise thee," &c. I have said 
 that this sublime hymn was composed before the Mass. It is 
 stated to have been first sung when St. Ambrose received Au- 
 gustine into the Church; and Augustine, De Doctrina Chris- 
 tiana, says expressly the eating of Christ's flesh is figura- 
 tive; so far was Transubstantiation from being admitted at this 
 period. 
 
 St. Ambrose says, De his qui mystenis initiantur, " after con- 
 secration," not the bread is turned into the body of Christ, but 
 that " the body of Christ is signified." See Life of Cran- 
 mer, p. 123. 
 
 The words of Augustine (Confess, lib. iii. chap, iv.) are : 
 " fideliter fateamur, ante consecrationem, panem esse, et vinum, 
 quod natura formavit : post consecrationem, carnem Christi et 
 sanguinem esse, quod Benedictio consecravit" that is, as it ap- 
 pears to me, not that the benediction has changed the bread 
 and wine into the actual body and blood, but that the benedic- 
 tion has consecrated them as such. But, be it as it may, what 
 destitution of every sublime devotional feeling would it have 
 shewn, if, there being such a hymn in the universe, the Re- 
 formers had not admitted it into the Ritual. 
 
 The Presbyterian Parliament passed the Ordinance against 
 Deans and Chapters 15th June, 1611. The Episcopal Chapter 
 lands of Salisbury were not sold till 1647. 
 
 VOL. I. d 
 
Xlii PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 
 
 The " Reliquiae Wottonianae " of that most learned, most 
 amiable character, Sir Henry Wotton, were collected and 
 printed 1651, and his " State of Christendom " 1657. 
 
 Hammond's Practical Catechism had passed through four edi- 
 tions in 1649, but was re-printed in 1655. 
 
 When I remark, p. 208, that the Parliament was Episco- 
 palian and Tory, I mean that these parties were dominant ; 
 though it is well known the Presbyterians formed a large part 
 of the Parliament which restored Charles the Second. 
 
 It is not to be denied that the principles of non-resistance 
 were the principles of the Church of England, to the reign of 
 James the Second. Tillotson's Letter to the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth is well known ; but I contend that, had not the tide of 
 illiterate fanaticism overwhelmed all intellectual morality, the 
 principles of Chillingworth, and Hales, and Taylor, would 
 have been those of Tillotson, as well as Locke. 
 
 I have said, " perish the Establishment, if inconsistent with 
 charity;" for it is my sincere conviction that the fiercest con- 
 tests, between rival and discordant sects, would take place, if 
 there were no established religion. 
 
 In conclusion, I beg to express my sincerest acknowledg- 
 ment for the great care of Mr. J. G. Nichols, in superintending 
 this Work through the press, the errors of which are only owing 
 to the Author. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS KEN, D.D 
 
 BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 
 
 Steramata quid faciunt? Juvenal. 
 
 Thomas, the youngest son,* by his first wife, of 
 Thomas Ken, attorney at law, of Furnival's Inn, 
 Holborn, was born at Little Berkhamstead, in 
 Hertfordshire. It is probable his father had a tem- 
 porary place of residence in this parish, as, upon in- 
 quiry both of the Rector of Berkhamstead and 
 Little Berkhamstead, I find no record or tradition 
 respecting the family, nor any account of posses- 
 sions belonging to any person of that name. 
 
 Hawkins, the most authentic biographer of Bi- 
 shop Ken, and who was his great-nephew, says he 
 was born at Berkhamstead. Salmon, who wrote a 
 short summary of the lives of all the Bishops from 
 the Restoration to the Revolution, states his place of 
 birth to have been Little Berkhamstead. 
 
 * His biographer and relation, Hawkins, has called Ken 
 youngest son. It appears, from a pedigree in the College of 
 Arms, attested by his father, that John Ken was not the 
 elder brother, but son of the second wife. (See page 5.) 
 VOL. I. B 
 
* LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 The fact of his having been born at Berkham- 
 stead is ascertained, both from Hawkins and by the 
 entry of his admission to Winchester college ; but 
 there is no tradition, or entry in the register at 
 Berkhamstead, and therefore we can only suppose 
 that he was born, if not baptized, at Little Berk- 
 hamstead,* a place, from comparative obscurity, 
 less likely to have preserved any positive facts or 
 traditional memorial, and where the parisb register 
 prior to 1712 is lost. 
 
 His father, Thomas Ken, had, we may conclude, 
 more than one son by his first wife, as John was son 
 of the second wife. He had two daughters. John 
 followed, it is most probable, his father's profession. 
 
 Anne, the elder daughter, was married to that 
 singular and interesting character Isaak Walton, 
 the celebrated "piscator" 
 
 Martha was ma ried to a Mr. James Beacham, 
 who had one son, Fellow of Trinity college, Oxford, 
 and another, Fellow of New college, probably bred 
 up at Winchester from his uncle Ken's recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 Rose Ken, mentioned in Isaak Walton's will/j~ 
 and recommended to the kindness of his son Isaac, 
 the Canon of Salisbury, was wife of John Ken. 
 
 * His father lived in Cripplegate before he removed to Fur- 
 nival's Inn. 
 
 f " I desire him to be kind to his aunt Beachame, and his 
 aunt Rose Ken, allowing the first about fifty shillings a year 
 for bacon and cheese.'" 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. J 
 
 Thomas, the son, according to the pedigree, of 
 the first wife, was equally remarkable for the virtues 
 and the vicissitudes of his life. The most interest- 
 ing passages of that life, connected with the events 
 and characters of the times, we shall now endeavour 
 to set faithfully before the reader. 
 
 But we shall first give the genealogy of the 
 family of Ken, and the Bishop's pedigree ; for, 
 though this might seem unimportant, yet in gene- 
 alogy, as in mathematics, positive certainty consti- 
 tutes the value; and the curiosity of the present 
 age has certainly encouraged such minute investi- 
 gations, which have supplied many biographical 
 and some important facts. 
 
 The following is a pedigree of the Ken family, as 
 entered at the Heralds' Visitation of Somersetshire, 
 in 1623* 
 
 Visit. Somerset, 1623.— MSS. Coll. Arm. p. 347. 
 
 Arms : Ermine, three crescents Gules. 
 Crest : Three crescents interlaced Argent. 
 
 John Ken, of Ken Court,=pMargaret, daughter of Sir Christopher 
 co. Somerset. Baynham. 
 
 , H p -i 
 
 4. Edmund ^Marg. d. 1. Christo-=^Florence 2. Thomas-y 3. John Ken, 
 Ken, ofHut- I of John pher Ken, 1 Stal- Ken, of I of Clevedon, 
 
 ton,coSom. | Strode. of Ken. lenge. Ken. j co. Som. =p 
 
 I ' I ' 1 ~ | -I -1 
 
 Elizabeth, dau. audh. mar. John Thos. Ken. Susan -pjohn Ken, Christ. 
 
 Paulet, created Baron Paulet ofKen.^ Daves. I of Ken. 2d son. 
 
 1627, and died 1 649. » 1 | y ■ 
 
 H-t-1 1 i i i i i L r-i I I I I 
 
 1. Edmund 1. Anne. Geo. Ken, l.Christo- 
 Ken, of 2. Margaret, m.Hen.Morgan,ofManston,Dev. set. 22, pher. 
 
 Langford, 3. Catherine, m. Chr. Greene, of Sussex. 1623. 2.Francis. 
 
 1623. 4. Elizabeth. Thomas 3. William. 
 
 2. John. 5. Alice, mar. Geo. Prowse, of Tiverton. Ken, 2d 4.Edmund. 
 
 3. Edward. 6. Mary. son. 
 
 * a 
 
 The Visitation of Counties by the King's Stewards and 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 I subjoin, from the Visitation of London, and by 
 the kindness of my friend Mr. Dallaway, and Mr. 
 Young, York Herald, the immediate descent of the 
 Bishop, with some additional particulars collected 
 from an examination of testamentary evidence. 
 
 Officers of Arms, under the special warrant of the Sovereign, 
 for the purpose of collecting and recording the pedigrees and 
 arms of the nobility and gentry resident therein, is of very an- 
 tient date ; and the genealogies and arms thus collected are 
 well known by the name of " Visitations." These records are 
 in existence at the College of Arms, London, from the year 
 1528 to 1686, the date of the last commission. The authority 
 or commission for making these Visitations was granted by the 
 Sovereign to the provincial Kings of Arms, at intervals of about 
 twenty-five or thirty years ; the nobility and gentry were sum- 
 moned in each county by warrants, to give accounts of their 
 families and arms ; and the various entries are in most cases at- 
 tested by the signatures of the heads of the families, or of per- 
 sons on their behalves. These Visitations are admitted by the 
 Courts at Westminster, as evidence of the truth of the matters 
 therein contained. 
 
 " Since the year 1686, there has not been a visitation, and 
 the pedigrees of the gentry of England have never since then 
 been recorded, except in those comparatively few instances 
 where the prudent members of families have registered them at 
 the College of Arms, London. The neglect (the word is per- 
 haps too severe, but we find it applied by great authority,) 
 therefore, of the Heralds in making their usual progresses is a 
 public injury, affecting the fame, and sometimes that more sub- 
 stantial treasure, the land, of every gentleman in the kingdom ; 
 and rendering, as Mr. Justice Blackstone remarked, "the proof 
 of a modern descent, for the recovery of an estate, or succes- 
 sion to a title of honour, more difficult than that of an antient ;" 
 and neither wealth nor industry can repair the mischief which 
 
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LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
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O LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 As I am indebted to the information of the near- 
 est living descendant of the family, for the tradi- 
 tional information of some of the most novel, pro- 
 bably the most interesting, circumstances of this 
 work, Dr. Herbert Hawes, Prebendary of Salisbury, 
 — my friend and schoolfellow, who inherits his re- 
 lation's active benevolence and warm attachment to 
 the Church — it will be here proper to shew Dr. 
 Hawes's immediate descent from Anne, the sister 
 of Bishop Ken. She was married, as we have 
 shewn, to the celebrated Isaak Walton. He had by 
 her an only son, Isaac, Canon Residentiary of 
 Salisbury, and a daughter, Anne, married to Wil- 
 liam Hawkins, D. D. Prebendary of Winchester. 
 
 Isaac Walton, the son, died unmarried, at Salis- 
 bury, in the canonical residence. 
 
 William Hawkins, D. D. had by Anne, daughter 
 of Isaak Walton senior, and sister to Isaac Walton 
 junior, two children, William Hawkins, the bio- 
 grapher of his great uncle, the Bishop ; and Jane, 
 who died unmarried at Salisbury, living till his 
 death with her uncle. 
 
 William Hawkins, the biographer, married the 
 
 daughter of Dr. Merewether, of Devizes, from whom 
 
 is descended the present learned and excellent 
 
 Henry Alworth Merewether, serjeant at law. 
 
 this desuetude of" the visitations has occasioned ; especially as 
 the registries of descents now made are not of themselves legal 
 evidence, although they may point out records and documents 
 to substantiate them, and may afford information upon isolated 
 statements, which the Courts of Westminster will not reject." 
 
 Gent. Mag. xcix. ii. 99. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. / 
 
 William Hawkins, by his wife, Jane Merewethor, 
 had issue a daughter, married to the Rev. John 
 Hawes, Rector of Bemerton. This daughter of 
 William Hawkins was the mother of the present 
 Dr. Hawes, of Salisbury. To him descended, 
 through her, the identical prayer-book of old 
 Isaak Walton (of which more will be said), splen- 
 didly bound, adorned with the arms of Charles the 
 First, printed 1G37, and containing, in Walton's hand- 
 writing, the dates of the birth of his children, and 
 the first transcript of the epitaph on his wife Anne, 
 buried in Worcester cathedral two years after the 
 Restoration. These family memorials are written 
 in the blank leaf before the title-page of this ho- 
 noured relic. Dr. Hawes has also in his possession 
 an original drawing in crayons by Isaac Walton, 
 junior, of his father, which is the most interesting 
 and characteristic portrait I have ever seen, said to 
 have been drawn from recollection after death. 
 With these records and relics, to my friend de- 
 scended also the remains of Ken's worldly splen- 
 dour, a small silver coffee-pot,* the companion of 
 all his vicissitudes ; and the manuscript of his epic 
 poem, " Edmund," most carefully written with his 
 own hand, and in places elaborately corrected, which 
 shews the limce laborem he bestowed on it. 
 
 These particulars I have thought it right to pre- 
 
 * Together with his silver-watch, made by Tompion. These 
 may be compared with Wesley's two silver spoons, — one in 
 London, and one in Bristol ! 
 
8 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 mise in this place, as, but for the interesting in- 
 formation connected with these circumstances, and, 
 above all, Ken's relationship with Isaak Walton, I 
 should probably never have appeared as an episcopal 
 biographer. 
 
 Before I leave this part of the subject, I would 
 not omit some curious coincidences. 
 
 The daughter of Christopher Ken,* of Ken, near 
 Cleveden, on the banks of the Severn, married, we 
 have seen, John, son of Sir Anthony Paulet. Be- 
 ing ardently attached to the fortunes, and in the 
 confidence of Charles the First, his name appeared 
 among the names of those who subscribed the de- 
 claration disavowing the intention, on the King's 
 part, of making war on the Parliament. 
 
 He appeared in arms on the side of the King, 
 and, as a soldier, nobly and gallantly supported the 
 side he had taken ; so that Ken was remotely and 
 immediately a loyalist. 
 
 I may here add, that the second son of the Jirst 
 Lord Paulet married the daughter of a predecessor 
 of Ken's in the See of Bath and Wells, Creighton, 
 who partook all the deprivations of exile with 
 Charles the Second, and who, living to a great 
 age, left, with an inscription commemorative of his 
 fortunes, the brazen eagle, long used as a reading- 
 
 * Portraits of Christopher Ken and his wife, by Vandyke^ 
 are in the possession of Mr. Piggot, of Brockley-Hall. The 
 Ken estate has been lately parcelled out in lots. Rutter's 
 Somersetshire. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. SJ 
 
 desk in the Choir. His nephew was Canon Resi- 
 dentiary, and a scientific musical composer, whose 
 services are still performed in most cathedrals. 
 He was Canon when Ken was Bishop, whom he 
 revered as much as he and the Chapter opposed 
 Kidder.* 
 
 Thus Bishop Ken, son of a London attorney, 
 was doubly connected with the county of Somerset, 
 first by birth, and, incidentally, with the Chapter 
 of Wells, previously to his becoming connected 
 with that Diocese. 
 
 From this remark, I now proceed. 
 
 Thomas Ken, youngest son, by the first wife, of 
 Thomas Ken, of Furnival's Inn, was born, as we 
 have before said, at Little Berkhamstead. Wood, 
 from mistake, gives the date of his birth 1635. He 
 was born July 1637. 
 
 The future Bishop of Bath and Wells entered 
 into life at that eventful period when the murmurs 
 of the storm began to increase, which, soon after- 
 wards, shook to their foundations the battlements 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 At this inauspicious era to the Church, this most 
 exemplary, virtuous, and Christian ornament to that 
 Church, was born. 
 
 Where he received the first rudiments of his 
 
 * It was usual at that time, throughout England, for the 
 members of the Chapter to be present when the candidates 
 for holy orders were ordained. The Chapter often refused 
 attending the ordinations of Kidder. Kidder's MS. Life. 
 
10 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 early education is not known ; nor by whose recom- 
 mendation he became a scholar on William of Wyke- 
 ham's munificent foundation ; but the sons of 
 many distinguished families in the western counties 
 had usually been sent to that seminary of public 
 education, to receive the advantages of the system, 
 if not to be placed as scholars on the foundation. 
 
 That Thomas Ken was considered a proficient in 
 early scholarship ; that he was remarkable, in child- 
 hood, for docility as well as sweetness of disposition, 
 it is surely not unreasonable to infer. 
 
 It may be presumed that the interest of the more 
 prosperous part of the family, in Somersetshire, 
 was solicited, and that therefore it was thought ad- 
 visable that this interesting and promising youth 
 should be bred up to " learning " in Winchester 
 school. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, at the same time, that 
 Ken had a musical voice, which had been no small 
 recommendation for admission to all antient ecclesi- 
 astical establishments, from their foundation ; for, 
 in after life, it is known that no day passed without 
 his singing his evening and morning hymn to his 
 lute,* the origin of those beautiful morning and 
 evening hymns sung at this day by the children of 
 every parish. 
 
 Harris, under whose wardenship Ken was en- 
 tered at Winchester, having taken the " Covenant," 
 probably little regarded such a qualification ; but 
 
 * Hawkins. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 11 
 
 it was required by the Statutes, and might have 
 been an inducement for his parents to endeavour to 
 procure a nomination on an ancient ecclesiastical 
 foundation, where, by long custom, and by the Sta- 
 tutes, music was essentially associated with educa- 
 tion.* 
 
 To show of what importance, before the Refor- 
 mation, this qualification was considered, we need 
 only remark that, in most of our cathedrals, the 
 chief chanter, or Precentor, ranks next in dignity to 
 the Dean ; and though, through England, the ca- 
 thedral choirs were silent when Ken was entered 
 at Winchester, yet, in many places of ecclesiastical 
 education, those who were not of the Puritanic 
 class would be more observant of ancient forms. 
 
 According to the creed of Puritanism, the sub- 
 lime and affecting services of the Choir are a rem- 
 nant of Popery, as is Episcopacy itself, and our im- 
 pressive and beautiful Liturgy ! It would, indeed, 
 have been a relick of Popery, if the Bishop were 
 obliged to lead the chant, as enjoined by the Popish 
 Ritual, secundum usum Sarum. 
 
 Thus, however, with the rudiments of the Latin 
 language, and with the musical qualifications for a 
 future Bishop, had he lived in times more propi- 
 tious to choir-service, Ken, junior, became a candi- 
 date for admission into the College of St. Mary 
 
 * The first question asked of every candidate is, whether he 
 can sing? See " History of Bremhill." 
 
12 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Wintcn in the year 1650-1. The entry of admis- 
 sion in the Collesre book is as follows : 
 
 Thomas Ken, de Berkham stead, in com. Hert- 
 ford, annorum 13 ad Michaelis, 1650, admissns est 
 Jan. 30, 1650-1. 
 
 Ken was admitted under the wardenship of Har- 
 ris, who was considered a perfect Grecian, and an 
 eloquent preacher. According to Wood, he sided, 
 in the contest between the Presbyterians and the 
 Church of England, with the Presbyterians ; was 
 elected of the Assembly of Divines, took the Cove- 
 nant, and so kept his wardenship till his death, two 
 years before the Restoration, 1658.* 
 
 He was elected one of the Elders of the Assem- 
 bly of Divines, through William Twiss, also edu- 
 cated at Winchester, who was reckoned in his day 
 the most powerful of all arguers against Arminius, 
 for the supralapsarian Decrees! A learned discus- 
 sion was maintained between him and Warden Har- 
 ris, probably about some shade of the same dark 
 doctrines. 
 
 I mention these circumstances to shew how ad- 
 verse the spirit of the times was to the Episcopal 
 Church, for here was a Warden, eating the bread 
 of the munificent founder, and superintending an 
 establishment founded by Episcopal bounty, who 
 
 * The Warden of New College, nominated by the Parlia- 
 mentary Visitors in 1648, died the same year. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 13 
 
 had taken the " Covenant" to destroy Episcopacy 
 root and branch ! Papal and Protestant ! 
 
 As to the creed of Harris, he published two 
 Epistles to Twiss ; the first, on the question, 
 whether Predestination were definite or indefinite ! 
 and the other, on the. object of Predestination! 
 Such useless contention is the effect of pressing 
 views in religion beyond the sober veracity of the 
 Gospel, Atheism or Infidelity, in consequence, al- 
 ways succeeding. 
 
 So, when the Platonic, or abstracted views of 
 religion, led, in their excess, to the contemplative 
 Pillar-Saint, who lived forty years on a pillar,* 
 this kind of enthusiasm having attained its ne 
 plus ultra of absurdity — turned round, and the 
 Dancing Saints had their reign. These, in their 
 turn, were succeeded by the Flagellants ; and then 
 came in the Jumpers! 
 
 In the mean time, amidst all this coil, " wisdom 
 is justified of her children." The "wisdom that is 
 from above" is the same, and the Church of Ensr- 
 land, holding nothing infallible but the Word of 
 God, in its sobriety and purity, regards these aber- 
 rations of humanity with a sigh, still preserving the 
 purity and dignified medium of truth. 
 
 The Calvinistic creed succeeded abstracted feel- 
 ings — with this difference: Plato, by abstraction, 
 sought to exalt the soul — Manes, and the Ka- 
 Qapot — earliest Puritans, enjoined their disciples, 
 
 * See Mosheim. 
 
14 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 by unnatural austerities, &c. to mortify the body, 
 that is, matter — which they conceived to be derived 
 from the Evil Principle, and therefore totally and 
 essentially corrupt. 
 
 Christianity, mingled with Platonism, on one 
 hand, carried to excess, seraphic abstraction ; and 
 the severer scholastic creed, mingling pure Chris- 
 tianity with Manecheism, afterwards with Aristo- 
 telism, produced Calvinism, of which there are two 
 distinct shades. About these two shades — abso- 
 lute and conditional — Twiss and Harris differed. 
 
 The Cock in Dryden's Fable says — 
 
 I cannot bolt this matter to the bran, 
 
 As Bradwardine and learned Austin can ! 
 
 In the language of Chaucer — 
 
 '« In school is great altercation, 
 
 In this mater, and great disputacion, 
 And hath been of a hundred thousand men ! 
 Quoth Chanticlere ! 
 
 (Cock and the Fox.) 
 
 It is a pity that such disputations, which have been 
 the bane of piety, should not have been confined to 
 such disputants ; for neither Twiss nor Warden 
 Harris made the world wiser or better, and " Cha- 
 rity," which is " greater " than Faith, has always 
 suffered in such interminable contests ! We are 
 commanded to "love one another;" but we are no 
 where commanded to believe in Predestination — 
 absolute or conditional! 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 KEN A COLLEGE-BOY, AT WINCHESTER SCHOOL CATHE- 
 RINE HILL ELECTION-CHAMBER REFLECTIONS ON 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 Gay hope is theirs, by fancy fed, 
 
 Less pleasing when possess'd; 
 
 The tear forgot as soon as shed, 
 
 The sunshine of the breast. 
 
 Gray. 
 
 We have now placed our young scholar, " pauper 
 scholaris" on that ancient foundation which has 
 sent so many illustrious scholars into society, and 
 so many who, like Warham, Chieheley, Ken, and 
 Lowth, have adorned the highest stations in the 
 Church, and, by their learning, virtue, and piety, 
 given the noblest lustre — often from the humblest 
 origin— to the mitre. 
 
 The more interesting career of life is now begun, 
 every stage of which, in its first progress, is 
 watched by affectionate parents with intense anx- 
 iety, lest " peradventure evil should befall a beloved 
 child." The parents, however, have chosen that 
 mode of education in which it is least likely that 
 " evil will befall him" 
 
 At the age of thirteen, the scholastic noviciate at 
 Winchester is probably placed in the form called 
 
 * See observations in "Vindiciae Wycchamicae," on this 
 word in the Statutes, in answer to Mr. Brougham — by the 
 Author. 
 
16 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Junior part of Fifth ; and is become, with a band, 
 and black dangling gown, a Junior of Fifth or Sixth 
 Chamber. 
 
 As junior, he is up before the other boys of the 
 same chamber. In the glimmering and cold wintry 
 mornings, he could not turn, at this time, to 
 " Ken's Manual ;" but he would perhaps repeat to 
 himself — watching the slow morning through the 
 grated window — one of the beautiful ancient hymns 
 composed for the scholars on the foundation. 
 
 Jam lucis orto sydere 
 
 Deum precemur supplices, 
 Ut in tliurnis actibus, 
 
 Nos servet a nocentibus. 
 
 Now the star of morning-light 
 Rises on the rear of night ; 
 Suppliant to our God we pray, 
 From ills to guard us through this day. 
 
 I have little doubt but such repetitions, in after 
 life, led Ken to the composition of those hymns 
 which form the greatest portion of his poems, and 
 particularly his well-known Morning and Evening 
 Hymns, of which I have spoken. 
 
 Rising before the others, he had little to do ex- 
 cept to apply a candle to a large faggot, in winter, 
 which had been alreadv laid. Nothing servile did 
 I ever see or experience, though it has been as 
 falsely as basely alleged that the juniors of a public 
 school clean shoes, &c. Such degrading offices, or 
 any thing degrading, I do not believe is, or was 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 17 
 
 ever permitted ; and as to lighting a faggot, or 
 obeying the seniors, Ken, in a prison, or in his 
 highest elevation, might have found the advantage. 
 What he had to undergo would not have prevented 
 him from sending a favourite son to learn the same 
 virtues at the same expense. 
 
 On the fifth or sixth day, our junior, " the tear 
 forgot as soon as shed," if it has ever for a moment 
 been on his youthful cheek, is at ease among his 
 companions of the same age ; he is found, for 
 the first time, attempting to wield a cricket bat ; 
 and, when his hour of play is over, he plies, at his 
 scoe,* the labours of his silent lesson, or sits 
 scanning his "nonsense" verses, which, nonsense 
 as they have been called, have led the way to form 
 the most accurate and elegant scholars, however 
 such rudiments may be derided. 
 
 These cares are soon at an end. The holidays 
 are approaching ; and who more blithely than Ken, 
 with his musical voice, can sing that pleasing verse 
 of the old Wykehamical canticle — 
 
 Ridet annus, prata rident, 
 Nosque rideamus, 
 Jam repetit Donium 
 
 * An oaken box, which contains his few hooks. On each side 
 are places for pens and ink. The outer cover is placed open. 
 The depository of books has another cover, on which the young 
 scholar writes his task, or reads his lesson. 
 VOL. I. C 
 
18 LIFE OF BTSHOP KEN. 
 
 Daulias advena, 
 
 Nosque domum repetamus, 
 
 Domum, &c* 
 
 Now every boy pants for Whitsuntide, when is 
 sung, in choral glee — 
 
 Musa, libros mitte, fessa, 
 Mitte pensa dura. 
 
 Till that day arrives, after the "pensa dura" of 
 four days, the whole train of youthful scholars is 
 seen streaming, twice a week, by the side of the 
 Itchin, towards Catharine Hill, a large, round, 
 conical hill, fronting the Downs ; a scene, since 
 the foundation of the school, dedicated to youthful 
 recreation and short oblivion of school cares. 
 
 This holiday scene, alive and fervent with strip- 
 ling animation from age to age, Tom Wart on has 
 beautifully described, with the airy occupants at 
 their pastimes. 
 
 Aerio Catharina jugo, quk vertice summo, 
 Danorum veteres fossas, immania castra, 
 Et circumducti servat vestigia valli, 
 Wykehamicae mos est pubi celebrare paleslras 
 Muhiplices, passimque levi contendere lusu, 
 Festa dies quoties rediit. 
 
 He then describes the juniors, as seen in knots 
 and groups upon the turf : 
 
 Quin lusu incerto cernas gestire minores, 
 Se saltu exercent vario, et luctantur in herba, 
 
 * Dulce Domum. the old Wykehamical song, from its style, 
 may be judged to have been written before the Reformation. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 19 
 
 Innocuasque edunt pugnas, aut gramine molli 
 
 OTIA AGUNT FUSI, CLIVISQUE SUB OMNIBUS HiERENT. 
 
 Among these juniors, on the different knolls, — 
 throw back the years that have passed away since, 
 — we think we see young Ken, familiar and 
 playful. 
 
 That an anxious mother, instead of listening to 
 the hobgoblin stories of public-school tyranny, 
 might think she saw, on a summer's holiday, the 
 child of her affections thus seated, I shall endea- 
 vour to translate for her : 
 
 Where on its airy summit, Catharine Hill * 
 Still shews its Danish dike, and the vast camp, 
 And vestiges of ramparts, that surround 
 Its brow — oft as the festive day returns, 
 Wykeham, thy sons their pastimes celebrate, 
 Or in light play contend : the younger tribe 
 Appear, all play — uncertain what — they leap, 
 In harmless strife they wrestle, or in groups, 
 Spread leisurely, on every hillock hang. 
 
 Many years have passed since I played am on 
 them ; in the language of the classical writer, 
 
 " Where first my Muse to lisp her notes began ! 
 While pensive Memory traces back the man, 
 Which fills the varied interval between, 
 Much pleasure, more of sorrow, mark the scene." 
 
 Warton. 
 
 (r 
 & 
 
 * It is well known, that Pope Gregory gave directions to his 
 Missionaries not to change the places of assembly where Pagan 
 rites were celebrated, but to dedicate them afresh to Christian 
 saints, and turn the Pagan into Christian rites. (See Bede.) 
 
 C 2 Hence 
 
20 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 But. I will venture to say the last natural and beau- 
 tiful image, to which no translation can do justice, 
 has been witnessed from the days of Ken, I might 
 say from the days of the founder, to the present, 
 and will be witnessed as long as the neighbouring 
 ancient towers, dedicated for so many years to 
 learning and piety, shall 
 
 " crown the watery glade." 
 
 I trust to the reader's pardon for this incidental 
 interruption, and proceed to the classical studies 
 there of him whose life suggested the imagery and 
 excited the remembrances of the moment. 
 
 A "Winchester scholar, advancing through the 
 different classes of the school, acquires different 
 habits of thinking, accompanied with a diffident 
 consciousness of progressive acquirements. He 
 now begins to feel the beauties of those works 
 whose grammatical difficulties he had pensively 
 pored over. The descriptions of Virgil and Homer 
 have a charm for his imagination ; and his ear 
 is insensibly turned to the music of the versifi- 
 cation. 
 
 His awakened feelings are in unison with his 
 studies, now no longer confined to the trammels of 
 unintelligible grammar. 
 
 Hence, as I have observed elsewhere, the hill of Tanarus be- 
 came that of St. Anne, and Cad-a-Ryne, the fortification above 
 the water, St. Catherine; of which St. Catharine's hill, near 
 Winchester, is a striking specimen. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 21 
 
 Such a youth, when his companions arc at play, 
 often wanders " off-hill," (as the term is,) 
 
 " Step following step, and thought succeeding thought." 
 
 Lowtii. 
 
 Such a character I rcmemher poor Russell,* a 
 
 * Thomas Russell, of New College, my school-fellow at Win- 
 chester, had great poetical genius, and exquisitely cultivated 
 attainments. 
 
 A small volume of translated and original poems was pub- 
 lished soon after his immature death, by our common revered 
 friend, now elevated to the metropolitan seat of this kingdom. 
 This volume, though now scarce, is rich in strains of most 
 harmonious sweetness and beauty, as every heart attached to 
 poetry will acknowledge wherever it has been met. Mr. Southey 
 has done justice to it; and it were to be wished that a new 
 edition were published, together with the poems of Crowe and 
 Bampfielde. 
 
 At Oxford, Russell's society was sought by most of the 
 young men of birth and talent in the University. He 
 retired from such society, where he was admired and 
 loved, to a provincial curacy ; and soon after, with the most 
 engaging manners, the most benevolent heart, and the highest 
 endowments, died, in early } ? outh, of a consumption, the Curate 
 of a village near Dorchester, of which county his father and 
 brother were eminent solicitors. 
 
 Some of the boys were in the habit of writing local epigrams. 
 A most elegant tribute, of the kind, was paid to the eloquence 
 of Balguy, a prebendary, who had refused a bishopric, well 
 known for his Sermons on Christian Benevolence. He had 
 preached on the text, " in wisdom there is sorrow." 
 
 IMPROMPTU. 
 
 If what you have told us, dear Doctor, be true, 
 " In wisdom is sorrow," how wretched are you ! 
 
 This 
 
22 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 young man of extraordinary genius. Such, we 
 
 may conceive, before he was cast upon the world, 
 
 was Otway ; such the sublime Young ; such the 
 
 tender Collins ; such Lowth, who, with kindred 
 
 feeling, awoke the sacred harp of Israel,* — all 
 
 educated in the same school — and such, to judge 
 
 from his character through life, was the studious 
 
 and the ingenuous Ken. 
 
 But adieu to desultory ramblings " ojf-hills" 
 
 when the young votary of the Muses 
 "snatches a fearful joy.", 
 
 The day of election draws near — " the great, the 
 important day, big with the fate " of super- 
 
 This was written by Russell when a boy at school. 
 His early fate reminds me of some lines written by himself, 
 upon a schoolfellow, dying, with a similar fate, and, in some 
 respects, resembling him in character : 
 
 To a friend so sincere, to a comrade so gay, 
 Who brought cares on himself, to drive our cares away, 
 Who lov'd still to laugh, yet ne'er wish'd to offend, 
 And, a friend to mankind, found mankind not a friend; 
 To a spirit so rare let us ever be just, 
 Nor forget him, poor fellow J though laid in the dust, f 
 Then haste with your myrtles to hang on his shrine, 
 With odours enrich it, bedew it with wine ; 
 Ne'er cease on his turf early roses to bloom, 
 And green be the laurel that waves o'er his tomb. 
 
 * Lowth 's " Praelectiones de Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum, " — 
 rich with classical translations of Isaiah. 
 
 + Russell wrote the Letters in the Gentleman's Magazine, with the signature 
 A.S. (Amator Solitudinis,) in defence of VVarton, when he was attacked by 
 Ritson. Sec his death recorded in the Magazine for 1788, p. 752. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN, 23 
 
 animates, panting to be placed high on the roll of 
 succession to the great object of Wykchamical 
 hopes, New College. 
 
 A severer course of studies is now absolutely 
 requisite, for nothing can be conceived more por- 
 tentous than, at this time, to the ambitious 
 student, the Election-chamber ! The Warden and 
 Electors from New College have been received 
 yesterday evening by a Latin oration at the inner 
 gate of the college, spoken by one of the senior 
 boys, with classical compliments to the learning 
 and critical judgment of the illustrious visitors and 
 examiners ! 
 
 The next morning, the scholars to be examined 
 are all in a fervour of anxiety and emulation. At 
 length, they are ushered into the Election-chamber 
 before the two Wardens of either College, the 
 Posers, as they may well be called, two Fellows of 
 New College, the Sub- Warden, and Head-Master 
 of Winchester. The scholars of the first and second 
 classes are examined in sets, called Fardels, the 
 form of the examination being doubtless nearly the 
 same now, and the appellations the same, as they 
 were at the time when Ken stood to be examined 
 among them. 
 
 To the Founder's kin, — descendants from the 
 Founder, — according to the Statutes, the two first 
 places are conceded. The place on the roll next to 
 them is the great object of emulation among the 
 others ; and this is the time of the greatest solici- 
 
24 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 tude to a parent. He has spared no expense, — he 
 has watched every improvement, — he anticipates 
 certain success. 
 
 The examination itself, during three successive 
 days, is indeed formidable to the tyro of classical 
 studies. 
 
 The books are opened, Homer, Sophocles, &c. 
 but the examinant knows nothing of the passages 
 which he will have to render into English, at sight, 
 before his new hearers. The last day of examina- 
 tion is more formidable still ; for, ranged round the 
 room, without pen or ink, and not having the most 
 remote idea of the subject that will be proposed, 
 those who form the first class are required to com- 
 pose, and repeat, as soon as composed, Latin verses, 
 on any subject given by the different electors ; and 
 this is absolutely necessary to gain or retain a place 
 which will ensure any chance of succeeding to New 
 College. 
 
 With respect to such examination, and critical 
 exercises, I shall only observe, that, if classical scho- 
 larship be considered as necessary towards the libe- 
 ral part of the education of a highly-cultivated 
 English gentleman, whether destined to be a cler- 
 gyman or not, it were best that he should be a 
 scholar, not crudely, or by halves, but have a relish 
 for the beauties, an ear to distinguish the harmo- 
 nies, of the ancient Poets, — to have those harmonies 
 familiar to him, — to imbibe from them a perfect 
 feeling of the charms of classical prosody, not 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 25 
 
 pedantically, but intimately, — to be nursed in severe 
 and discriminating feelings of taste, to be familiar 
 with the most correct models of composition. The 
 scholar may thus lay up oblect amino, for the even- 
 ing of age, and, through all changes of life, derive 
 enjoyment from refined literature, which interests 
 in solitude, and which gives the most cultivated 
 charm to conversation and character. 
 
 But is this all ? Let the name of Lowth, and of 
 him whose life I am recording, and of a thousand 
 others whom I could mention, be the answer ! 
 
 I do not say the system must invariably succeed, 
 
 but the " BREAD IS CAST ON THE WATERS." 
 
 Ken, after the requisite examination, must have 
 been so placed on the roll, as would justify a parent's 
 hope that, a vacancy occurring in the course of the 
 year, he would be admitted to a Fellowship in the 
 kindred munificent foundation of William of Wyke- 
 ham in Oxford. 
 
 But, before we attend his progress to the next 
 scene of life, after the durance and exercises of a 
 cloistered school, — we shall take this opportunity of 
 adding some reflections on a very important sub- 
 ject, — the system of public-school education in 
 England, so much, in the present day, discussed. 
 
 The interval between school and the new scenes 
 of life, which an University presents, is generally 
 passed by the young student among his friends at 
 home. 
 
26 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 The advantages of the English mode of pnhlic 
 education are not perceived by an anxious parent 
 till a son, sent a boy to Westminster, Eton, or Win- 
 chester, returns a manly and high-minded youth 
 to his parents when this part of his education has 
 been completed. He has now, by collision with 
 others, been taught to estimate himself justly. If 
 his parents move in the highest stations of so- 
 ciety, the edge of domineering vanity has been 
 worn down ; and nothing, in after life, appears of 
 that conceit, which is invariably found when there 
 is no collision of equal minds and equal station. 
 All petty arrogance in a public school finds its 
 level ; qualities are estimated, not station ; though, 
 afterwards, a due respect to station, when not 
 arrogantly assumed on one side, will be always 
 liberally and cheerfully granted on the other. 
 The fondest mother, remarking the pleasing man- 
 ners, the generous and frank mind, the scholar- 
 like but unpedantic acquirements, the demeanour 
 without conceit or awkwardness, of " a favourite " 
 son, will feel a tear of joy start to her eye, that 
 his father was not deterred by the chimeras of 
 tyranny, cruelty, &c. from giving his child that 
 education which has produced a Walpole, a Chat- 
 ham, a Liverpool, Ministers of State ; a Pulte- 
 ney, Chesterfield, Bolingbroke, Fox, Sheridan, 
 Canning, Lansdowne, Wellesley (Marquis), Hol- 
 land, Grey, &c. Parliamentary orators ; Onslow, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 27 
 
 Cornewall, Addington, Abbott, Sutton, Speakers; 
 among poets and scholars, a Milton, a Cowley, an 
 Addison, a Gray, and a Collins ; Wellington, a sol- 
 dier and statesman; among Bishops, a Sherlock, a 
 Lowth, and a Ken. 
 
 It will not be imagined, from what is here 
 said, that any one could be so absurd as to sup- 
 pose all virtue and talent arc monopolized by 
 public schools* No ! but the chance, in my opi- 
 nion, is nearly two to one in favour of wisdom and 
 virtue ; and, if I have adverted to some conspicu- 
 ous examples of public eminent characters, I believe 
 in no instance will it be found, while we lament 
 talents and station disgraced, that such characters 
 as a Wharton or a Rochester, would have been, or 
 could have been, so infamously distinguished, had 
 their system of education been public ; a mode of 
 
 * There are no such establishments, I believe, in France, or 
 on the Continent : is there, then, no virtue or wisdom in France, 
 as well as England ? Who would ever think of affirming this ? 
 but I believe every one will say, that there is no comparison 
 between the general ignorance and frivolousness of the classes 
 of the educated or noble young men of one nation, and the mo- 
 ral and intellectual eminence of the same rank in the other ; 
 or that England, in moral dignity, yields to any nation. A 
 great deal is owing to the moral effect of our institutions of edu- 
 cation ; and I contend, the public and academic institutions of 
 this country are one of the most effective means of furnishing 
 those distinguished characters in the first ranks of English so- 
 ciety — the scholar, the gentleman, the Christian. 
 
28 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 education which was expressly interdicted by their 
 parents, for fear of injuring their morals,* — the 
 Morals of a Rochester or Wharton ! 
 
 How often has it been my lot to have heard 
 arguers possessed of intelligence and talents, descant 
 on the evils of public schools ; when the intrusive 
 thought could not be repressed, that if those very 
 men, so energetic on the cruelties and folly of the 
 system, had experienced in their youth the advan- 
 tages of such an education themselves, it would 
 have subdued that opinionated fervour, the existence 
 of which was owing to the want of the discipline 
 they decried ! 
 
 But the cloistered gates are thrown wide: the 
 young disciple, starting into life, looks for a mo- 
 ment back upon the dark walls of discipline with 
 many reminiscences of school-day hours, and com- 
 panions from whom he is to be parted for ever; and 
 lingeringly he bids adieu to the shades of his mo- 
 nastic incarceration, rising over the watery pastures 
 
 * Certain good ladies' fears as to morals, I have even heard 
 from some academical tutors ! There is infinitely more op- 
 pression, and more immorality, in private schools. The dif- 
 ference is this. At private schools, I speak of course gene- 
 rally, the quiet boy, who comes the youngest and weakest, is 
 " put upon," as the phrase is. In larger schools, he is pro- 
 tected. One act of cruelty, in three hundred years, in a school 
 where there is a succession of five hundred boys, is held up as 
 a necessary consequence of such a mode of education ! ! 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 29 
 
 of Itchin, with emotions so exquisitely described 
 by Sophocles, and in language so familiar to him : 
 
 Xaip', w fxeXadpo)', L,vfj,(ppovpov ejxoi, 
 Nvfj.(j)Ui r etv&poi Xei/xwi'inbes. 
 
 Farewell, thou sojourn of my youthful years, 
 Nymphs of the meadows of the watery vale, 
 Farewell. 
 
 The author's feelings on leaving the same scene 
 of early study, many, many years ago, were thus 
 expressed at the time : 
 
 I go, not unrejoicing, but who knows — ■ 
 
 Returning, I may drop some natural tears 
 When these same scenes I look around, 
 And hear from yonder Fane the slow bell sound, . 
 
 And think upon the joys that crown'd my stripling years.* 
 
 * Poems, vol. ii. 
 
30 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 KEN AT OXFORD ANTONY WOOD'S MUSICAL CLUB — FIRST 
 
 ACQUAINTANCE WITH THYNNE OF CHRIST CHURCH, AF- 
 TERWARDS VISCOUNT WEYMOUTH — CONNECTION OF THE 
 
 FAMILY OF THYNNE AND PACKINGTON MORLEY, AF- 
 
 WARDS BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, THE MEANS OF KEN'S 
 ACQUAINTANCE WITH THYNNE. 
 
 2tnb in tfcc pear ei0fot fiunbrcb fiftp tfjree anb ttocluc, 
 
 .UKartin <25i£fjoj> of Home sranteb to itino ?tiurcb,* 
 
 (Co founo anb mafic a £tubp tfjcn aoatn, 
 
 2Cnb an unnier£ttp of tttvtk$ to reab, 
 
 (STfce tofiicfre Ije mabe at ®££&#4>K<B inbeeb, 
 
 (3To tfoat intent tfcc dercft£ fin Sapience 
 
 ?Cgain£t fcereticj £&outb mafic rc£i£tance. 
 
 So&n $arbinff. 
 
 Ken left Winchester college a super-annuate be- 
 tween eighteen and nineteen years of age, 1655-6. 
 As there was no vacancy at New college, he was 
 entered at Hart hall, afterwards Hertford college ; -f~ 
 and they only who have been in the same situation 
 know with what intense anxiety the young Oxford 
 student and his parents look forward, day by day, 
 perhaps through the long year in vain, for a va- 
 cancy, which may bring the super-annuate of Win- 
 chester again among his old schoolfellows, and place 
 him in the foundation to which his early studies 
 were preparatory — which had been the goal of his 
 
 * Alfred. f Where Magdalen hall now is. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 31 
 
 youthful ambition and hopes, and to which his eyes 
 were almost from infancy directed, as the first home 
 of independence in life. But, lo ! from death or 
 marriage, unexpectedly a vacancy occurs just before 
 the year has expired, and now, when all hopes of 
 succession had nearly vanished, Ken, with the ar- 
 dour and delight which a Wykehamist only feels, 
 becomes possessor of rooms in New college. 
 
 Ken was admitted Probationer Fellow of New 
 college in 1057, George Marshall being then War- 
 den ; a Warden who was not a Wykehamist, or 
 elected, according to the Statutes, by the Fellows, 
 but obtruded on the College by the Parliamentary 
 Visitors, and appointed, reclamante collegio, in 
 1649. 
 
 The intrepid stand which the true sons of Wyke- 
 ham made on this occasion has been little noticed, 
 thoiig-h their conduct was as noble as that of the 
 President and Fellows of Magdalen, in the face of 
 arbitrary power ; but the Parliamentary Visitors 
 knew better how to do their work, and they did it 
 more effectually than James the Second. 
 
 Dr. Pink, the Warden, died soon after this " dire- 
 ful visitation," as Ayliffe calls it, began. An in- 
 junction issued to the Fellows of New college that 
 they should not proceed to elect a Warden, but wait 
 the recommendation of the Visitors. The Fellows 
 took no notice, but proceeded, according to the 
 Statutes, to elect one of their own body, and elected 
 Dr. Henry Stringer, almost unanimously, in defiance 
 
32 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 of the imperative Puritans, and in disdain of the 
 strongest solicitations of Lord Say,* who had been 
 educated himself a Wykehamist. 
 
 Walker says, a Major Jordan was thrust in ! Of 
 him I find no account, and therefore imagine this 
 to be a mistake. Wood says nothing of this Jor- 
 dan ; but the " Saints," in the plenitude of their 
 dispensing and dictatorial power, — far greater than 
 that of James the Second, — nominated as Warden, 
 White — distinguished by the title of the " Patriarch 
 of Dorchester," in Dorsetshire, and Rector of Tri- 
 nity Church there ! The obstinate sons of Wyke- 
 ham, however, rejected the " Patriarch of Dor- 
 chester," though educated at Winchester, and for- 
 merly Fellow of New college, and elected one whose 
 character, learning, and piety was of a different 
 complexion. 
 
 The Visitors, however, knew their strength, — 
 they ejected, by virtue of the Parliamentary lexfor- 
 tioris, Dr. Stringer, the legitimate Warden, vi et 
 armis ! He retired to London ; and, like many 
 other estimable characters, died obscurely there, 
 probably in poverty, a few years afterwards. 
 
 It is said, the "Patriarch of Dorchester,"^ having 
 
 * Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, his son, it is said, saved the 
 college of Winchester from destruction, remembering his oath, 
 when commissioned by Cromwell to destroy it. 
 
 \ He was a pious but injudicious man, and certainly one of 
 the most amiable of his class. He is buried in the church- 
 yard of Trinity church, Dorchester. Wood. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 33 
 
 been a Fellow, from high principles, refused the 
 honour, and the Visitors nominated, as in insult, 
 a novum monstrum of a Warden, George Marshall, 
 who was neither Wykehamist nor fellow, but who 
 had been chaplain to the god/// garrison of the Par- 
 liament. Under his alien wardenship Ken became 
 Probationer Fellow, not long before this anomalous 
 Warden's death. Harris, the Presbyterian Warden 
 of Winchester, and this obtruded Warden of New 
 college, died the same year, 1658. The Fellows 
 afterwards proceeded in their regular mode of elec- 
 tion, which every true Wykehamist will pray may 
 have no other interruption as long as these ancient 
 and hallowed seats of learning shall flourish, to pro- 
 duce future Lowths and future Kens. 
 
 Ken had been entered at Oxford when the cele 
 brated Dr. Owen was Viee-Chancellor under the 
 Chancellorship of Cromwell. This learned man, 
 of the class of the Puritanic Independents, it is 
 known, was author of a scholastic treatise on the 
 " Divine Justice" Learning and liberality, indeed, 
 were now surviving the degraded reign of fanatic 
 ignorance at Oxford. 
 
 The great Sir William Petty was Fellow of Bra- 
 sen-nose. Ward,* the mathematician, was soon 
 afterwards, though educated at Cambridge, elected 
 President of Trinity, from whence, at the Restora- 
 tion, he was ejected in favour of the expelled Pre- 
 sident, Dr. Hannibal Potter. 
 
 * Afterwards the beneficent Bishop of Salisbury. 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 And let it be mentioned, that at Oxford, by 
 Wilkins and Dr. Petty, afterwards Sir William, 
 the first project was entertained that led to the 
 establishment of the Royal Society. It will serve 
 to shew how much the dismal rule of Calvinistic 
 Puritanism had relaxed in its morose and unsocial 
 discipline, when, towards the close of Cromwell's 
 life, " the unprofitable organ " was again heard 
 " piping" at St. Mary's ; and when a musical society 
 was established in the town, where even ungodly 
 Jiddles were once more heard. 
 
 As " Ken, junior," of New college, belonged to 
 this society, we shall copy Anthony a Wood's mi- 
 nute but delightful account of the members.* Be- 
 fore they " tap their bows on the candlestick," let 
 us reconnoitre the whole set. 
 
 First there is " Charles Perot, M. A. of Oriel 
 coll. a well-bred gentleman" (no starch and sour 
 predestinarian,) " and a person of a sweet nature? 
 Next behold, 
 
 2. " Christopher Harrison, M. A. Fellow of 
 Queen's college, a maggot-headed person, and hu- 
 ?nourous /" Methinks we hear the ghost of 
 Praise-God-barebone, sighing, " O tempora et 
 mores ! " " He was afterwards Parson of Burgh- 
 under-Staynsmore, in Cumberland." By your leave, 
 
 * The society was first established in 1656; and Wood gives 
 a list under that date, but I have only quoted the second list 
 in 1658, among whose names Ken first appears. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. ,'J5 
 
 Antony, " Parson " of Burgh in Westmoreland. So, 
 in Wales, 
 
 The Bowens and Ap-Rices 
 Keepjiddles with their benefices — 
 
 <r where he died in the winter-time, an. 1(59 1. 1 ' — 
 Wood. Whom have we next ? 
 
 3. No less a personage than " Kenelm Digby, 
 Fellow of All Souls," who ought to have been 
 " Mediocriter Doctus," according to the Sta- 
 tutes, " in piano Cantti." " He was afterwards," 
 proceeds Antony, " LL. D. and dying in the said 
 college, Nov. 5, 1688, was buried in the chapel there. 
 He was a violinist, and the two former, violists." 
 — Wood. We may imagine fe^or-violins. The Fel- 
 lows of All Souls, as if resolved to be no longer 
 "Mediocriter Docti in arte Musica," are here again! 
 
 4. " Will. Bull, M. A. Batchelor of Physick, and 
 Fellow of All Souls, for the violin — and viol." — 
 Wood. Hear, oh Chicheley ! thy degenerate sons ! 
 " He died the 15th July, 1661, aged 28, and was bu- 
 ried in the chapel there." — Wood. Another Fellow 
 of the same college ! 
 
 5. " John Vincent, M. A. Fellow of the said 
 college ! a violist. He went afterwards to the 
 Inns of Court, and was a barrister." — Wood. 
 
 6. " Sylvanus Taylor, sometime Commoner of 
 Wadham college ; afterwards Fellow of All Souls ! 
 violist and songster /" — Wood. Another Fellow of 
 that college wherein the bene nati were required to 
 be only mediocriter doctl in music, a singer into the. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 bargain ! " He went afterwards to Ireland, and died 
 at Dublin in the beginning of November 1672." 
 Wood. " Lugete, veneres, cupidinesque," we might 
 say, if he were composer of the "Irish Melodies"* 
 of the day, which we have no means of ascertaining. 
 " His elder brother, Captain Silas Taylor, was a com- 
 poser of music, playd and sung his parts, and, when 
 his occasions brought him to Oxon, he would play 
 and sing his part there." 
 
 7. " Henry Langley, M.A. and Gentleman Com- 
 moner of Wadham college, a violist and songster. 
 He was afterwards a worthy knight, lived at Abbey 
 Foriat, near Shrewsbury, where he died in 1 680." 
 
 8. " Samuel Woodford, a Commoner of the said 
 college, a violist. He was afterwards a celebrated 
 poet,f- beneficed in Hampshire, and Prebendary of 
 Winchester." — Wood. 
 
 I here pause, and request indulgence, having 
 mentioned these musical gentlemen of Wadham, to 
 relate a circumstance in my own musical career in 
 the same University. 
 
 I was then scholar of Trinity, every resident in 
 the inner quadrangle of which college practised on 
 some instrument. Four-and-twenty fiddles, nine- 
 teen clarionets, and flutes out of number, rung 
 
 * Let it not be thought that I undervalue, by this remark, 
 those affecting and beautiful strains by my friend Thomas 
 Moore. 
 
 f This "celebrated poet" was, like Churchill's bard, 
 " Of special merit but of little note." 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. .37 
 
 through the quadrangle from morning till night, 
 after lectures, chapel, &c. were over. 
 
 " Playing my part," (as Antony says,) I was 
 seated, humbly attempting a quartett of Haydn, on 
 a beautiful morning in summer. The leader was 
 the celebrated Malum, the second my poor friend, 
 now no more, Dr. Lee, afterwards head of the 
 college, and Vice-Chancellor, — when, suddenly, the 
 leader started from his chair, dropped the bow, 
 placed his hands on both ears, and exclaimed, 
 " Merciful Heaven ! I thought I had heard every 
 hideous sound upon earth — but — what is that ?" 
 
 A window opposite was thrown open — the neck 
 of an instrument protruded — a distorted visage 
 seen, and we heard, in dismay, that this was a 
 young gentleman, named Boulter, first attempting 
 
 " Shepherds, I have lost my Love," 
 on the bassoon ! I know not whether he is alive 
 or dead, but if alive, and should he ever read this, he 
 may smile. I hope he still plays the bassoon, as one 
 of the oblectamina of the evening of life, when he 
 made so promising a beginning ! 
 
 We had no hope of stopping this interesting 
 solo, so all instruments were laid down ; but the 
 circumstance caused a grand revolution, for orders 
 were given out by the President, Dr. Chapman, that 
 no person should touch any instrument till one o'clock. 
 
 This injunction only served, exactly as the clock 
 
 struck one, to increase the noise : 
 
 Let those play now, who never playd before, 
 Let those who always play'd, now play the more. 
 
38 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 The quadrangle, from its braying, at a particular 
 hour, "with all sorts of instruments," was fami- 
 liarly called Nebuchadnezzar's Quadrangle. 
 
 The garden of Trinity fronts Wadham, the col- 
 lege of Antonv Wood's two last musicians. In 
 consequence of the fervent harmonies at one o'clock, 
 the Warden of Wadham earnestly requested the 
 President of Trinity to put a stop to the music 
 entirely, as the students of his college, not having 
 such good ears as the young gentlemen of Trinity, 
 could not proceed with their studies in consequence 
 of the noise of their collegiate neighbours ! 
 
 I could hardly refrain giving this narrative of 
 Oxford music, being on the subject of Antony 
 Wood's academical harmonists, and we now pro- 
 ceed with his illustrious list. 
 
 9. " Francis Parry, M. A. Fellow of Corpus 
 Christi college, a violist and songster. He was 
 afterwards a traveller" (in what line we are not 
 informed,) but "he belonged to the Excise Of- 
 fice r 
 
 10. " Christopher Coward, M. A. Fellow of 
 Corpus Christi college, was afterwards Rector of 
 Dicheat, in his native county of Somersetshire, 
 proceeded D. D. at Oxon 1694." "Violist and 
 division-violist," in the margin. What is meant 
 by division-violist I know not. 
 
 11. " Charles Bridgeman,M.A. of Queen's college, 
 of kin to Sir Orlando Bridgeman. He was after- 
 wards Archdeacon of Richmond. He died Nov. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 39 
 
 26, 1 678, and was buried in the chapel belonging to 
 that college." 
 
 12. " Nathaniel Crewe, M. A. Fellow of Lincoln 
 college, a violinist and violist, but always played 
 out of tune, as having no good ear. He was after- 
 wards, through several preferments, Bishop of 
 Durham." 
 
 Salve Crewe, ornatissime ! — Though your " eare 
 is bad" your munificent charity at Bamborough 
 Castle, which first excited the youthful Oxonian 
 to "sing" 
 
 " Ye Holy Towers, that shade the wave-worn steep," &c.* 
 makes ample amends. And albeit "you always play 
 out of tune" who can forget the institution at Oxford 
 of the Creweian commemoration of University Be- 
 nefactors, and the Theatre, resounding from year to 
 year, since thou didst " play out of tune " — with 
 the finest strains of choral music. 
 
 13. " Matthew Hutton, M. A. Fellow of Brazen- 
 nose, an excellent violist, afterwards Rector of 
 Aynoe, in Northamptonshire." 
 
 14. But who comes next ? Per Musas et Apol- 
 linem, Kennius noster ! " Thomas Ken, of New 
 college, a junior. He would be sometimes among 
 them, and sing his part." — Wood. 
 
 15. " Christopher Jeffries, a junior student of 
 Christ Church, excellent at the organ, or virginals, 
 or harpsichord, having been trained up to those 
 
 * Sonnets by the Author. 
 
40 - LIFE OF BISHOP KEN, 
 
 instruments by his father, George Jeffries, steward 
 to the Lord Hatton, of Kirbie, in Northampton- 
 shire, organist to Charles the First at Oxon." — 
 Wood. 
 
 Let the reader think of these abominations ! 
 An organ and harpsichord at the University of 
 Oxford, in the godly times of Cromwell, Chan- 
 cellor, and Dr. Owen, Vice-Chancellor ! Where 
 was Pri/nne, that he did not sit down and write 
 three volumes in folio, on the " Ungodliness of 
 Harpsichords !" How might Tertullian, and those 
 of his school, have declaimed on the portentous 
 catalogue of sinful Citharsedists ! Satis cantico- 
 rum ! satis vocum ! (De Spectaculis.) Here is the 
 son of the steward of the descendant of Sir Chris- 
 topher Hatton, a mi?iuet-d&ncmg statesman, running- 
 fugues on the harpsichord, and described as son of 
 the organist of Charles the First ! 
 
 16. " Richard Rhodes, another junior student of 
 Christ Church, a confident Westmonasterian ; a 
 violinist, to hold between his knees. These did 
 frequent the weekly meetings."* 
 
 Rest you merry, reader, with this detail. I trust 
 I shall be excused for having dwelt somewhat 
 longer on it ; as it is not only curious in itself, 
 shewing the relaxed spirit of fanatical puritanism, 
 but also, as it first introduces to our notice the 
 young scholar of New college, afterwards so 
 eminent. 
 
 * A. Wood, Life by himself, pp. 12 et seq. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 4 1 
 
 Respecting this harmonious club we may ob- 
 serve, that " Ken, of New college, junior," alone is 
 without any instrument — " only singing his part ;" 
 but it is probable that he, following the examples 
 of so many instrumental performers, not long after- 
 wards took up the lute — his companion through 
 life. This musical instrument seems more ac- 
 cordant with his character. I would not omit to 
 observe another circumstance. On looking over 
 the enumeration of the instruments there wanted 
 one ; for where was the bass ? unless the " violin- 
 ist, to hold between the knees" was a kind of 
 violinccllo. The academical band would indeed 
 have been complete, could we have added, to keep 
 Crewe in countenance, my friend Boulter, junior, 
 of Trinity college, fagotto obligato ! And who 
 would not rejoice if, hoping " he did not intrude," 
 like Paul Pry, he could "just look in" upon the 
 performers, observe Crewe tuning his restive fiddle, 
 and hear the modest "Ken, junior," singing his 
 part. 
 
 How such a set could meet, without academic 
 censure, for such a purpose, in such a place, and 
 at such a period,* is worthy of remark ; and it 
 is more worthy of remark, that when " silk and 
 satin divines," and the ungodly vanities of geer, 
 were among abominations and sins, at this very 
 time the " red boots and long knee-strings" of 
 Dr. Owen himself should escape censure ; for 
 
 * Cromwell died the latter end of this year. 
 
42 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Prynne was living, who hated the Independents, 
 and might have written four volumes on the " un- 
 godliness" * of " red boots" and " knee-strings /" and, 
 according to Wood, Owen always appeared in his 
 doctorial costume, without any fear of the " Di- 
 vine justice !" -j~ 
 
 But the most important and the most interesting 
 circumstance connected with Ken's residence at 
 Oxford, was the commencement of that friendship, 
 which endured through every change of fortune, 
 and was the source of all that remained to him of 
 worldly comfort and happiness to the end of life. 
 I allude to the first formation of that friendship 
 with Lord Viscount Weymouth, which led, in the 
 reverses of his lot, and the evening of his days, 
 when he had no home upon earth, to the asylum, 
 in that noble mansion, where he closed his eyes. 
 
 I had been mistaken in considering this affec- 
 tionate and confidential intercourse as having had 
 its commencement in school days, at Winchester ; it 
 may therefore be more incumbent on me to obviate 
 the misconception, and to shew its origin at Ox- 
 
 * How exactly, through all ages, may the same spirit be 
 traced from Tertullianto our days: Prynne's "Histrio-mastix,' 
 and " Ungodliness of Lovelocks," exactly answering Tertul- 
 lian's "De Spectaculis," and " De velandis virginibus!" writ- 
 ten after he became a Montanist. 
 
 \ "Red boots" are the statutable costume of Doctors in the 
 University, but they have a dispensation. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 43 
 
 ford. I shall take the opportunity of adverting to 
 some incidental and interesting circumstances. 
 
 Thomas Thynne was among the young noble- 
 men and gentlemen educated at Christchurch, un- 
 der the care and tuition of Dr. Fell, after the Re- 
 storation. Turning to Collins's Peerage to ascer- 
 tain whether there was any account of his previous 
 education, I found that, instead of his having been 
 educated with Ken at Winchester, he was placed, 
 in the time of the Protectorate, under William Bur- 
 ton, known as the translator of Antoninus. In ad- 
 dition to this information, we find that the learned 
 and pious Henry Hammond, and Dr. I. Fell, of 
 Oxford, were subsequently the chief directors of his 
 studies.* 
 
 This amiable young man, Thomas Thynne, after- 
 wards Lord Viscount Weymouth, was born in 1 640. 
 
 Hammond had been expelled by the Parliamen- 
 tary Visitors from the Canonry of Christchurch in 
 1647, together with Morley, Canon,-)- and Fell, the 
 Dean — father of Dr. Fell, afterwards Dean and 
 Bishop. Now Hammond, ejected from his Ca- 
 nonry in 1647, died just before the Restoration, 
 and therefore it was a matter of inquiry how the 
 
 * Collins's Peerage. 
 
 -f- The visitation was in December. Morley was ejected by 
 violence in March 1648. Mrs. Fell, it is well known, lefused 
 to remove, and the soldiers took her scolding in her chair into 
 the quadrangle ! Mrs. Reynolds, at the Restoration, refusing" 
 to budge, was treated in the same manner ! 
 
44 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 future possessor of Longleat could have received 
 any part of his education from Dr. Hammond, who, 
 having been expelled from Oxford, resided in do- 
 mestic retirement till his death, with a private 
 family in a distant county. 
 
 We shall here observe, that, when the loyal 
 Clergy had " fallen on evil tongues and evil days," 
 under the infamous and calumnious name of " scan- 
 dalous and malignant ministers," — and such were 
 Hammond, and Jeremy Taylor, and Sanderson, and 
 Chilli ngworth, in the Parliamentary vocabulary, — 
 they were obliged to seek what Wood calls latebrze, 
 places of retirement, where they could worship 
 God according to their conscience, and possess 
 their Prayer-books in peace, at the time when the 
 tyrannical edicts of Puritanism forbade the use of 
 our beautiful ritual, not only in public, but in pri- 
 vate houses. 
 
 A greater testimony to the piety and virtues of 
 these defamed men cannot be given^ than the fact 
 of so many generous bosoms sympathising with 
 them — of many hospitable houses being opened 
 to them, in their day of deprivation and poverty for 
 conscience-sake. 
 
 The same kind of asylum which Ken received 
 from his early friend Lord Weymouth, the virtuous, 
 and learned, and holy Hammond, received from Sir 
 John Packington, possessor of that noble seat and 
 park, the residence of my Oxford friend, the pre- 
 sent Sir John Packington, Westwood Park, Worces- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 45 
 
 tershirc. Here, in honoured and literary retirement, 
 under the roof of pious hospitality, lived Henry 
 Hammond; and here, just as the altars he loved 
 were restored, and when he would have received the 
 first honours due to his learning and virtues — he 
 died in peace. 
 
 As Westwood Park was so distant from Long- 
 leat, in Wiltshire, and as Dr. Hammond lived in 
 domestic privacy till death, we might naturally be 
 disposed to question the accuracy of that informa- 
 tion which attributes any part of Thynne's educa- 
 tion to Hammond. 
 
 We shall therefore trace the connection between 
 these families. The first Lord Coventry by two 
 wives had issue — one son and one daughter by his 
 first wife ; by the second, four sons and four daugh- 
 ters. Dorothy, the younger, was married to Sir 
 John Packington, of whom we have spoken ; and 
 Mary, the second daughter, to Henry Frederick 
 Thynne. This shows, at once, the connection be- 
 tween the families of Westwood Park and Longleat, 
 and the circumstances under which the grandson 
 of Frederick Thynne was enabled to derive the ad- 
 vantage from such a director of his studies as Ham- 
 mond : but it shows more, for it throws accidentally 
 an interesting light on a subject of literary enquiry. 
 In the present day, a question has arisen, "who 
 wrote JLikcdv Bac-»Xj/<:r ; ?"* And may we not ask 
 
 * After all the discussion on this subject, there are some 
 
 facts on which I shall make a few observations : — 
 
 First, 
 
46 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 "Who wrote The whole Duty of Man?" One 
 object of inquiry throws light, accidentally, on an- 
 other. 
 
 First, the father of that Lord Dartmouth who wrote the 
 notes to Burnet, (Legge,) was constantly with King Charles, 
 and never had any doubt on the subject. This is expressly 
 said by his son. (Notes to Burnet.) I have no doubt he mis- 
 took the Icon for the Diary. 
 
 Second, it is admitted that in the second edition of this work 
 there was a prayer taken from Sir Philip Sydney's Romance ! 
 
 No fabricator would exhibit Charles, in his uttermost dis- 
 tress, pilfering a prayer from a romance-book, which alone would 
 destroy all idea of his sincerity or real religion among Puri- 
 tans ! But the King, who read such works, might have tran- 
 scribed a beautiful prayer, which suited his own sorrows, and 
 afterwards forget its source.* Other undoubted prayers exist 
 of the King. 
 
 As to King James having told Burnet that Gauden wrote 
 this work, James could know nothing further than what Gau- 
 den told him, and he would readily give ear to any story 
 against the authenticity of a record which condemned himself, 
 and testified so strongly his father's attachment to the Church 
 of England. Charles wrote undoubtedly a Diary, and some 
 prayers. Did, then, Charles write the Icon ? Certainly not, 
 as it appears. All the antithetic and affected passages I have 
 no doubt are Gauden's. But Charles wrote memoranda of his 
 sorrows ; and I believe, if the suspiria Regalia had been pub- 
 lished as written by the Lover of Shakspeare, they would have 
 been far more affecting. 
 
 Of the book found at Naseby, Major Huntingdon says, 
 
 * This prayer, at his execution, the King gave to Juxon ; 
 but it was published in the second edition of Icon. If Gauden 
 had any hand in the publication of the second edition, the in- 
 ference is obvious, that he did not write this Prayer. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 47 
 
 It is well known that this work, so popular at the 
 time, as having succeeded the "Fiduciary" system, 
 that is, " faith without works," was first published 
 with a preface by Hammond, which is retained in all 
 the editions. It has been attributed to Lady Pack- 
 ington, to whom, for so many years, Hammond 
 was spiritual guide. 
 
 Now, when we consider that Hammond lived 
 under the hospitable roof of the virtuous lady to 
 whom it has been attributed, — when he directed 
 her studies, — when he wrote the preface, — when it 
 was sent anonymously for publication to his friend 
 Dr. Fell, — and, above all, when it is compared, in 
 language, in design, and virtuous intent, with the 
 "Practical Catechism" I think it will not be 
 doubted who was the real author ; to whom, in- 
 deed, it has sometimes been attributed — and when 
 we shall be asked, " who wrote The whole Duty 
 
 "The chapters were (as he well remembers) written by the 
 hand of Sir Edward Walker, but much corrected with interli- 
 neations by the King's own hand; the Prayers being all 
 written by the King's own hand ; which, he says, he 
 very well knew to be." — Relation of Major Huntingdon to 
 Sir William Dugdale, June 1679. My friend Mr. Todd, whose 
 arguments are invincible, thinks Huntingdon's testimony doubt- 
 ful ; but I shall have an opportuuity of saying more in another 
 place. See Appendix. 
 
 See Hallam's note : but Mr. Hallam does not advert to what 
 Huntingdon says expressly of the Prayers " in the King's 
 hand-tvriling." Were there any Prayers in Walker's History ? 
 
48 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 of Man?" # — connecting it with those circum- 
 stances, and with the acknowledged " Practical Ca- 
 techism," published first anonymously in 1655, may 
 we not answer, " Henry Hammond, in his retirement 
 at Westwood Park;" Hammond, in the Puritanic 
 vocabulary, " Scandalous and malignant ! " 
 
 The same virtuous character taught the same 
 virtuous principles to his pupil Thomas Thynne, — 
 instilled the same pious and ingenuous feelings, — 
 excited the same attachment to the Church of 
 England, — and recommended his being placed 
 at Christchurch, where, under Morley, the first 
 Dean after the Reformation, formerly Canon with 
 Hammond, his academical studies were superin- 
 tended. Fell,-j~ succeeding Morley as Dean, took 
 the same anxious care of the education of the 
 young noblemen and gentlemen in this illustrious 
 seminary. From Morley, the friend of Hammond, 
 we shall give reasons for supposing that Fell re- 
 ceived particular instructions respecting the noble 
 and amiable heir of Longleat, who, by Morley, the 
 late Dean, had been already introduced to the 
 acquaintance and friendship of Ken, of New Col- 
 lege. 
 
 * This work has been always vituperated, from that time to 
 the present, by pietists of a certain class. Rowland Hill says, 
 "it has no heail-ivork." 
 
 f This was the Fell, alas! who complied with the King's 
 command to deprive Locke of his Studentship ! an act for 
 which no virtues will compensate. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 49 
 
 From some novel and interesting circumstances 
 connected with the biography of Ken, we shall shew 
 this more clearly as we proceed. We may presume 
 from his character that Ken regularly pursued his 
 academic studies from 1G56 to 1062, when he took 
 his first degree. But, as this was not till after the 
 Restoration, we shall, in the next chapter, take a 
 cursory retrospect (from the time of Ken's birth) 
 of that gloomy reign of fanaticism, so fatal, for 
 a time, to the Episcopal Church — a fanaticism 
 which realized all the attributes, with some excep- 
 tions, that imagination confers on demoniacs ~ — 
 which at last sunk down, w T earied with its own tu- 
 multuary conflicts. This gloomy period was natu- 
 rally succeeded by the most open libertinism, du- 
 ring which the Clergy still shone as exemplary 
 lights, in a libertine generation ; witness Beveridge, 
 &c. the founders of the Society for promoting 
 Christian Knowledge. At the Restoration, the most 
 beautiful daughter of the Reformation, the Church 
 of England rose up again — next to the Word of 
 God, venerating her sublime and affecting Liturgy 
 — retaining her decent vestments — her sublime 
 
 choir service — her intrinsic spirit of pietv (of which 
 Ken was a most illustrious example) — equally re- 
 mote from the dogmas of human infallibility, or 
 the rhapsodies of frantic enthusiasm. 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 As Ken was entered at Winchester according to 
 the date 1650-1, and as dates of the same kind will 
 occur, I add a general explanation : 
 
 "Previous to September 1752, the Year, in this country, 
 commenced on the day of the Annunciation, the 25th of 
 March. 
 
 ° That part of each year is usually written agreeably to both, 
 calculations, by placing two figures at the end, as, 
 
 February 3, 1644, or > 1650-1. 
 
 Without this explanation, he it remembered, 
 many dates in Clarendon's history cannot be un- 
 derstood. For instance, Charles was beheaded Ja- 
 nuary 30, 1648, but the previous December was not 
 in the year 1647; the year 1648 began in the March 
 before. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN THE 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, FROM THE OPENING OF THE 
 LONG PARLIAMENT 1640, TO THE DEATH OF CROM- 
 WELL 1658 PRESBYTERIAN DOMINATION EPISCOPAL 
 
 CLERGY OPPRESSED PRAYER-BOOK PROSCRIBED 
 
 PRAYER-BOOK OF ISAAK WALTON, KEN'S BROTHER-IN- 
 LAW INDEPENDANTS — MILTON — CROMWELL'S DEATH. 
 
 As if religion was intended 
 
 For nothing else but to be — mended. — Butler. 
 
 As Ken was elected a scholar on the ancient 
 foundation of the College of Winchester, and after- 
 wards succeeded to a Fellowship in the kindred mu- 
 nificent establishment, New college, in Oxford, at a 
 period most inauspicious to the Episcopal Church 
 of England, before we proceed with his eventful 
 but blameless life, we shall have a clearer under- 
 standing of many circumstances connected, if we 
 take a view of some of the principal causes which 
 led to the subversion, for a time, of that Church, of 
 which Ken became afterwards so distinguished a 
 Prelate. 
 
 The Parliament of 1640 opened with a most stern 
 and ominous aspect on the constitution of this 
 Church ; for the majority of the members, being 
 rigid Presbyterians, cogently and most convincingly 
 
 \ 2 
 
52 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 argued in this manner : " There is no sin, in the 
 sight of the Almighty, less pardonable than tolera- 
 tion," for there can only be one true religion ; 
 and that being the Presbyterian, Episcopacy, with 
 all its ungodly geer, of square caps and surplices, 
 with men and boys "singing anthems like hogs,"* 
 ought to be abolished, " root and branch ! " 
 
 Many circumstances had led to this feeling, which 
 now became general, not only in Parliament, but, 
 in some degree, through the nation. 
 
 That the Church was not sufficiently reformed 
 from the dregs of popery, had been a topic of 
 grievous complaint, it is well known, among a cer- 
 tain class, called, on that account, Puritans, from 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the famed 
 "Martin Mar-Prelate," moving from place to 
 place, set up his press of periodical invective against 
 "Lord" Bishops! 
 
 The same feeling was now embodied more irre- 
 sistibly in a Puritan Parliament, the leading mem- 
 bers being embued with the spirit of Prynne, who, 
 in a celebrated work called Histrio-mastix (Scourge 
 of Players), published anno 1633, inveighed against 
 all the abominations of the age, more especially 
 iniquitous " stage-plays," u flounced and frizzled 
 madames," " silk and satin divines ;" cathedral ser- 
 vices, which he piously designated " not the noise 
 of men, but rather the bleating of brute-beasts ; 
 where choristers bellow the tenor as it were oxen ! 
 
 * Prynne. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 53 
 
 bark a counter-point, as a kennel of dogs! roar 
 out a treble, like a sort of bulls ! " What sort of 
 bulls roar out a treble must be left to the reader's 
 imagination ; but, according to this unmusical pres- 
 byter, they "grunt out a bass, like, as it were, a 
 
 NUMBER OF HOGS ! " 
 
 Prynne lost his obdurate ears, by the judgment 
 of that inquisitorial divan, the " Star Chamber;" 
 but, notwithstanding the loss of his ears, he " roared 
 out" the more lustily against organs and surplices, 
 and " frizzled madames ! " He was banished to an 
 island where there were no such ungodly sounds to 
 torment him ; but the severity of the judgment, far 
 more than his book, or Lcighton's " Sion's Plea," 
 operated against the Establishment. In the inqui- 
 sitorial Star-Chamber, the only person who spoke 
 a word of kindness and concern was Laud.* I men- 
 tion this, because, most singular to say, the speech 
 of Laud, on the condemnation of Prynne, has never 
 been recorded by any historian of the times, except 
 Rushworth, a most unexceptionable testimony. 
 
 At the second hearing of Prynne, Roy, the Attor- 
 ney-general, spoke as follows : 
 
 " I shall desire your Lordships that he (Prynne) 
 may be in gaol, and kept close prisoner, and," what 
 was terrible to a writer like Prynne, " to have — 
 
 * And yet " Laud's taking off his cap, and giving God thanks" 
 which has no authority, has been echoed from Neal, proba- 
 bly the inventor, to Godwin, and, I fear, the amiable Agar 
 Ellis ! 
 
54 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 neither pen or ink, nor paper ! or to go to 
 church ! " 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. — " He hath under- 
 gone a heavy punishment. I confess I do not know 
 what it is to be a close prisoner ! * I shall therefore 
 be an humble suitor to your Lordships, that he may 
 have the privilege to go to church ! " Said Mr. 
 Prynne, with a low voice, " I humbly thank your 
 Grace I"-^ 
 
 When the Parliament met, the fullest partici- 
 pation in the spirit of Prynne was manifested. 
 It was in vain that the gentlemen of the Inns of 
 Court, as if in contempt of their lean and saturnine 
 brother, got up a most splendid masque, and ex- 
 hibited it at an enormous expense, before the Royal 
 Lady whom it was supposed the acrid and unchival- 
 rous castigator had in view, when he declaimed so 
 sternly against " flounced and frizzled madames !" 
 
 But one circumstance is well worth our atten- 
 tion. In this masque so sumptuously got up by 
 the gentlemen of the Inns of Court, two of the 
 chief actors afterwards supported far different cha- 
 racters in the real and sadder masque of human 
 life. I allude to Clarendon and Whitelock, both 
 at that time of the Inns of Court, both acting their 
 parts in this magnificent, generous, but evanescent 
 show. Both were afterwards most conspicuously 
 arrayed, one on the side of Cromwell, and the other 
 
 * He " knew " not long afterwards. — History of Bremhill. 
 f Rushworth. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 55 
 
 of King Charles, whilst this unfortunate Monarch 
 was himself the great actor and the great sufferer in 
 the sad succeeding tragedy of life. With respect to 
 Whitelock, afterwards Cromwell's ambassador to 
 the Court of the Queen of Sweden, he was so 
 far from a rigid Puritan as to be the composer — of 
 what ? Treatises on international polity ? No — 
 but of a most ungodly jigg, called " Whitelock's 
 Corranto." * 
 
 In this masque, Whitelock's department was the 
 arrangement of the music ; but one remarkable cir- 
 cumstance is, that Milton's exquisite Masque of 
 Com us was produced soon afterwards. 
 
 Nor can I part from the subject without observ- 
 ing that the Masques of the celebrated Ben Jonson 
 had been the forerunners of this ineffectual but 
 splendid pageantry ; he, indeed, for many years sup- 
 plied the Court with such entertainments, but his 
 last was in 1630-1. 
 
 I mention this circumstance, because Hyde, after- 
 wards the great Clarendon, enumerates Ben Jonson 
 as one of his distinguished associates in early life ; 
 and also, because Morley, Ken's first patron in life, 
 was adopted by Ben Jonson, in youth, as his son, 
 in the same manner as Charles Cotton, of the same 
 society, was the adopted son of Isaak Walton. 
 
 The reader will see hereafter some particular rea- 
 sons for my introducing these names, and, I must 
 
 add, that such coincidences, of which history is 
 
 ^ . . — — — _ — — 
 
 * The reader may see this jig in Burney's " History of Music." 
 
56 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 silent, are not only, at least to me, interesting in 
 themselves, but important, as furnishing matter of 
 historical reflection. 
 
 Previously to this levity, the most injudicious 
 measure, as the most offensive, to all who had any 
 serious views in religion, was the order, on Sun- 
 days, after evening prayers, to read the Book of 
 Sports ; for some ill-advised courtiers possessed those 
 " in high places " with the opinion that, as John 
 Bull was getting too rigid and austere in his no- 
 tions, it would be highly conducive to his sanity 
 if he would indulge himself in some innocent re- 
 creations, when his Sabbath duties had been per- 
 formed, as if this pernicious adviser had said to 
 John Bull, " Jump about, John ; you are too me- 
 lancholy by half ! why not, on Sundays, have some 
 harmless recreation ? " 
 
 The " rude forefathers of the hamlet " had been 
 taught, by every minister, to " remember the Sab- 
 bath-day to keep it holy ; " and the effect of the 
 mandate was directly contrary to what was expected, 
 as were also the harsh arbitrary measures of a Court 
 so hostile to the spirit of English polity as the 
 Star Chamber. John would not jump by compul- 
 sion; and he, perhaps, thought that he had less rea- 
 son, as he might have heard, in a sermon, three 
 hours long by the glass at the preacher's elbow, that 
 God, from all eternity, by a fixed decree, had, for 
 his good pleasure, condemned millions and millions 
 of human beings, merely for his own good pleasure! 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 57 
 
 Nay, according to the doctrines most prevalent at 
 the time, that he had created millions and millions 
 of innocent children, — notwithstanding what our 
 Saviour so tenderly says, * — to shew his infinite 
 mercy and justice, they being passed over and pre- 
 destined to eternal torments for ever! — nay, born 
 on purpose to be so tormented ! -f~ and if there was 
 a Lord Bishop ^ who did not quite admit all this, he 
 was voted a " scandalous " Arminian prelate, the 
 enemy of all vital religion ! 
 
 We can readily suppose John Bull would not be 
 much disposed to recreation after such homilies as 
 these, with which the pulpits of the time resounded; 
 and it is no wonder that our Liturgy was held in such 
 pious horror, when the great doctor of these con- 
 soling lessons of Christianity had pronounced of the 
 English Prayer-book, that it contained " a great 
 many tolerable fooleries." § 
 
 Such w r ere the general doctrines, more or less 
 disguised, which were heard or inculcated in Pres- 
 byterian pulpits, except by some who, like honest 
 Richard Baxter, with too much charity in his 
 heart to admit the terrific consequences, struck out 
 what is called a middle way — which middle way, 
 by the bye, is as old as the Creed. But a little 
 closer reasoning might have convinced Richard, 
 
 * " Suffer little children to come unto me," &c. 
 
 f In contumeliam et pcenam nati ! Calvin. 
 
 X " Lord Bishops not the Lord's Bishops ;" by John Vicars. 
 
 § Plurimas tolerabiles ineptias ! Calvin. 
 
58 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 that fate or predestination, with conditions, is no 
 fate, or predestination at all ! 
 
 The middle way, called Baxterian, * was founded 
 on such reasonings as these: Infinite Wisdom, from 
 all eternity, foresaw that Richard, when a little un- 
 godly urchin at Kidderminster, should make himself 
 sick -j- with eating apples, of which he relates sun- 
 dry affecting instances in the folio volume of his Life; 
 for instance, that such was his inordinate and unruly 
 appetite for this fruit, that he ahsolutely stole some, 
 a sin he afterwards remembered with deep remorse ! 
 Providence did not interfere to prevent his falling 
 into this temptation, nor to prevent his witnessing a 
 dance round a maypole, still more impious than steal- 
 ing apples ; but Providence foresaw that Richard 
 should finally persevere, and that Judge Jeffries 
 should not hang him (see Trial), that his "inner 
 man," notwithstanding his stealing apples, should not 
 
 * With respect to the predestination of the 17th Article, I 
 conclude it will be granted, that I must judge the Articles of 
 Religion by the Scriptures, and not the Scriptures by the Arti- 
 cles ! I can reconcile the 17th Article of our Church to the 
 Scriptures, but not to doctrines more scholastic than scrip- 
 tural, — of the school of St. Austin, and Thomas Aquinas, and 
 John Calvin, not of St. Paul; and further, that, so far from 
 wishing to speak with disrespect of Baxter, I esteem him as a 
 most sincere, excellent, pious, and truly good man, though I 
 might smile at his unscriptural and contradictory code, his re- 
 morse for eating too many apples, and his pious ardour against 
 witches. f See Baxter's Life. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 59 
 
 be disturbed in artlculo mortis, — and that finally 
 his predestination and election should be certain ! 
 — This is, in fact, Baxter's middle ivay ! At all 
 events, that system of religion which in these times 
 chiefly prevailed, and which is evidently gaining 
 ground again, called "a revival!" was the spirit of 
 Calvinistic Puritanism. This spirit obtained the 
 ascendant through the nation, and was now para- 
 mount in this Presbyterian Parliament. 
 
 After " Sion's Plea against Prelacy, " the 
 " Histrio-mastix," and the book called " Smec- 
 tymnuus," may be considered as the two " loudest 
 blasts of the trumpet," that shook the battlements 
 and citadel of the Episcopal Church — beside these, 
 ten thousand strepent horns of pamphleteering fury, 
 and congregations, "humming"* in dismal unison to 
 the tune of eternal reprobation, and denouncing 
 vengeance on Arminian Amalekites, joined to the 
 yells of women, 
 
 " who lock'd their fish up, 
 And trudg'd away to cry ' No Bishop ! ' 
 
 ushered in the solemn league and covenant in 
 1643, to extirpate episcopacy — root and branch. 
 This Covenant was taken by the Parliament, and all 
 who refused to take it were dispossessed of every 
 thing they held in the Church. 
 
 " Old Priest," in Milton's indignant phrase, being 
 
 * When passages in a three hours sermon were applauded, 
 the congregation joined in a general " hum." 
 
60 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 thus " written large " in " New Presbyter," — under 
 this terrible New Presbyter, the fabric of the Eng- 
 lish Episcopal policy was shattered, and Deans and 
 Chapters, surplices, square caps, the organ-loft, — 
 the choir and choristers, and even the impressive 
 Liturgy, — and Christian charity itself, were, for 
 a time, buried in the wreck. 
 
 I shall be more particular in speaking of that sin- 
 gular production called "Smectymnuus," as Calamy, 
 one of its writers, had no hesitation to say, it gave 
 the most deadly blow to episcopacy, and as, more- 
 over, this work occasioned the powerful arm of 
 Milton to be raised in aiding the demolishment of 
 the polity of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Calamy, and the other writers who clubbed to- 
 gether to produce this work, had been all episco- 
 pally ordained ; and Calamy himself had in his 
 youth received the protection and patronage of a 
 learned and pious Bishop, Nicholas Felton, of Ely. 
 
 On his death, Milton, in his days of ingenuous 
 youth, wrote that affecting and beautiful elegy " In 
 obitum Prsesulis Eliensis :" 
 
 Cessisse morti, et ferreis sororibus, 
 
 Te, GENERIS IIUMANI DECUS ! ! 
 
 The shade of this beneficent prelate might have ad- 
 dressed the ungrateful Calamy in the words of this 
 elegy : 
 
 Coccos furores pone, pone vitream 
 Bilemque, et irritas minas. 
 
 " Smectymnuus " came out in the year 1641. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 61 
 
 It is known to every reader of the ecclesiastical 
 history of the period, that the work so called 
 received its name in consequence of its being 
 written, in partnership, by Stephen Marshall — 
 E. Calamy — T. Young — Mat. Newcomen — \V 
 Spurslowe ; the initials of the names giving the 
 name to the book, thus — SM ( S. Marshall) EC 
 (E. Calamy) TY (Thomas Young) MN (M. New- 
 comen) UUS (William Spurslowe). Thomas Young 
 had been Milton's tutor before he went to St. Paul's 
 school. Milton, through life, preserved the greatest 
 veneration for him ; he adopted his opinions, in 
 opposition to his first ingenuous feelings of youth ; 
 and to him, afterwards pastor of a congregation at 
 Hamburg, he addressed the first Latin prose letter 
 in his works, and that beautiful and exquisite 
 epistle in Latin verse, "Ad Thomam Junium." 
 
 Curre per iramensum subitb, mea littera, pontum. 
 
 Epistle 4. 
 
 "This Thomas Young," Warton says, in his 
 notes on this Epistle, " appears to have returned to 
 England in or before 1 628, was a member of the 
 Assembly of Divines, and one of the authors of a 
 book called Smectymnuus, defended by Milton," &c* 
 
 The ravings of Prynne may be seen in many 
 books, Rushworth, &c. I have never seen this for- 
 midable Smectymnuus ; but I find it quoted in a 
 scarce publication by Fowlis, (who was Fellow of 
 Lincoln college,) printed at Oxford. Fowlis's book 
 
 * Warton's Milton. 
 
()'2 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 is called the " History of the wicked Plots and Con- 
 spiracies of our pretended Saints, 1672, Oxford." 
 
 The extracts from Smectymnuus no doubt are 
 faithful, as the book must have been at that time 
 in many hands, and the page is quoted from whence 
 the extracts are taken. These are a few of the 
 flowers presented to such Bishops as Hall and 
 Usher : that Episcopacy is " a stirrup for Anti- 
 christ to get into the saddle" — that "corrupt Pre- 
 lates oppose and blaspheme preaching!" — that 
 they " are sons of Belial " — " guilty of intolera- 
 ble oppressions and tyrannies, drunkenness, profane- 
 ness, superstition, and Popishness! — that it hath 
 been the Bishops' great design to hinder all far- 
 ther reformation ! to bring in Popery and liber- 
 tinism ! to beat down the Preachers of The Word! 
 to silence faithful Preachers ! to oppose and perse- 
 cute the most zealous Professors, to turn all reli- 
 gion into pompous outside, and to tread down the 
 power of godliness ! " Did Andrews — Felton — 
 Davenant — Hall — Skinner, the Tutor of Chilling- 
 worth, deserve this dog-language? Did Hall deserve 
 his "hard fare?"* except, indeed, by his encourag- 
 ing that Calvinism which visited him so severely. 
 
 Bishop Hall had written, with equal temperance 
 and soundness of argument, a book entitled, " An 
 humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Par- 
 liament,'' in defence of that reviled order to which 
 
 * <i 
 
 Hard Fare," a book so called, by Hall, detailing his suf- 
 
 ferings from his Calvinistic friends ! 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 63 
 
 this eloquent writer and most exemplary man be- 
 longed. The King expressed himself much gratified 
 by this work. Such a circumstance called forth the 
 knot I have mentioned, and the result was, the far- 
 famed, but now forgotten * Smectymnuus ! " 
 
 In consequence of this joint publication, " a De- 
 fence of the Humble Remonstrance" appeared, 
 under the name of "the Author of the Remon- 
 strance." 
 
 This defence of the "Humble Remonstrance" 
 first called forth, indignant, in his stern habiliments 
 of polemic warfare, John Milton ! Milton was 
 first drawn forth in defence of that book in which 
 his tutor Young had so great a share ; for, as we 
 have shown, Thomas Young was one of the writers 
 the initials of whose names gave name to the book. 
 The answer to the " Remonstrance" is a sarcastic 
 and critical examination, in many parts sentence 
 by sentence, which may be seen in the first volume 
 of the folio edition of Miltons works. 
 
 I shall here exhibit, as all other attacks on epis- 
 copacy at the period seem to me of far less conse- 
 quence, a specimen of what he calls — "a certain 
 grim laughter /" 
 
 No words, indeed, could better have described 
 this answer, as the reader will see by the few first 
 sentences relating to the combined authors of 
 Smectymnuus. Milton and Hall, coming forward 
 in favour of the contending armies of Episcopalians 
 and Presbyterians, are like Milton's own clouds 
 
(54 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 described in Paradise Lost, that come 
 " Rattling o'er the Caspian ; " 
 but truth and charity retire before brutal invective, 
 however witty. 
 
 Hall. — " My single Remonstrance was encoun- 
 tered with a plural adversary'''' (the Smectymnuus). 
 
 Milton. — " Did not your single Remonstrance 
 bring along with it a hot scent of your more than 
 singular affection to spiritual pluralities, your sin- 
 gleness would be less suspected of all good Chris- 
 t ians than it is." 
 
 Hall. — " The name, persons, qualities, numbers, 
 I care not to know." 
 
 Milton. — "Their names are known to the All- 
 knowing Power above ; and, in the mean time, 
 doubtless, they reck not whether you or your no- 
 menclator know them or not." 
 
 Hall. — " But could they say my name is Legion, 
 for they are many.''' 
 
 Milton. — "Wherefore shall you begin with the 
 Devil's name, descanting upon the number of 
 your opponents ? Wherefore the conceit of Legion, 
 with a bye-wipe? Was it because you would have 
 men take notice how you esteem them, whom, 
 through all your book, you so bountifully call your 
 brethren ! We had not thought that Legion 
 could have furnished Remonstrant with so many 
 brethren I'' (To such despicable buffoonery could 
 the author of Paradise Lost descend !) 
 
 Hall. — " My cause — yea, God's." 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 65 
 
 Milton. — " What God ? unless your belly !" 
 Be it remembered that Bishop Hall was an as- 
 cetic, like Ken, and the most humble and apostolic 
 example of Christian kindness. 
 
 This "grim laughter" of Milton was again an- 
 swered, as it is supposed, by a son of Bishop Hall, 
 which answer I have never seen. Warton confounds 
 the Defence of the Remonstrance with this "An- 
 swer? The "Defence of the humble Remonstranee" 
 does not contain a word reflecting on Milton's pri- 
 vate character ; but, no doubt, whoever wrote the 
 Answer to this severe and unjust treatment of the 
 "Defence," wrote it, it may be presumed, under 
 feelings of irritation and resentment ; and first at- 
 tacked Milton's moral and private character, as 
 having been expelled from the University, and im- 
 pure in private life. 
 
 The title of this last work was, " A short 
 Answer to a tedious Vindication ; or, a modest 
 Caution against a slanderous and scurrilous Li- 
 bel- 
 Milton, as if a muttering lion were struck, no 
 longer with his "grim laughter" on his stern coun- 
 tenance — turns on his adversary, and being now 
 drawn forth, in defence of his own moral character 
 — with a look of scorn more than of " grim" 
 derision, and with the loftiness and grandeur of 
 conscious integrity — in rich variety of imagery, in 
 sarcastic, yet dignified diction, repels the charges 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
66 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 brought against himself. Forgetting his love 
 Of the windows richly dight, 
 Casting a dim, religious light, — 
 forgetting his education at St. Paul's, and his 
 " learned and courteous " Tutors at Cambridge, he 
 now proclaims his eterna odia against Prelacy, in 
 that extraordinary, and in many respects beautiful 
 and sublime composition, relating to his private life 
 and studies, " The Apology for Smectymnuus." 
 
 The passage in which he vindicates himself is 
 magnificent ; but particularly remarkable for the 
 sarcasm by which this very defence of himself is 
 rendered a vehicle of more angry scorn on his Pre- 
 latical opponents. 
 
 After a sublime exordium, worthy Plato, in 
 which he speaks of what he learned of lofty 
 purity " in the divine volume of Plato, and his equal 
 Xenophon," — "With such abstracted sublimities as 
 these, it may well be worth your listening, readers, 
 as I may have you in some still time, not in these 
 noises" — he leaves his "abstracted sublimities," to 
 confound his adversary in this manner : " not in 
 these noises, the Adversary, as ye know, barking at 
 the door, or searching for me at bordillds, where, 
 it may be, he has lost himself, raps up, without 
 pity, the sage and rheumatic old Prelatess, with 
 all her young Corinthian Laity, to inquire for 
 such a one !" This is Milton's " two-handed engine " 
 against Prelacy.* 
 
 * " That two-handed engine." Cornus. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 67 
 
 Next to Episcopacy, the Prayer-book was the 
 most obnoxious to the dominant Puritans. It was 
 first supplanted by the Presbyterian Directory : 
 afterwards, both the Directory and Prayer-book 
 were equally trodden under foot by the tolerant 
 Independents. 
 
 Cromwell and Harrison were the most fluent in 
 these "gifts of prayer" without book ; and we thus 
 find, in 1648, "the Council of the Army named 
 two officers of every regiment to meet and seek 
 God, what advice to offer to the G. (General) 
 concerning Ireland." 
 
 We know what " advice " " the Lord gave," and 
 how well the General profited by it ; and how much 
 he profited from " seeking the Lord " when murder 
 was determined on. 
 
 The progress of these Anti-Episcopal feelings 
 cannot be more clearly shewn than by a few ex- 
 tracts from Whitelock's Journal: 
 
 December 11, 1640. '■ Alderman Pennington, 
 with some hundreds following him, presented the 
 citizens' petition, signed by 15,000, against the dis- 
 cipline and ceremonies of the Church." 
 
 10th of March following. " That the Bishops 
 shall have no vote in Parliament, &c. and that no 
 clergyman shall be in the commission of the peace." 
 
 Jan. 12, 1641. "The Bishops set forth their 
 right to sit and vote in Parliament ; which, by rea- 
 son of these tumults and insolcncies, they could not 
 
 f 2 
 
68 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 do. They say they have no redress upon their 
 complaints thereof, and cannot attend the service of 
 Parliament without danger* of their lives; they 
 therefore protest against all acts and votes in their 
 absence," &c* 
 
 For this protestation, " they were, not long after, 
 accused by the Commons of high treason. They 
 were brought on their knees to the Lords' bar, ten 
 committed to the Tower, and the other two, in re- 
 gard to their age, to the Black Rod!" This was 
 for stating they could not attend Parliament without 
 danger to their lives, and protesting, as they had 
 still power to do ! 
 
 May 3, 1643. "The Parliament brought in the 
 Scots, to whom thev swore the Solemn League 
 and Covenant."*}- 
 
 1643. "Archbishop Laud brought to the House 
 of Peers, and the impeachment against him read, 
 and he required to answer ; who said, ' He was an 
 old man, weak, and could not answer without coun- 
 sel,' and desired further time, which was granted.-}- 
 
 Ibid. " The Archbishop coming again to trial, the 
 article was urged against him, and witnesses pro- 
 
 * Whitelock. The reforming Saints first attacked the "non- 
 resisting" statues in Westminster Abbey. Their fury was next 
 directed against the old, grey-headed fathers of the Church, 
 whom they would have murdered! 
 
 f Whitelock. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. ()!) 
 
 duced, that " he assumed the title of Pope ! * That 
 in the letters from Oxford he was stifled Optimus, 
 Maximus, ct Sanetitas Vestra, your Sacred Holi- 
 ness, Sternum Reverendissime Caneellarie, et Pon- 
 tifex Maximus." 
 
 What must the answerer of Fisher the Jesuit, 
 and the patron of Chillingworth, have felt at such 
 charges / 
 
 I shall pass over the further entries respecting 
 Laud, as his fate is well known, but would refer 
 those who wish for information to his trial; far 
 less seeking to defend many parts of his conduct ; 
 but mark the mercies of these charitable judges ! 
 
 " The Lords agreed to the ordinance for attainder 
 of the Archbishop of high treason, and to be 
 hanged, drawn, and quartered /" This was, chiefly, 
 for opposing Calvinistic Puritanism ! 
 
 1645. "Morton, Bishop of Durham, a reverend 
 man, was brought before the Commons for christen- 
 ing a child in the old way, and signing it with the 
 sign of the cross, contrary to the D i recto ry."-^- 
 
 Presbyterian Puritanism may now be considered 
 as dominant. 
 
 1645. " 20 witches in Norfolk were executed.'"' 
 
 * When the venerable and amiable Bishop of Norwich was 
 on a visit to Mr. Coke of Norfolk, the servants called him "his 
 Holiness!" imagining he was the English Pope! but the 
 most violent Anti-Catholic would hardly think of condemning 
 him to be "hanged, dravon, and quartered! !" 
 
 f The Presbyterian Manual of Prayers. 
 
70 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 How creditable to the Parochial Clergy that Hop- 
 kins, the witch-finder, spoke of them as his great- 
 est opponents ; alleging, he should have brought 
 to death thousands more, had not the ministers of 
 the Church of England constantly opposed his 
 righteous acts — in swimming poor old ivomen ! 
 Witches and stage-players now began to be held 
 in equal horror; and Baxter preached the godly 
 doctrine, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!'" 
 
 Anno eod. A Petition to the Lords from the 
 Assembly for punishing * such as derogated from 
 the Directory — or used the Common Prayer ! ~f~ 
 
 We now find the wind changing towards Inde- 
 pendence ; for in the same year we have : " The 
 House being informed of an intended petition for 
 establishing Presbytery as the discipline of Jesus 
 Christ," voted it scandalous ; and soon after we find 
 the effects of what Walker calls " Cromwell's tole- 
 ration of all accursed Sects." ^ 
 
 1646. A minister presented articles against a 
 trooper for " preaching and expounding the Scrip- 
 ture, and uttering erroneous opinions ! " 
 
 Feb. 1. "A day of humiliation, that God would 
 stop the growth of heresy and blasphemy!" 
 
 " Many complaints made against the officers and 
 soldiers, &c. and that they took upon them to 
 preach and expound Scripture /" 
 
 * According to Lingard, " punishing," puniendus, means 
 " burning alive." 1 Sec his History. 
 
 f Whitelock. J History of Independency 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 71 
 
 et Grand Committee against sueh as preach, not 
 being or darned V 
 
 And now the inordinate severity of the Presby- 
 terian yoke, against recreations, was so much felt, 
 that " A Petition of some Apprentices is presented 
 to Parliament, that they may have a play-day once 
 in a month /" 
 
 Some few of the destitute clergy being received 
 into the mansions of noblemen and others, and there 
 only, in private, using the proscribed "Prayer-book," 
 both Houses granted an allowance to the Earl of 
 Chesterfield, with an intimation that " he do not 
 entertain malignant preachers in his house, nor 
 use the Book of Common Prayer ! " 
 
 The ordinance against the Prayer-book runs as 
 follows : 
 
 1645. " That, if any person or persons shall use, 
 or cause to be used, the Common-prayer Book, 
 they, and every person so offending therein, shall, 
 for the first offence, forfeit and pay the sum of 
 five pounds [a large sum in those days] ; for the 
 second offence the sum of ten pounds ; and for the 
 other offence shall suffer one whole year's impri- 
 sonment without bail or main-prize." 
 
 Even Neal admits the prohibition in private 
 houses to be a little hard! but I am induced to 
 speak more of this prohibition, because Isaak Wal- 
 ton, to whom Ken in great measure owed the ele- 
 vation he attained in the Church, preserved with 
 the greatest care, in his cottage near Stafford, and 
 
72 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 afterwards in the Episcopal palace of the Bishop of 
 Winchester, that Prayer-book, now in the posses- 
 sion of Dr. Hawes, of which we shall speak more 
 hereafter. This hook is a large octavo, splendidly 
 
 hound, with this title : 
 The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration 
 
 of 
 
 the Sacraments, and other Rites a.*d 
 
 Ceremonies of 
 
 the Church of England. 
 
 London : Printed by Robert Barker, Printer to the King's 
 
 most excellent Majesty; and by the Assignees of John Bill. 
 
 1639. Cum privilegio. 
 In the first white leaf appear the following entries: 
 " My father, Isaak Walton, died December 1 6, 
 1683. I. W."* 
 
 In the same hand, "Thomas Ken, Bishop of 
 Bath and Wells, deprived — dyed March 19, 1710." 
 Next appears, in another hand, the entry — "Dr. 
 William Hawkins, my father, dyed July 17, 1691. 
 W. H." This, no doubt, is the hand of W. Haw- 
 kins, the biographer of Ken. 
 
 In the same hand: " My sister, Anne Hawkins, 
 dyed August 18, 1715; and my uncle, Mr. Isaac Wal- 
 ton, junior, dyed December 29, 1719." This is the 
 hand also of W. Hawkins ; and another entry, " My 
 sister, Anne Hawkins, died Nov. 1723. W. H." 
 
 In two blank pages, in the hand-writing of old 
 Isaac himself, are these entries: 
 
 " My doghter Anne borne the eleventh of March, 
 1617." 
 
 * Entry by the Canon, Isaac Walton, junior. 
 

 (TW. 
 
 ^ fo~T^<v<$~ 
 
 iff O-TLIA yn^T^J-. 
 
 1SAAK WAJLT©^*S JElPMEAFTEL ©N MIS WIPE, 
 From the MS Draft in "his IV aver Boole 
 
 lifi. ofJB-p.Ihi. vol I. j> j£ , 
 
 rSit.li.-Ii.'d by J B Nichols & Soli .Marc hi. 1850. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 73 
 
 " My last son, Isaac, borne the 7th of September, 
 1651, at half an hour after two o'clock in the after- 
 noon, being 1 Sunday, and so was baptized in the 
 evening by Mr. Thornton, in my house in Clcrken- 
 well. Mr. Henry Davison, and brother Beauchamp, 
 were his godfathers, and Mrs. Row his godmother." 
 
 " Rachel died 1640." 
 
 " Our doghter Anne, born the 10th of July 1640, 
 died the eleventh of May, 1642." 
 
 " Anne Walton dyed the 17th of April, about 
 one o'clock in that night, and was buried in the 
 Virgin Mary's chapel, in the cathedral in Worces- 
 ter, the 20th day." This was Ann, his second wife, 
 the sister of Ken. 
 
 The epitaph in Walton's hand-writing, appears, 
 with a few interlineations, as evidently composed by 
 himself: " Alas ! alas ! that she died" — died crossed 
 out — " alas ! that she is dead " inserted. 
 
 The epitaph in Worcester cathedral, on his wife, 
 is as follows : 
 
 Ex terris 
 D. 
 M. S. 
 Here lyeth buried so much as could die of Anne Walton, Ihc 
 wife of Isaac Walton ; who was a woman of remarkable pru- 
 dence, and of the primitive piety, her great and general 
 knowledge being adorned with such true humility, and blest 
 with so much Christian meekness, as made her worthy of a more 
 memorable monument," &c. 
 
 The epitaph, as first written, appears with the words 
 
74 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 " of primitive piety," instead of " the primitive 
 piety;" the words "the primitive" appear as cor- 
 rections ; it seems to me, designedly to imply 
 that her piety was that primitive piety which the 
 Reformed Church of England professed, and there- 
 fore the correction was important. 
 
 The reader will see the reason of my mentioning 
 the proscribed Prayer-book of that singular and 
 good man, preserved for so many generations, not 
 only from the connection it shews with Ken, but 
 some very interesting circumstances in his future 
 life ; and, as such an outcry was made against our 
 devotional and affecting form of Prayer, I shall now 
 proceed to make some general remarks on this sub- 
 ject, referring to the Remonstrance before spoken of. 
 
 " First, it symboliseth (says Smectymnuus) much 
 with the Popish Masse." 
 
 Hall. — " Surely neither as Masse nor as Popish. 
 If an holy prayer be found in a Roman portico, 
 shall I hate it for the place P If I find gold in the 
 channel, shall I throw it away because it was ill- 
 laid. 
 
 " Our Lyturgy symboliseth not with Popish 
 Masse, neither as Masse nor as Popish." 
 
 Milton. — "A pretty slip-skin conveyance to sift 
 Masse into no Masse, and Popish into not Popish; 
 yet, saving this passing fine sophistical boulting 
 hatch, so long as she symbolises in form, and 
 pranks herself in the weeds of Popish Mass, it may 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 75 
 
 be justly feared she provokes the jealousy of 
 God, no otherwise than a wife affecting a ivhorish 
 outline kindles a disturbance in the eye of a dis- 
 cerning husband." 
 
 Hall.—" If I find gold in the channel, shall I 
 throw it away because it was ill laid ? " 
 
 Milton. — " You forget that gold hath been ana- 
 thematized for the idolatrous use, &c. and thus you 
 throttle yourself with your own similes." 
 
 The author of this sophistry is the author of 
 Paradise Lost ! On that account I forbear to quote 
 more ; but I may add a few plain observations, as 
 our excellent Liturgy was the beginning and end of 
 this strife of unholy tongues — for it was first de- 
 nounced, and its use forbidden, under penalties of 
 the severest kind, by the Parliament — its use again 
 was insisted on at the Restoration — and it was 
 chiefly on account of this formulary that many pious 
 and conscientious men, resigned their livings on 
 Bartholomew's day, rather than comply with the Act 
 of Uniformity. We might look with astonishment 
 at the charge, that the Prayer-book is only the 
 book of the Popish mass, when more thau one- 
 third is the Word of God, not of man ! For 
 instance, the introductory sentences — the Psalms 
 — the Lord's Prayer — the nunc dimittis — the 
 ten commandments — portions of Gospel — and 
 Epistles, &c. 
 
 As to the other parts, they chiefly consist of 
 prayers which were used in the Church before the 
 
76 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 introduction of the Mass — as the fine hymn of St 
 Ambrose, "We praise thee, oh God!" — the col- 
 lects — the affecting and sublime Litany, &c. Let 
 us ask, can we symbolise with the Popish Mass, 
 and not with every feeling of Christian love,* when 
 
 we pray — 
 
 " From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncha- 
 ritableness, Good Lord deliver us. 
 
 " That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, 
 persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts, 
 We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord!" 
 
 The words in the Latin, are more impressive : 
 
 From envy, &c. 
 
 Omnes. Libera nos, Domine. 
 
 That it may please, &c. 
 
 Omnes. Te precamur, audi nos. 
 
 If Popery, not the primitive Church, had in- 
 deed furnished such a ritual, ought such simple, 
 affecting, and beautiful compositions be be rejected, 
 because in other respects we dissent from the com- 
 munion that used them ? We can hardly conceive 
 
 * Let us see some of the fruits of John Knox's school ! 
 " Ask of our old dying wife, if she has any evidence of salva- 
 tion ; she will say, ' I hope so ; for I believe the Apostles' Creed; 
 I am taken with the Lord's Prayer ; and I know my duty to 
 be the Ten Commandments ! ' but T tell you, these are but old 
 rotten wheelbarrows to carry souls to hell ! These are idols 
 which the false prelates have set up to obstruct the Covenant, and 
 the work of God in the land !" — Sermon by John Dickson. 
 
 This was preached at the time we are speaking of. Cannot 
 some exclusively nominal Christians see their faces in this glass? 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 77 
 
 the existence of such besotted malignancy ! and 
 in this cry joined the author of Paradise Lost ! 
 The Reformation need not have taken place 
 at all, if the only thing obnoxious in the Ro- 
 man communion had been such Prayers! Eter- 
 nal credit does it reflect on the compilers of our 
 admirable Liturgy, that their anxiety was, not to 
 depart from the Church of Rome further than the 
 Church of Rome departed from the Scriptures; 
 and these ancient and affecting compositions, be 
 they composed by whom they may, were admitted 
 into the Church of England, not because they were 
 in ancient rituals, but because they breathed the 
 spirit of Scriptural faith, hope, and charity. 
 
 As to toleration, every one knows the bitter and 
 ruthless intolerance of the Presbyterians, from the 
 press and the pulpit. These were the only persons 
 who not only denied all toleration, but gloried in 
 denying it, as " establishing iniquity by law !" The 
 Independants could only stand by tolerating what 
 Walker calls " all accursed sects." But " all accursed 
 sects the Independants did not tolerate; witness the 
 cold cruelties exercised on the poor fanatic Naylor 
 — witness the " tryers " of Cromwell — witness their 
 equal hostility to Presbyterians and Churchmen. 
 
 The Church, of England might have been well 
 satisfied if half the toleration she granted, even 
 when so goaded by atrocious calumnies, had been 
 granted to her ; but, let us turn to him who wrote 
 the eloquent Areopagetica, in favour of unlicensed 
 
78 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Printing ! Let us see what rights of conscience 
 this assertor of those rights grants to the Church 
 of England! Johnson might well say, " hell grew 
 darker at his frown" as the reader will feel, when 
 I transcribe this passage, the more harrowing be- 
 cause it immediately succeeds a lofty, and almost 
 divine passage, relating to the first conception of 
 the immortal Paradise Lost. 
 
 Let us hear the author of Areopagetica, on re- 
 ligious toleration. 
 
 " But they contrary, that by the impairing and 
 diminution of the TRUE FAITH, the distress and 
 servitude of their country, aspire to high dignity 
 rule, and promotion here, after a shameful end in 
 this life, (which God grant them !) they shall be 
 thrown down eternally into the DARKEST and 
 DEEPEST GULPH OF HELL, where, under the 
 DESPITEFUL CONTROUL, the trample and 
 spurn, of all the other DAMNED, that, in the 
 
 ANGUISH OF THEIR TORTURE, shall have NO OTHER 
 ease than to EXERCISE a RAVING and bestial 
 TYRANNY OVER THEM, AS THEIR SLAVES AND NE- 
 
 gros, they shall remain IN THAT PLIGHT for 
 ever, the basest, the undermost, the most dejected, 
 most underfoot, and downtrodden vassals of 
 
 PERDITION !" # 
 
 Milton here evidently alludes to Laud. His 
 prayer was soon after granted, when this unfortu- 
 
 * Milton, vol. i p. 174. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 79 
 
 nate " impairer of the true faith " (Calvinistic Pu- 
 ritanism!) was condemned, indeed, to "a shameful 
 end in this life" — condemned to be " hanged, 
 
 DRAWN, AND QUARTERED ! " But this was not 
 
 enough for the lofty mind of Milton. " The 
 impairer of true faith " was to be afterwards con- 
 signed "eternally to the darkest and deepest gulph 
 of hell ! " This is not enough ! he is to be " the 
 trample and spurn " of all the other damned! But 
 even here the infernal curse does not conclude ; 
 for the "other damned shall have no other ease 
 than in exercising their tyranny on this most down- 
 trodden slave, for ever and ever!'''' 
 
 The curse fell on his own head when he left the 
 New Presbyter for the Independents. 
 
 Such was Milton, before his high, and pure, and 
 ingenuous mind was smitten with the " deplorable 
 polemics of Puritanism" 
 
 Let it not be thought I wish to detract from so 
 great a mind. There seem to have been three 
 marked stages in Milton's disposition : — first, when 
 beautiful, amiable, and ingenuous in youth, he 
 wrote Allegro and Penseroso — poems having the 
 light and pensive shades of his poetical mind ; 
 second, when stern and intolerant by political and 
 religious warfare, with his eyes still intensely 
 turned to a time when he should have calm and 
 delightful communion with the Muses ; thirdly, when 
 in old age all the lofty visions of earthly perfection 
 ended in disappointment — when his great mind 
 
 i 
 
80 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 was again thrown on itself in solitude — when the 
 lofty idealities of his vision, faded, and left him 
 alone, with his thoughts elevated, indeed, 
 
 <■ Above the visible diurnal sphere," 
 
 but 
 
 " With solitude and darkness compassed round," 
 
 — yet still mentally gazing, with glowing inspira- 
 tion, on the great vision of Paradise Lost. 
 
 We have seen the spirit which the great Milton 
 imbibed from his friends the Presbyterians; but 
 the time is come for him to turn as sternly upon 
 them as he did on the church and schools that 
 nursed his youth. 
 
 His book, published 1644, called " Tetrachor- 
 don," on the four passages relating to Divorce in 
 the Scriptures, was received with the most violent 
 clamour by the Presbyterians. Hence he found out 
 what he might have done sooner, that 
 
 " New Presbyter is but Old Priest wrote large;" 
 
 — and he thus speaks in another place of this new 
 order of " old priests :" — 
 
 " I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs, 
 By the known rules of ancient liberty, — 
 When straight a barba »us noise environs me, 
 Of owls and cuccoos, asses, apes, and dogs." 
 
 Sonnet XII. 
 
 These " old priests written large," because they 
 were loud and violent in their censure of a book 
 which they thought so profane, were now " asses, 
 owls, and apes!" — and from this time his "two- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 81 
 
 handed engine " was turned against these " Forcers 
 of Conscience"* in the Long Parliament. 
 
 " Because you have thrown off your Prelate Lord, 
 And with stiff vows renounced his Liturgy, 
 To seize the widowed whore, Plurality, 
 From those whose sin ye envied, not abhorred, 
 Dare ye for this adjure the civil sword 
 To force our consciences that Christ set free ? 
 
 But we do hope to find out all your tricks ; 
 
 That so the Parliament 
 May with their wholesome and preventive shears 
 Clip your phylacteries, though baulk your ears, 
 
 And succour our just fears, 
 When they shall read this clearly in your charge, 
 New Presbyter is but Old Priest wrote largo !" 
 
 Reader, let us pause a moment, to observe how 
 exquisitely, after these uncouth strains, succeeds, in 
 the same volume, like " a stream of rich distill'd per- 
 fume," the following " most musical," most exquisite 
 melody to the Nightingale — 
 
 " Oh ! Nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray 
 Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still, 
 Thou with fresh hope," &c. 
 
 The effect is like that of passing through the 
 
 * Usher was employed by the clergy to intercede with 
 Cromwell for liberty of conscience, but it was not granted to 
 them any more than Roman Catholics ; indeed, prelacy and 
 popery were considered the same. This was the cause of the 
 Solemn-League-and- Covenant-men joining to bring back the 
 King. 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 tumult and din of the crowd at Hyde Park Corner 
 to Holland House, the seat of poetry and kindred 
 taste, where, opening the garden- door, in contrast 
 to the noise through which you have passed, you 
 hear only, with more intense delight, the ancient 
 pines murmuring in the repose of a still sum- 
 mer evening, and the nightingales contending in 
 their solitary harmony ! How often may such a 
 contrast have vibrated on the heart of the historian 
 of James the Second,* when retiring, fevered from 
 parliamentary strife, he must have felt this charm 
 of contrast, which soothed, in the age before, the 
 intellectual and cultivated Addison. Reader, pardon 
 this involuntary digression. 
 
 Milton now entirely left the " old priests wrote 
 large" to support, with ardour, the Independents, 
 rising into strength under Cromwell. 
 
 Gaining the ascendancy, the Lord Protector 
 
 levelled these conscience forcers, and effectually in 
 
 deed — 
 
 " clipp'd their philacteries ! " 
 
 but from policy he suffered the rhapsodical soldiers, 
 contemners of "vile human learning," to " fret their 
 hour," as without such aid the trained Presbyterian 
 clergy, in learning and talents, would have been too 
 powerful for his control ; but he knew at all times 
 how and when to control the various winds of fana- 
 tical inspiration, blowing now from all quarters. — 
 
 * Life of James II. by Charles James Fox 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. S.'J 
 
 " Rex TEolus altk 
 Luctantes vcntos tempcstatesque sonoras 
 Jmperio premit. 
 
 111! indignantes magno cum murmuro montis 
 Circum claustra fremunt. Cels& scdet ./Bolus arce, 
 
 SCEPTRA TENENS." 
 
 The various murmurs subsided where he looked, 
 and yet he was strenuous for the Presbyterian 
 creed, while he trod under his foot the intolerant 
 Presbyters. His object was afterwards to fill the 
 various parishes with those whom his " tryers ' 
 should pronounce to be accomplished in the know- 
 ledge of God's election, let the wilder fanatic rave 
 as he list : — but he gathered round him all the learn- 
 ing and talents in the age, Milton, Marvel, Thur- 
 loe, Whitelock, Owen, &c. Even Blake was an 
 Oxonian. 
 
 In this sketch I have confined myself to the 
 great dominant religious parties, omitting the count- 
 less " maggots of corrupted texts." * 
 
 Thus, as we have seen, the " Covenant,*' and 
 " Smectymnuus," having, like battering rams, first 
 beat down the walls of our ancient and hallowed 
 Sion, a motley army of discordant saints, decrying 
 synods as well as surplices, insulted and spurned 
 the astonished Presbyter ! These were followed by 
 more crazy enthusiasts, led on by Fane, to the 
 shouts of " King Jesus ;" while the whole host 
 trod in the dust, with the same evangelical disdain, 
 
 * Butler. 
 G 2 
 
84 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 the Episcopalian Prayer-book and the Presbyterian 
 Directory. 
 
 The dark, supercilious, and unmoved countenance 
 of Cromwell, — unmoved, save at times smiling with 
 some grim pleasantry, — was occasionally seen in 
 front of this multifarious host, which seemed to 
 cower only beneath his keen glance and stern eye- 
 brows. 
 
 He stood as the master-spirit, controuling and 
 directing the whole army of various enthusiasm. 
 
 Much must be attributed to the powers of an in- 
 dividual who could make this tumultuous mass roll 
 in subjection ; who could work its heterogeneous 
 compound to his purposes, and who, when the pur- 
 pose was attained, could raise or hush its murmur 
 with a glance of his eye. 
 
 This was when the master-spirit was in its 
 vigour, and could control "dracones reluctantes," 
 on every side. Before his last illness, whether he 
 was sincere, or the most consummate dissembler, a 
 sane judgment seemed to infuse itself, and the Pro- 
 tector was disposed to establish, not only a House 
 of Lords, but something like Episcopacy. 
 
 Hitherto he had the heavenly " assurance" that 
 all he had done was by the direction of the Al- 
 mighty. Whenever he felt, or pretended to feel, any 
 natural compunctions, he had nothing to do but to 
 "seek the Lord!" So he expressed, with tea?*s, his 
 reluctance to expel the Parliament; but, "after 
 seeking the Lord," he must do as the Lord com- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 85 
 
 manded ! and so with the blood of the King he 
 bathed the scaffold, whilst he piously recommended 
 the dupe Fairfax to " seek the Lord " also ! 
 
 His own end now drew nigh, yet the same awful 
 delusion was kept up. " His spiritual doctors as- 
 sured him, being once in a state of grace, he could 
 not finally fail," so he need not be alarmed for his 
 soul : and when his physicians saw the symptoms of 
 death, " he assured them they were mistaken ;"* for 
 those who had even greater influence with the Al- 
 mighty (Owen, &c.) had " been seeking Him toge- 
 ther," and the answer was, " he should not die ! " 
 Can any thing be conceived so blasphemous ? Even 
 thanksgivings for his life were offered up to God, 
 when the arrow of death was in his heart ! 
 
 But, Lord of life and death ! how awful, how ter- 
 rible, must have been that agony, if, in a moment 
 of sound mind, with eternity before him, he felt for 
 the first time that all had been delusion ! As his 
 mind was sinking, new terrors were excited by the 
 voice of his beloved daughter,-)- departing before his 
 eyes, and faintly murmuring "murder!" J He might 
 now have seen, in sick and shadowy imaginings, the 
 forms of those cut off by him, and heard the voice 
 of the brave, the virtuous Capel — 
 
 «* Let me sit heavy on thy thoughts to-night ! " 
 
 or of the shade of the intrepid Lord Derby — 
 
 * See the account of his deaih. 
 
 f Mrs. Claypole. t Of Dr. Hcwson. 
 
86 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 " Let me sit heavy on thy thoughts to-night ! " 
 
 or the " crowned Majesty of England," pale, and 
 
 with look majestic, yet more in sorrow than in 
 
 anger, pronouncing — 
 
 " Let me sit heavy on thy thoughts to-night ! " 
 
 What must have been the agonies of death to 
 such a man ! 
 
 Without venturing to say such were his feelings, 
 some feelings of the kind he must have had ; and if 
 ever there was a man whose life and death might 
 seem to fulfil the idea of a compact with the powers 
 of darkness, it was " the Lord Protector of 
 England." 
 
 A spectre* it is recorded, appeared before him in 
 youth. He plunged into dissipation — he left the 
 sober and scriptural communion in which he had 
 been bred. He became an enthusiast — whether 
 from constitution or hypocrisy. He rose from the 
 station of a private life to be the dictator of the 
 fortunes of England, and, still " seeking the Lord ! " 
 he rose to more than royal power and dominion. 
 
 Look on him now, enfeebled, and consulting in 
 vain the phantasma of fanatical delusion which at- 
 tended him through life. It forsakes him in his 
 utmost need ; or turns, to shew him, as in a glass, 
 the spectre of Predestination, pointing to the pit, 
 " where the worm dyeth not." He dies — his pro- 
 phets are found liars ; and the instant his last breath 
 has left his frame, the whole isle is shaken by a 
 hurricane, such as no man ever before remembered ! 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 87 
 
 "Oh!" might the humble Christian exclaim, 
 " Thou, who has given us the Bible, save me from 
 fanatic enthusiasm ! — keep me, through life, in 
 the path of sober and scriptural piety — and, when 
 my last hour approaches, " let me die the death 
 of the righteous, and let my last end be like his ! v 
 
 It seems extraordinary that Cromwell should not 
 at this time have consulted his " Astrologer" Lilly, 
 as well as his " Soothsayers," who, in articulo mortis, 
 11 prophesied smooth things /" as Astrology is part 
 of Predestinarianism, and indeed derived from it in 
 Chaldaea. 
 
 I have been the more particular, respecting the 
 part which the author of " Paradise Lost" bore in 
 this drama, as the importance of that part has been 
 less noticed by historians — for, I believe, the great 
 talents, the learning, the blameless lives, the pow- 
 erful arguments, of Usher and Hall, would have 
 preserved the Church, if Milton had not descended, 
 with all his overwhelming might, of learning, elo- 
 quence, and scorn, into the contest ; as I also believe, 
 from passages in his " Defensio Populi Anglicani," 
 that, when the chiefs of the army were vacillating 
 about the King's death, the " Grande Spectaculum" 
 of national justcie was suggested by Milton. He 
 was soon afterwards made Latin Secretary. 
 
88 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OXFORD, AFTER THE RESTORATION — EJECTED MINISTERS 
 
 RESTORED MORLEY, EJECTED CANON, MADE DEAN OF 
 
 CHRIST-CHURCH CONNECTION WITH ISAAK WALTON, 
 
 KEN'S BROTHER-IN-LAW KEN'S PATRON HIS RISE IN 
 
 THE CHURCH FELLOW OF WINCHESTER PARTY AT 
 
 THE EPISCOPAL PALACE. 
 
 Hark ! the merry Christ-Church bells ! 
 
 Aldrich, Dean of Christ-Church. 
 
 In the foregoing chapter, we have given a rapid, 
 but, I trust, not unfaithful sketch of the most pro- 
 minent features of the dominant religious parties of 
 the time, chiefly as they affected the Church of 
 England, through that long period of fanaticism 
 triumphant, in the midst of which Ken was entered 
 a " poor scholar" on the ancient ecclesiastical foun- 
 dation of William of Wykeham, and, when its spirit 
 was more subdued, became a member of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, and fellow of New college. The 
 obtruded Warden of this College having died, as 
 well as the Puritanical Warden of Winchester, in 
 the year of Cromwell's death, the Fellows regularly 
 elected Michael Woodward in 1658, who continued 
 till his death. 
 
 During this period of Ken's academical residence, 
 while the Puritans bore sway, his conduct was 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 89 
 
 peaceable, though his disposition was far from 
 being accordant with the system and discipline of 
 the University at that time. 
 
 From early connections and associations, his 
 heart was with the loyal, and learned, and virtuous 
 ejected Clergy, which subsequent circumstances will 
 tend to confirm, and which it appears to me is evi- 
 dent, from his not taking any degree till after the 
 Restoration. He might have taken his degree of 
 Bachelor of Arts in 1659; but most probably he 
 disliked the examinations, and continued, giving no 
 offence, as under-graduate of his College, till the 
 reign of the Cheynels,* &c. was over. 
 
 Every thing in the University wore, to the eyes of 
 Ken, a new appearance, when the restored members of 
 the halls and colleges, yet surviving, appeared again 
 in their square caps! Morley wore his square cap-j~ 
 till he died — as in lofty contempt of the captious 
 frivolousness of the Puritans. 
 
 Again, at St. Mary's 
 
 " The pealing anthem swell'd the note of praise." 
 
 Again the chant, as Prynne called it, "was tossed 
 from side to side" — in reality, heard responsive, and 
 how impressively to those who, from their earliest 
 days, had associated such music with their first devo- 
 tional feelings, and now sat, with tears in their eyes, 
 recalling many friends, some dead, few surviving to 
 
 * Francis Cheynel, of Merton, of whom more hereafter, 
 t The object of more aversion, as the Theologians at Dort 
 all appeared "Consilium horrendum," in Geneva skull-caps. 
 
90 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 hear, in their old age, the same affecting strains, in 
 the same sacred place. 
 
 These higher feelings were experienced, indeed, 
 hy few, as few of the old Clergy remained. On the 
 severe puritanical discipline being cast off at 
 Oxford, no doubt some loose was given, even un- 
 der academical regulations, to the unbridled feel- 
 ings of exultation. Antony Wood might have 
 drunk the Kings health, and made an oration in 
 his musical club. Crewe, afterwards Bishop of 
 Durham, might have re-strung, and played in live- 
 lier key and better tune, the old loyal Northern 
 
 ballad — if it were, indeed, so old — 
 
 Peggy, now the King 's come, 
 
 Peggy, now the King 's come, 
 We shall play, and we shall sing, 
 
 Peggy, now the King 's come. 
 Old Wolsey's quadrangle soon afterwards re- 
 sounded to the merry peal. Dr. Fell presented 
 his college with " Great Tom," whose far-heard and 
 mighty tongue might have seemed to express the 
 national feelings, in unison from the lowest to the 
 mightiest in the land. Then might the Vicars have 
 joined in such a measure as that which a succeed- 
 ing Dean * of the same college, not long afterwards, 
 so sweetly harmonized : 
 
 Hark ! the merry Christchurch bells, 
 
 One, two, three, four, five, six ! 
 They sound so sweet, so wondrous sweet, 
 
 And they troll so merrily! merrily ! 
 
 * The accomplished Dean Aldrich. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. i) I 
 
 Hark ! the first and second bell, 
 
 On cv'ry day, at four and ten, 
 Cries " Come, come, come, come, come to prayers ;" 
 
 And the Verger walks before the Dean. 
 
 "The merry Christ-Church bells," so long deemed 
 idolatrous, had not been heard, nor " the Verger 
 walked before the Dean," for nearly seventeen years ; 
 and we may conceive the pensive pleasure Ken must 
 have felt, when, " meditating on this world's muta- 
 tions," he strolled alone on the banks of Isis, listen- 
 ing to the revived music of the belfry, while " Wyke- 
 ham's peal was up." * 
 
 Pious, not ostentatious — a scholar, and friend 
 of the Muses — he continued, it appears, a resident 
 member of his college, beloved and respected, for 
 six years, pursuing the same regular course of aca- 
 demical life and studies. 
 
 He took his first degree of Bachelor of Arts 
 1661. It is not improbable that soon after this 
 he went into Orders ; and, at the proper age com- 
 mencing Master of Arts, may have employed his 
 time as tutor of the vounsrer members of the 
 college. 
 
 Revered and respected he must have been, equally 
 for learning, character, and manners, as he was 
 elected, with one voice, bv the Fellows of Winches- 
 ter, to fill the first vacancy of a fellowship, by 
 the death of Stephen Cook, in 1666. He now 
 
 * Hurdis. 
 
92 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 returned to Winchester, as resident Fellow of that So- 
 ciety, which he left, an interesting youth, in 1655-6. 
 
 The interest he manifested in, and the attachment 
 he felt for, the school in which he had received his 
 early education, was evinced hy the publication of 
 that " Manual," which was formerly placed in the 
 hands of every boy, containing the rudiments of 
 religious knowledge, adapted to those in early 
 life, in the form of a dialogue between a Wyke- 
 hamical tutor and his pupil. His subscribing 100/. 
 to the new buildings of New college fronting the 
 garden, was the first proof of his gratitude. 
 
 Ken left New college for his Wykehamical resi- 
 dence at Winchester, as Fellow of the college, in 
 1666 ; and inquiring for some information of my 
 friend Henry Huntingford, nephew of the present 
 excellent Bishop of Hereford, the inheritor of Ken's 
 Wykehamical piety and learning, and, like him, 
 risino- from a Fellowship to the episcopal Bench, 
 (his nephew being a Fellow of the same college)— I 
 was gratified when, to the information he gave me, 
 he added, "I am writing this in the very room 
 which Ken inhabited when he was Fellow." 
 
 In this room he read and wrote, and accompanied 
 his morning and evening hymn with his lute. In- 
 terested in the morals, religion, and welfare of the 
 younger tribe, of which he was lately one, he might 
 have passed his quiet days, and closed his private 
 and peaceful career, in this social and lettered seclu- 
 sion, among his books and friends of youth, had 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 93 
 
 not some peculiar circumstances, which I am now 
 about to relate, called him from this umbratili vitd, 
 to the elevated station in the Church which he 
 afterwards filled, with so high and eminently a 
 Christian character. 
 
 Morley, translated from Worcester, was Bishop 
 of Winchester, when Ken came to reside, and he 
 found domesticated at the new palace, his own 
 brother-in-law, Isaak Walton, the author of the 
 " Complete Angler, or the Contemplative Man's 
 Recreation." 
 
 But whence arose the extraordinary interest and 
 attachment which Morley shewed to Ken, during the 
 time of his residence at Winchester, and through 
 life, till he died ? 
 
 I now speak from living traditional information, 
 that of Dr. Hawes, the nearest relation of Ken ex- 
 isting, having already mentioned Isaak Walton's 
 Prayer-book, in his possession. I shall therefore 
 proceed to narrate some singular and interesting 
 circumstances, which procured for Ken the especial 
 patronage and friendship of Morley, and which 
 eventually led to the connection with Charles the 
 Second, and to the high episcopal station which he 
 subsequently filled, and relinquished. 
 
 When the Episcopal Clergy were persecuted, as 
 we have seen in the last chapter, how many exam- 
 ples of piety and learning were left desolate on the 
 world, for refusing to take the Covenant ! Morley 
 partook of the same bread of adversity. 
 
94 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Though the Prayer-book was suppressed, many 
 pious and good men were still found, in various 
 parts of the country — many warm though secret 
 friends — attached to the same holy formulary, and 
 devoted to the same altars. We have stated that 
 Jeremy Taylor found an asylum at Golden Grove, 
 a seat belonging to Lord Carbery, near Carmarthen, 
 where some of his beautiful and eloquent discourses 
 were preached. Hammond lived till he died at Sir 
 John Packington's seat, in Worcestershire. We 
 cannot tell where many of these exemplary men — 
 
 " scattered wide by many fates " — 
 
 found shelter, but, from undoubted authority, I am 
 enabled to state, for the first time, the origin of the 
 singular friendship which lasted uninterrupted till 
 death, between Morley, Bishop of Winchester, 
 Ken's first and most ardent patron, and the compa- 
 ratively poor, but honest and virtuous, Isaak Wal- 
 ton, Ken's brother-in-law. 
 
 Morley, having been ejected from his Canonry 
 of Christchurch by Parliamentary precept, March 
 1648 — being denounced, with Hammond, also Canon 
 of Christchurch, as " malignant and contumacious" 
 by the Visitors, and being at the same time de- 
 prived of his living of Mildenhall, near Marlbo- 
 rough — and, in short, of every thing but his con- 
 science — had the world before him, utterly desti- 
 tute, nor knowing where to lay his head. 
 
 When, in his happier days, he associated with 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 95 
 
 Lord Falkland and Cotton, and when Isaak Wal- 
 ton was a hearer of Dr. Donne at St. Dunstan's, 
 it is probable, from circumstances, that his acquaint- 
 ance with that singular and good man, Isaak Wal- 
 ton, commenced, as his father lived in London. 
 
 In the desolation to which, for conscience sake, 
 he was now exposed, where did he find refuge ? Not in 
 the halls of the great, but at the humble cottage of 
 poor Walton. Here they read their Prayer-booh 
 together; that very Prayer-book of which I have 
 spoken, the sad memorial of those days of trial, but 
 of affectionate intercourse. 
 
 The honest Angler, who had left London in 
 1643, when the storm fell on the communion to 
 which he was so ardently attached, and when, as 
 Wood says, he " found it dangerous for honest men 
 to be there," — in those days of Presbyterian perse- 
 cution, he retired from his shop at the corner of 
 Chancery-lane, and having a cottage near the place 
 where he was born, he removed his humble Lares 
 
 — his affectionate and pious wife, the sister of Ken, 
 — and retired withhis angle tohis obscure andhumble 
 habitation, his own small property, near Stafford. 
 
 LIcre, after a placid day spent on the margin of 
 the solitary Trent, or Dove, musing on the olden 
 times, he returned at evening to the humble home 
 of love — to the evening hymn of his wife, to his 
 infant daughter, afterwards wife of Dr. Hawkins 
 
 — to his Bible — and to the consolation of his pro- 
 scribed Prayer-book. 
 
96 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 This humble and affectionate party was joined 
 by Morley, after he had been expelled from Christ- 
 Church, March 1647-8. In his Lives of Herbert 
 and Hooker, written under Morley's splendid roof, 
 and published 1670, Walton speaks of the know- 
 ledge derived from his friend, with whom he 
 had been acquainted " forty years." And now, 
 with congenial feelings, in his day of adversity 
 Morley passed the year before he left England in 
 the cottage of his humble, pious, honest friend 
 Isaak. 
 
 Here was the proscribed service of the Church 
 of England performed daily in secrecy, by the 
 faithful minister of Christ and his Church, "now 
 fallen on evil days ;" and we can hardly conceive 
 a more affecting group — the simple, placid, apos- 
 tolic Piscator — Kenna, his dutiful, pious, prudent, 
 and beloved wife, the sister of Ken — the infant 
 child — and the faithful Minister of the Church, dis- 
 possessed of all worldly wealth, and here finding 
 shelter, and peace, and prayer. 
 
 As we have had, of late, some interesting " Ima- 
 ginary Conversations and Colloquies," I trust, on 
 a circumstance so remarkable as the origin of the 
 friendship between Morley, "my Lord of Win- 
 ton," and the poor, honest fisherman, the bro- 
 ther-in-law of Ken, and founder of his future for- 
 tunes, I may be allowed to sketch a little scene, 
 and introduce an imaginary colloquy between Isaak, 
 
13 > 
 
 
r r c . r < ' 
 
 • « 
 
 H „ 1 
 
 Isaak. "Walion.Kaiiia (hisl/Vife) aniMorley. afterwards Bishcra o£ Winchester, 
 at Walton's Cottage in Staffordsnire. 
 
 i&BT^tmtefe at CaTta-temitt. 
 
 .^^iw- #^> ■?/ 
 
 •rcnSecb. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. ( J7 
 
 and Kenna* and Morley, which, at least, I hope 
 may he found consonant to their character, and the 
 peculiar circumstances of the times ; and which will 
 be strictly appropriate, as Walton's " Contempla- 
 tive Man's Recreation" is written in dialogue. 
 Above all, I make this attempt, as my friend Mr. 
 Calcott, so eminent in his silent and beautiful art, 
 has favoured me with a design on purpose for this 
 work, representing the cottage of Isaak Walton, as 
 it appeared at the time, taken from the last edition 
 of Walton — together with an original portrait of 
 Morley, from a drawing by the younger Walton 
 from life. A few explanatory words may be premised. 
 
 The Oxford visitation took place in December 
 1647; Morley was expelled, by Parliamentary Pre- 
 cept, in the March following, it is said, not without 
 personal violence. He had lived a confidential and 
 domestic friend, as chaplain, in the household of 
 Lord Robert Carnarvon. -j~ By this nobleman he was 
 recommended to the King, 1640. Notwithstanding 
 his speculative religious creed was the very reverse 
 of Laud's, his affectionate heart took the warmest 
 interest in the fortunes of his Sovereign from the 
 commencement of his troubles. 
 
 The King appointed him Canon of Christchurch 
 in 1641 ; and he resided, beloved and respected by 
 
 * His wife was called "Kenna" fVo-m her name Ken. See 
 his own beautiful ballad — " And hear my Kenna sing a song.'' 
 Complete Angler. 
 
 f William Browne, author of Britannia's Pastorals, had been 
 Lord Carnarvon's Tutor. 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 all parties, till his ejection, both from that Canonry 
 and from his Living of Mildenhall, near Marl- 
 borough. 
 
 He was now without house and home in the 
 world, but he remembered the delightful days when 
 in youth he had been the associate of Lord Falkland 
 — of Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon — of Ben Jon- 
 son — of Chillingworth,now left also bereaved by the 
 storm which scattered the best and wisest of their 
 day — of Charles Cotton, the adopted son of Isaak 
 Walton, as he himself had been, in younger days, the 
 adopted son of Ben Jonson. He remembered those 
 times and those men, and having no refuge — as 
 some were killed, the brave and accomplished Falk- 
 land — and some struggling themselves, or pursuing, 
 like Hyde, a studious and laborious profession — 
 he thought of the quiet and contented heart of 
 Cotton's adopted father, Walton — of their early 
 acquaintance, when both were hearers of Donne 
 — of Walton's piety and apostolical simplicity — of 
 his warm but unostentatious attachment to the 
 Church, — of his cheerful but humble situation, 
 remote from the storms of public life, when he 
 lived retired, with his beloved Kenna and only one 
 infant, in Staffordshire. Perhaps he had been in- 
 vited to partake there, when the world frowned, his 
 lonely but pious meal, — he knew he should find 
 welcome, and therefore hastened, in the day of 
 adversity, to find peace and protection in the cot- 
 tage of honest Isaac Walton. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 99 
 
 As this circumstance only accounts for the long 
 and unvarying friendship of the Bishop, whose pa- 
 lace, in grateful remembrance of protection received 
 in Piscator's cottage, was open, till death, to his 
 long-tried friend — imagination can hardly con- 
 ceive a more affecting groupe than Walton's cottage 
 exhibited at the time when Morley, an outcast in 
 the world, was here welcomed. 
 
 Having stated thus much, I shall now endeavour 
 to dramatize the parting scene. Isaac has returned, 
 on a beautiful evening in spring — from his solitary 
 amusement — to the small garden-plat before his 
 door — where appears Morley, musing of the future 
 — and his beloved Kcnna, lately become a mother. 
 
 Scene, Cottage of Isaak Walton, near Stafford; 
 
 Morley, and Kcnna, with her Infant, Piscator 
 
 retarned from Jishing. 
 
 Piscator. — I am glad to come back to my best 
 friends upon earth, this fine, beautiful evening of 
 the young May, when the cuckoo has been singing 
 all day, putting us in mind of that verse in the 
 Canticles, "The w inter is past, and the voice of the 
 turtle is heard in our land;'' and trust me, I am 
 no less glad to see my Kenna sitting with you, my 
 friend, to enjoy the fragrant air, and look at the 
 swallows skimming the green, as rejoicing to find 
 themselves at home, after their long peregrination 
 in unknown lands. 
 
 Kenna. — And I indeed have had my eyes fixed 
 
 h2 
 
100 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 on them, and my heart also ; for, alas ! our friend, 
 to whom I shall ever be grateful for so mueh divine 
 instruction in these troubled times, has spoken to me 
 to-day of leaving us, and going beyond seas, on his 
 distant peregrination, to-morrow morning. 
 
 Plscator. — I shall be sorry to hear of such a re- 
 solve, fearing that our hospitality may be thought 
 too humble, albeit it is not a wit the less hearty; 
 but tell me, good and virtuous Master Morley, are 
 you tired of me and "my Kenna," and this our poor 
 cottage; and the birds that sing us to rest at 
 night, and wake us in the morning ; and this small 
 garden, and this neat honeysuckle arbour, where we 
 " study to be quiet." Are you tired of me, and of 
 these, or poor Kenna, so soon ? 
 
 Morley. — Honest Master Walton, my kind and 
 affectionate friend, I have lived here upwards of 
 twelve months, far from noise and sorrow, and the 
 troubles of life, and the painted mask of hypocrisy. 
 I may say, I have lived here with more true joy and 
 content than I have hitherto experienced in my 
 journey to another country, — a better country, my 
 Christian friend, — where there " is neither storm 
 or troubles, nor broken friendships," and "where 
 the sleep of the weary is sweet," and all tears are 
 wiped from all eyes for ever ! and, trust me, wherever 
 I shall be, whilst this life of trial abides, I shall 
 remember, as among the happiest, and peradventurc 
 the most profitable, seasons of my life, the time I 
 have passed here in quietness, I hope, improvement 
 of temper and heart. 
 
LIFE OE BISHOP KEN. 101 
 
 Piscator. — Say not so, good Master Morley ; for 
 much beholden to you as I and poor Kenna here 
 have been, for your company, I beseech you, stretch 
 not your kindness so far as to speak of us otherwise 
 than we arc. Yet I thank the Giver of all good, 
 that, in our lonely nook, we have been able to cheer, 
 though but for a season, in his way, one whom we 
 love — whom I have loved and respected so long, 
 and with whom, with the Word of God and our 
 Prayer-book, we have taken sweet council so long 
 together ! 
 
 Morley. — Yes, in this retirement of love and 
 content, and quiet fellowship, we have indeed " taken 
 sweet council together ; " and we shall neither of 
 us have occasion, if I may judge from my own 
 heart, to say, with the sacred Singer, in his troubles, 
 " It was not my own enemy, that has done me such 
 dishonour ; for then I could have borne it : but it 
 was even thou, my companion and my own familar 
 friend ! " No ! no ! this we shall never say : what- 
 ever may be the changes and chances of our lot, we 
 shall never say it was " thou, my companion and 
 familiar friend" who has done " dishonour ■" to us, 
 or the humblest that live. 
 
 Kenna. — But vou have left out one word in what 
 you have repeated from the best of counsellors — 
 God's holy Word ! and let me be bold to say, ho- 
 noured Master Morley — the words arc, as I remem- 
 ber them, in our " Prayer-book," at the 55th Psalm, 
 — " It was even thou, my companion, my guide!" 
 
102 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 as you have ever been to me, I am sure, the most 
 kind. 
 
 Piscator. — And yet, Master Morley, God knows 
 what changes we may yet meet with upon earth. 
 
 Morley. — Like my Royal master and benefactor, 
 I have ever found in trouble blessed comfort in the 
 words of the Book of Psalms, when my " heart is 
 disquieted within me." " When the enemy cried so 
 and the ungodly came in so fast, and they were 
 minded to do mischief, so maliciously were they set 
 against him, and when the fear of death had fallen 
 upon him," he found his best lesson of hope, or 
 resignation, in this divine book ; and am not I 
 ready to cry out, " Oh ! that I had wings like a 
 dove, for then I would flee away, and be at rest ; 
 lo! then I will get me away afar off;" " I would 
 haste to escape because of the stormy wind and 
 tempest." 
 
 Piscator. — But if our Kenna corrected the passage 
 in which our kind instructor left out one word ; let 
 me remind "my familiar companion" of a verse we 
 have often repeated. " We took sweet council to- 
 gether," and, not only that, " but have we not 
 walked in the house of God as friends ?" 
 
 Morley. — True ! we " have walked in the house 
 of God as friends," and we have worshipped toge- 
 ther in the u beauty of holiness ;" but the house of 
 God is now no more esteemed than the house of 
 Thieves, and they who bear rule have taken care to 
 make our venerable Cathedrals not of more esteem, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 103 
 
 as " the houses of the living God," than a stall 
 for oxen, while " they break down the carved work 
 thereof with axes and hammers."* 
 
 Kenna. — But they may he restored ; and the af- 
 fecting chant, to which I have listened in my 
 younger days, when we went to Paul's, with our 
 father and our little brother Thomas,f may be heard 
 again in some stiller time, though I shall perhaps be 
 buried and in peace — who knows but in some of 
 those beautiful cathedral houses of God., which are 
 the pride of our land. 
 
 Morley. — Come, for I feel the tears, which I have 
 not shed before, stealing into my eyes ! To-morrow, 
 before the lark sings above the thatch, I shall bid 
 you a long adieu, to seek the King, — to wander, I 
 know not where, or where I may rest my head to- 
 morrow night. I go, perhaps, to die, unremem- 
 bered, in a distant land, faithful till death to the 
 altars I revere, on which I have sworn no servile, 
 but generous allegiance as to the throne ! I could 
 well be content to share the humble meal of piety 
 and content, and domestic affection, in this nook ; 
 but I have pondered on every thing. Your circum- 
 stances, my kind and excellent friend, are not af- 
 fluent, though such an humble and quiet heart is 
 the best wealth. I might live to be a burden to 
 both. I am advancing in life, but still unshrinking 
 to meet whatever may be my fortune. My Royal 
 and kind Master has perished — I have taken leave, 
 
 * Psalm lxxiv. 6. t Ken. 
 
104 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 at the foot of the scaffold, of my last brave friend, 
 Lord Capel : — least we grow melancholy — ■ dear 
 daughter, I would pray you, before we part — be- 
 fore we part, perhaps for ever — to favour me, for 
 the last time, with one of those ditties which I have 
 so often loved to hear in this solitude. 
 
 Kenna. — What shall it be? my husband's own 
 ballad, which I once used to sing on the pleasant 
 banks of Lea, in our golden days of life, 
 
 I in the pleasant meads would be ; 
 These crystal streams shall solace me ! 
 
 when he used to love to hear " his Kenna sing a 
 song?" Alas! those pleasant days will never return; 
 and this song now little suits us, with our altered 
 age and fortunes. 
 
 Piscator. — No, indeed ; not more than the old 
 smooth song of honest Kit Marlowe's — 
 
 " Come, live with me, and be my love.'' 
 
 My beloved Kenna, sing to us that song which re- 
 minds us of the contcntedness of a country life. 
 (Kenna sings :) 
 
 Let me live harmlessly, and by the brink 
 Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place, 
 
 And on the world and my Creator think; 
 
 While some men strive ill-gotten good f embrace, 
 
 And others spend their time in base excess 
 
 Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness. 
 
 Piscator. — Ah ! this song remembers me of those 
 times gone by, "when we sat down n summers past, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 105 
 
 under the broad beech-tree, and the birds seemed 
 to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose 
 dead voice seemed to live in a hollow tree near to 
 the brow of the primrose hill, where we sat viewing 
 the silver streams glide silently towards their centre, 
 the tempestuous sea. When the milk-maid, that 
 had not yet attained so much age and wisdom as to 
 load her mind with any fears of many things that 
 w T ill never be, sang, like a nightingale, a smooth 
 song which was made by Kit Marlowe now at least 
 fifty years ago, and the milk-maid's mother sang an 
 answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Ra- 
 leigh in his younger days ! " But we must think no 
 more of these toys. I shall be right content to 
 hear a more serious song of Master Herbert's — that 
 which I did always love. 
 (Kenna sings :) 
 
 Sweet day, so calm, so clear, so bright, 
 
 The bridal of the earth and sky! 
 Sweet dews shall weep thy foil to-night — 
 For thou must die. 
 
 Sweet Spring ! full of sweet days and roses ! 
 My music shews you have your closes, 
 And all must die. 
 
 Only a sweet and virtuous soul 
 Then chiefly lives. 
 
 Morley. — And, trust me, this song was as well 
 sung as it is melodious, and sacred, and full of 
 golden thoughts. I shall remember the time I have 
 passed here, when I lie down to rest, I know not 
 
106 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 where, among strangers, and I shall dream in a 
 distant land of Kenna's songs ! 
 
 Piscator. — Yes ; and if the dream should make you 
 resolve to return, still, my good Master Morley, you 
 would find the same warm but humble welcome — 
 the same Prayer-book — the same evening and 
 morning hymns — and the same songs of Kenna, 
 who will ever gratefully remember her " guide and 
 familiar friend." 
 
 Kenna. — Oh! ever indeed gratefully — and, when 
 Sunday night comes, how sadly remember him ! 
 
 Morley. — Then let us now take leave. I wish to 
 retire to solitary communion with God, for the sun 
 is sinking beyond the mountains of Derbyshire. 
 My generous friend, I have seen much of high sta- 
 tions — and much, I need not say, of sorrow — but, 
 for yourself, you will remember, with thankfulness 
 to the giver, the prayer of Agar — " Give me nei- 
 ther poverty nor riches ; feed me with food con- 
 venient." 
 
 Piscator. — I thank God that I have always had a 
 thankful and quiet heart ; and, though these rooms 
 are poorly furnished, and our thatched roof be low, 
 in the words of the old song, made forty years ago, 
 
 My mind to me a kingdom is. 
 
 I am as happy and contented, with my dutiful 
 Kenna, in this remote corner — (for the tenement 
 and small territory is my own) — as contented and 
 happy as in the most prosperous state of life ; for, 
 in that fine strain set by Orlando Gibbons, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 107 
 
 The glories of our birth and state 
 Are shadows, not substantial things. 
 
 I am sufficiently blessed in my earthly condition, 
 having a wife as dutiful as Kenna, and a place of 
 humble independence in a world of sorrow. 
 
 Kenna. Oh ! and how far more delightful than 
 when we lived in the smoke and the noise of Fleet- 
 street, and were witnesses of the madness of the 
 frantic multitude — where the sullen Presbytery 
 looked so sternly upon us. 
 
 Morley. — May those who despoiled us, still pre- 
 serve to you, and your wife and your child, this 
 retirement of virtuous independence ; for happi- 
 ness may dwell here as well as in those halls where 
 I had formerly my academical education ; and (now 
 I am so soon to leave this abode of piety and peace) 
 I may say, in the language of the sweetest of poets, 
 then familiar to me — 
 
 Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt, 
 Et tibi magna satis — 
 At nos — 
 
 Your early studies, my friend, though not as classi ■ 
 cal as my own, might enable you to answer, from 
 the same affecting eclogue — 
 
 Scd tamen hac mecum potcris requiescere node. 
 To-morrow 
 
 Nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva ; 
 
 NoS PATRIAM FUGIMUS. 
 
 These lines you might know are from that great 
 
108 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 poet Dan Virgilius ; I shall endeavour to show 
 
 Kenna the sense in English : 
 
 Oh ! fortunate old man ! here shalt thou be, 
 Amid these pleasant fields, enough for thee. 
 
 I must apply the other lines, not less affecting, to 
 
 my own lot : 
 
 But we from hence, far hence, alas ! shall roam 
 O'er the wide world, to find no social home. 
 We from the fields of our lov'd Country fly, 
 To meet, perhaps, severer destiny. 
 
 I will give you, warm-hearted friend, credit for 
 wishing far greater kindness than was expressed by 
 the Mantuan Shepherd : 
 
 Yet here, at least, contented thou shalt ?tay 
 
 This night — till Morning comes, with sandals grey, 
 
 And beckons thee far o'er the seas away. 
 
 So we might beguile our sad thoughts with kin- 
 dred images of the classical Muses, long since my 
 delightful companions ; but, at this hour, it will be 
 mine rather to call your attention to an English 
 writer — a most holy man of our proscribed Sion, who 
 has suffered with me the same deprivations for con- 
 science sake, and who was my University friend. 
 Some of his divine thoughts, perused in his hand- 
 writing, now come into my mind. From him we 
 may learn these lessons on contentedness, whatever 
 be our lot here, or in the wide world ; and these 
 lessons, from a wiser and more eloquent man, I 
 shall leave as the legacy of a Christian monitor at 
 parting, my last legacy to you, good friend, and 
 your beloved and affectionate Kenna : 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 109 
 
 " On Contentedness. By Jeremiah Taylor. 
 
 " Virtues and discourses are like friends, neces- 
 sary in all fortunes ; but those are the best which 
 are friends in our sadnesses, and support us in our 
 sorrows and sad accidents; and, in this sense, no 
 man that is virtuous can he friendless, since God 
 has appointed one remedy for all the evils of the 
 world, and that is, a contented spirit. 
 
 "Now suppose thyself in as great sadness as 
 ever did load thy spirit, wouldst thou not hear it 
 nobly and cheerfully, if thou ivast sure some excel- 
 lent fortune ivould welcome thee, and enrich thee, 
 and recompense thee, so as to overflow all thy hopes, 
 (aid desires, and capacities ? Now, then, when a 
 sadness lies heavy upon thee, remember that thou 
 art a christian, designed to the inheritance of 
 Jesus. 
 
 " Or art thou fallen into the hands of publicans 
 and sequestrators — and they have taken all from 
 me! — What now? let me look about me: they 
 have left me the sun and the moon, fire andivater, 
 a loving wife, and many friends, to pity me, 
 and some to relieve me; and I can still discourse; 
 and, unless I list, they have not taken away my 
 cheerful sriRiT, and a good conscience ; they 
 have still left me the Providence of God, and 
 all the promises of the Gospel, and my religion, 
 
110 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 and my hopes of Heaven, and my charity to them 
 too : I read and meditate: I can walk in my 
 neighbours pleasant fields, and see the varieties 
 of nature's beauties, and delight in all that in which 
 God delights, that is, virtue and wisdom in his 
 whole creation, and in God himself." 
 
 Taylor's " Holy Living- and Dying." 
 
 Well, time is stealing. The young King is at 
 present at the Hague ! I hasten to join him, and 
 partake his fortunes. Your hand, dutiful and good 
 Kenna : continue to love your husband — breed 
 up your daughter in attachment to the form of 
 religion in which you have found so much comfort. 
 And — my voice begins to falter — your hand, my 
 worthy, my benevolent, my generous friend. I pray 
 Almighty God to bless you both. I shall think of 
 you in the distant land; I shall pray — but the tear 
 is on my lid — farewell — farewell ! 
 
 Piscator. — Good Master Morley, if we must part 
 this night, hear me now, and Kenna will join with 
 me in this mine entreaty. I have this morning, in 
 the river Trent, where I pursued my contemplative 
 recreation, hooked a fine trout. As it is the first, 
 so it may be the best I shall meet with this season; 
 for you must note that a trout is very poor till it 
 gets into the clear, sharp streams, in spring — but let 
 me ask, trusting to forgiveness, whether you have 
 power of bearing your charges, in your changed 
 fortunes, to the distant countries you think of 
 visiting? I can yet spare — 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 1 1 1 
 
 Morley. — Say no more, good and kind friend, if 
 vou love me. The desolate widow of the brave 
 Lord Capel has taken care I shall not be destitute. 
 
 Piscator. — Then but one wish remains, in which, 
 for our friendship of old, you will gratify me. Kenna 
 shall put her babe to rest, and dress this last meal of 
 contentedncss, the trout, with such directions as 
 I have given — then you shall read our prayers, 
 for the last time, it may be — and then, Almighty 
 God be with you wheresoever your journey lies 
 in this wide world, and grant that we may yet, in 
 some still time, come together again, where peace 
 and happiness shall be with us to our life's end, and 
 till we lay our burthens down in peace ! 
 
 They part. 
 
 MORLEY'S FAREWELL 
 
 TO THE COTTAGE OF ISAAK WALTON, 1649. 
 TO KENNA. 
 
 England, a long farewell ! a long farewell, 
 
 My Country, to thy woods, and streams, and hills, 
 Where I have heard in youth the Sabbath-bell, 
 For many a year now mute : — afFcction fills 
 Mine eyes with tears ; yet resolute to wait 
 Whatever ills betide, whatever fate, — 
 Far from my native land, from sights of woe, 
 From scaffolds, dreneh'd in gen'rous blood,* I go: — 
 
 * He returned to Walton's cottage from the scene of execu- 
 tion of his brave friend Lord Capel. 
 
112 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Sad, in a land of strangers, when I bend 
 With grief of heart, without a home or friend, 
 And chiefly when, with weary thoughts oppress'd, 
 I see the sun sink slowly in the west, 
 Then doubly feeling my forsaken lot, 
 I shall remember, far away, this cot 
 Of humble piety, and prayer, and peace, 
 And thee, dear friend ! till my heart's beatings cease. 
 Warm from that heart I breathe one parting pray r — 
 My good old friend, may God Almighty spare — 
 Spare, for the sake of that poor child,* thy life — 
 Long spare it, for thy meek and duteous wife. 
 Perhaps o'er them when the hard storm blows loud, 
 We both may be at rest, and in our shroud ; 
 Or, we may live to talk of these sad times, 
 When virtue was revil'd, and direst crimes 
 Faith's awful name usurp'd ! We may again 
 Hear heavenly truths in the time-hallow'd Fane — 
 And the full chant ! Oh ! if that day arrive, 
 And we, old friend! though bow'd with age, sur- 
 vive — 
 How happy, whilst our days on earth shall last, 
 To pray, and think of seasons that are pass'd, 
 Till on our various way the night shall close, 
 And in one-f~ hallowed pile, at last, our bones 
 repose. 
 
 * Anne, born 1677, and mother of William Hawkins, 
 f Walton died 1683, aged ninety; Morley the year after, 
 1684, aged 87. They are buried in the same cathedral. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 113 
 
 Let the curtain now draw up, and behold the 
 same characters, unchanged, in an illustrious sphere, 
 and with splendid associations. Behold Morley 
 " my Lord of Winton," in his Episcopal palace — 
 Isaak Walton's daughter Anne, an infant in the 
 Staffordshire cottage, a young woman of nineteen * 
 — the son, Isaac Walton, junior, returned from 
 Oxford, -f- Poor Kenna is buried in peace, in 
 Worcester Cathedral — her brother, the son of the 
 attorney of Furnival's Inn, late the "poor scholai*" of 
 Wykeham's college, has been just elected Fellow — 
 old Isaak himself, seeing his children, like Job, after 
 his trials, in prosperity and happiness around him, 
 tranquilly through the summer morning is seen 
 angling in the Itchin! His room is furnished willi 
 his own books, in the palace. There he lived a be- 
 loved and honoured guest, with mild and lighted 
 countenance, snow-white locks, a thankful, but 
 humble heart — with piety as sincere as unostenta- 
 tious — till he closed his eyes on all the " changes 
 and chances " of his mortal life, at ninety years of 
 
 a S e - 
 
 * Afterwards married to William Hawkins, Prebendary, 
 father of Hawkins, Ken's biographer, 
 t Afterwards Canon of Salisbury. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
V 
 
 ] 14 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 *x* In the Angler v;e find two poems addressed to Isaak Wal- 
 ton, by John Floud, M A. and Robert Floud, both of whom 
 style I. VV. their dear brother. 
 
 It is not generally known who was the first wife of Isaac 
 Walton, but her name was Rachel. I have been favoured with 
 the present pedigree. 
 
 I 1 , , 
 
 Arcnbishop Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon=p. . . . 
 
 Cranmer. of Canterbury. 
 
 I 
 
 l 
 
 Thomas Cranmer, Gent, of St. Mildred's, Canterbury ,=p. . . . 
 
 r- 
 
 Susaima.=j=. . . . Floud. 
 , 1 ( 
 
 John Floud, M.A. Robert Floud Floud —Isaak Walton. 
 
 Since the three first sheets were printed off, I 
 have received from C. G. Young 1 , Esq. York He- 
 rald, a full account of all Thomas Ken's children, 
 which entirely agrees with what I suggested, that 
 the Bishop of Bath and Wells was youngest son 
 of the first wife. All, except Thomas, the youngest, 
 were baptized at St. Giles, Cripplegate. 
 
 Christened. 
 1626, Jan. 1. John, son of Thomas Kenn, Gent. 
 1623, June 28. Martha, daughter of Mr. Thomas Kenne, Gent. 
 1 629, February 23. Mary, daughter of Thomas Kenne, Gent. 
 
 1631, March 26. Margaret, daughter of Thomas Kenne, Gent. 
 
 1632, July 10. Hyon, son of Thomas Kenne, Gent. 
 
 1635, April 14. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ken'e, Gent. 
 
 1638, Aug. 17. Mary, daughter of Thomas Ken, Gent. 
 1640, March 16. Martin, son of Thomas Ken, Gent. 
 
 [Anne, Mrs. Walton, not baptized at Cripplegate ] 
 
 Buried. 
 
 1639, Dec. 7. Mary, daughter of Thomas Ken, Gent. 
 
 1640, March 19. Martha, wife of Thomas Ken, Gent. 
 
• 
 
 ■ 
 
f ,<<V 
 
 x 
 
 MW&m M®lE3LET a P. ID). 
 
 EM. 
 
 
 ' 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 115 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LIFE, FORTUNES, CHARACTER, AND TIMES OF BISHOP 
 
 MORLEY, KEN'S FIRST PATRON PARENTAGE EARLY 
 
 SOCIETY CHAPLAIN TO CHARLES THE FIRST LAST IN- 
 TERVIEW EXPELLED FROM HIS CANONRY OF CHRIST- 
 CHURCH BY THE PARLIAMENTARY VISITORS HIS WAN- 
 DERINGS, AFTER LEAVING WALTON'S COTTAGE — ■ CHA- 
 RACTER REFLECTIONS DOMESTIC GROUPE IN THE 
 
 PALACE HOUSEHOLD WHEN HE WAS BISHOP OF WIN- 
 CHESTER. 
 
 jEquam memento rebus in arduis 
 
 Servare mentem, non secus in low's. 
 
 Hopace. 
 
 We have brought Ken from Oxford back to the 
 scene from whence, thirteen years before, a dis- 
 ciplined and ingenuous youth, he set out on the 
 eventful journey of life. He was now twenty-nine. 
 
 Immediately on his return to Winchester, he was 
 appointed Domestic Chaplain to Bishop Morley, and 
 soon after presented to the rectory of Brixton, in the 
 Isle of Wisrht. 
 
 The interest which Morley took in his fortunes, 
 and the origin of that interest, we have been the 
 first to shew. 
 
 Before we proceed on the public and more event- 
 ful passages of Ken's life, it will be proper to relate 
 more particularly some of the chief occurrences in 
 the life of that munificent Prelate, the first patron 
 and promoter of Ken's fortunes. 
 
 i2 
 
116 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Morley, now Bishop of Winchester, having been 
 promoted from Worcester 1662, — according to 
 Wood, (the universal storehouse of biographical 
 information,) was son of Francis Morley, by Sarah 
 sister of Sir John Denham, the poet. He was 
 born 1597, and educated at Westminster school, 
 from whence he was elected Student of Christ- 
 Church, Oxford. He was afterwards domiciliated 
 as Chaplain and friend, as we have related, in the 
 household of Robert Earl of Carnarvon. 
 
 We may here add the account of the family of 
 this generous and loyal nobleman, who was after- 
 wards killed at the battle of Newbury. 
 
 Robert Dormer, created Lord=pElizabeth, dau. of Viscount 
 Dormer, 1615. Montagu. 
 
 r J 
 
 Robert Dormer, created Earl of=pLady Anna Sophia Herbert,* 
 
 daughter of 4th Earl of Pern- 
 
 's 
 
 broke. 
 
 Carnarvon 1623; killed at New- 
 bury fight. 
 
 J 
 
 Charles Dormer, 2d and last Earl of=pElizabeth, dau. of Arthur 
 Carnarvon. Lord Capel. 
 
 f : ; -S 
 
 Elizabeth=Philip Earl of Isabel Dor-=Charles Earl of 
 
 Dormer. Chesterfield. mer. Montrath. 
 
 From the loyalty of his friend and patron, whose 
 household Morley left in 1640, we have concluded, 
 as he was made Chaplain to King Charles, in the 
 commencement of his troubles, that he was first 
 recommended to this post by Lord Carnarvon. 
 
 * Their portraits are at High-clear. Loyalty and sorrow 
 seem to have connected the families, for the son of Lord Car- 
 narvon married the daughter of Lord Capel. 
 
LIFE OF JilSHOI' KEN. 117 
 
 On his leaving the Earl of Carnarvon, he had 
 been presented to the Rectory of Hartfield, in 
 Sussex, his first preferment, which he exchanged 
 for the Rectory of Mildenhall, commonly called 
 Minall, near Marlborough, Wilts. We have stated 
 that a Canonry of Christ- Church becoming vacant 
 soon after his attendance on Charles, this high 
 ecclesiastical dignity, in a college where he had 
 been student, was bestowed on him by the King 
 himself, doubtless no less for his piety than his at- 
 tachment to the King's cause and fortunes. He was 
 appointed Canon of Christ-Church 1641. Notwith- 
 standing his having been Chaplain to the King, he 
 was selected, being considered of Calvinistic princi- 
 ples, to preach before the Parliament in 1643, which 
 he did with so little satisfaction to those by whom 
 he was appointed, that, when the sermons of all the 
 other preachers were ordered to be published, his 
 sermon only was excepted. 
 
 The reason may be readily guessed. It was not 
 tuned to the Parliament ; and the reader will know 
 what was expected from the political pulpits, when 
 only two passages are set before him, one from a 
 sermon preached before the same Parliament by 
 Case, and another from the well-known Stephen 
 Marshall, one of the authors of " Smectymnuus." 
 
 How may Lord King be recreated by such doc- 
 trines as the following, not preached by the intole- 
 rant Clergy of the Church of England ! 
 
 Case, in his sermon before the Commons, 1644, 
 
118 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 proclaims, "God is angry " and then makes the 
 God of mercy thus expostulate : * 
 
 "Will you not strike?^ Will you execute judg- 
 ment, or will you not? Tell me — for if you will 
 not I will! \God will strike, unless the Parlia- 
 ment take it out of his hands !] I will have the 
 
 enemies' blood !" 
 
 But this hiasphemous fiend in the pulpit falls 
 short of the pious Stephen Marshall, in 1641 : 
 
 "What soldier's heart would not start delibe- 
 rately to come into a subdued city, and take the little 
 ones on a spear's point, to take them by the heels, 
 and beat out their brains against the wall! yet 
 if this work be to revenge God's Church (the 
 Presbyterian!) against Babylon (the Church of 
 England), he is a blessed man that takes and 
 dashes the little ones against the stones." 
 
 How must Morley, the early friend of Sir Lucius 
 Carey, afterwards Lord Falkland, and of Chilling- 
 worth, and of Hammond, have disdained such lan- 
 «ruaire ! And such sentiments were uttered in a 
 Christian Church! 
 
 * Why do I publish this ? Because, otherwise, it would not 
 be believed; and because, if I spoke of fanatical preachers 
 without proof, I should be set down as wanting charity. 
 
 f So Milton, in Lycidas : " Stands ready to strike once! " 
 alluding to the axe which beheaded Laud ! " Strike ! " was 
 well understood at the time; and this bloody rhapsody was 
 preached in the year of Laud's trial, to hasten his end, he hav- 
 ing been three years in prison. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOl' KEN. Hi) 
 
 Morley, if not, like Locke, born ' in the storm," 
 now began to witness and experience its violence ; 
 and how often, during its continuance, till it fell on 
 his unsheltered head, and the heads of his most be- 
 loved friends — how often must he have recollected 
 those peaceful academical days when he was one 
 of that delightful society which met at the Tus- 
 culum described by Clarendon, of Sir Lucius Ca- 
 rey — near Oxford. The account of the place, man- 
 ner of living, and company, is. so interesting, that I 
 shall be excused for inserting the description : 
 
 " His house where he (Sir Lucius Carey) usually 
 resided, Tew, in Oxfordshire, within ten or twelve 
 miles of the University, looked like the University 
 itself by the company always found there. There 
 were Dr. Sheldon, Dr. Morley, Dr. Hammond, 
 Dr. Earle, * Mr. Chillingworth, &c. and, in- 
 deed, all the men of eminent parts and faculties 
 from Oxford, besides those who resorted thither 
 from London, who all found their lodging there as 
 ready as in the colleges ; nor did the lord of the 
 house know of their coming or going, or who were 
 in the house, till he came to dinner or supper, where 
 they still met. Here Mr. Chillingworth wrote, 
 and formed, and modelled his excellent book."-}- 
 
 Let us think of this unaffected scene of noble 
 and friendly hospitality — of Morley — Hammond 
 
 * Afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, who translated the Icon 
 into Latin ; educated at Winchester, before Ken. 
 f His " immortal " work. 
 
120 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 — Chillingworth — meeting at supper or dinner-— 
 of the deep reasoning of Chillingworth, the pure, 
 scriptural religion of Hammond, compared with 
 the livelier humour and frankheartedness of Mor- 
 ley. In such a society, he was remarkable for the 
 gaiety of his conversation, and one witticism of his 
 is recorded by Lord Clarendon, which shews at the 
 time, how little that spirit of Puritanic Calvinism 
 prevailed, which so soon afterwards gained its 
 gloomy and tyrannical ascendant. 
 
 It was enquired of him, what the Arminians 
 held? "What the Arminians hold ! hold all the 
 Bishoprics and Deaneries in England!" answered 
 Morley. One of these Deaneries, before the Resto- 
 ration, he (e held" himself, till dispossessed — not 
 by the Arminians ! ! 
 
 But how soon after this smart saying w r as it 
 found that neither Bishoprics nor Deaneries re- 
 mained to any of these grasping Arminians, for they 
 who assembled at this peaceful academical Tusculum 
 in youth, were the very first to experience the do- 
 mination of Calvinistic toleration! 
 
 The benevolent and accomplished master of the 
 house, Lord Falkland, and Robert Earl of Carnarvon, 
 were killed in the same battle. Chillingworth and 
 Hall, the noblest writers and the best of men, lived 
 to have their days shortened by cruelty and insult ; 
 Laud, the Arminian Primate of all England, was 
 condemned to be " hanged, drawn, and quar- 
 tered!" This was the end of "Arminian Deam 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 121 
 
 and Bishops!" Morley, though no Arminian, was 
 deprived of all he had. 
 
 Whilst the King was permitted to have his Chap- 
 lains with him, Morley was constantly in attend- 
 ance. The Presbyterians sternly forbad, at Holmby, 
 any spiritual attendance but of their own priest- 
 hood, the King being denied the common conso- 
 lation of the vilest criminal! At Holmby he was 
 first left, as it is said in the Eikcov BowjTu/oj, to 
 his " solitary prayers," and most grievously did he 
 feel this deprivation of those whose looks — whose 
 voices, were always compassionate and respectful, — 
 whose instruction was necessary to confirm his for- 
 titude, or elevate his heart above this scene of mor- 
 tal suffering. Let the reader turn to the prayer in 
 the Icon, " on parting with his Chaplains." That 
 this affecting prayer was written by the wretch 
 Gauden, I no more believe than I believe Gauden 
 could write King Lear ; and I would ask my excel- 
 lent friend Mr. Hallam, whether he thinks the 
 Prayer — of that only I speak — which contains the 
 words, " To thee, therefore, oh Lord ! I now offer 
 up my solitary prayers," — whether he thinks this 
 prayer as "cold" as he has pronounced the Icon? 
 If he does, then our feelings and taste differ : to me, 
 it appears that this prayer could only have pro- 
 ceeded from a heart that deeply felt what in such 
 affecting language it expresses. 
 
 Milton, the stern Iconoclast, was a very differ- 
 ent bcinc; from Milton the author of Penseroso 
 
122 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 and Lycidas ! What is his answer to this affect- 
 ing appeal ? To this " solitary prayer " of the 
 desolate King (supposing it written by him*), 
 deprived of Morley— of Hammond— of those from 
 whom he had received the language of compassion 
 and spiritual comfort? What? not one word of 
 commiseration ? — of respect ? — for men of at least 
 
 * It was many years since I read the Icon. I looked at it 
 whilst engaged in this work. The moment I came to this 
 Prayer, I said, " This is by another hand ! " Mr. Todd has 
 since informed me that Gauden acknowledged it to be written by 
 Duppa. But the King kept a Diary, and composedso»?e Prayers. 
 Mr. Todd has clearly established the fact that he did not write 
 the Meditations and Prayers, as they now stand in the Icon: but 
 some prayers he wrote, and some journal of his miserable days. 
 Can we determine that nothing of his own writing, however 
 disfigured, appears in this portraiture ? I am inclined to think 
 the real truth will be found in Kennet's account, that " the 
 papers written in the King's hand were entrusted to an Essex 
 minister, of Rayne, Mr. Edward Symmons, to convey them to 
 a printer. He committed them to his neighbour." This neigh- 
 bour was Gauden, Rector of Booking, the next parish to Rayne. 
 We learn no more, nor how Kennet came to the knowledge of 
 such a circumstance. But let us see if this short account 
 might not receive some unexpected corroboration. 
 
 Where is Rayne situated ? Certainly, near Booking. But is 
 not — and most material is this unexpected fact — the parish 
 in which was situated the old ancestral mansion, Rayne 
 Hall, the seat of the Capels ? belonging to that Lord Capel, 
 the most faithful and confidential servant of his oppressed 
 Master ? Is it not probable, taking this unexpected circum- 
 stance into consideration, that some of the King's papers were 
 intrusted to Lady Capel, and Lord Capel being in prison, that 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. ] 23 
 
 blameless lives — of learning and of piety — 
 though of a different school from his own ? Hear, 
 admirers of Christian toleration : " Cry him up " — 
 (ye Chaplains!) — "cry him up for a Saint in your 
 pulpits, whilst he cries you down, for atheists, 
 into Hell!" What must be that system which 
 could thus level a noble mind, and turn the author 
 of "Paradise Lost" into a brutal railer? And- 
 vet he could talk of" detractions rude" against King 
 Cromwell ! 
 
 they were confided by Lady Capel to the person mentioned, 
 Minister of the parish ? 
 
 Rayne Hall being in the parish of Rayne, we might surely 
 be disposed to agree with Kennet, who says, " that he, Mr. 
 Symmons, Minister of Rayne, being interrupted by the 
 troubles of the times, committed them to his neighbour Dr- 
 Gauden, who, being a man of a luxurious fancy, could not 
 let them pass through his hands without amendments and 
 additions : he got some chapters to be added by another hand. 
 He himself threw in the ejaculations and devotions, or most of 
 them.' 1 (Kennet, quoted from Todd.) What he "threw in," 
 we cannot tell, but it appears to me there is as much difference 
 in the authoi'ship, of particular passages, as between Shak- 
 speare and Ireland's tawdry fabrication ! * — some passages 
 being natural and pathetic — as the Prayer on parting with his 
 Chaplains — his directions to his son, &c. ; and others artificial, 
 antithetic, elaborate, and most affected. 
 
 In the Shakspeare which Charles gave to Sir Thomas Her- 
 bert, now in the King's library, appear the words, in Charles's 
 own hand, " Dum spiro spero." 
 
 In the many hours of lonely solicitude and sorrow, to sup- 
 pose that he who loved Shakspeare and Tasso — he who was so 
 well versed in the Scriptures — he who kept a Diary — lie who 
 
 * Vortigern and Rowena. 
 
124 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Nothing but a cold, unnatural, theoretic system, 
 at war with common sense, the kindest sympathies 
 
 composed some Prayers — to suppose, in such a situation, such 
 a person should not have sought relief in committing to paper 
 his solitary meditations, seems impossible. 
 
 Morley might have been convinced that the Meditations, as 
 they now appear, were not the King's, and, as Gauden claimed 
 them, he had no power to contradict him ; but did he ever 
 show Gauden any respect ? 
 
 I have ventured to say thus much on a subject of interesting 
 inquiry ; and if I, who know so much less of the subject, differ 
 at all from my friend Mr. Todd, I need not say, it is with the 
 greatest respect and deference. 
 
 The information I have received, since the above was writ- 
 ten, from Mr. Alexander, the present Curate of Rayne, is so 
 decisive and so unexampled a corroboration of my ideas, and 
 of Kennet's cursory remarks, that I submit it to the reader, 
 as, in my opinion, decisive of my view of the question of the 
 Icon, I could indeed venture to mark the passages written 
 by the King, and those by Gauden. 
 
 " Rayne Hall is in the parish of Rayne, situated adjoining 
 the churchyard, and is now occupied as a farm-house by Mr. 
 Rolfe, tenant to the Earl of Essex, who is also possessed of 
 Rayne Lodge in this parish, and partly in the parish of Booking^ 
 The two farms contain upwards of 800 acres, and have been in 
 the Capel family since the time of Queen Elizabeth. I cannot 
 find any positive proof of any part of the family being there, 
 164-8, but I think it most probable ; as in a book containing 
 entries of several Rectors from 1611, there is entered in 1624, 
 < small tythes, for S r Arthur's Hope, Is.' In the same book : 
 • Dr. Mott dyed an. 1630. S r Arthur Capell gave mee the 
 presentation to the parsonage of Rayne, upon the 30 day of 
 Decemb. 1630. Mr. Symons.' 
 
LIFE OF HISHOP KEN. 125 
 
 of the heart, I might say, the voice of Heaven itself, 
 in the Scripture, could so sear all Christian feelings, 
 as to allow any one to speak with such reckless in- 
 sult of exemplary and pious characters. And what 
 must be that system which could so deaden to its 
 core the heart, and thus palsy the native, generous 
 feelings of the high-minded Milton ! * 
 
 When the King was in the hands of the Army, 
 his chaplains Sheldon and Hammond were again 
 admitted at Hampton Court. This circumstance is 
 remarkable, as it shows Morley was at a distance. 
 
 In company with his favourite Hammond, uncle 
 to that Colonel Hammond under whose care he was 
 
 ' The right honMe the Lady Capell gave race the presentation 
 to the Rectory of Raine in Essex the 5 clay of June 164-9.' 
 
 " In the register of baptisms are entered : 
 
 1634. Feb. 12. Mary, the daughter of Edward and Hellen 
 Symons. 
 
 1637. Edward, son of Edward and Hellen Symons, bapt. 
 Mar. 25. 
 
 1639. Arethusa Symons, daughter of Edward and Hellen, 
 bapt. Nov. 2." 
 
 164-1. Henry Symons, son of Edward Symons, rector, and 
 Hellen. bapt. March 3. 
 
 Mr. Symons appears to have continued rector until 1619; 
 and had been long dead when Gaudcn made his claim to the 
 whole work. 
 
 * Magnificent as Milton's poetry is, to which none have done 
 more justice than those whom his fiery declamation most in- 
 sulted, I do not recollect one passage of commiseration, like 
 those which charm us in Cowper — with such stern stuff, after his 
 first ingenuous feelings, did the genius of republican Puritanism 
 envelope him. 
 
126 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 placed in the Isle of Wight, Charles almost forgot 
 how long he had heen bereaved of his wife and chil- 
 dren. The Army, in this respect, were, in appear- 
 ance, far more merciful and kind than the implaca- 
 ble Covenanters had been — but they exhibited only 
 the perfidy and play of the tiger towards their de- 
 luded and helpless victim. At Newmarket the Chap- 
 lains Vere again admitted, and, soon afterwards, the 
 forlorn Monarch heard, with tears of rapture, the 
 voices of his children, and bent over them, with the 
 paternal blessings of a bursting heart. 
 
 This was the sunshine of hope and tenderness 
 for a moment, on the most desolate of human 
 kind ! In the Isle of Wight, even those faithful 
 attendants whom, in the kindness of his heart, 
 though in the deepest dejection, he never failed to 
 address — more in the endearing familiarity of a 
 friend than master — were now shut out. 
 
 The last time Morley * appeared with the King 
 was, when he was sent for by Charles, altered sadly 
 in appearance, in his last extremity of hope, to as- 
 sist at the treaty in the Isle of Wight. " He was 
 sadly altered in countenance," Clarendon remarks, 
 " and his hair quite grey." That he was sadly 
 altered in countenance, who would be disposed to 
 
 * It is remarkable that the King, being allowed by the Par- 
 liament at the treaty to consult his Chaplains, did not at first 
 fix on Morle} r , probably for reasons we have given ; but in his 
 next address to Parliament — that Parliament calling itself "du- 
 tiful and loyal!!" — Morley is required by the King. (State 
 Papers.) 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 127 
 
 doubt; but his hair was not grey, for I have seen it, 
 by the favour of Sir Henry Hallbrd, as cut from 
 the head, after the late disinterment at Windsor. It 
 was of the most beautiful brown, without a single 
 grey hair. In the Isle of Wight, the faithful and 
 affectionate Morley parted with him for ever in this 
 world. 
 
 One of the most affecting passages, and there- 
 fore seldom taken notice of by professed historians, 
 relating to the sorrows of Charles the First, is set 
 before us by an eye-witness, Sir Philip Warwick. 
 
 "At the Treaty, he was permitted to have the 
 Duke of Richmond, Marquis of Hartford, Earls of 
 Southampton and Lindsay, Juxon Bishop of London, 
 Duppa of Salisbury, Sanders, Henchman, and Mor- 
 ley, &c. The Kings Lords and Gentlemen only 
 stood about his chair, but were not to speak a word 
 in ins assistance, while he singly disputed with 
 all the before-mentioned able men (Pembroke, Sa- 
 lisbury, Vane the younger, Say, Hollis, &c.) If at 
 any time the King found himself at need to ask a 
 question, or that any of his Lords thought fit to 
 advise him, in his ear, to hesitate before he an- 
 swered, he himself would retire into his own cham- 
 ber, or one of his penmen prayed him, from the 
 Lords, to do so ; but more liberty than this his attend- 
 ants were not allowed ! " * If ever there was a pic- 
 ture of the most refined cruelty, it is this ! 
 
 The crafty Covenanters, as cold as crafty, and as 
 despiteful as cold, were prepared with every entan- 
 
 * Warwick's IV£emoirs. 
 
128 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 gling question ; and he, singly, before the whole as- 
 sembly, was required to answer." Warwick pro- 
 ceeds : 
 
 " I remember on one day he over did himself" (it 
 was indeed the most momentous question as affect- 
 ing himself) : " it was upon the great Article, whe- 
 ther he or the Parliament began the war ? and, in 
 effect, at whose door the blood should lie ? The 
 King retiring to his chamber, I took the confidence 
 to step to my Lord of Northumberland, and say to 
 him, ' My good Lord, remember how gracious this 
 good Prince hath been to you ■ — compassionate his 
 distresses, and the strait he is now in !' He civilly, 
 but positively, replied — ' Sir, it is impossible for 
 me to do any thing ; for the King in this point is 
 safe,* as a King, but we cannot be so.' 
 
 " Two replies which the King made to two gen- 
 tlemen that day were observable ; the one to a gen- 
 tleman, now a Lord, who pressed hardly upon him : 
 ' A good nature, Sir, (said he,) would not offer 
 what you say ; nor is it true logic !"' 
 
 Thus was he baited, arguing singly before this 
 array of cold, astute enemies, amid silent, compas- 
 sionate friends — arguing, mildly, courteously, ma- 
 jestically, yet most acutely — for life or death !-f~ 
 The honest relator proceeds in the following most 
 affecting detail : 
 
 " I never saw him shed tears but once, and he 
 turned presently his head away, for he was then 
 
 * How safe he was events proved. 
 
 | At this very time his death was determined on. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 129 
 
 dictating to me somewhat in a window, and he was 
 loth to be discerned; and the Lords and Gentlemen 
 were then in the room, and his back was towards 
 them ; but I can hereof take my oath, that they were 
 the biggest drops that I ever saw fall from an eye, 
 but he recollected himself, and soon stifled them ! " * 
 In the account of the burial of the King in 
 Windsor Chapel by Sir Thomas Herbert, the spot 
 where the body was laid is described minutely, op- 
 posite the eleventh stall. The whole account is sin- 
 gularly impressive ; but it is extraordinary it should 
 ever have been supposed that the place of interment 
 was unknown, when this description existed. At 
 the late accidental disinterment, some of his hair 
 was cut off". Soon after, the following lines were 
 written, which I now set before the reader for the 
 first time. 
 
 ON THE FUNERAL OF CHARLES THE FIRST, 
 
 AT NIGHT, IN ST. GEOKGE's CHAPEL, WINDSOIt.f 
 
 The Castle-clock had toll'd midnight, — 
 
 With mattock and with spade, 
 And silent, by the torches' light, 
 
 His corse in earth we laid. 
 
 * Cromwell, who had the gift of prayer and crying at xvill, 
 called the broken-hearted King "a dissembler.' " 
 
 -j- As this composition might appear, in some turns of ex- 
 pression, to resemble a celebrated military funeral dirge (the 
 death of Sir John Moore), I can only say, it was written soon 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 The coffin bore his name, that those 
 
 Of other years might know, 
 When Earth its secret should disclose 
 
 Whose bones were laid below. 
 
 " Peace to the dead" no children sung, 
 
 Slow pacing up the nave ; 
 No prayers were read, no knell was rung, 
 
 As deep we dug his grave. 
 
 We only heard the winters wind, 
 
 In many a sullen gust, 
 As, o'er the open grave inclined, 
 
 We murmur'd, " Dust to dust ! " 
 
 A moon-beam, from the arches' height, 
 Stream'd, as we plac'd the stone ; 
 
 The long aisles started into light, 
 And all the windows shone. 
 
 We thought we saw the banners then, 
 
 That shook along the walls, 
 While the sad shades of mailed men 
 
 Were gazing from the stalls. 
 
 after the account of the late disinterment of Charles. The 
 metre and phrase is the same as some lines published twenty 
 years ago : 
 
 " O'er my poor Anna's lonely grave 
 No dirge shall sound, no bell shall ring." 
 
 " Spirit of Discovery." 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 131 
 
 Tis gone ! again, on tombs defac'd,* 
 
 Sits darkness more profound, 
 And only, by the torch, we trac'd 
 
 Our shadows on the ground. 
 
 And now the chilly, freezing air, 
 
 Without, blew long and loud ; 
 Upon our knees we breath'd one prayer^ 
 
 Where He — slept in his shroud. 
 
 We laid the broken marble floor — 
 
 No name, no trace appears — 
 And when we clos'd the sounding door 
 
 We thought of him with tears. 
 
 After the melancholy completion of the drama, 
 and the burial of his kind master, Morley resolved 
 to leave England, but waited, as we have said, to 
 take his earthly farewell of a noble friend, brought 
 to the scaffold in the same cause. 
 
 This was the brave, and loyal, and virtuous, and 
 intrepid Lord Capel. Whitelock, speaking of his 
 noble demeanour at this awful hour, says, " He 
 appeared on the scaifold, without any clergyman ! ' 
 Yes. Being insulted by the inspired soldiery, his 
 dying friend, to secure him from this brutality, 
 took his last leave of him at the foot of the scaf 
 fold. This generous nobleman's conduct, at that 
 trying hour, evinced from whom he had learnt the 
 
 * Every thing in the Chapel now defaced. 
 f The Service by the Prayer-book was forbidden. 
 
 k2 
 
132 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Christian lesson, how to die! And we can have 
 little doubt but that, had Morley, like Laud, been 
 called to suffer the great agony himself, he would 
 have shown how well he could have practised the 
 lessons he taught. 
 
 Morley had lived, as we have related, from the 
 time of his expulsion from Oxford, at the lonely 
 cottage of poor Isaak Walton. He had now so- 
 journed in that peaceful but humble abode twelve 
 whole months, and to that cottage of affectionate 
 friendship he returned after the execution of Lord 
 Capel, for a few weeks, we may imagine, till he left 
 England, to partake exile and adversity with his 
 new master, the Son of the murdered Charles. 
 
 From the time of his leaving the household of 
 Lord Carnarvon, the life of Morley was that of pe- 
 culiar sorrow. Both his friends, Carnarvon and 
 Falkland irnmaturely perished — the King was no 
 more — Lord Capel no more — his Oxford friends 
 scattered — his portion penury. 
 
 Every one knows the circumstances of the Papal 
 visitation at Oxford, but the Puritanic visitation, 
 though important in many respects, and involving 
 the fate of so many ornaments of the Church, has 
 been less considered, chiefly because the Clergy, 
 under all their wrongs, suffered in dignified silence. 
 They appealed not even to compassion, if we except 
 Hall's " Hard Fare ! " and a few other narratives. 
 
 The ejected Non-conformists preached and pub- 
 lished their " Farewell Sermons." It was not till 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 133 
 
 after Calamy had written his aeeount of the num- 
 ber of the sufferers under the Act of Uniformity 
 that Walker, as late as the reign of Queen Anne, 
 published the names of those ejected in 1647, and 
 by Cromwell's "tryers." He has given the names 
 and residences of two thousand* clergymen, ejected 
 from their livings, and turned into the world to beg 
 their bread, without any complaint, except in a very 
 few instances. 
 
 Walker, in his " History of the Sufferings of the 
 Clergy," has detailed the residences and names. As 
 to the Oxford Puritanical visitation, the particu- 
 lars may be seen in Wood's History of the Uni- 
 versity. Walker has quoted a curious book writ- 
 ten at the time, now in the Bodleian Library, called 
 « Pegasus." 
 
 This publication gives a ludicrous description of 
 Lord Pembroke, and his godly train, whom the Par- 
 liament sent down to Oxford, with full powers to 
 reform and purify it. The entrance of the solemn 
 cavalcade into Oxford is described with some hu- 
 mour and pleasantry. 
 
 Francis Cheynell, " damned to everlasting fame " 
 for his insults on the dying and dead Chilling- 
 worth, was a principal actor, and as delighted as 
 Hugh Peters is described, when he rode before the 
 miserable Charles, "triumphing!" 
 
 Lord Pembroke, the fifth Earl of Pembroke, who 
 having voted against the Bishops, was himself dis- 
 
 * A few, and those very few, are duplicates. 
 
134 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 missed, when the House of Peers was voted " use- 
 less and dangerous," was afterwards one of the 
 three inglorious Lords who sat in the House of 
 Commons, being returned for Berkshire. He was 
 very tall, and in this pious expedition he appeared 
 in front, with lofty figure and puritanic visage, as the 
 " knight of the woeful countenance? sallying forth 
 to purify "Alma Mater" of all such "scandalous 
 and malignant" members as Chillingworth, Ham- 
 mond, Morley, Jeremy Taylor, with commission to 
 fill their places with the "really pious? such as 
 Francis Cheynell and his solemn brethren ! 
 
 The next morning, the Heads of Houses, Doc- 
 tors, &c. were summoned : some attended, but the 
 far greater number refused to appear, who were 
 then condemned as contumacious. I have spoken 
 only of admitted facts. 
 
 In the Bodleian Library are some other pamphlets, 
 relating to these times, bound together with "Pega- 
 sus ;" among others, a list of the Members of Par- 
 liament (House of Commons) when Lenthall was 
 Speaker, with an account of their salaries and 
 offices. John Selden* is noted as an honour- 
 able exception, who refused to partake of the 
 wages, and often voted against the measures of the 
 House. 
 
 In the List of Impropriations purchased by the 
 
 * Chillingworth, Selden, Sommers, and Chatham, — 
 were all educated at Trinity. 
 
LIFE OF BISIIOl' KEN. 135 
 
 Commissioners, &c. printed in 1648, is 50/. per 
 annum settled upon the Church of Frome for 
 ever, to be paid by Sir James Thynne, of Longleat, 
 knt. for which his fine (as a delinquent) was re- 
 duced to 3086/. I mention these things as con- 
 nected with the subject of this chapter. 
 
 There is one pamphlet of considerable interest, 
 though short, detailing some of the occurrences in the 
 Isle of Wight, of which we have spoken, and parti- 
 cularly at Carisbrook Castle, with a wood-cut repre- 
 senting the interview in the presence-chamber in 
 Carisbrook Castle, between Charles I. and Sir Peter 
 Killegrew, who conveyed his " Last Propositions " 
 to both Houses of Parliament, Sept. 1648. 
 
 Cheynell, who makes such a distinguished figure 
 in these times at Oxford, was of Merton College, 
 at whose gates the Parliamentary Visitors were 
 received by him in form ! His taste, piety, and 
 gratitude to the founder of the College to which 
 he owed the education he disgraced, the following 
 inscription, now to be seen over the grave of the 
 founder of Merton, will attest, as well as the spirit 
 of the academical iconoclasts of this period : 
 
 Hunc tumulum, fanaticorum rabie, quae durante 
 
 nupero plusquam civili bello, prout in ipsa templa 
 
 sic et in heroum sanctorumque relliquias ibidem 
 
 pie reconditas, immaniter saeviebat, 
 
 deformatum atque fere deletum, Custos 
 
 et Scholares domus Scholarium 
 
 de Merton, in Academia Oxoniensi, 
 
136 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 pro sua erga Fundatorem pietate 
 
 et gratitudine, redintegrabant, 
 
 anno 1662. 
 
 Custode, Thoma Clayton, equite. 
 
 This monument, sacred to every feeling of piety 
 and gratitude, the memorable Cheynell — memora- 
 ble from his own account of what took place at the 
 funeral of Chillingworth — might have preserved ; 
 but piety and gratitude did not distinguish his class, 
 and his feelings respecting any venerable monu- 
 ment of ancient piety, we may suppose, were of the 
 nature of a Bishop of Winchester, Robert Home, 
 1570, who writes thus to the President and Fellows 
 of Trinity : 
 
 " I am informed that certain monuments, tend- 
 ing to idolatize, and popish or devil's service, as 
 crosses, and such like filthy stuffe, remain in 
 your College undefaced," &c* 
 
 * Thanks to Mr. Britton, Skelton, &c. these monuments are 
 appreciated by every man of feeling, sense, and taste; though 
 the same destruction may again take place when the leaders 
 have confidence enough to cry havoc, in the spirit of Martin, 
 who, crazed by his creed, — as millions tremble, in the present 
 day, on the verge of religious lunacy — was fully persuaded he 
 was doing the "Lord's work," when he set fire to York Cathe- 
 dral ! The letter, on this occasion, from some Ministers in the 
 connection of John Wesley, does them the highest honour. 
 
 We have lived to see a Cathedral set onjire, and witnessed — 
 what was never exhibited in Cromwell's days — a fellow keep- 
 ing a brothel, domineering over his " young Corinthian 
 laity " all the week, and regularly " preaching the Gospel " on 
 Sundays." Police Reports at Bow-street. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 137 
 
 Of such fanaticism, in her day of trouble, when 
 this spirit was dominant, nobly and firmly did the 
 University of Oxford show her disdain — nobly, 
 and proudly, did her faithful members, through "evil 
 report and good report" — with persecution and po- 
 verty before them — sustain their dignified parts. 
 " Persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not 
 destroyed; as poor, yet making many rich ; as hav- 
 ing nothing, and yet possessing all things." 
 
 The Parliamentary orders were, — " take the Co- 
 venant, and acknowledge the jurisdiction of the 
 Parliament!" The answer was, "We will take 
 no Presbyterian Covenant, for we belong to the 
 Episcopal Apostolic Church of England! We 
 will acknowledge no authority of Parliament, for 
 we have sworn that the Sovereign is the only legal 
 Visitor ! " 
 
 Jeremy Taylor, of All Souls — Hammond, Saun- 
 derson, Pocock, of Christ Church — and Chilling- 
 worth, of Trinity,* were dismissed to poverty; and 
 Cheynell, the insulter of Chillingworth, A. M. 
 of Merton, and his " really pious" brethren, re- 
 mained. 
 
 Oxford having been thus "purified" by the 
 expulsion of the most eminent scholars, and sin- 
 gularly, at the same time, of four members the 
 
 * Here were also educated Selden, Sommers, and Chatham j 
 Skinner, Bishop of Oxford, was Chillingworth 's tutor, who was 
 imprisoned, with the other Bishops, for petitioning the Parlia- 
 ment in 1613. 
 
138 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 most learned and eminently pious of any age or 
 nation — as if in insult to the manes of the illus- 
 trious founders — under the auspices of this immor- 
 tal Cheynell, Cromwell appeared in Convocation, 
 robed in his gown as LL. D. ! It might be almost 
 imagined the shades of the kings and prelates, the 
 illustrious founders of this seat of learning, frowned 
 indignant — when the Regicide-abolishers of her 
 ancient institutions — the profoundly-dissembling 
 Cromwell was made Doctor of Laws, the frantic 
 Harrison, and the renowned Cornet Joice, were 
 honoured by the degree of Master of Arts, in the 
 regenerated Convocation ! * 
 
 I shall merely add, that the Parliament sent their 
 visitors to Oxford in June 1647. The University 
 refused to submit. Monitions and citations were 
 resorted to in vain ; the sturdy academicians held 
 them in scorn. The Earl of Pembroke was made 
 Vice-Chancellor by the votes of both Houses of 
 Parliament, armed with authority to expel all the 
 contumacious members, in 1648. 
 
 In March 1648, Morley, with his virtuous, 
 learned, and pious friends, were without house or 
 home. 
 
 * Sir Hardress Waller, Harrison, Ingoldby, Ireton, Okey, 
 King's Judges; and the learned and redoubtable Cornet Joice, 
 were honoured, in full Convocation, with their Masters of Arts 
 degrees, May 19, 1649. I mention this, because I think it goes 
 some way to confirm the extraordinary testimony of Lilly, that 
 it was Joice who beheaded the King. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 139 
 
 In April an order was published, by beat of 
 drum, that if any of those who had been ex- 
 pelled were found within Jive miles of the city, 
 they should be treated as spies, and PUT TO 
 DEATH ! ! 
 
 Morley did not stay long enough to be subjected 
 to this most hwnane ordinance, but he was, for 
 contumacy, imprisoned. Soon after his release from 
 imprisonment, he found refuge in Staffordshire. 
 
 He sojourned with Walton in his cottage from 
 April 1648 till the first week of May 1649, join- 
 ing the young nominal King of England, just as 
 he was about to remove from the Hague. 
 
 The Son of King Charles the First being obliged 
 to look out for some secure retreat — after a journey 
 to Paris to visit his mother — fixed on the Island of 
 Jersey as the safest place of sojourn during the tem- 
 pest of the times. Here, as is said in Rapin, he had 
 his " small court." Here, in the language of that 
 exquisite writer, his unfortunate father's favourite, 
 he might have said, 
 
 Come, poor remains of friends ! rest on this rock — 
 
 and of this small and disconsolate court Morley was 
 now the " melancholy Jaques." 
 
 It is said he would not go with the King to Scot- 
 land. Doubtless, for the first thing required of the 
 King was to take the " Solemn League and Cove- 
 nant ;" and, if a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
 land had been found among the flock of John Knox, 
 
140 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 they would have cried out "A Pope! a Pope! 
 stone him ! " # 
 
 He now parted from the young King, and re- 
 tired to Antwerp, officiating, according to the rites 
 of the persecuted Church, and living in the family, 
 as instructor of the children, of Lady Hyde, whilst 
 her husband, afterwards Lord Chancellor, was in 
 Spain. All the offices of the Church of England 
 were regularly performed, not only in her house- 
 hold, but a congregation was established at Antwerp 
 — sacraments administered — and the small but 
 faithful flock here gathered in a foreign land. 
 
 We have spoken of Morley's generous sympathy 
 towards Charles the First — of his expulsion from 
 Oxford — of his sojourn with old Walton — and of 
 his subsequent wanderings with the nominal Court. 
 He returned to England with the restored Monarch, 
 and preached the Restoration Sermon (he says) " in 
 the year of his grand climacteric /" He was im- 
 mediately nominated Dean of Christ-church, where 
 he remained two months, having had just time to 
 settle those who were restored, all but his friendHam- 
 mond, who was dead. After two months residence 
 at Christ-Church, he was made Bishop of Wor- 
 cester, and in his Cathedral the pious Kenna, who 
 lived only two years after his elevation, was buried. 
 
 * So they cried, when a Minister in a surplice, according 
 to Laud s absurd injunction, was seen in a Kirk ! " A Pape ! 
 a Pape ! stane him ! " Rushworth. 
 
LIFE OF niSHOP KEN. 141 
 
 From Worcester he was translated, in 166.3, to 
 Winchester, where he closed his eyes, surrounded 
 hy those who revered him, though he was unmar- 
 ried and childless. Ken, and young; Isaac Walton — 
 and Dr. Hawkins and his wife, Walton's daughter 
 — and their two children, William, the biographer, 
 and Jane, his sister, were his children and grand- 
 children ; Ken became a Bishop at his death. I 
 shall reserve the picture of the chief character of 
 the party, till I have said something of this great 
 and good man's character : 
 
 Morley seemed to have been an exile with the 
 resolution of Mephibosheth : " And Mephibosheth, 
 the son of Saul, came down to meet the King, and 
 had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard, 
 nor washed his clothes, from the day the King de- 
 parted until the day he came again in peace." And 
 the language of Morley, I have no doubt, was, 
 " Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my Lord the 
 King is come again in peace unto his own house." 
 Such was his fidelity and loyalty. 
 
 Next, we must remark, his inflexible integrity in 
 what he conscientiously felt to be his duty, with- 
 out hesitation or compromise, it may be added, 
 without attempting to conceal any feeling of his 
 heart. He might, by ever so little management, 
 have retained his preferment — but he abhorred 
 the hypocrite who proposed it,* and he took no 
 
 * " If you will only agree not to oppose us, you shall keep 
 your preferment." 
 
142 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 pains to conceal his disdain : he might, by a com- 
 promise, have retained his Canonry — but his best 
 friends were driven away — Hammond, Saunderson, 
 Fell, who were his brother Canons, and as only Dr. 
 Wall was left, he chose to take his lot with the dis- 
 persed and suffering. 
 
 Wood says : " Oh ! that but a single portion of 
 that spirit might always rest upon the Established 
 Clergy ! " and in that prayer who does not join ? 
 
 His fidelity, and tenderness of heart, are mani- 
 fested by his friendship for Walton. 
 
 It is related that when Ormond (Butler) was 
 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, a clergyman, to whom 
 he had promised preferment, preaching before him, 
 to put him in mind of his promise, chose the text, 
 " Nevertheless, the chief butler did not remember 
 Joseph, but forgot him ! " This could not be said 
 of Morley ; in his prosperity he did not forget old 
 Isaak, " but remembered him ! " 
 
 He always wore his own hair, and, till death, 
 the much-abused square cap ! So little did he 
 indulge in that luxury which the general cry at- 
 tributed to all Bishops, that he, like Ken, eat 
 but once in twenty-four hours ! Though intre- 
 pid and inflexible, his heart was generous as day. 
 Of his generosity in other respects it will be suffi- 
 cient to say, that his various benefactions amounted 
 to 40,000/. he having left only a small estate to his 
 family from his large income. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 143 
 
 Respecting" his religious creed I have already 
 spoken my sentiments, but, I think it right to add 
 some observations on that peculiar inquisition to 
 which all the Clergy were subject, when examined 
 by " Oliver's tryers." When the Covenant was 
 ordered to be taken, they knew what they had to 
 submit to ; but it was very different when their 
 lives and feelings, and conduct, were submitted to 
 arbitrary " tryers" appointed to question them. 
 These questions did not concern their conduct as 
 fathers, or relate to the duties of life, but, whether 
 they believed the "election of grace" — whether 
 they had ever in their lives been present at a play ! 
 — or whether they scandalously eat "custard? " * 
 But the chief questions were, concerning the expe- 
 riences of grace ! 
 
 Laud was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and 
 giuartered in his old age, among other things, not 
 much better proved, for introducing Popery — for 
 he bowed at the name of Jesus, as my congregation 
 do — because he placed the communion at the East 
 end of the church, where all communion tables are 
 placed ! — when, by those very men who condemned 
 him to be " hanged, drawn, and quartered" for intro- 
 
 * One clergyman was ejected from his living because he had 
 "scandalously " eat " custard." Warton. It is difficult to say 
 what sin there was in eating " custard," but some abomination 
 was attached to it ; and hence Hudibras, 
 
 " And blaspheme custard through the nose." 
 
144 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 ducing Popery, the very essentials of Popish doc- 
 trines, in their worst sense, were professed and 
 taught!! — I say this deliberately, for the Cal- 
 vinists taught the predestinarianism, not of St. 
 Paul, but of the angel of the Popish schools, Tho- 
 mas Agluinas ! — they professed the very "expe- 
 riences," in letter and spirit, which are described 
 in his Summa Theologise as " the sense of sweet- 
 ness" by which they " experience that they are 
 of the number of the elect who have received 
 grace ! " 
 
 Thomas exactly describes those "experiences" on 
 which the melancholy ludicrous accounts of " God's 
 wonderful dealings" with shoemakers' souls, are so 
 copious! What says the Popish Doctor of the 
 fourteenth century ? " Experientia est sensus 
 dulcedinis, quam experitur ille, qui accepit gra- 
 tiam." Not an atom of difference is there be- 
 tween these "experiences" of the angel of the 
 Papal schools and the " experiences " of Crom- 
 well, Harrison, or Whitfield, and the host of mo- 
 dern revived Puritans of the school of Cheynell, 
 &c. ! Let those who revile the Church of England 
 on account of Popery look at their own Popish 
 rags ! 
 
 Even the terrible reprobation, concerning which 
 our Articles are silent, is as explicitly declared by 
 Aquinas as by Calvin, in letter and spirit ; except 
 that the learned Doctor of Geneva has added a little 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 145 
 
 from his own humane feelings, making the God of 
 Mercy create millions and millions of human crea- 
 tures, for no other purpose than to pass them over 
 to eternal torments ; and yet, by this Christian 
 code, such a being is not the D/emon of the Mani- 
 cheans, but the Father of Mercies ! 
 
 The " Reprobatio " of Aquinas, derived from Au- 
 gustine, once a Manichean, or worshipper of the 
 Evil Principle, is the father of this monstrosity. 
 
 Let the reader ponder over the following ex- 
 tract, which, his mind having been saturated with 
 the dews of Calvin s grace, he will scarce believe 
 were the doctrines of the 13th century : Reproba- 
 tio addit supra pr^scientiam, voluntatem permit- 
 tendi peccati, ct inferendi poenam ETERN^E 
 DAMNATIONS ! * 
 
 Deus reprobat aliquos homines ! -j- 
 
 That Morley's Calvinism ever partook of this 
 character who can believe ? If he was inclined, spe- 
 culatively, to opinions that approach Calvinism, it 
 never affected his Christian and benevolent feel- 
 ings ; and he was too discerning not to distin- 
 guish between genuine piety and these unscriptural 
 dogmas. 
 
 What pious and well-informed clergymen, indeed, 
 knows not the lines and limits of those Scriptural 
 views of Providence, of those devotional feelings 
 
 * Aquinas (Sumraa Theologia, folio), 1 Qu. 23. 3 — 6. 
 f Ibid. 1.9. 23. S. 3. 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 which spring from Scriptural faith, and of that pre- 
 destinarianism, with those fanatic feelings which 
 are derived from the scholastic theology, or from 
 the great Protestant Doctor of the Lenian Lake,* 
 the tendency of whose doctrines was to harden his 
 own heart, and to shew him stained with that blood 
 which all the waters of the Leman Lake can never 
 wash out. 
 
 If there is nothing of this Predestinarianism to 
 be traced in the Christian conduct and character of 
 Morley, there is no appearance or trace of it in his 
 open, intellectual countenance. 
 
 Having sketched this interesting groupe in the 
 Palace of Winchester, in 1669, let us look again on 
 the countenance of old Isaak Walton, who may be 
 considered the brother, as the rest were the chil- 
 dren and grand-children, of Morley. In Dr. Hawes's 
 sitting-room the whole groupe appears : the mild 
 Ken, with a few r grey hairs seen beneath his cap; 
 Father Isaak, from which picture the common por- 
 traits are engraved for the "Complete Angler;" 
 his son-in-law and daughter ; and the patriarch 
 Morley, in his square cap, his own hair, with 
 manly but most benignant countenance. May we 
 not think we see the whole family in the re- 
 stored Cathedral ? Morley, in his episcopal chair 
 — Walton, listening, with a tear in his eyes, to 
 the devotional chant, and thinking, perhaps, of his 
 
 * Lake of Geneva. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 147 
 
 poor Kenna, departed — his daughter near him, on 
 her knees — the Prebendaries, Hawkins and Ken, 
 in their stalls ; * or, on their return to the palace, 
 blessing God over their daily meal, not more sump- 
 tuous, possibly, than that in poor Isaak's cottage. 
 Thus, in prosperity and adversity, Walton and Mor- 
 ley walked in the house of God as friends, " and took 
 sweet counsel together," till the curtain of life 
 dropped. 
 
 Morley had built a new episcopal palace at Win- 
 chester, in the place of Wolseley House. 
 
 Old Isaak, with whom he had partaken adversity 
 and prosperity, equally his friend in all changes 
 and chances, through storm or sunshine, I have 
 called his brother, and he was endeared the more 
 as the prospects of this world narrowed, when the 
 view of their common resting place drew nearer. 
 Whilst Piscator lived, nothing can be conceived 
 more innocent, blameless, or happy, than his life, 
 in this city of ancient piety. 
 
 By the side of Itchin, let us think we see the 
 " Angler," with his rod and gray hairs, musing on 
 past times, on his present tranquil lot, and of the 
 summer hastening away. Duly as morning comes, 
 thus we may conceive he goes forth intent on his 
 " contemplative and solitary recreation." 
 
 Among the boys at College, there is generally 
 some favourite old man, with whom thev are in 
 
 * Ken was made Prebendary of Winchester by Morley 1669. 
 
 t 2 
 
148 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 habits of conversing, when they occasionally meet 
 him in their walk to " Hills," and who, in return, 
 regards with feelings of sympathy, their respectful 
 but light-hearted familiarities. Such I remember 
 old Crowe, the father of the late Public Orator 
 Crowe — such I remember poor Tom Warton* — 
 
 * Tom Warton was familiar with the whole school, and 
 equally respected and beloved. He was ready to give any boy a 
 task who asked him, but always enquired how many faults, 
 for fear his brother, the Head-master, should detect them. One 
 boy would have one fault, another hvo, and sometimes one 
 more ambitious would desire none! I remember a boy bring- 
 ing up a very good exercise, when the old Master said, 
 smilingly, " Who made this task ! Tell my brother to give 
 you half-a-crown, or I shall Jlog him!" As we are now 
 speaking of Piscator Walton, I hope I may be pardoned for 
 relating an anecdote on that subject. A verse-subject — Pis- 
 cator — was given by the Master. The day before a kind of 
 altercation had taken place between a Minor Canon and one 
 of the Prebendaries. The Prebendary had forbidden the Minor 
 Canon, named Norman, fishing in his Preserve! Some high 
 words, it was reported, had passed ; and, it was also said, a 
 stone flung. The circumstance was told Tom Warton, and he 
 thus recorded it in verse : 
 
 Piscator. 
 Infelix Norman captabat arundine pisces; 
 
 Turn Rivers saxum conjiciebat ei. 
 " Cur saxum jacis," exclamat turn Norman, " in undis, 
 " Si propius venias, te dabo praecipitem !" 
 Poor Norman might well be called infelix, for he died confined 
 a lunatic. I have spoken of his father in the poem of " Ban- 
 well-hill, or Days departed ;" and I shall here endeavour to 
 translate the verse : 
 
LIFE OF BISHOF KEN. 149 
 
 and such, I please myself in thinking, was this tran- 
 quil and delightful old man, looking on the sports 
 of the juniors with a smile — remembering the days 
 of his youth — familiar with the elder boys, as they 
 grow up, and pass into the crowd of life. After a 
 day's tranquil recreation, he retires to the home 
 of his friend, mild, but remembering those days 
 and scenes which he has himself so beautifully 
 described among the river-scenes in his own " Con- 
 templative Man's Recreation." 
 
 Arrived at the household of simplicity and love 
 in a palace, surely it would be natural to imagine, 
 when Charles the Second was often a visitor, that, 
 in his " merry mood," he might sometimes accost the 
 old man, " Odd's fish ! honest Piscator, you wear 
 your old age bonnily !" * But we would rather ima- 
 gine the interesting family assembled piously at 
 night, Ken singing with his evening hymn, adapted 
 to old Tallis's melody, probably that very air to 
 
 which it is now sung — and so welcoming 
 
 " peaceful evening in ! " 
 
 Unhappy Norman fish'd for trout, one day, 
 
 When Rivers flung a stone at him, they say: 
 " Why do you Jling a stone," said Norman, "why? 
 I'll Jling you in yourself, if you come nigh.'" 
 The reader may perhaps recollect Warton's translation of 
 an epitaph on an organist : 
 
 Organa namque loqui fecerat ipse quasi. 
 He made the organ for to speak — 
 Eke, even, as it ixere ! 
 * From his introduction to Charles the Second at Winches- 
 ter, Ken afterwards became Bishop of Bath and Wells. 
 
150 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 This is no picture of imagination. Ken always 
 sung his morning and evening hymn. Isaak, we 
 know, concluded the long and tranquil evening 
 of his days in this beloved society, between Win- 
 chester and Farnham palace. He occasionally va- 
 ried his abode, and died at the Prebendary-house of 
 his son-in-law. We have spoken of Kenna, buried 
 soon after the Restoration in Worcester Cathedral, 
 and transcribed her epitaph, as first written in the 
 Prayer-book, which had been Isaak's companion 
 in his own poor cottage, and in Morley's palace. 
 
 Over his bed in the Bishop's palace, at Farnham, 
 he had a small collection of his choice books, and 
 drawings, probably by his son. He died in 1683 
 at the great age of ninety-three, one year before 
 his honoured friend, in religious peace and hope, 
 and with piety sincere as unostentatious. 
 
 His "will" records his gratitude to his early and 
 latest friend, bequeathing " a ring to the Bishop of 
 Winchester, with the words — 
 
 "a mite for a million." 
 
 The next year, full of days, died his long-tried, 
 and generous, and warm-hearted friend, Morley, 
 dying 1684, aged eighty-seven. Both were buried 
 in the same Cathedral. 
 
 On looking back on the varied events of life — 
 on the scenes of sorrow and of sunshine — on their 
 unvarying friendship, in stations so different — and 
 that unvaried friendship, through so many years as 
 they went "hand in hand down the hill" together; 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 151 
 
 when wc remember, moreover, their warm but un- 
 affected piety, and the hallowed pile where their 
 bones rest — we may add, with a sigh, " They 
 were lovely in their lives, and in their death they 
 were not divided." As the Jirst humble recorder 
 of these circumstances, I have dwelt on them the 
 longer, because they are so materially connected 
 with my subject, arc most interesting in themselves, 
 and the origin of this singular friendship would 
 probably have been for ever unknown, if I had not 
 taken up the pen to record the life of Bishop Kern 
 though such an example of gratitude and friendship 
 deserves a far more lasting memorial and monument 
 than I am conscious I could raise to Isaak Walton 
 and Bishop Morley, the patron and the brother- 
 in-law of the apostolic Ken.* 
 
 * Morley and Ken, with Hammond — Sherlock — Lowth, and 
 ten thousand more — were examples of public school piety, 
 though Sherlock has been noted in the Edinburgh Review as 
 having been privately educated ! With the same accuracy Ben 
 Jonson, educated at Westminster under Camden, is said to have 
 been privately educated. 
 
152 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 PEDIGREE OF MORLEY, 
 
 Showing the connection of the present Marquess of Win- 
 chester, more honourable than the " pride of heraldry," with 
 Morley. 
 
 Visitation 1686. 
 
 Arms : Argent, a lion rampant Sable, ducally crowned Or. 
 
 Robert Morley, descended from^pAnne, dau. of Richard Tan- 
 Thomas, son of Wm.Lord Morley. | cred, of Pannel, co. Ebor. 
 
 r J 
 
 Francis Morley ,=pSarah, dau. of William Denham, and sister of 
 of London. | Sir J. Denham, Baron of the Exchequer. 
 
 1. George Morley, Bp. Winton, ob. 2. Thomas=pJane, dau. of 
 
 1684, s. p. of Droxford, Hants. Morley. j Collins. 
 
 r J 
 
 Captain T. Morley .=pPenelope, daughter of Denham Hancock. 
 
 r ' 
 
 Sir Charles Morley, Master of=^=Magdalene, daughter of Sir 
 
 Requests to Chas. II. of Drox- 
 ford, Hants. 
 
 T~ " J 
 
 William Herbert, brother to 
 Lord Herbert of Cherbury. 
 
 Elizabeth Jane, co-=pNorton Paulet, 2d son of Lord Henry 
 Morley. heir. j Paulet, 2d son of Wm. 4th M. of Winton. 
 
 George Paulett, eighth son, who, surviving all his brotheis, be- 
 came Marquess of Winchester on the death of Harry 6th Duke 
 of Bolton in 1794. He was the father of the present Marquess. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 153 
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PERSECUTED CLERGY. 
 
 During the period intervening from the commencement of 
 the Long Parliament to the Restoration, the Clergy had to 
 undergo three distinct persecutions. Eirst, when they were 
 expelled from their livings for not taking the Presbyterian 
 Covenant ; secondly, when they were arbitrarily dismissed from 
 their colleges at the visitation which was to purify Oxford ; 
 and thirdly, when the inquisitorial "Tryers" of Oliver Crom- 
 well were sent into every county, with full powers to question 
 and examine the Parochial Clergy, chiefly regarding their 
 views of Calvinism. 
 
 LILLY AND HUGH PETERS. 
 PR^EDESTINARIANISM AND ASTROLOGY. 
 
 Most memorable is the Judicium Merlini Anglici on the aris- 
 tocracy of the Presbytery, and spoken from his heart : 
 
 " These men, to be serious, preach well, but they were more 
 lordly than Bishops, and usually, in their parishes, 
 more tyrannical than the great Turk ! " 
 
 Lilly had prophesied against them, and his delight seems to 
 be beyond bounds when Oliver dispersed the Presbyterian Par- 
 liament, for he singeth : 
 
 " Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut, &c. 
 " For these enemies of mine, viz. Parliament-men, were 
 turned out of doors by Oliver Cromwell. 16 Feb. 1653-4." * 
 
 Of all who suffered after the Restoration, for being con- 
 cerned in the murder of the King, that poor pulpit pantaloon, 
 Hugh Peters, seems to have suffered most undeservedly ; for 
 he was tried and condemned, and executed, under circum- 
 stances of peculiar cruelty — not for what he did, but only for 
 what, it was reported, he said! 
 
 * Lilly's Life. 
 
154 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 An anecdote respecting him, in Lilly the astrologer's Life, 
 will elucidate his self-importance in a tragedy, where he was 
 not allowed to act any part beyond that of a horn-blower. 
 
 "Just before the King's Tryal," Lilly says, "in Christmas 
 holy-day, the Lord Grey 'of Groby and Hugh Peters sent 
 for me to Somerset-house, with directions to bring them two 
 of my Almanacks. I did so. Peters and he read January's 
 observations. 
 
 " If we are not fools and knaves, said he, we shall do jus- 
 tice ! Then they whispered : I understood not their meaning 
 till his Majesty was beheaded ! * 
 
 " They applied what I wrote of justice to be understood 
 of his Majesty, which was contrary to my wishes ; for Jupiter, 
 the first day of January, became direct, and Libra is a sign 
 signifying justice ! 
 
 " I had not then heard the least intimation of bringing the 
 King unto his tryal, and yet the first day thereof I was casually 
 there, it being upon a Saturday ; for, going to Westminster 
 every Saturday upon the afternoon, in these times, I casually 
 met Peters. ' Come, Lilly ; wilt thou go hear the King try'd?' 
 ' When ? ' said I. ' Noiv, just now ; go tvitlt me I ' "f 
 
 Lilly must have been intent indeed upon the stars, all the 
 week, never to have heard a word about this trial, with which 
 
 " All England rung from side to side," 
 till, "casually" (for the stars unaccountably gave him no no- 
 tice,) on the very day, and at the very hour, he met Peters ! 
 
 I have observed elsewhere, that astrology seems a natural 
 part of Prcdestinarianism — being both derived from Chaldea, 
 and part of the Oriental system, of two principles, of Good and 
 Evil, contending like the good and evil genii of Oriental tales. 
 Cicero exactly describes the astrology of the times of Lilly, in 
 
 * This ivhispcring of the two conspirators is marvellously like 
 the ivhispcrs of the two conspirators in the Rehearsal. 
 f Lilly's Life. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 155 
 
 his book De Divinalione, chap. i. And Horace, speaking of 
 the same astrology applied to destiny, says, 
 
 Nee Babylonios 
 Tentaris numeros, 
 meaning, by " numeros," not numbers, but Jigurcs of astrology. 
 The battle of Dunbar was determined by Lilly's prophecies ; 
 for, at the onset, when each party had "sought the Lord," and 
 the Lord had answered each, that he would surely deliver 
 their enemies into their hand ! a soldier was posted, with 
 Lilly's Almanack in his hand, as the troops marched on, and 
 cried, " Hear what Lilly says ! hear what Lilly says ! " 
 
 JOICE, EXECUTIONER OF CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
 There is a very curious account respecting the Executioner 
 of the King, on the 30th of January, in Lilly's Life. Lilly 
 could have had no motive for saying what he did, but he 
 seems to have related faithfully what he heard and believed ; 
 and Cornet Jotce, among those great actors of the bloody 
 drama, receiving his Master of Arts degree at Oxford, 
 under the Saints, seems to me an extraordinary corroboration 
 of the truth of Lilty's account, which is as follows : 
 
 '* In June of that year (1660) a new Parliament was called, 
 whereunto I was unwillingly invited by two messengers of the 
 Serjeant at Arms. The matter whereupon I was taken into 
 custody was, to examine me concerning the person who cut off 
 the King's head, viz. the late King's, &c. At last, I desired to 
 be fully heard, &c. and liberty being given me to speak, I re- 
 lated what follows : 
 
 " That, the next Sunday but one after Charles the First was 
 beheaded, Robert Spavin, Secretary to Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Cromwell at the time, invited himself to dine with me, and 
 brought Antony Peirson, and several others, along with him to 
 dinner: That their principal discourse all dinner-time was only 
 who it was that beheaded the King; one said it was the com- 
 mon hangman, another Hugh Peters, &c. Robert Spavin, as 
 
156 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 soon as dinner was done, took me by the hand, and carried me 
 to the South window — < These are all mistaken ; they have not 
 named the man that did the fact — it was Lieutenant- Colonel 
 Joice ! I was in the room when hejitted himself for the work ; 
 stood behind him when he did it ; when done, went in again 
 with him. There 's no man knows this but my master, Crom- 
 well, Commissioner Ireton, and myself.' ' Doth not Mr. Rush- 
 worth know it? ' said I. ' No, he doth not know it,' said Spa- 
 vin. The same thing Spavin since hath often related to me, 
 when alone."* 
 
 It is a curious circumstance that high words passed between 
 Joice and Cromwell, Lord Protector ! Joice spoke of his 
 " services," when Cromwell bid him '* be gone! " 
 
 MILTON THE SUGGESTER TO CROMWELL OF 
 THE KING'S TRIAL, AS A GRAND NATIONAL 
 SPECTACLE OF JUSTICE. 
 
 I have thrown out an idea that Milton was the first to sug- 
 gest the trial of the King. The idea of an august national ex- 
 hibition, in which a King should hold up his hand and plead 
 guilty or not guilty, to his subjects whom he had sworn to 
 govern according to Law, I cannot conceive at first entered 
 into the ideas of those who, in possessing the person of the 
 King, sought only to gain additional strength against the 
 Parliament. The bloody Harrison offered to assassinate him, 
 after he had sought the Lord ! From the time when his chap- 
 lains and children were permitted to see him, there seems to 
 have arisen an after-thought in the Leaders of the army. Their 
 language, on a sudden, was changed ; some awful event seemed 
 to take possession of their minds j and from this time no con- 
 cession had any weight with them. Such an idea as a public 
 trial for offences against the Laws of a King, responsible to 
 that great Nation, never could have occurred, except to the 
 
 * Lilly's Life, page 90; London, printed for J. Roberts, 
 Warwick-lane, 1715. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 157 
 
 thought of him who could thus powerfully, in Ills own words, 
 describe the spectacle. I adjoin the translation from " Defen- 
 sio Populi Anglicani : " 
 
 " I am about to discourse of matters neither inconsiderable 
 nor common, but how a most potent king, after he had 
 
 TRAMPLED UPON THE LAWS OF THE NATION, AND GIVEN A 
 SHOCK TO ITS RELIGION, AND BEGUN TO RULE AT HIS 
 
 own will and pleasure, was at last subdued in the field by 
 his own subjects, who had undergone a long slavery under 
 him ; how afterwards he was cast into prison, and when he 
 gave no ground, either by words or actions, to hope better 
 things of him, he was finally by the supreme council of 
 
 THE KINGDOM CONDEMNED TO DIE, AND BEHEADED BEFORE 
 THE VERY GATES OF THE ROYAL PALACE ! I shall like- 
 wise relate (which will much conduce to the easing men's 
 minds of a great superstition) by what right, especially 
 according to our law, this judgment was given, and all 
 these matters transacted ; and shall easily defend my valiant and 
 worthy countrymen, (who have extremely well deserved of all 
 subjects and nations in the world,) from the most wicked calum- 
 nies both of domestic and foreign railers, and especially from the 
 reproaches of this most vain and empty sophister,* who sets up 
 for a captain and ringleader to all the rest. For what king's 
 majesty, sitting upon an exalted throne, ever shone so brightly 
 as that of the people of England then did, when, shaking off 
 that old superstition, which had prevailed a long time, they 
 gave judgment upon the king himself, or rather upon an enemy 
 who had been their king, caught as it were in a net by his own 
 laws, (who alone of all mortals challenged to himself impunity 
 by a divine right,) and scrupled not to inflict the same punish- 
 ment upon him, being guilty, which he would have inflicted 
 upon any other? But why do I mention these things as per- 
 formed by the people, which almost open their voice them- 
 selves, and testify the presence of God throughout? who, as 
 often as it seems good to his infinite wisdom, uses to throw 
 
 * Salmasius. 
 
158 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 down proud and unruly kings, exalting themselves above the 
 condition of human nature, and utterly to extirpate them and 
 all their family. By his manifest impulse being set on work to 
 recover our almost lost liberty, following him as our guide, and 
 adoring the impresses' of his divine power manifested upon all 
 occasions, we went on in no obscure but an illustrious passage, 
 pointed out and made plain to us by God himself. Which 
 things, if I should so much as hope, by any diligence or ability 
 of mine, such as it is, to discourse of as I ought to do, and to 
 commit them so to writing as that perhaps all nations and all 
 ages may read them, it would be a very vain thing in me. For 
 what style can be august and magnificent enough, what man 
 has parts sufficient to undertake so great a task?"* 
 
 Be it always remembered that Milton was appointed Latin 
 Secretary before, not after he wrote the " Defensio," with the 
 salary of tivo hunched pounds a-year. 
 
 At the close of the war, Milton, who had lent his money, 
 according to Dr. Johnson, to the triumphant party, was utterly 
 neglected by Presbyterians and Independants ; but wd know 
 he was suddenly called into a high official station by Cromwell. 
 
 It is extraordinary that Johnson, in Milton's Life, should 
 have passed over the circumstance that his Tutor was one of 
 the writers of " Smectymnuus." 
 
 CHEYNELL OVER CHILLI NGWOItTH'S GRAVE. 
 
 The account of Cheynell insulting the remains of the great 
 Chillingworth, would not be believed had not that account 
 been written and published by himself. From the Life in 
 Wood I shall extract this description : 
 
 " It must be now known, that, in the beginning of the civil 
 dissensions, our author Chillingworth suffered much for 
 the King's cause, and being forced to go from place to 
 place for succour, as opportunity served, went at length to 
 
 * Defensio. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 151) 
 
 Arundell Castle, in Sussex, where he was in quality of an engi- 
 neer in that garrison. At length, the castle coming into the 
 hands of the Parliamentarian forces, on the 6th day of January, 
 1643, he was, by the endeavours of Mr. Franc. Cheynell (about 
 that time Rector of Petworth), made to Sir Will. Waller, the 
 prime governor of those forces, conveyed to Chichester, and 
 there lodged in the bishop's house, because that he, being very 
 sick, could not go to London with the prisoners taken in the 
 said castle. In the said house he remained to his dying day, 
 and, tho' civilly used, yet he was much troubled with the im- 
 pertinent discourses and disputes of the said Cheynell, which 
 the loyal party of that city looked upon as a shortening of our 
 author's days. He gave way to fate on the 24th of January 
 (or thereabouts), in sixteen hundred forty and three, and the 
 next day his body being brought into the cath. church, accom- 
 panied by the said loyal party, was certain service said, but not 
 common prayer, according to the defunct's desire. Afterwards, 
 his body being earned into the cloyster adjoyning, Cheynell 
 stood at the grave ready to receive it, with the author's book 
 of The Religion of Protestants, &c. in his hand : and when the 
 company were all settled, he spoke before them a ridiculous 
 speech concerning the author Chillingworth and that book ; 
 and in the conclusion, throwing the book insultingly on the 
 corpse in the grave, said thus : ' Get thee gone, then, thou, 
 cursed book, 'which hast seduced so many precious souls; get 
 thee gone, thou corrupt, rotten book, earth to earth, and dust 
 to dust ; get thee gone into the place of rottenness, that thou 
 may'st rot with thy author, and see corruption.'' After the con- 
 clusion, Cheynell went to the pulpit in the cath. church, and 
 preached a sermon on Luke ix. 60. 'Let the dead bury the 
 dead,' &c. while the malignants (as he called them) made a 
 shift to perform some parts of the English liturgy at his 
 grave.' " * 
 
 * But it seems to appear, from Cheynell 's own words, that 
 this was not permitted. 
 
160 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 FUNERAL OF KING CHARLES THE FIRST, 
 IN ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR. 
 " A guard was made all along the galleries, and the Banquet- 
 ting-house: but, behind the soldiers, abundance of men and 
 women crowded in, though with some peril to their persons, to 
 behold the saddest sight that England ever saw. And as his 
 Majesty passed by with a chearful look he heard them pray for 
 him. The soldiers did not rebuke any of them, for, by their 
 silence and dejected faces, they seemed rather afflicted than 
 insulting. There was a passage broke through the wall of the 
 Banquetting-house, by which the King passed unto the scaffold; 
 where, after his Majesty had spoken and declared publicly that 
 he died a Christian according to the profession of the Church 
 of England (the contents of which have been several times 
 printed), the fatal stroke was given by a disguised person. 
 Mr. Herbert during this time was at the door leading to the 
 scaffold, much lamenting, and the Bishop coming from the 
 scaffold with the royal corps, which was immediately coffin'd 
 and covered with a velvet pall, he and Mr. Herbert went with 
 it to the back stairs to have it embalmed ; and Mr. Herbert, 
 after the body had been deposited, meeting with the Lord 
 Fairfax, the general, that person asked him, How the King did? 
 whereupon Herbert, being something astonished at that ques- 
 tion, told him that the King was beheaded, at which he seemed 
 much surpriz'd. 
 
 " The royal corps being embalmed and well coffin*d, and all 
 afterwards wrapt up in lead and covered with a new velvet pall, 
 it was removed to St. James's, where was great pressing by all 
 sorts of people to see the King, a doleful spectacle, but few 
 had leave to enter or behold it. Where to bury the King was 
 the last duty remaining. By some historians 'tis said the King 
 spoke something to the Bishop concerning his burial. Mr. 
 Herbert, both before and after the King's death, was frequently 
 in the company with the Bishop, and affirmed that he never 
 mentioned any thing to him of the King's naming any place 
 where he would be buried : nor did Mr. Herbert (who con- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Nil 
 
 stantly attended his Majesty, and after his coming to Hurst- 
 castle was the only person in his Bed-chamber) hear him at any 
 time declare his mind concerning it. Nor was it in his life- 
 time a proper question for either of them to ask, notwithstand- 
 ing they had oftentimes the opportunity, especially when his 
 Majesty was bequeathing to his royal children and friends, 
 what is formerly related. Nor did the Bishop declare any 
 thing concerning the place to Mr. Herbert, which doubtless he 
 would upon Mr. Herbert's pious care about it ; which being 
 duly considered, they thought no place more fit to interr the 
 corps than in the chappel of King Hen. VII. at the end ot 
 the church of Westminster-abbey, out of whose loyns King 
 Charles I. was lineally extracted, &c. Whereupon Mr. Her- 
 bert made his application to such as were then in power for 
 leave to bury the King's body in the said chappel among his 
 ancestors ; but his request was denied, for this reason, that his 
 burying there would attract infinite numbers of all sorts thither, 
 to see where the King was buried; which, as the times then 
 were, was judged unsafe and inconvenient. Mr. Herbert ac- 
 quainting the Bishop with this, they then resolved to bury the 
 King's body in the royal chappel of St. George within the 
 castle of Windsor, both in regard that his Majesty was sove- 
 reign of the most noble Order of the Garter, and that several 
 Kings had been there interr'd, namely, King Henry VI. King 
 Edward IV. and King Henry VIII. &c. Upon which consi- 
 deration Mr. Herbert made his second address to the Commit- 
 tee of Parliament, who, after some deliberation, gave him an 
 order bearing date the 6th of February, 1648, authorizing him 
 and Mr. Anthony Mildmay to bury the King's body there, 
 which the Governor was to observe. 
 
 " Accordingly the body was carried thither from St.'James's 
 Feb. 7, in a hearse covered with black velvet, drawn by six 
 horses covered with black cloth, in which were about a dozen 
 gentlemen, most of them being such that had waited upon his 
 Majesty at Carisbrook-castle and other places since his Ma- 
 jesty's going from Newcastle. Mr. Herbert shew'd the Gover- 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 nor, Colonel Witchcot, the Committee's order for permitting 
 Mr. Herbert and Mr. Mildmay to bury him, the late King, in 
 any place within Windsor-castle that they should think fit and 
 meet. In the first place, in order thereunto, they carried the 
 King's body into the Dean's house, which was hung with black, 
 and after to his usual bed-chamber within the palace. After 
 which, they went to St. George's chappel to take a view thereof 
 and of the most fit and honourable place for the royal corps to 
 rest in. Having taken a view, they at first thought that the 
 tomb-house built by Cardinal Wolsey would be a fit place for 
 his interment; but that place, tho' adjoyning, yet being not 
 within the royal chappel, they waved it: for, if King Henry VIII. 
 was buried there (albeit to that day the particular place of his 
 burial was unknown to any), yet in regard his Majesty King 
 Charles I. (who was a real Defender of the Faith, and as far 
 from censuring any as might be,) would, upon occasional dis- 
 course, express some dislike in King Henry's proceedings, in 
 misemploying the vast revenues the suppressed abbeys, mo- 
 nasteries, and other religious houses, were endowed with, and 
 by demolishing those many beautiful and stately structures, 
 which both express'd the greatness of their founders and pre- 
 served the splendour of the kingdom, which might at the Re- 
 formation have in some measure been kept up and converted to 
 sundry pious uses. 
 
 " Upon consideration thereof, those gentlemen declined it, 
 and pitched upon the vault where King Edward IV. had 
 been interr'd, being on the North side of the choir, near the 
 altar, that King being one his late Majesty would oftentimes 
 make honourable mention of, and from whom his Majesty was 
 lineally propagated. That therefore induced Mr. Herbert to 
 give order to Mr. Harrison and Hen. Jackson to have that 
 vault opened, partly covered with a fair large stone of touch, 
 raised within the arch adjoyning, having a range of iron bars 
 gilt, curiously cut according to church-work, &c. But, as they 
 were about this work, some noblemen came thither, namely, 
 the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 163 
 
 Lindsey, and with them Dr. Juxon, Bishop of London, who 
 had license from the Parliament to attend the King's hody to 
 his grave. Those gentlemen, therefore, Herhert and Mild- 
 may, thinking fit to submit and leave the choice of the place 
 of burial to those great persons, they in like manner viewed 
 the tomb-house and the choir, and one of the Lords beating 
 gently upon the pavement with his staff, perceived a hollow 
 sound, and thereupon ordering the stones and earth to be re- 
 moved, they discovered a descent into a vault where two cof- 
 fins were laid near one another, the one very large, of an an- 
 tique form, and the other little. These they supposed to be 
 the bodies of King Henry VIII. and Queen Jane Seymour, his 
 third wife, as indeed they were. The velvet palls that covered 
 their coffins seemed fresh, tho' they had lain there above 100 
 years. 
 
 " The Lords agreeing that the King's body should be in the 
 said vault interr'd, being about the middle of the choir, over 
 against the eleventh stall upon the Sovereign's side, they gave 
 order to have the King's name, and year he died, cut in lead ; 
 which whilst the workmen were about, the Lords went out and 
 gave Puddifant, the sexton, order to lock the chappel door, 
 and not suffer any to stay therein till farther notice. The sex- 
 ton did his best to clear the chappel, nevertheless Isaac, the 
 sexton's man, said that a foot-soldier had hid himself, so as he 
 was not discerned, and being greedy of prey, crept into the 
 vault, and cut so much of the velvet pall that covered the great 
 body as he judged would hardly be missed, and wimbled also a 
 hole thro' the said coffin that was largest, probably fancying 
 that there was something well worth his adventure. The sex- 
 ton at his opening the door espied the sacrilegious person, who 
 being searched, a bone was found about him, with which he 
 said he would haft a knife. The Governour being therefore in- 
 formed of, he gave him his reward ; and the Lords and others 
 present were convinced that a reall body was in the said great 
 coffin, which some before had scrupled. The girdle or circum- 
 scription of capital letters of lead put about the King's coffin 
 had only these words : ' King Charles, 1648.' 
 
 m2 
 
164 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN, 
 
 "The King's body was then brought from his bed-chamber 
 down into St. George's hall ; whence, after a little stay, it was 
 with a slow and solemn pace (much sorrow in most faces being 
 then discernible), carried by gentlemen of quality in mourning. 
 The noblemen, in mourning also, held up the pall, and the 
 Governor with several gentlemen, officers and attendants, came 
 after. It was then observed that, at such time as the King's 
 body was brought out from St. George's hall, the sky was se- 
 rene and clear, but presently it began to snow, and the snow 
 fell so fast, that by that time the corps came to the west end of 
 the royal chappel, the black velvet pall was all white (the 
 colour of innocency) being thick covered over with snow. The 
 body being by the bearers set down near the place of burial, 
 the Bishop of London stood ready with the service-book in his 
 hands to have performed his last duty to the King his master, 
 according to the order and form of burial of the dead set forth 
 in the Book of Common Prayer, which the Lords likewise 
 desired ; but it would not be suffered by Col. Whitchcot, the 
 governor of the castle, by reason of the Directory, to which 
 (said he) he and others were to be conformable. Thus went 
 the White King to his grave, in the 48th year of his age, and 
 22d year and 10th month of his reign. To let pass Merlin's 
 prophecy, which some allude to the ivhite sattin his Majesty 
 wore when he was crowned in Westminster-abbey, former 
 kings having on purple robes at their coronation, I shall con- 
 clude this narrative with the King's own excellent expression, 
 running thus : ' Crowns and kingdoms are not as valuable as 
 my honour and reputation. Those must have a period with my 
 life, but these survive to a glorious kind of immortality, when I 
 am dead and gone ; a good name being the embalming of 
 princes, and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of 
 love and gratitude amongst posterity!' " * 
 
 * Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs. 
 
LIFE OF K1SHOI' KEN. 
 
 1(5.") 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PIETY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND CON- 
 TRASTED WITH THE SPIRIT OF PURITANISM PRESBY- 
 TERIAN AND PAPAL PERSECUTION HISTORIANS — CON- 
 CLUDING REFLECTIONS. 
 
 'Oca 7rpocT(pi\i] et tis apert), kcii et tis etraivos, 
 
 ravra \oyt$€ir6e. 
 
 St. Paul to Philippiaas, chap. iv. verse 8. 
 
 We have given an historical sketch of some of 
 the chief circumstances — and of some scarcely no- 
 ticed by historians — which led, in the seventeenth 
 century, to the downfall of the Episcopal Church of 
 England. 
 
 We shall now take a moral view of the same 
 period, connecting it with miscellaneous informa- 
 tion illustrative of this view, and concluding with 
 an application to some peculiar circumstances of 
 the present day. 
 
 Without speaking with disrespect of the learning 
 or the piety of many of the exemplary Presbyte- 
 rians, but merely of their want of common charity, 
 I would request any serious reasoner to examine 
 the state of piety under the sober episcopal polity 
 of the Church of England, when Andrewes, and 
 Felton, and Usher, and Hall, were as much ex- 
 posed to obloquy and odium as those called Armi- 
 nian prelatichs! Did these men fill the world, as 
 
166 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 the " Smectymnuus " asserted, with " lamenta- 
 tions, and mourning, and woe?" Did the courtly 
 ambition of one (Laud) bring down destruction 
 on all? 
 
 Among the higher characters in Cromwell's 
 " praying " host, how few — and here let me except 
 the pattern of pure and holy connubial love in 
 Colonel Hutchinson, and that accomplished and in- 
 teresting lady who has recorded in so touching a 
 manner, that love — how few indeed among the 
 Presbyterians or Independents exhibited lives and 
 characters as amiable or pious as those they reviled ! 
 
 Beautifully has St. Paul, with equal discrimina- 
 tion, tenderness, and eloquence, in the language of 
 inspiration, set before us a picture of the true 
 apostolic Christian : — " Finally, brethren, whatso- 
 ever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 
 whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are 
 pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
 things are of good report, if there be any virtue, 
 and if there be any praise, think of these things !" 
 Did they " think of these things" who talked of 
 nothing but of the Lord's "wonderful dealings 
 with their souls!" Did they "think of these 
 things" who, rapt in doctrinal and metaphysical 
 subtleties — 
 
 Found no end, in wandering mazes lost ! 
 How few thought of " whatsoever things were 
 lovely," when " faith was all," and claimed by all ! 
 When the "Lord's Prayer" was, in many congrega- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 167 
 
 tions,* rejected as formal, and the wildest rhapso- 
 dies were considered as the effect of immediate in- 
 spiration and God's presence — when hypocrites 
 "sought the Lord" to sanction what was most 
 averse to the Lord's commandments — when even 
 such a man as Colonel Hutchinson, as his wife 
 herself relates, would not sit in judgment on his 
 King, to whom he had sworn allegiance, till he had 
 11 sought the Lord" though religion might have 
 told him that the Lord had already proclaimed 
 with a voice from Heaven, — as when the " sound 
 of trumpet waxed louder and louder" — in thunders 
 on Mount Sinai,-}- — 
 
 THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER ! 
 
 How few, whilst they vaunted their blasphemous 
 familiarity with " the Lord," and even " influence," 
 thought of "those things" which he who said, 
 " we are justified by faith, and not by ivorks of 
 the Law" so eloquently, so beautifully enforced on 
 all Christians — " Whatsoever things are honest, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, think of these things." 
 Let us look at the domestic lives of most of these 
 exclusively righteous ! Every heart is touched with 
 the sanctity and tenderness of the connubial exam- 
 ple of Colonel Hutchinson, whom the winds of 
 fanaticism touched lightly. But was this, or any 
 thing like it, the general character of the exclu- 
 
 * It is not admitted in the congregational service of the 
 Calvinistic Baptists. 
 ■\ Exodus, chap. xx. 
 
16S LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 sively godly ? How few traits do we find of Chris- 
 tian charity or Christian compassion ! 
 
 The most affecting image of domestic tenderness 
 among these stern Puritans, is set before us in a 
 passage of Milton in his Latin Epistles to his 
 friend and tutor, William Young, one of the authors 
 of " Smectymnuus." 
 
 The Epistle itself is apostrophised thus : 
 
 Curre per immensum subito, mea littera, pontum — 
 
 hasten over the seas, to my friend, the pastor of the 
 congregation at Hamburg. 
 
 Speaking of the Epistle finding his friend far 
 from his native land — Milton says, adding a sweet 
 picture of domestic happiness, in character with this 
 retired scholar's occupation — 
 
 Invenias dulci cum conjuge forte sedentem, 
 
 MuLCENTEM GREMIO PIGNORA SACRA SUO ; 
 
 Forsitan aut veterum perlarga volumina Patrum 
 Versantem, aut veri Biblia sacra Dei.* 
 
 The picture of the father sitting beside his wife, 
 with his children in his lap, perhaps turning over 
 some great work of the Fathers — or the holy 
 Bible — is affecting to every heart, and more so 
 when the lines, thus beautifully, describe a repub- 
 
 * " Him thou shalt find or by his loving wife 
 Seated, or his dear children in his lap 
 Caressing, or the works voluminous 
 Of the old Fathers turning, or a page, 
 Lord, of thy living Word." 
 
LIFE OF EISHOP KEN. 169 
 
 lican expatriated minister. I have spoken of Mil- 
 ton's sterner look ; let me be indulged, whilst I speak 
 of this delightful picture of his friend, in pointing 
 out an exquisite picture of social and elegant do- 
 mestic life in one of his Sonnets : 
 
 Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,* 
 
 Now that the fields are clank, and ways are mire, 
 Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire 
 
 Help waste a sullen day, what may be won 
 
 From the hard season gaining ? Time will run 
 On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire 
 The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire 
 
 The lily and rose, that neither toil'd nor spun. 
 
 What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, 
 Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise 
 
 To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice, 
 
 Warble immortal notes, and Tuscan air ? 
 
 He who of those delights can judge, and spare 
 To interpose them oft, is not unwise. 
 
 * " The ' virtuous father ,' Henry Lawrence, was member for 
 Herefordshire in the Little Parliament which began in 1653, 
 and was active in settling the Protectorate of Cromwell. In 
 consequence of his services, he was made President of Crom- 
 well's Council, where he appears to have signed many severe 
 and arbitrary decrees, not only against the royalists, but the 
 Brownists, Fifth-monarchy men, and other sectarists. He con- 
 tinued high in favour with Richard Cromwell. Henry Law- 
 rence, the ' virtuous sen,' is the author of a work entitled, ' Of 
 our Communion and Warre with Angels, &c. Printed anno 
 Dom. 1646,' 4to, 189 pages. The dedication is, ' To my most 
 deare and most honoured Mother, the Lady Lawrence.' He 
 is perhaps the same Henry Lawrence who printed ' A Vindi- 
 cation of the Scriptures and Christian Ordinances, 1649/ 
 Lond. ito." 
 
170 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 We dwell with delight on the ehaste and ten- 
 der description of elegant domestic enjoyment, in 
 winter, by a classical lire-side, and the com- 
 position appears doubly and tender, when we 
 take into consideration the lofty mind of the great 
 writer.* 
 
 * The effect is like that of the unexpected touch of natural 
 tenderness in the Stoic Brutus, who, in the midst of public 
 cares and private griefs, thus addresses the tired and sleeping 
 boy, in ''Julius Caesar :" 
 
 Where is thy instrument ? 
 
 Lucius. — Here, in the tent. 
 
 Brutus. — What, thou speakest d?-oivsihj: 
 Poor knave, I blame thee not — thou art o'er-watch'd. 
 Call Claudius, &c. 
 
 Brutus. — Look, Lucius, here's the booh I sought for so ; 
 I put it in the pocket of my gown. 
 
 Liicius. — I was sure your Lordship did not give it me. 
 
 Brutus. — Bear with me, my good boy ! I am much forgetful. 
 Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, 
 And touch thy instrument a strain or two ? 
 
 Lucius. — Aye, my good Lord, an please you. 
 
 Brutus. — It does, my boy. 
 I trouble thee too much ; but thou art willing. 
 
 Lucius. — It is my duty. Sir. 
 
 Brutus. — I should not urge thy duty past thy might. 
 I know young bloods look for a time of rest. 
 
 Lucius. — I have slept, my Lord, already. 
 
 Brutus. — I will not hold thee long. If I do live, 
 
 I will be good to thee — 
 
 (boy sleeps) 
 
 Gentle knave, good night ! 
 
 I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee. 
 
 If thou dost nod, thou breakst thy instrument — 
 
 I 'II take it from thee — and, good boy, good night ! 
 
 What 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 171 
 
 But how seldom do wc meet, among the very 
 hest and purest of the republican Puritans, feelings 
 of any kindness ! Look at Hugh Peters — Prynne 
 
 — Lambert — Harrison — Milton himself, as a hus- 
 band or father — Pym — Chcynell, and his school 
 
 — I do not speak of them as stern republicans, I 
 speak of them as men — particularly as professing 
 the pure spirit of the Christian religion — that reli- 
 gion of which they make their exclusive boast ! 
 On the contrary, think of the character of Jeremy 
 Taylor — the piety of such men as Hammond, 
 Chillingworth, Sanderson, Ken, Sherlock, and their 
 school ; among the laity, think of the piety of Eve- 
 lyn, Wotton, Fanshawe, Lady Fanshawe, Isaak Wal- 
 ton, &c. Remembering " whatsoever things are 
 just, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
 things are lovely" respecting the traits of piety 
 exhibited, in prosperity and adversity, by such cha- 
 racters, who would not say, 
 
 Oh! look upon this picture, and on this? 
 
 Charles the First, in purity of life and amenity 
 of manners, in kindness of heart and in real piety, 
 is as much more " lovely" in his Christian charac- 
 
 What heart, not withering under a cold system of austere 
 bigotry, can read this passage without emotion ? What know- 
 ledge of the human heart must the great Master of Passions 
 have had, who has incidentally thrown in this touch of tender- 
 ness, to enable us to sympathize with the lofty, and heroic 
 character of Brutus ? 
 
1/2 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 ter — I am not speaking of him politically — than 
 the fanatic or hypocritical Cromwell, as his life is 
 so much purer than the libertine Prince of a pro- 
 fligate Court, Charles the Second ; — for Charles 
 the First had been instructed by the Church of 
 England — Charles the Second was a secret infidel 
 of the Church of Rome — and Cromwell learned 
 his " experiences," and the " impossibility of falling 
 from grace" of the Church of Geneva ! 
 
 To say nothing of the more frantic and bloody 
 hypocrites, let us only think of Mrs. Milton, and 
 her lofty Lord, who wrote his voluminous Tetra- 
 chordon to prove that incompatibility of temper 
 was a cause of divorce ! 
 
 " Homo sum, nihil humani a me alienum puto," 
 says the humane voice of Antiquity. " Christia- 
 nus sum," replies the humble Christian ! but, in 
 reviewing the characters most conspicuous in the 
 eventful tragedy of Cromwell and Charles the First, 
 when Charles, the rightful Sovereign, appears 
 
 Fallen from his high estate, 
 And weltering in his blood ! 
 
 and the other, born in comparative obscurity, raised 
 by circumstances to the throne of British monarchs, 
 illustrious and feared in his transient elevation — 
 nothing is more striking than the difference of 
 Christian character between the two parties. 
 
 I will not call Cromwell a hypocrite, because, in 
 what he professed to believe, who shall say he was 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 17.3 
 
 not sincere? but the times and scenes at least re- 
 quired a master-dissembler. 
 
 Tempestuous public times elevate those only who 
 are the most artful and unshrinking. Milder spirits 
 scarce dare appear ; and, if they appear for a mo- 
 ment, they sink and disappear as the conflict in- 
 creases. Far different characters are required to 
 Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm ! 
 
 In Cromwell there was an union, suited to the 
 times, of the most cautious dissimulation and the 
 sternest resolution ; and he would have been lost if 
 he hud failed in either character. 
 
 Those who acted subordinate parts under him in 
 this melancholy and bloody drama of real life, with 
 few exceptions, scarcely ever excite respect, never 
 veneration — whether we take our estimate from the 
 Church, the Camp, or the Senate, or the illustri- 
 ous literary characters with whom the Lord Pro- 
 tector surrounded himself. 
 
 Everv one knows the ecclesiastical character of 
 Dr. Owen, as a metaphysical reasoner ; but what 
 comparison, in the estimation of any sane judge, 
 does such a man bear as a Divine, to say no- 
 thing of his eccentricities, with Jeremy Taylor ? 
 
 Having spoken of the Clergy, let us next take 
 an estimate of Cromwell's godly Lords, Lord Lam- 
 bert, &c. Whom can we compare, in virtuous 
 magnanimity and nobility of heart, with Falkland, 
 Capel, Derby ? 
 
 Who, as country gentlemen, with Evelyn, and 
 
174 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 thousands of that description, acting their silent 
 parts, in the troubles of the times, like the good 
 and humble Isaak Walton? 
 
 Amongst literary characters, wc can oppose none 
 to John Milton, republican — but, oh! how dif- 
 ferent, was Milton, the amiable and ingenuous 
 youth of high intellect and virtue — from Milton, 
 the unsocial and implacable polemic and repub- 
 lican ! * 
 
 Many of the characters of those who professed 
 this Calvinistic piety were not only "unlovely in 
 their lives," they were brutal. 
 
 Ken has been spoken of with harshness, and we 
 shall prove how unjustly, because he is said to have 
 preached "passive obedience" on the scaffold to the 
 dying Monmouth ! If the eloquent historian of 
 James the Second had read the Life of Ken " by 
 his relation," he would have found how baseless was 
 this accusation ; but if the bare mention of this cir- 
 cumstance excites any feeling of disrespect, towards 
 the humane and christian Ken, let us think only 
 of such a Nobleman as that Earl of Pembroke, 
 selected for his hatred of the Episcopal Clergy, to 
 visit and purify Oxford — the descendant of the 
 noble, generous, and brave Montgomerys — calling 
 
 -* No doubt, it will be triumphantly said, "you speak of 
 Milton with delight when he was an Episcopalian!" I only 
 ask, was he an Episcopalian when he coldly pronounced his 
 withering curse? It may be said I am a high priest of the 
 Establishment : I answer — perish the establishment, if incom- 
 patible with charity! 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 175 
 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, in his fallen fortunes, 
 whilst sitting in judgment on him, the "greatest 
 rascal in England!'''' Let us think of a Clotworthy, 
 when the grey-haired victim to fanatical fury stood 
 on the scaffold, with the terrible apparatus of death 
 before him — taking that opportunity to ask Laud 
 ivhat text would give him most comfort at such a 
 time ? " Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo," ma- 
 jestically answered he who was about to die ! " Aye," 
 replies the puritanical inquisitor, " there must be 
 an assurance! an assurance!" The poor victim 
 turned for refuge to the bloody executioner, and 
 meekly entreated him to do his duty ! 
 
 Nothing so fiendish, in the times of the greatest 
 intolerance, can be charged on the abused Clergy. 
 After the King's return, the Presbyterians indeed 
 were harshly and unjustly treated, in being classed 
 among the very sects whose names they abhorred, 
 being thus condemned in the gross. Granting they 
 had been intolerant and persecuting — granting, 
 which cannot be denied, that they had refused all 
 accommodation, all compromise, yet, by the terms 
 of the Declaration from Breda, they were entitled 
 to a much fairer measure than they received. 
 
 They were learned — they had — no matter from 
 what motives — joined in recalling the King — with- 
 out their voice he could not have been seated on 
 the throne again — every indulgence had been pro- 
 mised, a Bishoprick had been offered and accepted 
 by one among them — and yet they, who stood 
 
176 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 proudly apart from all sects, were classed as part of 
 those sects which they abhorred, and for no other 
 purpose than that their arms should be pinioned 
 and their power crushed. 
 
 This was as " hard fare" as any of which Hall 
 complained, and the Government and Church, as 
 far as the Church was concerned, stand inexcusable 
 before God and man. 
 
 A reconcilement was ineffectually attempted at the 
 famous Savoy meeting, where Gunning* and Bax- 
 ter were the Ajax and Ulysses of the discussion. 
 
 Since then, with the fullest and unquestioned 
 liberty of conscience to all, under later acts of 
 toleration, the beautiful cathedrals of the National 
 Church have raised their fronts uninjured, save by 
 acts of occasional fanaticism, as at York. Her ser- 
 vices have been performed without disturbance — 
 her affecting and solemn choirs 
 
 Peal through the aisles the note of praise! 
 These beautiful buildings, having weathered many 
 a storm, still rise majestic in our cities, to create 
 the thoughts of another world amidst the noise and 
 smoke of thronged and commercial streets. They 
 still lift their calm brows above the clouds, as the 
 associated thought is elevated above this "pinfold 
 here," to the precincts of eternal day. 
 
 In the beautiful Cathedral of Salisbury reposes 
 that Bishop Jewell who unanswerably established 
 the grounds of the Church of England's title to the 
 * Bishop of Peterborough. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 177 
 
 Catholic Apostolic Church, in that eloquent defence 
 known through Europe, written in Latin, " The 
 Apology for the Church of England." 
 
 This same Bishop, who lies in this same beautiful 
 Cathedral, published what is called " Bishop Jewell's 
 Challenge at Paul's Cross," challenging the Doc- 
 tors of the Church of Rome to prove what they 
 never have, and never can prove, the points on 
 which he challenged them.* 
 
 Of the same Cathedral was " the immortal 
 William Chillingworth " Prebendary — who, 
 placing infallibility on the (C Bible alone," 
 shattered to pieces, by argument and Scripture, the 
 sophistry and claims of human infallibility. 
 
 From among the Cathedral Clergy have issued 
 almost all the eloquent defenders of Christian truth, 
 who have vindicated that truth from the corrup- 
 tions of " tradition ;" and yet these Cathedrals, 
 in the eyes of Puritans, were the nests androokeries 
 of Popery! The Restoration, which brought Mor- 
 ley to the episcopal palace, again filled the Choirs 
 with sounds so hateful to the ears of Prynne. 
 
 But the piety, warm and sincere among those 
 who served at the restored altars, as ever was 
 evinced by man, no more resembled that enthu- 
 siasm which now lay prostrate, than the affecting 
 
 * There too lies that Bishop Davenant, the predestinarian 
 theologian of the Synod of Dort, who, mistaking for Christi- 
 anity the scholastic subtleties of Calvin, died before he tasted 
 the fruits of that religion which he maintained. 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 music of the Choir the nasal psalmody of Anthony 
 Burgene's Chapel. 
 
 Morley, and other restored Bishops, have been 
 arraigned as ungrateful to those, without whose 
 assistance they must still have eat the bread of 
 poverty ; and also as being harsh and vindictive to 
 the Presbyterian Clergy. 
 
 The character of " my Lord of Winton " being 
 so intrinsically connected with the Life of Ken, and 
 with the public circumstances of the period, I shall 
 make some further reflections here on the conduct, 
 in general, of the " Old Restored Clergy." 
 
 It has been usual, particularly among those who 
 claim exclusive merit for more liberal views, to 
 condemn these men generally as intolerant, vindic- 
 tive, and ungrateful ; and far be it from me to lift 
 up one word in vindication of intolerance or vin- 
 dictiveness, much less ingratitude ; but, if St. Paul 
 said, " being defamed, we entreat," I may be al- 
 lowed, at least, yielding to none living in the fullest 
 accordance of unbounded and unrestricted right of 
 conscience to all, to place before the candid and re- 
 flecting some circumstances which have been passed 
 over by many historians, — some which have been, 
 for the purposes of party, basely exaggerated, — 
 and such as have been, from want of principle, so 
 daringly perverted, that truth can hardly know her 
 own portrait in the distorting glass. I can truly 
 say I have no motives, in what I shall advance, but 
 those of truth and charity, and if, on the most rigid 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 1 79 
 
 examination, I shall be found to have offended 
 either, I shall be most anxious to acknowledge my 
 error. 
 
 The Bishops, from the times of Elizabeth to 
 those of Charles, were regarded as the enemies of 
 all religion, — at the Restoration peculiarly vin- 
 dictive. I think I shall be able to show, and I ap- 
 peal t nly to dispassionate judges, — that, in general, 
 neither they nor the Episcopal Clergy deserve the 
 reproach which has been cast on them. 
 
 The reason why the character of uncharitableness 
 has been so often, and I believe in most instances 
 so unjustly, imputed to them, is, because the cir- 
 cumstances under which they acted are not equita- 
 bly considered. Many of these mild and virtuous 
 men contended, not against religious liberty, but 
 for it, striving to disarm intolerance, the most ruth- 
 less and uncompromising, when their very existence 
 was at stake. 
 
 We have read Milton's terrific curse, at which 
 it may well be said "hell grows darker" — and his 
 pious prayer, "that those who impaired true reli- 
 gion, after a shameful end in this life," might be 
 the "down-trodden slaves" of "all the other damned" 
 for ever ! Such was the language through the whole 
 reign of Elizabeth. I will not pollute my pages 
 with the horrible outcry which rung from places 
 consecrated to God, at the beginning of the Long- 
 Parliament. The people were so infuriated by 
 
 n 2 
 
180 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 these Pulpit incantations, that the lives of the 
 conscientious Episcopal Clergy were in jeopardy. 
 
 When the ill-advised King demanded of the 
 House of Commons the five offending Members, 
 the inflamed multitude did not cry out, " We will 
 defend the brave assertors of our liberties with our 
 lives ;" but, after they had made a tumult for some 
 time about Whitehall, the cry went, " for Westmin- 
 ster," and the general voice was, " Let us pluck 
 
 DOWN THE ORGANS AND DEFACE THE MONU- 
 MENTS!"* 
 
 The Archbishop of York, who was then Dean of 
 Westminster, (and was supposed to have favoured 
 the Puritans, and therefore had been so long at 
 enmity with Laud,) now stood in defence of the 
 Abbey against these furious Iconoclasts. After they 
 were beaten off with stones showered from the 
 leads, a few servants of the Archbishop rushed out 
 on them with drawn swords, and instantly dis- 
 persed the whole frantic multitude, whose valour 
 was chiefly directed against the non-resisting rao- 
 numental sculptures. 
 
 " But from this time the Bishops durst not come 
 near the Parliament House!" They being a few 
 gray-haired men, and most of them of piety, learn- 
 ing, and blameless lives, whose only crime, as Bishop 
 Hall said, was their station, offered scarce less re- 
 sistance to these generotis enemies than the uncon- 
 
 * Ambrose Phillips's Life of Archbishop Williams. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 181 
 
 scious statues of the Abbey. " But," Phillips con- 
 tinues, "they durst not come near the Parliament 
 House, cither by land or by water, the passages 
 were so beset against them, and they so vehe- 
 mently threatened by the people." 
 
 Smectymnuus, among the crimes of Protestant 
 Episcopacy, includes those very fires in which the 
 Protestant Bishops were burnt alive! and Calamy 
 consistently says the Bishops were all persecutors.* 
 The Bishops were persecuted, not for what they did 
 as Bishops, but for being Bishops. I do not fear 
 to argue this material point with any one living, 
 though I will not deny that severity was at last 
 thought the onlv means of security. Laud, and 
 Williams, afterwards Archbishop of York,' differed 
 most materially as to the means of averting the 
 storm that swept away, not only surplices and mi- 
 tres, but, for a time, virtue, learning, and charity. 
 Williams and Laud differed, but common calamity 
 made them friends when it was too late, and w T hen 
 the hasty steps of Laud could not be retraced. 
 
 But, we may ask, can it be conceived that any 
 set of men would, in the first instance, without 
 provocation or oppression, unite in denouncing ven- 
 geance — which they carried into practice the mo- 
 ment it was in their power — on those whose only 
 crime was their place and station. 
 
 What cause had those called Puritans to set up 
 
 * See Biographia, article Calamy. 
 
182 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 the cry of hate, and even death, against those whose 
 lives were hlameless, and who were distinguished for 
 learning and virtues ? First, hecause the Bishops 
 were Lord-Bishops ! * Because the theologians of 
 the school of Geneva had learned at Frankfort, 
 that where there were Bishops there could be no 
 vital religion. Next, that, as enemies to God, they 
 ought to be cut off! as Sharp afterwards was! 
 Because these Bishops were in the front of idola- 
 trous worship in Cathedrals, where surplices were 
 worn, and boys sung a treble " like hogs ! " 
 
 In short, the universal cry was, " There could be 
 no religion," meaning the Presbyterian, "till all 
 the Loj^-Bishops were sent to the bottomless pit, 
 from whence they were spued out." 
 
 How glorious to such pietists must the day have 
 been, when, in the Cathedral of that city where 
 Ken was educated — whose episcopal throne Mor- 
 ley afterwards so long adorned — the " godly " 
 soldiery scattered over the pavement the bones of 
 the earliest English Prelates, bravely discharging 
 their reforming muskets at the statue of King- 
 Charles ! (the marks of which may be seen to this 
 day ; and when, their pikes not reaching the painted 
 windows, they broke them into fragments, hurling 
 at the Bishops' bones !\ 
 
 * John Vicars wrote a book with the title, " Lorrf-Bishops, 
 not the Lord's Bishops." 
 
 f They broke open the chests containing the bones of the 
 ancient Kings and Bishops. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 183 
 
 As if to encourage Warden Harris, who had 
 taken the Solemn League and Covenant, these 
 same "true Christians" paraded the streets in sur- 
 plices, sounding-, as with frantic joy, an Io pcean 
 with the broken organ-pipes. 
 
 But who excited this puhlic spirit of these illu- 
 mined soldiers ? The Puritanic press and pulpit, 
 I reply ; and, in answer to the charge against the 
 ahused Church of England, I throw back on those 
 who most deserve it, the charge of intolerance — 
 ruthless intolerance. 
 
 In Milton's Areopagetica, or 5 " Speech for un- 
 licensed printing," which, I suspect, is more spoken 
 of than read, the point of inhibiting the publication 
 of " bad books " is fully admitted. The question 
 is, what books are bail? A Presbyterian would 
 say, " all books which advocate Prelacy ;" an Epis- 
 copalian would say, "all books which excite odium 
 by unjust representations of a particular order of 
 men." But no words can describe better than Mil- 
 ton's own the effect of the numerous and furious 
 pamphlets ! " I deny not but that it is the greatest 
 concernment in a Church and Commonwealth to 
 have a vigilant eye how books bemean themselves, 
 as well as men," &c. "I know they are as lively, 
 and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous 
 dragons' teeth, and, being sown up and down, may 
 chance to spring up armed men." # 
 
 * The Long Parliament had scarcely met, before they issued 
 an Ordinance against scandalous and lying Pamphlets. 
 
184 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 This is an exact description of their effects on 
 Cromwell's armed men, made frantic by those who 
 sowed the dragons' teeth, some of whom were 
 traitors in the Church. I leave the Christian reader 
 to determine on which side charity lay ; but I 
 adduce Miltonum contra Miltonum. 
 
 Let us now turn to historians of the Restora- 
 tion. Various and most discordant — 
 
 Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra — 
 
 have been the accounts of the conduct of the 
 Clergy after che restoration of Charles the Second. 
 
 We have seen the holy and interesting groupe 
 of Ken and Walton at the palace of the Bishop 
 of Winchester. As my friend Morley, I fear, 
 will be classed among those who have been re- 
 garded, by the extreme party as intolerant, if not 
 oppressive, it will enter into a part of my plan to 
 make some further remarks on the chief of those 
 circumstances which have been adduced as affecting 
 the character of that Episcopal Church of which 
 Ken was now a rising and eminent member. 
 
 Of the most distinguished historian of that pe- 
 riod, Neal, I shall deliver my opinion without fear, 
 nor am I insensible how much prejudice has var- 
 nished the colours on the other side ; whilst Calamy 
 on one part, and Walker on the other, have ad- 
 vanced, each with his own catalogue of orthodox 
 and dissenting martyrs. 
 
 If my friend Morley should appear not so tole- 
 rant to the Non-conformists as the general charac- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 185 
 
 ter for moderation in the Church of England 
 might, at this day, incline us to have wished, I 
 would remind my reader of what was answered by 
 the Prussians, when, in the late war, the brave and 
 generous English reproached them for their cruelty 
 to the French : " You English have not had your 
 fields invaded, or your households scattered, or your 
 friends killed." Therefore, with respect to the re- 
 stored Clergy, although it had been much nobler, 
 if, " being persecuted," they had not, according to 
 the lesson of their divine Master, in any instance, 
 returned evil fur evil — yet, it will be remembered 
 they had grievous wrong, and they were men. The 
 most unprincipled prejudice only is to be con- 
 demned, which enlarges on the deprivations they 
 inflicted, and keeps out of sight the persecutions 
 they endured. 
 
 But I am bound to say that, of all who have 
 given their views of the circumstances of these 
 times, no historian has, in general, so evenly held 
 the balance of truth as Mr. Hallam, in his " Con- 
 stitutional History of England," a work which sets 
 him in the rank with those of the Church of Eng- 
 land, to whom he has done willing and generous 
 justice — Hooker, Chillingworth, Hales, and Jere- 
 my Taylor. Of all historians whom it has been my 
 lot to look into, he is the most fair-judging, weigh- 
 ing every circumstance, with the acumen, discrimi- 
 nation, and steadiness of a philosopher, and in the 
 spirit of a Christian. I do not agree with him in 
 
186 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 all parts ; and on the period of our history relat- 
 ing to the conduct of the Clergy towards the 
 Non-conformists, after the Restoration, I would 
 suggest some circumstances which may have es- 
 caped his notice, comparing the sufferings of each 
 party. 
 
 When we reflect on the two thousand Non-con- 
 formist Ministers ejected from their livings for not 
 declaring their assent to " all and every-thing in the 
 Prayer-hook," who is he that does not respect and 
 honour them, for surely it is unfair to attribute to 
 them any motives but those that guided the faith- 
 ful members of the Church in refusing the Cove- 
 nant — that is, motives of conscience. 
 
 But some men's consciences are more sensitive 
 than others, and poor Baxter always looked back 
 with remorse on the sins of his youth, when he in- 
 dulged in " eating too many apples." We can 
 smile at this remorse, as well as at his terrors re- 
 specting " ungodly Maypoles ;" but still his feelings 
 were conscientious, and if in these minor things 
 we respect it, we must surely respect it when ho- 
 nours and wealth were before him, in case he com- 
 plied, and when he knew that deprivation and po- 
 verty waited on non-compliance, and yet chose, for 
 conscience sake, like Bishop Ken, poverty and de- 
 privation. 
 
 But between the two parties I must remark this 
 difference. The episcopal pulpits at no time re- 
 sounded, in the house of peace and charity, with 
 
LIFE OF UISIIOP KEN. 187 
 
 furious invectives, and incitements to persecution 
 and blood, as the Presbyterian pulpits did against 
 the Episcopal Clergy ; when sermons, which turn 
 the heart cold to read, were preached before Parlia- 
 ment, denouncing God's judgment on the Priests 
 of Baal ! that is, on those who were not Calvinistic 
 Puritans. 
 
 Let it, secondly, in candour be remembered, that 
 the restored Clergy, if a general conformity was in- 
 sisted on, never denied the consolation, in private, 
 to those who preferred the " Directory," as, in the 
 utmost stretch of cruelty the Presbyterians, in their 
 day of domination, did, under severe penalties ! 
 denying even this consolation of "conscience" to 
 those whom they had deprived of bread. 
 
 Thirdly, I will not, Heaven forbid ! say one word 
 that might look like vindication, in returning " evil 
 for evil," but I believe no man will deny any com- 
 munity, especially after it has cruelly suffered, the 
 riffht to make laws and conditions for its own 
 safety ; and let the Christian, before he hastily 
 classes my friend Morley among the persecutors of 
 the conscientious, reflect on the inveterate hatred 
 (for I cannot soften the word) to the ceremonies 
 of the Church, and her ritual, which those who 
 refused subscription, evinced, when, having joined 
 in the general voice that demanded the King, before 
 the King set his foot on his native soil, they de- 
 puted their representatives, among whom was the 
 
188 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 very Case whose sermon we have spoken of, to 
 request he would not tolerate 
 
 THE SURPLICE AND THE PRAYER-BOOK ! 
 
 The King's answer is well known. Let it be fur- 
 ther considered, that, if two thousand or fifteen 
 hundred of talented and united men, with these 
 feeling's of unsubdued hostility, which hostility, I 
 believe, every sensible mind will now admit to have 
 been far more frivolous than wise — remained in the 
 communion to whose discipline and ritual they 
 could not assent — with energy, and united talents, 
 and implacable aversion — then Morley might as well 
 have taken off his square-cap again, and gone into 
 exile without bread ; and it would have been almost 
 felo de se, in those who thought kneeling at the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be the most de- 
 vout posture, had they allowed part of the com- 
 municants to receive that holy rite kneeling, and 
 part sitting — when they knew, either that they 
 must eat the bread of poverty again, or that this 
 schism must be eternal in their communion — being 
 conscious that so large and respectable a body still 
 regarded with implacable hate that ritual which was 
 then more precious on account of the tyranny to 
 which it had subjected those who prized it. 
 
 The alternative, then, was adopted — I will not 
 say justly, that charity forbids — nor have I ever, 
 nor will I ever, say one word that might seem to 
 denote any feelings or any principles than those of 
 the cheerfully granting the rights of conscience, as 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 189 
 
 I trust that those rights will not be denied to me — 
 but I will say, that all the circumstances in which 
 the restored Clergy stood, should be taken into con- 
 sideration before their conduct is condemned — 
 their previous sufferings — the malignant rcvilings 
 of their order — the united strength and inveteracy 
 of hostility ranged against them, hostility which no 
 toleration could soften, — and the consciousness that 
 both parties in the same Church could not subsist 
 together. The only question then must be, whether 
 they would succumb, voluntarily, or, adopting the 
 alternative, leave the result to the melioration of 
 charity and time. 
 
 These considerations I venture to offer, disclaim- 
 ing, far more warmly than I have offered them, any 
 participation in the feelings of the persecuting and 
 severe spirit, which was subsequently evinced by 
 Charles and James.* 
 
 Having been led to say thus much, I shall make 
 some remarks on another historian of these times. 
 
 "The old Clergy," says Neal, "who had been 
 sequestered for scandal, having taken possession 
 
 * Mr. Hallam has delivered his sentiments as becomes him 
 on one persecution of the Church by the Presbyterians, but 
 he has overlooked a desolating persecution under the Tryers 
 of Cromwell — the most torturing inquisition of ignorance, 
 arbitrarily scrutinizing the feelings, and deciding who were or 
 were not Calvinistic Puritans, according to their pattern of 
 belief; and this Junto was sent into every County, with full 
 powers of removal in all cases. The celebrated Hugh Peters 
 was one of these Tryers! 
 
 VOL. I. N 7 
 
190 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 of their livings, were intoxicated with their new 
 feelings, and threw off the restraints of their order ! 
 such was the general dissolution of manners which 
 attended the deluge of joy that overflowed the 
 nation on his Majesty's restoration ! " 
 
 "A deluge of joy" indeed "overflowed the nation," 
 when the reign of intolerant hypocrisy and demo- 
 niacal inspiration came to a close. 
 
 Some of the Clergy, indeed, might have given 
 way to feelings of inordinate joy, on heing, after 
 twelve years of exile and sorrow, restored to their 
 old parishioners, by whom their return was hailed 
 with more heartfelt cordiality, from the recollection 
 of their silent sorrows, and long suffering ; but the 
 example of the Church of England still shone con- 
 spicuously amidst the general licentiousness, in the 
 reign of Charles the Second, and fifteen years only 
 after his death was established that Society for 
 promoting Christian Knowledge, which appears so 
 majestic in the front of our Church community at 
 present. 
 
 The glcom of Calvinism passed away like a 
 "phantasma or a hideous dream;" but charity itself 
 can hardly forgive the historian # who makes no ex- 
 ception, leaving the reader to suppose that so many 
 learned, pious, and holy men as the Church of 
 England produced in the former reign, were 
 turned out for scandal! I believe firmly that not 
 one in five hundred was turned out for "scandal" 
 
 * Real's History of the Puritans. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 191 
 
 if scandal means vicious lives, but for fidelity to the 
 persecuted communion, and virtuous adherence to 
 what they considered their duties as Christians. 
 
 The same candid writer tells us, that at this 
 period of universal joy, whilst " the old, sequestered 
 Clergy nourished in great numbers about the Court, 
 magnifying their sufferings" [that could not well 
 be], " making interest for preferment." [Why not, 
 having eat the bread of poverty so many years ? 
 But what follows ? Oh grievous !] " Every one 
 took possession of the living from which he had 
 been ejected!" To be sure he did ; what could have 
 been more unjust if they had not ? " By which 
 means [oh terrible persecution !] some hundreds of 
 the Presbyterian Clergy were dispossessed at once." 
 Were they so ? and how many had they dispossessed 
 at once to get there ? " But," adds the historian, 
 for once with ingenuous candour and simplicity, 
 " where the incumbent was dead, his Majesty 
 yielded that the living should be confirmed to the 
 present possessor ! " 
 
 I trust these observations will be construed fairly. 
 The whole of this w r ork (the " History of the Puri- 
 tans ") is written in the spirit of extenuation on one 
 side, and exaggeration on the other ; and, being on 
 the subject of the restored Clergy, though no man 
 would contend more wannlv for the rights of con- 
 science, in the widest sense, to all, I could not pass 
 over such historical impartiality, in an age when 
 Clarendon is called a bigot ! 
 
192 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Of the direct, deliberate, unprincipled, and 
 wicked falsehoods of Neal, I need only mention 
 the following instances. 
 
 He declares that, when the punishment was pro- 
 nounced in the Star-Chamber against Leighton, 
 " Bishop Laud "pulled off his cap whilst this 
 merciless sentence was pronouncing, and gave 
 God thanks!"* How many thousand readers have 
 read this " merciless," and utterly false " sentence," 
 and believed it true ! How many writers have 
 echoed it as undoubted! I assert it to be false! 
 
 I tell Mr. Godwin so ! the author of the " Historv 
 
 j 
 
 of the Commonwealth." I tell my respected friend 
 Agar Ellis so ! Is it found in any credited histo- 
 rian? Is it in Rushworth? Is it there? Look, 
 thou impartial historian, Godwin ! If not there, 
 where is it ? When I see the passage, in any con- 
 temporary historian worthy of credit, I shall retract 
 what I sav in the face of the Christian world, and 
 not before ! 
 
 How malignant must have been that spirit of 
 party which could, without any authority, sit down 
 and invent this deliberate falsehood ! 
 
 Rash as he was, I pledge myself to prove that 
 Laud resorted to no harsh severity till his life was 
 threatened. His object was to defend the Episco- 
 pal Church, the Throne, and his own grey hairs. 
 
 * There is, by some his' Brians equally veracious and impar- 
 tial, a like wicked perversioi of the sentiments and words of 
 Laud, respecting the offer of a Cardinal's, hat. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 193 
 
 It was indeed most true that the inhumanity to- 
 wards Leighton and Prynne injured his cause far 
 more than their books. Most inhuman, indeed, 
 was this sentence of the Star-chamber on these 
 miserable men ! most inhuman the infliction ! and, 
 if I speak of any Inquisition with horror, let me 
 not for a moment be thought to except the in- 
 famous Inquisition of the Star-chamber of Charles 
 the First. Let the Christian reader, however he 
 may deem the language of the Histriomastix ab- 
 surd, irritating, and most intolerant, think of the 
 •stripes, the mutilations, and the judgment of im- 
 prisonment for life ! But in this, as in all instances, 
 cruelty defeated its own purposes. The Puritan- 
 pack now urging on the chase with redoubled cry, 
 it was decided in this den, that rigid and signal 
 punishment alone could divert the bloodhounds 
 from their track. Laud was the hunted victim, 
 and he turned in terror from the cry of blood and 
 vengeance, deepening as it approached more near. 
 Then, as in despair, these ruthless measures were 
 resorted to. 
 
 As to the voluminous and inflexible Prynne, in- 
 stead of the cruel punishment he suffered — and it 
 was the punishment, and not his interminable vo- 
 lumes, which excited the feelings of the nation 
 against Laud and the Bishops — instead of clipping 
 his ears, so obdurate to harmony, it would have 
 been wiser if the conclave in Star-Chambcr had 
 
 vol. i. o 
 
194 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 ordered him to do penance in a square-cap* on his 
 own folios, and had then proceeded to exorcise 
 his spirit, by making him listen, notwithstanding 
 all grimaces, to some scene so comic as that of 
 the Fairies dancing round Falstaff! After this dis- 
 cipline, four-and-twenty choristers, in white sur- 
 plices, led by the Boy-bishop, should sing round 
 him " Cantate ! " It might tend to dispel the last 
 fumes of his solemn spleen, if he were led forth, 
 however tristful and repugnant, to see, " on a sun- 
 shine holiday" the lads and lasses of the village 
 dance round a Maypole, to a tabor playing "White- 
 lock's Corranto!" Such a judgment by the Star 
 Chamber would have been far more effectual to 
 exorcise a spirit so morose, than the cruel stripes 
 and imprisonments the implacable Presbyterian en- 
 dured triumphantly ! 
 
 It is true, instead of such inhumanity, it would 
 have been far wiser to have treated with ridicule 
 this poor, honest Presbyterian's wrath ; but it is no 
 less true that the Church of England, in a dignified 
 position between those who decided that "tolera- 
 tion was establishing iniquity by law," and 
 those who executed, to the letter, the Statute " de 
 hcereticus comburendis" has been most unjustly 
 accused as being generally the most intolerant and 
 persecuting " of either." 
 
 * A Puritan Dean of Wells literally ordered the penance of 
 a square-cap, in derision, to be worn in church by a malignant 
 delinquent. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 195 
 
 In the present day, a summary way has been 
 adopted to disprove the charge of persecution on 
 the part of the Church of Rome. There was no 
 such thing; as the massacre of the Protestants in 
 Ireland in 1640! It is all a calumny! And as to 
 the burning old Latimer, and Cranmer, and Ridley 
 they suffered in the flames justly, because they in- 
 tended to inflict the same torture on others ! Such 
 an historian is a modern Doctor ! 
 
 In speaking of religious persecution, I should 
 feel deserving to be condemned by heaven and 
 earth, if I should dare to breathe a thought in 
 palliation of the burning of a poor woman by 
 Cranmer ; but I should feel myself not less to be 
 condemned, by the laws of God and man, if I did 
 not lift up my voice — 
 
 Si quid loquar audiendum — 
 against that deduction of this Papal historian, that 
 " Cranmer and his associates 'perished in the 
 flames they had prepared for others!" 
 
 They, the tormented, to show that their agoniz- 
 ing torments are no more than they deserved, are 
 pronounced to have intended to make others suf- 
 fer in the same manner! Of the grounds of such 
 a hideous reversal of character, the astonished and 
 indignant reader might well ask, what is the proof 
 or evidence ? Let the most sanguinary Inquisitor that 
 ever condemned a miserable wretch to the flames of 
 an auto da fe find, if he can, a clearer proof! 
 Cranmer and his associates are burned alive at the 
 
 o2 
 
190 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 fiery stake justly — for they intended to do the same 
 to others ! What proof is there of this intent of 
 Cranmer and his suffering' " associates ? " Oh ! a 
 paper has been found, in which a sentence appears, 
 that he who, after every thing has been tried in vain, 
 opposes and oppugns the fundamental principles 
 of Protestantism, is — " puniendus." And what is 
 the translation of puniendus, from which such an 
 inference is drawn ? To " suffer death." And 
 the Christian lesson is this — 
 
 Cranmer and "his associates" were burnt alive, 
 because 
 
 Cranmer and "his associates" intended to burn 
 others alive. 
 
 The word " puniendus " is a proof of this inten- 
 tion, "puniendus" meaning "to suffer death." 
 
 Therefore Cranmer and his associates are justly 
 burned alive! 
 
 I will say nothing of Cranmer, because he caused 
 a frantic woman to be burnt alive — and even guided 
 the pen, and endeavoured to steel the shrinking 
 heart, of an ingenuous youth ; but who are " the 
 associates,"' thus summarily classed as burners in 
 intent, because they used the word "puniendus?" 
 Was Ridley one, who, from his kind heart, opened 
 his house to the mother and sister of the man who 
 burnt him ? Was Hooper one? Was Latimer? No : 
 but they were guilty of using the word " punien- 
 dus," and therefore they intended fire and faggot ! 
 " Puniendus " means " suffer death F Oh dispas- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 197 
 
 si on ate rcasoners ! Oil mild Inquisitors of Goa, 
 of Spain, and of Lisbon ! The heart shrinks indig- 
 nant from such cruel sophistry. 
 
 I turn to speak of an historian who may have, 
 as all men must have, a bias, but who, in fairness 
 of construction, in conscientious integrity, stands 
 unrivalled — I mean the author of the " Constitu- 
 tional History of England," Mr. Hallam. Speak - 
 ing of Dr. Lingard's deduction from the word 
 " puniendus," he says, " he by no means," in this 
 instance, " pretends that Dr. Lingard was mis- 
 taken." What! not mistaken in translating "pu- 
 niendus " " to suffer death ? " A scholar might be 
 mistaken in translating an involved and obscure 
 sentence ; but here could have been no mistake. 
 The translation of " puniendus " is " suffer death." 
 It is possible the context might justify that inter- 
 pretation : but why is not the context given ? 
 Without it, the deduction is inhuman, as the proof 
 is Jesuitical! There was and could be no "mis- 
 take" and, if no mistake, such a translation was 
 wilful, to serve a purpose both of defamation and 
 injustice, of insidious defamation and cruel in- 
 justice. 
 
 I have no fear, however, of the revival of the 
 Act de hcereticis comburendis, and therefore I turn 
 from the contemplation of past persecutions to that 
 quarter from whence the Episcopal Establishment 
 may possibly be again exposed to something like 
 the proscription of the godly " Lords " and Major- 
 generals of Cromwell ! 
 
198 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 That "foul weather" is approaching, and that it 
 will behove — we know not how shortly — the faith- 
 ful Shepherds of the Christian flock to take Morley's 
 old cloak about them, must be obvious to the least 
 attentive observer of the signs and seasons, from 
 the more loud and ominous Geneva croak, "Popery! 
 Popery!" and from the portentous clouds that 
 seem, darker and darker, to lower over the bat- 
 tlements of our Establishment. 
 
 One periodical, with the picture of the spires 
 and venerable Abbev of Westminster as a frontis- 
 piece, cries, " Down with it ! why cumbereth it the 
 ground — for of what use is it?" 
 
 Another fulminates its declamation on the "omni- 
 vorant Tithe-holders," not supposing that the far 
 greater number of omni-vorant Tithe-holders are 
 to be found, with the lands once devoted to the 
 poor, among dukes, lords, and squires ! 
 
 Lord Mountcashcl,* like another Lord Pembroke, 
 has already put himself in front, to raise orthodox 
 " dulness" to the "vital" heat of his own evangeli- 
 cal barometer; besides having found out that if some 
 clergymen in Ireland take only a quarter of their 
 dues, it is because they cannot get more ! — which 
 
 * Sec Lord Mountcashel's first Letter. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 1 1M) 
 
 I suppose affects himself as much as the Clergy. — 
 His Lordship has, moreover, discovered, with holy 
 horror, that in England, where the hierarchy is not 
 so rich as in Ireland, cathedrals are sinfully dese- 
 crated bv the sublime strains of Handel! his Lord- 
 
 m 
 
 ship doubtless conceiving, like another Prynne, that 
 the choristers " roar out a treble like a sort of 
 hogs!" He has also discovered that, as the high and 
 holy strains of Handel cannot be performed with- 
 out performers, and that musicians will " not sound 
 except for silver? though the cause is that of cha- 
 rity, and the strains intensely devotional — yet is 
 such music, in such a place, sinful, and an offence 
 to the " really pious ! " 
 
 I do not find that there are such pietists, in the 
 present day, as those of the times of " Old Noll," 
 who make wry-mouths at u custards ,•" but the con- 
 ventual phraseology is the same — they are as blas- 
 phemously familiar, as to the most trifling " deal- 
 ings with the Lord ! " — they are as charitable in pro- 
 nouncing the Lord's vengeance on wicked "stage- 
 players ! " Some who take much pains to edify the 
 soldiers and sailors, least they should "perish," by 
 going to the eighteen-penny gallery to see Fanny 
 
 * A Magazine for Sailors and Soldiers was left, gratis, in 
 some of the principal inns of Bath, instructing the visitors of 
 that enlightened city that a player was struck with paralysis, 
 and that this visitation, it was inferred, was the just judgment 
 of an offended Deity ! 
 
200 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Kemble — hold out in their magazines, as a just 
 judgment of the Almighty, the afflicting circum- 
 stance of a poor man struck on the stage with 
 paralysis ; as if preachers of the Gospel never died 
 of apoplexy ! Shakspeare is with some pietists, as 
 in Cromwell's time, the " Prince of Darkness," 
 and " every step in a dance a step to hell," notwith- 
 standing our Saviour tells us the father received 
 his returning prodigal son with " dances." 
 
 Such is the Revival, as it is called, in the present 
 day. Revival of What ? Of the religion of Jesus 
 Christ ? Of Evangelical faith and charity ? No ; 
 very little, I fear ! We have a revival, indeed, of 
 the very spirit and phrase of Praise- God -barebones ! 
 — of Hugh Peters, "the Preacher of the Lord ! " — 
 we have the religion and jargpn of these men "re- 
 vived." We have had "revivals" enough of this 
 sort, and shall have more : and to show how true, 
 in letter and spirit, this "revival" is, I shall quote 
 part of a letter written by Cromwell not long be- 
 fore he "sought the Lord" to know whether the 
 Lord would command him to commit murder ! 
 which letter would suit the most evangelical young 
 lady in the present day. Thus the evangelical 
 Cromwell enditeth : 
 
 " When we think of our God, what are we ? 
 Oh ! his mercy to the whole society of Saincts, 
 despised, jeered Saincts! Let them mock on ! 
 Would we were all Saincts! The best of us arc, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 201 
 
 God knows ! weak Saincts. If not Saincts, yet 
 lambs, and must he fed."* 
 
 These were the reformers of the Church when 
 Hall and Usher adorned it ; these were then the 
 petitioners to the Houses of Lords and Commons, 
 " that it would please them to promote true godli- 
 ness, and take their estates from obese Bishops, 
 oscitant Deans, and " unworking " Clergy ! " 
 
 The same cry was made against Bishops in those 
 days, in favour of the "pains-taking Clergy," that 
 is, Calvinistic Puritans ! and do we not hear the 
 same cry revived ? A distinction is made between 
 the Rector, with tithes, and the " working Curate, 
 with a miserable stipend ! " The stipend at present 
 is such as to induce a thousand uneducated and 
 illiterate men to press into the Church, for one 
 substantial reason — the stipend ! Such illustrious 
 workers often show much zeal — less knowledge — 
 and not unfrequently with as little charity as judg- 
 ment! The stipend, which was forty pounds per 
 annum forty years ago, is now 150/. 
 
 The Act called Lord Harrowby's, in its first 
 concoction, whilst it professedly protected the poor 
 
 * Letter to Lord Wharton, dated 1648. Thurlow's State 
 Papers, vol. i. p. 99. The first letter in these papers shows his 
 adroitness in this style, on which his acts are the best com- 
 ments : it is dated 1638. He says : " Oh ! I lived in and loved 
 darkness, and hated the light!" &c. Quere, whether he loved 
 the light more when he was fully illumined, in his Inst days ? " 
 Ilis Major-generals were the " Saints that must he fed! " 
 
20*2 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 Curate, was to the Rector or Vicar, often as poor, 
 inhuman; for, in cases where the living was not 
 worth more than 150/. a year, the Curate was to 
 take all, when perhaps the Vicar had done his duty 
 for forty years anxiously and piously ; for Rectories 
 being chiefly in lay hands, a poor Vicar, who had 
 spent his best days with his humble parishioners, 
 beloved and respected, might go, with his children, 
 to a gaol or a workhouse. This was Lord Harrow- 
 by's benevolent and pious intention ; but, at present, 
 the Bishop has a power to settle the terms of the 
 Curate, in case the living does not exceed 150Z. per 
 annum, so that the Vicar shall not, in his grey hairs, 
 and with his children, beg his bread ! 
 
 In his days of strength and health, and residing 
 necessarily on his living, where is there a clergyman 
 who is not "working?" unless exempted by ill- 
 health from residence — or, as in some cases, hold- 
 ing two livings. He, besides his weekly duties j 
 instructs the children — visits the poor — prays 
 over the sick — in the parish where he has been 
 long resident — as much, and with as warm, and 
 why not warmer interest, than any Curate ? When 
 a Curate is resident in a parish in which the Rector 
 or Vicar cannot reside, having another living, and 
 being exempted by Act of Parliament, or licence — 
 most active, and laborious, and anxious is generally 
 the life of the working Curate, but not more than 
 a conscientious Rector or Vicar, though, among ten 
 thousand persons, there must of course be many 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 20.'J 
 
 individual exceptions. But, let us see who, in a 
 higher sense, are the " working Clergy ? " Not 
 merely the Curate or Rector, who does his duty in 
 his parish. In a much higher and more appropriate 
 sense — the Horsleys, the Paleys — the Fabers — 
 the Magees — the Lawrences — the thousand elo- 
 quent defenders of Christianity against assailants 
 — the ten thousand vindicators of truth — the host 
 of learned elucidators of the Scriptures, from those 
 who translated the Bible to the present day — these 
 are the "working Clergy;" and these, almost with- 
 out exception, are from the higher stations or orders 
 of the Clergy. But, I as warmly say, whenever 
 such "working" Clergymen are found among those 
 whom the sunshine of Preferment has not visited, 
 they have a claim, a paramount claim, on their 
 more prosperous brethren. Many such examples 
 I do know — many of the greatest talents and of 
 the purest lives, are found, scattered through our 
 Sion, yet are their grey hairs unremembered. As 
 to sinecures, those who are called to reside at their 
 Cathedrals attend the service of the Cathedral every 
 day ; for three months they cannot go beyond the 
 sound of the bells — they preach in their turns — and, 
 when the term of residence is expired, they go back 
 again to their village duties, as Parochial Clergy- 
 men. If you say there ought to be no such thing 
 as Dignitaries, then say there ought to be no 
 Cathedrals. Besides this, I affirm, and the proof 
 is easy, that the most learned, the most eloquent 
 
204 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 works, that throw a radiance on an intellectual and 
 Christian country, are not from the lower Clergy 
 
 — Jewel, Butler, Bull, Sherlock, Pearson (Creed)' 
 Douglas, Tillotson, Taylor, Lowth, &c. are from 
 the highest orders, and these, of the " working 
 Clergy," are the noblest and most useful. Nor do 
 I think that any thing can be found more injurious 
 to a State than a plebeian Clergy, unless gifted 
 with the learning or inspiration of St. Paul. 
 
 By the expression of plebeian Clergy, I trust it 
 will not be supposed, for one moment, I could pos- 
 sibly mean any except illiterate, and illiberal persons. 
 Some of the highest ornaments of the Establish- 
 ment have arisen from humble parents. When I 
 speak of plebeian Clergy, I mean those who, un- 
 distinguished by manners or education, have been 
 clandestinely, or hastily, or from false views, ad- 
 mitted into the Church, by those who ought to 
 " lay hands suddenly on no man? 
 
 Such men, as often destitute of morals as man- 
 ners, get into the Church for " the piece of bread," 
 
 — the advanced value of Curacies ; and, when they 
 have gained thus much, stun the public with ac- 
 counts of neglect of merit! and that the "working 
 Clergy," and "most deserving Clergy," are neglected ! 
 
 — the Rector being a mere drone, and they " the 
 only labourers worthy of their hire!" Nor let it 
 be supposed that, by saying this I would pass by 
 without reprobation that character — when such a 
 character is found — that on 
 
 " Fal pluralities supinely thrives,' 
 
LIFE OF HTSIIOP KEN. 205 
 
 and contentedly lets others do the work, at the least 
 possible pay ! That some characters of this kind 
 may lie found among ten thousand men there can 
 he no doubt, but I believe they are rare. Amidst 
 these conflicts, my Lord Mountcashel has put him 
 self at the head of a Synod to petition Parliament 
 to reform the Church ; and, in fact, to legislate for 
 the Church according to his views of piety. 
 
 The Church of Ireland, and that of England, 
 do not stand upon the same ground : there is more 
 enormous wealth on one side. Of the Irish Church, 
 I speak nothing ; but, when such men as Magee 
 and Lawrence have succeeded an Usher, in this 
 Church, to such, and to many such, might she well 
 point with triumph. I am only speaking of the 
 Episcopal Church of England ; and I say, in the 
 face of mv Lord Mountcashel, that vile must be 
 that mind that brings false statements as facts for 
 accusation. The same candour is visible in making 
 general charges, as if the general charges were uni- 
 versally admitted, when, perhaps, not two instances 
 in a thousand could be adduced. So we are told of 
 petitions to Parliament against the immorality of 
 the Clergy — a host of petitions — when there is 
 found only one. 
 
 I fear, from what appears in this advance-guard 
 of attack on the Episcopal character, and Church 
 property, not that piety, and the good of the 
 Church, is intended — but a peculiar hind of piety, 
 of which we have seen the fruits in a former age. 
 
206 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 I particularly think myself justified in believing 
 this, when I find the selected sin of the Church of 
 England is that in which, if it be a sin, I shall be 
 an unrepentant sinner as long as I live — that of 
 attending an oratorio, when I can, in its most ap- 
 propriate place. We might easily excuse his Lord- 
 ship from attending such sacrilegious meetings, but 
 we know not, from reason or Scripture, that he, 
 ex cathedra, has a right to erect himself into a 
 judge of that which I think no sin at all, but, on 
 the contrary, assistant to piety and purity ; and 
 which, if it were a sin, so pronounced by a Puri- 
 tanical Pope and Council in Ireland, is not half so 
 great a sin as insinuations which are false — as 
 charges which are without proof — as bearing wit- 
 ness against our neighbours, whilst we profess duty 
 to God ! 
 
 We know that the " Trvers " under the " Lord 
 Protector," examined thousands of pious and de- 
 serving men, and dismissed them to seek their bread, 
 because they did not answer, satisfactorily to the 
 examiners, on questions of " experiences " — grace 
 — and horror of theatres ! Yes, my Lord, reforma- 
 tion is indeed necessary ; and, to adopt your Lord- 
 ship's discriminating style, it is requisite most among 
 those "nominal" Christians, who assume the cha- 
 racter of exclusive righteousness. It would be 
 proper to reform them, in giving them some notion 
 of charity! It would be proper to reform them, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KKN. 207 
 
 by showing that to " swallow camels and strain at 
 gnats" is not Christianity. 
 
 If Lord King is prepared to head a commission 
 for purifying the Bench of Bishops, doubtless your 
 Lordship will be found as adequate a "Tryer" of 
 all the " worldly-minded ! " But — ecoutez! Exem- 
 plary as are the lives of the great body of the 
 Clergy, if there be occasionally found among them 
 instances, however rare, of such loathsome vices as 
 would make your solitary villain — on whose ac- 
 count the House of Lords was justly petitioned — 
 seem virtuous! — if instances of uncharitableness — 
 meanness — slander, &c. are found, such instances 
 are found, not among the old, plain, pious, unosten- 
 tatious Clergy, but the ''really pious" flock, and 
 their solifidian shepherds ! This I can prove : — 
 I say it reluctantly ; but, when an estimate is made 
 of the "worldly-minded" and "really pious," ac- 
 cording to the scale and measure of a new Geneva 
 Synod, though a pious Lord is at the head, I tell 
 that Lord, without entering into the dispute con- 
 cerning the Irish Church — that "real piety" does 
 not depend upon his, or his Star-chamber's, estimate 
 — and that cant is not Christianity! 
 
 As to many pure and excellent, and many most 
 exemplary Christians among those called Evan- 
 gelical, 
 
 Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine habetur. 
 
 The Christian honours and loves a Christian in 
 heart, under whatever appellation he may be distin- 
 
208 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 guished. I have expressed my opinions decidedly, 
 but I trust not uncharitably : my spirit is with the 
 Hammonds, the Taylors, the Sherlocks, the Lowths, 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 As to the political aspect of the times, it does 
 appear to me, I confess, that, when driven on the 
 breakers and shoals, by trusting to reckless and 
 pitiless " political economists," the vessel of the 
 State, with all its gallant crew, is about to founder, 
 a muster is got up in Ireland, to make those suffer 
 who least deserve it ; and the Chaplain of the vessel 
 is the first, as a sacrifice, to be thrown overboard. 
 
 Tories and Episcopalians filled the House of 
 Commons at the Restoration. Whigs and Tories 
 on the accession of King William. Tories, in the 
 reign of Queen Anne. Whigs through the reigns of 
 George the First and Second. Tories to the death 
 of George the Third. In the present day of the 
 " march of intellect," we have Saints and Infidels, 
 Political Economists and Benthamites, Roman Ca- 
 tholics and Radicals — Lord King in the House of 
 Lords, and Mr. Hume in the House of Commons — 
 all in amicable league against the Establishment! 
 It only remains for a Committee, with Lord Mount- 
 cashel, like another Lord Pembroke, and Hume, his 
 calculating co-adjutor, to proceed with full powers 
 to institute a new visitation of Oxford, to open the 
 Parliamentary Commission at Wells or Salisbury, 
 and to expel forthwith such " scandalous " members 
 as they should choose so to designate. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 209 
 
 But, besides the gratuitous surveillance of the 
 Star-chamber of Lord Moimtcashel, the revenues 
 of the bloated Episcopal Church in Ireland and 
 England, it is said, are to be put into the crucible 
 of political experimentalists ; at least, a kind of 
 
 " ROBBING OF PeTER TO PAY PAUL," is the Cry 
 
 of some political and religious projectors and eco- 
 nomists. That no obstacle might stand in the way 
 of levelling the great land-marks of vested pro- 
 perty in the Church, it is now a common argument 
 that there is a distinction between private and 
 public property. 
 
 According to such views, the property of indi- 
 viduals is sacred, but the property bequeathed, under 
 the same laws, for an important public service, is 
 not invested with the same sacred security as the 
 property of an individual! So a linen-draper's 
 shop in St. Paul's Church-yard is invested with a 
 more sacred security than St. Paul's Church, be- 
 cause that beautiful structure, — towering from ag;e 
 to age into the calm sunshine, above the stir, and 
 noise, and smoke of a commercial city, to raise the 
 thoughts of the passengers to more awful and eter- 
 nal interests, — was built, forsooth, by the NATION! 
 Such worse than sophistry is, in my opinion, its 
 own refutation. If property be sacred at all, pro- 
 perty which has been bequeathed under the sanc- 
 tion and presumed inviolability of the law, con- 
 firmed by the Magna Charta of ages, for public 
 specific purposes, — is, to all intents, the most 
 
 vol. i. p 
 
210 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 sacred property of any. It was bequeathed to 
 the State, and for the State ; not for the fleeting 
 individual. 
 
 It is true that ecclesiastical property may attain, 
 as it has done, an undue and overwhelming pre- 
 ponderance. The Statute of Mort-main * wisely 
 has guarded against this. But a tyrant, like Henry 
 the Eighth, might say — "The property which ancient 
 piety bequeathed, is mine] — mine, as Defender 
 of the Faith ! mine, as the Head of the Church /" 
 And if the people of England, instead of bringing 
 to the block Charles, the affectionate and faithful 
 husband, Charles, the kind-hearted master, Charles, 
 the tender father, had trampled to the earth this 
 lustful, loathsome tyrant, making this murderer of 
 his wives " a spectacle to the injured and insulted 
 Nation," mercy would have applauded the act of 
 national justice ? "f~ 
 
 But that the property of the Church, bequeathed 
 as sacredly and employed more usefully than any 
 other description of property in the State, can 
 now attain undue preponderance, watched by invi- 
 dious eyes, and bound by statutes, is what I should 
 hope none but the most unprincipled democrat will 
 contend. 
 
 Yet is it proclaimed, by a thousand sages of the 
 press, " an archbishop has twenty or thirty thou- 
 sand pounds a-year,with a magnificent palace, when 
 
 * " Mortuis manibus." 
 
 f Cromwells or Miltons do not appear in such reigns. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 211 
 
 a poor ' working Curate ' has only a h'undred or a 
 hundred and fifty pounds a-ycar at the utmost ! " 
 
 Pause — a Curacy of a hundred and fifty pounds 
 a year is more, in income, than a living, with ne- 
 cessary expences, of two hundred, or perhaps two 
 hundred and fifty pounds per annum, and is four 
 times the value of a Curacy thirty years ago. And 
 what Protestant prelate, since the times of political 
 prelacy and the abhorred Star-chamber, has not 
 shown as much virtue and piety in a humbler sta- 
 tion, as in the front of the Christian Church ? 
 
 I well know how little any reason weighs with 
 some reasoners; yet, admitting for a moment that a 
 new Puritan — or infidel — Committee may dis- 
 pose of property which they consider national as they 
 please, let us come a little closer to this question, the 
 more momentous when such agitation " is abroad." 
 This subject is surely in connection with the Life of 
 a Prelate deprived, for conscience sake, of all he 
 possessed in that Church which he adorned. 
 
 Without adducing many arguments which have 
 been often far more eloquently enforced, let us re- 
 member that the Christian community, in a great 
 nation, consists of the high and the low, the rich 
 and the poor — from the opulence and smoke of the 
 towered city, 
 
 Furaum, et opes, strepituraque Romae, 
 to the green villages, scattered, with their slender 
 spires, through all the retired and remote vallies of 
 the land. In the country, the possessor of larg;e 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 ancestral property looks round him, from the seat 
 of his hereditary residence : instead of beholding a 
 clerical neighbour repugnant in manners, and of 
 confined education, a mere Trulliber, he meets a 
 cultivated character, who can be, according to St. 
 Paul, " courteous " as well as " pitiful," " cour- 
 teous" to all, subservient to none, and "pitiful" 
 to the poor and needy ; of education equal to 
 his own, yet, with such habits and such educa- 
 tion, never transgressing the limits of each respec- 
 tive station in society. Will not all the lessons of 
 Christianity come with double weight and effect, 
 from a minister so placed and so adorned ? 
 
 Let us apply the same mode of reasoning to the 
 King on his throne. Shall he be approached by 
 a spiritual adviser, without the manners of culti- 
 vated life, or of a station so far beneath his own, 
 that this circumstance alone would prevent the 
 nearer approach of ministerial intercourse, concern- 
 ing interests as awful to the King in his palace 
 as to the poorest of his subjects — for " the fashion 
 of this world passeth away," and the crown and the 
 sceptre are no more than their short-lived possessor 
 in the sight of the "King of Kings." Oh! are 
 there not hours when the mightiest feel the want of 
 kind admonition and spiritual comfort ? The spectre 
 of death seems more terrible when beheld approach- 
 ing in the sunshine of earthly prosperity. A digni- 
 fied Christian instructor is therefore often far more 
 essential than a Minister of State. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 2\3 
 
 John Knox might think plebeian insolence to a 
 Sovereign — even if that Sovereign was an unpro- 
 tected female — the highest test of Apostolic autho- 
 rity. I trust we do not yet so feel, or so argue. 
 
 In a great and opulent Country, a correspondent 
 station is assigned to the Primate of the Christian 
 National Church. He exhibits, from illustrious emi- 
 nence, to the highest and the lowest of the Nation, 
 a public example of Christian charity, as of culti- 
 vated amenity of manners : he exhibits, also, in front 
 of a Christian community, piety without puritanism 
 — independence, without subservience to the proud- 
 est. Employing wealth more as the munificent dis- 
 penser of charities (the patron of Christian bene- 
 volence as well as the pattern) than as the " rich 
 man faring sumptuously." Such a character ap- 
 pears, in his place, the Christian associate, in a 
 Christian kingdom, of a Christian King! For 
 the same reason, our spiritual Peers, in limited 
 numbers, not two to fifty, appear mingling their 
 mild dignity amid the nobility of the kingdom. Yes, 
 and hold their mitred heads amongst the proudest 
 coronets in the seat of hereditary legislature, to 
 teach even a Lord King to feel his superiors, in 
 every thing but the accidental circumstance of 
 patrician birth ! 
 
 Whether the Episcopal Church of England, one 
 of whose most virtuous characters, among a thou- 
 sand others in the same station, is the subject of 
 this work, shall be doomed, amidst the conflicting 
 
214 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 tumults of the times, to be levelled or destroyed — 
 or whether the spirit of sober, scriptural, apostolic 
 truth, shall again be succeeded by illiterate and 
 heartless puritanic fanaticism — or whether the hal- 
 lowed altars, rescued from superstitious pageantry, 
 where the priest appears in the plain surplice,* not 
 the gorgeous cope, shall be profaned — whether the 
 roofs, resonant with daily praise, shall be silent 
 — whether the property that supports an order of 
 the Clergy in decent dignity, but not in splendour, 
 called to officiate daily during their season of resi- 
 dence, shall be confiscated — whether, in the tem- 
 pest which seems rolling near and more near — 
 
 The spirit of the first-horn Cain 
 
 shall eventually prevail, — I have thought it my 
 
 * A superb, embroidered Cope, pnd various splendidly-illu- 
 mined Missals, are preserved in the Vestry and Library of Sa- 
 lisbury Cathedral. There could not be a more striking illus- 
 tration of our Cathedral worship and that of the Romish com- 
 munion. The Missals, so richly illuminated, contain prayers to 
 the virgin and St. Anthony ! The Cope displays, in purple and 
 gold, the Cross — and miracles in embroidery! The comely 
 and plain white Surplice is the vestment of our exterior service ; 
 
 we have the Prayer-book, containing only prayers to God, 
 
 "through Jesus Christ, our Lord;" and we have the open 
 Bible, in the vulgar tongue. The Choristers, also, have 
 the same plain white surplice ; and he must have the heart of a 
 Prvnne who could hear, without affecting interest, their clear 
 voices, in the purest innocence of youth, swelling the devotional 
 chaunt; or see them, without the same interesting feelings, 
 when the chaunt has ceased, leaniag attentively, two and two, 
 over a small Bible, whilst the appointed Lessons are read, for 
 every day in the year. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 215 
 
 duty — regardless of the contumely of infidel dema- 
 gogues or " puritanic Lords," — to deliver my own 
 sentiments, as unreserved and as undisguised as I 
 feel them, not as a Church-man, but as an English- 
 man, who loves the Institutions, the Laws, and the 
 Religion of his Country. 
 
 I here conclude the first volume of the Life of 
 Bishop Ken, containing the least interesting portion 
 of that life, and including the summary of the Life 
 of his first Patron, Bishop Morley, with an account 
 of the origin of that patronage. 
 
 This portion of Ken's private life is shown in 
 connection with the characters and events, political 
 and religious, of the periods under review. 
 
 Detached, indeed, from such accompaniments, how 
 uninstructive, how uninteresting is all biography ! 
 But, I trust, if I have been so far fortunate as to gain 
 the reader's attention, I may further hope to do so 
 when I bring forward the chief character of the 
 history into more illustrious and public light. This 
 character, which I shall endeavour faithfully to de- 
 lineate, will rise in dignity as we proceed, and, amidst 
 the events of the age in which he lived — in pros- 
 perity and adversity — in public or in private life 
 — in a palace or a prison — in his lawn sleeves, on 
 his cathedral throne at Wells — or with his shroud,* 
 
 * It is said he brought his shroud with him to Long-leat. 
 
216 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 
 
 at the last asylum of age, in the hospitable man- 
 sion of his early friend — Bishop Ken will appear 
 unaltered and consistent — the same firm and affec- 
 tionate friend* — the same conscientious and fear- 
 less minister of his crucified Master — the same 
 mild, benevolent, and high-principled man, the same 
 most unostentatious, but fervent and sincere Chris- 
 tian. May his example shine, when the hand that 
 holds the pen shall be dust ! 
 
 * Lord Viscount Weymouth, at whose noble mansion, after 
 twenty years residence, he died. He was buried at the nearest 
 churchyard of his former diocese, at Frome, and lies just under 
 the east window of the parish church. 
 
HISTORICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 
 DOCUMENTS AND REFLECTIONS. 
 
 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON TflE 
 EIKftN BASIAIKH. 
 
 Respecting the different opinions lately published on 
 the Ewuv BoottiKH, by my friend Mr. Todd, and the Master 
 of Trinity, I might indeed say — 
 
 NON NOSTRUM TANTAS COMPONERE LITES. 
 
 but 1 have given some reasons which I think would in- 
 cline us to believe that, after all, in this case, as in gene- 
 ral, the truth lies between two extremes. 
 
 The Master of Trinity is convinced that King Charles 
 wrote the whole of Icon ; Mr. Todd, that he wrote not a 
 word of it: my conviction is neither wholly with one nor 
 the other. I have noticed a most material fact, spoken 
 of by Kennet. This slight allusion led instantly to the 
 idea of a connection between the person mentioned and 
 the King's most faithful and confidential friend ; and 
 this circumstance, on inquiry, accidentally receives the 
 fullest corroboration. There was, at the time, a Mr. 
 Symons, Minister of Rayne. The parish is in the gift 
 of the family of Capel, as patrons. This Mr. Symons 
 is presented to the living, not by Lord Capel's father, 
 as I first conceived, but by Lord Capel himself. Bock- 
 ing is the next parish, of which Gauden was Rector. 
 That some papers of King Charles were, through the 
 Capels, intrusted to their friend, the Pastor of their 
 parish, seems to me evident ; and that, also, they were 
 
218 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 intrusted by Symons to Gauden, the Rector of the 
 nearest parish. Symonds died soon after. Jn the year 
 1660 died also the desolate Lady Capel. These were 
 the only persons who could have told the truth, when 
 the claim was made. This evidence is external. I shall 
 now say a word of the internal evidence. The Master 
 of Trinity, with the warmth which every one naturally 
 feels before he has paid greater attention to all the 
 circumstances — and which warmth does credit to his 
 heart — instantly, from these generous feelings, decides 
 that Charles wrote the zvhole. 
 
 Mr. Todd has brought Gaudenisms from Gauden's 
 writings, which induce him to decide that the whole 
 tissue is Gauden's elaborate and tawdry manufacture. 
 
 Now 1 will take only the first chapter. I would say to 
 the Master of Trinity, you recollect the words of Horace — 
 
 Si vis me flere, dolendum est — 
 
 and another passage — 
 
 Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba. 
 
 I would ask the Master — can you, after the most atten- 
 tive critical reflection, believe that any man, under real 
 sorrow, would or could write as follows: 
 
 " Although I was not forgetful of those sparks which 
 some men's distempers formerly studied to kindle in Par- 
 liament (which by forbearing to convene for some years 
 1 hoped to have extinguished), resolving," &c* 
 
 Here is an almost interminable sentence, in which 
 "sparks" are "kindled" by "distempers" (in the true 
 style of cockney eloquence!) which the writer "hoped 
 to have extinguished-" and, before this jiaring metaphor 
 is "extinguished " before the sentence is finished, he tells 
 
 '* Sec Eikcov BaaiXiKij, chap. i. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 219 
 
 us that he doubted not the "weight of reason" would 
 "counterpoise the over-balancing" of* any factions ! 
 Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi — 
 
 the whole composition, with the exception of two 
 chapters, is thus "sicklied o'er" with tawdry affectations 
 and cold metaphysical ornaments, as repugnant to taste 
 as to feeling; and yet who has read this work, even 
 with these grotesque additions, without an impression 
 in favour of the King? Why is this? Because there 
 are some passages which, through all the glittering en- 
 velopement, steal out and interest us, as dignified and 
 affecting; and our heart, thus impressed, involuntarily, 
 and before critical discrimination, is disposed to pro- 
 nounce as our natural sympathies incline us. 
 
 If I am not mistaken, I could with little pains unravel 
 the whole tawdry texture. The first chapter will not 
 be so fit for our purpose; but I take the first chapter as 
 it comes, and set before the reader a small part of it, 
 as, according to my ideas, it might have been originally 
 written. Omit the first seventeen lines, and begin at 
 this sentence : 
 
 " No man was better pleased with the convening of 
 this Parliament than myself, who, knowing best my own 
 heart towards my people's contentment, pleased myself 
 with the hope of that understanding which would have 
 grown between us. 
 
 " My own and my children's interests gave me many 
 obligations to seek the love of my subjects, the greatest 
 honour and safety of just monarchs, next to God's pro- 
 tection." 
 
 This will be sufficient to show my meaning. I think 
 the whole texture might be thus unravelled. 
 
220 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 In the last sentence of this first chapter, poor Charles, 
 the dignified but afflicted King, is no longer visible; 
 the Rector of Bocking stares out 
 
 Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry. 
 
 Thus — "Our sins being ripe, there was no preventing 
 God's justice from reaping that glory, in our calamities, 
 which we robbed him of in our prosperity!" Here is 
 metaphor and antithesis, such as betray an artificial and 
 heartless writer— without comparing passages of the 
 kind in Gauden's own writings. 
 
 The same tazvdriness, and cold affectation of metaphy- 
 sical antithesis, the refuge of unfeeling minds, are more 
 visible in the Meditations subjoined to this chapter. 
 
 "Oh! thou Sovereign Goodness and Wisdom, who 
 overrulest our counsels, overrule also our hearts, that, the 
 worse we suffer by justice, the better we may be for thy 
 mercy." Here is "overruled counsels opposed to over- 
 ruled hearts," " zcorse" things opposed to " better," and 
 "justice" to " mercy," in one sentence! but mark what 
 follows: "As the sins of our peace disposed us to this 
 unhappy war, so let this war prepare us for blessed 
 peace." "As our sins have turned our antidotes to 
 poison, so let thy grace turn our poison to antidotes .'" And 
 vet how simple and dignified is the following passage: 
 
 " I do not repent of calling this last Parliament, be- 
 cause, O Lord ! I did it with an upright intention! Oh ! 
 Lord, though thou hast deprived me of many former 
 comforts, still give us that patience which becomes thy 
 children." 
 
 There are more of these chaster and affecting pas- 
 sages in other chapters than the first, which is almost 
 entirely enveloped; but I am inclined to think we have 
 Charles alone, or fur the greatest part, in the Prayer 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 221 
 
 on the Liturgy, or on being deprived of his Chaplains; 
 though Gaudenisms may be detected in these. 
 
 The importance of this subject, and the inquiry by 
 two scholars, both deserving so well of Literature, will 
 plead my excuse for entering so far into this detail. 
 My own opinion is completely, and on the most atten-r 
 tive investigation, settled ; and I feel confident, if any 
 one pursues the same plan, with the same care, putting 
 together the external evidence, from the small circum- 
 stance incidentally mentioned by Kennet, (the fact of 
 a Diary, and some Prayers, composed by the King, in 
 his desolation,) and the internal evidence, by such an 
 examination as I have proposed, he will come to nearly 
 the same conclusion. 
 
 We must remember, at the same time, whilst we en- 
 deavour to show the portions which Charles might have 
 written of the Icon, what a writer of Gauden's taste would 
 have left out. I have no doubt, if King Lear had been 
 intrusted to him in the original for revisal, he would have 
 omitted all those passages which most deeply affect us. 
 
 The explanation I have submitted is so plain, so 
 clear, so probable, so consistent in all its parts, so mi- 
 nutely and circumstantially corroborated, that the won- 
 der is, it has not been brought more particularly forward 
 among the arguments which this subject has furnished. 
 
 Let me add, that Gauden seems, from his prior charac- 
 ter, to have been the last man in the world who, of his 
 own accord, we should imagine, would have originated 
 the idea of the sad " portraicture of his Majesty" in 
 his troubles, and that therefore some peculiar circum- 
 stances must have excited his attention to the subject. 
 We may well conceive the papers of which he got pos- 
 session excited the idea, and formed the basis of the 
 execution. 
 
222 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 OXFORD AFTER THE PARLIAMENT-VISITA- 
 TION IN 1647, TO 1652; DECLINE OF FANA- 
 TICAL FEELINGS THROUGH THE NATION; 
 CAUSES, &c. 
 
 As this subject is of importance, I shall here first 
 sketch the principal circumstances and characters of 
 the scene at the time of this celebrated Visitation more 
 distinctly, and afterwards point out some of the causes 
 which led to a more sober spirit, both in the University 
 and through the Nation. 
 
 Before the visitation, particular preachers had been 
 appointed to take possession of the pulpits, for the pur- 
 pose of "enlightening" the University on the subject of 
 their purification. 
 
 After this, a deputation is nominated, with powers to 
 decide and examine on the spot; and their characters 
 may be conceived, when Cheynell and Prynne are enu- 
 merated. 
 
 But the University being equally obdurate to the long 
 sermons and authoritative citations, more decisive steps 
 are necessary ; and now comes the puissant Lord Pem- 
 broke—deputed by the Presbyterian Parliament, against 
 the sense of the University, which had before rejected 
 him, — Chancellor — in person. 
 
 He is received at Merton gates, with an oration, by 
 the illustrious Cheynell. The next morning, previously 
 to citing the refractory Heads of Houses, the same 
 o-enerous chevalier who heroically spurned into the 
 grave of the departed Chillingworth his great work, 
 heads a troop of soldiers to dispossess, vi et armis, Mrs. 
 Fell, the wife of the Dean of Christ-Church. They place 
 her in the quadrangle — frustra lingua, manibus, pedibus, 
 reclamante — whilst they valiantly occupy the evacuated 
 premises! Cheynell succeeds Dr. Bailey, the ejected 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 223 
 
 head of St. John's. Reynolds, afterwards Presbyterian 
 Bishop of Norwich, is nominated Dean of Christ- 
 Church, the names of the former Dean, Canons, &c. 
 being struck out. It is a singular coincidence, that 
 Reynolds himself refusing to take the engagement to 
 Cromwell, Mrs. Reynolds is dispossessed with the same 
 courtesy as that to which she was indebted for possession. 
 
 But a more important consideration presents itself, 
 which, as far as I know, has never yet been explained. 
 It is this. Every historian knows, that most of the 
 great living lights of the University had been extin- 
 guished, by the expulsion of so many of her loyal and 
 pious and learned sons, as " scandalous and malignant." 
 Now, in the short period of ten years, at the eve of 
 Cromwell's life, Oxford again appeared the nurse of 
 learning and science, and piety — piety far different 
 from the illiterate fanaticism that characterized the 
 spurious religion and distempered code of such minds 
 as Cheynell, the Goliath of the Party. How shall we 
 account for this ? From four especial causes : 
 
 First, fanatic and illiterate Puritanism became of 
 itself tired and worn out, when "surplices," "square- 
 caps," organs, Bishops, and Deans, no longer daily pro- 
 voked its spleen and excited invidious irritation. The 
 Nation had "leisure to be wise." The examples of the 
 uncomplaining and illustrious set of good men deprived 
 and dispossessed, gave those of sense and judgment 
 leisure to reflect, if not to appropriate the worth of 
 many blameless characters whose lot had been so hard : 
 
 Virtutera incolume odimusm, 
 Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus. 
 
 Secondly, Cromwell used the illiterate and insaner reli- 
 gionists, but never trusted or consulted them. He chose 
 
224 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 as bis councillors, not merely men of academical edu- 
 cation — Milton, Marlowe, Whitelock, Wilkins, Owen 
 — but those whose learning and science were politically 
 useful to him. 
 
 Thirdly, the insaner pietists, on the "Engagement 
 to be faithful to the Protectorate" — being tendered, 
 chose to suffer in their turns rather than comply; and 
 thus Cheynell was ejected from the Headship of St. 
 John's, as he had been appointed contrary to the Sta- 
 tutes, on the ejection of Dr. Baillie ; and in the same 
 manner Owen succeeded Reynolds as Dean of Christ- 
 Church. 
 
 Fourthly, which T consider the chief cause, the pub- 
 lic chartered schools, Westminster, Eton, Winchester, 
 Merchant-Taylors, St. Paul's, Charter-House, &c. stood 
 like rocks amid the deluge that swept for a time sober 
 piety and learning away. 
 
 Cromwell intended at one time to smite to its foun- 
 dations the school which nursed the virtues and piety of 
 Ken. The stroke was providentially, and by a son of 
 Wykeham, averted. I allude to the story of Colonel 
 Fiennes, who, when the orders for destruction had 
 issued, remembered the oath he had taken to do no 
 injury to those walls, and by him (apparently acciden- 
 tally, but surely we might say providentially,) the des- 
 truction was averted. 
 
 From the time that Oxford mourned the loss of her 
 loval and pious, and eloquent and gifted sons, in 1647, 
 the streams* from whence they themselves had imbibed 
 their learning and piety were still silently pouring in 
 their intellectual and moral supplies ; and hence, not 
 long after the University lost Chillingworth, it received 
 
 * Jeremy Taylor, Chillingworth, &c. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 225 
 
 Locke from Westminster.* Not long after Hammond 
 had turned his farewell look on his beloved Christ- 
 Church, Wotton educated at Eton, and Ken from Win- 
 chester, succeeded. Wilkins's lodging at Wadham was, 
 as we have said, the germ of the future Royal Society. 
 
 A few scientific persons had indeed met first in 
 London, before the storm, among whom was Wilkins ; 
 but their progress was interrupted by the growing fana- 
 ticism of the times. The amiable and philosophic Boyle 
 lodged at Oxford in 1655, and settled on the deprived 
 Dr. Sanderson £50 annuity, 1657. Sanderson was one 
 of the composers of the famous Polyglot Bible, edited 
 by Bryan Walton, l657,t of which, and the manly ad- 
 dress to Cromwell, we have spoken. 
 
 It is true the "Tryers" of Cromwell impeded this 
 steady march, but they could not stop it, and the rest 
 followed in train. [ rather think the Tryers hastened 
 the completion, for w r hat contempt must have been 
 excited when such Judges were about to dismiss the 
 great and learned Pocock for ignorance! 
 
 Selden died in Ki54,f and left his books to the Bod- 
 leian. This wonderful example of virtue and learning 
 had taken the Covenant, but his works sufficiently 
 
 * I speak not of his philosophy, but the calm complexion of 
 his studious, literary, and pious life. 
 
 \ That most stupendous monument of piety and learning 
 by the ejected Clergy, has been spoken of. 
 
 % It was his custom, when advanced in years, to mark pas- 
 sages in books by leaving his spectacles in the place. When 
 his books, left to the Bodleian, were removed from his library 
 (about 8,000 volumes), several pairs of spectacles were found 
 between the leaves. What would an antiquary now give for 
 
 vol. i. a 
 
226 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 manifested his disdain of the Puritans. Skinner, the 
 tutor of Chillingworth at Trinity, was one of those 
 anti-christian Pi-eiates whose life was threatened in the 
 beginning of the Presbyterian Parliament, and still or- 
 dained in private. 
 
 Hammond, in \655, published his "Practical Ca- 
 techism," which made a great impression, as the nu- 
 merous editions attest. It called forth CheyneJl as an 
 antagonist! but his own party pitied and derided the 
 effort, though he had "his own Holy Ghost" to assist 
 him in the cause, against the darkling Hammond. 
 
 Among the publications which must have made a still 
 further impression amid the fierce contentions of dispu- 
 tatious faith, was the work to which we have so often 
 referred, "The Contemplative Man's Recreation!" It 
 was first published in 1642; another edition was called 
 for in 1655, the year in which Hammond's " Practical 
 Catechism " was published. The motto from Scripture 
 alone would have excited attention in that age: " Simon 
 Peter said, I go a fishing." This motto must have 
 been striking, if Scripture had any weight with those to 
 whom all recreation appeared as sin! 
 
 Izaak Walton's attachment to Episcopacy was well 
 known from his Life of Donne, Dean of St. Paul's. All 
 Deans and all Bishops, therefore, could not be such Anti- 
 christs as they had been represented ! What a contrast to 
 the infuriated piety of the age did the " Contemplative 
 Man's Recreation " present ! Walton never concealed 
 his sincere attachment to the Church," — and these sen- 
 
 that identical pair (if in existence) which Barlow gave to 
 Anthony k Wood, and which, he tells us, " he kept in memorie 
 of Selden to his last day." 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 227 
 
 ti merits coming from a man who could have no in- 
 terested views, — particularly when all claimed the rights 
 of conscience, — must have disposed the more reflecting 
 Christians to imagine, after all, a meek and humble 
 spirit might dwell even with those who were Episco- 
 palians ! 
 
 -The " Religio Medici" of Sir Thomas Brown, 1G4-, 
 translated into almost all the languages of Europe, 
 was again reprinted; and now Calvinism received a 
 deep wound by the translation into English of San- 
 croft's "Fur PrjEDESTInatus ;" and the visible effects 
 of this dismal creed made the reflecting almost ashamed 
 of the name. 
 
 How silently and steadily these causes began to work, 
 after the "godly" Visitation, may be further seen from 
 some circumstances connected with the academical life 
 of the great George Bull, in his extreme old age made 
 Bishop of St. David's, author of some of the most 
 substantial and eloquent works of religious reasoning 
 amongst the illustrious host of the writers in the Church 
 of England. He was not at Oxford at the time of 
 the Visitation, but he refused to take the " Engage- 
 ment,"* and retired to North Cadbury, in Somer- 
 ersetshire. Here he was placed under a Puritan Clergy- 
 man, Mr. Thomas, the Minister of Ubley. The books 
 put into his hands were of Thomas's wretched school; 
 but his own son furnished him secretly with the works 
 of Hammond and Taylor, to the consternation of the 
 father, who exclaimed, " his son would corrupt his pu- 
 pil ! " Such works, who can doubt, must have had 
 their weight with thousands, now beginning to reflect 
 and compare. Bull was privately ordained by the Tutor 
 
 * Oath of allegiance to Cromwell. 
 
 a2 
 
228 
 
 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 of Chillingwortb, ex-Bishop of Oxford,* and he regu- 
 larly passed two months in every year at Oxford, till 
 the Restoration. So died away that spirit of insane 
 Puritanism which had ruled so Ions:. 
 
 But, it should seem, the serpent is again uncoiling, 
 again lifting himself up from his long slumber. The 
 Scholastic-Theologian f is awakened from his sleep, who 
 lived only to witness the first fruits of that dragon's 
 teeth which he, and some of his predecessors, innocently 
 sowed. The jargon of these times is already revived j 
 and, even in the beatified apocalypse of Scotch second- 
 sight, the reign of King Jesus is approaching. 
 
 * The following notice of Bishop Skinner, from Kettel's 
 Register, No. 171, the reader will perhaps think interesting: 
 
 Trinity College. — " Robertus Skinner, natus apud North- 
 amptonium, in com. Northamp. dioces. Petriburgens. annoru' 
 16 admissus est Scholaris Junii 2° a« 1607. Admissus Socius 
 Junii 3o ao D'm* 1613." 
 
 Of Chillingwortb, his pupil, in the same Register, No. 199, 
 is the following entry : 
 
 " Gulielmul Chillingworth, natus in perochia (sic) Sti Mar- 
 tini, in Civitat. Oxon. Annorum 16 admissus est Scholaris 2° 
 die Junii, anno Dom. 1618. Admissus est Socius 10o die Junii 
 1628." 
 
 Skinner, who had been Fellow and Tutor at Trinity College, 
 is said to have been the only Bishop who continued to ordain 
 Priests and Deacons, according to the rites and ceremonies of 
 the Church of England, during the suppression of the Hier- 
 archy. Chillingworth had been one of his pupils, when a Fel- 
 low of the College; and Bathurst, afterwards President and 
 Dean of Wells, assisted him as examining Chaplain. 
 
 -j- Bishop Davenant. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 2'2i) 
 
 SUPPRESSION AND REVIVAL OF 
 CATHEDRAL SERVICES. 
 
 " After cathedrals and organs were put down in the 
 grand Rebellion," says the same quaint and delightful 
 chronicler* we have before quoted, " William Ellis, 
 bachelor of music, and late organist of St. John's col- 
 lege, kept up a weekly meeting in his house opposite 
 to that place where the Theatre was afterwards built, 
 which kept him and his wife in a comfortable condition. 
 The meeting was much frequented, and many masters 
 of music were there, and such that had belonged to 
 choirs, being out of all employ, and therefore the meeting, 
 as all other music-meetings, did nourish; and music, 
 especially vocal, being discountenanced by the Presby- 
 terians and Independents, because it favoured much the 
 cathedrals and episcopacy, it was the more used. But 
 when King Charles was restored, and episcopacy, and 
 cathedrals with it, then did the meetings decay, espe- 
 cially for this reason, because the masters of music were 
 called away to cathedrals and collegiate choirs." 
 
 Besides the members of the club which joined it about 
 the same time with Ken, there were other earlier members, 
 whom Anthony a Wood thus describes : 
 
 "The usual company that met and performed their 
 parts were : 
 
 "Joh. Cock, M.A. Fellow of New College by the 
 authority of the Visitors! He afterwards became Rec- 
 tor of Heyford-Wareyne, near Bister; and marrying 
 with one of the Woodwards of Woodstock, lived an un- 
 comfortable life with her. 
 
 "John Jones, M.A. Fellow of the same College by. 
 the same authority. 
 
 * Anthonv a Wood. 
 
230 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 "George Croke, M.A. Fellow of the said College 
 also, by the same authority. He was afterwards drowned, 
 with Brome, son of Brome Whorvvood, of Hatton; near 
 Oxon, in their passage from Hampshire to the Isle of 
 Wight, 5 Sept. 1657- 
 
 "John Friend, M.A. Fellow also of the said house, 
 and by the same authority. He died in the country an. 
 1658. 
 
 " George Stradling, M.A. Fellow of All Soul's Col- 
 lege, an admirable lutinist, and much respected by Wil- 
 son the professor. 
 
 " Ralph Sheldon, gent, a Roman Catholic of Steple- 
 Barton, in Oxfordshire, at this time living in Halywell, 
 near Oxon; admired for his smooth and admirable way 
 in playing on the viol. He died in the city of West- 
 minster, in 165.., and was buried in the chancel of the 
 church of St. Martin in the Fields. 
 
 " Thomas Wren, a younger son of Matthew Wren, 
 Bishop of Ely, a sojournour now in the house of Francis 
 Rowman, bookseller, living in St. Marie's parish, in 
 Oxon. 
 
 '* Thomas James (or Janes), M. A. of Magdalen Col- 
 lege, would be among them, but seldome played. He 
 had a weekly meeting in his chamber at the college, 
 practised much on the Theorbo lute, and Gervase West- 
 cote being often with him as an instructor, A. W. would 
 sometimes go to their meeting, and play with them. 
 
 "The music-masters, who were not in Oxon, and fre- 
 quented the said meeting, were: 
 
 " William Ellis, bachelor of music, owner of the 
 house wherein the meeting was. He alwaies played his 
 part either on the organ or virginal. 
 
 "Dr. John Wilson, the public professor, the best at 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 
 
 231 
 
 the lute in all England. He sometimes played on the 
 lute, but mostly presided the consort. 
 
 '* Curteys, a lutinist, lately ejected from some 
 
 choire or cathedral church. After his Majestie's restora- 
 tion, he became gentleman, or singing-man, of Christ 
 Church, in Oxon. 
 
 " Thomas Jackson, a bass-violist, afterwards one of 
 the choire of St. John's College, in Oxon. 
 
 " Edward Low, organist, lately of Christ Church. 
 He play'd only on the organ ; so, when he performed 
 his part, Mr. Ellis would take up a counter-tenor viol, 
 and play, if any person were wanting to performe that 
 part. 
 
 " Gervace Littleton alias Westcot, or Westcot alias 
 Littleton, a violist. He was afterwards a singing-man 
 of St. John's College. 
 
 " William Glexney (or Flexney), who had belonged 
 to a choire before the warr. He was afterwards a gen- 
 tleman, or singing-man, of Christ Church. He play'd 
 well upon the bass-viol, and sometimes sung his part. 
 He died 6 Nov. 1692, aged 79 or thereabouts. 
 
 " Proctor, a young man and a new comer. He 
 
 died soon after. 
 
 " John Parker, one of the universitie musitians, would 
 be somtimes among them; but Mr. Low, a proud man, 
 could not endure any common musitian to come to the 
 meeting, much less to play among them. 
 
 " Among these I must put John Haselwood, an apo- 
 thecary, a starch' d, formal clisterpipe, who usually play'd 
 on the bass-viol, and sometimes on the counter tenor. 
 He was very conceited of his skill (though he had but 
 little of it), and therefore would be ever and anon ready 
 to take up a viol before his betters; which being ob- 
 served by all, they usually called him Handlezcood" — 
 Wood. 
 
232 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 Thus we find that those who had before belonged to 
 Cathedrals, after the Restoration left these musical 
 meetings, and took their places in the revived Choirs. 
 The affecting responses of Tallis again resounded, and 
 this great Father of the English Cathedral Service led 
 the way to Purcell, King, Greene, Kent, &c. 
 
 As a conclusion to the musical account, the reader 
 will accept the following lines : 
 
 On the poor Blind Man of Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
 There is a poor Blind Man, who every day, 
 
 In frost or snow, in sunshine or in rain — 
 
 Duly as tolls the bell —to the high fane, 
 
 Explores, with faltering footsteps, his dark way, 
 
 To kneel before his Maker, and to hear 
 
 The chaunted service, pealing full and clear. 
 
 Ask why, alone, in the same spot he kneels 
 
 Through the long year ? Oh ! the wide world is cold, 
 
 As dark, to him : Here, he no longer feels 
 
 His sad bereavement — Faith and Hope uphold 
 
 His heart — he feels not he is poor and blind, 
 
 Amid the unpitying tumult of mankind : 
 
 His soul is in the choirs above the skies, 
 
 And songs, far off, of angel-companies. 
 
 Oh! happy, if the Rich— the Vain— the Proud — 
 The pageant-actors of the motley crowd, — 
 Since life is a " poor play'r" — our days a span — 
 Would learn one Lesson from a poor Blind Man* 
 
 * The English Cathedral music has a peculiar character of 
 
 cience, simplicity, dignity, and devotion. Attempts have been 
 
 made to introduce Mozart, and some of the finest of the foreign 
 
 Masters, but their compositions are ill-adapted to English 
 
 words, and the attempt, in my opinion, has completely foiled. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 2'SJ 
 
 DOMINATION OF PRESBYTERIAN AND 
 INDEPENDENT PURITANISM. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Bishops Abbot, Ba- 
 bington, King, Usher, Hall, Davenant, Morton, and 
 other ornaments of the Episcopal Church of England, 
 in the time of James, and the early part of King Charles 
 the First, supported, to a certain degree, Calvinistic 
 doctrines, without being at all aware, at the time, of the 
 natural anti-episcopal tendency of those doctrines, and 
 that the Geneva creed is most naturally connected with 
 Geneva discipline. 
 
 This was visible as soon as Calvinistic predestina- 
 rianism had gained, under their own fostering, its full 
 growth and strength, and power. Bishop Dave- 
 nant closed his eyes in death, smitten with the sad 
 apprehension of the consequences of the triumphs of 
 his sub-lapsarian sophistries, which he, like Usher, lived 
 long enough to foresee and deplore, but not prevent. 
 But the most extraordinary circumstance is, that they 
 who, over the prostrate altars of the Episcopal Church, 
 waved the banner of the "Solemn League and Co- 
 venant," should dare to accuse those who remained 
 faithful, as Innovators! Laud, we have seen, the 
 most strenuous and the most rash, was sentenced to be 
 "hanged, drawn, and quartered," for "impairing the 
 true faith," and introducing "innovations" in reli- 
 gion! Now the only "innovators" were those who 
 subscribed the "Solemn League and Covenant" against 
 Episcopacy; and, so much did this obvious fact strike 
 the Presbyterian Parliament, that they commanded an 
 Exhortation to be read in all parts of the Kingdom, 
 to show, very lamely, indeed, that they were not the 
 
234 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 Innovators, when they must have been conscious, at 
 all events, they were. For no one could deny that Epis- 
 copacy had been the form of Church-government since 
 the time Christianity had a footing in Britain. The 
 Presbyterian Parliament, then, was the innovator, and 
 the Presbyterian Parliament was conscious of being so. 
 As to Bishops being the same as Presbyters, this is, and 
 has been always, a mere assumption ; and the cham- 
 pion of John Knox's school, Henderson, was as much 
 foiled in argument by Charles the First, as the Philis- 
 tine giant by the sling and stone of David. 
 
 Now the proof of the Parliament being conscious 
 that they were the "innovators," is ascertained from 
 an Ordinance, entitled, " The Ordinance of the Lords 
 and Commons, enjoining the taking the late Solemn 
 League and Covenant through the Kingdom of 
 England and Dominion of Wales, with Instructions, 
 and an Exhortation, for satisfying such scruples as may 
 arise thereupon: 7 These "scruples" which every one 
 would necessarily entertain who thought St. Paul a bet- 
 ter instructor than John Knox, were answered by such 
 infallible reasons as these : " If it be said the extirpa- 
 tion of Prelacy (standing as yet by the known Laws of 
 the Kingdom) is new and unwarrantable, this will 
 appear to all impartial understandings, though new, 
 not only to be warrantable but necessary" * 
 
 Here is at once an admission of the novelty. It 
 was undoubtedly "unwarrantable" if the assumption of 
 a Presbyterian Parliament — instead of the Pope and 
 Council — were infallibly to decide; but it was admitted 
 that theirs was the "novelty," — and, if so, the innova- 
 tion ! Their assumed infallibility does not prove that 
 * Exhortation to take the Covenant. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 235 
 
 the alteration of the whole Church-Government, which 
 had received the sanction of men as good and wise as 
 themselves through so many ages, was either "warrant- 
 able " or " necessary ! " 
 
 It was the human infallibility of the Cardinals of John 
 Knox's Church, which could pacify all scruples at once, 
 by deciding ex cathedra (the Speaker being Pope of 
 this Presbyterian Parliament) that Episcopacy was "a 
 great hindrance to a perfect Reformation ! " A 
 conscientious Christian would be as little convinced by 
 this dictation of infallible Presbyterians as by that of 
 an infallible Pope and Council ! 
 
 In 1643, Bishops, Deans, and Chapters were abolished, 
 and the lands sold. The creed and discipline of the 
 Church of Geneva was now established through Eng- 
 land. It attained its highest ascendancy and domina- 
 tion, when all London was divided into " Twelve Syno- 
 dical Elderships," according to the following Ordi- 
 nance : 
 
 " August 19, 1645, die Martis. Ordered by the Lords 
 assembled in Parliament, that these directions for 
 electing Elders? in particular Congregations and 
 Clerical Assemblies, be forthwith printed and published. 
 — T. Brown, Cler. Par." 
 
 These directions were entitled as follows: 
 
 " Directions of the Lords and Commons assembled in 
 Parliament, after advice had with the Assembly of 
 Divines, for electing and choosing Rulers and 
 Elders in all the Congregations and Clerical Assem- 
 blies for the Cities of London and Westminster, 
 and the several Counties of the Kingdom, and for the 
 speedy settling the PRESBYTERIAN GOVERN- 
 MENT." 
 
 This was the golden rem of Prynne and Cheynell, 
 
236 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 when there were no bells, no singing-boys, no stage- 
 players — when no longer Milton could 
 
 Hear the solemn organ blow 
 To the full-voiced choir below ; 
 
 Or — 
 
 The merry bells ring round, 
 
 And the jocund rebeck's sound, 
 To many a youth, and many a maid, 
 Dancing in the checker'd shade. 
 
 Still less could he repair 
 
 To the well-trod stage anon, 
 
 When Jonson's learned sock was on, 
 Or sweetest Shakspeare, Nature's child, 
 Warbled his native wood-notes wild ! 
 
 The whole kingdom was now all wrapt in gloomy god- 
 liness. John Knox was every where triumphant. No 
 question was asked, unless it were for "edification!" 
 The woe-begone children were strictly examined as to 
 their knowledge of "God's decrees, according to 
 the Assembly's Catechism!" and the babe was rocked 
 in his cradle to the psalm-tune of old Milton,* the 
 father of the poet. 
 
 In 1647, not a "square-cap" was to be seen; Christ- 
 mas was a fast! and Ash- Wednesday a feast! under 
 
 the sect — 
 
 Whose chief distinction lies 
 
 In odd, perverse antipathies — 
 
 who — 
 
 — — Keep holiday 
 
 The tvrong, as others the right way. 
 Not a sound of an "ungodly" rebeck was heard 
 through all the Twelve Si/nodical Departments of the 
 Presbytery, from Holborn to St. Mary Axe. No idola- 
 trous image was seen in a Church, except the solitary 
 * York tune, in our collections. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 237 
 
 " hour-glass" at the elbow of Hugh Peters, " the preacher 
 of the Lord," who, as often as he turned, with that 
 vulgar smirk and jocose leer which the Elect of the day 
 knew so well how to interpose in their long discourses 
 — invited his "humming"* audience to take "another 
 glass ! " 
 
 No amusement or recreation of any kind, through 
 town or country, was permitted to provoke a rueful 
 smile on the sour visages of those who were "predes- 
 tined to eternal happiness and glory in another world," 
 save when a " scandalous and malignant" clergy- 
 man, deprived for conscience sake of all he had, was 
 hunted and insulted for being idolatrous ! f or forty or 
 fifty poor old women were drowned or burnt, for being so 
 wicked as to bewitch ministers' daughters! 
 
 But the solemn Presbyter had scarce time to look 
 round, with grim congratulation, ere his predestinating 
 u ears "% were stunned with 
 
 The universal hubbub loud — 
 of all "accursed tolerated Sects," § now frantic v/ith im- 
 mediate inspiration, and deriding the synods of the 
 horrified Elders! Every soldier now had his "small 
 gift" of prayers and preaching. The Presbyterian 
 Ministers were "carnal" — Synods were "carnal." 
 Now Cromwell stood forth in the strength the "Lord" 
 had given him. The Presbyterian Parliament is dis- 
 missed — Prynne addresses, with his predestinating ears 
 
 * A general hum in a congregation was a proof of appro- 
 bation. 
 
 f This was the case with the learned Bryan Walton. See 
 Life of Welton, &c. 
 
 X So Dryden: "and prick'd up his predestinating ears" 
 The hair was cut short, and, during the interminable sermons, 
 the fore-finger placed behind the ear. 
 
 § Publication by Prynne. 
 
238 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 cut short, his " Brief Memento to the present unparlia- 
 mentary Junto! by William Prynne, a Member of the 
 House of Commons, a prisoner under the Army's t} r - 
 ranny ! " Whilst Lilly, the astrologer, sings " lauds to 
 the stars," that Oliver has turned out the Presbyte- 
 rians, "far more oppressive than the Bishops or 
 Turks!" 
 
 Five years sufficed to put an end to this spiritual do- 
 mination of Presbyterian Synods, after Episcopacy had 
 been destroyed ; and here let us pursue, for a moment, 
 the mighty triumph of all-tolerant Independancy, under 
 my Lord Protector and the Spiritual Lords, of his Parlia- 
 ment — the Lord Lambert — the Lord Desborough — the 
 Lord Whitelock — the Lord Nathaniel Fiennes — the 
 Lord Lenthall, &c. 
 
 Still " Holiness " was the watchword of all the 
 saintly Major-Generals of the Army and Parliament; 
 but in less than ten years they attained their ascend- 
 ancy and zenith, their decline and extinction. They at- 
 attained the zenith when, in l6oG, the Quaker, James 
 Nayler, was condemned for having somewhat exceeded 
 them in blasphemy ; and we shall set before the reader 
 a few circumstances to show the spirit of these sera- 
 phic Major-Generals, from authority that cannot be 
 gainsaid — taken at the time by Burton, whose unvar- 
 nished but invaluable Diary has lately been published. 
 
 The Star-Chamber of Lord Mountcashel, pronouncing 
 his decision on the "really pious," seems constituted 
 after the express pattern of Oliver Cromwell, both in 
 letter and spirit. 
 
 Thursday, April 7, 1653, it was resolved in Parliament 
 — "that no person shall be employed or admitted into 
 the service of this House, but such as the House shall 
 be first satisfied of his real godliness ! " 
 
 How will my worthy and benevolent friends, the 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 239 
 
 Quakers, be astonished to learn that, under this "real 
 godly" Parliament, they are classed among the disso- 
 lute rogues wandering about with pipes and fiddles I 
 
 Mr. .Ashe (December 5, 1656) — *' Yet seeing they are 
 dissolute persons, comprehended in the Act, let them be 
 confined to two miles, or to the parishes." 
 
 Dr. Clarges. — "Give liberty for five miles, that you 
 may suppress the Quakers, who greatly increase, and 
 pester and endanger the Commonwealth." 
 
 Major Audley. — "Ascertain what the individuum va- 
 gum is, lest it be quidam homo, any man. I would have 
 the persons ascertained. If they be Quakers, I would 
 freely give my consent that they should be whipped!" 
 
 And now comes the nucleus of the question on religi- 
 ous toleration, respecting James Nai/ler. 
 
 Major-General Boteler. — "We are all here, Sir, I 
 hope, for the glory of God! By the Mosaic Law, 
 blasphemers were to be stoned to death ! and for my 
 part, if this sentence should pass upon him, I could 
 freely consent to it. If we vindicate not the name of 
 Christ in this — He will vindicate himself!" 
 
 This is nearly as mild, but not quite so blasphemous, 
 as the "really pious" Mr. Case telling the Parliament 
 to " strike," if God would not. 
 
 But let us hear "my Lord Lambert," who says with a 
 sigh — " It is a matter of sadness to many men's hearts, 
 and sadness also to mine, especially in regard to his re- 
 lation some time to me. He was two years my Quar- 
 ter-master, &c. He was a man of very unblameable 
 life and conversation, and member of a sweet Society of 
 an Independant Church." Lambert's opinion is, how- 
 ever, worthy a sensible man and a Christian. 
 
 The whole of the debate on this wretched enthusiast, 
 not more enthusiastic, and certainly less ferocious and 
 bloody, than many among them, resembles more the de- 
 
240 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 bate in a Pandemonium than of Christian Legislators. 
 
 Mr. Church proposed, secundum Oliver and Harrison, 
 "to set apart one of these days to seek God in this busi- 
 ness!" I believe this is the first instance, when these 
 soldiers, lords, and gentlemen referred " to the Lord," 
 that the person on whose account they so solemnly 
 referred escaped with life; but what was Prynne's 
 punishment to Nayler's ? This Mr. Church's reasons 
 for "seeking the Lord" were such as became the reso- 
 lution: "If we do not tender God's honour, He will 
 not honour us."* 
 
 Nayler being brought to the bar, refused to kneel, or 
 put off his hat; but remark the language of his Judges! 
 
 " Mr. Speaker asked him of his name and country ; 
 whereupon he answered after the OLD WAY OF 
 CANTING ! " Who but must smile at these men ac- 
 cusing Nayler of " canting!" 
 
 He told them — " You have been a long time under 
 dark forms, neglecting the Powers of Godliness !" 
 
 Major-General Skippon's judgment is indeed worthy 
 a Major-General: "God now looks what you will do- 
 These Quakers, Ranters, Levellers, Socinians, and 
 ALL SORTS, bolster themselves under thirty-seven 
 and thirty-eight of Governmentf (that such as profess 
 faith in God by Jesus Christ, &c. shall be protected in 
 the profession of their faith and exercise of their reli- 
 gion)." "We see," adds this evangelical Major-Gene- 
 ral — the issue of this liberty of conscience! If this 
 be liberty, God deliver me from such liberty!" 
 
 Major Beake conceived it "a fit punishment to cut out 
 his tongue, and cut off his right hand, and then turn him 
 beyond seas, and let him go with the mark of a bias- 
 
 * Debates, 1656. 
 
 f The thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth articles of the " In- 
 strument of Government," 1653. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 241 
 
 phemer!" And yet this poor wretch only went one step 
 beyond themselves in belief, always confessing himself a 
 "creature," though in him Christ was revealed more 
 perfectly," — but he, like Laud, "impaired the true reli- 
 gion!" His punishment is well known. 
 
 Let us, disgusting as it is, produce a few more spe- 
 cimens of Christian toleration, from these sanctified and 
 coldblooded military judges of the "true faith," to show 
 the effects of "human infallibility!" 
 
 Colonel Cooper admits "the poor creature, under de- 
 lusion, would have been more blasphemous had he said 
 he zcas Jesus Christ," which is a plain proof he never 
 did say so; and the said Colonel further sighs thus 
 evangelically: 
 
 " For my part, I think, next to life, you cannot pass 
 a greater punishment than perpetual imprisonment, where 
 he may not spread his leprosy. If you cut out his 
 tongue, he may write, for he writes all their books ! 
 (the Quakers). If you cut off his right hand, he 
 may write with his left," &c. " The other punishments 
 will certainly answer your ends more than if you take 
 his life, and be a better expedient to suppress the gene- 
 ration of them!" These were Cromwell's Puritans. 
 
 We must here do willing justice to Major-General 
 Parker, the only person in this tolerant Parliament who 
 seemed to have any feelings of religious liberty, or com- 
 mon mere}'. 
 
 " The text in Zech. xiii. 8. He that speaks lies in the 
 name of God, his parents shall thrust him through.' If 
 so, we must destroy all sects, Socinians, Armi- 
 nians, Quakers. It is the strain of the Gospel all 
 along to use meekness and moderation — (instanced in 
 the tares and wheat) — which said, ye know not of what 
 spirit ye are ?" 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 Alas ! how few in that very Parliament would have 
 escaped the severity of their own laws — 
 
 Quam temere in nosraet legem sancimus iniquam ! 
 
 These extracts are most important, as throwing light 
 on the principles of toleration, which, it has been said, 
 the Independents, and the Independents only, under- 
 stood and practised. Important they are in many re- 
 spects. When we condemn for religious opinions, we 
 should look at the example, and pause a moment to 
 ask, "whether we remember of what spirit we are?" 
 The subject being the " blasphemy of Nayler," on 
 which these holy legislators are debating, who but must 
 detest the hypocrite Colonel Boteler, who, with due so- 
 lemnity, adds — " I hope there is no man here but has 
 sought God what to say, before he spoke in this business ! " # 
 The whole debate is well worthy the attention of the 
 Christian and the legislator; but we ought not to have 
 Omitted what was said by Waller the poet, concerning 
 which hear the ingenuous relater : " He (Waller) said 
 a great deal more to extenuate the crime, but I minded 
 it not" — he seems to have minded carefully enough 
 every word of the Evangelical Colonels and Captains. 
 
 Colonel White proposed " that his tongue might be 
 bored through" 
 
 Colonel Barkley, " that his hair might be cut off!'* 
 Major-General Harris, "that his tongue might be 
 slit or bored through, and that he be stigmatized with 
 the letter B." 
 
 Major-General Skippon — "Seeing you are off the 
 other question [that is, taking away his life], wherein I 
 fear we have offended God! make the other 
 punishment as high as you can!" And these frantic 
 
 * Burton's Diary, p. 113. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 243 
 
 bloodhounds are called godly, and were the only per- 
 sons who understood the principles of toleration ! 
 
 When the bloody sentence of this National Star- 
 chamber was given, Nayler offered two or three times 
 to speak, and to say he desired to know what his crimes 
 were. His last words, after sentence, were in the spirit 
 of Christianity : **■ The Lord lay not these things to your 
 charge! I shall pray that he may not." The sentence was: 
 
 " Resolved, that James Nayler be set on the pillory, 
 with his head in the pillory, in the New Palace, West- 
 minster, during the space of two hours, on Thursday 
 next, and be whipped by the hangman through the 
 streets of Westminster to the Old Exchange, London ; 
 and there, likewise, to be set upon the pillory, with his 
 head in the pillory, for the space of two hours, between 
 the hours of eleven and one, on Saturday next; in each 
 of the said places, wearing a paper containing an in- 
 scription of his crimes : and that at the Old Exchange 
 his tongue shall be bored through with a hot iron, and 
 that he be there also stigmatized in the forehead with 
 the letter B ; and that he be afterwards sent to Bristol, 
 and conveyed into and through the said city, on a horse 
 bare ridged, with his face back, and there also publicly 
 whipped, the next market-day after he comes thither : 
 and that from thence he be committed to prison in 
 Bridewell, London, and there restrained from the society 
 of all people, and kept to hard labour till he be released 
 by the Parliament : and, during that time, be debarred 
 of the use of pen, ink, and paper, and have no relief 
 but what he earns by his daily labour." 
 
 When the admirers of religious toleration descant, 
 with such virtuous indignation, on the Star-chamber 
 sentence against Leighton and Prynne, let them think 
 of this sentence against Nayler, and be silent. 
 
 r 2 
 
244 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 How has Laud been held up to execration for an en- 
 try in his Diary, recording minutely the punishment of 
 Leighton ! which I believe to be Prynne's cold-blooded 
 interpolation ! But let us remark Burton's own pious 
 curiosity in witnessing the execution on Nayler: 
 
 "This day B. and I went to see Nayler's tongue bored 
 through, and him marked in the forehead. He was pale 
 when he came out of the pillory, but high-coloured after 
 the tongue-boring I " 
 
 So soon did Independency attain its ne plus ultra of 
 intolerance; and, having attained this point, a saner 
 sense of religion succeeded ; for the weathercock turned 
 round, almost instanter, to the opposite quarter. 
 
 In fact, fanaticism invariably leads the way to licen- 
 tiousness! To show how soon after the cruelties on Nav- 
 ler, a directly contrary spirit began to prevail, we may 
 mention that, in 1658, the Latin play of " Ignoramus" 
 was re-printed, with its coarse, pedantic jokes, which 
 had so much delighted James the First. Who would 
 now have read the sublapsarian subtleties of Davenant ? 
 or his irrefragable answer to a writer who — *' thought 
 God might have mercy?" From a MS. Diurnal of the 
 Parliament, 1 608, in the possession of the descendant of 
 Clement Walker, John Walker Heneage, of Compton- 
 house, I am able to show that, besides Anthony Wood's 
 concert at Oxford, in the year 1608 "the Opera" was first 
 mentioned. This document is singular: 
 
 "Thursday, Feb. 5, 1658. — The Lords being ac- 
 quainted that, noticithstanding the Laws against stage* 
 plaijs and interludes, yet there are stage-plays, ioter- 
 ludes,and things of the like nature, called "OPERA," 
 acted, to the scandal of Religion and the Government, — 
 Ordered a Committee." I cannot make out the names of 
 the Committee, except Lord Claypole. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 245 
 
 So, the " phylacteries " of the Presbyterians being 
 "clipped." Independency, under the great Cromwell, 
 fretted its hour on the stage, till it sunk down exhausted. 
 Then the Cathedrals again echoed the sublime anthem, 
 and the old parishioner welcomed with tears of affection 
 his pastor, who had haply survived exile, and poverty, 
 and persecution. 
 
 PROGRESS AND DOMINATION OV 
 PURITANIC INTOLERANCE. 
 
 I have stated, as a matter of historical proof, that 
 Laud never resorted to any measures of severity, as far 
 as he was concerned, till his life was in danger!* 
 
 * Before he had moved a step, a nephew of Archbishop Ab- 
 bot preached against him, from the Oxford pulpit, whilst he 
 was present, and the charge was that he would not speak with 
 sufficient violence against Papists : " If they do at any time 
 speak against the Papists, they beat a little upon the bush, and 
 that softly too, for fear of disquieting the birds xvithin." 
 
 " I came time enough," says Laud, in a Letter to the Bishop 
 of Lincoln, " to be at the rehearsal of this sermon, upon much 
 persuasion, when I was fain to sit patiently and hear myself 
 abused almost an hour together, being pointed at as I sat. For 
 this present abuse, I would have taken no notice of it, but that 
 the whole University apply it to me; and my friends tell me 
 I shall sink my credit if / answer not Dr. Abbot in his own. 
 Nevertheless, in a business of this kind, I will not be sivayed from 
 a patient course .- only I desire from your Lordship some 
 directions. u 
 
 Of Archbishop Abbot's Christian feelings we may judge by 
 his remonstrance to King James the First : " Your Majesty 
 bath proposed a toleration ! By your Act you labour to set 
 up the most damnable and heretical doctrine of the Church of 
 
246 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 It was indeed alleged, prior to 1628, that he was " sus- 
 pected 'of Arminianism!" To be "suspected" of Armi- 
 nianism is not to be an Arminian, and, if he was, it was 
 not Irish-treason to maintain his own conscientious sen- 
 timents on a question of theology. 
 
 Who, then, first opposed the " rights of con- 
 science ? " I affirm, Pym and Cromwell, when in Parlia- 
 ment, they assumed the power which the stern Leaders 
 of the Reformation had wrung from the infallible Church 
 of Rome, and claimed it for the infallible Church of 
 Geneva ! 
 
 November 27, 1628, Pym in Parliament lays down 
 this Law : "It belongs to Parliament to establish 
 true religion, and to punish false!" Cromwell, 
 now for the first time spoke in Parliament, and he 
 echoed the infallible Presbyterian : 
 
 "Mr. Oliver Cromwell" informed them "that the 
 Bishop of Winchester " did countenance flat Popery!* 
 &c. If these be the steps to Church-preferment — what 
 may we expect!" says this Parliamentary " Defender of 
 the Faith/' afterwards " our Lord Protector." 
 
 The Parliament, so early as 1628, came to the follow- 
 ing definite, and tolerant conclusion ! 
 
 " Whoever shall seem to extend Arminianism, or any 
 
 Rome — the Whore of Babylon ! " Laud answered Fisher 
 by Scriptural arguments, — and yet Laud was a Papist ; 
 and he was condemned to be " hanged, drawn, and quar- 
 tered," among other charges, for having been heard to say 
 "The Pope was not Antichrist!" What should J suffer, 
 who hesitate not to avow my sincere belief that the Whore of 
 Geneva has been as well versed in the infallible principles of 
 persecution as the " Whore of Babylon!" 
 
 * Rushworth. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 247 
 
 OTHER OPINION DISAGREEING WITH THE TRUTH, and 
 
 orthodox Church, shall be reputed a capital enemy to 
 the Kingdom and Commonwealth!" 
 
 This fact is singular, from its being the first symp- 
 tom of that spirit of ruthless domination, which, under 
 these leaders, Pym and Cromwell, one Presbyterian and 
 the other Independent, subverted the Altar and the 
 Throne — and now for the first time " the Common- 
 wealth" is spoken of in Parliament! 
 
 But let us analyse a little this "infallible" decision! 
 "He shall be reputed a capital enemy to the King- 
 dom and Commonwealth, who shall seem to extend 
 any other opinion disagreeing from truth and the 
 orthodox church !" Under this infallible scale who 
 might hope for toleration? For who might not " seem to 
 extend" any opinions " disagreeing from the truth" ac- 
 cording to the "truth" of the Puritans of 1628! 
 
 Laud hitherto had not shown any kind of severity — 
 but he was the impugner of "truth," that is, of Cal- 
 vinism, in doctrine and discipline ! His life was 
 now threatened ! Dr. Lamb, at eighty years of age, 
 had been almost literally torn to pieces for being 
 the Duke of Buckingham's conjurer! The Duke of 
 Buckingham's Bishop was the next object; and he felt 
 that the general tone of the people against him was 
 expressed by the billet found in the Deanery-yard of 
 St. Paul's: 
 
 "Laud, look to thyself! — assure thyself neither God 
 nor the world can endure such a vile counsellor and 
 whisperer to live!" 
 
 The storm of hate and religious fanaticism was now 
 deepening over his head. He was indeed panic-struck 
 by the various signs of this popular deadly hate; and 
 his Diary, at this time, showed at once his terror and 
 
248 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 the consciousness of innocence. In his Diary of 1632 
 appears this entry : " Lord, / beseech thee to deliver- me 
 jrom those who hate me without a cause!" The first per- 
 son whom he censured, and that for the most personal 
 invectives, in a sermon on " Idolatry" — was the Minis- 
 ter of Ware! Did his ruthless Diocesan deprive him? 
 Suspend him ! No — he was requested to write a sub- 
 mission, in Latin ! The charges of " dust thrown in the 
 air" — the " kneeling" — the" bowing" — the " repairing 
 painted windows" — I disdain to answer. 
 
 I cannot conclude without noticing the vote in Par- 
 liament — at the time when the Speaker was held forcibly 
 in the chair.* This vote was, " the Parliament ought to 
 establish the true religion, and puimish the false !" what 
 they pronounced false was indeed afterwards punished in 
 the true spirit of such Legislators of the "Truth !" Par- 
 liament by this tote signed the death-warrant of the 
 King, who, on the same day in which he signed the 
 death-warrant of Strafford, and the perpetuity of Par- 
 liament, signed his own death-warrant. 
 
 * Leighton was sentenced by the Star-Chamber, 1633. — 
 Rushworth. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 249 
 
 CHEY NELL'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS 
 CONDUCT AT CHILLINGWORTH'S FUNERAL. 
 
 Cheynell's account of the death and funeral of Chil- 
 lingworth is entitled " Chillingworth's Novissima." 
 
 Dr. Johnson says, "it being Chillingworth's dying 
 request that the office for the dead in the Prayer-book 
 should be read over him, Cheynell did not refuse 
 it." Whereas Cheynell's words are these: " It was the 
 earnest desire of that eminent scholar whose body 
 lies before you, that his corpse might be interred 
 according to the rites and customs approved in the 
 English Lyturgy, &c. His first request is denied for 
 many reasons!" Such was the charity of this crea- 
 ture to one he called his friend, and whose talents and 
 eloquence he professed to admire. 
 
 After the scorn and horror excited b}' such charity, 
 the reader miarht smile when he finds the same man 
 asserting that Chilling worth did not die a genuine 
 Son of the Church of England ! Certainly not, — if 
 the charity or doctrines of the Church of England be 
 taken from such an example ! Cheynell complacently 
 .proceeds: "Touching the burial of his corse," (without 
 any ceremony or service whatever, like a dog!) " it will 
 be most proper, for men of his persuasion,* to 
 commit the body of their deceased friend, brother, 
 master, to the dust; and it will be most proper for me 
 to hearken to that counsel of my Saviour, ' Let the 
 dead bury the dead!' but 'Go thou, and preach the 
 Kingdom of God :' and so 1 went from the grave to 
 the pulpit." He adds : " I dare say I have been sorrow- 
 
 * That is, that " the Bible is the religion of Protestants." 
 
250 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 fill, and more merciful to him than his friends at Ox- 
 ford!" Let the Christian reader guess the reason — 
 "Because his sickness and OBSTINACY cost me 
 many a prayer, and many a tear!" His obstinacy for 
 not giving up his reason and his Bible, for such fana- 
 ticism ! Oh, yet hear this pious bewailer ! " I did heartily 
 bewail the loss of such strong parts and eminent gifts! so 
 much learning and diligence! Never did I observe 
 more acuteness and eloquence, so exactly tempered!" 
 And what was the charitable conclusion? " Diabolus 
 ab illo, ornari cupiebat! " adds this Prince of Puritans ! 
 Nor let the indignant reader, for one moment, suppose 
 that this exemplary example of Calvinistic piety — was 
 a kind of monstrum sui generis ! He was the great, 
 active, leading, accredited representative of the whole 
 godly party at that time predominant in Oxford — when 
 the " blind guides," such as Chillingworth, and those 
 we have spoken of, were expelled, and forbid to appear 
 within five miles on pain of death ! 
 
 After the Godly visitation of Oxford, and the death of 
 the pious Lord Pembroke, Cromwell was invited to fill 
 the Chancellor's Chair. Cromwell was in Scotland : he 
 affected to hesitate, before he consented to become the 
 illustrious head of the famous University, now restored 
 to its purity! He says nothing here of "seeking the 
 Lord." His letter from Scotland is a striking proof of 
 his consummate art, or masterly duplicity, showing 
 how well he was prepared to doff his iron casque, and 
 sit in his robes as Chancellor, and Doctor of Laws, in 
 the Convocation. 
 
 1 transcribe an extract from his letter " To the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford :" 
 
 "But if these" (apologies) "prevail not, and that I 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 251 
 
 must continue this honour till I can personally serve 
 you, you shall not zcant my prayers, that that seed and 
 stock of piety and learning so marvellously springing up* 
 among you, may be useful to the great and glorious 
 Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the approach 
 of which so plentiful an effusion of the Spirit upon these 
 hopeful plants is the best presage! and in all other things 
 I shall, by Divine assistance, improve my poor abilities 
 and interests, in manifesting myself to the University, 
 and yourselves."^ 
 
 The Author of the Rambler, speaking of Chey- 
 nell's constant expression, the "power of religion," 
 tells us that this powerful religionist entered into Sus- 
 sex to exercise his ministry, in a place where there 
 had been, as he expresses it, "little of the power of 
 religion either known or practised!" The Doctor, 
 with grave simplicity, adds: "As no reason can be 
 given why the inhabitants of Sussex should have 
 less knowledge or virtue than those of other places, it 
 may be suspected that he means nothing more than a 
 place where the Presbyterian discipline was practised." 
 
 Certainly it may be " suspected ! " The great Author 
 of the Rambler and Lives of the Poets, living in Bolt- 
 court, did not seem to be aware of the common boast of 
 all these Pharisees ! nor even that they, in their public 
 worship, rejected the Lord's Prayer — as the Baptists do 
 at this day." 
 
 I have thought it my duty, in writing the life of an 
 Episcopal Christian, to set before Christians the faith- 
 ful picture of Puritanism. The same spirit is abroad, 
 
 * Of which the learned and pious Cheynell was a proof! 
 | Cromwell's Letter to Oxford. 
 
252 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 not denouncing "custards,"* but evincing the same 
 
 * We can account for the puritanical abhorrence of most of 
 the deadly sins of " malignants," but I have not been able to 
 find a clue to their 
 
 " Blaspheming custard through the nose." 
 We can easily account for Xheirju&ting at Christmas! Because 
 all other Christians rejoiced, but what sin there should be in 
 custard, more than any other dish ? I can find no better rea- 
 son than that custard was anciently distinguished as " Royal! " 
 This fact I learn from Wood's History of Oxford. George Ne- 
 vill, of Baliol, brother to the great Earl of Warwick, took his 
 Master of Arts degree, when an entertainment more sumptuous 
 than the University had ever witnessed, was given. Among the 
 dishes of the first course — " the borehead and the bull, 
 brawne and mustard, furmenty and venyson, fesant in bran, 
 fawn and capon, hernshaw," — we have, eo nomine, 
 
 "Custard Royal!" 
 This, probably, was a transmitted name, and, being connected 
 with the word "Royal," was quite sufficient to excite the abo- 
 mination of all whose religion was so anti-royal and anti- 
 episcopal. It is well known that, soon after the Parliamentary 
 Visitors came to Oxford, they had a meeting every week to 
 consider cases of conscience, which was therefore, not unaptly, 
 nicknamed " The Scruple-shop." The religious scruples were 
 generally of this trifling nature ; but, as to lying, murdering, 
 there was no " scruple " at all, nor was the " Shop' ever troubled 
 with a question of the kind. So in all ages are found those 
 who place the essence of religion in " straining at gnats 
 and swallowing camels." These nominal Christians sat or 
 stood at the Lord's Supper, because those whom they opposed 
 knelt. They would have knelt if the others had sat. The cap 
 was idolatrous because it was square, and the bread of the 
 Church of Rome idolatrous because it was round! * 
 
 * History of Brcmhill. 
 
AND REFLECTIONS. 253 
 
 abhorrence of * those schools that nurtured the piety 
 and learning of Ken, Sherlock, and Lowth, he, and 
 looking on Cathedral Service as little better than idolatry ! 
 
 God's Commandments are ten! Puritanism, from the 
 times of Ames to Prynne, and the modern Evangelists, 
 has three great commandments: "I. Thou shalt not 
 read or see a play! '2. Thou shalt not touch a card, 
 whether in the spirit of gaming or not! 3. Thou shalt 
 not go to a dance, however regulated !" 
 
 Not in the spirit of unchariiableness are these remarks 
 made, but to show that the assumption of infallibility 
 is the great cause of the want of charity among Chris- 
 tians ! 
 
 * Seth Ward wrote " Vindiciae Academiarum. 
 
254 
 
 GENERAL 
 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Of all the anomalies in that melancholy medley 
 of " strife," " envyings," " variance," " murder," 
 — the reign of Presbyterian and Cromwellian Puri- 
 tanism — the most extraordinary circumstance was 
 the Creed professed by both parties, of absolute, 
 unalterable predestination from all eternity — that 
 the Being who thus decreed was not to be moved 
 — and yet this Lord of Fate was constantly " sought" 
 in prayer, and not only so, but a conviction was ex- 
 pressed that particular Ministers had an especial " in- 
 fluence?* so as to prevail with this immoveable 
 Deity, at their request, and for their especial pur- 
 poses, to change that eternal decree which, upon 
 their own principles, was unchangeable ! 
 
 How do the most elaborate systems fall to pieces 
 before a few plain axioms of common sense. The 
 Almighty, in his dealings with such a creature as 
 man, could have decreed otherwise, or he could 
 not. If he could have decreed otherwise, then 
 there could be no necessary immutable decree from 
 
 * See account of the death of Cromwell. 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 25o 
 
 all eternity. If he could not have decreed other- 
 wise, then there is no God, but fate ! Argue 
 as long as you will, you must be reduced to this 
 point at last. 
 
 There are two great schemes or philosophi- 
 cal views on this subject. The two schemes, in the 
 pedantic language of what are called the schools, are 
 Supra-lapsarian, and Sub-lapsarian. Now common 
 sense says — if it were destined before the fall that 
 man mast fall, and it could not have been other- 
 wise, the Supreme Power could not surely be pro- 
 nounced all-mighty ! The heart instantly revolts 
 from this conclusion, and therefore other scholastic 
 dialecticians argue, that predestination was after 
 the fall!* Now this stultifies the other — for, if 
 Adam was free, and might have stood, but fell, 
 there is no reason, a priori, why those who came 
 after him might not stand or fall, and then the 
 question reverts — is it God or Destiny that rules 
 the universe ? 
 
 The Stoics felt this dilemma, and said of Jupiter, 
 u seme I jussit, semper paretT Jupiter first com- 
 manded, and afterwards for ever was obedient to his 
 own commands : but, if he had power to command 
 either one or the other, then there is no destiny. 
 The half-destiny is such utter nonsense, that nothing 
 but being lost in scholastic subtleties, and dialectic 
 
 * This does not affect the reasoning, that God tvilled the 
 restoration of man to immortality through our Redeemer. 
 
256 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 
 
 verbiage, could have imposed on the understanding 
 of Davenant or Baxter ; and the whole of Calvin's 
 horrible deductions must be admitted — or none. 
 
 If there be an Almighty Power, which created 
 a sensible being, to live for a short period, and 
 then for countless and countless ages to survive 
 in torments without end ! and if it was owing to 
 the will of an Almighty Power, that man should 
 be created for no other purpose than that he 
 should be thus destined to eternal torments, (called, 
 scholastically, " Reprobation,") the thought of 
 which seems to have delighted the imagination of 
 him who in later days most learnedly systematized 
 the doctrine — then this Almighty ought to be called 
 by his right name— TON AI ABO AON ROSMO- 
 KPATEPA* — from the Oriental idea in which the 
 creed originated — that the God of Evil was the 
 maker of the world! So delighted, indeed, seemed 
 the Geneva Doctor with this idea, that he does not 
 seem to see the utter inconclusiveness of his own 
 arguments, astute as he was. God made man and 
 the ass, he tells us; and the ass being destined to a 
 life of sufferings, whv should not the same God 
 destine millions of human beings to* abide for ever 
 and ever in sufferings ?-f~ But the reasoning, such as 
 it is, is inconclusive ; for there is no comparison 
 
 * Irenaeus. 
 
 + This is Calvin's argument, to the best of my recollection. 
 Bishop Horsley shall not persuade me to look at the book 
 again. 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 257 
 
 between the humbler existence of inferior animals, 
 and the eternal torments of a beinjr like man, in 
 comparison of which, the life of the most abject 
 animal must be Paradise! 
 
 System-Christians, and visionaries, make equal 
 havock with the simplicity of Gospel-truth. A 
 fervid mind makes out its visionary creations, with 
 the greatest ease, from a few given words. Daniel, 
 chap, the viith, verses 13 and 14, and the texts xxi. 
 of Revelations, 1st and 2d, less definite still in then- 
 application, become easily convertible to whatever 
 shapes, colours, and phantoms imagination may 
 give to them — thus they expand themselves in 
 the seraphic and mystic reveries of the Swedenbor- 
 gians ; and then these mystic reveries, beginning 
 from so obscure and small a source, are solemnly 
 pronounced " True Christian Religion ! " Such 
 visions are embraced with ardour by minds of kin- 
 dred heat — the trumpet of the Apocalypse sounds, 
 " Babylon the Great is fallen ;" the angel appears 
 with the key of the bottomless pit — and the City 
 of the New Jerusalem rises in visionary glory, to 
 receive the seraphic enthusiasts at its golden gates. 
 
 On the other hand, a scholastic dialectician finds 
 the word "appointed," or "predestined." These ex- 
 pand themselves into unalterable decrees — then 
 personal election — then utter reprobation ! Those 
 of kindred temper follow shouting "Election" to 
 themselves — the decree or destiny of eternal tor- 
 ment, "where the worm dieth not,'' to all whose 
 
 vol. i. s 
 
258 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 
 
 more sober understanding, or more Christian tem- 
 per, hails the awful words of Scripture, but rejects 
 with horror the human inferences. So important 
 is a calm, dispassionate view of the great Scriptural 
 doctrines, in their simplicity and majestic truth. 
 
 The fantastic, the melancholy, the visionary, or 
 metaphysical, thus engender and embody their con- 
 ceptions from isolated portions of the Divine Reve- 
 lation, and these conceptions become at last, like 
 the wild grotesque monsters, serpents and dragons, 
 which preposterously garnish, from the zenith to 
 the nadir, the celestial globe : the Oriental origin of 
 Predestinarianism and these figures being indeed 
 the same. 
 
 Lastly, we may observe that these extravagant 
 principles and feelings, relating to a subject the 
 most awful to man, and demanding the most dis- 
 passionate judgment, can never germinate, if I may 
 say so, unless in a heated atmosphere, and where 
 the ground is disturbed. As certain noxious weeds, 
 buried for centuries, on the earth being moved 
 shoot out again, — so forgotten doctrinal subtleties 
 are revived, when the surface of the rubbish is 
 again disturbed. 
 
 As the Articles of the Episcopal Church are fre- 
 quently referred to in such contests, I shall here 
 say a few words on them. 
 
 An opinion of a great Statesman has been re- 
 corded, that the National Church is distinguished by 
 " Calvinistic Articles — a Popish Liturgy — and an 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 25!) 
 
 Arminian Clergy." Thus Legislators for the Church 
 are often pleased to describe the Church and its te- 
 nets. Lord Chancellor Erskine affirmed that " the 
 Church of England professed to believe" — in what ? 
 one God? no — "every thing visible and invisible !" 
 Mr. Canning affirmed that the Church believed 
 in " Consubstantiation" and therefore it might as 
 well believe in Transabstantiation ! The Episco- 
 pal Church professes its belief in neither. Mr. 
 Brougham, uncontradicted in the Senate, asserted 
 that every one who took a Living "professed he 
 was moved by the Holy Ghost to take that Liv- 
 ing!"* And all these are as true as the assertion 
 that the Church of England has " Calvinistic Ar- 
 ticles." 
 
 The Articles that admit that " we mav fall from 
 grace given" cannot be Calvinistic — that Ritual can- 
 not be a Romish Ritual which contains the prayers 
 of the primitive Church, long before the Church 
 held forth human traditions for Scripture — and the 
 Clergy cannot be Arminian who profess that salva- 
 tion "is not from works, lest any shall boast." 
 
 That some among the Clergy of the present day 
 
 * Mr. Attvvoocl, a few days ago, whilst I am correcting this 
 sheet, informed the wondering House of Commons — that such 
 was the poverty of the times, a poor man, having no money, 
 gave a " working Clergyman " a cut of a shoulder of mutton 
 for a baptismal feel This, the solemn Senator declared, he 
 stated " on good authority l n On such good authority most of 
 the judgments against the Clergy are pronounced ! There is 
 no " baptismal fee," Mr. Attwood ! 
 
260 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 
 
 construe the Articles as completely Calvinistic, and 
 wish they were more explicitly so, I do not 
 gainsay ! That such esteem the affecting formulary 
 of our prayers as little better than the remnant of 
 Popery, though they have declared "their unfeigned 
 assent and consent," I do not gainsay. That such 
 as these believe the "true Churchmen" are confined 
 to themselves, and that all others are graceless Ar- 
 minians, I do not gainsay : nay, the Articles are Cal- 
 vinistic, and even the Bible Calvinistic, according to 
 some popular "comments!" But this I am bold to 
 affirm, that the Articles contain one, the most es- 
 sential of all of them, — it is this, " that whatsoever 
 is not read in holy Scripture, or can be proved 
 thereby, is not to be required of any man that it 
 should be believed an article of faith ! " The Bible, 
 therefore, is the religion of Protestants — the Bible 
 is the religion of the Church of England. 
 
 I verily believe that no one could be a Calvinist, 
 except from " comments /" I would therefore ear- 
 nestly entreat the younger student of Divinity, as 
 he would feel indeed "joy and peace in believing" 
 not to shut his eyes to ten thousand luminous and 
 illumining passages, which would strike him on an 
 attentive survey of the Holy Scriptures in their 
 holy simplicity and truth ; instead of placing him- 
 self, with tottering steps and bandaged face, in the 
 go-cart of some elaborate, sophistical, and heartless 
 expositor. Beautifully has Jeremy Taylor spoken of 
 the eifect of such studies : " I remember a saying of 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 261 
 
 Erasmus, that, when he first read the New Testament, 
 with fear and a good mind, with a purpose to under- 
 stand and obey it, he found it very useful and very 
 pleasant ; but, when afterwards he fell on reading the 
 vast differences of commentators, then he under- 
 stood it less than he did before, then he began not 
 to understand it. For, indeed, adds our own 
 great and eloquent Divine, "the truths of God 
 are best dressed in the plain culture and simplicity 
 of the spirit, but the truths that men commonly 
 teach are like the reflections of the multiplying 
 glass." To which most just observation I would 
 add — that he who reads the Bible by the aid of a 
 doctrinal commentator, becomes so used to the ob- 
 scure glass of the mind of another, the greater part 
 of what is natural, and beautiful, and affecting in the 
 original Gospel, escapes him, till by degrees he has 
 not a thought out of the hacknied track of his com- 
 mentator. 
 
 In writing the Life of an English Bishop, I have 
 thought it my duty to speak freely respecting the 
 spirit of Calvinistic Puritanism, the fruits of 
 which, in a former age, were so immoral, and bane- 
 ful, and which seems evidently gaining ground in 
 the present age. 
 
 I cannot conclude my remarks on this subject 
 without adverting to what has been said by a learned 
 Bishop, Dr. Horsley, in an Episcopal Charge. 
 We are told that many talk of Calvinism, without 
 knowing what Calvinism is ; and that there are sun- 
 dry good Christian lessons to be learnt from Calvin's 
 
262 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Institutes ! I forget the words, nor are they mate- 
 rial, but this is the sentiment delivered in an Epis- 
 copal Charge, and now constantly referred to by 
 semi-demi-Ca\\'mists, too commonly the most bitter 
 and unchristian in spirit — and certainly the most 
 appalling in physiognomy, of all modern nominal 
 Christians ! * 
 
 I answer — there are also fine moral passages, 
 and sublime conceptions, in a work called the Ko- 
 ran, or the " Institutions " of Mahomet ! together 
 with something of the same predestination, and the 
 " black drop " of the human heart ; but, when I 
 speak of Calvinism, I speak only of its peculiar and 
 distinguishing dogmas. 
 
 As to what this rigid Reformer teaches in other re- 
 spects, and with whatever eloquence and learning he 
 may enforce them, who, among Christians, need 
 care a rush, when the sentiments are those of a man 
 who, in his distinguishing creed, seems to speak 
 from the Gehenna of his own heart, if we may judge 
 of that heart by his conduct ? 
 
 If it be said his persecuting cruelty was the conse- 
 quence of the times, this might be pleaded for Cran- 
 mer — or even for Bonner. If it be said the other 
 Reformers of Switzerland, and Melancthon himself, 
 thought the publication of some opinions ought to 
 be punished by death — did they lie in wait for 
 
 * Compare the interesting countenance of Ken with those 
 visages which appall us in every bookseller's window, of the 
 Rev. Thomas Scott and John Newton ! ! 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 20,'} 
 
 blood, like a crouching tiger ? — when the unfortu- 
 nate Servetus passed in his journey through Geneva, 
 did they exclaim, " We will take care he shall not 
 escape alive !" — and, when he was condemned to 
 the horrible torture, did they write in cold blood, 
 yet with sanctimonious rapture, " Servetus," after 
 his condemnation, " only roared, with the stupidity 
 of a beast — Mercy ! Mercy !"* 
 
 Let us hear no more of an English Bishop talk- 
 ing of the holiness or morals in this man's wri- 
 tings ; rather, he ought to have said — (as it is 
 written, "What concord has Christ with Belial?") 
 — "What concord has Christ with Moloch?" 
 
 As I have given the reader a specimen of the 
 " real piety" of that Prince of Puritans, who com- 
 plained that the great Chillingworth was so " obsti- 
 nate'''' he could not " convince him ," and who after 
 his death insulted his remains so inhumanly, I shall 
 conclude with a passage from that great and in- 
 sulted writer : 
 
 "The BIBLE — the BIBLE— the BIBLE IS 
 
 THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS." 
 
 And we may repeat, 
 
 "The BIBLE — the BIBLE— the BIBLE IS 
 THE RELIGION OF THE PROTESTANT 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ENG- 
 LAND." 
 
 * " Tanturri reboaret belluina stupiditate, Misericordia ! 
 Misericordia ! " — Calvin's Letter to Farell. See " Banwell- 
 hill." 
 
264 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 
 
 After so much has been said of the lives and 
 characters of the Protestant Episcopal Clergy, of 
 the Church of England, particularly after the Resto- 
 ration, the Christian reader I hope will forgive my 
 concluding the whole in the following lines, sug- 
 gested on seeing a few plants in the windows of 
 Seth Ward's College, endowed for widows of clergy- 
 men at Salisbury. 
 
 There is but one stage more, in Life's long way ! 
 
 Oh ! widow'd Women, sadly on your path 
 
 Hath Evening — bringing change of scenes and friends — 
 
 Descended, since the morn of Hope shone fair; 
 
 And lonely age is yours, whose tears have fall'n 
 
 Upon a husband's grave, with whom long since, 
 
 Amid the quietude of village scenes, 
 
 Ye walk'd, and saw your little children grow 
 
 Like lovely plants beside you, or adorn'd 
 
 Your lowly garden-plat with summer flowers; 
 
 And heard the bells, upon the Sabbath-morn, 
 
 Chime to the village Church — when he you lov'd 
 
 Walk'd by your side — to prayer. 
 
 These images 
 Of days long pass'd of love, and village-life, 
 You never can forget ; and many a plant, 
 Green growing, at the windows of your Home, 
 And one pale primrose, in small earthen vase, 
 And bird cage, in the shunshine, at the door, 
 Remember you, though in a city pent, 
 Of Morning walks, along the village-lane, 
 Of the lark singing, through the vernal hail, 
 Of swallows skimming o'er the garden-pond, — 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 265 
 
 Remember you of children and of friends 
 Parted, and pleasant summers gone. 
 
 'Tis meet 
 To nurse such recollections — not with pain, 
 But in submission to the will of Heaven — 
 Thankful, that here, as the calm eve of life 
 In pious privacy steals on, one hearth 
 Of Charity is yours ; — and cold must be 
 That heart, which, of the changes of the world 
 Unmindful, could receive you but as guests*, 
 Who had seen happier days! — 
 
 Yet one stage more, 
 And your long rest will be with Him you lov'd. 
 Oh ! pray to God, that each may " rest in Hope ! " 
 
 March 18, 1830. 
 
 * Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, built and endowed at 
 Salisbury, Collegium Matronarum — the College of Matrons, 
 Widows of Clergymen. They are entertained by each Canon 
 during his residence. This was written when they were the 
 guests of the Author. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
266 
 
 In the course of this work, we have shewn the 
 effects of all human infallibility, whether Papal, 
 Presbyterian, or Independent, — that of the Pope, 
 the Synod, or the private Spirit, — and we have 
 adduced these examples to shew, from proof the 
 most incontrovertible, that there is no other basis 
 of Christian charity than that on which the Church 
 of England rests — the infallibility of the Word 
 of God. 
 
 As one poor victim to this terrific human infal- 
 libility was of the sect of Quakers, before the 
 tribunal of the tolerant Cromwellian Puritans, I 
 shall refer, not, as I might do, to the acknowledged 
 works of the most eloquent writers of the commu- 
 nion which reposes "infallibility" on its only 
 sure and safe ground, but adduce the testimony of 
 one of those benevolent brethren in Christ, who, 
 having once suffered so much, now dwell in love 
 and peace with a Church which, whilst it reads 
 the texts of the Scripture in a different sense, re- 
 nounces all infallibility, save in the Word to which 
 both appeal, — "holding firmly" that which they are 
 "persuaded in their own mind" is the Truth, walk- 
 ing in Charity, and leaving the result, in humble 
 Hope, to that period when we " shall no longer see 
 through a glass darkly." 
 
 Now the testimony I adduce is that of Penn, the 
 
..... > 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 207 
 
 Quaker, before the House of Commons. He ncbly 
 said : " How easily might all these confusions (the 
 distracted state of religion) have been avoided, if 
 men's faith about Christ had been delivered in 
 the words of Scripture, since all sides pretend to be- 
 lieve the text: will nothing do but man's com- 
 ment* on God's text?" 
 
 In doing "justice to the principles of the Church 
 of England," he further argues — " But why go so 
 far back ? Is it not recent in memory, that Bishop 
 Usher was employed in a mission to Oliver Crom- 
 well, by some of the Church of England, for 
 
 LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE?" 
 
 Penn then appeals to the writings of Hammond, 
 Saunderson, &c. 
 
 " The Word of God (says Saunderson, of whose 
 learning and piety we have so often spoken) does 
 expressly forbid us to subject our conscience to the 
 will of any one, or to usurp a dominion over the 
 consciences of any one. ' 
 
 Penn then cited eight passages from Taylor, 
 ejected, as we have seen, from Oxford as " scan- 
 dalous and malignant;" "scandalous" because he 
 was not a Calvinistic Puritan, and "malignant" be- 
 cause he was not a traitor to his King." 
 
 * What would Penn have said if he had lived to see every 
 chapter, every text, almost every word in " the Holy Bible," 
 subjected to the process of Jesuitical sophistry, and elaborate 
 comments read by thousands and thousands as God's " Holy 
 Bible," the texts being never read without the systematical 
 comments of Thomas Scott ! 
 
208 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 One of the passages quoted by Penn from Taylor 
 was this : 
 
 " If I should tie another man to believe my 
 opinion, because I think I have a place in Scrip- 
 ture which seems to warrant it to my under- 
 standing, why may he not exact the same thing of 
 me ? If a man never changes his opinion but when 
 he cannot do otherwise, then to use force may 
 make him a hypocrite, but never a right believer."* 
 
 And with this passage, from a most eloquent, 
 most learned, most truly Christian, and persecuted 
 Son of our Zion, as quoted by — a Quaker — I lay 
 down, for the present, my biographical and histori- 
 cal pen, fervently praying, in the beautiful language 
 of our once-reviled Liturgy — " That all who pro- 
 fess AND CALL THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS MAY BE 
 
 led into the way of truth, and hold the 
 Faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of 
 
 PEACE, AND IN RIGHTEOUSNESS OF LIFE." Amen! 
 
 * Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 
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