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UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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ICJEIJE RE _ HT MJEV1? _ __©K.(^__ HiEHTEOr _"___#¦,
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OF
THE BISHOPS OF

BATH AND WELLS,
FROM
THE EARLIEST TO THE PRESENT PERIOD.

BY THE REVEREND
STEPHEN HYDE CASS AN, M.A. F.S.A.
Chaplain to the Earl of Caledon, K.P.

&c. &c.

His saltern accumulem donis et fungar amico
Muneie 

SLottirott:
C. AND J. RIVINGTON,
st. paul's church-yard, and waterloo-place,
pall-mall.
CKOCKEKS, PRINTERS, FROME.

TO THE
RIGHT REVEREND
GEORGE HENRY LAW,
D.D. F.R.S. F.S.A. &c. &c.
LORD BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS,
THESE
i*Umoirs
OF HIS PREDECESSORS IN THAT SEE,
ARE INSCRIBED BY HIS
LORDSHIP'S MUCH OBLIGED
AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,
STEPHEN HYDE CASSAN.

PREFACE.

The chief object of the present Work,
as well as of my former compilations of
Episcopal Biography,* is, to present to the
Literary World, and especially to the
Clergy and Residents of each Diocese
undertaken, and that in a condensed shape
and in a single point of view, the Memoirs
of those who once presided over the Church
of their district ; who, in their generations,
were men of renown, and who, for the most
part, claim the respect of posterity.
I pretend not to originality : the utmost
praise I strive to merit, is for industry and
accuracy, unless, perhaps, I may add, that
wherever I have detected a wish in preceding
Biographers to run down or under-value

* The Lives ofthe Bishops of Salisbury, and the Lives of the .Bishops
of Winchester, of which private impressions only appeared, each, being
limited to 500 copies. A

VI
a character, I have laboured to vindicate
that character, and have endeavoured to
remove the impressions of party prejudice
and private pique.
Of many of the Prelates, the "Lives"
found in this work, are only to be met with
as detached Lives; of some, the Memoirs
are incorporated in cumbrous and high-
priced publications, inaccessible to, or not
required by, the generality of readers ; or,
perhaps, prefixed to voluminous editions of
their works ; while, of others, the very few
notitia that are extant, can only be gleaned
with much toil and research, either from
unpublished records and MSS. or from a
mass of published materials often not
biographical, or obtained from the private
information of relatives or descendants ; or,
lastly, are only to be found interspersed in
general collections of biography, not epis
copal. Those who know, by experience,
how many a ponderous volume is to be
searched in order to ascertain and fix a
single fact or date, will not refuse me the

vn
credit of diligence and research, with regard
to the correction of the chronological and
other mis-statements of preceding writers.
The collecting, condensing, arranging,
and in many cases re-writing memoirs which
have been loosely and incorrectly composed,
and bringing the Lives of all the Prelates
of a See, and frequently all that is, or can
be known of them, into one point of view,
is the object I have pursued, and 1 trust
not without some success. In this walk
of Literary compilation, confined for the
sake of juxta-position, to the Episcopal
Biography of separate Dioceses, my three
compilations are I believe the only candidates
for public notice.
The Episcopal Memoirs I have hitherto
been induced to publish, have been most
favorably received by the Bench of Bishops,
the Clergy, Literary Persons, and the
friends of the Hierarchy generally, but
more especially by those in the Dioceses
respectively, already undertaken. As local
records especially, they have been warmly

vm
encouraged, while to the general reader
and the collector of books of reference,
they have been found useful assistants
and instructive and amusing companions.
To those who have objected to my not
having introduced more of the History of
the Times in which the Bishops recorded
respectively flourished, I answer that it was
not because I found any difficulty in doing
so, but I abstained for two reasons: first,
because I had no wish to swell my work
with what could be found in every History
of England ; and secondly, because History
and Biography are two distinct objects.
Before I conclude, a few words respecting
the writers of Episcopal Memoirs ought to
be added. That Josceline, a monk of Four-
ness, in Lancashire, an historian quoted by
Stow and Fitzherbert, wrote several books
concerning the ancient British Bishops,
John Pitts is very certain* One book
indeed of that kind was written by him,
* De iltust. Angl. Script, p. 884.

IX
and is still extant;* but as the author
himself could not be of any great age, so
his collections seem to have been made out
of histories that were penned since the
Conquest. Of somewhat less account, I
fear, is that of the Saxon Prelates, whereof
Ethelwolf, Bishop of Winchester, is said to
be the author, a MS. copy of which is
reported to be in the public library, Cam
bridge.! After the Conquest, the Me
moirs of our Bishops were taken up
by a great many hands. Geoffrey, Prior
of Winchester, wrote a panegyrical
account of them in elegant verse, says
William of Malinsbury,$ who himself
more largely commented upon them in
prose. His four first Books were published
by Sir H. Savile,§ from a very faulty MS.
and his edition was copied more faultily
in that of Franckfort.

* Vid. Usher. Antiq. Eccl p. 36.
t Pitts ut. sup. p. 178. See also Archbishop Nicolson's Hist. Lib. p. 123.
t De Gest. Pont. Lib. ii. p. 246 fol. Lond. 1596.
§ Ang I. Sacr. vol. ii. p. 694.

x
The first writer who made any systematic
collection of the Lives of the Bishops, was
Francis Godwin, successively Bishop of
Llandaff" and Hereford, (son of Thomas,
Bishop of Bath and Wells.) His catalogue
procured from Queen Elizabeth, as a reward,
his own admission into the order of those
whom his researches had rescued from obli
vion. The first and second editions of his
work appeared in English, and brought the
history of all the Prelates who had flourished
in this island from the introduction of Chris
tianity down to the years 1600 and 1615
respectively. This learned and indefatigable
writer shortly afterwards put forth, with
many corrections, a third edition, which he
clothed in a Latin dress, in order to render
it more acceptable to the pedantic monarch
then on the throne (James I). After this,
nearly a century and a quarter elapsed
before Dr. Richardson gave to the world,
by the express advice and encouragement
of the celebrated Archbishop Potter and
Bishop Gibson, his beautiful folio edition of

XI
the Catalogue, printed from the Latin text,
with supplementary notes, and a con
tinuation in the same language to the year
1743* But highly-valuable as both these pub
lications are, when considered collectively,
it has ever been a subject of great regret to
the numerous lovers of biography, that
the notices they afford of the Protestant
Prelates should be so very scanty. This
objection, as far as it applies to Godwin,
would have been obviated, had Le Neve
prosecuted the Work he began in 1720;
but, unfortunately, he proceeded no further
in his plan than the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York. The Lives of the
Bishops from the Restoration to the
Revolution, by Salmon, appeared in 1733,
which would have proved a more useful
acquisition had he not diverged so much
from his subject. To the various collec-
* For a sketch of the Life of William Richardson, D.D. Master of
Emanuel College, Cambridge, see Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. r.
j). 157. See also vol. ii. p. 35.

xn
tions in the Anglia Sacra, edited by the
learned Henry Wharton, the lovers of
this branch of Literature are much
indebted; but the Episcopal Biognaphy
therein preserved, hardly deserves the term
of a systematic Collection ; of that kind
we have seen nothing for eighty-six years—
that is, since the date of Dr. Richardson's
edition of Bishop Godwin, till the Lives
of the Bishops of the See of Salisbury
appeared in 1824; Winchester, in 1827;
and the present feeble attempt to give
reviviscence to the faded features of the
perpetuators of the Apostolic College, in
the ancient Diocese of Wells.
Vicarage, Mere, Wilts,
January, 1830.

CHAPTER I.
— ?-?-• —
INTRODUCTION. — ¦» ? * —
©f t9* ©irftta off tfje ^ngUcain ®|m«|.

That Christianity existed in these our distant isles at a
very early period, there can be no reasonable doubt ; but
to argue, as some have attempted, that St. Paul planted
it here, because he talked of visiting Spain, is too illogical
to be admitted even in this age of lax reasoning. Indeed,
after every research, it would be difficult to speak with
any degree of certainty, as to the first propagator of the
Christian faith in England. The early Church Historians
have so amalgamated what might have been really true,
with their own absurd and incredible legends, that to
analyse the mass, to separate truth from fiction, — inane
abscindere solido, — would, at this distant period of time,
. be a task beyond all human powers ; moreover, in subjects
of this nature, I incline to think there can be no better
rule for a sound Protestant than to reject as spurious,
all accounts that presuppose faith in miracles since
the apostolic age.
Whoever wishes to engage in the curious, though, as
Archbishop Nicolson justly called them "dark" enquiries

2 or THE ORIGIN OF
as to the earliest conversion of this island to Christianity,
will find much interesting information in the Britannica-
rum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates of Archbishop Usher; the
Historical Account of Ancient Church Government in
Great Britain and Ireland, by Lloyd, Bishop of Wor
cester ; and the Origines Britannicm of Stillingfleet, who
subsequently presided over the same See ; though.,
perhaps, he will rise from the attentive perusal of those
inimitable authors, as unsatisfied on the main point of en-,
quiry, as when he first commenced his researches. Bishop
Lloyd's aim was to encounter an objection against the
order of episcopacy put into the mouth of the schismatics
of that day by Blondel and Seiden, out of their abundant
kindness towards the Establishment ; whereas the design
of Stillingfleet's work was to vindicate the liberties of the
ancient British Church against the pretended jurisdiction
of the Bishops of Rome ; an object in an historical point
of view very desirable, but I apprehend of no further con
sequence ; for whilst, against those who are in a state of
alienation from the Church, I mean dissenters of every
description, there is overwhelming evidence of episcopacy
having prevailed in these isjands ever since the first
introduction of the Gospel, whenever that event may
have taken place ; it is a matter of perfect indifference
(provided she retain episcopacy, and thereby possesses the
fundamental mark of Apostolic Constitution) whether
she can claim, an original and independent foundation^r-
a legitimate exemption from the Roman Patriarchate, or
whether she be the laudably rebellious offspring that
seceded from a parent whose idolatrous practices (for
Bishop Lloyd, of Oxford, will not allow us to call them
"idolatries,") she renounced ; and, whilst she retained the

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. 3
enly basis of a Christian Church, lopped off the redunr
dancies that superstition and a zeal without knowledge
had superadded ; and thus restored Christianity to its long
forsaken standard and original apostolic purity.
Whether Joseph of Arimatha_a was ever in Somerset
shire, is, and ever will remain, a problem. The story
4 has pretty points about it, and we have been wont to be
amused with it as a sort of nursery tale : it is remarkable,
however, that Venerable Bede,* an historian of singular
credit and veracity, for a Romanist, as well as the com
pilers of the Saxon Chronicle, whose authority in early
British History is paramount to all others, should pass over
the story in total silence, nor does the former notice the
introduction of Christianity till after the year of our Lord
156; an event which the Saxon Chronicle records, not
anterior to 189. Bedef says, that Marcus Antoninus
Verus and Aurelius Commodus (i. e. Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus and Commodus) succeeded to the Roman
Empire A.D. 156 ; (here, however, he has adopted an
incorrect mode of reckoning, as Antoninus Pius, their
immediate predecessor, and the successor of the Emperor
Adrian, did not decease till A.D. l6l.) In their
time, (' quorum temporibus') continues he, and while
Eleutherius filled the papal chair, Lucius, king of the

t Hist. Eccles. p. 44. Lib. i. cap. 4.
* Bede lived between the years 676 and 735, He brings his Historia
Ecclesiastics Gentis Anglorum, from the earliest period to A.D. 731. To
the Tyro in antiquities, who is desirous of knowing the periods of wliich
our old Chronicles treat, the following list of some of them may not be
unacceptable ; —

4 OF THE ORIGIN OF
Britons, as he terms them, (though there is reason to
believe he was only a chieftain, whose jurisdiction was
confined to a scanty district), made application to Pope
Eleutherius for admission into the Christian Church,
though how Lucius was antecedently apprized of the
existence of that Church, the historian has not informed
us. However that may be, the Britons, or at least that
portion over which Lucius, if there ever was such a
person, presided, became proselyted, and peaceably
preserved the Christian faith till the period of Diocletian's
persecution.* The matters, however, recorded of this Lucius, and
indeed his very existence, are, I confess, to me, altogether
problematical ; nor can I discover any firm ground to
plant my foot on, till the mission of St. Augustine
by Pope Gregory in the year 596. There can be but
little doubt that the standard of the cross had been
unfurled here, long antecedent to the last named

Annales Margan  1066 to 1232
Wikes  1066 to 1304
Annales W^verleienses  1066 to 1291
Walter Hemingford  1066 to 1273
Matthew Westminster  Creation 1307
Ranulphus Munach Cestr, continuation of M. W  1307 to 1377
Florentius^of Worcester  Creation 1117
Continuation by an unknown hand  1117 to 1143
Ingulph. Hisl. Croyland  665 to 1087
Continuatio Petri Blessensis  1117
Mailros  735 to 1270
Bede comes down to 731. He died 735, jet. 59.
* Diocletian died A.D. 304.

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. 5
period;* for it is an unquestionable historical fact, that
the professors of that religion were persecuted by
Diocletian at the close of the third century. I will
grant that it is even very possible that Joseph of
Arimathaja might have first planted Christianity here,
or those Twelve, whom St. Philip is said to have
sent hither, but we must not assert, with some, the
certainty of the fact, as there is no evidence whatever
of a conclusive nature as to the parties, by whose
instrumentality, or the time when, this great work was
accomplished : aud however desirable it may be to those
well-meaning, but inconsiderate Protestants,f who imagine
it matters little upon what shoals they run, provided only
they run from the Romish Church, to disprove our
Romish parentage, by labouring to shew that Christianity.

* An interesting account of tjie arrival of St. Augustine and his
companions, in the Isle of Thanet, their entrance into Canterbury, and
their general reception in England, may be read in Venerable Bede, Lib.
i. cap. 25, p. 60. The passage begins "Roboratus ergo," and ends with
"Alleluia," p. 61.
t These persons seem to have fallen into the fatal error of the
poritanical Archbishop Abbot, to whose liberal and schismatical way of
dealing with dissenters from, and evangelicals in, the Church, must be
attributed the success of that faction, that in the time of his orthodox
successor Laud, overthrew the constitution in Church and State. Of
Abbot, the fosterer of the 'evangelicals' of those times. Lord Clarendon
has well observed, that he "considered religion no otherwise than as it
abhorred and reviled Popery, and valued those men most who did that
most furiously." " The life and times of William Laud, Archbishop of
Canterbury," by Mr. Lawson, should be attentively read by those of our
present Bishops and Clergy, who are, unhappily for Christian Unity,
evangelically and schismatically disposed, whence they cannot fail to learn
the injury their liberalism and latitudinariauism is likely to do that
Church,. whose honors and emoluments they now possess.

6 OF THE ORIGIN OF
was introduced here by authority independent on the
Papal See ; yet, I apprehend, they must be content, in
the total absence of all proof, to give up the point, and
confess that we are the undoubted offspring of the
constitutionally true, though practically corrupt Church
of St. Peter, the " idolatrous practices" and corruptions
and innovations of which we abjured at the Reformation,
while we restored to their primeval purity, the doctrines of
the Cross, retaining at the same time the essentials of the
Christian Church, viz. the power of the Keys, and the
Divine Commission transmitted from the Apostles through
the Hierarchy of Rome to ourselves. The popular,
though undoubtedly heretical, idea of establishing our
selves as a Church, originally unconnected with, or now
disowning all ties to that of Rome, is one, adopted in
these days of new-fangled liberality, and disregard for old
and fixed principles, from an Anti- Roman- Catholic zeal,
never indeed to be sufficiently commended in itself,
but arising out of an unfortunate ignorance of the essential
importance of the commission given by Christ to the
Eleven to proselyte mankind to Christianity. This
commission, it is quite obvious, can only now be obtained
through the medium of Episcopacy, the channel through
which the apostolic powers were originally meant to pass,
and through which they are still transmitted. Now, as
the Church of England can not pretend to shew an
uninterrupted succession of Bishops excepting through
Rome, to attempt to set up an origin independent on
Rome, or ter assert that we are not of kin to her, and that
she is not in fact, our Parent, is not only an historical
solecism, but if I may so express it, a theological suicide,
inasmuch as it is in effect to deprive ourselves of our

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. 7
existence as a church ; and by consequence, to place
ourselves out of the covenanted pale of salvation, for it
was for " the Church," that Christ died, and to " the
Church" were all his promises made :* nor is this all; for
without the visible delegation of authority, the now
accredited Priests of Christ, (that is, the Ministers of the
only two ChurcJies that can possibly be existent in Britain,
the Roman-Catholic and the Protestant- Episcopal ;)
the now accredited Priests of Christ, I say, acting as his
ambassadors and representatives, would be as unhallowed
intruders at the altar, and in the ministerial functions, as
the self-appointed Preachers of any Conventicle, and their
flocks as well as themselves, would be reduced to the
same precarious — the same extra-covenantal state : and
that, for this plain reason : every commission is virtually
exclusive ; and where a commission to preach, baptize,
proselyte, and absolve — in a word, where the power of the
Keys exists, there every mode, however good or well
meant, of administering in holy things, without such
commission or such power visibly demonstrable, is a
sacrilegious assumption of sacerdotal power ; and, as far
as it goes, a rebellion against Christ, the founder of the
Church, and the Holy Ghost, the original grantor of
sacerdotal power.'j-

* (pjjrist Joved "the Church," and gave himself for it. Ephes. v. 25.
He pee it becomes of esseutial importance to every Christian professor to
^ppfltijiii exaptly, where the Cburcli may be found, and what is the
definition ofthe Church. This important enquiry is dispassionately entered
into in the first of Cassan's Sermons. Riviugtons, 1829. "If he hear not
the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."
1 1 am not to be told that Dissenting Ministers say they have " a call."
Perhaps they have. Now, if this really be the case, how highly desirable

OF THE ORIGIN OF

The benefit of St. Augustine's earliest ministrations,
appears to have been given to the Isle of Thanet, where,
and not at Glastonbury, would I fix the cunabula of
Christianity. These ministrations he afterwards extended
over Kent, and obtained from ^Idilbert, King of that
Province, a See, if it so may be called, at Dover, and to
the eastward of Dover, a Church, anciently dedicated to
St. Martin, was also assigned him as his Cathedral.f
About the same time he was consecrated Archbishop of
all England by iEtherius, Archbishop of Aries.
The Saxon Chronicle being, as I have alreadyjobserved,
an authority in the early history of our nation; instar
omnium, I shall make no apology for laying before my
reader extracts of every mention therein made of the
introduction and early periods of Christianity in Britain :

would it be if they would inform us, should it not (like those " reasons"
for a certain recent measure, known only to the parties themselves) be
too great a secret, to be communicable, — how highly desirable, I say,
would it be, if they would deign to tell us— how, when, and by whom
this " call" was imparted : in order that we may see whether their
account of the matter agrees or disagrees with Scripture. I would not
have the persons who arrogate this call, imagine that I am bantering
tbem. I really enquire only for information. Perhaps they may have
received their " ministry and apostleship" from preceding dissenting
teachers, or what I believe they terra "The Conference"— both as
uncommissioned as themselves. But uo man can give that which is
not his. If their ministry can be traced back like ours in an uninterrupted
succession to the Apostles, let them shew it. The document will be a
valuable acquisition to our theological stores. But if they cannot do this,
their ministry is an unwarrantable assumption.

t " Dedit ergo mansiouem in civitate Domveruensi, quae imperii sui
totius erat metropolis."

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. 9
"P. 9. A.D. 189. This year Elutherius undertook
" the Bishopric of Rome, and held it honorably for
" fifteen winters. To him, Lucius, King of the
" Britons, sent letters and prayed that he might be
" made a Christian.* He obtained his request,
" and they continued afterwards in the right belief
" until the reign of Diocletian."f
" P. 18. A.D. 495. Cynegils, first of West-Saxon
" Kings, received baptism."
" P. 24 A.D. 552. In this year, Ethelbert, the son
" of Ermenric, was born ; who, on the two and thirtieth
" year of his reign received the rite of baptism, the
" first of all the Kings in Britain."
" P. 24. A.D. 560. In his (Ethelbert's) days, the
" holy Pope Gregory sent us baptism. Colomba,
" the mass-priest, came to the Picts, and converted
" them to the belief of Christ. The southern Picts
" were long before baptized by Bishop Ninnia, who
" was taught at Rome."
" P. 27. A.D. 596. This year| Pope Gregory sent
" Augustine to Britain, with very many § monks, to
" preach the word of God to the English people."

" Vid. Spelman Concil. p. 31.
t Vid. Bed. Hist. Eccl. Lib. i. c. 6. 7. Spelman Concil. i. p. 37.
t An. 590 R. Dicet. An. 588 Brompt. An. 598 Thorn. Vid. Bed.
Hist. Eccles. i. 23.
$ " Ferine quadraginta." Bed. Brompt. M. West.
C

JO OF THE ORIGIN OF
" P. 28. A.D. 597. This year came Augustine and
" his companions to England."*
" P. 28. A.D. 601. This year Pope Gregory sent
" the pall to Archbishop Augustine in Britain, with
" very many learned doctors to assist him ; and
" Bishop Paulinus converted Edwin, King of
" the Northumbrians, to baptism."
" P. 29. A.D. 604. This year Augustine conse-
" crated two Bishops, Mellitus and Justus. Mellitus
" he sent to preach baptism to the East-Saxons.
" Their King was called Seabert, the son of Ricola,
" Ethelbert's sister, whom Ethelbert placed there as
" King. Ethelbert also gave Mellitus the Bishopric
" of London, and to Justus he gave the Bishopric of
" Rochester. "f
" P. 30. A.D. 616. This year died Ethelbert,
" King of Kent, the first of English Kings that received
" baptism.";): " P. 31. A.D. 616. In this King's days (Eadbald's)
" Laurentius, who was Archbishop in Kent after
" Augustine, departed this life on the 2nd. of February,

* For an interesting and minute account of the arrival of Aflgustine aud
Iris companions in the Isle of Thanet, their entrance into Canterbury, and
their general reception in England, vid. Bede, Hist. Eccles. i. 25, and the
following chapters, with the Saxon translation by King Alfred. The
succeeding historians have, in general, repeated the very words of Bede.
t Let the Romanist here observe, specially, that it was the King who
gave away these Bishoprics, and not the Pope, although, to the latter,
their consecration, as well as the introduction of Christianity and
Episcopacy, aud, therewith the divine commission, appertained.
t Vid. Bede, Hist. Eccles. ii. 5-6.

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH, 1 1
" and was buried near Augustine. The holy Augustine
" in his life time invested him Bishop, to the end that
" the Church of Christ, which was yet new in England,
" should at no time after his decease be without an
'¦' Archbishop. After him, Mellitus, who was first
" Bishop of London, succeeded to the Archbishopric.
" The people of London, where Mellitus was before,
" were then heathens ; and within five winters of this
" time, during the reign of Eadbald, Mellitus died. To
" him succeeded Justus, who was Bishpp of Rochester,
" whereto he consecrated Romanus, Bishop."*

* Thus early did the baneful system of Episcopal Trans
lation prevail — a system which might eventually subvert
Episcopacy itself, and with it, of course, the Church, by
holding out a temptation to the Incumbents of minor Sees to
barter the interests, connive at the diminution of the
privileges, and tacitly, if not openly, to comply with the
overthrow of the safeguards of the Church, for the sake of
elevation to the higher Sees. Thus did the Dissenter-Rishop,
Hoadly, accomplish his ends, — thus he, but too successfully
" viam affectabat Olympo." The activity — the inactivity — the
language — the silence of certain Prelates when the repeal of
the Corporation and Test Acts was artfully propounded by
Liberalists as a feeler, in order to ascertain how the intro
duction of liberality on a still larger scale, i.e. the total
overthrow of the present. Church establishment would be
relished — I say the activity and language of some, and the
inactivity and silence of other Prelates, alike culpable arid
indefensible on that momentous occassion, as well as in
regard to the plan since propounded and built thereupon,
of opening the portals of the constitution to other, out

]2 OF THE ORIGIN OF
But the growth of the Christian faith in this island,
unhappily, was not commensurate with the zeal of its
propagators. Tardy were the advances of the religion of
Jesus amidst a nation that was perpetually relapsing into

professed Enemies, serve as most instructive lessons to shew
that the votes of the Bishops should be wholly uninfluenced
by the lpre of Translation, lest, in the hope of personal
advancement, they should be tempted, Hoadly-like, to
permit the interests of the Church to succumb to the word
of command of a liberalizing Minister.
It is pre-eminently worthy of notice, now that we are on
this point, that out of Eight English Prelates who voted in
favor of Popery, Six were the occupiers of inferior Sees.
With regard to the relative importance of the two liber
alizing steps which have been, to the astonishment of all
Tories and high Churchmen, adopted in what I fear History
will call " the decline of the British Empire ;" doubtless the
repeal of the Corporation aud Test Acts, is the more preg
nant with danger. When we "relieve," as the vocabulary
of liberality absurdly terms it, the Dissenters, we place
ourselves in the power of a concealed foe — one, who though
he affects identity with the Church, can not be " of us," or he
would not causelessly "have gone out from us :" whereas,
when we give unfettered freedom to the Roman-Catholic, we
bare our bosoms to an avowed, and therefore more honorable
opponent : one who, unlike the other, is the member of a
true Christian Church.
If the present Ecclesiastical Constitution must fall, (and
there seems, alas ! at present, every probability of that
occurrence,) far better is it to consign ourselves to the high-
toned Toryism of Popery, than to crouch to the abject
republicanism, the low-born canaille of Dissent — far better

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. IS
Pagan superstitions, and many and severe the checks and
interruptions it experienced ; nor was the diffusion of the
Gospel over our country effected by any one individual,
sent hither for the purpose of proselyting our ancestors,
but various Bishops appear to have been entrusted by the
Papal See with this pious office at various times, and
different districts also, seem to owe their conversion to
different holy men.
Passing over the conversion of the inhabitants of other
districts, we will contemplate the province with which our
present researches are more immediately connected ; that
ofthe Gevissas or West-Saxons, who, it appears from
Bede,* were converted A.D. 634, in the reign of
Cynegils, by the ministry of Birin, who was sent hither in
634, (Sax. Chronicle) by Pope Honorius, having been
previously consecrated to the Prelacy by Asterius,
Bishop of Genoa.

to be members of a true, though partially corrupt Church,
than to be altogether aliens from any Church at all. And
incomparably more beneficial is it to receive the light through
the distorted medium of Koinan-Catholicistn, than to wander
amid the withering gloom of the Conventicle. Were we
compelled to recognise either Roman-Catholic or Schismatic,
as dominant, our preference should decidedly be to hira who
does belong to a Church rather than to him who belongs to
no Church.
(p^f- The anticipation of the fall of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, and the decided preferability of Popery to Puritanism,
is, if there can be any, the only justifiable plea for recent
apostacies. * Eccles. Hist. p. 109.

14 OF THE ORIGIN OF
To Birin, according to the concurrent authority of
almost every Chronologist of Antiquity, was assigned
A.D. 635, Dorchester as his Episcopal See, but which of
the two places which go by that name, is no where stated.
His title was Bishop ofthe Gevissae or West-Saxons. In
that See, Birin was succeeded by Agilbert, in whose life
time, the Bishopric was divided by King Kenwalch into
two dioceses, the one called Dorchester, over which
Agilbert was appointed; the other Winchester, over which
Wini presided as its first Prelate. Wini was succeeded
by Eleutherius, and he by Headda ; after whose death, in
704 or 5, Winchester being rightly deemed by the judicious
Ina, then King of the West-Saxons, too large a diocese
for one Prelate, was divided into two, under the names of
Winchester and Sherborne. Winchester diocese
continued untouched, and still retains its name and
immoderate revenues,* while Sherborne has proved the
parent of several Bishoprics.

* Who does not regret, that while one Prelate possesses
such inordinate wealth, other Prelates should have Bishoprics
scarcely sufficient to support the expenses of their high station,
or to carry into effect the wishes of their liberal hearts ? The
enormous and disproportionate income of the Bishopric of
Winchester, would well justify a further dismemberment of
that diocese ; and it is a matter of astonishment to every
sound Churchman and friend of Government, that His
Majesty's ministers should never have availed themselves of
this opportunity of serving so essentially the Church, and at
the same time acquiring additional patronage by the erection
of two or three Bishoprics which might easily be parcelled
out of the present diocese of Winchester j or what would be

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. 15
The narrative of Birin's ministry is thus given by Bede.
" Eo tempore occidentalium Saxonum qui antiquitus
" Gevissae vocabantur, regnante Cynigilso fidem Christi
" suscepit, pradicante illis verbum Birino Episcopo,
" qui cum consilio Papae Honorii venerat Brittaniam ;
" promittens quidem se illo praesente in intimis ultro
" ALiiglorum partibus quo nullus Doctor praecessisset,
" sanctte fidei semina esse sparsurum. Unde et jussu
" ejusdem Pontificis per Asterium Genuensem
" Episcopum in Episcopates consecratus est gradum.
" Sed Brittaniam perveniens, ac primum Gevissorum
" gentem ingrediens, cum omnes ibidem paganissimos
" inveniret utilius esse ratus est ibi potius verbum
" praedicare, quam ultra progrediens, eos quibus
" praedicare deberet, inquirere.
" Itaque evangelizante illo in praefata provincia, cum
" Rex ipse catechizatus, fonte Baptismi cum sua gente
" ablueretur, contigit tunc temporis sanctissimum ac

equally, if not more serviceable to the Church, an addition
could be made to the revenues of some of the minor and
poorly endowed Sees by the alienation of a few of its best
manors ; and, doubtless, to a Prelate of so liberal and
spiritualized a mind as the present occupier of the See, once
filled by Wykeham and Waynflete, such a sacrifice to the best
interests of the Church, and the strengthening of the hands
of Government would be rather pleasing than otherwise : at
all events, private emolument should, in such a case, in every
well regulated state, succumb to the general welfare ; nor
would it be difficult to quote a host of precedents to shew
that such alienations have been unhesitatingly made.

16 OF THE ORIGIN OF
" victoriosissimum Regem Nordanhymbrorum [North-
" unibrians] Osualdum adfuisse, eumque de lavacro
" exeuntem suscepisse, ac pulcherrimo prorsus et Deo
" digno consortio, cujus erat filiam accepturus in
" conjugem ipsum prius secunda generatione Deo
" dicatum sibi accepit in filium."
With regard to the Episcopal See assigned to Bishop
Birin, Bede thus proceeds : —
" Donaverunt autem ambo reges eidem Episcopo
" civitatem quae vocatur Dorcic, ad faciendum inibi
" sedem episcopalem, ubi factis dedicatisque ecclesiis,
" multisque ad Dominum pio ejus labore populis
" advocatis, migravit ad Dominum, sepultusque est in
" eadem civitate."
Here we must express our regret that the historian did
not more particularly define the place of the Episcopal
See, for it has been doubted, whether Dorchester in
Dorset, or Dorchester in Oxfordshire, is intended. The
learned Editor of Bede explains it as referring to the
latter. I have already alluded to the dubious traditions of the
early existence of Christianity in West-Saxony. The
Saxon Chronicle, by the adoption of one word, over
throws the opinion that the Christian faith had an earlier
date in those parts than the year of Christ (J34.
" This year Bishop Jimniis first preached baptism
" to the West-Saxons, under King Cynegils." Now
baptism being the initiatory Sacrament of Christianity,
the ' first preaching of Baptism,' is equivalent to the
first introduction of the Gospel.
But little more at this distant period can be gleaned
respecting Bishop Birin. The events with which he was

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. 17
connected, are thus stated by the Saxon Chronicle : —
" Birinus was sent hither (i. e. into West-Saxony,)
" by the command of Pope Honorius, and he was
" Bishop there to the end of his life."
" A.D. 635. This year King Cynegils was
" baptized by Bishop Birinus, at Dorchester."
" A.D. 639. This year Birinus baptized King
" Cuthred at Dorchester, and received him as
" his son."
After this date I find nothing more of him. His day
in the Roman Catholic Calendar, is December 3. He
must have died anterior to 650, as we find him then
succeeded by Agilbert.— See Cassan's Lives of the
Bishops of Winchester.

CHAPTER IL

-»?¦—

©f t$e @rigtn of tfje JJirs of 3323. *H&

In 1075, the See of Sherborne was removed to
Salisbury, by which name its Bishops have ever since been
designated. In or about 905, the County of Somerset
had been taken out of it, to form the diocese of Wells :
and also at the same time Devon and Cornwall, to form
two dioceses, now re-united under the See of Exeter.
In 1542, the See of Sherborne experienced a further
diminution by the dismemberment of the See of
Bristol from it.
After the death of Bishop Headda in 704 or 5, whom'
Godwin, at p. 332, erroneously, and in contradiction of
his own statement elsewhere, (p. 211,) calls fifth Bishop
of Winchester, instead of third, we hear no more of the
Bishops of the West-Saxons or of Dorchester. King Ina
having divided the province into two portions, appointed
Bishop Daniel to W inchester, and his own kinsman, the
celebrated Aldhelm,* to Sherborne, which diocese then
included the Counties of Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, Devon,
and Cornwall.

* Some memoirs of Bishop Aldhelm may be read in Cassan's Lives of
the Bishops of Salisbury. Part i. p. 5

THE SEE OF WELXS. ]:Q
We are now to treat of the first establishment of the
diocese of Wells, which, as has already been noticed,
¦became a separate See on the dismemberment of
Somerset from the more ancient See of Sherborne.
This, if we may credit the general tenor of Ecclesiastical
History, took place early in the tenth Century ; though
there are not wanting authors who have stated Somerset
to have been a separate diocese, long anterior to that
period. The Canonicus Welleusis, anxious for the remote
antiquity of the See with which he was connected, would
fain have us believe that there had been a Bishop of
Congresbury to whose jurisdiction the County of Somerset
appertained, prior to the year 704, and that the See was
removed to Wells in that year ; whereas it took its
commencement in the beginning of the tenth Century,
about three hundred years after, viz, A. D. 909.
The Canon of Wells's account of the matter is as follows :
" Nomina Episcoporum in Somerset a tempore
¦" Dauielis Episcopi anno ab Incarnatione DCCIV.
" Daniel consecratus in Episcopum Congresberye ;
" qui transtulit Sedem Episcopalem a Congresberye
•" ad Welliam. Hie inter Regem Inam et Adelburgam
" nuptias celebravit; et Regina mediante, manerium
¦" deTyderton.^ alias Tydeston) nuncupatum, ab eodem
*' Rege sibi et successoribus suis impetravit. Qui
" cum sedisset in Episcopatu xliii. aijnos, relict{_. terra
'" morientium transivit ad terram viventium. Huic
rf' successit Sigarius Episcopus, quern supplantavit
" Alwynus. Alwynus post obitum Sigari vixit xiii
" diebus. Cui successit Britellinus, huic Burwoldus,
" huic Leovingus, huic Bridelwynus, huic Alwynus^
" huic Merewyt, hujc Dudoco," &c.

20 OF THE ORIGIN OF THE
But the Canonicus Wellelisis is not the only author
Who has erected Congresbury into a Bishop's See. The
Glastonbury Chronicle goes so far as to say, that this See
of Congresbury had existed ever since the year of our
Lord 167 !
The words of the Chronicle are these : —
" A.D. CLXV1I. Episcopatus Somersetis per SS.
" Faganum et Deruvianum sumpsit exordium, et in
" Kungresburi& per multum tempus Sedes Episcopalis
" fuit. Sederunt in eadem Sede plurimi Pontifices
" successive usque ad tempus Inae Regis West-
" Saxomim ; quorum numerum, gesta, et tempora
" nusquam reperimus descripta.* In tempore autem
" praedicti Regis Daniel, qui in Cathedra de Kungres-
" buri& sedebat ultimus, Sedem illam, qure illic per
" D.C. annos vel amplius remanserat, ad villam quae
" tunc Tethiscine,f nunc vero Welles nominatur, Ina
" Rege donante, et ei consentiente, transtulit. Iste
" autem Daniel in sedem Episcopatu ultimus erat
" Episcopus Britonum."
If the above were genuine and correct, it would appear
that Somerset had an original and independent existence
under 'the name of the See of Congresbury, so far back as
167 ! and that it assumed the name of Wells on the
translation of the See to Tethiscine, the modern Wells.
This translation, the Canonicus Wellensis fixes at 704,

No wonder since the persons uever had existence.

t Variously written Tyderton, Tydeston, Tudington, Tiddington, aud
by Lelaud, Theorodunum.

SEE OF WELLS. 21
which was the period of Headda's death and Ina's
dismemberent of Winchester ; while the Glastonbury
Chronicle says, that the See of Congresbury, "annos
DC. vel amplius remanserat," thus bringing the date so
low as 767. King Ina is said to have founded a monastery
at Wells in 704, which Kenulph is represented to have
endowed with large estates in 766 ; Bishop Godwin gives
us the Charter of Kenulph as an undoubted record of the
antiquity of Wells, but had he compared the names of the
subscribing Bishops, and the years of the dominical
incarnation and indiction, he would easily have detected
the fraud.
That many of the early ecclesiastical documents were
forged by the monks, and palmed off by them on the
Laity as pious frauds, no one conversant with antiquity
can be ignorant. That this mention of Bishops of
Congresbury has, for some sinister end, been fabricated,
though for what specific one it would be vain to enquire,
there seems but little doubt. The learned Henry
Wharton deems the whole a fable. " Statutum," says
he, "a suscepti operis initio mihi erat de fabulosis
Britanniae Episcopis tacere; cum autem Historicus noster
de Daniele Congresberiensi mentionem ingfisserit ; hunc
penitus intactum praetermittere non possumus."
It must, however, be confessed, and the fact is very
startling, that even the accurate and indefatigable Arch
bishop Usher has been led away by these monkish
inventions, inasmuch as he fixes the period of the alleged
translation of the See of Congresbury to Wells, thereby
sanctioning the assertion that there had existed Bishops
of Congresbury prior to the erection of the See of Wells,
and consequently that the dismemberment of the County

22 OF THE SEE OF WELLS.
of Somerset from the See of Sherborne (Salisbury) must
either have taken place more than two centuries prior to
the period generally fixed for the event, viz. about 905,
or 909, or that the See was altogether of independent
origin. The Archbishop thus writes : — ¦
" DCCXXI. Daniel Britannus a sede Congres-
" buriensi, donante Rege Ina et consentiente, ad
" Wellensem sedem, Episcopatum transtulit; postremus
" in eo loco Britonum existens Episcopus."
But it is to be specially observed, that this passage
occurs only in his Index Chronologicus, (p. 541.) The
references are to pp. 36 and 251, but nothing there
occurs on the subject ; whence I conclude, that the
whole of the notice was entered at first in his work
through some error, which he afterwards detected, and
expunged ; while he forgot to make the requisite emen
dation in the iudicial reference.
That the whole story of the .Congresbury Bishops is
the fabrication of some Monks, zealous for the antiquity
of their diocese, is evident from the date assigned for the
removal of the pretended See of Congresbury to Wells,
and the dates assigned to the Bishops in the latter place
who succeeded Daniel ; as for instance, Sigar and his
successors, who we know did not obtain the prelacy till
nearly 300 years subsequently !

CHAPTER III.

¦»? *-

©f «ljn. Bioum of JSatfj atvai 323*118,

The Bishopric of Bath and Wells is rated for first
fruits, at ,£533. Is. 3d. Ecton, p. 45.
The diocese contains the whole County of Somerset,
except a few Churches in the city of Bristol : the number
of parishes amounting to 388; and the Churches and
Chapels to 503. Ofthe parishes, 160 are impropriate.
This diocese, although it has a double name, is but one
Bishopric. The Bishop's seat is at Wells, whose
Cathedral Church was built by Ina, King of the West-
Saxons, in 704, and by him dedicated to St. Andrew.
Several other of the West-Saxon Kings endowed it, and
it was created into a Bishopric in 905, during the reign of
King Edward the elder. The present Church was begun
by Robert, the 18th Bishop of this See, in 1136, and
was completed by his immediate successor.
John de Villula, the 16th Bishop, having purchased
the city of Bath for 500 marks, of King Henry I.
transferred his seat to that city in 1088. From this,
disputes arose between the Monks of Bath and the Canons

24 OF THE DIOCESE OF
of Wells,* about the election of a Bishop; but they were
at last compromised by Robert the 18th Bishop, who
decreed, that from henceforward, the Bishop should be
stiled from both places, and that the precedency should
be given to Bath ; that, in the vacancy of the See, the
Bishop should be elected by a certain number of delegates
from both Churches : and that he should be installed in
them both. Both of them to constitute the Bishop's
chapter ; and all his grants and patents to be confirmed
in both. So it stood till the Reformation. But in the
35th of King Henry the VIII. an act of Parliament
passed for the Dean and Chapter of Wells to make one
sole Chapter for the Bishop.
The See of Bath and Wells has yielded to the Church
of Rome two Cardinals, viz.
Adrian de Castello, Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus
in 1503, Bishop here from 1504 to 1518
and Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal of St. Cecilia in
1514, Bishop here from 1518 to 1523
To the Civil State of England, six Lord Chancellors,
viz. Godfrey, Bishop here from 1 123 to 1135
Walter Giffard,  •  1264 to 1266
Robert Burnell, ¦  1275 to 1292
John Stafford,  1425 to 1443
Robert Stillington,  14()6 to 1491
Thomas Wolsey,  1518 to 1523

* The History of the Controversy between the Bishops of Bath and the
Monks of Glastonbury, may be found in Adam de Domershami in the
Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 576-585.

BATH AND WELLS. 25
Eight Lord High Treasurers, viz.
Walter Giffard,  1264 to 1266
Robert Burnell,  1275 to 1292
William Marsh,  1293 to 1302
John de Drokensford,  1309 to 1329
John Barnet,  1363 to 1366
Henry Bovvet,  1401 to 1407
Nicholas Bubwith,  1407 to 1424
John Stafford,  . 1425 to 1443
Two Lords Privy Seal, viz.
John Stafford,  1425 to 1443
Thomas Beckington,  ¦ 1443 to 1464
One Master of the Rolls, viz.
John Clerk,  1523 to 1540
One Lord President of Wales, viz.
Gilbert Bourne,  1554 to 1569
One Principal Secretary of State, viz.
William Knight,  1541 to 1547
To the See of Canterbury, five Archbishops, viz.
Adelm,  905 to 915
Wlfhelm,  915 to 924
Leoning,  ¦  1012 to 1013
Reginald Fitz-Joceline,  1 174 to 1 1 91
John Stafford,  1425 to 1443
To the See of York, three Archbishops, viz.
Walter Giffard,  1264 to 1266
Henry Bovvet,  1401 to 1407
Thomas Wolsey,  1518 to 1523
To the See of London, one Bishop, viz. William Laud.
To Durham, two, viz.
Walter Skirlaw,  1 386 to 1 388
Richard Fox,  1491 to 1494

26 OF BATH AND WELLS.
To Winchester, two, viz.
Walter Curie,  1629 to 1632
Peter Mews,  1672 to 1684
And to the Protestant-Episcopal Church, the cause
of Monarchy, of Episcopacy, and of Orthodoxy, one
Martyr, viz. William Laud.
There has not been a translation from Bath and Wells
for nearly a century and a half; the last being in the
person of Peter Mews, removed hence to Winchester in
1684.

CHAPTER IV.

— ? »

€»f.i_tje Cat&etwil, Hatacir, awtii ©Mg of W&tlM.

¦»?»

2?y Sir Richard C: Hoare, Bart.
Dear Sir, The Cathedral Churches of Bath and
Wells have been so fully and ably illustrated by Mr.
Britton, that it will not be necessary for me to enter into
any long discussion respecting them ; yet some particulars
merit your attention, which have escaped his notice.
The account given by William de Worcestre, (p. 11 6,)
of Bath Church, is very brief, containing only its length,
viz. " 180 steppys, and its breadth, viz. 30 steppys."
But the said ancient author is much more minute in his
account of Wells Cathedral and its appendages.
He thus states its proportions : —
" Ecclesia Wellensis. — Longitudo ecclesiae Cathe-
" dralis Wellensis continet a porta occidentali ad
" hostium principii chori 61 virgas cum dimidio. Et
" a port& chori usque ad orientem continet 47 gressus.
" Latitudo ex parte chori dictae ecclesise continet 23
*' virgas.

28 OF THE CATHEDRAL, PALACE,
" Longitudo de le crosse eelejuxtachorum continet
" 42 virgas ab area in meridiem, ubi principatis turris
" campanarum in medio de le crosse eele situatur.
" Longitudo novae capellae episcopi continet 36
" virgas. " Latitudo ejus continet 7 virgas. Latitudo partis
" occidentalis ecclesiae praedictae continet sex magnas
*' boterasses, et quodlibet boterasse est latitudinis 5
" pedum vel 6 pedum, id est, duarum virgarum, et in
" boriali parte illius magni operis quas est principalis
" boterasse, continet in latitudine et densitate 9 pedes
" vel 3 virgas.
" Longitudo claustri quadrati continet ex onmi
" quatuor partium 53 virgas."
Having given the above account of the interior of this
noble Cathedral, the same author thus alludes to its
exterior : —
Memorandum. — " Quod in occidentali et boreali
" parte ecclesiae principalis Sancti Andreae, sunt ties
" magnae boterasses cum tribus ordinibus magnorum
" ymaginum de veteri lege.
" Et in plana occidentali ecclesiae sunt sex magnas
" et altze boterasses scitae, ad latitudinem sex pedum,
" et densitudinem circa trium virgarum, cum tribus
" ordinibus magnorum ymaginum de nova lege
" sculptarum.
" Et in occidentali et boreali parte dictae ecclesis
" sunt duae maxima; boterasses ad' altitudinem circa
" LX pedum cum tribus ordinibus sculptarum cum
" magnis ymaginibus de nova lege.
" Latitudo navis ecclesise Cathedralis Sancti Andrea
" est 12 virgae." — p. 285.

AND CITY OF WELLS, 29
Our author then proceeds to state the benefactions
and buildings, which Thomas Bokynpton, [Beckington]
added to the Church and City.
" De ecclesia et operibus Wellens." Porticus
" borealis ecclesiae Sancti Andreae continet in longitu-
" dine 7 virgas, et in latitudine 5 virgas.
Memorandum. — " Quod magister Thomas Bokymp-
" ton, natus filius unicus textoris, fecit fieri ista opera
" magnifica. " Primo fecit novam operacionem valoris 1 8 lib' ad
" opus Canonicorum 14 residencium, quae aedificatio
" extendit ad 100 gressus longitudinis, et constabat
"5  Continet in longitudine per vicum
" 80 virgas vel 152 gressus.
" Item fecit reparare camynos in Le Close clauso
" novo Canonicorum cum reparatione murorum
" octorum cujuslibet.
" Item fecit fieri portam novam in Sadell Strete in
*' le west-yate parte villae cum tribus tenentibus
" constabat edificium ccc marcarum.
" Item fecit aliam portam apud le Close usque le
" Cathedrall chyrch per vias et voltam sicco pede
" cooperto ad mat  et constabat in
" edificiis ultra D marcas.
" Item fecit fieri alteram portam ad introitum
" cimiterii de le Market Place et constabat episcopo
"  et continet 4 virgas et 2 pedes
" latitudinis. " Item fecit fieri aliam portam ad introitum de le
" Palays, et custos dictae portae fuit cc marcarum et
" ultra.

SO OF THE CATHEDRAL, PALACE,
". Item fecit fieri de loco a'rborum in parte boreali
" aulae archiepiscopi, viz. claustri, parluram, cameras
" pro dominis advenientibus, cum coquin& largissima
" ex magnis sumptibus ultra mille lib' cum cottductibus
" aquae ad coquinam, ad le botrye, cellarium, le bake-
" hous, ad lez stues ad nutriendos pisces.
" Item dedit communibus et burgensibus Wellens'
" conductum aquae *pro communi utilitate dictae
" civitatis pro 20 lib'.
" Item fecit fieri claustrum occidentale ecclesiae.
" Item dedit de vestibus de tissue 1111. diversas
" sewtes de tyssue de purpre blodii coloris et albi
" coloris cum aliis ornamentis ad valenciam quatuor
" mille marcarum.
Memorandum. — " Sunt de bay-windows 12inspacio
" 80 virgarum, in altitudiuc trium stragarum dictarum
" bay-windowes — sunt in qualibet bay-window septem
" lyghtis quae faciunt 2 1 lyghtes.
" Et quaelibet dictarum 12 bay-windows sunt
" embatylled, viz. tres embatylles quaelibet 12 fenestra-
" rum de le bay-window. •
" Spacium inter duas north boterasses dictae ecclesiae
" sunt 5 virgae.
Memorandum. — " Qubd aulaf Episcopatus Wellensis

* This fine Conduit was taken down a few years ago, and a very bad
substitute erected in its stead ; but a drawing of the old one is in
existence. — Vide Plate, in the life of Bishop Beckington in this work.
R. C. H.
t Mr. Britton, p. 117, says, this gratid hall was built by Bishop
Burnell, temp. Edw. I. and that it measured 120 feet in length, and 70
feet in width. R. C. H.

AND CITY OF WELLS. 31
" continet per estimationem circa 80 gressus super
" navem, et duos elas. [alas].
" Latitudo ejus continet circa 46 gressus.
" Et habet pulcrum porticum archuatum cum volta.
" Tres claustri archuati et volta sunt prope eccle-
" siam scitae.
" Et in quolibet triu m claustrorum sunt 12 magnae
" fenestrae, et quaelibet fenestra continet 
" panas lucis, et quaelibet fenestra continet 3 virgas et
" 1 pedem.
" Mansio Vicariorum continet in spacio longitudinis
" viae ex utraque parte aedificatae 240 gressus.
" Et in amba ex utraqua parte edificatae cum mansi-
" onibus Vicariorum, in qualibet parte 22 domus
" edificatae, cum cameris magnae altitudinis ac totidem
" gardinis et muratis ante introitum hostii."
These notices which have been omitted by Mr.
Britton, shew how munificent a benefactor Bishop
Beckington was to the Church and City of Wells.
But we must not omit the notices taken of this place
by Leland, in his Collectanea and Itiuerarium.
In the first vol. p. 33, he cites the donation of
Cynwulph, King of the West-Saxons.
He afterwards commemorates the Founder and
Benefactors. " Ina rex Occident' Saxon' primus fundator circa
"an' 704. Robertus ( ) Episcopus Batho-
" Wellensis reparator. Joscelinus de Welles Episco-
"pus, reparator 1239- — 24 Hen. III. Radulphus
" Shrewsbury Episcopus praecipuus benefactor temp.
" Edw. III. Johes Harewell Episcopus praecipuus
" benefactor qui obiit 10 Ric. II. Nich. Bubwith

32 OF THE CATHEDRAL, PALACE,
" Episcopus benefactor. Tho. Beckington Episcopus
" benefactor. Rob. Stillington Episcopus benefactor."
vol. i. p. 78
.i The same author, in his Itinerary, gives the following
particulars respecting this Church and City : —
" Thomas Bekington made the west ende of the
" cloyster with the volte, and a goodly schoole with the
" schole , master logging, and an escheker over it,
" having 25 windowes toward the area side.
" Bekington began also the south side of the cloyster ;
" but one Thomas Henry, treasorer of Welles, made an
" ende of it in hominum memorid. This side hath
" no housing over it. Thomas Bekington obiit 14 die
" Januar' A°- D. 1464.
" Thomas Bubwith made the est part of the cloystere
" with the little Chapel beneth, and the great librarie
" over it, having 25 windowes on each side of it.
" There is no part of the cloystre on the north side of
" the area to walk yn, for it is only hemmid with the
" south isle of the body of the Chirch. There is only
" a Chapelle yn that side of the area made by one
" Cokeham. " Nicolaus Bubwith obiit 27 Oct. A<>D. 1424;
" fecit Capell' in qua humatus est, et ibidem 4 Capel-
" lanos instituit.
" Hie dedit Eccl' Wellensi and Bathon' duos calices
" aureos. " Fecit quadratam turrim et campanas ad boreale
" latus Occident' partis Ecclesiae, et panellam Claustri
" cum capell^ inferius, et libraria superius et libris
" pretiosis dotavit.

AND CITY OT WELLS- 33
" Hospitale 24 pauperum in urbe Wellensi, praeter
" Hospit' S. Joannis, quod fuit situm juxta pontem
" amuiculi in meridionali parte urbis versus Glessen-
" byri. Hoc opus inceptum a Nicolao Bubwith
" Episcopo Wellensi, et absolutum ab ejus execu-
" toribus." — Itin. iii. p. 123.
Here follow various monumental inscriptions.
The city and Episcopal Palace at Wells appear
so intimately connected with the lives of the Bishops who
resided in them, and who contributed to their comfort
and spl-endor, that the following account transmitted
to us by Leland, may not, I trust, prove totally un
interesting to your readers : —
" The toune of Welles is sette yn the rootes of
" Mendepe hille, in a stony soile, and ful of springes,
" whereof it hath the name. The chefest spring is
" caullid Andres Welles, and risith in a medow plot
" not far above the est end of the Cathedrale Chirch,
" first renning flat west and entering into Coscumb
" water, somewhat by south.
" The toiine of Welles is large ; I esteme it to lak
"litle of 2 miles in cumfrace, al for the most part
" buildid of stone. The streates have streamelettes
" of springes almost yn every one renning, and occu-
" piyth making of cloth. The chifest of the toun
" lyeth by est and west, and sum parte cast out with
" a streat by south, in the out parte wherof was a
" Chapelle, as sum say, of Thomas Beket.
" Ther is but one Paroch Chirch in Welles ; but that
"is large, and standith in the west part of the toun,
" and is dedicate to Sainct Cuthberte.

S4 OF THE CATHEDRAL, PALACE,
" There is an hospital* of 24 pobre menne and
" wymen at the north side of S. Cuihbertes Chirch—
" there is a Cantuary Preste.
" The hospitale and the Chapelle is buildid al in
" length under one roofe from west to est.
" Nicolas Bubwith, Bishop of Bath, was founder of
" this, and brought it almost to the perfection, and that
" that lakkid was completid by one John Storthwayt,
" one of the Executors of the testament of Bubwith.
" There was another Hospitale of St. John yn the
" to\yn, stondiug hard on the ripe by south of S.
" Andreas streme. — This Hospitale was foundid by
"  and Hughe, Bishops.
" There is a conduct in the market-place derivid from
" the Bishope's conduct by the licens of Thomas
"Bekington, Bisshop sumtyme of Bath, for the
" which, the burgeses ons a yere solemply visite his
" tumbe, and pray for hys sowle.
" There be xij right exceding fair houses al uniforme
" of stone, high and fair windoid in the north side of
" the market-place, joining hard to the north west part
" of the Bishop's Palace. This cumly peace of work
" was made by Bishop Bekyngton, that myndid yf he
" had lyvid longger, to have buildid other xij, on the
" south side of the market-steede, the which work if he
" had 'complishid it had bene a spectacle toal market-
" places in the west countery.
" William Knight, now Bishop of 'Bath, (  )
" buildith a crosse in the market-place, a right sump-
" tuus peace of worke, in the extreme circumference
" wherof, be vij faire pillers, and in another circum-

AND CITY OF WELLS. 35
" ference withyn them, be vj pillers and yn the midle
" of this circumference one piller ; al these shaul bere
" a volte, and over the volte shaul be Domus Civica.
"Bishop's Palace. The area afore the Bishop's
" Palace lyith est of the market-stede, and hath a fair
"high waul toward the market-stede, and a right
" goodly gate house yn it, made of late by Bishop
" Beckingtun, as it apperithe by his armes. On the
"south side of this area, is the Bishop's Palace,
"dichid brodely and waterid about by the water of
" S. Andre's streame let into it. This Palace ys
" strongely waullid and embatilede Castelle lyke, and
" hath in the first front a godly gate house yn the
" midle and at eche ende of the front a round tower,
" and 2 other round towers be lykelihood yn the south
" side of the Palace, and then is ther one at every
"corner. The haul ofthe Palace ys exceding fayre.
" The residew of the house is large and fair. Many
" Bishops hath bene the makers of it, as it is now.
" The Chanons of Welles had there houses afore the
" translation of the Se to Bath, wher now the Bishop's
" Palace is. John of Tours, first Bishop of Bath, put
" them out, and they syns have buildid them a xij very
" faire houses, partely on the north side of the cimetery
" of the Cathedrale Chirch partely without. Bishop
" Bekington buildid the gate house at the weste ende
" of the cemiterie.
" The Decanes place is on the northe side of the
" cimitefy. " Ther is at the est ende of the cimitery a volt and a
" gate, and a galery made over by Bekington."
ii. p. 71.

36 OF THE CATHEDRAL, PALACE,
Independent of the fine Cathedral to which Mr,
Britton has done ample justice by an accurate description
and most beautiful engravings, two adjacent buildings
deserve our notice.
1. The elegant chapel.
2. The magnificent hall.
The first has been attributed to Bishop Joceline, who
presided over the See from 1206 to 1242.
The second owes it splendour to Bishop Burnell, who
was elected A.D. 1275, and presided till the year 1292.
Godwin thus commemorates this work : —
" Aulam ille condidit magnam ac specioSam palatii
" Wellensis, ante annos sexaginta, dirutam a Johanne
" Gatesio equite aurato," [beheaded 1553, temp Mary.]
In Strype's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 522, I find that " a
" licence was given to the Bishop of Bath and Wells
" (Barlow) to grant and alienate to Edward Duke
" of Somerset, in fee simple, all the site, circuit, and
" precinct of the chief mansion called the Palace, with
" divers other lands, to be held in fealty only." —
(Dated November 15S0, 4 Edw. VI.)
Anno 1552, (6 Edw. VI.) The same author recites a
letter to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, (Barlow) sig
nifying his Majesty's contentation that the Bishop, having
many fit places within the precinct of the house at Wells,
to make an hall of, and for his hospitality, may (edifying
one thereon) take down the great hall, now standing, and
grant the same away ; commending urfto him for that
purpose, Henry Gates, upon knowledge had of the
Bishop's good inclination towards him . Upon the attainder
and execution of Edward Duke of Somerset, the palace
of Wells, &c. reverted to the crown ; for, in . the year

AND CITY OF WELLS. 37
] 552, we find a patent* granted for exchange of lands
in Somerset, deanery at Wells, palace, and all the manors
in Wells, its borough, &c. all late a part of the posses
sions of the Bishop.
We also find in the year 1552, (6 Edw. VI.) a patent
dated August 1, for exchange of lands with William
Barlow, Bishop of Bath and Wells, for the mansion of
the deanery, with several lands, manors, Sac. The Bishop
to have the palace, the manor, borough, and hundred of
Wells, late parcel of the possessions of Edward Duke of
Somerset, attainted of felony, and sometime parcel of
the possessions of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. —
Strype, vol. ii. p. 531.
By these records, we learn that the palace, manors, &c.
of Wells, were conferred by King Henry VIII. on the
Protector Somerset, soon after his return from the wars
in Scotland ; but he did not live long to enjoy them,: for
after his attainder, these possessions were restored to the
See, by an exchange made between King Edward VI.
and Bishop Barlow ; which said Bishop is said to have
committed the same act of spoliation at Wells,, as he did
at St. David's, when he presided over that See, though
Godwin attributes the devastation of the grand hall to
Sir John Gates; but I know not on what authority he
grounded his assertion.
Harrington, in his Nugte Antiqute, thus notices the
dilapidations committed by Bishop Barlow in this mag
nificent hall : —

• Dated 1 Aug. An. Reg' 6.

38 OF THE CATHEDRAL, PALACE, &C
" I speak now onely of the spoile made under this
" Bishop. Scarce were five yeeres past after Bath's
" ruines, but as fast went the axes and hammers to
" work at Wells. The goodly hall covered with lead
" (because the roof might seem too low for so large a
" room) was uncovered, and now this roofe reaches to
" the skie." — Note : many other dilapidations are also
noticed within the Church. — Vol. i p. 126.
No subsequent attempts seem to have been made to
restore the splendour of this noble hall. Though still it
is magnificent even in its ruins, and forms the principal
Ornament to the Episcopal Palace, owing to the good taste
and judgment of the present worthy Prelate ; who, by
taking down one of the walls, has introduced it into one
of the most beautiful flower-gardens imaginable, where it
forms a most picturesque object. Many other judicious!1
improvements have been made by the same • hand,
especially in the elegant little Episcopal Chapel ; and in
the crypt of the Palace, which is converted into a recep
tacle for the curiosities of natural and other antiquities of
the county.
The only memorial left of the once-mighty Protector
Somerset, are two chairs, now placed in the EpiscopaP
Chapel.
R. C. HOARE:
Stourhead, 1829.

Stet of t|e Hpfecojpffill Portrait® in fflSieP®

Entering the picture-gallery from the stair-case, over
the door, Bishop Creighton ; next to. him, Laud. In
the first compartment, on the left hand of the room, a
small space between the corner of the room and the door
leading into the drawing-room, (the organ-room) are three
portraits, Bishops Montagu, Moss, and Wynn. Over
the door leading into the drawing-room, a small painting
of Bishop Lake. In the second compartment of the
gallery, on the left hand from the stair-case, are Bishops
Willes, Godwin, [inscribed Thomas Godwin, D.D.
aet. 72. Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1584. Arms, Bath
and Wells impaling Godwin — Or, two lions sable, a
canton, and this punning motto : Wyn God — Wyn all],
and next beyond Godwin, the late Bishop Beadon ; that
over the fire-place, is the present Bishop Law, in the
middle, and those beyond, are Kidder, Laud, Ken,
Mawe, and Hooper, with this inscription : " Dr. George
Hooper, late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. Ubique
resplendet orthodoxus — etsi ablatus non oblitus, etsi
remotus non relictus, nam quatenus affabilimus Phila-
gathus, in memoria retinendus, et in perpetuum ab
optimis peramandus. O alme Deus ! tales perfice. —
£07T£T£<a ecw 7) |3a<nXs*a ts Qes." — The last, after
those, a very small one, is Lake. In the corner, at the
end of the room, by the window looking into the garden,
are Bishops Curle, above, as Bishop of Winchester, and
Still, below, inscribed 1607. -/Et. 64.

©f tp <swtj> of siatcWs.

" The city of Wells is situate on the southern foot of
the great mountainous forest of Mendip, 19 miles south
west from Bath, the same distance from Bristol, 5 north
east from Glastonbury, and 20 from Bridgwater.
" It receives its name from a remarkable spring called
St. Andrew's Well, vulgarly Bottomless Well, which rises
near the Episcopal Palace, and emitting a copious stream,
surrounds that structure with its waters, aud then transmits
them through the south-west parts of the city. Its
ancient appellations were Tethiscine, Tudingtone,
Tidington, Theodorodunum, Welwe, Wielea, and
Fonticuli, most of them alluding to its same scaturient
waters. " The city is small, but compact, in general well-
built, and neatly paved. It is divided into four Verderies
in the manner of wards, and thus denominated ; High-
street Verdery, Chamberlain-street Verdery, Tucker-
street Verdery, and Southover Verdery. In these
Verderies, each of which is superintended by two
Verderers or petty Constables, (an office originating from
the Viridaiii of the Bishop's forest of Mendip, whose
province it w as to keep the assizes of the forest, and to
enrol the attachments and presentments of trespasses
committed therein,) are included the following streets,
viz. High-street, Sadler-street, Chamberiam-street, New-
street, Grope-lane, Tucker-street, St. Cuthbert's-street,
Queen-street, Silver-street, St. Johu's-street, Southover.

OF THE CITY OF WELLS. 41
street, Beggar-street, Water-lane, Lawpool-latte, and
Priest-row. " The market-place is on the east side of the city,
and is wide and airy. In it there stood till lately a
curious market-cross, built in 1542, by Bishop Knight
and Dean Woolman, for the accommodation of poor
people. This structure was supported by stone pillars,
and over its vault was a room originally intended for
public business, and crowned with a small turret. Round
the cornice was this inscription : — " Ad honorem Dei
" omnipotentis, commodum pauperum, mercatum.
" Welliae frequentantium, impensis Gulielmi Knight,
" Episcopi, et Richardi Woolman, hujus ecclesiae
" Cathedralis olim Decani, hie locus erectus est.
" Laus Deo, pax vivis, requies defunctis. Amen.
" A.D. 1542." Near the site of this cross stands
the city conduit, the water of which is derived by leaden
pipes from an aqueduct, built by Bishop Beckington near
the source of St. Andrew's well, between the Cathedral
and the Palace. This conduit which is of an hexagonal
shape, embellished with Gothic niches, roses, &c. and
crowned with a conical roof, was also erected at the
expence of Bishop Beckington, for which service, the
burgesses of Wells once a year paid a solemn visit to his
tomb, and offered up their prayers for his soul.* The
same worthy Prelate, whose munificence will ever be
recorded by this city and bishopric, adorned the north-
side of the same area, which, from him, has been some
times called Beckington-square, with a row of twelve

* Lei. Itin. ii. 70. Excerpt, e Registr. Wellen.

G

42 of the city of wells.
uniform houses of stone, for , the habitation of as many
priests, (but which are now inhabited by the laity,) and
at the eastern extremity thereof, built a gateway communi
cating to the Cathedral close, viihereon remain hi*. ;arms
sculptured in the stone> viz, on a fesse a mitre with labels
expanded between three bucks' lieads, cabossed in chief,
and as many pheons in base, together , with his device, a
flaming beacon with a tun. Near this, in front of the
street, and thence leading to the Palace, is another
gateway, erected likewise by Bishop Beckington, who
iptended to have rebuilt the whole area, and in the south
east angle is the town-hall and . market-house, a plain
but commodious building of recent construction. ,: The
markets are on Wednesday and, Saturday. •: ..' ¦.
, "• The city was first incorporated by Reginald Fitz-
Joceline, in the time of Richard. I. and afterwards the
charter was confirmed by King John I. who, in the 8th.
year, of his reign, erec,ted the city into a free borough, and
granted the citizens a free market on Sundays^ and a fair
on the feast of St.. Andrew and the eight following days;
qn St. Catherine's day ; the invention ofthe Holy Cross ;
and the morrow of St. John the *Raptist. It was then
stiled the master and. commonalty of the borough of
Wells; but 19 July, 31 Eliz. it was re-incorporated by
the name of mayor, masters, and burgesses of (lie city
of Wells, and was to consist of a mayor, . recorder, and
seven masters,- ; a common clerk, and , sixteen common
council men ; whereof the mayor, recorder, and one of
the masters, to be justices of the peace in the said
corporation ; and the mayor and recorder to be of the
* Cart. Antiq. Harl. MS. 6598.

of the city of wells. 43
quorum. From 26 Edward I, the city has sent members
to parliament, who, 2 Henry V. were chosen in the
county-court; but 12 and 17 Edward IV. by the mayor
and commonalty. The city arms are, Per fesse argent
and vert, a tree proper issuant from the fesse line; in
base three wells, two and one, masoned, gules.
" This city is indebted for its origin, to the religious
zeal of Ina, King of the West-Saxons, who, in the year of
our Lord 704, founded here a Collegiate-Church, which
he dedicated to the honor of St. Andrew the Apostle,
whose sacred stream invited him to this spot of solitude
and retirement. Sixty-two years after, viz. A.D. 766,
Kineulf, successor of Sigebert in the West-Saxon
territories, gave, for the support and maintenance of the
clergy here established, who, at first, were only four in
number, eleven manses or farms, situated near the river
Welwe, and contiguous to the valley of fAsancomb;
in which state this little seminary subsisted, till the year
905, when several Bishops having been consecrated by
Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, in pursuance of an
edict issued by King Ed.ward the Elder, whose territories,
deranged and confused by intestine wars and foreign
incursions, had, in a manner, consigned to oblivion the
small remains of religion, which the pious Alfred had,
with so much difficulty, endeavoured to glean from the
barbarity of ages, and recover to its united states ; one of
them was appointed over King Ina's College, at Wells,
and the province of Somerset was assigned to him for his
diocese and seat of jurisdiction. This was Aldhelm. "%
t Cart. Reg. Cynewlfi. ap. Godwin de Praesul. 363.
X Collinson's Hist. Somers. vol. iii. p. 375.

TABLES

 IN THE ORDER OF SUCCESSION
 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ROMAN-CATHOLIC BISHOPS
¦  DITTO  PROTESTANTS
 DITTO  CATHOLICS & PROTESTANTS
 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF DITTO
 LIST FROM NICOLAS's SYNOPSIS OF THE PEERAGE OF
ENGLAND
 ARMS OF THE SAME FROM THE REIGN OF EDWARD II,
 ENGRAVED PORTRAITS OF THE BISHOPS.

¦¦'¦¦¦¦ !
It/!'.

46

33tSl)ops of 33ati) antf »ells in t^e ovttet of Succession.
BISHOPS OF WELLS.

Names.

Sue. A.D.

Buried at

Died A.D.

1
0

trans, to Canterbury 915
Wlfelm 

905 915
924 958
974 997
100510121013 1021102710311059
.1088 11231135
11741192
12061244

Canterbury Wells Ditto
Wells Ditto
Glastonbury Wells Ditto '
Bath
Ditto Ditto
Ditto
Wells Bath

924

1

trans, to Canterbury 924
Elfege 

4

Wulfhelm II 

973

fi

trans, to Canterbury 959

985

7

995

8

q
10
11
12 13
1034
14
1058
1*)
1087
16
17
18
IP
1191
?n
trans, to Canterbury 1191
?!1
22
WELLS UNITED TO
23
242526272829
3031
32
33
34,
William Bucton, or Button,
the 1st.
Walter Giffard 
_ translated to York 1266
William Bucton, or Button,
the 2nd.
Robert Burnell 
William Marsh 
Walter Haselshaw 
John Drokensford 
Ralph of Shrewsbury 
John Barnet 
translated to Ely 1366
John Harewell 
Walter Skirlaw 
translated to Durham 1388
Ralph Ergham 
1248
BATH. Wells
1264 1267
1275 1293
1302 1309
132913631366 1386
1388
Wells DittoDitto
Ditto Ditto
Ditto
Bp's. Hatfield,
Herts
Wells
Durham Cath
Ditto
1264
1279127412921302 13081329
1363 1373
1386 1406
1401
47
3Qiof)ops of 33at() ariB Wells in tijc ovWcr of Succession,
colittntieti.

Names.

Sue. A.D. Buried at Died A.D,

35 36 3738 39 404142 43 44
45 46

Henry Bowet 
translated to York 1407
Nicholas Bubwith 
John Stafford. . 
trans, to Canterbury 1443
Thomas of Bekinton 
Ftobert Stillihgton. .......
Richard Fox 
translated to Durham 1494
tftiver; King. 
Hadrian de Castello 
[Cardinal] deprived 1518
Thomas Wolsey 
[Cardinal] resigned 1523
John Clerk 

47 48
49 50
51 5253 5455 565758 59 6061 6263646566

William Knight 
William Barlow 
•deprived 1553. Translated to
Chichester 1559
Gilbert Bourne 

1401 14071425
1443 14651491 14951504 1518 15231541 1548

1554

York Cath.
Wells
Cant. Cath.
Wells Ditto
Winch.Cath
Qy.Windsor Abroad, the
place uncertain
Leicester Abbey
Minories, London Wells
Chichester Cathedral

Silverton,
Co. Devon

PROTESTANT BISHOPS.

Gilbert Berkeley 
Thomas Godwin 
John Still.  ,
James Mountagu 
trans, to Winchester 1616
Arthur Lake 
William Laud  ,
trans, to Canterbury
Leonard Mawe  ,
Walter Curie  ,
trans, to Winchester 1632
William Piers  ,
Robert Creighton 
Peter Mews 
trans, to Winchester 1684
Thomas Ken 
Richard Kidder 
Ge6rge Hooper 
John Wynne 
(Here ends Godwyn.)
Edward Willes 
Charles Moss 
Richard Beadon 
George Henry Law..,.

1559
1584 1592
1608 1616 1626
1628 1629
1632 16701672 1684 16911703 172717441774 1802
1824

Wells
Oakingham Wells
Bath Abbey
Wells
St. John's Col.
Oxford
Chiswick Soberton, Hants
Walthamstow Wells
Winch. Cath.
Frome Wells Ditto

Wells

1423
1424 1452 1464 1491
1528 1503

1530 1540 1547 1569
1569

1581 159016071618 1626 1644 1628 1650 1670 1672J 706
1710
1703 1727
1743 17731802 1823

48

^Ipfcafcetical SltSt of motnan=€atijoIic BtSijojpe of Satij an*

Names.

Sue. A.D.! Buried at Died A.D.

Adelm, or Athelm 
translated to Canterbury 915
Alwyn 
Barlow William 
Barnet John 
translated to Ely 1365-6
Bekington Thomas 
Bitton William, the 1st...
Bitton William, the 2nd...
nephew of the former
Bowet Henry 
translated to York 1407
Brighthelm 
translated to Canterbury 959
Brithwyn 
Bubbewith Nicholas 
Burnel Robert 
Burwold 
Castello Adrian de 

Clerk John 
Drokensford John de 
Duduco, alias Bodeca. . ..
Elphege, or Elfeth 
Erghum Ralph 
Ethelwine 
Fitz -Joceline Reginald . .
translated to Canterbury 1191.
Son of Joceline, Bishop of Sa
lisbury
Fox Richard 
translated to Durham 1494,
thence to Winchester 1502
Giffard Walter 
translated to York 1265
Giso 
Godfrey 
Harewell John 
Haselshaw Walter. ......
Kineward 

905
997
1547-913631443
12471266-7
1401 958
10211408
1274
1005
1504-5

Canterbury Wells Ditto '
Hatfield, Herts
Wells Ditto Ditto
York-Minster

Wells Ditto
Ditto
Abroad

15231309
1031 924
138810131174

1490

12641059
11231366
1302 973

Minories,Lond Wells DittoWells Bath
Winch. Cath.
St.Peter'sYork Wells Bath
WellsDitto

924

1569
1373
1464
1264
1274
1423 973

1424 ,
1292
Sat till:
1518. :
Period of
decease ,
unknown 1540 1328-9
1058
1401 1191

1528

1278-9
108711351386
1309-11 984

49
SUpIjaljcttcat %\%t of i&omansCat^olfc JStSljopS of 33atfj an*
BEellS, continued.

Names.

King Oliver 
Knight William 
Living, or Leoning, cr
Liunig, or Lifwing, stir
named Elstan 
trans, to Canterbury 1012 or 13
Marchia Wm. de, or Marsh
Mere with. 
Robert 
Roger 
Savarik 
Shrewsbury Ralph of. ... .
Sigar 
Skirlaw Walter 
translated to Durham 1388
Stafford John 
translated to Canterbury 1443
Stillington Robert. ......
Villula John de  ,
Wells Joceline de  ,
Wolsey Thomas. . . 
trans, to Durham 1522-3, &c.
Wulfhelme the 1st 
translated to Canterbury 924
Wulfhelme the 2nd 

Sue. A.D

Buried at

1495 1541

1008
1292
1025
1136 1244
1192
1329 985
1386
1425 14661088
1206
1518 915
942

Windsor Wells

Wells BathDittoDitto
Wells

Canterbury Wells Bath
Wells
Leicester Abb.
Canterbury

Died A.D

1503 1547

1020
1302 116512471205
1363 995
14061452
1491 1122
12421530 934

H

50

m$)abttict&%isit of protestant Bishops of Baty an* Well*.

Names.

Sue. A.D. ; Buried at

Died A.D.

1802
1560 1554
1670 16291584
17031684 1691 1616
1626 18241628
1672 1774
1608
16321592 1743
1727

Wells
Ditto
Silverton,Dev. Wells
Soberton, Hants
Oilkinghan), Berks
WellsFrome
Wells
Ditto
First in All Saints,
Barking, and
afterwards St.
John's Col. Oxf.
Chiswick
Winchester
Bath Abbey
Walthamstow Wells

1823

1581

1569

1672
1650
translated to Winchester 1632
1590 1727
1710
1703 ;
1626
1644
translated to London 1628, and
Canterbury 1633
1624.4' 1706
translated to Winchester 1684
Moss Charles 
1802 .
1618
translated to Winchester 1616
StillJohn 
167016071773 1743
51

Slpija&cttral Hist of fye J3tSl)opS of JSatfj antJ Wells,
3&oman*Catl)oltc antf protestant promiscuously.

Names.

Adelm, or Athelm 
translated to Canterbury 915
Alwyn 
Barlow William 
Barnet John 
translated to Ely 1365 or 6
Beadon Richard 
Bekington Thomas. 
Berkeley Gilbert 
Bitton William, the 1st. . .
Bitton William, the 2nd...
nephew of the former
Bourne Gilbert  ,
Bowet Henry 
translated to York 1407
Brighthelm. 
translated to Canterbury 959
Brithwyn 
Bubbewith Nicholas 
Burnell Robert 
Burwold 
Castello Adrian de 
Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus

Clerk John 
Creighton Robert 
Curie Walter 
translated to Winchester 1632
Drokensford John of 
Dudoco, alias Bodeca 
Elphege 
Ergliam Ralph 
Ethelwine 
Fitz-Joceline Reginald 
translated to Canterbury 1191
Son of Joceline, Bp.ofSalisbury
Fox Richard... 
translated to Durham 1494,
thence to Winchester
Gifford Walter  ,
translated to York 1265
Giso 
Godfrey 
Godwin Thomas 
Haresvell John, 

Succeeded

905997
i547-9 1363
1802
14431560
1247
1266-7 1554
1401 958
102114081274
1005
1504-5

15231670
1629 1309
1031 924
1388 1013
1174 1490
1264 1059 11231584 1366

Buried at

Died.

Canterbury Wells
Ditto
Hatfield, Herts
Wells
DittoDittoDitto
Ditto
Silverton, Dev
York-Minster

Wells
Ditto
Ditto
Abroad

Minories.Lond Wells
Soberton, Hants
WellsDitto Wells Bath
Winch. Cath.
St.Peter's,York Wells Bath
Oakingham.Berks Wells

924
1569
13731823
146415811264
12741569
1423 973
14241292Sat till
1518.
Period of
decease
unknown 1540
1672 1650
1328-9 1508
1401 11911528
1278-9 1087 11351590 1386

52

Alphabetical Hist of tlje Bishops of ?3att) antf
&oman=Cat|)olic antf protestant promiscuously, continuetf.

Names.

Succeeded

Haselshaw Walter 
Hooper George 
Ken Thomas 
Kidder Richard 
King Oliver 
Knight William 
Lake Arthur 
Laud William 
translated to London 1628, and
Canterbury 1633
Law George Henry .. .
Living or Leoning, or Liunig,
orLifwine, surnamedElstan
translated to Canterbury 1012-3
Marsh, or Marchia Wm. de
Mawe Leonard 
Merewith 
Mews Peter 
translated to Winchester 1684
Moss Charles 
Mountagu James 
translated to Winchester 1616
Piers William 
Robert 
Roger 
Savarick 
Shrewsbury Ralph of 
Sigar 
Skirlaw Walter 
translated to Durham 1388
Stafford John . , 
translated to Canteibury 1443
Still John 
Stillingtou Robert 
Villula John de 
Wells Joceline de 
Willes Edward 
Wolsey Thomas 
translated to Durham 1522, &c
Wulthelme the 1st... 
translated to Canterbury 924
Wulthelme the 2nd 
Wynne John 

1302 1703 168416911495 15411616 1626

1824 1008

12921628 1025 16721774
1608 16321136124411921329 985
1386 142515921466 1088
120617431518 915942
1727

Buried at

Wells
Ditto
Frome Wells
Windsor Wells Ditto
First inAUSaint's
Barking, & after
wards St. John's
College, Oxford

Wells
Chiswick

Died.

1309-11. 17271710 1703
15031547 1626 1644

1020

1302 1628

Winchester 1706

Bath Abbey
Walthamstow Bath
Ditto
Ditto"Wells

Canterbury WellsDitto Bath
Wells

Leicester Abbey
Canterbury

1802 1618 1670
1165 12471205i363 995
14061452 16071491 112212421773
1530 934

1743

53

% Chronological Catalogue of tlje J3isl>opS of JSatf) antf Wells.
From an old MS. book penes the present Bishop.

The King'»
Name and Year

The Bishops'
Names.

Whatyear
he began.

What year he
died, or was
removed.

[tow long
he sat.
years.

No. of
Bishops.

Who, and from
whence he came:

King Edward
the Elder.
5«

Adelmus, alias
Athelmus.

905

915
to Canterbury

10

1

Abbot of Glas
tonbury.

Edward the
Elder. loo

Wifelimus, alias
Wlfhelmus.

915

924
to Canterbury

9

2

Athelstane. lo

Elseth, alias
Elfegus.

924

3

Wulfhelmus II.
4
Edwin. 4o
Brithelmus.
958
959 elected,
but not admit
ted to Canter
bury; died 973
15
5
A Monk of
Glaston.
St. Edgar.
16o
Kinewardus alias
KinewalduS'
974
985
11
6
Abbot of Middle-
ton.
Ethelred. 7o
Sigarus.
985
995
10
7
Abbot of Glaston
17o
Alwynus, alias
Adelwinus.
995
8
Ethelred.
Burwoldus.
9
Illius nomine In-
scriptum Monu-
meutum visitur
ab Australi parte
chori Wellen.
Ethelred. 24o
Leoniugus, alias
Livingus.
1002
1013
to Canterbury
11
10
Ethelred.
Ethelwinus,
11
Brithwinus.
12
Merewith.
13
Abbot of Glaston
Canutus. 14o
Dudoco, alias
Bodeca.
1031
1058
27
14
A Saxon or Lor-
rainer. His Mon
ument the upper
most in the south
part of the aisle
of the choir.
54

(penological Catalogue continueif.

The King's
Name and year

The Bishops'
Names.

Whatvear. Whiityearlre
he began, j died, or was
removed.

How long! No. of
he sat. Bishops.
years.

Who, and from
whence he came.

Edward the
Confessor. 15o

Giso.

1060

1008

28

15

A Lorrainer.
Buried on the
north side of the
choir where the
high altar then
stood.

William II.
2o

Johes de
Villula.

1088

1122

34

16

Born at Tours, in
France. A Physi
cian.

Henry 1,
24o

Godefridus.

1123

1135

12

17

A German.
Chancellor of
England. Buried
at Bath.

Stephen. lo

Robertus.

1136

1166

29

18

A Norman. Monk
of Lewes. Buried
at Bath.

Henry II.
20o

Nine years
vacancy.
Reginald Kitz-
Joceliue.

1174

1191
to Canterbury

17

19

Archdeacon of
Sarum. Buried at
Bath.

Richard I.
4o

Savaricus.

1192

1205

13

20

Archdeacon of
Northampton.
Treasurer of Sa
rum. Buried at
Bath.

John. 7o

Joceline of
Wells.

1205

1242

37

21

Canon of Wells.
Buried iu the
middle of the
choir.

Henry III.
28o

Two years
vacancy. Roger.

1244

1247

3

22

ShantorofSaruinBuried at Bath.

31o

Wm. Bitton,
alias
Button.

1247

1264

17

23

Sub-dean and
Archdeacon of
Wells. Chancel-_
l»r and Treasuree*
of England. Ba-I
ried in the middtei
of St. Mary's 1
Chapel. *

49o

Walter '
Gifford.

1264

1266
to York

2

24

Canon of Wells.
The Pope's Chap
lain. Treasurer
and Chancellor of
England.

55

Chronological Catalogue continued .

The King's

The Bishops'

What yea

What year he

How lonj

; No. of

Who, «nd from

Name and year

. Names.

he began

died , or was
removed.

he sat.
yeais.

Bishops.

1 whonceihecame.

Henry III.

William

1267

1274

7

25

Archdeacon of

51o

Button, 2nd

Wells. Buried
between two
columns on the
south part of the
choir.
Edward I.
Robert
1274
1292
18
26
Nephew to Lord
30.
Burnell.
Burnell. Treasur
er and Chancellor
of England. Bu
ried in the nave of
the Church, near
the pulpit.
21o
William of
Marsch.
1292
1302
16
27
Treasurer of
England. Buried
in the wall of the
cross aisle, near
the door into the
cloister.
30o
Walter
Hazelshaw.
1302
1310
8
28
Dean of Wells.
Buried near Bub -
with's Chapel;
Edward II.
John
1310
1329
19
29
Master of the
3o
Drokensford.
Wardrobe. Lord
Keeper and Trea
surer, and god
father to Edward
III. Buriedin St.
Catherine's Cha
pel, on the right
of St. Mary's.
Edward III.
Ralph of
1329
1363
34
30
3o
Shrewsbury.
37«
lohn Barnet.
1363
1366
to Ely.
3
31
Archdeacon of
_,ondon, Lord
JTYeasurer, and
Bishop of Wor
cester.
* 41o
John
Harewell.
1366
1386
20
32
Chaplain to the
Jlack Prince and
chancellor of
iascoine. Buried
aear the vestry.
Richard II.
Walter |
1386
1388
2
33
(i.L.D. Bishop of
lOo
Skirlaw.
j
to Durham,
3oventry and
.itchfield.
1
1
1
I
56

Chronological Catalogue contimtctf.

The King's
Name and year.

The Bishops'
Names.

Whatyear he began.

U liat year he
died, or was
removed.

How long
be sat.
years.

No. of
Bishops.

Who, and from
whence he came.

12o

Ralph
Ergham.

1388

1401

13

34

L.L.D. Bishop of
Sarum. Buried on
the north side
near the great
pulpit.

Henry IV.
3o

Henry
Bowett.

1401

1407
to York.

6

35

L.L.D. Canon of
Wells.

10o

Nicholas
Bubwith.

1408

1424

16

36

Bishop of London
Lord Treasurer.
Then Bishop of
Sarum.

Henry VI.
' 4o

John
Stafford.

1425

1443
to Canterbury.

18 '

37

Son of Lord
Stafford. Dean of ',
the Arches and of
Wells.

22o

Thomas of
Beckington.

1443

1464

21

38

L.L.D. Dean of
the Arches, Se
cretary of State,
and Lord Privy
Seal.

Edward IV.
2o

Robert
Stillington.

1465

1491

26

39

L.L.D. Archdea
con of Taunton,
Lord Privy Seal,
and Chancellor of
England.

Henry VII.
7o

Richard Fox.

1491

1494
to Durham.

3

40

Secretary of State
Lord Privy Seal,
and Bishop of
Exon.

llo

Oliver King.

1495

1503

8

41

Canon of Windsor
Registrar of the
Garter, Secretary |
of State, and Vj
Bishop of Exon. ^

21o

Hadrian de
Castello.

1505

1517
Resigned

12

42

 "[
Cardinal and
Bishop of Here»
ford. An Italian. ,

Henry VIII.
10o

Thomas Wolsey.

1517

1518
to Durham.

1

43

Cardinal and
Bishop, only
Commendatarius.

15o

John Clerk.
Five years
vacancy.

1523

1540

17

44

Master of the
Rolls.

57

Chronological Catalogue continue*.

The Kiog's
Name and year.

The Bishops'
Names.

Whatyear he began.

What year he
died, "or was
removed.

How long
he sat.
years.

No. of
Bishops.

Who, and from
whence he came..

33o

William Knight.

1541

1547

6

45

L.L.D. and for
merly of New
College, Oxon.
Buried by the
Pulpit which he
built.

Edward VI.
3o

William
Barlow.

1549

1553 Banished
himself, and in
1558
to Chichester.

46

Bishop of St.
Asaph, then of St
David.

Mary 2

Gilbert
Bourne.

1554

1558
Turned out.

4

47

Archdeacon of
London and Pre
sident of Wales.

Elizabeth 2o

Gilbert
Berkeley.

1559

1581

22

48

Of the ancient
and noble family
ofthe Berkeleys.

27o

Three years
vacancy.Thomas
Godwin.

15S4

1590

6

49

Of Magdalen
College, Oxon.
Then Dean of
Christ-Church,
Oxon. Then
Canterbnry.

35o

Two years
vacancy.
John Still.

1592

1607

15

50

Master of Trinity
Coll. Cambridge.
Buried near the
Communion Ta
ble.

James I.
60

James
Mountague.

1608

1617
to Winchester.

9

51

Brother to Lord
Mountague, of
Boughtou. First
Vlaster of Sidney
Doll. Cambridge,
Dean of Worces-
:er, and of the
King's Chapel.

15o

Arthur Lake.

1617

1626

9

52

Warden of New
College, Oxon.
Bean of Worces
ter.

Charles 1.
2o

William Laud.

1626

1628
to London.

2

53

President of St.
John's College,
3xoii. Bishop of
St. David.

58

Chronological Catalogue

contim

uH.

The King's
Name and year.

The Bishops'
Names.

W hat year
he began.

W hat year he
died, or was
removed.

How long
he sat.
years.

No. of
Bishops.

Who, and from
whence he came.

Charles I.
4o

Leonard Mawe.

1628

1629

1

54

Waster of Peter-
House, then of
Trinity College,
Cambridge.

60

Walter Curie.

1630

1632
to Winchester.

2

55

Bishop of
Rochester.

80

William Pierce.

1632

1670

38

56

Canon of Christ-
Church, Oxon,
and Bishop of
Peterborough,

Charles II.
22o

Robert
Creighton.

1670

1672

2

57

Greek Professor
in Cambridge.
Canon and Dean
of Wells. i

24o
Here ends our
Author's List
[Edit.]

Peter Mews.

1672

1684
to Winchester.

12

58

Archdeacon of
Berks, President..
of St. John's
College, Oxon, <
aud Dean of *
Rochester.

36o

Thomas Ken.

1684

1690-1
Deprived.

6

59

D.D. Fellow of;
New College,
Oxon.

James II.

William aud
Mary. 3o
Richard Kidder.
1691
1703
killed by the
fall ot a stack ot
chimin es in his
palace.
12
60
Dean of Peter
borough, and
Rector of St.
Martin.Outwich,London. Buried
near the Com
munion Table.
Anne 2o
George
Hooper.
1704
1727
Died
23
61
Student of Christ
Church, Oxon.
Dean of Canter
bury. Bishop of
St. David. Bu
ried in the south
aisle of the choir.
George 11.
lo
John Wyun.
1727
1743
Died
16
62
Principal of Jesus
College, Oxon.
Margaret Profes
sor aud Bishop of
St. Asaph.
59

Chronological Catalogue continue*.

The King's
Name and year.

The Bishops'
Names

What year
he began.

What year he
died, or was
removed.

How long
he sat.
years.

No. of
Bishops.

Who, and from
whence he came.

16o

Edward Willes.

1743

1774
Died

31

63

Dean of Lincoln.
Bishop of St.
David's. King's
Decipherer.

George III.

Charles Moss.

1774

1802
Died

28

64

D.D, Rector of
St. George's,
Hanover-Squarej
London. Canon
of Sarum, Bishop
of St. David's.

Ditto

RichardBeadon.

1802

1824
Died

22

65

Bishop of
Gloucester.

George IV.

Geo.-Henkv
Law.

1824

66

Bishop of Chester

Bishops, of 33atlj antf ©Sells!,
From Nicolas's Synopsis ofthe Peerage of England, vol. ii. p. 82$.

Year. 1088. John de Villula, a Frenchman. Succeeded in 1088;
ob. 29 Dec. 1122.
1123. Godfrey, Chancellor to the Qaeen. Consecrated in
1135 or 1136; ob. 1165.
1 136. Robert, Monk of Lewes, in Sussex. Succeeded in
1135 or 1136; ob. 1165.
The See vacant Eight Years and Eight Months.
1174. Reginald Fitz- Joceline. Consecrated in 1174,
translated to Canterbury in 1191, but died
before bis translation could be perfected.
1192. Savaricus, Archdeacon of Northampton and Abbot of
Glastonbury ; whither he removed the Bishopric.
Consecrated 29 Sept. 1192 ; ob. 8 Aug. 1205.
Josceline, Canon of Wells, called Josceline de Welles.
Consecrated 28 May, 1206 ; ob. 19 Nov. 1242.
The See vacant Two Years.
1244. Roger, Chanter of Salisbury. Consecrated 11 Sept.
1244 ; ob. 13 Jan. 1247.
1247. William Bitton, or Button 1st. Archdeacon of Wells.
Elected 4 May 1247 ; ob. 1264.
1264. Walter Giffard, Canon of Wells, Lord Chancellor.
Elected 22 May, 1264. Translated to York in
1266.
1267. William Bitton, or Button 2nd. Archdeacon of Wells.
Appointed 4 March, 1266 j ob. Nov. 1274.

LIST OF BISHOPS 61
Year. 1274. Robert Burnell, Archdeacon of York, Lord Chancel
lor, and Lord Treasurer. Elected 23 Jan. 1274 ;
ob. 25 October, 1292.
1293. William de Marchia, Dean of St. Martin's, Lord
Treasurer. Elected 30 January, 1293 ; ob.
June, 1302.
1302. Walter Haselshaw, Dean of Wells. Appointed 12
September, 1302; ob. 1309;
1310. John de Drokeuesford, Keeper of the King's Ward
robe, and Deputy to the Lord Treasurer.
Appointed 15 May, 1309 ; ob. 8 May, 1329.
1329. Ralph de Shrewsbury. Elected 2 June, 1329 ; ob:
14 Aug. 1363. 0
1363. John Barnet. Translated from Worcester 24 Nov.
1363 ; Lord Treasurer. Translated to Ely in
1366.
1366. John Harewell, Chancellor of Gascoigne, Chaplain to
the Black Prince. Consecrated 7 May, 1366 ;
ob. July, 1386.
1368. Walter Skirlaw. Translated from Litchfield and
Coventry in 1386 ; translated to Durham iu
1388.
1388. Ralph Erghum. Translated from Salisbury 14 Sept.
1388 ; ob. 10 April, 1401.
1401. Richard Clifford was elected to this See, but before
Consecration was removed to Worcester.
1402. Henry Bowet, Canon of Wells. Appointed 19 Aug.
1401 ; translated to York, 1 December, 1407.
1408. Nicholas Bubbewith. Translated from Salisbury
1 April, 1408 ; ob, 27 October, 1424.
1425. John Stafford, Dean of Wells, Lord Treasurer.
Appointed 12 May, 1425 ; translated to Canter
bury 23 Aug. 1443.

62 LIST OF BISHOPS
Year. 1443. Thomas Beckyngton, Warddn of New College,
Oxford, Keeper ofthe Privy Seal. Appointed
24 Sept. 1443 ; ob. 14 Jan. 1464.
lo. Phreas 'elected, but died before Consecration.
1466. Roibert Stiillingtoh, Archdeacon of Taunton, Lord
Chancellor. Appointed 26 Jan. 1466 ; ob;
May, 1491.
1491. Richard Fox. Translated from Exeter 8 Feb. 1491 ;
translated to Durham in 1495.
1495. Oliver King. Translated from Exeter 6 Nov. 1495 ;
ob. Sept. 1503.
1S05. A'flrian de 'C&Stello, Cardinal. Translated from
Hereford 13 October, 1504. Deposed by Pope
Leo for a conspiracy, in 1518.
1518. Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal, Archbishop of York.
Nominated 28 Aug. 1518, bnt was never conse
crated j he appears to have held this See in
commen'dam ; Lord Chancellor ; resigned this
Bishopric in 1522.
1523. John Clerk, Master of the Rolls, Dean of Windsor.
Nominated 2 May, 1523 ; ob. 3 January, 1540.
1541. William Knight, Secretary of State, Prebendary of
St. Paul's. Consecrated 29 May, 1541 ; ob. 29
September-, 1547.
154'8. William Barlow. Translated from St. David's 3
February, 1548 ; deprived by Queen Mary in
1553.
1554. Gilbert Bourn, Prebendary of St. Paul's, Lord
President of Wales. Elected 28 March, 1554 ;
6b. 10 September, 1560.
1560. Gilbert Berkeley. Elected 29 January, 1560 ; ob.
2 November, 1581.
The See vacant newly Three Years.

FROM NICOLAS'S SYNOPSIS. 63
Year.1554. Thomas Godwin, Dean of /Canterbury. Elected 10
August, 1584 ; ob. 19 November, 1590, jet. 73.
The See vacant Two Years.
1592. John Still, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge,
and Prebendary of Westminster. Elected 23
January, 1592 ; ob. 26 February, 1607.
1608. James Mountague, Dean of Worcester. Elected 29
March, 1 608 ; translated to Winchester 4 Oct,
1616.
16J 6. Arthur Lake, Dean of'Worcester, and Master of St.
Cross. Elected 17 October, 1616; ob. 4 May,
1626.
1626. William Laud. Translated from St. David's 20
June, 1 626 ; translated to London in July, 1 628.
1628. Leonard Mawe, Master of Trinity College, Cam
bridge. Elected 24 July, 1626; ob. 3 Sept. 1629.
1629. Walter Curie. Translated from Rochester 29 Oct.
1629 ; translated to Winchester in 1632.
1632. William Pierce. Translated from Peterborough 26
November, 1632 ; ob. April, 1670.
1670. Robert Creighton, Dean of Wells. Elected 25 May,
1670,- ob. 21 November, 1672, aet. 79.
1 672. Peter Mews, Dean of Rochester. Elected 1 9 Dec.
1672 ; translated to Winchester 22 November,
1684.
1685. Thomas Ken, Predendary of Winchester. Conse
crated 25 January, 1685 ; deprived for not
taking the Oaths to King William and Queen
Mary, 1 February 1691.
1691. Richard Kidder, Dean of Peterborough. Nominated
13 June, 1691 ; ob. 26 November, 1703.
1703. George Hooper. Translated from St. Asaph 14
. March, 1703; ob. 1727.

64 LIST OF BISHOPS
Year. 1727. John Wynne; „ Translated from St. Asaph 1727
ob. 1743. ¦¦/,
1743. Edward Willes. Translated from St. David's 1743
ob. 1774.
1774. Charles Moss. Translated from St. David's 1774
ob. 1802.
1802. Richard Beadon. Translated from Gloucester 1802
ob. 1824.
1824. George Henry Law. Translated from Chester
1824. Present Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells.

65

ffctttf of t!)c JSMiops of iSatlj ants OTrlls,
From the Heralds' College, from the Reign of Edward It.

Names of Bishops.

Sue. A.D

Arms.

John de Drokensford
R al ph of Shrewsbury
John Barnet 
Translated from Worcester
and afterwards to Ely 1366,
ob. 1373. Buried there.
John Harewell. . . .

Walter Skirlaw. .
Trans, to Durham 1388
Ralph Erghnui ......
Translated hither from
Salisbury.
Henry Bowet 
Translated to York
Nicholas Bubwith... .
John Stafford 
Translated to Canterbury
Thomas Bekyngton . .

Robert Stillington.. . .

1309 1329
1363

Richard Fox 
Translated to Durham
Oliver King 
Had been Bishop of Exon,
Adrian de Castello. . .
Had beeu Bishop of Here
ford.
Thomas Wolsey .....
Cardinal.

John Clerk .
William Knight.

William Barlow.. . .
Had been Bishop of
David's.
Gilbert Bourn , , . .

st

Quarterly, Azure and -Or, four
pastoral staves coutrtei'-qlignged.
(Family not known.)
Argent, a Saltire, and in chief a
Leopard's face, Sable.

1366 ¦1386
,1388 1401 1408 1425 144314661491 1495 1504 1518 15231541 1547 1554

Argent on a Fess, nebulee Sable,
three Hares' heads couped Or.
Argent, three [pallets interlacing
three barrulets.
None.

Argent, 3 Buds' heads cahoshed.
Sable. Argent, a Fess idancettee between
two Chaplets, Sable.
Or, on a Cheveron- Gules, a Mitre
Argent, all within a bordure en
grailed Sable.
Argent on a Fess Azure, a Mitre
Or, in chief three Bucks* heads
cahoshed Gules, .attired of the
third, in base, three Pheous, Sable.
Gules ;on a Fess between three
Leopards' faces, Argent, three
fleurs-de-lis Sable.
Azure, a Pelican vulning herself,
Or, within a bordure of the last, a
canton ermine.
Per Fess, Gules, and Argent, three
Roses counterehauged.
Npt known.
Sable on a Cross engrailed Argeut,
a Lion passant Gules between four
Leopards' faces Azure, on a Chief
Or, a Rose of the Third between
two Cornish Choughs proper.
Per Fess, Or, and Argent, a Rose
irradiated Gules, therefronnssu-
ant two Griphons' heads addorsed
Sable Argent on a Cheveron engrailed
between three Crosses Moline,
Sable, two Lions passant of the
Argent a Cheveron Gules between
three Lions rampant, Sable a
IChlef Erminois,

66

of tij* JSisijops. of 33atl) an* OTMPte foniinuetr.
PROTESTANT BISHOPS.

Names of Bishops.

Gilbert Berkeley ,
Thoiiias Godwin ,

John Still  ,
James M ountagu .
translated to Wihtou.

Arthur Lake  ,
William Laud  ,
translated to Canterbury.
Leonard M awe ......

Sue. A.D.

Arms.

Walter Curie 
translated to Winton.
William Peirs ....
Had been Bishop of Peter
borough.
Robert Creighton . . .

Peter Mews 
translated to Winton.
Thomas Ken 
Richard Kidder... . . .
George Hooper 
John Wynne 
Had been Bishop of St,
Asaph.
Edward Willes 
translated from St. David's
Charles Moss 
translated from St. David's
Richard Beadon,..,

George Henry Law.

1559_gO!Said to have been of the noble
Family, but. his name does not
occur in the Pedigree.
1584 Or, three Lions passant, two and
one sable, on a canton of the last
three bezants.
1592 Sable guttle 'd'eau, three Roses
Argent. . .
1 608 Quarterly, 1st. and 4th. Mountagu.
Argent, three Lozenges conjoined
in fess Gules fa Martlet for differ
ence). ; 2nd. and 3rd. MoHthermer.
Or, an Eagle displayed vert, within
a bordure ofthe last.
16 1 6 Sable, a bend between six Cross
Crosslets, fitchee Argent.
1626 Sable, on a Cheveron between three
Estoiles pierced, Or. three Crosses
„ patees, fichfies Gules.
1028 Azure, two Bars ermine, between
six Martlets; three, two, and one,
1 629 Vest, a Cheveron engrailed. Or.

1632

16701672
16841691
17031727

1743
1774
1802

Noue.

Ermine, a Lion rampant. Azure.
(Monument in St. John's Chapel,:
Weils.) '-
Paly of six Argent and Azure, on
a Chief -Gules; three Crosses,
form&s of the first.
Ermine, three Crescents. Gules.
None.Noue.
None.

Argent, a Cheveron, Sable, between
three Mullets. Gules.
Ermine, a Cross patte, Sable,
charged with a Bezant.
Sable, 3 Lions passant, Ermiue,
with Human Faces in profile,
iroper between 4 Crosses partes.
in pale, Argent.

&m<S of tlje £te of Eat!) ant Mlells.

The Arms of the See are now thus blazoned : — Azure,
•a Saltire quarterly quartered, Or, and Argent. — See
Heylyn's Help t& History, p. 79. &c. But, properly
speaking, these are the armorial ensigns of the separate
See of Weils : the Saltire being in fact the cross of St.
Andrew, the Patron Saint of the Church of Wells.
In the noble Crypt at Wells .Palace, so judiciously
hrought, into notice, and appropriately furnished with
local and other antiquities by the present Bishop, I find
a mural shield, the blazon of which is as follows; — A
Saltire surmounted by a Crozier between two Keys on
the dexter, and a Sword on the Sinister, impaling a
Pelican in her Nest vulning herself.* These latter are
the Arms of Bishop Fox, who was translated to Bath and
Wells from Exeter, in 1491 ; but the dexJer division of
the shield is composed of the Arms of the See of Wells,
(the Saltire) combined with the Arms ascribed to the
Priory of Bath, though with some little variation.
I find the Arms ofthe Priory of Bath set forth in some
ancient MSS. in three several forms: — 1°' "Azure, a
Crozier Argent, surmounting two Keys in Saltire Or." —
20- "Azure, a Sword Argent, surmounting two Keys in

* A wood cut of the Arms of the See of Wells and of the Priory of
Bath conjointly blazoned and impaling Law, will be found prefixed to
the Life ofthe present Bishop in this work.

68 ARMS OF THE SEE OF BATH AND WELLS.
Saltire Or," impaling the Arms of" Lord Wyllyam Byrde
Prior," — and 3°' "Azure, a Sword Argent, surmounting
two Keys in Saltire Or between four Bezants," impaling
the Arms of "Lord Thomas Gybbys Prior."
With regard to the mode of marshalling the two Coats
of Bath and Wells, as applicable separately to the
respective Sees, I find, with the exception of the above
instance of their being conjointly marshalled by Bishop
Fox, no satisfactory authority. Nor do I meet with any
authority in the Heralds' College, to shew what were the
Arms, if any, ascribed to each of the Sees before their
union ; which took place at so remote a period, that I
should feel considerable doubt whether any evidence
could be adduced to shew that any bearings, in the nature
of armorial ensigns, were, at that time, in use by the
Hierarchy of the eountry.

lEngrabe*. portraits of the 33isljops. of Eatlj an* WltlU.

Richard Fox. — 1. Vertue, sc. 1723, from
Johannes Corvus ; in Fiddes' " Life of Cardinal Wolsey."
— 2. G. Glover, sc. — 3. Stwt, sc. — 4. J. Faber, sc.
large 4to. inezz,— 5» A small oval, for Knight's " Life
of Erasmus."
Thomas Wolsey. — 1. Faber, sc. from Holbein
4to. mezz ; with the Label " Ego et meus Rex," 4to.^—
2. i Elstracke, sc. 4to. — 3. _D. Loggan, sc. — 4. " In
Holland's Heroologia," 8vo. — 5. W. Marshall, sc. in
" Fuller's Holy State." — 5. P. Fourdrinier, sc. half
length, in Fiddes' "Life of Wolsey. — 6. Houbraken,
sc. in Birch's " Lives of Illustrious Persons." — 7. Des
Rochers, sc. 4to. — 8. Vertue, sc. small oval, inscribed
C. W.— -0. De. Larmessin, sc. — 10. Sheppard, sc.
folio. — 11. R. White, sc. folio.
John Still. — J. Jones, sc. 1789, from a Portrait
at Cambridge University ; sin. mezz. A folio also in Sir
Richard Hoare's History ofthe hundred of Mere, Wilts.
James Montagu. — Elstracke, sc. — S. Pass, sc
—Holland, exc. sm. folio. — In " Heroologia," 8vo. — A
copy in Boissard. ,
Arthur Lake. — Payne, sc. prefixed to his
" Works," 1629, folio. — W. Hollar, sc. prefixed to his
"Sermons," 1641, 4to. — A copy in Boissard, 4to.
William Laud. — W. Hollar, sc. from Vandyck,
1640; 4to. — D. Loggan, sc. from the same, large half
sheet. — Vertue, se. from the same. One of the set of

70 engraved portraits.
Loyalists. — Burghers, sc. in the Frontispiece to the
"Catalogue of the Bodleian Library."— W. Marshall,
sc. 12mo.— Id. sc. small ruling pireface to Fuller's "Ar
gument against the Ecclesiastical Commissioners," 1641.
— Picters, sc. sm. 4to. — White, sc. folio. — Sturt, sc. —
Huybrects, sc. oval 8vo. — Moncornet, sc. 8vo. — Watson,
sc. from a Portrait in the Houghton Collection. — R.
Dunkarton, sc. mezz. Svo. — Andran, sc. folio, with a
view of his Execution, folio. — Scarce wood cut, repre
senting Laud and Henry Burton, whole lengths. The
Prelate is represented vomiting up his own Works, and
Burton holding his head. Doggrel verses underneath. —
Rare wood cut, with inscription, " only Canonical
Prayers: no Afternoon Sermons," 4to. Half length,
with a view of his House in Broad-street, Reading, in
Man's " History of Reading," 1816.
Walter Curle. — T. Cecill, sc. folio. — M. Droeshout,
sc. Peter Mews. — D. Loggan, sc. folio. Two oval
prints, without engraver's name.
Thomas Ken. — Vertue, sc. 8vo, — Drapentier, sc. —
White, sc. among the seven Bishops.
Richard Kidder. — Clamp, sc. 8vo.
George Hooper. — Smith, sc. from Kneller, mezz. —
G. White, sc. from T. Hall. — Noble remarks, that the
mixture of mezzotinto with "engraving, was first practised
in this print.
Edward Willes. — Faber, sc. from T. Hudson, mezz.
folio, Richard Beadon. — Facius, sc. folio.
George Henry Law. — Meyer, sc. from a painting
by Sir W. Beechy, pefixed to this work.

BISHOPS

OF

Kadi ««* tm*n*«

PART I.

ROMAN-CATHOLIC BISHOPS.

LIVES.
i$ts3f)0ps of Siteli^
Of the early Bishops of Wells, we know little more
than their succession.*
The authors of the Rerum Anglicarum post Bedam,
p. 253, give the following list : —
" Athelmus. -j ambo postea Cantuarienses
" Wlfelmus. 3 Archiepiscopi.
"Elfeh. " Wlfelmus [2i"lus.]
" Brithelmus.
" Kinewardus.
" Sigarus.
" Elwinus.
" Liningus qui et Elstan, postea tempore regis
" Ethelredi post sanctissimum Elphegum Cantuariensis
" Archiepiscopus. " Ethelwinus Abbas de Evesham postea ejectus.
" Brithwinus. Elwinus iterum reversus, et Brith-
" winus ejectus ; itemque Elwino rejecto, Brithwinus
" reversus.
" Meruith, qui et Brithwi, natione Lotharingus,
" tempore Regis Edwardi et Willieltni magni. Omnes
" hi sedes suas Wellis habuerunt in ecclesia Sancti
" Andrea?."

* Fuller says, that " the Prelates before the Reformation were super
stitious persons and limbs of Anti-Christ, whose names were^better lost
than kept." ¦ See the edition of his Worthies, by Nichols, vol. i. p. 14.
I beg to otserve, I differ with him toto ecelo.
L

I. ATSELM,
Whose succession at Wells I would place at the year 909,
has been called Abbot of Glastonbury ; but his name
does not occur in the list of Abbots. He was advanced
to Canterbury in 915, on the death of Plegmund. Owing
to the confusion which has been occasioned in Ecclesias
tical History, by the alleged *Bulle of Pope Formosus, for
the consecration of seven new Bishops, and the anachror-
ism thereby introduced fixing the succession to certain
Bishoprics at 905, instead of 909, it is impossible to state
with any precision the number of years Athelm sat at
Wells or Canterbury. Those writers that place Athelm's
consecration to Wells at 905, say he sat here ten years ;
that he was translated to Canterbury in 915 ; that he sat
there nine years, and died 2 Idus February (12) 924.
He was buried at Canterbury.
His integrity of morals and intuitive knowledge of
mankind, displayed a flattering prelude to this venerable
institution.

* The Pope's Bulle, (commonly, but erroneously written, "bhll,") is so
called either from jSouTni fhis Will or consent in a Conncil of State), or
more probably from bulla, the lead or gold seal affixed to the instrument.
Matthew Paris, under the year 1237, thus describes the Seal :— " in bnlll
Domini Paps stat imago Pauli & dextris crucis in medio bulls figurata,
et Petriasinistris."

WLFHELM 1. 7>5
II. WLFHELM I.
Succeeded Athelm both at Wells and Canterbury, and
was also illustrious for his sanctity and learning. He
appears not to have sat long here ; for, in 925, we find
hi in at Canterbury. (Saxou Chron. p. 139. Translation.)
Richardson says, he succeeded to Canterbury in 928,
{p- 49,) but I prefer the authority for 925. He presided
at several synods after his translation to the primacy,
in which a code of civil and ecclesiastical laws was
framed by King Athelstan and his council.* The Saxon
Chronicle under the year 927, (p. 140, Transl.) records
his going to Rome. His death is placed at 938 by some.
He sat thirteen years at Canterbury ; and if we place his
succession thereto, with the Saxon Chronicle at 925, that
is the ¦correct date : Malmsbury, however, and Gervase,
say February 12,941. In the English edition of 1615,
Godwin says, he sat at Canterbury ten years, and died
934 ; thus says Dart in his History of Westminster, and
Le Neve also in the Fasti, p. 3. Wharton observes,
" Athelmum cum Wlfelmo confundi apud Historicos noa
est infrequens." Anglia Sacra, part i. p. 53.

III. and IV. Of ELPHEGE and his Successor
WLFHELM II.
Nothing is recorded, excepting that Isaacson fixes the
succession of the former at 924, and of the latter at 942.

* Wilkius'B Concil. vol i. p. 20.

76 CYNEWARD.
V. BRIGHTHELM,
The 5th Bishop, who had been a Monk of Glastonbury,
succeeded in 958. " He gave," says Bishop Godwin,*
unto the Abbey of Glastonbury, his nurse, the jurisdiction
of the country adjoining, and made it an Archdeaconry,
to be bestowed upon a Monk of Glastonbury, to be
elected yearly by the convent. The year after his
elevation to Wells, he was elected Archbishop of Can
terbury. He was " a virtuous and meek man, but not
very tit for government ; in regard whereof, King Edgar
entreated him, and he easily condescended, to abide still
at his old charge. "f He died May 15, 973, and was
buried in Wells Cathedral, on the north side of the choir ;
" where," says Collinson, " his effigy still remains."
Hist. Somerset, vol. iii. p. 377. See Malmsbury,
Hoveden, and Mailross.

VI. CYNEWARD,
Became Bishop of Wells in 974. He had been Abbot
of Milton, Dorset, to which he was appointed by King
Edgar on his introducing Monks, and expelling the
secular clergy ,J (Godwin, in the English edition of 1615,
p. 359, says, he was Abbot of Middleton; and Richardson,
edit. 1743, p. 365, calls him "Abbas Middeltonensis").
The Saxon Chronicle, in a poetical effusion on the death of
King Edgar, under the year 975, calls him " of royal race—
• Engl. Edit. 1615, p. 359. t lb.
i Hutchins's Hist. Dors. ii. p. 437.

SIGAR. 11
Gyneward the good, prelate of manners mild." The
same article informs us he died ten nights before Edgar,
and that Edgar died July 8. See Translation of the
Saxon Chron. p. l6l . With this date agrees Florence of
Worcester; though Godwin erroneously says 985. Le
Neve has fallen into the same error. Fasti, p. 31. He
was buried near his predecessor in Wells Cathedral. If
the Saxon Chronicle be correct in placing his death at
975, he could only have sat Bishop a very short time.
Godwin says, he sat eleven years ; but this opposes the
Saxon Chronicle, which is paramount.

VII. SIGAR,
Abbot of Glastonbury,* (having been so appointed in
972,) became Bishop in 975, holding both preferments
till his decease, which took place June 28, 997. Bishop
Godwin says he sat eleven years, and died 995 ; a mistake
arising from his previous error already noticed. He
subscribed the charter of King Ethelred in 995. His
death, as happening in 997, is recorded in MS. Coll.
Trin. Cant. June 28. See the Hist. Glaston. in Monast.
Ang, T. i. p. 9.
Wharton thus speaks of him : —
" Sigarus nonnullis Sigegarus dictus, successit anno
" 975. Abbatem fuisse Glastoniensem Willehnus
"Malmsburiensis in Historia Glaston : agnoscit ;
" eundemque Cajnobio ab anno 972 ad 1000, prae fuisse
" docet. Abbatiam itaque cum Episcopatu simul
* Wharton's Aug. Sac. Part. i. p. 557.

78 ALWYN.
" tenuit ; quod state iM non infrequens erat. Hunc
" sane Charts; Ethelredi Regis auno 995 editae sub-
" scripsisse in textu Roffensi f. 154 reperio ; noroen-
"que ejus in Chirographo* Siricii Archiepiscopi
"occurrit; at ilium anno 995 superfuisse parftm
" dubitem. Neque sic tamen Willelmi calculos in
" Historia Glaston, comprobatos habeo, ut ei
" multum tribuam. Satins videiur, ut cum Florilego
"obitum Sigari in anno 997 reponamus, ne Adelwyno
'* suceeasori ejus locus auferatur. Ilium die 28 Junii
" obiisse Historia Glastoniensis docet, in Monastico.
" T. i. p. 9." — Ang. Sac. Pars. i. p. 557.

VIII. ALWYN,
Whom Malmsbury calls Elwinus ; and Florentius,
Alfwinus, succeeded in 997, as Florilegus states. He
appears to have died about 1000. He lies buried on the
north side of the choir of Wells Cathedral.

* Any public instrument or gift of conveyance attested by the
subscription ami crosses of witnesses, was, in the time of the
Saxons, called Chirographum, which being somewhat changed in form
and manner by the Normans, was by them stiled Charta. The word is
still in use for any written document, or deed, or grant, being compounded
of x«p mamus and ypxfut scribo. Anciently, when they made a chii ograph
or deed, which required a counterpart, they engrossed it twice upon one
piece of parchment contrariwise, leaving a space between, in which they
wrote in great letters (£1) tl'Ograpl) ; and then cut the parchment into
two, sometimes evenly,, and sometimes with an indentment, through the
midst of the word : the first use of these Chirographs is said to have
been in temp. Hen. III.

LEOVING. 79
IX. BURWOLD.
This Bishop is not mentioned even by name in the
list of Wells Bishops in the Rerum AngUcarum post
Bedam, p. ^53. Wharton says of him : —
" De quo nihil loquitur Willeluius Malmsburiensis
" nee in libro suo de Pontificibus, nee in libro
" suo de Regibus quod potui reperire. Martirilogium
" tamen ecclesiae Wellensis ipsum commemorat. Et
" in eadem ecclesia Wellensi cernitur sepulcrum
" nomiui suo ascriptum." — Ang. Sac. Pars. i. 557.
He could have possessed the See but a short time ;
whence we must account for the almost total silence
observed respecting him. " His tomb," says Godwin,
" is to be seen with his name engraven, upon the south
side of the choir at Wells." — Isaacson and Le Neve
record him as succeeding in 1005, and dying in 1007.

X. LEOVING.
Living, or Leoving, succeeded. He seems also to be
called Elfstan. If the charter of King Ethelred, dated
1001, is to be credited, Leoving was Bishop at the
Commencement of that century, his subscription occurring
to it, and in one dated 1002. He was translated to Can
terbury in 1013. At Canterbury, he appears to have sat
about Seven years ; to have died in about 1019-20, and to
have been buried in that Cathedral. The Saxon Chronicle
fixes his death at 1019- — " Archbishop Elfstan died this
" year, who Was also named Lifing. He was a very
" upright man, both before God and before the world."
Isaacson, in his Chronology, states his succession to
Wells to have happened in 1008, which Le Neve follows.
— 'Fasti, p. 3 1 .

80 LEOVING.
Of this Prelate, Richardson has the following note,
p. 365 :—
" Elphego per Danos interempto successor datus est
" in Ecclesia Cantuariensi anno 1012. Quo tempore
" Danicis furoribus Anglia universa aestuabat. Hie
" igitur postquam e carcere liberatus est, in quo Daci
" nequissimi eum septem menses detenuerant, in
" exilium abiit sponte, nee ante rediit, quam Swani
" Regis morte in patria omnia pacata audivit et
" bcllicos tumultus conquievisse ; Ethelredum Regent
" rediisse rerumque iterum potiri : quo, brevi, mortuo,
" Edmundum, (qui ob egregiam fortitudinem ' Fer-
" reumlatus' dictus est) Regio insignivit diademate:
" Illoque per insidias perfidi ducis Edrici Streons
" sublato, Canutum Swani Dacorum Regis filium
" Regiis similiter insignibus investivit. Sedit in
" ecclesia Cantuariensi panic, plus quam 7 annos, et
" tandem obiit in pace anno 1020."

XI. ETHELWIN,
Abbot, as some say, but " Monk" only as others, of
Evesham, succeeded. He and Brithwyn his successor,
by turns, ejected each other from this See. " Liter hunc
" et Brithwinum quotidiana fuerat contentio alter
" alterum ejiciendo." Malmsb. L. ii, p. 144.
Brithwinus vero supervixit diebus 13. Canon. Well.
p. 558, decessit circa annum 1026. His name is affixed
to a charter, granted by King Canute, to the Cathedral at
Exeter, in 1019.* Isaacson places his succession at
* Dugdalc's Monastic, vol. ii. p. 536. Wharton Angl. Sac. Pars. i.p.558«

BRITHWIN. 81
1013; and adds, that he Was expelled in'1021. — See also
Le Neve's Fasti, p. 31. Restored in 1023, (Isaacson)
and died in the same year.

XII. BRITHWIN.
Succeeded in 1021, having supplanted Ethelwin, and
taken possession of his See 5 but Ethelwin, it seems, in his
turn, dislodged Brithwin, who ultimately recovered the
Bishopric, but enjoyed his triumph but thirteen days.
He died in 1024, (Isaacson.) Collinson erroneously says
1013.* They were succeeded by
,1>*W..-'. 
XIII. MEREWIT,
Abbot of Glastonbury ; called also, as Wharton says,
Brithwin. Malmsbury calls him MervIth ; Dicetensis,
Merethwith ; and Florentius, Birthwin. He was
made Abbot of Glastonbury in 1017, and after ten years,
that is in 1027, was promoted to the See of Wells. He
died in 1033 or 1034, and was buried at Glastonbury.
Malmsbury, ths History of Glastonbury, in the Monastic
con, and the Annales Petriberg, and Sax. Chron. confirm
the place of his burial, but the two latter place his death
at 1033. The Saxon Chronicle says under 1033,f—
" This year died Bishop Merewhite, in Somersetshire,
" who is buried at Glastonbury." Malmsbury de Gest.
Pont. L. 2, f. 144. b. calls him "natione Lotharingus,"
a native of Lorraine. Collinson is not correct in saying
* Hist. Som. vol. III. p. 378. t P-206. Translation.
M

82 DUDOCA.
he sat but three years. Hist. Somas, vol. III. p. 378.
Whereas he succeeded in 1027, and sat till l033-4r
which was six years.
The authors of the Rerum AngUcarum post Bedam,
p. 253, thus close this period of our Episcopal History :
" Meruith, qui et Brithwi, natione Lotharingus, tempore
" Regis Edwardi et Wellielmi magni. Omnes hi sedes
" suas Wellis habuerunt in ecclesia Sancti Andreas."

XIV. DUDOCA,
A native of Saxony, in Germany, a Saxon by birth, suc
ceeded. Some call him Lotharingus, a native of Lorraine.
He obtained by his entreaties, Congresbury and Banwell,
from Edward the Confessor, for himself and his successors.
He is said to have sat twenty-seven years, seven months,
and seven days ; and to have died in 1070. But placing
his succession at 1033, the date recorded by the Saxon
Chronicle for his predecessor's death, and admitting that
he sat twenty-seven years, his death must have happened
in 1060, and not 1070. Godvyn and Le Neve*
erroneously say he was consecrated in 1031, but his
predecessor was not then dead. He adds, that " he
" was buried on the south side of the high altar in
" Wells : it seemeth his tomb is the highest of those
" ancient monuments that we see upon the south side
" of the altar."f • Fasti, p. 31.
t Speaking of monuments of antiquity, it may not be amiss to state how
the forms of sepulchral monuments have varied during the ages from the
conquest : —

DUDOCA. 83
The Saxon Chronicle records, that this Prelate was at
synod at Rheims :—
" A. D. 1049. There was a great synod at St.
" Remy, at which was present Pope Leo, with the
¦" Archbishops of Burgundy, of Besantjon, of Treves,
" and of Rheimes ; and many wise men besides, both
¦" clergy and laity. A great synod there held they
" respecting the service of God, at the instance of St.
" Leo the Pope. It is difficult to recognize all the
" Bishops that came thither, and also Abbots. King
" Edward sent thither Bishop Dudoc, and Abbot
" Wulfric, of St. Augustine's, and Elfwin, Abbot

The 1st. or most ancient forms of tombs, were prismatic, ; " plain on
the top, the shape of the lid or upper part varied with the times, as arts
were revived. The lid of the most ancient was in the form of a prism,
or triangular, and though they may be now generally under ground,
originally only the bottom part was so, and the lid was seen above
ground." The 2nd. form is described a3 the prismatic lid, with the addition of
carving on that part.
The 3rd. form is described as the table monument, supporting effigies
or sculpture, and appears to have succeeded at a very early period to the
prismatic tomb, in regard to the burial of distinguished personages.
The 4th. form is mentioned under the head of tombs with testoons or
arches over them. This testoon, or protecting coverlid, was introduced
about the beginning of the 14th. century.
The 5th. form includes monuments inclosed in sepulchral chapels,
which were not always additions to the outline ofthe building, but were
sometimes distinct erections within the church.
The 6th. consists of monumental stone inlaid with brass : such monu
ments are very common : and Mr. Gough has discovered a few as early
as 1308, but they did not grow into common use before the middle of the
14th. century, and they continued so till the middle of King James the
Ist's. time.
The 7th. comprises all monuments let into or fixed against the walls
or .pillars of churches, &c.

84 GISO.
" of Ramsey, with the intent that they should repoft to
" the King what was determined there concerning
" Christendom."— P. 224.
The Bishop's death is thus recorded in the Saxon
Chronicle : —
" A.D. 1060. Dudoc died, who was Bishop of
" Somersetshire ; and Gisa, the Priest, was appointed
" in his stead."— P. 250.

XV. GISO.
This Prelate also was a native of Lorraine, being the
third in succession who was said to be of that country.
The village where he drew breath, was that of St. Trudo,
in the district of Hasban. At the time of his nomination
to the See, he was Chaplain to Edward the Confessor, by
whom he had been sent to Rome, for the resolving certain
scruples of conscience. He was there consecrated 17th
Kal, May, 1060; though Godwin says, but erroneously,
1059, as Dudoc did not decease, according to the Saxon
Chronicle, till 1060, In the Anglia Sacra, part I.
p. 557, the Canon of Wells says, that when Giso entered
upon this See, he found but ten Canons, who were
reduced to beggary in consequence of Harold, Earl of
Kent, the Queen's brother, having plundered the Church.
" The Bishop," says Godwin, " complaining to the
King, found cold comfort at his hands ; for, whether it
were for fear of Harold's power or his wife's displeasure,
he caused no restitution at all to be made : only the
Queen was content to give of her own, Marke and*
Modesley to the Church."

GISO. 85
Now this statement, as far as regards the King, differs
widely from that recorded in the Anglia Sacra. The
following article from that work (part I. p. 559) deserves
insertion here : —
" A Domino suo S Edwardo Rege possessionem*
" de Wedmore, et de regina Editha terram quae
" Merkenf et Modesley vocatur, ad sui et fratrum
" suorum sustentationem impetravit. Deinde post
" mortem Edwardi Regis, prefatus Heraldus regnum
" Anglorum invasit in Festo Epiphanise Domini apud
" Lambhith ; ubi ipse prater consensum Procerum
" capiti suo propriis manibus regium diadema im-
" posuit. Is statim omnes possessiones dicti Gisonis
" et Canonicorum Wellensis Ecclesiae perpetim con-
" fiscavit. Sed juvante S. Andrei dictae ecclesiee
" Patrono, impius super iniquitate sua paulo tempore
" gavisus est. — Nam. VI. anno Episcopates Gisonis
" [1066.] Willelmus Dux Normannise armata manu
" Angliam ingressus, illam in Ixxii diebus totaliter
" couquisivit,^ &c. et cito postea fere omnes posses-
" siones ab ecclesia Wellensi per Haraldum ablatas
" Gisoni restituit, exceptis quibusdam ad monasterium
" S. Petri Glocestriae applicatis, et exceptis Congres-
* Manerium. t Werke.
J We are accustomed to call William I. " the Conqueror ;" but I like not
the term. England was never conquered. He should be termed William
the Cbnquestor, i.e. the Acquirer. De Lolme calls him William the
Acquirer, and Sir Henry Spelman, a high authority, so explains it .- —
" Conquestor dicitur qui Angliam conquiaivit, i.e. acquisivit, (purchased)
non quod subegit." A good patriotic remark to the same effect may be
•found in au interesting and instructive work which was deservedly in
great request a few years ago, entitled Heraldie Anomalies, vol. I. p. 109.

86 GISO.
" burye, Banwell, et Kilmington, cum plurimis* aliis.
" Anno tamen xi regni sui restituit Banwell ; et
" donavit eidem Episcopo et suis successoribus Yatton
" cum ecclesia. Giso etiam ecclesiam de Wynesham
" a quodam praedecessore suo alienatam de manibus
" cujusdam Ealsiae recuperavit ; et iterum eaudetn
" villam de manibus dicti Regis Willelmi Conquestoris
" Ecclesiae Wellensi restitui procuravit ; necnon
" maneria de Combe S. Nicholai, Wormestorre,
" Lytton a quodam Arsero in Willelmi Regis pnesentia
" comparavit. Auxit autem numerum Canonicorum
" in EcclesiS, Wellensi ; fecitque eis claustrum [cloister]
" Dormitorium, et Refectorium, et unum de eis, nomine
" Isaacum fecit eis Praepositum."
Collinson-)- has the following outline concerning Bishop
Giso : —
" Giso, a native of a village within the province of
" Hasban, in the province of Lorraine, succeeded
" Dudoco in the See. He was Chaplain to King
"Edward the Confessor, and being esteemed a person
"of learning and integrity, was employed in several
" embassies to the court of Rome where he was, when
" chosen Bishop of this diocese, and where he was
" consecrated April 4, 1059; together with Aldred,
" Archbishop of York, and Walter, Bishop of Hereford.
" On his entry into his diocese, he found the estates of
" the church in a sad condition : for Harold, Earl of
" Wessex, having, with his father Godwin, Earl of
" Kent, been banished the kingdom, and deprived of
• Paucis. f Hist, Somerset, vol. iii. p. 378.

GISO. 87
" all his estates in this county by King Edward, who
" bestowed them on the church of Wells, had, in a
" piratical manner, made a descent in these parts,
" raised contributions among his former tenants, spoiled
" the church of all its ornaments, driven away the
" Canons, invaded their possessions, and converted
" them to his own use. Bishop Giso in vain expos-
" tulated with the King on this outrageous usage : but
" received from the Queen, who was Harold's sister,
" the manors of Mark and Mudgley, as a trifling
" compensation for the injuries which his Bishopric had
"sustained. Shortly after, Harold was restored to
" King Edward's favor, and made his captain-general ;
" upon which, he, in his turn, procured the banishment
" of Giso ; and when he came to the crown, resumed
" most of those estates of which he had been deprived.
" Bishop Giso continued in banishment till the death of
" Harold, and the advancement ofthe Conqueror to the
" throne ; who, in the second year of his reign, restored
" all Harold's estates to the church of Wells, except
" some small parcels which had been conveyed to the
" monastery of Gloucester ; in lieu of which, he gave
" the manor and advowson of Yatton and the manor of
" Winsham : Giso, being thus reinstated, used his
" utmost diligence in recovering other estates which had
" been embezzled from his church, in procuring charters
" of confirmation for the better security of what it
" already had, and making provision for its better sub-
" sistence. In particular, he recovered from one Arser,
" who had been a favorite in the, court of Edward the
" Confessor, the manors of Combe-St-Nicholas, Wor-
" minter, and Litton, all which he had obtained by his-

88 GISO.
" intrigues and interest with the King. Having thus
" encreased the revenues of the church, he augmented
"the number of the Canons, and set over them a
" Provost, and for their better entertainment, built
" them a cloister, hall, and dormitory ; he also enlarged
" and beautified the grand choir of the cathedral.
" Having presided twenty-eight years, he died A.D.
" 1087 ; and was buried on the north-side of the high
" altar."
When he had sat about twenty-eight years, he died
A.D. 1088, and was buried in Wells cathedral, near the
altar to the north. Bishop Godwin takes his tomb to be
the highest of those old tombs that lie upon the outside of
the choir towards the north.*

* William of Malmsbury, De gestis Pontificum Anglorum, lib. ii. p.
254, in his list of the Bishops of Wells, after Meniith, omits Dudoca and
Giso, both of whom Bishop Godwin iutrodnces. Malmsbury places
" John." i. e. John de Villula, as the successor of Meruith.

Btstjops of Bait).

XVI. [I] JOHN DE VILLULA.
There have, unfortunately, been recorded of this
Prelate some loose suspicions, of what is generally, though
ignorantly and erroneously, called Simony,* though on
what ground I have not been able to discover. The
medium through which preferment is obtained, is often a
great mystery, and sometimes, it must be owned, it is very
corrupt. Promotion we know has been obtained, at one
time, by basely flattering a Royal strumpet, and extolling
her as a ' Roman Matron ;' at another, by trimming, by
temporizing, by ratting, and by an abandonment of former
principles. Some have obtained promotion by writing
against Papists, and afterwards a higher step by advocating
their cause. Nothing could form a more curious collection
of memoirs, than "Anecdotes of Preferment." Could
the secret history of great men be traced, it would often
appear that merit is rarely the first step to advancement.

* I use this word Simony in its commonly received, though erroneous,
acceptation Simony, or the crime of Simon Magus, properly speaking,
is not the purchasing church preferment, of which there was none in
Simon Magus's days, but rather sacerdotal power of an extraordinary
degree. Now, as the visible extraordinary operations ofthe Holy Ghost
ceased with the Apostolic age, it follows that they cannot now be made
theobject of purchase, and consequently, that Simony in its real meaning
cannot now be practised. The only approach to Simony now, would be
buying Episcopal Ordination. N

90 JOHN DE VILLULA.
In the church, to be sure, it does sometimes happen,
that a man rises in spite of his orthodoxy and merit, but
being temporizing, evangelical, or "namby-pamby," and
without decision of character, appears now the surest road
to advancement.
This Prelate, a native of Tours, in France, (" natione
Turonicus,") though originally a Priest, had practised as
a Physician, and that probably at Bath, by which honor
able profession, he appears to have considerably enriched
himself. He is hardly used by I^ishop Godwin, and
others after him, who are in the habit of adopting and
transmitting from age to age, unfavorable characters
drawn by preceding writers, without stopping to take the
trouble to investigate them. Malmsbury calls him " usu
non Uteris medicus probatus," which Bishop Godwin
good-naturedly interprets "empiric." What his medical
education might have been, as he belonged to the Priest
hood, we cannot pretend to say, but to assert generally,
that he was ' non literis probatus,' is hardly fair. No
doubt he was as learned as the Priests of his day, and we
know that he both delighted in the society of, and was a
friend to, learned men. He should rather have said, if
such were the case, non medicinm scientia instructus.
His, being " usu probatus," at least implies considerable
talent, if not previous medical instruction.
Bishop Godwin, who, as we have already observed, not
only plainly calls him an empiric, but is otherwise
unjustifiably harsh, representing him as a dilapidator,
whereas, he should have spoken of him as a benefactor to
the diocese ; nor does the sensible Wharton speak of him
with becoming charity, affixing on his character, without
any adequate authority, the charge of Simony, as it is

JOHN DE VILLULA. gi
called ; and that in a cowardly way, by using a word
implying only suspicion and not knowledge, viz. " vereor."
Now had he had only suspicion, candour would that he
should have been silent. The passage is as follows : —
" Johannes de Villula, Turonensis Ecclesiae
" Presbyter, postq'uam maximos ex medicine qiiafstus
" fecessit, Episcopatum Wellensem obtinuit vereor ne
" minimis ex medicina conflatis emerit."
It is said, indeed, I am aware, that William Rufus was
in the habit of selling Church preferments : however this
may be, Malmsbury states John de Villula was invested
with the Bishopric temp. Conq. He appears to have
sflcceeded to Wells in 1088 ; and, in 1091, to have
translated the See to Bath.
He is said to have destroyed the cloister and other
edifices, which Giso had built at Wells for the Canons,
and, in the room of them, constructed a Palace for
himself and his successor ; an alteration certainly for the
better. From a predilection for Bath, which city he is
stated to have purchased of the King for 500 marks, he
transferred thither the episcopal sfeat, a step by which he
also shtewed his good taste. Having obtained a grant of
ihe Abbey of Bath, he effected the removal with the King's
consent. Rudborne and Matthew Paris, who seem to
have some venom towards this Prelate, say, or rather
insinuate, that he effected his objects by bribery. But
nothing can be more uncandid, than to assert, as fact,
that for which we have suspicion only, however apparently
Strohg, the foundation may bd.
Thfe royal gift of Bath Abbey was made in 1C88. Thi.
charter therefore in Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. ii. No.
IX. p. 266, bearing date 6 Kal. Feb. A.D. 1090, must
have been a confirmation. It runs thus : —

92 JOHN DE VILLULA.
" Quocirca ego Willelmus Willelmi regis films', Dei
" dispositione monarchus Britanniae, pro meae meique
" patris remedio animse et regni prosperitate, et populi
" mihi collati salute, accessi Johanni episcopo' Abba-
" tiam S4- P«tri Bathonise, cum omnibus appendiciis,
" tam in villis quam in civitate et in consuetudinibus,
" illis videlicet quibus saisita erat (seized) ea die qu&
" regnum suscepi. Dedi inquam ad Sumersetensis
" episcopates augmentationem eatenus praesertim ut
" inibi instituat praesuleam sedem anno Dominicae
" Incarnatiouis 1090, [lege, says Wharton, 1091]
" regni ver6 mei 4."
Bishop de Villula deserves a better fate than he has
met from his biographers, who, instead of charging him
with Simony and calling him a Quack, should rather
have spoken of him in terms of respect, and enrolled him
among the chief benefactors of the See. It was Bishop
de Villula who commenced the erection of a Cathedral in
Bath, (on the site of the old Church belonging to the
Abbey,) which he completed from the foundations ; — an
arduous and noble undertaking for an individual.
Malmsbury observes, that it was enclosed with a great
and elaborate wall, and neatly observes, on the Church of
Wells, which was dedicated to St. Andrew, being thus
supplanted by that of Bath, which was dedicated to St.
Peter, — " Cessit enim Andreas Simoni fratri, f rater
major minori." Our author states that this Prelate
treated the Monks of Bath very harshly on account of
their ignorance. This, no doubt, arose from his own
taste for literature ; his endeavours to encourage it in
others, whom, probably, he found stubborn and back
ward, were likely to have caused his unpopularity. He
appears to have been a sensible and enlightened man,

JOHN DE VILLULA. 93
for the period in which he lived, as he filled the Abbey
with men, eminent for literary acquirements, as well as
for the discharge of their duties,* and if he carried things
with a high hand, it only shows that he was the better
qualified at that period of ignorance andUirregularity, for
the eminent station he filled. Monks have ever been an
ignorant and refractory, race, and there can be no doubt
but that his alleged ' harshness,' was the cause of correct
ing many of their abuses. He is blamed for having
converted the revenues of the abbatial table to his own,
but no doubt, if we could enter into them, he had ample
reasons for what he did, and probably found this step,
though it sounds unfavorably to posterity, necessary for
the correction of some existing abuses. On the whole,
I am disposed to consider his character in a very favorable
point of view, and to rescue it, as far as possible, from
the many attacks which appear to have been made upon
it through spleen. A vein of detraction runs through the
whole character drawn of him by his contemporary
William of Malmsbury, by no means accordant with the
sacred regard for truth and the modesty, that, that Monk
generally evinces, whom, from this circumstance, I should
suspect the Bishop had in some way offended. He no
sooner ascribes to the Bishop a good quality in one part
of a.sentence, than he invidiously unsays it, or maliciously
ascribes a bad motive, in the latter part. — " Literatorum,"
says he, " contubemio gaudebat." — This is creditable in
a Bishop — now comes the malevolent ascription of

* " Multa ibi nobiliter per eum suscepta et consummata in ornamen.
tis et libris, maximeque Monadiorum congregatione, qui eraut scientia
literavum et sedulitate officiorum juxta pnedicabiles." — Malmab.

94 John de villula.
motive,---" ut eorum sOcietate aliquid sibi laudis adscis-
cerat." How unfair to attribute a man's hospitality to
the learned to a desire of obtaining praise ! This is what
Horace would call, " nigrae loliginis succus." I can
only add, in the same poet's words, " Quodcunque
ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi," and so far from giving
credence to the unfavorable parts of a character so drawn,
I should form rather a favourable impression of the party.
The good that was admitted of him, I would record on
brass, the bad on water. He was decidedly a man of
considerable munificence To the Monks, in a deed
bearing date 1 106, he restored the lands he was said to
have alienated from them, and gave them others which
he had acquired personally. By the same document he
appropriates the entire rental of the City of Bath to the
completion of his Church, i. e. some of the interior in all
probability, or decorations,' for the building was in the
main, completed during his life-time. He also gave all
his moveable property, of every kind, to the monastery
there. This looks not like ' harshness.'
Leland, in his Itinerary, vol. ii. speaks of the Bishop,
dnd of his tomb, in these words : —
" This John pullid doun the old Church of S. Peter
" at Bath, and erected a new, much fairer ; and was
" buried in the middle of the Presbyteri thereof, whos
" image I saw there 9 yeres sins, at the which tyme al
" the Chirch that he made, lay to wast and was un-
" rofid, and wedes grew about this John of Tours
" Sepulcre."
De Villula appears to have renounced the title of
Bishop of Wells, and to have assumed that of Bishop of
Bath only.

JOHN DE VILLULA. 95
The monastery at Bath was at first built by Offa,
King of Mercia, in 775, and being destroyed by the
Danes, who burnt and razed to the ground almost all the
monasteries in England, was afterwards, in 1010, re-edified
by Elphegus, who was, at length, Archbishop of Canter
bury. His building was not of long duration, for, in
1087, both it and nearly all the city was destroyed by
fire, insomuch that Bishop John of Tours, as Leland
calls him, by re-building it de novo, and augmenting its
revenues, before very inconsiderable,, deserves to be
called its founder.
The Bishop having sat 34 years, died December 29,
1122, as says the Continuator of Florentius. — See
Wharton, Angl. Sacr. Pars. i. p. 560. Simon Dunelmen-
sis, says, " In Die Natali Domini subito post prandium
dolore cordis correptus die sequenti moritur."
In the following passage from the Scriptores Rerum
AngUcarum post Bedam, Malmsbury has, as I consider,
rather unfairly delineated Bishop de Villula's character.
p. 254. "Cum vero iis successisset Joannes, natione Turonicus^
" professione medicus, qui non minimum quaestum illo
"conflaverat artificio, minoris glqriae putahs' si in ilia
" villa resideret inglorius, transferre thronum in Batho-
" niam animo intendit. Sed cum id inaniter vivente
" Willielmo patre seniore* cogitasset,' tempore

* The learned Monk in his ardour to vituperate the Bishop, has here
made a sad blunder, which gives the lie to his whole story. He says the
Bishop vainly meditated the removal of the Episcopal See from Wells to
Bath, during the life of the elder William, i. e. the Conqueror, Which he
afterwards effected in the time of William his son, (William II. or Rufus.)
Now it unfortunately happens that de Villula was not Bishop at all during

96 JOHN DE VILLULA.
" Willielmi filii effecit. Nee eo contentus totain
" ciyitatem in suos et suorum usus transtulit ; ab
" Henrico rege quingentis libris argenti mercatus
" urbem, in qua balnearum calidarum latex emergens
"authorem Julium Caesarem habuisse creditur.
" Salubres sunt aquae illae lavantibus, sed olor sulphu-
" ris primo advenientibus gravis, donee consuetudo
" sensus horrorem compescat. Ibi rex Offa monaste-
" rium posuerat : et Edgarus sicut pleraque alia more
" suo auxerat, delectatus loci magnificentia, et quod
" ibi coronam regni susceperat. Hanc ergo abbatiam,
" Joannes a rege non gravate obtinuit. Primoque
" aliquantum dure in monachos agebat qu6d esseht
" hebetes, et ejus aestimatione barbari, et omnes terras
" victualium ministras auferens, pauculumque victum
" per laicos suos exiliter inferens : sed procedentibus
" annis factus novus, monachis mitius se agere,
" aliquantulum terrarum quo se hospilesque suos
" quomodo sustentarent Priori indulgens. Multa
" ibi nobiliter per eum suscepta et consummata in
" ornamentis et libris, maximeque monachorum con-
" gregatione, qui sunt scientia literarum et sedulitate
" officiorum juxta prasdicabiles. Erat medicus proba-
" tissimus, non scientia sed usu, ut fama (nescio an
" vera) dispersit. Literatorum contubernio gaudens.
" ut eorum societate aliquid sibi laudis adsciesceret.

the period ofthe first William ! The first William died in 1087, and de
Villula did not become Bishop till 1088, the 2nd. year of the reign of
William Ilufus. If de Villula "iuaniter cogitasset trausferre Thronura,"
in the time ofthe Conqueror, he must have entertained those thoughts
before he was a Bishop I— a sort of anticipation one does not readily com
prehend. So much for accuracy, when a person is to be run down.

JOHN DE VILLULA. 97
" salsioris tamen in obloquentes dicacitatis, quam
" gradus ejus interesse deberet. Valetudinis bona?,
" dapsilis cum in se turn in alios. Obiit grandaevus,
" qui nee etiam moriens emolliri potuit, ut plena
" manu monachorum terras redderet, successbribus
• " suis non imitandum prabens exemplum.
" Sepultus est in ecclesia S. Petri, quam a funda-
" mentis erexerat magno et elaborate parietum
" ambitu."
Now, it happens, that by a deed or charter, Bishop
John, in 1106, not only restored to the Monks all the
lands they formerly possessed, but also gave them other
estates. Malmsbury therefore is incorrect, in stating, to
the prejudice of this respectable Prelate's character, that
he could not be prevailed with, even on his death-bed, to
restore their lands to the Monks ;* not but such a refusal
might have been extremely proper and justifiable, but the
fact was directly the reverse.
I am indebted to Mr. Britton's excellent and elegant
account of Bath-f- Abbey, for the copy of the deed or
charter above alluded to; which is thus translated : —
" In the name ofthe Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
" I, John, by the grace of God, Bishop of Bath, to all
" Bishops, my successors, and to all the sons of the
" Holy Church, greeting. — Be it known unto you all,
" that for the honor of God and St. Peter, I have
" laboured, and at length effected, with all decent
" authority, that the head and mother Church of the
"Bishopric of Somerset shall be in the city of Bath,

* Malmsbur. de Gest. Pontif. lib. ii. t P 20.
O

98 JOHN DE VILLULA.
" in the Church of St. Peter : to which holy Apostle,
" and to the Monks his servants, J have restored their
"lands which I formerly held unjustly in my own
" hands, in as free and ample a manner as Aldsius the
" late Abbot held them before me : and if I have
" improved them, and whatsoever of mine shall be
" found thereon, I give them to their own use and
" property. I also give them for farther supply' of
" their food and clothing, and to encrease the convent
" of the holy brethren, serving God there, and to
" reimburse the treasury what I took from the Church,
" those lands which I have acquired by my own travail
" or bought with my own money; — to wit— those five
" hides in Weston, which I purchased of Patricius de
" Caurcia ; and the land of Hugh with the Beard, viz.
" Claferton, Docne, Mersfield, and Eston, with
" Herley and Arnemude on the sea-coast, and whatso-
'* ever belongs to them ; and one house at Bath, and
" one other in Winchester: but as to the city of Bath,
" which first of all King William, and after him, his
" brother King Henry gave to St. Peter for their alms,
" I have, pursuant to my vows, determined that all
" issues and profits from it be laid out in perfecting
" the new work I have begun. Besides, what I have
"acquired of Church ornaments, in copes, palls,
" curtains, dorsals, tapestry, crucifixes, robes, chalices,
" and phylacteries : and whatsoever of my own I have
" added to the episcopal chapel, my whole armoury,
" clothes, bowls, plate, and all my household furniture
" I give to St. Peter and his Monks for ever to their
" own use and property, for the remission of my sins.
'* Whosoever, therefore, shall infringe on this my gift,

JOHN DE VILLULA. 99
" may the curse of God and of his holy Apostles and
" Saints, light on him, and by the authority of me,
" though a sinner, let him be accursed and for ever
" cut off from the community of the Church. Done
" A.D. 1 106 ; in the reign of Henry, son of William,
" Duke of Normandy, an$ King, of England, Anselm
" being Archbishop : of my ordination the 19th. and
*' of the indiction the 12th. aud that this my deed, may
" remain more firm and unshaken, I have with my
" own hand, signed it with the sign ofthe holy cross."
This Prelate erected an episcopal palace on the west
side of the Monastery, of which, in Leland's time, a
great square tower and some ruins were remaining.
According to Wood, he likewise constructed two new
baths within the limits of the monastery, for the public use,
calling the one the Bishop's bath and the other the Prior's
bath ; but from the circumstances attending the discovery
ofthe ancient baths, it is probable that the baths alluded
to had been originally constructed by the Romans, and
that Villula merely altered them.*
In the X Scriptores, col. 247, Bishop de Villula is
recorded to have died the day after Christmas day, 1 1 23,
having been taken suddenly after dinner, with a pain in
the heart. In the Anglia Sacra, he is stated to have
died very old, December 29, 1 122. Jlenry de Hunting
don calls this Bishop, ' Johannes Medicus.'

Britton, Hist, Bath Abbey, p. 21.

Ifflf GODFRY.
XVII. GODFRY,
&ttoi\a aaissi»op of JSart),
Succeeded A.D. 1122.— Died A.D. 1135,
Who was chaplain to the then Queen-Consort, (Adeliza,)
was named by the King, (Henry I,) in 1123-4, during
Easter, to the See of Bath, being consecrated in St.
Paul's, the 7 Cal. Sept. (26 August,) 1123, by William
Corbel, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was not Chan
cellor of England as Bishop Godwin erroneously records.
He sat Bishop here, about 12 or 13 years, and died Aug.
16, 1135, and was buried at Bath. He seems to have
been involved in litigation, with one John, the Arch
deacon,* for the recovery of the lands and provostship of
the Canons of Wells ; but the King, and Roger, Bishop
of Salisbury, being hostile to his claim, he did not
prevail. " In his time," says Mr. Britton, in his valuable
and splendid account of Wells Cathedral, " the manor of
" Dogmersfield, in Hants, which afterwards became a
" summer residence of the Bishops of Bath and Wells,
" was granted to this See by the King."
He was the second and last Bishop of Bath. Godwin,
in the MS. in Trim Coll. p. 18, says, "it is worth while

* The Archdeacon is a very ancient officer in the Church. Those
Puritanical persons who call the office unscriptural, must be told, that we
pretend not to say that his office is prescribed or established in Scripture.
He is an assistant in fact of the Bishop, beiug often termed "the Bishop's
eye." He has no original jurisdiction, but what he possesses, hfrom the
Bishop, either by prescription or composition. He had, anciently, a
superintendant power over all the parochial clergy in every deanery in
their precincts;— he being the chief ofthe Deacons.

GODFRY. 101
to observe, that all the Bishops of these times, for nearly
200 years, were foreigners," for which, William of
Malmsbury, thus accounts : —
" Laicorum potentia subruta, stabili firmavit edicto
" Gulielmus Conquestor* ut nullum Anglicae gentis
" Monachum vel clericum, ad aliquam dignitatem
" conari pateretur."
Collinsonf observes : —
" Upon his, [John de Villula's] death, one Godfrey,
" a Dutchman, and chaplain to Maud, the Empress,
" succeeded as second Bishop or Bath. Of him,"
adds he, "little is recorded, although he held the See 12
" years. He died August 16, 1135, and was buried
" at Bath."

* Seethe note at p. 85, upon the incorrectness ofthe term "William
•the Conqueror" t Hist. Som. vol. iii. p. 379.

Eat& anir aaieite unite*.

XVIII. ROBERT,
Vfyivll JSt^op of Eatlj, an*
dFinit JSi^op of JSatlj an* Wells,
Succeeded A.D. 1135-6.— Died A.D. 1166.
Next succeeded, in 1135-6, Robert a Monk of Lewes,
born in Normandy, but by parentage a Fleming. Henry
de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, had appointed him to
the temporary government of St. Swithun's, and afterwards
deputed him to regulate the affairs of Glastonbury Abbey,*
It was also, through that Prelate's influence, that Robert
was elevated to this See. In the beginning of his prelacy,
viz. July 29, 1137, the Church of 'Bath, lately built by
Bishop de Villula, being again consumed by fire, as well
as the whole city of Bath, Bishop Robert re-edified the
former, and supplied what had been left imperfect, f In
the feuds between the Empress Matilda and Stephen, he
endured much trouble, having been taken prisoner at
Bath, by a party of Bristolians, and detained captive for a
long time by the King in Bristol Castle. He was at
length exchanged for Geoffry Talbot, one of the most
active adherents of Maud, whom de Blois had arrested as
a spy, and then held in custody. The Continuator of
* " E6 quod, non recte eorum aratra incedebant."
t Ang. Sac. pars. i. p. 561.

ROBERT. 103
Florence of Worcester, records the history of those trans
actions at large. After his deliverance, he exerted himself
in effecting an agreement between the Churches of Wells
and Bath, which had now many years contended for the
honour of being the episcopal See. At length, with the
mutual consent of both the contending parties, he decreed
that the Bishops thenceforward should be called Bishops
of Bath and Wells ; that each of them should, by com
mission, appoint electors, vacante sede, by whose joint
voices the Bishop should be chosen, the Dean being the
" returning* officer," and that the Bishop should be
installed in both of those Churches. f In the next place,
a relative of Bishop John de Villula, [John the Arch
deacon] having been appointed by him Provost, he, by
virtue of that office, had abstracted and appropriated to
his own use nearly all the revenues formerly belonging
to the Canons. Bishop Robert, at length, with much
difficulty, obtained restoration of them ; and to avoid
such usurpation in future, he divided the lands ofthe
Church into two portions, whereof one he assigned to the
chapter in common ; out of the rest he allotted to every
canon a portion by the name of a prebend. It was
Bishop Robert, also, who first constituted a dean to be
president of the chapter, and a sub-dean to supply his
place in his absence ; a chanter to govern the choir, and
a sub-chanter; "a chancellor to instruct the younger
sort of canons ;" and lastly, a treasurer to take care of the

* Solennis electionis pronuntiatio penes Decanum Wellensem esset.
t The composition of this important matter, is extant in the Register
of Bishop Drokensford.

104 ROBERT.
ornaments of the Church. The Succentorship and the
Provostship, anno 1547, were taken away and suppressed
by act of parliament, to patch up a deanery ; the lands
and revenues ofthe deanery "being devoured," as says
Godwin, "by sacrilegious cormorants." Besides these
important arrangements, Bishop Robert took down a
dilapidated part of the Church at Wells, which threatened
the whole fabric with destruction, and repaired the
remainder.* .
He obtained from King Stephen, the Churches of
North-Curry and Petherton. He also founded two new
prebends in Wells Church, Yatton, and " Hyswich in
Marisco," to which he annexed the Church of Compton
Episcopi. Having sat about 3 1 years, (or as some say 29.) and
most admirably administered the affairs of the diocese ;
he died in 1 166, and was buried at Bath. Some little
doubt has been thrown on the precise date, by the
discrepancy which occurs in different records.
The annals of Bruton Abbey, (situate in this diocese)
thus express this event : — " Robertus Episcopus Bathon.
obiit anno 1 166, pridie Cal. Sept. qui dedit domui
Brutoniae ecclesias de Westbury and Banwelle ; cui
successit- Regiualdus ;" and in a catalogue ofthe Bishops
of Bath and Wells, at the foot of the annals, we find,
"anno 1166, obiit Robertus cum sedisset annis 31."
But the same annals say, that he was present at the
dedication of the Church of Keynsham, in 1 1 7 1 . If so,
he must have risen from the tomb for the purpose.^
" Ang. Sac. pars. i. p. 561.
t The Annales Winton and Margan, both concur in 1166.

REGINALD FITZ-JOCELYN. 105
XIX. REGINALD FITZ*-JOCELYN,
Setontf JJiiSljop of J3atl) ant. Welti*.
[The Incorporator of the City of Wells."]
The See having been vacant upwards of eight years
and eight months, Reginald Fitz-Jocelyn, Archdeacon of
Salisbury, (so appointed by his father in 1 173,) a son of
Jocelyn, Bishop of Salisbury, whom he had before
ordination, was in 1 174, appointed by Henry II. to fill it ;
being then, as is stated, only 33f years of age, while
others, with great improbability, make him to have been
but 24. He, in all probability, was, by birth an English
man, though Godwin calls him a Lombard, most likely
from the circumstance of his father being of an ancient
family of Lombardy, as also from his sirename and
education. Leland likewise calls him, " Reginaldus
Lumbardus,"J and " Clericus regis ;" but he is totally
wrong in fixing 1206, as the date of his elevation to this
See. It was one of the' objects of the second Henry's policy,
to restrain the undue influence of ecclesiastics, hence
arose the dissensions between him and the high-spirited
Thomas k Becket, the issue of which is so well known
to every reader of English history. Jocelyn, Bishop of

* Few, perhaps, will, require to be told that the prefix ** Fitz" to
English Sirenames, corrupted from "Jils." is equivalent to Mac, 0', and
Ap, as Fitz-Roy, the son of the King— Fitz-Herbert ;— Mac-Dunald, the
son of Donald, O'Bryen, the son of Bryen— Powell, Price-r». e. Ap
Howell— Ap Rees— the son of Howell— the sou of Rees, &c.
t Ang. Sacr. part i. p. £61. X Collectanea, ii. p. 343.
P

106 REGINALD FITZ-JOCELYN.
Salisbury,* our Prelate's father, had offended Becket,by
whom he was excommunicated, for the active part he
took in the " Constitutions of Clarendon ;"f the intent
of which was to define the immunities of the Church and
restrain the power of excommunication. Reginald, his
son, at first supported Becket, but afterwards came over
to the King's side, and was sent ambassador to the Pope
in 1171, for the purpose of clearing up the suspicion of
Henry's being a party to the murder of Becket.
Seiden, in his "Titles of Honor," part i. ch. vii. p.
217, has recorded an anecdote ofthe mode in which our
Bishop obtained the mitre ; but whether correct, or not,
is another question : his authority is Walter Mapez, a
writer in Henry I l's. time. Reinold, after his election
(by " corrupt means," says my author, but these assertions
are at all times very unprincipled, unless accompanied by
evidence,) to the See of Bath and Wells, complained to
his father, the Bishop of Salisbury, that the then Arch
bishop of Canterbury, would not consecrate him : to
whom his father is said thus to have replied : — " Stulte,
velox ad Papam evola securus, nihil hassitando ; ipsique
bursa grandi para bonam a/apam et vacillabit quocumque
volueris." He went according to the advice — " Percussit
hie, vacillavit ille; cecidit Papa; sun-exit Pontifex:

* See memoirs of him in Cassan's Lives ofthe Bishops of Salisbury,
part i. p. 135.
t These " Constitutions" were made in the reign of Henry II. A.D.
1164, in a great council held at 'Clarendon, in Wiltshire; whereby the
King checked the power of the Pope and his Clergy, and greatly narrowed
the total exemption they claimed from the secular jurisdiction. 4 coram
422.

REGINALD FITZ-JOCELYN. 107
scripsitque statim in Dominum mentiens, in omnium
brevium suorum principiis ; nam ubi debuisset scribi
'bursas gratia,' "Dei gratia,' dixit." So much for the
alleged mode of his elevation ; though, to me, it appears
most probable, that from opposing Becket, as well as
from the favorable impression he endeavoured to convey
to the Pope of Ids Sovereign's conduct, with regard to
that martyr, he became a favorite with Henry, and his
rise became a matter of necessary consequence. There
is too great a fondness for personal acerbity in some of
the old writers against individuals who, for causes unknown
to us at this distant period, were obnoxious to their
malevolent spirits.
Bishop Reginald, then Archdeacon of Salisbury^
(Rymer)* and previously , Archdeacon of Wilts, (Le
Neve)f was consecrated to this See on hjs, return from
Rome, by Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the
Church of St. John, in the Savoy, (in Subaudia)J in the
vallies of Mcriana, on the 23d. of June 1174, and was
enthroned November 24§. Previous to his consecration,
he was put upon oath, that he was not accessary to the
murder of Thomas k Becket; and others swore, that he
was conceived, as they believed, before his father (after-
Wards Bishop of Salisbury) was admitted into holy orders.
In 1 179. he was at the Council of Lateran. ^[
Menef actions.-^- Bishop Reginald was a benefactor to
Wells ; he obtained for the chapter from Richard I. the
* Fa'dera. vol. i. p. 34. t Fasti, p. 276.
t Brompton, p. 1096. Hoveden, f. 308. b.
$ Dieeto, p. 585. fl Hoveden, f. 332.

108 REGINALD FITZ-JOCELYN.
the manors of Cuiry, Wrentich, (Wrantage), and Hatch.
He founded the hospital of St. J ohn, in Bath, valued at
,£22. 19s 6d| yearly rent,* and certain prebends in the
Church of Wells. Moreover <£?Ae granted to the City
of Wells a Corporation, says Godwinf and many
privileges which, by his gift, they enjoy to this day. He
rebuilt the Churches of St. Mary and St. Michael,
intra muros, in the City of Bath, not far from, the Hos
pital he had founded to the honor of St. John the
Baptist. He also obtained from Richard Coeur de Lion, the
confirmation of a right of the Bishops of Bath and Wells
to keep dogs for sporting throughout the County of
Somerset. This document may be seen in the Har-
leian MSS. No. 83. c. 10. It runs as follows : —
"Sciatis nos concessisse et prttscnti carta nostril
" confirmasse Rainoldo Dei gratia Bathon. Epo, &
"ejus successoribus in perpetuum Canes suos ad
"fugandum per totam Sumerset, sicut ipse vel aliquis
" antecessorum suorum eos unquam liberius habuit,
" videlicet ad capiendum bestias praeter cervum et
" cervam et damum et damam. Volumus etiam et
" concedimus qudd ipse, et omnes successores ejus de
" omnibus bestiis in parcis suis fugatus si exierint,
" libere et quiete suum habeant percursum. Et idcirco
" prohibemus ne quis praedictum Episcopum vel suc-
" cessores suos super haec in aliquo disturbet, super
"decern libras forisfracturae, &c," However un-
episcopal such occupations may be deemed in these

Mon. Angl. v. i. p. 1044. t p. 364.

REGINALD FITZ-JOCELYN. 109
days, it will be remembered, that the then state of society
permitted them without any damage to " the consciences of
weak brethren."
In consequence of some services rendered to the
Monks of Canterbury, they elected Reginald their Arch
bishop, November 27, 1191; and he being present, they
seated him by violence on the Archiepiscopal throne :
at first, he positively refused the proferred dignity, but he
afterwards had sense enough to accept it; and thus
sxwv ccexovrt ye Qofxai, became Primate. Unfortunately,
however, after the Pope's assent had been obtained, and
before the news of his Confirmation* could be brought
from Rome, he was suddenly taken ill at Dogmersfield,
and died there December 26, 1191, having first, like his
father, assumed the Cowl. He was buried in Bath
Cathedral, near the high altar.f
Ralph de Diceto thus records our Prelate : —
" Reginaldus, Saris biriensis Archidiaconus, electus
" est tempore Henrici II. regis. Iste fuit consecrates
" a Richardo Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo, cum regre-
" deretur k Curik RomanA, inter valles Morianas in
" EcclesiS, S. Johannis, et in vigilia S. Johannis Bap-
" tistae, Archiepiscopo Tarentasiae praesente, manum
" etiam apponente, accepta prius purgatione, qu6d

* In Law, there are four things necessary to complete a. Bishop as
well as a Parson, (i. e. Persona Ecclesia.) (Of course, we are not now
speaking of the divine commission, but only of a legal Bishop.) — 1,
Election, which resembles Presentation; — 2. Confirmation, which
resembles Admission : — 3. Consecration, which resembles Institution :
and 4. Installation, which resembles Induction.
f Godw. pp. 100-363. Le Neve, Fasti, pp. 4 and 31.

110 REGINALD FITZ-JOCELYN.
" mortem B. Thomae neque verbo neque facto neque
" sciipto procuravit scienter. Alii juraverunt, quod
" sicut opinabantur, conceptus fuit, priusquam Joce-
" linus pater suus ad gradum sacerdotii promoveretur.
" Et sic cum Archiepiscopo rediit in Angliam. lntro-
" nizatus autem eum praedictus Archiepiscopus
" Richardus solemniter viii Cal. Decemb. Iste
" Reginaldus cum sedisset aunis xvi. nominatus est a
" Monachis Cant. Cantuariensis Electus, Transcursis
" autem a die nominationis xxix diebus, die Natalis
" Domini anno bissextili, feria iv. obiit apud Doge-
" meresfield in territorio Wintoniae. Sepultus est
" autem Bathoniae prope majus altare die S. Thomas
" Martyris." Filius erat Reginaldus Jocelini Episcopi
" Sarum, Archidiaconatu Saresburiensi a patre
" donatus. Scriptis ad hunc paulo ante Episcopatum
" susceptum literis. Patrus Bathoniensis Archi-
" diaconus nimium aucupii studium castigat, et prae-
" sulatum brevi conferendum auguratur. Ejusdem ad
" Episcopatum electi, et in immicitiarum S. Thomae>
" qui Jocelinum patrem olim suspenderat, suspicionem
" adducti Petrus innocentiam tuetur et praeclaras
" dotes laudat epistola 45. Consecratum fuisse 1174,
"23 Junii, intronizatum 1174, 24 Nov. Dicetensis
"(In Imag. Hist. p. 585) recte posuit, et Gervasius
" astipulatur. Anno 1179, ad Concilium Lateranense
" profectus est. Ante annum 1 1 80, conventione inter
" ipsum et Abbatem Glastoniensem Robertum facta,
" Abbas dedit ecclesias Wellensi Ecclesiam suam de
" Pilton, ita quod de eadem duae fuerint praebendae in
" ecclesia Wellensi. Episcopus autem Abbati et
" Conventui vicissim concessit, ut in perpetuum

REGINALD FITZ-JOCELYN. Ill
?' Archidiaeohi essent decern ecclesiarum, viz. S.
'• Johannis in Glastonia, de Mer&, Stret, Budekeleg,
" Siperwica, Sowi, Miriling, Pilton, Pennard et
" Dichesicte. Conventionem Henricus Reg diplo-
" mate suo confirmavit. Anno 1189, 27 Nov.
" manerium de Northcurri de Ricardo Rege emit
" Ecclesias de Northcurri et Perretona Stephanus
" Rex olim dederat Roberto Episcopo ad faciendum
" Praebendas in Ecclesia Wellensi. Deniqne ut
" valetudinariorum in opiani sublevaret, Nosocomium
" Bathoniae posuit. Electum fuisse ad Cantuariensem
" thronum 1191, 27 Nov. et obiisse 1191, 26 Dec.
" supra ostendimus male disposuit. Plura de Regi-
" naldo suppeditat Liber de gestis, S. Thome, post
" martyrium. In eo, inter Clericos S. Thomas
" eruditos memoratur." " Reginaldus natione Anglus,
" sed educationi & cognomento Lombardus; pro astate
" prudenset industrius, animosus et efficax in agendis:"
" qui cum S. ThomA aliquamdiu stetit, sed postea
" animo dcficiens ad Hennci Regis partes sc transtulit;
" et demum ab aula ad Ecclesiam assumptus, in
" Bathoniensem Episcopurn promotes est. Medio
"anno 1171, a Rege ad Papam legates est; ut
" suspicionem caedis S. Thomae ab ipso amoliretur."

112 SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC.
XX. SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC,
"J8tel)op of ©laStonfcurj?,"
Succeeded in 1192, being consecrated on Michaelmas-
day. He had been Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral ;*
and was elected Bishop here by the Bath Monks, the
clerks at Wells being opposed to him. However, going
to Rome, he was ordained priest by order of the Pope,
by Bishop Alban, September 19, 1 192 ; and a few days
after consecrated Bishop.-j-
He is thus noticed by the Canonicus Wellensis : —
" Savaricus quintus Episcopus Bathoniensis successit:
" qui fuit consaguineus Henrici Imperatoris Aleman-
" niae, qui Regem Angliae redeuntem e Terxk Sancti
" per Leopolduin ducem Austriae captum, in carcere
" diu detinuit minus just&. Hie obtinuit ab Imperatore,
" qudd idem rex aliter non deberet carcere liberari,
" nisi prius eidem Savarico et successoribus ejus
" concederet monasterium Glastoniae in excambium
" pro civitate Bathonias. Et cum rex gravissimam
" pro sua libertate redemptionem plenarie solutam ac
" ex tunc diiam incarcerationem et annualem perspi-
" ceret se non posse aliter e carcere liberari, nisi votis
" Imperatoris annueret in hac parte : mis it pro abbate
" Glastoniae ; qui in Alemanniam ad dominum regem
" accessit ; et Episcopatu Wigorniae ei collato,
" Savaricus abbatiam Glastoniae obtinuit ; quam
*' Apostolica, Regia et ordinaria authorilate mensse
" suas Episcopal! univit, ipsamque ad terminuin vitae.

Kadulphns de Diceto, p. 668. t See Dicet. Imag. p. 668.

SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC. 113
" suae tenuit sic unitam ;* transtulitque sedem suam
" Episcopalem illuc, et se fecit " Glastomensem
" E^iscopum" public^ appelari. Hie erexit ecclesias
" Parochiales de Ilminster et Long Sutton in Prebendas
" Ecclesiae Wellensis ; quarum primam Abbati de
" Muchelmey, secundam Abbati de Athelney, et eorum
" successoribus contulit in perpetuum possidendas.
" Hie etiam Episcopatum suum et Ecclesiam Wellen-
" sem niultis possessionibus ampliavit ; et de novo
" concessit Burgensibus Wellensibus libertatem quam
" Reginaldus conceserat. Hie etiam Archidiaconatum
" Bathoniae Priori et Conventui Bathoniensi et eorum
" successoribus integraliter possidendum concessit.
" Savarico tandem .defuncto, et apud Bathoniam
" tumulato, Eustachius Prior Glastoniae et ejusdem
loci Conventus, faventibus eis Rege Henrico et
Regina cum caeteris regni magnatibus, a Papa
petierunt, ut Episcopi Bathonienses a possessione
" Monasterii privarentur, et quod in pristinum statum
" Monasterium reduci deberet. Quorum petitionem
" Papa ad tempus distulit exaudire, pro eo quod
" Ecclesia Bathoniensis vacationis suae tempore,
" legitimo caruit defensore."
To these particulars, Wharton enables us to add : —
" Savaricus, Geldewini filius, Archidiaconus North-
" amtuensis, et Thesaurarius Ecclesiae Sarum, electus
" est a Monachis Bathoii sine Canonicis Wellensibus,
" ipsis irrequisitis, et hoc penitus ignorantibus. Verba
" For an account of this extraordinary affair, see the Decretal Epistle
of Pope Innocent III. to the Prior and Convent of Glastonbury. L. iii.
Decret. Tit. 9.c. i. Hoveden says, that in 1199, the Kiug took away
Glastonbury from him, and gave it to William La Pie : f. 449. b,
Q

«

<«

114 SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC.
" sunt Registri WeHenisis. Romam adveniens, Cae'Ies*
" tini Papae mandato, Presbyter ordinatns est ab
" Albano Albanensi Episcopo 1192, 19 Sept. teste
" Dicetensi. Die sequenti, juxta uisciplinae ecclesi-
" asticse leges eundem consecfatum arbitror. De
" Abbatia Glastoniensi in Episcopalem sedem ab illo
" transmutarta Adamus monachus in Historia fuse
" agit. Id solummodo hie loci addendum existimo,
" Savancum nempe Bathoniensis et Glastoniensis
" Episcopi filium deinceps assumsisse, eodemque
" Jocelinum successorem usumesse : quod ex Archivis
" Ecclessiae Wellensis constat. Anno 1203, 6 Oct.
" edito decreto Savaricus Praebendas omnes Ecc.
" Well, a jurisdictione Archidiaconi Wellensis exemit.
" Obiit apud Scienes la vielle 1205 S. Augusti, fide
" Annalium Prioratus de Suthwerk. Diem confir-
" mant Parisius, Historia Roffensis, Annales Biuton
" et obituarium Cant. Annos regimmis 12 ipsi tribu-
"int Annales Brutonenses et Canonicus noster; et
" die 19 Sept. (quae Dominica anno 1193 erat) conse-
" cratum fuisse Parisius asserit : ut in earn adducar
"sententiam, Savaricum anno (non 1192 quem
" Parisius et Dicetensis posuerunt, sed) 1193 couse-
-" cratum fuisse. Ista de Savarico adnotanda habui.
" Quae de rebus ab illo in Germania gestis Godwinus
" «x Hovedeno narrat certius ex isto peti possunt."
Of this Prelate, Bishop Godwin (p. 364) observes:—
" King Richard I. being taken prisoner in Germany/
"by Leopold, duke of Austria, the Emperor took
" order with him, that besides other conditions to be
" required of the King for his deliverance, be should
" make him promise to prefer a kinsman of his, (the

SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC. US
" Emperor's) called Suarike, then Archdeacon of
" Northampton, unto the Bishopric of Bath and Wells;
" and moreover to annex unto the same Bishopric the
" Abbotship of Glastonbury. For the better effecting
" of which purpose, Suarike was content to return unto
" the King the possession of the City of Bath, which
" his predecessor, John de Villula, had bought of
" King William Rufus. These things being brought
"to pass according to his desire, be altered his style,
" and would needs be called " Bishop of Glastonbury."
"He was consecrated on Michaelmas-day, 1192, at
" Rome; and returning into England by Germany,
" was there stayed and left for an hostage, in assurance
" of payment of the King's ransom. After his delivery,
" he yet continued there a long time, and became
" chancellor of Burgundy, under the Emperor, till the
*• year 1 197. The Emperor falling sick, (as Hoveden
" delivereth) he was sent by him into England, to
" release unto the King all such monies as yet remained
" unpaid of that wrongful and unconscionable ransom.
'* The Emperor then dying before he could return, he
" thought good to remain here still upon his charge,
" In 12 years that he sat Bishop, he did not any thing
" memorable, except, happily this may seem worthy
" remembrance, that he impropriated the parsonages of
" Ilminster and Long-Sutton, making them prebends,
" and appointing the one of them always to be allotted to
" the Abbot of Muchelney, and the other to the Abbot
*' of Athelney, for the time being. The prebend of
" Ilminster is vanished together with the Abbey of
"Muchelney: Long-Sutton Parsonage, by, the piety
" «f Queen Mary, was restored to the Church of Wells,

116 SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC.
" and remaineth to this day a part of our possessions.
'* This Bishop died August 8, 1205, and was buried
" at Bath."
If he succeeded in 1192, and sat 12 years, he must
have died in 1 204.
In Richardson's edition, p. 370, we have this epitaph,
in a monkish Hexameter and Pentameter, indicating his
unsettled habits and rambling disposition :—
" Hospes erat mundo, — per mundum semper eundo,
" Sic suprema dies fit sibi prima quies."
That Editor adds the following character, on the
authority of MS. Trim Coll. Camb. p. 24 :—
" Savaricus Barlowinwac cognominatus, generis
" nobilitate clarus, at animi dotibus (ni fallor) hand
*' perinde ornatus. Nam honores et in appetendo
" immodicus, et in gerendo fuit parum idoneus. Ita
" nimirum fit plerumque ut animi qui sunt angustissimi
" augustissima loca aucupentur, et infimi meriti lionii-
" nes excelsa virtutum praemia honores vehenientissim e
" concupiscant. Hoc porro semper habuit haec nostra
" Anglia, ut exoticorum hoininum seu virtutes, seu
" species et umbras virtutum facile admiraretur. Ilia
" vero aetate imprimis, quasi suis noverca, privignis
" mater, vix aliis quam peregrinis honores (ecclesiaSti-
" cos praesertim) largita est."
On this foolish passage, whoever was the author, it
will only be necessary, in defence of the Bishop, to
observe, that it is a " non sequitur" to say, because
a man is, ' in hohores appetendo immodicus," and " in
gerendo parum idoneus," he is therefore " baud animi
dotibus ornatus," A man may be found even totally
unfit for certain high stations, and yet be by no means

SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC. 117
deficient in intellectual faculties. The " animi dotes,"
are not confined to elevated office : or to office at all.
Nor do we see any thing of the " animus angustissimus"
in Bishop Savaric. Nothing is recorded of any neglect
of prelatical duty, — no suspicion is intimated, of his
avarice, — of his spoliation of the diocese, — of his
nepotism, — if I may so express it, by which I mean his
filling the Cathedral with his nephews and kindred, while
he overlooked men of talent and learning, orthodoxy, and
zeal. Not a syllable of blame attaches to his prelacy ;
nothing is recorded to his discredit : and it is rather too
unfair to say, that because a man does not distinguish the
period he holds office, by some illustrious acts, he is
therefore deficient in the " animi dotes." It is often a
particular juncture — a particular concurrence of circum
stances, that enables a man to render his period illus
trious : and it would be unjust to say, that the absence of
the characters of glory, affix a mark of reproach.
Otherwise, how many of our modern Prelates, men of
the most amiable hearts, soundest minds, and highest
acquirements of science, would fall under this uncharitable
censure ! <£_?" The Prelate who attends his duty in the
House of Lords, and there narrowly watches every
attempt at encroachment on the Established Church —
who stems' the torrent of "liberality," and gives but a
Pedarian vote in defence of the altar and the throne —
who calmly, unostentatiously, and without affecting the
" Saint," discharges the episcopal functions — who is
hospitable to his clergy, — charitable and accessible to
all, — pious without parade, — who provides for the
declining years of his poorer and less fortunate fellow
labourers in the same vineyard, — and who encourages by

118 SAVARIC BARLOWINWAC.
promotion, men of known Protestant-Episcopal prin
ciples, and steady opposition to all that tends to dis-union
and schism, — whether such men be in or out of his own
diocese ; — such a Prelate, I say, may not, perhaps, make
much figure in history; He may have left no lucid
track behind him — no halo of glory may encompass his
name. The historian will not be able to point out any
thing that will mark " the noiseless tenor of his way."
Posterity, instead of consecrating his name and em
balming his actions, may coolly say, "his prelacy was
unmarked by any memorable action," and yet such a
Prelate as I have described, but little deserves to be
passed over with a cool indifference that almost amounts
to reproach. Of the Prelate before us, as nothing
blameable is on record, it is but common candour to
give him credit for having well and faithfully discharged
the important duties of his high station.

mm of mm & WitM xc-a&mmt tr.

XXI. JOCELYN OF WELLS,
Cljtrti JStiSljop of JSatlj antf WWlsi.
FUNDATOR ALTEK.
(Re-builder of the Cathedral, fyc. and builder of the
Bishop's Private Chapel.)
This munificent Prelate, who well deserves the title of
" Fundator alter" I have above ascribed to him, is called
Jocelyn Troteman, in the Annales Marganenses, but
whence we are not told. He was consecrated at Reading,
May 28, 1205-6, having been elected Bishop of Bath and
Wells, by the united suffrages of both chapters. In 1204,
he had been constituted one of the Justices of the Court
of Common Pleas.
In his time, the Monks of Glastonbury not liking their
union with this See, contrived, after a pertinacious struggle
of twelve years, to obtain a divorce, by appeal to Rome.
The dissolution of their union was, however, attended
with the sacrifice of the manors of Winscombe, Puckle-
church, Blackford, and Cranmore, together with nine
advowsons in favor ofthe Bishop. A bulle, confirmatory
of these arrangements, was issued by Pope Honorius HI.
bearing date Rome 16 Kal. June, 1218 : and our Prelate
resumed the title of " Bishop of Bath and Wells."

120 JOCELYN OF WELLS.
The leading features of Jocelyn's prelacy are these.
Having, by command of the Pope, in 1208, interdicted
the nation, he incurred the resentment ofthe King (John,)
by whom he was exiled : the King retaining the tempo
raries. After five years passed in exile, he returned, and
became, a considerable benefactor to his See, by annexing
thereto the manors of Congresbury, Cheddar, and
Axbridge, obtained from Hugh Wallis, Bishop of
Lincoln, jointly with whom he founded the hospital of
St. John, at Wells. He established many additional
prebends ; encreased the stipends of the chanters, first
called by him 'Vicars Choral:' and repaired, or
rather rebuilt, (erexit a pavimentis) the Cathedral, which
was, as the Canonicus Wellensis states, "vetustatis ruinis
enormiter deformata." He also built the elegant private
Chapel in the Bishop's Palace at Wells. He sat Bishop
nearly thirty-seven years, and dying November 19,- 1242,
was buried in the middle of the choir in Wells Cathedral.
Bath, about this period, became subordinate to Wells
in episcopal authority, and the Bishops have since chiefly
resided at the latter.
According to Matthew Paris, Bishop Jocelyn dictated
the oath taken by Henry III. at his coronation, in
1216 ; and with Peter de Rupibus* (Anglice Peter Rock)
placed the crown on that King's head.
From Fuller's Worthies, vol. ii,p. 281.
" Bishop Godwin was convinced, by such evidences
" as he had seen, that he was both born and bred in
" Wells, becoming afterwards Bishop thereof.

* See his life in Cassan's Lives of the Bishops of Winchester, vol. i.
j>. 161.

JOCELYN OF WELLS. 121
" Now, whereas, his predecessors stiled themselves
"Bishops of Glaston (especially for some few years
" after their first consecration) ; he first fixed on the
"title of Bath and Wells and transmitted it to all his
"successors. In his time, the Monks of Glassenbury,
" being very desirous to be only subjected to their
" own Abbot, purchased their exemption, by parting
" with four fair mannors to the See of Wells.
" This Joceline, after his return from his five years
" exile in France (banished with Archbishop Langton
" on the same account of obstinacy against King John),
" layed out himself wholly on the beautifying and
" enriching of his Cathedral. He erected some new
" Prebends; and, to the use ofthe chapter, appropriated
"many Churches, increasing the Revenues of the
" Dignities (so fitter called than Profits, so mean then
" their maintenance) ; and, to the Episcopal See, he
" gave three Mannors of great value. He, with Hugo,
" Bishop of Lincoln, was the joynt founder of the
" Hospital of St. John's, in Wells ; and on his own
" sole cost, built two very fair Chappels, one at
" Wokey, the other at Wells. But the Church of
"Wells was the master-piece of his works, not so
" much repaired as re-built by him ; and well might he
" therein have been afforded a quiet repose. And yet
" some have plundered his tomb of his effigies in brasse,
" being so rudely rent off, it hath not onely defaced
" his monument, but even hazarded the ruin thereof.
" He sat Bishop (which was very remarkable) more
" than thirty-seven years, (God, to square his great
" undertakings, giving him a long life to his large
"heart); and died 1242." R

122 JOCELYN OF WELLS.
The Canonicus Wellensis has the following account of
this distinguished and deserving Prelate : —
" Jocelinus sextus Bathoniensis Episcopus, successit .
" Savarico annis XXXVI. Contra quern statim in
" suis primordiis Eustaehius Prior et Monachi Glas-
" teniae coram Papa gravem qusestionem moverunt ;
" petentes quod Episcopus et oinnes successores ejus
" deberent al' possessione Monasterii in perpetuum
" amoveri ; et quod Monasterium deberet sub rigimine
" Abbatiali ad pristinum statum restitui et reponi. In-
" qu& lite idem Episcopus ad tempus viriliter se defeAdit.
" Quod cdnsiderantes Rex et Regina ac caeteri
" magnates regni parti mouachorum faventes, qu6d
" Espicopus non potuit facile ad eorum votum in hac
" parte convinci, quandam inter partes concordiam
" procuraverunt ; videlicet quid Episcopus permitteret
" in audentia apostolica defimtivam sententiam contra
" se fieri, et in rem judicatam transire : et ipse retiheret
" in perpetuum sibi et successoribus suis maneria
" de Winscombe, Pokilchurch, Blakeford, & Crane-
" mere, ac advocationes ecclesiarum de Winescomb,
*•' Pokilchurch, Aysheberries Cristin Manfelde, B6ck-
" land, et liberae capellae de Blakeford. -Quod et
" factum fuit ; et sic pax inter partes praedictas fuit
" reformatai Iste Episcopus perquisivit de Hugone
" Licolniensi Episcopo maneria de Congresburye,
" Chedder, et Axbridge, tenenda a Domino Regfe" ad
" perpetuum faedi firmam. Isti duo Episcopi Joceli-
" nus et Hugo Lincolniensis fundarunt Hospitale S.
" Johannis Wellensis. Jocelinus fundavit m'Mtas
" praebendas in Ecclesia Wellensi de novo, dotavit etiam
" omnes dignitates personates et officia dicta. Ecclesia;

JOCELYN OF WELLS. 123
"in forma adhuc .duyante :¦ ipsamque Wellensem
V .Ecclesiam vetustatis ruinis enormiter .deformatam
" prostravit .et a pavimentis ^erexit dedicavitque ;
" assignans ei in dotem ad augmentum communae
" Canonicorum, ;manerium de. Winiscombe cum
" ecclesia ; multosque alios redditus ad augmentum
" dictae e.cclesiae perquisivit, unde Ministri usque hodie
" sustentantur. . Vicarios in Ecclesii singulis Prae-
" bendariis ordinavit ; tribus exceptis, qiul_ us non
" provisit morte praeventus. Hie sibi simileni anterio-
" reni non habuit, nee usque visus est habere sequeiitem.
" Tandem defunctus in medio Chori Welliae hooorifice
" sepelitur. Hie piimo anno consecrationis suae
f servitium B. Marias in .Ecclesia Wellensi fecit
"quotidie decantaii. Capellas etiam cum cameris de
" Welles et W.oky notabiliterconstrwxit." i
To the above, Wharton adds in the Notes : — i •
. " Jocelinus, sive.Gocelinus de Welles, 1204, I, Sept,
" factus est Justiciarius Communium Placitorum,
" saltern units ex J usticiariis, coram quibus mulctae
" levatas sunt : inquit CI. Dugdaiius in Orig. Juridic.
"p. 41. Eundem Jocelinum, Trotemanf Annales
" Marganenses vocant. .Electus est . k Monachis
" Bathon et Canonicis Wellen. coadunatis : cujus
" electionis occasione inter utrosque iterum convenit
" de electione Episcopi simili modo in perpetuum
" facienda. Mutatis autem paululum antiquis coudi-
" tionibus, Priori Bathoniensi reservatutn est jus
" Episcopum denuntiandiet postulandi ; utque Epis-
" coptis in Ecclesia Bathon, semper priils mthronizari
" deberet, coucordatum . est, Electum Jocelinum
" Capitula Bathon. et Well, in litera certificatoria de

124 JOCELYN OF WELLS.
"¦ electione sic commendant. In sinu Ecclesiae nostrae
" k primo lacte coaluit &. sine querela hactenus inter
"nos est conversatus. [Ex Registris Eccl. Well.]
" Consecratus autem est a Willelmo Episcopo London.
" (Sede Cant, tunc vacante) apud Radingham [Read-
' " ing] in Capella S. Maria? anno 1206, 28 Maii, die
" S.^Trinitatis, ex fide Annalium Waverl. et Sutbwerc
" et duplicis Registri Cant. Res ab illo gestas
" Historicus noster ubertim satis retulit ; nos tempora
" singularum & Registris Ecclesiae Wellensis appo-
" nemus. Anno 1218, 17 Maii, concedente Jocelino,
" Honorius Papa dissolvit unionem inter Ecclesias
" Bathon. et Glaston : Savarico procurante ante 24
" annos factam : statuitque ut -deinceps Conventus
" Glaston, proprii Abbatis regimini subesset: salvo
"jure patronatus, quod Rex Johannes Episcopis
" Bathon. in Monasterio eodem contulit. Johannes
" enim Rex charta 1215, 9 Jan. dat& Jocelino et
" successoribus suis concesserat patronatum Abbatiae
" Glaston, si contigerit, qu6d Ecclesia Glaston Abbatis
" regimini iterum subderetur. Antiquitus in Ecclesia
" Wellensi duerant Praepositur, de Wynesham et de
" Cumba. Primam Jocelinus assentiente Capitulo
" univit secundae, utque unica deinceps esset, statuit
" 1234, 26 Dec. Ecclesiam Wellensem in honore S.
" Andrea dedicavit 123& 23 Oct. quando manerium
" de Wynescumb ipsi dedit. Eodem anno dedit
" Ecclesise Wellensi Ecclesias de Chedder et North-
" Curri, quinetiam Ecclesias de Congresbury, Mude-
" ford, Lideard, et S. Cuthberti, in augmentum
" communis Canonicorum ejus. Anno 1242 consti-
" tuit, ut cessante form^ prions distributionis Canouicis

JOCELYN OF WELLS. 125
" factae in pane degrangia, EpiscopUs singulis diebus,
" quibus apud Welliam fuerit, accipiat 13 denarios
" pro cotnmun&, Decanus autem, Praecentor, Archi-
" diaconus, Cancellarius, et Thesauriarius sigillatim 12
" denarios, alii omnes Canonici singulis diebus 6
" denarios, Vicarii unicum denarium. Obiit 1242, 19
" Nov."— Ex. Regist. Well, et Annal. Bruton."
From Bishop Godwin* : —
" Savarike being dead, the Monks of Glastonbury
" made importunate suit at Rome, to be restored to
" their old government, under an Abbot. Their
" importunity gave occasion of setting down a decree
" in the court of Rome,' Vacante sede> nihil mEpisco-
" patu innovandum esse,' that a See being void, nothing
" is to be altered in the state of the same. Before the
" end of the year 1205, Joceline, a Canon of Wells,
" born also, and brought up, in Wells, at least, as to
" me, by divers arguments it seemeth, was consecrated
" unto this See at Reading. The Monks of Glaston-
" bury were by-and-by doing with him ; and after
" much contention prevailed ; but so as they were fain
" to buy their victory at a dear rate, allowing unto the
" Bishoprick of Wells, out of their possessions, the
" manors of Winscombe, Pucklechurch, Blackford,
" aiid Cranmer, and the patronage of the benefices
" of Winscombe, Pucklechurch, Ashbery, Christ-
" Malford, Buckland, and Blackford. Soon after this
" composition was made, he was faine to fly the realm,

English Edition, 1615, p. 365.

126 JOCELYN OF WELLS,
" and continued in banishment the space of 5 years. The
, "cause and manner thereof, you may see in [the life of]
" S. Langton,Archbp. of Canterbury. After his return,
<_. ; " he gave himself altogether to adorning and encreasing
, ¦ " the state of his Church. He founded divers Prebends,
~-;" impropriated diverts parsonages to the behoof, of- his
" Chapter, and. gave them the manor of Winscombe.
" He allotted reasonable revenues to every . of' the
" dignities; [dignharies] which before had but small
" profit by their places. He appointed Vicars to
" assist the Prebends in doing the service ofthe Church ;
" and laid unto the Bishoprick the manors of Congres-
" bury, Chedder, and Axebridge. He, also, and
" Hugh, [WaHis] Bishop of Lincoln, laying their
"purses together, founded the hospital of St. John, in
" Wells; which, being suppressed by act of Parlia-
" ment, and given to the Earl of Southampton, he
" exchanged it with Bishop Clarke for Dogmersfield.
" Moreover, in building, he bestowed inestimable sums
" of money. He built a stately chapel in his palace at
" Wells, and another at Owky, as also many other
" edifices in the same houses ; and lastly, the Church
" of Wells itself, being now ready to fall to the ground ;
" notwithstanding the great cost bestowed upon it by
" Bishop Robert, he pulled down the greatest part of
" it ; to wit, — all the west end, built it anew from the
" very foundation, and hallowed or dedicated it Oct.
"23,1239. Having continued in this Bishopric 37
" years, he died November 19, 1242, and was buried
" in the middle of the choir that he had built, under a
" marble tomb, of late years shamefully defaced."

JOCELYN OF WELLS. 127
Richardson* adds : — " He was the first of our own
nation since Bishop Merewit, who was Bishop, and not
only an Englishman, but a native of Wells. "\
He was called also Troteman ; and was, consecrated
A.D. 1206, as the Annales Marg. say, by William,
Bishop of London, as Florilegus records, at Reading ; 'by
John of Florence, Legate from the Apostolic See, ', says
the Chronicle of Peterborough, on the 28th. May, Trinity
Sunday.^ That he was elected before the 8th. of May,
1205, is evident from the public records in the Tower of
London.^ He is called Bishop of Bath and Glaston
bury, in the Claus. 16 Jo. m. 5. 9< and Bishop of Bath
and Glastonbury, and Bath and Wells, (the union
having taken place,) 2 May, Claus, \6 Jo. m. 3. in dorso.
But this union was dissolved May 17, 1218, 2 Henry III.
The hospital of St. John's being granted to the Earl of
Southampton, he, as Bishop Godwin says, exchanged it
With Bishop John Clerk, of Bath and Wells, for the
manor of Dogmersfield. But Richardson says, Dogmers-
field was not only possessed by Bishop Clerk, but also
by Bishop Knight, Clerk's successor, and was afterwards
lost when this See suffered a severe calamity. He gives
as his authority for this last assertion, the MS. of Trin.
Coll. before quoted. John Clerk was Bishop here from
1523 to 1540; and William Knight from 1541 to 1542.
Three years before his decease, as Godwin has it, he
dedicated the Church, then completed ; Richardson says,
in November, 1289, a mis-print for 1239.|| The Wells
* In his edition of Godwin, 1743. p. 371.
t MS. Trin. Coll. p. 27. X Annal. Waverl.and Reg. Cant.
§ Pat. 7 Joan. m. 7. 15. || See Kegist Wellen.

128 ROGER.
Register, as well as the Bruton Annals, concur in Nov.
19, 1242, as the period of his decease, but Florilegus
says Dec. 1, 1242 ; and the Chronicle of Mailross quite
erroneously, 1240.
This Prelate bought a Palace in the parish of St.
Clement-Danes, Middlesex, (in the Strand,) and gave it,
as a perpetuity, to the Bishops of Bath and Wells; the
gift was confirmed by Henry III. by letters patent, dated
Sept. 3, in the l6th. year of his reign, [1232.] It is,
says Richardson, now (1743,) called Arundel-
House, (situate in the Strand).
Tomb. — " Bishop Joceline (ob. 1242) was buried in
the middle of the choir, under a marble tomb, inlaid with
his figure in brass,* but the latter had been torn away in
Godwin's time, and the tomb "shamefully defaced." So
little respect, indeed, have the successive conservators. pf
this fabric, shewn to the memory of one, to whom they
are so much indebted, that they have suffered his monu
ment to be utterly destroyed. "f

XXII. ROGER.
(See vacant Two Years.)
Roger had been Precentor of Salisbury Cathedral:
and was elected by the Bath Monks, without the consent
ofthe Wells Chapter. An appeal was accordingly made
to Rome by the latter, but having obtained, at their

* Leland says, " Jocelinus sepultus in medio chori Eccl. Wellen.
tnmba alta cum imag. area." Itinerary, vol. iii. p. 107.
t See Britton's beautiful work, the Hist, of Wells Cathed. p. 106.

ROGER. 129
request, the royal licence, the King admitted him to the
temporalties, in 1243. He was consecrated at Reading
Sept. 11, 1244. The Pope decreed, that the Monks of
Bath and Canons of Wells, had an equal right of electing
a Bishop, and the former were this time indulged, on
promise of adhering more strictly hereafter, to the compact
made in the time of Bishop Robert. Bishop Godwin
and Wharton, attribute, but without authority, the com
pliance ofthe Pope to a very dishonorable and improbable
motive^ — that of getting Roger's stall at Salisbury, or
other preferment, held by him, for his own nephew.*
Had the Pope wished to prefer his nephew, doubtless he
could have found plenty of opportunities without resorting
to such an under-hand mode of acting ; on the contrary,
in the Annales Ecclesiae Wigorniensis, (published in the
first part of the Anglia Sacra, p. 492,) under the year
1244, we find this entry : — " Dominus Papa dedit
Rogerum de Sarum, in Episcopum Bathon propter dissen-
tionem inter Capitula Bathoniense, &c. " and elsewhere we
read, (Canon. Wellen.) that Roger was at once appointed,
lest the diocese should be the sufferer, through a protracted
dispute, and be destitute ofthe pastoral care of its Bishop.
The Pope assented only pro hac vice, to settle the present
dispute, legislating absolutely for the future.
Bishop Roger gave to the Chapter of Wells, the

* There is always some discrepancy or contradiction in these ungene
rous ascriptions of dishonorable motive, that betray the clovenfoot.
One says, "the Pope wanted the stall for his nephew $" — another, that
"Roger was incumbent of a liviug, of which the Pope's nephew was
Patron,"— consequently, that he wanted the opportunity of presenting.—
I am no friend to Popes, living or dead — but in all our enmities, let us,
at least, be generous and true. :.<-• .
s

ISO ROGER.
custody of the deanery of this Church, for the whole
period of its vacancy, as often as such event might occur.
He gave them also certain portions of all profits of parish
Churches throughout the whole diocese, during their
vacancy, which heretofore had belonged to the Bishop and
his predecessors ; a third portion he assigned to his Arch
deacons. After having sat thee years, he died, and is the
last of our Bishops, as Godwin, who wrote in 1615, has
it, that was buried at Bath.
From the Canonicus Wellensis : —
" Rogerus septimus Bathoniensis Episcopus suc-
" cessit ; qui prius fuit Praecentor ecclesiae Sarum,
" electus in Bathoniensem Episcopum per Priorem et
" Capitulum Bathoniae, reclamantibus et appellantibus
" Decano et Capitulo Ecclesiae Wellensis. Habitoque
" suae electionis decreto, statim igitur ad Curiam
" Romanam accessit ; ubi cum pervenisset, cernens
" qu6d nullum jus in Episcopate prasdicto sibi per
"electionem suam competere poteit, ed qu6d eleclio
" sua fuit omnino invalida, supplicavit Papae, quatenus
" electione et appellatione rejectis sibi mero motu
" de Episcopatu diguaretur providere authoritate
" Apostolic^ ; ne per hujus litis dependentiam Ecclesia
" praedicta diu vacaret et gravia dispendia tempore
'• yacationis suae pateretur : quod et factum fiiit.
" Et sic a Romana Curia rediit infra breve Bathoniensis
" Episcopus consecrates. Decanus tamen et Capitu-
" luni Wellense contra Priorem et Capitulum Bathp-
" niense in Romana curia fortiter prosequebantur pro
" injuria eis in hac parte illat&, eb quid absque sui
" culpa eorum mediante dolo Bathoniensis Epjscopi
" electione ilia vice fuerint privati injuste. Unde

ROGER. 131
" Episcopus Rogerus in tantum ita instantius penes
" Papain procucavit.; qu6d ipse pace in fecit inter partes
" pra_dictas ; et formam opposuit in eorum muteis
" electionibus de> caetero facie ndis ; quae usque hodie
" observatur. Hie Rogerus ddnavit Capitelo' Wellensi
" custodiam Decanatus, ejusdem Ecclesiae pro toto
" tempore vacationis ejusdem, quotiescunqtie, qualiter-
" cunque, et quandocunque dictum Decauatum vacare
" contigerit deinceps. Dedit etiam eis duas partes
" omnium fructuum, reddituum et proventuum ad
" Ecclesias parochiales in tota Diocesi Bathoriiensi
" spectantium toto tempore vacationis eararidem ; qui
" quidem ad Episcopum et Praedecessores suos spec-
" tabant. Tertiam vero postea dedit Archidiaconis
" suis ;' ut ipsi et eorum officiates dictos fructus
" Ecclesiarum per mortem vacantium collegirent, et
• " dictis Decano et Capitulo de duabus partibus integre
" responderent. Hie Rogerus cum sedisset ' in
" Episcopate suo aanis tribus, obiit, Bathonias
¦' sepultus."
Wharton adtk,-*
" Mortem Jocelini. Episcopi, Canonici Wellenses
" Monachis Bathouiensibus denuntiarunt 1242, 22
" Nov. Resonbunt Monachi 1243, 30 Jan. Licet
" neque de jure nee de consuetudine ad vos unsl
" nobiscum, Episcopi electionem pertinere, noscatur;
," ex abuudaati tamen vos vocamus, &.c. Ipsi interim,
" itnpeteata pria_ts Regis HcentiA, Canonicis non expec-
'•¦' talis <RogeDuim eligcint. Electem Rex ad tempo-
" ralia adimisit 1243 mense J urn. Canonici Papatm
" appellant. Papa, «dita anno 1244, seateiitia parem
" esse debere Mouachorum et Cauonicorum in

132 ROGER.
" Episcopo eligendo potestatem definivit. Episco-
" patum tamen Rogero non rit6 electo contulit, ek
" le<*e, ut Praebenda ejus Sarisburiensis nepoti suo
" concederetur.* Consecratus est Rogerus apud
" Radingam 1244, 11 Sept. Ex Registr. Weil, et
" Cant, et Annal Teokesbir. Obiit 1247, 21 Dec.
"juxia Annales Brutonenses, 1248 circa Festum S.
" Hilarii juxta Parisium, Florilegum, et Johannem
" Walingford, Hinc ipso S. Hilarii die Rogerum
" obiisse Godwinus temere posuit. Annales forsitan
" Bruton. diem i2, Cal. Jan. pro 12 Jan. corrupte
" substituerunt."
From Godwin, (p. 366) : —
" Notwithstanding the composition lately made by
" Bishop Robert, for the order of election, the Monks
" of Bath, refusing to join with the chapter of Welles,
" elected of themselves one Roger, the Chaunter of
" Salisbury, for Bishop, who, (for that a kinsman of
'• the Pope had the advowson of his living,) obtained
" easily consecration by the Pope's means, Sept. 1 !_,
" 1244. After a long suit in law between the two
" churches for the righting of this wrong, the end was,
" that Wells men must put up the wrong, and they of
" Bath yield assurance of performing the composition
" for the time to come, which was done accordingly.
" The Bishop, by whose means this accord was made,
" not living long after, departed this life Jan. 13, 1247,
" having sat not past four months above three years.
" He only, of all the Bishops of this Church, for the
" space of almost six hundred years, died within the
* See back to our page 129.

WILLIAM BUCTON I. 133
" compass of six years after his ¦¦ coming hither, which,
" in so long space, hath yet never happened to auy
" other. He is the last of our Bishops that was buried
" at Bath."
Richardson (p. 372) adds : —
"" Capitulum Wellense licentiam habet eligendi
" sibi Episcopum 12 Mar. 2 Pat. 27 et28 Hen. III.
" m. 14, 21. Interea vero electus est Rogerus circa
" Feb. initium cui Rex restituit Temporalia 1243, 10
" Maii. Pat. 28 Hen. III. m. 6. A.D. 1243, circa
" purificationem confirmata fuit electio Rogeri in
" Episcopum Bathon. per D. Papam. Anno 1244,
" consecratus fuit apud Rading de Dominica post
" Natale B. Mariae. Ita author MS. inter tus Chro-
" nographus in Libr. suo de Statu et Anliq.. Canobii
" Glaston, qui floruit A.D. 1259, M.S. Wood."
He died " circa Fostum S. Hilarii 1247. Anno
exeunte,"* January 13, and was buried at Bath.f

XXIII. WILLIAM BUCTON, I.
Died A.D. 1264.
This Prelate, also called Button, and Bitton, had been
Archdeacon of Wells in 1 243, and was elected to the See
by the Monks and Canons, conjointly, bung consecrated
at Rome, July, 14, 1247-8. The royal assent was given
May 4, 1248. By Henry III, he seems to have been

"Matthew of Westminster and Matthew Paris.
t See Prynn's King John, p. 101. Le Neve's Fasti, p. 32. Godwin,
p. 367.

134 WILLIAM BUCTON I.
valued for his diplomatic abilities, having been employed
by him in 1253, to negociate a match between Eleanor,
daughter of Ferdinand, King of Spain, and Edward,
Prince of Wales, in which affair he was successful.* •
We, before noticed, the allotments made to the Canons,
of portions of profit resulting during the vacancies of
preferments. This occasioned disputes between Bucton
and the Canons, the former wishing to revoke those
grants. The Bishop, however, ceded his claims, and the
parties were reconciled by the mediation of the Metro- '
politan.f In the forty-first of Henry III. lie obtained from the
crown, a charter of free-warren, for his manor of Wells.
Bishop Button is accused of nepotism, or a fondness
for providing for his nephews and relatives. That many
of his name possessed good preferment about this time
there is no doubt, but that he provided for them all, is
another question, and still a further question, whether
their relationship was their chief, or only, merit. To
provide for relatives is natural, but it looks not well, to see
a Cathedral or diocese stocked with relatives and family
connections, while men of orthodoxy, learning, and zeal
for the ecclesiastical establishment, are left to pine
unnoticed in obscure Curacies. William Button, his
brother's son, after Bishop of this diocese, was Archdeacon
of Wells; Richard Button, Precentor ; Nicholas Button,
our Bishop's brother, Treasurer; John Button, anotlier
brother, Provost of Coombe and Parson of Ashbury ; and

* See Rymer, Faidera. vol. i. p. 491.
t Metropolitans were so called, because, at first they were consecrated
in the metropolis of the Province.

WILLIAM BUCTON I. 135
he was succeeded by a Thomas Button. There was
also a Thomas Button, but whether the same or not, is
uncertain, who succeeded the above William, in the
Archdeaconry, and afterwards became Bishop of Exeter.
He died April 3, 1264-3, and was buried in the middle of
the Chapel ofthe Virgin Mary, in Wells Cathedral.*
The following is furnished by the Canon of Wells, in
the Anglia Sacra, pars, I . p. 565 : —
" Willelmus Bytton primus, vii Bathoniensis Epis-
"copus, successit. Hie voluit abstulisse a dictis
" Decano et Capitulo donationes per dictum Rogerum
" concessas : ipsosque longo tempore impedivit de
" possessione Ecclesiae de Congresberye, quam bonae
"memoriae Jocelinus praedecessor suus appropriavit ad
" augmentum coinmunae Canonicorum Welliae resi-
" dentium, cum vacaret post mortem Rectoris ejusdem.
" Unde dicti Decauus et Capitulum ad Curiam
" Romanam direct^ et tuetorie Cantuariensem Arch-
" iepiscopum appell&runt : qui post paucas expensas
" hinc inde effusas pacem fecit inter partes. Et inde
"idem Episcopus Ecclesiam de Congresberye mensae
" Capitulari de novo univit ; et extunc illi et eorum
" successores praefatus Ecclesiam et donationes eis prius
" concessas, ut pra?dicatur, possederunt pacifice et
"quiet£. Iste convocatft Cleri sui Synodo speciali
" edidit Coustitutiones in Bathoniensi Diocesi obser-
. " vandas quas Synodales appellant. Et cum sedisset
" annis xvii obiit, et Welliae in noviiL CapeM B. Maria;
" Virginis tumulatur."
* See the Preface to Adam de Domerham's History, p. 27, and Cart.
11. Henry iii. m. 5.

136 WILLIAM BUCTON I.
From Wharton's notes :
" Willelmus Button, Archidiaconus Wellensis et
" Rector Ecclesias de Sony, electus est sub initium
" anni 1248. Consecratus in Curia Romana eodem
"anno in Octavis Pentecostes, viz die 14 Junii, in
"Angliam anno sequenti rediit. Anno 1253 ab
" Henrico Rege ad Ferdinandum Hispaniae Regem
" legatus, Alianoram Hispani filiam Edwardo Angli
" filio primogenito nuptum dari impetravit. Anno
" 1256 Dominica 2. Adventus Domini, professionem
" obedieutiae, apud Otteford praestitit Bonifacio Archi-
" episcopo, quem post susceptum Episcopatum tunc
" primum vidit. Anno 1263 Ecclesiam B. Mariae de
" Stall Monachis Bathoniensibus appropriavit. Obiit
" 1264, 3 April. Ex Historia Glaston. Matthao
"Paris, liotula 5. Profess, autogr. Registris
" Cant, and Well. & Annalibus Bruton."
From Godwin, p. 367 :
" The Convent of Bath, according to their promise,
" now at last joining with the chapter of Wells, William
" Button, first Sub-Dean and then Archdeacon of
" Wells, was, with one consent, elected. This man
" had much to do with the Monks of Glastonbury,
" concerning those lands, which by composition, they
" had yielded to the See of Wells ; and although the
" Bishop had sustained great charge in divers of the
" King's services, namely, and especially, in travelling
" into the furthermost parts of Spain about his affairs,
"yet he favoured altogether the part ofthe Monks, and
"gave them his uttermost assistance in their suits.
'* They were ended at last by the Bishop's death, who
" deceased in the beginning of the year 1264, having

WILLIAM BUCTON I. 137
" first possessed his brethren and kinsfolks, of all the
¦ " principal plates in our Church of Wells. For, I find,
"about this time, there was another William Button,
" his brother's son, Archdeacon of Wells, and after
"Bishop; one Richard Button, C haunter; Nicholas
" Button, a brother of the Bishop, Treasurer ; John
" Button, another brother of his, Provost of Coomb,
" and Parson of Asbery ; after whose death, one
" Thomas Button succeeded to the Provostship, and
" that one Thomas Button, (whether the same man or
"not, I cannot tell,) was first Archdeacon after
" William Button aforesaid, then Deane of Wells, and
"lastly, the year 1292, Bishop of Exeter. This
" Thomas Button it was, that, for the soul of this
" William Button, our Bishop, gave to our Church the
" bell, commonly called, the sermon bell, as, in a French
" inscription upon the same bell, is yet to be seen.
" He lieth buried in the middle of our Lady Chapel,
" under a marble tomb."
¦ Tomb. — " It has been already slated," says Mr.
Britton,* in whose account of the Cathedrals one
hardly knows which to admire most, the elegance of the
plates, or the judgment displayed in the literary com
position, " that Bishop Bicton, the first of that name,
(ob. 1264,) was interred in the Lady's Chapel ;" and
Bishop Godwin says, " he lieth buried in the middle" of
that chapel, " under a marble tomb." Leland says,
" Guil. Bitton primus Episcopus," &c. " jacet cum
imagine aerea in capella D Mariae ad orientalem partem

Wells Cathed. p. 106.
T

138 WILLIAM BUCTON I.
ecclesia; de Welles."* From this honorable place of
sepulture, it may be inferred, that Bitton had been chiefly
concerned in the erection of the Lady Chapel ; but there
is no documentary evidence to substantiate the fact.
His tomb has been since removed, but to what part is
questionable. Had not Leland stated his image to have
been of brass, we might have conceived his tomb to be
now standing near the wall, on the north side of St.
Catherine's chapel ; which, with the opposite chapel of
St. John the Evangelist, forms a kind of lesser transept to
this Cathedral. Each side of the tomb is divided by
small graduated buttresses, into six compartments,
displaying as many trefoil-headed ogee arches, terminating
in imials ; and at each end is a similar arch ; in every
spandril is a shield of arms. On a Purbeck slab, covering
the tomb, is a recumbent effigy of the Bishop much
mutilated ; the hands being broken off, crozier destroyed,
&c. ; his head rests on a cushion), diapered ; and his feet
against a lion. The drapery is apparently thin ; but the
¦folds are disposed in a broad and simple style. The
whole figure has been painted in colours, as was customary
in former times. "f

* Itiner. vol. iii. p. 108.
f This tomb is represented in Plate XVII, on the right ofthe print, it»
Brittun's Hist, of Wells Cathcdi.il.

WALTER GIFFARD. 139
XXIV. WALTER GIFFARD,
Succeeded A.D. 1264. — Translated- to York A.D.
1266.— Died A.D. 1279.
Giffard, who had been Canon of Wells and Chaplain
to the Pope, was elected* May 22, 1 264, and was conse
crated, in the absence of Archbishop Boniface, by Peter
de Aqua blanca, Bishop of Hereford, and not of Paris,
as others erroneously say ; that Peter de Aqua blanca,
Bishop of Hereford, was the person who consecrated
him, and not the Bishop of Paris, we may infer from the
register of Bishop Equeblank, preserved among the
registers of the Archbishop of York. In the same year,
or in 1265, Bishop Giffard occurs Chancellor of England,
and Oct. 15, 1265-6, he was translated to York.f He
died April 25, 1279, and was buried in York Cathedral.
From the Canon of Wells : —
" Walterus Gjffarde IX. Bathoniensis Episcopus
" successit. Hie fuit Thesauriarius Angliae. Et cum
" sedisset in Episcopate annos ii, translates fuit ad Epis-
" copatum Dunelmensem."J [read Lboracensern.]
From Wharton : —
" Defuncto Willelmo, Capitula licentiam eligendi a
Rege petierunt 1264, 9 Apr.- — Die 22 Mail conveni-

<i

* ' Elect,' says Dugdale. ' but not consecrated, December 14, 1264.'
t On 21 December, 1265, he writes thus to the Prior and Convent of
Bath:—" Walterus Uyffard Ebor, &c. Vobis denunciamus nos tessisse, et
curam. Ebor. Eccles. reeipisse." See the Cartulary of Bath, in the
Library of Lincoln's Inn, p, 96.
t Barhara is a mistake. It was to York he was trantlated.— &M
Bsgdaje, Chron, Series, p. ?0, &f,

140 WALTER GIFFARD.
" entibus in ecclesia Wellensi quatuor ex singulis
" Capitulis Bathon et Wellen. electus est Walterus
" Giffard, Canonicus Wellensis, Subdiaconus et Cap-
" pellanus Papae. (Registr. Eccl. Well.) Consecratum
" fuisse a Parisiensi Episcopo in absentia Bonifacii
" Archiepiscopi Godwinus narrat : qui id a Jocelino
" accepit, quamvis, pro more, authorem non laudat.
, " Err&sse autem Jocelinum constat ex professione
" autographa inter consecrandum lecta ; in cujus tergo
" adnotatur ipsum a Petro Episcopo Herefordensi
" vice Bonifacii consecratum esse. Anno 1265, 10
" Augusti. Walterus summus Anglias Cancellarius
" renunciatus est data sibi pensione 500 librarum
" quotannis percipienda. Eboracum translatus est
"Oct. 15, 1266."
Under York, Bishop Godwin, p. 595, thus speaks : —
" After the death of Archbishop Godfrey, William
" de Langton, Dean of York, was elected to succeed
" hnn. But the Pope, for what cause I know not,
" rejected him, and translated Walter Giffard from
" Bath and Wells to York. He was [he means 'had
" been,'] the Pope's Chaplain and Canon of Wells ;
" first Treasurer, then Chancellor of England ; elected
" to Bath, May 22, 1264, whence he was removed
" Oct. 15, 1265-6, having continued there only two
"years. He lived at York 13 years, departed this
" life April 25, 1279, and lieth buried in St. Peter's
" Church."
From Willis's Cathedrals, vol. i. p. 37 : —
" Walter Giffard, Treasurer and Chancellorof England,
" first Canon, and then Bishop of Bath and Wells,
" whence he was translated to York, Oct. 15, 1265.

WILLIAM BUCTON II. 141
" He was enthroned Nov. 1, and had the temporalties
" restored Dec. 26 following. He died April 27 or
"29, and was buried in the east part ofthe Cathedral,
" behind the high altar, under a plain stone, which
" according to Leland, had this date on it: —
"Walter ©Mart, obiit 7 Hal. Pair 1277." [i.e.
April 25.]
"He had been Chaplain to the Pope, and wasj by
" him, translated to York."*

XXV. WILLIAM BUCTON II,
Succeeded A.D. 1267.— Died A.D. 1274.
This Bishop Bucton, or Bytton, was nephew of the
former Prelate of the name, and is said to have been also
related to Bishop Gyffard. He was elected February
10, 1267, to the Bishopric, from the Deanery, others say,
Archdeaconry. The temporalties' were restored March 4.
It is remarkable, that there had been three Archdeacons
of Wells successively, all of the same names : the first, in
1244, who became Bishop in 1248; succeeded in the
Archdeaconry, by his nephew William, Bishop in 1267 ;
and the third, who also, in 1270, became Canon of
York. This Prelate gave to the Chapter of Wells, in 1271,
the Church of Stogumber, (Stoke-Gomer, 12 miles N. W.
of Taunton,) on condition that a yearly stipend of 50s.

• Matthew Paris.— See also Pat. 51. H. 3. m. 32. M. S. Cotton. Vitel-
lius A. 2. Godw. Stubb's Coll. 1726. Wike's Chron. and Petrus Icliham,
who all differ as to the day of the month.

142 WILLIAM BUCTON II.
should be paid to a Chaplain for the daily celebration of
mass for his soul. He is also recorded as having given
Bicknoller, (near Stoke-Gomer,) to the Church of
Wells. Matthew Paris informs us that so great was the
fame of his piety, that Robert Kilwardby selected him, in
preference to any one else, to consecrate him Archbishop
of Canterbury, in 1272; and his tomb was visited long
after the Reformation, even till near Bishop Godwin's
time, by the superstitious, especially by those who had
the tooth-ache, but with what effect the reader must
judge. He died December 4, 1274,* and was buried
without the north side of the choir of Wells Cathedral,
under a marble slab, sculptured, with a Prelate in
pontificalibus.f He made some good statutes for the regulation of
Chapter business.
" Willelmus Bytton secundus, X Episcopus Batho-
" niensis ; cum esset Decanus Bathoniensis, successit
" Waltero Gyffardo, et sedit VII annis, et in Australi
" parte Chori Wellensis quiescit ; ubi ad praiseus
" multis fnlget miraculis," as the Canonicus Wellensis
would have us believe.
" Willelmus de Buttone," (adds Wharton,) "Willel-
" mi Episcopi cognominis nepos, et Walteri Giffard
" consanguineus, electus est 12t>7, 10 Feb. et tempo*
" ralia a Rege accepit die 4 Martii, Archidiaconum
" Wellensem fuisse Matthaeus Paris testatur : ut ties

• Certainly before December 25. Fin. 3. Ed. I. m. 37.
t '« He was buried between two pillars on the south side ofthe choir."
— Collinson's Hist. Som, vol. iii. p. 382.

WILLIAM BUCTON II. 143
" ejusdem nominis in hoc Archidiacouatu successerint.
" Willelmum enim de Button Archidiaconum Wellen-
" sem anno 1244 Registrum Wellense memorat. Iste
" Episcopatum anno 1248 assecutus, Archidiaconatum
" tradidit nepoti ipsius Willelmo, qui Episcopatum
" 1267 obtinuit. Denique in Registro Walteri
" Giffard Arohiepiscopi Eboracensis reperio Willel-
" mum Button Archidiaconum Wellensem, Ecclesiae
" Eboracensis Canonicum esse factum 1270, l6 0ctobr.
" Dedit ille Capitulo Wellensi Ecclesiam de Stoke-
" gumber 1271, 2 Oct. tk conditions ut 50 solidos
" Capellano pro annua ipsius quotidie celebraturo, et
" totidem pro anniversario ejusdem, annuatim solverent.
" Obiit 1274, Dec. 4, frequenti plebis vicinae cultu
" post obitum celebrates. Inoleverat enim opinio de
'•' eximia ipsius sanclitate ; quae, ipso vivente, famam
" adeo praeclaram meruerat, ut ab illo potissimum
" Robertus Cant. Archiepiscopus anno 1273 consecrari
" voluerit, is hoc argumento motus, qudd fam& sancti-
" tatis inter caeteros multem efflorebat, referente
" Matthaei Paris Continuatore p. 108,"
From Godwin : —
" 25. William Button, Archdeacon of Wells, and
" nephew to the former William Button, obtained this
" Bishopric in the year 1267, and was restored to the
"temporalties ofthe same, March 4. [Hen. III. 51.]
" A man so greatly accounted for his holiness, (saith
" Matthew Paris,) as when Robert Kilwardby, Arch-
" bishop of Canterbury, had licence of the Pope to
" take consecration of the hand of any Catholic Bishop,
"he made choice of him, only in respect of his holiness.
" He made many good statutes, by which our Church

144 WILLIAM BUCTON II.
" is yet governed; amongst other things, he ordained
" four general chapter days in the year, at which only
" times, such things should be ordered as might* " pati
"moram." It were greatly to be wished, that all other
" Churches were to observe the same order. He de-
" ceased in the month of November, 1 274. Many super-
" stitious people, especially such as were troubled with
" the tooth-ache, were wont, even of late years, to
" frequent much the place of his burial, being without
" the north side of the choir, where we see a marble
" stone, having a pontifical image graven upon it. He
" gave unto our Church the manor of Bicknoller."
Tomb. — " The monument of Bitton, the 2nd. is situate
at the back of the choir, between the 2nd. and 3rd.
columns from the west. It merely consists of a coffin-
shaped marble slab, on which is an engraved episcopal
figure in pontificalibus ; the right hand is in the act of
giving the benediction ; small angels, with censers, are
depicted in the spandrils. Leland, in describing the
figures in the south aisle of the choir, says, " Quartus est
Gulielmi Bytton, qui obiit Nov. 1274. 2. E. I. quem
vulgus nuperpro sancto coluit." Godwin also assigns
this figure to the same Prelate ; and particularly mentions
the long continued resort of the superstitious to his tomb,
for the cure of the tooth-ache."f
* " As might pati moram," is neither English nor Latin: it is non
sense : it is not English idiom, to say, " such things as might to suffer
delay." The Bishop should have put possent for ' might.' But neither
does the sentence, I apprehend, convey the writer's own meaning. I
submit, that what he designed to convey, was something of this kind—
'' ordinavit, momenti nihil, quod moram pati posset, in Capitulo
constituendum nisi quatuor stati» diebus."
t Britton's Hist. Wells Cathed. p. 107.

ROBERT BURNELL. U5
'XXVI. ROBERT BURNELL,
Succeeded A.D. 1275. — Died A.D. 1292.
This Prelate, said to be of the baronial family of
Burnell, had been Archdeacon of the West-Riding of
York, between 1267 and 1271.* Canon of Wells;
Pebendary of York in 1267 ;t Prebendary of Preston, in
the Cathedral of Hereford ;$ and from that dignity, says
Willis, was made Bishop of Wells.
He was elected to the See of Bath and Wells, Feb.
23, 1275, and consecrated by Robert Kilwardby, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, April 7. Tn the preceding year
he had been constituted Chancellor of § England and so
continued till his death. The statement that he was also
Treasurer of England is incorrect. The seals only,
and not the staff, appertained to him.
The family of Burnell attained the honor of the peerage
in 1311 ; when Edward Burnell, a baron, by writ was
summoned to parliament, from December 19, 5. Edw.
III. 131 1, to October 24, 8 Edw. II. The baron died
1315, s. p. when the baronage became extinct. Maud,
the baron's sister and heir, married, first, John Lovel,
and secondly, John de Handlo, which John de Handlo,
was summoned to parliament 16 Edw. III. The baron
age is now in abeyance. ||

• Willis. Cathedr. vol. i. p. 92. t lb. p. 141. J lb. p. 591.
§ Libera. 2 E. I. m. 4. Pat. 2 E. I. m. 8. Claus. 2 E. I. m. 1.
i
|| See Nicolas's Synopsis, vol. i. p. 98.
U

146 ROBERT BURNELL.
Godwin must make some strange mistake, which
Fuller,* and after him Collinson, without taking the
trouble of examination, have handed on,f when he says,
that the Bishop was "son of Robert, brother of Hugh,
Barons of Burnell." Now, the Bishop died in 1292,
and the first peer had not summons till 1311, whose
name was, as we have seen, Edward. There was no
Robert, Baron Burnell ; and the Hugh, who was Baron,
was not summoned to parliament till 1383, 7 Ric. II,
when our Bishop had been dead nearly a century. • The
Bishop might have been uncle of the first peer, whose
sister, Maud, was his heir.
He appears to have been a potent and princely Prelate.
The high offices he held greatly enriched him, and
enabled him to gratify his architectural taste. Among
other edifices erected by him, was that once magnificent
hall, some of the walls of which are yet standing, at Wells
Palace, on the west; this noble apartment was sacrilege
ously destroyed by Sir John Gates, in the reign of Edw.
VI. who, soon after, deservedly lost his head in an
insurrection against the government.
The Bishop, who was a man of distinguished abilities,
was of the privy-council throughout the whole of that
portion of Edw. I's reign, in which he lived, that is till
1292, (the period of his decease,) and was much employed
by that monarch in his Welch affairs. He held the Lord
Chancellor's court, for a time, at Bristol, for the conve
nience of attending to the affairs at Wales, at the same
time ; and for the same reason, some suppose, that the
-"  ,  __________________________— ________!— _-— —
* Vide infra. f Hist. Somerset \ vol. iii. p. 382.

ROBERT BURNELL. 147
Castle of Acton-Burnel,* in Shropshire, was built by
him. In 1 286, he seems to have accompanied the King
to France, taking, and retaining with him, the great seal,
till his return in 1289.
, After having sat Bishop about 1 8 years, he died at
Berwick-on-Tweed, October 25, 1292-3. His body
Mas conveyed to Wells and there buried, November 23,
in the middle of the nave of the Cathedral. He is
commemorated among the Cambridge benefactors.
After Archbishop Kilwardby became a Cardinal, Bur
nell was elected by the Monks to the See of Canterbury,
but the election was rejected and set aside by the Pope,
in favor of Peckham.f He relinquished to the King the
patronage of Glastonbury Abbey, obtaining certain
privileges in lieu thereof for the City of Bath.
The following brief nptice of him occurs in the History
by thp Canon of Wells : —
"Robertus Bunnell, Thesaurarius Angliae, XI Batho-
"niensis et Wellensis Episcopus, successit annis xviii,
"qt Wellisi in navi Ecclesias solenni tumb& sepultus
" est. Hie Episcopatum multis franchesiis et libertati-

* Lawyers are well acquainted with the " Statute of Acton-Burnel," —
this is the statute-merchant, t f 2 Ed. I. anno 1288, (amended by 13 Ed. I.)
This statute was made at the Castle of Acton-Burnel. See Cowel. and
Vermes de la Leye. Statute-Merchant, is a bond of record, acknowledged
bpipre the Clerk of the statutes-merchant and Lord Mayor of the City of
Loudon, or two merchants assigned for that purpose. Estates by statute*
merchant, are classed among estates defeasible, on condition, subsequent,
and are nearly allied to the vhwm vadium. The statute-merchant is a
security for money entered into betore the chief magistrate of psue
trading town. t See Le Neve Fasti, p. 5.

148 ROBERT BURNELL.
"bus ornavit; parentelam suam multum ditavit et ipsos
"magnis houoribus exaltavit. Idem aulam Episcopa-
" lem Welliae sumptibus suis fieri fecit ; et bona per
" ipsum et praedecessores suos Ecclesiae Wellensi
"appropriata chartis regiis et munimentis roborari
"procuravit." "Licentft eligendi 1274. 13. Dec. postulate septem
" ex utroque Capitulo designati in Ecclesia Wellensi
" 1275. 23. Feb. coeuntes elegerunt Robertum Bur-
" oell, Canonicum Wellensem et Archidiaconum Ebor-
" acensem ; Electionem Rex confirmavit die 3 Feb,
" Electum Archiepiscopis consecravit in Ecclesia de
"Merton 1275. 7 April, quamvis Annales Wigorn
" Londini consecratum perhibeant. Cancellarius
" Anglias creates fuerat 1274. 21 Sept. idque munus
" usque ad obitum adininistravit. Thesaurarium fuisse
"neutiquam reperio. . Sub inilium pontificals sui
" pationatum Monasterii Glaston. Regi remisit,
" accept^, loco ejus, civitate Bathoniensi, seu potius
" possessione civitatis uberioribus privileges aucta.
" Urbs enim jam diu pen£s Episcopos fuerat. Tunc
" etiam Episcopus et abbas Glaston, jus suum in
" plurimis maneriis et ecclesiis invicem remiserunt,
"chirographo 1275. 3. Apr. confecto. Ecclesias de
" Jevelton, Burnham, Stanton Dru, et Coleworth
" Ecclesiae Wellensi adquisivit.* Medio anno 1278
"jiost Robertum Kilwarby ad Cardinalatum S. R. E.
"translatum, Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis a monachis
" canonice electus est. Electi causam Rex Nicolao
" Papaj impense commendavit Uteris datis 1278, Jul.
* Ex Kegistro Ecclesiae Well.

ROBERT BURNELL. 149

it

10 ; aliisque ad Robertum dignitatem oblatam
" detractentem 1278, Aug. 11 scriptis ipsum enixe
" rogat, ut electioni de se facta? consentiat. Pariiit
" Robertus, missisque ad Curriam Romanam nunciis
" electionem confirmari petiit incassilm autem. Papa
" enim spreta electione, Archiepiscopatum Johanni
" Peckham contulit. Assiduam Regi operam Rober-
" tus in rebus Angliae, Walliae, Franciae et Scotite
" gerendis praestitit. Anno 1286. 13 Maii cum Rege
"in Franciam transfretavit ; et cum eodem in Angliam
" rediit 1289. 12. Aug. Obiit in Comitatu regio apud
" Berwicum in confiniis Scotiae 1292. 25. Oct. apud
" Welliam sepultus die 23 Nov.* Inter benefactores
" Academiae Cantabrigiensis idem commemoratur.""t-
Godwin says, J without, however, either proof, or
particularizing any individuals, — " His principal one
was to enrich his brethren and kindred, whom he greatly
advanced." But non'constat.
From Fuller's Worthies, vol. ii. p. 256: —
" Robert Burnel, was son to Robert, and -brother
" to Hugh, Lord Burnel,§ whose prime seat was at
" Acton-Burnel Castle, in this county. He was, by
" King Edward the First, preferred Bishop of Bath
" and Wells ; and first Treasurer, then Chancelour of
" England. He was well vers'd in the Welsh affairs,
" and much us'd in managing them ; and, that he
" might the more effectually attend such employment,
* Ex Regist. Cant. Rotulis Cancellariae, Annalibus Bruton et Wigorn.
t Wharton. Ang. Sac. i. p. 567. I Engl. edit. 1615. p. 369.
§ This is a gross genealogical and chronological error. Vide pp.
145-6, supra.— Edit.

15Q WILLIAM MARSH.
" caused the Court of Chancery to be kept at Bristol*
" He got great wealth, wherewith he enriched his
" kindred, and is supposed to have re-built the decayed
" Castle of Acton-Burnel, on his own expence.
" And, to decline envy for his secular structures left
" to his heirs, he built for his successors the beautiful
" hall at Wells, the biggest room of any Bishop's
" Palace in England, pluck'd down by Sir John
" Gates, (afterwards executed for treason,) in the
" reign of King Edward the Sixth.
" English and Welch affaires being settled to the
" King's contentment, he employed Bishop Burnel in
" some businesse about Scotland, in the Marches
" whereof he died, anno domini 1292; and his body,
" solemnly brought many miles, was buried in his own
" Cathedral."

XXVII. WILLIAM MARSH or DE MARCHIA,
Succeeded A. D. 1293. — Died A.D. 1302.
This Prelate, who had been a Canon of Wells before
he was Bishop, was Treasurer of England from 1 290 to
1295,t being highly esteemed by Edward I. His
election to this See took place January 30, 1293 ; his
consecration May 17. Elsewhere, it appears that he was
elected on the Friday after the feast of the conversion of

* Camden's Britannia in Salop.
t Matth. Westminster. Constitutus Thesaurarius eodem modo quo
Joannes quondam Eliensis Episcopus. Pat. 18. Edw. I. in. 33.

WILLIAM MARSH. 151
St.' Paul, 1292 ; had the royal assent March 1 ; the
temporalties restored the 19th of the same month; and
was consecrated on Whit-Sunday, 1293.*
From King Edward I. this Prelate obtained a grant
of two fairs for the lordship of Bath ; one to be held in
the Barton, or the Ham, the other at Lyncombe.f
He sat ten years, and dying June 1 1, 1302, was buried
at Wells, in the south transept, between the door of the
cloister and St. Martin's altar. The chapter-house was
built in his prelacy, by contribution. An unsuccessful
attempt was made to canonize him, but " in fatis non
erat." It is alleged, that miracles were wrought at his
tomb !
" Willelmus de Marchia, Thesaurarius Scaccarii
Anglia?, XII. Bathoniensis Episcopus, sedit annis X
et in Ecclesia Wellensi ex parte australi in muro inter
ostium Claustri et altare S. Martini sepelitur. Ad
cujus tumbam olim multa praeclara fiebant miracula."|
Wharton, in the note to the Canon, observes : —
" Willelmus de la March, Clericus Regis, The-
" saurarius Angliae anno 1290 constitutes, officio
" isto amotus est medio anno 1295. Interea tem-
" poris ad Episcopatum Bathon. et Wellen. (Canonicus
" tunc Wellensis) in Capitulo Bathoniensi electus 1293,
"Jan. 30, confirmatus est a Rege die 1. Martii,
" Capitulo Cantuariensi (Archiepiscopatu vacante)
" die 12. Martii ; et consecratus in Ecclesia Cant.

* Reg. Cant. Pat. 21. Edw. I. and Le Neve Fasti, p. 32.
t Pat 32. Edw. I. Collinson's Hist. Somerset, vol. iii. p. 382.
t Canonicus Well. Ang. Sac. i. 567.

152 WILLIAM MARSH.
" per Ricardum Episcopum London, die Pentecostes,
" sc. die 17 Maii, sic Registra Cant, et Well, et
" Annales Bruton et Wigorn tradunt. Die Jovis in
" septimana Pentecostes Annales Londinenses con-
" secratum dicunt, errore manifesto. Obiit Willelmus
" 1302, 11 Junii, relicta haud vulgari sanctitatis
" fama. Annis enim 1324 et 1325 Capitulum Wel-
" lense Procuratores suos ad Papam legavit ad
" petendam illius Canonizationem. Idem et Episcopi
" Anglia: universi postularunt litera data 1325, 4 Dec.
" idem et Edwardus Rex. Transmisit insuper Capi-
" tulum amplam miraculorum, quae ab illo post mortem
" patrata dicebantur, relationem. Nil tamen im-
" petratum reperio. In fatis enim non erat, ut
, " Willelmus hanctorum albo inferretur."
" The same year that Burnell died," says Bishop
" Godwin, " William de Marchia, then Treasurer of
" England, succeeded, and was restored to the tem-
'* poralties of this See, March 19, Edw. I. 21. I have
" seen amongst the records of our Church of Wells,
" the copies of divers letters unto the Pope and Car-
" dinals, from the King, from divers of the nobility
" and the clergy of that Church, commending this
" man so for his holiness, testified, as they write,
" by many miracles ; as they entreated very earnestly
" for his canonization. I marvel much at it; for
" Matthew of Westminster and Polydore Virgil com-
" plain grievously of him, as the author of a heinous
" sacrilege, in causing the King to spoil all the churches
" and monasteries in England of such plate and
" money as lay hoarded up in them, for the payment of
" his soldiers. It was Edward I. a prince that wanted

WILLIAM MARSH. 153
, " neither wit to devise nor courage to execute such
, " an exploit, and to lay the fault upon another at
" last.* Yet, likely enough it is, that such a fault
" stamped upon him, (how undeservedly soever) might
. " bar him out of the Pope's calendar, who, otherwise,
" was not wont to be over dainty in affording that kind
" of honour, where feesf might be readily paid for it.
" He sat ten years, and lieth entombed in the south
" wall near the cloister door. In this man's time, the
" chapter-house was built, by the contribution of well-
" disposed people, — a stately and sumptuous work."
Tomb. — " Bishop Will, de Marchia," says Mr. Britton,
(Hist. Wells Cath. p. 107.) " who died in June, 1302,
was buried in the south transept, where his effigy lies on
a low pedestal, beneath a recessed arch in the south wall.

* This sentence is nonsense. Herein we have a subject and no
predicate. What was it that Edward I. did ? The Bishop has not told
us : for all that follows Edward I. is, in fact, in parenthesis. We must
understand him as saying, " Edward I. was a prince that wanted neither
wit to devise," x.t.A.. The predication, in respect to the word in
apposition, " a prince," prevents not the hiatus or ellipsis, which occurs
at the end ofthe sentence, of which, "Edward I." was the nominative
or subject,
t Nothing can be more uncandid than these vituperations of persons
unable to meet the charge. That Popes may have been venal as to
indulgences, is one thing, — such venality is a diversion of a divinely granted
spiritual power — (the power of the Keys, which our reformed Church
also possesses,) into a temporal source ; but to say, that a Pope or the
Church ever sold or received a bribe for canonization, is to assert what
never can be proved. We may imagine Popes capable of such things ;
and, "we are not ignorant of their devices," — but a suspicion of guilt,
however strong, warrants not a specific charge of it. When will party-
spirit learn moderation and candour? w

154 WALTER HASELSHAW.
His head rests on a double cushion, supported by angels;
and at his feet is a cropped-eared dog ; his hand is raised,
as blessing ; and his left holds a crozier. On the wall,
above his head, is the mask of a man, boldly sculptured,
with curled hair, beard and mustachios ; probably (says Mr.
Britton) intended for the Saviour; a female head, with
similar hair, probably of the Virgin, is inserted in the wall
at his feet. Ornamented groins and tracery spread over the
soffiteof the arch ; and at the back, on brackets of foliage,
are three figures, now headless and otherwise mutilated ;
two of which represent angels, and the third a female. On
the face of the pedestal, under the verge of the tomb, are
six masks of different characters and aspect ; four of them
appear old and are bearded ; one represents a young
man, and another, a nun. The front of the monument is
formed, by open screen work, in three compartments,
separated by graduated buttresses, which stand on a plain
projecting basement. Each buttress is enriched with
pinnacles, &c. and between them rise three pointed arches,
having pendent tracery, and pyramidical heads adorned
with crockets and finials, composed of rich foliage."

WALTER HASELSHAW,
Succeeded A.D. 1302. — Died A.D. 1308.
Walter Haselshaw, or Hestelshagh, successively Canon,
Archdeacon, and Dean of Wells, was next elected to the
See, August 7, 1302. Leave of electing, was given
June 29,* the election took place August 7 ; the royal
* Pat. 30. E. I.m. 9.

WALTER HASELSHAW. 153
assent was procured August 31 ; temporalties restored
September 12 ; his consecration took place November 4,
at Canterbury.* He was enthroned on Christmas-day,
1302, at Wells, and at Bath the following Epiphany.
Hence, it is evident, that the Church of Wells, had, at
that period, obtained precedence of Bath. Bishop
Godwin says, he sat 9 years, (an error into which
Collinson also has fallen, by neglecting to compare
dates,) but that, by his own shewing, is impossible ; he
was dead in 1308, and he places his successor, Drokens-
ford, in 1309. He died, 3 Id. December, 1308, and
was buried at Wells on the Sunday following, (18 Kal.
Jan.) having sat six years. He made, both while Dean
and Bishop, some good statutes for the Church, " quibus
etiamnum hodie regimur," says the author of the MS. in
Trin. Coll.
He is but very briefly recorded by the Canon : —
" Walterus Haselshawe XI II. Bathoniensis Epis-
" copus, sedit vii annis ; et Welliae sepelitur in navi
" Ecclesiae juxta altare ubi prima Missa matutinalis
¦" indies celebratur."
" Walterus de Haselshawe, Canonicus, Archidiaconus
et Decanus ordine Wellensis, ad Episcopatum electus
1302, 7 Aug. ab Archiepiscopo confirmatus est die 11
Sept. A Rege ad temporalia admissus die 12 Sept. ab
Aichiepiscopo apud Cantuariam consecratus die 4 Nov.
intronizatus apud Welliam die Matalis Domini, apud
Bathoniam die Epipbania? sequentis. Die 28 Oct.
Annales Wigorn consecratum produnt. Diem autem 4
Nov. exhibent biua Ecclesiae Cant. Registra, Registrum
* Registr. Cant. Eccl.

156 JOHN DROKENSFORD.
Winchelse, et Annales Bruton. Obiit 1308, 11 Dec.
Apud Welliam sepultus die 15 Dec. fide Annalium
Bruton."* Tomb.—" He lieth buried under a huge marble, in
the body of the Church, [Wells Cathedral,] toward the
north, almost over against the pulpit, "t near Bubwith's
chapel. " Bishop Haselshawe, who died in 1308," says Mr.
Britton, J " was buried in the nave, beneath a large slab,.
which still remains, and measures 16 feet in length, by 6
feet in width. It lies near Bishop Bubwith's chapel, and
has been richly inlaid with brasses ; but all are gone ;
the episcopal figure, in brass, was 10 feet in length.
Some indistinct traces of an inscription are apparent on
the verge of the slab."

XXIX. JOHN DROKENSFORD,
Succeeded A.D. 1309.— Died A.D~. 1329.
Bishop Drokensford, who had been keeper of the
King's Wardrobe and Under- Treasurer in 1305, in the
absence of the Treasurer at the Papal court,! possessed
the following ecclesiastical preferments, before his elevation
to this See ; a Canonry of Wells, York, and Southwell,
and the rectory of Balsham, Kent. Ho was also
Chaplain to the Pope,
\ ,
* Wteirton. Angl. Sac. i. p. 567. f Godwin. Cat. p. 370.
J Hist. Wells Cathedr. p. 108.
§ Com. de term, Micjiael. Edw. I. Rot. 7 in dorso, MS. Gale,

JOHN DROKENSFORD. 157
He was elected Bishop Feb. 5, 1 309 . the royal assent
was given Feb. 23, and the temporalties restored May
15.* On the same day he . was confirmed Bishop, by
the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth, and was
consecrated at Canterbury Nov. 9 ; though, as to the
date of this last event, there is some discrepancy. His
consecration had not taken place the 15th. Aug. 1309.f
Wharton says, November 9,J while in the register of
Henry Woodlock, Bishop of Winchester, the month of
August is assigned.
The statement that some Historians have made of his
being Lord Chancellor, and Keeper of the Great Seal, is
erroneous. I find no record of his having possessed that
high office ; but it is certain, that during the King's
absence in Fiance, he executed the vice-regal office, and
afterwards, was an adherent of the Queen's partizans
against her husband. §
Bishop Drokensford may be enrolled as a benefactor ;
he improved the Bishopric with many noble buildings,
and renewed and enlarged the privileges of the Church. ||
He also, in 1325, was the cause of an indulgence of 40
days being granted to the contributors to the new works
pf the Cathedral.
Godwin, solito de more, detracts from him, on account
of nepotism, or providing for his nephews and kindred
with the patronage of the diocese, than which, there

* 1 Pat. 2 Edw. II. t See Rymer. Fcedera. vol. iii. p. 160.
% Angl. Sac. Part i. p. 568. § Rymer. Fad. vol. iii. p. 98S.
|| Godwin, edit. 1615. p. 370. Richardson's edit. 1743. p. 375, and
Ang. Sac. i. p. 568.

158 JOHN DROKENSFORD.
certainly can be nothing more disgusting, but no assertions,
that disparage a character, should be made in this random
way. A list of the preferments, and the names of the
kindred so preferred, should ever be annexed when
nepotism is alleged.
Having sat about 20 years, he died at Dogmersfield,
May 9, 1329, and was buried on the 23rd. in St.
Catherine's Chapel, in Wells Cathedral, in which he had
founded a chantry the preceding month.
" Joannes Drokynsforde, Custos Garderobae* et
" Locum tenens Thesaurarii Angliae, XIV Episcopus
" Bathoniensis, sedit annis XlX.f Iste Episcopatum
" suum plurimis aedificiis solennibus insignivit : liber-
" tates per Reges Episcopatui suo concessas non solum
" literatorie renovavit, sed etiam ampliavit ; et quoad
" ditationem et exaltationem familiae suae simili fuit
" praedecessori suo Roberto Burnell. Et Welliae
" sepelitur ante altare S. Johannis Baptistae."J
From Wharton : —
" Johannes de Drokensforde Canonicus Wellensis,
" Eboracensis, et Suthwellensis Rector Ecclesiae de
" Balsham in Comitatu Cantabr. vestiarii regii Praefec-
" tus, et Locumtenens Thesaurarii Angliae ad Curiam
" Romanam profecturi constitutes 1305. 22 Oct.
" Episcopus Bathon. et Wellen. in Capitulo Bathoni-
" ensi electus est 1309. 5 Feb. ab Archiepiscopo apud
" Lametham confirmatus die 15 Maii, apud Cantuariam
" consecratus die 9 Nov. Anno 1312 Rege Edwardo

* Who ever heard of such Latin ? Vestiarii regii, would perhaps have
been a little less heathenish.
t He sat longer than 19 years. J In the Ang. Sac. i. p. 568.

JOHN DROKENSFORD. 159
" in Galliam profecto, totius Angliae praefecturam sibi
" commissam vice Regis gessit. Obiit apud Dogmers-
" field 1329, 9 Maii, apud Welliam sepultus die 23
" Maii in Capella B. Caterinae, in qua Cantariam
" mense superiore *fundaverat. Sedit annos 20.
" menses 3. dies 9. juxta calculum istorum Annalium."
" John Drokensford, keeper of the King's ward-
" robe, succeeded, being consecrated, as I find, before
" May 1 7, Edward I. 3, Following the steps of
" his predecessor, Burnell, he bestowed somewhat in
" encreasing the buildings and liberties of his See, but
" much more his kindred. He had much contention
" with his chapter, (the story whereof is to be seen in
" the Statute Book) sat nineteen years, and lieth buried
" under a reasonable seemly tomb, of free-stone, in
" the chapel of St. Katherine, which is upon the right
" hand going toward the Lady Chapel. "f
Tomb. — " Bishop Drokensford," says Leland, " was
interred at the south-west end of St. John's Chapel :"
but Godwin states that he " lieth buried under a
reasonable seemely tombe, of free-stone, in the Chappell
of S. Katherine." The Canon of Wells says, " before
the altar of St. John the Baptist ;" which was, probably,
the fact, as Bishop Drokensford had founded a chantry
there. This Prelate died in 1 329 ; and is commemorated
by an elegant monumental shrine, which stands near the
south side ofthe Lady Chapel. It consists of an altar

* Ex Registris Grenfeld, Corbrig, Winchelse, Drokinsford. Cant, et
Well. Historia Adanii Meremuth et Annalibus Bruton.
t Godwin, p. 370.

160 RALPH DE SHREWSBURY.
tomb, surmounted by a lofty canopy, supported by eight
clustered buttresses : these sustain eight intermediate
arched pediments, highly wrought with trefoils, quatre-
foils, crochets, finials, and other ornaments. At the east
end is a niche, having a two-fold canopy, enriched with
numerous fleurs-de-lis, in gold, on a blue ground. There
is no appearance of either brass effigy or inscription on
this monument."*
Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College : — Quarterly
azure and or, four pastoral staves counter-changed.

XXX. RALPH DE SHREWSBURY,
Succeeded A.D. 1329. — Died A.D. 1363.
Keeper of the King's wardrobe ; Prebendary of Salis
bury, June 20, 1207; Chancellor of the University of
Oxford in 1328; elected Bishop of Bath and Wells by
the Canons of Wells and Monks of Bath, June 2, 1329.
See the Bath Cartulary MS. in the Library of Lincoln's.
Inn, p. 1 14; his own Register; and the Register of Islip,
Archbishop of Canterbury. Confirmed July 21 ; ad
mitted to the temporalties September 2 ; and consecrated
the same day at Canterbury. So say the Registers of
Cranborn and William Dene, but the Annals of Bruton
say December 3.

* Britton's Wells Cathedr. p. 109. A representation of the monumental
shrine above alluded to, is included in plate XVII. of Mr. Britton's work.

RALPH DE SHREWSBURY. 161
Pope John XXII. claiming the provision,* as it was
called, of all vacant Sees, was indignant at the appoint
ment of Ralph, without his concurrence ; but, in the
end, the Bishop obtained the consent of the Pope,
"ingenti pecuniae summa\," says Walsingham, which
Godwin has elegantly translated, " with a huge sum of
money." The Continuator of Higden gives him a high character.
He was profuse in the distribution of alms, and assiduous
in many other works of piety.
By Archbishop Islip's Register, it appears that our
Prelate made a three-fold testamentary distribution of
his property, giving one portion to the poor and his
tenants, a second to the Mendicant Freres, (vulgarly, but
very incorrectly, called Friars,) and a third to his friends
and domestics.
Bishop Ralph effected a number of important objects,
and has left several records of himself. He procured, at
great expence, not only an exemption of the Forest Law
for the mannors of Cheddar and Axbridge, but prevailed
on the King to permit the de-afforestation-f- of Mendip,
and had all the beasts destroyed by hunting.

* The first Papal proviAop, to any English See, was that of Pope
Innocent III. to Giraldus Cambrensis, for the See of St. David's, in 1199,
whom he did not yet absolutely name, but procured to be elected at
Rome, and then would have supported his title without the King's
consent. The ground of all provisions was a pretence of difference in
-elections, and that the Church might not continue vacant.
t The old Lawyers were, as some ofthe modern ones are, bad Latinists,
or we should not hear of dis-afforestation instead of de-afforestation.
They talk of dis-seisiu also; whereas they mean de-seisin. "Dis-
afforestatton would imply an act wholly different from the meaning they
x

162 RALPH DE SHREWSBURY.
He also it was that surrounded the episcopal palace at
Wells with the strong stone crenellated wall and moat.
He built at his own expense the "Vicars' Close" at Wells,
vesting it for ever in the Vicars' Choral and their suc
cessors, and obtaining a royal confirmation, of the grant,
^.flO. per annum moreover was to be paid for ever to the
said Vicars. Chew an Ecclesia* Plebanalis, he made
mensalis, uniting it to the Bishopric; after certain
reservations, the residue he assigned to the Vicars of the
Church for the time being. He re-built the Church of
Winscombe, near Axbridge; the Canonicus Wellensis
says, Wyvelscombe (eleven miles from Taunton.) He
re-built the court-house at Claverton, and the great
chamberf at Evercreech, and erected many other edifices
on the episcopal estates. He gave also many splendid
vests to the Churches of Bath and Wells, besides
numerous other articles, none of which were remaining in
Bishop Godwin's time, except a great chest, in which he
says the chapter-seal was kept.
This Prelate sat for the extraordinary period of 34
years, and dying either at Wiveliscombe or Winscombe,
design conveying by it, so would dis-seisin. Dis-afforestation would
properly mean Uie extending a forest into various or different directions.
The prefix dis dis-joins, di-vides, di-verts, dis-unites. It places the
object in di-ffererit di-rections, whereas "de, when it does not mean
downwards, implies the undoing of the object. To de-afforest is therefore
what they should say when they talk of dis-afforest.
* The " Ecclesia Plebanalis," is a mother Church which has one or
more subordinate Chapels. The Mensalia were such parsonages or
spiritual livings as were united to the Tables of religious houses, aud
called "mensal benefices" among the Canonists.
t This ' Camera' was probably a place for holding courts, or for some
other legal purpqses of the temporal barony.

RALPH DE SHREWSBURY. 163
both before mentioned, August 14, 1363, was buried
before the high altar in the presbytery of Wells Cathedral.
His tomb was removed to the north of the choir 60 years
after; but, wherefore, we are not told. On it is an
image of the Prelate—*' vivos viventis vultus vividissimd
exprimens," says Bishop Godwin, as if he delighted in
the alliteration. He no doubt, had in view Virgil's
" vivos ducent de marmore vullus."
The author to whom I have so frequently referred,
thus records him :—
" Radulphus de Salopia XV. Episcopus Bathoni-
" ensis, pater insignissimus et eleemosynarum largitor
" copiosus. Hie fuit electus per Decanum et Capi-
" tulum Wellense ac Priorem et Capitulum Batho-
" niense, et per Cantuariensem Archiepiscopum
" consecratuS, non obstante generali Episcopatuum
" collatione ad sedem Apostolicam reservata per
" Papam Johannem XXII. Unde postea obtinuit
" per Sedem Apostolicam declarari reservationem
" hujusmodi pro illk vice ad Sedem Pathoniepsem
" non debere extendi. Hie appositis laboribus et
" expensis non modicis, procuravit a Rege deafforestari
" maneria de Chedder et Axbrigge existentia tunc
" infra Forestam de Mendepe [Mendip.] Et ejus
" maneriorum deafforestatio fuit in ejus perambulatione
" certis metis et bundis* inter e^ndem Forestam et

* 'Pulidis' for 'terminis' is an elegant specimen of monkish and legal
Latinity. As parks are inplosed with wall, pale, &c. so forests and
chases are inclosed by 'n»etes and bounds,' such as rivers, highways, and
hills; which are an iuclosure in law; and without which, there can not
be a forest.

164 RALPH DE SHREWSBURY.
" dicta maneria positis evidenter distenta. Hie etiam
" annuente Rege omnes feras* dictae Forestas
" venandof destruxit : et sic violentia Forestariorum
" cessavit,!^ qu& ipsi communem plebemj solebant
" indies opprimere. Hie etiam Episcopale Palatium
" forti muro lapideo circumcinxit, et aquam undique
" circumduxit. Quandam habitalionem perpulchram
" pro Vicariis et Choristis Ecclesia; Wellensis, loco ad
" aedificandum impetrato, suis sumptibus construxit;
" ipsumque locum sic constructum eisdem Vicariis et
" successoribus suis ad perpetuam ipsorum cohabita-
" tionem libere dedit, et douum chartis regiis confir-
" mavit absque aliquo redditu inde reddendo praeter
" Orationes Dominicas et Salutationes Angelicas.
" Perquisivit etiam X libras annui redd it us solvendas
" dictis Vicariis et successoribus per manus suas et
" successorum suorum. Univit ecclesiam Plebanalem§

* The 'ferse' of a forest (which latter word is derived quasi 'ferarum
statio') are the hart, hind, buck, doe, loar, wolf, fox, hare, &c.
t fet" By ' venando,' we are not bound to conclude that Ralph de Salopia,
was an episcopal Nimrod. I think I see some of the 'very good' turning
up their eyes at this act of prelatical ' profaneness,' but they should
recollect, that this hunting being done in a summary way for the
extirpation of the beasts, was in all probability" effected only under the
Bishop's orders, without his personal intervention.
t The Forestgrius, was a sworn officer-ministerial ofthe forest, and was
to watch over the vest and venison, and to' make attachments and true
presentments of all manner of trespasses done within the forest.
The exercise of his office, probably rendered him unpopular, and perhapi
oppressive acts might occasionally have occurred..
§ ' Plebs comniutlis,' for 'the common people,' I fear is hardly Augustan-

RALPH DE SHREWSBURY, i6fl
" de Chyw [Chew] mensae* suae Episcopali ; decimas
" terrarum dominicalium manerii de Chyw et juris-
" dictionem ordinariam totius Parochia? sibi et
" successoribus suis tantummodo reservando. Resi-
" duum vero omnium decimarum et reddituum ad
" dictam Ecclesiam de Chyw qualitercunque spectan-
" tium assignavit Vicario ejusdem Ecclesiae pro
" tempore existenti ; ut inde ipse solvat annuatim
" Priori et Capitulo Bathoniensi XX Marcas de novo,
" et V. Marcas eis debitas ab antique, et V. Marcas
" annuas inter praesentes ministros Ecclesiae Wellensis
" dividendas in obitu suo ibi tenendo. Multa etiam
" vestimenta ecclesiastica pretiosa dictis ecclesiis
" Bathoniensi et Wellensi in testamento suo reliquit ;
" quae in eis usque hodie perseverant. Palatium
" Episcopale Wellense muro lapideo batellato et
" comellatof cum fossatis claudere fecit. Construxit
" de novo Capellam de Wyvelescombe, et totam
" Curiam de Claverton, et unam Camcram honestam
" valde sumptuosam apud Evercrich. Quibus com-
" pletis, cum sedisset XXXIV annis, in Vigilia
" assumptionis B. Mariae anno MCCCLXIII. apud
" Wyvelescombe, obdormivit in Domino, sepultus in
" Presbyterio Ecclesiae Wellensis ¦ inter gradus Chori

* See the note on Plebanal and Mensal Churches in page 162.
t Cornellare or hemellare as it is sometimes written, is from the French
ermeller to fortify, and applies here lo the battlements on walls to defend
the men within from the Enemies' missile weapons from without. In
the 11th. Edw. III. Wyvill, Bishop of Salisbury, had leave from the King
" Kernellare mansa maneriorum suorum de Sarum, &c."

166 RALPH DE SHREWSBURY.
" et summum altare in tumba de alabastrio, cui
" imago supponitur valde conforma figurae illius.
" Unde plures Indulgentiae sunt concessae omnibus
" locum ejus sepulturae visitantibus et devot^ pro
" anima ipsius Radulphi orantibus."*
" Radulphus de Salopia, vestiarii regii custos,
" Praebenda in Ecclesia Sarum a Rege donatus est
" 1297. Junii. Idem postea anno 1328 Cancellarius
" Academiae Oxon. in Episcopum a Canonicis
" Wellensibus 9 el totidem Monachis Bathoniensibus
" in Capitulo Wellensi electus est 1329 2 Jun. ab
" Archiepiscopo confirmatus die 21 Jul. 'a Rege ad
" Temporalia admissus. die 3 Sept. (quamvis rex
" scriptis ad Papain Uteris alium quendam ad Episco-
" patum promoveri postulaverat) ab Archiepiscopo
" apud Cantuariam consecrates eodem die. Sic
" quidem narrant Registrum Cranborn et Willelmus
" Dene, Annales autem Bruton (qui in reliquis
" conveniunt) die 3 Dec. consecratum fuisse produnt.
" His magis accedo. In ipsius enim Radulphi Registro
" comperio ipsum die 1 7 Dec. solvisse donaria (feoda
" vulgo dicuntur) servis Archiepiscopi familiaribus pro
" consecratione sua debita, quae 1 9 librarum summain
" illo saeculo confecerunt. Episcopatus provisionem
" Johannes Papa sibi reservaverat, saltern reservasse
" prae se tulit ; eumque electione canonica sibi prae-
" reptum fuisse aegr6 telit. Radulfum itaque accusari
" fecit, qudd Episcopatum invito - Rege per vim et
" arma occupasset ; et hac strophe usus, virum iiite-

" Canonicus Wellensis. Ang. Sac. i. p. 569.

RALPH DE SHREWSBURY. 167
" gerrimum ingenti pecuniae summit mulctavit. Rem
" pluribus narrat Registrum ipsius, paucis Walsing-
" hamus. Cancellariatum Oxon. una cum Epicopatu
" aliquamdiu tenuit. " In eleemosynarum largitione
" erat valde profusus, et multis aliis operibus semper
" devot£ intentus :" inquit anonymus Higdeni Continu-
" ator. Plurima charitatis opera Historicus noster
" retulit. Nos ea Registro Islip apponemus ilium in
" supremis tabulis facultates suas trifariam distribuisse.
" Harum unnm partem pauperibus et colonis suis,
" aliam Fratribus Mendicantibus, reliquam amicis
" tenuioribus et famulis suis transcripsit. Obiit apud
" Wyvelescombe 1363. 14 Aug. teste Registro
" Islip."
From Bishop Godwin : —
" With one consent of the Chapter of Wells and
" the Convent of Bath, Ralph of Shrewsbury was then
" elected, and dared to be consecrated (a great venture
" in those days,) before the Pope had allowed him.
" His approbation, says Walsingham, cost him at last a
" huge sum of money. This man is famous for the
" first foundation of our Vicars' Close, in Wells.
" The memory of which benefit is to be seen expressed
" in a picture upon the wall, at the foot of the hall
"stairs. In it, the Vicars kneeling, seem to request
"the Bishop in these words : —
" Per vicos, positi, villae, pater alme rogamus
" Ut simul uniti te dante domos maneamus.
" Dispers'd about the town, we humbly pray
" Together, through thy bounty, dwell we may."

168 RALPH DE SHREWSBURY.
" He answereth them thus : —
" Vestra petunt merita quod sint concessa petita,
" Ut maneatis ita, loca fecimus hie stabilita.
" For your demand, deserts do plead, I will do that
you crave,
" To this purpose established, here dwellings shall
you have."*
" This picture being now almost worn out, at what
" time of late years, the Vicars, by the gracious favor
" of her Majesty, had their revenues confirmed to them,
" being in danger to be spoiled of them by certain
" ' sacrilegious cormorants,' they likewise caused a
" picture of excellent workmanship to be drawn,
" containing a memorial of both one and the other.
" These buildings being erected, towards the mainte-
" nance of some hospitality in them, he gave unto that
" new College the manor of Wells Leigh, f and allotted
" them 20 nobles yearly to be paid out ofthe Vicarage
" of Chew. He built moreover a house for the
" Choristers and Master. He built likewise the
" Church of Winscombe and the court house at

* We cannot speak very highly in praise of any of the poetry,
Whatever the picture on the wall may be; which Godwin, in the Latin
edition, calls " baud nimium elegans." This is the subject of the plate
at p. 363 of Richardson's edition.
t This is the place from which the fa_nilyofWELLF.si.EY (now so called)
have assumed their name, which formerly was Wesley. Whether or not-
the Arch -schismatic Wesley was descended also from the family of De
Wells Leigh, I am not aware. The Duke of Wellington, of Wellington,
in the County of Somerset, is Baron Douro of" Wells Leigh ;" and the
Marquess Wellesley sits as an English Peer, as Baron Wellesley of " Wells
Leigh," in the County of Somerset. Wells- Leigh is a hamlet near Wells.

RALPH DE SHREWSBURY. 169
" Claverton, a great chamber at Evercrich, and
" much other edifices in other of his houses. His
" palace of Wells he enclosed with an exceeding strong
" wall and a large mote, into which he turned the
" river running hard by. He gave unto his Church
" many things, of which nothing now remaineth, (I
" think,) but a great chest, bound with iron, in which
" the chapter seal is kept. Lastly, it is to be remem-
" bered, that with great cost, he procured the forest of
" Mendip to be dis-parked [de-parked]. Having
" performed these, and many other things deserving
" perpetual memory, he departed this life at Wivels-
" comb, Aug. 14, 1363, having continued Bishop 34
" years. His body was buried before the high altar,
" under a goodly monument of alabaster, compassed
" about with grates of iron. About 60 years since,
" (for what cause I know not,) it was removed to the
" north side of the presbytery, but lost his grates by the
" way. The image of alabaster, that lieth on it, is
" said to be very like him."*
The Vicars' Close, it is to be remembered, was after
wards finished by Bishops Erghum and Beckington.
Tomb. — " In the north aisle, close to the second
column from the east, at the back of the choir, is the
tomb of Bishop Ralph de Salopia, who died in 1 363.
This is said to have originally stood in the middle of the
presbytery, before the high altar ; but it was removed to
its present situation about 270, or 280 years ago ;
because, says Leland, it obstructed the priests in their

* Edit. 1615, p. 371.
Y

170 JOHN BARNET.
ministration.* Godwin states, " as we have just heard, that
it lost its grates by the way." He adds also, from the
records of the Church, that the figure recumbent upon the
tomb, (the work of some able artist,) expressed in "a
very lively manner" the animated countenance of >his
person when living. His effigy, which is of alabaster, was
finely sculptured, but it is, now much defaced with lettorial
incisions, made by mischievous boys. He is pontifieally
habited, and has a rich mitre and gloves, ornamented with
jewellery ; his hands are closed, as in prayer ; the, top of
the crozier is hrokenoff. His head reposes on two
embroidered cushions^ and at his feet are two dogs,
collared. The verge of the tomb is embattled. "+
Neither the arms, nor the family of this Prelate are
known at the Heralds' College.

XXXI. JOHN BARNET,
Succeeded A.D. 1363. — Translated to Ely, '1366.
Died A.D. 1373.
After Bishop Ralph's death, the Monks of Bath
elected Walter de M°nyngtpn, Abbot of Glastonbury,
Bishop of this See. The election was, however, declared
\_oid by Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury ; so says
the Wells Register, but there is another version of the
story. The Monk of Evesham who wrote the contin
uation of Hygden's Pplychronicon, tells us that certain

• Itinerary, vol. iii.
t Britton's Hist. Wells Cathedr. p. 110.

JOHN BARNET. 171
persons' jealous of the excellent equalities possessed by
Barnet, and anxious for the Bishopric theriiselves,
prevented his 'going over to Rome. .This writer's
account, however, must be received with some grains of
allowance:, he was naturally "in gregaliumsuorum partes
pronus>", and how could the Bishop have been impeded
in his progress to Rome? Had any stratagems to that
effect been adopted, it is wonderful they are not recorded
or alluded to in some way or other. <• ¦ ' ai
_ This Prelate, who is said by Le Neve* ¦ to have been
Archdeacon of Canterbury, in 1361, was collated 12 Cal.
May, 1354, Prebendary of Wolvey, in Lichfield Cathe
dral. He changed that for the Archdeaconry of' London.
He had been Chaplain to Thomas de L'Isle, orde
Insula, alias Lyldus, who was Bishop of Ely from 1345
to 1361. -V ""¦
He became, besides, Archdeacon of 'London, Canon
Residentiary of St. Pauls, and by virtue of the Pope's
provisory bulle, was consecrated Bishop of Worcester
in 1362.f. ,«-sl*J"
Id 1863-4, he was constituted Lord Treasurer of
England, £ "which office," says Richardson, "he held
till the 41st. of Edward III."§

* Fasti, p. 12
t Bishop Godwin, places him at Worcester, "1362, Edward III, 37."
but this is an anachronism, for the 37th. of Edward III. was 1364. He
commenced his reign iii 1327, See the edition of 1615, p.444.
t Pat. 37, Edward III. p. 1. m, 2ft,
§ Page 265 of Richardson's edition of Godwin, note R, The Doctor
has fallen into a capital inaccuracy here; the 41st. of Edward III. fell
A.D, 1377-8, and the Bishop died in 1373. See the text of Godwin, to
which _that note R, is appended.

172 JOHN BARNET.
By virtue of a second provisory bulle, he was,
November 24, 1363, translated to Bath and Wells, of
which the temporalties were restored April 6, 1364-5 ;*
and having sat here about three years, was finally
translated by a third bulle of Pope Urban, in 1366, to
Ely, December 15.f He died Bishop of Ely, June 7,
1373, at Bishop's Hatfield, Herts, and lies buried in Ely
Cathedral, on the south side ofthe high altar. j:
This Bishop has also been called Archdeacon of
Essex. § But that is erroneous. The John Barnet,
Archdeacon of Essex, is not the same person as he who
was Archdeacon of London, The Archdeacon of
Essex was called ' Junior,' to distinguish him from the
other John Barnet, our Bishop. John Barnet, Junior,
had the Archdeaconry of Essex given him by the King in
the vacancy of the See of London, November 30, 136l.j|
He resigned it in 136?. 11
As Archdeacon of London, our Prelate was sum
moned, according to Dugdale,** to Parliament in 1359,
He does not occur in .Nicolas 's Synopsis.
He was next Bishop but one in succession to his
Patron, Bishop de L'Isle, at Ely; Simon Langham
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury being the inter
vening Bishop, " J. Pat, 38 Edward III, m.33.
t See the Registers of Archbishops Islip and Langham, f. 89 of the
latter, and Le Neve Fasti, p. 32.
t His will was proved June 13, 1373. Registr. Whittlesey, f. 127.
f Green's Woicester, vol. i. p. 193. |] Pat. 35. E. III. p. 3.
H See Le Neve Fasti, p. 190.
•* Sumni, ad Pari. p. 263. and Le Neve Fasti, p. 187,

JOHN BARNET. 173
Whilst Bishop of Bath and Wells, in 1365, he gave to
St. Paul's Church, Londpn, a water-mill, 98 acres of
land, and a yearly payment of 44s. on condition that a
hymn should be chanted, and a speech recited, to the
Blessed Virgin, and another on behalf of the defunct
daily, before her image.
At Ely, he was at the expense of four windows in the
Cathedral, two on the south side, and two on the north of the
presbytery. The Canon of Wells thus briefly notices Bishop
Barnet : —
"Johannes Barnet Thesaurarius "Angliae, XVI
" Episcopus, sedit tribus* annis, et postea ad sedem
"Eliensem translatus fuit." The note gives us the
" following facts : " Post Radulphi mortem Walterus
" de Monyngton, Abbas Glastoniensis in Episcopum
" subdole electus est. Electio autem cassata est a
" Simone Archiepiscopo Cant. Sic Registrum
" Wellense. E contra Monachus Eveshamensis, qui
" Higdeni Polychronicon continuavit in gregalium
" suorum partes pronus rem ita narrat. Loco
" Radulphi, Abbas Glastoniensis, vir mul turn venera-
" bilis unanimiter erat electus. Sed ab aemulis, qui
" ad ilium Episcopatum conspiraverunt, ne ad Curiam
" Romanam transiret, impediebatur. Walterum enim,
" Canonicis Wellensibus invitis vel praetermissis,
" Monachi Bathonienses elegisse videntur. Isto igitur
"juste rejecto, Johannes Barnet, summus Anglias
" Thesaurarius, translatus est a sede Wigorniensi ad
" Bathoniensem, bulla Urbani V Papae 1363. 24 Nov.
* Correct. Bishop Godwin, and, after hijn, a host of writers, say two,

174 .JOHN HAREWELL.
" spiritualem Episcopates sui jurisdictionem ab Archi-
" episcopo accepit 1364, 7 Apr. Ad Eliensem demum
"Sedem transiit bulla ejusdem Papae translatus
" 1366 15 Dec* Dum Sedi Bathoniensi adhuc
*' praeesset, anno 1365 dedit Ecclesiae Paulina? London
" molendinum aquaticum et 98 jugera terrae et anuuum
" 44 sblidorum reddifum, ek conditione, ut Hyninus
" decantetur, et Oratio ad B, Virginem et altera pro
" Defunctis recitentur quotidie coram Imagine B
'"' Virginia. "+ Much good may it do them! It is
really surprising, that the human mind should ever have
been so besotted! And, yet, modern Roman-Catholics
are equally absurd, for it is their foolish glory, that they
are not altered from 'their Ancestors, whose errors are not
reprobated by them, but defended.
Arms.-*- Argent, a Saltire, and in chief a Leopard's
face, sable.

XXXII. JOHN HAREWELL, L.L.B.
Succeeded A.D. 1366.— Died A.D. 1386.
Bishop Hare well had been Archdeacon of Berks :%
Chaplain to Edward the Black Prince, and Chancellor
of Gascony. The date of the provisory bulle, was Dec.

* Ex ttegistr. Islip and Langham.
t Wharton Anglia Sacra, part i. p. 569.
t Reg. Langham, Abp.^Cant. p..279J

JOHN HAREWELL, 17£
15, 13.65.* He was j. consecrated at Bourdeaux (Bur-
degaliae,) March 7, 1366, by Elias, Archbishop of Bour
deaux, assisted by two other Bishops, in the Collegiate
Church of St. Severinus. The King gave his assent
February 20, 1267, and the temporalties were restored
March 6.tuu.
^. But little is known of this, Prelate. He contributed
either, one-third, or two-thirds, (for the, accounts s.vary)
of. the, expense of building the south-west tower, at the
end of the Cathedral, the Chapter bearing the rest. He
gave also 100 marks for glaring the window at the west
end ; a couple of bells ; a, missal worth <£20. ; and some
splendid ecclesiastic vests. After presiding heTe for
above nineteen years, he died in July, 1386, and was
buried opposite Bishop Burwold,. before the altar of St.
Calixtus, in a sumptuous tomb of alabaster, i now much
defaced, I suppose by what Godwin calls the " Sacri
legious Cormorants."
His will bears date June 29, 1386, and was proved
August 204"
His armorial ensigns, as they appeared depicted on
the. windows long since broken, were, Argent on a fesse
nebulee, sable three hares' heads couped Or. Thus also
I find them .recorded in the Heralds'^ College. •_.. . .
From the Anglia Sacra :— uviff
"Johannes Harewell nobilissimi principis Edwardi
" primogeniti Regis Edwardi III. in Vdsconia
* Registr. Langham, f. 90. But I should rather think 1366 the pre
ferable date, and so Rymer has it in his Fcedera, vol. vi. p. 540.
t 1 Pat. 42 Edw. III. in. 24, and 43 Edw. III. m, 26. f„im, ,
J Registr. Abp. Courtney, f. 218. -

176 JOHN HAREWELL.
" [Gascony] Cancellarius, XVII Episcopus, successit
" annis XIX, mensibus IV, qui die VII martii, anno
" MCCCLXVI consecratus est apud Burdeaux in
" Ecclesia Collegiata S. Severini per Heliam Archi-
" episcopum Burdegalensem [of Bourdeaux] ascitis
" duobus aliis Episcopis. Iste ad constructionem
" Occidentalis turris in parte Australi Wellensis
" Ecclesiae duas* partes expensarum apposuit ; ac
" pro vitro Occidentalis fenestra? ejusdem Ecclesia;
" centum marcas fieri fecit propriis sumptibus. Dedit
" etiam eidem Ecclesiae unum Missale pretii XX
" librarum, et certa vestimenta ecclesiastica pretiosa.
" Et Welliae quiescit humatus ante altare S. Kalixti."
" Johannes Harewell, Legum Baccalaureus et
" Archidiaconus Bercheriensis, post legitimam electi-
" onem provisus est ab Urbano V. Papa ad Episco-
" patum Bathon. 1366. 15 Dec. Spiritualia ab
" Archiepiscopo accepit 1367. 7 Maii, authore
" Registro Langham : apud Burdegalam antea
"consecratus anno 1366 (exeunte intellige) die 7
" Martii, fide Can. Well. Nil prseterea de ipso
" memoratum invenio, nisi qudd testamentum condi-
" derit 1386. 29 Jun. quod post obitum ipsius ab
" Archiepiscopo probatum est die 20 August! se-
" quentis."
From Bishop Godwin : —
" Edward, surnamed the Black Prince, obtained
" then of the Pope this Bishoprick, for John Hare-

* This would be two-thirds. Godwin says, " the third penny,"
meauing, of course, one third. In the Latin edition he says, "cuuctoiutn
sumptuum partem tertiam."

JOHN HAREWELL, 177
" well, a Chaplain of his, that was Chancellor of
" Gascoigne [Gascony]. He was consecrated at
" Bourdeaux, March 7, 1366, by the Archbishop
" there. He contributed the third penny toward the
" building of the Si W. tower at the end of the
" Church, the Chapter bearing the rest of the charge-
"He paid 100 marks for glazing the window at the
" W. end ofthe Church, and gave two great bells, the
" biggest of which being cast four times since I was of
" this Church, now at last serveth for the greatest of
" a ring, the goodliest of that number (being but five)
" (I think) in England. He died in the beginning of
" July, 1386, having sat nineteen years, and was
" interred over against Burwold, where we see a tomb
" of alabaster, that seemeth to have been a sumptuous
" piece of work, but is now much defaced. The
" author of the book called Antiq. Britannics,
" affirmeth that he was Treasurer of England."*
In the Latin edition of Godwin, edited by Dr.
Richardson, 1743, p. 378, the former adds, " Homo
si credimus imagini tumulo impositae (quam patet excel-
lentissimi artificis manu efformatum) praepinguis et
obesus admodum."
Tomb. — "Bishop Harewell (ob. 1386) was interred
in the south aisle of the choir. His tomb, which is a
.plain pedestal on a basement top, is let into the south
wall, nearly opposite to that assigned to Burwold. His
effigy has been richly ornamented, but is now muclf
defaced and broken ; the head rests on two cushions ;

• Edit. 1615, p. 572.
z

178 WALTER SKIRLAW.
his mitre is curiously decorated, and his robe wreathed
round his crozier, the head of which is gone. Godwin,
who regards this figure, which is of alabaster, as the
performance of an excellent sculptor, states that it
represents the deceased as of a very fat and large
form."* At his feet are two hares, in allusion to his name.

XXXIII. WALTER SKIRLAW, L.L.D.
Stjcceesed A.D. 1386. — Translated to Durham
A.D. 1388.— Died A.D. 1405-6.
Walter Skirlaw, who sat here not three years, and who
is better known as Bishop of Durham, where he sat 27,
was a native of Swine, in Holderness, County of York.
It appears he was Archdeacon of Northampton, May
8, 1381. f This dignity, he probably held till the year
1385 ; on the 30th. of October,;}; in which year, we find
it vacant, and that, probably, by his advancement to the
prelacy. He was Treasurer of Lincoln, and exchanged that
preferment for a Prebend in the Church of St. Martin's-
le-grand, London, March 22, 1383. § He is also called
by some, Dean of St. Martin's.

* Britton's Hist, of Wells Cathed. p. 110.
t Reg. Bokyngham. Le Neve. Fasti, pp. 32 and 162. t lb.
§ Fasti, p. 152.

WALTER SKIRLAW, 179
I find him recorded likewise as Canon of York, Nov.
fi9, 1370.* Prebendary of Lincoln, and Archdeacon of
the East Riding of Yorkshire.
He was made Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in
1385,t being then L.L.D.
There must be some great error, which I have no
means of correcting, as to Skirlaw's minor preferments.
Did he hold two Archdeaconries at once ? He is
recorded Archdeacon of Northampton in 1381, which
preferment was vacant in 1385, the year in which Ik
assumed the purple ;« while Le Neve tells us, he became
Bishop of Lichfield, from having been Archdeacon of the
East Riding of Yorkshire; and for this assertion he
quotes the Anglia Sacra, J where Wharton, in the note,
has so stated it, but without quoting an authority.
What adds to the difficulty, is, that Willis§ states, he
was admitted Archdeacon ofthe East Riding, in 136 1.
As Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, he made his
profession of obedience at Otford, in Kent, January
7, 1385-6. His appointment took place by virtue of a
provisory bulle, bearing date June 28, 1385. j| He had
the custody of the temporalties October 27,^1 It appears
from the authority quoted in the note below, that they
were restored January 6.** His consecration took place
January 14, being performed by the Archbishop of
¦ Wharton. Ang. Sac. i. p. 450, note (b}.
t Ang. Sac. i. 450. Le Neve. Fasti, p. 327. % Part i. p. 450.
$ Cathedrals. Under the Archdeacons ofthe E. R. of Yorkshire, p. 98.
|| Registr. Archp. Courtenay, (. 320.
f 1 Pat 9 Ric. II. m. 26. ** 2 Pat. 9 Ric II. in. 39.

180 WALTER SKIRLAW.
Canterbury, (William Courtenay) assisted by 10 Suffragan
Bishops, and in the presence of the Kings of England
and Armenia.*
The Canonicus Wellensis-f- calls him Cestrensis Epis
copus ; but this is a gross mistake, as he was never
Bishop of Chester : and it is surprizing such an error
should have escaped the sagacity of Wharton, who lets
the text stand without even a comment. The fact is this :
he had been Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Peter,
Bishop of Lichfield, removed his See (sedes%) to Chester
in 1075 ; but Robert de Limesey, his successor, adopted
Coventry as his See in 1095 : whence, not long after, the
succeeding Bishops returned to Lichfield. Chester was
not finally erected into a diocese till the time of Henry
VIII. From the above, it will therefore be evident, there
could not have been any Bishop of Chester at the period
of history we are now arrived at, viz. the latter half of the
fourteenth century. For Cestrensis, he might have sub
stituted Coventrensis.
Before his installation as Bishop of Lichfield and
Coventry, he was translated by the bulle of Pope Urban
VI . to the See of Bath and Wells. § Wharton, in this
part of his work, treating of the Lichfield Bishops, has
fallen into several blunders; among the rest, he calls

* flegistr. Courtenay, f. 320.
t Ang. Sac. i. p. 570.
% See and Diocese are often confounded. They are very distinct. The
See is the sedes, the Bishop's residence ; the Diocese Imxnns, the Bishop's
jurisdiction. $ Rymer's Foedera, vol. vii. p. 489. Fasti, p. 124.

WALTER SKIRLAW. 181
Bath and Wells " sedem pauperiorem," with reference to
Lichfield {see part i, p. 124) ; whereas the truth lies in
the converse of the proposition. This inaccuracy he
afterwards corrects at page 570.
Walter Skirlaw was fortunate in the . rapidity of his
promotions. At Wells, after having sat only between
two and three years, he was finally transplanted to
Durham. This took place in 1388, by virtue of a Papal
bulle/dated April 3, of that year,* The temporalties of
Durham were restored September 13.+ Having pre
sided at Durham twenty-seven years, he died 9 Cal. April
(March 24, 1405,) and was buried in the Cathedral
there. Leland, who, although he is entitled to the thanks
of all lovers of antiquities, for the various and valuable
notitia he has rescued from oblivion, it must be con
fessed, has put together many memoranda without due
attention to accuracy, as I frequently had occasion to
instance in my Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury. That
antiquary asserts, but erroneously, that the botvels of
Bishop Skirlaw were buried in Howden Church, (in the
E. R. of Yorkshire.) " It apperith," says he, " by
inscription on a very fair stone, varii marmoris, that the
bowels of Walter Skirlaw, (he built the steeple and
repaired the church and half of the manor,;}; and died
1406) Bishop of Durham, were buried in Howden
Church."

* Ang. Sac. i. p. 773.
t Rymer's Fcedera, torn. vii. p. 605, and Fasti, p. 346.
t How can a manor, which is a jurisdiction, and incorporeal, be said to
be 'repaired.'?

182 WALTER SKIRLAW.
Now this is a palpable error, and has misguided many
writers. Among others, Gough, who says, " the bowels
of Walter Skirlaw, Bishop of Durham, who died 1405,
were buried at Howden, in Yorkshire, where remains
a slab with a cross, and this inscription : — " Hie
requiescunt viscera Walteri Skirlaw, quae sepeliuntur sub
hoc saxo anno dni. 1405." It matters not a rush per se
where the bowels of any particular individual are buried;
but this erroneous statement has led antiquaries into
mistakes respecting another person, and a different matter.
The person alluded to was not Walter Skirlaw, but Walter
Kikkham. A disquisition on this circumstance, which
would have been more interesting had it been put togethe'r
with more clearness and conciseness, may be read in
Hutchinson's History of Durham, vol. iii. p. 467.
Bishop Skirlaw was interred in a magnificent tomb in
Durham Cathedral, which afterwards obtained the name
of Skirlaw's altar. His grave was covered with a curious
table of marble, ornamented with his own image, and
various others of brass, inlaid ; and on the breast of his
effigies was inscribed a text of scripture. The tomb was
enclosed with a railing or lattice of curious work, whereat
mass was daily celebrated for his soul. Opposite thereto,
in the north wall, was a long seat of stone work, between
pillar and pillar, where his arms were arranged. The
railing round his tomb was afterwards removed, and a
stall erected for women to attend divine service.
There are few public records of note in this Bishop's
time. He granted a commission of survey of the river
Were. In 1389, he granted licence to castellate and
embattle the manor-house of Lomley. In 1390, there is
a record of William Scrope's making an offering of

WALTER SKIRLAW. 183
expiation at the feretory of St. Cuthbert, for certain
trespasses by him and his people, against the liberties of
the Church. In 1403, we find two several commissions
for auditing public accounts.
Browne Willis, gives us his epitaph :* —
" Crct.o qttoti lit!. emptor incus' otbtt, tt in nouiSStmo me
He terra reSurocturttS Sum, et in tame tnea oifcebo Uettm
Saluatorem nieum.
"&ic jacet bonae memoria Walterus j&ktrlafo, prtmmu
ISp .Scopus Co&enttg et liitt'hfielii, oetntte Bathon et OTellen.
et postea ao banc Sanctam Sefcem SunelmcnS : translatus,
qui obiit XXffF. fcie ironSiS fflaxtii %M. m. €.€€€T. ®ra
Deum pro antma ejus."
Benefactions, fyc. — He founded three fellowships in
University College, Oxford, for such as were born in the
diocese of York and Durham. They are elsewhere, said
to have been founded by Hen. IV. at his request.
However, " qui facit per alium facit per se." He
founded a College of Prebendaries at Hull, in Yorkshire,
about 14Q0.+ Other acts of munificence will be found
recorded in a subjoined extract from Hutchinson's
History of Durham.
There are some MSS. of this Bishop, " De generatione
et corruptione" in the Bodleian Library, vide Bernard.
Some further notices besides those contained in the
extract from Hutchinson, will be found in Ayliffe's
Ancient and Present State of Oxford, vol. i. p. 252.
For the following sketch of Skirlaw's life, I am
indebted to the historian of Durham :J —
" It appears that the Barons, by whose influence
"Bishop Fordham was removed, were determined to
* Cathedrals, vol. i. p. 242. t Hutchinson, vol i. p. 320. t lb.

184 WALTER SKIRLAW.
" fill the See of Durham with a Prelate who should
" not interfere in political matters, and that was a more
" ecclesiastical character ; for Walter Skirlaw who
" was translated hither, is not noted by historians in
" any public capacity in state affairs, during his whole
" Prelacy ; and his life was occupied in works of
" munificence, not limited to his own province only,
" but extended to other parts of the kingdom. He
" was of the degree of L.L.D. of the University of
" Oxford. Was first consecrated Bishop of Lichfield
" and Coventry, whence he was translated to Bath
" and Wells; and finally on April 3, 1388, translated
il by the Pope's bulle to the See of Durham. Both
" the instruments were of one date which removed
" Fordham and placed Skirlaw at Durham.
" During the many troubles of Richard's reign,
" though the nation was in continual distraction by
" the power of contending parties, and the weakness
" and perverse principles of the King, frequent
" attention was paid by the legislature to repress the
" influence of the See of Rome, not so much, perhaps
" through constitutional principles, as fear of an
" encreasing power, to the prejudice of political
" measures, during the unsettled state of government,
" which repeatedly fluctuated from one prevailing
" party to the other. Notwithstanding this seemed
" to be a maxim adopted by all, yet, when necessity
" required a particular point to be carried, an innor
" vation was sought by either party, and the holy See
" was called upon to aid the measure. Thus it was,
" in the displacing Fordham and bringing in Skirlaw.
" Yet, a specious countenance was still supported by

WALTER SKIRLAW. 185
" the officers of government, coincident with the
" legislative rules. The Bishop received institution
" of the temporalties of his See by the above-mentioned
" instrument, on the 13th of September.
" Bishop Skirlaw, during his possession of the See
" of Durham, erected a new bridge at Shincliffe, and
" one at Yarm, for the maintenance of which, he
" purchased lands. He also built a bridge at
" Auckland, and erected a noble gateway of stone
" work, at the palace there, made a strong tower to the
"church of Hoveden,* for the safety of the inhabitants
" on any inundation ; and expended great sums of
" money in the repairs of that Church, whereto he
" added the chapter house, which is spoken of by
" writers of that time, as a beautiful edifice. He
"erected the hall of the manor house of Hoveden
" (Howden), and was at much cost' in other edifices
" there, He was at the expense of building a great
" part of the tower of York-Minster, vulgarly called
" the Lanthern, where his arms are now to be seen.
" He founded a chantry in that Church with an
" endowment for a chaplain to celebrate daily mass
" there. He erected part of the beautiful cloister of
" Durham, in which he expended <£600,«£200. whereof
" he gave in his life-time, and ,£400. at his death. He
" gave 330 marks towards building the dormitory to
" the Convent. His arms are placed in several parts
" of those works. He was constantly held, as Chambre

* From this place, Roger de Hoveden, the Historian, whose works
are so well known to AntiquarieB, was denominated, he having been
a native or resident.
Aa

186 WALTER SKIRLAW.
" says, in great honor by his Sovereign. To these we
" may add, that he erected a beautiful Chapel called
" Skirlaw's Chapel, in his native parish- of Swyne, in
" Holderness, and founded a chantry therein. In
" 1 403, he gave the manor of Rothyng to University
" College, Oxford, for three scholarships. By his
" will, dated the 15th of March, 1404,* he gavei.200.
" for certain clergy to celebrate an anniversary to his
" memory ; ,=£20. to Durham College, Oxford; 100
" marks to the Cathedral Church of York ; 200 marks
" to complete the chantry of Skirlaw ; and 100 marks
" to carry on the building of the dormitory at Durham.
" And it is also said, he gave £ 150. to the Church of
" Wells. He departed this life on the 24th of March,
" 1405, and was interred in a magnificent tomb,
" opposite to that of Bishop Hatfield, before the altar
"of St. Blase."
The notices of Skirlaw in the Canonicus Wellensis, are
briefly, these : —
" Walterus Skirlaw utriusque Juris Doctor, prius
" Cestrensisf Episcopus, XVIII Episcopus Bathoni-
" ensis, annis fere tribus ; deinde ad Ecclesiam Dunel-
" mensem fuit translatus. Cujus executores dederunt
" Ecclesiae Wellensi pro obitu suo ibi tenendoXXXI
" capas cboristales albas pretii, ut creditur, cl.
" librarum."
The Editor in the note, says :~^
" Walterus Episcopus Lichfeldensis translatus est

* Willis, in his "Survey of Cathedrals," says, "thi3 will is in the
Archives at Lambeth," vol. i. p. 251.
t This he never was.— See the remarks at page 180 of this work.

WALTER SKIRLAW. 187
"Bathottiam ab Urbano VI. Papa 1386. 18 Aug.
" Dunelmum iterum ab eodem translatus 1388. 3
¦" April. Factum illud intercessione Baronum Ahgliae
" rebellium quorum partes Walterus plus justofovebat.*
*' Ignoscas, quasso, Lector, errori superius commisso.f
" ubi dixi Walterum a Sede ditiore Lichfeldehsi ad
*' pauperiorem Bathonienseiii translatinn fuisse. Re-
" vera enim Bathoniensis opulentior erat Lichfeldensi ;
" adeo ut WalterUs aut translationem invito Rfcge
" impetraverit a Papa, aut Baronum partes nondum
" sJedatus fuerit."J
The Continutio Historia Lichfeldensis of Gul.
Whitlocke^ records our Prelate al that See in these
terms : —
" Dominus Walterus Skirlaw, utriusque Juris
" Doctor, consecratus fuit Episcopus Lichfeldensis et
" Coventrensis die Dominica, XIX Gal. Febrilarii
" anno salutis humane, MCCCLXXXV. Quuhi
" Lichfeldiae sedisset anno uno ; translatus est primo
" ad Ecclesiam Cathedralem Bathoniensem, postea
" fit Episcopus Dunelmensis. Obiit Dunelini, A.D.
" MCCCCVI. Per Executores Testamenti sui,
" Decano et Capitulo et etiam caetui Vicariorum
" mtmificus fuit in tantum, ut tarn publice quotannis
" in templo quam privatim inter Vicarios pro eo
" fierent pieces XXIV. die Marti."
From the Note : —
" Walterus Skirlaw, Orientalis regioriis Eboracensis

• Registr. Courtenay. t Aug. Sac. i. p. 450,
JIo-P-570. § lb. p. 450.

188 WALTER SKIRLAW.
" Archidiaconus (Canonicum Eboracensis Ecclesia;
" admissum 1370, 29 Nov. comperio) post electionem
" legitimam Episcopus Lichfeldensis ab Urbano
" Papa pro vis ion is titulo renunciatus est 1385, 28 Jun:
" piofessionem fecit apud Otteford 1386, 7 Jan.
" Consecratus ab Archiepiscopo Cant, in Ecclesia
" Westmouasteriensi 1386, 14 Januarii, assistentibus
" Archiepiscopis 10 suffraganeis, et praesentibus Anglias
" atque Armenia; regibus. Eodem anno, nondum in
" ecclesia Lichfeldensi installatus, a pauperiorem
" Episcopatum Bathoniensem Urbani bulla data 1386,
"18 Aug. translatus est invites. Factum id fuisse
" conjicio Rege procurante, cui Michael de la Pole,
" Suffolciae Dux Walterum invisum reddiderat. Epis-
" copum enim adversae factionis partem fovisse
" constat."
W illiam de Chambr£, in his Continuatio Historia;
Dunelmensis, p. 774, in Wharton's re-print, gives the
following account of Bishop Skirlaw, as presiding at
Durham : —
" Walterus Skyrlaw translatus fuit a Bathonia ad
" Dunelmum III die Aprilis A.D. MCCCLXXXIX
" consecratus fuit in Episcopum Dunelmensem anno
" eodem et stetit annis XVIII. Iste pontem de
" Shmckley et pontem de Yarrow construxit pro quo
" de quibusdam terras emebat, quas postea pro
I" reparatione ejusdem pontis dedit : pontemque de
" Auckland construxit ; magnas etiam lapideas Auc-
" landiae portas a fundo usque ad summitatem ejusdem
" aediticii proprio sumptu erexit. Construxit etiam
" campanile Ecclesiae de Houldon in Comitatu
" Eboracensi summae magnitudinis, quod quidem pro

WALTER SKIRLAW. 189
"incolis ejusdem loci de Houldon (si fortuito aquaruin
"inundatio eveniret) tanquam refugium fecit. Mag-
" nos sumptus in reparatione praedictae Ecclesiae
" effundebal ; ubi etiam domum capitularem perpul-
" chram eidem ecclesiae conjunctam construxit,
" Totam etiam aulam manerii de Houldon aedificavit,
" et magnos praeterea sumptus in aedificiis de eodem
" manerio expendit. Hie etiam magnam partis
" campanilis, vulgo Lenterii, ministerii Eboracensis
" construxit, in medio cujus operis arma sua posuit.
" Ibidem quoque fundavit Cantariam ad australem
" angulum dictae Ecclesiae, ubi Capellanum
" ordinavit ad missam in perpetuum pro annua su&
" celebrandam. Iste quoque magnam partem Claus-
" terii in Monasterio Dunelm : fieri fecit ad summam
" £600. Hie praeterea dedit ad coustructionem
•" Dormitoriae 3.30 marcas, et ejus executores dederunt
*' ex praecepto ejus ad constructionem Clausterii £400,
" et ipse priils dedit ,£200. De quibus omnibus
¦" aedificiis arma sua, viz. 6 virgas vicissim fiexatas
" imposuit. Iste semper summo in honore
" cum Principe suo habebatur. Obiit A. D.
" MCCCCVI, sepultusque jacet in Boreali plaga
" chori Ecclesiae Dunelin : inter binas columnas coram
" altare Sanctae Blasiae, quod postmodum dictum erat
" altare de Skirlaw, sub lapide marmoreo, admodum
" curioso, multisque aeneis imaginibus sumptuosis
" circumspicuo, cum ipsius imagine in medio ejusdem
" tumjbae artificios& in aere caelata. Super pectus
" inscribitur tale dictum, ' Credo qudd redemptor
" metis vivit, et in die novissimo de terra surrecturus
" sum, et in came meae videbo Deum salvatorem

190 WALTER SKIRLAW.
" meum.' Et circa utramque partem istius sepulcri
" in altum erigebatur clatrum curiose compositum,
"in quo missa quotidie pro illius anima dicebatur; et ex
" opposite ejusdem tumbae in aquilonari parte factum
" erat sedile lapideum longitudine columnatarum
" distantiae, in quo arma illius a termino ad terminum
" ordinatim collocantur."
" Baronum instantia," says the editor of ChatnbrS in
the note, " Walterus a sede Bathoniensi ad Dunelmensfem
" translatus est Bulla Urbani VI. Papae data 1388.
" 3 April, quod ex registro Courtney certissim^
" constat. Temporalia mense Septembri ejusdem
" anni accepit male Willelmus Johannis translationem
" in anno 1390, Walteri in 1389- reposuit. Praeter
" opera pietatis a Willelmo enumerata, Walterus ista
" exhibuit. Capellam pulcherrimam de Skirlaw
" dictam in parochial natali de SwyUa in Diocesi
" Eber construxit, et in eadem Cantariam perpetuam
" anno 1404 fundavit. Anno 1403 dedit manerium
" de Rothyn Collegio Universitatis Oxon. tres inde
" Socios alendos volens. Testamento condito 1404.
"15 Martji, legavit 200 libras ad conducendos Pres-
" byteros pro anima ipsius integro anno celebraturos,
" libras Collegio Dunelmensi Oxon. 100 marcas
" Ecclesiae Eboracensi, 200 marcas ad completionem
" Caiitarise de Skyrlaw, denique 100 marcas fabricae
" Dormitorii Priorat&s Dunelm. Obiit 1406. 24
" Martii.* Ex Registris Scrope, et Ecclesite Ebor."
Under the three different Sees that Skirlaw occcrpied,
Bishop Godwin has recorded him in these terms :—
* See Ang. Sac, i. p. 774

WALTER SKIRLAW. 191
Lichfield and Coventry : " 50. Walter Skirlawe.
1385, Ric. II. 9.— Walter Skirlawe, Doctor of Law,
was consecrate Jan. 14, 1385; removed to Bath and
Wells the year following, and soon after to Durham." —
Under Bath and Wells : " 33. Walter Skirlaw, (1386,
Ric. II. 10,) was translated hither, and after two years
from hence to Durham." — Under Durham : " 47.
Walter Skirlaw, (1388, Ric. II. 22,) January 14, 1385.
Walter Skirlaw, a Doctor of Law, of Oxford, was con
secrate Bishop of Lichfield. He sat there one year, and
was translated to Wells. There also he continued but
two years; and the year 1388, removed to Durham, in
the month of September. The cloisters of the Monastery
there were built at his charges. He gave towards the
work £200. in his life-time, and £.400. in his will. He
bestowed also. £.220. in the building of the Dormitory.
He new built the bridges of Shinkley, Yarrow, and Auck
land, and the steeple of Hulme ; he repaired the Church
and the hall of the manor their. He built a great part of
the Lantern at York, where his arms are fixed ; and raised
from the very foundation a fair Chapel at Swine in
Holderness, where he was born. Lastly, he bequeathed
in his testament, great sums of money to the Churches
he had governed, for the buying of ornaments, as, namely,
to the Church of Wells the value of £150. He sat
Bishop of Durham 18 years, and died in the beginning of
the year 1406.
Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College : — Argent,
three pallets interlacing three barrulets. This coat differs
altogether from those said to be sculptured around his
buildings.

192 RALPH ERGHUM.
XXXIV. RALPH ERGHUM,* L.L.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1388. — Died Bishop of Salisbury,
A.D. 1400.
According to the Register of Simon Sudbury, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, Bishop Erghum, who, previously
to 1375, had been Prebendary of X Librarum in the
Cathedral of Lincoln.f was promoted by Papal provision
to the See of Salisbury, the bulle bearing date October
12, 1375 : to this assumption of the Court of Rome, the
King, it seems, consented : and the temporalties were
restored Dec. 28.J Erghum was consecrated at Bruges,
in Flanders, December 9, and having sat at Salisbury,
upwards of 12 years,§ was translated to Bath and Wells^
in 1388, the bulle bearing date April S.|| He made his
profession to the Archbishop, at Cambridge, September
14, aud received the spirituals, the following day. In

* In 1385, a Ralph Erghum occurs Archdeacon of Dorset ; (see Le
Neve's Fasti, p. 281) but unless this is a mis-print for 1375, that
individual could not have been our Prelate, for he had at that period
been Bishop of Salisbury ten years. In Do'ctors' Commons, I find the
will of a Ralph Erghum, wherein he describes himself as " Precentor
ecclesiae Bathon. et Wellen,"' and desires to be buried within the tomb
of Ralph, formerly Bishop of Bath and Wells {i. e. Ralph of Shrewsbury).
This person was most likely the Archdeacon, and probably a near relative
of Bishop Ralph Erghum. The will is in the book entitled Marche, p. 21,
1383.-1503. In the Index of that volume, at 'Erghum,' for page 16 read
p. 21. There was also another Ralph Erghum, Archdeacon of Taunton,
in 1391, and Priecentor of Wells, iu 1402. Obiit. 1409.
t Willis. Cathedrals, vol. ii. p. 176. J 2 Pat. 49 Edw. III. m. 5.
§ " Usque ad festum exaltationis S. Crucis, anno 1388."
|| Register of Archbishop Courtenay, f. 322. See also Harpsfield, p-
155. 14th Cent. cap. XXI. and Walsingham, in au. 1388,

RALPH ERGHUM. 193
1389, this Prelate obtained a grant of all the lead mines
within his diocese, including the rich veins of the Mendip
Hills.* There was also another Ralph Erghum, Archdeacon
of Taunton, in 1391, and Praecentor of Wells in 1402.
Obiit. 1409.
Having sat here upwards of 12 years, he died April 10,
1400. Walsingham,f correctly places his decease at-
1400; but Bishop Godwin, who, although he is
particularly deserving of credit in matters relating to this
See, (to which, from his connexion with it, he appears to
have paid more than ordinary attention,) yet, has fallen
into error, by fixing his death at 1401; for Erghum's
will, made Jan. 31, 1398, was proved April 19, 1400.
The same author states, that Erghum was buried in Wells
Cathedral, " extra capellam magno pulpito contiguam ad
Septentrionem ;" and adds, " ubi lapidem adolescens vidi
marmoreum quo tegitur, quod ipsum sedilia nunc super-
structura operuerunt."J Collinson says, in St. Edmund's
Chapel ; and afterwards observes, " near the pulpit of
Wells Cathedral, is a grave-stone covering Bishop
Erghum." He notices no inscription. " In navi Ecclesia
Wellensis sepelitur juxta altare S. Edmundi Episcopi,"
says Wharton.

* See the Patent Rolls of Ric. II.
t "Hoc anno (1400) obiit Magister Radulphus Erghum, Episcopus
Bathoniensis," p. 364, not 405, as Richardsou, in his edition of Godwin,
p. 378, has mis-quoted.
t We must suppose, the Bishop means superstructa or that he uses
'superstructura' as a substantive, in apposition with 'sedilia,' or his Latinity
would be nonsense, by making au action, yet, in prospect, produce a past
effect,
Eb

194 RALPH ERGHUM.
Richardson has fallen into a strange error respecting
this Prelate. He says he was excused for non-attendance
in parliament, on account of old age, the 19th. of Hen. II.
" Senio tandem confractus pardonatur* de non veniendo
ad Parliamenta Nov. 9. ita I Pat. 19 H. II. m. 11."
Now the 19th. of Henry II. falls A.D. 1173, two
centuries before he became a Bishop. He must have
meant 19th. Richard II. which would fall A.D. 1396.
Benefactions, fyc. — While Bishop of Salisbury, he
founded near that city an hospital, dedicated to St.
Michael ; which, at the Reformation, was valued at
£25, 2s. Q,d.\ This institution has escaped the accurate
and indefatigable Bishop Tanner.J
He was the cause of the erection of the well-known
cross at Salisbury, (see Walsingham, p. 246.)
He gave the advowson and impropriation of Puckle
church, Gloucestershire, to the Chapter of Wells, and
appropriated the tithes to that Chapter in 1388.§
He founded a chantry in Wells Cathedral, which has
also escaped Tanner, for the souls of Gilbert and Agnes,
his father and mother, and Agnes Robas his sister.
By his will, he directed his executors to build in the
street in Wells, which street was then called Mounterye>
but afterwards College-Lane, a house or college for
14 priests. This body was styled 'Socielas Presbyte-
rorum annuellarum novae aulae Wellensis,' and was
* The Latinity of our records, and some of our writers, is amusing,
t Monast. Anglic, vol. i. p. 1045.
J See the Index to his Notitia Monastica, an d also the article ' Salisbury.'
$ See Atkins's Gloucester, p. 610, and Godwin, fol. edit. p. 37S.

RALPH ERGHUM. 195
settled in 1407. An 'annuellere secular' is defined by
Dr. Hutton in the Glossary to Chaucer, a secular who
receives a yearly stipend. The College was dedicated
lo St. Ann, and endowed with lands to the amount of
£83. l6s. per annum.*
To the Dean and Chapter of Wells, he gave a missal,
value £22. gold and silver plate value £82. and a
messuage in Wells called " the George," &c.
In the life of Bishop Ralph de Salopia, I have already
observed, that he was the Prelate who surrounded the
episcopal Palace with the moat and embattled wall.
Collinson, however, and after him others, have stated, on
the authority of a MS. entitled Ruber Codex Bathonia,-\
that these were the works of Erghum. The latter
probably only repaired the walls or enlarged the moat.
The Canonicus Wellensis and Bishop Godwin ascribe
them to Bishop Ralph de Salopia. _
The former writer has the following sketch of the
subject of this article : J —

* See some account in Collinson's Hist. Somerset, vol. iii. p. 383.
t " The Ruber Codex Bathoniae, was," as Mr. Britton observes in his
History of Wells Cathedral, (p. 41.) "during some part of the 17th.
Century, in the possession of Mr. John Packer, au Alderman of Bath ;
aud afterwards in that of Dr. Thomas Guidott, who, in 1703, gave it to
Thomas [Thynne] Viscount Weymouth; from whom it descended to
the present Marquess of Bath. It is fairly written on vellum, and
contains 69 leaves : the covers being of thick wood coated with leather ;
in mnny instances the initial letters are elaborately ornamented. The
contents are extremely various, viz. historical, legendary, medicinal,
juridical, statistical, &c. It was written previously to the year 1428,
with the exception of a few sentences of more recent insertion."
% Wharton. Ang. Sac. part i. p. 570,

196 RALPH ERGHUM.
" Radulphus Erghum, Legum Doctor, XIX
" Episcopus; qui IX die Decembris apud Brugis in
" Flandna Anno MCCCLXXV consecratus est in
" Episcopum Sarum ; ubi sedit Episcopus per XII
" annos integros, et ulterius d IX die mensis Decem-
" bris usque ad Festum Exaltationis S. Crucis anno
" MCCCLXXXVIII. quo die apud Cantabrigiam
" praesentatae fuerunt sibi literae Apostolicae de transla-
" tione sua facia ab Episcopatu Sarum ad Episcopatum
" Bathon. Et eadem die Ricardus II. contulit sibi
" temporalia sua. Sedit in Episcopatu Bathon :
" aunis XII. mensibus VI. diebus VI & in navi
" Ecclesia? Wellensis sepelitur juxta altare S. Edmnndi
" Episcopi. Iste dedit Decano 8c Capitulo Wellensi
" patronatum Ecclesiae de Pokulchurche, Sc 1 marcas
" in subsidium expensarum factarum circa umonem
" dictae Ecclesiae ad.mensam Capitularem & aliaonera
" in Ecclesia Wellensi supportanda,. ac unum messu-
" agium in Wellis-l, quod vocatur "le George," ad
" supportanda quaedam alia onera per ipsum limitata,
" Dedit etiam eisdem unum calicem auri cum patera
" pretii liv. librarum, unum Missale pretii XXII
" librarum, duas pelves argenti deauratas pretii XX.
" librarum, and unum osculatorium pretii VIII
" librarum. Fecit etiam construi per Executores suos
" in vico vocato "la Mounterye" mansiones pro XIV.
" Capellanis in dicta Ecclesia Wellensi indies cele-:
" brantibus."
In the note appended to the foregoing, his Editor
adds : —
" Radulphus Sarum Episcopus ad Bathoniam trans-*
" latus est Bulla Urbani VI Papae data 1388, 3 April,

RALPH ERGHUM. 197
" ProFessionem Archiepiscopo apud Cantabrigiam
" fecit die 14 Sept. & Spiritualia die sequenti accepit.
" Bullae in Capitulo Wellensi lectae sunt die 19 Sept.
" Cantariam in Ecclesia Wellensi fundavit 1399- 20.
" Januar. pro anima Gilberti & Agnetis parentum
" suorum & Agnetis Robas sororis suae. Testamentum
" ejus in Curia Archiepiscopali probatum est 1400.
" 19. April.* Si tamen Canonicus noster annos
" Pontificates gesti recte posuerit ; Radulphus 1400.
" 20 Martii obiit. Obitum 1401. 10 April, contigisse
" Godwinus refert; cui in Historia Episcoporum
". Bathon. praecipue credendum est. Earn enim prae
" alios diligenter contexuit, Ecclesiae Wellensis
" Canonicatu diu potitus. Errorem itaquein Registro
" Arundel aut in excerptis meis cubare arbitror."
Tomb. — " Bishop Erghum (died 1400,) was buried in
the nave ; his grave-stone, which lies on the west side of
the Chapel erected by Bishop Beckington's executor,
has been inlaid with a brass episcopal figure and two
shields, as may be traced by the indents, ""f"
Neither the arms or family of this Prelate are recorded
in the Heralds' College. Some notitia of hiin may be
found in my Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury, (at which
See he sat between 12 and 13 years.) See part i. p. 226.

* From the Registers of Archbishops 'Courtenay and Arundel, and
tfiose at Wells. t Britton's Hist. Wells Cathedr.

198 HENRY BOWET.
XXXV. HENRY BOWET, L.L.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1401. — Translated to York A.D.
1407. — Died A.D. 1423.
After the death of Bishop Erghum, Richard Clifford,
Archdeacon of Canterbury, and keeper of the Privy-Seal,
was advanced to this See by Papal provision ; but the
King (Henry IV.) wishing to bestow the preferment on
Archdeacon Bowet, refused to restore the temporalties to
Clifford ; whereupon the Pope nullifying his election,
(electione cassata) gave the Bishopric by a second
provisory bulle to the King's friend, who was duly elected
both at Bath and Wells. Clifford was for the time set
aside, but was afterwards compensated with the See of
Worcester, and died Bishop of London.
The earliest preferment of Bowet, that I find recorded,
is the Archdeaconry of Lincoln ; he was installed therein
March 23, 1386.* We find him also possessed of that
dignity in 1389, and indeed it is clear he held it till his
advancement to the mitre. Upon a false report of his
death, the Bishop of Lincoln had b estowed the preferment,
April 23, 1399, on one Richard Maudelyn, L.L.B. ;
but Bowet returning from abroad, was restored to it,
and received the profits that had accrued during his
absence. f He appears also, but I find no dates, to have
been Prebendary of Lincoln and Canon of Wells,
Having proved himself an active partizan of Henry
Plantagenet, Duke of Hereford, afterwards King of
* Willis. Cathedrals, vol. i. p. 101.
t Register of Beaufort.

HENRY BOWET. 199
England, under the title of Henry IV. he had been, in
1398, condemned to death by Richard II. but his
sentence was commuted to banishment. On the return
of his patron, the Duke of Hereford, to England, in 1399,
Archdeacon Bowet returned also, and was soon after
rewarded, by being elevated, to the Prelacy. He also
became Treasurer of England, a post which he filled in
the years 1401 and 1402, the 3rd. and 4th. of King
Hen. IV.
The Papal provisory bulle appointing him to Bath and
Wells, was of date 14 Cal. Sept. (Aug. 19,) 1401.
The temporalties were restored Sept. 21.* He made
his profession of obedience by his proxies, Sept. 28, and
was consecrated in St. Paul's Church, in the presence of
the King and the Lancastrian nobles, on the 20th. of
November.^ In 1406, he conducted Philippa of Lancaster, the
King's daughter, into Denmark, to be married to the
King of that country ; for which services he was translated
to York, December 1, 1407, by Papal provision, the
bulle being dated non. Oct. (7) : he had the temporalties
of York restored Dec. 1 ;J received his cross Aug. 27,
1408, and was enthroned Dec. 9 following.^
He died at Cawood, about 1 2 miles from York, Oct.
20, 1423, and was buried in York Cathedral.

* 4 Pat. 2 H. IV. m. 5.
t See the Registers of Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury,
f. 13. Of Bishop Bowet at Wells. Le Neve. Fasti, pp. 33 and 156.
t Rymer. Fcedera, vol. viii. p. 503.
§ Reg. Eccl. Ebor. See Le Neve. Fasti, p. 309.

200 HENRY BOWET.
His will was dated Sept. 9, 1421, and proved Oct. 26,
1423. Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College : — Argent,
three bucks' heads caboshed, Sable.
The following is the mention made of our Prelate by
Willis :*—
" Henry Bowet, L.L.D. Archdeacon and Prebend-
" ary of Lincoln, first, Canon, and next, Bishop of Bath
" and Wells, became translated to this See (York,)
" Oct. 7, 1407. He was, as Mr. Torr says, famous
" for his housekeeping, exercising so great hospitality
" that he usually expended 80 tons of claret yearly.
" He died at Cawood, Oct. 20, 1423 ; the great hall
" of which palace he had built, and was buried in the
" Cathedral, where yet his monument remains. In
" his will, which bears date Sept. 9, 1421, he gives
" some vestmeuts to Wells Cathedral ; to Tuppohn
" Abbey, County of Lincoln, where his mother lay
" buried ; and to Penrith, County of. Cumberland,
" where his father was interred."
From Drake's History and Antiquities of York, p,
440:— " Henry Bowet, 49th. Archbishop. The See of
" York remained void for the space of two years aud a
" half ; during which time there were two nominations
" to it, but neither of them were confirmed. At
" length, all parties concurred in the nomination of
" Henry Bowet, Bishop of Bath and Wells ; he had
" the temporalties restored to him Dec. 1, 1407, (I

* Cathedr. vol, i. p. 40.

HENRY BOWET. 201
" Pat. 9 Hen. IV. m. 15) ; and on the 9th. of the
" same month, was installed, in person, in his Cathedral
" Church, near the altar of our lady.
" This Prelate was first Archdeacon and Prebendary
" of Lincoln ; then made Canon of Wells ; afterwards
" he travelled for some time in France and Italy.
" This 'travelling,' as it is coolly called, was, in fact,
" exile. And at his return home, anno 1402, was
" made Bishop of Bath and lord Treasurer of England-
" There is nothing remarkable recorded of him in
" history relating to York, save that, in the year 1417,
" the Scots invading England, as was usually their
" custom when our Kings were warring in France, (so
" whilst Henry V. was carrying on a successful war
" against the French, the wardens of the north parts of
" England assembled their forces to stop the progress
" of the Scotch, who had already beseiged Berwick
" and Roxborough,) our Prelate, tho' old, and so
" infirm that he could neither walk nor ride, yet
" would needs go in this expedition, and was therefore
" carried in a chair ; which action so animated the
" English army, that they fell upon the Scots, and
" drove them back, with great slaughter, into their
" own country.*
" The Archbishop also is much commended for his
" great hospitality, even above any of his predecessors.
" And truly, if the consumption of fourscore tons of
" claret, which is said to have been yearly spent in his

* The preceding account, I find is chiefly taken from Thomas
Walsingham. The structure ofthe sentence is ao gauche anA ungram -
statical, that we can only guess at what the writer means to convey.
c c

202 HENRY BOWET.
" several palaces, can make us guess at lesser matters,
" it must argue beef and ale in abundance. To this
" purpose, I suppose, he built the great hall in the
" castle of Cawood, and the kitchens in the manner
" house of Ottley. He died at the first named place,
" Oct. 20, 1423, and was buried in the east part ofthe
" Cathedral, near the altar of All Saints, which he had
" built and adorned very sumptuously. His tomb,
" exactly opposite to that of his unfortunate predecessor,
" [Scrope].is a curious piece of Gothic architecture.
" The stone which covered the grave being thought
" proper to be removed and sawn for the use of the
" new pavement, the remains appeared ; among which
" was found nothing remarkable, but his archiepiscopal
" ring, which is gold, and has an odd kind of stone set
" in it. On the inner verge is engraven, as a poesy,
" these words : ' ftomuur ft S.oge.' "
This Henry made his will, dated at Thorpe, juxta
Ebor. September 9, 1421 ; which was proved before the
chapter of York, October 26, 1423. By this, " he gave
his soul to God Almighty his Creator," and his body to
be interred as above. He gave for the expences of his
funeral £100. and £20. more to have a thousand masses,
after the manner of St. Gregory's rental, celebrated for
his soul, and those of his parents, &c. within a month
after his death. — (Torre, p. 237.)
" From the Canonicus Wellensis : —
" Henricus Bowet Legum Doctor, XX Episcopus,
" apud Bathoniaim electus a majori parte Capitulorum
" Bathoniensis 8c Wellensis Sed Papa spreta electione
" ipsius, providit venerabili viro Ricardo Clifford
" Archidiacono Cantuariensi, Custodi Privati SigilU

HENRY BOWET. 203
" Regii, de Episcopatu praedicto. Cujus provisioni
" Rex Henricus IV. noluit consentire. Ideo Ricardus,
"quia liberationem Temporalium Episcopates prae-
" dicti, k Rege non potuit obtinere, dictam provisi-
" onem penitus refutavit, vacationemque Sedis Episco-
" palis Wigorniensis modico. tempore expectavit, de
" qua Papa.statim sibi providit; #c postea Henrico
," contulit dictum Episcopatum Bathoniensem. Qui
" sedit ibi annis fere VIII. deinde translatus ad Sedem
Eboracensem ."*
•Note by Wharton :f —
" Henricum Bowet, Archidiaconum Lincolniensem,
*' Capitula Bathon 8c Wellen canonice elegerunt.
" Episcopatum interea Bonifacius IX. Papa, Rege
" inconsulto, Ricardo Clifford Arcbidiacono Cantua-
" riensi jure provisionis contulit. Hunc a Rege
" rejectum Papa, ut repulsam aequihs ferre posset, ad
" Episcopatum Wigorniensem transtulit 1401. 19 Aug.
" eodemque' die He/iricum Bowet Sedi Bathoniensi
" provisionis titulo praefecit. Spiritualia Henricus ab
" Archiepiscopo accepit, professione per Procuratores
"facta 1401. 28. Sept, 8c consecrates est a Thom&
41 Archiepisco in Ecclesia S. Pauli London. 1401. 20.
" Novembr. praesente Henrico Rege Neque enim
''antea ipsum Archiepiscopus confirmare vel consecrare
" ausus fuerat, intercedente Papali alterius provisione.
" Anno 1401. 9- Dec. Suffraganeum sibi Episcopum
" constituit Fr. Johannem Grenlaw O. M. Episcopum
" Soltaniensem, qui paulo ante consecratus fuerit a

Aug. Sac. i. p. 571. , t 11',

204 HENRY BOWET.
" Johanne Sorensi 8c Thomsl Constantiensi Episcopis
" Ipse enim Henricus arduis regni negotiis admotus
" Thesaurarius Anglia; 1402. 17 Febr. creatus est; 8c
" medio anno 1406. Henrici Regis filiam Danorum
" Regi matrimonio jungendam in Daniam deduxit.
" Horum laborum mercedem tulit Archiepiscopatum
" Eboracensem j ad quernii Gregorio XII. PapS,
" Rege postulante, provisus est 1407. 7. Octobr.*
" Multis ante Episcopatum susceptum armis juratissi-
" mus Henrici Ducis Herefordeusis postea Regis
" Angliae cliens fuerat; aded ut Ricardi Regis mandato
" sub exitum anni 1398 laesse majestatis accusatus ad
" capitale supplicium damnatus fuerit. Vitam tamen
" illi Ricardus indulsit ea conditione, ut deinceps
" exularet.-f"
The Henry Bowet who had the following preferments,
was a different person : —
" Prebendary of Strenshall, York, September 24,
1413; Prebendary of South-Cave, in the same, 1416;
Archdeacon ofthe E. R. of Yorkshire, 1416; Archdeacon
of Richmond, 1418, (whilst part of the diocese of York) ;
Prebendary of Moreton-Parva, York, between 1409 and
1420; Prebendary of Massam, York, between 1421 and
1426.— See Willis's Cathedrals, vol. i. pp. 97, 99, 153
161, 166, 586."

• Ex. Registris. Arundel et Bowet.
t This is what Torre and Drake call ' travelling' on the Continent,

.

NICHOLAS BUBWITH. 205
XXXVI. NICHOLAS BUBWITH,
Succeeded A.D. 1407-8,— Died A.D. 1424.

Bishop Bubwith, translated first from London to
Salisbury, which seems descending the ladder of epis-
"copacy, was finally removed hither : it is of this See that
he is best known as the Prelate.
Besides having sat successively Bishop of three dis
tinguished Sees, and having filled the high and important
office of Treasurer of England, which it appears he did
twice, viz. in the years 1401 and 1406, he enjoyed at
different times the following preferments : while " Vicar
of Naseby," says Baker,* "he was ratified by the King
in the, rectory of Brington, and Prebend of Ryton, in the
diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, by patent, 10th. of
July, 17 Ric. II. (1393) ; and confirmed Rector of
Brington, by a Papal bulle, February 4, 1395-6. He
soon exchanged both his Northamptonshire benefices for
more valuable preferments, 8cc." — Willis,f however,
slates he was admitted to the Prebend of Ruiton [or
Ryton] in 1391. Both may be correct: as after his
admission in 1391, some dispute may have arisen, and
his appointment may have been finally ratified by the
King in 1393. In 1392, we find him exchanging the
Church of Southill, in the diocese of Exeter, for a
Canonry of Lichfield. He was admitted to the Prebend
ofHegges, orHeyes, in Exeter Cathedral, June 2, 1396;
and to that of Wolvey, in Lichfield Cathedral, July 15,

* Hist. Northamptonsh. p. 91.
'¦'9 t Cathedr. vol. i. p. 459?

206 NICHOLAS BUBWITH.
1396; to the Prebend of Offley, in the same, Nov. 21,
1397; collated to a Prebend (name not mentioned)
in Exeter Cathedral, September 5, 1399, having been
previously admitted a Canon of Ripon, (April 19 in the
same year.) He was installed Archdeacon of Richmond,
(while part of York diocese) March 16, 1401, but in
two days exchanged that dignity for the Prebend of
Driffield, in York Cathedral.* Collated Archdeacon of
Dorset, July 9, 1400-1, (while part of Salisbury diocese)
and so continued till his elevation to the prelacy. f He
became Treasurer of England, February 27, 1401 ;J was
collated to the Prebend of Charminster, in the Church of
Salisbury, November 27, 1402 ; and to that of Thame,
in the Cathedral of Lincoln, in 1403.§ In 1402, Sept. 24',
he was made Master ofthe Rolls ; and next, Keeper of the
Privy Seal.|| In 1403, he was Chaplain to the Kinglf
He became Bishop of London, Sept. 26, 1406,** by
Papal provision.ff the temporalties being restored

* Willis. Cathedr. vol. i. p. 96. f Le Neve. Fasti, p. 281.
J Pat. 3. Hen. IV. p. i. m. 11. MS. Gale.
§ Willis. Cathedr. vol. ii. p. 251.
|| Dugdale. Hist. St. Paul's, p. 287, and Le Neve. Fasti, p. 281.
If Wharton. De Episcopis Lond. et Assav, part ii. p. 152.
** Dugdale. Orig. Jurid. Chro,i. Scr. p. 56, where, for • Lincoln,' read
London. tt " Nicholas Bubwith was consecrated in the chapel of the manor-
house at Mortlake, Surry, by Archbishop Arundel and the Bishops of
Winchester and Worcester, 1406."— Manning & Bray, Hist. Surry, vol.
iii. p. 305, and Rymer. Fad. torn. viii. p. 451.

NICHOLAS BUBWITH. 207
Sept. 27 ;* and he again occurs Treasurer of England,
the 15th of April, 1406, 8th. Hen. IV.f He was
translated to Salisbury, August 30, 1407, the bulle
being dated June 22.J The temporalties of Sarum
were restored to him August 14, 1407.§ He made his
profession of obedience, by proxy, September 2, and in
person, October 2.|| From Salisbury, he was finally
translated to Bath and Wells, ^f the temporalties of which
were restored April 1, 1408.**
He was at the council of Constance, in 1414 ; and was
one of the thirty, who, by order of the council, were
joined to the college of Cardinals in the election of Pope
Martin V. in 1417. Having sat about seventeen years,
he died October 27, 1424, and was buried in Wells
Cathedral, in a chapel which he had erected.-}")-
Benefactions, fyc. — He built the alms-house at Wells,
called by his name, for twenty-four poor men and women,
on the north side of St. Cuthbert's Church ; dedicating
it to our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and All Saints.
This was augmented by Bishops Beckington, Bourne,
Still, Montagu, and Willes. JJ He contributed con-
* 2 Pat. 7 Hen. IV. m. 3. t 2 Pat. 8 Hen. IV. m. 24.
t Regist. Archbp. Arundel, f. 37. § Rymer. Fosdera, vol. viii. p. 496.
|| Regist. Archbp. Arundel, and Le Neve Fasti, p. 259.
t Register Arundel, f. 40. Many of these preferments are recorded in
Newcourt's Repertorium, vol. i. p. 21.
** Rymer. Fosdera, vol. viii. p. 512.
tt Regist. ipsius, and Le Neve. Fasti, p. 33.
It Xeuodochium apud Welles Nicholaus' Bubwith episcopus Batho-
Wellensis primum fundator," says .Leland .^-Collectanea, vol. i. p. 119.

208 NICHOLAS BUBWITH.
siderably towards the erection of the north-west tower of
the Cathedral ; built the Library over the cloisters of
the Cathedral ; and, within the latter, opposite the pulpit,
a little Chapel, still called " Bubwith's Chapel," where he
was buried, in 1424 ; and where he appointed a Priest,
at a certain salary, to say mass for his soul. He appro
priated to the Church of Wells, the rectory of Buckland-
Abbas, which had before belonged to the Bishopric of
Salisbury. " Cartam regiam/'l says Wharton, " obtinuit
pro instituenda Gilda &. Crucis, apud Stratford super
Avon, quod cum aliis postea effecit."
Leland thus records the Hospital or Aims-House : —
" There is an hospital of twenty-four poore menne and
wymen, at the north side of St. Cuthberte's church; there
is a cantuary (chantry) preste ; the hospitale and the
chapelle is buildid al in lenghth under one roofe, from
west to east. Nicholas Bubwith, Bishop of Bath, was
founder, and brought it almost to perfection ; and that
that lakked, was completed by one John Storthwayt, one
of the executors of the testament of Bubwith." —
Itinerary, vol. ii. p. 69.
The same author adds, elsewhere, " Juxta pontem
amniculi in Meridionali parte urbis versus Glessenbyri,"
8cc. ; "hoc opus inceptum a Gulielmo [read Nicolao
Bubwith." — Itin. vol. iii. pp. 388, 480.
Arms. — The chapel of the hospital has, or had, in its
window, what are said to be the arms of Bubwith : Sable,
a bend Or, between six plates. These arms differ from
those which Wharton ascribes to Bishop Bubwith.
" Arma ejus in fenestra quadam bibliothecae Ecclesiae
Wellensis in vitro imperfecte depicta manent, viz 4 folia
viridca figuram quadratam efficientia et claudentia ; arma

NICHOLAS BUBWITH. 209
enim portavit in scuto. Arg. Fasciam evectam inter 3
quadratas corollas virides, quarum singulae ex quatuor
foliis iliceis sunt efformatae." In a note in the
" Catalogus Episcoporum Bath, et Well. Fra. Godwin,"
appended to " Johannis de Whelhamstede Chronicon,"*
we find the following : — " Bubwithi insignia ad oiam
depicta sic dicimus incondite fortasse, sed tamen ut res
intelligi possit. Arg. a fesse engrailed Sable between
three cliaplets 0f holly leaves, proper ; each chaplet con
sisting of four leaves placed fretwise."
The Arms, however, ascribed to him, in the Heralds
College, are : — Argent, a fess dancetee between two
chaplets, Sable.
Bishop Bubwith is the last Prelate recorded by the
Canonicus Wellensis, who thus writes : —
" Nicholaus Bubwith XXI. Episcopus, vir utro-
" bique discretes ac in spiritualibus 8c temporalibus
" circumspectus 8l providus, maneriorumque Episco
pates sui sed ul us reparator. Ipse prius fuit London;
" deinde Sarum, postea Bathoniensis Episcopus.
" Ipse etiam antiquas libertates Episcopates sui Uteris
" regiis confirmavit, 8c eundem Episcopatum suutn
" novis libertatibus ampliavit.
" Ob reverentiam bonae memoriae Radulphi Erghum
" nuper Bathoniensis Episcopi hos viros praedictos,
" temporibus suis magnificos, praesentibus recitare
"curavi; ipsorumque nomina per oblivionem inodernis
" fere incognita ad memoriam novae scripturae bene-
" ficio commendavi. Quorum animas quaeso pro
"beneficiis nobis in terris largitis oinnipotens Dominus

• Bodl. 8vo. A. 3. 15. Jar. vol. ii. p. 679.
Dd

210 NICHOLAS BUBWITH.
" collocare dignetur in caelis de suk ineffabili bonitatis
" dementia." " Nicolaus Bubwith," adds the Editor, " supremus
" Angliae Thesaurarius, qui spiritualia Episcopates
" Sarum ab Archiepiscopo Cant, acctperat 1407. 2
" Octbr. ad Episcopatum Bathoniensem a Gregorio
" Pap& provisus die 7. ejusdem mensis spiritualem
" illius jurisdictionem ab Archiepiscopo apud May-
" denston recepit 1408. 1. April, eodemque die Tem-
" poralia a Rege obtinuit. Anno 1414 ad Concilium
" Constantiense legatus, iter iniit subfinem anni, 8l
"in electione Martini V Pontificis 1417, 11 Nov.
" unus ex 30. electoribus consiliums, suffragium tulit
" Anno 1423. Ecclesiam de Buckland Abbatis
" Dioceseos Sarum, cujus patronatus ad. Sedem suam
" spectavit, Ecclesia; Wellensi appropriavit ad susten-
" tandos tres Capellanos quotioie pro anima ipsius
" celebraturos ad altare iu navi Ecclesiae sumptibus
" suis erectum. Anno itidem sequenti in Ecclesia
"Bathon. Capellam aedificavit; Scin eadem perpetuam
" Cantariam posuit. Obiit 1424. 27. Octobr. Ista
" omnia Registrum ipisus docet, cui in multis consonat
" Registrum Arundell."*
From Bishop Godwin, under London : — " 62.
September 26, 1406. Nicholas Bubwith was consecrate
Bishop of London at Mortlake. Within little more than
the compasse of that one yeere, he was twice translated ;
first to Salisbury, August 31, 1407, and then to Bath,
October 5, the same yeere. "f

* Aug. Sac, i. p. 571. t Edit. 1615, p. 200.

NICHOLAS BUBWITH. 211
Under Salisbury : — " 36. Nicholas Bubwith, being
Bishop of London, and Treasurer of England, left
both those places* for Salisbury, which also he was
content to forsake to accept Welles ; within the compasse
of one yeere after, he was first consecrat to London.
This man being at the Counsell of Constance, was
appointed one of those thirty persons that werejoyned with
the Cardinalls in the election of Pope Martin the fifth.
He- built an almes-house upon the north side of St.
Cuthbert's Church, endowing it with good possessions
for the reliefe of many poor persons. They were much
encreased aftewards by one Storthwayt, somewhat also by
Bishop Bourne, and lately, by the now Bishop
Montague: so that now it maintaineth 24 poore people.
He impropred unto our Church the parsonage of Buck-
land- Abbatis ; he built our library over the cloysters ;
and a little chappell for morrow masse over against the
great pulpit. In that chappell (built belike for the
place of his buriall,) he founded a chantry; and dying
October 27, 1424, was there enterred. It is supposed
he was a great benefactor and contributor toward the
building of the north west tower, at the west end of the
Church ; which his arms fixed upon divers places of the
same doe partly shew. It is believed also, that he gave
Bicknaller unto the Church, which I find to be the gift
of William Button, the second, and not his, as before is
declared, "f

* Non constat as to " both."
t Edit, 1615, p. 373. See Richardson's edit. 1743, p. 379,

SI4 JOHN STAFFORD.
Tomb. — " On the north side of the nave, beneath the
2nd. arch from the transept, is the monumental chapel of
Bishop Bubwith, who was interred there in 1424. This
elegant little structure was erected by himself, and
endowed for the support of a chantry^priest to pray for
his soul. In the upright, it consists of two divisions of pan-
nelled arches, surmounted by a cornice ornamented with
trailing vine-branches and other sculpture. The tracery
of the upper division is divided into many parts : and on
each side, and over the' two door ways, which open to the
north and south, it is finely pierced. At the east end, in
the inside, are various niches, with rich canopies now
greatly mutilated ; and at tee west end, is a shield of
arms, namely, that of the See impaling Bubwith. The
latter a fesse engrailed between three groups of conjoined)
holly leaves, four in each."*
Memoirs of this Prelate, as Bishop of Salisbury, may
be found in Cassan's Lives ofthe Bishops of Salisbury,
part i. p. 237- «

XXXVII. JOHN STAFFORD, L.L.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1425. — Translated to Canterbury.
A.D. 1443.— Died A.D. 1452.
This Prelate was of illustrious birth and descent; being
the 9th son of Humphrey de Stafford, 7th baron of Stafford
by writ, 1 5th. including those by tenure, and 6th. Earl of
Stafford, K.G. created Duke of Buckingham, 14, Sept.
* Britton's Hist. Wells Cathedr. p. llO.

JOHN STAFFORD. 213
1444, son of Edmund, 5th. Earl, K.G. by Ann Plan-
tagenet, daughter and heiress of Thomas of Woodstock,
Duke of Gloucester, younger son of King Edward III.
The first baron of Stafford, (by tenure,) was Robert de
Stafford, temp. Win. I, who held various lordships at the
general survey. From him, the Bishop was lineally
descended. After eight barons by tenure, Edmund de
Stafford, son and heir of Nicholas the 8th. baron, who
died 1287, was the first baron Stafford, by writ, in 1299.
His son and heir, Ralph, was summoned to Parliament
from 14 Jan. 10 Edw. III. 1337, to 25 Nov. 24 Edw.
III. 1350; and was created Earl of Stafford, 5 March,
1351, He married Margaret, daughter and heir of
Hugh de Audley, second baron Audley, by writ, and
{jure uxoris) Earl of Gloucester, K.G. by Elizabeth de
Clare, grand-daughter of King Edw. I. This Ralph,
1st. Earl, was father of Hugh, 2nd. Earl, who was
father of Thomas, William, and Edmund, 3rd. 4th. and
5th. Earls. Edmund, 5th. Earl, who married Ann
Plantagenet, was slain 1403, and was father of Humphrey
Stafford, 15th. baron, 6th. Earl, and first Duke of
Buckingham, who was slain 1460. He was father of
our Prelate. Henry de Stafford, Lord High Constable,
K.G. grandson and heir of the first Duke, and nepheiv of
the Bishop, was beheaded in 1483. His son, Edward,
well known in English history, who was also Lord High
Constable and K.G. was likewise beheaded 1521, aud
being attainted, all his honors became forfeited.
Bishop Stafford was born at Hook, in the parish of
Abbotsbury, in Dorsetshire, and brought up at Oxford,
of which University he became L.L.D. He practised

214 JOHN STAFFORD.
as a Civilian in the Arches Court ; and was advanced
by the celebrated Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Can
terbury, to be his Vicar-General.
His high connections, and his great merit, seem to
have occasioned the tide of preferment to flow in fast
upon him. He became, through Archbishop Chicheley's
favor, Dean of St. Martin's, in London ; Prebendary of
Stow, in Lindsey, in the Cathedral of Lincoln ;* Arch
deacon of Sarum, September 9, 1419 ;f Chancellor of
the Cathedral of Sarum, October 30, 1421 4' Dean of
Wells, September 9, 1423 ;§ a member of the Privy
Council to King Henry V. ; Keeper of the Privy Seal ;
and, in 1422, Lord High Treasurer of England ; a post
which he resigned in 1426. The year before that
resignation, he had been made, through the provisory
bulle of Pope Martin V. Bishop of Bath and Wells,
the temporalties of which were restored May 12, 1425 ;||
and he was consecrated the 27th. of the same month, on
the feast of Pentecost, in the Church of the Freres^
[vulgarly called ' Friars'] Preachers, ^f in London.**

* Willis. Cathedr. vol. ii. p. 241. Bishop Godwin also calls him Pre
bendary of Milton, in Lincoln Cathedral.
t Le Neve. Fasti, p. 274.
1 lb. p. 268, Godwin calls him Prebendary of Sarum.
§ lb. p. 36. || See 1 Pat. 3 H. VI. m. 8.
t " Ecclesia Fratrum Pra. dicatorum," says Richardson, in Godwin,
p. 379, rather Fratrum prwdicantum. ** See his own Register.

JOHN STAFFORD. 215
At length, in 1432, he was advanced to the high station
of Lord Chancellor ; and, finally, in 1443, he became
Archbishop of Canterbury. The Papal bulle of Pope
Eugenius IV. was dated Id. Maii (15 May), 1443 ; the
•temporalties were restored June 25. He was consecrated
Aug. 23, and enthroned 10 Cal. Oct. (September 22.)
At Canterbury, he presided 9 years, and dying at Maid
stone,* Kent, July 6, 1452, after holding a Convocation
at London, was buried in the " Martyrdome," as Godwin
calls it, [Martyrium,]f Canterbury Cathedral. He is
remarkable for having been Lord Chancellor for the
long space of 18 years, and a Prelate 27.
The following is his Epitaph : —
" Quis fuit, Enuclees, quern celas saxea moles ?
" Stafford Autistes, fuerat dictusque Joannes.
" Qua sedit sede, marmor! quaeso, simul ede.
" Pridem Bathoniae, regni totius et inde
" Primas egregius. Pro praesule funde precatus.
" Aureolam grates huic det de Virgine JNatus."
The author of the " Continuatio Historia de Episcopis
Bathoniensibus," c)~c. in the Ang. Sacra, part i. p. 572,
has these notitia of Bishop Stafford : —
" Johannes Stafford. — Nicolao successit vir perquam
" nobilis§ ac eruditus, Johannes Stafford, filius natu
" nonus Humfredi Stafford Comitis Staffordiae postea

* Rymer. Fcedera, vol. ii. pp. 28. 29. Lib. Joh. Stone. MS. Le Neve.
i, p. 7. t Eng. Edit. 1615, p. 158. Richardson, p. 127.
* Mill. Catal. honor, p. 432.

216 JOHN STAFFORD.
" Ducis Buckinghamiae creati 1444. 14 Sept. & in
" praelio Northamtunensi occisi 1460. Julii. Abbatis-
" villae in Provincial Dorcestrensi natus ad inultiplices
" honores 8c dignitates successive provectus.* Ex
" causarum Advocate Vicarius generalis ab Heurico
" Archiepiscopo Cant, constitutus postea adjunxit
" Decanatum S. Martini London and Praebendas in
" Ecclesiis Lincolniensi 8c Sarisberiensi. Ab Henrico
" V. Rege Privati Sigilli Custos ab fHenrico VI,
" summus Angliae Thesaurarius 1422* 18 Dec. renun-
" tiatus, munus abdicavit 1426. 18 Martii. Eundem
" Ecclesiae Wellensis Canonicum Nicolaus EpiscopusJ
" anno 1413 Decanum 1423 creavit. Demum Nicolao
" successor designatus in Ecclesia Fratrum Praedica-
" torum Londini consecrates^ est 1425. 27 Maii in
" Festo Pentecostes. Anno 1432 Cancellariatum||
" Anglia die 28 Febr. sibi delatum suscepit, & ad
" annum usque 1450 administravit. Hoc munere ab
" Episcopalibus officiis in Diocesi suk obeundis
" avocatus, Johannem Oleiisem Episcopum 143.7. 10.
" Martii sibi Suffraganeum ascivit. Anno 1422. 10.
" April. Henricus Archiepiscopus^ gravi senectete
" fractus, datis ad Eugenium Papain literis, ut Archi-
" episcopatum abdicate sibi liceret, enixe petiit; &
" Johannem Wellensem Episcopum, quem subrogari
" sibi voluit, hoc elogio cohonestavit. " Fidenter ac
" secure in testimonio conscientia? mes carissimum

* Jocelin, p. 286. f Pat. 1 H. VII. p. 1. ni. 15.
t Reg. Bubwith. § Reg. Stafford. Well.
Dugdal. Chron..Ser. p. 60. 1] Epist. Beckington, f. 53.

JOHN STAFFORD. 217
" fratrem meum Johannem, Bathon : Episcopum,
" regni Angliae Cancellarium, ut patrem maxime
" meritum, Sc pro utilitatibus dictae sanctae Sedis, si
" universa virtutum dona, quae in eo concurrunt, quae
" (quod non dubito) S. V. notaesse debent, pensentur,
" summe necessarium, ad praesidentiam ejusdem sanctae
" Sedis V. S. humiliter reccommendo. Profecfo si
" praeter eminentem scientiam suam 8c cameras vitutum
" dotes, quibus faqiliter reliquos superat nobilitatem
w sanguinis, potentiam amicorum necessariorumque
" suorum, ac hospitalitatis gratiam in eo probe attendi-
" mus ; non puto facile inveniri posse, qui usquequaque
" in aptitudine, habilitate 8c merito ad tantum regimen
" commode subeundum mentis sibi possit aequari."
" Ejusdem* argumenti literas Henricus Rex ad Papain
" dedit 1442. 24. April, qui Johannem Papae antea
" commendaverat, si Henricum mori contigerit 1440.
" 2 Sept. Archiepiscopatum tamen Henricusf ante
" obitum non dereliquit ; cui Johannes anno 1443.
" auspicate successit, bulla Papali provisus die 13
" Maii, a Rege admissus die 6 Augusti."
Arms:— Or, on a chevron gules, a mitre, argent all
within a border engrailed, Sable.

* Epist. Beckington, f. 54. t Reg. Stafford. Cant.

Ee

218 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
XXXVIII. THOMAS BECKINGTON, L.L.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1443.— Died A.D. 1464.
This Prelate, a man of humble origin, being, according
to Baker's MSS.* the son of a weaver, is supposed to
have been a native of Becki.igton.t near Frome, Somerset,
was brought up at Winchester; and being noticed by
William of Wykham, was placed by him on the foundation
of his College there, whence he was transplanted, to
New College, Oxford, of which he became fellow, in
1408, and proceeded L.L.D.
Beckington obtained such celebrity on account of his
learning, that he was engaged as one of the superinten-
dantsofthe education of the young King Henry VI. a
circumstance which led to his subsequent greatness.
Most of our episcopal historians, carelessly following in
the beaten track of their predecessors, have used the word
superintendant as implying that Bishop Beckington was
the sole or chief conductor ofthe education of Henry VI.;
whereas, every reader of English history knows, that
Cardinal Beaufort had the chief conduct of that matter. J
* Itin. Gul. Worcester, p. 274. Richardson's edit, of Godwin, p. 380.
f Beckhampton, Somerset, says Richardson. lb.
% One caunot here help noticing the error of Goldsmith, who, when
speaking of the latter, calls him " Cardinal of Winchester." He never
was " Cardinal of Winchester," which was his Bishopric. His title as
Cardinal was " of St. Eusebius.' In his will, he calls himself " Cardinal
of England," but incorrectly. This arose from his being perhaps the
only Cardinal then in England'. Had Goldsmith chosen to stile him
Cardinal in conjunction with Winchester, a comma should have been put
after Cardinal.

THQMAS BECKINGTON. 219
His preferments, flowed in upon him in the following
order : — In 1430, he was Rector of St. Leonard's, near
Hastings; and of Sutton, in the diocese of Salisbury; and
also Dean ofthe Arches. While he filled that office, he
acquired much credit at Court, by a well-timed treatise
in confutation of the Salique law of France. The
treatise itself was nothing extraordinary; but, at that
juncture, it was pleasing to Government, and proved a
passport to the author's preferment. The Salique law
allows males only to inherit. It was an ancient law made
by Pharamond, King of the Franks, part of which seems
to have been borrowed by our Henry I. in compiling his
laws. ' Qui hoc fecerit, secundum legem Salicam mori-
alur,' <Src cap. 89- The reason of the Bishop's treatise
in refutation of the doctrine of this law, being acceptable
in the higher quarters, was, that at that time, the King of
England claimed also the French monarchy. It was an
article iu the treatj of Henry V. with the French court,
on his marriage with the Princess Catherine of France,
that he should be declared heir to the crown of France ;
which accordingly was claimed by Henry VI. (the issue
of that marriage,) jure matris : and every one knows
that when yet an infant, he was solemnly invested
with regal power by legates from Paris. It is
remarkable, however, that the very arguments adduced
against the Salique law to favor Henry's claims to the
crown of France, made against his right to the crown of
England. If he was rightful heir to the crown of France,
jure matris, then, Richard was rightful heir to the crown
of England, inasmuch as Richard, by his mother's side, was
descended from Lionel, son of Edward III. elder brother
of John of Gaunt, from whom Henry VI's. right was

220 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
derived. Consequently, had Beckington's doctrine been
acted on by the adherents of the White Rose, it must
have followed that Henry VI. was King of England, not
dejure, but only de facto.
In 1433, he was Prolocutor of the Lower House of
Convocation. In 1435, we find him Archdeacon of
Buckingham ; in the same year, Canon of York ; in
1439, Canon of Wells; in 1442, Chancellor of the
University of Oxford ; in the same year, he was sent as
ambassador to negociate the marriage of King Henry VI.
with Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regnier, titular
King of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem ; and, in the
following year, he was elevated to the purple as Bishop
of Bath and Wells. The bulle was dated 13th of May,
(1443.) The temporalties were restored September 24,
1443 ;* and he was consecrated October 13, following,
in Eton College Chapel. Besides these preferments, he
held the high civil offices of Chancellor to Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester ; Secretary of State ; and Keeper of
the Privy Seal.
Perceiving himself sickly, and not likely to live long,
Beckington made his will ; and fearing lest King Edward
IV. should nullify it, by picking some quarrel of
treason, as Godwin says, (a thing no doubt easy to be
done, as the Bishop had always been a Lancastrian,)
he, with great cost, procured from the said King a
confirmation of his will, dated November 3, 1464. His
will was made November 12. and proved January 23,
1464. It may be seen in Doctors' Commons, in the
book entitled ' Godyng,' p. 51.
* Ryiner. Fosdera, vol. ii. p. 43. See also 1 Pat, 22 H. VI. m. 33.

Feet

erected, &y JBisfop JBec^cin^&m,.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 221
He died January 14, 1464-5, and was buried in Wells
Cathedral, in a chantry-chapel he had built for himself,
on the south side of the choir. " Et consecrate," says
Richardson, " iisdem indutus ornamentis, in quibus
sepeliri voluit." *
Benefactions. — Bishop Beckington was a great
restorer of his episcopal houses, upon which he spent,
as he informs us in his will, 6,000 marks.
He built the rank of houses on the north side of the
market-place, at Wells, called " The New Works," and
the west side of the cloister.
To him the inhabitants of Wells are indebted for the
Conduit near the cross there, supplied by pipes from St.
Andrew's well, within the precints of the episcopal
palace. The grant was confirmed by the respective
Chapters of Bath and Wells, September 20, 1451.
Of this Conduit, an engraving, kindly contributed to
this work by my respected friend Sir Richard Colt
Hoare, Bart, of Stourhead-house, Wilts, accompanies
this work.
To Mr. Britton, I am indebted for the following
extract relative to the Conduit : —
"The Bishop's grant is to this effect: "To all
" faithful people in Christ, to whom this present
" writing indented shall come, Thomas, by Divine
" permission, Bishop of Bath and Wells, greeting, in
" Him, who, for the gift of a cup of cold water, hath
" promised eternal life. Forasmuch, as we know that
"some of the faithful doubt but that those .things
" which we saw on earth, with regard to eternity, we
" shall be certain to gather in heaven, with multiplied
" increase ; and as we may express ourselves, by

222 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
"copious handfulls* (handsful.) We, therefore,
" Thomas de Beckington, the undeserving Minister of
" the Churches of Bath and Wells, most earnestly
" desiring, while time is allowed us on earth, to labour
" for all people, but more especially for our nearest
" and most dear sons, William Vowell, master, and
" the brethren and fellow-citizens and burgesses of our
" city or borough of Wells, do grant to the said, 8cc.
" to have and to hold, for ever, of the Bishop and his
" successors, one head for a water-conduit, with
" troughs, pipes, and other necessary engines above
" and under ground, to be supplied from a certain
" water within the precincts of our palace, called St.
" Andrew's well, by pipes of lead twelve inches in
" circumference, 8cc. the overplus or waste water to
" run night and day, for the supply of the Bishop's
" mills." The said Vowell, the citizens and burgesses
" binding themselves in return, " to visit, once every
" year, the spot in Wells Cathedral, where Bishop
" Thomas [Beckington] should be interred, and there
" pray for his soul and the souls of all the faithful
" deceased :" for which service, the same Prelate
" granted them an indulgence of forty days."-f
In his will, he bequeathed to the Church of Wells,
,£20 ; four very sumptuous vestments ; <£400. to buy
copes ; a silver vessel for holy water, weighing lOlbs. ; a
cross of silver, partly gilt, of the same weight ; a chair
for the Bishop to use in the Church, which, says Godwin,

We must not criticise the tautology of copious hands full.
t History and Antiquities of Wells Cathedral, p. 47.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 223
yet remains ; to the Church of Bath, he left a cup, a
censor, Sec. besides thirty copes and other vestments.
To New College, Oxford, a silver cross, weighing
lOlbs. ; a bible, in four volumes ; a silver basin of lOlbs.
weight; certain copes, and other articles.
To Winchester College, a silver cross, double gilt,
weighing 9lbs. and lOoz. ; two silver candlesticks of the
same weight ; and a number of vestments.
To the Hospital of St. Catherine, in London, whereof
he had been Master, many vestments, and 50s. in money.
To the Church of Sutton-Courtney, a benefice of his, he
gave many vestments, beside £5. in money, to be divided
to the poor of the parish ; also the like sum to the poor
of Bedwin, of which Church it is said he was Prebendary ;
and so much more, besides certain vestments, to the poor
of Beckington. To the Austin-Freres, of Bristol, he
gave 10s. and to the Freres Minors of Bridgewater 20s.
To ten Priests that should study at Oxford, and daily say
mass for the souls of himself, his parents, and benefactors,
especially of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, William
Wykham, Bishop of Winchester, John Elmer, and
Walter Thurston, £5. each ; and to ten poor Scholars at
the same University, for five years, lOd. a week. To his
serving men of the better sort, he bequeathed £5. each ;
to his meaner yeomen five marks ; to every boy of his
household, 40s. ; and to so many of his servants as were
not provided with abiding places, meat, drink, and wonted
wages for three months after his decease.
To his successor, he gave ,£100. upon condition he
would accept it in lieu of all dilapidations, otherwise
willing that his executors should spend it all in law
against him ; and, lastly, to his executors, he left ,£20.

224 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
each, requiring them to employ all the rest of his goods
to God's uses at their discretion. His executors were
Richard Swanne, Provost of Wells, (formerly executor of
Richard Praty, Bishop of Chichester) ; Hugh Sugar,
L.L.D, Treasurer of Wells ; and John Pope, D.D.
Prebendary of St. DecumanJs. The residue, un-
bequeathed, was applied to the Vicars' Close at Wells,
which had been begun by Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury.
In his life time, the Bishop made a grant of certain
lands which belonged to the Bishopric, called Green
Castle, Forsbuths, Catslade, Bolehurst, and Frogmer, to
Thomas Dawbridge Courtly, who had married Beatrice,
a relation of his; signifying in the same deed, that Agnes
Raby or Robas, the sister of Bishop Ralph Erghum,
had formerly held them, as also Emma had done, who
was mother, and Agnes Bradley, sister of Bishop John
Stafford. He gave ,£200. towards the building of Lincoln
College, Oxford : with this benefaction, the Rector's
residence was erected.*
Of Bishop Beckington's literary performances, the
reader will see an account in the subjoined extract from
the Anglia Sacra, part i. p. 573 : —

* Thomas of Rotherham, Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards Arch
bishop of York, the 'fundator alter' of Lincoln College, added five
fellowships, one of them for » native of the diocese of Wells. This
fellowship can boast of having been filled by the Rev. Francis Skurray,
B.D. a native of Beckington, now Rector of Whiterborne-Abbas, Dorset;
a gentleman as distinguished for his literary attainments and poetic
powers, as for excellence of heart and the diligent discharge of hjs
pastoral duties. His Poem of Bidcombe-Hill, will be a lasting record of
energetic diction and genuine pathos.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 225
" Johannem excepit Thomas, vir egregie eruditus 8c
" insignis eruditorum Patronus, Beckhamptonae* in
" Somersetensi pago natus, in Collegio Wiccamico
" Wintoniensi bonis Uteris institutes est. Exin in
" Socium Collegii Novi Oxon anno 140S.+ ascites,
" Legum Doctor 8c Acadamiae Cancellarius creatus
" est. In aulam regiam evocatus, Henrico VI. Regi
" adolescentulo i\ studiis provectiori ab epistolis admotus
"est; multisque titulis Sc dignitatibus cumulates.
" Erat enim S. Leonardi prope Hastinges in Diocesi
" Cicestr. 8c Suttonae in Diocesi Saresber. Rector,^
" Decanus Curiae Archiepiscopalis de Arcubus dictae,
"abannocirc 1430. Cancellarius Humfridi Glocestriae
" Ducis, Archidiaconus Buckinghamensis, Canonicus
" Eboracensis§ 1435. 7. Julii Wellensis 1439, 21
" April, admissus. Maximis regni uegotiis 8c secre-
" tioribus Regis consiliis ab anno circiter 1430. ad
" acceptum Episcopatum adhibitus, & Privati Sigilli
" Custos ante exitum anni 1432. renuntiatus, max imam
" fidei, prudentiae et doctrinae famam tulit. Ineredi-
" bilis certe diligentiae & in rebus agendis solertiae
" indubita argumenta hodie supersunt plura ab ipso
" conscripta vel congesta literarum, instruction urn,
" orationum, fcederum aliorumque inonumentorum res
" in Anglia quin 8c universo orbe Christiano suo
"tempore gestas spectantium volumina. Ex his
" tria vidi perinsignia. Primum in Bibliotheca Archi-
" episcopali Lambethana asservatum continet plurimas
* Chandler in vita ejus, t Antjq. Oxon. p. 134.
t Reg. Chicliley. § Reg. Ebor. &. Well.
Ff

226 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" ipsius Epistolas seu proprio seu regio nomine
" scriptas, aliorumque seu ad ipsum seu ad Regem,
" dum Regi ab epistolis esset, missas; aliaque ejus
" aetatis praeclara monumenta quae in manus ipsius
" inciderunt, sine ulle ordine congesta. Haud dissimile
" est secundum, quod in Bibliotheca Cottoniana*
" habetur ; nisi quod hoc intuitu congestum videatnr
" ut Formularii loco inserviat. Innumera fere in eo
" reperiuntur instrumenta epistolae, orationes, pacta,
" absque formulae rerum in Anglia 8c Gallia gestarum
" ab anno 1417. Tertio quod ibidem extat, ipse
" titulum dedit : ' Opus fcompilatum per Thomam
" Balhoniensem Episcopum ex Uteris, allegationibus,
" conclusionibw, conventiouibus fy tractatibus nonnull-
" isque ali is negotiis concernentibus jus fy titulum Regis
" Anglia ad regnant Francia cum aliis multis qua ea
" occasione secutee sunt.' Incipit a tempore. Edwardi
" 3 Regis, 8c ad media Henrici VI. tempora deducitur.
" Inibi inter alia habentur Historiae valde prolixae seu
" Diaria duarum Legalionum a Rege Henrico VI.
" missarum. Prima titulum habet ' Acta fy processus
" in Conventione Atrebatensi anno 1435.' Secunda
" Acta in Conventione pro tractatu pads habita in
" marchiis Calesite anno 1439-' Huic adfuerunt ex
" parte Regis Angliae Henricus Cardinalis Winton.f
" Archiepiscopus Ebor. Episcopi Norwic. 8c Menev.

• Tiberius B. 6. f Tiberius B. 12.
t It seems unaccountable that the judicious Wharton should have fallen.
into the egregious error of calling Henry Beaufort " Cardinal of Win
chester." He was Bishop of Winchester aud Cardinal of St, Eusebius.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 227
" qui Calesiam appulerunt die 26 Junii. Eos die
" crastino secutus est Bekyntonus Regis Secretarius.
" Angliam reversi appulerunt die 2 Octobris. Idem in
" Vasconiam a Rege medio anno 1442. legates, diur-
*' nalem totius itineris atque legationis Historiam
•" conscripsit ; quae in Registro Caroli Booth
" Episcopi Hereford, locum habet. Anno 1433
" mense Novembri domo inferior! Convocation's*

* It is lamentable to every sound Churchman, every one who is yet
unbiassed by the modern doctrines of * liberality,' falsely so called, to
thiuk ofthe inroads which have, in canting times, been made upon the
Church. The Convocation, once the glory and the safe-guard of the
Church, and the Corporation and the Test Acts, which drew ahold,
pianly, decided, and uncompromising line of demarcation between him
who belonged to a Church, and him that belonged to no Church, are now,
alas ! no more. How would our sainted ancestors be amazed could they
behold their posterity's degradation ! As, in these days, the rights aud
immunities, we once possessed, are lost sight of, I will, as far as regards
the Convocation, rescue them from their unmerited oblivion. The Con
vocation, then, to which the liberalizing and apostate Bishop Hoadly
gave the death-blow, was, in point of fact, one of the three Estates ofthe
Realm ; for, to call the King an Estate, is nonsense : aud when men
talk of King, Lords, and Commons, as the three Estates, they talk they
know not what: the three estates are, Lords, Commons, and Con
vocation. Nothing can be that of which it is the head. A part can
not be the whole : the King can not be a state : for he is the head
of each state separately, and the head of all .conjointly. He is the
mput tricorporis forma. Bracton's definition of him is, that he
is the Head of the state. The Convocation was no less than a Parliament
of Clergy : an assembly ofthe representatives of the Clergy, to consult
of ecclesiastical matters iu time of Parliament; and as there are two
houses of Parliament, 30 there were two houses of Convocation : the one
called the Higher or Upper House, where the Archbishops and all the
Bishops sat severally by themselves 5 and the other' the Lower House of
Convocation, where all the rest of the Clergy sat, i. e. all Deans and Arch
deacons, one Proctor for every Chapter, and two Proctors for all the
Clergy»of each diocese, making, in the whole number, 163 persons. The
Convocation exercised jurisdiction in making Canons {xoimn rules) j

1228 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" Cleri Angliae* praesidit ; quando nomine totiils
" Cleri sententiam ab Episcopis rogati ; proposnit
" Concilium generate solo Papae Romani, nutu
" dissolvi posse ; adeoqueab Eugenii fide discedendum
" non esse, si Papam alteram a Basileensi Concilio
" creari contigerit. Tandem anno 1443. diuturni
" laboris premium accepit Episcopatum Bathoniensem
" defuncto siquidem Henrico Archiepiscopo Cant.
" Rex Johannem Bathoniensem Episcopum Henrico
" Tliomam Johanni subrogari voluit. Thomas scripsit
" ad Blondum Foroliviensem Papae Secretarium quo-
*' cUm maxima sibi intercesset familiaritas Uteris 1443.
" 27 April : regwim consilium ostendit ; utque rem
" Papa; cite expediendwm commendet, petit. Bulks
" provisionis Eugenius Papa edidit 1443 13 Maii.
" iiaium autontate spiritualia Episcopates Bathon.
" Thomas ab Archiepiscopo obtinuit die 5 Octobr.
" Consecratus est autem k Willelmo Lincoln Episcopo,J
" assistenttbus Willelmo Sarum & Nicholas Landav.
" in EcclesiA Collegiata veteri Etoniensi 1443. 13
" Octobr, Sc mox in Ecclesia nova ejusdem in Collegii§

they had Ithe examining and censuring of heretical and schismatical boohs
and /j.-'i-smis. In shun. Iter province, like that of the Roman Consuls,
mutatis mutandis, may, iu a word, be defined the taking care ' Ne quid
ttetrimenti Ecclesia caperet.' These were the privileges of tie Chinch in
an 'age goue iby. .
" Blest inge! but ah! how different from our own!"
I am not to be u.ld that the Convocation exists, because it is still
summoned iby the King's writ. What does that avail, if the Clergy do
not, and dale not, proceed to business ?— Edit.
* Reg. Chichley, vol. ii. f Reg. Stafford.
J Reg. Bekynton. $ Epist. Bekinton, f. 92, 93.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 229
" vix semiconstruct^ sub papalione ad altare erectum
" gupra locum ubi Rex Henricus, fundatoi mangnificus
" primuni posuerit lapidem, primam Missam Pontifi-
" calibus indutes celebravit. Episcopatum adeptus,
" regiis negotiis & consiliis adhiberi non desiit.
" Safl'rageneum enim sibi Episcopum constituit 1443.*
" 24 Nov. Jacobum Achadeiisem Episcopum; ipsoque
"ad Sedem Bangorensem translate, Johannem Teri-
" ensem Episcopum, Canonicum Regularem « rd. S.
" Augustini, 1459, 17 Octobr. sibi Snffragaiieum
" ascivit. anno 1445 antiqua inter Episcopum Bathon.
" & Monachos Glaston. contentio recruduit. Epis-
" copus Caenobium visitando rem perfunctorie trans-
" egisse non contentus, subtile examen de Monachorum
" moribus & discipline instituit. Abbas 6 contra
" visitationem ab Episcopo tamdiu continuari posse
" neguvit. Rei exitus incompertus latet. Beneficia
" ab ipso praestita Ecclesiae Wellensi & Collegiis
" Wiccamico & Lincolniensi Oxon. nullus facil^
" numerabit. Multa Godwinus memoravit, & legata
" ab illo in supremis tabulis sigiliatim recensuit.
"His tantum addere liceat; quod 1452. 13 Jan.
" consecravit altare quod erexerat in Capella, quam in
" Ecclesia Wellensi juxta Presbyterium construi
" fecerat in bono re B. Mariae Virginis bt S, Thomae
" Martyris : & die 15 Januarii Pontificalibus indutus
" ornamentis, quae in consecrationis die antea gesta-
" verat, in quibus itidem sepeliri voluit, sepulchrum
" suum infra dictam Capellam solenniter consecravit.

Reg. Bekynton.

230 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" Obiit Praesul optimus 1465. 14 Januarii iu hoc
" tantum infaelix, quod piissimum alumnum atque
" Dominum Henricum VI. Regem sceptro spoliatum
" & carceri indigne mancipatum ante quadriennium
" viderit."
Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College : — Argent,
on a fess azure, a mitre Or, in chief three bucks' heads
caboshed Gules, attired of the third, in base three pheons
sable.* He was fond of adopting as a rebus upon his name, a
beacon upon a large cask or tun. This appears in many
places built by him, or with which he was connected.
Fullerf thus notices our Prelate : —
" Thomas Beckington, was born at Beckington, iu
" this county [Somerset] ; bred in New College ; j
" Doctor in the Law, and Dean of the Arches ; till,
" by King Henry the Sixth, he was advanced Bishop
" of Bath and Welles.
"1. A good Statesman ; having written a judicious
" book to prove [the right of] the Kings of England
" to the crown of France, notwithstanding the pretended
" Salique law.
" 2. Churchman ; (in the then notion of the word)
" professing in his will, that he had spent six thousand
" marks in the repairing and adorning of his palaces.
"3. Townsman; besides a legacy given to the
" town where he was born, he built at Wells, where he
" lived, a fair conduit in the market-place.
* These arms I find in the Crypt at Wells Palace.
t Worthies, vol. ii. p. 281.
} New College Register, in anno 1408.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 231
" 4. Subject ; alwayes loyal to King Henry the
" Sixth, even in the lowest condition.
" 5. Kinsman; plentifully providing for his alliance
" with leases, without the least prejudice to the church.
" 6. Master ; bequeathing five pounds a piece to
" his chief, five marks a piece to his meaner servants,
" and fourty shillings a piece to his boys.
" 7. Man; he gave for his rebus (in allusion to his
" name) a burning beacon, to which he answered in
" his nature, being " a burning and a shining light."
" Witnesse his many benefactions to Wells Church,
" and the Vicars therein ; Winchester, New, Merton,
" but chiefly Lincoln Colledg, in Oxford, being little
" less than a second founder thereof.
" A beacon (we know) is so called from beckoning,
" that is, making signs, or giying notice to the next
" beacon. This bright beacon doth nod, and give hints
" of bounty to future ages ; but, it is to be feared, it
" will be long before his signs will be observed, under-
" stood, or imitated. Nor was it the least part of his
" prudence, that (being obnoxious to King Edward the
" Fourth) in his life-time he procured the confirmation
" of his will under the broad seal of England ; and
" died January 14, 1464."
The following article is from Kippis's Biographia
Britannica, vol. ii. p. 1 14 : —
" Thomas Beckington* was born in the parish of

* This name is variously written. In Leland, it is Becchendunus ; in
Pits, Bechintonus ; iu Godwin, de Bekintona ; and iu A. Wood,
Beckyn tonus.

232 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" Beckington,* in Somersetshire,-]- towards the end of
" the fourteenth century. He was probably educated
" in grammar learning at Wykham's school, near
" Winchester, and admitted Fellow of New College,
" Oxford, in 1408 ;J though some say he had also
" part of his education in Merton College.^ However,
" he continued Fellow of New College about twelve
" years, and took his degree of L.L.D.|| Within this
" period, most probably, he was presented to the
" Rectory of St. Leonard's, near Hastings, in Sussex,
" aud to the Vicarage of Sutton-Courtney, in Berk-
" shire.^f He was also Prebendary of Bedwin, York,
" and Lichfield ; Archdeacon of Buckingham ;** and

* Some say Beckhampton ; but it doth not appear that there is a
parish so named in Somersetshire, but only Beckington. Beckhampton
is in Wiltshire. Bishop Godwin thinks that T. Beckington was not born
in that Parish, because he left the poor of it only £5. iu his will ; and it
is probable he would have left them more, bad it been his native place.
Quis enim credideret beneficientiam erga solum natale tam angustis
terminis coerceiidam ? For, who could think his charity towards the
place of his nativity, should be confined within so narrow bounds. On
the contraiy, it appears, from the following verse, cited by Leland, that
he was really born there : —
" BecUiugtona iuihi dedit ortum ; Balnea-Fontes
" Fasces" — : 
i. e. Beckington gave me birth, and Bath and Wells dignity.
t Leland, Comment, de Script. Britan. p. 447. A. Wood, Antio. Cfniv,
Oxon. p. 134. Pits de Script, an 1540.
t A. Wood, ibid.
§ Godwin de Praisulibus, &c. Lond. 1616, p. 434. Anglia Sacra, Tom.
i. p. 573. || A. Wood, ubi supra, p. 130, 134. 1f Ibid.
»* Godwin, p. 434. Br. Willis's Survey, &c. vol. i. p. 119, 451, and
vol. ii. p. 121.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 233
" Master of St. Catherine's hospital, near the Tower,
" in London. About the year 1429, he was Dean of
" the Court of Arches ; and a synod being then held
" in St. Paul's Church, London, which continued
" above six months, Beckington was employed, jointly
" with William Linwood, Official of the Court of
" Arches, and Thomas Brown, Vicar-General to the
" Archbishop of Canterbury, to draw up a form of
" law, according to which the Wickliffites or Lollards
" were to be proceeded against.* Before our author
" was made Dean of the Arches, he was Advocate in
" Doctors' Commons.f But these preferments were
" inconsiderable, in comparison of the honours to which
" he was afterwards raised ; for, having been tutor to
" King Henry VI. J and written a book, wherein, in
" opposition to the Salique law, he strenuously asserted
" the right of the Kings of England to the crown of
" France, § he arrived at so great a degree of esteem and
" favor with that prince ;|| and in consequence of that,
" wasmade Secretary of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal,

* Pits, de Illust. Angl. Script, an. 1450, n. 842.
f Wood, ubi supra, p. 134.
t A. Wood, Hist. Sf Antiq. Univ. Oxon. p. 130.
§ Leland, ubi supra. Bale, Script. Britan. Cent. viii. u. 10. Pits, de
lllustr. Angl. Script, an. 1450, n. 842.
II This book is preserved in MS. in the Cottonian Library, Tiberius, B.
xii. Some other pieces of his are in the same Library ; Tiber. B. vi.
And a large collection of his Letters is iu the Archbishops' Library at
Lambeth. There are also ascribed to him a book of Sermons and a few
other things.

234 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" and at last Bishop of Bath and Wells.* He was
" consecrated October 13, 1443, in the new Chapel
" of Eton College, which was not yet finished ; and
" was the first that officiated in that Chapel.+
" His character is thus represented : — He was well
" skilled in polite learning and history, and very
" conversant in the holy scriptures ; a good preacher,
" and so generous a patron and favourer of all learned
" and ingenious men, that he was called the Maecenas
" of his age.J As for his works of munificence and
" charity, they were numerous. He finished Lincoln
" College, § which had been left imperfect by its
" founder, Richard Flemming, Bishop of Lincoln ;||
" and got the manor of Newton- Longville settled'upon
" New College, Oxon, in 1440. ^ Moreover, he laid
" out 6000 marks upon the houses belonging to his
" See ; built an edifice, called New-Buildings, and
" the west side of the cloisters at Wells ; and erected a
" conduit in the market-place of that city.** By his
" will, which he made November 3, 1464, and procured

* Angl. Script, an 1540, n. 842, and Godwin, ubi supra, p. 433.
f Godwin, ibid.
J Leland, Bale, and Pits, ubi supra. Wood, Hist, and Ant iq. p. 134.
5 Godwin, ubi supra.
|| Bishop Godwin observes, that the memory of that is preserved, by
the rebus carved upon the walls of the College, namely, a beacon and a
tun. f Wood, ubi supra, p. 433. ** Godwin,' ubi supra, p. 433.

THOMAS BECKINGTON: 235
" to be confirmed under the great seal,* he left
" several legacies. f Tins generous person died at
" Wells, January, 14, 1464-5, and was buried in his
" Cathedral, where his monument is still to be seen. J
" His panegyric was written by Thomas Chandler,^
" Warden of New College, who had been preferred by
" him to the Chancellorship of Wells, || He doth not
" appear to have ever been Chancellor of the Univer-
" sity of Oxford."!!
Chalmers, in the Biographical Dictionary, edit. 1812,
vol. iv. p. 3 1 7, gives us the subjoined outline of this
celebrated Prelate's life : —
" Thomas Beckington, Bekynton, or de Bekinton,
" was born in the parish of Beckington, in Somerset*
" shire; or, according to Dr. Chandler, at Wallingford,
" in Berkshire, towards the close of the fourteenth
" century. He was educated in grammar learning .at
" Wykham's school, near Winchester, while that

* This he did, lest, as he had been a great stickler for the Lancastrian
interest, King Edward IV. who was theu reigning, should seize his effects
after his decease, upon some pretence or other.
t Particularly ;g20. for repairing the Cathedral of Wells, and £400. for
buying plate and vestments for the use of the same ; a great quantity of
plate to Wykham's school, near Winchester, and to New College, Oxon ;
to St. Catherine's hospital, 50*. ; to the parishes of Beckington, Sutton-
Courtney, and Bedwin, £5. a piece, to be distributed amongst the
poor, &c. t Godwin, ubi supra, p. 435. Wood, ubi supra, p. 134.
§ A. Wood observes, that Leland, Bale, Pits, and Godwin, are
Mistaken, in calling him John ; for his true name was Thomas.
II Wood, ubi supra. % Anglia Sacra, p. 573.

236 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" Prelate was living, and proceeded to his College,
" (New College) in Oxford, in 1403, the year before
" Wykham died ; and there became L. L. D. and
" continued in his fellowship about twelve years.
" Within this period, most probably, he was presented
" to the Rectory of St. Leonard's, near Hastings, in
" Sussex, and to the Vicarage of Sutton-Courtney, in
'* Berkshire, He was also Prebendary of Bedwin,
" York, and Lichfield ; Archdeacon of Buckingham ;
" and Master of St. Catherine's hospital, near the
" Tower, in London. About 1429, he was Dean ofthe
" Court of Arches ; and a synod being then held in St.
" Paul's Church, London, which continued above six
" months, Beckington was one of the three to draw up
" a form of law, according to which the Wickliffites
" were to be proceeded against. Having been once
" tutor to Henry VI. and written a book, in which, in
" opposition to the Salique law, he strenuously asserted
"the right of the Kings of England to the crown of
" France, he arrived to high favour with that Prince,
" and was made Secretary of State, Keeper of the
" Privy Seal, and Bishop of Bath & Wells. OnSunday,
" Oct. 13, 1443, he was consecrated by the Bishop
" of Lincoln in the old Collegiate Church of St. Mary
" of Eton ; and alter the ceremony, celebrated his first
" mass in his pontificals, in the new Church of St.
" Mary, then erecting,* and not half finished, under a
" pavilion provided for the purpose at the altar, directly
" over the spot where King Henry had laid the first
" stone. * i. e. being erected.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 237
" Bishop Beckington was well skilled in polite
" learning and history, and very conversant in the holy
" scriptures ; a good preacher, and so generous a
" patron and favourer of all learned and ingenious
" men, that he was called the Macenas of his age.
" His works of munificence and charity were numerous.
" He contributed to the completion of Lincoln College,
" which had been left imperfect by its founder,
" Richard Flemming, Bishop of Lincoln, and got the
" manor of Newton-Longueville settled upon New
" College, Oxford, in 1440. He also laid out 6000
" marks upon the houses belonging to his See ; built
" an edifice called New-Buildings, and the west side
" of the cloisters at Wells ; and erected a conduit in the
" market-place of that city. By his will, dated Nov.
" 3, 1464, and procured to be confirmed under the
•*' great seal, he left several charitable legacies.
" He died at Wells, January 14, 1464-5, and was
" buried in his Cathedral, where his monument is still
"to be seen. His panegyric was written by Thomas
" Chandler, Warden of New College, who had been
" preferred by him to the Chancellorship of Wells.
" He'does not appear to have ever been Chancellor of
"" the University of Oxford. His book on the right of
" the Kings of England to the crown of France, is in
" the Cottonian library, with some other of his pieces,
" and a large collection of his letters is in the Lambeth
" Library."*

* Biog. Brit. Chandler's Life of Waynflete. Chalmer's History of
Oxford.

238 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
A very interesting journal by one of the suite of
Thomas Beckington, &c. during an embassy to negociate
a marriage between Henry VI. and a daughter of the
Count of Armagnac, A.D. 1442, was published in 1828,
by Mr. Nicolas, the accurate and well-known author of
the Synopsis. Bishop Beckington has also illustrated
two diplomatic transactions besides that to which that
journal relates ; his diaries of an embassy to Arras, in
Artois, to negociate a peace with France, in June, 1435,
and of his mission for a similar purpose, as well as to
treat for the release of the Duke of Orleans, in May,
1439, being still extant. — See Nicolas's Preface to the
Journal and Harleian MSS. 4763.
I feel I should be doing great injustice to the ably-'
written memoir of Beckington, by Mr. Nicolas, attached
to the work alluded to, were I to present the reader with
extracts only, although much of the matter has already
occurred in the preceding narratives ; I take the liberty of
availing myself of the whole article :. and having so done,
I think I shall have brought into one point of view, all
that can be collected of this excellent and very dis
tinguished Bishop of Bath and Wells : —
" Of the parentage of this eminent person, not the
" slightest notice has been taken by either of his numer-
" ous biographers ; and as he acquired a name from the
" place of his birth, Beckington, a small town three
" miles north of Frome, in Somersetshire, it is almost
" certain that his family was obscure. The period
" when he was born can only be conjectured ; and,
" for many reasons, it may be assigned to about the
"year 1385. Inconsequence of his elegant persou
" and superior understanding, having attracted the

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 239
" regard of Bishop Wykham, he was educated at the
" school founded by that Prelate at Winchester, where
" he surpassed most of his school-fellows in his studies.*
" Thence he was removed to New College, Oxford,
"of which he became a Fellow in 1408; and he
" continued to enjoy that situation about twelve years,
" during which time he was presented to the Rectory
" of St. Leonard's, near Hastings, in Sussex, and to
" the Vicarage of Sutton-Courtney, in Berkshire, f
" He took the degree of L.L.D. and obtained various
" ecclesiastical dignities ; being successively, Pre-
" bendary of Bedwin ; Canon of York and Litchfield ;
" Archdeacon of Buckingham about 1435 ; Canon of
" Wells, 21st. of April, 1439 ;% and was appointed
" Master ofthe hospital of St. Katherine's, near the
" Tower of London. He is said to have been also an
" Advocate in Doctors' Commons, and afterwards
" Dean of the Court of Arches, in which situation, in
" 1429, he was employed jointly with William Linwood,
" Official of that Court, and Thomas Brown, Vicar-
" General to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to draw
" up the form of law according to which the Lollards
" were to be proceeded against.§
"Chaundler, who was Chancellor of Wells, and
" subsequently Chancellor of Oxford, describes him as
" the most elegant man of his times ; and states that he
* Chaundler.
t Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 578. From the Journal, it appears, that, in
1W2, he was a Prebendary of Wells, p. 2.
X Ang. Sacra.
5 Kippis's Biographia Britannica, vol. ii. p. 114.

240 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" was possessed of nearly every virtue which adorns
" human nature. Beckington is said to have materially
" increased his fame by an elaborate and very learned
" treatise on the Salique law, which is now extant.
" This high reputation recommended him to his patron,
" Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, to whom he was
" Chancellor ; and it is most probable that he was
" indebted to that Prince for the appointment of tutor
" to King Henry VI. As early as February, 1432,
" he was nominated one of the ambassadors to negoci-
" ate a peace with France, with an allowance of
" twenty shillings a day, at which time he was one of
" the King's counsellors ;* and it is certain, that he
" was attached to the mission which was sent in June,
" 1435, to Arras, in Artois, with the object of effecting
" peace with France ; as his diary, containing an
" account of the proceedings, is preserved ;f but his
* Fosdera, tome. x. pp. 500, 514, 527, 530.
t Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 573. The MS. containing it, is said to be the
Cottonian MS. Tiberius, B. vi. which has been since lost ; but a con
temporary copy of the contents of that volume, will be found in the
Havleian MS. 47fi3, which is thus described in the Catalogue -, — " Codex
membranaceus, bene scriptus. 1. Opus Thomas Beckington, Episc.
Batho-Wellensis, 1441, de jure Regis Anglia; ad Franciam, quoad in
Bihl. Cott. Liber. B. vi. et alibi extat. Titulus rubricatus, incuria fere
deletus, hujus modi est. ' Opus collectum et compilatum per venerabilem
patrem Thomam, Bathon, et Wellens. Epin. ex Uteris, aligationibns,
conclusionibus, couventionihus, et tractatibus, nonnullisque alias ncgotiis
concernentibus jus et titulum regis Angliae ad rcgnum et coronam
Francis, cum aliis multis quae ea occasione secuta sunt. Iucipit
feliciter.' Vide Tanner, Bibl. Brit. Hib. sub Beckington. Inseriter, inter
alia, F. Petrarcha. Ecloga 12, Latino Carmine, quasi idem argunientum
illustrans. 2. Vita Henrici Quiuti, Regis Anglite, carmine elegiaco
Latino. An eodem auctore Seriptor quisquis fuerit, htec narratiB prolog*

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 241
" name does not occur in the instructions issued by
" Henry on the occasion.* In May, 1439, he was one
" of the ambassadors on a similar mission, and to treat
" for the release of the Duke of Orleans.f his journal
" of which embassy still exists ;J and before December,
" in that year, he was styled the King's Secretary.
" On the 20th. of May, 1442* he was joined in a com-
" mission with Sir Robert Roos, and Edward Hull,
" Esquire, to negociate a marriage between the King
" and the daughter of the Count of Armagnac ;§ on
" which occasion, an attendant, probably one of his
" Chaplains, wrote the journal, which supplies us
" with many interesting particulars respecting his
" conduct in that affair, and throws some light upon
" his character. The result of that embassy having
" been already noticed, it will only be remarked, that

' Non tamen omnia quae sunt facta per ordinem, in Latin is versibus
continentur, qua in alio IBro prosaice studui explanare, sed pauca de multis
substantial sub compendio volui anno ne forte lectorem contiugeret
tedio omittere quae sunt memoranda." Argumentum plenissimum
regnuni Henrici in aunos et capitula digerit.
* Fosdera. Tome x. p. 611. t Ibid. p. 728.
{ 4 Cotton, MS. Tiberius, B. xii. of which the following imperfect
account occurs in the Catalogue : " Codex partini membran : partim
chart: in fol. min : incendio nimium corruptus, constat hodie foliis 235.
1. Opus collectum et compilatum per ven : patrem Thomam (Becking.;
ton ?) Bathon et Wellens, episcopum, ex Uteris, allegatiouibus, conclu-
sionibus, conventionibus, et tractatibus, nonnuUisque aliis negotiis et
materiis conceruentibusjus et titulum regis Angliae adregnuin etcorouam
Francis; cum aliis multis quae ea occasione secuta sunt. 2. Alii
tractatus de eodem argumento ; adeo mutili ut vix usui forent.
§ Fosdera, Tome xi. p. 7.
Hh

242 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" Beckington and his colleague, Sir Robert Roos,
" returned to England in February, 1443. In July
" following, he was appointed Keeper of the Privy
" Seal, with an allowance of twenty shillings a day ;*
" but he seems to have resigned that office in the
" ensuing February, f His long services were at
" length rewarded by his being elected Bishop of Bath
" and Wells, in September, 1443, and he was conse-
" crated in the King's College of Eton, by the Bishop
" of Lincoln, assisted by the Bishops of Salisbury and
" Landaff,J on the 13th. of October, on which day "it
" was hallowed, and he sung the first mass in the
" same."§ He must have been then nearly sixty years
" of age, and his public life may be said almost to have
" closed with his consecration ; though he is recorded
" to have been a trier of petitions in Parliament, in
" 1444,|| 1447,H 1449,** 1450, ft and 1453 ;+J and
" on the 27th. of March, 1450, he was one of (he
" Peers who were in the King's palace at Westminster,
" when sentence of banishment was pronounced against
" the Duke of Suffolk. §§ On the 18th. of June, 30
" Henry VI. 1452, the Bishop of Bath obtained a
" licence from the King to exempt him from attending
" Parliament, on account of his age and infirmities. ||||

* Fosdera, Tome xi. p. 58. t Ibid.
% Ang. Sac. vol i. p. 574. § Godwin, Catalo.
Rot. Pari. vol. v. p. 67. t lb- p. 129. " lb. p. 141.
tt lb. p. 210. tt lb. p. 227. §§ lb. p. 182.
IHI Feed. vol. xi. p. 311.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 243
" And after that monarch's death, his successor,
1 " Edward IV. granted him a similar indulgence, by
" patent, dated 1 1th. July, in the first year of his reign,
" 1461.* Whether from his advanced age, or in
" consequence of the loss of his patron, the Duke of
" Gloucester, or from a desire to die Bishop of the
" diocese in which he was born, an ambition neither
" extraordinary in its nature, nor of unfrpquent
" occurrence, Beckington was never translated ; but
" continued in the peaceable enjoyment of his See of
" Bath and Wells until his decease. Chaundler says,
" that he experienced the kindness of Beckington for
" four years, whilst he was Chancellor of Oxford, but
" Anthony Wood denies, with much reason, that he
" ever held that appointment ; and he is not included
" in the catalogue of Chancellors, printed by Le
" Neve.f
" Of the manner in which Bishop Beckington
" employed great part of his time, and of the revenues
" of his See, we have still splendid evidence ; and so
" long as one stone of his Cathedral remains, so long
" must his memory, his taste, and his liberality, be held
41 in veneration. It has been happily conjectured, that
" he imbibed his loye, and perhaps skill in architecture,

* Rot. Pari, vol. vi. p. 227.
t Sppie yripers ponsi<dgr thjtf he is tfee person wljoin I,e Itfeye describes
as Thomas Gascoigne, wlio jyas C|iatipel)pr in 1442, aud fropi 1443 to
1445 ; but that individual was Master of Oriel College, and Vice Chancel
lor in 1434 and 1439 ; (Fasti Ecclesia: Anglieance, pp. 442, 447,) situations
which have never been attributed to Beckington ; moreover, for six
months, in 1442, he was in Guienne.

244 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" from his first patron, William of Wykham, from
" whom Bishop Waynflete likewise acquired his
" knowledge of that science
" Beckington's munificence was scarcely inferior to •
" either of those personages. He gave ,£200.* towards
" building Lincoln College, at Oxford; and expended
" one thousand marks in repairing and beautifying the
" episcopal houses in his own diocese, on most of
" which he caused his rebus, a beacon upon a large
" cask or tun, to be affixed. He also erected the
" western wall of the cloisters of Wells Cathedral ;
" he formed a monumental chantry Chapel for himself
" on the south side of the choir; and the whole ofthe
" College of the Vicar's Choral was built by his
" executors. Nor was his attention confined to the
" Cathedral : among other benefactions to Wells, he
" built a row of houses, called the New Work, on the
" north side of the market-place, and two large gate-
" houses at the east end, and granted permission to the
" inhabitants to have a reservoir or conduit near the
" cross, in that city, to be supplied by pipes from St.
" Andrew's well, within the precincts of the episcopal
" palace.f The return exacted for this favor was

* With this hepefaction, the Rector's lodgings on the south side of the
great quadrangle, were raised ; aud Thomas de Rotherham, Bishop of
London, the second founder of Lincoln College, from motives of gratitude
to Beckington, instituted and endowed a fellowship there, for persons
born in the diocese of Wells ; investing it with all Collegiate privileges,
except eligibility to the rectorship and sub-rectorship.
t Chaundler thus alludes to Beckington's benefactions to Wells :—
This man, by his sole industry and disbursements, raised this City to its
present state of spendour; strengthening the Church in the strongest

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 245
" characteristic of the age : the citizens and burgesses
" bound themselves to visit once in every year the spot
" in Wells Cathedral, where he might be interred, and
" there pray for his soul, and the souls of all the faithful
"deceased; for which service' he granted them an
" indulgence of forty days.* >¦>
" Bishop Beckington died at Wells, on the 14th.
"of January, 1444-5, having made his will on the 3rd.
" of the preceding November ; and fearing lest his
" adherence to the house of Lancaster might induce
". the King to disturb his bequests, he obtained a
;" confirmation of it, though not without " great cost."
... "This document displays the same feelings of
•" devotion to the Church for which his whole life was
" remarkable. Not satisfied with having employed the
" greater part of his revenues in the adornment of the
" Cattjedral, and in improving the city of Wells, he
" bequeathed all which he had accumulated to pious
. " objects ; and it is remarkable, that not a single
i "bequest occurs to any member of his family, though
" with pious gratitude he left a legacy to priests to say
" masses for the souls of his benefactors, the Duke of
" Gloucester, and William of Wykham.
" He styled himself a humble, though unworthy,
" minister ; and bequeathed to the Church of Wells,

manner, with gates, towns, and walls ; and building the Palace in which
helives, with other edifices, in the most sumptuous style; so that he
not only merits to be called the founder, but more deservedly the grace
andornament ofthe Church." Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. translated in Britton's
Cathedral of Wells. 9 Britton's Wells, p. 45.

ilG THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" in which he ordered that his body should be hpried,
" «£>20. ; four very sumptuous vestments ; ,£400. to
" buy copes ; a vessel for holy water, of silver, weigh-
" ing 10 lbs, troy ; a cross of silver, parcel gilt, of the
" same weight; a. chair for the Bishop to use in the
" church ;* and certain cushions, with other ornaments ;
" and to the Cathedral all his books ; to the church of
" Bath a cup, a censor, and a pax-f of silver, all
"weighing 30ozs. ; besides thirty copes and other
" vestments. To New College, Oxford, a silver cross
" of 10 lbs. weight ; , a bible in four volumes ; a silver
" bason of 10 lbs. weight; certain copes, 8cc. To
" Winchester College a silver cross, double gilt,
" weighing 9 lb. lQozs. ; two silver candlesticks ofthe
" same weight ; . and a number of vestments. To the
" hospital of St. Katherine, in London, several vesl-
" ments, and fifty shillings in money. To the Church
"of Sutton-Courtney, he gave many vestments,
" besides £5, to be divided among the poor of the
" parish ; as also the like sum to the poor of Bedwin ;
" and so much more, besides certain vestments to the
" poor of Beckington. To the Austin-Friars, [Freres]
" of Bristol, and to the Friar- [Freres] Minors, of
" Bridgewater, he gave twenty shillings. To ten
" priests, who should study at Oxford, and daily say
" mass for the souls of himself, his parents, and
" benefactors, especially Humphry, Duke of Glouces-
" ter, William of Wykham, Bishop of Winchester,

* This chair still remained when Godwin wrote, 1601.
t Qusre pyx ? Edjt.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 247
" Master John Elmer, and Walter Thurston, .£5. a
" piece ; and to ten poor scholars of the same University,
" for five years, ten-pence a week. To his serving
" men, of the better sort, he bequeathed £5. each ; to
"•'his meaner yeomen, five marks; to every boy of
" his household, forty shillings ; and to so many of his
" servants as were not provided with homes, meat,
" drink, and their usual wages, for three months after
" his decease. To his successor, he left £ 100. upon
" condition that he would accept it in lieu of all
*' dilapidations, otherwise he desired iris executors to
" spend it in law against him ; and., lastly, to each of
" his executors, he gave £.20. requiringthem to apply all
" the rest of his property to good uses, at their discretion.
"His executors were Hugh Sugar,* his Chancellor;
" John Pope,T a Canon ^ and Richard Swan, J
" Provost, of the Church of Wells ; and he requested
" that John Touker, his Registrar, would assist them.
" The Bishop's will was proved in the Court of the

* Hugh Sugar, L.L.D. Treasurer of Wells. He built the Chappell all of
free-stone, whioh was of wood before, adjoyning to the great pulpit, and
dwelt where . I now do iu the middle house of the three that joyne upon
the Cambray..— Godwin's Catalogue.
t John Pope, D.D. Prebendary of St. Decuman's, and Parson of Shrye.
These three, ( as I have been told by old men,) lye buried in a ranke
together, over against the great pulpit, under three niarble stones of one
fashion.— Ibid.' > '
$ Richard Swann. Provost of Wells,and Parson of Yevelton, that here
tofore had beene executor, after the same sort, unto Richard Prary,
Bishop of Chechester. This man dwelt in the Canonical-House, that is
near the market-place.— Ibid.

248 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" Archbishop of Canterbury, on the 23rd. of January,
" 1464-5.*" Of Beckington's monumental Chapel and tomb,
" the following description is given in the beautiful
" work which has been before quoted : — " On the
" south side of the choir, contiguous to the steps
" leading to the altar, is the monumental Chapel
" erected by Bishop Beckington, who died in 1465;
" and near which he lies buried. This is designed in
" the most florid style of decorated architecture; and
" although partly of wood, excites great interest, from
" the excellency of its execution, and the elaborate
" manner in which it is wrought. The western side is
" intirely open, with the exception of a compartment
" of rich screen-work near the top ; which, among
" other ornaments, exhibits two demi-angels, displaying
" shields ofthe five wounds, and having large expand-
" ed wings, the feathers of which are so profusely
" spread as to fill the spandrills below the cornice.
" All the canopy, or roof, is underwrought with elabo-
" rate tracery, including pendants, quatrefoils, pan-
" nelled arches, &.C. On the south side, is a small
" piscina ; and over the eastern end, is an enriched
"canopy. Small graduated buttresses, having rich
" pinnacles, sustain the sides of the chapel ; and the
" mouldings of the cornice are ornamented with
" rosettes and fruited vine-leaves.
" The tomb of Bishop Beckington, which, like the
" Chapel, is partly of wood, is extremely curious. It

Godwyn. 7.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 249
" is raised on a basement step, and consists of two
" divisions ; first, a table-slab, whereon is a recumbent
" figure of the Bishop, in alabaster, habited in the same
" way as he had appointed to be buried ; and secondly,
" a low pedestal beneath the former, on which is
" another effigy of the deceased, in freestone,
"represented as an emaciated corpse, extending in a
" winding sheet. This kind of contrasted exhibition
" of the human figure, intended to denote the awful
" change which disease and death occasion, and thus
" convey a moral lesson to humane vanity, was not
" uncommon in our Cathedrals about the middle of
" the fifteenth century. The Bishop's garments, mitre,
" maniple, &c. have been richly gilt and painted ; and
" the borderings, and other parts, have been depicted
" as inlaid, or set with precious stones : his head is
" reposing on two cushons, tasseled. The slab is
" supported by six small columns, three on each side,
" having low trefoil-headed arches between them,
" forming a sort of canopy over the emaciated figure;
" and the spandrils of which are almost wholly filled
" by the luxuriant plumage of demi-angels, which rest,
" with outspreading wings, on the shafts of the
".columns : these shafts were originally adorned with
" pannelled arches and" pinnacles ; but much of the
old work has been broken away, and its place
" supplied by plain wood."*
"Only one notice has ever been discovered respecting
" Beckington's family. Godwin says,f he had seen a
" lease of some episcopal lands, granted by him, to his
* Britton's Cathedral of Wells, p. 111. t De Prasulibm.
i i

§50 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" relation Beatrice, the wife of Thomas Dabridgecourt,
" Esquire ; but this affords no clue to the Bishop's
" ancestors, for the pedigrees of Dabridgecourt do not
" state who the said Thomas married His father
" John Dabridgecourt, Esq. died in 1432, seized of
" lands in Wiltshire, at which time this Thomas was
" found to be his son and heir, and then four years of
" age. He made his will on the 2nd. of November,
" 1466, in which he speaks of his children ; and
" appointed his mother, Agues Brocas, his executrix.*
" At the distance of between three and four centuries,
" those minute traits of character which impart to
" biography its greatest charm, are in most cases
" irrecoverably lost. We can only contemplate men
" in the most important of their public actions, or
" trace them through the distinguished offices which
" they may have held ; but we know nothing of their
" personal habits, or their private pursuits.
" Bishop Beckington forms no exception to this
" remark. Little is known about him beyond the
" situations which he filled, and the admirable manner
" in which he expended his property ; on which
" subjects, enough has been said. That he was a man
" distinguished among his contemporaries for his
" learning, is evident, from the offices for which he
" was selected, and from his manuscripts : and his
" biographers have represented him as having been
" profoundly versed in theology, a good preacher, and

* Esch. 10 Hen. VI. Pedigree in "Vincent's Warwick," in the
College of Arms, f. 39. His mother married, secondly, William Brocas.
Ibid.

THOMAS BECKINGTON. 251
" so generous a patron of learned and ingenious men
" as to be styled the Mascenas of his age.* Though
" hitherto wholly unnoticed by historians, his M SS. are
" of,the highest historical value ; and it is to be hoped that
" this volumef may be the cause of their receiving the
" attention which they deserve. Mis eloquence and
" other qualifications are represented in glowing
" colours by his friend Chaundler ; but there is an
'•' unnatural glare about his painting which justifies a
" suspicion as to the strict fidelity of the likeness,
" though the outline is probably correct.
"'It is at Wells, that the lover of the arts, and the
" admirer of the zeal and disinterestedness of the
" Prelates ofthe middle ages, will be most impressed
" with respect for Bishop Beckington ; but whilst
" viewing the effects of his munificence, <S5* will he
" be able to refrain from asking himself, why is it that
" the' successors of those great men have so rarely
" imitated them ? Will his respect for the established
" order of things be sufficient to repress the reflection,
'" that with nearly the same revenues, the modern
" Clergy seldom indeed beautify or repair Cathedrals,
" endow Hospitals, or found Colleges.% There is an
" apathy about ancient ecclesiastical buildings in this
" country, which is surprising; in proof of which it
" may be observed, that the repairs of parish churches,

* Biographia Britannica, Leland, Bale, Pitts, S(C.
t Mr- Nicolas's Journal of Bishop Beckington. Ed;t.
t These very just remarks well deserve the attention of those concerned
in them. Edit.

252 THOMAS BECKINGTON.
" are generally left to the superintendance of unedu-
" cated men, who every where leave marks of their
" barbarous ignorance and want of taste. Whether
" tins neglect, of what are termed the "temples of
" God," is indicative of greater zeal in his service,
" than was felt by the reviled monkish priesthood ;
" or whether the public, who are so commonly accused
" from the pulptt of indifference to their religious duties,
" are likely to become more strict observers of them,
" whilst the richly endowed hierarchy of England, may
" be a proper subject for the consideration of the
" dignitaries of our Church.
" Besides the MSS. which have been alluded to,
" a volume of Bishop Beckington's letters has been
" preserved in the library of the Archbishop of Canter-
" bury, and is thus described in the catalogue."*
His arms viere Argent, 011 a fess, Azure between, in
chief, three stag's heads caboshed, Gules, attired Or, and,
in base three pheons, two aud one sable, a mitre, labelled,
of the fourth. f
The following addition to the memoirs of Bishop
Beckington, has been handed to me by Geokge
Emeky, Esq. of the Grange, Banwell, Somerset.
" Bishop Beckington erected a Palace at Banwell,
" in Somersetshire, where he chiefly resided, the
" private Chapel of which still remains, but is now

* The title we have given at length in a preceding page. Edit.
t Philpot's Ordinary, f. 110, in the College of Arms; Collinson's
History of Somersetshire, vol. iii. p. 376; aud a contemporary represent
tation on the ceiling ofthe Divinity Schools, Oxford.

ROBERT STILLINGTON. 253
" converted into a cellar, belonging to the court or
" manor-house. It is generally supposed, that the
" present Church at Banwell, was built, or re-built, by
" this Prelate, from the circumstance (amongst many
" others,) of his arms being in the painted glass which
" formerly stood in the windows, and were as follows :
" Impaled Gules, a cross lozengy, argent, Gules,
" three Fusils in fesse, argent, each charged with an
" escalop, sable.*

XXXIX. ROBERT STILLINGTON, L.L.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1466. — Died A.D. 1491.
Between Bishops Beckington and Stillington, came
John Pheeas, or Free; but as he was Bishop scarcely a
month, was never consecrated, and was abroad the whole
of that time, he hardly deserves a niche in the episcopacy
of Bath and Wells. In 1462, the said Phreas was
Master of Baliol College, Oxford. Bale says, he was a
native of London ; and having visited various Continental
Universities, and practised physic at Ferrara, Florence,
etc. he obtained, at Rome, an introduction, through the
literati of that city, to Pope Pius II. his holiness
conferred this Bishopric on him ; but he died at Rome
withiu a month of his appointment, not without
suspicion of poison.

* These arms differ in toto from the anus recorded in the Heralds'
College, See our pp. 230 and 252.— Edit.

254 ROBERT STILLINGTON.
Robert Stillington was next advanced to this See,
by Edward IV. with whom he was a great favorite. He
had been of All Souls College, and " aulse profundse
Praises ibidem." (Wharton.) Admitted Canon of Wells
in 1445, 2 August; Chancellor of Wells, 1447, June 6,
being then L.L.D. ; Archdeacon of Taunton, 1450, 20
April ; Prebendary of Fenton, in York Cathedral, March
21, 1450; Prebendary of Wetwang, York, May 28,
1459 ; and Prebendary of St. Mary's Chapel and
Rippon;* Dean ofthe Chapel Royal, 1460; and Dean
of St. Martin's, London, 1463; but, as Leland expresses
it, (Itin. vol. iii. p. 87.) "Dean of the free Chapel
Royal, of St. Martin's, London ;"f Keeper of the Privy
Seal, in 146 1 ;£ Bishop of Bath and' Wells, being conse
crated April, 1465-6, by George, Archbishop of York,
at Westminster. § The temporalties were restored Jan.
29, 1465-6 ;|| Lord High Chancellor of England, June
8, 1468, which high station he filled till 1473. % He died
about Midsummer of 1491, in Windsor-Castle, and was
buried in a beautiful chapel he had himself built in the
cloisters, at Wells, which chapel was afterwards > pulled
down by Sir John Gates, who destroyed the magnificent
hall of the palace at Wells, before noticed. His body
was disinterred for the sake of selling the lead in which it
was deposited. * Willis. Cathedr. vol. i. pp. 132 and 175.
t MS. Baker. Richardson's edit. Godw. p. 382.
J Lib. nig. Winds. 127 A. § See his own Registr.
|| Rymer. Fosdera, vol. ii. p. 559.
H Claus. 7 E. IV. m. 12. dors, and Dugdale Catal. Cancel!, p. 22.

-ROBERT STILLINGTON. 255
Godwin thus records him :* —
" In the month of July, next after the death of
" Phreas, Robert Stillington, L.L.D. of Oxford,
" Archdeacon of Taunton, first Keeper of the Privy
" Seal, and then Chancellor of England, was elected
" and consecrate in April following. A man greatly in
" favour with King Edward IV. under whom he always
" flourished in great authority, being employed by him
" in sundry ambassages, as, namely, unto the Duke of
" Britaine [Bretagne], for apprehending the Earle of
" Richmond, that afterwards was Henry VII. ; in
" which business he so bestirred himself, as that his
" double vigilance therein proved afterwards his over-
" throw. With Richard HI. he temporized, and was
" a man specially employed in his coronation. With
" King Henry VII. he sorted not so well ; for the
" year 1487, about the time that Stokefielde was fought,
" in which Lambert was apprehended, (the counter-
" feit Earle of. Warwicke,) 1 find that this Bishop was
" accused of treason, for yielding, (as we may suppose)
" some assistance unto the said Lambert. If therein
" he sought to advance Edward, the true Earl of
" Warwick, and to remove from the possession of the
" crown the issue of his so bountiful a patron, King
" Edward, whose eldest daughter King Henry had
" married ; he was carried, but with the same humour,
"that possessed Margaret, .Duchess of Burgundy,
" King Edward's own sister, who set up not only this
" counterfeite, but after him, also Perkin Warbecke,

Catalogue, p. 377.

256 ROBERT STILLINGTON.
" using all her possible means to displace King
" Henry, as esteeming the house of York quite
" despoiled of the kingdom, except some one of the
" issue male of that family were seated in the same.
" But whatsoever the particular fault of this Bishop
" were, it seemeth that having a guilty conscience, he
" betooke himself unto the University of Oxford, as
< " hoping that the privileges of the same might bee
" some shelter and defence unto him. Whereof the
" King having advertisement, sent unto the Chancellor
" one of the University, Edward Willoughby, his
" Chaplain, to require that the Bishop might bee
" delivered unto his officers, as being one, unto whom,
" be being at the time no student there, the privileges
" of the University could not extend, so far, at least,
" as to protect him in a matter of treason, unto which
" no privilege ought to yield any patroc.iny. After
" two or three refusals, at last, by permission, and
" connivance of the Chancellor, he was arrested and
" committed prisoner- to the Castle of Windsor ; to
" wit, in the month of October, 1487, where he lay
" and continued until his decease, which happened
" about Midsummer, in the year 1491. He built that
" goodly lady chapel in the cloisters, that was after-
" ward pulled downe by Sir John Gates, who
" destroyed also the great hall -of the palace, mentioned
" in Robert Burnell. In that chapel his body rested
" but a short time. For it is reported, that divers old
" men, who, in their youth, had not only seen the
" celebration of his funerals, but also the building of
" his tomb, chapel, and all ; did also see tomb and
" chapel destroyed, and the bones of the Bishop that

ROBERT STILLINGTON. 257
" built them, turned out of the lead in which they
" were there interred."
from the Anglia Sacra :—
" Successorem Bekiutono dedit Paulus Papa Johan-
" nem Free, Collegii Baliolensis apud Oxoniam Prae-
" fectum. Natus is Londoni, & Oxoniae educates*
" exteras Academias visendi studio peregre profectus,
¦' elegantiorcs literas &. utriusque linguae scientiam
" hand vulgarem i\ Guarino Oratore prsestantissimo
"accepit. Dein Medicinam apud Ferrariam, Floren-
" tjam & Patavium professus, Roiuam postrem5
" advenit ; ubi suunna eruditionis fa nut intercedentc
" maximorum virorum ainicitiam nactus, in ipsius adeo
" Papae Pauli II notitiam devenit; Sc ei nuncupavit
" nouuullas veterum Graecorum Historias Latine k
" se versas. Hoc beneficio devinctus Papa Epis-
" copatum Bathoniensem Bekintoui morte vacantem
" ipsi jure provisionis contulit. Romae autem vir
" doctissimus post mensem ab accepto munere cxactuni
" non, sine veneni suspicioae e medio sublatus obiit.
" Substituitur Robertus Stlllington favore regio.
" Iste Collegii Omnium Animarum Oxon. alumnus,
"& Aulffi Profundae ibidem Prases, Canonicus
" Wellensisf Ecclesiae admissus eat 1445. 2. Aug.
"Cancellarius Episcopi Well. 1447. 6. Junii (tunc
" Legmn Doctor) Ajrchidiaconus Tauntonensis 1450.
"20 April. Canonicus Eboracensis 1451. Deaconus
"Gapellae Regiae| 1460. Privati Sigilli Gustos 1461,
" JDecanua S. Martini London 1463. summus Angliae

Bale, Cent. 8. eap.38. t Reg. Bekynton. * Reg, Bourchier.
Kk

'258 ROBERT STILLINGTON.
*' Cancellarius 1468. 8 Junii, quo munere* usque ad
" annum 1473 perfunctus est. Canonice electum &
" mense Aprili 1465. consecratum fuisse Godwkius
" perhibet. Contra ipsus Stillingtoni Registrum refert
" ilium ab Archiepiscopo Cant 1466. 11. Jan. fuisse
" confirmatum & a Georgio Archiepiscopo Ebor. apud
" Westmonasterium in Hospitio Eboracensi consecra-
" turn 1466. 16 Martii. Familiae regia? Eboracensis
" cliens assiduam ac fidelissimam ipsi operam pra?stitit
" adversus Lancastrensem familiam : quod favorem
" Edwardi Regis & dignitates amplissimas ipsi primuin
" conciliavit, postmodum autem exitio erat. Anno
" enim 1475. legationem viro ecclesiastico parum
" eonvenientem ab Edwardo obire jussus in Britanniam
" minorem trajecit, ut Henricum Richmondia±. Com-
" item, unicum familiae Lancastrensis haeredem illi'in
" manus dedi postularit. Impium facinus abhorruit
" Dux Britanniae & innocentem juvenem Rege aemulo
" in carnificinam tradere recusavit : importune
" Robertus instabat, majori sane quam Episcopum in
" re invis& deceret diligentia usus. Unde Lancas-
" trensiuin si quando rerum summam adepti fuerint,
" vindictam veritus, Eboracensium parti tutandae stre-
" nuam impendit operam ; atque ade6 ipsius Ricardi
" sceleratissimi tyranni, qui Edwardi fratris filiis imfria-
" ni parricideo sublatis regnum invaserat, partes prb-
" pugnare non erubuit. Medio demum anno 1485
" sublato tyranno, regnoque ad Henricum Comitem
" delate, Robertus ab Aula relegates est ;f numquam

Dugdal. Orig. Jurid. p. 78. f Stow, p. 449.

ROBERT STILLINGTON. 25$
''tamen paenas daturus videbatur, nisi reatum priorem
" alio posthac crimine cumulasset. Anno etenim I486
" Lambertus, quidem, ex infima plebe juvenis a Mar-
" gereta Burgundiae Duciss& subornatus, 8ta Willelmo
" Simonis Sacrificulo Oxoniensi edoctus, ut personam
" induerit Edwardi Comitis Warwicensis proximi
" Eboracensis familiae ha?redis masculini, eoronam
" tanquam, lege patria ad se spectantem vindicavit, &
" conscripto, ope Margareta? &. Anglorum quorundam
" Procerum, exercilu Angliam invasit. Huic Robertus
" impense favit, titulum laudavit, monitis quoscunque
" potuit ad arma socia concivit, nescio an & praesens
" suppetias tulerit. Profligatis Lamberti asseclis
:¦¦" ineunte anno 1487. Robertus Oxoniam fugiens, ibi
." tanquam in asylo delituit, se studiorum causa illuc
" advenisse pras se ferens. Antiquitus enim Academiae
¦ " indultum fuerat ut nullum ibi studentibus negotium
" regii ministri facesserent. Id ubi rescivit Rex, datis
" ad ipsum Uteris, propediem coram se comparere
"jussit. Detrectante Episcopo, alias ad Academicos
" Rex transmissit: velle se ut ilium Edwardo Willough-
" by Sacellano suo ad Aulam regiam deferendum
"tradant. Renuunt Academici, affirmantes Episcopum
" studiorum gratia secum comorari, nee sine libertatis
" Academicae injuria tradi posse, Rescribet Rex se
" omnia Registra consuluisse, nullibi autem ejusmodi
"privilegium Academiae indultum invenisse.* Tandem
" precibus & mandatis regiis repetitis factum est, ut
" Academici Episcopum a nunciis regiis prebend^

Autiq. Oxon. par. i. p. 234.

269 ROBERT STILLINGTON.
" dissimularent. Prehensus Windlesoram ductus est
" 1487. mense Octobri, & usque ad obitum in carcere
"adservatus. Obiit* anno 1491. apud Ecclesiam
" Wellensem sepultus in Capella, quam juxta Claustra
" construxerat, pulcherrima. Contigit obitus non
" quidem (quod vult Godwinus) sub exitum Junii, sed
" mense Maio.-j- In libro enim Rubro Wellensis
" Ecclesiae reperio Thomam Tinensem Episcopum k
" Capitulo Wellensi 1491. 15. Maii petisse licentiam
" ad exequendum officium circa sepulturam corporis
" Roberti Episcopi Bath. & Well, nuper defuncti
" Thomam istum Sedis Wellensis Suffraganeum k
" Bekintono EpiscOpo constitutum anno 1459- fuisse
" supra memoravimus, Episcoporum iste Wellensium
" Suffraganeus permansit integris annis 54. Nomen
" illi erat Thomas Cornish. Praepositus Orielensis
" Collegii Oxon. factus est anno 1493. Cancellarius
" Ecclesiae Wellensis 1499. 17. April. Obiit 1513.
" 3. Julii."
Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College : — Gules on
a fess, between three leopards' faces Argent, three
fleurs-de-lis, Sable.

* Reg. Morton. t Reg. King.

RICHARD FOX. 261
XL. RICHARD FOX,
Succeeded A.D. 1492. — Died Bishop of Winchester,
A.D. 1528.
After the See had been vacant nearly seven months,
Richard Fox was translated hither from Exeter, by the
bulle of Pope Innocent VIII. February 8, 1492.
The indefatigable Oxford antiquary (Wood,) has
rescued from oblivion the following particulars, which
may be found in his Athena Oxonienses.
" Fox was born at Ropesley, near Grantham,
" Lincolnshire ; educated in grammar learning at
" Boston ; in academical, for a time, in Magdalen
"College, Oxford, whence being transplanted to
" Cambridge, he became at length Master of Pembroke
" Hall there, Prebendary of Bishopston in the Church
"of Sarum, [after 1473, resigned 1485.]* and in
" February 1485, of South Grantham in the same
" Church, on the resignation of Dr. Christopher Bain-
" bridge.f Having been a constant adherent to Henry,
" Earl of Richmond, against King Richard III., he
" was, by him, when King of England by the name of
" Henry VII., made in the beginning of his reign one
" of his privy council, [being then L.L.D.] and nomi-
" nated Bishop of Exeter in February, 1486. On the
" 24th. ofthe same month, he had 'the custody of the

* Hist, and Antiq. Sarum and Bath, p. 315.
1 1485, Feb. 7, ep'us contulit Ric'o Fox, L.L.D. preb. de Grantham
australis, vacant, per. resign. Xtopheri Bainbrige, et preb. de Cherdestoke
eidem Christophero, Reg, Langton, ep'i Sarum.— Kennet.

262 RICHARD FOX.
" Privy Seal conferred on him, and being elected to the
" said See, the King restored* to him the temporalties
" April 2, 1487. July 5th following, he had, by the
" King's command, 20s. per diem allowed to him, to
" commence from 24th. February before mentioned ;
" which was alllowed to him, I suppose, as keeper of
" the said seal, and being elected afterwards to the See of
" Bath and Wells, had restitution of its temporalties
" madef to him by the King, May 4, 1492. In 1494 he
" was translated to Durham, and afterwards was elected
" Chancellor of the University of Cambridge ; and
" being settled at Durham, he forthwith, out of a great
" hall in the castle there, took as much away as made a
" fair buttery and a pantry, even to the pulpits or
" galleries on each side of the hall, wherein the
" trumpeters or wind music [ians] used to stand to
" play, while the meat was ushered in ; and on the
" wall which parted the said buttery from the hall, was
" a great pelican set up to shew that it was done by
" him, because he gave the pelican to his arms. At
" length, upon the death of Dr. Thomas Langton, he
" was elected Bishop of Winchester ; the temporalties
" of which being restored to him (Pat. 1 6 Henry VII.
" p. 2, m. 13 ) by the King, October 17, 1500, [he]
" was soon after installed with great solemnity. After
" he was settled there, he performed many acts of
" piety and charity, among which, was the founda-
" tion and establishment of Corpus Christi College ;
" and dying in 1528, he was buried in the Cathedral

* Pat. 7 Hen. VII. p. 2. m. 5. t Vat. 7 Hen. VII. m. 14.

RICHARD FOX. 263
' " Church at Winchester, on the south side of the high
" altar." — Wood's Ath. Ox. vol. ii. col. 730, edit.
Bliss. The learned editor adds the following notes : [" Ric.
Fox, L.B. admiss. ad Vic. de Stepney 30 Oct. 1485, per
mortem Ric'i Luke. Reg. Kennet. — Ric. Fox, L.B.
secretar. Hen. reg. VII. Coll. ad preb. de Brounswode
26 Oct. 1485, per mort. Joh. Davison, quam resign.
ante 1 1 April, 1487. — Dominus Ricardus Fox presbiter
pres. per mag, Joh. Lylly prebendarium de N. Kelsey,
ad vicariam de N. Kelsey, per resign, d'ni Joh. Sigrave,
23 Sept. 1504,* Reg. Smith, ep'i Line. — Vide plura de
Ric. Fox custode Aulae Pembrochiana? apud Cantabrig.
in Ricardi Parkeri %xs>.sla> Cantab. MS. Collect. D.
300, p. 6. — Litera Fraternitatis per priorem et capit
Cant, concessa Ric'o Fox ep'o, 1503, 29 Aug. Reg. Cant.
M. S. Kennet. — The best heads of Fox are a folio by
Vertue, 1723; a mezzotinto, in 4to. by Faber."]
Anthony Woodf tells us he was bornj in an obscure
village in Licolnshire, called Ropesley, four miles distant
from Grantham, in an ancient house known to some by
the name of Pullock's Manor. He was son of Thomas
Fox and Helena his wife, both well esteemed for their
honest life and conversation. Others also there were of

. •[* This Richard Fox could not have been the Bishop, for in 1504, he
had been four years Bishop of Winchester, when it is not to be supposed
he accepted a living.— Edit.]
t Hist. Sj- Antiq. Coll. by Gutch, p. 382.
i Ut in quibusdam notis de Vita Rich. Fox, hujus Coll. Fundatoris,
_per Thorn, Grtenway ejusdem Coll, Presidentem. an. 1566.

264 RICHARD FOX.
his name and alliance in and about the same place, who
were either his brethren or uncles, afterwards citizens of
London, some of whose children were preferred to this
College, as in particular Thomas Fox (his nephew as it
seems) of whom he took especial care, in letters* written
to Mr. John Claymond, the first president, to have him
settled among the original scholars, as he did also for
John Fox, another Londoner, then Archdeacon of Surry.
The said place where the founder was born, being well
known to the ancient fellows of this house, according to
the tradition they had received of it, they were wont when
they went their progress to keep courts at their respective
manors, to visit and do their devotions to it, as the very
place where their father and great patron had received his
first breath. To the said manor-house did anciently
belongf land, worth, beyond all reprises, .£26, yearly,
whether it belonged as an inheritance to the Foxes, could
not be learned by them. It came afterward into the
hands, as it seems, of Richard Kelham, father of Ralph
Kelham, living in the reign of King James. From him it
came into the hands of Rich. Hickson, who built a new
house upon it, and the old house where the founder was
bom, he sold to one Thomas Raskall of the same town. In
the latter end of [the reign of] Queen Elizabeth, lived in part
of the said old house, a widow well stricken in years, who
with the most ancient of the town were wont to tell the said
fellows, ' that their founder was born at that place,' and
one among the rest told them, as he had received it from

* In Thesaur. hujus, Coll.
Inter Collectanea B, Twyni in Bibl, hujus Coll.

RICHARD FOX. o65
his father, that Richard Fox went away very meanly from
his parents into France when he was young, and after
some time spent there, returned to his parents in very good
sort, and when they would have had him stay with them,
he refused, saying, he must over sea again, and if one
thing hit out right, all Ropesley should not serve him for
his kitchen. His parents perceiving him to be of a
towardly wit, intended, according to their abilities, to
bestow that upon him, which should prove a comfort to
them in, their old age, and to himself, in the future, a liveli
hood, wherefore they sent him to be trained up in grammar
at Boston, till such time that he might prove capable of
the University. Thence they sent him to Magdalen
College, in Oxford,* where, for the time he continued, he
profited so much in literature, that he went beyond most
of his contemporaries. From thence, because of a plague
that broke out in Oxford, he went to Cambridge, where,
as several authors report, he became master or head of
Pembroke Hall, 1507; but long there neither did he
abide, for observing that longf continuance in an Univer
sity was a sign either of lack of friends or of learning, and
that it was sacrilege for a man to tarry longer there than
he had a desire to profit, took a resolution to travel and
see the fashions of other nurseries of learning; and this
the rather he did, because at that time King Richard III.
usurped the government, and that the state thereupon was
in an unsettled condition. To Paris therefore J he journeys,

* In notis T. Greeuway ut supra.
t Will. Harrison in Descript. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 3.
t Chron. Edv. Hall. edit. Lond. 1550, in Ric. III.
L 1

Q66 RICHARD FOX.
where, to complete that divinity which he had already
obtained, he studied the canon law, without which
divinity was esteemed in those days imperfect. From
thence he thought to have travelled to other parts ; but
happily meeting somewhere with John Morton, Bishop of
Ely, some time an Oxford man, who had fled the kingdom
because ofthe said usurpation, his intentions were at that
time stopped : and whether his learning and policy were
so much perceived by this Bishop as to make use of him
as au instrument to establish Henry, Earl of Richmond,
in the throne, (to whom Bishop Morton faithfully adhered)
or whether the Earl himself, who was then at Paris, had
acquaintance with him, or before had known him to be a
man of wisdom, I am in doubt. Howbeit, an author
that* lived a few years after, tells us, that as soon as the
Earl had knowledge of him, he received him as a man of
great wit and no less learning, into his familiarity, and in
brief time advanced him to high dignities, as it shall anon
be shewed.
But howsoever the matter was, I shall not now dispute
it; sure I am that at what time the Earl of Vannec in
Little Bretagne, contriving to furnish himself for his
setting forth to obtain the crown of England, determined
to crave aid of the French King; and, so coming to
Paris to prosecute his design, left the whole*)- manage
ment thereof to the said Richard Fox, then L.L.D., who
according to the trust reposed upon him followed the
matter with so great diligence, that in a short time, all

* D. Tho. More iii Vit. Ric. III.
t Godwin in Comment, de prassul. Angl. in Winton.

RICHARD FOX. 267
things were accomplished to the Earl's pleasure. So
that soon after the said Henry obtained the crown upon
the victory gotten in Bosworth field, [he] was not un
mindful of Dr. Fox, for he not only made him one of his
council, and keeper of his privy seal, but also,* employed
him with Sir Richard Edgcomb, knight, (1487) as
ambassador to King James III. of Scotland. In which
employment shewing himself to be a person of great
prudence, for that he obtained a truce between the two
kingdoms for the space of 7 years, + he made the King have
so great respect for him, that the Bishopric of Exeter
falling void before his return from Scotland, as I conceive,
[the King] immediately conferred it on hiin, anno 1486-7.
Being now settled in that See, he behaved himself in
all respects befitting a true Prelate as well in office as
life, and conversation. The effects of whose deeds there,
being partly mentioned by another^ pen, I shall now pass
by them and proceed.
In the year 1491-2, when Robert Stillington, Bishop
of Bath and Wells, deceased, the King gave that Bishop
ric to him ;§ and he was translated thereto by the
authority of the bullejj of Pope Innocent VIII., dated

* Hall ut sup. in H. VH.
f This was only a prolongation ofthe truse to Sept. 1, 1489. In 1497
however, the Bishop signed another truce for 7 years. Rymer. Feed. vol.
xii. p. 330-673.
I Per John Vowell, alias Hooker, in Cat. suo. Episcop. Exon.
J Temporalties restored May 4, 1492. Fosdera. vol. xii. p. 476, EoiT.
|| Reg. Morton, Fol. 23.

268 RICHARD FOX.
6th id. Feb. the same year. In all which time none was
in more favour with the King than he, and none whose
counsel was more relied on than his : especially iu those
matters relating to the privilege and interest, that King
Henry VII. challenged in the Kingdom of Scotland.
And that he might advantage himself in the knowledge of
them, he left no history or chronicle of this nation uncon-
sulted; and particularly one of John Rowse, the Warwick
antiquary : of which, and the lending it out to Dr. Fox,
he maketh mention in bis book* de Regibus Angl. with
an excuse concerning the omission of some particulars
therein — " hie multa alia inseruissem (saith he,) si
quendam librum meum habuissem plenarie hanc materiam
teactantem, quem mutuo pro tempore tradidi Reo' in X°-
Patri et Dom°- Dom. R. Fox, in decretis D. Ep©
Excestrias, Custodi privati tunc Sigilli sub metuendissimo
Principe Henry VII. rege Angliae, &c."
But to return. — After he had continued in the See of
Bath and Wells for the space of 3 years or thereabouts,
he was preferred by the same hand to that of Durham
in 1494; and, as he still ascended from a poorer to a
richer, or from a worse to a better Bishopric, so he made
the places themselves in relation to their edifices : for
hef made several alterations in the hall or public refec
tory of the castle of Durham, that is to say, that whereas
there were but two seats of regality, one in the upper and
another in the lower part of the said hall, he left the upper
only, and in the place of the lower he made a store-house

* MS.in Bib. Cotton, p. 234.
t Hist. Eccl. Dunel. MS. in Bib. Bodl. Cap. 202.

RICHARD FOX. 269
or pantry for provisions : and over the said work made
two seats or pews for the musicians in the time of services
or refection. He built there also an account or checqner
chamber, a large kitchen, and all houses of office over it ;
as also, all the new work on the west side of the hall and
kitchen. Furthermore, he began to build a hall, kitchen,
and other edifices in the high tower to the said castle,
but before they were perfected, he was translated to
Winton, by reason of the controversy that sprang between
him and the Earl of Cumberland, concerning the right of
Hertlepool. " The said Castlelle of Durham stondith
(as Leland* saith,) stately on the north-east side of the
minster, and Were rennith under it. The kepe stondith
aloft, as stately builded 01 VIII. square fascion, and 4
highes (or stories) of loggings. Bishop Fox did much
reparation of this dungeon ; and he made beside in the
castelle a new kychen with the offices, and many praty
chaumbers, &c."
What were his actions while he sat in this See, either
in relation to his government or transactions between the
clergy and gentry of his Diocese, I know not: for
Durham hath been so ungrateful in that respect, that she
hath not endeavoured to preserve any monument or
writing (except that before mentioned) in her registers,
or public records, or acts done by this worthy Prelate.
While he was Bishop of the said place, the Scots, it
elsewheref appears, had like to have broken the truce,
and revived the wars between the two nations ; for they
* Fol. i. Itin. BIS. in Bib. Bodl. fol. 82.
t Hall ut. sup. et in Holinsh. in H. VII

270 RICHARD FOX.
coming to Norham Castle, the Bishop's habitation,
intended, if possible, to surprise it ; to which end, they
came several times in private to view it, but the soldiers
therein suspecting some evil meaning, sallied out and
made them fly. The Scottish King being advertised of
this matter, was highly displeased, and in all haste signified
to the English King, how his soldiers who had no
intentions for, a reprisal, were treated, and therefor he
had violated the truce. The King, to excuse the matter,
relied upon Bishop Fox, owner of the castle, to perform
what seemed good in such a matter. He thereupon, by
letters written to him, interwoven with expressions tending
to a reconcilement, did at length appease his displeasure,
and brought all things to such a pass, that the Scottish
King wrote courteously to the Bishop again, signifying,
that besides the matter then in hand, he had certain
secrets to impart unto him, and desired forthwith that he
would come unto him. The Bishop, therefore, with his
retinue journeyed into Scotland, where he was kindly
received by the King in the Abbey of Mailross ; and after
much talk concerning the truce that was violated, the
King at length told him, that all things would never go
right until a firmer bond of peace was made ; and for
the accomplishment thereof, he thought of no better
remedy than that he should match himself to the lady
Margaret, the King of England's eldest daughter, which
he would the sooner do if he knew of the Bishop's mind
therein.* After this communication was ended, the
Bishop returned into England, and going forthwith to

* This matter was first put into his head by one Peter Hialas, Spanish
ambassador, then in England.

RICHARD FOX. 271
the court, declared to the King all the discouse that
had passed between them. The King, therefore, seeming
to like well of it, conceded at length to the match.
Afterward, to the great joy of both nations, they were
married; and upon their issue, King James VI. of
Scotland and I. in England, took his lineal descent, and
by virtue thereof obtained the English crown after the
death of Queen Elizabeth : confirming thereby both
kingdoms with an everlasting peace.
Having had a happy success in this match, he was
advised in the making up that between Prince Arthur
and the lady Catherine, 4th. daughter of Ferdinando and
Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, anno 1502. Which
being concluded, her entry into London, and the celebrity
ofthe marriage was ordered and contrived by our Bishop ;
' who was not only a grave counsellor for war or peace,
(as one* saith), but also a good surveyor of works, and a
good master of ceremonies, and any thing else that was
fit the active part belonging to the service of court or
state of a great King.' Further, also, lam to tell you,
(which is a matter of observance), that the last act of
state that concluded the temporal felicity of our King
Henry VII. was the glorious match between his daughter
Mary, and Charles, Prince of Castile, afterwards the
great Emperor. Which treaty was perfected by Bishop
Fox, and other commissioners at Calais, the year before
the death of the King. And this with other things I
thought fit to let you know, because thence you might
understand what great trust the King reposed on the said

Bacon in Life of King Henry VII.

272 RICHARD FOX.
Bishop ; what love he had for him ; and how ready the
Bishop always was to serve his lord and master to the
utmost. It was now the l6th. year of the reign of King Henry
VII. (1500) at which time Thomas Langten, Bishop of
Winton, deceased, in whose room the King immediately
put Richard Fox ;* where being settled, he spent the
remainder of his time in great prosperity and plenty;
bestowing much money in buildings, reparations, and
charitable uses : witness, besides his College at Oxford,
his new chapel in the Cathedral of Winchester, (wherein
he was afterwards buried), appointingt that daily mass
should be celebrated for his soul. Then his erection
of a free school at Taunton castle, and convenient
lodgings near it for the schoolmaster to dwell in. The .
like, he performed at Grantham : although his intentions
were at one time to havej built the same at Ropesley, in
a little grove joining to the house where he was born, but
that place being but a village, and therefore unfrequented,
he altered his mind, and built it at Grantham aforesaid :
which was then, as now, a place of commerce and trading.
As for this charity in giving exhibitions to several poor
scholars, it was while he was Bishop of this See, very

* Bishop Milner thus satisfactorily accounts for the Bishop's translation
from Durham to Winchester, which is not a usual move;—" The King,
finding that the Bishop's frequent absence at so great a distance as
Durham from the Court, whilst he attended the affairs of his Diocese, was
prejudical to his service, and wishing to have his advice on all affairs of
consequence, he, in the same year that Langton died, removed him to the
See of Winton."— Hist. Wint.
t Hist. Ecc. Dunel. ut sup. cap. 202. J Collect. B. Twyui MS.

RICHARD FOX. 273
great.* Among them were those under the tuition of
Richard Stubbles and Leonard Hutchinson of Baliol
College; the first afterwards master of the said College,
and the other of that University, and both favoured by
the same Bishop. Then, to Anthony Wilkins of New,
and several of Magdalen College, besides others in the
University ; committing the charge of them to Mr. J.
Claymond of Magdalen College ; who for the great love
and amity which the Bishop had for him, saluted him iu
his letters directed to him, ' Brother,' and ' dear brother.'
He extended his charity in a large manner to the Abbot
and Monks of Glastonbury ; for when John, the Abbot,
in a letter to him complained much of the miserable and
poor estate that he and his convent were in, (as indeed
they were,) he voluntarily!- lent» or rather as it should
seem, gave them ,£100. : which was paid to them by Mr.
Claymond. Furthermore, also, it must not be forgotten
that in the 3rd. Henry VII. when R. Fox sat Bishop of
Exeter, he gave very largely towards the re-edification of
St. Mary's Church, in Oxford, then ready with age to
fall to the ground ; for the chancellor and scholars then
undertaking that matter, sent divers epistles for that
purpose to all those Bishops and great men that were
their 'old friends,' (as they then J styled them,) and such
that had been students of this University ; among which,
I find an§| epistle to the said reverend Prelate for his
benefaction, who, if he had been a stranger to them,
and not bred up in that University, would never have
had the confidence to be petitioners to him for a boon.
' Collect. B. Twyni MS. t Collect. R. Tvvyni MS.
J in lib. Epistok Univ. Ox. F. Ep. 240. « lb. Ep. 363.
M m

274 RICHARD FOX.
What further is worthy of observation is, that after he
had sat some years in the See of Winton, and before
several books were dedicated to him as a worthy patron
of learning ; among which, is that* entitled, ' De casu
animas,' written by Aubrey Mantuan, a student of the
University of Paris, whose epistle dedicatory being dated
at Paris, on the kalends of Jan. 1509; hath several
matters therein in commendation of this venerable Prelate :
all which for brevity sake, I now pass by. One Richard
Collingwood, also, who wrote an arithmetical treatise,
did dedicate it to him ; the original whereof being in MS.
was given to this library on Mr. Twyne's desire, by Mr.
Thos. Allen, of Gloucester Hall.
In one only mischance he was unfortunate, and that
was that he lived divers years blind before he died ;+ so
that finding thereby his end to approach, he considered
how he might bestow his riches, as well for the public
good as continuance of his memory. At length, after
all things had been well considered and cast up, he pro
ceeded to perform his bounty at Oxford, to the end that
some place there might be erected, wherein for the future
might be educated persons in academical learning ; and
having before had a promise of certain tenements whereon
this work might be erected, and particularly from the
warden and scholars of Merton College, (to whom he
paid several^ sums of money by the hands of the said

* MS. in Bib. Thorn. Ep. Line.
+ He was blind about 10 years before his decease ; however, he attended
ihe Parliament, 1523. — (Fulman ) He died in 1528 ; and was buried in
his New Chapel before mentioned. — (Ath. Ox. v. i. 665.J
i Ut in Thesaur. hujus Coll. in pyx. A. 4. 2.

RICHARD FOX. 275
Mr. Claymond,) he began to build, employing in that
work one William Vertue, Free-Mason, and H umphrey
Cook, carpenters, masters of his works.
In a short time after, being in considerable forwardness,
an indenture* dated the last day of June, 5 Hen. VIII.
A.D. 1513, drawn between R. Fox, Bishop of Winton,
on the one part, and Thomas Silkstede, Prior, and the
Convent of the Cathedral Church of St. Swythun, in
Winton, on the other : whereby it was covenanted that
in consideration of certain gifts of the said Bishop made
to the said Prior and Convent, viz. several parcels and
pieces of silk, cloths of gold, parcels of plate, altar cloths,
copes, vestments, and books for the choir, crosses, images,
chalices, candlesticks for the altar, ornaments, jewels,
stuffs, &c. that they permit and grant to the said Bishop,
that the said Prior and Convent, or their successors, shall
obtain and purchase for them and their successors certain
places and parcels of ground in Oxford, of Merton Coll.
Nunnery of Godstow, Priory of St. Frideswyde, &c.
wherein also, it is further said, that the Bishop had began
to build on the said parcels a College for a warden, and
a certain number of monks, and secular scholars ; that
also, he intended to give and appropriate tenements, rents,
and pensions, to the yearly value of ,£160. to the said
Prior and Convent, for the use of the said College ; of
wliich ,£28. yearly revenues were then purchased by virtue
of the King's licence contained in his letters patent ; that
the said Prior and Convent were to maintain four monks
from the said revenues, to be called the Bishop's scholars ;

Ut in Thes. &p. A. 4. ?•

276 RICHARD FOX.
every one of them professed within the said Monastery of
St. Swythun ; and every of them also, being of convenient
age to learn and study in the sciences and faculties ensuing,
viz. at eighteen years of age at the least, to study and
profit successively in sophistry, logic, philosophy, and
divinity. That one of the said four should be warden of
the said college ; that four Monks more also be nominated
there by the said Prior and Convent, one to be called the
Prior's Scholar, and the other three the Convent's
Scholars, and all four to come from the said Monastery
of St. Swythun. That also they were to give certain
maintenance to officers or servants of the said college, as
a manciple, two cooks, pantler, lavender or laundress,
barber, or servant that should serve the monks at the table
in times of refection ; and stipends to the readers of logic,
sophistry, and philosophy ; to a bible clerk that should
read in the hall at times of refection, and a clerk that
should serve in the chapel.
Thus far the contents ofthe said indenture, by which
we are given to understand that Bishop Fox did intend
to make this college a nursery for the Monks ofthe Priory
or Cathedral of St. Swythun, in Winchester, as Canter
bury and Durham College were for the like use, namely,
one for the novices of the Priory of Canterbury, and the
other for those of Durham. And so it was, and for that
purpose he had, on the 12th. of March, 4 Henry VIII.
obtained* licence of the King to give to the Prior and
Monks of Winton revenues to the yearly value of ,£100.
beyond all reprises, conditionally, that they maintain the

Pat. 8 Hen. VIII. part ii.

RICHARD FOX. 277
number of Monks before expressed. But before his
college was a quarter finished, his mind was altered, and
upon conference had with Hugh Oldham, Bishop of
Exeter, concerning his proposals of being a benefactor,
conditionally, that he would make the said college a place
for secular students, (as other colleges of Oxford were,)
caused the said licence of settling ,£100. per annum on
the said Priory of St. Swythun, to be brought into chancery
and cancelled. Afterward he proceeded in his buildings
which he had began : the which, had the foundation
intended at first been equal to his second thoughts, it
had been larger, but being begun, it could not well be
altered, which, in all probability, was the reason why he
enlarged it afterwards by building the cloister-chambers.
This being done, therefore partly upon the proposals
of Oldham, but chiefly by his persuasions, who often
answered the founder* when they discoursed of making
this work a College for Monks, " what, my lord, shall we
build houses and provide livelihoods for a company of
bussing monks, whose end and fall we ourselves may live
to see ? No, no, it is more meet a great deal that we
should have care to provide for the increase of learning,
and for such as by their learning shall do good to the
Church and Commonwealth." The design was utterly
rejected ; though he was much solicited to the contrary.
And being now fully convinced, he proceeded to obtain
the site of this college, which he before had bargained for,
and had paid some of the money for the purchase. The

* Holinshed in Chron. suo. sub. au. 1518. Vide in Descript. Ang. per
W. Harrison, Jib, ii. cap. 3,

278 RICHARD FOX.
first part which he, as it seems, procured, was a tenement*
with a garden, called Corner Hall ; and another with a
garden called Nevyll's Inn. Also about the same time a
garden which belonged to the bachelor fellows of Merton
College, called Bachelor's Garden, which before was
included within the limits of the said College, containing
now the most part of the gardens or walks belonging to
the masters and bachelors of this College, granted Feb.
10, 7 Hen. VIII. A.D. 1515 ; for which ground Merton
College was always to receive £4. 6s. 8d. per ann. from
Witney Church, Oxfordshire ; of which Church the
founder, as Bishop of Winton, was patron.
After this was done, the Bishop obtainedf licence of
King Henry VIII. dated Nov. 26, an. reg. 8dom. 1516:
whereby it was granted to him that he might found a
perpetual college for the learning of the sciences of
divinity, philosophy, and good arts, for one president and
thirty scholars, graduate and not graduate, or more or less
according to the faculties of the place, on a certain ground
between the house or college of Merton on the east side,
a lane near Canterbury college and a garden of the priory
of St. Frideswyde on the west, a street, or lane of the
house or college of Oriel on the north, and the town-hall
on the south, and withal that he might endow the said
college with £350. yearly.
The same year, January 15, he purchased J another
tenement of the nunnery of Godstow, called Nun Hall,

* Thesaur. huj. Coll. in pyx. A. 4. 3.
t lb. in eadem Thes. in quadara cista ubi sigillum Collegii reponittir.
t lb. in ead. Thes. A. 4.

RICHARD FOX. 279
for which the college was to pay to the said nunnery 4s.
per ann. as a quit rent ; and Feb. 1 2 following, he made
a purchase of * Urban Hall and Bekes Inn ofthe Priory
of St. Frideswyde, for which also the founder covenanted
and granted that <£l. 6s. 8d. per annum should be
paid to the said priory out of the rectory of Wroughton,
Wilts. So that now all the site being clearly obtained, issued
forth the foundation-}- charter of the college, dated at
Wolvesey castle, Winton, Cal. Mar. 1516; whereby the
pious founder doth to the praise and honour of God
Almighty, the most holy body of Christ, and the Blessed
Virgin Mary, as also of the Apostles Peter, Paul, and
Andrew, and of St. Cuthbert, St. Swythun, and St.
Birin, patrons of the churches of Exeter, Bath and Wells,
Durham, and Winchester, (of which places he was suc
cessively Bishop) found and appoint this college (always
to be called Corpus Chuisti College) for one president
and thirty scholars, or more or less according to the ordi
nations and statutes to be made and composed. In the
said charter the founder appoints Mr. John Claymond,
B.D. (one that had been intimately acquainted with him
for 30 years) the president, Thomas Fox, his kinsman,
scholar of arts, of the diocese of London, John Garth,
M.A. of the diocese of Durham, Rich. Clarkson, M.A.
of Co. York, Robert Tregvilian, B.A. ofthe diocese of
Exeter, Thomas Welshe, sophister of the diocese of
Winton, and Robert Hoole, sophister of Co. Lincoln, to
be scholars and fellows of the said college, by him
elected. " III. in tad. Thes. A. 4. t Ib- et '" ('acI- cist- ut 3"l1-

280 RICHARD FOX.
As for the rest that were scholars and fellows (among
whom Ludovicus Vives,* Nicholas Cratcher, a Bavarian,
Edward Wotton,f Richard Pates, afterwards Bishop of
Worcester, and Reginald Pole, afterwards Archbishop of
Canterbury, were of the number) were taken in by the
founder at the entreaty of noble persons, even till July 2,
1524, being in all, besides those mentioned in the foun
dation charter 46.
The next year following, viz. 1517, the founder gave
his scholars statutes, which, on 20th. June the same year,
were read, and then approved of by him in the church or
chapel of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winton, in the
presence of clerical and laical people.
In them he appoints in this his new foundation, that
there should always be 1 president, 20 fellows, 2 chaplains,
2 clerks, and 2 choristers. The fellows are, according to
the countries of their nativity to be thus distinguished :
4 of the diocese of Winchester, viz. 3 of the county of
Southampton, and 1 of the county of Surry ;% the
diocese of Durham 1 ; Bath and Wells 2 ; Exeter 2
of the county of Lincoln 2 ; Gloucester 2 ; Wilts 1
Kent 2 ; Lancashire, where Hugh Oldham was born, 1
Bedford 1 ; and Oxon and Berks 1.

* [Ludovicus Vives lodged in this College ; and, by tradition, was
afterwards Humanity Reader to the same ; but not mentioned in the
register, nor did he stay long at Oxford. (Mr. William Fulman"s
Animadversions and Notes on the Hist, and Antiq. of Oxon. Edit.
Lat. 1674, among our Author's MSS. in the Ashm. Mus. D. 9.)]
t Edw. Wotton was first fellow of Magdalen, and put into this College,
sociis compar, by the founder, with leave to travel into Italy for 3 years,
Jan. 2, 1720-1.
t The Oxford Univ. Calendar under C. C. C. says 20 Hants and 2 Surry.

RICHARD FOX. 281
' As for the scholars they were according to the said
dioceses and counties, in like manner, to be distinguished ;
only that, whereas, there were to be 2 fellows of Kent,
he appointed but 1 scholar of that place, and 2 of
Lancashire : but these were somewhat altered before the
founder's death.
He instituted also, three lectures to be performed by
three of the said fellows, every week in the college hall,
according as the statutes required. To which lectures
the students of the University, as also, strangers were
wont to repair. One was for humanity, which Lud.
Vives, before mentioned, read ; the second for greek ;
and the third for divinity. As for the two last, by whom,
at first, they were performed, I find not, unless by John
Clement, or Edward Wotton, or Robert Morwent, the
vice-president. Howsoever it was, sure I am, that they
were much frequented by the academics, as were the
lectures; about the same time, of Cardinal Wolsey.
In such an admirable condition was this College
finished, endowed with plentiful revenues, settled with
good government, and replenished with able men, that
the fame thereof extended far and near. Erasmus, in
an epistle of his, as I remember, written to JohnClaymond,
the first president, speaks very honourably of it, thus : — ¦
" Egregiam illam prudentiam suam, qua semper publicae
famae praeconio commendatus fuit Ric. Epus Winton.
nullo certiore argumento nobis declaravit quam quod
Collegiom magnificum suis impendiis extructuin, tribus
praecipuis Unguis, ac melioribus literis vetustisque
authoribus proprie consecravit," &c.
Bishop Fox's grammar-school at Grantham, is
copiously treated of by Turnor. He observes :— *' A
N 11

282 RICHARD FOX.
spacious handsome stone building, 75 ft. by 30, and a
commodious house, and offices for the master were
erected on the north side of the church-yard, by Richard
Fox, Bishop of Winchester. The foundation was
augmented in 1553, by Edward VI. There isa tolerable
portrait of the founder in the school-house. Sir Isaac
Newton was of this school." For a copious account of
this institution, see Tumor's Collections for the Hist, of
the Town and Soke of Grantham, 4to. 1806, p. 39,
illustrated by a plate representing the school.
Godwin thus notices this Prelate under his four Sees
respectively. Edit. Richardson, p. 414 : —
Exeter. " XXVI. Successit Ricardus Foxus
" [1487, Henry VII. 2] qui postquam hie loci sex
" annos sedisset, ad Ecclesiam Bathonensem et Wel-
" lensem translatus est, ac inde postea Wintoniam." —
His editor adds in the notes that his temporalties were
restored April 2, 1487- Rymer. xii. p. 322. The
Pope's bulle for his translation to Wells was dated Feb.
8, 1491. Registr. Morton. Therefore he could not
have sat at Exeter as Godwin says, 6, but 4 years.
Bath and Wells, p. 384 : —
" XL. Sufficitur Ricardus Foxus, Epus Oxon.
" qui hue translates est mense Feb. 1491, [Hen. VII.
" 7.] et post triennium Dunelmum.
Durham, (p. 753) : —
" XXXI. Ricardus Foxius in Episcopum Exo-
" niensem, consecratus, 1486, [Here is a year's
" discrepancy, vide supra] ad sedem Bathonensem
" translates 1491, [Bishop Godwin is therefore wrong,
" by his own shewing, in saying as above, ' sex annos ;']
" inde Dunelmum migravit 1494, ac Wintoniae tandem

RICHARD FOX. 283
" consedit 1502. In castro interim Dunelmensi multa
" immutavit. Cum in aula ibidem duo antiquitus
*' throni regales fuissent collocati (sic appellatos
" invenio) in superiori, (viz. parte) unus atque ab
" inferiori itidem alius : inferiorem sustulit, et ibidem
" edificia quasdam excitavit. Novam porro aulam
¦" exorsus construere, et coquinam in magna turri
" ejusdem castri, Wintoniam translatus est, antequam
" opus ad umbilicum potuerit perducere. Vivarium
" denique amplissiinum prope Dunelmum ad feras
" includendas muro satis excelso circumdedit. Sed de
" hoc inter Wintonienses habebis plura." His editor
adds, in the note, from Rymer' s Fadera, xii. 566, that
his temporalties were restored Dec. 8 ; and also a note
from Wharton's Anglia Sacra, p. 779, respecting the
border differences, and the Bishop's intervention in the
procurement of the marriage between the Princess
Margaret and King James of Scotland. Vide supra.
Winchester. From the English edition of 16 15,
p. 245 : —
"57 Richard Foxe, (1.502, Henry VII. 18.) at
" what time Henry, Earl of Richmond, abiding at
" Venice, was requested by letters from many of the
" English nobility to deliver his couutry from the
" tyranny of that wicked parricide Richard III. and
*' to take on him the kingdom ; he, willing to furnish
" himself, as well as he might, for the setting forth of
" so great an enterprise, determined to crave aid of
" the French King. Coming therefore to Paris, he
" only recommended his suit to the King, and having
"manifold business elsewhere, he left the farther
" prosecuting of this matter unto Richard Fox,

284 RICHARD FOX.
" (L.L.D. proceeded in Oxford, but incorporated in
" Cambridge, where he became Master of Pembroke
" Hall,) that chanced to live a student in Paris at that
" time. Whether the Earl knew him before, or else
" discerned at the first sight as it were, his excellent
" wisdom, certain it is, he deemed him a fit man for
" managing of this great affair. Neither was he any
" thing at all deceived in him : for the matter was
" followed with so great diligence and industry, as in a
" very short time all things were dispatched according
" to the Earl's desire, who soon after obtaining the
" kingdom, mindful of the good service done him by
" Dr. Fox, preferred him immediately unto the
" keeping of the privy seal, made him secretary, and
" one of his counsel ; aud laid upon him what spiritual
" living might possibly be procured him. In the
" meantime, he employed him continually either in
" matters of counsel at home, or in ambassages of
" great importance abroad. The 2nd. year of King
" Henry's reign, he was sent into Scoland for the
" establishing of a peace with the King there; whence
" he was scarcely returned when the Bishopric of
" Exeter falling void, it was bestowed upon him. He
" held it not past 6 years, [not so long} ; but he was
" removed to Bath and Wells, and thence within 3
" years after to Durham. There he staid 5 years;
" and the year 1502 was once more translated, viz. to
*' Winton, where he spent the rest of his life in great
" prosperity. For such was his favour with the King,
" that no man could ever do so much with him : no
" man there was upon whose counsel he so much relied.
" Amongst other honours done unto him, it was not

RICHARD FOX. 285
" the least, that he made him godfather* unto his 2nd.
"son, afterwards King Henry VIII. In one only
" mischance he was unfortunate. He lived many
" years blind before he died. Whereby guessing his
" end not to be far off, he determined to make unto
" himself friends ofthe unrighteous mammon, bestow-
" ing well his goods while he lived. And first, he
" purposed to have built a Monastery, until, that
" conferring with Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Oxon, a
" very wise man, he was advised by him rather to
" bestow his money upon the foundation of some
" College in one of the Universities, which should be
" more profitable unto the commonwealth, and more
" available to the preservation of his memory. As for
" Monasteries, quoth he, they have more already than
" they are like long to keep. So by the counsel of
" this wise Prelate, whose purse also was a great help
" to the finishing thereof, the College of Corpus
"Christi, in Oxford, was built A.D. 1516, and
" endowed by the said founder with possessions to
" the yearly value of .£401. 8s. lid. Afterward, in
" the year 1522, he bestowed the cost of building a
" fair free-school by the castle in Taunton, (where
" the Bishop of Winton has a goodly lordship,) and
" convenient housing near it for the school-master to

* [In the account of this Prelate, Vetiist Monum. vol. ii. this fact is
denied ; and it is asserted that Fox was only the baptizing Prelate. The
authority however there referred to, cannot be compared with that of
the contemporary historian Harpsfield. Besides, Greenwich being
out ofthe Diocese of Winton, it would not have been strictly regular our
Prelate's performing the solemn rite which there took place.— Edit.]

286 RICHARD FOX.
" dwell in ; the like he performed at Grantham also :
" in which place it is probable he might have been
" born : lastly it is to be remembered that he covered
" the choir of Winton, the presbytery and aisles
" adjoining, with a goodly vault, and new glazed all
" the windows of that part of the church. It is said
" also that he built the partition between the presbytery
" and the said aisle, causing the bones of such Princes
" and Prelates as had been buried here and there,
" dispersed about the church, to be removed and placed
" in seemly monuments upon the top of the new
" partition. Many other notable things no doubt he
" did, which have not come unto my knowledge. He
" was brought up in Pembroke Hall, Cambridge,
" (unto which house he gave certain hangings) ; and
" died a very old man A.D. 1528, [Sept. 14, Richard-
" son] when he had worthily governed the Church of
" Winton 27 years. He lieth intombed upon the
" south side of the high altar, in a monument rather
" sumptuous than stately, of the same building with
" the partition."
Richardson in his notes to the Latin edition of 1743,
[inter Episcopos Wint.~] p. 235, adds : — " That the
Bishop was Master of Pembroke Hall a little before the
8th. of the ides of Aug. 1 507, while Bishop of Winton.
He resigned the headship in May, 1519. He was
Chancellor of Cambridge for 2 years, viz. in 1500 and
1501. He had the Winton temporalties restored Oct.
17, 1500. Pat. 16 Henry VII. p. 2, m. 13. The
Bishop, (adds Richardson,) was remarkable for three
things. I. He recommended to King Henry his
marrying his brother's widow. II. He contended with

RICHARD FOX. 287
other Bishops concerning the prerogative of Canterbury,
against Archbishop Warham, and to the prejudice of
the See. III. When about to take his farewell of the
court he recommended Wolsey, his chaplain, afterwards
Bishop, Archbishop, and Cardinal; and Wm. Paulet,
steward of the estates belonging to the See of Winton,
afterwards lord high treasurer, and first Marquess of
Winchester," &c. [The present Marquess is 8th. iu
descent from this William, the first peer, brought into
notice by Bishop Fox. — Edit.]
Wharton (Ang. Sac. i. 319,) observes, " De Ricardo
Foxo a sede Dunelmensi ad Wintoniensem post Langtoni
obitum translate rsbusque ab illo Wintoniae gestis nil
habeo quod adjiciam Godvini dictis, nisi quod anno 1528,
14th. Sept. obierit."
He is thus noticed by Fuller, Worthies, vol. ii. p. 11,
edit. 1811 :—
" Richard Fox was born at Grantham, [Ropesley,
" near] Lincolnshire, as the fellows of his foundation
" in Oxford have informed me. Such who make it
" their only argument to prove his birth at Grantham,
" because he therein erected a fair free-school, may,
" on the same reason, conclude him born at Taunton,
" in Somerset, where he also founded a goodly
" grammar-school. But what shall I say ? ' Ubique
" nascitur qui orbi nascitur' ; he may be said to be
" born every where, who, with Fox, was born for the
" public and general good. He was very instrumental
" in bringing King Henry VII. to the crown, who
" afterwards well rewarded him for the same. That
" politic prince, (though he could go alone as well as
" any King in Eurbpe, yet) for the more state, in

288 RICHARD FOX.
" matters of moment, leaned principally on the
" shoulders of two prime Prelates, having Archbishop
" Morton for his right, and this Fox for his left
" supporter, whom at last he made Bishop of Winton.
" He was bred first in Cambridge, [incorrect] where
" he was president of Pembroke Hall, (and gave
" hangings thereunto with a Fox woven therein) and
" afterwards jn Oxford. [Fuller is wrong in this;
" it was exactly vice versa. He was first of Oxford,
" afterwards of Cambridge,] where [at Oxford] he
" founded the fair College of C. C. allowing per
" annum to it ,£401. 8s. 1 Id.) which hath since been
" the nursery of so many eminent scholars. He
" expended much money in beautifying his Cathedral
" in Winton, and methodically disposed the bodies of
" the Saxon Kings and Bishops, (dispersedly butted
" in this church) in decent tombs erected by him on
" the walls on each side the choir ; which some
" soldiers (to shew their spleen at once against crowns
" and mitres) valiantly fighting against the dust of the
" dead, have since barbarously demolished, Twenty-
" seven years he sat Bishop of this See, till he was
" stark blind with age. All thought him to die too
" soon : one only excepted, who conceived him to live
" too long, viz. Thomas Wolsey, who gaped for his
" Bishopric, and endeavoured to render him [obnoxious]
"to the displeasure of King Henry VIII. whose
" malice this Bishop, though blind, discovered, and in
"some measure defeated. He died A.D. 1528;
" and lies buried in his own Cathedral."
Tanner, in his Notitia, records, under Oxfordshire
XXIII. 9 :— " Corpus Cbristi College, Richard Fox,

RICHARD FQX. 289
Bishop of Winton, in the year 1513 hegan a College,
which he. at first designed for student black monks, as a
seminary to the Cathedral Priory of Winton, but was
dissuaded from settling it so by Hugh Oldham, Bishop
of Exon, who became a great benefactor to the buildings
of this house, which was finished in the year 1516, and
dedicated to the honour of the most holy body of Christ,
of St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Andrew, St. Cuthbert,
and St. Swythun, the patron saints of his four Bishoprics,
Exeter, Wells, *DurEam, and Winchester."
Here we may subjoin from Leland 's Winchester Ecc.
Cath. :-~" Richard us Foxe, Epus Wint. fecit testitudines
chori, lempli et presbyterii, invitresjvit omnes fenestras
ejusdem partis templi, fecit particionem inter presbyterium
et insulas abjacentes, in cacurnine cujus posuit ossa
prinoipum &, prsesulum ibi sepultorum in novis sarco-
phagis."— Coll. i. 1 16.
Sir Robert Atkyns* observes : — ¦" That the manor
was purchased by Dr. Richard Fox, Bishop of Winton,
and by him given to Corpus Christi College, Oxon •" the
president and fellows of which are the present lords of
the manor, and keep a court-leet," p. 449. The author
takes the opportunity of extolling the character of the
Bishop, and gives an outline of his career.
The following observations by the Roman-Catholic
Bishop Milner, as they refer to some circumstances not
noticed by the foregoing authorities, must not be
^omitted :—
w ¦.?

• ffist. Gloucestershire, under Guiting Temple.
o o

#90 RICHARD FOX.
.; " At length, either mortified at finding himself
" supplanted by Wolsey, whom he had introduced to
" the King's service, or else being desirous of conse-
" 'crating the latter end of his life to the concerns of
" religion, certain it is, that he retired to hi? Cathedral
" city, [Harpsfield] and applied himself exclusively to
" this object. He was unbounded in his charities to
" the poor, whom he assisted with food, clothes, and
" money : at the same time exercising hospitality and
" promoting the trade of the city, by p* large establish-
" ment which he kept up at Wolvesey of 220 servants,
" being all men. He was also indefatigable in preach-
" ing the word of God to his people, and in exciting
" his clergy to the performance of the same duly.
" The public works which he is known to have left
" behind him, suffice to prove the greatness both of his
" genius and his beneficence. The most celebrated of
"these is C.'C. C. Oxford, which he built and
" founded, endowing it, not with ecclesiastical property,
"as had frequently been done in similar instances,,
" but with estates which he purchased for this express
" purpose. Having finished this seminary, he industri-
" ously drew to it some of the most celebrated scholars
*' of the age : such as Ludovicus Vivez, the divine ;
" Nicholas Crucher, the mathematician ; Clement
" Edwards and Nicholas Utten, professors of greek;
" likewise, Thomas Lupset, Richard Pace, and
" Reginald Pole, who was afterwards Cardinal :
" [Harpsfield] men of the greatest distinction 'for
" learning and talents. He extended his charity and
" munificence to many other foundations, particularly
" within his own diocese ; amongst others, the en-

RICHARD FOX. agi
" chanting ruins of Netlef Abbey, still attest that he
" was a benefactor to that monastery. But the monu
ments which-tend chiefly to embalm his memory in
" the city of Winton, are those great and beautiful
" works, *both within its Cathedral arid on the outside
"of it, -which have hardly been equalled in their kind, *
; *' and never surpassed.* ¦" i~
" During the last ten years of his life, it*pleased> the
" Almighty to deprive him of sight. Far,* however,"
" from sinking under this trial or relaxing in his zealous
. * "effortSj the only use -he made of this deprivation was
; ".*' to apply himself more assiduously to prayer and:
" meditation, which at length became almost uninter- ¦¦
" rupted, bom day and night. [Harpsfield.] In 1528,
" he finished his*" pious course ; and was buried in that
" exquisite chantry which he had prepared amongst his
" other-works for that purpose, immediately behind the
" high altar, on the south side."f
Portraits. — 'The portraits of the Bishop are thus
"libticed by Granger: — " Ridiardus Fox, episcopus
Winton, Henrico septimo et octavo a secretioribus, et
,privatisigilli custos, Coll. Corp. Christi (fxon. Fundator,
< A": D»i- 1516. . Jfihannes Cflrvus Flandrus faciebat ;
Vertue sc. 1723. fIn Fiddes's Life of Cardinal Wolsey."

Harpsfield and Godwin mention only Fox's decorations within the
Church ; yet, that he w.as the author ofthe outside work here ascribed
to hjm, jg evidently proved by his image and devices in various part?
of it, j* ¦ ¦,,
t The last quoted author wfhoeniarges w'* so much unction on the
meritsof Bishop Fox, testifies that he was present at his funeral, bein^
tten a student in Wjinton College, ' '

292 RICHARD FOX.
" He is represented blind,* which calamity befel him at
the latter end of his life. The original picture is at
C. C. C. Oxon.
" Richardus Fox ; Mt. 70 ; G. Glover, sc, Richakdus
Fox; Mt, 70; 'Sturt. sc. Rich Annus Fox; a small
*qval.—*Ajt6ther for Dr. Knight's " Life of Erasmus."
Rich^dus Fox, 8cc, J. Faber^ f. large 4to. mezz. one
ofthe set of jounders.
" This * Prelate, who was successively Bishop of
Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester, was
employed by Henry VII. in his most impbrtant nego*
ciations at home and abroad ; and was in his last illness
appointed one of his executors. He was also at the head
of affairs in the beginning of this reign, Henry VIII. ;
but about the year 1515, retired from court, disgusted at
the insolence of Wolsey, whom he had helped to raise.
Ob. 14 Sept, 1528."— Biog, Hist. Eng. vol. i. p. 95.
Synopsis of Dates, Preferments, fyc.
Prebendary of Bishopston, in Sarum Cathedral, after"
1473; resigned 1485. . » «
Prebendary of South-Giantham, in Sarum Ca->
thedral. .,
Vicar of Stepney. r
Secretary to Kjug Henry VII, v^ l485?
Prebendary of Brounswode.
Privy Counsellor to Henry VII.
Bishop of Exeter 1486-7,
Keeper ofthe Privy Seal I486. * '
Ambassador to King James HI. King of Scotland, 1487.
Bishop of Bath and Wells 1491-2.
Bishop of Durham 1494.
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 15001.

RICHARD FOX. <293
Bishop of Winton, 1500, (Wood) who is right. (Sic
Patent Rolls.) Godwin says 1502.
Master of Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge, 1507, res. 1519.
Died 1528.
The following extract from the History of Durham,
by Mr. Sartees, though comprising several circum
stances already detailed, well deserves a place in this
sketch i^-"4 ,
"Richard Fox was translated to Durham from Bath
" and Wells, December 7, 1494, and received the
" temporalties , next day. He was born at Ropesley,
" in the county of Lincoln, and was the son of Thomas
" Fox, a person of mean circumstances. He was
" educated as a scholar on the foundation of Magdalen
" College, Oxford ; but the plague breaking out
" there, he retired to Cambridge, and became a
" member of Pembroke- Hall. He afterwards studied
. " in divinity and the canon law at Paris, where he
"received the degree of L.L.D. It does not appear
" whether his leaving England was at first prompted
" by any political reason ; but in France he became
" acquainted with Morton, Bishop of Ely, a deep and
" subtle politician, wbo was one of the main springs
" in the revolution that effected the fall of Richard III.,
" and raised the Earl of Richmond to the crown.
" Morton saw how serviceable Fox's talents might
" prove to any party in which he could be brought to
" engage; he introduced him to the secret counsels of
'** Richmond, and he was soon after entrusted with the
"delicate charge of negociating with Charles VIII. of
"France, for a supply of troops and money for the
" projected invasion of England. He conducted th&

294 RICHARD FOX.
" business with admirable secrecy and success. Im-
" mediately after the battle of BoSworth, Fox's services
" were rewarded by his being raised to the rank of a
" privy counsellor."
Leland thus notices these transactions : — %
" ' Quem rex summo favore complexus est, quia
" illius solummoda gratia Carolus VIIIUS- GallOrum
" rex ilium adhuccomitem Richmondiae idq; extilantem
" ad regnum contra Richardum tyrannum repetendum
" auxiliaribus copiis relevabat. Hinc sub eodem rege
" fuit custos privati sigilli, Secretarius, et a sanctiori-
" bus conciliis legatus in Scotiam.' " He was soon
" after collated to the Prebend of Bishopston, in the
" Cathedral of Sarum ; and, in the following year, to
" that of South-Grantham, in the same church. In
" 1487, he was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, and
" made keeper of the privy seal. In 1491, he was
" translated to Bath and Wells, and from thence to
"Durham in 1494. Whilst Bishop of Bath and
" Wells, he was one of the sponsors for Prince Henry;
" afterwards Henry VIII. From the See of Rome
" he had the title of apostolical legate in the realm of
" Scotland ; and, in 1 500, the University of Cam-
" bridge elected him their chancellor. He was also
" secretary of state ; master of the hospital of St.
" Cross, near Winchester; and, in 1505, accepted the
" mastership of Pembroke College, in Cambridge.
" From the time of Bishop Fox's promotion to
" Durham, the whole management of the north and
" ofthe Scottish border was committed to his charge.
" Under all the changes of both governments, peace,
" betwixt the two nations had been preserved by

RICHARD FOX. 295
"repeated treaties ;* and, in 14Q4,, the Bishop of
" Durham met the Scotch commissioners at Cold-
" stream, to treat of a renewal of the truce and of a
" mutual reparation for the damages inflicted by the
" borderers, whose incursions no public treaties could
" restrain.f The attempt to negotiate proved fruit
less; and, in 1495, Henry was alarmed by the
" favourable reception of Warbeck at the Scotch
" cour,t. The northern powers from Trent to Tweed,
" were called out under the Earl of Surry, lieutenant
" for the infant Duke of York, and the Bishop of
" Durham received a commission of array, not only
" for his own province, but for Northumberland,
" Tyndale, Redesdale, and the east marches. The
" names of the Earl of Surry and of some of the
" northern nobles were added to grace the com-
'• mission, but the King's private confidence was
" entirely reposed in the Bishop, who had secret
'^instructions empowering him to act alone.}
" At the same time, Henry, who never took up
"arras without an ^attempt to negotiate, and whose
" favourite project was to preclude assistance to War-
¦" beck, and secure the future peace of the north by a
" matrimonial alliance with the Scotch monarch, corii-
" missioned the Bishop of Durham to treat of peace,
" and to propose to King James the acceptance of the
" Princess Margaret of England in marriage. The
" project was at that time unsuccessful : King James
"crossed the borders and plundered part of North-

Bymer. Fosdera, xii. 554-5. t ty P- 868- * '•>.

296 RICHARD FOX.
" umberland, but retired on the approach of Surry's
" army. Inv»the following summer King James laid
" seige toNorham in person, whilstdivisions of his troops
" scattered themselves over the adjacent country. The
" Bishop who had foreseen the storm had repaired the
" works, and stationed a brave garrison in the place
" well armed and provided ; and as soon as he heard
" of the attack, hastened to the borders, and eluding
" the vigilance of the besiegers entered the fortress at
" the head of a small but determined band of followers.
" His precaution did not end here ; his power and
" influence had prevailed on the borderers to place all
" their strong holds in a state of defence ; their cattle
" and effects were drawn within the walls, and the
" marauding invaders were disappointed of their spoil.
" Norham Castle, meanwhile, resisted several hot
" assaults, and after a gallant defence of 1 6 days, the
" shattered fortress, after most of its out-works were
" beaten down, was relieved by the Earl of Surry^who
" pursued the retreating Scots across the Tweed.*
" Bishop Fox's peculiar attention to the border service
" is evinced by the unerring testimony of records still
" extant. He fulminated a sentence of excommuni-
" cation against the robbers of Tynedale and Redesdale,
" and in particular against the vagrant priests who
" accompained these lawless hordes from place to
" place, amidst the wilds of N orthumberland, partaking
" in their plunder, and mingling reliques of barbarism
" with the rites and sacraments of the christian Church.

Holiiished.

RICHARD FOX. 297
" In 1498, appears an absolution dated at Norharn
" September 25, granted by name to several of these
" freebooters who had accepted the Bishop's mercy.
" The latter instrument bears date at Norham Castle,
" and the reclaiming of these borderers may be fairly
" attributed to the Bishop's personal presence and
¦'" influence.* " In 1497, a truce for seven years was concluded
" with Scotland, under the mediation of Peter D'Ayala,
" the Spanish envoy at the court of England .\ The
" Bishop of Durham, Walsham, master of the rolls,
" and John Cartington, Serjeant at law, were the
"English commissioners; and the Bishop's name
" stands also at the head of the English list of conser-
" valors, who were appointed with full powers to redress
" injuries and punish offenders on the marches. The
" truce was afterwards prolonged for the joint lives of
"the two sovereigns, and ratified in Stirling Castle,
" July 20, 1499. But the instrument was scarcely
" executed* when an accidental quarrel between some
" young Scotchmen whom curiosity had drawn to visit
•" Norham, and the soldiers of the garrison, threatened
" a renewal of hostilities.} Several lives were lost ;
•" and the Scotch King indignant at the delays which
•" he experienced from the English wardens, sent his
" herald to Henry, to demand instant satisfaction for the

* The whole record printed from Bishop Fox's register may be seen
in the introduction to the Minstrelsy of the Scotch Border. Appendix
No. 7 of Surtees's Durham.— And see a practical illustration in the Life
Of Gilpin. 'Part ii, p. 66.
t Fosdera, xii. 677. & I Holiushed.
P p

S9& RICHARD FOX.
" insult or to denounce war. The Bishop, with
" admirable policy, took upon himself the whole charge
" of tendering reparation of the outrage which had
" occurred within the walls of his own fortress. His
" mild and conciliatory offers softened the fiery spirit
" of James, who requested a personal interview. They
" met at the Abbey of Melrose, and not only were all
" existing differences terminated, but the Bishop
" succeeded in awakening James to a sense of his tme
" interest ; he consented to a permanent alliance
" between the two kingdoms, and requested the
" Bishop's favourable intercession in obtaining for him
" the Princess Margaret of England.* The peace
"was finally concluded in 1502; and in June, the
" young bride gallantly attended, commenced her
" progress to the north. She was received on the
" borders of the Bishopric by the high sheriff, and
" was entertained for three days at Durham, where a
"splendid feast was given in the hall ofthe Castle, July
" 23, the anniversary of Fox's installation. f
" The Bishop had already been translated to Winton
" on the festival of St. Faith, October 6, 1501.
* Fosdera, xii. 729.
f The Princess rested at Northallerton in the Bishop's manor-house,
and it seems that there Bishop Fox met her. At Nesham she was
received on crossing the Tees, by Sir Ralph Bowes, Sir William Hilton,
&c. See " the Fiancells of the Princess Margaret, by Younge, Somerset
Herald." Leland. Collect, iii, 258-197. — Bishop Fox was not less dis
tinguished for conducting a pageant than a negociation : for a little
before, " Bishop Fox, who was not only a grave counsellor for warre or
peace, but also a good surveyor of workes, and a good master of cere-
monyes," was employed to superintend the reception of the Princess
Catherine of Spain. — Bacon. See Leland Collect, v.

RICHARD FOX. 299
" It seems difficult to account for the King's removal
" of so faithful a servant from the important post which
" he had occupied with so much fidelity ; but the
" peace of the north seemed in consequence of the
" late alliance, more secure than at any former period,
" and the Bishop might desire in advancing years, a
" residence in a country of milder manners, and in a
" southern climate. Chambre adds, that his longer
" residence at Durham was rendered irksome by a
" violent dispute which had arisen between the See of
"Durham and the Earl of Cumberland, for the
" possession of Hartlepool.
" The Bishop was one of executors of Henry VII.
" A new race of favorites arose under his son, a
" sovereign of a very different character; yet, in 1510,
" the Bishop, with the Earl of Surry, and Bishop
" Ruthall, of Durham, concluded a short-lived peace
" with Lewis XII. of France; and in 1513, he
" attended the King in his expedition to France, and
" was present at the taking of Terouenne. His last
" public employment was the negociation of a treaty
" with the Emperor Maximilian. The rising fortunes
" of Wolsey, whom Fox had himself introduced to the
" royal favor, bore no competitor ; and in 1515, the
" Bishop resigned the privy seal and retired to his
" diocese. His attention was fixed in his latter years
" on the foundation of some religious or academic
41 institution ; and being deeply offended with the
" conduct of the members of his own College (Pem-
" broke Hall,) of which he resigned the headship in
"1518, he became the munificent founder of the
" College of Corpus Christi in Oxford, where scholar-

30O RICHARD FOX.
" ships are appropriated to natives of the diocese of
" Durham. He was also the founder of the Free
" Grammar Schools of Taunton and Grantham.
" Bishop Fox was afflicted with blindness for many
" years before his death; but under the pressure of
" age and infirmity, his spirit remained unbroken ; and
" he replied to Wolsey, who wished him to resign his
" Bishopric of Winton for a pension, "that though he
" could no longer distinguish white from black, yet
" could he discriminate right from wrong, truth from
" falsehood, and could well discern the malice of an
" ungrateful man ; he warned the proud favorite to
" beware, lest ambition should render him blind to
" his approaching ruin ; bade him attend closer to
" the King's business, and leave Winchester to the
" care of her Bishop."
The good Prelate died in 1528, and was interred in
his own chapel in Winton Cathedral, where his tomb
still exhibits an exquisite specimen of the richest style of
golhic sepulchral architecture. Chambr£, p. 779, thus
describes it : — " Capellam apud Winton magnificis
sumptibus coustructam erexit, et ibidem honoratissime
sepultus jacet ; cujus imago cum artificio in lapide
efformata ibidem conspicitur." The effigy is a. skeleton.*
Bishop Fox's public works within the diocese of
Durham were not numerous. He made, as has already
been observed, some alterations in the great hall of the
castle of Durham, to which he added a music gallery, and
removing a seat of state from the lower end, converted

See Cough's Sepulchral Monuments and Milner's Winton.

RICHARD FOX. 301
the space into offices. He built also a kitchen and
steward's room to the west of the hall. He had conceived
the design of restoring the great tower of Durham Castle,
but left the work unfinished on his translation to Winton.
He is said to have enclosed the deer park at Auckland.
Bishop Fox appears to have been extremely jealous of
any diminution of the Palatine rights ; and in his 5th.
year he issued a writ of Quo Warranto directed to the
sheriff of Durham, summoning all persons claiming com t-
leet, court-baron, or other liberty or franchise within the
regalities of the Bishop of Durham, to produce and
justify their titles. It is probable the writ was never
carried into execution, for no return appears on the rolls.
Our memoir of this Prelate would be incomplete
without the following extract from Harpsfield, his con
temporary :* —
" Natus est Richardus in Comitate Lincolnise apud
" Grantoniam. Cum in literis egregie profecisset,
" sacerdotio jam initiatus Lutetiam Parisiorum, ad
" majorem doctrinae accessionem profectus est. Ibi
" dum versatur, Henricus Comes Richemundiae illuc
" venit, suppetias petitum a Carolo Rege adversus
" Regem Ricardum, qui Ricardum ob ingenium et
" probitatein, sibi inter intimos adjunxit, et ab eo
" tempore magis ac magis indies coluit et observavit :
" deturbatoque deinde Richardo, ad intimum consilium
" Richardum ascivit ; et secretarii ut appellant, muuus
" illi mandavit. Exoniensi primum Episcopatu hones-
" tatus est. Legavit eum Henricus alias in Scotiam,

* Ssec. xv. c. 20. p. 643.

302 RICHARD FOX.
" alias in Galliam, in Scotiam quidem, ut inducias
" cum Jacobo Rege pacisceretur, quas et pactus est.
" In Galliam vero, ut fcedus cum Caroloiniretur, quod
" et initum est. Bathoniensi atque Wellensi deinde,
" atque postea Dunelmensi Episcopate auctus est.
" Dum Dunelmi versatur, et rixa quadam inter Anglos
" et Scotos orta, quidam ex Scotis ccesi sunt. Et
" cum periculum esset, ne induciae antea initae, ea
" occasione rescinderentur, missus est Ricardus in
" Scotiam ad rem omnem pacificandam. Quo tempore
"Jacobus cupide se nuptias Margaritas majoris natu
" Henrici filia? appetere ostendit, nee ita multo post,
" desideratis nuptiis potitus est. Sed cum Rex
" Ricardi desiderium, et tam longe dissitam absentiam
" aequo animo non ferret, curavit, ut mortuo, sicut
" dictum est, Thoma Langtono, Wintoniam accesse-
" retur, ut frequientiore ejus opera et consilio
" uteretur. Quern deinde secretiori suo praefecit et in
" ejus potissimum fide et prudentia acquiescebat, adeo
" ut cum octennio postea in fata concederet, nullius
" magis fidei adolescentem filium Henricum atque
" successorem, quam Ricardi commendavit cujus erat
" patruinus, ut appellamus, et sponsor pro eo cum
" sacro baptismate expiaretur ; eique etiam permultis
" postea annis a consiliis fuit, donee obrepens seneclus,
" hujus modi cum solicitudinibus renunciare et sibi
" suaeque parochiae atque diocesi accuratius intendere
" admoneret. " Wintoniam itaque venit," 8cc.
" Commutavit tandem pius vir iste mortalem hanc
" et caducam cum ccelesti et immortali vita, ad annum
" nostra; redemptionis CIO 13. XXVIII. Quo

RICHARD FOX. 303
"ego tempore, me admodum puerum exequiis et
" funeri ejus interfuisse memini, ad prima literarum
" elementa illic haurienda, a parentibus Wintoniam
" Londino missum."
The following succinct article is from Chalmers's
Biographical Dictionary.
" Richard Fox, an eminent Prelate, and the
" munificent founder of Corpus Christi College,
" Oxford, was the son of Thomas Fox, and born* at
" Ropesley, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, about
" the latter end of the reign of Henry VI. His
" parents are said to have been in mean circumstances,
" but they must at least have been able to afford him a
" school education ; since the only dispute on this
" subject between his biographers, is, whether he was
" educated in grammar learning at Boston, or at
" Winchester. They all agree, that at a proper age,
" he was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he
" was acquiring distinction for his extraordinary profi-
" ciency ; when the plague which happened to break
" out about that time, obliged him to go to Cambridge,

* According to Wood, who availed himself of some MS. accounts of
Fox, preserved in this College, written by President Greenway, " the
fonndei' was born in an ancient house, known to some by the name of
Pullock's Manor," "This house," he adds, "was well known for
nmny years to the Fellows of Corpus, who reverently visited it, when
they went to keep Courts at their Manors." To what was before
recorded of Fox, Mr. William Fulman, a scholar of Corpus, and an able
, Antiquary, made many additions, with a view to publication, which lie
did not live to complete, His MSS. are partly in this College, and
partly in the Ashmoleau Museum. Mr. Gough drew up a very accurate
sketch of Fox's Life, for the Vetusta Monnmenta.

304 RICHARD FOX.
" and continue his studies at Pembroke Hall. After
" remaining some time at Cambridge, he repaired to
" the University at Paris, and studied divinity and the
" canon law ; and here, probably, he received his
" Doctor's degree. This visit gave a new and import-
" ant turn to his life, and introduced him to that
" eminence which he preserved for many years as a
" statesman. In Paris he became acquainted with
" Dr. Morton, Bishop of Ely, whom Richard III.
" had compelled to quit his native country, and by this
" Prelate he was recommended to the Earl of Rich-
" mond, afterwards Henry VII. who was then provid-
" ing for a descent upon England. Richmond, to
" whom he devoted himself, conceived such an opinion
" of his talents and fidelity, that he entrusted to his
" care a negociation with France for supplies of men
" and money, the issue of which he was not able
" himself to await ; and Fox succeeded to the utmost
" of his wishes. After the defeat of the usurper at the
" battle of Bosworth, in 1485, and the establishment
" of Henry on the throne, the latter immediately
" appointed Fox to be one of his privy council; and
" about the same time bestowed on him the Prebends
" of Bishopston and South-Grantham, in the Church
" of Salisbury. In 1487, he was promoted to the
" See of Exeter, and appointed keeper of the privy
" seal, with a pension of twenty shillings a day. He
" was also made principal secretary of state, and
" master ot St. Cross, near Winchester.
" His employments in affairs of state, both at home
" and abroad, were very frequent ; as he shared the
" King's confidence with his early friend Dr. Morton,

RICHARD FOX. 305
" who was now advanced to the Archbishopric of
" Canterbury. In 1487, Fox was sent ambassador,
"with Sir Richard Edgecumbe, comptroller of the
"household, to James III. of Scotland, where he
"negotiated a prolongation of the truce between
" England and Scotland, which was to expire July 3,
" 1488, to September 1, 1489. About the beginning
"of 1491, he was employed on an embassy to the
" King of France, and returned to England in Novem-
" ber following. In 1494, he went again as ambassa
dor to James IV. of Scotland, to conclude some
" differences respecting the fishery of the river Esk, in
" which he was not successful. Having been trans-
" lated, in 1442, from the See of Exeter to that of
" Bath and Wells, he was, in 1494, removed to that of
" Durham, In 1497, the castle of Norham being
" threatened by the King of Scotland, the Bishop
" caused it to be fortified and supplied with troops,
" and bravely defended it in person, until it was
" relieved by Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who
" compelled the Scots to retire. Fox was then, a
" third time, appointed to negotiate with Scotland,
" and signed a seven years truce between the two
"kingdoms, September 30, 1497. He soon after
" negotiated a marriage between James IV. and
" Margaret, King Henry's eldest daughter, which
" was, after many delays, fully concluded January 24,
" 1501-2.*
* IU" The succession of the House of Stuart, as well as that of
Brunswick, to the British Throne, is to be referred to this alliance, and
to the prudence of Bishop Fox iu the negociation of it. See Lord BacOD's
W. of Henry VII.— Edit.
Qq

806 RICHARD FOX.
" In 1500, the University of Cambridge elected him
" their Chancellor, which he retained till 1 502 ; and
" in the same year (1500,) he was promoted to the
'* See of Winchester. In 1507, he was chosen
" Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, which he
" retained till 1519. In 1507, and 1508, he was
" employed at Calais, with other commissioners, in
" negociating a treaty of marriage between Mary, the
" King's third daughter, and Charles, Archduke of
" Austria, afterwards the celebrated Charles V.
" In 1509-10, he was sent to France with the Earl of
" Surrey, and Ruthal, Bishop of Durham, and con-
" eluded a new treaty of alliance with Lewis XII.
" In 1512, he was one of the witnesses to the foundation
" charter of the hospital of the Savoy. In 1513, he
" attended the King (Henry VIII.) in his expedition
" to France, and was present at the taking of Teroiiane ;
" and, in October following, jointly, with Thomas
" Grey, Marquis of Dorset, he concluded a treaty
" with the Emperor Maximilian against Fiance. In
" 1514, he was one of the witnesses to the renunciation
" of the marriage with Prince Charles of Spain by the
" Princess Mary ; one of the commissioners for the
" treaty of peace between Henry VIII. and Lewis
" XII. of France ; and for the marriage between the
said King of France and the Princess Mary the
" same year. He was also one of the witnesses to the
" marriage treaty, and to the confirmation of both
" treaties ; to the treaty of friendship with Francis I.
" and to its confirmation in the following year.
" This appears to be the last of his public acts,
" During the reign of Henry VII. he enjoyed the

K

RICHARD FOX> 307
" unlimited favor and confidence of his sovereign, and
" bore a conspicuous share, not only in the political
" measures, but even in the court amusemeuts and
" ceremonies of that reign. Henry likewise appointed
" him one of his executors,, and recommended him
" strongly to his son and successor.* But although
" he retained his seat in the privy council, and con-
" tinned to hold the privy seal, his influence in the new
" reign gradually abated. Howard, Earl of Surrey
" and Lord Treasurer, had been his rival in Henry
" the Seventh's time, and learned now to accommodate
¦" himself to the extravagant passions of his new master;
¦" with whom he was, for a considerable time, a
" confidential favourite ; and the celebrated Wolsey,
•" who had been introduced to the King by Fox, in
" order to counteract the influence of Fox, now
" became more powerful than either. After remaining
¦*.' some time in office, under many mortifications, our
" Prelate, together with Archbishop Warham, retired
" from court in 1515.. Such was the political life of
" Bishop Fox, distinguished by high influence and
" talent, but embittered at length by the common
" intrigues and vicissitudes to which statesmen are
*' subject. " His retirement at Winchester, was devoted to acts
" of charity and munificence, although he did not now,

'The historian of Winchester remarks, that no higher proof oi the
¦consideration in which the King held him can be adduced, than that he
was chosen to be sponsor to the young Prince, who was afterwards
Henry VIH. Dr. .[Bishop} Miluer also contests Mr. Gough's opinion
*ha. hewas not sponsor, but baptized the young Prime.

308 RICHARD FOX.
" for the first, appear as a public benefactor. He had
" bestowed large sums on the repairs of the episcopal
" palace at Durham, while Bishop of that See, and on
" every occasion of this kind discovered a considerable
" taste for architecture. In 1 552, he founded a free
" school at Taunton, and another at Grantham, and
" extended his beneficence to many foundations within
" the diocese of Winchester. But the triumphs
" of his munificence and taste, are principally to be
" contemplated in the additions which he built both
" withiu and without the Cathedral of Winchester."
- Of these, we shall borrow a character from one whose
fine enthusiasm cannot be surpassed : —
" It is impossible to survey the works of this
" Prelate, either on the outside of the Church, or in
" the inside, without being struck with their beauty
" and magnificence. In both of them we see the
" most exquisite art employed to execute the most
" noble and elegant designs. We cannot fail, in
" particular, of admiring the vast but well-proportioned
" and ornamental arched windows which surround this
" (the eastern) part, and give light to the sanctuary ;
" the bold and airy flying buttresses that, stretching
" over the said aisles, support the upper walls ; the
" rich open battlement which surrounds these walls ;
" and the elegant sweep that contracts them to the
" size ofthe great eastern window ; the two gorgeous
" canopies which crown the extreme turrets, and the
" profusion of elegant carved work that covers the
" whole east front, tapering up to a point, where we
" view the breathing statue of the pious founder,
" resting upon his chosen emblem, the pelican. In a

RICHARD FOX. 309
44 word, neglected and mutilated as this work has been,
" during the course of nearly three centuries, it still
" warrants us to assert, that if the whole Cathedral
" had been finished in the style of this portion of it,
" the whole Island, and perhaps all Europe, could not
" have exhibited a gothic structure equal to it."*
" His last appearance in Parliament was in 1523,
" he had then been nearly five years deprived of his
" sight, which he never recovered . Wolsey endeavoured
" to persuade him to resign his Bishopric to him, and
" accept of a pension, but this he rejected ; asserting,
" according to Parker, that " Tho', by reason of his
" blindness, he was not able to distinguish white from
" black, yet he could discern between true and false,
" right and wrong ; and plainly enough saw, without
" eyes, the malice of that ungrateful man, which he
" did not see before. That it behoved the Cardinal to
" take care not to be so blinded with ambition, as not
" to foresee his own end. He needed not trouble him-
" self with the Bishopric of Winchester, but rather
" should mind the King's affairs."
" His last days were spent in prayer and meditation,
" which, at length, became almost uninterrupted both

* Milner's History of Winchester, vol. ii. p. 19, 20. On the top of the
wall that he built round the presbytery, he placed in leaden chests, three
on a side, the bones of several of the West-Saxon Kings and Bishops,
and some later Princes, who had been originally buried behind the high
altar, or in different parts of the Church, with their names inscribed on
the face ofthe chest, aud a crown on each. But the havoc of fanaticism
in the late civil war, deranged the bones, which were collected again, as
well as circumstances permitted, 1661*— Gough. Vetusta Monumenta,
tol. ii. plate L.

510 RICHARD FOX.
" day and night. He died September 14, 1528, and
" was buried in the fine Chantry which he built for
" that purpose, in Winchester Cathedral, immediately
" behind the high altar, on the south side. During his
*' residence here, he was indefatigable in preaching,
" and exciting the Clergy to their duty. He was also
" unbounded in his charities to the poor, whom he
" assisted with food, clothes, and money ; at the same
*' time exercising hospitality, and promoting the trade
" of the city, by a large establishment, which he kept
" up at Wolvesey, of two hundred and twenty servants."
" His character," says Mr. Gough, "may be
" briefly summed up in these two particulars : great
" talents and abilities for business, which recommended
" him to one of the wisest Princes of the age ; and not
" less charity and munificence, of which he has left
" lasting monuments." " Of his writings, we have only
" an English translation ofthe " Rule of St. Benedict,"
" for the use of his diocese, printed by Pinson, 1516,
" and a letter to Cardinal Wolsey, the subject of which
" is the Cardinal's intended visitation and reformation
" of the Clergy. Fox expresses his great satisfaction
" at any measures which might produce so desirable an
" effect. The general and respectful style of this letter,
" either affords a proof of Fox's mild and conciliatory
" temper, or suggests a doubt, whether our Historian's
" have not too implicitly followed each other in assert-
" ing that Wolsey's ingratitude was the principal cause
" of his retiring from court. That Wolsey was
" ungrateful may be inferred from the preceding
'•' quotation from Archbishop Parker, but Fox's dis-
" covery of it, there implied, was long subsequent to

RICHARD FOX. 31 1
" his leaving the court ; and it is certain, that, in the
"letter now mentioned, and in another, written in 1526,
" he addresses the Cardinal in terms of the utmost
" respect and affection. Of these circumstances, Fiddes
" and Grove, the Biographers of Wolsey, have not
" neglected to avail themselves ; but they have sup-
" pressed all notice of his offer to Fox respecting the
" resignation of the Bishopric.
" The foundation of C. C. C. was. preceded by the
" purchase of certain pieces of land in Oxford, belong-
" ing to Merton College, the N unnery of Godstow,
" and the Priory of St. Frideswyde, which he com-
" pletedin 1513. But his design, at this time, went
" no farther than to found a College for a Warden and
" a certain number of Monks and secular scholars,
"belonging to the Priory of St. S within, in Winchester,
" in the manner of Canterbury and Durham Colleges,
" which were similar to nurseries in Oxford for the
" Priories of Canterbury and Durham. The buildings,
" for this purpose were advancing under the care of
" William Vertue, mason, and Humphrey Cook,
" carpenter and master of the works, when the
"judicious advice of H ugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter,
induced him to enlarge his plan to one of more use
fulness and durability. This Prelate, an eminent
"patron of literature, and a man of acute discernment,
' is said to have addressed him thus : " What ! my
" Lord, shall we build houses, and provide livelihoods
' for a company of Monks, whose end and fall we
ourselves may live to see ? No, no, it is more meet
" a great deal, that we should have care to provide for
"the increase of learning, and for such as, by their

312 RICHARD FOX.
" learning, shall do good to the Church and Common-
" wealth." These arguments, strengthened probably
" by others of a similar tendency, induced Fox to
" imitate those founders who had already contributed
" so largely to the fame of the University of Oxford.
" Accordingly, by licence of Henry VIII. dated Nov.
" 26, 15 16, he obtained leave to found a College for
" the sciences of divinity, philosophy, and arts, for a
" president and thirty scholars, graduate and not
" graduate, more or less, according to the revenues of
" the society, on a certain ground between Merton
" College on the east, a lane near Canterbury College
" (afterwards part of Christ-Church), and a garden of
" the Priory of St. Frideswyde, on the west, a street
" or lane of Oriel College on the north, and the town
" wall on the south ; and this new College to be
" endowed with «£350. yearly. The charter, dated
" Cal. March, 1516, recites that the founder, to the
" praise and honour of God Almighty, the most holy
" body of Christ, and the blessed Virgin Mary, as also
"of the Apostles Peter, Paul, and Andrew, and of St.
" Cuthbert and St. Swithiu, and St. Birin, patrons of
" the Churches of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham,
" and Winchester (the four Sees which he successively
" filled) doth found and appoint this College always to
" be called Corpus Christi College. The Statutes
" are dated February 13, 1527, in the 27th. year of
" his translation to Winchester ; and, according to them,
" the society was to consist of a president, twenty
" fellows, twenty scholars, two chaplains, two clerks,
" and two choristers.

RICHARD FOX. si3
" But what conferred an almost immediate superi-
" ority of reputation on this society, was the appoint-
" ment of two lectures for greek and latin, which
" obtained the praise and admiration of Erasmus, and
" the other learned men, who were now endeavouring
" to introduce a knowledge of the classics, as an
" essential branch of academic study. With this
" enlightened design, the founder invited to his new
" College, Ludovicus Vives, Nicholas Cucher, the
"Mathematician ; Clement Edwards and Nicholas
" Utten, professors of greek ; Thomas Lupset, Rich-
" ard Pace, and other men of established reputation.
"This," Mr. Wharton observes, "was a new and
" noble departure from the narrow plan of academical
" education. The course of the latin lecturer was not
" confined to the College, but open to the students of
" Oxfordin general. He was expressly directed to
" drive barbarism from the new College, barbariem e
" nostro alvario pro virili si quando pullulet extirpet et
" ejiciat. The greek lecturer was ordered to explain
" the best greek classics, and those which Fox
" specified on this occasion, are the purest in the
" opinion of modern times. But such was the temper
" of the age, that Fox was obliged to introduce his
" greek lectureship, by pleading that the sacred canons
"had commanded, that a knowledge of the greek
" tongue should not be wanting in public seminaries of
"education. By the sacred canons, he meant a
"decree of the council of Vienne, in Dauphiny,
"promulged so early as 1311, which enjoined that
''professorships of greek, hebrew, and arable, should
" be instituted in the Universities of Oxford, Paris,
n r

#14 RICHARD FOX.
" Bononia, Salamanca, and the court of Rome.
" This, however, was not entirely satisfactory. The
" prejudices against the greek were so inveterate, that
" the university was for some time seriously disturbed
" by the advocates of the school learnings- The
" persuasion and example of Erasmus, who resided
" about this time in St. Mary's College, had a
" considerable effect in restoring peace ; and more
" attention was gradually bestowed on the learned
" languages, and this study so curiously introduced
" under the sanction of Pope Clement's decree of
" Vieune, proved at no great distance of time, a
" powerful instrument in effecting the reformation.
" Those who would deprive Clement of the liberality
" of his edict, state his chief motive to have been a
" superstitious regard for the latin, greek, and hebrew,
" because the superscription on the cross was written
" in these languages."*
Bishop Fox is thus briefly noticed in Isaaeke+ : —
" Richard Fox, Lord Privy Seal, and one of the
" King's Privy Council, born in Lincolnshire, conse-
" crated [Bishop of Exeter] January 27, 3 Hen. VII.
" 1488 ; governed six years. Translated to Bath, and
" thence to Winchester. Deceased February 2, 1528 ;
" buried in the Cathedral Church of Winchester."

* Chalmer's Hist, of Oxford. Life in Biog. Brit, and especially that by
Mr. Gough, in the Vetusta Monumenta. Wood's Colleges and Halls.
Ath. Ox. vol. i. Jortin's Erasmus.
t Antiquities of Exeter, 2nd. Edition, continued to 1723; London, 8vi>.
1732. p. 39 ; among Bishops of Exeter.

OLIVER KING. 315
The vault of Bishop Fox, in Winchester Cathedral,
was opened January 28, 1820.
In the coffin, was found a small leaden box, containing
a piece of vellum, on which were the following words,
neatly written in gothic characters :— -
" Quinto die Octobris anno domiui Willlmo quingen-'
tesimo vicesimo octavo obiit et sepultus est Ricardus Fox
hujus Ecclesia: Ep us qui hanc rexit Ecclesian septem et
viginti annis integreV'*
Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College : — Azure,
a pelican vulhing herself Or, within a bordure of the lasj;
a canton Ermine.

XLI. OLIVER KING, L.L.D.
(Builder of the present Bath Abbey.)
Succeeded A. D. 1496. — Died A. D. 1503,
This Prelate was brought up at King's College,
Cambridge, of which he afterwards became fellow, and
took the degree of L.L.D.
Wharton calls him, *' Archdeacon of Taunton," but
assigns no date. The following were his preferments
with dates annexed.

* The above, wliich was kindly communicated to me by Dr. Williams,
Professor of Chemistry, at Oxford, is curious, as fixing the date of the
Bishop's death, and as seeming to imply, that he was buried on the day
<m which he died.

316 OLIVER KING.
Installed Canon of Windsor, in 1481, being tk<en
L.L.D. The same year he became Registrar of the
Order of the Garter.*
, Collated to the Archdeaconry of Oxford, April 17,
1482, (while part of Lincoln diocese,) void by the
promotion of Lionel Wydville.f
Archdeacon of Berks, September 28, 1487-+
Installed Dean of Hereford, March 23; 1490, and
resigned that deanery, June 27, 149 1. §
In 1492, he became Bishop of Exeter, by Papal
provision, the bulle was dated October 1, 1492 ; he was
consecrated in February, and had the temporalties res
tored May 5. |j
Isaacke.^l among the Bishops of Exeter, places him as
the 27th. says, "he was consecrated February 20, 9.
Hen. VII. 1494. (the 9th Hen. VII. was 1493) ; governed
the diocese 5 years ; was translated to Wells, and deceased
November 20, 1499: being buried at Windsor." He is
wrong in most of these dates. Bishop King was conse
crated to Exeter, not in 1494, but 1492. He sat at
Exeter, not 5 years, but 3 ; and he died, tiot in 1499» but
in 1503, as will be seen by our authorities.
In 1495, he was translated to Bath and Wells Nov.
6 ;* * had the temporalties restored J anuary 6 ;++ enthroned

" Le Neve. Fasti, p. 380. f lb- P- 166
t Collect. Kennet, and ib. p. 280. $ lb. p. 113,
|| Rymer, vol. xii. p. 447, and Resist. Morton, Abp. Cant.
H Hist, and Antiq. Exeter, 2nd. Edit.
** Godwin, p. 379. tt Rymer. Fosdera, vol. xii. p. 577.

OLIVER KING. 317
March 12. He died, says Godwin, January 24, 1503;
the Wells Register, says, Aug. 29 ; and the Canterbury
Register, says, in September ; but all concur as to the
year. There has been a variety of opinion as to the place of
his burial. Newcourt,* says, it is thought at Windsor.
" In his will," says Le Neve, " which was proved Oct.
23, 1503, he directs that his body may be buried in the
choir of Wells Cathedral."
He appears to have been eminent as a statesman as
welt as a divine. " According to an inscription on an
oaken screen, near the monumental and chantry chapel,
which he erected," says Mr. Britton.f " for his own
burial place, in St. George's chapel, at Windsor. He
was principal secretary to Prince Edward (son of Henry
VI.) the Kings Edward IV. & V. and King Henry
VII." To those who " relish a joke, and rejoice in a pun,"
the following punning effusion of Sir John Harrington,
may be interesting. The more sensible reader will
probably wish the facts divested of the puns. But I
give the extract as I find it : % —
" Concerning Bath, I have such plenty of matter
' to entertaine your highnesse with (I meane variety
" of discourse), as I study rather how to abbreviate it,
" than how to amplifye it : I should have begunne at

* Repcrtforium, vol. i. p. 208, and see Le Neve. Fasti, p. 33.
t Hist, of Wells Cathedral, p. 50. ,
$ Nugas Antiques, vol.i. p. 111—123.

318 OLIVER KING.
" Bishop Barlow, but I respect so much the very name
" of 'King,' as I could not let him passe without some
" homage ; and because the chiefe bath of which the
" towne hath the name, is called the ' King's Bath,' I
" shall add somewhat also, either omitted or but
" slightly touched in the precedent booke of mine
" author, but somewhat more largely handled in the
" Latin Treatise, mentioned by him, page 307, in the
" life of Stillington, out of which I will cite a passage
" or two as occassion shall serve.
" First, therefore, for the city of Bath, to omit all
" the antiquities cited by Mr. Cambden and other
" good authors, as also seen by myselfe, I observe this,
" that amongst all our old traditions and legends
" thereof, that seemeth as it were purposely left in
" suspense and not .yet fully determined, whether the
" crowne or the mitre have more claime to the vertue,
" that all men see and say to be in these waters.
" Some affirme, that King Bladud, a learned King,
" brought up at Athens, long before Christ's time,
" either by his cunning in magick, did frame it, or
" rather by his search did finde it, or at least with his
" cost did first found it : others believe that King
" Arthur's Uncle, St. David, a Bishop of Wales, that
" lived longer with leekes than we doe now with larkes
" and quailes, by his prayer, procured this vertue to
" these springs, but this is manifest by most credible
" histories, that Offa, King of Mercia, built a goodly
" Abby there, where before had been a temple of
" Minerva and Hercules, whom they feined to be
" presidents of hot bathes. This Monastery, built by
" Offa, 775, was destroyed by the Danes, being then

OLIVER KING. 319
" no Christians, about the yeere 900. Then it was
" re-edified by Elphegus, a Bishop of Canterbury, in
" 1010; and continued in great estimation for a place
" of holy and strickt life ; but had not yet the title of
" a Bishopricke, till John de Villula, a Frenchman
" born, and a Physician by profession, being made
" Bishop of Wells, which was in Latin de Fontibus ;
" admiring the vertue of these Bathes, and the cures
" they wrought, for which it had been long before by
" the Saxons surnamed ' Akmanchester,' that is, ' sick-
" man's towne.' This John de Villula, thinking this
" place de Fontibus, more honourable than the other
" called Wells, bought this city of William Rufus, and
" translated his seat hither. And finding that both
" that towne and abbey had beene late before defaced
" with fire, he new built both, about the yeare 1122,
" and was the first Bishop buried there.
"Then was that again burned in the yeere 1132,
" and repaired againe by Bishop Robert, and remained
" still the Bishop's seat and inheritance, till that bank-
"' rout Bishop Savaricus, for covetousnesse of Glasten-
" bury, In mercedem hujus unionis (to use my author's
" word,) for recompense of this union of Glastenbury
" to Wells, gave Bath againe to King Richard I. ; and
" yet, notwithstanding these two so huge revenues, he
" spent so prodigally and unprovidently in his many
"journeys to the Emperour, that it is written, he had a
" legion of creditors, and for his wandring humours he
" had this written for an epitaph, though not set on
" his tombe at Bath : —
" Hospes erat mundo, per mundum semper eundo
" Sic suprema dies fit tibi prima quies."

320 OLIVER KING.
" Thus Bath againe, after 100 yeeres, became the
" King's, and ever may it be so. But the Chnrch
" was not so sufficiently repaired as it ought, in so
"much, that in Henry VIl's time, it was ready to fall ;
" that Oliver King, about 100 yeeres since, built it
" againe, with so goodly a fabrick, as the stone works
" stands yet so firme, notwithstanding the injuries of
" men, time, and tempests, upon it. Here I may by
" no meanes omit, yet I can scarce tell how to relate
" the pretty tales that are told of this Bishop King, by
" what visions and predictions he was encouraged and
" discouraged in the building of this church ; whether
" some cunning woman had foretold him of the spoyle
" that followed, as Paulus Jovius writes; how a witch
" deceived his successor Hadrian, Bishop of Bath ; or
" whether his own niinde, running of it, gave hiin
" occasion to dreame sleeping, of that he thought
" waking, but this goes so current and confirmed with
" pretty probabilities : that lying at Bath, and
" musing or meditating one night late, after his
" devotions and prayers for the prosperity of Henry
" VII. and his children (who were then all or most
" part living), to which King he was principal!
" secretary, and by him preferred to this Bishoprick.
" He saw, or supposed he saw,* a vision of the Holy
" Trinity, with angels ascending and descending by a
" ladder, neere to the which there was a fair olive tree,

" Sir John seems to have in his eye, Virgil's " aut videt aut vidisse-
putet."

OLIVER KING. 321
"supporting a crowne, and a voice said, " Let an
" Olive establish the crowne, and let a King restore
"the church." Of this dreame, or vision, he took
" exceeding great comfort, and told it to divers of his
" friends, applying it to the King, his master, in part,
" and some part to himselfe. To his master, because
" the olive, being the emblem or hieroglyphick of
" peace and plenty, seemed to him to allude to King
" Henry VII. , who was worthily counted the wisest
" and most peaceable King in all Europe of that age.
" To himselfe, (for the wisest will flatter themselves
"•sometimes) because he was not onely a chiefe
" councellor to this King, and had been his ambas-
" sadour to conclude a most honourable peace with
" Charles VIII., who paid (as Hollinshed writeth) 745
" duckets, [ducats] besides a yearely tribute of 25,000
" crownes, but also he carried both the Olive and
" King in his name ; and, therefore, thought he was
" specially designed for this church-work, to the
" advancement of which he had an extraordinary
"inclination. Thus, though, (as St. Thomas, of
" Aquin, well noteth) all dreames, be they never
" so sensible, will be found to halt in some part of
" their coherence ; and so perhaps may this ; yet
" most certaine it is, for the time he was so trans-
" ported with this dreame, that he presently set in
" hand with this Church (the ruines whereof I rue to
" behold even in writing these lines) ; and at the west
" end thereof, he caused a representation to be graved
" of this vision of the Trinity, the angels, and the
"ladder; and on the north side, the olive and
s s

522 OLIVER KING.

" crowne, with eertaine French words,* (which I
" could not read) but in English, is this verse taken
" out of the booke of Judges, chap. 9-
" Trees going to chuse their King
" Said, be to us the Olive King.
" All which is so curiously cut and carved, as in the
" west of England is no better work than in the west
"" part of this poore Church; and to make the credit of
" all this more authenticke, he added this word to it,
" De sursum est. — it is from high. Thus much the
" stones and walls (though dumb witnesses, yet
" credible) doe plainly testifie. But in the midst of
" all this jollity, having made so faire a beginning to
" his owne great content, and no lesse to the King's,
" who came into this country at that time, and lay at
" the Deane of Wells his house nine days ; I say in
" all this joy and comfort that hapned the King's
" Primogenitus, the noble Prince Arthur, having
" lately before married a great Infanta of Spaine to
" depart this life. This so daunted the heart and
" hopes of this good Bishop, that he doubted now his
" vision would prove but an illusion, that his Oliva
" would be but an Oleaster, which melancholy thoughts
" were increast in him by the predictions, as I touched
" before, of some wizards (to which kind of men that
'* age was much affected) concerning the new Prince,
" who was after Henry VIII. of his incestuous inar-
* "The woTds which Sir John Harington calls French are," says Mr.
Britton, " supposed to be the following in Latin, being a translation of
the English lines" in the text.
Jerunt ligna et ungereut super se regem
Dixeruntque Olivte, impera nobis.

OLIVER KING. 323
" riage, of the decay of his offspring, that he should
" pull down what the Kings had builded, which no
" marvel), if the Bishop being by sirname a King,
" mistrusted to pertaine also to his buildings. I heard,
" by one Flower, of Philip's- Norton, who said he
"saw Henry VII. in this country, that the Bishop
" would wish he had paid above the price of it, so it
" might have been finished, for if he ended it not, it
" would be pulled downe e'ere it were perfected. As
" for the latter predictions, or rather postfictions,
" (since this Bishop's death) I willingly omit con-
" cerning the successors of this Bishop, as things
" worthier to be contemned than condemned, written
" by Cole-prophets, upon whited walls, which the
" Italian calls the paper of fooles. Muro bianco
" charta di matto, of which sort many have beene made
" as well by our owne countrymen as others ; but the
" best I remember, was this written by an English
"gentleman, since the 3 and 40th yeere of Queen
" Elizabeth, on the church-wall with a charcole : —
" 0 ! Church, I waile thy wooful plight,
" Whom King, nor Cardinal, Clark, nor Knight,
" Have yet restored to ancient right.
" Subscribed Ignoto.
" Whereunto a Captaine of another country, wrot
" this for the comfort of this Church, and I wish him
" to prove a true prophet (though, perhaps, he dyed
" rather a martyr) : —
" Be Wythe, fair Kirk, when Hempe is past,'
" Thine Olive that ill winds did blast,
" Shall flourish greene for age to last.
" Subscribed Cassadore.

324 OLIVER KING.
" But to proceed in this sad story, and leave this
" pleasant poetry, to pursue truths and eschue fictions,
" to imbrace reason and refuse rime, it is most apparent,
" that after the death of this Oliver King, his success-
" ors, Cardinall Adrian, Cardinall Woolsey, Bishop
" Clerke, and Bishop Knight, all succeeded in five
" and thirty yeeres, of which the first two were supposed
" to poyson* themselves, the third to be poysoned by
" others : the last survived to see the death, or, at least,
" the deadly wound of this Church ; for while the
" builders were ready to have finisht it, the destroyers
" came to demolish it ; yet to give the devill his right
" (as the proverb is) it is said that the commissioners
" in reverence and compassion of the place, did so far
" strain their commission, that they offered to sell the
" whole church of the town under 500 marks. But
'* the townsmen fearing they might be thought to
" couzen the King, if they bought it so cheap, or that
" it might after, (as many things were) be found
" concealed, utterly refused it ; whereupon, certain
" merchants bought all the glasse, iron, bells, and lead,
" of which lead alone was accounted for (as I have
" credibly heard) 480 tun, worth at this day i.4800.
" But what became of these spoiles and spoylers,
" Desit in hac mihi parte fides,
" neque credite factum,
" Aut si creditis facti quoque,
" credite pa. nam.
" For I may well say, non possum quin exclamem.
" But, in a word, soon after the sellers lost their heads,
* The idea that Wolsey poisoned himself is unjust and absurd.— Edit.

OLIVER KING. 325
" the buyers lost their goods, being laid up in the great
" treasury of Antichrist ; I mean drowned in the sea ;
" from whence, (as some write) by the devill's power,
" he shall recover all lost treasures for the maintaining
" of his unmeasurable guifts. Thus, speedily, it was
" pulled down ; but how slow it hath risen again ! I
*' may blush to write. Collections have been made all
" over England, with which the chancel is covered with
"blew slate, and an almshouse built ex abundantia;
41 but the whole body of the Church stands bare ex
" humilitate. The rest of the money never coming' to
" the townmen's hands, is laid up, as I suppose, with
" that money collected for Paul's steeple, which I leave
" to a melius inquirendum. And thus the Church lies
" still like the poore traveller, mentioned in the I Oth of
" Luke ; spoiled and wounded by theeves. The
" Priests go by, the Levites go by, but do nothing.
" Onely a good Samaritan, honest M. Billet, (worthy
" to be billeted in the new Jerusalem) hath powr'd
41 some oyl in the wounds and maintained it in life.
" In so much as a wealthy citizen of London hath
" adventured to set his tomb there, whom I commend
" more worthily than the senate of Rome did thank
" Varro at his return from ' Carinas',* quod de salute
" reipublica non desperasset ; for it seems this honest
" citizen did not despaire of the re-edifying this church,
" that gave order to be richly entomb'd therein, and
" thus much be said of this last Church of Bath."

* It is strange to find such a one as Sir John Harrington, calling
Cannee, 'Caniias' in English.

326 OLIVER KING.
" Under the powerful impression of the 'dream'
" [above recorded by Sir John Harrington] Bishop
"King issued injunctions, in 1500, to the Prior and
" Convent of Bath, peremptorily decreeing that the
" expenditure of their revenues should be reduced in
" the manner he assigned ; and that the residue should
" be absolutely expended in erecting a new Church."*
" At that period, the annual income amounted to
" ,£480. \6s. 6d. of which rental the Bishop directed
" that 8 marks per annum should be allowed to the
" Prior, and ,£80. to the 16 monks, for their due
" support: for repairs on their different manors, he
" assigned £40. and <£l0. for the wages of servants,
" besides some smaller allowances : the remainder, he
" appropriated to his intended building ; which he soon
'* afterwards commenced at a short distance westward,
" from the old Church, the walls of which were
" standing in Leland's time.+ The Bishop pursued
" the work with zeal, and declared his disregard to any
" expense, so that he could but see it finished ; but he
" died before the south and west parts of the building
" were covered in, or even all the walls were raised to
" their proper height. He was ably assisted by Prior
" Birde, who carried on the work after the Bishop's
* Warner's Hist of Bath, Appendix No. xlix.
t " Oliver King began of late dayes a right goodly new Chirch at the
west part of the old Chirch of St. Peter, and finishid a great peace of it.
The residue of it was syns made by the Priors of Bathe ; aud especially
by Gibbes, the last Prior there, that spent a great summe of money on
that Fabricke. Oliver King let almost al the old Chirch of St. Peter's in
Bath, to go to mine : the walles yet staude."— Itinerary, vol ii. p. 40 ;
edit. 1744.

OLIVER KING. 327
" decease, and built a monumental chapel for himself
" within the choir : his rebus, a W, aud a bird, is yet
" to be seen on various parts of the edifice."*
From the Anglia Sacra, p. 575 : —
" Foxo in utraque Sede, Exoniensi ilia, Bathoniensi
" is ta, f successit Oliverus King, Archidiaconus olim
" hujus Diocesis Tauntonensis. Spiritualia Episco-
" patus Bathon ab Archiepiscopo accepit 1496. 8.
"Jan. & in Ecclesia Wellensi die 12 Martii iuthroni-
" zatus est. Translatum fuisse primum 1495, 6 Nov.
" Godwinus refert. Bullae provisionis isto die editae
" videntur. Oliverus diruta veteri Bathoniensi Eccle-
" sia, aliam magnifici operis inchoavit, & ad fastigium
" fere perduxit. Magnum autem supremam imponere
" morte immature! abrepto non licuit. Quam si
" abeolvisset, Ecclesiam paucis Angliae Cathedralibus
" secundam Bathonia habuisset. Multum in ea
" Priores sequentes insudarunt, &. pen& perfecerant ;
" qnando sacrilegi quidam, favente temporis iniquitate,
" laminas plumbeas abripuerunt & pecuniam ad opus
" perficiendum collectam interverterunt. Postea qui-
" dera virorum piorum devotio damna resarcivit ; ita
" tamen ut Ecclesia hodierna ad magnificentiam ab
" Olivero Episcopo delineatam neutiquam assurgat.
"Obiit iste 1503.29. August! ex fide Libri Rubri
" Wellensis; cui Registrum Ecclesiae Cant, parum
41 discordat, obitum mense Septembri obiisse referens.
" Sedes Cant, tunc vacavit. Quamobrem Spiritualia
" Episcopates Bathon. in Capituli Cant, potestatem
* Britton's Hist. Bath, p. 35.
t Reg. Morton, Liber ruber Well. Camden Britan, p. 171.

328 OLIVER KING.
" devenerunt, Willelmo Archiepiscopo* in manus,
" consignata 1504. 24 Jan. Hinc deceptus Godwinus
" Oliverum isto die obiisse credidit."
Bishop Godwin thus records him under his respective
Sees of Exeter and Bath and Wells :f —
" Exeter : — 27. Oliver King was consecrate
" Bishop of this Church, February 1492. He also
" [i. e. as well as Fox, his predecessor, at Exeter,]
" was removed to Bath, having sat here three years.
" See more in Bath."
" Bath and Wells :% — 41. Oliver King, L.L.D.
" brought up in King's College, in Cambridge, was
" principal secretary to the King ; became Bishop of
" Exeter the year 1492, and succeeded Richard Foxe,
" in this Church, as well as Exeter ; was translated
" hither, November 6, 1495. He, pulling down the
" old Church of the Abbey of Bath, began the foun-
" dation of a fair and sumptuous building ; but at the
" time of his death, left it very imperfect. His
" successor bestowed some cost on it, and William
" Bird, the last Prior there, endeavouring what he
" might by himself, and other to see it finished : had
" even brought it to perfection, when the dissolution
" of the Abbey had almost overthrown what before was
" set up. The covering of lead was taken away, and
" the whole fabrick, like, in few years, to fall to the
"ground: but that it pleased God, to stir up, at
" several times, divers good men, and especially the
" now Bishop, who, out of a pious and charitable

' Reg. Warham. t Edit. 1615, p. 411. % lb. p. 379.

OLIVER KING. 329
" disposition, employing liberally great sums of money
" upon the same, have not only preserved what had
" been before finish'd, but perfected what might seem
" to be wanting, whereof more hereafter.
" This man sat Bishop eight years ; died January
"24, 1503, and is thought to lie buried at Windsor,
" in a little chapel upon the south side of the choir,
" over against which place, upon the enter close of
" the choir, I find written (under the pictures of King
" Henry VI. and his son, King Edward IV. and
" Henry VII.) this that followeth : —
" [Epitaph.] Orate pro Domino Olivero King,
"Juris Professore, ac illustris Edwardi primogeniti
" Henrici sexti, et serenissiinorum Regum Edwardi
" quarti, Edw. quinti, et Henrici septimi, principali
" Secretario, dignissimi Ordiniis Garterii Registrario,
"et hujus Sancti Collegii Canouico, A.D. 1489 et
" postea per dictum illustrissimum Regem Henrici 7.
"anno 1492 ad sedem Exon. commendato."
Arms. — Isaacke, in his Hist, and Antiq. of Exeter,
states them as Argent, on a Chevron Sable, 3 escallop
shells of the 1st. Motto, Modus est pulcherriilia virtus.
Ihis is, however, very different from the record of them
which I find in the Heralds' College ; viz. Per fesse,
Gules and Argent, three roses counter-changed.
Tomb.— To Mr. Britton, in his History and Antiqui
ties of Bath Abbey, we are indebted for the following
note, as to the burial-place of Bishop Oliver King, which
appears to have been at Windsor : —
" There is some degree of uncertainty as to the real
" burial-place of Bishop King ; who according to the
" Red Book, or Register of Wells, died on the 29th.
T t

330 OLIVER KING.
" of August, 1503, as mentioned in the text ; and not
" on the 24th. of January, as stated by Godwin, and
" others. By his will, which was proved on the 24th.
" October, in the above year, he directed his body to be
" interred [i. e. he directed that his body might be
" interred] in the choir of the new Church of Bath,
" near the first arch on the north side, towards the
" altar : but his tomb (of grey marble) is reputed to
" be in the south aisle of St. George's Chapel, at
" Windsor, within a sepulchral or chantry chapel,
" which was founded by himself, and still retains his
" name. So far, therefore, the evidence preponder-
" ates in corroboration of his remains having been
" deposited at Windsor, notwithstanding the contrary
" directions of his will ; and as there is no tomb at
" Bath, that has ever been assigned to him, nor any
" record of his burial there, we may safely conclude,
" that Windsor was the actual place of his interment.
" The full length portraitures and armorial bearings of
" the four Sovereigns to whom he was secretary, are
" painted on the pannels of an oaken screen, forming
" part of the inclosure of the choir, opposite to his
" chantry at Windsor ; and under them is the following
"'incomplete inscription, &c."* [This we have given
above.]

* See also Carter's "Ancient Sculpture and Painting."

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 331
XLII. ADRIAN DE CASTELLO,
A Cardinal,
Succeeded A.D. 1504. — Deprived A.D. 1518.
Time of Decease not known, supposed 1 526.
This Prelate was descended from a mean and obscure
family, called by the name of Castelli, and born at
Cornetto,* a small town in Tuscany. f Having distin
guished himself by his parts and learning, he obtained
several employments at the court of Rome. In 1488,
he was sent by Pope Innocent VIII. in quality of his
nuncio extraordinary, to appease the troubles in Scotland ;
but, upon his arrival in England, being informed that his
presence was no longer necessary in that kingdom, where
the commotions had been ended by a decisive battle, he
set himself to execute some other commissions, with
which he was charged, particularly that of collecting the
Pope's tribute or Peter-pence, his Holiness having
appointed him his questor or treasurer for that
purpose. He stayed some months in England, and
during that time, had the address to insinuate himself into
the good graces of Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who recommended him so especially to the King, that his
Majesty thought fit to employ him as his agent for the
English affairs, at the court of Rome ; and, as a recom-
* Called by the ancients, Castrum novum.
t Aubrey, Histoire Generate des Cardinaux, Paris, 1645, 4to. Tom. iii.
p. 76.

332 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO.
pense of his faithful services, promoted him to the
Bishopric of Hereford, in 1502, and afterwards to that
of Bath and Wells.* The Pope's bulle, in virtue of
which he was collated to the See of Hereford, is dated
August 2, 1504. He received the temporalties of Bath
and Wells, at Rome, in consequence of the King's
letters, dated October 13, the same year (1504) :+ on the
20th. he received the spiritualties from the Archbishop, by
his proctors : and the same day was enthroned at Wells,
by his proxy, who was the celebrated Polydore Virgil, at
that time the Pope's sub-collector in England ; and
afterwards appointed, by Adrian, Archdeacon of Wells.
Our Prelate let out his Bishopric to farmers, and after
wards to Cardinal Wolsey, himself residing at Rome,J
where he built a magnificent palace, on the frontispiece
of which he caused to be inscribed the name of his
benefactor, Henry VII. leaving it, after his decease, to
that Prince, and to the Kings of England his successors.
In the mean time, Alexander VI. who succeeded
Innocent Vlll. had appointed our Adrian his principal
secretary, and vicar-general in spirituals and temporals ;
and as a farther mark of esteem and confidence, created.
him a Cardinal-priest, with the title of St. Chrysogonus,
May 31, 1503.§ Two or three months after his

» Polydore Virgil, Hist. Angl. edit. Lugd. Bat. 1651, 1. xxvi. p. 736. sq.
& Aubrey, ubi supra, p. 76 sq.
t Rymer. Fosdera, vol. xiii. p. 108.
} Continuat. Hist, de Episc. Bathon et Well. Ang. Sac. vol. i. p. 576,
§ Aubrey. Hist. Generate des Cardinaux, p. 77.

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 333
ereations, he narrowly escaped losing his life by poison,*
at a feast to which he was invited with some other
Cardinals, by the Pope and his son Caesar Borgia. The
particulars of this horrid transaction are related by
Aubrey in his Histoire Generate des Cardinaux; a trans
lated abstract will be found in our notes.
Under the pontificate of Julius II. who succeeded
Alexander, Cardinal Adrian, having taken some disgust,
or because he distrusted that Pope, who was a declared
enemy of his predecessor, voluntarily banished himself
from Rome, and did not return till the holding of a
conclave for the election of a new Pope ; into which,
though.it was already shut, he was admitted, by consent
of the sacred College, and probably gave his voice for
the election of Leo X.

* Pope Alexander having invited some of the most distinguished
members ofthe sacred College to a sumptuous entertainment ; his son,
Caesar Borgia, resolved to take this opportunity to remove out of the
way those of the guests, whose grandeur aud riches he chiefly envied ;
aud to this purpose, he prepared some poisoned wine : but the cup
bearer providentially mistaking one flaggon for another, administered the
•poisoned liquor to the wicked contriver of this black design, who drank
it off without suspecting the mistake, as Aubrey relates in the History of
the Cardinals. For the particulars and consequences of this horrid
attempt, which cost tlie Pope himself his life, the reader is referred to
the historians who have written the lives of Alexander VI. aud his son
Caesar Borgia. As to what concerns Cardinal Adrian, who was present
at this fatal banquet, and one of the destined victims of Borgia's
inhuman malice, Aubrey informs us, that having inadvertantly tasted the
poisoned wine, he was seized with most excruciating pains in his bowels,
wlikh brought on frequent couvulsions, and afterwards a kind of
lethargy; that he was obliged, fur some ease and refreshment, to roll
himself, quite naked, iu cold water, poured on the floor of his chamber ;
that he escaped indeed with life, but not without casting his shin, which,
through the violence of the poison, peeled off from all parts of his body.

334 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO.
The voluntary banishment, however, to which the
Cardinal is said to have devoted himself, is not agreeable
to the opinion of Raphael de Volaterra, who extols* his
great skill and address, in constantly supporting the credit
and reputation he had acquired at the court of Rome ;
and in always finding the means, happily, to extricate
himself from the most dangerous conjunctures, and such
as had proved fatal to others. But the express testimony
of Paris de Grassi, master of the ceremonies, and what
Guichardin remarks-!/ ofthe King of France, who ordered
Cardinal Adrian's name to be inserted, as having been
one of those who had convened the synod of Pisa, prove
plainly enough, that he met with no better treatment,
under the pontificate of Julius II. than the other favorites
of Alexander VI. and that he had some occasions given
him of discontent, or, at least, that he did not think him
self safe under the power of the new Pope. My author
says farther, that his Holiness, not knowing to what he
should ascribe the Cardinal's extreme fear and voluntary
exile, began to imagine, that it might be owing to remorse
of conscience, for having made some attempt on his
authority and life.
Soon after, the Cardinal was unfortunately privy to a
conspiracy against Pope Leo X. into which he was the
more easily led, by too-fondly crediting the prediction of
a female fortune-teller, who had assured him, " that Leo
would be cut off by an unnatural death, and that he
would be succeeded by an elderly man, named Adrian, of
obscure birth, but famous for his learning, and whose

Anthorp. 1. xxii. p. 236. + 1. x. p. 538.

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 335
virtue and merit alone had raised him to the highest
honors of the Church." This prophecy, which De
Castello naturally applied to himself, was verified in the
election of his namesake Adrian VI. who succeeded Leo
X. Whether the Cardinal of Chrysogonus was actually, and
personally, engaged in this conspiracy, we are not able to
affirm. I call it a conspiracy, after Monsieur Aubrey, who
informs us that Cardinal Petrucci was the chief of the con
spirators, and Adrian, one of those to whom he imparted the
secret of his wicked designs; and whose indiscreet and mali
cious silence, rendered them accomplices of his guilt. But,
according to Polydore Virgil, this conspiracy was nothing
more than the intemperate rage of an angry Cardinal,
who was a perfect master of the Roman freedom of speech
(' Romana loquendi licentia erudites'). The affair, as
that historian relates it,* was briefly this : the Pope had
taken under his protection the inhabitants of Sienna, and
deprived Cardinal Alfonso Petrucci, and his family, of the
principality they had long enjoyed there, in order, as his
Holiness declared, entirely to root out the seeds of faction
with which that city was disturbed. This proceeding,
highly incensed the Cardinal against the Pope, whom he
charged with ingratitude, in thus repaying the assistance
he had lent him, in bringing about his election : he com
plained openly of the injury done him ; publicly expressed
his detestation of that Pontiff; and imprecated a thousand
deaths on him. He happened once to vent his rage in
the hearing of the Cardinals, Adrian and Francis

Hist. Angl. 1. xxvii. p. 45. edit. Lugd. Bat. 1651. 8vo.

336 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO.
Volaterran, who reproved him severely, but did not think
they had sufficient grounds for an information against
him. However Petrucci, in the heat of his passion, went
away from Rome, and soon after, upon an assurance of
indemnity, returned ; but still continued his resentment,
and abusive language, against the Pope ; who was so
exasperated thereby, that he gave orders for his appre
hension, and had him thrown into prison where, soon
after, he died.
The conspiracy* being discovered, Cardinal Adrian
was condemned to pay 12,500 ducats, and to give a
solemn promise that he would not stir out of Rome.
But, whether he was unable to discharge so heavy a
fine, or apprehended farther severities, he withdrew
privately from that city : whereupon, in a Consistory, held
July 6, 1518, he was declared excommunicated, and
deprived not only of the Cardinalate and all his benefices,
but even of holy orders.-f" Near four years before this

* Let us hear Monsieur Aubrey. His Holiness, he tells us, having
caused the three principal conspirators to be arrested, learned from their
depositions, that the Cardinals Soderini and de Castello were their
accomplices, [Soderini is the same whom Polydore Virgil calls Fianciscus
Volateranus ; for Cardinal Soderini was Bishop of Volaterra,] having
been present at very secret conferences with them. A consistory was
thereupon held, in which these two Cardinals, after much reluctance,
especially on the part of our Bishop, were induced to make a public
confession of their fault, and Adrian owned he had heard Petrucci say
that be would kill the Pope, but that he paid nu regard to what he said
on account of his youth.
t There is extant in Rymer. Fosdera, vol. xiii. p. 607, a letter from the
Cardinal de Medicis, acquainting King Henry VIU. with Cardinal
Adrian's degradation,

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 337
time, he had been removed from his office of the Pope's
collector in England, at the request of King Henry VIII.
and through the instigation of Wolsey, who, at that time,
aiming at the dignity of a Cardinal, employed Adrian as
his solicitor at the court of Rome ; but finding that he
betrayed him, and did him ill offices, he made use of his
interest with the King, to get him turned out of his post.
In Rymer,* a letter may be read from Pope Leo, dated
•Rome, Oct. 31, 1514,' in answer to one from King
Henry VIII. to his Holiness. The Pope therein tells
him, ' that he had condescended to remove the Cardinal
from the office of collector, for no other reason, but
because the King had desired it : and that he would do
even more for him, if it was not plain that he acted only
at the instigation of another, and not of his own accord.'
The heads of Adrian's accusation, drawn up at Rome,
were, ' that he had absented himself from that city in
the time of Julius II. without the Pope's leave ; that he
had never resided as he ought to have done, at the Church
of St. Chrysogonus, from which he had his Cardinalatic
title ; that he had again withdrawn from Rome, and had
not appeared to a legal citation ; and that he had engaged
in the conspiracy of Cardinal Petrucci, and had signed
the league of Francis-Maria, Duke of Urbino, against
the Pope.'f He was at Venice when he received the
disagreeable news of his condemnation ;% but what
became of him afterwards, or when and where he died,

* Fosdera, vol. xiii. p. 467. t Idem. ibid.
i Polyd. Virg. ubi supra, 1. xxvii. p. 45.
TJ U

338 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO.
we know not, though it is said he took refuge somewhere
in Asia, among the Turks.*
Cardinal Wolsey secured to himself the vacant See ©f
Bath and Wells, which he had farmed of Adrian.f
There is to be seen, we are told.f at Riva, a village in
the diocese of Trent, a Latin inscription on one Polydorus
Casamicus, the Pope's Janitor, written by Cardinal
Adrian, at the end of which he deplores his own wretched
condition, and exalts the happiness of his friend, whose
death had put an end to his miseries. It is as follows : —
PoLYDORO. CASAMICO, RoMANO
SlJMMI. PONTIF1CIS. OsTIARIO,
Vixit. Ann. XXIV.
Hadrianus. Cardinalis. S. Chrvsogoni.
Familiari. Caris. Pos.
Exulat Hadrianus :§ tujam Polydore, quiescis,
iEtet •nuiuquc vales ; nobis dira omnia restant.
Character: — Polydore Virgil and Monsieur Aubrey
give us a very advantageous idea of the manners and
learning of this Prelate. The former highly extols him
for his various and uncommon acquirements : his
judgment in the choice of the properest words ; and the
truly classical style of his Latinity, in which he was the
first since the age of Cicero, who revived the purity of
the Latin language, and taught men lo draw their
knowledge from the sources of the best and most learned

* Aubrey, ib. p. 81. t Pblyd. Virg. ibid.
t Aubrey, Ib.
§ Unless we make a Synaeresis ofthe 'ia,' and read it Hadranus, the
line will not scan.

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 339
authors. "Erant," says he, "in eo plurimae literal, non
vulgares, sed recondita?, ac summum bonorum verborum
delectu judicium ; qui memoiia nostra primus omnium,
post illud disertissiinum Ciceronis saeculum, suis scriptis
moi'tales excitavit ad perfectas literas de doctissimorum
autorum fontibus haurieudas, docuitque modum pure,
nitide, ac luculenter loquendi, sic ut, eo doctare, in
prteseutia ubique gentium Latinitas ab integro renascatur."
He was of a gay and cheerful disposition ; and, as if he
would imitate Cicero in this point, as well as in purity of
style, he took great pleasure in rallying or bantering, of
which we have the following instance. Disputing one
day about precedency with Cardinal Caruajal, who
maintained that, since he had been restored by the Pope
to the Cardinalate, he ought to hold the same rank, as if
he had never been degraded from it, Adrian resolved, at
l?st, to give him place, but . not without one stroke of
raillery upon his antagonist, to whom he said, making a
low bow, 'Your most Rev. Lordship, may go before me,
if you please, since biscuit (bread twice baked) has
always heen preferred to common bread ; reproaching
him thereby with his former rebellion, and the disgrace he
was forced to undergo, before he could be promoted a
second time to the dignity of a Cardinal.'
Cardinal Adrian de Castello is thus mentioned in the
An§lia Sacra : —
" Hadrianus de Castello, homo Italus, Corneti
" natus, ab eximiam literateram & elegantem liuqua;
" Latinae dictionem summopere celebrates ab Inno-

' Bale. Cent. xiii. cap. 44. t Hall. Chron. p. 5, f. 20.

340 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO.
' " centio VIII. Pap& ad componendas Scotiae turbas
" anno 1488, legates, Londinum advenit. Audita
" ibi Jacobi Scotiae Regis k suis nefarie interempti
" nece, consedit, & in Johannis Morton Archiepiscopi
" Cant, notitiam brevi pervenit. Is singularem
'* hominis prudentiam atque eruditionem admiratus
" idoneum esse censuit, qui negotia Regis & Ecclesiae
" Anglicanae in Curisi Romana* procuraret. Regi ab
" Archiepiscopo commendatus, provinciam sibi k
41 Rege commissam suscepit, atque ita administravit,
" ut neque fides neque sollertia in ipso desiderari
" possent. Hujus oper_» turn apud Innocentiam turn
" apud Alexandrum Papam Rex diu usus, tandem
" insigni dignitate remunerandum esse decrevit.
(' Primo itaque Episcopatum Herefordensem contulit,
" postea Bathoniensem. Ad hunc Rege annuente
"per Julium 11. Papam provisus est 1504, 2Aug.f
" Presbyterum Cardinalem titulo S. Chrisogoni Alex-
" ander VI. Papa ipsum anno superiori renuntiaverat ;
" cum prius Quaestor Pontificis in Anglia primarius &
" Prothonotarius Apostolicus, authore Baleo, fuisset.
" Certe isto innotuit titulo, quando Henrici Dene
" Archiepiscopi pallium in Angliam anno 1501,
" attulit.J Anno 1504, 13 Octobr. Rex datis ad
" Oratores suos Roma? agentes literis jubet, ut
" Hadriano Cardinali Tempora I la Episcopates Bathon,
" recepto prius fidei juramento, tradant — Die 20
" Octobr Hadrianus Spiritualia^ Episcopates per

* Peg. Warham, t Jocelin, p. 302.
t Reg. Warham. § Lib. ruber Well.

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 341
" procuratores suos ab Archiepiscopo accepit ;
"eodemque die apud Welliam intronizatus est per
" Procuratorem alium.* Is erat vir libris conscriptis
'*' clarissimus Polidorus Virgilius alias Castrellen Papae
"Subcollector in Anglia. Hie Archidiaconatum
" Wellensem Hadriani dono postea adeptus, installatus
"est 1508, 6 Febr. & integram dehinc aetatem in
" Anglia exegit. Certe decretis Synodi Anglicanae
''medio anno 1536, de abrenunciando suprematu in
" rebus Ecclesiasticis Papali & regio agnoscendo,
" aliisque religionis articulis, praesens subscripsit.
" Subscriptionem ejus autographam vidi. Ut ad
" Hadrianum autem redeamus ; ille elocato Anglis
"" tedemptoribus & postremo Cardinall Wolseio
" Episcopatu Bathoniensi, Romee suaviter sese oblec-
" tavit, immensis adquisitis divitiis, adeo ut ' Opulenti
" Gardinalis' titulum obtineret. His divitiis Alexander
" Papa inhians, hominem unk cum aliis quibusdam
" Cardinalibus veneno decrevit tollere. Ad caenam
" igitur invitatis vini veneno infecti lagenam prasparavit.-f-
" Fatali autem pincernae errore ipse viuum secleratum
"hausit, & interiit, 1503, 18 Augusti. Alexandri
" insidias Hadrianus effugit ; sua tamen ambitione
"exitium sibi tandem conscivit. Ingenii enim &
'" opum suarum viribus fretus Pontificatum ambire
"ca_pit ejusque adipiscendi spem couceperat ex
" fatidicae mulieris vaticinio, quae cum pleraque ipsi de

* Cavendish in Vita Wolseii, c. 4.
t Gu,icciardin Hist. Ital, i. vi. p. 201.

342 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO.
" rebus futuris interroganti vera praedixisset, affirmavit
" fore ut Leone Papa* morte immatura sublato succe-
" deret vir senex nomine Hadrianus obscuro loco
" natus, literarum studiis insignis, qui sacros honores
" sola enixus virtute sine ulla majorum commendationc
" meruisset. Haec omnia sibi adamussim congruere
" rates, Hadrianus fortunae suae decesse noluit. Iu
" Leonis itaque caput cum Alphonso Petruccio Car-
" dinali aliisque conjuravit,*t' necem ei per venenum
" molitus. Conjuratione detects!. Petruccius capitali
" pa.ua affectus est ; reliquis data vitae spes, modo
" scelus admissum libere confiteri vellent. Facta
" ejusmodi confessione Hadrianus & reliqui conju-
" ratores vitas redemerunt ; gravi tamen pecunia
" multati sunt, & Cardinality dignitate exuti 1518,
" 2 Julii. Haud constantem tamen fore Leonis fidem
" de conservanda vita Hadrianus suspicatus, brevi post
" messoris habitu urbe clam aufugit ; fit locis incertis
" delitescens, nusquam postea comparuit. Sagaas
" oraculo (ne id taceam) fides nequaquam deerat.
" Pontificalem enim thronum post Leonem conscendit
" Hadrianus Batavus, vir obscuri generis, literatura
" autem insignis & annis gravis. Nostri Hadriani in
" Episcopatu Bathoniensi post Thomae Tinensis
" obitum Suffraganei erant Thomas Lacedaemonensis,
" Thomas Solubiiensis &, Johannes Majorensis
" Episcopi. "J
The following concise account is from Chalmers : and
is printed here entire, although much of the matter therein
* Jovius in Vita Leonis, 1. iv. p. 77
t Id. p. 77. t Begistr. ejus.

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 343
tontained is already recorded, on account of other
portions which could not be detached without spoiling the
effect of juxta-position : —
" Adrian (De Castello), Bishop of Bath and Wells,
" in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. was descend-
" ed of an obscure family at Cornetto, a small town
" in Tuscany ; but soon distinguished himself by his
" learning and abilities, and procured several employ-
" ments at the court of Rome. In 1448, he was
" appointed nuncio extraordinary to Scotland, by Pope
" Innocent VIII. to quiet the troubles in that
" kingdom ; but, upon his arrival in England, being
" informed that his presence was not necessary in
" Scotland, the contests there having been ended by a
" battle, he applied himself to execute some other
" commissions with which he was charged, particularly
" to collect the Pope's tribute or Peter-pence, his
" Holiness having appointed him his Treasurer for that
"purpose. He continued some months in England,
" during which time he got so far into the good graces
" of Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, that he
" recommended him to the King ; who appointed him
" his agent for English affairs at Rome ; and, as a
" recompence for his faithful services, promoted him
" first to the Bishopric of Hereford, and afterwards to
"that of Bath and Wells. He was enthroned at
" Wells, by his proxy, Polydore Virgil, at that time
" the Pope's sub-collector in England, and afterwards
" appointed, by Adrian, Archdeacon of Wells. Adrian
" let out his Bishopric to farmers, and afterwards to
" Cardinal Wolsey, himself residing at Rome, where
" he built a magnificent palace, on the front of which

344 ADRIAN DE CASTELLO.
" he had the name of his benefactor, Henry VIL
" inscribed ; he left it after his death to that Prince
" and his successors. Alexander VI. who succeeded
" Innocent VIII. appointed Adrian his principal secre-
" tary and vicar-general in spirituals and temporals;
" and the same Pope created him a Cardinal-priest,
" with the title of St. Chrysogonus, the 31st. of May,
" 1503. Soon after his creation, he narrowly escaped
" being poisoned at a feast, to which he was invited
" with some other Cardinals, by the Pope and his son
" Caesar Borgia.
" In the Pontificate of Julius II. who succeeded
" Alexander, Adrian retired from Rome, having taken
" some disgust, or perhaps distrusting this Pope, who
" was a declared enemy of his predecessor : nor did he
" return till there was a conclave held for the election
" of a new Pope, when he probably gave his voice for
" Leo X. Soon after, he was unfortunately privy to a
" conspiracy against Leo. His embarking in the plot,
" is said to have been chiefly owing to his crediting
" and applying to himself the prediction of a fortune-
" teller, who had assured him " that Leo would be cut
" off by an unnatural death, and be succeeded by an
" elderly man, named Adrian, of obscure birth, but
" famous for his learning, and whose virtue and merit
" alone had raised hiin to the highest honours of the
" Church." The conspiracy being discovered, Adrian
" was condemned to pay 12,500 ducats, and to give a
" solemn promise that he would not stir out of Rome.
"But being either unable to pay this fine, or appre-
" hending still farther severities, he privately withdrew
" from Rome ; and in a consistory held the 6th of July,

ADRIAN DE CASTELLO. 345
" 1518^ he was declared excommunicated, and deprived
"of all hi3 benefices, as well as his ecclesiastical orders.
" About four years before, he had been removed from
" his office of the Pope's collector in England, at the
"request of King Henry VIII. and through the insti
gation of Cardinal Wolsey. The heads of his
" accusation drawn up at Rome were, *' That he had
" absented himself from the City in the time of Julius
" II. without the Pope's leave ; that he had never
"resided as he ought to have done at. the Church of St.
" Chrysogonus, from which he had his title ; that he
" had again withdrawn himself from Rome, and' had
"not appeared to a legal citation; and that he had
" engaged in the conspiracy of Cardinal Petrucci, and
" had signed; the league of Francis-Maria, Duke of
" Urbino, against the Pope." He was at Venice
"when he received the news of his condemnation :
" what became of him afterwards is uncertain. Aubrey
"says, he took refuge among, the Turks in Asia ; but
" the ;most common opinion is, that he was murdered
" by one of his servants, for the sake of his wealths
" Polydore Virgil tells us, there is to be seen at Riva,
" a village in the diocese of Trent, a Latin inscription
"on one Polydorus Casamicus, the Pope's janitor,
" written by Cardinal Adrian ; in which he laments his
"own wretched condition, extolling the happiness of
"his friend, whose death had put an end to his miseries.
"Polydore Virgil, gives Adrian a high character for
"his uncommon learning, his exquisite judgment in
" the choice of the properest words, and the truly
" classioalistyle of his writings ; in which he was the
"first; says that author> since the age of Cicero, who
w w

346 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" revived the purity of the Latin language, and taught
" men to draw their knowledge from the sources of the
" best, and most learned, authors.
" The only works of his that are published, are, I .
" ' De Vera Philosophia ;' 2. ' De Sermone Latino et
" de Modis Latine loquendi,.' 1515, Rome, fol."*

XLIII. THOMAS WOLSEY.
Succeeded A.D. 1518. — Resigned A.D. 1523.
Died 1530, Aged 59.
This very eminent Prelate, who was born in March,
1471, at Ipswich, Suffolk; had the temporalties of this
See conferred on him August 28, 1518, which he held
for four years, and then resigned it for Durham. I think
he never was consecrated to this See, for in his own
Register, he is styled " Episcopates Bath- Well : per
petuus Commendatarius."-{-

" Biog. Brit. Saxii Onomasticou, art Hadrian Biographie Universelle.
t Commendam, ecclesia commeudata, vel custodia ecclesiae alicui
commissa, is the holding of a benefice or church-living, which being
void, is commended to the charge and care of some sufficient Clerk, to
be supplied until it may he conveniently provided of a Pastor; and he to
whom the Church is commended, hath the profits thereof only for a
certain time, and the nature of the Church is not changed thereby, but
is a thing deposited in his hands in trust, who hath nothing but the
custody of it, which may be revoked. When a patron is made Bishop,
there is a cession or voidance of his benefice, by the promotion ; but if

THOMAS WOLSEY. 347
The following comprehensive life, is from the
Biographia Britannica, vol. vii. p. 4308 : —
"He was born in March, 1471, at Ipswich, in
" Suffolk, of parents whose obscurity hath eluded the
" most diligent researches of antiquarians-* The story
" of his father being very mean, and a butcher, which
" .had past current before, was at last contradicted by
" Dr. Fiddes, who met with the last will of one
" Robert Wolsey, of Ipswich, wherein are the following
" paragraphs : Item, I will, that if Thomas my son be
" a priest within a year next after my decease, then I
" will that he sing for me and my friends by the space

the King, by special dispensation, gives him power to retain his benefices,
notwithstandinghis promotion, he shall .continue Parson, and is said to
hold it in Commendam. A Commendam, founded on the Statute 25
Henry VIII. c. 21, is a dispensation from the supreme power, to hold or
take an ecclesiastical living contra jus positivum : and there are -several
sorts of Commendams ; as a Commendam semestnss, which is for the
benefit of the Church without any regard to the commendatory, being
only a provisional act of the Ordinary, for supplying the vacation of six
months, in which time the Patron is to present his Clerk, and is but a se
questration ofthe cure and fruits until such time as the Clerk is presented :
a Commendam retinere is for a Bishop to retain benefices on his prefer
ment; a Commendam recipere is to take a beuefice, de novo in the
Bishop's own gift, or in the gift ot some other patron, whose consent
must be obtained. — Dyer, 228.
* So the writer of the article in the Biog . Britannica, oddly expresses
himself: meaning, no doubt, "Antiquaries." Antiquarian is an adjective,
shewing, of course, the qualitas rei vel persona!; whereas, the Person
or Substantive is Antiquary. To be a Fellow of the Antiquarian Society,
as some strangely express it, would imply that the Society itself was a
piece of antiquity. This is something like the absurd confusion of
Prebend and Prebendary. Some respectable writers, at whose gross
ignorance in this point, we can not hut be startled, have by a strange
and unnatural metathesis, called the dignitary a Prebend, and the dignity
it Prebendary !

34S THOMAS WOLSEY.
" of a year, and he to have for his salary ten marks.
" And if Thomas my son be not a priest, theu I will,
" that another honest priest sing for me and my friends,
"for the term aforesaid, and he to have the salary of
44 ten marks.
" Item, I will, that Joan my wife have all my lands
" and tenements, in the parish of St. Nicolas, in
" Ipswich, aud my free and bond land, in the parish of
" Stoke. The residue of my goods not bequeathed, I
" give and bequeath to Joan my wife, Thomas my son,
" and Thomas Cady, who I make executors of this my
" testament, and do order Richard Farington, supervisor
41 thereof. " This will, says Fiddes, is dated Sept. 21, I486 and
" the reference in it to the testator's son Thomas, who
" is supposed to have been bred a scholar, and designed
" for a priest, renders it not so much probable as a
" matter past all doubt, if we may judge from the
" circumstances of time and place, the agreement of
" names and personal characters, that this Robert, was
" in fact, the father of Thomas, afterwards Cardinal
" Wolsey; who, as he had no ecclesiastical preferment
*' till the time of his being instituted to the rectory of
" Lymington, in 1500, may very well be presumed to
"have taken orders shortly after the date of this will,
" being at the time, when it was executed, in the 25th
" year of his age. Beside, had there been any other
" Wolsey, designed for holy orders, of the same name,
" place, and age, with the Cardinal, it is highly
" probable some account would have been preserved of
" him, in history or by tradition, by reason of his. having
" at least some distant relation, in these several respects

THOMAS WOLSEY. 349
*"' to so very eminent a person. In all probability he
¦"had neither brother nor sister then living, there being
"" no mention of other children, nor the least provision
" made for any in the will, the tenor of which speaks
" the testator to be possessed of a considerable estate,
" for a plebeian at that time. Upon the whole, 'may
" not the whole matter be compromised by supposing
" Wolsey's father to have been both grazier and butcher,
" which is very common to this day 1 It may not be
" impertinent to observe, that a bass-relief* of the
" Cardinal's head, in profile, is carved with a butcher's
" knife by the side, on the central board of the arch of
" the gateways into the butchery, at Ipswich. There
" is a tradition that it was built by the Cardinal, and it
" appears now to be very old, and being a timber
" building, may undoubtedly have stood from the
" Cardinal's time.
" But the boy discovering in his infancy, a sprightly
" genius,and disposition to learning, was put to a
¦"grammar-school, where he made a very extraordinary
" progress, and being sent thence to Magdalen College,
" in Oxford, he advanced in the academical studies
" with equal quickness, and obtained his first degree of
" B. A. in a small time after his admission, which being
'" conferred upon him at the age of fifteen, procured him
'" the appellation of the boy bachelor.-^ He was
" elected Fellow of his College soon after ; and having

* Fiddes's life of Wolsey, p. 5. 1723. fol.
t Secret history of Cardinal Wolsey, by Cavendish, who says he had
this last particular from the Cardinal's own mouth, ch. 1.

350 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" commenced M.A. was appointed master of the
" grammar school, belonging and adjoining to the
" college ; during which employ he had, among others
" under his care, three sons ofthe Marquis of Dorset ;
" who, afterwards, on his entering into holy orders,
" became his patron. In 1498, he was made bursar
" of his college. While he had this office, the tower
" of the college chapel was finished, called Wolsey's
" tower, which is universally admired for its beautiful
" simplicity and just proportion. It is said, the bursar
" made use of violent means to supply himself from the
" college treasury, with the money necessary to carry
" on the building ; but the charge must have no
" foundation, since, though so heinous an offence, yet it
" never was, as we find, objected to him by his enemies.
" It is likely, says Dr. Fiddes, if he did use any
" forcible means to come into the treasury, he appre-
" hended himself unjustly opposed, contrary to some
" previous trust which the society had reposed in him,
" wherein, yet they might think it convenient, by reason
" of the growing unexpected expences of the building,
" that he should be restrained. Upon the whole, the
" most candid way of judging, is to consider that noble
" structure, as an early instance of Wolsey's great and
" enterprizing mind, and we may add, of his good taste
" in architecture,
" About this time he became acquainted with Eras-
" mus, then at Oxford, with whom he concurred in
" encouraging what was then called the new learning,
" or the study of the greek language in that university.
" This great genius came to England the year before,
" and going to Oxford, fell there into the acquaintance,

THOMAS WOLSEY. 351
" among others, of our bursar of Magdalert College.
" Besides the natural connection between them as men
" of learning, Erasmus had been tutor, at Paris, to
" Thomas Grey, eldest son ofthe Marquis of Dorset.
" From this beginning there grew a kind of friendship
" between them, which it soon became the interest of
" Erasmus to cultivate. Accordingly, we find him
" very early publishing a latin translation of Plutarch's
" tract concerning the usefulness that may be reaped
"from Enemies, inscribed to Wolsey, who he observed
" to a friend was rising so fast in favour and prefer-
" ments, that he had been forced to change his address
" three times. It was finished when Wolsey was
" made Bishop of Lincoln ; Erasmus was then at
" Cambridge, and repaired to London to pay his
" compliments upon the occasion to the new Bishop,
" who received him very kindly, and gave him hopes
" of the first vacant canonry at Tournay. This was
" performed afterwards, as is proved by an epistle of
" one Molendinus, a canon there, to Erasmus, quoted
" by Dr. Knight, who, however, observes, that he was
" worked up by his friends so as to have no liking for
" it, which is confirmed by his never going to take pos-
** session of it. The Cardinal therefore disposed of it
" to another, promising to give Erasmus something
" more agreeable to his mind. It appears from a
" letter of Sir Thomas More, to Erasmus, that this
" was a preferment which would not have suited him,
" and that the Cardinal did him no ill office in taking
" it again. Besides, about the same time, a pension
" was obtained for him by Wolsey, to the value of two
" hundred florins, which, apparently, was pretty

352 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" regularly paid* since Erasmus complains of his having
"received only two hundred florins in 1517. Dr.
" Knight had better grounds for his remark, that
" Erasmus did not much depend upon the Cardinal,
" though he continued to pay his court to him_ In a
" letter, dated from Basil, February 3, 1516, to the
" Cardinal, he begins thus : I am very sorry that I had
" not an opportunity of a longer and more particular
" conference with your highness before Heft England :
" my last refuge and the sheet-anchor of my felicity, I
" had fixed in you ; extremam fy sacram anchoram, ut
" vocant, mea felicitatis in Te jixeram<. But I was in
" haste to publish St. Jerom. — He proceeds thus ;
" There is a new greek testament printed as it was
" written by the Apostles, with a latin, translation
" and annotations by me, and some other things.
" He concludes in these terms : therefore, when we
" have finished these undertakings, we will hasten our
" return to England, especially if your eminency's
" goodness and generosity will, in the mean time, be
" providing something for me as a refreshment both to
" my mind and body, after the fatigues I have under-
" gone from these employments. May a good state
" of health be enjoyed by your most reverend Lordship,
" to whom I wholly devote and dedicate myself.
" After all this talk of his design to publish St.
" Jerom's works, the Cardinal might fairly expect to
"have seen it addressed to himself; but instead of this,
" it came out that year with a dedication to Archbishop
"Warham, the Cardinal's professed enemy. Indeed,
" both this piece and his edition of the New Testa-
" ment, gave great offence to the zealots among the

THOMAS WOLSEY. 353
" clergy, who spared not to tax Erasmus with heresy.
" Upon these accounts, he might fairly think it proper
" to drop his attachment to his old friend : who, 'tis
" acknowledged, did not spare in return, occasionally to
" bestow some of the choicest flowers of his sarcastical
"rhetoric upon the Cardinal. So that, upon the
" whole, Dr. Fiddes's remark upon it, deserved not that
" severe censure which is thrown upon it by Dr.
" Knight ; but we shall lay it before the reader for his
"judgment. 'After all the advantageous things
" spoken by Erasmus of the Cardinal, did he not at
" last expose him to the world in a new, perhaps a
" much truer light, as being no longer under the awe
" of his power and promises, or as having nothing more
" either to fear or hope from him?' This, says the
" Doctor, is an exception, which may be naturally
" made, and I am willing to give it all the force I can ;
" but at the same time recommend it to be considered
" how far a change of fortune in our patrons and
" friends is apt, though that is an effect which ought
" not to follow in generous minds, to cause a change
" both in our sentiments and behaviour towards them ;
" and, especially, if we have thought ourselves much
" neglected or very ill used by them.
" We have ventured to assert this upon the authority
" of Mr. Wood, notwithstanding the following
" animadversion of Dr. Knight. ' Though the Oxford
" historian,' says he, • mentions Erasmus, as teaching
" Greek, at Oxford, and living there many years, at differ-
" ent times yet, by all that I can find, it is probable that
"he never went there after his first coming to England, in
" 1498, or made no stay there. By his own account.he had
x x

354 THOMAS WOLSEY,
" not greek enough to set up for a teacher, even some
" years after his leaving England for the first time.
" He pursued those studies at Paris, as soon as he left
" England ; and says, in one of his letters, that his
" application to greek had almost killed him, and that
" he had no money to buy books or to retain a master.
" He speaks of a professor of greek, at Paris, one
" George Hermonymus, a surly old blockhead, who
" was neither willing nor able to teach it. He was
" therefore forced to make his own way, by translating
" greek writers. In a letter to Colet, [Dean of St.
" Paul's] in 1 504, he says, that he had closely applied
" himself to greek for three last years/ Was Erasmus's
" heart so set upon acquiring the greek language,
" that he pursued that study as soon as he left England,
" is it not more than probable that he encouraged it
" before at Oxford ? which is all that is asserted in
" the text ; to which may be added, however, in respect
" of his teaching it there, that greek was so very little,
" if at all, known then, that a very slender acquaint-
" ance with it would be sufficient to initiate others
" therein. '" During the Christmas holidays, in 1499, Wolsey
" attended his three honourable scholars to their
"father's house, when the Marquis was so much
" pleased with his conversation, that he presented him
"to the >rectory of Lymington, in Somersetshire, which
" was in his gift, and became vacant in the beginning of
" the following year, 1 500. This was the first prefer-
" ment he had in the Church, and he left the university
" in consequence thereof, and resided upon his cure,
" where he repaired and beautified both the Church

THOMAS WOLSEY. 355
" and the parsonage^house. But a piece of ill conduct,
"in 1502, drew upon him the displeasure of Sir
" Amyas Pawlet, then a justice of the peace in the
" neighbourhood, who carried his anger so high as (o
" set the Rector in the public stocks of the town.
" Wolsey, being of a free and sociable temper, went
41 with some of his neighbours to a fair in an adjacent
41 town, where, it is said, his drinking to excess created
" some disorder, which was punished by the Knight in
" this ignominious durance. Bishop Godwin says,
" Sir Amyas treated Wolsey in this scandalous manner
" for little or no occasion ; and Dr. Fiddes thinks, he
" could not well justify it. Whatever judgment may
" be passed thereupon, we find the affront was
" remembered by Wolsey, who, when he came to be
" Chancellor, sent for the Knight, and severely repri-
" manded him for it, and confined him within the
41 bounds of the Temple for five or six years ; which
" Dr. Fiddes allows was extending his authority too
" far ; and, indeed, in point of generosity, it might have
" been forgot, especially after it had been followed by
" such a prodigious train of the highest preferments ;
" and in point of prudence, such a neglect of it would
" have helped to bury it in oblivion. While in the
" Temple, he sought to mitigate the resentment of this
" great minister, and to prepare a way for the recovery
" of his liberty by adorning the gate-house, next the
" street, with the arms, the hat, and other badges of
"distinction, proper to him as Cardinal. Fiddes, p.
" 7. This gate was taken down and re-built by
" Sir Christopher Wren, in 1684, without the former
*' ornaments.

356 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" This rude treatment, added to the loss of his
" patron, the Marquis, who died in September the
" preceding year, put him upon thinking of a removal
" from Lymingtou, However, he did not resign the
" living till 1509. It is observed, that he had a natural
" dignity of manner and aspect, which was very
" serviceable to his preferment. This manner of his
" is not ill expressed in his statue over the gateway to
" the grand entrance into the hall at Christ-Church,
" erected at the expence of Sir Jonathan Trelawny,
" some time Bishop of Winchester. Accordingly he
" was received not long after by Dr. Dean, Archbishop
" of Canterbury, as one of his domestic chaplains. In
" this situation, he quickly became a great favourite,
" and by his means obtained from Pope Alexander the
" grant of a dispensation to hold two benefices, in
" 1503. Upon the death of the Archbishop, on the
" 15th. of February that year, he was appointed
" chaplain to Sir John Nanfau, (Sir John, who was a
" Somersetshire man, might probably know or have
" heard of him while he resided at Lyinington, which
" is in that County,) who being Treasurer of Calais,
" then in the possession of the English, took Mr.
" Wolsey in his retinue to that place, and in a little
" time, being much advanced in years, committed to
" him the whole care and management of his office;
" and upon his return to England, recommended him
" to his Majesty [King Henry VII.] so effectually,
" that the King made him one of his chaplains. (Lord
" Herbert says, he was chaplain to the household.)
" This was a step he had much wished for, and it was
" soon improved by him. Before the end of December,

THOMAS WOLSEY. 357
w 1504, he obtained from Pope Julius II. another
*' dispensation to hold a third preferment ; and the
" following year was presented to the rectory of
" Redgrave, in the diocese of Norwich. In the mean
" time, he made his court so successfully to two
" favourites of his Majesty, that they spoke of him
" with high commendations of his wit and eloquence,
" learning and assiduity, to their master, who there-
" upon sent for him, and proposed several questions
" to him about his affairs ; his answers to which satisfy-
" ing the King of his abilities, his Majesty resolved to
" entrust him with a secret negotiation for settling
" some points previous to his projected marriage with
" Margaret, Duchess Dowager of Savoy, the Emperor
" Maximilian's only daughter, and relict of Philip,
" King of Castile, Whilst his- instructions were being
" drawn, he had frequent access to the King and
" council, to whom he gave fresh proofs of his capacity
'" for political affairs. He executed this embassy with
" surprizing dispatch, for which he received particular
" thanks from Henry, who, on February the 2nd. next
" year, gave him the Deanery of Lincoln ; to which
" were added in the beginning of 1509, first the
" prebend of Walton-Brinhold, and then that of Stowe
" in the same Church, and wap prevented from giving
" him farther marks of his favour by his death, which
" happened on the 22nd. of April, that year. But
" this loss was abundantly repaired by his son and
" successor Henry VIII.
" He set forward from Richmond, where Henry then
" was, at four in the afternoon, on a Sunday, and soon
" came to London, where he found a barge ready to

358 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" carry him to Gravesend ; arriving there in less than
" three hours, he immediately took post-horses, and
" reached Dover the next morning : the passage-boat
" being just going off for Calais, he was so lucky as to
" get thither before noon, from whence he got to
" Bruges, on Tuesday morning. The Emperor
" receiving notice of his arrival, instantly gave him
" audience, to whom Wolsey delivering his credentials,
" pressed his return might be expedited ; upou which
" Maximilian gave him his answer the same night,
"wherein every thing he had proposed on the part of
" his master, was agreed to. Upon this, early on
" Wednesday morning he took post for Calais, where he
" came at the opening of the gates, and found the
" passage-boat ready to put to sea ; he embarked
" therein, and in a short time landed at Dover; where
" post-horses being ready, he arrived safe that night at
" Richmond, where he reposed himself after so fatiguing
" a journey. On Thursday morning he attended at
"court; as soon as he saw His Majesty, he threw
" himself at his feet. Henry was displeased to see him,
" and supposing he had protracted his departure, began
" to reprove him for the dilatory execution of his orders.
" On which Wolsey, to the King's great surprize,
" addressed himself to His Majesty in the following
"words: 'If it may please your Highness, I have
" already been with the Emperor, and dispatched your
"affairs, I trust, to your Grace's contentation; and
" then presented his letters of credence.' 'But, on
" second thoughts,' said the King, ' I found that some-
" what, was omitted in your orders, and have sent a
" messenger after you with fuller instructions.' ' I met

THOMAS WOLSEY. 359
" the messenger,' replied Wolsey, ' on the road in my
" return ; but having reflected on that omissio.i, I
" ventured of myself to execute what 1 knew must be
" absolutely necessary to your Majesty's service,.
" presuming to supply the defect of my dispatches in
" that particular, and I humbly ask pardon for having
" exceeded my commission.' His Majesty pleased
" with the expedient, and in general with the success
" of his negotiation, readily excused him, gave him his
*' royal thanks, and commanded him to attend after
" dinner ; when he reported his embassy to the King
" in council, with such a graceful deportment, and so
" eloquent language, that he received the utmost
" applause : all declaring him to be a person of such
" capacity and diligence, that he deserved to be further
" employed. " The Bishop of Winchester, who had recommended
" him to the father, began now to cast his eye upon
" him as a person that might be serviceable to himself,
" in his present situation. This Prelate observing,
" that the Earl of Surrey had totally eclipsed him in
" favour, resolved to introduce Wolsey into the young
" Prince's familiarity, in hopes that he might rival
" Surrey in his insinuating arts, and yet be contented to
" act in the cabinet a part subordinate to Fox himself,
" who had promoted him. From this juncture we are
" to consider Wolsey as a statesman. In a very little
" time he gained such an ascendant in Henry's good
" graces, that he supplanted both Surrey in his favour,
" and Fox in his trust and confidence. Being admitted
" to the King's parties of pleasure, he took the lead in
"every jovial conversation, and promoted all that

360 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" frolick and entertainment which he found suitable to
" the age and inclination of the young monarch ;
" neither his own years, which were little short of forty,
" nor his character as a clergyman, were any restraint
" upon him, or engaged him to check by any useless
" severities, the gaiety in which Henry, who had some
" small propension to debauchery, passed his careless
" hours. During the intervals of amusement, he
" introduced business and state affairs, and insinuated
" those maxims of conduct, which he was desirous his
" master should adopt. He observed to him, that
" while he entrusted his affairs to the hands of his
" father's counsellors, he had indeed the advantage of
" employing men of wisdom and experience, but men
" who owed not their promotion to his favour, and who
" scarce thought themselves accountable to him for the
" exercise of their authority. That by the factious
" cabals and jealousies which prevailed among them,
" they more obstructed the advancement of his affairs,
" than promoted it, by the knowledge which age and
" practice had conferred upon them ; and while he
" thought proper to pass his time in those pleasures to
" which his age and royal fortune invited him, and in
" those studies which in time would enable him to sway
" the sceptre with absolute authority, his best system
" of government would be to intrust his authority in the
" hands of some one person, who was the creature of
" his will, and who could entertaiu no view, but of
" promoting his service ; and that if this minister had
" also the same relish for pleasure with him, and the
" same taste for science, he could the more easily
" account to him for his whole conduct, and introduce

THOMAS WOLSEY. S6t
" his master into the knowledge of public business ;
" and thus, without tedious constraint or application,
" initiate himself into the science of government;
" Henry entered into all the views of Wolsey, and
" finding no one so capable of executing this plan of
" administration, as the person who proposed it, he
" soon advanced his favourite from being the companion
" of his careless hours, to be a member of his council,
" and from being a member of his council, to be his
" sole and absolute minister. In the mean time, upon
" this King's accession to the throne, he was made
" almoner to his Majesty, who, upon the conviction
" of Empson, of high treason, gave him that ravenous
" minister's house, which was near his own palace of
" Bridewell, Fleet-Steet, London. In November,
" 1510, he was taken into the privy council, and
" appointed reporter of the proceedings in the star-
" chamber ; and on the 29th. of the same month, the
" King presented him to the rectory of Turrington, in
" the diocese of Exeter; and on February 17, following,
" he was made Canon of Windsor, and registrar of
" the most noble order of the Garter. In November,
" 1512, he was collated to the prebend of Bugthorp,
" in the Church of York, by the recommendation of
" Cardinal Bainbridge, Archbishop of the See, and
" upon the death of the Dean soon after, he succeeded
" him in the Deanery of that Church. It was about
" this time that he became the King's first favourite,
" and had the chief management of all public affairs.
" The Duke of Norfolk finding the King's money
" almost all exhausted by projects and pleasures, while
." his inclinations for expence still continued, was glad
vy

362 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" to resign his office of treasurer, and retire from court.
" His rival, Fox, Bishop of Winchester, profiled
" nought by his obeisance ; but partly overcome by
" years and infirmities, partly disgusted at the ascendant
" acquired by Wolsey, withdrew himself to the care of
" his diocese. The Duke of Suffolk had also taken
" offence, that the King, by the Cardinal's persuasion,
" had refused to pay a debt which he had contracted
" during his abode in France, and thenceforth affected
" to live in privacy. These incidents left Wolsey to
" enjoy, without a rival, the whole power and favour of
" the King, and put into his hands every species of
" authority. In vain did Fox, before his retirement,
" warn the King not to suffer the servant to be greater
" than his master ; Henry replied, ' that he knew well
" hoiv to retain all his subjects in their obedience ;' but
" he continued still an absolute deference in every
" thing to the directions and counsels of the Cardinal.
" The public tranquillity was so well established, the
" obedience of the people so entire, the general
" administration of justice, by the Cardinal's means, so
" exact, that no domestic occurrences happened so
" remarkable as to disturb the repose of the King and
" his minister. They might even have dispensed with
" themselves for giving any strict attention to foreign
" affairs, were it possible for man to enjoy any station
" in absolute tranquillity, or to abstain from projects
" and enterprises, however frivolous and unnecessary.
" He was also, this year, made Dean of Hereford, and
" Chancellor of the order of the Garter. In 1513,
" he obtained the Bishopric of Tournay, in Flanders ;
" aud, before the end of the year, succeeded to that of

THOMAS WOLSEY. 363
" Lincoln, in the room of Dr. William Smith, one of
" the two joint founders of Brazen-Nose College,
" Oxford, deceased, to which he was consecrated
"March 26, 1514.
" This followed upon the battle of the Spurs, when
" Tournay surrendering to the King, the French
" Bishop refused to swear fealty to him, upon which his
¦" Majesty made Wolsey Bishop, who had attended him
" in this expedition. However, he met with great
" difficulties in holding it ; the Pope declaring for, or
" against him, as his affairs proved successful or otlier-
" wise in Italy. Wolsey, upon his return to England,
" appointed Dr. Sampson his Vicar-general ; who,
" being a- friend to Erasmus, recommended him as a
" Canon to Wolsey, who is said to have preserved to
" that Church its ancient privileges, for which the
" Canons sent him a letter of thanks, in 1515. But
" when Dr. Sampson went in his master's name to
" some towns in Flanders, belonging to his diocese, in
" order to get in the Bishop's dues, he found but cold
" treatment from the officers of the town ; the Bishop
" Elect, as he was then called, claiming the property
"of what Sampson endeavoured to collect. With this he
" acquainted his lordship ; and in the conclusion of his
" letter, says, that if his grace would quietly enjoy the
" administration, he must get the French King to
" write to his Bishop, not to oppose ; for if the officers
" saw their master's letter in his favour, they would
"immediately obey. Though Bishop Wolsey had
" obtained the Pope's brief to confirm him in this
" Bishoprick, yet, the officers objected to certain
" passages in the brief, which would make a law-suit

364 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" convenient. What further encreased the trouble,
" Adrian, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the King's
" Orator at Rome, suffered a bulle to be obtained in
" favour of the French Bishop, in order to restore hira
"to the Bishoprick; so that now, in a peremptory
" manner, he demanded the revenues, threatening to
" excommunicate all such as refused to comply with
" his demands, seeing the bulle was directed to all
" Christian Princes, to assist him with their forces to
" put him into possession of this Bishoprick, under
" pain of excommunication. Upon this, Dr. Sampson
" applied to Wolsey again, representing, that if the
" bulle was not set aside or suppressed, he could be of
" no further service there. Wolsey was surprized ;
" and the King sent a letter to the Pope, assuring him,
" that his troops would, by no means, think themselves
" obliged to execute so unjust a sentence ; declared
" the Pope's proceedings to be contrary to the laws of
" God and man ; and charged the Bishop of Bath,
" not only with negligence, but infidelity ; and, in case
" he did not take care to procure a revocation of the
" bulle, the Bishop was given to understand, that he
" should be superseded by one who would have more
" regard to the trust reposed in him. Then his
" Majesty directed Wolsey to apply to the Bishop of
" Worcester, to get the bulle revoked, who shortly after
" obtained another bulle, which superseded the French
" Bishop's. This last bulle had its desired effect ; and,
" at length, Wolsey was made easy in the enjoyment of
" the Bishoprick. He held it till 1518, when the town
" being delivered up to the French, that monarch's
" ambassadors, in England, gave their master's letters

THOMAS WOLSEY. 363
" patent, whereby he bound himself to pay the
" Cardinal an annual pension of twelve thousand livres
" Tournoise, to satisfy him for the loss of the Bishop-
" rick. " Cardinal Bainbridge dying that year, our minion
" was promoted to the See of York, on the 5th. of
" August, and had a bulle of absolution granted to him
" by the Pope, in October following. September 7,
" 1515, he was created a Cardinal of S. R. E. by the
" title of Cardinal of St. Cecile beyond the Tiber.
" This was done by the Pope, manifestly, in the view
" of engaging in his interest, a person who had so
" great an influence over the King, and sure never
" churchman, under colour of exacting regard to
" religion, carried to a more exorbitant height the state
" and dignity of that character. His train consisted of
" eight hundred servants, of whom many were knights
" and gentlemen : some even ofthe nobility put their
" children into his family, as a place of education ;
" and in order to ingratiate them with their patron,
" allowed them to bear offices as his servants.
" Among others that were so placed, was the Lord
" Percy, eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland,
" who was one of those that usually waited on the
" Cardinal to court ; by which means, the young Lord
" had frequent opportunities of conversing with the
" maids of honour, particularly with the Lady Anne
" Boleyn, whose favour and affections Percy soon so
" far gained, that she agreed privately to marry him ;
" which coining to Henry's ear, was so highly resented
" by him, that he charged the Cardinal to send for his
" pupil's father to court, formally to break the contract.

366 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" This affair terminated in the young Lord's receiving
" a severe reprimand from the Earl his father, in the
" presence of several of the Cardinal's gentlemen, and
"it was with much difficulty that, he regained his
" father's favour. However, he shortly after quitted
" the Cardinal's family, retired into the country, and
" lived private for some time. The Lady Anne was
" also, after this, dismissed the court, and sent to one
" of her father's seats in the country, the contract
" being dissolved by the Cardinal, as having been
" made without the King's or the young Lord's father's
" knowledge ; and his Lordship, shortly after, married
" a daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Anne Boleyn
" took the breach of this match so heinously, that she
" vowed, if ever it lay in her power, to do the Cardinal
" some displeasure ; which she afterwards made good,
" being, as it is well known, the chief instrument of
" his ruin.
" At the same time, whoever was distinguished by
" any art or science, paid court to the Cardinal, and
" none paid court in vain : Literature, which was
" then in its infancy, found in him a generous patron,
" and both by his institutions and private rewards he
" gave encouragement to every branch of erudition.
" But he did not content himself with this munificence
" which gained him the approbation of the wise ; he
" strove to dazzle the eyes of the populace by the
" splendor of his equipage and furniture, the costly
" embroideries of his liveries, and the lustre of his
" apparel. He was the first clergyman in England
" who wore silk aud gold, not only on his habit,
" but also on his saddles and the trappings of his

THOMAS WOLSEY. 367
" horses. He caused his Cardinal's hat to be borne
" aloft by a person of rank ; and when he came to
" the King's chapel, permitted it to be laid in no
" place but on the altar. A priest, the tallest and most
" comely he could find, carried before him a pillar of
" silver, on whose top was placed a cross. And not
" content with this parade, to which he thought himself
" entitled as Cardinal, he provided another priest of
" equal stature and beauty, who marched along,
" bearing the cross of York, even in the diocese of
" Canterbury, contrary to the ancient rule and agree-
" ment between the Prelates of those royal Sees. He
" had also a pension of 3,000 livres granted to him
" this year, by Charles, King of Spain, having before
" obtained the conditional grant of a pension of 10,000
" ducats out of the Duchy of Milan.
" This was stipulated in a treaty with Franciscus
" Sforza, to assist him in recovering that duchy from
" the French King. Henry was to have a yearly
" tribute, and Wolsey was to have 10,000 ducats
" yearly for his part, as appears from the original
" contract preserved in the Cotton library ; whereas it
" is asserted to be eighteen thousand by Polydore
" Virgil. But the unfairness of that deputy-collector
" of the Pope's annates, to Wolsey, is well known and
" generally allowed, and therefore needs not our
" animadversion. The reader who has not already
" seen it, will be pleased with the following letter wrote
" by him, when he was in the Tower, to the Cardinal ;
" the original is said to be in the Exchequer record
" office, and has been thus translated into English :

368 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" To the Most Reverend Lord my God the most
" worthy Cardinal Wolsey.
" ' Most great and most Reverend Pontiff, and
" most firm Pillar of the. Church of God, humble
" commendations. And I your servant, who still am
" buried in the shadow of death, have heard of your
" extraordinary fame, with how much applause of all
" men your most reverend Lordship has been raised to
" the high Cardinalate here. So great is your virtue,
" that you reflect more lustre and dignity on that
" supreme order, than you receive therefrom. I
" among the rest do rejoyce and am heartily pleased ;
" but when it shall be lawful for me in his Majesty's
" presence to adore you, then will my soul be in
" raptures with thee, O God of my comfort. Most
" reverend Lord God of forgiveness, God of pity, at
" length extend your mercy on your poor servant.
" Your benignity lately forgave my crime, vouchsafe
" out of the bowels of your mercy to forgive the
" penitent likewise, that your gifts may be as your
" most reverend Lordship.
" ' Now the time approaches, when our Redeemer
" Christ descended from the heavens to reconcile
" sinners to God the Father, vouchsafe most great
" Prelate, in the same manner to help me from the
" shades of death in this season of Grace by the right
" hand of your clemency, and to restore one to holy
" light, that on the Lord's birth I, being by your mercy
" regenerated, may be able to return thanks and praise
" to the same Lord Jesus, with tranquillity of mind
" and a cheerful heart for your most reverend Lord-
" ship, as I shall constantly do, while life remains.

THOMAS WOLSEY. 369
" ' Therefore, most good and reverend Lord, have
" mercy on me speedily, who am afflicted and in great
" distress. See me, O Thou who canst save for ever-.
" Have mercy, draw near. Amen.
" Your Most Reverend Lordship's
" Humble creature, " Polydore.'
" The cause of this collector's imprisonment, Mr.
" Rapin tells us was this : Wolsey having employed
" Hadrian to solicit for the purple in his name, and
" finding Hadrian, instead of serving him, had done
" him ill offices, he was so incensed thereat, that on
" some slight pretence he committed Polydore,
" Hadrian's deputy in England, to the Tower ; and
" then prevailed upon the King to write with his own
" hand to the Pope, desiring him to appoint another
" collector in Hadrian's room. It is proper to
" acquaint the reader, that it was not the Cardinal,
" but the King, who committed Polydore to the
" Tower. " In November, the same year, he was made the
" Pope's Legate a latere ; and, December 22, Lord
" High Chancellor of England, upon the resignation
" of Archbishop Warham.
" Cardinal Campeggio had been sent Legate into
" England, in order to procure a tythe from the clergy,
" for enabling the Pope to oppose the progress of the
" Turks. The danger was real, and formidable to all
" Christendom, but had been so often made use of to
" serve the interested purposes ofthe court of Rome,
" that they had lost all influence on the minds of the
people. The clergy refused to comply with Leo's
z z

<<

370 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" demand ; Campeggio was recalled ; and the King
" desired ofthe Pope, that Wolsey, who had joined in
" this capacity, might be alone invested with the
" legatine power, together with a right of visiting all
" the clergy and monasteries, and even with suspending
" the whole laws of the church during a twelve-month,
" Wolsey having received this new dignity, made a new
"display of that state and parade, to which he was
" naturally addicted. On solemn feast-days, he was not
" content without saying mass after the manner of the
" Pope himself : not only he had Bishops and Abbots
" to serve him, he even engaged the first nobility to
" give him water and the towel : he affected a rank
" superior to what had been claimed by any church-
" man in England. Warham, the Primate, having
" wrote him a letter, wherein he subscribed himself
"your loving brother, Wolsey complained of his
" presumption in thus challenging an equality with
" him. When Warham was told of the offence he had
" given, he made light of it ; Know ye not, said he,
" that this man is drunk with too much prosperity ?
" But Wolsey carried the matter much further than
" pomp and ostentation ; he erected an office which
" he called the legatine court, and as he was now, by
" means of the Pope's commission and the King's
" favour, invested with all power, both ecclesiastical
" and civil, no man knew what bounds were to be set
" to this new tribunal ; he conferred on it a species of
" inquisitorial and censorial powers even over the laity,
" and directed it to enquire into all matters of con-
" science, into all conduct which had given scandal,
" into all actions, which, though they escaped trial,

THOMAS WOLSEY. 37 1
** might appear contrary to good policy. Offence was
"justly taken at this tribunal, which was really un-
" bounded ; aud the people were the more disgusted,
" when they saw a person who indulged himself in the
" licences of pleasures, so severe in reproving the least
" appearance of immorality in others. But to render
" his court more obnoxious, lie made one John Allen
" the judge of it, a person of a scandalous life, whom
" he himself, as Chancellor, had condemned for
" perjury. As this man exacted fines from every one
41 whom he was pleased to find guilty, or take bribes
" to drop prosecution, many concluded, with some
" appearance of reason, that he shared with the
" Cardinal those wages of iniquity ; the clergy, and
" particularly the monks, were exposed to this tyranny ;
" and, as the libertinism of their lives even gave a just
*' handle against them, they were obliged to buy an
" indemnity by paying large sums to the legate or his
"judge. Not contented with this authority, Wolsey
" assumed the power of all the Bishop's courts, particu-
" larly that of judging of wills and testaments, and his
" decisions in those important points were sometimes
" not a little arbitrary ; as if he himself were Pope,
" and as if the Pope could dispose absolutely of every
" ecclesiastical establishment, he presented to whatever
" priories or benefices he pleased, without regard to the
" right of election in the monks, or of patronage in the
" nobility and gentry. This whole narration has
" been copied by all historians from Polydore
" Virgil. Here are many circumstances, however,
" very suspicious, both because ofthe obvious partiality
" of the historian, and because the parliament, when

372 THOMAS W'OLSEY.
" they strictly examined Wolsey's conduct, could find
" no material crime he had committed. No one durst
" carry to the King any complaint against these
" usurpations of Wolsey, till Archbishop Warham
" informed him of the discontent of the people. Henry
" professed his ignorance of the whole matter. A
" man, says he, is not so blind any where as in his own
" house. But do you, Father, added he to the
" Primate, go io Wolsey, and tell him, if any thing be
" amiss, that he mend it. A reproof of this kind was
" not likely to be effectual. It also served to augment
" Wolsey's enmity to Warham. But one London
" having prosecuted Allen, the legate's judge, in a
" court of law, and convicted him of malversation and
" iniquity, the clamour at last reached the King's ears,
" and he expressed such displeasure at the Cardinal, as
" made him ever after more cautious in exerting his
" authority. " Mr. Rapin having set forth the Cardinal's
" unexampled magnificence and state, and observed
" that every body spoke of it with indignation, goes 'on
" thus : ' The Archbishop was no less offended than
" the rest ; but what gave him most offence was to see
" the cross carried before the Cardinal, though he was
" in the province of Canterbury. This quarrel could
" not be decided but by the King's express commands
" to the Archbishops of York, not to have the cross
" carried before them in the other province ; but
" Wolsey, who thought himself much above his
" predecessors, purposed to revive the contest, in
" contempt of the prohibition. Warham, who was of
" a peaceable temper, easily perceived that any attempt

THOMAS WOLSEY. 373
" of his to hinder it would be to no purpose, since
" Wolsey had an absolute sway over the King.
" Wherefore, not to have the object before his eyes, he
" desired the King's leave to resign the chancellorship.'
" In answer to this, let us hear what is alleged by Dr.
" Fiddes. ' There are,' says the Doctor, ' two con-
" siderable testimonies from Erasmus's great friends,
" Sir Thomas More aud Ammonius, relating to the
" Cardinal's wise and equitable conduct as Chancellor
" of England, that may be here most conveniently
" cited, and especially as they tend to remove a
" prejudice which has been entertained against the
" Cardinal, as if he had used some indiscreet methods
" towards superseding Archbishop Warham in that
" high office. Sir Thomas More's words are these :
" The Archbishop of Canterbury hath at length
" resigned the office of Chancellor, which burthen, as
"you known, he had strenuously endeavoured to lay
" down for some years ; and the long-wished-for
" retreat being now obtained, he enjoys a most pleasant
" recess in his studies, with the agreeable reflection of
" having acquitted himself so honourably in that high
" station. The Cardinal of York, proceeds Sir
" Thomas, succeeds him, who discharges ihe duties of
41 that post so conspicuously, as to surpass the hopes of
" all, notwithstanding the great opinion they had of his
" other eminent qualities, and what is more rare, to
" give so much pleasure and satisfaction after so
" excellent a predecessor. Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis
" officio Canceltarii, cujus onus jam aliquot, ut scis,
" annos mirum quam laborabat extutere, tandem
'f exsolutus est, $• desideratam jam diu secessum nactus,

374 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" gratissimo inter literas otia, cV negotiorum bene a se
" gestorum recordatione fruitur. Princeps ei Cardina-
" lem suffecit Eboracensem qui ita se gerit, ut spem
" quoque omnium quanquam pro reliquis ejus virtutibus
" maximum longe exuperet. Morus Erasmo. Atnmo-
" nius writes to Erasmus to the same effect, in regard to
" the foregoing articles, and says, Your Archbishop,
" with the King's good leave, has laid down his post,
" which that of York, after much importunity, has
44 accepted, and behaves most beautifully. Tuus
" Cantuariensis, cum bona Regis venia, magistratu se
" abdicavit, quern Eboracensis impense rogatus suscepit,
" fy pulcherrime gerit. Andreas Ammonius Erasmo.'
" Though the words of these two gentlemen may not
" be judged decisive in the Cardinal's favour, yet it
" won't, I believe, be denied, that they have given the
" most candid account of the matter ; for which reason
" we thought proper to give them a place here, ' Upon
" the other dispute, proceeds Dr. Fiddes, about pre-
" cedency to the Archbishop of Canterbury, assumed
" by the Cardinal, it has been observed, that even from
" our own histories it appears, Archbishops formerly
" took place of Cardinals; and we find that Cardinals,
" though Legates, yielded the precedency to Bishops,
" which was observed in the Council of Renne. But
" this was afterwards altered. When Kemp, Arch-
" bishop of York, was made Cardinal, he claimed in
" the House of Lords the precedence of Chichely,
" Archbishop of Canterbury; the latter refusing to
" comply with the demand, it was referred to the Pope,
" who determined it in favour of Kemp. Accordingly,
" Cavendish informs us, that Wolsey having obtained

THOMAS WOLSEY. 373
" to be Cardinal, thereby got the better of Warham in
" this point : however, Warham being Chancellor, took
" place in the House of Peers, of which he is Speaker.
" This appears from the Journals of the House, 7th, of
" Hen.VIII.and Bishop Burnet, produceth an instance,
" wherein Wolsey, after he was made Chancellor, gave
" place to Warham. This is in a letter written to the
" Pope in 1530, which the Cardinal subscribed before
" Warham ; and though, as Harmer observes, he was
" not then Chancellor, which the Bishop insinuates,
"having resigned the seals October 17, 1529, yet he
" was still Cardinal. But the truth is, he was at that
" time neither in a condition nor temper to insist upon
" punctilios.' " In the beginning of the year 1518, he attended
" Queen Katherine to Oxford, when he acquainted
" that university with his intention of founding several
" public lectures, which he soon afterwards carried
" into execution.
" There were seven of them, 1. Theology, whereof
" one Thomas Brynknell was the first reader, nominated
" by himself, whose successor he had been as M aster
" of Magdalen-college school, and he afterwards was
" recommended to Henry VIII. by the University, to
" write against Luther, and accordingly wrote a piece
" intitled Tractatus contra Doctrinam Martini Lutheri,
" which is commended in one of the University public
" Registers. The University makes honourable mention
" of him, in a letter to the Cardinal, and at the same
" time acquaints his Eminency, that they are not able
" to express the benefit of his lectures in general, and
" more particularly of the theological one. 2. Civil

376 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" Law. It is not known, who was the first lecturer
" upon this. Mr. Wood says, it was read in 1523, as
" well as that of rhetoric, by Ludovicus Vives. 3.
" Physic. The first reader was Thomas Musgrave,
"A.M. 4. Philosophy. The initial letters ofthe
" first reader's name are L. B. which is all that could
" be discovered of him. 5. Mathematics. The first
" reader was one Richard Cateler, a native of Holland,
" and educated in the colleges of Wyrtenberg and
" Cologn, who is said to have been a person of so
" great probity and goodness, that he deserved a better
" fortune than is commonly shared by mathematicians ;
" at the same time he was so great a master of his art,
" that he deserved to be called so xoSt' e^oxijv. 6. The
" Greek language. Calphurnius, a native of Greece,
" was first appointed by the Cardinal to this province.
" This professor first taught the pronunciation of the
" language at Oxford, as it is now read. 7. Rhetoric
" and Humanity. The first reader was Clement, who
" was succeeded by Lupset. Clement was tutor to
" Sir Thomas More's children, and Lupset has been
" already taken notice of in these memoirs; we shall
" only add thereto a remark of Dr. Knight, ' that he
" never arrived at any great preferment, which probably
" his dying young might prevent, or else the frowns of
" Cardinal Wolsey ;' a censure passed without so much
" as any grounds pretended for it, might have for his
" own sake been better spared. It is certain, the
" University wrote a letter of thanks to the Cardinal,
" in 1 52 1 , for having given them Lupset, in which are
" these words : Immortalis beneficii loco accepimus quod
" benignissitna tua beneficentia in communem rei literariee

THOMAS WOLSEY. 377
" usitm dignato sit Lupsetum ad nos remittere, quern et
" si semper habuimus charissimum, nunc tamen, quia a
" Tua Majestate amanter commendatum, multo arctius
" amplectimur. This last expression was egregious
" flattery ; but the Cantabrigians also, in one of their
" addresses to the Cardinal, call him prmsens Numen.
" This lecture was also read, as well as that of the
" Civil Law, in pursuance of the founder's request, by
" Joannes Ludovicus Vives, a Spaniard of Valentia,
" of whom we have the following account ; that he was
" born in March, 1492, and having learned grammar
" and classical learning in his own country, he went to
" Paris to study logic and philosophy. But these
" being taught there upon the method of the schoolmen,
" whose sophistical disputes were not agreeable to him,
" he went to Louvain, and there, in 1519, published a
" book against them, intitled Contra Pseudo Dialecticos.
" At Louvain he applied himself intirely to the Belles
" Lettres, and became very consummate therein ; and
"his reputation was so great, that in July, 1517,
" though then at Louvain, he was appointed Fellow of
" Corpus Christi College, in Oxford, by the founder ;
" his fame being spread over England, as well on
" account of his great parts and learning, as for the
" peculiar respect and favour with which Queen
" Catherine, of Spain, honoured him ; in 1521, he was
" chosen preceptor to William de Croy, the young
" Cardinal of Toledo, who died that year. In 1522,
" he dedicated his Commentary upon St. Augustine
" De civitate Dei to Henry VIII. which was so
" acceptable to that Prince, that Cardinal Wolsey, by
" his order, invited him over to England : he came in
a a 1

378 THOMAS WOLSEY.
n 1523, and going to his fellowship at Oxford, he there
" read in his college, at the Cardinal's request, his
" lectures of humanity and civil law, at which Hehry
" VIII. and Queen Katherine honoured him with
" their presence as auditors ; and being constituted
" tutor to the Princess Mary, who resided there, for
" the Latin tongue, for whose use he wrote De ratione
" studis puerilis, which he addressed to his patroness,
" Queen Katherine, in 1 523 ; as he did the same year
" another De institutions Faminaz Christiana,, written
" by her command. Afterwards he went to Bruges,
" in Flanders ; and returned the year following to
" Oxford, where he continued his lectures : but
" presuming to speak and write against the King's
" divorce from Queen Katherine, Henry imprisoned
" him for six months. As soon as he obtained his
" liberty he returned to the Netherlands, and resided
" at Bruges, where he married, and taught polite
" literature till his death, which is said to have happened,
" though not certain, in 1544; he was buried in the
" Church of St. Donatus there. His works were
" printed in two tomes, folio, at Basil, 1555, but without
" his Commentary on St. Austin, which has been
" published separately, though never well. However,
" it is, perhaps, at present, the most useful of his
" works, and contains a great deal of sacred and
" profane learning. He was much esteemed by
" Erasmus and Sir Thomas More. ' He is one of
" those,' says Erasmus to More, * whose glory will
" eclipse mine. He is a true philosopher, and a
" despiser of fortune ; and he is fit to beat the
" scholastics at their own weapons, which be under-

THOMAS WOLSEY. 379
¦" stands perfectly well.' And indeed he has given an
" essay qf his abilities in this way. He was undoubtedly
** one of the most learned men of his age ; some have
" affected to make him and Budasus and Erasmus the
" triumvirate, as it were, in the then republic of letters.
" They ascribed to each those peculiar qualities in
" which they supposed ejaeh to excel, as wit to Budaeus,
" eloqnence to Erasmus, judgment to Vives, and
¦" learning to them all. But Du Pin does not approve
*' of this division .• ' Erasmus,' he says, * was doubtless
" a man qf a finer wit, more extensive learning, and of
" a more solid judgment than Vives ; Budaeus had
" more skill in the languages and in profane learning
" than either of them ; and Vives excelled in, grammar,
" rhetoric, and. logic' But however Du Pin may
" seem to degrade Vives upon the comparison with
" Erasmus and Budgeus, yet he has not been back-
" ward in doing justice to his real merit ' Vives,'
" says he, ' was not only excellent in polite letters, a
"judicious critic, and an eminent philosopher; but he
*' applied himself also to divinity, and was successful in
41 it. If the critics admire his books De caMsiscorrup-
" tarum artium, and De tradendis disciplinis, on
" account of the profane learning that appears in them,
" and the solidity of his judgment in those matters, the
" divines ought no less to esteem his books De veritate
"fidei Christiana, and his commentary upon St.
" Augustine De civitate Dei; in which he shewed
"that he understood his religion thoroughly.' The
"characters of these several lectures are, therefore,
" drawn more at length, as being so many conspicuous
" proofs of the founder's care and concern for the

380 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" usefulness of his benefaction in particular, as well as
" instances of that encouragement to learning in
" general, of which he is universally allowed to have
" been a promoter. And in that spirit, at the same
" time that he declared to the university his intention
" of founding these lectures, he concluded his speech
" with his desire of having their statutes reduced to a
" better form ; to which he received a most respectful
" answer ; and letters were directed to Archbishop
*' Warham, their Chancellor, upon it. The Archbishop
" was then in the university, and returned an answer,
" applauding the Cardinal's overtures for founding new
" lectures, but dissented from his proposal relating to
" the reformation of their statutes ; which answer being
" no way pleasing to the university, they renewed their
" application to bim ; whereupon he complied with
" their request, and on the 1st. of June, in a fullconvo-
" cation, an ample decree was passed, that the statutes
" of the university should be put into the Cardinal's
" hands to be completed, reformed, changed, or
" expunged, as he, in his discretion, should think
" proper. However, this design was never carried
" into execution, though the Cardinal obtained several
" privileges and immunities for them ; all which
" they enjoy to this day, except one, of exempting
" them from a public tax, which was infringed in King
" William's time, by comprehending them in the land
" and 'malt-tax. After all, it is natural to ask,
" concerning the Cardinal's lectures, what is become
" of these noble and truly valuable foundations ? to
" which we have the following answer; 'They are
" now, alas,' says Dr. Fiddes, * no where to be found,

THOMAS WOLSEY. 381
** nor so much as the ruins or any scattered remains
" of them, unless in the hands of those persons to
" whom the profit was least intended by the Founder.
" In short,' continues this writer, ' they were swallowed
" up in the ruins of that great man, and in the devasta-
" tion which, after his fall, was made of things appro-
" priated to pious uses. Whence it appears, that
" whatever salaries he paid these lecturers, yet he never
" settled any estate upon the lectureships by deed ;
" which perhaps was observed by Archbishop Laud,
" who, happily, by such a deed preserved his Arabic
" lecture from falling a sacrifice.'
" The same year, on the 6th. of May, he received
" two grants of an extraordinary power, in respect to
" letters patent, under the great seal ; and in October
" following, he was constituted bailiff of the honour of
'* Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire.
" These were dated May the 6th. In the first he
" was impowered to grant letters patents of denizon to
" be made out under the great seal to such person or
" persons as should at any time sue to him for the same,
" without any other warrant. In the other he is
" authorized to make out letters patents under the great
" seal, of all conge d'elires, royal assents, and resti-
" tutions of temporalities as well of Archbishopricks,
" monasteries, abbeys, priories, as of all other religious
" houses within the King's realm of England and
" Wales, and the marches of the same, to such persons
" as should afterwards in due form sue for the same;
" and that by virtue of the same powers, the Cardinal
" should cause from time to time to be made out
" commissions, and writs of dedimus potestatem, to

382 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" such as should think convenient, to take the homages
" and fealty of all manner of persons, as well Arch-
" bishops and Bishops as other persons, due unto the
" crown for the said temporalties.
" On the 3rd. of August preceding, the Pope had
" granted him the administration of the Bishopric of
" Bath and Wells, the temporalties of which See
" he received from the King the same month.
" The Cardinal was very instrumental in procuring the
" establishment of the college of Physicians this year.
" This appears from the preamble to their original
" charter, which in English runs thus : ' Whereas we
"judge it the duty of our kingly office to consult the
" happiness of our people, first, by seasonably putting
" a stop to the endeavours of the wicked ; we have
" thought it necessary to check the boldness of those
" unskilful men, who profess physic more out of avarice,
" than any confidence of a safe conscience, to the great
" damage of the ignorant and credulous people.
" ' Wherefore imitating in part the example of well
" regulated cities in Italy and several other nations,
" and partly moved thereto by the earnest request of
" the following grave and learned men, Thomas Linacre
" and Ferdinand de Victoria, our physicians ; Nicholas
" Halsewel, John Francis, and Robert Yaxley, phy-
" sicians ; but chiefly by the most reverend Father in
" Christ, Lord Thomas, Cardinal-Priest of the holy
" Church of Rome, with the title of St. Cecile beyond
" the Tiber, Archbishop of York, and of our kingdom
" of England our most dear chancellor ; We will and
" command that a perpetual college be founded for
" grave and learned men publicly to practise physic iu

THOMAS WOLSEY. S83
" our said city and the suburbs thereof, and six miles
" round it, &c.' In memorial of this favour, the college
" have placed a fine picture of the Cardinal next to
" that of his Majesty, done by Hans Holbein ; and to
" the list of their benefactors, next to the article relating
" to the King, is the following, Cardinalis Wolseius,
*' Archiepiscopus Eboracensis, apud Regem Hen.
" VIII. diligenter intercessit ad collegium fundendum.
" In 1519, he erected a legatine court, at West-
" minster, and behaved in such an arbitrary manner
" therein, as is condemned both by the Lord Herbert,
" and Mr. Collier ; and Polydore Virgil complaining
" of it to the King, his Majesty gave him a check for
" it : however, in reforming the abuses among the
" clergy, he is commended. He likewise received the
" sons of several noblemen and gentlemen into his
" family for education, and made George Cavendish, of
" Suffolk, his gentleman usher. The whole regulation
" of the interview, between the two kings of England
" and France this year, was entrusted to his appoint-
" ment by both those sovereign princes. On the 29th.
"July, 1520, the Pope granted him a pension of two
" thousand ducats upon the Bishopric of Placentia,
" and constituted him perpetual administrator of the
" See of Badajos, without prejudice to what he had or
" should have for the future. This year an account
" was also taken by his order of the several parishes in
" England. " By this account there appeared to be 9407
" churches ; but Bishop Gibson observes, that there
" were, in his time, no more than 9282. ' I know
"not,' says he, 'how this difference should arise

384 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" unless it be, that some were demolished in the last
" ages, and that chapels parochial Were omitted.'
" In the beginning of the year 1521, he procured
" Luther's doctrine to be condemned in an assembly of
" divines held at his own house for that purpose.
" He also published Pope Leo's bulle against Luther,
" and ordered it to be every where published. He
" likewise required all persons, under pain of excom-
" munication, to bring in all Luther's books that were
" in their hands. He enumerated forty-two of Luther's
" errors. ' This,' says Bishop Burnet, ' shews the
" apprehensions they were under of the spreading of
" Luther's books and doctrine. All people were so
" sensible at this time of the corruptions, that every
" motion towards a reformation was readily harkened
" to every where. Corruption was the common
" subject of complaint, and in the commission given to
" those whom the King sent to represent himself and
" his church in the council of Lateran, the reformation
" ofthe head and members is mentioned, as that which
" was expected from that council. This was so much
" at that time in all mens mouths, that one of the best
" men in that age, Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, being to
" open the convocation with a sermon, made that the
" subject of it all.' The council of Constance begun
" in 1512 and ended in 1517. The Cardinal was
" then in the height of his power and favour with the
" King, and therefore, no doubt, advised this reform-
" ation of the heads and members. His aversion and
" contempt ofthe Monks, on account of their ignorance
" and corruption, is notorious ; yet we do not find that
" he ever proceeded to persecution against them. It

THOMAS WOLSEY. 385
"cannot be denied, that his spirit was not of that
" kind. One article of his impeachment is, that he
" was remiss in hunting and punishing heretics, and
" rather disposed to screen them, by means of which
" connivance Lutheranism had got ground ; this is
" observed by his apologist, Fiddes, and in reality is
" one of the most favourable things that can be said
" for him.
" On the 7th. of December the same year the
" temporalties of the rich abbey of St. Albans was
" vested in him.
" It is not known when he was first appointed Abbot.
" Some have thought it was in 1516; it is certain that he
" had it in 1518, since by the patent for granting him the
" temporalties of the See of Bath and Wells, dated
" the 28th. of August that year, he has liberty of
" holding the same See with the Abbotship of St.
" Albans and other ecclesiastical livings in commendam
" with York. Those who have said he was deprived
" of this abbey by praemunire, seem to be mistaken ;
" since, from a manuscript of St. Albans, in the Arch-
" deacon's office of institutions there appears one
" William Wakefield inducted the 9th. of September,
" 1530, into the vicarage of St. Peter's, in the town of
" St. Albans, by the Cardinal's licence and authority ;
" and this was not long before his death. However,
" there can be no doubt but he was, by the praemunire,
" deprived of the temporalties, though not of the
" spiritualties." This year he attended the Queen on a visit which
" her Majesty made to Cambridge, of which university
" he had been chosen Chancellor, in 1514, upon the
b b I

sm THOMAS WOLSEY.
" resignation of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who had
" been elected into that dignity for life. Wolsey
" accepted the choice by a letter dated June the 2nd.
" that year, and held the place till a little before his
" death, when he was succeeded by Thomas Lord
" Cromwell. Soon after his return from Cambridge,
" he went abroad in the character of the King's
" Lieutenant. " Cavendish, who gives a particular detail of this
" promotion tells us, among other things, that just
" before his departure from Calais, he summoned his
" train, and made a speech to them to be very careful
" of behaving to him as the King's Lieutenant, with
" the exactest reverence in respect to his master's
" honour before the Frenchmen ; and instructed them
" in the nature of the French, * who,' says he, * at their
" first meeting, will be as familiar with you as if they
" had known you by long acquaintance, and will
" commune with you in the French tongue, as if you
" knew every word ; therefore use them in a kind
" manner, and be as familiar with them as they are
" with you. If they speak to you in their native
" tongue, speak to them in English ; for if you under-
" stand not them, no more shall they you.' Then
" turning to one of the gentlemen, who was a Welsh-
" man, ' Rice,' quoth he merrily, 'speak thou Welsh to
" them, and doubt not but thy speech will be more
" difficult to them, than their French shall be to thee.'
" The same year he received a new bulle, prolonging
" his legatineship, for two years after another bulle,
" which had greatly enlarged his power, from Pope
" Leo X. : upon whose demise, December this year.

THOMAS WOLSEY. 887
** 1521, he stood candidate for the papal chair in 1522,
*' and sent Dr. Pace, Dean of St. Paul's, to manage
" that affair ; but Adrian was chosen before the Dean
" arrived at Rome.
" By this bulle he was empowered to make fifty
41 Knights, fifty Counts Palatine, and as many Acolites
" and Chaplains, forty Notaries apostolic, who should
" have the same privileges as those had that were made
" by the Pope, to legitimatize bastards, give degrees by
*' acts of law, physic, and divinity, and grant all sorts
" of dispensations,
¦" However, the same year, the Emperor settled a
" pension upon him of 9,000 crowns of gold ; and Dr.
" Ruthal, Bishop of Durham, dying next year, 1523,
4t he was made Bishop of that See; upon which he
" resigned the administration of Bath and Wells.
" Bishop Ruthal was born at Cirencester, in
" Gloucestershire, where he founded a free school,
" giving a house and seven pounds a year for the
44 maintenance of a master. Though he was bred at
41 Oxford, and took his degree there of D. D. yet
" being incorporated to that degree at Cambridge, in
" 1500, he was elected Chancellor of that university in
41 1503, being then Archdeacon of Gloucester. In
41 the beginning of September, 1505, he was made
" Dean of Salisbury. He was esteemed a very
41 learned and experienced man in political affairs,
" and was made secretary to Henry VII. who,
" a little before his death, nominated him to the See
'" of Durham, upon the translation of Bainbridge to
" York, and made him a privy counsellor, and he was
" continued both secretary and privy counsellor to

388 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" Henry VIII. who confirmed his father's nomination
" of him to Durham, to which See being elected, the
" temporal ties were restored to him, 3rd. July, 1
" Henry VIII. A.D. 1509. He was afterwards made
" Lord Privy Seal, and was esteemed to be admirably
" well read in both the laws. He died in February,
" 1522-3, and was buried in St. John the Baptist's
" chapel, in Westminster Abbey. He is said to have
" been a munificent benefactor to the palace of
" Aukland, belonging to his See, by Godwin, who
" relates the following remarkable story of him, which,
" as it concerns our Cardinal, is the reason of giving
" this succinct account of him. He was desired, says
" Godwin, by Henry VIII. to write his opinion of the
" state of the kingdom in general, and more especially
" that part of it which more immediately concerned
" the crown. The Bishop executed the King's
" command, wrote his opinion in a fair hand, and
" bound it up in a volume. As he was thus employed
" at the King's instance to state the condition of the
" kingdom, he bethought himself of looking into the
" state of his own concerns, and got a second volume
" bound up in the same manner as the first, wherein he
" wrote an exact inventory of all his estates, both real
" and personal, which, it is said, amounted to no Jess a
" sum than ,£100,000. sterling. The King sent to
" him for his book, which his Majesty was very
" impatient to see. But, by a fatal mistake, he
" delivered the book containing the inventory of his
" own estate, instead of that he had written by the
" King's order. Wolsey carried the book to the King,
" and told his Majesty, that though he would not meet

THOMAS WOLSEY. 389
" with the account he expected, yet he would find the
" particulars of Bishop Ruthal's estate, and where to
" apply for money in case he wanted. Godwin
" observes, that the mistake fell so heavy on the
" Bishop's spirits, that it hastened his death : and the
" minister's behaviour cannot by any means be
" defended, who evidently offered this sacrifice to his
" own ends. It is not said whether the King did take
" advantage of the information : ' but this,' says Dr.
" Knight, 'we are sure of, that not a great while after,
" in the same net that the Cardinal laid for others,
" were his own feet taken : for his whole substance,
" and the vast treasure he had amassed together, were
" all seized for the King's use, and he himself died
" with grief.' A reflection, if not cruel in itself, yet
" unaptly on this occasion obtruded, with an injudicious
" insinuation of its being an instance of the divine
" Nemesis. The Doctor could not find that the King
" made any use of the information ; the fairest
" inference from whence is, that it was not given with
" any malevolent design, especially if we consider the
" Cardinal's influence over his Majesty at that time.
" Better is the remark made upon it by Mr. Jortin,
" though no friend to the Cardinal's memory, in these
" words : ' Whilst we detest,' says he, 'the treachery of
" the Cardinal, we cannot afford much pity to the
" Bishop with his hundred thousand pounds. If he
" had made a wise use of them like Archbishop
" Warham, who had the honour and the glory to live
" and die poor, they would have been beyond the reach
" of the King and Cardinal,

390 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" Extra fortunam est quicquid donator amicis,
" Quas dederis solas semper habebis opes.
" Even a pagan could say this.
" The same year he issued a mandate to remove the
" convocation of the province of Canterbury, from St.
" Paul's to Westminster.
" Tis said, that by his legatine power he first removed
" the convocation, held at St. Paul's at the Archbishop
" of Canterbury's call, and called the Archbishop and
" clergy to meet at Westminster, a sight never before
" seen in England. Upon which Skelton the poet
" made this distich,
" Gentle Paul, lay down thy sword,
" For Peter of Westminster hath shaved thy beard.
" And Dr. Fiddes observes, that this was thought so
" singular a step, that it would render all the proceedings
" of the assembly invalid, wherefore they did not sit
" many days before they returned to St. Paul's.
" Archbishop Parker, represents this fact not only as
" without a precedent, but also as importing a crime
" of a most enormous nature ; inauditi exempliflagitium
" are his words. This censure, says Dr. Fiddes,
" might have been expressed in gentler terms; for that
" the Cardinal had thought himself really invested with
" the power which he pretended to exercise, or desired
" to exercise, judging, that in such a character he should
" be more able at the head of the convocation to do
" the King greater service in managing for the supply.
" After which the Doctor concludes this extraordinary
" remark in the following words. ' It having,' says
" he, ' been agreed on all hands, that Wolsey as

THOMAS WOLSEY. 391
" Archbishop had no seat in the convocation summoned
" by Warham, though it is urged by some, that he
" might have sat there as Abbot of St. Albans.' Both
" the pleas here alleged by the Doctor, are inex-
" disable, and the latter detestable, being grounded on
" a concession of that abandoned spirit which has
" marked out the Cardinal ever since as a flagrant
" pattern of a wicked minister, ready to sacrifice every
" thing to the will of the sovereign. We must own
" this is more like the orator at the bar pleading for
" his client, than of the judicious panegyrist. The
" impotence and futility of his words, renders the
" Cardinal more conspicuously odious, and himself
" contemptible. The following letter to a noble lord,
" gives a good idea of what was talked of this step of
" Wolsey's at that time. Having giving his lordship
" an account ofthe method of carrying the loan in the
" house of commons, he proceeds thus : ' Also in the
" convocation among the priests, the day of their
" appearance, as soon as mass of the Holy Ghost at
" Paul's was done, my Lord Cardinal cited them to
" appear before his convocation at Westminster, which
" they did, and there was another mass of the Holy
" Ghost ; and within six or seven days the priests
" proved, that all my Lord Cardinal's convocation
" should do, would be void, because their summons
" was to appear before my Lord of Canterbury ;
" which thing so espied, my Lord Cardinal hath
" addressed a new citation into every country, com-
" manding the priests to appear before him eight days
" after the ascension ; and then I think they shall have
" a third mass of the Holy Ghost. I pray God the

392 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" Holy Ghost be among them and us both. I de
" tremble to remember the end of all these high
" and new enterprizes ; for oftentimes it hath been
" seen, that to a new enterprize there followeth a new
" manner and strange sequel. God of his mercy send
" his grace unto such new fashions, that it may be for
*' the best.'
" Upon the death of Pope Adrian, in September
" this year, the Cardinal made fresh applications for
" the popedom, but met with a second rebuff.
" On this occasion his agents were Dr. Thomas
" Hannibal and John Clerk, the King's orators at
" Rome, who sent him an account of the reasons
" alleged against his election : that he would never go
" to Rome in person : that he was nimis potens, too
" powerful, and that he was not old enough, reasons
" which demonstrate nothing so much as they do the
" superiority of his competitor's interest in the conclave.
" The Cardinal was greatly mortified by this second
" disappointment, insomuch that imputing it to the
" remissness of Dean Pace, who was ambassador at
" Venice, he never forgave him, as we have already
" observed. " Clement VII. of the house of Medici, was elected
" by the concurrence of the imperial party. Our
" Cardinal thereupon perceiving the insincerity of the
" Emperor towards him, concluded that Prince would
" never second his pretensions to the papal chair.
" This was highly resented by him as an injury ; and he
" began from thence to estrange himself from the
" imperial court, and to pave the way for an union
" between his master and the French King. Mean-

THOMAS WOLSEY. 393
"while he dissembled his resentment; and after
" congratulating the new Pope upon his promotion, he
" applied' for a continuation of the legatine power,
" which the two former Popes had conferred upon him.
" Clement knowing the importance of gaining his
" friendship, granted him a commission for life,
" empowering him to visitalid reform religious houses ;
" so that by these; and other unusual accession of
" powers, he in a manner transferred to him the whole
" papal authority in England, and he was actually
" revered there as Pope. In 1525, he Undertook the
" care of conducting a loan for his Majesty's service,
" which gave great offence to the nation.
" In the execution of it he begun with theConvoca-
" tioiij in hopes their example would influence the
" parliamentto give a large supply. He demanded' a
"moiety of their ecclesiastical1 revenues, to be paid
" in five years, viz. two shillings in the pound for five
" years, and obtained it; though not without some diffi-
" culty.. Afterwards he went, attended 'byseveral of the
" nobility and prelates, to the house of commons, and in
" a long and elaborate speech laid before them the
" public necessity, the danger of an invasion fromScot-
" land; the affronts received from France*, the league in
" which the King was engaged with the Pope and the
"Emperor, and he demanded a grant of .£800,000,
" divided into four yearly payments; a sum computed
"from the late survey or valuation! to be equivalent
"to 4s. in the ponWd of one year's revenue, or Is. in
" the pound yearly according to the division proposed ;
" so large a> grant- was unusual' frbm the' commons,
" and > though the extraordinary demand was seconded
c c 1

394? THOMAS WOLSEY.
" by Sir Thomas More, the Speaker, and several other
" members attached to the court, the house could not be
" prevailed with to comply ; they voted only 2s. in the
" pound on all possessed of ,£20. per annum and
" upwards, and 1 s.- on all possessed of 40s. a year, and
" on all the rest of the subjects above 16 years of age
" a groat a head. This last sum was divided into two
" yearly payments, the former into four yearly pay-
" ments, and was not therefore, at the utmost, above
" 6d. in the pound. The grant of the commons was
" about the moiety of the sum demanded, and the
" Cardinal therefore, much mortified with the dis-
" appointment, came again to the house, and desired
" to reason with such as refused to comply with the
" King's request. He was told, that it was the rule of
" the house never to reason, but among themselves,
" and his desire was rejected. The commons, however,
" enlarged a little their former grant,, and voted an
" imposition of 3s. a pound on all possessed of £50.
" a year and upwards. We are told by Hall, that the
" Cardinal endeavoured to frighten the citizens of
" London into this loan, and told them plainly, that it
" were better that some should suffer indigence, than
" that the King at this time should lack ; and there-
" fore, says he, beware, and resist not, nor trifle not in
" this case, for it may fortune to cost some people their
" heads. And all agree that the King sent for Edward
" Montague, who had a considerable influence on the
" house, and said, Ho! man, will they not suffer my
" bill to pass? and laying his hand on Montague's
" head, who was then on his knees before him, Get my
" bill passed by to-morrow, or else to-morrow this head

THOMAS WOLSEY. 395
** jof yours will be off. In vindication of the Cardinal
*' it has been alleged, that whatever part he might
" have acted in the council, yet it was an act of council
"to which the judges too acceded, and therefore
" cannot be imputed to him solely. Nor, continues
" this writer, does his taking the management of it,
" pursuant to the directions of the counoil, make at all
" against him, but is rather an- instance of his courage
¦" and frankness, in that he did not meanly put others
¦"upon doing that which himself was ashamed of.
" But as this is no more than a colouring of the author's
" own inventipn, it may as justly be asserted as a strong
" presumption, that the council was governed by him
<" in giving their opinions, and were no more than his
" tools to give a seeming sanction to a manifest act of
" oppression. 'Tis a well-known maxim in oratory,
" not to make use of an argument which may be fairly
¦" turned against us. Well, but, may the adversaries to
" his memory say, where was his integrity to his
" country ? Where his mighty wisdom and foresight,
" if he could not perceive this to be, if not altogether
" an oppression, a wide step however towards it ? As
" to the first, we say, he is not to be blamed if he acted
" agreeably to his own and the judgment of others,
" who ought to have known the constitution. The
" answer to this is obvious, that such ignorance of the
" constitution in a first minister is itself a crime. As
" to the second proceeds our author, granting he was
" overbiassed by the repeated importunities of his
/" master, which we cannot but think was the case,
" notwithstanding the King's disclamation and pleading
"' ignorance afterwards, it is plain be used a great deal

396 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" of clemency in the exercise of his . commission, and
" no ways urged it to the detriment of the people,
" which certainly he had power enough to ihave done,
" had he had also the will. That the King was privy
" to the loan, notwithstanding he disclaimed it, is
" evident, especially from his answer to Anne Boleyn,
" on her bitter inveighing against the Cardinal on
" account of the loan. Well, well,, quoth the King,
"for that matter. there was no blame in him, for I
" know that matter better than you or any one else.
" But as to the Cardinal's clemency in -exercising this
" commission, the contrary is as evi^est, both from
" what Grafton tells us, that all accused the Cardinal
" and his adherents as the subverters of the laws and
" liberties of England,, and particularly from his
" behaviour with regard to • the people of Reading ;
"who, though they refused to pay what was demanded,
"yet, to shew their affection to the King, offered
" twenty pence in the pound, which being communi-
" eated to the Cardinal, was > rejected by him, and
" Lord Lyle, the commissioner, ordered to abide by
" his first commission, as were.the other-commissioners
"throughout England. _ Upon the whole, as there was
" no room for defending the Cardinal's administration
" in these times ; the best method was taken by his
'• more skilful apologist Dr. Fiddes, who silently
" dropping it, shifts the scene, and presents us with the
" more amiable representation of his character in
" another respect, as will be seen presently.
" The same year )the Cardinal sent Dr. Longland,
" Bishop of Lincoln, to Oxford, to acquaint that
" university with his resolution to found a college

THOMAS WOLSEY. 397
"tthere. In 1527, he,, went., ambassador to France,
" and obtained a commissiqn empowering the Master
" of the Rolls to /hear, causes in Chancery in his
" absence." As Jtliis commission was made the precedent ever
'* after, and still continues the: same, only varying the
" form as occasion requires, it may not be amiss to
" present the reader with it, as follows : —
"'The King tp his beloved> and faithful John
" Taylor, Clerk, Master and Keeper of the Rolls
'' of our Chancery, &c.
" ' Know ye, that whereas the most reverend Father
" in Christ, Thomas, by divine permission, Cardinal-
" Priest, &c. has been employed for the sake of the
" peace and, tranquillity of our, kingdom and subjects
" of England, and for the interest, profit, and utility
" of the, public, in which post he .constantly exists :
" and considering and piously compassionating the
" insupportable cares, labours, and fatigues, which he
" on that account undergoes < and suffers, and lest
" such singular fortitude of mind and body should be
" too much impaired, which God avert, through such
"fatigues, and he not able to attend in good health as
" usual to our most necessary affairs with his chiefest
" care : Being therefore willing, that justice should be
". administered, to all and every of our subjects, and
" fully confiding in your fidelity and circumspection,
" we have appointed you the aforesaid John Taylor,
.". &c. by virtue of these presents, granting unto you
"power and authority to hear all and every the causes,
" disputes, and complaints whatever of our subjects
" depending befpr,e us in our chancery, or already

398 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" moved or to be moved therein, and by the said Lord
" Chancellor committed to you, or any of you, (but
" not to less than four however) and that for the future
" shall be committed to you from time to time, to be
" heard, examined, and scrutinized with due regard
" according to the allegations and proofs, and your
" own sound discretion to discuss and finally deter-
" mine, and to command a full execution thereof.
" Therefore we command, that with regard to the
" premises you truly and diligently act and execute
" every thing with effect. By the tenor of these
" presents, We give it as a firm command to all and
" singular our officers, ministers, and subjects, whom
" it may concern, that in all and singular the premises
" they be intent and obedient in the execution thereof,
" as it becometh. In testimony whereof, &c_
" ' Witness, the King, at Westminster, this Eleventh
" day of June.'
" Some time ago a dispute arose, whether the Master
" of the Rolls had a judicial authority to hear causes
" and make orders in Chancery, in the absence of the
" Lord Chancellor, without a commission. The
" matter was introduced to the public in a book,
"printed in Trinity term, 1726, under the title of
" The history of the Chancery, wherein the author
" asserts, that his honour could not hear causes in
" court without a designation from the Chancellor,
" unless by commission. An answer to this was
" published, intituled A discourse of the judicial
" authority belonging to the office ofthe Master of the
" Rolls, wherein the author affirms, that the Master of
" the Rolls could hear causes, aud make orders in

((

THOMAS WOLSEY. 399
" chancery by virtue of his office, without any speciat
" commission ; and sets forth many cases in support
" of his argument. This produced another piece by
" way of reply, said to be written by one of the masters
of the court, intituled, The legal judicature in
" Chancery slated, and therein the author among other
" things endeavours to prove, that the Master of the
" Rolls was no judge either in law or equity, but that
"what judicial power he could lawfully exercise, was
"by being one ofthe twelve Masters in Chancery, or
" by Virtue of the King's commission. The contro-
" versy being drawn to this length, in order to prevent
" any inconvenience to the public, an act of parliament
" was passed 3 George, 9, 1 1 . intituled An Act to put
" an end to certain disputes touching orders and decrees
" made in the court of chancery ; iu which was recited,
" ' that whereas divers questions and disputes had
" arisen touching the authority of the Master of the
" Rolls in the high court of chancery ; for putting an
" end to all disputes concerning the same, it was
" enacted, that all orders and decrees made by the
" then present Master of the Rolls, or any of his
" predecessors, or any thereafter to be made by the
" said Master of the Kolls, or any of his successors,
" except such orders and decrees as should be made
" only by the Lord Chancellor, &c. should be deemed
" and taken to be valid orders by the said court, subject
" nevertheless to be discharged, revoked, or altered by
" the Lord Chancellor, &c. and that no such order or
" decree should be enrolled, till the same be first
" signed by the Lord Chancellor, &c.'

400 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" After his return home he was constituted the Pope's
" Vicar-General. The same year he ¦ founded his
" College at Ipswich.
" This, which is called a College, according to the
" custom of those times, was, in reality; no more than
" what we now call a grammar school, and' in that
" sense we find him giving particular- directions for
" Lilly's grammar, then lately published, to be made
" use of therein; to which purpose he wrote a Latin
" preface, a translation of which, and of the old title,
" runs thus : — r>.
" 'Rudiments of Grammar; and a method of teaching,
" not so much prescribed for the>use ofthe school of
" Ipswich, happily founded' by the Most Reverend
" Lord TliomaSj Cardinal of York, as for all the
" schools throughout England.
"' Thomas, Cardinal of York, to the Masters of
" Ipswich SchOol,'greeting.
" ' We imagine nobody can be ignorant of the care,
" study; and industry of mind, with which we have
" hitherto directed our labours, not for our own private
" interest, but that'of our country, and all our citizens,
" which we have vefry much at heart; and in which
" particular we shall deem ourselves to have been most
" amply gratified, if:by any divine blessing we shall
" improve the minds of the people. Wherefore being
" filled with the utmost zeal ¦to^te'omote learning' and
" piety in our native place, which she1 claims of us as a
" certain right, we 'have founded a Latin school, ho
" ways inelegant, as a, testimony of oUr chief- regard
" for them. But as it would be imperfect to erect' a

THOMAS WOLSEY. 401
"school) however magnificent, unless attended by
" learned masters, we have every way studied to give
" the government thereof to two chosen and approved
" teacherSj under whose tuition British youth may, by
" degrees', from their earliest years imbibe both morals
" and letters, well knowing that the hopes of the
" republick arise from their minds being then framed
" aright ; and that the same may more happily and
" speedily be brought to bear, we have taken all
" manner of care, that ye should have such books as
" are most necessary for the instruction of them. In
•" this our new school, whereof ye are masters, ye must
" teach the boys by turns and diligently exercise them
" in the rudiments and method of learning, that they
" may afterwards be advanced to the most elegant
" literature and the best of morals. To this purpose
" if ye labour with equal care to our satisfaction, ye
" shall not only deserve our great favours for your
" pains, but render it also happy for your successors,
" Fare ye well.'
" ' From our palace, A.D.
" 1528. Kal. Sept.'
" In 1528, he made a present of his palace, a$
" Hampton-Court, to his Majesty ; he began to build
" it soon after his promotion to the see of York, in
" 1514, and it was now just finished, and completely
'" furnished. The King gave him in return Richmond
" palace to reside in. Upon the death of Bishop Fox,
" this year, the Cardinal succeeded him in the bishoprick
"of Winchester; whereupon he resigned that of
" Durham, the profits and revenues of which were
" given to Anne Boleyn for one year, while it continued
D d 1

402 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" in abeyance. The Cardinal was joined this yeaf,
" 1528, with Cardinal Campejus to sit in judgment on
" the important cause of Queen Katharine's divorce,
" which after several hearings was at last evoked to
" Rome, in 1529. Our Minion had long foreseen this
" measure as the sure forerunner of his own ruin. He
" had always desired for Katharine's successor, in the
" partnership of the royal bed, a French Princess,
" rather than Anne Boley n, yet he had employed
" himself with the utmost earnestness to bring the
" divorce to a happy issue. He was not therefore to
" be blamed for the unprosperous event, which the
" Pope's partiality had produced. But he had sufli-
" eient experience of the extreme ardor and impatience
" of his master's temper,, which could bear no contra-
" diction, and who was wont, without examination or
" distinction, to make his ministers answer for the issue
" of those transactions with which they were entrusted.
" Anne Boleyn also, who was prepossessed against
" him, had imputed to him the failure of her hopes ;
" and as she was now returned to court, whence she
" had been removed from a regard to decency during
" the trial before the . Legates, she had naturally
" acquired an additional influence on the King's mind
" and she served much to fortify his prejudice against
" the Cardinal. Thus the Queen and her partizans,
"judging of him by the part which he had openly
" acted, had expressed the highest animosity against
" him ; and the most opposite factions seemed now to
" combine in the ruiu of the haughty minister.
" One of many good reasons why Erasmus thought
" the Cardinal deserved the character he has left him

THOMAS WOLSEY. 403

" in some of his epistles, we may presume very justly,
"says Dr. Knight, was his using this lady [Queen
" Katharine] so very barbarously : And indeed, proceeds
" this writer, her short though pithy speech to him,
" when the Cardinal urged her to submission to the
" King's pleasure, has more of this truth in it, than all
" the laboured character that has been lately given him
" [by Dr. Fiddes] and because it is omitted in his life,
" give me leave to insert it here. Her stout and
" prudent answer was in the following words : Of these
" my miseries I can accuse none but you my Lord of
" York, because I could not away with your monstrous
"pride, excessive riot, whoredom, and intolerable
"oppression; therefore do I now suffer; and because
41 my nephew, the Emperor, did not gratify your impla-
" cable ambition to advance you to the Papacy, you
" threatened to be revenged on him and his friends.
" And you have performed your promise. You have
4t been ihe plotter ofthe wars against him, and raised this
" doubt against me. To pass over the virulence with
" which this remark is embittered, it may be observed,
that one very good reason may be alleged for
" Fiddes's silence upon this speech, that Bishop
" Burnet, no friend to the Cardinal's memory, had
" given his opinion, that the King's scruples were
" much ancienter, and also acquitted the Cardinal
" absolutely of this reproach. It is allowed, that he
" declined giving his judgment of the divorce, when
" pressed to it by his Majesty, which considering the
" reason to apprehend Anne Boleyn's growing power,
" and the King's known caressing of her at this time,
" may well be supposed to be against the divorce, and

<<

404 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" so it was construed both by the King and also by his
" mistress, who made an effectual use of it to his ruin.
" Upon the whole, it will scarcely be denied that his
" fate was hard : he had the ill luck to incur the
" displeasure both of the wife and the mistress, without
" any ill intention to either, and both concurred in
" his ruin.
" The high opinion itself, which the King had
" entertained of his capacity, tended to hasten his
" downfall ; while his Majesty imputed the bad
" success of his minister's undertakings not to fortune
" or mistake, but the malignity or infidelity of his
" intentions. The blow, however, fell not instantly
" on his head. The King, who possibly could not
"justify by any good reason his alienation from his
" ancient favourite, seems to have remained some time
" in suspence, and received him, if not with all his
" former kindness, yet with the appearance of trust
" and regard. But it is found almost impossible for a
" high confidence and affection to receive the least
" diminution without sinking into absolute indifference,
" and even running into the opposite extreme of hatred
" and aversion. The King was now determined to
" bring on the ruin of the Cardinal with almost as
" much precipitation as he had formerly employed
" in his elevation. The Dukes of Norfolk and
" Suffolk were sent to require the great seal from him;
" and on his scrupling to deliver it without a more
" express warrant, the King sent him a letter ; upon
" which it was surrendered, and delivered by his
" Majesty to Sir Thomas More. Wolsey was ordered
" to depart from York Place ; a palace which he had

THOMAS WOLSEY. 405
"built in London, and which, though it really
" belonged to the See of York, was seized by his
" Majesty, and became afterwards the residence of
" the Kings of England, under the title of Whitehall.
" All his furniture and plate was converted to the
" King's use ; and indeed their riches and splendour
" befitted rather a royal than a private fortune. The
" walls of his palace were covered with cloth of gold
" or cloth of silver ; he had a cupboard of plate of
" massy gold, and there were found ten thousand
" pieces of fine holland belonging to him. All the
" rest of his riches and furniture were in proportion ;
" and his opulence was, probably.no small inducement
" to the violent prosecution against him. He was
" ordered to Esher, a country seat which he possessed
" near Hampton Court.
" This was a seat belonging to the See of Win-
" Chester. The Cardinal upon his first coming to the
" Bishopric had ordered it to be repaired, and some
" parts re-built, proposing to make this his retreat,
" when the King resided at Hampton-Court, and such
" expedition was made in finishing it, that it soon
" made a considerable figure. In short, what remains
" of this edifice is another monument of the Cardinal's
" excellent taste in architecture. It fell afterwards
" into lay hands ; however, the structure was preserved
" with great exactness, and was put into such order by
" the late possessor, the right honourable Henry
" Pelham, Esq. as to be accounted a bnilding well
" worth the sight and observance of the curious.
" The world, who had paid him such abject court
" during his prosperity, now deserted him in this fatal

406 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" reverse of all his fortunes : he himself was much
" dejected with the change, and from the same turn of
" mind which had prompted him to be so vainly
" elevated with his grandeur, he felt the blow of
" adversity with double rigour. The least appearance
" of his return to favour, threw him into transports of
" joy, unbecoming a man. The King had softened
" during some time the blows which at first overwhelm-
" ed him ; he granted him his protection, and left him
" in possession of the sees of York and Winchester ;
" and he even sent him a gracious message, accompanied
" with a ring, as a testimony of his affection. Wolsey,
" who was on horseback, when the messenger met him,
" immediately alighted, and throwing himself on his
" kness in the dirt, received in that humble posture these
" marks of his Majesty's gracious disposition towards
"him. But his enemies, who dreaded his return to
" court, never ceased plying the King with accounts of
" his several offences ; and Anne Boleyn in particular,
" who bore him no kindness, contributed her endeavous,
" in conjunction with her uncle the Duke of Norfolk,
" to exclude him from all hopes of being reinstated in
" his former authority : he dismissed, therefore, his
" numerous retinue ; and, as he was a kind and benefi-
" cent master, the separation passed not without a
" plentiful effusion of tears on both sides. The King's
" heart, notwithstanding some gleams of kindness,
" seemed totally hardened to his old favourite : he
" ordered him to be indicted in the Star-chamber,
" where sentence was passed upon him ; and not
" contented with. this severity, he abandoned him to all
" the rigour of the parliament, which now after a long

THOMAS WOLSEY. 407
"interval was again assembled. The House of Lords
" voted a long charge against him, consisting of forty-
" four articles, and accompanied it with an application
" to the King for his banishment, and his removal from
" all authority.
" As these are to be seeii in the general histories of
" England, it would be an abuse of the reader's
" patience to transcribe them here. Dr. Fiddes has
" given a comment upon several of them, wherein not
" only their groundlessness and futility, but even their
" absurdity, is sufficiently shewn. The truth is, the
" whole tenor of them demonstrates nothing so much
" as the absolute despotic sway of the King, and the
" obsequious servility of his parliament.
" Little opposition was made to this charge in the
" Upper House ; no evidence of any part of it was so
" much as called for, and as it consists chiefly of general
" accusations, it was scarcely susceptible of any.
" The articles being sent down to the House of
" Commons, Thomas Cromwell, formerly a servant to
" the Cardinal, and who had been raised by him from
" a very low station, defended his unfortunate patron
" with so much spirit, generosity, and courage, as
" acquired him great honour, and laid the foundation
" of that favour which he afterwards enjoyed with the
" King. Wolsey's enemies finding that either his
"innocence or his caution prevented them from
" having any just ground of accusing him, had recourse
" to a very extraordinary expedient. An indictment
" was lodged against him, that contrary to a statute of
" Richard II. commonly called the Statute of Provisors,
" he had procured bulles from Rome ; particularly

408 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" that of investing him with the legatine power, which
" he had exercised with very extensive authority. He
" confessed the indictment, pleaded ignorance of the
" statute, and threw himself on the King's mercy. He
" was perhaps within reach of the law ; but besides
" that the statute was fallen altogether into disuse,
" nothing could be more rigorous or severe, than to
" impute unto him as a crime what he had publicly,
" during a course of so many years, practised with the
" consent and approbation of the King, and the
" acquiescence of the parliament and kingdom ; not to
" mention what he always asserted, and what can
" scarce be doubted of, that he had obtained the royal
" licence in the most formal manner, which had he not
" been apprehensive of the dangers attending any
" opposition to Henry's lawless will, he might have
"pleaded in his own defence. The judges sentence,
" however, was pronounced against him, that he was
" out of the King's protection, his lands and goods
" forfeited, and that his person might be committed to
" custody. It was in pursuance of this sentence that
" he was ordered to quit York place, which, as is
" before observed, was seized by the King, together
" with all the magnificently rich furniture. But this
" prosecution, though not disagreeable to the King,
" was carried no further. The Cardinal resigned it,
" on the King's command, December the 18th. this
" year ; and soon afterwards falling dangerously ill, he
" was attended by Dr. Butts, the King's physician, by
" especial order of his Majesty, who even granted him,
" on the 12th. of February, a remarkably full and
" complete pardon for all offences, restored part of his

THOMAS WOLSEY. 409
" plate and furniture, as also the revenues of his
" Archbishoprick, and still continued from time to
" time to drop expressions of favour and compassion
" towards him.
" Soon after judgment was passed upon the
" pramunire, Judge Shelly was sent to Esher with
" this demand, at the same time producing a deed of
'" resignation, which he desired the Cardinal to sign.
" The demand greatly struck the Cardinal, who
" alleged, that as York House belonged to his See, it
" was not his to dispose of, and told him, he hoped
" the judges would not expose their reputation by
" putting his Majesty upon any illegal methods ; but
" if the King insisted upon it, let the sin lie at his
" door, and so signed the deed. York place, as is said
" above, was the Archbishop of York's house ; the
" Cardinal found it greatly out of repair, when it came
" into his possession with that See, on account of the
" Archbishop's residence at Rome. The King had
" not long got it into his hands, when he built a
" mansion at St. James's, and for the service of both
" the palaces inclosed that spot of ground which is
" now called the Park, and then built the gate that
" lately stood near the treasury, but was taken down a
" few years ago, to which he added a gallery for the
" royal family to sit in, to behold the justings and
" other military exercises in the tilt yard, so called
" from the tiltings therein practised. Soon after,
" Henry erected, contiguous to the aforesaid gate, a
" tennis court, cock-pit, and places to bowl in, the
" form of which only remains, the rest being converted
" into dwelling houses and offices for the privy couneil
Eel

*io THOMAS WOLSEY.
" and secretaries of state. The royal baaqTKJtfing-
" house was built by King James I. as a part of his
" intended palace. But York place, together with
" the long gallery added by Henry VIII. was burnt in
" 1694." Lord Coke, speaking of this pardon, expresses
" himself thus : The most learned and beneficial
" pardons which we have read, were that to William of
" Wickham, Bishop of Winchester, (for a good man
" will never refuse God and the King's pardon,
" because every one does often offend both of them,)
" and the other to Thomas Wolsey, which are learnedly
" and curiously penned. See the words. Articuli
" pardondtionis ReVerendissimi Palris Tho. Cardinalis,
" fyc. 21 Hen. 8. Feb. 12. Omnimoda, Proditiones,
" turn rtiajores quam minores, Prodittonum misprisiones,
" if alice misprisiones, Legum subversiones, <Sf earum
" illicita extensiones. Outlegarum quacunque Intru-
" siones fy Ingressus in Temporalia Archiepiscopatuum,
" Episcopatum Abbatiarum, Prioratuum, sive aliarum
" Domorum Religiosarum infra regnum Anglia." Pro-
" visiones Bullarum circa executionerm Officii Legationis
" de Latere contra formam statuti de Provisoribus.
" Concesso quod prcefalus Thomas Cardinalis omni
" pardonatione fy gratia gaudeat Populo Regni Anglics
" in aliquo Parliamento eoncessa. Donato Archiepis-
" coptttus Eboracensis cum pevtinentiis.
" But whoever looks into the history of those times,
" will find that the King was at this juncture pushed to
" extremity both against the Pope and against the
" ecclesiastical order. This was naturally very dis-
" agreeable to the Cardinal ; and as his Majesty foresaw

THOMAS WOLSEY. 411
" his ppppsitiojo tp both, this has been assigned as the
" jpost probable reason for his continuing to persecute
" his ancient favourite witfi so mu<ch rigour. After he
" had remained some time at Esher, he was allowed,
" in 1530, to remove to Richmond, a palace which he
" hfid received from the King as a present in return for
" Hampton-Court ; but tee courtiers dreading still
" his near neighbourhood, prayed an order for him to
" remove to his palace at York. The Cardinal knew
" it was in vain to resist. He went first to the seat of
"th»t Archbishopric at Southwell, from whence, in
" the latter end of the summer, he passed to Sctooby,
4i and arriving on the 27th. of September at Cawood
•" Castle,, he fixed his residence at that mansion, where
" he rendered himself extremely popular to the neigh-
" bourhood by his affability and hospitality., but he
" was not suffered to continue long unmolested in this
" retreat- The Earl of Northumberland received
" orders, without regard to his «K_cl£siasjical character,
" to arrest him for high treason, and to conduct him to
" London, in order for his trial. The arrest was
" ^executed upon him in the latter end of October ; in
" pursuance whereof he was taken into the custody of
" Sir Peter Welsh,, with whom he set out on the first
" of November for London ; but on the road, partly
"from the fa^gne pf the journpy, partly from the
" agitation of his anxious mind, he was seized with a
"disorder wliich turned to a dysentery, and was not
"able without spaje difficulty to reach Leicester
"Abbey. When .the Abbot and M«uks advanced to
" receive him with much respect and ceremony, he
" told Shem* that ne was come to lay his bowess 3i»ong

412 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" them ; and he immediately took to his bed, whence' he
" never rose more. A little before he expired, he
" addressed himself in the following words to Sir
" William Kingston, Constable of the Tower, who had
" him in custody : " I pray you, have me heartily
" recommended unto his Majesty, and beseech him in
" my behalf to call to remembrance all matters that
" have passed between us from the beginning, especially
" with regard to his business with the Queen, and then
" he will know in his conscience, whether I have
" offended him. He is a Prince of a most royal
" courage, and hath a princely heart, and rather than
" he will miss or want any part of his will, he will
" endanger the one half of his kingdom : I do assure
" you, that I have often kneeled before him, sometimes
" for three hours together, to persuade him from his
" will and appetite, but could not prevail. Had I but
" served God as diligently as I have served the King,
" He would not have given me over in my grey hairs ;
" but this is the just reward that I must receive for my
" indulgent pains and study, not regarding my service
" to my God, but only to my Prince. Therefore let
" me advise you, if you be one of the Privy Council,
" as by your wisdom you are fit, take care what you
" put into the King's head, for you can never put it out
" again." Thus died this famous Cardinal, whose
" character seems to have contained as singular varieties
" as the fortune to which he was exposed. The obsti-
" nacy and violence of the King's temper may alleviate
" much of the blame which some of his favourite
"ministers have undergone; and when we consider,
" that the subsequent part of his reign was much more

THOMAS WOLSEY. 413
*' unfortunate and criminal than that which was directed
'* by Wolsey's counsels, we shall be inclined to suspect
" of partiality those historians who endeavoured to load
" his memory with such violent reproaches. If in his
" train of politicks he sometimes employed his influence
" over the King for his private purposes, rather than
. " his inaster's interest, which he boasted he had really
" at heart, we must remember, that he had in view the
" papal throne, which, had he attained to, it would
" have enabled him to make his master a suitable return
" for his greatest favours. The Cardinal d'Amboise,
" whose memory is precious in France, always made
" this apology for his own conduct, which was iu some
" respect similar to Wolsey's. And we have reason
" to think the King was well acquainted with the
" motives by which his minister was influenced : He
" regretted very much his death, when informed of it,
" and always spoke favourably of his memory ; a proof
" that humour more than reason, or any discovery of
" treachery, had occasioned his last persecution
" against him.''
Mr. Chalmers has thus sketched the life of Wolsey : —
" Thomas Wolsey, a celebrated Cardinal and
" Statesman, but to be remembered with more respect
" as a benefactor to learning, was so obscure iu his
" origin that scarcely any historian mentions the names
" of his father and mother. Their names, however,
" are preserved by Rymer (Feed. vol. xiv. p. 355), in
" the Pope's bulle of favours to those who came to
"Cardinal-College, in Oxford, and prayed for the
•/' safety of the said. Cardinal, and after his decease for
" the souls of him, his father Robert, and his mother,

414 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" Joan. This partly confirms the discovery of his
" zealous biographer, Dr. Fiddes, that he was the son
" of one Rohert Wolsey, a butcher, of Ipswich, where
" he was born in March, 1471. Fiddes says, that
" this Robert had a son, whose early history corres-
" ponds with that of the Cardinal, and that he was a
" man of considerable landed property. We may,
" from other evidence, conclude that his parents were
" either not poor, or not friendless, since they were
" able to give him, the best education bis native town
¦" afforded, and afterwards to send him to Magdalen
" College. But in whatever way he was introduced
" here, it is certain, that his progress in academical
" studies was so rapid, that he was admitted to the
" degree of bachelor of arts at the age of fifteen, and
*' from this extraordinary instance of precocity, was
" usually named the boy-bachelor.
" No proofs are indeed wanting of his uncommon
" reputation as a scholar, for he was elected fellow of
" ,his College soon after taking his bachelor's degree,
" and proceeding to that of Master, he was appointed
" teacher of Magdalen grammar school. In 1498, he
" was made bursar of the College, about which time
" he had the credit of building Magdalen tower. It is
" yet more proof of his learning having been of the
" most liberal kind, and accompanied with a corres"
" ponding liberality 'of sentiment, that he became
" acquainted with Erasmus, then at Oxford, and
" joined that illustrious scholar in promoting classical
" studies, which were peculiarly obnoxious to the
" bigotry of the times. The letters which passed
" between Wolsey and Erasmus, for some years, imply

THOMAS WOLSEY. 415
* mutual respect and union of sentiment on all matters
" in which literature was concerned ; and their love of
" learning and contempt of the monks, although this
" last was excited by different motives, are points in
" which we perceive no great disagreement. Yet, as
" Erasmus continued to live the life of a mere
" scholar, precarious and dependant, and Wolsey was
" rapidly advancing to rank and honours, too many and
" too high for a subject, a distance was placed between
" them, which Wolsey would not shorten, and Erasmus
" could not pass. Hence, while a courteous familiarity
" was preserved in Wolsey's correspondence, Erasmus
" could not help betraying the feelings of a client who
" has received little more than promises from his
" patron ; and when Wolsey fell from his high state,
" Erasmus joined in the opinion that he was unworthy
" of it. For this he is severely censured by Fiddes,
" and ably defended by Knight and Jortin.
" Wolsey's first ecclesiastical preferment was the
" rectory of Limington, in Somersetshire, near Ilchester,
" Conferred upon him in 1500, by the Marquis of
" Dorset, to whose three sons be had acted as tutor,
" when in Magdalen College. On receiving this
" presentation he left the university, and resided for
" some time on his cure, when a singular circumstance
" induced, or, perhaps, rendered it absolutely necessary
" for him to leave it. At a merry meeting, at
" Limington, he either passed the bounds of sobriety,
" or was otherwise accessary in promoting a riot, for
" which Sir Amyas Paulet, a justice of peace, set him
" in the stocks. This indignity Wolsey remembered
" when it would have been honourable, as well as

416 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" prudent; to have forgot it. After he had arrived at
" the high rank of Chancellor, he ordered Sir Amyas
" to be confined within the bounds of the Temple, and
" kept him in that place for five or six years.
" On his quitting Limington, though without resign-
" ing the living, Henry Dean, Archbishop of Canterbury,
" made him one of his domestic chaplains, and in 1503,
" the Pope Alexander gave him a dispensation to hold
" two benefices. On the death of the Archbishop, in
" the same year, he was appointed chaplain to Sir
- " John Nanfan, of Worcestershire, treasurer of Calais,
" which was then in the possession of the English, and
" by him recommended to Henry VII. who made him
" one of his chaplains. About the end of 1 504, he
" obtained from Pope Julius II. a dispensation to hold
" a third living, the rectory of Redgrave, in Norfolk.
" In the mean time he was improving his interest at
" court, by an affable and plausible address, and by a
" display of political talent, and quick and judicious
" dispatch in business, which rendered him very useful
" and acceptable to his Sovereign. In Feb. 1508,
" the King gave him the Deanery of Lincoln, and two
" Prebends in the same Church, and would, probably,
'' have added to these preferments, had he not been
" prevented by his death in the following year.
" This event, important as it was to the kingdom,
" was of no disadvantage to Wolsey, who saw in the
" young King, Henry VIII. a disposition that might
" be rendered more favourable to his lofty views ; yet
" what his talents might have afterwards procured, he
" owed at this time to a court intrigue. Fox, Bishop
" of Winchester and founder of Corpus Christi College,

THOMAS WOLSEY. 417
" introduced him to Henry, ip prder to counteraPt the
*f influence of the Earl pf Surrey, (afterwards P"M of
". Norfolk,) and had probably no worse intentww than
'' to preserve a balance jn the. council ; but Wplsey,
" whp was not destined to play a subordinate part, soon
" rose h'glter in influence than either his patron or his
" opponent. He studied, with perfect knowledge of
" human heart, to please the young King, by joining in
" indigencies which, hovyeyer suitable to the gaiety of
" a court, were ill becoming the character of an
" ecclesiastic. Vet, amidst jthe luxuries which he
" prompted in his royal master, he did not fleg|e/=t to
" inculcate maxims of state, and., abpye all, to insj^nate,
" ifi a manner that appeared /equally dutjful and
*-' disinterested, the advantages pf a system of favour-
'' tism. which he sincerely lioppd would pne day centre
" ip his ow» person, Nor was he disappointed ; 3s for
" some time after this, his history, apart ftorn what
" jshare he had in the public fioupcijs, js Ij^tle more
14 than a list of promotions, following each other with
if a rapidity that alarmed the courtiers, and ificliped the
" people, always jealous of sudden elevations, to 'ook
" back at his origin.
" In this rise he was successively made Almpner to
" tee King, a Privy Counsellor, and Reporter pf the
" pncMseediflgs of tjh_e star-chamber; R«5t©r.o/Ti*rring-
" ton, in the diocese Qf Exciter, Canon pf Windsor,
" Registrar of the order of the Garter, and Prebendary
" and Dean of York. From these he passed on to
" become Dean of Hereford, and Precentor of St.
" Paul's, both of which he resigned on being preferred
" to the Bishopric of Lincoln ; Chancellor pf the
f f I

4IS THOMAS WOLSEY.
" order of the Garter, and Bishop of Tournay in
" Flanders, which he held until 1518, when that city
" was delivered up to the French, but he derived from
" it afterwards an annual pension of 12,000 livres.*
"In 1514, he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln, in
" the room of Smyth, founder of Brazen-nose College,
" and was chosen Chancellor of the University of
" Cambridge. The same year he was promoted to the
' " Archbishopric of York, and created Cardinal of St.
" Cecilia. " Yet in the plenitude of that political influence
"which he now maintained to the exclusion of the
" ancient nobility and courtiers, it appears that for
" some time he preserved the peace of the country, by
" a strict administration of justice, and by a punctuality
" in matters of finance, which admitted no very un-
" favourable comparisons between him and his prede-
" cessors. Perhaps the splendor and festivities which
" he encouraged in the court might, by a diffusion of
" the royal wealth among the public, contribute to a
" certain degree of popularity, especially when con-
" trasted with the more economical habits encouraged
" by Henry VII. It was not until he established his
" legatine court, a species of English Popedom, that
" the people had reason to complain of a vast and rdpa-
" cious power, unknown to the constitution, boundless
" in its capricious decrees, and against which there
" was no redress. This court, however, could not

* Dr. Fiddes allows that this piece of preferment partook of usurpa
tion, as the former Bishop of Touruay had been neither legally nor
ecclesiastically deprived.

THOMAS WOLSEY. 419
" have inflicted many public injuries, as it formed no
"part of the complaints of Parliament against him,
" when complaints might have been preferred with
" safety, and would have been welcomed from any
" quarter. At that time the legality of the power was
" called in question, but not the exercise of it.
" In the private conduct of this extraordinary man,
" while in the height of his prosperity, we find a
" singular mixture of personal pride and public
" munificence. While his train of servants rivalled
" that of the* King, and was composed of many persons
" of rank and distinction, his house was a school where
" their sons were usefully educated and initiated in
" public life. And while he was dazzling the eyes, or
" insulting the feelings of the people, by an ostentation
" of gorgeous furniture and equipage, such as exceeded
" the royal establishment itself, he was a general arid
*¦' liberal patron of literature, a man of consummate
•' taste in works of art, elegant in his plans, and bound-
" less in his expences to execute them ; and, in the
" midst of luxurious pleasures and pompous reyellings,
" he was meditating the advancement of science by a
*' munificent use of those riches which he seemed to
" accumulate only for selfish purposes.
" In the mean time, there was no intermission in his
" preferments. His influence was courted by the
" Pope, who had made him a Cardinal; and, in 1516,
" his Legate in England, with powers not inferior to his
" own ; and by the King of Spain, who granted him a
" pension of 3000 livres, while the duchy of Milan
41 bestowed on him a yearly grant of 10,000 ducats.
" On the resignation of Archbishop Warham, he was

420 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" appointed Lofd High Chancellor. " If this hew
" accumulation of dignity," says Home, " incfeased
" his enemie§, it also served to exalt his personal
" character, and prove the extent of his capacity. A
" strict administration of justice took place during his
" enjoyment of this high office ; and no Chancellor
" ever discovered greater impartiality in his decisions,
" deeper penetration of judgment, or more enlarged
" knowledge of law or equity.
" In 1518, he attended Queen Catharine to Oxford,
" and intimated to the University his intention of
" founding lectures on theology, civil law, physic,
" philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, Greek and Latin ;
" and in the following year, three of these, viz. for
" Greek, Latin, and rhetoric, were founded and
" endowed with ample salaries; and read in the hall of
" Corpus Christi College. He appointed for his
" Lectures the ablest scholars whom the University
" afforded, or whom he could invite from the continent.
" The members of the Convocation, about this time,
" conferred upon him the highest mark of their esteem,
" by a solemn decree, that he should have the revisal
" and correction of the university statutes in the most
" extensive sense ; and it does not appear that they had
" any reason to repent of this extraordinary instance
" of their confidence. The same power was conferred
" upon him by the University of Cambridge, and in
" both cases was accompanied by documents wliich
" proved the very high opinion entertained by these
" learned bodies of his fitness to reform what Was
"-amiss in the republic of letters.

THOMAS WOLSEY. 421
" In the same year, the Pope granted him the
" administration ofthe Bishopuic of Bath and Wells,
" and the King bestowed on him its temporalties.
" This See, with those of Worcester and Hereford,
" which the Cardinal likewise farmed, were filled by
" foreigners who were allowed non-residence, and
" compounded for this indulgence by yielding a share
" of the revenues. The Cardinal's aid, about this
" time, in establishing the College of Physicians of
" London, is to be recorded among the many instances
" of the very liberal views which he entertained of every
"improvement connected with literature. fn 1521,
" he evinced his zeal against the reformation, which
" Luther had begun, by procuring his doctrines to be
" condemned in an assembly of divines held at his
" own house, published Pope Leo's bulle against him,
" and endeavoured to suppress his writings in this
" kingdom ; but there is no favourable part of his
" character so fully established as his moderation
" towards the English Lutherans; for one article of
" his impeachment was his being remiss in punishing
" heretics, and shewing a disposition rather to screen
" them. " In the same year, he received the rich Abbey of
"St Alban 's, to hold in commendam, and soon after
" went abroad on an embassy. About this time also,
" he became a candidate for the papal chair on the
" demise of Leo X. but was not successful. This
"disappointment, however, was compensated in
*.' some degree by the Emperor, who settled a pension
" on him of nine thousand crowns of gold, aud by the
" Bishopric of Durham, to which he was appointed in

422 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" 1523. On this he resigned the administration of
" Bath and Wells. The same year he issued a nian-
" date to remove the convocation of the province of
" Canterbury from St. Paul's to Westminster, one of
" his most unpopular acts, but which appears to have
" been speedily reversed. On the death of Pope
" Adrian, he made a second unsuccessful atttempt to
" be elected Pope ; but while he failed in this, he
" received from his rival, a confirmation of the whole
" papal authority in England.
"In 1524, he intimated to the University of Oxford
" his design of founding a College there, and soon
" commenced that great work. About two years after
" he founded his School,* or College, as it has been
" sometimes called, at Ipswich, as a nursery for his
" intended College at Oxford, and this for a short
" time is said to have rivalled the Schools at Winchester
" and Eton. As he mixed ecclesiastical dignity with
" all his learned institutions, he appointed here a dean,
" twelve canons, and a numerous choir. At the same
" time he sent a circular address to the School-masters
" of England, recommending them to teach their youth
" the elements of elegant literature, literatura elegan-
" tissirna, and prescribed the use of Lilly's grammar.
" Ofthe immense riches which he derived from his
" various preferments, some were po doubt spent in
"luxuries, which left only a sorrowful remembrance,

* On the site ofthe priory of St. Peter's, which was surrendered to the
Cardinal, March (>, 1527. Dr. William Capon was first and last Dean,
for this school was discontinued on the Cardinal's fall. The foundation
gtone is now preserved in Christ Church.

«

THOMAS WOLSEY. 423
" but the greater part was employed in those magnifi-
" cent edifices which have immortalized his genius and
spirit. In 1514, he began to build the Palace at
" Hampton-court, and having finished it with all its
" sumptuous furniture, in 1528, he presented it to the
" King, who, in return, gave him the palace of
" Richmond for a residence. In the last mentioned year,
" he acceded to the bishopric of Winchester, by the
" death of Fox, and resigned that of Durham. To
" Winchester, however, he never went. That reverse
" of fortune which has exhibited him as an example of
" terror to the ambitious, was now approaching, and
" was accelerated by events, the consequences of which
" he foresaw, without the power of averting them.
" Henry was now agitated by a passion not to be
" controuled by the whispers of friendship, or the
" counsels of statesmen, and when the Cardinal, whom
" he had appointed to forward his divorce from Queen
" Catherine and his marriage with Anne Boleyn,
" appeared tardily to adhere to forms, or scrupulously
" to interpose advice, he determined to make him feel
" the weight of his resentment. It happened, unfortu-
" nately for the Cardinal, that both the Queen and her
" rival were his enemies, the Queen from a suspicion
" that she never had a cordial friend in him, and Anne
" from a knowledge that he had secretly endeavoured
" to prevent her match with the King. But a minute
" detail of these transactions and intrigues belongs to
" history, in which they occupy a large space. It may
" suffice here to notice that the Cardinal's ruin, when
" once determined, was effected in the most sudden and
" rigorous manner, and probably without his previous

424 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" knowledge of the violent measures that were to be
"¦ taken. " On the first day of term, October 9, 1 529, while
" he was opening the court at Westminster, the Attorney-
" general indicted him in the court of King's bench
" on the statute of provisors, 16 Richard II. for
" procuring a bulle from Rome appointing him Legate,
" contrary to the statute, by which he had incurred a
" Praemunire, and forfeited all his goods to the King,
" and might be imprisoned. Before he could give in
" any reply to this indictment, the King sent to demand
" the Great Seal from him, which was given to Sir
" Thomas More. He was then ordered to leave York-
" place, a Palace which had for some centuries been
" the residence of the Archbishops of York, aud which
" he had adorned with furniture of great value and
" magnificence : it now became a royal residence under
" the name of Whitehall. Before leaving this place to
" go to Esher, near Hampton-Court, a seat belonging
" to the Bishopric of Winchester, he made an inventory
" ofthe furniture, plate, &c. of York-place, which is
" said to have amounted to the incredible sum of five
" hundred thousand crowns, or pounds of our money.
"He then went to Putney by water, and set out on the
" rest of his journey on his mule, but he had not gone
" far before he was met by a messenger from the King,
" with a gracious message, assuring him that Jie stood
" as high as ever in the royal favour, and this accom-
" panied by a ring which the King had been accustomed
" to send, as a token to give credit to the bearer.
" Wolsey received these testimonials with the humblest
*' expression of gratitude, but proceeded on his way to

THOMAS WOLSEY. 425
" Esher, which he found quite unfurnished. The
" King's design, by this solemn mockery, is not easily
" conjectured. It is most probable, that it was a trick
" to inspire the Cardinal with hopes of being restored
" to favour ; and, consequently, to prevent his defending
" himself in the prosecution upon the statute of
" provisors, which Henry knew he could do by
" producing his letters patent, authorizing him to
" accept the Pope's bulles. And this certainly was
" the consequence, for the Cardinal merely instructed
" his attorney to protest, in his name, that he was quite
" ignorant of the above statute ; but that he acknow-
" ledged other particulars with which he was charged,
" to be true, and submitted himself to the King's
" mercy. The sentence of the court was, that " he
" was out of the protection, and his lands, goods, and
" chattels forfeit, and his person might be seized."
" The next step to complete his ruin was taken by
" the Duke of Norfolk and the privy counsellors, who
" drew up articles against him, and presented them to
"the King; but he still affecting to take no personal
" concern in the matter, remained silent. Yet these
" probably formed the basis of the forty-four articles,
" presented December 1, to the House of Lords, as
" by some asserted, or, according to other accounts, by
" the Lords of the council to the House of Commons.
" Many of them are evidently frivolous or false, and
" others, although true, were not within the jurisdiction
"ofthe House. The Cardinal had, in fact, already
" suffered, as his goods had been seized by, the King,
" he was now in a praemunire, and the House could
" not go much farther than to recommend what had
G g 1

«6 THOMAS WOLSEY.
** already taken place. The Cardinal, however, found
" one friend amidst all his distresses, who was not to be
" alarmed either at the terrors of the court or of the
" people. This was Thomas Cromwell, formerly
" Wolsey's steward (afterwards Earl of Essex), who
" now refuted the articles with so much spirit,
" eloquence, and argument, that although a very
" opposite effect might have been expected, his speech
" is supposed to have laid the foundation of that favor
" which the King afterwards extended to him, but
" which, at no very distant period, proved as fatal to
" him as it had been to his master. His eloquence
" had yet a more powerful effect, for the address,
" founded on these articles, was rejected by the
" Commons, and the Lords could not proceed without
" their concurrence.
" During the Cardinal's residence at Esher, the
" King sent several messages to him, " some good and
" some bad," says Cavendish, " but more ill than
" good," until this tantalizing correspondence, operat-
" ing on a mind of strong passions, brought on, about
" the end of the year, a sickness which was represented
" to the King as being apparently fatal. The King
*' ordered his physician, Dr. Butts, to visit him, who
" confirmed what had been reported of the dangerous
" state of his health, but intimated that, as his disease
" affected his mind, rather than his body, a kind word
" from his Majesty might prove more effectual than
" the best skill of the faculty. On this the King sent
" him a ring, with a gracious message, that he was not
" offended with him in his heart ; and Anne Boleyn
" sent him a tablet of gold that usually hung at her

THOMAS WOLSEY. 427
" side, with many kind expressions. The Cardinal
"received these testimonies of returning favour with
" joy aud gratitude, and in a few days was pronounced
" out of danger,
" Nor can we blame Wolsey for his credulity, since
" Henry, although he had stripped the Cardinal of all
" his property, and tlie income arising from all his
" preferments, actually granted him, February 12,
" 1530, a free pardon for all crimes and misdemeanors,
" and a few days after restored to him the revenues, &c.
" of the Archbishopric of York, except York place
41 before mentioned, and one thousand marks yearly
" from the Bishopric of Winchester. He also sent
" him a present of ,£3000. in money, and a quantity of
" plate and furniture exceeding that sum, and allowed
" him to remove from Esher to Richmond, where he
" resided for some time in the Lodge in the old park,
" and afterwards in the Priory. His enemies at court,
" however, who appear to have influenced the King
" beyond his usual arbitrary disposition, dreaded
" Wolsey's being so near his Majesty, and prevailed on
" him to order him to reside in his archbishopric. In
" obedience to this mandate, which was softened by
" another gracious message from Henry, he first went
" to the Archbishop's seat at Southwell ; and about
" the end of September, fixed his residence at Cawood
" Castle, which he began to repair, and was acquiring
" popularity by his hospitable manners and bounty,
" when his capricious master was persuaded to arrest
" him for high treason, and order him to be conducted
" to London. Accordingly, on the 1st. of November,
" he set out, but on the road he was seized with a

428 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" disorder of the dysenteric kind, brought on by
" fatigue and anxiety, which put a period to his life at
" Leicester Abbey, on the 28th. of that month, in the
" fifty-ninth year of his age.* Some of his last words
" implied the awful and just reflection, ¦ that if he
" had served his God as diligently as he had served his
" King, he would not have given him over to his
" enemies.' Two days after, he was interred in the
" Abbey Church of Leicester, but the spot is not riow
" known. As to the report of his having poisoned
" himself, founded on an expression in the printed
" work of Cavendish, it has been amply refuted by a
" late eminent antiquary, who examined the whole of
" the evidence with much acuteness.f
" Modern historians have formed a more favourable
" estimate of Wolsey's character than their predecessors,
" yet it had the mixture of good and evil, which admits
' of great variety of opinion, and gives to ingenious
" party-colouring, all the appearance of truth. Perhaps
" Shakspeare, borrowing from Holinshed and Hall,
" has drawn a more just and comprehensive sketch of
" his perfections and failings, than is to be found in
"any other writer.
 :  r-" This Cardinal,
Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly

* The Cardinal had a bastard son, called Thomas Winter. " Bulla
Julii Pont. Rom. dilecto filio Thomas Wulcy Rectori paroch. Eccl'ia
de Lyfiiyngton Batho. Well. dioc. Magistral!! in Artibus pro Dis-
pensatione ad tcrtium incompatibile. dat. Roime. 1508. prid. cal. Augusti
Pont, n'ri anno (juiuto."— Keimet's MSS. in Brit. Mus. obligingly com
municated by Mr. Ellis.
t The learned Dr. Samuel Pegge. See Gent. Mag. vol. xxv. p. 25, and
two very able articles on the Cardinal's impeachment, p, 299, 345.

THOMAS WOLSEY. 4<29
Was fashion'd to much honour. From his cradle,
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one ;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading;
Lofty and sour to tbem that lov'd him not ;
" But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer.
And though he was unsatisfy'd in getting,
(Which was a sin) yet, in bestowing, 
He was most princely : Ever witness for him
Those twins of learning that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford ! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising, ,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him ;
For then, and not 'till then, he felt himself,
And fouud the blessedness of being little."*
" The Cardinal's biographers, in treating of the
" foundation of his College, begin with a very laboured
" defence of his seizing the property and revenues of
" many priories and nunneries, which were to serve, as
" a fund for building and endowments ; and the zeal
" they display on this subject, if it cannot now enforce
" .conviction, at least proves the historical fact that the
" rights of property even at that time were not to be
" violated with impunity, and that the Cardinal's
" conduct was highly unpopular. At first it was
" objected to even by the King himself, although he
" soon afterwards converted it into a precedent for a
" more general dissolution of religious houses. Wolsey,
" however, ought not to be deprived of such defence
" as has been set up. It has been urged, that he
" procured bulles from the Pope empowering him to

* The speech of the " honest chronicler, Griffith, " to Queen Catherine,
Henry Fill. Act. IV, Scene If.

430 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" seize on these priories; and that the Pope, according
" to the notions then entertained of his supremacy,
" could grant a power by which religious houses might
" be converted into societies for secular priests, and for
" the advancement of learning. It has been also
" pleaded, that the Cardinal did not alienate the
" revenues from religious service, but only made a
" change in the application of them; that the appropri-
" ation of the alien priories by Chichele and Waynflete
" was in some respects a precedent, and that the
" suppression ofthe Tempters in the fourteenth century,
" might also be quoted. Bishop Tanner likewise, in
" one of his letters to Dr. Charlett, quotes as pre-
" cedents, Bishops Fisher, Aleock, and Beckington.
" But perhaps the best excuse is that hinted by Lord
" Cherbury, namely, that Wolsey persuaded the King
" to abolish Unnecessary monasteries, that necessary
" colleges might be erected, and the progress of the
" reformation impeded by the learning of the clergy
" and scholars educated iu them. The same writer
" suggests, that as Wolsey pleaded for the dissolution
" of only the small and superfluous houses, the King
" might not dislike this as a fair experiment how far
" the project of a general dissolution would be relished.
" On the other hand, by two letters still extant, written
" by the King, it appears that he was fully aware of
" the unpopularity of the measure, although we cannot
" infer from them that he had any remedy to prescribe.
" Whatever weight these apologies had with one
" part of the public, we are assured that they had very
" little with another, and ^iat the progress of the
" College was accompanied by frequent expressions of

«

THOMAS WOLSEY. 431
" popular dislike in the shape of lampoons. The
" kitchen having been first finished, one of the satirists
" of the day, exclaimed, ' Egregium opus ! Cardinalis
" iste instituit Collegium et absolvit popinam.' Other
" mock inscriptions were placed on the walls, one of
which, at least, proved prophetic :
" ' Non *stabit ilia domus, aliis fundata rapinis
" ' Aut ruet, aut alter raptor habebit earn."
" By two bulles, the one dated 1524, the other
" 1525, Wolsey obtained of Pope Clement VII. leave
" to enrich his College, by suppressing 22 priories
" and nunneries, the revenues of which were estimated
" at nearly <£2000.; but on his disgrace, some bf these
were given by the King for other purposes. The
King's patent enables him to build his College prin
cipally on the site of the Priory of St. Frideswide ;
" and the name, originally intended to be ' The College
" of Secular Priests,' was now changed to ' Cardinal
" Collf.ge.' The Secular Clergy in it, were to be
" denominated the ' Deau and Canons Secular of the
" Cardinal of York,' and to be incorporated into one
" body, and subsist by perpetual succession. He was
" also authorized to settle upon it ,£2000. a-year clear
" revenue. By other patents and grants to the Dean
" and Canons, various church livings were bestowed
" upon them, and the College was to be dedicated to
" the praise, glory, and honour of the Holy Trinity,
" the Virgin Mary, St. Frideswide, and All Saints;
" With respect to the constitution of this College,
" there is a considerable variation between the account
• Unfortunately for the line, the penult of stabit is long*— Edit.

<_

a

432 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" given by the historian of Oxford, and that by Leonard
" Hutton, Dean of Christ-Church, in 1599, and many
" years Sub-Dean. His manuscript, now in the
" possession of the College, and quoted in the
" Monasticon, states that, according to Wolsey's
" design, it was to be a perpetual foundation for the
" study of the sciences, divinity, canon and civil law;
" also the arts, physic, and polite literature ; and for
" the continual performance of divine service. The
" members were to be, a Dean and sixty regular
" Canons ; but no Canons of the second order, as
" Wood asserts.
" Of these, Wolsey himself, named the Dean and
" eighteen of the Canons. The Dean was Dr. John
" Hygden, president of Magdalen College, and the
" Canons first nominated, were ali taken from the other
" Colleges in Oxford; and were men of acknowledged
" reputation in their day. He afterwards added others,
" deliberately, and according as he was able to supply
" the vacancies by men of talent, whom he determined
" to seek wherever they could be found. Among his
" latter appointments from Cambridge, we find the
" names of Tyndal and Frith, the translators of the
" bible, and who had certainly discovered some
" symptoms of heresy before this time. Cranmer and
" Parker, afterwards the first and second Protestant
" Archbishops of Canterbury, were also invited, but
" declined ; and the Cardinal went on to complete his
" number, reserving all nominations to himself during
" his life, but intending to bequeath that power to the
" Dean and Canons at his death. In this, however, he
" was as much disappointed, as in his hopes to embody

THOMAS WOLSEY. 433
" a force of learned men sufficient to cope with Luther
" and the foreign reformers, whose advantage in argu-
" ment he conceived to proceed from the ignorance
" which prevailed among the monastic clergy.
" The society, as he planned it, was to consist of
" one hundred and sixty persons, according to Wood,
" or omitting the forty Canons of the second order, in
" the enumeration of whom Wood was mistaken, one
" hundred and forty-six ; but no mention could yet be
" made of the scholars who were to proceed from his
" school at Ipswich, although, had he lived, these
" would doubtless have formed a part of the society, as
" the school was established two years before his fall.
" This constitution continued from 1525 to 1529-30,
" when he was deprived of his power and property, and
" for two years after it appears to have been interrupted,
" if not dissolved. It is to his honour, that in his last
" correspondence with Secretary Cromwell and with
" the King, when all worldly prospects were about to
" close upon him, he pleaded with great earnestness,
" and for nothing so earnestly, as that his Majesty
" would be pleased to suffer his College, at Oxford, to
" go on. What effect this had, we know not, but the
" earnest entreaties of the members of the society, and
" of the university at large, vvere at length successful ;
" while, at the same time, the King determined to
" deprive Wolsey of all merit in the establishment,
" and transfer the whole to himself. The subsequent
" history of Christ-Church, it would be unnecessary to
" detail in this place.
" An impartial life of Cardinal Wolsey is, perhaps,
H h 1

434 THOMAS WOLSEY.
" still a desideratum in English biography.* Cavendish
" is minute and interesting in what he relates of the
" Cardinal's domestic history, but defective in dates
" and arrangement, and not altogether free from
" partiality ; which, however, in one so near to the
" Cardinal, may, perhaps be pardoned. Fiddes is
" elaborate, argumentive, and, upon the whole, useful,
" as an extensive collector of facts and authorities ; but
" he wrote for a special purpose, and has attempted
" what no man can effect, a portrait of his hero free
" from those vices and failings of which it is impossible
" to acquit him. Grove, with all the aid of Cavendish,
" Fiddes, and even Shakspeare, is a heavy and
" injudicious compiler, although he gives so much of
" the Cardinal's contemporaries, that his volumes may
" be consulted with advantage as a series of general
" annals of the time. But Cavendish, on whom all
" who have written on the actions of Wolsey, especially
" our modern historians, have relied, has been the
" innocent cause of some of their principal errors.
" Cavendish's work remained in MS. of which
" several copies are still extant, until the civil wars,
" when it was first published under the title of " The
" Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey, &c," 1641, 4to.f
" and the chief object of the publication was
" a parallel between the Cardinal and Laud, in

* A Life of Wolsey has indeed been recently published by Mr, Gait.
t A little Treatise, entitled ¦' Who wrote Cavendish's Life of Wolsey,"
appeared some years ago from the pen of Mr. Hunter, a Unitarian
Minister, at Bath.

THOMAS WOLSEY. 43S
" order to reconcile the public to the murder of that
" Prelate. That this object might be the better
" accomplished, the manuscript was mutilated and
" interpolated without shame or scruple, and no pains
" having been taken to compare the printed edition
41 with the original, the former passed for genuine
" above a century, nor until very lately has the work
" been presented to the public as the author left it,
" in Dr. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography."*

From Cassan's Lives ofthe Bishops of Winchester : —
Synopsis qf Dates connected with Wolsey's Life, com*
prehending most, if not all his Preferments, and
some of the principal matters with which he was
connected, the greater part unnoticed by Cavendish,
whose narrative is deficient in dates and records of
preferment. Born March, 14? 1.
B.A. Magdalen College, Oxford, I486.
Fellow of the same soon after.
M.A. and Master of Magdalen School.
Bursar of Magdalen College, 1 498, about which time
he built the tower.
Rector of Limmington, near Ilchester, Somerset, 1500.
Domestic Chaplain to Henry Dean, Archbishop of
Canterbury. This must have been about 1501 or 2.

"_Fiddes's and Grove's Lives. Chalmer's Hist of Oxford.

436 THOMAS WOLSEY.
Bishop Dean was translated from Salisbury to Canterbury
in 1501, and died 1.502-3.*
Chaplain to Sir John Nanfan, Treasurer of Calais,
1503. Calais then belonged to the English.
Chaplain to King Henry VII. shortly after.
Rector of Redgrave, Suffolk, by dispensation from
Pope Julius II. this being his 3rd. living. This dis
pensation bears date 1508. He had before had a dis
pensation from Pope Alexander in 1503, to hold two,
but the name of the second I find not, unless it were
Turlington, -f
Dean of Lincoln, February, 1508. The same year
the King also gave him two Prebends in the same church.
B.D. 1510. Wood's Fasti. Oxonienses, vol. i. 2y.
Almoner to King Henry VIII.
Bishop of Tournay, (Episcopus Tornacensis) - in
Flanders, about 1513.
Privy Counsellor and Reporter of the Proceedings
in the Star Chamber.
Rector of Torrington, " in the diocese of Exeter ;"
quaere which Torrington? Great? Black? or Little?
The place is called by Chalmer, Turlington.
Canon of Windsor (Chalmer.) He does not so occur
in Le Neve's Fasti.
Registrar of the Order of the Garter.
Prebendary of Bugthorp, in the Cathedral of York,
Jan. 1-6, 1512, Willis's Cathedrals, vol. i. 127.

* A memoir of Archbishop Dean, as Bishop of Sarum, may be found
in Cassan's Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury, part i. p. 273.
t This living, wherever it was, is written also Turringtom, and is iu
one place said to be in the diocese ofExeter. See our p. 417.

THOMAS WOLSEY. 437
Dean of York, February 19, 1512. Willis's Cathe
drals, i. 69, and Drake's Hist. York, p. 559. He is
there called Wolsie, and styled D.D. His name is
frequently written Wulcie.
Dean of Hereford, 1512, resigned the same year
Le Neve's Fasti, p. 114.
Precentor of St. Paul's, 1513, collated July 8.
Bishop of Lincoln, 1514, aud Chancellor of the
University of Cambridge.
Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.
Archbishop of York, 1514. Cardinal of St.
Cecilia, 1514 or 1515.
Pope's Legate, 1516,
Lord High Chancellor, on the resignation of
Archbishop Warham, 1516.
Bishop of Bath and Wf.lls, Worcester, and
Hereford, about 1518, (Cavendish) i. e. he had the
administration of those dioceses and their temporalties,
but I find no authority for his having been consecrated
to them. They were filled by foreigners, who were
allowed non-residence, and received pensions. Cardinal
Julius de Medicis was made administrator of Wor
cester, by the Pope's bulle, July 31, 1521,
and, so continued a year. Silvester Gigles, his
predecessor, died at Rome, 1521. It is therefore
hard to reconcile Cavendish's date. Rymer, however, a
high authority, states that he had the temporalties of
Bath and Wells conferred on him, August 28, 1518.
Fadera. vol. xiii, p. 623. Wolsey does not occur
Bishop of Hereford in Le Neve's Fasti.
Candidate for the Papacy on the demise of Leo X.

438 THOMAS WOLSEY.
Bishop of Durham, 1523; resigned Bath and Wells.
Rymer's Fdaera, vol. xiii. p. 789.
Candidate for the Papacy on the demise of Adrian.
Commenced his College at Oxford, 1524-5.
Ditto Ipswich School, 1526-7.
Finished his Palace at Hampton-Court, 1528, which
he had begun in 1514.
Bishop of Winchester, 1528-9, when he resigned
Durham. Having incurred a praemunire, by procuring, contrary
to statute, 16 Richard II. a bulle, from Rome, appointing
him Legate, he was indicted by the Attorney-General in
the Court of King's Bench, October 9, 1529.
Received a free pardon February 12, 1530; restored
to the Archbishopric of York, and allowed 1000 marks
per annum out of Winchester.
Died 1530, aged 59. Buried at Leicester.
Portraits. — The portraits, &c. of Wolsey, are thus
noticed by Granger. — "1. Thomas Wolsaeus, Card; et
Archiep. Eborac. &c. Holbein p. Faber s. one of the
founders, Ato. mezz. — 2. Thomas Wolsey. &c. a label
proceeding from his mouth, inscribed, " Ego, meus et
rex ;" 4to. — 3. Thomas Wolsey, &c. Elstracke sc. 4to.
There are two copies cf the same, one qf them with arms.
The original print is, as I am informed, before his life,
by Mr. Cavendish, the founder of the Devonshire family,
who was his gentleman-usher. Perhaps this has been copied
from a later edition of that book. I find in a large MS.
catalogue qf English Heads, by Vertue, in my possession,
that there is a head of him by Loggan. — 4. In Holland's
"Heroologia," Svo.— 5. W. M. (Marshall) sc, small;

THOMAS WOLSEY. 439
in Fuller's " Holy State." — 6. Fourdrinier sch. len. h.
sh. in his Life by Fiddes, fol. — 7. Houbraken. sc. Illust.
Head. In the possession of Mr. Kingsley. — 8. Desrochers.
sc. 4to. — 9. Inscribed C. W. Vertue, sc. a small oval. —
There is no head of Wolsey which is not in profile.
That which is carved in wood, in the central board of the
gateway which leads to the Butchery of Ipswich, has such
an appearance of antiquity, that it is supposed to have
been done when he was living ; by the side of it is a
butcher's knife. It is said that his portraits were done
in profile, because he had but one eye. — Biog. Hist.
Engl. i. p. 91.
There is also a portrait of him at Knole, (the Duke
of Dorset's.) See Biographical Sketches of Persons
whose portraits are at Knole, &c. — Ed.
Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College: Sable
on a cross engrailed Argent, a lion passant Gules,
between four leopard's faces Azure. On a chief,
Or, a rose of the third between two Cornish choughs
proper. A reprint of Cavendish's Life qf Cardinal Wolsey,
will be found in my Lives ofthe Bishops of Winchester.
His character as Lord High Chancellor, has been
thus drawn by Hume : —
" If this new accumulation of dignity increased his
" enemies, it also served to exalt his personal character,
" and prove the extent of his capacity. A strict
" administration of justice took place during his enjoy-
" ment of this high office : and no chancellor ever
" discovered greater impartiality in his decisions,
" deeper penetration of judgment, or more enlarged
" knowledge of law or equity."

440 THOMAS WOLSEY.
Defence and Character of Wolsey.
<3& The following brief defence of this much-injured
Cardinal, should ever be kept in view by those who join
in the popular cry of detraction : —
The enemies ofthe Cardinal have alleged that his foun
dation of Christ-Church College, Oxford, was effected by
spoliation and rapine. It is easier to bring charges than
to substantiate them. The truth is, that the immense
riches which he derived from the various preferments
bestowed on him by the partiality of his sovereign, were
the means of his founding that College, which has so
deservedly immortalized his genius and spirit; and in the
midst of pomp and luxury, he was meditating the
advancement of science by a munificent use of those
riches, which he seemed to accumulate only for selfish
purposes : while, with respect to his seizing the property
and revenues of many priories and nunneries, which are
alleged to have served as a fund for building and en
dowment, we are to remember that the Cardinal did
not alienate the revenues from religious service, but from
the abuses of religious service — he only made a change
in the application of them ; and merely abolished useless
monasteries, that useful Colleges might be erected.
Nor did he do this without precedent, as the reader,
versed in ecclesiastical history, will instantly perceive,
when he refers to the cases in point, of Archbishop
Chichele and Bishop Waynflete, and the suppression
of the Templars. And to this list of precedents,
we may safely add, on the authority of Bishop Tanner,
Bishops Fisher, Alcock, and Beckington, Wolsey,
therefore, is deserving rather of praise herein than

THOMAS WOLSEY. 441
censure ; and so far from being branded as a plunderer,
•he deserves to be extolled as one who directed into a
right channel, wealth that had before flowed in a wrong
one. He had too strong a mind and too much good
sense to be overawed in the performance of what he
deemed right, by the unpopularity of the measure : a
weaker man might have been deterred from his purpose
by the lampoons which, in all directions, assailed his
laudable undertaking.
The Cardinal's virtues, like those of many others, have
been written on water ; his faults, (for who is without
them ?) on brass. But not only have his real errors been
recorded and magnified, but others, that never had
existence, except in the minds of those who envied him,
have been,^unblushingly, ascribed to this injured Prelate.
It was his dignity that increased his enemies — it was his
exaltation that caused the invectives with which he was
branded — it was the rapacity of his Master that led to the
fall of this his faithful servant and adviser — who, compliant
as he was, in some minor instances, was too stubborn and
honest in one particular point. lie was a munificent
patron — a lover and promoter of learning — an honest and
impartial Lord Chancellor — deeper penetration and
acumen — a more intimate acquaintance with the composi-
tumjus, as well as the fas animi was never evinced. And
shall the general tenor of his compliance with the will of
his royal master be ascribed to him as & fault? This was
his virtue, and shall he be branded for what was his merit ?
Is it alleged that he had a fondness for pomp and splendor
too great for an Ecclesiastic ? This was not so much a
personal fault, as the fault of his Church ; nor has any
thing been alleged as to mal-administration of his prelatical
i i I

442 JOHN CLERK.
duties. His occupation of the temporalties of several Sees,
at once, is to be charged as a fault, only on those who per
mitted' non-resident Prelates to possess them : and lie had
the merit certainly — a merit not always found ',*-4&- of
understanding the constitution and nature of the church
of which he was a Prelate, and of zealous and unwavering
attachment to it, such as it was. In his failure of obtaining
the Papacy, he was ill-used and cajoled ; by his King he
was neglected ; by faction and party traduced ; but by-
posterity, his talents, his acquirements, his vast mind, his
unshaken loyalty, his attachment to his Church, will ever
deserve veneration ; and if they do not obtain it, the
fault will not be his, but must lie elsewhere. The names
of Wolsey and of Laud, allied as they are by loyalty,
by toryism, by high-church principle ; by transcendent
ability, by misfortune, by the ill-usage of faction, and by an
undeserved fall from greatness, will, in very many points,
afford objects of admiration and imitation, as well as of
compassion for undeserved reverse of fortune, as long as
the few veistiges of right feeling, now remaining, shall
continue unobliterated.

XLIV. JOHN CLERK, S.T.P.
Succeeded A.D. 1523. — Died A.D. 1540.
From Bliss's Wood's Ath. Oxon. vol. ii. col. 752 : —
" The next person immediately going before, [i. e.
" before William Knight] who was Bishop of Bath
" and Wells, was one John Clerk, of the University
" of Cambridge, Chaplain to Cardinal Wolsey, L.L.D.

JOHN CLERK. 443
" of Bononia, afterwards Master of the Rolls, and
" Dean of Windsor, who, after he had undergone
" several messages and embassies for and from
" Cardinal Wolsey and the King, was, at length,
" sent ambassador to the Duke of Cleve, to give a
"reason why King Henry VIII, did divorce from
" him his sister Anne. Which being done, he fell ex-
" tremely sick at Dunkirk, in Flanders, in his return
"thence, in the month of September, 1540, occasioned,
" as some say, by poyson given to him. Whereupon,
" making his last will* at that place, on the 23rd. of
" Uie same month, and in the same year, (within a few
" days after which he died,) he bequeathed his body to
" be buried in the principal or chief church ofthe town
" of Calais, and withal that there be a stone laid over his
" grave with this inscription to be put thereon: ' Hic jacet
" Johannes episcopus Bathoniensis & Wellens. Anglus,
" qui cum obiisset plures insignes legationes, tandem
" obiit diem suum in legatione Clevensi, anno Dom.
" millesimo quingentesimo quadragesimo.' Which
" will was proved 17th. January the same year. So
" that how it comes to pass that there should be almost
" the same inscription on a grave-stone, sometimes in
" S. Botolph's Church, near A ldgate, London, wherein
" most authorsf hitherto have reported that he was
" buried, I jtnow not. In the palace treasury, at
" Westminster, I have seen a bundle of books, written,

* In Offic. Prerog. Cant, iu Reg. Alenger. Qti. 20.
t John Stow, in his Survey of London. Printed 1G33, p. 119. Weever.
Ancient Funeral Monuments, p. 426.

444 JOHN CLERK.
" as is supposed, by Dr. Cranmer, Archbishop of
" Canterbury, and this Dr. Clerk, Bishop of Bath and
" Wells. Which books contain a defence of the
" King's title of supreme head, and of the divorce from
" his first wife, Queen Catharine, and several matters
"against Cardinal Pole. He, the said Clerk, is
" numbered by Leland* among the learned and famous
" men of his time, having written and published several
" things ; among which is his Oratio pro Henr. 8.
" Angliae Reg. & Defens. apud Leonem x. in Exhibi-
" tiope operis regii."
This work is against Luther, but where, or when printed,
it appears not, only that it was published in quarto. I have
seen many of his letters which he wrote while he continued
in Rome, 1524, &c. to Cardinal Wolsey, giving him an
account of the affairs of that place, he being then one of
that Cardinal's agents to obtain the Papacy for him. See
two or three of his letters in the Appendix to Bishop
Burnet's History ofthe Reformation.
[M. Joh. Clerk, Deane of Windsore sent ambassador
to Rome, with the King's book against Luther, entit. De
Seplem Sacramentis, and to be presented to the Pope,
and therefore he stiled him ' Defensor Fidej.' Wood,
MS, notejn Ashmole, from Lord Cherbury's Life of K.
Hen. 8, 1672, p. 94, [Lord Herbert's]
1508, 21 Apr. J oh'es Gierke cap. A.M. ad eccl. de
Nothfeld per mort. Henrici Havvle, ex pres. Tho. Lovell
nil. — Reg. Warham Cant.

* In Prinmpum ac illustrium aliquot erudit, in Angl. virorum Encomiis,
Printed 1583, p. 41.

JOHN CLERK. 445
10O9. Compositio facta per Will.ar'epum Cant, inter
religiosum virum Joh'em Clerke mag'rum donius Dei
Dovor et ejusdem confratres ex una parte, et D. Rogerum
Derley rectorem eccl. S. Jacobi Dovor ex altera, de et
super jure percipiendi et habendi decimas tain personates
ac Christi fidelium oblationes, quam prediales tarn in
campis quam in hortis crescent, et tarn infra septa et muros
prefatae donius quam extra. — Dat in manerio de Lame-
hith XVI die mensis Martii, 1509, et nostras translat,
septimo.— Reg. Warham.
1511, 20 Sept. Injunctiones facta? per rev. dom.Cant.
ar'ep'um in visitatione sua in Domo Dei Dovor, injunctae
domino Joh'i Clerke mag'ro dictae domus ex confratribus
suis. — Ibid.
1514, ult. Martii, mag'r Johe's Clerke deer, doctor ad
eccl, de Ivechirche Cant. dioc. per mort. ult. incumb. ex
Coll. ar'epi.- — lb.
1514, 2 Jul. mag'r Johe's Clerke deer, doctor ad eccl.
de Terryng in decanatu de Terryng, per mort. ult.
incumb ex coll. ar'epi. — Ibid.
1514, 12 Aug. D. Joh. Clerke mag'r hospitalis Domus
Dei Dovor ad eccl. de Charleton per mort. D. Thomas
Chosell, ex. Coll. ar'e'pi jure devolutionis. — lb. Kennet.
Quidam Joh'es Clark, quaestionista Cant. an. 1499.
A.M. an 1502. Quidam Clerk bac. theol eodem anno.
Baker.] " John Clerk, S.T.P. had the temporalties restored
" May 2, 1523, (Rymer, vol. xiii. p. 792.) He died
" January 3, 1540, and was buried in the Church of
" the Minories, London. Godwin, p. 382. Reg.
!* Cranmer. Le Neve's Fasti, p. S3,

446 JOHN CLERK.
" John Clerk, or Clark, was collated Oct. 22, 1519,
" to the Archdeaconry of Colchester. Iu 1523, he
" was made Bishop of Bath and Wells."
There seems an uncertainty as to the real place of
Bishop Clerk's burial. There is no monument extant to
his memory in the Church of St. Botolph, Aldgate : nor
do the registers of that parish go farther back than 1560.
There is one other Church in the Minories, the Holy
Trinity ; and, upon examination, I find no monumental
inscription in it relative to our Prelate.
The following is the notice of this Bishop in the
Anglia Sacra: — " Johannes Clerk.
" Wolseio substitutes est ipsius in Curia Romana
" Procurator ac Regis Orator Johannes Clerk, Legum
" Doctor,* Decanus Windesoriensis ; qui Rotulorum
" custodiam 1522. 20 Octobr. sibi k Rege commissam
" acceperat, &, secretioribusf consiliis ante annum
" 1520. admotus fuerat. Huic Leo Papa Bullas
" provisionis contulit 1523. 26. Martii. { Ipse plures
" post acceptum Episcopatum annos legationibus pro
" Rege obeundis exegit.§ Ab anno fere 1523, ad
" 1527. in Galli Regis Aula Legates resedit. Anno
" 1527. Angliam reversus, rebus maximis gerendis
" adhiberi non desiit. Suffraganeos iuterim|| sibi
" constituit Willelmum Abbatem de Bruton Marjo-
" rensem Episcopum, 8t Thomam Abbatem de

* Polydor. Virgil, lib. 27. t Act. Concil. H. 8.
Reg. Warham. § Hall. par. 6. f. 158. || Registr, ejus.

WILLIAM KNIGHT. 447
" Monteacuto Solubriensem Episcopum.* Anno
" 1533. in SyHodo totius Cleri praesens, suffragium
" pro matrimonio cum uxore fratris defuncti licife
" ineundo solus ex Episcopis tolit. Anno 1540 ad
" Clivensem Ducem legates ut Annas sororis ab
" Henrico Rege repudiatae rationem redderet, veneno
" (ut perhibent) in Germania infectus, non sine gi avi
" difficultate sub exitum anni repatriavit, & Londoni
" obiit. 3 Januarii, in Monialium Ccenobio ibidem
" sepultus. t Suffrageneus illi dates fuerat Willemus
" Finche, Prior de Bremar, titulo Episcopi Taunton-
" ensis consecrates 1538. 7. April.".};

XLV. WILLIAM KNIGHT,
Succeeded A. D. 1541. — Died A.D. 1547.
This Prelate, who was a native of London, § having
received his early education at Winchester, was trans
planted to New College, Oxford, iu 1491, and became
a Fellow of it in 1493. In 1495, he appears to have
left the University,; and subsequently to have obtained a
footing at court, but through what media we find not.
A considerable space of time remains unaccounted for by
the writers of the scanty notitia we have of Bishop
Knight, between his leaving College and coming into
notice. His earliest preferment that I find on record,
* Hist. Reform, i. p. 129. t Weaver. Monum. p. 427.
X Reg. Cranmer. § New Coll. Register, Oxford.

448 WILLIAM KNIGHT,
was the * Deanery of the Collegiate, Church of NeW
Work, Leicester, 1515; his next, was the Archdeaconry
of Chester, in 1 522, then in Lichfield diocese ; the
Archdeaconry of Huntingdon followed, September 1^,
1523.f He became Secretary to King Henry VIII.
though we are not able accurately to fix the period ;
this, however, was certainly anterior to 1527. In that
capacity he was employed in the matter of that monarch's
divorce, and seems to have given his royal master reason
to think well of his services. In 1529, I find him
Prebendary of the 5th. Prebend in St. Stephen's Chapel,
Westminster. In the same year, he occurs Archdeacon
of Richmond,;}; then in York diocese. He also held the
Prebend of Farendon,§ in Lincoln Cathedral, and was
incorporated L.L.D. from a foreign University, in 1531,
at Oxford. || Le Neve calls him, but erroneously, L.L.D.
so early as 1523.^[ He resigned all his minor prefer
ments, on becoming, in 1541, Bishop of Bath and
Wells. The Archdeaconries of Richmond and Chester, on his
resignation, were severed, the former from York, and
the latter from Lichfield and Coventry, and incorporated
into Henry VIII's. newly erected See of Chester.

* Regist. of Atwater, Bishop of Lincoln.
t Le Neve. Fasti, p. 159. t lb. p. 326.
§ Willis. Cathedr. vol. ii. p. 185, and vol. i. pp. 98, 341, and 414.
|| Wood. Athena Ox. edit. Blis3. vol. ii. col. 752.
U Fasti, p. 159.

WILLIAM KNIGHT. 449
His consecration took place May 29, 1541,* and the
temporalties were restored the day following.-!- Having
presided at Wells 6 years, he died September 29, 1547,
and was buried in his Cathedral. Though, as Richardson
quotes the MS. Trin. p. 90, it would appear that he
died at Wivelescomb, and was there buried : if so, the
monument in Wells Cathedral can be only a cenotaph.
By an act, 27 Henry V III. for the assurance ofthe
temporalties of the Bishopric of Norwich, to the King,
it is enacted, That the said person which shall be named
Bishop of Norwich, shall hold and enjoy to him and his
successors, Bishops of Norwich, from and immediately
after the death of William Knyght, Clerk, Archdeacon of
Richmond, all that mansion and dwelling-house that the
said William Knight now hath let, and being in Cannon-
Row, Westminster, as parcel of his Prebend in the
Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster.
From Wood's Athena. Oxonienses, (Bliss's edition,)
vol. ii. col. 752 : —
" William Knight, was a Londoner born, educated
" in Wykeham's school, near Winchester, became
" perpetual fellow of New College, after he had served
" two years of probation, in 1493, but leaving that
" place two years after, he went to the royal court,
" where his parts and industry being soon known, he
" was made secretary to the Kings, Henry VII. and
" VIII. The last of which, sending him on an embassy to

Rymer. Fosdera, and Regist. of Abp. Cranmer, fol. 261—269.
t Strype. Memorials, &c,
k k I

450 WILLIAM KNIGHT.
" Maximilian,, tee" Emperor, found so much favour
" from him, that besides the great gifts received from
" his treasury, he had; by letters patent, dated July 14,
" 1514, a coat of arms granted to him, as a farther
" token of reward for his many services done for the
" English King, in exposing his life to danger, wearing
" it out in continual labours for him, and ready for the
" future to do the like, if occasion should require, &c.
" The arms granted to him, by the name aud title of
" William Knight, prothonotary of the apostolical seat,
" and ambassador from King Henry VIII. to Max-
" imilian, the Emperor, are these : parted per fess of
" and gules, an eagle with two heads displayed sable,
" having on his breast a demi-rose and a demi-sun
" conjoined into one, counterchanged of the field.
" Which arms are at this day remaining in one of the
" south windows of the common refectory of New
" College. In the beginning of the year 1523, he
" became Archdeacon of Huntingdon, on the resigna-
" tion of Richard Rawlings, promoted to the See of
"St. David. A.D. 1521, he, being then King's
" secretary, was sent to the people to put the matter
"home concerning the divorce. And in the beginning
" of December 1529, he being then, or about that
" time, prebendary of the fifth prebend of the King's
" chapel of St. Stephen, within the palace of West-
" minster, and newly returned from Rome) was made
" Archdeacon of Richmond, on the resignation of
" Thomas Winter. In 1531, he was incorporated
¦" doctor of the laws, as he had stood in an University
" beyond the seas, and was afterwards made Arch-

WILLIAM KNIGHT. 451
" deacon of Chester. In 1541, May 29,* he was
" consecratedf Bishop of Bath and Wells, and
" had restitution of the temporalties of that See madef
" to him the day following. H e gave way to fate on
" the 29th of September in 1547, and was buried iu
" the nave of the Cathedral Church at Weils. By his
"last will and testament, dated August 12, and proved
" November 1 1, 1547,§ he bequeathed <£l00. for the
" conveying of his body from Loudon to Wells, for the
" interring it in the Cathedral Church there, and for
" a tomb to be laid, or set over it. To New College,
" he gave ,£40,, and to Wykeham's College, near
" Winchester, £20."
In Bliss's edition of Wood, article, ' Bishop William
Knight,' some additions by Humphreys and Bishop
Kennett are recorded, purporting to relate to this Prelate's
preferments ; but they are mostly anachronisms, and
relate to other persons of both our Bishop's names. The
latter was not the William Knight, who was Prebendary
of Llanfair, in 1579, because our William Knight died
in 1547. The Bishop could not have been the Preben-

* [May 29, Sunday, 1541. William Knight was consecrated Bishop
of Bath and Wells by Nicolas, Bishop ot Rochester (by virtue of the
Archbishop's letters to him) assisted by Richard, suffragan of Dover, and
John, suffragan of Bedford iu the chapel of the said Bishop of Bath's
house, situate in the Minories, without Aldgate.— Memorials of Archbishop
Cranmer. Lib. i. cap. xili, p. 93.— Wood. M.S. Note in Ashmote.]
t Fr. Godw. in Com. de Prasul Angl. ins. Bath and Wells, p, 442.
t Pat. 33 Henry VIII. p. 1.
$ In Offic. Praerog. Cant, in Reg. Morysou.

452 WILLIAM KNIGHT.
dary and Vicar of Preston, in 1492, for he was then a lad,
not having entered at New College till the year after. Nor
could he have been Rector of Sandhurst, Kent, in 1507,
because he is recorded by Kennett, as being then L.L.D.,
whereas he did not become L.L.D. till 1531; He was
not the William Knyght de Laughton, A.M. who, being
Fellow of Merton, was ordained Deacon, 1508, because
our William Knight was Fellow of New College : nor
could he for the same reason have been presented by the
Fellows of Merton to the living of Kibwoi th, in 1 509.
He was not the person who resigned Stowling, with the
reservation of a pension, in 1513, because the record of
that fact styles him then L.L.B. ; and it appears the
Bishop became L.L.D. at once, by incorporation; from
"an University beyond the Seas," in 1531. He was not
Rector of Chartham, in 1514, because that William
Knight was then L.L.D., and ours not till 1531. He
was not Rector of All Saints', Bread-street, in 1514, for
both the same reasons. But he was the William Knight
who is described as utr. jilr. Doctor, when appointed
Dean of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary, New Work,
Leicester, tho' the date of the ascription of the doctorate is
wrong, since it can not synchronize ; the same ascription
militates against his being Prebendary of Chamberlain,
(Wood) in St. Pauls, in 1517. Therefore, a great part
of the additions by Kennett, &c. to the article Bishop
William Knight, in the Athenae, are irrelevant to that
individual : or, admitting those preferments to be correct
as to chronology, then it follows, that Wood is wrong in
fixing his doctorate at 1531, and he must have been
incorporated, or have proceeded, many years earlier, —
Utrum horum, <Sfc.

WILLIAM KNIGHT. 453
From Godwin de Prasulibus, edit. 1615, p. 383: —
" William Knight, Doctor of Law, and Archdeacon
" of Richmond, brought up in New College, in
" Oxford ; a man likewise much employed in ambas-
" sages by King Henry VIII, ; was consecrate May
" 29, 1541 ; sat somewhat above six years ; died Sep-
" tember 29, 1 547 , and ' was buried* under the great
" pulpit, which he caused to be built for his tomb,'
" (sic.) In the market-place of Wells, there is a
" goodly cross erected by this man, the inscription
" whereof, importing so much, is as followeth : —
" 'Ad honorem Dei omnipotentis, et commodum
" pauperum mercatorum Welliae frequentantium, im-
" pensis Gulielmi Knight Episcopis et Richardi
" Wooleman hujus ecclesiae Cathedralis olim Decani,
" hic locus erectus est. Laus Deo, Pax Vivis, Requies
" Defunctis. Ann. Dom. 1542.' "
From Fuller's Worthies, vol. ii. p. 65 : —
" William Knight was born in this city [London]
" bred Fellow of New College, in Oxford, on the
" same token, that there have been ten of his sirname,
" fellows of that foundation ! He proceeded Doctor
" of Law, and a noble penf makes him Secretary to
" King Henry the Eighth. Sure it is, he was the first
" person employed to the Pope, to motion to him the
" matter of his divorce, advertizing the King, by his
" weekly dispatches, how slowly his cause (though

* Others say at Wyvelescombe. See Richardson's edition of Godwin,
s/otes, p. 387. t Lord Herbert, iu the Life of Heu. VIII. p. 21g.

454 WILLIAM KNIGHT.
" spurred with English gold) crept on in the Court of
" Rome. After his return, the King rewarded his
" industry, fidelity, and ability, with bestowing the
" Bishoprick of Bath and Wells upon him.
" In Wells (with the assistance of Dean Woolman)
" he built a stately covered crosse in the market-place,
" for the glory of God, and conveniency of poor
" people, to secure them from the weather, adding this
" inscription : ' Laus Deo, Pax Vivis,' &c. He
" dyed September 29, anno 1547."
Tomb. — " Adjoining Dr. Sugar's chapel,* against the
great column on the western side, is a stone pulpit, erected
in Henry VHI's. reign, by Bishop Knight, who died in
1547 ; and which, says Godwin, ' hee caused to be built
for his tombe.'^ It consists of a basement, and a super
structure fronted with pilasters, pannelled, surmounted
by an entablature, on the frieze of which, is the following
inscription in Roman capitals : —
' Preache thou the worde, Be fervent in season
and ovt of season. Reprove, rebvke, exhort, in
ALL LONGE SUFFERYNG AND DOCTRYNE. 2. Timo.' Ill
front are the Bishop's arms. "J
* This chapel has erroneously been ascribed, says Mr. Britton, to
Bishops Beckington and Knight. The researches of Bishop Godwin have
enabled him to ascribe it to Hugh Sugar, L.L.D. an executor of Bishop
Beckington. t Thus it is actually expressed by Godwin. There is something droll
in the idea of a mau's building a pulpit for his future sarcophagus. It
was at least our original thought, though we do not at once comprehend
whether the corpse was to be placed erect in the pulpit, or whether the
pulpit itself was to remain aloft as heretofore, or to descend to the level
of other tombs. Godwin would represent Bishop Knight as having
improved upon the " oportet episcopum praidicantem won."— Edit,
$ Britton's /Fells Cathed. p. 112.

WILLIAM BARLOW. 455
Arms, as recorded in the Heralds' College : — Per
fess, Or, and Argent, a rose irradiated, Gules,, therefrom
issuent two griphons' heads, endorsed, Sable. This coat,
however, differs materially from that described by
Wood, ut supra. See p. 450 of this work.

XLVI. WILLIAM BARLOW,
Succeeded A.D. 1547. — Deprived A.D. 155$.
Translated to Chichester, A.D. 15.59-
Died A.D. 1569.
William Barlow, a native of Essex,* but descended
from the Barlowes of Wales,f was bred a Canon regular
of the order of St. Austin, in the Monastery of St. Osith,
in Essex, and partly among those of his order in Oxford.
Afterwards, he was made Prior of the Canons of his
order living at Bisham, Berkshire, and by that name and
title he was sent on an embassy to Scotland, J in 1535.
He was appointed by the Bishop of London, May 25,

* Antiq. Brit. p. 37. Fuller was unable to discover the County of his
birth, and therefore classes him in that of his death.— Worthies, vol. ii.
p. 389. . t Chalmers. Biog. Diet. vol. iii. p. 488.
t Wood. Ath. Oxon. edit. Bliss, vol. i. p. 364.

456 WILLIAM BARLOW.
1509, Prior of Typtre,* in that diocese, and was admitted
Prior of Lees, in Essex, 18 July, 1515; which he
resigned before October 3, 1524.f In 1527, he was
appointed Prior of Bromhole and Rector of Cressingham,
in the diocese of Norwich;! and, in 1535, became
Prior of Haverfordwest, § Pembrokeshire. About the
time of the dissolution of the Priory of Bisham, he was
elected, January 16, 1535, to the See of St. Asaph, the
temporalties of which being delivered! to him February
2, 1535, 27 Henry VIII. he was consecrated^ to it the
22nd. of the same month.** Thence he was transplanted
to St. David's, April 10, 1536, where, as Wood records,
he had a project of removing the episcopal See to
Carmarthen, more in the midst of the diocese, but without
success. He was translated thence to Bath and Wells,
February 3, 1547,tt being then a zealous professor and
preacher of the reformed religion ; but, in 1 553, at
Queen Mary's accession, he was deprived of his Bishop
ric, on pretence of his being married, and was committed
for some time to the Fleet, whence escaping, he retired

* Register of Fitzjames, Bishop of Londou. + lb.
t Tanner. Bibl. Brit. 75.
$ Wharton. Hist. Episc. et Dec. Asaph, p. 359-369.
|| Pat. 27 Henry VIII. p. 2.
U Godwin, int. Episc. Asaphenses.
** Wharton, p. 359. Rymer, Fosdera, vol. xiv. p. 559. Le Neve,
Fasti, p. 22.
tt Rymer. Feed. vol. xv. p. 169. Le Neve. Fasti, pp. 33 and 514, and
Register of Archbishop Cranmer.

WILLIAM BARLOW. 457
with many others into Germany, where he lived poor and
in an exiled condition. Fuller says, he " became super-
intendant of the English congregation at T5t»bden."*
At length, when Queen Elizabeth succeeded, lte was
made Bishop of Chichester,f in December, 1559, where
he sat to the time of his death ; and in 1560, he was made
the first Canon, or Prebendary of the first stall in the
Collegiate Church of St. Peter, in Westminster, which
dignity he held, with his Bishopric, five years.
It seems unaccountable his choosing to incur new first*
fruits, and to begin de novo at Chichester, a worse
Bishopric than Bath and Wells. Fuller has some ill*
natured remarks for this option, which are better forgotten
than transcribed, attributing to him only on an "on dit,"
the spoliation of Bath and Wells ; but as no evidence is
adduced for the insinuation, it is undeserving of credit.
Having presided at Chichester about 10 years, he died,
as some record, iu August, 1568, and was buried at
Chichester. Fuller fixes December 10, 1569, as the
period of his death.
This Prelate is remarkable for having five daughters
all married to Bishops. After he had been a Prior and
a Bishop, he married Agatha Wellesbourne, and had
issue, (1) Anne, married 1st, Austin Bradbridge, of
Chichester, formerly Fellow of New College, and 2ndly,
Herbert Westphaling, Bishop of Hereford ; (2) Elizabeth,

* Worthies, vol. ii. p. 389.
t Rymer. F<fd. vol. xv. p. 576. Newcourt, Hepertorhim, vol. ii. p. 386.
Le Neve. Fastt, p. 58. Ll 1

458 WILLIAM BARLOW.
wife of William Day,* Dean of Windsor, afterwards
Bishop of Winchester ; (3) Margaret, wife of William
Overton,. Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; (4) Frances,
married, 1st, Matthew Parker, a younger son.of Matthew
Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and 2ndly, Tobic
Matthew, who died Archbishop of York ; (5) Anthonia,
the wife of William Wykeham,* (the 2nd. of that name,)
Bishop of Winchester.
, The Bishop left issue also a son, of both his names,
(whose life follows that of his father in the Biographical
Dictionary, by Chalmers, vol. iii. p. 489,) and 5 other
children, of whom nothing remarkable is recorded.
The following is the Epitaph on the tomb of the
Bishop's widow : —
Hid Agathoz tumulus Barloi, Prasulis inde,
Exulis inde, iterum Prasulis, Uxor erat.
Prole beata j'uit, plena aunis ; quinque suarum,
Prasulibus vidit, Prasulis ipsa, datas.
Literary Works. — Christian Homilies.
Cosmography.-);
He assisted in the compilation of The godly and pious
institution qf a Christian Man, usually called " The
Bishop's Book." Lond. 1537.
In the collection of records, No. 25, at the end of
Bishop Burnet's find. vol. of the History qf the Refor-

• Memoirs of Bishops Day and Wykeham, 2dus, will be found in my
Lives ofthe Winchester Bishops,
t Perhaps this is the Brief Somme q, Geographta, attributed to Roger
Barlowe, and dedicated to> King Henry VIII. MS. Reg. in the British
Museum, 18 B. xxviii. Casley's Catalogue, p. 279.

WILLIAM BARLOW. 459
motion, are his Answers to certain Queries concerning t1i£
abuses of the Mass, Temp. Ed. 6.
He is said also to have translated into English the
Apocrypha, as far ae the book of Wisdom.
Tanner gives the following extract from MS. Cotton,
Cleopatra, E. iv. fol. 121, which adds some volumes to
the list already collected : ' Prayse be to God, who, of
his infynyte goodness and mercy inestymable, hath
brought me out of darkness into light, and from deadly
ignorance into the quick knowlege of the truth. From
the whiche, thro' the fiend's instigation and false per<-
swasion; I have greatly swerved ; in so moche, that I
have made certain bokes, and have soffred them to
be emprinted ; as,
The tretise ofthe bury all of the Masse.
A dialogue betwene the Gentilman and the Husbandman.
The climing up of fryers and religious persons,
portred [pourtrayed~\ with figures.
A description of God's Word compared to the Light.
Also a . . . Dialogue, " without any title, inveying
specially against St. Thomas, of Canterbury, which, as
yet, was never prynted nor published openly. In these
treatises, I perceive and acknowlege myself grevously to
have erred, namely, against the bl. sacrament of the
altare ; disallowing the masse and denying purgatory,
with slanderous infamy of the Pope, and my Lord
Cardinal, and outragious rayling against the clergy,
whieh I have forsaken and utterly renounced, — askes
pardon, — William Barlo.' "
Of these The burying ofthe Mass was prohibited, in
1519, 21 Hen. VIII. Fox, Acts and Mon. p. 1020,
edit. 1583*

460 WILLIAM BARLOW.
He is also said to have written "A Dialogue describ?
ing these Lutheran Factions, and many of their Abuses,"
of which a second edition was published in 1553. This,
if genuine, (for A. Wood doubts it,) was, no doubt,
written before he became entirely converted to the
reformed religion, which w as not the case until Mary's
time. He had written indeed, some pieces against
Popery in Henry VI II's. time; but it appears from a
letter in the Cotton Library, which he wrote to that
Monarch, that he was not steady in his belief, and he
seems to apologize to Henry for having published " The
Burial of the Masse," and some other tracts in favour of
Protestantism. It is to be remarked too, that Cranmer
had very little dependance on Barlowe at that time. Hp
was so indiscreet, so totally unguarded, and his conversa
tion so full of levity, that the Primate was always afraid
of any communication with him on matters of business ;
and would sometimes say on the conclusion of a long
debate, " This is all very true, but my Brother Barlowe,
in half an hour, will teach the world to believe it but a
jest." Richardson, the editor of Bishop Godwin's Commen-
tarius de Preesulibus, p. 388, in the note, has the
following remarks, which, if well authenticated, would
cause our Prelate to be classed among the despoilers of
the See of Bath and Wells. Having first observed that
Barlow was appointed by virtue of the letters patent pf
Edward VI., February 3, 1548, "de avisamento Ducis
Somersetensis," (Rymer, vol. xv. p. 169,) he thus
proceeds : —
" In cujus gratiam, opulenta quadam manneria
" [why not name them, and so bring a specific, instead

WILLIAM BARLOW. 461
" of a general charge,] ab hac sede divulsa sunt eodem
" anno : nee non Palatiuin Episcopate in Civitate
" Wellensi; De hac Temporalium alienatione sic
" disserit Author ipse in MS. Coll. Trin. p. 92.
" Hac una in re infaelix hic Praesul existjmandus est,
" quod ipso Episcopante, cladem acceperitgravissimarn
" haec sua sedes, amissis uno eodemque tempore
'¦ omnibus vectigalibus et redditibus ad earn spectanti-
" bns. [This sweeping assertion makes the whole
" account extremely doubtful.] Ita nimirum voluerunt
" qui tunc teuipoi is omnia potuemnt." If their
power was so great and irresistible, the act of spoliation,
admitting it to have taken place, of which I see no
evidence, was not to be attributed to the Bishop as his
fault : but he was far from being a despoiler, if what
Godwin says, in the article of Bourne, his successor in
the See, (Vide Godwin, p. 384,) be correct.
The Bishop's son, William, entering into Orders in
1573, became Prebendary of Winchester, and Rector of
Easton, near that city. In 1 588, he was made Prebend
ary of Lichfield, which he exchanged for the Treasurer-
ship of the same Church. In 16 14, he became Archdeacon
of Salisbury. He was remarkable for his mathematical
knowledge ; being the first writer on the nature and
properties of the loadstone, 20 years before Gilbert
published his book on the subject. He was the first who
made the inclinatory instrument transparent, and to be
used with a glass on both sides. <£&• It was he also who
suspended it in a compass box, where, with 2 oz. weight,
it was made fit for use at sea. He also found out the
difference between iron and steel, and their tempers for
magnetical use. He died in 1625. See more of him in
Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary.

462 GILBERT BOURNE.
XLVII. GILBERT BOURNE, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1554. — Deprived A.D. 1559 
Died A.D. 1569.
Gilbert Bourne, was son of Philip Bourne, of Wor
cestershire, and nephew, or, as Heylin thinks, brother of
Sir John Bourne, principal Secretary of State; and
became, in 1524, a student in the University of Oxford.
In 1531, we find him Fellow of All Souls' College; and,
in the following year, he proceeded in arts, being theu
esteemed a good orator and disputant.*
In 1541, he was made one ofthe first Prebendaries of
Worcester, after King Henry VIII. had converted the
prior and monks of that place into a dean and prebendaries ;
and, two years after, in 1543, was admitted B.D. which
was the highest degree he took in Oxford University.
About the same period, he became chaplain to Bishop
Bonner, and a preacher against the " heretics" of the
times, f
In 1545, he was collated to the Prebend of Holborn,
in the Cathedral of St Paul's.^
November 5, 1547, he was Proctor for the clergy of
the diocese of London, in the Lower House of Convo
cation. §
In 1548, November 7, he was admitted to the
Prebend of Brownswood, in St. Paul's Cathedral.§
In 1 549, he became Rector of High Ongar, in Essex ;§
and in the same year, closing with the Reformation, then
* Wood. Ath. Ox. vol ii. col. 805. edit. Bliss. t lb.
% Regist. of Bishop Bonner, Loud. § Ib. and Kennett.

GILBERT BOURNE. 463
on foot, temp. Edw. VI., he became (July 7,) Arch
deacon of Bedford.* Anthony Wood erroneously calls
him Archdeacon also of Essex and Middlesex, but those
dignities he never held. Bishop Godwin styles him Arch
deacon of London, without citing any authority.
In the beginning of the conciliating times of Queen
Mary, (1553,) the subject of this article <33" performed
the evolution termed ' ratting,' which he managed with a
dexterity that would not have disgraced the most dis
tinguished modems : from having been " sincerely
attached to the principles of the Reformation," he
suddenly became (" nova lux effulsit,") zealous for the
" old religion." Preaching on the 13th. of August,
1553, the 1st. year of Queen Mary's reign, at St. Paul's
Cross, he inveighed so severely against the sufferings
which had been inflicted on Bishop Bonner, and
descanted with such unction on the errors ofthe " unhappy
times of King Edward VI." that the mob became
exasperated, and commenced a lively assault upon the
preacher, some pelting him (as Heyliuf records,) with
stones, others shouting " Pull him down," 8cc. while one
miscreant, who could never be discovered, threw at him a
dagger, which was afterwards found sticking in the
pulpit. Two preachers, Bradford and Rogers, who
were popular among the rabble, and who, it is not
improbable had first excited their minds, succeeded in
appeasing the enraged mob, and safely lodged the orator
in the school adjoining. * Willis. Cathedr, vol. ii. p. 125.
t See Heylin's Hist. Reformat, au. 1554. Burnet's Hist. Refor. vol. ii.
lib, 2, p. 245. Wood's MS. in the Ashmolean.

464 GILBERT BOURNE.
In the year 1554, Sir John Bourne, of Batenhall,
Worcestershire, his uncle, being then principal Secretary
of State, Gilbert Bourne was advanced to the mitre, as
Bishop of Bath and Wells. This took place
March 28 ; he was consecrated at St. Saviour's Church,
in Southwark, April 1st, and had the temporalties
restored the 20th.* This vacancy had taken place by
the deprivation of Barlow, who had fled into Germany.
Soon after this, our Prelate was made President of
Wales, and was in great favor during the reign of Queen
Mary ; but when Elizabeth succeeded, he was deprived
of his Bishopric, 1559, for denying her supremacy,
notwithstanding he had done many good offices for the
Cathedral. Afterwards, being committed to " free
custody," he gave himself wholly to reading and
devotion. He is said, by some, to have been committed
to the care or custody of the Dean of Exeter. Godwin
says, " Master Carey, Dean of her Majesty's Chapel,"
while Strype speaks of the Bishop of Lincoln, (Nicholas
Bullingham.) He died at Silverton, in Devonshire, September 10,
1569 ; and was buried in that Parish, on the south side
of the altar. He bequeathed the wreck of his property
to his brother Richard Bourne, of Wyvelscombe, in
Somerset, father of Gilbert Bourne, of the city of
Wells. In the See of Bath and Wells, did not succeed William
Barlow, who returned from exile in the beginning of

* Burnet. Hist. Ref. Regist. Archbp. Canterbury. Rymer. Fold,
vol. xv. p. 384. Le Neve. Fasti, p. 34.

GILBERT BOURNE. 465
Elizabeth's reign, as was expected, but Gilbert Berkeley,
D.D.— See the next article.
Not a trace of our Prelate is to be found in the
Church, or in the register of Silverton. The latter has
no record higher than 1628. If ever there was a monu
mental inscription, it has disappeared long ago, for when
Dr. Richardson published his edition of Bishop Godwin's
work, " De Praesulibus Angliae," in 1743, he added a
note to the account of Bishop Bourne's burial at
Silverton, " de eo nulla in ecclesia supersunt vestigia,"
(p. 388.)
The connexion which Bishop Bourne had with Sil
verton, probably, was nothing more than an occasional
residence ; for I cannot find any one of his name in the
tithe-hooks, which reach to the time in which he lived.
There is an estate in the parish, called Boorn ; but in the
time of Edward I. it was the property of the Barrett
family, from whom it passed to the Courtnays, and
through them to the Carews, by whom it is held at
present. I do not suppose the estate ever gave a name
to the occupier, for the whole land of the parish was held
in demesne by the Kings of England, both before and
after the conquest; and, therefore, no subject dared
assume any appellation from it, if he had any regard to
his safety.
The residence of Bishop Bourne in Silverton, could
not have been long, for Strype, in his Life of Archbishop
Parker, says, he finds him under the care of the Bishop
of Lincoln, in 1565. When he went to Exeter, I believe
he does not mention, but probably, not immediately
after. If so, he could have lived only a short time under the
care of the Dean of Exeter, from whom, as Fuller says,
he " found fair usage, and lived in free custody."
M m 1

466 GILBERT BOURNE.
Should he have been in ill-health, during the latter part
of his life, that may, in some measure, account for bis
being allowed to remove to Silverton, (which is considered
a very salubrious place,) even at a time when the friends
of his former Patron, Bishop Bonner, were occasioning
a good deal of anxiety to the government, by their
conspiracy against the Reformation, at Bath.
Character. — The peaceable disposition of the Bishop;
indeed, may have been a sufficient security that be would
not, in the wane of life, endeavour to do any injury to
those who had, on the whole, treated him with tolerable
kindness. Yet it cannot be forgotten, that be is
represented, in the earlier part of his life, to have been at
least of a zealous temperament, as bis sermon at St.
Paul's, when a dagger was thrown at him, would seem
to argue. It has been alleged, that his rescue from the
mob on that occasion, by Bradford, was ill-requited ; for
the Bishop does not appear ever to have interposed in
behalf of his " deliverer," with the commissioners who
charged Bradford with sedition and heresy, and committed
him to prison. But in the Bishop's defence, candor bids us
recollect that Bradford, his " deliverer," was charged with
having himself been the principal instigator of that riot
which he subsequently restrained, and for that very cause
it was, that he (Bradford) was committed. Unless, there
fore, we are prepared to arraign the conduct of the Com
missioners, and to prove a corrupt motive in their committal
of Bradford, we ought not to charge the Bishop with ingrati
tude towards one, whose only kindness consisted in rescuing
him from that jeopardy into which he had himself plunged
bim. I have no great predilection to Papists, (though I like
them much better than Dissenters,) but a biographer should
not suffer unfounded charges affecting individual character,

GILBERT BOURNE. 467
although it may be that of a Papist, to pass without
refutation, or, at least, an effort to place the defamed in
such a point as to be viewed by the eye of candor,
undistorted by party prejudice.
Bishop Bourne is to be recorded as a benefactor to the
See of Bath and Wells. The non-age of Edward VI.
giving opportunity to those sacrileges that robbed the
Cathedrals of England of perhaps one half of their
possessions, would have occasioned the utter ruin of this
See, — if Bishop Barlow, taking advantage of the death
of some men in the latter end of Edward's reign, and
Bishop Bourne making use of the zeal of Queen Mary,
in upholding the state of the Church and the prelatical
revenues, had not been the means of recovering what
is now left to it, — that is, almost all the lands belong
ing, as Godwin says, to the Bishopric, — " all the lands
belonging to the Archdeacon of Wells, and some land of
the Chapter, to wit, the parsonages of Dulverton and
Long-Sutton." He was also a benefactor to the
Vicars' Close and the Alms-house, and began the
foundation of a canonical house, near the market-place,
but was hindered by the death of Queen Mary, and by
his own deprivation from finishing it.
END OF PART I.
Lives of the MOHWn €aty®Ut H?t0f)0p0
OF BATH AND WELLS.

dockers, Printers, Frome.

BISHOPS

Matf, an* WLtll*.

PART II.

PROTESTANT BISHOPS.

Of
THE BISHOPS
OP *
BATH AND WELLS,
FROM
THE REFORMATION TO THE PRESENT TIME.

A'^^HSa

flw?

»i

KHHH

BY THE REVEREND
STEPHEN HYDE CASSAN, M.A. F.S.A.
Chaplain to the Earl of Caledon, K.P.
&c. &c.

His saltern accumulem donis et fungar amico
Munere 

C. J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,
st. Paul's church-yard, and waterloo-place,
pall-mall.

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, »RINTERS, ST. JOHN S SQUARE.
1830.

PROTESTANT BISHOPS

BATH AND WELLS.

Life
Succeeded, A.D. Died at page.
1. Gilbert Berkeley  1559 .... 1581 .... 1
See vacant 3 years.
2. Thomas Godwin  1584 .... 1590 .... 4
See vacant 2 years.
3. John Still  1592 .
4. James Montagu  1608 .
Translated to Winchester, 1616.
5. Arthur Lake  1616 .
6. William Laud [Martyr']  1626 .
Translated to London, 1628.
To Canterbury, 1633.
7. Leonard Mawe  1628 .
8. Walter Curle  1629 .
Translated to Winchester, 1632.
9. William Pierse  ?...« 1632 .
10. Robert Creighton  1670 .
11. Peter Mews  1672.
Translated to Winchester, 1684.
12. Thomas Ken  1684 .... 1710 ..... 83
Deprived, 1690.
13. Richard Kidder  1691.... 1703 .... 102

1607 ...

. 11

1618 ...

. 22

1629 ...

• 27

1644 ...

. 33

1629 ...

. 54

1647 ...

. 56

1670 ...

. 63

1672 ...

. 70

1706 ...

. H

vi PROTESTANT BISHOPS.
Life
Succeeded, A.D. Died at page.
14. George Hooper  1704 .... 1727  168
15. Thomas Wynne  1727 .... 1743 ... . 160*
16. Edward Willes  1743 .._. 1773  166*
17. Charles Moss  1774  1802  175*
18. Richard Beadon  1802  1824 .... 179
19. George Henry Law  1824 ....  181

Seal of Bishop Berkeley, First Protestant Bishop of
Bath and Wells, 1559—1581.

LIVES

PROTESTANT BISHOPS

BATH & WELLS.

GILBERT BERKELEY, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1559. — Died A.D. 1581.
Although this Prelate presided here for the unusually
long period of twenty-two years, the memoirs of him
are exceedingly scanty.
He is said to have been of the noble family of
Berkeley, but his name does not occur in the pedigree
in the Heralds' College. Fuller records him among the
Norfolk Worthies, as having been a native of that
county, while A. Wood states that he was " a Lincoln
shire man born/' with which assertion the records of
Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury concur.
He was born in 1501, and had been a Canon Regular.
The records of Cambridge University contain the fol
lowing memorandum respecting him : —
" Mar. 22, 1562-3. Conceditur Reverendo in
" Christo Patri et Domino Domino Gylberto Bark-
part ii. b

2 GILBERT BERKELEY.
" ley, episcopo Bath, et Well, ut studium 24
" annorum in theologia post gradum bac. in eadem
" susceptum Oxoniis, sufficiat ei ad incipiendum in
" eadem : sic ut ejus admissio stet pro cpmpletis
" gradu et forma."
He appears to have been an Adam at once in prefer
ment, having commenced Bishop, without passing
through the inferior grades, at least I find no record
of such.
After the deprivation of Gilbert Bourne, licence of
electing was granted, Jan. 11, 1559; he obtained the
reginal assent, March 20 ; the temporalties were
restored July 10, 1560 *. His consecration took place
at Lambeth, March 24 f.
He died of a lethargy, November 2, 1581, at the age
of eighty years, and was buried at Wells, on the north
side of the Communion table of his own Cathedral.
His tomb is thus noticed by Britton J : —
" Bishop Berkeley is commemorated by an altar
" tomb on the north side of St. John's Chapel, to
" which place it was removed from the choir, to
" make room for the monument of Bishop Kidder.
" In front are three pannels, in which, on octo-foils,
" are shields of arms, displaying those of the See,
" impaled with Berkeley's."
Sir John Harington, after having indulged in a long

* Rymer Fadera, vol. 15. p. 598.
t Register of Archbishop Parker.
t Hist. Wells. Cathed. p. 113.

GILBERT BERKELEY. 3
tirade against the preceding Gilbert's * alleged spoli
ations, without, however, advancing a single iota of
evidence, or quoting any author, observes in the same
cynical style of this Prelate : —
" He was a good Justicer, saving that some-
" times being ruled by his wife, by her importunity
" he swerved from the rule of justice and sincerity,
" especially in persecuting the kindred of Bourne,
" his predecessor. The fame went that he died
" very rich, but the same importunate woman carried
" it all away, that neither Church nor poor were the
" better for it f." Of this I can only say : —
" Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi."
Strype observes of him that he latterly " inclined to
the Papal religion J."
A reference to facts, and proof arid authority should,
in such cases, ever be made by a fair and honest His
torian or Biographer.
For Arms see page 66, of Part I. There is no
Portrait of this Prelate.

Gilbert Bourne. See his Life in Part I. of this Work.
t Nugts Antiques, vol. I. p. 129, 12mo. edit.
% Life of Aylmer, Bishop of London, p. 89.

4 THOMAS GODWIN.
II. THOMAS GODWIN, D.D.
[See vacant 3 years.]
Succeeded A.D. 1584.— Died A.D. 1590.
This Prelate, (the father of Francis Godwin, the well
known writer of the Lives of the Bishops of England,
and successively Bishop of LlandafF and Hereford,) was
born in 1517, at Oakingham, in Berkshire, and being
placed at the Grammar-school there, quickly made such
a progress as discovered him to be endowed with excel
lent parts : but his parents being low in circumstances,
he must have lost the advantage of improving them by a
suitable education, had they not been noticed by Dr.
Richard Layton, Archdeacon of Bucks, a zealous pro
moter of the Reformation, who, taking him into his
house, and instructing him in classical learning, sent him
to Oxford, where he was entered of Magdalen College
about 1538. Not long after, he lost his worthy patron ;
but his merit, now become conspicuous in the university,
had procured him other friends ; so that he was enabled
to take the degree of B.A. July 13, 1543. The same
merit released his friends from any farther expense, by
obtaining him, the year ensuing, a fellowship of his
college ; and he proceeded M.A. in 1547. But he did
not long enjoy the fruits of his merit in a college life ;
his patron, the Archdeacon, had taken care to breed
up Godwin in the principles of the Reformation, and
this irritating some popish members of the college,
they made his situation so uneasy, that the Free-school
at Brackley, in Northamptonshire, becoming vacant in

THOMAS GODWIN. 5
1549, and being in the gift of the college, he resigned
his fellowship and accepted it. In this situation, he
married the daughter of Nicholas Purefoy, of Shalston,
in the county of Bucks, and lived without any disturb
ance as long as Edward VI. was at the helm : but
upon the accession of Mary, his religion exposed him
to a fresh persecution, and he was obliged to quit his
school. In this exigence, although the Church was
his original intention, and he had read much with that
view, yet now it became more safe to apply to the study
of physic ; and being admitted to his degree of B.M.
at Oxford, July 1555, he practised physic for his sup
port till Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, when he
resolved to enter into the Church. In this he was
encouraged by Bullingham, Bishop of Lincoln, who
gave him orders and made him his Chaplain ; his lord
ship also introduced him to the Queen, and obtained
him the favour of preaching before her Majesty, who
was so much pleased with him, that she appointed him
one of her Lent preachers. He had discharged this
duty by an annual appointment, with much satisfaction
to her Majesty, for a series of eighteen years. In 1565,
on the deprivation of Sampson, he was made Dean of
Christ Church, Oxford, and had also the Prebend of
Milton-ecclesia, in the Church of Lincoln, conferred on
him by his patron Bishop Bullingham. This year also
he took his degrees of B. and D.D. at Oxford. In
June 1565— 6, he was promoted to the Deanery of
Canterbury, being the second Dean of that Church :
and Queen Elizabeth making a visit to Oxford the
same year, he attended her Majesty, and among others
kept an exercise in divinity against Dr. Lawrence

6 THOMAS GODWIN.
Humphries, the professor ; in which the famous Dr.
Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, was moderator.
In June following he was appointed by Archbishop
Parker, one of his Commissioners to visit the Diocese of
Norwich ; and that Primate having established a bene
faction for a sermon on Rogation Sunday, at Thetford,
in Norfolk, and other places, the Dean, while engaged
in this commission, preached the first sermon of that
foundation, on Sunday morning, July 20th, 1567, in
the Green-yard adjoining to the Bishop's palace, at
Norwich. In 1574 — 5, he quitted the Prebend of
Milton for that of Leighton-Bosard, on the presentation
of Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln. In 1576, he was one
ofthe Ecclesiastical Commissioners, empowered by the
Queen to take cognizance of all offences against the
peace and good order ofthe Church, and to frame such
statutes as might conduce to its prosperity.
The See of Bath and Wells had been vacant now
three years since the death of Dr. Gilbert Berkeley,
which took place in Nov. 1581. To this Bishopric the
Queen nominated Godwin, who accordingly was con
secrated September 13, 1584. He immediately re
signed the Deanery of Canterbury ; and as he arrived
at the Episcopal Dignity, " as well qualified," says his
contemporary, Sir John Harington, " for a Bishop
as might be, unreproveable, without simony, given
to good hospitality, quiet, kind, and affable," it is
to be lamented that he was unjustly opposed in the
enjoyment of what he deserved. At the time of his
promotion there prevailed among the courtiers no small
dislike to the Bishops ; prompted by a desire to spoil
them of their revenues. To cover their unjust proceed-
13

THOMAS GODWIN. 7
ings, they did not want plausible pretences, the effects
of which Godwin too severely experienced. He was a
widower, drawing towards seventy, and much enfeebled
by the gout, when he came to the See ; but in order to
the management of his family, and that he might
devote his whole time to the discharge of his high
office, he married a second wife, a widow of years
suitable to his own ; an illiberal misrepresentation,
however, of this affair was but too readily believed by
the Queen, who had a rooted aversion to the marriages
of the Clergy, and the crafty slanderers gratified their
aim in the disgrace of the aged Prelate, and in obtain
ing part of his property. This unfortunate affair,
which affected his public character as well as his
private happiness, contributed not a little to increase
his infirmities. He continued, however, attentive to
the duties of his function, and frequently gave proof
that neither his diligence nor his observation were in
considerable. During the two last years of his life,
his health more rapidly declined, and he was also at
tacked with a quartan ague. He was now recom
mended by his physicians to try the benefit of his native
air. Accordingly he came to Oakingham with this
intention, but breathed his last there, November 19,
1590, aged seventy- three. He was buried in the south-
side chancel of Oakingham Church, where is a modest
inscription to his memory, written by his son Francis
Godwin, then sub-dean of Exeter.
" A chief favourite of that time," says Anthony
Wood, alluding to Sir Walter Raleigh, " had laboured
" hard to get the manor qf Banwell from the Bishop-
. " ric of Bath and Wells, and disdaining the repulse,

THOMAS GODWIN.
" did, upon hearing of the intempestive marriage of
" the Bishop, take advantage thereof, and caused it
" to be told to the Queen,, knowing how much she
" disliked such matches, and instantly pursued the
" Bishop with letters and mandates for the manor of
" Banwell for one hundred years. The good Bishop
" not expecting such a sudden tempest, was greatly
" perplexed, yet awhile he held out, and endured
" many sharp messages from the Queen, of which Sir
" John Harington carried one, being delivered to him
" by Robert Earl of Leicester, who seemed to favour
" the Bishop, and dislike Sir Walter for molesting
" him ; but they were soon agreed like Pilate and
" Herod to condemn Christ. Never was harmless
" man so traduced to his sovereign, that he had
" married a girl of twenty- years old, with a
" great portion, that he had conveyed half the
" Bishopric to her, that (because he had the gout)
" he could not stand to his marriage, with such, and
" the like, scoffs to make him ridiculous to the vulgar
" and odious to the Queen. The Earl of Bedford
" happening to be present when these tales were
" told, and knowing the Londoner's widow the
" Bishop had married, said merrily to the Queen
" after this manner : ' Madam, / know not how much
" the widow is above twenty, but I know a son of hers
" is but a little under forty,' &c. The conclusion of
" the premises was this, that to pacify his perse-
" cutors, and to save Banwell, he was fain to part
" with Wyvelscom, commonly called Wilscomb, for
" ninety-nine years, and so purchased his peace. To
" conclude, his reading had been much ; his judg-

THOMAS GODWIN. 9
" ment and doctrine sound ; his government mild
" and not violent ; his mind charitable, and there-
" fore not to be doubted but when he lost his life
" he won heaven."
With respect to the Bishop's intempestive marriage,
it would appear from the Collections by Cole (see p.
133 of his 21st vol.) as quoted by himself, that in a
MS. visitation of the counties of Somerset, Dorset and
Wilts, in 1623, and cited by him, is the pedigree of a
family of the name of Boreman of Wells, in which it is
said, that Margaret the daughter of William Boreman,
of Wells, was first married to Godwin, Bishop of Bath
and Wells ; and secondly, to William Martin, of
Totness ; by which it should seem as if she was neither
a widow nor aged when the Bishop married her*
But, from the anecdote I have related respecting the
Earl of Bedford, and for other reasons, I incline to
suspect that the marriages above alluded to have, by
mistake, been placed vice versa, and that the one set forth
with William Martin was the first alliance of the lady,
and that with our Bishop, the second. The note by
Cole seems of a detractive nature, and to have been
raked up for the purpose of keeping the Bishop under
the ill opinion which had been formed of his conduct,
most likely at first, without any other motive than a
schismatical wish to assail the hierarchy. It is neither
honest nor charitable thus to run down, or to prevent
from rising when down, any man, especially one of so
venerable a character as a Bishop. Assertions of this
kind are better not made without overwhelming evi
dence, and even when true, all that places an otherwise
amiable man in an unamiable light, should be suppressed.

10 THOMAS GODWIN.
Character. — Bishop Thomas Godwin, notwithstand
ing the abuse of his enemies, has left a character
which will ever claim respect. He rose in the Church
not through family interest — not through political sub
serviency, or political temporizing, but by his own
merit ; and what perhaps is worthy of remark, he rose
in spite of his merit. When possessed of the prelacy
he adorned it by his amiable qualities.
Works. — Though an eminent scholar he did not pub
lish any thing. Among the Parker MSS. in Bene't
College, Cambridge, is a sermon which he preached
before the Queen, at Greenwich, in 1566, concerning
the authority of the Councils and Fathers.
His Portrait is at Wells Palace, see Part I. p. 39.
For his Arms see p. 66 of Part I. of this Work.

B1? JJ®IEH MHILIL

'J.

ojbht m~so item)/.

JOHN STILL. 11
III. JOHN STILL, D.D.
\_See vacant 2 years.]
Succeeded A.D. 1592.— Died A.D. 1607.
This Prelate was born in 1543, and was the son of
William Still, of Grantham, in Lincolnshire.
He was entered of Christ's College, Cambridge,
where he took the degree of M.A., and was admitted
in 1570*, being then B.D.f, Margaret Professor of
Divinity at Cambridge. In 1571, July 30, being then
(as it appears by the authority in the note) D.D.J,
he became Rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk. In 1572
Dean of Booking. On the 18th July, 1573, he was
collated to the Vicarage of East Marham in York
shire: in the same year he occurs " S.T.P., Pre
bendary of Westminster, 7th Stall §." He was elected
Master of St. John's College July 21, 1574,— filled the
office of Vice Chancellor in 1575, — was collated,
March 6, 1576, to the Archdeaconry of Sudbury || ;
and was translated, by election, from the headship of
St. John's College to that of Trinity in 1577. In
1588 he was chosen Prolocutor of the Convocation,

* Le Neve calls him Margaret Professor in 1567. — Fasti, p. 410.
t Wood. Ath. Oxon. (Bliss.) vol. ii. col. 829, note.
X Ibid.
§ Newcourt, Repertor. vol. i. p. 926. and Le Neve, Fasti, p. 569.
|| Ibid. p. 224.

12 JOHN STILL.
and preached the Latin sermon. In 1592 he was
again Vice Chancellor of Cambridge, and the same
year was made Bishop of Bath and Wells, his
election taking place Jan. 23, 1592, his confirmation
Feb. 10, and consecration* the 11th. Here he pre
sided till his death, which occurred Feb. 26, 1607.
Sir John Harington describes him as a man " to
whom he never came, but he grew more religious ;
from whom he never went, but he parted better in
structed." Archbishop Parker had a high opinion
of him, and not only gave him a Prebend of West
minster, but recommended him very strongly to be
appointed Dean of Norwich, in which, however, he
did not succeed. He had been one of Parker's
Chaplains. The Bishopric of Bath and Wells having
been in his time enriched by some lead mines in
Mendip hills, he is said to have left a considerable
fortune to his family. He gave 500/., says Fuller, for
building an alms-house in the city of Wells f.
The historians of the drama are of opinion, that in
his younger days he was the author of an old play,
called " Gammer Gurton's Needle." From the books
of the Stationers' Company, it appears to have
been composed some years before publication. It
was republished among Dodsley's Old Plays, and
is frequently referred to by the commentators on
Shakspeare.

* See Registers of Archbishops Whitgift, and Bancroft, and Rymer,
Fosdera, vol. xvi. f Worthies, vol. ii. p. 12, under Lincolnshire.

JOHN STILL. 13
I have no wish to detract from any literary fame
that may arise to this respectable prelate, from the
ascription to him of the authorship of the play in
question, but I must be permitted to ask if such as
cription be not a palpable anachronism? We know
that Bishop Still died in 1607, aged 64, consequently
he was born in 1543. But Warton, in his 'History
of English Poetry,' says, that ' Gammer Gurton's
Needle,' was acted at Christ's College, Cambridge,
about the year 1552; and Oldyss in his MSS., as
quoted by Warton, says it was printed in 1551. If
those dates be correct, it follows that Still wrote the
play when he was between eight and nine years old.
In such case he affords a rare instance of precocious
talent, hardly exceeded even in these days of rapidly
marching intellect. Fuller records that,
" He was of a venerable presence, no less famous
" for a preacher than a disputant. When towards
" the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there
" was an (unsucceeding) motion of a Dyet, or
" meeting, which should have been in Germany,
" for composing of matters of religion ; Doctor
" Still was chosen for Cambridge, and Doctor
" Humfred for Oxford, to oppose all comers for
" the defence of the English Church. Anno 1592,
" being then the second time Vice-Chancelour of
" Cambridge, he was consecrated Bishop of Bath
" and Wells, and defeated all causelesse suspition
" of symoniacal compliance ; coming clearly there-
" unto, without the least scandal to his person, or
" losse to the place. In his days God opened the
"bosome of the Earth, Mendip Hills affording

14 JOHN STILL.
" great store of Lead, wherewith, and with his own
" providence (which is a constant mine of wealth) he
" raised a good estate *." &c.
From the Bibl. Harl. 7028.
" Catalogus Episcoporum qui e collegio D. Joh.
" Evang. prodierunt. G. Baker.
" Anno 1592. Joannes Still Lincolniensis, elec
tus Socius Coll. Christi Cant. an. 1560. Pro-
" fessor pro Dna Margareta, an. 1570. cum annum
" aetatis tricesimum vix f attigerat. Decanus de
" Bocking Nov. 4, 1572, Canonicus Westm. 1573.
" Rector de Hadleigh, Com. Suff. et Archidiaconus
" Sudbur an. 1576, admissus Prasfectus Coll. Jo.
" Jul. 21, 1574, et Johhe Whitgift evecto ad Epatum
" Wigorn, ac recedente a collegio Trin. constitutus
" est ibi Magister auctoritate Regia, an. 1577, mense
" Julio a collegio hoc elegio ornatus.
" Regr. Coll. Trin. Religionis, doctrinas, gravi-
" tatis, prudentiae nomine conspicuus, promotus est
" ad gubernationem Coll. D. Jo. ubi et in placido
" et turbato aequore gubernatorem egit scitum et
" cordatum. In collegium hoc assumptus an. 1577,
" per annos plus minus sexdecim, patrem familias se
" ferebat providum ayaOov Kouporpo^ov, nee collegio
" onerosum, nee suis gravem, ex sollicitudine et
" frugalitate magis quam sumptu et austeritate

* Worthies, ut supra.
f He had not reached 30, he was then (1570) 27 years of age, having
been born in 1543;

JOHN STILL. 15
" praefectum dignoscere. Provectus est inde ad
" Epatum Bath et Welles, an. 1592, ubi obiit,
" Febr. 26, 1607. Epitaphio ornatus a G. Cam-
" deno, excusso ad calcem Annalium Regis Jacobi."
Bishop Still deserves especially to be recorded, for
his anti-puritanical principles. He seems, on that
account, to have met with considerable opposition and
trouble, especially in his collegiate government. The
following, from the Bibl. Harl. 7028, (Baker's ac
count of St. John's College, p. 196) will throw some
light on this subject. —
" John Still, fourteenth Master, admitted July, 21,
" A.D. 1574. If Mr. Shepherd were a slug, his
" successor will compensate for his inactivity. This
" was John Still, B.D. Fellow of Christ's College,
" Margaret Preacher, in the year 1570, and Margaret
" Professor the year after, and elected Master of
" this College, July 14, 1514. In the instrument of
" his presentation to the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Whit-
" gift, he is sayd to have been elected ' unanimi
" assensu et consensu majoris partis praesentum,'
" that is, in true English, he was not chosen unani-
" mously, having been chosen only by a majority of
" those present, the rest being either absent, or
" absenting themselves.
" However the election was made, it was certainly
" a very good one, and they that were concerned in
" it, could not have done better for the interest of
" the College. For this Mr. Still, as he was an
" active man, so he was of unshaken affection to the
" Church, and being a bitter enemy to the non-con-

16 JOHN STILL.
" formists, both upon principle and interest, (for he
" had succeeded one Mr. Aldridge, deprived of a
" Prebend of Westminster, for non-conformity, as
" he had succeeded Mr. Cartwright in the Profes-
" sorship here) he seems to have been raised up, to
" root out Puritanism in St. Johns College, as some
" " of his predecessors had been wholly employed in
" extirpating Popery, which he would have effec-
" tually done had his continuance been long enough
" amongst us, and this was the true reason of the
" opposition he met with (not any such little par-
" tialities as have been generally imagined) for the
" which he was aspersed by the party, who having
" endeavoured to gain him, by court and compliance,
" when he was not to be won that way, turned upon
" him by reproaches and calumnies to his disad-
" vantage. " I will not deny but that there might be something
" of North and South in this division, and that the
" Master might favour the warmer clime, which was
" his own, but it was conformity and non-conformity,
" that was at the bottom, and the rest was chiefly
" noise and clamour. They that have grounded the
" controversy upon this other bottom, have been dou-
" bly mistaken : first, in supposing Queen Elizabeth's
" statutes to have been given under this Master ;
" and, secondly, that it was these statutes, that gave
" the mighty preference to the South ; whereas
" these statutes were not given till after he left the
" College, and the diminution of the Northern pri-
," vileges, and the greater favour towards the South,

JOHN STILL. 17
was brought in by the statutes of Henry VIII.
North and South were much the same as they
were under that King, and the great alteration
that was made in these new statutes, was by giving
greater power to the Master, &c. in order to sup
press ihe factious party. It was in the College, as
it had been in the University, where the body, by
abusing their privileges, lost that liberty they had
before enjoyed, and occasioned the power to
determine on the Heads, and it was faction and
non-conformity that was the like occasion in both.
" Notwithstanding these factions, and the limita
tions this Master was under, by the statutes of
Henry VIII., yet he governed the College with
constancy and resolution, and with a steady hand,
having prudence equal to his activity, and a repu
tation for learning that set him above the calum
nies of his enemies. Sir John Harington (who
does not use to compliment in his characters) says
of him, ' that he was so great a disputant, that the
learnedest were afraid to dispute with him, and
that finding his own strength, he could not stick
to warn them in the arguments, to take heed to
their answers.' "
"About the year 1581, when Campejus's book
was published, and made such a noise at its first
appearing, and fit men were sought out, by the
Bishop of London, &c. to shew up an answer,
Dr. Still and Dr. Fulke were two of the first men
that were thought of.
" In the ceconomicks ofthe College he was frugal
PART II. c

18 JOHN STILL.
" and provident, and a good manager of the reve-
" nues of the House, particularly the Rent Corn,
" which in his time passed into an Act*, in the 18th
" of Elizabeth, A.D. 1575, he put that Act into a
" course and method, and improved it to the best
" advantage. From a memorandum entered upon
" the books, I will just say enough to explain that
" Act, of so much advantage to the University ; and,
" in a manner, a second additional endowment to
" every College.
" Danthorpe, in Holdernesse, was the first Estate
" that was thus rented out in Corn in this College,
" November 3, A.D. Elizabeth 18th ; and this f
" memorandum entered upon the book. ' Memo-
" randum : That the whole Rent of this Lease, was
" 31. 6s. 8d., the which rent is now altered, by reason
" of a statute made, A.D. 18th Elizabeth, by virtue
" whereof, the third part of the rent, at the least, is
"to be paid in corn, after the rate of 6s. 8d. for a
" quarter of wheat, and 5s. for a quarter of malt, as
" by the said statute more at large appears.' The
" rent of Danthorpe as then fixed, was 21. 4*. 2d. in
" monies, and three quarters of wheat, and four
" bushels of malt and corn, and the rent of that
" estate is the very same in monies and corn at this
" day ; only so far improved as the price of corn is
" now higher than when it was sold at 6*. 8d. or 5*.

* Statute, Elizabeth 18. cap. 6.
t Black Book, folio 73.

JOHN STILL. 19
" for a quarter of wheat or malt, and is such an
" improvement, as usually makes the third part more
" than the whole
" Of this he took care, by seconding and advanc-
" ing the intention of the Act, as he afterwards did
" at Trinity College, to that degree, as to have it
" entered upon their * Register, as a part of his
" character. He was removed to that House, May
" 30, A.D. 1577, upon the promotion of Dr. Whit-
" gift to the see of Worcester, and left St. John's
" very reputably, not carried out in a chair, accord-
" ing to a foolish tradition, which could be no other-
" wise true than if it were made use of to do him
" honour. It is enough to confute such a fable,
" were it worth confuting, that he had the Queen's
" letter for that remove, which were a sufficient pro
" tection to guard him from affronts. How he
" acquitted himself in that new charge, is well known
" from their Registers, which are better vouchers
" for his prudence, integrity, and learning, than any
" thing I can say."
From an entry in the Heralds' College : —
" The Reverend Father in God, John Styll,
" Bishop of Bath and Wells, departed this tran-
" sitorie lyfe the 26 of February, 1607, at his Pallace
" at Wells. The said John Still married to his first
"wife Anne, Daughter to Thomas Alabaster, of
"Hadley, in the county of Suffolke, by whom
" he had issue, 2 sonnes and 4 daughters, viz.

Register Col. n. Canl. H.
c2

20 JOHN STILL.
" Nathaniel Still, sonne and heire, John Still, 2d
" son, Sara eldest daughter, married to Will. Mor-
" gan, of Westminster, by whom she hath issue, &c.
" Anne 2d daughter, married to Mr. Rob. Eyre, of
" Wells, by whome she hath issue, 4 daughters.
" Elizabeth, 3d daughter, married to Mr. Richard
" Edwards, of London, by whom she hath issue, 2
" sonnes and 2 daughters. Mary, 4th daughter,
" married to Caston Jones, by whom she hath issue,
" 1 sonne. He after married to his 2d wife Jane,
" daughter of John Horner, of Clover [Cloford] in
" the county of Somerset, Kt. by whom he hath
" issue, 1 sonne, Thomas Still, about 12 years of age.
" The funerals of the aforesaid reverend father
" in God, were solemnized the 4th of April next
" following."
Tomb. — On the south side of the choir of Wells
Cathedral, between the two easternmost columns this
Prelate's tomb may be seen : the following is the in
scription by Camden.
Memoriae Sacrum — Joanni Still Episcopo Bathoni
ensi et Wellensi, sacrae Theologiae Doctori, acerrimo
Christianae yeritatis propugnatori, non minus vitae inte-
gritate, quam varia doctrina claro, qui cum Domino
diu vigilasset, in Christo spe certa resurgendi obdor-
mivit. Vixit annos .... sedit Episcopus
 obiit die XXVI. Februarii
M.DC.VII. Nathanael Alius primogenitus optimo
Patri pietatis ergo mcerens posuit *.

See the engraved Plate ofthe Monument annexed to this Memoir.

JOHN STILL. 21
Portraits. — An engraved Portrait of this excellent
Prelate * will be found prefixed to this Memoir : for
other engraved Portraits of him, see Part I. of this
Work, p. 69. For his Arms, see p. 66.

• A Collection of prolix and uninteresting Letters, by the Bishop, to
Lords Burleigh and Leicester, &c, relative to some squabbles in the
administration of his Collegiate affairs, &c, many of them in Latin,
and others in quaint English — may be examined by the curious in MSS.
Bibl. Lansd. No. 2. Cotton MSS. Titus vii. 126. Bibl. Lansd. No. 23,
No. 16, No. 23, No. 49, No. 30, No. 64, No. 42, No. 65, No. 24, No. 23.
Notitia of Bishop Still, here embodied may be met in Athence Oxon.
Harington, Brief View. Fuller, Worthies. Strype's Parker, p. 432, 410,
451. Strype's Whitgift, pp. 70, 76, 282, 399. Peck's Desiderata. Chur-
ton's Life of Nowell, and Chalmers's Biogr. Diet. A Pedigree of the
Family will be found in Sir Richard Hoare's History qf the Hundred of
Mere, Wilts.

22 JAMES MONTAGU.
IV. JAMES MONTAGU, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1608. — Trans, to Winchester,
A.D. 1616.
Died A.D. 1618.
This Prelate, who was born about 1568, was fifth son
of Sir Edward Montagu, of Boughton, near Kettering,
Northamptonshire, and brother of Edward, created
Baron Montagu, of Boughton, June 29, 1621, who died
1644. The Bishop was also brother of Henry, created
Baron Montagu, of Kimbolton, Co. Huntingdon, and
Viscount Mandeville, December 19, 1620; and Earl of
Manchester, February 5, 1624 ; the latter was ancestor
to the Duke of Manchester, who now enjoys the Barony
of Montagu, of Kimbolton, as Edward Lord Montagu
was of the Duke of Buccleuch and the present Lord
Montagu, who enjoys the Barony of Montagu of
Boughton. The Bishop and his family are presumed to be de
scended from Simon de Montagu, a younger son of
John I. first Baron Montagu de Montagu, under the
writ of 31 Edward III. 1357 ; which John was second
son of William IV. first Earl of Salisbury.
James Montagu, afterwards Bishop of this See, was
entered a Fellow Commoner of Christ's College, Cam
bridge. In 1598, he became the first Master of Sidney
Sussex College, Cambridge*.

Le Neve, Fasli. p. 439.

JAMES MONTAGU. 23
In 1603, July 16, he was installed Dean of Lich-
.field*: in 1604, December 20, he succeeded to the
Deanery of Worcester f, and " was present in chapter
there, June 22, 1605 J."
He subsequently became Dean of the Chapel to
King James I. ; and in 1608, through the powerful
interest of his family, who were then rapidly rising
into dignity, he was at the early age of forty, appointed
Bishop of Bath and Wells §. He was elected March
29; confirmed April 15; and consecrated 17.
" On his advancement to the See of Bath and
" Wells," says Collinson ||, "he, at a very considerable
. " expense, repaired and beautified the Palaces of
" Wells and Banwell, the Cathedral of Wells, and
" the Abbey of Bath, on which last he expended
" 1000Z."
After presiding here for eight years, our Prelate
obtained the wealthy See of Winchester ^[. His
election thereto took place June 26, 1616 ; his confir
mation October 4. Having sat only two years at
Winchester, he died of jaundice and dropsy**, at

* Willis Cathedr. vol. I. p. 400.
t Ib. p. 659. % Nash. Worcester, vol. II. p. clxvi. App.
§ Wood. Afh. Oxon. vol. I. p. 279. (old edit.) Le Neve, Fasti, p. 301.
|| His. Somerset, vol. III. p. 388. where for ' Christ Church,' Cambridge,
read ' Christ's College,' Cambridge.
IT Register Bancroft. — Ath. Oxon. vol. I. p. 619. Le Neve, Fasti, p. 134
*• " Ictero atque hydrope sublatus." Godwin, p. 241. ap. Richardson.

24 JAMES MONTAGU.
Greenwich, July 20, 1618, at the age of about fifty, and
was buried under a sumptuous monument in the nave
of Bath Abbey.
Bishop Godwin, who was contemporary with him,
speaks in very high terms of his munificence. Besides
his benefactions at Cambridge, he was very liberal at
Bath : and not only repaired the Episcopal Palaces,
but the Cathedral, &c. " Ac Wellia; quidem capellam
" illam a Jocelino Episcopo constructam, sed Epis-
" copatu ad paupertatem redacto, neglectam per
" annos jam elapsos sexaginta, maximo haud dubie
" sumptu curavit purgandam, reficiendam, organis
" musicis aliisque ornamentis instruendam, sic ut
" pulchritudine et magnificentia paucissimis Angliae
" capellis hodie cedet, a me saltern hactenus visis.
" Ptochotrophii deinde pauperes sua multum juvit
" beneficentia : et (quod inter facinora nostri sasculi
" piilcherrima numerandum duco) ad Ecclesiam
" Bathoniensem perficiendam (quam ante centum
" annos cceperat construere Oliverus King, Epis-
" copus) hic Praesul noster mille contulit libras nos-
" trates, hoc est aureorum Gallicorum 3333, et
" praeterea, sumptu non levi, suggestum (Pulpit)
" excitavit ex polito lapide [speciosissimum]." Page
" 391.
Fuller, under Northamptonshire, adds : — " He was
" Master, or rather Nursing-father to Sidney Col-
" lege : for he found it in bonds to pay twenty marks
" per annum to Trinity College, for the ground
" whereon it is built, and left it free, assigning it a
" rent for the discharge thereof. — When the King's
" ditch in Cambridge, made to defend it by its

JAMES MONTAGU. 25
" strength, did in his time offend it with its stench,
" he expended a hundred marks to bring running
" water into it, to the great conveniency of the Uni-
" versity." — Worthies, vol. II. p. 164.
His brother, Sir Henry (see the Bishop's Epitaph,
infra), was one of the leading members of the House of
Commons in the reign of James I., and Lord Chief Jus
tice of the King's Bench. He was, by the interest of the
Countess of Buckingham, mother to the Duke, made
Lord Treasurer IS James I. His staff which he was
forced to resign in less than a year, is said to have cost
him 20,000/. There is a portrait of Sir Henry men
tioned in Granger, vol I. p. 323, but not of the Bishop.
In the nave of the Church, on a fair marble, situate
between two arches, lies the statue of Bishop Montagu
in his episcopal habit, at full length, and on the south
side ofthe tomb, under him, is this inscription in capital
letters : — Memoriae Sacrum
Pietate, Virtute et Doctrina
Insignis Jacobus Montacutus
Edwardi Montacuti de Boughton,
in Comitatu Northamptonia
Equitis aurati, a Sarisburiensibus
Comitibus deducta propagine
Filius quinto genitus, a Sapientissimo
Jacobo Rege Sacello Regio Decanus
Praepositus, ad Episcopatum Bathoniensem
promotus, et deinde ad
Wintoniensem, ob spectatam in
maximis negotiis fidem, dexteritatem
et prudentiam, in sanctius concilium

26 JAMES MONTAGU.
adscitus, Regique (cui charissimus
erat) in aula assiduus, in medio
actuosae vitas cursu, quam Deo, Ecclesiae
et Patriae: devoverat, ad aeternam vitam
evocatus 20 Julii, Anno Domini 1618,
iEtatis 50.
On the north side of the same is this inscription : —
Reverendissimus hic Episcopus
in hoc Templo antiquissimo
quod, inter alia multa egregia
Pietatis Monumenta, maximis
impensis instauravit, corpus deponi
jussit, donee Christo Redemptori
videbitur, eum cum justis ad
interminatam vitam quam in
terris semper anhelavit, excitare
Edvardus Montacutus
de Boughton, Henricus Montacutus,
Capitalis in Banco Regio Justitiarius
Carolus Montacutus Testamenti
Curator, et Sidneius Montacutus
a Supplicum Libellis, Equitis aurati,
Fratri optime merito cum lachrimis
posuerunt.
Works. — While he sat in the see of Winchester, he
was employed in his elaborate edition of King James's
Works, in Latin.
Portraits.— There is a Portrait of Bishop Montagu
at Wells Palace, see Part I. of this work, p. 39. For
engraved Portraits of him see p. 69. For his Arms
see p. 66.

ARTHUR LAKE. 27
V. ARTHUR LAKE, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1616.— Died A.D. 1626.
This pious Prelate, who was brother to Sir Thomas
Lake, knight, principal Secretary of State to James I.,
and son of Almeric Lake, or Du Lake, of Southamp
ton, was born, in 1567, in St. Michael's parish, and
educated for some time at the free-school in that town.
He was afterwards removed to Winchester school,
and thence was elected Probationer Fellow of New
College, Oxford, of which he was admitted Perpetual
Fellow in 1589. In 1594 he took his degrees in Arts,
and being ordained, was made Fellow of Winchester
College about 1600, and in 1603 Master of the Hos
pital of St. Cross. In 1605 he took his degrees in
Divinity, and the same year was installed Archdeacon
of Surrey. In 1608 he was made Dean of Worcester*,
on the promotion of Dr. Montagu to this See. He
was elected Warden of New College, Oxford, June 17,
1613; and in 1616, during which year he served the
office of Vice Chancellor, he was made Bishop of
Bath and Wells. His election took place October 17 ;
confirmation, December 6, and consecration the 8th f.
He had held the living of Stanton St. John, in Ox
fordshire, till his promotion to the mitre. He was a
man of great learning and extensive reading, par
ticularly in the fathers and schoolmen, then a common

* Willis Cathed. vol. i. p. 659.
t Reg. Abbot. Ath. Oxon, vol. i. p. 430. Le Neve, Fasti, p. 34.
13

28 ARTHUR LAKE.
study; and as a preacher was greatly admired. Fuller
says he obtained his preferments " not so much by the
" power of his brother (the Secretary) as by his own
" desert, as one whose piety may be justly exemplary
" to all of his order. In all places of honour and
" employment which he enjoyed, he carried himself
" the same in mind and person, shewing by his
" constancy, that his virtues were virtues indeed ;
" in all kinds of which, whether natural, moral,
" personal, or pastoral, he was eminent, and, indeed,
" one of the examples of his time. He always
" lived as a single man, exemplary in his life and
" conversation, and very hospitable." Walton con
firms this character ; he says Dr. Lake was " a man
'* of whom I take myself bound in justice to say, that
" he made the great trust committed to him the
" chief care and whole business of his life. And
" one testimony of this truth may be, that he sat
" usually with his Chancellor in his Consistory, and
" at least advised, if not assisted, in most sentences
" for the punishing of such offenders as deserved
" Church censures. And it may be noted, that
" after a Sentence of Penance was pronounced, he
" did very rarely or never allow of any commutation
" for the Offence, but did usually see the Sentence
" for Penance executed, and then, as usually,
" preached a Sermon of mortification and repent-
" ance, and so apply them to the Offenders that
" then stood before him, as begot in them a devout
" contrition, and at least resolutions to amend their
" lives : and having done that, he would take them,
" though never so poor, to dinner with him, and use

ARTHUR LAKE. 29
" them friendly, and dismiss them with his blessing,
" and persuasions to a virtuous life, and beg them
" for their own sakes to believe him. And his
" humility and charity, and all other Christian
" excellences, were all like this."
This worthy Prelate died May 4, 1626, at the age
of fifty-nine, and was buried in the Cathedral of Wells,
in the South Aisle of the Choir near the back of the
Bishop's Throne, where his memory is recorded by
his arms sculptured in stone, and a brief inscription
upon a brass plate. — Vide infra. — His brother, Sir
Thomas, before named, who was of Cannons, Mid
dlesex, died there, September 17, 1630. He was grand
father of Sir Lancelot, who was great-grandfather of
Gerard, first Viscount Lake.
Works. — He does not appear to have published any
thing in his life-time ; but after his death, Wood in
forms us, there were published several volumes of his
"Sermons," an "Exposition of the 1st Psalm," an
" Exposition of the 51st Psalm," and " Meditations,"
all of which were collected in one vol. fol. Lond. 1629,
with the title of " Sermons *, with Religious and Divine
" Meditations," and a Life and Portrait of the author.
The Life was written by John Harris, D.D. of whom
see the Athence Oxonienses under the year 1658.
Benefactions. — Bishop Lake was a considerable
benefactor to the library of New College, giving books,
value 400/. At that College he also endowed two

* Some of his Sermons maybe found in the Bodleian, 4to. H. 6. Th. B. S.

30 ARTHUR LAKE.
Lectureships, one for the Hebrew language, and
another for the Mathematics; he likewise founded
libraries for the Cathedrals of Worcester and Wells * :
to the former Cathedral he gave an organ.
Character. — The following high character of this
Prelate is by Fuller -j- :
" He continued the same in his Rochet, that he
" was in his Scholar 's-gown ; and lived a real com-
" ment upon Saint Paul's character of a Bishop :
" 1. Blameless.] Such as hated his Order could
" not cast any aspersion upon him.
" 2. The Husband qf one Wife.] He took not
" that lawful liberty ; but led a single Life, honour-
" ing Matrimony in his brethren who embraced it.
" 3. Vigilant.] Examining Canonically in his
" own person all those whom he ordained.
" 4. Sober, of good behaviour.] Such his auste-
" rity in diet (from his University-Commons to his
" dying day) that he generally fed but on one (and
" that no daintie) dish ; and fasted four times a
" week from supper.
" 5. Given to Hospitality.] When Master of
" Saint Cross, he encreased the allowance of the
"poor Brethren in diet and otherwise. When
" Bishop, he kept fifty servants in his Family, not
" so much for state or attendance on his person, but
" pure charity, in regard of their private need.

* Wood. Ath. Oxon. vol. ii. col. 398. (Bliss.)
t Worthies, vol. i. p. 406.

ARTHUR LAKE. 31
" 6. Apt to teach] the Living with his pious
" Sermons, in his Cathedral and neighbouring Pa-
" rishes ; and Posterity with those learned Writings
" he hath left behinde him.
" 7. Not given to Wine.] His abstemiousness
" herein was remarkable.
" 8. No striker,, not given to filthy lucre.] He
" never fouled his fingers with the least touch of
" Gehazi's reward, freely preferring desert.
" 9. One that ruleth well his own House.] The
" rankness of House-keeping brake not out into any
" Riot ; and a Chapter was constantly read every
" Meal, by one kept for that purpose. Every night
" (besides Cathedral and Chapel-Prayers) he prayed
" in his own person with his Family in his Dining-
" room. " In a word, his Intellectuals had such predo-
" minancy of his Sensuals, or rather Grace so ruled
" in both, that, the Man in him being subordinate
" to the Christian, he lived a pattern of Piety."
Fuller has made a great mistake as to the date of
this Prelate's death : he says 1602 ; instead of which,
read 1626.
Epitaph. — The Bishop wrote the following Epitaph
for himself, which he desired might be engraved on a
stone, and placed over the spot where he should be
interred, an order that does not seem to have been
complied with :
Viator consiste, paucis te volo ;
me vide.
Exuviae hic reponuntur hominis, sed Christiani
Quibus nihil vilius propter peccatum hominis,

32 ARTHUR LAKE.
Nihil pretiosius propter spem Christian!,
Non eas deseruit anima, sed hic deposuit.
Custos bonae fidei Spiritus Sanctus,
Qui cavet ne quis in vacuum veniat
Dum legatione pro iis apud Redemptorem
Defungitur anima : cui reduci cum Christo
Eas reddet gloriosas gloriose induendas,
Et cum beata beandas in aeternum.
Libenter mortalis sum, qui sim futurus immortalis
Ne tantuli in me contemplando te pceniteat
Laboris, non dimitteris sine pra?mio :
Voves haec historia mei, prophetia sit tui.
But instead thereof we find the following brief
inscription on a brass plate :
" Here lieth Arthur Lake, Doctor in Divinity, late
Bishop of Bath and Wells, who died on the 4th day
of May, anno 1626."
Portraits. — There is a good head of Lake, engraved
by J. Payne, h. sh. which was afterwards copied by
Hollar, in the year 1640, 4to. A copy of that by
Payne is in Boissard ; and his head is prefixed to his
works, fol. 1629. There is also a good portrait in
oils, at Wells Palace. See our list of Episcopal Por
traits there, at page 39 of Part I. In the Hall of
New College, Oxford, there is likewise a Portrait of
him, in oils. For his Arms see Part I. p. 66.

WILLIAM LAUD. 33
VI. WILLIAM LAUD.
Succeeded A.D. 1626. — Translated to London,
A.D. 1628.— To Canterbury, A.D. 1633.
Martyred by the " Saints," A.D. 1644-5.
The name of Laud must be ever dear to every true
son of the Church. He was a Prelate of entire and
thorough orthodoxy; the ornament, the defence, and
at length the Martyr of the Protestant Episcopal
Church. Possessed of a knowledge, unhappily and
most unaccountably, but rarely possessed by the Clergy
— I mean that of the nature and constitution of our
Apostolic Church, and the consequent damning nature
of the then, as now, alarmingly spreading sin of Schism *,
he had the spirit and intrepidity to stem the over-

* Of the damning nature of schism, it may be necessary to observe, that
the word Sixoaraaicu which occurs in the 20th verse of the 5th chapter of
St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, has been injudiciously translated seditions,
whereas it should have been rendered separations, divisions, schisms; and,
from its being coupled with a\ok at ig those divisions must be deemed of a
religious character, whence, probably, we adopted into our Litany the depre
cation of " false doctrine, heresy, and schism." I say the word Sixoaraaiai
was injudiciously rendered seditions ; because, by such translation, the
generality of the readers of that Epistle do not come at St. Paul's
opinion of the damning nature of schism, expressed in the words which
follow his catalogue ofthe works ofthe flesh: "ofthe which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God." See John xv. 4. Heb. x. 25.
And Augustin, Sermon II. on Matt. xii. 32. wherein he makes schism the
sin against the Holy Ghost. See also the Scholar Armed, Vol. II. p. 272.
and Sermons against the Doctrinal Errors of the Times, by the Rev. S. H.
Cassan, M.A. F.S.A. Curate of Mere, Wilts. Rivingtons, 8vo. 1827. 12s.
PART II. D

34 WILLIAM LAUD.
whelming torrent of dissent, which he clearly foresaw
was but the forerunner of the overthrow of the Church,
at the period in which he lived — a period unparalleled
in the English History, with the single exception of
that in which we live.
The principles of this truly Christian Prelate — the
friend of unity — the avowed enemy of that spurious
private judgment which, affecting to be wise above
what is written, would divide the Christian world into
as many sects as there might be opinions ; deserve to
be recorded in imperishable letters : they should be
the model for the whole body of Clergy to imitate —
nocturna versanda manu versanda diurna — as affording,
next to the holy Scriptures, the best comment on the
nature and constitution of that Church which our
blessed Saviour loved, and for which he gave himself,
teaching us to consider those as heathens and publicans,
who would not bow to her sinless ordinances.
The life of this Prelate belongs so much to history —
so many volumes have been composed respecting him —
his public career is so well known, and he has been so
universally a theme of well-deserved panegyric with
the orthodox and high Church, and of reproach with
the dissenters and liberal party, that any attempt on
my part to record any thing more than an outline of his
preferments would be superfluous.
He was son of William Laud, a very respectable
clothier, of Reading, by his wife Lucy, sister to Sir
William Webbe, Lord Mayor of London, 1591. His
father died in 1594; his mother following in 1600.
Our Prelate was born at Reading, October 7, 1573,
and educated at the free-school there, till July 1589 ;
13

WILLIAM LAUD. 35
when, removing to St. John's College, Oxford, he be
came a scholar thereof in 1590, and fellow in 1593.
He took the degree of A.B. in 1594, and that of Mas
ter in 1598. Being ordained Priest, in 1601, he read,
the following year, a divinity lecture in his College.
In some of these Chapel exercises he maintained,
against the Puritans, the perpetual visibility qf the
Church qf Rome till the Reformation ; by which he
incurred the displeasure of Dr. Abbot, then Vice-
Chancellor of the University, who maintained that the
visibility of the Church of Christ might be deduced
through other channels, to the time of the Re
formation * — a claim which I observe with feelings
of regret, has been recently revived by a living
Prelate of our Church, remarkable for his profound
erudition, and for whose virtues I entertain the highest
respect, but who has, unhappily, permitted his anti-
catholic zeal (pre-eminently laudable, I admit, in
itself), to lead him into a position> which, in my humble
opinion (and I write with the greatest deference re
specting one so far above me in all points) would, if
proved, un-ckurch the Church. His Lordship's argu
ment, I say, if it were possible that it could be proved,
would, when proved, divest our Church of all evidence
of a divine commission ; for, if^ when we assert that
Christianity was planted here in apostolic times, we
thereupon claim an origin independent on Rome, while

* To this Prelate's heretical notions as to the non-essentiality of Church
Constitution and an ostensible divine sacerdotal commission, as well as his
Calvinistic tenets, may be attributed the downfall of Church and State, in a
few following years.
, D 2

36 WILLIAM LAUD.
at the same time we stand unprepared to demonstrate
an episcopal series from the persons so planting, it
follows that we are unprepared to demonstrate the
divine commission of our priesthood : consequently, we
have no right to call ourselves a church. His Lord
ship's argument thus practically unchurches the Church,
for the sole ostensible historical proof of our being a
true and not a soi-disant Church, arises from our de
spised Romish parentage. To give.«.up that, without
proof of a succession aliunde, is to give up every thing :
— to lose that, is to cease to be : — to destroy that, is to
commit a theological suicide. I would, therefore,
humbly and respectfully submit that it is, at all times,
and more especially in these lax times, unsafe to pro
pound a doctrine so problematical as that we ever
existed as a Church, originally, distinct from and in
dependent on Rome; because, unless such position
were backed by historical evidence, as to the uninter
rupted episcopal succession, which it is utterly imprac
ticable to adduce, we virtually annihilate ourselves, we
dislodge our Church from the pedestal on which she is
now firmly planted, and we can give no account as
to how or when the transmission of the keys to our
hierarchy took place *.
In 1603, Laud was one of the Proctors; and,
the same year, became Chaplain to Charles Blount,
Earl of Devonshire, whom he inconsiderately married,
December 26, 1605, to Penelope, the divorced wife of
Robert Lord Rich ; an affair that exposed him, after-

* For an historical account of The Origin of the Anglican Church, see
under that head, the " Introduction," at Part I. p. 1 . of this Work.

WILLIAM LAUD. 37
wards, to much censure, and created him much unea
siness. He proceeded B.D. July 6, 1604. In his exercise
for this degree, he maintained these two essential
points : the necessity of Baptism ; and, secondly, that
THERE COULD BE NO TRUE CHURCH WITHOUT DIOCESAN
Bishops. These were levelled against the Puritans,
and he was rallied by the Divinity Professor. He
likewise gave offence to the Calvinists, by a sermon
preached before the University in 1606; and we are
told, it was made heresy for any to be seen in his com
pany, and a misprision of heresy to give him a civil
salutation ; his learning, parts, and principles, however,
procured him some friends. His first preferment was
the Vicarage of Stanford, in Northamptonshire, in
1607 ; and, in 1608, he obtained the Advowson of
North Kilworth, in Leicestershire. He was no sooner
invested with these livings, than he put the Parsonage-
houses into good repair, and gave twelve poor people a
constant allowance out of them, which was his uniform
practice in all his subsequent preferments. This same
year he commenced D.D. and was made Chaplain to
Neile, Bishop of Rochester ; and preached his first
sermon, before King James I., at Theobalds, Septem
ber 17, 1609. In order to be near his patron, Bishop
Neile, he exchanged North Kilworth for the Rectory
of West Tilbury, in Essex, into which he was inducted
in 1609. The following year, that Bishop gave him
the living of Cuckstone, in Kent, on which he resigned
his fellowship, left Oxford, and settled at Cuckstone ;
but, the unhealthiness of that place having thrown him

38 WILLIAM LAUD.
into an ague, he exchanged it soon after for Norton, a
benefice of less value, but in a better air.
In December, 1610, Dr. Buckeridge, President of
St. John's, being promoted to the see of Rochester,
Abbot, newly made Archbishop of Canterbury, who
had disliked Laud's principles at Oxford, complained
of him to the Lord-chancellor Ellesmere, Chancellor of
the University ; alleging that he was cordially ad
dicted to popery *. The complaint was supposed to
be made, in order to prevent his succeeding Bucke
ridge in the Presidentship of his College; and, the
Lord-chancellor carrying it to the King, Laud's ad
vancement would probably have been checked, had
not his firm friend, Bishop Neile, contradicted the
reports to his discredit. He was, therefore, elected
President, May 10, 1611, though then sick in London,
and unable to make interest in person, or by writing to
his friends ; and the King not only confirmed his elec
tion, but made him one of his Chaplains, upon the
recommendation of Bishop Neile. Laud having thus
obtained a footing at Court, flattered himself with hopes
of great and immediate preferment ; but Archbishop
Abbot always opposing applications in his behalf, after
three years fruitless waiting, he was upon the point of
leaving the Court, and retiring wholly to his College,
when his friend and patron, Neile, newly translated to
Lincoln, prevailed with him to stay one year longer ;

• The stale cry raised by the low Church against the Orthodox j as if,
because a man was hostile to a spirit of disunion among professing Christians,
he must therefore have a relish for Popish absurdity.

WILLIAM LAUD. 39
and, in the mean time, gave him the Prebend of Bug-
den, in the Church of Lincoln, in 1614 ; and the
Archdeaconry of Huntingdon the following year.
Upon the Lord-chancellor Ellesmere's decline, in
1616, Laud's interest began to rise at Court, so that in
November, that year, the King gave him the deanery
of Gloucester ; and he was elected to attend the King in
his journey to Scotland, in 1617. Some royal direc
tions were, by his procurement, sent to Oxford, for the
better government of the University, before he set out
on that journey, the design of which was to bring
the Scotch to an uniformity with the Church of
England ; a favourite scheme of Laud and other
divines : but the Scotch were resolute in their adher
ence to their unscriptural fancies, that presbyters and
Bishops were not two distinct Orders.
Laud, however, seems to have advanced in favour
with his Majesty, for on his return from Scotland,
August 2, 1617, he was inducted to the rectory of
Ibstock, in Leicestershire; and, January 22, 1620-1,
installed into a Prebend of Westminster. About the
same time, there was a general expectation at Court,
that the deanery of that Church would have been con
ferred on him ; but Dr. Williams, then Dean, wanting
to keep it in commendam with the Bishoprick of Lin
coln, to which he was translated; procured that Laud
should be promoted to the Bishopric of St. David's,
The day before his consecration, he resigned the Pre
sidentship of St. John's in obedience to the College-
statute; but was permitted to keep his Prebend of
Westminster in commendam, through the Lord-keeper
Williams's interest, who, about a year after, gave him

40 WILLIAM LAUD.
the living of Rudbaston, in the diocese of St. David's,
to help his revenue. In 1622, a dispensation was
granted him to hold, in commendam, the Prebend of
Llambister, in the Collegiate Church of Brecknock ;
and, in January, 1620, the King gave him also the
Rectory of Creeke, in Northamptonshire. In 1622
our Prelate held his famous conference with Fisher, the
Jesuit, before the Marquis of Buckingham and his
mother, in order to confirm them both in the Protestant
religion, as to which they were then wavering. Hence
we may infer what credence those are entitled to who
assert Laud's addiction to popery. The conference was
printed in 1624, and produced an intimate acquaintance
between him and the Marquis, whose special favourite
he became at this time, and to whom he is charged
with making himself too subservient ; but the only
proof alleged in support of this ridiculous charge is
that Buckingham left him his Agent at Court, when
he went with the Prince to Madrid, and frequently cor
responded with him.
About October, 1623, the Lord-keeper Williams's
jealousy of Laud, as a rival in the Duke of Bucking
ham's favour, and misrepresentations on both sides,
occasioned such animosity between these two Prelates
as was attended with the worst consequences. Arch
bishop Abbot also, resolving to depress Laud as long
as he could, left him out of the high Commission, of
which Laud complained to the Duke of Buckingham,
November, 1624, and then was put into the Commis
sion. At Charles's Coronation, February 2, 1625-6,
he officiated as Dean of Westminster, in the room of
Williams, then in disgrace.

WILLIAM LAUD. 41
In 1626 he was translated from St. David's to Bath
and Wells ; and, in 1628, to London. The King
having appointed him Dean of his Chapel-royal, in
1626, and taken him into the Privy-council, in 1627
he was likewise in the Commission for exercising
Archiepiscopal jurisdiction during Abbot's sequestra
tion. In the third Parliament of Charles I. which met
March 17, 1627, he was voted a favourer ofthe Armi-
nians, and his name was inserted as such in the Com
mons' Remonstrance ; and, because he was thought to
be the writer ofthe King's Speeches, and ofthe Duke
of Buckingham's Answer to his impeachment, &c,
these suspicions so exposed him to popular rage, that
his life was threatened.
Amidst his various employments, his care was often
exerted towards the place of his education, the Uni
versity of Oxford. In order to rectify the factious and
tumultuary manner of electing Proctors, he fixed them
to the several Colleges by rotation, and caused to be
put into order the jarring and imperfect Statutes of
that University, which had Iain confused some hun
dreds of years. In April, 1630, he was elected their
Chancellor ; and he made it his business, the rest of
his life, to adorn the University with buildings, and to
enrich it with. Books and MSS. In the first design
he began with his own College, St. John's, where he
built the inner quadrangle (except part of the south
side of it, which was the old Library) in a solid and
elegant manner ; the first stone of this design was laid
in 1631. He also erected that elegant pile of building at
the west-end of the Divinity-school, known by the name
of the Convocation-house below, and Selden's Library

42 WILLIAM LAUD.
above, and gave the University, at several times, 1300
MSS. in Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Egyptian, &c.
After the Duke of Buckingham's murder, Laud
became chief favourite to Charles I., which augmented,
indeed, his power and interest, but at the same time
increased that envy and jealousy which rankled in the
minds of the Dissenters, and at length proved fatal to
him. Upon the decline of Abbot's health, and favour
at Court, Laud's concurrence in the prosecutions car
ried on in the high-commission and star-chamber
courts, against schismatical Preachers and Writers,
the pests of that unfortunate period, did him great
prejudice with most people, such was the general dis
position in favour of every man setting up a rehgion of
his own.
On May 13, 1633, he accompanied the King, who
had set out for Scotland, in order to be there crowned.
During his stay in Scotland, this persevering and
orthodox Prelate was again prompted by his love of
Christian unity, to make the difficult attempt of bring
ing Scotland to a conformity with the Church of
England ; but the King committed the framing of a
Liturgy to a select number of Scotch Bishops, who,
inserting several variations from the beautiful English
Liturgy, were strenuously opposed by Laud, but un
happily without success.
In 1663, on the death of the puritanical Archbishop
Abbot, whose elevation to the mitre, and even his
admission into Holy Orders is a subject of deep regret
to all sober-minded Christians untainted with a dividing
spirit, Laud was promoted to Canterbury, to which
had he been earlier and Abbot never appointed,

WILLIAM LAUD. 43
England in all probability had not seen her Church
and State overthrown, nor would history have afforded
in her blood-stained pages a precedent which there is
every reason to apprehend is now, through the want of
timely firmness in the Hierarchy, Clergy, and Church
men in general, and through the prevailing indifference
and laxity towards all ancient institutions, likely to be
acted upon with no very dissimilar effects. The minds
of men are in fact now, as then, become revolutionary*.
Nothing but high Tory and Catholic principles — nothing
but what has been incorrectly called, "an arbitrary
government," can save the country from Revolution.
The country is ripening to some great revolt or change.
Indeed, things have gone so far, — what with universal
education, — Bible Societies, — (those organs of schism)
— the march of private judgment in religion, (the
sure forerunner of infidelity) — the extension of prin
ciples of equality by which the ancient grades of
society have become more and more blended, — the
unrestrained liberty ofthe Press, — the increase of meet
ing-houses, — and the prevalence of liberality (the mo
dern generic term for the fusion of all fixed attach
ment to old principles) — that the banner of revolution
may be said already to be virtually unfurled. The
Protestant Episcopal Church, whose revenues are the
sparkling guerdon that attracts the longing eyes of
Dissenters, will be the first sacrifice; and, on this
popular and plausible plea : — ' Since Dissenters have so
numerically encreased, and Churchmen so decreased,

* The Bishop of Ferns's answer to Lord Mount Cashel, ought to be read
by all who wish the truth of this position demonstrated.

44 WILLIAM LAUD.
as to be left in a minority, the revenues of the Church
ought to be transferred to the self-appointed teachers
of that religion which is numerically prevalent.' For
Statesmen — I speak without any particular allusions, —
unfortunately, do not, when legislating for the Church,
take into view the divine commission, under which the
Ministers of the Church of England act ; they look not
at what is of divine origin, but what appears to them to
be expedient: and if once it appears expedient that the
revenues of the Church should be transferred into
other (however schismatical) channels, — thither, judg
ing from recent events, I fear they will be made to
flow. Churchmen, lay and clerical, should have looked
to this in time ; now they have only to regret their
supineness and false liberality, and well deserve to lose
what they had not the courage to maintain. No one
will think that I put forth these remarks from any in
terested motive, for being but a curate / have nothing
to lose, but there is something which I shall ever value
more than all the preferment that Prelates and States
men could bestow, — I mean the maintenance of our
power of the keys. Perhaps in the present tottering
condition of the Church, the only way to maintain that
power, (for the maintenance of worldly rights is very
secondary) — would be a comprehension with the
Church of Rome, on her abating a few of her absurdi
ties ; for a true church she is, though a corrupt one :
by such an union, so great a counterbalance against Dis
senters would be formed as would preserve to the
Church the exercise of her delegated Apostolic powers,
and also prevent her revenues from becoming the
plunder of unhallowed intruders at the altar.

WILLIAM LAUD. 45
It is said that a Cardinal's hat was offered to
Laud on the day of his elevation to Canterbury,
but which was refused with this sensible reply — " that
" somewhat dwelt within him which would not suffer
" that till Rome were other than it is." Were she to
lop off a few of her fond conceits, for we are agreed as
to essentials, (see our absolution in the Visitation qf
the Sick,) and restore herself to the apostolic purity
of the present Protestant Episcopal Church, what
unity would be effected, and how would schism and
saintly affectation be for ever banished, under so holy,
so Christian, so blessed an alliance !
During a metropolitical Visitation, Laud through
his Vicar-General, gave directions that the Commu
nion Table should in all Churches be placed at the
East end of the chancel altarwise; it had formerly
very incorrectly and irreverently been placed in the
centre. He directed that the ground should be raised,
and that the place occupied by the table should be
fenced in. For the restoration of this excellent and
primitive usage he was abused, as usual, as a favourer
of Popery, but with how little justice may be judged
by any one who considers that the Christian Church
being modelled on the Jewish, ought to have its altar,
whereon the vicarious elements are offered up as the
body and blood of Christ, within the holy of holies,
and behind the screen, which is evidently an emblem of
the veil. ,
In 1634, our Archbishop having been appointed
Chancellor of the University of Dublin, did the poor
Irish clergy a very important service, by obtaining for
them, from the King, a grant of all the impropriations

46 WILLIAM LAUD.
then remaining to the crown. He also improved and
settled the revenues of tli_e London clergy in a better
manner than before. On February 5, 1634-5, he was
put into the great Committee of Trade, and the King's
Revenue, and appointed one of the Commissioners of
the Treasury, March the 4th, upon the death of
Weston, Earl of Portland. Besides this, he was, two
days after, called into the foreign committee, and had
likewise the sole disposal of whatsoever concerned the
Church. In order to prevent the printing and publishing of
schismatical and other improper books, a decree was
passed in the Star Chamber, July 11, 1637, to regulate
the Press, by which it was enjoined that the master-
printers should be reduced to a certain number, and
that none of them should print any books till they
were licensed, either by the Archbishop or the Bishop
of London, or some of their Chaplains, or by the
Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors of the two Univer
sities. Accused as Laud frequently was, of Popery, he
fell under the Queen's displeasure this year, by speak
ing with his usual warmth to the King at the Council-
table against the increase qf Papists, their frequent
resort to Somerset House, and their insufferable mis?
demeanors in perverting his Majesty's subjects to
Popery. With what justice then was it that the low-
Church party raised against him the cry of Popery ?
This cry, however, is ever artfully raised against all
who maintain the uninterrupted succession of Bishops
as an essential of Christianity. In 1639, at Laud's recom
mendation, Dr, Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter, com
posed his learned Treatise of " Episcopacy by Divine

WILLIAM LAUD. 47
Right Asserted." On December 9, the same year, Laud
was one of the three privy-councillors who advised
the King to call a Parliament in case of the Scotch
rebellion ; at which time a resolution was adopted to
assist the King in extraordinary ways, if the Parlia
ment should prove refractory. A new Parliament
being summoned, met April 13, 1649, and the Con
vocation the day following ; but the Commons begin
ning with disloyal complaints against the Archbishop,
and insolently insisting upon a redress of what they
called ' grievances ' before they granted any supply,
the Parliament was dissolved, May 5. The Convo
cation, however, continued sitting, and certain canons
were made in it, which, forsooth, gave great offence
to the Dissenters. On Laud many laid the blame
and odium of the Parliament's dissolution ; and that
noted enthusiast, John Lilburne, caused a paper to be
posted, May 3, upon the Old Exchange, animating
the apprentices to sack Laud's house at Lambeth the
Monday following. On that day, above 5000 of them
assembled in a riotous and tumultuous manner ; but
the Archbishop receiving previous notice, secured the
palace as well as he could, and retired to his chamber
at Whitehall, where he remained some days ; and one
of the ringleaders was hanged, drawn, and quartered,
on the 21st. In August following, a libel also was
found in Covent Garden, exciting the apprentices and
soldiers to fall upon him in the King's absence, upon
his second expedition into Scotland.
It can be no wonder that his ruin should appear
certain, considering his many and powerful enemies ;
namely, almost the whole body of the Puritans;

48 WILLIAM LAUD.
many even of the English Nobility* and the bulk
of the Scotch nation. The Puritans considered
him as the sole author of the persecutions, as they
pleased to call them, against them, — the Nobility could
not brook his warm and imperious manner. In this
state of general discontent, he was not only examined,
December 4, on the Earl of Stafford's case, but when
the Commons came to debate upon the late Canons in
Convocation, he was represented as the author of them ;
and a committee was appointed' to inquire into all his
actions, and prepare a charge against him on the 16th.
The same morning in the House of Lords he was named
as incendiary, in an accusation from the Scotch Com
missioners ; and two days after, an impeachment of
high treason was carried up to the Lords, by Denzil
Holies, desiring he might be forthwith sequestered
from Parliament, and committed, and the Commons
would, in a convenient time, resort to them with parti
cular articles !
In March and April, the Commons fined him 20,000i
for his acting in the late Convocation f. On June 25,

* The defection of the Nobles from their own cause affords a strange and
lamentable instance of the folly of the human mind. The Noble should
uphold the King and the Church; if he sides with popular measures, he
becomes a renegado from the cause of that Constitution of which the
Peerage is an integral part. The same remark applies to liberalizing Prelates.
t This was decidedly unconstitutional ; the Convocation being as much
one of the three estates as the House of Commons, that House had no right
to interfere in the privileges ofthe Convocation.

WILLIAM LAUD. '
1641, he resigned his Chancellorship of the University
of Oxford ; and in October, the House of Lords se
questered his jurisdiction, putting it into the hands of
his inferior officers; and enjoined, that he should give
no benefice without first having the House's approba
tion of the person nominated by him. On January 20,
1641-2, they ordered that his armoury at Lambeth
Palace, which had cost him above 300/. and which
they represented as sufficient for 2000 men, should be
taken away by the sheriffs of London. Before the end
ofthe year, all the rents and profits ofthe Archbishop
ric were sequestered by the Lords for the use of the
commonwealth ; and his house was plundered of what
money it afforded, by two members of the House of
Commons ; and such were the tender mercies of these
" elect saints" that when he petitioned the Parliament
afterwards for a maintenance, he could not obtain any,
nor even the least part of above 200/. worth of his own
wood and coal, at Lambeth, for his necessary use in the
tower. On April 25, 1643, a motion was made in the
House of Commons, at the instance of Hugh Peters
and others of that stamp, to send or transport him to
New England ; but that motion was rejected. On May
9, his goods and books in Lambeth-house were seized,
and the goods sold for scarce a third part of their value,
and all this before he had been brought to any trial*.
Seven days after, there came out an ordinance of Par
liament, enjoining him to give no benefice without leave

* No bad specimen of ' evangelical' and ' liberal' despotism.
PART II. E

50 WILLIAM LAUD.
and order of both Houses. On May 31, Mr. Prynne,
by a warrant from the close committee, came and
searc! ?'J his room while he was in bed. But, instead
of dwelling on these disgraceful and sacrilegious pro
ceedings of the ' saints' towards an unaffectedly good
man, whose only crime was a wish to fulfil his blessed
Master's injunction, that his disciples should be one,
and live in obedience to and communion with a Church
which none can quit without incurring the guilt of schism,
— I shall pass on to state briefly, that after various pre
liminary legal [query illegal ?] forms, this loyal Prelate
was finally, without his Counsel being heard in reply —
voted guilty of high treason ! The Lords at length had
a conference with the Commons, on December 24, in
which they declared, " That they had diligently weighed
all things charged against the Archbishop, but could not,
by any one qf them, or all, find him guilty qf treason."
The Judges had unanimously made the same declara
tion. At the second conference, on January 2, 1644-5,
the reasons of the Commons for the attainder of the
Archbishop were communicated to the Lords, who in a
very thin house passed the ordinance that he should
suffer death by hanging, which was fixed for Friday
the 10th. He pleaded the King's pardon, under the
great seal, which was overruled and rejected, without
being read, and the only favour granted, and that, after
delay and reluctance, was, that his sentence should be
changed to beheading.
The Archbishop continued a Journal of all the cir
cumstances of his trial, and imprisonment to January 3 ;
but on hearing that the bill of attainder had passed the

WILLIAM LAUD. 51
Lords, he broke off his history and prepared himself
for death. He received the notice with great com
posure, and passed the time between his sentence and
execution, in prayer and devout exercises. He slept
soundly the night before his death, till the time came
when his servants were appointed to attend his rising ;
he applied himself to his private prayers, and so con
tinued until Sir John Pennington, lieutenant of the
tower, came to conduct him to the scaffold, which he
ascended with a cheerful countenance, and was be
headed January 10, 1644-5, about twelve o'clock at
noonf ! His body was buried in the Church of All-
hallows, Barking; but was removed to St. John's
College, in 1663, where it was placed in a vault in the
Chapel. By his will, dated January 13, 1643, he bequeathed
the bulk of his property to charitable or liberal pur
poses : to St. John's College, all his chapel plate and
furniture, what books they had not in their library, and
500/. to purchase lands, the rent to be divided between
every Scholar and Fellow, on October 17, in every
year. We have already mentioned that he built the
inner quadrangle of St. John's ; he also obtained from
King Charles, the Vicarage of St. Lawrence for this
College, with other valuable preferments. He founded
an Arabic lecture, which commenced August 10,
1636, by the celebrated Pococke. To the Bishopric

* Laud was the last prop and stay of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The very day of his martyrdom the Saints -abolished the Liturgy, and
fanaticism, with its long (train of gloomy terrors, commenced its reign.
E 2

52 WILLIAM LAUD.
of Oxford, Laud added the impropriation of the
Vicarage of Cuddesden. In his native town of Reading
he founded an excellent school.
His character has been variously represented. He
was a man of strict integrity, sincere and zealous. He
was more given to interfere in matters of state than his
predecessors ; and this at a time when a jealousy of the
power of the clergy was increasing. Having naturally
a great warmth of temper, he was so ill fitted to contend
with the liberalizing party now so powerful, that it may
even be doubted whether a conciliating temper would
have had much effect in preventing their purposes
against the Church and State.
Whatever were Laud's faults, it cannot be denied
that he was condemned to death by an ordinance of
Parliament, in defiance of the statute of treason, of the
law of the land, and by a stretch qf prerogative greater
than any one of the Sovereign whom that Parliament
opposed. Publications. — 1. "Seven Sermons preached and
printed on several occasions ;" reprinted in 1651, 8vo.
— 2. " Short Annotations on the Life and Death of
King James I." drawn up at the desire of George
Duke of Bucks. — 3. " Answer to the Remonstrance
made by the House of Commons, in 1628."— 4. His
Diary, by Wharton, in 1694 ; with six other pieces,
and several letters, especially one to Sir Kenelm Digby,
" on his embracing popery." — 5. The second-volume of
the "Remains of Archbishop Laud, written by him
self," &c. 1700, folio.— 6. " Officium Quotidianum;
or, a Manual of Private Devotions ;" 1650, 8vo.— 7.
" A Summary of Devotions ;" 1667, 12mo. There are

WILLIAM LAUD. 53
about eighteen letters of his to Gerard John Vossius
printed by Colomesius, in his edition of "Vossii
Epistol." London, 1660, folio. Some other letters of
his are published at the end of Usher's Life, by Dr.
Parr, 1686, folio. And a few more by Dr. Twells, in
his " Life of Dr. Pococke," prefixed to that author's
Theological works, 1645, in two vols, folio.
Portraits. — There is an oil painting of Laud at
Wells Palace, see part I. p. 39 of this work, and seve
ral originals and copies, in various collections. For the
engraved portraits of him see p. 69. For his Arms see
p. 66.

54 LEONARD MA WE, D.D.
VII. LEONARD MAWE, D.D,
Succeeded A.D. 1628.— Died A.D. 1629.
Leonard Mawe, son of Simon Mawe, of Rendlesham,
Suffolk, gent, by Margery his wife, daughter and co
heir of Thomas Wyld, of Yorkshire, and of Alice his
wife, daughter and heir of John Jago, of Suffolk, was
born at Rendlesham, in that county, and admitted
Fellow of Peter House, Cambridge, July 5, 1525*; of
which Society he afterwards proceeded M.A. ; and on
July 5, 1599, was incorporated M.A. at Oxford.
He became successively Proctor, Master of Peter
House, Nov. 6, 1617f ; Master of Trinity College,
June 29, 1625J ; Prebendary of Wells, D.D. and Chap
lain to Prince Charles, whom he attended to Spain in
his visit to the Infanta. Of his government of Trinity
College, Fuller § speaks highly, observing, that " he
deserved well of that society, shewing what might be
done in five years by good husbandry to disengage that
foundation from a great debt."
In 1628, he became Bishop' of Bath and Wells ; he
was elected || July 24, and was consecrated at Croydon.
The Prelacy, however, he enjoyed barely one year,
* So Wood, Fasti, part I. col. 282. edit. Bliss, note 7, and not 1598, as in
the Hist, of Wells Cathed. p. 73.
t LeNeve, Fasti, p. 421. J Ib. p. 437.
§ Worthies, vol. II. p. 335, edit. 1811.
|| Le Neve, Fasti, p. 34.

LEONARD MAWE, D.D. 55
dying September 2, 1629, at Chiswick, where he was
buried.
The following note is among the archives of the
Heralds' College : — ¦
" The Right Rev. Father in God, Leonard Mawe,
" D.D. and Bishop of Bath and Wells, departed
" this mortal life the 2nd of September, 1629, at
" Chiswick, in the county of Middlesex, and was
" there interred the 16th of the same month. He
" made executors of his last will and testament, Mr.
" Nicholas Mawe and Mr. Thomas Burwell, his
" kinsmen, both Masters of Arts and Fellows of two
" several Colleges in Cambridge, the first of Trinity
" Hall, the other of Peter House."
" He had," says Fuller, " the reputation of a good
" scholar, a grave preacher, a mild man, and one of
" gentil deportment*."
Portraits. — There is an oil painting of this Prelate,
at Wells Cathedral, see part I. p. 39 of this work. I
know of no engraved portrait of him. None occurs in
our page 69, nor in Granger's Biographical History of
England. For his Arms see p. 66 of the first portion
of these Lives.

Worthies, vol. II. p. 333.

56 WALTER CURLE.
VIII. WALTER CURLE.
Succeeded A.D. 1629. — Trans, to Winchester,
A.D. 1632.
Died A.D. 1647.
This Prelate, who presided here only three years,
is better known as Bishop of Winchester, where he
presided fifteen ; was a native of Hatfield, Herts ; his
father being steward to the Cecil family there seated.
He became Fellow of Peter House, Cambridge, Vicar
of Plumstead *, Kent, in 1608, where he discharged all
the duties of an excellent pastor. He subsequently
became Rector of Bemerton, Wilts, and Mildenhall,
Suffolk ; Prebendary of Lyme and Halstock, in the
Cathedral of Salisbury ; Chaplain to the King ; Dean
of Lichfield, 1621 f ; Prolocutor of the Convocation,
1628; and successively Bishop of Rochester J, 1628;
Bath and Wells §, 1629; and Winchester, 1632.
When the puritanical rebellion took place, this
Prelate was a great sufferer for monarchy and episco
pacy, being one of the numerous list of those who tasted
of the tender mercies of the saints. He was in Win
chester when it was besieged by the Parliament forces,
and upon the surrender of that place, this loyal and

* Hasted, Hist. Kent. vol. II. p. 43.
f Le Neve, Fasti, p. 128; Willis in his Cathedrals, vol. I. p. 400, says
March 24, 1620.
I Register Abp. Abbott. Le Neve, Fasti, p. 251. § Ib. p. 251.

WALTER CURLE. 57
upright Prelate retired to the house of his sister, at
Soberton, in Hants, where he died, 1647.
"He had," says Walker*, "a temporal estate
" which was put under sequestration, nor was he
" allowed to compound for it, because he would not
" take the covenant. He was a man of very great
" charity to the poor, and expended large sums in
" the repairs of Churches. I think he hath only one
" sermon extant."
His noble palace at Bishop's Waltham, was ruined
during the rebellion of the Saints, and is at this day
level with the ground.
In Richardson's continuation of Bishop Godwin, the
subjoined notices occur under the different Sees Bishop
Curie filled:—
Rochester. — " LXXX. — Successit Gualterus Curie
" Ecclesia? Lichfeldensis Decanus, consecratus sep-
" timo die Septembris, 1628 {Registr. Abbot, par. II.
" f. 156), inde ad Diocesin Bathonio- Wellensem, et
" deinde ad Wintoniensem postea translatus,"
p. 539. Bath and Wells. — " LV. In defuncti locum suc-
" cessit Walterus Curie Episcopus Roffensis quarto
" Decembris, 1629 {Registr. Abbot, par. III. f. 6), et
" ab hac diocesi ad Wintoniensem migravit, 1632 :
" ubi de eo plura," p. 322.
Winchester. — "LXXI. Translato Ricardo [Neile]

* Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 76. This work should be read by the
Evangelical Clergy, and those who advocate Bible Societies, and other
disguised organs of schism .

58 WALTER CURLE.
" Gualterus Curie a Diocesi Bathonio-Wellensi
" translatus, confirmatus est decimo sexto Novem-
" bris, 1632. Natus apud Hatfield in comitatu
" Hertford. Collegii D. Petri Cantabr. aliquando
" socius. Grassante bello civili partium Regiarum
" adjutor operam strenuam utilemque navavit in
" urbe Wintoniensi obsessus et oppugnatus ; et cum
" Solennis Ligae et Foederis, (Anglice, The Covenant)
" ut dicitur, juramentum sibi imperatum recusaret,
" non reditibus solum ecclesiasticis, verum etiam pa-
" trimonio et hasreditatibus privatis exutus et spo-
" liatus [Such was the liberality of the Dissenters of
" those days !] ad villam Subberton in agro Hanto-
" niensi recessit, ubi diem supremum obiit circiter
" 1650," p. 242-3.
The Roman Catholic Bishop, Milner, adds, " In the
" first year of his accession to this See, (Winchester,)
" he set on foot many improvements respecting the
" Cathedral. Several nuisances and encroachments
" were removed ; the south-end of the Cathedral
" had been so blocked up, that there was no way
" northward of going into the Close, without, going
" through the Church itself; these obstructions he
" removed, and opened a passage where the houses
" had stood. The Church doors were kept shut,
" except for service ; and the inside of the venerable
" pile began to receive certain decorations and im-
" provements, which were executed with the li-
" berality, if not with the taste, of a Fox or Wyke-
" ham. The Vicar-general ordered the same regu-
" lations for this Cathedral as had been introduced
" into that of Canterbury (Collier, pt. XI. p. 762),

WALTER CURLE. 59
" viz. new ornaments of plate and hangings were
" provided for the altar, which was placed in the
" altar situation, (i. e.) against the eastern screen ;
" the same was also now railed in, and the Preben-
" daries were obliged, by oath, to bow towards the
" altar at their going in or coming out of the choir.
" In addition to surplices, four copes were also pro-
" vided, which were ordered to be used on all Sun-
" days and holidays. (Ibid.) The use of pictures
" and images in Churches was also countenanced,
" and the defacers of them were severely censured
" and punished. (See Collier, Rapin.) Finally,
" Bishop Curie was so rigorous in exacting a com-
" pliance with these or similar statutes, throughout
" his whole diocese, that he obliged all church-
" wardens to take an oath that they would denounce
" to him, or to his officers, such clergymen as were
" wanting in the observance of them."
Portraits.— ^There is an oil painting of the Bishop
at Wells Palace, see part I. p. 39 of the Lives of the
Bishops of Bath and Wells. For engraved portraits
see part I. of the same, p. 70. Granger thus notices
this Bishop and his portrait : — " Gualterus Curie, epis-
" copus Wintoniensis periscel. praesul ; T. Cecill, sc.
" h. sh. Walter Curie, Lord Almoner to Charles I.
" was a Prelate of eminent abilities, and of an ex-
" emplary character. (Consecrated 7th September,
" 1628. Translated from Bath and Wells, 16th
" November, 1632.) In 1628, he was Prolocutor
" of the Convocation, being at that time Dean of
" Lichfield. He was successively Bishop of Ro-
" Chester, Bath and Wells, and Winchester. He
13

60 WALTER CURLE.
" expended large sums in acts of charity and muni-
" ficence ; repaired several churches ; promoted the
" expensive work of the Polyglot Bible ; and out
" of the small remains of his estate, relieved many
" a starving royalist. He died himself in narrow
" circumstances, having been a great sufferer by the
" civil war. Walker thinks that he has but one
"sermon extant*. Obiit 1647." — Biographical
History qf England, vol. ii. p. 156.
Arms. — See Part I. p. 66, of our Lives of the
Bishops of Bath and Wells. In Hatfield Church is
the following inscription, as recorded by Chauncey,
History qf Herts, p. 313. The William Curie named
in that inscription was probably the Bishop's father :
Hic requiescit corpus Willielmini Curie, Armigeri
tunc illustrissima? Reginas Elizabethae qui potentiss
 Cur. Wardorum et Libaconum— — [functus]
est officio summa fide et integritate: faelix liberis
et amicis, vera fide Christiana beatam carnis sperans
resurrectionem, placide obdormivit in somnio 16 die
Aprilis, anno dom. 1617, et aetat. suae 71.
There is but little doubt that Bishop Curie himself
was buried in Soberton Church, Hants. A monument,
apparently that of a Bishop, and of that period, is
extant there, though the inscription is illegible. The
Parish Registers of Soberton about the period of this
Prelate's death (1647) are scarcely legible. A female
descendant of the Bishop, viz. Maria Lewis, who died
at the age of thirty-two, A.D. 1709, lies interred under

Vide supra.

WALTER CURLE. 61
a marble monument there. Bishop Curie is called, in
the inscription, her ' proavus.'
Bishop Curie was the last Protestant Bishop of this
See, before the subversion of Monarchy and Episco
pacy, by the Dissenters of that day.
From Lloyd's Memoires, 1668, fol. p. 597:
" Dr. Walter Curie, born in Strafford, near Hat-
" field, my Lord Cecil's house, to whom his father
" was serviceable in detecting several plots referring
" to the Queen of Scots, as his agent ; and in settling
" the estate he had from the Queen of England, as
" his Steward. And by whom he was made Auditor
, " of the Court of Wards to Queen Elizabeth and
" King James, and his Son preferred in Christ
" College and Peter House in Cambridge. His
" Lord gave him a good living, as a scene of his
" abilities ; his good carriage in that place, (where
" was no quarrel grown into a lawsuit during his
" time, — where he did nothing below his function,
" and was resolute in suppressing all houses of
" debauchery, regulating the disorders he found
" there, by the rules of Christian piety and the
" known measures of Laws, gaining many dissenters
" from the Church by wise and meek discourses,
" and by a good example, leaving the obstinate to
" the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws)
" commended him to his Majesty's immediate ser-
" vice as Chaplain ; who preferred him to the
" deanery of Lichfield, in which capacity he was
" Prolocutor of the Convocation, 1628, afterwards
" he was made Bishop of Rochester, 1628, and then
" Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1629, upon his friend

62 WALTER CURLE.
" and contemporary's death (Bishop Mawe) and at
" last of Winchester, after his Patron, Bishop
" Neil's translation to York ; a charitable reliever *
" in all places, of God's poor, his living temples ;
" and a careful repairer of his temples and houses,
" his dead poor. Much maliced, because a strict
" asserter of the Church's authority, yet not hurt,
" because wary in the exercise of his own ; insomuch
" that at the yielding of Winchester, where he was
" during the war, Peters and the faction, that hated
" his function, were very civil to his person ; having
" ignorance enough not to understand his worth,
" and not malice enough to disparage it. After he
"had given most of his estate to his Master, and
" lost the rest, promoting the Polyglot Bible, and
" any thing that seemed serviceable to the afflicted
" Church, he died 1650 f deserving the character
" of one of his predecessors J : Vir fuit summa
" pietate, doctrina etiam singulari."

• He was Lord Almoner to King Charles I.
f This date is wrong. The record in the Heralds' College, which I
conceive of paramount authority, states that this demise happened in 1647.
X Bishop Rush, Harpsfield, Hist. Eccles. Aug. 15, Saeculo, c. 24.

WILLIAM PIERSE. 63
IX. WILLIAM PIERSE.
Succeeded A.D. 1632.— Died A.D. 1670.
William Pierse *, son of William Pierse, who fol
lowed the humble trade of a hatter ; or, as Anthony
Wood oddly terms it, " a haberdasher of hats," was
nephew or near of kin to Dr. John Pierse, Archbishop
of York, a native of South Hinxey, near Abingdon, and
was born in the Parish of AU Saints, Oxford, in Au
gust, where he was baptized, September 3, 1580. In
1596 he became Student of Christ Church College,
Oxford, and taking the degrees of Arts, applied to the
study of divinity, and was, for a time, Preacher in and
near Oxford. Subsequently, being made Chaplain to
Dr. King, Bishop of London, he was preferred, De
cember 18, 1611, to the Vicarage of Northall, Mid
dlesex. In 1644, he proceeded in divinity, being,
about that time, divinity reader in St. Paul's Cathe
dral. On the 19th June, 1615, he was appointed to
the Rectory of St. Christopher's Church, near the
Old Exchange, London. On the 31st of January,
1616, he was installed Canon of Christ Church f,
Oxford (5th stall). He was, on the 16th March,
1617, collated to the Prebend of Wyldlond ; and, in
1618, was made Dean of Christ Church, Oxford $.

* The name, though it has been erroneously written otherwise, is so
spelled on his epitaph, and also in the register of his burial, at Walthamstow.
t Ath. Oxon. Vol. I. p. 260. old edit, and Le Neve, Fasti, p. 236.
X A. Wood says, ' Chester,' but that is incorrect, for Thomas Mallory was
installed Dean of Chester in 1606, and held it till his death, in 1644. Peter
borough is the true reading, see Willis, Cathedrals, p. 507.

64 WILLIAM PIERSE.
In June 9, 1622, he was installed Dean of Peterbo
rough *.
In 1621, 22, 23, he filled the office of Vice-chancellor
of Oxford University, and showed such firmness in op
posing those who were then called Anti-Arminians, that
he gained, as might naturally be expected, the good opi
nion of Laud, then a rising star in the courtly hemis
phere ; and this good-will was the precursor of his
patronage, for that judicious and sensible Prelate was
not a man to overlook the merit of orthodox Clergy
men ; he was too sound a son of the Church to let his
patronage slip through his fingers to the proteges of
the great, while he left himself without the means of
rewarding and encouraging the zealous defenders of
the Establishment. Laud's policy and right feeling
would not permit his leaving the sound and orthodox
to languish in obscure country curacies, and he had
honesty enough to think that those who ventured upon
the unpopular step of defending our Sion against the
encroachments of dissenters or papists, had the fairest
claim to be defended by the Church.
In 1630 Dr. Pierse had the bishopric of Peterbo
rough f conferred on him, vacant by the death of Dr.
Thomas Dove, to which being elected, he had the
temporalities thereof given to him on the 30th October,
and installation on the 14th of November, the same
year. While he sat there, which was but a short time,

• LeNeve {Fasti, p. 233) says he succeeded, December 16, 1618, to a
Canonry of Christ Church, Oxford (1 st stall).
t See Bridges, Hist Northamptonshire, Vol. II. p 560.

WILLIAM PIERSE. 65
he was esteemed a man of parts, well read in divinity,
and the laws, was very vigilant and active for the good
both of the ecclesiastical and civil state. In October,
1632, he was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells,
upon the translation of Dr. Curie to Winchester ; the
temporalities of which see being given to * him on the
20th of December the same year, he continued there,
without any other translation, to the time of his death.
" As for his actions," says Atwood, " in the Dio-
" cese of Bath and Wells, before the grand rebellion
" broke out, which were very offensive to the puri-
" tanical party, (who often attested that he brought
" innovations therein and into his Church, suppressed
" preaching lectures, and persecuted those who
" refused to rail in the Lord's table, &c, in his
" diocese, let one of them named William Prynne, a
" great enemy to the Hierarchy f, speak, yet the
" reader maybe pleased to suspend his judgment, and
" not to believe all which that person saith. When
" the Bishops were silenced, and their lands sold by
" that Parliament, called, by the faction, the * blessed
" Parliament,' he lived retiredly on a considerable
" estate of his own, (sometimes at Cudesden, near
" Oxford) and' married a second wife, which is well
" known to all the neighbourhood there ; yet the
" said Mr. Prynne would needs % persuade us that

• Pat. 8. Car. 1. p. 14.
f In his book called Canterbury's Doom.
X In his book entitled A new Discovery of some Romish Emissaries',
Quakers, 8;c. Lond. 1656. qu. p. 32.
PART II. F

66 WILLIAM PIERSE.
" he was reduced to such extremity, that in Novem-
" ber, 1655, he went to an honourable Knight of
" his acquaintance, in Westminster, and complained
" that he had not bread for him and his to put into
" their mouths, intreating his favour to procure a
" lecturer's or curate's place, (which he, by all the
" friends he had, could never obtain) to keep him
" from starving. Whereupon the Knight minded
" him of his former speeches and cruelty towards
" other Lecturers and Ministers whom (as he added)
" he reduced to extreme poverty ; wishing him to
" take special notice how God had justly requited
" him in his own kind. So as the judgment threat-
" ened against Eli's posterity, 1 Samuel ii. 36, was
" then actually fallen on that great Prelate, &c."
Bishop Pierse died at Walthamstow, in April, 1670,
and was there buried. The following Extract of his
burial, and copy of his monumental Inscription, were
obligingly communicated to me by the Rev. W. Wilson,
the Minister of that Parish.
" 1670, May 19 th,
" Then was buried the right reverend father in
" God, William, Lord Bipp. qf Bath and Wells.
" viz. Dr. Wm. Pierse, being 94 years old*."
Inscription on a flat stone, within the Communion
rails, supposed to cover only a single brick grave.
" Hic jacet R. Praesul Guil. Pierse, qui a sede
" Petriburgensi ad Bathoniensem et Wellensem
" translatus fuit Anno Caroli I. 8° a qua, temporum

* " The oldest Bp. in Christendom either in respect of age or Consecration."

WILLIAM PIERSE. 67
" iniquitate proturbatus fuit usque ad reditum Caroli
" 2di restitutus. Templum Cathedrale Wellense
" reparavit, Episcopale Palatium excedificavit, ccelis
" maturus terris valedixit an. aet. 94, Salut. 1670."
In 1660, he was restored to his Bishopric, and by
the great fines and renewings that then came in, he
was rewarded in some degree for his sufferings : but
his said second wife, too young and cunning for him,
got what she could from the children he had by his
first wife, and wheedling him to Walthamstow, in
Essex, got thousands of pounds and his plate from him
(as the common report at Wells is) which, of right,
should have gone to his said children.
There are two Sermons by Bishop Pierse, in print,
preached during his restraint in the Tower, with other
Bishops that were committed thither by the Parlia
ment, A.D. 1641, both on 2 Corinthians xii. 8, 9. —
Lend. 1642. qu.
He left behind him a son of both his names, created
D.D. in 1661, though of less merit than sufferings;
and another, called John Pierse, who, being a layman,
had a lay-prebend, in the Church of Wells, bestowed
on him by his father *. He lived mostly at Denton,

* John Pierse, second son, as A. Wood hints, of Dr. William Pierse
Bishop of Bath and Wells, lived at Denton, in the Parish of Cuddesden
near Oxford ; his elder brother was Dr. William Pierse j and one of the said
sons (I cannot say which) left two sons, John and William Pierse. John now
lives at Deftton, in the Parish of Cuddesden. William was sent to Merchant
Taylor's School, and thence to Emanuel College, in Cambridge, of which he
became Fellow, and has put out two Tragedies of Euripides, in Greek and
Latin, with Notes, and the Greek Scholia, and being a man of learning and
ndustry, the world may expect more from him. — Hearne, MS. Collections,
x. 145.
f2

68 WILLIAM PIERSE.
in the Parish of Cudesden, near Oxon (where his
father had settled an estate on him) and, dying 28th
November, 1670, was buried in the Church at Cudes
den ; whereupon his prebend was converted to the use
of a Clergyman.
In a petition of Dr. Bastwick, Burton, and the noto
rious schismatic Prynne, to the King's most excellent
Majesty, complaining of this Bishop's innovations, as
they call them, they say : —
" William Pierse, Bishop of Bath and Wells,
" within three years last past, hath most unjustly,
" several times, one after another, excommunicated
" the Churchwardens of Beckington, Somerset, for
" refusing to remove the Communion Table in the
" Church there, from the place where it anciently
" stood, decently railed in with wainscot, to rail it
" altarwise, against the east end of the Chancel, and
" likewise threatened to excommunicate the Church-
" wardens ofthe Parish of Batcombe, Somerset, for
" not blotting out of their Church-wall, upon his
" command, this sacred Scripture thereon written:
" Isaiah lviii. 13, 14. If thou turn away thy foot
" from the Sabbath, &c, calling it, most blasphem-
" ously, ' a Jewish place of Scripture, not fit to
" be suffered in the Church;' and, upon their
" refusal to obliterate it, he sent his Chaplain
" with a plasterer, to see it wiped out, who exe
cuted this his command." Ex Apogr. penes me
W. Kennet.
Articles of accusation and impeachment by the
Commons House of Parliament, against William Pierse,
D.D. Bishop of Bath and Wells, are inserted between

WILLIAM PIERSE. 69
pages 304 and 305 of Prynne's Antipathie of the
English Lordly Prelacie both to regall Monarchy and
civil Unity. Lond. 1641. 4to.
Portraits. — There is no Portrait of Bishop Pierse in
the Palace at Wells, nor do I find any engraved Por
trait of him ; neither are any Arms belonging to him
recorded at the Heralds' College.

70 ROBERT CREIGHTON.
X. ROBERT CREIGHTON.
Succeeded A.D. 1670.— Died 1672.
This Prelate, descended, as appears from his monu
mental inscription, on his mother's side, from the noble
and royal house of Stuart, was born at Dunkeld, in
1593, and was educated at Westminster, whence he
was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he
took his degrees in Arts, and was chosen Greek Pro
fessor and University Orator.
In 1631, March 18, he was installed Prebendary of
Castor, in the Cathedral of Lincoln *. In 1632, De
cember 17f, he was made Canon Residentiary of
Wells, and had a living in Somersetshire, the name
of which is unknown. He was also appointed Trea
surer of Wells Cathedral by Archbishop Abbot,
during the interregnum in the prelacy of that See
between Bishops Curl and Pierse. From the circum
stance of Creighton, (whose religious principles are
unfortunately not sufficiently known) being thus pa
tronized by Archbishop Abbot, one is naturally led to
suspect that he was, at least at that period, puri
tanically inclined, though subsequently he appears
among loyalists and orthodox churchmen, from having
probably seen the unchristian nature and fatal effects
of religious dissent.
In 1637 he took the degree of D.D. at Cambridge,
and is recorded as having had the Deanery of Burien,

Willis Calheds. vol. ii. p. 164. f Le Neve, Fasti, p. 40.

ROBERT CREIGHTON. 71
in Cornwall, but this seems uncertain *. In the begin
ning of the Dissenters' rebellion, Dr. Creighton's
loyalty endangered his person and property; and to
save the former he joined the King's troops at Ox
ford f, but he was afterwards obliged to make his
escape into Cornwall, in the dress of a day-labourer,
and embarked in order to join Charles II. abroad,
who employed him as his chaplain, and bestowed on
him the Deanery of Wells, of which he took possession
at the Restoration J.
In 1670 he became Bishop of Bath and Wells,
being elected May 25, confirmed June 17, and con
secrated the 19th ; but he held the See but little
more than a year and a half, his death occurring
November 21, 1672. He was buried in Wells Ca
thedral. Vide infra.
Character. — He was esteemed a man of much learn
ing, and in the discharge of his duty as a preacher,
he had the spirit boldly to inveigh against the sins of
a licentious court, and to rebuke vice openly, even to
the face of those who practised it in the highest sta
tions. This apostolic line of conduct, unlike that of
those " Who never mention Hell to ears polite,"
although perhaps it produced not much effect on those

* See Salmon's Lives of the Bishops from the Restoration to the
Reformation, p. 160.
t See the list of Bishops who had been engaged in the profession of
arms, in the life of Bishop Mew, Creighton's successor in this See.
X Le Neve, Fasti, p. 37-

72 ROBERT CREIGHTON.
to whom it was addressed, at least caused him to be
esteemed in the eyes of the King, who showed his
good sense by expressing his regard for those who
fearlessly reproved what it was their duty to protest
against. Works. — Bishop Creighton's only publication, I
believe, was a translation from Greek into Latin of
Sylvester Sygurophilus's History of the Council of
Florence, (Hague, 1660, fol.) which was animadverted
upon by Leo Allatius, to whom the Bishop replied.
A. Wood says that some Sermons of his are extant in
print. One Robert Creighton, S.T.B. was installed, No
vember 2, 1674, two years after the Bishop's death,
into the Praecentorship of Wells.
Mr. Chalmers says, the " Bishop's son, who was
Chanter of Wells, published a volume of Sermons in
1720." But I think this is some mistake. It is pos
sible, though one would hardly suppose this volume
would synchronize with the Bishop's son ; because the
Bishop died in 1672, aged 79, the volume therefore
appeared nearly fifty years after the Bishop's death ;
and allowing that the son was between ten and twenty
at his father's death, he made this his literary debut
when between sixty and seventy. If written by the
son, I should suppose it was not published by himself,
but posthumously.
Monument, &c. — In St. John's Chapel, in Wells
Cathedral, on the eastern side, is the ponderous marble
tomb and effigy of this Prelate. In front of the pe
destal are three shields displaying the arms of the
deceased, — of the See of Wells, — and of the latter

ROBERT CREIGHTON. 73
combined with those of Bath Abbey. An inscribed
tablet, and an elliptical pediment, fronted by a shield
of the arms of the See, impaling Creighton, surmounted
by a mitre, complete the design *.
Epitaph. — " Robertus Creighton natus Deucaledoniae
[Dunkeld] in Boreali Scotia, per patrem Thomam ex
antiquis Ruvenias [Ruthven] Toparchis : Per matrem
Margaretam Stuart, Johannis Jacobidae filiam, ex
illustrissima familia Stuartorum comitum Atholiae,
Johannis Secundi Scotiae Regis a Fratre Pronepos, &c."
In Wells Cathedral there is a monument to the
memory of Francisca Creighton, daughter of William
Walrond, widow of Bishop Creighton. She died
October 30, 1683.
Portraits. — There is a Portrait of Bishop Creighton
at Wells Palace. An engraved portrait of him is a
desideratum with the print collector. See a list of the
portraits of the Bishops now in Bishop Law's collec
tion at Wells Palace, at p. 39 of the first part of this
work. Arms. — Bishop Creighton's Arms, as recorded in
the Heralds' College, are stated at p. 66 of the first
part of this work.

Britton, Hist. Wells Cathed. p. 113.

74 PETER MEWS.
XL— PETER MEWS, LL.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1672. — Trans, to Winchester,
A.D. 1684.
Died A.D. 1706.
Bishop Mews was son of Elisha Mews, of Purse-
Candle, near Sherborne, Dorset, and nephew of
Thomas Winniffe, D.D. who was a native of Sher
borne, and became Dean of St. Paul's, and in 1642,
Bishop of Lincoln. Bishop Winniffe died 1654.
Wood, in his Athenoe Oxonienses, new edition, vol.
IV. p. 888. thus speaks of this Prelate : —
" Peter Mews, son of Elizeus [Elisha] Mews, of
" Candle-Purse, or Purse Caundell, in Dorsetshire,
" was born there [March 25] or in that county
" [1619]; educated a scholar in Merchant Taylor's
" School, in London * ; elected of St. John's Col-
" lege, Oxford, anno 1637, aged eighteen years ;
" afterwards was made Fellow, and when the puri-
" tanical rebellion broke out in 1642, he took up
"arms for his Majesty King Charles If- In the
" year 1645, he proceeded in Arts, and when the
" parliamentarian visitors sat in 1648, he was ejected
" from his Fellowship and the University. After-

* See History of Colleges and Public Schools, p. 22 ; and Carlisle's
Endowed Grammar Schools, vol. II. p. 68. — Edit.
t Bishop Burnet says, he had been a captain and Middleton's Secretary,
when he was sent to command the insurrection that the Highlanders of Scot
land made for the King in 1653. — Hist, of his own Times, vol. II. p. 209,
edit. 1818.

PETER MEWS. 75
" wards he served his Majesty in Scotland, and
" when his cause declined there, he spent several *
" years in other countries beyond the seas [especially
" Holland], and underwent many troubles and
" dangers. In July, 1660, Charles II. being then
" restored, he was made Archdeacon of Huntingdon,
" in the place of Dr. Richard Holdsworth, some
" years before that time dead ; and in December
" following was created LL.D., being about that
" time one ofthe King's Chaplains and Vicar of St.
" Mary's Church in Reading, co. Berks f. On
" October 30, 1662, he was installed Canon of
" Windsor, in the place of Dr. Henry Carpenter,
" deceased ; and about that time became Canon of
" St. David's. In 1665, he was made Archdeacon
"of Berksj in the place of John Ryves, LL.D.
" deceased ; and soon after giving up his Arch-
" deaconry of Huntingdon, William Johnson, D.D.
" famous for his book called Deus Nobiscum, suc-
" ceeded. In 1667, Dr. Mews was elected Pre-
" sident of St. John's College, in the place of Dr.
" Richard Baylie, deceased J; had the golden Pre-
" bendship of St. David's bestowed on him ; and in
" 1669-70 and 71, he discharged, with great credit

* See Hist, and Antiq. Oxon, lib. I. p. 367, a.
+ He had also the living of South- Warnborough, Hants. — Edit.
t Dr. Mew was President of St. John's College, Oxford, from1 1667 to
1673, when he was succeeded by William Levinz. See Ayliff's Hist, of
Oxford, vol. I. p. 504. — Edit.
13

76 PETER MEWS.
" to himself, the office of Vice-chancellor of
" this University, (Oxford). On the 4th of August,
" 1670, he was installed Dean of Rochester, in the
"place of Dr. Nathaniel Hardy*, deceased; and
" upon the death of Dr. Robert Creighton, he
" was nominated to succeed him as Bishop of
" Bath and Wells, whereupon, being consecrated to
" that See at Lambeth (with Dr. Pearson to Chester),
" on Shrove Sunday, February 9, 1672, he sat there
" several years. In the beginning of November,
" 1684, he was declared by the King in council,
" Bishop of Winchester, in the room of Dr. George
" Morley then lately deceased, and soon after was
" translated to that See. In June, 1685, he ap-
" peared in actual service for James II. against the
" rebels, conducted by James, Duke of Monmouth :
" his services being very signal, his Majesty was gra-
" ciously pleased to reward him with a rich f medal.
" After that King withdrew himself into France, he
" adhered to King William III. and took the oaths
" as due to him."
Richardson, in his continuation of Godwin, speaks of
him under the two Sees he filled, in the following
words : —
Bath and Wells .- p. 392.—" LVIII. Februarii

* Dr. Mews resigned the Deanery of Rochester in 1572.— Hist, and
Antiq. of Rochester Cathedral, p. 193. Lond. 8vo. 1723.
f He managed the artillery at the Battle of Sedgmoor, Somerset, between
Weston and Bridgewater, in 1685. See Guthrie's Hist. Engl. vol. IV. and
other histories.

PETER MEWS. 77
" nono 1672, Car. 2, 24 (Regist. Shelden, f. 108),
" Petrus Mews Legum Doctor, Ecclesiae Roffensis
" Decanus ad hanc Dicecesin fuit evocatus, unde ad
" Wintoniensem migravit mense Novembri, 1684."
Winchester: p. 244. — " LXXIV. Successit,
" Petrus Mews, L.L.D. 1684, Car. 2, 36, natu
" Dorsetensis, (In parochia de Purscandle 25, Martii,
" 1618, Elizei filius) Collegii D. Joannis Baptistaa
" Oxon, et Socius et Prseses, Ecclesiae Windesor
" Canonicus, deinde Episcopus Bathonio-Wellensis,
" et inde ad ecclesiam Wintoniensem translatus
" secundo Novembris, 1684 (Registr. Sander, f.
" 103). Ardente bello civili Regiis in castris sti-
" pendia meruerat honesti nominis miles impiger.
" Post Caroli nefandum excidium, filium comitatus
" in Belgiam transiit fortunarum adversarum socius,
" prosperarum modo futurus particeps. Obiit nono
" Novembris, 1706, astatis 89, et in Ecclesia sua
" Cathedrali jacet tumulatus."
Walker, in his Sufferings of the Clergy, pt. II. p.
1 19, says, " Bishop Mews was once in danger of being
hanged by the rebels, so conspicuous was he as a
royalist." A circumstance alone sufficient to conse
crate his character and embalm his memory in the
estimation of every loyal man, in spite of what Burnet
says of him.
Bishop Mew is memorable, inter alia, for having
settled the dispute concerning the nomination of a pre
sident to Magdalen College, Oxford, which had been
referred to him as Visitor. His decision cohfirmed the
celebrated Dr. Hough in that office. See Wilmot's
Life of Bishop Hough.

78 PETER MEWS.
I find he gave 100/. to St. Paul's Cathedral. See
New Survey of London, p. 467, and Walker, ut supra.
Character by Wood. — " He was much beloved and
" admired for his hospitality, generosity, justice, and
" frequent preaching." To which the Oxford His
torian should have added — loyalty and devotedness to
his King : and courage and zeal in his service.
 by Bishop Burnet [who speaks of him in
a cynical and very uncandid way]. " After that," [i. e.
having been a Captain in the Army, and Secretary to
Middleton, vide supra, in a note] " he went into Orders,
" and though he knew very little of divinity or of
" any other learning (an unfair presumption, adopted
" no doubt only from the fact of his having been
" once a soldier,) and was weak to a childish degree,"
[non constat, unless being a zealous royalist be a mark
of weakness.] " yet obsequiousness and zeal raised
" him through several steps to the See of Win-
" Chester." — Hist, of his own Times, vol. II. p. 209,
new edition of 1818. — One so firmly attached to his
Sovereign, deserved a better character. His advance
ment was the just reward of his unshaken attachment
and dutiful submission to his royal master, in whose
defence he hazarded his life. It is ungenerous and
unfair in the extreme, in an historian, to apply to such
laudable qualities, the designations adopted by Burnet.
Hutchins, the' historian of Dorset, (new edition,
1815) vol. IV- p. 20, thus oddly records the mode
of this Prelate's death : — " he was suffocated by a
phial of hartshorn poured down his throat by mistake."
— How could the phial have been poured down his
throat? I suspect, however, that Hutchins has con-

PETER MEWS. 79
founded the death of the Bishop with that of the
Bishop's nephew. See Atterbury's Letters, vol. III.
p. 537.
Bishop Mew lived until the sixth year of the last
century, and died November 9, 1706, at Farnham
castle, aged 89. His death is said to have been fore
told by a youth of Winchester School, who also fore
told the time of his own. See Gale's' History qf
Winchester, p. 49, of the old edition, and p. 44 of the
re-print of that very scarce work in vol. I. of Cassan's
Lives of the Bishops of Winchester. He was buried in
what Milner calls ' the Angel Guardian Chapel, in Win
chester Cathedral,' in the Lord Treasurer Weston's
vault. — His episcopal insignia, the Mitre and Crozier,
are still displayed, being suspended against a column.
The following is the monumental inscription : —
M.S.
Petri Mews, D.D.
Nuper Episcopi Winton.
Qui a studiis Academicis
Iniquitate temporum violenter abrepti
Pro Rege, pro Patria, pro Religione
Militiae se dedit.
In qua intemeratam in Ecclesiam et Monarchiam fidem
Abunde testatam fecit.
There is also a small flat stone marking the grave of
the Bishop, thus inscribed: —
H. S. E.
Petrus Mews,
Winton Epus.
. Obiit. IX. Nov".
1706.

80 PETER MEWS.
See Ball's Hist. Winchester, p. 126, and also Gale's
Winchester, p. 49, who gives only the latter inscrip
tion. Arms, borne by Mew of Candle-Purse. Or, 3 pales
Gul. On a chief azure 3 cross crosslets Arg. A dif
ferent coat, however, is ascribed to this Prelate in the
Heralds' College, see part I. p. 66 ofthe Lives ofthe
Bishops of Bath and Wells.
Portraits. — There is a painting of this Prelate in the
dining-room at Farnham castle. He is represented in
his episcopal robes, and has a black patch on his face,
to cover a wound received in battle. A circumstance
which, however incongruous with the episcopal cha
racter, is nevertheless an honourable mark of his valour
in his sovereign's cause. Nor is Mews the only cler
gyman who wielded the arms of human warfare, and
also arrived at prelatical dignity. John Dolben, suc
cessively Bishop of Rochester and Archbishop of
York had been an ensign in the royal army at the seige
of York, and the battle of Marston-Moor, where he
was dangerously wounded in the shoulder by a musket
ball. He was afterwards a major, and having entered
into holy orders, rose to be an Archbishop. John
Fell, Bishop of Oxford in 1675, had been an ensign in
the same cause with Dolben. William Beaw, or Bew,
who became Bishop of Llandaff in 1679, had been a
major in the King's service ; and John Lake, succes
sively Bishop of Sodor and Man, 1682, Bishop of Bris
tol, 1684, and Bishop of Chichester, in 1685, had also
been in the army ; as also Robert Creighton, then D.D.
afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells. — Mews is the
only instance, I recollect, since the Reformation, of a

PETER MEWS. 81
Bishop actually taking the field : though I see no reason
why he should not, if he can thereby serve his King, and
uphold the Church. Engraved portraits of Mews are
noticed in part I. p. 70 of these Memoirs. See also
Granger's Biographical History of England, vol. III.
p. 237. There is a portrait of him in St. John's Col
lege, Oxford, of which he was President.
A sketch of the Bishop's life occurs in Salmon's
Lives qf the Bishops from the Restoration to the Re
volution, at p. 348. He is also noticed in Hutchin's
Hist, of Dorset, vol. II. p. 345, whose remarks are here
embodied. The nephew of Bishop Mew, a very pious and
worthy man, was ejected at the restoration from the
living of Milborne-Port, Somerset ; and though he
continued attached to the doctrines, liturgy, and conr
stitution of the Church of England, yet could never
be induced by his uncle, from any hopes of prefer
ment, to conform and take the oaths then required
of Ministers of the Establishment.

Synopsis qf Dates, Preferments, %c. connected with
Bishop Mews.
Born, 1618-19.
Elected Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, 1637.
Bachelor of Arts, 1641.
Master of Arts, 1645.
Ejected from his Fellowship, 1648.
Collated Archdeacon of Huntingdon, November 19,
PART II. G

82 PETER MEWS.
1649, though not installed until September 12, 1660;
resigned 1665. — Willis's Cathedrals, vol. II. p. 108,
and Le Neve's Fasti, p. 160.
LL.D. 1660.
King's Chaplain, Vicar of St Mary's, Reading, and
Rector of South- Warnborough, Hants, about the same
period. Canon of Windsor, 1662 : installed October 30.—
Le Neve's Fasti, p. 386.
Canon of St David's about the same period.
Collated Archdeacon of Berks, 1665, August 30. —
History and Antiq. of Sarum and Bath, p. 303, and
Le Neve's Fasti,' p. 280.
President of St. John's College, Oxford, 1667 to
1673. Prebendary of Durham, 1667.
Vice Chancellor of Oxford, 1669-70-71.— Le Neve's
Fasti, p. 467.
Dean of Rochester, 1670, Le Neve's Fasti, p. 468.
Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1672.
Bishop of Winchester, 1684.
Died November 9, 1706, aged 87; and was buried
in his Cathedral. — Le Neve's Fasti, p. 288, and
Registr. Winton*.

* In the time of the truly orthodox Bishop Pretyman Tomline, there
were only four Episcopal Portraits at Farnham Castle, viz. those of Bishops
Morlet, Mews. Thomas, and North.

THOMAS KEN. 83
XII. THOMAS KEN, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1684.— Deprived, A.D. 1690.—
Died A.D. 1710.
The following is a reprint of Hawkins's Life of the
Bishop. London, 8vo. 1713:—
" Thomas, youngest son of Thomas Ken, of
" Furnival's Inn, by Martha his wife, was born at
" Berkhamstead, Herts, in 1637. His father's family
" was of great antiquity *, and had possessed a very
" plentiful fortune for many generations, having
" been known by the name of the Ken's, of Ken-
" place, an estate now in possession of the Earl
" Poulett, who descends from an heiress of the
" Kens f.
" When he was about the age of he was
" sent to Winchester College, where he contracted
" that friendship, so closely at length cemented,
" between himself and that afterward most truly
" pious prelate, Dr. Francis Turner, late Bishop of
" Ely ; and where his parts, application, and beha-
" viour, were so well employed and observed, that
" at the age of he was elected to New College,
" Oxon ; where he took his degree of B.A., May 3,
" 1661, and that of M.A. January 21, 1664 ; B.D.
" 1678, and D.D. June 30, 1679. But by reason

* A. Wood says his father was an attorney. — [Ed.]
t John, Lord Paulett of Hinton St. George, married Christian, daughter
and heir of Christopher Ken, of Ken in Com' Som' Esq. Dugd. Bar.
g2

84 THOMAS KEN.
" he out-lived all, or most of his contemporaries,
" and that therefore little account of his behaviour
" in that place can be had, I shall not render this
" whole account suspicious, by inserting surmise
" where I intend to advance nothing but what may
" evidently be made appear. I shall only add this,
" that as soon as his circumstances would permit, he
" gave them upwards of 100/. as a small acknow-
" ledgment for his education, and towards the erect-
" ing of their new building.
" He was from hence, on December 8, in the year
" 1666, chosen into the Society of = Winchester,
" where his most exemplary goodness and piety did
" eminently exert itself; for that college being chiefly
" designed by its founder for a retired and studious
" life, what could a great and generous spirit propose,
" but the good of souls and the glory * of that God,
" to whom he constantly ascribed it, even in his most
" familiar letters. And for this purpose he kept a
" constant course of preaching at St. John's Church
" in the Soak, near Winton, (where there was no
" preaching minister, and which he therefore called
" his Cure) and brought many Anabaptists to the
" Church of England, and baptized them himself f.
" And that neither his study might be the aggressor
" on his hours of instruction, or what he judged his

* Glory be to God, was his constant prescript to all his letters and papers.
* Hence it is evident that this eminent Prelate considered their previous
baptism, being laical, invalid. — [Edit.]

THOMAS KEN. 85
duty prevent his improvement; or both, his closet
addresses to his God, he strictly accustomed him
self to but one sleep, which often obliged him to
rise at one or two o'clock in the morning, and
sometimes sooner; this grew so habitual that it
continued with him almost till his last illness.
And so lively and cheerful was his temper, that
he would be very facetious and entertaining to his
friends in the evening, even when it was perceived
that with difficulty he kept his eyes open; and
then seemed to, go to rest with no other purpose
than the refreshing and enabling him with more
vigour and cheerfulness to sing his morning hymn,
as he then used to do to bis lute before he put on
his clothes.
" Some time after he was Fellow of Winchester
College, Dr. George Morley, then Bishop of that
diocese, made him his Domestic Chaplain, and
presented him to the parsonage of Woodhay, in
Hampshire, vacant by the removal of his tutor,
Dr. Sharrock. And it was about this time he
composed and published his ' Manual of Prayers
for the Use of the Winchester Scholars.' That
Prelate soon after, without any application made
in his behalf, preferred him to the dignity of a
Prebendary in the Cathedral Church of Winton ;
and he was installed accordingly, April 12, 1669.
In which post he was taken notice of by king
Charles II. In the year 1675, the year of Jubilee,
he travelled through Italy, and to Rome ; and
upon his return within that same year, he was
often heard to say, that he had great reason to

86 THOMAS KEN.
" give God thanks for his travels, since, if it were
" possible, he returned rather more confirmed of
" the purity of the Protestant Religion than he was
" before. And now that prince made choice of him
" to go with the Lord Dartmouth, to the demolish-
" ing of Tangier ; and at his return from thence,
" himself gave order he should be his chaplain.
" He was some time after this made chaplain to
" the Princess of Orange, who was at that time
" residing in Holland ; in which post, his most pru-
" dent behaviour and strict piety gained him entire
" credit and high esteem with her ; but a conse-
" quential act of his singular zeal for the honour of
" his country, in behalf of a young lady, so far
" exasperated the Prince, that he very warmly
" threatened to turn him from the service ; which
" the Doctor resenting, and begging leave of the
" Princess, (whom ' to his death he distinguished by
" the title of his mistress) warned himself from the
" service, and would not return to that court, till,
" by the intreaty of the Prince himself, he was
" courted to his former post and respect, consenting
" to continue there for one year longer ; during
" which time he was taken at least into a shew of
" great familiarity, and when that year expired he
" returned for England. This was not unknown to
" the King, nor did he shew the least dislike to his
" behaviour ; for when the See of Bath and Wells
" became vacant, by the removal of Dr. Peter Mews
" to Winton, the King himself stopped all attempts
" of Dr. Ken's friends, (who would of their own
" inclinations have applied in his behalf) with this

THOMAS KEN. 87
" remarkable saying,—' ThatDr.Ken should succeed,
" but that he designed it should be from his own
" peculiar appointment.' And accordingly the King
" himself gave order for a conge d'elire to pass the
" seals for that purpose, and he was consecrated
" Bishop of Bath and Wells on St. Paul's Day,
"in the year 1684. And this even just after his
" opinion, that a woman of ill repute ought not to
" be endured in the house of a clergyman, especially
" the King's Chaplain, was publicly known. For at
" that time the King coming to' Winton, and his
" harbinger having marked the Doctor's house,
" which he held in right of his Prebend, for the
" use of Mrs. Gwin, he absolutely refused her
" admittance, and she was forced to seek other
" lodgings. " And now at this juncture it was, when the
" King's period of life drew near, his distemper
" seizing his head, and our Bishop well knowing
" how much had been put off to that last point, and
" fearing the strength of his distemper would give
'? him but little time, (as indeed it proved) his duty
" urging him, he gave a close attendance by the
" royal bed, without any intermission, at least for
" three whole days and nights, watching at proper
" intervals to suggest pious and proper thoughts
" and ejaculations on so seriTJus an occasion ; in
" which time the Duchess of Portsmouth coming
" into the room, the Bishop prevailed with his
" Majesty to have her removed, and took that oc-
" casion of representing the injury and injustice
" done to his Queen so effectually, that his Majesty

88 THOMAS KEN.
" was Induced to send for the Queen, and asking
" pardon, had the satisfaction of her forgiveness
" before he died. The Bishop having homely
" urged the necessity of a full, and prevailed, as is
" hoped, for a sincere repentance, several times
" proposed the administration of the Holy Sacra-
" ment ; but although it was not absolutely rejected,
" it was yet delayed from time to time, till (I know
" not by what authority) the Bishop and all others
" present were put out from the presence, for about
" the space of half an hour, during which time it
" has been suggested that Father Huddleston was
" admitted to give Extreme Unction. And the
" interval between this and death was so short, that
" nothing concerning the Bishop's behaviour hap-
" pened worthy of notice in this account. This
" close attendance the Bishop thought so absolutely
" necessary, as thereupon to delay his admission to
" the temporalities of the See of Wells ; so that,
" when King James came to the crown, new instru-
" ments were passed for that purpose, and he was
" accordingly in full possession.
" At this time, it. was frequently said by many of
" eminence, who knew him well, that they never
" knew any person so able and earnest to do good,
" in such a station, as he was. He had a very
" happy way of mixing his spiritual with his cor-
" poral alms. When any poor person begged of
" him, he would examine whether he could say the
" Lord's Prayer or the Creed ; and he found so
" much deplorable ignorance among the grown poor
" people, that he feared little good was to be done

THOMAS KEN. 89
" upon them : but said, he would try whether he
" could not lay a foundation to make the next gene-
" ration better. And this put him upon setting up
" many schools, in all the great towns of his diocese,
" for poor children to be taught to read and say their
" catechism ; and about this time, and for this purpose
" it was, that he wrote and published his Exposition
" on the Church Catechism. And, although it con-
" tained nothing but what was strictly conformable to
" the doctrine of the Church of England, yet there
" being an expression, in the first edition, which the
" papists at that time laid hold of, as if it favoured
" their doctrine of transubstantiation ; he took par-
" ticular care in the next edition, even in that reign,
" by altering, the expression, to ascertain the sense.
" By this method and management he engaged the
" Ministers to be more careful in catechising the
" children of their parishes ; and they were, by him,
" furnished with a stock of necessary books for the
" use of children. And we may now judge, by the
" great and good success of the Charity Schools,
" which are now so numerous, what great and good
" ends he at that time proposed. About this time
" also, he published his Prayers for the use of the
" Bath. " He went often, in the summer time, to some
" great parish, where he would preach twice, confirm,
" and catechize ; and, when he was at home, on
" Sundays, he would have twelve poor men or
" women, to dine with him in his hall ; always en-
" deavouring, whilst he fed their bodies, to comfort
" their spirits by some cheerful discourse, generally

90 THOMAS KEN.
" mixed with some useful instruction. And when
" they had dined, the remainder was divided among
" them, to carry home to their families.
" By his instruction and example, he awed men
" into a sense of religion and duty. He often de-
" plored the condition of the poor at Wells (who
" were very nufmerous ;) and, as he was charitably
" disposed, so he was very earnest in contriving
" proper expedients of relief; and thought no de-
" sign could better answer all the ends of charity,
" than the setting up a workhouse in that place.
" But judging it not practicable without the advice,
" or at least the assistance of the gentlemen, he,
" therefore, often met and consulted with them ;
" but, not finding any suitable encouragement, he
" was forced to desist. In this he had a double
" view ; to rescue the idle from vicious practice
" and conversation; and the industrious from the
" oppression ofthe tradesmen; who, to use his own
" expression, did grind the face of the poor, grow-
" ing rich by their labour, and making them a very
" scanty allowance for their work.
" His conduct at the time of the rebellion, under
" the Duke of Monmouth, had sufficiently confirmed
" King James in opinion of his duty and allegiance ;
" insomuch, that although he daily relieved some
" hundreds of the rebel prisoners, then in Wells,
" daily praying with them in person, the King judg-
" ing that it was only out of a principle of duty to
" distressed brethren, to save them from perishing
" both in body and soul, never so much as harboured
" any jealous thought of him ; nay, so far did that

THOMAS KEN. 91
" King entertain hopes of his absolute obedience to
" his will and pleasure, that although many of his
" sermons were framed against the Church of Rome,
" yet it was thought worth while to attempt to gain
" him over to the interest of that party at Court ;
" but so ineffectually, that upon preaching a sermon
" in the King's own Chapel, at Whitehall (which
" seems wholly intended against both the popish and
" fanatic factions, then united * at Court) and it being
" misrepresented to the King, (who had not been pre-
" sent at divine service f ) but sending for the Bishop,
" and closetting him on the occasion, received nothing
" in answer, but this fatherly reprimand : That if his
" Majesty had not neglected his own duty of being
"present, his enemies had missed this opportunity of
" accusing him ; whereupon he was dismissed.
" But although that Prince did not mistake his
" integrity, yet certainly he was mistaken in him on
" a much more fatal occasion ; for now came the
" dispensing power in play, and his Majesty's decla-
" ration of indulgence was strictly commanded to be
" read J ; when this Bishop was one of the seven who

• This unnatural coalition is still thought prudent when any point is to be
carried against the Protestant Episcopal Church. — [Edit.)
t It is impossible to make grammar of this sentence without re-writing
it. The parenthesis renders the whole nonsense, nor would the sense be
complete were the parenthesis absent. I reprint as I find the original.
—[Edit.] i
X This passage also is nonsense. How could the declaration be com
manded ? He means — it was commanded that the declaration should be
read. — Edit.

92 THOMAS KEN.
" openly opposed the reading it, suppressed those
" [copies of it] which were sent to him to be read in
" his diocese, and petitioned the King not to pursue
" what was likely to prove so prejudicial both to
" Church and State ; which petition, being called
" treasonable, was made the occasion of committing
" him to the Tower, in order to a trial : all which
" being already well known, I shall no longer dwell
" on so grating a subject. But though he dared to
" disobey his Sovereign, in order to preserve the
" purity of his religion, and the care of his flock was
" always nearest his heart, yet rather than violate his
" conscience, by transferring his allegiance, he chose
" to leave both himself and them to the protection of
" the Almighty.
" So when the Prince of Orange came over,
" and the Revolution was grounded on the abdica-
" tion of King James, the Bishop retired ; and as
" soon as King William was seated on the throne,
" and the oaths of allegiance were to be taken to him,
" he, for his refusal, being deprived by the State,
" relinquished his revenue (though not his care)
" with as clear a conscience, and as generous a mind,
" as that by which it was once bestowed on him.
" At the time of his being made Bishop, Mr.
" Francis Morley, nephew to the forementioned
" Bishop, knowing how little he had provided for
" such an expense as attends the entry and continu-
" ance in such a chair, most generously offered, and
" lent him a considerable sum to defray his expenses,
" and furnish him with an equipage, as his station
" required ; which he would often mention with a

THOMAS KEN. 93
" grateful acknowledgment, expressing a particular
" satisfaction when he found himself in a condition
" to discharge the debt. And he was often, by Dr.
" Thomas Cheyney, (one of his Chaplains, to whom
" I am obliged for many of the particulars which
" frame this account) observed to complain, that for
" this very reason no great matter was to be expected
" from him; as thinking himself obliged to be just
" before he could be charitable. But here, if any
" should expect extravagance, in that having enjoyed
" such preferments he was still poor, it must be
" observed, that, if there can be an extravagant in
" good works, he was such, in that most excellent
" gift of charity. His whole fortune lying in his
" preferments, those of his relations who were ne-
" cessitous, (but whom he could never regard the
" less for their being so) were a continual drain upon
" his revenue ; and he seemed to joy with those who
" lived in more plenty, not more for their own well-
" being, than that thereby he was at liberty to dis-
" perse the remainder of his income to necessitous
" strangers. Which he always did with so open a
" bounty, that he became a common father to all the
" sons and daughters of affliction. His charity was
" so extensive, that having once, while in the See of
" Bath and Wells, received a fine of 4000/., great
" part of it was given to the French Protestants ;
" and so little regard had to future contingencies,
" that when he was deprived by the State, (which
" was not long after) all his effects, after the sale of
" all his goods, excepting his books, (which he never
" sold) would amount to no more than 700/. Which

94 THOMAS KEN.
" with the ever to be acknowledged generosity of
" his noble friend and eminent benefactor, procured
" him the enjoyment of a clear quarterly payment of
" 20/., which that noble Peer charged on part of his
" own estate ; and which among many other, and
" greater favours, is thus thankfully acknowledged
" in the last Will and Testament of our grateful
" Bishop : viz. I leave and bequeath to the Right
" Honourable Thomas Lord Viscount Weymouth,
" in case he outlives me, all my books, of which his
" Lordship has not the duplicates, as a memorial of
" my gratitude for his signal and continued favours.
" Besides which gift of books, he had in his lifetime,
" both before and after deprivation, given several
" large catalogues to places that were populous, and
" had parochial libraries within his own diocese.
" He had an excellent genius for, and skill in music;
" and whenever he had convenient opportunities for
" it, he performed some of his devotional part of
" praise with his own compositions, which were grave
" and solemn.
" He had always a great relish for divine poesy ;
" and in his retirement under this noble Lord's roof,
" he composed many excellent, useful, and pious
" pieces, which (together with one Epic Poem, which
" was written by him about the time of his voyage to
" Tangier, and seems to have had his last hand) may
" soon be ready for the press, if this specimen be
" well accepted *. But now his public affairs giving

* This Life of Ken appeared, with a specimen of the Bishop's poetry
appended.

THOMAS KEN. 95
" room, and his Cholic pains rendering him inca-
" pable of more serious study, he applied himself so
" happily to this favourite entertainment, as thereby
" in some measure to palliate the acuteness of his
" pain, and, as is hoped and conceived, may give full
" satisfaction to his readers, by promoting their chief
" happiness, to the glory of God the Giver. So
" close was his application to these studies, and so
" was his mind bent upon quietness, that during all
" the time of his retirement, and among all the at-
" tempts of, and clamours against, those called
" Jacobites in the reign of King William, he was
" never once disturbed in that quiet enjoyment of
" himself, and it is presumed, never suspected of any
" ill design ; since never publicly molested, or pri-
" vately rebuked. It is true, he was once sent for
" by warrant, to appear before the Privy Council, in
" the year 1696 ; but having the particular of that
" matter by me, left under his own hand, I think it
" best to refer the reader to it, as subjoined to the
" latter end of this account. That his opinion was
" not agreeable with such of the nonjurors, who
" were for continuing a separation, by private conse-
" crations among themselves, may (should there be
" any good occasion) best be known by his answers
" to letters, written from men of learning, who con-
" versed with him on that subject, and which he left
" behind him : and from what I must affirm, that it
" was on his request the present Bishop of Bath and
" Wells accepted of that See. And because some
" have attempted to detract from this good man,
" as if tainted with errors of Popery, and not
13

96 THOMAS KEN.
" so stedfast to the doctrine of the Church of
" England, and perhaps for want of a steady conduct
" about the time of the Revolution ; I think myself
" obliged to transcribe the words following from his
" will, made not long before his last sickness (and
" which being taken as a death-bed profession of
" faith, may gain the greater credit) ' As for my
" religion, I die in the holy Catholic and Apostolic
" faith, professed by the whole Church before the
"disunion of East and West; more particularly I
" die in the Communion of the Church of England,
" as it stands distinguished from all Papal and Pu-
" ritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine
" of the cross.'
" And because I have lately seen some reflections
" in a pamphlet, lately crept into the world under
" the suspicious title of a Secret History * ; wherein
" Dr. Ken is, by name, mentioned, to teaze the Duke
" of Monmouth in vain on the scaffold, to profess the
" doctrine of passive obedience ; I think it proper
" here, in this place, boldly to affirm, that our Bishop
" (for such he was at that time, and did attend on the
" scaffold) never acted or assisted there, but in the
" devotional part only ; and this, though a negative,
" may be proved to satisfaction.
" And as to what is so confidently mentio'ned a
" little after, concerning the subscription of the
" Bishop of Bath and Wells, among many others, to
" the invitation ofthe Prince of Orange ; was there

• Vide Secret History of Europe, Part II. p. 27.

THOMAS KEN. 97
" any such subscription any where to be produced,
" it must not have been denied ; but there are very
" strong arguments to be urged, that he never had
" any the least hand in that matter.
" And now, to close all, I shall set forth one in-
" stance of care, that himself might not offend. For
" whilst he stayed in town, and lodged with his old
" friend, Dr. Hooper, now Lord Bishop of Bath
" and Wells, who had daily and earnestly discoursed
" him on the subject of compliance with the oath ;
" he at last used these expressions to him : ' I ques-
" tion not, but that you, and several others, have
" taken the oaths with as good a conscience as my-
" self shall refuse them ; and sometimes you have
" almost persuaded me to comply, by the arguments
" you have used ; but I beg you to urge them no
" farther ; for should I be persuaded to comply,
" and after see reason to repent, you would make me
" the most miserable man in the world.' And lest
" any hereafter looking into his will, and observing
" the legacies therein bequeathed, should determine,
" that either he who left such legacies, could not be
" this described poor man ; or this man of charity,
" to have left more legacies than effects ; I think
" myself obliged to reconcile these seeming contra-
" dictions, by a very easy explanation : for so little
" distrust had our present Princess on the throne, of
" any ill actions of this just and religious Bishop, so
" great an opinion of his honesty and quiet temper,
" that notwithstanding he could not be prevailed
" with to qualify himself for living under her pro-
" tection, by the now necessary oaths ; yet she was
part II. H

98 THOMAS KEN.
" glad he would not refuse her yearly favour, which
" she was graciously pleased to bestow on him to his
" death, and would often complain, it was too little
" for his thanks, which he dutifully sent her ; which
" together with a legacy given him a little before his
" death, by a very valuable friend of his, not only
" enabled him to do many acts of charity in his life-
" time, (as what he chiefly proposed by accepting it)
" but his executor likewise, to discharge all such
" legacies, as he thought fit to charge him with. I
" shall not be so bold as to sum up the character of
" such a man, I have neither leisure or opportunity
" to search for particular facts, a large account of
" his life requiring both a more able and polite
" genius and pen. My design being only to give
" some short account to introduce his writings into
" the world, I shall only add some few matters of
" fact of my own knowledge concerning his last sick-
" ness, and leave the reader to refresh himself with
" the following specimen.
" Making bloody water, which was thought to be
" occasioned by an ulcer in his kidneys, he went to
" Bristol in the beginning of the year 1710, for the
" benefit of the hot well ; where he spent the sum-
" mer, and till November following. At which
" time, he removed to Lewiston, near Sherborne, in
" Dorsetshire, a seat belonging to the Honourable
" Mrs. Thynne, whose good works merited his re-
" spect and acknowledgment, as much as her gene-
" rosity attempted the relief of his distemper. And
" being there seized with a dead palsy on one side of
" him, he was confined to his chamber, till about

THOMAS KEN. 99
" the middle of March ; when being (as he thought)
" able to take such a journey, he resolved for the Bath,
" [i. e. to visit Bath] in hopes to find relief from those
" waters ; nor could the persuasions of that good
" lady, or his physician, divert his design, though he
" laboured under another distemper, viz. the dropsy.
" So calling at Longleat on Saturday, in his way
" thither, he spent that evening in adjusting some
" papers ; all the next day he confined himself to
" his chamber, and on Monday he was confined to
" his bed ; till on the Monday following, viz. March
" 19, 1710, his soul was set free. He was remark-
" ably patiertt in his sickness ; and when upon his
" own enquiry of his physician, how many days be
" thought he might probably live, desiring him to
" speak plainly and freely, and telling him he had
" no reason to be afraid of dying; and being by him
" answered, about two or three days ; his only reply
" was (his usual expression, and that without the
" least concern,) God's will be done : desiring that
" no applications might be made to cause him to
" linger in pain. It can be no wonder he should so
" little regard the terrors of death, who had for
" many years travelled with his shroud in his port-
" manteau, which, as he often said, might be as soon
" wanted as any other of his habiliments; and which
" was by himself put on, as soon as he came to
" Longleat, giving notice of it the day before his
" death, by way .of prevention, that his body might
" not be stripped. He dozed much the day or two
" before he died ; , and what little he spake was
" sometimes not coherent, which having been plied
h2

100 THOMAS KEN.
with opiates, seemed to be rather the effect of
dream, than distemper. He was buried at Frome
Selwood, it being the nearest parish within his
own diocese to the place where he died, as by his
own request, in the Church-yard, under the east
window of the chancel, just at sun rising, without
any manner of pomp or ceremony, besides that of
the order for burial in the Liturgy of the Church
of England ; on the 21st day of March, 1710.
Anno Mtnt. 73.
" He left behind him but few relations : Martha,
the daughter of his brother, Mr. John Ken, by
Rose, his wife ; who, Martha, married Christo
pher Frederic Kreienberg, Resident of his Elec-
torial Highness of Hanover, in London. John
Beacham, at this time Fellow- of Trinity-College,
and William Beacham some time Fellow of New
College, Oxon, and since deceased, who were the
sons of his sister Martha by her husband, Mr.
James Beacham. Isaac Walton, Residentiary of
the Cathedral Church of Sarum, and Anne, son
and daughter of his sister Anne, by her husband,
Mr. Isaac Walton, of London ; which Anne hav
ing married to William Hawkins, D.D. some time
Prebendary of the Cathedral Church of Winton,
had issue by him William and Anne, both living.
Which William being, by will, proved in the Pre
rogative Court of Canterbury, April 24, 1711,
appointed executor, and having had opportunities
of knowlege and inquiry of him, submits this im
partial, and he hopes not unacceptable account to
the public." — End qf the Reprint of Hawkins.

THOMAS KEN. 101
Portraits. — There is a Painting of this Prelate in
Bishop Law's collection of episcopal Portraits, at Wells
Palace. See Part I. p. 39 of this Work. . There is
also a Painting of him at the Marquis of Bath's, at
Longleat. For the engraved Portraits of him, see
Part I. p. 70.
Arms. — See Part I. p. 66 of this Work.
The place of Ken's interment is marked by an open
iron-grating, coffin-shaped ; within which were affixed,
to a stone, the mitre and crozier, of the same material.
Bishop Ken gave a small silver cup and plate, in a
case, for the use of the Minister of Frome, in the pri
vate administration of the Sacrament. These were,
for many years, used by me, and are still carefully pre
served. A Life of Bishop Ken, comprehending, in some de
gree, the history of his period, may shortly be expected
as a separate volume, from the elegant and classical
pen ofthe Rev. W. L. Bowles, of Bremhill, Wilts — a
gentleman every way qualified for such an undertaking.
—Edit.

102 jRICHARD KIDDER.
XIII. RICHARD KIDDER.
Succeeded A.D. 1691 — Died A.D. 1703.
The follgwing very interesting piece of auto-bio
graphy, by Bishop Kidder, was never before published.
The manuscript, one of undoubted authority, exists,
in original, at Wells, and is sufficient, in point of bulk,
though not in general interest, to form a respectable
volume ; in the present article much irrelevant matter
relative to various, now uninteresting, disputes, with his
clergy, candidates for orders *, &c. ; and many other
matters are omitted, and the whole has been consider
ably abridged. The language is the Bishop's own, and
has in general been faithfully retained, though several
grammatical faults, illogical deductions, and inele-
gancies of style have been corrected, and obscurities
cleared without the parade of a note.
Chapter I. — I was born at East Grinsteadt,
Sussex, in 1663 ; and was baptized there in Fe
bruary : I think the register hath it on the 8th. I
was the eighth child of my parents, who had nine
children, eight whereof lived to the age of men and
women, and the greater part of them to more than the

• Bishop Kidder fell into the very reprehensible practice of ordaining
Dissenting Teachers, without obliging them, previously, publicly to recant. I
do not design any pun on the word cant. — Edit.
t Willis and many other writers have erroneously said Brighton : while
the author ofthe Supplement to Collier's Dictionary, seems not content with
out fixing his birth in Suffolk. — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 103
60th year of their age. My father was a man of great
diligence and industry, and made a shift with a little
estate of his own, and some that he hired, to give his
children a decent education. He was of a most kind
disposition, and apt to be surety for other men, which
run him to great straits and inconveniences, in so much
that when his children grew up he was able to do but
very little for them, though he were obliged to sell the
small estate he had : my mother was a woman of great
sanctity and piety — of great wisdom and diligence:
and perhaps, had she been great in the world, she
would have passed for one of the most conspicuous
examples of virtue that appeared in it. She was
greatly given to reading the Holy Scriptures and other
pious books, of which she had a competent collection;
much given to prayer, and religious discourse ; and for
the care of her numerous family, perhaps, none ever
exceeded her. She had, indeed, at that time and place
the name of a Puritan fixed upon her. But her keep
ing to the public worship of God was enough to justify
her from the guilt qf schism.
I was taught to read by a gentlewoman in the neigh
bourhood, who chose that employment, and would not
suffer me to be sent to a school. This good lady
taught me so effectually, that I was very early fit for a
grammar school. There I was placed when I was very
young, and continued under the same master till I was
sent to the University.
I cannot but in this place acknowledge God's great
mercy to me in providing so well for my education.
The master who taught me was Mr. Reyner Harman ;
he was born at Nimghen, in Guelderland, bred up in
13

104 RICHARD KIDDER.
Westminster school ; afterwards scholar in Pembroke
Hall, Cambridge. A man of singular learning and
extraordinary diligence ; a great contemner of this
world, and of a beneficence that was very exemplary.
He gave to the poor most frankly upon occasions,
and perhaps the world had not in it a man of greater
simplicity and candour.
Mr. Herman bestowed all due pains both in teaching
me the Latin and Greek tongues, and more especially
in instilling principles of religion and morality. This
he did with as great care as if I had been his child,
or son of his greatest benefactor. He did it without
reward, or hopes of it till he thought me fit for the
University. Chapter II. — I was now about fifteen
years of age, sufficiently inclined I was to go to the
University, and in the opinion of others I was thought
fit. But alas ! I had no money to place me there, nor
any estate to maintain me. I was destitute of friends,
and could never promise myself any assistance. I was
therefore sent to an apothecary in Seven Oaks, Kent,
in order to be brought up in that profession. I was
not long there upon trial, before some friends took pity
of me, and raised a small sum of money to send me to
Cambridge. I was sent to Trinity College, at first,
with a letter to the then master of the College, Dr.
Hill. I waited on him but he refused to admit me,
and I was forced to return to London, having spent
part of the little sum which I had. After this I met
with Mr. Stephen Watkin, who was then a preacher at
St. Mary Overie, who was much concerned on my be
half, and shewed me then and afterwards, very great
kindness. He carried me to a very reverend divine,

RICHARD KIDDER. 105
Mr. Jeremy Whittaker, then minister of St. Mary
Magdalen, Bermondsey. He sent me a second time to
the University, and I must thankfully own it, my edu
cation at Cambridge, was owing to the great care of
these reverend persons. I was sent to Dr. Tuckney,
then master of Emanuel College, Cambridge : he re
ceived me with great humanity, having been informed
of the piety of my mother, who was lately deceased,
and committed me to the care of Mr. Samuel Cradock,
then a worthy fellow of that house.
Mr. Cradock I can never forget. He was very
tender of me, and the greater part of my subsistence
was owing to him. 'Tis hardly possible that one man
can owe to another more than I do to him. He did
not only direct me in my studies, but made me sensible
of my obligation to lead a life of religion, and provided
so plentifully for me, by procuring for me such helps
for my maintenance, that I had enough to spare when
I commenced B.A. to pay for my degree, and to dis
charge all my creditors.
I have great cause to bless God that I was admitted
in Emanuel College. I am very sensible that I made
not that improvement which others did and / might
have done. The college was at that time a school of
virtue, as well as learning; the discipline was very
strict, and the examples which the young students had
in the master and fellows were very conspicuous.
When I had taken the degree of B.A. I was forced
to leave the University for want of maintenance. For
then the assistance I had before, fell, of course, and I
should be obliged to live at a greater expense. This
was a great affliction to me : for I was forced abroad,

106 RICHARD KIDDER.
before I was fit for it, and lost the opportunity of im
proving myself in academical studies. But I must
always acknowledge the great goodness of God to me.
For it was not long before I was invited to return and
sit for a fellowship which was then void. I had just
cause to fear the event, considering the strict examina
tion which by the statutes and usage of that house
I was to undergo. To the college I did return many
months before the election. I did what I could toward
the preparing myself for the trial, and I had the suc
cess I wished for, being chosen fellow of that house,
for which I have great cause to bless God. I con
tinued fellow there several years after I was M.A. and
was much pleased with that life.
During my being fellow of that house, and especially
about the year 1657, there were great disputes between
the Episcopal Divines and the Presbyterians concern
ing Ordinations. The Presbyterians had their frequent
[mock] Ordinations, and in public Churches, by Pres
byters only. There were some few Bishops living who
ordained privately, according to the rules ofthe Church
of England. I was then not in Orders, and did not
want invitation to take [what they presumed to call *]

* To call by the venerable name of " Orders" the self-appointed office of
Presbyterian teacher, is an unaccountable misnomer, and I cannot but
wonder how Kidder could have let the word drop from his pen. We have
an expression like this in the life of the methodistical Archbishop Seeker,
by the no less methodistical Bishop Porteus. He says, that Seeker " was
brought up for ' Orders' among the Dissenters." Risum teneatis ? This is
something like the " Methodist Church," the " Independent Church," the
" Baptist Church," the " Unitarian Church," and other ridiculous anomalies
and impudent assumptions of the times. — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 107
Orders from the Presbyterians. I considered that
matter as well as I could; and though the stream
of that time run against Episcopacy, and no man could
think it the way to preferment to espouse its cause,
yet I did choose to be ordained by a Bishop. I was,
by a letter of Mr. Sherman, formerly a fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge, recommended to Dr.
Brownrig, Bishop of Exeter, and was by him ordained
both Priest and Deacon in one day, and this was done
at Dr. Bokeman's house, in St. Edmund's Bury, in
Suffolk, in November, A.D. 1658. This I reckon
as one of the happiest providences that ever did
befal me.
There is another thing that fell out during my
being fellow of Emanuel College, in Cambridge. I
do heartily bless God that he made me an instrument
of doing a good office upon that occasion. It hap
pened that the free-school of Stamford became void:
I was consulted about nominating a fit person to
recommend to that important place. I thought pre
sently upon my old master, Mr. Herman. He did,
indeed teach a school in Sussex, but had no settled
salary. Stamford is a great town ; the school hath a
plentiful salary, and a considerable house for the
master. I knew Mr. Herman was not like to mend
his condition in Sussex. He was known to be an
hearty friend to the Church of England, a loyal sub
ject to King Charles I., and had gotten the name of a
' Malignant,' as many worthy men had in those days.
He had a little before been presented to a good living
in Sussex, and was refused by the men that were then

108 RICHARD KIDDER.
uppermost, as insufficient. In short, I recommended
him so very zealously that I obtained it*, and went into
Sussex and brought him over. There he lived in
great reputation, and raised a most flourishing school;
and there he continued till the late Earl of Exeter,
who committed to his care the present Earl, his only
son, provided better for him, in a place where he lived
in great honour and plenty for several years to the
time of his death.
It was not long after my Ordination, before a Col
lege living fell void, viz. the Vicarage of Stanground,
in Huntingdonshire, and diocese of Lincoln. I did
not seek after it. There were several that were
seniors to me among the fellows ; though by the
statutes of the house, they that chose, viz. the Mas
ter and fellows, are at liberty as to that matter, and
no way obliged to choose the senior who puts in for it.
It happened at that time that one Mr. Attwood, much
my senior, put in for that living. I did not oppose
him, nor did I in the least seek it. But so it was,
that they do, of course in those elections, put up a
slate for form's sake, and then proceed to elect. It
happened that my name was put up. I refused to
give my vote for myself, which Mr. Attwood did when
it came to his turn ; however, so it was, I was chosen,
and Mr. Attwood passed by, to his great advantage ;
for soon after the rectory of North Cadbury became
void, and fell to his share, which is of greater value

Sic in MS.

RICHARD KIDDER. 109
•and better air* by far. Upon this I was obliged to
leave the College and go to the Vicarage ; and so I
did, and resided upon it. This was in the year 1659.
— Chapter hi. Stanground is a Vicarage endowed,
hath a great glebe and considerable great tithes belong
ing to it. It hath many inhabitants, and a chapel at
Farcet annexed. There it was that I entered upon
the discharge of my ministerial function, and the
weighty care of souls, a care under which I trembled,
well considering " the account I had to give."
I placed a person to take care of Farcet, and
gave him a liberal allowance ; I think I may truly say
I gave him as much as the corn-tithe of the place
amounted to.
The Common Prayer was not then restored. I
took care to provide for the several offices certain
forms agreeable to our Liturgy, and used them upon
occasions. I continued some years in this place, and met with
great kindness among this people, and hope I contri
buted something to their amendment, though I fell
much short of what I should and might have done.
During my continuance there, King Charles II. was
restored to his crown and dignity, and the Church of
England to her rights and advantages. The kingdom
had been long without King and Bishops in their
respective Sees : the Sacraments had been disused, the
Common Prayer laid aside, and many of the common
people distracted with Sectaries and their followers.

Sic in MS.

110 RICHARD KIDDER.
There was now a design on foot to give the Dis
senters reasonable* satisfaction in some matters in
which they differed from the Church. There was a
meeting on that occasion at the Savoy. There were
the Bishops and others commissioned in that matter,
and several of the more eminent + Dissenters also.
The matters in difference were there debated, and we
have the prints which relate to the conferences on that
occasion. I was then young, but yet I was very care
ful to inform myself of those proceedings, in order to
the better governing myself.
These debates continuing some time, at length the
Common Prayer Book was, with very many alterations,
agreed on by the Bishops, and passed by the Parlia
ment by an act requiring conformity thereunto by the
clergy, as may be seen by the act itself. Those who
did not by the following feast of St. Bartholomew next
ensuing, subscribe to the use of the said book were to
forfeit their spiritual promotions.
I was that summer warned to a Visitation of Dr.
Sanderson, who was then Lord Bishop of Lincoln;
and it was moved, that those who were present would

* " Reasonable satisfaction," — the expression seems totally misapplied.
If they could stay in Communion with the Church of England without
sin, (and who will assert the contrary?) their secession is unjustifiable. In
dulgence is not to be given to private judgment when private judgment
wantonly violates that essential of the Gospel, Unity. — Edit.
t How oddly the Bishop chooses his epithets — " eminent Dissenters" !
Eminent indeed ! This reminds one of a learned Prelate talking of " ortho
dox Dissenters."— See the Speeches in the House of Lords, on the repeal of
the Corporation and Test Acts. — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. ill
then before the said Bishop subscribe that they would
conform to it. The far greater number did it. But
the book itself was not then published, nor did we
know what it did contain. Upon that consideration I
did then refuse, not thinking it fit to subscribe to what
I never saw, especially the law granting us longer
time, it might justly be presumed the books would be
delivered to us ere long, that we might be able to
act in that matter out of choice, and after due con
sideration. But it fell out quite otherwise ; the books to which
we were to subscribe were not tendered to us till it
was too late. As I remember it was not brought to
me till the 13th of September following; I am certain
not till some day of that month. And though I used
all possible means to procure it, yet I was not able to
get a sight of it till after the dissenting ministers in
London had preached their farewell sermons.
This is the exact truth of the matter. This was
my sad case. I was thereupon deprived of my living *,
and another Fellow of Emanuel came forthwith and
took possession of it. Some few of my neighbours
were in the same condition. They lost their livings
as I did. But their patrons offered to present them

* Kidder's conduct herein, after such a diocesan's recommendation of
subscription, certainly looks contumacious rather than conscientious. Could
a Prelate so sound as Sanderson on the essentials of Christianity — con
formity, visibility ofthe Church and Episcopacy — propose to his clergy any
thing for subscription injurious to the cause of the Protestant Episcopal
Religion ?— I am aware that, originally, Bishop Sanderson was not sound in
the Quinquarticulur Controversy, but that had nothing to do with Kidder's
refusal. Sanderson afterwards renounced his errors in regard to that con
troversy. — Edit.

112 RICHARD KIDDER.
anew. It was otherwise with me, for I sent to the
college by Dr. Bright; late Dean of St. Asaph, that
considering the compassionableness of my case, I might
have the same liberty, but could not obtain it. I do
not write this to reflect upon the college in the least.
For I am of opinion, that if any one of their fellows
would insist (against whom they had no just exception)
they were bound by the letter of the statute to give it
to him before any other who was not (as I was not
then) actually fellow of the house. However, I did
all that became me to do ; I craved the liberty of
choosing whether I would conform or no, when that
which I was to conform to should be laid before me.
There were a great number of men who lost their
livings upon the coming of the King. Some were
possessed of sequestered livings ; and where the for
mer incumbents were surviving, they were forced to
give way to those who had a right ; others had taken
the ' Covenant ' and some the ' Engagement,' and hav
ing so far entangled themselves, were not willing to
declare solemnly against their own act ; others were
against Episcopacy, and a Liturgy, and all forms of
prayer, and refused to conform upon that account ; some
had been too far concerned in helping to throw down
the Church and abolish the Common Prayer in the
late unhappy times ; some were not in Orders at all,
and others had taken Presbyterian Orders *, and were
not willing to take Orders from a Bishop. There was

* One really wonders how Kidder can use this word ' Orders' when
applied to the schismatical nature of the Presbyterian ministry.

RICHARD KIDDER. 113
nothing of all this in my case. I had a good title to
my living; I never took the Covenant or Engagement;
I was entirely satisfied in Episcopacy *, and with a
Liturgy; I had no hand in the late confusions, and
was so far from it that I lamented them. I had Orders
from a Bishop at a time when it was dangerous to
receive them that way. [By what other way could he
have received them ?] The truth is, I had not due
time given me to consider, and was deprived of my
living for not subscribing to a book that was not, as it
ought to have been, laid before me f .
After this I continued in the same parish, came to
the prayers of the Church, and was conformable to
the Orders of it. I did not set up any meeting-house,
nor make myself the head of a party, but lived in great
peace. I had then a growing family, and no estate at all.
I was much pitied indeed by those who knew my case,
and by some I received some support, but not from
them who had the greatest reason to consider me. In
this condition I continued about two years, having
spent that little which I had, neither seeking any
preferment, nor refusing any. I often preached in
churches; I did so at London and in the country,
whenever I was desired ; nor were those of the clergy
who knew me, shy of permitting me to do so.

This is but cold approbation of Episcopacy — " I was satisfied in Epis
copacy" ! He should have said, ' I was convinced that there alone could be
the Church where a divine commission, transmitted from the Apostles to
their successors, the Bishops, was to be found.' — Edit.
t Kidder does not say the year he was ejected. Willis has it 1662.
PART II. V I

114 RICHARD KIDDER.
In 1664, I received a letter that assured me that
there being a rectory void in Essex, in the gift of
Arthur, late Earl of Essex, the Earl was resolved to
bestow it upon me ; I was therefore solicited to go to
Hadham, where the Earl was. I did not presently go,
and it was not long before I received a second letter
to the same purpose.
The Earl of Essex was a person I knew not. He
was at that time a great favourite at Court, and was
known to be a true friend to the Church. I shall
represent how this matter came about, in which I have
great cause to adore the good providence of God.
When I was of Emanuel College, I had formed a
very intimate acquaintance with one Mr. John Powell,
a very studious and learned man; he was much
straitened for maintenance in the College, but yet
he made a very hard shift to maintain himself some
time after he was M.A. He was frugal and tem
perate, and a good husband to the highest degree.
Yet could not his greatest frugality save him from
running into debt for necessaries. He had, I presume,
some hopes of a fellowship, and I am sure he had just
pretences to it. Upon this consideration he earnestly
endeavoured to continue in the College so long. But
so it was, that he lived to see another step in before
him — another I mean of the same county, (we cannot
be two fellows of one county by the statutes of that
house) which put an end to his hopes. He was then
thoughtful how to dispose of himself, and I was also
thoughtful for him. It was not long before I provided
for him a place in a merchant's family of my acquaint
ance, to whom I heartily recommended him. He was

RICHARD KIDDER. 115
accepted and sent for to enter upon the place of a
Chaplain in that wealthy family, where he was to
receive a competent allowance. But so it was, when
he was to leave the College, his creditors demanded
what was due to them, nor would they " have patience"
with him till God enabled him to make them satis
faction. In short, no importunity could prevail with
them to let him leave the College with his books (his
only wealth) unless they had satisfaction presently.
Upon this he applied to me. I was as little able to
lay down the money as he was. However, I being
then fellow of the house, had a little more credit with
his creditors than he. I did, upon this his great dis
tress, engage another of the fellows to join with me,
and we gave security to pay his debts, which was done
accordingly. This kindness made so great an impres
sion upon him that he did not forget it. He was
removed some time after from the place I had recom
mended him to, and made Chaplain to the said Earl of
Essex. There he was when I was out of my living.
It happened that the Earl had then a rectory fallen
void ; it was Rain, near Braintree, in Essex, the ancient
seat of the Capels: a living it is worth about 120/.
per annum. He offered this to his Chaplain, Mr.
Powell, who, knowing my circumstances, and remem
bering our friendship, told his Lordship that he would
choose rather to continue in his Lordship's family, but
made it his request he would bestow it upon me,
acquainting him withal of my circumstances. The
noble Lord granted his request, and ordered him to
send for me.
After I had received two letters I went. I was at
i 2

116 RICHARD KIDDER.
that time very poor, and low in the world. But I do
solemnly declare, that did not move me to do any thing
against my conscience. I had thoroughly considered
the Common Prayer Book, and the whole matter in
debate between those of the Church of England and
the Dissenters*, and conformed upon as clear con
viction, perhaps, as any person in the kingdom.
It is true that some men gave me an ill name be
cause I stood out, but I have the charity io hope they
did it because they did not understand my casef.
Chapter IV. — I came, about the year 1664, into
Essex, and settled at Rain. At my first coming there
I found the deceased minister's widow with a very
great number of children, and many of them very
small. Her husband died before or at the beginning
of harvest, and though I could ill bear it, yet I did
readily consent to give her the whole harvest.
I soon discerned that the country I was come into
was very different from that which I left. The coun
try, indeed, was more agreeable as to my health, but
in other things the difference was great. I had lived
among a people that were modest and teachable, very
conformable to the orders of the Church, and that

• How persons who have divided the body of Christ first were called
by the gentle name of "Dissenters" instead of Schismatics, whereby their
sin would be intimated, one is at a loss to conceive. Most certainly the
term is misapplied ; for where there is a divine commission and a sinless
communion, there there is no room left for " thinking" differently, i. e. dis
senting, unless the opinion of man can be set up against the Ordinance of
God. — Edit.
t This is very like Mr. Peel's argument, adduced to justify his change
of opinion on the Roman Catholic question. — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. in
shewed great respect to the clergy, that paid their
tithes and offerings exactly. I came to a people that
were factious to the greatest degree, that endeavoured
to defraud the minister of his dues *, that were very
censorious and given to separation, and great inveighers
against the innocent rites and ceremonies ofthe Church.
I do not say they were all such, but there was much
too much of this leaven, and it had infected a very
great part of that side of the country.
I lived in that place about ten years, and have been
used to call it the lost part of my life. I preached
constantly twice a Sunday, and had I not done so
(such despisers they were of the Common Prayer) I
should hardly have had any company when there was
no sermon. I tried to bring them to be catechized,
but could prevail very little. I took great pains to fit
them for, and to bring them to the Communion. I very
often preached on that occasion. I took off their

* Among the numerous (unjustifiable) pleas for separation from the
Church, next perhaps to the tame and drowsy style of desk and pulpit
• oratory therein, may be reckoned the tithe system — that never-failing cause
of eternal bickerings between the priest and those whom ' he is appointed to
bless in God's name,' unless the former is content to lay his claims at the
mercy ofthe latter. The Clergyman, doubtless, ought not to be deprived of
one iota of his legal due, but if the maintenance of that due is to be the cause
of alienating the people from the legitimate stewards of the mysteries of God
—if it is to drive the people to the meeting, and consequently to a rebellious
and schismatical species of worship (for, nil moror as to its abstract good
ness), surely no words can be sufficiently strong in reprobation of a system
fraught with such consequences, and reason and religion call aloud for a
commutation of tithe for Land, whereby the priest would have his full and
undisturbed right ; and harmony would be preserved between those whose
relative connection is of so spiritual and endearing a nature.— Edit.

118 RICHARD KIDDER.
popular objections against their Communicating, and
shewed them the extreme danger from their neglecting
their duty in this matter, but all to little or no purpose.
I did afterwards print (without any alteration) in a
treatise intituled ' Convivium Cceleste,' what I preached
to them on that subject.
I met with great afflictions in that place; I shall
here mention some of them.
The plague raged in London during my residence at
Rain; and, the next year, it spread into Essex. It
swept away very many hundreds in the two neighbour
ing Parishes of Braintree and Booking. I lived about
a mile from these places, in a house at a considerable
distance from any other house. I had then, in my
house a young gentleman who was left to my care — a
youth of great hopes and of a considerable fortune.
He fell sick, and due care was taken of him ; on Whit
sunday, in the morning, just as I was going to the
Church, I was with him in the chamber, and was satis
fied that he was sick of the pestilence. I forthwith
procured him a nurse, and left him one of my servants
to attend him, and removed, with the rest of my family,
to another house, where I shut myself up for a month,
that I might give no offence. The next day the young
gentleman died, and soon after my servant, whom I
left in my house, fell sick of the same disease, but re
covered. I had, at that time, great cares upon me ;
I had two families to provide for, with food and physic.
I expected every hour, when my wife and children
would be seized. I visited my infected house fre
quently, and provided them with necessaries. I did
take the same care of the family that was with me. I

RICHARD KIDDER. 119
gave them such antidotes as I could procure, and made
such other provision as I was able. My neighbours
durst not come near, and the provisions which were
procured for us, were laid at a distance, upon a green
before my house. My wife fell sick, and I doubted
not of the disease. I did all that was possible to re
move her fears, and to help her. And it pleased God
to preserve her from that disease. No tongue can
express the dismal calamity which that part of Essex
lay under at that time, and, for myself, I was in per
petual danger. I conversed daily with those who came
from infected houses, and it was unavoidable. The
provisions sent into the neighbouring infected town
were left at the village where I was, and near my house.
Thither the Earl of Warwick sent his fat bullocks,
which he did every week give to the poor at Braintree.
The servants were not willing to carry them further.
This occasioned frequent coming from that most in
fected place to my village, and indeed to my very door.
My Parish Clerk had it when he put on my surplice,
and went from me to his house and died. Another
neighbour had three children and they all died in three
nights, immediately succeeding each other, and he was
forced to carry them all to the Church-yard, and bury
them. We were alarmed, perpetually, with the news
ofthe death of our neighbours and acquaintance, and
awakened to expect our own turns. This continued a
great part of the summer. It pleased God to preserve
me and all mine from this noisome pestilence. Praised
be his name.
I did, after this, meet with another great affliction,
in the death of all my three children ; two of them died

120 RICHARD KIDDER.
in less than three weeks ; but there was nothing in their
death but what was common. I say this, because of a
false story that was believed and commonly told about
that time, and since, that one of them was destroyed by
a sow. This was not only told and believed, but I
could name the person who was said to be so uncha
ritable as to insinuate that it was a judgment upon me
for my conformity ! But I thank God there was no
truth in the matter. Thus much, indeed, was true,
that one of these children walking abroad with others,
received a slight hurt in the thigh, (that was soon per
fectly cured) by an animal of that kind ; and that was
all the ground for that false report which obtained,
and received belief in many places.
Some other losses and troubles I met with, common
to mankind, which God was pleased to carry me
through. I kept close to my own house and charge ; I was
near the Earl of Warwick's, but lived in the country
several years before I went to that noble family ; per
haps had never gone, had I not been sent for over,
and desired to preach, the Chaplain of the family
being then sick. There I was received with far greater
respect than I could deserve or expect. I was wont,
afterwards, to be frequently in that noble family ; and,
besides the great kindness I received from my Lord
and Lady, and the noble branches of that family, I
always thought it a great happiness that there I became
known to the Honourable Robert Boyle, and to his
excellent sister, Lady Ranelagh.
I was, during my stay at Rain, offered another living
in that country, but refused it. I had been invited to

RICHARD KIDDER. 121
the City of London also, once or twice, but was not
forward to leave a place where I had great health, and
a competent maintenance, and many friends also, in the
country, of the highest rank. And yet, at length, I
was prevailed with to come to London, by a worthy
Citizen, and a good friend of mine, which occasioned
my leaving Essex and settling in London. Chapter V.
—It was so, that the Minister of St. Helen's was fallen
sick, (Dr. Horton, some time Master of Queen's Col
lege, Cambridge,) I was desired to preach (whilst I
continued in town, whither I was then come) during
his last sickness, and so I did. I never sought the
place, nor did I make any applications for it to any
man living. The Doctor died, upon which the gen
tlemen of the Parish met to consider whom they should
agree in to succeed the Doctor. They all agreed in
me, as far as they were concerned.
For thus the matter stood as to St. Helen's. The
patronage of it is in the Dean of St. Paul's ; or in the
Dean and Chapter. The tithes, about 60/. or 70/. per
annum, belong to Sir Stephen Langham ; the main
tenance is altogether precarious. The Dean of St.
Paul's, at that time, was Dr. Sandcroft, late Archbishop
of Canterbury. To him I had been known, in Emanuel
College, from my youth. He was very willing I should
have the place, and did, both then and afterwards, ex
press very great kindness to me ; Sir Stephen Langham
did readily consent to allow me the great tithes, and the
gentlemen of the Parish offered very great subscrip
tions. I received many kindnesses in that place,
which were things very surprising to me, I having been
used to a people that were not forward to pay their

122 RICHARD KIDDER.
strict dues. But here I might have what I would, and
much more than I was willing to accept. There is no
house belonging to the Minister ; but they were willing
to have built one. Their Church is very large, and
when I complained of it, an offer was made to set up a
screen, that should have separated the lower from the
upper part ofthe Church. But yet the Church would
still have been too big for my voice. I was obliged to
preach twice a day, and I did so. But I found myself
decay very much in my health, and therefore I did not
take institution ; my bad health rather increased upon
me, and I was much worse after drinking the Tunbridge
waters, to which I was advised. I was wont to say,
that would my strength permit me to stay, I would
rather have continued Minister of St. Helen's than gain
an Archbishopric. I was very loth to part with that
people, but was forced to it, and did desire them to
provide for themselves.
There was at that time, when I supplied St. Helen's,
and doubtless before my time, a very great and wealthy
congregation. There were also many strangers which
came to that church, I presume for the opinion they
had of Dr. Horton. Some of these continued to come
thither when I supplied it. I believe for riches and
persons of quality it was one of the most considerable
congregations in the whole kingdom. I was not, in
deed, instituted, but yet I did at present supply the
cure, and might have had institution when I pleased.
I found one thing among them that gave me some
care. There were very great Communions, and great
sums of money given to the poor at those times. But
I found a great number that kneeled not at the Sacra-
10

RICHARD KIDDER. 123
ment, but were otherwise very devout and regular. I
very well knew the Canon in the case, and the hazard
I should run if I gave them the Sacrament when they
did not kneel. On the other hand, I considered the
mischief of dismissing such a number of communicants,
and sending them to the Non-conformists *. I found
that their former minister had indulged them in this
liberty, and was told that he had not been wont to
kneel when he received himself f. Upon the whole,
(and I here frankly own it) I gave it to those who did
not kneel, and run the hazard of being suspended for
it, but kneeled myself as the law required. But this
being irregular, I did not stay till I was accused to the
Bishop for this, but I went to him and accused myself.
Dr. Humfry Henchman was then Bishop of London.
He inquired of me of the state of the parish. I told him
that things were well, excepting that several refused
to receive the Communion kneeling. I told him freely
that I had given them the Sacrament notwithstanding.
For though I always kneeled myself, and well liked
that order of the Church J, yet I was not willing to

* Fear is a bad motive : Fiat Justitia, mat ccelum is the rule of recti
tude. The Canons of the Church should not be relaxed to please Schis
matics ; they should be brought up to the Church, and not the Church
down to them. Bishop Kidder's conduct is something like that of Ministers
in yielding to Romanists. — Edit.
t The dereliction of duty in his predecessor did not justify his violation
ofthe Canon. When an orthodox man succeeds one of relaxed discipline,
or a ' saint,' he is too often deemed arbitrary, intolerant, uncharitable, and
illiberal. X As the Church orders communicants to kneel, communicants of course

V;>A RICHARD KIDDER.
dismiss so great a congregation of communicants on
that account. I was indeed indifferent as to the living,
and as I never sought it, so I would not take it upon
those terms of dismissing all at once those who did not
kneel. I very well remember what the Bishop replied
on that occasion. The substance of what he said was
to this purpose : That I should go on to do as I had
done, and not refuse those that did not kneel *. That
I should never preach up kneeling in the pulpit ; for
then (said he) those who kneel not will think you aim
at them. But that I should in private conversation
endeavour their satisfaction. I did not stay at St.
Helen's very long after this ; but this I found by ex
perience, that the next parish in London which I took
the care of was reduced to exact conformity in this
matter in a little time.
Sir Harbotel Grimston was at this time Master of the
Rolls. His preacher's place at the rolls was then void.
I received several messages from his family, I doubt
not by his directions, that that place was then void,
and that I should be welcome to the mastership. But

are bound to kneel: howbeit, those who received the Sacrament at its
institution, received it in the recumbent posture, usual at that period at
meals: Although it would be desirable to find' a direct Scriptural authority
to receive the Sacrament kneeling, yet in the absence of such we must bow
to the Canon enjoined by those who have it in charge to '* do all things in
order." It would also be desirable to find a direct Scriptural authority
enjoining the laity to receive the Sacrament in either kind. The parties to
whom the original precept was delivered were exclusively sacerdotal. — Edit,
* Bishop Henchman should have been brought before the Convocation
for such uncanonical advice. — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 125
I took no notice of this, and declined any occasion that
might make him think that I desired it. At length he
sent a direct message to me, and desired me to give
him a sermon at the Rolls, — which I did. He offered
me the preacher's place. I, on the other hand, made
my excuses. He urged me very much to make a trial
^—encouraged me with hopes of farther preferment.
It required preaching in term time. It was no cure,
required no institution, nor charge to enter upon it. I
was overcome to undertake it for some time, and did
preach there four terms*, and then was succeeded by
Dr. Gilbert Burnet, now Bishop of Sarum.
I was now leaving the town and returning to my Cure
in Essex.
Dr. Smallwood, Dean of Litchfield and Rector of
St. Martin Outwich, the next parish to St. Helen's
was prevailed with by the gentlemen of his parish to
resign that Rectory ; and I was desired to accept of it.
I did : and though its revenue was very small, yet its
consistency with the Rolls made it tolerable. I had a
wife and children, and this was like to afford some pro
vision for them. I was offered a qualification in order
to get a dispensation to hold my living in Essex with
this Rectory, but I utterly rejected it. And as I never
did hold two livings, so I was fully resolved never to
do so while I was able to find bread in one. Though
I confess I cannot condemn those who hold two livings
that are near to each other, and when they are so small

• One cannot help regretting the neglect of dates so prevalent in biogra
phical articles. — Edit.

126 RICHARD KIDDER.
that one is not a competent maintenance*. Soon
after I had entered upon this living, and thereby voided

* With regard to the question of pluralities, as they now exist, they must,
beyond all controversy, be admitted to be an evil, and an evident imperfec
tion in, and abuse of the system of sacerdotal maintenance. The truth is,
there ought to exist no pecuniary pretext for pluralities — no justifying plea
but that sanctioned by the Apostle Paul in his epistle to Timothy ; " Let
the elder that ruleth well be counted worthy of double honour." The
pecuniary pretext for pluralities has grown out of the smallness of some of
the livings, for when one living was inadequate to the maintenance of the
Incumbent, a second, if he could get it, was superadded. But to cure the
innumerable evils springing out of this source, every living should, by legis
lative enactment, or ecclesiastical provision, be made adequate to the support
of the Incumbent : every living should have a Parsonage-house thereon, and
every Incumbent, with the exception of those counted " worthy of the double
honour," should be compelled to residence. Not that livings should be
equalized, for that would interfere with private property, and besides, the
very idea of equalization in any thing but Bishoprics, is revolting to the well
constituted Tory. Bishoprics do certainly form an exception ; for their
possessors should be placed beyond the suspicion of sacrificing their vote on
the altar of translation. Modified pluralism is scriptural, nor can there be
any impropriety in the priest holding two preferments, provided always
that he deserves, from his abilities, zeal, orthodoxy, or some professional
qualification, such " double honour :" for the abstract and original question
of pluralities may safely appeal for its sanction to the 17th verse of the 5th
chapter ofthe 1st Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus,
who has been already quoted. I am not to be dislodged from my position
by the ignorant objection that, ' Livings, as we now use the term, were not
then known :' or that rip-n means only ' honour,' and not emolument con
joined with honour. It is plain from the context of the passage, that Ti/ii)
signifies more than empty honour — it means evidently an emolument of some
kind— a liberal maintenance out of the public stock, as appears from the
reasoning in the 18th verse ; " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth
out the corn. And, the labourer is worthy of his reward :" ripn has more
over the same relation to provision or maintenance in Matthew xv. 6. and
Acts xxviii. 10, : and although there were in apostolic times, ' no livings' in

RICHARD KIDDER. 127
that in Essex, I was dismissed the Rolls without any
reason assigned, or due warning given. And now I

the sense in which we use the term, yet, as the priest or elder that ministered
well was entitled to a double share out of the then public fund of the Church,
it follows, since that fund consists now (by- reason of the Church having
obtained civil establishment) in tithes, that those who prove themselves able
and deserving ministers above the ordinary level, are entitled to an encreased
income out of those tithes, that is to say, to hold a second preferment. It is
the abuse of pluralities that requires looking into ; it is their being given to
men who are dull, prosing, and monotonous preachers ; and insipid, tame,
and incorrect readers ; men who can neither preach with animation, nor
read with point. From such having become pluralists (whereas they never
should have been admitted into orders), much practical evil has arisen, and
it has too often happened, that when parishes have been neglected by the
pluralist, the self-constituted preacher has cunningly " crept in" — altar
has been erected against altar, and Christian unity has been sent to seek a
settlement somewhere else than in the British Isles.
But, if those who prove able and efficient ministers, are by the Apostle's
direction to be counted worthy of double emolument, what shall we say of
that Church who suffers her able and efficient ministers to wear out their
lives in the vineyard, without ever obtaining any permanent provision in the
way of preferment ? and who, when they become grey-headed and infirm,
and unable to continue the labours of a Curate, are turned out to the cold
blast of Heaven for consolation ! Is it possible, in this land of boasted ' li
berality,' that a man may toil in the sacred function from 23 to 70, with
irreproachable character, and yet be unprovided with a living 1 It is !
Provision of an eleemosynary nature, if there were any such, is not the sort
of provision that such persons ought to have made for them. It is the
Church— the Church— that should provide for her own veteran labourers,
and wipe away this obloquy. Could there be any more commendable, any
more legitimate way of providing for aged or deserving ministers, than the
appropriation of a certain portion ofthe stalls and livings in episcopal patron
age, to those who have served as Curates with " good report" for twenty
years ? If to this were added, through the generosity of the Monarch,
at the interposition of the Minister and Chancellor, a portion of the livings in
the gift ofthe Crpwn, a provision would thus be made for meritorious clerical

128

RICHARD KIDDER.

was but very meanly provided for. I did, however,
never repent that I had parted with my other
living when I took this. I might have had another
living to have held with this afterwards, but refused it.
Chapter VI.- It was in 1 674, that I entered upon the
Cure of the parish of St. Martin Outwich. I soon
found the difference between St. Helen's, which I left,
and the parish I had now taken. The income of the
first was considerable— that which I had taken was
very short of it. And when I was dismissed at the
Rolls I was more straitened. However, I thank God
I made a shift to live, and had very many friends that
were assistant to me ; my neighbours were very kind
and some others also who knew my condition, especially
the family of Sir John Frederic and Sir Nathanael
Hern. The latter of which was to the day of his death
so kind, that he perpetually pressed me with his bene
fits. He offered me such things as I believe are hardly
to be paralleled. I remembered a proverb, of my
master Herman's, who was wont to say that it was
among the Arabs in use, viz. " That if my friend be all
honey, I ought not, therefore, to eat him up." I visited
him very rarely, and declined to make that use of him
which he gave me the liberty to do. I must ever
honour his memory and wish well to his family, and
acknowledge my great obligations while I live.
It was not long before I was chosen to a week-day

service ; which, while it would solace the declining years of many a worthy
Clergyman, would, at the same time, wipe away the opprobrium the Church
most unaccountably now surfers herself to labour under, and add a lustre to
the regal diadem, i far superior to that emitted by its brightest gem.— Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 129
lecture, at Black Friars, [Freres] given by Mr. Whet-
tenal, and settled by Act of Parliament, in the time of
James I. This was worth 25/. per annum, and made
some little addition to my strait maintenance. I now
was obliged to constant preaching three times a week,
twice every Sunday at my own Church, and once at my
lecture. And this I thank God I did for many years.
And this was all my preferment for a great many years
together. In 1681, the Rev. Dr. Burton died. He was Pre
bendary of Norwich, and his Prebend was in the gift
ofthe late Earl of Nottingham, then Lord High Chan
cellor of England. A Prelate now living gave me very
early notice of his death. He called on me on purpose
where I then was at Wandsworth. He well knew that
I was not unknown to the Lord Chancellor, and might
hope for his favour. Two of my friends were then
with me, clergymen who lived thereabouts. These
persons were very earnest with me, and forced me to go
over to Kensington, where the Lord Chancellor then
lived, and where, perhaps, he might be found before
any applications were made to him ; and not being
willing to trust me in my own business, they would
needs go with me. We went and found the Lord
Chancellor at home and alone. But my friends (and
particularly the late Countess of Nottingham, then the
Lady Essex Finch,) who were to speak for me were
abroad. I told his Lordship that it was now in his
power to do me a great favour. He answered that he
was disposed to do it. I then told him that there was
a Prebend of Norwich void by Dr. Burton's death. I
found that was news to him. I added that I begged
PART II. K

130 RICHARD KIDDER.
his favour in it, that I had none to plead for me, and
submitted myself to his Lordship's pleasure. He con
sidered a minute or two, and then ordered me to get a
petition, — directed me in the form (for his clerks were
abroad) and gave me his fiat immediately. And now
by the favour of this great man I was restored to a
better condition than when I was preacher at the
Rolls. This was the first time that ever I begged
any ecclesiastical preferment. Thus did God gra
ciously provide for me. Chapter VII. — I had not
been many years at St. Martin Outwich before I was
surprised with the gout. For the first quinquennium
it was tolerable, like the first five years of Nero, but
after that it proved a tyrant. I cannot express the
tortures I endured. It came to that height that I
never had any fit but it was a measuring cast whether
I should live or die. This violent distemper prostrated
the little strength I had, and disabled me from dis
charging the duty of my place as I would gladly have
done. And yet I returned to do my duty as soon as
my distemper would give me leave, and sometimes,
perhaps, too soon, preaching sometimes upon my
knees, not being well able to stand so long.
In 1680 another sore affliction befel me, which bore
very hard upon me. I had then a wife and four chil
dren. I had two sons that were a great comfort to
me. The eldest then admitted into Merchant Taylors'
School, and the younger well entered for his time, and
both of them great comforts of my life. It pleased
God that the small-pox first seized my eldest son, then
my wife and my other three children. In less than
three weeks I buried two sons and a daughter ! Per-

RICHARD KIDDER. 131
haps another man might have borne this much better
than I could do. It was such an affliction to me as
laid me very low.
In 1678 I went to Lees, to see the Countess of
Warwick ; while I was there she had a living void in
her gift, viz. Braintree, in Essex. She desired me
to recommend a clerk to her, I did recommend
Mr. Robert Middleton, a very pious and conformable
man. She told me she would do all in her power to
annex the great tithes to the Vicarage. But the good
lady was taken to a better world before any thing
could be done in it. However, I did not fail to let
her mind be known to those concerned, and had great
success in it. For, by the favour of the Earl of Not
tingham, Mr. Middleton obtained the Vicarage and
the great tithes also.
I thought myself very happy that God made me
an instrument of saving a family from ruin. Mr.
Robert Carr was formerly Vicar of Braintree, and was
afterwards removed to the Rectory of Chiltington, in
Sussex. He had a wife and ten children, and but a
small estate to leave amongst them ; and beside was in
debt very considerably. It pleased God when he
seemed to be in perfect health to strike him with the
palsy, and the stroke was so violent that it in great
measure took away his speech, and weakened him to
that degree that it disabled him from serving the cure
he then had. He was obliged to greater expences
than before, and being thus disabled, could not dis
charge his duty as formerly, and was thereupon obliged
to part with his Vicarage. I represented his case, as
I had occasion, to the wealthy citizens I was acquainted
k2

132 RICHARD KIDDER.
with, and raised him a very considerable sum of money,
and paid his debt. Some time after he died, and left
the care of his children to me, and a power to sell the
little estate he had, and with the money to put his
children out. He left a widow. Two of his sons
were at Trinity College, Cambridge, and were in a
great measure maintained there by the assistance
which I procured them. Two other sons I placed out
to good trades in the city. After the widow died, the
estate was sold, and the children had their portions,
and were competently provided for. God be praised
for his goodness to me.
During my continuance at St. M. Outwich I was
advised with by gentlemen concerning the placing
young men in the University, that they might be well
nurtured there, and secured from debauchery. Several
were left to my care entirely. Sir William Dawes
lived with me from his infancy till he went to Oxford*.
Another that was left to my care was Mr. George
Harbin, whom I kept in my house till he was fit for
the University. Chapter VIII. — The life I led at
St. Martin Outwich was very painful and laborious,
but yet it was withal the most comfortable and easy
part of my life.
I engaged in writing several things during my stay
in this place. A friend obliged me to write a discourse
about giving alms to the best advantage, which I com
plied with, under the title of " Charity Directed," and
made it public.

* He afterwards, through a succession of preferments, became, in 1713,
Archbishop of York.

RICHARD KIDDER. 133
In 1680, 1 printed a "Discourse concerning Christian
Fortitude," wherein I shewed the supports which our
religion affords us under our sufferings. I drew it up
upon occasion of the dismal apprehensions we gene
rally had of our approaching ruin. We seemed resolved
to ruin ourselves, and pulled our destruction upon our
selves with all our might. We were weary of our fran
chises and liberties, and courted chains and slavery.
We made way for arbitrary power, and too many
courted the advent qf Popery. We were for giving
away our Charters, though at the same time we were
BOUND BY OATH TO DEFEND THEM*.
In 1 684, I reprinted my ' Discourse of the Sacra
ment,' with the addition of some heads of Examination,
and prayers at the latter end. I did the same year
print the first part of ' The Demonstration of the Mes-
sias.' I promised a second part, and if God spare my
life and give me strength, I intend to publish it.
1 was then engaged in a new work, and such it was
as put me to great labour, and was very prejudicial to
my health. There was a design in Holland to print
Dr. Lightfoot's works in Latin. I was too easily
persuaded to undertake the translation of his English
works into Latin. I had promised and could not go
back. Some part I did myself, and procured others
to do the rest. I also procured his map of the Temple
now printed.
I was at the same time engaged in writing " Short

* How applicable to the awful times in which we live— 1829.— Edit.

134 RICHARD KIDDER.
Notes upon the Five Books of Moses *." Others were
engaged in the other books of the Old and New Tes
tament. It was designed for the use of families and
well designed. I did perform my part, which I have
since published. I am not willing to inquire into the
causes why others performed not their part. I am
sure that I very much weakened my health by these
labours, nor did I receive any kind of advantage. I
have this satisfaction only, that I did what I could to
promote so worthy a design.
But my labour now increased. Charles II. being
dead, was succeeded by James II. The danger of
Popery was now great and it stood us in hand (who
ministered in things) to contend for tlje ancient faith,
and to do all we possibly could to preserve our people,
and to hinder the spreading of Popery. I had never
been wont to entertain my people with controversial
divinity, but now it was high time to enter into the con
troversies between us and the Church of Rome.
There were some considerable families about the
City of Norwich, and in the county, of the Popish
religion. There was a mass house set up in the City,
and men that should have put a stop to the growing
danger, seemed to want the courage. They had parted
with their Charter before, and betrayed their franchises
which they were bound to have preserved. It was given

• See a masterly treatise, entitled " The Authenticity of the Five Books
of Moses Vindicated," by Dr. Herbert Marsh, now Lord Bishop of Peter
borough, then Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Rivingtons, 1802.
— Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 135
out (I wish I could not say from the pulpit) that there
was no danger of Popery ; that we had a Prince that
never broke his word ; that those men ought to be
watched who did either speak or insinuate that we
were in danger of Popery. The enemies of our Church
knew how to make their advantages of all this ; and
this spirit did but make way for the entrance of the
Popish religion.
I was not altogether idle at that time. I had lately
published a Sermon, which I had preached at Covent
Garden, upon these words: " Prove all things."
Here I discoursed against the Romanists' blind obedi
ence, and maintained the necessity of allowing the
judgment of private discretion * ; this was, at that time,
brought down to Norwich, and I hope had some effect.
I bought a parcel of books against Popery, and dis
persed them, and advised the sending for a considerable
number of the admirable book, intituled the Funeral
of the Mass f. Chapter IX. — I was chosen Lecturer
of Ipswich, in the latter end of Charles II.'s reign,
and again, about the latter end of King James's. I
had an inclination to have taken that place the first
time, had I not been prevented by some accidents that
came in the way. Dr. Mapletoft, whom I recommended
to the place, took it upon him for some time, and per
formed its duties better than I could do. For the

• Private judgment, in religion, is a point full of danger. The less of it
the better. It is the never-failing source of schism. — Edit.
t " The Funeral ofthe Mass" was written by William Barlow, a preceding
Bishop of Bath and V^ells, as is noticed in his Life. Page 459 of Part I.
10

136 RICHARD KIDDER.
second time I was prevented from doing the town the
service I was inclined to do them, and therefore I
entered not upon it. I am willing to forget the great
wrong that was done me in a public print, as if I had
designed to go to Ipswich, to serve a faction, which was
the farthest thing from my thoughts. Had I been
guilty of so mean a design, I cannot tell what could
have hindered me, for I was twice chosen, and followed
with vehement and repeated importunities to accept of
the place, and yet, after all, declined it.
Another thing there is that I should have mentioned
before, because it fell out before what was last related :
and thus it was : I was entrusted, by the Governor of
Christ Church Hospital, with the examining of the
Grammar School, and reporting, under my hand, in
their book, the true state of it. This I did once a
year, constantly, at the request of my friend, Sir John
Frederic, the President. There was a great complaint
that the Master of the School was very negligent ; I
knew the Master well, and believed he was wronged.
I came with the resolution to set him right with the
Governors, and to excuse some small faults, if I found
any such, as much as, in justice, I could. I knew how
invidious an employment it would be for me to accuse
the Master, and raise myself enemies by provoking him
and his friends. But so it was, that upon a long and
fair examination, I found the Grammar School quite
ruined : the boys had not so much as the first rudi
ments, and those who were to be chosen to the Mathe-
matic School were not able to do what the orders of
the house required. In a word, the salary was quite
thrown away, and the School utterly spoiled. This I

RICHARD KIDDER. 137
did testify under my hand— the master was dismissed.
I had not been honest had I done otherwise. I chose
rather the censures of those enemies I might hereby
create, than to be false to my trust. Mr. Secretary
Pepys was by, while I examined, and well knows that
I could not do otherwise than I did.
1 received a letter, A.D. 1687, from the Bishops of
Durham, Rochester, and Peterborough, (the Bishop
of London being then suspended) requiring me to
preach before the Lord Mayor, on the 15th of January
next ensuing. I am apt to believe that those Bishops,
when they wrote that letter, did not foresee what else
would be ordered on that day. For so it was, that that
-day was appointed by the King for a day of thanks
giving for the conception of the Queen, and a Form of
Thanksgiving was soon printed and sent abroad for
that purpose. I had some concern upon me on that
occasion, being very tender of giving any just offence
to the Court, and, on the other hand, as fearful of
doing any thing that might look like flattery or base
compliance. I knew that there would be great multi
tudes at Bow * Church, out of curiosity, and some as
spies to carry news to the Court. There was a vast
appearance of Citizens and others there. I preached
upon the 2nd St. John, ver. 4. I preached the very

• This Church (in Latin de Arcubus — of bows or arches) is so named
from the steeple, which is raised by pillars built arch-wise, like so many bent
bows. The Arches Court, Curia de Arcubus, is the chief and most ancient
Consistory Court belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the debating
spiritual causes. It is so called from the Church, in London, called St.
Mary-le-_B(W, where it was formerly held. — Edit.

138 RICHARD KIDDER.
same Sermon afterwards, at Whitehall, before the late
Queen, March 9, 1689. And have since printed it
exactly as I delivered it at Bow. The reader may
soon be satisfied that I was not guilty of any base com
pliance towards the Court; I thank God I was never
guilty of it, either then, or in the times of Charles or
of King William. 'Tis that which I ever detested and
kept myself clear from.
About that time I was sent for to the Lord Mayor,
who was a Dissenter, and, it was to be feared, would
do some great disservice to the Church of England.
He cared not to hear the Prayers of the Church, and
was deliberating about bringing the Dissenters to preach
in Guildhall Chapel, at least to preach sometimes *.
I easily saw whither we were going, and the mischievous
consequences of such a course. I did deal very frankly
and openly with him. I told him it was against law,
and that it would be of very dangerous consequence.
I laid before him the mischief of such a course, with
all the arguments which I could think of. I pleaded
the cause of the Church of England as strenuously as
I could. He told me that some other men thought
otherwise of the thing, and persuaded him to this
course. I replied that I was very ready to argue that
point with those who were of another opinion. I
begged of him that he would, when those he mentioned

* Can any thing more strongly shew the absurdity and danger of the re
peal of the Corporation and Test Acts, than the possibility of Lord Mayors
of schismatical propensities, introducing the doctrine of the Conventicle into
those places which heretofore have resounded with the Gospel and the rea
sonable service of the Church 1 — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 139
came to him again, send for me, and he might at once
hear them and me also argue that matter. While we
were discoursing, an eminent * non- conformist Minister
was brought into the room. I was pleased at it, be
cause I now hoped to argue the matter before him.
But all that I could do would not prevail with him to
stay. He pretended that he could not stay, and per
haps he could not. After a very long discourse, I left
the Lord Mayor ; it was the only time I ever was in
his company. After all endeavours to bring in the
Dissenters to Guildhall Chapel it succeeded not. For
(as I remember) a Court was called about it, and I took
care, at that Court, to have a considerable friend or
two to attend, and to counterwork that design.
In 1688, the Bishops were sent to the tower. After
they were discharged, one of them, the then Bishop of
St. Asaph, came to my house and lay concealed there
for several weeks. The danger was not over (as was
conceived) though they were acquitted in Westminster
Hall. During that time I was sent over by the said
Bishop to the Archbishop of Canterbury, about a
matter of very great moment. I was then in an ill state
of health, of which also I gave his Grace an account
before I went away. I told him I must be forced to
leave the town, and betake myself to some country
living. After this I took my leave. His Grace, it
seems, remembered what had passed. For the very
next morning he sent to my house Mr. Wharton, his
then chaplain, with an offer ofthe rectory of Sundridge,

1 Eminent!' risum teneatis 1

140 RICHARD KIDDER.
near Sevenoaks, in Kent, then void and in his gift, in
value about 200/. per annum, and very well situated.
I went to Lambeth and returned my thanks to the
Archbishop. He told me, that if I desired, he would
collate me to it. I desired he would give me leave to
see it first — which he granted me. The Archbishop
told me that he would give me that living, upon condi
tion that I would reside upon it. I answered him,
That if he would give me that living upon condition
that I should not reside, I would not take it upon those
terms. I went down to Sundridge and preached there,
and liked the place, but did not accept of it. I took
care to refuse it without offending the Archbishop,
and made use of Dr. Beveridge to that purpose, who,
upon my refusal, gave it to Mr. Edward Brown, the
present rector. Chapter X. — Soon after this, the
Prince of Orange landed, and not long after King-
James left the kingdom. I shall give sqme account of
myself from this time till I was made Bishop.
The following March I was sent for to White-hall,
to wait as Chaplain to their Majesties. I had never
heard that I was in the list till then, and was so lame of
the gout that I could not attend. I did, however,
make a very hard shift to preach at White-hall, before
the Princess Ann, on Easter-day, March 31, 1689.
I was desired to preach before the Lord Mayor, Sir
Thomas Pilkington, on the 29th of May this year. I
did so, at Bow Church, and have since published the
sermon. This year died Dr. Lake, Bishop of Chi
chester. He was succeeeded by Dr. Patric, then
minister of Covent-Garden and Dean of Peterborough.
Upon his promotion, the present Duke of Bedford

RICHARD KIDDER. 141
offered me that living. He is the patron of Covent-
Garden, and though it were upon promotion in the
crown, yet had he the favour from the King to name a
minister. I shall ever own the kindness, well knowing
the place to be of great value, and a place of great
credit. However, finding my health very much im
paired, I did decline it, not judging myself able to per
form the duty of it as I ought to do. Though, other
wise, I should, perhaps, have chosen it before any
living in England, not only for the value of the living,
but upon account of the noble patron and his family.
It was not very long before I had notice from the
late Archbishop Tillotson (a person not to be mentioned
without honour) that the King had given me the
Deanery of Peterborough, for which he assured
me that I was obliged to Daniel Earl of Nottingham.
I paid my thanks to the noble Earl, and in a little time
kissed his Majesty's hand at Hampton Court. I was
then but M.A. but soon after, the King going to Cam
bridge, commanded by the Duke of Shrewsbury, then
Secretary of State, that I should be created D.D. in
his presence, which was accordingly done. I went to
Peterborough and was installed, and returned to Lon
don forthwith.
There was at that time a commission granted to
several Bishops and others, to consider of such alter
ations in the liturgy, &c. as might give some satisfac
tion to the Dissenters ; and these things were to be
prepared against the ensuing Convocation. I was then
samed in that commission, and had appeared in it be
fore my going to, and attended upon it at my return
from Peterborough. I heartily wish that all that

142 RICHARD KIDDER.
passed in the Jerusalem Chamber in Westminster (for
there the commissioners sat) were laid open to all man
kind. For whatever opinion some have conceived of
the proceedings there, I am sure what was there done
need not fear the light. I will not undertake to give the
history of that matter. It shall be enough to give ac
count of myself. I was by a learned Prelate desired to
prepare and offer to that assembly what concerned the
old translation of the Psalms, which is bound up with
the liturgy and read in Churches. I drew up some
thing on that occasion, and humbly offered it to the
commissioners. I went at the usual time in the following year 1690,
to Peterborough, where I preached and endeavoured
to do some good, and maintained an hospitality at
least proportionate to the income of the place, and lived
in very great peace with the Prebendaries of the
Church. There is a free-school in the gift of the Dean
and Chapter of that Church, and some encouragement
to the young scholars, I made an order that the Dean
and Chapter should one day in a year, visit and so
lemnly examine the boys, and see if there were any
neglect in the master or usher. An order that I found
need of then, and that will, I hope, for the future, be
strictly observed. Chapter XI. — Towards the end of
the summer I returned to London, and there I con
tinued till the spring, when I waited on their Majesties
as chaplain. About that time there was much dis
course about disposing of the vacant Bishoprics ; and
the late Archbishop, then Dean of St. Paul's, proposed
to me that of Peterborough, where I was at that time
Dean. I refused it absolutely ; and a while after that

RICHARD KIDDER. 143
I gave him my reasons, in. a letter, why I did refuse it.
I added also, that I cared not to accept of any other
Bishopric. And this I did that I might avoid farther
solicitations that way. Sometime after this I went to
Norwich, and was very secure that I should now hear
no more of a Bishopric. I had not been long there
before I heard the news of filling up the vacant Sees.
Dr. Beveridge I found was nominated to Bath and
Wells. But he refused it, and it continued vacant a con
siderable while after the other Sees were filled. I had
letters from my friends, in which they sometimes men
tioned me as likely to be nominated to it. But I did
not fear that, having dealt so plainly with the then
Archbishop. Had I been offered that of Chichester,
perhaps, I had not refused it. But that was full when
I left town, and was, after I came to Norwich, disposed
of. I did, while I continued at Norwich, after great
importunity, write to my friend Dr. Williams, that /
would not be so stiff as absolutely to refuse a Bishopric,
excepting that qf Bath and Wells, which I was not
willing to take. He soon told part of this to the Arch
bishop, that is, he told him I was willing now to take a
Bishopric when offered, but he concealed my exception
against Bath and Wells. He is alive and knows this to
be true. I knew very well I should be able to do less
good if I came into a Bishopric void by deprivation. I
had never in my life come into a place of that nature. I
had suffered that way, but never done any thing of that
kind. I was, however, thoroughly satisfied that those
men who now succeeded the deprived Archbishop
and Bishops in Canterbury, Glocester and Peter-

144 RICHARD KIDDER.
borough and Ely, were men " of whom the world was
not worthy."
From Norwich I went to Peterborough, to my resi
dence, as Dean. Having spent some time there, a
messenger came from Norwich, on purpose, with a
letter from the late Archbishop, who, when he wrote
it, supposed me to be at Norwich. 'Twas to let me
know, from the Queen's direction, that I was nominated
to the Bishopric qf Bath and Wells, and that the Earl
said I must not refuse it. I was, upon the reading of
it, in such trouble and consternation as I have seldom
been in during my whole life. I saw the strait I was
then in. If I took this Bishopric, I well knew I must
meet with trouble and envy. If I refused, I knew the
consequence of that also, especially Dr. Beveridge
having so lately done it.
After some days I returned my answer, and 'twas to
this effect : — That unless her Majesty would excuse me,
and think of some other person, I would accept of the
Bishopric. And this I did perhaps not so wisely as I
should. I cannot say I did it against my conscience ;
but of this I am sure, that since I have considered
things better, I should not have done it were it to do
again. I did not consult my ease. I have often re
pented of my accepting it, and looked on it as a great
infelicity. I was consecrated at Bow Church the 30th of Au
gust, 1691. And in September following I went down
to Wells and was installed in person, and returned to
London in October following, where I continued the
winter. Chapter XII.— In 1692, I returned to Wells,

RICHARD KIDDER. 145
and there continued that summer. I am sure no man
living could come into a place with a more hearty
desire to do good than I did. I had the last year sent
out letters to the several Archdeacons, and put them
upon some inquiries which I judged for the good of
the Church. I expected an account from them which
would have been of great use to me. I wish I could
say that they had given me that assistance which they
were by their places, not to say by their oaths, obliged
to. However, I was not so discouraged but that I
proceeded to discharge my duty in the place over
which the providence of God had set me*.
I returned to London, the Parliament being ready to
sit, and was desired to preach before their Majesties,
November 5, 1 692 ; by their special command I printed
the sermon. I continued that winter in town, and was
again required to preach before them, on Sunday,
March 12, being the second Sunday in Lent. That
sermon also is since printed by their Majesties' special
command. I had occasion in that sermon, on St. Mat
thew v. 43, 44, to speak of praying for our enemies,
and particularly considered those places in the Book
of Psalms where the Psalmist seems to pray against
them. Chapter XIII. — I came down to Wells in the
beginning of 1693, and appointed an Ordination upon
Trinity Sunday following. Among those who pre-

• The auto-biographer here proceeds with accounts of his Visitations,
Confirmations, Ordinations, &c. but as these contain nothing more than the
routine business of a Bishop, the printing of them I have deemed unin
teresting. The Bishop also relates divers unedifying disputes with his
Canons, &c. &c.
PART II. L

146 RICHARD KIDDER.
sented themselves to be ordained, there was one Mr.
Nicholas Mallarhe, a man of about sixty years of age.
I examined him very carefully. I found he had com
mendable skill in the Greek and Latin tongues. I
tried him also in theological matters, in which he gave
entire satisfaction. He seemed also to be a man of
great piety and probity, and I have reason still to think
so of him. I examined his title also, and found that
very good. I had a letter from Robert Siderfin, Esq.
patron of the Rectory of Hawkridge, in my diocese,
and then void. He signified his purpose to give it to
him if I judged him fit to enter into Orders, which he
left to me entirely, and desired me to report to him
what I thought of him. This I did when I had ex
amined him. I had from several worthy gentlemen of
the country a very good character of Mr. Mallarhe,
and also from the hand of the present Bishop of Ex
eter, a testimony of his satisfaction of his probity and
sincerity of religion ; I never had better assurance of
any man that 1 ever ordained. However, he coming
out of Devonshire, though I had no great reason for
it, yet to avoid all offence, I advised with the Lord
Bishop of Litchfield, who was then at Bath, whether
or not it belonged to me to ordain him or not, or leave
him to the Bishop of Exeter. He was clearly of
opinion that it belonged to me, because his title lay in
my diocese ; and it is fit that I should judge of his
fitness, because he was to be employed in my diocese.
Besides, the Bishop of Exeter had given a very good
account of the man, under his hand and seal, in his
licence which he had given him to teach a school in
South Moulton, in Devonshire, dated September 2,
10

RICHARD KIDDER. 147
1692. After this care, I ordained him on Trinity
Sunday, 1693 ; nor did Dr. Creighton and Mr. Chey
ney, or any other of the clergy in town, refuse to assist
me. When I had ordained hira deacon, I was desired
by him to ordain him priest before the next public
Ordination, for fear, I suppose, of a lapse. I promised
him to write to the Archbishop about that matter. I
did so, and received his answer and leave in a letter
dated July 25, 1693. I was willing to ordain him
priest, and sent to Dr. Creighton and Mr. Cheyney to
assist me. Here follows the
Case of Mr. Mallarhe. August 18, 1693.
Mr. Nicolas Mallarhe offered himself to be ordained
Deacon by the Bishop of Bath and Wells last Ember
Week. He brought with him a sufficient testimonial
from persons who are known to the Bishop, and a
title in the diocese of Bath and Wells from Robert
Siderfin, Esq.; the Bishop examined him, and so did
his Chaplain, with entire satisfaction, and he was
ordained Deacon last Trinity Sunday.
Mr. Mallarhe desired the Bishop to ordain him
Priest before the next Ordination Sunday. The
Bishop acquaints the Archbishop and obtains leave.
Mr. Mallarhe thereupon comes for Orders, and brings
with him his presentation and testimonials; but his
testimonials not being from clergymen, but from
others, Dr. Creighton and Mr. Cheyney (two Canons
of the Church of Wells) being sent for by the Bishop,
and shewed the Archbishop's license, did not abso
lutely refuse to join with the Bishop in ordaining Mr.
l2 ;

148 RICHARD KIDDER.
Mallarhe, yet they modestly demurred and objected
two things :
First, That they had heard Mr. Mallarhe had been
a Nonconformist, and then that he ought to have testi
monials from the neighbouring clergy.
To the first, the Bishop answered, that he would
call Mr. Mallarhe' to speak for himself, who accord
ingly appeared, and said, that for ten years last past
he had been constant to the public worship, and that
he was perfectly satisfied with the forms which the
Church required, and for his other fitness he offered
himself to be examined by those Canons.
As to the second, the Bishop was content to dismiss
Mr. Mallarhe for that time till he brought a testi
monial from the clergy, and sent him away re infectd.
But he soon sent a certificate from four of the neigh
bouring clergy. Upon receipt of it, he sent it to the
afore-named Canons, but they then were not satisfied.
Upon which the Bishop sent his Secretary to them
to let them know that he now required of them to
assist him, or else to appear and give him good rea
sons why they could not. Now they objected that in
this testimonial there wanted per Triemium, which
the Canon required, and therefore they could not join
with the Bishop. Hereupon the Bishop, willing to
stop all pretences, ordered Mr. Mallarhe to procure
such a testimonial, which he accordingly did, and
brought with him, August 15, 1693, upon which the
Bishop sent once more to these Canons to assist him.
But Mr. Cheyney was out of town ; Dr. Creighton
came to the Bishop. The Bishop asked him what

RICHARD KIDDER. 149
satisfaction he wanted now ? He raised several ob
jections. 1st. That he would have him preach a Recantation
Sermon*, which the Bishop answered and told him
he had no power to lay new conditions on him, and
that he could not charge him.
2. That Mr. Mallarhe might, for what he knew, be
excommunicated, and that he ought to have had a
recommendation from the Bishop of Exeter, in whose
diocese he had of late taught school. To which 'twas
answered, that this would give Mr. Mallarhe another
great journey, and that he had brought with him
a license from that Bishop (that bears date September
2, 1692) which license hath the Bishop's hand ; and
in it, speaking of Mr. Mallarh6, he says he was suffi
ciently informed " de probitate et sinceritate religionis"
ofthe said Mallarhe. The Doctor urged also a Canon
of the Council of Nice ; but the Bishop believes the
Doctor himself did not believe (or think) it to be to
his purpose, and therefore spares him.
3. He urged our Ninth Canon, which is nothing to
the purpose, unless it could be proved that Mallarhe^
had ever censured those that conform.
Lastly, He objected that whereas Mr. M. lately
taught school in Devonshire, the Bishop ought to have

* Public Recantation should ever be insisted on previously to ordaining a
Dissenting minister ; in such recantation the chief point to be exacted is,—
the utter inefficacy of his former assumed administration of the Sacraments,
and the sinfulness of such assumption without Episcopal Ordination — the only
visible medium of a divine commission to administer in holy things. —
Edit.

150 RICHARD KIDDER.
letters dimissory from the Bishop of Exeter ; to which
the Bishop replied many things :
I. He asked him if he would assist him in case Mr.
M. did procure such letters, to which he would give
no answer.
II. That he was of opinion that none ought to ordain
him but himself. On which occasion the Bishop said
many things which seemed to give him satisfaction.
III. That he (i.e. the Doctor) was not concerned in
such letters, they being between Bishop and Bishop,
and that the Bishop was to answer if he failed in any
matter of that nature.
The Bishop did read over this account to Dr.
Creighton, September 5, 1693, and asked him if he
could object against the truth of any part of it ; to
which he replied he could not. The Bishop did it
the rather because his enemies had misrepresented
him in this matter ; and a certain Lawyer, who dined
with the Doctor a little before, had before a friend ofthe
Bishop railed at him for his proceedings in this matter.
The Bishop's friend had the case in his pocket, as
represented ; the lawyer read it. I was amazed what
he had done that he should be so horribly abused.
The Bishop had nothing to answer for in that whole
matter. He did nothing but what was exactly agree
able to the laws and Canons of this Church. Yet was
abused by his enemies ; reported to have ordained a
fanatic*, and to have dispensed with his subscriptions,
a thing that he never did, and that he abhors and

* It may be asked how the Bishop could know that MallarhS was not a
fanatic, that is, a Dissenter, unless he had recanted? — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 151
detests. They went so far in their malice, that they
misinformed the Queen in this matter, and have en
deavoured, by lies and false stories, to murder his
fame, and to weary him out.
Mallarhe they say was once a Non-conformist. Grant
it to be true ; is he therefore to be refused, after eight
or ten years conformity * ? But he was no graduate in
the University ; be it so. Where is that Canon which
does exclude him from Orders if he have all the learn
ing and good qualifications that the law requires ? I
have seen cause to reject several graduates for insuf
ficiency. Besides, Mr. M. was bred beyond sea in
his younger time, and might have no opportunity of
studying in our Universities. He was one of the best
and fittest that I ever ordained ; and though I honour
the Universities, yet the law does not bind me up to
admit to Holy Orders none but graduates +. When
* No, not if disposed publicly to recant.
•f But it is much to be lamented that such is not the case, though it must
be owned, and as a member myself of one of the English Universities, it is
with shame and regret I do own it, that the gross profligacy and immorality
into which young men, under the present state of things at Oxford and
Cambridge, are there initiated, render those places any thing but a de-
sireable preparation for the sacred profession. But this is an abuse: and
we are not to argue against any institution from its abuse. The extrava
gant habits and vicious career of too many young men at the seats of learn
ing, are points that call aloud for instant and summary suppression. This
moral rottenness in those who are to become the authorized and commis
sioned ministers of religion, cannot but sap the existence ofthe Church as an
establishment : for though the unworthiness of the minister hinders not the
effect of his ministration, and though his divine commission is of paramount
importance in spite of his personal faults, yet a plausible and popular,
though false and hollow plea for separation is thus afforded to the schismati-
cally disposed. — Edit.

152 RICHARD KIDDER.
the Dean urged this, I showed him the Canon that
mentions graduates, and convinced him I had done
nothing against the Canon, which he had not con
sidered before as he ought to have done. He seemed
to wonder that the Canon was worded as I shewed
him it was.
I was willing (to satisfy these two Canons) that Mr.
M. should procure letters dimissory, though I knew it
was not reasonable to insist upon it, now he was to be
made priest. Mr. Mallarhe wrote to Mr. Cook, the
Bishop's Registrar, about it. I have the Registrar's
answer by me, dated August 24, 1693, in which he tells
him that the Bishop was at Trelawney, and would be
there till after Michaelmas. He adds his opinion, that
his Benefice lying in another Diocese, his certificate
from the Clergy, and his presentation to obtain orders
were sufficient. Dr. Creighton had made a great
bluster about this matter, and it was given out, that
rather than assist the Bishop, he would leave Wells.
There was a speech that he was packing up his goods
to be gone, and the Dean represented to me how great
a loss that would be to their Church. For my part, I
was prepared very well to bear that loss ; and, knowing
my cause to be good, I was resolved to be steady to it.
An overture was made to me, that I should make use
of the Vicars, and that I should connive at Dr. Creigh
ton's absence. I answered, that I insisted on his as
sisting me, and that otherwise, I would not ordain
Mr. Mallarhe. I knew that it was mere humour, and
a false notion of honour. The Doctor had spoken big
words against it, and could not tell how to go back
with reputation. Besides, had I connived at the ab-

RICHARD KIDDER. 153
sence of these Canons, they would have given out that
they had no hand in it. And 1 could expect nothing
but a contempt of my authority, and reproaches from
my enemies.
Mallarhe was poor, had now lost his School, and
were he not ordained would want means to subsist, and
lie under contempt and disgrace. How far the Canons
might consider this, I knew not; I thought myself
obliged to do it.
Dr. Creighton, at length, came to me and submitted ;
he told me he would assist me in the ordination of
Mallarhe, and he was as good as his word. I asked
him if he would engage for Mr. Cheyney also, he told
me he would, and, upon that promise, I said nothing to
Mr. Cheyney. But Mr. Cheyney failed to make good
what the Doctor had promised on his behalf; in this
matter Dr. Creighton cannot be excused from blame ;
for, if he did ill in complying, he ought not to have
done it at all ; if there were no ill in it, he ought not to
have given me and Mr. Mallarhe so much trouble.
But, when men are in a faction, they do not consider as
they ought. Chapter XIV. — I returned, from Lon
don, to Wells, 1694, and shall now report some things
that happened in that year.
While I was at London, in the winter, Mr. Ashton,
the Prebendary of Wivelscomb, died. This is called
the Golden Prebend, and hath a corps of about 500/.
per annum. This was in my gift, and I wanted not
great applications. I had then a Chaplain that had a
very small Prebend, and a brother of my wife's that
had another. I waved them because they were both
competently provided for. Many suitors I had, but

154 RICHARD KIDDER.
was deaf to them all; and, indeed, I hardly gave any
thing to the man that asked *. I considered that I
had a small Rectory which I had lately bestowed on
one Mr. Wells, a worthy man. It was Axbridge, a
market-town, in my Diocese. That Rectory is hardly
worth 30/. per annum. I had before, for his encou
ragement, given him a small Prebend. He did not (nor
did any person for him), seek for it, which inclined me
to bestow it on him. I sent for him, and gave it him,
and by that means I have made Axbridge a very com
petent maintenance.
In this year I published my " Notes on the Penta
teuch," in two volumes. I also published a' Sermon,
preached at Whitehall, before the Queen, May 23, by
her Majesty's command.
I met with a great many troubles this year ; one was
from Daniel Ballowe, Clerk and Minister of Crewkerne;
another from Mr. Edwin Sandys, Archdeacon of
Wells f. Chapter XVI J.— 1696. I shall, in the

* The disposal of Preferments may conveniently be regulated thus:
(fl^ " Those that ask, shall not have, and those that do not ask, do not
want."— Evil.
¦f The first is the case of a Clergyman, whom the Bishop represents as
having violated his promise to reside on a certain living, and as having, on
various occasions, behaved contumaciously. The latter, of one of his own
Archdeacons, who refused recognizing him as Bishop, in consequence of his
filling the See after Ken's deprivation. Other disputes with his Clergy are
also noticed. — Edit.
X Chapter XV. being taken up entirely with tbe election of Canons in
the Church of Wells, is wholly omitted. The present Chapter (XVI.) be
gins with accounts of Mr. Samuel D'Assigney and a Mr. Robert Emborough,
who presented forged letters of Orders, as also did some others. There is

RICHARD KIDDER. 155
next place, relate another matter which gave me very
much trouble ; but then, I do solemnly declare that I
am perfectly innocent, as to the whole matter, and shall
readily declare as much with my last breath, and take
the Holy Sacrament upon it. I have been very much
slandered and traduced, by that very perfidious person
who hath done me all the wrong, and knows in his con
science that, in the whole proceeding, I have done him
none. He declared to me, at the conclusion of that
affair, which I shall mention afterward, that I had
dealt honourably with him, and that he should always
speak well of me. This he hath not only said to me,
but he hath said it behind my back very often, as I can
prove to his face by unexceptionable witness. And,
though I have had no dealing with him since that time,
yet hath he made it his business to reproach me and
my family after the most virulent manner, without the
least injury or provocation on my part. I know no
reason I should conceal the name of so profligate a
wretch. — His name is Claver Morice *, M.D. an in
habitant of Wells.
This person courted my daughter f , and because he

recorded an unedifying quarrel between the Bishop and Mr. Sandys, Clergy
man of Yeovilton, who omitted certain Prayers. He next relates his intro
duction of a bill of attainder against Sir J. Fen wick, for high treason; this
is succeeded by the narrative, as above, respecting a contract of marriage
between one ofthe Bishop's daughters and a Dr Morris. — Edit.
• Elsewhere the Bishop writes the name Morris. — Edit.
t It is to be regretted the Bishop did not say which of his daughters..
He left issue, two daughters, who were his coheiresses ; Susan, who married

156 RICHARD KIDDER.
hath misrepresented the case I will here represent it
truly, under the letters A. B. as I drew it up some
years ago, in order to take some advice upon it, and it
is as follows : —
The Case. — A. makes his addresses to B. in her
father's house, in the country, without the knowledge
of her father. When the father knew it, he expostu
lated with A. thereupon, and finding his daughter not
yet entangled in her affections, he puts an end to it,
with the knowledge and consent of his daughter, and
absolutely puts off A. and after this goes to London,
leaving his wife and daughter in the country.
During that time A. renews his suit, not only with
out the knowledge, but against the express will of her
father. How far, in the time, he might engage her
affections, I leave any man to judge by the sequel.
After this, B. comes to London. A. writes to her
thither, persuades her to marry him against her parents'
consent ; endeavours to beget in her an ill opinion and
contempt of her parents, and, falsely, represents to her
what had passed, as appears by a letter producible,
under his own hand, bearing date November 8, 1693.
Upon this, the father, having first left his daughter
to her liberty to marry him, puts off A. a second time ;
and B. gave him a positive and absolute denial under
her own hand.
Thus things stood till about June, 1694, when the

Sir Richard Everard, Bart, of Langleys, in Great Waltham, Essex; and
Anne, who dying caelebs, May 13, 1728, left 300.. for erecting a monument
to her father and mother's memory ; which was done soon after. Vid.
infra. — Edit.

RICHARD KIDDER. 157
father, with his family, returned into the country. The
father cannot, in this interim, accuse A. of any secret
practices to entangle B. a third time. But yet (to his
trouble and surprize) he found, when he was in the
country, (where A. lived) that B. discovered some in
clinations towards A. ; fell very sick upon it, and dan
gerously so. A woman that the father put great
confidence in, averred to him that that was the cause
of her illness. The father (out of his great kindness
to B.) declared that if that was the case, he would,
rather than bury his daughter, submit to a treaty with
A., and did consent that he should be sent for to that
purpose. A. did come, and the father did agree with him upon
terms of settlement, and did promise his consent that
he should marry his daughter on such terms, and did
add that all this on his part should be made good, on
condition that he gained the consent of B.
After this, though the father agreed on a portion
that fully answered what A. was to settle, yet A. en
deavoured to screw him higher. He insisted on the
present possession of part of the mother's jointure, and
declared he would not marry B. unless it was granted.
But this was refused. When he sent one to the father
to persuade him to engage to make B. equal to her
younger sister, which the father absolutely refused to
consent to : and said, that he did not choose A. for a
match for B. but submitted to it, and that he would
not oblige himself to do as much for a child that chose
for herself, as for one that in that affair should be
governed by him.
In the mean time, writings were roughly drawn up,

158 RICHARD KIDDER.
and left with the father to peruse. He did peruse
them, and sincerely intended to proceed. And whereas
the mother was against the match, he did endeavour to
reconcile her to it, and did tell A. that he hoped to
effect it. However, he did all that an honest man could
do, and hath done so in the whole affair. Nor was
there any thing wanting towards his completing the
matter, but the consent of B. which A. could not obtain,
though he affirmed to her father that he had it, and
that she had promised him.
On the other hand B. begs of her father that he
would break off the intended match. To whom he.
replied, that he would not do it. That he had done it
twice already. That it was said she had promised A.
marriage. He charged her solemnly in the presence of
God, that she should take care to do A. no wrong.
In the mean time, A. rails at the father for effecting
this alteration in his daughter ; misreports and slanders
him (as his manner is) in all places ; gives out that B.
loved him as well as formerly, and this alteration that
seemed to be in her, he imputed to the fraud and
wickedness of her parents.
Upon this the father sends for him with two of his
friends, to convince him of his error in two things. — 1.
That the father had not dealt insincerely. — 2. That B.
loved him still. As to the first the father provoked
him to say what he had to accuse him of, and put him
so to it that he had nothing to say of moment. He
there protested his innocence — offered his daughter in
marriage to him, which he took no notice of, and told
him he did consent as at first, on condition B. did,
whom he had always left entirely to her liberty. As to

RICHARD KIDDER. 159
the second, he offered to call in B. that she might de
clare whether she loved him as before, which A.
refused. A. insisted, that whereas B. had loved him,
he would have reasons assigned of her alteration. To
which the father replied, that he would inquire strictly
into that matter, and so that meeting broke up.
Soon after this the father called B. to account ; tells
her that A. did believe that she loved him as before ;
assures her that she had his consent to marry him,
that he would not take it ill if she did it : and more
over, that whereas her mother was supposed to be
against the match, he would take upon him to render
her easy on the account. She replied, that she was
mistaken in A. That she could not be happy with him,
and shewed a great aversion. The father told her
that she ought then to declare the reasons ofthe alter
ation, and that A. expected it. To which she replied,
that her reasons were these: — 1. That when he
thought he was sure of her kindness, he entertained her
with frequent invectives against her parents, which she
could not bear. — 2. That she deprehended him in
frequent lies in his ordinary conversation. — 3. That her
father having at that time a spiritual promotion fallen
into his hands, he tempted her with 100/. to procure it
for a friend of his. These reasons she assigned. And
the father knows and can prove the facts that are here
charged. The third he owns and justifies also.
After this the father meets with A. and told him that
now he could assign the reasons of the aversion in B.
from her own mouth, and that he was ready to do it be
fore his two friends who were present at the last meeting.
This he did, because he found it necessary to discourse

160 RICHARD KIDDER.
him before witnesses having experimented how he had
formerly misrepresented him. But he never thought
fit to bring those friends to hear the matter.
It must not be forgot that A. pretends that B. pro
mised him marriage. All that he pretended at first
was a promise from her. But after a friend of his,
a learned civilian, had declared that there was nothing
binding in a single promise on one side, then he gave
out that there had passed a mutual and reciprocal
promise or contract. But we have his word only for
this. However, this being a matter of moment, the father
makes the most exact inquiry into it. Upon the whole
he can find nothing (unless he rely upon the veracity
of A.) that obligeth in the matter. Here's no witness
produced. The father would not have refused her
entering into such a contract before witnesses and in
his presence. But that was never desired.
The father is willing to admit for the completing this
case as much as he can possibly with reason. And
that he supposeth to be this : — That A. endeavoured
to extort a promise that she would marry none but
him during his life. She resisted it. He urged her,
and tells her that she shall never stir from that place (it
was not in her father's house) unless she repeated such
words, to the purpose above-said after him. She told
him if she repeated those words to gain her liberty,
yet she would not abide by them, or esteem herself
obliged. Upon this protestation she is supposed to
have repeated those words, and to have parted from
A. For any promise after, though it does not appear

RICHARD KIDDER. 161
there was any thing mutual, or that amounted to more
than this that she intended to marry him ; — and as she
did intend it, so did her father also, who leaves it to
others to judge what can be inferred from that; — it is
to be questioned whether A. intended now to marry
B. or not. For he acted as if he intended to break it
off. And a certain clergyman of good fame discoursing
with A. about this whole matter, A. told him, that as
for the business of marriage he was at ease, and well
content with a single life, and that he would please
himself with obliging B. to a single life also, and glut
himself with revenge.
This is the case as I drew it up when those things
were fresh in my memory. I did it with a design to
take some learned friends' advice upon it. And so it
was that about the same time Dr. M. drew up his case,
and sent it to the Dean of St. Paul's, who gave me the
original written by the Doctor himself, which I have
by me. The Doctor's case is as follows : —
" A gentleman makes love to a lady — obtains her
" favour — has her parents' consent — then a promise
" from her of marriage ; afterwards was unaccountably
" rejected, and he consents to relinquish the promise.
" Some weeks after the lady grew extremely in love
" with this gentleman, and by the warm and repeated
" solicitations of her relations he was prevailed with
" to renew his address. He did, and they both
" promised each other marriage; the lady's parents
" were thus gratified, and the fortune and settle-
" ment were acreed to. But the better to secure
" themselves of each other, the gentleman takes the
PART II. M

162 RICHARD KIDDER.
" lady by the hand and says thus : — In the presence
" of God I speak it, that I will never marry any one
" else but you ; and now, madam, it is but reason-
" able for me to request you to say the same words
" too. She answered, I have already promised you,
" and you may trust me. But to satisfy you, I do
" assure you, I will never be married to any one but
" you while you are alive. After this, by an amazing
" capriccio of her parents, the lady (though of age) by
" threats and severities was forbidden the company
" of the gentleman, though nothing was alleged
" against him, and a great application has been made
" to him to acquit her of the obligations. The gen-
" tleman desires to know whether if both released
" other of these contracts, he could (in foro con-
" scientice) marry any other woman ; the promise
" mentioned being of the nature of a vow, and a dis-
" junctive one, which he doubts, obliges him to keep
" from marrying any one else, though he is not likely
" to obtain her for whose sake he made it."

This auto-biography of Kidder is concluded in the
following Chapter (XVII.) which treats of a long alter
cation with a Mr. H. Bridges, son of Sir Thomas
Bridges, Knt. of the county of Somerset : — also with
the Rev. Samuel Hill, Rector of Kilmington, Somerset,
about a book against the Bishop of Salisbury, which
Hill affirmed Bishop Kidder had instigated him to
write, but which evidently the Bishop had nothing to

RICHARD KIDDER. 163
do with. There is yet another dispute with a Mr.
Jones, to whom the Bishop refused ordination. The
Bishop's narrative abruptly terminates with a vindica
tion of his mode of ordination, and the persons so ad
mitted by him.

Bishop Kidder died, November, 1703, in his Palace,
at Wells, and was privately buried in the Cathedral.
Through a most unhappy accident, in the night, be
tween the 26th or 27th of that month, he was killed in
his bed, with his lady, by the fall of a stack of chimnies,
occasioned by the great storm ! It is reported that his
heirs were sued for dilapidations! He was a very
learned writer, and one of the best Divines of his
time. He left issue, two daughters ; Susan married to Sir
Richard Everard, Bart., of Langleys, in Great Wal
tham, Essex ; and Anne, who died unmarried, May 13,
1728. The latter left 300/. for erecting a monument
to her father and mother's memory, which was done
soon after. The Bishop's daughter, Lady Everard,
died September 12, 1739 (Sir Richard, her husband,
having deceased in 1722-3), leaving two sons, Sir
Richard and Sir Hugh, successively 5th and 6th Baro
nets. Sir Richard Everard, Bart., grandson of Bishop
Kidder, died cselebs, in 1741-2, and was succeeded by
his only brother, Sir Hugh. It does not appear to
which of the two daughters Dr. Morris paid his ad
dresses.
m 2

164 RICHARD KIDDER.
Publications, arranged in the order in which they
appeared : —
1 . The Young Mans Duty. — A discourse shewing
the necessity of seeking the Lord betimes : as also the
danger and unreasonableness of trusting to a late or
death-bed repentance. Lond. 1663, 12mo. The 10th
edition of it was published in 1750.
2. Convivium Cazleste — A plain and familiar dis
course concerning the Lord's Supper. Lond. 1674,
8vo. reprinted afterwards with additions.
3. Charity Directed; or the way to give Alms to
the greatest advantage. — In a letter to a friend. Lond.
1677, 8vo.
4. The Christian Sufferer Supported ; or a Discourse
shewing at once that the Sufferings of good men are
not inconsistent with God's 'special Providence, &c.
Lond. 1680.
5. He collected and communicated to the ingenious
Mr. Ray, the Hebrew Proverbs, that are added by
way of appendix to that industrious gentleman's ' Col
lection of Proverbs.'
6. He published these several Sermons ; — A Dis
course concerning the Education of Youths : on Eph.
i. 4. Lond. 1673. — A Sermon preached before the
Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, at Guildhall
Chapel, on July 16, 1682. The text is 1 Peter iii. 2.
A Sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. William
Allen, August 17, 1686, on Hebrews xiii. 4. This Mr.
Allen was a citizen of London, and wrote ten books,
chiefly in defence of the Church of England, against
the Anabaptists, Quakers, &c. A Sermon at the
funeral of Thomas Pakeman, M.A. 1691, on Rev. xiv.

RICHARD KIDDER. 165
13. A Sermon on the " Resurrection." Lond. 1694.
Besides which, he published in 1697, Twelve Sermons
preached upon several occasions ; amongst which is
reprinted, " The Judgment of Private Discretion."
7. He wrote the following Tracts' against Popery.
(1.) A Second Dialogue between a new Catholic Con
vert and a Protestant, shewing why he cannot believe
the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Lond. 1686, 4to.
(2.) An Examination of Bellarmine's Thirteenth Note
of the Church, Of the Confession of Adversaries:
Lond, 1687, 4to. (3.) The Texts which Papists
cite out of the Bible for the Proof of their Doctrine,
Of the Sacrifice of the Mass, examined. Part I. and
II. Lond. 4to. He was assisted in this last by Mr.
Gee. (4.) The Judgment of Private Discretion in
matters of Religion defended ; in a Sermon on 1 Thess.
v. 21. preached at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, February
23, 1686. Lond. 1687. 4to., with a preface. Reflec
tions on a French Testament ; printed at Bordeaux,
A.D. 1686 ; pretended to be translated out of the
Latin into French, by the Divines of Louvain. Lond.
1690. 4to. The other things he published were —
8. Help for Children's Understanding the Church
Catechism. 9. Charge to the Clergy of hit Diocese, at his pri
mary Visitation, begun at Axbridge, June 2, 1692.
Lond. 1692, 4to.
10. He was also author of The Life of Dr. Anthony
Horneck. London, 1698, 8vo. And after his decease
were published these two pieces.
11. A Discourse concerning Sins of Infirmity and
Wilful Sins, with another " Of Restitution," 12mo.

166 RICHARD KIDDER.
Composed chiefly to be distributed amongst the poorer
inhabitants of his Diocese. The copy was sent to the
press a very short time before the dreadful tempest
which put a period to his life.
12. " Critical Remarks upon some difficult Passages
of Scripture, in a Letter to Sir Peter King." London,
1719 and 1725. 8vo.

Synopsis qf Dates, Preferments, $c.
Born, A.D. 1633.
B.A. Emanuel College, Cambridge, 1652.
Fellow ofthe same, 1655.
M.A. 1656.
Ordained Deacon and Priest, 1658.
Vicar of Stanground Co. Hunt, 1659.
Ejected for non-conformity, 1662.
Rector of Raine, Essex, 1664. Resigned, 1674.
Minister of St. Helen's, London, before 1674, but
not instituted.
Preacher at the Rolls, before 1674.
Rector of St. Martin's Outwich, 1674.
Week-day Lecturer at Black Friars', soon after 1674.
Prebendary of Norwich, 1681.
Lecturer of Ipswich, latter part of Charles II.'s reign.
Dean of Peterborough, 1689.
D.D. of Cambridge, by Royal Mandamus, 1690.
Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1691.
Died November 26, 1703. Aged 70.
Tomb. — " Between the easternmost columns on

RICHARD KIDDER. 167
" the north side of the Choir, is the lofty Monument
" of Bishop Kidder and his Lady, who were killed
" in the great storm of November 26, 1703. This
" was erected by their surviving daughter, who is
" represented by an elaborate figure, reclining on a
" slab, and looking at two urns, supposed to contain
" the ashes of her ill-fated parents : at the sides are
" two Corinthian columns, supporting an entabla-
" ture and open pediment, crowned with flaming
" lamps, and a lozenge shield of the family arms.
" Beneath the entablature is expanded drapery,
" with cherubim in basso-relievo *."
Portraits. — There is an oil Painting of Kidder in
the collection of episcopal Portraits, at Wells Palace,
See Part I. p. 39 of this Work. There is an engraved
Portrait, by Clamp, 8vo. He is not named in Granger
or Noble.
Arms. — None on record in the Heralds' College.
See the list of the Arms of the Bishops of Bath and
Wells, at p. 66 of Part I. of this Publication.
* Britton's Hist. Wells Cath. p. 113.

168 GEORGE HOOPER.
XIV. GEORGE HOOPER.
Succeeded A.D. 1704.— Died 1727.
Tins distinguished Prelate, the son of George
Hooper, gent, was born at Grimley, Worcestershire,
November 18, 1640, and was educated in grammar and
classical learning first at St. Paul's, and afterwards at
Westminster-School, where he was a King's scholar.
From thence he was elected student of Christ Church,
Oxford, in 1657, where he took his degrees at the
regular times ; and distinguished himself above his
contemporaries by his superior knowledge in philoso
phy, mathematics, Greek and Roman Antiquities, and
the oriental languages, in which he was assisted by
Dr. Pocock. In 1672 he became Fellow-Chaplain
with Dr. Ken, to Morley, Bishop of Winchester, who
collated him to the Rectory of Havant, in Hampshire,
which, the situation being unhealthy, he resigned for
the Rectory of East Woodhay, in the same county.
In July, 1673, he proceeded B.D. and not long after
wards removed to Lambeth, being made Chaplain to
Archbishop Sheldon, who begged that favour of the
Bishop of Winchester, and who in 1675 gave him the
Rectory of Lambeth, and afterwards the Precentor-
ship of Exeter, an option of his. In 1577 he com
menced D.D. and the same year, being made Almoner
to the Princess of Orange, he went to Holland, where,
at her request, he regulated her Chapel according to
the usage of the Church of England. After one year's
attendance, he returned in order to complete his mar
riage to Abigail, daughter of Richard Guildford, gent.

GEORGE HOOPER. 169
the treaty for which had been set on foot before his
departure. He then went back to the Princess, who
had obtained a promise from him to that purpose ;
but, after a stay of about eight months, she consented
to let him return home. In 1680, he is said to have
been offered the Divinity-professorship at Oxford, but
the succession to that chair had been secured to Dr.
Jane. About the same time, however, Dr. Hooper
was made King's Chaplain. In 1685, by the King's
command, be attended the Duke of Monmouth, and
had much free conversation with him in the tower,
both the evening before and the day of his execution,
when the unhappy Duke assured him " he had made
his peace with God ;" the nature of which persuasion
Dr. Hooper solemnly entreated him to consider well,
and then waited on him in his last moments. The fol
lowing year he took a share in the popish controversy,
and wrote a treatise, which will be mentioned presently
with his works. In 1691, he succeeded Dr. Sharp in
the Deanery of Canterbury, being installed July 11*.
As he never made the least application for preferment,
Queen Mary surprised him with this offer, when the
King, her husband, was absent in Holland. With a
disinterestedness not very common, he now proposed to
resign either of his livings, but the Queen observed,
" That though the King and she never gave two livings
to one man, yet they never took them away, and
ordered him to keep both. However, he resigned the
Rectory of Woodhay. He was made Chaplain to their

Le Neve Fasti, p. 10.

170 GEORGE HOOPER.
Majesties the same year. In 1698, when a Preceptor
was chosen for the Duke of Gloucester, though both
the royal parents of that Prince pressed earnestly to
have Hooper, and no objection was ever made against
him, yet the King appointed Bishop Burnet for that
service. In 1701, he was chosen Prolocutor to the
lower house of Convocation ; and the same year is said
to have been offered the Primacy of Ireland, by the
Earl of Rochester, then Lord- Lieutenant, which he
declined. In 1703, soon after the accession of Queen
Anne, he was nominated to the Bishopric of St. Asaph.
This he accepted, though against his inclination : on
this occasion he resigned at Lambeth, but retained his
other preferments with this Bishopric, in which,
indeed, he continued but a few months, and on that
account he generously refused the usual mortuaries or
pensions, then so great a burthen to the clergy of
Wales, saying, " They never should pay so dear for a
sight of him." In March 1704, he became Bishop of
Bath and Wells, a translation which he earnestly
requested her Majesty to dispense with, on account of
the heavy expense attendant, as well as a reluctance to
remove, and also in regard to his friend Dr. Ken, the
deprived Bishop of that place, who had survived the
prelacy of Bishop Kidder, and whom Bishop Hooper
begged might be restored. The Queen readily complied
with Hooper's request ; but the offer being declined by
Ken, Hooper consented to become Bishop Kidder's
successor. He now relinquished the Deanery of Can
terbury, but wished to have retained the Precentorship
of Exeter in commendam, solely for the use of Bishop
Ken. But this was not agreeable to Dr. Trelawny,

GEORGE HOOPER. 171
then Bishop of Exeter. His intention, however, was
supplied by the bounty of the Queen, who conferred
an annual pension of 200/. on the deprived Prelate.
In 1705, Bishop Hooper distinguished himself in the
debate on the danger of the Church, which with many
other persons, he apprehended to be more than imagi
nary. His observation was candid ; he complained
with justice of that invidious distinction which the
terms high Church and low Church occasioned, and
of that enmity which they tended to produce. In the
debate of 1706, he spoke against the union between
England and Scotland, but grounded his arguments on
fears which have not been realized. In 1709-10, when
the articles of Sacheverel's impeachment were debated,
he defended that divine, and entered his protest against
the ill-judged proceedings ofthe faction opposed to him.
Character. — His prudent, courteous, and liberal
behaviour in his diocese, secured the esteem both of
the laity and clergy. To the latter he was a faithful
friend. His disposal of the preferments in his diocese
was judicious and disinterested. Those who served, or
who were zealous in their endeavour to serve the cause
of the Church, were dignified without any expectation,
and the diligent were always advanced without being
permitted to undergo the pain of solicitation. His re
gulation also in official proceedings was so conspicuous,
that- " no tedious formalities protracted business — no
imperious officers insulted the clergy." The regard
which he experienced, inseparably attached him to
this diocese, and it is said that he could not be prevailed
on to accept the See of London, on the death of Dr.
Compton, or that of York, on the death of Dr. Sharp.
10

172 GEORGE HOOPER.
This Prelate astonished even his most accomplished
guests with his learning : he was an Universalist in the
best sense of the word ; and not a smatterer in various
sciences, but a perfect master of them all ; the lawyer,
the casuist, the divine, the antiquary, the linguist, the
philosopher, the classical scholar ; yet always the re
fined and accomplished gentleman. He blended the
gravity of the Bishop with the pleasantry of the wit ;
but the former always restrained the latter, so that the
gracefulness of piety ever kept the brilliancy of imagi
nation in chastened restraint. He was the Father of
his diocese, known to, beloved and esteemed by the good
and wise. He was not a man to patronise Clergymen
of doubtful, " liberal," or low-church principle, because
they were his nephews or cousins. His Clergy were his
family — his spiritual sons : to them he was all gentle
ness. He drew no line against applicants for prefer
ment, because they were applicants : he encouraged
them to reveal their wants, and, when necessary, his
patronage and purse raised the distressed, laborious,
zealous or orthodox pastor to ease and competence.
The discriminating Dr. Busby observed, of him, when
at Westminster — " this boy is the least favoured in
features of any in the School, but he will be the most
extraordinary of any of them." Bishop Burnet, how
ever, describes him as " ambitious," and dissatisfied
with his Deanery, because he thought he deserved to
be raised higher. But supposing that he did think so,
I cannot see why he is to be blamed : and the ambi
tion of Prelacy, if arising from the wish to defend the
Church, and impartially to dispense its patronage, so
far from being censurable, ranks high in the list of

GEORGE HOOPER. 173
Christian virtues. That he was not avaricious, is
evident from his remaining content with the moderate
See of Bath and Wells.
Having presided over the See of Bath and Wells
twenty-three years and six months, and having nearly
attained the great age of eighty-seven, he died, Sep
tember 6, 1727, at Berkeley, near Frome, Somerset,
whither he sometimes retired. His remains were in
terred, at his own request, in the Cathedral of Wells,
under a marble monument, with a Latin inscription,
and adjoining to it is a smaller monument, with an in
scription to the memory of his wife, who died Septem
ber 24, 1726, aged seventy-one. By this lady he had
nine children, one of whom only, a daughter, survived
him, then the widow of  .Prowse, Esq. A
descendant of Bishop Hooper, an heiress ofthe name of
Prowse, married the Rev. J. M. Rogers, LL.B. the
present worthy Rector of Berkeley, and possessor of
the estate.
Publications. — Besides eight Sermons, the Bishop
published several books in his life-time, and left several
MSS. behind him, some of which he permitted to be
printed. The following is a catalogue of both : 1.
" The Church of England free from the imputation of
Popery," 1682. 2. " A fair and methodical Discus
sion of the first and great Controversy between the
Church of England and the Church of Rome, concern
ing the Infallible Guide: in three Discourses." The
first two of these were licensed by Dr. Morrice, in
1687, but the last was never printed. 3. " The Par
son's Case, under the present Land-tax recommended,
in a Letter to a Member of the House of Commons,"

174 GEORGE HOOPER.
1689. 4. "A Discourse concerning Lent, in two
parts." The first, an historical account of its observa
tion; the second, an essay concerning its original,
[herein he shews that most of our Christian ordinances
are derived from the Jews ; and conjectures that Lent
is of the same original,] 1694. 5. " A Paper in the
Philosophical Transactions, for October, 1699, entitled
A Calculation ofthe Credibility of Human Testimony."
6. " New Danger of Presbytery" 1707. 7. " Marks
of a Defenceless Cause." 8. " A Narrative of the
Proceedings of the Lower House of Convocation, from
February 10, 1700, to June 25, 1701, vindicated."
9. " De Valentinianorum Haresi conjecture., quibus
illius origo ex ZEgyptiaca theologia deducitur," 1711.
10. " An Inquiry into the state of the ancient Mea
sures, the Attic, the Roman, and especially the Jewish.
With an Appendix concerning our old English Money
and Measures of Content," 1721. 11. " De Patri
archs Jacobi Benedictione (Gen. 49,) conjecture," pub
lished by the Rev. Dr. Hunt, afterwards the Hebrew
Professor, with a Preface and Notes, according to the
Bishop's directions, to the Editor, a little before his
death. The MSS. before-mentioned, are the two fol
lowing: — 1. " A Latin Sermon," preached in 1672,
when he took the degree of B.D. ; and, 2. " A Latin
Tract on Divorce." A beautiful edition of his whole
works was printed at Oxford, 1757, folio, by the above
Dr. Hunt, then Canon of Christ Church.
Tomb. — " Against the south wall of the south aisle,
is a lofty monument of marble, with a long inscription
on a tablet, between two Corinthian columns, support
ing an entablature and pediment, in commemoration of

GEORGE HOOPER. 175
Bishop Hooper, who died 1727. At the sides, above
the pedestal, are youthful Genii, and over the entabla
ture are the arms of the See impaling Hooper *."
Portraits. — There is a whole-length Oil Painting of
Bishop Hooper, at Mr. Rogers's, at Berkeley House ;
there is also a Portrait, in oils, among Bishop Law's
collection, at Wells Palace. There is an engraved
Portrait by Smith, from Kneller, mezz. ; and by G.
White, from T. Hall, 1728. Noble in his continuation
of Granger's Biog. Hist, of England, vol. iii. p. 76,
remarks that the mixture of mezzotinto with engraving
was first practised in this print.
Arms. — None recorded at the London Heralds'
College.

* Britton. Hist. Wells Cathedr. p. 114. In the passage quoted, in
stead of " the arms of the see impaling Hooper" — we should read — im
paling those used by Hooper : for using arms and having them are two
things. Bishop Hooper had no right to arms, none being recorded at the
Heralds' College, London, at Ulster's, or Lord Lyon's Offices. — Edit.

176 CHARLES MOSS.
(certainly too much' for a Bishop,) and having filled
this See twenty-eight years, and been a Bishop thirty-
six, he died at the age of ninety, April 13, 1802, and
was buried in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley street.
He bequeathed 20,000/. to his only daughter (who
had married Dr. King, afterwards Bishop of Oxford,)
and 120,000/. to his son Dr. Charles Moss, who became
Bishop of Oxford in 1807, and died in 1811 *. The
Bishop's youngest son Robert, who married August
80, 1798, Sophia, second daughter of John Weyland,
Esq. of Woodeaton Co. Oxford, died in the June pre
ceding his father.
The Bishop had been chaplain to Bishop Sherlock,
to whom he owed his promotions. Bishop Newton in
his own life, calls Dr. Moss Sherlock's " favourite chap
lain," — p. 178, and recommends Moss's writing his
patron's life.

livings to be set apart for aged and meritorious Curates of the Diocese. Each
individual Churchman seems to think the Church will " last his time," little
heeding what may become of its revenues afterwards. The Hierarchy by
too much secularity must eventually work the downfall of the temporalities of
the Establishment. A Bishop is not vested with such revenues solely for his
Own aggrandisement. He should be a father to his less fortunate fellow-la
bourers in the vineyard. It must be mentioned to the credit of Bishop Moss,
that he repaired the widows' alms-houses at Wells.
• Bishop Charles Moss was of Christ Church College, Oxford, M.A. June
15, 1786 ; B. and D.D. Grand Compounder, Nov. 10, 1797 ; Chancellor of
Bath and Wells, Prebendary of Sarum, and Rector of Therfield, Herts. He
had broken a blood vessel some time previous to his death, from the effects of
which he never recovered. He died at Cuddesden, December 1811, and was
buried in the Cathedral, leaving his splendid furniture for the use of his succes
sors. He bequeathed 42,000/. to each of the daughters of his sister, and
3,000/ in aid of the schools upon Bell's system.

CHARLES MOSS, D.D. 177
Publications. — He printed a Spital Sermon, 1750;
one on the Fast for the Earthquake, 1756 ; one before
the Salisbury Infirmary, 1769 ; one before the Lords,
January 30, 1769 : and one before the Society for Pro
pagating the Gospel, 1776. He also published a Charge
before the Clergy of the archdeaconry of Colchester,
occasioned by the uncommon mortality and quick suc
cession of Bishops in the See of London, at a visitation
holden in May 1764; and twenty years before a tract
in defence of Bishop Sherlock's " Trial ofthe Witnesses
of the Resurrection of Jesus." This tract was entitled,
The evidence of the Resurrection cleared from the ex
ceptions of a late Pamphlet, entitled, " The Resurrec
tion of Jesus considered by a moral philosopher, in
answer to the Trial of the Witnesses," &c. London,
1744. It afterwards appeared with the following title :
The Sequel of the Trial of the Witnesses of the Re
surrection, being an answer to the exceptions of a late
pamphlet, &c. revised by the author of the Trial of the
Witnesses, ib. — 1749. The title page, however, alone
is new, as the impression is identically the same as in
1744, but the inscription signed " C. M." is omitted.
Portrait. — There is a Portrait of Bishop Moss in the
Vestry of St. James's Church, Piccadilly, where Por
traits of most ofthe Rectors may be found.
Arms. — Ermine a cross patee, sable charged with a
bezant.

The following anecdote is from Cumberland :— " Dr.
Moss, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, was an amiable
and edifying instance how serenely to the latest period

178 CHARLES MOSS.
of extreme old age, a good man can possess his spirit,
when supported by religion. I recollect," continues
Cumberland, " one day, after dining with Lord
Mansfield, the good Bishop, who was of the party,
informed us that he was repairing an alms-house at
Wells, for the reception of five and twenty widows
of clergymen, and turning to me, asked me if I could
suggest to him an appropriate inscription. ' Why do
you apply to Cumberland,' said Lord Mansfield, ' for
an inscription 1 I'll furnish you with what you want
directly — ' Here are five and twenty women all kept by
the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells,' — that's plain
English ; Cumberland would have puzzled the cause and
his brains into the bargain *.' " My intellects are so
obtuse, I cannot discover in this anecdote the edifying
possession of spirit, or the religious support expe
rienced by the worthy Prelate, for which Cumberland
had prepared us.
* Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, vol. ii. p. 358.

RICHARD BEADON. 179
XVIII. RICHARD BEADON, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1802.— Died A.D. 1824.
Richard Beadon was second son of Mr. Robert
Beadon, of Upcot, in the parish of Brushford, Somer
setshire, by Mary, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Squire,
Rector of Oakford, Devon.
The Bishop's father quitted Brushford in 1730, to
reside at Pinkworthy, Devon, where the subject of this
memoir was born, April 15, 1737. He was educated
at Tiverton Grammar School, and was removed to St.
John's College, Cambridge, of which society he became
fellow and tutor; A.B. 1758; A.M. 1761 ; B.D. 1769;
and D.D. 1780. He had been a wrangler, and, I be
lieve, received a medal.
The aditus to preferment strongly verify the wise
man's remark, that time and chance happen to all. Dr.
Beadon's elevation arose from one of those lucky cir
cumstances that attend the career of some men. His
good fortune it was, to be selected for the cultivation of
the great and powerful mind of William Duke of Glou
cester, and his endeavours in the developement of His
Royal Highness's faculties (whether successful or not
the world has determined,) met eventually their splendid
reward. In 1775, Dr Beadon was made Archdeacon of Lon
don. In 1781, he became master of Jesus College,
Cambridge. In 1789, he was nominated Bishop of
Gloucester ; and in 1802, he was translated to Bath
and Wells, where, having presided twenty-two years,

160* JOHN WYNNE.
XV. JOHN WYNNE.
Succeeded A.D. 1727.— Died A.D. 1743.
Of the parentage of Bishop Wynne I am not in
formed. Of his ancestry it would be needless to
enquire, for, as a Welchman, he doubtless possessed
at least a sesquipedalian pedigree. He is said to have
been descended from some tribe called, I think, the
tribe of Markweijthian (I dare say I spell the name
incorrectly) which said tribe is termed one of the fifteen
noble tribes of Wales, but I do not know whether such
descent, or even the existence of that personage and
those tribes is enrolled at the Heralds' College — a
paramount, I might almost say the sole authority on
such subjects *.
A respectable descendant of the Bishop informs me
that " the pedigree will be found pretty correctly given
in the Appendix to the Memoir of Gabriel Goodman,
published in 1825, by the Rev. R. Newcombe, among

* Without designing, in the remotest degree, to meddle with the Bishop's
descent, wKich I doubt not was ancient and honourable, I cannot here help
observing that Welsh pedigrees, almost pre-Adamitical and wholly unauthen
ticated as many of them are, are really infinitely absurd things, and calculated
to bring the all-important, delightful, and deeply interesting pursuits of
genealogy, into ridicule. I say unauthenticated, for every pedigree must
be so deemed if destitute of that which alone can stamp a value on such docu
ments: — viz. the having passed the ordeal of legal proof at the Heralds'
College, and being there recorded. For what is any private pedigree unac
companied by official sanction, (which can alone be obtained by the produc
tion of vouchers of a legal character,) but a collection of assertions, which any
individual is competent to make ?

JOHN WYNNE. * 161
the Kemeston claimants, page 4, by which it will be
seen that the Bishop was descended from the Good
man claimants, and therefore of Founder's kin at Ru
thin School*."

* Founder's kin, it seems, is likely soon to become an obsolete expression 1
the benefits thereof, in many institutions, being now, in palpable violation
of the expressed intention of the founders, denied to the kindred, and thrown
open, (like " trade," if made "free,") to everybody! Another splendid
proof, in addition to the many this age, so fruitful in all that is " liberal,"
exhibits, of the triumph of " liberality" over justice and other anti
quated notions ! Who that possesses a spark of common honesty or old
fashioned feeling can see, without indignation, vested rights — for such they
are, morally speaking, and privileges so distinctly designed to attach to the
remotest scion of a founder, thus iniquitously set aside, trampled on, and
annihilated 1 Sufficiently dishonest was it, and as a Protestant I candidly
and with shame acknowledge its dishonesty — sufficiently dishonest was it,
to divert from their true and original source, in favour of Protestants, the
benefits of collegiate establishments, founded by Romanists expressly for
Romanists, without adding to such malversation the extinction of the claims
of founder's kin. In venturing to say this, I am quite prepared to be called
by the low church and the liberal, a Papist, or favourer to Papists, but
he must be an odd sort of a logician, or Divine, who says that this
declaration betrays a partiality to Romanists. The only partiality it
evinces is to the cause of honour and justice— ant aquus virtuti is the only
guide in matters of this kind. If an action is, per se, wrong, it is neither
more nor less wrong, whether done by Protestant or Romanist. Such
plunder may indeed be legalized, but it is still what it was before — moral
fraud, and in matters between man and man would bring a trustee under
the punishment due to perversion and abuse of trust. Parliaments may
legislate, power may plunder, but neither the one or the other can convert
dishonesty into rectitude. Monstrous as is the turpitude of diverting a
founder's wealth into other channels than those in which he designed them
to flow, however superior, however worthier those other channels — for
all such considerations are foreign to the question, and are bad ethics, as
justifying the doing evil, that good may ensue — monstrous, I say, as is such
turpitude, it is still exceeded by the iniquitous abolition of the claims of
PART II. N

162* JOHN WYNNE.
Bishop Wynne was born in 1667 at Maes y Coed in
Caerwys parish, Flintshire, and educated for some time
at Northop School, whence he was removed to Ruthin
School, Denbighshire. As a Welchman he naturally
resorted to that flourishing and respectable hive of
Welchmen, Jesus College, Oxford. Of that Society
he became Fellow ; and there he took the degrees of
M.A. June 26, 1688; B.D. July 11, 1696; and D.D.
Jan. 24, 1705. He became Rector of Llangelynin,
Caernarvonshire, in the diocese of Bangor, and Pre
bendary of Brecon, in the diocese of St. David. He
was appointed, in 1705, Lady Margaret's Professor of
Divinity at Oxford, and, by virtue thereof, held a Pre
bend in Worcester Cathedral. He was elected, in
1712, Principal of Jesus College.
Through what recommendations he was advanced to
the mitre, we no where discover, nor have we any re
cord of his early associations, or political principles,
farther than that he had been chaplain to an Earl of
Pembroke on an embassy, and that he was a stickler
for the Hanover succession. It so happened that he
was the first Bishop appointed by George I., succeed
ing Dr. Fleetwood in the bishopric of St. Asaph, Jan,
11, 1714.

founder's kin. Nor am I to be told that lawyers hold blood to be extinct
after a certain number of descents : for this, doubtless the founders knew,
and yet, notwithstanding, they expressed their intentions in behalf of their
remotest kindred, without reference to such alleged extinction of blood, by
inserting in their statutes that their kindred and name should, for ever,
share the advantages of their institution, and ever be entitled to priority of
claim.

JOHN WYNNE. *163
Dr. Wynne in 1720, while Bishop of St. Asaph *, in
termarried with Anne, daughter and sole heiress of
Robert or Richard (for my informant has it both ways)
Pugh, of Bennarth Co. Carnarvon and Dol y mock
Co. Merioneth, the ceremony being performed in
Lambeth Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury
(Wake). By this alliance both those estates have
passed into the possession of Mr. W. J. Bankes, M.P.
the Bishop's great grandson, by the will of his great
uncle, Sir William Wynne, second son o'f the Bishop.
On the death of Hooper, Bishop of Bath and Wells,
Bishop Wynne was translated thither Nov. 11, 1727.
At Wells he presided sixteen years, and died at his
seat, Soughton Hall, in Flintshire, July 15, 1743, at
the age of seventy-six, having been a Bishop altogether
for the long space of twenty-nine years ; a period in
which he probably accumulated a fine property, having
in 1732 purchased the Soughton estate, now possessed,
as well as the other two above named, by Mr. W. J.
Bankes. The Bishop left 100/. to the poor of Northop

* Though there can be no objection but what would apply with equal force
to all the Clergy, to the marriage of a Bishop, yet the practice is certainly
one comparatively of infrequent occurrence. The plausible and ostensible
reason for the celibacy of the clergy, insisted on in the Romish church, was
to prevent their becoming secular by being implicated in the affairs of the
world ; the natural and unavoidable consequence, to a certain extent, of
marriage, and having issue ; but the masterly policy was, to keep them as a
distinct body, unfettered with attachment to the laity. As an object in their
ecclesiastical polity it is well, but when they say the marriage of the Clergy
Is unscriptural, they only lay themselves open to being confuted by Scripture.
The celibacy of the Clergy is unquestionably desirable, though not ne-
eessary.

164* JOHN WYNNE.
He lies buried in the chancel of that church, under a
flat blue marble, whereon the arms he used are sculp
tured. The memoirs of this Prelate are very scanty. It
appears that he was a botanist, having collected and
arranged a hortus siccus at Soughton Hall. He was a
benefactor to the cathedral and palace of St. Asaph.
The former having been much damaged in a storm,
Feb. 2, 1714, a contribution amounting to 600/. was
effected for its repair, by the dignitaries, gentry, and
clergy, conjointly with their diocesan *.
The Bishop seems to have " kept the noiseless tenor
of his way;" but though undistinguished by splendour
of talent, or vigour of exertion, either in the House of
Lords, or in the literary world, he doubtless discharged
efficiently and piously the important duties of his apos
tolic function.
Publications. — The only works he has left are an
abridgment of Locke's " Essay on Human Understand
ing-)-," and a single occasional Sermon.
Descendants. — Bishop Wynne left issue two sons
and two daughters. John, the elder, who succeeded
to the Soughton estate, as above, ob. coelebs. The
younger was the Right Hon. Sir William Wynne, Knt.
LL.D. Official Principal of the Arches Court, and

* See Edward's edit, of Willis's Survey of St. Asaph, vol. i. p. 143.
Browne Willis was contemporary with Bishop Wynne.
t Nichols, in his Lit. Anec. \&th Cent. vol. i. p. 151. (not vol. ii. as
cited in General Index, see vol. vii. p. 479.) says it was Locke's Reason
ableness of Christianity that Bishop Wynne abridged. This is probably
erroneous.

JOHN WYNNE. *165
Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, who also died un
married. Of the daughters, Mary married Henry
Fane, Esq. brother of the Earl of Westmoreland. She
died in 1744, and was buried near her father in Northop
church : from her descends the present Lord Le
Despencer. The Bishop's other daughter, Margaret,
born 1724, married Henry Bankes, Esq. M.P. for
Corfe Castle, Dorset, and died in London, 1822, setat.
ninety-eight; having had issue Henry Bankes, Esq.
(living,) M.P. for co. Dorset, who by Frances Woodley
has issue, 1. W. J. Bankes, M.P. for Marlborough.
2. George, M.P. for Corfe Castle. 3. Anne Frances,
wife of the Earl of Falmouth. 4. Maria Wynne, mar
ried to her second cousin once removed, the Hon.
Thomas Stapleton, eldest son of Lord Le Despencer.
5. Edward, in holy orders.
Portraits. — There is an oil painting of the Bishop at
Wells Palace ; one at Jesus College, Oxford ; one at
Soughton Hall ; and one in the possession of his grand
son, Henry Bankes, Esq., in London. An engraved
portrait of the Bishop is a desideratum with the print
collector r it is somewhat singular that none of the
Bishop's descendants should have had a plate exe
cuted. Arms. — None recorded at the Heralds' College.

166* EDWARD WILLES.
XVI. EDWARD WILLES, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1743.— Died A.D. 1773.
The father of this Prelate was the Rev. Dr. John
Willes, Rector of Bishop's Itchington, Warwickshire,
who was of Trinity College, Oxford, M.A. November
16, 1669, B.D. February 1, 1680, and D.D. February
23, 1684. This Dr. John Willes was author of some
works named by Anthony Wood *, and was younger
son of Peter Willes, of Newbolt, in the parish of
Leamington, Warwickshire. The family are said to
be of long standing in Warwickshire, though the name
does not occur in the list of its Sheriffs, from 9th Eliz.
to the 22d Charles II.
Dr. John Willes had two sons : the elder of whom,
Sir John Willes, knt. (M.A. of Trinity College, Oxford,
December 9, 1707, B.C.L. All Souls, July 15, 1710, and
D.C.L. October 29, 1715) became Lord Chief Justice
ofthe Common Pleas in 1737 ; and Edward, the younger,
the subject of this memoir, was advanced, (probably
through his brother's influence) to the bishoprick of
St, David's, in 1742, and to Bath and Wells in 1743.
The Bishop was born in 1693. He was of Oriel
College, Oxford, M.A. July 6, 1715, B. and D.D.
July 8, 1726, and became successively, though I can
not fix the dates, Rector of Barton, Bedfordshire,
Prebendary of Westminster, and Dean of Lincoln, hold
ing in commendam, in 1742, the Prebend of Milton
Ecclesia. * Ath. Oxon. vol. iv. col. 681. new edit.

EDWARD WILLES. * 167
His elevation (putting his brother's influence out of
the question) was attributable to his holding a situa
tion, the duties of which appear somewhat incongruous
with the functions of a Priest. He was " Decypherer
to the. King." The duties of this office are enveloped
in profound secresy ; but whatever they may be, or by
whatever species of talent the subject of this memoir
was enabled to execute them, it is clear, that to him
the office proved the ladder of preferment, since, as I
find by the information of a respectable descendant,
" he recommended himself to the ministry of the day,
by important communications and services in the secret
department, about the time of Bishop Atterbury," the
accomplishment of which truly orthodox Prelate's ruin,
while it gratified the minister of the day, proved to the
promoters of it, the fruitful source of divers consecra
tions and translations*. When the circumstances of
Atterbury's case, and the evidence that led more im
mediately to his sentence f are considered, or even

* Credite posteri! that he who so ably, and like a true son ofthe Church
wrote in defence of the Convocation (indisputably one Of the three estates
of the realm) should have been so run down by his brother Bishops ! — a
lamentable instance ofthe desertion of right principles for the sake of private
advancement, without parallel except in our own times.
t One ofthe points upon which Atterbury's condemnation turned was the
very uncertain test of comparison of hand-writing, and no doubt the decy-
phering faculty of Willes was here brought into action, and formed the
"important service" rendered by him to a government bent on Atterbury's
ruin. There is a feature in the untoward business of that great Prelate's
downfal that will ever leave an unfavourable impression of the then ministry
—I mean the pretended discovery of documents in the Bishop's close-stool,
which had been ransacked to obtain evidence, as to hand-writing, in order

168* EDWARD WILLES.
without taking those circumstances and that evidence
into view, the medium of Bishop Willes's preferment
will be thought somewhat strange, though perhaps not
more so than many other of the aditus to ecclesiastical
promotion in this country, where it may most truly be
said, without designing to detract in any degree from
the merits or talents of Bishop Willes, or of any other
individual, " the race is not only not " always, but very
rarely, " to the swift, and the battle to the strong."
From the Deanery of Lincoln, Willes was raised, in
1742, to the See of St. David's, and in 1743, he became
Bishop of Bath and Wells. Here he sat for the long
period of thirty years, retaining the mysterious office
of " Decypherer to the King" jointly with his eldest
son Edward*.
He died in his 80th year, November 24, 1773, at his
town residence it Hill-street, Berkeley-square, and was
with his lady, buried in Westminster Abbey.
Character. — " Bishop Willes," says a living de
scendant of his, " was an exemplary and truly amiable
divine. His talents were of the first order, especially
in the secret official department. He was held in great
estimation by his contemporaries, and was left guardian

to his conviction. — See some Remarks by Lord Bathurst in the House of
Lords on the anxiety of the Bishops to run down Atterbury, in my Lives of the
Bishops of Salisbury, Part III. p. 206.
* This office, the duties of which are enveloped " in clouds and thick
darkness," and call, I believe, for a very active, laborious, and incessant
exertion, admitting scarcely a moment's time for any thing else, was after
wards filled by, the Bishop's youngest son, Sir Francis Willes, and is now
held by the Bishop's grandson, Francis Willes, Esq. of Gloucester-place.

EDWARD WILLES. *169
to the Countess of Halifax, wife of the Earl, who was
Secretary of State. It was the advice of Lord Ches
terfield to Edward Willes, the Bishop's son — * Patris-
sare,' — * Do as your father did before you,' — a fine
panegyrick." I have never been able to learn that the Bishop left
any marks of his talent in the way of publication.
His Library was sold in 1775. — See Lit. Anec. vol.
iii. p. 669. He assisted Dr. Ducarrel in his plan
respecting the endowment of Vicarages. — See Lit.
Anec. vol. vi. p. 388.
Epitaph. — In the ambulatory, i. e. the cloisters of
Westminster Abbey.*, is a slab inscribed to the me
mory of Bishop Willes, " many years Prebendary of
this Church, afterwards Dean of Lincoln, Bishop of
St. David's, and of Bath and Wells, who departed this
life November 24, 1773, in the 80th year of his age,"
and of Jane, wife of the said Bishop, who died October
9, 1771, in her 77th year.
Arms. — The arms sculptured on the gravestone of
the Bishop are — those of the See of Bath and Wells
impaling a chevron, sable, between 3 mullets, gules,
surmounted by a mitre. These are the same as those
recorded at the Heralds' College. — See Part I. p. 66.
Family N&titia. — The Bishop had nine children,
five sons and four daughters. (See the annexed pedi
gree.) It is remarkable, that one of his sons, and two

* Mr. Britton has inadvertently said, that the Bishop was buried in South
Audley Chapel. — See Hut.' and Antiq. of Wells Cathedr. p. 81. It was
Bishop Moss, Willes's successor, who was buried in Grosvenor Chapel, South
Audley-stveet, which probably led to the mistake.

170* EDWARD WILLES.
of his sons-in-law, should have held the archdeaconry
of Wells *, and that the decypherership seems to attach
as a sort of heir-loom to the Willes family. Sir John
Willes, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who
died in 1761, (elder brother of the Bishop) had a large
family, among whom Edward, second son, became a
Judge. From him the family of Astrop, Northamp
tonshire, deduces its origin. The Lord Chief Baron
Willes (of the Irish Exchequer) was son of the elder
brother of the Rev. Dr. John Willes, mentioned at the
beginning of this memoir, father of the Bishop. The
Chief Baron was consequently first cousin to the Lord
Chief Justice, and to the Bishop. The Chief Baron
left two sons and a daughter, all deceased; the son
of the younger son, Edward Willes, Esq. is now in
possession of the family estate of Newbold, Warwick
shire. There is a Portrait of the Bishop at Wells Palace.
See Part I. p. 39 ; for the engraved Portraits of him,
see p. 70.

* His third daughter, Anne, married Edward Aubrey, D.D. Archdeacon
of Wells : and his eldest, Jane, married Lionel Seaman, D.D. Archdeacon of
Wells, and Vicar of Frome. Dr. Seaman became Vicar of Frome in 1747.
and was succeeded in that living by Dr. Ross, then Bishop of Exeter, in
1762, and Bishop Ross by the Rev. Wm. Ireland, M.A. in 1793, who died
in 1813.

DESCENDANTS OF BISHOP WILLES.

MALE LINE.
EDWARD WILLES=JANE WHITE.
Bishop of
Ob. Oct. 9, 1771.
Bath, and Wells,
Mt 76.
Ob. Nov. 24, 1773.
1
1. Edward,
1
2. Henry,
1 1
3. William=Margaret Jeans, 4. John,
1
5. Sir Francis, Knt
=Mary Clinton,
Ob. ccel.
Rector of one
Archdeacon
Ob. 17 Jan. Lieut. R. N.
Decypherer.
Ob. Dec. 25,
Dec. 25, 1812,
ofthe
of Wells,
1821. Ob. ccel. about
Ob. s. p.
1813.
~JEt 91.
Ockendons,
and Rector of
14 years since.
Oct. 1827.
Decypherer^
Essex.
Christian Malford.
Mt 92.
of Hill-street.
Ob. ccel. about
Ob. 1815.
of Charles-street,
60 years ago.
Ml. 83.
Berkeley-square.
=Robert
1 1
Edward. Francis=Caroline
Harriet=Admiral Sir Mary=Rev. Chas. Charlotte
=P. H. Lovell.
1
Lucy=
ccel. now
Whichcote.
no
Davidge
Johnson.
1
Middleton
Decypherer,
issue.
Gould,
1
Atty.
living
1830.
K.C.B.
I
A
V
A /
K
A
FEMALE LINE.

EDWARD WILLES=
Bishop of ' I
Bath and Wells.

=JANE WHITE.

1 Jane
Ob. Nov.
1796.
Ml. 11.

Lionel Seaman, D.D,
Archdeacon of Wells
and Vicar of Frome,
Somerset.

2 Catherine=Sir Alexander

Ob. Feb.^,
1772,
Mt 49.

Powell, Knt,
Ob. Apr. 1,
1784,
Mt 67.

Ob.
Dec. 27,
1786,
iEt. 61.

Lionel and Mary
both died unm.

Jane=Rev. Wm. Somer-

living
1830.

ville, son ofthe Hon.
Geo. Somerville, of
Dinder, Ob. s. p.
June 25, 1803.
Mt 70.

Francis Powell==Anna Maria Burrough
Ob. Jan. 24, | Ob. Dec. 17, 1825,

dward Aubrey,

4 Mary,=

=Rev

. P. G.

Snow,

D.D.

Ob.

Ob.

Aug. 27,

1796.

Archdeacon

Aug. 31,

Mt 66

of

1818,

Wells.
Ml. 85.
iEt. 27.
(Dau. of Sydenham B.
Esq. of Salisbury.)
Edward=Aubrey, Ob.
1786.
Matt. ob.
ccel. Apr.
1809.
iEt. 50.
I
Jane=John Paget,
of
Newberry Ho. Co.
Somerset, Esq. &c.
Alex. Powell, Esq.=July 7, 1807, Anna Maria=Sept. 23, Rev. Ed.=
M. P. of Hurdcott-
House, near Salis
bury, living 1830.
3 sons
A
Joanna Law,
dau. ofthe pre
sent Lord Bp.
of Bath and
Wells.
Selina.
and 4 dams.
3 sons /,
A
1802,
Wadham Locke,
Esq. of
Rowde-
ford, Co.
Wilts. and 6 daurs
Aubrey,
late Rect.
of Long-
bredy,
Co. Dors.
-Sister of
Robert
Williams, M.P.
of Moor
Park,
Herts.
Marianne, Frances.
Ob, ccel.
Apr. 9,
1829.
iEt. 64.
Mary.
A
CHARLES MOSS. *175
XVII. CHARLES MOSS, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1774.— Died A.D. 1802.
Bishop Moss was son of William Moss, of Posswick,
Norfolk, yeoman, who was third son of Robert Moss,
of the same place and station in life. The Bishop was
nephew of Charles Moss, M.D., and of Robert, D.D.
Dean of Ely, so instituted, 1712, who at his death in
1729, left the Bishop, " then a promising youth, and
student of Caius College, Cambridge," some pro
perty. The Bishop was born in 1712, and became
Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge. B.A. 1731 ;
M.A. 1735 ; and D.D. 1747. He was made Arch
deacon of Colchester, Prebendary of Salisbury, Rector
of St. Andrew Undershaft, of St. James's, Westminster,
1750, and of St. George's, Hanover Square, in 1759.
While rector of the latter he preached the Boyle's
Lecture in 1759-60-1-2*. He was elected Bishop of
St. David's in f 1766, and F.R.S. From St. David's,
like his predecessor, he was translated to Bath and
Wells, in 1774.
Having amassed a private fortune, of 140,000/. %
* List of Preachers of Boyle's Lectures. Lit. Anec. Vol. VI. p. 455.
t His consecration Sermon at Lambeth Chapel, was preached April 30,
1766, by W. Dodwell, D.D. Archdeacon of Berks. Lit. Anec. Vol. II. p.
445. X If by the twenty-eight years' possession of a bishopric, he amassed
one half of that sum, he ought lo have done something for the Church ;
with what splendour would his name have gone down to posterity, had he
appropriated a portion of the emoluments of the Church for the purchase of
9

176 CHARLES MOSS.
(certainly too much' for a Bishop,) and having filled
this See twenty-eight years, and been a Bishop thirty-
six, he died at the age of ninety, April 13, 1802, and
was buried in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley street.
He bequeathed 20,000/. to his only daughter (who
had married Dr. King, afterwards Bishop of Oxford,)
and 120,000/. to his son Dr. Charles Moss, who became
Bishop of Oxford in 1807, and died in 1811 *. The
Bishop's youngest son Robert, who married August
30, 1798, Sophia, second daughter of John Weyland,
Esq. of Woodeaton Co. Oxford, died in the June pre
ceding his father.
The Bishop had been chaplain to Bishop Sherlock,
to whom he owed his promotions. Bishop Newton in
his own life, calls Dr. Moss Sherlock's " favourite chap
lain," — p. 178, and recommends Moss's writing his
patron's life.

livings to be set apart for aged and meritorious Curates of the Diocese. Each
individual Churchman seems to think the Church will " last his time," little
heeding what may become of its revenues afterwards. The Hierarchy by
too much secularity must eventually work the downfall of the temporalities of
the Establishment. A Bishop is not vested with such revenues solely for his
Own aggrandisement. He should be a father to his less fortunate fellow-la
bourers in the vineyard. It must be mentioned to the credit of Bishop Moss,
that he repaired the widows' alms-houses at Wells.
* Bishop Charles Moss was of Christ Church College, Oxford, M.A. June
15, 1786 ; B. and D.D. Grand Compounder, Nov. 10, 1797 ; Chancellor of
Bath and Wells, Prebendary of Sarum, and Rector of Therfield, Herts. He
had broken a blood vessel some time previous to his death, from the effects of
which he never recovered. He died at Cuddesden, December 1811, and was
buried in the Cathedral, leaving his splendid furniture for the use of his succes
sors. He bequeathed 42,0007. to each of the daughters of his sister, and
3,0002. in aid ofthe schools upon Bell's system.

CHARLES MOSS, D.D. 177
Publications. — He printed a Spital Sermon, 1750;
one on the Fast for the Earthquake, 1756 ; one before
the Salisbury Infirmary, 1769 ; one before the Lords,
January 30, 1769 : and one before the Society for Pro
pagating the Gospel, 1776. He also published a Charge
before the Clergy of the archdeaconry of Colchester,
occasioned by the uncommon mortality and quick suc
cession of Bishops in the See of London, at a visitation
holden in May 1764 ; and twenty years before a tract
in defence of Bishop Sherlock's " Trial ofthe Witnesses
of the Resurrection of Jesus." This tract was entitled,
The evidence of the Resurrection cleared from the ex
ceptions of a late Pamphlet, entitled, " The Resurrec
tion of Jesus considered by a moral philosopher, in
answer to the Trial of the Witnesses," &c. London,
1744. It afterwards appeared with the following title :
The Sequel of the Trial of the Witnesses of the Re
surrection, being an answer to trie exceptions of a late
pamphlet, &c. revised by the author of the Trial of the
Witnesses, ib. — 1749. The title page, however, alone
is new, as the impression is identically the same as in
1744, but the inscription signed " C. M."is omitted.
Portrait. — There is a Portrait of Bishop Moss in the
Vestry of St. James's Church, Piccadilly, where Por
traits of most of the Rectors may be found.
Arms. — Ermine a cross patee, sable charged with a
bezant.

The following anecdote is from Cumberland : — " Dr.
Moss, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, was an amiable
and edifying instance how serenely to the latest period

178 CHARLES MOSS.
of extreme old age, a good man can possess his spirit,
when supported by religion. I recollect," continues
Cumberland, " one day, after dining with Lord
Mansfield, the good Bishop, who was of the party,
informed us that he was repairing an alms-house at
Wells, for the reception of five and twenty widows
of clergymen, and turning to me, asked me if I could
suggest to him an appropriate inscription. ' Why do
you apply to Cumberland,' said Lord Mansfield, ' for
an inscription ? I'll furnish you with what you want
directly — ' Here are five and twenty women all kept by
the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells,' — that's plain
English ; Cumberland would have puzzled the cause and
his brains into the bargain*.'" My intellects are so
obtuse, I cannot discover in this anecdote the edifying
possession of spirit, or the religious support expe
rienced by the worthy Prelate, for which Cumberland
had prepared us.
* Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, vol. ii. p. 358.

RICHARD BEADON. 179
XVIII. RICHARD BEADON, D.D.
Succeeded A.D. 1802.— Died A.D. 1824.
Richard Beadon was second son of Mr. Robert
Beadon, of Upcot, in the parish of Brushford, Somer
setshire, by Mary, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Squire,
Rector of Oakford, Devon.
The Bishop's father quitted Brushford in 1730, to
reside at Pinkworthy, Devon, where the subject of this
memoir was born, April 15, 1737. He was educated
at Tiverton Grammar School, and was removed to St.
John's College, Cambridge, of which society he became
fellow and tutor; A.B. 1758; A.M. 1761 ; B.D. 1769;
and D.D. 1780. He had been a wrangler, and, I be
lieve, received a medal.
The aditus to preferment strongly verify the wise
man's remark, that time and chance happen to all. Dr.
Beadon's elevation arose from one of those lucky cir
cumstances that attend the career of some men. His
good fortune it was, to be selected for the cultivation of
the great and powerful mind of William Duke of Glou
cester, and his endeavours in the developement of His
Royal Highness's faculties (whether successful or not
the world has determined,) met eventually their splendid
reward. In 1775, Dr Beadon was made Archdeacon of Lon
don. In 1781, he became master of Jesus College,
Cambridge. In 1789, he was nominated Bishop of
Gloucester ; and in 1802, he was translated to Bath
and Wells, where, having presided twenty-two years,
o2

180 RICHARD BEADON.
he died April 21, 1824, aged eighty-seven, and was
buried in Wells Cathedral.
I believe Bishop Beadon left no other records of his
abilities as a Prelate, than a Fast Sermon, preached be
fore the Lords, April 19, 1793; and a Sermon before
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
Bishop Beadon's advanced age, and the infirmities of
nature, rendered him hardly competent for the last few
years of his life, to the due administration of the affairs
of this important See.
By his wife, Rachael Gooch, a lady of an episcopal
family, he left an only son, Richard Beadon, Esq. of
Fitzhead, near Dulverton, Somerset.
Bishop Beadon was succeeded by George Henry
Law, the present Bishop.

Dexter. Arms of Wells and the Priory of Bath
conjointly marshalled, as borne by Bishop Fox. —
Sinister. — Law.

XIX. GEORGE HENRY LAW, D.D. F.R.S. & F.S.A.
Succeeded A.D. 1824.

THE REV. EDMUND LAW=
Curate of Stavely,
near Cartmel,
County of Lancaster.

Edmund Law=Mary Christian,

born June 6, 1 703,
Bishop of Carlisle,
Ob. 1787.

Ob. March 1, 1762,
by whom he had
issue 13 children,
among whom were

2. John,
successively Bishop of
Clonfert, Killala, and Elphin,
Ob. s. p. March 19, 1810.

4. Edward==
Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas,
created Lord Ellenborough 1802, died 1818,
father of the present Lord.

Youngest son. — George Henry= Jane Adeane.
bom September 12, 1761,
Bishop of Chester 1812,
translated to Bath and Wells 1824,
living 1830.

1. James = Lady Char,

Chancellor

Grey,

of

eldest

Litchfield,

daughter

born Dec.

ofthe

8, 1790.

Earl of

Stamford

2. Henry, 3. Robert, 4. George, 5. Ann, 6. Joanna;
Archdeacon, Prebendary died ccel.
Chancellor, of Chester, in India.
and Canon and
of Wells. Treasurer of Wella.

=AIex. Powell, Esq.
M.P. of Hurdcott
House, Salisbury,
great grandson of
Bishop Willes,
see WiUes's pedi
gree, p. 173.

7. Augusta=Rev. J. Slade, 8. Jane=Rev. R. Hark- 9. Marga
deceased. Prebendary ness, of Stowey crel.
of Chester. House, county
of Somerset.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 183
George Henry Law, the present Bishop of Bath
and Wells, was 13th and youngest son of Edmund Law,
Bishop of Carlisle, and born at Peterhouse Lodge,
Cambridge, of which College his father was then
Master, September 12, 1761.
He received the rudiments of his education at the
school of the Rev. John King, at Ipswich, and thence
was removed, when thirteen years old, to the Charter
House, under Dr. Berdmore.
In4he year 1777, he was admitted at Queen's Col
lege, Cambridge, being a private pupil of Isaac Milner,
afterwards President of that College, and Dean of
Carlisle. His degree of B.A., in 1781, was associated
with the honours of second wrangler and first medallist.
He was for three years Fellow of Queen's. In 1784,
he proceeded to M.A., and on the 13th of July, in
that year, was united to Jane, the eldest daughter of
General Adeane, M.P. for the county of Cambridge,
when he quitted the University.
In 1785, Mr. Law was collated by his father to a
Prebend in the Cathedral Church of Carlisle, and
afterwards, but a few days before his death, was pre
sented by him to the vicarage of Torpenhow, in the
county of Cumberland.
In the year 1791, Mr. Law was promoted by the
Hon. James Yorke, Bishop of Ely, to the Rectory of
Kelshall, Herts ; there he resided for eleven years, and
was afterwards presented, by the same patron, to the
Rectory of Willingham, in Cambridgeshire, upon which
occasion he took the degree of D.D. and published the
sermon which was preached by him at St. Mary's, at
the commencement. 12

184 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
But a more exalted station in the Church, and one
affording a wider field of action than a parochial cure,
awaited Dr. Law: and in the year 1812, entirely un-
looked for and unsolicited by himself, the bishoprick
of Chester was, though probably through the influence
of the late Lord Ellenborough, then Lord Chief Justice,
offered to him, by the late Earl of Liverpool, the then
Premier. For twelve years his Lordship presided at Chester,
in which diocese, as at Bath and Wells* he was the
means of conferring essential services to the sacred
cause. The benefits which the former received from
Dr. Law during his incumbency — the augmentation of
its small livings — the increased comfort of its curates
— the additions to its Church services — the improve
ment of its parsonage houses — the reparations of its
sacred fabrics, and the restoration of its cathedral,
— are still fresh in the recollection of the public,
and will hand down to posterity the name of Bishop
Law, as one of the most useful Prelates of that
diocese. Although a Bishop has other and higher
views than the applause of his clergy, yet it is gratifying
to an honourable mind, to observe that the faithful and
impartial discharge of the episcopal functions has called
forth the gratitude and thanks of those over whom he
has exercised his important charge. On his Lordship's
translation from the diocese of Chester, the clergy of
every deanery therein, simultaneously sent to him an
address couched in the following terms : —

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 185
" To the Right Rev. George Henry Law, D.D.
" Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells.
" The Dean and Chapter, the Chancellor, the
" Archdeacon and Clergy of the Archdeaconry of
" Chester, would feel deficient in energy and atten-
" tion, did they not, upon your Lordship's recent
" translation to another See, express their sincere
" regret for the loss they have sustained, and their
" cordial and united declarations of gratitude and
" affectionate respect for the zeal and activity which
" they have so long witnessed in your Lordship's ex-
" emplary discharge of all the various duties attached
" to your high office in this laborious diocese. Your
" example has been an excitement to diligence ; your
"firmness and decision created confidence, and your
" kindness and attention conciliated the esteem and
" affection of your clergy. But it is on other and
" higher grounds that we think it to be our duty, on
" the present occasion, to offer to your Lordship
" this united testimony of our gratitude, — it is for
" the constancy and perseverance with which you
" have resisted every attempt, either in Parliament
" or elsewhere, to assail the principles, or encroach
" upon the privileges of the Church, — for the anxious
" care and unremitting diligence with which you
" watched over and promoted the temporal and
" spiritual good of all under your authority, — for
" your indefatigable pains in acquiring an intimate
" acquaintance with all the concerns of the diocese,
" and the promptness and decision with which your
" knowledge was brought to bear upon the wants

186 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" of religion and the Church. Your Lordship's
" personal visitation of every parish in this extensive
" district, at great expense of money and bodily
" fatigue, the large sums collected at your sugges-
" tion, and under your influence, for repairing the
" venerable fabric of our cathedral, your liberality
" and uniform attention to the various public cha-
" rities, and your paternal anxiety for the welfare of
" that excellent institution, in which we cannot but
" feel ourselves peculiarly interested, as its objects
" are the widows and orphans of the clergy, not only
" justify the observations we have made, but demand
" this avowal of our gratitnde and respect. Such
" instance of your zeal, ability, and kindness, will
" long mark the date of your Lordship's episcopacy
" in the See of Chester.
" Whilst we regret the loss we have sustained,
" we beg to offer our congratulations on the change
" which your Lordship has deemed conducive to
" your happiness. May this and every succeeding
" event in your Lordship's life add to it.
" We have the honour to subscribe ourselves, your
" Lordship's most respectful and obedient servants."

In his style of writing, Bishop Law is easy, natural,
and unaffected, full of piety and good feeling ; often a
successful imitator of Paley in closeness and clearness
of reasoning — oftener his superior in eloquence and
animation. There appears but little of the labor lima,
— perhaps too little. As his sentiments flow warm and
rapid from the heart, so his words distil spontaneously

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 187
from the pen. The great truths of Christianity are
artlessly but impressively displayed ; sound doctrine is
energetically but mildly maintained ; and the practical
results of a right faith are insisted on, with a perspicuity
of argument that none can mistake — that carries convic
tion to the mind and makes its way directly to the heart.

Publications. — Bishop Ljbw has published the fol
lowing Charges, Sermons, &c. —
1. Additional Evidences of the Truth of Christianity;
in two Visitation Sermons. The First, on John xxi.
21, et. seq. preached at Baldock, May 31, 1797, at the
Visitation of George, Lord Bishop of Lincoln.
2. The Second, on Acts xxvi. 27, preached at Bal
dock, May 17, 1798, at the Visitation ofthe Archdea
con of Huntingdon, [Mr. Law was then M.A. and
Prebendary of Carlisle].
3. The Doctrine of Christianity on the subject qf
War; a Sermon preached at the Consecration of the
Colours presented by the Hon. Mrs. Peachey to the
Royston Volunteer Corps, August 1, 1799.
4. A Sermon preached at the Anniversary Meeting
ofthe Sons qf the Clergy, in the Cathedral Church qf
St. Paul, May 6, 1802.
5. The Limit of our Enquiries with respect to the
Nature and Attributes of the Deity. A Sermon
preached before the University of Cambridge, on Com
mencement Sunday, July 1, 1804, [then D.D. &c.].
6. A Sermon at the Anniversary of the Royal Hu
mane Society, 1813, [then Bishop of Chester].

188 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
7. A Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of
St. Paul, before His Royal Highness the Prince Re
gent, and both Houses qf Parliament, July 7, 1814,
being the day appointed for a General Thanksgiving.
8. A Sermon preached before the Incorporated So
ciety for the Propagation qf the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, at their Anniversary Meeting in the Parish
Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, February 16, 1816.
9. An Address delivered to the Young Persons who
were Confirmed at the Visitation of the Diocese of
Chester, in July and August, 1817.
10. A Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of
Chester, Nov. 23, 1817, being the Sunday after the
interment of the Princess Charlotte.
11. The Scriptural Doctrine of Man's Salvation;
a Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of Chester,
before the Judges ofthe Assize, September 6, 1818.
12. A Sermon preached at the Opening ofthe Chapel
for the Blind Asylum [Asylum for the Blind] at Liver
pool, October 6, 1819.
13. The Necessity and Advantages of an Habitual
Intercourse with the Deity. A Sermon preached at the
Collegiate Church of Manchester, October 31, 1819.
14. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese
of Chester, at the Visitation of that diocese in July and
August, 1820.
15. On Education. A Sermon preached in the
Cathedral Church of Wells, at the Anniversary Meet
ing of the Bath and Wells Diocesan School, October
9, 1827, [then Bishop of Bath and Wells].
16. The Spiritual Duties of a Christian Minister.
A Charge dehvered to the Clergy of the Diocese of

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 189
Bath and Wells, at the Visitation of the diocese in
July, 1828.
His Lordship has also published a new edition of his
father's (Edmund Law, Lord Bishop of Carlisle) The
ory of Religion, with the Life of the Author, by W.
Paley, D.D. prefixed. 8vo. 1820. London: Rod-
well, Bond-street. — I am not aware of any other pub
lication by his Lordship.

Review of Bishop Law's Publications.
His earlier Sermons, especially the two entitled
Additional Evidences of the Truth of Christianity, are
more in Paley's style than the later : they have also less
of that scriptural cast which distinguishes the more
recent. I. — In the first of the Sermons on the above lists, the
coming of our Saviour, predicted by Himself, the writer
applies to the destruction of Jerusalem, and not to the
end and consummation of all things ; and the tarrying of
the beloved disciple till Christ should come, is explained
as not being meant to convey any intimation of his never
dying, but simply that he should survive till the de
struction of Jerusalem.
The undesigned coincidences which truth alone
can produce — the ignorance and mistaken apprehensions
of the Apostles, honestly recorded by themselves— the
different manner in which the Gospels would have been
composed, had they been fabricated, in a subsequent
age, are points all forcibly urged to shew that we have
not followed cunningly devised fables.

190 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
Mr. Law, for such he then was, has successfully ad
duced, if not an original argument, at least one which
he has strongly and ably set forth — That by the fulfil
ment of the prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Romans, the divine origin of our religion is satis
factorily demonstrated.
At p. 20, he thus writes on the subject ofthe French
Revolution : —
" Great, we have acknowledged, were the oppres-
" sions of the people. The privileges of the higher
" orders ; their exemption from, or unequal payment
" of, taxes, were injurious to the rights of others *,
" and reduced the most numerous and useful part of
" the community to a state of the lowest poverty and
" debasement. As none of these abuses, in any de-
" gree, exist under our invaluable constitution, there
" is no need of such a lesson to teach respect for the
" equal rights of the poor +. They, however, may
" hence learn tp be convinced, that a violent change

* These, we apprehend, were not the operative causes of the French Revo
lution, so much as a latitude of thinking. It was private judgment that led
the French to attempt to effectuate their boasted egalit£ ! — Edit.
t Perhaps it is hardly safe in a political point of view, to talk ofthe equal
rights of the poor. Equal rights under a monarchical and aristocratical form
of government like that of Great Britain, they cannot have : nor, indeed,
under any form, but under that beau ideal of absurdity, a democracy. Equal
administration of justice they may, and ought to, have in every well constituted
state : but that, and equal rights are two things. Privileged orders there
must be : and it is to be regretted that privilege, prerogative, and exclusive-
ness, are rapidly decreasing. All things in England appear verging towards
the gulph of equality. — Edit.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 191
" is not necessarily for the better ; that the destruc-
" tion of all the fences of subordination, the total
" subversion of rule, and the annihilation ofthe higher
" ranks, do not, consequently, procure liberty or
" wealth ; that rash experiment, and the loosening qf
" the reins of government, though they may imme-
" diately produce an unbridled excess of licentious-
" ness, yet ultimately end in arbitrary power. Li-
" berty ! thou first but most perverted of all human
" blessings, what evils hath the use of thee occa-
" sioned ! Under thy garb and semblance, licen-
" tiousness and anarchy have been imposed upon
" mankind. Yet thine is a mild and gentle sway;
" no bloody sacrifices ever stained thy altars, but re-
" ligion and humanity guard and adorn them."
II. — At p. 33 of the second Sermon on the list, the
Bishop thus declares himself on passive obedience : —
" But while the advocates for licentiousness and
" rebellion can find no sanction for their opinions in
" the sacred writings, we do not mean, or wish, to
" infer that unlimited obedience is inculcated in any
" part of them ; we are no where required to submit
" to the abuse of power, or the corruptions of an
" existing government."
This is a tender point, especially in these days. It
is difficult to conceive how a good Christian, and
a good subject can do otherwise, under all circum
stances, than bow implicitly to the " powers that be"
(i e. that constitutionally exist,) because, he knows

192 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
that those powers are " ordained of God"— it is difficult
to conceive how he can refuse to Caesar, even Caesar's
oppressive demands. Submit — aye, and that for " Con
science sake" he must. Of the abuse of power in the
government, the peaceable and loyal subject knows
nothing : — these things are too high for him — he cannot
understand them : let him leave all in the hands of
those to whom God has consigned the nation's destinies.
Bella viri pacemque gerant quels bella gerenda. Neither
with the corruptions of government has he any concern.
If the measure of purity in the government were the
standard of allegiance — if the ratio of declination to
wards corruption were, indeed, to constitute the mea
sure of subjection, then down would fall those institu
tions which have been hallowed by time, and consecrated
and ratified by Heaven itself; and soon would the civil
and ecclesiastical polities of Britain crumble into ruins.
Never would there be wanting the discontented efforts of
private judgment, and the visionary schemes of Utopian
reformers. Binding, therefore, I humbly apprehend,
from the Sacred writings, dwelling as they do on ' order,'
unity, and submission,— imperatively binding on the
Christian subject, is unreserved deference to the powers
that be, even under the abuse of power, — even under the
corruptions of an existing government. Then, and then
only, may we raise our voice, when the Constitution is
likely to be repealed — or when the barriers ofthe Esta
blished Church are likely to be prostrated.
III. — The Sermon on the subject of war certainly is
not, nor could it be expected to be from the nature of
the subject, much of a doctrinal nature, —but it is an
oration }worthy of the best orators of Greece or Rome.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 193
IV. — The passage in p. 14, beginning, " Great how
ever," before the Sons of the Clergy, is full of pathos.
The passage also at p. 18, beginning, " Need I to a
Christian audience say more ?" is a happy peroration ;
though we cannot but regret the mistake, a very usual
mistake, that charity covers, or atones for, a multitude of
sins ; this would be to admit the principle of commuta
tion — that a virtue would balance and atone for a vice —
than which nothing can be more unsafe. St. James, (as if
some such doctrine as this had been taught in his days,)
is so far from teaching that one great duty shall be ac
cepted in lieu of many others ; that he declares that the
keeping of all the commandments except one, shall not
atone for the neglect of that one ; but that the neglecter
shall be punished, as breaking into that whole law which
the divine authority has laid upon him. The meaning
of the passage is, that charity or good-will will lead us
to overlook a multitude of faults in others ; the idea is
expressed in Prov. x. 12. " Hatred stirreth up strife,
but love covereth all sins." Charity covers the faults of
others by bearing, forbearing, and forgiving. It may
be said to cover our own, not by way of commutation, as
the general quotation of the passage would imply, but it
covers our own through that forgiveness which God
has promised to those who forgive others. But alms
giving is by no means the genus totum, but only a
branch of charity *.
V. — In establishing at p. 8, of the 5th Sermon, the

* There is a good qualification of the Bishop's meaning, when he uses the
word Charity in Sermon xi. p. 15, published some years afterwards.
PART II. P

194 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
doctrine designed to be conveyed, as to the Holy Spirit
being intended as an assistant to every sincere believer,
in every age of the Christian Church, the quotations
adduced do not seem exactly to bear upon the problem.
The passage stands thus : —
" Upon no subject of our religion have there been
" held more various and discordant opinions, than
" concerning the influence and operation of the Holy
" Spirit. While some have extended its* [His] agency
" to every occasion and incident of life, others have
" fallen ftfto the opposite extreme, and discarded it
" altogether : limiting its interposition, and the effects
" of that interposition, to the infant state of the
" Christian Church.
" That the latter opinion is unfounded, may fairly
" be collected from various passages of Sacred Writ.
" Our Saviour declared to his disciples, ' That he
" would pray the Father, and that he would give them
" another comforter, that He may abide with them
" for ever.' And upon his ascension, his last words
" were, ' Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end
" of the world.' It appears, therefore, undeniably,
" that the assistance of the Holy Spirit is promised
" to succeeding generations, and may be expected by
" the sincere believer, in every age of the Christian
" Church."

* We should read — His agency. This must be merely an oversight in
the rapidity of composition : tictivoe. to irvivpa too emphatically marks the
personality to be mistaken by any divine. The term " Holy Spirit," and not
" influence and operation," is necessarily the antecedent.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 195
Though I perfectly believe the doctrine designed to
be inculcated, yet the texts adduced do not establish it ;
His Lordship has, inadvertently, fallen into a practice
very usual through want of reflection — that of confound
ing " disciples" and " Apostles." An error which, un
happily, has crept even into our liturgy. The promise
of Paraclete was here made not to the disciples at large,
but to those who were emphatically and tear' tZoxyv
called " The Disciples," that is to say, the twelve Apos
tles, or hierarchy of that period. We should be careful
in distinguishing between disciples and Apostles. Disci
ples is the generic, and Apostles the specific term :
every Apostle was a disciple, but every disciple was not
an Apostle : much depends on the observance of these
inconvertible terms : and the non-observance of them
has led to that glaring anomaly in the Baptismal service,
where, in the prayer of consecration, beginning, " Al
mighty, everliving God, whose most dearly beloved
Son," &c. we have it, — Christ " gave commandment to
his disciples, that they should go teach all nations, and
baptize them in the name," &c. Here, through the
mistaken use of a genus instead of a species, — disciples
instead of Apostles, our Saviour is unwittingly made to
speak a language he never contemplated, by giving a
commission to the disciples at large — that is, to his lay
as well as his apostolic followers, to administer baptism !
whereas, the invalidity of lay baptism is deducible from
this very passage, wherein he addressed himself not to
the disciples at large, but to the eleven Apostles *.

* Matt, xxviii. 19.
P2

196 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
Every thing that would seem, however indirectly, to
countenance the profane and unhallowed interference in
spiritual things, of persons uncommissioned by episcopal
ordination, should be carefully avoided in an age when
the barriers of our apostolic Church are so rapidly being
undermined by a soi-disant and self-appointed ministry:
and utter regardlessness in the generality of professing
Christians, as to the quo, while all that is looked for is
the quod.
The arguments against the Calvinistic doctrine of
irresistible grace, sensible experiences of the Spirit, and
other unscriptural and fanciful hypotheses, are well
combated from page 10 to 21. The Calvinistic errors
on predestination arise from confounding God's pre
science, which does exist, with his predestination,
which does not exist. The student in theology should
observe, that the key to the wild doctrine of election,
as taught by Calvinists, is, that in Scripture, election
implies election to the knowledge of the means of sal
vation, and not to salvation itself*, — it refers to the
calling, not of individuals, but of nations. In this sense
it was truly said, that all the people of Pontus, Galatia,
and Asia, were, elect ; in this sense all the inhabitants of
the British islands are elect. The medulla of Dr. Law's
argument is clearly given at p. 23, from " In some

• See the Sermon entitled, " The Anti-Calvinism of the Church of
England," being the Fourth of Cassan's " Sermons Designed to Correct
some of the Principal Doctrinal Errors of the Present Times," where, at p.
200, the true grammatical meaning of the favourite strong hold of Calvinism,
(Rom. viii. 29, 30.) is explained, and the passage shewn to make against,
instead of/or, the doctrines of Calvin, the verbs being all in thepast tenses, &c.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 197
supposed incompatibility," down to the end of the
paragraph.
At page 25, Dr. Law treats of the Trinity as an in
comprehensible mystery ; — Such I know it is generally
considered, and I ever regret to find it so considered ;
but I would fain believe the mystery is solely a diffi
culty of words. The word person *, from its ordinary
and corrupt use, conveys to the mind the idea of a
separately existent being. But what is its original, its
etymological meaning? One invested: with what? —
with a peculiar property, or character ; irspiZwvri — from
iripl and Zwvvvfii — one begirt, i. e. with certain externals
— certain characters, titles, powers, and offices, well ex
pressed _by the Latin word persona, used by Cicero de
Oratore, when he says, " Sustineo unus tres personas,
meam, adversarii, judicis." To suppose, as most people
do, that they are required to believe that God is three
separate beings, and at the same time one being, is to
suppose that three and one are the same ; and must
induce doubts in plain people, as to the general credi
bility of that system whose basis requires belief in what
might appear so startling and absurd : but to believe
that the One Deity manifests himself at one and the
same time under three personce, or characters (salva,
unitate) retaining under this triple exhibition, a unity of
essence or being, is easily comprehensible, |nd converts
the alleged difficulty of the doctrine of the Tri-unity of
God, or the setting forth of him, as God the Father, —

* There can be no doubt that the term person, though sanctioned by use,
is, nevertheless, in its present acceptation, an improper expression. The word
is not of scriptural use, but is a vox arlis.

198 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
God the Son, or Redeemer, — and as God the Holy
Ghost, or Comforter, into a matter as intelligible as
that the One Cicero sustained, without possessing
tres essential, at once the character or persona of him
self, as an individua substantia, and those of Judge
and opponent *.
The doctrine of the Tri-unity may be thus briefly
demonstrated: — I find in Scripture that the unity of
God is propounded as an elementary principle: " Hear,
O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God." I find in the
same Scriptures, besides the Father, two other persons
named, each of them possessed of divine agencies, pro
perties and characters. The inference, if the first
position be correct, is inevitable, — viz. that those three
persons are that one God. Now as three separate
existent beings could not be one being, it follows that
those three persona? are that one God manifesting him
self under three different characters, or, in other words,
that the one God " sustinet tres personas" — exhibits
himself under the three endearing characters of Father,
Redeemer, and Sanctifier ; being at once the offended
Judge (Xoyoe ivSiaO^rog) whose laws have been vio
lated, and whose justice demands satisfaction — 2dly,
his own victim, under the appellation of " Son," (or
Xoyoe irpofopiKoe) to appease that justice — whereby
mercy triumphs over justice — and lastly, the Holy
Ghost, or Comforter of those whom he has redeemed
in his mediatorial, and accepted in his judicial charac
ter ; leading them into truth, helping their infirmities,

* Similar to this mode of expression are the words Dramatis Persona, or
characters represented.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 199
preventing them with good desires, ut velint, and co
operating with them, dum volunt *¦ With truth, there
fore, may it be maintained that each persona is God,
and yet that there are not three Gods f.
The point of view in which the doctrine ofthe Trinity
is here attempted to be placed would therefore supersede
the view falsely taken of it, on the basis of its unin-
telligibility. VI. — In the Sermon at the Anniversary of the Hu
mane Society, the picture at p. 14, is drawn in vivid
colouring; the appeal to the passions is searching.
The Bishop, for such Dr. Law was then become,
hurries us by his lively representation in medias res,
and brings to our view by a masterly transition, the
efforts of the Society in the art of restoring suspended
animation. " With what indescribable emotions must
" the nearest relatives view the extinction of all their
" hopes. The morn had risen upon a family con-
" tent and happy. The same sun now views them
" reduced to sorrow if not to want ; for, in addition
" to the pang of separation from one most near and
" most beloved, the fear of distress, the apprehension
" of those manifold and complicated miseries which
" poverty is heir to, may aggravate and embitter
" their sufferings. To a family thus visited by afHic-
" tion — the very ideal representation of which is
" painful to every feeling nature — to a wife and
" children thus bending over the remains, the life-
* Article X.
t See the Defence and Explanation of the Athanasian Creed— the Fifth
of Cassan's Sermons.

200 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" less remains, as they deem them, of one of the
" most honoured and most beloved, — to such mourn-
" ers, with what anxious hope must the agents of
" this charity present themselves to view ! The
" realized expectation, the perfect restoration of life,
" have frequently heretofore, and will often, I trust,
" again produce that ebullition of transport, that
" ecstacy of joy, which I leave you to conceive, for
" language in vain labours to express them. If
" there be any thing which raises us above the lot
"of mortality, and which communicates to us a
" particle of that divine nature, which the good are
" hereafter destined to inherit, it is the re-animating
" the almost lifeless clay — it is the restoring a father
" to the embraces of his children ! "
This is but rarely the language, style, and pathos of
Bisljops. Such beautiful diction as this we expect not
to find but in natives of the sister isle. Seldom, in
deed, and pudet hac opprobria did, (but more especially
blush we at the non potuisse refelli) — seldom do we meet
with those who can use diction, tender, pathetic, animated,
and eloquent like this, on the bench. It would seem as
if those who were gifted with eloquence and animation
were destined to be left, like Maturin, undignified and
unpreferred. VII.— The Bishop of Chester, apparently elevated
with the occasion, and rising in grandeur of style in
proportion to the dignity of his royal and noble auditors,
in his Sermon at St. Paul's, before the Prince Regent
and both Houses of Parliament, at the General Thanks
giving in 1814, has the following spirited passage: —

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 201
" We beheld a mighty warrior going forth with
" his armies, to overwhelm a distant land, and to
"destroy, as he vainly hoped, all opposition to his
"will. Tributary nations swelled his ranks,— Eu-
" rope looked on with anxiety and dismay, dreading
" lest the last expiring efforts of his opponents should
" serve only to extinguish their hopes and rivet their
" chains more durably. But the Lord He is God,
" and in his hands alone are the issues of war. At
" His will, the countless hosts of the enemy, in view
" of the yery object at which they aimed, were sud-
" denly overthrown — their dead bodies covered the
" plains. And here let us pause a moment, to con-
" template the fate of their leader. It affords a
" memorable lesson to mad ambition *. He, poor
" conqueror ! who went forth to subdue, returned,
" himself a fugitive f, his dominion over other na-
" tions was subverted, the cause of justice prevailed
" and triumphed. But though the mighty fabric was
" shaken, and his power curtailed, a vast empire
" might still have remained subject to his sway, and
" the world have yet dreaded the machinations of a
" mind where peace could never dwell. But here
"again we perceive effects, the causes of which we
" are not able sufficiently to develope, and appear to
" ourselves to behold another instance of judicial

• The Bishop here has caught Juvenal's —
Has, toties optata, exegit gloria pcenas.
t And again — Exitus ergo quis est 1
Nempe et in exsilium praceps fugit.

202 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" infatuation,— the heart of Pharaoh was hardened ;
" when, lo, the sceptre departed from him — his sun
" set, and Europe hails the return of tranquillity and
" peace."
At page 19, the sound Churchman will dwell with a
melancholy satisfaction on the following congratulation
of the Church — a congratulation which, alas ! a liberal
izing age has since deprived her of: —
" Just reason have we also to be thankful for that
" pure and reformed Religion established in this
" kingdom. To check the growth qf Schism, topre-
" vent the struggles of perpetual contest, the honours
" and emoluments qf the State have been restricted to
" the members qf its National Church."
The uncalled for repeal of the Corporation and Test
Acts was the fatal blow, whose ultimate consequences
will be the extinction of civil and religious liberty, by
the eventual overthrow of Church and State *.
VIII. — In the Sermon before the Society for Propa
gating the Gospel, our Bishop, at p. 11, satisfactorily
proves the paramount necessity of a learned education,

* The writer of this, in » pamphlet, published at the period of this
dangerous act of Whiggish liberalism, expressed his opinion that it was only
designed as a. feeler to both Houses, as to the practicability of Roman Catholic
Emancipation. The event has proved that he was right. What will come
next we may easily guess. A Petition is now said to be in preparation from
a learned body against subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles. This will
doubtless be succeeded by a petition against the Church, and for a repeal of
the Constitution. 9

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 203
for the due propagation ofthe Gospel. " Nor," adds
he, " is uniformity of doctrine a less important and in-
" dispensable requisite. If varying and opposing
" tenets are promulgated to the people, they at first
" doubt which of them are true, and too often end in
" disbelieving all. If, for instance, they are told by
" one preacher that Jesus Christ came down from
" Heaven and was both God and man, and then hear
" from another that he did not partake of the divine
•* nature, and did not exist till he was born upon
" earth, if, in like manner, different and contradictory
" doctrines are holden out to them concerning the
" third person of the Eternal Godhead, what must be
" the unavoidable result ? Religion, which proclaims
" peace and good-will, must become the parent of
" animosity and discord : and of all contests, religious
" contests have been the most rancorous and sanguin-
" ary. Every wise legislature, therefore, will equally
"protect the ecclesiastical and civil constitution ofthe
" country. Shall a man be punished for propagating
" treason, and shall he be at liberty to preach infi-
" delity and schism ? Shall we guard the temporal,
" and neglect the eternal welfare of mankind."
Many of the clergy, I doubt not, concur in these ad
mirable sentiments, but few, alas ! in a temporizing
age, have the spirit to advance them publicly.
No praise is too high for the following sentiments
(P- 13.)- " Every age, we have seen, has its peculiar bias
" and dangers, and varying with this changeable

204 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" aspect of the times, will be the really uniform con-
" duct of the true friend to the people. &3* Now the
" evil of this our day has been — a morbid liberality * ;
" the specious tolerance of every mode of govern-
" ment and faith, but a real indifference or dislike to
" any. The salutary restraints, imposed at the first
" bursting out of the French Revolution, checked
" the spread of the contagion, and preserved this
" nation from the scourge of similar horrors. The
" like temperate and* early precautions might, perhaps,
" have averted those dangers which at present assail
" our ecclesiastical fabric. Nor is this security an
" object of consideration to the clergy alone. Blind,
" indeed, must he be, both to the dictates of reason,
" and the warnings qf history, who perceives not,
" that the well being ofthe state is intimately and in-
" dissolubly connected with the peace and stability of
" the Church. As is the fate of the one, sq will be
" the fortunes qf the other."
Sentiments these worthy of a Bishop. A page like

* It is really lamentable to observe how venial schism is considered. In
these days, if a man only asserts his belief in the Trinity — if he is not either
a Unitarian, or Roman Catholic, or Jew, all is well. Even the learned, and
in most points, highly orthodox and exemplary Bishop Burgess, of Salisbury,
says that Milton was not a dissenter, because he believed in the Trinity ! see
a Treatise of true Religion, by John Milton ; edited by Bishop Burgess.
Preface, p. 22 and 23, whence it appears that a man may repudiate the
Communion of the Church of England, and yet not be a dissenter ! At all
events, if he is not a dissenter, he is a schismatic — utrum horum, &c Bishop
Burgess tells us in the next page, that Milton became successively Puritan,
Presbyterian, and Independent, and yet was no dissenter ! " Alas ! for the
chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

GEORGE HENRY LAW. g05
this is reviving amid the volumes of schismatical and
liberal trash we are now deluged with. The only wonder
is, that a Bishop who ventured to be thus orthodox,
was translated. But I forgot. Bishop Law was trans
lated when lords Liverpool and Eldon were in power.
The standard, however, is hardly high enough in the
following paragraph, at p. 14 : where our grand and
peculiar claims as a Church are not expressed with the
firmness they require.
" The inference then at which we arrive, is, that
" the interests of the present and similar institutions,
" are most effectually supported by the labours and
" learning of a duly constituted ministry, and that
" Christianity is best propagated in connection and
" union with an established Church."
It would pain me to offend, but as I write not for
favour, but because my heart is in the cause of the
Church, I would observe that the words in the passage
quoted, which are in italics, are of too qualifying
a nature,— not sufficiently decided. " Duly consti
tuted ministry" would have been less liable to mis
construction by schismatics had it been expressed,
"episcopally and by consequence apostolically, com
missioned ministry;" and not only are the interests
of Religion most effectually supported, and Christianity
best propagated by such, but rather, such are the only
authorized means of their support and its propagation.
Again; the expression an established Church, should
rather have been, " The Church"-The Church, that

206 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
is, a Hierarchy, whether found in Italy, England,
or India, who can prove an apostolic foundation, whether
possessed of civil and national establishment or not, is
the only medium authorized by Christ for the adminis
tration of spirituals, as having originally received the
power of the keys from Him ; all other religionists,
whether possessed of national establishment or not, are
intruders and busy bodies.
IX. — The address after Confirmation is fatherly and
affectionate. X. — The Sermon on the Death of the Princess
Charlotte, is full of piety and resignation, and breathes
also sentiments of ardent loyalty.
XL — We next come to the Bishop's celebrated Assize
Sermon, of which it is no mean praise to say, that it
exposed him to a tempest of abuse from Calvinists and
dissenters — a plain proof that his arguments came home
to them. The passage that chiefly gave offence, and
was the topic of criticism in all the Evangelical pam
phlets and magazines, and low party prints, I shall
here transcribe, p. 29.
" If these things be so, it is incumbent upon every
" friend to religion and virtue, upon every well-wisher
" to social order, and the happiness of man, as at all
" times so particularly now, to point out the utter
" hopelessness of obtaining salvation, without the
" observance of the laws of God. Whatever is sub-
" stituted in the place of Christian morality, must, in
" the end, prove treacherous and fatal. Nor are the
" evil effects, alas ! of such a system of religion, to be
" deduced from theory, they have been too well at-

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 207
" tested by facts. Future remunerations have been
" holden out independent of moral obedience. Vice
" has been rendered confident of salvation, and the
" great barrier thrown down between him who serveth
" God, and him who serveth him not. The most
" atrocious violators of the law have lulled their con-
" science with some fancied experiences of faith, and
" they who have broken every commandment upon
" earth, have yet looked for their reward in heaven.
" Hence, the composedness with which even mur-
" derers have gone from scenes of horror to the house
" of God. Hence, the facility with which such per-
" sons have turned from shedding blood to praying.
" To this same cause, also, must we attribute that
" growing hardihood in crime, through which con-
" victed assassins so often deny their guilt, though
" almost in the presence of their Maker : and thus
" only can we account for that presuming audacity with
" which creatures covered with guilt, have in their
" last moments dared to think or say, that they are
" ascending — from the scaffold itself — unto the right-
" hand of God ! !
" May these fanatical delusions prove a warning
" voice to my country before it be too late. May
" they convince us of the alarming effects and evil
" tendency of enthusiasm : may they keep us in the
" sober steady path of that rational religion, under
" which this nation has attained its present proud
" pre-eminence, and in the practice of which our
" fathers lived and died. Spiritual assurance be-
" cometh no one of the sons of men. All are sinners.
" The best of created beings should entertain a fear-
" ful looking for of judgment to come ; must close his

208 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" accounts, with hope, indeed, through Christ, but
" with a hope still trembling."
This Sermon is a first-rate performance : and perhaps
is the best reconciliation of the apparently conflicting
assertions in Scripture, as to faith and works : who
ever wishes to see the two positions in Scripture, — 1st,
that salvation is procured through Jesus Christ alone ;
and 2ndly, that our condemnation or acceptance will
depend on the things done in the body, ably harmonized,
should read this composition, which is perspicuous,
scriptural, and convincing. It at once puts an end to
that controversy which has too long been carried on
between faith and works.
XII. — The following passage in the Sermon at the
opening of the Chapel for the Asylum for the Blind, at
Liverpool, p. 11, is a pleasing instance of the amiable
domestic feelings of the author : speaking of the pri
vations of the blind, he observes : —
" The sight, too, of those most dear to us, the
" smile of connubial love, the view of infant filial
" happiness, the cheering look of friendship — these
'" enjoyments their lot forbids ; and with these, shuts
" out one of the great sources of rational and do-
" mestic felicity."
XIII. — There is much fervent piety in the passage
on private prayer, at p. 13.
" Another mode of intercourse with God is by pri-
" vote prayer on each returning morn and eve, either
" when we assemble together with our families, or

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 209
" when we retire to our chamber and are alone— a
" duty this also of the greatest necessity and use, and
" which, though the observance of it has become
" more frequent both among the laity and clergy, yet
" still is it by no means so generally practised, as
" were in all cases devoutly to be wished for. But
" that drawing nigh unto God which we are about to
" consider, is distinct from, and independent of
" both these forms of supplication. It may be pro-
" perly and effectually performed at any time, in any
" place, whatever we be engaged in, whether in read-
" ing, writing, or meditation ; whether we be pursuing
" the necessary occupations of life, or partaking of
" its more trifling recreations and delights. During
" any of these employments, we may still offer up a
" short address to, and commune with our God. We
" may, though but for a moment, prostrate our souls
" before him, we may implore his influence — his
" fatherly hand — his protection. When, to all human
" appearance, we are engrossed in the passing con-
" cerns and petty anxieties of the world, we may yet,
" in the midst of all these, send up an availing prayer
" unto the Throne of Grace, we may pour forth the
" warm feeling of gratitude and love, unseen by any
" human eye, unobserved but by that Being, unto
" whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets
" are hid."
The passage at p. 17, is so truly parental, that it leaves
no doubt of the writer filling that endearing and de
lightful character : —
part 11. «

210 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" The same duty [that of prayer] is equally fe-
" quired from us, in all the connections and relation-
" ships of life. The parent, for instance, cannot too
" often draw nigh unto God — he whose happiness
" depends upon that of his children, and who must
" know that their well-being is in the hands of the
" Almighty. Can he too often supplicate the Divine
" protection, too often bend the knee in thanksgiving
" or prayer?"
" We may," says the good Bishop, at p. 23, "j6in
" in repeating the words of our liturgy, we may bend
" the knee with our family in prayer without one
" suitable feeling being excited, without approving
"ourselves the more to Him whom outwardly we
" appear to adore. Set forms of words must, from
" their very nature, be adapted to the general infir-
" mities and wants of all mankind : they are, there-
" fore, to be referred by each individual to the pecu-
" liar circumstances and necessities of his own case.
" And on this account they require an abstraction of
" thought, an effort, a personal application, which
" too many, it is to be apprehended, entirely fail in
" exerting. ggp° Whereas, a supplication, a thanks-
" giving, the lifting up the eye or hand, an ejacula-
" tion, a thought elicited at the moment by passing
" occurrences, must be the effusion of the heart, and
" can never be poured forth in vain. Here Our
" prayers are particularized. They arise from the
" occasion, the occasion prompts the prayer. No
" other ideas can intermix with the act of adoration.
" We must pray properly if we pray at all. Another
9

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 211
" recommendation of this mode of worship, is, the
" quickness and the facility with which it may be
" performed. It requires no seclusion, no prepara-
" tion, no language but the language of the heart.
" We bear the temple of the Lord always within us :
" and can continually present to him that oblation
" and homage which we know are well-pleasing in his
" sight. Genius and eloquence here are of no avail.
" The most illiterate are not less acceptable than the
" most learned. To will, is to do."
" And here," continues the pious preacher* at p. 27,
" let it not be imagined, that this constant percep-
" tion of the Divine power and presence, is caldu-
" lated to engender religious fanaticism and gloom.
" Far, very far otherwise. Of myself, indeed, if it be
" allowed us from this place to speak of ourselves,
• " most truly, though with all humility can I say, that
" through a life, as happy as life appears intended to
" have been, this frame and habit of mind has ever
" been the source of the purest intellectual enjoy-
" ments. Under those heart-rending domestic pri-
" vations, which, who is there that has not expe-
" rienced ? it forms our only consolation and stay.
" Whilst under the lesser calamities and disquietudes
" of life, it makes us more than conquerors."
XIV.— At page 6, of a Charge, the Bishop thus
plainly, practically, and connectedly lays down the cre
denda of our religion, as they should be inculcated from
the pulpit. " Every hope should be built on faith in Christ
Q 2

212 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" Jesus, and him crucified. No other foundation
" can any man lay, save that which is laid, Jesus
" Christ our Saviour. We are brought into a sal-
" vable state solely through his redeeming love :
" though we must afterwards work out that salvation
" with fear and trembling. The atoning sacrifice,
" offered up for the sins of the world, was inde-
" pendent of every thing which man has done, or
" could do. Our justification is of grace, through
" faith : our final salvation will be of faith and works.
" And this Christian covenant is extended to all man-
" kind. None are excluded from its immediate bene-
" fits : none will be deprived of its future and condi-
" tional rewards, except those who have refused to
" comply with the terms it enjoins. Who, however,
" will obtain, or who will forfeit this proffered mercy,
" is known to Him, and Him alone, who sees at one
" and the same time, the past, the present, and the
" future. The former are the predestinated, the
" chosen, the elect : these hear the word gladly ; and
" bringing forth the fruits of it, will inherit eternal
" glory: whilst they who reject this tender of salva-
" tion, or who, professing to receive, act unworthily
" of it, are the reprobate, the cast away, the vessels of
" wrath fitted for destruction. Nor are these divine
" decrees absolute, irrespective, but dependent on
" human conduct, and compatible with the freedom
" of human volition. The election and reprobation
" mentioned in Scripture, are in no instance personal
" and final. And, though Christ died for all, and
" thus opened to all the gates of Heaven, yet still an
" entrance into them cannot be secured by our own

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 213
" unassisted exertions : it is God that worketh in us,
" both to will and to do. We must, therefore, con-
" stantly and earnestly pray for the promised in-
" fluence of the Holy Spirit, for its preventing and
" co-operating grace, that we may be inclined to re-
" ceive the doctrines, and perform the duties of our
" holy religion. And whilst we know that nothing
" can avail us without this heavenly aid, yet should
" we labour and strive as if all depended on ourselves ;
" for man may still fall from grace given : the con-
" flict ends not but with life : the race is not over till
" we reach the goal; and according to the use or
" abuse of talents received, will be our everlasting
" reward or punishment."
The foregoing is a sensible and sound exposition of
the declarations of Scripture, and the doctrine of the
Church, but it is to be regretted, that Charges, as
media of instruction, should so generally abound in
assertion, while proof, and citation of authority are
overlooked. Because didactics are not composed for
those who are sound, like ourselves, but to convince
the gainsayers : and conviction will never be effected
without demonstration. The Bishop is, perhaps, the
clearest propounder of any writer, ancient or modern,
ofthe true scriptural and orthodox system of salvation,
as opposed to the Calvinistic heresy : while the late
Bishop Pretyman Tomline was the strongest demon
strator of the same.
The unauthorized introduction of hymns (however
good perse) into the Church service, is the sure pre
cursor of much irregularity : and tends to the subver-

214 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
sion of that "order" which the apostle enjoins. Nothing
should be done or permitted in our divine worship in
Church but what is duly sanctioned by ecclesiastical
authority,— -would I could say, by the Convocation ;
but, alas ! that is virtually swept away by the besom of
liberality. Bishop Law rightly observes :

" I cannot omit to .notice and condemn the per-
" nicious tendency of many of those hymns, which
" have of late been so irregularly introduced into our
" Churches. The irreverent familiarity, and, I may
" almost add, the indecency of the terms in which
" our Lord and Saviour has been described, are
" shocking to the ears of overy one who has a due
" sense of the Divine majesty and power. Indeed,
" many appear to frequent the Courts of the Al-
" mighty, not so much to confess their sins in his
" house and presence, not so much to deprecate the
" Divine wrath and punishment, in the sober words
" of our incomparable Liturgy, as to gratify an idle
" curiosity, and to have their feelings excited by a
" sort of theatrical exhibition, by impassioned and
"fanatical hymns. To stop this growing evil, and
" to keep the temples of our God in this respect
" pure and unpolluted, the only safe and wise rule
" is, to suffer nothing to be said or sung in our
" Churches, except what is enjoined or permitted by
" lawful authority, and to be satisfied with the Psalms
" of the old or new version."

One reason for the prevalence of what is oddly
enough, but quite consistently with other mis-nomers
of the day, called ' Dissent,' is the facility afforded to

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 215
young people of different sexes to meet together by
Evening Lectures, which are now so prevalent at the
Meeting Houses. This is a great source of immorality
under the sacred garb of religion, and the pretence
of ' worshipping God in one's own way.' To Evening
Lectures in the Church similar objections undoubtedly
exist. The following will shew the Bishop's opinions
on the subject : —
" The middle and lower orders possess * itching
" ears ;' they expect and almost demand some public
"occupation. They will wander abroad. If, then,
" the Church be shut, the doors of a conventicle will
" be open to receive them. It is therefore the part
" of wisdom to compare and balance conflicting
" evils, and to choose the lesser of two. It is also
" impossible in many of our Churches that the whole
" population can obtain admittance when two ser-
" vices alone are performed. These and other con-
" siderations induced me, though still with reluctance
" and fear, to institute a Sunday Evening Lecture
" in our cathedral city, as also to assent to its being
" established, as occasion might require, in the large
" manufacturing towns of this diocese. But here
" my approval ends. To evening lectures in the
" country I have a great and insuperable objection ;
" the good appears to be more than counterbalanced
" by the evil. - The temptation afforded by houses
" of public resort— -the bringing together the young
" of both sfexes — their return to a distant home, and
" late ; these dangers far outweigh the probable im-

216 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
rt provement which might arise from an additional
" attendance in the house of God."
The Church and the conventicle have been for some
years running a race : if we do not oppose dissenters
with their own weapons, (fas est et ab hoste doceri)
they will increase that rapidly advancing influence they
unhappily possess. As it is only on the ground of
keeping our flocks in their lawful fold, and away from
schismatical places of worship, that Evening Lectures
in the Church are to be recommended, so it is only on
the ground of Dissenters educating the lower orders
if we do not, that our Education of them can be
tolerated or defended. Though it must be owned it
is a pregnant sign of a depraved age, when the dan
gerous doctrine of expediency is so far in principle
admitted, that evil is done — for evil undoubtedly both
are — in order that good may accrue.
It is refreshing and cheering in these days to hear a
Bishop treating the baptism administered by Dissenters
as no baptism — no admission into the covenanted pri
vileges of the Church of Christ. Since there cannot
in Britain be any Christian Priesthood except Roman-
Catholic and Protestant-Episcopal, and since the Sa
craments can only be administered (according to Christ's
institution) by the successors of the Apostles, to whom
alone the promise of presence to the end of the world
is made, it follows that all baptism administered by
other than those two bodies of Priests, is the baptism
of lay persons, and consequently in a spiritual, rege
nerating, and saving point of view, no baptism at all.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 217
For if laymen (i. e. the teachers in conventicles) could
administer the Sacraments, I humbly conceive Christ's
appointment and promise (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.) had
been needless. On this essential point, the Bishop,
p. 13. of his Charge, thus speaks: —
" And here I am naturally reminded of the
" doubts which have been entertained and ex-
" pressed to me by some of my clergy, respecting
" the validity of lay-baptism, and the propriety
" of reading, over persons so baptized, the service
" appointed for those who die in communion with
" the Church of England. This office, by the in
junctions of the rubric, is not to be used for them
" who die ' unbaptissed.' The question, therefore,
" to be determined is, whether by the term unbap-
" tized, be meant persons not baptized by a minister
" of our Church. That this is the meaning, appears
" highly probable, both from the directions in the
" rubric, that children not baptized by a ' lawful
" minister' shall be christened again, as also from
" several declarations of our Church, that the ad-
" ministration of the Holy Sacraments, except by a
" person lawfully appointed thereunto, is illegal.
" But though such be my opinion, grounded, as I
" think, on a fair interpretation of the rubric, yet
" the solemn decision of the Judge in one of our
" ecclesiastical courts having been different, I felt it
" my duty in my own case to bow to that decision,
" and I would recommend the same line of conduct
" to my clergy."

218 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
The reader will observe, that in the remark preceding
this quotation, I have put the question on a higher
ground than the rubric. That a lay judge should be
authorised to settle such points, is one of the many
anomalies of our laws. The only competent tribunal
to fix the meaning of " lawful minister " is the Convo
cation. After this annihilation of our commission by
a lay judge, the reader will smile at the idea of votes
having been canvassed for that individual on the ground
of his being a 'high Churchman '.' Such actually occurred
to me as an Oxford Master of Arts. It is much to be
regretted that our nineteenth Article is not more spe
cific in its definition of ?< the Church." Too much
anti-catholic leaven, and too little anti-schismatical doc
trine pervades those otherwise excellent compositions.
The only recognition in that article of that which alohe
constitutes a true, however corrupt, Church — namely,
a commissioned hierarchy — is left to be inferred in the
words, " the Sacraments be duly \recte~\ administered."
Here the recti leaves us in the same doubt (if there
were not other indubitable proofs) as the expression
" lawful minister" in the rubric. The 22d Article, again,
is open to the cavils of the self-constituted teacher, and
is often thrown in our teeth by Dissenters, on account
of the looseness of the expression- " lawfully called and
sent," instead of " episcopally ordained." The preacher
of the conventicle will tell you, that — he has a call —
that he is " lawfully called and sent," and much more
similar trash. The overweening latitudinarianism of
this our day, the insolent encroachments of sectarians,
and the growing disregard for the exclusiveness of

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 219
ecclesiastical authority in spirituals, would, with a
thousand heresies, be well corrected by that which
alone can adequately restore the Church, and rational ,
religion contradistinguished to a fanatical and schisma
tical mode of worship — the Convocation.
At p. 15, the Bishop properly blames the giving the
elements to the whole range of communicants, instead
of to one at a time. A similar liberty, wholly unauthor
ized by the rubric, is creeping into the Confirmation
service, wherein some Prelates (the first of whom was
Archbishop Gilbert, see my Lives of the Bishops of
Salisbury, Part III. p. 271,) instead of going round the
rail of the Communion Table, and laying their hands
upon the head of each recipient of Confirmation, and
repeating the enjoined formula to each one severally,
repeat it to many — or all the whole range of recipients at
once. This mode was extolled by Newton, Bishop of
Bristol (see his life of himself, Vol. II. p. 106 *,) who
says, that " several Bishops have since adopted the same
" method." But this new mode of confirming, however
Unexceptionable ire itself, is liable to just objection, as
being unauthorized by the rubric ; and, consequently, ir
regular. In the rubric, and office of Confirmation, the
Bishop is directed not only to " lay his hand upon the
head of every one, severally," but it is to be particularly
observed, that the word " saying" is added, which, from
the grammatical construction, necessarily implies an in
junction to deliver what follows, also, " severally :" and

* Published by Nichols, with .the Lives of Pocock, Pearce, and Skelton.
London, 2 vols. 8to, 1816.

220 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
that this was really meant by the compilers of our li
turgy, further appears from the use of the singular
number : " Defend, O Lord, this thy child, or this thy
servant," &c. and not these thy children, or servants.
There should be no deviation from the rubric. For if
an individual ecclesiastic, however high his rank in the
Church, is at liberty to alter any one part of the service,
he may assume the same power of altering any other
part : and then there is an end to discipline and " order"
— perhaps to sound doctrine. Ecclesiastical innova
tion, even though accompanied by decided improve
ment, ought, in no instance to be permitted, without the
sanction of the Convocation, and the other two estates
of the realm. In this age of private judgment, it is
notorious that many clergymen take upon them to omit
reading the Athanasian Creed, because, forsooth, they
think it had better be expunged. When will this re
bellious spirit be quenched ? No individual minister,
not even the Primates, are competent to expunge any
part of the service. They, and all ministers are to obey
the rubric : and if the rubric were not designed in
the wisdom of those who brought back the Catholic
Church to its primceval purity, to stop the current of
private judgment, and to check individual innovation, it
would be difficult to assign a reason for its establish
ment *.

• To such a pitch is the new and temporizing school in the Church getting,
that many clergymen in visiting the sick, so far forget the power ofthe keys
with which they are invested, that they affect to doubt if they can give plenary
absolution, and will not repeat that formula — " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 221
XV. — Pass we now on to the well-known Sermon on
Education : in which point most sorry am I to differ
from the eloquent preacher : for I conceive that the
education of the lower orders has done much practical
harm — has encreased the calendar of criminals — amal- ,
gamated the grades of society — rendered the common
people insolent to their superiors — disaffected to the
government — estranged from their parish priest, and
has subverted nearly all attachment to ancient establish
ment. The universality of reading, combined with the
licentiousness of the press, which loudly demands
legislative restriction, promise to carry before them
our judicial institutions, our legislative enactments — the
result of the wisdom and experience of ages ; our aca
demical and eleemosynary establishments — the pride
and boast of a civilized world ; our unrivalled Constitu
tion in Church and State — i. e. as they did exist before
the opening of that flood-gate of liberalism — the repeal
of the Test Acts : these will all be overwhelmed in one
common ruin, and leave not a wreck behind. The only
ground, as has before been observed, on which the edu
cation of the common people can be defended, is, and,
alas ! that we should be driven to such a resource, is,
that if churchmen do not educate them, sectarians
will. On this extremely problematical point, I was agree
ably surprised, after some pages of able and eloquent,
though misapplied reasoning on the diffusion of learn-

believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences: and by His
authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the
Father, and ofthe Son, and ofthe Holy Ghost."

222 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
ing, in the beautiful Sermon now under consideration,
to find at p. 17, the following qualifying and restrictive
sentence : —
" The effects of education are now exciting con-
" siderable doubts and alarm : but against early in-
" struction in religion *, against that restricted and
" appropriate degree of education, for which alone we
" are pleading, no valid objection can be fairly ad-
" vanced."
Against religious instruction, in real Church of Eng
land principles, if effected without union with dissenters
or Calvinists, or that organ and watch-word, that rally
ing point of division, that principium etfons of schism —
the Bible Society, nothing can be urged. But the un
avoidable tendency of education in the people at large,
who in fact have no business with minds (as Abernethy
says of stomachs,) since they can at best imbibe but a
little learning, and a little learning is a dangerous thing,
is, to erect every man's opinion into a court of judi-
* I would rather that even that could be effected by a viva voce instruction
by the ministers of the Church. The grand point in a mixed government,
like that of England, is to keep the people under ; to increase the King's
prerogative ; and the influence of the aristocracy and clergy. Our Constitu
tion has become too much leavened with popular freedom. The more that is
held in check, while the appearance and the name of it is retained (ad cap-
tandum,) the better ; education, march of mind, thinking, and judging for
oneself, and the rest of the plausible, and popular theories of the day, will
bring about a revolution : and then, instead of having " civil and religious
freedom,'' which we now enjoy, the tables will be turned, the order of things
inverted, republicanism, spiritual and political, will abound, and those who
ought to be uppermost will be trampled under foot.— Edit.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 223
cature ; it is to promote that bane of Christian unity,
private judgment; it is to promote scepticism and
schism : its infallible result will be the undermining of
all attachment to the Church and regular priesthood,
and the climax, rank infidelity.
At p. 18 ofthe same Sermon, there is an ambiguity
that would seem to convey an idea, of which I am very
sure the Bishop is quite incapable. The passage is —
" We are sure that Christianity is founded on a
" rock [or rather the Church, with its hierarchy, is
" founded on Peter's confession as to Christ's homou-
" sion,] and that the gates [councils] of hell shall not
" prevail against it. The security, however, and per-
" manence of every civil establishment depends on
" its utility ; and its utility is best manifested by its
" promoting the true interests of religion and morals.
" The clergy, therefore, must watch the signs of the
" times, if they wish to retain their wonted influence
" on the hearts of the people. More exertion, more
" energy are required now than were called for in the
" days of our forefathers. Whilst improvements in
" other things are taking place, let not the ministers
" of religion alone stand still."
As the Bishop is not treating of civil establishments,
seeing that neither the Church, nor Christianity, nor
the Clergy, are of civil, but of divine institution, it follows
that the word " civil," before establishment, can have
no place there (the extract in the newspapers ofthe day
was printed without it,) for with civil establishments, as
¦such, the clergy in their sacerdotal character have no-

224 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
thing to do, nor, however proper such energies and
exertions may be, is it here designed to exhort them to
exertion and energy in support of civil institutions.
The whole passage refers to spiritual energies in support
of Christianity. Now, if " civil" is struck out, which
the context and the whole scope of the argument re
quires, then it would appear as if the writer meant (what
it is utterly impossible he could mean) to inculcate
the erroneous idea, that the existence of the Church,
or what is the same thing, the existence of Christianity
as an establishment, depends on its utility ! Howbeit,
the utility ofthe Church has nothing to do with its per
manence, because, being a divinely commissioned, and
a divinely instituted authority, its utility is no more to
be called into question, than the utility of the Sacra
ments. To talk of the utility, or inutility of the Clergy,
is to lower our priesthood from its divine basis, and
place it on the ever fluctuating sea of expediency — that
most dangerous and dishonest word in the Statesman's
vocabulary. The Church and Clergy, if ever so use
less, must be upheld ; because to impugn that which
emanates from the Holy Ghost, is to sin against the
Holy Ghost : a truth well deserving the attention of all
who are zealous for the annihilation of establishments,
and throwing open religion upon the free-trade system.
XVI. We now come to the last of the Bishop's
compositions : The Spiritual Duties of a Christian
Minister; a Charge before the Clergy of Bath and
Wells. In this excellent Charge, that most essential
bar to the encroachment of schism — the residence of
the clergy — is not forgotten ; the vital union of faith
and works is enforced, and the unscriptural doctrines'

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 225
of personal election combated with the Bishop's usual
happy address and acumen on this point, which, indeed,
may be considered his forte. The divorcing of pas
sages from the context, for the sake of establishing Cal
vinistic notions, is well animadverted on, — the necessity
of practical moral virtue being preached up by the
clergy, instead of being kept in the back-ground, where
too many "serious Christians" and 'Evangelicals' are
apt to place it, is clearly pointed out, and the conten
tions and schisms of the clergy constitute an animated
and truly Christian paragraph, at p. 18 and 19. He
acknowledges at p. 20, " that a spirit of disaffection to
our Established Church is growing up and widely
spreading," and that crime has of late rapidly increased.
The causes however of the present tremendous national
demoralization he does not particularize *. He recom
mends Benefit Societies, and, as a friend to the poor, is
unfriendly to the present mode of administering the poor
laws. " They have torn asunder the sacred ties of so-
" cial and domestic life. The parent is not supported
" by the wages of his own labour, but receives the
" deficiency from the poor-rate. He knows that his
" children must be maintained by the parish ; and is
* Speaking of national demoralization, one cannot omit this opportunity
of expressing the regret which every Christian must feel at the pious exer
tions of the Bishop of London to stem the profanation of the Sabbath having
been so ungraciously met, and that his Lordship should have been so vitu
perated by the public press for the honest and fearless exercise of his pastoral
office. With regard to the other point, however, [the chapel affair, and the
preference given to Mr. Wilberforce] on which his Lordship has been
brought before the public, we cannot but equally regret the line of conduct
Bishop Blomfield has adopted.
PART II. R

226 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" therefore less regardful of their improvement. He
" looks for no future comfort from their gratitude
" and affection, nor ever contemplates the period
" when they shall rock the cradle of declining age."
The Bishop closes his Charge with this truly pastoral
peroration : —
" It has ever been to me a source of the purest
" satisfaction, in the several situations in which a
" good Providence has placed me, to be supported
" by the kind feelings of those with whom I was
" officially connected. Happy, indeed, will be the
" evening of my days, if your hearty concurrence, if
" your friendly co-operation, shall further my present
" views, for the spiritual improvement of the flocks
" committed to our care. No wish is more fondly
" entertained by me, than that our united labours
" should render the Church of England respectable,
" and respected, throughout this diocese — that the
" clergy of it should become the blessed means of
" turning many unto righteousness. Then shall we
" close our lives and ministry with a conscience full
" of faith and hope ; assured, that though we are
" going through the valley of the shadow of death,
" yet that we are at all times, and every where,
" equally in the hands of unbounded benevolence
" and power ; and that, at length, where God is,,
" there we shall be also."
I have now ventured to review the whole of the

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 227
Bishop's publications with which I am acquainted,—
a task which I trust it will be admitted that I have
performed with impartiality.

Nothing now remains but to speak of his Lordship's
firm, noble, and ELDON-like conduct on the Catholic
Question. What his line of Parliamentary conduct was when
the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts — that
repeal which was the prima maii lobes — "that feeler put
forth by Ministers to ascertain the extent of senatorial
and national insanity on the point of liberalism — I have
not heard. Certain it is, the Clergy generally were
criminally supine ; unaccountably apathetic at the over
stepping this line of demarcation — this principal out
work of our citadel. No alarm was excited in the
hearts of Churchmen, — no forebodings as to the fu
ture, — no loading of the tables of the two Houses with
petitions against a measure pregnant with ruin. The
Church was led like a lamb to her slaughter, and
Opened not her mouth. This was that awful stillness
that is the precursor of the tempest,— this that deceit
ful slumber which, indulged in, ends in death. Here
was the point for the Episcopal Bench, the Clergy,
the laity of the Church, and every friend to rational
religion, to Have taken their stand. But the Church,
alas ! was left to her destinies. Few attempted to suc
cour her in her saddest hour : and those few were
mostly Laymen. The Priests and Levites coolly passed
by on the other side.
r2

228 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
Excessere * omnes adytis arisque relictis
Dii f, quibus imperium hoc steterat
Had this first endeavour been resolutely withstood,
encroachment in its infancy had been checked, and
such a bold and manly front had been presented to the
enemies of , our Zion, as would have shewn them that
the Church was not yet ripe for innovation, and have
defied their farther assaults. This point lost, all was
lost. Thus is it in ethics ; it is the overstepping the
first barrier of virtue that constitutes our fall. All the
rest is a necessary consequence. Bishop Law was, in
deed, firm on the Catholic question : and had all other
Ecclesiastics, with equal firmness, postponed advance
ment to principle, that surrender of our rights had
never been made. But alas ! after the repeal of the
Test Acts, all was too late.
Turn decuit metuisse tuis : nunc sera querelis
Haud justis assurgis et irrita jurgia jactas.

The following is the Protestant Declaration of the
Right Reverend the Lord Bishop qf Bath and Wells,
in the House of Lords, Monday, March 2, 1829.
" My Lords,
" In presenting to your Lordships several
" petitions which have been placed in my hands, I
" will take this opportunity of stating what I believe
* i. e. Ratted.
t i. e. Those who from their high station should have defended our citadel.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 229
" to be the feelings and wishes of the people of
" Somerset, with respect to the Roman Catholic
" question. Having, also, in the course of my life,
" been settled in different parts of England, I may
" be permitted also, now that the general sentiments
" ofthe country have become a subject of frequent
" discussion, to point out what I believe to be the
" prevalent opinion of the people of England, also,
" upon this subject. In the first place, then, the
" people of England are strongly attached to the
" principles of liberty, civil and religious. They look
"back to the earlier records of their history. They
" contrast and compare the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
" with that of Queen Mary. The reign of popish
f( James, with that of William the Third. They
" find that the country was happy and great under
" Protestant sovereigns : but that it immediately de-
" clined under popish domination. They have also
" the utmost reverence for the Constitution, as esta-
" Wished at the Revolution, in 1688. And they
" object to the admission of Roman Catholics to poli-
" tical power, because they believe that they would
" use that power for the overthrow of our present
" Constitution. In the next place, they look back
"with reverence and affection to the memory of
" George the Third. A Monarch, who for more
"than fifty years reigned in the hearts of his subjects.
" They respect him, more particularly, for the regard
" with which he always considered his coronation
" oath. They hold also the name of his Royal High-
" ness the Duke of York, in peculiar veneration and
" regard : and they are most loyally attached to the

230 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" Monarch who now sits on the Throne of these
" Realms. With these feelings, my Lords, they
" would not establish an Imperium in Imperio.
" They would not admit those to equal political
" power, who acknowledge a divided allegiance to a
" foreign potentate.
" The people of England, moreover, are a religious
" people. They, therefore, are averse to [from] the
" giving power to a restless sect, * [body] who would
" endeavour to reduce the people to a state of reli-
" gious thraldom.
" These, my Lords, are the opinions of the people
" of England ; and in these opinions I do most fully
" concur. At the same time, however, no one can
" look with a stronger feeling of compassion than I
" do, on the miseries of the ill-fated kingdom of Ire-
" land. These evils, however, are in no degree oc-
" casioned by the want of Roman Catholic emancipa-
" tion — will not at all be removed by the grant of it.
" The evils which really afflict our Sister Isle, are
" the want of capital and employment, — the want of
" an efficient local magistracy, and the non-residence
" of the gentry. The emancipation which Ireland
" does require, is the emancipation of the mind.
"It is our duty, therefore, by all the means in our
" power, to ameliorate their lot : instead of merely
" putting into their hands a weapon which will be
" turned against ourselves. In some respects, I do
" not think that the people of England have been
" fairly dealt with. The noble duke has said, that
" See the note on this misnomer, in p. 232.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 231
" he wished the evil of the Catholic Association to be
" put down. Now, if it be an evil, it ought to have
" been put down ; and we have just heard from his
" Majesty's late Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, that if
" he had been authorised so to do, he could, and
" would have put it down, without bloodshed. It
" has, however, on the contrary, been brought for-
" ward as a powerful argument, for the overthrow of
" our exclusively Protestant Constitution.
" Such as I have stated them, appear to me to be
" the real sentiments and feelings of the people of
" England — and surely they are entitled to every
" degree of consideration on the part of your Lord-
" ships. As to myself, I have no other object in view,
" but to do my duty towards God and man : and I
" would rather go, as my great predecessor, Bishop
" Ken, did, to the tower, than I would agree to
" sacrifice one tittle of our Protestant Constitution
" in Church and State. I cannot, therefore, con-
" sistently with the oath I have taken at that table,
" acquiesce in the proposed measure s and, as I keep
" that oath, so help me God !"

Protest entered on the Journals qf the House of Lords.
" Dissentient,
" 1st.— Because, though a full and complete reli-
" gious toleration be the inalienable right of every
" individual in the State, yet still, political power

232 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" cannot justly be demanded by any dissenting sect *,
" whenever the concession of that power appears to
" be' inconsistent with the security and welfare of the
" community at large.
" 2d. — Because, since the period of the Reforma-
" tion, the Roman Catholic Church ever has been,
" and is determinately hostile to the cause of Pro-
" testantism, and to the principles of liberty, civil,
" and religious. The members, therefore, of that
" Church, are inadmissible to be the legislators of
" a Protestant country.
" 3d. — Because, many of the tenets of the Roman
" Catholic Church, are directly opposed to the doc-
" trines of Christianity, as promulgated in the re-
" vealed Word of Almighty God.
" Because, for these and other reasons, as a Bishop
" of our pure and reformed Church, I feel myself
" called upon to enter this my protest against the
" bill admitting Roman Catholics into the higher
" offices of the State, and into the two Houses of
" Parliament. " Signed,
" Geo. H. Bath and Wells.
" For the first, second, and' third Reasons,
" Farnham.
" For the second and third Reasons, " Clanbrassill."

• The framer of this protest is quite incorrect here, as in the preceding
' Protestant Declaration,' in calling the Roman Catholics a dissenting sect. In
the next paragraph, they are correctly designated the " Roman Catholic
Church.'' A church cannot be a sect, nor a sect a church. — Edit.

GEORGE HENRY LAW. 233
Speech of the Bishop on the third reading of the Bill.
His Lordship observed : — " That having been faith-
" ful from the beginning, he should be faithful unto the
" end ; that he opposed the bill, because he was satis-
" fied, from knowing what the Roman Catholics ever
" had been and were, that they would use the addi-
" tional power and influence obtained by this bill, to
" the injury, and, if possible, the overthrow of the reli-
',' gion and liberties of this country. That he should
" also give his vote against the bill, because many of
" the tenets ofthe Roman Catholic Church were, in his
" judgment, directly opposed to the revealed Word of
" Almighty God ; and, moreover, because the passing
" of the bill would outrage the honest and religious
" feelings of the great majority of the people of Eng-
" land. He did not, indeed, say, that Vox populi
" was Vox Dei ; but this he did assert, that govern-
" ments were instituted, not for the benefit of the
" governors, but of the governed. That the general
" good feeling of the great body in the middle classes
" of society was opposed to the grant of further con-
" cession to the Roman Catholics, and was entitled
" to more favour and consideration than it had
" received. But though the die, he feared, was cast,
" yet still he trusted to the good sense, and sound
" principles of the people of England ; but above and
" beyond this, he placed his firm reliance on that
" superintending Providence which had so often, and
" so wonderfully preserved this Church and nation.
" In conclusion, he observed,— That he had now re-
" deemed the pledge he had given at the beginning

234 GEORGE HENRY LAW.
" of the session ; and that he should ever look back
" with unmixed satisfaction, to his having endea-
" voured, by every means in his power, to uphold the
" liberties of his country, and to maintain the pure
" religion of Almighty God : and having thus done,
" he should now say, ' Exoneravi animam meam.' "
I shall conclude these memoirs of George Henry
Law, Bishop of Bath and Wells, with a hearty prayer,
that he may long be spared to adorn the cause of re
ligion and virtue — long continue a pillar to support our
tottering temple.

The lover of episcopal Biography will not be offended
at my here introducing memoirs of Bishops Edmund
and John Law, the former the father, the latter the
brother of our Bishop, though otherwise not connected
with the diocese, to the Prelates of which, I have in
this work feebly attempted to give reviviscence.

LIFE OF
EDMUND LAW,
BISHOP OF CARLISLE,
Father ofthe Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Edmund Law, the learned Bishop of Carlisle, was
born at Buck-cragg, in the parish of Cartmel, and the
county of Lancaster, on June the 6th, 1703. His
father, Edmund Law, held the small Chapel of Stave-
ley, on the border of Windermer Lake. The family
had, for generations, been settled in the neighbourhood
of Askham, in Westmorland.
The earlier part of his education was received at the
schools of Cartmel and Kendal; and in the year 1719
he was admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge,
Here he distinguished himself, by his regularity and
application, and obtained the highest honour on taking
his Bachelor's degree in 1 723. From the circumstance,
however, of his county being full, he was unable to
procure a fellowship in his own College ; and, in con
sequence, removed to Christ's College, in the same
University. Here he was elected fellow and tutor.
During Mr. Law's residence there, he became known

236 [edmund law, bishop of Carlisle.]
to the literary world, by a translation of Archbishop
King's " Origin of Evil," with Notes. To this was
prefixed a very ingenious " Dissertation," from the pen
of the Rev. Mr. Gay, of Sidney College, of whom far
ther particulars have been sought for, but in vain.
This work at once established the fame of our author,
as an acute and able metaphysician.
Afterwards, in the year 1734, an edition of R. Ste
phens's Latin Thesaurus was edited by Mr. Law, con
jointly with John Taylor, Thomas Johnson, and Sandys
Hutchinson. Mr. Law's acquaintance, during this
period of his life, was principally with Dr. Waterland,
the celebrated Master of Magdalen College, with Dr.
Jortin, a name known to every scholar, and with
Dr. Taylor, Fellow of St. John's College, the learned
editor of Demosthenes' and Lysias's Orations.
In 1737 Mr. Law was presented, by his University,
to . the Rectory of Graystock, in Cumberland. The
right of presentation was vested in the University, by
virtue of an Act of Parliament, transferring to them
the right of presentation, whenever at the time of a
vacancy the patronage belonged to a Roman Catholic.
The claim however was contested ; nor was it till after
a long and expensive law-suit that Mr. Law was in
stituted to the living by Sir George Fleming, Bart., at
that time Bishop of Carlisle. Soon after this, he mar
ried Mary, eldest daughter of John Christian, Esq. of
Unerigg Hall, in the county of Cumberland, a lady
beloved and esteemed by all who knew her, and whose
virtues are still remembered with tenderness and vene
ration. In 1743, Mr. Law was promoted by Sir Geo.
Fleming to the Archdeaconry of Carlisle, to which the

[EDMUND LAW, BISHOP OF CARLISLE.] 237
Rectory of Salkeld is appended. Hither Mr. Law
removed from Graystock, induced to do so by the
healthiness and pleasantness of the situation. Here
many of his children were born ; and among them the
late Lord Ellenborough. During his residence at this
place, he published the first edition of his " Consider
ations on the Theory of Religion," a work by which
he is most known to the literary world, and which
evinces much thought and reading. To this were
subjoined, " Reflections on the Life and character of
Christ," as also an Appendix concerning, " The Nature
and end of Death under the Christian Covenant." The
last edition of this work was published in 1820, by his
son, the present Bishop of Bath and Wells. In 1749,
Mr. Law proceeded to the degree of D.D. and the
question which he maintained in the Divinity Schools,
with great celebrity, was the sleep of the soul. The
preferment next conferred on Dr. Law, in 1754, was
the Mastership of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and
which was resigned in his favour by Dr. Keene, at that
time Bishop of Chester. This change of residence was
peculiarly gratifying to Dr. Law, as it brought him
back to the society of literary men, and gave him a
greater facility of access to books. During his resi
dence at Peter House, Dr. Law was successively pre
sented, by his former pupil, Dr. Cornwallis, then Bishop
of Litchfield and Coventry, and afterwards Archbishop
of Canterbury, to a Prebend, and the Archdeaconry
of Stafford, in Litchfield Cathedral, and to a Prebend
of Lincoln by his friend, Dr. Green, Bishop of that
See. Nor was the University wanting in bearing its

238 [EDMUND LAW, BISHOP OF CARLISLE.]
testimony to the merit of the Master of Peter House ;
but conferred upon him the offices of Principal Libra
rian and Casuistical Professor. But, alas ! Dr. Law
suffered the severest affliction at this time, in the loss
of his wife, who left him with eleven children, the
youngest of whom, the present Bishop of Bath and
Wells, was born only a few months before her decease.
Soon afterwards, through the interest of the Duke of
Newcastle, High Steward of the University, Dr. Law
was preferred to a Prebend in the Church of Durham,
and in 1769, without any solicitation or wish on his
part, he received from the Duke of Grafton, the then
Prime Minister of the Crown, an offer ofthe Bishoprick
of Carlisle. This, after some hesitation, he accepted.
The promotion was, in some respects, a desirable one.
It enlarged his sphere of utility. It brought him back
to the scenes and to the friends of his earlier days.
He spent therefore, with only two exceptions, the
greater part of each summer at the episcopal residence
of Rose Castle, near Carlisle, a situation with which he
was much delighted, both on account of the beauty and
healthiness of the place. And there on the 14th of
August, 1787, exhausted, and without a pang, he
breathed his last, universally regretted, and esteemed,
and followed to the grave by three of his sons, John,
Bishop of Elphin, Edward, Lord Ellenborough, and
George Henry, Bishop of Bath and Wells. The
service was read by his valued friend and Chaplain,
Dr. Paley. The following inscription is erected to his
memory on a mural tablet in the Cathedral Church at
Carlisle.

[EDMUND LAW, BISHOP OF CARLISLE.] 239
Columns; hujus sepultus est ad pedem
Edmundus Law, S.T.P.
per xix. fere annos hujusce ecclesiae Episcopus
In evangelica veritate exquirenda
et vindicanda
ad extremam usque senectutem
operam navavit indefessam :
Quo autem studio et affectu veritatem
eodem et libertatem Christianam coluit ;
Ilcligionem simplicem et incorruptam,
nisi salva libertate
stare non posse arbitratus
Obiit Aug. xiv. mdcclxxxvh.
/Etat lxxxiv.
The Bishop of Carlisle devoted the whole of a long
life to the study of the Word of God. His time was
entirely and exclusively absorbed in reading and con
templation. Truth, wherever it led, he followed, un
hesitatingly. His labours commenced with the study of
Locke ; and he was reputed the first metaphysician of
his day. Thus enabled to form a correct judgment
on the weight of evidence, and the force of demonstra
tion, he bent the whole vigour of his powerful mind to
an anxious and critical examination of the Divine re
cords of our faith. And he rose up from the search,
a firm undoubting believer. He was not fettered by
the creeds of any particular sect. One thing only he
considered, whether their tenets accorded, or not, with
the word of Jesus Christ. On one point, however, and
one alone, he differed, conscientiously differed, from the
general belief of our established Church. The Bishop
13

240 [edmund law, bishop of Carlisle.]
of Carlisle entertained the opinion, that the moment of
our death and our resurrection will be to us synchronous;
and that at the second coming of Christ, when the graves
and the sea shall give up their dead, we shall rise with
bodies altered and glorified, to give an account of the
things done upon earth, whether they be good or bad.
This is the tenet by which the name of Law, Bishop of
Carlisle, was principally distinguished, and which oc
casioned many tracts, and a warm controversy among
the divines of his day. Dr. Blackburne, Archdeacon
of Cleveland, and Dr. Peckard, Dean of Peterborough,
were powerful opposers of an intermediate state.
His political opinions were formed in the school of
Locke : of whose works he superintended the re-publi
cation, with a preface, in 4 volumes, quarto, in 1777.
In private life, Dr. Law was most mild and amiable.
His temper was uniformly even and unruffled, kind and
considerate to all. Nor was he ever known to raise his
voice beyond its ordinary pitch. In conversation with
friends he was remarkably cheerful and lively ; though
he particularly disliked, and avoided, all large and mixed
parties. Such is the true character of Dr. Edmund
Law, the learned and the amiable Bishop of Carlisle,
whose name will be ever holden in veneration by those
who believe, that he who renders Christianity most ra
tional, renders it most credible. Dr. Law has most un
fairly been called by those who did not understand his
principles, a Socinian ; for in truth, his peculiar notions
as to the moment of our death and our resurrection
being synchronous, and the denial of homousion, are two
parallel lines that can never meet. The one is no way
involved in the other. They are two totally distinct

[EDMUND LAW, BISHOP OF CARLISLE.] 241
points. Among the God-denying heretics, nothing but
the grossest prejudice and wilful calumny could place
him. I appeal on this point, as the best criterion of his
opinions, to the works which he published. In them
there is not a word which can countenance such an
assertion. Indeed, they prove the direct contrary ; and
these, be it remembered, were composed at that period
of life, when his intellect and his judgment were most
matured.

The Publications qf Bishop Edmund Law, were,
1. A Translation, with Notes, of King's Origin of
Evil. 2. The Theory of Religion, with Reflections on the
Life and Character of Christ.
3. A Tract on Space, Time, and Eternity.
4. Considerations on the propriety of requiring a
Subscription to Articles of Faith.
5. Many single Sermons.
His family consisted of thirteen children, of whom,
John was successively Bishop of Clonfert, Killala,
and Elphin.
Edward, Lord Ellenborough, was Chief Justice of
the Court of King's Bench ; and,
George Henry was made Bishop of Chester in 1812,
and in 1824, was translated to the See of Bath and
Wells.

PART II.

LIFE OF
JOHN LAW,
BISHOP OF ELPHIN,
Brother ofthe Bishop of Bath and Wells.

John Law, D.D. Bishop of Elphin, was second son
of Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, and was born at
Gray stock, May 6, 1745. On the removal of his fa
ther from Salkeld to Peter House College, Cambridge,
he was sent as a pensioner to the Charter House,
whence he went, well prepared by Dr. Cousins, to
Christ's College, Cambridge. Here his application
was intense; and he made the greatest proficiency both
in mathematical and classical knowledge. In taking
the degree of B.A. Mr. Law was second on the list of
wranglers. He attained, however, the first of the
Chancellor's Medals.
On the earliest vacancy which occurred after this,
Mr. Law was elected a Fellow of his College ; and a
tripartite division of the profits ofthe tuition was imme
diately offered to him and Dr. Paley, by Dr. Shepherd,
the then tutor of the College. He (Dr. Shepherd)
agreed to confine his attention to the management of the

[JOHN LAW, BISHOP OF ELPHIN.] 243
accounts, whilst Mr. Law lectured in mathematics and
classics, and Dr. Paley in divinity, and moral and political
philosophy. These lectures formed the ground-work of
that celebrated work, which will carry down the name
of Paley, crowned with honour, to future generations.
Christ's College, from the united labours of these two
eminent men, attained the highest degree of popularity
and fame ; and from this circumstance commenced that
friendship between these highly endowed persons,
which continued with unabated warmth to its disso
lution by death. In 1773, Mr. Law left the University,
being promoted by his father to a Prebend in the
Cathedral Church of Carlisle. He afterwards succes
sively was presented to the livings of Whittingham
and Warkworth, in Northumberland, as also to the
Archdeaconry of the diocese of Carlisle. During his
residence in it, he married Mrs. Thomlinson, a sister
of Mr. Wallace, the then Attorney- General. Soon
after this he was advanced to the Bishoprick of Clon-
fert, in Ireland, by the Duke of Portland, the then
Lord Lieutenant ; and the preferment which he vacated
in England was placed at his Grace's disposal. On
his removal to Ireland, the Bishop of Clonfert was
accompanied by his constant friend and companion,
Dr. Paley ; who, at his consecration at the Castle
Church, in Dublin, in September 1782, preached a
Sermon, which now appears among his works.
In 1787, Dr. Law was translated to the Bishoprick
of Killala, and soon afterwards to that of Elphin. This
See was conferred upon him during the short period
when Earl Fitzwilliam was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Dr. Law constantly resided either at Dublin, or at his
s2

244 [JOHN LAW, BISHOP OF ELPH1N.
bishoprick, except during the time when his Parlia
mentary attendance called him to England. His death
took place, after a year's illness, at Stephen's Green,
in Dublin, on March 19, 1810, and his remains were
interred in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick. His
property he principally left to Dr. Brinkley, now
Bishop of Cloyne, the astronomical Prelate, of whom
Lord Norbury is said to have remarked, that " he
might thank his stars for his bishoprick."
Such were the main incidents in the life of the
Bishop of Elphin, — a life chiefly devoted to the honour
of God, and the virtue and happiness of his fellow-
creatures. Dr. Law was endowed with extraordinary
talents, and exhibited, on all occasions, the greatest
acumen and strength of intellect. Both his conver
sation and writings were distinguished by an originality
of thought and expression. As a companion it was
difficult to say, whether Dr. Paley or Dr. Law were
the more instructive or the more delightful. In his
political view of things, he saw the bearing and temper
of the times, and therefore strongly espoused the cause
of order and subordination. No one, foreseeing the
consequences which were likely to ensue from it, could
be more decidedly adverse than he was, from what is
called Roman Catholic Emancipation. He frequently
observed, that when he first went over to Ireland he
was a liberal fool ; but that when he had lived in that
country he saw the danger of granting to them any
farther degree of political power. Still he laboured to
do all the good he could among his poorer neighbours,
by relieving their wants and enlightening their minds.
As he could not persuade them to read good Protestant

[JOHN LAW, BISHOP OF ELPHIN.] 245
publications, he printed and dispersed among them
cheap editions of the best Roman Catholic writings.
To the study of the word and will of God, the
Bishop of Elphin's reading and mind had been inva
riably directed. This was the favourite subject of his
contemplation. To the elucidation of this, he applied
all the powers of his intellect, and all the result of his
study, as a naturalist, mathematician, and moral philo
sopher. Indeed, Dr. Paley, on all occasions, acknow
ledged the great assistance he had received from the
Bishop of Elphin in his several publications, but more
particularly in his last and best work on natural
theology. In private life, the Bishop of Elphin was excellent
as a son, affectionate in all his relationships, and most
liberal wherever his assistance was required. To Dr.
Priestley, much as he differed from him on religious
questions, yet still, upon hearing of the difficulties he
had met with in America, our Bishop immediately sent
an order for 100/. accompanying it with a request, that
the circumstance might not be made known, lest it
should subject him to the groundless suspicions of the
illiberal, and intolerant — a request which we are sorry
to add, was not complied with. During the civil dis
turbances in Ireland, no one evinced a more firm and
unconquerable spirit. When the females of his family,
alarmed at the approach of the rebels towards Elphin,
had fled for safety towards Dublin, where he happened
to be, the same carriage which had removed them from
the scene of danger, immediately conveyed him to it.
Wherever his duty led him, there he went, equally
prepared to live or die. Strongly, therefore, as he

246 [JOHN LAW, BISHOP OF ELPHIN.]
opposed the current of public opinion, in the midst of
civil contentions and rebellion, yet were his principles
and conduct duly appreciated by both parties, and the
name of John Law, Bishop of Elphin, is still remem
bered, and mentioned, with respect and veneration, by
the people of Ireland.

ADDENDA.

ADDENDA.

PART I.

Page 38. To the account of the Palace of the
Bishops of Bath and Wells, it might have been
added, that they anciently had an episcopal mansion in
London, as appears by the following passage from Stow.
Hist. Lond. Vol. II. p. 108-6.—" In this parish [St.
Clement Danes,] was the Bishop of Bath and Wells's
place in former times ; so it is found in the Bishop of
London's Register of Wills and Testaments. Hospi-
tium Reverendissimi Dni Episcopi Bathon. et Well, in
parochia Sancti Clementis Danor."
Page 47. In the list of the burial places of the
Bishops of Bath and Wells, fill up the blank after the
Bishop John Wynne, with " Northop Church ;'' that
after Bishop Edward Willes, with " Westminster
Abbey Cloisters ;" and that after Bishop Charles Moss,
with " Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley- street." Make
the same additions at p. 50 and 52.
Page 227. To the remarks on the Convocation,
the following may be added : —
The assembly of the Clergy in Parliament is as
much an integral part of the Constitution as the
presence of the Commons, and has only fallen into
disuetude since the reign of Henry VIII., when the

250 [addenda  CONVOCATION.]
Clergy, obeying the Pope rather than the King, kept
"aloof from the Lay Parliament, and formed a distinct
assembly. Henry VIII. not having the power to pre
vent their meeting, impeded the proceedings of the
Clergy by divers vexatious statutes, by depriving them
of many privileges, and by impairing the rights of
the Convocation. Since the year 1665 the Clergy
have not claimed the privilege of taxing themselves ;
and by the subsequent betrayal of our cause by Bi
shop Hoadly, the Convocation has become a non
entity. It is however held, as a mere matter of form
during every session of Parliament, is summoned as
heretofore, by the King's writ, and is dissolved by the
like authority.
. It is to be remembered, that the wise principles of
the Constitution have declared the existence of the
three estates in the realm, qf which the Clergy are
one; for the King being a person cannot be an estate:
— for ages the Clergy exercised the safe and whole
some privilege of periodical convocation, and took a
share unitedly with the Laity in the framing of laws.
Their separation during the reign of Henry VIII.
from the laical Parliament, and forming a distinct
assembly or convocation, was their error, but can
never be pleaded in bar of the rights of their suc
cessors. gj*p° The seats occupied by the Bishops
in the upper House of Parliament have no reference
to the suspended rights of the Clergy : they sit there
not, as it is mistakingly supposed, as representatives
of the Church, but as Temporal Barons. When
Horne Tooke laid claim to a seat in the Commons,
it was only objected to him, that, as a Clergyman, he
13

[ADDENDA — CONVOCATION.] 251
was represented in the House of Convocation. Black-
stone also expressed a similar sentiment, when he
says, " The House of Commons must not be of the
Clergy, because they sit in the House of Convoca
tion." This Convocation is usually called at the
meeting of every new Parliament, and as the King
calls, so he dissolves it with the rest of Parliament,
and, in fact, without this assembly of the Clergy, the
general meeting of the States is incomplete.
In short, either the Convocation is in existence,
and in sufficient power for all purposes of her re
generation, or, if lost through disuetude, the objec
tion to the Clergy taking their seats in the Commons
falls to the ground.
Page 331. " Peter-pence" was a tax of one penny
on every family in the kingdom, settled upon the See of
Rome by King Ina, in 720, and so called because col
lected on the day of St. Peter ad Vincula ; abrogated
by 25 Henry VIII. c. 21.

PART II.

Page 12. Bishop Still. The question whether
this Bishop was the author of the play, " Gammer Gur-
ton's Needle," or not, can be satisfactorily decided only
by reference to the date of the black letter copy, said to
be in the British Museum, the evidence on both sides
being of a conflicting nature. The Biog. Dramatica
states, that the play was printed in 1575, and had been
acted in Christ's College in 1566. Malone, in his

252 [addenda — BIBLE SOCIETY.]
History ofthe Stage, assumes the Bishop's authorship :
and Chalmers, in the Biog. Diet, reiterates the as
sumption. On the other hand, the accurate Warton,
in his History of English Poetry, says, that the play
was acted in 1552 ; and Oldyss says it was printed in
1551. The anachronism therefore becomes evident. The
Bishop having been born in 1543 (as we know by his
epitaph, wherein he is said to have died in 1607, aged
sixty-four,) we cannot make the authorship of the play
synchronize, as he was in 1551 and 1552 only a child.
I should be sorry to deprive a young author of a feather
which he is supposed to have worn before he was in
vested with the sacerdotal garb, but I fear we must in
this case be compelled, (unless the date of the printed
copy favours his claim,) to conclude that the ascription
is erroneous. Page 43. That the Bible Society may be called an
organ of schism without any violation of Christian cha
rity, is evident. It denotes party. It is a coalition — an
unnatural coalition between Churchmen and Dissenters,
to accomplish that which an older society, composed
only of Churchmen, was fully adequate to accomplish.
The formation altogether of the Society is a rivalry
based on party spirit — the action is one of supereroga
tion — officious and uncalled for, and which meddles with
ground pre-occupied. The peculiar danger of the
theories ofthe day is their peculiar plausibility. " What
can be the harm of giving away a Bible," it is urged,
" am I not by so doing extending the knowledge of
salvation ?" Very true, you are doing right, but you are
doing it in a wrong way. It therefore becomes wrong.
If you wish to disseminate the Scriptures, subscribe to

[ADDENDA  BIBLE SOCIETY.] 253
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Fol
low certain and unmixed, rather than problematical and
alloyed good. The very basis of the Bible Society is
a fallacy, — viz. that the Bible alone is sufficient for sal
vation. This is the very succus, the aerugo mera of
schism. This is the veriest sophism ever invented. It
is at one and the same time true and false — it is the
agreement of est and non est. It is true, and I readily
admit that the Bible alone is sufficient for salvation ;
but it is false if it is meant to imply that every man has
a right to learn and understand it for himself as well as
he can, without the aid of a standing and apostolically
appointed ministry. The Bible alone is adequate to
salvation, provided the religion it contains is taught by
those, and those only, whom the Bible commissions for
that purpose. But not only does the Bible Society
base itself on this fallacy, but it departs from its own
rule, that the Bible alone is sufficient for salvation, by
disseminating, with the Blessed Word, tracts, whose
immediate tendency is to alienate the minds of men from
the established priesthood. For these reasons we are
justified in denouncing this Society as essentially schis
matical. Page 70. Bishop Creyghton. The following is his
epitaph in St. John's Chapel, Wells Cathedral.
"TI. S. E.
" Robertus Creyghton vel Crichton primum The-
" saurarius hujus Ecclesiae Cathedralis, dein De-
" canus, demum Bathon. et Wellen. Episcopus,
"Natus Dun-Caledonia? in Boreali Scotia: per
" patrem Thomam ex antiquis Ruvenia? Toparchis :

254 [addenda  BISHOP CREYGHTON.]
'' permatrem Margaretam Stuart Johannis Jacobidae
" filiam, ex illustrissim& familia Stuartorum Comitum
" Atholias, Johannis 2di- Scotia Regis a fratre pro-
" nepos. Egit in terris 79 circiter annos ; quorum
" 6 consumpsit Westmonasterii in Schola Regia; 26
" Cantabrigian in Trinit. Collegio, aliquandiu orator
" academiaspublicus et simul Graecas linguae professor,
" atque alios insuper ; 26 duobus Regibus subserviit,
" Carolo 1°. et 2d0. Sacellanus in ordine, per omnes
" illorum temporum calamitates utrisque fidelissimus,
" exul Caroli 2di. in perpetuo comitatu. Tandem a
" Rege Regum accepit mercedem quam mortale
" corpus meruit et quam immortalis anima speravit :
" Novemb xxi. (cio) dclxxii.
" Anno Consecrationis tertio."
The monument of Frances, widow of the Bishop,
bearing the Walrond Arms, is near her husband's ; and
around are various inscriptions upon marble tablets and
flat stones, recording the deaths of several of their de
scendants, and particularly of their daughter Catherine,
wife of Francis Poulett, Esq., and her husband, who
was the second son of John, first Lord Poulett, and
their son Dr. Robert, Precentor and Canon, who com
posed a service and some anthems for the use of the
Cathedral. A flat stone with the Arms of Brydges impaling
Creyghton, records the excellent qualities, and the
death of their grand daughter Frances, one of the
daughters of Dr. Robert Creyghton, and the wife of
Marshall Brydges, Canon residentiary and Chancellor :
also of her husband, who was the fourth son of Marshall

[ADDENDA — BISHOP CREYGHTON.] 255
Brydges, Esq. of Tiberton Court, Herefordshire, now
(with other valuable estates which had been for genera
tions previously, in the family,) belonging to the Rev.
H. Lee Warner, eldest son of  Lee Warner, Esq.
of Walsingham Abbey, Norfolk, who married one ofthe
daughters and coheiresses of the late F. W. Brydges,
Esq. grandson of Canon Brydges. Likewise of Cathe
rine, another daughter of Dr. Robert Creyghton, who
married Archdeacon Laying : also of  the wife
of Chancellor Pope ; and of several of their respective
children. Connected as Bishop Creyghton was by the ties of
consanguinity, friendship, and loyalty with his sove
reigns, Charles I. and II., it is to be regretted that no
original letters nor MSS. of his, illustrative ofthe cha
racters of his associates and contemporaries, are to be
found amongst his descendants, through the female
branches, there being no lineal male heir of his in exist
ence. They inherited, indeed, little more than his good
blood and name ; his attachment to the royal cause, and
his exile with his king, having deprived him ofthe en
joyment of his preferments until the restoration; arid
his hospitable and benevolent disposition prevented his
turning them to any pecuniary advantage for himself or
family, during the short prosperity of his latter years.
The dates of the improvements and embellishments,
with his armorial bearings upon the organ, the stained
glass of the magnificent western window of the Cathe
dral, &c. are proofs at this day of his attention to that
noble edifice, after the spoliation and neglect it had
suffered during the civil wars and Commonwealth, as
well as of his liberality.

256 [ADDENDA  BISHOP BIRD SUMNER.]
Amongst other donations is a massive and handsome
brazen desk, about ten feet high, and of curious work
manship, with the following inscription : —
" Dr. Robt. Creyghton, upon his returne from
" fifteene years exile wth our Soueraigne Lord King
" Charles ye 2nd, made Deane of Wells in the year
" 1660, gave this brazen Desk with God's holy word
" thereon to the saide Cathedral Church."
Page 179. Bishop Beadon. The following is an
extract from the Book of admissions at St. John's
College, Cambridge : —
" Ricardus Beadon, Devoniensis, Filius Roberti
" Beadon suum fundum colentis, natus apud Oaks-
" ford [Oakford *] literis institutus apud Bampton
" sub Mro- Wood, examinatus et approbatus a Mr0.
" Murthwaite, admissus est Pens, minor, Aprilis
" 30.™ i^^ Tutore et Fidejussore Dre. Brooke."
Page 183. Bishop Law. 16th line, dele to, and
read, proceeded M.A.
Page 494. In speaking of the incorrectness of call
ing the Holy Spirit "it," instead of 'He' Ishould
have observed that Bishop Bird Sumner has fallen
into this egregious error in the very first page of his
' Apostolical Preaching.' I call it an egregious error,
because it degrades the Holy Spirit from a Person of

* In the life, at p. 179, it is stated on the authority of a relative of the
Bishop, that he was born at Pink worthy, Devon.

[ADDENDA.  BISHOP BIRD SUMNER.] 257
the Blessed Trinity to a thing or attribute. The pas
sage is as follows : —
" In awakening the hardened sinner, or reclaiming
" the careless Christian, the Holy Spirit is by no
" means confined to any single mode of operation,
" even where we are able to trace its influence. But
" it is experimentally certain, that from the Apostles'
" age down to the present, its assistance has prin-
" cipally attended the labours of the Christian
" preacher."
This mode of expression totally does away with the
doctrine of the Trinity, which, from a Bishop of Dr.
Bird Sumner's calibre, is rather portentous. Our
Saviour seems actually to have guarded against such a
misapprehension as that the Holy Spirit was a thing,
or attribute, by the words Srav & IX0p 'EKEINOS*
to trvzvfia rfje aXnOdae. Either Bishop Bird Sumner
is not sound on this point, or he is culpably careless on
such a vital doctrine, in the very first page of a didactic
work, more immediately designed for the improvement
and edification of the clergy.— I have noticed this, not
from any wish to expose Bishop Bird Sumner (for I
know nothing of him), but to put Divines on their guard
against this careless and irreverent mode of speaking
of God, the Holy Ghost— a mode of speaking which
directly involves heterodoxy, and which, coming from such
high authority, might produce injurious consequences.

* John xvi. 13.
PART II. T

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE
PRESENT CRISIS,
WITH
HINTS FOR CHURCH REFORM.

We live in awful times. The overthrow of the bul
warks of religion — an almost total extinction of principle
— a childish vacillation 'and unsettledness of opinion —
indifference towards existing Establishments — a morbid
liberality — the immolation of conscience on the altar of
promotion— a love of the " expedient," paramount to a
love of the constitution — corruption bearing sway in
stead of virtue (a word almost blotted out ofthe English
vocabulary,) vice in perfection, admitted and allowed in
the higher orders, and the establishment of political
unions in most great towns — these, are the signs of the
times. With such facts as these before us, may we not
fear that the Sun of England's glory is about to set ?
May God avert the evil !
Intimately connected as are the Church and State—
a connection lessening every day — the former must ne
cessarily largely partake of the diseases of the latter.
That the Church partakes largely of the general rotten-
t 2

260 [thoughts on the present crisis.]
ness, is a fact which may be contradicted, but which is
too palpable to be disproved. Her condition calls
aloud for reform, while there is any thing left to be
reformed. Placed as the Bishops are by the slavish system of
translation, under the nod of the minister of the day, it
is a rare thing, in a corrupt and unprincipled age like
the present, to find those maintaining the ecclesiastical
bulwarks who wish for elevation. The minister, or
some one behind the curtain, gives, as the word of com
mand, " Liberality ;" or encourages principles closely
allied to dissent.
The supple Prelate who pants for advancement, in
stantly becomes liberal, and his clergy catch the con
tagion and become liberal also. The preferments given
away of late years to " evangelical" clergy, in a certain
diocese, too plainly indicate the links in the chain of
subserviency. The temporizing Clergy are led by their
Bishop, and the temporizing Bishop by those above,
from whom or through whom he hopes for further ele
vation. Sic itur ad astra.
Were I called upon to recommend to an ambitious
young man, in certain dioceses, the surest aditus to pre
ferment, I would whisper to him — " Pliancy." " The
oak," I would tell him, " flourished in belter times but,
Trojafuit. The storms of liberality have raged around
its venerable form, and shattered its trunk to atoms."
The limper osier now is the favoured plant — this is the
offering which will recommend Brutus to the good
graces of Pythia. Know that our political and theolo
gical alchymists, in 1828 and 1829, dashed their cruci
bles to pieces, because they discovered that the real

[church reform.] 261
philosopher's stone was none other than " Pliancy." I
would tell him — " If you think that unsullied charac
ter — that length of labour in the vineyard — that a
steady assertion of the doctrines of the Church, and
an uncompromising opposition to either Sectarian or
Papal encroachment — that your being the most
pointed, most natural, most expressive reader that
ever entered a desk, or the most animated that ever
delivered a sermon — if you think these recommenda
tions will lead to preferment, you will find yourself
egregiously disappointed. Your naivete will be laughed
at. " Contemnere, miser." " I will shew you," if not, "a
more excellent," yet a surer " way." " I will teach you,"
if not, " the good," at least, " the right way." Start
with what creed you like. Be either orthodox or evan
gelical — Tory or whig. Have a predilection for popery,
or a twist towards " serious and vital" Christianity — but
whatever you are, my son, get promotion, get it by
keeping your principles, if you can, but, my son, get
promotion. Only, never let your principles stand in
your way. Attachment to them will be called " Preju
dice" — and expertness at harlequinade — " Liberality."
This may be termed harsh and uncharitable — N'im-
porte. The question is, — is it not true ?
1. Hence it is evident, that the bringing the poorer
Sees to a parity of value with the richer, by lopping off
a few of the best manors and estates of the latter, and
assigning them to the former, is one of the first steps to
ensure the Church's safety, by removing the temptation
now afforded to the lesser Prelates to compromise the
claims, privileges, and powers of the Church, and a
check would thus be given to that most offensive of all

262 [thoughts on the present crisis.]
clerical delinquences, viz. cringing and temporizing,
whether in Bishops, Priests, or Deacons.
, My remarks being general, and not designed to affect
any individual, I shall not be thought personal, when I
say that an unfavourable impression towards the episco
pal bench is likely to be formed, — though falsely, from
the fact, that of eight Prelates who voted for popery,
six were occupiers of inferior Sees.
Caesar's wife should not even be suspected.
2. The re-establishment of the Convocation — a bless
ing rather to be wished than expected — would in every
point of view augment the safety and permanence of, and
conduce to greater unity and regularity than at pre
sent exist in, the Church. The internal regulation of
the Church would be bettered, as all Clergymen would
then be obliged to " speak the same thing," instead of
the seamless garment of Christ being torn asunder by
Clergymen of " serious" or " evangelical," or other, I
know not what, arrogant and pharisaical principles.
3. The cause of the frequent and unavoidable, but
disgraceful disputes between the Priest and his flock,
on pecuniary points — disputes decidedly derogatory to
those who sustain the sacred character, as exposing
them (though most falsely) to the charge of secularity,
covetousness, &c, should be at once removed. Nothing
can be more injurious to the best interests of our holy
religion, than the continuance of the tithe system.
Farmers, as every body knows, seem to think it no
fraud to cheat their Priest. The Priest very naturally,
and very justifiably, claims the legal maintenance as
signed to him. These claims must either be sacrificed,
and the Minister deprived of a large portion of his

[church reform.] 263
honest right— a hardship almost universal ; or, the vin
dication of his right will have the effect of alienating
the affections and respect of his people, and both ex
pose himself to insult and obloquy, and be the cause of
filling the conventicle. Not a shadow of doubt can
exist, that land in every parish should be allotted to the
incumbent, producing a rental of equal value to the
tithe, in lieu of tithe.
But these most desirable matters, I presume, can
alone be effected by the Parliament, under the direc
tion of the minister of the day, whoever he may be *.
Recent Ministries cannot be said to have greatly strength
ened the cause of the Established Church ; nor are such
as they likely to do so. The fact is, this country re
quires such men in power as the Duke of Newcastle,
Lords Winchilsea, Eldon, Falmouth, Mansfield,
Guilford, and Kenyon, and Sir Charles Wetherell
— men who have not bowed, and would not bow, the
knee to Baal — as co-adjutqrs of the Duke of Wel
lington. His prompt, decisive, imperious, and
determined spirit, I cannot praise too highly. This
spirit, directed and regulated by their sound constitu
tional principles, would effect all that could be desired
in Church or State. A namby-pamby, liberal, tempo
rizing, and turn-coat cabinet, based on " expediency,"
and over-awed by their leader, will neither foster the
Church, nor rescue the country from its present deplo
rable condition. The Duke is, of all others, the very

* I fear this is not quite constitutional language ; but the fault is not
mine.

264 [thoughts on the present crisis.]
man to keep the country in order — to effect bold mea
sures — and to carry things with a high hand ; but he
should have colleagues, who far from cringing to him,
should teach him the real interests of the Church and
State, and also keep him in due order. Those firm ad
herents to old-fashioned principles — those enemies to
new-fangled theories and experimental legislation — for
the repeal of the Test Acts, and the letting Papists and
Dissenters loose upon the Constitution, are confessedly
experimental — would keep in check all attempts at the
introduction of measures based on expediency, and
maintain the Constitution within its pristine barriers.
What might not be effected by his vigour, and their
principle^ !
There are, however, other reforms — internal reforms,
of an equally salutary nature, which the Church herself
can effectuate. These are —
1. The Limitation of future Ordinations. Too
many men are admitted into Holy Orders. The
Church swarms with Clergymen. Men from other
professions — men of " the lowest of the people," who
enter into orders for the purpose of becoming gentle-
manised — men who want to occupy a family living, — or
one in expectation from corporation interest — which
when they obtain, they may never visit but to receive
their tithes, residing and curatising, perhaps, at a sea
bathing, or other fashionable place ; men who have
run the gauntlet of profligacy and vice at Oxford and
Cambridge — men who have no more pretensions to
oratory, to reading with effect, and preaching with life,
than they have to settled principle ; men, who had they
been barristers, would, from their dull, prosing, and

[church reform.] 265
humdrum delivery, never have had a brief — these men,
and such as these, are almost daily ordained. The in
vestigation of character, and examination for orders, is
at too low a standard. Moral character should be deeply
sifted — college testimonials, like most other testimonials,
are granted without that scrutiny into the habits of the
grantee, that ought ever to be adopted in a matter of
such vital importance. Nothing surely can be more in
jurious to the interests of religion — nothing more likely
to subvert the Church as an establishment, than a corrupt
priesthood. The profligacy of the two Universities is
a pregnant source of detriment to religion, and brings
the Church into contempt. We all know that the
habits of extravagance, debt, swearing, gaming, de
bauchery, unchastity, and4 drunkenness, there con
tracted, often accompany through life the youth who,
till he went to college, was uncorrupted by vicious ex
ample, and innocent of these great offences. The late
hours, the wine-parties, the proceedings in the stu
dents' rooms, and the whole discipline of colleges, call
aloud for correction. The University is the channel to
the Church, and therefore, should be kept as unpolluted
as the nature and habits of man can permit or contrive.
For, can any thing be more dreadful than a depraved
minister of religion ? He is of all the most abject, the
most self-condemned, and destitute of plea, and liable
to the heaviest plagues of another life. If the religion
he teaches be false, why does he commend it to his
people ? If good, why does he not practise it ? He
must answer for the souls he misleads. Their guilt
will be required of him. Oh the mischief of such an ex
ample ! it wounds many souls at once. It reproaches

266 [thoughts on the present crisis.]
our religion, undermines our Church, breeds Dissenters,
produces open enemies to our order, our function, and
constitution. These men are the enemies ofthe Church
of England, these are its assassins, from these men she
has received the most dangerous wounds and blemishes.
Good God ! awaken us to a consideration of our danger
this way ! Nor is the episcopal examination as to learn
ing and theology sufficiently strict. None should, in
these times, be admitted into Orders but such as are
likely to be an ornament, and defence of the Church.
Our profession should be scrupulously select, fcf* It
should be an honour of difficult attainment to be a Priest
ofthe English Church. Her Ministers should be picked
men — men eminent for their learning, and critical know
ledge of Scripture ; and not only for their learning, but
for the soundness of their principles of attachment to
the Establishment. They should be known to be zeal
ous for it. Examinations for Orders rarely turn upon
Church Constitution. A foolish and mischievous dis
tinction, by a modern Bishop, has been attempted, be
tween Church government and doctrine, as if the former
were not included in the latter, — as if the commission of
the hierarchy were a non-essential of Christianity;
whereas, indeed, it is the only appointed medium for
our coming to the knowledge of saving truth, or par
taking of the Sacraments with which our salvation is
inseparably interwoven. Some talk of Church govern
ment, as if they forgot that Episcopacy is not barely a
form of government over the Church, but also, by
unavoidable inference from Scripture, that, without
which the Gospel cannot, without incurring the sin of
schism, be taught. Candidates for orders should be
13

[church REFORM.] Qffl
forewarned that a strict examination in Hooker's Ec
clesiastical Polity, Daubeny's Guide to the Church,
and other authors on Church constitution, will take
place previously to their being passed for Ordination.
By providing for knowledge on this essential, but neg
lected point, a sounder and less latitudinarian way of
thinking would gradually gain ground amongst the
clergy. I am persuaded many of the errors— much
of the division and party spirit among Christians, arises
entirely from an ignorance of the essentiality of obe
dience to the delegated ambassadors of Christ, and
the successors of the Apostles. As for elocution and
delivery, though primary points in this profession, they
have, unaccountably, never been thought of in trying
the candidate's qualification *.
2. Residence should be enforced ; and to this end,
the utmost encouragement should be given to the
erection of parsonage houses ; nor would it be too much
if parishes were required, by legislative enactment, to
furnish a part of the expense towards the sacerdotal
abode ; nor should patrons, in any case, present a clerk
to a living on which there is no house, without exacting
from him a legal engagement to build one, and reside
in it.
3. The last point on which I shall now speak, is the
shameful want of provision for Curates, — those labour
ing bees of that hive in which so many drones are
tolerated. • I have heard of one or two Bishops who have caused what they called
an Examination into these points to be instituted ; but as those appointed as
judges herein were themselves the veriest prosers that ever read a lesson, this
in no way forms an exception to my remark.

268 [thoughts on the present crisis.]
Is it not a disgrace to our Church, that a man may
toil till he is worn out with years and infirmities, and
at last not be able to remain " in one of the Priest's
offices that he may eat a bit of bread " ! Surely this
cries for redress. Could there not in every diocese be
certain livings in episcopal patronage, and certain
Chancellor's livings, (through the representation of the
Prelates at the foot of the throne) be appropriated for
aged Curates, who have served, with good character,
for a certain number of years ? Neither William IV.
nor any other possessor of the British throne, I ap
prehend, would refuse a portion of royal patronage for
so unalloyed a good.
The following statement, which appeared lately in a
London paper, from a curate of the age of 77, bears
too strongly on the point not to be here brought under
further notice. I know none of the parties : —
" I, Sir, am in my 77th year ; I have been upwards
" of half a century in the Church of England, and
" my income is 65/. per annum.
" I have, during my long and laborious career,
" solicited preferment but three times. In the first
" instance, my Bishop told me I was ' too young for
" advancement.' I had then been in the Church ten
" years ! The objection, it seemed, was not insu-
" perable, for his Lordship soon afterwards gave the
" living to a nephew, who had been a curate exactly
" eleven months !
" The next time, his successor told me the living
" I sought for was not ' worth my acceptance.' It
" was « unworthy of me.' He ' could not think of my

[church reform.] 269
" accepting it.' In vain I told him, with its amount
" I should be perfectly satisfied. He ' could not
" hear of such an arrangement.' He should ' feel
" disgraced by it ! '
" It was given the next week to a man who was
" already a pluralist.
" The last time I was, or ever will be, a suitor to
" any Bishop upon earth, was a few months since,
," when my vicar dying, (I had been curate in the
" living two and twenty years), and the patronage
" being vested in my diocesan, supported by the
" whole body of my parishioners, I asked for it in
" person. " His Lordship declared himself ' astonished at
" my presumption.' He wondered ' how I could
" venture to trouble him on such a subject.' He
" had ' promised the living some months since.' "
Take also the following announcement of the recent
death of a London clergyman, and say if the inter
ference of the Church in such matters is, or is not
required: —
" On the 15th inst. at the Rectory House,  ,

" the Rev.  , M. A., aged 74, late fellow of 
" College, Oxford, upwards of forty years a labo-
" rious and unbeneficed Curate in the diocese of
"  , universally beloved, and deeply lamented by
" all his respective congregations."
It is no very difficult matter to say on whom this
clergyman's want of preferment reflects. If he was

270 [thoughts on the present CRISIS.]
undeserving, his diocesan was wrong in not removing
him. If deserving, those who have presided over the
diocese for, at any rate, the last fifteen years of the
curate's service, are greatly to be blamed for not giving
or getting him something ; no Lord Chancellor, I ap
prehend, would refuse a Bishop's application for a
living for a Curate of forty years' exertion, and no
Bishop need disdain such application. I say the last
fifteen years, because, surely twenty-five years' faithful
service entitle a clergyman to expect something like
provision, and a respite, at least from a portion of the
toil of his earlier and more vigorous days *.
A remedy for such cases is thus proposed : —
" Nothing would be a greater relief to the Church
" of England than a superannuation fund for her
" aged and incapacitated ministers, conducted upon
" generous and equitable principles. But how is
" this fund to be raised ? By ourselves. Let us
" prove that we are neither insensible to the exigen-
" cies of our brethren, nor unwilling ourselves to
" relieve them. Let us scorn asking assistance from
" the laity, but accomplish it from our own resources.
" There are in the English Church twenty-six dig-
" nitaries, and fifty-eight ecclesiastical bodies pos-

* Lest those who do not know me should suppose I am induced to make
these remarks from personal considerations, it becomes necessary to observe,
that I have no cause whatever to complain, having been only fifteen years
in the Church, and being but forty ; but the case of those is indeed hard, who
have been nearly half a century actively employed in the Church, and are
arrived at upwards of seventy years of age, without any preferment to keep
them from want in their declining years.

[church reform.] 271
" sessing patronage. Suppose each of these was to
" assign one of the livings at their disposal in aid of
" a general superannuation fund. Upon this living,
" place an efficient Curate, with his full legal sti-
" pend ; but let the surplus proceeds be appro-
" priated to the use of superannuitants. It is not,
" I think, an extravagant computation, that each
" living would produce, on an average, a surplus of
" 100/. a-year, over and above the curate's salary.
" We should thus have an annual income of 8,400/.
" for pensioning those who, from age and infirmity,
" are inadequate to their duties ; unable, from the
" poverty of their living, to pay a curate, and reduced
" at once to indigence if they resign it."

CORRIGENDA.

PART I.

Page 25, erase Bishop Robert Burnell from the list of Lord High Trea
surers. Bishop John de Drokensford was only Under Treasurer.
 78, note, 7th line from bottom, for " mamus," read "manus."
 90, in the paragraph beginning " Bishop Godwin," dele the third
word, " who."
 126, 11th line from top, for "Prebends," read "Prebendaries."
 133, last line but one of Bishop Rogers's life, for "fostum," read
" festum."
 1 64, rectify the marks of reference to the notes.
 201, 7th line from top, the passage " This ' travelling,' as it is coolly
called, was, in fact, exile," should have been in parenthesis.
 207, note, last line, for " primum," read " primus."
 208, last line, for " viridca," read " viridea."
 221, 13th line from bottom, for " work," read " memoir."
 315, 6th line from top, dele " Willimo."
 317, 14th line from top, dele the period after " Windsor."
 322, note, quaere as to the latinity of " Jerunt."
 439, 15th line from top, dele " Ed."
 454, note, line 6th from bottom, for " our original thought," read " an
original thought." PART II.
 48, 13th line, for " he was named an incendiary," read " he was
named as an incendiary.*'
 73, 5th line,/or " Deucaledoniae," read " Duncaledonise."
 183, 16th line, dele " to," and read " proceeded M.A."
 189, line 15, for "lists," read " list."

CONTENTS.

PART I.

PAGE
Preface  v. — xii.
Chap. I. — Introduction. Of the Origin of the Church of
England  1
Error of those who by an excessive zeal against
Popery, unintentionally favour the cause of
Dissenters, and lower the claims of the Church
of England  5
Remarks on the baneful system of Episcopal
Translation  11
The only justifiable plea for recent apostacies
(note)  13
The dis-memberment of the too opulent See of
Winchester, desirable, (note)  14
Chap. II.— Of the origin of the See of Wells  18
Chap. III. — Of the conjoint Diocese of Bath and Wells .... 23
Chap. IV.— Of the Cathedral, Palace, and City of Wells,— a
Letter to the Author, from Sir R. C. Hoake,
Bart  27
List of the Episcopal Portraits at Wells Palace. . 39
Of the City of Wells  40
Of Bishop Knight's and Dean Woolman's Mar
ket Cross   41
Of Bishop Beckington's Conduit  ib.
Of the Incorporation of the City of Wells, by
Bishop R. Fitz-Jocelyn  42
Tables of the Bishops of Bath and Wells  45—70
I. In the Order of Succession, with Places of Burial . . 46
II. Alphabetical List of the Roman Catholic Bishops,
with ditto  48
HI.  ¦  Protestant, with ditto .... 50
IV.  Roman Catholic and Pro
testant promiscuously  51
v

274 CONTENTS. PAGE
V. Chronological list of the Bishops of Bath and Wells,
from an old MS. in the possession of the present
Bishop  53
VI. List of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, from Nico-
las's Synopsis  60
Arms of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, from the Heralds'
College  65
Arms of the See of Bath and Wells  67
Engraved Portraits of the Bishops of Bath and Wells  69
Lives of the Bishops op Bath and Wells. Part I. con
taining Roman Catholic Bishops —
Lives of the Bishops of fflJHclIs only  73—88
Bishop Athelm  74
 Wlfhelm I  75
 Elphege and Wlphels? II  ib.
 Brighthelm  76
 Cyneward  _..... ib.
 Sigar  77
 Alwyn  78
 Burwold  79
 Leoving  _  ib.
 Ethelwin  80
 Brithwin  81
¦Merewit  ib.

 Dudoca :  ..  82
Variations from time to time in the forms of ancient
Sepulchral Monuments, (note)  83
Remarks on the incorrectness of the term " William
the Conqueror"  85
On Modern Avenues to Church Preferment  89
Lives of the Bishops 'of JSatf) only  89  101
Bishop John de Villula, or, John of Tours .... 89
Modes of Promotion  ib.
Bishop John de Villula's character defended J.. '. '. '. 90,
D. , „ 91, 92, 93, and 95.
.Bishop (j odprey  100
Lives of the Bishops of the Conjoined Sees oif 33atli arrti
.®aaeit»  102-111
Bishop Robert  „  102
 Reginald Fitz-Jocelyn (the Incorporator
of the City of Wells)  105
Constitutions of Clarendon explained  106
Bishop Fitz-Jocelyn's character defended  107
Life of the only Bishop of ffilasitmiburn, Savaric Barlow-
inwac  _ 112
Bishop Savaric unjustly traduced  116
Sketch of what a Bishop ought to be  117—118
0

CONTENTS. 275

TAUE
ion

Lives of the Bishops of aSatlj an* tHeUm, on the resumpt™,
of that Style to the Reformation  119—467
Bishop Jocelyn of Wells (rebuilder of the Cathe
dral)  119
His Monument permitted, by the successive Conser-
vatorsi of the Cathedral, to be utterly destroyed ... 128
Bishop Roger .._.  ib.
The Pope unjustly aspersed (note)  129
Bishop William Bucton I.  133
Defended from the charge of Nepotism .... 1 34
 Walter Gifford  139
 William Bucton II  141
 Robert Burnell (builder of the Hall now
in ruins, at Wells Palace)  ,  145
 William Marsh, or De Marchia  150
 Walter Haselshaw  154
 John Drokensford  156
 Ralph of Shrewsbury (builder of the em
battled Wall, and maker of the Moat round Wells
Palace)  160
Ecclesia Plebanalis and Mensalis explained  162
The name Wellesley, whence said to be derived  168
Bishop John Barnet  170
 ' John Harewell  174
 Walter Skirlaw  178
 ¦ Ralph Erghum  192
 ¦ Henry Bowet  198
¦  Nicholas Bubwith (builder of the Alms
house and Library)  205
 John Stafford  212
 Thomas Beckington  218
Remarks on the Salique Law, as affecting Henry VI. 219
 on the Convocation, which is proved to be
one of the Three Estates of the realm *  227
¦  on the Infrequency of the Endowment of
Hospitals, Colleges, &c. by the modern Clergy ... 251
Bishop Robert Stillington  253
 Richard Fox (founder of C. C. C. Oxford) 261
 Oliver King (builder of Bath Abbey)  315
 Adrian de Castello, Cardinal of St.
Chrysogonus  331
 Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal of St. Cecilia . 346
Synopsis of Dates and Principal Matters connected
with Wolsey  437
Defence and Character of Wolsey  440

See also the Addenda, p. 219.

276 CONTENTS. PAGE
Bishop John Clerk  442
 William Knight  447
 William Barlow  455
Notices of his Son, the first writer on the loadstone 461
Bishop Gilbert Bourne, last Roman Cathohc
Bishop of Bath and Wells  462

CONTENTS.

PART II.

LIVES OF THE PROTESTANT BISHOPS
OF

n- /-i PAGE
1. Bishop Gilbert Berkeley  1
2. :  Tjhomas Godwin  4
Defended from calumny  9
His character  10
3.  John Still*  U
Corn rent in Colleges  18
4.  James Montagu  22
5. ¦  Arthur'Lake  27
6.  William Laud  33
Remarks from Scripture of the damning nature
of schism  ib.
Laud's orthodoxy, and anti-schismatical princi
ples recommended to the imitation of modern
Clergy, especially those of the " serious" or
canting school  34
Dangerous tenet of Archbishop Abbot, as to the
visibility of the Church of England being de
ducible through other channels than the Church
of Rome  35
The erroneous idea of a living Prelate, as to the
Church of England's claim to be an original
Church independent on Rome, unchurches
the Church of England  35, 36
Archbishop Abbot's heretical notions as to the
non-essentiality of Church Constitution (note) 35

* See also Addenda, p. 251.

278 CONTENTS.

PAGE

The charge of Popery always made by the " vital
religionists," or " Evangelicals," against
Churchmen  38
Laud opposed to Popery  40
Archbishop Abbot's " liberality" and Calvinism,
the real ground- work of the subversion of the
Church and monarchy temp. Cromwell  42
Remarks on the absence of all principle, and the
tendency of things to some great revolution in
Church and State  43
Bible Society* ,  ib.
" Expediency"  44
Comprehension with the Romish Church, the
only means now left by the " liberal," of
saving the Christian religion, and the re
venues of the Church from Dissenters  44
Laud opposed to Popery  46
Lenity of the " Saints" and " serious Christians"
towards Laud  • • ¦ • 49
Laud's death, the immediate precursor of the
abolition of the Liturgy, and the downfall of
episcopacy  51
7. Bishop Leonard Mawe  54
8. ¦  Walter Curle  56
9.  William Pierse  63
Principle of Laud, that those who defended the
Church, should be defended by the Church. . 64
Proceedings of the " Blessed Parliament"  65
10. ¦  Robert Creyghton f  7°
11.  Peter Mews  74
Defended from Bishop Burnet's aspersions  78
12.  Thomas Ken  83
Refuses admission to the King's concubine, Nell
Gwyn, into the prebendal house  87
13.  Richard Kidder, (an auto-biography, hitherto
unpublished)  102—167
The term, " Orders," mis-applied to the self-con
stituted ministrations of Sectarian preachers.. 106
The term, " Dissenters," a mis-nomer for schis
matics  116
Similarity of an argument to one advanced by
Mr. Peel on the Popery question  ' ib.
Tithes — a cause of schism — commutation for
land preferable  117

* See also Addenda, p. 252.
t See also addenda, p. 253.

CONTENTS, 2?9
Bishop Kidder not firm in his views respecting
dissent  _ ># 123
The subject of pluralities considered (note).".'.'.' 126
Bishop Herbert Marsh's authenticity of the Pen
tateuch commended  134
Kidder friendly to " private judgment" .' .' '. '. '. '. 135
Dissenting preachers when they present them
selves for real Holy Orders should recant  14g
The profligacy at Oxford and Cambridge, calls
for summary suppression— bad schools for
those intended for the sacred profession  151
Compendious mode of managing the disposal of
Church preferment, suggested  154
14.  ¦ George Hooper  168
Character of Bishop Hooper  171
Provided for the poorer and deserving Clergy
without solicitation  ib.
Not a Nepotist, but a Father of his Clergy .... 172
15.  John Wynne  160*
Absurdity and inauthenticity of Welch pedigrees ib.
Strictures on the setting aside of claims as
Founder's kin in certain great scholastic and
collegiate institutions  161 *
Perversion of collegiate revenues from Papists
to Protestants, not consistent with honour. . ib.
16.  Edward Willes  166*
Bishop Atterbury defended  ib.
Pedigree of descendants of Bishop Willes .... 172*
17.  Charles Moss  ._  175*
Notices of his son Charles Moss, Bishop of
Oxford  176*
18.  Richard Beadon *  179*
19-  GEORGE HENRY LAW  181—234
Review of his Works  189 — 227
The terms, " Disciples and Apostles," con
founded  195
The doctrine of the Trinity not a mystery — an
endeavour to simplify it  197
Error of Dr. Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury,
as to Puritans, Presbyterians, and Indepen
dents not being Dissenters, because Trinita
rians (note)  204
The introduction of hymns into the Church
service irregular  213
Baptism administered by persons not episco-
pally ordained, nugatory and invalid  217

* See also Addenda, to Part II.

280 CONTENTS. PAGE
Irregularities introduced by some Bishops, into
the Confirmation service  219
Education ofthe common people dangerous and
absurd, and has produced much evil  221
Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of London, ill used
respecting the observation of the Sabbath —
his conduct about Wilberforce's Chapel de
serving of censure  225
Life of Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, father of the pre
sent Bishop of Bath and Wells  235 •
Life of John Law, Bishop of Elphin, brother of the present
Bishop of Bath and Wells  243
Addenda to Part 1  249 — 252
Remarks on the Convocation of the Clergy  249
Addenda to Part II  257
Bishop Still  251
The Bible Society shewn in its true colours . . 252
Bishop Creyghton  253
The error of Bishop Bird Sumner (Chester) in represent
ing the Holy Ghost as a thing instead of a person, noticed 256
Considerations on the present crisis — with Hints for Church
Reform  259
Corrigenda  272

PLATES.

DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.
The Portrait of Dr. Law, present Bishop of Bath and Wells, to face
the Title.
Bishop Beckington's Conduit at Wells  221
Bishop Berkeley's Seal, to face his Life, Part II  1
Portrait of Bishop Still, to face his Life  11
Monument of Bishop Still  20
Arms of the See of Wells and Priory of Bath conjointly marshalled,
impaling Law  181

Lately published, in one vol. Svo. boards, lis.
SERMONS,
DESIGNED TO COERECT SOME OE THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINAL
ERRORS OE THE PRESENT TIMES, AND TO TROMOTE
UNITY AND CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.

BY THE REVEREND
STEPHEN HYDE CASSAN, A.M. F.S.A.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE SUBJECTS : —
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2. — The Danger and Sin of Separation from the Protestant
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3. — An earnest and affectionate Dissuasive to those who are me
ditating Separation from the Church.
4. — The Anti-Calvinism of the Church of England. (A Visita-
. tion Sermon.)
5. The Athanasian Creed not unscriptural or uncharitable.
6. Infant Baptism defended.
7. Confirmation — an Apostolic rite, and of perpetual obligation
on Christians.
8. Exhortation to those who have received Confirmation.
9. The Divinity of Christ maintained.
10. Obedience to Government a religious Duty.
11. On Behalf of the suffering Irish.
12. On practical Religion, as contradistinguished to the internal
impressions substituted for it by " the Evangelical."

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The Rev. Francis Knight, D.D. South Wraxall Hall, Somerset.

SUBSCRIBERS.

Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. M.R.I. A. and V. P. of the
Linntean Society,
The Very Rev. Whittingdon Landon, D.D. Dean of Exeter, and Provost
of Worcester College, Oxford.
Sir James Langham, Bart.
Robert Langslow, Esq. Barrister, Brick Court, Temple.
Colonel Gore Langton, Newton Park, Somerset.
Thomas Latimer, Esq. Mere, Wilts.
The Rev. James Law, M.A. Chancellor ofthe Diocese ol Litchfield.
The Venerable Henry Law, M.A. Archdeacon, Chancellor and Canon of
Wells.
Mrs. Layman, Hans Place.
The Rev. R. W. Leonard, M.A. Vicar of Newbottle, Norts.
Benjamin Lester Lester, Esq. M.P. for Poole.
Sir Thomas Lethbridge, Bart. M.P. for the County of Somerset.
Theophilus Levett, Esq. Wichnor Park, Staffordshire, 2 Copies.
The Rev. Israel Lewis, M.A. Vicar of Long Ashton, Sfc. Somerset.
Wadham Locke, Esq. Rowdeford House, Wilts.
Robert Long, Esq. Manor House, Dawlish, Devon.
Walter Long, Esq. M.A. Chalcot House, Westbury, Wilts.
Harry Baines Lott, Esq. M.P. for Honiton.
P. H. Lovell, Esq. Cole Park, Malmsbury, Wilts.
The Rev. William Lucas, M.A. Prebendary of Wells, and Rector of Burgh
St. Margaret, Norfolk. M.
The Venerable William Macdonald, M.A. Archdeacon of Wilts.
Lieut.-Col. Macdonald, F.R.S. F.AC.S.
William Mac Michael, Esq. M.D. F.R.S. F.L.S. King's Librarian (for The
Royal Library.)
The Rev. Spencer Madan, M.A. Vicar of Bath Easton, for the Bath Clerical
Society.
Messrs. Mansford and Griffith, Frome.
Mr. Marriott, Taunton Courier. '
The Hon. and Rev. Jacob Marsham, D.D. Canon of Windsor, and Prebendary
of Wells.
Thomas Martin, Esq. 20, Osnaburgh-street.

SUBSCRIBERS.
Mrs. Mass, Foley Place, Portland Place.
Thomas Meade, Esq. F.G.S. Chatley Lodge, Somerset.
Sir William Medlycott, Bart.
Uriah Messiter, Esq. Bayford Lodge, Wincanlon.
George Messiter, Esq. Wincanlon.
George Messiter, Esq. Frome.
Mr. Meyer, Engraver.
Philip John Miles, Esq. M.P.
Mrs. Robert Mitford.
John Berkeley Monck, Esq. M.P.
John Moore, Esq. Yeovil.
J. Morice, Esq. F.S.A. 11, Upper Gower-street.
Lieut.-Colonel Muttlebury, Wells.

N.

Joseph Neeld, Esq. M.P. F.S.A.
John Nicholles, Esq. 35, Conduit-street.
Alexander Nicholson, Esq. F.S.A. East Court, Charlton Regis, Cheltenham.
O.
The Rev. John Olive, M.A. Wadham College, Oxford; Hastings.
Edward Olive, Esq. Frome.
Edmund Olive, Esq. Solicitor, Frome.
Mrs. Osborne, Marlborough-buildings, Bath.
P.
Mrs. Paget, Newberry House, Somerset.
William Parfitt, Esq. Wells.
Thomas Lister Parker, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. F.L.S.
The Venerable Thomas Parkinson, D.D. F.R.S. Archdeacon of Leicester.
The Rev. H. Parsons, Prebendary of Wells, and Rector of Goathurst,
Somerset.
The Rev. J. Parsons, Redland, Bristol.
Messrs. Payne and Sons, Bath.
The Very Rev. Hugh N. Pearson, D.D. Dean of Salisbury.
George Hay Dawkins Pennant, Esq. M.P.
Harry Penny, Esq. Marlborough- Hill, Bristol.

SUBSCRIBERS.
Messrs. Penny ^ Sons, and Co. Sherborne.
Mr. Penny, Bookseller, Frome.
Roger Pettiward, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. F.L.S. Great Finborough Hall, Suffolk.
John Phelips, Esq. Montacute House, Somerset.
The Rev. W. Phelps, Vicar of Meare, Somerset.
The Rev. James Phillott, M.A. Rector of Stanton Prior, Somerset.
The Rev. Charles Pickwick, Beckington, Somerset.
John Hugh Smyth Pigott, Esq. F.S.A. F.G.S. Brockley Hall, Somerset,
2 copies.
Mr. John Plaister, Frome.
Mr. Jacob Player, Frome.
Sir William Templer Pole, Bart. D.C.L.
Edward Berkeley Portman, Esq. M.P. for the County qf Dorset.
Alexander Powell, Esq. M.P.
Henry Pbwnall, Esq. 63, Russell Square.
R. Periam Prat, Esq. Glastonbury.
Samuel Prat, Esq. Glastonbury.
The Venerable Edward Price, Archdeacon of Killaloe.
The Rev. Thomas Putt, B.D. Rector of Trent, Somerset.

J. Quantock, Esq. Norton under Hamden, Somerset.
R.
The Rev. Thomas Rackett, M.A. F.R.S. F.S.A. F.L.S. Rector of Spetisbury,
Dorset.
The Rev. H. I. Randolph, Vicar of Hawksbury and Badminton, Gloucester
shire.
W. Ranken, Esq. 52, Charles Street, Berkeley Square.
Mrs. Rawlins, Gunter's Grove, Stogursey, Somerset.
The Hon. and Very Rev. Edward Rice, D.D. Dean of Gloucester.
The Rev. Caleb Rockett, Vicar of East Brent, Somerset.
The Rev. James Rogers, D.D. Rector of South Cadbury, Somerset.
The Rev. J. M. Rogers, L.L.B. Rector of Berkeley, Berkeley House, Somer
set.
William Rossiter, Esq. Frome, Somerset.
The Rev. John Royle, Rector of Compton Martin, Somerset.
The Rev. N. Ruddock, Vicar of Stoekland, Somerset.

SUBSCRIBERS.

The Rev. H. Sainsbury, M.A. Rector of Beckington and Standerwick,
Somerset.
D. L. St. Clair, Esq. Capt. R. N. Charlton House, Gloucestershire.
Salisbury Clerical Club.
E. Ayshford Sanford, Esq. Mynehead Court, Somerset.
Mrs. James Sargeaunt, Sloane- Street.
Captain Scobell, R. N. High Littleton, near Bath.
Sir Claude Scott, Bart.
Lewis G. Senior, Esq. Compton Castle, Somerset.
H. Seymour, Esq. M.P. for Taunton.
The Rev. John Shipton, D.D. Rector of Portishead, near Bristol, and Vicar
of Stanton Bury, Bucks.
The Rev. John Noble Shipton, B.D. Rector of Hinton Blewitt, Somerset.
The Rev. John Skinner, Rector of Camerton, Somerset.
The Rev. James Slade, M.A. Prebendary^of Chester.
The Rev. W. B. Sleath, D.D. Repton, Derby.
James Sloper, Esq. No. 1, Gay-street, Bath.
Samuel Smith, Esq. M.P.
T. Assheton Smith, Esq. M.P.
The Rev. J. Smith, D.D. High Master of the Free-Grammar School, Man
chester.
Mrs. Frances Snow, Clipsham Manor House, Rutland.
Mrs. Somerville, Dinder, Somerset.
A. Spottiswoode, Esq. M.P.
The Rev. Joshua Stephenson, M.A. Rector of Selworthy, Somerset.
The Very Rev. Robert Stevens, D.D. Dean of Rocheshr.
Peter Still, Esq. Lincoln's Inn.
The Rev. John Still, B.C.L. Prebendary ol Salisbury.
Nath. Tryon Still, Esq. Mount Radford, Devon.
W. Stillingfleet, Esq. Barrister, Lincoln's Inn.
R. Strachey, Esq. Ashwick Grove, Somerset.
William Stradling, Esq. Chedxoy, Somerset.
Mr. W. Strong, Bookseller, Bristol.
Henry Sully, Esq. M.D. Wyvelscombe, Somerset.
The Rev. James Symonds, M.A. Great Ormsby, Norfolk.

T.
G. H. Tapps, Esq. M.P.
The Taunton Literary Institution.

SUBSCRIBERS.
Sir Charles Taylor, Bart. M.P. for Wells.
George Watson Taylor, Esq. D.C.L. F.R.S. F.S.A. M.P. for Devizes. 2copies.
Samuel Taylor, Esq. Eccleston Hall, Lancashire.
The Rev, G. H. Templer, Prebendary of Wells.
G. H. W. Thompson, Esq. Magdalen Hall, Oxford.
Thomas Timbrell, Esq. Trowbridge.
The Rev. John Gale D. Thring, L.L.B. Rector of Alford, Alford House,
Somerset. 4 copies.
Miss Thring, Clifton.
The late John Thring, Esq. Alford House, Somerset.
The Rev. H. J. Todd, M.A. Rector of Settrington, Yorkshire.
The Rev. W. Tournay, D.D. Warden of Wadham College, and Prebendary
of Peterborough, &c. for the Library of Wadham College.
The Right Hon. the Lady Frances Trail.
Sir Henry Trollope, Knight Banneret, Admiral of the Red, Freshford,
Somerset.
The Rev. John Trollope, M.A. Wallingford.
J. P. Tudway, Esq. M.P. for Wells.
C. K. Kemeys Tynte, Esq. F.S.A., M.P. for Bridgewater.
Arthur Tyton, Esq. Wimbledon. U.
Miss Amelia Uhthoff, Green Park Buildings, Bath.
The Rev. George Vanbrugh, L.L.D. Prebendary of Wells.
W.
The Rev. W. P. Wait, Rector of Norton Malreward, and of Chew Stoke,
Somerset.
The Rev. Henry Wake, M.A. Vicar of Mere, Wilts, and Rector of Over
Wallop, Hants. 3 copies.
Samuel Wall, Esq. Worthy Park, Hants.
Bethell Walrond, Esq. M.P.
Mrs. Warden, King-street, Portman-square.
The Rev. H. Lee Warner, Tiberton Court, Herefordshire.
Wenman Langham Watson, Esq. Northampton.
Messrs. Weston, Simonds, and Sydenham, Dorchester Chronicle.
William Lambert White, Esq. Yeovil.
The Rev. Provis Wickham, Charlton House, Shepton Mallet.

SUBSCRIBERS.
The late Rev. Thomas Wickham, Prebendary of Salisbury, and Vicar of
North Newington, and West Knoyle, Wilts. 2 copies.
Miss Wickham, Vicarage, Yatton, Somersetshire.
Francis Willes, Esq. Gloucester Place.
The Rev. John Williams, M.A. Prebendary of Wells, and Rector of Merston,
Somerset.
The Rev. Thomas Williams, M.A. Prebendary of Wells, and Rector of
Cameley, Somersetshire.
G. T. Williams, Esq. Limington, Somerset.
W. M. H. Williams, Esq. M.A. Master of the Grammar School, Frome.
Miss Williams, Bookseller, Bath. 2 copies.
Edward Willoughby, Esq. Lancaster-place,
M. Wilson, Esq. Eshton Hall, Yorkshire.
The Rev. Richard Winslow, Perpetual Curate of Ruishton, Somerset.
W. Withering, Esq. L.L.D. Wick House, Somerset.
Miss Withers, Wells.
The Rev. Henry Woodcock. D.D. Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and .
Rector of Michelmersh, Hants.
Worcester College Library, Oxford. >
Wadham Wyndham, Esq. M. P. for Salisbury.
The Rev. J. H. Wyndham, M.A. Rector ol Carton, Somerset.
Y.
The Rev. H. F. Yeatman, B.C.L. Stock House, Dorset.

LONDON :
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

auirttliojta! Katnt«.

The Most Noble the Marquess of Bute. 2 copies.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Mansfield. 2 copies.
Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart.
Mr. Backhouse, Bookseller, Wells.
The Rev. Spencer Cobbold, M.A. Rector of Woolpits, Suffolk.
Edward Cockey, Esq. B. A. Wadham Coll. Oxford.
Thomas Davis, Esq. Porttoay-House, Warminster.
William Drewe, Esq. Exeter.
James Ounlap, Esq. M.D. 42, Baker-Street, Portman-Square.
Joseph Everett, Esq. Heytesbury.
Mrs. Joseph Everett.
The Rev. R. F. Follett, Master of the CoiV. Grammar-School, Taunton.
Mr. Thomas Hooper, Frome.
Messrs. Lambert & Rawlings, Jewellers, Coventry-Street.
Mr. John Major, Bookseller, London. 2 copies.
Robert Meares, Esq. Frome.
George Hammond Meares, Esq. Frome.
The Rev. Thomas Meyler, M.A. Master of the Royal Grammar-School,
Marlborough.
Charles Michell, Esq. 41, Gloucester-Place.
Messrs. Edward & Josiah Neave, Gillingham, Dorset.
John Parkinson, Jun. Esq. 36, Sachville- Street.
Messrs. Polwarth, Bookbinders, Pimlico.
W. Stevenson, Esq. Thong, near Gravesend.
Mr. Trewman, Exeter.
C. M. Young, Esq. 26, Spring-Gardens.