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THE
LIFE
OF
THOMAS KEN, D.D.
DEPRIVED BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS.
VIEWED IN T CONNECTION WITH PUBLIC EVENTS, AND THE SPIRIT
OF THE TIMES, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS, IN WHICH HE LIVED.
INCLUDING
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FORTUNES
OF
MORLEY, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER,
HIS FIRST PATRON, AND THE FRIEND OF ISAAK WALTON,
BROTHER-IN-LAW OF BISHOP KEN.
"Persecuted, -but not forsaken; as poor, yet making many
rich; as having nothing, and jet possessing all things."
ST. PAUL.
BY THE
R E V. W. L. BOWLES,
M.A. M.R.S.L.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1830.
LONDON :
J. 1). NICHOLS AND SON, PARLIAMENT STREET,
TO
THE MOST REVEREND
WILLIAM,
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
AND PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND.
MY DEAR LORD,
I KNOW not to whom this Life of Bishop Ken
could with more propriety be dedicated than to
Him, who learned the same lessons, at the same
distinguished school, where Bishop Ken was edu-
cated, to Him, who was Fellow of the same
College in Oxford elected Fellow of the same
College of Winchester from thence advanced to
the Episcopal Bench, like Bishop Ken and Bishop
Lowth and who from thence has been advanced
to the highest station in the Episcopal Church of
Christ, like Chicheley and Warham, educated in
the same illustrious Seminary. But, independently
of these circumstances, I am persuaded this offer-
ing will not be unacceptable, as coming from one
IV DEDICATION.
of your Grace's oldest friends and schoolfellows,
equally attached with yourself to that school where
our studies began, and the Communion of that
Church over which you so auspiciously preside.
Without presuming to think your Grace will
agree with me in all the opinions, political or reli-
gious, expressed in this work, I am sure, at least,
of your candid construction of them.
I have only to pray that your valuable life may
be long continued, to exhibit that exemplary piety
and virtue, those qualities of heart and understand-
ing, which distinguished the character I have en-
deavoured to describe ; and I remain, as from our
early days, till called away for ever,
Your Grace's
Most sincere and affectionate Friend,
W. L. BOWLES.
Canonry Home, Salisbury*
January 1, 1830.
CONTENTS.
Page.
Introduction .. .. .. .. .. ix
Errata, and Preliminary Explanations , . . . xxxviii
CHAPTER I.
Birth Family Connections . . . . . . . . 1
Pedigree .. .. .. .. .. .. 5,114-
CHAPTER II.
Ken a College -boy, at Winchester School Catherine
Hill Election-Chamber Reflections on Public Schools 15
Note on Thomas Russell . . . . . . . . 21
CHAPTER III.
Ken at Oxford Antony Wood's Musical Club (see also p.
229) First acquaintance with Thynne of Christ-Church,
afterwards Viscount W T eymouth Connection of the
Family of Thynne and Packington Morley, afterwards
Bishop of Winchester, the means of Ken's acquaintance
with Thynne . . . . . . . . . . 30
Observations on the authorship of the Eucwv RatriXiKT) 45,122,217
CHAPTER IV.
Retrospective View of Religious Parties in the Seven-
teenth Century, from the opening of the Long Parlia-
ment, 164-0, to the Death of Cromwell, 1658 Presby-
terian Domination Episcopal Clergy oppressed
Prayer-book proscribed Prayer-book of Isaak Walton,
Ken's Brother-in-law Independents Milton Crom-
well's Death 51
VI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Page.
Oxford, after the Restoration Ejected Ministers restored
Morley, ejected Canon, made Dean of Christ-Church
Connection with Isaak Walton, Ken's Brother-in-La\v
Ken's Patron His rise in the Church Fellow of
Winchester Party at the Episcopal Palace . . . . -88
Dramatic Scene at the Cottage of Isaak Walton . . . . 99
Morley 's Farewell to the Cottage of Isaak Walton .. Ill
Pedigree of Floud 114-
CHAPTER VI.
Life, Fortunes, Character, and Times of Bishop Morley,
Ken's First Patron Parentage Early society Chap-
lain to Charles the First Last interview Expelled
from his Canonry of Christ-Church by the Parliamen-
tary Visitors His wanderings, after leaving Walton's
Cottage Character Reflection Domestic groupe in
the Palace Household when he was Bishop of Win-
chester . . . . . . . . . . . . ..115
Lines on the Funeral of Charles the First . . . . 129
Pedigree of Morley . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Persecuted Clergy . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Lilly and Hugh Peters Predestinarianism and Astrology ibid.
Joice, Executioner of Charles the First . . . . . . 155
Milton the suggester to Cromwell of the King's Trial, as a
grand national spectacle of justice . . . . . . 156
Cheynell over Chillingworth's Grave . . . . . . 158
CHAPTER VII.
Piety of the Episcopal Church of England contrasted with
the spirit of Puritanism Presbyterian and Papal perse-
cution Historians Concluding Reflections . . . . 165
CONTENTS. Vll
HISTORICAL AND MISCELANEOUS
DOCUMENTS AND REFLECTIONS.
Page.
Concluding observations on the EIKWV Ba<ri\t/o/ . . . . 217
Oxford after the Parliament- Visitation in 1647, to 1652;
Decline of fanatical feelings through the Nation;
Causes, &c. 222
Suppression and Revival of Cathedral Services . . . . 229
Lines on the poor Blind Man of Salisbury Cathedral . . 232
Domination of Presbyterian and Independent Puritanism 233
The Trial of James Nayler, the Quaker 239
Progress and Domination of Puritanic Intolerance . . 245
Cheynell's own account of his conduct at Chillingworth's
Funeral 249
Concluding Reflections . . . . . . . . . . 254
Lines addressed to the Widows of Seth Ward's College,
Salisbury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
PLATES.
Portrait of Bishop Ken . . . . . . To face the Title.
Isaak Walton's Epitaph on his Wife, from the MS. draft
in his Prayer-book . . . . . . . . Page 73
Isaak Walton, Kenna his wife, and Morley, afterwards
Bishop of Winchester, at Walton's cottage in Stafford-
shire Page 97
Portrait of Bishop Morley . . . . . . . . Page 115
a4
ERRATA.
There are some errata to which I would particularly call the
reader's attention, as, by the omission or addition of a few
letters, the sense of the passage has been completely altered.
Page xx. note \,Jor "this," read, "The intolerant Prelate
(Laud), who "
P. 56, at the foot, read, " had condemned millions and mil-
lions of human beings to eternal torments, merely for his own
good pleasure ! "
P. 170, line 4, read, " doubly affecting and tender."
P. 178, line 16, for "lift up," read "say."
P. 182, last line, for " the," read " them."
* # * When, in speaking of our Articles, I said the word
" Decreed " was not Scriptural, it is to be understood that this
word, in the sense of Calvin, was not Scriptural.
INTRODUCTION.
THE eminent position which the Episcopal
Church of England holds, and has held, among
the Protestant Churches, since the Reformation, of
which Reformation her own Wycliff was the morn-
ing-star, cannot be better illustrated than by the
lives and example of some of her most illustrious,
learned, and pious sons. Among this splendid host,
few will be found, in practical holiness of life, in
humility, gentleness, yet uncompromising integrity
of virtuous intrepidity, under all trials, more worthy
of record and imitation than the subject of these
pages.
When we consider his character, his station, and
his fortunes, it is singular that so little should have
been recorded of Bishop Ken. When we turn our
attention, more particularly, on the great events
of the period, and remark him, equally dignified by
the death-bed of one expiring Monarch,* or in im-
prisonment on account of his uncompromising op-
position to the mandates of another, both of whom
expressed an equal personal regard for him ; when
we consider him calm and consistent in prosperity
or in prison ; when we see him, on account of his
* Charles. Even Burnet says he spoke like one inspired.
VOL. I. b
X INTRODUCTION.
conscientious principles, voluntarily relinquishing a
large revenue and baronial palace, reduced to find
his only asylum in the mansion of the noble friend
of his early days ; when we look on his grave,
not among the sculptured monuments of the Prelates
of his own cathedral, but that of a poor man among
the poor, in the open church-yard of a country-
town, the nearest consecrated place of Christian
rest* in his former diocese; whilst all these sin-
gular circumstances crowd on our reflections, as we
think of the life and death of Bishop Ken, it seems
still more extraordinary that there should be only
one meagre record -J- of a life so truly Christian, of
fortunes so varied, which, to every Christian heart,
and to all who reflect on the changes and chances
of this mortal course, teach a lesson as important
as impressive.
The only relation of his life, authentic, indeed, as
having Ken's "imprimatur" before he died, is that
by William Hawkins, published after his death, an-
nouncing an intended collection of all his works.
Four volumes in consequence appeared, containing a
series of sacred poems, written chiefly in his retire-
ment at Longleat, and two eloquent Sermons. Of
the poems more will be said in another place.
The Life of Ken bears the affix, in the title-
page, of " William Hawkins, barrister," from which
* Frorae, in Somersetshire.
t By William Hawkins. All the Lives are based upon this,
as to mere facts.
INTRODUCTION. xi
a general reader derives information as satisfac-
tory as from the meagre facts called the " Life.''
Of this William Hawkins * and his family an ac-
count is given in the first chapter of this volume.
His books, the most valuable treasures of his
varied life, Bishop Ken left to the library of his
generous friend at Longleat. In the last volume a
catalogue will be given.
To Dr. Hawcs alone I am indebted for the
novelty of the information which the reader will
find in the chapter of Morley ; and to Dr. Hawes,
my friend from school-days, inheriting his ances-
tor's active benevolence, "primitive"-^ piety, and
love of the Church, I have expressed my obliga-
tions elsewhere.
I must next return my thanks to my kind and
esteemed friend the Bishop of Bath and Wells,
for the information contained in the MS. Life of
Ken's successor, Bishop Kidder, of which use will
be made in the second volume. This work, never
* The information given by Hawkins is so scanty in conse-
quence of Ken's extreme delicacy. In the second volume, we
shall show how anxiously he concealed the names of those on
whose account he left abruptly the Court of the Prince of
Orange. The names of the parties, and circumstances of this
interesting event, will be detailed, for the first time, in the next
volume.
f Izaak Walton's epitaph of his wife.
1)2
Xll INTRODUCTION.
published, is a very curious and valuable document,
preserved in the episcopal palace of Wells.
To my old college friend, the Rev. Mr. Dallaway,
of the Heralds' College ; and, through him, to Mr.
Young, York Herald, I am indebted for the revisal
of the Ken pedigree, now first accurately submitted
to the public, and the other pedigrees.
To Dr. Shuttleworth, Warden of New College,
Oxford, I return thanks for an original letter of
Ken, the only one known to be in existence.
To my friend Dr. Ingram, the learned translator
of the Saxon Chronicle, President of Trinity Col-
lege, Oxford, on this, as on all occasions, I profess
no common obligations.
To my friend, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the Illus-
trator of the Antiquities of our County, I return
my especial acknowledgments for a beautiful copy,
expressly taken for this work, of the best original
portrait of Ken, preserved at Longleat.*
To my friend Mr. Callcott, R. A. the thanks of the
public are due, as well as my own, for the sketch,
from his exquisite pencil, of a scene described in
the work.
Mr. Todd, from his well-known kindness of dis-
position, and the interest he takes in all literary
subjects, favoured me with the life of Ken by Haw-
* To which the engraver has done complete justice, this
being the best engraving of Ken in existence. How intellec-
tual, mild, yet dignified, is the countenance, bespeaking the
placidness of genuine piety.
INTRODUCTION. Xlll
kins, containing some curious MS. notes by Bishop
Kennet.
As Ken, after his deprivation, passed the remain-
der of his days chiefly with his friend Thomas Vis-
count Weymouth, at the seat of that nobleman,
Longleat, near Warminster, I had hopes some of
his letters might have been preserved, as well as his
books ; but, to my disappointment, I was informed
that Dr. Birch had arranged the papers, and that
no letter, or written memorial, of any kind, had
been found.
I might here be pardoned for mentioning some
incidental circumstances connected with this me-
moir. The name of Ken was associated, in my
mind, with feelings of respect and regard, almost
from infancy. Stanzas of his Morning and Evening
Hymns were taught me by my mother.
Removed to Winchester school, and rising before
the other boys, as junior of the chamber, at five
o'clock in summer, and as soon as it was light in
winter, I had no English book to read, at the dim
window, but Ken's Manual, consisting of prayers and
admonitions, composed when he was Fellow of the
college, for the use of the scholars on that founda-
tion.
Added to these incitements, almost all who are
nurtured at the same place of education have, if I
may say so, through life a Wycchamical feeling.
The names of poets, divines, and prelates of
Young, Collins, &c. of Warham, Chicheley, Lowth,
XIV INTRODUCTION.
&c. are familiar to them. As life proceeds, the
recollection of such characters mingles more warmly
with their feelings, with a distant hope, perhaps,
that they also, though ohscure in life and connec-
tions, may thus be enabled, A/si<rreyev, to become
not unknown themselves in their generation.
Young and Collins, Lowth and Ken, are, in after
life, " freshly remembered." These are Wycchami-
cal feelings. Let me add to these feelings, the cor-
diality, kindness, and hospitality which I have ex-
perienced in the very palace at Wells once inha-
bited by Ken, now with happier auspices in the
possession of Ken's living successor, where, under
the placid portrait of Ken, the conversation has
often turned on his fortunes and virtues. These
various causes and circumstances have contributed
to animate me in attempting to exhibit a truly
Christian character ; to exhibit this character calm
and dignified in every station, and under every trial ;
and to place the beautiful features of genuine and
unaffected piety in contrast with the half-ludicrous
and half-hideous aspect of its puritanic counterfeit.
Let me acknowledge as a further incitement,
the thought that, if I had not held the pen, the
story of Morley and Izaak Walton, which alone
explains the cause of that long singular friendship
between them, and also explains the origin of Ken's
preferments, would have remained, probably, after
the death of the last descendant of the family, for
ever unknown.
INTRODUCTION. XV
With respect to the execution of this work, it
must be remembered that the life of a statesman
or soldier must be, from the nature of the subject,
more interesting than that of any Christian Bishop.
I have therefore thought it right to spread my
canvass somewhat wide.* Indeed Biography, like
that of Hawkins's Life of Ken, confined to the
mere narrative of birth, individual acts, and death,
is a mere skeleton. He who paints, to give any-
thing like a breathing charm to his picture, must
catch the lights and shades of various connected
circumstances, in order to give greater effect, va-
riety, and interest to his composition, still, how-
ever, making them all subservient to the chief sub-
ject of his pencil. The character I have thus en-
deavoured to delineate, I now submit with diffi-
dence to the public, well knowing the different opi-
nions of different parties, but conscious of having
said nothing but what I am persuaded was the truth.
I would here willingly have closed all I have to
say as an introduction to what the reader will find
before him, but some late publications have in-
duced me to speak more explicitly with regard to
the sentiments, political, moral, and religious, deli-
vered in this work. In writing the Life of an
English Bishop, a vindication of Protestant Epis-
copacy, and the constitution of that Church, must
be expected. I have expressed my own sentiments
* This must be my apology for some lighter parts of this
Biography.
XVI INTRODUCTION.
warmly, I hope not uncharitably. I have adduced
no fact but such as will bear, I trust, the strictest
examination. I have quoted only two passages from
Presbyterian sermons, to show the style and temper
of the enemies of Episcopacy in the seventeenth cen-
tury, and I have done this reluctantly. I might have
quoted a thousand passages of the kind, but those I
have adduced are not for the unwarrantable purpose,
at this time of day, of reflecting on any class of con-
scientious dissenters, but to show, in comparison,
how little the Episcopal Church of England deserved
the revilings and the bitter lot to which in Puri-
tanical times she was doomed.
When, however, the intolerant tone of some of
the revilers in the seventeenth century is revived, it
becomes us to meet the proudest adversary firmly,
particularly when the Clergy are represented as
hostile to every feeling of enlightened humanity,
and when the University of Oxford has been made
the peculiar object of sneering acrimony, as marked
alone by that servile and intolerant spirit, poetically
described as "still expelling Locke!"*
There is a passage in the Preface to Lord King's
Life of this great man, on which I shall take leave
to make some comments.
" The FRIENDS OF FREEDOM," says Lord King,
"will feel for the men and THE CAUSE which he
(Locke) defended ; and they will be anxious to
know more of one who so much promoted the
* Pope.
INTRODUCTION. XV11
general interest of mankind: they will learn with
pleasure that his character was as pure as his talents
were great and excellent.
" There are others who would fain keep mankind
in a state of pupilage, who, carrying their favourite
doctrine of passive obedience into all our spiritual
as well as temporal concerns, would willingly deli-
ver us over, in absolute subjection, for the one to
the Rulers of the Church, for the others to the
Rulers of the State.
" These men cannot be expected to exhibit any
admiration for the champion of reason and truth ;
nor from them can I hope for any approbation or
favour in the present undertaking."
For the comments which I shall offer on the
preceding sentiments I shall make no apology.
Here are evidently two classes of men distinctly
pointed out one class, the "friends of freedom"
the other, those who would "keep mankind in a
state of pupilage," &c. and "would willingly DELI-
VER us, (that is, his Lordship and those of kindred
feelings,) in ABSOLUTE SUBJECTION, for the one to
the Rulers of THE CHURCH, for the other to the
Rulers of the State"
Now I must observe, respecting the opinions of
the noble relative of a man in the highest sense
noble, that when a descendant, be he who he may,
thus speaks of the men who would deliver "zs,"
that is, Locke, his relative Lord King, and the
friends of freedom, " bound and captive" and identi-
XV111 INTRODUCTION.
fies himself (as " its!") with a man whom every good
and wise man admires, venerates, and loves, and none
more than he who now comments on his Lordship's
sentiments it behoves "us" to enquire why HE
imagines the Clergy of the Church of England
may not and do not admire Locke as much as him-
self? and why he, standing behind this illustrious
relative, ("York, you're wanted!") thinks his own
opinions, or language, or conduct (as far as these
are public, and no further do I venture to say a
word), to be exclusively in accordance with that
mild, modest, wise, and venerated character ? As to
"those others" who would "willingly DELIVER us
in absolute subjection," his Lordship has not been
pleased to specify who those "others" are, but,
from the tone of patrician sarcasm, so worthy a
person of his Lordship's station, and of the descend-
ant of the great but unpresuming Locke, it is ob-
vious that this descendant of this most illustrious
character alludes to a body of men of whom I have
the honour to be one, the Clergy of the National
Church. I must first remark, that I think I know
their general character better than his Lordship ;
and I am confident that, so far from their feeling
any offence that his Lordship has published memo-
rials of that great man, Locke, they will be among
the first to admit that he has rendered a service to
their country and mankind ; for, whatever may be
their religious or political sentiments, they do not
differ in the highest possible respect and veneration
INTRODUCTION. XIX
for a person so illustrious for learning, integrity,
and moderation, as John Locke.
But, besides the affinity of natural relationship
between his Lordship and the illustrious subject of
his memoirs, his Lordship complacently assumes
a closer affinity, from kindred views, principles, and
manners, whilst we (the Clergy), opposed to " us,"
(to wit, his Lordship and Mr. Locke,) are held out,
as a body, as possessing the same sentiments which
actuated him who so basely complied with the com-
mands of a Royal Visitor to deprive Locke of his
studentship !
Some writers have not hesitated to say that this
great and excellent character, the subject of Lord
King's memoir, expressed his regret that he "lost
so much of his time at Oxford!" Lost so much
of his time ! On what authority is any thing so
preposterous to be believed ? Locke was deeply
attached, as he might well be, to the University
where he was educated he showed this attach-
ment through life his intimate friends from
school-days were there there was the cultivated
society, and the literary leisure he loved. It
is indeed true that at one time he might have
well said he found not the advantage of this estima-
ble society and when was that ? When the im-
mortal Francis Cheynell was among her leading
members, of whose toleration, and peculiar religious
feelings and principles, much will appear in these
pages. Locke was entered at the University of Ox-
ford Student of Christ- Church in 1651, when the
\\ INTRODUCTION.
persecuting Puritans bore sway; and yet at that
time there were seliolars not unworthy to be his
associates. Here he found such men as were not
often met in other soeietics Dr. Petty, Dr. Wil-
kins, Robert Boyle, who settled in Oxford solely
for the advantage of such society, &c. As the
fanatic yoke, towards the end of Cromwell's days,
grew lighter, such scholars mused in the "shady
spaces" of our "ACADEME" for none of these
were of the race of Cheynell and the Puritans.
And let me here inform Lord King, what he does
not seem to suspect, that it was from the expelled
members of that Church he affects to think would
a deliver HIM " and his friends " bound," that Locke
learned the principles of toleration which he after-
wards so powerfully advocated. He studied, and
revered, and succeeded Chillingworth, as the philo-
sopher of truth and acutest reason. Locke's prin-
ciples, as his Lordship might learn from better
authority than mine. ("Mr. Hallam,) were only
those which had been advocated by the illustrious
but defamed members of the Church of England
by Jeremy Taylor,* Hales of Eton,-f- and Chilling-
worth of Trinity ! Xo historian, except Mr. Hal-
lam, has done these names noble and generous
brtbedb-
_ :. ...:._rv ;.rtr. .
INTRODUCTION. XXI
justice. Had not the Puritanic frenzy interrupted
their progress, their principles would, probably,
have been established before the Revolution, if
they had not prevented the abuses which caused
that Revolution ; for persecution grows out of per-
secution. The King-killing Republicans produced
the Non-Jurors and Jacobites.
As to the base compliance of those who obeyed
the King's mandate, if the bench of national justice
has exhibited some unworthy characters, shall we
forget how many, on the seat of c; British Themis,"
have sat as dignified and uncormpt as my Oxford
contemporary, Lord Chief Justice Tenterden ? *
And, if there has been a Fell, shall we forget the
names of those whom Christianity and humanity
equally revere :
Lord King seems to think (I ought to ask par-
don for the involuntary association) "Can any
good come out of the Church of England and Ox-
ford?" But let me inform him that, in the very same
college which nursed the high intellect and tolerant
principles of Chillingworth in the same college,-}-
and by Chnrch of England preceptors, were edu-
cated a SOMMERS and a CHATHAM! Lord King
will determine whether Chillingworth, Sommers,
and Chatham, all of the same college, might not be
* When Lord Tenterden and the Author were "paupera scho-
lares" they were competitors for the prize given by the Chan-
cellor for Latin verse. Was he the worse lawyer, for his youth-
ful and classical laurels ?
f Trinity College.
XX11 INTRODUCTION.
rceived as specimens of a University and Church-
of-England-education, as well as the base and un-
worthy Fell.
I may here observe, that there never was an
opinion so unfounded, as that either the Presby-
terian or Cromwellian Puritans promoted the cause
of learning, or religion, or liberty. The Presby-
ter, it is true, cast down and destroyed, for a
season, the Episcopal Church, and the Indepen-
dents put to death the King ! If these facts prove
their religion and love of liberty they doubt-
less promoted the cause of both. But, after the
Episcopal Church was destroyed, what service did
either party render to genuinejuety, when they made
the very name of religion abhorred and loathsome by
their hypocrisy and bigotry, and caused the reaction
of impiety through the Nation ? What service did
the Independents render to freedom, when, after
they had brought to the scaffold their Sovereign, the
Nation was far more arbitrarily governed than it
had ever been before, to support those who tole-
rated, indeed, most of the discordant sects, not
from denned principles, but necessarily 9 and when
one man had the power to say "Sic volo sic ju-
beo," as despotically as the Grand Scignor himself?
What service did either the Presbyterian or Inde-
pendent Puritans render to knowledge, when the
one scarce looked beyond the Synod, and the other
sent out illiterate hordes of inspired ranters (all
human learning being ungodly ' ) when public
schools were vilified, as they are now and when
INTRODUCTION. XX111
a Society which had been instituted to promote
science and knowledge, in 1641, was obliged to be
suspended, by the progress of frantic enthusiasm,
till near the Restoration so that science dared not
raise her head, amongst the fury of frantic tongues.
But how glorious a testimony to the learning
and piety of the proscribed Episcopal Clergy
how glorious 9 I might say how IMMORTAL a tes-
timony to their piety and learning was the monu-
ment which they completed amid obloquy and per-
secution amid revilings and threatenings in
poverty and sorrow ! I allude to the splendid PO-
LYGLOT BIBLE of the pious, learned, and noble
BRYAN WALTON, afterwards Bishop of Worcester. *
This stupendous work goes by his name, but he
was assisted by scholars, all suffering for the same
cause, at the saddest period of their calamities
Archbishop Usher-J Thomas Hyde, the great illus-
trator of the ancient Persian religion- Pocock, the
learned traveller, and commentator on Hosea, &c.
Hammond Sanderson, and others all of them
* The following is the manly acknowledgment to Cromwell
for leave to print it, which had been granted by Charles previ-
ously : " Primo autem commemorandi, quorum favore chartam a
vectigalibus immunem habuimus, qubd quinque abhinc annis,
a consilio secretiori primo concessum, postea a Serenissimo
PROTECTORS ejusque CONSILIO, operis promovendi caus&, be-
nigne confirmatum et continuatum est." Selden and Lenthall
were among the promoters.
f Such men Mr. Hume would pay with stinted stipends !
Despicable, heartless cypherer, the King's treasury could not
fay them !
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
involved in one common deprivation all of them,
except one, Dr. Bruno Ryves, silent on the subject
of great wrongs, all of them "patient in tribulation,"
all of them subjected to insults and scorn, and some
with their lives hourly in danger.
This stupendous and splendid work, the Bible in
the Hebrew, Chaldee, Samaritan, Greek, Latin, Ara-
bic, Ethiopic, and Syrian tongues, completed by one
set of men, and in one age of one Episcopal com-
munion (when Episcopacy was proscribed as anti-
christian!) eating the same bread of adversity,
"unfainting" alike in tribulation, as intent on their
" great Master's task," must of itself have made a
great impression, when the public mind began slowly
to recover from its late delusions ; and yet how few,
generally speaking, know any thing of the circum-
stances under which this work was composed, or the
great talents combined in its execution, by scholars
whose lives were as pure as their learning was
wonderful.*
If the Clergy thus, in their miseries, raised this
immortal monument of learning and piety, it was
* Bryan Walton was sequestered from his Living of St.
Martin's, plundered, and forced to fly. Two Members of Par-
liament, in the spirit of Lord Mountcashel, drew up articles
against him themselves, though no way concerned in the parish,
and sent these articles to be witnessed and subscribed. " He
then (says Salmon) fled to Oxford, having reason to fear he
should be murthered." So inveterate was the malice of that
meek set of men to orthodoxy, though it had for its advocate
so much piety, learning, and innocence of behaviour, as Dr.
Walton was adorned with.
INTRODUCTION. XXV
not the principles either of the Presbyterians or
Independents which triumphed at the Revolution,
it was the principles of Hales, of Chillingworth, of
Jeremy Taylor* which then, and not before, had
time to work, and find their level. These principles
were nobly maintained by that great character Lord
Soimners, educated, as I have said, at Oxford, at
the same college with Chillingworth.
After the death of Queen Anne, the High-
Church Tories and Jacobites endeavoured to bring
back to the abdicated throne the son of him whom
the Nation had expelled ; but the circumstances of
the times were completely changed : if the Father
had been a traitor to the laws of his country, it did
not follow that the Son would be, and Oxford only
spoke the feelings of the Nation, from 1714 to
1745, when the last effort was made in favour of
the descendant of the bigoted James the Second.
But the cry is now "Intolerance! intolerance!"
and Lord King has produced a solitary Prayer, com-
posed in the time of Charles the Second, to prove
the intolerance of the body of English Clergy !
I shall say nothing in defence of "the prayer"
which his Lordship has brought forward with such
satisfaction, as becoming a Turkish Divan, rather
than a Bench of Christian Bishops,* except that I
* The prayer which Lord King has produced, as the most
triumphant proof of the intolerance of the Church of England,
was composed probably by Sancroft, at a time when it was uni-
versally believed there had been a conspiracy against the life of
Charles the Second.
VOL. I. C
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
would wish his Lordship to compare this prayer,
in spirit and in language, with those passages from
sermons which the vindication of the Episcopal
Church has caused me to lay before the reader.
After his Lordship has compared them, and shall
have judged which compositions are more in the
spirit of a Turkish Divan, I will assert, and I know
not whether the declaration may surprize his Lord-
ship, that, respecting the unfortunate Russell and
Sydney, the opinions of the Church of England,
and of the University of Oxford, are generally the
same as those of his Lordship, and every thinking
and virtuous man in the kingdom. These principles
the University has publicly attested, by rewarding
that animated poet with the academical laurel, who
in the Theatre spoke the noble verses " ON THE
LOVE OF OUR COUNTRY;" from which I extract
the following.
Lo ! Sydney pleading o'er the block ! his mien,
His voice, his hand unshaken, clear, serene.
Unconquer'd Patriot! form'd by antient lore,
The love of antient freedom to restore ;
Who nobly acted what he boldly thought,
And seal'd by death the lesson that he taught !
Let such sentiments as these, which were ho-
noured with the Chancellor's prize at Oxford, go,
in some part, to avert the noble Lord's disdain to-
wards this Tory and intolerant University.*
The Turkish intolerance, in the solitary prayer
* These lines were written by a Bishop, an Irish Bishop,
and who that reads them does not read them with melancholy
INTRODUCTION. XXV11
his Lordship has produced, had at least the concur-
rence of the whole House of Parliament, and the
prayer was evidently composed under that idea
which induced, whether true or false, the whole
House of Commons to resolve, " that there has been
and is a damnable and hellish plot carried on by
Popish Recusants, for assassinating the King."
This was voted October the 31st, 1678, and un-
der this impression, which was stronger afterwards,
this prayer was composed.
As to the Oxford declaration in the year 1683, I
know of none among the Clergy of the present
day (and his Lordship is pleased to make no dis-
tinction) who do not admit the famous twenty-seven
articles condemned by the University, to be one of
the greatest reflections upon that learned body. I
shall merely add, that the spirit which dictated that
decree in 1683, was the reaction arising from the
persecutions in 164i3, when such doctrines as these
were professed that, " after the sealing of the
Scripture Canon the PEOPLE OF GOD, in all ages,
are to expect NEW REVELATIONS, for the rule of their
ACTIONS, and it is lawful for a private man, having
an inward motion from God, to kill a tyrant ! " *
interest, to think such a poet should, in the morning of youth,
have laid down his poetical pen for ever ! He was educated, like
Ken, at Winchester ; where also were educated the living
Bishops of Salisbury, Norwich, Hereford, Down and Connor,
St. David's, as well as the excellent Prelate to whom this Life
is dedicated.
* Declaration of Oxford.
c2
XXV111 INTRODUCTION.
The principles of " passive obedience and non-
resistance" acquired additional strength from the
position, that "Presbyterian Government is the
sceptre of Christ's Kingdom, to which KINGS, as
well as others, are bound to submit ! "
It is a reflection, not so much on the character
of the Church of England, as upon human nature,
that all bodies of men are inclined to proceed, per
saltum, from one extreme to another. So the Puri-
tans could not fly too far from the purest ordinan-
ces of the primitive Church, because some of these
ordinances were retained by the Church of Rome ;
and the violent Tories and High-Church partizans
of the reigns of Charles the Second, thought they
could not go too far from the principle of taking up
arms against the King ! It is the bigot only, whe-
ther in the Church or out of it, who does not
make this distinction, though I am far from apply-
ing such a term to his Lordship.
It is true Locke w r as expelled from his Student-
ship of Christ-Church, to the disgrace of those who
showed themselves such tools in the hands of a
Royal Visitor, more especially to the eternal dis-
grace of Fell. Well might the facetious Tom Brown
have written
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell ! *
* So popular, however, at the time, was Dr. Fell, that a
loyal Oxford apothecary left eight pounds a year for a prize-
composition, at Christ-Church, " In laudem Doctoris Fell ;"
and it is awarded every year to the successful candidate. The
name of the apothecary was John Cross, not the " starched
glyster-pipe " whom Wood describes so facetiously.
INTRODUCTION. XXIX
But the University has deplored the circumstance
ever since, as much as Lord King.
Mr. Hallam justly observes, the power of College
Visitors was not denned : but the Dean of Christ-
Church, instead of showing himself a mean-spirited
sycophant, when the King, as Visitor, commanded
the expulsion of a member, should have answered,
"Sir, I have eaten the bread of adversity, rather
than comply with what my conscience told me was
wrong : I have done this in the face of Parliamen-
tary power, and I will not consent to expel an in-
nocent man, notwithstanding the command of the
King of England, if I eat the bread of adversity
again." This I am sure would have been the an
swer of Bishop Ken.
I shall now take the liberty of addressing you,
my Lord King, personally.
When a comparison is made, not only injurious
to " us," but so complacently flattering to yourself,
at the expense of " others" the " others" may be
tempted to ask, on what affinity in sentiments
and manners with your illustrious relative is this
comparison founded ? Is the resemblance seen in
the mildest and purest Christian feelings of your
great relative, which your Lordship so eminently
partakes ? Is it in that peculiar modesty and hu-
mility of manner which accompanies, in your Lord-
ship, kindred endowments of mind? Is it in
those patrician gibes with which you entertain the
admiring Senate? Is it by the sneers which in
XXX INTRODUCTION.
any one else I should call vulgar, vulgar in phrase
and in spirit, with which you turn the point of
your wit on those whose age, station, and cha-
racter protects you, as you seem to know, from
chastisement, let those dignified gibes be ever so
personal? Leaving your Lordship to answer, I
only say, for one, and I believe I may say the same
for almost all of the only community you can insult
with impunity, that they, as a body, venerate and
esteem Mr. Locke as much as you, my Lord, his
relative, can do. They disdain as much as you the
base compliance of those who, in the exuberant
feelings of servile loyalty, disgraced themselves and
the University.
Let me now allude more, good-humouredly, to
some circumstances in the present position of that
Episcopal Church which has been thought so pecu-
liarly illiberal and intolerant.
If I might introduce for a moment the well-known
characters in a popular tale, Lord Peter, Jack, and
Martin I might say that the fate of Mart hi *
has been rather hard. Many of his family were
burnt by Lord Peter, for reading a wicked book
called "the BIBLE ;" and, when Jack got the better
for a little while, he turned the children of honest
Martin upon the parish, because he said they were
fond of Lord Peter's fine cloaths, who BURNT
* Churches of Rome, Geneva, England.
INTRODUCTION. XXXI
THEM ALIVE! It is true Martin tried to make
Jack swallow the Prayer-book ; and Jack, in re-
turn, crammed the Covenant down Martin's throat !
When Martin got the better, he told Jack that he
must give up the places he held so long from the
right owners unless he would say the "Lord's
Prayer," put on a surplice, and read out of the
Prayer-book, which Jack never would do, and has
remained somewhat testy ever since.
If Martin humbly hopes Lord Peter will not
burn any more of his children, he (Peter) declares,
" Burn them ! why, you varlet, you meant to burn
us!" and then he swore a great oath that
nothing could be easier to prove ! A newspaper is
found, by which it appears that Ridley and Latimer,
who perished in the flames, were only served as
they ought to have been, for they "intended" to do
the same by others ! *
Every body knows that, in the quarrels between
the three brothers, Martin at last got the upper
* Dr. Lingard. Cranmer did not know that it was intended
to burn him, till, being on a raised seat at St. Mary's church,
in Oxford, in front of Dr. Cole, who preached his funeral-ser-
mon, he heard the appalling intimation, and burst into tears.
Dr. Cole, to comfort the miserable victim, in his sermon pro-
ceeded thus: "But, least he should carry with him no com-
fort, he would diligently labour, and also he did promise, in the
name of all the Priests that were present, immediately after his
death, there should be Dirges and Masses in all the Churches
of Oxford, for the succour of his soul ! " Life of Cranmer,
1556.
XXXll INTRODUCTION.
hand. With the assistance of Jack, he put Lord
Peter IN THE STOCKS ; and then Martin said to
Jaek, " My good hrother, you are a sober, indus-
trious workman, as any in the town, and, if you
will only go to Church * once in a way, you shall
come into the Corporation." Jack said he would
never go to Church, for he hated organs, surplices,
and kneeling ! so Peter remained in the stocks,
and Jack never got into the Corporation, and both
of them declared that Martin had used them very
ill ; but Martin said to Peter, " Why you know
how you kicked and cuffed when you was at liberty.''
Peter replied, " Kicked and cuffed ? I don't know
what you mean ! I did nothing but for the good
of your soul ! " " Now," said Martin to Jack, " I
should not so much object to your coining into
the Corporation, but I am sure, when you were
once got in, I should never be LORD-MAYOR any
more, and you would turn out me, and my wife
and children, to beg our bread, as you did before."
Then Jack said, " Brother, you may do what you
like, for I will come into the Corporation in spite
of you!"
It happened that a great Serjeant of Dragoons -|~
came into our town, and seeing Peter in the stocks,
said, " I will take you out ; but remember, Peter,
if I do, you must not take upon yourself the name
of ^ Lord Peter any more." Upon which Lord Peter
* Test Act. f A certain Duke.
I One of Mr. Peel's conditions.
INTRODUCTION. XXX111
was let out of the stocks; and immediately after he
cried " I am a Lord, and a Lord I will be called !"
And one of Martin's old Parsons got up, and said,
" How do you do, MY LORD ? I hope YOUR LORD-
SHIP has taken no cold, in sitting so long without
refreshment." *
So Peter got out of the stocks, and Jack into the
Corporation, by the help of the Serjeant and his
Drummer^ and there, for the present, we will
leave them.
But we must make this remark that, if Peter
had not put a great many things into his Father's
Will (Bible) which were not there, and acted so
cruelly with the family of Martin, because they
would not add or diminish from THE WILL ; he
would never have been put in the stocks at all,
but would have remained in possession of his in-
hetance, as elder brother. And we may say of
Jack whom we should rather call now, Mr. Jolin,
that he would not have been prevented coming
into the Corporation at any time, if he had not
turned out his brother Martin's children to starve.
Now, every one must hope and pray, that, if
these brothers cannot entirely agree, they will for-
get and forgive, and live in peace and charity but
up rides ESQ.UIRE KING, with a great book under
his arm, about a relation who, he says, is one of
" us," and this Squire tells the brothers that
* Bishop of Norwich's latu letter. f Mr. P.
XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
neither Peter in burning, nor Jack in kicking his
brother's children out of their houses, is half so
intolerant and oppressive as Martin thereupon
taking out his great book, he produces " a prayer "
written by a relation of Martin's a hundred and fifty
years ago!*
To return. If in exhibiting faithfully, from
documentary evidence, many of the baneful and im-
moral fruits of Calvinistic Puritanism*!- in the seven-
* But not only is this unfortunate prayer, according to my
Lord King, worthy a Turkish mufti a literary correspondent
of mine has absolutely proposed the example of the pious and
tolerant Mahometan to the imitation of the Druidical and bloody
Christian priesthood ! Godfrey Higgins, the historian of the
Druids, who, from his benevolent exertions in the cause of
the Lunatic Asylum at York, I imagine is still
A sad, good CHRISTIAN at the heart !
has put forth a work, called " Mahomet," showing the injus-
tice that great Prophet has received from Christian Giaours,
and the Author sets before them a circumstance admirably
adapted to teach them humanity and toleration. The circum-
stance is this : A traveller from England was going to kill a
viper. " Hold ! " says the venerable Mufti, " what are you
about? The same God that made the viper made you. Surely
the desert is wide enough for both." All will agree this is
a very pretty, and, what is more, a very instructive story ; and
it were only to be wished that the children of the tolerant and
humane Mohammed had thought of it when, in cold blood,
they put to death every man, woman, and child, of the unfor-
tunate Sciotes, and left a whole populous and beautiful island
a desert to the viper! Such are the lessons of toleration and
brotherly love we are to learn ! Such reasoners are those who
accuse the Clergy of bigotry !
f Scotland exhibits a most moral community, and the rcli-
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
teenth century, contrasted with those of genuine
piety, I may be thought to have had in my eye
some correspondent traits of religious profession
in the present day ; I can only say, of this every
one must judge for himself; but I am sure no per-
son of genuine piety, or charitable feelings, will
think himself affected by any facts I have advanced.
I beg to add, lest I should be accused of being
an intolerant High-churchman, a name for which
I feel no great respect, that my sentiments, politi-
cal or religious, have never veered, on important
subjects, from the time I have thought on such
subjects at all ; and if, by the kindness of friends,
I am now placed in a dignified station in the even-
ing of my days, I have been a " ivorking" Cu-
rate for seventeen years (if this be to be one of
the "working" Clergy!) but I entered the gates of
our Sion voluntarily, and should think I had no
right to complain if I were a "ivorking" Curate
gion of the country is Calvinistic. Yes; but in Scotland,
among the intellectual classes, the scholars and professors of
the cities and universities, how many are strict Calvinists?
In the villages "on Tweed," the baleful effects of this dis-
tempered creed are practically corrected in consequence of
the greater power possessed, by Synods and Elders, of en-
forcing the strictest moral discipline, and a constant superin-
tendence of Pastors, almost parental. The hyena crouches under
such a regime ; but what must be that system of Christianity
that requires practical and moral control at all ? how terrible
was the hyena when the unfortunate Archbishop Sharp excited
its rage ?
XXXVI INTRODUCTION.
still. I feel compelled to say thus much, to obviate,
as frankly as I may, sarcasms which I foresee may
be cast on a Clergyman, defending from a cathe-
dral-stall the spirit of his Church, and not con-
cealing his scorn of Iconoclasts and Puritans of
whatever order. I close these remarks in front of
the beautiful cathedral of Salisbury. May it still
look to heaven uninjured ! May its devotional ser-
vices be heard, and its solemn bell note the depar-
ture of hours, days, and years, till time shall be no
more, when sub-lapsarian and supra-lapsarian sys-
tems, which have hid the BIBLE and the shrine of
truth, shall be but as the dust on Bishop Davenant's
tomb.*
The late Life of Locke, and other publications
breathing a still more intolerant spirit together
with old charges lately revived and some most
extraordinary parallels in the spirit of the seven-
teenth and nineteenth centuries must be my
apology for devoting so much attention to these
subjects.
With this view, notwithstanding such gainsay-
ings, I have endeavoured, in times abounding with
* The inscription on his monument is truly in character with
his theology :
" Monumentorum omnium Johannis Davenant minime pe-
renne quod loquatur, audi."
As if what was eternal could be more or less eternal ! A
finer satire on his works could not be devised.. By a curious
reversal of the inscription, this monument has remained long
after his works have been forgotten.
INTRODUCTION. XXXV11
gainsay ers, faithfully to pourtray the character of
a Christian Bishop, and to set in a just light, some
of the circumstances of the time in which this
great example shone. The portrait, such as it is, I
humbly and gratefully present, as an offering of
attachment to the school in which I was educated,
and to the Church of which through " evil report
and good report " I am proud to be a member.
The Life of Ken, in this volume, is brought down
to his return to Winchester, as Fellow of that col-
lege. The sketch of the life, fortunes, and character
of his patron, Bishop Morley, is most essentially
connected with the subject, as are the views of the
character of the times. The historical notes are
subjoined, not only as throwing a light on questions
of literary discussion, in connection with the sub-
ject, but as furnishing information on some of the
most interesting portions of English history.
XXXV111
ERRATA,
AND PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS.
Page 5. In the pedigree of Ken, the Bishop is called eldest
son by the first wife. This is afterwards explained : when the
pedigree was taken there were two sons, Thomas the eldest,
and John the youngest.
P. 9. Creighton, the composer, is said by Sir John Haw-
kins to be son of Creighton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, not
nephew, as I imagined.
Page 43, note. Mrs. Reynolds was forcibly removed from
Christ Church, not at the Restoration, as it is said in the note,
but on Dr. Reynolds refusing to take the Engagement to
Cromwell.
P. 52, 1. 22, for " 1633," read 1637*
P. 53, for Roy, Attorney General, read NOY.
P. 83, 1. 15, for " in the age," read " of his party."
P. 91. I was premature in giving Morley a new palace at
Winchester in 1666. His new palace was not begun till 1684.
I was led into this mistake in consequence of a stone in Canon-
street, with the inscription,
Has sedes extruxit G. Morleius.
P. Ill, Morley 's Verses to Kenna, line 4, instead of
" For many a year, now mute "
read,
lt Through the long year, now mute "
P. 112, note, birth of Izaak Walton's daughter Anne, for
" 1677," read" 1647."
PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. XXXIX
P. 124-, note, for "unexampled," read " unexpected."
P. 14-9, for "Ken singing with," read "with Ken singing."
P. 178, for Burgene, read Burgess.
I have spoken of the magnificent lines of Shirley
"The glories of our birth and state"
as having been set to music by Orlando Gibbons : the compo-
sition, equal in pathetic sublimity to the words, is by Edward
Coleman, but it is much in the majestic style of Gibbons.
Gibbons died in 1625. To the play in which the lines are
found there is no date, but it was probably acted before 1625 .
the name is, " Contention of Ajax and Ulysses." It is said the
song was a favourite of Charles the Second more probably of
Charles the First, with such feeling and taste as he manifested
for poetry. They are also said, in his latter days, to have made
a deep impression on Cromwell, and well they might ; for how
must such affecting and sublime images as these have been felt
by him to his inmost heart :
The garlands wither on your brow !
Then boast no more your mighty deeds !
Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the Victor-victim bleeds ! *
The music of Coleman was published by Henry Laws in 1669
in a book entitled, " Select Ayres and Dialogues, to sing to the
Theorbo, Lute, and Basse-viol. John Playford, at his shop in
the Temple, near the Church dore."
I have taken the words I found in Izaak Walton for the
songs I have given to Kenna, in the 5th Chapter ; but I had
originally written a song to suit the scene, which the reader
may substitute :
When summer comes, with calm content
I wander on the banks of Trent,
Happy, but thinking, with a sigh,
Perchance, of happier days gone by ;
* See Percy's Collection of Old Ballads, p. 290.
xl PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS.
Yet let me bless the God above,
Who leaves us friendship, peace, and love
For, with a quiet mind, and health,
CONTENTMENT is THE POOR MAN'S WEALTH.
And though at evening we deplore
Friends scatter'd, and now met no more
Afflicted, but not murmuring
Or exiles for their God and King,
Still let us thank the God above,
Who leaves us one poor home of love
For, with a quiet mind, and health,
CONTENTMENT is THE POOR MAN'S WEALTH.
I would here, also, insert one stanza omitted in the Lines on
the Funeral of Charles the Second:
And buried Kings, a spectre train,
Seem'd in the dusk to glide,
As fitful, through the pillar'd fane,
Faint MISERERE'S died.
To the errata, and occasional oversights in expression, I
have thought it necessary to subjoin a brief preliminary expla-
nation of some sentiments which might be liable to miscon-
struction.
Certain scholastic opinions, which others hold almost inse-
parable from Christian faith, I deem to have nothing whatever
to do with Scripture truth. " Beware lest any one spoil you
through philosophy." (St. Paul.)
That eternal Providence, for one great and awful purpose,
so directed the stream of human events that the promises which
God vouchsafed in mercy to fallen man should all be fulfilled,
the Christian truly and firmly believes but that every indivi-
dual comes into the world with his fate determined that
a dire decree controls and governs him in all events of his
life, small and great this opinion, so entirely tapis 'Evayye-
Xiov is at once so horrible and so preposterous, that, con-
sidering its origin and consequences, it might well move, in
PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. x
the humble Christian, "alternate derision, and horror!" I
premise this in reference to what may be considered as levity,
in speaking of the pious and good Baxter.
There is another point on which I am most anxious to pre-
vent any misconception. Of the necessity of seeking God at
all seasons in prayer, under all emergencies of life, no one
is more deeply sensible ; my remarks apply only to that osten-
tatious piety when on every trifling occasion "THE NAME OF
THE LORD is TAKEN IN VAIN !" when ostentatious profes-
sion is more apparent than humility and sincerity.
HYMN OF ST. AMBROSE, "We praise thee," &c. I have said
that this sublime hymn was composed before the Mass. It is
stated to have been first sung when St. Ambrose received Au-
gustine into the Church ; and Augustine, De Doctrina Chris-
tiana, says expressly the eating of Christ's flesh is jigura-
tive; so far was Transubstantiation from being admitted at this
period.
St. Ambrose says, De his qui mystenis initiantur, " after con-
secration," not the bread is turned into the body of Christ, but
that " the body of Christ is SIGNIFIED." See Life of Cran-
mer, p. 123.
The words of Augustine (Confess, lib. iii. chap, iv.) are :
" fideliter fateamur, ante consecrationem, panem esse, et vinum,
quod natura formavit : post consecrationem, carnem Christi et
sanguinem esse, quod Benedictio consecravit ;" that is, as it ap-
pears to me, not that the benediction has changed the bread
and wine into the actual body and blood, but that the benedic-
tion has consecrated them as such. But, be it as it may, what
destitution of every sublime devotional feeling would it have
shewn, if, there being such a hymn in the universe, the Re-
formers had not admitted it into the Ritual.
The Presbyterian Parliament passed the Ordinance against
Deans and Chapters 15th June, 164' 1. The Episcopal Chapter
lands of Salisbury were not sold till 1647.
VOL. I. (1
Xlii PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS.
The " Reliquiae Wottonianae " of that most learned, most
amiable character, Sir Henry Wotton, were collected and
printed 1651, and his " State of Christendom " 1657.
Hammond's Practical Catechism had passed through four edi-
tions in 1649, but was re-printed in 1655.
When I remark, p. 208, that the Parliament was Episco-
palian and Tory, I mean that these parties were dominant ;
though it is well known the Presbyterians formed a large part
of the Parliament which restored Charles the Second.
It is not to be denied that the principles of non-resistance
were the principles of the Church of England, to the reign of
James the Second. Tillotson's Letter to the Duke of Mon-
mouth is well known ; but I contend that, had not the tide of
illiterate fanaticism overwhelmed all intellectual morality, the
principles of Chillingworth, and Hales, and Taylor, would
have been those of Tillotson, as well as Locke.
I have said, " perish the Establishment, if inconsistent with
charity;" for it is my sincere conviction that the fiercest con-
tests, between rival and discordant sects, would take place, if
there were no established religion.
In conclusion, I beg to express my sincerest acknowledg-
ment for the great care of Mr. J. G. Nichols, in superintending
this Work through the press, the errors of which are only owing
to the Author.
LIFE
OP
THOMAS KEN, D.D
BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH FAMILY CONNECTIONS.
Stemmata quid faciunt ? JUVENAL.
THOMAS, the youngest son,* by his first wife, of
Thomas Ken, attorney at law, of Furnival's Inn,
Holborn, was born at Little Berkhamstead, in
Hertfordshire. It is probable his father had a tem-
porary place of residence in this parish, as, upon in-
quiry both of the Rector of Berkhamstead and
Little Berkhamstead, I find no record or tradition
respecting the family, nor any account of posses-
sions belonging to any person of that name.
Hawkins, the most authentic biographer of Bi-
shop Ken, and who was his great-nephew, says he
was born at Berkhamstead. Salmon, who wrote a
short summary of the lives of all the Bishops from
the Restoration to the Revolution, states his place of
birth to have been Little Berkhamstead.
* His biographer and relation, Hawkins, has called Ken
youngest son. It appears, from a pedigree in the College of
Arms, attested by his father, that John Ken was not the
elder brother, but son of the second wife. (See page 5.)
VOL. I. B
* LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
The fact of his having been born at Berkham-
stead is ascertained, both from Hawkins and by the
entry of his admission to Winchester college ; but
there is no tradition, or entry in the register at
Berkhamstead, and therefore we can only suppose
that he was born, if not baptized, at Little Berk-
hamstead,* a place, from comparative obscurity,
less likely to have preserved any positive facts or
traditional memorial, and where the parish register
prior to 1712 is lost.
His father, Thomas Ken, had, we may conclude,
more than one son by his first wife, as John was son
of the second wife. He had two daughters. John
followed, it is most probable, his father's profession.
Anne, the elder daughter, was married to that
singular and interesting character Isaak Walton,
the celebrated " piscator "
Martha was married to a Mr. James Beacham,
who had one son, Fellow of Trinity college, Oxford,
and another, Fellow of New college, probably bred
up at Winchester from his uncle Ken's recom-
mendation.
Rose Ken, mentioned in Isaak Walton's will,-j~
and recommended to the kindness of his son Isaac,
the Canon of Salisbury, was wife of John Ken.
* His father lived in Cripplegate before he removed io Fur-
nival's Inn.
f '* I desire him to be kind to his aunt Beachamc, and his
aunt Rose Ken, allowing the first about jifty shillings a year
for bacon and cheese."
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 3
Thomas, the son, according to the pedigree, of
the first wife, was equally remarkable for the virtues
and the vicissitudes of his life. The most interest-
ing passages of that life, connected with the events
and characters of the times, we shall now endeavour
to set faithfully before the reader.
But we shall first give the genealogy of the
family of Ken, and the Bishop's pedigree ; for,
though this might seem unimportant, yet in gene-
alogy, as in mathematics, positive certainty consti-
tutes the value ; and the curiosity of the present
age has certainly encouraged such minute investi-
gations, which have supplied many biographical
and some important facts.
The following is a pedigree of the Ken family, as
entered at the Heralds' Visitation of Somersetshire,
in 1623.*
Visit, Somerset, 1623. MSS. Coll. Arm. p. 347.
Arms : Ermine, three crescents Gules.
Crest : Three crescents interlaced Argent.
John Ken, of Ken Court,=pMargaret, daughter of Sir Christopher
co. Somerset. Baynham.
4. Edmund ^Marg. d. 1. Christo-^Florence 2. Thomas^p 3. John Ken,
Keu, ofHut- I of John pher Ken, I Stal- Ken, of I of Clevedon,
ton, co Som. I Strode. of Ken. | lenge. Ken. co. Som. ^
Elizabeth, dau. audh. mar. John Thos. Ken. Susan =pJohn Ken, Christ.
Paulet, created Baron Paulet of Ken.^ Daves. I of Ken. 2d son.
1627, and died 1 649. ' , | ., -.
-T-T-I 1 i i i i i L n
1. Edmund 1. Anne. Geo. Ken, l.Christo-
Ken, of 2. Margaret, m.Hen.Morgan,ofManston,Dev. set. 22, pher.
Langford, 3. Catherine, m. Chr. Greene, of Sussex. 1623. 2.Francis.
1623. 4. Elizabeth. Thomas S.William.
2. John. 5. Alice, mar. Geo. Prowse, of Tiverton. Ken, 2d 4. Edmund.
3. Edward. 6. Mary. son.
* " The Visitation of Counties by the King's Stewards and
B2
4 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
I subjoin, from the Visitation of London, and by
the kindness of my friend Mr. Dallaway, and Mr.
Young, York Herald, the immediate descent of the
Bishop, with some additional particulars collected
from an examination of testamentary evidence.
Officers of Arms, under the special warrant of the Sovereign,
for the purpose of collecting and recording the pedigrees and
arms of the nobility and gentry resident therein, is of very an-
tient date ; and the genealogies and arms thus collected are
well known by the name of " Visitations." These records are
in existence at the College of Arms, London, from the year
1528 to 1686, the date of the last commission. The authority
or commission for making these Visitations was granted by the
Sovereign to the provincial Kings of Arms, at intervals of about
twenty-five or thirty years ; the nobility and gentry were sum-
moned in each county by warrants, to give accounts of their
families and arms ; and the various entries are in most cases at-
tested by the signatures of the heads of the families, or of per-
sons on their behalves. These Visitations are admitted by the
Courts at Westminster, as evidence of the truth of the matters
therein contained.
" Since the year 1686, there has not been a visitation, and
the pedigrees of the gentry of England have never since then
been recorded, except in those comparatively few instances
where the prudent members of families have registered them at
the College of Arms, London. The neglect (the word is per-
haps too severe, but we find it applied by great authority,)
therefore, of the Heralds in making their usual progresses is a
public injury, affecting the fame, and sometimes that more sub-
stantial treasure, the land, of every gentleman in the kingdom ;
and rendering, as Mr. Justice Blackstone remarked, " the proof
of a modern descent, for the recovery of an estate, or succes-
sion to a title of honour, more difficult than that of an antient ;"
and neither wealth nor industry can repair the mischief which
this
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
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O LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
As I am indebted to the information of the near-
est living descendant of the family, for the tradi-
tional information of some of the most novel, pro-
bably the most interesting, circumstances of this
work, Dr. Herbert Hawes, Prebendary of Salisbury,
my friend and schoolfellow, who inherits his re-
lation's active benevolence and warm attachment to
the Church it will be here proper to shew Dr.
Hawcs's immediate descent from Anne, the sister
of Bishop Ken. She was married, as we have
shewn, to the celebrated Isaak Walton. He had by
her an only son, Isaac, Canon Residentiary of
Salisbury, and a daughter, Anne, married to Wil-
liam Hawkins, D. D. Prebendary of Winchester.
Isaac Walton, the son, died unmarried, at Salis-
bury, in the canonical residence.
William Hawkins, D. D. had by Anne, daughter
of Isaak Walton senior, and sister to Isaac Walton
junior, two children, William Hawkins, the bio-
grapher of his great uncle, the Bishop ; and Jane,
who died unmarried at Salisbury, living till his
death with her uncle.
William Hawkins, the biographer, married the
daughter of Dr. Merewether, of Devizes, from whom
is descended the present learned and excellent
Henry Al worth Merewether, serjeant at law.
this desuetude of the visitations has occasioned ; especially as
the registries of descents now made are not of themselves legal
evidence, although they may point out records and documents
to substantiate them, and may afford information upon isolated
statements, which the Courts of Westminster will not reject."
Gent. Mag. xcix. ii. 99.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 7
William Hawkins, by his wife, Jane Merewether,
had issue a daughter, married to the Rev. John
Hawes, Rector of Bemerton. This daughter of
William Hawkins was the mother of the present
Dr. Hawes, of Salisbury. To him descended,
through her, the identical PRAYER-BOOK of old
Isaak Walton (of which more will be said), splen-
didly bound, adorned with the arms of Charles the
First, printed 1637, and containing, in Walton's hand-
writing, the dates of the birth of his children, and
the first transcript of the epitaph on his wife Anne,
buried in Worcester cathedral two years after the
Restoration. These family memorials are written
in the blank leaf before the title-page of this ho-
noured relic. Dr. Hawes has also in his possession
an original drawing in crayons by Isaac Walton,
junior, of his father, which is the most interesting
and characteristic portrait I have ever seen, said to
have been drawn from recollection after death.
With these records and relics, to my friend de-
scended also the remains of Ken's worldly splen-
dour, a small silver coffee-pot* the companion of
all his vicissitudes ; and the manuscript of his epic
poem, " Edmund," most carefully written with his
own hand, and in places elaborately corrected, which
shews the limoe laborem he bestowed on it.
These particulars I have thought it right to pre-
* Together with his silver-watch, made by Tompion. These
may be compared with Wesley's two silver spoons, one in
London, and one in Bristol !
8 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
mise in this place, as, but for the interesting in-
formation connected with these circumstances, and,
above all, Ken's relationship with Isaak Walton, I
should probably never have appeared as an episcopal
biographer.
Before I leave this part of the subject, I would
not omit some curious coincidences.
The daughter of Christopher Ken,* of Ken, near
Cleveden, on the banks of the Severn, married, we
have seen, John, son of Sir Anthony Paulet. Be-
ing ardently attached to the fortunes, and in the
confidence of Charles the First, his name appeared
among the names of those who subscribed the de-
claration disavowing the intention, on the King's
part, of making war on the Parliament.
He appeared in arms on the side of the King,
and, as a soldier, nobly and gallantly supported the
side he had taken ; so that Ken was remotely and
immediately a loyalist.
I may here add, that the second son of the Jirst
Lord Paulet married the daughter of a predecessor
of Ken's in the See of Bath and Wells, Creighton,
who partook all the deprivations of exile with
Charles the Second, and who, living to a great
age, left, with an inscription commemorative of his
fortunes, the brazen eagle, long used as a reading-
* Portraits of Christopher Ken and his wife, by Vandyke
are in the possession of Mr. Piggot, of Brockley-Hall. The
Ken estate has been lately parcelled out in lots. Ruttcr's
Somersetshire.
LIFE OF BISHOP KN.
desk in the Choir. His nephew was Canon Resi-
dentiary, and a scientific musical composer, whose
services are still performed in most cathedrals.
He was Canon when Ken was Bishop, whom he
revered as much as he and the Chapter opposed
Kidder.*
Thus Bishop Ken, son of a London attorney,
was douhly connected with the county of Somerset,
first l)y birth, and, incident ally, with the Chapter
of Wells, previously to his becoming connected
with that Diocese.
From this remark, I now proceed.
Thomas Ken, youngest son, by the first wife, of
Thomas Ken, of Furnival's Inn, was born, as we
have before said, at Little Berkharnstead. Wood,
from mistake, gives the date of his birth 1635. He
was born July 1637.
The future Bishop of Bath and Wells entered
into life at that eventful period when the murmurs
of the storm began to increase, which, soon after-
wards, shook to their foundations the battlements
of the Church of England.
At this inauspicious era to the Church, this most
exemplary, virtuous, and Christian ornament to that
Church, was born.
Where he received the first rudiments of his
* It was usual at that time, throughout England, for the
members of the Chapter to be present when the candidates
for holy orders were ordained. The Chapter often refused
attending the ordinations of Kidder. Kidder's MS. Life.
10 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
early education is not known ; nor by whose recom-
mendation he became a scholar on William of Wyke-
ham's munificent foundation ; but the sons of
many distinguished families in the western counties
had usually been sent to that seminary of public
education, to receive the advantages of the system,
if not to be placed as scholars on the foundation.
That Thomas Ken was considered a proficient in
early scholarship ; that he was remarkable, in child-
hood, for docility as well as sweetness of disposition,
it is surely not unreasonable to infer.
It may be presumed that the interest of the more
prosperous part of the family, in Somersetshire,
was solicited, and that therefore it was thought ad-
visable that this interesting and promising youth
should be bred up to " learning " in Winchester
school.
It must not be forgotten, at the same time, that
Ken had a musical voice, which had been no small
recommendation for admission to all antient ecclesi-
astical establishments, from their foundation ; for,
in after life, it is known that no day passed without
his singing his evening and morning hymn to his
lute,* the origin of those beautiful morning and
evening hymns sung at this day by the children of
every parish.
Harris, under whose wardenship Ken was en-
tered at Winchester, having taken the " Covenant,"
probably little regarded such a qualification ; but
* Hawkins.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 11
it was required by the Statutes, and might have
been an inducement for his parents to endeavour to
procure a nomination on an ancient ecclesiastical
foundation, where, by long custom, and by the Sta-
tutes, music was essentially associated with educa-
tion.*
To show of what importance, before the Refor-
mation, this qualification was considered, we need
only remark that, in most of our cathedrals, the
chief chanter, or Precentor, ranks next in dignity to
the Dean ; and though, through England, the ca-
thedral choirs were silent when Ken was entered
at Winchester, yet, in many places of ecclesiastical
education, those who were not of the Puritanic
class would be more observant of ancient forms.
According to the creed of Puritanism, the sub-
lime and affecting services of the Choir are a rem-
nant of Popery, as is Episcopacy itself, and our im-
pressive and beautiful Liturgy ! It would, indeed,
have been a relick of Popery, if the BISHOP were
obliged to lead the chant, as enjoined by the Popish
Ritual, secundum usum Sarum.
Thus, however, with the rudiments of the Latin
language, and with the musical qualifications for a
future Bishop, had he lived in times more propi-
tious to choir-service, Ken, junior, became a candi-
date for admission into the College of St. Mary
* The first question asked of every candidate is, whether he
can sing? See ' History of Bremhill."
12 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Wintcn in the year 1(550-1. The entry of admis-
sion in the College book is as follows :
Thomas Ken, dc Berkhamstead, in com. Hert-
ford, annoruin 13 ad Michaclis, 1650, admissus est
Jan. 30, 1650-1.
Ken was admitted under the wardenship of Har-
ris, who was considered a perfect Grecian, and an
eloquent preacher. According to Wood, he sided,
in the contest between the Presbyterians and the
Church of England, with the Presbyterians ; was
elected of the Assembly of Divines, took the Cove-
nant, and so kept his wardenship till his death, two
years before the Restoration, 1658.*
He was elected one of the Elders of the Assem-
bly of Divines, through William Twiss, also edu-
cated at Winchester, who was reckoned in his day
the most powerful of all arguers against Arminius,
for the supralccpsarum Decrees! A learned discus-
sion was maintained between him and Warden Har-
ris, probably about some shade of the same dark
doctrines.
I mention these circumstances to shew how ad-
verse the spirit of the times was to the Episcopal
Church, for here was a Warden, eating the bread
of the munificent founder, and superintending an
establishment founded by Episcopal bounty, who
* The Warden of New College, nominated by the Parlia-
mentary Visitors in 1648, died the same year.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 13
had taken the " Covenant"" to destroy Episcopacy
root and branch ! Papal and Protestant !
As to the creed of Harris, he published two
Epistles to Twiss ; the first, on the question,
whether Predestination were definite or indefinite '
and the other, on the object of Predestination!
Such useless contention is the effect of pressing
views in religion beyond the sober veracity of the
Gospel, Atheism or Infidelity, in consequence, al-
ways succeeding.
So, when the Platonic, or abstracted views of
religion, led, in their excess, to the contemplative
Pillar-Saint., who lived forty years on a pillar,*
this kind of enthusiasm having attained its ne
phis ultra of absurdity turned round, and the
Dancing Saints had their reign. These, in their
turn, were succeeded by the Flagellants; and then
came in the Jumpers !
In the mean time, amidst all this coil, " wisdom
is justified of her children." The "wisdom that is
from above" is the same, and the Church of Eng:-
o
land, holding nothing infallible but the Word of
God, in its sobriety and purity, regards these aber-
rations of humanity with a sigh, still preserving the
purity and dignified medium of truth.
The Calvinistic creed succeeded abstracted feel-
ings with this difference : Plato, by abstraction,
sought to EXALT the SOUL Manes, and the Ka-
- earliest Puritans, enjoined their disciples,
* See Mosheim.
14 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
by unnatural austerities, &c. to mortify the body,
that is, matter which they conceived to be derived
from the Evil Principle, and therefore totally and
essentially corrupt.
Christianity, mingled with Platonism, on one
hand, carried to excess, seraphic abstraction ; and
the severer scholastic creed, mingling pure CHRIS-
TIANITY with Manecheism, afterwards with Aristo-
telism, produced Calvinism, of which there are two
distinct shades. About these two shades abso-
lute and conditional Twiss and Harris differed.
The Cock in Dryden's Fable says
I cannot bolt this matter to the bran,
As Bradwardine and LEARNED Austin can !
In the language of Chaucer
" In school is great altercation,
In this mater, and great disputacion,
And hath been of a hundred thousand men !
Quoth Chanticlere !
(Cock and the Fox.)
It is a pity that such disputations, which have been
the bane of piety, should not have been confined to
such disputants ; for neither Twiss nor Warden
Harris made the world wiser or better, and " CHA-
RITY," which is " greater " than Faith, has always
suffered in such interminable contests ! We are
commanded to " love one another ;" but we are no
where commanded to believe in Predestination
absolute or conditional!
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 15
CHAPTER II.
KEN A COLLEGE-BOY, AT WINCHESTER SCHOOL CATHE-
RINE HILL ELECTION-CHAMBER REFLECTIONS ON
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Gay hope is theirs, by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possess'd ;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast.
GRAY.
WE have now placed our young scholar, " pauper
scholaris" on that ancient foundation which has
sent so many illustrious scholars into society, and
so many who, like Warham, Chicheley, Ken, and
Lowth, have adorned the highest stations in the
Church, and, by their learning, virtue, and piety,
given the noblest lustre often from the humblest
origin to the mitre.
The more interesting career of life is now begun,
every stage of which, in its first progress, is
watched by affectionate parents with intense anx-
iety, lest " peradventure evil should befall a beloved
child." The parents, however, have chosen that
mode of education in which it is least likely that
" evil will befall him"
At the age of thirteen, the scholastic noviciate at
Winchester is probably placed in the form called
* See observations in " Vindiciae Wycchamicae," on this
word in the Statutes, in answer to Mr. Brougham by the
Author.
1C LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Junior part of Fifth ; and is become, with a band,
and black dangling gown, a Junior of Fifth or Sixth
Chamber.
As junior, he is up before the other boys of the
same chamber. In the glimmering and cold wintry
mornings, he could not turn, at this time, to
" Ken's Manual ;" but he would perhaps repeat to
himself watching the slow morning through the
grated window one of the beautiful ancient hymns
composed for the scholars on the foundation.
Jam lucis orto sydere
Deum precemur supplices,
Ut in diurnis actibus,
Nos servet a nocentibus.
Now the star of morning-light
Rises on the rear of night ;
Suppliant to our God we pray,
From ills to guard us through this day.
I have little doubt but such repetitions, in after
life, led Ken to the composition of those hymns
which form the greatest portion of his poems, and
particularly his well-known Morning and Evening
Hymns, of which I have spoken.
Rising before the others, he had little to do ex-
cept to apply a candle to a large faggot, in winter,
which had been already laid. Nothing servile did
I ever see or experience, though it has been as
falsely as basely alleged that the juniors of a public
school clean shoes, &c. Such degrading offices, or
tiny thing degrading, I do not believe is, or
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 17
ever permitted ; and as to lighting a faggot, or
obeying the seniors, Ken, in a prison, or in his
highest elevation, might have found the advantage.
What he had to undergo would not have prevented
him from sending a favourite son to learn the same
virtues at the same expense.
On the fifth or sixth day, our junior, " the tear
forgot as soon as shed," if it has ever for a moment
been on his youthful cheek, is at ease among his
companions of the same age ; he is found, for
the first time, attempting to wield a cricket bat ;
and, when his hour of play is over, he plies, at his
SCOB,* the labours of his silent lesson, or sits
scanning his "nonsense" verses, which, nonsense
as they have been called, have led the way to form
the most accurate and elegant scholars, however
such rudiments may be derided.
These cares are soon at an end. The holidays
are approaching ; and who more blithely than Ken,
with his musical voice, can sing that pleasing verse
of the old Wykehamical canticle
Ridet annus, prata rident,
Xosque rideamus,
Jam repetit Donium
* An oaken box, which contains his few books. On each side
are places for pens and ink. The outer cover is placed open.
The depository of books has another cover, on which tbe young
scholar writes his task, or reads his lesson.
VOL. I. C
18 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN,
Daulias advena,
Nosque doraum repetamus,
Domum, &c.*
Now every boy pants for Whitsuntide, when is
sung, in choral glee
Musa, libros mitte, fessa,
Mitte pensa dura.
Till that day arrives, after the "pensa dura" of
four days, the whole train of youthful scholars is
seen streaming, twice a week, by the side of the
Itchin, towards Catharine Hill, a large, round,
conical hill, fronting the Downs ; a scene, since
the foundation of the school, dedicated to youthful
recreation and short oblivion of school cares.
This holiday scene, alive and fervent with strip-
ling animation from age to age, Tom Warton has
beautifully described, with the airy occupants at
their pastimes.
Aerio Catharina jugo, qua vertice summo,
Danorum veteres fossas, immania castra,
Et circumducti servat vestigia valli,
Wykehamicae mos est pubi celebrare palestras
Multiplices, passimque levi contendere lusu,
Festa dies quoties rediit.
He then describes the juniors., as seen in knots
and groups upon the turf :
Quin lusu incerto cernas gestire MINORES,
Se saltu exercent vario, et luctantur in herba,
* Dulce Domum. the old Wykehamical song, from its style,
may be judged to have been written before the Reformation.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 19
Innocuasque edunt pugnas, aut gramine molli
OXIA AGUNT FUSI, CLIVISQUE SUB OMNIBUS H.3EREXT.
Among these juniors, on the different knolls,
throw back the years that have passed away since,
we think we see young Ken, familiar and
playful.
That an anxious mother, instead of listening to
the hobgoblin stories of public-school tyranny,
might think she saw, on a summer's holiday, the
child of her affections thus seated, I shall endea-
vour to translate for her :
Where on its airy summit, CATHARINE HILL *
Still shews its Danish dike, and the vast camp,
And vestiges of ramparts, that surround
Its brow oft as the festive day returns,
Wykeham, thy sons their pastimes celebrate,
Or in light play contend : the younger tribe
Appear, all play uncertain what they leap,
In harmless strife they wrestle, or in groups,
Spread leisurely, on every hillock hang.
Many years have passed since I played among
them ; in the language of the classical writer,
" Where first my Muse to lisp her notes began !
While pensive Memory traces back the man,
Which fills the varied interval between,
Much pleasure, more of sorrow, mark the scene."
WARTON.
* It is well known, that Pope Gregory gave directions to his
Missionaries not to change the places of assembly where Pagan
rites were celebrated, but to dedicate them afresh to Christian
saints, and turn the Pagan into Christian rites. (See Bede.)
C 2 Hence
20 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
But I will venture to say the last natural and beau-
tiful image, to which no translation can do justice,
has been witnessed from the days of Ken, I might
say from the days of the founder, to the present,
and will be witnessed as long as the neighbouring
ancient towers, dedicated for so many years to
learning and piety, shall
" crown the watery glade."
I trust to the reader's pardon for this incidental
interruption, and proceed to the classical studies
there of him whose life suggested the imagery and
excited the remembrances of the moment.
A Winchester scholar, advancing through the
different classes of the school, acquires different
habits of thinking, accompanied with a diffident
consciousness of progressive acquirements. He
now begins to feel the beauties of those works
whose grammatical difficulties he had pensively
pored over. The descriptions of Virgil and Homer
have a charm for his imagination ; and his ear
is insensibly turned to the music of the versifi-
cation.
His awakened feelings are in unison with his
studies, now no longer confined to the trammels of
unintelligible grammar.
Hence, as I have observed elsewhere, the hill of Tanarus be-
came that of St. Anne, and Cad-a-Pync, the fortification above
the water, St. Catherine ; of which St. Catharine's hill, near
Winchester, is a striking specimen.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 21
Such a youth, when his companions are at play,
often wanders " off-hill," (as the term is,)
" Step following step, and thought succeeding thought."
LOWTH.
Such a character I remember poor Russell,* a
* Thomas Russell, of New College, my school-fellow at Win-
chester, had great poetical genius, and exquisitely cultivated
attainments.
A small volume of translated and original poems was pub-
lished soon after his immature death, by our common revered
friend, now elevated to the metropolitan seat of this kingdom.
This volume, though now scarce, is rich in strains of most
harmonious sweetness and beauty, as every heart attached to
poetry will acknowledge wherever it has been met. Mr. Southey
has done justice to it; and it were to be wished that a new
edition were published, together with the poems of Crowe and
Bampfielde.
At Oxford, Russell's society was sought by most of the
young men of birth and talent in the University. He
retired from such society, where he was admired and
loved, to a provincial curacy ; and soon after, with the most
engaging manners, the most benevolent heart, and the highest
endowments, died, in early youth, of a consumption, the Curate
of a village near Dorchester, of which county his father and
brother were eminent solicitors.
Some of the boys were in the habit of writing local epigrams.
A most elegant tribute, of the kind, was paid to the eloquence
of Balguy, a prebendary, who had refused a bishopric, well
known for his Sermons on Christian Benevolence. He had
preached on the text, " in wisdom there is sorrow."
IMPROMPTU.
If what you have told us, dear Doctor, be true,
" In wisdom is sorrow," how wretched are you !
This
22 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
young man of extraordinary genius. Such, we
may conceive, before he was cast upon the world,
was Otway ; such the sublime Young ; such the
tender Collins ; such Lowth, who, with kindred
feeling, awoke the sacred harp of Israel,* all
educated in the same school and such, to judge
from his character through life, was the studious
and the ingenuous Ken.
But adieu to desultory ramblings " off -hills"
when the young votary of the Muses
" snatches a fearful joy."
The day of ELECTION draws near " the great, the
important day, big with the fate " of super-
This was written by Russell when a boy at school.
His early fate reminds me of some lines written by himself,
upon a schoolfellow, dying, with a similar fate, and, in some
respects, resembling him in character :
To a friend so sincere, to a comrade so gay,
Who brought cares on himself, to drive our cares away,
Who lov'd still to laugh, yet ne'er wish'd to offend,
And, a friend to mankind, found mankind not a friend;
To a spirit so rare let us ever be just,
Nor forget him, poor fellow ! though laid in the dust, f
Then haste with your myrtles to hang on his shrine,
With odours enrich it, bedew it with wine ;
Ne'er cease on his turf early roses to bloom,
And green be the laurel that waves o'er his tomb.
* Lowth's " Praelectiones de Sacra Poesi Hebracorum, "
rich with classical translations of Isaiah.
f Russell wrote the Letters in the Gentleman's Magazine, with the signature
A.S. (Amator Solitudinis,) iu defence of VVarton, when he was attacked by
Ritson. See his death recorded iu the Magazine for 1788, p. 752.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 23
animates, panting to be placed high on the roll of
succession to the great object of Wykehamical
hopes, NEW COLLEGE.
A severer course of studies is now absolutely
requisite, for nothing can be conceived more por-
tentous than, at this time, to the ambitious
student, the Election-chamber ! The Warden and
Electors from New College have been received
yesterday evening by a Latin oration at the inner
gate of the college, spoken by one of the senior
boys, with classical compliments to the learning
and critical judgment of the illustrious visitors and
examiners !
The next morning, the scholars to be examined
are all in a fervour of anxiety and emulation. At
length, they are ushered into the Election-chamber
before the TWO WARDENS of either College, the
Posers, as they may well be called, two Fellows of
New College, the Sub- Warden, and Head-Master
of Winchester. The scholars of the first and second
classes are examined in sets, called Fardels, the
form of the examination being doubtless nearly the
same now, and the appellations the same, as they
were at the time when Ken stood to be examined
among them.
To the Founder's kin, descendants from the
Founder, according to the Statutes, the two first
places are conceded. The place on the roll next to
them is the great object of emulation among the
others ; and this is the time of the greatest solid-
24 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
tutle to a parent. He has spared no expense, lie
has watched every improvement, he anticipates
certain success.
The examination itself, during three successive
days, is indeed formidable to the tyro of classical
studies.
The books are opened, Homer, Sophocles, &c.
but the exaininant knows nothing of the passages
which he will have to render into English, at sight,
before his new hearers. The last day of examina-
tion is more formidable still ; for, ranged round the
room, without pen or ink, and not having the most
remote idea of the subject that will be proposed,
those who form the first class are required to com-
pose, and repeat, as soon as composed, Latin verses,
on any subject given by the different electors ; and
this is absolutely necessary to gain or retain a place
which will ensure any chance of succeeding to New
College.
With respect to such examination, and critical
exercises, I shall only observe, that, if classical scho-
larship be considered as necessary towards the libe-
ral part of the education of a highly-cultivated
English gentleman, whether destined to be a cler-
gyman or not, it were best that he should be a
scholar, not crudely, or by halves, but have a relish
for the beauties, an ear to distinguish the harmo-
nies, of the ancient Poets, to have those harmonies
familiar to him, to imbibe from them a perfect
feeling of the charms of classical prosody, not
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 25
pedantically, but intimately, to be nursed in severe
and discriminating feelings of taste, to be familiar
with the most correct models of composition. The
scholar may thus lay up oblectamma for the even-
ing of age, and, through all changes of life, derive
enjoyment from refined literature, which interests
in solitude, and which gives the most cultivated
charm to conversation and character.
But is this all ? Let the name of Lowth, and of
him whose life I am recording, and of a thousand
others whom I could mention, be THE ANSWER !
I do not say the system must invariably succeed,
but the " BREAD is CAST ON THE WATERS."
Ken, after the requisite examination, must have
been so placed on the roll, as would justify a parent's
hope that, a vacancy occurring in the course of the
year, he would be admitted to a Fellowship in the
kindred munificent foundation of William of Wyke-
ham in Oxford.
But, before we attend his progress to the next
scene of life, after the durance and exercises of a
cloistered school, we shall take this opportunity of
adding some reflections on a very important sub-
ject, the system of public-school education in
England, so much, in the present day, discussed.
The interval between school and the new scenes
of life, which an University presents, is generally
passed by the young student among his friends at
home.
26 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
The advantages of the English mode of public
education are not perceived by an anxious parent
till a son, sent a boy to Westminster, Eton, or Win-
chester, returns a manly and high-minded youth
to his parents when this part of his education has
been completed. He has now, by collision with
others, been taught to estimate himself justly. If
his parents move in the highest stations of so-
ciety, the edge of domineering vanity has been
worn down ; and nothing, in after life, appears of
that conceit, which is invariably found when there
is no collision of equal minds and equal station.
All petty arrogance in a public school finds its
level ; qualities are estimated, not station ; though,
afterwards, a due respect to station, when not
arrogantly assumed on one side, will be always
liberally and cheerfully granted on the other.
The fondest mother, remarking the pleasing man-
ners, the generous and frank mind, the scholar-
like but unpedantic acquirements, the demeanour
without conceit or awkwardness, of " a favourite "
son, will feel a tear of joy start to her eye, that
his father was not deterred by the chimeras of
tyranny, cruelty, &c. from giving his child that
education which has produced a Walpole, a Chat-
ham, a Liverpool, Ministers of State; a Pulte-
ney, Chesterfield, Bolingbroke, Fox, Sheridan,
Canning, Lansdowme, Wellesley (Marquis), Hol-
land, Grey, &c. Parliamentary orators ; Onslow,
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 27
Cornewall, Addington, Abbott, Button, Speakers ;
among poets and scholars, a Milton, a Cowley, an
Addison, a Gray, and a Collins ; Wellington, a sol-
dier and statesman; among Bishops, a Sherlock, a
Lowth, and a Ken.
It will not be imagined, from what is here
said, that any one could be so absurd as to sup-
pose all virtue and talent are monopolized by
public schools.* No ! but the chance, in my opi-
nion, is nearly two to one in favour of wisdom and
virtue ; and, if I have adverted to some conspicu-
ous examples of public eminent characters, I believe
in no instance will it be found, while we lament
talents and station disgraced, that such characters
as a Wharton or a Rochester, would have been, or
could have been, so infamously distinguished, had
their system of education been public ; a mode of
* There are no such establishments, I believe, in France, or
on the Continent : is there, then, no virtue or wisdom in France,
as well as England ? Who would ever think of affirming this ?
but I believe every one will say, that there is no comparison
between the general ignorance and frivolousness of the classes
of the educated or noble young men of one nation, and the mo-
ral and intellectual eminence of the same rank in the other;
or that England, in moral dignity, yields to any nation. A
great deal is owing to the moral effect of our institutions of edu-
cation ; and I contend, the public and academic institutions of
this country are one of the most effective means of furnishing
those distinguished characters in the first ranks of English so-
ciety the scholar, the gentleman, the Christian. v i
28 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
education which was expressly interdicted by their
parents, for fear of injuring their MORALS,* the
morah of a Rochester or Wharton !
How often has it been my lot to have heard
arguers possessed of intelligence and talents, descant
on the evils of public schools ; when the intrusive
thought could not be repressed, that if those very
men, so energetic on the cruelties and folly of the
system, had experienced in their youth the advan-
tages of such an education themselves, it would
have subdued that opinionated fervour, the existence
of which was owing to the want of the discipline
they decried !
But the cloistered gates are thrown wide: the
young disciple, starting into life, looks for a mo-
ment back upon the dark walls of discipline with
many reminiscences of school-day hours, and com-
panions from whom he is to be parted for ever; and
lingeringly he bids adieu to the shades of his mo-
nastic incarceration, rising over the watery pastures
* Certain good ladies' fears as to morals, I have even heard
from some academical tutors! There is infinitely more op-
pression, and more immorality, in private schools. The dif-
ference is this. At private schools, I speak of course gene-
rally, the quiet boy, who comes the youngest and weakest, is
" put upon," as the phrase is. In larger schools, he is pro-
tected. One act of cruelty, in three hundred years, in a school
where there is a succession of five hundred boys, is held up as
a necessary consequence of such a mode of education ! !
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 29
of Itchin, with emotions so exquisitely described
by Sophocles, and in language so familiar to him :
Xatp', d> neXadpov, ^v/ji^povpov epot,
T evuSpoi Xe/iwvtoes.
FAREWELL, thou sojourn of my youthful years,
Nymphs of the meadows of the watery vale,
FAREWELL.
The author's feelings on leaving the same scene
of early study, many, many years ago, were thus
expressed at the time :
I go, not unrejoicing, but who knows
Returning, I may drop some natural tears
When these same scenes I look around,
And hear from yonder Fane the slow bell sound,
And think upon the joys that crown'd my stripling years.*
* Poems, vol. ii.
30 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
CHAPTER III.
KEN AT OXFORD ANTONY WOOD*S MUSICAL CLUB FIRST
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THYNNE OF CHRIST CHURCH, AF-
TERWARDS VISCOUNT WEYMOUTH CONNECTION OF THE
FAMILY OF THYNNE AND PACKINGTON MORLEY, AF-
WARDS BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, THE MEANS OF KEN*S
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THYNNE.
2Cnb in tfce pear eiofet fmnbreb fiftp t&rce anb ttoeltoe,
.Martin 'SSiji&op of Rome sranteb to ttin0 3llureb,*
(3To founb anb mafte a stubji t&cn again,
Stnb an unitoeritp of clmfttf to reab,
OT&e tofcicfoe fce mabe at <4EjfJ/F<0n3D inbceb,
(3To ttat intent tfee clercft# lip Sapience
ctoainst fjcrctics sfjould maftc resistance.
Sofia $?artiin0.
KEN left Winchester college a super-annuate be-
tween eighteen and nineteen years of age, 1655-6.
As there was no vacancy at New college, he was
entered at Hart hall, afterwards Hertford college ; }-
and they only who have been in the same situation
know with what intense anxiety the young Oxford
student and his parents look forward, day by day,
perhaps through the long year in vain, for a va-
cancy, which may bring the super-annuatc of Win-
chester again among his old schoolfellows, and place
him in the foundation to which his early studies
were preparatory which had been the goal of his
* Alfred. f Where Magdalen hall now is.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 31
youthful ambition and hopes, and to which his eyes
were almost from infancy directed, as the first home
of independence in life. But, lo ! from death or
marriage, unexpectedly a vacancy occurs just before
the year has expired, and now, when all hopes of
succession had nearly vanished, Ken, with the ar-
dour and delight which a Wykehamist only feels,
becomes possessor of rooms in New college.
Ken was admitted Probationer Fellow of New
college in 1657, George Marshall being then War-
den ; a Warden who was not a Wykehamist, or
elected, according to the Statutes, by the Fellows,
but obtruded on the College by the Parliamentary
Visitors, and appointed, reclamante collegio, in
1649.
The intrepid stand which the true sons of Wyke-
ham made on this occasion has been little noticed,
though their conduct was as noble as that of the
President and Fellows of Magdalen, in the face of
arbitrary power ; but the Parliamentary Visitors
knew better how to do their work, and they did it
more effectually than James the Second.
Dr. Pink, the Warden, died soon after this " dire-
ful visitation," as Ayliffe calls it, began. An in-
junction issued to the Fellows of New college that
they should not proceed to elect a Warden, but wait
the recommendation of the Visitors. The Fellows
took no notice, but proceeded, according to the
Statutes, to elect one of their own body, and elected
Dr. Henry Stringer, almost unanimously, in defiance
32 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN*.
of the imperative Puritans, and in disdain of the
strongest solicitations of Lord Say,* who had been
educated himself a Wykehamist.
Walker says, a Major Jordan was thrust in ! Of
him I find no account, and therefore imagine this
to be a mistake. Wood says nothing of this Jor-
dan ; but the " Saints," in the plenitude of their
dispensing and dictatorial power, far greater than
that of James the Second, nominated as Warden,
White distinguished by the title of the " Patriarch
of Dorchester," in Dorsetshire, and Rector of Tri-
nity Church there ! The obstinate sons of Wyke-
ham, however, rejected the " Patriarch of Dor-
chester," though educated at Winchester, and for-
merly Fellow of New college, and elected one whose
character, learning, and piety was of a different
complexion.
The Visitors, however, knew their strength,
they ejected, by virtue of the Parliamentary lexfor-
tioriSy Dr. Stringer, the legitimate Warden, vi et
armis ! He retired to London ; and, like many
other estimable characters, died obscurely there,
probably in poverty, a few years afterwards.
It is said, the "Patriarch of Dorchester,"-)- having
* Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, his son, it is said, saved the
college of Winchester from destruction, remembering his oath,
when commissioned by Cromwell to destroy it.
\ He was a pious but injudicious man, and certainly one of
the most amiable of his class. lie is buried in the church-
yard of Trinity church, Dorchester. Wood.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 33
been a Fellow, from high principles, refused the
honour, and the Visitors nominated, as in insult,
a novum monstrum of a Warden, George Marshall,
who was neither Wykehamist nor fellow, but who
had been chaplain to the godly garrison of the Par-
liament. Under his alien wardenship Ken became
Probationer Fellow, not long before this anomalous
Warden's death. Harris, the Presbyterian Warden
of Winchester, and this obtruded Warden of New
college, died the same year, 1658. The Fellows
afterwards proceeded in their regular mode of elec-
tion, which every true Wykehamist will pray may
have no other interruption as long as these ancient
and hallowed seats of learning shall flourish, to pro-
duce future Lowths and future Kens.
Ken had been entered at Oxford when the cele
brated Dr. Owen was Vice-Chancellor under the
Chancellorship of Cromwell. This learned man,
of the class of the Puritanic Independents, it is
known, was author of a scholastic treatise on the
" Divine Justice" Learning and liberality, indeed,
were now surviving the degraded reign of fanatic
ignorance at Oxford.
The great Sir William Petty was Fellow of Bra-
sen-nose. Ward, * the mathematician, was soon
afterwards, though educated at Cambridge, elected
President of Trinity, from whence, at the Restora-
tion, he was ejected in favour of the expelled Pre-
sident, Dr. Hannibal Potter.
* Afterwards the beneficent Bishop of Salisbury.
VOL. I. D
34 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
And let it be mentioned, that at Oxford, by
Wilkins and Dr. Petty, afterwards Sir William,
the first project was entertained that led to the
establishment of the Royal Society. It will serve
to shew how much the dismal rule of Calvinistic
Puritanism had relaxed in its morose and unsocial
discipline, when, towards the close of Cromwell's
life, " the unprofitable organ " was again heard
" piping" at St. Mary's ; and when a musical society
was established in the town, where even ungodly
Jlddles were once more heard.
As " Ken, junior," of New college, belonged to
this society, we shall copy Anthony a Wood's mi-
nute but delightful account of the members.* Be-
fore they " tap their bows on the candlestick," let
us reconnoitre the whole set.
First there is " Charles Perot, M. A. of Oriel
coll. a well-bred gentleman? (no starch and sour
predestinarian,) " and a person of a sweet nature?
Next behold,
2. " Christopher Harrison, M. A. Fellow of
Queen's college, a maggot-headed person, and 7m-
mourous /" Methinks we hear the ghost of
Praise-God- barebone, sighing, " O tempora et
mores ! " " He was afterwards Parson of Burgh-
under-Staynsmore, in Cumberland." By your leave,
* The society was first established in 1656; and Wood gives
a list under that date, but I have only quoted the second list
in 1658, among whose names Ken first appears.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. .'i5
Antony, " Parson " of Burgh in Westmoreland. So,
in Wales,
The Bowens and Ap-Rices
Keepfatdles with their benefices
*' where he died in the winter-time, an. 1694."
Wood. Whom have we next ?
3. No less a personage than "Kenelm Digby,
FELLOW OF ALL SOULS," who ought to have been
" MEDIOCRITER DOCTUS," according to the Sta-
tutes, " in piano Cantu" " He was afterwards,"
proceeds Antony, " LL. D. and dying in the said
college, Nov. 5, 1688, was buried in the chapel there.
He was a violinist, and the two former, violists."
Wood. We may imagine tenor-violins. The Fel-
lows of ALL SOULS, as if resolved to be no longer
" Mediocriter Docti in arte Musica," are here again!
4. " Will. Bull, M. A. Batchelor of Physick, and
Fellow of ALL SOULS, for the violin and viol."
Wood. Hear, oh Chicheley ! thy degenerate sons !
" He died the 15th July, 1661, aged 28, and was bu-
ried in the chapel there." Wood. Another Fellow
of the same college !
5. " John Vincent, M. A. Fellow of the said
college ! a VIOLIST. He went afterwards to the
Inns of Court, and was a barrister." Wood.
6. " Sylvanus Taylor, sometime Commoner of
Wadham college ; afterwards Fellow of All Souls!
violist and songster* /" Wood. Another Fellow of
that college wherein the bene nati were required to
be only mediocriter docti in music, a singer into the.
D 2
36 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
bargain ! " He went afterwards to Ireland, and died
at Dublin in the beginning of November 1672."
Wood. " Lugete, venercs, cupidinesque," we might
say, if he were eomposer of the "Irish Melodies"*
of the day, which we have no means of ascertaining.
" His elder brother, Captain Silas Taylor, was a com-
poser of music, playd and sung his parts, and, when
his occasions brought him to Oxon, he would play
and sing his part there."
7. " Henry Langley, M.A. and Gentleman Com-
moner of Wadham college, a violist and songster.
He was afterwards a worthy knight, lived at Abbey
Foriat, near Shrewsbury, where he died in 1680."
8. " Samuel Woodford, a Commoner of the said
college, a violist. He was afterwards a celebrated
poet,-^ beneficed in Hampshire, and Prebendary of
Winchester." Wood.
I here pause, and request indulgence, having
mentioned these musical gentlemen of Wadham, to
relate a circumstance in my own musical career in
the same University.
I was then scholar of Trinity, every resident in
the inner quadrangle of which college practised on
some instrument. Four-and-twenty fiddles, nine-
teen clarionets, and flutes out of number, rung
* Let it not be thought that I undervalue, by this remark,
those affecting and beautiful strains by my friend Thomas
Moore.
f This " celebrated poet " was, like Churchill's bard,
" Of special merit but of little note."
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 37
through the quadrangle from morning till night,
after lectures, chapel, &c. were over.
" Playing my part," (as Antony says,) I was
seated, humbly attempting a quartett of Haydn, on
a beautiful morning in summer. The leader was
the celebrated Mahon, the second my poor friend,
now no more, Dr. Lee, afterwards head of the
college, and Vice-Chancellor, when, suddenly, the
leader started from his chair, dropped the bow,
placed his hands on both ears, and exclaimed,
" Merciful Heaven ! I thought I had heard every
hideous sound upon earth but ivhat is that 9"
A window opposite was thrown open the neck
of an instrument protruded a distorted visage
seen, and we heard, in dismay, that this was a
young gentleman, named Boulter, first attempting
" Shepherds, I have lost my Love,"
on the BASSOON ! I know not whether he is alive
or dead, but if alive, and should he ever read this, he
may smile. I hope he still plays the bassoon, as one
of the oblectamuia of the evening of life, when he
made so promising a beginning !
We had no hope of stopping this interesting
solo, so all instruments were laid down ; but the
circumstance caused a grand revolution, for orders
were given out by the President, Dr. Chapman, that
no person should touch anyinstrument tilloweo'clock.
This injunction only served, exactly as the clock
struck one, to increase the noise :
Let those PLAY now, who never play'd before,
Let those who always play'd, now play the more.
38 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
The quadrangle, from its braying, at a particular
hour, "with all sorts of instruments," was fami-
liarly called Nebuchadnezzar's Quadrangle.
The garden of Trinity fronts Wadham, the col-
lege of Antony Wood's two last musicians. In
consequence of the fervent harmonies at one o'clock,
the Warden of Wadham earnestly requested the
President of Trinity to put a stop to the music
entirely, as the students of his college, not having
such good ears as the young gentlemen of Trinity,
could not proceed with their studies in consequence
of the noise of their collegiate neighbours !
I could hardly refrain giving this narrative of
Oxford music, being on the subject of Antony
Wood's academical harmonists, and we now pro-
ceed with his illustrious list.
9. " Francis Parry, M. A. Fellow of Corpus
Christi college, a violist and songster. He was
afterwards a traveller" (in what line we are not
informed,) but " he belonged to the Excise Of-
JlceT
10. " Christopher Coward, M. A. Fellow of
Corpus Christi college, was afterwards Rector of
Dicheat, in his native county of Somersetshire,
proceeded D. D. at Oxon 1694." "Violist and
division-violist," in the margin. What is meant
by division-violist I know not.
11." Charles Bridgeman, M.A. of Queen's college,
of kin to SIR ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN. He was after-
wards Archdeacon of Richmond. He died Nov.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 39
26, 1 678, and was buried in the chapel belonging to
that college."
12. " Nathaniel Crewe, M. A. Fellow of Lincoln
college, a violinist and violist, but always played
out of tune, as having no good ear. He was after-
wards, through several preferments, Bishop of
Durham."
Salve Crewe, ornatissime ! Though your " eare
is bad" your munificent charity at Bamborough
Castle, which first excited the youthful Oxonian
to "sing"
<f Ye Holy Towers, that shade the wave-worn steep," &c.*
makes ample amends. And albeit "you always play
out of tune" who can forget the institution at Oxford
of the Creweian commemoration of University Be-
nefactors, and the Theatre, resounding from year to
year, since thou didst "play out of tune' 1 '' with
the finest strains of choral music.
13. " Matthew Hutton, M. A. Fellow of Brazen-
nose, an excellent violist, afterwards Rector of
Aynoe, in Northamptonshire."
14. But who comes next ? Per Musas et Apol-
linem, KENNIUS NOSTER ! " Thomas Ken, of New
college, a junior. He would be sometimes among
them, and sing HIS PART." Wood.
15. " Christopher Jeffries, a junior student of
Christ Church, excellent at the organ, or virginals,
or harpsichord, having been trained up to those
* Sonnets by the Author.
40 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
instruments by his father, George Jeffries, steward
to the Lord Hatton, of Kirbie, in Northampton-
shire, organist to Charles the First at Oxon."
Wood.
Let the reader think of these abominations /
An organ and harpsichord at the University of
Oxford, in the godly times of Cromwell, Chan-
cellor, and Dr. Owen, Vice-Chancellor ! Where
was Prynne, that he did not sit down and write
three volumes in folio, on the " Ungodliness of
Harpsichords !" How might Tertullian, and those
of his school, have declaimed on the portentous
catalogue of sinful Citharaedists ! Satis cantico-
rum / satis vocum f (De Spectaculis.) Here is the
son of the steward of the descendant of Sir Chris-
topher Hatton, a ;/HMe/-dancing statesman, running
fugues on the harpsichord, and described as son of
the organist of CHARLES THE FIRST !
16. " Richard Rhodes, another junior student of
Christ Church, a conjident Westmonastcrian ; a
violinist, to hold between his knees. These did
frequent the weekly meetings."*
Rest you merry, reader, with this detail. I trust
I shall be excused for having dwelt somewhat
longer on it ; as it is not only curious in itself,
shewing the relaxed spirit of fanatical puritanism,
but also, as it first introduces to our notice the
young scholar of New college, afterwards so
eminent.
* A. Wood, Lite by himself, pp. 12 et seq.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 41
Respecting this harmonious club we may ob-
serve, that " Ken, of New college, junior," alone is
without any instrument " only singing his part ;"
but it is probable that he, following the examples
of so many instrumental performers, not long after-
wards took up the lute his companion through
life. This musical instrument seems more ac-
cordant with his character. I would not omit to
observe another circumstance. On looking over
the enumeration of the INSTRUMENTS there wanted
one ; for where was the BASS ? unless the " violin-
ist, to hold between the knees" was a kind of
violincello. The academical band would indeed
have been complete, could we have added, to keep
Creive in countenance, my friend Boulter, junior,
of Trinity college, fagotto obligato I And who
would not rejoice if, hoping " he did not intrude,"
like Paul Pry, he could "just look in" upon the
performers, observe Crewe tuning his restive fiddle,
and hear the modest " Ken, junior," singing his
part.
How such a set could meet, without academic
censure, for such a purpose, in such a place, and
at such a period,* is worthy of remark ; and it
is more worthy of remark, that when " silk and
satin divines," and the ungodly vanities of geer,
were among abominations and sins, at this very
time the " red boots and long knee-strings" of
Dr. Owen himself should escape censure ; for
* Cromwell died the latter end of this year.
42 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Prynne was living, who hated the Independents,
and might have written four volumes on the " un-
godliness" * of " red boots'" and " knee-strings !" and,
according to Wood, Owen always appeared in his
doctorial costume, without any fear of the " Di-
vine justice !" -f~
But the most important and the most interesting
circumstance connected with Ken's residence at
Oxford, was the commencement of that friendship,
which endured through every change of fortune,
and was the source of all that remained to him of
worldly comfort and happiness to the end of life.
I allude to the first formation of that friendship
with Lord Viscount Weymouth, which led, in the
reverses of his lot, and the evening of his days,
when he had no home upon earth, to the asylum,
in that noble mansion, where he closed his eyes.
I had been mistaken in considering this affec-
tionate and confidential intercourse as having had
its commencement in school days, at Winchester ; it
may therefore be more incumbent on me to obviate
the misconception, and to shew its origin at Ox-
* How exactly, through all ages, may the same spirit be
traced from Tertullianto our days: Prynne's "Histrio-mastix,'
and " Ungodliness of Lovelocks," exactly answering Tertul-
lian's "De Spectaculis," and " De velandis virginibus!" writ-
ten after he became a Montanist.
f " Red boots" are the statutable costume of Doctors in the
University, but they have a dispensation.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 43
ford. I shall take the opportunity of adverting to
some incidental and interesting circumstances.
Thomas Thynne was among the young noble-
men and gentlemen educated at Christchurch, un-
der the care and tuition of Dr. Fell, after the Re-
storation. Turning to Collins's Peerage to ascer-
tain whether there was any account of his previous
education, I found that, instead of his having been
educated with Ken at Winchester, he was placed,
in the time of the Protectorate, under William Bur-
ton, known as the translator of Antoninus. In ad-
dition to this information, we find that the learned
and pious Henry Hammond, and Dr. I. Fell, of
Oxford, were subsequently the chief directors of his
studies.*
This amiable young man, Thomas Thynne, after-
wards Lord Viscount Weymouth, was born in 1 640.
Hammond had been expelled by the Parliamen-
tary Visitors from the Canonry of Christchurch in
1647, together with Morley, Canon,-f- and Fell, the
Dean father of Dr. Fell, afterwards Dean and
Bishop. Now Hammond, ejected from his Ca-
nonry in 1647, died just before the Restoration,
and therefore it was a matter of inquiry how the
* Collins's Peerage.
f The visitation was in December. Morley was ejected by
violence in March 1648. Mrs. Fell, it is well known, refused
to remove, and the soldiers took her scolding in her chair into
the quadrangle ! Mrs. Reynolds, at the Restoration, refusing
to budge, was treated in the same manner !
44 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
future possessor of Longleat could have received
any part of his education from Dr. Hammond, who,
having been expelled from Oxford, resided in do-
mestic retirement till his death, with a private
family in a distant county.
We shall here observe, that, when the loyal
Clergy had " fallen on evil tongues and evil days,"
under the infamous and calumnious name of " scan-
dalous and malignant ministers," and such were
Hammond, and Jeremy Taylor, and Sanderson, and
Chillingworth, in the Parliamentary vocabulary,
they were obliged to seek what Wood calls LATEBRJE,
places of retirement, where they could worship
God according to their CONSCIENCE, and possess
their PRAYER-BOOKS in peace, at the time when the
tyrannical edicts of Puritanism forbade the use of
our beautiful ritual, not only in public, but in pri-
vate houses.
A greater testimony to the piety and virtues of
these defamed men cannot be given, than the fact
of so many generous bosoms sympathising with
them of many hospitable houses being opened
to them, in their day of deprivation and poverty for
conscience-sake.
The same kind of asylum which Ken received
from his early friend Lord Weymouth, the virtuous,
and learned, and' holy Hammond, received from Sir
John Packington, possessor of that noble seat and
park, the residence of my Oxford friend, the pre-
sent Sir John Packington, Westwood Park, Worces-
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 45
tershire. Here, in honoured and literary retirement,
under the roof of pious hospitality, lived Henry
Hammond ; and here, just as the altars he loved
were restored, and when he would have received the
first honours due to his learning and virtues he
died in peace.
As Westwood Park was so distant from Long-
leat, in Wiltshire, and as Dr. Hammond lived in
domestic privacy till death, we might naturally be
disposed to question the accuracy of that informa-
tion which attributes any part of Thynne's educa-
tion to Hammond.
We shall therefore trace the connection between
these families. The first Lord Coventry by two
wives had issue one son and one daughter by his
first wife ; by the second, four sons and four daugh-
ters. Dorothy, the younger, was married to Sir
JOHN PACKINGTON, of whom we have spoken ; and
Mary, the second daughter, to HENRY FREDERICK
THYNNE. This shows, at once, the connection be-
tween the families of Westwood Park and Longleat,
and the circumstances under which the grandson
of Frederick Thynne was enabled to derive the ad-
vantage from such a director of his studies as Ham-
mond : but it shows more, for it throws accidentally
an interesting light on a subject of literary enquiry.
In the present day, a question has arisen, "who
wrote EIKCUV Ba^Tuicr, ?"* And may we not ask
* After all the discussion on this subject, there are some
facts on which I shall make a few observations :
First,
46 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
"Wno WROTE THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN?" One
object of inquiry throws light, accidentally, on an-
other.
First, the father of that Lord Dartmouth who wrote the
notes to Burnet, (Legge,) was constantly with King Charles,
and never had any doubt on the subject. This is expressly
said by his son. (Notes to Burnet.) I have no doubt he mis-
took the Icon for the Diary.
Second, it is admitted that in the second edition of this work
there was a prayer taken from Sir Philip Sydney's Romance !
No fabricator would exhibit Charles, in his uttermost dis-
tress, pilfering a prayer from a romance-book, which alone would
destroy all idea of his sincerity or real religion among Puri-
tans ! But the King, who read such works, might have tran-
scribed a beautiful prayer, which suited his own sorrows, and
afterwards forget its source.* Other undoubted prayers exist
of the King.
As to King James having told Burnet that Gauden wrote
this work, James could know nothing further than what Gau-
den told him, and he would readily give ear to any story
against the authenticity of a record which condemned himself,
and testified so strongly his father's attachment to the Church
of England. Charles wrote undoubtedly a Diary, and some
prayers. Did, then, Charles write the Icon ? Certainly not,
as it appears. All the antithetic and affected passages I have
no doubt are Gauden's. But Charles wrote memoranda of his
sorrows ; and I believe, if the suspiria Regalia had been pub-
lished as written by the Lover of Shakspeare, they would have
been far more affecting.
Of the book found at Naseby, Major Huntingdon says,
* This prayer, at his execution, the King gave to Juxon ;
but it was published in the second edition of Icon. If Gauden
had any hand in the publication of the second edition, the in-
ference is obvious, that he did not write this Prayer.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 47
It is well known that this work, so popular at the
time, as having succeeded the "Fiduciary" system,
that is, " faith without works," was first published
with a preface by Hammond, which is retained in all
the editions. It has been attributed to Lady Pack-
ington, to whom, for so many years, Hammond
was spiritual guide.
Now, when we consider that Hammond lived
under the hospitable roof of the virtuous lady to
whom it has been attributed, when he directed
her studies, w T hen he wrote the preface, when it
was sent anonymously for publication to his friend
Dr. Fell, and, above all, when it is compared, in
language, in design, and virtuous intent, with the
" Practical Catechism? I think it will not be
doubted who was the real author; to whom, in-
deed, it has sometimes been attributed and when
we shall be asked, " who wrote THE WHOLE DUTY
"The chapters were (as he well remembers) written by the
hand of Sir Edward Walker, but much corrected with interli-
neations by the King's own hand ; THE PRAYERS BEING ALL
WRITTEN BY THE KING'S OWN HAND ; which, he says, he
VERY WELL KNEW to be." Relation of Major Huntingdon to
Sir William Dugdale, June 1679. My friend Mr. Todd, whose
arguments are invincible, thinks Huntingdon's testimony doubt-
ful ; but I shall have an opportuuity of saying more in another
place. See Appendix.
See Hallam's note : but Mr. Hallam does not advert to what
Huntingdon says expressly of the Prayers "in the King's
hand-writing." Were there any PRAYERS in Walker's History ?
48 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
OF MAN?"* connecting it with those circum-
stances, and with the acknowledged " Practical Ca-
techism," published first anonymously in 1655, may
we not answer, " Henry Hammond, in his retirement
at Westwood Park ;" Hammond, in the Puritanic
vocabulary, " SCANDALOUS and malignant ! " i
The same virtuous character taught the same
virtuous principles to his pupil Thomas Thynne,
instilled the same pious and ingenuous feelings,
excited the same attachment to the Church of
England, and recommended his being placed
at Christchurch, where, under Morley, the first
Dean after the Reformation, formerly Canon w r ith
Hammond, his academical studies w r ere superin-
tended. Fell,-}- succeeding Morley as Dean, took
the same anxious care of the education of the
young noblemen and gentlemen in this illustrious
seminary. From Morley, the friend of Hammond,
we shall give reasons for supposing that Fell re-
ceived particular instructions respecting the noble
and amiable heir of Longleat, who, by Morley, the
late Dean, had been already introduced to the
acquaintance and friendship of Ken, of New Col-
lege.
* This work has been always vituperated, from that time to
the present, by pietists of a certain class. Rowland Hill says,
"it has no heart-work."
f This was the Fell, alas! who complied with the King's
command to deprive Locke of his Studentship ! an act for
which no virtues will compensate.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 49
From some novel and interesting circumstances
connected with the biography of Ken, we shall shew
this more clearly as we proceed. We may presume
from his character that Ken regularly pursued his
academic studies from 1656 to 1662, when he took
;his first degree. But, as this was not till after the
^Restoration, we shall, in the next chapter, take a
cursory retrospect (from the time of Ken's birth)
of that gloomy reign of fanaticism, so fatal, for
a time, to the Episcopal Church a fanaticism
which realized all the attributes, with some excep-
tions, that imagination confers on demoniacs
which at last sunk down, wearied with its own tu-
multuary conflicts. This gloomy period was natu-
rally succeeded by the most open libertinism, du-
ring which the Clergy still shone as exemplary
lights, in a libertine generation ; witness Beveridge,
&c. the founders of the Society for promoting
Christian Knowledge. At the Restoration, the most
beautiful daughter of the Reformation, the Church
of England rose up again next to the Word of
God, venerating her sublime and affecting Liturgy
retaining her decent vestments her sublime
choir service her intrinsic spirit of piety (of which
Ken was a most illustrious example) equally re-
mote from the dogmas of human infallibility, or
the rhapsodies of frantic enthusiasm.
VOL. I.
50 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
As Ken was entered at Winchester according to
the date 1650-1, and as dates of the same kind will
occur, I add a, general explanation :
" Previous to September 1752, the Year, in this country,
commenced on the day of the Annunciation, the 25th of
March.
" That part of each year is usually written agreeably to both
calculations, by placing two figures at the end, as,
February 3, 164rf-, or, 1650-1.
Without this explanation, be it remembered,
many dates in Clarendon's history cannot be un-
derstood. For instance, Charles was beheaded Ja-
nuary 30, 1648, but the previous December was not
in the year 1647; the year 1648 began in the March
before.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 51
CHAPTER IV.
RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, FROM THE OPENING OF THE
LONG PARLIAMENT 1640, TO THE DEATH OF CROM-
WELL 1658 PRESBYTERIAN DOMINATION EPISCOPAL
CLERGY OPPRESSED PRAYER-BOOK PROSCRIBED
PRAYER-BOOK OF ISAAK WALTON, KEN*S BROTHER-IN-
LAW INDEPENDANTS MILTON CROMWELL'S DEATH.
As if religion was intended
For nothing else but to be mended. BUTLER.
As Ken was elected a scholar on the ancient
foundation of the College of Winchester, and after-
wards succeeded to a Fellowship in the kindred mu-
nificent establishment, New college, in Oxford, at a
period most inauspicious to the Episcopal Church
of England, before we proceed with his eventful
but blameless life, we shall have a clearer under-
standing of many circumstances connected, if we
take a view of some of the principal causes which
led to the subversion, for a time, of that Church, of
which Ken became afterwards so distinguished a
Prelate.
The Parliament of 1640 opened with a most stern
and ominous aspect on the constitution of this
Church ; for the majority of the members, being
rigid Presbyterians, cogently and most convincingly
E 2
52 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
argued in this manner : " There is no sin, in the
sight of the Almighty, less pardonable than tolera-
tion" for there can only be one true religion ;
and that being the Presbyterian, Episcopacy, with
all its ungodly geer, of square caps and surplices,
with men and boys "singing anthems like hogs?*
ought to be abolished, " root and branch ! "
Many circumstances had led to this feeling, which
now became general, not only in Parliament, but,
in some degree, through the nation.
That the Church was not sufficiently reformed
from the dregs of popery, had been a topic of
grievous complaint, it is well known, among a cer-
tain class, called, on that account, PURITANS, from
the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the famed
" MARTIN MAR-PRELATE," moving from place to
place, set up his press of periodical invective against
"Lord" Bishops!
The same feeling was now embodied more irre-
sistibly in a Puritan Parliament, the leading mem-
bers being embued with the spirit of Prynrie, who,
in a celebrated work called HISTRIO-MASTIX (Scourge
of Players), published anno 1633, inveighed against
all the abominations of the age, more especially
iniquitous " stage-plays," '' flounced and frizzled
inadames," " silk and satin divines ;" cathedral ser-
vices, which he piously designated " not the noise
of men, but rather the bleating of brute-beasts ;
where choristers bellow the tenor as it were OXEN !
* Prynne.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 53
bark a counter- point, as a kennel of DOGS! roar
out a treble, like a sort of BULLS ! " What sort of
bulls roar out a treble must be left to the reader's
imagination ; but, according to this unmusical pres-
byter, they " grunt out a bass, like, as it were, a
NUMBER OF HOGS ! "
Prynne lost his obdurate ears, by the judgment
of that inquisitorial divan, the " Star Chamber;"
but, notwithstanding the loss of his ears, he " roared
out " the more lustily against organs and surplices,
and " frizzled madames ! " He was banished to an
island where there were no such ungodly sounds to
torment him ; but the severity of the judgment, far
more than his book, or Leighton's " Sion's Plea,"
operated against the Establishment. In the inqui-
sitorial Star-Chainber, the only person who spoke
a word of kindness and concern was Laud.* I men-
tion this, because, most singular to say, the speech
of Laud, on the condemnation of Prynne, has never
been recorded by any historian of the times, except
Rushworth, a most unexceptionable testimony.
At the second hearing of Prynne, Roy, the Attor-
ney-general, spoke as follows :
" I shall desire your Lordships that he (Prynne)
may be in gaol, and kept close prisoner, and," what
was terrible to a writer like Prynne, " to have
* And yet " Laud's taking off his cap, and giving God thanks"
which has no authority, has been echoed from Neal, proba-
bly the inventor, to Godwin, and, I fear, the amiable Agar
Ellis !
54 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
neither PEN or INK, nor PAPER ! or to go to
church!"
Archbishop of Canterbury. " He hath under-
gone a heavy punishment. I confess I do not know
what it is to be a close prisoner ! * I shall therefore
be an humble suitor to your Lordships, that he may
have the privilege to go to church ! " Said Mr.
Prynne, with a low voice, " I humbly thank your
Grace !"-f-
When the Parliament met, the fullest partici-
pation in the spirit of Prynne was manifested.
It was in vain that the gentlemen of the Inns of
Court, as if in contempt of their lean and saturnine
brother, got up a most splendid masque, and ex-
hibited it at an enormous expense, before the Royal
Lady whom it was supposed the acrid and unchival-
rous castigator had in view, when he declaimed so
sternly against " flounced and frizzled madames ! "
But one circumstance is well worth our atten-
tion. In this masque w so sumptuously got up by
the gentlemen of the Inns of Court, two of the
chief actors afterwards supported far different cha-
racters in the real and sadder masque of human
life. I allude to Clarendon and Whitelock, both
at that time of the Inns of Court, both acting their
parts in this magnificent, generous, but evanescent
show. Both were afterwards most conspicuously
arrayed, one on the side of Cromwell, and the other
* He " knew " not long afterwards. History of Bremhill.
f Rushworth.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 55
of King Charles, whilst this unfortunate Monarch
was himself the great actor and the great sufferer in
the sad succeeding tragedy of life. With respect to
Whitelock, afterwards Cromwell's ambassador to
the Court of the Queen of Sweden, he was so
far from a rigid Puritan as to be the composer of
what ? Treatises on international polity ? No
but of a most ungodly JIGG, called " Whitelock's
Corranto." *
In this masque, Whitelock's department was the
arrangement of the music ; but one remarkable. cir-
cumstance is, that Milton's exquisite Masque of
Com us was produced soon afterwards.
Nor can I part from the subject without observ-
ing that the Masques of the celebrated Ben Jonson
had been the forerunners of this ineffectual but
splendid pageantry ; he, indeed, for many years sup-
plied the Court with such entertainments, but his
last was in 1630-1.
I mention this circumstance, because Hyde, after-
wards the great Clarendon, enumerates Ben Jonson
as one of his distinguished associates in early life ;
and also, because Morley, Ken's first patron in life,
was adopted by Ben Jonson, in youth, as his son,
in the same manner as Charles Cotton, of the same
society, was the adopted son of Isaak Walton.
The reader will see hereafter some particular rea-
sons for my introducing these names, and, I must
add, that such coincidences, of which history is
* The reader may see this jig in Burney's " History of Music."
56 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
silent, are not only, at least to me, interesting in
themselves, but important, as furnishing matter of
historical reflection.
Previously to this levity, the most injudicious
measure, as the most offensive, to all who had any
serious views in religion, was the order, on Sun-
days, after evening prayers, to read the Book of
Sports ; for some ill-advised courtiers possessed those
" in high places " with the opinion that, as John
Bull was getting too rigid and austere in his no-
tions, it would be highly conducive to his sanity
if he would indulge himself in some innocent re-
creations, when his Sabbath duties had been per-
formed, as if this pernicious adviser had said to
John Bull, "Jump about, John; you are too me-
lancholy by half! why not, on Sundays, have some
harmless recreation ? "
The " rude forefathers of the hamlet " had been
taught, by every minister, to " remember the Sab-
bath-day to keep it holy;" and the effect of the
mandate was directly contrary to what was expected,
as were also the harsh arbitrary measures of a Court
so hostile to the spirit of English polity as the
Star Chamber. John would not jump by compul-
sion; and he, perhaps, thought that he had less rea-
son, as he might have heard, in a sermon, three
hours long by the glass at the preacher's elbow, that
God, from all ETERNITY, by a fixed decree, had, for
his good pleasure, condemned millions and millions
of human beings, merely for his own good pleasure!
LIFE OF JUSHOP KEN. 57
Nay, according to the doctrines most prevalent at
the time, that he had created millions and millions
of Innocent children, notwithstanding what our
SAVIOUR so tenderly says, * to shew his infinite
mercy and justice, they being passed over and pre-
destined to eternal torments for ever ! nay, horn
on purpose to be so tormented ! *f- and if there was
a Lord Bishop % who did not quite admit all this, he
was voted a " scandalous " Arminian prelate, the
enemy of all vital religion !
We can readily suppose John Bull would not be
much disposed to recreation after such homilies as
these, with which the pulpits of the time resounded ;
and it is no wonder that our Liturgy was held in such
pious horror, when the great doctor of these con-
soling lessons of Christianity had pronounced of the
English Prayer-book, that it contained " a great
many tolerable FOOLERIES."^
Such were the general doctrines, more or less
disguised, which were heard or inculcated in Pres-
byterian pulpits, except by some who, like honest
Richard Baxter, with too much charity in his
heart to admit the terrific consequences, struck out
what is called a middle way which middle way,
by the bye, is as old as the Creed. But a little
closer reasoning might have convinced Richard,
* " Suffer little children to come unto me," &c.
f In contumeliam et PCENAM nati! Calvin.
~\. " Lord Bishops not the Lord's Bishops ;" by John Vicars.
Plurimas tolerabiles ineptias ! Calvin.
58 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
that fate or predestination, with conditions, is no
fate, or predestination at all !
The middle way, called Baxterian, * was founded
on such reasonings as these: Infinite Wisdom, from
all eternity, foresaw that Richard, when a little un-
godly urchin at Kidderminster, should make himself
sick -J- with eating APPLES, of which he relates sun-
dry affecting instances in the folio volume of his Life ;
for instance, that such was his inordinate and unruly
appetite for this fruit, that he absolutely stole some,
a sin he afterwards remembered with deep remorse !
Providence did not interfere to prevent his falling
into this temptation, nor to prevent his witnessing a
dance round a maypole, still more impious than steal-
ing apples ; but Providence foresaw that Richard
should finally pe?*severe, and that Judge Jeffries
should not hang him (see Trial), that his "inner
man," notwithstanding his stealing apples, should not
* With respect to the predestination of the 17th Article, I
conclude it will be granted, that I must judge the Articles of
Religion by the Scriptures, and not the Scriptures by the Arti-
cles ! I can reconcile the 17th Article of our Church to the
Scriptures, but not to doctrines more scholastic than scrip-
tural, of the school of St. Austin, and Thomas Aquinas, and
John Calvin, not of St. Paul; and further, that, so far from
wishing to speak v.'ith disrespect of Baxter, I esteem him as a
most sincere, excellent, pious, and truly good man, though I
might smile at his unscriptural and contradictory code, his re-
morse for eating too many apples, and his pious ardour against
voitches. f See Baxter's Life.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 59
be disturbed in articulo mortis, and that finally
his predestination and election should be certain !
This is, in fact, Baxter's middle way ! At all
events, that system of religion which in these times
chiefly prevailed, and which is evidently gaining
ground again, called "a revival!" was the spirit of
Calvinistic Puritanism. This spirit obtained the
ascendant through the nation, and was now para-
mount in this Presbyterian Parliament.
After " SIGN'S PLEA AGAINST PRELACY, " the
" HISTRIO-MASTIX," and the book called " SMEC-
TYMNUUS," may be considered as the two " loudest
blasts of the TRUMPET," that shook the battlements
and citadel of the Episcopal Church beside these,
ten thousand strepent horns of pamphleteering fury,
and congregations, "humming"* in dismal unison to
the tune of ETERNAL reprobation, and denouncing
vengeance on Arminian Amalekites, joined to the
yells of women,
" who lock'd their fish up,
And trudg'd away to cry ' No BISHOP ! ' '
ushered in the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT in
1643, to extirpate EPISCOPACY ROOT AND BRANCH.
This Covenant was taken by the Parliament, and all
who refused to take it were dispossessed of every
thing they held in the Church.
" Old Priest," in Milton's indignant phrase, being
* When passages in a three hours sermon were applauded,
the congregation joined in a general " hum."
60 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
thus " written large " in " New Presbyter," under
this terrible New Presbyter, the fabric of the Eng-
lish Episcopal policy was shattered, and Deans and
Chapters, surplices, square caps, the organ-loft,
the choir and choristers, and even the impressive
Liturgy, and CHRISTIAN CHARITY itself, were, for
a time, buried in the wreck.
I shall be more particular in speaking of that sin-
gular production called "Smectymnuus," as Calamy,
one of its writers, had no hesitation to say, it gave
the most deadly blow to episcopacy, and as, more-
over, this work occasioned the powerful arm of
Milton to be raised in aiding the demolishment of
the polity of the Episcopal Church.
Calamy, and the other writers who clubbed to-
gether to produce this work, had been all episco-
pally ordained ; and Calamy himself had in his
youth received the protection and patronage of a
learned and pious Bishop, Nicholas Felton, of Ely.
On his death, Milton, in his days of ingenuous
youth, wrote that affecting and beautiful elegy " In
obitum Praesulis Eliensis :"
Cessisse morti, et FERREIS SORORIBUS,
Te, GENERIS HUMANI DECUS ! !
The shade of this beneficent prelate might have ad-
dressed the ungrateful Calamy in the words of this
elegy :
Coecos furores pone, pone vitream
Bilemque, et irritas minas.
"Smectymnuus" came out in the year 1641.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 61
It is known to every reader of the ecclesiastical
history of the period, that the work so called
received its name in consequence of its being
written, in partnership, by Stephen Marshall
E. Calamy T. Young Mat. Newcomen W
/ O
Spurslowe ; the initials of the names giving the
name to the book, thus SM ( S. Marshall) EC
(E. Calamy) TY (Thomas Young) MN (M. New-
comen) UUS (William Spurslowe). Thomas Young
had been Milton's tutor before he went to St. Paul's
school. Milton, through life, preserved the greatest
veneration for him; he adopted his opinions, in
opposition to his first ingenuous feelings of youth ;
and to him, afterwards pastor of a congregation at
Hamburg, he addressed the first Latin prose letter
in his works, and that beautiful and exquisite
epistle in Latin verse, "Ad THOMAM JUNIUM."
Curre per immensum subitc), mea littera, pontum.
Epistle 4.
"This Thomas Young," Warton says, in his
notes on this Epistle, " appears to have returned to
England in or before 1628, was a member of the
Assembly of Divines, and one of the authors of a
book called Smectymnuus, defended by Milton," &c.*
The ravings of Prynne may be seen in many
books, Rushworth, &c. I have never seen this for-
midable Smectymnuus ; but I find it quoted in a
scarce publication by Fowlis, (who was Fellow of
Lincoln college,) printed at Oxford. Fowlis's book
* Warton's Milton.
()'2 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
is called the " History of the wicked Plots and Con-
spiracies of our pretended Saints, 1672, Oxford."
The extracts from Smectymnuus no doubt are
faithful, as the book must have been at that time
in many hands, and the page is quoted from whence
the extracts are taken. These are a few of the
flowers presented to such Bishops as HALL and
USHER : that Episcopacy is " a stirrup for Anti-
clirist to get into the saddle" that "corrupt Pre-
lates oppose and BLASPHEME preaching!" that
they " are sons of BELIAL " " guilty of intolera-
ble oppressions and ty reunites, drunkenness, profane-
ness, superstition, and Popishness! that it hath
been the BISHOPS' GREAT DESIGN to hinder all far-
ther reformation ! to bring in Popery and liber-
tinism ! to beat down the Preachers of THE WORD !
to silence faithful Preachers ! to oppose and perse-
cute the most zealous Professors, to turn all reli-
gion into pompous outside, and to tread down the
power of godliness ! " Did Andrews Felton
Davenant Hall Skinner, the Tutor of Chilling-
worth, deserve this dog-language? Did Hall deserve
his "hard fare?"* except, indeed, by his encourag-
ing that Calvinism which visited him so severely.
Bishop Hall had written, with equal temperance
and soundness of argument, a book entitled, "An
humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Par-
liament," in defence of that reviled order to which
* " Hard Fare," a book so called, by Hall, detailing his suf-
ferings from his Calvinistic friends !
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 63
this eloquent writer and most exemplary man be-
longed. The King expressed himself much gratified
by this work. Such a circumstance called forth the
knot I have mentioned, and the result was, the far-
famed, but now forgotten (f Smectymnuus ! "
In consequence of this joint publication, "a DE-
FENCE of the Humble Remonstrance" appeared,
under the name of "the Author of the Remon-
strance."
This defence of the "Humble Remonstrance"
first called forth, indignant, in his stern habiliments
of polemic warfare, John Milton ! Milton was
first drawn forth in defence of that book in which
his tutor YOUNG had so great a share ; for, as we
have shown, Thomas Young was one of the writers
the initials of whose names gave name to the book.
The answer to the " Remonstrance" is a sarcastic
and critical examination, in many parts sentence
by sentence, which may be seen in the first volume
of the folio edition of Milton's works.
I shall here exhibit, as all other attacks on epis-
copacy at the period seem to me of far less conse-
quence, a specimen of what he calls "a certain
grim laughter!"
No words, indeed, could better have described
this answer, as the reader will see by the few first
sentences relating to the combined authors of
Smectymnuus. Milton and Hall, coming forward
in favour of the contending armies of Episcopalians
and Presbyterians, are like Milton's own clouds
64 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
described in Paradise Lost, that come
" Rattling o'er the Caspian ; "
but truth and charity retire before brutal invective,
however witty.
Hall. " My single Remonstrance was encoun-
tered with a plural adversary" (the Smectymnuus).
Milton. " Did not your single Remonstrance
bring along with it a hot scent of your more than
singular affection to spiritual pluralities, your sin-
gleness would be less suspected of all good Chris-
t ians than it is."
Hall. " The name, persons, qualities, numbers,
I care not to know."
Milton. "Their names are known to the All-
knowing Power above; and, in the mean time,
doubtless, they reck not whether you or your no-
menclator know them or not."
Hall. " But could they say my name is LEGION,
for they are many*
Milton. "Wherefore shall you begin with the
DEVIL'S NAME, descanting upon the number of
your opponents ? Wherefore the conceit of Legion,
with a bye-wipe? Was it because you would have
men take notice how you esteem them, whom,
through all your book, you so bountifully call your
BRETHREN ! We had not thought that Legion
could have furnished Remonstrant with so many
brethren /" (To such despicable buffoonery could
the author of Paradise Lost descend !)
Hall. " My cause yea, GOD'S."
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 65
Milton. " What God ? unless your BELLY I"
Be it remembered that Bishop Hall was an as-
cetic, like Ken, and the most humble and apostolic
example of Christian kindness.
This "grim laughter" of Milton was again an-
swered, as it is supposed, by a son of Bishop Hall,
which answer I have never seen. Warton confounds
the Defence of the Remonstrance with this "An-
swer? The "Defence of the humble Remonstrance"
does not contain a word reflecting on Milton's pri-
vate character ; but, no doubt, whoever wrote the
Answer to this severe and unjust treatment of the
"Defence," wrote it, it may be presumed, under
feelings of irritation and resentment ; and first at-
tacked Milton's moral and private character, as
having been expelled from the University, and im-
pure in private life.
The title of this last work was, " A short
Answer to a tedious Vindication ; or, a modest
Caution against a slanderous and scurrilous Li-
bel."
Milton, as if a muttering lion were struck, no
longer with his "grirn laughter" on his stern coun-
tenance turns on his adversary, and being now
drawn forth, in defence of his own moral character
with a look of scorn more than of " grim"
derision, and with the loftiness and grandeur of
conscious integrity in rich variety of imagery, in
sarcastic, yet dignified diction, repels the charges
VOL. I. F
66 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
brought against himself. Forgetting his love
Of the windows richly dight,
Casting a dim, religious light,
forgetting his education at St. Paul's, and his
" learned and courteous " Tutors at Cambridge, he
now proclaims his etenia odia against Prelacy, in
that extraordinary, and in many respects beautiful
and sublime composition, relating to his private life
and studies, "THE APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS."
The passage in which he vindicates himself is
magnificent ; but particularly remarkable for the
sarcasm by which this very defence of himself is
rendered a vehicle of more angry scorn on his Pre-
latical opponents.
After a sublime exordium, worthy Plato, in
which he speaks of what he learned of lofty
purity " in the divine volume of Plato, and his equal
Xenophon," "With such abstracted sublimities as
these, it may well be worth your listening, readers,
as I may have you in some still time, not in these
noises," he leaves his "abstracted sublimities," to
confound his adversary in this manner : " not in
these noises, the Adversary, as ye know, barking at
the door, or searching for me at bardillos, where,
it may be, he has lost himself, raps up, without
pity, the sage and rheumatic old PRELATESS, with
all her young CORINTHIAN LAITY, to inquire for
such a one !" This is Milton's "two-handed engine "
against Prelacy.*
* " That two-handed engine." Comus.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 67
Next to Episcopacy, the PRAYER-BOOK was the
most obnoxious to the dominant Puritans. It was
Jirst supplanted by the Presbyterian Directory :
afterwards, both the Directory and Prayer-book
were equally trodden under foot by the tolerant
INDEPENDENTS.
Cromwell and Harrison were the most fluent in
these "gifts of prayer" without book ; and we thus
find, in 1648, "the Council of the Army named
two officers of every regiment to MEET AND SEEK
GOD, what ADVICE TO OFFER TO THE G. (General)
concerning Ireland."
We know what " advice " " the Lord gave," and
how well the General profited by it ; and how much
he profited from " seeking the Lord " when murder
was determined on.
The progress of these Anti-Episcopal feelings
cannot be more clearly shewn than by a few ex-
tracts from Whitelock's Journal:
December 11, 1640. ft Alderman Pennington,
with some hundreds following him, presented the
citizens' petition, signed by 15,000, against the dis-
cipline and ceremonies of the Church."
10th of March following. " That the Bishops
shall have no vote in Parliament, &c. and that no
clergyman shall be in the commission of the peace."
Jan. 12, 1641. "The Bishops set forth their
right to sit and vote in Parliament ; which, by rea-
son of these tumults and insolencies, they could not
F 2
68 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
do. They say they have no redress upon their
complaints thereof, and cannot attend the service of
Parliament without danger of their lives; they
therefore protest against all acts and votes in their
absence/' &c.*
For this protestation, " they were, not long after,
accused by the Commons of HIGH TREASON. They
were brought on their KNEES to the Lords' bar, ten
committed to the Tower, and the other two, in re-
gard to their age, to the Black Rod!" This was
for stating they could not attend Parliament without
danger to their lives, and protesting, as they had
still power to do !
May 3, 1643. "The Parliament brought in the
Scots, to whom they swore the SOLEMN LEAGUE
AND COVENANT."-}-
1643. "Archbishop Laud brought to the House
of Peers, and the impeachment against him read,
and he required to answer ; who said, ( He was an
old man, weak, and could not answer without coun-
sel,' and desired further time, which was granted.-}-
Ibid. " The Archbishop coming again to trial, the
article was urged against him. and witnesses pro-
* Whitelock. The reforming Saints first attacked the "non-
resisting" statues in Westminster Abbey. Their fury was next
directed against the old, grey-headed fathers of the Church,
whom they would have murdered!
f Whitelock.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 69
duced, that " he ASSUMED the title of POPE ! * That
in the letters from Oxford he was styled OPTIMUS,
Maximus, et Sanctitas Vestra, your Sacred HOLI-
NESS, yEternum Reverendissime Cancellarie, et Pon-
tifex Maxim us."
What must the answerer of Fisher the Jesuit,
and the patron of Chillingworth, have felt at such
charges !
I shall pass over the further entries respecting
Laud, as his fate is well known, but would refer
those who wish for information to his trial; far
less seeking to defend many parts of his conduct ;
but mark the mercies of these charitable judges !
" The Lords agreed to the ordinance for attainder
of the Archbishop of high treason, and to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered /" This was, chiefly,
for opposing Calvinistic Puritanism !
1645. "Morton, Bishop of Durham, a reverend
man, was brought before the Commons for christen-
ing a child in the old way, and signing it with the
sign of the cross, CONTRARY to the DIRECTORY." *j~
Presbyterian Puritanism may now be considered
as dominant.
1645. " 20 WITCHES in Norfolk were executed.'*
* When the venerable and amiable Bishop of Norwich was
on a visit to Mr. Coke of Norfolk, the servants called him "his
Holiness!" imagining he was the ENGLISH POPE! but the
most violent Anti-Catholic would hardly think of condemning
him to be "hanged, drawn, and quartered! !"
t The Presbyterian Manual of Prayers.
70 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
How creditable to the Parochial Clergy that Hop-
kins, the witch-tinder, spoke of them as his great-
est opponents ; alleging, he should have brought
to death thousands more, had not the ministers of
the Church of England constantly opposed his
righteous acts in swimming poor old women !
WITCHES and stage-players now began to be held
in equal horror; and Baxter preached the godly
doctrine, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live ! "
Anno eod. A Petition to the Lords from the
Assembly for PUNISHING * such as derogated from
the DIRECTORY or used the COMMON PRAYER ! -J~
We now find the wind changing towards Inde-
pendence ; for in the same year we have : " The
House being informed of an intended petition for
establishing Presbytery as the discipline of Jesus
Christ," voted it scandalous ; and soon after we find
the effects of what Walker calls " Cromwell's tole-
ration of all accursed SECTS." +
164(). A minister presented articles against a
TROOPER for " preaching and expounding the Scrip-
ture, and uttering erroneous opinions ! "
Feb. 1. "A day of humiliation, that God would
stop the GROWTH of heresy and blasphemy ! "
" Many complaints made against the officers and
soldiers, &c. and that they took upon them to
PREACH and expound Scripture!"
* According to Lingard, " punishing," puniendus, means
" burning alive." See his History.
f Whitelock. J History of Independency,
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 71
" Grand Committee against such as preach, not
being ordained!"
And now the inordinate severity of the Presby-
terian yoke, against recreations, was so much felt,
that " A Petition of some Apprentices is presented
to Parliament, that they may have a play-day once
in a month /"
Some few of the destitute clergy being received
into the mansions of noblemen and others, and there
only, in private, using the proscribed "Prayer-book,"
both Houses granted an allowance to the Earl of
Chesterfield, with an intimation that " he do not
entertain MALIGNANT PREACHERS in his house, nor
use the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER ! "
The ordinance against the Prayer-book runs as
follows :
1645. " That, if any person or persons shall use,
or cause to be used, the COMMON-PRAYER BOOK,
they, and every person so offending therein, shall,
for the first offence, forfeit and pay the sum of
five pounds [a large sum in those days]; for the
second offence the sum of ten pounds ; and for the
other offence shall suffer one whole year's impri-
sonment without bail or main-prize?
Even Neal admits the prohibition in private
houses to be a little hard! but I am induced to
speak more of this prohibition, because Isaak Wal-
ton, to whom Ken in great measure owed the ele-
vation he attained in the Church, preserved with
the greatest care, in his cottage near Stafford, and
72 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
afterwards in the Episcopal palace of the Bishop of
Winchester, that PRAYER-BOOK, now in the posses-
sion of Dr. Hawes, of which we shall speak more
hereafter. This book is a large octavo, splendidly
bound, with this title :
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, AND ADMINISTRATION
OF
THE SACRAMENTS, AND OTHER RITES A:>,D
CEREMONIES OF
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
London : Printed by Robert Barker, Printer to the King's
most excellent Majesty; and by the Assignees of John Bill.
1639. Cum privilegio.
In the first white leaf appear the following entries :
"My father, Isaak Walton, died December 16,
1683. I. W."*
In the same hand, " THOMAS KEN, Bishop of
Bath and Wells, deprived dyed March 19, 1710."
Next appears, in another hand, the entry "Dr.
William Hawkins, my father, dyed July 17, 1691.
W. H." This, no doubt, is the hand of W. Haw-
kins, the biographer of Ken.
In the same hand : " My sister, Anne Hawkins,
dyed August 18, 1715 ; and my uncle, Mr. Isaac Wal-
ton, junior, dyed December 29, 1719." This is the
hand also of W. Hawkins ; and another entry, " My
sister, Anne Hawkins, died Nov. 1723. W. H."
In two blank pages, in the hand-writing of old
Isaac himself, are these entries :
" My doghter Anne borne the eleventh of March,
1647."
* Entry by the Canon, Isaac Walton, junior.
-
H-i..*-., C" * xp x?/' 7 n
01 TVot^aru c7/v ix^^ av>^^. C- ^^,
.9- -^tiAj-^/vcc-
, .,
m
JEIPITCAFIBE
TronrtheMS Draft ialiis Prayer Booli
// ofjj-p.fon ie>7 1.p -
. 1850
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 73
" My last son, Isaac, borne the 7th of September,
1651, at half an hour after two o'clock in the after-
noon, being; Sunday, and so was baptized in the
evening by Mr. Thornton, in my house in Clerken-
well. Mr. Henry Davison, and brother Beauchamp,
were his godfathers, and Mrs. Row his godmother."
" Rachel died 1640."
" Our doghter Anne, born the 10th of July 1640,
died the eleventh of May, 1642."
"Anne Walton dyed the 17th of April, about
one o'clock in that night, and was buried in the
Virgin Mary's chapel, in the cathedral in Worces-
ter, the 20th day." This was Ann, his> second wife,
the sister of Ken.
The epitaph in Walton's hand-writing, appears,
with a few interlineations, as evidently composed by
himself: " Alas ! alas ! that she died" died crossed
out " alas ! that she is dead " inserted.
The epitaph in Worcester cathedral, on his wife,
is as follows :
Ex terris
D.
M. S
Here lyeth buried so much as could die of Anne Walton, the
wife of Isaac Walton ; who was a woman of remarkable pru-
dence, and of the PRIMITIVE PIETY, her great and general
knowledge being adorned with such true humility, and blest
with so much Christian meekness, as made her worthy of a more
memorable monument," &c.
The epitaph, as first written, appears with the words
74 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
" of primitive piety," instead of " the primitive
piety;" the words "the primitive" appear as cor-
rections ; it seems to me, designedly to imply
that her piety was that primitive piety which the
Reformed Church of England professed, and there-
fore the correction was important.
The reader will see the reason of my mentioning
the proscribed Prayer-book of that singular and
good man, preserved for so many generations, not
only from the connection it shews with Ken, but
some very interesting circumstances in his future
life; and, as such an outcry was made against our
devotional and affecting form of Prayer, I shall now
proceed to make some general remarks on this sub-
ject, referring to the Remonstrance before spoken of.
" First, it symboliseth (says Smectymnuus) much
with the Popish Masse."
Hall. " Surely neither as Masse nor as Popish.
If an holy prayer be found in a Roman portico,
shall I hate it for the place ? If I find gold in the
channel, shall I throw it away because it was ill-
laid.
" Our Lyturgy symboliseth not with Popish
Masse, neither as Masse nor as Popish."
Milton. "A pretty slip-skin conveyance to sift
Masse into no Masse, and Popish into not Popish ;
yet, saving this passing fine sophistical boulting
hatch, so long as she symbolises in form, and
pranks herself in the weeds of Popish Mass, it may
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 75
be justly feared she PROVOKES THE JEALOUSY OF
GOD, no otherwise than a wife affecting a whorlsh
outline kindles a disturbance in the eye of a dis-
cerning husband."
Hall. " If I find gold in the channel, shall I
throw it away because it was ill laid ? "
Milton. " You forget that gold hath been ana-
thematized for the idolatrous use, &c. and thus you
throttle yourself with your own similes."
The author of this sophistry is the author of
Paradise Lost ! On that account I forbear to quote
more ; but I may add a few plain observations, as
our excellent Liturgy was the beginning and end of
this strife of unholy tongues for it was first de-
nounced, and its use forbidden, under penalties of
the severest kind, by the Parliament its use again
was insisted on at the Restoration and it was
chiefly on account of this formulary that many pious
and conscientious men, resigned their livings on
Bartholomew's day, rather than comply with the Act
of Uniformity. We might look with astonishment
at the charge, that the PRAYER-BOOK is only the
book of the Popish mass, when more thau one-
third is the Word of God, not of man ! For
instance, the introductory sentences the Psalms
the LORD'S PRAYER the nunc dimittis the
ten commandments portions of Gospel and
Epistles, &c.
As to the other parts, they chiefly consist of
prayers which were used in the Church before the
76 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
introduction of the Mass as the fine hymn of St
Ambrose, "We praise thee, oh God!" the col-
lects the affecting and sublime Litany, &c. Let
us ask, can we symbolise with the Popish Mass,
and not with every feeling of Christian love,* when
we pray
" From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncha-
ritableness, Good Lord deliver us.
" That it may please thee to forgive our enemies,
persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord!"
The words in the Latin, are more impressive :
From envy, &c.
Omnes. Libera nos, Domine.
That it may please, &c.
Omnes. Te precamur, audi nos.
If Popery, not the primitive Church, had in-
deed furnished such a ritual, ought such simple,
affecting, and beautiful compositions be be rejected,
because in other respects we dissent from the com-
munion that used them ? We can hardly conceive
* Let us see some of the fruits of John iinox's school !
" Ask of our old dying wife, if she has any evidence of salva-
tion ; she will say, ' I hope so ; for I believe the Apostles' Creed ;
I am taken with the LORD'S PRAYER ; and I know my duty to
be the Ten Commandments ! ' but T tell you, these are but old
rotten wheelbarrows to carry souls to HELL ! These are idols
which the false prelates have set up to obstruct the Covenant, and
the work of God in the land !" Sermon by John Dickson.
This was preached at the time we are speaking of. Cannot
some exclusively nominal Christians see their faces in this glass?
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 77
the existence of such besotted malignancy ! and
in this cry joined the author of Paradise Lost !
The Reformation need not have taken place
at all, if the only thing obnoxious in the Ro-
man communion had been such Prayers! Eter-
nal credit does it reflect on the compilers of our
admirable Liturgy, that their anxiety was, not to
depart from the Church of Rome further than the
Church of Rome departed from the Scriptures;
and these ancient and affecting compositions, be
they composed by whom they may, were admitted
into the Church of England, not because they were
in ancient rituals, but because they breathed the
spirit of Scriptural faith, hope, and charity.
As to toleration, every one knows the bitter and
ruthless intolerance of the Presbyterians, from the
press and the pulpit. These were the only persons
who not only denied all toleration, but gloried in
denying it, as " establishing Iniquity by law !" The
Independants could only stand by tolerating what
Walker calls " all accursed sects." But " all accursed
sects the Independants did not tolerate; witness the
cold cruelties exercised on the poor fanatic Naylor
witness the " tryers " of Cromwell witness their
equal hostility to Presbyterians and Churchmen.
The Church of England might have been well
satisfied if half the toleration she granted, even
when so goaded by atrocious calumnies, had been
granted to her ; but, let us turn to him who wrote
the eloquent Areopagetica, in favour of unlicensed
78 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Printing ! Let us see what rights of conscience
this assertor of those rights grants to the Church
of England ! Johnson might well say, " hell grew
darker at his frown" as the reader will feel, when
I transcribe this passage, the more harrowing be-
cause it immediately succeeds a lofty, and almost
divine passage, relating to the first conception of
the immortal Paradise Lost.
Let us hear the author of Areopagetica, on re-
ligious toleration.
" But they contrary, that by the impairing and
diminution of the TRUE FAITH, the distress and
servitude of their country, aspire to high dignity
rule, and promotion here, after a shameful end in
this life, (WHICH GOD GRANT THEM !) they shall be
thrown down eternally into the DARKEST and
DEEPEST GULPH OF HELL, where, under the
DESPITEFUL CONTROUL, the TRAMPLE and
SPURN, of all the other DAMNED, that, in the
ANGUISH OF THEIR TORTURE, shall have NO OTHER
EASE than to EXERCISE A RAVING AND BESTIAL
TYRANNY OVER THEM, AS THEIR SLAVES AND NE-
GROS, they shall remain IN THAT PLIGHT for
ever, the basest, the undermost, the most dejected,
most underfoot, and DOWNTRODDEN VASSALS OF
PERDITION !"*
Milton here evidently alludes to Laud. His
prayer was soon after granted, when this unfortu-
* Milton, vol. i. p. 174-.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 79
nate " impairer of the true faith " (Calvinistic Pu-
ritanism !) was condemned, indeed, to " a shameful
end in this life" condemned to be " HANGED,
DRAWN, AND QUARTERED !" But this was not
enough for the lofty mind of Milton. " The
impairer of true faith " was to be afterwards con-
signed "eternally to the darkest and deepest GULPH
OF HELL!" This is not enough! he is to be "the
trample and spurn " of all the other damned! But
even here the infernal curse does not conclude ;
for the "other damned shall have no other ease
than in exercising their tyranny on this most down-
trodden slave, for ever and ever!"
The curse fell on his own head when he left the
New Presbyter for the Independents.
Such was Milton, before his high, and pure, and
ingenuous mind was smitten with the " deplorable
polemics of Puritanism"
Let it not be thought I wish to detract from so
great a mind. There seem to have been three
marked stages in Milton's disposition : first, when
beautiful, amiable, and ingenuous in youth, he
wrote Allegro and Penseroso poems having the
light and pensive shades of his poetical mind ;
second, when stern and intolerant by political and
religious warfare, with his eyes still intensely
turned to a time when he should have calm and
delightful communion with the Muses ; thirdly, when
in old age all the lofty visions of earthly perfection
ended in disappointment when his great mind
80 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
was again thrown on itself in solitude when the
lofty idealities of his vision, faded, and left him
alone, with his thoughts elevated, indeed,
" Above the visible diurnal sphere,"
but
" With solitude and darkness compassed round,"
yet still mentally gazing, with glowing inspira-
tion, on the great vision of Paradise Lost.
We have seen the spirit which the great Milton
imbibed from his friends the Presbyterians ; but
the time is come for him to turn as sternly upon
them as he did on the church and schools that
nursed his youth.
His book, published 1644, called " Tetrachor-
don," on the four passages relating to Divorce in
the Scriptures, was received with the most violent
clamour by the Presbyterians. Hence he found out
what he might have done sooner, that
" NEW PRESBYTER is but OLD PUIEST wrote large;"
and he thus speaks in another place of this new
order of " old priests :"
" I did but prompt the age to quit tLeir clogs,
By the linown rules of ancient liberty,
When straight a barbarous noise environs me,
Of oivls and cuccoos, asses, apes, and dogs."
SONNET XII.
These "old priests written large," because they
were loud and violent in their censure of a book
which they thought so profane, were now " asses,
owls, and apes!" and from this time his "two-
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 81
handed engine " was turned against these " FORCERS
of CONSCIENCE"* in the Long Parliament.
" Because you have thrown off your Prelate Lord,
And with stiff vows renounced his Liturgy,
To seize the widowed whore, Plurality,
From those whose sin ye envied, not abhorred,
Dare ye for this adjure the civil sword
To FORCE our CONSCIENCES that Christ set free ?
But we do hope to find out all your tricks ;
That so the PARLIAMENT
May with their wholesome and preventive shears
CLIP your PHYLACTERIES, though Icndk your ears,
And succour our just fears,
When they shall read this clearly in your charge,
NEW PRESBYTER is but OLD PRIEST -wrote largo !"
Reader, let us pause a moment, to observe how
exquisitely, after these uncouth strains, succeeds, in
the same volume, like " a stream of rich distill'd per-
fume," the following " most musical," most exquisite
melody TO THE NIGHTINGALE
" Oh ! Nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,
Thou with fresh hope," &c.
The effect is like that of passing through the
* Usher was employed by the clergy to intercede with
Cromwell for liberty of conscience, but it was not granted to
them any more than Roman Catholics ; indeed, prelacy and
popery were considered the same. This was the cause of the
Solemn-Leagtie-and-Covenant-inen joining to bring back the
King.
VOL. I. G
82 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
tumult and din of the crowd at Hyde Park Corner
to Holland House, the seat of poetry and kindred
taste, where, opening the garden- door, in contrast
to the noise through which you have passed, you
hear only, with more intense delight, the ancient
pines murmuring in the repose of a still sum-
mer evening, and the nightingales contending in
their solitary harmony ! How often may such a
contrast have vibrated on the heart of the historian
of James the Second,* when retiring, fevered from
parliamentary strife, he must have felt this charm
of contrast, which soothed, in the age before, the
intellectual and cultivated Addison. Reader, pardon
this involuntary digression.
Milton now entirely left the " old priests wrote
large " to support, with ardour, the Independents,
rising into strength under Cromwell.
Gaining the ascendancy, the Lord Protector
levelled these conscience forcers, and effectually in
deed
" clipp'd their philacteries ! "
but from policy he suffered the rhapsodical soldiers,
contemners of " vile human learning," to " fret their
hour," as without such aid the trained Presbyterian
clergy, in learning and talents, would have been too
powerful for his control ; but he knew at all times
how and when to control the various winds of fana-
tical inspiration, blowing now from all quarters.
* Life of James II. by Charles James Fox.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 83
" REX /EOLUS altij
Luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras
IMPEEIO premit.
Illi indignantes magno cum murmure mentis
Circum claustra fremunt. Cels&. sedet TEoLus arce,
SCEPTRA TENENS."
The various murmurs subsided where he looked,
and yet he was strenuous for the Presbyterian
creed, while he trod under his foot the intolerant
Presbyters. His object was afterwards to fill the
various parishes with those whom his " tryers "
should pronounce to be accomplished in the know-
ledge of God's ELECTION, let the wilder fanatic rave
as he list : but he gathered round him all the learn-
ing and talents in the age, Milton, Marvel, Thur-
loe, Whitelock, Owen, &c. Even Blake was an
Oxonian.
In this sketch I have confined myself to the
great dominant religious parties, omitting the count-
less " maggots of corrupted texts." *
Thus, as we have seen, the " Covenant,** and
" Smectymnuus," having, like battering rams, first
beat down the walls of our ancient and hallowed
Sion, a motley army of discordant saints, decrying
synods as well as surplices, insulted and spurned
the astonished Presbyter ! These were followed by
more crazy enthusiasts, led on by Fane, to the
shouts of " King Jesus ;" while the whole host
trod in the dust, with the same evangelical disdain,
* Butlrr.
G 2
84 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
the Episcopalian PRAYER-BOOK and the Presbyterian
DIRECTORY.
The dark, supercilious, and unmoved countenance
of Cromwell, unmoved, save at times smiling with
some grim pleasantry, was occasionally seen in
front of this multifarious host, which seemed to
cower only beneath his keen glance and stern eye-
brows.
He stood as the master-spirit, controlling and
directing the whole army of various enthusiasm.
Much must be attributed to the powers of an in-
dividual who could make this tumultuous mass roll
in subjection ; who could work its heterogeneous
compound to his purposes, and who, when the pur-
pose was attained, could raise or hush its murmur
with a glance of his eye.
This was when the MASTER-SPIRIT was in its
vigour, and could control "dracones reluctantes,"
on every side. Before his last illness, whether he
was sincere, or the most consummate dissembler, a
sane judgment seemed to infuse itself, and the Pro-
tector was disposed to establish, not only a House
of Lords, but something like Episcopacy.
Hitherto he had the heavenly "a.sxitrdHce" that
all he had done was by the direction of the Al-
mighty. Whenever he felt, or pretended to feel, any
natural compunctions, he had nothing to do but to
"seek the Lord!" So he expressed, with tears, his
reluctance to expel the Parliament; but, "after
seeking the Lord," he must do as the Lord com-
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 85
manded ! and so with the blood of the King he
bathed the scaffold, whilst he piously recommended
the dupe Fairfax to " seek the Lord " also !
His own end now drew nigh, yet the same awful
delusion was kept up. " His spiritual doctors as-
sured him, being once in a state of grace, he could
not finally fail," so he need not be alarmed for his
soul : and when his physicians saw the symptoms of
death, " he assured them they were mistaken ;"* for
those who had even greater influence with the Al-
mighty (Owen, &c.) had " been seeking Him toge-
ther," and the answer was, " he should not die .' "
Can any thing be conceived so blasphemous? Even
thanksgivings for his life were offered up to God,
when the arrow of death was in his heart !
But, Lord of life and death ! how awful, how ter-
rible, must have been that agony, if, in a moment
of sound mind, with eternity before him, he felt for
the first time that all had been delusion ! As his
mind was sinking, new terrors were excited by the
voice of his beloved daughter,-)- departing before his
eyes, and faintly murmuring " murder!"^ He might
now have seen, in sick and shadowy imaginings, the
forms of those cut off by him, and heard the voice
of the brave, the virtuous Capel
" Let me sit heavy on thy thoughts to-night ! "
or of the shade of the intrepid Lord Derby
* Sec the account of his death.
f Mrs. Claypole. J Of Dr. Hewson.
86
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
" Let me sit heavy on thy thoughts to-night ! "
or the " crowned Majesty of England," pale, and
with look majestic, yet more in sorrow than in
anger, pronouncing
" Let me sit heavy on thy thoughts to-night ! "
What must have heen the agonies of death to
such a man !
Without venturing to say such were his feelings,
some feelings of the kind he must have had ; and if
ever there was a man whose life and death might
seem to fulfil the idea of a compact with the powers
of darkness, it was "THE LORD PROTECTOR OF
ENGLAND."
A spectre, it is recorded, appeared before him in
youth. He plunged into dissipation he left the
sober and scriptural communion in which he had
been bred. He became an enthusiast whether
from constitution or hypocrisy. He rose from the
station of a private life to be the dictator of the
fortunes of England, and, still " seeking the Lord 1 "
he rose to more than royal power and dominion.
Look on him now, enfeebled, and consulting in
vain the phantasma of fanatical delusion which at-
tended him through life. It forsakes him in his
utmost need ; or turns, to shew him, as in a glass,
the spectre of Predestination, pointing to the pit,
" where the worm dyeth not." He dies his pro-
phets are found liars ; and the instant his last breath
has left his frame, the whole isle is shaken by a
hurricane, such as no man ever before remembered !
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 87
"Oh!" might the humble Christian exclaim
" Thou, who has given us the Bible, save me from
fanatic enthusiasm ! keep me, through life, in
the path of sober and scriptural piety and, when
my last hour approaches, " let me die the death
of the righteous, and let my last end be like his ! "
It seems extraordinary that Cromwell should not
at this time have consulted his " Astrologer" Lilly,
as well as his " Soothsayers," who, in articulo mortis,
"prophesied smooth things /" as Astrology is part
of Predestinarianism ; and indeed derived from it in
Chaldaea.
I have been the more particular, respecting the
part which the author of " Paradise Lost" bore in
this drama, as the importance of that part has been
less noticed by historians for, I believe, the great
talents, the learning, the blameless lives, the pow-
erful arguments, of Usher and Hall, would have
preserved the Church, if Milton had not descended,
with all his overwhelming might, of learning, elo-
quence, and scorn, into the contest ; as I also believe,
from passages in his "Defensio Populi Anglicani,"
that, when the chiefs of the army were vacillating
about the King's death, the " Grande Spectaculum"
of national justcie was suggested by Milton. He
was soon afterwards made Latin Secretarv.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
CHAPTER V.
>
OXFORD, AFTER THE RESTORATION EJECTED MINISTERS
RESTORED MORLEY, EJECTED CANON, MADE DEAN OF
CHRIST-CHURCH CONNECTION WITH ISAAK. WALTON,
KICK'S BROTHER-IN-LAW KEN*S PATRON HIS RISE IN
THE CHURCH FELLOW OF WINCHESTER PARTY AT
THE EPISCOPAL PALACE.
Hark ! the merry Christ-Church bells !
ALDRICH, Dean of Christ-Church.
IN the foregoing chapter, we have given a rapid,
but, I trust, not unfaithful sketch of the most pro-
minent features of the dominant religious parties of
the time, chiefly as they affected the Church of
England, through that long period of fanaticism
triumphant, in the midst of which Ken was entered
a " poor scholar" on the ancient ecclesiastical foun-
dation of William of Wykeham, and, when its spirit
was more subdued, became a member of the Uni-
versity of Oxford, and fellow of New college. The
obtruded Warden of this College having died, as
well as the Puritanical Warden of Winchester, in
the year of Cromwell's death, the Fellows regularly
elected Michael Woodward in 1658, who continued
till his death.
During this period of Ken's academical residence,
while the Puritans bore swav, his conduct was
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 89
peaceable, though his disposition was far from
being accordant with the system and discipline of
the University at that time.
From early connections and associations, his
heart was with the loyal, and learned, and virtuous
ejected Clergy, which subsequent circumstances will
tend to confirm, and which it appears to me is evi-
dent, from his not taking any degree till after the
Restoration. He might have taken his degree of
Bachelor of Arts in 1659 ; but most probably he
disliked the examinations, and continued, giving no
offence, as under-graduate of his College, till the
reign of the Cheynels,* &c. was over.
Every thing in the University wore, to the eyes of
Ken, a new appearance, when the restored members of
the halls and colleges, yet surviving, appeared again
in their square caps! Morley wore his square cap-f~
till he died as in lofty contempt of the captious
frivolousness of the Puritans.
Again, at St. Mary's
" The pealing anthem swell'd the note of praise."
Again the chant, as Prynne called it, "icas tossed
from side to side" in reality, heard responsive, and
how impressively to those who, from their earliest
days, had associated such music with their first devo-
tional feelings, and now sat, with tears in their eyes,
recalling many friends, some dead, few surviving to
* Francis Cheynel, of Merton, of whom more hereafter,
f The object of more aversion, as the Theologians at Dort
all appeared " Consilium horrendum," in Geneva skull-caps.
90 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
hear, in their old age, the same affecting strains, in
the same sacred place.
These higher feelings were experienced, indeed,
by few, as few of the old Clergy remained. On the
severe puritanical discipline being cast off at
Oxford, no doubt some loose was given, even un-
der academical regulations, to the unbridled feel-
ings of exultation. Antony Wood might have
drunk the Kings health, and made an oration in
his musical club. Crewe, afterwards Bishop of
Durham, might have re-strung, and played in live-
lier key and better tune, the old loyal Northern
ballad if it were, indeed, so old
Peggy, now the KING 's come,
Peggy, now the KING *s come,
We shall play, and we shall sing,
Peggy, now the KING *s come.
Old Wolsey's quadrangle soon afterwards re-
sounded to the merry peal. Dr. Fell presented
his college with " Great Tom," whose far-heard and
mighty tongue might have seemed to express the
national feelings, in unison from the lowest to the
mightiest in the land. Then might the Vicars have
joined in such a measure as that which a succeed-
ing Dean* of the same college, not long afterwards,
so sweetly harmonized :
Hark ! the merry Christchurch bells,
One, two, three, four, five, six !
They sound so sweet, so wondrous sweet,
And they troll so merrily! merrily !
* The accomplished Dean Aldrich.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 91
Hark ! thcjirst and second bell,
On ev'ry day, at four and ten,
Cries " Come, come, come, come, come to prayers ;"
And the VEUGER walks before the DEAN.
"The merry Christ-Church bells," so long deemed
idolatrous, had not been heard, nor " the VERGER
walked before the DEAN," for nearly seventeen years ;
and we may conceive the pensive pleasure Ken must
have felt, when, " meditating on this world's muta-
tions," he strolled alone on the banks of Isis, listen-
ing to the revived music of the belfry, while " Wyke-
harn's peal was up." *
Pious, not ostentatious a scholar, and friend
of the Muses he continued, it appears, a resident
member of his college, beloved and respected, for
six years, pursuing the same regular course of aca-
demical life and studies.
He took his first degree of Bachelor of Arts
1661. It is not improbable that soon after this
he went into Orders ; and, at the proper age com-
mencing Master of Arts, may have employed his
time as tutor of the younger members of the
college.
Revered and respected he must have been, equally
for learning, character, and manners, as he was
elected, with one voice, by the Fellows of Winches-
ter, to fill the first vacancy of a fellowship, by
the death of Stephen Cook, in 1666. He now
* Hurdis.
92 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
returned to Winchester, as resident Fellow of that So-
ciety, which he left, an interesting youth, in 1655-6.
The interest he manifested in, and the attachment
he felt for, the school in which he had received his
early education, was evinced by the publication of
that " Manual," which was formerly placed in the
hands of every boy, containing the rudiments of
religious knowledge, adapted to those in early
life, in the form of a dialogue between a Wyke-
hamical tutor and his pupil. His subscribing 100/.
to the new buildings of New college fronting the
garden, was the first proof of his gratitude.
Ken left New college for his Wykehamical resi-
dence at Winchester, as Fellow of the college, in
1666; and inquiring for some information of my
friend Henry Huntingford, nephew of the present
excellent Bishop of Hereford, the inheritor of Ken's
Wykehamical piety and learning, and, like him,
rising from a Fellowship to the episcopal Bench,
(his nephew being a Fellow of the same college) I
was gratified when, to the information he gave me,
he added, " I am writing this in the very room
which Ken inhabited when he was Fellow."
In this room he read and wrote, and accompanied
his morning and evening hymn with his lute. In-
terested in the morals, religion, and welfare of the
younger tribe, of which he was lately one, he might
have passed his quiet days, and closed his private
and peaceful career, in this social and lettered seclu-
sion, among his books and friends of youth, had
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 93
not some peculiar circumstances, which I am now
ahout to relate, called him from this umbratUi vitd,
to the elevated station in the Church which he
afterwards filled, with so high and eminently a
Christian character.
Morley, translated from Worcester, was Bishop
of Winchester, when Ken came to reside, and he
found domesticated at the new palace, his own
brother-in-law, Isaak Walton, the author of the
" Complete Angler, or the Contemplative Man's
Recreation."
But whence arose the extraordinary interest and
attachment which Morley shewed to Ken, during the
time of his residence at Winchester, and through
life; till he died ?
I now speak from living traditional information,
that of Dr. Hawes, the nearest relation of Ken ex-
isting, having already mentioned Isaak Walton's
PRAYER-BOOK, in his possession. I shall therefore
proceed to narrate some singular and interesting
circumstances, which procured for Ken the especial
patronage and friendship of Morley, and which
eventually led to the connection with Charles the
Second, and to the high episcopal station which he
subsequently filled, and relinquished.
When the Episcopal Clergy were persecuted, as
we have seen in the last chapter, how many exam-
ples of piety and learning were left desolate on the
world, for refusing to take the Covenant ! Morley
partook of the same bread of adversity.
94 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Though the PRAYER-BOOK was suppressed, many
pious and good men were still found, in various
parts of the country many warm though secret
friends attached to the same holy formulary, and
devoted to the same altars. We have stated that
Jeremy Taylor found an asylum at Golden Grove,
a seat belonging to Lord Carhery, near Carmarthen,
where some of his beautiful and eloquent discourses
were preached. Hammond lived till he died at Sir
John Packington's seat, in Worcestershire. We
cannot tell where many of these exemplary men
" scattered wide by many fates "
found shelter, but, from undoubted authority, I am
enabled to state, for the first time, the origin of the
singular friendship which lasted uninterrupted till
death, between Morley, Bishop of Winchester,
Ken's first and most ardent patron, and the compa-
ratively poor, but honest and virtuous, Isaak Wal-
ton, Ken's brother-in-law.
Morley, having been ejected from his Canonry
of Christchurch by Parliamentary precept, March
1648 being denounced, with Hammond,also Canon
of Christchurch, as " malignant and contumacious"
by the Visitors, and being at the same time de-
prived of his living of Mildenhall, near Marlbo-
rough and, in short, of every thing but 7i/,v con-
science had the world before him, utterly desti-
tute, nor knowing where to lay his head.
When, in his happier days, he associated with
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 95
Lord Falkland and Cotton, and when Isaak Wal-
ton was a hearer of Dr. Donne at St. Dunstan's,
it is probable, from circumstances, that his acquaint-
ance with that singular and good man, Isaak Wal-
ton, commenced, as his father lived in London.
In the desolation to which, for conscience sake,
he was now exposed, where did he find refuge ? Not in
the halls of the great, but at the humble cottage of
poor Walton. Here they read their Prayer-book
together; that very Prayer-book of which I have
spoken, the sad memorial of those days of trial, but
of affectionate intercourse.
The honest Angler, who had left London in
1643, when the storm fell on the communion to
which he was so ardently attached, and when, as
Wood says, he " found it dangerous for honest men
to be there," in those days of Presbyterian perse-
cution, he retired from his shop at the corner of
Chancery-lane, and having a cottage near the place
where he was born, he removed his humble Lares
his affectionate and pious wife, the sister of Ken,
and retired with his angle to his obscure and humble
habitation, his own small property, near Stafford.
Here, after a placid day spent on the margin of
the solitary Trent, or Dove, musing on the olden
times, he returned at evening to the humble home
of love to the evening hymn of his wife, to his
infant daughter, afterwards wife of Dr. Hawkins
to his Bible and to the consolation of his pro-
scribed Pravcr-book.
96 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
This humble and affectionate party was joined
by Morley, after he had been expelled from Christ-
Church, March 1647-8. In his Lives of Herbert
and Hooker, written under Morley's splendid roof,
and published 1670, Walton speaks of the know-
ledge derived from his friend, with whom he
had been acquainted " forty years." And now,
with congenial feelings, in his day of adversity
Morley passed the year before he left England in
the cottage of his humble, pious, honest friend
Isaak.
Here was the proscribed service of the Church
of England performed daily in secrecy, by the
faithful minister of Christ and his Church, "now
fallen on evil days ;" and we can hardly conceive
a more affecting group the simple, placid, apos-
tolic Piscator Kenna, his dutiful, pious, prudent,
and beloved w r ife, the sister of Ken the infant
child and the faithful Minister of the Church, dis-
possessed of all worldly wealth, and here finding
shelter, and peace, and prayer.
As we have had, of late, some interesting " Ima-
ginary Conversations and Colloquies," I trust, on
a circumstance so remarkable as the origin of the
friendship between Morley, " my Lord of Win-
ton," and the poor, honest fisherman, the bro-
ther-in-law of Ken, and founder of his future for-
tunes, I may be allowed to sketch a little scene,
and introduce an imaginary colloquy between Isaak,
Isaak WaLton/Koma (Ms Wife) arui Morley, afterwards Bishop of Winchester,
riiton's Cottage in Staffordshire .
X*. 3
,Muari^nntrc el
1jn*t*
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 97
and Kenna,* and Morley, which, at least, I hope
may be found consonant to their character, and the
peculiar circumstances of the times ; and which will
be strictly appropriate, as Walton's " Contempla-
tive Man's Recreation" is written in dialogue.
Above all, I make this attempt, as my friend Mr.
Calcott, so eminent in his silent and beautiful art,
has favoured me with a design on purpose for this
work, representing the cottage of Isaak Walton, as
it appeared at the time, taken from the last edition
of Walton together with an original portrait of
Morley, from a drawing by the younger Walton
from life. A few explanatory words may be premised.
The Oxford visitation took place in December
1647; Morley was expelled, by Parliamentary Pre-
cept, in the March following, it is said, not without
personal violence. He had lived a confidential and
domestic friend, as chaplain, in the household of
Lord Robert Carnarvon.-^ By this nobleman he was
recommended to the King, 1640. Notwithstanding
his speculative religious creed was the very reverse
of Laud's, his affectionate heart took the warmest
interest in the fortunes of his Sovereign from the
commencement of his troubles.
The King appointed him Canon of Christchurch
in 1641 ; and he resided, beloved and respected by
* His wife was called "Kenna" from her name Ken. See
his own beautiful ballad " And hear my Kenna sing a song."
Complete Angler.
f William Browne, author of Britannia's Pastorals, had been
Lord Carnarvon's Tutor.
VOL. I. H
98
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
all parties, till his ejection, both from that Canonry
and from his Living of Mildenhall, near Marl-
borough.
He was now without house and home in the
world, but he remembered the delightful days when
in youth he had been the associate of Lord Falkland
of Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon of Ben Jon-
son of Chillingworth,now left also bereaved by the
storm which scattered the best and wisest of their
day of Charles Cotton, the adopted son of Isaak
Walton, as he himself had been, in younger days, the
adopted son of Ben Jonson. He remembered those
times and those men, and having no refuge as
some were killed, the brave and accomplished Falk-
land and some struggling themselves, or pursuing,
like Hyde, a studious and laborious profession
he thought of the quiet and contented heart of
Cotton's adopted father, Walton of their early
acquaintance, when both were hearers of Donne
of Walton's piety and apostolical simplicity of
his warm but unostentatious attachment to the
Church, of his cheerful but humble situation,
remote from the storms of public life, when he
lived retired, with his beloved Kenna and only one
infant, in Staffordshire. Perhaps he had been in-
vited to partake there, when the world frowned, his
lonely but pious meal, he knew he should find
welcome, and therefore hastened, in the day of
adversity, to find peace and protection in the cot-
tage of honest Isaac Walton.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 99
As this circumstance only accounts for the long
and unvarying friendship of the Bishop, whose pa-
lace, in grateful remembrance of protection received
in Piscator's cottage, was open, till death, to his
long-tried friend imagination can hardly con-
ceive a more affecting groupe than Walton's cottage
exhibited at the time when Morley, an outcast in
the world, was here welcomed.
Having stated thus much, I shall now endeavour
to dramatize the parting scene. Isaac has returned,
on a beautiful evening in spring from his solitary
amusement to the small garden-plat before his
door where appears Morley, musing of the future
and his beloved Kenna, lately become a mother.
SCENE, Cottage of Isaak Walton, near Stafford;
Morley, and Kenna, with her Infant, Piscator
returned from Jishing.
Piscator. I am glad to come back to my best
friends upon earth, this fine, beautiful evening of
the young May, when the cuckoo has been singing
all day, putting us in mind of that verse in the
Canticles, " The winter is past, and the voice of the
turtle is heard in our land" and trust me, I am
no less glad to see my Kenna sitting with you, my
friend, to enjoy the fragrant air, and look at the
swallows skimming the green, as rejoicing to find
themselves at home, after their long peregrination
in unknown lands.
K en na. And I indeed have had my eyes fixed
100 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
on them, and my heart also ; for, alas ! our friend,
to whom I shall ever be grateful for so much divine
instruction in these troubled times, has spoken to me
to-day of leaving us, and going beyond seas, on his
distant peregrination, to-morrow morning.
Piscator. I shall be sorry to hear of such a re-
solve, fearing that our hospitality may be thought
too humble, albeit it is not a wit the less hearty ;
but tell me, good and virtuous Master Morley, are
you tired of me and "my Kenna," and this our poor
cottage ; and the birds that sing us to rest at
night, and wake us in the morning ; and this small
garden, and this neat honeysuckle arbour, where we
" study to be quiet." Are you tired of me, and of
these, or poor Kenna, so soon ?
Morley. Honest Master Walton, my kind and
affectionate friend, I have lived here upwards of
twelve months, far from noise and sorrow, and the
troubles of life, and the painted mask of hypocrisy.
I may say, I have lived here with more true joy and
content than I have hitherto experienced in my
journey to another country, a better country, my
Christian friend, where there " is neither storm
or troubles, nor broken friendships," and " where
the sleep 'of the weary is sweet," and all tears arc
wiped from all eyes for ever ! and, trust me, wherever
I shall be, whilst this life of trial abides, I shall
remember, as among the happiest, and peradvcnture
the most profitable, seasons of my life, the time I
have passed here in quietn96, I hope, improvement
of temper and heart.
LIFE OE BISHOP KEN. 101
Piscator. Say not so, good Master Morley ; for
much beholden to you as I and poor Kenna here
have been, for your company, I beseech you, stretch
not your kindness so far as to speak of us otherwise
than we are. Yet I thank the Giver of all good,
that, in our lonely nook, we have been able to cheer,
though but for a season, in his way, one whom we
love whom I have loved and respected so long,
and with whom, with the Word of God and our
Prayer-book, we have taken sweet council so long
together !
Morley, Yes, in this retirement of love and
content, and quiet fellowship, we have indeed " taken
SWEET COUNCIL together ; " and we shall neither of
us have occasion, if I may judge from my own
heart, to say, with the sacred Singer, in his troubles,
" It was not my own enemy, that has done me such
dishonour ; for then I could have borne it : but it
was even thou, my companion and my own familar
friend ! " No ! no ! this we shall never say : what-
ever may be the changes and chances of our lot, we
shall never say it was " thou, my companion and
familiar friend" who has done "dishonour" to us,
or the humblest that live.
Kenna. But you have left out one word in what
you have repeated from the best of counsellors
GOD'S HOLY WORD ! and let me be bold to say, ho-
noured Master Morley the words are, as I remem-
ber them, in our " Prayer-book," at the 55th Psalm,
" It was even thou, my companion, MY GUIDE !"
102 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
as you have ever been to me, I am sure, the most
kind.
Piscator. And yet, Master Morley, God knows
what changes we may yet meet with upon earth.
Morley. Like my Royal master and benefactor,
I have ever found in trouble blessed comfort in the
words of the Book of Psalms, when my " heart is
disquieted within me." "When the enemy cried so
and the ungodly came in so fast, and they were
minded to do mischief, so maliciously were they set
against him, and when the fear of death had fallen
upon him" he found his best lesson of hope, or
resignation, in this divine book ; and am not I
ready to cry out, " Oh ! that I had wings like a
dove, for then I would flee away, and be at rest ;
lo! then I will get me away afar off;" " I would
haste to escape because of the stormy wind and
tempest."
Piscator. But if our Kenna corrected the passage
in which our kind instructor left out one word ; let
me remind " my familiar companion " of a verse we
have often repeated. " We took sweet council to-
gether," and, not only that, " but have we not
walked in the HOUSE OF GOD as friends ? "
Morley. True ! we " have walked in the house
of God as friends," and we have worshipped toge-
ther in the "beauty of holiness ;" but the house of
God is now no more esteemed than the house of
Thieves, and they who bear rule have taken care to
make our venerable Cathedrals not of more esteem,
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 103
as " the houses of the living God," than a stall
for oxen, while " they hreak down the carved work
thereof with axes and hammers."*
Kenna. But they may be restored ; and the af-
fecting chant, to which I have listened in my
younger days, when we went to Paul's, with our
father and our little brother Thomas,f may be heard
again in some stiller time, though I shall perhaps be
buried and in peace who knows but in some of
those beautiful cathedral houses of God, which are
the pride of our land.
Morley. Come, for I feel the tears, which I have
not shed before, stealing into my eyes ! To-morrow,
before the lark sings above the thatch, I shall bid
you a long adieu, to seek the King, to wander, I
know not where, or where I may rest my head to-
morrow night. I go, perhaps, to die, unremem-
bered, in a distant land, faithful till death to the
altars I revere, on which I have sworn no servile,
but generous allegiance as to the throne ! I could
well be content to share the humble meal of piety
and content, and domestic affection, in this nook ;
but I have pondered on every thing. Your circum-
stances, my kind and excellent friend, are not af-
fluent, though such an humble and quiet heart is
the best wealth. I might live to be a burden to
both. I am advancing in life, but still unshrinking
to meet whatever may be my fortune. My Royal
and kind Master has perished I have taken leave,
* Psalm Ixxiv. 6. t Keu.
104 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
at the foot of the scaffold, of my last brave friend,
Lord Capel : least we grow melancholy dear
daughter, I would pray you, before we part be-
fore we part, perhaps for ever to favour me, for
the last time, with one of those ditties which I have
so often loved to hear in this solitude.
Kenna. What shall it be? my husband's own
ballad, which I once used to sing on the pleasant
banks of Lea, in our golden days of life,
I in the pleasant meads would be ;
These crystal streams shall solace me !
when he used to love to hear " his Kenna sing a
song?" Alas! those pleasant days will never return;
and this song now little suits us, with our altered
age and fortunes.
Piscator. No, indeed ; not more than the old
smooth song of honest Kit Marlowe's
" Come, live with me, and be my love."
My beloved Kenna, sing to us that song which re-
minds us of the content edness of a country life.
(Kenna sings :)
Let me live harmlessly, and by the brink
. Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place,
And on the 'world and my Creator think}
While some men strive ill-gotten good t' embrace,
And others spend their time in base excess
Of mine, or worse, in war and wantonness.
Piscator. Ah ! this song remembers me of those
times gone by, "when we sat down n summers past,
LIFE OF BISHOP KEK. 105
under the broad beech-tree, and the birds seemed
to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose
dead voice seemed to live in a hollow tree near to
the brow of the primrose hill, where we sat viewing
the silver streams glide silently towards their centre,
the tempestuous sea. When the milk-maid, that
had not yet attained so much age and wisdom as to
load her mind with any fears of many things that
will never be, sang, like a nightingale, a smooth
song which was made by Kit Marlowe now at least
fifty years ago, and the milk-maid's mother sang an
answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Ra-
leigh in his younger days ! " But we must think no
more of these toys. I shall be right content to
hear a more serious song of Master Herbert's that
which I did always love.
(Kenna sings :)
Sweet day, so calm, so clear, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky!
Sweet dews shall weep thy foil to-night
For thou must die.
Sweet Spring ! full of sweet days and roses !
My music shews you havt your closes,
And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul
Then chiefly lives.
Morley. And, trust me, this song was as well
sung as it is melodious, and sacred, and full of
golden thoughts. I shall remember the time I have
passed here, when I lie down to rest, I know not
106 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
where, among strangers, and I shall dream in a
distant land of Kenna's songs !
Piscator. Yes ; and if the dream should make you
resolve to return, still, my good Master Morley, you
would find the same warm but humble welcome
the same PRAYER-BOOK the same evening and
morning hymns and the same songs of Kenna,
who will ever gratefully remember her " guide and
familiar friend."
Kenna. Oh! ever indeed gratefully and, when
Sunday night comes, how sadly remember him !
Morley. Then let us now take leave. I wish to
retire to solitary communion with God, for the sun
is sinking beyond the mountains of Derbyshire.
My generous friend, I have seen much of high sta-
tions and much, I need not say, of sorrow but,
for yourself, you will remember, with thankfulness
to the giver, the prayer of Agar " Give me nei-
ther poverty nor riches ; feed me with food con-
venient."
Piscator. I thank God that I have always had a
thankful and quiet heart ; and, though these rooms
are poorly furnished, and our thatched roof be low,
in the w r ords of the old song, made forty years ago,
My mind to me a kingdom is.
I am as happy and contented, with my dutiful
Kenna, in this remote corner (for the tenement
and small territory is my own) as contented and
happy as in the most prosperous state of life ; for,
in that fine strain set by Orlando Gibbons,
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 107
The glories of our birth and state
Are shadows, not substantial things.
I am sufficiently blessed in my earthly condition,
having a wife as dutiful as Kenna, and a place of
humble independence in a world of sorrow.
Kenna. Oh ! and how far more delightful than
when we lived in the smoke and the noise of Fleet-
street, and were witnesses of the madness of the
frantic multitude where the sullen Presbytery
looked so sternly upon us.
Morley. May those who despoiled us, still pre-
serve to you, and your wife and your child, this
retirement of virtuous independence ; for happi-
ness may dwell here as well as in those halls where
I had formerly my academical education ; and (now
I am so soon to leave this abode of piety and peace)
I may say, in the language of the sweetest of poets,
then familiar to me
Fortunate senex, ergo TUA RURA manebunt,
Et tibi magna satis
At nos
Your early studies, my friend, though not as classi-
cal as my own, might enable you to answer, from
the same affecting eclogue
Sed tamen hac mecum poteris requiescere node,
To-morrow
Nos PATRICE fines et DULCIA LINQUIMUS ARVA ;
NOS PATRIAM FUGIMUS.
These lines you might know are from that greal
108 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
poet Dan Virgilius; I shall endeavour to show
Kenna the sense in English :
Oh ! fortunate old man ! here shalt thou be,
Amid these pleasant fields, enough for thee.
I must apply the other lines, not less affecting, to
my own lot :
But we from hence, far hence, alas ! shall roam
O'er the wide world, to find no social home.
We from the fields of our lov'd Country fly,
To meet, perhaps, severer destiny.
I will give you, warm-hearted friend, credit for
wishing far greater kindness than was expressed by
the Mantuan Shepherd :
Yet here, at least, contented thou shalt stay
THIS NIGHT till Morning cornea, with sandals grey,
And beckons thee far o'er the seas away.
So we might beguile our sad thoughts with kin-
dred images of the classical Muses, long since my
delightful companions ; but, at this hour, it will be
mine rather to call your attention to an English
writer a most holy man of our proscribed Sion, who
has suffered with me the same deprivations for con-
science sake, and who was my University friend.
Some of his divine thoughts, perused in his hand-
writing, now come into my mind. From him we
may learn these lessons on contentedness, whatever
be our lot here, or in the wide world ; and these
lessons, from a wiser and more eloquent man, I
shall leave as the legacy of a Christian monitor at
parting, my last legacy to you, good friend, and
your beloved and affectionate Kenna :
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 109
" ON CONTENTEDNESS. By Jeremiah Taylor.
" Virtues and discourses are like friends, neces-
sary in all fortunes; but those are the best which
are friends in our sadnesses, and support us in our
sorrows and sad accidents; and, in this sense, no
man that is virtuous can be friendless, since God
has appointed one remedy for all the evils of the
world, and that is, a contented spirit.
"Now suppose thyself in as great sadness as
ever did load thy spirit, wouldst thou not bear it
nobly and cheerfully, if thou wast sure some excel-
lent fortune would welcome thee, and enrich thee,
and recompense thee, so as to overflow all thy hopes,
and desires, and capacities ? Now, then, when a
sadness lies heavy upon thee, REMEMBER THAT THOU
ART A CHRISTIAN, designed to the inheritance of
JESUS.
" Or art thou fallen into the hands of publicans
and sequestrators and they have taken ALL from
me! What now? let me look about me: they
have left me the SUN and the MOON, fire and water,
a LOVING WIFE, and MANY FRIENDS, to pity me,
and some to RELIEVE me; and I can still discourse;
and, unless I list, they have not taken away my
CHEERFUL SPIRIT, and a GOOD CONSCIENCE ; they
have still left me the PROVIDENCE OF GOD, and
all the PROMISES OF THE GOSPEL, and my religion,
110 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
and my hopes of Heaven, and my charity to THEM
too: I read and meditate: I can walk in my
neighbours' pleasant fields, and see the varieties
of nature's beauties, and delight in all that in which
God delights, that is, virtue and wisdom in his
whole creation, and in GOD HIMSELF."
Taylor's " Holy Living and Dying."
Well, time is stealing. The young King is at
present at the Hague! I hasten to join him, and
partake his fortunes. Your hand, dutiful and good
Kenna : continue to love your husband breed
up your daughter in attachment to the form of
religion in which you have found so much comfort.
And my voice begins to falter your hand, my
worthy, my benevolent, my generous friend. I pray
Almighty God to bless you both. I shall think of
you in the distant land; I shall pray but the tear
is on my lid farewell farewell !
Piscator. Good Master Morley, if we must part
this night, hear me now, and Kenna will join with
me in this mine entreaty. I have this morning, in
the river Trent, where I pursued my contemplative
recreation, hooked a fine trout. As it is the first,
so it may be the best I shall meet with this season ;
for you must note that a trout is very poor till it
gets into the clear, sharp streams, in spring but let
me ask, trusting to forgiveness, whether you have
power of bearing your charges, in your changed
fortunes, to the distant countries you think of
visiting ? I can yet spare
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. Ill
Morley. Say no more,, good and kind friend, if
you love me. The desolate widow of the brave
Lord Capel has taken care I shall not be destitute.
Piscator. Then but one wish remains, in which,
for our friendship of old, you will gratify me. Kenna
shall put her babe to rest, and dress this last meal of
contentedness, the TROUT, with such directions as
I have given then you shall read our prayers,
for the last time, it may be and then, Almighty
God be with you wheresoever your journey lies
in this wide world, and grant that we may yet, in
some still time, come together again, where peace
and happiness shall be with us to our life's end, and
till we lay our burthens down in peace !
They part.
MORLEY'S FAREWELL
TO THE COTTAGE OF ISAAK WALTON, 1649.
TO KENNA.
England, a long farewell ! a long farewell,
My Country, to thy woods, and streams, and hills,
Where I have heard in youth the Sabbath-bell,
For many a year now mute : affection fills
Mine eyes with tears ; yet resolute to wait
Whatever ills betide, whatever fate,
Far from my native land, from sights of woe,
From scaffolds, drench'd in gen'rous blood,* I go:
* He returned to Walton's cottage from the scene of execu-
tion of his brave friend Lord Capel.
112 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Sad, in a land of strangers, when I bend
With grief of heart, without a home or friend,
And chiefly when, with weary thoughts oppress'd,
I see the sun sink slowly in the west,
Then doubly feeling my forsaken lot,
I shall remember, far away, this cot
Of humble piety, and prayer, and peace,
And thee, dear friend ! till my heart's beatings cease.
Warm from that heart I breathe one parting pray'r
My good old friend, may God Almighty spare
Spare, for the sake of that poor child,* thy life
Long spare it, for thy meek and duteous wife.
Perhaps o'er them when the hard storm blows loud,
We both may be at rest, and in our shroud ;
Or, we may live to talk of these sad times,
When virtue was revil'd, and direst crimes
Faith's awful name usurp'd ! We may again
Hear heavenly truths in the time-hallow'd Fane
And the full chant ! Oh ! if that day arrive,
And we, old friend! though bow'd with age, sur-
vive
How happy, whilst our days on earth shall last,
To pray, and think of seasons that are pass'd,
Till on our various way the night shall close,
And in one-f~ hallowed pile, at last, our bones
repose.
* Anne, born 1677, and mother of William Hawkins,
f Walton died 1683, aged ninety; Morley the year after,
1684, aged 87. They are buried in the same cathedral.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Let the curtain now draw up, and behold the
same characters, unchanged, in an illustrious sphere,
and with splendid associations. Behold Morley
" my Lord of Winton," in his Episcopal palace
Isaak Walton's daughter Anne, an infant in the
Staffordshire cottage, a young woman of nineteen *
the son, Isaac Walton, junior, returned from
Oxford. -f- Poor Kenna is buried in peace, in
Worcester Cathedral her brother, the son of the
attorney of Furnival's Inn, late the "poor scholar" of
Wykeham's college, has been just elected Fellow
old Isaak himself, seeing his children, like Job, after
his trials, in prosperity and happiness around him,
tranquilly through the summer morning is seen
angling in the Itchin ! His room is furnished with
his own books, in the palace. There he lived a be-
loved and honoured guest, with mild and lighted
countenance, snow-white locks, a thankful, but
humble heart with piety as sincere as unostenta-
tious till he closed his eyes on all the " changes
and chances " of his mortal life, at ninety years of
age.
* Afterwards married to William Hawkins, Prebendary,
father of Hawkins, Ken's biographer,
t Afterwards Canon of Salisbury.
VOL. I.
114 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
*** In the Angler we find two poems addressed to Isaak Wal-
ton, by John Floud, M A. and Robert Floud, both of whom
style 1. W. their dear brother.
It is not generally known who was the first wife of Isaac
Walton, but her name was Rachel. I have been favoured with
the present pedigree.
Archbishop Edmund Cranmer, Archdeaconry. . . .
Cranmer. of Canterbury.
Thomas Cranmer, Gent, of St. Mildred's, Canterbury.^. . . .
Susanna.=^:. . . . Floud.
John Floud, M.A. Robert Floud. . . . Floud. Isaak Walton.
Since the three first sheets were printed off, I
have received from C. G. Young, Esq. York He-
rald, a full account of all Thomas Ken's children,
which entirely agrees with what I suggested, that
the Bishop of Bath and Wells was youngest son
of the Jirst wife. All, except Thomas, the youngest,
were baptized at St. Giles, Cripplegate.
Christened.
1626, Jan. 1. John, son of Thomas Kenn, Gent.
1628, June 28. Martha, daughter of Mr. Thomas Kenne, Gent.
1629, February 23. Mary, daughter of Thomas Kenne, Gent.
1631, March 26. Margaret, daughter of Thomas Kenne, Gent.
1632, July 10. Hyon, son of Thomas Kenne, Gent.
1635, April 14. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ken'e, Gent.
1638, Aug. 17. Mary, daughter of Thomas Ken, Gent.
164-0, March 16. Martin, son of Thomas Ken, Gent.
[Anne, Mrs. Walton, not baptized at Cripplegate ]
Buried.
1639, Dec. 7. Mary, daughter of Thomas Ken, Gent.
164-0, March 19. Martha, wife of Thomas Ken, Gent.
fiisnor OF
.#,., ./../>*...
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'lit/If Aat tr~'fl A'lfAeit I
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 115
CHAPTER VI.
LIFE, TORTUNES, CHARACTER, AND TIMES OF BISHOP
MORLEY, KEN'S FIRST PATRON PARENTAGE EARLY
SOCIETY CHAPLAIN TO CHARLES THE FIRST LAST IN-
TERVIEW EXPELLED FROM HIS CANONRY OF CHRIST-
CHURCH BY THE PARLIAMENTARY VISITORS HIS WAN-
DERINGS, AFTER LEAVING WALTON'S COTTAGE CHA-
RACTER REFLECTIONS DOMESTIC GROUPE IN THE
PALACE HOUSEHOLD WHEN HE WAS BISHOP OF WIN-
CHESTER.
.Squam memento rebus in arduis
Servare raentein, non secus in l-onis.
HORACE.
WE have brought Ken from Oxford back to the
scene from whence, thirteen years before, a dis-
ciplined and ingenuous youth, he set out on the
eventful journey of life. He was now twenty-nine.
Immediately on his return to Winchester, he was
appointed Domestic Chaplain to Bishop Morley, and
soon after presented to the rectory of Brixton, in the
Isle of Wight.
The interest which Morley took in his fortunes,
and the origin of that interest, we have been the
first to shew.
Before we proceed on the public and more event-
ful passages of Ken's life, it will be proper to relate
more particularly some of the chief occurrences in
the life of that munificent Prelate, the first patron
and promoter of Ken's fortunes.
i2
116 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Morley, now Bishop of Winchester, having been
promoted from Worcester 1662, according to
Wood, (the universal storehouse of biographical
information,) was son of Francis Morley, by Sarah
sister of Sir John Denhain, the poet. He was
born 1597, and educated at Westminster school,
from whence he was elected Student of Christ-
Church, Oxford. He was afterwards domiciliated
as Chaplain and friend, as we have related, in the
household of Robert Earl of Carnarvon.
We may here add the account of the family of
this generous and loyal nobleman, who was after-
wards killed at the battle of Newbury.
Robert Dormer, created Lord=pElizabeth, dau. of Viscount
Dormer, 1615. Montagu.
r J
Robert Dormer, created Earl of=pLady Anna Sophia Herbert,*
Carnarvon 1623; killed at New- I daughter of 4th Earl of Pern-
bury fight. broke.
Charles Dormer, 2d and last Earl of=pElizabeth, dau. of Arthur
Carnarvon, Lord Capel.
Elizabeth Philip Earl of Isabel Dor-=Charles Earl of
Dormer. Chesterfield. mer. Montrath.
From the loyalty of his friend and patron, whose
household Morley left in 1640, we have concluded,
as he was made Chaplain to King Charles, in the
commencement of his troubles, that he was first
recommended to this post by Lord Carnarvon.
* Their portraits are at High-clear. Loyalty and sorrow
seem to have connected the families, for the son of Lord Car-
narvon married the daughter of Lord Capel.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 117
On his leaving the Earl of Carnarvon, he had
been presented to the Rectory of Hartfield, in
Sussex, his first preferment, which he exchanged
for the Rectory of Mildenhall, commonly called
j\Iinall t near Marl borough, Wilts. \Ve have stated
that a Canonry of Christ-Church becoming vacant
soon after his attendance on Charles, this high
ecclesiastical dignity, in a college where he had
been student, was bestowed on him by the King
himself, doubtless no less for his piety than his at-
tachment to the King's cause and fortunes. He was
appointed Canon of Christ-Church 1641. Notwith-
standing his having been Chaplain to the King, he
was selected, being considered of Calvinistic princi-
ples, to preach before the Parliament in 1643, which
he did with so little satisfaction to those by whom
he was appointed, that, when the sermons of all the
other preachers were ordered to be published, his
sermon only was excepted.
The reason may be readily guessed. It was not
tuned to the Parliament ; and the reader will know
what was expected from the political pulpits, when
only two passages are set before him, one from a
sermon preached before the same Parliament by
Case, and another from the well-known Stephen
Marshall, one of the authors of " Smectymniius."
How may Lord King be recreated by such doc-
trines as the following, not preached by the intole-
rant Clergy of the Church of England !
Case, in his sermon before the Commons, 1644,
118 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
proclaims, "God is angry;" and then makes the
God of mercy thus expostulate : *
"Will you not strike ?-\- Will you execute judg-
ment, or will you not ? Tell me for if you will
not I WILL! [God will strike, unless the Parlia-
ment take it out of his hands !] I WILL have the
enemies' BLOOD!"
But this blasphemous fiend in the pulpit falls
short of the pious Stephen Marshall, in 1641:
"What SOLDIER'S HEART would not start delibe-
rately to come into a subdued city, and take the little
ones on a spear's point, to take them by the heels,
and BEAT OUT THEIR BRAINS against the wall ! yet
if this ivork be to REVENGE GOD'S CHURCH (the
Presbyterian ! ) against BABYLON (the Church of
England), he is a BLESSED MAN that takes and
dashes the little ones against the stones."
How must Morley, the early friend of Sir Lucius
Carey, afterwards Lord Falkland, and of Chilling-
worth, and of Hammond, have disdained such lan-
guage ! And such sentiments were uttered in a
Christian Church !
* Why do I publish this ? Because, otherwise, it would not
be believed ; and because, if I spoke of fanatical preachers
without proof, I should be set down as wanting charity.
f So Milton, in Lycidas : " Stands ready to strike once ! "
alluding to the axe which beheaded Laud ! " STRIKE f " was
well understood at the time; and this bloody rhapsody was
preached in the year of Laud's trial, to hasten his end, he hav-
ing been three years in prison.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 119
Morley, if not, like Locke, born "' in the storm,"
now began to witness and experience its violence ;
and how often, during its continuance, till it fell on
his unsheltered head, and the heads of his most be-
loved friends how often must he have recollected
those peaceful academical days when he was one
of that delightful society which met at the Tus-
culum described by Clarendon, of Sir Lucius Ca-
rey near Oxford. The account of the place, man-
ner of living, and company, is so interesting, that I
shall be excused for inserting the description :
" His house where he (Sir Lucius Carey) usually
resided, Tew, in Oxfordshire, within ten or twelve
miles of the University, looked like the University
itself by the company always found there. There
were Dr. Sheldon, Dr. MORLEY, Dr. HAMMOND,
Dr. Earle, * Mr. CHILLINGWORTH, &c. and, in-
deed, all the men of eminent parts and faculties
from Oxford, besides those who resorted thither
from London, who all found their lodging there as
ready as in the colleges ; nor did the lord of the
house know of their coming or going, or who were
in the house, till he came to dinner or supper, where
they still met. Here Mr. CHILLINGWORTH wrote,
and formed, and modelled his excellent -book."-f-
Let us think of this unaffected scene of noble
and friendly hospitality of Morley Hammond
* Afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, who translated the Icon
into Latin ; educated at Winchester, before Ken.
f His " immortal " work.
120 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Chillingworth meeting at supper or dinner
of the deep reasoning of Chillingworth, the pure,
scriptural religion of Hammond, compared with
the livelier humour and frankheartedncss of Mor-
ley. In such a society, he was remarkable for the
gaiety of his conversation, and one witticism of his
is recorded by Lord Clarendon, which shews at the
time, how little that spirit of Puritanic Calvinism
prevailed, which so soon afterwards gained its
gloomy and tyrannical ascendant.
It was enquired of him, what the ARMINIANS
held? "What the Arminians hold ! hold all the
Bishoprics and Deaneries in England P answered
Morley. One of these Deaneries, before the Resto-
ration, he "held" himself, till dispossessed not
by the Arminians ! !
But how soon after this smart saying was it
found that neither Bishoprics nor Deaneries re-
mained to any of these grasping Arminians, for they
who assembled at this peaceful academical Tusculum
in youth, were the very first to experience the do-
mination of Calvinistic toleration!
The benevolent and accomplished master of the
house, Lord Falkland, and Robert Earl of Carnarvon,
were killed in the same battle. Chillingworth and
Hall, the noblest writers and the best of men, lived
to have their days shortened by cruelty and insult ;
Laud, the Annlman Primate of all England, was
condemned to be " HANGED, DRAWN, and CHAR-
TERED !' This was the end of " Arminian Deans
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 121
and Bishops ! " Morley, though no Arminian, was
deprived of all he had.
Whilst the King was permitted to have his Chap-
lains with him, Morley was constantly in attend-
ance. The Presbyterians sternly forbad, at Holmby,
any spiritual attendance but of their own priest-
hood, the King being denied the common conso-
lation of the vilest criminal! At Holmby he was
first left, as it is said in the EIKWV Ba<nX/oj, to
his " solitary prayers," and most grievously did he
feel this deprivation of those whose looks whose
voices, were always compassionate and respectful,
whose instruction was necessary to confirm his for-
titude, or elevate his heart above this scene of mor-
tal suffering. Let the reader turn to the prayer in
the Icon, " on parting with his Chaplains." That
this affecting prayer was written by the wretch
Gauden, I no more believe than I believe Gauden
could write King Lear ; and I would ask my excel-
lent friend Mr. Hallam, whether he thinks the
PRAYER of that only I speak which contains the
words, " To thee, therefore, oh Lord ! I now offer
up my solitary prayers," whether he thinks this
prayer as " cold " as he has pronounced the Icon ?
If he does, then our feelings and taste differ : to me,
it appears that this prayer could only have pro-
ceeded from a heart that deeply felt what in such
affecting language it expresses.
MILTON, the stern Iconoclast, was a very differ-
ent being from Milton the author of PENSEROSO
122 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
and LYCIDAS ! What is his answer to this affect-
ing appeal ? To this " solitary prayer " of the
desolate King (supposing it written by him *),
deprived of Morley of Hammond of those from
whom he had received the language of compassion
and spiritual comfort ? "What ? not one word of
commiseration ? of respect ? for men of at least
* It was many years since J read the Icon. I looked at it
whilst engaged in this work. The moment I came to this
Prayer, I said, " This is by another hand ! " Mr. Todd has
since informed me that Gauden acknowledged it to be written by
DUPPA. But the King kept a Diary, and composedso/He Prayers.
Mr. Todd has clearly established the fact that he did not write
the Meditations and Prayers, as they now stand in the Icon: but
some prayers he wrote, and some journal of his miserable days.
Can we determine that nothing of his own writing, however
disfigured, appears in this portraiture ? I am inclined to think
the real truth will be found in Rennet's account, that " the
papers written in the King's hand were entrusted to an Essex
minister, of Rayne, Mr. Edward Symmons, to convey them to
a printer. He committed them to his neighbour." This neigh-
bour was Gauden, Rector of Bocking, the next parish to Rayne.
We learn no more, nor how Kennet came to the knowledge of
such a circumstance. But let us see if this short account
might not receive some unexpected corroboration.
Where is Rayne situated ? Certainly, near Bocking. But is
not and most material is this unexpected fact the parish
in which was situated the old ancestral mansion, RAYNE
HALL, the seat of the Capels ? belonging to that Lord Capel,
the most faithful and confidential servant of his oppressed
Master ? Is it not probable, taking this unexpected circum-
stance into consideration, that some of the King's papers were
intrusted to Lady Capel, and Lord Capel being in prison, that
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 123
blameless li\ 7 es of learning and of piety
though of a different school from his own ? Hear,
admirers of Christian toleration : " Cry him up"
(ye Chaplains!) "cry him up for a SAINT in your
PULPITS, whilst he cries you down, for ATHEISTS,
INTO HELL!" What must be that system which
could thus level a noble mind, and turn the author
of u PARADISE LOST" into a brutal railer? And
yet he could talk of " detractions rude " against King
Cromwell !
they were confided by Lady Capel to the person mentioned,
Minister of the parish ?
Rayne Hall being in the parish of Rayne, we might surely
be disposed to agree with Kennet, who says, " that he, Mr.
SYMMOXS, MINISTER OF RAYNE, being interrupted by the
troubles of the times, committed them to his neighbour Dr-
Gauden, who, being a man of a luxurious fancy, could not
let them pass through his hands without amendments and
additions : he got some chapters to be added by another hand.
He himself threw in the ejaculations and devotions, or most of
them." (Kennet, quoted from Todd.) What he " threw in,"
we cannot tell, but it appears to me there is as much difference
in the authorship, of particular passages, as between Shak-
speare and IRELAND'S tawdry fabrication ! * some passages
being natural and pathetic as the Prayer on parting with his
Chaplains his directions to his son, &c. ; and others artificial,
antithetic, elaborate, and most affected.
In the Shakspeare which Charles gave to Sir Thomas Her-
bert, now in the King's library, appear the words, in Charles's
own hand, " Dura spiro spero."
In the many hours of lonely solicitude and sorrow, to sup-
pose that he who loved Shakspeare and Tasso he who was so
well versed in the Scriptures he who kept a Diary he who
* Vortigern and Roweua.
124 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Nothing but a cold, unnatural, theoretic system,
at war with common sense, the kindest sympathies
composed some Prayers to suppose, in such a situation, such
a person should not have sought relief in committing to paper
his solitary meditations, seems impossible.
Morley might have been convinced that the Meditations, as
they now appear, were not the Kings, and, as Gauden claimed
them, he had no power to contradict him ; but did he ever
show Gauden any respect?
I have ventured to say thus much on a subject of interesting
inquiry ; and if I, who know so much less of the subject, differ
at all from my friend Mr. Todd, I need not say, it is with the
greatest respect and deference.
The information I have received, since the above was writ-
ten, from Mr. Alexander, the present Curate of Rayne, is so
decisive and so unexampled a corroboration of my ideas, and
of Kennet's cursory remarks, that I submit it to the reader,
as, in my opinion, decisive of my view of the question of the
Icon. I could indeed venture to mark the passages written
by the King, and those by Gauden.
" Rayne Hall is in the parish of Rayne, situated adjoining
the churchyard, and is now occupied as a farm-house by Mr.
Rolfe, tenant to the Earl of Essex, who is also possessed of
Rayne Lodge in this parish, and partly in the parish of Bocking
The two farms contain upwards of 800 acres, and have been in
the Capel family since the time of Queen Elizabeth. I cannot
find any positive proof of any part of the family being there,
164^8, but I think it most probable ; as in a book containing
entries of several Rectors from 1611, there is entered in 1624-,
' small tythes, for S r Arthur's Hope, Is.' In the same book :
Dr. Mott dyed an. 1630. Sr ARTHUR CAPELL gave mee the
presentation to the parsonage of Rayne, upon the 30 day of
Decemb. 1630. Mr. SYMONS.'
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 125
of the heart, I might say, the voice of Heaven itself,
in the Scripture, could so sear all Christian feelings,
as to allow any one to speak with such reckless in-
sult of exemplary and pious characters. And what
must be that system which could so deaden to its
core the heart, and thus palsy the native, generous
feelings of the high-minded Milton ! *
When the King was in the hands of the Army,
his chaplains Sheldon and Hammond were again
admitted at Hampton Court. This circumstance is
remarkable, as it shows Morley was at a distance.
In company with his favourite Hammond, uncle
to that Colonel Hammond under whose care he was
' The right lion^le the Lady Capell gave mee the presentation
to the Rectory of Raine in Essex the 5 day of June 164-9.'
" In the register of baptisms are entered :
1634-. Feb. 12. Mary, the daughter of Edward and Hellen
Symons.
1637. Edward, son of Edward and Hellen Symons, bapt.
Mar. 25.
1639. Arethusa Symons, daughter of Edward and Hellen,
bapt. Nov. 2."
1641. Henry Symons, son of Edward Symons, rector, and
Hellen. bapt. March 3.
Mr. Symons appears to have continued rector until 1619 ;
and had been long dead when Gauden made his claim to the
whole work.
* Magnificent as Milton's poetry is, to which none have done
more justice than those whom his fiery declamation most in-
suited, I do not recollect one passage of commiseration, like
those which charm us in Cowper with such stern stuff, after his
first ingenuous feelings, did the genius of republican Puritanism
envelope him.
126 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
placed in the Isle of Wight, Charles almost forgot
how long he had been bereaved of his wife and chil-
dren. The Army, in this respect, were, in appear-
ance, far more merciful and kind than the implaca-
ble Covenanters had been but they exhibited only
the perfidy and play of the tiger towards their de-
luded and helpless victim. At Newmarket the Chap-
lains were again admitted, and, soon afterwards, the
forlorn Monarch heard, with tears of rapture, the
voices of his children, and bent over them, with the
paternal blessings of a bursting heart.
This was the sunshine of hope and tenderness
for a moment, on the most desolate of human
kind ! In the Isle of Wight, even those faithful
attendants whom, in the kindness of his heart,
though in the deepest dejection, he never failed to
address more in the endearing familiarity of a
friend than master were now shut out.
The last time Morley * appeared with the King
was, when he was sent for by Charles, altered sadly
in appearance, in his last extremity of hope, to as-
sist at the treaty in the Isle of Wight. " He was
sadly altered in countenance," Clarendon remarks,
" and his hair quite grey." That he was sadly
altered in countenance, who would be disposed to
* It is remarkable that the King, being allowed by the Par-
liament at the treaty to consult his Chaplains, did not at first
fix on Morley, probably for reasons we have given ; but in his
next address to Parliament that Parliament calling itself " du-
tiful and loyal!!" Morley is required by the King. (State
Papers.)
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 127
doubt ; but his hair was not grey, for I have seen it,
by the favour of Sir Henry Halford, as cut from
the head, after the late disinterment at Windsor. It
was of the most beautiful brown, without a single
grey hair. In the Isle of Wight, the faithful and
affectionate Morley parted with him for ever in this
world.
One of the most affecting passages, and there-
fore seldom taken notice of by professed historians,
relating to the sorrows of Charles the First, is set
before us by an eye-witness, Sir Philip Warwick.
"At the Treaty, he was permitted to have the
Duke of Richmond, Marquis of Hartford, Earls of
Southampton and Lindsay, Juxon Bishop of London,
Duppa of Salisbury, Sanders, Henchman, and MOR-
LEY, c. The King's Lords and Gentlemen only
stood about his chair, but were not to speak a word
IN HIS ASSISTANCE, while he singly disputed with
all the before-mentioned able men (Pembroke, Sa-
lisbury, Vane the younger, Say, Hollis, &c.) If at
any time the King found himself at need to ask a
question, or that any of his Lords thought fit to
advise him, in his ear, to hesitate before he an-
swered, he himself would retire into his own cham-
ber, or one of his penmen prayed him, from the
Lords, to do so ; but more liberty than this his attend-
ants were not allowed ! " * If ever there was a pic-
ture of the most refined cruelty, it is this !
The crafty Covenanters, as cold as crafty, and as
despiteful as cold, were prepared with every entan-
* Warwick's Memoirs.
128 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
gling question ; and he, singly, before the whole as-
sembly, was required to answer." Warwick pro-
ceeds :
" I remember on one day he over did himself" (it
was indeed the most momentous question as affect-
ing himself) : " it was upon the great Article, whe-
ther he or the Parliament began the war ? and, in
effect, at whose door the blood should lie ? The
King retiring to his chamber, I took the confidence
to step to my Lord of Northumberland, and say to
him, ( My good Lord, remember how gracious this
good Prince hath been to you compassionate his
distresses, and the strait he is now in ! ' He civilly,
but positively, replied ' Sir, it is impossible for
me to do any thing ; for the King in this point is
safe,* as a King, but we cannot be so.'
" Two replies which the King made to two gen-
tlemen that day were observable ; the one to a gen-
tleman, now a Lord, who pressed hardly upon him :
'A good nature, Sir, (said he,) would not offer
what you say ; nor is it true logic ! ' '
Thus was he baited, arguing singly before this
array of cold, astute enemies, amid silent, compas-
sionate friends arguing, mildly, courteously, ma-
jestically, yet most acutely for LIFE OR DEATH !~f~
The honest relator proceeds in the following most
affecting detail :
" I never saw him shed tears but once, and he
turned presently his head away, for he was then
* How safe he was events proved.
f At this very time his death was determined on.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 129
dictating to me somewhat in a window, and he was
loth to be discerned; and the Lords and Gentlemen
were then in the room, and his back was towards
them ; but I can hereof take my oath, that they were
the biggest drops that I ever saw fall from an eye,
but he recollected himself, and soon stifled them ! " *
In the account of the burial of the King in
"Windsor Chapel by Sir Thomas Herbert, the spot
where the body was laid is described minutely, op-
posite the eleventh stall. The whole account is sin-
gularly impressive ; but it is extraordinary it should
ever have been supposed that the place of interment
was unknown, when this description existed. At
the late accidental disinterment, some of his hair
was cut off. Soon after, the following lines were
written, which I now set before the reader for the
first time.
ON THE FUNERAL OF CHARLES THE FIRST,
AT NIGHT, IN ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR.f
The Castle-clock had toll'd midnight,
With mattock and with spade,
And silent, by the torches' light,
His corse in earth we laid.
* Cromwell, who had the gift of prayer and crying at "will,
called the broken-hearted King "a dissembler ! "
f- As this composition might appear, in some turns of ex-
pression, to resemble a celebrated military funeral dirge (the
death of Sir John Moore), I can only say, it was written soon
VOL. I. K
130 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
The coffin bore his name, that those
Of other years might know,
"When Earth its secret should disclose
Whose bones were laid below.
"PEACE TO THE DEAD" no children sung,
Slow pacing up the nave ;
No prayers were read, no knell was rung,
As deep we dug his grave.
We only heard the winter's wind,
In many a sullen gust,
As, o'er the open grave inclin'd,
We murmur'd, " Dust to dust ! "
A moon-beam, from the arches' height,
Stream'd, as we plac'd the stone ;
The long aisles started into light,
And all the windows shone.
We thought we saw the banners then,
That shook along the walls,
While the sad shades of mailed men
Were gazing from the stalls.
after the account of the late disinterment of Charles. The
metre and phrase is the same as some lines published twenty
years ago :
"O'er my poor Anna's lonely grave
No dirge shall sound, no bell shall ring."
" Spirit of Discovery."
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 131
Tis gone! again, on tombs defac'd,*
Sits darkness more profound,
And only, by the torch, we trac'd
Our shadows on the ground.
And now the chilly, freezing air,
Without, blew long and loud ;
Upon our knees we breath'd one prayer 'f-
Where HE slept in his shroud.
We laid the broken marble floor
No name, no trace appears
And when we clos'd the sounding door
We thought of him with tears.
After the melancholy completion of the drama,
and the burial of his kind master, Morley resolved
to leave England, but waited, as we have said, to
take his earthly farewell of a noble friend, brought
to the scaffold in the same cause.
This was the brave, and loyal, and virtuous, and
intrepid Lord Capel. Whitelock, speaking of his
noble demeanour at this awful hour, says, " He
appeared on the scaffold, without any clergyman ! "
Yes. Being insulted by the inspired soldiery, his
dying friend, to secure him from this brutality,
took his last leave of him at the foot of the scaf
fold. This generous nobleman's conduct, at that
trying hour, evinced from whom he had learnt the
* Every thing in the Chapel now defaced,
f The Service by the Prayer-book was forbidden.
K2
132 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
CHRISTIAN LESSON, HOW TO DIE! And we can have
little doubt but that, had Morley, like Laud, been
called to suffer the great agony himself, he would
have shown how well he could have practised the
lessons he taught.
Morley had lived, as we have related, from the
time of his expulsion from Oxford, at the lonely
cottage of poor Isaak Walton. He had now so-
journed in that peaceful but humble abode twelve
whole months, and to that cottage of affectionate
friendship he returned after the execution of Lord
Capel, for a few weeks, we may imagine, till he left
England, to partake exile and adversity with his
new master, the Son of the murdered Charles.
From the time of his leaving the household of
Lord Carnarvon, the life of Morley was that of pe-
culiar sorrow. Both his friends, Carnarvon and
Falkland iinmaturely perished the King was no
more Lord Capel no more his Oxford friends
scattered his portion penury.
Every one knows the circumstances of the Papal
visitation at Oxford, but the Puritanic visitation,
though important in many respects, and involving
the fate of so many ornaments of the Church, has
been less considered, chiefly because the Clergy,
under all their wrongs, suffered in dignified silence.
They appealed not even to compassion, if we except
Hall's " Hard Fare ! " and a few other narratives.
The ejected Non-conformists preached and pub-
lished their " Farewell Sermons." It was not till
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 133
after Calamy had written his account of the num-
ber of the sufferers under the Act of Uniformity
that Walker, as late as the reign of Queen Anne,
published the names of those ejected in 1647, and
by Cromwell's "tryers." He has given the names
and residences of two thousand* clergymen, ejected
from their livings, and turned into the world to beg
their bread, without any complaint, except in a very
few instances.
Walker, in his " History of the Sufferings of the
Clergy," has detailed the residences and names. As
to the Oxford Puritanical visitation, the particu-
lars may be seen in Wood's History of the Uni-
versity. Walker has quoted a curious book writ-
ten at the time, now in the Bodleian Library, called
<f Pegasus."
This publication gives a ludicrous description of
Lord Pembroke, and his godly train, whom the Par-
liament sent down to Oxford, with full powers to
reform and purify it. The entrance of the solemn
cavalcade into Oxford is described with some hu-
mour and pleasantry.
Francis Cheynell, " damned to everlasting fame "
for his insults on the dying and dead Chilling-
worth, was a principal actor, and as delighted as
Hugh Peters is described, when he rode before the
miserable Charles, " triumphing ! "
Lord Pembroke, the fifth Earl of Pembroke, who
having voted against the Bishops, was himself dis-
* A few, and those very few, are duplicates.
134 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
missed, when the House of Peers was voted " use-
less and dangerous," was afterwards one of the
three inglorious Lords who sat in the House of
Commons, being returned for Berkshire. He was
very tall, and in this pious expedition he appeared
in front, with lofty figure and puritanic visage, as the
" knight of the woeful countenance? sallying forth
to purify "ALMA MATER" of all such "scandalous
and malignant" members as Chillingworth, Ham-
mond, Morley, Jeremy Taylor, with commission to
fill their places with the "really pious? such as
Francis Cheynell and his solemn brethren !
The next morning, the Heads of Houses, Doc-
tors, &c. were summoned: some attended, but the
far greater number refused to appear, who were
then condemned as contumacious. I have spoken
only of admitted facts.
In the Bodleian Library are some other pamphlets,
relating to these times, bound together with "Pega-
sus ;" among others, a list of the Members of Par-
liament (House of Commons) when Lenthall was
Speaker, with an account of their salaries and
offices. JOHN SELDEN* is noted as an honour-
able exception, who refused to partake of the
wages, and often voted against the measures of the
House.
In the List of Impropriations purchased by the
* CHILLINGWORTH, SELDEN, SOMMERS, and CHATHAM,
were all educated at Trinity.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 135
Commissioners, &c. printed in 1648, is 50/. per
annum settled upon the CHURCH OF FROME for
ever, to be paid by Sir James Thynne, of Longlcat,
knt. for which his fine (as a delinquent) was re-
duced to 3086/. I mention these things as con-
nected with the subject of this chapter.
There is one pamphlet of considerable interest,
though short, detailing some of the occurrences in the
Isle of Wight, of which we have spoken, and parti-
cularly at Carisbrook Castle, with a wood-cut repre-
senting the interview in the presence-chamber in
Carisbrook Castle, between Charles I. and Sir Peter
Killegrew, who conveyed his " Last Propositions "
to both Houses of Parliament, Sept. 1648.
Cheynell, who makes such a distinguished figure
in these times at Oxford, was of Merton College,
at whose gates the Parliamentary Visitors were
received by him in form ! His taste, piety, and
gratitude to the founder of the College to which
he owed the education he disgraced, the following
inscription, now to be seen over the grave of the
founder of Merton, will attest, as well as the spirit
of the academical iconoclasts of this period :
Hunc tumulum, FANATICORUM RABIE, quae durante
nupero plusquam civili bello, prout in ipsa templa
sic et in heroum sanctorumque relliquias ibidem
pie reconditas, IMMANITER saeviebat,
deformatum atque fere deletum, Gustos
et Scholares domfts Scholarium
de Merton, in Academia Oxoniensi,
136 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
pro sua erga Fundatorem pietate
et gratitudine, redintegrabant,
anno 1662.
Custode, Thoraa Clayton, equite.
This monument, sacred to every feeling of piety
and gratitude, the memorable Cheynell memora-
ble from his own account of what took place at the
funeral of Chillingworth might have preserved;
but piety and gratitude did not distinguish his class,
and his feelings respecting any venerable monu-
ment of ancient piety, we may suppose, were of the
nature of a Bishop of Winchester, Robert Home,
1570, who writes thus to the President and Fellows
of Trinity:
" I am informed that certain monuments, tend-
ing to idolatize, and POPISH or DEVIL'S service, as
crosses, and such like FILTHY STUFFE, remain in
your College UNDEFACED," &c.*
* Thanks to Mr. Britton, Skelton, &c. these monuments are
appreciated by every man of feeling, sense, and taste; though
the same destruction may again take place when the leaders
have confidence enough to cry havoc, in the spirit of Martin,
who, crazed by his creed, as millions tremble, in the present
day, on the verge of religious lunacy was fully persuaded he
was doing the " Lord's work,' 1 when he set fire to York Cathe-
dral ! The letter, on this occasion, from some Ministers in the
connection of John Wesley, does them the highest honour.
We have lived to see a Cathedral set onjire, and witnessed
what was never exhibited in Cromwell's days a fellow keep-
ing a BROTHEL, domineering over his " young Corinthian
laity " all the week, and regularly " preaching the Gospel " ou
Sundays." Police Reports at Bow-street.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 137
Of such fanaticism, in her day of trouble, when
this spirit was dominant, nobly and firmly did the
University of Oxford show her disdain nobly,
and proudly, did her faithful members, through "evil
report and good report" with persecution and po-
verty before them sustain their dignified parts.
" Persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not
destroyed; as poor, yet making many rich ; as HAV-
ING NOTHING, and yet POSSESSING ALL THINGS."
The Parliamentary orders were, " take the Co-
venant, and acknowledge the jurisdiction of the
Parliament!" The answer was, "We will TAKE
NO PRESBYTERIAN COVENANT, for we belong to the
Episcopal Apostolic Church of England! We
will acknowledge no authority of Parliament, for
we have sworn that the Sovereign is the only legal
Visitor!"
Jeremy Taylor, of All Souls Hammond, Saun-
derson, Pocock, of Christ Church and Chilling-
worth, of Trinity,* were dismissed to poverty; and
CHEYNELL, the insulter of Chillingworth, A. M.
of Merton, and his "really pious" brethren, RE-
MAINED.
Oxford having been thus "purified" by the
expulsion of the most eminent scholars, and sin-
gularly, at the same time, of four members the
* Here were also educated Selden, Sommers, and Chatham i
Skinner, Bishop of Oxford, was Chillingworth's tutor, who was
imprisoned, with the other Bishops, for petitioning the Parlia-
ment in 1643.
138 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
most learned and eminently pious of any age or
nation as if in insult to the manes of the illus-
trious founders under the auspices of this immor-
tal Cheynell, Cromwell appeared in Convocation,
robed in his gown as LL. D. ! It might be almost
imagined the shades of the kings and prelates, the
illustrious founders of this seat of learning, frowned
indignant when the Regicide-abolishers of her
ancient institutions the profoundly-dissembling
Cromwell was made Doctor of Laws, the frantic
Harrison, and the renowned Cornet Joice, were
honoured by the degree of Master of Arts, in the
regenerated Convocation ! *
I shall merely add, that the Parliament sent their
visitors to Oxford in June 1647. The University
refused to submit. Monitions and citations were
resorted to in vain ; the sturdy academicians held
them in scorn. The Earl of Pembroke was made
Vice-Chancellor by the votes of both Houses of
Parliament, armed with authority to expel all the
contumacious members, in 1648.
In March 1648, Morley, with his virtuous,
learned, and pious friends, were without house or
home.
* Sir Hardress Waller, Harrison, Ingoldby, Ireton, Okey,
King's Judges ; and the learned and redoubtable Cornet Joice,
were honoured, in full Convocation, with their Masters of Arts
degrees, May 19, 1649. I mention this, because I think it goes
some way to confirm the extraordinary testimony of Lilly, that
it was Joice who beheaded the King.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 139
In April an order was published, by beat of
drum, that if any of those who had been ex-
pelled were found within Jive miles of the city,
they should be treated as spies, and PUT TO
DEATH!!
Morley did not stay long enough to be subjected
to this most humane ordinance, but he was, for
contumacy, imprisoned. Soon after his release from
imprisonment, he found refuge in Staffordshire.
He sojourned with Walton in his cottage from
April 1648 till the first week of May 1649, join-
ing the young nominal King of England, just as
he was about to remove from the Hague.
The Son of King Charles the First being obliged
to look out for some secure retreat after a journey
to Paris to visit his mother fixed on the Island of
Jersey as the safest place of sojourn during the tem-
pest of the times. Here, as is said in Rapin, he had
his " small court." Here, in the language of that
exquisite writer, his unfortunate father's favourite,
he might have said,
Come, poor remains of friends ! rest on this rock
and of this small and disconsolate court Morley was
now the " melancholy Jaques."
It is said he would not go with the King to Scot-
land. Doubtless, for the first thing required of the
King was to take the " Solemn League and Cove-
nant ;" and, if a clergyman of the Church of Eng-
land had been found among the flock of John Knox,
140 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
they would have cried out "A Pope! a Pope!
stone him ! " *
He now parted from the young King, and re-
tired to Antwerp, officiating, according to the rites
of the persecuted Church, and living in the family,
as instructor of the children, of Lady Hyde, whilst
her husband, afterwards Lord Chancellor, was in
Spain. All the offices of the Church of England
were regularly performed, not only in her house-
hold, but a congregation was established at Antwerp
sacraments administered and the small but
faithful flock here gathered in a foreign land.
We have spoken of Morley's generous sympathy
towards Charles the First of his expulsion from
Oxford of his sojourn with old Walton and of
his subsequent wanderings with the nominal Court.
He returned to England with the restored Monarch,
and preached the Restoration Sermon (he says) " in
the year of his grand climacteric /" He was im-
mediately nominated Dean of Christ -church, where
he remained two months, having had just time to
settle those who were restored, all but his friend Ham-
mond, who was dead. After two months residence
at Christ-Church, he was made BISHOP OF WOR-
CESTER, and in his Cathedral the pious Kenna, who
lived only two years after his elevation, was buried.
* So they cried, when a Minister in a surplice, according
to Laud's absurd injunction, was seen in a KIRK ! " A Pape!
a Pape ! stane him ! " Rushworth.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 141
From Worcester he was translated, in 1663, to
Winchester, where he closed his eyes, surrounded
by those who revered him, though he was unmar-
ried and childless. Ken, and young Isaac Walton
and Dr. Hawkins and his wife, Walton's daughter
and their two children, William, the biographer,
and Jane, his sister, were his CHILDREN and GRAND-
CHILDREN ; Ken became a Bishop at his death. I
shall reserve the picture of the chief character of
the party, till I have said something of this great
and good man's character :
Morley seemed to have been an exile with the
resolution of Mephibosheth : " And Mephibosheth,
the son of Saul, came down to meet the King, and
had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard,
nor washed his clothes, from the day the King de-
parted until the day he came again in peace." And
the language of Morley, I have no doubt, was,
" Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my Lord the
King is come again in peace unto his own house."
Such was his fidelity and loyalty.
Next, we must remark, his inflexible integrity in
what he conscientiously felt to be his duty, with-
out hesitation or compromise, it may be added,
without attempting to conceal any feeling of his
heart. He might, by ever so little management,
have retained his preferment but he abhorred
the hypocrite who proposed it,* and he took no
* " If you will only agree not to oppose us, you shall keep
your preferment."
142 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
pains to conceal his disdain : he might, by a com-
promise, have retained his Canonry but his best
friends were driven away Hammond, Saunderson,
Fell, who were his brother Canons, and as only Dr.
Wall was left, he chose to take his lot with the dis-
persed and suffering.
Wood says : " Oh ! that but a single portion of
that spirit might always rest upon the Established
Clergy ! " and in that prayer who does not join ?
His fidelity, and tenderness of heart, are mani-
fested by his friendship for Walton.
It is related that when Ormond (Butler) was
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, a clergyman, to whom
he had promised preferment, preaching before him,
to put him in mind of his promise, chose the text,
" Nevertheless, the chief BUTLER did not remember
Joseph, but forgot him ! " This could not be said
of Morley ; in his prosperity he did not FORGET old
Isaak, " but remembered him ! "
He always wore his own hair, and, till death,
the much-abused square cap I So little did he
indulge in that luxury which the general cry at-
tributed to all Bishops, that he, like Ken, eat
but once in twenty-four hours' Though intre-
pid and inflexible, his heart was generous as day.
Of his generosity in other respects it will be suffi-
cient to say, that his various benefactions amounted
to 40,000/. he having left only a small estate to his
family from his large income.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 143
Respecting his religious creed I have already
spoken my sentiments, but, I think it right to add
some observations on that peculiar inquisition to
which all the Clergy were subject, when examined
by " Oliver's tryers." When the Covenant was
ordered to be taken, they knew what they had to
submit to ; but it was very different when their
lives and feelings, and conduct, were submitted to
arbitrary " tryers" appointed to question them.
These questions did not concern their conduct as
fathers, or relate to the duties of life, but, whether
they believed the "election of grace" whether
they had ever in their lives been present at a play !
or whether they scandalously eat "custard? " *
But the chief questions were, concerning the EXPE-
RIENCES OF GRACE !
Laud was condemned to be HANGED, DRAWN, and
QUARTERED in his old age, among other things, not
much better proved, for introducing Popery for
he bowed at the name of Jesus, as my congregation
do because he placed the communion at the East
end of the church, where all communion tables are
placed ! when, by those very men who condemned
him to be " hanged, drawn, and quartered" for intro-
* One clergyman was ejected from his living because he had
" scandalously " eat " custard." Warton. It is difficult to say
what sin there was in eating " custard," but some abomination
was attached to it ; and hence Hudibras,
" And blaspheme custard through the nose."
144 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
ducing Popery, the very essentials of Popish doc-
trines, in their worst sense, were PROFESSED and
TAUGHT!! I say this deliberately, for the Cal-
vinists taught the PREDESTINARIANISM, not of St.
Paul, but of the angel of the Popish schools, THO-
MAS AQUINAS! they professed the very "EXPE-
RIENCES," in letter and spirit, which are described
in his Summa Theologiae as " the sense of sweet-
ness" by which they " experience that they are
of the number of the elect who have received
grace ! "
Thomas exactly describes those " experiences" on
which the melancholy ludicrous accounts of " GOD'S
wonderful dealings" with shoemakers' souls, are so
copious! What says the Popish Doctor of the
fourteenth century ? " EXPERIENTIA est sensus
dulcedinis, quam experitur ille, qui ACCEPIT GRA-
TIAM." Not an atom of difference is there be-
tween these "EXPERIENCES'* of the angel of the
Papal schools and the " experiences " of Crom-
well, Harrison, or Whitfield, and the host of mo-
dern revived Puritans of the school of Cheynell,
&c. ! Let those who revile the Church of England
on account of Popery look at their own Popish
rags !
Even the terrible reprobation, concerning which
our Articles are silent, is as explicitly declared by
Aquinas as by Calvin, in letter and spirit ; except
that the learned Doctor of Geneva has added a little
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 145
from his own humane feelings, making the God of
Mercy create millions and millions of human crea-
tures, for no other purpose than to pass them over
to eternal torments; and yet, by this Christian
code, such a being is not the D.EMON of the Mani-
cheans, but the Father of Mercies !
The " Reprobatio " of Aquinas, derived from Au-
gustine, once a Manichean, or worshipper of the
EVIL PRINCIPLE, is the father of this monstrosity.
Let the reader ponder over the following ex-
tract, which, his mind having been saturated with
the dews of Calvin s grace, he will scarce believe
were the doctrines of the 13th century : REPROBA-
TIO addit supra PR^SCIENTIAM, voluntatein PERMIT-
TENDI peccati, et inferendi pcenam ETERNyE
DAMNATIONS!*
Deus REPROBAT aliquos homines ! -f-
That Morley's Calvinism ever partook of this
character who can believe ? If he was inclined, spe-
culatively, to opinions that approach Calvinism, it
never affected his Christian and benevolent feel-
ings ; and he was too discerning not to distin-
guish between genuine piety and these unscriptural
dogmas.
What pious and well-informed clergymen, indeed,
knows not the lines and limits of those Scriptural
views of Providence, of those devotional feelings
* Aquinas (Summa Theologia, folio), 1 Qu. 23. 36.
f Ibid. 1. 9. 23. 5. 3.
VOL. I. L
146 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
which spring from Scriptural faith, and of that PRE-
DESTINARIANISM, with those fanatic feelings which
are derived from the scholastic theology, or from
the great Protestant Doctor of the Leman Lake,*
the tendency of whose doctrines was to harden his
own heart, and to shew him stained with that blood
which all the waters of the Leman Lake can never
wash out.
If there is nothing of this Predestinarianism to
be traced in the Christian conduct and character of
Morley, there is no appearance or trace of it in his
open, intellectual countenance.
Having sketched this interesting groupe in the
Palace of Winchester, in 1669, let us look again on
the countenance of old Isaak Walton, who may be
considered the brothei^ as the rest were the chil-
dren and grand-children, of Morley. In Dr. Hawes's
sitting-room the whole groupe appears : the mild
Ken, with a few grey hairs seen beneath his cap;
Father Isaak, from which picture the common por-
traits are engraved for the " Complete Angler ;"
his son-in-law and daughter ; and the patriarch
Morley, in his square cap, his own hair, with
manly but most benignant countenance. May we
not think we see the whole family in the re-
stored Cathedral ? Morley, in his episcopal chair
Walton, listening, with a tear in his eyes, to
the devotional chant, and thinking, perhaps, of his
* Lake of Geneva.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 147
poor Kenna, departed his daughter near him, on
her knees the Prebendaries, Hawkins and Ken,
in their stalls ; * or, on their return to the palace,
blessing God over their daily ineal, not more sump-
tuous, possibly, than that in poor Isaak's cottage.
Thus, in prosperity and adversity, Walton and Mor-
ley walked in the house of God as friends, " and took
sweet counsel together," till the curtain of life
dropped.
Morley had built a new episcopal palace at Win-
chester, in the place of Wolseley House.
Old Isaak, with whom he had partaken adversity
and prosperity, equally his friend in all changes
and chances, through storm or sunshine, I have
called his brother, and he was endeared the more
as the prospects of this world narrowed, when the
view of their common resting place drew nearer.
Whilst Piscator lived, nothing can be conceived
more innocent, blameless, or happy, than his life,
in this city of ancient piety.
By the side of Itchin, let us think we see the
" Angler," with his rod and gray hairs, musing on
past times, on his present tranquil lot, and of the
summer hastening away. Duly as morning comes,
thus we may conceive he goes forth intent on his
" contemplative and solitary recreation."
Among the boys at College, there is generally
some favourite old man, with whom they are in
* Ken was made Prebendary of Winchester by Morley 1669.
L 2
148 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
habits of conversing, when they occasionally meet
him in their walk to " Hills," and who, in return,
regards with feelings of sympathy, their respectful
but light-hearted familiarities. Such I remember
old Crowe, the father of the late Public Orator
Crowe such I remember poor Tom Warton*
* Tom Warton was familiar with the whole school, and
equally respected and beloved. He was ready to give any boy a
task who asked him, but always enquired how many faults,
for fear his brother, the Head-master, should detect them. One
boy would have one fault, another tivo, and sometimes one
more ambitious would desire none! I remember a boy bring-
ing up a very good exercise, when the old Master said,
smilingly, " Who made this task ! Tell my brother to give
you half-a-crown, or I shall Jlog him.'" As we are now
speaking of PISCATOR Walton, I hope I may be pardoned for
relating an anecdote on that subject. A verse-subject Pis-
cator was given by the Master. The day before a kind of
altercation had taken place between a Minor Canon and one
of the Prebendaries. The Prebendary had forbidden the Minor
Canon, named Norman, tishing in his Preserve! Some high
words, it was reported, had passed ; and, it was also said, a
stone jlung. The circumstance was told Tom Warton, and he
thus recorded it in verse :
PISCATOR.
Infelix Norman captabat arundine pisces ;
Turn Rivers saxum conjiciebat ei.
" Cur saxum jacis," exclamat turn Norman, " in undis,
" Si propius venias, te dabo praecipitem !"
Poor Norman might well be called infelix, for he died confined
a lunatic. I have spoken of his father in the poem of " Han-
well-hill, or Days departed;" and I shall here en.-eavour to
translate the verse :
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 149
and such, I please myself in thinking, was this tran-
quil and delightful old man, looking on the sports
of the juniors with a smile remembering the days
of his youth familiar with the elder boys, as they
grow up, and pass into the crowd of life. After a
day's tranquil recreation, he retires to the home
of his friend, mild, but remembering those days
and scenes which he has himself so beautifully
described among the river-scenes in his own " Con-
templative Man's Recreation."
Arrived at the household of simplicity and love
in a palace, surely it would be natural to imagine,
when Charles the Second was often a visitor, that,
in his " merry mood," he might sometimes accost the
old man, " Odd's fish ! honest Piscator, you wear
your old age bonnily !"* But we would rather ima-
gine the interesting family assembled piously at
night, Ken singing with his evening hymn, adapted
to old Tallis's melody, probably that very air to
which it is now sung and so welcoming
" peaceful evening in ! "
Unhappy Norman fish'd for trout, one day,
When Rivers flung a stone at him, they say:
" Why do you Jling a stone,' said Norman, " why ?
I'UJling you in yourself, if you come nigh !"
The reader may perhaps recollect Warton's translation of
an epitaph on an organist :
Organa namque loqui fecerat ipse quasi.
He made the organ for to speak
Eke, even, as it ivere!
* From his introduction to Charles the Second at Winches-
ter, Ken afterwards became Bishop of Bath and Wells.
150 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
This is no picture of imagination. Ken always
sung his morning and evening hymn. Isaak, we
know, concluded the long and tranquil evening
of his days in this beloved society, between Win-
chester and Farnham palace. He occasionally va-
ried his abode, and died at the Prebendary-house of
his son-in-law. We have spoken of Kenna, buried
soon after the Restoration in Worcester Cathedral,
and transcribed her epitaph, as first written in the
PRAYER-BOOK, which had been Isaak's companion
in his own poor cottage, and in MORLEY'S palace.
Over his bed in the Bishop's palace, at Farnham,
he had a small collection of his choice books, and
drawings, probably by his son. He died in 1683
at the great age of ninety-three, one year before
his honoured friend, in religious peace and hope,
and with piety sincere as unostentatious.
His "will" records his gratitude to his early and
latest friend, bequeathing " a ring to the Bishop of
Winchester, with the words
"A MITE FOR A MILLION."
The next year, full of days, died his long-tried,
and generous, and warm-hearted friend, Morley,
dying 1684, aged eighty-seven. Both were buried
in the same Cathedral.
On looking back on the varied events of life
on the scenes of sorrow and of sunshine on their
unvarying friendship, in stations so different and
that unvaried friendship, through so many years as
they went "hand in hand down the hill" together;
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 151
when we remember, moreover, their warm but un-
affected piety, and the hallowed pile where their
bones rest we may add. with a sigh, "They
were lovely in their lives, and in their death they
were not divided." As the Jirst humble recorder
of these circumstances, I have dwelt on them the
longer, because they are so materially connected
with my subject, are most interesting in themselves,
and the origin of this singular friendship would
probably have been for ever unknown, if I had not
taken up the pen to record the life of Bishop Ken>
though such an example of gratitude and friendship
deserves a far more lasting memorial and monument
than I am conscious I could raise to ISAAK WALTON
and BISHOP MORLEY, the patron and the brother-
in-law of the apostolic Ken.*
* Morley and Ken, with Hammond Sherlock Lowth, and
ten thousand more were examples of public school piety,
though Sherlock has been noted in the Edinburgh Review as
having been privately educated ! With the same accuracy Ben
Jonson, educated at Westminster under Camden, is said to have
been privately educated.
152
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
PEDIGREE OF MORLEY,
Showing the connection of the present Marquess of Win-
chester, more honourable than the " pride of heraldry," with
Morley.
VISITATION 1686.
ARMS : Argent, a lion rampant Sable, ducally crowned Or.
Robert Morley, descended from=pAnne, dau. of Richard Tan-
Thomas, son ot'Wm.Lord Morley. | cred, of Pannel, co. Ebor.
I '
Francis Morley ,=pSarah, dau. of William Denham, and sister of
of London. | Sir J. Denham, Baron of the Exchequer.
1. George Morley, Bp. Winton, ob. 2. Thomas=pJane, dau. of
1684-, s. p. of Droxford, Hants. Morley. | . . . . Collins.
r J
Captain T. Morley .=^=Penelope, daughter of Denham Hancock.
I '
Sir Charles Morley, Master of=f=Magdalene, daughter of Sir
Requests to Chas. II. of Drox- I William Herbert, brother to
ford, Hants. j Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
ill . - r _ . I
Elizabeth Jane, co-=pNorton Paulet, 2d son of Lord Henry
Morley. heir. | Paulet, 2d son of Wm. 4-th M. of Winton.
I '
George Paulett, eighth son, who, surviving all his brothers, be-
came Marquess of Winchester on the death of Harry 6th Duke
of Bolton,in 1794-. He was the father of the present Marquess.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 153
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
PERSECUTED CLERGY.
During the period intervening from the commencement of
the Long Parliament to the Restoration, the Clergy had to
undergo three distinct persecutions. First, when they were
expelled from their livings for not taking the Presbyterian
Covenant ; secondly, when they were arbitrarily dismissed from
their colleges at the visitation which was to purify Oxford ;
and thirdly, when the inquisitorial "Tryers" of Oliver Crom-
well were sent into every county, with full powers to question
and examine the Parochial Clergy, chiefly regarding their
views of Calvinism.
LILLY AND HUGH PETERS.
PR^DESTINARIANISM AND ASTROLOGY.
Most memorable is the Judicium Merlini Anglici on the aris-
tocracy of the Presbytery, and spoken from his heart :
" These men, to be serious, preach well, but they were more
LORDLY than BISHOPS, and USUALLY, in THEIR PARISHES,
more TYRANNICAL than the GREAT TURK !"
Lilly had prophesied against them, and his delight seems to
be beyond bounds when Oliver dispersed the Presbyterian Par-
liament, for he singeth :
" Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut, &c.
" For these enemies of mine, viz. PARLIAMENT-MEN, were
turned out of doors by Oliver Cromwell. 16 Feb. 1653-4." *
Of all who suffered after the Restoration, for being con-
cerned in the murder of the King, that poor pulpit pantaloon,
Hugh Peters, seems to have suffered most undeservedly ; for
he was tried and condemned, and executed, under circum-
stances of peculiar cruelty not for what he did, but only for
what, it was reported, he said!
* Lilly's Life.
154 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
An anecdote respecting him, in Lilly the astrologer's Life,
will elucidate his self-importance in a tragedy, where he was
not allowed to act any part beyond that of a horn-blower.
"Just before the King's Tryal," Lilly says, "in Christmas
holy-day, the Lord Grey 'of Groby and HUGH PETERS sent
for me to Somerset-house, with directions to bring them two
of my Almanacks. I did so. Peters and he read January's
observations.
" If we are not fools and knaves, said he, we shall DO JUS-
TICE ! Then they whispered : I understood not their meaning
till his Majesty WAS BEHEADED ! *
" They applied what I wrote of JUSTICE to be understood
of his Majesty, which was contrary to my wishes ; for JUPITER,
the first day of January, became direct, and LIBRA is a sign
signifying justice !
" I had not then heard the least intimation of bringing the
King unto his tryal, and yet the first day thereof I was casually
there, it being upon a Saturday ; for, going to Westminster
every Saturday upon the afternoon, in these times, I CASUALLY
met Peters. ' Come, LILLY ; wilt thou go hear the King try'd? '
' When ? ' said I. ' iVotc, just now ; go with me ! ' "f
Lilly must have been intent indeed upon the stars, all the
week, never to have heard a word about this trial, with which
" All England rung from side to side,"
till, "casually," (for the stars unaccountably gave him no no-
tice,) on the very day, and at the very hour, he met Peters !
I have observed elsewhere, that ASTROLOGY seems a natural
part of Predestinarianism being both derived from Chaldea,
and part of the Oriental system, oi' two principles, of GOOD and
EVIL, contending like the good and evil genii of Oriental tales.
Cicero exactly describes the astrology of the times of Lilly, in
* This whispering of the two conspirators is marvellously like
the whispers of the t\vo conspirators in the Rehearsal,
t Lilly's Life.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 155
his book De Divinatione, chap. i. And Horace, speakiu^ of
l he same astrology applied to DESTINY, say?,
Nee BABYLONIOS
Tentaris numeros,
meaning, by " nameros," not numbers, butjigures of astrology.
The battle ofDunbar was determined by Lilly's prophecies;
for, at the onset, when each party had "sought the Lord," and
the Lord had answered each, that he would surely deliver
their enemies into their hand! a soldier was posted, with
Lilly's Almanack in his hand, as the troops marched on, and
cried, " Hear what Lilly says ! hear what Lilly says ! "
JOICE, EXECUTIONER OF CHARLES THE FIRST.
There is a very curious account respecting the Executioner
of the King, on the 30th of January, in Lilly's Life. Lilly
could have had no motive for saying what he did, but he
seems to have related faithfully what he heard and believed;
and Cornet JOICE, among those great actors of the bloody
drama, receiving his MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE AT OXFORD,
under the Saints, seems to me an extraordinary corroboration
of the truth of Lilly's account, which is as follows :
" In June of that year (1660) a new Parliament was called,
whereunto I was unwillingly invited by two messengers of the
Serjeant at Arms. The matter whereupon I was taken into
custody was, to examine me concerning the person who cut off
the King's head, viz. the late King's, &c. At last, I desired to
be fully heard, &c. and liberty being given me to speak, I re-
lated what follows :
" That, the next Sunday but one after Charles the First was
beheaded, Robert Spavin, Secretary to Lieutenant-Colonel
Cromwell at the time, invited himself to dine with me, and
brought Antony Peirson, and several others, along with him to
dinner : That their principal discourse all dinner-time was only
who it was that beheaded the King ; one said it was the com-
mon hangman, another HUOH PETERS, &c. Robert Spavin, as
156 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
soon as dinner was done, took me by the hand, and carried me
to the South window ' These are all mistaken ; they have not
named the man that did the fact it was Lieutenant -Colonel
JOICE ! I was in the room when \\ejitted himself for the work ;
STOOD BEHIND him when he did it ; when done, went in again
with him. There 's no man knows this hut my master, Crom-
well, Commissioner Ireton, and myself.' ' Doth not Mr. Rush-
worth know it?' said I. ' No, he doth not know it,' said Spa-
vin. The same thing Spavin since hath often related to me,
when alone."*
It is a curious circumstance that high words passed between
Joice and Cromwell, LORD PROTECTOR ! Joice spoke of his
" services," when Cromwell bid him *' BE GOXE! "
MILTON THE SUGGESTER TO CROMWELL OF
THE KING'S TRIAL, AS A GRAND NATIONAL
SPECTACLE OF JUSTICE.
I have thrown out an idea that Milton was the first to sug-
gest the trial of the King. The idea of an august national ex-
hibition, in which a King should hold up his hand and plead
guilty or not guilty, to his subjects whom he had sworn to
govern according to Law, I cannot conceive at first entered
into the ideas of those who, in possessing the person of the
King, sought only to gain additional strength against the
Parliament. The bloody Harrison offered to assassinate him,
after he had sought the Lord ! From the time when his chap-
lains and children were permitted to see him, there seems to
have arisen an after-thought in the Leaders of the army. Their
language, on a sudden, was changed ; some awful event seemed
to take possession of their minds ; and from this time no con-
cession had any weight with them. Such an idea as a public
trial for offences against the Laws of a King, responsible to
that great Nation, never could have occurred, except to the
* Lilly's Life, page 90; London, printed for J. Roberts,
Warwick-lane, 1715.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 157
thought of him who could thus powerfully, in his own words,
describe the spectacle. I adjoin the translation from " Defen-
sio Populi Anglicani : "
" I am about to discourse of matters neither inconsiderable
nor common, but how a MOST POTENT KING, after he had
TRAMPLED UPOX THE LAWS OF THE NATION, AND GIVEN A
SHOCK TO ITS RELIGION, AND BEGUN TO RULE AT HIS
OWN WILL AND PLEASURE, was at last subdued in the field by
his own subjects, who had undergone a long slavery under
him] how afterwards he was cast into prison, and when he
gave no ground, either by words or actions, to hope better
things of him, he was finally by the SUPREME COUNCIL OF
THE KINGDOM CONDEMNED TO DIE, AND BEHEADED BEFORE
THE VERY GATES OF THE ROYAL PALACE! I shall like-
wise relate (which will much conduce to the easing men's
minds of a great superstition) by WHAT RIGHT, especially
according to OUR LAW, this JUDGMENT WAS SIVEN, and all
these matters transacted ; and shall easily defend my valiant and
worthy countrymen, (who have extremely well deserved of all
subjects and nations in the world,) from the most wicked calum-
nies both of domestic and foreign railers, and especially from the
reproaches of this most vain and empty sophister,* who sets up
for a caplain and ringleader to all the rest. For what king's
majesty, sitting upon an exalted throne, ever shone so brightly
as that of the people of England then did, when, shaking cff
that old superstition, which had prevailed a long time, they
gave judgment upon the king himself, or rather upon an enemy
who had been their king, caught as it were in a net by his own
laws, (who alone of all mortals challenged to himself impunity
by a divine right,) and scrupled not to inflict the same punish-
ment upon him, being guilty, which he would have inflicted
upon any other? But why do I mention these things as per-
formed by the people, which almost open their voice them-
selves, and testify the presence of God throughout? who, as
often as it seems good to his infinite wisdom, uses to throw
* Salmasius.
158 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
down proud and unruly kings, exalting themselves above the
condition of human nature, and utterly to extirpate them and
all their family. By his manifest impulse being set on work to
recover our almost lost liberty, following him as our guide, and
adoring the impresses of his divine power manifested upon all
occasions, we went on in no obscure but an illustrious passage,
pointed out and made plain to us by God himself. Which
things, if I should so much as hope, by any diligence or ability
of mine, such as it is, to discourse of as I ought to do, and to
commit them so to writing as that perhaps all nations and all
ages may read them, it would be a very vain thing in me. For
what style can be august and magnificent enough, what man
has parts sufficient TO UNDERTAKE so GREAT A TASK?"*
Be it always remembered that Milton was appointed Latin
Secretary before, not after he wrote the " Defensio," with the
salary of /iro hundred pounds a-year.
At the close of the war, Milton, who had lent his money,
according to Dr. Johnson, to the triumphant party, was utterly
neglected by Presbyterians and Independants ; but we know
he was suddenly called into a high official station by Cromwell.
It is extraordinary that Johnson, in Milton's Life, should
have passed over the circumstance that his Tutor was one of
the writers of " Smectymnuus."
CHEYNELL OVER CHILLI NGWORTH'S GRAVE.
The account of Cheynell insulting the remains of the great
Chillingworth, would not be believed had not that account
been written and published by himself. From the Life in
Wood I shall extract this description :
" It must be now known, that, in the beginning of the civil
dissensions, our author CHILLINGWORTH suffered much for
the KING'S CAUSE, and being forced to go from place to
place for succour, as opportunity served, went at length to
* Defensio.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 159
Arundell Castle, in Sussex, where he was in quality of an engi-
neer in that garrison. At length, the castle coming into the
hands of the Parliamentarian forces, on the 6th day of January,
1643, he was, by the endeavours of Mr. Franc. Cheynell (about
that time Rector of Petworth), made to Sir Will. Waller, the
prime governor of those forces, conveyed to Chichester, and
there lodged in the bishop's house, because that he, being very
sick, could not go to London with the prisoners taken in the
said castle. In the said house he remained to his dying day,
and, tho' civilly used, yet he was much troubled with the im-
pertinent discourses and disputes of the said Cheynell, which
the loyal party of that city looked upon as a shortening of our
author's days. He gave way to fate on the 24th of January
(or thereabouts), in sixteen hundred forty and three, and the
next day his body being brought into the cath. church, accom-
panied by the said loyal party, was certain service said, but not
common prayer, according to the defunct's desire. Afterwards,
his body being carried into the cloyster adjoyning, Cheynell
stood at the grave ready to receive it, with the author's book
of Tfic Religion of Protestants, &c. in his hand : and when the
company were all settled, he spoke before them a ridiculous
speech concerning the author Chillingworth and that book;
and in the conclusion, throwing the book insultingly on the
corpse in the grave, said thus : ' Get thee gone, then, thou
cursed book, which hast seduced so many precious souls; get
thee gone, thou corrupt, rotten book, earth to earth, and dust
to dust ; get thee gone into the place of rottenness, that thou
may'st rot with thy author, and see corruption.' After the con-
clusion, Cheynell went to the pulpit in the cath. church, and
preached a sermon on Luke ix. 60. 'Let the dead bury the
dead,' &c. while the MALIGNANTS (as he called them) made a
shift to perform some parts of the English liturgy at his
grave.' " *
* But it seems to appear, from Cheynell's own words, that
this was not permitted.
160 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
FUNERAL OF KING CHARLES THE FIRST,
IN ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR.
" A guard was made all along the galleries, and the Banquet-
ting-house : but, behind the soldiers, abundance of men and
women crowded in, though with some peril to their persons, to
behold the saddest sight that England ever saw. And as his
Majesty passed by with a chearful look he heard them pray for
him. The soldiers did not rebuke any of them, for, by their
silence and dejected faces, they seemed rather afflicted than
insulting. There was a passage broke through the wall of the
Banquetting-house, by which the King passed unto the scaffold ;
where, after his Majesty had spoken and declared publicly that
he died a Christian according to the profession of the Church
of England (the contents of which have been several times
printed), the fatal stroke was given by a disguised person.
Mr. Herbert during this time was at the door leading to the
scaffold, much lamenting, and the Bishop coming from the
scaffold with the royal corps, which was immediately coffin'd
and covered with a velvet pall, he and Mr. Herbert went with
it to the back stairs to have it embalmed ; and Mr. Herbert,
after the body had been deposited, meeting with the Lord
Fairfax, the general, that person asked him, How the King did?
whereupon Herbert, being something astonished at that ques-
tion, told him that the King was beheaded, at which he seemed
much surpriz'd.
" The royal corps being embalmed and well coffin'd, and all
afterwards wrapt up in lead and covered with a new velvet pall,
it was removed to St. James's, where was great pressing by all
sorts of people to see the King, a doleful spectacle, but few
had leave to enter or behold it. Where to bury the King was
the last duty remaining. By some historians 'tis said the King
spoke something to the Bishop concerning his burial. Mr.
Herbert, both before and after the King's death, was frequently
in the company with the Bishop, and affirmed that he never
mentioned any thing to him of the King's naming any place
where he would be buried : nor did Mr. Herbert (who con-
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 161
stantly attended his Majesty, and after his coming to Ilurst-
castle was the only person in his Bed-chamber) hear him at any
time declare his mind concerning it. Nor was it in his life-
time a proper question for either of them to ask, notwithstand-
ing they had oftentimes the opportunity, especially when his
Majesty was bequeathing to his royal children and friends,
what is formerly related. Nor did the Bishop declare any
thing concerning the place to Mr. Herbert, which doubtless he
would upon Mr. Herbert's pious care about it ; which being"
duly considered, they thought no place more fit to interr ihr.
corps than in the chappel of King Hen. VII. at the end of
the church of Westminster-abbey, out of whose loyns King
Charles I. was lineally extracted, &c. Whereupon Mr. Her-
bert made his application to such as were then in power for
leave to bury the King's body in the said chappel among his
ancestors ; but his request was denied, for this reason, that his
burying there would attract infinite numbers of all sorts thither,
to see where the King was buried ; which, as the times then
were, was judged unsafe and inconvenient. Mr. Herbert ac-
quainting the Bishop with this, they then resolved to bury the
King's body in the royal chappel of St. George within the
castle of Windsor, both in regard that his Majesty was sove-
reign of the most noble Order of the Garter, and that several
Kings had been there interr'd, namely, King Henry VI. King
Edward IV. and King Henry VIII. &c. Upon which consi-
deration Mr. Herbert made his second address to the Commit-
tee of Parliament, who, after some deliberation, gave him an
order bearing date the 6th of February, 1618, authorizing him
and Mr. Anthony Mildmay to bury the King's body there,
which the Governor was to observe.
" Accordingly the body was carried thither from St.' James's
Feb. 7, in a hearse covered with black velvet, drawn by six
horses covered with black cloth, in which were about a dozen
gentlemen, most of them being such that had waited upon his
Majesty at Carisbrook-castle and other places since his Ma-
jesty's going from Newcastle. Mr. Herbert shew'd the Gover-
VOL. I. M
162
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
nor, Colonel Witchcot, the Committee's order for permitting
Mr. Herbert and Mr. Mildmay to bury him, the late King, in
any place within Windsor-castle that they should think fit and
meet. In the first place, in order thereunto, they carried the
King's body into the Dean's house, which was hung with black,
and after to his usual bed-chamber within the palace. After
which, they went to St. George's chappcl to take a view thereof,
and of the most fit and honourable place for the royal corps to
rest in. Having taken a view, they at first thought that the
tomb-house built by Cardinal Wolsey would be a fit place for
his interment; but that place, tho' adjoyning, yet being not
within the royal chappel, they waved it : for, if King Henry VIII.
was buried there (albeit to that day the particular place of his
burial was unknown to any), yet in regard his Majesty King
Charles I. (who was a real Defender of the Faith, and as far
from censuring any as might be,) would, upon occasional dis-
course, express some dislike in King Henry's proceedings, in
misemploying the vast revenues the suppressed abbeys, mo-
nasteries, and other religious houses, were endowed with, and
by demolishing those many beautiful and stately structures,
which both express'd the greatness of their founders and pre-
served the splendour of the kingdom, which might at the Re-
formation have in some measure been kept up and converted to
sundry pious uses.
" Upon consideration thereof, those gentlemen declined it,
and, pitched upon the vault where King Edward IV. had
been interr'd, being on the North side of the choir, near the
altar, that King being one his late Majesty would oftentimes
make honourable mention of, and from whom his Majesty was
lineally propagated. That therefore induced Mr. Herbert to
give order to Mr. Harrison and Hen. Jackson to have that
vault opened, partly covered with a fair large stone of touch,
raised within the arch adjoyning, having a range of iron bars
gilt, curiously cut according to church-work, &c. But, as they
were about this work, some noblemen came thither, namely,
the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 163
Lindsey, and with them Dr. Juxon, Bishop of London, who
had license from the Parliament to attend the King's body to
his grave. Those gentlemen, therefore, Herbert and Mild-
may, thinking fit to submit and leave the choice of the place
of burial to those great persons, they in like manner viewed
the tomb-house and the choir, and one of the Lords beating
gently upon the pavement with his staff, perceived a hollow
sound, and thereupon ordering the stones and earth to be re-
moved, they discovered a descent into a vault where two cof-
fins were laid near one another, the one very large, of an an-
tique form, and the other little. These they supposed to be
the bodies of King Henry VIII. and Queen Jane Seymour, his
third wife, as indeed they were. The velvet palls that covered
their coffins seemed fresh, tho' they had lain there above 100
years.
" The Lords agreeing that the King's body should be in the
said vault interr'd, being about the middle of the choir, over
against the eleventh stall upon the Sovereign's side, they gave
order to have the King's name, and year he died, cut in lead ;
which whilst the workmen were about, the Lords went out and
gave Puddifant, the sexton, order to lock the chappel door,
and not suffer any to stay therein till farther notice. The sex-
ton did his best to clear the chappel, nevertheless Isaac, the
sexton's man, said that a foot-soldier had hid himself, so as he
was not discerned, and being greedy of prey, crept into the
vault, and cut so much of the velvet pall that covered the great
body as he judged would hardly be missed, and wimbled also a
hole thro' the said coffin that was largest, probably fancying
that there was something well worth his adventure. The sex-
ton at his opening the door espied the sacrilegious person, who
being searched, a bone was found about him, with which he
said he would haft a knife. The Governour being therefore in-
formed of, he gave him his reward ; and the Lords and others
present were convinced that a reall body was in the said great
coffin, which some before had scrupled. The girdle or circum-
scription of capital letters of lead put about the King's coffin
had only these words : ' King Charles, 164-8.'
M 2
164 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
"The King's body was then brought from his bed-chamber
down into St. George's hall ; whence, after a little stay, it was
with a slow and solemn pace (much sorrow in most faces being
then discernible), carried by gentlemen of quality in mourning.
The noblemen, in mourning also, held up the pall, and the
Governor with several gentlemen, officers and attendants, came
after. It was then observed that, at such time as the King's
body was brought out from St. George's hall, the sky was se-
rene and clear, but presently it began to snow, and the snow
fell so fast, that by that time the corps came to the west end of
the royal chappel, the black velvet pall was all white (the
colour of innocency) being thick covered over with snow. The
body being by the bearers set down near the place of burial,
the Bishop of London stood ready with the service-book in his
hands to have performed his last duty to the King his master,
according to the order and form of burial of the dead set forth
in the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, which the Lords likewise
desired ; but it would not be suffered by Col. Whitchcot, the
governor of the castle, by reason of the Directory, to which
(said he) he and others were to be conformable. Thus went
the White King to his grave, in the 48th year of his age, and
22d year and 10th month of his reign. To let pass Merlin's
prophecy, which some allude to the white sattin his Majesty
wore when he was crowned in Westminster-abbey, former
kings having on purple robes at their coronation, I shall con-
clude this narrative with the King's own excellent expression,
running thus: 'Crowns and kingdoms are not as valuable as
rny honour and reputation. Those must have a period with my
life, but these survive to a glorious kind of immortality, when I
am dead and gone ; a good name being the embalming of
princes, and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of
love and gratitude amongst posterity!' " *
* Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 165
CHAPTER VII.
PIETY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND CON-
TRASTED WITH THE SPIRIT OF PURITANISM - PRESBY-
TERIAN AND PAPAL PERSECUTION HISTORIANS CON-
CLUDING REFLECTIONS.
'O<ra
et rts aperr), (cat et rts eTratvos,
raura Aoytc?e<70e.
St. Paul to Fhilippians, chap. iv. verse 8.
WE have given an historical sketch of some of
the chief circumstances and of some scarcely no-
ticed by historians which led, in the seventeenth
century, to the downfall of the Episcopal Church of
England.
We shall now take a moral view of the same
period, connecting it with miscellaneous informa-
tion illustrative of this view, and concluding with
an application to some peculiar circumstances of
the present day.
Without speaking with disrespect of the learning
or the piety of many of the exemplary Presbyte-
rians, but merely of their want of COMMON CHARITY,
I would request any serious reasoner to examine
the state of piety under the sober episcopal polity
of the Church of England, when Andrewes, and
Felton, and Usher, and Hall, were as much ex-
posed to obloquy and odium as those called ARMI-
NIAN prelaticks! Did these men fill the world, as
16(5 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
the " Smcctyinnuus " asserted, with " LAMENTA-
TIONS, AND MOURNING, AND WOE?" Did the COM/7///
ambition of one (Laud) bring down destruction
on all?
Among the higher characters in Cromwell's
" praying " host, how few and here let me except
the pattern of pure and holy connubial love in
Colonel Hutchinson, and that accomplished and in-
teresting lady who has recorded in so touching a
manner, that love how few indeed among the
Presbyterians or Independents exhibited lives and
characters as amiable or pious as those they reviled !
Beautifully has St. Paul, with equal discrimina-
tion, tenderness, and eloquence, in the language of
inspiration, set before us a picture of the true
apostolic Christian : " Finally, brethren, whatso-
ever things are TRUE, whatsoever things are HONEST,
whatsoever things are JUST, whatsoever things are
PURE, whatsoever things are LOVELY, whatsoever
things are OF GOOD REPORT, if there be any VIRTUE,
and if there be any PRAISE, think of these things ! "
Did they " think of these things" who talked of
nothing but of the Lord's "WONDERFUL DEALINGS
WITH THEIR SOULS!" Did they "think of these
t/ihigs" who, rapt in doctrinal and metaphysical
subtleties
Found no end, in wandering mazes lost !
How few thought of " whatsoever things were
lovely," when " faith was all," and claimed by all !
When the "Lord's Prayer" was, in many congrega-
LIFE OF lilSHOP KEN. 167
tions,* rejected as formal, and the wildest rhapso-
dies were considered as the effect of immediate in-
spiration and God's presence when hypocrites
"sought the Lord" to sanction what was most
averse to the Lord's commandments when even
such a man as Colonel Hutchinson, as his wife
herself relates, would not sit in judgment on his
King, to whom he had sworn allegiance, till he had
"sought the Lord" though religion might have
told him that the Lord had already proclaimed
with a voice from Heaven, as when the " sound
of trumpet waxed louder and louder" in thunders
on Mount Sinai,-j~
THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER!
How few, whilst they vaunted their blasphemous
familiarity with " the Lord," and even " influence,"
thought of "THOSE THINGS" which he who said,
" we are justified by faith, and not by works of
the Law" so eloquently, so beautifully enforced on
all Christians " Whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are lovely, think of these things."
Let us look at the domestic lives of most of these
exclusively righteous ! Every heart is touched with
the sanctity and tenderness of the connubial exam-
ple of Colonel Hutchinson, whom the winds of
fanaticism touched lightly. But was this, or any
thing like it, the general character of the exclu-
* It is not admitted in the congregational service of the
Calvinistic Baptists,
f Exodus, chap. xx.
168 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
sively godly 9 How few traits do we find of Chris-
tian charity or Christian compassion !
The most affecting image of domestic tenderness
among these stern Puritans, is set hefore us in a
passage of Milton in his Latin Epistles to his
friend and tutor, William Young, one of the authors
of " Smectymnuus."
The Epistle itself is apostrophised thus :
Curre per imniensum subito, mea littera, pontum
hasten over the seas, to my friend, the pastor of the
congregation at Hamburg.
Speaking of the Epistle finding his friend far
from his native land Milton says, adding a sweet
picture of domestic happiness, in character with this
retired scholar's occupation
Invenias DULCI CUM CONJCJGE forte sedentem,
MULCEXTEM GREMIO PIGXORA SACRA SUO ;
Forsitan aut veterum perlarga volumina Patrum
Versantem, aut VERI Biblia sacra Dei.*
The picture of the father sitting beside his wife,
with his children in his lap, perhaps turning over
some great work of the Fathers or the holy
Bible is affecting to every heart, and more so
when the lines, thus beautifully, describe a repitb-
* " Him thou shalt find or by his loving wife
Seated, or his dear children in his lap
Caressing, or the works voluminous
Of the old Fathers turning, or a page,
LORD, of thy living Word."
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 169
lican expatriated minister. I have spoken of Mil-
ton's sterner look ; let me be indulged, whilst I speak
of this delightful picture of his friend, in pointing
out an exquisite picture of social and elegant do-
mestic life in one of his Sonnets :
Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,*
Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire,
Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire
Help waste a sullen day, what may be won
From the hard season gaining? Time will run
On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire
The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire
The lily and rose, that neither toil'd nor spun.
What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,
Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise
To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice,
Warble immortal notes, and Tuscan air ?
He who of those delights can judge, and spare
To interpose them oft, is not unwise.
* " The ' virtuous father,' Henry Lawrence, was member for
Herefordshire in the Little Parliament which began in 1653,
and was active in settling the Protectorate of Cromwell. In
consequence of his services, he was made President of Crom-
well's Council, where he appears to have signed many severe
and arbitrary decrees, not only against the royalists, but the
Brownists, Fifth-monarchy men, and other sectarists. He con-
tinued high in. favour with Richard Cromwell. Henry Law-
rence, the 'virtuous son,' is the author of a work entitled, ' Of
our Communion and Warre with Angels, &c. Printed anno
Dom. 1646,' 4to, 189 pages. The dedication is, ' To my most
deare and most honoured Mother, the Lady Lawrence.' He
is perhaps the same Henry Lawrence who printed ' A Vindi-
cation of the Scriptures and Christian Ordinances, 1649,'
Lond. 1-to."
170 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
We dwell with delight on the chaste and ten-
der description of elegant domestic enjoyment, in
winter, by a classical fire-side, and the com-
position appears doubly and tender, when we
take into consideration the lofty mind of the great
writer.*
* The effect is like that of the unexpected touch of natural
tenderness in the Stoic Brutus, who, in the midst of public
cares and private griefs, thus addresses the tired and sleeping
boy, in " Julius Caesar :"
Where is thy instrument ?
Lucius. Here, in the tent.
Brutus. What, thou speakest drowsily:
Poor knave, I blame thee not thou art o'er-watch'd.
Call Claudius, &c.
Brutus. Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so;
I put it in the pocket of my gown.
Lucius. I was sure your Lordship did not give it me.
Brutus. Bear with me, my good boy ! I am much forgetful.
Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile,
And touch thy instrument a strain or two ?
Lucius. Aye, my good Lord, an please you.
Brutus. It does, my boy.
I trouble thee too much ; but thou art willing.
Lucius. It is my duty, Sir.
Brutus. I should not urge thy duty past thy might.
I know young bloods look for a time of rest.
Lucius. I have slept, my Lord, already.
Brutus. I will not hold thee long. If I do live,
I will be good to thee
(boy sleeps)
Gentle knave, good night !
I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee.
If thou dost nod, thou breakst thy instrument
I '11 take it from thee and, good boy, good night!
What
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 171
But how seldom do we meet, among the very
best and purest of the republican Puritans, feelings
of any kindness ! Look at Hugh Peters Prynne
Lambert Harrison Milton himself, as a hus-
band or father Pym Cheynell, and his school
I do not speak of them as stern republicans, I
speak of them as men - particularly as professing
the pure spirit of the Christian religion that reli-
gion of which they make their exclusive boast !
On the contrary, think of the character of Jeremy
Taylor the piety of such men as Hammond,
Chillingworth, Sanderson, Ken, Sherlock, and their
school ; among the laity, think of the piety of Eve-
lyn, Wotton, Fanshawc, Lady Fanshawe, Isaak Wal-
ton, &c. Remembering " whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are lovely" respecting the traits of piety
exhibited, in prosperity and adversity, by such cha-
racters, who would not say,
Oh ! look upon this picture, and on this ?
Charles the First, in purity of life and amenity
of manners, in kindness of heart and in real piety,
is as much more "lovely" in his Christian charac-
What heart, not withering under a cold system of austere
bigotry, can read this passage without emotion ? What know-
ledge of the human heart must the great Master of Passions
have had, who has incidentally thrown in this touch of tender-
ness, to enable us to sympathize with the lofty, and heroic
character of Brutus ?
172 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
ter I am not speaking of him politically than
the fanatic or hypocritical Cromwell, as his life is
so much purer than the libertine Prince of a pro-
fligate Court, Charles the Second ; for Charles
the First had been instructed by the Church of
England Charles the Second was a secret infidel
of the Church of Rome and Cromwell learned
his " experiences," and the " impossibility of falling
from grace" of the Church of Geneva !
To say nothing of the more frantic and bloody
hypocrites, let us only think of Mrs. Milton, and
her lofty LORD, who wrote his voluminous Tetra-
chordon to prove that incompatibility of temper
was a cause of divorce !
" Homo sum, nihil humani a rne alienum puto,"
says the humane voice of Antiquity. " CHRISTIA-
NUS sum," replies the humble CHRISTIAN ! but, in
reviewing the characters most conspicuous in the
eventful tragedy of Cromwell and Charles the First,
when Charles, the rightful Sovereign, appears
Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood !
and the other, born in comparative obscurity, raised
by circumstances to the throne of British monarchs,
illustrious and feared in his transient elevation
nothing is more striking than the difference of
Christian character between the two parties.
I will not call Cromwell a hypocrite, because, in
what he professed to believe, who shall say he was
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 173
not sincere ? hut the times and scenes at least re-
quired a master-dissembler.
Tempestuous public times elevate those only who
are the most artful and unshrinking. Milder spirits
scarce dare appear ; and, if they appear for a mo-
ment, they sink and disappear as the conflict in-
creases. Far different characters are required to
Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm !
Ill Cromwell there was an union, suited to the
times, of the most cautious dissimulation and the
sternest resolution ; and he would have been lost if
he ^([failed in either character.
Those who acted subordinate parts under him in
this melancholy and bloody drama of real life, with
few exceptions, scarcely ever excite respect, never
veneration whether we take our estimate from the
Church, the Camp, or the Senate, or the illustri-
ous literary characters with whom the Lord Pro-
tector surrounded himself.
Every one knows the ecclesiastical character of
Dr. Ow r en, as a metaphysical reasoner; but what
comparison, in the estimation of any sane judge,
docs such a man bear as a Divine, to say no-
thing of his eccentricities, with Jeremy Taylor ?
Having spoken of the Clergy, let us next take
an estimate of Cromwell's godly Lords, Lord Lam-
bert, &c. Whom can we compare, in virtuous
magnanimity and nobility of heart, with Falkland,
Capel, Derby ?
Who, as country gentlemen, with Evelyn, and
174 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
thousands of that description, acting their silent
parts, in the troubles of the times, like the good
and humble Isaak Walton ?
Amongst literary characters, we can oppose none
to John Milton, REPUBLICAN but, oh! how dif-
ferent, was Milton, the amiable and ingenuous
youth of high intellect and virtue from Milton,
the unsocial and implacable polemic and repub-
lican ! *
Many of the characters of those who professed
this Calvinistic piety were not only "unlovely in
their lives," they were brutal.
Ken has been spoken of with harshness, and we
shall prove how unjustly, because he is said to have
preached " passive obedience " on the scaffold to the
dying Monmouth ! If the eloquent historian of
James the Second had read the LIFE OF KEN "by
his relation," he would have found how baseless was
this accusation ; but if the bare mention of this cir-
cumstance excites any feeling of disrespect, towards
the humane and Christian Ken, let us think only
of such a NOBLEMAN as that Earl of Pembroke,
selected for his hatred of the Episcopal Clergy, to
VISIT and PURIFY Oxford the descendant of the
noble, generous, and brave Montgomerys calling
* No doubt, it will be triumphantly said, "you speak of
Milton with delight when he was an Episcopalian!" I only
ask, was he an Episcopalian when he coldly pronounced his
withering curse? It may be said I am a high priest of the
Establishment: I answer perish the establishment, if incom-
patible with charity!
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 175
the Archbishop of Canterbury, in his fallen fortunes,
whilst sitting in judgment on him, the "greatest
rascal in England!" Let us think of a Clotworthy,
when the grey-haired victim to fanatical fury stood
on the scaffold, with the terrible apparatus of death
before him taking that opportunity to ask Laud
what text would give him most comfort at such a
time ? " Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo," ma-
jestically answered he who was about to die ! " Aye,"
replies the puritanical inquisitor, " there must be
AN ASSURANCE! an assurance!" The poor victim
turned for refuge to the bloody executioner, and
meekly entreated him to do his duty !
Nothing so fiendish, in the times of the greatest
intolerance, can be charged on the abused Clergy.
After the King's return, the Presbyterians indeed
were harshly and unjustly treated, in being classed
among the very sects whose names they abhorred,
being thus condemned in the gross. Granting they
had been intolerant and persecuting granting,
which cannot be denied, that they had refused all
accommodation, all compromise, yet, by the terms
of the Declaration from Breda, they were entitled
to a much fairer measure than they received.
They were learned they had no matter from
what motives joined in recalling the King with-
out their voice he could not have been seated on
the throne again every indulgence had been pro-
mised, a Bishoprick had been offered and accepted
by one among them and yet they, who stood
176 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
proudly apart from all sects, were classed as part of
those sects which they abhorred, and for no other
purpose than that their arms should be pinioned
and their power crushed.
This was as " hard fare " as any of which Hall
complained, and the Government and Church, as
far as the Church was concerned, stand inexcusable
before God and man.
A reconcilement was ineffectually attempted at the
famous Savoy meeting, where Gunning* and Bax-
ter were the Ajax and Ulysses of the discussion.
Since then, with the fullest and unquestioned
LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE to all, under later acts of
toleration, the beautiful cathedrals of the National
Church have raised their fronts uninjured, save by
acts of occasional fanaticism, as at York. Her ser-
vices have been performed without disturbance
her affecting and solemn choirs
Peal through the aisles the note of praise !
These beautiful buildings, having weathered many
a storm, still rise majestic in our cities, to create
the thoughts of another world amidst the noise and
smcke of thronged and commercial streets. They
still lift their calm brows above the clouds, as the
associated thought is elevated above this "pinfold
here," to the precincts of eternal day.
In the beautiful Cathedral of Salisbury reposes
that Bishop Jewell who unanswerably established
the grounds of the Church of England's title to the
* Bishop of Peterborough.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 177
Catholic Apostolic Church, in that eloquent defence
known through Europe, written in Latin, " The
Apology for the Church of England."
This same Bishop, who lies in this same beautiful
Cathedral, published what is called " Bishop Jewell's
Challenge at Paul's Cross," challenging the Doc-
tors of the Church of Rome to prove what they
never have, and never can prove, the points on
which he challenged them.*
Of the same Cathedral was " the IMMORTAL
WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH " Prebendary who,
placing INFALLIBILITY ON THE " BlBLE ALONE,"
shattered to pieces, by argument and Scripture, the
sophistry and claims of HUMAN INFALLIBILITY.
From among the Cathedral Clergy have issued
almost all the eloquent defenders of Christian truth,
who have vindicated that truth from the corrup-
tions of " tradition ;" and yet these Cathedrals,
in the eyes of Puritans, were the nests androokeries
of Popery! The Restoration, which brought Mor-
ley to the episcopal palace, again filled the Choirs
with sounds so hateful to the ears of PRYNNE.
But the piety, warm and sincere among those
who served at the restored altars, as ever was
evinced by man, no more resembled that enthu-
siasm which now lay prostrate, than the affecting
* There too lies that Bishop Davenant, the predestinarian
theologian of the Synod of Dort, who, mistaking for Christi-
anity the scholastic subtleties of Calvin, died before he tasted
the fruits of that religion which he maintained.
VOL. I. N
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
music of the Choir the nasal psalmody of Anthony
Burgene's Chapel.
Morley, and other restored Bishops, have been
arraigned as ungrateful to those, without whose
assistance they must still have eat the bread of
poverty ; and also as being harsh and vindictive to
the Presbyterian Clergy.
The character of "my Lord of Winton" being
so intrinsically connected with the Life of Ken, and
with the public circumstances of the period, I shall
make some further reflections here on the conduct,
in general, of the " Old Restored Clergy."
It has been usual, particularly among those who
claim exclusive merit for more liberal views, to
condemn these men generally as intolerant, vindic-
tive, and ungrateful ; and far be it from me to lift
up one word in vindication of intolerance or vin-
dictiveness, much less ingratitude; but, if St. Paul
said, " being defamed, we entreat," I may be al-
lowed, at least, yielding to none living in the fullest
accordance of unbounded and unrestricted right of
conscience to all, to place before the candid and re-
flecting some circumstances which have been passed
over by many historians, some which have been,
for the purposes of party, basely exaggerated,
and such as have been, from want of principle, so
daringly pervwted, that truth can hardly know her
own portrait in the distorting glass. I can truly
say I have no motives, in what I shall advance, but
those of truth and charity, and if, on the most rigid
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 179
examination, I shall be found to have offended
either, I shall be most anxious to acknowledge my
error.
The Bishops, from the times of Elizabeth to
those of Charles, were regarded as the enemies of
all religion, at the Restoration peculiarly vin-
dictive. I think I shall be able to show, and I ap-
peal only to dispassionate judges, that, in general,
neither they nor the Episcopal Clergy deserve the
reproach which has been cast on them.
The reason why the character of uncharitableness
has been so often, and I believe in most instances
so unjustly, imputed to them, is, because the cir-
cumstances under which they acted are not equita-
bly considered. Many of these mild and virtuous
men contended, not against religious liberty, but
for it, striving to disarm intolerance, the most ruth-
less and uncompromising, when their very existence
was at stake.
We have read Milton's terrific curse, at which
it may well be said "hell grows darker" and his
pious prayer, "that those who impaired TRUE RELI-
GION, after a SHAMEFUL end in this life," might be
the "down-trodden slaves" of "all the other damned"
for ever ! Such was the language through the whole
reign of Elizabeth. I will not pollute my pages
with the horrible outcry which rung from places
consecrated to God, at the beginning of the Long
Parliament. The people were so infuriated by
N 2
180 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
these Pulpit incantations, that the LIVES of the
conscientious Episcopal Clergy were in jeopardy.
When the ill-advised King demanded of the
House of Commons the five offending Members,
the inflamed multitude did not cry out, " We will
defend the brave assertors of our liberties with our
lives ;" but, after they had made a tumult for some
time about Whitehall, the cry went, " for Westmin-
ster," and the general voice was, " LET us PLUCK
DOWN THE ORGANS AND DEFACE THE MONU-
MENTS !"#
The Archbishop of York, who was then Dean of
Westminster, (and was supposed to have favoured
the PURITANS, and therefore had been so long at
enmity with Laud,) now stood in defence of the
Abbey against these furious Iconoclasts. After they
were beaten off with stones showered from the
leads, a few servants of the Archbishop rushed out
on them with drawn swords, and instantly dis-
persed the whole frantic multitude, whose valour
was chiefly directed against the non-resisting wio-
numental sculptures.
" But from this time the Bishops durst not come
near the Parliament House!" They being a few
gray-haired men, and most of them of piety, learn-
ing, and blameless lives, whose only crime, as Bishop
Hall said, was their station, offered scarce less re-
sistance to these generous enemies than the uncon-
* Ambrose Phillips's Life of Archbishop Williams.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 181
scious statues of the Abbey. " But," Phillips con-
tinues, "they durst not come near the Parliament
House, either by land or by water, the passages
were so beset against them, and they so vehe-
mently threatened by the people."
Smectymnuus, among the crimes of Protestant
Episcopacy, includes those very fires in which the
Protestant Bishops were burnt alive! and Calamy
consistently says the Bishops were all persecutors.*
The Bishops were persecuted, not for what they did
as Bishops, but for being Bishops. I do not fear
to argue this material point with any one living,
though I will not deny that severity was at last
thought the only means of security. Laud, and
Williams, afterwards Archbishop of York, differed
most materially as to the means of averting the
storm that swept away, not only surplices and mi-
tres, but, for a time, virtue, learning, and charity.
Williams and Laud differed, but common calamity
made them friends when it was too late, and when
the hasty steps of Laud could not be retraced.
But, we may ask, can it be conceived that any
set of men would, in the Jirst instance, without
provocation or oppression, unite in denouncing ven-
geance which they carried into practice the mo-
ment it was in their power on those whose only
crime was their place and station.
What cause had those called Puritans to set up
* See Biographia, article Calamy.
18:2 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
the cry of hate, and even death, against those whose
lives were blameless, and who were distinguished for
learning and virtues ? First, because the Bishops
were Z/orrf-Bishops !* Because the theologians of
the school of Geneva had learned at Frankfort,
that where there were Bishops there could be no
vital religion. Next, that, as enemies to God, they
ought to be cut off', as Sharp afterwards was !
Because these Bishops were in the front of idola-
trous worship in Cathedrals, where surplices were
worn, and boys sung a treble " like hogs ! "
In short, the universal cry was, " There could be
no religion," meaning the Presbyterian, "TILL all
the Z/or<-Bi shops were sent to the bottomless pit,
from whence they were spued out."
How glorious to such pietists must the day have
been, when, in the Cathedral of that city where
Ken was educated whose episcopal throne Mor-
ley afterwards so long adorned the " godly "
soldiery scattered over the pavement the bones of
the earliest English Prelates, bravely discharging
their reforming muskets at the statue of King
Charles ! (the marks of which may be seen to this
day ; and when, their pikes not reaching the painted
windows, they broke them into fragments, hurling
at the BISHOPS' bones f-^-
* John Vicars wrote a book with the title, " Z,orrf-Bishops,
not the LORD'S Bishops."
f They broke open the chests containing the bones of the
ancient Kings and Bishops.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 183
As if to encourage Warden Harris, who had
taken the Solemn League and Covenant, these
same "true Christians" paraded the streets in sur-
plices, sounding, as with frantic joy, an lo paean
with the broken organ-pipes.
But who excited this public spirit of these illu-
mined soldiers ? The Puritanic press and pulpit,
I reply ; and, in answer to the charge against the
abused Church of England, I throw back on those
who most deserve it, the charge of intolerance
ruthless intolerance.
In Milton's Areopagetica, or, " Speech for un-
licensed printing," which, I suspect, is more spoken
of than read, the point of inhibiting the publication
of "bad books" is fully admitted. The question
is, what books are bad? A Presbyterian would
say, " all books which advocate Prelacy ;" an Epis-
copalian would say, "all books which excite odium
by unjust representations of a particular order of
men." But no words can describe better than Mil-
ton's own the effect of the numerous and furious
pamphlets ! " I deny not but that it is the greatest
concernment in a Church and Commonwealth to
have a vigilant eye how books bemean themselves,
as well as men," &c. " I know they are as LIVELY,
and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous
dragons' teeth, and, being sown up and down, may
chance to spring up ARMED MEN." *
* The Long Parliament had scarcely met, before they issued
an Ordinance against scandalous and lying Pamphlets.
184 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
This is an exact description of their effects on
Cromwell's armed men, made frantic by those who
sowed the dragons' teeth, some of whom were
traitors in the Church. I leave the Christian reader
to determine on which side CHARITY LAY ; hut I
adduce Mlltonum contra Mlltonum.
Let us now turn to historians of the Restora-
tion. Various and most discordant
Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra
have been the accounts of the conduct of the
Clergy after the restoration of Charles the Second.
We have seen the holy and interesting groupe
of Ken and Walton at the palace of the Bishop
of Winchester. As my friend Morley, I fear,
will be classed among those who have been re-
garded, by the extreme party as intolerant, if not
oppressive, it will enter into a part of my plan to
make some further remarks on the chief of those
circumstances which have been adduced as affecting
the character of that Episcopal Church of which
Ken was now a rising and eminent member.
Of the most distinguished historian of that pe-
riod, Ncal, I shall deliver my opinion without fear,
nor am I insensible how much prejudice has var-
nished the colours on the other side ; whilst Calamy
on one part, and Walker on the other, have ad-
vanced, each with his own catalogue of orthodox
and dissenting martyrs.
If my friend Morley should appear not so tole-
rant to the Non-conformists as the general charac-
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 185
ter for moderation in the Church of England
might, at this day, incline us to have wished, I
would remind my reader of what was answered by
the Prussians, when, in the late war, the brave and
generous English reproached them for their cruelty
to the French : " You English have not had your
fields invaded, or your households scattered, or your
friends killed." Therefore, with respect to the re-
stored Clergy, although it had been much nobler,
if, " being persecuted," they had not, according to
the lesson of their divine Master, in any instance,
returned evil for evil yet, it will be remembered
they had grievous wrong, and they were met). The
most unprincipled prejudice only is to be con-
demned, which enlarges on the deprivations they
inflicted, and keeps out of sight the persecutions
they endured.
But I am bound to say that, of all who have
given their views of the circumstances of these
times, no historian has, in general, so evenly held
the balance of truth as Mr. Hallam, in his " Con-
stitutional History of England," a work which sets
him in the rank with those of the Church of Eng-
land, to whom he has done willing and generous
justice Hooker, Chillingworth, Hales, and Jere-
my Taylor. Of all historians whom it has been my
lot to look into, he is the most fair-judging, weigh-
ing every circumstance, with the acumen, discrimi-
nation, and steadiness of a philosopher, and in the
spirit of a Christian. I do not agree with him in
186 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
all parts ; and on the period of our history relat-
ing to the conduct of the Clergy towards the
Non-conformists, after the Restoration, I would
suggest some circumstances which may have es-
caped his notice, comparing the sufferings of each
party.
When we reflect on the two thousand Non-con-
formist Ministers ejected from their livings for not
declaring their assent to " all and every-thing in the
Prayer-hook," who is he that does not respect and
honour them, for surely it is unfair to attribute to
them any motives but those that guided the faith-
ful members of the Church in refusing the Cove-
nant that is, motives of conscience.
But some men's consciences are more sensitive
than others, and poor Baxter always looked back
with remorse on the sins of his youth, when he in-
dulged in "eating too many apples." We can
smile at this remorse, as well as at his terrors re-
specting " ungodly Maypoles ;" but still his feelings
were conscientious, and if in these minor things
we respect it, we must surely respect it when ho-
nours and wealth were before him, in case he com-
plied, and when he knew that deprivation and po-
verty waited on non-compliance, and yet chose, for
conscience sake, like Bishop Ken, poverty and de-
privation.
But between the two parties I must remark this
difference. The episcopal pulpits at no time re-
sounded, in the house of peace and charity, with
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 187
furious invectives, and incitements to persecution
and blood, as the Presbyterian pulpits did against
the Episcopal Clergy ; when sermons, which turn
the heart cold to read, were preached before Parlia-
ment, denouncing God's judgment on the Priests
of Baal ! that is, on those who were not Caluinistic
Puritans.
Let it, secondly, in candour be remembered, that
the restored Clergy, if a general conformity was in-
sisted on, never denied the consolation, in private,
to those who preferred the " Directory," as, in the
utmost stretch of cruelty the Presbyterians, in their
day of domination, did, under severe penalties !
denying even this consolation of "conscience 11 to
those whom they had deprived of bread.
Thirdly, I will not, Heaven forbid ! say one word
that might look like vindication, in returning " evil
for evil," but I believe no man will deny any com-
munity, especially after it has cruelly suffered, the
right to make laws and conditions for its own
safety; and let the Christian, before he hastily
classes my friend Morley among the persecutors of
the conscientious, reflect on the inveterate hatred
(for I cannot soften the word) to the ceremonies
of the Church, and her ritual, which those who
refused subscription, evinced, when, having joined
in the general voice that demanded the King, before
the King set his foot on his native soil, they de-
puted their representatives, among whom was the
188 LIKE OF BISHOP KEN.
very CASE whose sermon we have spoken of, to
request he would not tolerate
THE SURPLICE AND THE PRAYER-BOOK!
The King's answer is well known. Let it be fur-
ther considered, that, if two thousand or fifteen
hundred of talented and united men, with these
feelings of unsubdued hostility, which hostility, I
believe, every sensible mind will now admit to have
been for more frivolous than wise remained in the
communion to whose discipline and ritual they
could not assent with energy, and united talents,
and implacable aversion then Morley might as well
have taken off his square-cap again, and gone into
exile without bread ; and it would have been almost
felo de se, in those w T ho thought kneeling at the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be the most de-
vout posture, had they allowed part of the com-
municants to receive that holy rite kneeling, and
part sitting when they knew, either that they
must eat the bread of poverty again, or that this
schism must be eternal in their communion being
conscious that so large and respectable a body still
regarded with implacable hate that ritual which was
then more precious on account of the tyranny to
which it had subjected those who prized it.
The alternative, then, was adopted I will not
say justly, that charity forbids nor have I ever,
nor will I ever, say one word that might seem to
denote any feelings or any principles than those of
the cheerfully granting the rights of conscience, as
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 189
I trust that those rights will not be denied to me
but I will say, that all the circumstances in which
the restored Clergy stood, should be taken into con-
sideration before their conduct is condemned
their previous sufferings the malignant rcvilings
of their order the united strength and inveteracy
of hostility ranged against them, hostility which no
toleration could soften, and the consciousness that
both parties in the same Church could not subsist
together. The only question then must be, whether
they would succumb, voluntarily, or, adopting the
alternative, leave the result to the melioration of
charity and time.
These considerations I venture to offer, disclaim-
ing, far more warmly than I have offered them, any
participation in the feelings of the persecuting and
severe spirit, which was subsequently evinced by
Charles and James.*
Having been led to say thus much, I shall make
some remarks on another historian of these times.
"The old Clergy," says Neal, "who had been
sequestered FOR SCANDAL, having taken possession
* Mr. Hallam has delivered his sentiments as becomes him
on one persecution of the Church by the Presbyterians, but
he has overlooked a desolating persecution under the Tryers
of Cromwell the most torturing inquisition of ignorance,
arbitrarily scrutinizing the feelings, and deciding who were or
were not Calvinistic Puritans, according to their pattern of
belief; and this Junto was sent into every County, with full
powers of removal in all cases. The celebrated HUGH PETERS
was one of these Tryers !
VOL. I. N 7
190 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
of their livings, were intoxicated with their new
feelings, and threw off the restraints of their order !
such was the general dissolution of manners which
attended the deluge of joy that overflowed the
nation on his Majesty's restoration ! "
"A deluge of joy " indeed " overflowed the nation,"
when the reign of intolerant hypocrisy and demo-
niacal inspiration came to a close.
Some of the Clergy, indeed, might have given
way to feelings of inordinate joy, on heing, after
twelve years of exile and sorrow, restored to their
old parishioners, by whom their return was hailed
with more heartfelt cordiality, from the recollection
of their silent sorrows, and long suffering ; hut the
example of the Church of England still shone con-
spicuously amidst the general licentiousness, in the
reign of Charles the Second, and fifteen years only
after his death was established that Society for
promoting Christian Knowledge, which appears so
majestic in the front of our Church community at
present.
The gloom of Calvinism passed away like a
"phantasma or a hideous dream;" but charity itself
can hardly forgive the historian* who makes no ex-
ception, leaving the reader to suppose that so many
learned, pious, and holy men as the Church of
England produced in the former reign, were
turned out for scandal! I believe firmly that not
one in five hundred was turned out for "
* Neal's History of the Puritans.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 1<JI
if scandal means vicious lives, but for fidelity to the
persecuted communion, and virtuous adherence to
what they considered their duties as Christians.
The same candid writer tells us, that at this
period of universal joy, whilst " the old, sequestered
Clergy flourished in great numbers about the Court,
MAGNIFYING their sufferings" [that could not well
be], " making interest for preferment." [Why not,
having eat the bread of poverty so many years?
But what follows ? Oh grievous !] " Every one
took possession of the living from which he had
been ejected!" To be sure he did ; what could have
been more unjust if they had not ? " By which
means [oh terrible persecution !] some hundreds of
the Presbyterian Clergy were dispossessed at once."
Were they so ? and how many had they dispossessed
at once to get there? "But," adds the historian,
for once with ingenuous candour and simplicity,
" where the incumbent was dead, his Majesty
yielded that the living should be confirmed to the
present possessor ! "
I trust these observations will be construed fairly.
The whole of this work (the " History of the Puri-
tans ") is written in the spirit of extenuation on one
side, and exaggeration on the other ; and, being on
the subject of the restored Clergy, though no man
would contend more warmly for the rights of con-
science, in the widest sense, to all, I could not pass
over such historical impartiality, in an age when
Clarendon is called a BIGOT !
192 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Of the direct, deliberate, unprincipled, and
wicked FALSEHOODS of Neal, I need only mention
the following instances.
He declares that, when the punishment was pro-
nounced in the Star-Chamber against Leighton,
" Bishop Laud "pulled off his cap whilst this
merciless sentence was pronouncing, and gave
GOD THANKS ! n * How many thousand readers have
read this " merciless," and utterly false " sentence,"
and believed it true ! How many writers have
echoed it as undoubted! I assert it to be FALSE !
I tell Mr. Godwin so ! the author of the " History
of the Commonwealth." I tell my respected friend
Agar Ellis so ! Is it found in any credited histo-
rian ? Is it in Rushworth ? Is it there ? Look,
thou impartial historian, Godwin ! If not there,
where is it ? When I see the passage, in any con-
temporary historian worthy of credit, I shall retract
what I say in the face of the Christian world, and
not before !
How malignant must have been that spirit of
party which could, without any authority, sit down
and invent THIS DELIBERATE FALSEHOOD !
Rash as he was, I pledge myself to prove that
Laud resorted to no harsh severity till his life was
threatened. His object was to defend the Episco-
pal Church, the Throne, and his own grey hairs.
* There is, by some historians equally veracious and impar-
tial, a like wicked perversion of the sentiments and words of
Laud, respecting the offer of a Cardinal's hat.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 193
It was indeed most true that the inhumanity to-
wards Leighton and Prynne injured his cause far
more than their books. Most inhuman, indeed,
was this sentence of the Star-chamber on these
miserable men ! most inhuman the infliction ! and,
if I speak of any Inquisition with horror, let me
not for a moment be thought to except the in-
famous Inquisition of the Star-chamber of Charles
the First. Let the Christian reader, however he
may deem the language of the Histfidnuutix ab-
surd, irritating, and most intolerant, think of the
stripes, the mutilations, and the judgment of im-
prisonment for life ! But in this, as in all instances,
cruelty defeated its own purposes. The Puritan-
pack now urging on the chase with redoubled cry,
it was decided in this den, that rigid and signal
punishment alone could divert the bloodhounds
from their track. Laud was the hunted victim,
and he turned in terror from the cry of blood and
vengeance, deepening as it approached more near.
Then, as in despair, these ruthless measures were
resorted to.
As to the voluminous and inflexible Prynne, in-
stead of the cruel punishment he suffered and it
was the punishment, and not his interminable vo-
lumes, which excited the feelings of the nation
against Laud and the Bishops instead of clipping
his ears, so obdurate to harmony, it would have
been wiser if the conclave in Star-Chamber had
VOL. i. o
11)4 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
ordered him to do penance in a square-cap* on his
own folios, and had then proceeded to exorcise
his spirit, hy making him listen, notwithstanding
all grimaces, to some scene so comic as that of
the Fairies dancing round Falstaff! After this dis-
cipline, four-and-twenty choristers, in white sur-
plices, led hy the Boy-bishop, should sing round
him '* CANTATE ! " It might tend to dispel the last
fumes of his solemn spleen, if he were led forth,
however tristful and repugnant, to see, " on a sun-
shine holiday? the lads and lasses of the village
dance round a Maypole, to a tabor playing " White-
lock's Corranto!" Such a judgment by the Star
Chamber would have been far more effectual to
exorcise a spirit so morose, than the cruel stripes
and imprisonments the implacable Presbyterian en-
dured triumphantly !
It is true, instead of such inhumanity, it would
have been far wiser to have treated with ridicule
this poor, honest Presbyterian's wrath ; but it is no
less true that the Church of England, in a dignified
position between those who decided that "TOLERA-
TION WAS ESTABLISHING INIftUITY BY LAW," and
those who executed, to the letter, the Statute " de
hcereticus comburendis" has been most unjustly
accused as being generally the most intolerant and
persecuting " of either."
* A Puritan Dean of Wells literally ordered the penance of
a square-cap, in derision, to be worn in church by a malignant
delinquent.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 195
In the present day, a summary way has been
adopted to disprove the charge of persecution on
the part of the Church of Rome. There was no
such thing as the massacre of the Protestants in
Ireland in 1640! It is all a calumny! And as to
the burning old Latimer, and Cranmer, and Ridley
they suffered in the flames justly, because they IN-
TENDED to inflict the same torture on others ! Such
an historian is a modern Doctor !
In speaking of religious persecution, I should
feel deserving to be condemned by heaven and
earth, if I should dare to breathe a thought in
palliation of the burning of a poor woman by
Cranmer ; but I should feel myself not less to be
condemned, by the laws of God and man, if I did
not lift up my voice
Si quid loquar audiendum
against that deduction of this Papal historian, that
" Cranmer and his ASSOCIATES perished in the
flames THEY HAD PREPARED FOR OTHERS!'
They, the tormented, to show that their agoniz-
ing torments are no more than they deserved, are
pronounced to have INTENDED to make others suf-
fer in the same manner ! Of the grounds of such
a hideous reversal of character, the astonished and
indignant reader might well ask, what is the proof
or evidence ? Let the most sanguinary Inquisitor that
ever condemned a miserable wretch to the flames of
an auto da fe find, if he can, a clearer proof!
Cranmer and his associates are burned alive at the
o2
19() LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
fiery stake justly for they intended to do the same
to others ! What proof is there of this intent of
Cranmer and his suffering " associates ? " Oh ! a
paper has been found, in which a sentence appears,
that he who, after every thing has heen tried in vain,
opposes and oppugns the fundamental principles
of Protestantism, is "PUNIENDUS." And what is
tbe translation of PUNIENDUS, from which such an
inference is drawn? To "SUFFER DEATH." And
the Christian lesson is this
Cranmer and "his ASSOCIATES" were burnt alive,
because
Cranmer and " his associates " intended to burn
others alive.
The word " puniendus " is a proof of this inten-
tion, "puniendus" meaning "to suffer death."
Therefore Cranmer and his associates are justly
burned alive!
I will say nothing of Cranmer, because he caused
a frantic woman to be burnt alive and even guided
the pen, and endeavoured to steel the shrinking
heart, of an ingenuous youth ; but who are " the
associates,'' thus summarily classed as burners in
intent, because they used the w r ord " puniendus ? "
Was Ridley one, who, from his kind heart, opened
his house to the mother and sister of the man who
burnt him ? Was Hooper one ? Was Latimer ? No :
but they were guilty of using the word " punien-
dus," and therefore they intended fire and faggot !
" Puniendus " means " suffer death !" Oh dispas-
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 107
sinuate reasoners ! Oh mild Inquisitors of Goa,
of Spain, and of Lisbon ! The heart shrinks indig-
nant from such cruel sophistry.
I turn to speak of an historian who may have,
as all men must have, a bias, but who, in fairness
of construction, in conscientious integrity, stands
unrivalled I mean the author of the "Constitu-
tional History of England," Mr. Hallarn. Speak
nig of Dr. Lingard's deduction from the word
"puniendus," he says, "he by no means," in this
instance, " pretends that Dr. Lingard was mis-
taken." What! not mistaken in translating "pu-
niendus" "to suffer death?" A scholar might be
mistaken in translating an involved and obscure
sentence ; but here could have been no mistake.
The translation of "puniendus" is "suffer death."
It is possible the context might justify that inter-
pretation : but why is not the context given ?
Without it, the deduction is inhuman, as the proof
is Jesuitical! There was and could be no "mis-
take" and, if no mistake, such a translation was
wilful, to serve a purpose both of defamation and
injustice, of insidious defamation and cruel in-
justice.
I have no fear, however, of the revival of the
Act de hcereticis comburendis, and therefore I turn
from the contemplation of past persecutions to that
quarter from whence the Episcopal Establishment
may possibly be again exposed to something like
the proscription of the godly " Lords " and Major-
generals of CROMWELL !
198 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
That "foul weather" is approaching, and that it
will behove we know not how shortly the faith-
ful Shepherds of the Christian flock to take Morley's
old cloak ah out them, must be obvious to the least
attentive observer of the signs and seasons, from
the more loud and ominous Geneva croak, "Popery!
Popery!" and from the portentous clouds that
seem, darker and darker, to lower over the bat-
tlements of our Establishment.
One periodical, with the picture of the spires
and venerable Abbey of Westminster as a frontis-
piece, cries, " Down with it ! why cumbereth it the
ground for of what USE is it r "
Another fulminates its declamation on the " oinni-
vorant Tithe-holders," not supposing that the far
greater number of omni-vorant Tithe-holders are
to be found, with the lands once devoted to the
poor, among dukes, lords, and squires !
Lord Mountcashel,* like another Lord Pembroke,
has already put himself in front, to raise orthodox
*' dulness" to the "vital" heat of his own evangeli-
cal barometer; besides having found out that \fsome
clergymen in Ireland take only a quarter of their
dues, it is BECAUSE they cannot get more ! which
* See Lord Mountcashcl's first Letter.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 199
I suppose affects himself as much as the Clergy.
His Lordship has, moreover, discovered, with holv
horror, that in England, where the hierarchy is not
so rich as in Ireland, cathedrals are sinfully dese-
crated by the sublime strains of Handel ! his Lord-
ship doubtless conceiving, like another Prynne, that
the choristers " roar out a treble like a sort of
hogs!" He has also discovered that, as the high and
holy strains of Handel cannot be performed with-
out performers, and that musicians will " not sound
except for silver," though the cause is that of CHA-
RITY, and the strains intensely devotional yet is
such music, in such a place, sinful, and an offence
to the " really pious ! "
I do not find that there are such pietists, in the
present day, as those of the times of " Old Noll,"
who make wry-mouths at u custards ,-" but the con-
ventual phraseology is the same they are as blas-
phemously familiar, as to the most trifling " deal-
ings with the Lord !" they are as charitable in pro-
nouncing the Lord's vengeance on wicked " stage-
players ! " Some who take much pains to edify the
soldiers and sailors, least they should "perish," by
going to the eighteen-penny gallery to see Fanny
* A Magazine for Sailors and Soldiers was left, gratis, in
some of the principal inns of Bath, instructing the visitors of
that enlightened city that a player was struck with paralysis,
and that this visitation, it was inferred, was the just judgment
of an offended Deity !
200 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Kemble hold out in their magazines, as a just
judgment of the Almighty, the afflicting circum-
stance of a poor man struck on the stage with
paralysis ; as if preachers of the Gospel never died
of apoplexy ! Shakspeare is with some pietists, as
in Cromwell's time, the " Prince of Darkness,"
and " every step in a dance a step to hell," notwith-
standing our Saviour tells us the father received
his returning prodigal son with " dances"
Such is the Revival, as it is called, in the present
day. Revival of What ? Of the religion of Jesus
Christ ? Of Evangelical faith and charity ? No ;
very little, I fear ! We have a revival, indeed, of
the very spirit and phrase of Praise-God -barebones !
of Hugh Peters, " the Preacher of the Lord ! "
we have the religion and jargpn of these men "re-
vived" We have had "revivals" enough of this
sort, and shall have more : and to show how true,
in letter and spirit, this "revival" is, I shall quote
part of a letter written by Cromwell not long be-
fore he "sought the Lord" to know whether the
Lord would command him to commit murder !
which letter would suit the most evangelical young
lady in the present day. Thus the evangelical
Cromwell enditeth :
" When we think of our God, what are we }
Oh ! his mercy to the whole society of Saincts,
despised, jeered Saincts.' Let them mock on !
Would we were all Saincts' The best of us are,
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 201
God knows! weak Saincts. If not Saincts, vet
* j
lambs, and MUST be fed?*
These were the reformers of the Church when
Hall and Usher adorned it ; these were then the
petitioners to the Houses of Lords and Commons,
" that it would please them to promote true godli-
ness, and take their estates from ohese Bishops,
oscitant Deans, and "unworking" Clergy!"
The same cry was made against Bishops in those
days, in favour of the "pains-taking Clergy," that
is, Calvinistic Puritans ! and do we not hear the
same cry revived ? A distinction is made between
the Rector, with tithes, and the " working Curate,
with a miserable stipend ! " The stipend at present
is such as to induce a thousand uneducated and
illiterate men to press into the Church, for one
substantial reason the stipend ! Such illustrious
ivorkers often show much zeal less knowledge
and not unfrequently with as little charity as judg-
ment! The stipend, which was forty pounds per
annum forty years ago, is now 150/.
The Act called Lord Harrowby's, in its first
concoction, whilst it professedly protected the poor
* Letter to Lord Wharton, dated 164-8. Thurlow's State
Papers, vol. i. p. 99. The first letter in these papers shows his
adroitness in this style, on which his acts are the best com-
ments : it is dated 1638. He says : " Oh ! I lived in and loved
darkness, and hated the light ! " &c. Quere, whether he loved
the light more when he was fully illumined, in his last days?"
His MAJOR-GENERALS were the " Saints that must be fed! "
202 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
Curate, was to the Rector or Vicar, often as poor,
inhuman ; for, in cases where the living was not
worth more than 150/. a year, the Curate was to
take all, when perhaps the Vicar had done his duty
for forty years anxiously and piously ; for Rectories
being chiefly in lay hands, a poor Vicar, who had
spent his hest days with his humble parishioners,
beloved and respected, might go, with his children,
to a gaol or a workhouse. This was Lord Harrow-
by's benevolent and pious intention ; but, at present,
the Bishop has a power to settle the terms of the
Curate, in case the living does not exceed 150/. per
annum, so that the Vicar shall not, in his grey hairs,
and with his children, beg his bread !
In his days of strength and health, and residing
necessarily on his living, where is there a clergyman
who is not " working ?" unless exempted by ill-
health from residence or, as in some cases, hold-
ing two livings. He, besides his weekly duties
instructs the children visits the poor prays
over the sick in the parish where he has been
long resident as much, and with as warm, and
why not warmer interest, than any Curate? When
a Curate is resident in a parish in which the Rector
or Vicar cannot reside, having another living, and
being exempted by Act of Parliament, or licence
most active, and laborious, and anxious is generally
the life of the working Curate, but not more than
a conscientious Rector or Vicar, though, among ten
thousand persons, there must of course be many
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 203
individual exceptions. But, let us sec who, in a
higher sense, are the "working Clergy?" Not
merely the Curate or Rector, who does his duty in
his parish. In a much higher and more appropriate
sense the Horsleys, the Paleys the Fabers
the Magees the Lawrences the thousand elo-
quent defenders of Christianity against assailants
the ten thousand vindicators of truth the host
of learned elucidators of the Scriptures, from those
who translated the Bible to the present day - these
are the ''working Clergy;" and these, almost with-
out exception, are from the higher stations or orders
of the Clergy. But, I as warmly say, whenever
such "working" Clergymen are found among those
whom the sunshine of Preferment has not visited,
they have a claim, a paramount CLAIM, on their
more prosperous brethren. Many such examples
I do know many of the greatest talents and of
the purest lives, are found, scattered through our
Sion, yet are their grey hairs unremembered. As
to sinecures, those who are called to reside at their
Cathedrals attend the service of the Cathedral every
day ; for three months they cannot go beyond the
sound of the bells they preach in their turns and,
when the term of residence is expired, they go back
again to their village duties, as Parochial Clergy-
men. If you say there ought to be no such thing
as Dignitaries, then say there ought to be NO
Cathedrals. Besides this, I affirm, and the proof
is easy, that the most learned, the most eloquent
204 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
works, that throw a radiance on an intellectual and
Christian country, are not from the lower Clergy
Jewel, Butler, Bull, Sherlock, Pearson (Creed)?
Douglas, Tillotson, Taylor, Lowth, &c. are from
the highest orders, and these, of the " working
Clergy," are the noblest and most useful. Nor do
I think that any thing can he found more injurious
to a State than a plebeian Clergy, unless gifted
with the learning or inspiration of St. Paul.
By the expression of plebeian Clergy, I trust it
will not be supposed, for one moment, I could pos-
sibly mean any except illiterate, and illiberal persons.
Some of the highest ornaments of the Establish-
ment have arisen from humble parents. When I
speak of plebeian Clergy, I mean those who, un-
distinguished by manners or education, have been
clandestinely, or hastily, or from false views, ad-
mitted into the Church, by those who ought to
" lay hands suddenly on no man.' 1 ''
Such men, as often destitute of morals as man-
ners, get into the Church for " the piece of bread,"
the advanced value of Curacies ; and, when they
have gained thus much, stun the public with ac-
counts of neglect of MERIT ! and that the " working
Clergy," and "most deserving Clergy," are neglected !
the Rector being a mere drone, and they " the
only labourers worthy of their hire ! " Nor let it
be supposed that, by saying this I would pass by
without reprobation that character when such a
character is found that on
' Fat pluralities supinuly thrive.-.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. '20.")
and contentedly lets others do the work, at the least
possible pay! That some characters of this kind
may be found among ten thousand men there can
be no doubt, but I believe they are rare. Amidst
these conflicts, my Lord Mountcashel has put him
self at the head of a Synod to petition Parliament
to reform the Church ; and, in fact, to legislate for
the Church according to his views of piety.
The Church of Ireland, and that of England,
do not stand upon the same ground : there is more
enormous wealth on one side. Of the Irish Church,
I speak nothing ; but, when such men as Magee
and Lawrence have succeeded an Usher, in this
Church, to such, and to many such, might she well
point with triumph. I am only speaking of the
Episcopal Church of England; and I say, in the
face of my Lord Mountcashel, that vile must be
that mind that brings false statements as facts for
accusation. The same candour is visible in making
general charges, as if the general charges were uni-
versally admitted, when, perhaps, not two instances
in a thousand could be adduced. So we are told of
petitions to Parliament against the immorality of
the Clergy a host of petitions when there is
found only one.
I fear, from what appears in this advance-guard
of attack on the Episcopal character, and Church
property, not that piety, and the good of the
Church, is intended but a peculiar kind of piety,
of which we have seen the fruits in a former age.
206 LIFE OF B1SHOR KEN.
I particularly think myself justified in believing
this, when I find the selected sin of the Church of
England is that in which, if it he a sin, I shall be
an unrepentant sinner as long as I live that of
attending an oratorio, when I can, in its most ap-
propriate place. We might easily excuse his Lord-
ship from attending such sacrilegious meetings, but
we know not, from reason or Scripture, that he,
ex cathedra, has a right to erect himself into a
judge of that which I think no sin at all, but, on
the contrary, assistant to piety and purity ; and
which, if it were a sin, so pronounced by a Puri-
tanical Pope and Council in Ireland, is not half so
great a sin as insinuations which are false as
charges which are without proof as bearing wit-
ness against our neighbours, whilst we profess duty
to God !
We know that the " Tryers " under the " Lord
Protector," examined thousands of pious and de-
serving men, and dismissed them to seek their bread,
because they did not answer, satisfactorily to the
examiners, on questions of " experiences " grace
and horror of theatres ! Yes, my Lord, reforma-
tion is indeed necessary ; and, to adopt your Lord-
ship's discriminating style, it is requisite most among
those "nominal 1 " Christians, who assume the cha-
racter of exclusive righteousness. It would be
proper to reform them, in giving them some notion
of charity! It would be proper to reform them,
LIFE OF HISHOP KEN. -JU7
by showing that to ' ; swallow camels and strain at
gnats" is not Christianity.
If Lord King is prepared to head a commission
for purifying the Bench of Bishops, doubtless your
Lordship will be found as adequate a "Tryer" of
all the "worldly-minded !" But ecoutez! Exem-
plary as are the lives of the great body of the
Clergy, if there be occasionally found among them
instances, however rare, of such loathsome vices as
would make your solitary villain on whose ac-
count the House of Lords was justly petitioned
seem virtuous! if instances of uncharitableness
meanness slander, &,c. are found, such instances
are found, not among the old, plain, pious, unosten-
tatious Clergy, but the ''really pious" flock, and
their solijidian shepherds ! This I can prove :
I say it reluctantly ; but, when an estimate is made
of the "worldly-minded" and "really pious," ac-
cording to the scale and measure of a new Geneva
Synod, though a pious Lord is at the head, I tell
that Lord, without entering into the dispute con-
cerning the Irish Church that "real piety" docs
not depend upon his, or his Star-chamber's, estimate
and that CANT is not CHRISTIANITY!
As to many pure and excellent, and many most
exemplary Christians among those called Evan-
gelical,
Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine habetur.
The Christian honours and loves a Christian in
heart, under whatever appellation he may be di^tin-
208 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
guished. I have expressed my opinions decidedly,
but I trust not uncharitably : my spirit is with the
Hammonds, the Taylors, the Sherlocks, the Lowths,
of the Church of England.
As to the political aspect of the times, it does
appear to me, I confess, that, when driven on the
breakers and shoals, by trusting to reckless and
pitiless " political economists," the vessel of the
State, with all its gallant crew, is about to founder,
a muster is got up in Ireland, to make those suffer
who least deserve it ; and the Chaplain of the vessel
is the first, as a sacrifice, to be thrown overboard.
Tories and Episcopalians filled the House of
Commons at the Restoration. Whigs and Tories
on the accession of King William. Tories, in the
reign of Queen Anne. Whigs through the reigns of
George the First and Second. Tories to the death
of George the Third. In the present day of the
" march of intellect," we have Saints and Infidels,
Political Economists and Benthamites, Roman Ca-
tholics and Radicals Lord King in the House of
Lords, and Mr. Hume in the House of Commons
all in amicable league against the Establishment!
It only remains for a Committee, with Lord Mount-
cashel, like another Lord Pembroke, and Hume, his
calculating co-adjutor, to proceed with full powers
to institute a new visitation of Oxford, to open the
Parliamentary Commission at Wells or Salisbury,
and to expel forthwith such " scandalous-" members
as they should choose so to designate.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 209
But, besides the gratuitous surveillance of the
Star-chamber of Lord Mountcashel, the revenues
of the bloated Episcopal Church in Ireland and
England, it is said, are to be put into the crucible
of political experimentalists ; at least, a kind of
" ROBBING OF PETER TO PAY PAUL," is the Cry
of some political and religious projectors and eco-
nomists. That no obstacle might stand in the way
of levelling the great LAND-MARKS of vested pro-
perty in the Church, it is now a common argument
that there is a distinction between private and
public property.
According to such views, the PROPERTY of indi-
viduals is sacred, but the property bequeathed, under
the same laws, for an important public service, is
not invested with the same sacred security as the
PROPERTY of an individual ! So a linen-draper's
shop in St. Paul's Church-yard is invested with a
more sacred security than St. Paul's Church, he-
cause that beautiful structure, towering from age
to age into the calm sunshine, above the stir, and
noise, and smoke of a commercial city, to raise the
thoughts of the passengers to more awful and eter-
nal interests, was built, forsooth, by the NATION!
Such worse than sophistry is, in my opinion, its
own refutation. If property be sacred at all, pro-
perty which has been bequeathed under the sanc-
tion and presumed inviolability of the law, con-
firmed by the MAGNA CHARTA of ages, for public
specific purposes, is, to all intents, the MOST
VOL. i. P
210 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
SACRED property of any. It was bequeathed to
the State, Bud for the State; not for the fleeting
individual.
It is true that ecclesiastical property may attain,
as it has done, an undue and overwhelming pre-
ponderance. The Statute of MORT-MAIN * wisely
has guarded against this. But a tyrant, like Henry
the Eighth, might say "The property which ancient
piety bequeathed, is MINE ! mine, as DEFENDER
OF THE FAITH ! mine, as the Head of the Church!"
And if the people of England, instead of bringing
to the block Charles, the affectionate and faithful
husband, Charles, the kind-hearted master, Charles,
the tender father, had trampled to the earth this
lustful, loathsome tyrant, making this murderer of
his wives "a spectacle to the injured and insulted
Nation," mercy would have applauded the act of
national justice ? *\-
But that the property of the Church, bequeathed
as sacredly and employed more usefully than any
other description of property in the State, can
now attain undue preponderance, watched by invi-
dious eyes, and bound by statutes, is what I should
hope none but the most unprincipled democrat will
contend.
Yet is it proclaimed, by a thousand sages of the
press, " an archbishop has twenty or thirty thou-
sand pounds a-year, with a magnificent palace, when
* ' Mortuis manibus."
f Cromwells or Miltons do not appear in such reigns.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 211
a poor 'working Curate' has only a hundred or a
hundred and fifty pounds a-year at the utmost ! "
Pause a Curacy of a hundred and fifty pounds
a year is more, in income, than a living, with ne-
cessary expences, of two hundred, or perhaps two
hundred and fifty pounds per annum, and is four
times the value of a Curacy thirty years ago. And
what Protestant prelate, since the times of political
prelacy and the abhorred Star-chamber, has not
shown as much virtue and piety in a humbler sta-
tion, as in the front of the Christian Church ?
I well know how little any reason weighs with
some reasoners; yet, admitting for a moment that a
new Puritan or infidel Committee may dis-
pose of property which they consider national as they
please, let us come a little closer to this question, the
more momentous when such agitation " is abroad."
This subject is surely in connection with the Life of
a Prelate deprived, for conscience sake, of all he
possessed in that Church which he adorned.
Without adducing many arguments which have
been often far more eloquently enforced, let us re-
member that the Christian community, in a great
nation, consists of the high and the low, the rich
and the poor from the opulence and smoke of the
towered city,
Fumum, et opes, strepitumque Koine,
to the green villages, scattered,, with their slender
spires, through all the retired and remote vallies of
the land. In the country, the possessor of large
p 2
212 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
ancestral property looks round him, from the seat
of his hereditary residence : instead of beholding a
clerical neighbour repugnant in manners, and of
confined education, a mere Trulliber, he meets a
cultivated character, who can be, according to St.
Paul, "COURTEOUS" as well as "PITIFUL," "cour-
teous" to all, subservient to none, and "pitiful"
to the poor and needy ; of education equal to
his own, yet, with such habits and such educa-
tion, never transgressing the limits of each respec-
tive station in society. Will not all the lessons of
Christianity come with double weight and effect,
from a minister so placed and so adorned ?
Let us apply the same mode of reasoning to the
KING ON HIS THRONE. Shall he be approached by
a spiritual adviser, without the manners of culti-
vated life, or of a station so far beneath his own,
that this circumstance alone would prevent the
nearer approach of ministerial intercourse, concern-
ing interests as awful to the King in his palace
as to the poorest of his subjects for "the fashion
of this world passeth away," and the crown and the
sceptre are no more than their short-lived possessor
in the sight of the "KiNG OF KINGS." Oh! are
there not hours when the mightiest feel the want of
kind admonition and spiritual comfort ? The spectre
of death seems more terrible when beheld approach-
ing in the sunshine of earthly prosperity. A digni-
fied Christian instructor is therefore often far more
essential than a Minister of State.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 213
John Knox might think plebeian insolence to a
Sovereign even if that Sovereign was an unpro-
tected female the highest test of Apostolic autho-
rity. I trust we do not yet so feel, or so argue.
In a great and opulent Country, a correspondent
station is assigned to the Primate of the Christian
National Church. He exhibits, from illustrious emi-
nence, to the highest and the lowest of the Nation,
a public example of Christian charity, as of culti-
vated amenity of manners : he exhibits, also, in front
of a Christian community, piety without puritanism
independence, without subservience to the proud-
est. Employing wealth more as the munificent dis-
penser of charities (the patron of Christian bene-
volence as well as the pattern) than as the " rich
man faring sumptuously." Such a character ap-
pears, in his place, the Christian associate, in a
Christian kingdom, of a CHRISTIAN KING! For
the same reason, our spiritual Peers, in limited
numbers, not two to fifty, appear mingling their
mild dignity amid the nobility of the kingdom. Yes.
and hold their mitred heads amongst the proudest
coronets in the seat of hereditary legislature, to
teach even a LORD KING to feel his SUPERIORS, in
every thing but the accidental circumstance of
patrician birth !
Whether the Episcopal Church of England, one
of whose most virtuous characters, among a thou-
sand others in the same station, is the subject of
this work, shall be doomed, amidst the conflicting
214 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
tumults of the times, to be levelled or destroyed
or whether the spirit of sober, scriptural, apostolic
truth, shall again be succeeded by illiterate and
heartless puritanic fanaticism or whether the hal-
lowed altars, rescued from superstitious pageantry,
where the priest appears in the plain surplice,* not
the gorgeous cope, shall be profaned whether the
roofs, resonant with daily praise, shall be silent
whether the property that supports an order of
the Clergy in decent dignity, but not in splendour,
called to officiate daily during their season of resi-
dence, shall be confiscated whether, in the tem-
pest which seems rolling near and more near
The spirit of the first-born Cain
shall eventually prevail, I have thought it my
* A superb, embroidered Cope, and various splendidly-illu-
mined Missals, are preserved in the Vestry and Library of Sa-
lisbury Cathedral. There could not be a more striking illus-
tration of our Cathedral worship and that of the Romish com-
munion. The Missals, so richly illuminated, contain prayers to
the virgin and St. Anthony ! The Cope displays, in purple and
gold, the Cross and miracles in embroidery! The comely
and plain white Surplice is the vestment of our exterior service ;
we have the Prayer-book, containing only prayers to God,
"through Jesus Christ, our Lord;" and we have the OPEN
BIBLE, in the VULGAR TONGUE. The Choristers, also, have
the same plain white surplice ; and he must have the heart of a
Prynne who could hear, without affecting interest, their clear
voices, in the purest innocence of youth, swelling the devotional
chaunt; or see them, without the same interesting feelings,
when the chaunt has ceased, leaniag attentively, two and two,
over a small BIBLE, whilst the appointed Lessons are read, for
every day in the year.
LIFE OF BISHOP KEN. 215
duty regardless of the contumely of infidel dema-
gogues or " puritanic Lords," to deliver my own
sentiments, as unreserved and as undisguised as I
feel them, not as a Church-man, but as an ENGLISH-
MAN, who loves the Institutions, the Laws, and the
Religion of his Country.
I here conclude the first volume of the Life of
Bishop Ken, containing the least interesting portion
of that life, and including the summary of the Life
of his first Patron, Bishop Morley, with an account
of the origin of that patronage.
This portion of Ken's private life is shown in
connection with the characters and events, political
and religious, of the periods under review.
Detached, indeed, from such accompaniments, how
uninstructive, how uninteresting is all biography !
But, I trust, if I have been so far fortunate as to gain
the reader's attention, I may further hope to do so
when I bring forward the chief character of the
history into more illustrious and public light. This
character, which I shall endeavour faithfully to de-
lineate, will rise in dignity as we proceed, and, amidst
the events of the age in which he lived in pros-
perity and adversity in public or in private life
in a palace or a prison in his lawn sleeves, on
his cathedral throne at Wells or with his shroud,*
* It is said he brought his shroud with him to Long-leat.
216 LIFE OF BISHOP KEN.
at the last asylum of age, in the hospitable man-
sion of his early friend Bishop Ken will appear
unaltered and consistent the same firm and affec-
tionate friend* the same conscientious and fear-
less minister of his crucified Master the same
mild, benevolent, and high-principled man, the same
most unostentatious, but fervent and sincere Chris-
tian. May his example shine, when the hand that
holds the pen shall be dust !
* Lord Viscount Weymouth, at whose noble mansion, after
twenty years residence, he died. He was buried at the nearest
churchyard of his former diocese, at Frome, and lies just under
the east window of the parish church.
HISTORICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
DOCUMENTS AND REFLECTIONS.
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON THE
EIKftN BA2IAIKH.
Respecting the different opinions lately published ou
the Emav Ba<n*j*n, by my friend Mr.Todd, and the Master
of Trinity, I might indeed say
NOX NOSTRUM TAXTAS COMPOXERE LITES.
but I have given some reasons which I think would in-
cline us to believe that, after all, in this case, as in gene-
ral, the truth lies between two extremes.
The Master of Trinity is convinced that King Charles
wrote the whole of Icon ; Mr. Todd, that he wrote not a
word of it: my conviction is neither wholly with one nor
the other. I have noticed a most material fact, spoken
of by Kennet. This slight allusion led instantly to the
idea of a connection between the person mentioned and
the King's most faithful and confidential friend; and
this circumstance, on inquiry, accidentally receives the
fullest corroboration. There was, at the time, a Mr.-
Symons, Minister of Rayne. The parish is in the gift
of the family of Capel, as patrons. This Mr. Symons
is presented to the living, not by Lord Capel's father,
as I first conceived, but by Lord Capel himself. Bock-
ing is the next parish, of which Gauden was Rector.
That some papers of King Charles were, through the
Capels, intrusted to their friend, the Pastor of their
parish, seem- to me evident; and that, also, they were
218 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
intrusted by Symons to Gauden, the Rector of the
nearest parish. Symonds died soon after. In the year
1660 died also the desolate Lady Capel. These were
the only persons who could have told the truth, when
the claim was made. This evidence is external. I shall
now say a word of the internal evidence. The Master
of Trinity, with the warmth which every one naturally
feels hefore he has paid greater attention to all the
circumstances and which warmth does credit to his
heart instantly, from these generous feelings, decides
that Charles wrote the whole.
Mr. Todd has brought Gaudenisms from Gauden's
writings, which induce him to decide that the whole
tissue is Gauden's elaborate and tawdry manufacture.
Now 1 will take only the first chapter. I would say to
the Master of Trinity, you recollect the words of Horace
Si vis me flere, dolendum est
and another passage
Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba.
1 would ask the Master can you, after the most atten-
tive critical reflection, believe that any man, under real
sorrow, would or could write as follows :
" Although I was not forgetful of those sparks which
some men's distempers formerly studied to kindle in Par-
liament (which by forbearing to convene for some years
1 hoped to have extinguished), resolving," &c.*
Here is an almost interminable sentence, in which
"sparks" are "kindled" by "distempers" (in the true
style of cockney eloquence!) which the writer "hoped
to have ext inguished j" and, before this flaring metaphor
is "extinguished," before the sentence is finished, he tells
* See RIKUV BafftXiK)), chap. i.
AND REFLECTIONS. 219
us that he doubted not the "weight of reason" would
" counterpoise the over-balancing " of any factions !
Quodcunque ostendis mihi s/c, incredulus odi
the whole composition, with the exception of two
chapters, is thus "sicklied o'er" with tawdry affectations
and cold metaphysical ornaments, as repugnant to taste
as to feeling; and yet who has read this work, even
with these grotesque additions, without an impression
in favour of the King? Why is this? Because there
are some passages which, through all the glittering en-
velopement, steal out and interest us, as dignified and
affecting ; and our heart, thus impressed, involuntarily,
and before critical discrimination, is disposed to pro-
nounce as our natural sympathies incline us.
If I am not mistaken, I could with little pains unravel
the whole tawdry texture. The first chapter will not
be so fit for our purpose; but I take the first chapter as
it comes, and set before the reader a small part of it,
as, according to my ideas, it might have been originally
written. Omit the first seventeen lines, and begin at
this sentence :
" No man was better pleased with the convening of
this Parliament than myself, who, knowing best my own
heart towards my people's contentment, pleased myself
with the hope of that understanding which would have
grown between us.
" My own and my children's interests gave me many
obligations to seek the love of my subjects, the greatest
honour and safety of just monarchs, next to God's pro-
tection."
This will be sufficient to show my meaning. I think
the whole texture might be thus unravelled.
220 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
In the last sentence of this first chapter, poor Charles,
the dignified but afflicted King, is no longer visible ;
the Rector of Docking stares out
Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry.
Thus "Our sins being ripe, there was no preventing
God's justice from reaping that glory, in our calamities,
which we robbed him of in our prosperity!" Here is
metaphor and antithesis, such as betray an artificial and
heartless writer without comparing passages of the
kind in Gauden's o\vn writings.
The same tarcdriness, and cold affectation of metaphy-
sical antithesis, the refuge of unfeeling minds, are more
visible in the Meditations subjoined to this chapter.
"Oh! thou Sovereign Goodness and Wisdom, who
overrulest our counsels, overrule also our hearts, that, the
worse we suffer by justice, the better we may be for thy
MERCY." Here is " overruled counsels opposed to over-
ruled hearts," "tt'orse" things opposed to " better," and
t{ justice" to "mercy," in one sentence! but mark what
follows: "As the sins of our PEACE disposed us to this
unhappy WAR, so let this WAR prepare us for blessed
PEACE." "As our sin* have turned our antidotes to
poison, so let thy grace turn our poison to antidotes !" And
yet how simple and dignified is the following passage :
"I do not repent of calling this last Parliament, be-
cause, O Lord ! I did it with an upright intention! Oh !
Lord, though thou hast deprived me of many former
comforts, still give us that patience which becomes thy
children."
There are more of these chaster and affecting pas-
sages in other chapters than the first, which is almost
entirely enveloped; but I am inclined to think we have
Charles alone, or for the greatest part, in the Prayer
AND REFLECTIONS. 221
on the Liturgy, or on being deprived of his Chaplains ;
though Gaudenisins may be detected in these.
The importance of this subject, and the inquiry by
two scholars, both deserving so well of Literature, will
plead my excuse for entering so far into this detail.
My own opinion is completely, and on the most atten-
tive investigation, settled ; and I feel confident, if any
one pursues the same plan, with the same care, putting
together the external evidence, from the small circum-
stance incidentally mentioned by Kenuet, (the fact of
a Diary, and some Prayers, composed by the King, in
his desolation,) and the internal evidence, by such an
examination as I have proposed, he will come to nearly
the same conclusion.
We must remember, at the same time, whilst we en-
deavour to show the portions which Charles might have
written of the Icon, what a writer of Gauden's taste would
have left out. I have no doubt, if King Lear had been
intrusted to him in the original for revisal, he would have
omitted all those passages which most deeply affect us.
The explanation I have submitted is so plain, so
clear, so probable, so consistent in all its parts, so mi-
nutely and circumstantially corroborated, that the won-
der is, it has not been brought more particularly forward
among the arguments which this subject has furnished.
Let me add, that Gauden seems, from his prior charac-
ter, to have been the last man in the world who, of his
own accord, we should imagine, would have originated
the idea of the sad " portraicture of his Majesty" in
his troubles, and that therefore some peculiar circum-
stances must have excited his attention to the subject.
We may well conceive the papers of which he got pos-
session excited the idea, and formed the basis of the
execution.
222 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
OXFORD AFTER THE PARLIAMENT -VISITA-
TION IN 1647, TO 16.52; DECLINE OF FANA-
TICAL FEELINGS THROUGH THE NATION;
CAUSES, &c.
As this subject is of importance, I shall here first
sketch the principal circumstances and characters of
the scene at the time of this celebrated Visitation more
distinctly, and afterwards point out some of the causes
which led to a more sober spirit, both in the University
and through the Nation.
Before the visitation, particular preachers had been
appointed to take possession of the pulpits, for the pur-
pose of "enlightening" the University on the subject of
their purification.
After this, a deputation is nominated, with powers to
decide and examine on the spot; and their characters
may be conceived, when Cheynell and Prynne are enu-
merated.
But the University being equally obdurate to the long
sermons and authoritative citations, more decisive steps
are necessary ; and now comes the puissant Lord Pem-
broke deputed by the Presbyterian Parliament, against
the sense of the University, which had before rejected
him, CHANCELLOR IN PERSON.
He is received at Merton gates, with an oration, by
the illustrious Cheynell. The next morning, previously
to citing the refractory Heads of Houses, the same
generous chevalier who heroically spurned into the
grave of the departed Chillingworth his great work,
heads a troop of soldiers to dispossess, vi et armis, Mrs.
Fell, the wife of the Dean of Christ-Church. They place
her in the quadrangle frustra lingua, manibus, pedibus,
reclamante whilst they valiantly occupy the evacuated
premises! Cheynell succeeds Dr Bailey, the ejected
AND REFLECTIONS. 223
head of St. John's. Reynolds, afterwards Presbyterian
Bishop of Norwich, is nominated Dean of Christ-
Church, the names of the former Dean, Canons, Sec.
being struck out. It is a singular coincidence, that
Reynolds himself refusing to take the engagement to
Cromwell, Mrs. Reynolds is dispossessed with the same
courtesy as that to which she was indebted for possession.
But a more important consideration presents itself,
which, as far as I know, has never yet been explained.
It is this. Every historian knows, that most of the
great living lights of the University had been extin-
guished, by the expulsion of so many of her loyal and
pious and learned sons, as " scandalous and malignant."
Now, in the short period of ten years, at the eve of
Cromwell's life, Oxford again appeared the nurse of
learning and science, and piety piety far different
from the illiterate fanaticism that characterized the
spurious religion and distempered code of such minds
as Cheynell, the Goliath of the Party. How shall we
account for this ? From four especial causes :
First, fanatic and illiterate Puritanism became of
itself tired and worn out, when "surplices" "square-
caps" organs, Bishops, and Deans, no longer daily pro-
voked its spleen and excited invidious irritation. The
Nation had "leisure to be wise." The examples of the
uncomplaining and illustrious set of good men deprived
and dispossessed, gave those of sense and judgment
leisure to reflect, if not to appropriate the worth of
many blameless characters whose lot had been so hard :
Virtutem incolume odirausm,
Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus.
Secondly, Cromwell used the illiterate and insaner reli-
gionists, but never trusted or consulted them. He chose
224 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
as his councillors, not merely men of academical edu-
cation Milton, Marlowe, Whitelock, Wilkins, Owen
but those whose learning and science were politically
useful to him.
Thirdly, the insaner pietists, on the "ENGAGEMENT
to be faithful to the Protectorate" being tendered,
chose to suffer in their turns rather than comply ; and
thus Cheynell was ejected from the Headship of St.
John's, as he had been appointed contrary to the Sta-
tutes, on the ejection of Dr. Baillie ; and in the same
manner Owen succeeded Reynolds as Dean of Christ-
Church.
Fourthly, which I consider the chief cause, the pub-
lic chartered schools, Westminster, Eton, Winchester,
Merchant-Taylors, St. Paul's, Charter-House, &c. stood
like rocks amid the deluge that swept for a time sober
piety and learning away.
Cromwell intended at one time to smite to its foun-
dations the school which nursed the virtues and piety of
Ken. The stroke was providentially, and by a son of
Wykeham, averted. I allude to the story of Colonel
Fiennes, who, when the orders for destruction had
issued, remembered the oath he had taken to do no
injury to those walls, and by him (apparently acciden-
tally, but surely we might say providentially,) the des-
truction was averted.
From the time that Oxford mourned the loss of her
loyal and pious, and eloquent and gifted sons, in 1647,
the streams* from whence they themselves had imbibed
their learning and piety were still silently pouring in
their intellectual and moral supplies; and hence, not
long after the University lost Chillingworth, it received
* Jeremy Taylor, Chillingworth, &c.
AND REFLECTIONS. 2'2,5
LOCKE from Westminster.* Not long after Hammond
had turned his farewell look on bis beloved Christ-
Church, Wotton educated at Eton, and Ken from Win-
chester, succeeded. Wilkins's lodging at Watlham \va<,
as we have said, the germ of the future Royal Society.
A few scientific persons had indeed met first in
London, before the storm, among whom was Wilkins;
but their progress was interrupted by the growing fana-
ticism of the times. The amiable and philosophic Boyle
lodged at Oxford in 1G55, and settled on the deprived
Dr. Sanderson c50 annuity, 16.57. Sanderson was one
of the composers of the famous Polyglot Bible, edited
by Bryan Walton, l6o7,t of which, and the manly ad-
dress to Cromwell, we have spoken.
It is true the "Tryers" of Cromwell impeded this
steady march, but they could not stop it, and the rest
followed in train. I rather think the Tri/ers hastened
the completion, for what contempt must have been
excited when such Judges were about to dismiss the
great and learned Pocock for ignorance!
Selden died in 16.54, f and left his books to the Bod-
leian. This wonderful example of virtue and learning
had taken the Covenant, but his works sufficiently
* I speak not of his philosophy, but the calm complexion of
his studious, literary, and pious life.
-j- That most stupendous monument of piety and learning,
by the ejected Clergy, has been spoken of.
+ It was his custom, when advanced in years, to mark pas-
safes in books by leaving his spectacles in the place. When
his books, left to the Bodleian, were removed from his library
(about 8,000 volumes), several pairs of spectacles were found
between the leaves. \Vhat would an antiquary now give for
VOL. I. G-
*226 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
manifested his disdain of the Puritans. Skinner, the
tutor of Chillingworth t Trinity, was one of those
anti-ckristiax Prelates whose life was threatened in die
beginning of the Presbyterian Parliament, and still or-
d*i*ed in private.
Hammond, in 1635, published his "PRACTICAL CA-
- M," which made a great impression, as the nu-
merous editions attest. It called forth Ckeynell as an
ANTAGONIST! but his own party pitied and derided the
effort, though he had "his own Holy Ghost'* to assist
him in the cause, against the darkling Hammond.
Among the publications which mnst have made a still
further impression amid the fierce contentions of dispu-
tatious faith, was the work to which we have so often
referred, "The Contemplative Man's Recreation!" It
was first published in 1542; another edition was called
for in 1655, the year in which Hammond's " Practical
Catechism " was published. The motto from Scripture
alone would have excited attention in tlt^t ***' "Simon
Peter said, I go a FISHIXG." This motto must have
been striking, if Scripture had any weight with those to
whom allrarartKw appeared as w/
Izaak Walton's attachment to Episcopacy was well
known from his Life of Donne, Dean of St, Paul's. All
Deans and all Bishops, therefore, could not be such Anti-
ckrists as they had been represented ! What a contrast to
the infuriated piety of the age did the ''Contemplative
Man's Recreation'' present! Walton never concealed
his sincere attachment to the Church," and these
AND REFLECTION v __7
timents coming from a man who could have no in-
terested views, particularly when all claimed the rights
of conscience, must have disposed the more reflecting
Christians to imagine, after all, a meek and humble
spirit might dwell even with those who were EPISCO-
PALIANS .'
The "Religio Medici" of Sir Thomas Brown, 1
translated into almost all the languages of Europe,
was again reprinted; and now Calvinism received a
deep wound by the translation into English of San-
croft's " FUR PRDESTiNATi s ;" and the visible effects
of this dismal creed made the reflecting almost ashamed
of the name.
How silently and steadily these causes began to work,
after the "godly" Visitation, may be further seen from
some circumstances connected with the academical life
of the great George Bull, in his extreme old age made
Bishop of St. David's, author of some of the most
substantial and eloquent works of religious reasoning
amongst the illustrious host of the writers in the Church
of England. He was not at Oxford at the time of
the Visitation, but he refused to take the "Engage-
ment,"* and retired to North Cadbury, in Somer-
ersetshire. Here he was placed under a Puritan Clergy-
man, Mr. Thomas, the Minister of Ubley. The books
put into his hands were of Thomas's wretched school ;
but his own son furnished him secretly with the works
of Hammond and Taylor, to the consternation of the
father, who exclaimed, " his son would corrupt his pu-
pil ! " Such works, who can doubt, must have had
their weight with thousands, now beginning to reflect
and compare. Bull was privately ordained by the Tutor
* Oath of allegiance to Cromwell.
ft 2
228 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
of Chillingworth, ex-Bishop of Oxford,* and he regu-
larly passed two months in every year at Oxford, till
the Restoration. So died away that spirit of insane
Puritanism which had ruled so long.
But, it should seem, the serpent is again uncoiling,
again lifting himself up from his long slumber. The
Scholastic-Theologian f is awakened from his sleep, who
lived only to witness the first fruits of that dragon's
teeth which he, and some of his predecessors, innocently
sowed. The jargon of these times is already revived;
and, even in the beatified apocalypse of Scotch second-
sight, the reign of KING JESUS is approaching.
* The following notice of Bishop Skinner, from Kettel's
Register, No. 171, the reader will perhaps think interesting:
Trinity College. " Robertas Skinner, natus apud North-
amptoniura, in com. Northamp. dioces. Petriburgens. annoru'
16 admissus est Scholaris Junii 2 a 1607. Admissus Socius
Junii 3 ao D'm' 1613."
Of Chillingworth, his pupil, in the same Register, No. 199,
is the following entry :
" Gulielmul Chillingworth, natus in perochia (sic) S l * Mar-
tini, in Civitat. Oxon. Annorum 16 admissus est Scholaris 2
die Junii, anno Dora. 1618. Admissus est Socius 10 die Junii
1628."
Skinner, who had been Fellow and Tutor at Trinity College,
is said to have been the only Bishop who continued to ordain
Priests and Deacons, according to the rites and ceremonies of
the Church of England, during the suppression of the Hier-
archy. Chillingworth had been one of his pupils, when a Fel-
low of the College; and Bathurst, afterwards President and
Dean of Wells, assisted him as examining Chaplain.
f Bishop Davenant.
AND REFLECTIONS. 229
SUPPRESSION AND REVIVAL OF
CATHEDRAL SERVICES.
" After cathedrals and organs were put down in the
grand Rebellion," says the same quaint and delightful
chronicler* we have before quoted, William Ellis,
bachelor of music, and late organist of St. John's col-
lege, kept up a weekly meeting in his house opposite
to that place where the Theatre was afterwards built,
which kept him and his wife in a comfortable condition.
The meeting was much frequented, and many masters
of music were there, and such that had belonged to
choirs, being out of all employ, and therefore the meeting,
as all other music-meetings, did flourish; and music,
especially vocal, being discountenanced by the Presby-
terians and Independents, because it favoured much the
cathedrals and episcopacy, it was the more used. But
when King Charles was restored, and episcopacy, and
cathedrals with it, then did the meetings decay, espe-
cially for this reason, because the masters of music were
called away to cathedrals and collegiate choirs."
Besides the members of the club which joined it about
the same time with Ken, there were other earlier members,
whom Anthony a Wood thus describes :
"The usual company that met and performed their
parts were :
"Joh. Cock, M.A. Fellow of New College by the
authority of the Visitors! He afterwards became Rec-
tor of Heyford-Wareyne, near Bister; and marrying
with one of the Woodwards of Woodstock, lived an un-
comfortable life with her.
"John Jones, M.A. Fellow of the same College by
the same authority. '
* Anthony k Wood.
230 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
"George Croke, M.A. Fellow of the said College
also, by the same authority. He was afterwards drowned,
with Brome, son of Brome Whorwood, of Hatton, near
Oxon, in their passage from Hampshire to the Isle of
Wight, 5 Sept. 1657-
"John Friend, M.A. Fellow also of the said house,
and by the same authority. He died in the country an.
1658. -
" George Stradling, M.A. Fellow of AH Soul's Col-
lege, an admirable lutinist, and much respected by Wil-
son the professor.
" Ralph Sheldon, gent, a Roman Catholic of Steple-
Barton, in Oxfordshire, at this time living in Halywell,
near Oxon; admired for his smooth and admirable way
in playing on the viol. He died in the city of West-
minster, in 165.., and was buried in the chancel of the
church of St. Martin in the Fields.
" Thomas Wren, a younger son of Matthew Wren,
Bishop of Ely, a sojournour now in the house of Francis
Rowman, bookseller, living in St. Marie's parish, in
Oxon.
" Thomas James (or Janes), M.A. of Magdalen Col-
lege, would be among them, but seldome played. He
had a weekly meeting in his chamber at the college,
practised much on the Theorbo lute, and Gervase West-
cote being often with him as an instructor, A. W. would
sometimes go to their meeting, and play with them.
"The music-masters, who were not in Oxon, and fre-
quented the said meeting, were:
" William Ellis, bachelor of music, owner of the
house wherein the meeting was. He alwaies played his
part either on the organ or virginal.
"Dr. John Wilson, the public professor, the best at
AND REFLECTIONS. '2,'H
the lute in all England. He sometimes played on the
lute, but mostly presided the consort.
" Curteys, a lutinist, lately ejected from some
choire or cathedral church. After his Majestie's restora-
tion, he became gentleman, or singing-man, of Christ
Church, in Oxon.
' Thomas Jackson, a bass-violist, afterwards one of
the choire of St. John's College, in Oxon.
"Edward Low, organist, lately of Christ Church.
He play'd only on the organ ; so, when he performed
his part, Mr. Ellis would take up a counter-tenor viol,
and play, if any person were wanting to performe that
part.
" Gervace Littleton alias Westcot, or Westcot alias
Littleton, a violist. He was afterwards a singing-man
of St. John's College.
" William Glexney (or Flexney), who had belonged
to a choire before the warr. He was afterwards a gen-
tleman, or singing-man, of Christ Church. He play'd
well upon the bass-viol, and sometimes sung his part.
He died 6 Nov. 1692, aged 79 or thereabouts.
" Proctor, a young man and a new corner. He
died soon after.
"John Parker, one of the universitie musitians, would
be somtimes among them; but Mr. Low, a proud man,
could not endure any common musitian to come to the
meeting, much less to play among them.
" Among these I must put John Haselwood, an apo-
thecary, a starch'd, formal clisterpipe, who usually play'd
on the bass-viol, and sometimes on the counter tenor.
He was very conceited of his skill (though he had but
little of it), and therefore would be ever and anon ready
to take up a viol before his betters; which being ob-
served by all, they usually called him Handle&ood"
Wood.
232 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Thus we find that those who had before belonged to
Cathedrals, after the Restoration left these musical
meetings, and took their places in the revived Choirs.
The affecting responses of Tallis again resounded, and
this great Father of the English Cathedral Service led
the way to Purcell, King, Greene, Kent, &c.
As a conclusion to the musical account, the reader
\vill accept the following lines :
There is a poor BLIND MAN, who every day,
In frost or snow, in sunshine or in rain
Duly as tolls the bell to the high fane,
Explores, with faltering footsteps, his dark way,
To kneel before his Maker, and to hear
The chaunted service, pealing full and clear.
Ask why, alone, in the same spot he kneels
Through the long year ? Oh ! the wide world is cold,
As dark, to him : Here, he no longer feels
His sad bereavement FAITH and HOPE uphold
His heart he feels not he is poor and blind,
Amid the unpitying tumult of mankind:
His soul is in the choirs above the skies,
And songs, far off, of angel-companies.
Oh ! happy, if the Rich the Vain the Proud
The pageant-actors of the motley crowd,
Since life is a "poor play'r" our days a span
Would learn one Lesson from a POOR BLIND MAN.*
* The English Cathedral music has a peculiar character of
cience, simplicity, dignity, and devotion. Attempts have been
made to introduce Mozart, and some of the finest of the foreign
Masters, but their compositions are ill-adapted to English
words, and the attempt, in my opinion, has completely failed.
AND REFLECTIONS. 233
DOMINATION OF PRESBYTERIAN AND
INDEPENDENT PURITANISM.
There can be no doubt that the Bishops Abbot, B;i-
bington, King, Usher, Hall, Davenant, Morton, and
other ornaments of the Episcopal Church of England,
in the time of James, and the early part of King Charles
the First, supported, to a certain degree, Calvinistic
doctrines, without being at all aware, at the time, of the
natural anti-episcopal tendency of those doctrines, and
that the Geneva creed is most naturally connected with
Geneva discipline.
This was visible as soon as Calvinistic predestina-
rianism had gained, under their own fostering, its full
growth and strength, and power. Bishop Dave-
nant closed his eyes in death, smitten with the sad
apprehension of the consequences of the triumphs of
his sub-lapsarian sophistries, which he, like Usher, lived
long enough to foresee and deplore, but not prevent.
But the most extraordinary circumstance is, that they
who, over the prostrate altars of the Episcopal Church,
waved the banner of the "SOLEMN LEAGUE AND CO-
VENANT," should dare to accuse those who remained
faithful, as INNOVATORS! Laud, we have seen, the
most strenuous and the most rash, was sentenced to be
"hanged, drawn, and quartered," for "impairing the
true faith," and introducing "INNOVATIONS" in reli-
gion ! Now the only " innovators " were those who
subscribed the "Solemn League and Covenant" against
Episcopacy ; and, so much did this obvious fact strike
the Presbyterian Parliament, that they commanded an
EXHORTATION to be read in all parts of the Kingdom,
to show, very lamely, indeed, that they were not the
234 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
INNOVATORS, when they must have been conscious, at
all events, they were. For no one could deny that Epis-
copacy had been the form of Church-government since
the time Christianity had a footing in Britain. The
Presbyterian Parliament, then, was the innovator, and
the Presbyterian Parliament was conscious of being so.
As to Bishops being the same as Presbyters, this is, and
has been always, a mere ASSUMPTION ; and the cham-
pion of John Knox's school, Henderson, was as much
foiled in argument by Charles the First, as the Philis-
tine giant by the sling and stone of David.
Now the proof of the Parliament being conscious
that they were the "INNOVATORS," is ascertained from
an Ordinance, entitled, " The Ordinance of the Lords
and Commons, enjoining the taking the late Solemn
LEAGUE AND COVENANT through the Kingdom of
England and Dominion of Wales, with INSTRUCTIONS,
and an Exhortation, for satisfying such scruples as may
arise thereupon. 1 ' These t( scruples" which every one
would necessarily entertain who thought St. Paul a bet-
ter instructor than John Knox, were answered by such
infallible reasons as these: "If it be said the extirpa-
tion of Prelacy (standing as yet by the KNOWN Laws of
the KINGDOM) is NEW and unwarrantable, this will
appear to all impartial understandings, THOUGH NEW,
not only to be warrantable but necessary" *
Here is at once an admission of the NOVELTY. It
was undoubtedly "unwarrantable," if the assumption of
a Presbyterian Parliament instead of the Pope and
Council were infallibly to decide; but it was admitted
that theirs was the "novelty," and, if so, the INNOVA-
TION ! Their assumed irifallibility does not PROVE that
* Exhortation to take the Covenant.
AND REFLECTIONS. 235
the alteration of the whole Church-Government, which
had received the sanction of men as good and wise as
themselves through so many ages, was either " warrant-
able " or " necessary ! "
It was the human infallibility of the Cardinals of John
Knox's Church, which could pacify all scruples at once,
by deciding ex cathedra (the Speaker being Pope of
this Presbyterian Parliament) that Episcopacy was "a
great hindrance to a PERFECT REFORMATION!" A
conscientious Christian would be as little convinced by
this dictation of infallible Presbyterians as by that of
an infallible Pope and Council !
In 1643, Bishops, Deans, and Chapters were abolished,
and the lands sold. The creed and discipline of the
Church of Geneva was now established through Eng-
land. It attained its highest ascendancy and domina-
tion, when all London was divided into "Twelve Syno-
dical Elderships," according to the following Ordi-
nance :
" August 19, 1645, die Martis. Ordered by the Lords
assembled in Parliament, that these directions for
ELECTING ELDERS, in particular Congregations and
Clerical Assemblies, be forthwith printed and published.
T. Brown, Cler. Par."
These directions were entitled as follows:
" Directions of the Lords and Commons assembled in
Parliament, after advice had with the ASSEMBLY OF
DIVINES, for electing and choosing RULERS and
ELDERS in all the Congregations and Clerical Assem-
blies for the CITIES of LONDON and WESTMINSTER,
and the several Counties of the Kingdom, and for the
speedy settling the PRESBYTERIAN GOVERN-
MENT."
This was the goldea aera of Prynne and Cheynell,
236 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
when there were no bells, no singing-boys, no stage-
players when no longer Milton could
Hear the solemn organ blow
To the full-voiced choir below ;
Or
The merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebeck's sound,
To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the checker'd shade.
Still less could he repair
To the well -trod stage anon,
When Jonson's learned sock was on,
Or sweetest Shakspeare, Nature's child,
Warbled his native wood-notes wild !
The whole kingdom was now all wrapt in gloomy god-
liness. John Knox was every where triumphant. No
question was asked, unless it were for "edification!"
The woe-begone children were strictly examined as to
their knowledge of " GOD'S DECREES, according to
the ASSEMBLY'S Catechism!" and the babe was rocked
in his cradle to the psalm-tune of old Milton,* the
father of the poet.
In 1647, not a "square-cap" was to be seen; Christ-
mas was a fast! and Ash- Wednesday a feast! under
the sect
Whose chief distinction lies
In odd, perverse antipathies
who
Keep holiday
The -wrong, as others the right way.
Not a sound of an "ungodly" rebeck was heard
through all the Twelve Synodical Departments of the
Presbytery, from Holborn to St. Mary Axe. No idola-
trous image was seen in a Church, except the solitary
* York tune, in our collections.
AND REFLECTIONS. 237
"hour-glass" at the elbow of Hugh Peters, " the preacher
of the Lord," who, as often as he turned, with that
vulgar smirk and jocose leer which the Elect of the day
knew so well how to interpose in their long discourses
invited his "humming"* audience to take "another
glass ! "
No amusement or recreation of any kind, through
town or country, was permitted to provoke a rueful
smile on the sour visages of those who were "predes-
tined to eternal happiness and glory in another world,"
save when a " scandalous and malignant" clergy-
man, deprived for conscience sake of all he had, was
hunted and insulted for being idolatrous!^ or forty or
fifty poor old women were drowned or burnt, for being so
wicked as to bewitch ministers' daughters !
But the solemn Presbyter had scarce time to look
round, with grim congratulation, ere his predestinating
" ears"% were stunned with
The universal hubbub loud
of all " accursed tolerated Sects," now frantic with im-
mediate inspiration, and deriding the synods of the
horrified Elders! Every soldier now had his "small
gift" of prayers and preaching. The Presbyterian
Ministers were "CARNAL" Synods were "carnal."
Now Cromwell stood forth in the strength the " Lord "
had given him. The Presbyterian Parliament is dis-
missed Prynne addresses, with his predestinating ears
* A general hum in a congregation was a proof of appro-
bation.
f This was the case with the learned Bryan Walton. See
Life of Welton, &c.
} So Dryden: "and prick'd up his predestinating ears"
The hair was cut short, and, during the interminable sermons,
the fore-finger placed behind the ear.
Publication by Prynne.
238 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
cut short, his "Brief MEMENTO to the present unparlia-
mentary JUNTO! by William Prynne, a MEMBFR of the
HOUSE OF COMMONS, a prisoner under the Army's ty-
ranny !" Whilst Lilly, the astrologer, sings "lauds to
the stars," that Oliver has turned out the Presbyte-
rians, "far more OPPRESSIVE than THE BISHOPS or
TURKS!"
Five years sufficed to put an end to this spiritual do-
mination of Presbyterian Synods, after Episcopacy had
been destroyed ; and here let us pursue, for a moment,
the mighty triumph of all-tolerant Independancy, under
my Lord Protector and the Spiritual Lords, of his Parlia-
ment the Lord Lambert the Lord Desborough the
Lord Whitelock the Lord Nathaniel Fiennes the
Lord Lenthall, 8cc.
Still " Holiness " was the watchword of all the
saintly Major-Generals of the Army and Parliament;
but in less than ten years they attained their ascend-
ancy and zenith, their decline and extinction. They at-
attained the zenith when, in 1656, the Quaker, James
Nayler, was condemned for having somewhat exceeded
them in blasphemy ; and we shall set before the reader
a few circumstances to show the spirit of these SERA-
PHIC Major-Generals, from authority that cannot be
gainsaid taken at the time by Burton, whose unvar-
nished but invaluable Diary has lately been published.
The Star-Chamber of Lord Mountcashel, pronouncing
his decision on the "really pious," seems constituted
after the express pattern of Oliver Cromwell, both in
letter and spirit.
Thursday, April 7, I6o3, it was resolved in Parliament
"that no person shall be employed or admitted into
the service of this House, but such as the House shall
be first satisfied of his real godliness ! "
How will my worthy and benevolent friends, the
AND REFLECTIONS. 239
Quakers, be astonished to learn that, under this " real
godly " Parliament, they are classed among the disso-
lute rogues wandering about with pipes and fiddles!
Mr. A she (December 5, 1G56) " Yet seeing they are
dissolute persons, comprehended in the Act, let them be
confined to two miles, or to the parishes."
Dr. Clarges. "Give liberty for five miles, that you
may suppress the Quakers, who greatly increase, and
pester and endanger the Commonwealth."
Major Audley. " Ascertain what the individuum ra-
gum is, lest it be quidam homo, any man. I would have
the persons ascertained. If they be Quakers, I would
freely give my consent that they should be whipped!"
And now comes the nucleus of the question on religi-
ous toleration, respecting James Nayler.
Major-General Boteler. "We are all here, Sir, I
hope, for the GLORY OF GOD! By the Mosaic Law,
blasphemers were to be STONED TO DEATH ! and for my
part, if this sentence should pass upon him, I could
freely consent to it. If WE vindicate not the name of
CHRIST in this HE WILL VINDICATE HIMSELF!"
This is nearly as mild, but not quite so blasphemous,
as the " really pious " Mr. Case telling the Parliament
to " strike," if God WOULD NOT.
But let us hear " my Lord Lambert," who says with a
sigh " It is a matter of sadness to many men's hearts,
and sadness also to mine, especially in regard to his re-
lation some time to me. He was TWO years my QUAR-
TER-MASTER, &c. He was a man of very unblameable
life and conversation, and member of a sweet Society of
an Independant Church." Lambert's opinion is, how-
ever, worthy a sensible man and a Christian.
The whole of the debate on this wretched enthusiast,
not more enthusiastic, and certainly less ferocious and
bloody, than many among them, resembles more the de-
240 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
bate in a PANDEMONIUM than of Christian Legislators.
Mr. Church proposed, secundnm Oliver and Harrison,
"to set apart one of these days to seek GOD in this busi-
ness!" I believe this is the first instance, when these
soldiers, lords, and gentlemen referred " to the Lord,"
that the person on whose account they so solemnly
referred escaped with life; but what was Prynne's
punishment to Nayler's ? This Mr. Church's reasons
for "seeking the Lord" were such as became the reso-
lution: "If we do not tender GOD'S HONOUR, He will
not HONOUR us."*
Nayler being brought to the bar, refused to kneel, or
put oft' his hat; but remark the language of his Judges!
"Mr. Speaker asked him of his name and country;
whereupon he answered after the OLD WAY OF
CANTING ! " Who but must smile at these men ac-
cusing Nayler of "canting!"
He told them " You have been a long time under
dark forms, neglecting the POWERS OF GODLINESS !"
Major-General Skippon's judgment is indeed worthy
a Major-General : "Goo now LOOKS what you will do-
These QUAKERS, Ranters, Levellers, SOCINIANS, and
ALL SORTS, bolster themselves under thirty-seven
and thirty-eight of Government^ (that such as profess
FAITH in God by Jesus Christ, &c. shall be protected in
the profession of their faith and exercise of their reli-
gion)." " We see," adds this evangelical Major-Gene-
ral the issue of this LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE! If this
be liberty, God DELIVER me from SUCH LIBERTY!"
Major Beake conceived it "a fit punishment to cut out
his tongue, and cut off his right hand, and then turn hint
beyond seas, and let him go with the mark of a blas-
* Debates, 1656.
t The thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth articles of the " In-
strument of Government," 1653.
AND REFLECTIONS. 241
phemer!" And yet this poor wretch only went one step
beyond themselves in belief, always confessing himself a
"creature" though in him Christ was revealed more
perfectly," but he, like Laud, "impaired the true reli-
gion!" His punishment is well known.
Let us, disgusting as it is, produce a few more spe-
cimens of Christian toleration, from these sanctified and
coldblooded military judges of the "true faith," to show
the effects of "human infallibility!"
Colonel Cooper admits " the poor creature, under de-
lusion, would have been more blasphemous had he said
he was JESUS CHRIST," which is a plain proof he never
did say so; and the said Colonel further sighs thus
evangelically :
" For my part, I think, next to life, you cannot pass
a greater punishment than perpetual imprisonment, where
he may not spread his LEPROSY. If you CUT OUT HIS
TONGUE, he may write, for he writes ALL THEIR books !
(the Quakers). If you cut off his RIGHT HAND, he
may write with his left," &c. " The other punishments
will certainly answer your ends more than if you take
his life, and be a better expedient to SUPPRESS the GENE-
RATION of them!" These were Cromwell's Puritans.
We must here do willing justice to Major-General
Parker, the only person in this tolerant Parliament who
seemed to have any feelings of religious liberty, or com-
mon mercy.
" The text in Zech. xiii. 3. He that speaks LIES in the
name of God, his parents shall thrust him through.' If
SO, We MUST DESTROY ALL SECTS, SoClNlANS, AfiMI-
NIANS, QUAKERS. It is the strain of the Gospel all
along to use meekness and moderation (instanced in
the tares and wheat) which said, ye know not of what
spirit ye are ? "
VOL. I. R
242 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Alas ! ho\r few in that very Parliament would have
escaped the severity of their own laws
Quam temere in nosraet legem sancimus iniquam !
These extracts are most important, as throwing light
on the principles of toleration, which, it has been said,
the Independents, and the Independents only, under-
stood and practised. Important they are in many re-
spects. When we condemn for religious opinions, we
should look at the example, and pause a moment to
ask, "whether we remember of what spirit we are?"
The subject being the " blasphemy of Nayler," on
which these holy legislators are debating, who but must
detest the hypocrite Colonel Boteler, who, with due so-
lemnity, adds " I hope there is no man here but has
sought God what to say, before he spoke in this business ! " *
The whole debate is well worthy the attention of the
Christian and the legislator; but we ought not to have
omitted what was said by Waller the poet, concerning
which hear the ingenuous relater: "He (Waller) said
a great deal more to extenuate the crime, but I minded
it not" he seems to have minded carefully enough
every word of the Evangelical Colonels and Captains.
Colonel White proposed " that his tongue might be
bored through"
Colonel Barkley, " that his HAIR might be cut off! "
Major-General Harris, "that his tongue might be
slit or bored through, and that he be stigmatized with
the letter B."
Major-General Skippon "Seeing you are off the
other question [that is, taking away his life], wherein I
FEAR WE HAVE OFFENDED GOD! make the other
punishment as high as YOU CAN ! " And these frantic
* Burton's Diary, p. 113.
AND REFLECTIONS. 243
bloodhounds are called GODLY, and were the only per-
sons who understood the principles of TOLERATION !
When the bloody sentence of this National Star-
chamber was given, Nayler offered two or three times
to speak, and to say he desired to know what his crimes
were. His last words, after sentence, were in the spirit
of Christianity : " The Lord lay not these things to your
charge! I shall pray that he may not." The sentence was:
" Resolved, that James Nayler be set on the pillory,
with his head in the pillory, in the New Palace, West-
minster, during the space of two hours, on Thursday
next, and be whipped by the hangman through the
streets of Westminster to the Old Exchange, London;
and there, likewise, to be set upon the pillory, with his
head in the pillory, for the space of two hours, between
the hours of eleven and one, on Saturday next; in each
of the said places, wearing a paper containing an in-
scription of his crimes: and that at the Old Exchange
his tongue shall be bored through with a hot iron, and
that he be there also stigmatized in the forehead with
the letter B ; and that he be afterwards sent to Bristol,
and conveyed into and through the said city, on a horse
bare ridged, with his face back, and there also publicly
whipped, the next market-day after he comes thither :
and that from thence he be committed to prison in
Bridewell, London, and there restrained from the society
of all people, and kept to hard labour till he be released
bv the Parliament: and, during that time, be debarred
of the use of pen, ink, and paper, and have no relief
but what he earns by his daily labour."
When the admirers of religious toleration descant,
with such virtuous indignation, on the Star-chamber
sentence against Leighton and Prynne, let them think
of this sentence against Nayler, and be silent.
R 2
244 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
How has Laud been held up to execration for an en-
try in his Diary, recording minutely the punishment of
Leighton! which I believe to be Prynne's cold-blooded
interpolation! But let us remark Burton's own pious
curiosity in witnessing the execution on Nayler :
"This day B. and I went to see Nayler's tongue bored
through, and him marked in the forehead. He was pale
when he came out of the pillory, but high-coloured after
the tongue-boring ! "
So soon did Independency attain its ne plus ultra of
intolerance; and, having attained this point, a saner
sense of religion succeeded ; for the weathercock turned
round, almost instanter, to the opposite quarter.
In tact, fanaticism invariably leads the way to licen-
tiousness! To show how soon after the cruelties on Nay-
ler, a directly contrary spirit began to prevail, we may
mention that, in 1658, the Latin play of " Ignoramus "
was re-printed, with its coarse, pedantic jokes, which
had so much delighted James the First. Who would
now have read the sublapsarian subtleties of Davenant ?
or his irrefragable answer to a writer who " thought
God MIGHT have mercy?" From a MS. Diurnal of the
Parliament, 1658, in the possession of the descendant of
Clement Walker, John Walker Heneage, of Compton-
house, I am able to show that, besides Anthony Wood's
concert at Oxford, in the year 1658 "the Opera" was first
mentioned. This document is singular :
"Thursday, Feb. 5, 1658. The Lords being ac-
quainted that, notwithstanding the Laws against stage*
plays and interludes, yet there are stage-plays, inter-
ludes, and things of the LIKE NATURE, called "OPERA,"
acted, to the scandal of Religion and the Government,
Ordered a Committee." I cannot make out the names of
the Committee, except Lord Claypole.
AND REFLECTIONS. 245
So, the " phylacteries " of the Presbyterians being
"clipped," INDEPENDENCY, under the great Cromwell,
fretted its hour on the stage, till it sunk down exhausted.
Then the Cathedrals again echoed the sublime anthem,
and the old parishioner welcomed with tears of affection
his pastor, who had haply survived exile, and poverty,
and persecution.
PROGRESS AND DOMINATION OF
PURITANIC INTOLERANCE.
I have stated, as a matter of historical proof, that
Laud never resorted to any measures of severity, as far
as he was concerned, till his life WAS IN DANGER!*
* Before he had moved a step, a nephew of Archbishop Ab-
bot preached against him, from the Oxford pulpit, whilst he
was present, and the charge was that he would not speak with
sufficient violence against Papists : " If they do at any time
speak against the Papists, they beat a little upon the bush, and
that softly too, for fear of disquieting the birds within."
" I came time enough," says Laud, in a Letter to the Bishop
of Lincoln, " to be at the rehearsal of this sermon, upon much
persuasion, when I was fain to sit patiently and hear myself
abused almost an hour together, being pointed at as I sat. For
this present abuse, I would have taken no notice of it, but that
the whole University apply it to me; and my friends tell me
I shall sink my credit if I answer not Dr. Abbot in his own.
Nevertheless, in a business of this kind, I will not be swayed from
a patient course .- only I desire from your Lordship some
directions.''
Of Archbishop Abbot's Christian feelings we may judge by
his remonstrance to King James the First : " Your Majesty
hath proposed a TOLERATION ! By your Act you labour to set
up the most damnable and heretical doctrine of the Church of
246 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
It was indeed alleged, prior to 1628, that he was " sus-
pected of Arminianism !" To be "suspected" of Armi-
nianisui is not to be an Arminian, and, if he was, it was
not high-treason to maintain his own conscientious sen-
timents on a question of theology.
Who, then, first opposed the " RIGHTS OF CON-
SCIENCE?" I affirm, Pym and Cromwell, when in Parlia-
ment, they assumed the power which the stern Leaders
of the Reformation had wrung from the infallible Church
of Rome, and claimed it for the INFALLIBLE Church of
Geneva!
November 27, 1628, Pym in Parliament lays down
this Law : " It belongs to PARLIAMENT TO ESTABLISH
TRUE RELIGION, and to PUNISH FALSE!" Cromwell,
now for the first time spoke in Parliament, and he
echoed the infallible Presbyterian :
"Mr. Oliver Cromwell" informed them "that the
Bishop of Winchester "did countenance jiat Popery i*
&c. If these be the steps to Church-preferment what
may we expect!" says this Parliamentary " Defender of
the Faith," afterwards " our Lord Protector."
The Parliament, so early as 1628, came to the follow-
ing definite, and tolerant conclusion !
'* W r hoever shall seem to extend Arminianism, OR ANY
Rome the WHORE OF BABYLON ! " Laud answered Fisher
by Scriptural arguments, and yet Laud was a Papist ;
and he was condemned to be " hanged, drawn, and quar-
tered," among other charges, for having been heard to say
' The Pope was not Antichrist ! " What should I suffer,
who hesitate not to avow my sincere belief that the WHORE of
Geneva has been as well versed in the infallible principles of
persecution as the " Whore of Babylon!"
* Kushworth.
AND REFLECTIONS. 247
OTHER OPINION DISAGREEING WITH THE TRUTH, and
ORTHODOX Church, shall be reputed a capital enemy to
the Kingdom and COMMONWEALTH!"
This fact is singular, from its being the first symp-
tom of that spirit of ruthless domination, which, under
these leaders, Pym and Cromwell, one Presbyterian and
the other Independent, subverted the Altar and the
Throne and now for the first time "the COMMON-
WEALTH'' is spoken of in Parliament!
But let us analyse a little this "infallible" decision!
"He shall be reputed a CAPITAL enemy to the King-
dom and Commonwealth, who shall seem to extend
any other opinion disagreeing from TRUTH and the
ORTHODOX CHURCH !" Under this infallible scale \vho
might hope for toleration? For who might not " seem to
extend" any opinions " disagreeing from the truth," ac-
cording to the "truth" of the Puritans of 1628!
Laud hitherto had not shown any kind of severity
but he was the impugner of "TRUTH," that is, of Cal-
vinism, in doctrine and discipline ! His life was
now threatened ! Dr. Lamb, at eighty years of age,
had been almost literally torn to pieces for being
the Duke of Buckingham's conjurer! The Duke of
Buckingham's Bishop was the next object ; and he felt
that the general tone of the people against him was
expressed by the billet found in the Deanery-yard of
St. Paul's:
" Laud, look to thyself! assure thyself neither GOD
nor the world can endure such a vile counsellor and
whisperer TO LIVE!"
The storm of hate and religious fanaticism was now
deepening over his head. He was indeed panic-struck
by the various signs of this popular deadly hate; and
his Diary, at this time, showed at once his terror and
248 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
the consciousness of innocence. In his Diary of 1632
appears this entry : " Lord, / beseech thee to deliver me
Jrom those who hate me without a cause!" The first per-
son whom he censured, and that for the most personal
invectives, in a sermon on " Idolatry" was the Minis-
ter of Ware! Did his ruthless Diocesan deprive him?
Suspend him ! No he was requested to write a sub-
mission, in Latin ! The charges of " dust thrown in the
air" the " kneeling" the" bowing" the" repairing
painted windows" I disdain to answer.
I cannot conclude without noticing the vote in Par-
liament at the time when the Speaker was held forcibly
in the chair.* This vote was, " the Parliament ought to
establish the true religion, and PUNISH the FALSE !" what
they pronounced false was indeed afterwards punished in
the true spirit of such Legislators of the "Truth ! " Par-
liament by this vote signed the death-warrant of the
King, who, on the same day in which he signed the
death-warrant of Strafford, and the perpetuity of Par-
liament, signed his own death-warrant.
* Leighton was sentenced by the Star-Chamber, 1633.
Rush worth.
AND REFLECTIONS. 249
CHEYNELL'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS
CONDUCT AT CHILLINGWORTH'S FUNERAL.
Cheynell's account of the death and funeral of Chil-
lingworth is entitled " Chillingworth's Navissima."
Dr. Johnson says, "it being Chillingworth's dying
request that the office for the dead in the Prayer-book-
should be read over him, Cheynell did not refuse
it." Whereas Cheynell's words are these : " It was the
earnest desire of that eminent scholar WHOSE BODY
LIES BEFORE YOU, that his corpse might be interred
according to the rites and customs approved in the
English Lyturgy, &c. His jirst request is denied FOR
MANY REASONS!" Such was the chanty of this crea-
ture to one he called his friend, and whose talents and
eloquence he professed to admire.
After the scorn and horror excited by such charity,
the reader might smile when he finds the same man
asserting that Chillingworth did not DIE a GENUINE
Son of the Church of England ! Certainly not, if
the charity or doctrines of the Church of England be
taken from such an example ! Cheynell complacently
proceeds: "Touching the burial of his corse," (without
any ceremony or service whatever, like a dog!) " it will
be most proper, for MEN OF HIS PERSUASION,* to
commit the body of their deceased friend, brother,
MASTER, to the dust; and it will be most proper for me
to hearken to that counsel of my Saviour, 'Let the
DEAD bury the dead!' but 'Go thou, and preach the
Kingdom of God :' and so I went from the grave to
the pulpit." He adds : " I dare say I have been sorrow-
* That is, that " the Bible is the religion of Protestants."
250 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ful, and more MERCIFUL to him than his friends at Ox-
ford ! " Let the Christian reader guess the reason
" Because his sickness and OBSTINACY cost me
many a prayer, and many a tear!" His obstinacy for
not giving up his reason and his Bible, for such fana-
ticism ! Oh, yet hear this pious bewailer ! " I did heartily
bewail the loss of such strong parts and eminent gifts! so
much learning and diligence! Never did I observe
more acuteness and eloquence, so exactly tempered!"
And what was the charitable conclusion? " DIABOLUS
ab illo, ornari cupiebat! " adds this Prince of Puritans !
Nor let the indignant reader, for one moment, suppose
that this exemplary example of Calvinistic piety was
a kind of monstruin sui generis! He was the great,
active, leading, accredited representative of the whole
godly party at that time predominant in Oxford when
the " blind guides," such as Chillingworth, and those
we have spoken of, were expelled, and forbid to appear
within five miles ON PAIN OF DEATH!
After the Godly visitation of Oxford, and the death of
the pious Lord Pembroke, Cromwell was invited to fill
the Chancellor's Chair. Cromwell was in Scotland : he
affected to hesitate, before he consented to become the
illustrious head of the famous University, now restored
to its purity! He says nothing here of "seeking the
Lord." His letter from Scotland is a striking proof of
his consummate art, or masterly duplicity, showing
how well he was prepared to doff his iron casque, and
sit in his robes as Chancellor, and Doctor of Lazes, in
the Convocation.
1 transcribe an extract from his letter " To the Uni-
versity of Oxford :"
"But if these" (apologies) "prevail not, and that I
AND REFLECTIONS. 251
must continue this honour till I can personally serve
you, you shall not want my prayers, that that seed and
stock of piety and learning so marvellously springing up*
among you, may be useful to the great and glorious
Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the approach
of which so plentiful an effusion of the Spirit upon these
hopeful plants is the best presage ! and in all other things
I shall, by Divine assistance, improve my poor abilities
and interests, in manifesting myself to the University,
and yourselves."-)-
The Author of the Rambler, speaking of Chey-
nell's constant expression, the "power of religion,"
tells us that this powerful religionist entered into Sus-
sex to exercise his ministry, in a place where there
had been, as he expresses it, "little of the POWER OP
RELIGION either known or practised!" The Doctor,
with grave simplicity, adds: "As no reason can be
given why the inhabitants of Sussex should have
less knowledge or virtue than those of other places, it
may be suspected that he means nothing more than a
place where the Presbyterian discipline was practised."
Certainly it may be " suspected ! " The great Author
of the Rambler and Lives of the Poets, living in Bolt-
court, did not seem to be aware of the common boast of
all these Pharisees ! nor even that they, in their public
worship, rejected the Lord's Prayer as the Baptists do
at this day."
I have thought it my duty, in writing the life of an
Episcopal Christian, to set before Christians the faith-
ful picture of Puritanism. The same spirit is abroad,
* Of which the learned and pious Cheynell was a proof !
Cromwell's Letter to Oxford.
252 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
not denouncing "custards,"* but evincing the same
* We can account for the puritanical abhorrence of most of
the deadly sins of " malignants/' but I have not been able to
find a clue to their
"BLASPHEMING CUSTARD through the nose."
We can easily account for \\\e\r fasting at Christmas ! Because
all other Christians rejoiced, but what sin there should be in
custard, more than any other dish ? I can find no better rea-
son than that custard was anciently distinguished as " ROYAL! "
This fact I learn from Wood's History of Oxford. George Ne-
vill, of Baliol, brother to the great Earl of Warwick, took his
Master of Arts degree, when an entertainment more sumptuous
than the University had ever witnessed, was given. Among the
dishes of the first course "the borehead and the bull,
brawne and mustard, furmenty and venyson, fesant in bran,
fawn and capon, hernshaw," we have, eo nomine,
" CUSTARD ROYAL!"
This, probably, was a transmitted name, and, being connected
with the word " Royal," was quite sufficient to excite the abo-
mination of all whose religion was so anti-royal and anti-
episcopal. It is well known that, soon after the Parliamentary
Visitors came to Oxford, they had a meeting every week to
consider cases of conscience, which was therefore, not unaptly,
nicknamed " THE SCRUPLE-SHOP." The religious scruples were
generally of this trifling nature ; but, as to lying, murdering,
there was no " scruple " at all, nor was the " Shop" ever troubled
with a question of the kind. So in all ages are found those
who place the essence of religion in " STRAINING AT GNATS
AND SWALLOWING CAMELS." These nominal Christians sat or
stood at the Lord's Supper, because those whom they opposed
knelt. They would have knelt if the others had sat. The cap
was idolatrous because it was square, and the bread of the
Church of Rome idolatrous because it was round! *
History of Bremhill.
AND REFLECTIONS. 253
abhorrence of * those schools that nurtured the piety
and learning of Ken, Sherlock, and Lowth, &c., and
looking on Cathedral Service as little better than idolatry !
God's Commandments are ten! Puritanism, from the
times of Ames to Prynne, and the modern Evangelists,
has THREE great commandments: "I.Thou shall not
read or see a play ! . Thou shall not touch a card,
whether in the spirit of gaming or nol! 3. Thou shall
not go to a dance, however regulated!"
Not in the spirit of uncharitableness are these remarks
made, but to show that the assumption of infallibility
is ihe great cause of the want of charity among Chris-
tians !
* Seth Ward wrote " Vindiciae Academiarura."
254
GENERAL
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.
Of all the anomalies in that melancholy medley
of " strife," " cnvyings," " variance," " murder,"
the reign of Presbyterian and Cromwellian Puri-
tanism the most extraordinary circumstance was
the Creed professed by both parties, of absolute,
unalterable predestination from all eternity that
the Being who thus decreed was not to be moved
and yet this Lord of Fate was constantly " sought"
in prayer, and not only so, but a conviction was ex-
pressed that particular Ministers had an especial " in-
fluence"* so as to prevail with this immoveable
Deity, at their request, and for their especial pur-
poses, to change that ETERNAL DECREE which, upon
their own principles, was unchangeable!
How do the most elaborate systems fall to pieces
before a few plain axioms of common sense. The
Almighty, in his dealings with such a creature as
man, could have decreed otherwise, or he could
not. If he could have decreed otherwise, then
there could be no necessary immutable decree from
* See account of the death of Cromwell.
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 255
all eternity. If he could not have decreed other-
wise, then there is no GOD, BUT FATE! Argue
as long as you will, you must be reduced to this
point at last.
There are two great schemes or philosophi-
cal views on this subject. The two schemes, in the
pedantic language of what are called the schools, are
Supra-lapsarian, and Suh-lapsarian. Now common
sense says if it were destined before the fall that
man must fall, and it could not have been other-
wise, the Supreme Power could not surely be pro-
nounced ALL-MIGHTY ! The heart instantly revolts
from this conclusion, and therefore other scholastic
dialecticians argue, that predestination was after
the fall!* Now this stultifies the other for, if
Adam was free, and might have stood, but fell,
there is no reason, a priori, why those who came
after him might not stand or fall, and then the
question reverts is it God or Destiny that rules
the universe ?
The Stoics felt this dilemma, and said of Jupiter,
u semel jussit, semper paret." Jupiter first com-
manded, and afterwards for ever was obedient to his
own commands : but, if he had power to command
either one or the other, then there is NO DESTINY.
The AaT/'-destiny is such utter nonsense, that nothing
but being lost in scholastic subtleties, and dialectic
* This does not affect the reasoning, that God willed the
restoration of man to immortality through our Redeemer.
256 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.
verbiage, could have imposed on the understanding
of Davenant or Baxter ; and the whole of Calvin's
horrible deductions must be admitted or none.
If there be an Almighty Power, which created
a sensible being, to live for a short period, and
then for countless and countless ages to survive
in torments without end ! and if it was owing to
the WILL of an Almighty Power, that man should
be created for no other purpose than that he
should be thus destined to eternal torments, (called,
scholastically, " REPROBATION,") the thought of
which seems to have delighted the imagination of
him who in later days most learnedly systematized
the doctrine then this Almighty ought to be called
by his right name TON AIABOAON KO2MO-
KPATEPA* from the Oriental idea in which the
creed originated that the GOD OF EVIL was the
maker of the world ! So delighted, indeed, seemed
the Geneva Doctor with this idea, that he does not
seem to see the utter inconclusiveness of his own
arguments, astute as he was. God made man and
the ass, he tells us ; and the ass being destined to a
life of sufferings, why should not the same God
destine millions of human beings to" abide for ever
and ever in sufferings?-^ But the reasoning, such as
it is, is inconclusive ; for there is no comparison
* IrensBus.
t This is Calvin's argument, to the best of my recollection.
BISHOP HORSLEY shall not persuade me to look at the book
again.
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 257
between the humbler existence of inferior animals,
and the eternal torments of a being like man, in
comparison of which, the life of the most abject
animal must be PARADISE !
System-Christians, and visionaries, make equal
havock with the simplicity of Gospel-truth. A
fervid mind makes out its visionary creations, with
the greatest case, from a few given words. Daniel,
chap, the viith, verses 13 and 14, and the texts x\i.
of Revelations, 1st and 2d, less definite still in their
application, become easily convertible to whatever
shapes, colours, and phantoms imagination may
give to them thus they expand themselves in
the seraphic and mystic reveries of the Swedenbor-
gians ; and then these mystic reveries, beginning
from so obscure and small a source, are solemnly
pronounced " TRUE Christian Religion ! " Such
visions arc embraced with ardour by minds of kin-
dred heat the trumpet of the Apocalypse sounds,
" BABYLON the GREAT is fallen ;" the angel appears
with the key of the bottomless pit and the City
of the New Jerusalem rises in visionary glory, to
receive the seraphic enthusiasts at its golden gates.
On the other hand, a scholastic dialectician finds
the word " appointed," or " predestined." These ex-
pand themselves into unalterable decrees then
personal election then utter reprobation ! Those
of kindred temper follow shouting "Election "to
themselves the decree or destiny of eternal tor-
ment, "where the worm dieth not," to all whose
VOL. i. s
258 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.
more sober understanding, or more Christian tem-
per, hails the awful words of Scripture, but rejects
with horror the human inferences. So important
is a calm, dispassionate view of the great Scriptural
doctrines, in their simplicity and majestic truth.
The fantastic, the melancholy, the visionary, or
metaphysical, thus engender and embody their con-
ceptions from isolated portions of the Divine Reve-
lation, and these conceptions become at last, like
the wild grotesque monsters, serpents and dragons,
which preposterously garnish, from the zenith to
the nadir, the celestial globe ; the Oriental origin of
Predestinarianism and these figures being indeed
the same.
Lastly, we may observe that these extravagant
principles and feelings, relating to a subject the
most awful to man, and demanding the most dis-
passionate judgment, can never germinate, if I may
say so, unless in a heated atmosphere, and where
the ground is disturbed. As certain noxious weeds,
buried for centuries, on the earth being moved
shoot out again, so forgotten doctrinal subtleties
are revived, when the surface of the rubbish is
again disturbed.
As the Articles of the Episcopal Church are fre-
quently referred to in such contests, I shall here
say a few words on them.
An opinion of a great Statesman has been re-
corded, that the National Church is distinguished by
" Calvinistic Articles a Popish Liturgy and an
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.
Arminian Clergy." Thus Legislators for the Church
are often pleased to describe the Church and its te-
nets. Lord Chancellor Erskine affirmed that " the
Church of England professed to believe" in what ?
one God? no "every thing visible and invisible !"
Mr. Canning affirmed that the Church believed
in " Consubstantiation" and therefore it might as
well believe in Transubstuutiation! The Episco-
pal Church professes its belief in neither. Mr.
Brougham, uncontradicted in the Senate, asserted
that every one who took a Living "professed he
was jnoved by the Holy Ghost to take that Liv-
ing!"* And all these are as true as the assertion
that the Church of England has " Calvin istic Ar-
ticles."
The Articles that admit that " we may fall from
grace given" cannot be Calvinistic that Ritual can-
not be a Romish Ritual which contains the prayers
of the primitive Church, long before the Church
held forth human traditions for Scripture and the
Clergy cannot be Arminian who profess that salva-
tion "is not from works, lest any shall boast."
That some among the Clergy of the present day
* Mr. Attwood, a few days ago, whilst I am correcting this
sheet, informed the wondering House of Commons that such
was the poverty of the times, a poor man, having no money,
gave a " working Clergyman " a cut of a shoulder of mutton
for a baptismal fee ! This, the solemn Senator declared, he
stated " on good authority .'" On such good authority most of
the judgments against the. Clergy are pronounced! There is
no " baptisninlJcC)' Mr, ATTWOOD!
260 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.
construe the Articles as completely Calvinistic, and
wish they were more explicitly so, I do not
gainsay ! That such esteem the affecting formulary
of our prayers as little better than the remnant of
Popery, though they have declared " their unfeigned
assent and consent," I do not gainsay. That such
as these believe the "true Churchmen" are confined
to themselves, and that all others are graceless Ar-
minians, I do not gainsay : nay, the Articles are Cal-
vinistic, and even the Bible Calvinistic, according to
some popular "comments!" But this I am bold to
affirm, that the Articles contain one, the most es-
sential of all of them, it is this, " that whatsoever
is not read in holy Scripture, or can be proved
thereby, is not to be required of ajiy man that it
should be believed an article of faith ! " The Bible,
therefore, is the religion of Protestants the BIBLE
is the religion of the Church of England.
I verily believe that no one could be a Calvinist,
except from " comments /" I would therefore ear-
nestly entreat the younger student of Divinity, as
he would feel indeed "Joy and peace in believing"
not to shut his eyes to ten thousand luminous and
illumining passages, which would strike him on an
attentive survey of the Holy Scriptures in their
holy simplicity and truth ; instead of placing him-
self, with tottering steps and bandaged faee, in the
go-cart of some elaborate, sophistical, and heartless
expositor. Beautifully has Jeremy Taylor spoken of
the effect of such studies : " I remember a saying of
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 261
Erasmus, that, when he first read the New Testament,
with fear and a good mind, with a purpose to under-
stand and obey it, he found it very useful and very
pleasant ; but, when afterwards he fell on reading the
vast differences of commentators, then he under-
stood it less than he did before, then he began NOT
TO UNDERSTAND IT. For, indeed, adds our own
great and eloquent Divine, "the TRUTHS of GOD
are best dressed in the plain culture and simplicity
of the spirit, but the truths that men commonly
teach are like the reflections of the multii>lying
glass" To which most just observation I would
add that he who reads the Bible by the aid of a
doctrinal commentator, becomes so used to the ob-
scure glass of the mind of another, the greater part
of what is natural, and beautiful, and affecting in the
original Gospel, escapes him, till by degrees he has
not a thought out of the hacknied track of his com-
mentator.
In writing the Life of an English Bishop, I have
thought it my duty to speak freely respecting the
spirit of CALVINISTIC PURITANISM, the fruits of
which, in a former age, were so immoral, and bane-
ful, and which seems evidently gaining ground in
the present age.
I cannot conclude my remarks on this subject
without adverting to what has been said by a learned
Bishop, Dr. Horsley, in an Episcopal Charge.
We are told that many talk of CALVINISM, without
knowing what Calvinism is ; and that there are sun-
dry good Christian lessons to be learnt from Calvin's
262 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.
Institutes ! I forget the words, nor are they mate-
rial, but this is the sentiment delivered in an Epis-
copal Charge, and now constantly referred to by
semi-demi-Cal\mists, too commonly the most bitter
and unchristian in spirit and certainly the most
appalling in physiognomy, of all modern nominal
Christians ! *
I answer there are also fine moral passages,
and sublime conceptions, in a work called the Ko-
ran, or the " Institutions " of Mahomet ! together
with something of the same predestination, and the
" black drop " of the human heart ; but, when I
speak of Calvinism, I speak only of its peculiar and
distinguishing dogmas.
As to what this rigid Reformer teaches in other re-
spects, and with whatever eloquence and learning he
may enforce them, who, among Christians, need
care a rush, when the sentiments are those of a man
who, in his distinguishing creed, seems to speak
from the Gehenna of his own heart, if we may judge
of that heart by his conduct r
If it be said his persecuting cruelty was the conse-
quence of the times, this might be pleaded for Cran-
mer or even for Bonner. If it be said the other
Reformers of Switzerland, and Melancthon himself,
thought the publication of some opinions ought to
be punished by death did they lie in wait for
* Compare the interesting countenance of Ken with those
riiagcs which appall us in every bookseller's window, of the
Rev. Tliouiu* Scott and John Newton ! !
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 263
blood, like a crouching tiger? when the unfortu-
nate Servetus passed in his journey through Geneva,
did they exclaim, " We will take care he shall not
escape alive ! " and, when he was condemned to
the horrible torture, did they write in cold blood,
yet with sanctimonious rapture, "Servetus," after
his condemnation, " only roared, with the stupidity
of a beast MERCY ! MERCY !"*
Let us hear no more of an English Bishop talk-
ing of the holiness or morals in this man's wri-
tings ; rather, he ought to have said (as it is
written, " What concord has Christ with Belial ?")
"What concord has CHRIST with MOLOCH?"
As I have given the reader a specimen of the
" real piety" of that Prince of Puritans, who com-
plained that the great Chillingworth was so " O/M//"-
nate" he could not " convince film," and who after
his death insulted his remains so inhumanly, I shall
conclude with a passage from that great and in-
sulted writer :
"The BIBLE the BIBLE the BIBLE IS
THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS."
And we may repeat,
"The BIBLE the BIBLE the BIBLE IS
THE RELIGION OF THE PROTESTANT
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ENG-
LAND."
* " Tantiim reboaret belluina stupiditate, MISERICORDIA !
MISERICORDIA ! " Calvin's Letter to Farell. See " Banwell-
hill."
264 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.
AFTER so much has been said of the lives and
characters of the Protestant Episcopal Clergy, of
the Church of England, particularly after the Resto-
ration, the Christian reader I hope will forgive my
concluding the whole in the following lines, sug-
gested on seeing a few plants in the windows of
Seth Ward's College, endowed for widows of clergy-
men at Salisbury.
THERE is but one stage more, in Life's long way !
Oh ! widow'd Women, sadly on your path
Hath Evening bringing change of scenes and friends
Descended, since the morn of Hope shone fair;
And lonely age is yours, whose tears have fall'n
Upon a husband's grave, with whom long since,
Amid the quietude of village scenes,
Ye walk'd, and saw your little children grow
Like lovely plants beside you, or adorn'd
Your lowly garden-plat with summer flowers ;
And heard the bells, upon the Sabbath-morn,
Chime to the village Church when he you lov'd
Walk'd by your side to prayer.
These images
Of days long pass'd of love, and village-life,
You never can forget ; and many a plant,
Green growing, at the windows of your Home,
And one pale primrose, in small earthen vase,
And bird cage, in the shunshine, at the door,
Remember you, though in a city pent,
Of Morning walks, along the village-lane,
Of the lark singing, through the vernal hail,
Of swallows skimming o'er the garden-pond,
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 265
Remember you of children and of friends
Parted, and pleasant summers gone.
Tis meet
To nurse such recollections not with pain,
But in submission to the will of Heaven
Thankful, that here, as the calm eve of life
In pious privacy steals on, one hearth
Of Charity is yours; and cold must be
That heart, which, of the changes of the world
Unmindful, could receive you but as guests*,
Who had seen happier days!
Yet one stage more,
And your long rest will be with Him you lov'd.
Oh ! pray to GOD, that each may " rest in Hope ! "
March 18, 1830.
* SETH WARD, Bishop of Salisbury, built and endowed at
Salisbury, Collegium Matronarum the College of Matrons,
Widows of Clergymen. They are entertained by each Canon
during his residence. This was written when they were the
guests of the Author.
VOL. I.
26(5
IN the course of this work, we have shewn the
effects of all HUMAN INFALLIBILITY, whether Papal,
Presbyterian, or Independent, that of the Pope,
the Synod, or the private Spirit, and we have
adduced these examples to shew, from proof the
most incontrovertible, that there is no other basis
of Christian charity than that on which the Church
of England rests the INFALLIBILITY OF THE WORD
OF GOD.
As one poor victim to this terrific HUMAN INFAL-
LIBILITY was of the sect of Quakers, before the
tribunal of the tolerant Cromwellian Puritans, I
shall refer, not, as I might do, to the acknowledged
works of the most eloquent writers of the commu-
nion which reposes "INFALLIBILITY" on its only
sure and safe ground, but adduce the testimony of
one of those benevolent brethren in Christ, who,
having once suffered so much, now dwell in love
and peace with a Church which, whilst it reads
the TEXTS of the Scripture in a different sense, re-
nounces all infallibility, save in the WORD to which
both appeal, " holding firmly" that which they are
"persuaded in their own mind" is the Truth, walk-
ing in Charity, and leaving the result, in humble
Hope, to that period when we " shall no longer see
through a glass darkly."
Now the testimony I adduce is that of Penn, the
POSTSCRIPT.
Quaker, before the House of Commons. lie
said : How easily might all these confusions (the
distracted state of religion) have been avoided, if
men's FAITH about CHRIST had been delivered' in
the words of Scripture, since all sides pretend to be-
lieve the TEXT: will nothing do but MAN'S COM-
MENT* on God's text?"
In doing "justice to the principles of the Church
of England," he further argues " But why go so
far back ? Is it not recent in memory, that Bishop
Usher was employed in a mission to Oliver Crom-
well, by some of the Church of England, for
LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE ?"
Penn then appeals to the writings of Hammond,
Saunderson, &c.
11 The Word of God (says Saunderson, of whose
learning and piety we have so often spoken) does
expressly forbid us to subject our CONSCIENCE to the
will of any one, or to usurp a dominion over the
consciences of any one."
Penn then cited eight passages from Taylor,
ejected, as we have seen, from Oxford as " scan-
dalous and malignant;" "scandalous" because he
was not a Calvinistic Puritan, and "malignant" be-
cause he was not a traitor to his King."
* What would Penn have said if he had lived to see evtry
chapter, every text, almost every word in " the HOLY BIBLE,"
subjected to the process of Jesuitical sophistry, and elaborate
COMMENTS read by thousands and thousands as God's " HOLY
BIBLE," the texts being never read without the systematical
comments of Thomas Scott !
268 POSTSCRIPT.
One of the passages quoted by Penn from Taylor
was this :
" If I should tie another man to believe my
opinion, because I think I have a place in Scrip-
ture which seems to warrant it to my under-
standing, why may he not exact the same thing of
me ? If a man never changes his opinion but when
he cannot do otherwise, then to use force may
make him a hypocrite, but never a right believer."*
And with this passage, from a most eloquent,
most learned, most truly Christian, and pwsecuted
Son of our Zion, as quoted by a Quake) 1 lay
down, for the present, my biographical and histori-
cal pen, fervently praying, in the beautiful language
of our once-reviled Liturgy " THAT ALL WHO PRO-
FESS AND CALL THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS MAY BE
LED INTO THE WAY OF TRUTH, AND HOLD THE
FAITH IN UNITY OF SPIRIT, IN THE BOND OF
PEACE, AND IN RIGHTEOUSNESS OF LIFE." Amen!
* Jeremy Taylor.
END OF VOL. I.
J. B. .Nichols ud Son, 25, Parliament-street.
U
Q*('l'u:;.
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