Lives of English divines

Front matter

THE UNIVERSITY

OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY

322.3

Preface

L

<*3

WHEN a person undertakes to record the lives of individuals whose memoirs are already written, it is due, both to the reader and himself, to say something in explanation of the motives which have induced him to execute a work which some may consider unnecessary, and others as reflecting upon former biographers.

In order to meet these obvious objections the writer earnestly deprecates the notion, that the following biographical sketches are put forth in anything like a spirit of rivalry of the labours of his predecessors in the same sphere. Any attempt to reach the excellence of the well-known productions of Bishop Fell or Robert Nelson, the inimitable biographers of Hammond and Bull, would be an act the folly of which would . only be exceeded by the presumption. Nor has

VI

PREFACE.

the writer any design to depreciate the labours of Crutwell or William Stevens, to whom we are indebted for memoirs of Bishop Wilson and Jones of Nayland. And although the writer’s, as he believes, is the first attempt to unite the public and private life of Bishop Andrewes in the same memoir, he knows how to value the faithful record of Henry Isaacson and others in earlier days, and the many excellent sketches which have appeared more recently in various biographical dictionaries. But as the character of the same individual may be viewed under different aspects, and as one aspect may be better suited to the study of a particular period than another, it has been thought that the characters of the ecclesiastical worthies now under consideration may be viewed with advantage at the present day, under an aspect which has either been assumed or not prominently marked in some of the previous memoirs.

One need not enter into particulars, to prove that the present is a time when it is desirable to remind many that men whose excellence is admitted by persons holding opposite theological sentiments, were not less remarkable for orthodoxy than sanctity; that they were zealous

PREFACE.

vii

observers of all the means of grace, strict disciplinarians, and unflinching maintainers of doctrines and practices, which by not a few are considered to be incompatible with genuine piety. On the other hand, it will be satisfac-* tory, to those whose minds may have been unsettled by recent controversies, to observe how the highest reverence for the Church universal may co-exist with dutiful allegiance to the Church of England.

Nor is the writer without hope that the account which he has given of the writings of these famous doctors may be found useful to students in theology and to the younger clergy, by directing their attention to works which are at once the honour of our literature and treasures of Christian truth, — which present a fair portraiture of the doctrine and discipline of the English Church, and may be followed as safe guidesi in either.

It only remains for the writer to express his grateful acknowledgments to those who have chiefly assisted him in his undertaking. To the Rev. Gilbert Ainslie, D.D., Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, he is indebted for several interesting facts relating to the university career

PREFACE.

viii

of Bishop Andre wes, who was head of the same college himself.

For the letter now first published, written by Bishop Wilson to the Lady Elizabeth Hastings, the writer is obliged to the Rev. Charles Wheler, Vicar of Ledsham, a descendant from one of of her ladyship’s sisters; whose husband, Mr. Wheler, is honourably mentioned in the letter itself.

To Mr. Chamberlain of Christ Church, the writer owes much for several extracts from the Oxford Libraries.

Perhaps it should be added, that outlines of these biographies appeared two or three years ago in the “ Englishman’s Magazine,” of which the writer was editor.

W. H. T.

Roystone Vicarage, Easter , 1846.

Contents

Birth — Parentage — Free Grammar School in Radcliffe, first School — Removed to Merchant Taylors’ — Character of Mulcaster, the Master — Dr. Watts, Archdeacon of Middlesex, recommends young Andrewes to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge — Takes B.A. degree, and obtains a Fellowship — Studious Habits — Admitted to Holy Orders, and appointed Catechetical Lecturer at Pembroke — Subject of Lectures — Appointed Chaplain to Earl of Huntingdon, President of the North — Sir Francis Walsingham presents him to the Vicarage of St. Giles, Cripplegate — Parochial Sermons — His Charity — Appointed Residentiary of St. Paul’s — Letter of acknowledgment to Sir F. Walsingham — Becomes Master of Pembroke— State of Ecclesiastical Affairs at this Period — Archbishop Whitgift makes him his Chaplain — A Commissioner appointed by the Archbishop to inquire into the State of Bishops’ Courts — Intercedes with Whitgift in Favour of the Orthodox Divines at Cambridge — Lambeth Articles — His Opinion respecting this Controversy— Kindness to John Udal, a Puritan Minister — Queen Elizabeth appoints him Dean of Westminster — Concern for the Collegiate School — Bishop Hacket’s Testimony — A Friend of Hooker — Letter on his Death — King James makes him his Ain) oner — Concerned in Hampton-Court Conference — One of the

X

CONTENTS.

II

24). About six months afterwards, (Jan. 18,) the plague having subsided, he assisted in the compilation of a form of thanksgiving for the same.1 A sermon preached before the king by Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, in which he was thought to have favoured the view of the corporal presence in the Eucharist, having been much commented upon in the convocation then sitting, the king commanded Archbishop Abbot, Andrewes, Laud, and others, to consult together concerning the sermon. — April 26. The answer which they gave to the king on the subject is worth recording. “The bishops agreed that some things were therein spoken less cautiously, but nothing falsely; that nothing was innovated by him on the doctrine of the Church of England ; that the best way would be that the bishop should preach the sermon again, at sometime to be chosen by himself, and should then show how and wherein he was misunderstood by his auditors.”2

The bishop’s own judgment of the teaching of the English Church on the important doctrine here controverted is thus quoted by his friend Bishop Cosin in his “ History of Popish Transubstantiation.” It is taken from his answer to the apology of Cardinal Bellarmine, “where you may find things worthy to be read and noted, as follows: Christ said, This is My Body: in this, the object, we are agreed 1 Laud’s Diary, 50. 2 lb. 67.

with you; the manner only is controverted. We hold by a firm faith that it is the body of Christ: of the manner how it comes to be so, there is not a word in the Gospels; and because the Scripture is silent in this, we justly disown it to be a matter of faith. We may, indeed, rank it among the tenets of the school, but by no means among the articles of our Christian belief. We like well of what Durandus is reported to have said: ‘We hear the word, and feel the motion; we know not the manner, and yet believe the presence : 9 for we believe a real presence no less than you do. We dare not be so bold as to define anything concerning the manner of a true presence ; or rather we do not so much as trouble ourselves with being inquisitive about it; no more than in baptism, how the blood of Christ washeth us; or in the incarnation of our Redeemer, how the divine and human nature were united together : we put it in the number of sacred things or sacrifices (the Eucharist itself being a sacred mystery), whereof the remnants ought to be consumed with fire, that is (as the Fathers elegantly have it), adored by faith, but not searched by reason.” 1

The inquiry respecting Goodman, with the exception of having joined in a letter to the king exculpatory of the charges advanced against Montague, 1 Respon. ad. Apol. Card. Bellarmine, c. i. p. 10.

was probably the last public business in which the bishop was engaged. Du Moulin, as we have seen at the conclusion of his last letter, prays that God may preserve him, and grant him a fresh and lively old age, with increase of all honour and happiness. In allusion to which Andrewes observes, “I entreat you, beg of God for me, that the remainder of my life which is to come may be rather good than long; for as a play, so our life : it skills not how long, but how good, how well acted.” To the conclusion of his long, good, and well -acted life we are now approaching.

The plague, which was thought to have been decreasing, began to spread again. Among its numberless victims were two brothers of Bishop Andrewes. He was deeply affected by their loss; for though, living in a contented celibacy, and not. experiencing the sympathies of married life, he was keenly alive to the love of brotherhood. When his second brother, Nicholas, wras carried off, he had a presentiment that his own end was not far distant; and when another brother died, he took that as a certain prognostic and warning of his own death. From that time he gave himself up to watching and prayer, tie made his last will,1 (Sept. 22, 1626,) by which he bequeathed to charitable purposes 6326/.; a sum which, large as it was, had been exceeded by 1 See Appendix.

LAUNCELOT ANDRE WES, D.D.

his charities during his life, in the last six years of which he gave away in private alms above 1300/. His liberality as Vicar of St. Giles’s has already been noticed. When appointed Master of Pembroke Hall, he found the College in debt, but he left it, in ready money 1000/. When Residentiary of St. Paul’s, he rebuilt a house in Creed Lane, belonging to his prebend, and restored it to the Church. He repaired the dean’s lodging in Westminster. When appointed to the See of Chichester, he repaired the palace there, and the house in Aldingbourne. At Ely he spent, in reparation of Ely House in Holborn, of Ely Palace at Downham, and Wisbeach Castle, 2000/.; the sum which he expended at Winchester House, Southwark, at Farnham, at Waltham, and Wolversey, the then episcopal residences of the Bishops of Winchester.1 In other ways, also, he had exercised great munificence. On going to Oxford with King James, whom he had attended in his progress through the

1 The ancient palace of the Bishops of Winchester, in Southwark, having been dilapidated during the rebellion, an act of parliament was passed at the restoration to enable Bishop Morley to lease out the houses in Southwark for other purposes, together with two parks and desmenes at Bishop Waltham, in Hampshire; and, by the same act, a mansion at Chelsea, built by James, Duke of Hamilton, was purchased for the bishops of this see, and called Winchester House. This, however, was sold by Bishop Tomline in 1821. — Winkle’s Cathedrals , ii. 144.

H 3 kingdom, he left 60/. to be distributed among the poorer scholars; and when, in 1614, he accompanied the king to Cambridge,1 he sent to the moderator, and three others concerned in the philosophy act, all being of Pembroke Hall, twenty angels a-pgice. Indeed, he never visited either University without leaving solid records of his bounty. The most learned foreigners 2 of his time, Casaubon, Grotius, Vossius, Cluverius, and Erpenius, also felt the bene - fit of his liberality; and he is said to have offered to the last of these distinguished men a considerable stipend out of his own purse, if he would come to England and teach the oriental languages.

It was during one of his visits to Cambridge with the king that he first became acquainted with the saintly Herbert, whose spirit was near akin to his own, when he was public orator of the University. “At that time,” says Izaak Walton, “there fell to be a modest debate betwixt them two about predes-

1 Hartshorne’s Book Rarities of the University of Cambridge.

2 In a collection of letters of distinguished and learned men, written in Latin, and published at Amsterdam, there is frequent allusion to Andrewes, in the letters of Grotius and other foreigners, to English divines of that time, as a person of great influence and extraordinary judgment; but there are not any letters of Andrewes in the collection. This collection has been referred to in one or two recent biographical dictionaries under the title of “ Epistolae Remonstrantium.” The correct designation is, “ Praetantium ac eruditorum virorum Epistolae ecclesiasticae et theologies,” &c.

LAUNCELOT AN DUE WES, D.D. 79

tination and sanctity of life; of both which the orator did, not long after, send the bishop some safe and useful aphorisms in a long letter, written in Greek, which letter was so remarkable for the language and reason of it, that after the reading it, the bishop put it into his bosom, and did often show it to many scholars both of this and foreign nations ; but did always return it back to the place where he first lodged it, and continued it so near his heart to the last day of his life.” 1

He only survived the making of his will three days, during which prayer was still his employment. “ Besides,” says one,2 who was probably an eye-witness of the fact he records, “ the often prayers that were read to him, in which he repeated all the parts of the confession, and other petitions, with an audible voice, as long as his strength endured, he did — as was well observed by certain tokens in him — continually pray to himself, though he seemed otherwise to rest or slumber ; and when he could pray no longer with his voice, yet, by lifting up his eyes and hands, he prayed still ; and when both voice, and eyes, and hands failed in their office, then, with his heart, he still prayed, until it pleased God to receive his blessed soul to himself.” After his death, his manuscript 1 Walton's Life of Herbert. 2 Bishop Buckeridge.

manual of prayers was found lying beside him, worn with his fingers and wet with his tears. He died at Winchester House, Southwark, on Monday the 25th of September, 1626,1 the same day of the year on which he was born, so that, almost without a figure, the day of his death may be said to have been his birthday. His funeral was most honourably solemnized, according to his degree, on Saturday the 11th of November following, in the parish church of St. Saviour,2 in Southwark, which was

1 His death is thus recorded by Laud. “ Sept. 25, Monday, about four o’clock in the morning died Launcelot Andrewes, the most worthy Bishop of Winchester, the great light of the Christian world.” — Diary , p. 84.

2 An interesting account of this Church will be found in the sixth volume of the British Magazine (1834). Before the Reformation the Church was known by the name of St. Mary Overy, “the Church at the Ferry,” which was given to it on account of its proximity to, and its intimate connexion with, the ferry over the adjacent river. This was then a priory church; but in the reign of Henry VIII. a new parish was created, under the name of St. Saviour, to which the priory was appropriated. Before recent alterations, there were two spacious chapels on either side the choir, one of which, on account of containing the tomb of Bishop Andrewes, was called the Bishop’s Chapel. This chapel, however, was subsequently destroyed by fire, and the altar-tomb of Bishop Andrewes is now placed in the Lady Chapel. The effigy of the prelate is attired in his episcopal robes, surmounted by the mantle of the Order of the Garter. A canopy which formerly existed was destroyed by the fire already mentioned. It has been said that the remains of the bishop were removed a few years ago to make room for .another interment. Is this possible?

near the episcopal residence. On a monument erected to his memory by his executor, John Parker, Esq., (sometime elected Alderman of London, and paid his fine,) he being a man of whose integrity he had a great confidence,1 the following epitaph was inscribed in Latin by one of the bishop’s domestic chaplains: “ Leader, if thou art a Christian, stay: it will be worth thy tarrying to know how great a man lies here; a member of the same Catholic Church with thyself, under the same hope of a happy resurrection, and waiting for the same appearance of our Lord Jesus — the most pious prelate, Launcelot Andrewes: ... an infinite treasury, an amazing oracle of languages, arts, sciences, and everything of human or divine knowledge ; an incomparable defender of the Catholic Church of Christ, by his words, writings, prayers, and example. [Here follows an enumeration of his various offices.] His name will be eternally admired on account of his indefatigable diligence in his studies, his consummate wisdom in affairs, his constant piety towards God, his profuse liberality to the poor, his uncommon courtesy towards his friends, and his unshaken integrity towards all. Being at last

1 See MS. note in the Heralds’ Office, quoted by Kennet, and given in Wood’s Fasti Ox. ii. 219. This note, however, is not very accurate; for instance, it places the bishop’s death on the 26th of Sept.

equally full of years and public fame, to the regret of all good men, he died, unmarried, and left this world for a crown of glory (aureola) in heaven.” 1 Milton, when a youth of seventeen, and before he was soured by puritanism, also wrote an elegant Latin elegy on his memory ; and, even in after-life, he makes respectful mention of the bishop in his prose works.

His character is more fully drawn by his friends Laud2 and Buckeridge in their dedication of his

1 The word “aureola” has a peculiar signification in ecclesiastical usage, and denotes “that little coronet or special reward which God hath prepared (extraordinary, and besides the great crown of all faithful souls) for those ‘ who have not defiled themselves with women, but follow the (virgin) Lamb for ever.” — Bp. Taylor , Holy Living , c. xi. sect. 3.

The following lines of Keble are founded upon this passage : —

They say, who know the life divine,

That by each golden crown on high,

Rich with celestial jewelry,

Which for our Lord’s redeemed is set,

All gemm’d with pure and living light,

Too dazzling for a sinner's sight,

Prepared for virgin souls, and them Who seek the martyr’s diadem. — Christian Year. This word in Andrewes’ epitaph is made a ground of accusation against his memory by Hallam, as indicating a leaning to Popery!

2 Laud, in a letter to Gor. Job. Vossius, alludes to the publication of these sermons: “ Jussu serenissimi Regis, sed opera mea

LAUNCELOT ANDRE WES, D.D.

sermons to Charles I., at whose command they were published, who is well known to have deeply valued the writings of Andrew es,1 and to have recommended them to the constant perusal of his children a short time before his martyrdom. They describe him, as a man, as if he had been made up of learning and virtue. “ Both of them so eminent in him, it is hard to judge which had precedency and greater interest. His virtue, which we must still judge the more worthy in any man, was comparable to that which was wont to be found in the primitive bishops of the Church. And had he lived amongst those ancient fathers, his virtues would have shined even amongst those virtuous men.2 And for his learning, that was as well, if

1 So also did good King George III., who, in allusion to Bishop Andrewes and the divines of the seventeenth century, said “ there were giants in those days.”

2 The writer of a history of King Charles, quoted by Heylyn, says that he was as studiously devoted to the doctrine of the ancient fathers, as his extant works breathe nothing but their faith. — Cypr. Angl . 165. Mr. Hallam also admits that Andrewes was more learned in patristic theology than any of the Elizabethan bishops. — Hist, of Lit. i. p. 38. And yet the same writer ventures to call this respect for antiquity “ a relapse into superstition.” — Constit. Hist. ii. 88.

not better, known abroad1 than respected at home. And take him in his latitude, we, which knew him well, knew not any kind of learning to which he was a stranger, but in his profession admirable. None stronger than he when he wrestled with an adversary. And that Bellarmine felt, who was as well able to shift for himself as any that stood for the Roman party. None more exact, more judicious, than he, where he was to instruct and inform others. And that, as they knew which often heard him preach, so they may learn that will read this which he hath left behind him. And yet this fulness of his material learning left room enough in the temper of his brain for almost all languages, learned and modern,2 to seat themselves. So that his learning had all the helps language could alford; and his languages learning enough for the best of them to express. His judgment, in the mean time, so commanding over both, as that neither of them was suffered idly or curiously to start from, or fall

1 Casaubon extols his skill in all kinds of learning ; Spanheim his acute and sagacious judgment ; and Du Moulin eulogises his learned and accurate letters, that no gold can value and weigh against them, which he should keep by him while he lived as a most precious treasure.

2 And yet Du Moulin apologises for not having before sent one of his works to him, on the ground that he was told by divers the bishop understood not French.

LAUNCELOT ANDREWES, D.D.

short of, their intended scope. So that we may better say of him, as it was sometimes said of Claudius Drusus, he was of as many and as great virtues as mortal nature could receive or industry make perfect.”

Again, his old and most distinguished pupil, Bishop Hacket, when alluding to Andrewes in his Life of Archbishop Williams, a successor of Andrewes in the deanery of Westminster, breaks forth in a yet deeper strain of grateful eulogy. “ This is that Andrewes/’ he exclaims, “ the ointment of whose name is sweeter than all spices. (Cant. iv. 10). This is that celebrated Bishop of Winton whose learning King James admired above all his chaplains. . . . Indeed, he was the most apostolical and primitive-like divine, in my opinion, that wore a rochet in his age ; of a most venerable gravity, and yet most sweet in all commerce ; the most devout that ever I saw when he appeared before God ; 1 of such a growth in all kinds of learning, that very able clerks were of a low stature to him — Colossus inter icunculas ; full of alms and charity, of which none knew but his Father in secret; a certain patron to scholars of fame and ability, and chiefly to those

1 On entering church he always made an obeisance towards the altar. Indeed, he seems to have been among the first of the clergy who revived this venerable custom in the reign of Elizabeth. — Heylyn's Cyprianus Anglicus , p. 17. — Bp. Wrenn's Parentalia.

I who never expected it. In the pulpit an Homer among preachers, and may fitly be set forth in Quinctilian’s judgment of Homer, Nonne humani ingenii moclum excessit? Ut magni fit viri virtutes ejus non cemulatione quod fieri non potest sed intellectu sequi. I am transported, even as in a rapture, to make this dispersion,” continues the bishop, “ for who could come near the shrine of such a saint, and not offer a few grains of glory upon it ? or how durst I omit it ? for he was the first that planted me in my tender studies, and matured them continually with his bounty.” 1 And may we not add that the lessons which he learnt from Andrewes enabled this excellent prelate to bear with such exemplary patience the evils which awaited him in after-life, during his confessorship in the great rebellion. It is pleasing also to know that Hacket’s self-denial and munificence were scarcely inferior to those of his patron.

An anecdote is preserved which shows that Andrewes had already begun to mark the symptoms of the storm which, not many years after his death, overwhelmed both Church and State in ruin. It is well known that when Prince Charles went into Spain to woo the Infanta of that country, Wrenn accompanied him in the capacity of chaplain. On 1 Hacket’s Life of Williams, part i. p. 45.

his return to England (1623), he was called upon to give his opinion as to the religious principles of his royal charge under the following circumstances. Wrenn had been staying some time at Winchester House, where Andrewes always reserved rooms for his accommodation when in London ; but being to set out for Cambridge by break of day, he took leave of the bishop, and went the night before to lie at his sister’s house in Friday-street. However, before he was up in the morning, there came a message that he must, without fail, be at Winchester House by ten o’clock. To this unexpected appointment he was punctual, and, though Andrewes, as before observed, did not usually leave his study before twelve, he found him now in his great gallery, a place where he came only once a year, locked up with Neil, Bishop of Durham, and Laud, Bishop of St. David’s. After the usual ceremonies, all sitting down again, the Bishop of Durham said, “ Doctor, after you left us yesterday at Whitehall, we entered further into discourse of things, which we foresee will, ere long, come to pass, (meaning King James’ death,) and resolved to speak with you again before you go home. We must now know of you what are your thoughts concerning your young master the prince; you have been his servant above two years, and were with him in Spain ; he respects you well: you cannot but have observed how things are like to go.” “What things, my lord?” said Wrenn. “In brief,” replied Neil, “how the prince’s heart stands towards the Church of England.”

Wrenn returned for answer, “However I am most unfit to give my opinion herein, attending but two months in the year, and then at great distance, except only in the closet and at meals, yet, being thus prest, I’ll speak my mind freely. I know my master’s learning is not equal to his father’s, yet I know his judgment is very right; and as for his affections in the particular you point at, (for upholding the doctrine, and discipline, and right estate of the Church,) I have more confidence of him than of his father, in whom you have seen, better than I, so much inconstancy in particular cases.” Upon this Neil and Laud began to argue with him what grounds he had to think thus, which he gave them at large. And, after an hour’s debate, Andrewes, who had been silent all the while, concluded the conference by saying, “Well, Doctor, God send you may be a true prophet concerning your master’s inclinations, which we are glad to hear from you. I am sure I shall be a true prophet; I shall be in my grave, and so shall you, my lord of Durham. But my lord of St. David’s and you, Doctor, will live to see the day that your master will be put to it upon his head and his crown, without he will forsake the support of the Church.” “Of this prediction made by that holy father,” adds Bishop Wrenn, from whose Parentalia the anecdote is chiefly taken, “ I have no witness but mine own conscience, and the Eternal God, who knows I lie not.” How truly these prophetical words were fulfilled the fasthastening rebellion testified. Andrewes, however, had been mercifully called to his rest before these evil days appeared. This memoir, therefore, may now be appropriately brought to a close. And what pious reader will not join in the prayer of Bishop Buckeridge, “God grant that many ages may be so happy to bring forth and enjoy such a prelate as Bishop Andrewes, so furnished with all the endowments of learning and knowledge, with innocency and holiness of life, and with such piety and charity as he showed in his life and death.”

NOTE.

BISHOP ANDEEWES’ CHAPEL.

The reader may be glad to have a more detailed account of the sanctuary which so deeply affected pious minds. It is true that the subjoined description refers to the bishop’s chapel when Bishop of Winchester, but this no doubt corresponded with the chapel at Ely. The description has been preserved by one whose object was to denounce it ; viz. by the notorious puritan Prynne, in an infamous work called “Canterbury’s Doom,” in allusion to Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had copied the pattern of his patron’s chapel in his own chapels at Lambeth and Aberguilly: —

“1. The Altar, 1 yard J high, 1 yard f long, 1 yard broad. a. A cushion. /3/3. Two candlesticks with tapers. C. The bason for oblations ; the daily furniture for the Altar. D. A cushion for the service-book. A. The silver and gilt canister for the wafers, like a wicker-basket, and lined with cambric laced. B. The Tonne,1 upon a cradle. G. The chalice, having on the outside of the bowl Christ with the lost sheep on His shoulders; on the top of the cover, the wisemen’s star, both engraven ; it is covered with a linen napkin (called the Aire) embroidered with coloured silks. DD. Two patens. 'P. The Tricanale, being a round ball with a screw cover, whereout issue 3 pipes, and is for the water of mixture. 2. A sier [side, Ed.] table on which, before the Communion, stand A and B, upon two napkins. E. A bason and ewer, to wash before consecration. F. The towel appertaining. 3. 3. The