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
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
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
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
l. 24. r. do it 32. l. 2. r. fortune 63. l. 121. r. Dort In Sir H. Wotton 29. l. 10. r. samed 35. l. 9. as well 37. l. 22. dele Mr. Bedell 38. l. 17. dele mis 41. l. 8. r. delivery 45. l. 5. r. mont 47. l. 19. r. Syfiphâ— 53. l. 7. r. against 56. l. 24. r. Elegy 75. l. 19. r. those In Mr. Hoooker 25. l. 4. r. assiduous still 42. l. 7. r. God and so These must be thus corrected or that Paragraph will not be senceâ— 42 l. 11. r. and in wicked 42. l. 15. dele it 56. l. 20. r. answers In George Herbert 14. l. 4. r. his 24. dele of 32. l. 22. â—r Parish Church 33. l. 26. r. she 34. l. 4. dele at 49. l. 10. r. wants it 63. l. 24. dele too 65. l. 24. r. spirits and 72. l. 3. r. for the 80. l. 1. r. to their The Copy of a Letter writ to Mr. Isaac Walton by Doctor King Lord Bishop of Chichester Honest Isaac THough a Familiarity of more then Forty years continuance and the constant experience of your Love even in the worst times be sufficient to indear our Friendship yet I must confess my Affection much improved not onely by Evidences of private Respect to many that know and love you but by your new Demonstration of a publick Spirit testified in a diligent true and useful Collection of so many Material Passages as you have now afforded me in the Life of Venerable Mr. Hooker of which since desired by such a Friend as your self I shall not deny to give the Testimony of what I know concerning him and his learned Books but shall first here take a fair occasion to tell you that you have been happy in choosing to write the Lives of three such Persons as Posterity hath just cause to honour which they will do the more for the true Relation of them by your happy Pen of all which I shall give you my unfeigned Censure I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable Friend Dr. Donne late Dean of St. Pauls Church who not onely trusted me as his Executor but three days before his death delivered into my hands those excellent Sermons of his now made publick professing before Dr. Winniff Dr. Monford and I think your self then present at his bed side that it was by my restless importunity that he had prepared them for the Press together with which as his best Legacy he gave me all his Sermon-Notes and his other Papers containing an Extract of near Fifteen hundred Authours How these were got out of my hands you who were the Messenger for them and how lost both to me and your self is not now seasonable to complain but since they did miscarry I am glad that the general Demonstration of his Worth was so fairly preserved and represented to the World by your Pen in the History of his Life indeed so well that beside others the best Critick of our later time Mr. John Hales of Eaton Colledge affirm'd to me He had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the Subject or more reputation to the Writer then that of Dr. Donnes After the performance of this task for Dr. Donne you undertook the like office for our Friend Sir Henry Wotton betwixt which two there was a Friendship begun in Oxford continued in their various Travels and more confirmed in the religious Friendship of Age and doubtless this excellent Person had writ the Life of Dr. Donne if Death had not prevented him by which means his and your Pre-collections for that Work fell to the happy Menage of your Pen a Work which you would have declined if imperious Persuasions had not been stronger then your modest Resolutions against it And I am thus far glad that the first Life was so imposed upon you because it gave an unavoidable Cause of Writing the second if not 't is too probable we had wanted both which had been a prejudice to all Lovers of Honour and ingenious Learning And let me not leave my Friend Sir Henry without this Testimony added to yours That he was a Man of as Florid a Wit and as Elegant a Pen as any former or ours which in that kind is a most excellent Age hath ever produced And now having made this voluntary Observation of our two deceased Friends I proceed to satisfie your desire concerning what I know and believe of the ever-memorable Mr. Hooker who was Schismaticorum Mallcus so great a Champion for the Church of Englands Rights against the Factious Torrent of Separatists that then ran high against Church-Discipline and in his unanswerable Books continues to be so against the unquiet Disciples of their Schism which now under other Names still carry on their Design and who as the proper Heirs of Irrational Zeal would again take into the scarce closed Wounds of a newly bleeding State and Church And first though I dare not say that I knew Mr. Hooker yet as our Ecclesiastical History reports to the honour of S. Ignatius that he lived in the time of St. John and had seen him in his Childhood so I also joy that in my Minority I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my Father who was then Bishop of London from whom and others at that time I have heard most of the material passages which you relate in the History of his Life and from my Father received such a Character of his Learning Humility and other Virtues that like Jewels of unvaluable price they still cast such a lustre as Envy or the Rust of Time shall never darken From my Father I have also heard all the Circumstances of the Plot to defame him and how Sir Edwin Sandys outwitted his Accusers and gained their Confession and I could give an account of each particular of that Plot but that I judge it fitter to be forgotten and rot in the same grave with the malicious Authors I may not omit to declare that my Fathers Knowledge of Mr. Hooker was occasioned by the Learned Dr. John Spencer who after the Death of Mr. Hooker was so careful to preserve his unvaluable Sixth Seventh and Eighth Books of ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY and his other Writings that he procured Henry Jackson then of Corpus Christi Colledge to transcribe for him all Mr. Hookers remaining written Papers many of which were imperfect for his Study had been rifled or worse used by Mr Chark and another of Principles too like his but these Papers were endeavored to be compleated by his dear friend Dr. Spencer who bequeathed them as a precious Legacy to my Father after whose Death they rested in my hand till Dr. Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of my custody by authorizing Dr. John Barkcham to require and bring them to him to his Palace in Lambeth at which time I have heard they were put into the Bishops Library and that they remained there till the Martyrdom of Archbishop Laud and were then by the Brethren of
Winchester who then was the Kings Almoner About this time there grew many disputes that concerned the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance in which the King had appeared and engaged himself by his publick writings now extant and his Majesty discoursing with Mr. Donne concerning many of the reasons which are usually urged against the taking of those Oaths apprehended such a validity and clearness in his stating the Questions and his Answers to them that his Majesty commanded him to bestow some time in drawing the Arguments into a method and then write his Answers to them and having done that not to send but be his own messenger and bring them to him To this he presently applyed himself and within six weeks brought them to him under his own hand-writing as they be now printed the Book bearing the name of Pseudo-martyr When the King had read and considered that Book he perswaded Mr. Donne to enter into the Ministry to which at that time he was and appeared very unwilling apprehending it such was his mistaking modesty to be too weighty for his Abilities and though his Majesty had promised him a favour and many persons of worth mediated with his Majesty for some secular employment for him to which his Education had apted him and particularly the Earl of Somerset when in his height of favour who being then at Thâ—obalds with the King where one of the Clerks of the Council died that night and the Earl having sent for Mr. Donne to come to him immediately said Mr. Donne To testifie the reality of my Affection and my purpose to preferre you Stay in this Garden till I go up to the King and bring you worâ— that you are Clark of the Council doubt not my doing this for I know the King loves you and will not deny me But the King gave a positive denyal to all requests and having a discerning spirit replyed I know Mr. Donne is â— learned man has the abilities of a learned Divine and will prove a powerful Preacher and my desire is to prefer him that way After that time as he professeth The King descended to a perswasion almost to a solicitation of him to enter into sacred Orders which though hâ— then denyed not yet he deferred it for almost three years All which time he applyed himself to an incessant study of Textual Divinity and to the attainment of a greater perfection in the learned Languages Greek and Hebrew In the first and most blessed times of Christianity when the Clergy were look'd upon with reverence and deserved it when they overcame their opposers by high examples of Vertue by a blessed Patience and long Suffering those onely were then judged worthy the Ministry whose quiet and meek spirits did make them look upon that sacred calling with an humble adoration and fear to undertake it which indeed requires such great degrees of humility and labour and care that none but such were then thought worthy of that celestial dignity And such onely were then sought out and solicited to undertake it This I have mentioned because forwardness and inconsideation could not in Mr. Donne as in many others be an argument of insufficiency or unfitness for he had considered long and had many strifes within himself concerning the strictness of life and competency of learning required in such as enter into sacred Orders and doubtless considering his own demerits did humbly ask God with St. Paul Lord who is sufficient for these things and with meek Moses Lord who am I And sure if he had consulted with flesh and blood he had not put his hand to that holy lough But God who is able to prevail wrestled with him as the Angel did with Jacob and marked him mark'd him for his own mark'd him with a blessing a blessing of obedience to the motions of his blessed Spirit And then as he had formerly asked God with Moses Who am I So now being inspired with an apprehension of Gods particular mercy to him in the Kings and others solicitations of him he came to aâ—â—â— King Davids thankful question Lord who am I thaâ— thou art so mindful of me So mindful oâ— me as to lead me for more then forty years through this wilderness of the many temptations and various turnings of a dangerous life so merciful to me as to move the learnedâ—st of Kings to descend to move me to serve at thy Alter so merciful to me as at last to move my lâ—â—a to imbrace this holy motion thy motions will and do imbrace And I now say with the blessed Virgin Be it with thy servant as seemeth best in thy sight and so blessed Jesus I â—â— take the cup of Salvation and will call upoâ— thy Name and will preach thy Gospel Such strifes as these St. Austine had wheâ— St. Ambrose indeavoured his conversion to Christianity with which he confesseth he acquaiâ—â—ted his friend Alipius Our learned Author a man sit to write after no mean Copy dâ— the like And declaring his intentions to â—â— dear friend Dr. King then Bishop of London man famous in his generation and no strangth to Mr. Donnes abilities For he had been Chaplain to the Lord Chancellor at the tiâ—â— of Mr. Donnes being his Lordships Secretaryâ— That Reverend man did receive the news wiâ—â— much gladness and after some expressions â—â— joy and a perswasion to be constant in his pious purpose he proceeded with all convenient speed to ordain him both Deacon and Priest Now the English Church had gain'd a second St. Austine for I think none was so like him before his Conversion none so like St. Ambrose after it and if his youth had the infirmities of the one his age had the excellencies of the other the learning and holiness of both And now all his studies which had been occasionally diffused were all concentred in Divinity Now he had a new calling new thoughts and a new imployment for his wit and eloquence Now all his earthly affections were changed into divine love and all the faculties of his own soul were ingaged in the Conversion of others In preaching the glad tidings of Remission to repenting Sinners and peace to each troubled soul. To these he app'yed himself with all care and diligence and now such a change was wrought in him that he could say with David Oh how amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord God of Hosts Now he declared openly that when he required a temporal God gave him a spiritual blessing And that he was now gladder to be a door-keeper in the house of God then he could be to injoy the noblest of all temporal imployments Presently after he entred into his holy profession the King sent for him and made him his Chaplain in ordinary and promised to take a particular care for his preferment And though his long familiarity with Scholars and persons of greatest quality was such as might have given some men boldness enough to have preached to any eminent Auditory yet his modesty in this
but on the Cross my cure Crucisie nature then and then implore All grace from him crucify'd there before When all is Cross and that Cross Anchor grown This seales a Catechism not a seal alone Under that little seal great gifts I send Both works prayers pawns fruits of a friend Oh may that Saint that rides on our great Seal To you that bear his name large bounty deal J. Donne In Sacram Anchoram Piscatoris Geo. Herbert Quod Crux nequibat fixa clavique additi Tenere Christum scilicet ne ascenderet Tuive Christum Although the Cross could not Christ here detain When nail'd unto 't but he ascends again Nor yet thy eloquence here keep him still But only whilest thou speak'st this Anchor will Nor canst thou be content unless thou to This certain Anchor add a seal and so The water and the earth both unto thee Do owe the Symbole of their certainty Let the world reel we and all ours stand sure This Holy Cable's from all storms secure G. Herbert I return to tell the Reader that besides these verses to his dear Mr. Herbert and that Hymne that I mentioned to be sung in the Quire of St Pauls Church he did also shorten and beguile many sad hours by composing other sacred Diâ—ties and he writ an Hymn on his death-bed which bears this title An Hymn to God my God in my sickness March 23. 1630. Since I am coming to that holy room Where with thy quire of Saints for ever more I shall be made thy musique as I come I tune my Instrument here at the dore And what I must do then think here before Since my Physitians by their loves are grown Cosmographers and I their map who lye Flat on this bed So in his purple wrapt receive me Lord By these his thorns give me his other Crown And as to other souls I preach'd thy Word Be this my text my Sermon to mine own That he may raise therefore the lord throws down If these fall under the censure of a soul whose too much mixture with earth makes it unfit to judge of these high raptures and illuminations let him know that many holy and devout men have thought the Soul of Prudentius to be most refined when not many dayes before his death he charged it to present his God each morning and evening with a new and spiritual song justified by the example of King David and the good King Hezekias who upon the renovation of his years paid his thankful vowes to Almighty God in a royal Hymn which he concludes in these words The Lord was ready to save therefore I will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the dayes of my life in the temple of my God The latter part of his life may be said to be a continued study for as he usually preached once a week if not oftner so after his Sermon he never gave his eyes rest till he had chosen out a new Text and that night cast his Sermon into a form and his Text into divisions and the next day betook himself to consult the Fathers and so commit his meditations to his memory which was excellent But upon Saturday he usually gave himself and his mind a rest from the weâ—â—y burthen of his weeks meditations and usually spent that day in visitation of friends or some other diversions of his thoughts and would say that he gave both his body and mind that refreshment that he might be enabled to do the work of the day following not faintly but with courage and chearfulness Nor was his age onely so industrious but in the most unsetled dayes of his youth his bed was not able to detain him beyond the hour of four in a morning and it was no common business that drew him out of his chamber till past ten All which time was employed in study though he took great liberty after it and if this seem strange it may gain a belief by the visible fruits of his labours some of which remain as testimonies of what is here writen for he left the resultance of 1400. Authors most of them abridged and analysed with his own hand he left also sixscore of his Sermons all written with his own hand also an exact and laborious Treatise concerning Self-murther called Biathanatos wherein all the Laws violated by that Act are diligently surveyed and judiciously censured a Treatise written in his younger dayes which alone might declare him then not onely perfect in the Civil and Canon Law but in many other such studies and arguments as enter not into the consideration of many that labour to be thought great Clerks and pretend to know all things Nor were these onely found in his study but all businesses that past of any publick consequence either in this or any of our neighbour nations he abbreviated either in Latine or in the Language of that Nation and kept them by him for useful memorials So he did the copies of divers Letters and cases of Conscience that had concerned his friends with his observations and solutions of them and divers other businesses of importance all particularly and methodically digested by himself He did prepare to leave the world before life left him making his will when no faculty of his soul was damp'd or made defective by pain or sickness or he surprized by a sudden apprehension of death but it was made with mature deliberation expressing himself an impartial father by making his childrens portions equal and a lover of his friends whom he remembred with Legacies fitly and discreetly chosen and bequeathed I cannot forbear a nomination of some of them for methinks they be persons that seem to challenge a recordation in this place as namely to his Brother-in-law Sir Th. Grimes he gave that striking Clock which he had long worn in his pocket to his dear friend and Executor Dr. King late Bishop of Chicester that model of gold of the Synod of Dcrt with which the States presented him at his last being at the Hague and the two Pictures of Padre Paulo and Fulgentio men of his acquaintance when he travelled Italy and of great note in that Nation for their remarkable learning To his ancient friend Dr. Brook that married him Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge he gave the Picture of the blessed Virgin and Joseph To Dr. Winniff who succeeded him in the Deanry he gave a Picture called the Sceleton To the succeeding Dean who was not then known he gave many necessaries of worth and useful for his house and also several Pictures and Ornaments for the Chappel with a desire that they might be registred and remain as a Legacy to his Successors To the Earls of Dorset and of Carlile he gave several Pictures and so he did to many other friends Legacies given rather to express his affection than to make any addition to their Estates but unto the Poor he was full of Charity and unto many others who by his constant and long
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
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
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
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
rest both to my self and my Reader His first four Books and large Epistle have been declared to be printed at his being at Boscum Anno 1594. Next I am to tell that at the end of these four Books there is printed this Advertisement to the Reader I have for some causes thought it at this time more fit to let go these first four Books by themselves than to stay both them and the rest till the whole might together be published Such generalities of the cause in question as are here handled it will be perhaps not amiss to consider apart by way of Introduction unto the Books that are to follow concerning particulars in the mean time the Reader is requested to mend the Printers errours as noted underneath And I am next to declare that his fifth Book which is larger than his first four was first also printed by it self Anno 1597. and dedicated to his Patron for till then he chose none the Archbishop These Books were read with an admiration of their excellency in This and their just fame spread it self into foraign Nations And I have been told more than forty years past that either Cardinal Allen or learned Doctor Stapleton both English men and in Italy about the time when Hookers four Books were first printed meeting with this general fame of them were desirous to read an Authour that both the Reformed and the learned of their own Church did so much magnifie and therefore caused them to be sent for and after reading them boasted to the Pope which then was Clement the eighth that though he had lately said he never met with an English Book whose Writer deserved the name of Author yet there now appear'd a wonder to them and it would be so to his Holiness if it were in Latin for a poor obscure English Priest had writ four such Books of Laws and Church Polity and in a Style that exprest so Grave and such Humble Majesty with clear demonstration of Reason that in all their readings they had not met with any that exceeded him and this begot in the Pope an earnest desire that Doctor Stapleton should bring the said four Books and looking on the English read a part of them to him in Latin which Doctor Stapleton did to the end of the first Book at the conclusion of which the Pope spake to this purpose There is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his understanding this man indeed deserves the name of an Authour his books will get reverence by Age for there is in them such seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like this they shall last till the last fire shall consume all Learning Nor was this high the onely testimony and commendations given to his Books for at the first coming of king James into this Kingdom he inquired of the Archbishop Whitgift for his friend Mr. Hooker that writ the Books of Church Polity to which the answer was that he dyed a year before Queen Elizabeth who received the sad news of his Death with very much Sorrow to which the King replyed and I receive it with no less that I shall want the desired happiness of seeing and discoursing with that man from whose Books I have received such satisfaction Indeed my Lord I have received more satisfaction in reading a leaf or paragragh in Mr. Hooker though it were but about the fashion of Churches or Church musick or the like but especially of the Sacraments than I have had in the reading particular large Treatises written but of one of those Subjects by others though very learned men and I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected language but a grave comprehensive clear manifestation of Reason and that back't with the Authority of the Scripture the Fathers and Schoolmen and with all Law both Sacred and Civil And though many others write well yet in the next age they will be forgotten but doubtless there is in every page of Mr. Hookers Book the picture of a Divine Soul such Pictures of Truth and Reason and drawn in so sacred Colours that they shall never fade but give an immortal memory to the Author And it is so truly true that the King thought what he spake that as the most learned of the Nation have and still do mention Mr. Hooker with reverence so he also did never mention him but with the Epithite of Learned or Judicious or Reverend or Venerable Mr. Hooker Nor did his Son our late King Charles the First ever mention him but with the same reverence enjoining his Son our now gracious King to be studious in Mr. Hookers Books And our learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden mentioning the death the modesty and other vertues of Mr. Hooker and magnifying his Books wish't That for the honour of this and benefit of other Nations they were turn'd into the Universal Language Which work though undertaken by many yet they have been weary and forsaken it but the Reader may now expect it having been long since begun and lately finisht by the happy Pen of Dr. Earl late Lord Bishop of Salisbury of whom I may justly say and let it not offend him because it is such a truth as ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity or those that now live and yet know him not that since Mr. Hooker dyed none have liv'd whom God hath blest with more innocent Wisdom more sanctified Learning or a moâ—e piousâ— peaceable primitive temper so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself and our veerbale Rich. Hooker and only fit to make the learned of all Nations happy in knowing what hath been too long confin'd to the language of our little Island There might be many more and just occasions taken to speak of his Books which none ever did or can commend too much but I decline them and hasten to an account of his Christian behaviour and death at Borne in which place he continued his customary Rules of Mortification and Self-denial was much in Fasting frequent in Meditation and Prayers enjoying those blessed returns which only men of strict lives feel and know and of which men of loose and godless lives cannot be made sensible for spiritual things are spiritually discern'd At his entrance into this place his friendship was much sought for by Dr. Hadrian Saravia then or about that time made one of the Prebends of Canterbury a German by Birth and sometimes a Pastor both in Flanders and Holland where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning Episcopacy and Sacriledge and in England had a just occasion to declare his judgment concerning both unto his Brethren Ministers of the Low Countreys which was excepted against by Theodor Beza and others against whose exceptions he rejoyned and thereby became the happy Author of many learned Tracts writ in Latin especially of three one of the Degrees of Ministers and of the Bishops superiority above the Presbytery a second against
those seven Brothers George Herbert spent much of his Childhood in a sweet content under the eye and care of his prudent mother and the tuition of a Chaplain or Tutor to him and two of his Brothers in her own Family for she was then a Widow where he continued till about the age of twelve years and being at that time well instructed in the Rules of Grammar he was not long after commended to the care of Dr. Neale who was then Dean of Westminster and by him to the care of Mr. Ireland who was then chief Master of that School where the beauties of his pretty behaviour and wit shin'd and became so eminent and lovely in this his innocent age that he seem'd to be marked out for piety and to become the care of Heaven and of a particular Angel to guard and guide him And thus he continued in that School till he came to be perfect in the learned Languages and especially in the Greek Tongue in which he after prov'd an excellent Critick About the age of Fifteen he being then a Kings Scholar was elected out of that School for Trinity Colledge in Cambridge to which place he was transplanted about the year 1608. And his prudent mother well knowing that he might easily lose or lessen that virtue and innocence which her advice and example had planted in his mind did therefore procure the generous and liberal Dr. Nevil who was then Dean of Canterbury and Master of that Colledge to take him into his particular care and provide him a Tutor which he did most gladly undertake for he knew the excellencies of his Mother and how to value such a friendship This was the method of his Education till he was setled in Cambridge where we will leave him in his Study till I have paid my promis'd account of his excellent mother and I will endeavour to make it short I have told her birth her Marriage and the Number of her Children and have given some short account of them I shall next tell the Reader that her husband dyed when our George was about the Age of four years and that she continued twelve years a Widow that she then maried hapily to a Noble Gentleman the brother and Heir of the Lord Danvers Earl of Danby who did highly value both her person and most excellent endowments of her mind In this time of her Widowhood she being desirous to give Edward her eldest son such advantages of Learning and other education as might suit his birth and fortune and thereby make him the more fit for the service of his Country did at his being of a fit age remove from Montgomery Castle with him and some of her yonger sons to Oxford and having entred Edward into Queens Colledge and provided him a fit Tutor she commended him to his Care yet she continued there with him and still kept him in a moderate awe of herself and so much under her own eye as to see and converse with him dayly but she managed this power over him without any such rigid sourness as might make her company a torment to her Child but with such a sweetness and complyance with the recreations and pleasure of youth as did incline him willingly to spend much of his time in the company of his dear and careful mother which was to her great content for she would often say That as our bodies take a nourishment sutable to the meat on which we feed so our souls do as insensibly take in vice by the example or Conversation with wicked Company and would therefore as often say That ignorance of Vice was the best preservation of Vertue and that the very knowledge of wickedness was as tinder to inflame and kindle sin and to keep it burning For these reasons she indeared him to her own Company and continued with him in Oxford four years in which time her great and harmless wit her chearful gravity and her oblieging behaviour gain'd her an acquaintance and friendship with most of any eminent worth or learning that were at that time in or near that University and particularly with Mr. John Donne who then came accidentally to that place in this time of her being there it was that John Done who was after Doctor Donne and Dean of Saint Pauls London and he at his leaving Oxford writ and left there a Character of the Beauties of her body and minde of the first he sayes No Spring nor Summer-Beauty has such grace As I have seen in an Autumnal face Of the latter he sayes In all her words to every hearer fit You may at Revels or at Council sit The rest of her Character may be read in his printed Poems in that Elegy which bears the name of the Autumnal Beauty For both he and she were then past the meridian of mans life This Amity begun at this time and place was not Amity that polluted their Souls but an Amity made up of a chain of sutable inclinations and vertues an Amity like that of St. Chrysostoms to his dear and vertuous Olimpias whom in his Letters he calls his Saint Or an Amity indeed more like that of St. Hierom to his Paula whose affection to her was such that he turn'd Poet in his old Age and then made her Epitaph wishing all his Body were turn'd into Tongues that he might declare her just praises to posterity And this Amity betwixt her and Mr. Donne was begun in a happy time for him he being then about the Fortieth year of his Age which was some years before he entred into Sacred Orders A time when his necessities needed a daily supply for the support of his Wife seven Children and a Family And in this time she prov'd one of his most bountiful Benefactors and he as grateful an acknowledger of it You may take one testimony of what I have said of them from this following Letter and Sonnet MADAM YOur Favours to me are every where I use them and have them I enjoy them at London and leave them there and yet find them at Micham Such Riddles as these become things unexpressible and such is your goodness I was almost sorry to find your Servant here this day because I was loth to have any witness of my not coming home last Night and indeed of my coming this Morning But my not coming was excusable because earnest business detain'd me and my coming this day is by the example of your St. Mary Magdalen who rose early upon Sunday to seek that which she lov'd most and so did I. And from her and my self I return such thanks as are due to one to whom we owe all the good opinion that they whom we need most have of us by this Messenger and on this good day I commit the inclosed Holy Hymns and Sonnets which for the matter not the workmanship have yet escap'd the fire to your judgment and to your protection too if you think them worthy of it and I have appointed this inclosed
called Basilicon Doron and their Orator was to acknowledge this great honour and return their gratitude to His Majesty for such a condescention at the close of which Letter he writ Quid Vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hospes Unicus est nobis Bibliotheca Liber This Letter was writ in such excellent Latin was so full of Conceits and all the expressions so suted to the genius of the King that he inquired the Orators name and then ask'd William Earl of Pembroke if he knew him whose answer was That he knew him very well and that he was his Kinsman but he lov'd him more for his learning and vertue than for that he was of his name and family At which answer the King smil'd and asked the Earl leave that he might love him too for he took him to be the Jewel of that University The next occasion that he had to shew his great Abilities was with them to shew also his great affection to that Church in which he received his Baptism and of which he profest himself a member and the occasion was this There wâ—s one Andrew Melvin a Gentleman of Scotland who was in his own Countrey possest with an aversness if not a hatred of Church-government by Bishops and he seem'd to have a like aversness to our manner of Publick Worship and of Church-prayers and Ceremonies This Gentleman had travail'd France and resided so long in Geneva as to have his opinions the more confirm'd in him by the practice of that place from which he return'd into England some short time before or immediately after Mr. Herbert was made Orator This Mr. Melvin was a man of learning and was the Master of a great wit a wit full of knots and clenches a wit sharp and satyrical exceeded I think by none of that Nation but their Bucanen At Mr. Melvins return hither he writ and scattered in Latin many pieces of his wit against our Altars our Prayers and our Publick Worship of God in which Mr. Herbert took himself to be so much concern'd that as fast as Melvin writ and scatter'd them Mr. Herbert writ and scatter'd answers and reflections of the same sharpness upon him and them I think to the satisfaction of all un-ingaged persons But this Mr. Melvin was not only so busie against the Church but at last so bold with the King and State that he rayl'd and writ himself into the Tower at which time the Lady Arabella was an innocent prisoner there and he pleas'd himself much in sending the next day after his Commitment these two Verses to the good Lady which I will under-write because they may give the Reader a taste of his others which were like these Causa tibi mecum est communis Carceris Ara-Bella tibi causa est Araque sacra mihi I shall not trouble my Reader with an account of his enlargement from that Prison or his Death but tell him Mr. Herberts Verses were thought so worthy to be preserv'd that Dr. Duport the learned Dean of Peterborough hath lately collected and caus'd them to be printed as an honourable memorial of his friend Mr. George Herbert and the Cause he undertook And in order to my third and last observation of his great Abilities it will be needful to declare that about this time King James came very often to hunt at New-market and Royston and was almost as often invited to Cambridge where his entertainment was suted to his pleasant humor and where Mr. George Herbert was to welcome him with Gratulations and the Applauses of an Orator which he alwayes perform'd so well that he still grew more into the Kings favour insomuch that he had a particular appointment to attend His Majesty at Royston where after a Discourse with him His Majesty declar'd to his Kinsman the Earl of Pembroke That he found the Orators learning and wisdom much above his age or wit The year following the King appointed to end His progress at Cambridge and to stay there certain dayes at which time he was attended by the great Secretary of Nature and all Learning Sir Francis Bacon Lord Virulam and by the ever memorable and learned Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester both which did at that time begin a desir'd friendship with our Orator Upon whom the first put such a value on his judgement that he usually desir'd his approbation before he would expose any of his Books to be printed and thought him so worthy of his friendship that having translated many of the Prophet Davids Psalms into English Verse he made George Herbert his Patron of them by a publick dedication of them to him as the best Judge of Divine Poetry And for the learned Bishop it is observable that at that time there fell to be a modest debate about Predestination and Sanctity of life of both which the Orator did not long after send the Bishop some safe and useful Aphorisms in a long Letter written in Greek which was so remarkable for the language and matter that after the reading of it the Bishop put it into his bosom and did often shew it to Scholars both of this and forreign Nations but did alwayes return it back to the place where he first lodg'd it and continu'd it so near his heart till the last day of his life To these I might add the long and intire friendship betwixt him and Sir Henry Wotton and Dr. Donne but I have promis'd to contract my self and shall therefore only add one testimony to what is also mentioned in the Life of Dr. Donne namely that a little before his death he caused many Seals to be made and in them to be ingraven the figure of Christ crucified on an Anchor which is the emblem of hope and of which Dr. Donne would often say Crux mihi Anchora These Seals he sent to most of those friends on which he put a value and at Mr. Herberts death these Verses were found wrap't up with that Seal which was by the Doctor given to him When my dear Friend could write no more He gave this Seal and so gave ore When winds and waves rise highest I am sure This Anchor keeps my faith that me secure At this time of being Orator he had learnt to understand the Italian Spanish and French Tongues very perfectly hoping that as his Predecessor so he might in time attain the place of a Secretary of State being then high in the Kings favour and not meanly valued and lov'd by the most eminent and most powerful of the Court Nobility This and the love of a Court-conversation mixt with a laudable ambition to be something more then he then was drew him often from Cambridge to attend the King who then gave him a Sine Cure which fell into His Majesties disposal I think by the death of the Bishop of St. Asaph It was the same that Queen Elizabeth had formerly given to her Favourite Sir Philip Sidney and valued to be worth an hundred and twenty pound per