Indeed I read of a Company of â—…hysicians in Athens called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they would take no Money of their Patients and our St. German was of their Judgement as to his Clients 5. Ability being excellently skill'd in Civil Caxon and Common Law so that it was hard to say wherein he excelled Add to these his skill in scripture witnesse his Book called The Doctor and Student where the former vics Divinity with the Lâ—…w of the later 6. Industry he wrote several works wherein he plainly appeareth not only a Favourer of but Champion for the Reformation 7 Vivacity Lâ—…ving to be above eighty years old and dying anno Dom. 1593. was buryed at St. Alphage London near Criplegate WILLIAM RASTAL was born in this City Sisters Son to Sir Thomas More and was bred in the Study of our Common Law and whoever readeth this passage in Pitz. will thence conclude him one of the two Chief Justices of England Pitz. de Ang. Script Aetat 16. anno 1565. Factus est Civilium Criminalium causarum alter ex duobus per Angliam supremis Judicibus whereas in deed he was but one of the Justices of the Kings Bench yet his Ability and Integrity did capacitate him for higher preferment being also a person of Industry He wrote the Life and set forth the Works of his Uncle More made a Collection of and Comment on the statutes of England Great was his Zeal to the Roâ—…ish Religion flying into Flanders with the changing of his Countrey under King Edward the Sixth he changed the nature of his Studies but then wrote worse Books on a better subject I mean Divinity He undertook Bishop Juel as much his over match in Divinity as Rastal was his in the common Law The Papists are much pleased with him for helping their cause as they conceive and we are not angry with him who hath not hurt ours in any degree He dyed at Lovain 1565. and lyeth buryed with his Wife in the same Tomb and this Epitaph may be bestowed on him Rastallus tumulo cum conjuge dormit in uno Unius carnis Pulvis unus erit Know that Winifrid Clement his Wife was one of the greatest Female Scholars an exact Grecian and the Crown of all most pious according to her perswasion Souldiers No City in Europe hath bred more if not too many of late and indeed we had had better Tâ—…adesmen if worse Souldiets I dare not adventure into so large a Subject and will instance but in one to keep possession for the rest submitting my self to the Readers censure whether the Parties merit or my private Relation puts me on his Memorial Sir THOMAS ROPER Son of Thomas Roper Servant to Queen Elizabeth was born in Friday Street in London whose Grandfather was a younger Son of the House of Heanour in Derby shire Indeed Furneaux was the ancient name of that Family until Richard Furneaux marryed Isald the Daughter of ..... Roper of Beighton in the County of Derby Esquire and on that Consideration was bound to assume the name of Roper by Indenture Dated the Sâ—…venth of Henry the Sixth This Sir Thomas Going over into the Lowe Countries became Page to Sir John Norrice and was Captain of a Foot Company at sixteen years of age what afterwards his Martial performances were to avoid all suspicion of Flattery to which my Relation may incline me I have transcribed the rest out of the Original of his Patent Cum Thomas Roper Eques auratus è Secretioribus Concilliariis nostris in regno nostro Hyberniae jampridem nobis Bellicae virtutis Splendore clarus innotuerit Utpote qui quam plurimis rebus per eum in nuperrimo bello hujus Regni fortiter gestis praeclarum Nomen Strenui Militis prudentis Ducis reportavit Cujus virtus praecipuè in recessu in Provinciâ nostrâ Conaciae prope Le Boyle emicuit ubi paucissimis admodum equestribus ingentes equitum turmas per Regni Meditullia hostiliter grassantes fortiter aggressus Ita prudentiâ suâ singulari receptui cecinit ut non modo se suos sed etiam totum exercitum ab ingenti periculo Liberavit hostesque quam plurimos ruinae tradidit Qui etiam cum Provincia nostra Ultoniae bello deflagaverat ob exploratam animi fortitudinâ—…m ab honoratissimo Comite Essexiae exercitus tunc imperatore unius ex omnibus designatus fuit ad Duellum eum Makal uno ex fortissimis Tyronentium agminum ducibus suscipiendum nisi praedictus Makal duello praedicto se exponere remisset Cumque etiam praedictus Thomas Roper in nuperrimo Bello apud Brest in Regno Gallie se maximis periculis objiciendo sanguinem suum effundendo Fortitudinem suam invictam demonstravit Qui etiam in expeditione Portugalenci se fortiter ac honorifice 〈◊〉 ac etiam apud Bergen in Belgio cum per Hispanos obsideretur invictissimae fortitudinis juvenem in defensione ejusdem se praebuit Qui etiam in expugnationis Kinsalensis die primus 〈◊〉 juxta 〈◊〉 propissime constitutus fuerat Hispanesque ex eo oppido sepius eodem die 〈◊〉 fortissime felicissimeque ad maximam totius exercitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profligavit Sciatis igitur quod nos intuitu praemissorum Dominum Thomam Roper millitem c. Whereas Thomas Roper Knight one of our Privy Councellors of our Kingdome of Ireland long since hath been known unto us famous with the Splendor of his Warlike vertue As who by the many Atchievements valiantly performed by him in the late War of this Kingdome hath gained the eminent Repute both of a stout Souldier and a discâ—…eet Commander whose Valour chiefly appeared in his Retreat near Le Boyle in â—…ur Province of Conaught where with very few horse he undantedly charged great Troops of the Horse of the Enemy who in a Hostile manner forraged the very Bowels of the Kingdome and by his Wisdome made such a singular retreat that he not only saved himself and his men but also delivered the whole Army from great danger and slew very many of his Enemies Who also when our Province of Ulster was all on Fire with war being one out of many was for the tryed resolution of his mind chosen by the Right Honorable the E. of Essex then General of the Army to undertake a Duel with Makal one or the stoutest Captains in the Army of Tyrone had not the said Makal declined to expose himself to the appointed Duel And also when the aforesaid Thomas Raper in the late war in the Kingdome of France at Brest by exposing himself to the greatest perils and sheding of his own bloud demonstrated his courage to be unconquerable Who also iâ—… the voyage to Portugal behaved himself valiantly and honorably as also at Bergen in the Nether-lands when it was besiedged by the Spaniards approved himself a young man of 〈◊〉 valour in the defence thereof Who also in the day wherin Kinsale was assaulted was
own Heralds to Marshal their own precedency they had been much to blame if not carving a good portion of Honour to themselves whilest devout Princes abused by bad Instructors and their own erroneous Consciences gave to the Clergy what they were pleased to demaund None might elect the Pope save such as were Cardi. yea none out of that Order were eligible into the Papacy as in England one must first be a Sergeant before he be a Iudge Cardinal Deacons were in equal capacity of being Popes with Cardinal Priests and oftentimes were preferred before them as they could strenthen their faction which carried all in these and I could wish in no other Elections WILLIAM ALLEN who died Anno 1594 was the last Englishman advanced to this Honour so that our Country hath not had a Cardinâ—…l these sixty years which from the former six hundred years was never without one or two of that Order This may seem a wonder our Nation being as meriting as any for the Romish Cause and having as good Heads as any why should they not weare as gay Hats as others nor will the reasons assigned for the contrary give satisfaction viz. 1. That the Pope commonly makes Cardinals to gratifie Foreign Kings whilest our English Soveraigns have ever since been of a different Religion from his Holinesse 2. That our English Catholicks living beyond Seas in the nature of Exiles and under persecution as they call it so high an honour is inconsistent with their suffering condition 3. That our Englishmen want preferment and Estates to maintain the distance of so great a dignity There are at the present two English Natives in France of noble extraction and Romish perswasion much voyced in common discourse for their probability to such preferment but on what grounds I do not know and list not to enquire Surely the matter is not great seeing that dignity hath been observed to be rather fatal then fortunate to the English and attended with some sad and sudden casualties 1. Cardinal Mackelsfield was four moneths buried before his Cap was brought him 2. Cardinal Sertor dyed in Italy in the Juncture of Time Inter Pileum datum susceptum 3. Cardinal Fisher when his Cap was come to Calis had his head struck off at Tower-Hill 4. Cardinal Somercot was poysoned in the very Conclave to prevent his selection to the Popedome 5. Cardinal Evosham was sent the same way on the same occasion 6. Cardinal Bambridge was poysoned at Rome by one of his servants being an Italian If such their successe I suppose it far easier for Englishmen to have their caps though courser and cheaper made of our own Countrey-wool which will be more warm and may prove more healthful for the wearers thereof I have done with this Subject when I have observed that there is a Cardinal Bishop of Sabine a place near Rome and a Cardinal Priest of Saint Sabine a Church dedicated to her Memory in the same City the not heeding whereof I suspect hath bred much confusion in our English Writers The best is our Englishmen when they write of Places in Italy cannot commit greater and grosser mistakes then what Italians have done when they have wrote of Towns and Places in England Though perchance such is their pride that they will say it is our duty to be exact in Italy and their courtesie to take any notice of England Let not the Reader wonder if Cardinals inserted in others are omitted in our Catalogue viz. Ulricus Ancherus Theobaldus Bernardus de Anguiscello c. Seeing I am unsatisfied in some of them whether they were Cardinals in others whether they were Englishmen Forreign Countries laying more probable claim unto them Nor will it quit the cost of a Contest nothing more then their names being left in History withouta ny other observeables Prelates before the Reformation Next succeed such eminent Clergy-men who attained to the honour of being Arch-Bishops and Bishops in England and were famous in their generations Objection These Popes Cardinals and Prelates were superstitious persons and Limbs of Antichrist whose names are better lost then kept Yea it mattered not much if some good Josiah served their bones as those of the idolatrous Priests of Jeroboam even burn them to ashes that so their bodies and memories might perish together Answer I am afraid our age affords those who if they were to manage that Act would together with their bones sans difference notwithstanding the distinguishing Epitaph burn the bodies of the young and old Prophet I mean utterly extirpate the Ministerial Function But I answer it must be confess'd they were deeply died with the Errors and Vices of the Age they lived in yet so that some of them were for their Devotion exemplary to posterity and the very worst of them though yeelding nothing fit for our Imitation may afford what is well worth our Observation And here be it remembred that the same Epithete in severall places accepts sundry Interpretations He is called A GOOD MAN in common Discourse who is not Dignified with Gentilitie A GOOD MAN upon the Exchange who hath a responsable Estate A GOOD MAN in a Camp who is a tall Man of his Armes A GOOD MAN in the Church who is Pious and Devout in his Conversation Thus whatsoever is fixed therein in other Relations that Person is A GOOD MAN in History whose Character affords such Matter as may please the Palate of an Ingenious Reader and I humbly crave the Honour to be his Taster in this Behalf Now of Bishops before the Conquest the most were meerly nuda Nomina Naked Names As for such appearing Clothed with remarkable History most of them move in an higher Sphere of Saints and so are anticipated Since the Conquest for the first seven Kings many Prelates were Foreigners generally French and so Aliens from our Subject It will therefore be seasonable to begin their Catalogue about the time of King Henry the Third deducing it unto the Popish Bishops who were deprived in the first of Queen Elizabeth CHAP. V. Since the Reformation NExt those Prelates before follow such as were since the Reformation much different not in Title but Tenure from the former holding their places not from the Pope but their Prince and practising the principles of the protestant Religion for the term of a hundred and twenty years since the latter end of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth Amongst these Malice it self meets with many which it must allow for their Living Preaching and Writing to have been the main Champions of Truth against Error Learning against Ignorance Piety against Profâ—…ss Religion against Superstition Unity and Order against Faction and Confusion verifying the judicious observation of Forreigners Clerus Britanniae Gloria mundi These Prelates may be Digested into Five Successive Setts or Companies under their respective Arch-bishops allowing each of them somewhat more then twenty years as large a proportion for the life of a Bishop as seventy years for the
in this Land flying hither for succour from their Civil Wars and surely it was against their mind if they all went back again Distress at Sea hath driven others in as the Stewards High-sheriffs in Cambridgeshire As other accidents have occasioned the coming in of the Scrimpshires an hundred years since High sheriffs in Staffordshire more lately the Nappers in Bedfordshire and before both the Scots of Scots-hall in Kent I much admire that never an eminent Irish native grew in England to any greatness so many English having prospered in that Country But it seems we love to live there where we may Command and they care not to come where they must Obey Our great distance from Italy always in Position and since the Reformation in Religion hath caused that few or none of that Nation have so incorporated with the English as to have found Families therein Yet have we a sprinkling of Italian Protestants Castilian a valiant Gentleman of Berkshire The Bassanoes excellent Painters and Musicians in Essex which came over into England under King Henry the eight and since in the raign of Queen Elizabeth Sir Horatio Palavicine Receiver of the Popes Revenues landed in Cambridgeshire and the Caesars aliàs Dalmarii still flourishing in Hartfordshire in Worshipful Estates though I never find any of these performing the office of Sheriff The High-Dutch of the Hans Towns antiently much conversed in our Land known by the name of Easterlings invited hither by the large priviledges our Kings conferred upon them so that the Steel-yard proved the Gold-yard unto them But these Merchants moved round in their own Sphere matching amongst themselves without mingling with our Nation Onely we may presume that the Easterlings corruptly called Stradlings formerly Sheriffs in Wiltshire and still famous in Glamorganshire with the Westphalings lately Sheriffs of Oxfordshire were originally of German Extraction The Low Country-men frighted by Duke D'Alvas Tyranny flocked hither under King Edward the sixth fixing themselves in London Norwich Canterbury and Sandwich But these confined themselves to their own Church discipline and for ought I can find advanced not forward by eminent Matches into our Nation Yet I behold the worthy Family of De la Fountain in Lecestershire as of Belgian Original and have read how the ancestours of Sir Simon D'us in Suffolk came hither under King Henry the eight from the Dunasti or D'us in Gelderland As for the Spaniards though their King Philip matched with our Queen Mary but few of any eminence now extant if I well remember derive their Pedigrees from them This I impute to the shortness of their Reign and the ensuing change of Religions Probable it is we might have had more Natives of that Kingdome to have setled and flourished in our Nation had he obtained a marriage with Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory which some relate he much endeavoured As for Portugal few of that Nation have as yet fixed their habitations and advanced Families to any visible height in our Land But it may please God hereafter we may have a happy occasion to invite some of that Nation to reside and raise Families in England Mean time the May's who have been Sheriffs in Sussex are all whom I can call to mind of the Portugal Race and they not without a Mixture of Jewish Extraction Come we now to the second Division of our Gentry according to the Professions whereby they have been advanced And here to prevent unjust misprision be it premised that such professions Found most of them gentlemen being the though perchance Younger Sons of wealthy Fathers able to give them liberal education They were lighted before as to their Gentility but now set up in a higher Candlestick by such professions which made a visible and conspicuous accession of Wealth and Dignity almost to the ecclipsing their former condition Thus all behold Isis increased in name and water after its conjunction with Thame at Dorchester whilst few take notice of the first Fountain thereof many miles more Westward in Gloucestershire The Study of the Common-law hath advanced most antient extant Families in our Land It seems they purchased good Titles made sure Setlements and entailed Thrift with their Lands on their posterity A prime person of that profession hath prevented my pains and given in a List of such principal Families I say principal many being omitted by him in so Copious a subject Miraculous the mortality in Egypt where there was not a House wherein there was not one dead But I hope it will be allowed Marvellous that there is not a generous and numerous House in England wherein there is not one though generally no first Born but a Younger Brother antiently or at this day Living Thriving and Flourishing by the Study of the Law Especially if to them what in Justice ought be added those who have raised themselves in Courts relating to the Law The City hath produced more then the Law in number and some as broad in Wealth but not so high in Honour nor long lasting in time who like Land-floods soon come and soon gone have been dried up before the third Generation Yet many of these have continued in a certain channel and carried a Constant stream as will plainly appear in the sequel of our Worthies The Church before the Reformation advanced many Families For though Bishops might not marry they preferred their Brothers Sons to great Estates As the Kemps in Kent Peckhams in Sussex Wickham in Hampshire Meltons in Yorkshire Since the Reformation some have raised Families to a Knightly and Worshipful Estate Hutton Bilson Dove Neil c. But for Sheriffs I take notice of Sandys in Worcester and Cambridgeshire Westphaling in Herefordshire Elmar in Suffolk Rud in Carmarthenshire c. Sure I am there was a generation of People of the last Age which thought they would level all Clergy-men or any descendants from them with the ground Yea had not Gods arme been stretched out in their preservation they had become a prey to their enemies violence and what they had designed to themselves and in some manner effected had ere this been time perfectly compleated As for the inferiour Clergy it is well if their narrow maintenance will enable them to leave a livelihood to their little ones I find but one Robert Johnson by name attaining such an estate that his Grand-son was pricked Sheriff of a County but declined the place by pleading himself a Deacon and by the favour of Arch-bishop Laud. The Study of the Civil-Law hath preferr'd but few The most eminent in that faculty before the Reformation being persons in Orders prohibited marriage However since the Reformation there are some Worshipful Families which have been raised by the Study in this Faculty Yet have our wars which perhaps might have been advocated for in Turks and Pagans who bid defiance to all humanity but utterly mis-beseeming Christians been a main cause of the moulting of many Eminent and Worthy persons of this Profession Nor
his friend and Patron Baldwin Arch-Bishop of Canterbury He travailed into Forrain parts which he did not as too many weed but gathered the Flowers returning stored with good Manners and stock'd with good Learning He endeavoured that all in his Convent should be like himself and Ford-Abbey in his time had more Learning therein than three Convents of the same bignesse He was Confessor to King John wrote many pious Works and dying was buried in his own Convent without any Funeral Pomp about the year 1215. RICHARD FISHAKER or FIZACRE Matthew Paris termeth him FISHACLE was saith 〈◊〉 born in Exoniensi Patria which I english in Devonshire He was bred first in Oxford then in Paris and became a Dominican Friar For his Learning and Preaching as highly esteemed as any of that age He was saith Learned Leland as fast linked in Friendship to Robert Bacon of whom hereafter as ever 〈◊〉 to Bacchius or Thesâ—…us to Perithous So that one may say ofthem there was two friends This Richard disdaining to survive Robert aâ—…oresaid hearing of his death expired in the same year 1248. and was buried at Oxford JOHN CUT 〈◊〉 was born at the Manor of Gammage in this County where his Name and Family do continue Owners thereof Now because that which is pretty is pleasing and what is little may be presumed pretty we will insert the short and indeed all the information we have of him In the time of King Edward the Third Johannes Rupe-Scissanus or de Rupe scissa Cutclif being a very sincere and learned man opposed himself against the Doctrine and Manners of the Clergy and wrote against the Pope himself I see Baleus non vidit omnia for Pitzeus it is no wonder if he be pleased to take no notice of a Writer of an opposite judgment to himself When we receive then will we return more Intelligence of this Authour RICHARD CHICHESTER was not born at Chichester in Sussex as his Name doth import but was an extract of that Ancient Family still flourishing at Raleigh in this County He became a Monk in Westminster seldome spending any spare time in vanity but laying it out in reading Scripture and good History He wrote a Chronicle from Hengisius the Saxon to the year of our Lord 1348. done indeed fide Historica His death happened about the year 1355. ROBERT PLYMPTON was born in Plypmton in this County and bred an Augustinian in the Town of his Nativity He was afterwards preferred Arch-Deacon of Totnesse conscientiously discharging his place for perceiving people extreamly 〈◊〉 he was another John Baptist in his painful preaching repentance unto them which Sermons he caused to be written and it is conceived they wrought a very good 〈◊〉 on the Devonians The time wherein he flourished is not certainly known NICHOLAS UPTON was born in this County of an Ancient Family still flourishing therein at ........... He was bred Doctor in the Canon-Law and became Canon of Salisbury Wells and St. Pauls Humphrey Duke of Glocester the Me coenas General of goodnesse and learning had him in high esteem and gave him great rewards Hereupon Upton in expression of his gratitude presented his Patron with a Book the first in that kind of Heraldry and the Rules thereof a Book since set forth in a fair impression by Edward Bish Esquire a Person composed of all worthy accomplishments He flourished under King Henry the Sixth 1440. Since the Reformation RICHARD HOOKER was born at Heavy-tree nigh Exeter bred in Corpus Christi Colledg in Oxford and afterwards was preferred by Arch-Bishop Whitgift Master of the Temple whilst at the same time Mr. Walter Travers was the Lecturer thereof Here the Pulpit spake pure Canterbury in the Morning and Geneva in the Afternoon until Travers was silenced Hooker his Stile was prolixe but not tedious and such who would patiently attend and give him credit all the reading or hearing of his Sentences had their expectation over-paid at the close thereof He may be said to have made good Musick with his fiddle and stick alone without any Rosin having neither Pronunciation nor gesture to grace his matter His Book of Ecclestiastical POLITIE is prized by all generally save such who out of Ignorance cannot or Envy will not understand it But there is a kind of People who have a Pike at him and therefore read his Book with a prejudice that as Jephtha vowed to sacrifice the first living thing which met him these are resolved to quarrel with the first word which occurreth therein Hereupon it is that they take exception at the very Title thereof Ecclesiastical Politie as if unequally yoked Church with some mixture of City-nesse that the Discipline Jure Divino may bow to Humane Inventions But be it reported to the Judicious whether when all is done a Reserve must not be left for prudential Supplies in Church Government True it is his Book in our late Times was beheld as an Old-Almanack grown out of date but blessed be God there is now a Revoluion which may bring his Works again into reputation Mr. Hooker leaving London no inclination of his own but obedience to others put him on so publick a place retired to his small Benefice in Kent where he put off his Mortality Anno 1599 leaving the Memory of an humble holy and learned Divine Here I must retract after a Father no shame for a Child two passages in my Church History For whereas I reported him to die a Bachilour he had Wife and Children though indeed such as were neither to his comfort when living nor credit when Dead But Parents cannot stamp their Children from their Heads or Hearts Secondly his Monument was not erected by Sir Edwin Sandys a person as probable as any man alive for such a performance but by Sir William Cooper now li ving in the Castle of Hartford and let the good Knight have the due Commendation thereof JOHN REINOLDS was born in this County bred in Corpus-Christi-Colledge in Oxford of whom I have spoken plentifully in my Church-History NATHANIEL CARPENTER Son to a Minister was born in this County bred Fellow of Exeter-Colledge in Oxford He was right-handed in the Cyclopedy of all Arts Logick witnesse his Decades Mathematicks expressed in the Book of his Geography and Divinity appearing in his excellent Sermons called Achitophel As for his Opticks it had been a Master-piece in that kind if truly and perfectly printed I have been informed that to his great grief he found the written Preface thereof CaChristmass Pies in his Printers House Pearles are no Pearles when Cocks or Coxcombs find them and could never after from his scattered Notes recover an Original thereof He went over into Ireland where he became Chaplain to James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh and School-Master of the Kings Wards in Dublin A place of good profit great credit greatest trust being to bring up many Popish Minors in the Protestant Religion who under his Education grew
She was youngest Daughter and Child to Ralph Earl of Westmerland who had one and twenty and exceeded her Sisters in honour being married to Richard Duke of York She saw her Husband kill'd in battel George Duke of Clarence her second Son cruelly murdered Edward her eldest son cut off by his own intemperance in the prime of his years his two sons butchered by their Uncle Richard who himself not long after was slain at the bartel of Bosworth She was blessed with three Sons who lived to have issue each born in a several Kingdom Edward at Bourdeaux in France George at Dublin in Ireland Richard at Fotheringhay in England She saw her own reputation murdered publickly at Pâ—…uls-Cross by the procurement of her youngest son Richard taxing his eldest Brother for illegitimate She beheld her eldest Son Edward King of England and enriched with a numerous posterity  Yet our Chronicles do not charge her with elation in her good or dejection in her ill success an argument of an even and steady soul in all alterations Indeed she survived to see Elizabeth her grand child married to King Henry the seventh but little comfort accrued to her by that conjunction the party of the Yorkists were so depressed by him She lived five and thirty years a widow and died in the tenth year of King Henry the seventh 1495. and was buried by her Husband in the Quire of the Collegiate Church of Fotheringhay in Northampton-shire which Quire being demolished in the days of King Henry the eighth their bodies lay in the Church-yard without any Monument until Queen Elizabeth coming thither in Progress gave order that they should be interred in the Church and two Tombs to be erected over them Hereupon their bodies lapped in Lead were removed from their plain Graves and their Coffins opened The Duchess Cicely had about her neck hanging in a Silver Ribband a Pardon from Rome which penned in a very fine Roman Hand was as fair and fresh to be read as if it had been written but yesterday But alas most mean are their Monuments made of Plaister wrought with a Trowell and no doubt there was much daubing therein the Queen paying for a Tomb proportionable to their Personages The best is the memory of this Cicely hath a better and more lasting Monument who was a bountiful Benefactress to Queens Colledge in Cambridge Saints BEDE And because some Nations measure the worth of the person by the length of the name take his addition Venerable He was born at Girwy now called Yarrow in this Bishoprick bred under Saint John of Beverly and afterwards a Monk in the Town of his Nativity He was the most general Scholar of that age Let a Sophister begin with his Axioms a Batchelor of Art proceed to his Metaphysicks a Master to his Mathematicks and a Divine conclude with his Controversies and Comments on Scripture and they shall find him better in all than any Christian Writer in that age in any of those Arts and Sciences He expounded almost all the Bible translated the Psalms and New Testament into English and lived a Comment on those Words of the * Apostle shining as a light in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation He was no gadder abroad credible Authors avouching that he never went out of his Cell though both Cambridge and Rome pretend to his habitation Yet his Corps after his death which happened Anno 734. took a journey or rather were removed to Durham and there enshrined Confessors JOHN WICKLIFFE It is a great honour to this small County that it produced the last maintainer of Religion before the general decay thereof understand me Learned Bede and the firm restorer thereof I mean this Wickliff the subject of our present discourse True it is His Nativity cannot be demonstrated in this Bishoprick but if such a scientia media might be allowed to man which is beneath certainty and above conjecture such should I call our perswasion that Wickliff was born therein First all confess him a Northern man by extraction Secondly the Antiquary allows an ancient Family of the Wickliffs in this County whose Heir general by her match brought much wealth and honour to the Brakenburies of Celaby Thirdly there are at this day in these parts of the name and alliance who continue a just claim of their kindred unto him Now he was bred in Oxford some say in Baliol others more truly in Merton Colledge and afterwards published opinions distasteful to the Church of Rome writing no fewer than two hundred Volumns of all which largely in our Ecclesiastical History besides his translating of the whole Bible into English He suffered much persecution from the Popish Clergy Yet after long exile he by the favour of God and good Friends returned in safety and died in quietness at his living at Lutterworth in Leicestershire Anno 1387. the last of December whose bones were taken up and burnt 42. years after his death Disdain not Reader to learn something by my mistake I conceive that Mr. Fox in his Acts and Monuments had entred the Names of our English Martyrs and Confessors in his Kalender on that very day whereon they died Since I observe he observeth a Method of his own fancy concealing the reasons thereof to himself as on the perusing of his Catalogue will appear Thus VVickliff dying December the last is by him placed January the second probably out of a design to grace the new year with a good beginning though it had been more true and in my weak judgement as honourable for VVickliff to have brought up the rear of the old as to lead the front of the new year in his Kalender Prelates The Nevills We will begin with a Quaternion of Nevils presenting them in Parallels and giving them their Precedency before other Prelates some their Seniors in time because of their Honourable Extraction All four were born in this Bishoprick as I am informed by my worthy Friend Mr. Charles Nevil Vice-Provost of Kings in Cambridge one as knowing 〈◊〉 Universal Heraldry as in his own Colledge in our English Nobility as in his own Chamber in the ancient fair and far branched Family of the Nevils as in his own Study RALPH NEVIL was born at Raby in this Bishoprick was Lord Chancellour under King Henry the third none discharging that Office with greater integrity and more general commendation and Bishop of Chichester 1223. He built a fair House from the ground in Chancery Lane for himselfe and successors for an Inne where they might repose themselves when their occasions brought them up to London How this House was afterwards aliened and came into the possession of Henry Lacy Earl of Lincoln from whom it is called Lincolns Inne at this day I know not Sure I am that Mr. Mountague late Bishop of Chichester intended to lay claim therunto in right of his see But alas he was likely to follow a cold scent
oath You shall swear by the custome of our confession That you never made any nuptiall transgression Since you were married man and wife By houshold brawles or contentious strife Or otherwise in bed or at bord Offended each other in deed or word Or since the Parish-Clerk said Amen Wished your selves unmarried agen Or in a twelve-moneth and a day Repented not in thought any way But continued true and in desire As when you joyn'd hands in holy Quire If to these conditions without all fear Of your own accord you will freely swear A Gammon of Bacon you shall receive And bear it hence with love and good leave For this is our custome at Dunmow well known Though the sport be ours the Bacons your own It appeareth in an old book on record that Richard Wright of Badesnorth in Norfolk in the twentieth third of Henry the sixth when John Canon was Prior that Stephen Samuel of Little-Easton in Essex the seventh of Edward the fourth when Roger Rullcot was Prior and that Thomas Lee of Coxhall in Essex the second of Henry the eight when John Taylor was Prior demanded their Bacon on the premisses and receiv'd it accordingly Princes HENRY FITZ-ROY naturall son to King Henry the eight Here we confess our Trespass against our own Rules who confined our selves to the Legitimate Issue of Kings presuming that the worth of this Henry will make amends for our breach of order herein He was begotten on the Body of the Lady Talbois and born at Blackmore-Mannor in this County Anno 1519. being afterwards Created Earl of Noâ—…tingham and Duke of Richmond He confuted their Etymology who deduced Bastard from the Dutch words boes and art that is an abject Nature and verifyed their deduction deriving it from besteaerd that is the best disposition Such was his forwardness in all Martiall Activities with his knowledge in all Arts and Sciences Learned Leland dedicating a book unto him He married Mary daughter to Thomas Duke of Norfolk and dying Anno 1536. in the seventeenth year of his age was buried at Framlingham in Suffolk with great lamentation Saints Saint HELEN was born at Colchester in this County daughter to Coel King thereof as all our British Authors unanimously doe report She was Mother of Constantine the first Christian Emperour and is famous to all ages for finding out Christ's Cross on Mount Calvary Hence it is that in memoriall hereof the City of Colchester giveth for its Arms a Cross enragled between four Crowns A scandal is raised on her name that she was Stabularia A Stableress whereof one rendreth this witty râ—…ason because her Father was Comes Stabuli an high office equivalent to the Constable in France unto the Emperour Others more truly make her so nick named by Pagan malice for her officious devotion in finding out the Stable of Christs Nativity Heathen pens have much aspersed her calling her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose tongues are no slander seeing the Disciple is not above his Master More was I moved when first finding thispassage in Paulinus the pious Bishop of Nola Paulin. Epist. 11. ad Severum This englished ad verbum Prompto filii Imperatoris adsensu mater Augusta patefactis ad opera sancta thesauris toto abusa fisco est She being Mother Emperess the treasuries being set open to pious works by the ready consent of her Son the Emperor she wholly abused the exchequer I wondred to see Paulinus charging such abuses upon her being a person so prodigiously charitable that he is said to have sold himself to redeem a widows son from captivity but consulting the best of Orators I find abuti sometimes fixing no fault and importing no more then uti so that abusing the Exchequer signifieth no more then a full free usage thereof She died at Rome being eighty years of age Anno Domini 337. Saint CONSTANTINE son to the aforesaid Saint Helen was born also at Colchester one sufficiently known to all posterity by the meer mentioning of him My pen shall now do penance with its silence to expiate its tediousness in describing his character in our Ecclesiasticall History He died Anno Domini 339. Saint Ethelburgh Hildetha Theorithoid Edilburge Wolfhild Sister to Erkenwald Bishop of London was by him appointed first Abbess of the Nunnery of Barking in this County by him built and endowed Here she led a very austere life and obtained the veneration of a Saint after her death which happened 676. Sister to St. Ethelburgh aforesaid succeeded her in the government of the said Nunnery for the term of four and twenty years so that she died very aged with the reputation of a Saint Anno 700. The first of whose name soundeth Greek the second Saxon was in this respect inferior to the two former because no Abbess but onely a Nun of Barking Yet did she equall them in some sort in the holiness of her life and her memory may go a breast with them in the Classis of Sts. She died 678. Wife to Ina K. of the West-Saxons by the consent of her husband who went a Pilgrim to Rome became a Nun at Barking after her death Anno 740. room was made for her memory amongst the rank of Saints Afterwards Barking Nunnery destroyed by the Danes was rebuilt by King Edgar Daughter to Wulfhelme E. of the West-Saxons born after the 18. year of her Mothers barrenness was by King Edgar made Abbess of Barking which was the first Nunnery of England the richest valued at above 1000l of year rent at the dissolution and the fruit fullest of Saints as by this parallel doth appear St. Wolfhild died Anno 989. Saint OSITH She was daughter to the King of the East-Angles and wife to Suthred last King of East-Saxons by whose consent forsaking the world she was veiled and at last became Abbess of a Monastery of her own founding at Chich in this County untill the Danes infesting these fea-coasts cut off her head in hatred of Religion Yet this her head after it was cut off was carried by Saint Osith oh wonder oh lie three furlongs and then she fell down and died The same mutatis mutandis is told of Saint Dionys in France Saint Winefride in Wales and others such being the barrenness of Monkish invention that unable to furnish their severall Saints with variety of fictions their tired fancie is fain to make the same miracle serve many Saints She was martyred about the year of our Lord 870. Saint NEOTS why Sir-named Adulphius I know not was born saith Bale either in Essex or Kent but Pitz. who wrote sixty years after him saith positively he was born in Essex It seemeth he met with some evidence to sway down the even beam to preponderate on the side of this County Waving the pleasures of the world he lived long an Eâ—…emite in Cornwell and then leaving his solitary life he became a painfull and profitable Preacher of the
Civil War is a vagrant and will trace all corners except they be surrounded with Gyges his ring Surely some eyes in that place besides the Sweet Rivers of Severn and Wye running by them have had Salt Waters flowing from them since the beginning of our late Distractions Lemster bread and Weabley Ale It seems both these are best in their kinds though good in other places of the Land Thus though Palestine was universally termed a Land of Wheat yet the Spirit of God takes signal notice of the wheat of Minnith and Pannag as finer than the rest Yet is there Wheat in England which justleth for pureness with that of Weabley viz. What groweth about Heston in Middlesex yeilding so fine floure that for a long time the Manchet for the Kings of England was made thereof except any will say it is prized the more for the Vicinity to London Saints ETHELBERT was King of the East-Angles and went to Offa King of Mercia to treat of a marriage with his Daughter but Queen Quendred Wife to Offa more ambitious of her own unlawful then her Daughters lawful advancement practised his Death at a Village now called Sutton-Wallis four miles from Hereford His corps was afterwards removed by Milfred a petit Prince of that Country to Hereford where he obtained the reputation of a Saint and Martyr His suffering happened Anno Dom. 793. THOMAS CANTILUPE was of honourable extraction whose Father William Lord Cantilupe had two fair habitations Abergavenny Castle in Monmouth and Harringworth in Northampton-shire which by an Heir-general of that Family afterwards descended to the Lord Zouch He was bred in Oxford whereof at last he became Chancellour and was preferred Bishop of Hereford A charitable man may believe him a person of Holy Life and great Learning But no wise man will credit what Walsingham writes of him That he was never guilty of any mortal sin Going to others say returning from Rome to assert his Church from the encroachment of Peckam Arch-bishop of Canterbury he dyed at a City in Tuscany where his flesh was taken off his Corps and buryed whilst his bones were sent for Reliques into England and enshrined at Hereford Now though different dates be assigned of his death I adhere to Bishop Godwin noting his Dissolution 1282. He was afterwards canonized by Pope John the twenty second and no fewer then four hundred twenty five miracles are registred in that Church reported to be wrought at his Tomb. I say just four hundred twenty five which falls out sewer by five and twenty then the Prophets of Baal and more by five and twenty then the Prophets of the Groves in a middle number betwixt both and all of thâ—…m I beleive honest and true alike Yea it is recorded in his legend that by his Prayers were raised from death to life threescore several persons one and twenty Lepers healed and three and twenty blind and dumb men to have received their sight and speech No wonder then what Mr. Camden observeth that in process of time parum abfuit quin pietatis opinione Regio Martyri Ethelberto praeluxerit He lack'd but little to eclipse the Lustre of Ethelbert the Royal Saint and Martyr formerly buryed as is aforesaid in the same Cathedral Indeed it is given to Superstition alwayes to be fondest of the youngest Saint But long since King Henry the eighth hath put a period to all emulations betwixt their memories The Bishops of Hereford so highly honoured this Thomas that waving their ancient Arms they assumed the paternal Coate of Cantilupe viz. Gules 3 Leopards heads inverted each with a Flower de Luce in his Mouth Or to be successively the Arms of their See This Cantilupe lived the latest of any Englishman who was canonized so that blind zeal may even close her Stomack and make up her Mouth with the Sweet-meats of his memory Martyrs Sir JOHN Son to Sir Thomas OLDCASTLE was a Native of this County whereof he was Sheriff in the seventh of Henry the fourth Lord Cobham in the right of his Wife a right valiant man but great follower of VVickliffe so that he lost his life on that account As his body was hanged and burnt in an unusual posture at Tyburne so his memory hath ever since been in a strange suspense betwixt Malefactour and Martyr Papists charging him with Treason against King Henry the fifth and heading an Army of more then ten thousand men though it wanted nine thousand nine hundred ninety and nine thereof so far as it appears solidly proved But it hath ever been the Practice of the Devil and his instruments angry with Gods Servants for their Religion to accuse them for Sedition perceiving Princes generally more jealous of their own honour then Gods Glory and most careful to cut off such as oppose their power or persons Thus Christ was accused for Disloyalty to Caesar and St. Paul for raifing of Tumults though they as it is plain in the Text either raised themselves or were raised by the Pharisees and Saducees Pauls professed Enemies But I have so worne out the Neb of my Pen in my Church-History about clearing the Innocency of this worthy Knight that I have nothing to add new thereunto Marian Martyrs this Diocess affordeth none such the Moderation of Robert Parfew the Bishop thereof Cardinal ADAM de EASTON We were at a great losse had we but his bare Sirname to direct us to the place of his Nativity seeing scarcely one County in England which hath not one or more Eastons or Eatons the same in effect therein But thanks be to our Author who hath fixed his Birth though but with an ut videtur in this Shire Pretenders to Skill in Palmestry would perswade us that such the Table in whose hands is narrow beneath and broad above are marked out for Poverty in their youth and plenty in their old Age. I will not say such the Signature in the hands of our Adam but sure I am such his successe Mean his birth homely his breeding hard his fare till by his Industry he was advanced Dr. of Divinity in Oxford wherein he became a great Scholar skill'd in Greek and Hebrew rare accomplishments in that age and was very dexterous in all civil Negotiations He was afterwards made Cardinal with the Title of St. Cicilie by Pope Urban against whom Clement the seventh was elected and erected by others Fierce the Fight between Bears and Boars but far fiercer betwixt two Anti-Popes giving no Quarter to the opposite party if brought into their power Urban suspecting Treachery in some of his Cardinals imprisoned seven of them at once and puting five of them into Sacks sunk them into the Sea Oh most barbarous Urbanity Our Adam being the sixth hardly escaped with Life and may be said in some sort put into a Sack though of a larger size I mean a streight Dungeon where he remained half starved for five years together till the
five years of age at Bishops Hatfield in Hartford shire which then was the Nursery for the Kings Children Little notice generally is taken of this Prince and no wonder for Who onely act short parts in Infant age Are soon forgot they e're came on the Stage He died Anno Dom. 1500. in the 15. year of his Fathers Reign and lieth buried without any Monument in Westminster HENRY the Eighth second son of King Henry the Seventh was born at Greenwich A Prince who some praise to the Skies others depresse to the Pit whilest the third and truer sort embrace a middle way betwixt both Extream Mean Extream Some carry him up as the Paragon of Princes The great advancer of Gods Glory and true Religion and the most Magnificent that ever sate on the Throne Master Fox in his Acts and Monuments is sometimes very superlative in his Commendation And so are most Protestant Authours who wrote under his Reign Polidor Virgil hath an Expression of him to this Effect Princeps in quo aequali quasi temperamento magnae inerantVirtutes ac non minora vitia A Prince in whom great Virtues and no less Vices were in a manner equally contemperated Sir Walter Rawleigh in his Preface to his great History whose words may better be read there than Transcribed thence makes him the truest Map of Tyranny Insomuch that King James who could not abide that any under a King should speak against a King was much offended thereat And those words worst became the writer so much advanced by the daughter of the said K. Henry For mine own part I humbly conceive God effected more by his work as the Instrument than he was directed by Gods Word as the Principal Indeed he was a Man of an Uncomptrolable spirit carrying a MANDAMUs in his mouth sufficiently sealed when he put his hand to his Hilt He awed all into Obedience which some impute to his skilfulnesse to Rule others ascribe to his Subjects ignorance to resist Let one pleasant passage for Recreation have its Pass amongst much serious Matter A company of little boyes were by their School-Master not many years since appointed to act the Play of King Henry the Eighth and one who had no presence but an absence rather as of a whyning voice puiling spirit Consumptionish body was appointed to personate K. Henry himself only because he had the richest Cloaths and his parents the best people of the parish but when he had spoke his speech rather like a Mouse then a Man one of his fellow Actors told him If you speak not HOH with a better spirit your Parliament will not grant you a penny of Money But it is vain to Glean in the stubble seeing the Lord Herbert hath so largely wrote the life of this King that nothing of moment can be added thereunto He dyed January 28 1546. MARY eldest Daughter to King Henry the Eighth and Q. Katharine of Spain was born at Greenwich the 18. of February 1518. She did partake of both her parents in her person and properties having from her Father a broad face big voyce and undaunted spirit from her Mother a swarthy complexion and a mind wholy devoted to the Romish Religion She attained the crown by complying with the Gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk promising them to continue Religion as established by K. Edward the 6. after the breach of which promise she never prospered For first she lost the hearts of her subjects then her hopes of a Child then the company not to say affection of her husband then the City of Calais then her mirth then her health then her life which ended on the. 17. of November 1558. Queen ELIZABETH Second Daughter to King Henry the Eighth was born at Greenwich Septemb. 7. 1533. She was Heire only to the eminences of her Father his Learning Bounty Courage and Success Besides Grace and true goodness wherein she was Daughter to her Mother Her Learning appears in her two Latine speeches to the University and a third little better then Ex tempore to the Poland Ambassador Her bounty was better then her Fathers less flowing from Humour and more founded on Merit and ordered with Moderation seeing that s the best Liberality that so enricheth the Receiver that it doth not impoverish the Giver Her Courage was undaunted never making her self so cheap to her Favorites but that she still valued her own Authority whereof this an eminent instance A prime Officer with a White staffe whose name I purposely forbear coming into her presence the Queen willed him to confer such a place now voyd on one of her servants whom she commended unto him Pleaseth your Highness Madam saith the Lord The disposal thereof pertaineth to me by vertue of this white staffe conferred upon me True said the Queen yet I never gave you your office so absolutely but I still reserved my self of the Quorum But of the Quarum Madam returned the Lord presuming on the favour of her Highnesse Hereat the Queen in some passion snatching the staff out of his hand you shall acknowledge me said She of the Quorum Quarum Quorum before you have it again The Lord waited Stafflesse almost a day which seemed â—…o long unto him as if the Sun stood still before the same was reconferred upon him Her success was admirable keeping the King of Spain at Armes End all her Reign She was well skilled in the Queen-craft and by her policy and prosperity she was much beloved by her people insomuch that since it hath been said That Queen Elizabeth might lawfully doe that which King James might not For although the Laws were equally the rule to them both yet her popularity sugared many bitter things her subjects thanking her for taking those Taxes which they refused to pay to her Successor She died at Richmond March 24. Anno Domini 1602. MARY Daughter to King James and Anne of Denmark his Queen was born at Greenwich April 8. about eleven a clock at night and soon after baptized with greater state than the memory of any then alive in England could recover King James was wont pleasantly to say that he would not pray to the Virgin Mary but he would pray for the Virgin Mary meaning his own Daughter But it seems his prayers prevailed not Divine Providence having otherwise determined it for her long life who expired in her infancy and lies buried at Westminster SOPHIA youngest daughter to King James and Queen Anne was born at Greenwich the 22. day of June 1606. and departed this life three dayes after This Royal Babe lieth buried nigh Queen Elizabeth in the North part of the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh represented sleeping in her Cradle wherewith vulgar eyes especially of the Weaker sex are more affected as level to their Cognizance more capable of what is prety than what is pompous than with all the magnificent Monuments in Westminster CHARLES eldest Son of King Charles and Q. Mary was born at Greenwich Anno 1629.
she was a Kings Daughter none I hope will grudge his memory a room in this Book were it only because he was an Earles Brother He dyed Anno 1515. HEâ—…RY STANDISH was as I have just cause to conclude extracted from the Standishes of Standish in this County bred a Franoiscan and Dr. of Divinity in Cambridge and afterwards made Bishop of S. Asaph I neither believe him so Good as Pitz doth character him pietate doctrina clarum nor so bad as Bale doth decry him making him a doteing Fool. Sure I am there was Impar congressus betwixt him and Erasmus as unequal a Contest as betwixt a Childe and Man not to say Dwarf and 〈◊〉 This Standâ—… is said to have fallen down on his knees before King Henry the Eighth petitioning him to continue Religion established by his Ancesters and 〈◊〉 into Maâ—…ers of Divinity he cited the Colâ—…s for the Corinthians which being but a Memory-mistake in an Aged Person needed not to have exposed him so much as it did to the laughter of the Standers by After he had sate 16 years Bishop of St. 〈◊〉 he died very aged 1535. JOHN CHRISTOPHERSON was born in this County bred first in Pembrook Hall then Fellow of St. Johns and afterwards Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge an excellent Scholar and Linguist especially I have seen a Greek Tragedy made and written by his own hand so curiously that it seemed printed and presented to K. Henry the eight He no lesse eleganly if faithfullly translated Philo and 〈◊〉 into Latine Besides his own benefaction to the Masters Lodgings and 〈◊〉 he was highly instrumental in moving Queen Mary to her magnificent bounty to Trinity Colledge In the visitation of Cambridge he was very active in burning the bones of 〈◊〉 being then Elect Bishop of Chichester scarcely continuing a year in that Place All expected that at his first coming into his Diocesse he should demean himself very favourably For why should not the Poets Observation of Princes be true also of Prelates Mitissima sors est Regnorum sub Rege novo Subjects commonly do finde New made Soveraigns most kinde But he had not so much mercy as Nero to begin courteously having no sooner put on his Episcopal Ring but presently he washed his hands in the blood of poor Martyrs whereof in due * Place In the First of Qu. Elizabeth he was deprived and kept in some restraint wherein he dyed about the Year 1560. Since the Reformation JAMES PILKINTON D.D. was the third Son of James Pilkinton of Rivington in this County Esq. a Right ancient Family being informed by my good Friend Master William Ryley Norrey and this Countryman that the Pilkintons were Gentlemen of repute in this Shire before the conquest when the chief of them then sought for was fain to disguise himself a Thresher in a barn Hereupon partly alluding to the 〈◊〉 of the flail falling sometime on the one sometime on the other side partly to himself embracing the safest condition for the present he gave for the Motto of his Armes Now thus Now thus This James bred fellow of St. Johns in Cambridge was in the First of Qu. Mary forced to fly into Germany where he wrote a Comment on Ecclesiastes and both the Epistles of St. Peter after his return in the First of Qu. Elizabeth he was chosen Master of St. Johns and March the 2d 1560. was consecrated Bishop of Durham Nine Years after the Northern Rebels came to Durham and first tore the Bible then the English Liturgy in pieces Unhappy though most innocent Book equally odious to opposite parties such who account the Papists Heretiques esteeming it popish whilest the Papists themselves account it heretical The Bishop had fared no better than the book could he have been come by But when the Rebellion was suppress'd the Bishop commenced a Suit against Qu. Elizabeth for the Lands and Goods of the Rebels attainted in the Bishoprick as forfeited to him by his Charter and had prevailed if the Parliament had not itnerposed and on special consideration pro hoc tempore adjudged them to the Queen He dyed Anno Dom. 1576. EDWIN SANDYS was born at Conisby in this County whose good actings great sufferings pious life and peaceable death 1588. are plentifully related in our Church History RICHARD BARNES was borne at Bolde near Warrington in this County bred in Brasen-Nose Colledg in Oxford and afterwards advanced Suffragan Bishop of Nottingham thence he was preferred to Carlile 1570. and seven years after to Durham He was himself One of a good nature as by the sequele will appear but abused by his Credulity and affection to his Brother John Barnes Chancellour of his Diocesse A Man of whom it is hard to say whether he was more Lustfull or more Covetous who where as he should have been the man who ought to have reformed many Enormities in the Diocess was indeed the Authour of them permitting base and dishonest Persons to escape scot-free for a piece of mony so that the Bishop had a very ill report every where By the suggestion of this ill instrument the Patriarchall man Mr. Gilpin fell into this Bishops Displeasure and by him was suspended from his Benefice But the good Bishop afterwards restored him and visiting him at his house took him aside into the Parlour and thus accosted him Father Gilpin I acknowledge you are fitter to be Bishop of Durham then my self to be Parson of this Church of yours I ask forgiveness for Errors passed forgive me Father I know you have hatched up some Chickens that now seek to pick out your Eyes but so long as I shall live Bishop of Durham be secure no man shall injure you This Bishop sate about Eleven years in his See and dyed a very aged man a little before the Spanish Invasion Anno Dom. 1588. JOHN WOOLTON was born at Wiggin in this County of honest Parents and worshipful by his mothers side He was bred a short time in Oxford and in the reign of Queen Mary attended his Unkle Alexander Nowell in his flight beyond the Seas Returning into England he was made first Cannon Residentiary and after Anno 1579. Bishop of Exeter being an earnest assertor of Conformity against opposers thereof He met whilst living with many hard speeches but after his death when mens memories are beheld generally in their true colours he was restored to his deserved esteem even by those who formerly had been his adversaries He indited Letters full of Wisdome and Piety becoming the strength of one in health not two hours before his death which happened March the 13. Anno 1593. It is a part though not of his Praise of his happiness that his Daughter was married to Francis Godwin Bishop of Hereford whose Learned pen hath deserved so well of the Church of England MATTHEVV HUTTON I have given a large account of him formerly in my Ecclesiastical History However having
ready for hearing being finally determined Whereon a Rhythmer When More some years had Chancelor been â—…o more suits did remain The same shall never more be seen Till More be there again Falling into the Kings displeasure for not complying with him about the Queens divorce he seasonably resigned his Chancellours Place and retired to his House in Chelsey chiefly imploying himself in writing against those who were reputed Hereticks And yet it is observed to his Credit by his great friend Erasmus that whilest he was Lord Chancellor no Protestant was put to death and it appears by some passages in his Utopia that it was against his mind that any should lose their Lives for their Consciences He rather soyled his Fingers then dirtied his hands in the matter of the holy Maid of Kent and well wiped it off again But his refusing or rather not accepting the Oath of Supremacy stuck by him for which he was 16. Months imprisoned in the Tower bearing his afflictions with remarkable patience He was wont to say that his natural temper was so tender that he could not indure a philip But a supernatural Principle we see can countermand yea help natural imperfections In his time as till our Memory Tower Prisoners were not dyetâ—…d on their own but on the Kings charges The Lieutenant of the Tower providing their Fare for them And when the Lieutenant said that he was sorry that Commons were no better I like said Sir Thomas Your Dyet very well and if I dislike it I pray turn me out of Dores Not long after he was beheaded on Tower hill 153. He left not above one hundred pounds a year Estate perfectly hating Covetousnesse as may appear by his refusing of four or five thousand pounds offered him by the Clergy Among his Latin Books his Utopia beareth the Bell containing the Idea of a compleat Common-wealth in an Imaginary Island but pretended to be lately discovered in America and that so lively counterfeited that many at the reading thereof mistook it for a real truth Insomuch that many great Learned men as Budeus and Johannes Paludanus upon a fervent zeal wished that some excellent Divines might be sent thither to preach Christs Gospel yea there were here amongst us at home sundry good men and Learned Divines very desirous to undertake the Voyage to bring the People to the Faith of Christ whose manners they did so well like By his only Son Mr. John More he had five Grandchildren Thomas and Augustin born in his Life time who proved zealous Romanists Edward Thomas and Bartholomew born after his Death were firm Protestants and Thomas a married Minister of the Church of England MARGARET MORE Excuse me Reader for placing a Lady among Men and Learned Statesmen The Reason is because of her 〈◊〉 affection to her Father from whom she would not willingly be parted and for me shall not be either living or dead She was born in Bucklers-bury in London at her Fathers house therein and attained to that Skill in all Learning and Languages that she became the miracle of her age Forreigners took such notice hereof that Erasmus hath dedicated some Epistles unto her No Woman that could speak so well did speak so little Whose Secresie was such that her Father entrusted her with his most important Affairs Such was her skill in the Fathers that she corrected a depraved place in St. Cyprian for whereas it was corruptly writen she amended it Nisi vos sinceritatis Nervos sinceritatis Yea she translated Eusebius out of Greek but it was never printed because I. Christopherson had done it so exactly before She was married to William Roper of Eltham in Kent Esquire one of a bountiful heart and plentiful Estate When her Fathers head was set up on London Bridge it being suspected it would be cast into the Thames to make room for divers others then suffering for denying the Kings Supremacy she bought the head and kept it for a Relique which some called affection others religion others Superstition in her for which she was questioned before the Council and for some short time imprisoned until she had buryed it and how long she her self survived afterwards is to me unknown THOMAS WRIOTHESLEY Knight of the Garter was born in Barbican Son to William Wriothesley York Herauld and Grandchild to John VVriothesley descended from an heir general of the ancient Family of the Dunsterviles King of Arms. He was bred in the University of Cambridge and if any make a doubt thereof it is cleared by the passage of Mr. Ascams Letter unto him writing in the behalf of the University when he was Lord Chancellour Quamobrem Academia cum omni literarum ratione ad te unum conversa Cui uni quam universis aliis se chariorem intelligit partim tibi ut alumno suo cum authoritate imperat partim ut patrono summo demisse humiliter supplicat c. He afterwards effectually applyed his Studies in our municipal Law wherein he attained to great eminency He was by King Henry the Eighth created Baron of Titchborne at Hampton Court January the first 1543. and in the next year about the beginning of May by the said King made Chancelor of England But in the first of King Edward the Sixth he was removed from that place because a conscienciously Rigorous Romanist though in some reparation he was advanced to be Earl of Southampton He dyed at his House called Lincolns place in Holborn 1550. the 30. of Iuly and lyes buryed at St. Andrews in Holborn WILLIAM PAGET Knight was born in this City of honest Parents who gave him pious and learned education whereby he was enabled to work out his own advancement Privy-Councellour to 4 successive princes which though of different perswasions agreed all in this to make much of an able and trusty Minister of State 1. King Henry the Eighth made him his Secretary and imployed him Embassador to Ch. the Emperor and Francis King of France 2. King Edward the Sixth made him Chancellor of the Dutchy Comptroller of his Houshold and created him Baron of Beaudesert 3. Queen Mary made him â—…eeper of her privy Seal 4. Queen Elizabeth dispenced with his attendance at Court in favour to his great Age and highly respected him Indeed Duke Dudley in the dayes of King Edward ignominiously took from him the Garter of the Order quarrelling that by his extraction he was not qualified for the same Bur if all be true which is reported of this Dukes Parentage he of all men was most unfit to be active in such an imployment But no wonder if his Pride wrongfully snatched a Garter from a Subject whose Ambition endevoured to deprive two Princes of a Crown This was restored unto him by Queen Mary and that with Ceremony and all solemn accents of honour as to a person who by his prudence had merited much of the Nation He dyed very old anno 1563 and his Corps as
Manufactures Taunton Serges are eminent in their Kind being a fashionable wearing as lighter than Cloath yet thicker than many other Stuffs When Dionysius sacrilegiously plundred Jove his Statue of his Golden Coat pretending it too cold for Winter and too hot for Summer he bestowed such a vestimēt upō him to fit both Seasons They were much sent into Spain before our late War therewith wherein Trading long since complained of to be dead is now lamented generally as buried though hereafter it may have a resurrection The Buildings Of these the Churches of Bath and Wells are most eminent Twins are said to make but one Man as these two Churches constitute one Bishops See Yet as a Twin oft-times proves as proper a person as those of single Births So these severally equal most and exceed many Cathedrals in England We begin with Bath considerable in its several conditions viz. the beginning obstructing decaying repairing and finishing thereof 1 It was begun by Oliver King Bishop of this Diocess in the reign of Henry the Seventh and the West end most curiously cut and carved with Angels climbing up a Ladder to Heaven But this Bishop died before the finishing thereof 2 His Death obstructed this structure so that it stood a long time neglected which gave occasion for one to write on the Church-wall with a Char-coal O Church I wail thy woeful plight Whom King nor Card'nal Clark or Knight Have yet restor'd to ancient right Alluding herein to Bishop King who begun it and his four Successors in thirty five years viz. Cardinal Adrian Cardinal Wolsey Bishop Clark and Bishop Knight contributing nothing to the effectual finishing thereof 3 The decay and almost ruin thereof followed when it felt in part the Hammers which knocked down all Abbyes True it is the Commissioners profered to sell the Church to the Towns-men under 500 Marks But the Towns-men fearing if they bought it so cheape to be thought to cozin the King so that the purchase might come under the compasse of concealed lands refused the profer Hereupon the Glass Iron Bells and Lead which last alone amounted to 480 Tun provided for the finishing thereof were sold and sent over beyond the Seas if a ship-wrack as some report met them not by the way 4 For the repairing thereof collections were made all over the Land in the reign of Queen Elizabeth though inconsiderable either in themselves or through the corruption of others Onely honest Mr. Billet whom I take to be the same with him who was designed Executor to the Will of William Cecil Lord Burghley disbursed good sums to the repairing thereof and a Stranger under a fained name took the confidence thus to play the Poet and Prophet on this Structure Be blithe fair Kirck when Hempe is past Thine Olive that ill winds did blast Shall flourish green for age to last Subscribed Cassadore By Hempe understand Henry the Eight Edward the Sixth Queen Mary King Philip and Queen Elizabeth The Author I suspect had a Tang of the Cask and being parcel-popish expected the finishing of this Church at the return of their Religion but his prediction was verified in a better sense when his Church 5 Was finished by James Montague Bishop of this See disbursing vast sums in the same though the better enabled thereunto by his Mines at Mynedep so that he did but remove the Lead from the bowels of the Earth to the roof of the Church wherein he lies enterred under a fair Monument This Church is both spacious and specious the most lightsome as ever I beheld proceeding from the greatness of the Windows and whiteness of the Glass therein All I have more to add is only this that the parable of Jotham Judg. 9. 8. is on this Church most curiously wrought in allusion to the Christian Sirname of the first Founder thereof how the Trees going to choose them a King profered the place to the OLIVE Now when lately one OLIVER was for a time Commander in Chief in this Land some from whom more Gravity might have been expected beheld this Picture as a Prophetical Prediction so apt are English fancies to take fire at every spark of conceit But seeing since that Olive hath been blasted bottom his Root and Branches this pretended Prophecy with that observation the reason is withered away As for the Cathedral of Wells it is a greater so darker than that of Bath so that Bath may seem to draw devotion with the pleasantnesse Wells to drive it with the solemnity thereof and ill tempered their Minds who will be moved with neither The West Front of Wells is a Master-piece of Art indeed made of Imagiry in just proportion so that we may call them Vera spirantia signa England affordeth not the like For the West end of Excester beginneth accordingly it doth not like Wells persevere to the end thereof As for the Civil Habitations in this County not to speak of Dunstar Castle having an high ascent and the effect thereof a large prospect by Sea and Land Mountague built by Sir Edward Philips Master of the Roles is a most magnificent Fabrick Nor must Hinton St. George the House of the Lord Poulet be forgotten having every stone in the Front shaped Doule-wayes or in the form of a Cart-nail This I may call a Charitable Curiosity if true what is traditioned That about the reign of King Henry the Seventh the owner thereof built it in a dear year on purpose to imploy the more poor people thereupon The Wonders VVockey Hole in Mendip-hills some two miles from VVells This is an undergroundConcavity admirable for its spacious Vaults stony Walls creeping Labyrinths the cause being un-imaginable how and why the Earth was put in such a posture save that the God of Nature is pleased to descant on a plain hollowness with such wonderful contrivances I have been at but never in this Hole and therefore must make use of the description of a Learned eye Witness Entring and passing through a good part of it with many lights Among other many strange Rarities well worth the observing VVe found that water which incessantly dropped down from the Vault of the Rock though thereby it made some little dint in the Rock yet was it turned into the Rock it self As manifestly appeared even to the judgment of sense by the shape and colour and hardnesse It being at first of a more clear and glassie substance then the more ancient part of the Rock to which no doubt but in time it hath been and will be assimulated And this we found not in small pieces but in a very great quantity and that in sundry places enough to load many Carts From whence I inferre that as in this Cave so no doubt in many other where they searched the Rocks would be found to have increased immediately by the dropping of the water besides that increase they have from the Earth in the Bowels thereof which still continuing as it doth there can be no fear
of their utter failing Medicinal Waters BATH is well known all England and Europe over far more useful and wholesome though not so stately as Dioclesian his Bath in Rome the fairest amongst 856 in that City made onely for pleasure and delicacy beautified with an infinite of Marble Pillars not for support but ostentation so that Salmuth saith fourteen thousand men were imployed for some years in building thereof Our Baths-waters consist of 1 Bitumen which hath the predominancy sovereign to discuss glutinate dissolve open obstructions c. 2 Niter which dilateth the Bitumen making the solution the better and water the clearer It clenseth and purgeth both by Stool and â—…rine cutteth and dissolveth gross Humours 3 Sulphur In regard whereof they dry resolve mollifie attract and are good for Uterine effects proceeding from cold and windy Humours But how thesâ—… Waters come by their great heat is rather controverted than concluded amongst the Learned Some impute it to Wind or Airy Exhalations included in the Bowels of the Earth which by their agitation and attrition upon Rocks and narrow passages gather Heat and impart it to the Waters Others ascribe it to the heat of the Sun whose Beams piercing through the Pores of the Earth warm the Waters and therefore anciently were called Aquae Solis both because dedicated to and made by the Sun Others attribute it to quick-lime which we see doth readily heat any water cast upon it and kindleth any combustible substance put therein Others referre it to a Subterranean fire kindled in the bowels of the Earth and actually burning upon Sulpher and Bitumen Others impute the heat which is not destructive but generative joyned with moisture to the fermentation of several minerals It is the safer to relate all than reject any of these Opinions each having both their Opposers and Defenders They are used also inwardly in Broths Beere Juleps c. with good effect And although some mislike it because they will not mixe Medicaments with Aliments yet such practice beginneth to prevail The worst I wish these waters is that they were handsomly roofed over as the most eminent Bathes in Christendome are which besides that it would procure great benefit to weak persons would gain more respect hither in Winter Time or more early in the Spring or more late in the Fall The Right Honourable James Earle of Marleborough undertook to cover the Crosse-Bath at his own charge and may others follow his resolution it being but fit that where God hath freely given the Jewel Men bestow a Case upon it Proverbs VVhere should I be bore else thâ—…n in Tonton Deane This is a parcel of Ground round about Tonton very pleasant and populous as conteining many Parishes and so fruitful to use their Phrase with the Zun and Zoil alone that it needs no manuring at all The Peasantry therein are as Rude as Rich and so highly conceited of their good Country God make them worthy thereof that they conceive it a disparagement to be born in any other place as if it were eminently all England The Beggars of Bath Many in that place some natives there others repairing thither from all parts of the Land the Poor for Alms the pained for ease Whither should Fowl flock in an hard frost but to the Barn-door Here all the two seasons the general confluence of Gentry Indeed Laws are daily made to restrain Beggars and daily broke by the connivence of those who make them it being impossible when the hungry Belly barks and bowels sound to keep the tongue silent And although Oil of whip be the proper plaister for the cramp of lazinesse yet some pity is due to impotent persons In a word seeing there is the Lazars-Bath in this City I doubt not but many a good Lazarus the true object of Charity may beg therein Saints DUNSTAN was born in the Town of Glassenbury in this County He afterwards was Abbot thereof Bishop of London VVorcester Archbishop of Canterbury and at last for his promoting of Monkery reputed a Saint I can add nothing to but must subtract something from what I have written of him in my Church History True it is he was the first Abbot of England not in time but in honour Glassenbury being the Proto-Abbaty then and many years after till Pope Adrian advanced St. Albans above it But whereas it followeth in my Book That the title of Abbot till his time was unknown in England I admire by what casualty it crept in confess it a foul mistake and desire the Reader with his Pen to delete it More I have not to say of Dunstan save that he died Anno Dom. 988. and his skill in Smithery was so great that the Gold-smiths in London are incorporated by the Name of the Company of St. Dunstans Martyrs JONH HOOPER was born in this County bred first in Oxford then beyond the Seas A great Scholar and Linguist but suffering under the notion of a proud man onely in their Judgments who were un-acquainted with him Returning in the reign of king Edward the Sixth he was elected Bishop of Glocester but for a time scrupuled the acceptance thereof on a double account First because he refused to take an Oath tendered unto him This Oath I conceived to have been the Oath of Canonical obedience but since owing my information to my Worthy Friend the Learned Dr. John Hacket I confess it the Oath of Supremacy which Hooper refused not out of lack of Loyalty but store of Conscience For the Oath of Supremacy as then modelled was more than the Oath of Supremacy injoyning the receivers thereof conformity to the Kings commands in what alterations soever he should afterwards make in Religion Which implicite and unlimited obedience Learned Casuists allow onely due to God himself Besides the Oath concluded with So help me God and all his Angels and Saints So that Hooper had just cause to scruple the Oath and was the occasion of the future reforming whilst the King dispensed with his present taking thereof The second thing he boggled at was the wearing of some Episcopal habiliments but at last it seemeth consented thereunto and was Consecrated Bishop of Glocester His adversaries will say that the refusing of One is the way to get Two Bishopricks seeing afterward he held Worcester in Commendam therewith But be it known that as our Hooper had double dignity he had treble diligence painfully preaching Gods Word piously living as he preach'd and patiently dying as he liv'd being martyred at Glocester Anno 155 He was the onely native of this Shire suffering for the testimony of the Truth and on this account we may honour the memory of Gilbert Bourn Bishop of Bath and Wells in the reign of Queen Mary who persecuted no Protestants in his Diocese to Death seeing it cannot be proved that one Lush was ever burnt though by him condemned I mention Bishop Bourn here the more willingly because I can no where recover the certainty
did withstand him L. Humphredus in vita Juelli pag. 44. Sed animosus iste Achilles die ad disputandum constituto cum non Compaâ—…eret sed ad Divum Andream in Scotiam profugeret ratus eum qui in hoc Articulo bene lateret bene vivere But this valiant Achilles when he did not appear on the day appointed for him to dispute fled to Saint Andrews in Scotland conceiving it that in a case of this kind he lived best who lay hid the closest From St. Andrews he afterwards conveyed himself over into the Low-countries But this Smith returned afterwards in the raign of Queen Mary when Peter Martyr was glad to get leave to fly from that University Thus we see as to speak unbiassed without reflexion on the Cause that in such controversies it mattereth little who are the Disputants on either side whilst the Prevalent power is the Moderator Doctor Smith flying again over into the Low-Countries was made Dean of Saint Peters in Dorway and the first Professor in the University founded therein He died Anno Domini 1563. JOHN MARSHALL was born at Dalisford in this County as * New-colledge Register doth attest which is to be credited before J. Pits making him to be born in * Dorsetshire He was bred at New-colledge in Oxford where he proceeded Batchelor of Laws and for his gravity and learning was chosen second Master of Winchester school But in the first of Queen Elizabeth he left the land with Thomas Hide chief School-master thereof so that now their Scholars had a fat Otium and in both their absence might play with Security till a â—…uccessor received their Scepter He became afterwards Canon of Lisle in Flanders though a long time disturbed in his quiet Possession thereof He wrot a book much prised by Men of his Perswasions against John Calâ—…ld an English Protestant At his death he bequeathed a Ring with a rich Stone to adorne a piece of the Crosse in his Cathedrall which by Doctor Gifford was solemnly applied thereunto and died Anno Domini 1597. ROBERT BRISTOW was born in this Connty bred first in Oxford in Exeter-colledge whence he conveyed himself over beyond the seas living first at Lovaine then in the English Colledge at Doway He was the first of that foundation that was made Priest being the right-hand of Cardinall Allen who departing to Rhemes left Bristow Prefect of Doway-colledge Afterwards he was sent for to Rhemes where he wrot his book say the Papists Contra futilem Fulkum Against foolish Fulk railing is easier then reasoning with such mouthes who indeed was a grave and godly Divine Being very sickly he was advised for his health to return into his native Country where having the good hap to miss that which cureth all diseases he dièd in his bed near London 1582. HENRY HOLLAND born in this County was bred Fellow of Saint Johns-colledge in Oxford Leaving the land he fled over to Doway where he took the degree of Bachelour in Divinity and Order of Priest-hood Hence he removed to Rhemes where saith my Author Traductioni Bibliorum â—…crorum astitit He assisted I might say truly to the Traducing but let it be the Translating of the Bible Returning to Doway he read Divinity in a Monastery hard by wherein he was living 1611. Masters of Musick WALTER of EVESHAM was born thereabouts and bred therein a Benedictine-Monke His harmonious mind expressed it self in its love of Musick wherein he attained to great eminency and wrote a Learned book in that faculty But here Bilious Bale le ts fly without fear though not without some wit inveighing against all Musick in Churches pretending to produce a Pair-Royal of Fathers for his own opinion viz. Saint Jerome calling such chanting Theatrales modulos Gregory terming it consuetudinem reprehensibilem and Athanatius flatly forbidding it the Church for the vanity thereof But by Bales leave such speak not against the decent ornaments of wives who reprove the garish attire of harlots the abuse not use of Musick being taxed by the Fathers aforesaid Our Walter flourished under King Henry the third Anno 1240. Benefactors to the Publick Reader it may be disputed in me whether I am more ashamed of or grieved for my mean intelligence of Benefactions in this County before and since the Reformation But I comfort my self that the Dugdales in this County I mean the worthy future Illustrators thereof will supply my defect Onely I will adde RICHARD DUGARD B. D. was born at Grafton-Fliford in this County bred under Master Henry Bright in the Kings-school at Worcester I name him the rather because never did Master Calvin mention his Master Corderius with more honor then Master Dugard gratefully remembred Master Bright He was chosen Fellow of Sidney-Colledge where in my time for I had the honor of his intimate acquaintance he had a moiety of the most considerable Pupills whom he bred in learning and piety in the golden mean betwixt superstition and faction He held a gentle-strict-hand over them so that none presumed on his lenity to offend or were discouraged by his severity to amend He was an excellent Grecian and generall Scholar old when young such his gravity in behaviour and young when old such the quickness of his endowments He bestowed on the Colledge an hundred and twenty pounds for some perpetuall use for the Master and Fellows and ten pounds for books for the Library At last he was surprised with a presentation of the Rectory of Fulleby in Lincoln-shire where by his constant preaching and pious living he procured his own security a rare happiness in those troublesome times He died January 28. Anno Dom. 1653. and lies buried under a Marble-stone in his Chancell Mâ—…morable Persons JOHN FECKENHAM was born of poor parents in Feckenham Forest in this Shire He was the last Clergy man I find and therefore Memorable who Locally was Surnamed and was bred a Benedictine in Evosham and at the dissolution thereof â—…eceived an Annual Pension of an hundred florens which in my accounting make up some twenty pounds This maintained him when afterwards he went and studied in Oxford attaining to eminent learning therein In the raign of King Edward the sixth he was imprisoned in the Tower untill Sir Phillip Hobby to use Feckenhams own words quasi Mutuatum accepit Borrowed him of the Tower Being at Liberty he had frequent Disputations in the Earnest yet Modest defence of his Religion By Queen Mary he was made Abbot of Westminster being the last Mitred Abbot and therefore more Memorable who sat in Parliament He was very gracious with the Queen and effectually laid out all his interest with her sometime even to offend but never â—…o injure Her to procure Pardon of the Faults or Mitigation of the Punishments for poor Protestants By Queen Elizabeth he was highly honourâ—…d and profered as is currantly traditioned the See of Canterbury which he refused and was kept in easy restraint