advis'd him to return presently to England and joy the King with his new and better Title and there wait upon Fortune for a better employment When King James came into England he found amongst other of the late Queens Officers the Lord Wotton Comptroller of the House of whom he demanded If he knew one Henry Wotton that had spent much time in forreign Travel The Lord replied he knew him well and that he was his Brother then the King asking where he then was was answered at Venice or Florence but by late Letters from thence he understood he would suddenly be at Paris Send for him said the King and when he shall come into England bid him repair to me The Lord Wotton after a little wonder asked the King If he knew him to which the King answered You must rest unsatisfied of that till you bring the Gentleman to me Not many Months after this Discourse the Lord Wotton brought his brother to attend the King who took him in His Arms and bade him welcome by the name of Octavio Baldi saying he was the most honest and therefore the best Dissembler that ever he met with And said Seeing I know you neither want Learning Travel nor Experience and that I have had so real a Testimony of your faithfulness and abilities to manage an Embassage I have sent for you to declare my purpose which is to make use of you in that kind hereafter And indeed the King did so most of those two and twenty years of his Raign but before he dismist Octavio Baldi from his present attendance upon him he restored him to his old name of Henry Wotton by which he then knighted him Not long after this the King having resolved according to his Motto Beati pacifici to have a friendship with his Neighbour Kingdoms of France and Spain and also for divers weighty reasons to enter into an Alliance with the State of Venice and to that end to send Ambassadors to those several places did propose the choice of these Employments to Sir Henry Wotton who considering the smallness of his own Estate which he never took care to augment and knowing the Courts of great Princes to be sumptuous and necessarily expensive inclined most to that of Venice as being a place of more retirement and best suiting with his Genius who did ever love to joyn with Business Study and a tryal of natural Experiments for both which fruitful Italy that Darling of Nature and Cherisher of all Arts is so justly framed in all parts of the Christian World Sir Henry having after some short time and consideration resolved upon Venice and a large allowance being appointed by the King for his voyage thither and a setled maintenance during his stay there he left England nobly accompanied through France to Venice by Gentlemen of the best families and breeding that this Nation afforded they were too many to name but these two for following reasons may not be omitted Sir Albertus Morton his Nephew who went his Secretary and William Bedel a man of choice Learning and sanctified Wisdom who went his Chaplain And though his dear friend Dr. Donne then a private Gentleman was not one of that Number that did personally accompany him in this Voyage yet the reading of this following Letter sent by him to Sir Henry Wotton the morning before he left England may testifie he wanted not his friends best wishes to attend him SIR AFter those reverend papers whose soul is Our good and great Kings lov'd hand and feard name By which to you he derives much of his And how he may makes you almost the same A Taper of his Torch a Copy writ From his Original and a fair Beam Of the same warm and dazling Sun though it Must in another Sphere his vertue stream After those Learned Papers which your hand Hath stor'd with notes of use and pleasure too From which rich treasury you may command Fit matter whether you will write or do After those loving Papers where Friends send With glad grief to your Sea-ward-steps farewel Which thicken on you now as prayers ascend To heaven on troops at a good mans passing-bell Admit this honest Paper and allow It such an audience as your self would ask What you would say at Venice this sayes now And has for nature what you have for task To swear much love nor to be chang'd before Honour alone will to your fortune fit Nor shall I then honour your fortune more Than I have done your honour-wanting-wit But 't is an easier load though both oppress To want than govern greatness for we are In that our own and onely business In this we must for others vices care 'T is therefore well your spirits now are plac'd ore-past In their last furnace in activity Which fits them Schools and Courts and Wars To touch and taste in any best degree For me if there be such a thing as I Fortune if there be such a thing as she Finds that I bear so well her tyrannie That she thinks nothing else so fit for me But though she part us to hear my oft prayers For your increase God is as near me here And to send you what I shall beg his stairs In length and ease are alike every where J. Donne SIR Henry Wotton was received by the State of Venice with much honour and gladness both for that he delivered his Embassage most elegantly in the Italian Language and came also in such a Juncture of time as his Masters friendship seem'd useful for that Republick the time of his coming thither was about the year 1604. Leonardo Donato being then Duke a wise and resolv'd man and to all purposes such Sir Henry VVotton would often say it as the State of Venice could not then have wanted there having been formerly in the time of Pope Clement the eighth some contests about the priviledges of Church-men and the power of the Civil Magistrate of which for the information of common Readers I shall say a little because it may give light to some passages that follow About the year 1603. the Republick of Venice made several Injunctions against Lay-persons giving Lands or Goods to the Church without Licence from the Civil-Magistrate and in that inhibition they exprest their reasons to be For that when it once came into the hands of the Ecclesiasticks it was not subject to alienation by reason whereof the lay people being at their death charitable even to excess the Clergy grew every day more numerous and pretending exemption from all publick service and taxes the burthen did grow too heavy to be born by the Laity Another occasion of difference was That about this time complaints were justly made by the Venetians against two Clergy-men the Abbot of Nervesa and a Canon of Vicenza for committing such sins as I think not fit to name nor are these mentioned with an Intent to fix a Scandal upon any Calling for holiness is not tyed to Ecclesiastical Orders and
Italy is observed to breed the most vertuous and most vicious men of any Nation these two having been long complained of at Rome in the name of the State of Venice and no satisfaction being given to the Venetians they seised their persons and committed them to prison The justice or injustice of such power then used by the Venetians had formerly had some calm debates betwixt the present Pope Clement the Eighth and that Republick for he did not excommunicate them considering as I conceive that in the late Council of Trent it was at last after many Politique disturbances and delayes and indeavours to preserve the Popes present power declar'd in order to a general reformation of those many Errours which were in time crept into the Church that though Discipline and especial Excommunication be one of the chief sinews of Church government and intended to keep men in obedience to it for which end it was declar'd to be very profitable yet it was also declar'd and advised to be used with great sobriety and care because experience had informed them that when it was pronounced unadvisedly or rashly it became more contemn'd then fear'd And though this was the advice of that Council at the Conclusion of it which was not many years before this quarrel with the Venetians yet this prudent patient Pope Clement dying Pope Paul the fiâ—t who succeeded him being a man of a much hotter temper brought this difference with the Venetians to a much higher Contention objecting those late acts of that State to be a diminution of his just power and limited a time for their revocation threatning if he were not obeyed to proceed to excommunication of the Republick who still offered to shew both reason and ancient custom to warrant their Actions But this Pope contrary to his Predecessors moderation required absolute obedience without disputes Thus it continued for about a year the Pope still threatning Excommunication and the Venetians still answering him with fair speeches and no performance till at last the Popes zeal to the Apostolick Sea did make him to excommunicate the Duke the whole Senate and all their Dominions and then shut up all their Churches charging the whole Clergy to forbear all sacred Offices to the Venetians till their Obedience should render them capable of Absolution But this act of the Popes did the more confirm the Venetians in their resolution not to obey him And to that end upon the hearing of his Interdict they presently published by sound of Trumpet a Proclamation to this effect That whosoever hath received from Rome any Copy of a Papal interdict publish'd there well against the Law of God as against the Honour of this Nation shall presently render it to the Councel of Ten upon pain of death Then was the Inquisition presently suspended by Order of the State and the Flood-gates being thus set open any pleasant or scoffing wit might safely vent it self against the Pope either by free speaking or in Print Matters thus heightned the State advised with Father Paul a holy and Learned Fryer the Authour of the History of the Council of Trent whose advice was Neither to Provoke the Pope nor lose their own Right he declaring publickly in Print in the name of the State That the Pope was trusted to keep two Keyes one of Prudence and the other of Power And that if they were not both used together Power alone is not effectual in an Excommunication And thus it continued till a report was blown abroad that the Venetians were all turned Protestants which was believed by many for that it was observ'd the English Ambassadour was so often in conference with the Senate aud his Chaplain Mr. Bedel more often with Father Paul And also for that the Republick of Venice was known to give Commisâ—â—on to Gregory Justiniano then their Ambassadour in England to make all these proceedings known to the King and to crave a Promise of his assistance if need should require and in the mean time the King's advice and judgment which was the same that he gave to Pope Clement at his first coming to the Crown of England that Pope then moving him to an Union with the Roman Church namely To endeavour the calling of a free Council for the settlement of peace in Christendom And that he doubed not but that the French King and divers other Princes would joyn to assist in so good a work and in the mean time the sin of this Breach both with his and the Venetians Dominions must of necessity lie at the Pope's door In this contention which lasted several years the Pope grew still higher and the Venetians more resolv'd and careless still acquainting King James with their proceedings which was done by the help of Sir Henry Wotton Mr. Bedel and Padre Paulo whom the Venetians did then call to be one of their Consultors of State and with his Pen to defend their Cause which was by him so performed that the Pope saw plainly he had weakned his Power by exceeding it and offered the Venetians Absolution upon very easie terms which the Venetians still slighting did at last obtain by that which was scarce so much as a shew of acknowledging it For they made an order that in that day in which they were absolv'd there should be no publick rejoycing nor any Bonefires that night lest the Common people might judg they were absolved for committing a fault These Contests were the occasion of Padre Paulo his knowledge and interest with King James for whose sake principally Padre Paul compiled that eminent History of the remarkable Council of Trent which History was as fast as it was written sent in several sheets in Letters by Sir Henry VVotton Mr Bedel and Mr. Bedel and others unto King James and the then Bishop of Canterbury in England and there first made publick both in English and in the universal Language For eight years after Sir Henry Wottons going into Italy he stood fair and highly valued in the Kings opinion but at last became much clouded by an accident which I shall proceed to relate At his first going Embassadour into Italy as he passed through Germany he stayed some dayes at Augusta where having been in his former Travels well known by many of the best note for Learning and Ingeniousness those that are esteemed the Virtuosi of that Nation with whom he passing an evening in merriments was requested by Christopher Flecamore to write some Sentence in his Albo a Book of white paper which for that purpose many of the German Gentry usually carry about then and Sir Henry Wotton consenting to the motion took an occasion from some accidental discourse of the present Company to write a pleasant definition of an Embassadour in these very words Legatus est vir bonus peregre mismissus ad mentiendum Reipublicae causâ Which Sir Henry Wotton could have been content should have been thus Englished An Ambassadour is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good
holy numbers weave A Crown of Sacred Sonnets sit to adorn A dying Martyrs brow or to be worn On that blest head of Mary Magdalen After she wip'd Christs feet but not till then Did he fit for such Penitents as she And he to use leave us a Letanie Which all devout men love and doubtless shall As times grow better grow more Classicall Did he write Hymns for Piety and Wit Equal to those great grave Prudentius writ Spake he all Languages Knew he all Laws The grounds and use of Physick but because 'T was mercenary wav'd it went to see That happy place of Christs Nativity Did he return and preach him preach him so As since St. Paul none ever did they know Those happy souls that hear'd him know this truth Did he confirm thy ag'd convert thy youth Did he these wonders and is his dear loss Mourn'd by so few few for so great a Cross. But sure the silent are ambitious all To be close Mourners at his Funerall If not in common pity they forbear By Repititions to renew our care Or knowing grief conceiv'd and bid consumes Mans life insensibly as poyson fumes Corrupt the brain take silence for the way To'inlarge the soul from these walls mud and clay Materials of this body to remain With him in Heaven where no promiscuous pain Lessens those joyes we have for with him all Are satisfied with joyes essentiall Dwell on these joyes my thoughts oh do not call Grief back by thinking on his Funerall Forget he lov'd me waste not my swift years Which haste to Davids seventy fill'd with fears And sorrows for his death Forget his parts They find a living grave in good mens hearts And for my first is daily paid for sin Forget to pay my second sigh for him Forget his powerful preaching and forget I am his Convert Oh my frailty let My flesh be no more heard it will obtrude This Lethargy so shou'd my gratitude My vows of gratitude shou'd so be broke Which can no more be than his vertues spoke By any but himself for which cause I Write no Incomiums but this Elegy Which as a Free-will offering I here give Fame and the World and parting with it grieve I want abilities fit to set forth A Monument great as Donne's matchless worth April 7. 1631. Iz Wa. FINIS THE LIFE OF S r HENRY WOTTON SOMETIME Provost of Eaton Colledge There are them that have left a name behinde them so that their praise shall be spoken of Ecclus. 44. 8. LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Richard Marriot and sold by most Booksellers 1670. THE LIFE OF Sir HENRY WOTTON SIR Henry Wotton whose Life I now intend to write was born in the year of our Redemption 1568. in Bocton-hall commonly called Bocton or Bougton place in the Parish of Bocton Malherb in the fruitful Country of Kent Bocton-hall being an ancient and goodly structure beautifying and being beautified by the Parish Church of Bocton Malherb adjoyning unto it and both seated within a fair Park of the Wottons on the Brow of such a Hill as gives the advantage of a large Prospect and of equal pleasure to all Beholders But this House and Church are not remarkable for any thing so much as for that the memorable Family of the Wottons have so long inhabited the one and now lie buried in the other as appears by their many Monuments in that Church the Wottons being a Family that hath brought forth divers Persons eminent for Wisdom and Valour whose Heroick Acts and Noble Imployments both in England and in forraign parts have adorn'd themselves and this Nation which they have served abroad faithfully in the discharge of their great trust and prudently in their Negotiations with several Princes and also serv'd it at home with much Honour and Justice in their wise managing a great part of the publick affairs thereof in the various times both of War and Peace But lest I should be thought by any that may incline either to deny or doubt this Truth not to have observed Moderation in the commendation of this Family And also for that I believe the Merits and Memory of such persons ought to be thankfully recorded I shall offer to the consideration of every Reader out of the testimony of their Pedegree and our Chronicles a part and but a part of that just Commendation which might be from thence enlarged and shall then leave the indifferent Reader to judge whether my errour be an excess or defect of Commendations Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight was born in the year of Christ 1463. He living in the Reign of King Edward the fourth was by him trusted to be Lieutenant of Guisnes to be Knight Porter and Comptroller of Callais where he dyed and lies honourably buried Sir Edward Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight Son and Heir of the said Sir Robert was born in the year of Christ 1489. in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh He was made Treasurer of Callais and of Privie-Councel to King Henry the Eight who offered him to be Lord Chancellour of England but saith Hollinshed out of a virtuous modesty he refused it Thomas Wotton of Bocton Malherb Esquire Son and Heir of the said Sir Edward and the Father of our Sir Henry that occasions this relation was born in the year of Christ 1521. He was a Gentleman excellently educated and studious in all the Liberal Arts in the knowledg whereof he attained unto a great perfection who though he had besides those abilities a very Noble and plentiful estate and the ancient Interest of his Predecessors many invitations from Queen Elizabeth to change his Country Recreations and Retirement for a Court-Life offering him a Knight-hood she was then with him at his Bocton-hall and that to be but as an earnest of some more honorable and more profitable imployment under Her yet he humbly refused both being a man of great modesty of a most plain and single heart of an antient freedom and integrity of mind A commendation which Sir Henry Wotton took occasion often to remember with great gladness and thankfully to boast himself the Son of such a Father From whom indeed he derived that noble ingenuity that was alwayes practised by himself and which he ever both commended and cherish'd in others This Thomas was also remarkable for Hospitality a great Lover and much beloved of his Country to which may justly be added that he was a Cherisher of Learning as appears by that excellent Antiquary M. William Lambert in his perambulation of Kent This Thomas had four sons Sir Edward Sir James Sir John and Sir Henry Sir Edward was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and made Comptroller of Her Majesties Houshould He was saith Cambden a man remarkable for many and great Imployments in the State during her Reign and sent several times Ambassadour into Forraign Nations After her death he was by King James made Comptroller of his Houshold and called to be of his
Privy-Councel and by him advanced to be Lord Wotton Baron of Merley in Kent and made Lord Lieutenant of that County Sir James the second son may be numbred among the Martial men of his age who was in the 38 of Queen Elizabeths Reign with Robert Earl of Sussex Count Lodowick of Nassaw Don Christophoro son of Antonio King of Portugal and divers other Gentlemen of Nobleness and Valour Knighted in the Field near Cadiz in Spain after they had gotten great Honour and Riches besides a notable retaliation of Injuries by taking that Town Sir John being a Gentleman excellently accomplished both by Learning and Travel was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and by her look'd upon with more then ordinary favour and intentions of preferment but Death in his younger years put a period to his growing hopes Of Sir Henry my following discourse shall give an account The descent of these fore-named Wottons were all in a direct Line and most of them and their actions in the memory of those with whom we have conversed But if I had look'd so far back as to Sir Nicolas Wotton who lived in the Reign of King Richard the second or before him upon divers others of great note in their several Ages I might by some be thought tedious and yet others may more justly think me negligent if I omit to mention Nicholas Wotton the fourth Son of Sir Robert whom I first named This Nicholas Wotton was Doctor of Law and sometime Dean of Canterbury a man whom God did not onely bless with a long life but with great abilities of mind and an inclination to imploy them in the service of his Country as is testified by his several Imployments having been sent nine times Ambassadour unto forraign Princes and being a Privy Councellor to King Henry the eighth to Edward the sixth to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth who also after he had during the Wars between England Scotland and France been three several times and not unsuccessfully imployed in Committies for setling of peace betwixt this and those Kingdomes dyed saith learned Cambden full of Commendations for Wisdom and Piety He was also by the Will of King Henry the eighth made one of his Executors and chief Secretary of State to his Son that pious Prince Edward the sixth Concerning which Nicholas Wotton I shall say but this little more That he refused being offered it by Queen Elizabeth to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury and that he dyed not rich though he lived in that time of the dissolution of Abbeys More might be added but by this it may appear that Sir Henry Wotton was a Branch of such a kindred as left a Stock of Reputation to their Posterity such Reputation as might kindle a generous emulation in strangers and preserve a noble ambition in those of his name and Family to perform Actions worthy of their Ancestors And that Sir Henry Wotton did so might appear more perfectly then my Pen can express it if of his many surviving friends some one of higher parts and imployment had been pleased to have commended his to Posterity But since some years are now past and they have all I know not why forborn to do it my gratitude to the memory of my dead friend and the renewed request of some that still live solicitous to see this duty performed these have had a power to perswade me to undertake it which truly I have not done but with some distrust of mine own Abilities and yet so far from despair that I am modestly confident my humble language shall be accepted because I present all Readers with a Commixture of truth and Sir Henry Wotton's merits This being premised I proceed to tell the Reader that the father of Sir Henry Wotton was twice married first to Elizabeth the Daughter of Sir John Rudstone Knight after whose death though his inclination was averse to all Contentions yet necessitated he was to several Suits in Law in the prosecution whereof which took up much of his time and were the occasion of many Discontents he was by divers of his friends earnestly perswaded to a re-marriage to whom he as often answered That if ever he did put on a resolution to marry he was seriously resolved to avoid three sorts of persons namely those that had Children that had Law-suits that were of his Kindred And yet following his own Law-suits he met in Westminster-Hall with one Mistress Morton Widow to Morton of Kent Esquire who was also engaged in several suits in Law and he observing her Comportment at the time of hearing one of her Causes before the Judges could not but at the same time both compassionate her Condition and yet so affect her Person that although there were in her a concurrence of all those accidents against which he had so seriously resolved yet his affection to her grew then so strong that he resolved to solicite her for a Wife and did and obtained her By her who was the Daughter of Sir William Finch of Eastwell in Kent he had Henry his youngest son His Mother undertook to be Tutoress unto him during much of his Childhood for whose care and pains he paid her each day with such visible signes of future perfection in Learning as turned her imployment into a pleasing-trouble which she was content to continue till his Father took him into his own particular care and disposed of him to a Tutor in his own House at Bocton And when time and diligent instruction had made him fit for a removal to an higher Form which was very early he was sent to Winchester-School a place of strict Discipline and Order that so he might in his youth be moulded into a Method of living by Rule which his wise Father knew to be the most necessary way to make the future part of his life both happy to himself and useful for the discharge of all business whether publick or private And that he might be confirmed in this regularity he was at a fit age removed from that School to New-Colledge in Oxford both being founded by William Wickham Bishop of VVinchester There he continued till about the eighteenth year of his Age and was then transplanted into Queens-Colledge where within that year he was by the chief of that Colledge perswasively injoyned to write a play for their private use it was the Tragedy of Tancredo which was so interwoven with Sentences and for the Method and exact personating those humours passions and dispositions which he proposed to represent so performed that the gravest of that society declared he had in a sleight imployment given an early and a solid testimony of his future abilities And though there may be some sower dispositions which may think this not worth a memorial yet that wise Knight Baptista Guarini whom learned Italy accounts one of her ornaments thought it neither an uncomely nor an unprofitable imployment for his Age. But I pass to what will be thought more serious About the nineteenth
of a contrary Faction suddenly caused his Commitment to the Tower Sir Henry Wotton observing this though he was not of that Faction for the Earls followers were also divided into their several interests which incouraged the Earl to those undertakings which proved so fatal to him and divers of his Confederation yet knowing Treason to be so comprehensive as to take in even Circumstances and out of them to make such Conclusions as subtle States-men shall project either for their revenge or safety considering this he thought prevention by absence out of England a better security than to stay in it and plead his innocency in a Prison Therefore did he so soon as the Earl was apprehended very quickly and as privately glide through Kent to Dover without so much as looking toward his native and beloved Bocton and was by the help of favourable winds and liberal payment within Sixteen hours after his departure from London set upon the French shore where he heard shortly after that the Earl was Arraign'd Condemned and Beheaded that his Friend Mr. Cuffe was hang'd and divers other persons of Eminent Quality executed The Times did not look so favourably upon Sir Henry Wotton as to invite his return into England having therefore procured of his elder brother the Lord Wotton an assurance that his Annuity should be paid him in Italy thither he went happily renewing his intermitted friendship and interest and indeed his great content in a new conversation with his old acquaintance in that Nation and more particularly in Florence which City is not more eminent for the great Dukes Court then for the great recourse of men of choicest note for Learning and Arts in which number he there met with his old Friend Seignior Vietta a Gentleman of Venice and then taken to be Secretary to the Great Duke of Tâ—â—cany After some stay in Florence he went the 4th time to visit Rome where in the English Colledge he had very many Friends their humanity made them really so though they knew him to be a dissenter from many of their Principles of Religion and having enjoyed their company and satisfied himself concerning some Curiosities that did partly occasion his Journey thither he returned back to Florence where a most notable accident befell him an accident that did not onely find new employment for his choice Abilities but introduce him a knowledge and an interest with our King James then King of Scotland which I shall proceed to relate But first I am to tell the Reader That though Queen Elizabeth or she and her Council were never willing to declare her Successor yet James then King of the Scots was confidently believed by most to be the man upon whom the sweet trouble of Kingly Government would be imposed and the Queen declining very fast both by age and visible infirmities those that were of the Romish perswasion in point of Religion even Rome it self and those of this Nation knowing that the death of the Queen and the establishing of her Successor were taken to be critical dayes for destroying or establishing the Protestant Religion in this Nation did therefore improve all opportunities for preventing a Protestant Prince to succeed Her And as the Pope's Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth had both by the judgement and practice of the Jesuited Papist exposed Her to be warrantably destroyed so if we may believe an angry Adversary a secular Priest against a Jesuite you may believe that about that time there were many endeavours first to excommunicate and then to shorten the life of King James Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to Florence which was about a year before the death of Queen Elizabeth Ferdinand the great Duke of Florence had intercepted certain Letters that discovered a design to take away the life of the then King of Scots The Duke abhorring the Fact and resolving to endeavour a prevention of it advised with his Secretary Vietta by what means a caution might be best given to that King and after consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry Wotton whom Vietta first commended to the Duke and the Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that frequented his Court. Sir Henry was gladly called by his Friend Vietta to the Duke who after much profession of trust and friendship acquainted him with the secret and beâ—ng well instructed dispatched him into Scotland with Letters to the King and with those Letters such Italian Antidotes against poyson â—s the Scots till then had been strangers to Having partel from the Duke he took up the name and language of an Italian and thinking it best to avoâ—d the line of English intelligence and dangeâ— he posted into Norway and through that Câ—untry towards Scotland where he found the Kâ—ng at Sterling then he used means by Bernard Lindsey one of the Kings Bed-Chamber to procure him a speedy and private conference with His Majesty assuring him That the business which he was to negotiate was of such consequence as had caused the great Duke of Tuscany to enjoyn him suddenly â—o leave his Native Countrey of Italy to impart it to his King This being by Bernard Lindsey mâ—de known to the King the King after a little wonder mixt with jealousie to hear of an Italian Ambassador or Messenger required his name which was said to be Octavio Baldi and appointed him to be heard privately â—t a fixed hour that Evening When Octavio Baldi came to the Presenceâ— Chamber-door he was requested to lay aside his long Rapier which Italian-like he then wore and being entred the Chamber he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords standing distant in several corrers of the Chamber At the sight of whom he made a stand which the King observing bâ—d him be bold and deliver his Message for he wouâ—d undertake for the secresie of all that were presenâ— Then did Octavio Baldi deliver his Letterâ—s and his Message to the King in Italian which â—hen the King had graciously â—eceived after a little pause Octavio Baldi steps to the Table anâ— whispers to the King in his own Language that he was an English man beseeching Him for a more private conference with His Majesty and that he might be concealed during hâ—s stay in that Nation which was promised and really performed by the King during all his abode there which was about three Months all which time was spent with much pleasantness to the King and with as much to Octavio Baldi himself as that Countrey could afford from which he departed as true an Italian as he came thither To the Duke at Florence he return'd with a fair and grateful account of his employment and within some few Months after his return there came certain News to Florence that Queen Elizabeth was dead and James King of the Scots proclaimed King of England The Duke knowing travel and business to be the best Schools of wisdom and that Sir Henry Wotton had been tutor'd in both
Merit and did therefore desire him to accept of that Jewel as a Testimony of his good opinion of him which was a Jewel of Diamonds of more value then a thousand pounds This was received with all Circumstances and terms of Honour by Sir Henry Wotton but the next morning at his departing from Vienna at his taking leave of the Countess of Sabrina an Italian Lady in whose House the Emperour had appointed him to be lodg'd and honourably entertained He acknowledged her Merits and besought her to accept of that Jewel as a testimony of his gratitude for her Civilities presenting her with the same that was given him by the Emperour which being suddenly discovered by the Emperour was by him taken for a high affront and Sir Henry Wotton told so To which he replyed That though he received it with thankfulness yet he found in himself an indisposition to be the better for any gift that came from an Enemy to his Royal Mistress the Queen of Bohemia for so she was pleased he should alwayes call her Many other of his services to his Prince and this Nation might be insisted upon as namely his procuration of Priviledges and courtesies with the German Princes and the Republick of Venice for the English Merchants and what he did by direction of King James with the Venetian State concerning the Bishop of Spalato's return to the Church of Rome But for the particulars of these and many more that I mean to make known I want a view of some papers that might inform me his late Majesties Letter-Office having suffered a strange alienation and indeed I want time too for the Printers Press-stayes so that I must haste to bring Sir Henry Wotton in an instant from Venice to London leaving the Reader to make up what is defective in this place by this small supplement of the inscription under his Armes which he left at all those houses where he rested or lodged when he returned from his last Embassie into England Henricus Wottonius Anglo-Cantianus Thomae optimi viri filius natu minimus a serenissimo Jacobo I. Mag. Britt Rege in equestrem titulum adscitus ejusdemque ter ad Rempublicam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius semel ad confaederatarum Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacensi negotio Bis ad Carolum Emanuel Sabaudiae Ducem semel ad unitos superioris Gâ—rmaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunensi postremo ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wittembergensem Civitates imperiales Argentinam Ulmamque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum secundum Legatus Extraordinarius tandem hoc didicit Animas fieri sapientiores quiescendo To London he came that year in which King James dyed who having for the reward of his forreign service promised him the reversion of an Office which was fit to be turned into present money for a supply of his present necessities and also granted him the reversion of the Master of the Rolls place if he out-lived charitable Sir Julius Caesar who then possessed it and then grown so old that he was said to be kept alive beyond Natures Course by the prayers of those many poor which he daily relieved But these were but in hope and his condition required a present support For in the beginning of these imployments he sold to his elder brother the Lord Wotton the Rent-charge left by his good Father and which is worse was now at his return indebted to several persons whom he was not able to satisfie but by the Kings payment of his Arrears due for his forreign Imployments He had brought into England many servants of which some were German and Italian Artists this was part of his condition who had many times hardly sufficient to supply the occasions of the day For it may by no means be said of his providence as himself said of Sir Philip Sidney's wit That it was the very measure of congruity He being alwayes so careless of money as though our Saviours wores Care not for to morrow were to be literally understood But it pleased God that in this juncture of time the Provostship of His Majesties Colledge of Eaton became void by the death ofâ— Murray for which there were as the place deserv'd many earnest and powerful Suiters to the King Sir Henry who had for many years like Siciphus rolled the restless stone of a State imployment and knowing experimentally that the great blessing of sweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business and that a Colledge was the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts and to afford rest both to his body and mind which his age being now almost threescore years seemed to require did therefore use his own and the interest of all his friends to procure it By which means and quitting the King of his promised reversionary Offices and a piece of honest policy which I have not time to relate he got a Grant of it from His Majesty And this was a fair settlement for his mind but money was wanting to furnish him with those necessaries which attend removes and a settlement in such a place and to procure that he wrote to his old friend Mr. Nicholas Pey for his assistance of which Nicholas Pey I shall here say a little for the clearing of something that I shall say hereafter He was in his youth a Clerk or in some such way a servant to the Lord Wotton Sir Henry's brother and by him when he was Comptroller of the Kings Houshold was made a great Officer in His Majesties house This and other favours being conferred upon Mr. Pey in whom was a radical honesty were alwayes thankfully acknowledged by him and his gratitude exprest by a willing and unwearied serviceableness to that Family even till his death To him Sir Henry Wotton wrote to use all his inâ—â—â—â— at Court to procure Five hundred pounds of his Arrears for less would not settle him â—â—â— Colledge and the want of it wrinkled â—â—â—â—â— with care 't was his own expression and thâ—r being procured he should the next day after find him in his Colledge and Invidiae remedium writ over his Study door This money being part of his Arrears was by his own and the help of honest Nicholas Pey's interest in Court quickly procured him and he as quickly in the Colledge the place where indeed his happiness then seemed to have its beginning the Colledge being to his mind as a quiet Harbor to a Sea-faring-man after a tempestuous voyage where by the bounty of the pious Founder his very Food and Rayment were plentifully provided for him in kind where he was freed from all corroding cares and seated on such a Rock as the waves of want could not probably shake where he might sit in a Calm and looking down behold the busie multitude turmoyl'd and tossed in a tempestuous Sea of dangers And as Sir William Davenant has happily exprest the like of another person Laugh at the graver business of the State Which speaks men rather wise than
1670. Sam Woodforde The LIFE OF Mr. GEORGE HERBERT THE Introduction IN a late retreat from the business of this World and those many little cares with which I have too often incumbred my self I fell into a Contemplation of some of those Historical passages that are recorded in Sacred Story and more particularly of what had past betwixt our Blessed Saviour and that wonder of Women and Sinners and Mourners Saint Mary Magdalen I call her Saint because I did not then nor do now consider her as when she was possest with seven Devils not as when her wanton Eyes and dissheveld Hair were designed and manag'd to charm and insnare amorous Beholders But I did then and do now consider her as after she had exprest a visible and sacred sorrow for her sensualities as after those Eyes had wept such a flood of penitential tears as did wash and that hair had wip't and she most passionately kist the feet of hers and our blessed Jesus And I do now consider that because she lov'd much not only much was forgiven her but that beside that blessed blessing of having her sins pardoned she also had from him a testimony that her alablaster box of precious oyntment poured on his head and feet and that Spikenard and those Spices that were by her dedicated to embalm and preserve his sacred body from putrefaction should so far preserve her own memory that these demonstrations of her sanctified love and of her officious and generous gratitude should be recorded and mentioned wheresoever his Gospel should be read intending thereby that as his so her name should also live to succeeding generations even till time shall be no more Upon occasion of which fair example I did lately look back and not without some content at least to my self that I have endeavour'd to deserve the love and preserve the memory of my two deceased friends Dr. Donne and Sir Henry Wotton by declaring the various employments and accidents of their Lives And though Mr. George Herbert whose Life I now intend to write were to me a stranger as to his person yet since he was and was worthy to be their friend and very many of his have been mine I judge it may not be unacceptable to thoseâ— that knew any of them in their lives or do now know their Writings to see this Conjunction of them after their deaths without which many things that concern'd them and some things that concern'd the Age in which they livâ—d would be less perfect and lost to posterity For these Reasons I have undertaken it and if I have prevented any abler person I beg pardon of him and my Reader The Life GEorge Herbert was born the Third day of April in the Year of our Redemption 1593. The place of his Birth was near to the Town of Montgomery and in that Castle that did then bear the name of that Town and County that Castle was then a place of state and strength and had been successively happy in the Family of the Herberts who had long possest it and with it a plentiful Estate and hearts as liberal to their poor Neighbours A Family that hath been blest with men of remarkable wisdom and with a willingness to serve their Countrey and indeed to do good to all Mankind for which they were eminent But alas this Family did in the late Rebellion suffer extremely in their Estates and the Heirs of that Castle saw it laid level with that earth that was too good to bury those Wretches that were the cause of it The Father of our George was Richard Herbert the Son of Edward Herbert Knight the Son of Richard Herbert Knight the Son of the famous Sir Richard Herbert of Colebrook in the County of Monmouth Banneret who was the youngest Brother of that memorable William Herbert Earl of Pembroke that liv'd in the Reign of our King Edward the fourth His Mother was Magdalen Newport the youngest Daughter of Sir Richard and Sister to Sir Francis Newport of High Arkall in the County of Salop Knight and Grand-father of Francis Lord Newport now Comptroller of His Majesties Houshold A Family that for their Loyalty have suffered much in their Estates and seen the ruine of that excellent Structure where their Ancestors have long liv'd and been memorable for their Hospitality This Mother of George Herbert of whose person and wisdom and vertue I intend to give a true account in a seasonable place was the happy Mother of seven Sons and three Daughters which she would often say was Jobs number and as often bless God that they were neither defective in their shapes or in their reason and often reprove them that did not praise God for so great a blessing I shall give the Reader a short accompt of their names and not say much of their Fortunes Edward the eldest was first made Knight of the Bath at that glorious time of our late Prince Henries being install'd Knight of the Garter and after many years useful travel and the attainment of many Languages he was by King James sent Ambassador Resident to the then French King Lewis the Thirteenth There he continued about two Years but he could not subject himself to a compliance with the humors of the Duke de Luines who was then the great and powerful Favourite at Court so that upon a complaint to our King he was call'd back into England in some displeasure but at his return he gave such an honourable account of his employment and so justified his Comportment to the Duke and all the Court that he was suddenly sent back upon the same Embassie from which he return'd in the beginning of the Reign of our good King Charles the first who made him first Baron of Castle-Island and not long after of Cherberie in the County of Salop He was a man of great learning and reason as appears by his printed Book de veritate and by his History of the Reign of King Henry the Eight and by several other Tracts The second and third Brothers were Richard and William who ventur'd their lives to purchase Honour in the Wars of the Low Countries and dyed Officers in that employment Charles was the fourth and dyed Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxford Henry was the sixth who became a menial servant to the Crown in the dayes of King James and hath continued to be so for fifty years during all which time he hath been Master of the Revels a place that requires a diligent wisdome with which God hath blest him The seventh Son was Thomas who being made Captain of a Ship in that Fleet with which Sir Robert Mansell was sent against Algiers â—id there shew a fortunate and true English valor Of the three Sisters I need not say more then that they were all married to persons of worth and plentiful fortunes and liv'd to be examples of vertue and to do good in their generations I now come to give my intended account of George who was the fifth of
year of his Age he proceeded Master of Arts and at that time read in Latine three Lectures â—e Oculo wherein he having described the Form the Motion the curious composure of the Eye and demonstrated how of those very many every humour and nerve performs its distinct Office so as the God of Order hath appointed without mixture or confusion and all this to the advantage of man to whom it is given not onely as the bodies guide but whereas all other of his senses require time to inform the Soul this in an instant apprehends and warns him of danger teaching him in the very eyes of others to discover wit folly love and hatred After these observations he fell to dispute this Optique question VVhether we see by the Emission of the Beams from within or Reception of the Species from without and after that and many other like learned disquisitions in the Conclusion of his Lectures he took a fair occasion to beautifie his discourse with a Commendation of the blessing and benefit of Seeing By which we do not only discover Natures Secrets but with a continued content for the eye is never weary of seeing behold the great Light of the VVorld and by it discover the Fabrick of the Heavens and both the Order and Motion of the Celestial Orbs nay that if the eye look but downward it may rejoyce to behold the bosome of the Earth our common Mother embroidered and adorned with numberless and various Flowers which man sees daily grow up to perfection and then silently moralize his own condition who in a short time like those very Flowers decayes withers and quickly returns again to that Earth from which both had thei first being These were so exactly debated and so Rhetorically heightned as among other admirers caused that learned Italian Albericus Gentilis then Professor of the Civil Law in Oxford to call him Henrice mi ocelle which dear expression of his was also used by divers of Sir Henry's dearest Friends and by many other persons of Note during his stay in the University But his stay there was not long at least not so long as his â—riends once intended for the year after Sir Henry proceeded Master of Arts his father whom Sir Henry did never mention without this or some like reverential expression as That good man my father or My father the best of men about that time this good man changed this for a better life leaving to Sir Henry as to his other younger sons a rent-charge of an hundred Mark a yearâ— to be paid for ever out of some one of his Mannors of a much greater value And here though this good man be dead yet I wish a Circumstance or two that concern him may not be buried without a Relation which I shall undertake to do for that I suppose they may so much concern the Reader to know that I may promise my self a pardon for a short Digression IN the year of our Redemption 1553. Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury whom I formerly mentioned being then Ambassador in France dream'd that his Nephew this Thomas Wotton was inclined to be a party in such a project as if he were not suddenly prevented would turn both to the loss of his life and ruine of his Family Doubtless the good Dean did well know that common Dreams are but a senseless paraphrase on our waking thoughts or of the business of the day past or are the result of our over ingaged affections when we betake our selves to rest and that the observation of them may turn to silly Superstitions as they too often do But though he might know this and might also believe that Prophesies are ceased yet doubtless he could not but consider that all Dreams are not to be neglected or cast away and did therefore rather lay this Dream aside than intend totally to lose it for that dreaming the same again the Night following when it became a double Dream like that of Pharaoh of which dreams the learned have made many observations and that it had no dependance â—n is waking thoughts much less on the desires of his heart then he did more seriously consider it and remembred that Almighty God was pleased in a Dream to reveal and to assure Monica the Mother of St. Austin that he her son for whom she wept so bitterly and prayed so much should at last become a Christian This the good Dean considered and considering also that Almighty God though the causes of Dreams be often unknown hath even in these latter times by a certain illumination of the soul in sleep discovered many things that humane wisdom could not foresee Upon these considerations he resolved to use so prudent a remedy by way of prevention as might introduce no great inconvenience to either party And to that end he wrote to the Queen 't was Queen Mary and besought her That she would cause his Nephew Thomas Wotton to be sent for out of Kent and that the Lords of her Council might interrogate him in some such feigned questions as might give a colour for his Commitment into a favourable Prison declaring that he would acquaint her Majesty with the true reason of his request when he should next become so happy as to see and speak to her Majesty 'T was done as the Dean desired and in Prison I must leave Mr. Wotton till I have told the Reader what followed At this time a Marriage was concluded betwixt our Queen Mary and Philip King of Spain And though this was concluded with the advice if not by the persuasion of her Privy Council as having many probabilities of advantage to this Nation yet divers persons of a contrary perswasion did not onely declare against it but also raised Forces to oppose it believing as they said it would be a means to bring England under subjection to Spain and make those of this Nation slaves to strangers And of this number Sir Thomas Wyat of Boxley-Abby in Kent betwixt whose Family and the Family of the Wottons there had been an ancient and intire friendship was the principal Actor who having perswaded many of the Nobility and Gentry especially of Kent to side with him and being defeated and taken Prisoner was legally arraigned condemned and lost his life So did the Duke of Suffolk and divers others especially many of the Gentry of Kent who were there in several places executed as Wyats assistants And of this number in all probability had Mr. Wotton been if he had not been confin'd for though he was not ignorant that another mans Treason makes it mine by concealing it yet he durst confess to his Uncle when he returned into England and came to visit him in Prison that he had more than an intimation of Wyats intentions and thought he had not continued actually innocent if his Uncle had not so happily dream'd him into a Prison out of which place when he was delivered by the same hand that caused his Commitment they both
considered the Dream more seriously and then both joyned in praising God for it That God who tyes himself to no Rules either in preventing of evil or in shewing of mercy to those whom of his good pleasure he hath chosen to love And this Dream was the more considerable because many of the Dreams of this Thomas Wotton did most usually prove ture both in foretelling things to come and discovering things past of which I will give the Reader but one particular more namely this This Thomas a little before his death dream'd that the University Treasury was robbed by Townsmen and poor Scholars and that the number was five And being that day to write to his Son Henry at Oxford he thought it worth so much pains as by a Postscript in his Letter to make a slight inquiry of it the Letter which was writ out of Kent and dated three dayes before came to his Sons hands the very morning after the night in which the Robbery was committed and when the City and University were both in a perplext Enquest of the Thieves then did Sir H. Wotton shew his fathers Letter and by it such light was given of this work of darkness that the five guilty persons were presently discovered and apprehended without putting the Univesity to so much trouble as the casting of a Figure And it may yet be more considerable that this Nicholas and Thomas Wotton should both being men of holy lives of even tempers and much given to fasting and prayer foresee and foretell the very dayes of their own death Nicholas did so being then Seventy years of age and in perfect health Thomas did the like in the 65 year of his age who being then in London where he dyed and foreseeing his death there gave direction that his Body should be carried to Bocton and though he thought his Uncle Nicholas worthy of that noble Monument which he built for him in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury yet this humble man gave direction concerning himself to be buried privately and especially without any pomp at his Funeral BUt it may now seem more then time that I return to Sir Henry Wotton at Oxford where after his optick Lecture he was taken into such a bosom friendship with the learned Albericus Gentilis whom I formerly named that if it had been possible Gentilis would have breathed all his excellent knowledge both of the Mathematicks and Law into the breast of his dear Harry for so Gentilis used to call him and though he was not able to do that yet there was in Sir Henry such a propenfity and connaturalness to the Italian Language and those Studies whereof Gentilis was a great Master that this friendship between them did daily increase and proved daily advantagious to Sir Henry for the improvement of him in several Sciences during his stay in the University From which place before I shall invite the Reader to follow him into a forreign Nation though I must omit to mention divers persons that were then in Oxford of memorable note for Learning and Friends to Sir Henry Wotton yet I must not omit the mention of a love that was there begun betwixt him and Dr. Donne sometimes Dean of St. Pauls a man of whose abilities I shall forbear to say any thing because he who is of this Nation that pretends to Learning or Ingenuity and is ignorant of Dr. Donne deserves not to know him The friendship of these two I must not omit to mention being such a friendship as was generously elemented And as it was begun in their Youth and in an University and there maintained by correspondent Inclinations and Studies so it lasted till Age and Death forced a Separation In Oxford he stayed till about two years after his fathers death at which time he was about the two and twentieth year of his Age and having to his great Wit added the ballast of Learning and knowledge of the Arts he then laid aside his Books and betook himself to the useful Library of Travel and a more general Conversation with Mankind employing the remaining part of his Youth his industry and fortune to adorn his mind and to purchase the rich treasure of forreign knowledge of which both for the secrets of Nature the dispositions of many Nations their several Laws and Languages he was the possessor in a very large measure as I shall faithfully make to aâ—pear before I take my Pen from the following Narration of his Life In his Travels which was almost nine years before his return into England he stayed but one year in France and most of that in Geneva where he became acquainted with Theodor Bezâ— then very aged and with Isaac Causabon in whose fathers house if I be rightly informed Sir Henry Wotton was lodged and there contracted a most worthy friendship with him and his most learned Son Three of the remaining eight years were spent in Germany the other five in Italy the Stage on which God appointed he should act a great part of his life where both in Rome Venice and Florence he became acquainted with the most eminent men for Learning and all manner of Arts as Picture Sculpture Chymistry Architecture and divers other manual Arts even Arts of inferiour nature of all which he was a most dear Lover and a most excellent Judge He returned out of Italy into England about the Thirtieth year of his Age being then noted by many both for his person and comportment for indeed he was of a choice shape tall of stature and of a most perswasive behaviour which was so mixed with sweet Discourse and Civilities as gained him much love from all persons with whom he entred into an acquaintance And whereas he was noted in his Youth to have a sharp wit and apt to jest that by Time Travel and Conversation was sâ— polish'd and made so useful that his company seemed to be one of the delights of Mankind insomuch as Robert Earl of Essex then one of the darlings of fortune and in greatest favour with Queen Elizabeth invited him first into a friendship and after a knowledge of his great abilities to be one of his Secretaries the other being Mr. Henry Cuffe sometimes of Merton Colledge in Oxford and there also the acquaintance of Sir Henry Wotton in his Youth Mr. Cuffe being then a man of no common note in the University for his Learning nor after his removal from that place for the great abilities of his mind nor indeed for the fatalness of his end Sir Henry Wotton being now taken into a serviceable friendship with the Earl of Essex did personally attend his Counsels and Employments in two Voyages at Sea against the Spaniard and also in that which was the Earls last into Ireland that Voyage wherein he did so much provoke the Queen to anger then and worse at his return into England upon whose immovable favour he had built such sandy hopes as incouraged him to those undertakings which with the help
most Gracious Majesty HAving been informed that certain persons have by the good wishes of the Archbishop of Armagh been directed hither with a most humble Petition unto Your Majesty that You will be pleased to make Mr. William Bedel now resident upon a small Benefice in Suffolk Governor of your Colledge at Dublin for the good of that Society and my self being required to render unto Your Majesty some testimony of the said William Bedel who was long my Chaplain at Venice in the time of my first imployment there I am bound in all Conscience and Truth so far as Your Majesty will vouchsafe to accept my poor judgement to affirm of him That I think hardly a fitter man for that Charge could have been propounded unto Your Majesty in Your whole Kingdom for singular Erudition and Piety Conformity to the Rites of the Church and Zeal to advance the Cause of God wherein his Travels abroad were not obscure in the time of the Excommunication of the Venetians For it may please Your Majesty to know that this is the man whom Padre Paulo took I may say into his very soul with whom he did communicate the inwardest thoughts of his heart from whom he professed to have received more knowledge in all Divinity both Scholastical and Positive than from any that he had ever practised in his dayes of which all the passages were well known to the King Your Father of most blessed memory And so with Your Majesties good favour I will end this needless Office for the general Fame of his Learning his Life and Christian temper and those Religious Labours which himself hath dedicated to your Majesty do better describe him than I am able Your MAJESTIES Most humble and faithful Servant H. WOTTON TO this Letter I shall add this That he was to the great joy of Sir Henry Wotton made Governor of the said Colledge and that after a fair discharge of his duty and trust there he was thence removed to be Bishop of Kilmore In both which places his life was so holy as seemed to equal the primitive Christians for as they so he kept all the Ember-weeks observed besides his private devotions the Canonical hours of Prayer very strictly and so he did all the Feasts and Fast-dayes of his Mother the Church of England his Patience and Charity were both such as shewed his affections were set upon things that are above for indeed his whole life brought forth the fruits of the Spirit there being in him such a remarkable meekness that as St. Paul advised his Timothy in the Election of a Bishop That he have a good report of those that be without so had he for those that were without even those that in point of Religion were of the Roman perswasion of which there were very many in his Diocess did yet ever look upon him with respect and reverence and testified it by a concealing and safe protecting him in the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland when the fury of the wild Irish knew no distinction of persons and yet there and then he was protected and cherished by those of a contrary perswasion and there and then he dyed though not by violence And with him was lost many of his learned Writings which were thought worthy of preservation and amongst the rest was lost the Bible which by many years labour and conference and study he had translated into the Irish Tongue with an intent to have printed it for publick use More might be said of Mr. Bedel who I told the Reader was Sir Henry Wottons first Chaplain and much of his second Chaplain Isaac Bargrave Doctor in Divinity and the late learned and hospitable Dean of Canterbury as also of the Merit of many others that had the happiness to attend Sir Henry in his forreign imployments But the Reader may think that in this digression I have already carried him too far from Eaton-Colledge and therefore I shall lead him back as gently and as ordeâ—ly as I may to that place for a further conference concerning Sir Henry Wotton Sir Henry Wotton had propos'd to himself before he entred into his Collegiate life to write the life of Martin Luther and in it the History of the Reformation as it was carried on in Germany For the doing of which he had many advantages by his several Embassies into those parts and his interest in the several Princes of the Empire by whose means he had access to the Records of all the Hans Towns and the knowledge of many secret passages that fell not under common view and in these he had made a happy progress as is well known to his worthy friend Dr. Duppa the late Reverend Bishop of Salisbury but in the midst of this design His late Majesty King Charles that knew the value of Sir Henry Wottons Pen did by a perswasive loving violence to which may be added a promise of 500 l. a year force him to lay Luther aside and betake himself to write the History of England in which he proceeded to write some short Characters of a few Kings as a foundation upon which he meant to build but for the present meant to be more large in the story of Henry the sixth the Founder of that Colledge in which he then enjoy'd all the worldly happiness of his present being but Sir Henry dyed in the midst of this undertaking and the footsteps of his labours are not recoverable by a more than common diligence This is some account both of his inclination and the employment of his time in the Colledge where he seemed to have his Youth renewed by a continual conversation with that Learned Society and a daily recourse of other Friends of choicest breeding and parts by which that great blessing of a chearful heart was still maintained he being alwayes free even to the last of his dayes from that peevishness which usually attends Age. And yet his mirth was sometimes damp'd by the remembrance of divers old Debts partly contracted in his forreign Employments for which his just Arrears due from the King would have made satisfaction but being still delayed with Couâ—t-promises and finding some decayes of health he did about two years before his death out of a Christian desire that none should be a loser by it make his last Will concerning which a doubt still remains whether it discovered more holy wit or conscionable policy But there is no doubt but that his chief design was a Christian endeavour that his Debts might be satisfied And that it may remain as such a Testimony and a Legacy to those that lov'd him I shall here impart it to the Reader as it was found writ with his own hand IN the Name of God Almighty and All-merciful I Henry Wotton Provost of His Majesties Colledge by Eaton being mindfâ—â—â— of mine own mortality which the sin of our first Paâ—â—ents did bring upon all flesh Do by this last Will and Testament thus dispose of my self and the poor things I
with her presence I leave to the most hopeful Prince the Picture of the elected and crowned Queen of Bohemia his Aunt of clear and resplendent vertues through the clouds of her Fortune To my Lords Grace of Canterbury now being I leave my Picture of Divine Love rarely copied from one in the Kings Galleries of my presentation to his Majesty beseeching him to receive it as a pledge of my humble reverence to his great Wisdom And to the most worthy Lord Bishop of London Lord high Treasurer of England in true admiration of his Christian simplicity and contempt of earthly pomp I leave a Picture of Heraclitus bewailing and Democritus laughing at the world Most humbly beseeching the said Lord Archbishop his Grace and the Lord Bishop of London of both whose favours I have tasted in my life time to intercede with our most gracious Soveraign after my death in the bowels of Jesus Christ That out of compassionate memory of my long Services wherein I more studied the publick Honour then mine own Utility some Order may be taken out of my Arrears due in the Exchequer for such satisfaction of my Creditors as those whom I have Ordained Supervisors of this my â—ast Will and Testament shall present unto their Lordships without their farther trouble Hoping likewise in his Majesties most indubitable Goodness that he will keep me from all prejudice which I may otherwise suffer by any defect of formality in the Demand of my said Arrears To for a poor addition to his Cabinet I leave as Emblems of his attractive Vertues and Obliging Nobleness my great Load-stone and a piece of Amber of both kindes naturally united and onely differing in degree of Concoction which is thought somewhat rare Item A piece of Christal Sexangular as they grow all grasping divers several things within it which I bought among the Rhâ—â—tian Alps in the very place where it grew recommending most humbly unto his Lordship the reputation of my poor Name in the point of my debts as I have done to the forenamed Spiritual Lords and am heartily sorry that I have no better token of my humble thankfulness to his honoured Person It ' I leave to Sir Francis Windebank one of his Majesties principall Secretaries of State whom I found my great friend in point of Necessity the four Seasons of old Bassano to hang near the Eye in his Parlour being in little form which I bought at Venice where I first entred into his most worthy Acquaintance To the above named Doctor Bargrave Dean of Canterbury I leave all my Italian Books not disposed in this Will I leave to him likewise my Viol de Gamba which hath been twice with me in Italy in which Country I first contracted with him an unremovable Affection To my other Supervisor Mr. Nicholas Pey I leave my Chest or Cabinet of Instruments and Engines of all kinds of uses in the lower box whereof are some fit to be bequeathed to none but so entire an honest man as he is I leave him likewise forty pound for his pains in the solicitation of my Arrears and am sorry that my ragged Estate can reach no further to one that hath taken such care for me in the same kind during all my forreign Imployments To the Library at Eaton Colledg I leave all my Manuscripts not before disposed and to each of the Fellows a plain Ring â—of Gold enameld black all save the verge with this Motto within Amor unit omnia This is my last Will and Testament save that shall be added by a Schedule thereunto annexed Written on the first of October in the present year of our Redemption 1637. And subscribed by my self with the Testimony of these Witnesses Nich. Oudert Geo. Lash H. Wotton ANd now because the mind of man is best satisfied by the knowledge of Events I think fit to declare that every one that was named in his Will did gladly receive their Legacies by which and his most just and passionate desires for the payment of his debts they joyned in assisting the Overseers of his Will and by their joynt endeavours to the King then whom none was more willing conscionable satisfaction was given for his just debts The next thing wherewith I shall acquaint the Reader is That he went usually once a year if not oftner to the beloved Bocton-hall where he would say he found both cure for all cares by the company which he called the living furniture of that place and a restorative of his strength by the Connaturalness of that which he called his genial aire He yearly went also to Oxford But the Summer before his death he changed that for a journey to Winchester Colledge to which School he was first removed from Bocton And as he returned from Winchester towards Eaton Colledge said to a friend his Companion in that Journey How usefull was that advice of a Holy Monk who perswaded his friend to perform his Customary devotions in a constant place because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there And I find it thus far experimentally true that at my now being in that School and seeing that very place where I sate when I was a boy occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me sweet thoughts indeed that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixtures of cares and those to be enjoyed when time which I therefore thought slow pac'd had changed my youth into manhood But age and experience have taught me that those were but empty hopes And though my dayes have been many and those mixt with more pleasures than the sons of men do usually enjoy yet I have alwâ—â—es found it true as my Saviour did fore-tell Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof Nevertheless I saw there a succession of boyes using the same recreations and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me Thus one generation succeeds another both in their lives recreations hopes fears and dâ—aths Aâ—ter his return from Winchester which was about nine Moneths before his death he fell into a dangerous Fever which weakned him much he was then also much troubled with an Asthma or continual short spitting but that infirmity he seemed to overcome in a good degree by leaving Tobacco which he had taken somewhat immoderately And about two moneths before his death in October 1639. he again fell into a Fever which though he seem'd to recover yet these still left him so weak that those common infirmities which were wont like civil Friends to visit him and after some short time to depart came both oftner and at last took up their constant habitations with him still weakning his body of which he grew dayly more sensible retiring oftner into his Study and making many Papers that had past his Pen both in the dayes of his youth and business useless by fire These and several unusual expressions to his Friends seemed
possest with a high degree of spiritual wickedness I mean with an innate restless pride and malice I do not mean the visible carnal sins of Gluttony and Drunkenness and the like from which good Lord deliver us but sins of a higher nature because they are more unlike God who is the God of love and mercy and order and peace and more like the Devil who is not a Glutton nor can be drunk and yet is a Devil but I mean those spiritual wickednesses of malice and revenge and an opposition to Government Men that joyed to be the Authors of misery which is properly his work that is the enemy and disturber of Mankind and greater sins than Gluttony or Drunkenness though some will not believe it And of this party there were also many whom prejudice and a furious Zeal had so blinded as to make them neither to hear reason nor adhere to the wayes of peace Men that were the dregs of Mankind whom Pride and Self-conceit had made to overvalue their own pitiful crooked wisdom so much as not to be asham'd to hold foolish and unmannerly Disputes against those men whom they ought to reverence and those Laws which they ought to obey Men that labour'd and joyed to find out the faults and to speak evil of Government and then to be the Authors of Confusion Men whom Company and Conversation and Custom had at last so blinded and made so insensible that these were sins that like those that perisht in the gainsaying of Core so these dyed without repenting of these spiritual wickednesses of which the practises of Copinger and Hacket in their lives and the death of them and their adherents are God knows too sad examples and ought to be cautions to those men that are inclin'd to the like spiritual wickednesses And in these Times which tended thus to Confusion there were also many others that pretended a tenderness of Conscience refusing to take an Oath before a lawful Magistrate and yet these men in their secret Conventicles did covenant and swear to each other to be assiduous and faithful in using their best endeavours to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Discipline and both in such a manner as they themselves had not yet agreed on To which end there were many that wandred up and down and were active in sowing Discontents and Sedition by venemous and secret murmurings and a dispersion of scurrilous Pamphlets and Libels against the Church and State but especially against the Bishops by which means together with indiscreet Sermons the common people became so phanatick as to believe the Bishops to be Antichrist and the only obstructers of Gods Discipline and then given over to such a desperate delusion as to find out a Text in the Revelation of St. John that Antichrist was to be overcome by the Sword So that those very men that began with tender and meek Petitions proceeded to Admonitions then to Satyrical Remonstrances and at last having numbred who was not and who was for their Cause they got a supposed certainty of so great a Party that they durst threaten first the Bishops then the Queen and Parliament to all which they were secretly encouraged by the Earl of Leicester then in great favour with Her Majesty and the reputed Cherisher and Patron general of these pretenders to Tenderness of Conscience his design being by their means to bring such an odium upon the Bishops as to procure an Alienation of their Lands and a large proportion of them for himself which avaritious desire had so blinded his reason that his ambitious and greedy hopes had almost put him into a present possession of Lambeth-house And to these undertakings the Non-conformists of this Nation were much encouraged and heightned by a Correspondence and Confederacy with that Brotherhood in Scotland so that here they became so bold that one told the Queen openly in a Sermon She was like an untamed Heyfer that would not be ruled by Gods people but obstructed his Discipline And in Scotland they were more confident for there they declared Her an Atheist and grew to such an height as not to be accountable for any thing spoken against Her nor for Treason against their own King if spoken in the Pulpit shewing at last such a disobedience to Him that His Mother being in England and then in distress and in prison and in danger of death the Church denied the King their prayers for her and at another time when He had appointed a day of Feasting the Church declared for a general Fast in opposition to His Authority To this height they were grown in both Nations and by these means there was distill'd into the minds of the common people such other venemous and turbulent principles as were inconsistent with the safety of the Church and State and these vented so daringly that beside the loss of life and limbs they were forced to use such other severities as will not admit of an excuse if it had not been to prevent Confusion and the perillous consequences of it which without such prevention would have been Ruine and Misery to this numerous Nation These Errours and Animosities were so remarkable that they begot wonder in an ingenious Italian who being about this time come newly into this Nation writ scoffingly to a friend in his own Countrey to this purpose That the Common people of England were wiser than the wisest of his wiser Nation for here the very Women and Shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination and determine what Laws were fit to be made concerning Church-government and then what were fit to be obeyed or abolisht That they were more able or at least thought so to raise and determine perplext Cases of Conscience than the wisest of the most learned Colledges in Italy That men of the slightest Learning and the most ignorant of the Common people were mad for a new or Super or Re-reformation of Religion and that in this they appeared like that man who would never cease to whet and whet his knife till there was no steel left to make it useful And he concluded his Letter with this observation That those very men that were most busie in Oppositions and Disputations and Controversies of finding out the faults of their Governors had usually the least of Humility and Mortification or of the power of Godliness And to heighten all these Discontents and Dangers there was also sprung up a generation of Godless men men that had so long given way to their own lust of delusion and so highly opposed the blessed motions of his Spirit and the inward light of their own Consciences that they had thereby sinned themselves into a belief which they would but could not believe into a belief which is repugnant even to humane Natuâ—e for the Heathens believe that there are many gods but these had sin'd themselves into a belief that there was no God so finding nothing in themselves but what was worse than nothing began