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A LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

V
A LIFE

JOSEPH HALL, D.D.,

BISHOP OF EXETER- AND NORWICH.

REV-. GEO. LEWIS,
B.A. BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
M.A. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ; CURATE OF ST. l'AUL'.S, OXFORD.

HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCLXXXVI.
{All Rights reserved.]

TO
THE REV. W. B. DUGGAN, M.A.,
VICAR OF ST. PAUL'S, OXFORD,
1 BEG TO DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK
WITH ALL AFFECTIONATE ESTEEM.

PREFACE

P*HOSE who have any knowledge of the history
¦*¦ of the Church will not deem an apology
necessary for a Life of one of its ablest and most
devoted servants at a perilous crisis. None, perhaps,
who revere goodness, or value scholarly divinity, will
be averse to renewing their acquaintance with
Bishop Hall. Lovers of moderation will remember
that in him is mirrored a virtue scarcely ever out
of place, never more necessary than at the present
time. I have not thought it needful in a work of this
magnitude and purpose to give verifying references,
except in comparatively few instances. Here, how
ever, I would acknowledge my great obligations to
the ordinary sources of information, the State Papers,
leading County Histories, Fuller, Neale's " History of
the Puritans," Birch's " Life of the Prince of Wales,"
Heylin's " Laud," Canterbury's " Doom," Laud's
" History of his Troubles," Blomfield's " Norwich,"
Hallam's " Const. History," etc. ; and among more
recent authors, in particular, to Mr. Bass Mullinger's

viii PREFACE.
" History of Cambridge," Perry's " English Church
History,"— an invaluable companion from first to last,
— Hook's " Lives of the Archbishops," Stoughton's
" Religion in England," the Histories of Scotland by
Grub and Cunningham, Masson's " Life and Times of
Milton," Dr. Jessop's " Diocesan History of Norwich,"
Grosart's Edition of Hall's Satires and Poetry, the
elegant publication of the long-missing "King's
Prophecie, or Weeping Joy," brought out by the
Roxburgh Society under the editorship of the Rev.
W. Edward Buckley, eta
Among those who have given me personal assist
ance I beg to sincerely thank the Dean of Norwich
(Dr. Goulburn) for information furnished by himself;
and also for putting me in communication with Dr.
Bensly, Diocesan Registrar, and Dr. Jessop, from
both of whom I have received substantial help. E. S.
Shuckburgh, Esq., late Fellow of Emmanuel, not only
sent me the account of the Dort Medal which is
embodied in the text, but also directed the pub
lishers to send me his very useful " Memoir of
Chaderton," the first Master of that College. To
the kindness and courtesy of Dr. Sanday and of
the Rector of Exeter College, where several of
Hall's sons were educated, I am indebted for per
mission to see Bishop George Hall's Cup, — an art
treasure described in the Appendix ; the description
was pointed out to me by Mr. Boase, Senior Fellow
and Librarian, whom I have also to thank for

PREFACE.

valuable hints in his laborious and exhaustive
Register of the College. The Vicar of Ashby,
Hall's birthplace ; the Rector of Higham, where he
died and was buried ; Dr. Cowie, Dean of Exeter,
and many others, have also readily responded to my
inquiries, and my thanks are especially due to my
dear friend, the Rev. W. B. Duggan, for assistance in
revising the proofs, and for various suggestions from
time to time. The most useful works on the same
subject I have found to be Bishop Wordsworth's
" Ecclesiastical Biographies," and Jones's " Life of
Hall" (1826), and of editions of Hall's writings that
by Peter Hall, though Wynter's contains some
matter not before published.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. MGE
I. BIRTH AND SCHOOL  I
II. NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD-
EMMANUEL COLLEGE — SCHOLAR — B.A.— M.A. . II
III. FELLOW OF EMMANUEL— PROFESSOR OF RHE
TORIC — HEAD MASTER OF BLUNDEL'S SCHOOL
— THE OFFER OF HALSTEAD — THE " SATIRES"
— "MUNDUS ALTER ET IDEM" . . .38
IV. VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC. . . .62
V. WORK AT HALSTEAD — CHAPLAIN TO THE
PRINCE OF WALES — THE OFFER OF WALTHAM 86
VI. FAREWELL TO HALSTEAD — WALTHAM — HALL
IN COUNSEL, ETC  106
VII. "THE CHARACTERISTICS OF VIRTUE AND
VICE" — EARLIEST CONTROVERSIAL WORKS —
REFUSAL TO LEAVE WALTHAM— DEATH OF
PRINCE HENRY  1 26
VIH. HALL AND CHURCH DEFENCE — LIFE AT WAL
THAM — VISIT TO PARIS — DEAN OF WORCESTER I46
IX. HALL AND ABSOLUTISM  1 63
X. THE "QUO VADIS?" — HALL ACCOMPANIES
KING JAMES TO SCOTLAND— STUDIES RITUAL 173
XI. SERMON BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON
— SYNOD OF DORT— SICKNESS AND RETURN,
ETC.  I96

XII. CONTINUED ILL-HEALTH — "THE HONOUR OF
THE MARRIED CLERGY" — THE "VIA MEDIA"
— THE ARCHBISHOP OF SPALATO — SERMONS,
ETC. — BISHOP OF EXETER .... 210,
XIII. HALL'S MODERATION  244
XIV. BISHOP OF EXETER (1627-37) • • • ¦ 27"
XV. (1637-41) THE DISASTER AT WITHECOMBE—
OVERTHROW OF EPISCOPACY IN SCOTLAND—
HALL'S PROPOSAL FOR A SYNOD — "THE EPIS
COPACY BY DIVINE RIGHT " — THE " ET CETERA"
OATH — THE CANONS — THE COMMITTEE OF
RELIGION — ASSAULT UPON THE ENGLISH
BISHOPS — RETURN TO EXETER — THE SMEC-
TYMNUANS — BISHOP OF NORWICH, ETC. . 310
XVI. HALL AND CONTROVERSY  347
XVII. THE TOWER — NORWICH  381
XVIII. HIGHAM— CLOSING DAYS— DEATH . . . 407

APPENDIX.
I. A SHORT PEDIGREE OF BISHOP HALL'S FAMILY . 426
II. WILL OF DR. JOSEPH HALL, BISHOP OF NORWICH 428
III. THE PROTEST DRAWN UP BY THE BISHOPS . . 430
IV. BISHOP GEORGE HALL'S CUP AT EXETER COLLEGE,
OXFORD  . , ,
 432
V. (TO PAGE 180)  .,
ADDENDA 
INDEX 

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND SCHOOL.

JOSEPH HALL, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, and
from thence translated to Norwich, was born
July ist, 1574, at five ofthe clock in the morn
ing. The house of his birth stood in what was then
called Bristow Park, within the parish of Ashby-de-
la-Zouch, a town in the north of Leicestershire. At
that time there were two farms, which are now, and
have been long, thrown into one. The name Bristow
has been lost, while that of Prestop remains. The
house stood about a mile from the town, on the road
to Burton-on-Trent, and the site is now occupied by
a cottage and farm-buildings. The future bishop
was baptized on July 4th, when only three days old,
in the parish church of Ashby. The entry is as
follows : —

1574-

THE FATHER'S
NAME.

THE CHILD'S
NAME.

BAPTIZED.

July 4th

John

Joseph

Hall.

His father was an officer under that truly honour
able and religious Henry, third Earl of Huntingdon,
in 1572 appointed President ofthe North, and under
1

LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.

him had the government of Ashby, the chief seat
of the. earldom. Little is known of the elder Hall,
but from the way in which his son speaks of his
death it may be inferred that he was a man of
worth and piety. " Since I saw you," he wrote to
Sir Andrew Asteley, " I saw my father die. How
boldly and merrily did he pass through the gates of
death, as if they had no terror, but much pleasure !
Oh that I could as easily imitate, as not forget him !
We know we must tread the same way : how happy,
if with the same mind ! "
His mother, Winifrede, belonged to the house of
the Bambridges, or Bainbridges, who originally came
from the north, and were of good if not of high
family. They had attained some importance in
Leicestershire, since we find Robert Bambridge
dining with Sir William Skipwith at the Earl of
Huntingdon's, and interceding with the Earl of
Shaftesbury that the consort of James I. and the
young Prince Henry, then on the road from York
to London, might do the Earl of Huntingdon the
honour of staying at Ashby Castle. A distinguished
member of the family was John, son of the fore
going, ,born at Ashby in 1582, and educated at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, under the tuition of
Hall, the subject of this history. After taking his
degree, he taught a grammar school in Leicester
shire, and at the same time practised physic and
studied mathematics. Both as a physician and as
an astronomer he gained some reputation, being
admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians, and
discovering the comet of 161 8. He thus became
acquainted with Sir Henry Savile, Warden of Merton
College, Oxford, who appointed him first Savilian

BIRTH AND SCHOOL.

Professor. He was incorporated M.D., became
Junior Linacre lecturer in 1631, and Superior
Reader in 1635. He died in a house opposite
Merton College, November 3rd, 1643, and was
buried in the Choir of Merton, against the north
wall, near the altar.
Like many other famous men, Hall owed much
to his mother's influence. He describes her as a
" woman of that rare sanctity, that were it not for
my interest in nature, I durst say that neither Aleth,
the mother of that just Honour of Clairval (St.
Bernard of Clairvaux), nor Monica, nor any other of
those pious matrons antiently famous for devotion,
need to disdain her admittance to comparison. She
was continually exercised with the affection of a
weak body, and oft of a wounded spirit ; the agonies
whereof, as she would oft recount with much passion,
professing that the greatest bodily sicknesses were
but flea-bites to these scorpions, so, from them all, at
last, she found a happy and comfortable deliverance.
And that not without a more than ordinary hand of
God ; for, on a time, being in great distress of con
science, she thought in her dream there stood by
her a grave personage in the gown and other habits
of a physician, who, enquiring of her estate, and
receiving a sad and querulous answer from her, took
her by the hand, and bade her be of good comfort,
for this should be the last fit that ever she should
feel of this kind. Whereto she seemed to answer,
that, upon that condition, she could well be content,
for the time, with that or any other torment. Reply
was made to her, as she thought, with a redoubled
assurance of that happy issue of this her last trial ;
whereat she began to conceive an unspeakable joy,

LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.

which yet, upon her awaking, left her more discon
solate, as then conceiving her happiness imaginary,
her misery real. The very same day she was visited
by the reverend and, in his time, famous divine, Mr.
Anthony Gilby, under whose ministry she lived ;
who, upon the relation of this her pleasing vision
and the contrary effects it had in her, began to
persuade her, that dream was no other than divine,
and that she had good reason to think that gracious
premonition was sent her from God Himself, Who,
though ordinarily He keeps the common road of His
proceedings, yet sometimes, in the distresses of His
servants, goes unusual ways to their relief. Hereupon
she began to take heart, and by good counsel, and her
fervent prayers, found that happy prediction verified
to her, and, upon all occasions in the remainder of
her life, was ready to magnify the mercy of her God
in so sensible a deliverance. What with the trial
of both these hands of God, so had she profited in
the school of Christ, that it was hard for any friend
to come from her discourse no whit holier. How
often have I blessed the memory of those Divine
passages of experimental divinity, which I have
heard from her mouth ! What day did she pass
without a large task of private devotion ? Whence
she would still come forth with a countenance of
undissembled mortification. Never any lips have
read to me such feeling lectures of piety ; neither
have I known any soul that more accurately practised
them, than her own. Temptations, desertions, and
spiritual comforts were her usual theme. Shortly,
for I can hardly take off my pen from so exemplary
a subject, her life and death were saint-like."
Her spiritual adviser, under whose ministry Hall's

BIRTH AND. SCHOOL.

younger years were spent, was a man of considerable
eminence. A native of Lincolnshire, and a member
of Christ's College, Cambridge, he appears to have
been learned in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
languages. Long afterwards Hall remembered him
as the author of that bitter dialogue between
Miles Monopodius and Bernard Blinkard, one of
the hottest and busiest sticklers in the quarrels
at Frankfort, and " one of the godfathers of the
Geneva Discipline, who, after his peregrinations in
Germany and Geneva, undertook for that new-born
infant at an English font." He published various
works, such as a Commentary on Micah, a treatise
on predestination, a paraphrase of the Psalms, etc.,
and he livedo at Ashby as great as a bishop. He
was succeeded in the vicarage by his son, Nathanael
Gilby. Hall may thus be said to have almost
imbibed Calvinism with his mother's milk.
If Ashby was great in the religious world, through
Mr. Gilby, it was equally great in the secular, though
only a place of about seventy families, through its
connection with the powerful Earls of Huntingdon,
whose seat, Ashby Castle, was situate on a gentle
eminence on the south side of the town. Here, in
the last week of November 1 5 6g, Mary Queen of
Scots, on her way from Tutbury to Coventry, was a
captive, and a room in 1804 still remaining there
bore her name. The charge of her was entrusted to
the Earl of Shrewsbury, together with the Earl of
Huntingdon, and the latter appears to have exercised
his trust with not only vigilance, but rigour. He was
directly descended from George, Duke of Clarence,
and brother of Edward IV., and pretended to dispute
with the Scottish queen her right to the succession.

LIfE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

Hall's younger days must thus have been full of the
unhappy queen, and her execution in i 587, (February
8th), when he was only thirteen years of age, must
have left an indelible impression upon his mind. One
may picture him as frequently accompanying his
father to the Castle, and thus getting an insight into
the life of the aristocracy, and acquiring those habits
of respect and deference which afterwards gained
for him patrons and enabled him to keep them.
The Earls more than once entertained royalty.
James I. quartered himself and his whole court upon
the then Earl for many days together. Every day,
we are told, the dinner was served up by thirty poor
knights, with gold chains and velvet gowns. In
1645 Charles was there; but before long the glory
had departed. Colonel Henry Hastings, younger
son of the Earl, made a stand for the King, and
was allowed to march away from his fortress uncon-
quered. In 1648 the home of so much hospitality
and princely splendour was dismantled.
Hall's first training was gained in the public school
of his native place, which only some seven years
before his birth had been founded by Henry Earl
of Huntingdon and others, " for instructing youth in
good manners, learning, knowledge, and virtue." Of
his school-fellows one is well known to us, Hugh
Cholmley, whose father was also a dependent on the
Castle, and most likely came of the Cholmleys of
Bramsby. The two boys, "partners of one lesson
from their cradles," were at the University together,
" for many years partners of one bed," bishop and pre
bend respectively of the same Cathedral at Exeter,
and lifelong friends. From his infancy Hall's
parents had devoted him to the sacred calling, and

BlRftt AND SCHOOL 7
his education was directed to that end. How near
their hopes and his were to blasting cannot be better
told than in his own words. "After I had spent
some years, not altogether indiligently, under the ferule
of such masters as the place afforded, and had here
attained to some competent ripeness for the univer
sity, my schoolmaster, being a great admirer of
one Mr. Pelset, who was then lately come from
Cambridge to be the public preacher of Leicester
(a man very eminent in those times for the fame of
his learning, but especially for his sacred oratory),
persuaded my father, that if I might have my edu
cation under so excellent and complete a divine, it
might be both a nearer and easier way to his pur
posed end, than by an academical institution. The
motion sounded well in my father's ears, and carried
fair probabilities; neither was it other than fore-com
pacted betwixt my schoolmaster and Mr. Pelset, so
as, on both sides, it was entertained with great for
wardness. The gentleman, upon essay taken of my
fitness for the use of his studies, undertakes within
one seven years to send me forth, no less furnished
with arts, languages, and grounds of theoretical
divinity, than the carefullest tutor in the strictest
college of either university. Which that he might
assuredly perform, to prevent the danger of any
mutable thoughts in my parents or myself, he desired
mutual bonds to be drawn between us." The
argument of twelve children to provide for made his
father yield to so likely a project for a younger son ;
accordingly, before long the indentures were pre
paring, the time was set, and the boy's suits
were addressed for the journey.
It has been said that there is no evidence to show

life of Joseph hall, d.d.

that Hall's mind when a young man was " orderly."
If by this word be meant moral order, the statement
is certainly wrong. At the age of fifteen, which he-
has now reached, he displays that spiritual temper
and that trust in Divine guidance which afterwards
became so conspicuous in him. " What was the
issue?" he asks. "O God, Thy Providence made and
found it. Thou knowest how sincerely and heartily,
in those my young years, I did cast myself upon Thy
hands ; with what faithful resolution I did, in this
particular occasion, resign myself over to Thy dis
position : earnestly begging of Thee in my fervent
prayers to order all things to the best, and confi
dently waiting upon Thy will for the event. Cer
tainly, never did I, in all my life, more clearly roll
myself upon the Divine providence than I did in
this business. And it succeeded accordingly."
How it came about that after all he did go to
Cambridge is thus told. " It fell out at this time
that my elder brother, having some occasions to
journey into Cambridge, was kindly entertained
there by Mr. Nathanael Gilby, Fellow of Emmanuel
College ; who, for that he was born in the same
town with me, and had conceived some good opinion
of my aptness to learning, enquired diligently con
cerning me, and hearing of the diversion of my
father's purposes from the University, importunately
dissuaded from that new course, professing to pity
the loss of so good hopes. My brother, partly
moved with his words, and partly won by his own
eyes to a great love and reverence for an academical
life, returning home, fell upon his knees to my
father; and after the report of Mr. Gilby's words and
his own admiration of the place, earnestly besought

BIRTH AND SCHOOL.

him, that he would be pleased to alter that so pre
judicial resolution, that he would not suffer my
hopes to be drowned in a shallow country channel ;
but that he would revive his first purposes for Cam
bridge ; adding, in the zeal of his love, that if the
chargeableness of that course were the hindrance,
he did there humbly beseech him, rather to sell
some part of that land, which himself should in
course of nature inherit, than to abridge me of that
happy means to perfect my education. No sooner
had he spoken those words, than my father no less
passionately condescended ; not without a vehement
protestation, that, whatsoever it might cost him,
I should, God willing, be sent to the University.
Neither were those words sooner out of his lips, than
there was a message from Mr. Pelset knocking at
the door, to call me to that fairer bondage ; signify
ing, that the next day he expected me, with a full
despatch of that business; to whom my father
replied, that he came some minutes too late, that he
had now otherwise determined of me ; and, with a
respectful message of thanks to the master, sent the
man home empty, leaving me full of the tears of joy
for so happy a change. Indeed I had been but lost,
if that project had succeeded ; as it well appeared in
the experience of him who succeeded in that room,
which was by me thus unexpectedly forsaken. O
God, how was I then taken up, with a thankful
acknowledgment and joyful admiration of Thy
gracious providence over me ! " We may well
share his joy and gratitude, and unite in admiration
not only of the Providence which gave this happy
issue, but also of the generous spirit of the elder
brother, and the reasonable temper of the father

io LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
willing to accept and act upon the intercession of
his son, even at the cost of alteration of plans and
expenditure of money which he could ill afford.
And now Hall lived in the expectation of Cam
bridge.

CHAPTER II.
NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD.— EM
MANUEL COLLEGE.— SCHOLAR— B.A.— M.A.
BEFORE we proceed to the details of Hall's
career at Cambridge, it may perhaps be well to
take a brief survey of the life of the nation during
the years of his boyhood, and all the more because
the college of which he became a distinguished
member was the direct product of the forces then
at work.
It was a time of gallant deeds, romantic en
terprises, and atrocious crimes. Raleigh, though
doomed to failure in his own attempt, had planted
our first colony on the shores of Virginia, and so led
the van in what afterwards became the magnificent
crusade of world-wide colonisation. Our navy was
beginning to acquire the splendid fame which it has
never since lost. Francis Drake, when Hall was a
child just out of arms, had assailed the Spaniards in
their far-off western possessions, and after taking a
rich booty had returned to England by the Cape
of Good Hope. Thus he was the first Englishman
to sail round the globe, and, more fortunate than
Magellan, who died during his attempt, the first
commander-in-chief. His valour had been rewarded
by the presence of Elizabeth at a banquet on board
the Admiral's ship. Later, with a fleet of twenty

14 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D. ,
sail, he had carried the war to the West Indies, and
only a year before Hall went up to Cambridge, the
same brave sailor had displayed no less strategy than
courage in putting to the rout the Invincible Armada.
A boy of so religious a temperament as Hall must
have been much impressed by hearing the struggle
described as not merely for national honour, but
for the existence of the Protestant faith. In his
sermon on " The Defeat of Cruelty " he speaks of
the deliverance in these terms : " What is it that
made us so happily successful in '88, beyond all hope,
beyond all conceit, but the fervency of our humble
devotions ? That invincible navy came on dreadfully ;
floating like a moving wood in the sight of our coast ;
those vast vessels were as so many lofty castles
raised on those liquid foundations ; then straight, as
if those huge bottoms had been stuft with tempests,
there was nothing but thunder, and lightning, and
smoke, and all the terrible apparitions of death. We,
what did we ? we fought upon our knees, both prince
and people. Straight, God fought for us from
heaven. Our prayers were the gale, yea the gust,
that tore those mis-consecrated flags and sails, and
scattered and drenched those presumptuous piles,
and sent them into the bottom of the deep, to be a
parlour for whales and sea-monsters. There lay the
pride of Spain, the terror of England." Sir Philip
Sidney, too, had fascinated the imagination of his
contemporaries no less than Drake, and, by resigning
his bottle of water to the dying soldier beneath the
walls of Zutphen, when he himself, parched with
thirst, was at the point to die, had proved himself as
much a mirror of Christian chivalry as a pattern of
courtly grace. Elizabeth, at the zenith of her power,

NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD. 13

was inspiring the heads and hearts of those around
her with ambitious dreams, and dallying now with
Anjou, now with Leicester, now with Essex, yet never
forgot to subject her passions to her patriotism.
Another queen, far fairer, of whom it is hard to think
without a sigh, and almost a tear, was languishing in
a prison, but even there could lead men spellbound
to perilous attempts or certain death. Anthony
Babington and his associates expiated their mis
placed devotion with their lives, and the Queen
of Scots, in 1587, also perished upon the scaffold.
England had thrilled with horror at the Massacre of
St. Bartholomew two years before Hall's birth, and
the memory of that crime had been perpetuated by
the medal struck by Gregory XIII., and the Te Deum
sung to celebrate the butchery of ten thousand
Protestant victims. In our own land, too, fanaticism
had showed its bloody hand when Birchett, " moved
by the Spirit of God," attempted in the open street
to murder Mr. Hatton, afterwards Lord Chancellor,
because he was supposed to be an enemy of God's
Word, and a maintainer of papistry. Before long
the assassin's dagger had been more successful with
the Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinal, and
Henry III., who caused their assassination, had him
self met a similar fate at the hand of the friar,
Jacques Clement.
Puritanism during these years had been rapidly
unfolding itself, and moving onwards to its final
development. Bishop Cooper, in his "Admonition
to the People of England," published in the year
1589, thus summarises the progress of the move
ment. " At the beginning some learned and godly
preachers, for private respects in themselves, made

14 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
strange to wear the surplice, cap, or tippet ; but yet
so that they declared themselves to think the thing
indifferent, and not to judge evil of such as did use
them. Shortly after rose up others, defending that
they were not things indifferent, but distained with
antichristian idolatry, and therefore not to be
suffered in the Church. Not long after came
another sort, affirming that those matters touching
apparel were but trifles, and not worthy contention
in the Church, but that there were greater things ,
far, of more weight and importance, and indeed
touching faith and religion, and therefore meet to
be altered in a Church rightly reformed ; as the
book of Common Prayer, the administration of the
sacraments, the government of the Church, the
election of ministers, and a number of other like.
Fourthly, now break out another sort, earnestly
affirming and teaching, that we have no Church,
no bishops, no ministers, no sacraments ; and
therefore that all that love Jesus Christ ought with
all speed to separate themselves from our con
gregations, because our assemblies are profane,
wicked, and anti-Christian. Thus have ye heard
of four degrees for the overthrow of the state of
the Church of England. Now lastly of all come
in these men . that make their whole direption
against the living of bishops and other ecclesiastical
ministers ; that they should have no temporal lands
or jurisdiction." In 1576 Grindal succeeded Parker
as Primate, and how persistently obtrusive Puri
tanism had become, and how dangerous it appeared,
is evidenced by the struggle between the Queen and
the Primate respecting the exercises called " pro-
phesyings." These, which were originally intended

NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD. 15
to be expositions and discussions of passages of
Holy Scripture for the improvement of the clergy,
had become a means of attacking the established
religion, and of venting all kinds of erroneous
doctrines. Grindal could not see his way to obey
the Queen's command and stop them ; he even had
the courage, then rare, to beg her Majesty in things
spiritual to be guided by her spiritual advisers ; but
had he been firmer in resisting Puritan aggression,
he would have spared the country the sight of its
Primate suspended, and would have left an easier
task for Whitgift. As it was, his neglect of disci
pline did no good. In 1 576 the first Nonconformist
congregation assembled in Plummer's Hall. In
1580, the Book of Discipline, which had been drawn
up by Cartwright and Travers on the model of
Calvin, was recognized as the Puritan standard.
In 1582, the Classis was formed, a systematic
attempt by parochial councils, provincial synods,
and even a national synod to fill the pulpits with
men of the new opinions, whose consciences were,
in respect of disputed points, to be in the keeping
of those by whom they were selected for the
ministry. Their true ordination was supposed to
be through the Classis, but they were allowed to
apply to the bishop for the legal rite. It is not
surprising that many rejoiced in the title of " no
sacrament ministers," and that a letter of the
Council was deemed necessary to force those who
refused to celebrate the Communion to perform
their priestly functions. The vigorous administra
tion of Whitgift soon turned the tide for at least
some time. In 1583, he was appointed Archbishop
of Canterbury and before the end of 1 584 a reaction

16 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
against Puritanism had set in. His subscription
test, by which he required the loyal acknowledgment
of the Supremacy, the Book of Common Prayer,
and the Thirty-nine Articles, though hotly opposed,
and met by a determined effort in 1584 to obtain
a parliamentary status for the Discipline, was suc
cessful. His elevation to the Council in 1586
secured his position, and henceforth, to the end of
Elizabeth's reign, he had the command of his
opponents. The Mar-prelate libels of 1588, with
their scurrilous and profligate abuse, were but the
expression of an impotent section of the party,
who could not away with the patient and wiser
policy of some of their brethren to " tarry for the
magistrate." The effect was a widespread disgust
at those who could wield such filthy weapons.
The Romanists, too, and especially their Jesuit
agents, were no less energetic. As far back as
1568, Dr. Allen had founded the English College
at Douay, and within five years had sent nearly a
hundred missionaries into England. On the 27th
of April, 1570, Pope Pius V. had issued his bull
of excommunication against Elizabeth, "ad quam
veluti ad asylum omnium infestissimi profugium
invenerunt," and in the spring of the following
year Felton affixed it to the gates of the Bishop of
London's palace. This Pope expressed himself
willing to, shed his blood if only England could be
brought back to the faith, and his ardour was fully
shared by Gregory XIII., who in 1572 followed him
on the papal throne. He hoped to unite Don John
of Austria with Philip II. of Spain in a campaign
against this renegade country ; but this grand con
ception dwindled down to the attempt made upon

NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD. 17
Ireland under the leadership of the Irish refugee
Geraldine, with the ships and money furnished at
the Pope's expense, and with the aid of a contribu
tion from the King of Spain. The adventurer lost
his life, and after revolting cruelties perpetrated by
the Protestants, English colonists took possession of
the devastated province of Munster. The Pope,
however, was resolute in his aim, and looked about
for other methods. In 1579 he founded the English
Jesuit College at Rome, and all who studied within
its walls were pledged to return to England and there
labour for the restoration of the old faith. It was in
1580 that Parsons and Campion arrived at the head
of a mission, and, after reaching London, commenced
their work, the one in the northern, the other in the
southern counties. They were to publish books,
send emissaries throughout the kingdom, and do all
in their power to rouse the people from the passive
attitude they maintained, during at least the first
fifteen years of Elizabeth's reign, to an active resist
ance to the Protestant regime, and induce them to
give effect to the bull of Pius V. Ranke* thus
vividly describes the success they experienced :
"They usually took up their abode in the dwellings
of the Catholic nobles. Their coming was always
announced, but the precaution was constantly taken
of receiving them as strangers. A chapel had mean
while been prepared in the most retired part of the
house, into which they were conducted, and where
the members of the family were assembled to receive
their benediction. The missionary rarely prolonged
his stay beyond one night. The evening of his
* Popes, I. p. 458.

18 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
arrival was employed in religious preparations and
confession ; on the following morning, mass was read,
the sacrament administered, and a sermon preached.
All the Catholics who were in the neighbourhood
attended, and the number was sometimes very great.
The religion that for nine hundred years had ruled
supreme over the island, was thus once more incul
cated with the added charm of mystery and novelty.
Secret synods were held, a printing-press was set up,
first in a village near London, and afterwards in a
lonely house in a neighbouring wood ; Catholic books
once more appeared, written with all the readiness
and ability derived from constant practice in con
troversy, and sometimes with much elegance ; the
impression these works produced was strengthened by
the impenetrable secrecy of their origin. The imme
diate result of these proceedings was, that the Catho
lics ceased to attend the Protestant service, and to
observe the ecclesiastical edicts of the Queen ; and
that the opposite party insisted on their opinions
with increased violence, while persecution became
more severe and oppressive." Campion and others
were executed December i st, 1581. Parsons escaped
to the Continent. The Jesuit plotters, however, were
by no means extinguished ; Church and State alike
were menaced by their machinations : their theories
of government were well known ; and Burleigh's
tract, " Execution of Justice in England for Treason
and not for Religion," would seem to be the approxi
mate expression of the truth. At Ashby, with its
Calvinistic " bishop," the Jesuits and their doings could
not fail to be a subject of engrossing interest ; and
Hall's mind may very early have been tinctured with
that antipathy which led him afterwards to describe

NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD. 19
an English Jesuit as the most venomous of his
kind. A good insight into the inner life of the Church
is afforded by the visitation articles of inquiry
issued by the bishops, fixing, as they do, what was
requisite and necessary, and at the same time indi
cating those points wherein deficiencies still existed.
A visitor to a representative church in the first
decade of Hall's life would have seen, amongst other
things, specially the Book of Common Prayer with
Parker's new Kalender, a Psalter, the English Bible
in the largest volume, the two tomes of the Homilies,
the Paraphrases of Erasmus translated into English,
the table of the Ten Commandments, a convenient
pulpit well placed, a comely and decent table stand
ing on a frame for the Holy Communion, with a fair
linen cloth to lay upon the same, and some covering,
of silk, buckram, or other such like, for the clean
keeping thereof; a fair and comely Communion cup
of silver, and a cover of silver for the same, which
might serve also for the ministration of the Commu
nion bread; a decent large surplice with sleeves, to
say nothing of a sure coffer, with two locks and keys,
for the keeping of the register book, and a strong
chest or box for the alms of the poor, with three locks
and keys to the same. The Communion table would
have been full of interest, for it was expected that
all altars should be utterly taken down and clean
removed, even unto the foundation, and the place
where they stood paved, and the wall whereunto
they joined whited over, and made uniform with the ,
rest, so that no breach or rupture should appear.
A change, too, would have been found to have come
over the rood-loft ; the cross beam alone was left.

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

Instead of the crucifix some convenient crest would
have been put upon the same. No old service-
books would have been seen, or if they were stowed
away in some dusty corner, they would be defaced,
rent, and well-nigh abolished. The vestments, albs,
tunicles, stoles, phanons, pixes, panes, handbells,
sacring bells, censers, chrismatories, crosses, candle
sticks, holy-water stocks, and images, would be
utterly defaced, broken, and destroyed, since these
were regarded as relics and monuments of super
stition and idolatry. The parson, vicar, curate, or
minister would not dare to wear a cope in his parish
church, for the Advertisements had long since
restricted the use of that vestment as a minimum for
the Cathedral, and had allowed him in the same
regard the use of a goodly surplice. Nor would he
venture to minister the holy communion in any
chalice heretofore used at mass, or in any profane
cup or glass, or to indulge in any gestures, rites, or
ceremonies not appointed by the Book of Common
Prayer, as crossing or breathing over the sacramental
bread and wine, or showing the same to the people
to be worshipped and adored, or any such like, or to
use any oil and chrism, tapers, spattle, or any other
popish ceremony in the ministration of the sacrament
of baptism. The new calendar would be closely
followed. And at that well-ordered church there
would be no ringing or tolling of bells to call the
people together upon the abrogated holy days or
fasting days, more than upon the ordinary work
days. The passing bell, however, would be tolled
when a parishioner was passing out of this life, to
move the people to pray for the sick person ; and
when the sick person had passed away one short

NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD. 21
peal might be rung before the burial and another
short peal after it. More than this was superfluous
and superstitious. On All Saints' Day, after evening
prayer, the bells in the steeple would not speak forth
as heretofore, that being supposed to tend to the
maintenance of purgatory, or of prayer for the dead.
One bell might be rung or tolled in convenient time
before the sermon on Sundays and holy days, but the
sweet music which once told the people far and wide
that to-morrow a hero of the Church would be com
memorated was a thing of the past, wherein was
excess. Great stress would be laid upon catechising.
The names of all children, apprentices, and servants
of both sexes, being above seven years of age and
under twenty, would be known to the good parish
priest, who every Sunday and holy day would dili
gently, for half-an-hour at the least, before or at the
evening prayer, instruct them in the Ten Command
ments, the Articles of the Belief, the Lord's Prayer,
and the Catechism as it was then allowed and set
forth. This was very important, since none could
be admitted to Holy Communion who could not if
under fourteen say by Jieart the Creed, the Lord's
Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, or if above
that age and under twenty, the Catechism as well ;
nor was marriage so easy as at the present day.
None might be married who could not say the
Catechism. In the parish we are supposing, the incumbent
would be resident, and would dwell continually upon
his benefice, doing his duty in preaching, reading,
and ministering the sacraments, keeping hospitality
as far as his means would allow, and having his
house and chancel well repaired and upholden.

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

If absent from his benefice, no rude and unlearned
person would be found in charge, but an honest
and well-learned expert curate, who could and
would teach the people wholesome doctrine ; he
would also see that at least one-fortieth of the fruits
of his benefice was distributed among the poor.
Neither incumbent nor curate would think himself
well equipped for his work, if under the degree of
a Master of Arts, unless he had of his own at the
least the New Testament both in English and
Latjn ; nor would his conscience be at rest, unless
every day with good advisement he conferred one
chapter of the Latin and English together at the
least, and in due season gave account thereof to
the bishop or the bishop's representative. He
would be neither a preacher of corrupt and popish
doctrine, nor a maintainer of sectaries, like too
many around him, dispraising the Book of Common
Prayer, and favouring secret conventicles, preachings,
lectures, or readings contrary to the law. He would
keep a sharp look-out after popish priests, either
going as priests, or disguised in other apparel,
resorting secretly or openly into his parish, and
would find out by whom they were received,
harboured, and relieved. Many of his brethren
were hunters, hawkers, dicers, carders, tablers,
swearers. Of course he would be none of these,
but would find his pleasure in reading or hearing
some part of the Holy Scripture, or other good
author, or in some other godly or laudable exercise,
meet for his vocation. Some of them turned the
parsonage into the alehouse, tippling-house, or
tavern, and sold ale, beer, wine, or victuals. He
would be far from this. A part of his duty, which

NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD. 23
he would certainly not omit, would be, every Sunday,
after reading the second lesson at morning and
evening prayer, to admonish the churchwardens and
sidesmen to look to their charge in observing and
noting such as absented themselves from Divine
service, or behaved irreverently thereat. Even these
responsible officers sometimes, when they should
have been at church observing others that were
absent, were themselves away at home, or, shocking
to relate ! in some tavern or alehouse, or else about
some worldly business, or at bowls, cards, tables, or
other gaming, without regard of their office and
duty. Much more the people. They were in the
habit of coming very late to church, and' there
walking, talking, and otherwise irreverently behaving
themselves ; or they might be seen sitting in the
streets or churchyard in the time of common prayer.
By a statute made in the first year pi Elizabeth's
reign, there was a forfeiture of twelve pence for
every such offence, and the wardens were expected
to rigorously exact the same and put it to the use
of the poor. Fairs, too, and common markets might
fall upon the Sunday, and the irreligious in their
love of filthy lucre were prone to use the church
yards and show their wares before morning service
was over. Occasionally there was as little regard
for the inside as for the outside of the sacred
building. Lords of misrule, summer lords and
ladies, disguised persons or others, in Christmas or
at May-games, or morris-dancers, would come
irreverently into the church, or chapel, or church
yard, and there dance, or play unseemly parts with
scoffs, jests, wanton gestures, or ribald talk, in the
time of Divine service. Stubbs, in his "Anatomie

24 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
of Abuses" (a.d. 1595), thus speaks of their
practice : — " The wilde heades of the parish, flocking
together, chusethem a graund captaine of mischiefe,
whom they innoble with the title of my Lord of
Misrule. ... In this sorte they go to the church
(though the minister be at prayer or preaching),
dauncing and swinging their handkerchiefs over
their heads like devils incarnate, with such a con
fused noise that no man can heare his owne voyce.
Then the foolish people, they looke, they stare,
they laugh, they fleere, and mount upon formes
and pewes to see these goodly pageants solemnised
in this sort. Then after this, aboute the church
they go againe and againe, and so fourthe into the
churcheyard, where they have commonly their
summer-halls, their bowers, arbours, and banquetting
houses . . . and thus they spend the Sabbath Day."
What with all this, the popish recusants, the Non
conformist sectaries, the insinuating schoolmasters,
the users of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, charms, or
unlawful prayers or invocations in Latin, or other
wise, in particular mid wives, whose opportunities
for mischief were shrewdly suspected, a clergyman
in those days must have had as many calls upon
his time and led nearly as busy a life as the head
of a large town parish at the present day.
We have deviated from the direct line of the
memoir in hand, but it comes within the scope of
the author's intention to give as far as practic
able some account of the contemporary history of
our country. The reader will perhaps therefore
pardon the digression, and all the more because
every man is more or less moulded by circumstances,
and is the child of the times in which he is born.

NATIONAL LIFE DURING HALL'S BOYHOOD. 25
Let us now revert to the university of which Hall
was on the point of becoming a member, and briefly
trace the course of events during the few years
immediately preceding the date of his matriculation,
for the most part taking as our guide Mr. Bass
Mullinger's admirable history of Cambridge. Puri
tanism was growing stronger, and, but for Baro, Lady
Margaret Professor of Divinity (1574-96), would
have had nearly undisputed sway. He maintained
the theses that the first love of God is of the nature
of justifying faith, that justifying faith is enjoined in
the Decalogue, — positions which involved him in a
controversy with Chaderton in the year 1 5 8 1 . The
latter denounced them in a public meeting, or in a
sermon, whereupon he was cited by Baro before the
Vice-Chancellor. The dispute was less acrimonious
than, unfortunately, was too often the case, and it is
much to the credit of both that Chaderton could
speak of his opponent as a man for whom he cer
tainly entertained a great affection. Fourteen years
after this Baro was to resume the attack on Calvinism,
and that time to pay for his devotion to truth with
banishment from the home and office of two-and-
twenty years. In 1582 Beza presented to the Uni
versity a polyglot Pentateuch, printed at Constan
tinople, together with the famous Codex Bezae, and
was thanked, we are told, by the public orator in
terms which made the authority of the Calvinistic
professor only second to that of Scripture itself. In
1584 the Discipline, the product of the joint labour
of Thomas Cartwright and Walter Travers, was
printed anew at Cambridge. Both were well known
in the University, Cartwright having been appointed
Margaret Professor in 1570, and having used his

26 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
point of vantage for discrediting Episcopacy, for
which grave misdemeanour he had been deprived of
his professorship and fellowship, and expelled from
his alma mater ; while Travers, as Fellow of Trinity and
B.D., had made himself almost as conspicuous by
disdaining our orders and being " called to the minis
try " by a congregation at Antwerp. He was des
tined for further notoriety through the inglorious
defeat he sustained at the hands of Hooker. The
university press was directed by its superintendent to
controversial ends, Thomas Thomas, who was desig
nated by Martin Marprelate the " Cambridge Puritan
printer," publishing in 1586 a translation of the
Harmonia Confessionum Fidei, an attempt to show,
with how much success may be imagined, that
Luther and Calvin were essentially at one in their
teaching. But perhaps nothing more clearly indicates
the tendency of events than the sermon preached
the same year at Great St. Mary's by John Smith
of Christ's. It appears that at that time plays were
performed even on Sunday evenings, a practice
which was sternly denounced by the preacher. It is
true that he was cited for his temerity before the
deputy Vice- Chancellor and other Heads, and was
constrained to offer explanations. Public opinion,
however, as to Sabbath observance, had been much
influenced by " Mr. Greenham, his Book of the
Sabbath," of which Fuller says no book in that age
made greater impression on people's practice. He died
three years after Hall entered at Emmanuel. The
following ode describes both author and book : —
" While Greenham writeth ofthe Sabbath's rest,
His soul enjoys not what his pen express'd:
His work enjoys not what itself doth say,

EMMANUEL COLLEGE. 27
For it shall never find one resting day ;
A thousand hands shall toss each page and line,
Which shall be scanned by a thousand eine,
That Sabbath's rest, or this Sabbath's unrest,
Hard is to say whether's the happiest." J. Hall.
In 1586-7 Whitaker became head of John's. He
and Chaderton, the first head of Emmanuel, had
married sisters, and both favoured the Puritan rather
than the Anglican party, not only in doctrine, but
also in discipline. His attempt to expel one of the
Fellows, Everard Digby, who had the courage to
denounce Calvinists as schismatics, indicates his real
opinions. Secret meetings were held at the College,
when Cartwright occasionally stole up and sat in
conclave with the master, Chaderton, and Fulk, the
rancorous disputant and Head of Pembroke. Some
times Travers, Greenham, and Perkins, whom, accord
ing to Fuller, all held for a prophet, might be seen
there. This last was a Fellow of Christ's, and a
preacher at St. Andrew's. " He would pronounce
the word damn with such an emphasis as left a
doleful echo in his auditor's ears, and when Catechist
of Christ's College, in expounding the Command
ments, applied them so home,, able almost to make
his hearers' hearts fall down, and hairs stand up
right." Notwithstanding this, it is gratifying to learn
that he was of a " cheerful nature and pleasant
disposition." The great subject at these meetings
was the Discipline, which was talked over, revised,
corrected, and finally adopted as the true account of
the Christian Church. The very year in which Hall
went up to the University, a general meeting of the
brethren was held at St. John's, Cartwright and others

28 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D. ,
present, wherein it was agreed that so many as would
should subscribe the said book.
It is with Emmanuel College, however, that we
are more particularly concerned, since there Hall
spent the next twelve or thirteen years of his life,
and that foundation was the expression in stone and
timber of what elsewhere manifested itself in paper
and ink — it was the recognised academic centre of
Puritanism, to which it was in Cambridge what
Keble College is intended to be to Anglicanism at
Oxford* Side by side with the movement for the abolition
of our discipline another was advancing, a few
years before the date at which we have arrived,
which was well calculated to utterly change the
character of the Universities. In the Session of
1584-5, a paper of sixteen petitions had been drawn
up by the House of Commons, and presented to the
House of Lords. Amongst the most noteworthy of
these, was one requesting that "Where in certain
Colleges, and Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, the
foundation or statutes require such as are there
placed to be ministers, it shall be lawful for such
as are known to profess the study of divinity, or
otherwise be lawfully dispensed withal, to retain any
fellowship or prebend within the said Colleges,
notwithstanding they be no ministers." This was
only to renew an attempt which two or three
years previously had been made to introduce the
principle of the endowment of theological research.
* For much interesting information respecting Emmanuel,
I am indebted to Mr. E. S. Shuckburgh, M.A., late one of its
Fellows, whose kindness I have also acknowledged in the
preface.

EMMANUEL COLLEGE. 29
" The aim," says Mr. Mullinger, "of the petitioners
would seem to have been to encourage the study of
divinity as a recognised pursuit among the senior
members of the University, and thus to form within
its precincts a body of sound and well-read divines,
whose studious leisure should be unbroken by duties
eitJier of pulpit or the cure!' The change, however,
would have tended more to the advancement of con
troversy and contentiousness, than of any solid gain
to the Church, and the bishops were not slow to
resist the innovation. The proposition was met by
seventeen counter-objections. To admit the change
would be, it was urged, to overthrow the statutes of
almost all the Colleges in Cambridge and Oxford,
seeing that they had been founded principally for the
study of divinity, and to deprive the Church of
England - of the worthiest, best learned, and wisest
ministers and preachers, for though there were divers
who could preach, etc., yet they had no substance of
learning in them, neither were they able to stand
with the adversary, either in pulpit or disputation ; a
thing as well required in a minister as exhortation.
At that time there were in the University of
Cambridge a hundred preachers at the least, very
worthy men, and not many less in the University of
Oxford. The number was daily increasing ; but if
this might take place, the bishops ventured to
predict there would not be five ministers in either
of them. Everyone, to keep the comfortable places
provided by the Colleges, would openly profess the
study of divinity, and secretly study the one law or
the other, or physic, or some trifling study all his life
long, and so a layman would live idly on the spoil of
the Church except he taught a benefice. Preaching

30 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
would decay. A beggarly, unlearned, and contempt
ible clergy would be bred. A great confusion in
the Church and commonwealth would result. In
short, it was a piece of T. C, his platform, and
covertly a shove at the Gospel, to place the lawyers
and others as they pleased.
The profound distrust displayed by the bishops
was, curiously enough, shared by some of the dis
tinguished leaders of the Puritans themselves, amongst
them by Walter Mildmay, who, knighted in the first
year of Edward VI., had afterwards become Chan
cellor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth, and was
the founder of the family of the Earls of Westmore
land. To him belongs also the honour of being the
founder of Emmanuel College. An ardent Protestant,
and anxious to promote his faith in every possible
way, the idea occurred to him that he would do this
with effect were he to establish a College at Cam
bridge, for the express object of training for the
ministry. Accordingly, on January iith, 1583-4,
the charter for Emmanuel was given, and, before long,
there rose, on the site of a house once occupied by
Preaching Friars, a house for the fiercest assailants
of the creed so long there confessed. " And the
manner in which the remains of the ancient buildings
were adapted to the purpose, seems designed to
express the animus of the foundation. The chapel
was converted into the hall and parlour ; the fireplace
round which the Fellows sat being on the spot once
occupied by the high altar. The refectory was
turned into a chapel, facing, as was observed, north
and south." No wonder that when Sir Walter came
soon after to court, the Queen said, " Sir Walter,
I hear you have erected a Puritan foundation ; " nor

EMMANUEL COLLEGE. %\

that with much discretion he replied, " No, Madam,
far be it from me to countenance anything contrary
to your established laws ; but I have set an acorn
which, when it becomes an oak, God alone knows
what will be the fruit thereof." Elsewhere he says,
" We have founded the College, with the design that
it should be, by the grace of God, a seminary of
learned men for the supply of the Church, and for the
sending forth of as large a number as possible of
those who shall instruct the people in the Christian
faith. We would not have any Fellow suppose that
we have given him in this College a perpetual abode."
To secure these ends, the important statute De mora
sociorum was framed, whereby every Fellow was
requierd to vacate his fellowship within a year of
taking his degree. The College soon attracted
many whose names are famous in the annals of
nonconformity, and gave to the New World John
Harvard, the founder of Harvard College. The
acorn grew, and at the time of the Commonwealth
became a tree overshadowing all Cambridge.
BradshaWj President of the court which condemned
Charles I., Cromwell's son Henry, and Sir Philip
Meadows, one of his Latin secretaries, were educated
there, and no less than eleven other colleges were
ruled by masters who had come from thence.
The first master was Laurence Chaderton, who
had been an intimate friend of Mildmay's at Christ's,
and for seventeen years preceding his appointment
had lectured at St. Clement's. He, it will be re
membered, was one of the Puritan divines at the
Hampton Court Conference, where he conducted
himself so decorously that King James chose him
as one of the revisers of the Bible. He was a man

32 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
of learning and piety, and during his long master
ship of thirty-nine years devoted himself to his
charge with no interest save that which springs from
unselfish affection. He was a diligent commentator,
and acquired a reputation as a preacher, being
endowed not only with intellectual power, but with
a voice very clear and pleasing and of astonishing
flexibility, great dignity of manner, and propriety
of action. His success at times appears to have
been marked. " Once in a town not far from
Manchester (Oldham was his birthplace) he under
took to officiate, and in a short time, by the Divine
help, he wrought such a change that more than
ten pints of wine was wanted at the next celebration,
whereas only one had before been sufficient. At
another place, having once preached for two hours,
he said that he 'had tired his hearers' patience and
would leave off ; upon which the whole congregation
cried out : ' For God's sake, Sir, go on, we beg you
' — go on ! ' He accordingly continued the thread of
his discourse for another hour, to the great pleasure
and delight of his hearers." With such an example
at the head of the college, all the more striking
because up to this time preaching was rare in the
university, Hall could not fail to have his thoughts
directed to the sphere in which he himself laboured
with so much diligence and success.
From the first the College set academic usage at
defiance, using its own form of religious service, and
discarding surplices and hoods, both at morning and
evening prayer, and at the celebration of the Lord's
Supper. There was a careless disregard even of the
cap and gown, and suppers were given on Fridays.
Perhaps it was for these reasons that until 1650

EMMANUEL COLLEGE. 33
Emmanuel was not placed upon the same footing as
the other colleges, and admitted to the cycle for
the nomination of proctors, etc. Hall, early in his
career, in his letter to Wadsworth describes it in
enthusiastic terr^ : " Was not your youth spent in a
society of such comely order, strict government, wise
laws, religious care (it was ours, yet let me praise
it to your shame) as may justly challenge, after all
brags, either Rhemes or Douay, or if your Jesuits
have any other den more cleanly or more worthy
of ostentation ; " and in the retrospect of a long life
could speak of it as strict and well ordered. This is
not of necessity inconsistent with the ritual irregu
larities already mentioned, which eventually became
a subject of scandal, and, as being a practical ex
emplification of the principles of the Disciplina,
called forth a formal protest at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. The following account of the
mode of reception at Holy Communion vividly
illustrates, due allowance being made for the evident
exaggeration, the tone ofthe College. "InEmmanual
College they receive the Holy Sacrament, sittinge
upon forms about the Communion table, and doe
pull the loafe one from the other, after the minister
hath begon. And soe the Cupp, one drinking as
it were to another, like good fellows, without any
particular application of the saide words, more than
once for all."
Such was the society of which Hall became a-
member, and it is hard to forbear the expression of
our admiration for the independence of mind and
liberality of thought which enabled him, amid
storms of controversy, gradually to take his stand
as far from Geneva on the one side as from Rome
3

34 LIEF OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
on the other. Thanks to Mr. Mullinger, we are
able to form a fair idea of the undergraduate life
of the time. The boy fresh from the small country
town would share in the pride and exultation with
which Peter Baro in 1588, preaching before the
University, spoke of her stately buildings and ample
revenues, of the combination of external splendour
with internal comfort and luxury presented by her
colleges, though at first he himself would not enjoy
either comfort or luxury. The colleges were over
crowded, and each student shared a single room
with three, or, at least, two other occupants. It was
only on attaining the rank of a Fellow that a
collegian had a room to himself. The great majority
of his fellow-students belonged to the humbler
classes. The ideal undergraduate was a beautiful
object, seldom, it is said, met with in real life. " He
was a decorous, modest, soberly attired youth, who
made his college his habitual home. Whenever he
issued forth beyond its gates, it was only with the
express permission of his tutor or the dean. Unless
it devolved upon him as a sizar or poor scholar to
perform some menial errand for a superior, he was
always accompanied by a fellow collegian (Cholmley
would be Hall's companion). He wore his academic
gown, reaching to his ankles, and unless a scholar
a round cloth cap " (Hall, coming from Emmanuel,
would be a notable exception). " He loitered neither
in the market-place nor in the streets, and shunned
alike the lodging-house and the tavern. He attended
no cock-fights, no baitings of bears or of bulls,
no fencing matches ; the popular and apparently
innocent diversion of quoits could not attract him,
neither as a player nor even as a spectator. He

EMMANUEL COLLEGE. 35
neither bathed nor boated. At the early morning
service at five o'clock, and again in the evening, he
was regularly to be seen in his place in the college
chapel. On Sundays, feast-days, and Eves, he wore
a shining surplice, and although the garment was
then five times more costly than at the present day,
no narrowness of means could prevent him from pos
sessing it in due newness and cleanness." (Here again
Hall would certainly not reach the standard). " Not
less assiduous would be his attendance on the public
lectures in the schools specially designed to assist
him in his undergraduate course of study — a patient
attentive auditor from the commencement of each
lecture to its close. His common places in the college'
chapel and his public ' acts ' were regularly and
carefully performed without flippancy, personalities,
or paradox. At Christmas, amid the licence per
mitted even by statute at that festive season, he
might venture to take a hand at cards, but he
invariably refused to touch the dice-box." As for
his studies, his first year would be given to Rhetoric,
which had taken the place of mathematics ; his
second and third chiefly to Logic, the logic not of
Aristotle but of Ramus, nowhere so influential as at
Cambridge, where, from his known accession to the
ranks of Calvinism, he had the sympathy of the
Puritan party, and an able exponent in the Master
of Emmanuel. History was pursued with but little
intelligence. The languages were comparatively
neglected. Latin of course was indispensable ; for
the last forty years of the century Greek was only
not extinct. Theologians had taken up an attitude
of hostility to the " new learning," and the fruit of
their indiscretion was what might have been

36 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
expected. Hebrew, from the days of Bucer and
Fagius, had not wanted competent teachers, though
Edward Lively (Regius Professor 1575-160 5)
either very rarely lectured, or succeeded in gaining
but few hearers. The staple of the academic
culture was logic and rhetoric, with which the
best students combined some knowledge of the
ethics, physics, and metaphysics of the time ; but
over and above all, pervading all, was Theology,
which, so far from realising its office, was not only
narrow and intolerant, but had the temerity even to
dictate to Physical Science.
Hall had passed two years amid such scenes, and
in pursuing such studies, when circumstances com
pelled him to leave college and return home. His
father, " whose not very large cistern was to feed
many pipes besides his," under the pressure of
small means, and at the suggestion of unwise friends,
had consented to accept for him the post of master-
in his old school at Ashby. Once more Hall's hopes
of academic distinction were on the point of being
crushed. How the disaster was averted he himself
tells : — " Now was I fetched home, with a heavy
heart : and now, this second time, had mine hopes
been nipped in the blossom, had not God raised
trie up an unhoped benefactor, Mr. Edmund Sleigh of
Derby (whose pious memory I have cause ever to love
and reverence), out of no other relation to me, save
that he married my aunt. Pitying my too apparent
dejectedness, he voluntarily urged and solicited my
father for my return to the University, and offered
-freely to contribute the one half of my maintenance
there, till I should attain to the degree of Master of
Arts; which he no less really and lovingly performed.

EMMANUEL COLLEGE. ' 37
The condition was gladly accepted." Hall now
returned with joy to Emmanuel, and, ere long, being
chosen Scholar " of that strict and well ordered
College," his pecuniary embarrassments were relieved.
In 1592 he proceeded to the B.A., and after three
years more was of sufficient standing for the M.A.,
and eligible for a fellowship. How he gained his
fellowship, what he had been doing in the meantime,
and how he occupied himself during the six or seven
years he held it, must be reserved for another
chapter.

CHAPTER III.
FELLOW OF EMMANUEL.— PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC.
—HEAD MASTER OF BLUNDEL'S SCHOOL— THE
OFFER OF HALSTED.—THE SATIRES— ¦" MUNDUS
AL TER ET IDEM."
BY a statute of the College only one of a shire
could be fellow there at a given time, and
Leicestershire was already represented by Mr.
Nicholas Gilby, Hall's tutor. Hall was therefore
excluded, and, the stipulated time for the allowance
from his uncle being about to terminate, he was
now entertaining notions of removal. The gracious
Providence which seemed to keep him in all his
ways was never more Conspicuous than here.
His own account is as follows : — " A place was
offered me in the island of Guernsey, which I had
in speech and chase. It fell out, that the father of my
loving chamber-fellow, Mr. Cholmley, a gentleman
that had likewise dependence upon the most noble
Henry Earl of Huntingdon, having occasion to go
to York, unto that his honourable Lord, fell into
some mention of me. That good Earl, who well
esteemed my father's service, having belikely heard
some better words of me than I could deserve, made
earnest inquiry after me — what were my courses,
what my hopes ; and, hearing of the likelihood of
my removal, professed much dislike of it ; not
without some vehemence, demanding why I was

FELLOW OF EMMANUEL. 39
not chosen Fellow of that College, wherein by report
I received such approbation. Answer was returned
that my county debarred me ; which, being filled
with my tutor, whom his Lordship well knew, could
not by the statute admit a second. The Earl
presently replied, that, if that were the hindrance,
he would soon take order to remove it. Whereupon
his Lordship presently sends for my tutor, Mr. Gilby,
unto York, and with proffers of large conditions of
the chaplainship in his house, and assured promises
of better provisions, drew him to relinquish his place
in the College to a free election. No sooner was
his assent signified, than the days were set for the
public (and, indeed, exquisite) examination of the
competitors. By that time two of the three allotted
to this trial were past, certain news came to us of
the unexpected death of that incomparably religious
and noble Earl of Huntingdon ; by whose loss my
then disappointed tutor must necessarily be left to
the wide world unprovided for. Upon notice
thereof, I presently repaired to the Master of the
College, Mr. Dr. Chaderton ; and besought him to
tender that hard condition to which my good tutor
must needs be driven, if the election proceeded ;
to stay any farther progress in that business ; and
to leave me to my own good hopes wheresoever,
whose youth exposed me to less needs, and more
opportunities of provision. Answer was made me,
that the place was pronounced void, however ; and,
therefore, that my tutor was divested of all possi
bility of remedy, and must wait upon the providence
of God for his disposing elsewhere, and the election
must necessarily proceed the day following. Then
was I, with a cheerful unanimity, chosen into that

40 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
society ; which, if it had any equals, I daresay had
,none beyond it, for good order, studious carriage,
strict government, austere piety ; in which I spent
six or seven years more, with such contentment, as
the rest of my life hath in vain striven to yield."
The lapse of years is wont to soften in recollection
the hardships and discomforts of long ago. We
might therefore suppose that this account of his
frame of mind at Emmanuel had more of fancy
than of fact ; but writing while still at Cambridge
he says : —
" 'Mongst all these stirs of discontented strife,
Oh ! let me lead an academic life.
To know much, and to think we nothing know ;
Nothing to have, yet think we have enow :
In skill to want, and wanting seek for more ;
In weale,.nor want nor wish for greater store.
Envy, ye monarchs, with your proud excess,
At our low sail, and our high happiness.' '
He was now called to public disputations often,
and with no ill success. It may have been at this
time that he became noted in the University for
ingeniously maintaining that mundus senescit, the
world groweth old. "Yet in some sort," says
Fuller, " his position confuteth his position ; the
wit and quickness whereof did argue an increase
rather than a decay of parts in this latter age." It
was his practice never to appear in any of these
exercises of scholarship till he had from his knees
looked up to heaven for a blessing, and renewed
his actual dependence upon the Divine Hand.
His reputation had thus extended beyond the
walls of his college, and his next advancement was
to the post of Rhetoric Lecturer in the public schools,

PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC. 41
which he held for two years. The success which
had hitherto attended him did not now forsake
him ; on the contrary, his lectures drew numerous
auditors and were well applauded. But still the
work was somewhat out of his way ; he was not
altogether at ease in having wandered from the
path marked out for him in life, and in having
neglected to devote himself to the ministry. He
accordingly, " in the midst of those poor acclama
tions," gave up the office to Dr. Dod, and, betaking
himself to the serious study of divinity, after a while
entered holy orders. " The honour whereof having
once attained, I was no niggard of the talent which
my God had entrusted to me, preaching often as
occasion was offered, both in country villages
abroad, and at home in the most awful auditory
of the University."
He was now only waiting for further employment,
and before long, in a way little expected, a door
was opened to him. Just about that time, in the
year 1599, Blundel had built and endowed that
" famous school " at Tiverton, which, connected
with Balliol College, Oxford, and Sydney College,
Cambridge, by scholarships and fellowships, has
given the world many men of mark, among them
Frederick Temple, Bishop of London. The care
of it was entrusted chiefly to Chief Justice Pop-
ham, who having great interest in the Master of
Emmanuel, moved him earnestly to commend some
able, learned, and discreet governor, such as should '
not need so much as his oversight. Dr. Chaderton
recommended Hall, assuring him " of no small
advantages, and no great toil, since it was intended
the main load of the work should lie upon other-

42 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D. '
shoulders." Good offers in the severe society of
Emmanuel came - but seldom, and it was neither
wise nor safe to refuse them. Hall therefore
entertained the offer, not with any intention of
abandoning divinity, to which he had been destined
by his parents, but purposing to pass through that
western school to it. The next step was an intro
duction to the Lord Chief Justice. The Master
and Fellow of Emmanuel travelled together to
London, and there, with much testimony of appro
bation, Hall was presented to Popham, who was
well pleased with the choice, and promised his
full support, and so the interview ended. No
sooner had Hall parted from the Judge than, in
the street, a messenger presented him with a letter
from Lady Drury, tendering the Rectory of Halsted,
then newly void, and very earnestly desiring him
to accept it. Dr. Chaderton observing in him some
change of countenance, asked him what the matter
might be. He explained how matters stood, and
besought his master's advice, at the same time
giving him the letter to read. " Sir," quoth he,
" methinks God pulls me by the sleeve, and tells
me it is His will I should rather go to the east
than to the west." " Nay," answered Chaderton,
" I should rather think that God would have you
to go westward, for that He hath contrived your
engagement before the tender of this letter, which
therefore, coming too late, may receive a fair and
easy answer." Hall, however, saw that God, Who
found him ready to go the farther way about to
the work of the sacred ministry, was now calling
him the nearest and most direct way. His friend
no longer opposed, but only pleaded the offence

THE SATIRES. 43.

which would justly be taken by the Lord Chief
Justice. Hereupon Hall undertook to fully satisfy
him, which he did with no great difficulty, com
mending to his Lordship his old friend and
chamber-fellow, Mr. Cholmley. The nomination
was accepted, and the two who came together to
the University now left it together. Cholmley, for
some reason or other, was not after all appointed
to Blundel's ; Hall, did settle at Halsted, " in that
sweet and civil county of Suffolk, near to St.
Edmond's Bury."
From these outlines of his career at Emmanuel,
in the main as sketched by himself, we should
never have known that he had a claim to be-
ranked among English poets, and that his fame
as a satirist at one time eclipsed the reputation he
gained as a divine. In 1597, when only twenty-
three, he published three books of Toothless Satires,
Poetical, Academical, and Moral.
This volume was followed in 1598 by three books
of Biting Satires, and in 1599 there appeared an
edition of the six books bound up together. Arch
bishop Whitgift and Bishop Bancroft, deeming it
dangerous, had the work stopped at the press, and
ordered that such copies as could be found in circu
lation should be collected and burnt in public. This
timidity is not to be wondered at after the experience
of the Marprelate libellers and a host of others,
and Hall's was no exceptional treatment, the
" Scourge of Villany," published by his rival Marston
(of whom more presently), in 1598 being likewise
consigned to the flames. For nearly two hundred
years the Satires were almost forgotten, until in
1753, under the direction of the Rev. W. Thompson,

44 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
formerly Fellow of Queen's, there appeared an edition
at Oxford. Warton's commendation gave them a
place among classical English poetry. Various
editions were subsequently issued, and only five
years since they were again edited by Dr. Grosart,*
who has elucidated some points hitherto obscure,
and given many suggestive hints. In his prologue,
Hall claims to be the first English satirist :
" I first adventure with foolhardy might
To tread the steps of perilous despight ;
I first adventure, follow me who list,
And be the second English Satirist."
The claim has been hotly contested, and, if its
justice is to stand or fall with the date of the
publication of the Satires, it has been said that he
is not to be reckoned either first, second, or third,
but at the most fourth English satirist. Edward
Hake had published satires as far back as 1567;
George Gascoigne's "Steele Glas" appeared in 1 576 ;
and Dr. Lodge's "Fig for Momus " in 1595. As
for the two former, their claim cannot be withstood.
As for the latter, although he published two years
before Hall, it is not so certain that he preceded
him in composition. In the author's charge pre
fixed to the Biting Satires he speaks of his
" Luckless rhymes, whom not unkindly spite
Begot long since of truth and holy rage."
May he not have composed at least part of them
soon after taking his degree in 1592 ? But, what
ever may be his position chronologically, his ori-
* The author begs to express his gratitude to Dr. Grosart,
though he finds it impossible at all times to accept his judg
ment, or agree with him in his reading of Hall's character.

THE SATIRES. 45

ginality cannot be gainsaid. Save the Satires of
Ariosto and one base French satire, he had never
had sight of any for his direction ; and there is a
sense in which the honour of being the first English
satirist may be conceded to him. He was un
doubtedly the first who endeavoured to take a place
among our writers corresponding to that of Juvenal,
Perseus, and Horace among the writers of Rome ;
he was the first who strove to imitate them, and
so the first to introduce among us the classical
standard of English satire.
The Satires attracted much attention, and Meres,
in his " Wit's Treasurie," almost immediately after
publication (in 1598) mentions Hall as celebrated
for such composition. This is all the more surpris
ing 'since he had served his mistress, Poetry, " only
with the broken messes of our twelve o'clock hours,
which homely service she only claimed and found
of him, for that short while of his attendance," —
that is to say, presumably, that he had not neglected
more serious duties, nor devoted to the work any
time beyond that of odd hours. He invites the
muses to witness how " he wilfull sung those
headdy rhymes" (the Toothless Satires) "withouten
second care." That he should have made any stir
at all says much for his watchfulness and insight
into human nature, with its vices, its weaknesses, its
faults, and its failings. The burning protest of the
Court of High Commission has been already noticed.
Other critics, though less powerful, were equally
hostile. Some thought the Satires indecorous in
the author, because poems ; others because satire
was unlawful in itself ; some thought them harmful
to others, because of their acidity ; others thought

46 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
them no satires at all, because so mild ; the learned
deemed them too perspicuous compared with Juvenal
and Perseus ; the unlearned found no savour in them,
because too obscure. Still, great judges have set
the mint-mark of their approval upon them. Pope
esteemed them " the best poetry and truest satire
in the English language," and had an intention of
modernizing them. He carefully read, in particular,
the first of the tenth book, and wrote at the top
Optima Satira. Gray considered them to be " full
of spirit and poetry, as much of the first as Dr.
Donne, and far more of the latter. Lord Hailes
judged them to have merit, and predicted that they
would be remembered. Campbell said that in read
ing Hall we might frequently imagine ourselves
perusing Dryden. Whalley thought his verses in
general extremely musical and flowing, and that
many of his lines would do honour to the most
ingenious of our modern poets. Warton says, " They
are distinguished by a classical precision, to which
English poetry had yet rarely attained. They are
replete with animation of style and sentiment. The
indignation of the satirist is always the result of
good sense, i Nor are the thorns of severe invective
unmixed with the flowers of pure poetry. The
characters are delineated in strong and lively colour
ing ; and their discriminations are touched with the
masterly traces of genuine humour. The versifica
tion is equally energetic and elegant, and the fabric
of the couplets approaches to the modern standard.
It is no inconsiderable proof of a genius predomi
nating over the general taste of an age when every
preacher was a punster, to have written verses, when
laughter was to be raised, and the reader to be

THE SATIRES. 47

entertained with sallies of pleasantry, without
quibbles and conceits. His chief fault is obscurity,
arising from a remote phraseology, constrained com
binations, unfamiliar allusions, elliptical apostrophes,
and abruptness of expression."
There were two occasions, separated by a long
interval, on which Hall's love of the muses exposed
him to much unmerited scorn from two men, even
farther apart in character and repute than they were
in time. His first assailant was Jacob or James
Wadsworth, who had been fellow-student with him
at Emmanuel, and from a benefice in Suffolk had
gone into Spain as English tutor to the Infanta, then
regarded as the future bride of Charles I. There he
was prevailed, upon to abandon both his religion
and his country. This drew from Hall an epistle,
in which he expostulated with him for his apostasy,
and persuaded him to return. " Once," said he, " the
same walls held us in one loving society ; the same
diocese, in one honourable function ; now, not one
land, and, which I lament, not one Church." In
the letter there is much, doubtless, which could not
fail to be offensive to a proselyte anxious to vindicate
his new choice ; but, upon the whole, affection pre
dominates over censure, and even in the inevitably
artificial style of a formal composition, it is easy to
see a genuine regard for the erring one. Wadsworth
afterwards becoming involved in a controversy with
Bedell,* replied hotly and contemptuously to a letter
addressed to him, which contained certain allusions
* William Bedell, the well-known Head of Trinity College,
Dublin, and Bishop of Kilmore and Armagh, the friend of Paul
Sarpi and Antonio de Dominis, was born four years before
Hall. He- was educated at Emmanuel College, of which he

48 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D
to Hall, he would not " soil his fingers with such an
adversary," and more to the same effect. Hall
retorts that an English University had not scorned
to set him in the chair of divinity. Wadsworth had
taxed him with two vices, poetry and railing. As
for the latter, nothing could have been written more
mildly, modestly, or lovingly, than his letter. " Of
the former," he says, " I must acquit myself, cujus
unum est sed magnum vitium poesis. What were I
the worse if I were still a lover of these studies ? "
Most of the renowned and holy Fathers ofthe Church
were eminent in that profession for which he was
scorned. Amongst many others, Tertullian, Lactan
tius, Nazianzen, Prudentius, Fulgentius, Apollinarius,
Nonus, Hilarius, Prosper, and now in the upshot
devout Bernard ; and why should their honour be his
disgrace ? But the truth was, those were the recrea
tions of his minority, now forgotten. He concludes,
" What my proficiency hath been in serious studies,
if the University and Church hath pleased to testify,
what need I stand at the mercy of a fugitive ? But
if any of his (Wadsworth's) masters should undertake
me in the cause of God, he should find that I had
studied prose."
His other antagonist on this score was none
other than John Milton himself. Close upon half a
century had passed since the Satires had birth, and
Hall meanwhile had risen from his Fellowship at
Emmanuel to the See of Exeter, when the indiscre
tion of having been a poet was again cast in his
became Fellow in 1593, two years before Hall attained the like
honour. At Bury, in Suffolk, where he settled for some years,
he would be a neighbour of the Rector of Halsted, and the
intimacy of college friendship was thus extended.

THE SATIRES. 49

teeth. The Bishop's son, with ill-advised zeal for
his father's honour in the Smectymnuan controversy,
had raked together a collection of groundless scandals
connected with Milton's college days. The great
poet was cut to the quick, and took his revenge
in part by a fierce assault upon the Bishop's early
efforts in that sphere, where he himself stands almost
supreme. " Lighting upon the title of Toothless
Satires, I will not conceal what I thought, readers, that
sure this must be some sucking satir, who might have
done better to have used his corall, and made an end
of breeding ere he took upon him to wield a satir's
whip. But, when I heard him talk of scouring the
rusted swords of elvish knights, do not blame me
if I changed my thought and concluded him some
desperate cutler. But why his scornful muse could
¦never abide witJi tragick shoes her ankles for to hide,
the face of the verse told me that her maukin
knuckles were never shapen to that royall buskin.
And turning by chance to the sixth satire of his
second book I was confirmed ; where having begun
loftily in-heavens universall alphabet he falls down
to that wretched poorness and frigidity as to talk of
Bridge Street in heaif and the ostler of heavn, and there
wanting other matters to catch him in a heat, (for
certain he was in the frozen zone miserably benumbed)j
with thoughts lower than any beadle betakes him
to whip the signposts of Cambridge alehouses, the
ordinary subject of freshmen's tales, and in a strain
as pitiful. Which for him who would be accounted
the first English satyr, to abase himself to, who might
have learnt better among the Latin and Italian
satyrists, and in our own tongue from the Vision and
Creed of Pierce Plowman, besides others before him,
4

50 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
manifested a presumptuous undertaking, with weak
and unexamined shoulders. For a satyr, as it was
born out of a tragedy, so ought to resemble his
parentage, to strike high and adventure dangerously
at the most eminent vices among the greatest
persons, and not to creep into every blind taphouse
that fears a constable more than a satyr. But that
such a form should be toothless, I still affirme it to be
a bull, taking away the essence of that which it calls
itself. For if it bite neither the persons, nor the
vices, how is it a satyr ? and if it bite either, how is
it toothless ? So that toothless satyrs are as much
as if he had said toothless teeth."
This passage affords a good illustration of genius
spurred by malice. It would be presumptuous to
question the critic's authority in the technical points
referred to ; but how unjust he is in his exposition of
the facts would perhaps be apparent to anyone who
would take the trouble to read the Satires atten
tively. The " Vision of Pierce Plowman '' can
scarcely be called a satire. The famous astrologers
of the day, by a single prediction concerning Jupiter
and Saturn, could throw the whole kingdom into a
panic of consternation. To represent them as ostlers,
tapsters, and chamberlains was surely to " strike high.
and adventure dangerously " at eminent folly, if not
vice, among great persons, and might easily be
paralleled in Juvenal. The epithets "toothless" and
" biting " are relative terms, and best explained by
Hall's words at the end of the third book : — ¦
" ThUs have I writ, in smoother cedar tree,
So gentle satires , penn'd so easily.
Henceforth I write in crabbed oak-tree rind :
Search they that mean the secret meaning find.

THE SATIRES. 51

Hold out, ye guilty and ye galled hides,
And meet my far-fetch' stripes with waiting sides."
The gentle satires were, as he called them, Vir-
gidemice, bundles of rods, no less than the others.
But in the one case the rod was a whip, in the
other a scorpion.
One other quarrel connected with the Satires must
be noticed before we proceed to give some account
of their contents. This was with John Marston, who
has been described as Hall's particular rival at Cam
bridge, but incorrectly, since he was not a Cambridge
man, but educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
and, about the time when Hall's first Satires were
composed, lecturer to the Middle Temple. The
origin of the bitter strife between the two young
poets is not certainly known. The following has
been suggested. In the year 1598 Marston pub
lished his " Pygmalion's Image," a somewhat sen
suous paraphrase of one of Ovid's Metamorphoses,
and in his satires which were appended he attacked
Hall for his assaults on contemporary writers.
Thereupon the latter laid hands on all copies of
"Pygmalion's Image" reaching Cambridge, and caused
an epigram to be pasted to the last page. This
epigram ran thus : —
" I askt Phisitions what their counsell was,
For a mad dogge, or for a mankind asse ?
They told me, though there were confections store
Of poppie-seede, and soueraine hellebore,
The dogge was best cured by cutting and kinsing,
The asse must be kindly whipped for winsing.
Now then, S. K., I little passe *
Whether thou be a mad dogge, or a mankind asse."
* I.e., make little account.

52 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Marston had assumed the name Kinsayder, hence
the S.K. and kinsing. Then came the second half of
Virgidemiarum, the Biting Satires, and the later of
these has been supposed to be intended for Marston,
who retorted with another epigram, as coarse and
vulgar as Hall's, but rather more unsavoury. In
1 60 1 the "Whipping ofthe Satyre " was published,
inspired, it is said, by Hall ; and in the same year
an answer to it, " The Whipper of the Satyre, his
Pennance in a White Sheete : or the Beadle's Con
futation." It was not unnatural that Hall's free handling of
his literary contemporaries should expose him to
attack on the ground of self-conceit. There were,
however, notwithstanding the splendour of the sun
rise, many spots upon the face of literature at that
time. Our poets were as often noted for their
obscenity, debauchery, and blasphemy as for their
undisputed genius. They were frequently tavern
haunters, and in their efforts to attain popularity con
descended to play the buffoon ; they began to write
for hire, and parted with purity to secure a rapid
sale. MarlOwe outdid all his companions, and
ended his life in a drunken brawl at Deptford,
June 1593. Shakspere published his Venus and
Adonis, and a host of authors now forgotten were
sending out indecent publications appealing to the
pruriency of the public. This was fairly open to
attack, and against it Hall directed his first shafts.
The dramatists too were given to that passion-tearing
which the chief among them has condemned.
Another division of litterateurs had given themselves
up, in defiance of the nature of our language, to a
servile imitation of classical models, and were follow-

THE SATIRES. 53

ing Stanihurst, the translator of Virgil, who had just
introduced hexametrical poetry. Even Spenser and
Sidney were among his imitators. It seems hardly
credible that lines such as these should have been
regarded as English : — " Rounce robble hobble,
Of ruff raff roaring with thwick thwack tharlery bouncing."
Would the reader guess that this was meant for a
description of a tempest ? Or again : —
" Loud dub a dub tabering with trapping rip rap of Etna."
Hall saw perfectly well that " our speech was
too craggy for the hexameter verse to set his plough
in," and that
" The nimble dactyls, striving to outgo
The drawling sponders, pacing it below ;
The lingering spondees, labouring to delay
The breathless dactyls with a sudden stay,"
were like " a colt wanton and wild,
Yoked with a slow-foot on a fallow field."
He had the merit of giving the coup-de-gr&ce to the
hexameter school of his day. Then there was an
army of sonneteers, amatory writers dedicated to
the exaggerated expression of maudlin sentiment ;
and, in striking contrast with these, the Puritan
poets, with an extraordinary fondness for metrical
versions of Holy Scripture. One of these effusions
was " The Poem of Poems, or Sion's Muse, con
taining the Divine Song of King Solomon, divided
into Eight Eclogues." This transformation of
Parnassus to Sion Hill drew from Hall a short satire,
in which he says : —

54 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
" Great Solomon sings in the English quire ;
And is become a newfound sonnetist,
Singing his love, the holy spouse of Christ ;
Like as she were some light-skirts of the rest,
In mightiest inkhornisms he can thither wrest.
Ye Sion Muses shall, by my dear will,
For this your zeal and far-admired skill,
Be straight transported from Jerusalem
Unto the holy house of Bethlehem (Bedlam)."
In two of his contemporaries my readers will take
more than ordinary interest, Spenser and Shakspere.
Romeo and Juliet, Richard II. and Richard III. can
be traced no higher in print than 1597, the year of
the first Satires, but Shakspere was at that time
distinguished as " the most excellent both for tragedy
and comedy, and his fine-filed phrase." Spenser,
at the same date, his generous patron Sir Philip
Sidney long since dead, his Irish property lost, was
within the space of a year and a few months to lie
down to die in obscurity and want at a tavern in
Westminster. Neither one nor the other escaped
without some slight censure from Hall. The
" hotch-potch " of a buffoon brought upon the stage
to relieve the tension of tragic acting moved his
displeasure. Certain passages in Spenser did not
please him. But to both he freely gives the palm
in their respective departments, and of Spenser he
speaks in terms of highest eulogy. " The Marriage
of Thames and Medway " had just been published
in Book IV. (Canto II.) of the " Fairy Queen." Hall
complains that now not even a lowly muse could
bide to sit and sing by Granta's naked side. Only
the willows were left to the Cam, and they told of
desolation and desertion. Spenser before this, in
" Colin Clout's come home again," had sung the praises

THE SATIRES. 55

of Raleigh. Hall "throws his yielding reed at
Colin's feet." He has blamed some efforts of the
Fairy Muse. Suddenly he checks himself and
exclaims —
" But let no rebell satyre dare traduce
Th' eternal legends of thy Fairy Muse,
Renowned Spenser ; whom no earthly wight
Dares once to emulate, much less dares despight.
Sailust of France, and Tuscan Ariost,
Yield up the laurel garland ye have lost :
And let all others willow wear with me,
Or let their undeserving temples bared be."
It is pleasing to find that he was able to see and
willing to acknowledge the unrivalled splendour of
the man who was cruelly neglected, if not persecuted,
by the illustrious Burleigh.*
Whatever Hall's literary indiscretions may have
been (and Hall would have deemed it no kindness
for a biographer to conceal them), his keenness of
observation and power of penetrating character are
such as might have been looked for in the man of
the world, rather than in the studious youth scarce
out of his teens. The pictures of contemporary
life are drawn with a masterly hand ; and if the light
is sometimes a little fierce, the dramatis persona are
* There is a touching allusion to Spenser's (Colin's) sad end
in a short poem by Hall addressed to Dr. Bedell, the original
MS. of which was found among the papers of Dr. Dillingham,
Master of Emmanuel College : —
" Thine be his verse, not his reward be thine !
Ah me ! that after unbeseeming care,
And secret want, which bred his last misfare,
His relics dear obscurely tombed lie,
Under unwritten stones ; that w^io goes by
Cannot once read, Lo, here doth Colin lie."

56 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
clearly seen. He brings before us the lawyer,
lighting on wrong's offal and living best like the
loathly fly, that lives on galled wound. In many
lawyers he sees much store of malady to the
commonwealth, and bids us notice the lawyer's eye
squinting on his fist : —
" If that seeme lined with a larger fee,
Doubt not the suite, the law is plaine for thee."
Galen, on the contrary, whose help doth sweetest
life and health uphold, was worthy to be weighed in
gold, but was sadly underpaid. As for the clergy,
simony was rife, and the traffic in livings disgrace
fully common. He pities the poor servile fool who
put his si quis on Paul's Church door, advertising for
clerical work, and advises him : —
" For but a slender price
Advowson thee with some fat benefice :
Or, if thee list not wayt for dead men's shoon,
Nor pray ech morn th' incumbent's daies wer doon ;
A thousand patrons thither ready bring,
Their new-falne Churches to the chaffering.
Stake three yeares' stipend : no man asketh more :
Go take possession of the Church-porch doore,
And ring thy bels."
He gives a humorous description of the poor
trencher-chaplain, who for five marks and winter
livery had to instruct the son of some gentle squire,
lie upon his truckle bed, never presume to sit above
the salt, never change his trencher twice, barely sit
at meals but one half rise and wait, and never beat
his yoqng master, without asking his mother to
define how many jerkes she would his breech should
line. The astrology so generally believed in is
pitilessly ridiculed. The ostentation of the Eliza-

THE SATIRES. 57

bethan period, still so painfully apparent in the
monuments of many a country church, is heartily
condemned. He asks : —
"Who ever gives a paire of velvet shoes
To th' Holy Rood, or liberally allowes
But a new rope to ring the Curfew bell,
But he desires that his great deed may dwell
Or graven in the chancel-window glasse,
Or in his lasting tombe of plated brasse ? "
The " fare and fashions" of the citizens are passed
under review, the "curious cost and wondrous choice
of cheare, beef and pork, hare and fish, goose-liver,
goat and quaile, the hen and Parthian deer, grapes
and figs and chesnuts faire." The periwig about this
time became an article of dress, and afforded much
merriment. Signet rings of Bristol diamond were
worn, and that they might be better seen, a hole was
cut in the glove. The linen collar was a labyrinth
of a " thousand double turnings." The sleeves were
half hid with elbow pinionings. The ladies wore
" Curl'd periwigs, and chalked their face,
And still were poring on their pocket-glasse.
Tyr'd with pin'd ruffes, and fans, and partlet-strips,
And buskes and verdingales about their hips ;
And trode on corked stilts a prisoner's pace,
And made1 their napkin for their spitting place,
And griped their wast within a narrow span."
The drunkard, so thirsty, even after death, that
Charon was afraid of him lest he should drink
Acheron, dry ; the hungry gallant whose belly envied
his back ; the carpet-knight and his sports ; the
pedigree-maker, boasting how his first ancestor
came in long since with the Conqueror, and
deserving for his crest the Scottish Barnacle, that

58 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

of a worm doth wax a winged goose, — are all drawn
from life. Nor does he spare the piracy which
passed ciirrent under the name of bold seamanship,
the gambling, the bribery, the usury, the sacrilege
he saw about him. The commons were being
enclosed, the condition of the small farmers was
bad, landlords were non-resident, rapacious, , and
lacking in hospitality ; rents were increasing,
emigration was compulsory, and all this excited
the young satirist's indignation.* But enough has
been said. With one more extract, which describes
a state of things as common now as it was then,
let us end our survey of the Satires. The contrast
is between the wealthy merchant and the com
paratively poor country gentleman, who affects a
state beyond his means.
" Villius, the wealthy farmer, left his heire
Twice twenty sterling pounds to spend by yeare.
The neighbours praysen Villio's hide-bound sonne,
, And say it was a goodly portion :
Not knowing how some marchants dowre can rise,
By Sundaie's tale to fifty centuries ;
Or to' weigh down a leaden bride with golde,
Worth all that Matho bought, or Pontice sold.
But whiles ten pound goes to his wive's new gowne,
Nor little less can serve to suit.his owne ;
* Hall's indignation against every kind of social oppres
sion, and his young enthusiasm for the cause of the weak
and the down-trodden, is by no means singular. Mr. Arnold
Toynbee, whose memory must be dear to all Balliol men, was
a notable instance of these virtues. Dying so early, his
example is perhaps more valuable than had he been spared
to teach the world with the more calculating wisdom of
maturer years. In his schemes for reform he never lost sight
of the indelible distinction between right and justice on the
one hand, and wrong and robbery on the other. Our so-called
" Christian Socialists " might well imitate both him and Hall.

THE SATIRES. 59

Whiles one peece payes her idle waiting man,
Or buyes a hoode, or silver-handled fanne,
Or hires a Friezeland trotter, half yarde deepe,
To drag his tumbrell through the staring Cheape ;
Or whiles he rideth with two liveries,
And's trable rated at the subsidies ;
One end a kennel keeps of thriftlesse hounds ;
What thinke you rests of all my younker's pounds,
To diet him, or deale out at his doore,
To coffer up, or stock his wasting store ?
If then I reckon' d right, it should appear
That forty pounds serve not the farmer's heir."
Satire was not the only occupation of Hall's
leisure hours at Cambridge. Whether he wrote
pastorals is not certain. One passing hint seems
to say that he did. He was the author of several
odes. That upon Mr. Greenham's book has already
been referred to. Others were that upon Cardinal
Bellarmine and Dr. Whitaker, the elegies on Sir
Edward and Lady Lewkenor, Sir Horatio Palla-
vicini, who died in 1600, and whose widow married
Sir Oliver Cromwell, of Hinchinbrook, uncle to the
Protector, and that composed on the death of
Whitaker in 1595. This last is a poem of about
one hundred lines, and no doubt expresses the
feeling of the University at the loss of one who
was called its pride and ornament. His funeral
sermon was preached at St. Mary's, by Dr. Goad,
where, says Fuller, so sad was the whole congrega
tion that one might as soon have found a face
without eyes, as eyes without tears.
Besides these metrical efforts of his earlier years,
Hall wrote some philological notes, the manuscript
of which he entrusted to his friend Knight, to
gether with the manuscript of a work of a different
kind, which calls for a more detailed notice. This

60 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
was the " Mundus alter et idem," the only instance
in the first part of the seventeenth century, excepting
Godwin's " Man in the Moon," written while the
author was a student at Oxford, of the English novel
or romance. It purports to be the description of a
new continent discovered by the British Mercury in
the southern hemisphere, and is a satire in Latin
prose on the vices of the old world in which we live.
The scope of the composition will be easily gathered
from the names and subdivisions of the four quarters
into which the new realm is divided. The first is
Crapulia, with its two provinces of Pamphagonia and
Yvronica, the land of gluttons and the land of
drunkards. The second Viraginia, where women
dwell in Aphrodisia, Lasciva, Hermaphroditica,
Amazonia, and the land of Shrews. The third is an
extensive tract, Moronia, the abode of fools in many
kinds, unstable, bilious, fatuous, buffoon, boastful,
superstitious. The fourth, after Horace's line,
" Da mihi fallere falsaque dicere, pulchra Laverna,"
is Lavernia, where impostors, cut-purses, plagiarists,
lovers of filthy lucre, do homage to their goddess.
By some the work has been supposed to have given
the hint to Swift for his " Gulliver's Travels." Milton,
as might have been almost anticipated, thought it
"the idlest and the paltriest mime that ever mounted
upon banke ; " Hallam, " not a very successful effort."
A foreign literary chronicler towards the close of
the seventeenth century expresses his opinion that
in it Hall had " founded a Poneropolis (a city of the
wicked), which would no less divert the readers than
inflame their minds with the 4ove of virtue ; " and it
has been considered deserving of a translation and

"MUNDUS ALTER ET IDEM." 6l
of a partial imitation. But whatever its merits, the
critic could not well have showed less regard for
it than the author himself. Knight, who had charge
of the manuscript, tells us that no entreaties could
prevail upon Hall to allow it to be published. He
excused himself upon the plea that it was but an
exercise of his boyhood and an amusement of his
leisure while at Cambridge. His friend, accordingly,
undertook the publication upon his own responsibility,
and it first appeared without place or date. It was
reprinted at Hanau, in Germany, 1607, and often
afterwards. Of Mr. Knight, who enjoyed this close
intimacy with Hall, nothing is known beyond what
can be gathered from a letter addressed to him, en
couraging him to persist in the holy calling of the
ministry, which, upon conceit of his insufficiency, and
want of affection, he seemed inclining to forsake and
change. Hall speaks of him as one whose gifts many
had envied, a good linguist, possessed ofa style worth
emulation, and, which was worth all, a faithful and
honest heart. The fact that he was at the pains to
give the " Mundus. alter et idem " to the public is a
testimony to its value.* So far as I am aware, the
philological notes were never printed.
* There was a William Knight, who took his B.A. at
Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1583, and was made rector of
Gransden-Parva, Cambs., in 1598 (v. "Ath. Cant.," iii., 16).
In i6iohe published a " Concordance axiomatical, containing
a survey of theological propositions with the reasons and uses
in Holy Scripture." Hall, while at Emmanuel, might very
well have become acquainted with him, and he is, perhaps,
the friend in question.

CHAPTER IV.
HALSTED — VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC.
THE twelve or thirteen years of Hall's stay at
Cambridge were now at an end, and with
them ended perhaps the happiest portion of his long
life. Noted in the University as a great wit and
a much-applauded professor, he was admitted to the
best society, and made many friends. But the
sweetest of companions to him were books ; his love
of study was a passion, and intellectual exercise
one of his keenest pleasures. " Study itself is our
life," he says, "from which we would not be barred
for a world ; how much sweeter, then, is the fruit
of study, the conscience of knowledge ! In com
parison thereof, the soul that hath once tasted it,
easily contemns all human comforts."
It is no marvel, therefore, that he always looked
back upon his college days with fond regret, and
spoke of our universities with an enthusiastic admira
tion, which was something more than mere conformity
to a fashion at a time when the royal pedant was
giving parliamentary representation to Oxford and
Cambridge, and the University of Edinburgh, founded
in 1582, and Trinity College, Dublin, in 1591, were
in their infancy. Our universities he considered
the " most absolute and famous seminaries of the

HALSTED. 63
world, where the tutor's eye supplied the parent's."
Still, he was not blind to defects. His own ex
perience as a tutor had taught him that students
went up too early, and, unless they fell under
careful tuition, studied in jest and played in earnest.
But a worse evil than this was the contempt for
learning shown by the upper classes. The " trade
of a scholar" was in his eyes worthy of those who
were aiming at the highest perfection of man. There
was an inherent nobility in learning, but the mis-
educated gentry of his time thought it well enough
for priests and pedants ; for gentlemen pleasure was
the appropriate pursuit. In other nations the sons
of nobles scorned not either merchandise or learned
professions, and hated nothing so much as to do
nothing ; our gallants despised all honest callings.
The universities were not altogether to blame.
Those who came too young went away too soon,
and, being transplanted to the Inns of Law, forgot
the little they had once known. The Inns of Law
were, it will be remembered, now fast rising into
importance, and though not chartered until after
James came to the throne, were attracting many
to them. It is interesting to note Hall's estimate
of them. Each one there, he says, was his own
master in respect of his private study and govern
ment. Paul's (the common resort of lounging idlers)
was their Westminster, their study an ordinary, or
playhouse, or dancing-school. Where many pots are
boiling, there cannot but be much scum ; and these
novices, turned loose into the main ere they knew
either coast or compass, could not avoid those rocks
and shelves upon which both their estates and souls
were miserably wrecked. Commonly they learnt

64 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
to roar, instead of pleading ; and instead of knowing
the laws, learnt how to contemn them.
"2 dec. 1 60 1 Joseph. Hall A.M. ad pres. Rob.
Drury. Mil." Thus runs the entry of Hall's admis
sion to the benefice in the Hawstead register. Haw-
stead, or Halsted, is a village three miles south from
Bury St. Edmund's, with a population at the present
day of 320, and a tithe rent charge of -£"581. Sir
Robert Drury, the then patron, was the son of Sir
William Drury, who was killed in a duel in France,
in 1589. Before he was out of mourning for his
father, he had attended the Earl of Essex to the
unsuccessful siege of Rouen in 1 59 1, where he
was knighted, when not above the age of fourteen.
His wife was Anne, daughter of Sir Nicholas
Bacon, who in 161 1 was created first baronet of
England, and was half-brother to Sir Francis Bacon,
the famous Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans,
now fast rising to eminence. A map given in
Gage's "History of Suffolk" shows that the manor
house and the church stood near each other. The
Drurys, however, did not live there, but at Hawstead
Place, which, since demolished, had been built on
the site of Talmage's or Bokenham's manor, some
distance to the west, by Sir William, who, through
his marriage with a lady of the name of Stafford,
had succeeded to the estate in 1 5 5 7. It is described
in 16 1 6, the year after the death of Hall's patron,
as a fair and strong-built house of brick and timber,
covered with tiles, having convenient rooms, well-
watered with a conduite, within a square moat ; the
necessary outhouses, courts, yards, gardens, orchards,
and walks, without the same moat, containing xj
acres, " worth by the yere vju xvs." Cullum, in his

HALSTED. 65

" History of Hawstead," describes it as being " on
an eminence, gently sloping towards the south. The
whole formed a quadrangle, 202 feet by 211, within
an area formerly called the Base Court, afterwards
the Court Yard. The Mansion House, which was
also a quadrangle, formed the fourth side, standing
higher than the other buildings, and detached from
them by a wide moat, faced on all its banks with
bricks, and surrounded by a handsome terrace, a
considerable part of which commanded a fine view
over the surrounding country, and bespoke a taste
superior to the artificial mound which in many old
gardens had to be clambered up for the sake of
prospect. The approach to the house was by a
flight of steps, and a strong brick bridge of three
arches, through a small jealous wicket, formed in the
great well-timbered gate." Within the wicket was a
statue tp commemorate the. visit of Queen Elizabeth
in 1578, and a fountain played there, supplied with
water from a pond a mile off. Tobacco had been
introduced not long since, and the smoking-room on
the left hand of the entrance was almost as indis
pensable . as the licensed chapel which faced it on
the other side. It is almost certain that Hall was
never himself a smoker, and would be seldom in the
genial company of the former. He complains that
the gallants, among other things still less reputable,
thought they did credit to their blood and merited
others' good opinion, if they could " take smoke at a
play-house ; '' and denounces the " incense of Indian
smoke " offered to the palate, and those who,
" whiffing themselves away in Necotian Incense "
and " reeking of Indian smoke," spent as much in
that " wantonness " as their honest forefathers spent
5

66 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
in substantial hospitality. Even of those mouths
which were sacred to God, there were some which
out of a wanton custom savoured of nothing but
Indian soot, and took more pleasure to put forth a
cloud of smoke than the thunderings and lightnings
of the Law. This last he told Convocation in
1623. The church of which he had charge, dedicated to
All Saints, consisted at the close of last century of a
handsome body without aisles, a chancel, and a fine
tower. The north and south doors were Norman,
the arch of the former having a single zig-zag
moulding, and the latter a double one, both with a
column on each side. The body of the church was
chiefly rebuilt together with the porch in the latter
part of the fifteenth century, either by the Cloptons
or Sir William Drury. The tower was erected by
Sir Robert, and was furnished with three bells.
The chancel, originally in the early pointed style,
was separated from the nave by a screen with rood-
loft, on which, as late as 1784, hung the little
sacring bell, six inches in diameter. An inventory, .
taken in 1637, presents us with another relic, which
might well have been used by Hall, — "Onehoure glase,
with an iron frame to it ; " and amongst other things
" two payer of orgaynes, standing in the chansell "
(they must have been small, since the chancel was
°nly 33i by l8 feet)» and "one great cheaste with
three locks and 3 keis, and one little bockes within
it, which hath the town evidences, and two brasses
for the Bible and one large peese of iron."
Like some other men, Hall, who could not
" crouch and writhe his fawning tayle to some
great patron," appears to have owed his first

HALSTED. 67

advancement to female influence. It was Lady
Drury who wrote begging him to accept Hawstead.
Sir Robert, he found on his arrival there, was
strongly prepossessed against him, although they
had never met. This was owing to the suggestion
of a Mr. Lilly, whom Hall calls " a witty and bold
atheist," and who, by his writings, conversational
power, and demeanour, had deeply insinuated
himself into the good opinion of his and Hall's
common patron. Why he should have been at
the trouble to injure the new incumbent by his
wicked detraction is not clear. Perhaps literary
jealousy was at the bottom of it : maybe Lilly
did not anticipate in the author of the Satires the
same genial companion he possibly had in Hall's
" not over-deserving predecessor." At all events,
if Lilly were the man he is supposed to have been,
there is enough in the Satires to account for his
malice. He was an Oxford man, M.A. Magdalen
College, and, while at the University, distinguished
for his wit and vivacity. Later in life he wrote
plays, nine in all, the best passages of which are
said to have been paraphrased by Shakspere.
His chief prose works were " Euphues, or the
Anatomy of Wit," and " Euphues and his England,"
published respectively about 1580 and 1582. He
was a favourite at the court of Elizabeth, where he
introduced an artificial style, and an affectation
which were burlesqued by both Shakspere and
Scott. He is said to have been a little man, and
a great taker of tobacco. This dangerous opponent
to the success of his ministry occasioned Hall no
small anxiety, and had he not been early removed,
could not have failed to be a perpetual torment.

68 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
How he was taken away is thus told : — " Hereupon,
I confess, finding the obduredness and hopeless
condition of that man, I bent my prayers against
him ; beseeching God daily, that He would be
pleased to remove, by some means or other, that
apparent hinderance of my faithful labours : Who
gave me an answer accordingly ; for this malicious
man, going up hastily to London to exasperate my
patron against me, was then and there swept away
by the pestilence, and never returned to do any
further mischief." This agrees with the fact that
Lilly died in obscurity, and that the date of his
death is unknown.
The coast was now clear before Hall, and, gaining
every day in the good opinion of Drury and his
neighbours, he was able to settle down to the duties
of his new sphere. His first work was to build a
parsonage house, the one he occupied being ex
tremely ruinous. To the Roxburgh edition of the
" Weeping Joy," presently to be noticed, is prefixed
a drawing by Miss Collett (daughter of the late
Rev. W. Collett, Rector of Hawstead) of the old
rectory, made from a picture in the possession of
the Collett family. With the exception of the wing
on the right, which is of more recent erection than
the rest, it represents the house as it was in Hall's
incumbency. The new home had no pretension to
either greatness or beauty, but was a low thatched
dwelling, with somewhat heavy-mullioned windows.
The dear old place has long since vanished, having
been pulled down in 1852.
Thither after two years, in 1603, the rector
brought his bride. His own account of the event
reminds us of Hooker's similar experience, though,

HALSTED. 69
fortunately, the venture was not attended with such
unhappy results. " The uncouth solitariness of my
life, and the extreme incommodity of that single
housekeeping, drew my thoughts, after two years,
to condescend to the necessity of a married estate,
which God no less strangely provided for me. For,
walking from the church on Monday in the Whitsun
week, with a grave and reverend minister, Mr.
Grandidge, I saw a comely and modest gentle
woman standing at the door of that house where
we were invited to a wedding-dinner ; and, inquiring
of that worthy friend whether he knew her, ' Yes,'
quoth he, ' I know her well, and have bespoken her
for your wife.' When I further demanded an
account of that answer, he told me she was the
daughter of a gentleman whom he much respected,
Mr. George Winniff, of Bretenham ; that, out of an
opinion had of the fitness of that match for me,
he had already treated with her father about
it, whom he found very apt to entertain it ; . advising
me not to neglect the opportunity, and not con
cealing the just praises of the modesty, piety, good
disposition, and other virtues that were lodged in
that seemly presence. I listened to the motion as
sent from God, and at last, upon due prosecution,
happily prevailed ; enjoying the comfortable society
of that meet help for the space of forty-nine years."
Queen Elizabeth died March 24th, 1602-3, and
shortly afterwards James was proclaimed king. The
conclusion of the old, and the beginning of the new,
was marked by many poetic effusions ; and, among
other contributors, the University of Cambridge
addressed to the king a volume of congratulatory
verses, entitled " Sorrowe's Joy." Hall was not

70 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
behind the rest, but in the same year published a
poem called " The King's Prophecie or Weeping Joy,
expressed in a poeme to the honor of England's too
(two) great solemnities." A peculiar interest attaches
to this work. Peter Hall, who edited the Bishop's
works, was aware of its existence, and that, as he
supposed, the only copy remaining was in the
possession of a barrister in London, well known for
his literary rarities, and to whom he had made
several applications for a sight of the volume, but
without success. The owner to whom he referred
was the late Mr. Benjamin Hey wood Bright, whose
library was sold in 1845. The volume was then
sold for six pounds to the late Rev. Thomas Corser,
Rector of Stand, near Manchester, who in 1877
contributed a full account of it to the Chatham
Society. In 1870 the book was again sold for six
guineas to Mr. Boone, of the British Museum, being
again described as unique and unknown to all the
biographers of Bishop Hall. This, however, was not
correct ; a second copy, quite complete, was dis
covered in 188 1, by Mr. J. E. Loveday in the library
at Williamscote House, near Banbury, in a volume
containing five other rare poetical pieces, one of them
a second copy of the third edition of Shakspere's
Passionate Pilgrim. This volume had formerly
belonged to Mr. James Meyrick, of Trinity College,
Oxford. We are indebted to the Rev. W. Edward
Buckley, who, under the auspices of the Roxburgh
Club, has given us an elegant edition, for the re
publication of the missing poem. It is written in
six-line stanzas, of which there are over fifty, and
contains references to pastoral poems of the author
(whose identity is thus placed beyond doubt),

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC. 71
including a translation of Virgil's fourth Eclogue,
which he had applied to the birth of Prince Henry,
to the Satires, and to the circumstances of his life in
Suffolk. King James, of course, is much belauded,
and it is foretold concerning the king, that
" Religion's Spring, Autumne of Heresie,
Winter of Atheisme his reigne shall bee."
He is acquainted with the Basilicon doron, and is
of opinion that " crowns from heaven are sent."
Never since Jesse's youngest son rose from the fold
hath He that gives crowns
" Ever yet besprent
With the sweet oyle of sacred unction
An holyer head, than that this present day
The weight of England's roial crown doth sway."
The king is also complimented on his polished
wit and poetical ability. " Renowned Drury," too,
is " 'mongst the rest, above the rest." Upon the
whole, one gathers that although Hall cannot yet
wag his tail, he is learning by experience that in a
world of shams truth without embellishment is not
welcome. Within the two years following his marriage his
eldest son Robert was born. The christening took
place December 26th, 1605.
The next noteworthy incident in the life of Hall
was a visit to the Continent. Edward Seymour,
Earl of Hertford, son of the Protector Duke of
Somerset, and husband of Lady Katharine Grey* was
* Concerning this unfortunate lady, who, at the beginning
of Elizabeth's reign, was, by the will of Henry and statute law,
heiress-presumptive to the Crown, her marriages with the
Earls of Pembroke and Hertford, the cruelty with which she

72 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

just about to cross over to Brussels on an embassy
to confirm peace, resolved to make a splendid appear
ance, and prepared to spend £10,000 besides his
allowance. Sir Edmund Bacon, brother of Hall's
patroness, thought the opportunity a good one for
visiting the famous Spa, which has given its name to
so many watering-places, and for the last four hundred
and fifty years has been frequented for the sake of
its chalybeate springs, and in the season still attracts
20,000 visitors. He earnestly begged the rector
of Hawstead, with whom he was upon terms of close
intimacy, to accompany him. The journey under
taken now would, he said, be safe, easy, and
pleasurable, while the small extravagance would be
compensated by the benefit derived. This last
consideration had weight with Hall, who, never
strong, was growing weaker, and seems at this time
to have anticipated the worst for himself. He
had, moreover, a great desire to see for himself the
state and practice of the Roman Church, and so the
better equip himself for his vocation. He, therefore,
consented to accompany Sir Edmund, and, after
taking careful order for the supply of his charge,
'' with the assent and good allowance " of his nearest
friends, he entered upon that " secret voyage."
Before we follow the fortunes of the travellers, let
us glance for a moment at the course religious
opinion had taken, that we may more perfectly
understand the inner movement of Hall's life and
the formation of his character. When he went up
to Cambridge, Calvinism was just reaching its
and the latter were treated by the Queen, their unhappy loves
in prison, and her early death, see Hallam, " Const. History,"
vol. i., 123, 128, 249, etc.

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC. 73
climax ; before he left the University the little
rivulet, which, some few years before, began with
Baro's ineffectual protest, had become a river strong
enough to raise alarm in the strongholds of Genevan
doctrine and discipline. Whitaker's crusade against
" Pelagianism and Popery " had all along, little as his
modesty, gentleness, and retiring spirit disposed him
for such warfare, been stoutly opposed by Baro, who
resisted the extravagances of his brother professor,
and by his teaching had gradually been moulding
a generation of students who preferred the Fathers,
and sometimes the Schoolmen, to the manuals of
Calvin. In 1595 the attempt was made to force
the Lambeth Articles on the University and on the
Church. Whitaker died December 4th, 1595, and
within a few weeks of his death Baro ventured, when
preaching at St. Mary's, to criticise the new formu
lary. This he did with modesty and moderation,
not so much objecting against it, as justifying his
acceptance of it, and explaining the construction
he put upon it. Nothing could save him. The
Calvinistic blood was up, and the aged man, accord
ing to Fuller, the great scholar, inoffensive in life and
conversation, who had painfully spent his strength
in the employment of his professorship, was cited
before the Vice-Chancellor, and before the end of
the year resigned his office (fugio, ne fugarer, he
said). Three years afterwards he died in London,
a martyr to intolerance. The Anglican party did '
what they could, and showed their appreciation of
his work by honouring him with an imposing
funeral. The reader will think of another imposing
funeral which not long since was seen in Christ
Church quadrangle, and of the house in Oxford which

74 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
perpetuates the memory of one whose almost only
reward, while living, was the love of souls which he
guided. He will perhaps, too, be reminded of the
magnificent monument erected to the honour of
another true son of the Church, who will not be
forgotten so long as Keble College and its chapel
stand among the historic buildings of the University
which he adorned. The moderate party, to which
Baro belonged, was rapidly advancing. Another
champion, less stable, who afterwards lost his
balance and allied himself with the Jesuits, was
found in Barret ; but the man who had the greatest
influence upon the new school was Overall, the
framer of the sacramental portion of our Catechism,
and who was appointed Regius Professor and successor
to Whitaker. How much Hall owed to him will
probably never be known. We do know that, after
the Synod of Dort, Hall was willing to adopt his
views of the points in dispute as the readiest solution
of the difficulty, and spoke admiringly of his
splendid moderation. A mind so open to reason as
was Hall's could not fail to be attracted by such a
teacher. And probably before he left the university
he had drawn back from many of the more revolting
positions of Calvin.
But if he was advancing along the line of
moderate churchmanship, there were intellectual
forces at work enough to keep him from moving too
fast and going too far. The Romanists were so
active as to excite alarm and invite measures for their
effectual suppression. So long ago as 1592 a com
mission was appointed to make search for adherents
of the Roman faith, and the commissioners, in their
report, spoke of the papists as doing much harm in

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC. 75
corrupting youth. The Heads, in their letter asking
for archiepiscopal censure on Barret, urged that the
study of many a divine in the University who pro
fessed the tenets of the Church of England would be
found, on examination, to be mainly composed of
the works of the Schoolmen, and of the tractates of
the Jesuits, but of Protestant authors few or none.
Towards the end of Elizabeth's reign restrictive
measures, of which every variety in turn was tried,
were adopted with rigorous severity against recusants.
A gentlewoman was hanged only for relieving and
harbouring a priest ; a citizen was hanged for being
reconciled to the Church of Rome ; the penal laws,
Goodman in his " Memoir of the Court of James I."
relates, were so executed that Romanists could not
subsist, what was openly bought and sold in shops
being taken away from them as popish and supersti
tious. The common people hated them. No sooner
had James been proclaimed king, than he received
a letter from Henry IV. of France, warning him
against papists, for they were all of the Spanish
faction. Thus it was that the king, who had made
overtures to Pope Clement VIII. to support his
claim to the English crown, and on his part had
promised to favour the Romanists (with which he
was openly taxed in a pamphlet called " Look to
the Back Door"), was now become their bitter
enemy, and even at table was wont to regale his
servile hearers with pungent expressions of the hatred
he bore them. Exasperated by all this, they were
busy hatching those schemes which happily found
abortive issue in the Gunpowder Plot.
It was a time of intense excitement, and Hall's
anxiety to know the truth respecting Rome is not

76 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
hard to account for. In order to secure his end,
he resolved to travel dressed as a layman, a circum
stance which led him into some strange adventures,
and afforded him a good deal of amusement.
After waiting some days at Harwich for a wind,
the travellers attempted to cross to Dunkirk, where
the British ambassador had lately landed ; but after
being a day and half a night at sea, they were
forced to put in at Queenborough, whence coasting
over " the rich and pleasant county of Kent," they
again took shipping at Dover, and soon landed
at Calais. " There was nothing," Hall says, " that
made not my journey pleasant, save the labour
of the way, which yet was so sweetly deceived by
the society of Sir Edmund Bacon, a gentleman
truly honourable beyond all titles, that I found
small cause to complain. The sea brooked not me,
nor I it ; an unquiet element, made only for wonder
and use, not for pleasure. Alighted once from that
wooden conveyance and uneven way, I bethought
myself how fondly our life is committed to an
unsteady and reeling piece of wood, fickle winds,
restless waters, while we may set foot on steadfast
and constant earth." Long wagons, plying between
Canterbury, Norwich, Gloucester, etc., and London,
with passengers and commodities, had been intro
duced into England about 1580. By one of these
more familiar " wooden conveyances " the friends
went in two days to Gravelines and Dunkirk, where
Hall found much horror in himself at passing under
those dark and dreadful prisons where so many
brave Englishmen had breathed out their souls in
a miserable captivity. From thence they proceeded
through Winnoxberg, Ypres, Ghent, Courtray to

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC. 77
Brussels, the ambassador having lately arrived there.
In a letter to Sir Thomas Challoner he says, "Along
our way how many churches saw we demolished !
Nothing left but rude heaps, to tell the passenger
there had been both devotion and hostility. Oh,
the miserable footsteps of war, besides bloodshed,
ruin, and desolation ! Fury hath done that there,
which Covetousness would do with us ; would do,
but shall not ; the truth within shall save the walls
without." But if churches had fallen, he marvelled
to find Jesuits' colleges rising everywhere. There
was no city where they were not either rearing
or built.
" Those men, as we say of the fox, fare best,
when they are most cursed ; none, so much spited
of their own ; none, so hated of all ; none, so
opposed by ours ; and yet these ill weeds grow.
Whosoever lives long shall see them feared of
their own, which now hate them ; shall see these
seven lean kine devour all the fat beasts, that feed
on the meadows of Tiber. I prophecy, as Pharaoh
dreamed ; the event shall justify my confidence."
About this time much stir had been made
respecting the miracles said to be wrought by an
image of our Lady of Montaigle, which stood in the
old church of Sichem, a small town in Brabant.
Two years before Hall visited the Continent, the
number of pilgrims to the shrine at the feast of her
nativity was twenty thousand, . and now pilgrims
were everywhere met. At Brussels the authority
of these miracles was warmly discussed by Hall ;
but what there befell him cannot be better told than
in his own words. " That noble gentleman, in whose
company I travelled, was welcomed with many kind

78 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
invitations. Amongst the rest, there came to him
an English gentleman, who, having run himself out
of breath in the Inns of Court, had forsaken his
country, and therewith his religion ; and was turned
both bigot and physician, residing now in Brussels.
This man, after few interchanges of compliment with
Sir Edmund Bacon, fell into a hyperbolical predication
of the wonderful miracles done newly by our Lady
at Sichem, the credit whereof, when that worthy knight
wittily questioned, he avowed a particular miracle of
cure wrought by her upon himself. I, coming into
the room in the midst of this discourse, habited not
like a divine, but in such colour and fashion as
might best secure my travel, and hearing my
countryman's zealous and confident relations, at last
asked him this question : — ' Sir,' quoth I, ' put case
this report of yours be granted for true, I beseech
you teach me what difference there is between these
miracles which you say are wrought by this Lady,
and those which were wrought by Vespasian, by
some vestals by charms and spells ; the rather, for
that I have noted, in the late published report of
these miracles, some patients prescribed to come
upon a Friday, and some to wash in such a well
before their approach, and divers other such charm
like observations ? ' The gentleman, not expecting
such a question from me, answered, ' Sir, I do not
profess this kind of scholarship ; but we have in the
city many famous divines, with whom, if it would
please you to confer, you might sooner receive
satisfaction.' I asked him whom he took for the
most eminent divine of that place. He named to me
Father Costerus, an old man, more testy than subtle,
and more able to wrangle than satisfy, undertaking

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC. 79
that he would be very glad to give me conference, if I
would be pleased to come up to the Jesuits' college.
I willingly yielded. In the afternoon the forward
gentleman prevented his time to attend me to the
Father, as he stiled him ; who, as he said, was ready
to entertain me with a meeting. I went alone up
to him. The porter, shutting the door after me,
welcomed me with a Deo gratias. I had not staid
long in the Jesuits' Hall, before Costerus came in to
me ; who, after a friendly salutation, fell into a formal
speech of the unity of that Church, out of which is
no salvation ; and had proceeded to lose his breath
and labour, had not I, as civilly as I might, in
terrupted him with this short answer : — ' Sir, I
beseech you, mistake me not. My nation tells you
of what religion I am. I come not hither out of
any doubt of my professed belief, or any purpose to
change it ; but moving a question to this gentleman
concerning the pretended miracles of the time, he
pleased to refer me to yourself for my answer ;
which motion of his I was the more willing to
embrace for the fame that I have heard of your
learning and worth ; and if you can give me
satisfaction herein, I am ready to receive it.'
Hereupon we settled to our places, at a table in the
end of the hall ; and buckled to a further discourse.
He fell into a poor and imperfect account of the
difference of Divine miracles and diabolical; which
I modestly refuted. From thence he slipped into
a choleric invective against our Church, which, as
he said, could not yield one miracle ; and when I
answered that in our Church we had manifest proofs
of ejection of devils by fasting and prayer, he
answered that, if it could be proved that ever any

80 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
devil was dispossessed in our Church, he would
quit his religion. Many questions were incidentally
traversed by us ; wherein I found no satisfaction
given me. The conference was long and vehement ;
in the heat whereof, who should come in but Father
Baldwin, an English Jesuit, known to me, as by
face, so much more by fame." (Hall first knew him
at Brussels. He was a native of Cornwall, at first,
professor of theology at Louvain, and vice-principal
of the English Jesuit mission in the Netherlands.
He afterwards became rector of the English
seminary at St. Omer.) " He sat down upon a bench
at the farther end of the table, and heard no small
part of our dissertation ; seeming not too well afraid,
that a gentleman of his nation (for being in that
attire I was constantly spoken to by the stile of domi-
natio veslrd) should depart from the Jesuits' college no
better satisfied. On the next morning, therefore, he
sends the same English physician to my lodging,
with a courteous compellation ; professing to take it
unkindly that his countryman should make choice of
any other to confer with than himself, who desired
both mine acquaintance and full satisfaction. Sir
Edmund Bacon, in whose hearing the message was
delivered, gave the secret signs of his utter unwilling
ness to give way to any further conferences, the
issue whereof, since we were to pass further and
beyond the bounds of that protection, might prove
dangerous. I returned a mannerly answer of thanks
to Father Baldwin ; but for any further conference,
that it were bootless. I could not hope to convert
him, and was resolved he should not alter me ; and,
therefore, both of us should rest where we were."
Departing from Brussels the companions went

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC.. Si
on their way to Namur, where on a pleasant and
steep hill-top they found one that was termed a
married hermit, and approved " his wisdom above
his fellows, that could make choice of so cheerful
and sociable a solitariness." Thence they had a
delightful passage up the sweet river Meuse, and
visited Liege. " The great city," Hall thought, might
well be dichotomised into cloisters and hospitals.
He felt inclined, after all the ruin that had come
upon his neglected philology, to play the critic,
and hazard a guess as to the derivation of the name
of the people. They had been of old called
Eburones. Without searching other records than
his own eyes, he thought it should be written
Ebriones, for their streets were moist, though not
with wine, but blood. For three days after a
murder the gates were open and justice shut. The
murderer, though known, might be pursued by
private justice ; public justice could not touch him.
Here was a fine opportunity for revenge, or for
making with a slight pecuniary satisfaction an easy
atonement for the blackest guilt. " O England,
thought I, happy for justice, happy for security !
There you shall find, in every corner, a maumet ;
at every door, a beggar ; in every dish, a priest."
At length the Spa was reached with its famous
waters, the value whereof yet the simple inhabitants
ascribed to their saint, whose heavy foot had made
an ill-shaped impression in a stone of his Sevenir,
the upper well of the Spa. Hall's experience of
the waters was that they were " more wholesome
than pleasant, and yet more famous than wholesome."
The Forest of Ardennes, by which name the
extensive hilly tract in the north-east of France and
6

82 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the south-west of Belgium is familiar to my readers
in the pages of Shakspere, now no less celebrated for
the disaster of Sedan than renowned through its
manufactures as the Lancashire of the two countries,
was, at the time of Hall's visit to the Spa, sufficiently
wild to be spoken of as wide deserts and savage
Ardenna. His, mind was much exercised by the
monsters called in English witch- wolves, there found
in numbers. These were (the reader will please
remember that the time is three hundred years ago)
witches that had put on the shape of ,-those cruel
beasts. There was no doubt of their existence, for
Hall himself saw a boy whose half face was devoured
by one of them near the village, and not many days
before his arrival one of those miscreants had con
fessed, on the wheel, to have devoured two-and-
forty children in that form. Lycanthropy he
thought was a problem for a large volume. His
own solution was that therein the devil played the
double sophister ; yea, the sorcerer with sorcerers,
he both deluded the witch's conceit and the be
holder's eyes. Another thing he could not omit
without sinful oversight. Under the tyranny of the
Inquisition a " confident confessor led to the stake
had sung psalms along the way. The officer, there
upon, had caused his tongue, drawn forth to the
length, to be cut off near the roots. The poor
martyr died in silence ; but, not many months after,
the butcherly officer had a son born with his tongue
hanging down upon his chin, like a deer after a
long chase, which never could be gathered up within
the bounds of his lips. Oh the Divine hand, full
of justice, full of revenge." Whatever may be
thought of lycanthropy, the malformation just

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, RTC. 83
described, upon physiological principles, might be
something more than a coincidence.
Any credulity Hall may have exhibited — though,
bearing in mind that physical science was then
only in the womb, it is hardly fair to tax him with
it — was more than compensated by his thorough
going scepticism in the matter of ecclesiastical
miracles. At one time he intended to write a book
upon the subject, but contented himself with a
tract, which, though it would not perhaps be recom
mended by a board of the faculty of theology,
nevertheless contains some useful hints. He had
noted four ranks of commonly-named miracles, —
" the first, merely reported, not seen to be done ;
the next, seeming to be done, but counterfeited ;
the third, truly done, but not true miracles ; the
last, truly miraculous, but by Satan." As he says,
subtracting these, few remain for either belief or
wonder. A just time was spent at the medicinal wells,
and then the return journey was commenced. In
sailing down the river Meuse, Hall had another con
flict, and a dangerous one, with a Sorbonnist, a
Carmelite Prior, who interpreted the travellers'
kneeling at the Eucharist as an acknowledgment
of transubstantiation. Upon his explaining the
matter, and temperately resisting the railing accu
sation his opponents brought against our Church
and religion, their changing countenances pale with
rage indicated so much peril that Sir Edmund
Bacon, both by eye and tongue, withdrew his friend
from the fray, and he, to avoid further provocation,
at once left their presence. The prior was growing
suspicious, and said that he himself had a green

84 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
satin suit once prepared for his travels into
England. Hall, therefore, found it needful to lie
close at Namur. " The next day," says he, " travel
ling towards Brussels in the company of two
Italian captains, Signor Ascanio Negro, and another
whose name I have forgotten, who, inquiring into
our nation and religion, wondered to hear that we
had any baptism or churches in England, the
congruity of my Latin in respect of their perfect
barbarism, drew me and the rest into their
suspicion, so as I might overhear them muttering
to each other that we were not the mert we appeared.
Straight the one boldly expressed his conceit ; and,
together with this charge, began to inquire of our
condition. I told him that the gentleman he saw
before him was the grandchild of that renowned
Bacon, the great Chancellor of England, a man of
great birth and quality ; and that myself and my
other companion travelled in his attendance to the
Spa, from the train and under the privilege of our
late ambassador ; with which just answer I stopped
their mouths." At Brussels some Englishwomen were
being professed vestals. At Antwerp the travellers
saw " a solemn mass in a shambles." While the
mass was being celebrated, the church was " full
of meat, of butchers, of buyers, some kneeling, most
bargaining, most talking, all busy." This is de
scribed in a satirical vein which leaves room for
some regret. Another curious sight was " an
Englishman, so madly devout, that he had wilfully
mured up himself as an anchorite, the worst of all
prisoners ; there sat he, pent up, for his further
merit, half hunger-starved, for the charity of the
citizens." Hall's curiosity to see a solemn pro-

VISIT TO THE CONTINENT, ETC. 85
cession in the streets on St. John Baptist's Day
might have drawn him into danger, because he kept
his hat on, had not the hulk of a tall Brabanter,
behind whom he stood in a corner, shadowed him
from notice. From Antwerp, which he thought the
paragon of cities, the route lay down the Scheldt to
Flushing. Here the company resolved to stay some
hours, and Hall hasted to Middleburgh to see an
ancient colleague. On his return he found his ship
well out for sea, under sail for England, the master
having taken advantage of a wind which had sprung
up. His friends were all aboard ; so, after looking
long after them in vain, he sadly retraced his steps
to Middleburgh, and, at last, after waiting some time,
by an " inconvenient and tempestuous passage
reached home."

CHAPTER V.
WORK AT HAWSTEAD— CHAPLAIN 70 THE PRINCE
OF WALES— THE OFFER OF WALTHAM.
IN the old parsonage house at Hawstead there
was long preserved a plate of lead with the
motto Imum nolo, summum nequeo, quiesco, adopted,
it has been supposed, by Hall when he first settled
there. A modest ambition and a mind to some
extent familiar with content are indicated ; but were
it not for other sources of information, even
assuming the motto to be the mirror of the man, we
should not be able to go far in gauging his character
at this time. Such sources of information fortunately
we possess. Amongst his earliest devotional writings
are two " Centuries of Meditations and Vows, Divine
and Moral," dedicated to the patron of Hawstead
and his wife. In the dedicatory preface of the first
Century, the author says : — " That I have made there
my homely aphorisms public, needs no other reason
but that, though the world is furnished with other
writings, even to satiety and surfeit, yet of those
which reduce Christianity to practice, there is, at
least, scarce enough ; wherein, yet, / must needs
confess, I had some eye to myself, for Jiaving after a
sort vowed this austere course . of judgment and
practice to myself, I thought it best to acquaint the
world with it, that it may either witness my answer-

WORK AT HAWSTEAD. 87
able proceeding, or check me in my straying therefrom.
By wliich means so many men as I live amongst, so
many monitors T shall have ; which shall point me to
my own rules, and upbraid me with my observations."
Such a clue to character must no doubt be regarded
with some distrust, and the conclusions arrived at
received with some reserve. Still, after making all
deductions, it will, I think, be apparent to the
student of the " Meditations and Vows," that there is
in them a personal element perfectly trustworthy and
reliable, which, together with what is known of Hall
besides, enables us to picture him in outline with
tolerable accuracy. That he was a busy man is
almost superfluous to say ; the idle man he con
sidered the devil's cushion on which he taketh his
free ease. Besides three sermons a week, every one
of which he penned as he hoped to deliver it, not
the fifteen or twenty minutes' effort which some
regard as the ideal at the present day, but studied
compositions full of thought, illustrated in many
ways, — besides these, he was constantly engaged in
study so severe as to excite the alarm of his friends,
and was writing book after book which he sold that
he might buy others. The labour, perhaps, was
lighter to him than to many men because of the
delight he took in imparting his knowledge to
others. Nor was it likely to make of him a mere
book-worm. He was fully sensible of the dangers
of a too strict seclusion in narrowing the view and
warping the sympathies. A chief reason why he
took a wife was the " uncouth solitariness " of the
parsonage, and it is quite consistent that he should
esteem Christian good fellowship better than an
eremitish and melancholy solitariness. In dealing

88 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
with his fellow-men he was cautious and discreet,
particularly in administering reproof, having learned
by experience that some men are thorns, and do not
allow of rough handling ; some nettles, which reward
a gentle touch with a sting and a prick. He was
courteous to all ; but in his private estimate of men
drew a sharp line between what a man could call
his own, and " patrimony and vulgar account of
honour which follows the blood in many generations.
Virtue is not traduced in propagation, nor learning
bequeathed by our will to our heirs." For com
panions he cared little, unless they could teach
him something, or would learn something from him.
Of friends he had not many, but those so tried that
he dared trust them. A friend who was sometimes
a rod he valued, but, like Moses, would run from
him who once proved to be a serpent. Friendship
he had found brittle stuff, and experience told him
that the friend who now loves, may hereafter come
to hate. He did not, therefore, wear his heart upon
his sleeve ; he disclosed himself no whit to his
enemy, somewhat to his friend, wholly to no man,
lest he should be more others' than his own. The
infidelity of friends was all the more painful to him
from his evident sincerity. Most men hold that
speaking well without feeling is permissible, if only
to train our own affections, or to set an ideal before
others. To Hall there seemed to lie hid in this an
habitual hypocrisy, which would one day manifest
itself. His own endeavour was to speak as he
thought. Not unnaturally, this being so, conver
sation was a difficulty to him. It was hard to speak
well, though harder to be silent, without incurring
the charge of affectation, or sullenness, or ignorance.

WORK AT HAWSTEAD.

In his younger days one might almost suppose tlrat
he had been contentious. " I have ever found that
to strive with my superior is furious ; with my
equal, doubtful ; with my inferior, sordid and base ;
with any, full of unquietness." Perhaps, this is a
reminiscence of his literary battles at Cambridge.
Even now it is not hard to detect a passionate
tendency, well controlled however, and firmly kept
in check. There is the characteristic eagerness
in disputation, of which we had some amusing
instances in his adventures in Belgium, though we may
fully credit him with the earnest effort so to order
his courage and mildness that he might be neither
" lion-like in his conversation, nor sheepish in the
defence of a good cause." His splendid generosity
was conspicuous when he begged that his tutor,
Mr. Gilby, might be reinstated in the fellowship at
Emmanuel, to which he was himself immediately
afterwards elected. His modesty everywhere makes
itself felt, and was something more than a decorous
disguise of selfishness. He tells us that " it is
commonly seen that boldness puts men forth before
their time, before their ability. Wherein we have
seen many that, like lapwings and partridges, have
run away with some part of their shell on their
heads ; whence it follows that, as they began
boldly, so they proceed unprofitably, and conclude
not without shame. I would rather be haled by
force of others to great duties, than rush upon them
unbidden. It were better that a man should want
work, than that great works should want a man
answerable to their weight." Words worthy of the
man whose modesty afterwards led him to decline
the bishopric of Gloucester ! Yet disliking, as he did.

90 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
popularity and ostentation, he was very sensitive to
the opinion of those whose opinion he deemed worth
having ; and his admirers will not think any the
worse of him because he sometimes winced under
the contempt for his office displayed by the worldly,
or complained of the neglect with which he was
treated by those who valued birth and wealth more
than the treasures of piety and learning. Over all
and above all was his devoutness of spirit, and his
love of communing with the Invisible, which seemed
to grow more and more intense with advancing
years. When at Spa with Sir Edmund Bacon, he
was wont to leave the romantic valley and go up
" under the solitary hills of Ardenna," there to
meditate. This was the occupation then of his
leisure hours, as it soon became part of his daily
work, and the fruit of those quiet moments we have
in the third Century of " Meditations and Vows,"
dedicated to the companion of his travels.
About the same time Hall appears to have pub
lished a treatise called " Heaven upon Earth." The
volume was little, he said ; perhaps the use more.
He had always thought, according to the Greek
proverb, a great book, a great evil. With a view to
it he had studiously read over some of the moral
writings of some wise heathen, especially those of
the stoical profession, and, among them, Seneca, of
whom he speaks in terms of admiration. "If Seneca
could have had grace to his wit, what wonders
would he have done in this kind ! What divine
might not have yielded him the chair for ' Precepts
of Tranquillity,' without any disparagement ? As he
was, this he hath gained : never any heathen wrote
more divinely : never any philosopher more pro-

WORK AT HAWSTEAD. 91
bably." The little book, as exhaustively as the space
permits, treats of the causes of restlessness, and
points out how peace of mind is to be obtained.
Encouraged by the success of the " Meditations and
Vows," Hall determined to publish the " Art of
Divine Meditation." They were written without
rule ; this was intended to teach the systematic con
templation of heavenly things. In composing it he
confesses " to have received more light from one
obscure nameless monk, who wrote some hundred
and twelve years ago, than from the directions of all
other writers." The method is illustrated by two
meditations, one on Eternal Life, the Other on Death.
To follow him in the minute details would be
tedious, and, maybe, unprofitable, now that so many
masters in the art have given their rules to the
world ; the value he attached to the practice is
suggestive to those who aim at self-improvement,
and the glimpses gained of his habits full of interest
to the biographer. The benefit of meditation he
deemed unspeakable ; it was " the remedy of
security and worldliness, the pastime of saints, the
ladder of heaven, and, in short, the best improve
ment of Christianity." In distinguishing the two
kinds, Extemporal and Deliberate, he says that
God's great book of nature has many capital letters,
and he who cannot spell some words must be an
idle truant. Amongst the hints he gives are that
the clergy should omit no day without meditation,
those in secular callings not many. A subject once
begun should be steadily pursued, the same thought
being dwelt upon until some issue in spiritual profit
is attained. The length of the meditation should
not be judged by the hour-glass, but by the increase

92 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

of devotion. Gerson had sometimes spent four hours
together before he could become master of his
thoughts, and reach a goal. As to place, it should
be solitary, the world without and the world within
both banished. Jesus was alone in the mount, John
Baptist in the desert, David on his bed, Chrysostom
in the bath. It is best to have the same place, our
thoughts through custom being more easily gathered
where we have frequently conversed with God. Like
Isaac, he had always found the best time to be
evening. As to gesture, too, he imitated Isaac, who
meditated walking. He distinctly approves of a
ritual of the body ; in thinking of sin, Ahab's soft
face, the publican's downcast eyes and hand beat
ing on his breast ; if joys of heaven attract the
thoughts, the upturned gaze of Stephen, and David's
hands lift up on high. The neglect of meditation
he considered notoriously shameful, and prejudicial
to the souls of professors. " Unto this only neglect
let me ascribe the commonness of that Laodicean
temper of men ; or, if that be worse, of the dead
coldness which hath stricken the hearts of many,
having left them nothing but the bodies of men, and
visors of Christians: to this only, THEY HAVE NOT
MEDITATED. It is not more impossible to live with
out a heart, than to be devout without meditation.
Would God, therefore, my words could be in this, as
the wise man saith the words of the wise are, like
unto goads in the sides of every reader, to quicken
him up out of this dull and lazy security, to a cheer
ful practice of this Divine meditation. Let him
curse me upon his deathbed, if, looking back from
thence to the bestowing of his former times, he
acknowledges not these hours placed the most

WORK AT HAWSTEAD. 93

happily in his whole life ; if he then wish not he had
worn out more days in so profitable and heavenly
a work." He was also busy writing the earliest of six
decades of " Epistles," which he afterwards collected
and published in three books, each containing two
decades. The first volume appeared in 1608, the
second in the same year, the third in 1 6 1 1 , all being
dedicated to Henry, Prince of Wales. Hall is said
to be the first who published compositions of this
kind in his native tongue. He thus expresses his
claim to the invention in his dedication to the
prince : — " Further, which these times account not
the least praise, your Grace shall herein perceive
a new fashion of discourse by Epistles ; new to our
language, usual to all others, and, as novelty is never
without some plea of use, more free, more familiar,
Thus we do but talk with our friends by our pen,
and express ourselves no whit less easily, somewhat
more digested ly." The " Epistles " embrace a great
variety of topics — the contempt of the world, true
honour, the welfare of the prince, observations on
his travel, miracles, the fear of death, duelling, the
increase of popery, etc., and are addressed to his
patrons, relatives, and some of the well-known men
of the day. One to Mr. W. L. (supposed with good
reason to be Laud), " expostulating the cause of
his unsettledness in religion, which is pleaded to
be our dissensions ; " and another to Mr. Thomas
Sutton, the founder of the Charterhouse, will have
peculiar interest for the historian and the antiquary.
We have already had occasion to make use of some
of them, and shall, as the narrative proceeds, refer
to others

94 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Hall's name does not appear among those of the
divines entrusted with the translation of the Bible.
While the Committee, however, were engaged in
their work, and long before they had given to it
its final form, he was contemplating a revision of
the metrical version of the Psalms. As a satirist
at Cambridge he had ridiculed the propensity of
the Puritans for versifying Scripture ; but he had
not then foreseen the noble work which was to
be initiated by James at the suggestion of Puritan
objectors, nor had he, as a parish priest, felt the
necessity of suitable hymns and music for congre
gational worship. The Church was certainly badly
off in that respect. At the Reformation the old
hymns of the Roman Church had, with almost in
excusable negligence, been turned to little or no
account. Luther, indeed, had utilised some of them,
and had even put into verse the Augsburg Con
fession. The Waldenses, the Lollards, and Bohemian
brethren, too, had been fond of singing, and had
translated and imitated in German metre many of
the metrical compositions of the old faith. But the
English and Swiss reformers had used instead a
metrical version of the Psalms. Marot, about 1 5 40,
in France1 led the way with fifty psalms, and the whole
psalter so treated having been completed by Beza,
was adopted by Calvin. Sir Thomas Wyatt was the
first in England to follow in Marot's steps. His
work has perished, but his labour was continued
by Sternhold and Hopkins, through whose exertions
chiefly the " Old Version," with about forty tunes,
was published in 1562. The psalms contained
in this were allowed to be sung before or after
morning and evening prayer, before or after sermons,

WORK AT HA WSTEAD. 95
and in private houses. This is the version of which
Hall contemplated a revision, and though he does
not appear to have translated more than ten psalms
himself, his idea was subsequently realised, several
editions being set forth, until the New Version by
Tate and Brady was at length licensed by King
William in 1696. How difficult Hall felt the task
to be, and how important to the welfare of the
Church, is clear from the letters to the friends he
consulted, and the earnestness with which he begs
for unsparing criticism of the portion he submitted
to their judgment. He first disclosed his plan to his
old school-fellow and college-friend, Hugh Cholmley,
and after some time laid his work before his cousin
Burton, Archdeacon of Gloucester, through whose
influence he hoped to get the sanction of authority.
To Hugh Cholmley, he wrote as follows : —
" Fear not my immoderate studies. I have a body that
controls me enough in these courses ; my friends need not.
There is nothing whereof I could sooner surfeit, if I durst
neglect my body to satisfy my mind : but, while I affect
knowledge, my weakness checks me and says, 'Better a
little learning than no health.' I yield, and patiently abide
myself debarred of my chosen felicity.
" The little I can get, I am no niggard of; neither am I
more desirous to gather, than willing to impart. The full-
handed are commonly most sparing. We vessels, that have
any empty room, answer the least knock with a hollow
noise. You that are full sound not. If we pardon your
closeness, you may well bear with our profusion. If there
be any wrong, it is to ourselves, that we utter what we
should lay up. It is a pardonable fault, to do less good to
ourselves, that we may do more to others.
"Amongst other endeavours, I have boldly undertaken

96 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

the holy metres of David ; how happily, judge you by what
you see. There is none of all my labours so open to all
censures ; none, whereof I would so willingly bear the
verdict of the wise and judicious.
" Perhaps some think the verse harsh ; whose nice ear
regards roundness more than sense. I embrace smooth
ness ; but affect it not. This is the least good quality of a
verse that intends anything but musical delight.
" Others may blame the difficulty of the tunes, whose
humour cannot be pleased without a greater offence ; for,
to say truth, I never could see good verse written in the
wonted measures. I ever thought them most easy, and
least poetical.
" This fault, if any, will light upon the negligence of our
people, which endure not to take pains for any fit variety.
The French and Dutch have given us worthy examples of
diligence and exquisiteness in this kind. Neither our ears
nor voices are less tunable- Here is nothing wanting, but
will to learning. What is this, but to eat the corn out of
the ear, because we will not abide the labour to grind and
knead it ?
" If the -question be, whether our verse must descend
to them, or they ascend to it, a wise moderation, I think,
would determine it most equal, that each part should remit
somewhat, and both meet in the midst. Thus I have
endeavoured to do, with sincere intent of their good, rather
than my own applause. For it had been easy to have
reached a higher strain, but I durst not ; whether for the
grave majesty of the subject, or benefit of the simplest
reader. "You shall note that I have laboured to keep David's
entire sense, with numbers neither lofty nor slubbered :
which mean is so much more difficult to find, as the
business is more sacred, and the liberty less.
" Many great wits have undertaken this task, which yet
have either not effected it, or have smothered it in their
private desks, and denied it the common light. Amongst

WORK AT HAWSTEAD. 97
the rest were those two rare spirits of the Sidneys, to whom
poesy was as natural, as it is affected of others ; and our
worthy friend, Mr. Sylvester, hath showed me how happily
he hath sometimes turned from his Bartas, to the sweet
singer of Israel. It could not be that in such abundant
plenty of poesy this work should have past unattempted.
Would God I might live to see it perfected, either by my
own hand, or a better !
" In the meantime, let me expect your unpartial sentence,
both concerning the form and sense. Lay aside your love
for awhile, which too oft blinds judgment. And, as it uses
to be done in most equal proceedings of justice, shut me
out of doors, while my verse is discussed; yea, let me
receive not your censure only, but others' by you. This
once, as you love me, play both the informer and the
judge. Whether you allow it, you shall encourage me ;
or correct, you shall amend me ; either your stars or your
spits, that I may use Origen's notes, shall be welcome to
my Margent. It shall be happy for us, if God shall make
our poor labours any way serviceable to His Name and
Church." His letter to Burton, who in 1607 was made
Archdeacon of Gloucester, gives a further insight
into his feelings : —
" Indeed," he says, " my poetry was long since out of
date, and yielded her place to graver studies, ; but whose
vein would it not revive, to look into those heavenly songs ?
I were not worthy to be a divine, if it should repent me
to be a poet with David, after I shall have aged in the
pulpit. This work is holy and strict, and abides not any
youthful or heathenish liberty ; but requires hands free from
profaneness, looseness, affection. It is a service to God
and the Church, by so, much more carefully to be regarded,
as it is more common. For, who is there that will not
challenge a part in this labour, and that shall not find
7

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

himself much more affected with holy measure rightly
composed? "Wherefore I have oft wondered how it could be offensive
to our adversaries, that these Divine ditties, which the
Spirit of God wrote in verse, should be sung in verse ; and
that a Hebrew poem should be made English, For, if
this kind of composition had been unfit, God would never
have made choice of numbers wherein to express Himself.
" Yea, who knows not that some other Scriptures, which
the Spirit hath indited in prose, have yet been happily and
with good allowance put into strict numbers ? If histories
tell us of a wanton poet of old which lost his eyes while
he went about to turn Moses into verse, yet every student
knows, with what good success and commendation Nonnus
hath turned John's Gospel into Greek heroics. And
Apollinarius, that learned Syrian, matched with Basil and
Gregory (who lived in his time) in the terms of this
equality, that Basil's speech was calm and deliberate, but
Apollinarius's rich and copious, wrote, as Suidas reports, all
the Hebrew Scriptures in heroics ; as Sozomen, somewhat
more restrainedly, all the archaeology of the Jews, till
Saul's government, in twenty-four parts ; or, as Socrates,
yet more particularly, all Moses in heroics, and all the
other histories in divers metres : but, however his other
labours lie hid, his ' Metaphrase of the Psalms ' is still in our
hands, with the applause of all the learned, besides the
labours of their own Flaminius and Arias Montanus, to
seek for no more, which have worthily bestowed themselves
in this subject.
" Neither do I see how it can be offensive to our friends,
that we should desire our English metaphrase bettered. I
say nothing to the disgrace of that we have ; I know how
glad our adversaries are of all such advantages, which they
are ready enough to find out without me, ever reproachfully
upbraiding us with these defects. But, since our whole
translation is now universally revised, what inconvenience
or show of innovation can it bear, that the verse should

WORK AT HAWSTEAD. 99
accompany the prose? Especially since it is well known
how rude and homely our English poesy was in those times,
compared with the present ; wherein, if ever, it seeth her
full perfection.
" I have been solicited by some reverend friends to under
take this task, as that which seemed well to accord with
the former exercises of my youth and my present pro
fession. The difficulties I found many ; the work long and
great ; yet not more painful than beneficial to God's
Church, whereto as I dare not profess any sufficiency, so
I will not deny my readiness and utmost endeavour, if I
shall be employed by authority.
" Wherefore, in this part, I do humbly submit myself to
the grave censures of them, whose wisdom manageth these
common affairs of the Church, and am ready either to
stand still or proceed, as I shall see their Cloud or Fire go
before or behind me. Only, howsoever, I shall, for my true
affection to the Church, wish it done by better workmen ;
wherein, as you approve, so further my bold, but not un
profitable motion, and commend it unto greater ears, as I
do you to the Greatest. " Your loving kinsman,
" Joseph Hall."
His plan, for what reasons is not known, was
never carried into execution ; and, if the ten psalms
" metaphrased for a taste of the rest " may be taken
as fairly indicating what the others would be, we
shall be glad that it was so. In 1626 a writer
ventured on the following epigram, but most readers
who look into the ten complete psalms will perhaps
think the praise above the performance.
" You in high straines have sung God's Heavenly Graces,
Which you shall sound in high and heavenly places ;
Sweet Hall ! what Hallelujahs shall you sing
In Heaven's high quire to the Eternall King ! "

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

Much later in life Hall composed some anthems
for the use of the cathedral at Exeter. As a speci
men I select the shortest, for Christmas Day, which
will possibly be thought not devoid of merit.
" Immortal Babe, Who this dear day
Didst change Thy Heaven for our clay,
And didst with flesh Thy Godhead vail,
Eternal Son of God, all hail !
Shine, happy star ! ye Angels, sing
Glory on high to Heaven's King :
Run, shepherds, leave your nightly watch,
See Heaven come down to Bethlehem's cratch.
Worship, ye sages of the east,
The King of Gods in meanness drest ;
O Blessed' Maid, smile and adore
The God, thy womb and arms have bore.
Star, angels, shepherds, and wise sages,
Thou Virgin, glory of all ages,
Restored frame of heaven and earth,
Joy in your dear Redeemer's birth ! "
Thus in ceaseless study and almost continuous
toil the time was passed at Hawstead. At length,
partly through the mean injustice of his patron,
partly through the fame which his own indefatigable
pen had brought him, Hall emerged from the com
parative obscurity of the country vicarage into the
light of court favour, and entered on that course
which eventually brought him to the episcopal
bench. It happened on this wise, in 1608, some
year and a half after his visit to the Spa.'
" My means were but short at Halsted ; yet such as I
oft professed, if my then patron would have added but one
ten pounds by year, which I held to be the value of my
detained due, I should never have removed. One morning,

CHAPLAIN TO THE PRINCE OF WALES. roi
as I lay in my bed, a strong motion was suddenly glanced
into my thoughts of going to London. I arose, and betook
me to the- way. The ground that appeared of that purpose
was to speak with my patron, Sir Robert Drury ; if by occa
sion of the public preachership of St. Edmund's Bury, then
offered me upon good conditions, I might draw him to a
willing yieldance of that parcel of my due maintenance,
which was kept back from my not over-deserving pre
decessor : who, hearing my errand, dissuaded me from
so ungainful an exchange, which had it been to my sensible
advantage, he should have readily given way unto ; but
not offering me the expected encouragement of my con
tinuance. " With him I stayed and preached on the Sunday follow
ing. That day Sir Robert Drury, meeting with the Lord
Denny, fell belike into the commendation of my sermon.
That religious and noble lord had long harboured good
thoughts concerning me upon the reading of those poor
pamphlets which I had formerly published, and long wished
the opportunity to know me. To please him in this desire,
Sir Robert willed me to go and tender my service to his
Lordship ; which I modestly and seriously deprecated j
yet, upon his earnest charge, went to his Lordship's gate,
where I was not sorry to hear of his absence.
" Being now full of cold and distemper in Drury Lane,*
I was found out by a friend, in whom I had formerly no
great interest, one Mr. Gurrey, tutor to the Earl of Essex
(afterwards the famous Parliamentary General). He told me
how well my " Meditations " were accepted at the Prince's
Court ; and earnestly advised me to step over to Richmond,
and preach to his Highness. I strongly pleaded my indis
position of body, and my inpreparation for any such work,
together with my bashful fears, and utter unfitness for such
a presence. My averseness doubled his importunity ; in
fine, he left me not till he had my engagement to preach
* Where the Drurys had a mansion.

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

the Sunday following at Richmond. He made way for me
to that awful pulpit, and encouraged me by the favour of
his Noble Lord, the Earl of Essex. I preached. Through
the favour of my God, that sermon was not so well given
as taken, insomuch as that Sweet Prince signified his desire
to hear me again the Tuesday following. Which done, that
labour gave more contentment than the former : so as that
Grapious Prince both gave me his hand, and commanded
me to his service."
Thus Hall arrived at the dignity of domestic
chaplain to the heir to the crown. The prince
appears to have been, even for a prince, preter-
naturally precocious. He was only six when his
father composed for his use the basilicon doron.
When seven, he sent a letter in French to the States
General of Holland, explaining his great regard for
them and gratitude for the good opinion they enter
tained of him, and desiring them to make use of
his interest with the king. In 1605, at the age of
eleven, he went with his royal parents from Wood
stock to Oxford. The visitors were received with
great solemnity by the University. Christ Church,
under Dr. John King, who became Bishop of London
in 161 1, hospitably lodged the king and queen,
and provided an evening's amusement in the shape
of a dramatic representation, a play, called Vertumnus,
having been written specially for the occasion. But
Christ Church had not then any monopoly in royal
pupils, and the honour of matriculating the prince
fell to Magdalen, the president's apartments during
his four days' residence being given up to him.
New College, too, gave a dinner, and St. John's was
ready with another comedy, also strangely called
Vertumnus, but (the prince's biographer says) quite

CHAPLAIN TO THE PRINCE OF WALES. 103
different in scope and execution from its Christ
Church rival. Of intellectual pleasures there must
have been more than enough. Numerous disputa
tions were held, and the prince was well pleased
with the ready wit of the disputants. One question
disputed was whether the saints and angels know
the thoughts of the heart ; a second was not so hard
— whether pastors are not obliged to visit the sick
during the plague ; a third might still be submitted
to Dr. Burdon Sanderson — whether children imbibe
the temper with the milk of their nurses ; a fourth
indicates a respectful deference to the views of
the author of the Counterblast— -the use of tobacco.
In the year Hall was appointed chaplain, an
account of the four days' residence was published
under the title " Rex Platonicus, sive Muss Reg-
nantes," with a dedication to the prince. The author
remarks that the University had seen so much in
that time of his Highness's temper and genius as
answered their most sanguine wishes. With all
allowance for academic unction, the subject of
these flattering attentions is generally admitted to
have deserved many, of the good things said of him.
He was an attentive hearer of sermons, and dis
tinguished such as excelled, a strict attender on
public worship, a watchful guardian of his somewhat
large " family," which, before he was eighteen,
numbered about five hundred, and, unlike his august
father, was never heard to indulge in an oath. To
check the very common habit of swearing he ordered
boxes to be kept at his three houses, St. James's,
Richmond, and Nonsuch, for the reception of fines,
to be distributed to the poor. Theologically he
inclined to the Puritans, and is said to have expressed

104 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
his intention, in case he came to the throne, of doing.
all in his power to effect a reconciliation with them.
Neal calls him the " darling of the Puritans."
Bishop Goodman thought him a little self-willed.
His mother loved him less than Charles. His father
conceived a strong antipathy to him on the ground
of his obtrusiveness, whether justly or not is hard
to say. He often provoked his brother Charles to
tears, and sometimes taunted him with the weakness
of his legs. If it be true that, at the age of seventeen,
he requested that he might preside at the Privy
Council, he certainly was not lacking in self-reliance.
His passion for the Countess of Essex, afterwards
divorced and re-married to Rochester, whose rising
fortunes and handsome figure proved more attractive
than the earnest love of the boy prince, is admitted
by his most partial biographer. But, upon the whole,
the verdict of those who have weighed him in the
balance has been that he was manly, patriotic, a
good supporter of the army and navy, accomplished,
sober, chaste, temperate, honourable, upright, reli
gious. And it is no small praise to Hall that out
of the twenty-four royal chaplains, amid all the
conflicting influences of such a household, he became
the chief favourite of his young master.
On his return to London from his interview with
the prince, his patron, seeing him looked after by
some great persons, began to wish him at home,
and told him that some one or other would be snatch
ing him up.
" I answered, that it was in his power to prevent. Would
he be pleased to make my maintenance but so competent
as in right it should be, I would never stir from him.
Jnstead of condescending, it pleased him to fall into an

THE OFFER OF WALTHAM. 105
earnest expostulation of the rate of competencies ; affirming
the variableness thereof, according to our own estimation,
and our either raising or moderating the causes of our
expenses. I showed him the insufficiency of my means,
that I was forced to write books to buy books. Shortly,
some harsh and unpleasing answer so disheartened me,
that I resolved to embrace the first opportunity of my
remove. " Now, while I was taken up with these anxious thoughts,
a messenger (it was Sir Robert Wingfield of Northampton's
son) came to me from the Lord Denny, now Earl of
Norwich, my after-most-honourable patron, entreating me
from his Lordship to speak with him. No sooner came I
thither, than, after a glad and noble welcome, I was enter
tained with the earnest offer of Waltham. The conditions
were, like the mover of them, free and bountiful. I received
them as from the munificent hand of my God, and returned
full of the cheerful acknowledgments of a gracious Provi
dence over me.
" Too late now did my former Noble Patron relent, and
offer me those terms, which had, before, fastened me for
ever. I returned home, happy in a new master, and in a
new patron, betwixt whom I divided myself and my labours
with much comfort and no less acceptation."

CHAPTER VI.
FAREWELL TO HAWSTEAD.— WALTHAM.— HALL IN
COUNSEL, ETC.
BEFORE leaving Hawstead, Hall addressed the
following letter to Sir Robert Drury and his
lady concerning his removal from them.
"With how unwilling a heart I leave you, He knows,
that searches the heart : neither durst I go, but that I
sensibly see His hand pulling me from you. Indeed,
desire of competency betrayed me at first, and drew mine
eyes to look aside ; but, when I bent them upon the place
and saw the number and the need of the people, together
with their hunger and applause, meeting with the circum
stances of God's strange conveyance of this offer to me,
I saw that was but as the fowler's feather to make me stoop ;
and, contemning that respect of myself, I sincerely acknow
ledged higher motives of my yielding, and resolved I might
not resist.
" You are dear to me, as a charge to a pastor ; if my
pains to you have not proved it, suspect me. Yet I leave
you. God calls me to a greater work, I must follow Him.
It were more ease to me to live secretly hidden in that
quiet obscurity, as Saul amongst the stuff, than to be
drawn out to the eye of the world, to act so high a part
before a thousand witnesses. In this point, if I seem to
neglect you, blame me not; I must neglect and forget
myself. " I can but labour wheresoever I am. God knows how

FAREWELL TO HAWSTEAD. 107
willingly I do that, whether there or here. I shall dig, and
delve, and plant, in what ground soever my Master sets me.
If He take me to a larger field, complain you not of loss,
while the Church may gain.
" But, you are my own charge ; no wise father neglects
his own, in compassion of the greater need of others. Yet
consider, that even careful parents, when the prince com
mands, leave their families, and go to warfare.
" What if God had called me to heaven ? Would you have
grudged my departure? Imagine that I am there, where
I shall be ; although the case be not to you altogether so
hopeless ; for, now I may hear of you, visit you, renew my
holy counsels, and be mutually comforted from you ; there,
none of these. He that will once transpose me from earth
to heaven, hath now chosen to transpose me from one piece
of earth to another. What is here worthy of your sorrow,
worthy of complaint ? That should be for my own good,
this shall be for the good of many. If your experience
have taught you that my labours do promise profit, obtain
of yourself to deny yourself so much, as to rejoice that the
loss of a few should be the advantage of many souls.
Though, why do I speak of loss ? I speak that, as you
fear, not my own, and your affection causes that fear,
rather than the occasion.
" The God of the Harvest shall send you a labourer
more able, as careful. That is my prayer, and hope, and
shall be my joy. I dare not leave, but in this expectation,
this assurance. Whatever become of me, it shall be my
greatest comfort to hear you commend your change ; and
to see your happy progress in those ways I have both
showed you and beaten. So shall we meet in the end,
and never part."
It is evident from this letter, called forth by ex
pressions of regret at his departure (no doubt sincere)
either verbal or in writing, that, in spite of the recent
differences between him and Drury, the bond of

108 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
charity had been but slightly injured and quickly
repaired. I am unable to ascertain the exact date
of his leaving Hawstead ; but there is an entry in
the register of that church, which shows that it was
probably before the summer of 1608. The entry
runs thus: "July 4. 1608 — Ezekiel Edgar, clericus,
in art. mag. sup. prses. Roberti Drury Mil. Vacan.
per resignationem ult. incumb."
His new patron, of whom he always spoke with
the utmost affection, was a man who, winning his
Sovereign's favour, passed from the condition of a
country gentleman to the highest ranks of the
nobility. Born in 1569, Edward Denny was
knighted at the early age of twenty. When King
James passed from Scotland to London at his acces
sion to the throne, Sir Edward was High Sheriff
of Hertfordshire, and met him with a noble retinue
of a hundred and forty men, suitably apparelled and
well-mounted, and made his Majesty a present of a
fine steed with rich accoutrements, a no mean gift
about the time when Sir Nicholas Arnold's * efforts to
improve our breed of English horses were beginning
to be felt. Next year he was summoned to Parlia
ment by the title of Baron Denny of Waltham. In
1626 he was made Earl of Norwich. His wife was
Mary, third daughter of the Earl of Exeter, Thomas
Cecil, eldest son of Lord Burleigh, and ancestor of the

* Sir Nicholas Arnold, third son of John Arnold, of Llan-
vihangel Crucorniensis, Monmouthshire, was Lord Deputy of
Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth, and is said by Holinshed
(" Chronicles") to have been the first improver of the breed of
English horses. He imported the best blood of Spain and
other countries, and at Higham Court, Gloucestershire, had
a stud of above three hundred.

WALTHAM. 109

present Marquis of Exeter, by whom he had one
child, Honora, who married Viscount Doncaster, our
ambassador to France. Burleigh's younger son,
Robert Cecil, it will be remembered, was made Earl
of Salisbury in 1605, and is the ancestor of the
present Marquis of Salisbury. Hall was thus
brought under the immediate notice of the most
distinguished families in the state, while his friend
ship with the Drurys was not ended, since we find
him, some years after this, preaching at the dedication
of the chapel of the Countess of Exeter, the second
earl's second wife, who was a daughter of Sir William
Drury, of Hawstead.
Waltham Church, of which Hall now became
incumbent, was one of great historical interest.
It was the Abbey Church originally founded by
King Harold, and dedicated at first to the Holy
Cross, afterwards to St. Laurence. Harold lived
only four years after laying the foundations ; the
remainder was, therefore, built with the rest of the
Abbey by degrees, and through the munificence of
several benefactors, and was not completed until
perhaps the time of Henry II. At the Reformation
the chancel and choir had been pulled down, and,
unfortunately, the central tower had partly fallen.
A wall had, therefore, been run up at the east end,
and a new tower erected at the west end. As in
the case of other abbey churches, part of the sacred
inclosure had become the garden land of the lord
of the manor, and towards the end of Queen
Elizabeth's reign, Sir Edward Denny's gardener
had discovered the coffin of King Harold, who,
together with his two brothers, was buried in the
church he founded. The king's bones, we are told,

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

lay in their proper order, without any kind of dirt,
but, upon being touched, mouldered into dust. The
Abbey having engrossed all the tithes and supplied
the cure by one of their own members, the Church
was left at the dissolution with a wretched pittance
of £8 a year, and if the " donative," as it was
called to distinguish it from rectory, vicarage,
incumbency, or curacy, had not been endowed by
Sir Edward Denny, Hall would have found the
change little to his advantage.
On the ist of May, 1608, Hall preached at Paul's
Cross the first of his published sermons, on Pharisaism'
and Christianity. As might be expected after recent
events, the Jesuits are roundly denounced. " A
poor widow's cottage filled the paunch of an old
Pharisee ; how many fair patrimonies of devout
young gentlemen Druryed by them (pardon the
word, it is their own ; the thing I know and can
witness) have gone down the throat of these
Loyolists, let their own Quodlibet and Catechism
report. What speak I of secular inheritances ?
These eyes have seen no mean houses of devotion
and charity swallowed up by them. As for their
ambitious insinuations, not only all their own
religious enviously cry down, but the whole world
sees, and rings of. What oar of state can stir, with
out their rowing ? What kingdom either stands or
falls without their intermeddling ? What noble
family complains not of their prowling and stealth ?
And all this with a face of sad piety and stern
mortification ! " He spoke, too, with burning words
of the dissensions in the Church ; of simony and
sacrilege ; of the " multitude of unregarded charges
and souls dying and starved for want of spiritual

WALTHAM.

provision ; " of courtiers grating upon poor trades
with hard monopolies ; of merchants loading them
with deep and unreasonable prices, and making them
pay dear for days ; of great men wringing the poor
sponges of the commonalty into their private purses,
for the maintenance of pride and excess ; of cor
morant cornmongers, hatching up a dearth in the
time of plenty. God, he told these last, sends grain ;
but many times the devil sends garners. The earth
had been no niggard in yielding, they had been
lavish in transporting and concealing. Let them
not talk of the extreme frosts. If their charity
were not more frozen than ever the earth was,
mean housekeepers would not need to beg, nor the
meanest to starve for want of bread. Drunkenness
he lashes with a scorpion-whip, not unworthy of the
present eloquent Canon of Westminster. " How
shamefully is this vice, especially, grown upon us
with time ! We knew it once in our ordinary speech
appropriated to beggars ; now, gallants fight for it.
This beastliness had wont to be bashful; now, it is
impudent ; once, children were wont to shout at a
drunkard, as some foul wonder ; now, not to be
drunk is quarrel enough among men, among friends ;
those knees that we were wont to bow to the God
of Heaven, are now bent to Bacchus in a paganish,
bestial, devilish devotion. To leave the title of
Christians, for shame let us be either men or beasts ! "
Of Hall's nine brothers and sisters we know little.
With his good elder brother, to whose entreaties
he owed his university education, we are already
acquainted. A younger brother, Samuel, had some
.intentions, whether realised or not is uncertain, of
entering Holy Orders. A sister was married to the

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

Rev. John Brinsley, whose son of the same name,
educated at Emmanuel, was afterwards lecturer at
Yarmouth, where he died in 1664, and was buried,
aged sixty-four, in the Church of St. Nicholas. This
latter was the author of the " Ludus Literarius, or
the Grammar Schoole," dedicated to the Princes
Henry and Charles, and published in 16 12 with a
commendatory preface by Hall. He also wrote
several elementary books for the use of schools.
Mr. Edmund Sleigh, too, Hall's maternal uncle at
Derby, has come before us, with open purse defraying
in part his nephew's expenses. His cousin Burton,
whom he consulted concerning the version of the
Psalms, was Archdeacon of Gloucester. His father
and father-in-law both appear at this time in the
" Epistles," and his intense devotion to his mother has
already been described in his own affectionate words.
But, so far as I am aware, Hall's works give us no
further insight into the elder portion of the family
circle. The little light we have, however, is enough
to show the affection with which he was regarded,
and the position he held as the comforter and coun
sellor of them all. From a letter dedicated to his
father, the subject of which was the fear of death, it
might be fairly conjectured that the old man was
now approaching his end. The son sent him the
following message of comfort : —
" You complain that you fear death ; he is no man that
doth not. Besides the pain, nature shrinks at the thought
of parting. If you would learn the remedy, know the cause
— for that she is ignorant and foolish. She would not be
cowardly, if she were not foolish. Our fear is from doubt,
and our doubt from unbelief; and whence is our unbelief
but chiefly from ignorance ? She knows not what good

HALL IN COUNSEL, ETC. 113
is elsewhere ; she believes not her part in it. Get once
true knowledge and true faith, your fear shall vanish alone.
Assurance of heavenly things makes us willing to part with
earthly; he cannot contemn this life that knows not the
other. If you would despise earth, therefore, think of
heaven; if you would have death easy, think of that glorious
life that follows it. Certainly, if we can endure pain for
health, much more shall we abide a few pangs for glory.
"Think how fondly we fear a vanquished, enemy. Lo !
Christ hath triumphed over death ; He bleedeth and gaspeth
under us, and yet we tremble. It is enough to us that
Christ died ; neither would He have died, but that we might
die with safety and pleasure.
" Think, that death is necessarily annexed to nature.
We are for a time, on condition that we shall not be ;
we receive life, but upon the terms of redelivery. Neces
sity makes some things easy, as it usually makes easy things
difficult. It is a fond injustice to embrace the covenant,
and shrink at the condition.
" Think, there is but one common road to all flesh ;
there are no bye-paths of any fairer or nearer way, no,
not for princes. Even company abateth miseries, and the
commonness of an evil makes it less fearful. What worlds
of men are gone before us ; yea, how many thousands out
of one field ! How many crowns and sceptres lie piled
up at the gates of death, which their owners have left there
as spoils to the conqueror ! Have we been at so many
graves, and so often seen ourselves die in our friends ;
and do we shrink, when our course cometh ? Imagine
you alone were exempted from the common law of man
kind, or were condemned to Methuselah's age; assure
yourself death is not now so fearful as your life would
then be wearisome.
" Think, not so much what death is, as from whom
he comes, and for what. We receive even homely mes
sengers and from great persons not without respect to their
masters ; and what matters it who he be, so he bring us
8

H4 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
good news ? What news can be better than this — that God
sends for you to take possession of a kingdom ? Let them
fear death which know him but as a pursuivant sent from
hell ; whom their conscience accuses of a life wilfully
filthy, and binds over secretly to condemnation. We know
whither we are going, and whom we have believed. Let
us pass on cheerfully through these black gates, unto
our glory.
" Lastly, know that our improvidence only adds terror
unto death. Think of death, and you shall not fear it.
Do you not see that even bears and tigers seem not terrible
to those that live with them ? How have we seen their
keepers sport with them, when the beholders durst scarce
trust their chain ? Be acquainted with death ; though he
look grim upon you at the first, you shall find him, yea,
you shall make him, a good companion. Familiarity cannot
stand with fear.
" These are recipes enough. Too much store doth
rather overwhelm than satisfy. Take but these, and I dare
promise you security."
It is pleasing to relate that filial piety reaped its
reward. Within a few months the father had passed
away, finishing his course with joy. Writing to
Sir Andrew Asteley, Hall says : —
" Since I saw you I saw my father die. How boldly
and merrily did he pass through the gates of death, as if
they had had no terror, but much pleasure ! Oh, that I
could as easily imitate, as not forget him ! We know we
must tread the same way; how happy if with the same
mind ! . . . We lament the loss of our parents ; how soon
shall our sons bewail ours ! Lo ! I that write this, and you
that read it, how long are we here? It were well if the
world were as our tent, yea, as our inn, if not to lodge, yet
to bait in but now it is only our thoroughfare; one
generation passeth another cometh, none stayeth. If this

HALL IN COUNSEL, ETC. 115
earth were a paradise, and this which we call our life were
sweet as the joys above, yet, how should this fickleness of
it cool our delight ! "
His father-in-law, Mr. George Weniffe, having
complained of dulness, Hall writes exciting him to
Christian cheerfulness, and, while reminding him
that his disease was common and not unknown
even to minds capable of contemning vanities, pointed
out that "we sin if we rejoice not. There is not
more error in false mirth than in unjust heaviness.
If worldlings offend, that they laugh when they
should mourn ; we shall offend no less if we droop
in cause of cheerfulness." His sister, Mrs. Brinsley,
told him of her sorrow, that she could not enough
grieve for her sins. The reply is ample proof that
the writer, by the comfort wherewith he was himself
comforted, was able to comfort them in trouble.
" It is seldom seen that a silent grief speeds well. For
either a man must have strong hands of resolution to
strangle it in his bosom, or else it drives him to some
secret mischief; whereas sorrow revealed is half remedied,
and even abates in the uttering. Your grief was wisely
disclosed, and shall be as strangely answered.
" I am glad of your sorrow, and should weep for you if
you did not thus mourn. Your sorrow is that you cannot
enough grieve for your sins. Let me tell you that the
angels themselves sing at this lamentation; neither doth
the earth afford any so sweet music in the ears of God.
This heaviness is the way to joy. Worldly sorrow is worthy
of pity, because it leadeth to death; but this deserves
nothing but envy and gratulation.
" If those tears were common hell would not so enlarge
itself. Never sin repented of was punished, and never any
thus mourned and repented not. Lo ! you have done that

116 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
which you grieve you have not done. That good God,
Whose act is His will, accounts of our will as our deed. If
He required sorrow proportionable to the heinousness of our
sins, there were no end of our mourning. Now, His mercy
regards not so much the measure as the truth of it, and
accounts us to have that which we complain to want.
" I never knew any truly penitent which, in the depth of
his remorse, was afraid of sorrowing too much ; nor any unre
pentant, which wished to sorrow more. Yea, let me tell
you, that the sorrow is better and more than that deep
heaviness for sin which you desire. Many have been
vexed with an extreme remorse for some sin, from the
gripe of a galled conscience, which yet never came where -
true repentance grew, in whom the conscience plays at once
the accuser, witness, judge, tormentor ; but an earnest
grief for the want of grief was never found in any but a
gracious heart. You are happy, and complain. Tell me, I
beseech you — this sorrow which you mourn to want, is it a
grace of the Spirit of God, or not? If not, why do you
sorrow to want it ? If it be, oh, how happy is it to grieve
for want of grace ! The God of all Truth and Blessedness
hath said, Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after
righteousness ; and with the same breath, Blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. You say you
mourn ; Christ saith you are blessed. Either now distrust
your Saviour, or else confess your happiness, and, with
patience, expect His promised consolation.
" What do you fear ? You see others stand like strong
oaks, unshaken, unremoved ; you are but a reed, a feeble
plant, tossed and bowed with every wind, and with much
agitation bruised. Lo ! you are in tender and favourable
hands, that never brake any whom their sins bruised, never
bruised any whom their temptations have bowed. You are
but flax, and your best is not a flame, but an obscure
smoke of grace. Lo ! here His Spirit is as a soft wind, not
as cold water ; He will kindle, will never quench you.
" The sorrow you want is His gift ; take heed, lest while

HALL IN. COUNSEL, ETC. 117
you vex yourself with dislike of the measure, you grudge at
the Giver. Beggars may not choose. This portion He
hath vouchsafed to give you. If you have any, it is more
than He was bound to bestow; yet you say, 'What, no
more ! ' as if you took it unkindly that He is no more
liberal. Even these holy discontentments are dangerous.
Desire more, so much as you can ; but repine not, when
you do not attain. Desire, but so as you be free from
impatience, free from unthankfulness. Those that have
tried can say how difficult it is to complain, with due reser
vation of thanks. Neither know I whether is worse, to. long
for good things impatiently, or not at all to desire them.
" The fault of your sorrow is rather in your conceit than
in itself. And, if indeed you mourn not enough, stay but
God's leisure, and your eyes shall run over with tears.
How many do you see sport with their sins, yea, brag of
them ! How many that should die for want of pastime, if
they might not sin freely, and more freely talk of it ! What
a saint are you to these that can droop under the memory
of the frailty of youth, and never think you have spent
enow tears ! Yet so I encourage you in what you have as
one that persuades you not to desist from suing for more.
It is good to be covetous of grace, and to have our desires
herein enlarged with our receipts. Weep still, and still
desire to weep ; but let your tears be as the rain in a
sunshine, comfortable and hopeful, and let not your longing
savour of murmur or distrust. These tears are reserved,
this hunger shall be satisfied, this sorrow shall be comforted.
There is nothing betwixt God and you but time. Prescribe
not to His wisdom, hasten not His mercy. His grace is
enough for you, His glory shall be more than enough."
To his brother he wrote the following letter,
invaluable to those who would understand his
character, and a useful guide to the ministry : —
" It is a great and holy purpose, dear brother, that you

118 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
have entertained of serving God in His Church ; for, what
higher or more worthy employment can there be than to do
these Divine duties to such a Master, and such a Mother ?
"Wherein yet I should little rejoice if any necessity had
cast you upon this refuge ; for I hate and grieve to think
that any desperate mind should make divinity but a shift,
and dishonour this mistress by being forsaken of the
world. This hath been the drift of your education, to
this you were born and dedicated in a direct course.
I do willingly encourage you, but not without many
cautions. Enter not into so great a service without
much foresight. When your hand is at the plough, it
is too late to look back. Bethink yourself seriously of
the weight of this charge, and let your holy desire be
allayed with some trembling. It is a foolish rashness of
young heads, when they are in God's chair, to wonder how
they came thither, and to forget the awfumess of that place
in the confidence of their own strength, which is ever so
much less as it is more esteemed. I commend not the
wayward excuses of Moses, nor the peremptory unwillingness
of Ammonius and friar Thomas, who maimed themselves that
they might be ruefully incapable. Betwixt both these there
is an humble modesty, and religious fearfulness, easily to be
noted in those whom the Church honours with the names of
her Fathers, worthy your imitation ; wherein yet you shall
need no precedents, if you well consider what worth of
parts, what strictness of carriage, what weight of offices,
God expects in this vocation.
" Know first, that in this place there will be more
holiness required of you than in the ordinary station of a
Christian ; for, whereas before you were but as a common
line, now God sets you for a copy of sanctification unto
others, wherein every fault is both notable and dangerous-
Here is looked for a settled acquaintance with God, and
experience both of the proceedings of grace, and of the
offers and repulses of temptations, which in vain we shall
hope to manage in other hearts, if we have not found in our

HALL IN COUNSEL, ETC. 119
own. To speak by aim or rote of repentance, of contrition,
of the degrees of regeneration and faith, is both harsh, and
seldom profitable. We trust those physicians best which
have tried the virtue of their drugs, esteeming not of those
who have only borrowed of their books. Here will be
expected a free and absolute government of affections, that
you can so steer your own vessel as not to be transported with
fury, with self-love, with immoderation of pleasures, of cares,
of desires, with excess of passions ; in all which so must
you demean yourself as one that thinks he is no man
of the world, but of God, as one too good by his double
calling for that which is either the felicity or impotency of
beasts. Here must be continual and inward exercise of
mortification, and severe Christianity, whereby the heart is
held in due awe, and the weak flames of the spirit quickened,
the ashes of our dulness blown off, a practice necessary in
him whose devotion must set many hearts on fire. Here must
be wisdom and inoffensiveness of carriage, as of one that goes
ever under monitors and knows other men's indifferences are
his evils. No man hath such need to keep a strict mean.
- Setting aside contempt, even in observation, behold, we are
made a gazing stock to the world, to angels, to men. The very
sail of your estate must be moderated, which if it bear too
high, as seldom, incurs the censure of profusion and Epicur
ism ; if too low, of a base and unbeseeming earthliness.
Your hand may not be too close for others' need, nor too
open for your own. Your conversation may not be rough and
sullen, nor over familiar and fawning, whereof the one breeds
a conceit of pride and strangeness, the other contempt ; not
loosely merry, not cynically unsociable ; not contentious in
small injuries, in great not hurtfully patient to the Church.
Your attire (for whither do not censures reach ?) not youth
fully wanton, not, in these years, affectedly ancient, but grave
and comely like the mind, like the behaviour of the wearer.
Your gesture like your habit, neither savouring of giddy light
ness, nor overly insolence, nor wantonness, nor dull neglect
of yourself, but such as may beseem a mortified mind, full of

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

worthy spirits. Your speech, like your gesture, not scurrilous,
not detracting, not idle, not boasting, not rotten, not
peremptory; but honest, mild, fruitful, savoury, and such
as may both argue and work grace. Your deliberations
mature, your resolutions well grounded, your devices sage
and holy. Neither will it serve you to be thus good alone ;
but, if God shall give you the honour of this estate, the world
will look you should be the grave guide of a well-ordered
family. For this is proper to us, that the vices of our charge
reflect upon us, the sins of others are our reproach. If
another man's children miscarry, the patient is pitied, if a
minister's, censured ; yea, not our servant is faulty without
our blemish. In all these occasions, a misery incident to
us alone, our grief is our shame."
The hint given by Hall that the minister's dress
in those years should not be " affectedly ancient," is
curiously illustrated by Archbishop Bancroft's letter
about pluralities in 1 6 1 0. It is there said that never
was clerical pride in the matter of apparel so great as
it then was, from the dean to every curate, nothing
being left that way to distinguish a bishop from any
of them. Deans, nay even some archdeacons and
inferior ministers, were to be found in their velvet,
damask, or satin cassocks, with their silk nether-
stocks. These last — sometimes " wonderful to
beholde " — had been prohibited by Queen Elizabeth
to all under the degree of a knight, excepting
gentlemen of her household with a few others, and
such as could afford to spend £200 a year. The
same letter, too, throws some light upon Hall's other
remarks about the " grave guide of a well-ordered
family." The wives, in the cost and vanity of their
apparel, exceeded as much or more, and this was
the chief cause of the outcry against double-beneficed

HALL IN COUNSEL, ETC. iai
men, and of the prevailing envy and heart-burning
against their calling and estates. The archbishop
severely reprimands the offenders, reminding them
that many of them took more care to garnish them
selves than to furnish their studies with useful books.
From the • foregoing letters, not brought together
in strict order of time, but all belonging to the few
years immediately preceding 1 6 1 1, the reader will
be able to judge of Hall's power of sympathy, a
splendid gift which he possessed in an eminent
degree, a treasure of the soul which increased in
richness with the ever-growing fulness of his spiritual
life. Before we resume the narrative, let us glance
at one or two instances of his helpfulness in other
directions. Thomas James, D.D., born about 1 5 7 1,
at Newport, Isle of Wight, was a scholar of Win
chester School and fellow of New College. In 15 99
he published the " Philobiblion " of Richard of
Durham, and for this service to literature was made
keeper of the Bodleian. He subsequently published,
a catalogue of the books in that famous library, an
" Apology for John Wickliffe," " Concordances to the
Fathers," " The Jesuits' Downfall," and other works.
But his great ambition was to collate the manuscripts
of the Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, and it is
here that he is brought into contact with Hall, who
addressed him thus : —
" Sir, I know no man so like as you to make posterity
his debtor. Our adversaries, knowing of themselves that
which Tertullian saith of all heresies, that if appeal be made
to the sacred bench of prophets and apostles, they cannot
stand, remove the suit of religion craftily into the court of
the Fathers, a reverend trial as any under heaven; where
it cannot be spoken how confidently they triumph ere the

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

conflict. ' Give us the Fathers for our judges,' say
Campion and Possevine, ' the day is ours.' And whence
is this courage ? Is antiquity our enemy, their advocate ?
Certainly, it cannot be truth, that is new ; we would
renounce our religion if it could be overlooked for time.
Let go equity ; the older take both. There be two things,
then, that give them heart in this provocation — one, the
bastardy of false fathers ; the other, the corruption of the
true. . . . Plainly, how are the honoured volumes of
faithful antiquity blurred, interlined, altered, depraved by
subtle treachery, and made to speak what they meant not !
. . . Hence, those Fathers are somewhere not ours, what
wonder ? while they are not themselves. Your industry
hath offered, and that motion is lively and heroical, to
challenge all their learned and excellent pages from injury
of corruption, to restore them to themselves, and to us.
That which all the learned of our times have but desired
to see done, you proffer to effect. Your essay in Cyprian
and Austin is happy, and justly applauded. All our
libraries, whom your diligent hand hath ransacked, offer
their aid in such abundance of manuscripts, as all Europe
would envy to see that in one island. After all this, for
that the most spiteful imputation to our truth is novelty,
you offer to deduce her pedigree from those primitive
times, through the successions of all ages ; and to bring
into the light of the world many, as yet obscure, but no
less certain and authentical patrons, in a continued line
of defence. You have given proof enough that these are
no glorious vaunts, but the zealous challenges of an able
champion. What wanteth then ? Let me say for you :
not a heart, not a head, not a hand ; but, which I almost
scorn to name in such a cause, a purse. If this continue
your hinderance, it will not be more our loss than shame.
Hear me a little, ye great and wealthy. Hath God loaded
you with so much substance, and will you not lend Him a
little of His own ? Shall your riot be fed with excess, while
God's cause shall starve for want? Shall our adversaries

HALL IN COUNSEL, ETC. 123
so insultingly outbid us, and, in the zeal of their profusion,
laugh at our heartless and cold niggardliness? Shall
heavenly truth lie in the dust for want of a little stamped
earth to raise her ? How can you so much any way honour
God, yea, yourselves, deserve of posterity, pleasure the
Church, and make you so good friends of your mammon ?
Let not the next age say that she had so unkind prede
cessors. Fetch forth of your superfluous store, and cast in
your rich gifts into this treasury of the Temple. The Lord
and His Church have need. For you, it angers me to see
how that flattering Possevinus smoothly entices you from
us, with golden offers, upon the advantage of our neglect.
... As if we were not as able to encourage, to reward
desert. Hath virtue no patrons on this side of the Alps ?
Are those hills only the thresholds of honour ? I plead
not, because I cannot fear you ; but who sees not how
munificently our Church scattereth her bountiful favours
upon less merit ? If your day be not yet come, expect it ;
God and the Church owe you a benefit ; if their payment
be long, it is sure. Only go on with courage in those your
high endeavours, and in the meantime think it great
recompense to have deserved."
This appeal was not successful in bringing the
necessary funds, and James's design was never carried
out. Still, he did not yield to the seductions of
Possevin. The preferment Hall anticipated for him
came at last in the shape of the Rectory of Mongeham,
Kent, and the Sub-deanery of Wells. He died at
Oxford, August 1629.
Hall's public spirit and readiness in prompting to
good was also exhibited in another event which
happily passed beyond the sphere of design. This
was the founding of the Charter House. Mr, Thomas
Sutton, who was one of the richest commoners in
England, was known to have long purposed that

124 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
munificent work, but, apparently, was hesitating as
to the time. Hall urged him to proceed, and,
amongst other things, said, " You cannot but know
that your full hand and worthy purposes have
possessed the world with much expectation. What
speak I of the world ? whose honest and reason
able claims cannot be contemned with honour, nor
disappointed without dishonour. The God of
Heaven, Which hath lent you this abundance, and
given you the gracious thoughts of charity, of piety,
looks long for the issue of both, and will easily
complain, either of too little, or too late. . . . The
Christian knows that Well done, faithful servant, is
a thousand times more sweet a note than Soul, take
thine ease. Blessed be that God Which hath given
you a heart to forethink this, and, in this dry and
dead age, a will to honour Him with His own, and
to credit His gospel with your beneficence. So, we
are upbraided with barrenness ; your name hath
been publicly opposed to these challenges, as in
whom it shall be seen, that the truth hath friends
that can give. I neither distrust nor persuade you,
whose resolutions are happily fixed on purposes of
good. Only give me leave to hasten your pace a
little, and to excite your Christian forwardness to
begin speedily what you have long and constantly
vowed. You would not but do good. Why not
now ? I speak boldly, the more speed, the more
comfort. Neither the times are in our disposing,
nor ourselves. If God had set us a day, and made
our wealth inseparable, there were no danger in
delaying ; now, our uncertainty either must quicken
us, or may deceive us. How many have meant well,
and done nothing, and lost their crown with lingering!

HALL IN COUNSEL, ETC. 125
Whose destinies have prevented their desires, and
have made their good motions the wards of their
executors ! Not without miserable success ; to whom
that they would have done good is not so great a
praise, as it is dishonour that they might have done
it. Their wrecks are our warnings ; we are equally
mortal, equally fickle . . . How many executors
have proved the executioners of honest wills ! . . .
Happy is that man that may be his own auditor,
supervisor, executor. As you love God and yourself,
be not afraid of being happy too soon. Suffer you
yourself, therefore, good sir, for God's sake, for the
Gospel's sake, for the Church's sake, for your soul's
sake, to be stirred up by these poor lines to a resolute
and speedy performing of your worthy intentions, and
take this as a loving invitation sent from heaven, by
an unworthy messenger." Thomas Sutton bought
Howard House, once a Carthusian monastery, of the
Earl of Suffolk in 161 1, for £13,000, and laid the
foundation of the hospital, which has done, and is
doing, so much for English education ; but he did
not live to see his work finished. Before the end of
the next year he was lying in the grave — a touch
ing comment on Hall's counsel, borrowed from the
Son of Sirach, " Do good before thou die."

CHAPTER VII.
" THE CHARACTERISTICS OF VIRTUE AND VICE."—
EARLIEST CONTROVERSIAL WORKS.— REFUSAL
TO LEAVE WALTHAM.— DEATH OF PRINCE
HENRY.
THERE might appear at first sight to be some
inconsistency in a character which so largely
combined tender sympathy and keen satire, yet
the power for either certainly springs from the same
root — a wide knowledge of human nature. To
note the habits and feelings of those to whom we
are well disposed, and, from the experience of our
own pleasures and pains under similar circumstances,
to treat them as we would ourselves, is sympathy ;
to keep an equally watchful eye upon those to
whom we are averse, and partly from sympathy
with the opposite virtues, partly from indignation
at wrong, to lash their vices, is satire. Hall's study
was not confined to books even now, but men
formed no small part of his reading. His sym
pathies are better trained and cultivated, his judg
ment is more accurate, his spiritual experience
deeper, his charity more energetic ; still the satirical
temper is left, and there is evidence, that it occasioned
the owner some trouble in directing it aright. A
harmless exercise for it was found in his " Charac-
terisms of Vices," the counterpart of his "Charac-

"CHARACTERISTICS OF VIRTUE AND VICE." 127
terisms of Virtues,"* in some of which, he says,
" Perhaps (which thing I do at once fear and hate)
my style shall seem to some less grave, more
satyrical. If you find me, not without cause, jealous,
let it please you to impute it to the nature of those
vices which will not be otherwise handled. The
fashions of some evils are, besides the odiousness,
ridiculous ; which to repeat is to seem bitterly
merry. I abhor to make sport with wickedness,
and forbid any laughter here but of disdain." For
the conception of this picture-gallery, in which he
shows himself so consummate a portrait-painter,
Hall was indebted to the heathen moralists-, the
" divines " of the ancient world, some of whom
"bestowed their time in drawing out the true
lineaments of every virtue and vice so lively, that
they who saw the medals might know the face :
which art they significantly termed Charactery.
Their papers were so many tables, their writings
so many speaking pictures or living images, whereby
the ruder multitude might even by their sense learn
to know virtue and discern what to detest." He
thought it no shame to learn wit of heathens,
neither was it material in whose school he took
out a good lesson ;, there was more shame in not
following their good, than in not leaving them
better. As one, therefore, that in worthy examples
held imitation better than invention, he had trodden
in their paths, and out of their tablets had drawn
* The " Characters of Virtues and Vices " was published not
later than 1608. There is a copy of that date in the Bodleian.
It was translated into French in i6jo. There is also a copy
of this in the Bodleiaa. Portions were put into English Verse
by Nahum Tate in 1691.

128 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
these larger portraitures of both sorts. In passing
through the gallery we find the wise man, the honest
man, the faithful man, the humble man, the valiant
man, the patient man, the true friend, the truly
noble, the good magistrate, the penitent, and, last
upon this side, the happy man ; on the other, the
hypocrite, in brief, " the stranger's saint, the neigh
bour's disease, the blot of goodness, a rotten stick
in a dark night, a poppy in a cornfield, an ill-
tempered candle with a great snuff, that in going
out smells ill, an angel abroad, a devil at home, and
worse when an angel, than when a devil ; " next
comes the busybody, whose "estate being too narrow
for his mind, he is fain to make himself room in
others' affairs, and labours without thanks, talks
without credit, lives without love, dies without tears,
without pity, save that some say it was pity he
died no sooner;" then the superstitious; the profane ;
the malcontent, " neither well full, nor fasting ; " the
inconstant ; the flatterer, " the moth of liberal men's
coats, the earwig of the mighty, the bane of courts,
a friend and a slave to the trencher, and good for
nothing, but to be a factor for the devil ; " the
slothful, " a standing fool which cannot choose but
gather corruption, descried among a thousand
neighbours by a dry and nasty hand that still
savours of the sheet, a beard uncut and uncombed,
an eye and ear yellow with their excretions, a coat
shaken on, ragged, unbrushed, linen and face striving
whether shall excel in uncleanliness ; " the covetous,
who returning from the field asks, not without much
rage, what became of the loose crust in his cup
board, and who hath rioted among his leeks, who
never eats a good meal but on his neighbour's

"CHARACTERISTICS OF VIRTUE AND VICE" 129
trencher, where he makes amends to his complaining
stomach for his former and future fasts, who, if
his servant break but an earthen dish for want
of light, abates it out of his quarter's wages," and
does many other mean things.
Passing by these with only just a glance, let us
pause and consider more in detail the portrait of a
character which the reader will probably admit is by
no means obsolete, though the features will, of course,
be somewhat changed after so long a time. This
is the vainglorious.
"All his humour rises up into the froth of ostentation,
which, if it once settle, falls down into a narrow room. If
the excess be in the understanding part, all his wit is in
print, the press hath left his head empty ; yea, not only
what he had, but what he could borrow without leave. If
his glory be in his devotion, he gives not an alms but on
record ; and, if he have once done well, God hears of it
often : for, upon every unkindness, he is ready to upbraid
Him with his merits. Over and above his own discharge,
he hath some satisfaction to spare for the common treasure.
He can fulfil the law with ease, and earn God with super
fluity. If he have bestowed but a little sum in the glazing,
paving, walling of God's house, you shall find it in the
church-window. Or, if a more gallant humour possess him,
he wears all his land on his back ; and, walking high, looks
over his left shoulder to see if the point of his rapier follow
him with a grace. He is proud of another man's horse ;
and, well mounted, thinks every man wrongs him that
looks not at him. A bare head in the street doth him
more good than a meal's meat. He swears big at an
ordinary ; and talks of the court with a sharp accent :
neither vouchsafes to name any not honourable, nor those
without some term of familiarity ; and likes well to see the
hearer look upon him amazedly, as if he said, ' How happy
9

130 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
is this man, that is so great with great ones ! ' Under
pretence of seeking for a scroll of news, he draws out a
handful of letters, indorsed with his own style, to the height,
half reading every title, passes over the latter part with a
murmur, not without signifying what lord sent this, what
great lady the other, and for what suits : the last paper, as
it happens, is his news from his honourable friend in the
French Court. In the midst of dinner his lacquey comes
sweating in with a sealed note from his creditor, who now
threatens a speedy arrest, and whispers the ill-news in his
master's ear, when he aloud names a counsellor of state,
and professes to know the employment. The same mes
senger he calls with an imperious nod ; and, after expostu
lation, where he hath left his fellows, in his ear sends him
for some new spur-leathers, or stockings by this time
footed ; and, when he is gone half the room, recalls him,
and saith aloud, ' It is no matter, let the greater bag alone
till I come ; ' and, yet again calling him closer, whispers, so
that all the table may hear, that if his crimson suit be ready
against the day, the rest need not haste. He picks his
teeth when his stomach is empty ; and calls for pheasants
at a common inn. You shall find him prizing the richest
jewels and fairest horses, when his purse yields not money
enough for earnest. He thrusts himself into the press
before some great ladies ; and loves to be seen near the
head of a great train. His talk is how many mourners he
furnished with gowns at his father's funeral, how many
messes ; how rich his coat is, and how ancient ; how great
his alliance ; what challenges he hath made and answered ;
what exploits he did at Calais, or Nieuport ; and, when he
hath commended others' buildings, furniture, suits, com
pares them with his own. When he hath undertaken to be
the broker for some rich diamond, he wears it ; and, pulling
off his glove to stroke up his hair, thinks no eye should
have any other object. Entertaining his friend, he chides
his cook for no better cheer; and names the dishes he
meant and wants. To conclude, he is ever on the stage,

EARLIEST CONTROVERSIAL WORKS. 131
and acts. a still glorious part abroad; when no man carries
a baser heart, no man is more sordid and careless at home.
He is a Spanish soldier on an Italian theatre ; a bladder full
of wind, a skin full of words ; a fool's wonder, and a wise
man's fool."
We may not tarry with the distrustful man, who
comes next, nor the ambitious, or envious, but must
hasten on to other work which engaged Hall's
attention about this time. Of a more sober kind,
though perhaps not more beneficial to any one ex
cept the preacher, was the " Solomon's Divine Arts,"
composed as a congratulatory present for the young
Earl of Essex, on his return from abroad, and con
sisting of Solomon's precepts brought together and
arranged without comment under the three heads
of Ethics, Politics, Economics, or the government of
Behaviour, Commonwealth, Family. For some time,
too, he had been preparing to enter the dusty arena
of controversy. As might almost have been expected,
he would not be a silent spectator of the strife
between his royal master, aided by the gifted and
learned Andrews on the one side, and the no less
talented Bellarmine on the other. He, too, mingled
in the fray. His first shaft was a tract, called " A
Serious Dissuasion from Popery," soon followed by
another in 1 609, bearing the ironical title of " The
Peace of Rome." Its nature will be best understood
from the full title, which ran thus : " The Peace of
Rome, proclaimed to all the world by her famous
Cardinal Bellarmine, and the no less famous casuist,
Navarre ; whereof the one acknowledgeth and
numbers up above Three Hundred Differences of
Opinion, maintained in the Popish Church ; the
other confesses near Threescore Differences amongst

132 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
their own Doctors, in one only point of their
Religion. Gathered faithfully out of their writings,
in their own words, and divided into Four Books,
and those into several Decades. Whereto is pre
fixed a serious Dissuasive from Popery. By J. HJ"
The volume was dedicated to Prince Henry, whom,
he said, the Romanists grieved to see, in the early
spring of his age, so firmly rooted in the truth, and,
before Hannibal's years, threatening hostility to
error. He hopes that it will never be forgotten that
in their bloody project, the prince's limbs also should
have flown up to heaven with his soul. He prays
that God, Who has reserved him for the Second Hope
and Stay of the Christian World, may prosper his
gracious proceedings, according to the promise of
their entrance. His next polemical work in the same
direction was the " No Peace with Rome," which title
with that of " The Peace of Rome " gave rise to an
amusing error : — A foreign author came to the con
clusion that Hall had changed his mind, and was
reconciled to the Roman Church. Elsewhere an
attempt has been made to give some account of
Hall as a controversialist. The author, therefore,
forbears to take his readers over the necessarily some
what dry and barren track of these disputes, and
contents himself with pointing out that some twenty
years afterwards Hall had occasion, when fiercely
assailed on the ground of his leniency towards
Rome, to show that he was then in this respect the
same that he had ever been. He does, indeed, ask,
" Can any man be so foolish to hope that our Church
will ever be so mad as thus basely to bolster up the
great bridge-maker of Tiber ; as though we could
be ignorant how Christ never either performed or

EARLIEST CONTROVERSIAL WORKS. 133
promised them any such privilege (as infallibility) ?
For, where is it written, as Luther jested well, unless
perhaps at Rome, in St. Peter's, upon some chimney
with a coal ? " But notwithstanding this, he always
maintained that Rome was a " truly visible Church,
only an unsound," and it was for maintaining this
that he incurred so much odium, and was subjected
to the imputation of having accommodated his views
to his desires for episcopal promotion. Hall, it will
be seen in the sequel* amply vindicated himself, and
Bishop Sanderson, in the preface to his Sermons, has
added his testimony : — " With what outcries was
Bishop Hall (good man, who little dreamt of any
peace with Rome) pursued by Burton and other
Hotspurs for yielding it a Church f who had made
the same concession over and over again before he
was Bishop (as Junius, Reynolds, and our best con-
troversie-writers generally do) and no notice taken,
no noise made of it. You may perceive by this one
instance, where the shoe wringeth."
In his letters Hall had occasionally treated of
controversial topics, and, among others, had addressed
an epistle to Smith and Robinson, who, at Amsterdam,
were at the head of the Brownist separatists from
the Anglican Church. In 16 10, some eighteen
months after this, he received an answer to what
was called his " Censorious Epistle " in the shape
of what he termed a " stomachful pamphlet," which,
beside the private wrongs of which he complains,
cast upon the honoured name of his dear mother,
the Church of England, " blasphemous imputations
of Apostacy, Antichristianism, Whoredom Rebellion."
The next two months were occupied in writing
the " Common Apology of the Church of England

134 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
against the unjust challenges of the over-just sect,
commonly called the Brownists," in which he dis
cussed at considerable length the various positions
taken up by the opponents. It would be perhaps
unprofitable to follow these in detail, all the more
as they have received some attention in the chapter
on controversy. One subject, however, should be
considered, since much of Hall's reputation as a
polemic rests upon his subsequent treatment of the
question, and it is interesting to mark the gradual
formation of his opinions. What views did he
hold at this time respecting the ministry of the
established Church ? He admitted its Divine origin.
It was " devised by our Saviour,, when He said,
' Go teach all nations and baptize,' etc. (Matt, xxviii.
19) ; and performed in continuance, when He
gave some to be pastors and teachers (Eph. iv. 1 1)."
Some part of the ministry thus devised by our
Saviour was not to continue, viz., apostles, prophets,
evangelists ; the ordinary callings of pastors and
doctors " were intended to perpetuity." These pastors
and doctors, " call them what you please, super
intendents, that is bishops, prelates, priests, lecturers,
parsons, vicars, etc.,". ... are allowed by Christ.
As regards bishops in particular, he contends that
" everywhere, in all ages, there has been an allowed
superiority of Church-governors under this title."
He invites Calvin to tell his opponents that, '" even
in the primitive Church, the presbyters chose one
out of their number in every city, whom they titled
their bishop, lest dissension should arise from
equality." The position of Hall is clearly not
Erastian. Nor is it that of Hooker — that episcopal
government is an ecclesiastical institution, having

EARLIEST CONTROVERSIAL WORKS. 135
indeed a Divine sanction, but not binding of necessity
in perpetuity. Calvin was still, a power in the
formation of his opinions, and the vision of Calvin
brought with it not only the Churches of Calvin's
principles, but the other continental reformed, who,
it seemed, might be contemned by a too high
esteem of our discipline. But Bancroft, in his famous
sermon at Paul's Cross in 15 89, had led the way
in showing that Scripture was on the side of epis
copacy. Saravia, in 1591, had maintained it to be
" an apostolical tradition and a Divine institution."
Bilson, with his " Perpetual Government of Christ's
Church," in 1593, had driven Puritan assailants from
every stronghold on the other side, and Bancroft,
with his " Survey," in the same year, had supported
him in the attack. King James's axiom concerning
the connection between a bishop and a king was
sounded forth far beyond the room in which sat
the Hampton Court Conference. All this had in
fluenced the mind of Hall, and he had advanced
many steps towards a correct solution of the question.
Upon the whole, it appears that now, though he
made episcopal superiority to be in a sense of
Divine origin, inasmuch as a bishop was a " pastor
and doctor," and pastors and doctors were given by
Christ, yet in reality it was, according to him, a
perpetual ordinance based on expediency.
The great event of this year, which sent a shock
through Europe, was the assassination of the French
monarch, Henry IV., by the fanatic Ravaillac. There
is a letter from Hall to Peter Moulin on the sad
event. Moulin (b. 1568) in his younger days, after
studying at Sedan, had gone to Cambridge, which
he left to become professor of philosophy at

136 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Leyden, where also he taught Greek. Returning
to France in 1 5 99, he was, at the time of Henry's
murder, preacher of the Protestant church at Paris,
and was bold enough to charge the Jesuits with
the crime, thus becoming involved in a contest with
Cotton, the late king's confessor. Hall wrpte as
follows : —
" Since your travels here with us we have not forgotten
you ; but since that your witty and learned travels in the
common affairs of religion have made your memory both
fresh and blessed.
" Behold, while your hand was happily busy in the
defence of our king, the heads and hands of traitors were
busy in the massacring of your own. God doth no memor
able and public act, which he would not have talked of,
read, construed of all the world; how much more of neigh
bours, whom scarce a sea severeth from each other ! how
much yet more of brethren, whom neither land nor sea can
sever ! Your dangers, and fears, and griefs, have been
ours ; all the salt water that runs betwixt us cannot wash
off our interest in all your common causes. The deadly
blow of that miscreant, whose name is justly sentenced to
forgetfulness, pierced even our sides. Who hath not bled
within himself, to think that he who had so victoriously
outlived the swords of enemies, should fall by the knife
of a villain? And that he should die in the peaceable
streets whom no fields could kill ? that all those honourable
and happy triumphs should end in so base a violence ?
" But, oh our idleness and impiety ! if we see not a
Divine hand from above striking with this hand of disloyalty.
Sparrows fall not to the ground without Him ; much less
kings. One dies by a tile-sherd ; another by the splinters
of a lance ; one by lice ; another by a fly ; one by poison ;
another by a knife. What are all these but the executioners
of that great God Which hath said, Ye are gods, but ye shall
die like men ?

EARLIEST CONTROVERSIAL WORKS. 137
" Perhaps God saw (that we may guess modestly at the
reasons of His acts) you reposed too much in this arm of
flesh ; or, perhaps, He saw this scourge would have been
too early to those enemies whose sin, though great, yet
was not full ; or, perhaps He saw that if that great spirit
had been deliberately yielded in his bed, you should not
have slept in yours ; or, perhaps the ancient connivance at
those streams of blood, from your too common duels, was
now called to reckoning ; or, it may be, that weak revolt
from the truth.
" He, Whose the rod was, knows why He struck ; yet
may it not pass without a note, that he fell by that religion
to which he fell. How many ages might that great monarch
have lived, whatsoever the ripe head of your more than
mellow Cotton could imagine, ere his least finger should
have bled by the hand of a Huguenot ! All religions may
have some monsters ; but, blessed be the God of Heaven,
ours shall never yield that good Jesuit, either a Mariana to
teach treason, or a Ravaillac to act it. But what is it that
we hear? It is no marvel. That holy society is a fit
guardian for the hearts of kings. I dare say none more
loves to see them ; none takes more care to purchase them.
How happy, think they, if it were full of such shrines ! I
hope all Christian princes have long and well learned, so
great is the courtesy of these good fathers, that they shall
never, by their wills, need be troubled with the charge of
their own hearts. A heart of a king in a Jesuit's hand is as
proper as a wafer in a priest's. Justly was it written of old,
under the picture of Ignatius Loyola, Cavete vobis, principles !
' Be wise, O ye princes ! ' and learn to be the keepers of
your own hearts. Yea rather, O Thou Keeper of Israel,
that neither slumberest nor sleepest, keep Thou the hearts
of all Christian kings, whether alive or dead, from the
keeping of this traitorous generation, whose very religion
is holy rebellion, and whose merits bloody. Doubtless,
that murderer hoped to have stabbed thousands with that
blow, and to have let out the life of religion at the side of

138 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
her collapsed patron. God did at once laugh and frown at
his project; and suffered him to live, to see himself no less
a fool than a villain. Oh, the infinite goodness of the wise
and holy Governor of the world ! Who could have looked
for such a calm in the midst of a tempest ? Who would
have thought that violence would beget peace ? Who
durst have conceived that King Henry should die alone ;
and that religion should lose nothing but his person?
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.
You have now paralleled us. Out of both our fears God
hath fetched security. Oh, that out of our security we
could as easily fetch fear, not so much of evil, as of the
Author of good ; and yet trust Him in our fear, and in
, both magnify Him ! Yea, you have by this act gained
some converts against the hope of the agents ; neither can
I without many joyful congratulations think" of the estate
of your Church, which every day honours with the access
of new clients whose tears and sad confessions make the
angels to rejoice in heaven, and the saints on earth. We
should give you example, if our peace were as plentiful of
goodness as of pleasure. But how seldom hath the Church
gained by ease, or lost by restraint ! Bless you God for
our prosperity ; and we shall praise Him for your pro
gress." Hall would have an opportunity of talking the
matter over with his friend in 16 15, when Moulin,
at the invitation of James, visited England, was
made prebend of Canterbury (an honour bestowed
upon his son also, who died there towards the end
of the century), and received the degree of D.D.
from the University of Cambridge. Whether the
intimacy between Hall and Moulin began with the
letter above quoted, or is to be referred to an earlier
date, is not certain ; but it continued long, and Hall
was wont to speak of him as his " ancient friend,"

REFUSAL TO LEAVE WALTHAM. 139
He died at the age of ninety, some eighteen months
after Hall's decease.
We must now return to Hall and the Prince of
Wales. How he was advancing in court favour,
with what modesty he shrank from too rapid pro
motion, and how amid his letters of comfort, his
intelligent interest in political events, and his battles
for the truth, he did not forget his duties as a pastor,
shall be told in his own words, and the story may
be of value to some who are so idly busy in their
own narrow range as to despise others of more
method and greater energy, who are capable of
looking after more than one iron at a time. Only
one explanatory remark is needed — that the twenty-
four chaplains were required to be in attendance,
two at a time, for the space of a month.
" In the second year of mine attendance on his Highness
when I came for my dismission from that monthly service,
it pleased the prince to command me a longer stay ; and,
at last, upon mine allowed departure, by the mouth of Sir
Thomas Challoner, his governour, to tender unto me a
motion of more honour and favour than I was worthy of:
which was, that it was his Highness' pleasure and purpose,
to have me continually resident at the court as a constant
attendant, while the rest held on their wonted vicissitudes :
for which purpose his Highness would obtain for me such
preferments as should yield me full contentment. I re
turned my humblest thanks, and my readiness to sacrifice
myself to the service of so gracious a master ; but, being
conscious to myself of my unanswerableness to so great
expectation, and loth to forsake so dear and noble a patron
who had placed much of his heart upon me, I did modestly
put it off, and held close to my Waltham, where, in a con
stant course, I preached a long time, as I had done also at
Halsted before, thrice in the week ; yet never durst I climb

140 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

into the pulpit to preach any sermon, whereof I had not
before, in my poor and plain fashion, penned every word in
the same order, wherein I hoped to deliver it ; although, in
the expression, I listed not to be a slave to syllables."
In 1609 he preached the Passion Sermon at
Paul's Cross on Good Friday. There is a pleasing
candour in the preface to the published edition of it.
He says he did not desire to make any apology for
publishing ; it was motive enough to aim at a more
public and more enduring good. " Spiritual nice-
ness is the next degree to unfaithfulness." The
drift of the discourse is contained in the words —
" The Church of Rome so fixes herself, in her adora
tion, upon the Cross of Christ, as if she forgat His
glory : many of us so conceive of Him glorious, that
we neglect the meditation of His Cross, the way
to His glory and ours." In 161 1 and 161 2 he
preached before the court two sermons upon Zech.
xiv. 20 : — " In that day shall be written upon tlie
bridles {or belts) of the horses, Holiness unto lite Lord;
and the pots of the Lords house sJiall be like tlte bowls
before the altar!' These are interesting examples of
his style at this time. The Separatists and the
Romanists alike were severely handled. As for the
former, if any man was disposed to make himself
sport, he should read the tragi-comical relation of
the troubles and excommunication of the English
at Amsterdam ; for the latter, no play book was
more ridiculous than their Pontifical and Book of
Holy Ceremonies. War seemed toNbe imminent.
Against Agrippa, the Anabaptists, Erasmus, Ferus
(Wild), he maintains the legality of war in general,
if only it be pro lege et grege, for religion, for the
commonwealth, and have two directors, Justice and

REFUSAL TO LEAVE WALTHAM. I4I
Charity. While acknowledging the difference be
tween a preacher and a herald, and claiming the
title evangelisans pacem, he dared say that, if in the
cause of God and His Church that war should be
undertaken, Holiness should be written upon their
horses' bridles. He pleaded for the royal interven
tion in the unhappy divisions of the Church, enforced
the dignity of the priesthood, and called heaven and
earth to witness whether any nation in the world
could show so learned, so glorious a clergy. " But
yet, among so many pots of the Temple, it is no
marvel if some be dry for want of liquor ; others,
rusty for want of use ; others, full of liquor without
meat ; others, so full of meat that they want liquor.
Let the Lord's Anointed, Whose example and en
couragements have raised even this Divine learning
to this excellent perfection, by His gracious counten
ance dispel contempt from the professors of it, and
by His effectual endeavours remove the causes of
this contempt." The profligate character of the
court of James I., perhaps not outdone even by that
of Charles 1 1., is well known, and it did not escape
the lash. " It were happy," said Hall, " if the court
were free, and as.it receives more sweet influences of
favour than all other places, so that it returned back
more fragrant obedience ; that, as it is said of
Mary's spikenard wherewith she anointed Christ,
that the whole house was filled with the savour of the
ointment, so the whole world might be full of the
pleasant perfumes of virtuous example that might
arise from thence. But, alas ! the painted faces,
and manishness, and monstrous disguisedness, . of
the one sex ; the factious hollowness, prodigal
garishness, wanton pampering, excess in our respect

\\Z LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
to ourselves, defects in our respects to God, iri the
other ; argue too well, that too many of us savour
more of the golden sockets of the holy lights, than
the bowls of the altar."
In the autumn of 1612 Hall dedicated to Prince
Henry the first part of his " Contemplations," which,
now begun, were not completed until he had been
some time Bishop of Exeter. He himself tells us
that they were the quintessence of sermons reduced
to the form of meditations. A sorrowful interest
attaches to the first volume — it was the last book
ever dedicated to the Prince, and the last that was
turned over by his hand. On November 6th Henry,
in whom so many hopes were centred, the darling of
one party, the possible dread of another, the favourite
of historians, and, in spite of some faults, the
ornament of his station, and the pride of his country,
suddenly died. So sudden was his decline that
there was some suspicion of poison, happily un
founded. The funeral was one of great pomp and
solemnity. Hall was present, and on New Year's
Day 1623 performed the mournful task of preaching
to the household of St. James's on the occasion
of their disbanding. The sermon, full of pathos,
of tender and restrained emotion, shows that Hall's
affection for his young master was as sincere as the
prince's regard for his chaplain. No one can read it
without almost melting into tears. Towards the end
he said : —
" We are all now parting one from another ; and now is
loosing a knot of the most loving and entire fellowship, that
ever met in the court of any prince. Our sweet master,
that was compounded of all loveliness, infused this gracious
harmony into our hearts. Now we are saluting our last ;

DEATH OL PRINCE HENRY. 143
and every one is, with sorrow enough, taking his own way.
How safe, how happy shall we be, if each of us have God to
go with him ! Certainly, my dear fellows, we shall never
complain of the want of masters, of friends, while we find
ourselves sure of Him ; nothing can make us miserable,
while we are furnished with Him  He shall counsel
us in our doubts, direct us in our resolutions, dispose of us
in our estate, cheer us in our distresses, prosper us in our
lives, and in our deaths crown us. . . . What if we shall
meet here no more ? What if we shall no more see one
another's face? Brethren, we shall once meet together
above, we shall once see the glorious face of God, and never
look off again. Let it not overgrieve us to leave these
tabernacles of stone, since we must shortly lay down these
tabernacles of clay, and enter into tabernacles, not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. Till then, farewell, my dear
brethren, farewell in the Lord. Go in peace, and live as
those that have lost such a master, and as those that serve
a Master Whom they cannot lose, and the God of Peace go
with you, and prosper you in all your ways."
On the night of the prince's decease a rainbow
was seen, or said to be seen, over St. James's. The
season was inclement, and sickness had swept away
thousands. The king did not simulate a grief
which he did not feel, and the court was not even
put into mourning. The minds of the courtiers
were turning to a more joyous event, the marriage of
the Princess Elizabeth with Frederick, Elector Pala
tine, which was shortly afterwards celebrated, in the
following February. Oxford, with traditional loyalty,
had expressed its sympathy on Monday, December
7th, with a " solemn obsequy," a sermon and funeral
oration at St. Mary's, and the like in the afternoon
at Christ Church, both places being hung with
black. " A book of Latin elegies and funeral

144 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, DJ>.
verses " had also been set forth. But Hall's own
University had not been so forward, though some
verses- had been privately distributed. All this will
account for the tone of the two elegies with which
he commemorated the loss of the prince. The first,
" Upon the unseasonable times that have followed
the unseasonable death of my Sweet Master, Prince
Henry," was this : —
" Fond Vulgar, canst thou think it strange to find
So watery winter and so wasteful wind ?
What other face could Nature's age become,
In looking on great Henry's hearse and tomb ?
The world's whole frame his part in mourning bears ;
The winds are sighs ; the rain is Heaven's tears ;
And if these tears be ripe, and sighs be strong,
Such sighs, such tears to these sad times belong.
These show'rs have drown'd all hearts ; these sighs did
make
The Church, the world, with griefs, with fears to shake.
Weep on, ye Heav'ns, and sigh as ye begon,
Men's sighs and tears are slight, and quickly done."
The second, " Of the rainbow, that was reported
to be seen in the night, over St. James's, before the
Prince's death ; and of the unseasonable winter
since," ran thus : —
" Was ever nightly rainbow seen ?
Did ever winter mourn in green ?
Had that long bow been bent by day,
'T had chased all our cloud away ;
But now that it by night appears,
It tells the deluge of our tears.
No marvel rainbows shine by night,
When suns ere noon do lose their light.
Iris was wont to be, of old,
Heav'n's messenger to earthly mould ;
And now she came to bring us down
Sad news of Henry's better crown.

DEATH OF PRINCE HENRY. 14S
And as the Eastern star did tell
The Persian sages of that cell,
Where Sion's King was born and lay,
And over that same house did stay ;
So did that western bow descry
Where Henry, prince of men, should die.
Lo ! there this arch of heavenly state
Rais'd to the triumph of his fate ;
Yet rais'd in dark of night, to show
His glory should be with our woe.
And now, for that men's mourning weed
Reports a grief not felt indeed ;
The winter weeps and moans indeed,
Though clothed in a summer weed."

10

CHAPTER VIII.
HALL- AND CHURCH DEFENCE.— LIFE AT WALTHAM.
— VISIT , TO PARIS— DEAN OF WORCESTER.
SOME three or four years previous to the date
at which we have arrived, Hall, preaching at
Paul's Cross, had spoken of sacrilegious patrons, the
merchants of souls, the pirates of the Church, the
enemies of religion, and, contrasting them with the
Pharisees of old, had said, " They tithed all, you
nothing ; they paid to their Levites, your Levites
must pay to you ; your cures must be purchased,
your tithes abated, or compounded for. If ever
thou be the fatter for this gravel, or the richer with
that thou stealest from God, let me come to beg
at thy door. Woe to you, spiritual robbers ! Our
blind forefathers clothed the Church, you despoil it ;
their ignorant devotion shall rise in judgment against
your ravening covetousness. If robbery, simony,
perjury will not carry you to hell, hope still you
may be saved." This fierceness was not the
mere rhetorical affectation of the pulpit. The
speaker had himself smarted from the rapacity of
his patron, and had known the worrying care of
supporting a wife and family on the verge of
poverty. Nor was he a solitary instance. The
condition of the clergy was distressing. Little more
than seventy years had passed since the Church had

HALL AND CHURCH DEFENCE. 147
fallen among thieves, and her wounds were still
bleeding from the treatment she then received.
Again and again she had been pillaged. Elizabeth,
with her many virtues, lacked one, — a just regard for
ecclesiastical property. Archbishop Bancroft had
brought in a Bill to succour the suffering clergy, but
in 1 6 1 1 Abbot, whose knowledge of clerical work
did not extend beyond what he could acquire by
residence within the walls of a college, and whose
sympathies had had no training except in a long
and fruitless squabble with Laud, had been appointed
to the primacy. His chief concern was to foster
Puritanism ; for the contemptible and degraded lot of
those who were doing the Church's work he cared
little, or not at all. The spectacle was indeed a
bitter one. Rich and powerful laymen, founding
noble families and maintaining their state with the
spoils of the Church, were everywhere to be seen,
while the ministry had " scarce enough to feed them
and keep them warm ; " the country parson might
not expect anything better for his boys than to
apprentice them to a trade ; the great men's chaplains
were a little better paid than the cook and butler.
Not to be sheepish in a good cause was one of Hall's
maxims. A good cause now presented itself, and
the sequel will show that the man was well adapted
to apply the maxim. On other occasions he may
perhaps seem to have been somewhat too pliant,
on this he exhibited a firmness and a tenacity of
purpose which does him infinite credit.
The deanery of Wolverhampton dates from 996.
Edward II. granted to it, with many of his free
chapels, exemption from all ordinary jurisdiction, as
well as many other privileges. In 1479 Edward IV.

,148 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
annexed the College of Wolverhampton to ' the
Chapel of Windsor, so that the dean of St. George's
at Windsor should be dean of Wolverhampton, and
prebendary of the first of its eight prebends, which
grant was confirmed by Act of Parliament. At the
dissolution of the monasteries the ancient Church of
St. Mary, or as since the time of Henry III. it had
been called, the Church of St. Peter, was allowed to
retain its collegiate character, but its lands having
been seized by Edward VI. in the second year of
his reign, were granted in 1553 to the Duke of
Northumberland, who destroyed the images of the
saints to whom the different chantries, chapels, and
guilds were dedicated, removed the high altar just
erected at great expense, and took formal possession
of the emoluments.* Queen Mary restored the
College to its former rank, but its property, excepting
a mere pittance, was in lay hands, and in 1555, by
the marriage of Thomas Leveson with Mary, the
daughter of Robert Broke, it devolved upon the
Leveson family. Three years after this Sir Richard
Leveson, by a chancery suit, established his title, and
the Church lands were now leased out for lives in
smaller parcels. The deanery had been again annexed
to Windsor by Queen Mary, and Elizabeth had
confirmed the annexation, but in the eighth year of
James I. Giles Thompson, then dean, granted to Sir
Walter Leveson the deanery and all lands belonging
thereto in the counties of Stafford and Worcester,
and all mines, etc., at an annual rent of £3 8, and an
entertainment for the dean and his retinue two days
and three nights in a year. The lessee, however,
*V~ide Dr. Oliver's " Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton."

HALL AND CHURCH DEFENCE. 149
refusing to pay his rent without considerable deduc
tions, the validity of the lease was questioned, and it
was now that Hall, at the request of his cousin,
determined to do battle. The bill in chancery was
filed by him as prebendary of Willenhall, and
Christopher Cragg, prebendary of Hatterton, in the
thirteenth year of James I. One other remark, and
then Hall shall tell the story of his long and weary
suit, carried on for years, and at last issuing in the
recovery of the lost property. He speaks of a sup
posed concealment . The reader will perhaps allow me
to remind him that when Church lands were given
to the Crown, some were here and there privily
detained, and held by private persons, or corpora
tions, or churches. Queen Elizabeth, coming to
understand this, appointed a commission to search
after these concealments. It is to the possibility of
such an inquiry that Hall refers when he speaks of
a third dog taking the bone from the other two.
"My worthy kinsman, Mr. Samuel Burton, Archdeacon
of Gloucester, knowing in how good terms I stood at court,
and pitying the miserable condition of his native church of
Wolverhampton, was very desirous to engage me in so
difficult and noble a service as the redemption of that
captivated church. For which cause he importuned me to
move some of my friends to solicit the Dean of Windsor,
who by an Ancient Annexation is patron thereof, for the
grant ofa particular prebend, when it should fall vacant in
that church. Answer was returned me, that it was fore-
promised to one of my fellow-chaplains. I sat down with
out further expectation. Some year or two after, hearing
that it was become void, and meeting with that fellow-
chaplain of mine, I wished him much joy of the prebend.
He asked me if it were void. I assured him so ; and, telling

150 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
him of the former answer, delivered to me in my ignorance
of his engagement, wished him to hasten his possession
of it. He delayed not. When he came to the Dean of
Windsor (Anthony Maxey, 1612-1618) for his promised
dispatch, the Dean brought him forth a letter from the
Prince, wherein he was desired and charged to reverse his
former engagement, since that other chaplain was other
wise provided for, and to cast that favour upon me. I was
sent for, who least thought of it ; and received the free
collation of that poor dignity. It was not the value of the
place, which was but nineteen nobles per annum, that we
aimed at; but the freedom of a goodly church, consisting
of a dean and eight prebendaries competently endowed,
and many thousand souls lamentably swallowed up by
wilful recusants, in a pretended fee-farm for ever. O God,
what a hand hadst Thou in the carriage of this work! When
we set foot in this suit (for another of the prebendaries
joined with me) we knew not wherein to insist, nor where
to ground a complaint : only we knew that a goodly
patrimony was, by a sacrilegious conveyance, detained from
the church. But, in the pursuit of it, such marvellous light
opened itself unexpectedly to us, in revealing of a counter
feit seal, found in the ashes of that ' burned house, of a false
register, in the manifestation of raspres and interpolations,
and misdates of unjustifiable evidences; that, after many
years' suit, the wise and honourable Lord Chancellor
Ellesmere, upon a full hearing, adjudged these two sued-for
prebends clearly to be returned to the church, until, by
Common Law, they could if possibly, be revicted. Our
great adversary, Sir Walter Leveson,* finding it but loss
* The Levesons, as is well known, were the ancestors ofthe
present Dukes of Sutherland, and had long had great local
influence, having acquired much wealth by trading in wool.
In 1544 a Sir Walter Leveson, giving away what did not
belong to him, had presented St. Peter's, Wolverhampton,
with choir stalls, taken from the dissolved monastery of
Lilleshall.

HALL AND CHURCH DEFENCE. 151
and trouble to struggle for litigious sheaves, came off to
a peaceable composition with me of forty pounds per annum
for my part, whereof ten should be to the discharge of
my stall in that church, till the suit should by course of
Common Law be determined. We agreed upon fair wars.
The cause was heard at the King's Bench Bar, where a
special verdict was given for us. Upon the death of my
partner in the suit, in whose name it had now been brought,
it was renewed; a jury was empannelled in the county;
the foreman, who had vowed he would carry it for Sir
Walter Leveson howsoever, was, before the day, stricken
mad, and so continued. We proceeded with the same
success we formerly had. While we were thus striving, a
word fell from my adversary that gave me intimation, that
a third dog would perhaps come in and take the bone from
us both, which I, finding to drive at a supposed conceal
ment, happily prevented. For I presently addressed myself
to his Majesty with a petition for renewing the charter of
that church, and the full establishment of the laws, rights,
liberties thereto belonging, which I easily obtained from
those gracious hands. Now Sir Walter Leveson, seeing the
patrimony of the church so fast and safely settled, and
misdoubting what issue these his crazy evidences would find
at the Common Law, began to incline to offers of peace ;
and at last drew him so far, as that he yielded to those two
main conditions, not particularly for myself, but ¦ for the
whole body of all those prebends which pertained to the
church : — first, that he would be content to cast up that
fee-farm which he had of all the patrimony of that church,
and disclaiming it, receive that which he held of the said
church by lease from us the several prebendaries for term,
whether of years, or, which he rather desired, of lives;
secondly, that he would raise the maintenance of every
prebend (whereof some were but forty shillings, others
three pounds, others four, etc.) to the yearly value of
thirty pounds to each man during the said term of his
lease ; only, for a monument of my labour and success

152 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D,
herein, I required that my prebend might have the addition
of ten pounds per annum above the rest. We were busily
treating of this happy match for that poor church ; Sir
Walter Leveson was not only willing, but forward ; the then
Dean, Mr. Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato.
(of whom more hereafter), gave both way and furtherance
to the despatch ; all had been most happily ended, had not
the scrupulousness of one or two of the number deferred
so advantageous a conclusion.
" In the meanwhile Sir Walter Leveson dies, leaves his
young orphan ward to the King. All our hopes were now
blown up ; an office was found of all those lands, the very
wonted payments were denied, and I called into the Court
of Wards, in fair likelihood to forego my former hold and
yielded possession. But there it was justly awarded by the
Lord Treasurer, then Master of the Wards, that the orphan
could have no more, no other right than the father. I was
therefore left in my former state ; only, upon public com- "
plaint of the hard condition wherein the orphan was left,
I suffered myself to be over-entreated, to abate somewhat
of that evicted composition ; which work having once firmly
settled, in a just pity of the mean provision, if not the desti
tution of so many thousand souls, and a desire and care to
have them comfortably provided for in the future, I
resigned up the said prebend to a worthy preacher, Mr.
Lee, who should constantly reside there, and painfully
instruct that great and long-neglected people, which he
hath hitherto performed with great mutual contentment and
happy success."
In 1846 the collegiate establishment ceased to
exist, and its property was vested in the Ecclesias
tical Commissioners ; the deanery is suppressed, the
township is divided into thirteen parishes, St. Peter's
being a rectory, the rest vicarages. But the
memory of Hall's good work still lives, and has

HALL AND CHURCH DEFENCE. 153
been perpetuated by the thoughtful care of Arch
deacon lies, a former rector of St. Peter's, who
has placed a Minton tile tablet in the wall of
the north aisle of that church. Through the
kindness of the present rector, the Rev. J. T.
Jeffcock, I am in possession of the inscription,
which is as follows : —
In memory of Joseph Hall, D.D., Bishop of Norwich,
Prebendary in 1612 of this church, Restorer of its freedom
and patrimony, and careful Shepherd of " its great and long-
neglected people." Born 1574, died 1656.
The eve of the Annunciation 161 3, being the
anniversary of the accession of James to the throne,
was observed with much rejoicing in London. The
bells were ringing, bonfires were blazing in the
streets, feasting was universal. It fell to Hall to
preach at St. Paul's Cross the sermon called a
Holy Panegyric in commemoration of the event.
The sermon was not, indeed, as the author said
it should not be, altogether laudatory, but there
is much laudation in it, and even adulation. Queen
Elizabeth was at some length brought under review,
and Prince Henry, too, received his meed of praise,
but of course the king was the chief object of
eulogy. The preacher told his hearers that when
the mourners, standing round Henry's deathbed,
lamented their wickedness as the cause of their
sorrow, the dying prince, with Christian modesty,
replied, " No, no, I have sins enough of my own
to do this." Of Elizabeth, Hall said many pleasant
things, and, upon the whole, his words did not
belie the truth, though, remembering that two hun-

154 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
dred Roman Catholics are estimated to have been
put to death in her reign, some would no doubt
dispute the " sweetness of her government." His
retrospect of our relations to the papacy during
Elizabeth's reign is noteworthy. A few years after
wards he would not have ventured so to speak ; but
the Spanish faction had not yet become so important
as it afterwards was, and political considerations
had not yet made it expedient for James to seek
a match for his son in the family of the pope's
chief royal supporter. Hall, at this time, could
safely, without wounding any susceptibilities, dilate
upon Rome's malignant attacks on England, and
upon England's successful resistance to Rome.
Pope Clement might call Elizabeth a wretched
woman, but Hall considered her the mother of the
nation, the, nurse of the Church, the glory of woman
hood, the envy and example of foreign nations,
the wonder of times, by the virtues proper to her
sex the queen of women, and by the masculine
graces of learning, valour, wisdom, the queen of
men, so learned that she could give answers to
ambassadors in their own tongue, so valiant that
her name, like Zisca's drum, made the proudest
Romanists to quake, so wise that whatever fell
out happily against the common adversary in
France, the Netherlands, Ireland, was by themselves
ascribed to her policy. Pius V. might launch
his bull of excommunication against her, and, now
that she was dead, her enemies might put her into
their processions, like a tormented ghost, attended
with fiends and firebrands, but she had never been
so prosperous as when she was cursed, and he
doubted not her glory in heaven was as much

HALL AND CHURCH DEFENCE. 155
greater as was their malice. He vividly depicted
the gloomy anticipations which prevailed as to
her death : " Every one pointed to her white hairs
and said, When this snow melts, there will be a
flood." No day, except always the 5 th of Novem
ber, was like to be so bloody as the day she died.
Lots were cast upon our land, and Parsons had
even drawn up a programme for the direction of
affairs, when England should have passed into the
hands of the Romanists. 1
How far Hall's eulogy was adulation, and whether
he was at heart an absolutist, I have attempted to
show in a separate chapter. It will therefore be
unnecessary to touch upon the subject here, at the
best a painful one to a biographer. In the interest,
however, of historical truth, Hall's estimate of the
character of James, as viewed by the light of his acts,
almost contemporary, must be questioned. This
sermon was preached on March 24th, 161 3, and
amongst other virtues, one put conspicuously in the
front is the king's mercy, which, it is hinted, might
be thought to be even excessive. " I pray God the
measure of this virtue may never hurt himself ; I am
sure the want of it shall never give cause of complaint
to his adversaries." Again, Hall congratulates himself
and his hearers on the happy state of things exist
ing, and the peaceful immunity from persecution
then said to be enjoyed. " Here hath been no
dragging out of houses, no hiding of Bibles, no
creeping into woods, no Bonnering or butchering of
God's saints, no rotting in dungeons, no casting of
infants out of the mother's belly into the mother's
flames ; nothing but God's truth abundantly preached,
cheerfully professed, encouraged, rewarded." Had

156 LIFE OE JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

Hall forgotten that on March 18th, in the previous
year, one Bartholomew Legate was burned in Smith-
field for heresy ? His crime was that in reading the
Bible he had not kept close to orthodoxy, and had
tried to influence others in the same direction. The
king had argued with him before the Consistory
Court of St. Paul's in the presence of a great assem
blage, and finding him resolute in his resistance had
spurned him with his foot before leaving him to his
fate. Subsequently the king directed letters to the
Lord Chancellor to issue a writ de J-ieretico comburendo.
Had Hall forgotten that within a month of Legate's
murder another victim, for the same offence, had
been burned at Lichfield ? Did he not know that,
as Fuller says, the novelty and hideousness of the
punishment had roused the indignation of the
people ? Did he really not understand the character
of the king ? whose delight was cock-fighting and
baiting bulls and bears, and who has been declared
by a recent historian to have been incapable of pity;
not too harsh a sentence when we think of Raleigh,
fifteen years a prisoner, and then executed because
he had not brought any gold from Guiana, and had
quarrelled with the Spaniards. The truth appears
to be that Hall, though he approved the death of
Servetus, did not approve of the death of these men,
or he would have said so ; but that, conscious of the
obloquy his royal master had incurred, he draws a
contrast between the terrible days of persecution,
passed away with their countless victims, and the
comparative blessedness of his own day, when solitary
executions stirred men's wrath and pity. His words
must thus, I think, be regarded, not as a justification
of the king's conduct, but as an apology for it; not

LIFE AT WALTHAM. 157
altogether satisfactory, it must be admitted, but
perhaps as truthful as most men could or would
make it, under similar circumstances.
Of Hall's home-life at Waltham we have a
valuable account in a letter to his patron, which,
though it may be somewhat ideal (and who quite
lives up to his ideal ?), was yet no doubt in the life
of one so methodical and devout very largely put
into practice. We are thus enabled to come very
close to the man himself, and by being in his com
pany in the study, at the fireside, and in the parish,
to see for ourselves what manner of man he was.
The date of the letter was probably some time in
1612. " Let me tell your Lordship how I would pass my days,
whether common or sacred, that you, or whosoever others
overhearing me, may either approve my thriftiness, or correct
my errors. To whom is the account of my hours either
more dear or more known?
" All days are His who gave time a beginning and con
tinuance ; yet some He hath made ours, not to command
but to use. In none may we forget Him ; in some we must
forget all besides Him. First, therefore, I desire to awake
at those hours, not when I will but when I must ; pleasure
is not a fit rule for rest but health ; neither do I consult so
much with the sun as mine own necessity, whether of body,
or in that of the mind. If this vassal could well serve me
waking it should never sleep ; but now it must be pleased
that it may be serviceable.
"Now, when sleep is rather driven away than leaves me,
I would ever awake with God. My first thoughts are for
Him who hath made the night for rest and the day for
travel, and as He gives so blesses both. If my heart be
early seasoned with His presence, it will savour of Him all
day after. While my body is dressing, not with an effeminate

158 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
curiosity, nor yet with rude neglect, my mind addresses itself
to her ensuing task, bethinking what is to be done, and in
what order, and marshalling, as it may, my hours with my
work. " That done, after some while meditation, I walk up to
my masters and companions, my books ; and, sitting down
amongst them with the best contentment, I dare not reach
forth my hand to salute any of them till I have first looked
up to heaven and craved favour of Him to whom all my
studies are duly referred, without whom I can neither profit
nor labour. After this, out of no over-great variety, I call
forth those which may best fit my occasions ; wherein I am
not too scrupulous of age ; sometimes I put myself to school
to one of those ancients whom the Church hath honoured
with the name of Fathers, whose volumes I confess not
to open without a secret reverence of their holiness and
gravity; sometimes to those latter Doctors which want
nothing but age to make them classical ; always to God's
Book. That day is lost whereof some hours are not
improved in those Divine monuments ; others I turn over
out of choice, these out of duty.
" Ere I can have sat into weariness, my family having
now overcome all household distractions, invite me to our
common devotions, not without some short preparation.
These heartily performed, send me up with a more strong
and cheerful appetite to my former work, which I find made
easy to me by intermission and variety.
" Now, therefore, cah I deceive the hours with change of
pleasures, that is of labours. One while mine eyes are
busied, another while my hand ; and sometimes my mind
takes the burden from them both, wherein I would imitate
the skilfuUest cooks, which make the best dishes with
manifold mixtures. One hour is spent in textual divinity,
another in controversy ; histories relieve them both. Now,
when the, mind is weary of other labours, it begins to
undertake her own ; sometimes it meditates and winds up
for future use ; sometimes it lays forth her conceits into

LIFE AT i WALTHAM. \<p

present discourse, sometimes for itself, often for others.
Neither know I whether it works or plays in these thoughts.
I am sure no sport hath more pleasure, no work more use.
Only the decay of a weak body makes me think these
delights insensibly laborious.
" Thus could I, all day, as singers use, make myself music
with changes, and complain sooner of the day for shortness,
than of the business for toil, were it not that this faint
monitor interrupts me still in the midst of my busy pleasures,
and enforces me both to respite and repast. I must yield
to both ; while my body and mind are joined together in
their unequal couples, the better must follow the weaker.
Before my meals, therefore, and after, I let myself loose
from all thoughts, and now would forget that I ever studied.
A full mind takes away the body's appetite, no less than
a full body makes a dull and unwieldy mind. Company,
discourse, recreations, are now seasonable and welcome.
"These prepare me for a diet not gluttonous, but medi
cinal ; the palate may not be pleased but the stomach ; nor
that for its own sake. Neither would I think any of these
comforts worth respect in themselves, but in their use, in their
end, so far as they may enable me to better things. If I see
any dish to tempt my palate, I fear a serpent in that apple,
and would please myself in a wilful denial. I rise capable of
more, not desirous. Not now immediately from my trencher
to my book, but after some intermission. Moderate speed
is a sure help to all proceedings, where those things which
are prosecuted with violence of endeavour or desire, either
succeed not, or continue not. After my latter meal my
thoughts are slight, only my memory may be charged with
her task of recalling what was committed to her custody
in the day, and my heart is busy in examining my hands
and mouth, and all other senses, of that day's behaviour.
" And now the evening is come, no tradesman doth more
carefully take in his wares, clear his shopboard, and shut
his windows, than I would shut up my thoughts and clear
my mind. That student shall live miserably which, like a

160 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
camel, lies down under his burden. All this done, calling
together my family, we end the day with God. Thus do
we rather drive away the time before us, than follow it.
" Such are my common days. But God's day calls for
another respect. The same sun arises on this day and
enlightens it ; yet, because that Sun of Righteousness arose
upon it, and gave a new life unto the world in it, and drew
the strength of God's moral precept into it, therefore do we
justly sing with the Psalmist, This is the day which the Lord
hath made. Now, I forget the world, and in a sort myself,
and deal with my wonted thoughts, as great men use, who
at some times of their privacy forbid the access of all suitors.
Prayer, meditation, reading, hearing, preaching, singing,
good conference, are the business of this day ; which I dare
not bestow on any other work or pleasure, but heavenly.
I hate superstition on the one side, and looseness on the
other ; but I find it hard to offend in too much devotion,
easy in profaneness. The whole week is sanctified by this
day ; and according to my care of this is my blessing on
the rest."
From Waltham and its daily round let us now
turn to a very different scene. During the twenty-
two years he spent at Waltham, Hall was three
times commanded and employed abroad by His
Majesty in public service. The first of these was in
1616,' when his friend the Earl of Carlisle, now
Viscount Doncaster, went on his embassy to France.
Hall was in attendance, and relates with enthusiasm
the entertainment the embassy met with. While in
France he was seized with a "Diarrhcea biliosa,"
which threatened severe dysentery, and was brought
so low that there seemed small hope of his recovery.
Peter Moulin visited him often during his illness, and
offered, in case he could not venture on the home
journey with the rest of the embassy, to take him

VISIT TO PARIS. 161

under his own roof. Hall's power of winning men's
love was remarkable, and it is easy to understand
how Viscount Doncaster on hearing of his sad con
dition was " much afflicted " thereat, well supposing
that his welcome to Waltham without the Rector
would not be hearty. Moulin's generous offer was
declined, and Hall resolved, if he could but creep
homewards, to put himself upon the journey. " A
litter was provided, but of so little ease that
Simeon's penitential lodging, or a malefactor's stocks,
had been less penal." Down to that had he crawled
from his chamber, and Moulin writing afterwards
said he seemed to be put into his coffin. Thus he
would have journeyed in misery from Paris to
Dieppe, with no other company than the surly
muleteers, had he not been so fortunate as to reach
St. Germain's at the very minute the ambassador's
coaches were setting out. He gladly changed his
seat and his company, and, beyond all expectation,
began to gather some strength, whether from the
fresh air or the desire of home. Taking ship at
Dieppe, he and his fellow-travellers, after being a
night and nearly a day at sea, were compelled to put
back to " that bleak haven " whence they set forth,
and go by land along the coast of Normandy and
Picardy, as we already know — a much more pleasant
mode of locomotion to one at least of the party.
At length Hall was again at his beloved Waltham,
but the complaint had come with him, and continued
to afflict him for some time after his return.
In his absence he had not been forgotten, the
king having conferred upon him the Deanery of
Worcester, which had been promised to him before
he left England, but was nearly lost through
n

162 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the " importunity and underhand working of some
great ones." Who these were, Hall does not say,
but as Dr. Field, the Dean of Gloucester, was his
rival, it is probable that Sir Thomas Egerton, whose
chaplain Field was, may have been among them.
At all events, Field thought his chance so good that
he had taken steps for furnishing the new Deanery.
Hall with rare charity speaks of his opponent as
" learned and worthy, reverend and better-deserving,"
and says he was "well satisfied with better hopes,
and soon after exchanged this mortal estate for an
immortal and glorious." Field died (November
15th, 1616) before the year was ended, just as he
was about to be nominated to the see of Oxford.

CHAPTER IX.
HALL AND ABSOLUTISM*
WE have now reached a stage in the history of
Hall's life at which it may be convenient to
take a review of his attitude towards the Absolut
ism of his day. The pernicious doctrine that the
Monarchy of England is absolute was not the
sudden outburst of political passion, nor the growth
of a few years. It may be said to date from the
time when Parliament, partly in return for the very
liberal grants of Church property to distinguished
individuals, partly in the almost inevitable excesses
of a great national crisis, gave to the proclamations
of Henry the force of law, and allowed him the
privilege of appointing his successor to the throne.
* Professor Masson ("Life of Milton," vol. ii., p. 123)
accuses Hall of "toadying Laud in secret," and of writing
"disagreeable private letters of information to Laud respect
ing nests of sectaries in London whom it would be well to
extirpate," and further adds: "My distinct impression is that
in his conduct generally, and even in his writings, when care
fully examined, there will be found a meaner element than our
literary dilettanti and antiquaries have been able to discern in
so celebrated a bishop." So great a writer as Mr. Masson
surely ought not to bring a degrading charge without
supporting it. How far Hall was guilty of toadying Laud,
the reader will have an opportunity of judging further on.
The word appears to me very much too strong. As to the
sectaries, Hall said nothing in private that he did not say over

164 LLFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Under Elizabeth a notion prevailed that, arising out
of the very conception of sovereignty, there apper
tained to the Crown a paramount authority analogous
to that of the Roman Dictators. It was, however,
little more than a notion, an inference from a theory
of government rather than a rule of action, an argu
mentative weapon to be produced in certain cases of
expediency, or, veiled in ambiguous language, a piece
of flattery well calculated to impress the mind of
royalty, rather than an insult to the liberties of the
people. It was reserved for James I. and his
abettors to give distinct expression to the tenet.
Some years before his accession to the throne
of England, James, in his " True Law of Free
Monarchies," had laid down the doctrine of the
divine right of kings, and, no doubt with much
self-satisfaction, had established the duty of passive
obedience. Presbyterianism had given him so
much pain that Episcopacy was an anodyne, and
his two sayings, " A Deo rex, a rege lex" and " No
Bishop, no King," so frequently heard at the Hamp
ton Court Conference, must have been peculiarly
and over again in public. In the House of Lords he drew
attention to " no fewer than fourscore congregations of several
sectaries in London and the suburbs and liberties," and in his
sermons and other writings there are repeated suggestions for
dealing vigorously with them. As to the element of meanness
"in his conduct generally, and even in his writings," if it be to
be found anywhere, it will be in his relations to absolutism, and
perhaps in an occasional artificial handling of texts for con
troversial purposes. I venture to think, however, that did
Mr. Masson possess a more intimate knowledge of Hall, even
his admiration for the Bishop would be no less than my own.
In a career so long and active, and full of such varied
experience, the harmonies of eighty years could hardly fail
to be associated with some discords.

HALL AND ABSOLUTISM. 165

pleasant in the ears of both himself and of the
pillars of the Church. Overall's Convocation Book,
in 1606, and Cowell's Interpreter or Law Dictionary,
published about the same time, vied with one
another in setting the king above the law, and in the
latter it was held to be " incontrollable, that the
King of England is an absolute king." This most
dangerous Interpreter was suppressed ; but it was
not so easy to stamp out the opinion interpreted.
In 1 6 16 the king, speaking in the Star-chamber,
compared the " presumption and high contempt " of
a subject in " disputing what a king can do," or in
saying that " a king cannot do this or that," with the
atheism and blasphemy of those who dispute what
God can do ; and intimated that good Christians and
good subjects both content themselves with the
revealed will. Up to this time James was more
Calvinistic than anything else. From the Synod of
Dort (16 1 8) onwards, he inclined to Arminianism,
and listened to the suggestions of Laud. Whatever
may be the explanation, there can be no doubt that
Laud, if a vigorous defender of the rights of the
Church, was an equally vigorous assailant of the
constitution, and however deep the feelings of
gratitude with which loyal Churchmen must regard
one who had the courage of his convictions even
unto death, no true patriot can approve a policy
subversive in the long run of the very truth which it
is part of the Church's work to inculcate. He never
ceased to sanction, even to stimulate, Charles in that
evil course which cost one monarch his head and
another his throne. In 1626 he issued his paper to
the clergy, urging them to contribute to the forced
loan which the exigencies of the court demanded,

166 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
It is a paper of singular ability, sufficiently general
perhaps to avoid attack, sufficiently suggestive to
make known the imperative wishes of the king
and the Archbishop, and to secure the end in view.
Then comes his patronage of Sibthorp and Mainwar-
ing, one of whom for his treason against his country
men was , rewarded with a bishopric, the other with
comfortable preferment. From 1629 through the
next eleven years absolutism had free way. In 1 640
its helplessness was evident ; before 1 649 a bloody
war and the final tragedy had proved that liberty
in this country was something more than a name.
One feature, amid the changing scenes of the
times intervening between the accession of Elizabeth
and the outbreak of the civil war, is uniformly con
stant, — the extravagant and fulsome adulation
lavished on the Sovereign. In Elizabeth's time the
bishops were treated with rudeness and contempt ;
their opinion was little heeded ; they were the servants
of the Crown, expected to perform their duty uncom
plainingly, and liable to be " unfrocked " at the will
and pleasure of the new head of the Church. The
flatterers in her reign were mainly the courtiers,
whose courtesy, was measured by the honey of their
tongues and pens. Under James the bishops were
not a whit behind the rest. The new-found sense
of their dignity, with gratitude to him who was the
source of it, and a keen insight into the weaknesses
of the learned pedant, with perhaps a genuine
appreciation of his ability and attainments, by no
means inconsiderable, all combined to make them
vie with one another in a servility as ludicrous as it
was excessive. Hall is no exception to the rule,
and we can hardly expect that he would be. From

HALL AND ABSOLUTISM. 167
his boyhood he must have been accustomed to the
feeling of dependence, and have been early initiated
in the mysteries of the science by which the favour
of the great was to be secured. His father, it will
be remembered, was agent to the powerful Earl of
Huntingdon, who more than once at his princely
home had entertained royalty with regal splendour.
He himself had been indebted to aristocratic influ
ence for the first steps in his ecclesiastical promotion.
Providence had made him chaplain to the heir to
the throne. It would have been more than human
for a man so situate to keep clear of the prevailing
vice, and so to regulate his utterances as neither to
offend against prudence on the one hand, nor decency
on the other. That Hall had thought out the matter,
and had tracked for himself an ideal course, is certain
from his " Letter to the Gentlemen of the Court."
" The courtier's alphabet," he says, " is his prince's
disposition, which, once learned, he plies with
diligent service, not with flattery ; not commending
every action as good, nor the best too much, and in
presence." Again, " He never speaks but mere truth,
what princes' ears are not always accustomed to :
yet that, tempered for the measure and time, with
honest discretion." No one could profess a deeper
abhorrence of flattery than he did — " I would the
flattery of a prince were treason ; in effect it is so,
for the flatterer is a kind murderer. I would it were
so in punishment." Some years afterwards he
describes flatterers as the " most harmful of all tame
beasts." From another point of view they are
" serpents, that swell up the soul with a plausible
poison, that kill a man laughing and sleeping ; dogs
that worry their masters ; vultures that feed on the

168 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
eyes, on the hearts, of the great : Hell is a fitter
place for them than Christian courts." The sermon
in which this passage occurs was preached to His
Majesty, and is therefore fairly open to the suspicion
of being not only highly rhetorical, but perhaps some
thing more. Still it would be uncharitable and unjust
to accuse Hall of hypocrisy. Nor would it be candid
to excuse him on the ground of the somewhat weak
distinction he draws between praise in absence and
praise to the face: — "A small praise to the face may
be adulation, though it be within bounds : a great
praise in absence may be but justice." The former
clause is undoubtedly true ; so is the latter, but the
very question is whether the " great praise " so
unsparingly applied was just. Upon the whole it
would seem correct to say that he set before him
in a perilous position a manly and a noble ideal, but
that circumstances proved too strong for him, and
that he failed to escape the snares by which so
many of his ablest contemporaries were caught.
It is positively startling, after his earnest dis
avowals, to read the account he gives not only of
Elizabeth, of whose queenly virtues, apart from
some womanly failings, it would be hard to say
anything too highly eulogistic, or of Charles I.,
whose " temperance, chastity, piety, mercy, and
justice " are, with some slight qualification, generally
acknowledged, but also of James I., who certainly
was not the acme of perfection. How does Hall
describe him ? As our " Samson, a king higher
than other princes by the head and shoulders, who
in learning and knowledge exceedeth all his one
hundred and five predecessors. His entire acquaint
ance with all sciences, and with the queen of all,

HALL AND ABSOLUTISM. 169

Divinity, is such that he might well dispute with
the infallible Pope Paulus Quintus for his triple
crown ; no king ever moderated the solemn acts
of a university in all professions, and had so many
hands clapped in the applause of his occult and
learned determinations ; all Christian princes rejoice
to follow him as their worthy leader in all the
battles of God ; he is an incomparable divine for
a prince, yea, a prince of divines, a king of men,
and a wonder of kings, mighty both in his sceptre
and his pen ; like Noah's dove, he alone brought
an olive of peace to the tossed ark of Christendom ;
like another Augustus, he has becalmed the world
and shut the iron gates of war." An elaborate parallel
is drawn between him and Constantine, and though
" Constantine built churches, one in Jerusalem,
another in Nicomedia, King James hath founded
one college (the College for Controversy at Chelsea)
which shall help to build and confirm the whole
Church of God upon earth ; " when James is no
more, he is " our late Augustus."
After this, Hall's declaration that monarchy is
the best of governments, and likest to His rule
that sits in the assembly of Gods, will sound only
mild ; but his tone changed with the advance of
years, and his language becomes that of the most
vehement favourer of absolutism. Caesar, he tells
us, is Christ's deputy ; he holds his crown and
sceptre as in fee from the God of heaven ; God
hath ordained it immediately; he is God's anointed.
and vicegerent. Bellarmine's words, " in which he
traced the authority of kings to the will of the
people, potestas principis dimanavit a populo," but
which express equally well the position of Hooker

170 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
and Locke,* he rejects with scorn, as well fitting
the pretensions of the Pope to be from God, and
so above all earthly powers. The , king is " the
head of the body, the eye in the head, the ball
in that eye, without which the whole state, like
Polyphemus, must reel, arid stagger, and grovel.
Take away the monarchy, earth would be hell."
In 1634 the attempt was made to levy ship-
money on the inland towns, and in the early part
of that year Hall preached before the court.
Absolutism may be said to have nearly reached
its climax, and the sermon is very valuable as
showing not merely the Bishop's personal opinions,
but how far a representative of moderate and
popular feeling was compelled to go, and with what
measure of freedom he could express his opposition
to the prevailing currents. In it is found at once
the clearest condemnation of the preacher and his
best vindication. His text was taken from Psalm
cxliv. 3, 4: — "Lord, what is man, that Thou takest
knowledge of him ; or the Son of Man, that Thou
makest account of him ? "etc. He admits absolute sove
reignty, based upon the estimation in which God
holds kings. " Homage, obedience, tribute, prayers,
lives are due from us to God's vicegerents. There
are nations of whom God may say, Dedi eis regem
in ird : even such yet must have all these duties.
But when the influences of sovereignty are sweet
and gentle, sicut ros super herbam, we cannot too
much pour out ourselves into gratitude to God
for them, to them under God. Even so, O Thou
God of kings, still and ever double this knowledge
* Hooker, "Ecc. Pol.," bk. i., ch. x., 4; Locke, "Civil
Government," sec. 240.

HALL AND ABSOLUTISM. 171
and dear account of Thine upon that Thy servant,
whom Thou hast chosen, anointed, ordained, pro
tected to be the great instrument of our peace
and Thy glory." If sentence were to go upon
the preceding, judgment without mercy would pro
bably be meted out to Hall. But no one can
read the sermon without being convinced that his
acquiescence in the ruling mode of thought at the
court was more verbal than real. He is evidently
impressed with the gravity of the crisis, and strives
so to present the doctrine he felt bound to accept
as to strip it of the deadly consequences he feared
it must entail. Man's littleness is the key to
his exposition, and how hazardous he felt his theme
to be is evidenced by almost the first words he
addressed to his audience. " No blacks, nor soul
bells, nor death's heads on our rings, nor funeral
sermons, nor tombs, nor epitaphs, can fix our hearts
enough upon our frail and miserable condition.
And, if any man have condescended to see his
face in the true looking-glass of his wretched
frailty, so soon as his back is turned he forgets
his shape straight ; especially at a court, where
outward glory would seem to shoulder out the
thoughts of poor, despicable mortality. Give me
leave, therefore, honourable and beloved, to ring
my own knell in your ears this day ; and to call
home your eyes a little ; and to show you that
which I fear you too seldom see yourselves." He
proceeds to prove that David, though an absolute
sovereign, was himself in humble subjection to the
God of kings ; he had not subdued his people if
God had not subdued them for him ; the great
conquerors of worlds could not conquer hearts, if

172 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
He, that moulded hearts, did not temper them ;
the vain pride of man befools him and carries
him away to ridiculous affectations ; the man after
God's own heart was in another vein ; when he
looks downward, he sees the people crouching under
him, and confesses his own just predominancy ; but,
when he looks either upward to God, or inward
to himself, he says, Lord, what is man ? " Set this
pattern before you, ye great ones, whom God hath
raised to the height of worldly honour. Oh, be
ye as humble as ye are great ; the more high you
are in others' eyes, be so much more lowly in your
own ; as knowing that he was no less than a king
that said, Lord, what is man f " Who besides Hall
would have had the address, or the courage, thus
to speak before the court of Charles ? To say less
would have been to exclude himself from being
numbered among the advocates of a particular
theory of government ; to go further than he did
in the opposite direction would have been to incur
the imputation of antagonism to the court. Abso
lutism with him was only the expression of the
ideal obedience of the subject, and regulated in
accordance with his suggestions would have been
almost harmless. Had Laud possessed but a
fraction of the moderation of the man whom he
three times brought upon his knees, of his wisdom,
foresight, knowledge of men, adaptability to circum
stance, reluctance to push a theory into action,
and to purchase for the Church a temporary advan
tage at the price of lasting misery to the nation,
perhaps the battles of the rebellion would never
have been fought; Laud might have died in his bed,
and his rnaster have secured both crown and life,

CHAPTER X.
THE " QUO VADISV'—HALL ACCOMPANIES KING
JAMES TO SCOTLAND.— STUDIES RITUAL.
HALL had now attained in the Deanery of
Worcester a position of which any man might
be proud, and he had won it for the most part
by hard work, pulpit eloquence, and literary ability.
No doubt he had judiciously used the advantages
he possessed in his royal and noble patrons ; but it
must be remembered that he made these advantages
before he used them, and that compared with the
barefaced adulation, disgraceful jobbery, and abject
grovelling which were to so many at this time the
high road to preferment, the dedicatory praise he
bestowed upon his patrons was only the just re
cognition of their merit, and his gentle flattery no
more than courteous tact. The sickness which in
France had so nearly brought his career to a pre
mature close still continued, and prevented his going
down to Worcester to take possession of his new
dignity. He therefore stayed at Waltham, which
living he still held together with the Deanery. The
reader will probably be somewhat shocked to find
Hall a pluralist. The conscience of Churchmen,
however, was not so accurate in this respect then as
it is now. The Puritans indeed for years past had
protested and objected, but ineffectually. It was

174 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
urged that the large number of benefices (in 1584
about 18,000), and the small number of competent
men to fill them, rendered pluralities almost an
absolute necessity. The very case of a dean holding
a benefice was contemplated and provided for by
the Canons of 1604.
It was probably about this time, while waiting for
recovery, that Hall recorded those impressions of his
two visits to the Continent which we have in the
"Quo Vadis? A Censure of Travel." On the former
occasion we found him retiring to the hills above
the Spa of Ardenne and giving himself up to medi
tation ; on the latter, while others were enjoying the
noble courtesies of the time, his thoughts were enter
taining themselves with tasting that ordinary travel
which had become so general ; both times, " as
thinking himself worthy of nothing but neglect, he
bent his eyes upon others to see what they did,
what they got." His inquiry " found our spiritual
loss so palpable, that his heart could not chuse but
break forth at his hand, and tell his countrymen of
the dangerous issue of their curiosity." He had no
intention of condemning the journeys undertaken for
the mineral waters of the Spa, if there were a bond
fide cause. How could he, having been himself in
debted to them ? But he tells us that many sick
souls were beholden to them for a good excuse, and
while pretending the medicinal use of the spring,
freely quaffed of the puddle of Popish superstition,
poisoning the better part instead of helping the
worse. These he would leave to the best physician,
Authority, which, if it would undertake the cure,
might perhaps save as many English souls from
infection as that water cured bodies of disease. His

THE "QUO VADIS V 175
purpose was to deal with those who sought in travel
a culture which, it was imagined, was not to be got
at home, too many of whom he had seen lose their
hopes and themselves in the way, returning empty
of grace and other virtues, as full of words, vanity,
misdispositions. His views will no doubt seem
narrow and his strictures severe in these days, when
all who can look for recreation, or health, or the
gratification of intelligent curiosity in a visit to the
Continent. But once more I must beg my readers
to bear in mind that two hundred and seventy years
ago the dangers to body and soul of a traveller were
far greater than they are now. Foreign hotel-
keepers had not learnt to cater for English tastes ;
and religious malice, baffled in 1605, was busy
avenging itself in 161 7. Popish recusants were
numerous, Spanish influence was in the ascendant ;
some of the best of our youth were being perverted,
and a lover of the Anglican Church, however liberal
his opinions and enlightened his views, could not
fail to be full of anxious forebodings.
Hall admits two legitimate occasions of travel,
commerce and matters of state. For the former, a
ship of merchants is the good housewife of the
commonwealth ; he only bids our merchants take
heed lest they go so far that they leave God behind
them, and while they buy all other things cheap,
make an ill match for their souls ; lest they end
their prosperous adventures in the shipwreck of a
good conscience. As for matters of policy, he was
certainly no advocate of a blind-and-deaf confidence
which prostrates a nation to the mercy of a hollow
friendship. Eyes and ears of state he thought
necessary to the well-being of the head. The

I?6 LIPE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
appetite for news was evidently then as keen as now,
though not so readily satisfied, and " private inter
lopers of intelligence were lying abroad only to feed
some vain chameleons at home with the air of news,
for no other purpose save idle discourse." These
were neither eyes nor ears. Our author's censure
was not aimed at either of the two occasions afore
said, but his quarrel was with the travel of curiosity,
the inconveniences whereof he had himself so suffi
ciently witnessed that our gentry, he said, could they
have borrowed his eyes for the time, would have
learnt to keep their sons at home. The root of the
mischief seemed to be an affectation of too early
ripeness, which led parents to send their children
forth to the world at too tender an age, like fond
mothers who were wont to send forth their daughters
early in cold and foggy mornings to gain a colour,
and while they strove for this lost their health. Too
much speed was the great evil of the time. Lap
wings, going from under the wing of their dam with
the shell on their heads, were running wild at the
Universities and Inns of Law. Or if this were not so,
precocity of understanding was taking the place of
age and stature, and it was commonly seen that
these rathe-ripe wits, like February blossoms nipped
with an April frost, after an empty wonder at their
haste, ended either in shame or obscurity. How
much more dangerous was it to send forth children
into places whose very goodness was either impiety
or superstition. On his late journey into France he
had come upon some ordinary factors of Rome, one
of whom, whose name he noted, had been observed
to carry over from England six popish novices to
be educated beyond the seas. The world was wide

THE "QUO VADISV 177
and open, and yet the ordinary travel of Englishmen
was southward into the jaws of danger, and the
parts alone thought worth viewing were most con
tagious. What plea could there be for such confi
dence, save that even in the most corrupted air
of popery some well-reformed Christians drew their
breath, and sweetened it with their respiration ?
These would have been more numerous if authority
had followed the Church of England, and had wisely
allowed a correspondence in some things with the
Church of Rome. God was his record, how free his
heart was both from partiality and prejudice. He
had found among the Catholics some who approved
of and applauded the liturgy of our Church, newly
translated, and who marvelled to see such order and
devotion in those whom they were taught to con
demn as heretical. These, he thought, might with
a little help have been brought to allow not only
our practice, but some points also of our judgment.
The old praise of early rising, that it made a man
healthful, holy, and rich, could not be given to early
travel. The difference of diet and of drinks,
especially at so tender an age, must needs cause a
jar in the constitution, and affect the whole course
of the ensuing life. As for holiness, set an empty
pitcher to the fire, it cracks presently, whereas the
full will abide boiling. The eye of the parent and
the ferule of the master were all too little to bring
our sons to good. How should their condition be
other than hopeless abroad ? Lastly, for riches,
that is, not of the purse, but of the mind, the wealth
of a young traveller was only in his tongue, wherein
he exceeded his mother's parrot at home, both for
that he could speak more, and knew that he spoke.
12

178 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL., D.D.
There was in fact too much haste everywhere, —
haste in matrimony, haste in professions. But
suppose the traveller to have attained a mature
age. Does he travel to please his fancy ? He is
like a woman with child, who longs for what she
sees upon another's trencher, and swoons if she miss
it ; or some squire of dames, that doats upon every
beauty, and is every day love-sick anew. Does he
travel to improve his understanding ? Setting aside
the study of civil law, which could indeed be better
pursued abroad, all sciences might be more fitly
wooed and more surely won within our four seas.
The greatest foreign masters had been at least
equalled by our home-bred islanders. Our univer
sities had no equals in all the world. Other nations
had applauded no professors more than those which
they borrowed from us, and we had not lent our
best. No nation under heaven so abounded with
every variety of learning as this island ! From the
head of God's anointed the sweet perfume distilled
to the utmost skirts of our region. Why then go
abroad for education ? So far from perfecting our
gentry, travel robbed them of the very desire of
perfection. They went where learning was held to
be a shame to nobility, an opinion so savouring of
proud ignorance and ignorant looseness, that Hall
could not honour it with a confutation. Charlemagne
declared that he would rather abound in knowledge
than in wealth ; but a successor of his, Louis XL,
advised his son to learn no more Latin than Qui
nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere, as though the art of
arts, the government of men, did not require some
thing more than dissimulation or ignorance, and at
least as much skill as the feeding of hogs or sheep.

THE "QUO VADIS?" 179
Hall at one time, out of hearsay, wrote in praise
of the French education. What he then said he was
willing now to recant, and was prepared to maintain
that few of the foreign nobles were studious in
comparison of ours, and those few were ashamed of
their virtue. The pen of our Gracious Sovereign
had raised brave trophies and rich monuments of
himself, and when ignorance and malice should have
shot their bolt, posterity would be more affected by
his wisdom and knowledge than by his greatness — a
prophecy which has certainly come true. Such an
example could not fail to be beneficial, and was in
marked contrast with the conduct of doctors of the
Roman Church, whose policy it had been to cherish
a dislike of bookishness in the great ; for while the
candle was out, it was safe for them to play their
tricks in the dark. But perhaps our traveller was
not aiming at the learning of the School, but of the
State. If so, he would perhaps talk with a peasant,
or a pilgrim, or a citizen, or a courtier, and must
needs take such information as rumour or weak con
jecture could give him. If he would stay at. home,
and travel into some learned and credible author
who had measured many a foul step for that which
his readers might see dry-shod, and worn out many
years in the search of that which one hour would
make no less theirs than his, he would be better
profited. Does he travel that he may be able to
talk? If he wishes to be like a mill without a sluice,
let him travel through the world of books, and he
shall be able to out-talk that tongue whose feet have
walked the furthest. We need not stir our feet to
learn to tell either loud lies, or large truths. A
bird in a cage may sing more change of notes than

180 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
some wild ones in the wood. And if a man wished
to know what was going on in the world around
him, ears abroad were not a whit more credible
than eyes at home. The world was so full of
printing-presses, and was grown so good a fellow,
that it was willing to tell its neighbours what it knew,
and the news of France or Spain might be ofttimes
better heard and seen upon our Exchange than at
Paris or Madrid. What would Hall say if he could
return for a few days to this world, with its daily
papers, its telegraphs, and multitudinous publications ?
Seeing then that travel cannot furnish the mind
better than staying at home, if it has an advantage,
it must be in what he calls the mixed abilities, such
as dancing, fencing, music, vaulting, horsemanship,
the only professions of the misnamed academies of
other nations. Such exercises he fully admits are
fit for young gentlemen, but, after all, they are only
the varnish on the picture of gentry, and though
such skill might be worth purchase, yet it might be
bought too dear, and perhaps need not be fetched so
far. No mean masters had told him that England
had yielded some in all those faculties which need
not stoop to the proudest foreigner. For want of
work and encouragement, our country had no such
multitude of masters ; still, if the fault were not in
ourselves, one candle might light a thousand. Hall
was fond of the horse, and his illustration is taken
from its training. He tells us that as it was the
strength and pride of France, so it won the hearts
and heels of that nation, whose greatest teachers
and ablest trainers had bequeathed their written
directions to posterity. There were two distinct
branches of training, one for service (by which

The "Quo VaDis?'

presumably is meant not that of the commoner
breeds for the cultivation of the land, or draught
purposes, but of the nobler kinds, for riding, hunting,
or war) ; another for pleasure. In the first our
English masters thought they could not yield unto
the best ; in the latter they allowed themselves sur
passed; but Hall contemptuously says that many
men had taught their dog the same tricks with no
less contentment. He thought it invidious to name
any foreign artists who had honoured this island
with their abode, but ventured to say that a more
bountiful patronage would secure a more abundant
supply. Now, to take the other side, suppose it to
be necessary to fetch all our water from the well
of another nation, and add to the apparent gain
already mentioned a few compliments and mimical
courtesies which an ordinary traveller would acquire,
what would be the price paid ? At least a danger
of corrupting his religion, and depraving his manners.
Those who travelled were mostly of the middle
rank, and therefore either followers of the great or
commanders of the meaner sort ; and themselves
acquiring in their wanderings a lukewarm indiffer
ency, diffused this easy temper into those above and
those beneath them.
In some the mischief was hid with a formal pro
fession; in others it broke forth into open revolt.
Hall could remember many who, with Dinah, had
gone forth to gaze and had lost their spiritual
chastity. Many he had known, like the brook
Cedron, run from Jerusalem and end their course in
the Dead Sea. No Pharisee was ever so eager to
make a proselyte as our late factors at Rome. No
man could set foot upon the coast of France who

1 82 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
could not presently sing with the Psalmist, They
come about me like bees. Pyrrhus- did not more envy
the valour of the old Roman soldiers, than English
divines did the audacity of the new. Their impor
tunity was evident at home. No bulwark of laws,
no bars of justice (though made of three trees) could
keep our rebanished fugitives from returning, from
intermeddling. There was not a state not haunted
with Jesuit spirits, not a house, not a soul. Not a
prince's council-table, not a lady's chamber could be
free from their insinuations. And they were all the
more dangerous because they were not rude and
boisterous like other sects, so as, like cannon shot, to be
more easily shunned than resisted, but were men of
a pleasing sweetness, and relied more on policy than
strength. No gentleman of note could cross our
seas, but his name would anticipate his person, and
be landed first in the Jesuit books. Like hawks
after their prey, at first they were wont to look and
fly quite the other way, would make no mention of
religion, merely commend themselves as persons of
sweet ingenuity and delightful sociability. Little by
little the stranger was caught in the snare. Hall
had been informed that some among them resorted
to magical delusions and devilish incantations rather
than want a client. Hence it was that miraculous
apparitions, if at least they were anything but fancy
or fraud, proceeded. Seeing how familiarly conjura
tion was professed in the Roman Church, and that
the best casuists, found it hard to clearly distinguish
between their sacred magic and the diabolical, this
could not seem strange. Still he would not dare to
peremptorily accuse, but would rather leave these
practices to further inquiry. One thing was too

THE "QUO VADIS?" 183
easy to observe, that as our English Papists are
commonly most Jesuitish, so our English Jesuits
were more furious than their fellows. Even those
of the hottest climates could not match them in
fiery dispositions. Why then put ourselves out of the
comfortable sunshine into the midst of the flame of
those noted incendiaries ? How far Hall was just
in his condemnation of Roman piety, and how far he
was blinded by prejudice while doubtless thoroughly
sincere, and anxious only to faithfully record his
impressions, I have elsewhere briefly pointed out.
It will probably be admitted that, however this may
be, his treatment of the Jesuits is not a whit too
severe. Their detailed history, as attested by con
temporary records, and related at such an interval of
time as to admit of a fair view and faithful estimate
of their work, fully corroborates the justness of Hall's
conclusions, and testifies to the accuracy of his
observation and the penetration of his mind. In
the beginning of the seventeenth century, the fervour
and enthusiasm which had won for the order thirteen
provinces before its founder in 1556 breathed his
last, was again bursting forth in varied forms not
only in Europe, but throughout the east. In 1609
Father Nobili had already converted seventy
Brahmins, and before long was surrounded with a
host of converts. In 16 10 Father Geronimo, at the
court of Akbar, now dead, baptized three princes
of the blood-royal, who rode to church on white
elephants, with the sound of trumpets, kettledrums,
and martial music. In 1621 a college was founded
in Agra, and a station was established at Patna. In
1605 a Society of the Virgin was established in
Pekin, and in 16 10 Father Ricci died, worn out as

184 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
much by his strict conformity to Chinese society,
with its burdensome etiquette, as by his untiring
labours. In 1 6 1 1 the first church in Nankin was
consecrated, and in 161 6 Christian churches were
to be found in five different provinces of the empire.
In 1 6 19 these pioneers in China were empowered
by the Pope himself to make concessions to the
heathen opinions prevailing around them, and every
year thousands were converted. In 1606 died
Father Valignano, who himself had been the founder
of three hundred churches and thirty houses for
Jesuits in Japan ; and in 161 2, the re-action having
set in, began the fearful persecution to which they
and all Christians were subjected in that country,
and in spite of which, in the nineteen years between
1603 and 1622, as many as close upon 240,000
Japanese are said to have been converted. The
Nestorians of India could not escape their vigilance,
but partly by force, partly by persuasion, the chief
among them were won, and in 1601 a Jesuit was
nominated as their Bishop. The Roman ritual
appeared in Chaldaic, and a college was soon founded
in Cranganor. In 1603 Father Paez arrived in
Abyssinia, preached in the language of the country,
gained access to the court, and set on foot that series
of systematic efforts which culminated in 1622, when
Gregory XV. appointed Doctor Alfonso Mendez,
a Portuguese Jesuit, patriarch of Ethiopia, and the
emperor submitted to the Pope. The Greek Chris
tians, too, of the Turkish empire were assailed with
mission after mission. In .1614 a Nestorian Archi
mandrite abjured in Rome the errors of Nestorius
in the name of large numbers who had held the
doctrines. A mission was established in Constanti-

THE "QUO VADlS?" 185
nople, and in 1621 the Jesuit Fathers were .so
influential as to be able to procure the removal
of the patriarch Cyril Lucar, who favoured the
Protestants. With this amazing activity on the part
of the enemy in the old world and in the new
(for at the beginning of the seventeenth century
the Jesuits had in South America five archbishoprics,
twenty-seven bishoprics, four hundred monasteries,
and "Doctrinas" innumerable, magnificent cathedrals,
seminaries, and universities), it is no wonder that
Hall should be unable to refrain from admiration
at their energy, skill, and address, or on the other
hand should shrink from exposing youth to the
peril of such seduction. It is hard to keep ourselves
from joining him in his admiration, and adding
moreover our thanks to the Order for their great
services to the cause of civilisation ; but had we
lived in Hall's day, and seen what he saw, known
what he, knew, and felt as he felt, our censures
might have been as keen as his, our indignation
as great, our charity less.
So far the danger to the traveller of corruption
in judgment ; there remains the danger from depra
vation of manners. Bad enough we might be at
home ; certainly we were worse for the mischief
borrowed from our neighbours. From abroad came,
says Hall, the dresses of his day, only constant
in their mutability. Towards the gentler sex he
is almost unmerciful. They made antics and
monsters of themselves, their hips reached to the
shoulders, and their breasts to the navel, and who
set the fashion but the ill-shaped dames of France,
and the worse-minded courtesans of Italy ? There
they learned the use of apothecary's mortar, and

1 86 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
washes cunningly licked on, of frizzled and powdered
bushes, as if they were ashamed of the head of
God's making, and proud of the tire-woman's.
Thence too had come the practice of duelling,
wherein men were taught the ambition of being
glorious butchers of men, the luxurious delicacy
of our feasts, the forms of ceremonious quaffing,
in which men made gods of others and beasts
of themselves, unbridled chatter, practical Machiavel-
ism, the slight account of the social vice condemned
as venial and tolerated as necessary, formal com
pliments, which neither expect belief from others,
nor carry any from ourselves, sodomy, which,
though burnt with fire and brimstone from heaven,
had yet revived, atheism secretly laughing God in
the face, the tragical science of king-killing, and
the new divinity of disobedience and rebellion,
and many other not enumerated evils. The author
concludes by asking that the dangerous liberty of
travel should be more strictly restrained, and the
regulations respecting conversation or conference
with Jesuits, or other dangerous persons, and passing
into the dominions of the king's enemies, which
were so commonly neglected that the prohibition
seemed intended only to teach men what to do,
should be more rigorously enforced. It was useless
to shut the wicket upon factious fugitives, and
make their return to these shores a capital crime,
if the postern were open to us that we might go to
them. I have ventured to summarise at greater length
than usual the contents of this little treatise,
because it puts us in possession of Hall's views
upon so many of the subjects hotly discussed at the

HALL ACCOMPANIES KING IAMES TO SCOTLAND. 187
time it was written, and so vividly depicts some
of the leading features of the society in which he
moved, and with which he was surrounded. It is
thus a valuable monograph on the social history
of our country at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. We must now accompany Hall to Scot
land, and try to discover his mind on the great
controversies which agitated that country at the
same period.
When James came to England in 1603, he
promised to visit Scotland every three years ; but
thirteen years had passed and he had not yet done
so. He had now a " longing to see the place of
his breeding, a salmon-like instinct," and notwith
standing some dissuasion determined to gratify his
wish. Matters of high policy were mingled with
motives of pleasure — he had resolved, if possible,
to settle the ecclesiastical affairs of his native land,
and in some measure to repair the havoc of the
Reformation, which had left behind it not the
orderly outcome of sober reason, but the confusion
bred of popular tumult, the desolation of the
hurricane and the whirlwind. Ninety years had
passed since Patrick Hamilton's devotion to Luther
was tested with fire, seventy years since George
Wishart had been barbarously put to death, and
Cardinal Beaton in retaliation had been assassinated.
Then John Knox like a firebrand had inflamed the
religious and political sympathies of his countrymen.
Patriotism, Protestantism, and fanaticism side by
side went forth to utterly destroy all that savoured
of foreign domination, or seemed to link Scotland
to the hated Church of Rome. Almost miracu
lously the leading dogmas of Christianity were

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

preserved, but the organization of long centuries
was swept away, the ritual usages consecrated by
the lives of thousands were abolished, episcopacy
was destroyed, the Church robbed of her patrimony,
sacred buildings razed to the ground, in that " holy
furor of piety." Knox and those associated with
him saw in the surplice, corner-cap, and tippet the
badges of idolaters and the dregs of the Romish
beast. Who was he that ought not to fear either
to take in his hand, or on his forehead, the prints
and marks of that odious Beast ? All higher
degrees had been abolished, degrees in theology
given up as tending to popery and superstition.
In 1572 the ancient titles of archbishop and bishop
were restored, but within twenty years Presby-
terianism was established upon a Parliamentary
sanction. The last hope of the Medisevalists had
in fact died with the hapless Queen of Scots in
1587. James in his younger days, " before he had any
down upon his chin, and whilst he was under the
ferule," had cried down the festivals of the Church,
and in a certain speech had applauded the purity
of the Church of Scotland above that of Geneva,
because it did not observe the common feasts of
the nativity, the resurrection, etc. He had also
said that our service was " an evil said mass in
English," and that we wanted " nothing of the mass
but the liftings." With age had come more wisdom,
and one of the main purposes of his journey into
Scotland was to bring about a conformity to the
rest of Christendom in the observation of the solemn
days, Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter, Ascen
sion Day, and Whitsunday. Other points which

HALL ACCOMPANIES KING JAMES TO SCOTLAND. 189
he had at heart were the private administration of
Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, kneeling at
the Eucharist, Confirmation by Bishops, and the
introduction of the English liturgy. The way was
already prepared to a considerable extent. In 1 606
the temporalities had been restored to the titular
bishops. On October 2 1 st, 1 6 1 o, Spottiswood, Arch
bishop of Glasgow, Lamb, Bishop of Brechin, and
Hamilton, Bishop of Galloway, were consecrated in
the chapel of the Bishop of London, and episcopacy
had been thus restored. On July 29th, 1616, the
principals of the three colleges of St. Andrew's and
some other ministers were made doctors of divinity,
Dr. Young, Dean of Winchester and chaplain to
the king, assisting. This, says Hall, was no inno
vation, but a renovation, and what His Majesty had
done for the Schools he wished to do for the
Church. Instructions having been sent to feed many cattle,
that there might be beef enough in the country when
the king came, His Majesty set out March 14th, 161 7,
taking with him as far as Theobalds the Queen and
Prince Charles. Great care was exercised in the
selection of the chaplains, Bishop Andrews, Laud,
then Dean of Gloucester, and Hall being in attend
ance. One of the preachers showed admirable judg
ment and a fine sense of the fitness of things in
preaching from Gen. xiii. 2, 3, and a comparison
between Abraham and James, Bethel and Scotland,
could not fail to much affect the royal hearer. By
the way a stop was made at Lincoln, and from
here were dated the instructions, so suggestive of
the prevailing currents of thought, to negotiate a
marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta of

190 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Spain. The espousals were to be made in Spain
according to the order of the Council of Trent, the
marriage to be solemnized in England according to
our laws. In the beginning of May the king reached
Berwick ; thence he went to the west of Scotland,
and at last, on May 16th, re-entered Edinburgh.
English carpenters had preceded him, and had been
busy working in Holyrood Chapel. Organs had
been disembarked at Leith ; gilded statues of the
Evangelists and Apostles, intended it was said for
the chapel, had been brought. The suspicions of
the people were roused ; they fancied the mass was
coming, and the bishops deemed it their duty to
admonish the king. The very next day the Anglican
service was begun in the Chapel Royal with surplices,
choristers, and organs. On June 8th, being Whit
sunday, the privy councillors, bishops, and nobles
in Edinburgh were commanded to repair to Holy-
rood for communion. Many went, and Andrews
preached. On June 28th the Parliament assembled,
and the king showed his determination to put an
end to General Assemblies. His position was —
" The bishops must rule the ministers, and the king
both, in things indifferent, and not repugnant to the
word of God." Edinburgh was full of ministers, and
a protest was soon formulated. How intense was
the feeling respecting the disputed point, and how
acute the crisis, may be judged from the fact that
when Hewat, one of the ministers of Edinburgh,
went to the palace to present it, an altercation arose
with Spottiswood, and in the struggle which ensued
the copy was torn. James came out of his bedroom
undressed to see what was going on, and, thoroughly
angry and more than half frightened, expressed his

HALL ACCOMPANIES KING JAMES TO SCOTLAND. 191
disapproval of protesting against his wishes. The
ringleaders were deprived and cast into prison.
Calderwood, the Scottish historian, was stripped of
his ministry and banished the country.
We shall now be better able to understand Hall's
part in these proceedings. In his " Specialities "
we learn that he found great love and respect, both
from the ministers and people, but no small envy
from some of the English courtiers. Through the
solicitation of Lord Carlisle he obtained permission
to return home before the other chaplains. No
sooner was he gone than suggestions were made to
His Majesty of his " over plausible demeanour and
doctrine to that already prejudicate people." Else
where he says that some captious hearers had taken
hold of words, spoken in some sermon, that " sounded
of too much indifferency in those businesses : ubi
bos herbam, vipera venenum : as if he had opened a
gap to a lawless freedom in teaching that no Church
should prescribe to other, that each should sit peace
ably down with her own fashions. He had not,
however, said that one Church should not follow the
good example of another, nor that there are not
certain sacred observances which should be common
to all Churches, nor that one king might not prescribe
to two Churches, whereof he was head. Examples
might move, authority might press the use of things
indifferent but expedient, and he thought it odious
to seem more holy than all others, or to seem wiser
than our heads."
Upon the whole it is easy to discover Hall's
attitude. His policy would doubtless be one of
persuasion, commending authority, not of rude
coercion and intemperate haste, frustrating the aims

192 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
of authority. His temper would be gentle, his
language conciliatory, and those about the king, who
possessed less delicacy of feeling, less knowledge of
human nature, and less wisdom, would represent him
as lukewarm on the one side, and too compliant on
the other. No man could be more out of place than
Hall at this time, attached to the court in Edin
burgh. While, therefore, a commonly received sup
position that the king would have no further use
for his chaplains after his removal from Edinburgh
may have occasioned his early departure, he would
welcome the opportunity and rejoice to be again at
Waltham with his books. Then again he had not
yet been able to go down to see his new dignity at
Worcester, and this may have partly determined
him to return as soon as possible.
James upon his return, while acknowledging
Hall's good service, called him to a "favourable
and mild account," freely disclosing the information
he had received, and finally expressing himself fully
satisfied with the answer given. At the same time,
His Majesty, having secret notice that a letter was
coming to Hall from Mr. W. Struther concerning
the five points detailed above, requested him to give
a full reply, and to declare at large his judgment
respecting the points in dispute. Struther was one
of the preachers of Edinburgh. Hall addresses him
as his worthily dear friend, and speaks of his wise
moderation in those matters, of his earnest pro
fessions that, if he were in the Church of England,
such was his indifferency in these indifferent matters,
he would make no scruple of our ceremonies, of his
sharp censures of those refractory spirits amongst us
who would forego their stations rather than yield to

STUDIES RITUAL. 193
those harmless impositions, of his learned and zealous
invective against the miserable spoliation of the
Church. But he was not in the Church of England,
and there is no necessary inconsistency between
Hall's account of him and that given by Heylin,
who says that the king was scarce settled in
Edinburgh before in the chief church Struther not
only condemned the rites and ceremonies of the
Church of England, but prayed God to save Scot
land from the same. This sermon was reported by
Laud and others to the king, and thus perhaps
arose the necessity for writing to Hall.
The letter speaks of the protest and other stirs
which happened after Hall's departure, tidings of
which had already reached Waltham. Struther had
been accused of favouring the zealot-party and
of opposing the king's plans, and he now asked
advice for himself and colleagues.
Hall was conscious that his reply was to be
something more than the private expression of opinion
between friends. He had to justify his own action,
and to take such a position as was consistent with
the dignity of the Church and the authority of the
king. A crisis had come in his life. Bred in the
school of Calvin, it was not to be supposed that he
had given much systematic study to questions of
rites and ceremonies. Now, however, before com
mitting himself to writing, he investigated such
matters thoroughly. " Let me profess to you seriously,"
he writes to Struther, " I did never so busily and
intehtively study these ritual matters, as I have done
since your letters called me unto this task. Since-
which time, I speak boldly, I made no spare, either
of hours or papers. Neque enim magna exiliter, nee
13

194 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
seria petfunctorie, as I have learned of our Nazianzen :
and besides, this, under one name, seemed a common
cause ; and therefore too worthy of my care."
The study was not lost upon him. He emerged
from it as regards these matters what would now be
called a high churchman, with a breadth and toler
ance which is simply amazing if we bear in mind his
early training, and the marvellous prejudice which,
in spite of all our nineteenth-century enlighten
ment, exists in the minds of so many against indif
ferent rites and ceremonies. Years afterwards, when
Bishop of Norwich, he spoke of Christians who
placed a kind Of holiness in a slovenly neglect, and
so ordered themselves as if they thought a hasty
carelessness in God's services were most acceptable
to Him, affected homely places for His worship,
abandoned all magnificence and cost in the acts and
appendages of their devotion, better pleased with
clay and sticks than marble and cedars, whose dresses
made no difference of festivals, who stumbled into
God's house without care or show of reverence, and
came to the heavenly banquet with full paunches.
He complained that the early Christians thought
nothing good enough for God Almighty; his contem
poraries thought nothing too mean, and affected
nothing but homeliness and beggary in Divine service.
He looked back to the great state and deep expense
wherewith God was served under the law, and asked
if it was to be thought the same God was now of
quite other diet than formerly. Was it all mere
ceremony ? or was there not so much morality in
it that the possessor of heaven should be served with
the best ? There was such a thing as cynical Chris
tianity, which affected beggary and nastiness, and

STUDIES RITUAL. 195

placed a kind of merit in sticks and clay, in rags and
patches and slovenery, a higgling with the Almighty,
and a base niggardliness to pinch Him in the allow
ances to His service. Why is Hall thoughtlessly and
ignorantly sometimes called a Puritan ? He cer
tainly was not one when he penned such burning
words, and his letter to Struther conclusively shows
that he never had been. Would it not be well if
men were to follow his example, and instead of
squabbling over ritual study it ?
It is perhaps needless to add that Hall amply
vindicated the five points, afterwards known as the
five articles of Perth, where they were agreed to,
after much heartburning and occasional mean vindic-
tiveness, in August 1 6 1 8, though they did not receive
the sanction of law until 162 1. His reply was so
well approved by James that it pleased the king to
command a transcript of it to be publicly read in
the university of St. Andrew's, " the effect whereof,"
says Hall, with almost silent modesty, " His Majesty
vouchsafed to signify afterwards, unto some of my
best friends, with allowance beyond my hopes."

CHAPTER XI.
SERMON BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON-
SYNOD OF DORT— SICKNESS AND RETURN, ETC.
ON Monday in Easter week of the next year
(1618) Hall preached his Hospital Sermon,
" The Righteous Mammon," before the Corporation
of - London. After the recent settlement of the
Episcopacy in Scotland, it was natural that he should
have something to say respecting the authority of
bishops. In another place the passage is quoted at
length ; it will, therefore, be sufficient to remark that
the preacher most clearly and emphatically insisted
upon episcopal government as the mark of the
Church, and upon the necessity of the ministerial
function for the giving and the support of spiritual
life. " He that can save you without us will not
save you but by us." " Let us never come to
heaven, if you can come thither ordinarily without
us." He spoke of the unparalleled number of
learned divines our island had at that day. For
the northern part of it, beyond the Tweed, where
there were rather more than eight hundred congre
gations, he had not seen or heard of one without a
preaching minister, and to the learning and ability
of at least some of those teachers, whether prelates
or presbyters, his own ears could testify. As for

SERMON BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. 197

England, as he considered the face of the Church in
an universality, he seemed to see the firmament in
a clear night bespangled with goodly stars of all
magnitudes ; but partly through the incomparable
multitude of cures, partly through the incompetent
provision for some, some stars were like the little
sparkles of the Milky Way, wherein scarce any light
could be discerned. There was no city in the world,
he thought, so rich in learned preachers as was
London. Coming to the immediate subject of his
text (1 Tim. vi. 17, 18, 19 — "Charge them that
are rich," etc.), he cleared Wickliff and others from
the grievous charge of socialism, which had been
fastened upon them, and by which they had suffered
much wrong. They had been accused of teaching
that as regards earthly possessions men had no
tenure but grace, no title but charity. Doubtless,
he said, this meant in foro interiori, in the consistory
of God, not in the common-pleas of men; not in the
courts of law, but of conscience, where only the civil
owner might be a spiritual usurper, and the spiritual
owner a civil beggar. It is clear that he would
have had little sympathy with the crude Christian
Socialism of our day, and the various schemes so
zealously propagated for robbing Peter to pay Paul.
In all probability he would have dismissed the apostles
of this gospel of spoliation as he does the illuminate
elders of Munster, — not worthy of confutation. He
reminded his hearers that some of them were like
the lions, elephants, and unicorns of the Lord
Mayor's show, which had the appearance of a solid
body, but if curiously looked into were found to be
nothing but cloth, and sticks, and air. Others were
like a dissembling convent, that professed poverty

198 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
and purchased lordships. One passage, which four-
or five-and-twenty years afterwards in the Smecty
mnuan controversy became historical, I venture to
put before my readers word for word. After speak
ing of the conceit of a little inheritance and of the
lengths to which it transported the gallants of his
time, so dressed that it would be hard to say
whether they were antics in some carnival or children's
puppets, he proceeded thus : —
" Who can without indignation look upon the prodigies
which this misimagination produces in that other sex, to
the shame of their husbands, the scorn of religion, the
damnation of their own souls ? Imagine one of our fore
fathers were alive again, and should see one of these his
gay daughters walk in Cheapside before him ; what do you
think he would think it were ? Here is nothing to be seen
but a verdingale, a yellow ruff, and a periwig with perhaps
some feathers waving in the top : three things for which he
could not tell how to find a name. Sure, he could not but
stand amazed, to think what new creature the times had
yielded since he was a man ; and if then he should run
before her, to see if by the fireside he might guess what it
were, when his eyes should meet with a powdered frizzle, a
painted hide shadowed with a fan not more painted, breasts
displayed, and a loose lock erring wantonly over her shoulder
betwixt a painted cloth and skin, how would he yet more
bless himself to think what mixture in nature could be
guilty of such a monster ? ' Is this,' thinks he, ' the flesh
and blood ? is this the hair ? is this the shape of a woman ?
or hath nature repented of her work since my days, and
begun a new frame ? ' It is no marvel if their forefathers
could not know them. God Himself that made them will
never acknowledge that face He never made, the hair that
He never made theirs, the body that is ashamed of the
Maker, the soul that thus disguises the body."

SYNOD OF DORT. 199
This vivid picture of Cheapside in the first quarter
of the seventeenth century must have produced a
powerful impression upon the fair dames for whom
it was intended, and whom Hall reminds that no
man will rough-cast a marble wall, but one of mud.
The Smectymnuans, moreoyer, availed themselves of
it, and said that the face and fabric of our Liturgy
were so changed by additions and alterations, that
it was now with it as with the disguised dames
mentioned of old by Dr. Hall, so misshapen by
their monstrous fashions that their redivived grand-
sires could not know them ! We cannot tarry
longer to enjoy the spiritual application of this
admirable sermon ; but as we have already been with
Hall to the Spa, to France, and to Scotland, must
now attend him in his journey to Holland, and see
how he demeaned himself as one of England's
representatives at the Synod of Dort.
The materials for the history of the synod are
so accessible, and the history has already been so
ably and fully written, that it will be unnecessary
to do more than sketch so much of the outline
as may suffice to enable us to understand Hall's
position with respect to it. Calvinistic principles
had been fixed in Holland by the Belgic Confession
of 1562, and the organisation of the Church on
the lines of Geneva had been accomplished eleven
years afterwards. Calvinism, however, was not in
undisputed possession of the ground. It has been
shown by Heylin that book after book had been
written, setting forth those views which afterwards
bore the name of Arminius, so that it is not too
much to say that Arminianism was already deeply
rooted before Arminius was born (15 61). He

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

himself, originally a Calvinist, had been led by
reading the extravagant tenets of our English supra-
lapsarian Perkins to juster views of the goodness
and mercy of God, and from this time (1604) to
the day of his death in 1610 did not fail to turn
to good account the influence he enjoyed as pro
fessor of divinity at Leyden. Hall speaks of his
acuteness, and judging by the success he had in
winning over some of the ablest intellects of his
country, by the unceasing and bitter persecution
to which he was subjected, and the childish cruelty
with which his opponents pursued him even in
his last illness, he must have been victorious, had
weapons of reason alone, and not of force, been put
in action. His sufferings were interpreted as judg
ments. His left eye was dim. His rancorous
enemies quoted Zech. xiv. 12 and xi. 17 against
him. His name was Jacobus Arminius. They
fashioned it into an epigram, and made him vani
orbis amicus. But, unshaken to the last, he drew
up a solemn confession within a few days of his
death, in which, after commending his soul into
the hands of God, he declared that he had very
anxiously and scrupulously been on his guard not
to propound or teach anything which he had not
by diligent study found to be in strictest harmony
with the Holy Scriptures, and declared that with
the papacy there could be no unity of faith, no
bond of piety or Christian peace. When we re
member how the synodists of Dort vaunted them
selves of their allegiance to Scripture, and how
" Pelagianism and Popery," or " Arminianism and
Popery," have been used as convenient phrases for
hiding reckless assertion and for vilifying an opponent,

SYNOD OF DORT.

we cannot be too thankful for these death-bed
utterances of one whose piety was above reproach.
The death of Arminius was by no means the death
of Arminianism. Episcopius through the press,
Uytenbogaert in the pulpit, Hugo Grotius and
Barnevelt by their political power, taught and
defended his opinions. In 1610 Vorstius, a member
of a Roman Catholic family converted to Protestan
tism, subsequently lecturer at Geneva and professor
of Steinfurt, published a treatise on the attributes
of God, and in the same year was called to succeed
Arminius as professor of theology at Leyden.
With this book begins the connection of England
with the theological strife of the Low Countries.
King James, exceedingly displeased with the new
appointment of the author, published a declaration
against him, and further ordered the book to be
burnt in London, Oxford, and Cambridge. " With
what zeal did his Majesty fly upon the blasphemous
novelties of Vorstius ! " says Hall. Others, beside
Hall, have justified the king's zeal, inasmuch as
Vorstius appears to have denied the absolute per
fection of the Divine attributes. Just at this time
the Arminians, anticipating trouble, framed a solemn
declaration of their tenets, and summarised their
views under the heads of five articles, " five busy
articles " Hall calls them : predestination, the extent
of the efficacy of Christ's death, man's free-will and
corruption, the manner of our conversion to God, per
severance. In 161 1 a public conference was held at
the Hague, and the Arminians, now known by the
name of Remonstrants, as their opponents by that of
Contraremonstrants, were deemed to have had much
the better of the day. No concessions, however,

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

were made by either side, and the Calvinists,
hoping to gain by power what they could not by
argument, put themselves under the protection of
Maurice, Prince of Orange. The Remonstrants, on
the other hand, sought the protection of Barnevelt,
who was a chief counsellor of State, and who hoped
by means of their assistance to counterbalance the
power of the prince. In 1 6 1 3 he gained for his
party an edict of toleration ; but this combination of
theology and politics was fatal to the Arminians.
Barnevelt was seized by Maurice, and, after a con
siderable interval, was beheaded in 16 19. The
Remonstrants were naturally dejected at the seizure
of their champion ; the Contraremonstrants, elated
at the removal of so able an adversary and animated
by a desire for complete victory, were now anxious
to refer their differences to a national council. To
this posture of affairs we owe the Synod of Dort.
The synod being resolved upon by the States,
foreign princes, and especially the English king, were
invited to send representatives. After his vigorous
onslaught upon Vorstius the royal gladiator could
scarce do less than accede, had not his vanity and
love of meddling been stimulus enough. What
further motives had weight with him is matter of
discussion. Heylin tells us some thought the king
was persuaded by Archbishop Abbot and Bishop
Montagu, others attributed his interference to his
early Calvinistic education, or to an affection for the
Prince of Orange, others to State reasons, to pre
vent a rupture with the Netherlands. Upon the
whole, if we allow at least as much for political aims
as for genuine regard to the interests of religious
truth and unaffected hostility to Arminianism, we

SYNOD OF DORT. ' 203

shall perhaps have such a combination of motives
as will best explain the cross currents which impede
our progress towards a thorough understanding of
the subject.
The representatives of England, chosen by the
king, were Carleton, Bishop of Llandaff, afterwards
Bishop of Chichester ; Davenant, Margaret Professor
of Cambridge, and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury ;
Samuel Ward, Master of Sidney Sussex College,
Cambridge, and Archdeacon of Taunton ; and lastly,
Joseph Hall. Repairing to His Majesty at New
market they received their instructions respecting
the synod. They were to practise themselves in
Latin ; in all points to be debated to privately consult
beforehand ; as far as possible to be unanimous ; to
advise the Churches of Holland not to allow doctrines,
fit to be the highest points of schools, to be commonly
discussed in the pulpits, nor to use any doctrine in
contradiction to their own confessions ; to conform to
the confessions of the neighbouring Churches ; to
endeavour to moderately lay down such positions as
might tend to the mitigation of heat on both sides ;
to have an eye to the honour of their Sovereign, and
to consult the British ambassador ; to carry them
selves with advice, moderation, and discretion. So
ran their instructions. But one most important
point must not be overlooked. It is affirmed that
they were instructed to lay special emphasis upon
the doctrine of universal redemption. If this be so,
a support of rigid Calvinism could not possibly have
come within the scope of the king's intentions.
Nor are other indications wanting which point
in the same direction. At the Hampton Court
Conference James showed his dislike of the Calvin-

204 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
istic view of predestination, and also resisted the
attempt to embody the Lambeth articles in our
" Articles of Religion." Then, again, in his dis
course with Daniel Thenus, the Arminian, who had
accepted a temporary shelter in England, he spoke
of the " infamous decree of the late synod (Dort),
and the decision of that detestable formulary, by
which the far greater part of the human race are
condemned to hell for no other reason but the
mere will of God, without any regard to sin ; the
necessity of sinning, as well as of being damned,
being fastened on them by that great nail of the
decree before mentioned." Further, in 1619, Dr.
Hughson, Canon of Christ Church, and an open
opponent of Calvinism, was made Bishop of Oxford ;
in 1 62 1 Laud was made Bishop of St. David's. In
the face of these facts we should not expect to find
the representatives of this country thoroughgoing in
their defence of Calvinism, nor consistently resolute
in their opposition to Arminianism. Whatever their
private opinions, they must, if faithful to their
instructions, fly from Calvin and approximate to
Arminius. But the truth is that, excepting Carleton,
the position marked out for our divines was exactly
that which they would voluntarily have chosen.
Certainly, as we shall see, Hall himself was at least
as far removed from rigid Calvinism as he was from
some of the most extreme positions of Arminius,
and shrank from its horrible decrees with as much
aversion, or more, than he did from the errors of
Pelagius. Of favouring the latter he was repeatedly
accused ; so far as I am aware, it has never been
insinuated that he was a strict Calvinist. " Somewhat
of a Calvinist," and a " moderate Augustinian," are

SYNOD OF DORT. 205
epithets which have been justly applied to him, and
might be to many good Churchmen besides.
The four divines, missing the man-of-war which
the States had sent to convey them over, crossed in
a small vessel, and landed at Middleburgh, October
20th. On the 27th they reached the Hague, and
were courteously entertained by the Prince of Orange,
Thence they journeyed to Dort, where began on
November 3rd the synod, which included 154
sessions, and ended May 9th, 16 18. Towards the
end of November over sixty Dutch divines, together
with twenty-eight foreign coadjutors, were assembled
at Dort, the latter having no vote in the decisions of
the synod, though they were intended to assist in its
deliberations. Fuller tells us that our representatives
were allowed between them by the States ten pounds
a day, a considerably larger sum than was given to
others, and that, having this bountiful provision, they
kept a table-general where any fashionable foreigner
was courteously and plentifully entertained. The
time would thus pass pleasantly enough ; but the
Arminians had not yet arrived, and the real business
of the synod could not begin. To entertain the
members with intellectual food, the President re
quested the foreigners to preach some Latin sermons,
and first made application to the English. The
Bishop of Llandaff refused on the ground of the
sudden warning ; with Davenant and Ward, he
thought the proposal very inconvenient, and that, if
carried into effect, it might prove dangerous, since it
would be hard for the preacher to avoid giving
offence to one party. Hall was just as eager as
they were slow ; he thought it a business very fit to be
done, and was willing to undertake it. Accordingly

206 , LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
on November 29th, he preached, says Hales, a " polite
and pathetical " sermon on Eceles. vi. 1 7. The
same moderation and conciliatory spirit which we find
everywhere in his controversial utterances is no less
evident here, though perhaps in justice it ought to
be said, something too of the inconsistency which
invariably attends the earnest peacemaker is to be
found as well. Amongst other things he said that
those expositors of the Holy Scriptures were much
to blame who were wont to stick so close to the
very words and syllables, as if the Divine sense and
meaning was not in the pith, but in the bark. He
complained of a too great subtlety in controverted
matters, and a too great liberty of prophesying or
preaching upon all matters. St. Paul, if he could
return to the world, would not be able to understand
one word of the subtle divinity of the Jesuits and
Dominicans. The catechism of the apostles con
sisted only of six articles ; modern divinity was
divisible into parts and smaller parts ad infinitum.
Those divines who endeavoured to pry too closely
into the judgments of God he compared to Pliny,
a victim to his too great curiosity. The age was
being undone, not by ignorance, but by too much
knowledge. The children of the Church ought to
lay in provision for their souls, but not to meddle
with the subtleties and niceties of the schools. It
was not right that predestination and kindred
mysteries should be rashly handled even in the
pulpit ; much less ought every porter or waterman
to boldly dispute about them. For-a solution of the
present difficulty he suggested that both sides should
draw up, fraternd manu, a short and clear para
phrase of Rom. ix., and present it to the synod. He

SYNOD OF DORT. 207
exhorted his hearers to adhere to the former confes
sions, and stated that this was an especial part of
His Majesty's commission. In conclusion he asked
what they had to do with the ill-omened names of
Remonstrants, Contraremonstrants, Calvinists, Ar
minians. " We are Christians. We are one body ;
let us be of one mind ! By the awful name of
God, by the gentle bosom of our common Mother,
by your souls, and by the sacred bowels of Jesus
Christ our Saviour, brethren, I entreat you, be at
peace. So lay aside all prejudice and party
feeling, that we may be happily united in the enjoy
ment of the common- truth."
Hall had followed his instructions, and had been
an advocate for peace. Of course, it is hard to
reconcile an adherence to " former confessions "
with a due regard to the views of divines whose
grievance was that those confessions were distortions
of the truth. Perhaps Hall would admit the in
consistency, but would urge that, if it was his duty
to labour for peace, it was no less his duty to
follow the letter of his instructions. But the whole
subject, as has been said, must be viewed in the
light of the king's ulterior aims and secret com
munications. The sermon was well received,
though some questioned the wisdom of disclosing
so much of the English commission, and through
the President Hall received the public thanks of
the synod* He had reason to be thankful that
the affair was well over. For a fortnight previous
he had been in a.n afflicted and languishing con-
* xxix. Novembris : Die Jovis ; ante meridiem.
" Habita fuit in Conventu Synodico a Reverendo et Claris-
simo D. Josepho Hallo, Wigorniensi Decano, doctissima

208 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
dition, unable to get any sleep. " Yet it pleased
God the very night before I was to preach the
Latin sermon to the synod, to bestow upon me
such a comfortable refreshing of sufficient sleep,
as whereby my spirits were revived, and I was
enabled with much vigour and vivacity to perform
that service."
Before December 4th the Remonstrants were in
Dort, but because they kept themselves private and
did not present themselves to the States and
deputies, no notice was taken of their arrival. The
proceedings of the synod that day were interesting.
Various matters were discussed, and the question
was raised whether candidates, being trained for the
ministry, should preach publicly, or baptize, or come
to the consistories and meetings of the classes, or
read the Scriptures publicly in the church before the
people. That they should baptize was accounted
unlawful by all. As to preaching, opinion was
divided. Some defended it, chiefly on the ground
that the " subrustic shamefastness " of many men
would thereby be got rid of, and their fitness tested,
provided always that such preaching was to be allowed
only in case of the death, or absence, or sickness of
the pastor, or of like necessity. It was replied that
it was utterly unlawful for any to preach before
they were admitted to the ministry ; they had no
mission ; they had not the keys ; it was admitted
they could not baptize, why separate what Christ
had joined together ? Lydius, of South Holland,
rejoined that such men might preach, and that
atque accuratissima exhortatio Latina, ex Eceles. Salomonis,
c. vii. v. 16. Pro qui publice ei gratias sunt actae." — Acta
Synodi Dordrecht.

SYNOD OF DORT. 209
they had vocation to do so, by the inward call of
the Spirit, and by examination and admission by
the classes, though they had no particular charge.
Hales informs us that " for this good news did Mr.
Dean of Worcester publicly applaud D. Lydius in
the synod." Evidently the arguers had wandered
far from the starting-point, but it is hard to believe
that Hall, staunch defender as he was of episcopal
government, would so stultify his position as to
gratuitously give his support to Presbyterianism.
In all probability he regarded the examination and
admission by the classes of which Lydius spoke not
as the door to the exercise of the ministry, but
merely as a safeguard against absolute incapacity,
and a temporary permission extended not to candi
dates trained, but in training. This view is borne
out by the fact that the matter was finally left to
the judgment and discretion of the particular classes.
Two days after these events the armies came in
sight of one another, and had some parley. The
three Arminian envoys from Utrecht were admitted
to the synod, and then learnt that neither they,
nor any of their party, were asked to deliberate.
They were citati, were expected to propose their
opinions with their reasons, and leave it to the
synod to decide. They, in fact, were, as the issue
proved, on their trial, and the synod was the judge !
Four days passed, and Balcanquall arrived, sent over
by James as the representative of Scotland. His
coming spoiled the symmetry of the assembly, a
little seat had to be made for him under the English
seats, and there he sat alone. After presenting his
credentials, he informed the synod that, on leaving
England, the king, "' verbis sublimibus, above all
14

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

sphere of conceit and apprehension," directed him
to exhort them to peace. Such a message was well
timed and sadly needed, for there seemed little pros
pect of fair treatment to their adversaries at the hands
of the banded Calvinists. How grieved must Hall
have been as he contemplated the strife impending!
We do not possess many details of his conduct
during the short time he was able to stay at the
synod, but we can readily believe him when he says
that, even after sickness had driven him away, he
did not fail, while at the Hague, to impart his
advice. That sickness, and not any dereliction of
duty, was the true cause of his departure is abso
lutely certain, notwithstanding the insinuation that
he shrank from the coming troubles, and had in
particular failed to agree with Deodatus, of Geneva.
In his " Specialities " he says that the unquietness
of the nights in a garrison town, working upon the
tender disposition of his body, brought him to such
weakness through want of rest, that it began to dis
able him from attending the synod. Still, he forced
himself to do so, wishing that his zeal might discounte
nance his infirmity. On December 6th the Bishop
of Llandaff writes, " The Dean of Worcester hath
not had his health well these two or three days."
On the 17th Hales tells Carleton, English ambas
sador at the Hague, "Mr. Dean of Worcester is
very crazy and sickly of late, and keeps his chamber,
neither hath he been in the synod some of these
last sessions. I hear he purposes to come to the
Hague, to see if he shall have his health better
there." In the teeth of this it is scarcely necessary
to seek any other cause for his withdrawal. A joint
letter from our divines was addressed to Carleton to

SICKNESS AND RETURN, ETC.

the effect that the air of Dort not agreeing with
Hall, he desired leave to return ; they recommended
in his room Dr. Goad, Chaplain to the Archbishop
of Canterbury, long since well known as Vice-
Chancellor of Cambridge and the uncompromising
supporter of the Lambeth Articles. The Prince of
Orange was reluctant to lose Hall, and wished him
to go to the Hague for change of air. It was found,
said the prince, that " the sufficiency and discretion
of our men was so great, the rest of the strangers
being guided by them, that they rather wished their
numbers augmented than diminished ; particularly
they are unwilling to spare Mr. Dean, of whom they
take particular note." To the Hague, therefore, Hall
went, where he was nursed in the ambassador's house.
Still, in spite of all that could be done, his weakness
increased so far that there seemed but little likeli
hood of so much strength remaining as would bring
him back to England. At the request of Carleton
His Majesty now gave him leave to return, and sub
stituted Dr. Goad in his "unwillingly-forsaken room."
It was on January ist (1619) that Hall quietly left
Dort, " giving notice to no man ; " on the 8th we
find him again at Dort, having returned that way
previous to his final departure. Perhaps his sickness
was too great to admit of his appearing in person,
it may be that his modesty forbade it ; at all events,
he "sent in his sad farewell to the grave assembly."
His letters were " produced and read, together with a
form of valediction and farewell, by him conceived."
When it was, therefore, that, as Fuller says, he
" composed his countenance with a becoming gravity,
and publicly took his solemn farewell of the synod "
with a Latin speech given in detail, I cannot dis-

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

cover. Is Fuller here imaginative rather than
historical ? Presented to my readers in an English
dress, the farewell was as follows : —
" I shall not easily be reconciled to this body of mine, a
living corpse and wearisome burden ! which has so often
grudged me the honour of your synod, and now, utterly
against my will, rudely calls me from you and tears me
away. Believe me, there is no spot beneath the sky so fair
and heavenly wherein I had rather pitch my tent, or which
I shall remember with such heartfelt affection. Happy you
to whom the privilege is given ! I was not worthy (if I may
follow the faithful Roman in his complaint), in the name of
Christ and of His Church, any longer to perform this sacred
duty. But God's will be done. His Sovereign Majesty,
the King of England, having heard of my constant ill-health,
and pitying his poor servant, summons me home, because
he knows that you could be profited nothing by my remains
or my coffin. How distinguished a man, and how famous
a theologian he has chosen with all care and appointed in
my room, I need not say. What may befall myself, now
mere food for the worms, I leave to the good God Whose
I entirely am. As for you, so happily has provision been
made for you, that you have reason to be deeply grateful to
my sickness, since it has blessed your assembly with so able
a substitute for myself. Still, I will not, if God grant me
life and strength, incur the guilt of absence both in body
and mind. Wherever I may be, I solemnly promise this
synod that with head and hand I will earnestly and dili
gently, to the best of my ability, further the objects you
have in view. Meanwhile, right honourable Delegates, most
Reverend President, grave Assessors, learned Scribes, vener
able brethren in the ministry, and all this awful synod, sick
as I am in mind and body, I bid you collectively and
individually farewell for ever. I earnestly beg that the
prayers of you all may go with me, and bring your feeble
fellow-labourer safe home."

SICKNESS AND RETURN, ETC. 213
The synod resolved that the Prseses and Assessors,
together with the secular Scribes, should, at the close
of the session, repair to the Dean, and take their
leave of him in the name of all the rest, and by him
commend their love and service unto His Majesty,
and render him humble thanks for his princely care.
All which the same night was done. The Prseses
concluded the session with a prayer, in which he
prayed for the Dean's health, and for the good
success of his journey. Nor were the States behind
the synod in showing respect. Their deputies, after
" a very respectful compliment " sent to him by
Daniel Heinsius, visited Hall, and after a noble
acknowledgment of more good service than he
durst own, dismissed him with an " honourable
retribution," and sent after him a " rich medal of
gold." This medal is now in the possession of
Emmanuel College, to which it was bequeathed in
1752 by William Jermy, of Bayfield, Norfolk, whose
father (as may be seen from the pedigree in the
appendix) had married Mary Starkey, a descendant
of Hall's third daughter Ann. Through Mr. Shuck-
burgh, whose kindness I have already acknowledged,
I am favoured with the following description of this
interesting relic : " The Dort medal is gold, with a
thick ring attached to it. It is somewhat larger
and much thicker than a crown piece. On one side
it has a mountain, with a circular temple (like the
Tivoli Temple) on the top, over which is the word in
Hebrew characters, Jehovah, with a 'glory' under it
At the four corners, in the shape of a St. Andrew's
cross, are the four winds proceeding in visible blasts
from four faces. The legend round the edge is
Erunt ut Mons Sion CMCXIX. On the reverse is

214 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
a representation of the synod. A long hall, with
open arched roof, with beams stretching across it.
There are three rows of benches or pews, filled with
figures on each side. A table and canopied raised
seat at the further end. Down the centre runs a
long table with figures seated. At the nearer end
there are a quadruple row of pews, divided by a bar
or door, and outside this bar, figures of men standing,*
and a dog. All, or nearly all, the figures are wearing
high hats. Legend RELIGIONE ASSERTA. On the
two sides of the doorway, on the cancelli, are the
figures 1 6 19. The medal is, I think, very
beautifully executed."
Before we end our account of Hall's visit to the
synod, one or two points must be noticed in con
nection with it, which materially affect his character
for sincerity and truth. John Goodwin, an earnest
Arminian and independent thinker, — as is indicated
by the fact that, Arminian as he was, he yet approved
the death of Charles I., — charges the synod with
having administered an oath to each member at, or
before, his admission thereto to " vote down the
Remonstrants and their doctrines howsoever." He
does not, indeed, make the charge directly, but his
language is such that his disavowal'ls even still more
offensive. Fuller, seeing how seriously the reputa
tion of onr divines was affected hereby, upon
thinking the matter over when many years had
passed, and Hall was now the aged Bishop of Nor
wich, wrote to him, asking for satisfaction in this
particular. The Bishop's reply, dated Higham,
August 30th, 165 1, was as follows: —
* No doubt the spectators, of whom the Bishop of Llandaff
said there were one day four or five hundred.

SICKNESS AND RETURN, ETC. 215
"Whereas you desire from me a just relation of the
carriage-^ of the business at the Synod of Dort, and the
conditions required of our divines there, at, or before, their
admission to that grave and learned assembly ; I, whom
God was pleased to employ as an unworthy agent in that
great work, and to reserve still upon earth after all my
reverend and worthy associates, do, as in the presence of
that God to Whom I am now daily expecting to yield up
my account, testify to you and (if you will) to the world,
that I cannot, without just indignation, read that slanderous
imputation which Mr. Goodwin, in his ' Redemption
Redeemed,' reports to have been raised, and cast upon
those divines, eminent both for learning and piety, that they
suffered themselves to be bound with an oath, at, or before,
their admission into that synod, to vote down the Remon
strants howsoever ; so as they came deeply pre-engaged to
the decision of those unhappy differences. Truly, sir, as I
hope to be saved, all the oath that was required of us was
this : after that the moderator, assistants, and scribes were
chosen, and the synod formed, and the several members
allowed, there was a solemn oath required to be taken of
every one of that assembly, which was publicly done in a
grave manner by every person in their order, standing up,
and laying his hand upon his heart, calling the great God of
heaven to witness, that he would impartially proceed in the
judgment of these controversies, which should be laid before
him, only out of, and according to, the written word of God,
and no otherwise ; so determining of them as he should find
in his conscience most agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.
Which oath was punctually agreed to be thus taken by the
articles of the States, concerning the indiction and ordering
of the synod, as appears plainly in their tenth article ; and
this was all the oath that was either taken or required.
And far was it from those holy souls which are now
glorious in heaven, or mine (who still survive to give this
just witness of our sincere integrity), to entertain the least
thought of any so foul corruption, as by any overruling

216 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
power to be swayed to a prejudgment in the points contro
verted. It grieves my soul, therefore, to see that any learned
divine should raise imaginary conjectures to himself of an
interest and obligation of a fancied oath (working upon
them, and drawing them contrary to the dictation of their
own conscience, as it did Herod's in the case of John
Baptist's beheading) merely out of his own comparative
construction of the different forms of expressing themselves
in managing these controversies. Wherein if at any time
they seemed to speak nearer to the tenet of the Remon
strants, it must be imputed to their holy ingenuity, and
gracious disposition to peace, and to no other sinister
respect. Sir, since I have lived to see so foul an aspersion
cast upon the memory of those worthy and eminent divines,
I bless God that I yet live to vindicate them, by this my
knowing, clear, and assured attestation ; which I am ready
to second with the solemnest oath, if I shall be thereto
required. "Your much-devoted friend, precessor, and fellow-labourer,
" Joseph Hall, B.N."
Such a testimonium from " such an one as " Dr.
Hall, and now " aged," says Fuller, may seem his
testamentum, " his witness, his will. It amply vindi
cates the synod, and clears our representatives, who,
though they did not vote, yet advised, from any
share in the reproach."
Another point of great interest is the attitude of
the synod towards our ecclesiastical discipline. It
might have been expected that a Presbyterian synod
would have displayed at least as much animosity
against episcopacy as some Churchmen at the pre
sent day. But what are the facts ? In the 149th
session, April 20th, the Belgic Confession was brought
into the synod, containing matter both of doc
trine and discipline. The Bishop of Llandaff, in

SICKNESS AND RETURN, ETC. 21 7
the name of himself and colleagues (Hall, it will be
remembered, had now been gone more than three
months), approved all the points of doctrine, but
made a protest in favour of episcopacy and in
defence of the Church of England. To this inter
pellation of the British divines nothing at all was
answered. So far Fuller. Now for Hall's testimony
(" Episcop. by Divine Right," Introduction, sect. 4).
" When the Bishop of Llandaff had, in a speech of
his, touched upon episcopal government, and showed
that the want thereof gave opportunities to those
divisions which were then on foot in the Netherlands :
Bogermannus, the president of that assembly, stood
up, and in a good allowance of what had been spoken,
said, Domine, nos non sumus adeo felices. ' Alas !
my lord, we are not so happy.' Neither did he
' speak this in a fashionable compliment ; neither the
person, nor the place, nor the hearers were fit for
that ; but in a sad gravity, and conscionable profession
of a known truth. Neither would he, being the
mouth of that select assembly, have thought it safe
to pass those words before the deputies of the States
and so many venerable divines of foreign parts
(besides their own), if he had not supposed this so
clear a truth, as that synod would neither disrelish, nor
contradict." It is strange that Churchmen now should
be so eager to disparage what nonconformists two
hundred and eighty years ago, having partly through
wilfulness, partly through force of circumstances lost,
were so anxious to regain.
One more subject must be faced,— what, as exactly
as may be, was Hall's belief with regard to the
" Five Busy Articles," which had brought the synod
together ? His sickness and early compulsory de-

218 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
parture have deprived us of any connected series of
expressed opinions then delivered, but fortunately
we have abundant material elsewhere for forming
a judgment upon this topic. When it came to his
turn to be taxed with " Popery and Pelagianism," he
wrote to his old colleague at Dort amongst others,
Davenant, who was made Bishop of Salisbury in
1 62 1, "As if this calumny (the charge of popery)
were not enough, there want not those whose secret
whisperings cast upon me the foul aspersions of
another sect, whose name is as much hated as little
understood. My lord, you know I had a place with
you, though unworthy, in that famous Synod of
Dort, where, howsoever, sickness bereaved me of the
honours of a conclusive subscription, yet your lord
ship heard me, with equal vehemency to the rest,
crying down the unreasonableness of that way. God
so love me, as I do the tranquillity and happiness
of His church : yet can I not so overaffect it, that
I would sacrifice one dram of truth to it. To that
good God do I appeal as the witness of my sincere
heart to his whole truth, and no less than ever
zealous detestation of all Popery and Pelagianism."
Whatever his advances to Arminius, he would
clearly not fraternise with Pelagius. But for the
details of his views on the Five Points I must beg
my readers to go with me into the following pages.

CHAPTER XII.
CONTINUED ILL-HEALTH.—" THE HONOUR OF THE
MARRIED CLERGY."—" THE VIA MEDIA."— THE
ARCHBISHOP OF SPALA TO.- SERMONS, ETC.—
BISHOP OF EXETER.
IT was on January 8th that Hall left Dort for
England, and on the 14th Carleton writes to
the Archbishop, " I doubt he is not yet arrived by
reason of the contrariety of the winds." Hall's own
account is : " The difficulties of my return in such
weakness were many and great, wherein, if ever,
God manifested His special providence to me, in
overruling the cross accidents of that passage ; and,
after many dangers and despairs, contriving my
safe arrival." The following letter to Ward is
interesting in more respects than one.
" To my right worshipful and loving friend Mr. Dr. Ward,
at Dort, in Sir John Berck's house there.
" Good Brother Ward, — Ever since my return my health
hath come on so slowly that I could not so much as write
until now. You have heard of our passage, partly trouble
some, and partly also successful. I could not till within
these two days present myself to the king, of whom I was
received exceeding graciously. All the last Sunday's dinner
he spent in discourse with me- about our synodal affairs.
Some busy information hath moved him against the presi
dent as undiscreetly hot and rigid in the dismission of the

220 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Remonstrants. I have fully satisfied him. I perceive His
Majesty much disturbed with the displacing of the
Apocrypha : it did a little pacify him to learn that we had
publicly required it should be inserted in the Act, that this
sentence was without rather than against the allowance of
the foreign divines ; which you must take care may be
considerably done when the Act shall be intended to light.
" The particular letters which Mr. Balcanquall writes give
satisfaction to His Majesty, when either your common are
silent or come late. I was yesterday with my lord's grace,
who rejoices in the report of the approbation of our British
divines. "Remember my service to my Lord of Llandaff; my
thanks to Sir John Berck ; my love to my other brethren ;
and let us strive mutually in our prayers for each other.
For me, I shall not fail to be,
" Ever your truly loving brother and double colleague,
'¦'Jos. Hall.
"Waltham, Candlemas Day (1619-20)."
A month afterwards he writes : —
"Good Dr. Ward, — How much am I beholden to you
that, among all that throng of business, you could find time
to send me so full and so welcome a letter. I am glad yet
to hear that you look towards an end of those affairs which
are now tedious, but had like to have been infinite. We
heard news of differences betwixt you ; belike the end is
peace. I shall long for your return, that I may be sated with
a full relation. I was gone a day's journey towards Worcester,
when my weak body turned me back, as not yet abiding any
motion. The last week was not without much fear and
grief here for His Majesty's dangerous unheal th ; our God
be praised, the worst is over, and his recovery proceeds with
happy expedition ; yet he is still at Royston, and will be for
more days than I think he would. The rumours of the
Spanish fleet had so possessed our people, that the beacons

CONTINUED ILL-HEALTH.

on Sussex side were (as I hear) on a fire upon a view of
some number of Hollanders. Dover was wiser, and stayed
the false alarm. My lord of Warwick is dead. My lord of
Doncaster will shortly see you in his way to Germany,
whither he goes ambassador. Dr. Dun goes his chaplain.
The queen's solemn funeral is appointed April 29th. All
our court is turned black. Mr. Jeffry is so well approved
here, that here he settles with my lord.
" That whichjyou write of 1 2U received after my departure
needs your further comment. That there should be a propor
tionate deduction for those public rooms is good reason,
whereof yet I had (you know) too little use. Remember
my service to my lord B. and to Sir John Berck, with my
true love to all the rest of your worthy colleagues, to whom
I wish a speedy, safe, and successful return. With all this
curious tendance and length of time, I can hardly yet
recollect myself; so deep rooted was my Hollandish dis
temper. Let me charge you also to remember me in all
kind respects to our worthy president, to the assessors and
scribes, to Mr. Dr. MacGregor, to Mr. Simon Schott, of
Middleburgh, to Mr. Dan. Heinsius. My prayers shall be
for a comfortable and happy dismission of your so reverend
assembly. Farewell.
" From your loving brother and colleague, "Jos. Hall.
" Waltham, March 30th, styl. vet. 1618."
The next letter, to Carleton, shows how near death
he must have been, and with what shamelessness
preferment was begged : — " 1619, AValtham, April 25M.
" To my right honourable good Lord Sir Dudley Carleton,
Knight, lord ambassador from his Majesty to the States
General at the Hague.
" Right Honourable, — It were an idle presumption to
write you any news while you have so many living packets ;

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

and besides that, what have I to write, but the remembrance
of my duteous thankfulness to your lordship and my good
lady ; that alone will not be unpleasing to so honourable a
friend, which I shall sooner die than forget.
"I retract that which my last letter, following partial
rumour, reported of Macollo, a man whom oddness will
make more spoken of than merit.
" Despotine went away with an hundred years and much
reputation ; though, indeed, the supreme physician did all
almost without these. I never saw the king look better
than some hours since I saw him ; only his legs are not
returned to their use and strength.
" Since my return I have been twice dead in general
rumour, and my dignity is sued for : yet still I rub out ; and
hope for as much health as I have lost. I long to hear of
my pew-fellows of the synod, whose return I wish happy
and speedy. If my duty and thanks may be presented to
my good lady, I have done, who shall never cease to be
your lordship's truly devoted "Joseph Hall."
In the month of August 1619 the Elector
Frederick of the Palatinate, son-in-law of King
James, received the crown of Bohemia, and became
the recognised leader of the Protestant cause, and
the centre of those hopes which were so rudely
shattered within rather more than a twelvemonth at
the battle of the Weissberg. This country was
almost entirely in his favour ; but the king, at heart
as cowardly as he was cruel, and afraid of the in
creasing influence of the Romanists, was anxious
to conciliate Spain, and push on the match between
Charles and the Infanta. On September 22nd, 16 19,
Hall writes to Carleton : — " The great Spaniard* is
* Gondomar.

"THE HONOUR OF THE MARRIED CLERGY." 223
now daily expected. The Bishop of Ely's house is
commanded for him mal-gre". The friar, his factor,
went away yesterday from the court without audience.
We hope well ; neither can see how two buckets
should go down into the well at once. I was so
forward in praying for the King of Bohemia, that
my zeal was accused and censured ; nee poenitet.
The world did never so stand upon tiptoes." Hall,
it seems, in his public prayer had given the Prince
Frederick the title King of Bohemia. Hence the
censure. In the year 1621 appeared his treatise "The
Honour of the Married Clergy." Twelve years
before, Hall, deeming the argument "shallow enough
for an epistle," had written a letter on the " Marriage
of Ecclesiastical Persons."
" And now, thus late, when I had almost forgot that I
had written it, a moody mass-priest drops out a tedious and
virulent refutation ; through my sides striking at the most
honourable and flourishing clergy of the whole Christian
world ; labouring, not so much for my disgrace (what would
that avail him ?) as the dishonour and scorn of our holy
profession in the eyes of the people. I could contemn it
in silence, if the quarrel were only mine : now, my wrong
cannot be distinguished from thousands. God and His
Church are engaged in this cause, which, in my foil, could
not but sustain loss : neither may I now be silent, with
safety, without misconstruction. Let this hand and tongue
be no longer mine than they may serve my Master in
Heaven, and His Spouse on earth. That which I wrote in
some three hours he hath answered in three quarternions of
years ; and what I wrote in three leaves he hath answered
in no fewer pages than three hundred and eighty. Should I
follow him in this proportion, he might, after some centuries
of years, expect an answer in Tostatushides, whose first word

224 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
should be Quis leget hmc 1 Or, if my patience would delay
my reply to the just paces of his answer, this volume of his
would perhaps be vanished into grocers' shops for waste
paper, in thuris piperisve cucullos, and would no more need
answer than now it deserveth one. But, hearing of the
insultation of some popishly affected, who glorified and
triumphed in this Achilles pro Catholicis, I addressed myself
to the work, with no little indignation and no less speed ; that
my self-conceited adversary and his seduced abettors may
see, how little a well-ordered marriage is guilty of deading
our spirits, or slacking our hands. At the beginning of this
summer's progress, when it pleased his sacred Majesty to
take notice of this sorry libel, and to question with me con
cerning it, I had not so much as read it over ; so newly
was it come to my hands. Ere his happy return, be it
spoken to the only glory of Him that enabled me, I had
not only finished this answer, but twice written it over with
my own hand ; and yet made this but the recreation of the
weightier business of my calling, which now did more than
ordinarily urge me. It was my purpose to have answered,
as beseemeth the person a quo not ad quem, mildly, accord
ing to my known disposition ; but, upon better deliberation,
I found the insolency of my refuter such that I could not
favour him, and not be cruel to my cause. If, therefore, for
many (it is his own art and word) ' railative' pages, he
receives from my unwilling and enforced pen, now and
then, though not a ' railative ' to such an antecedent, yet,
perhaps, some drop of sharper vinegar, than my ink useth
to be tempered withal, he may forgive me, and must thank
himself." To this account of both author and book it is
unnecessary to add a word, beyond a note of admira
tion at his power of rapid production, and the artless
ingenuity with which he could speak of his own
admitted virtues, — in such a man no small testimony

" THE HONOUR OF THE MARRIED CLERGY." 225
to his sincere and truthful character. Before enter
ing upon the work, or shortly after beginning it, he
wrote (July 14th, 1620) to his former colleague at
Dort, Dr. Ward, Master of Sidney College, as
follows : — " There is lately come forth a very spiteful
and tedious answer by a Catholic priest to a little
apology that I wrote for the marriage of ecclesiastical
persons ; if you have by you any notes to this
purpose, you shall oblige me much to impart them.
I remember Chemnitius upon this point, speaking of
the sixth council of Constantinople, which we call
the Trullan, whose 138th canon is so clear for us,
says there that this canon is by papists expunged
out of the councils. I have none by me but
Binius. I pray you do me the favour speedily to
search the copy you have, and let me know upon
what grounds Chemnitius thus reports. If you have
your globe by you (I have none), send, me word
how many degrees there are betwixt the utmost parts
of the East Indies and Terra Florida, or that and
Mexico." He desires to be remembered to his old
master, "Mr. Dr. Chaderton, and Mr. Dr. Davenant."
The treatise consists of three books, containing in all
sixty-four sections, and, bound up with it in the form
of an appendix, was a tract upon the subject which
Hall had seen in the Inner Library of Corpus Christi
College, .Cambridge, written amongst seventeen
other treatises " in a fair set hand by an author of
great learning and antiquity," who had suppressed
his name,1 but described himself as Rotomagensis.
The date of the manuscript, according to Hall, was
about 1 1 14. It is given in Latin and in English,
and is followed by a corroborative passage from
Erasmus. The leading points of " The Honour of
IS

226 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the Married Clergy" are noticed in the next chapter,
so that they need not be discussed here. Suffice it
to say that the author extols virginity, while he does
not hesitate to sharply condemn enforced celibacy.
The next important literary work in which Hall
was engaged was the "Via Media," a laudable,
earnest, and partly successful attempt to compose
the bitter strife raging between the English followers
of Arminius on the one side, and of Calvin on the
other. The exact date of this work cannot be
determined, but that which has been assigned to it
(Jones's " Memoir "), viz., " before the injunctions of
August 1622," is almost certainly much too early.
The circumstances out of which it came, and the
author's aims, are thus described by Hall himself in
the " Specialities " : —
" After not many years' settling at home; it grieved my
soul to see our own Church begin to sicken of the same
disease which we had endeavoured to cure in our neighbours.
Mr. Montague's tart and vehement assertions of some
positions, near of kin to the Remonstrants of Netherland,
gave occasion of raising no small broil in the Church. Sides
were taken, pulpits everywhere rang of these opinions ; but
parliaments took notice of the division, and questioned the
occasioner. Now, as one that desired to do all good offices
to our dear and common Mother, I set my thoughts on
work, how so dangerous a quarrel might be happily com
posed ; and, finding that mis-taking was more guilty of this
division, than mis-believing (since it plainly appeared to
me that Mr. Montague meant to express, not Arminius,
but B. Overall, a more moderate and safe author, however
he sped in delivery of him), I wrote a little project of paci
fication, wherein I desired to rectify the judgment of men
concerning this misapprehended controversy ; showing

THE " VIA MEDIA." 227
them the true way in this unseasonable plea. And because
Bishop Overall went a midway betwixt the two opinions
which he held extreme, and must needs, therefore, some
what differ from the commonly received tenet in these
points, I gathered out of B. Overall on the one side, and
out of our English divines at Dort on the other, such
common propositions concerning the Five Busy Articles,
as wherein both of them are fully agreed. All which being
put together, seemed unto me to make up so sufficient a
body of accorded truth, that all other questions moved
hereabouts appeared merely superfluous ; and every moder
ate Christian might find where to rest himself, without
hazard of contradiction. These I made bold, by the hands
of Dr. Young, the worthy Dean of Winchester, to present
to his Excellent Majesty, together with an humble motion
of a peaceable silence to be enjoined to both parts, in those
other collateral and needless disquisitions : which if they
might befit the schools of academical disputants, could not
certainly sound well from the pulpits of popular auditories.
These reconciliatory papers fell under the eyes of some
grave divines on both parts. Mr. Montague professed that
he had seen them, and would subscribe them ; others that
were contrarily minded, both English, Scottish, and French
divines, proffered their hands to a no less ready subscrip
tion. So as much peace promised to result out of that weak
and poor enterprise, had not the confused noise of the mis
constructions of those who never saw the work, crying it
down for the very name's sake, meeting with the royal edict
of a general inhibition, buried it in a secure silence."
By way of supplement, it may be observed that
the English Church had long been predisposed to
that "disease," which became painfully acute when
Parliament in 1624 was petitioned by the Puritan
lecturers, Messrs. Yates and Ward; to censure the
author of "A New Gag for' an ,01d Goose " and Mon-

228 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
tague, encouraged by Laud and others, and appealing
from the archbishop to the king, set about preparing
his "Appello Cassarem," the source of so much parlia
mentary heat in the next four or five years. It was
in 1609 that Abbot, the future archbishop, left
Oxford to become Bishop of Lichfield, but for years
previous he had been fighting a losing battle with
his resolute antagonist Laud. In 1614 his brother,
Dr. Robert Abbot, thus denounced the successful
leader of the Church party : — "Might not Christ say,
what art thou ? Romish or English ? Papist or
Protestant ? Or what art thou ? A mongrel, or
compound of both ? A Protestant by ordination,
a Papist in point of free-will, inherent righteousness,
and the like ? " A fresh impulse was given to
Arminianism by the king's orders to the two univer
sities in 16 16, by which students in divinity were
directed to eschew compendiums, and turn their atten
tion to the Fathers and councils, schoolmen, histories,
and controversies. The Synod of Dort, intended
to lay the " Kako-dsemon " of theological hate
to rest in Holland, only roused him to greater
activity in England. Hitherto the scene of battle
had been the universities and the schools ; now it
was transferred to quiet country villages and busy
towns. In every pulpit stood a champion for
Arminius or Calvin, and preachers were fast becom
ing political propagandists. The Spanish match
was odious to the nation as a whole, and in April
1622 Knight, at Oxford, maintained the position, that
subjects might take up arms against their Sovereign
in defence of their religion. All copies of Pareus'
"Commentary," on which the offender based his
argument, were ordered to be publicly burnt ; but

THE " VIA MEDIA." 229
something more than this was needed, and in the
following August directions concerning preachers
were published. No one beneath the rank of dean
was henceforth to preach in any popular auditory
on predestination, election, reprobation, or of the
universality, efficacy, resistibility or irresistibility of
God's grace. And beside all this there existed a
profound distrust of the king's intentions. Conces
sion after concession was made to the Romanists,
who, the King of England promised the King of
Spain, should in future be free from capital punish
ment for the offence of their religion, and as soon as
possible should also be relieved from fines. The
negotiations for the marriage were still pending.
In 1623 things appeared so serious that the arch
bishop wrote a letter to James openly expostulating
on the ground of the favour shown to Romanists,
and in the same year the first Roman bishop was
received in England. The popular excitement was
intense, and though mitigated by the return of the
prince from Madrid and the breaking off of the
match, the temper of the nation was seen when
Parliament in 1624, eager for war with Spain, peti
tioned for a general fast before beginning the session.
Hall (in the dedication of the "Via Media") might well
say, " There needs no prophetical spirit to discern, by
a small cloud, that there is a storm coming towards
our Church, such a one as shall not only drench our
plumes, but shake our peace. Already do we see
the sky thicken, and hear the winds whistle afar off,
and feel all the presages of a tempest." And again :
" Men, brethren, fathers, help ! Who sees not a
dangerous fire kindling in our Church by these five
fatal brands ? which, if it be not speedily quenched,

230 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
threatens a furious eruption, and shall, too late, die
in our ashes." What cause would he pursue ? He
tells us : — " Let me boldly say, it is not disputation,
it is not counterwriting that can quench it. These
courses are but the bellows, to diffuse and raise these
flashes to more height and rage. We saw it in the
practice of our neighbours ; never did that Belgic
quarrel grow to extremity, till after the solemn con
ference before the States at the Hague. There is no
possible redress but in a severe edict of restraint, to
charm all tongues and pens, upon the sharpest punish
ment, from passing those moderate bounds which the
Church of England, guided by the Scriptures, hath ex
pressly set; or which, on both sides, are fully accorded
on." The points at issue are, as he said, disputable
to the world's end, as may be seen in the experience
no less of the Roman than of the German and
Netherlandish Churches ; and that no better method
of procedure could then be discovered than the one
he suggested, was proved by the famous declaration
of 1628, forbidding any man to either "print orpreacli,
to draw the article aside any way, or to put his own
sense or comment to be the meaning of the article,"
and requiring submission to it in the plain and full
meaning, and that it should be taken in the literal
and grammatical sense. This is probably the
" general inhibition " to which Hall refers as " bury
ing his own book in a secure silence." Montague's
"Appello" had just previously been suppressed after
the author's elevation to a bishopric. Upon the whole,
one may be thankful that Hall's influence was not
sufficiently great to procure a declaration enforcing
uniformity on the lines of the " Via Media," but, as
ever, his doctrinal moderation is striking ; and when

THE " VIA MEDIA." 23*
we find men otherwise so far ap'art as Laud and
Hall agreeing in prohibition as the only cure for the
destroyers of Church and State, we may be sure that
his judgment was not very far wrong.
Our promised abstract of his opinions on the Five
Articles may perhaps not unfitly be introduced here.
In the " Via Media" he says, " I have carried myself
so indifferently, that, as I have hid my own judg
ment, so I have rather seemed partial against my
own resolutions." We must, therefore, turn else
where. In the persecutions which arose in Holland
after the Synod of Dort, some of Hall's friends, being
in danger, wrote asking for the support of his
opinion on certain of the controverted points. This
was subsequent to the year 1627, in which Hall was
made Bishop of Exeter. We are, therefore, fortunate
in having his views when the sense of greater
responsibility would rest upon him, and his judg
ment would be calmer and more mature.
Predestination. — Who in his senses would deny
that Christ is the foundation of the decree of election ?
The condition to be fulfilled by those who shall be
saved is faith, not foreseen and required beforehand
in those to be chosen (Ep. to Willius, Professor at
Bremen. This clearly negatives Arminianism).
Reprobation. — He readily admits the distinction
between negative and positive reprobation ; the
former being equivalent to non -election, the latter
a " prceparatio pozna eorum, qui, in statu corrup
tions relicti, judicium sibi meritissimum accersunt."
Why are some passed over in election, and come
under the decree of eternal punishment ? Some,
following a via rigidior, reply — by the absoluta Dei
potestas voluntasque. This is as dangerous as the

232 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
opposite error of the parasites of the human will.
The British divines at Dort took up the position
that God damns no man or predestines any man
to damnation nisi ex consider atione peccati. No man
in his senses would deny that prceteritio and derelictio
and the decree of eternal punishment are on account
of the individual's unbelief and, other sins (ib.) (Hall
thus holds that the decree to damnation is because
of prevision, the decree to life is not. Those who
come under the latter are chosen that they may be
saved). As regards the argument for irrespective
predestination sometimes drawn from God's posses
sion of absolute power, this, he says, is to fasten
upon the most merciful God a kind of tyranny. No
one doubts God's absolute power, but that He should
exercise it over us after determining to deal with
men according to orderly methods, and after solemnly
declaring His love and longing for the salvation of
men, is too cruel a thought for any Christian.
Would that hateful expressions (formulce) of this
sort had either never fallen from any pious and
learned doctor of the Reformed religion, or if by
chance they had been rashly allowed to escape his
lips, they had at once been consigned to everlasting
oblivion. (Ep. to Herm. Hildebrand, Pastor of
St. Stephens, Bremen!)
Extent of the Efficacy of 'Christ's Death. — Christ
died for all; but in what sense? He died for all, so
that each and all, through faith, may by virtue of the
ransom attain remission of sins and eternal life. He
so died for the elect that by the merit of His death,
according to the good pleasure of God from all eter
nity specially theirs, they infallibly attain to faith
and eternal life (ib.).

THE " VIA MEDIA." 233
Resistibility of Grace. — We can resist grace,
inviting and strongly urging us to conversion. But
there is a peculiar grace, which the man called
thereby does not resist, and which no hardness of
heart rejects. Elsewhere he makes this irresistible
grace equivalent to irresistible persuasion, thus
following St. Augustine's efforts to save free-will
while destroying it, and, of course, with as little
success. In his letter to Crocius, Divinity Professor at
Bremen, he lays down the nine following dicta upon
the whole series of questions. It will be seen how
very far he was from being a strict Calvinist, and
the reader, having regard to the fact that Hall was
brought up at the feet of the godfather of English
Calvinism, and trained in a Puritan seminary, will
no doubt recognise the freedom of thought and
independence of judgment, which could arrive at
conclusions so full of the spirit of power, and of
love, and of a sound mind.
" 1. It is impossible to find a cause for the will of God,
which is the universal cause ; besides an insolent curiosity,
this would be to pass the bounds of the infinite.
" 2. Although God might justly have enforced His abso
lute right over His creatures, yet it is His will and wont to
proceed by orderly and revealed methods.
"3. Since God is essential goodness, wisdom, justice,
and so the source and fount of all goodness, wisdom, justice,
nothing can flow from Him which is not perfectly good,
wise, and just. We His creatures ought, therefore, to
humbly acquiesce in His good pleasure.
" 4. But from this it follows of necessity that there can
be no good in any creature unless it were implanted by
Him and derived from Him Who is the source of all good.

234 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
"5. Furthermore, it follows that God is not the author of
sin. " 6. That God damns no one except for sin ; for damna
tion is an act of punitive justice ; now, punishment supposes
guilt, for what just man would smite the innocent ?
" 7. That God solemnly invites all men everywhere to faith
and repentance,^ and upon those conditions to salvation ;
not merely with the intention that they may be without
excuse, for there is no ' philanthropy ' in this, but that if
they really keep His commands they may gain what He
graciously offers.
" 8. In the matter of predestination we have no concern
with the secret counsels of God, but we must judge of our
selves and others by His revealed will. We ought so to
regulate our lives and work out our salvation as though
there were no secret decree of God respecting us. What
affair of yours is it, O man, what has been determined in
Heaven ? Only do what the Holy and Just Creator and
Redeemer has commanded you to do, you must be safe
and saved ; otherwise in vain you promise yourself salvation.
So, too, we must devote ourselves to faith, penitence, and
good works, as though salvation and freedom from all peril
of reprobation depended upon them alone ; we must be as
much upon our guard against infidelity and every wilful
violation of the Divine law, as though, leaving out of
account all hidden decrees, damnation depended upon
them. Whoever acts otherwise, and beforehand pronounces
upon his eternal state, wretchedly abuses the secret coun
sels of God which ought to be regarded with silent
reverence. " 9. In the antecedents of conversion and motions for
good which the Spirit of God works even in the unre
generate, God forsakes no man before He Himself is for
saken. It is entirely, therefore, through their own fault
that, earnestly invited to regeneration, men are destitute of
further grace ; their voluntary obstinacy and unbelief be
comes their ruin." (Letter to Crocius, Professor at Bremen!)

THE ARCHBISHOP OF SPALATO. 235
Following the sequence of thought rather than of
facts, we have been led to somewhat anticipate the
narrative. In 1622 Hall took part in dissuading the
Archbishop of Spalato from returning to Italy, and
addressed to him a Latin epistle on the subject.
Marcus Antonius de Dominis, the most illustrious
convert from Romanism to Protestantism of the
time, born in 1566, was educated at the Jesuit
College at Loretto ; but, though employed by his
former masters as a teacher of rhetoric and mathe
matics, he never joined their order. In 1602 he
was raised to the archbishopric of Spalato, in
Dalmatia, under the state of Venice, which he held
for the next fourteen years, when leaving his Church
and country, and tarrying a while in Holland, he
reached England December 6th, 1 6 1 6. Fuller says,
" Conscience in show and covetousness in deed caused
his coming hither." But he himself declares that
from the earliest years of his ministry he had been
animated by an intense longing for the re-union of
Christendom, and tormented by the sight of so many
rents in the robe of Christ. This is reason enough
for his finding it advisable to seek a home elsewhere.
On his arriving in England people flocked to see
him ; he was everywhere feasted ; and the universi
ties " addressed themselves to him in their solemn
reception, as if he himself alone had been a univer
sity." In the course of the next year his treatise
"De Republica Ecclesiastici" was published at
London, with Bedell's (afterwards Bishop) corrections.
Honours and preferment came fast. The king, after
consigning him to the Archbishop of Canterbury for
his present entertainment, sent him a silver basin
and cup, the one, as Spalato said in acknowledging

236 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the gift, " to wash from him the filth of the Roman
Church, the other to mind him to drink the purity
of the Gospel ; " and before long the deanery of
Windsor, together with the mastership of the Savoy,
and a good parsonage at West Ilsley, in Berkshire,
consoled him for any sad reflections on the
splendour he had left. At the close of 1617 he
assisted at the ordination of the new bishops of
Bristol and Exeter, and took precedence of all
English bishops. Hall somewhat frequently speaks
of him, and for the most part with approval. The
earliest mention I can find of him in the Bishop's
writings is in " The Honour of the Married Clergy."
" It is happy for us, and for that reverend Archbishop
Marcus Antonius de Dominis, that this railer (C. E.)
can object nothing to him but a harmless load of cor
pulency. It moves their spleen enough that this
learned prelate hath honoured our island with a
Dalmatian pall. Their cause feels, that he can,
notwithstanding, pass into the pulpit. What speak
they of this when, to their sorrow, they see he
could pass over the Alps to leave Rome ? This
beagle, and his bawling Beverlinck, and the kennel
of Sorbonne, may bay at him ; but not one of their
bandogs dare fasten." He is described as of comely
personage, tall stature, grey beard, grave counte
nance, fair language, fluent expression, somewhat
abdominous, of an imperious and domineering spirit,
proud and covetous, possessed of too much wit and
learning to be a cordial papist, and too little honesty
and religion to be a sincere Protestant ; good, how
ever, at controversy, and as a stylist strong and clear.
His love of jeering was so great that it brought him
to ruin. Gondomar, it seems, was suffering from

THE ARCHBISHOP OF SPALATO. 237
fistula, and Spalato told him that the only cure was
" three turns at Tyburn." The great Spaniard was
so incensed that he determined to work the arch
bishop's downfall ; and, playing upon his avarice,
soon lured him into the trap with the offer from
Rome of the bishopric of Salerno, and 12,000 crowns
a year. Spalato was now anxious to return, all the
more because his petition for the archbishopric of
York had been refused, and in January 1622 he
addressed to the king a letter containing his reasons
for leaving. He expressed his concern for the peace
and tranquillity of this kingdom, and complained of
the ailments and inconveniences of old age, the sharp
ness of the cold air of this country, his great want of
friends and kinsfolk.
It was under these circumstances that Hall wrote
his " Dissuasive Epistle to Spalato," which, though
but a short composition, enables us to judge how
he would have regarded any schemes of to-day for
the reunion of Christendom. He was willing to
add his prayers to those of others that God would
bless His Church with peace, but if any mortal man
thought he could effect this, he was much deceived.
Rome must first change her nature ; and who could
hope for so much ? Mutual concessions upon minor
points were possible, but as Rome was, to be at
one with her was impossible as for light to consort
with darkness, or God with Belial. He deeply
distrusted the tender mercies of Rome, and bade
Spalato beware. He urged him to thoroughly sift
his motives before making the change. " You are
now an old man. Let your gray hairs, those
funeral wreaths which deck your brows with vener
able beauty, be your monitors, that - the dread day

238 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
is not far off when you will stand before the judg
ment seat of the Most High, to give an account of
the change of your opinions. Earnestly consider
what answer you will give to the infallible Judge
of quick and dead. Whatever may be the lot of
the blinded multitude from whose eyes the bright
beams of heavenly doctrine are wont to be kept by
perfidious tyranny, it cannot be that you, with all
the learning and experience which God has bestowed
upon you, should not smart for having known the
truth and then denied it" The issue was that
Spalato was commanded to depart the kingdom at
his own peril within twenty days, and never to
return again. In vain, perhaps influenced by the
fate which had recently befallen Fulgentius, who,
on preaching against the pope at Venice, had been
lured to Rome, and there favoured and feasted and
burnt to ashes, and of whom Hall reminded him,
he begged for permission to stay. He was compelled
to depart. At Rome he recanted his errors, and
was at first well received. Afterwards he wrote
letters to England recanting his recantation. These
were intercepted, and he was imprisoned. He died
in 1624, it was said by poison, though there appears
to have been no ground for the suspicion. After
death, like our " dead martyr of Cambridge," his
body was exhumed and burnt, and his ashes thrown
into the Tiber. Thus ended the curious history of
a pervert to Protestantism. Hall (" Ep. by Div.
Right ") quotes him in support of the position
that there is an essential difference between a
bishop and a presbyter, not, indeed, in respect of
ministry, but of ordination and administration of
government, and shortly after his death, speaking

SERMONS, ETC. 239

of him as our learned Spalatensis, asks, " Why
should not I call him ours, who sealed up that
truth of ours, which his pen had so stoutly main
tained, with his last blood ? "
In this same year (1622) Hall preached before His
Majesty and the court at Theobalds, in the ordinary
course of attendance, his sermon on the Deceit of
Appearance. The harvest had been abundant, but
there was not more show of plenty in the fields than
there was now of scarcity in the streets. The
preacher declared the barns and granaries were full,
though the markets were empty ; and he called upon
authority to remedy this dearth in abundance; On
February 2nd, 1623, he arraigned at Gray's Inn
the Great Impostor, the heart of man (Jer. xvii. 1 9) ;
and in the course of his remarks found space for the
" Simoniacal Patron '' (unhappily not even yet a
thing of the past), " disposed to make a good match
of his people's souls ; it shall be no bargain, but a
gift : he hath a living to give, but a horse to sell.
Sure, I think, in this wise age of the world, usurers
and simonists strive who shall find the wittiest
way to hell." On the 20th of the same month he
preached before Convocation at St. Paul's his great
sermon Columba Noce, which, delivered in Latin, was,
after several attempts by others, translated into
English by Robert Hall, who says, " It pleased my
father herein to improve my leisure." The subject
was 1 Cor. xii. 4 : " There are diversities of gifts," etc.
Next day there was drawn up at Lambeth, in the
name of the bishops and other clergy there
assembled, a request that the sermon might be
printed. This graceful and playful petition was as
follows : —

240 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
" In ade Pauli, deque Pauli oraculis
Pro condone previa Synodo sacrce,
Varias ab uno Spiritu, Domino, Deo
Distinctiones esse donorum probans,
Ostendis, Halle, quanta spirittialium,
Quam multiformis dos tibifluat affatim,
Charismatumque multiplex peculium.
Quce nempe tractas, per tui specimen doces
Theologe nate pulpitis, calami potens,
Cut suavitatis conscius semper stilus,
Czii pectus almi condus est sacrarii,
Et lingua promus pectoris, cujus la tus
Loquentis ambit auribus rapax cohors,
Humerisque dens a ; non sat est semel tua
Hausisse vocis impetu fugacia,
Ni perlegendo te recognosa sinas,
Auri invidebit oculus, et Templo schola.
Nos te, Decane flexanime, quam te recens
lam tunc ab ipso ambone redeuntem, manu
Prensum, rogator vellicavifervidus
Manare sineres hcec in absentum sinus
Reliquisque nostri fratribus Cleri dart.
Quid mirum ? ubi ipsi postmodum cudi typis
Provinciates postulant J£f>iscopi.
Audin, Josephe ? Nolo jam : te nil peto.
Non est, amicus quod roget. Domini regunt.
Par ere justum est : par ere certum est: age,
Quam facilis istic obstetricanti labor !
Post tarn verenda jussa quid restat mihi,
Nisi ut adprecaiitis suppleam idiotce locum,
Amen sacrato succinens Patrum choro.
Lambethce, Feb. 21. 1623.
Sic approbavit Thomas Goadus, S.T.D."
Just at this time it was being warmly debated
whether a Roman bishop in partibus should be
allowed to reside in England, and, as might be sup
posed, the relations of Anglicanism to Romanism,
and an earnest appeal for peace amongst ourselves,
is the staple of the sermon. " They presume," said

SERMONS, ETC. 241

Hall, " to erect here amongst us a hierarchy
emulous to yours ; and in the time of your life
and health and vigour appoint what heirs shall
Succeed to your sees. What wise spectator can
think this indignity to be endured ? Is this to be
smothered in silence ? Is this to be longer winked
at ? Rouse up yourselves, O ye holy Fathers, if
there be any ardour of piety in your breasts, and
destroy this Tyberine monster (popery I mean) with
the breath of your mouths ; and whatever grace and
authority ye have with our gracious king, with the
peers and commons of this realm, improve it all
with your best prayers and counsels, to the utter
extermination of idolatry, to the happy victory and
advancement of the sincere truth of God ! " As
has already been seen, resistance was unavailing,
and the first Roman bishop (Dr. William Bishop)
arrived in England. At the beginning of the next
year Hall preached the sermon at the reopening
of the Countess of Exeter's chapel. The occasion
was full of interest. The chapel was built on the
site of the choir of the Priory of St. John of
Jerusalem.* The countess was the daughter of
Sir W. Drury, and thus Hall could say : — " Your
Honour may justly challenge me on both sides,
both by the Drurys, in the right of the first
patronage ; and by the Cecils, in the right of my
succeeding devotions." She showed her esteem of
the author, and the value she set upon the sermon,
by desiring to print it at her own cost. In 1624,
on the death of Dr. Miles Smith, the writer of the
preface to the translation of the Bible, the see of
* Vide Fuller, " Ch. Hist.," Book VI. 16

242 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Gloucester was offered to Hall, who, however, de
clined it. The death of King James, March 27th,
1625, separated him from one with whom he had
been long associated, and for whom, upon some sides
of his character, he seems to have entertained a
sincere respect. In the first year of Charles I. the
plague broke out with extreme severity. It began
in Whitechapel, and, as was said, in the same house,
on the same day of the month, with the same
number that died twenty-two years before, when
Queen Elizabeth departed. Hall, when preaching
before the king at Whitehall, took as his subject,
" Wickedness making a fruitful land barren." The
sermon is remarkable for the clear insight which it
exhibits into the nature, and foresight of the conse
quences, of the policy of the Independents. "Surely,
if we grow into that anarchical fashion of indepen
dent congregations which I see, and lament to see,
affected by too many, not without woful success,
we are gone, we are lost, in a most miserable
confusion. We shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah. I take no pleasure, God
knows, to ominate ill to my dear nation, and dear
mother the Church of England, for whose welfare
and happiness I could contemn my own life ; but
I speak it in a true sorrow of heart to perceive our
danger, and in a zealous precaution to prevent it.
O God, in Whose hands the hearts of princes and
all the sons of men are, to turn them as the rivers
of waters, put it into the heart of our King and
Parliament, to take speedy order for the suppression
of this wild variety of sects and lawless Inde
pendencies, ere it be too late."
In the following January was preached the sermon

BISHOP OF EXETER. 243
at the public thanksgiving for the wonderful miti
gation of the late mortality, afterwards published
by royal command. It exhibits Hall's usual skil-
fulness in allusion. " Those two late blessings, if no
more, were worthy of immortal memory, the prince
out of Spain, religion out of the dust. For the
one, what a winter was there in all good hearts,
when our sun was gone so far southward ! how
cheerful a spring on his return ! For the other,
who saw not how religion began, during those
purposely protracted treaties, to droop and languish,
her friends to sigh, enemies to insult, daring to
brave us with challenges, to threaten our ruin. The
Lord looked down from Heaven, and visited this
poor vine of His, and hath shaken off these cater
pillars from her then wasting leaves. Now we
live, and it flourisheth." It is tempting, too, to
transcribe Hall's description of the plague, when
more than twenty thousand families ran from their
houses, as if these had been on fire over their heads,
and they seeking shelter in Zoar and the mountains ;
but space forbids. Nor may we linger any longer
with him at Whitehall or Hampton Court, and hear
him address the lords and ladies, nor at Gray's Inn
lay bare before the learned benchers the fashions of
the world, or picture the estate of a Christian. We
must hasten to Exeter, the oversight of which see
he accepted in 1627, and which now became his
home for the next fourteen years.

CHAPTER XIII.
HALL'S MODERATION.
WHEN Hall accepted the bishopric of Exeter,
he had just completed his fifty-third year.
His views, therefore, were by this time attaining
their full development, his energies were unimpaired,
and, except so far as suffering from weakness which
called for care rather than betokened disease, he was
at his best for the difficult task which lay before
him. Before inquiring into his conduct of the
diocese, this will be a convenient opportunity for
examining the characteristic bent of his mind, and
gaining a clear view of the predominant quality
which so admirably fitted him for the bench, and
contributed so largely to the unequivocal success
which he enjoyed.
Hardly anything in his^ many-sided character is
more remarkable than his moderation, and for the
most part the even balance of his judgment, all the
more deserving of attention when we remember that
his earliest years were passed under the ministry of
one who stood sponsor for Calvinism at an English
font, that he was student and fellow of a college
avowedly founded for the propagation of Puritan
opinions, and that his manhood was surrounded by
furious partisans, clamouring either for the restoration
of the old faith, or for the extirpation of the new.

HALL'S MODERATION. 245
That he did not take up an extreme position, cling
ing with persistent narrowness to early associations,
or allowing himself, like Wadsworth and many others,
to be carried away by the undercurrent of reaction ;
that he was able in his maturity to be almost a
High Churchman, with only the remnants of Cal
vinism still clinging to him, is striking evidence of
the independence of his thought and the charity of
his temper. Nor was his moderation the result of
indifferentism ; it was the offspring of principles
steadily followed, and in general consistently main
tained. In his twelve rules for moderation in judgment
we have a synopsis of these principles as they
found expression after the moulding influences of a
long life, experience of various classes of controver
sialists, and the constant pressure of changing times.
They are as follows : —
" (1) To distinguish of persons. Those poor souls who
do zealously walk in a wrong way, wherein they are set by
ill guides, may not be put into the same rank with their
wicked misleaders. (2) To distinguish between truths
weighty and important, and truths slight' and merely
scholastical. Similarly of errors. (3) To avoid curiosity in
the disquisition of truths. (4) To rest in those fundamental
truths which are revealed clearly in the Scriptures. (5) To
be remiss and facile in unimporting verities, both in our
opinion and censure. (6) Not to rely upon an opposite
in relating the state of an opinion or person. (7) Not to
judge of an adversary's opinion by the inferences pretended
to follow upon it. (8) To keep opinions within their own
bounds, not imputing private men's conceits to whole
Churches. (9) Not to draw the actions or manners of men
to the prejudice of their cause. (10) To draw as near as

246 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
we safely may to Christian adversaries in cases of lesser
differences, (ii) To refrain from all railing terms and
spiteful provocations in differences of opinion. (12) To
compose our affections towards unity and peace, however
our judgments differ in lesser verities."
In his letter to Crocius, Professor of Theology at
Bremen, written after he became Bishop of Exeter,
there is another account of the basis upon which he
built his moderation, and of the remedies he was
wont to suggest for the procuring of peace in the
Church. Crocius was one of the deputies at the
Synod of Dort, and out of all who went thither from
Bremen was the only survivor. A friendship then
began between him and Hall which was never inter
rupted. Years passed away, and Crocius, having
been censured for heterodoxy supposed to lie hid in
his work on predestination and other' points, he for
warded the book with passages marked, and asked for
Hall's opinion. The Bishop cleared his friend from
the imputed fault, and, as was natural, reverted to
the proceedings of the synod. It appears that after
he had been compelled by sickness to retire from
its deliberations, a motion had been brought forward
to reject certain harsh and inconvenient phrases
scattered up and down in the writings of the Re
formed doctors. The motion, partly out of regard
for the orthodoxy of the authors, partly through a
wish to deal tenderly with certain primipili then
sitting in the synod, was rejected. This Hall deeply
deplored, and he could not help expressing his regret
that sound doctrine had not been preserved, though
at the peril of inconvenient phrases, and the
welfare of the Christian republic preferred to the
reputation of individuals. The error had resulted in

HALL'S MODERATION. 247
a widespread crop of evils, all the more lamentable
because the truth does not need to be bolstered
with unsafe and exaggerated language. Granted that
some of the formulae in question had a literal ex
pression in Holy Scripture, will it follow, he asks,
that being, as they are, hyperbolical, we are to adopt
them as theological axioms? A man is bidden to
put a knife to his throat. Who in his senses
would take the command literally ? We are told
to hate father and mother and our own life. Who
would venture to proclaim the doctrine without many
qualifications ? He would himself have liked, if it
were possible, a general council of doctors for the
removal of these " sphalmata " of the mind or pen.
In his deprecation of a too rigid adherence to the
letter of Scripture, a favourite device of heretics, he
reminds us of Newman ; in this suggestion for a
council he was but following Cranmer. Until such
a solution were feasible, he recommends all in the
interests of peace, posthabitd verborum curd, to spend
their strength, not upon words, but upon things. Our
chief anxiety should be to find a place for God's
truth in the hearts of men. The sweeter and
gentler the method of procedure the better. Pro
vided the cure is as speedily effected, he who puts
me to the least pain in healing my wound, is most
deserving of my friendly regard.
Elsewhere, in a very different connection, with an
eye not to the " Five Busy Articles," but to Roman
controversy, he says that " it is hard to be too
vehement in contending for main and evident truths;
but litigious and immaterial verities may soon be
overstriven for. In the prosecution whereof I have
oft lamented to see how heedless too many have

248 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
been of the public welfare ; while in seeking for
one scruple of truth, they have not cared to spend
a whole pound weight of precious peace." His own
practice was, and always had been, to proceed with
caution, faith, and sound sense so far as he could
command these qualities, lest perchance, while eager
for peace, he might mar the integrity of truth or
suppress some portion of it. The chief articles of
the Christian faith, those upon which salvation
depends, ought to be pressed, nothing being con
sidered unimportant, or undeserving of the most
strenuous efforts for their defence. But as for points
so minute that a man with eyes in his head could
scarcely see them, they might be safely disregarded.
The holders of them were tending to the same goal
along various paths. There was no necessity to
note every step. He would, therefore, take refuge
from the disputes concerning minor differences in
formulae of wide and general expression, and would
not allow discussion to pass the bounds thus fixed. It
may be said that this is far too ideal for most men,
and that he who spoke so wisely did not succeed at
all times in even moving towards the realisation of
his ideal. But when criticism has had its say, the
impression will still remain that it would have been
well had the advice so given been acted upon, that
he who gave it perhaps as much as any man
exemplified its value, and that at the present day, if
religious partisans would embrace it and hold it
fast, there would be an increase of unity in the
Church, and less occasion for the ill-judged activity
of Church Associationists on the one side, and the
self-defensive measures of English Church Unionists
on the other.

HALL'S MODERATION. 249
There are one or two isolated passages in his
writings, which, taken by themselves, might be cited
to prove that one reputed to be so moderate, was
in truth a representative of persecuting zeal and
bigoted intolerance. In his sermon on the Hypocrite,
preached at the court in February 1630, occurs the
following : " We would fly upon a man that should
deny a God, with Diagoras ; we would burn a man
that should deny the Deity of Christ, with Arius ;
we would rend our clothes at the blasphemy of that
man who, with the Epicures and Apelleians, should
exempt the cares and operations of God from the
things below ; we would spit at a man that durst
say, There is no power in Godliness.'' Again, in his
"Christian Moderation" (1639), he says that the
misreading of the learned commentator, who in the
Vulgate rendering of Titus iii. 10 "made two words
of one, and turned the verb vita into a noun, de
vita, (supple, tolle, — -put a Iteretic to death!)" was, if
heretical blasphemy be in question, no real mis
taking, though a verbal one, " in which kind Master
Calvin did well approve himself to God's Church,
in bringing Servetus to the stake at Geneva."
At one time, too, he expressed his disapproval of
toleration of religions. The meanest corner, he
held, was too good for so mutinous a generation as-
the Brownists. Cassander's plea for toleration had
been long since refuted. Our gracious Sovereign
James had been importunately solicited, but "his
Christian heart held that toleration un-Christian and
intolerable." He intimates that Papists and Brown
ists, like the Canaanites, were pricks and thorns, and,
therefore, " both by mulcts and banishments " should
be brought either to " yield or avoid." Was, then,

250 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the good Bishop only a fanatic in disguise ? It
must be borne in mind by way of qualification to
what has just been said, that he regarded both the
Brownist and the Papist as troublesome political
agents, who not only disturbed the Church, but were
full of peril to the State. What client of Rome, he
asks, was ever sentenced to death by the Reformed
Church merely for matter of religion ? Instances
might perhaps be found of what he denies, and the
hands of Protestants might be proved to be imbrued
no less than those of Romanists with martyrs' blood ;
still, it is undeniable of the executions in Elizabeth's
time that " treasonable practices, not mere religion,"
were guilty of them. Further, our author draws
the line sharply between heretical blasphemy and
heresies, which are either simple, or secondary and
consequential ; and if he does use such extraordinary
language and approve of what must be called
Calvin's crime, it must not be forgotten that he was
not singular in this respect, but was in company
with mild Melanchthon, who had expressed his
approval of it in a letter to the perpetrator himself.
The fact is that religious toleration was not under
stood until much later. Sir Thomas More had,
indeed, in his " Utopia," raised a vision, the insub
stantial fabric of which was afterwards demonstrated
by the persecuting policy of the great chancellor
himself. In France, too, the principle of toleration
had been avowed. But the privileges of conscience,
Mr. Hallam maintains, had no magna charta
and petition of right before 1689 ; and, though
the Toleration Act was a departure in the right
direction, even then no part of its protection
was afforded to Romanists, or to such as deny the

HALL'S MODERATION. 251
Trinity. Good Churchmen will perhaps decline
again and again to go with Mr. Hallam, but at
least his judgment is worthy of respect, and he tells
us that "such a genuine toleration as Christianity
and philosophy alike demand, had no place in our
statute-book before the reign of George IIL"
("Const. Hist," iii., p. 171).
To come to details. Misconceptions and misre
presentations of Anglicanism were as common as
they were absurd. Where was your Church before
Luther ? the Romanist asked. What year and day
did it come to light ? In which age had that other
Church lost itself? Why had we withdrawn no
farther from Rome ? What was become of our
forefathers ? Which was the religion of the former
world ? The established religion was taxed with
being, to say the least, negative, and, if not untruthful,
defective. The very arguments which the writer has
heard within the last ten years set forth by a well-
informed Romanist of the working class in a back
street of a Manchester parish, were being urged with
all plausibility, elegance, and eloquence by the cul
tured Jesuit in the mansions of our county families :
" That a Roman Catholic, so living and dying, by
our confession may be saved ; that there is but one
Church, as but one Christ ; and that out of this ark
there is no way but drowning ; that this one Church
is more likely to be found in all the world than in
a corner, in all ages than in the sixteenth century,
in unity than in division." Then came in "the
glorious brag of the Roman universality, their invio
late antiquity, their recorded successions, their
harmonious unity, their confessed magnificence; that
theirs is the Mother Church, as to the rest of Chris-

252 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
tendom, so especially to the English ; how well a
monarchy, the best form of government, beseems the
Church ; how unlikely it is that Christ would leave
his Spouse in the confusion of many heads or of
none ; what miserable divisions there are in our
Protestancy ; and what a gleaning are we to the
harvest of Christendom." There was no challenge
more frequent than that we had left that Church
" miscalled our mother," and many, " hoodwinked
with this vail of the Church," had left, and were
leaving us, to go back to their mother.
The continuity of the Church, as true in itself as
it is strategically important to the Anglican polemic,
was but imperfectly understood, and, in giving
correct views upon this important subject, Hall did
signal service. The contradistinction of Protestant
and Catholic he studiously ignored. To maintain
it is to wrong ourselves. We only protest that we
are perfect Catholics. Protestants are " Reformed
Catholics." In his sermon before Convocation in
1623 he emphatically asserts, "Quicquid debac-
chatur insanus error, Christiani sumus, Catholici
sumus." Either Christ Himself, the apostles, councils,
Fathers erred from the Catholic truth, or we remain
Catholics. " Must he of necessity die a Romanist,
that would die a Catholic ? This is an idle fancy,
and worthy of no less than Bedlam." Dr. John
King, Dean of Christ Church in 1605, and Bishop
of London in 161 1, whom King James was wont
to style " the king of preachers," and whom Lord
Chief Justice Coke often declared to be " the best
speaker in the Star Chamber in his time," had died
in 1 62 1, and apparently had said that he died a
Catholic. It was soon after reported by the

HALL'S MODERATION. 253
Romanists that he died a member of their Church.
It is to this that Hall refers ; and, after vindicating
his memory, he concludes, " Noster vixit, noster
mortuus est, noster in ccelis coronatur."
The truth was, Rome was a truly visible Church,
but unsound ; so he said in 1608, again in 1623, and
with the most perfect consistency nearly twenty years
after the former date, in 1627. How much obloquy
he incurred, by taking up the position, what a storm
was raised, and how it was partly laid to rest, is told
in the account of his work at Exeter. The Church of
Rome was sick, as Cassander confessed. Bernard
showed how it ought to be dieted, and treated with
profitable though unpleasing medicines. Luther and
his associates did the office. He did not mean to
take away the life of the Church, but the sickness,
and surely, like Socrates, he deserved recompense,
instead of rage. The draughts, however, though
wholesome, were, so bitter that the patient beat the
physician and his friends out of doors. Non fugimus,
fugamur, said Casaubon. The blame of the schism
is thus chargeable upon Rome, not upon us. An
apologue, recited to the reverend fathers of Convoca
tion, presents the whole question in so clear a light,
that it is worth a volume of argument. It is as
follows : " A certain man invited to a feast one or
two of his friends, and entertained them bountifully.
They sat together lovingly ; they ate together ; and
were merry one with another. In the second course,
as the custom is, the master offereth them wine ;
sets before them an apple. Now, a worm had
somewhat eaten the apple, and a spider by chance
had fallen into the cup ; the guest sees, and baulks
it; the master urgeth him. 'Why don't you eat?'

254, LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
quoth he ; 'why don't you drink?' ' I dare not,' saith
the other ; ' it is not safe to do either ; seest thou
not this vermin in the cup, and that in the apple ? '
' Tush ! ' saith the master, ' what so great matter is
this ? I set it before thee ; I prepared it ; drink it,
eat it, at least for my sake.' ' But, suffer me first,'
replies the guest, 'to take out this spider, to cut out
this worm ; the wine, the apple pleases me well
enough ; the spider, the worm, I cannot away with.'
'Away with such over-nice and curious companions!'
quoth he again. ' Fie upon thee, thou ungrateful
fellow, that dost so little regard my friendship, so
contemn my cheer ! ' and, with that, in a rage,
throws the platters and pots in the very face of his
guest, and thrusts him out of doors, all wounded."
The most zealous Protestant cannot complain
that Hall is lacking in severity towards the faults
of Rome. In the "Serious Dissuasion from Popery"
is an indictment so unsparing, and so full of holy
indignation, that even the late much-beloved and
deeply-lamented Bishop Wordsworth could not fail
to be satisfied with it. In the title " No Peace with
Rome : — wherein is proved that as terms now stand,
there can be no reconciliation of the Reformed
Religion with the Romish, and that the Romanists
are in all the fault ; " and, again, in the dedication
of this treatise, when the author bids the true, sound,
and holy Church of God spare no tears or prayers
to her " desperate sister," but if she stop her ears
and harden herself in rebellion against her God,
to "forget who she once was, and fly mercilessly
upon this daughter of Belial, that vaunts herself
proudly in the glory of her munition," it must be
confessed the trumpet, though a rude one, as Hall

HALL'S MODERATION. 255
calls himself, gives no uncertain sound. But if the
poor Anglican, with his untutored mind, finding
Rome in everything and sniffing it in the wind,
expects a patron in Hall, or if the persecuting
Evangelical look to him for a prototype, both are
doomed to disappointment. These treatises were
both written when their author was little more than
five-and-thirty ; but even then there are, notwith
standing the asperity with which he spoke, indications
of the lenity and sobriety of judgment, which after
wards became so conspicuous in him. It has been
seen how he conceded even then a " true visibility "
to the Church of Rome. Her boasted unity was
an evident delusion : — " The Romish doctors, after
all their brags of peace, were to be seen scuffling
and grappling together in Bellarmin's own theatre."
Her errors, to his mind as to the mind of many
others, were novelties, and she herself was heretical.
Yet, like Hooker, he applies the term with judicious
reserve and wise discretion. Romanists are "neither
to be regarded as no heretics, nor yet so palpable
as the worst." They are heretical by consequence
from their novelties, e.g., by the doctrine of tran-
substantiation the verity of our Lord's human nature
is destroyed. As time went on, a lesson he had
learned from the history of the primitive Christians,
upon whom impossible crimes of promiscuous lust,
of worshipping an ass's head, and such absurd
calumniations were fastened by their adversaries,
was deeply impressed upon him. The same lesson
he had gathered too from Gualter, the Jesuit, and
others of his school, who, by imaginary consequences
from Reformed doctrine, had made it appear
" nothing but a chimerical monster, composed of

256 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D
devilish lies and hellish heresies." The lesson was
— -not to judge of an adversary's opinion by the
inferences pretended to follow upon it. He approved
of Bucer, who gravely says : " It is our part to
see, not what doth of itself follow upon any opinion ;
but what follows in the conscience of those who
hold that opinion which we think contrary to a
fundamental article." In the " Via Media " he tells
us that " every man should be allowed to be his
own interpreter, and it is lawful and meet for
moderate minds, to make their best use of those
savoury and wholesome sentences which fall from
the better mood of an adversary." To abandon this
rule was to leave , divinity, and betake oneself to
logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. Prejudice
and ill-will never said well, and it was a favourite
device of an inquisitor " to send a martyr to the
stake, ugly dressed, . and painted over with devils."
Pertinacity is the only thing that makes an heretic.
Let the error be heinous ; yet, if there be not a
perverse stiffness in the maintenance of it, it amounts
not to the crime of heresy. It was a good speech
of Erasmus : " I cannot be a heretic unless I will ;
and, since I neither am nor will be so, I will
endeavour to use the matter so, as that I may
not be thought to be one." A man should be in
necessary truths an oak, in truths indifferent a reed ;
and he who peaceably lays down the buckler when
small matters are in dispute, is better accepted
of God than he who lays about him with the
greatest ostentation of skill and valour. " In things
of this kind, meekness may do God more service
than courage. They say milk quenches wild-fire
better than any other liquor ; and we find, in all

HALL'S MODERATION. 257
experience, that the pores are better opened with
a gentle heat, than with a violent." Macarius was
a very holy man, yet (the message from Heaven
informed him) he came short of the merit of two
women, wives of two brethren, who had lived to
gether fifteen years in one house without the least
discord. The most perfect moderation in judgment and
practice is not inconsistent with the most thorough
going denunciation of extremes in either. Unless
this be borne in mind, we shall sometimes experience
both surprise and pain when we find that Hall uses
language and holds views concerning his opponents,
which, did we not know the man, would almost
warrant a belief that he must have been a narrow-
minded bigot. As might be expected, this vehemence
is exhibited far more at an early period of his career
than at a later, and towards Rome more than
towards others whom he combated. Certainly, he
was not indebted to his adversaries for either
courtesy or tender treatment, and even at his fiercest,
as is shown elsewhere, he contrasts favourably with
them. Still, this does not excuse the tone of the
" Quo Vadis ? " nor does the fact that England was
plagued with Jesuits, and that an English Jesuit, like
an English viper, was the worst of his kind ; nor that
he may have been recording the sincere but imperfect
impressions of travel ; nor that what he said was true
of the time before Rome had reformed herself, and
that the leaven of reformation had not yet spread.
" The Searcher of all hearts," he says, " before Whose
tribunal I shall once come to give an account of
this censure (i.e., of 'travel), knows that I speak it
not maliciously. Him I call to witness that I could
17

258 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
not find any true life of religion amongst those
that would be Catholics. I meddle not with the
errors of speculations, or school-points, wherein their
judgment palpably offendeth ; I speak of the lively
practice of piety. What have they amongst them but
a very outside of Christianity, a mere formality of
devotion ? " In the churches the poor ignorant laity
saying they knew not what, hearing they knew not
what, doing they knew not what, were taught to
think " this sacrifice of fools meritorious." As for
the priests, whom he calls their " chemarim, the sacred
actors in this religious scene," there was but " idle
apishness in their solemnest work, and either mockery
or slumbering." In the religious houses was a
"trade of careless and lazy holiness ; hours observed,
because they must, not because they would. What
did the inmates but " lull piety asleep with their
heartless and sleepy vespers ? " He could see no
difference between the image and the suppliant. If
the latter could "hear his beads knock upon each
other, he was not bid to care for hearing his prayers
reflect upon heaven. In all things belonging to God
the work done sufficeth, yea meriteth ; and what
need the heart be wrought upon for a task of the
hand ? " He found much austerity, the haircloth,
whip, and hurdle ; but true mortification he could
not find. " What papist in all Christendom hath
ever been heard to pray daily with his family, or
to sing but a Psalm at home ? " The Decalogue
was professedly broken ; idolatry was an ordinary
practice, and oaths were frequent. " Who ever saw
God's day duly kept in any city, village, household
under the jurisdiction of Rome ? Who sees not how
foul sins pass for venial ; and how easily venial sins

HALL'S MODERATION. 259

pass their satisfaction ; for which a cross, or a
drop of holy water is sufficient amends ? " There
is manifest exaggeration in all this. Forgetting, or
rather not having yet formulated, his own rules,
he did expect us to rely upon an opposite, in
relating the state of an opinion or person, and did
not at all times refrain from railing terms and
spiteful provocations in differences of religion. But
if this be so, he was not singular, and it is hard
measure to impute to the ripened fruit the sourness
of its early growth.
That Hall was a " good " Churchman cannot be
denied. His answer to the question of the consti
tution and government of the Church was that of
Richer, " the late eyesore of the Sorbonne : " — The
State of the Church is monarchical, the Regiment
aristocratical. The State is absolutely monarchical
in Christ, dispensatively monarchical in respect of
particular Churches, forasmuch as that power which
is inherent in the Churches is dispensed and executed
by some prime ministers, like as the faculty of seeing
given to the man is exercised by the eye. As to
the aristocratical Regiment, a general Council is the
native senate of the Church, and has power to enact
canons for the wielding of this great body. As to
our own Church : — " The Church and State, if they
be two, yet they are twins, and that so, as either's
evil proves mutual. The sins of the city not reformed
blemish the Church. Where the Church hath power,
and in a sort comprehends the State, she cannot wash
her hands of tolerated disorders in the common
wealth." Salvation is to be found only in the
Church, and the mark whereby the Church is known
is episcopal government The power of the bishops

260 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
certainly does not extend to the angels, but all below
the angels are liable to their spiritual charge. These
points are so clearly and forcibly stated in the
Hospital Sermon of Easter week, 1618, that I quote
the passage in extenso. " Christ gave us the keys
(for that which the Romanists would plead out of
Origen, of claves cceli, the keys of heaven, to the rest,
and claves cozlorum, the keys of heavens, to Peter, is
a distinction without a difference), what becomes of
them ? That I may not say, on some of our hands
they are suffered to rust for want of use ; on others,
as the pontificians, the wards are altered, so as they
can neither open nor shut ; sure I am, that if they
be not lost on their behalf, whether in disuse or
abuse, the power of them is lost in the hearts of
many. They have secret picklocks of their own
making, Presumption and Security, whereby they
can open heaven gates, though double-locked by our
censures, and shut the gates of hell at pleasure,
which their own sins have opened wide to receive
them. What use is there of us, but in our chair ?
and there but to be heard and seen ? Even in this
sense spectaculo facti sumus, we are to gaze on, not
to employ. Now ye are full, now ye are rich ; ye
reign as kings without us; we are weak, ye are
strong ; ye are honourable, we are despised. It was
well noted by one, that the good father of the
Prodigal, though he might himself have brought
forth the prime robe, or have led his son into his
wardrobe to -take it, yet commands his servants to
bring it forth — proferte stolam — because Jie would
Jiave his son beholden to his servants, for their glory.
It is a bold word, but a true one, ' Ye shall never wear
His long white robe, unless His servants, your ministers,

HALL'S MODERATION. 261
bring it, and put it on. He that can save you without
us, will not save you, but by us. He hath not tied
Himself to means, man Ju hath. He could create you
immediately by Himself ; but He will have you begotten
by tJie immortal seed of your spiritual fathers. Woe
be to you, therefore, if our word Jiave lost the power of
it in you ! you liave lost your right in heaven. Let
us never come there, if you can come thither ordinarily
without us! " Ecclesiastical discipline and the func
tions of the priesthood were to Hall realities, nor,
one may suppose, would he have been deterred
from speaking the truth by the nickname of
sacerdotalist. The step from this to the obligation of Church
ordinances is an easy one. True, he deprecates an
extreme of opinion which would equal them with
the Law of God ; but he equally condemns the other
extreme which ascribes too little to them, either
slighting their obligation as if they were no tie to
our obedience, or extending it only to the outward
man, not the inward. " We must," he says, " learn to
walk a midway betwixt both, and know that the good
laws of our superiors do in a sort reach to the very
conscience ; though not primarily and immediately
as theirs, yet mediately and secondarily as they stand
in reference to the Law of God with our obedience
to His instituted authority ; and, therefore, they tie
us, in some sort, besides the case whether of scandal
or contempt." To break good laws, even though
there be no witness and so no scandal, or no inten
tion of affront to the commanding power, and, there
fore, no contempt, was nevertheless " sin, because
disobedience. For example: — I dine fully alone out
of wantonness upon a day sequestered by authority

262 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
to a public fast. I dine alone, — therefore, without
scandal ; out of wantonness, — therefore, not out of
contempt. Yet I offend against Him that seeth in
secret notwithstanding my solitariness ; and my
wantonness is by Him construed as a contempt to
the ordainer of authority." (v. 372.)
Assuming episcopal government to be the mark
of the Church, upon what does its unity aepend?
" One Lord, one faith, one baptism." "What Church
hath one Lord, Jesus Christ the Righteous ; one
faith in that Lord ; one baptism into that faith, it
is the one Dove of Christ. One faith abridges all."
This faith is evidently not subjective, for he describes
it as " the main fundamental doctrine of religion,
necessary to be known, to be believed unto salvation."
A golden and useful distinction must, however, be
observed between Christian articles and theological
conclusions. Christian articles are the principles of
religion, necessary to a believer ; theological con
clusions are school-points, fit for the discourse of a
divine. Those articles are few and essential ; these
conclusions are many, and unimporting (upon neces
sity) to salvation either way. So far all is clear and
consistent ; but when we come to details, it is doubt;
ful whether Hall is consistent with either his canon
relating to the mark of the Church, or with that
respecting her unity. " That Church, then," he says,
" which holds those Christian articles both in terms
and necessary consequences, as every visible Church
of Christ doth, however it vary in these theological
conclusions, is Columba una!' And again, " Since
we are one, why are we sundered ? One says, I am
Luther's for consubstantiation ; another, I am Calvin's
for discipline ; another, I am Arminius's for pre-

HALL'S MODERATION, 263
destination ; another, I am Barrow's or Brown's for
separation. These things, though they do not vary
religions and Churches, yet they trouble the unity
of the Church." But even conceding Luther, Calvin,
Arminius, Barrow, and Brown to be agreed as to
the " principles of religion necessary to a believer,"
whatever these may be ; and further, to have laid
to rest the stormy differences of their individual
opinions, it is difficult to see how they can dwell
together in unity under the sheltering branches of
episcopacy. If the Church is to be so comprehensive,
some other scientific frontier must be sought. The
picture was too ideal ever to be realised. Hall's
kindly heart and love of peace made him Utopian.
Lutheran consubstantiation and Arminian predesti
nation might as theological opinions be tolerated ;
even Calvinism, if not too obtrusive and the dis
cipline were not insisted on, might be winked at ;
but Barrow and Brown could not possibly have a
locus standi within the Established Church, nor
could Calvinism, except at the cost of virtual self-
annihilation. How incompatible Lutheranism and
Calvinism were with one another when fully developed
had been proved as far back as the Diet of Mar
burg : seven years since Calvinism had trampled on
Arminianism at Dort ; Brownists and Barrowists ere
long showed their power for evil upon both Church
and State.
His moderation is strikingly manifested in his
allowed use of terms. He freely admitted (" Old
Religion," ch. v., sect. 1) that nothing was more
ordinary with the Fathers than to call God's table
an altar, the holy elements an oblation, the act of
celebration an immolation, the actor a priest. He

264 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
certainly taught a real presence in 1 6 1 1 (" No Peace
with Rome," sec. 4) — " that the true body of Christ
is truly offered and truly received in the sacrament,
which of us hath not constantly taught and
defended ?" The presence, however, was not cor
poral, carnal, oral. He approves the position of
Arius Montanus, who, upon Luke xxiii., This is My
body, says, That is, My body is sacramentally contained
in this sacrament of bread. The secret and most
mystical manner whereof God will once vouchsafe more
clearly to unfold to His Chrislian Church. Twenty
years afterwards appeared his tract explaining the
mode of Christ's presence in the sacrament, written,
it is said, for the satisfaction of a scrupulous friend.
In this he states that there are but two ways in
which He can be imagined to be present and re
ceived — either corporally, or spiritually. " That He
should be corporally present at once in every part
of every Eucharistical element throughout the world,
is such a monster of opinion, as utterly overthrows
the truth of His human body, destroys the nature
of a sacrament, implies a world of contradictions,
baffles right reason, transcends all faith, and, in
short, confounds heaven and earth." In support of
the spiritual presence he quotes the exhortations,
and infers that by the judgment of our Church, if
we look upon, and take, these sacred elements as the -
pledges of our Saviour's love to us, and remem
brances of His death for us, " we shall not need,
neither indeed can we require, to set any other value
upon them." Did he, then, regard the elements as
mere signs ? No. The words just cited are only
a general statement, the Eucharistic creed in brief,
necessary as a minimum for all, and sufficient for

HALL'S MODERATION. 265
all, if held with the reserve of full and enlightened
knowledge. His own view was that afterwards so
admirably formulated by Bishop Cosin, — that the
elements are " transferring symbols." " What," he
asks, " do we receive inwardly ? We are made
partakers of His most Blessed Body and Blood.
By what means doth this come about ? by virtue
of our Saviour's holy institution. Still, it is bread
and wine in respect of the nature and essence of
it ; but so, that in the spiritual use of it it conveys
to the faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ ;
bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand, and
Christ is tendered to my soul." Had Hall stopped
here, few probably would have been able to take
exception. It is when he proceeds to show how
the soul receives Christ that he is perhaps not alto
gether satisfactory. The soul, he held, was not
capable of receiving flesh and blood, but by the
power of that grace of faith which appropriates it.
Our hearts feed upon the body of Christ by faith,
and the feeding upon Christ is " but a comfortable
application of Christ and His benefits to our souls,"
that is, when by the merits and death of our Blessed
Saviour, and through faith in His blood, we obtain
remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His
passion, and are fulfilled with - His grace and
heavenly benediction. Evidently the full signi
ficance of the Incarnation was not realised by him,
and the difference between Eucharistic feeding and
any simple act of faith was but one of degree.
" Whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the
act of his faith, makes a private meal of his Saviour ;
but here (in Holy Communion) by virtue of that
necessary union which our Saviour's institution hath

266 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
made betwixt the sign and the thing signified, the
faithful communicant doth partake of Christ in a
more peculiar manner ; now his very senses help
to nourish his soul ; and by his eyes, his hands, his
taste, Christ is spiritually conveyed into his heart,
to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation."
It would have been better not to attempt to explain
in detail what will never be explained until we know
what a soul is, and how far the power of God
extends. But when all has been said that can be
said against particular points of the Bishop's exposi
tion, the following passage may fitly be placed by
the side of Hooker's famous utterance upon the
same subject : " In the sacrament of the Blessed
Eucharist, Christ is only present and received in a
spiritual manner : so as nothing is objected to our
senses, but the elements, nothing but Christ to our
faith. And, therefore, it is requisite we should here
walk with a wary and even foot, as those that must
tread in the midst, betwixt profaneness and super
stition ; not affixing a Deity upon the elements, on
the one side ; nor on the other slighting them with
a common regard ; not adoring the creatures, nor
basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God,
Whom they do really exhibit to us."
It is perhaps in his treatment of Eucharistic
sacrifice that most disappointment is experienced.
The true body of Christ is truly offered, he admits
(161 1), but then he adds, We will gladly receive our
Saviour, offered by Himself to His Father, and offered
to us by His Father : we will not offer Him to His
Father. Tooepigrammaticallyhe says ("Old Religion,"
ch. v., sec. i), "it sounds not more prodigiously that
a priest should every day make his God, than that

HALL'S MODERATION. 267
he should sacrifice Him." In what sense, then, could
he hold there was a sacrifice ? He describes it
as " a remembrance of a sacrifice, from which arises
another sacrifice, the sacrifice of praise, and from
thence a true peace-offering of the Christian soul."
To negative the Roman position, he appeais to
reason for the truth of what Bellarmin, in order
to support consumption by the priest as an essential
part of the sacrifice, conceded, — that there must
be in every sacrifice a destruction of the thing
offered. But how is this consistent with his own
position ? Is the offering of praise, or the peace-
offering of the soul, capable of destruction ? He
does not appear to have seen that a remembrance
of a sacrifice is not a sacrifice (unless the mere
act of recollection be regarded as such), and that,
as Jeremy Taylor pointed out, we can offer Christ
to the Father as once offered.
As regards the number of the sacraments, he held
that " so as the word sacrament may be taken for any
holy, significant rite, there may be as well seventy as
seven ; so strictly as it may be, and is, taken by us,
there can be no more seven than seventy ! " (" Old
Relig.," ch. xi., sec. 1). None but Christ, he urges, can
make a sacrament ; for none but He, Who can give
grace, can ordain a sign and seal of grace. Starting
from this position he shows that seven sacraments
are beside Scripture, and what is not so easy to
establish, against reason. Of the sacraments or
sacramentals one attracted a large share of his
attention, and especially towards the close of his life.
Incidentally we have an account of " the over-eager
and tumultuous affectation, wherewith it was wont,
not very long since, to be prosecuted in some parts,

268 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the western especially (Cornwall and Devon) of this
Church. It cannot be spoken with what fervour
and violence of desire, that people were wont to sue
for the sacred ceremony. What fair-like confluences
have we there seen of zealous ambients ! How
have we been tired with the importunity of suitors,
impatient of either denial or delay ! How have we
been oppressed- with the throngs of the multitude
stirring for the first admission ! Insomuch as we
have been forced to call for the help of officers to
our rescue from that well-meant impetuousness."
In all this there may have been some superstition,
and certainly there was an overvaluation of the rite
which was made to " overtop the acknowledged
sacrament of baptism." But the greatest part of the
nation had come to be far enough from being guilty
of that offence, and not only in England, but in all
the Reformed Churches, an apostolical institution
was palpably neglected. The very name of it had
grown odious to the ears of- those who professed
the strictest godliness, and the practice of it was
cried down and hooted at as merely superstitious
and unChristian. With Hooker he deemed that the
people were not alone to blame. The fathers of the
Church, perhaps discouraged with the coldness of some
and the opposition of others, and having an eye to
their own peace, were content silently to let fall the
frequent and regular performance of that which their
hearts allowed. Matters had improved after the early
years of James I., but later, while, as has been said,
the episcopal benediction was sought in some parts
with so much heat, that it was not possible to be given
except in a breathless and tumultuary way, in others
there wanted heads on which hands should be imposed.

HALL'S MODERATION. 269
The evils arising from such neglect were as manifest
as they were numerous, the benefits beyond dispute.
It was under these circumstances, and with such
feelings, that Hall dedicated to God's faithful people
everywhere his short treatise on the " Imposition of
Hands." " I durst not," he says, " but impart these
thoughts to the world before I leave it ; humbly
recommending them to the serious consideration
of all well-affected Christians ; who shall soon ' find,
upon these poor suggestions, how happy it were, if,
in this case, we should walk with an even foot, in the
midway betwixt Romish superstition and profane
neglect." And what was his rationale of the rite? The
bishops, as the successors of the apostles, could in
virtue of Matt, xxviii. 20 do what the apostles did ;
the life of the holy ceremony consisted in their faith
ful prayers, according to the practice of the apostles
themselves, who, though miraculously gifted, yet
aided still their hand with their tongue ; devoutly
suing for what they intended to give. Though the
bishop cannot work miracles, yet he can pray ;
neither did the ordinary pastors that succeeded the
apostles expect any other issue of their hands
imposed, yet still imposed their hands. Was it
better to be like them in acting and approving the
laying on of hands, or like some " hesternal " teachers,
that refused and disallowed it ?
Full and forced sacramental confession he re
garded as needless, dangerous, and impossible. But
within due bounds confession was of " singular use
and behoof," " nothing could be more useful, more
sovereign," and the neglect thereof certainly not
a little disadvantageous to the souls of many good
Christians. The Romish laity made either oracles

270 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL D.D.
or idols of their ghostly fathers ; in making cyphers
of ours he hardly knew whether we were more
injurious to them or ourselves. For their own good
he advised those for whom he wrote (" Cases of
Conscience," dec. iii., case 9) to be more intimate
with, and less reserved from, those whom God had
set over them. What power did he attach to
absolution ? The power bestowed by our Lord's
commission (John xx. 23) was not given only
to the governors of the Church for ecclesiastical
censures, but to all God's faithful ministers, in
relation to the sins of men. The power, it is true,
is limited and ministerial as opposed to sovereign
and absolute, but absolution is not a bare verbal
declaration which, he says, might proceed from
any other lips, but in the way of an operative and
effectual application. " The absolution, therefore, of
an authorised person must needs be of greater force
and efficacy than of any private man, how learned
or holy soever, since it is grounded upon the
institution and commission of the Son of God, from
which all power and virtue is derived to all His
ordinances, and we may well say that whatsoever
is in this case done by God's minister (the key not
erring) is ratified in heaven." This is definite.
Nor is he less emphatic as to the secrecy of the
confessional. " I should hold and confess," he says,
" that if a man should come in the anguish of
his soul for some sin, to unload his heart secretly
to the bosom of his minister, to whom he looks
for counsel and comfort, if in such a case that
minister should reveal that sin to any other whoso
ever, no death were torment enough for such a spiritual
perfidious ness."

HALL'S MODERATION. 271
In dealing with prayer for the dead, the Bishop
would concede that of old time there had been
some use of it, but not the Romish. He quotes
Bellarmin's statement of the question : — " What
dead men are helped by our prayers ? It is
certain that they profit not, either the blessed or
the damned souls ; the former need them not,
the latter cannot be aided by them. Solum iis
prosunt, qui sunt in purgatorio," and quaintly adds,
" and let them keep that breath to blow that fire."
For himself, he would bestow his prayers upon
the living, and if reference were made to the dead,
such prayers would be no other than the " con
gratulations of their joys present, and the testimonies
of the hope and desire of their future resurrection,
and consummation of blessedness, together with
all the glorious saints of heaven." This is satis
factory upon one side ; but what of the vast number
concerning whom we are in doubt ? Did not the
Bishop see that prayer may be offered for the
increase of the bliss, or the diminution of the misery
of the departed, while holding fast an eternity
of rewards or punishments ? If he did see it,
did he regard it as a suspicious refinement, and
a perhaps philosophically untenable position ? I
am not aware that he elsewhere speaks with more
precision. Any lack of precision, however, in this respect is
compensated by the distinctness of his views respecting
virginity. Like Gerson he does not call it a virtue,
but holds it to be cousin-german to a virtue. Earth
affords nothing more glorious than eunuchism for the
Kingdom of Heaven, which is, therefore, commended
by our Saviour, not as a thing merely arbitrary, by

272 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
way of advice, but of charge to the able : Qui potest
capere, capiat. After Chrysostom he says, " Virginity
is good, I yield it ; and better than marriage, I
confess it." Every man, therefore, not ecclesiastics
only, should labour and strive to aspire unto this
state as the better, using all holy means both to
attain and to continue it. Young persons "not so
much as advising with their own abilities," who
without any endeavour and ambition of so worthy a
condition leap rashly into the bands of wedlock, are
blamable. Yet, though every man must reach for
it, every man cannot attain to it. "Those which are,
upon good trial, conscious to themselves of God's
call to this estate, and His gift enabling them unto
it, may lawfully make profession thereof to the
glory of the Giver ; and, if need be, may vow, God
continuing the same grace unto them, a holy perpe
tuation thereof to their end ; the observation whereof,
if they, through their own neglect, shall let fall, they
cannot be excused from sin or freed from censure."
He stoutly maintains elsewhere that he never dero
gated ought from sacred virginity, or laid it level,
whether absolutely or in all circumstances, with holy
matrimony, nor ever conceived of an impossibility of
continence in some persons. Certain self-evident
abuses removed, together with idleness, superstition,
necessity, he would go with Cassander in not disallow
ing the monastic life. Indeed, our colleges were, he
considered, " certain sacred dcr/cnTijoia, monastical
academies, wherein we may be maturely fitted for
these holy services of God and His Church." All
this is as moderate as it is clear, and had Hall lived
in these days, he would as warmly have welcomed
the aid of sisterhoods and of clergymen living in

HALL'S MODERATION. 273
community in our large parishes, as he would have
earnestly deprecated the secularisation of our univer
sities, and the application of their funds to almost
anything except " the holy services of God and His
Church." An evolution of Divine truth, or at any rate a
progressiveness therein, was not to the mind of Hall
so impossible a conception as it is to some. To
deny such progressiveness appeared to him to be
such a shutting of the hand of a munificent God
that He could not bestow upon the Church " new
illuminations in some parcels of formerly hidden
verities." There is a place, too, according to him, for
tradition, but traditions of ceremony, of history, of
interpretation, of some immaterial verities, the due
honour of Scripture being preserved.
By fasting he understood a true and serious
maceration of our bodies by an absolute and
total refraining from sustenance ; in itself it is
not an act pleasing to God, yet in the effect it is.
He describes it as singulare sanctitatis aratrum.
The plough bears no corn, but it makes way for
it, it opens the soil, it tears up the briars, and
turns up the furrows. So it is with holy abstinence ;
it chastises the flesh, it lightens the spirit, it
disheartens our vicious disposition, it quickens our
devotions (1628). This is sufficient proof that he
was prepared to do full justice to the ascetic element
of religion. But still more plainly he declares that
it is a sad and austere thing to be a Christian. " This
work is not frolic, jovial, plausible ; there is a certain
thing, called true mortification. Christianity demands
abstinence, humiliation, contrition of heart, subjuga
tion of our flesh, renunciation of our wills, serious
18

274 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
impositions of laboursome devotions!' Will some one
venture to stigmatise this tone of mind as Puritan ?
If the criticism be correct, then Puritanism and
Romanism in practice, whatever may be the truth
about their theory, are essentially the same.
Of a beggarly worship he was no patron. In his
apology against Brownists he thus replies to his
opponents : — " What house can be too good for the
Maker of all things ? As God is not affected with
state, so is He not delighted in baseness. If the
pomp of the temple were ceremonial, yet it leaves
this morality behind it, that God's house should be
decent. And what if goodly ? If we did put
holiness in the stones, as you do uncleanness, it
might be sin to be costly. Let me tell you, there
may be as much pride in a clay wall as in a carved.
Proud majesty is better than proud baseness. The
stone or clay will offend in neither ; we may in
both. If you love cottages, the ancient Christians,
with us, loved to have God's house stately, as
appears by the example of that worthy Bishop of
Alexandria, and that gracious Constantine, in whose
days these sacred piles began to lift up their heads
unto this envied height. Take you your own
choice ; give us ours ; let us neither repine nor
scorn at each other " (vide further " Decency in
Worship ").
Such were Hall's views upon a variety of subjects,
which, so far from having passed into the limbo of
theological controversy, are as fully engaging the
minds of men now as they were two centuries and a
half ago. A large portion of his polemical Writings
have no points of contact with modern thought;
many of the enemies he combated are long since

/
HALL'S MODERATION. 275
dead and buried ; some of the opinions so fiercely
contested may now be regarded as speculative
fancies, to be held in the intellectual balance, and
regarded with a curious rather than a devotional
eye. But such topics as confirmation, the real
presence, celibacy, confession, prayer for the dead,
the order and decency of Divine worship, as long. as
our formularies last, must force themselves upon the
attention, and demand a recognition or denial. To
some, perhaps, Hall's moderation will be at least an
indication of the truth. To all the spirit by which
he was animated cannot fail to commend itself.
" My brethren, let our care be to study and preach
Christ, and Him crucified ; to work the souls of
men to faith, repentance, piety, justice, charity,
temperance, and all other heavenly virtues ; that
they may find cordial testimonies in themselves of
their happy predestination to life, and their infallible
interest in the precious blood of their Redeemer.
Let us beat down those sins in them which make
them obnoxious to everlasting damnation, and strip
them of all comfortable assurances of the favour.
of God. Let us not indiscreetly spend our time-
and pains in distracting their thoughts with those
scholastical disquisitions, whereof the knowledge or,
ignorance makes nothing to heaven. The way to-
blessedness is not so short that we should find.
leisure to make outroads into needless and unprofit
able speculations. Never treatise could be more
necessary in this curious and quarrelous age, than
' De Paucitate Credendorum.' The infinite sub
divisions of those points which we advance to the
honour of being the objects of our belief, confound,
our thoughts and mar our peace. Peaceable, dis-

276 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
course may have much latitude, but matter of faith
should have narrow bounds. If, in the other, men
will abound in their own sense, always let unity of
spirit be held in the bond of peace. Since God hath
given us change of raiment and variety of all intel
lectual provisions, as Joseph said to his brethren, let
me to mine. Let us not fall out by the way. Now,
by the dear bonds of brotherhood, by our love to
our common mother the Church, by our holy care
and zeal of the prosperous success of the gospel of
our Lord Jesus, let us all compose our hearts to
peace ; and rest ourselves in those common truths,
which sober minds shall find abundantly sufficient,
whether for our • knowledge or salvation " (" Via
Media " ).
Note to page 259. — Edmund Richer, born 1560; became
Grand Master of the college of Le Moine, and afterwards
Syndic of the Faculty of Divinity at Paris. In consequence
of his treatise on the " Civil and Ecclesiastical Power,"
hostile to the Papal authority, he was deposed and sent
to prison, whence he was not released until he had sub
mitted. He died November 29th, 1631.

CHAPTER XIV (1627—37;.
BISHOP OF EXETER.
HALL had already, it will be remembered, "with
much humble deprecation," refused the see of
Gloucester. It was in 1627 that the bishopric of
Exeter was offered to him. This he was willing to
accept, but was nearly defeated of his expectations
by the opposition of Buckingham. The duke at
this time, fortunately for Hall, was absent from
England, conducting the expedition at the Island of
Rhe, but as it was he wrote letters which, had they
arrived only a few hours sooner, would have effec
tually stopped the intended promotion. What
share Laud had in this is not easy to decide. His
influence was rapidly growing, and the Church
already, through the king and Buckingham, was to
a great extent under his control. He was not
likely to approve of an appointment which seemed
to sanction moderation and to discredit his own
uncompromising policy. Still, it is fair to say that,
when the Archbishop on his trial was taxed with
giving preferment " only to such men as were for
ceremonies, popery, and Arminianism," he replied
that it was known he preferred Bishop Hall to
Exeter, and in the absence of proof to the contrary
this must be taken in its literal sense. The conse
cration took place December 23rd, 1627, the revenues

278 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
of the see being supplemented with the Rectory of
St. Breok, then worth about £300 a year, now of
the gross value of -£1,150.
" I entered upon that place not without much
prejudice and suspicion on some hands ; for some,
that sat at the stern of the Church, had me in great
jealousy for too much favour of Puritanism. I soon
had intelligence who were set over me for espials.
My ways were curiously observed, and scanned.
However, I took the resolution to follow those
courses which might most conduce to the peace
and happiness of my new and weighty charge.
Finding, therefore, some factious spirits (popish
agents) very busy in that diocese, I used all fair
and gentle means to win them to good order ; and
therein so happily prevailed, that, saving two of that
numerous clergy who continuing in their refractori
ness fled away from censure, they were all perfectly
reclaimed : so as I had not one minister professedly
opposite to the anciently received orders (for I was
never guilty of urging any new impositions) of the
Church in that large diocese." Thus suggestively
writes the Bishop.
The courses which were adopted by the Bishop in
his new and trying position are admirably set forth
in the address he issued to his charge. His policy
was conciliatory, his administration vigorous ; on
the one hand he was not a reckless innovator, nor,
on the other, a lover of ancient slovenliness and old
stagnation ; his rule was characteristically paternal.
In his sermon before Convocation in 1623, as it
were by anticipation, he described what the Bishop
of Exeter was to be : " Ye are fathers of the Church,
but sons of the Bridechamber ; peers of the State,

BISHOP OF EXETER. z^
but servants of the Church ; generals of this warfare,
but with St. Paul fellow-soldiers ; rulers in God's
house, but withal fellow-servants. Intreat your
clergy kindly ; use them familiarly, as knowing
yourselves to be fathers in dignity, brethren in service.
No spectacle can be more odious than a proud
prelate." It would have been well no less for the
peace of the Church, than for the comfort of the
clergy, if bishops at all times had been conformed
to this ideal. For himself, he was able to say long
after he had attained episcopal rank, " As for rule, if
we affect any but fatherly, and moderate, and such
as must necessarily be required for the conservation
of peace and good order in the Church of God, we
do not deprecate a censure. We know how to bear
humble minds in eminence of places ; how to com
mand without imperiousness, and to comply without
exposing our places to contempt " (" Episcopacy by
Divine Right," part ii., sec. 91).
In setting before his clergy the main lines on
which he intended to work, he said that, if report
did not overspeak them, there were not many soils
that yielded either so frequent flocks, or better fed ;
and he directed their attention chiefly to two points
— the tender pastures, and the still waters. It
would be their aim to be exponents of wholesome
doctrine. He insisted much upon the necessity of
catechising, which, homely though it might be, was
the most useful of all preaching. He himself had
spent, he said, the greater half of his life in the
service of the pulpit, he thanked God not unpain-
fully, not unprofitably ; but there was nothing he
regretted so much, as not to have bestowed more
hours in the public exercise of catechising ; in

280 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D. '
regard whereof he could quarrel with his very
sermons, and wish that a great part of them had
been exchanged for this preaching conference. The
soundness of this principle is evident when we bear
in mind that knowledge was not then so widely
diffused as now, and that the pulpits were the forges
of theological thunderbolts rather than storehouses
of the food of sores. Catechising was then the most
valuable instrument Hall could find for the dissemi
nation of sound doctrine, and for recovery from the
errors of Romanism ; in our own day its value has
been no less fully recognised.
In bringing their flocks to still waters, he com-
' mended to the shepherds zeal moderated with dis
cretion and chartrable care for the common good,
but deprecated contention for " litigious and imma
terial verities," and regretted that for one scruple
of truth a whole pound weight of precious peace
should be "lost. " The Church of England, in whose
motherhood we have all just cause to pride our
selves, hath, in much wisdom and piety, delivered
her judgment concerning all necessary points of
religion in so complete a Body of Divinity, as all
hearts may rest in. These we read, these we write
under, as professing, not their truth only, but their
sufficiency also. The voice of God our Father, in
His Scriptures, and out of these the voice of the
Church our Mother, in her articles, is that which
must both guide and settle our resolutions. What
soever is beside these, is but either private, or
unnecessary and uncertain. Oh ! that while we
sweat and bleed for the maintenance of these
oracular truths, we could be persuaded to remit of
our heat in the pursuit of opinions. These, these

BISHOP OF EXETER. 281
are they that distract ' the Church, violate our peace,
scandalise the weak, advantage our enemies.- Fire
upon the hearth warms the body ; but, if it be
misplaced, burns the house. My brethren, let us
be zealous for our God ; every hearty Christian will
pour oil, and not water, upon this holy flame. But
let us take heed, lest a blind self-love, stiff prejudice,
and factious partiality impose upon us, instead of
the causes of God. Let us be suspicious of all
new verities, and careless of all unprofitable. And
let us hate to think ourselves either wiser than the
Church, or better than our superiors. And, if any
man think that he sees farther than his fellows in
these theological prospects, let his tongue keep the
counsel of his eyes, lest, while he affects the fame
of deeper learning, he embroil the Church, and raise
his glory upon the public ruins." Those to whom
some of the Bishop's views are by no means accept
able, will probably admit that it would be hard to
-find wiser rules for either private conduct, or for
minimising the evils attendant on the inevitable
conflict of opinions.
The following letter, written in the year following
his consecration, is an instance and illustration of
the vigour and resolution with which the Bishop
conducted the affairs of the diocese : —
"Exon, October 4th.
" To Sir Richard Bulwer, Knight.
" I could not but thus suddenly express my zeal for
the common safety and care of your indemnity in an
occurrettt related to me this hour by my chaplain, Mr.
Nansogge. It should seem he lately acquainted you with
certain dangerous speeches uttered by no mean recusant,
in the presence of very able witnesses, importing no less than

282 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D,
the utter and speedy ruin of this whole State and Church,
the particulars whereof I have here enclosed. I hope well
that you were so sensible of the peril hereof, that you
have already seized upon the party, one Mr. Trevillian,
and diligently examined the matter unto the bottom ; as
knowing how unsafe it is for any commissioner for the peace
to sleep under the notice of so, seditious language ; if not,
let me advise you without all delay to do it cum effectu.
The gentleman is known to be such, as that if there were
not some great confidence in him of the issue, he neither
would nor durst let fall such speeches ; the sifting whereof
may be the prevention of more mischief than we can
apprehend. Contenting myself to have laid this earnest
charge upon you (since myself am not as yet in the
commission, at least not sworn in it), I take my leave, and
will think long to know the success of your present and
careful inquisition. " Your much devoted friend, "Jos. Exon.
"If the speeches are justified, you know best what to do ;
it is not for me to advise you ; but I should think you could
do no less than send to the council-table about it."
It is not surprising that this gentleness without
dulness, and strength without rage, should result in
a diocese at unity in itself. How far this unity was
purchased at the price of disagreement with the
ruling authorities, we shall have to consider a little
later in the history ; but it may be here premised,
that from the testimony of Laud himself, if the
Bishop's writings did not testify so much, it is
abundantly clear that Hall, if discreet, was not rebel
lious, and, if slow to " urge new impositions," was no
enemy to safe progress. There was eventually peace
at Exeter, but the opening years of Hall's rule were

BISHOP OF EXETER. 283
exceedingly stormy. We have seen that those who
sat at the stern of the Church had Hall in great
jealousy for too much favour of Puritanism. It was
no less true that those who sat at the stern of Puri
tanism had him in as great jealousy — and with as
little cause — for too much favour of Rome. Alas !
poor Bishop ! It is the lot of all thoughtful men
who will not run to the same excess of riot in
opinion as their fellows. How this came about he
shall himself show,
" Some insolent Romanists, Jesuits especially, in their
bold disputations (which, in the time of the treaty of the
Spanish match and the calm of that relaxation, were very
frequent), pressed nothing so much as a catalogue of
the professors of our religion to be deduced from the
primitive times; and, with the peremptory challenge ofthe
impossibility of this pedigree, dazzled the eyes of the simple;
while some of our learned men, undertaking to satisfy so
heedless and unjust a demand, gave, as I conceived, great
advantage to the adversary. In a just indignation to see
us thus wronged by misstating the question betwixt us, as
if we, yielding ourselves of another Church, originally and
fundamentally different, should make good our own. erection
upon the ruins, yea, the nullity of theirs ; and well consider
ing the infinite and great inconveniences that must needs
follow upon this defence, I adventured to set my pen on
work, desiring to rectify the opinions of those men whom an
ignorant zeal had transported to the prejudice of our holy
cause : laying forth the damnable corruptions of the Roman
Church, yet making our game of the outward visibility
thereof; and, by this means, putting them to the probation
of those newly obtruded corruptions which are truly guilty
of the breach betwixt us. The drift whereof being not well
conceived by some spirits that were not so wise as fervent,
I was suddenly exposed to the rash censures of many well

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

affected and zealous Protestants ; as if I had, in a remis
sion to my wonted zeal to the truth, attributed too much
to the Roman Church, and strengthened the adversaries'
hands, and weakened our own. This envy I was fain to
take off by my speedy 'Apologetical Advertisement;' and,
after that, by my ' Reconciler,' seconded with the una
nimous letters of such reverend, learned, sound divines,
both bishops and doctors, as whose undoubtable authority
was able to bear down calumny itself. Which done, I did,
by a seasonable moderation, provide for the peace of the
Church, in silencing both my defendants and challengers,
in this unkind and ill-raised quarrel."
The treatise referred to in the above extract,
and to which was given the name of "The Old
Religion," was published immediately after the author
was made bishop, together with a preface dedicating
it to his " new and dearly affected charge." His most
and best hours he declared had been passed in quiet
meditation, wherein he had no adversary except Satan
and his own corruptions. Controversial topics he
had rather crossed in his way than taken along with
him. He did not profess to make any essential
additions to the subjects he handled, but compared
himself to one tracing small obscure inlets where the
lands and rivers were already mapped out. He had,
moreover, fallen upon a familiar method of treatment,
and was anxious that his readers should have the
benefit of it. In the work he discusses the extent
of the differences between the Churches, the origin of
those differences, defends the Reformed against the
charges of novelty, heresy, and schism, and lays the
guilt of schism at the door of the Church of Rome.
This introduction is followed by a brief account ofthe
principal points of controversy — e.g., justification by

BISHOP OF EXETER. 285
inherent righteousness, the doctrine of merit, transub-
stantiation, half-communion, the sacrifice of the mass,
image worship, indulgences and purgatory, Divine
service in an unknown tongue, full and forced
sacramental confession, invocation of saints, seven
sacraments, Romish doctrine of tradition, — each of
which the writer endeavours to prove new, as well
as contrary to Scripture and reason. The remaining
chapter deals with the encroachments of the Bishop
of Rome. He seems to have had some misgivings
lest he had " spoken too mildly of the estate of that
debauched Church," and that his admitting Rome to
be an outward visible Church would savour too much
of indifferency. The result proved the correctness
of his anticipations. Preferment, it was said, had
changed his note, and taught him to speak more
plausibly concerning the Roman Church than he either
did or ought. Stung by the charge of inconstancy,
he pointed out in the " Apologetical Advertisement"
that twenty years ago and ever since he had taught
as now, and that he was consistent with himself and
with our best, orthodox, and classical divines. God
make us wise and charitable! he said. The restless
spirits were not, however, to be thus appeased, and
finding it necessary to support his view by an
appeal to living authorities, he wrote to Morton,
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Davenant, Bishop of
Salisbury, Prideaux, Professor of Divinity at Oxford
and Rector of Exeter College, and Primrose, Preacher
to the French Church in London, which last he asked
for the opinion of foreign divines. Their unanimous
and complimentary replies, together with a letter to
Cholmley, who, having vindicated the Bishop, had
been accused of being bribed with a prebend, of

286 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
neglecting his charge at Tiverton, and, in general,
of spiritual decay, were dedicated to the Earl of
Norwich, and must have had no small effect with
those who were capable of calm reflection. Laud
was accused at his trial of having expunged out
of the letters two passages, which tended against
Arminian tenets and towards approval of the Synod
of Dort, the copy of which purgations was asserted
to have been seized in the Archbishop's study (by
Mr. Prynne, who attested it), endorsed with his own
hand " That which my Chapline Mr. Turner left out
of the letters of the Bishop of Exeter and Sarum
about Arminianisme." The words in the Bishop of
Exeter's letter, which were said to have been ex
punged, and which now, with the exception of the
concluding clauses, appear in the letter, were as
follows : —
" Yea, as if the calumny were not enough, there
want not those whose secret whisperings cast upon
me the foul aspersions of another sect, whose name
is as much hated as little understood. My lord,
you know I had a place with you, though unworthy,
in that famous Synod of Dort, where (however sick
ness bereaved me of the honour of a conclusive
subscription) yet your lordship heard me, with equal
vehemency to the rest, crying down the unreason
ableness of that way. I am still the same man, and
shall live and die in the suffrage of that reverend
synod, and do confidently avow that those other
opposed opinions cannot stand with the doctrine of
the Church of England. But if for the composing of
our differences at home (which your lordship knows
to be far different from the Netherlandish) there
could have been rendered any such fair propositions

BISHOP OF EXETER. 287
of accprdance as might be no prejudice to God's
truth, I should have thought it an holy and happy
project, wherein, if it be not a fault to have wished a
safe peace, I am innocent."
Nathanael Butter, the stationer, finding' the book
less saleable after the purgation, ventured to print
the expunged passages ; whereupon, being brought
before Laud, he was committed to the Fleet, and
in the end almost ruined. Laud's plea in defence
was that the passage, as well as that in the Bishop
of Sarum's reply, was expunged by his chaplain
as contrary to the royal proclamation, that Hall
himself being well satisfied upon the reason given
by the chaplain, viz., that the expurgation was for
the quiet of the Church, at last consented to it, and,
therefore, that the printer putting it in the words
of his own head, deserved exemplary punishment.
The words at last are significant, and make us
believe in the truth of the retort, that Hall, in con
senting, was only like the mariner in a storm, who
throws some of his goods into the sea, lest the whole
ship and freight should be lost; the book must be
either expurgated, or altogether suppressed. Laud's
meddling with the press will come before us . again
in speaking of the " Episcopacy by Divine Right."
At the date of the publication of the " Reconciler,"
Hall had had about fifteen months' experience of
a bishop's lot. He was conscious that it was not
he, but his rochet that had offended, and could
not fail to see signs of the hurricane which was
ere long so fiercely to shake our English prelacy.
He had recently come upon a Latin pamphlet,
"homely for style, tedious for length, zealous un
charitable for stuff," in which the depravation of

288 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the bishop's calling was traced to the honour, the
pomp, the wealth, the pleasure of the episcopal
chair, and the writer had said that, if himself were
so overlaid with greatness, he should suspect his
own fidelity. Bishops at the present day are, for
the most part, so unmistakably hard-working men,
that a certain amount of obtuseness is implied in
the suggestion that the episcopal chair is one of
ease and comfort; but when Balaam's eyes are
open he need not look at the truth, and he may
still try to persuade himself that greed and envy
, are synonymous with the spirit of sacrifice and love
of the public good. There is a truth as well as
pathos in Hall's words which make them well
worthy of transcribing, and no doubt they find
an echo in the heart of more than one of our own
bishops. "Foggy air useth to represent every object far bigger
than it is. Our Saviour, in His temptation upon the Mount,
had only the glory of those kingdoms showed to Him by
that subtle spirit, not the cares and vexations. Right so
are our dignities exhibited to these envious beholders.
Little do these men see the toils and anxieties that attend
this supposedly pleasing eminence. All the revenge that
I would wish to this uncharitable censurer should be this,
that he might be for a while adjudged to this so glorious
seat of mine; that so his experience might taste the be
witching pleasures of this envied greatness ; he should well
find more danger of being overspent with work, than of
languishing with ease and delicacy. For me, I need not
appeal to heaven, eyes enough can witness how few free
hours I have enjoyed since I put on these robes of sacred
honour, insomuch as I could find in my heart, with holy
Gregory, to complain of my change, were it not that I see

BISHOP OE EXETER.

these public troubles are so many acceptable services to my
God, Whose glory is the end of my being. Certainly, if
none but earthly respects should sway me, I should heartily
wish to change this palace, which the providence of God
and the bounty of my gracious Sovereign hath put me into,
for my quiet cell at Waltham, where I had so sweet leisure
to enjoy God, your lordship, and myself. But I have
followed the calling of my God to Whose service I am
willingly sacrificed, and must now, in a holy obedience to
His Divine Majesty, with what cheerfulness I may, ride
out all the storms of envy, which unavoidably will alight
upon the least appearance of a ' conceived greatness. In
the meantime, whatever I may seem to others, I was never
less in my own apprehensions ; and, were it not for this
attendance of envy, could not yield myself any whit greater
than I was. Whatever I am, that good God of mine make
me faithful to Him, and compose the unquiet spirits of men
to a conscionable care of the pubhc peace."
An opportunity soon presented itself to Hall of
showing that, while with wisdom and justice he was
willing to admit and even to contend for the visi
bility of the Church of Rome, he was a fearless
opponent of her presumptuous claims and cruel
arrogance. At the time of the Bishop's appoint
ment, Buckingham, we have seen, was laying siege
to the citadel of St. Martin in the Island of Rhe\
and was stimulating the Huguenots to struggle for
their religious liberty. Since then he had been
compelled to retreat, and when on the point of
setting out with another expedition, had fallen by
the hand of a fanatical assassin. Thus left to
themselves, the Huguenots were compelled to meet
the whole power of France, and, after an heroic
resistance, Rochelle at last surrendered, in October
19

290 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
1628. Pope Urban VIII. lost no time in turning
the victory to the best account, and on the
28th of the following month issued a brief to
the French King, Louis XIII., congratulating
him on his success, and urging him to destroy all
heretics in Gallica vinea stabulantes. It is well
known that no object was dearer to the heart of
Urban than the invasion of England. With so
much address and perseverance did he conduct the
negotiations for that project that on the 20th of
April, 1627, a treaty was concluded between France
and Spain, and it was definitely settled that the
latter should commence the attack before the close
of the year, and that the French should join them
in the following sp'ring. Ireland was to be given
to the pope, and was to be governed by a viceroy.
In 1628 the project was warmly entertained, and
preparations were being made with the utmost
activity. It was under these circumstances that
Hall wrote his short " Answer to Pope Urban's
Inurbanity." Before printing it, he submitted it
" for light or fire " to the judgment of Primrose,
whose reply, after all allowance for the kindly
exaggerations of friendship, vividly pourtrays some
features of the Bishop's character, — his regard for
old friends while enjoying new honours, his modesty
conspicuous amid his many other virtues in his
writings, voice, eyes, countenance, his suavity, dis
trust of self, transparency, and power of winning
affection, his attainments in divinity and secular
knowledge, his repute for sweet and vigorous
oratory, his title of the Christian Seneca. As might
be expected, Primrose approved of the "Answer,"
which was accordingly published in 1629. It is a

BISHOP OF EXETER, 291
short but most earnest protest against the blood
thirsty suggestions of the pope, and a touching
appeal to Louis, as the son of the gracious and
merciful Henry, not to be carried away by them.
It would be strange if with many virtues some
faults were not combined, and Hall is, of course,
no exception to the rule. Dr. Oliver, in his " Lives
of the Bishops of Exeter " (I must thank Dean
Cowie for drawing my attention to the passage),
says that Hall's register testifies to his diligence in
his official duties, as also to his care in providing
good benefices for his children. Neglecting the
cynicism or harmless fun of the writer, and coming
at once to his meaning, it is right to ask whether
the Bishop exercised his patronage with undue
partiality for his own kindred. A glance at the
pedigree will show that his sons were certainly
somewhat the better off for having a father on the
episcopal bench. One was at this time canon and
treasurer of the cathedral. Another became
principal registrar of the diocese, a third sub-
dean, while a son-in-law, Dr. Peterson, was already
dean, and it was now proposed to bestow the next
residentiary canonry on the dean's brother. Gross
nepotism ! But, courteous reader, let not, in your
surprise, criticism be too critical, nor judgment issue
without mercy. The abuse of patronage is a chronic
malady, which the lapse of centuries cannot cure.
Will the time ever come when men of mind will
not be heavily handicapped by men of birth or
money-bags ? In Hall's day the disease was epi
demic and acute, and in the same chapter at
Exeter, out of nine canons there were two brothers
of the Cottons (the Staffordshire Cottons, to

292 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
whose family the bishop next but one preceding
Hall belonged), "besides their cousins." The
two letters following afford a glimpse of an im
portunate beggar for preferment, and, beside other
matters incidentally mentioned, give an interesting
insight into cathedral life at the beginning of Hall's
episcopate. To Archbishop Laud (then Bishop of London).
"May%th, 1630.
" I am informed that it hath pleased His Majesty to make
a reference to the lord keeper and your lordship of a com
plaint exhibited against me by a late chaplain of mine, one
Mr. Nansogge. I am sorry that the bold man should be so
troublesome by his unjust suggestions, only, I beseech your
lordship, give me leave to inform you of the true state of
the business, and then I shall gladly leave it to your noble
wisdom and justice.
" This man was, before I was Bishop of Exeter, pecking
for the archdeaconry of Cornwall ; and putting himself
into my attendance, moved me for it ; which suit of his was
seconded by a message reported to be sent to me from my
Lord Duke of Buckingham. I promised and intended it to
him when it should fall void. The old incumbent (Mr.
Parker) lives still ; and, for aught I know, long may. This
busy man, weary of expecting, would needs hoise the old
man out before his time ; and, therefore, solicits me that I
would collate it upon him, under pretence that the place-
was void by a private resignation made long since by the
said Mr. Parker to another man, though never legally
published or exhibited. I dissuaded him, and told him how
invalid that act would be, and how grievous to the old
possessor ; he importuned me still, de bene esse, to do it ;
professing that he doubted not to satisfy Mr. Parker, and
to win him to be content with the act. His importunity
prevailed with my too much indulgence towards him;

BISHOP OF EXETER. 293
I did it de facto, reclamante decano et capitulo, who would
not give way to his installation. Now, the friends of Mr.
Parker began to stir, and found themselves sensible of his
prejudice, getting an inhibition from my Lord's Grace of
' Canterbury for any further proceedings ; and now I received
information of the invalidity, indeed nullity, of this act.
Withal in this seasonable interim, while the act remained
thus imperfect, there came letters to me (being then in
London) out of my diocese, from persons of credit (which
were backed by personal relations of some which professed
friendship to us both) of certain foul miscarriages of Mr.
Nansogge's tongue towards my person and family, upon
which he had cast shameful aspersions to my great blemish
and grief; assuring me how much I was wounded in my
reputation by his unthankful tongue. I expostulated the
matter with him ; he denied it. I examined it to the
bottom. God knows how loath I was to believe it; his
accusers were brought to his face ; and with tender of solemn
oaths justified those his scandalous words against him.
Finding him convicted partly by his own confession, partly
by the undeniable evidence of witnesses, I told him, all the
revenge I would take of him should be this, that I would
henceforth take off my hand from him, and be a stranger to
him. Soon after he writes me the most insolent letter that
I think hath been written by a chaplain to his pretended
lord. Hereupon I revoked that my imperfect and ill-made
grant by a solemn act, and now he thus clamours. As I
shall answer it before the highest tribunal of heaven, this
is the true state of this business. He pretends the leaving
of his fellowship for my service. God knows I knew not
that he left it ; your lordship well knows he need not have
left it upon that cause; neither was his one year's com
panionship (rather than service) unrecompensed on my part.
He pleads my displeasure was causeless, when himself hath
before witnesses professed, in part, his guiltiness and sorrow.
And yet now this bold man dares complain of him whom he
hath wronged. My lord, I have not flattered my cause to

294 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
your lordship. If your lordship can think that a favour
really meant cannot be forfeited by the unworthiness and
ill-deserving of an unthankful subject, I am cast ; else I am
(and I hope shall ever be) free. It is enough that I have
informed your lordship of this troublesome business ; and
now I leave myself in those your just hands; who I doubt
not have already seen which of us is worthy of your lord
ship's censure. With my best prayers I take my humble
leave, and sign myself your lordship's unfeignedly devoted
in all observance " Jos Exon.
"Exon, May 8tk"
A day was appointed for the hearing of the cause,
the Bishop (who had already given the advowson to
another) meanwhile being advised to forbear col
lating to the said archdeaconry of Cornwall, which
was subsequently held by the Bishop's two sons,
Robert and George. To Archbishop Laud. "June wth, 163 1.
" I was bold the last week to give your lordship information
of a busy and ignorant schismatic lurking in London ; since
which time I hear to my grief that there are eleven several
congregations (as they call them) of separatists about the
city, furnished with their1 idly pretended pastors, who meet
together in beerhouses and such other meet places of resort
every Sunday. I do well know your lordship's zealous and
careful vigilance over that populous world of men, so as I
am assured your lordship finds enough to move both your
sorrow and holy fervency in the cause of Go9's Church ;
neither do I write this as to inform your lordship of what
you know not, but to condole the misery of the time.
Deus meliorat Withal I have taken the boldness to
inform your lordship that whereas His Majesty hath been
pleased at the suit of my noble lord of Carlisle to grant his

BISHOP OF EXETER. %%
gracious mandatory letters in the behalf of Mr. Rev. Peterson,
His Majesty's Chaplain, brother to Mr. Dean, for the next
place of residence which shall fall void here ; which are also
attended with letters of my lord of Carlisle to me for a
careful oversight of the business, and an account of the
answers given thereunto ; I find some secret reluctation of
some of the canons who are disaffected to the dean upon the
late occasion of variance, and am informed that they intend
their address to your lordship in this case. I have, there
fore, made bold to give your lordship some taste of the man,
if he be not already known to your lordship (his honoured
diocesan). Certainly, my lord, he is a worthy (I may say)
eminent preacher, an approved scholar, a grave, well-
governed, modified, honest, peaceable man : faction hath
no greater enemy, nor goodness an heartier friend ; his parts
are well allowed both in the court and city ; and his con
versation inoffensive and exemplary. The only exception
which is pretended to be taken against him is, that he is
brother to the Dean; and that, therefore, because I have
a son already of the chapter, there may be some combina- ,
tion to sway matters on the part of Mr. Dean ; which will
appear a poor cavil to your lordship when your lordship shall
understand that there are already two brothers ofthe Cottons,
besides their cousins, in this small number of canons.
There are nine canons ; if three should conspire what can
they do ? or if they should combine to do aught amiss and
unjustifiable, as if we did not live under laws and govern
ment ? The truth is, my lord, it is nothing but a secret
heart-burning to the dean ; for which they would fain keep
out this well-deserving brother, whom for his mere worth
and likelihood of excellent service to this Church, I do
sincerely affect, without all relations of whatsoever affinity."
The strife between the dean and chapter continued
for some years. In 1634 Laud writes, " I have
twice set them at peace, yet it breaks out again.

296 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
And, I doubt, there being so many brothers and
brothers-in-law in that chapter is not the least cause
of it ; the rest siding together for fear of oppression."
The year 1633 was a memorable one in the life
of Hall. On September 19th, Laud, after long
wielding the power of the primacy, was consecrated
to the office, and Hall could not fail to have some
anxiety as to how his work would be affected by the
rule of one so resolute and unbending. Personal con
siderations, too, must have exercised some influence.
Hall had written a famous letter nearly thirty years
ago, addressed to W. L., at Oxford, and in terms not
deficient in vigour had taxed him with wavering on
the confines of Rome. Since then Laud had con
sented to, if not promoted, the appointment of the
writer to a bishopric, but there could have been at
this time little of that cordiality existing between
the two men which afterwards, we are told by Dr.
Hook, ripened into a devoted friendship, at least on
Hall's side. Then, again, more recently there were
grounds for apprehension. On March 17th, 1628,
Laud preached before the two Houses of Parliament,
and earnestly exhorted them to unity, only with the
effect of causing the immediate appointment of a
committee on religion, and of calling out an indignant
protest against what " those sycophants ;had prated
in the pulpit." On March 30th, Hall preached
before the same auditory with so much success that
on April 5 th he was again ,the preacher. This
sermon, from Isa. v. 4, 5, is the production of an
able preacher possessing a keen insight into the vices
of his day, and as anxious for their reformation as
his sympathetic hearers, so terribly in earnest if
mistaken in their methods. It also exhibits an

BISHOP OF EXETER. 297
affectionate interest in the suffering Protestants of
the Palatinate and other districts of the Continent,
which must have placed the speaker in close rapport
with his auditory after all the duplicity of James and
the coquetting with Rome and the Roman powers.
It was ordered to be printed. On February 18th,
1629, he again preached before the Lords on Ash
Wednesday, and plainly said that, "if an error should
arise in the Church, it is not for every unlearned
tradesman to cast away his yard-wand, and take up
his pen. Wherefore serve universities if every blue
apron may at his pleasure turn licentiate of divinity
and talk of theological questions which he under
stands not, as if they were to be measured by the
ell ? " Again the sermon was ordered to be printed.
It seemed as though Hall could say with impunity
what he chose. Would not Laud, now that he
possessed recognised official power, resent the popu
larity of his rival ?
Laud's first act was to republish the injunctions
which, based on the considerations addressed by him
to the king, had been issued in 1629. Their
aim was, to a great extent, the suppression of
lecturers, who, having no parochial charge, and
being supported by the contributions of the people,
were favourite agents in disseminating Puritan prin
ciples ; and with what energy the primate would
deal with them was indicated by the dissolution,
in February 1633, of the Collectors of S. Antholin's,
a corporation founded with a view to permanently
providing for such lectureships. It was in con
nection with this policy of the Primate that Hall
underwent some of the most painful and humiliating
experience of his life, and probably about this time.

298 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
" Some persons of note in the clergy, being guilty
of their own negligence and disorderly courses,
began to envy our success ; and finding me ever
ready to encourage those whom I found conscionably
forward and painful in their places, and willingly
giving way to orthodox and peaceable lecturers in
several parts of my diocese, opened their mouths
against me, both obliquely in the pulpit and directly
at the court, complaining of my too much indulgence
to persons disaffected, and my too much liberty
of frequent lecturings within my charge. The billows
went so high, that I was three several times upon
my knees to His Majesty, to answer these great
criminations ; and what contestation I had with some
great lords concerning these particulars, it would
be too long tQ report ; only this — under how dark
a cloud I was hereupon I was so sensible, that
I plainly told the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury
that rather than I would be obnoxious to those
slanderous tongues of his misinformers, I would
cast up my rochet. I knew I went right ways,
and would not endure to live under undeserved
suspicions." In estimating his conduct, it must
be borne in mind that Bishop Cotton, who died
in 162 1, was conspicuous for his hostility to the
Puritans, and was a rigid exactor of unequivocal
conformity. The diocese no doubt was still sore
from his galling treatment. Popish agents in the
interval between Bishop Cary's death and Hall's
consecration had been extremely busy at Exeter,
and it was not to be expected that a potent remedy
would be too hastily discountenanced. And lastly,
the Bishop no doubt saw in the lecturers a body
of men who, properly controlled, and working on

BISHOP OF EXETER. 299
the lines of orthodoxy and peace, would be of
immense service to the Church. So long as they
lectured on the main verities he would not interfere
with them. He was consistent with himself, and
while he stands in marked contrast to those who
could not tolerate even a Wesley, he is a notable
instance of that wisdom which, seeing the need the
Church has of agencies outside her ordinary parochial
system, leads prelates, otherwise widely different in
tone, to give a hearty welcome to well-considered
deviations from respectable routine.
A " new imposition," which Hall would certainly
not urge, was the "Book of Sports." Lancashire,
about this time, abounded more in popish recusants
than any country in England, while the Puritans were
there more than ordinarily precise, and it was hard
to say which were the more superstitious. King
James, in passing through on his return from Scotland
in 1 61 7, found that certain persons had been
punished for playing at various games on the
Sundays and holy days. Next year he caused the
" Book of Sports " to be published, authorising danc
ing either of men or women, archery for men, leaping,
vaulting, or any other such harmless recreations.
May-games, Whitsun-ales, Morris- dances, May-poles,
and sports used therewith, also rush-carrying by the
women for the "decoring of the church" according to
their old custom, were made legal, while bear and
bull baitings and interludes were prohibited on
Sundays, and bowling at all times to the meaner sort
of people. The exercises allowed were not to be used
before the end of all Divine services for the day.
Archbishop Abbot flatly forbade the declaration to
be read from the pulpit at Croydon, and the king,

300 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
influenced probably by several of his bishops, did
not long insist upon its observance. In 1633 the
magistrates and judges of assize in the county of
Somerset forbade Church-ales to be held on Sun
days, and Chief Justice Richardson ordered all wakes
and even feasts of the dedication of churches to be
suppressed, and directed the declaration to be read
by the clergy in their various parishes. Not un
naturally Laud regarded this as an usurpation on
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and after complaining to
the king, he severely rebuked the Chief Justice at
the council-table. Richardson's orders were revoked,
and it was determined to republish the " Book of
Sports," the clergy being required to read it in their
churches. The Sabbatarian controversy was thus
revived with intense bitterness. Many of the clergy
were suspended or deprived ; some were excommuni
cated. Laud, when charged with reviving and enlarg
ing the declaration, denied having done so, though he
declared himself in favour of recreations on Sunday,
and referred to the practice of Geneva. Personally
he himself strictly observed Sunday, and there is no
doubt that in his own diocese little suffering was
produced. Stern disciplinarian as he was, he may
have resented the interference of Richardson without
actively supporting the obnoxious publication. Had
he done so, he would not have been without defence.
The Romanists, by relaxing the severity of Sabbath
observance, held out a tempting bait to the lower
classes ; not altogether without reason it was urged
that warlike exercises were in danger of ceasing ;
and with still more force that drunkenness and
sedition were encouraged by the enforced idleness.
Very plausible reasons might be advanced, but, upon

BISHOP OF EXETER. 301
the whole, then as now, the religious sense of the
nation was shocked by anything tending to diminish
reverence for the Sabbath. As for Hall, there is no
record of one single instance in his diocese of suspen
sion, or deprivation, or excommunication for neglect
ing to read the declaration* He was not, indeed, a
superstitious Sabbatarian ; he was quick to detect "a
nice humorist that will not dress a dish, nor lay a
cloth, nor walk abroad on a Sunday, and yet make
no conscience of cozening his neighbour on the
workday ; " but Sunday, we have seen, was to him a
cherished opportunity of multiplied devotion, and
he could not consistently support anything which
would rob both himself and people of so splendid a
privilege. With another " imposition " of Laud's, the restora
tion of the altars to their original position, and the
re-introduction of a reverent ritual, Hall had more
sympathy. This he heartily supported, and not
only employed persuasion, but where necessary was
prepared to resort to compulsion.
In summarising the relations of Hall to Laud
during the first ten years of the former's episcopate,
it is undoubtedly correct to say that the Bishop was
indebted to the powerful hand of the Primate for
the moulding and modifying of some of his opinions ;
but his sincerity and independence wherever he
thought material verities were involved, coupled
with his wisdom and moderation, perhaps , no less
influenced that rugged nature, so far as it was sus
ceptible of change. In 1634 Laud was able to
* Fuller speaks of a western prelate who had told him that
he would not turn the accuser of his brethren. It has been
conjectured with good reason that the prelate was Hall.

302 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
report, after visiting the diocese : " For Exeter,
where, according to many complaints- that had been
made here above, I might have expected many
things out of order, I must do my lord the Bishop
this right, that for your Majesty's instructions they
have been carefully observed." In 1637: "The
Bishop of this diocese (Exon) assures me that all
things are in very good order. And, indeed, I think
the diocese is well amended within these few years,
his lordship having been very careful, both in his
visitations and otherwise."
Two episodes in the years 1636 and 1637 are
worthy of notice. The Bishop sent up to Laud two
copies of a libel written by Prynne, and published
under the name of Matthew White, entitled " News
from Ipswich." The " News " professed to discover
some late detestable practices of some domineering
lordly prelates, in particular that the presses formerly
open only to truth and piety were closed against
them both of late, and patent for the most part to
nought but error, superstition, and profaneness.
The author specifies the publications in defence of
Arminianism, popery, and popish ceremonies, and
against the morality of the Sabbath, and the necessity
of frequent preaching. The frontispiece of a copy
in the Bodleian represents Laud in canonicals, on
one side a number of " altar-cringing priests,"
approaching on the other " Churchwardens for
articles ; " to the one the archbishop says, " Only
canonical prayers," to the other, " No afternoon
sermons." Hall's love of order and respect for
authority would make him eager in the destruction
of such worthless trash.
In the next year many inhabitants of Devonshire

BISHOP OF EXETER. 303
and Cornwall, after being captives in Morocco, were
returning home, and the Bishop was troubled to
know what to do with them. They had renounced
the Saviour, and turned Turks. How were they to
be re-admitted into the Church of Christ, and under
what penitential form ? Being in London he con
sulted the archbishop about the matter. A form
was agreed on, which was afterwards drawn up,
approved by the Bishops of London, Ely, and
Norwich, and received the royal sanction. Laud
gave charge to Hall to see it registered, '' to remain
as a precedent for future times, if there should be
any more sad examples of apostacy from the faith."
Notwithstanding the numerous and varied engage
ments of his large and busy diocese, and the calls
upon his time as the most popular preacher of the
day, the Bishop found, or rather made, leisure not
only for controversy, but for pursuing the paths of
more peaceful literature. In 1631 he rendered a
kindly service to the memory of one of his clergy,
the Rev. John Downe, B.D., Rector of Instow, in
Devonshire, and some time fellow of Emmanuel,
whose funeral sermon having been presented to the
Bishop, and the author's purpose of publishing certain
treatises of Downe's being made known, Hall wrote
a letter which he desired should be prefixed to the
intended publication. The following extracts do
credit no less to the author than to the subject of
the eulogy : — " How much ingenuity, how much
learning and worth, how much sweetness of con
versation, how much elegance of expression, how
much integrity and holiness have we lost in that
man ! No man ever knew him but must needs
say that one of the brightest stars in our west is

304 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
now set. The excellent parts that were in him
were a fit instance for that your learnedly-defended
position of the vigour of this last age whereunto he
gave his accurate and witty astipulation . . . Be
sides those skilful and rare pieces of divinity, tracts,
and sermons, I hope (for my old love to those
studies) we shall see abroad some excellent monu
ments of his Latin poetry, in which faculty, I dare
boldly say, few, if any, of our age exceeded him.
In his polemical discourses (some whereof I have
by me) how easy is it for any judicious reader to
observe the true genius of his renowned uncle,
Bishop Jewell ! Such smoothness of style, such
sharpness of wit, such interspersions of well-applied
reading, such grave and holy urbanity ! "
In the same year was written the short tract in
explanation of Christ's presence in Holy Communion.
In 1633 appeared the "Paraphrases on Hard Texts,"
the germ of which is to be found in the " Paraphrase
upon the Song of Solomon," written perhaps some four
or five-and-twenty years previous. This work, under-
' taken for the benefit of the plain reader, and com
posed with the " aid of the best commentators, both
ancient and modern," ranging as it does over the
whole field of Scripture, must have involved immense
labour, and was a notable production for the time
when it appeared. Succeeding commentators made
great use of it ; but it can scarcely lay claim to
being in any sense critical, and the difficulties in the
hard texts are mostly restated at greater length
rather than satisfactorily explained. The next year
(1634) saw the "Contemplations,"* on which he had
* John Ferrier, M D., in his " Illustrations of Sterne," 2
vols, i2mo, 1812, says, " It has long been my opinion that the

BISHOP OF EXETER. 365
also been engaged at intervals for more than twenty
years, and in the completion of which he had been
encouraged by many divines both at home and
abroad, brought to a successful end by the publi
cation of the fourth book of those on the New
Testament. Busily spending upon this the few
spare hours he could borrow or steal from his
continual and weighty employments, he had given
permission to his son Robert to publish the
" Occasional Meditations," the papers of which were
laid aside in the study. In November of this year,
"' renewing his recollections of Rome, and Athens,"
the Bishop published them in a Latin dress. While
grateful to Jacomot and others who had translated
his writings, he admitted that he was not well
pleased with some Latin and French versions. He
preferred, he said, to see his children clad in home
spun rather than in silk badly put on. This feeling
may have led him to provide the clothing of the
"Occasional Meditations " himself. As for their scope,
he says, " I would not wish to live longer than I
should be better for mine eyes ; and have thought
it thankworthy thus to teach weak minds how to
manner, -the style, and the selection of subjects for his (Sterne's)
sermons were derived from the ' Contemplations ' of Bishop
Hall. There is a delicacy of thought and tenderness of ex
pression in the good Bishop's compositions, from the trans
fusion of which Sterne looked for immortality. Sterne has
(again) acknowledged his acquaintance with this book, by the
disingenuity of two ludicrous quotations in ' Tristram Shandy.'
"The use which Sterne made of Burton and Hall, and his
great familiarity with their works, had considerable influence
on his style. It was rendered, by assimilation with theirs, ,
more easy, more natural, and more expressive." Vol. ii., pp.
123-128, quoted by Peter Hall.
20

306 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
improve their thoughts upon all like occasions.
And, if ever these lines shall come to the public
view, I desire and charge my reader, whosoever he
be, to make me and myself so happy as to take
out my lesson, and learn how to read God's Great
Book by mine." They, indeed, show how keen an
observer their author was, and with what love and
diligence he studied the book of Nature. Things
great and small were alike to him ladders whereby
to climb to heaven. Holy thoughts with him
gathered round a sun-dial, a gliding star, or an
eclipse, the tree full-blossomed, the spider weaving
its web, the barking of a dog, a cock-fight, the sight
of two snails, London street-cries, flies about a
galled horse, music by night, the glow-worm, gnats
in the sun, the crawling worm or the gorgeous
peacock. His mind taxed all nature for tribute to
the glory of its Creator.
Seventeen years had passed since the first folio of
his collected works appeared. This year the second
was brought out ; and, perhaps early in 1635, the
" Henochismus — Of walking with God." This latter
work may have been suggested by the archbishop's
metropolitical visitation of the diocese. At all
events, it was during the leisure months which he had
at that time that, besides the pleasurable work of
translating the " Occasional Meditations," and "some
other matters," he composed the treatise. The pens
of almost all the writers of the day were employed
on polemical questions, foolish indeed most of them,
and unlearned. In the meantime, piety was starv
ing, and a religious course of life was generally
condemned, as something quite irrelevant and super
erogatory. For his own part, he was both wearied

BISHOP OF EXETER. 307
and ashamed of the endless disputes by which the
Christian world was agitated, and expressed his
hearty wish that it were in his power to allay them,
he would not say by his prayers, his sighs, his tears,
but by any fatigue or labour he could endure, by
any sacrifice he could make, even unto blood. The
practical little treatise by which he hoped to recall
some to a life of devotion was intended to teach
wherein the walk with God consists, and the manner
of walking. To walk with God intimates presence,
familiarity, and motion with God. Presence is
secured by a right apprehension of His majesty,
and through the affections of holy fear, reverence, and
the desire of Divine approbation. Familiarity is evi
denced by the appropriation of God to ourselves by
an act of faith, by intercourse with God in good
thoughts and the answers of the pious soul, by
consultation of God in all difficulties, by prayer in
necessities, repose on His providence, recollection of
benefits, enjoyment of God ' in all good things.
Motion is exhibited either in the external habit of
active obedience in the exercises of Divine worship
and in the duties of our vocation, and in the careful
avoiding of sin, or the internal, which includes
reference in all things to God, self-surrender, holy
importunity after fuller fruition of Him. The walk
itself must be exclusive, straightforward, cheerful,
constant. The stimulus to walk is given by the
honour, pleasantness, safety, advantage of the com
pany of God. The first decade of Hall's episcopate
was brought to a close by the publication of the
Remedy of Profaneness.
At this time, depressed by the death of the Earl
of Norwich, and conscious of advancing years, he

308 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
announced his intention of abandoning authorship.
But the sequel will show that the veteran was still
to fight some of his fiercest battles, and to enrich
the world with many of his maturest and most
holy experiences before being lost to the view of
the public who held him dear.
Before entering on the next chapter, it is pleasing
to relate that the strife which had so long existed
between the Dean and Chapter and the city of Exeter
was this year (1637) brought to an end. As far
back as 1634 Laud complained to the king that
there had been and was a great difference about
burial within the churchyard of the Cathedral, and
intimated that possibly it might be necessary to ask
the royal intervention. Hall in these transactions is
admitted to have been frank and honourable. In
one of his letters he says, " I beseech you let us
mutually have all fair terms without trenching upon
each other's liberties, that so neither part have any
cause of grievance." At length, on St. Bartholomew's
Day, 1637, the new burialplace was consecrated.
The Bishop preached, and while thanking the
citizens for their care and bounty, and congratulating
the Dean and Chapter for their zeal in exciting the
beneficence of the citizens and their munificent con
currence in seconding it, he did not forget the
" pious care and fervency of our most reverend and
vigilant Metropolitan " in promoting so religious
a work. The sermon shows Hall's reasonableness
with regard to burial as in other matters. The most
ancient and best way of sepulture was that it should
be without the gates of the city. With an exception
in favour of princes and great persons who have
their private chapels for their repositories, " secluded

BISHOP OF EXETER. 3°9
from the place of God's public service and devoted
to no other purpose," he disliked the practice of
burial in churches partly upon theological, bu<"
mainly upon sanitary grounds. The practice was
unknown to the Greek Church, and where it existed
was the result of superstition, ambition, and covet-
eousness. " St. Swithin, our neighbour-bishop of
Winchester, gave charge when he died that his body
should not be laid within the church, but where the
drops of rain might wet his grave, and where
passengers might walk over it — an example worthy
of our imitation. There can no vault be so good to
cover our graves as that of heaven." His last
will, in which he requested to be buried without
any funeral pomp, at the discretion of his executor,
"with this only monition, that he did not hold God's
house a meet repository for the dead bodies of the
greatest saints," testifies to the sincerity of his
professions.

CHAPTER XV.
1637-41.
THE DISASTER AT WITHECOMBE.— OVERTHROW OF
EPISCOPACY IN SCOTLAND— HALL'S PROPOSAL
FOR A SYNOD.— THE "EPISCOPACY BY DIVINE
RIGHT:'— THE ET C JETER A OATH— THE CANONS.—
THE COMMITTEE OF RELIGION— ASSAULT UPON
THE ENGLISH BISHOPS.— RETURN TO EXETER.—
THE SMECTYMNUANS.— BISHOP OF NORWICH, ETC.
IN the autumn of 1638 the Bishop was in com
munication with the Primate respecting a
disaster at Withecombe in his diocese. On October
2 ist, in the afternoon, the church was struck by
lightning during the time of Divine service. Three
persons were killed outright and some eighteen
injured by the lightning and falling de'bris of the
stricken tower. Before the end of the year the Bishop
had cause to mourn the ravages of death in his own
family. On Christmas Day his daughter Mary died,
at the early age of twenty-two, and was buried four
days after. She had been married a little more than
two years, and was the wife of James Rodd, Esq., of
Exeter. Their son Bamfilde afterwards married his
cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Hall, the Sub-
Dean. From these parochial and domestic sorrows he

OVERTHROW OF EPISCOPACY JN SCOTLAND. 311
was constrained to turn to those of the diocese and
the church at large. And here we must go back a
little way. The new liturgy for Scotland, prepared
with so much care, so cautiously amended, and
introduced with so much delay and hesitation, was
ordered to be read in the churches of Edinburgh
July 23 rd, 1637. At St. Giles's were assembled, to
do honour to the event, two Archbishops, several
Bishops, the Lords of the Privy Council, the Judges
of the Supreme Court, and the magistrates of the
city ; but the riot which ensued, and which there is
reason for believing was deliberately planned, showed
only too clearly the temper of the Scots. The agita
tion spread throughout the kingdom, and petitions
from all parts were presented against the service-book.
The most intense excitement everywhere prevailed.
One of the leading agitators himself thus writes in
horror at the state of things he had helped to pro
duce : — " What shall be the event, God knows.
There was never in our land such an appearance of
a stir. The whole people think popery at the doors ;
the scandalous pamphlets, which come daily new
from England, add oil to this flame ; no man can
speak anything in public for the king's part except
he would have himself marked for a sacrifice to be
killed one day. I think our people possessed with
a bloody devil far above anything I could have
imagined, though the mass in Latin had been pre
sented." Still the king was determined to adhere
to the service-book, and a proclamation to that effect
was made in Scotland in February 1638, which was
met by a counter-protest, the king's officers being
in some cases compelled to remain amid jeers and
laughter until it was read. On the 28th of this

312 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
month the National Covenant, by which the sub
scribers bound themselves " to defend the true
reformed religion, and to forbear the practice of all
novations and corruptions in the worship and govern
ment of the Church until the same should be
approved of in a free assembly and parliament," was
signed at Edinburgh, signatures being most unscru
pulously and shamelessly gained by force and
intimidation in all parts of Scotland. The discon
tent spread farther and penetrated deeper, until it
soon became clear that an attempt would be made
to abolish episcopacy, annul the Articles of Perth,
and force the covenant on all persons under pain
of excommunication. On September 9th the king
thought it advisable to revoke the service-book and
make other concessions ; a proclamation to that effect
was issued before the end of the month, and a
general assembly was appointed to meet at Glasgow
on November 21st. Nothing was gained by this
step. The assembly proved refractory, refused to be
dissolved, and, left to themselves, declared unani
mously, one member only hesitating but not opposing,
that episcopacy had been abjured by the Confession
of 1 581, and ought to be removed. On the 13th
of next month sentence of deposition and excom
munication was formally pronounced against two
archbishops and six bishops, while six other bishops
were deposed. Thus episcopacy was overthrown,
and all that the king and bishops had so long
striven for was destroyed.
In the beginning of August 1639 another
assembly was held at Edinburgh, and on the 1 7th
a paper, dated February nth, was given in, signed
by George Graham, who styled himself " sometime

HALL'S PROPOSAL FOR A SYNOD. 313
pretended bishop of Orkney." He formally abjured
his episcopal office, and promised that he would
never directly or indirectly exercise the same, or
even approve thereof in private or public discourse.
It is now that Hall once more enters the arena. The
swelling of the waves had been felt at Exeter long
ago, and Laud had informed the king in 1637 that
the Bishop apprehended troubles through the Liturgy
printed for Scotland, which was said by the preciser
faction to have in it sundry notorious points of
popery, etc. A report of the proceedings of the
assembly in which Graham distinguished himself
reached Hall in September, and the next day he
despatched to the Primate a letter, in which he
deprecated the cutting of the knot with the sword,
and suggested a synod as a solution of existing diffi
culties. The letter is dated September 28th, 1639.
" Yesternight I had the view of the acts of the late
Scottish Assembly, which I could not read without much
indignation, in seeing the only true and ancient govern
ment of the Church so despitefully trod upon by ignorant
factionists. Upon the perusal whereof I began to think it
were pity and shame they should carry it away so, and that
so public an insolence should admit of none but a more
public remedy; and may I be bold to impart unto your
Grace what my thoughts were for some ease of this wrong,
and mitigation of the scandal ? Under the hope of your
Grace's pardon, I shall not stick to discover them in this
secret and fearless paper, humbly leaving them to your
Grace's favourable censure, although indeed I should have
needed a larger preface to so bold an attempt. Since then
for his Majesty to right the Church by the sword, as the
case now stands, is neither fit for our hopes nor our wishes
which were no other in so desperate a schism than to

314 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
reconquer his own with much charge, danger, and blood),
e thought it might be seasonable, safe, and happy, to
employ the spiritual sword (the remedy which the Church
hath ever wont to make use of on such occasions, with
blessed success) ; I thought, therefore, if through your
Grace's mediation it might please his sacred Majesty to
cause a general synod of the whole three kingdoms to be
indicted, wherein all the reverend bishops, and chief of the
learned and dignified clergy, and the professors, and some
other eminent doctors of all the universities in all the said
kingdoms, may be assembled to pass their judgment (after
free and full expectation) of these schismatical points, deter
mined thus proudly and rashly by our northern neighbours,
it could not but sort to excellent effect ; for so they might
be convinced of their absurd errors, or at least publicly
before all the world censured and condemned for what they
are; and if they have any remainders of shame they shall
be made to blush at their own miserable transportation.
This would be some comfort to those exiled bishops, who
put Holy Island (as I hear) to the same use whereto it was
employed at the first plantation of the Gospel, (to be a
receptacle of persecuted prelates,) that they should see
their cause taken to heart by the whole Church under his
Majesty's dominions. And why should we not think that
the presence and authority of your Grace, with that eminent
and learned primate of Armagh, and so many other grave
and renowned prelates, seconded by so irresistible powers of
the learning and judgment of so many assistant divines (of
great note and worth), cannot choose but certainly con
found these heady and ignorant opposers of government and
good order, and give great satisfaction to the world, who,
seeing the errors and groundless proceedings of these men,
shall hiss them out of countenance ; neither can they
shelter themselves under the examples of other Churches
in France and Netherlands, etc., since necessity hath long
ago cast them into that condition which these men (after
establishment in the right form) have wilfully drawn upon

"EPISCOPACY BY DIVINE RIGHT." 315
themselves, with an impetuous exclusion of a settled
Government? And certainly, my lord, methinks there
should be a kind of necessity in this course, since not
some few, but the whole Church of Scotland, hath thus
broken out into schism, and shamed both itself and the
gospel ; and without some timely prevention the mischief
may yet grow farther; whereas this way it may be (at
the least) chokingly convinced and seasonably checked.
Neither need the charge hereof be great to his Majesty's
coffers, since the burthen of the commissioners may be
laid upon the several dioceses from whence they are sent.
Your Grace sees whither my zeal hath carried me. If I
have been too bold and forward in thus presuming, I humbly
crave the pardon of your Grace, which hath been extended
to greater errors : I hope a good heart will excuse all ; the
best wishes whereof are truly vowed and duly paid to your
Grace." Laud, in answer, replied that there were strong
reasons of state against calling a Synod, but com
mended the Bishop's zeal, and suggested that he
should write a confutation of the Scottish schismatics.
Such was the origin of the famous Episcopacy by
Divine Right. The whole course of events is so
perfectly natural that there is no necessity for sup
posing that Laud's intentions were anything but
sincere, and that he wished to catch the Bishop
in a trap. Hall did not at once assent. But
events in his own diocese must have made him
feel strongly that something should be done. " We
begin already" (he writes to Laud, October 8th, 1639)
" to find the effects of the Scottish schism. I
am grieved to say that one of my clergy, Mr.
Benjamin Coxe of Sandford, hath lately, in his
chapel rather than church, vented doctrine foully
prejudicial to the Divine institution of Episcopal

316 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
government. Upon intelligence I convented him,
and drew from him the copy of his sermon, written
with his own hand, and so before me acknowledged,
although (when he saw what I intended) he refused
to subscribe his name to it. I pressed him with
particulars, he stands peremptorily upon his points.
I do therefore humbly await your Grace's pleasure
by the hands of my chancellor, to whom I have
sent the sermon originally written. I took it the
more heinously from him for that the man had
been all this while strictly conformable, and was
one of the first in my diocese who removed his
table voluntarily to an altarly situation." Coxe,
whose sermon had troubled those parts not a little,
on appearing before Laud, submitted and recanted.
Still the incident proved that something must be
done to counteract the mischief. But Hall was now
too old to crave the painful honour of appearing
as the sole champion of the right. His experience
told him what to expect from foes so rancorously
hostile, and although even after this he could say
that for one against the order of Bishops a hundred
were in favour of it, he knew that what the ad
versaries lacked in number they would supply in
energy. He was therefore anxious to meet. them
with a phalanx, and on October 18th intimated to
Laud his wish to be associated in the work with
other bishops and divines, suggesting that Laud
himself, Morton of Durham, and Davenant of Salis
bury for England, Archbishop Usher and Bishops
Bedell and Lesley for Ireland, and some of the
exiled Scottish bishops for their country, should
be the literary warriors. Laud, however, objected
to the scheme proposed, and Hall undertook the

" EPISCOPACY BY DIVINE RIGHT" 317
work alone, on condition of receiving his Metro
politan's advice in its execution. Usher, on being
requested by Hall to do so, did take up his pen
in defence of episcopacy. The Bishop's letter to
him, was as follows: —
" That which fell from me yesterday, suddenly and trans-
cursively, hath since taken up my after-midnight thoughts :
and I must crave leave, what I then moved, to importune
that your Grace would be pleased to bestow one sheet
of paper upon these distracted times, in the subject of
Episcopacy : showing the Apostolical original of it, and the
ground of it from Scripture, and the immediately succeeding
antiquity. Every line of it, coming from your Grace's
hand, would be ' super rotas suas : ' as Solomon's expression
is, ' Very apples of gold with pictures of silver,' and more
worth than volumes from us. Think that I stand before
you like the man of Macedon, and that you hear me say,
' Come and help us : ' and as your Grace is wholly given up
to the common good of the Church, say, whether you can
deny it ? And if it please your Grace to take your
rise from my humble motion to express yourself in this
question, wherein I am publicly interested, or otherwise to
profess your voluntary resolutions for the settling of many,
either misled or doubting souls, it will be the most accept
able, and (I hope) the most successful work that your Grace
hath ever undertaken. It was my earnest motion long ago to
fjLeyas tU, to in treat this labour from your Grace, which now
comes from my meanness: your gracious humility will not
even from so low hands disregard it. With my zealous suit,
and hopeful expectation of a yielding answer,
" I humbly take leave, and am, etc."
The draft of his own design which the Bishop
submitted to Laud was as follows : His two main
points which he purposed to prove were, first, That

318 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Episcopacy is a lawful, most ancient, holy, and
Divine institution (as it is joyned with imparity, and
superiority of jurisdiction), and therefore where it
hath through God's providence obtained, cannot by
any human power be abdicated without a manifest
violation of God's ordinance. And secondly, That
the Presbyterian government, however vindicated
under the glorious names of Christ's kingdom and
ordinance, hath no true footing either in Scripture
or the practice of the Church in all ages from
Christ's time till the present ; and that howsoever
it may be of use in some cities or territories, wherein
Episcopal government, through iniquity of times,
cannot be had, yet to obtrude it upon a Church
otherwise settled under an acknowledged monarchy,
is utterly incongruous and unjustifiable. As the
ground of his argument he set forth certain Postu-
lata : — i. That government, which was of apostolical
institution, cannot be denied to be of Divine right.
2. Not only that government, which was directly
commanded and enacted, but also that which was
practised and recommended by the Apostles to the
Church, must justly pass for an Apostolical institu
tion. 3. That which the Apostles by Divine in
spiration instituted, was not for the present time,
but for continuance. 4. The universal practice of
the Church, immediately succeeding the Apostles,
is the best and surest commentary upon the practice
of the Apostles, or upon their expressions. 5. We
may not venture to entertain so irreverent an opinion
of the saints and fathers of the primitive Church,
that they who were the immediate successors of the
Apostles would, or durst, set up a government, either
faulty, or of their own heads. 6. If they would

"EPISCOPACY BY DIVINE RIGHT r 3'
have been so presumptuous, yet they could not have
diffused an uniform form of government through the
world in so short a space. 7. The ancient histories
of the Church, and writings of the eldest Fathers,
are rather to be believed in the report of the
primitive form of the Church government, than
those of this last age. 8. Those whom the ancient
Church of God and the holy orthodox fathers con
demned for heretics are not fit to be followed as
authors of our opinion or practice for Church govern
ment. 9. The accession of honourable titles or
privileges makes no difference in the substance of
the calling. 10. Those Scriptures whereon a new
form of government is grounded have need to be
very clear and unquestionable, and more evident
than those whereon the former rejected polity is
raised. 1 1. If that order which, they say, Christ
set for the government of the Church (which they
call the kingdom and ordinance of Christ) be but
one, and undoubted, then it would, and shall have
been ere this, agreed upon against them, what and
which it is. 12. If this (which they pretend) be
the kingdom and ordinance of Christ, then if any
essential part of it be wanting, Christ's kingdom is
not erected in the Church. 13. Christian polity
requires no impossible or absurd thing. 14. Those
tenets which are new, and unheard of in all ages of
the Church (in many and essential points) are well
worthy to be suspected. 15. To depart from the
practice of the Universal Church of Christ (even
from the Apostles' time) and to betake ourselves
voluntarily to a new form, lately taken up, cannot
but be odious and highly scandalous. This outline,
submitted in the end of October, was, for the most

320 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
part, approved by the Archbishop, but certain points
he thought might well be amended. As showing
how far his corrections extended, and as an instruc
tive instance of the way in which the Archbishop
" tuned," not only the pulpit, but the press, the
following communication, though lengthy, will not
perhaps be thought too long.
" Since you are pleased so worthily and brother-like to
acquaint me with the whole plot of your intended work,
and to yield it up to my censure, and better advice (so you
are pleased to write), I do not only thank you heartily for
. it, but shall in the same brotherly way, and with equal
freedom, put some few animadversions, such as occur on
the sudden, to your further consideration, aiming at nothing
but what you do, the perfection of the work, in -which so
much is concerned. And first for Mr. George Graham (the
Scotch bishop who had renounced his Episcopal function),
I leave you free to work upon his business and his ignor
ance as you please, assuring myself that you will not depart
from the gravity of yourself, or the cause therein. Next you
say in the first head, That Episcopacy is an ancient, holy,
and Divine institution. It must needs be ancient and holy,
if Divine. Would it not be more full, went it thus ? So
ancient, that it is of Divine institution. Next, you define
Episcopacy by being joined with imparity and superiority
of jurisdiction, but this seems short; for every arch-
presbyter's or archdeacon's place is so, yea, and so was
Mr. Henderson in his chair at Glasgow, unless you will define
it by a distinction of order.' I draw the superiority, not
from the jurisdiction which is attributed to bishops jure
posttivo, in their audience of ecclesiastical matters ; but
from that which is intrinsical and original in the power of
excommunication. Again, you say in the first point, that
where Episcopacy hath obtained, it cannot be abdicated
without violation of God's ordinance. This proposition I

"EPISCOPACY BY DIVINE RIGHT." 321
conceive is inter minus habentes ; for never was there any
Church yet where it hath not obtained. The Christian
faith was never yet planted anywhere, but the very first
feature of a Church was by, or with Episcopacy; and
wheresoever now Episcopacy is not suffered to be, it is
by such an abdication, for certainly there it was a principio.
In your second head you grant that the Presbyterian
government may be of use where Episcopacy may not be
had. First, I pray you consider whether this conversion
be not needless here, and in itself of a dangerous conse
quence. Next, I conceive there is no place where Episco
pacy may not be had, if there be a Church more than in
title only. Thirdly, since they challenge their Presbyterian
faction to be Christ's kingdom and ordinance (as yourself
expresseth), and cast out Episcopacy as opposite to it, we
must not use any mincing terms, but unmask them plainly ;
nor shall I ever give way to hamper ourselves for fear of
speaking plain truth, though it be against Amsterdam or
Geneva, and this must be sadly thought on.
" Concerning your Postulata I shall pray you to allow me
the like freedom ; amongst which the two first are true, but
(as expressed) too restrictive. For Episcopacy is not so to
be asserted unto Apostolical institution, as to bar it from
looking higher, and from fetching it materially and originally,
in the ground and intention of it, from Christ Himself,
though perhaps the Apostles formalized it. And here give
me leave a little to enlarge. The adversaries of Episcopacy
are not only the furious Arian heretics (out of which are
now raised Prynne, Bastwich, and our Scottish masters), but
some also of a milder and subtler alloy both in the Genevan
and Roman faction. And it will become the Church of
England to vindicate it against the furious Puritans, and
that we may not lay it open to be wounded by either of
the other two more cunning and more learned adversaries.
Nor to the Roman faction, for that will be content it shall
be Juris Divini Mediati, by, for, from, and under the
Pope, that so the government of the Church may be
21

322 LIFE. OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
monarchical in him ; but not immediati, which makes the
Church aristocratical in the Bishops. This is the Italian
rock, not the Genevan ; for that will not deny Episcopacy
to be Juris Divini, so you will take it, ut suadentis vel
approbantis, but not imperantis ; for then they make, take,
and leave as they will, which is that they would be at.
Nay (if I much forget not), Beza himself is said to have
acknowledged Episcopacy to be Juris Divini imperantis,
so you will take it as universaliter imperantis, for then
Geneva might escape, et citra considerationem durantis : for
then, though they had it before, yet now upon wiser thoughts
they may be without it, which Scotland says now, and who
will may say it after, if this be good divinity, and then all
in that time shall be democratical. I am bold to add,
because in your second Postulatum I find, that Episcopacy
is. directly commanded; but you go not so far as to meet
with'this subtiltyof Beza, which is the great rock in the Lake
of Geneva. In your ninth Postulatum, that the accession
of honourable titles, or privileges, makes no difference in
the substance of the calling, you mean the titles of Arch
bishops, Primates, Metropolitans, Patriarchs, etc. 'Tis well,
and I presume you do so ; but then in any case take heed
you assert it so, as that the faction lay not hold of it,- as
if the bishops were but the title of honour, and the same
calling with a Priest, for that they all aim at, etc. The
eleventh Postulatum is larger, and I shall not repeat it;
because I am sure you retain a copy of what you write to
me, being the ribs of the work ; nor shall I say more to
it, than that it must be warily hinted for fear of a saucy
answer, which is more ready with them a great deal than
a learned one. I presume I am pardoned already for this
freedom by your submission of all to me. And now I
heartily pray you to send me up (keeping a copy to yourself
against the accidents of carriage) not the whole work
together, but each particular head or Postulatum as you
finish it ; that so we here may be the better able to consider
of it, and the work come on faster."

"EPISCOPACY BY DIVINE RIGHT." 323
If the reader of the "Episcopacy by Divine Right "
sometimes regrets this meddling, and is at a loss to
know whether he is making his own the thoughts
of Laud or Hall, he may console himself with the
reflection that upon the whole the treatise must
have gained something in directness of aim and
clearness of statement by the revision' of so able
and clear-headed a critic. Before the book went to
the press it was again submitted to the Metro
politan's vigilant eye for a last revision. Laud
carefully read it, and found that the strict Sab
batarians were not so roughly handled as he could
wish. The point, too, whether Episcopacy was an
Order or Degree, he thought was ignored rather than
discussed. But what displeased him most was-,th3at
the Pope was called Antichrist. This was so serious
a matter that he deemed it necessary to consult the
king about it. His Majesty commanded Hall to
qualify his expression, that so he might not differ
from James L, who having used the same offensive
appellation, had found it convenient at the time of
the projected Spanish match to eat his own words,
and to make a shuffling explanation that " he writ
that, not concludingly, but by way of argument only,
that the Pope and his adherents might see there
was as good and better arguments to prove him
Antichrist, than for the Pope to challenge temporal
jurisdiction over kings." At length, all faults satis
factorily corrected, the book appeared early in
February 1639-40.
How great was the impression produced by it
throughout the country may be gathered from the
following words written by T. White, a Roman
Catholic, on February 12th, 1640, to Viscount

324 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Gage at Dublin. " We are in a fair way to assuage
heresy and her episcopacy, for Exeter's book has
done more for the Catholics than they could have
done themselves, he having written that Episcopacy
in office and jurisdiction is absolutely jure Divino
(which was the old quarrel between our bishops and
King Henry VIII. during his heresy) ; which book
does not a little trouble our adversaries, who declare
this tenet of Exeter's to be contrary to the laws of
the land " (Neal's " History of the Puritans," 2nd ed.,
vol. i., 674). This is no slight testimony to the
thoroughness with which the position was vindicated,
and remembering with what care Laud in his
criticisms guarded against the " Italian rock," and
how Hall had called the Pope " Antichrist," we have
at least two distinguished divines who could believe
in the Divine origin of the Episcopate, and yet not
find themselves driven, in consequence, by " an irre
sistible logic from the Church of England to the
Church of Rome, and not to the Church of Rome
only, but to the straitest sect of Ultramontanism "
(Contemporary Review, June 1885, p. 864). Could
they speak now, they would doubtless say, with Dr.
Liddon, it is the faith of ninety millions of Eastern
Christians. And they hold it because they believe,
as the best English divines have believed, that it
was also, in the first ages, the faith of Christendom.
(Sermon preached at the consecration of Bishops King
and Bickersteth, second edition, with notice of Dr.
Hatch's paper, p. xxxiv.)
I have elsewhere attempted somewhat in detail
an analysis of the argument of the " Episcopacy by
Divine Right," and therefore proceed with the current
of events which now crowded one upon another

THE ET CMTERA OATH. 32S
with startling rapidity. No parliament had met for
eleven years. At length one assembled (April 1 3th,
1640), but in less than a month was abruptly dis
solved. Convocation had granted subsidies, and
had moreover been busy making canons intended
to be retrospective, and to legalise Laud's doubtful
actions during the time the king and he had
governed the nation. It was now resolved that
though Parliament was dissolved, convocation should
continue sitting. Whether the king, with a view
to securing the clerical subsidies, was responsible
for this policy, or Laud, as Heylin says, suggested
it, is uncertain. The Lord Chancellor and six
judges gave it as their opinion that the proceeding
was legal. The authorities, however, not being
satisfied, a new writ, dated May 1 2th, was issued ,
which authorised the Synod to sit and act durin g
pleasure. The Synod now went on with its work
of .making canons, and, amongst others, one which
prescribed a new oath to the clergy, known as the
famous et ccetera oath, which ran thus : — " I, A. B.,
do swear that I approve the doctrine and discipline
or government established in the Church of England
as containing all things necessary to salvation, and
that I will not endeavour by myself, or any other,
directly or indirectly, to bring in any popish doc
trine contrary to that which is so established ; nor
will I ever give my consent to alter- the government
of this Church by archbishops, bishops, deans, and
archdeacons^ et cetera, as it stands now established."
The unfortunate et cmtera, which was no doubt
inadvertently copied from the incomplete draft, was
supposed to afford hiding-room for all kinds of
enormities, and became a powerful weapon in the

326 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
hands of those who objected to the purpose of the
oath. The clergy everywhere refused to take it.
Different bishops adopted different modes of meeting
the difficulty. What did Hall do? He did not
tender it to any one minister of his diocese, and
the reader will perhaps agree with the author that
in thus acting he exhibited his customary wisdom.*
The time of the recess was one of great excite
ment. Strenuous efforts were made to choose such
clerks for Convocation as would be most in favour
of altering the existing government of the Church,
and Hall had his share of the trouble. Through
the "incitation of some busy interlopers of the
neighbour county," rival candidates, without any
intimation to the Bishop, were nominated in com
petition with those whom he, after the usual form,
had recommended. He did not deny the right of
choice claimed by his opponents, but took it un
kindly that they adopted underhand courses. Had
they made known their wishes, he would have gone
with them in their election. It came to the poll.
The Bishop was victorious. The new parliament
met November 3rd (1640), and, as was to be ex-
* His explanation of the meaning of the oath was as
follows : —
" I do so far approve of the discipline and doctrine of this
Church, as that I do believe there is nothing in any other pre
tended discipline or doctrine necessary to salvation, besides
that which is contained in the doctrine and discipline of the
Church of England. And as I do allow the government by
archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, so I will not, upon
the suggestion of any factious persons, go about to alter the
same, as it now stands, and as by due right (being so esta
blished) it ought to stand in the Church of England." (Jones,
" Memoir of Bishop Hall," pp. 181-2.)

THE CANONS. 3*T

pected, the oath and the canons came in for a fair
share of attention. A week had not passed before
an attack was made upon the Archbishop. On
December 18 th he was committed to prison, and
a few days afterwards Wren, Bishop of Ely, and
Pierce, Bishop of Bath and Wells, were impeached
by the Commons before the House of Lords. A
committee was appointed to investigate Laud's
conduct, and to prepare for the punishment of those
who had subscribed the canons. It was not, how
ever, until the very end of July in the following
year, when it became evident that the bill for
taking away the bishops' votes, which had been sent
up to the Lords in the previous March, would not
pass, that the impeachment of Wren and Pierce
was proceeded with, and it was definitely decided
to include thirteen other bishops, among them Hall,
in the charge.
Had it been possible the bishops were to have
been accused of treason ; but that not appearing
feasible they were indicted with having made and
published "the late canons contrary to the king's
prerogative, to the fundamental laws of the realm,
to the rights of parliament, and to the property
and liberty of the subject ; and containing matters
tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence ;
and for granting a benevolence or contribution
to His Majesty, to be paid by the clergy of that
province, contrary to law." Three months were
allowed the accused to prepare their answer and
instruct counsel. The indictment, prosecuted with
great earnestness by leading lawyers in the Commons,
and supported with equal zeal in the Lords, was
effectually stopped by the demurring answer of the

328 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
defending counsel, Serjeant Jermyn, Mr. Chute,
Mr. Heme, and Mr. Hales.* Hall himself delivered
a speech in defence of the canons, which is happily
preserved for us. He was sensible that he spoke
with the disadvantage of much prejudice, and, there
fore, craved their lordships' best construction ; he
felt, too, that there was little hope of prevailing,
but was desirous so to yield that posterity might
not say he and his fellow-bishops had willingly be
trayed their own innocence. They were taxed with
illegality in making synodical acts. But having had
the great seal of England for it, seconded by the
opinion of the judges, and upon these the com
mand of their superior to whom they owed canonical
obedience, what were they to do ? If they obeyed
not their superior, they were rebels to authority ; if
they obeyed, they were censured for illegal pro
cedure. In the next place he pleaded their good
intentions. The main drift of the canons was to
repress and confine the indiscreet and lawless dis
courses of some either ignorant or parasitical
preachers, to suppress the growth of socinianism,
popery, separatism, to redress the abuses of the
ecclesiastical courts and officers. There may have
been failings in the manner of expression, but he
thought the framers of such canons deserved thanks
rather than censure. He reminded his hearers that
since the first synod of the apostles (Acts xv.)
to that day it never could be showed that ever
any ecclesiastical canons made in synods, general,
national, or provincial, were either offered or required
*The demurrer, drawn up by Mr. Chute, was that the
bishops' offence in making canons could not amount to a
premunire. — Fuller, iii., 481.

THE CANONS. 329

to be confirmed by parliament. The injunctions of
Queen Elizabeth and the canons of King James
had no such confirmation. Either, then, they had
too good company in the censure, or else should be
excused. They were charged with making canons.
They neither did nor could make canons, more than
the complainants could make laws. For both one
and the other the royal sanction was required.
The canons were the king's canons, and not the
clergy's. As for the matter of the subsidy, in which
they were said to have trenched upon the liberty of
subjects and propriety of goods, there was a pre
cedent for it in Queen Elizabeth's time. The
legality of it the speaker would not now dispute,
and at the time had questioned ; but such a pre
cedent, and the zeal of the clergy to supply His
Majesty's necessities, together with the fact that
they had but shown their unwillingness to retract
a grant by parliament assembled, when parliament
unhappily was dissolved, would, he trusted, be
in tanto an excuse. To speak his own thoughts, he
would say freely that as matters merely ecclesiastical
came within the cognisance of the Church's synods,
so those merely temporal, or mixt of both ecclesias
tical and temporal, should, next under His Majesty,
be ordered by parliament. " In the meantime, my
lords, where are we? The canons of the Church, both
late and former, are pronounced to be void and force
less. Hitherto, we have been quietly and happily
governed by those former canons, the extent whereof
we have not, I hope, and for some of us I am con
fident we have not, exceeded. Why should we not
be so still ? Let these late canons sleep, since you
will have it so, till we awake them, which shall not be

33° LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
till doomsday ; and let us be where we were, and
regulate ourselves by those constitutions which were
quietly submitted to on all hands. And, for this
which is past, since that which we did was out of
our true obedience, and with honest and godly
intentions, and according to the universal practice
of all Christian Churches, and with the full power of
His Majesty's authority, let it not be imputed to us
any way worthy of your lordships' censure."
Meantime Puritanism with deadly energy had
been at work. On January 23rd, 1641, the House
of Commons ordered that commissioners should be
sent into the several counties to remove and destroy
all " images, altars or tables turned altarwise, cruci
fixes, superstitious pictures, and other monuments
of, and relics of, idolatry." The common people
thus encouraged were almost madly irreverent, and
quite recklessly destructive. Amongst other objects
of interest which perished was St. Paul's Cross, a
wooden pulpit covered with lead, in the form of a
cross, and standing in the middle of St. Paul's
Churchyard. As in the case of Jewell and many
equally celebrated divines, it had been the scene of
some of Hall's greatest oratorical triumphs.
About the middle of March was appointed the
committee to settle the affairs of the Church. It
was to consist of ten earls, ten barons, ten bishops,
with power to call divines to it for consultation.
Laud sorrowfully notes the helplessness of the
Churchmen with such a constitution. The scope
of its operations is suggestively comprehensive, since
its work was to examine all innovations in doctrine
or discipline, introduced into the Church without
law since the Reformation, and, if necessary, to

THE COMMITTEE OF RELIGION. 331
examine after that the degrees and perfection of
the Reformation itself. With good reason might
Laud fear it would prove in time superior to the
national synods, and say God only knew what
mischief would be wrought in Church and State.
At the first meeting a sub-committee of bishops
and divines of very different schools of thought was
appointed. In the number was Hall, who, as did
also Archbishop Usher and Bishop Morton, took an
active part in the deliberations. Amongst those
who attended were also Ward, Hacket, Sanderson,
Prideaux, and Browrigge, together with Mr. Calamy
and others of inferior note. As for Hall, he tells
us that he freely declared his open dislike to all
innovations, both in doctrine and rites. The term
innovation is one which has been much abused in
controversy, and perhaps never more than in recent
times. In some minds it would really appear to
be synonymous with whatever in the doctrine and
discipline of the Established Church has been dis
pleasing to the nonconformity of the last three
hundred years, while doctrines and rites as old as
the Church of Christ itself have been branded with
the offensive title. In what sense Hall used the
word can, of course, be ascertained only by a
detailed analysis of his opinions ; but in brief it
may be said that while there everywhere appears in
his writings an unaffected love for antiquity and a
dislike of the accretions of Rome, he, with equal
sincerity, admits the necessity of an expansion of
truth, and of an adaptability of the frame-work of
the Church to meet the requirements of advancing
time. It is probable, therefore, that he would have
in view the " new impositions " of the Archbishop

332 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
and Arminian doctrine, at least in its more un
guarded expression, but would show a resolute
front to the undoubted negations, innovations, and
inventions of fanaticism. The introduction of the
" Root and Branch Bill," in May, which aimed at
nothing less than the extirpation of episcopacy,
caused such a division in the committee, that the
members never after met together, though certain
of them continued to sit all through the ensuing
recess. The attack upon "those fungoid excrescences of
Christianity," the spiritual peers, was now fully
organised and resolutely maintained. Hall had
been prominent in defending the theological posi
tion ; he was no less ready to do battle for the
political. He evidently felt that to be a " dumb
dog " at such a juncture was to be faithless to a
magnificent trust, and with a pathetic earnestness
of which the cause was worthy, with calm and sober
argument, and here and there a gentle touch of
satire, he combated the assailants of the Church.
From time to time mutterings and murmurings
against the temporal power of the bishops are still
heard. Will some day, perhaps before long, the
threats become deeds, and Westminster be thronged
with a howling mob clamouring for their expulsion
from the legislature ? It is, at all events, worth
while to note what could be urged on the one side
by their fiercest assailants, and advanced on the
other by one of their ablest defenders. Nine main
arguments were brought against the bishops sitting
in Parliament : — (i) It was a great hindrance to the
exercise of their ministerial function ; (2) They had
vowed and undertaken at their ordination, that

ASSAULT UPON THE ENGLISH BISHOPS. 333
they would give themselves wholly to their vocation ;
(3) Councils and canons, in several ages, had for
bidden them to meddle with secular affairs ; (4) The
bishops all had dependence upon two archbishops,
to whom they had sworn canonical obedience.
What independent action was to be expected from
them ? (5) They held their bishoprics only for life,
and, therefore, were not fit to have a legislative
power over the honours, liberties, and properties of
the subject ; (6) They were in danger of being
biassed by the expectation of further preferment ;
(7) Several bishops had of late much encroached
upon the consciences and properties of the subject ;
and they and their successors would be much en
couraged to encroach still further, and the subject
much discouraged from complaining against such
encroachments, if twenty-six of that order were to
be judges upon the complaints. The same reason,
it was said, extended to their legislative power ; no
bill could pass for the reformation of their power
upon any inconvenience by it. (8) The whole
number of them was interested to maintain the
jurisdiction of bishops, which had been found so
grievous to the three kingdoms, that Scotland had
utterly abolished it, and multitudes in England
and Ireland had petitioned against it ; (9) Bishops
being lords of parliament, too great a distance was
set between them and the rest of their brethren in
the ministry, which occasioned pride in them, dis
content in others, and disquiet in the Church.
Hall replied that the reasons had need be strong,
and the inconvenience heinous, that should take
away an ancient and hereditary right established
by law. Meeting the objections seriatim he said : —

334 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
(i) To meet once in three years in a parliament,
for some few weeks, at the same time when the
bishops were bound to attend Convocation business,
was no sensible impediment to their holy calling.
(2) They had promised to give themselves wholly
to their vocation. But would it follow that they
might not occasionally lend themselves to the care
of the public when called' thereunto ? They were
bound to take moderate care of their household
affairs, and to make provision for their family.
Why not as well of the commonwealth ? (3) As
for councils and canons, would those who urged
them be content to be bound by them ? The
Constitutions of Clarendon had expressly said debent
interesse omnibus judiciis. (4) It was uncharitable
to suppose that the metropolitans would be always
apt to require unlawful things, and that the bishops
would ever basely stoop to a servile humouring
of them. (5) It was true they had their places
for their lives only ; yet there were scarce any
of them that had not so much temporal estate
in fee as made them no less capable of a legislative
power than many of the House of Commons who
claimed the right. Notwithstanding their life tenure,
for many hundred years there had been good laws
and just sentences given by their concurrence.
Then again, the justness of their determinations
did not depend upon the perpetual inheritance
of their places, but upon their honesty and con
scientiousness. (6) Temporal lords were interested
in offices and places at court. Why should the
expectation of preferment be to the prejudice of
the bishops, and not of the temporal lords, espe
cially when the age of the former was commonly

. ASSAULT UPON THE ENGLISH BISHOPS. 335
so great, and the expenses of removal so heavy,
that they could not hope to gain much by trans
lation to other sees. (7) Some bishops may have
encroached. Let them be punished. Why should
the whole calling suffer for the errors of a few ?
(8) Of course, the whole number of bishops would
defend their own lawful and holy calling against
all unjust opposition of gainsayers. If their hearts
did not assure them their station were warrantable
and good, they were beasts if they would hold
them ; and, if their hearts did assure them so, they
were beasts if they would not defend them. It
was said there were numbers in all the three king
doms that cried the bishops down. True ; but
there were greater numbers for them, perhaps a
hundred for one. " Some busy factionists of the
meaner sort in London and its vicinity, a body
compounded of separatists, anabaptists, familists,
and such like stuff, made some show and noise,"
but what were they to the whole kingdom ? They
who cried " no votes " were the same men who
were crying " no bishops." As for Scotland, there
was no other Church in the whole Christian world
which had voluntarily abandoned episcopacy, when
it might have continued in it. Why should we
conform to the Scotch, rather than the Scotch
to us ? (9) The objection based on the too great
distance between the bishops and their brethren
of the clergy was in effect " old Korah's challenge,"
and, whatever its value, was one that fought equally
against all superiority in bishops over the inferior
clergy, and against their votes in Parliament. As
for pride, was it to be thought that Christian
philosophers and divines should be puffed up with

336 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
honorific titles, while those who really and hereditarily
possessed them were free from " any such taint or
suspicion of transportedness " ?
The bill for depriving the bishops of their votes
was sent up to the Lords from the Commons
at the end of March 1641. Hall spoke on this
occasion, and as a specimen of his parliamentary
oratory, and one more proof of how many styles
he was master, the speech is given here verbatim.
The bill was at once thrown out by the Lords.
"My Lords : This is the strangest bill that ever I heard
since I was admitted to sit under this roof, for it strikes at
the very fabric and composition of this House, at the style of
all laws, and, therefore, were it not that it comes from such
a recommendation, it would not, I suppose, undergo any
long consideration ; but, coming to us from such hands, it
cannot but be worthy of your best thoughts.
"And, truly, for the main scope of the bill, I shall yield
it most willingly, that ecclesiastical and sacred persons
should not ordinarily be taken up with secular affairs. The
minister is called vir Dei, a man of God ; he may not be
vir seculi. He may lend himself to them, upon occasion ;
he may not give himself over purposely to them. Shortly,
he may not so attend worldly things, as that he do neglect
Divine things. This we gladly yield. Matters of justice,
therefore, are not proper, as in an ordinary trade, for our
function ; and by my consent, shall be, as in a generality,
waived and deserted, which, for my part, I never have
meddled with, but in a charitable way, with no profit, but
some charge to myself, whereof I shall be glad to be eased.
Tractent fabriliafabri, as the old word is.
" But, if any man shall hence think fit to infer, that some
spiritual person may not occasionally be in a special service
df his king or country, and, when he is so required by his
prince, give his advice in the urgent affairs of the kingdom,

ASSAULT UPON' THE ENGLISH BISHOPS. 337
which I suppose is the main point driven at, it is such an
inconsequence, as I dare boldly say cannot be made good
either by divinity or reason, by the laws either of God or man,
whereas the contrary may be proved and enforced by both.
" As for the grounds of this bill, that the minister's duty
is so great that it is able to take up the whole man, and
the apostle saith, Who is sufficient for these things i and that
he who warfares to God should not entangle himself 'with this
world, it is a sufficient and just conviction of those who
would divide themselves betwixt God and the world, and
bestow any main part of their time upon secular affairs ;
but it hath no operation at all upon this tenet which we
have in hand — that a man, dedicated to God, may not so
much as, when he is required, cast a glance of his eye, or
some minutes of time, or some motions of his tongue, upon
the public business of the king and country. Those that
expect this from us, may as well, and upon the same reason,
hold that a minister must have no family at all ; or, if he have
one, must not care for it, yea, that he must have no body to.
tend, but be all spirit.
" My lords, we are men of the same composition with
others, and our breeding hath been accordingly. We
cannot have lived in the world but we have seen it, and
observed it, too ; and our long experience and conversation,
both in men and in books, cannot but have put something
into us for the good of others ; and now, having a double
capacity, qua cives, qua ecclesiastici, as members of the
commonwealth, as ministers and governors of the Church,
we are ready to do our best service in both. One of them
is no way incompatible with the other ; yea, the subjects of
them both are so united with the Church and common
wealth, that they cannot be severed ; yea so, as that, not the
one is in the other, but one is the other, is both ; so as the
services which we do upon these occasions to the common
wealth, are inseparable from our good offices to the Church,
so as, upon this ground, there is no reason of our expulsion.
" If ye say that our sitting in parliament takes up much
22

338 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
time, which we might have employed in our studies or
pulpits, consider, I beseech you, that, while you have a
parliament, we must have a Convocation, and that our
attendance upon that, will call for the same expense of time
which we afford to this service, so as herein we have neither
got nor lost.
" But I fear it is not, on some hands, the tender regard of
the full scope to our calling, that is so much here stood
upon as the conceit of too much honour that is done us in
taking up the room of peers, and voting in this High Court;
for, surely, those that are averse from our votes, yet could
be content we should have place upon the woolsacks, and
could allow us ears, but not tongues.
" If this be the matter, I beseech your lordships to con
sider that this honour is not done to us, but our profession ;
which, whatever we be in our several persons, cannot easily
be capable of too much respect from your lordships, Non
tibi, sed Isidi, as he said of old.
" Neither is this any new grace that is put upon our
calling, which if it were now to begin might perhaps be
justly grudged to our unworthiness; but it is an ancient
right and inheritance, inherent in our station, no less ancient
than these walls wherein we sit, yea, more — before ever there
were parliaments, in the magna concilia of the kingdom we
had our places. And, as for my predecessors, ever since the
Conqueror's time, I can show your lordships a just catalogue
of them that have sat before me here. And, truly, though
I have just cause to be mean in mine own eyes, yet why or
wherein there should be more unworthiness in me than the
rest, that I should be stripped of that privilege which they
so long enjoyed, though there were no law to hold me here,
I cannot see or confess.
'' What respects of honour have been put upon the prime
clergy of old both by Pagans, and Jews, and Christians,
and what are still both within Christendom and without, I
shall not need to urge. It is enough to say this of ours is
not merely arbitrary, but stands so firmly established by law

ASSAULT UPON THE ENGLISH BISHOPS. 339
and custom, that I hope it neither can nor will be removed,
except you will shake those foundations which I believe you
desire to hold firm and inviolable.
" Shortly, then, my lords, the Church craves no new
honour from you, and justly hopes you will not be guilty of
pulling down the old. As you are the eldest sons, and, next
under His Majesty, the honourable patrons of the Church,
so she expects and beseeches you to receive her into your
tenderest care, so to order her affairs, that ye leave her to
posterity in no worse case than you found her.
" It is a true word of Damasus, Uti vilescit nomen Episcopi
omnis status perturbatur Ecclesice. If this be suffered, the
misery will be the Church's, the dishonour and blur of the
act in future ages will be yours.
"To shut up, therefore, let us be taken off from all
ordinary trade of secular employments, and, if you please,
abridge us of intermeddling with matters of common justice;
but leave us possessed of those places and privileges in
parliament, which our_ predecessors have so long and peace
ably enjoyed."
The anticipations of the speaker, apparent in the
concluding clauses, were realised. Early in July
the Court of Star Chamber and the High Com
mission Court were abolished, the bishops being
abridged of " intermeddling with matters of common
justice," losing their coercive jurisdiction, and being
prohibited from administering the ex officio oath ;
but they were still in possession of their places and
privileges in parliament, and to this result Hall had
contributed his share, not only at Westminster, but
by the agencies he set at work in his diocese.
Through the exertions of himself and clergy the
multitude of counterpetitions presented to the king
and the House of Lords was swollen by one from
Exeter, with about eight thousand signatures. The

34° LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
bishop, to use his own words, had had " some hard
tugging," and no doubt was glad to escape from
the scene of strife and bloodshed — bloodshed, for
Strafford (in the language of one of his epitaphs),
his prince's nearest joy and grief, the prop and
ruin of the state, the people's violent love and hate,
" hurried hence,
'Twixt treason and convenience,"
had been beheaded on Wednesday, May 12th. The
labours of the past session were in some measure
compensated by the devoted attachment of his
people, some hundreds of whom, when he returned
home, met him on the way and gave him a cheerful
welcome. A peaceful holiday he could scarcely have looked
forward to, even though there had not been the
necessary cares of the diocese awaiting him, for he
was now busily engaged with the Smectymnuans,
and an antagonist no less formidable than Milton
had just joined the ranks of his assailants. Some
further account of the controversy will be found in
the next chapter ; here I must be content to indi
cate the course of events, and in doing so express
my obligations to Professor Masson's elaborate
" Life of Milton." It is clear from internal evidence
that Hall published his " Humble Remonstrance for
Liturgy and Episcopacy," shortly after the assem
bling of the parliament, which met November 3rd,
1640, that is to say, in January, 1641. The Smec
tymnuan Answer appeared in the following March.
Then, in April, came Hall's " Defence of the Remon
strance," and in June the Smectymnuan Vindication
of their Answer. It was now that Milton appeared

RETURN TO EXETER. W-
upon the scene of battle. He had already pub
lished his pamphlet " Of Reformation, and the Causes
that hitherto have Hindered it," and the one on
" Prelatical Episcopacy," the latter in reply to
Usher, when in July he brought out the " Animad
versions upon the Remonstrant," which was directly
levelled at Hall. Either in the same month, or in
August, this was followed by Hall's " Short Answer
to the Tedious Vindication of Smectymnuus," in
which he announces his intention of taking no
further part in the contest.
It is certainly strange that the Bishop should not
have formally replied to Milton, whose single brand
he must have felt was more dangerous by far than
those of his five other opponents all together. In
carefully reading Hall's treatises one or two .covert
allusions to the great poet, who had written anony
mously, can perhaps be detected, but nothing more.
It has been suggested that when Milton's " Animad
versions " appeared, Hall's " Short Answer " was
either in the printer's hands or was on the point of
being sent to the press, and that the Bishop, in the
stirring events which we shall have to relate, was
too busy to take up literary work. Upon the whole,
it seems probable that he had decided, having said
all that he had to say, and nearly all that could be
said, to let the matter rest. Next year, however,
the subject was revived in such a way as to bring
little credit to any of those concerned, and to leave
a more painful impression on the mind than almost
anything else in which Hall took part. Personalities,
at all times to be deprecated, are doubly distressing
when indulged in by men of generally high standard,
and acknowledged leaders of their fellows. Milton

342 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
in his " Animadversions " had not spared the author
of the " Remonstrance," but had described him as a
false prophet, a belly-god, proud and covetous, a
Laodicean, a dissembling Joab, etc. Some time
after the commencement of 1642 appeared "A
modest Confutation of a Slanderous and Scurrilous
Libel intituled Animadversions upon the Remon
strant's Defence against Smectymnuus." It is a
pamphlet consisting of forty small quarto pages,
divided into twelve sections, and not only are
Milton's arguments replied to, but his personal
character, • from his college days upwards, is slan
derously and scurrilously libelled. Who was the
author ? Robert Hall, the Bishop's eldest son, had
been incorporated at Exeter College, Oxford, and
had taken his M.A. there, but his B.A. he had
taken at Cambridge. He was about two years
Milton's senior, and they may have been at Cam
bridge together. Through him may have come the
tittle-tattle about Milton's conduct while at college.
It is natural to suppose, therefore, that he was the
chief author ; indeed, there are parts which could not
have been written by the father without assigning
to him a duplicity and an effrontery for which we
have no warrant. The son, zealous for his aged
father's honour, undertook his defence, and the
father, desirous to make his son's work a success,
supplied portions of the matter. This appears to
be the true explanation. Any way, if Hall ever saw
what his son had written, it is to be deplored that
he sanctioned its publication ; Milton well deserved
to be punished, but it was undignified in Hall to be
the flogger. Still, amid the dross there is some
gold, and for the personal details supplied by Robert

THE SMECTYMNUANS. 343
Hall's pen in the following eulogistic description
one may be grateful : — " Good God ! view well that
heap of age and reverence, and say whether that
clear and healthful constitution, those fresh cheeks
and quick eyes, that sound tongue, agile hand,
nimble invention, staid delivery, quiet, calm and
happy bosom, be the effect of threescore years'
surfeit and gluttony ? "
Milton's " Apology " against this " modest," or
immodest, confutation came out in March or April
1 642, another pamphlet by the same hand, " The
Reason of Church-government urg'd against Prelaty,"
having been printed some time between January ioth
and March 19th. The apologist outshone his oppo
nents in his unrivalled command of the language of
abuse. But notwithstanding the fierceness on both
sides which specially marked the Smectymnuan
struggle, Neal says that the controversy might have
been compromised, if the rest of the clergy had
been of the same spirit and temper with Bishop
Hall. And the justice of this remark is evidenced
by Hall's utterances while the struggle was pro
ceeding. Preaching before the king at Whitehall on
the second Sunday in Lent, 1641, he said : "Good
Lord ! what uncharitable censure are men apt to
pass upon each other ! Let a man be strict and
austere in moral and Divine duties, though never so
peaceable, he is a Puritan ; and every Puritan is a
hypocrite. Let him be more free and give more
scope to his conversation, though never so conscion-
able, he is a libertine. Let him make scruple but
of any innovated form, he is a schismatic. Let him
stand for the anciently received rites and govern
ment, he is a time-serving formalist. This is a

344 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Diotrephes, that, an Arius ; this, a scorner, that, a
flatterer. In the meantime who can escape free ?
Surely I that tax both shall be sure to be censured
of both. Shall be ? yes am, to purpose ; and there
in I joy, yea and will joy. What ! a neuter! says,
one. What ! on both sides ! says another. This is
that I looked for. Yes truly ; brethren, ye have hit
it right. I am, and profess to be, as the terms
stand, on neither, and yet of both parts ; I am for
the peace of both, for the humour of neither. How
should the mortar or cement join the stones
together, if it did not lie between both? And, I
would to God, not you only, that hear me this day,
but all our brethren of this land were alike-minded ;
we should not have such libellous presses, such
unquiet pulpits, such distracted bosoms ; for the
truth is, there is no reason we should be thus dis
joined, or thus mutually branded. ' This man is
right,' ye say ; ' that man is not right ; this sound,
that rotten.' And how so, dear Christians? What!
for ceremonies and circumstances, for rochets, or
rounds, or squares ? Let me tell you, he is right
that hath a heart to his God what forms soever
he is for. The kingdom of God doth not stand in
meats and drinks, in stuffs, or colours, or fashions,
in noises, or gestures ; it stands in holiness and
righteousness, in godliness and charity, in peace and
obedience ; and if we have happily attained unto
these, God doth not stand upon trifles and niceties
of indifferences ; and why should we ? " Some may
sneer at what they will perhaps choose to call a
Laodicean temper, such as this ; but those who
seek peace and ensue it, will see in the Bishop's
words that wisdom which cometh from above.

BISHOP OF NORWICH, ETC. 345
We must now return to the autumn of 164 1.
On August 1 ith the king went to Scotland in
order to establish peace between the two king
doms. The price paid was considerable. Already
the Scots, who had crossed the border not without
some resistance against which they were victorious,
killing several of their English opponents and
putting the rest to flight, had been receiving nearly
£6,000 per week. Now a present of £300,000
was made to them. But far more important than
the pecuniary considerations were the concessions
Charles found it expedient to make, since he actually
assented to a bill which declared episcopal govern
ment repugnant to the word of • God, conformed
himself to the favourite worship of Scotland, and
assisted, it is said, with great gravity at the long
prayers and very long sermons in which the Presby
terians themselves delighted, and which they wished
him also to enjoy. On September 7th, the day ap
pointed for the celebration of the pacification, Hall
preached a characteristic sermon in the cathedral at
Exeter, and, while thankfully acknowledging the de
liverance from the misery of war, urged the audience
to contribute their utmost to the cessation of the
spiritual and intellectual wars in which the country
was engaged, by withdrawing the fuel of contention,
by opposing and restraining the libellous, scandalous,
and malicious pamphleteers, by giving seasonable
counsels of peace, by cherishing the moderately
affected and encouraging those that interceded for
peace. The King had been pleased to regard the " Humble
Remonstrance " with favour ; he could not fail to
admire the author's strenuous advocacy since then

346 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
of moderate counsels ; and when, a little later,
disclosing his real intentions, he proceeded to make
certain episcopal appointments, Hall was not for
gotten. The see of Norwich was offered to him.
But what befell him before he reached his new
charge, and how he took the Tower by the way,
another chapter will show.

CHAPTER XVI.
HALL AND CONTROVERSY.
FROM the time when Hall first entered . the
arena of controversy to the day when in 1654,
two years before his death, he took up his pen and,
with a vigour which many a young man might
envy, replied to the scurrilous pamphlet in which
he "was disgracefully ranked with priests and
Jesuits, and the man that was executed the other
day," a period of something like fifty years had
passed. He had fought with the " overjust sect of
the Brownists," with the restless and supercilious
Roman, the subtle Arminian, the rough-hewn zealots of
Scotland, the unscrupulous and unwearied Smectym
nuans, and had exposed the errors of the fanatical
believers in the millennium.
It is not to be expected that with opponents
so varied, and separated from each other by so
long intervals of time, he should always adopt
the same tactics, or exhibit the same tone and
temper. A commander in the deserts of Africa, or
combating the skilled generals of Europe, might with
equal reason be expected to display a strategy
uniform and consistent. The Brownists at the time
Hall composed his treatise against them were a
separatist faction under the leadership of Robinson,

348 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
at Amsterdam, which was a common harbour of
all opinions, all heresies, Judaism, Arianism, Anabap
tism. Separation in the eyes of their antagonist
was a dreadful sin. " Even whoredoms and murders
shall abide an easier answer than separation." With
an insight prophetic of the great rebellion, forty
years before it came to pass, he saw that the natural
issue of their opinions was the deposition of kings
and the disposition of kingdoms. Looking back
at the time he wrote his " Christian Moderation " he
could confirm by his own experience what Greenham
had noted before him — that pride and conceit were
at the root of schism. " For my part," says he,
" I never met with any, if but a schismatical spirit,
whom I have not sensibly discerned thus tainted.
Take but a separatist, a blue-aproned man, that
never knew any better school than his shop-board :
if he do not think himself more truly learned
than the deepest doctor, and a better interpreter
of Scripture than the greatest divine, I am no
less mistaken than he. Hence it is, that they
affect a singularity, and keep aloof from others,
both in practice and opinion ; wherein a • proud
man is like unto oil, which will ever swim aloft,
and will by no means mix with water."
His attitude towards the Brownists was that of
one whose own position was impregnable, who,
securely entrenched and confident of his strength,
could afford to smile at his malicious, though im
potent assailants. He twits them with the place
of their meeting, "a parlour in a blind lane at
Amsterdam ; " their decrees are " parlour decrees,"
their church a " land-lord Church ; " their numbers
are small, " one prison would hold the whole flock."

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 349
He girds at their notion of purity, they are a
" refined housefull." He is amused at their trifling
disputes about the pastor's wife's sleeve, ring, and
whalebones, and at their maintaining that knit stock
ings and cork shoes are flatly forbidden by Scripture.
He is shocked by their unnaturalness, which reminded
him of Novatus, " the father of a not unlike sect, of
whom Cyprian reports, that he would neither bestow
bread on his father alive, nor burial on him dead, but
suffered him both to starve and stink in the street ;
and, for his wife, lest he should be merciful to any,
he spurned her with his heel, and slew his own child
in her body." He grieves to think and report that
the Brownist pastor had paralleled this cruelty, in
asmuch as he had excommunicated his own father,
and all this about a little lace and whalebone in
his wife's sleeve. He was able to reflect upon them
the disgrace of their " proto-martyr " Barrow, who
was executed in 1593, and with the utmost truth
could most unfavourably contrast them with the
moderate Puritan party at home, than whom they
had found no sharper adversaries. They were
peevish and petulant. " Let a man stroke them on
the back, they snarl at him and show their teeth ;
let him show them a cudgel, they fly in his face."
" Even Rome itself in divers controversary dis
courses had bewrayed less gall than Amsterdam."
In leaving the Church of England they were like
guests who, invited to a feast, if but a napkin
or a trencher were out of place, or a dish ill-carved,
should run from the table and not stay to thank
the host. And he does not doubt to say that " the
mastership of the Hospital at Norwich or a lease
from that city (sued for with repulse) might have

350 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
procured that this separation from the communion,
government, and worship of the Church of England
should not have been made by John Robinson."
As for their attacks, the Brownist Ham had
discovered " ninety-one nakednesses in his mother,
and gloried to show them." The ninety-and-one
might be reduced to four — " a hateful prelacy, a
devised ministry, a confused and profane communion,
an intermixture of grievous errors ; " and these four
depended for their truth or falsity upon the
Brownists' main position, "that every truth in
Scripture is fundamental," and upon the quality of
the " separatist's idol, Visible Constitution." The
details are too well known to need enumeration, but
our opponents' view as to visible constitution is
perhaps worth stating in their own words. At the
Reformation, they maintained, "the Gospel should
have been everywhere preached. All converts
should have been singled out, and have given a
voluntary and particular confession of their faith
and repentance." Hooker's first four books were
published in 1594, his fifth in 1597. Hall might
thus very well have studied him while resident in
Cambridge and fellow of Emmanuel, and with him
for his guide, it was no difficult matter to demolish
the Brownist strongholds. Hall and Hooker are
substantially at one.
To a great historic Church, like that of Rome, his
attitude was perforce very different. Rome was
terribly diseased ; the truth that was in her was
overlaid with erroneous novelties, the accretions of
centuries ; she was pretentious and arrogant ; her
annals were stained by persecution, intrigue, and
bloodshed ; she denied our connection with anti-

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 351
quity, and represented us as an upstart Church ; she
refused us her communion ; we were like guests,
who, because we would not swallow everything put
before us by our host, had been turned out of doors.
Still, in spite of all this, she was our sister. There
is much indignation in Hall when treating of Rome,
at times fierceness ; an intense conviction that union,
so long as Rome remained unchanged, was im
possible ; there is genuine grief that sisters should
be so far apart, but there is seldom disdain. The
Churches of Rome and England had too much in
common for this ; the work of Rome in the world
had been too great ; her champions had been and
were too able; her authors too learned. He himself
had drunk at the springs of their learning, and was
generous enough to speak of them with gratitude
and admiration.
Our first glimpse of Hall's attitude towards
Arminius is got from his letter to Mr. Jonas Reise-
bergius in Zealand, written while Arminius was
living, and, therefore, before 1610. At that time
the opinions subsequently summarised in the " Five
Busy Articles " appeared to him subtle novelties ;
the setter-forth of them, though a noble son of the
Church and a man of excellent parts, a candidate
for singularity. If truth were his aim, " where had
that sacred verity hid herself thus long from all her
careful inquisitors, that she should not first show her
head to him unsought?" He seems to hint that
some of the opinions might be true, but granting
they were, still they were "nice points," and the
" harmonious plain song of our peace " ought not to
be troubled by " unreasonable crotchets and quavers.
Some quiet error may be better than some unruly

352 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
truth." At Dort (1618), among his instructions, we
have seen, was to " favour no innovations in doctrine,
and to conform to the confessions of neighbouring
Reformed Churches, but to endeavour to lay down
moderate positions." James, at this time, was of Cal-
vinistic bias, but it would be wrong to suppose that
Hall, had not sickness hastened his departure from
the synod, would have gone with the Calvinists in their
partial and sanguinary decrees. His commission
allowed scope for moderation (vide p. 203), and
all the evidence goes to show that he was conspicu
ously moderate. He does, indeed, remind Davenant
how he was heard " with equal vehemency to the
rest, crying down the unreasonableness of the way of
another sect, whose name is as much hated as little
understood," and amongst whom his enemies placed
him. This clears him of sympathy with what were
called, rightly or wrongly, the Pelagian perversions
of Arminius, but he was just as far from pushing
matters to the other extreme. His " Via Media " was
a noble effort to act as umpire in the strife. We
have his own assurance that he therein " carried
himself so indifferently, that, as he had hid his own
judgment, so he had rather seemed partial against
his own resolutions." The differences between the con
tending parties, particularly as explained by Overall
on the one side, and by learned and grave divines
on the other, seemed to him, " if a man would appeal
to his better thoughts, unworthy of a public division.
The schools might pluck hence matter enough for
theological problems ; but what should either the
pulpit or the press do with these busy and bootless
brabbles ? " It was not likely, Hall himself scarce
anticipated, that combatants so fierce would lay aside

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 353
their arms at a mere statement, such as the " Via
Media," of " propositions accorded by both sides and
picked out of both as sounding towards concord ; "
but even though both parts drove at him and beat
him, an agent for peace might well rejoice in those
blows and scars which he took for the Church's
safety. It was in the year 1 6 1 7, when Hall accompanied
his royal master in the capacity of chaplain to
Scotland, that he was first brought into contact
with the Presbyterian party. Whether we look at
the suggestions of his enemies, or the lines of his
defence, it is evident that he bore himself in his
wonted manner. They accused him of " overplau-
sible demeanour and doctrine to that already pre-
judicate people." He fully satisfied the king that
his winning carriage could be no hindrance to the
design of the king to give a footing in the Church
of Scotland to the five articles of Perth. These, it
will be remembered, were the observance of holy-
days, private baptism, and private celebration of
Holy Communion, kneeling at the Eucharist, and
confirmation by bishops. He seems to have been
much impressed by the misguided zeal of his an
tagonists, and in his letter to Struthers complains
that the Scottish reformers in a " holy furor of
piety '' had gone somewhat too far, and as it is in
the fable, "entrapped the stork together with the
cranes." The five articles were no new coins just
being put into circulation, but ancient ones, the
" rusty and obliterate face " of which the king was
desirous to rub up. He maintains them all without
the least reserve, building our practice upon general
grounds of edification, decency, expedience, peace-
23

354 * LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
able conformity to the injunctions of spiritual'
governors as sufficient to support them, in oppo
sition to the Presbyterian claim that warrant for
them should be produced from Scripture.
In 1629, preaching before the court, he strongly
advocated the "commanding of a learned and power
ful ministry " for Scotland. " Let true religion be
settled in them ; and true religion shall settle their
hearts to your Majesty, more than all conquests,
laws, violences, oaths, endearments whatsoever."
He says nothing of the design then entertained by
Charles to introduce the English liturgy. It is, I
think, almost certain that he was in favour of letting
Scotland have its own service-book, which had been
prepared by the Scotch bishops upon the basis of
the five articles, according to the vote of the general
assembly of Perth, 1 6 1 8, and that without the alter
ations which were approved by Laud, Wren, and
Juxon. In 1637, after much delay, came the
attempt to introduce this altered book at Edinburgh.
How bitterly Hall regretted the course that had
been taken is proved by a few words in his answer
to " Smectymnuus' Vindication." " The alteration of
the liturgy sent into Scotland," he says, " is a busi
ness utterly unconcerning us. Whatever unhappy
hands were in it, would God they had been prevented
by some seasonable gout or palsy." This vehement
disclaimer was not without just ground. All Scot
land had been stirred to the very depths, and, like
one man, had become the foe of England. Episco
pacy in that country had become a symbol of
disgrace, so that a bishop in resigning his office had
actually apologised for his indiscretion, if not
wickedness, in taking it. Hall, in 1639, had

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 355
written his " Episcopacy by Divine Right," and had
urged that others should be set to work on the same
topic. In 1 64 1, stimulated by the Root and Branch
Bill, he had addressed his " Humble Remonstrance "
to parliament in behalf of Liturgy and episcopacy,
and now he was engaged in that controversy which
perhaps taxed his strength more than any other.
The Smectymnuans had arisen against him, and he
was in the thick of the fight. Having descended
into the arena, he had of course challenged all
comers, and could not expect tender treatment at
the hands of those who took up the gauntlet. Never
did man fight more gallantly, or acquit himself
better against such odds. He, bordering upon three
score and ten, stood alone ; his assailants six to
one, and numbering amongst them the great Milton,
as unsparing as he was untiring, and now in the
prime of manly vigour at the age of thirty-three.
Well might Hall remember the story of Crassus and
Deiotarus. " What," said Crassus to Deiotarus, " dost
thou begin to build a city, now in the latter end of
the day?" "And truly," said Deiotarus to him again,
" I think it is somewhat with the latest for you to
think of conquering the Parthians." With shaking
and wrinkled hands, now " in the very setting and
shutting-in of the day, he was building up the city
of God, the Evangelical Jerusalem, which some
factious hands had miserably demolished." He was,
he confessed, a decrepit leader ; they were dangerous
and not inexpert Parthians who knew how to fight
fleeing, and resolved to tire out their adversary with
clouds of words, and to do by bulk of body what by
clean strength they could not. Any weapon was
good enough to use against episcopacy, and they

356 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
did not scruple to use anything that came to hand.
" Nothing," says Mr. Mark Pattison, " can excuse or
reconcile us to the indecent scurrility with which the
Bishop is assailed in Milton's pages, which reflect
more discredit on him who wrote them, than on him
against whom they were written." The Bishop,
though episcopal pride was not part of his character,
could not fail to feel that there was a dignity attach
ing to his office, and that the scathing satire and
withering sarcasm of his younger years, had he
been able to wield it, would not be becoming to the
gravity of a father in God. Then again, the opinions
discussed had been long ago thoroughly ventilated.
"No haycock had been oftener shaken abroad, and
tossed up and down in the wind, than every argu
ment of theirs had been agitated by more able pens
than his." Why should he spend his last age,
devoted to better thoughts, in an unprofitable
battling with the Smectymnuans who, he saw, had
vowed, like impetuous scolds, to have the last word.
The last opponents against whom he directed a
formal treatise were the believers in a millennium.
Their leading prophet was a Mr. John Archer, who
had published a work on " The Personal Reign of
Christ on Earth : laying forth and proving that
Jesus Christ together with the saints shall visibly
possess a monarchical state and kingdom in thi,-
world," of which work an abridged edition was pub
lished in 1643. The author must have had a great
reputation, since Hall tells us he was a London
divine, " esteemed of so great sanctity and worth aj
that no mean person doubted not to file him amongst
men as precious as any the earth bore in his time.'
His views had not, however, exclusive predominance.

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 357
In the sect were many sects, among them one which
held the very suggestive tenet, if we think of the
times, that men of the same spirit as the saints were
to arise alone worthy of having independent govern
ment committed to them. It was in 1650 that
Hall, with his " Revelation Unrevealed," combated
the error. He regarded the belief as a pious delu
sion, rather than as an opinion deadly and per
nicious in itself. If my soul be at rest in a paradise
of bliss, what matters it to me if the souls of others,
in resuming their bodies, get the start of me by a
thousand years ? Or how can it be of importance
to any man's salvation whether the saints reign with
Christ on earth or in heaven ? The danger lay in
the " strange paradoxes and uncouth consequences "
which followed in the train of the opinion. Men
imagined their resurrection or change to be already
passed, themselves to be already reigning ; they were
dating their letters from New Jerusalem, and sub
scribing themselves glorified. Hall himself believed
the coming of our Lord to be near at hand, but
that it would be preceded by a more happy and
flourishing condition of the Church on earth. " It
well becomes modest Christians to rest in revealed
truths, and leave the unlocking of the secret cabinets
of the Almighty to the only key of his Divine
wisdom and omniscience, as remembering the words
of our Saviour, " Of that day and hour knoweth no
man, no, not the angels of heaven."
Such were Hall's chief opponents, and such his
varying attitudes towards them. The differences are
striking, but one characteristic is common to all —
from first to last he is conciliatory. Even when he
blows the trumpet loudest, and proclaims " No

358 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Peace with Rome," if we search deep enough, we
find that his lips are more warlike than his heart,.
that he seeks peace and ensues it. The truth is
that, though he inclined to this or that party more
than to others, his intellectual position was above
all parties, and he himself belonged to the distin
guished company of those who, amid the schism
with which Christendom has been torn, have from
time to time come forth as repairers of the breach,
and restorers of the habitation of souls. The
writings of Hall are a picture gallery of the worthies
of all time. Not in the spirit of Carlyle, who con
sumed his own smoke only to make the fire of his
wrath burn more fiercely against the objects of his
displeasure, but for the most part with the temper
of one whose heart was aglow with Christian charity,
Hall, in a few felicitous words, gives us his estimate
of those who had furnished his mind and supplied
him with the weapons of controversy. Of none had
he a more genuine appreciation than of the great
peacemakers, whose example he so steadily imitated.
Cusanus, who as the legate of Pope Eugenius IV.
had endeavoured to bring about union between the
east and west, and who had suffered imprisonment
for attempting to reform his own convent ; Con-
tarini, the attractive force at Ratisbon, through
whose exertions Catholicism and Protestantism in
1 541 might be said to be almost in conjunction;
Bucer, the worthy, moderate, and learned first Do
minican, then Lutheran, subsequently of Zwinglian
tendency, who, at Marburg in 1529, and again in
1536 at Wurtemberg, had striven for a reconcilia
tion between the two great Protestant camps, who
persuaded two universities, Strasburg and Mem-

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 359
mingen, to change their opinions on the Eucharist,
and to adopt the doctrine of the real presence, and
for a time was the ornament of a third, our own
Cambridge, the assistant of Hermann and the
adviser of our own reformers ; Melanchthon, " a great
light of Germany," the framer of the Augsburg con
fession, who, as Luther said, knew how to tread
softly, and for his pains in keeping what was good
of the old and blending it with what was true in
the new, was stigmatised as an adiaphorist ; Ferus,
the learned Franciscan of Lutheran sentiments,
whose works were said by the Romanists to have
been corrupted by the Protestants, and whose Com
mentary on St. Matthew, five years after his death
in 1554, was suppressed by the Sorbonne on account
of the errors and heresies it was supposed to con
tain ; George Cassander, "a learned papist and grave
divine," chosen by the two emperors, Ferdinand I.
and Maximilian IL, to- propitiate their Lutheran
subjects, contemplated by the Prince of Orange
and the Counts Egmont and Horn as the agent in
their project for the pacification of the Netherlands,
one of whose books was attacked by Calvin, while
another, though it advocated the abandonment of
speculative theology and a return to the Holy Scrip
tures and the Fathers, specially those from Con
stantine to Leo and Gregory, beguiled the weariness
of the imprisoned Romanist King of Poland, and
was afterwards published at his expense ; the famous
Francis Junius, Divinity Professor at Leyden and
at Heidelberg, who " had nothing more admirable
than his love of peace," who, when " our busy sepa
ratists appealed him, with a sweet calmness rejected
them, and with a grave importunity called them to

360 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
moderation ; " — these, whose names are like oases in
pages of dreary controversy, were the men with
whom Hall loved to be associated as a mediator of
the Church.
In this connection it is interesting to note the
independence of his mind. It is not surprising that
he should refuse to be led by Luther. He speaks
of him as a great light of Germany, even as heroical;
he defends him against the infamous slanders and
vile jests levelled at his marriage with Catharine
Bora ; he could commend his charitable temper ;
but he describes him as a man of a hot and stiff
spirit, overblunt and passionate, with faults of judg
ment. Calvin, on the contrary, at first sight appears
to meet with his unqualified admiration ; he is
learned, judicious, and moderate ; of a charitable
temper, yet did well approve himself to God's Church
in bringing Servetus to the stake ; he is the just
glory of the French Church, and his authority is
justly wont to sway so much with all Reformed
Churches. So far, so good ; but when Hall has to
choose between Calvin and the Anglican Church, he
does not, at least in his maturer judgment, hesitate
a moment. The Smectymnuans quoted against him
Calvin's description of our Prayer Book as tolerabiles
ineptim. How does Hall retort? "As for that
sharp censure of learned Mr. Calvin's, tolerabiles
ineptice, it might well have been forborne by him in
aliend republicd, and, by you, to press it upon our
own ; we honour the name of that noble instrument
of God's glory in His Church ; yet, withal, we fear
not to say, without any disparagement to his worth,
that our Liturgy, both in the frame and survey of
it, passed the judgment of no less reverend heads

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 361
than his own. Neither would you think it could
become any of our greatest divines to meddle with
the wafers, or Lord's day markets of his charge ; let
every Church take care of their own affairs." As
for Calvin's predecessors, Farell and Viret, who
" rough-hewed the statue which Calvin after polished,"
he is no less incisive, though somewhat less cour
teous. For the former, he wishes that he had lived
and died in his Vapincum where he was born, instead
of introducing his new form cf Church government ;
for the latter, " when Viret came once into the
file, here was, at the least, fervour enough. The
spirit of that man is well seen in his Dialogue of
White Devils."
This conciliatory temper and independence,
triumphing over the effects of early training, may
perhaps to a great extent be accounted for by the
width of his reading and the vast variety of authors
who contributed to the formation of his mind. He
was a careful reader of the Fathers ; and has left
us his impressions of two or three : — S. Augustine
he considered the most eminent ; Jerome was a
waspish and hot good man ; Ambrose a renowned
archbishop and metropolitan, and of so holily high
a strain, that he would not abate one inch of archi-
episcopal port and power, no, not to an emperor.
But with more modern authors he was well acquainted.
Chaderton, Master of Emmanuel in Hall's time, had
while fellow of Christ's lectured on the Ars Logica
of Peter Ramus, and is said to have roused a great
interest in that study through the university. There
can, therefore, be little doubt that Hall was at least
to some extent acquainted with the new logic, and
was, relatively to his time, much in the same position

362 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
as a divinity student acquainted with Mill would be
at the present day. Gerson, one of the leading
spirits in the councils of Pisa and Constance, long
reputed the author of the " Imitation," had come
under his close examination ; so, too, Peter Martyr,
whom he considered profound ; the learned Casaubon,
with his two means of deciding controversies —
Scripture and antiquity ; the famously-learned Joseph
Scaliger, who was called the ocean of knowledge and
the chef-d'oeuvre of nature ; Beza, whom he calls
a long-fixed star in the firmament of the Church ;
wise Fregiville, " a deep head and one that was able
to cut even between the League, the Church and the
State ; " learned Mornay (Du Plessis), of the same
period, keen Calvinist, brave soldier, eloquent writer,
who pointed Henry of Navarre to better things, and
was rewarded with a royal jest, — Mornay, " the great
glory of the Reformed Church of France, an author
past exception ; " Saravia, the first to put episco
pacy on the basis of a Divine institution, the friend
of Hooker, in whose arms he died, and many
others. A special interest will, however, attach to two
classes of books studied by Hall ; on the one
hand, those of interpreters and commentators on
Holy Scripture, and on the other, those of eminent
divines, who up to that time had shed lustre on
our and their common Church. As with his general
reading, so in the study of the Bible, he did not
confine himself to one school or to one country.
Calvin, of course, he had at his fingers' ends, and
no greater commentator, he thought, had arisen.
But with Calvin as "judicious interpreters" he
classed Zanchius, Pagnino, and Cornelius a Lapide

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 363
— no slight testimony to the splendid catholicity
of Hall. Basilio Zanchius was a Greek scholar
and commentator, patronised at Rome by Leo X.
for his elegant Latin poetry, imprisoned to the
death at Pisa by Paul IV. His cousin, Girolamo
Zanchi, was the companion of our Peter Martyr
in his flight from Italy, and became divinity pro
fessor at Heidelberg. Pagnino, the Dominican, who,
like Zanchi, found a patron in Leo X., devoted
twenty-five years to a translation of the Bible,
and was the author of a Hebrew lexicon and
grammar. Cornelius a Lapide, the famous Jesuit,
is too well known to need a word of description.
Junius, " given to this last age for a great light
to the Holy Text," was, Hall considered, " a famous
and truly illuminate doctor, the glory of Leyden,
the oracle of textual and school-divinity ; rich in
language, subtle in distinguishing, and in argument
invincible." Arias Montanus, the famous Orientalist,
had (1 569-1572) edited the polyglot Bible, called
the Antwerp Polyglot, in 8 vols, folio, and had
been rewarded by Philip II. with a pension of
2,000 ducats. Hall describes him as " the learned
Spaniard, whose labours are famous for that noble
edition of the whole sacred volume," but complains
that in illustrating the Apocalypse he shames himself
with his improbable glosses, and by his ridiculous
abstracts moves both the wonder and pity of the
judicious of either religion. Castellio's paraphrase
he deemed elegant, painstaking, and useful. Sadeel,
the French Huguenot, chaplain to Henry of Navarre,
and, after the reconciliation of the king to Rome,
pastor and Hebrew professor at Geneva, he cha
racterises as " acute ; " Ferus, already spoken of,

364 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
as " a great text man ; " Capellus, as " the French
oracle of Hebrew learning ; " he was also familiar
with the Hebrew works of Peter Fagius, " the dead
martyr of Cambridge ; " and with the writings of
Scultetus, whose opinion on episcopacy and on
lay elders, translated out of the observations upon
the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, he affixed to
his " Defence of the Humble Remonstrance."
Of the many authors whom the Bishop read
only or mainly to combat, Bellarmine and others
(though he did not disdain to take an arrow even
from their quiver), nothing need be said in this
connection ; I proceed rather to those rich mines
of English thought so diligently worked by him.
Preaching before Convocation in February 1623,
he said : — " It is a great word that I shall speak ;
and yet I must and will say it, without all either
arrogance or flattery ; stupor mundi clerus Brilan-
nicus : the wonder of the world is the clergy of
Britain. So many learned divines, so many eloquent
preachers, shall in vain be sought elsewhere this
day, in whatever region under the cope of heaven.
What should I reckon up those great lights of
our Church, not long since set ; Jewells, Humphreys,
Foxes, Whitgifts, Fulkes, Whitakers, Reynolds,
Bilsons, Greenhams, Playfairs, Abbotses, Perkinses,
Fields, Hookers, Overalls, Willets, Whites, Masons ?
There are now of you under this very roof, that
hear , me this day, in whose just praises I could
be content to spend, not an hour, but a life ; were
it not that mutual modesty enjoins me silence."
How sincere was the praise thus given, and how
truly catholic the spirit which prompted it, is
evidenced by every page of his writings. Incidental

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 365
notices of individuals scattered up and down, and
separated by considerable intervals of time, are
surer proofs of an author's estimate of them than
the measured words addressed to an assembly of
their order. Now such notices abound. There
is scarcely a name in the above list which is not
to be found elsewhere with some terse description
of the bearer of it. In his letter to Bedell, then
chaplain to Sir W. Wotton, on his embassy to
Venice, Hall, as here, laments the extinguishing
by death of so many bright lights of the Church
at home and abroad. Fulk, Master of Pembroke
Hall, Cambridge, the defender of our English Versions
of the Bible, the attacker of the Rheims Translation
of the New Testament, distinguished even amongst
his brethren by his virulence against Rome, had
been the first to die in 1 589. ' He was " a profound,
ready, and resolute doctor ; the hammer of heretics ;
the champion of truth : " whom Hall's younger times
had heard oft disputing acutely and powerfully.
Next him followed (in 1595) that honour of our
schools, and angel of our Church, learned Whitaker,
Master of St. John's, Cambridge, than whom our
age saw nothing more memorable : what clearness
of judgment, what sweetness of style, what gravity
of person, what grace of carriage was in that man !
Who ever saw him without reverence, or heard him
without wonder ? "
Next are mentioned Greenham and Perkins.
Fuller's testimony here supports that of Hall. " For
the former," says Fuller, " no book in that age made
more impression on people's practice than his on the
Sabbath;" for the latter, "all held Perkins" (the author
of the " Armilla Aurea") for a prophet. "I mean,

366 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
for a painful and powerful defender of God's will
in his word." Hall's account of them is : — " I cannot
without injury omit that worthy pair of our late
divines, whereof the one excelled in experimental
divinity, and knew well how to stay a weak conscience,
how to raise a fallen, how to strike a remorseless : the
other, in a distinct judgment, and a rare dexterity in
clearing the obscure subtleties of the school, and easy
explication of the most perplex discourses." Doctor
Reynolds, the influential President of Christ Church
College, Oxford, in 1607, was the last in the proces
sion of worthies, " not in worth, but in the time of his
loss. He alone was a well-furnished library, full of all
faculties, of all studies, of all learning : the memory,
the reading of that man, were near to a miracle."
One great divine is passed over, and it is hard to
account for the omission. Hooker died in 1600.
How is it that Hall says nothing of him? Had
he a regard for the sympathies of the future Bishop
of Kilmore, or what was it ? At all events, elsewhere
he does him full justice, not only quoting him again
and again, but with a generous admiration of his
distinguished qualities testifying to his profoundness,
his elegance and solidity, his gravity and modesty.
" Nothing of his," he tells the Smectymnuans, " can
be unwelcome to us. Neither doubt we that you
will be no less edified by his last works, if they may
see the light, than with the first. That man doth
not look as if he meant to contradict his own
truths." Jewell he calls "the rich and precious jewell
of England," and declares that "he is no judicious
man with whom one Jewell will not overweigh ten
thousand separatists." Andrews is the " renowned
Bishop of Winchester, the late admirable, that oracle

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 367
of our present times, incomparably learned," and
his sermon on the Resurrection is cited by Hall,
himself in the foremost rank of preachers. Field,
as temperate as he was able and learned, and Bilson,
the unreserved advocate of apostolical succession,
whose work on the subject is pronounced by Mr.
Perry to be the " most complete and useful which
this particular strife produced," alike win Hall's
approval. Thus, to say nothing of many others to
whom he was indebted, with liberal but discriminat
ing hand he awards his praise to all loyal soldiers
of the Church he loved so well, from our most
advanced outposts on the side of Rome to the
extreme of our position against the schismatic and
the separatist. If he has no commendation for
Williams or for Laud, it must be remembered that
the former was more of a statesman than a Church
man, who before all things else believed in himself
and the necessity of taking care of himself, while
the latter, with his utter inability to understand
the simplest matters of policy and his stubborn
self-will, could not fail, however true at heart, to
be regarded by a man like Hall as the worst enemy
of the good cause which he was so zealous to
promote. Such were the sources of our author's strength ;
the chiefest among the Fathers, the wisest of the
Renaissance, the greatest and best of those our own
Church had furnished up to about the end of the first
quarter of the seventeenth century. If an opinion
may be ventured, the two men to whom he was most
indebted for the substance of his religious thought
were Calvin and Hooker ; the one from whom he
took the colouring of thought and feeling was

368 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Erasmus. He was familiar with the latter's editions
of the Fathers and the classics, with his epistles
and formal treatises ; he had read him, and studied
him, and pondered him until heart and mind had
become saturated with him. He deemed him a
great scholar, true, moderate, and wise. He tells
us alike of his philosophic tenets and of his personal
habits — how he could not eat fish, and how, after
refusing offers of high preferment, he wished to
die out of debt, but to have only just so much
money left as might serve to bring him honestly
to his grave. It was from Erasmus that he learnt"
to cultivate that moderation and independence in
judgment which nature had so bountifully bestowed
upon him. But there were striking differences
between them. Erasmus was first literary, then
devotional ; Hall was above all devotional, and the
benign influence of constant contemplation upon
heavenly things is felt even when he is most bitter,
and seldom fails to give him a demeanour im
measurably above that of his assailants. Erasmus
saw the follies and frivolities of mankind with the
eye of the cultured man of travel, whose experience
has made him cynical rather than charitable ; HalL
too, as we shall see, could laugh, and skilfully
employ a jest for piercing an enemy's armour, but
he is full of love. Both esteemed truth of para
mount importance ; both were prepared to suffer
for it ; said Erasmus, " I had rather be torn in
pieces by the furious abettors of both sides than
be in the wrong ; " Hall asserts that he was willing
to die for it. But they did not look at truth from
exactly the same point of view, and herein perhaps
is the chief characteristic difference. To the mind

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 369
of Erasmus there were conceivable circumstances
under which truth might be subordinated to some
thing else. Assuming the truth to be a vital one,
Hall would not deviate from it by a hair's breadth.
In his letter to Bilibaldus, Erasmus " professeth that
he ascribes so much to the authority of the Church,
that if she had thought meet to have allowed the
opinion of Arius or Pelagius, he should have assented
thereto," that is, as the context shows, in the
interests of peace. Whereupon Hall comments as
follows : — " This is too much servility. In these
manifest and plain truths we have no reason to
make flesh our arm. If all the world should face
me down, that the sun shines not, I would be
pardoned to believe my eyes ; and if all the philo
sophers under heaven should, with Zeno, defend
that there is no motion, I would, with Diogenes,
confute them by walking. But, in all these verities
which are disputable and free for discourse, let me
ever be swayed by the sacred authority of that
orthodox Church wherein I live."
This intense devotion to truth was a characteristic
of Hall throughout his career. In rising from the
level of a country vicar, patronised and poor, to the
dignity of" the most popular bishop in England, he
was not like Baldwin of whom he tells us, who was
greeted by Pope Urban in the style of a fervent
monk, a warm abbot, a lukewarm bishop, a key-
cold archbishop. A Laodicean lukewarmness was
ever in his eyes criminal. Truth was a sacred thing
purchased with martyrs' blood, and the various
refuges of lies in which men take shelter in order
to avoid the painfulness of searching for, and the
responsibility of embracing or rejecting the truth,
24

370 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
he pitilessly laid bare. Those who maintained the
differences in religions to be merely verbal appeared
to him not much wiser than those who held religion
to be a " matter of nothing." He had little regard
for a fashionable Christian, who allowed himself to
be a mere appendage to a great name, or made his
hat and collar the index to the contents of his mind,
or joined the ranks of some society more from policy
than principle. He could not away with the brain
less passivity and colourless creed of those who
never think for themselves and plume themselves
upon their orthodoxy. Such men reminded him of
the Abyssinian Churches, " where, if one man sneeze,
all the rest do and must follow, — men like unto
moss, which takes still the property of the bark it
grows upon ! if upon the oak, it cools and binds ; if
upon the pine and fir, it digests and softens ; or,
like unto the herbalist's dodder, which is so simple
in itself, but takes both its name and temper from
the herb out of which it arises ; if out of thyme, it
is epithimium ; if out of the nettle, it is epiurtica."
It is to this keen appreciation of the claims of
truth that we must chiefly attribute the frequency
with which Hall took up his pen, forsaking the
more congenial task of meditating and commenting
upon the Scriptures. The age in which he lived
was an age of controversy. With a king upon the
throne who had trained himself in theology, and in
spite of numerous failings was more than a nominal
defender of the views he held ; at a time when a
College of Controversial Divinity at Chelsea was
regarded as a necessity, it is not surprising that
chief officers and subalterns in the Church should '
alike exhibit an extraordinary devotion to Christian

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 371
polemics. Hall, no doubt, himself to some extent
in his earlier years drifted with the current. The
author of the " Satires " must, moreover, have had an
element of aggressiveness in his character. Impul
sive he certainly was. His " Twenty Catholic Pro
positions " were dashed off with an hour's labour.
Of his reply to " Pope Urban's Inurbanity " he says,
" I do not meditate, but pour forth this answer."
The " Honour of the Married Clergy" was conceived
and brought to light in six weeks. But when all
is said, his love for truth remains the chief motor
power. Our modesty is spared the pain of looking for
Hall's faults. They have been pointed out in detail
by the keen-eyed critics who were his deadliest
opponents. The Brownists, with a "grave bitter
ness," charged him, " first, with presumption upon
advantages ; secondly, weak and weightless discourse ; '
thirdly, ignorance of the cause censured." Hall's
reply is sufficient, " It had been madness in him
to write, if he had not presumed upon advantages,
not of the times, however, but of the cause, the
truth ; as to the second charge, that the fault lay in
the expectation of his enemies, he meant but a
short epistle, they looked belike for a volume or
nothing ; for the third, there never was any scribbler
so unlearned as that he durst not charge his oppo
site with ignorance. What cobbler or spinster had
not heard of the main holds of Brownism ? Was he
only a stranger in Jerusalem ? If he did not know
all their opinions, he might be pardoned. Their
own followers had not received that illumination ;
he spoke boldly, not the leaders themselves. Every
day brought new conceits, and every day not only

372 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
taught, but corrected another." The charges brought
against him by the Smectymnuans were formidable.
They accuse him of overlashing in accusations, of
the partial treatment of arguments, of contradictions
and inconsistencies. An impartial reader must, I
think, consider that Hall ably and amply vindicates
himself as to the points immediately urged, and upon
a wider survey will admit that there is little or no
basis for the impeachment. When, however, they
urge against him " railings, revilings, scornings, never
the like since Montague's appeal ; " when they
tax him with being a coufiteus reus, and talk of his
" daring protestations and bold asseverations," the
thought occurs whether they were not, partially at
least, justified in their plea.
That there is much in Hall's writings which at
the present time would be deemed scurrilous, and
would be vigorously excluded by the advocates of
even the freest discussion, is undeniable. But the
writer of two hundred and fifty years ago must not
be judged by the standard of to-day. Compared
with either his opponents, Roman and Puritan, or
with those upon his own side, he has nothing to fear.
He does, indeed, say that he never knew a papist
who made conscience of the ten commandments ;
that in the popish churches there was scarce any
thing said or done whereof he could be either
partaker or witness ; he does make an extensive
application of the "Great Whore," and speak of
the "brazen-faced parasites of Rome;" his adversary
is characterised as " childish," " an obscure libeller,"
" a scurril mass-priest," " a silly refuter," " a spider-
catcher, corner-creeper, pseudo-catholic priest ; " in
combating the Smectymnuans he uses many ex-

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 373
pressions fairly open to censure if spoken of persons
and not of things, as he says, they were, " false and
frivolous exceptions," " vain cavils," " a riot of
assailants," " envious suggestion," etc. We must
confess that strange flowers of rhetoric were in his
garden, although the Bishop wondered they should
ever grow there. But what of the other side ?
Heylin tells us the Puritan libellers (and their tone
was perpetuated long after the libellers as such
passed away) " could find no other title for the
archbishop than Beelzebub of Canterbury, Pope of
Lambeth, the Canterbury Caiaphas, Esau, a monstrous
antichrist, a most bloody opposer of God's saints, a
very anti-Christian beast, most bloody tyrant. The
bishops are described as unlawful, unnatural, false,
and bastardly governors of the Church, the ordinances
of the devil, petty popes, petty antichrists, incarnate
devils, bishops of the devil, cogging cozening knaves,
who will lie like dogs. They are proud, popish,
profane, presumptuous, paltry, pestilent, pernicious
prelates and usurpers, enemies of God and the state.
The clergy are popish priests, or monks, or friars, ale-
haunters, or boys, or lads, or drunkards, and dolts,
hogs, dogs, wolves, foxes, simoniacs, usurpers, proctors
of antichrist, popish chapmen, halting neutrals, greedy
dogs to fill their paunches, desperate and forlorn
atheists, a cursed uncircumcised murdering genera
tion, a crew of bloody soul murderers, sacrilegious
church robbers, and followers of antichrist." The
Smectymnuans spoke of Hall's bravado, treason,
arrogancy, falsities and contradictions, face of confident
boldness, words bordering on blasphemy ; stigmatised
him as a " notorious  ," asserted that he would
" not leave his  " ; they could not prosecute his

374 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
falsities for indignation ; represented episcopacy as
a "stirrup for antichrist," the fountain of "pride,
rebellion, treason, unthankfulness," themselves de
voutly thanked God they were clear of it. As for
Rome, as years passed by, Hall's early violence
became much moderated, and he who had cried " No
Peace with Rome " was denounced as a papist. Is
it a marvel that with the shrieks of the massacred at
St. Bartholomew's still ringing in men's ears and the
memory of the Armada still fresh in their recollection,
the denunciation of the cause of both should some
times be as unmeasured as it was well deserved ?
What heresy from Simon Magus upwards did not
Rome attempt to fasten on us ? What lie had not
been invented against us ? What name, however
great, had been free from the foulest abuse ?
Cranmer's marriage, for prudential motives concealed,
was represented as licentiousness ; Wickliffe was
taxed with blasphemy ; Luther was said to be
advised by the devil, and his followers to be addicted
to obscene night revels ; Tindal preached commun
ity ; Calvin died a blasphemous death. Our orders
were transmitted through Scory's drunken ordination
at the Nag's Head in Cheapside. All this (and it
is but a tithe of what could be produced) being in
free circulation ar>d firmly believed by thousands, it
is surely surprising that a champion of our Church
should have been able to let mercy at any time
triumph over judgment, and so to carry himself as
to gain with posterity the admiration and affectionate
esteem of all who love a temperate adversary.
The charge that he had surrendered in things
most material, is of so damaging a character, if true,
and so plausible from the tendency of moderation

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 375
in judgment to err on the side of weak compliance,
that Hall had better speak for himself. " Were
it so, readers," he replies, " as they pretend, that
I come nearer to their " (the Smectymnuans') " tenets
than some others, one would think they should,
in this, find cause to acknowledge and embrace
mine ingenuity, rather than to insult upon me as
in way of disgrace. I wis it is not the force of
their argutation, that could move me one foot
forward ; but, if God's blessing upon my free
disquisition of truth should have so wrought upon
my better-composed thoughts, as that I should have
yielded to go some steps further than others towards
the meeting of peace, one would not think this
should yield any fit matter of exprobration ; but,
the truth is, I have not departed one inch from
either my own tenet, or from the received judgment
of our orthodox divines."
That Hall did make "daring protestations and
bold asseverations," and display much self-confidence,
is certainly true. The " resolute averment " that
he would forfeit his life to justice ands his reputation
to shame if any living man could show any Lay-
Presbyter in the world, till Farell and Viret first
created him, was, of course, exceedingly offensive to
the clan of Smectymnuus. But he was equally
confident towards Roman antagonists. In the
" Honour of the Married Clergy " he said : — " It is
a large and bold word ; but, if any one clause of
mine be unproved, if any one clause of mine be
disproved, any one exception against my defence
proved just, any one charge of his " (C. E., i.e., Edward
Coffins') "proved true, any one falsehood of mine
detected, any one argument of mine refelled, any

376 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
one argument or proposition of his not refelled, — -
let me go away convicted with shame. But,, if
I have answered every challenge, vindicated every
authority " (in a note he excepts one slip of the pen),
" justified every proof, wiped out every cavil, affirmed
no proposition untruly, censured nothing unjustly,
satisfied all his malicious objections, and warranted
every sentence of my poor epistle, — let my apology
live and pass, and let my refuter go as he is, C. E.,
cavillator egregius." It would be difficult to match
this as a specimen of confidence. Such confidence,
however, has at least the merit of honesty, and is
certainly not inconsistent with the most profound
humility. One word before parting from Hall's
imputed faults concerning the manifest unfairness
of those who drew up the indictment against him.
He had said that episcopacy was cried down abroad
by either weak or factious persons. By abroad he
meant outside the walls of the parliament house ;
they wire-drew his words as far as France, Germany,
and Geneva, and made him condemn all divines,
all Churches. Following Juvenal's
" Quamquam digressu veteris confusus amici,"
he had in describing his sorrow said he was
" confounded ; " they like " deep philologers, as
not seeming to know other sense, took it of a
confoundedness through distraction." He had
said episcopal government derived itself from
the apostles' times ; they made him affirm this of
diocesan bishops and ranked it amongst his "no
torious  ." He maintained that episcopal govern
ment had continued " without any interruption ; "
they told him of some places of the world where

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 377
the government was never known for many years
together. He held that nothing could be more
certain than this truth ; tliey instanced against him
articles of the Creed ! Hall might well wonder
whether they spoke in simplicity or scorn, and,
with a pardonable sarcasm, remark that " wanton
wits must have leave to play with their own stern."
It will be a more pleasant labour to turn to
the excellences of our author. First among these
was his dislike of dogmatic vagueness where defi-
niteness could be had, and as a consequence of
this his clearness and precision of statement. Al
though he had learned to lay his hand on his
mouth where God and the Church had been silent,
yet he thought it possible for men to wrong them
selves " in an overcautious fear of delivering
sufficiently-revealed truths." It is seldom difficult
to grasp his meaning. A rich vocabulary, a piercing
intellect, a never-failing supply of illustrations drawn
from all quarters of his extensive and varied reading,
and, above all, the complete crystallisation of truth
in his own mind, enabled him to state his opinions,
within the limits he . himself marks out, with a
lucidity which has scarcely ever been surpassed and
but seldom equalled.
There is frequently in his most serious pages a
vein of humour, which again and again turns the
wilderness into a standing water and maketh water-
springs of a dry ground. The Brownists spoke of
our " great idol, the Communion Book." " Behold,"
says Hall, " here are two new idols ; our Ordinary
and our Service Book ; a speaking idol, and a
written idol ! Calicut hath one strange deity, the
devil : Siberia, many ; whose people worship, every

378 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
day, what they see first. Rome hath many merry
saints, but Saint Ordinary and Saint Service Book
were never heard of till your canonisation." Luther
granted that Rome had the kernel of Christianity ;
says Hall, " it was an ill descent that a nimble
papist made upon the concession, ' If we have the
kernel, let them take the shell.' Soft, friend, you
are too witty. Luther did not give you the kernel,
and reserve us the shell : he yielded you both kernel
and shell, such as it is ; but the shell rotten, the
kernel worm-eaten. Make much of your kernel ;
but, as you have used it, it is but a bitter morsel.
Swallow that if you please, and save the shell in
your pocket."
A great secret of his controversial success was
his strong common sense. He by no means be
longed to the very numerous class described by
Mr. Mill as the bigots of common sense ; he would
not admit the justness of the Roman taunt, that
Protestantism had no philosophers on its side : but,
where faith was in question, he remembered St.
Chrysostom's : " To conceive of Divine things by
philosophy is no other than to take out a red-hot
iron with our fingers, and not with tongs ; " or St.
Augustine's " Yield God able to do something, which
thou art not able to understand;" and the opinion of
Erasmus often ran in his thoughts that the Church
first began to decline to the worse when her doctrine
began to depend upon the aid of philosophy. Then
came " sophistical contentions, and thousands of new
articles." He had little patience with the questions
and answers of the schools, in which it might be
gravely debated whether it were possible equitare
sine equo. He does, indeed, sometimes display

HALL AND CONTROVERSY. 379
philosophical acumen ; in the main, however, com
petent and unbiassed readers of Hall would pro
bably find the staple of his arguments to be solid
and accurate learning applied with good common
sense. It is hard to see how it could have
been otherwise. The bent of his mind was un
doubtedly towards the imaginative, the poetical, and
the concrete, rather than towards the speculative,
the philosophical, and the abstract. At the same
time, all the resources of the rhetorician and the
skilled debater were at his command, an instinctive
knowledge of human nature, marvellous dexterity in
retort, a ready play on words, biting sarcasm, and
mocking irony. These last were not always chas
tened, and, far from being ornaments, seem to the
reader disfigurements of debate. Nevertheless, to
one who enters the lists with adversaries such as Hall
contended against, they are indispensable weapons
of warfare ; nor perhaps could another be found,
who, having shafts so sharp and polished and ability
to use them, would let his moderation and charitable
temper be so clearly seen and plainly heard amid
the smoke and din of battle.
The resultant of these various forces is a style
peculiarly attractive. It is not, like Milton's prose,
a rushing torrent, hurrying you along through eddy
ing thoughts and down cataracts of words, until,
half breathless, you are left you scarce know where.
It does not, like Hooker's periods, march with
measured stateliness to mental music. The author
whom Hall most resembles is his great contem
porary, Jeremy Taylor. A judge of no mean repu
tation has said that we might not for a short time
discover which we were reading. Yet an attentive

380 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
reader would miss in Hall the logically close and
somewhat too poetically illustrated argument of
Taylor ; moreover, in originality he lags behind.
To lack these qualities, however, is not altogether
loss. Whatever else may be wanting, there is a
terseness and elegance, a force and vigour, a spright-
liness and, in his later works, a dignity which make
the handling of dusty and half-forgotten controversies
rather pleasant than irksome.
One word, before parting with this subject, as to
what Hall had learnt from his many campaigns and
the numerous battles he had fought. Theological
controversy only dies to live again. The experience
of a veteran may be of use to some who feel them
selves called upon to wield the pen. In his letter
to his friend Mr. H. Cholmley, Hall remarks as
follows : — " How true, how just soever the plea be,
I find, such is the self-love and partiality of our
corrupt nature, the quarrel is enlarged by multiply
ing of words. When I see a fire quenched with oil,
I will expect to see a controversy of this nature "
(that of the true visibility of the Roman Church)
" stinted by public altercation. New matter still
rises in the agitation, and gives hint to a fore-re
solved opposite of a fresh disquisition : so as we
may sooner see an end of the common peace, than
of an unkindly jar in the Church, especially such an
one as is fomented with a mistaken zeal on the one
side, and with a confidence of knowledge on the
other."

CHAPTER XVII.
THE TOWER.— NORWICH.
THE House of Commons met on October 20th
(1641), and the implacable temper of the
Puritan faction was ere long most clearly mani
fested. They had for some time been meditating a
remonstrance on the state of the Church and the
kingdom ; but Charles, who had begun to listen to
judicious counsellors among statesmen such as Hall
among the bishops, by his apparent readiness to
redress grievances and willingness to make at least
temporary concessions, had been rapidly regaining
the affection of his subjects. The occasion for any
remonstrance appeared to have passed away, when
his relentless enemies, taking advantage of the horror
excited by the Irish rebellion and the massacre of
English Protestants, who, without regard to age, sex,
or condition, stripped of their goods and even of their
very clothes, were subjected to every torture which
fiendish cruelty could devise, once more deter
mined to present their remonstrance. With pitiless
rhetoric every crime, real or imaginary, of which
Charles had been guilty since his accession, through
the space of fifteen years, was insisted on ; and
every misfortune was traced to the one great central
misdemeanour of the king in having encouraged the
machinations of so-called popish intriguers, bent on

382 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
introducing their superstitions everywhere. The
intention, says Mr. Hallam, could scarcely have been
any other than, on the one hand, to exasperate the
king and provoke him into further indiscretions ; on
the other, to reanimate discontents almost appeased
and once more to rouse the jealous suspicions of the
populace. In the former the framers of the remonstrance
did not for the present succeed, but in the latter
they were more than successful. The fury of the
people was unbounded against the bishops. The
well-known lines of " Hudibras " afford a striking
picture of what followed : —
" The oyster-women lock'd their fish up,
And trudged away to cry ' No bishop ; '
Botchers left old clothes in the lurch,
And fell to turn and patch the Church.
Some cried the Covenant instead
Of pudding-pies, and gingerbread ;
Instead of kitchen-stuff some cry
A gospel-preaching ministry ;
And' some for old suits, coats, or cloak,
No surplices or service-book."
And we are irresistibly reminded of that speech in
which Hall told the Lords he had been credibly
informed there were in London and the suburbs
no fewer than fourscore congregations of sectaries,
instructed by guides fit for them, cobblers, tailors,
feltmakers, and such like trash, all of them taught
to spit in the face of their mother, the Church of
England, to defy and revile her government, and to
match papists and prelates together, like oxen in a
yoke. No more vivid description of the scenes at
Westminster could be given than that which Hall's
own pen has supplied : — >

THE TOWER. 383

" The rabble of London, after their petitions cunningly
and upon other pretences procured, were stirred up to come
to the Houses personally to crave justice both against the
Earl of Strafford, first ; and then against the Archbishop of
Canterbury ; and, lastly, against the whole order of bishops ;
which, coming at first unarmed, were checked by some well-
willers and easily persuaded to gird on their rusty swords,
and so accoutred came by thousands to the Houses, filling
all the outer rooms, offering foul abuses to the bishops as
they passed, crying out, ' No bishops, no bishops ! ' and,
at last, after divers days' assembling, grown to that height
of fury that many of them, whereof Sir Richard Wiseman
professed (though to his cost) to be captain, came with
resolution of some violent courses, insomuch that many
swords were drawn hereupon at Westminster, and the rout
did not stick openly to profess that they would pull the
bishops in pieces. Messages were sent down to them from
the Lords. They still held firm, both to the place and
their bloody resolutions. It now grew to be torch-light.
One of the Lords, the Marquis of Hertford, came up to
the bishops' form, told us that we were in great danger,
advised us to take some course for our own safety, and,
being desired to tell us what he thought was the best way,
counselled us to continue in the parliament house all that
night. ' For,' saith he, ' these people vow they will watch
you at your going out, and will search every coach for you
with torches, so as you cannot escape.' Hereupon the
House of Lords was moved for some order for the prevent
ing their mutinous and riotous meetings. Messages were
sent down to the House of Commons to this purpose more
than once. Nothing was effected; but for the present
(forsomuch as all the danger was at the rising of the House)
it was earnestly desired of the Lords that some care might
be taken of our safety. The motion was received by some
lords with a smile. Some other lords, as the Earl of
Manchester, undertook the protection of the Archbishop
of York and his company (whose shelter I went under) to

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

their lodgings. The rest, some of them by their long
Stay, others by secret and far-fetched passages, escaped
home." These events took place on December 27th. The
bishops, having resolved not to venture any more to
the House without some better assurance of safety,
the Archbishop of York (Williams) sent for them to
his lodgings, and advised them to protest both to
His Majesty and to parliament against any such Acts
as should be made during the time of their enforced
absence. For this course, he said, there were many
precedents ; if they did not adopt it, they would
betray their trust and abdicate the rights of them
selves and their successors. Relying upon his legal
knowledge they assented, and a " petition and pro
testation, being fair written," was sent round to them
at their lodgings for signature, which they readily
subscribed, though intending to have some further
conference before finally presenting it. The pro
posed plan was to deliver it to His Majesty's
secretary, then to His Majesty, and, after that, by
the hand of Littleton, the Speaker, to the House of
Lords. What was really done we are not told, but
all these professed not to have perused it ; and it is
certain that Littleton, who was obnoxious to the
Puritans and anxious to ingratiate himself with them,
read the protest openly to the peers, adding some
inflammatory remarks in which he represented it as
highly offensive and of dangerous consequence. It
was now sent down to the Commons, and was there
entertained "heinously." Some thought it worse than
the powder plot, while all, excepting one charitable
member who said he thought them mad and that
Bedlam was a fitter place for them than the Tower,

THE TOWER. 385

were agreed that the bishops were guilty of treason.
The protest upon which so serious a charge was
based was not, Mr. Hallam considers, perhaps en
tirely well expressed, but was abundantly justifiable
in its argument by the plainest principles of law.*
Hall, to his astonishment, was now, in company
with Archbishop Williams and ten other bishops,
suddenly called upon to answer the charge of high
treason, and on December 30th, in all the extremity
of frost, at eight o'clock in the dark evening, they
were all voted to the Tower. Two of the number,
the Bishops of Durham and Lichfield, by reason of
age, were favoured in being committed to the custody
of Black Rod, but a similar concession for Hall,
though sued for in his behalf by one of the lay
lords, was refused. For the denial the Bishop was
afterwards deeply grateful. Had he been gratified,
he tells us, he must have suffered both in body and
purse, the rooms being small and the expense more
than his estate could bear ; but at the time, a man
approaching threescore and ten, however cheerful
and resigned, could not fail to have some misgivings.
Thus gloomily for the prisoners ended the year
1 64 1 . In the city their imprisonment was celebrated
with ringing of bells and bonfires. They were given
up with great triumph by their well-wishers for lost
men. Their perfidiousness was everywhere the
theme, and they were adjudged to what foul deaths
the multitude pleased. Scurrilous and malicious
pamphlets, blazoning their infamy and exaggerating
their offence, were circulated even in foreign parts.
On January 4th the attempt was made to arrest
* Appendix III., page 43a. 25

386 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
the five members, Pym, Hampden, Ha,zelrigg, Hollis,
and Strode ; and after this fatal mistake Charles
had no alternative but to submit to the demands
of his enemies, or decide the contest with the sword.
For the immediate present the former was his
course. The bishops being under restraint, advan
tage was taken of their absence to renew the bill for
taking away the episcopal vote, which, twice before
rejected since the beginning of the session, was at
length on February 6th, in a very thin House, easily
passed by the Lords. The Commons, it will be remem
bered, had passed it before. Charles, it would appear,
had forgotten his father's dictum, " No bishop, no
king." He assented to the measure, and thus swept
away the great bulwark of the throne. The event
once more was celebrated with "great ringing for
joy, and bonfires in some parishes." The Commons
published their nine reasons against the bishops'
votes, and Hall replied. His answer has already
been summarised (page 333).
The narrative of what followed is told thus in
the Bishop's account of himself, to which for this
period of his life we are mainly indebted.
" We now, instead of looking after our wonted honour,
must bend our thoughts upon the guarding of our lives,
which were, with no small eagerness, pursued by the violent
agents of the faction. Their ' sharpest wits and greatest
lawyers were employed to advance our impeachment to the
height ; but the more they looked into the business the
less crime could they find to fasten upon us, insomuch as
one of their oracles, being demanded his judgment concern
ing the fact, professed to them they might with as good
reason accuse us of adultery. Yet, still, there we are fast ;
only, upon petition to the Lords, obtaining this favour, that

THE TOWER. 387

we might have counsel assigned us ; which, after much
reluctation and many menaces from the Commons against
any man of all the Commoners of England that should
dare to be seen to plead in this case against the representa
tive body of the Commons, was granted us. The Lords
assigned us five very worthy lawyers, which were nominated
to them by us. What trpuble and charge it was to procure
those eminent and much employed counsellors to come
to the Tower to us, and to observe the strict laws of the
place for the time of their ingress, egress, and stay, it is not
hard to judge. After we had lain some weeks there, how
ever, the House of Commons, upon the first tender of our
impeachment, had desired we might be brought to a speedy
trial, yet now, finding belike how little ground they had
for so high an accusation, they began to slack their pace,
and suffered us rather to languish under the fear of so
dreadful arraignment, insomuch as now we are fain to
petition the Lords that we might be brought to trial.
The day was set ; several summons were sent unto us ;
the lieutenant had his warrant to bring us to the Bar ; our
impeachment was severally read ; we pleaded ' Not guilty,'
modo et forma, and desired speedy proceedings, which
were accordingly promised, but not too hastily performed.
After long expectation another day was appointed for the
prosecution of this high charge. The lieutenant brought
us again to the Bar ; but with what shoutings and acclama
tions, and furious expressions of the enraged multitude, it
is not easy to apprehend. Being thither brought and
severally charged upon our knees, and having given our
negative answer to every particular, two bishops, London
and Winchester, were called in as witnesses against us, as
in that point, whether they apprehended any such cause
of fears in the tumults assembled, as that we were in danger
of our lives in coming to the parliament ; who seemed to
incline to a favourable report of the perils threatened ;
though one of them was convinced out of his own mouth,
from the relations himself had made at the Archbishop

388 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
of York's lodging. After this Wild and Glyn made fearful
declarations at the Bar against us, aggravating all. the
circumstances of our pretended treason to the highest pitch.
Our counsel were all ready at the Bar to plead for us in
answer of their clamorous and envious suggestions ; but it
was answered that it was now too late, we should have
another day, which day to this day never came. The
circumstances of that day's hearing were more grievous to
us than the substance; for we were all thronged so
miserably in that strait room before the Bar, by reason
that the whole House of Commons would be there to see
the prizes of their champions played, that we stood the
whole afternoon in no small torture, sweating and struggling
with a merciless multitude, till, being dismissed, we were
exposed to a new and greater danger. For now, in the
dark, we must to the Tower by barge as we came, and must
shoot the bridge with no small periL That God, under
whose merciful protection we are, returned us to our safe
custody. There now we lay some weeks longer, expecting
the summons for our counsels' answer ; but instead thereof
our merciful adversaries, well finding how sure they would
be foiled in that unjust charge of treason, now, under
pretences of remitting the height of rigour, wave their former
impeachment of treason against us, and fall upon an
accusation of high misdemeanours in that our protestation,
and will have us prosecuted as guilty of a premunire ;
although, as we conceive, the law hath ever been in parlia
mentary proceedings, that, if a man were impeached as of
treason, being the highest crime, the accusation must hold
him to the proof of the charge, and may not fall to any
meaner impeachment upon failing of the higher. But in
this case of ours it fell out otherwise; for, although the
Lords had openly promised us that nothing should be done
against us till we and our counsel were heard in our
defence, yet the next news we heard was, the House of
Commons had drawn up a bill against us, wherein they
declared us to be delinquents of a very high nature, and

THE TOWER. 389

had thereupon desired to have it enacted that all our
spiritual means should be taken away ; only there1 should
be a yearly allowance to every bishop for his maintenance,
according to a proportion by them set down, wherein they
were pleased that my share should come to ^400 per
annum. This bill was sent up to the Lords, and by them.
also passed, and there hath ever since lain. This being
done, after some weeks more, finding the Tower, besides
the restraint, chargeable, we petitioned the Lords that we
might be admitted to bail, and have liberty to return to
our homes. The Earl of Essex moved, the Lords assented,
took our bail, sent to the lieutenant of the Tower for our
discharge. How glad we were to fly out of our cage !
No sooner was I got to my lodging than I thought to
take a little fresh air in St. James' Park ; and in my return
to my lodging in the Dean's Yard, passing through West
minster Hall, was saluted by divers of my parliament
acquaintance, and welcomed to my liberty. Whereupon
some that looked upon me with an evil eye ran into the
House and complained that the bishops were let loose,
which it seems was not well taken by the House of Com
mons, who presently sent a kind of expostulation to the
Lords that they had dismissed so heinous offenders without
their knowledge and consent. Scarce had I rested me in
my lodging when there comes a messenger to me with the
sad news of sending me and the rest of my brethren the
bishops back to the Tower again ; from whence we came,
thither we must go, and thither I went with a heavy but,
I thank God, not impatient heart." (They were liberated
February 1 6th, and sent in again February 1 7th.) " After we
had continued there some six weeks longer, and earnestly
petitioned to return to our several charges, we were upon
,-£5,000 bond dismissed, with a clause of revocation at a
short warning, if occasion should require."
While in the Tower, towards the end of January,
Hall addressed a letter in vindication of himself to

390 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
a friend who had previously corresponded with him.
It was not intended for publication, but to be used
in repelling attacks made upon the Bishop in social
intercourse. It bears the evident marks of sincerity,
and though necessarily for the most part dealing only
with points through which he was brought into
conflict with Puritanism, is a valuable contribution
in the elucidation of his aims and opinions.
" Worthy Sir, — You think it strange that I should salute
you from hence. How can you choose, when I still yet
wonder to see myself here ? My intentions and this place
are such strangers that I cannot enough marvel how they
met. " But, however, I do in all humility kiss the rod where
with I smart, as well knowing Whose hand it is that wields
it. To that Infinite Justice who can be innocent? but to
my king and country never heart was or can be more clear;
and I shall beshrew my hand if it shall have against my
thoughts justly offended either. And if either say so, I
reply not, as having learned not to contest with those that
can command legions.
" In the meantime, it is a kind but cold compliment that
you pity me ; an affection well placed where a man deserves
to be miserable ; for me, I am not conscious of such merit.
You tell me on what fair terms I stood, not long since,
with the world ; how large room I had in the hearts of the
best men ; but can you tell me how I lost it ? Truly, I
have, in the presence of my God, narrowly searched my
own bosom. I have impartially ransacked this fag-end of
my life, and curiously examined every step of my ways;
and I cannot, by the most exact scrutiny of my saddest-
thoughts, find what it is that I have done to forfeit that
good estimation wherewith you say I was once blessed.
" I can secretly arraign and condemn myself of infinite
transgressions before the tribunal of heaven. Who, that

THE TOWER. 391

dwells in a house of clay, can be pure in His sight that
charged His angels with folly ? 0 God, when I look upon
the reckonings betwixt Thee and my soul, and find my
shameful arrears, I can be most vile in my own sight,
because I have deserved to be so in Thine ; yet, even then,
in Thy most pure eyes, give me leave, the while, not to
abdicate my sincerity. Thou knowest my heart desires
to be right with Thee, whatever my failings may have
been, and I know what value Thou puttest upon those
sincere desires, notwithstanding all the intermixtures of
our miserable infirmities. These I can penitently bewail
to Thee ; but, in the meantime, what have I done to men ?
Let them not spare to shame me with the late shameful
declinations of my age, and fetch blushes, if they can, from
a wrinkled face. Let mine enemies (for such I perceive I
have, and those are the surest monitors) say what I have
offended. For their better irritation, my clear conscience
bids me boldly take up the challenge of good Samuel,
' Behold, here I am ! Witness against me before the Lord,
and before His Anointed : Whose ox have I taken 1 or whose
ass have I taken ? or whom have I defrauded 1 Whom have
I oppressed 1 or of whose hand have I received any bribe, to
blind mine eyes therewith 2 and I will restore it you!
" Can they say that I bore up the reins of government .
too hard, and exercised my jurisdiction in a rigorous and
tyrannical way, insolently lording it over my charge?
Malice itself, perhaps, would, but dare not speak it ; or,
if it should, the attestation of so grave and numerous a
clergy would choke such impudence. Let them witness
whether they were not still entertained by me with an equal
return of reverence, as if they had been all bishops with
me, or I only a presbyter with them ; according to the old
rule of Egbert, Archbishop of York, Intra domum episcopus
collegam se presbyterorum esse cognoscat ! Let them say
whether ought here looked like despotical, or sounded
rather of imperious commands, than of brotherly comply
ing; whether I have not rather, from some beholders,

392 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
undergone the censure of a too humble remissness, as,
perhaps, stooping too low beneath the eminence of episcopal
dignity; whether I have not suffered as much in some
opinions for the winning mildness of my administration, as
some others for a rough severity.
"Can they say, for this aspersion is likewise common,
that I barred the free course of religious exercises by the
suppression of painful and peaceable preachers ? If shame
will suffer any man to object it, let me challenge him to
instance but in one name. Nay, the contrary is so famously
known in the western parts that every mouth will herein
justify me. What free admission and encouragement have
I always given to all the sons of peace that came with God's
message in their mouths ! What missuggestions have I
waved, what blows have I borne off, in the behalf of
some of them, from some gainsayers ! How have I often
and publicly professed that, as well might we complain of
too many stars in the sky, as too many orthodox preachers
in the Church.
" Can they complain that I fretted the necks of my
clergy with the uneasy yoke of new and illegal impositions ?
Let them, whom I have thus hurt, blazon my unjust severity,
and write their wrongs in marble. But if, disliking all
novel devices, I have held close to those ancient rules
which limited the audience of our godly predecessors ; if I
have grated upon no man's conscience by the pressure, no
not by the tender, of the late oath, or any unprescribed
ceremony ; if I have freely, in the committee appointed by
the most honourable House of Peers, declared my open
dislike in all innovations, both in doctrine and rites — why
doth my innocence suffer ?
" Can they challenge me as a close and back-stair-friend
to popery or Arminianism who have in so many pulpits and
so many presses cried down both ? Surely, the very paper
that I have spent in the refutation of both these is enough
to stop more mouths than can be guilty of this calumny.
" Can they check me with a lazy silence in my place ?

THE TOWER. 393

with infrequence of preaching ? Let the populous auditories
where I have lived witness whether, having furnished all
the churches near me with able preachers, I took not all
opportunities of supplying such courses, as I could get, in
my cathedral; and, when my tongue was silent, let the
world say whether my hands were idle.
" Lastly, since no man can offer to upbraid me with too
much pomp, which is wont to be the common eyesore of
our envied profession, can any man pretend to a ground
of taxing me, as I perceive one of late hath most unjustly
done, of too much worldliness? Surely, of all the vices
forbidden in the Decalogue there is no one which my
heart, upon due consideration, can less fasten upon me
than this. He that made it knows that He hath put into
it a true disregard (save only for necessary use) of the
world, and of all that it can boast of, whether for profit,
pleasure, or glory. No, no ; I know the world too well
to dote upon it. While I am in it, how can I but use it ?
but I never care, never yield to enjoy it. It were too great
a shame for a philosopher, a Christian, a divine, a bishop,
to have his thoughts grovelling here upon earth. For mine
they scorn the employment, and look upon all these sub
lunary distractions as upon this man's false censure, with
no other eyes than contempt.
"And now, sir, since I cannot, how secretly faulty
soever, guess at my own public exorbitances, I beseech you,
when you hear my name traduced, learn of mine accusers,
whose lyncean eyes would seem to see farther into me than
mine own, what singular offence I have committed.
" If, perhaps, my calling be my crime, it is no other than
the most holy Fathers of the Church in the primitive and
succeeding ages ever since the apostles, many of them
also blessed martyrs, have been guilty of. It is no other
than ah the holy doctors of the Church in all generations
ever since have celebrated. It is no other than all the
whole Christian world, excepting one small handful of our
neighbours, whose condition denied them the opportunity

394 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
of this government, is known to enjoy, without contradiction.
How safe is it erring in such company !
" If my offence be in my pen, which hath, as it could,
undertaken the defence of that ' apostolical institution,
though with all modesty and fair respects to the Churches
differing from us, I cannot deprecate a truth ; and such
I know this to be, which is since so cleared by better
hands, that I well hope the better informed world cannot
but sit down convinced. Neither doubt I but that, as
metals receive the more lustre with often rubbing, "this
truth, the more agitation it undergoes, shall appear every- day
more glorious. Only may the good Spirit of the Almighty
speedily dispel all those dusky prejudices from the minds of
men which may hinder them from discerning so clear a truth !
"Shortly, then, knowing nothing by myself whereby I
have deserved to alienate any good heart from me, I shall
resolve to rest securely upon the acquitting testimony of a
good conscience, and the secret approbation of my gracious
God, Who shall one day cause mine innocence to break
forth as the morning light, and shall give me beauty for
bonds, and for a light momentary affliction an eternal
weight of glory.
" To shut up all, and to surcease your trouble, I write
not this as one that would pump for favour and reputation
from the disaffected multitude (for I charge you that what
passes privately betwixt us may not fall under common
eyes), but only with this desire and intention to give you
true grounds, where you shall hear my name mentioned
with a causeless offence, to yield me a just and charitable
vindication. Go you on still to do the office of a true
friend, yea, the duty of a just man, in speaking in the cause
of the dumb, in righting the innocent, in rectifying the
misguided, and, lastly, the service of a faithful and Chris
tian patriot, in helping the times with the best aid of your
prayers, which is daily the task of
" Your much devoted and thankful friend,
"Jos. Norvic"

NORWICH. 395

Though the bishops were in confinement, they
were not prevented from preaching by turns every
Lord's day to a large auditory of citizens. Hall's
turn fell on March 20th, when, "as fit for both the
time and the season, both of them sad and peniten
tial, and such as to call us to devotion and humilia
tion," he chose for his text James iv. 8. The tract
called " The Free Prisoner " was also written by him
while in the Tower. What part he took in Robert
Hall's attack upon Milton at this time has already
been discussed.
A few days after his release he went to Norwich,
where he was received with more respect than in
such times he could have expected, and the very
day after his arrival initiated his care of his flock
by preaching to a numerous and attentive people.
The diocese at the head of which Hall was now
placed had been amongst those most noted for
Puritanism. Wren, who held the see from 1635
to 1638, was an uncompromising absolutist, and
a rigorous disciplinarian, as was evidenced by the
nine hundred inquiries of his articles and the
deprivation or suspension of no less than fifty
ministers in the space of two years and a half. He
subsequently became a special object of hatred to
the Puritans, was " anatomized, dissected, and layd
open " in pamphlets, and after being threatened
with impeachment and spending nearly twenty
years in prison, lived to aid with his valuable sug
gestions those divines who at the Restoration were
engaged in the revision of the Prayer Book. Mon
tagu, who in 1638 succeeded him at Norwich, was
at the time in failing health, and little able to
direct the affairs of a diocese which needed all the

396 "LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
strength and wisdom that could be brought to bear
upon it. Perhaps no bishop in England was better
calculated to be successful, had success been possible,
than was Hall ; but the time for compromise was
passed. At the end of August Charles unfurled his
standard at Nottingham, and the country was at
once plunged into the horrors of civil war. There
were some secret murmurs of disaffection to the
Bishop at Norwich, but he enjoyed peace until in
the latter end of March 1643 the ordinance of
sequestration was passed by the Parliament, and then
when he was hoping to receive the income of the
foregoing half year, he found that all his rents were
stopped and divested. The first intimation of coming
trouble was one morning before the servants were up,
when there came to the gates of the palace one
Wright, a London trooper, attended with others,
requiring entrance, and threatening, if not admitted,
to break open the gates. When the Bishop first
caught sight of him he was struggling with one
of the servants for a pistol which he had in his
hand. Asked his business at that unreasonable
time, he replied that he came to search for arms
and ammunition. The Bishop told him there were
only two muskets in the house, and no other military
provision ; but not satisfied with this he looked into
the chests and trunks, and examined the vessels in
the cellar. Finding no other warlike furniture, he
asked what horses there were ; his commission was
to take them also. And hearing that the Bishop's
age would not allow of travelling on foot, he con
sented to take one only for the present. Another
the Bishop wisely disposed of, and for so doing was
afterwards bound to listen to an expostulation from

NORWICH. 397

his tormentor. In April following the sequestrators
came to the palace, and made known their intention
of seizing the palace and all the estate the Bishop
had, both real and personal. An inventory was
subsequently taken, and not so much as a dozen
of trenchers or the children's pictures were omitted.
Even wearing clothes would have been included, had
not Alderman Tooley and Sheriff Rawley, at Hall's
request, given their opinion to the contrary. The
goods, both library and household stuff, being to
be sold by public auction, there was much inquiry
as to the time of sale ; but, in the meantime, a
pious gentlewoman, Mrs. Goodwin, although unknown
to Hall and his family even by sight, offered to
purchase the goods at a valuation. This she did ;
and having had them formally delivered to her by
the sequestrators, left them in the hands of their
original possessors. As for the books, several
stationers looked at them, but were not forward
to purchase ; eventually a Mr. Cook gave his bond
to the sequestrators for the amount they were
valued at, and the Bishop afterwards paid his friend
out of the pittance allowed him for maintenance.
As yet no provision had been made for the support
of the Bishop and his family. A committee,
however, was sitting at Norwich, and application
having been made, it seemed to the assessors that
£400 a year, the sum assigned to Hall by parlia
ment, was not unreasonable, and this sum, on
receiving an approving letter from the Earl of
Manchester, they determined to set apart. A
quarter's rent had not been received when an order
from the committee for sequestrations, under the
hand of Serjeant Wild, the chairman, procured by

398 .LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
Mr. Miles Corbet, arrived to inhibit any such
allowance. The Norwich committee, it was said,
nor any other, had power to allow the Bishop
anything at all ; but if the Bishop's wife found
herself to need a maintenance, upon her suit to
the committee of Lords and Commons, a fifth
might be granted her for herself and family. She
accordingly sent up a petition, and after a long
delay, the fifth was obtained— on paper. But what
the fifth was could not be ascertained. The rents
and revenues of all lands, both in Norfolk, Suffolk,
and Essex, were taken up by the sequestrators, and
no allowance was made, nor was any account fur
nished. After much pressing an account was pre
sented, so confused and perplexed and utterly
imperfect as to be worthless ; but the sequestrators
took care that the bond for the books was dis
charged out of the supposed fifth part. The only
sources of revenue left to the Bishop were ordina
tions and institutions.
On July ist, 1643, the celebrated Westminster
Assembly commenced its sittings with nine hours' ex
ercises in extemporary prayer and preaching, by way
of preparation. So much prayer and preaching, it
might be supposed, should have brought the machinery
of conscience to a high state of perfection ; but the
royalist forces were unexpectedly successful ; Scotch
help was needed by the parliament at whose bidding
the assembly sat ; and conscience in the presence
of state exigences was but a feeble power. On
September 25 th the House of Commons and the
Westminster Assembly subscribed the Scotch cove
nant, and the same was appointed to be taken
by aH persons above the age of eighteen, on

NORWICH. 399

February 2nd, 1 644. It was generally swallowed by
both clergy and laity, and once more the Bishop
found himself in difficulties. He had been going
on in his wonted course, exercising his power of
ordination. Now certain forward volunteers of
Norwich banded themselves together, and stirred
up the mayor and his subordinates to call him
to account for violating the covenant. We have
already been following, with sometimes a trifling
addition or curtailment, Hall's own account of his
troubles ; the remainder is so forcible that it would
be wrong to alter a single word.
" To this purpose " (of calling him to account for violating
the covenant) " divers of them came to my gates at a very
unreasonable time ; and, knocking very vehemently, required
to speak with the Bishop. Messages were sent to them to
know their business ; nothing would satisfy them but the
Bishop's presence. At last I came down to them, and
demanded what the matter was ; they would have the gate
opened, and then they would tell me. I answered that I
would know them better first ; if they had anything to say
to me I was ready to hear them. They told me they had
a writing to me from Mr. Mayor and some other of their
magistrates. The paper contained both a challenge of me
for breaking the covenant in ordaining ministers, and, withal,
required me to give in the names of those which were
ordained by me both then and formerly since the covenant.
My answer was that Mr. Mayor was much abused by those
who had misinformed him, and drawn that paper from him ;
that I would next day give a full answer to the writing.
They moved that my answer might be by my personal
appearance at the Guildhall. I asked them when they ever
heard of a Bishop of Norwich appearing before a mayor.
I knew mine own place ; and would take that way of
answer which I thought fit; and so dismissed them, who

400 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
had given out that day, that, had they known before of mine
ordaining, they would have pulled me and those I ordained
out of the chapel by the ears. . . . While I received
nothing, yet something was required of me. They were
not ashamed, after they had taken away and sold all my
goods and personal estate, to come to me for assessments
and monthly payments for that estate which they had taken ;
and took distresses from me upon my most just denial;
and vehemently required me to find the wonted arms of
my predecessors, when they had left me nothing. . . . Many
, insolencies and affronts were, in all this time, put upon us.
One while a whole rabble of volunteers came to my gates
late, when they were locked up, and called for the porter
to give them entrance; which being not yielded, they
threatened to make by force ; and, had not the said gates
been very strong, they had done it. [Others of them
clambered over the walls, and would come into my house.
Their errand, they said, was to search for delinquents ;
what they would have done I know not, had not- we, by a
secret way, sent to raise the officers for our rescue. Another
while, the Sheriff Toftes and Alderman Linsey, attended
with many zealous followers, came into my chapel to look
for superstitious pictures and relics of idolatry; and sent
for me to let me know they found those windows full of
images, which were very offensive and must be demolished.
I told them they were the pictures of some ancient and
worthy bishops, as St. Ambrose, Austin, etc. It was
answered me that they were so many popes ; and one
younger man amongst the rest (Townsend, as I perceived
afterwards) would take upon him to defend that every
diocesan bishop was pope. I answered him with some
scorn ; and obtained leave that I might, with the least loss
and defacing of the windows, give orders for taking off that
offence ; which I did, by causing the heads of these pic
tures to be taken off, since I knew the bodies could not
offend. " There was not that care and moderation used in

NORWICH. 401

reforming the cathedral church bordering upon my palace.
It is no other than tragical to relate the carriage of that
furious sacrilege, whereof our eyes and ears were the sad
witnesses, under the authority and presence of Linsey,
Toftes, the Sheriff, and Greenwood. Lord, what work was
here ! What clattering of glasses ! What beating down of
walls ! What tearing up of monuments ! What pulling
down of seats ! What wresting out of irons and brass from
the windows and graves ! What defacing of arms ! What
demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any repre
sentation in the world, but only of the cost of the founder,
and skill of the mason ! What tooting and piping upon
the destroyed organ pipes ! And what a hideous triumph
on the market-day before all the country, when in a kind
of sacrilegious and profane procession all the organ pipes,
vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the
leaden cross which had been newly sawn down from over the
Green-Yard pulpit, and the service books and singing books
that could be had, were carried to the fire in the public
market-place; a lewd wretch walking before the train, in
his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service book in his hand,
imitating in an impious scorn the tune, and usurping the
words of the litany used formerly in the Church. .Near
the public cross all these monuments of idolatry must be
sacrificed to the fire; not without much ostentation of a
zealous joy, in discharging ordinance, to the cost of some
who professed how much they had longed to see that day.
Neither was it any news upon this Guild-day to have the
cathedral, now open on all sides, to be filled with
musketeers, waiting for the mayor's return, drinking and
tobacconing as freely as if it had turned alehouse."
The Bishop and his family still remained in the
palace, though with but a poor retinue and slender
means ; but the relentless Mr. Corbet was bent upon
getting him from there. The committee, seeing that
26

402 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
they were now paying for a house in which to hold
their meetings, looked with much favour on the
palace as a place more public and roomy, and rent-
free. Mrs. Hall was willing to pay out of her fifth
part the rent of the house occupied by the com
mittee ; but nothing would avail. After peremptory
messages, without even allowing time to provide
another home, the cruel persecutors gave three
weeks' notice to quit by Midsummer day then
approaching ; " so as we might have lain in the
street for ought I know, had not the providence of
God so ordered it that a neighbour in the Close,
one Mr. Gostlin, a widower, was content to void his
house for us."
The sufferer was not so overcome by his own
troubles that he could not see and strive to avert
the dangers with which the Church was threatened.
The Westminster Assembly, after swallowing the
covenant, appear to have been comparatively in
active for some time, but at length roused to action
by the petition to Parliament of the London
ministers in September 1644, they put forth a
scheme of ordination, and next month, under pressure
from Scotland, agreed to adopt a Directory for
Public Worship, which was in effect that of Cart
wright and Travers. Hall had heard that they
were busy, or were supposed to be, on a form of
Church government. Early in the month of Sep
tember he, therefore, addressed to the prolocutor
and to the rest of the divines met at Westminster
his " Modest Offer of some Meet Considerations" on
the points under debate. After slyly glancing at
the usual prayer of many preachers well affected to
the assembly that God would now after 1600 years'

NORWICH. 403

universal practice of the whole Church of Christ
upon earth show the assembled divines the Pattern
in the Mount, he proceeds to argue that there could
be but three forms of Church government possibly
devised — either by bishops, or by presbyteries, or
by a multitude of several congregations. The first
had all times and places since the days of the
apostles to stand for it ; the second found a pre
cedent in the Reformed Church of France (which
never desired nor meant to make their necessitated
form a pattern for others) the Netherlands, and
Scotland ; the third was vehemently contended for
by the independents. Now, the National Covenant,
as interpreted by some among themselves, did not
intend to abjure and disclaim episcopacy as such,
but only certain appendages thereof, some of them,
he conceded, not necessary. He would not take
upon him to justify or approve of all episcopal
conduct, but what he offered to their serious con
sideration was this — whether episcopacy stripped.
of all circumstances that might be justly excepted
against and reduced to the- primitive estate, might
not be thought a form both better in itself and more
fit for the kingdom and Church than either of the
other ? Its antiquity and universality from the very
apostolic times until the present age were arguments
against the safety and propriety of exchanging such
an institution for another, where there was no neces
sity ; and it was well worthy of consideration that
episcopacy had been so long settled in this country
that it was inwoven into the municipal laws of the
land, and could not be utterly removed without
much alteration in the whole body of the laws.
Above these considerations, however, was its intrinsic^

404 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
worth ; it certainly realised the ideal government of
the covenant in being according to the Word of
God, and the example of the best Churches — the
primitive. A difference, he granted, there was
between the episcopacy of those first ages and that
of the present times, but not in anything essential to
the calling. All this considered, why should not it
rather .take place than a government lately and
pccasionally raised up in the Church, for the neces
sity or convenience of some special places and
persons, without any intention of an universal rule
and prescription ?
If reformation were required, the most perfect
reformation of which the Church on earth was
capable, might consist with episcopacy. How could
it be conceived that the careful inspection of one
constant, prudent, and vigilant overseer, superadded
to a grave and judicious presbytery, should be any
hindrance to the progress of godliness, especially
when under -the restraint of good laws ? He went
on to show that much might be effected with very
little or no alteration of the form of government.
Our ecclesiastical system supplied, in fact, all that
was valued as most valuable in Presbyterianism.
Instead of pastor, elders, and deacons, we had the
minister, whether a rector or vicar, churchwardens,
questmen, sidesmen, and overseers for the poor ; also
in places of any eminence a curate, who- was a
deacon at least ; instead of presbyteries we had our
rural deaneries, archidiaconal meetings, diocesan,
provincial, or, if necessary, national synods. There
was abundant machinery here for the regulation of
the Church. As for ordination, the presence and
assistance of those who by their original institution

NORWICH. i 405

are the presbytery of the bishop, and the joint
imposition of those hands which attested the suffi
ciency of the candidates, had been enjoined by the
former constitutions of our Church. Ample care, too,
was taken in ascertaining the character and qualifi
cations of those intended for the ministry. It was
much insisted on that it was meet the people should
have some hand in choosing their pastor. This, too,
was provided for. The people had devolved their
right upon the patron, who was their trustee. A
fair respect to the wishes of congregations was
desirable ; but if, through faction, or self-will, or
partiality, the multitude should prove peevish and
fastidious, they might be overruled by just authority.
In the matter of censures there had been great
abuse; suspensions and excommunications far too
common. The wisdom of the present Parliament
would perhaps settle some other way for curbing
contumacious offences against Church authority. In
the meantime the bishop should not inflict either
this or any other censure without the concurrence
of his presbytery. A lay presbytery he unequivo
cally condemns. In conclusion, he adds that the
less disunion there is, the more ground of safety,
and that where the holy purposes of reformation
may be effected with the least change, there must
needs be the most hope of accordance.
A somewhat full analysis of this important tract
has been given that the reader may judge for him
self with what truth it has been said (Baird Lecture
for 1882, p. 114) that Hall adopted a "lower plat
form than he assumed in the Smectymnuan con
troversy." It seems to me to exhibit a statesmanlike
power of concession, coupled with the truest con-

406 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
servatism, and an able advocacy of unpopular
institutions, before biassed or at least timid judges.
His pen had been busy, too, in other directions.
Just as in the Tower he gained spiritual refreshment
by writing " The Free Prisoner," so in the spring of
1643 he published his little work "The Devout
Soul," and in 1645, at the age of seventy-one, and
in the depth of his afflictions, " The Remedy of
Discontentment." He' meant to make himself his
own patient by enjoining himself that course of
remedies which he prescribed to others. Thus did
the good man in those blustering times seek peace
by learning and teaching to others quiet thoughts of
sweet content.

CHAPTER XVIII.
HIGHAM.— CLOSING DAYS.— DEATH.
IN North Higham, a suburb of Norwich, there
stands, or until quite recently did stand, an old
flint and stone building, with deep bay windows and
pointed gables. Before the house is an ornamental
gateway of the early part of the seventeenth century.
The house itself is of earlier date. Over the orna
mented doorway are the figures 1587, and in the
corners the initials R. B., together with a curious
hieroglyphic, the mark of Richard Browne, a mer
chant whose residence it apparently was in the six
teenth century. Just within the door, inserted in
the wall, is a piscina, perhaps brought from some
demolished religious house or church, and projecting
from the old stairway a wall-bench-end, said to be of
the fourteenth century. On the right is a room
with wood-panelled walls much ornamented, oak
doors, and an elaborate plastered ceiling, all of the
Jacobean period, light being furnished by one of the
deep bay windows, which, no doubt, were thrown
out in 161 5, as indicated by the date upon them.
To this house, now a public-house known as " The
Dolphin," and situate in a low neighbourhood, it was
that Hall and his family removed probably in the
autumn of 1645, after having,, as we have seen, been

408 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
compelled to accept a temporary shelter in the
home of the kindly widower, Mr. Gostlin, in the
Cathedral Close. The Bishop's will shows that he
hadthe place upon lease for a term of years, which
had not expired at the time of his death in 1656.
His tongue, he tells us, which was wont to be
vocal enough, was now, for a time at least, possessed
of silence. There were some external reasons for
this, but it was chiefly his care and zeal for peace
that stopped his mouth, and made him refrain even
from good words. The same motive that imposed
silence on his tongue urged his hand to write.
Looking back he could call God to witness how
sincerely ever since he entered upon the public
service of the Church, " according to his known
signature with Noah's dove,!' he had laboured to
bring an olive branch to the tossed ark of the
Church ; his wings may have been too short and
the wind too high for him to carry it home, but he
could content himself with consciousness of faithful
duty. Now once more he took his pen in hand for
the same good cause, and the result was "The
Peacemaker." This little treatise deals with such
topics as the relative importance of truths, what
differences of judgment make a different religion,
the fundamental points of religion, the injurious un-
charitableness of the Romish Church, the undue
alienation of the Lutheran Churches from the other
Reformed, the differences betwixt the other Reformed
Churches and our own, the differences within our
own Churches at home. It then goes on to speak
of the ways, of peace in relation to private persons
and to the public, and concludes with a motive to
peace from the miseries of discord. It exhibits — it

HIGHAM. 409

is at this stage of our work almost needless to say —
an unbounded charity, and yet that same severity
which at an earlier date led him to express approval
of Calvin in putting Servetus to death, though, per
haps, even here the influence of love is apparent.
" What person soever, then, after his due matricula
tion into God's Church, professeth to be built upon
Christ the true Corner-stone, to receive and embrace
the whole truth of God delivered in the sacred
monuments of the prophets and apostles, to believe
all the articles of the Christian faith, to yield himself
to the guidance of that Royal Law, to call upon the
only true God in and through Christ, to communicate
in the same Holy Sacraments instituted by the Law
of Life, cannot but be acknowledged a true Christian,
and worthy of our free and entire communion" He
boldly says that all Reformed Churches, while main
taining episcopacy not to be necessary for the esse
of a Church, agreed as to its much importing the
bene esse. So much for his charity. He was, how
ever, far from giving way to every combination of
Christians to run aside and raise up a new Church
of their own ; this were to build up Babel instead
of Jerusalem, and a generation of misshapen opinions
was to be expected, " begot betwixt evil spirits and
mad phantasies, if every fanatical brain may be
suffered to propagate its own whimsies and pro
digious imaginations." Heresy is a grievous sin,
both against God and the Church. Here, as else
where, he distinguished between heresy and hcereti-
calis blasphemia ; the former, as a spiritual sin, was
to be proceeded against in a spiritual way, since
faith was to be persuaded, not forced ; for the latter,
it was attended with schism, perturbances, seditions,

410 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
malicious practices, and, therefore, was worthy of a
faggot* In the treatise which we have just been examining
there is much which bears upon the regulation of
the inner life ; but it is to his more purely devo
tional works that we must turn to form a fair
opinion of the steady and consistent walk in holiness
of the Bishop himself, and to discover the remedies
he suggested for troubled and distracted souls in
those times of anguish and distress. The very titles
of his writings seem to soothe and invite to repose.
"The Balm of Gilead, or the Comforter," is a
repertory of consolation for the sick bed ; for the
sick soul in temptations, weakness of grace, in times
of infamy and reproach, amid public calamities,
under loss of friends, in poverty, imprisonment, or
banishment, for the loss of our senses of sight and
hearing, want of children, sleeplessness, old age,
death and judgment, the fear of our spiritual
enemies, — in a word, for well-nigh every ill. " The
Blessed Union of Christ and His Members," "Satan's
Fiery Darts Quenched," "Select Thoughts, or Choice
Helps for a Pious Spirit," "A Century of Divine
Breathings for a ravished soul beholding the excel
lences of the Lord Jesus," are some of the fruits
of his mature experience, which come to us com
mended by the knowledge that he who instructs
* As indicating the impression produced at the time of
publication by this treatise and the " Pax Terris," the follow
ing remarks of an eminent contemporary are not without
interest : — " Pareus, Junius, and many more have done their
parts (i.e., in Writing Irenicons) as our Davenant, Morton,
Hall, whose excellent treatise called ' The Peacemaker,' and
his ' Pax Terris,' deserve to be inscribed upon all our hearts "
(Baxter's " Reformed Pastor," pub. 1656, ed. 1829, p. 186).

HIGHAM. 411
has had to learn hard lessons in the school of
suffering. At this time (circa 164.7) he certainly did not
plume himself upon his reputation as a controver
sialist. More than once we have found him dwelling
upon the enjoyment he derived from meditation, and
expressing his comparative dislike for polemics. In
the address to " The Select Thoughts " he tells his
readers that he had found the employment of
meditation so useful and proper, that he had looked
upon those polemical discourses which had been
forced from him as no better " than mere excursions.
I wis it will be long enough ere we shall wrangle
ourselves into heaven." He would not, therefore,
rashly spend his few remaining years in the battle
field ; but, partly no doubt from the ruling habit,
partly from the attacks of unforgiving and never-
forgetting enemies, partly from the kindly interest
of friends anxious to vindicate his character, he
found himself, even while at Higham, to some extent
in the din of theological strife. In 1650 he was
busy writing " The Revelation Unrevealed," and
combating the opinions of the new Chiliasts ; in
165 1, in response to Fuller, he penned his letter
vindicating his conduct at Dort, which has already
been quoted; and again, in the autumn of 1654,
stung by the pamphlet in which he was ranked with
" priests and Jesuits, and the man that was executed
the other day," he felt bound to clear himself once
more from the gross misconstruction in connection
with the visibility question, from which he vainly
hoped he had cleared himself eight-and-twenty years
before. The literary fecundity of the Bishop was not

412 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
more remarkable than the variety of his literary
efforts. In the spring of 1650 he appeared in the
new character of a casuist. It is pretty clear that
he had for some time been on intimate terms with
the writings of the leading casuists. At length his
studies took form in the publication of a work in
four decades on " Divers Practical Cases of Con
science in Continual Use amongst Men." Of all
divinity he thought that part niost useful which
determined such cases. In the resolution of the
difficulties he consulted those who had written
before him, sometimes to follow them, sometimes
to " leave them for a better guide." Nothing could
be more modest than the way in which the vener
able divine said it was far from his thoughts to
obtrude his resolutions and decisions as peremptory
and magisterial ; he only tendered them submissively
as probable advices to the simpler sort of Christians,
and as matter of grave censure to the learned.
Their success was striking ; a second edition was
called for in the next year, and a third four years
afterwards. The author was urged by some judi
cious friends to go on with the subject, and to
make up a complete Body of Case-Divinity, both
practical, speculative, and mixed, which was badly
wanted in our language. But, although there was
a precedent in Azpilcueta, who at ninety years
finished the fourth edition of his Manual, he shrank
at his age from so long and difficult a work. Still
he purposed to consider such questions as might
from time to time arise, and to leave the answers
he found to them. In the meantime he urged
younger men to undertake the task, and expressed
a hope that Dr. Ralph Cudworth's book, finished

HIGHAM. 413
many years since, and intended for the press, but
yet sleeping in some private hands, would one day
see the light.
Interesting as is this new phase of mental activity, '
the general reader will perhaps be more attracted by
some glimpses, afforded in the Bishop's correspond
ence, of the pursuits of the eminent victims of
Puritan tyranny, and of the sympathetic intercourse
which knit them together. With two, Usher and
Hammond, Hall was, during his residence at Higham,
upon terms of intimate friendship. Usher, after the
breaking up of his Irish home through the rebellion
in 1 64 1, had lived in England, enjoying the friend
ship of the Countess of Peterborough, and for eight
years being the preacher to the Society of Lincoln's
Inn. With Hammond, Hall had a peculiar bond of
sympathy ; he was godson, and bore the name, of
the same Prince Henry to whose patronage Hall in
great measure owed his early advancement. Com
pelled in 1643 to quit his living of Penshurst, he
had gone to live in seclusion at Oxford, but, was
there made Canon of Christ Church, University
Orator, and Chaplain to Charles I. At the close of
1647, being forbidden any longer to attend his
royal master, he returned to Oxford, and soon after
was deprived of his office of sub-dean of Christ
Church. After the king's execution he went to live
at Westwood, in Worcestershire. Both these illus
trious men, while in retirement, were doing good
service to their Church and country. In 1650-54
appeared Usher's " Annales Veteris et Novi Testa-
menti," while Hammond's most important work,
" The Paraphrases and Annotations on the New
Testament," came out in 1653. Usher, at. an

414 LIFE OF IOSEPH HALL, D.D.
earlier date, after being taken to task by Milton,
had been busily engaged in vindicating the authority
of Ignatius, and in 1647 Hall wrote, e tuguriolo
nostro Highamensi, a Latin letter congratulating him
on his labour. Again, in February of the following
year, having received from Usher through the Bishop
of Durham letters and a present of books, he wrote
a letter of thanks, and begged his friend's acceptance
of one of his own recent publications. Then came
more books from Usher, together with a graceful
acknowledgment of the encouragement given him
by Hall, and, on the completion of the " Annals of
the Old Testament" in 1650, a copy of that work,
as also four years after a copy of the " Companion
Annals of the New Testament." Both of these were
read by Hall with much eagerness and delight. With
Hammond, too, . who also had sent him gifts of
books, he was in correspondence in 165 1 (July ist ;
ipso die ac fere horae momento quo annum cetatis
septuagesimum octavum avv ©ew ingredior,he says),
and once more, in 1654, with Usher. He had been
diligently searching the "Annales Novi Testamenti "
for some account of Simon Magus and Apollonius
Tyanaeus, but failing to find it, he was anxious to know
whether in Usher's opinion the chronology of Simon
Magus would agree with St. Paul's prediction in 2
Thessalonians of the son of perdition, as was main
tained by Hammond. For himself, if the times would
accord, he thought there was some probability in
placing antichrist not so far from the .apostolic age
as had been commonly reputed.
Thus in friendly and scholarly intercourse did these
great champions of the faith beguile the weary hours
of darkness,' and wait for the breaking of the day.

CLOSING DAYS. 415

The aged man must have valued such friendship
in his declining years most highly. He had lived
to see most of the friends of his early days pass
away, and death had already more than once snatched
away members of his own family. A daughter,
Mary, had been laid to . rest in Exeter cathedral
before he left the west ; four years had not elapsed
before the death of his youngest son, on Christmas
Eve 1642, revived the old sorrow. He was only
twenty-three, and is buried in Norwich cathedral.
In February 1650 died John, and was buried the
same day at Higham. Within eighteen months he
lost his daughter Elizabeth, wife of the Dean of
Exeter ; and the circle of a year was scarce complete,
when on August 27th, 1652, his dear and virtuous
consort (to use the words of the inscription to her
memory), after a union of forty-eight years, changed
this mortal life for an eternal. He had been no
niggard of good counsel to others, now he needed
it himself ; he had taught lessons of patience to
many ; how would he himself bear this crowning
sorrow of his life ? He was suffering from both
pain of body and grief of mind. He tells us that
he struggled with them both, and succeeded, by God's
mercy, in attaining to a meek and humble submis
sion and a quiet composedness of thoughts. Yet he
thought himself wanting in that comfort and spiritual
elevation which some holy souls have professed to
feel in their lowest depression, having an inward
consolation which more than counterpoised their
heaviest Crosse's. This cheerful temper he set him
self to seek, that even while he wept he might yet
smile upon the face of his heavenly Father, Whose
stripes he so tenderly suffered. Such is his touching

416 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
account of the origin of his tract " Songs in the
Night, or Cheerfulness under Affliction," the embodi
ment of his thoughts and feelings on this sorrowful
occasion. Towards the close of it he says : — " O
God, bless Thou mine eye with this sight of a blessed
eternity, I shall not forbear to sing in the night of
death itself; much less in the twilight of all these
worldly afflictions. Come, then, all ye earthly
crosses, and muster up all your forces against me.
Here is that which is able to make me more than a
conqueror over you all. Have I lost my goods, and
foregone a fair estate ? Had all the earth been
mine, what is it to heaven ? Had I been the lord
of all the world, what were this to a kingdom of
glory ? Have I parted with a dear consort, the
sweet companion of my youth, the tender nurse of
my age, the partner of my sorrows for these forty-
eight years ? She is but stept a little before me to
that happy rest, which I am panting towards, and
wherein I shall speedily overtake her. In the mean
time, and ever, my soul is espoused to that glorious
and immortal Husband, from Whom it shall never
be parted. Am I bereaved of some of my dear
children, the sweet pledges of our matrimonial love,
whose parts and hopes promised me comfort in my
declined age ? Why am I not rather thankful it
hath pleased my God out of my loins to furnish
heaven with some happy guests ? Why do I not,
instead of mourning for their loss, sing praises to
God, for preferring them to that eternal blessedness ?
Am I afflicted with bodily pain and sickness which
banisheth all sleep from my eyes, and exercises me
with a lingering torture ? Ere long, this momentary
distemper shall end in an everlasting rest."

CLOSING DAYS. 417

Turning his thoughts ever more and more towards
that everlasting rest, he had composed " The Great
Mystery of Godliness," and " The Invisible World,
discovered to spiritual eyes and reduced to useful
Meditations." These he intended to be his two
final meditations, and commending them to all good
Christian people as his last words before setting
out on his last journey, in a letter full of pathetic
lament over the evils of the time, he announced his
intention of " closing up the mouth of the press."
This steadfast purpose was not steadfastly adhered
to. The sight of the sad condition of the Church
wrung from him " The Holy Order of Mourners in
Sion," in which he makes suggestions for the forma
tion and regulation of a society whose peculiarity
should be prayer for the redress of calamities then
pressing, and for the prevention of threatening woes.
The aim of the society was to be purely spiritual ;
its members, binding themselves by secret and silent
vows, were to have no formality or ceremony of
admission, no distinguishing colours, devices, or
habiliments ; they would be easily known by their
sad faces, wet eyes, deep sighs, mortified carriage,
neglect of vanities whereby others were transported,
their holy retiredness, assiduous devotions, and strict
professions of godliness. The devotions were to be
private, without any offensive assemblings likely to
provoke suspicion, but one day a week was to be
set apart for fasting and prayer, wonted pleasure
was to be abridged, and gatherings of mirth and
jollity to be forsaken, while the hand of God lay
thus heavily upon the Church and nation. All who
thus bound themselves were to do their best to
influence others in public and private, and stimulate
27

41 8 LIFE OF fOSEPH HALL, D.D.
them to join in promoting the objects of the order.
The pages in which the good Bishop had sketched
the outline of this distinctively Praying Order, and
forcibly illustrated his strong belief in prayer as
a remedy for all maladies, were given to the world
through the medium of a friend, Mr. G. H. Through
the agency of the same " friend," who, having had
the manuscript sent to him, told the author that
men still found in him the same vivacity and fluency
as ever, rallied him on the hasty farewell he had
taken of the world and the press, and confessed an
intention of anticipating the Bishop's leave to make
him better than his word, " Songs in the Night " was
also published.
It is true that mentally Hall, though he lived
long enough, was never twice a child ; his intellec
tual fire and energy were bright and strong to the
last. But the torments of strangury and the in
creasing burden of years told him that he was
approaching the end of life. Bearing in mind the
customary state of his health, after much thought
he made his last will, which bears date July 21st,
1654, though finally amended April 28th, 1656.
His soul he bequeathed into the hands of his faithful
Creator and Redeemer, not doubting but that He
would receive it to mercy, and crown it with glory.
His body he left to be interred without any funeral
pomp, at the discretion of his executor, with one
monition only — that he did not hold God's house
a meet repository for the dead bodies of the
greatest saints. At the time the will was made
four sons, Robert, Joseph, George, and Samuel, and
a daughter, Ann, married to Gascoigne Weld, Esq.,
were living out of his nine children, and these all

CLOSING DAYS. 419

survived him. The youngest son, Samuel, the only
son with issue, was appointed sole executor. To
Dr. Peterson the Bishop gave " that curious flappe "
which was given him by Mr. Rawlins and " one
faire gilt bowle with a cover, for a remembrance of
his deare affection " to him ; to his grandchildren,
Elizabeth and Mary, daughters of Samuel, £300
and £100 respectively; to his second son George,
the golden medal which was given him by Mrs.
Goodwin ; and to Mr. George Bayfield, his neighbour
and co-trustee of the will, one piece of plate, viz., a
silver tankard. The Dort medal was bequeathed to
the male issue of any one of his sons, if any such
should be, according to the order of their birth, or
in default thereof to Joseph Weld, the son of his
daughter Ann. None of the sons had male issue ;
the medal, therefore, went to Joseph Weld, at this
time a child three or four years old. To Ashby, his
birthplace, and to Norwich he gave thirty pounds
apiece for the benefit of poor widows.
For the disposition of the bulk of his property
the curious- reader is referred to extracts from the
will / printed in the appendix to this volume.
It was a comfort to him that he had lived to
see three of his sons "learned, judicious, and painful
divines." Of these the youngest, Samuel, had been
collated sub-dean of Exeter September 22nd, 1641,
at the age of twenty-five, but does not appear to
have done anything of note. He, like all his
brothers in orders, was an alumnus of Exeter
College, Oxford. Robert, the eldest son, had married
Rebecca, fourth daughter and coheiress of Richard
Regnell, of Creedywiger, Devon, and, besides the
comforts of so fortunate a match, had enjoyed the

420 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
spiritual consolations of rich and rapid preferment.
A canonry of Exeter in March 1629, the treasurer-
ship of the cathedral on the 25 th of the following
June, the archdeaconry of Cornwall four years
afterwards, the rectory of Stokeinteinhead 1630,
and Clyst-Hydon 1634, doubtless in a measure
compensated him for any mental disquietude he
experienced in the distractions of the times. He
must have been a man of generous impulses and
some savoir faire. His filial, if somewhat ill-judged,
defence of his aged father has been already noticed ;
and being permitted to keep the rectory of Clyst-
Hydon all through the time ofthe commonwealth, he
became a great patron and supporter of the seques
tered clergy. . George was not for the present so
fortunate, though afterwards more eminent. He
had been appointed to the rich benefice of Menhenist
in 1637, and on the resignation- of Robert, had
succeeded to the archdeaconry of Cornwall. His
living, however, was sequestered, and he was not
allowed even to keep a school. Eventually he was
allowed to preach at St. Bartholomew's, Exchange,
and afterwards at St. Botolph's, Aldersgate. That
he was a good royalist, as was his father, will
account not only for his temporary depression, but
also for his subsequent rise by way of a chaplaincy
to King Charles II. and an archdeaconry of
Canterbury to the bishopric of Chester. He took
part in founding the Society now known as the
"Corporation for the Sons of the Clergy" in 1655,
the year before his father's death, and was the
preacher, of the first sermon in its behalf.
We must now collect the few remaining details
of the Bishop's last years, and so approach the

DEATH. 421

completion of our task. Ever an indefatigable
preacher, he was always ready to occupy the pulpits
of the Norwich churches, and to give the people
the benefit of his rich and varied experience.
Amongst his published sermons are one on " Life
a Sojourning," preached at Higham on Sunday,
July ist, 1655, and another on "Good Security, or
the Christian's Assurance of Heaven," which is
possibly of a still later date. The work of an
octogenarian though they are, they cannot fail to
excite the admiration of far younger but less gifted
men. When by reason of age and bodily weakness
he was unable to preach, he might be seen walking,
staff in hand, to church, where he would sit and
listen attentively to the youngest of his disciples.
Racked with pain, and with all the recollections of
the bitter injustice he had suffered fresh upon him,
his patience was marvellous. He seemed almost
insensible to the loss of his estate, and, though often
heard to bewail the spoiling of the Church, very
rarely even mentioned his own misfortunes. Those
who had lived with him could say no fairer copy
of the patience of Job, save one, had ever been seen
in man. Sensitive he no doubt was, quick to feel
and ready in reply; but his essentially calm, gentle,
meek, and moderate spirit was mirrored in his mild
and serene aspect, which was never seen ruffled by
any disorderly passion. Stripped of wealth and left
comparatively poor, he was not unmindful of those
who were still poorer ; every week to his dying day
he distributed sums of money out of his own means
to certain of the widows of the parish in which he
lived. When confined to his bed, and almost over
come by weakness, he administered the rite of

422 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
confirmation to such as desired it. Death had no
terror for him. He greatly longed for it, and spoke
very kindly of it.
Thus blessing others, himself highly blessed, at
length, on September 8th, 1656, after, it is said,
foretelling the night of his death and giving orders
for the time and manner of his funeral, passed from
earth Joseph Hall, a prelate " as loving and as much
beloved as any man of his order."
He had noted that it was a fashion in the neigh
bourhood of Norwich, when a neighbour died, for
all his friends in various parishes to "set forth their
bells," to give public notice of his departure. He
did not dislike the practice ; it was an act of respect
to the deceased, and if the death of God's saints
were, as it was, precious in His sight, he thought it
should be so in ours, and, therefore, well worthy of
being made known. Were the bells rung after the
Bishop's death ? We do not know ; but what he
would have much preferred he hats himself told us.
As he drew towards his end, he would have had the
bell tolled to give notice of his dying condition, that
all within hearing might be thereupon moved to
fervently pray for the good of his departing soul,
suing for mercy and forgiveness, and a clean pas
sage of it to the approaching glory. In the former
course he thought there was civility and humanity;
in this, charity and piety. Living within the smoke"
of the city, it had not been with him as with those
of whom he speaks, who, dwelling near the " cataract
of Nilus," are said to be deafened by the noise of
the waterfall ; the noise of the passing bells, like all
else he saw or heard, was a voice from heaven — it
was a wonder to him that men could think of any-

DEATH. 423

thing but their passing away, together with their
time. The funeral, in accordance with his wish, was as
private as could be ; but his desire to be buried
beneath the open sky was not complied with. Per
haps it was owing to the solicitations of sorrowing
friends that he had sacrificed his own wishes, and
permitted his daughters Mary and Elizabeth to be
buried, the latter within the walls of Stoke Canon
Church, the former in Exeter Cathedral. Edward,
too, was buried in Norwich Cathedral. His wife
was interred within the walls of Higham Church,
and, notwithstanding a doubt to the contrary, it is
almost certain that Hall himself was laid beside her.*
Being entreated he had consented that a sermon.
in his honour should be preached after the funeral
The preacher was the Rev. John Whitefoot, M.A.,
Rector of Higham, to which he had been instituted
by Hall in 1652. The sermon, delivered September
30th, 1656, at St. Peter's, Mancroft, Norwich, and
dedicated to the Bishop's eldest son, is an eloquent
tribute to the memory of his revered friend and
superior from the appropriate text Gen. xlvii. 29,
" And the time drew nigh that Israel must die!'
The parallel drawn between Israel and the deceased
Bishop, if sometimes laboured, is not unworthy to
rank with Hall's own efforts in that peculiar style.
As an eye-witness, his testimony to the closing days
of the good old man is peculiarly valuable.

* Peter Hall, a descendant of the Bishop, says that some
excavations made in the year 1823 discovered the position of
the tomb, below the mural monument erected on the southern
wall. The stone upon the floor had been removed some years
previously from the grave into the middle of the chancel.

424 LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL, D.D.
The visitor to Norwich who knows aught of
Bishop Hall and loves the Church of which he was
so loyal a son, will not fail to ask where his remains
are laid. He will wend his way to the little Church
of St. Bartholomew, situate in a corner of Norwich
but little visited, once in spite of its historic interest
neglected and decaying, now at length at great cost
carefully restored. In the chancel is a slab with
the legend " Induvias Josephi Hall, olim Nor-
vicensis Ecclesiae servi. Repositae 8 Die Mensis
Septembris, Anno Domini 1656, iEtatis suae Anno
82. Vale Lector et Eternitati prospice." On the
south side of the chancel is the Bishop's monument :
— A skeleton gilt and inlaid, on a tablet, holding in
his right hand a bond with a seal, inscribed Debemus
morti nos, nostraque, and in the other hand the bond
with the seal torn off, showing that the bond is can
celled, with the inscription Persoluit et quietus est.
Across the tablet are the words Obiit 8 Septem.
Anno Aires Christiance \6%6,Ait. suae 82. Below is
the following — Josephus Hallus olim humilis Ecclesia
Servus. " A humble servant of the Church." Many noble
things have been said of Bishop Hall, perhaps
nothing more to his credit than the simple words
just quoted. They indicate the mainspring of his
life, and the harmonising principle of all his action.
For such an epitaph a man might be content to
suffer and to die. Do we not well to embalm his
name ? May some be encouraged by his bright ex
ample, with wisdom and moderation, with heart and
head, with the labours of the pen and the fairer
characters of a blameless life, to fight the battles of
our beloved Church, and. resolutely defend her cause !

APPENDIX

A SHORT PEDIGREE OF
Compiled from various sources — Blomefield's " History of Norfolk," Nichols' " History
Cullam's "History of Hawsted," Palmer's " Perlustrations of Yarmouth," and wills
which were kindly lent to the author by W. T. Bensly, Esq., L.L.D., Registrar of the

 Hall=Rev. John Brinsley.
Rev. John Brinsley,
Educated at Eman. Coll., Camb., Lecturer
at Yarmouth, d. 1664) aged 64 ; bur. in S.
Nicholas' Church there.

John Hall, the chief, officer of Ashby
in Leicestershire, under Henry, Earl of

 1 
 Hall,
elder brother
to the Bishop.

Samuel,
Ep. Dec. iv. 5,
apparently a
younger brother.

Robert, eldest son, bapt. at
Hawsted, co. Suffolk, Dec. 26,
1605: D.D. of Exeter Coll.,
Oxford, 1643 ; Canon Residen
tiary and Treasurer of Exeter
Cathedral, 1629 ; Archdeacon of
Cornwall, 1633 ; died May 29,
1667, st. 61 ; bur. in the Cathe
dral there. He married Rebecca,
fourth dau. and coheiress of
Richard Regnell, of Creedy-
wiger, Devon, and died without
issue. She died May 28, 1664 :
aet. 6i (see " Her. Visit. Devon,"
1620).

Joseph, b. 1607,
d. March 26, 1669,
and devisee of pro
perty at Waltham
under his iather's
will. He appears
to have been a
layman. - Princi
pal Registrar of
the Diocese
Exeter ; bur.
the Cathedral
there.

of

George, D.D., of Exeter =
Coll., Oxford, b. at Wal
tham, 1612 ; Archdeacon
of Cornwall, afterwards
of Canterbury ; Bishop of
Chester, 1662-68, and
Rector of Wigan, co.
Lancaster, where he died,
Aug. 23, 1668, and was
buried. Will dated Aug.
22, 1668, proved (Cur.
Prserog. Cant.) Dec. 2,
1668, s. p. : v. Monuments
in Chester Cathedral and
Wigan Church.

Gertkude, sister
of Sir Amos'
Meredith, of
Ashley, in
Cheshire. She
died at Wigan,
March 1669, and
was buried there.

Elizabeth=Bamfilde Rodd, Esq.,
subsequent to July 21, 1654 (v. Bishop
Hall's will). The will of his wife's
father states that an estate of ^j8oo
per ann. settled upon him at his mar
riage. To Elizabeth his wife, pro
perty (by the same will) was devised
at Milbarton, in Norfolk.

Mary, living === Sir Thomas Walker,

unmarried on
July 21, 1654,
married be
fore Feb. 27,
1668-9, and
living then.

Knt., of Exeter,
knighted June i, 1681,
at Windsor Castle —
Le Neve's " Knights."

A

BISHOP HALL'S FAMILY.
of Leicestershire," Ormerod's "History of Cheshire,*' Wood's "Athense Oxonienses,"
of the two bishops, father and son, and the will of the widow of the latter, extracts from
Diocese of Norwich, together with a pedigree drawn up by the late Mr. Grigson.

de la Zouch, =
Huntingdon.

: Winifride Bambridge.

And 6 other children.
JOSEPH HALL (Bishop of Exeter and Norwich), == Elizabeth, dau. of Mr. George Winiffe,

b. July i, 1574, d. Sept. S, 1656. Will dated July 21,
1654 ; codicil, April 28, 1656, proved in London, regis
tered also (Arch. Norw.) Sept. 18, 1656.

Samuel, b.=
i6i6,M.A.,
of Exeter
Coll., Ox
ford, 1640 ;
Sub-Dean
of Exeter,
Sept. 22,
1641, d.
1674, bur.
at Stoke
Canon,
Devon.

Edward, youngest
son, called Artium
Professor, A.B., of
Exeter Coll., Ox
ford, 1640 : ob. Dec,
24, 1642, set. 23 ;
bur. in Norwich
Cathedral.

or Wenyeve, of Brettenham, co. Suffolk ;
d. Aug. 27, 1652, set. 69 ; bur. at Higham.

Elizabeth, d.
July 8, 1651, set.
41, and was bur.
at- Stoke Canon.

= Wm. Peterson,
D-D., who be
came Dean of
Exeter, in 1629,
d. Dec. 6, 1661,
aged 74 ; bur. in
Stoke Canon
Church, co.
Devon.

1

John, LL.B., d. Feb. 12, 1650, as mentioned on
his gravestone in Higham Church. The parish
register states that he was bur. on the same day.

Mary, b.=i

= Tames Rodd,

1616, d.on Esq., of Exe-

Christmas

ter, at Exeter

Day,

Cathedral,

1638;

Nov. 29, 1636.

bur. at

Exeter

Cath.,

Dec. 29.

 1
Bamfilde
= Elizabeth,
Rodd.
d. of Samuel
Hall, Sub-
Dean of
Exeter.
Ann, b. Jan. 2, 1622, ob.=
Feb. 19, 1660 ; bur. at
Braconash.
Joseph Weld, only son, aet. 13, 1664.
Serjeant-at-Law, M.P. for Bury St.
Edmunds: d. unmarried and intestate
in London, Jan. 18, 1712 ; bur. at St.
Mary's, Bury, Jan. 26. Le Neve's
'* Memoranda in Heraldry."
:Gascoigne Weld, Esq., of
Braconash, co. Norfolk, d.
April 25, 1701, aged 89, bur.
there.
Mary Weld,=^=William Starkey, A.M.,
ist wife.
Mary Stakkey, b. Oct. 8,:
1690, d. Aug. 17, 1714 ; bur,
at Aylsham.
rector of Pulham, co. Nor---
folk, d. Oct. 13, 1717, aged
66; bur. there.
:John Jermy, Esq., of
Bayfield, co. Norfolk,;
b. 1676, d. 1744.
William Jermy, Esq., only son, b. 1713, High
Sheriff of Norfolk, 1748, married twice, but d.
s. p. 1752.
APPENDIX II.
WILL OF DR. JOSEPH HALL, BISHOP OF
NORWICH.
From the Norfolk Archaeology, vol. v., pp. 215-19.
In the name of God, Amen. I, Joseph Hall, Dr. of Divinity,
(not worthy to be called B. of Norwich,) considering the
certainty of death and the great uncertainty of life, have
thought much in the state of my wonted health to make
my last Will and Testament in manner following. First I
bequeath my soule into the hands of my Faithful Creator and
Redeemer, not doubting but that He will receive it to mercy
and crowne it with glorye. My body I leave to be interred
wthout any funerall pompe, at the discretion of my executor,
w"1 this only monition, that I do not hold God's house a
mete repositorie for the dead bodyes of the greatest Saints.
My house sand grounde in the City of Exeter I give my
eldest sonne Rob' Hall Dr. of Divinity and his heires for
ever. . . . Moreover to my sonne Joseph I give and be
queath all that freeland with the appurtenances which I have
in Much Bently in the County of Essex wth the edifices
thereto belonging. And whereas I am informed that the
custome of that Mannor is such that the Coppyhold lands
except they be formerly Surrendered into the hands of the
Tenants to other uses, Do in course descend upon the
youngest Sonne,* my Will is that my Sonne Samuel (upon
* " Borough English is a customary descent of lands in some ancient
Boroughs and copyhold Manors, that estates shall descend to the

APPENDIX II. 429

whom it will fall) doe speedily surrender that Copyhold
and the Tenements thereto belonging to the use and behoof
of my sd Sonne Joseph, and his heires for ever. . . . Also to
my Sonne George I give and bequeath all that terme and
remainder of yeares which I have in the Dwelling-house
wherein I now remain, and the groundes thereto belonging,
with all the appurts to be entered upon by him within 3
months after my decease. . . To my Sonne Samuel Hall,
whoe is yet only of all my Sonnes blessed with any issue,
I will and do give and bequeath all those my lands and
tenements with their appurtenances, situate, lying and being
in the parish of Totnesse in the County of Devon. . . My
three sonnes, I thanke God I have lived to see learned,
iudicious and painfull divines. To my Sonne in Law, Mr.
Dr. Peterson, Deane of Exeter, I give that curious fiappe
which was given me by Mr. Rawlins, and one faire gilt
bowle with a cover, for a remembrance of my deare affection
to him. . . To my grandchild Elizabeth Hall I give ^300.
To my grandchild Mary Hall I give .-£100. . . I doe make
and ordaine my Sonne Samuel Hall my full, lawfull and
sole executor, not doubtinge of his true fidelity therein ;
and doe desire and appoint my beloved Sonne in Law
Gascoigne Weld, and my loving friend and neighbour Mr.
George Bayfield, to be overseers thereof, giving to my
sd Sonne my Golden Medall which was given me by Mrs.
Goodwin ; and to Mr. Bayfield one piece of plate, viz'.,
one Silver Tankard. And that this is my last will and
testament I doe publish and declare, subscribinge the same
and affixing my seale Manuell, this 21st day of July, in the
Year of our Lord God 1654. Jos. Hall, B. N.
Published, signed, and sealed in the pfsence of us,
youngest son : or if the owner hath no issue, to his youngest brother." —
Jacob's "Law Dictionary."

430 APPENDIX III.

Geo. Bayfield, Peregrine Pond, Edmond Camplin, Margaret
Hatley, Athanasius Ferrer, John Reeve.
Merhor, that all the words inserted or altered in the
severall places of this will are written and done by my owne
hand, and are by me accordingly published as part of my
will Aprill 28, 1656. In the prsence of Peregrine Pond,
Margaret Hatley, Edmond Camplin. Jos. Hall, B.N.

APPENDIX III.
THE PROTEST DRAWN UP BY THE BISHOPS.
"To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, and the
Lords and Peers now Assembled in Parliament.
" Whereas the petitioners are called up by several and
respective writs, and under great penalties, to attend the
Parliament, and have a clear and indubitable right to vote
in Bills, and other matters whatsoever debatable in Parlia
ment, by the ancient customs, laws, and statutes of this
realm, and ought to be protected by your Majesty quietly
to attend and prosecute that great service ; they humbly
remonstrate and protest before God, your Majesty, and the
noble lords and peers now assembled in Parliament, that
as they have an indubitable right to sit and vote in the
House of the Lords, so are they, if they may be protected
from force and violence, most ready and willing to perform
their duties accordingly. And that they do abominate all
actions or opinions tending to popery, and the maintenance
thereof, as also all profession and inclination to any malig
nant party, or any other side or party whatsoever, to the
which their own reasons and conscience shall not move
them to adhere. But whereas they have been at several
times violently menaced, affronted, and assaulted by multi-

APPENDIX III. 431

tudes of people in their coming to perform their services
in that honourable House, and lately chased away, and
put in danger of their lives, and can find no redress or
protection upon sundry complaints made to both Houses
in these particulars ; they humbly protest before your
Majesty, and the noble House of Peers, that, saving unto
themselves all their rights and interest of sitting and voting
in that House at other times, they dare not sit or vote in
the House of Peers, until your Majesty shall further secure
them from all affronts, indignities, and dangers in the
premises. Lastly : Whereas their fears are not built upon
phantasies and conceits, but upon such grounds and objects
as may well terrify men of resolution and much constancy ;
they do in all humility and duty protest before your
Majesty and the Peers of that most honourable House of
Parliament, against all laws, orders, votes, resolutions, and
determinations, as in themselves null and of none effect,
which, in their absence, since the 27 th of this instant month
of December, 1641, have already passed, as likewise against
all such as shall hereafter pass, in that most honourable
House, during the time of this their forced and violent
absence from the said most honourable House ; not deny
ing but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and
voluntary, that most honourable House might proceed in
all their premisses, their absence or this protestation not
withstanding. And humbly beseeching your most excellent
Majesty to command the Clerk of that House of Peers to
enter this their petition and protestation among his records :
" They will ever pray God to bless, etc.
"John Eborac. Geo. Heref.
" Tho. Duresme. Robt. Oxon.
"Ro. Co. Lich. Ma. Ely.
"Jos. Norw. Godfrey Glouc.
"Jo. Asaph. Jo. Peterburg.
" Guli. Ba. and Wells. Morice Landasf."

432 APPENDIX IV.

APPENDIX IV.
BISHOP GEORGE HALL'S CUP AT EXETER
COLLEGE, OXFORD.
In his will, dated August 22nd, 1668, and proved at Canter
bury December 2nd, 1668, by Gertrude Hall, his relict,
George Hall, third son of the Bishop, and himself Bishop
of Chester, while remarking "because my owne Relac'ons
are God be thanked sufficiently provided for in this world I
dare not charge my estate with any legacie or legacies unto
any of them,'' was a benefactor to Waltham Abbey, the place
of his birth, and also -to Exeter College, Oxford. To the
latter he gave, after the decease of his wife Gertrude, his
golden cup and all his estate of land at Trethewen, in St.
German's, in Cornwall. The land has since changed
hands, but the cup, still carefully preserved, as I have seen,
is thus described in the " Handbook to the Reproduction of
Silver Plate in the South Kensington Museum from cele
brated English collections " by Wilfred Joseph Cripps, M. A.,
F.S.A., and published for the Committee of Council on
Education, under the heading, " College and Corporation,
Plate IV." " Hall's Cup, cup of gold circa 1660-70, at
Exeter College, Oxford. Cup and cover. It is double-
handled, pine-shaped, and repousse1 with lozenge-shaped
gadroons, the upper row of spaces, and the cover ornamented
with flowers. Height 6 in. ; width 5 in. ; including
handles 6| in. On the cover are the words -Col. Exon.
Oxon; and on the cup itself, Col. Exon. Oxon. D.D.
Rob. Hall, Ep. Cest. At the bottom, 22 carats." Mr.
Cripps further says, "Plate made of real gold is ofthe greatest
possible rarity ; what are called gold services being made,
in truth, of silver-gilt. There were only some five speci-

APPENDIX V. 433

mens of gold plate exhibited in the Loan Collection of
1862 at South Kensington. This beautiful cup at Exeter
College represents the gold plate of our College Collections."

APPENDIX V. (to page 180).
Mr. T. W. Jackson, Fellow of Worcester College, in
"Collectanea," vol. i. (published 1885 for the Oxford His
torical Society), has some details respecting academies
which well illustrate Hall's remarks. It is shown that from
the time of Lord Burleigh down to the fall of Charles I-
there was a "long series of attempts to found an exclusive
and aristocratic academy," in which the youth of nobility
and gentlemen might acquire those gentlemanly qualities
for which no provision was made in the universities.
Prince Henry was a warm supporter of these plans, and
the reasons w.hich moved him are peculiarly interesting to
the student of Hall's life : — " That the king's wards might
have a fit breeding, and an education given them in England
which they had not at all, but in forraine partes, where
yt proved costly to their soules many times, as much as
their bodies. Also that our young men, when they travel,
may be more fit for it, whereas now we yield the French and
other nations an occasion to undervalue us ; and that His
Highness perceived the Nobility and gentry of England too
much given to ease, because they wanted occasion of morn
ing exercise ; which by the advancement of this work they
would be brought unto ; as lykewise into a place of
Assembly (yet altogether wanting in England) where they
might learn fashion and civility, and by these partes of
exercise and breeding be able to doe His Matie honour, at
the entertainments of Princes and Embassadours, in which
showes here are so fewe now that doe appeare; as we
28

434 APPENDIX V.

cannot perform yt with that advantage the French doe, who
have their education at Academies" (page 279).
The teaching was to be " the learning of the Mathema-
tickes and langwage ; and for all kinds of Noble Exercises,
as well of Armes as other. . . . And to showe that he meant
to leave nothing untryed for the performance of the designe,
he was resolved to have gotten as many horses out of His
Maties stable and race as he could, for the better furnishing
of the Academie : and to have bin exceeding liberall allso,
out of his owne stable and Race, to the same end :
meaning himself in person to have comme into the Academie
once a week ordinarily, to have seen howe that which he so
much affected, prospered ; and to have exercised there as
he did at S. James'. And to have proceeded yet, to the
seeking of farther means (if need were) for the bringing of
his work to perfection. But at the very instant yt pleased
God to take him away" (page 280).
Not unnaturally the academies were regarded with great
suspicion by the universities.
If the date assigned to the composition of the " Quo
Vadis ? " be correct, Hall might have supplemented his know
ledge of horses by reading Gervase Markham's "Covntrey
Contentments in Two Bookes : the first, containing the
whole Art of riding great horses in very short time," etc.,
which was published a year or two previously (1615).

ADDENDA

i. Hall's Degrees. — Entered at Emmanuel College, Cam
bridge, 1589; B.A., 1592; Fellow of Emmanuel, 1595;
M.A., 1596; B.D., 1603; D.D., 1612.
His preferments were as follows : — To the Rectory of
Halsted, or Hawstead, Suffolk, 1601 ; Domestic Chaplain
to Prince Henry, 1607 ¦ to the Donative of Waltham Cross,
Essex, 1608; Prebendary of Wolverhampton, 1612; Dean
of Worcester, 1616; Refused the Bishopric of Gloucester,
1624; Bishop of Exeter, 1627 ; Bishop of Norwich, 1641.
2. Hall's Belief in Demoniacal Agency, pp. 82, 83.- — " The
true copy of Mr. John Dee, his petition to ye King's most
Excellent Majestie, Exhibited : Anno 1604. Junij 5 at
Greenwich," which is given in Hearne's " Collections," vol.
i., p. 63, edited by Mr. Doble, Fellow of Worcester College,
for the Oxford Historical Society (1885), throws light upon
the beliefs of the times. Mr. Dee complains that for
many years he has been the victim of a "horrible and
damnable, and to him most grievous and dammageable
Sclaunder .... namely, that he is, or hath bin, a Conjurer, or
Caller, or Invocator of Divels." And " some impudent and
malicious forraine Enemie" had in print (Anno 1592)^
affirmed him to be the " Conjurer belonging to the mostc
Honorable Privy Counsell of his Majestie's most famous
last Predecessor." Mr. Doble (note, p. 356) says that the-
most popular account of Dee is probably that in D<'IsraehV.s
" Amenities of Literature."

436 ADDENDA.
3. Peter Moulin, page 135. — Hall was roughly handled
by Lewis Moulin, son of his " ancient friend," who became
a violent Independent, but retracted many of his opinions
before his death in 1683. — " Irensei Philadelphi Epistola
ad Renatum Veridaeum, in qua aperitur mysterium iniqui-
tatis novissime in Anglia redivivum, et excutitur liber
Josephi Halli, quo asseritur Episcopatum esse juris Divini.
Eleutheropoli, 1641. 4°. Auctor hujus libri, seu potius
libelli famosi, fuit P. Molinasi filius, medicus Lond., qui a
patre venerando penitus rejectus hue se, atque vitia simul,
transtulit." " Hearne's Collections" by Doble, vol. i., p. 87.
See also p. 95.
4. Prince Henry, page 145 .-^-The following account of
one so closely related to Hall (by Mr. Richard Holmes in
the English Illust?-ated Magazine for July 1884) will not
perhaps be unacceptable to the reader. " The finest extant
portrait of Prince 'Henry is by Isaac Oliver, and is in the
Royal Collection of Miniatures at Windsor Castle. It is
thus described in Charles I.'s catalogue : — ' No. 17. Done
upon the right light. The biggest limned picture that was
made of Prince Henry, being limned in a set laced ruff
and gilded armour, and a landskip wherein are some
soldiers and tents in a square frame with a shutting glass
over it. Done by Isaac Oliver — 5! inches by 4.'"
Mr. Holmes adds, "The delicacy of the work of this
remarkable miniature it is impossible to overpraise, and it
combines with minuteness of execution a breadth of effect
which is admirable.''
5. John Goodwin, page 214. — For more about him, and
his "Redemption Redeemed," see Neal's "History of the
Puritans," ii., 437 (ed. 1837); Calamy-Palmer, "Noncon
formists Memorial," i., 196, sqq. ; " Hearne's Collections "
by Doble, p. 75, and note on p. 358.
6. Wise Fregeville, page 362. — Of this author (also
called Frigevillseus (Johannes) Gantius, sive de Gant),

ADDENDA. 437

judging by the silence of the ordinary books of reference,
much does not appear to be known. The book to which
Hall apparently refers is thus described in the Bodleian
Catalogue : — " The reformed politicke ; that is, an apologie
for the generall cause of reformation, written against the
sclaunders of the pope and the league ; whereto is adioyned
a discourse upon the death of the duke of Guise. Lond.
by Richard Field, 1589, 40."
7. Scultetus, page 364.— Scultetus preached the second
Latin sermon before the Synod of Dort, and signified how
it joyed him to speak unto them post eruditissimum virum,
Josepkum Hallum, Decanum Wigorniae Meritissimum.
Hales' Letters from Dort, December 6, 1618.
8. Page 383. — The passage is from the "Hard Measure,"
published early in June 1647. (It bears date May 29, 1647.)
9. " The Blessed Union of Christ and His Members,"
page 410. — A peculiar interest attaches to this little treatise,
also called " Christ Mystical." W. Lilley, in his account of
General Gordon's work at Gravesend, says that he derived
his conceptions of God dwelling in us from Bishop Hall's
" Christ Mystical," and that he presented to the writer a
copy of that work much marked and thumbed.
10. Bishop George Hall, page 420. — He was also the
author of a book entitled " The Triumph of Rome over
despised Protestancy." Lond., 1667, 8°. He died in 1668,
killed by a knife which was open in his pocket when he fell
in his garden at Wigan.
11. Page 424. — " Many noble things," etc. The follow
ing encomiums upon Bishop Hall I copy from Peter Hall's
supplemental paragraphs of biography : — " Vir rerum usu
peritus, ingenio subtili et exercitato, eruditione multiplici
instructus : nee interim minor erat modestiffi et indolis
mansuetissimse laus .... Pacis usque et concordia? utcunque
amantissimus, non odia et hostiles perduellium triumphan-
tium iras effugere potuit ; sed incarceratus, et benefices

438 ADDENDA.
exutus omnibus, patientiae, quale hominem Christianum et
Episcopum decebat, exemplum laudabile exhibuit." God
win, " De Prsesulibus Anglise," vol. ii., p. 24.
"1656, Sept. 8, died, Bishop Joseph Hall: plenus-
dierum, plenior virtutum." Obituary of Smith, preserved
in Peck's "Desiderata Curiosa.''
There are several copies of laudatory and commemorative
verses engraved under the portraits of the Bishop ; and
there is a poem (entitled "The Good Bishop," 1652) on his
Balm of Gilead, in Thomas Shipman's "Carolina," 1683,
8vo. The following lines are from the English verses, signed
H. N., and printed with Whitefoot's Funeral Sermon : — ¦
" Maugre the peevish world's complaint,
Here lies a bishop and a saint,
Whom Ashby bred, and Granta nurs'd,
Whom Halsted, and old Waltham first
To rouz the stupid world from sloth,
Heard thund'ring with a golden mouth ;
Whom Worcester next doth dignifie,
And honoured with her deanery :
Whom, Exon lent a mitred wreath,
And Norwich, where he ceas'd to breath.
These all with one joint voice do cry,
Death's vain attempt, what doth it mean ?
My Son, my Pupil, Pastor, Dean,
My rev'rend Father cannot die."
His friend Thomas Fuller, in addition to remarks inserted
in the text, described him as "not unhappy at controversies,
more happy at comments, very good in his characters, better
in his sermons, best of all in his meditations."
Mr. Jones in his memoir calls him the English Chrysostom,
and applies to him the description originally given of St.
Augustine : — "Insignis erat sanctissimi pmsulis mansuetudo
ac miranda animi lenitas et qucedm invincibilis dementia."
With the testimony of two living authorities I end the list.
Archdeacon Farrar ("Speech in Chickering Hall," New

ADDENDA. 439

York, October the 29th, 1885), has spoken of "Bishop Hall,
the eloquent and weighty divine of his day," and the Dean
of Norwich (Dr. Goulburn), in a private letter to the author,
from which I venture to quote, observes, " In devoutness,
in moderation, in theological attainment, he is a noble
specimen of an Anglican bishop ; and, as with Hooker and
old Fuller, one gets to love his very conceits and quaint-
nesses."

INDEX.

Abbot, Archbishop, said to be in
favour of Synod of Dort, 202 ;
struggle with Laud, 228 ; letter
to King James, 229.
Abbot, Dr. Robert, denounces Laud,
228.
Absolutism, 163, seq.
Advertisements of Archbishop
Parker, the, 20.
Agra, Jesuit College at, 183.
Agrippa, 140.
Aleth, 3.
Allen, Dr., founds English College
at Douay, 16.
Altars, restoration of, 301.
Ambrose, St., 361.
Anabaptists, opposed to war in
general, 140.
Andrews, Bishop, supports James I.
against Bellarmine, 131 ; visit
to Scotland, 189 ; preaches in
Edinburgh, 190 ; Hall's estimate
of, 366 ; his sermon on the
Resurrection, 367.
Anjou, Duke of, Queen Elizabeth's
passion for, 13.
ApoUinarius, his metaphrase of the
psalms, 98.
Apollonius Tyanseus, 414.
Archer, Mr. John, his "Personal
Reign of Christ on Earth," 356.
Ardenne, Forest of, 81.
Arias Montanus, his metrical version
of the psalms, 98 ; his view of
the mode of Christ's presence in

Holy Communion, 264 ; his poly
glot Bible, 363 ; Hall's estimate
of, ib.
Aristotle, discarded at Cambridge,
35-
Armada, the, Hall's description of,
"2, 374-
Arminianism, James I. inclines to,
165 ; formulate their tenets, 201 ;
known as Remonstrants, ib. ; gain
an edict of toleration, 202 ; in
England, 228 ; Hall's attitude
towards, 351.
Arminian envoys at Dort, 208.
Arminius, originally a Calvinist,
200 ; professor of divinity at
Leyden, ib. ; his acuteness, ib. ;
sufferings, persecution, and death,
ib. ; far from being a Papist, ib.
Arnold, Sir Nicholas, improves our
breed of horses, 108, and note.
Arrest of the five members, the,
386.
Ashby, I, 2, 5, 18, 419.
Asteley, Sir Andrew, 2, 114.
Augsburg Confession, the, put into
verse by Luther, 94.
Augustine, St., Hall's regard for,
361. B.
Babington, Anthony, his conspiracy,
13-
Bacon, Sir Edmund, visit with Hall
to the Spa, 71.
Bacon, Sir Francis, 64.

442

INDEX.

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, first baronet,
64 ; his daughter Anne married
to Sir R. Drury, ib.
Baird Lecture, the, for 1882, 405.
Balcanqual, Mr., Scotch envoy
at Dort, 209 ; letters from to
James I., 220.
Baldwin, Father, 79, 80.
Balliol College, connected with
Blundel's School, 41.
Bambridge, Robert, 2.
Bambridge, John, first Sevillian
professor, 2.
Bancroft, Archbishop, suppresses
Hall's Satires, 43 ; his letter on
pluralities, 120 ; sermon at Paul's
Cross, 135 ; bill for relief of the
clergy, 147.
Barnevelt, a defender of Arminian
ism, 201.
Baro, Peter, dispute with Chaderton,
etc., 25 ; his sermon (1588) before
the University, 34 ; opposes
Whitaker, 73 ; views on the
Lambeth Articles, ib. ; resigns
his professorship, ib. ; death and
funeral, ib.
Barret joins the Jesuits, 74 ; cen
sure on, ib. ,
Barrowists, the, 263.
Bartholomew's, St., massacre of,
374-
Bartholomew's St. , Norwich, Hall's
burial place, 423.
Basil, St., 98.
Bayfield, Mr. George, co-trustee of
Hall's will, 419.'
Beaton, Cardinal, assassinated, 187.
Bedall, Bishop, dispute with Wads
worth, 47 ; a friend of Hall's,
ib., note ; poem addressed to,
55; corrects Spalato's "De
Repub. Eceles.," 235.
Belgic Confession, the, 199.
Bellarmine, Cardinal, ode upon him
and Whitaker, 59 ; numbered
300 differences in Roman Church,
131 ; his view of the origin of
government, 169; of sacrifice, 267.
Bernard, St., 3.
Beza, his presents to University of
Cambridge, 25 ; Hall's estimate
of, 362.

Bilibaldus, Erasmus' letter to, 369.
Bilson, his " Perpetual Government
of Christ's Church, " 135, 364.
Birchett, his attempt to murder Mr.
Hatton, 13.
Bishops, the, impeachment of, etc.,
327, seq.
Blundel's school, 41.
Book of Sports, the, 299, seq.
Boone, Mr., the "Weeping Joy"
sold to him, 70.
Bradshaw, the regicide, 31.
Breok, St., the Rectory of, 278.
Bright, Mr. B. H., 70.
Brinsley, Rev. John, married Hall's
sister, 112; his son, ii.
Bristow, I.
Broke, Mary, 148.
Broke, Richard, 148.
Brownists, the, their leaders at
Amsterdam, Hall's epistle to, and
their reply, 133; their power for
evil, 263 ; Hall's apology against,
J33> 274; his attitude towards,
348 ; their charges against him,
37i-
Bucer, 35, 358.
Buckingham, Duke of, his expedi
tion to Rhe, 277 ; opposes Hall's
promotion, ib. ; assassinated,
289.
Buckley, Rev. W. E., editor of the
" Weeping Joy," 70.
Bulwer, Sir Richard, Hall's letter
to, 281.
Burleigh, Lord, 108.
Burton, Archdeacon, 149 j see also
Hall.
Burton-on- Trent, 1.
C.
Calvinism, attacked by Baro, 25 ;
its advocates at Cambridge, 27 ;
adopted by Ramus, 35 ; declining
at Cambridge, 72.
Calvin, admitted inequality of pres
byters, 134 ; put Servetus to
death, 249 ; Hall's admiration
for, but independence on, 360 ;
Hall's estimate of, as a com
mentator, 362 ; slandered by the
Romanists, 374; supplied the

INDEX.

443

substance of Hall's religious
thought, 367.
Cambridge, Christ's College, 5, 225.
Cambridge, University of, cele
brates the death of Elizabeth and
accession of James, 69 ; growth
of religious opinion in, 72 ; Mr.
Bass 'Mullinger's history of, 25,
28, 33-
Campbell, his opinion of Hall's
Satires, 46.
Campion, Jesuit, arrives in London,
17 ; executed, 18.
Capellus, 364.
Carleton, Bishop, at Dort, 203.
Carleton, Sir Dudley, Hall's letter
to, 221.
Carlyle, Thomas, 358.
Cartwright, Thomas, his Book of
Discipline, 15, 25, 27; conduct at
Cambridge, 25.
Cary, Bishop of Exeter, 298.
Casaubon, 362.
Cassander, his plea for toleration,
249 ; his approval of monastic
life, 272 ; Hall's estimate of, 359.
Castellio, Hall's estimate of his
paraphrase, 363.
Catechising, 21, 280.
Chaderton, Dr. Laurence, dispute
with Baro, 25 ; first Head of
Emmanuel College, 27 ; at the
Hampton Court Conference, his
character, etc., 31, 32 ; expounds
Ramus' logic, 35 ; Hall's inter
view with, 39 ; recommends Hall
as master of Blundel's school, 41 ;
visit with Hall to London, 42 ;
Hall through him acquainted with
the new logic, 361.
'Challoner, Sir Thomas, 76.
Charles I., espoused to the Infanta,
190 ; Hall's sermon (1625) before
him at Whitehall, 242 ; commands
Hall to qualify the term Anti
christ, 323 ; declares episcopal
government repugnant to the
Word of God, etc., 345 ; adopts
moderate counsels, 381 : attempts
to arrest the five members, 386 ;
assents to bill for taking away
episcopal vote, ib. ; declares war,
396.

Chelsea College, 370.
Chemnitius, 225.
Cholmley, Hugh, Hall's school
fellow, 6 ; comrade at college,
ib., 34 ; has the offer of Blundel's
school, 43 ; Hall's letter to, re
specting version of psalms, 95,
seq. ;' vindicates the Bishop, 286 ;
Hall's letter to thereon, ib., 380.
Church, the, inner life of, 19,
Church ordinances, how obligatory,
261.
Church poets, 48.
Churchwardens, 23.
Classis, the, formation of, 15.
Clement, Pope, 154.
Clergy, the, condition of, 22, 146,
147, 166 ; many of, them smokers,
66 ; their extravagance in dress,
120.
Coffin, Edward, 375.
Collectors of St. Antholin's, 297.
Colleges, monastical academies, 272.
Collett, Miss,her drawing of Hals tead
parsonage, 68.
Collett, the Rev. W., rector of
Halstead, 68.
Constantinople, Jesuit mission at,
185.
Contarini at Ratisbon, 358. '
Continuity of the Church. 252.
Contra-Remonstrants, the, 201.
Cooper, Bishop, his " Admonition,"
13-
Corbet, Mr. Miles, 398, 401.
Cornelius a Lapide, Hall's estimate
of, 303-
Cornwall, archdeaconry of, 292,
294.
Corporation for the Sons of the
Clergy, 420.
Corser, the Rev. Thomas, buys the
" Weeping Joy," 70.
Cosin, Bishop, 265.
Coster, Father, dispute with Hall,
79-
Cotton, Bishop of Exeter, 298.
Cottons, the, family of, 292 ; in the
chapter at Exeter,
Cowell's Interpreter, 165.
Cowie, Dean, 291.
Cranganor, Jesuit College at, 184.
Cranmer, his marriage, 374.

444

INDEX'.

Crocius, Divinity Professor at Bre
men, Hall's letter to, 233, 246.
Cromwell, Henry, at Emmanuel
College, 31.
Cudworth, Dr. Ralph, his work on
Casuistry, 412.
Cullum, his " History of Halstead,"
64, 65.
Cusanus approved by Hall, 358.
Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constan
tinople, removed through the
Jesuits, etc., 185. D.
Davenant, Bishop, at Dort, 203 ;
Hall's letter to, 218 ; consulted by
Hall, 285.
Declaration, the, of 1628, 230.
De Mora Sociorum Statute, the, 31.
Denny, Lord, patron of Waltham,
101 ; made Earl of Norwich, 105 ;
his connections and career, 109.
Digby, Everard, the attempt to
expel him from St. John's, 27.
Discipline, the Book of, recognised
as the Puritan standard, 15 ; re
printed at Cambridge, 25 j suba
scription to, 27 ; exemplified at
Emmanuel, 33.
Doble, Mr., 435-6.
Dod, Dr., succeeds Hall as rhetoric
lecturer, 41.
Doncaster, Viscount, his wife, 109 ;
his mission to France, 161.
Don John of Austria, 16.
Dort Medal, the, presented to Hall,
213 ; description of, ib. ; how be
queathed, 419.
Dort, Synod of, 165, 199, seq., 228,
232, 263.
Downe, the Rev. John, Fellow of
Emmanuel, 303 ; Hall's preface
to his works, ib.
Drake, Francis, his voyage round
the world, 11.
Drunkenness denounced by Hall,
III.
Drury, Sir Robert, son of Sir
William, 64 ; patron of Halstead,
ib. ; knighted, ib. ; his wife, ib. ;
builds the tower of Halstead
Church, 66 ; at first averse to
Hall, 67 ; recommends him to

Lord Denny, 101 ; Hall's fare
well letter to, 106.
Drury, Sir William, restores Hal
stead Church, 66 ; death of, 64 ;
his daughter's marriage, 109, 241.
E.
Ecclesiastical discipline, 261.
Edgar, Ezekiel, succeeds Hall at
Halstead, 108.
Egerton, Sir Thomas, 162.
Egmont, Count, 359.
Elizabeth, Princess, her marriage
with Elector Frederick, 143.
Elizabeth, Queen, banquetson board
Drake's ship, II ; excommuni
cated, 16 ; visits Halstead, 65 ;
her death, 69 ; prohibited nether-
stocks, 120 ; her commission for
concealments, 149 ; Hall's praise
of, 1 53"4-5 ; absolutism under,
164 ; her rudeness to bishops,
166.
Emmanuel College, John" Bambridge
there, 2 ; Mr. N. Gilby, Fellow
of, 8 ; its foundation, 27, 28, 30 ;
influence of, first master, etc., 31 ;
religious tone, 32, 33 ; Hall
chosen fellow of, 39 ; his love
for, 40 ; possesses the Dort Medal,
213.
Episcopacy, Hall's early views
concerning, 134, 135 (see also
" Episcop. by Divine Right," etc.);
overthrow of in Scotland, 311- 12.
"Episcopacy by Divine Right,"
the, quoted, 279; origin of, 315 ;
draft of its design, 317, 318, 319 ;
criticised hy Laud, 320; again
criticised, 323 ; finally amended
and published, ib. ; impression
produced by, ib.
Episcopius, 201.
Erasmus, paraphrase of, 19 ; his
opinion on war, 140 ; quoted, 225 ;
his views on heresy, 256 ; Hall,
how indebted to him, etc., 368.
Essex, Countess of, Prince Henry's
passion for, 104 ; her divorce, etc.,
ib.
Essex, Earl of, favourite of Queen
Elizabeth, 13.
Essex, Earl of (son of the former),

INDEX.

44S

his tutor, 101 ; Hall dedicates the
" Solomon's Divine Arts "to, 131.
Et Ccztera Oath, the, 325.
Evolution of truth, how far admitted
by Hall, 273.
Exeter College, 419.
Exeter, Countess of, 109.
Exeter, dean and chapter of, 295,
308.
Exeter, Earl of, 108.

Fagius, 35, 364.
Fairs on Sunday, 23.
Farell, 361, 375.
Fasting, Hall's views on, 273.
Ferdinand I., a patron of Cassander,
359-
Ferner, John, his illustrations of
Sterne, 304.
Ferus, his opinion on war, 140 ; dis
liked by the Romanists, etc., 359 ;
Hall's regard for, 363.
Field, Dr., Dean of Gloucester, 162 ;
his death, ib., 364, 367.
Five Articles, the, 217 ; summary
of, 231, seq.
Five Articles of Perth, the, 353.
Flaminius, 98.
Fox, 364.
Frederick, Elector Palatine, his
marriage with Princess Elizabeth,
143 ; accepts the crown of Bohe
mia, 222. '
Fregeville, Hall's estimate of his
" Reformed Politicke," 362.
Fulgentius, his death, etc., 238.
Fulke, Head of Pembroke, 27, 364,
365-
Fuller, Thomas, 156, 205, 214, 216,
217. 365- G
Gage, his " History of Suffolk," 64.
Gage, Viscount, 324.
Gascoigne, his " Steele Glas," 44.
Geronimo, Father, at the court of
Akbar, 183.
Gerson, his views on virginity,
271 ; studied by Hall, 362.
Gilby, Anthony, 4, 5.
Gilby, Nathanael, Vicar of Ashby,
5 ; Fellow of Emmanuel, 8.

Gilby, Nicholas, 38, 39.
Giles, Thomas, Dean of Windsor,
148.
Goad, Dr., preaches Whitaker's
funeral sermon, 59 ; succeeds Hall
at Dort, etc., 211.
Gondomar, 222, 236.
Goodman, Bishop, his memoir of
Court of James I., 75.
Goodwin, John, his charge against
members of Synod of Dort, 214.
Gordon, General, 437.
Goulboum, Dr., 439.
Graham, Bishop of Orkney, 313.
Grandridge, Mr., suggests a bride for
. Hall, 69.
Gray, his opinion on Hall's Satires,
46.
Gray, Lady Katharine, 71, and note.
Greenham, his "Book ofthe Sab
bath," 26 ; Hall's ode upon the
same, 59 ; Hall's regard for, 364.
Gregory XIII., Pope, his medal, 13;
schemes for recovery of England,
16.
Gregory XV., Pope, 184.
Grindal, Archbishop, his struggle
with the Queen, 14, 15.
Grosart, Dr., 44, and note.
Grotius, Hugo, defends Arminian
ism, 201.
Gualter (Jesuit), 255.
Guise, Cardinal, assassinated, 13.
Guise, Duke of, assassinated, 13.
Gurrey, Mr., 101. H
Hailes, Lord, his opinion on Hall's
Satires, 46.
Hake, Edward, satirist, 44.
Hall, Ann, 419.
Hall, Elizabeth, ib.
Hall, George, Bishop, ib. ; his cup,
432.
Hall, Joseph, Bishop, birth, etc.,
I ; his father, ib., 1 12 ; his mother's
piety, 2 ; early imbued with Cal
vinism, 5 ; his school. 6 ; spiritual
temper as a boy, 8 ; elder brother,
ib., Ill; enters Emmanuel, 33 ;
letter to Wadsworth, ib. ; his uncle,
Mr» E. Sleigh, 36, 112; leaves

446

INDEX.

Cambridge, ib. ; returns, ib.; scholar
of Emmanuel, ib. ; takes B.A. and
M.A., 37 ; has the offer of a post
at Guernsey, 38 ; Fellow of Em
manuel, 39 ; rhetoric lecturer,
40 ; has the offer of Halstead, 42 ;
publishes the Satires, etc., 43,^. ;
dispute with Wadsworth, 47 ;
dispute with Milton, 48 ; his son
Robert, 49 ; dispute with Marston,
51 ; his odes and philological
notes, 59; the "Mundus Alter
et Idem," 60 ; his love of study,
62 ; opinion of our Universities,
63 ; and Inns of Law, ib. ; not
a smoker, 65 ; first promoted
through Lady Drury, 67 ; opposed
by Lilley, ib. ; builds the parson
age at Halstead, 68 ; marries, ib. ;
his father-in-law, 69, 112 ; writes
" Weeping Joy," 70 ; birth of his
eldest son, 71 ; receding from
Calvinism, 74 ; visit to the Spa,
71, seq. ; his opinion of lycan
thropy, 82 ; views on ecclesias
tical miracles, 83 ; motto, 86 ;
character as seen in the " Medi
tations and Vows," 86, seq. ; love
of meditation, 90 ; the " Heaven
upon Earth," ib. ; "Art of Divine
Meditation," 91 ; the first to write
" Epistles " in English, 93 ; con
templates a metrical version of
the Psalms, 94, seq. ; his cousin
Burton, 95 ; letter to the same,
97 \ epigram on, 99 ; a com
poser of anthems, 100 ; dispute
with the patron of Halstead, ib. ;
preaches at Richmond, 101 ;
chaplain to the Prince of Wales,
102? has the offer of Waltham,
105 ; his letter on leaving Hal
stead, 106 ; sermon on Phari
saism and Christianity, 1 10 ; his
brother Samuel, in ; sister,
Mrs. Brinsley, 112; brother-in-
law, Rev. J. Brinsley, ib. ; in
counsel, 1 12, seq. ; writes preface
to " Ludus Literarius," ib. ; letter
to his father, ib. ; to his father-in-
law, 115 ; to his sister, ib. ; to his
brother, 117; to Dr. Thomas
James, 121 ; to Mr. Thomas

Sutton, 123; his sympathy, 121,
126 ; the " Characters, of Virtues
and Vices," 125, seq. ; earliest
controversial works, 131 ; the
" Serious Dissuasive from Popery,"
ib. ; the " Peace of Rome," ib. ;
the " Solomon's Divine Arts,"
ib. ; " No Peace with Rome,"
1 32 ; epistle to Smith and Robin
son, 133 ; apology against the
, Brownists, ib. ; early views on
episcopacy, 134, 135 ; letter to
Peter Moulin, 135 ; advances in
favour with the Prince, 139 ;
Passion sermon (1609), 140 ;
views on war, ib. ; sermon at
death of Prince Henry, 142 ;
elegies on the same, 144, 145 ;
engages in church defence,
146 ; Prebend of Willenhall, 149;
tablet to his memory in S. Peter's,
Wolverhampton, 153; sermon at
anniversary of accession of
James I., ib. ; home life at Waltham,
157, seq. ; visit to France, 160;
Dean 6f Worcester, 162 ; how rea
lated to absolutism, 163, seq. ;
sermon (1634) before the court,
170 : a pluralist, 173 ; the " Quo
Vadis? " 174, seq. ; his censure of
Roman piety, 183 ; visit to Scot
land, 189 ; return to Waltham,
192 ; called to account by James,
192 ; studies ritual, 193 ; love of
decency in worship, 194 ; opinion
on the Five Articles ot Perth,
195 ; sermon before the corpora
tion of London, 196 ; at the Synod
of Dort, 203 ; far from being a.
Calvinist, 204 ; sermon before
Synod of Dort, 206 ; receives the
thanks of the Synod, 207 ; why
did he applaud Lydius? 209;
sickness at Dort, 210 ; his farewell,
etc., 212 ; receives the Dort
medal, 213 ; reply to Fuller's
letter concerning John Goodwin,
214 ; taxed with popery and
Pelagianism, 218 ; return from
Dort, 219 ; letters to Dr. Ward,
219, 220; do. to Carleton, 221,
222 ; the "Honour of the Married
Clergy," 223; letter .on the

INDEX.

44';

marriage of ecclesiastical persons,
ib. ; letter to Dr. Ward, 225 ; the
"Via Media," 226, 229 ; opinion
of' Archbishop of Spalato, 236 ;
letter to the same, 237 ; sermon
on the Great Impostor, 239 ; do.
before Convocation, ib. ; do. at
re-opening of Countess of Exeter's
chapel, 241 ; declines the see
of Gloucester, ib. ; thanksgiving
sermon, 243 ; his skilfulness in
allusion, ib. ; description of the
plague, ib. ; accepts the bishopric
of Exeter, ib. ; his rules for
moderation, 245 ; views on the
Five Articles, 231 ; letter to
Willius, ib.; do. to Hildebrand,
232 ; do. to Crocius, 233; sermon
on the Deceit of Appearance,
239; do. at Whitehall, 242 ; his
moderation, 244, seq. ; the " Chris
tian Moderation," 249 ; approved
Servetus' death, ib. ; an apologue,
253 ; severity to the faults of
Rome, 254 ; what constitutes
heresy, 255 ; early vehemence,
257 ; tone of the " Quo Vadis ?"
ib. ; he was a " good churchman,"
ib. ; views on Church and State,
259 ; on the power of the keys,
260 ; on Church ordinances, 261 ;
on the unity of the Church, 262 ;
his moderation in the use of terms,
263 ; taught a real presence, 264 ;
the tract on Holy Communion,
264, 304 ; his views on the
number of the sacraments, 267 ;
confirmation, 268 ; confession,
269; prayer for the dead, 271 ;
virginity, ib. ; Eucharistic sacri
fice, 267 ; the monastic life, 272 ;
fasting, 273 ; mortification, ib. ;
evolution of truth, ib. ; tradition,
ib. ; ' no patron of a beggarly
worship, 274 ; consecrated Bishop
of Exeter, 277 ; policy at Exeter,
278 ; letter to Sir Richard Bulwer,
281; the "Old Religion," 284;
" Apologetical Advertisement,"
285 ; " Answer to Pope Urban's
Inurbanity," 290 ; his nepotism,
291 ; letter to Archbishop Laud,
292 ; dispute with Mr. Nansogge,

292-3 ; sermons before Parlia
ment, 296-7" ; policy towards
lecturers, 298 ; towards ' ' Book of
Sports," 299 ; not a superstitious
Sabbatarian, 301 ; influenced by
Laud, ib. ; his influence on Laud,
ib. ^restores the altars, ib. ; news
from Ipswich, 302 ; Laud's esti
mate of his work at Exeter, ib. ;
treatment of captive apostates,
303 ; writes preface for Downe's
works, ib. ; the ' ' Paraphrases on
Hard Texts," 304; the "Con
templations " completed, ib. ; his
influence on Sterne's style, 305 ;
the "Occasional Meditations,"
ib. ; his love of nature, 306 ;
" Henochismus," ib. ; "Remedy
of Profaneness," 307 ; consecrates
new burial place at Exeter, 308 ;
views on burial, 309 ; death of his
daughter Mary, 310; proposes a
synod to settle Scotch affairs,
313 ; the " Episcopacy by Divine
Right," 315, rey. ; his suggestion
tofjssher, 317 ; the etcetera oath,
325 ; speech in defence of the
canons, 328 ; on the sub-com
mittee of bishops and divines,
331 ; defends the bishop's vote,
332, seq. ; speech on the same,
336 ; conflict with Smectymnuans,
340, seq. ; the " Humble Remon
strance," 340, 355 ; defence of
the same, ib. ; the " Short An
swer," etc. , ib. ; details of quarrel
with Milton, 342-3 ; sermon at
Whitehall, 343 ; do. on peace
between England and Scotland,
345 ; Bishop of Norwich, 346 ;
attitude towards Brownists, 347 ;
towards Rome, 350 ; towards
Arminians, 351 ; towards the
Scotch Presbyterians, 353 ; letter
to Struthers, ib. ; views on altera
tion of Scotch Liturgy, 354 ;
attitude towards the Millenarians,
356 ; the " Revelation Unre-
vealed," 357 ; his independence
and conciliatory temper, 360 ; a
careful reader ofthe Fathers,. 361 ;
how indebted to Calvin and
Hooker, 367 ; to Erasmus, 368 ;

448

INDEX.

his impulsiveness, 371 ; devotion
to truth, '369; confidence, 375;
dislike of dogmatic vagueness,
377 ; humour, ib. ; common sense,
¦ ib. ; estimate of philosophy, 378 ;
disdain for scholastic quibbles,
ib. ; mind and style, 379 ; what
controversy taught him, 380;
speech on sectaries, 382 ; his
account of affairs at Westminster,
383 ; committed to the Tower,
385 ;• reply to reasons against
bishops, 386 ; experience of the
Tower, ib. ; letter from, 389 ;
sermon in, ib. ; the ' ' Free
Prisoner," ib. ; goes to Norwich,
ik ; the ordinance of sequestra
tion, 396, seq. ; the " Modest
Offer," 402, seq. ; the "Devout
Soul," 406 ; " Remedy of Dis
content, " ib. ; his home at Higham,
407; the "Peacemaker," 408;
Baxter's opinion thereon, ib., note ;
the " Balm of Gilead,"4io ; other
devotional works, ib. ; writes the
" Revelation Unrevealed," etc.,
411 ; his work on casuistry, ib. ;
correspondence with Ussher and
Hammond, 413-14 ; deaths in his
family, 415; the "Songs in the
Night," etc., ib. ; proposes to
abandon authorship, 417 ; writes
the " Holy Order of Mourners in
Sion," ib. ; his sufferings, will,
etc., 41$, 428 ; last sermons, 421 ;
death, ib. ; fondness for the
passing bell, 422 ; the funeral,
ib. ; funeral sermon, 423 ; epitaph,
424 ; pedigree of his family,
426-7.
Hall, Mary, 419.
Hall, Peter, 70, 423, note.
Hall, Robert, 305, 342, 418.
Hall, Samuel, 310, 419.
Hallam, Mr., his opinion on " Mun
dus Alter et Idem," 60 ; views on
toleration, 251 ; on remonstrance
of 1 64 1, 382 ; on bishops' protest,
3«5-
Halstead, 62, 64, 66, etc.
Hamilton, Bishop, consecration of,
189.
Hamilton, Patrick, his death, 187.

Hammond corresponds, with Hall,
etc., 413.
Harold, King, his burial place, 109.
Harvard, John, at Emmanuel, 31.
Hastings, Colonel, defends Ashby
Castle, 6.
Hatton, Mr., attempt to murder, 13.
Henry III. of France, his death,
13-
Henry IV. of France, letter to King
James, 75 ; assassinated, 135.
Henry VIII., his proclamations had
the force of law, 163.
Henry, Prince, 2 ; Hall applies
Virgil's 4th Eclogue to his birth,
71 ; dedicates his "Epistles " to
him, 93 ; also the " Peace of
Rome," 132 ; the " Meditations "
accepted at his court, 101 ; Hall
becomes chaplain to, 102 ; visit
to Oxford, etc., 102 ; his cha
racter, 103-4 ! death, 142 ; funeral
sermon, ib. ; elegies on, 144.
Hertford, Earl of, his embassy to
Brussels, 71 ; marriage, etc., note.
Hertford, Marquis of, 383.
Heylin, 193, 199, 202, 373.
Hildebrand, Pastor, at Bremen,
letter to, 232.
Hooker, his defeat of Travers, 26 j
views on origin of government,
170 ; cautious use of the term
"heretic," 255 ; on Holy Com
munion, 266 ; publication of his
works, 350 ; Hall's regard for,
366 ; how Hall indebted to, 367;
his style, 379.
Horn, Count, 359.
Hudibras, 382.
Hughson, 204.
Humphrey, 364.
Huntingdon, Earl of, his descent
from Duke of Clarence. 5.
Huntingdon, Henry, Earl of, I, 2,
6, 38, 39-

lies, Archdeacon, 153.
Independents, the, 242.
Inns of Law, 63, 77.
Ireland, attack upon, 17.
Irish rebellion, 381.

INDEX.

449

Jackson, Mr. T. W., quoted in
Appendix V.
Jacques, Clement, assassinates
Henry III., 13.
James, King, visits Ashby, 6 ; his
accession, 69 ; his basilicon doron,
71, 102 ; counterblast, 103 ; be
lauded in "Weeping Joy," 71 ;
overtures to Pope Clement, 75 ;
progress from Scotland to London,
108 ; at the Hampton Court
Conference, 135, 203 ; profligate
character of his court, 141 ; his
mercy? 155 ; his "True Law of
Free Monarchies," 164 ; change
in his opinions, 165 ; flattered by
the bishops, 166 ; visit to Scot
land, 187 ; early dislike of Church
festivals, 188 ; resolves to restore
them to Scotland, ib. ; in Edin
burgh, 190; attack on Vorstius,
201 ; sends representatives to
Dort, 202 ; his instructions to
them, 203 ; Balcanqual's letters
to, etc., 220 ; his death, 241 ;
publication of the Book of Sports,
299 ; his use of the term Anti
christ, 323.
James, Thomas, keeper of Bodleian,
121, 123.
Japan, Jesuits in, 184.
Jeffcock, Rev. J. T., 153.
Jermy, William, 213.
Jerome, Hall's estimate of, 361.
Jesuits, the, 16, 17, 18,77, iioi r83,
184, 251.
Jewell, Bishop, Hall's estimate of,
304, 366.
John's, St., College, Oxford, 102.
Jones, his memoir of Hall, 226.
Junius, 133 ; his love of peace, 359 ;
Hall's estimate of, 363.
Juxon, Bishop, 354. K
Keble College, 28, 73.
King, Bishop, entertains James I.
at Christ Church, 102 ; his death,
etc., 252.
Knight (— ), proceedings against,
228.

Knight (William?), publishes the
" Mundus Alter et Idem," 59, 61,
and note.
Knox, John, 187.

Lamb, Bishop, consecration of, 189:
Lambeth Articles, the, 73, 204.
Lancashire, Recusants and Puritans
in, 299.
Laud, Archbishop, dispute with
Abbot, 147 ; his absolutism, 165 ;
(Dean of Gloucester) visit to
Scotland, 189; Bishop of St.
David's, 204 ; denounced by Dr.
Robert Abbot, 228 ; did he prefer
Hall to Exeter 1 277 ; his purga
tion of certain letters, 286 ; Hall's
letters to, 292, 294 ; made Arch
bishop, 296 ; republishes Injunc
tions of 1629, 297 ; relations to
Hall, 301 ; Hall's letter to, re
specting a synod, 313 ; suggests
a treatise on episcopacy, 315 ; his
criticisms on draft of "Episcopacy
by Divine Right," 320; committed
to prison, 327 ; approves the
alterations in Scotch Liturgy, 354.
Legate, Bartholomew, 156.
Leicester, Earl of, 13.
Leveson, family, 150.
Leveson, Sir Richard, 148.
Leveson, Sir Walter, 148, 151, 152.
Leveson, Thomas, 148. .
Lewkener, Sir Edward, Hall's ode
upon, 59.
Liddon, Dr., 324.
Lilly, Mr., opposes Hall at Hal
stead, 67, 68.
Littleton, Speaker, 384.
Lively, Edward, teaches Hebrew at
Cambridge, 3^
Locke, John, his views on origin of
government, 170.
Lodge, Dr., his " Fig for Momus,"44.
Lords of misrule, etc., 23.
Loveday, Mr. J. E., 70.
Luther, utilised the old hymns, 94 ;
his jest on infallibility, 132 ;
Hall's estimate of, 360 ; libelled
by his enemies, 374.
Lydius, opinions of, at Dort, 208.

29

450

INDEX.

M
Macarius, St., 257.
Magdalen CoUege, 102.
Magellan, his voyage and death, 11.
Mainwaring, his absolutism re
warded, 166.
Manchester, Earl of, 383, 397.
Marburg, diet of, 263.
Marlowe, his character and death,
52.
Marprelate libels, the, 16.
Marston, his " Scourge of Villany "
suppressed, 43 ; quarrel with
Hall, 51 j " Pygmalion's Image,"
etc., 51.
Mary Queen of Scots, 5, 13, 148.
Masson, Professor, his " Life of
Milton," 340; estimate of Hall,
163, note.
Maxey, Anthony, Dean of Windsor,
150.
Maximilian' IL, 359.
Meadows, Sir Philip, 31.
Melanchthon, approved the death of
Servetus, 250 ; Hall's regard for,
359-
Mendez, Alfonso, Patriarch of
Ethiopia, 184.
Meres, his " Wit's Treasurie," 45.
Merton College, 2, 3.
Meyrick, Mr. James, 70.
Midwives, 24.
Mildmay, Sir Walter, founded Em
manuel College, 30, 31.
Milton, his attack upon Hall's
Satires, 49 ; opinion of " Mttndus
Alter et Idem, " 60 ; joins the
Smectymnuans, 340, seq., 355 ; his
correction of Ussher, 413.
Monica, 3.
Montagu, Bishop, 202, 226 ; his
" Appello Csesarem," 228 ; suppres
sion ofthe same, 230 ; at Norwich,
395- , ,
Montaigle, our Lady of, 77.
More, Sir Thomas, 250.
Mornay (Du Plessis), 362.
Mortification, 273.
Morton, Bishop, consulted by Hall,
285 ; on the sub-committee of
bishops and divines, 331 ; favour
shown to, 385.

Moulin, Peter, 135, 138, 161.
Mullinger, Mr. Bass, his " History
of Cambridge," 25, 28, 33.
N
Nankin, Jesuits at, 184.
Nansogge, Mr., Hall's trouble with,
292-3.
Navarre, casuist, 131.
Nestorians, the, of India, 184 ; of
Abyssinia, ib.
New College, 102.
News from Ipswich, 302.
Nobili, Father, in India, 183.
Nonnus, 48, 98.
Northumberland, Duke of, 148.
Norwich Cathedral, Puritans at,
401.
Norwich, diocese of, 395-
Norwich, Earl of, endowed Wal
tham, no (v. Denny, Lord):
death of, 307.
Norwich remembered in Hall's
will, 419. O
Oliver, Dr., his "Lives of the
Bishops of Exeter," 291.
Orange, Prince of, the, 202 ; his
regard for Hall, 359.
Origen, 97.
Overall, Bishop, Hall indebted to
him, 74; his moderation, 226-7;
his Convocation Book, 165.
Oxford, St. Mary's, H3-
Oxford, University of, 143.
P
Paez, Father, in Abyssiiiia, 184.
Pagnino, 362.
Pallavaci»i, Sir Horatio, Hall's
elegy on. 59.
Pareus, his Commentary burnt, 228.
Parker, Archbishop, 14.
Parsons, Jesuit, 155; escapes to the
Continent, 18 ;
Passing bell, the, 20.
Patna, Jesuit College at, 183.
Pattison, Mark, his " Life of Mil
ton," 356-
Paul's Cross, destruction of, 330.
Pekin, Jesuits at, 183.

INDEX.

451

Pelset, Mr., 7, 9.
Perkins, his preaching, etc., 27 ; an
extreme Calvinist, 200 ; Hall's
estimate of, 365.
Peter Martyr, 362.
Peterson, Dr., 418.
Pierce, Bishop of Bath and Wells,
327-
Pius V., Pope, his bull, i6\ 17, 154.
Playfair, 364.
Plummer's Hall, first Nonconformist
congregation at, 15.
Pope, his opinion of Hall's- Satires,
46.
Popham, Chief Justice, 41 ; Hall
introduced to, 42.
Possevin, his offers to- Thomas
James, 123.
Presbyterians, Scotch, 353,
Prestop, 1.
Prideaux, Dr., consulted by Hall,
285.
Primrose, Dr., consulted by Hall,
285 ; his account of Hall, etc.,
290.
Protest of the bishops, the, 384,
43°-
Prynne, W. , 2861
Psalms, the, metrical versions of,
94> 95-
Puritanism, 13, 15, 16, 25, 30, 33,
381.
Pusey, Dr., his funeral, 73,
Pusey House, 73.

" Quo Vadis?" the, 174, seq., 257.
R
Raleigh, n, 156.
Ramus, his logic, 3S> 361.
Rawlins, Mr., 418.
Regnell, Rebecca, 419.
Regnell, Richard, Mr., ib.
Remonstrants, the, 201.
Reynolds, quoted by , Sanderson,
133 ; Hall's estimate of, 366.
Ricci, Father, in China, 183.
Richardson, Chief Justice, prohibits
wakes, etc., 300.
Richer, Edmond, on Church and
State, 259.

Ringing of bells, 20, 21.
Rodd, Bamfilde, 310.
Rodd, James, ib.
Romanists, Queen Elizabeth's sever
ity towards, 75'
Rome, a truly visible Church, 252,
etc.
Root and Branch Bill, 332.
Roxburgh Club, the, 68, 70.

Sabbatarian controversy, 300.
Sadeel, 363-
Salisbury, Earl of, 109.
Sanderson, Bishop,, his vindication
of Hall, 133.
Saravia, view of episcopacy, 135, ;
Hall's regard for; 362-
Savile, Sir Henry,. 2.
Scory, his ordination, 374.
Scotch covenant, the-, 393.
Scultetus, 3.64.
Servetus, 156, 249 (v: also- Hall,
Calvin, Melanchthon).
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 2.
Shakspere, 52, 70; Hall's opinion
of, 54.
Ship-money, 17O1
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 5.
Shuckburgh, Mr., his description of
the Doit Medal, 213 {v. also Pre
face).
Sibthorp, his absolutism) rewarded,
166.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 12, 97.
Simon Magus, 374, 414.
Skipwith, Sir William, 2.
Smectymnuans, the, 49, 198, 340*
355, 372, 375- , , ,
Smith, Dr. Miles, death of, 241.
South America, Jesuit success in,
185.
Spalato, Archbishop of, 235, seq.
Spenser, Hall's censure of, but
admiration for, 54.
Spottiswood, Archbishop, consecra
tion of, 189.
Starkey, Mary, 213.
Struther, Mr., his letter to Hall, etc.,
192, 193.
Stubb, his "Anatomy of Abuses,
23-

452

INDEX.

Suidas, 98.
Sutton, Mr. Thomas, founder of
Charter House, Hall's letter to,
93, 123, seq.
Swift, whence the hint for " Gulli
ver's Travels ? " 60.
Swithin, St., his charge concerning
burial, 309.
Sydney College, 41.

Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 267, 379.
Temple, Bishop, 41.
Thomas, Thomas, Cambridge Puri
tan printer, 26.
Thompson, Rev. W., 43.
Tilenus, 204.
Tindal said to preach community,
374-
Tobacco, introduction of, 65, 103,
etc.
Toleration Act, the, 250.
Toleration not understood in Hall's
time, 250,
Tradition, 273.
Travers, 15, 25. 26, 27.
Trullan Council, the, 225.
U
Undergraduate life in Hall's time,
33-
Universities, the, character of, 62.
Urban VIII., Pope, his brief to
Louis XIII., 290 ; Hall's reply
to, ib.
Ussher, Archbishop, Hall's letter to
respecting episcopacy, 317 ; on
the sub-committee of bishops and
divines, 331; correspondence with
Hall, etc., 413.
Uytenbogaert defends Arminianism,

Valignano, Father, his work in
Japan, 184.
" Via Media," the, 226, 276.
Viret, 361, 375.
Virginia, II.
Vorstius, his treatise on the attri
butes of God, etc., 201.

W
Wadsworth, Hall's letters to, 33,
47 : his reply, ib.
Wagons, long, introduced into Eng
land, 76.
Waltham Church, 109.
Ward, Dr., at Dort, 203.
Warton, his opinions of Hall's
Satires, 46.
Weissberg, the battle of the, 222.
Weld, Gascoigne, 418.
Weld, Joseph, 419.
Wesley, John, 299.
Westminster Assembly, the, 398,
402.
Whalley, his opinion of Hall's
Satire's, 46.
Whitaker, Dr., Head of John's, 27 ;
Elegy on, 59 ; attempts to force
the Lambeth .Articles on the
Church, 73 ; his death, ib. ; Hall's
estimate of, 365.
Whitefoot, Rev. John, his funeral
sermon on Hall, 423.
Whitgift, Archbishop, his vigorous
administration, 15 ; suppresses
Hall's Satires, 43.
Wickliffe, taxed with blasphemy,
374-
Wild, Serjeant, 397.
Williams, Archbishop, Hall's silence
concerning, 367 ; advises the
Bishops to protest, etc., 384, seq.
Willius, Hall's letter to, 231.
Winniff, Mr. George, 69.
Wiseman, Sir Richard, 383.
Wishart, George, his death, 187.
Withecombe, the disaster at, 310.
Wolverhampton, 147, seq.
Wren, Bishop, impeachment of,
327 : approved the alteration of
the Scotch Liturgy, 354 ; his rule
at Norwich, 395.

Yarmouth, S. Nicholas', 1 12.
Young, Dr., Dean of Winchester,
189, 227. Z
Zanchius, Basilio, 362. ^4
Zanchius, Girolamo, 363.

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