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moiJ^QaM^ Ji^auKd?, 1798

1875. An ecclesiastical biographj

I

AN

ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGRAPHY,

CONTAINING THE

Etbes of Ancient jFati^ers antr iWolrem Hibtnes,

IXTERSPEBSED WITH NOTICES OF

HERETICS AND SCKISIUXATICS,

A BEIEF HISTORY OF THE CHUECH IN EVERY AGE.

BY

/

WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D.,

VICAR OF LEEDS.

VOL. III.

LONDON :

F, AND J. RIVINGTON ;

PARKER, OXFORD ; J. AND J. J. DEIGHTON, CAMBRIDGE

T. HARRISON, LEEDS.

1847.

Leeds: G. Crawsliaw, Printer.

PREFACE.

In the Third Volume of the Ecclesiastical Biography, the reader will find an account

Of the Church of England before the Refor- mation, in the Lives of Archbishops Bourchier, Bradvvardine, and Chichele, which are given in some detail :

Of the Reformation in Ireland, in the Life of Archbishop Browne :

Of the Foreign Reformation, in the Lives of Bucer, Carolostadt, Calvin, Bugenhagius, Bul- linger :

Of a Martyr, in the Life of Bradford :

Of the Nonjurors, in the Lives of Brett, Brokesby, Carte :

Of the Romanists, in the Lives of Bourne, Cajetan, Campegio, Cam pi an :

Of Dissent, in the Lives of Brown and Cartwright :

Of the Puritans and Presbyterians, in the Lives of Barges, Burton, Cameron, Cant, Cargill, Cheynell :

Of Divines, in the Lives of Bishop Bull, Archbishop Bramhall, Bishop Burnet, Bishop Brownrigg, Bishop Buckeridge, Bishop Butler, Dr. Brevint, Dr. Busby, Archbishop Boulter.

It was intended to include in this Volume the Lives of St. Chrysostom, St. Cyprian, and St. Cyril, together with that of Archbishop Cranraer, but as these Lives occupy a considerable space, they will be found in the early Parts of the Fourth Volume.

ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGRAPHY.

BOSTON, JOHN.

John Boston, a monk of St. Edmund's Burj in the 14th century, was one of the first collectors of the lives of Eng- lish writers, in which he preceded Leland, Bale, and Pitts. His diligence was uncommonly great, and besides this biographical work, he wrote " Speculum ccenobitarum," in which he gives a history of monachism. This was printed by Hall at Oxford in 17"22, 8vo. His work " De

rebus Ccenobii sui" has been lost. Tanner. Fuller's

Worthies.

BOSTON, THOMAS.

Thomas Boston was bom at Dunse, in 1676, and was educated at Edinburgh. In the year 1696 he kept a school at Glencairn, and there became tutor in a gentleman's family till 1699, when he was licensed to preach, and the same year was ordained as pastor of Simprin. In 1707 he removed to Ettrick, where he remained till his death in 1732. He devoted many years of his life to the study of Hebrew, and wrote a learned treatise in Latin concerning Hebrew accents. But he is better known by his "Four- fold State," and his " Body of Divinity," which are said to be highly esteemed among presbyterians. He left a memoir of his own life, which was printed in 1776.

VOL. III. A

BOUCHER.

BOTT, THOIVIAS.

Thomas Bott was born at Derby in 1688, and became a presbjterian preacher at Spalding, in Lincolnshire. Not liking his situation, at the end of queen Anne's reign he removed to London, and studied as a physician. But on the accession of George the first, he shrewdly perceived that the ministers would look out for men of lax opinions and practice in the church for preferment, and that the religious clergy would be passed over on account of their political principles. He accordingly sought for and ob- tained holy orders, and soon became a pluralist. He was of Hoadley's school, and his opinions more nearly accorded with those of pagan philosophers than with Christian verity. Among his works are " Remarks on the sixth chapter of bishop Butler's Analogy," and " An answer to the first volume of bishop Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses." He died at Norwich, 23rd September, 1754. — Kippis. Biog. Brit.

BOUCHER, JONATHAN:.

Jonathan Boucher was born in 1738, at Blencogo, in Cumberland. He received his education at the school of Wigton, after which he went to America, where, on taking orders, he obtained first the living of Hanover in Virginia, and afterwards Queen Anne's parish, in Prince George's county. In 1775 he was obliged to relinquish his charge, and seek refuge in England, his principles being those of a royalist. He had discharged his duties as a clergyman, and maintained his character for loyalty, with such firm- ness and discretion, that he was received in England with respect. He was for some time a curate, but in 1784 he was presented to the vicarage of Epsom, in Surrey, by the celebrated John Parkhurst, author of the Greek and Hebrew Scripture Lexicons, who knew him only by charac- ter, but thought himself unable to discharge his trust as

BOULTER. 3

an ecclesiastical patron more satisfactorily, than in pre- ferring a learned, worthy clergyman, who had abandoned home and living rather than violate his obligations as an Englishman. He died in 1804. Mr. Boucher published, 1. A letter to bishop Watson, in answer to his letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, 4to, 1783 2. A view of the causes and <x)nsequences of the American Revolution, in thirteen discourses, 8yo, 1797. 3. Two assize sermons, preached in 1798. He was also the author of a tract, entitled "A Cumberland Man," and several biographical articles in Hutchinson's histoiy of that county. Before his death he engaged in a glossaiy of provincial and archaeological words, which he left incomplete ; but a portion of it, containing the first letter of the alphabet, was printed. — Gent. Mag. Allans Amencan Biog. Diet.

BOULTER, HUGH.

Hugh Boulter was born in or near London, January 4th, 1671, and educated at Merchant Taylor's school, whence he removed to Christ Church, Oxford, a short time previous to the revolution. He was noticed by Dr. Hough, the restored president of Magdalene College, where he was elected demy, together with Addison, and Wilcox, after- wards bishop of Rochester. He subsequently became fellow, and continued resident till 1700, when he was made chaplain to sir Charles Hedges, secretary of «tate; he was shortly after appointed to a similar office in the household of archbishop Tenison, and was preferred to the rectory of St. Olave's, Southwark, and to the arch- deaconry of Surrey. In 1719 he accompanied king George I. to Hanover, in the capacity of chaplain ; he was also tutor to prince Frederic, and drew up "a flet of instructions" for his royal pupil. With his con- duct the king was so much pleased, that he made him dean of Christ Church and bishop of Bristol, to which see he was consecrated November 1719. He presided over it with great ability for about four vears and a half, but

4 BOULTER.

whilst he was engaged in visiting his diocese, he received a letter informing him that the king had nominated him to the primacy of Ireland, vacant by the death of Dr. Lind- say. He was for some time very unwilling to accept this high but responsible ofiSce ; the king, however, would hear of no denial, and the archbishop accordingly arrived in Ireland, Novembers, 1724. As soon as he had taken possession of the primacy, he began to consider that coun- try, in which his lot was cast for life, as his own ; and to promote its true interest with the greatest zeal and assi- duity. He often said " he would do all the good to Ireland he could, though they did not suffer him to do all he would."

The scarcity of silver coin in Ireland was excessively great, occasioned by reducing the value of gold coin in Eng- land, and the balance of trade which lay against the Irish. To remedy this inconvenience, the primate supported a scheme at the council table, to bring gold and silver nearer to a par in value, by lowering that of the former, which was carried into execution. The populace, encouraged by some dealers in exchange, who were the only losers by the alteration, grew clamorous, and laid the ruin of their country (as they called it) at the primate's door. But conscious of his own integrity, he despised the foolish noise : experience evinced the utility of the project, the people in a short time recovered their senses, and he soon rose to the greatest height of popularity.

In the year 1729, there was a great scarcity, the poor were reduced to a miserable condition, and the nation was threatened with famine and pestilence. The primate dis- tributed vast quantities of grain through several parts of the kingdom ; directed all the vagrant poor that crowded the streets of Dublin, to be received into the poor-house, and there maintained them at his private expense, until the following harvest brought relief.

In the latter end of the year 1740, and the beginning of 1741, Ireland was again afflicted with a great scarcity. The prelate's charity was again extended, though with more

BOULTER. 5

regularity than before. The poor were fed in the work- house twice every day, according to tickets given out by persons entrusted, the number of which amounted to 732,314. And it appeared that 2,500 souls were fed there every morning and evening, mostly at the primate's expense.

When the scheme for opening a navigation by a canal from Lough-Neagh to Newry, w^as proposed in parliament, in the year 1729, the primate patronized it with all his interest ; and when the bill was passed, and the work set about, was veiy instrumental in carrying it on with effect. One part of the design was to bring coals from thence to Dublin, and the coal mines were in the see-lands of Armagh, which were then leased out to a tenant. The pri- mate fearing the lessee might be exorbitant in his demands, purchased the lease at a great expense, in order to accom- modate the public. He also gave timber out of his woods to carry on the work ; and often advanced his own money, without interest, for the same purpose.

He gave and settled a competent stipend on an assistant curate at Drogheda, a large and populous town in his dio- cese ; where the cure was too burthensome for one clergy- man, and the revenues of the church were not sufiScient to maintain two. He stipulated that there should not only be service every Sunday afternoon, but that there should be daily service ; prayers twice every day.

He maintained several sons of his poor clergy at the university, and gave them a liberal education, in order to qualify them for future preferment.

He erected and endowed hospitals both at Drogheda and Armagh, for the reception of clergymen's widows ; and settled a fund for putting out their children ap- prentices.

. He built a stately market house at Armagh, at the ex- pense of upwards of £800.

He subscribed £50 per ann. to Dr. Stevens's hospital in Dublin, for the maintenance and care of the poor; and A 2

6 BOULTER.

furnished one of the wards for the reception of patients at a considerable expense.

His charities, for augmenting small livings, and buying of glebes, amounted to upwards of £30,000 besides what he devised by his will for the like purposes in England. He was also a benefactor to Christ Church, Oxford, and to Magdalene College.

He was chiefly instrumental in obtaining a royal charter for the Irish schools, and for the passing of the charter he paid all the fees. He was not only a large subscriber to them, but was their resource on all occasions when, as was frequently the case, they became involved in pecuniary difficulties.

He was likewise an able assistant at the council table, and was several times one of the lords justices of Ireland ; in fact, the government of that country was, at one time, very much directed by him. Having business in Lon- don, in 1742, he was taken ill there, and after a struggle of two days, died at his house in St James'-place, on September •21ih, and was buried in Westminster abbey, where a handsome monument has been erected to his memory.

This generous prelate, whose munificence endeared him to the church of Ireland, is not distinguished as an author : he published a few charges to his clergy, and some occasional sermons, printed separately. In 1769, however, were published, at Oxford, in two volumes 8vo, " Letters written by his excellency Hugh Boulter, D.D., lord primate of all Ireland, &c., to several ministers of state in England, and some others ; containing an account of the most interesting transactions which passed in Ire- land from 1724 to 1738." The originals, which are de- posited in the library of Christ Church, in Oxford, were collected by Ambrose Philips, esq., who \vas secretary to his grace, and lived in his house during that space of time in which they bear date. They are entirely letters of busi- ness, and are all of them in Dr. Boulter's hand- writing, excepting some few, which are fair copies by his secretary.

BOURCHIER. 7

The editor justly remarks, that these letters, which could not be intended for publication, have been fortunately preserved, as they contain the most authentic history of Ireland, for the period in which they were written : "a period," he adds, " which will ever do honour to his grace's memory, and to those most excellent princes George the first and second, who had the wisdom to place confidence in so worthy, so able, and so successful a minister ; a minister who had the rare and peculiar feli- city of growing still more and more into the favour both of the king and of the people, until the very last day of his life." It is much to he regretted that in some of his measures, he was opposed by dean Swift, particularly in that of diminishing the gold coin, as it is probable that they both were actuated by an earnest desire of serving the country. In one affair, that of Wood s halfpence, they appear to have coincided, and in that they both hap- pened to encourage a public clamour which had little solid foundation — Memoirs communicated by one who was most intimate idth archbishop Boulter to the original editor of the Biog. Brit. Preface to his Letters.

BOURCHIEE, BOWSCHYRE, OR BOWCER, THOMAS.

Thomas Bourchier was the son of sir WiUiam Bourchier, earl of Eu in Normandy. He was educated at Neville's Inn, Oxford, and when he left the university was appointed dean of St. Martin's, London. At this time the usurpa- tions of the bishop of Rome had become almost in- tolerable, and his aggressions on our venerable establish- ment were by our ancestors frequently, though not always successfully, opposed. In 1434 Thomas Polton, bishop of Worcester, died, and by one of those worst of papal abuses, a provision, the pope of Rome, Eugenius, then sitting at the council of Basil, took it upon himself to confer the see upon Thomas Browns, dean of Salisbury, and he sent letters to the king to that effect, desiring his approbation of the appointment. The king, so far from

8 BOURCHIER.

approving, caused letters to be addressed to Thomas Browns requiring him to renounce the provision, and informing him, that unless he would comply, he should not only not have the see of Worcester, but that he should never hold any bishopric in England. The king also •wrote to the pope, refusing his consent to the provision. So far the liberties of our beloved church were maintained against popish usurpations, but, as was too often the case, there was in the end a compromise, by which the king carried his immediate object, while the pope did not renounce his usurped right. Browns was made bishop of Rochester, and Bourchier was consecrated to the see of Worcester. He had only been bishop of Worcester a year when he was elected by the monks of Ely to that see ; translations being unfortunately common in our establish- ment at that time. To the translation of Bourchier, how- ever, the king refused to give his consent, and the see of Ely remained vacant for seven or eight years ; so that Bourchier was not translated till the 20th of December, 1443. Here he remained for ten years, and according to the author of the Historia Eliensis, was not distinguished for his good government or piety ; though the charges brought against him may be suspected of being without foundation, seeing that he was elected by the monks of Canterbury to the metropolitan see, as the successor of Dr. Kemp, on the 23rd of April, 1454. The election was entirely free, neither the king, or that foreign potentate, the pope, attempting to interfere, or bias the chapter in their choice. It is not probable that they would have elected a prelate who was never connected with their body, unless they had been persuaded that he was not the op- pressor which, by the monks of Ely, he was represented to be.

The approbation of the pope of Rome was signified by his appointing archbishop Bourchier to be a cardinal in the Roman church ; he was elected cardinal priest of St. Cyriacus in Thermis. The king, too, signified his ap- proval by making the archbishop lord high chancellor of

BOURCHIER. 9

England, an office which he resigned the October fol- lowing.

Soon after his enthronization he commenced a visitation in Kent, and made several regulations for the government of his diocese. To mention some of his provisions : —

First : He decreed, " That those religious who threw off the habit of the cloister, and entered upon parochial cures, should lose their benefices, and be punished as revolters from their order."

Secondly : " That church livings should not be let to farm without the bishop's leave."

Thirdly : "That marriages and last wills should not be made without two witnesses at the least." He likewise passed several other constitutions for the reformation of the clergy and laity, and ordered them to be published at St. Paul's Cross.

As for learning and religion, they were but, generally speaking, in a state of declension : for, as an author who lived at this time complains, "A right discharge of the functions of a parish priest was almost grown into disuse, and made impracticable. That this mischief was occasioned by non-residence, by promoting unworthy persons, by excessive allowance of pluralities, by grant- ing university degrees to persons who had neither morals, nor any other circumstance of merit to recommend them." This writer, who was sometime chancellor of Oxford, com- plains of the government of that university, " that degrees were purchased without any regard to life or learning : that this connivance and bribery in the university over- spread the country with ignorance, and made the parishes ill supplied." He goes on and declaims against the relax- ation of discipline in the court of Rome ; and reports, that pope Calixtus III. brought a very ill precedent into the church of England in favour of a young person of quality." It seems this pope had given a dispensation to George Neville, brother to the great earl of Warwick, to be elected bishop of Exeter, and receive the profits of that see, notwithstanding he was no more than three and

10 BOURCHiER.

twenty years old, and was not capable of being consecrated till four years after. Notwithstanding this disability, his holiness furnished him with a bull, not only to receive the profits, but likewise to hold those other church prefer- ments he was possessed of before.

In the year 1454 archbishop Bourchier published a letter for processions, which is here presented to the reader, who will see from the perusal of it how many popish abuses had at this period crept into our beloved church, and how much our excellent establishment re- quired the reformation which was now approaching.

" Thomas by Divine permission archbishop of Canter- bury, primate of A. E., legate of the apostolical see, to our venerable brother Thomas by the grace of God bishop of London, health, and a continual increase of brotherly love. [Here is omitted a ivhole page, which is only a pre- fatory narrative of the occasion of these letters, and which is sufficiently, though briefly, expressed in what folloxcs.] That this our happy expedition against the [Turks] persecutors of our orthodox faith now begun, and the health, and condition of the most Christian prince our lord the king, and of the commonweal of this kingdom may daily be improved, and the sooner brought to perfec- tion, and those internal evils may be happily composed by the inspiration of divine grace, we have decreed that certain solemn processions be for one year celebrated within our province of Canterbury in the cathedral, regular, collegiate, and other churches. Therefore we give it in charge, and command you our brother, that ye do enjoin all and singular our brethren, and fellow-bishops, the sufi'ragans of our church of Canterbury, in our stead, and by our authority, and with all speed by your letters containing a copy of these, that they do admonish, and persuade, or cause to be admonished and persuaded, all their subjects, both clerks, and laics in their cathedral, conventual, and collegiate churches (whether regular, or secular ;) and also in the parish churches of their cities and dioceses on the Lord's days and festivals, that the;^

BOURCHIER 11

celebrate processions in a most devout, affectionate, and solemn manner, and sing or say the litanies with other suffrages that are seasonable and acceptable to God, as well on those Lord's-dajs and Festivals, as on every Wednesday and Friday, with all humility of heart, for the driving away and removing far from the bounds of the Christian world, the wicked powers of them that are enemies to the Christian orthodox faith, and its pro- fessors, and for the total extinguishing and (may God so please) the exterminating of them ; and for the restoring and perfecting tlie welfare of our lord the king, and this famous kingdom of England, and for the daily increase and improvement of their prosperity ; and for the averting and dispelling, removing and avoiding with all possible speed those difficulties and dangers now imminent on the king, and kingdom, and those evils from abroad with which we are beset and encompassed ; and that they do farther exhort the i)eople subject to them, that they do by day and night, at their convenient leisure, continue in- stant in their prayers with all humility of heart, for the averting these evils from us, and from the whole Christian world. And do ye, dear brother, cause the same to be done in your city and diocese by those who belong to you, in an humble devout manner on the like days, times and places. And that they may be excited to these works of devotion with the greater frequency and zeal, we of the immense mercy of God, and confiding in the merits and prayers of the most blessed Virgin Mary, his mother, and of the blessed Peter and Paul, his apostles, and of saints Alphege and Thomas, martyrs, our patrons, and of all the saints, do graciously grant forty days indulgence by these presents, to all and every one of our subjects who repents of his sins, and confesses them with contrition, and is present on any Wednesday or Friday within the said year at the making of such procession, as is aforesaid, and intercedes with devout prayers to God for the premises, or that fasts on the days aforesaid, or on any day within the same year ; or that says mass, or seven psalms with

12 BOURCHIER.

the litany, or a nocturnal of David's psalter, or the psalter of the blessed Virgin Mary, so called, or that goes in pil- grimage to any place, commonly resorted to for such pur- poses, or gives any thing in alms, out of reverence to God, or his saints, and that duly confesses his sins in order to his ofifering these sacrifices in a more acceptable manner to God, for as often as they perform any of the premises. And we request you, and your brethren that ye grant such indulgences to your and their subjects doing as aforesaid, as are wont to be granted Dated in our manor of Croydon on the 19th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1454, and of our translation the first."

In those days bishops were not so despotic as they now are, and therefore surprise has been expressed that the archbishop in this case did not consult his convocation ; but it is to be observed that he did not intend his letter to be a binding or peremptory decree, but only an earnest admonition ; and when in the year following, as Johnson observes, " he sent his monition to all rectors, vicars, curates, and their substitutes throughout his diocese and province, and particularly to all such as should minister the word of God to the clergy and people at St. Paul's Cross, London, to advertise all people that testaments should not be made, or matrimony contracted without two or three witnesses, and that one of the witnesses to the will be a parish priest, or the proper curate, if it may conveDiently be, he had no occasion to take the advice of his convoca- tion in this case, because what he required was no more than what the canon law demanded."

In 1416 the prelates of our church had made provision for their Festa Repentina, occasional thanksgivings with- out composing new ofiBces ; in the letter of archbishop Bourchier we may observ^e how they ordered matters in case of extraordinary humiliation ; they drew up no new offices, but only required some old forms to be more frequently used: they did not think their authority sufficient absolutely to enjoin the use of these forms, but only granted indulgences to those who comphed. The

BOURCHIER 13

convocation indeed in 1416 did peremptorily require all to use the old forms in a new manner ; but the arch- bishop acting bj himself did not venture to go so far. Tirls fact, pointed out by Johnson in the Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws, &c., is especially worthy of note in the present age, when individual bishops arrogate to themselves, too often, the power which pertains only to convocation. As to the provision for occasional services, it is arranged better in the church of England subse- quently to the Reformation than what it was before. Every Friday is an established fast, and the commination ser- vice may be used whenever the ordinaiy appoints ; and this with the prayer on the occasion, whatever it may be, which may be added out of the forms next after the litany, prescribed to be used before the two final prayers at matins and even-song, would make a better ofiBce than any of those modern compilations which have been some- times enjoined by very questionable authority. What is said of fast-day services is equally applicable to thanks- givings.

As for the indulgences alluded to in archbishop Bour- cliier's letter, the learned editor, referred to before, very justly remarks that they were among " the most stupid inventions that were ever set on foot by the court of Rome: and the inventors themselves could never explain the meaning of them : for they ever declared, that neither the pope, nor Christ Jesus Himself did ever give hopes of reprobates being freed from hell-torments. They tell us it was only a relaxation of the temporal punishment due for sin, and which is to be paid either by penance here, or in purgatory hereafter. And this might in some measure clear the matter as to the bishop's indulgence, which was but for thirty day^ at most, and as to the archbishop "s, which was but for fifty days at most. But when the pope by the pretended plenitude of power extended his indulgences to thousands of years, this can never be resolved into a relaxation of penance, unless it could be supposed that a

VOL. Ill, B

\i BOURCHIER.

man could sin or do penance for so many years. After all, their best casuists advise people to do their penance, notwithstanding these indulgences, which is to say, that they would have none to rely on them."

Among the grievances of the age was the decay of learning in our two great universities, especially in the university of Oxford. The reason of this declension is sup- posed to have proceeded from the withdrawing the usual salaries and exhibitions, and by overlooking the members of the university in the disposal of church preferments. Farther, this decay of learning is partly resolved into the great number of impropriations to monasteries. Religious houses had for some time made it their business to draw parochial cures within their property and patronage. They were sometimes so fond of this privilege as to settle an annuity or part with a manor to the laity for an im- propriation. They found an advantage in converting the profits of livings to the use of the convent : for, by having the revenues thus augmented, they were in a better con- dition to support emergent exjDenses, and purchase liber- ties and exemptions. Thus the abbey of St. Edmondsbury in Suffolk, in Cratfield's time, procured a license from the pope to choose their abbot without consulting the see of Rome : and, in consideration of this favour, they obliged themselves to pay a rent-charge of twenty pounds per annum to the pope ; and twenty marks a year into the exchequer to redeem their abbey-lands from being seized into the kings hands upon every vacancy. To support this charge, they procured two parishes to be appropriated to their monastery, notwithstanding they were already possessed of more than threescore under the same circum- stances. And of this kind, there might be several other instances given.

And thus, by perverting the design of the endowment of churches, and robbing the parochial clergy of their patrimony, religion and learning suffered very much : for the monasteries being frequently over-solicitous for their

BOURCHIER. 15

interest, used to afford a very slender consideration to those who supplied the cures : and thus the parishes were put into the hands of ignorant incumbents. This mis- fortune gave occasion to frequent contests and vexatious suits among the parishioners ; whereas formerly, when the parish priests were men of learning and character, these differences were taken up, and decided by them. But now, such disputes falling into the hands of lawyers, — who, when not men of conscience, made it their business to perplex and prolong the controversy, — the countiy was more than ever embroiled : and, being in a great measure exhausted by law-suits, they were disabled for pious uses and benefactions to learning.

Besides, the exhibitions to the universities, as has been observed, were in a great measure withdrawn. The reason of the failing of this fund, which was mostly furnished by the bishops, was this: the prelates in this reign, by spending too much of their time at court, and making too great a figure there, disabled themselves from assisting men of learning, and neither gave the customary enter- tainment to scholars in their houses, nor supplied them at the universities.

And here Gascoigne, above-mentioned, observes, " that before the reign of Henry VI. the kings of England never detained any bishop at their courts, unless for a short time ; neither had they any of that order for their con- fessors. And when the director of their conscience, who was generally a doctor in divinity, happened to be elected to any bishopric, he immediately quitted his office, and went down to his see ; and while things were thus managed, doctors were men of great learning and esteem, and had the precedency of archdeacons, deans, and knights."

The avarice and extravagant partialities of the court of Rome, were another occasion of the declensions in the Church and universities. For if men brought money and strong recommendations, that court frequently overlooked the considerations of probity and merit.

16 BOURCHIER.

The weight of these grievances put the university of Ox- ford upon addressing the archbishop of Canterbury to step in to th^ir relief, to give check to the excesses of papal provisions. The archbishop undertook the business, and made a synodical constitution, that for the future, no person should be admitted to holy orders without a testi- monial from the archdeacon of the place, or the chancellor of the university, or his deputy. This expedient, though it gave some hopes of reformation at first, proved insigni- ficant, by the mercenariness of the bishop's officers, who seldom would wait for any testimonials of this kind.

The following are the constitutions of archbishop Bour- chier, published in 1463, which are here given as throw- ing light upon the state of the church in the fifteenth century.

" The constitutions of Thomas Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of A. E., legate of the apostolical see, made in the cathedral church of St. Pauls, London, the prelates and clergy of the province of Canterbury being then and there convocated, on the sixth day of July, 1463.

1. Although the disposal of all churches, and of the rights, persons, and things thereunto belonging, and also of the goods in pious places is known by the testimony of the sacred canons to belong to the bishops, and holiness becomes God s house, and jDcaceableness (with due venera- tion of Him, by whose peace it was made a place of Divine worship) that no disturbance of the minds of Christians, or execution of the secular law be in the church ; yet the impudence, or rather rashness of some secular officers in the province of Canterbury, forgetful of their own salvation, is grown so abusive to the church, that sheriffs, under-sheriffs, bailififs, Serjeants, beadles, and at- tendants, by themselves, and their deputies do compel persons of both sexes staying in churches and church- yards and other places, as is said, dedicated to God (per- chance) to attend on prayer, to be arrested and violently torn from thence with the disturbance of divine worship ;

BOURCHIER. IT

sometimes with fightiDg, and the pollution of the churches under colour of executing a secular office, by means unfit to be used in churches, to the scandal and detriment of the churches, and the hazard of their own souls, and the pernicious example of others. Now we Thomas by divine permission archbishop of Canterbury, desiring as we are bound, to apply a remedy against such abuses to such as have reprobated the law of God and His holy church, and lest we should seem to approve of it, do by authority of this present provincial council ordain, and prohibit any secular ofl&cer by what name soever called, to arrest in any civil or pecuniary action, or to force out of a church or any sacred place, and particularly the church of St. Pauls, London, (especially while divine semce is there celebra- ted) any man, or woman under pain of excommunication. And if any sheriff, under-sheriff, mayor, bailiff, seijeant, beadle, attendant, or other secular officer, under whatever name he passes, be a rash violator of this our statute, or give authority, help or consent to such violation, we will that he do ipso facto incur the sentence of the greater excommunication, not to be absolved from the same, till they have made competent satisfaction to the persons and churches injured. And we make a special reservation of their absolution to the diocesans of the places. And we will that they be bound in the same sentence, who lay violent hands even on a layman in churches, or other consecrated places.

•2. Although in this catholic and glorious kingdom of England the preachers of the word of God have sufficiently considered and declaimed against the new ill-contrived fashions of apparel of the clergy and people for several years, by reproof, reprehension, and entreaty, according to the apostle "s doctrine ; yet few or none desist from these abuses, which is much to be lamented. It is fit then that they who are not reclaimed by divine love be restrained by fear of punishment. And if we who by divine permis- sion are set over others to reform them, neglect to reform b2

18 BOURCHIER.

[S

ourselves and clergy, we fear, lest the people subject to us observing that our lives and manners differ from our ser- mons, do thence take occasion to distrust our words, and so be prompted, which God avert, to contemn the church of Christ, and His ministers, and their sound doctrine and authority. Desiring therefore to apply a remedy to this evil, so far as God enables us, that we may not be to answer for it at the last day, we do by our metropolitical authority, with the unanimous assent and consent of our venerable brethren the lords the bishops, and of the whole clergy of the province of Canterbury, by a decree of this present provincial council, enact and ordain that no priest, or clerk in holy orders, or beneficed, do publicly wear any gown or upper garment, but what is close before, and not wholly open, nor any bordering of skins or furs in the lower edges or circumference : and that no one who is not graduated in some university, or possessed of some ecclesiastical dignity, do wear a cap with a cape, nor a double cap, nor a single one with a cornet, or a short hood after the manner of prelates and graduates (excepting only the priests and clerks in the service of our lord the king) or gold, or any thing gilt on their girdle, sword, dagger, or purse. And let none of the abovesaid, nor any domes- tics of an archbishop, bishop, abbot, prior, dean, arch- deacon, or of any ecclesiastical man who serves them for stipends, or wages, and especially they who serve in a spiritual office, wear ill-contrived garments scandalous to the church, nor bolsters about their shoulders in their doublet, coat, or gown, nor an upper garment so short as not to cover their middle parts, nor shoes monstrously long and turoed up at the toes, nor any such sort of gar- ments. If any transgressor of this statute and ordinance be discovered after a month from the publication thereof, let him be wholly deprived of the perception of the profits of his ecclesiastical benefice, if he have any : if he have none let him be wholly deprived of his office or service, whether he be clerk or laic, till he reform himself. And

BOURCHIER. 19

let the lord or master, who retains such an uiireformed' transgressor, or receives him again anew, take upon his own conscience the burden and peril before the supreme judge. And because we ourselves are disposed to use all diligence toward the observance of this constitution in our own person, as God shall give us His grace, we do in the Lord exhort all our venerable the lords the bishops, and other inferior ecclesiastical persons, we admonish all and singular persons subject to us in virtue of strict obedience, in the same Lord, that they so behave themselves in this respect as may be to the praise of Almighty God, and for the avoiding scandal to His church ; that we may not hereafter be forced to aggravate the penalties of this constitution."

It would appear from these constitutions that the clergy wore swords, and we find in other contemporary docu- ments that it was occasionally necessary to warn the clergy against the adoption of military habits.

It is curious to observe that some of the extraordinary pri- vileges which the university of Oxford at this time asserts, are to be traced to papal favour ; that in fact their right to suspend an ecclesiastic from preaching is a right obtained from the pope, and that the exercise of it is proof, not of an Anglican, but of a popish spirit. In the year 1476, according to the statement of Collier, the pope, at the instance of the university of Oxford , granted that learned body a bull of pri\ilege dated the 13th of September. The reason why the university solicited this favour, was, because their former exemptions procured from the see of Rome were either lost or revoked ; particularly the famous grant of pope Boniface VIII. had been cancelled. This instrument of Sixtus IV. takes notice, that it was set forth in the bull of Boniface, that several kings of England, of famous memory, had granted this privilege, amongst others, to the university of Oxford ; " That, for the greater convenience and ease of the students, their chancellor for the time being should have the cognizance and correction of all contracts, trespasses, and misdemeanours, within the

20 BOURCHIEH.

precincts.of the university, where one of the parties was either a scholar, a servant to any of that body, or other- wise belonging to the jurisdiction of the chancellor ; and that no person, under the circumstances and distinctions above-mentioned, should, by virtue of the king's writs, be forced to make their appearance, or take their trial in any foreign court, unless in prosecutions for murder, mayhem, or pleas concerning freehold : and that the masters, doctors, and scholars, had peaceably enjoyed this royal privilege long beyond the memory of man.' The bull of Boniface proceeds to recite, "that the university requested an extent of privilege with respect to the church, and that their body might be exempted from the jurisdiction of all archbishops, bishops, and other ordinaries whatsoever ; and that the chancellor should be empowered to decide all emergent differences, and punish all trespasses and crimes above-mentioned, with a liberty of exercising all manner of spiritual authority upon the university members : and that all suspensions, excommunications, or interdicts, denounced and published against the said chancellor, scholars, &c., should be void, and of none effect." This bull of Boniface is revived by Sixtus IV., and all the fran- chises granted by the kings of England confirmed.

In the reign of Edward V., Richard, duke of Gloucester, continued to make archbishop Bourchier an instrument of promoting his own ambitious designs. It was by his graces persuasion that the queen dowager consented to deliver up the duke of York into the hands of the protector. But the archbishop has never been accused of acting from any sinister motive, and his whole conduct shews that he had full confidence at the time in Richards sincerity. The last public act of archbishop Bourchier, was to solemnize the marriage between Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, and thus, as Dr. Fuller observes, " his hand first held the sweet posie whereby the white and red roses were tied together." He died in 1486, at Knowle, then an archiepiscopal residence, and was buried on the north side of the choir of his cathedral. His chief public

BOURDALOUE. Ql

benefaction was the gift of £120 to the university of Cam- bridge ; this sum was laid up with another hundred pounds, given by Mr. Billingsforth, formerly master of Corpus Christi College, and the chest was called Billings- forth and Buurchier's chest : the money in the chest was to be lent, as occasion required, to poor scholars.

Though Bourchier was undoubtedly a man of learning, no writings of his have descended to us, except a few synodical decrees ; but he deserves especial mention as being the first who introduced the art of printing into this country. The art had for some time been practised on the continent, but the greatest secrecy was observed respecting the manner in which the operation was con- ducted. The archbishop therefore persuaded Henry VI. to send Tournour and Caxton abroad in the guise of merchants, (which Caxton was,) to possess themselves, if possible, of this important secret, which with some diffi- culty they accomplished, having persuaded one of the compositors, Frederick Corselli, to carry off a set of types, and go over with them to England. Upon their arrival, the archbishop, thinking Oxford a more convenient place for printing than London, sent Corselli thither ; and lest he should escape before he discovered the whole secret, a guard was set upon the press Thus the art of printing appeared ten years sooner at this university than in any other place in Europe, Harlaem and Mentz excepted. Not long after, presses were set up at West- minster, St Alban"s, Worcester, and other monasteries

of note. Godwin. SjJelmcm. Johnson. Collier. Wood.

Wharton.

BOUEDALOUE, LEWIS.

Lewis Bouedaloue was born at Bourges, August 20th, 1682, and became a Jesuit at fifteen. His talent for preach- ing made him so popular in the country, that his superiors called him to Paris in 1669, to take the course in their church of St. Louis, which soon became crowded with

23 BOURN.

hearers of the highest distinction, and Louis XIV. fre- quently listened with attention and pleasure to this powerful preacher, though he manfully spoke home truths to the monarch and his court. He was sent into Lan- guedoc to convert the protestants, and it is said that he had considerable success in this mission. In his own communion, however, the effects of his ministry was very great, and numbers chose him for their confessor. His piety appears to have been truly sincere, and he had a very liberal disposition towards those from whom he dif- fered. He died in 1704.

Bretonneau, who was also a Jesuit, published two editions of his works, one in 14 vols, 8vo, Paris, in 1707 and following years, and another in 15 vols, l'2mo. The former has the preference. — Moreri. Biog : GalUca. Works.

BOURN, GILBERT.

Gilbert Bourn, was the son of Philip Bourn, of Worcestershire, and was matriculated at Oxford in 15-^4. He was elected fellow of All Souls in 1531. He bore a high character as a logician and rhetorician in the university, in which he took his M.A. degree in 153-^. The chapter of Worcester was new modeled under Henry the Vlllth, the regulars being dispossessed, and secular clergy under a dean being appointed. Bourn was one of the first of the new prebendaries, being appointed in 1541. In the year 1543 he took his B.I), degree and became chaplain to the bishop of London, (Dr. Bonner,) by whom he was collated to the prebend of Wildland in St Pauls cathedral in 1545 ; a prebend which he exchanged for that of Brownswood in 1548. He appears, like his patron, to have been attached at first to the reforming party in our church, and thus he was preferred, in 154V), to the archdeaconry of Bedford, and soon after to the rectory of High Ongar in Essex.

There were many things which must have prepared the mind of Bourn to change his party when an opportunity

BOURN. %^

occurred. He was a mild and perhaps an indolent man, and by the excesses to which the reformers of Edward VI. had proceeded, his conservative feelings both in church and state must have been alarmed. Moreover, his personal feelings must have been shocked by the treatment which his patron, the bishop of London, had experienced. What- ever state necessity there may have been for the proceed- ings against the bishop, they must have appeared to his friends unjust and arbitrary. See Life of Bonner. We are not to be surprised at finding Bourn attaching himself to the Romanizing party in our church, when at the accession of Mary the Romanists came into power. He took the earliest opportunity of declaring his adhesion to the new government, and at the same time to shew his gratitude to his former patron, the atrocity of whose character had not yet developed itself. He calculated, however, wrongly on the state of public opinion. He evidently supposed that the alarm felt at the excesses and ultra-protestantism of Edward's reformers had entirely pervaded the masses in London as elsewhere. He found that he was mistaken when he delivered the sermon, which from its conse- quences alone, has procured for him a place in history. He was appointed to preach at St Paul's Cross, August 13, 1553, in the presence of the coi'poration of London, several of the nobility, and his old patron, bishop Bonner. He took for his text the passage on which that prelate had discoursed from the same place four years before, warmly eulogized him, adverted to the hardships that he had recently undergone, and attacked severely king Edward's religious policy. As he proceeded, murmurs arose, women and boys became violently excited, and even some clergy- men of the reforming party who were present, encouraged the general disgust. At length, caps were thrown into the air, stones were levelled at the preacher, and some fiery zealot completed the disgrace of the protestant party, by hurling a dagger at the indiscreet author of so much confusion. Bourn escaped martyrdom by stooping down, and his brother besought Bradford, eventually a martyr,

'24 BOURNE.

to appease, if possible, the people's fury. The call be- ing readily obeyed, a mild rebuke from one so well known, and so deservedly respected, soon quelled the spirit of outrage. The obnoxious preacher was then con- ducted between Bradford and Rogers, afterwards martyrs in the Marian persecution, into St Pauls school, where he remained until the crowd dispersed. — See Life of Bradford.

Bourn was afterwards one of the delegates appointed to restore bishop Bonner to the see of London. It is dis- graceful to Bourn that when Bradford was brought into trouble, he did not interfere to protect him. He was present on one of the days of Bradford's trial, but he said not a single word in his behalf, though the expressive silence with which be received Bradford's appeal to him, forced Gardiner to abandon the charge of sedition brought against him. Bourn was elected bishop of Bath and Wells, March 28th, 1554, and he continued in great favour throughout queen Mary's reign, being appointed president of Wales. Under Elizabeth, he was deprived for deny- ing the royal supremacy. Being then committed to the free custody of the dean of Exeter, he gave himself entirely up to reading and devotion. He died at Silver- ton, in Devonshire, September 10th, 1569. — Wood. Fox. Strype's Memorials.

BOURNE, IMMANUEL.

Immanuel Bourne was born in Northamptonshire, December 27th, 1590, and entered at Christ Church, Ox- ford, in 1667. He took his M.A. degree in 1616. In 1622 he was appointed to the rectory of Ashover in Derbyshire, and was noted as a puritan. When the rebellion broke out he sided with the rebels and became a presbyterian. He became a popular preacher at St. Sepulchre's, and in 1656 was intruded into the living of Waltham in Leicestershire. The popular puritan became a conformist at the restora- tion, and in 1669 was instituted to the rectorv of Ailston

BOYS. 25

in Leicestershire. He died on the 27th of December, 1672. He published, besides some occasional sermons, A Light from Christ, leading unto Christ by the Star of His word ; or, a Divine Directory for Self-Examination and Preparation for the Lord's Supper, 1645 ; Defence of Scriptures as the Chief Judge of Controversies, 1656 ; Vindication of the Honour due to Magistrates, Ministers, and others, against the Quakers, 1659 ; Defence of Tjthes, Infant Baptism, Human Learning, and the Sword of the Magistrate, against the Anabaptists ; A Golden Chain of Directions to preserve Love between Husband and Wife, 1^2.— Wood's Ath.

BOYS, OR BOIS, JOHN,

JOHN BOIS was born at Nettlestead, in Suffolk, on the 5th January, 1560. So precocious were the talents of the child, that at the age of five years he read the Bible in Hebrew. He went afterwards to Hadley school, and at fourteen was admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself by his skill in the Greek. Happening to have the small pox when he was elected fellow, he, to preserve his seniority, caused himself to be carried, wrapped up in blankets, to be admitted. He applied himself for some time to the study of medicine, but fancying himself affected with every disease he read of, he quitted that science, determining to enter into tlie ministry; on the ^Ist of June, 1583, he was ordained deacon, and next day, by virtue of a dispensation, priest. He was ten years chief Greek lecturer in his college, and read e^ery day. He voluntarily read a Greek lecture for some years, at four in the morning, in his own chamber, which v^'as frequented by many of the fellows. On the death of his father, he succeeded him in the rectory of West-Stowe ; but his mother going to live with her brother, he resigned that preferment, though he might have kept it with his fellowship. At the age of thirty-six, he married

VOL. TII. C

26 BOYS.

the daughter of Mr. Hoh, rector of Boxworth, in Cam- bridgeshire, whom he succeeded in that living October the loth, 1.596. On his quitting the university, the college gave him one hundred pounds. His young wife, who was bequeathed to him with the living, which was an advowson, proving a bad economist, and he himself being wholly addicted to his studies, he soon became so much involved in debt, that he was forced to sell his choice collection of books, containing almost every Greek author then extant, to a loss as great as the sum to which the debt paid by its produce amounted. The loss of his library afflicted him so much, that he had thought of quitting his native coun- try. He was however soon reconciled to his wife, and he even continued to leave all domestic affairs to her manage- ment. He entered into an agreement with twelve of the neighbouring clergy, to meet every Friday at one of their houses by turns, to give an account of their studies. He usually kept some young scholar in his house, to instruct his own children, and the poorer sort of the town, as well as several gentlemen's children, who were boarded with him. When a new translation of the Bible was, by king James I., directed to be made, Mr. Bois was elected one of the Cambridge translators. He performed not only his own, but also the part assigned to another, whose name has not transpired, with great reputation, though with no profit, for he had no allowance but his commons. He was indeed to have been one of the fellows of the new college at Chelsea, which it was then in contemplation to found, but as the project died away, he was disappointed. He was not only a translator of the Bible, but also one of the six who met at Stationers' Hall to revise the whole ; which task they went through in nine months, having each from the company of stationers during that time thirty shillings a week. He afterwards assisted Sir Henry Savile, in publishing the works of St. Chrysostom. A present of a single copy of the book was the whole reward of many years' labour spent upon it. This disappointment

BOYS. f^7

was owing to the death of Sir Henry Savile, who intended to have made him fellow of Eton. In 1615, Dr. Lancelot Andre wes, bishop of Ely, bestowed on him, unasked, a pre- bend in his church. He died on the 14th January, 1613, in the 84th year of his age. Although he left behind him a great mass of MSS., the only work he published was Johannis Boisii Veteris Interpretis cum Beza ahisque recentioribus Collatio, in iv. Evangeliis et Actis Apostolo- rum, Lond. 1655, 4to; the object of which was to defend the vulgate version of the Xew Testament. When he was a young man he received from Dr. Whitaker three rules for avoiding the diseases to which literary men are subject — 1. to read standing ; 2. not to read near a window : and 3. not to go to bed with the feet cold : and by following these and some other sanatory precepts, his life was not only prolonged to a great age, but it is said that when he died his brow was without wrinkles, his sight quick, his hearing sharp, his countenance fresh, and his body sound. — Anthony Walker in Pedis Desiderata Curiosa. Wijod's Fasti. Fuller.

BOYS, JOHN.

John Boys was born in 1571, of a family that came into Kent at the Conquest; he was educated at Coi-pus Christi College, Cambridge, from whence he was elected fellow of Clare Hall. Sir John Boys, his uncle, presented him to the livings of Bettishanger and the adjoining parish of Tilman- stone, near Deal ; and archbishop Whitgift collated him to the mastership of Eastbridge hospital, in Canterbury. He took his doctor's degree and became a "powerful preacher.'' He found a new patron in archbishop Abbot who collated him to the rectory of Great Mongeham in 1618. He was appointed by James I. dean of Canterbury, May, 16J9. This dignity, however, he did not enjoy long, dying sud- denly in his study, September 26, 1625, at the age of fifty-four. His chief work is his Postils, or a series of Discourses on the Epistles, Gospels, &c., of the Christian

S8 BRADBURY.

Year. He was a violent opponent of popery, and was the author of the following profane parody on the Lord's Prayer : " Papa noster qui es Romae, maledicetur nomen tuum, intereat regnum tuum, impediatur voluntas tuu, sicut in ccelo sic et in terra :" — but the whole of the blasphemy we forbear to quote, only alluding to the subject to shew the irreverence of ultra-protestantism. It is said that Dr. Boys did not invent, but only quoted with approbation, this perversion of the Lord s Prayer into a malediction. In 1631 " certain sermons" of his

were printed. Todd's Deans of Canterhury. Fuller.

Wood. Granger.

BEADBUKY, THOMAS.

Thomas Beadbuey was born at Wakefield, in 1677, and became a dissenting preacher at eighteen years of age. As a preacher he was distinguished for his buffoonery, and men w^ent to his meeting-house to be amused by his jokes. For twenty years he thus preached at a meeting-house in Fetter-lane, London, and afterwards succeeded Daniel Burgess, another preaching joker, at the meeting-house of New-court, Carey street. So obtuse was the sense of pro- priety in Bogue, the historian of dissent, that he remarks, on Bradbury's translation to New-court, " This pulpit a second time presented a phenomenon as rare as it is henejicial, wit consecrated to the services of serious and eternal truth." — (Bogue, vol. ii. p. 403.) Among the standing objects of his mirth was the religious poetry of Dr. Watts. He thus used, accordingly, to give out a hymn from that writer, it may be hoped only when in a sillier mood than common, "Let us sing one of Dr. VVatts's Whims." At another time, preaching before an association of ministers at Salter's Hall, on the Arian controversy, he exclaimed, " Y^'ou who are not ashamed to own the deity of our Lord follow me to the gallery," to which he immediately bent his way : but some of the opposite party beginning to hiss, he turned round, and

BRADFORD. -^9

said, " I have been pleading for Him who bruised the serpent's head ; no wonder the seed of the sei'pent should hiss." His favourite meal was supper, before sitting down to which, he was accustomed to expound and pray ; afterwards he entertained his company with '• The Roast- Beef of Old England," in singing which he was considered to excel. After entertaining the public with this facetious preaching, and these anti-monastic revelries for thirty-two years, he died September 9th, 1759, deeply regretted by the great body of dissenters. His works, consisting of fifty-four sermons, were published in 176'2, in three volumes, 8vo, They are chiefly political, and it was remarked at the time of their publication, that " from the great number of sacred texts api:)lied to the occasion, one would imagine from these discourses the Bible written only to confirm by divine authority the benefits accruing to this natim from the accession of king William III."

Mr. X. Xtal, in a letter to Dr. Doddridge, on the publication of some of Bradbury's sermons, observes, " I have seen Mr Bradbury's sermons, just pub- lished, the nonsense and buffoonery of which would make one laugh, if his impious insults over the pious dead

did not make one tremble." Boc/ue. Doddridge's

Letters.

BRADFORD, JOHN.

John Bradford was born at Manchester in the early part of the reign of Henry VIIL, and was educated at the grammar school there ; he became distinguished as an accountant. This accomplishment procured for him the place of clerk or secretaiy to Sir John Har- rington, who was treasurer of the royal camps and buildings. Sir John Harrington placed entire confidence in his integrity as well as in his ability, but unfortunately overrated his superiority to temptation. Bradford appro- c-2

30 BRADFORD.

priated to his own use, one hundred and forty pounds belonging to the crown. Some protestant historians, blinded by party feeling, endeavour to palliate the crime of one who became afterwards so distinguished. But the real defence of Bradford is this, that he did deeply and truly repent, that he deplored to the end of life his "great thing," as he sorrowfully termed his act of peculation, and that, when his mind was enlightened as to the nature of his sin, and his Conscience reproached him, he became his own accuser, and took measures to make restitution. It is doubtful whether he was first awakened to a sense of his sin under the preaching of bishop Latimer, but under the agonies of an accusing conscience he certainly applied to him as a spiritual advi- ser. The idea had struck Bradford that in order to raise the requisite sum, and to make restitution, he might sell his services for a stipulated period or even permanently ; as was not imusual among the ancient Israelites. Lati- mer was at the time when Bradford sent to consult him on this point, engaged in the composition of a sermon to be preached before the king, and evidently did not give proper attention to this case of conscience. He sent a very unsatisfactory answer that the case had better be left in the hands of God. But Bradford found more sub- stantial relief from Sir John Harrington himself, who generously consented to satisfy the crown, and to accept his dependant's security for repayment to himself.

Bradford, dismissed from his employment, studied for some time in the Inner Temple, where he is said to have heard more sermons than law lectures. He soon attached himself with characteristic zeal to that party in our beloved church v/hich was labouring for its reformation. A movement party always attaches to itself the more earnest minds, anxious for improvement in others as well as in themselves ; but as they are not always the most judicious or the best informed, the reforming party, [now, in the reign of Edward VI.,] in pov/er, was anxious to

BRADFORD. 31

employ all who united with zeal and eloquence, a sound judgment and competent learning. Bradford was, there- fore, easily persuaded to prepare himself for employment in the church, and accordingly went to Cambridge. Here he soon found a patron in Dr. Ridley, bishop of Rochester, and master of Pembroke Hall. He had entered at Catherine Hall, but became a fellow soon after of Ridley's college. His modesty was as conspicuous as his piety while at Cambridge. The manner of his laying his past sins before his eyes, by the catalogues he made of them, and his inward and retired exercise of prayer ; his praying with himself, as well as with his pupils ; and, above all, the diary he kept of whatever was remarkable and serviceable to his steady advancement in the practice of piety, are particularly described among his exercises, whilst he was at the university, by Martin Bucer, who could best do it; more especially of this last task, he speaks in these words : " He used to make unto himself an ephemeris, or a journal, in which he used to write all such notable things as either he did see or hear, each day that passed. But whatsoever he did hear or see, he did so pen it, that a man might see in that, the signs of his smitten heart. For if he did see or hear any good in any man; by that sight, he found and noted the want thereof in himself ; and added a short prayer, craving mercy and grace to amend. If he did hear or see any misery, he noted it, as a thing procured by his own sins ; and still added Domine misere mei : Lord have mercy upon me. He used in the same book, to note such evil thoughts as did rise in him ; as of envying the good of other men ; thoughts of unthankfulness ; of not considering God in His works ; of hardness and unsensibleness of heart when he did see others moved and afflicted : and thus he made to himself and of himself, a book of daily practices of repentance."

It seems that the reforming party were so anxious to em- ploy him that he obtained, probably by royal mandate, and through Ridley's interest, the degree ox M.A. before the

S'^ BRADFORD.

termination of his first year's residence. In 1550, when Dr. Ridley was translated to the see of London, that great prelate ordained Bradford a deacon, somewhat irregularly, and soon after made him his chaplain, and preferred him to a prebend in St. Paul's. In. December this year he received a license of preaching. In the year following it was thought fit that the king should retain six chaplains, who should not only in their turn be in waiting upon him, but should act also as itinerant preachers, to excite as well as instruct the people. Bradford was nominated as one of the six, but for some cause or other the number was reduced to four, and Bradford was one of the two excluded from the appointment. That he became a popular preacher is clear : he was not perhaps the most dignified or reverential of his class ; but if he was some- thing of a demagogue as well as a preacher, he fearlessly maintained his principles when preaching before the great. Bishop Ridley said of him, that he was one of those preachers who " ripped so deeply in the galled backs of the great men of the court, as to have purged them of the filthy matter that was festered in their hearts, of insatia- ble covetousness, filthy carnality, and voluptuousness, intolerable ambition and pride, and ungodly loathsome- ness to hear poor men's causes and God's word ; that him of all other they could not abide." But there is yet higher testimony borne in his favour by bishop Ridley : he says of him . " He is a man by whom, as I am assuredly informed, God doth work wonders in setting forth His word."

His influence with the mob was clearly proved at the commencement of queen Mary's reign. Bourn, [see his life] one of the royal chaplains, was appointed to preach at St. Paul's Cross. A mob was assembled to hear him ; as the romanizing party declared, a packed mob, assembled for tbe purpose of insulting him, if, as was suspected, he should censure the proceedings of the late king's govern- ment. Bourn complained of the conduct of the reformers when in power. Pull him down, suddenly exclaimed a

BRADFORD. 33

voice in the crowd. The cry was echoed by several groups of women and children. A dagger was hurled at the preacher by one of the protestant zealots, which narrowly missed him. Bourn turned about, and perceiving Bradford behind him, he earnestly begged him to come forwards and pacify the people. Bradford was no sooner in his place, and recommended peace and concord to them, than with a joyful shout at the sight of him, they cried out, " Brad- ford, Bradford, God save thy hfe, Bradford !"' and then, with profound attention to his discourse, heard him enlarge upon peaceful and Christian obedience ; which when he had finished, the tumultuous people, for the most part, dispersed ; but, among the rest who persisted, there was a certain gentleman, with his two servants, who, coming up the pulpit stairs, rushed against the door, demanding entrance upon Bourn ; Bradford resisted him, till he had secretly given Bourn warning, by his servant, to escape ; who, flying to the mayor, once again escaped death. Yet conceiving the danger not fully over, Bourn besought Bradford not to leave him till he was got to some place of security ; in which Bradford again obliged him, and went at his back, shadowing him from the people with his gown, while the mayor and sheriffs, on each side, led him into the nearest house, which was St. Paul's school ; and so was he a third time delivered from the fury of the populace. It is added that one of the mob, most inveterate against Bourn, exclaimed, "Ah ! Bradford, Bradford, dost thou save his life who will not spare thine ? Go, I give thee his life ; but were it not for thy sake, I would thrust him through with my sword." The same Sunday, in the afternoon, Bradford preached at Bow church, in Cheap- side, and sharply rebuked the people for their outrageous behaviour.

The government accused the reforming party of having caused the tumult which had thus endangered the public peace, and every one will admit that the violence exhibited, and the attempt to assassinate the preacher on the part of the protestants, were sufficient to excite alarm. As Brad-

34 BRADFORD.

ford's influence was so successful in appeasing the riot when he thought fit to interfere, it was presumed from the fact that he did not interfere sooner, that the previous proceedings had met with his sanction, and that the whole had been preconcerted by him. Three days after his in- terposition in behalf of Bourn, he was summoned before the council, and committed to prison in the Tower. His defence, that he had preached strongly that day against popular licentiousness, will not weigh much with those who remember that this is the constant course pursued by demagogues ; while calling masses together whom they know to be bent on violence, they seek to escape responsi- bility, by warning them of the duty of acting peaceably. The real vindication of Bradford is to be found in the fact that nothing could be proved against him, shewn by the fact that he lay in prison for a year and a half without being brought to a trial. It is indeed highly probable that the reforming party had endeavoured to surround the out-door pulpit at St. Paul's Cross with their own mob, and Bradford may have been glad to see himself surrounded by those with whom he was popular as an orator, but there does not appear anything in his character to justify the suspicion that he was himself guilty of sedition.

In the Tower he was confined in the same chamber as the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of London, and bishop Latimer. However inconvenient this was, they were very glad to be together, and read over the New Testament with deliberation and study, to ascertain whe- ther there was any foundation for the popish doctrine of a corporal presence, a subject upon which they knew they should be examined, as it was the test of Romanism in that age.

After a confinement in the Tower, lasting for three quarters of a year, Bradford was removed to the Queens Bench prison, where he was treated with remarkable kindness. He preached twice every day, and administered the Holy Communion, for he believed it to be a sacrament generally necessary to salvation. Visitors to form the

BRADFORD. 35

congregation eagerly sought the privilege of passing the prison-gates, and he was permitted by his keepers in the night time to visit the sick in the neighbourhood of the prison. He lived, nevertheless, ascetically : he allowed himself only four hours sleep ; he ate but once a day, and that very sparingly, and once a-week he visited the malefactors, who were confined in dungeons near his own apartment. At the same time he wrote numerous letters to those who were disquieted by the persecution ; espe- cially did he labour to expose the dissimulation of those who in appearance renounced the principles they formerly professed. There were many who were ultra-protestants in Edward's reign, who now attended the mass, which was again celebrated in our church after the Romish manner, although they declared themselves, to their con- fidential friends, unchanged in their principles ; avowing that their outward conformity was extorted from them by the fear of bringing ruin upon their families. Bradford, with the violence of language which was peculiar to him, designated these persons as " mangy mongrels," and he pronounced an unqualified and just condemnation on their worldly prudence. He even wrote a treatise, attack- ing the mass, and shewing the mischief of affording to it any degree of countenance.

It was one of the sad circumstances of the time, that such a man as Bradford, instead of calmly preparing his soul for the change awaiting him, like the martyrs of old, should be violently engaged in controversy to the last. We are told that he found comfort, not only in prayer, but in religious argument. True religion generally comes not by argument, but by inheritance and instruction ; it is sad when vital points require to be argued, and sadder still when a disputatious turn of mind is, in consequence, formed in an individual. When Bradford found none others with whom to quarrel, he quarrelled with his fellow X)risoners, too ready, many of them, to indulge the con- troversial temper to which they were habituated, by un- seemly and useless disputes. Their grated chambers

36 BRADFORD.

often exhibited that picture of contention which we may expect to find in the unrenewed man, but which shocks us when exhibited by the professors of godliness. They found a source of tumultuous interest in ardent discus- sions upon the most mysterious dispensations of provi- dence ; free-will and predestination were topics in which these unhappy men beguiled the gloomy monotony of their prison-hours. The disputants eventually ranged them- selves in parties, viewing each other wdth considerable aversion. Bradford was actively engaged in their unhappy dissensions, and took the predestinarian side. Bradford was told by his opponents, that "he was a great slander to the word of God in respect of his doctrine, in that he believed and affirmed the salvation of Gods children to be so certain, that they should assuredly enjoy the same. For, they said, it hanged partly upon our perseverance to the end. Bradford said, it hung upon God's grace in Christ; and not upon our perseverance in any point: for then were grace no grace. They charged him, that he was not so kind to them as he ought in the distribu- tion of the charity money, that was then sent by well- disposed persons to the prisoners in Christ, [of which Bradford was the purse-bearer :] but he assured them he never defrauded them of the value of a penny: and at that time sent them at once thirteen shillings and fourpence ; and, if they needed as much more, he promised that they should have it,"

By Bradford, his brother reforaiers were accused of being "plain Papists, yea Pelagians." It seems strange to hear those who were imprisoned by the papists, and some of whom suffered death as reformers, accused of being papists ; but so it was. The accusation is made in a letter he wrote to the archbishop of Canterbuiy and bishops Ridley and Latimer, prisoners in Oxford. What were the sentiments of Cranmer and Latimer on the sub- ject there are no documents to shew ; but a letter from Ridley still remains, which clearly shews the opinion of that eminent prelate, on the abstruse questions, concern-

BRADFORD. 37

ing which Bradford contended with such intemperate eagerness. That Bradford, in the judgment of Ridley, laid too great a stress on these doctrines, is indisputable : Ridley thought that Bradford had over- rated both " the importance of the controvei'sy and the influence of his adversaries." But it may be also fairly concluded, from the letter of Ridley, that he could not go so far as Brad- ford in the doctrines of election and predestination. After having stated that he had selected all the passages in the New Testament which had a bearing on these points, and that he had written remarks on the several texts, he summed up the matter in a sentence, which, for its moderation and its humility, can never be repeated with- out good effect : " In those matters I am so fearful, that I dare not speak farther ; yea, almost none otherwise than the text doth, as it were, lead me by the hand." Whether Bradford retained his sentiments is immaterial ; for if he did not change his opinions, he moderated his violence. When he found that he was unable to convince his fellow sufferers, he desired that they might pray for each other. " I love you," he wrote to them, " though you have taken it otherwise without cause ; I am going before you to my God and your God, to my Father and your Father, to my Christ and your Christ, to my home and your home."

During their progress an attempt was made to terminate these contentions, by the preparation of articles which appeared likely to shock the prejudices of neither party. These compromises never succeed when men, whether right or wrong, are in earnest : the more violent predesti- nariaus, after giving hopes that they would unite with their brethren, refused their signature to the propositions awaiting their attestation.

In 1555 the persecution was renewed with increased violence, and the death of Bradford was determined upon. His constancy unto death was the more meritorious, as his nature shrunk with horror from the tortures which were prepared for him. His imagination was often haunted

VOL. III. D

33 BRADFORD.

in his sleep by frightful pictures of the horrors that awaited him. But he found grace to stand firm. Some of the leaders of the Romanizing party had hopes, perhaps, for some time, by their gentle treatment of him, to win over to their side one whose popular talents would have been peculiarly serviceable to them. Bishop Gardiner, now chancellor, and Dr. Bonner, bishop of London, treated him with their accustomed injustice, and tried, but in vain, to substantiate against him the old charge of sedi- tion ; but Bradford most ably defended himself. At one time they brought Dr. Bourn, now bishop of Bath and Wells, into court, with the intention, it w^ould appear, of making him a witness against the accused for his conduct at St. Paul's Cross. But bishop Bourn, though he had not courage to accuse one who preserved his life from the violence of the protestant mob on that occasion, had too much principle to take part against him, and was silent. Bishop Gardiner now abandoned the charge of sedition, and determined to proceed against him as a heretic. An altercation arose respecting the corporal presence, in which Bradford maintained his view of the question with the acuteness and spirit of an habitual polemic. The follow- ing were Bradford's definitions upon this subject in his last examination : "I never denied nor taught, but that to faith, whole Christ, body and blood, was as present as bread and wine to the due receiver. I believe Christ is present there to the faith of the due receiver. As for transubstantiation, I plainly and flatly tell you I believe it not. I deny that He (Christ) is included in the bread, or that the bread is transubstantiate." Being asked whether the wicked receive Christ's body, he answered at once, " No. He further said, that as the cup is the New Testament, so the bread is Christ's body to him that receiveth it duly, but yet so that the bread is bread." (Foxe, 1463.) In a letter, which he found the means of writing, after his condemnation, to the protestants of Manchester, he thus expresses himself: " In the Supper

BRADFORD. 3P

of our Lord, or Sacrament of Christ's bodj and blood, I confess and believe that there is a tiue and very presence of whole Christ, God and man, to the faith of the receiver, but not of the stander-by, or looker on ; as there is a very true presence of bread and wine to the senses of him that is partaker thereof." (Letters of the Martyrs, 265.) " I cannot, dare not, nor will not confess ti-ansubstantiation, and how that wicked men, yea, mice and dogs, eating the sacrament, (which they term of the altar, thereby over- throwing Christ's holy supper utterly) do eat Christ's natural and real body born of the Virgin Mary. To believe and confess, as God's word teacheth, as. the primi- tive Church believed, and all the Catholic, and good holy fathers taught for 500 years at the least after Christ, that in the Supper of the Lord, (which the mass overthroweth, as it doth Christ's priesthood, sacrifice, death, and passion, the ministry of His w^ord, true faith, repentance, and all godliness,) whole Christ, God and man, is present, by grace, to the faith of the receivers, but not of the standers-by, and lookers-on, as the bread and wine is to their senses ; will not serve, and therefore, I am condemned, and shall be burned out of hand as an heretic." (Bradford to the faithful at Walden. Ibid. 270.) The following is his advice to a friend as to the answer proper to be given upon this subject. " If they talk wdth you of Christ's Sacrament instituted by Him, whether it be Christ's body or no, answer them, that as to the eyes of your reason, to your taste and corporal senses, it is bread and wine, and there- fore the Scripture calleth it after consecration so ; even to the eyes, taste, and senses of your faith, which ascendeth to the right hand of God in heaven, where Christ sitteth, it is in very deed Christ's body and blood, which spiritually 3'our soul feedeth on to everlasting life, in faith and by faith, even as your body presently feedeth on the sacra- mental bread and sacramental wine." {Ibid. 39L)

Enough was extracted from him to prove that he dis- beheved the Romish theory of transubstantiation, and he was condemned. After condemnation he was carried first

40 BRADFORD.

to the Clink-prison, and afterwards to the Poultry-compter. Several ecclesiastics on the Romish side, English and Spanish, visited his cell, to endeavour to make him recant. In answering what was advanced on the subject of tran- substantiation, Bradford repeatedly mentioned bishop Tunstalls admission, that before the fourth council of Lateran, Christians were not bound to receive the eucha- ristic doctrine, exactly as it is now taught in the Roman church.

Bradford expected that he should sujQfer in his native town of Manchester ; but he actually met his death in Smithfield, on the first of July, 1555. On the night preceding, the keeper's wife approached with an agitated countenance, and said, " Oh, master Bradford, this night you must leave us for Newgate, and to-morrow you will be burned." Bradford instantly put off his cap, thanked God for the news, expressed his readiness to take leave of mortality, and prayed that he might act worthily of the end to which heaven had called him. He was not removed until between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, and as he passed through the yard the miserable inmates of the gaol, crowding around the grated apertures of their cells, wept at his departure, and warmly bade him farewell. Late as was the hour, on entering the street, he found a multitude of people waiting for a sight of him ; nor did sobs, prayers, and affectionate adieus, intermit for a moment during his progress to Newgate. A rumour had gone abroad, that he was to suffer by four o'clock on the following morning; and, accordingly, Smithfield was crowded at that hour. He did not, however, appear there before nine o'clock. The concourse was immense, and the precautions against popular violence were much more extensive than any that had been taken upon a former occasion. A second victim was provided in the person of John Leafe, a tallow-chandler's apprentice, of nineteen, who refused his assent to transubstantiation, and to the Romish doctrine of sacramental absolution. On reaching the pyre, both the sufferers fell upon their faces, and

BRADFORD. 41

remained for a short space engaged in prayer. They were, however, quickly disturbed by the sheriffs, who seem to have been somewhat alarmed by the multitudes which poured down upon the spot. Being fastened to the stake, Bradford said with a loud voice, " 0 England, England, repent thee of thy sins : beware of idolatry, beware of antichrists, take heed that they do not deceive thee." Hearing these words, one of the sheriffs said, that if Bradford were not quiet, he would have his hands tied. The martyr immediately replied, " O master sheriff, I am quiet : God forgive you this." He then declared himself in perfect charity with all the world, asked forgiveness of any who might complain of him, intreated the spectators to aid him with their prayers, while his soul was in part- ing, and addressed a few words of encouragement to the youth who was chained at his side. Having thus taken leave of his fellow-men, he embraced the reeds around him ; and after saying, " Straight is the way, and narrow is the gate that leadeth to eternal salvation, and few thei*e be that find it," his voice was heard no more.

Bradford was an earnest-minded, true-hearted man, and as such he was beloved by his friends, and respected by his enemies. He had faults both in temper and in doc- trine, but allowance must be made for the circumstances under which he was placed, and we must remember that he lived in a revolutionaiy age, when almost every ancient principle was shaken. It was impossible for him not to repudiate the Romish corruptions jwhich existed in our church, when once they were pointed out to him, as they were by the heads of the church, the archbishop of Canter- bury, Dr. Cranmer, and the bishop of London, Dr. Ridley. The evil of the times was, that there was as yet nothing substantial on which to fall back. Men were shaken out of their old position, and were feeling their way for some solid standing-place, in a kind of twilight.

Bradford's writings are numerous; they are not of much intrinsic value, though they serve to illustrate the history D-2

4a BHADWARBIN.

of the age, and the state of religious opinion on the reform- ing side. In Coverdale's collection there are seventy-two letters by Bradford. — Fox. Stinfioes Cranmer. Parkers Memorials. Soames. Coverdale. Fuller.

BEAD FORD, SAMUEL.

Samuel Bradford was born in London in 1652. He received his education first at St. Paul's School, next at the Charter-house, and lastly at Bene't College, Cambridge, which he left without taking a degree, having some scruples about subscription, which he eventually surmounted when archbishop Sancroft procured him a mandate for that of M. A. in 1680, at which time he acted as private tutor in gentlemen's families. He did not enter into orders till 1690, when he was chosen minister of St. Thomas's, Southwark, and soon after lecturer of St. Mary-le-Bow, to which rectory he was also presented by archbishop Tillot- son. He was appointed chaplain to William the third, and afterwards to queen Anne, with whom he visited Cambridge, and was created doctor in divinity. In 1707 the queen gave him a prebend of Westminster, and in 1710 he w^as offered the bishopric of St. David's, which he declined. In 1716 he was elected master of Bene't College, and in 1718 was consecrated bishop of Carlisle, from whence he was translated to Rochester with the deanery of Westminster in 1728. He died in 1731. His sermons at Boyle's lecture were published in 4to, in 1699 ; besides which he printed some single discourses, and assisted in editing the works of archbishop Tillotson. — Masters s Hist, of Corpus Christi College. Birch's Life of Tillotson.

BRADWARDIN, OR BRADWARDINE.

Bradwardin, the profound doctor, one of the most illus- trious of English schoolmen, was born at Hartfield, in

BRADWARDIN. 43

Sussex, in the middle of the reign of Edward I. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and was proctor of the university in 13 "2 5. He afterwards became chancellor of the university, and professor of divinity. He had the privilege of being at one time chaplain to Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham, whose " manner was at dinner and supper time to have some good book read unto him, whereof he would discourse with his chaplains a great part of the next day, if business did not interrupt his course." Bradwardin was distinguished as much for strictness of life as for his learning, and hence archbishop Stratford recommended him for the direction of the king's con- science. In capacity of the king's confessor he attended Edward III. during his wars in France. Such was the integrity with which he discharged the duties of this re- sponsible office, that he brought his master under the control of religion, compelling him to moderate his anger when provoked, and restrain his ambition when flushed with victory. He never feared to tell the king the most unpalatable truths, and yet he did so with such affection and gentleness, that he only conciliated the royal esteem and respect. He was constantly with the king in his campaigns, and never solicited any preferment in church or state. While he counselled his sovereign, he was labo- rious in preaching to the troops, and some contemporary writers have supposed that Edward's victories were in some degree attributable to the virtues of his chap- lain. On the eve of battle, he would animate their cour- age ; in the hour of triumph, he would restrain them from excess.

While thus employed as a practical man in the court and camp, distinguished by his unsoldier-hke and un- courtly manners, yet beloved by soldiers and courtiers, his name was honoured in the universities as a scholar and a mathematician. Such was the man whom the chapter of Canterbury elected to be primate of all England and metropolitan on the death of Stratford. The election did not meet with the royal approbation, as the king asserted

44 BRADY.

he could very ill spare so worthy a man to be from him, and " never could perceive that he himself wished to be spared." The fact probably was that Bradwardin was as willing to decline the primacy, as the king was unwilling to part with his confessor. But it would be a question of conscience with Bradwardin whether he ought to decline a responsible office when imposed upon him. The king in consequence had recourse to one of those expedients, by a recourse to which so many of our sovereigns brought our beloved church into subjection to the see of P^ome, though we should have expected greater prudence in Edward the third. The king actually wrote to the pope requesting him to take no notice of the election of Bradwardin, but to bestow the archbishopric upon Dr. Ufford, son of the earl of Suffolk. The pope was too ready to have recourse to the illegal act, and declared Ufford archbishop, making him at the same time an unusual grant of favour and privilege. But the plague was at this time raging in England, and before his consecration, Ufford fell a victim to it. Again the choice of the chapter fell upon Bradwar- din, and the king feeling that he had no longer a right to interpose, his chaplain was consecrated in the year 1349. But within forty days of his consecration, he too died of the plague. Thus within one year there were three arch- bishops of Canterbury. His works are — De causa Dei, fol., edited by Sir Henry Savile, in 1618, from a MS. in Merton College library. Geometria Speculativa, cum Arithmetic^ Speculativa, Paris, 1495, 1504, folio. The arithmetic had been printed separately in 1502, and other editions of both appeared in 1512 and 1530. De Proportionibus, Paris, 1495 ; Venice, 1505, folio. De Quadratura Circuli, Paris, 1495. Bradwardin also left some astronomical tables, which appear never to have been printed. — Godwin. Collier. Savile. Bradw. de causa Dei. Wood.

BRADY, NICHOLAS.

Nicholas Brady was born at Bandon, in the county

BRADY. 45

of Cork, in 1659. From Westminster school he was elected a student to Christ Church, Oxford, but after continuing there four years he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he took his degrees in arts, and after- wards was complimented with that of doctor in divinity. Bishop Wettenhal of Cork, to whom he was chaplain, gave him a prebend in his cathedral, and after the revolution he became minister of St. Catherine Cree, and lecturer of St. Michael, Wood-steeet, London. Sub- sequently he obtained the rectory of Clapham in Surrey, and the living of Pdchmond. He was also chaplain to king William, and died in 1726. He translated the ^neid into English verse, 4 vols, 8vo ; wrote a tragedy called the Innocent Impostor ; and published three volumes of sermons : but he would now have been for- gotten had it not been for his share in the new version of Psalms, in conjunction with Tate. This translation was justly censured by the celebrated bishop Beveridge when first it was introduced by a side wind, into the church. After defending the old version and criticising the new on various grounds, bishop Beveridge remarks, " But that which is chiefly to be observed in the title is, that this whole Book of Psalms, collected into English metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others, was ' conferred with the Hebrew :' which cannot be affirmed of the new version. And although the style of the former is ' plain, and low, and heavy,' while that of the latter is ' brisk, and lively, and flourished here and there with wit and fancy;' yet this objection was never made by the common people, who never complained that the psalms which were sung in the churches were too plain, too low, or too heavy for them ; but rather loved and admired them the more for pos- sessing these qualities, and were more edified by the use of them. And since there is no such thing as ' wit and fancy' in the holy Scriptures, if there be any of it in a translation, it must needs differ from the origi- nal. And although there may still be something of the

46 BRAMHALL.

general sense and design of the place to be found in it, yet it being wrapped up in such light and gaudy expres- sions, it will be very difficult to find it ; and, if found, it will not have that power and eflficacy that it hath in its plain native colours. For that which tickles the fancy never toucheth the heart, but flies immediately into air, from whence it came ; which, therefore, ought to be avoided as much as it is possible in all discourses and writings of religion. For religion is too severe a thing to be played with ; especially the foundation of it, the word of God ; in which the very poetry is all solid, substantial, and divine. And so must be the translation of it into other languages; at least there must be nothing of flashy wit, nothing light or airy in it. If there be, it may, perhaps, serve young peo- ple for their diversion, but it can be no help to their devo- tion, but rather an hindrance ; their minds being apt to be so much taken up with such a manner of expressing it, that they neglect the matter designed to be expressed by it. Whereas, when the Scripture, or any part of it, is so translated, that there is nothing else to exercise the thoughts upon, but only the thing itself that is there re- vealed, if a man that reads it thinks at all of what he reads, he must think of that, and nothing else. And therefore, the old translation of the Psalms is so far from being to be blamed and despised, as it is by some, for the plainness and simplicity of its style, that it ought to be the more commended and valued for it : as it is by all that prefer the plain word of God before the inventions of men, how well soever they may be adorned and set off." — Biog. Brit. Beveridges works.

BRAMHALL, JOHN.

John Beamhall, a great Anglican divine, was born at Pontefract, in Yorkshire, about the year 1593. He received his primary education in the school of his native town, and in 1603 was sent to Sidney Sussex College,

BRAMHALL. 47

Cambridge, where he was placed under the care of Mr. Hulet. After taking the degrees of bachelor in 161-2, and master of arts in 1616, he quitted the university; and entering into orders, had a living given him in the city of York. About the same time he manied Mrs. Halley, a clergyman's widow, with whom he received a good fortune, and, what was equally if not more acceptable, a valuable library, left by her fonner husband. About the same time he was presented by Mr. Wandesford, afterwards master of the rolls in Ireland, to the living of Elvington, in York- shire. In the year 1623 he had two public disputations at Northallerton with a secular priest and a Jesuit. The match between prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain, was then depending; and the papists expected great advantages and countenance to their religion from it. These persons, therefore, by way of preparing the way for them, sent a public challenge to all the anglican clergy in the county of York ; and when none ventured to accept it, Bramhall, though then unversed in the school of contro- versy, undertook the combat. His success in this dihcus- sion gained him so much reputation, and so recommended him in particular to Matthews, archbishop of York, who, though he mildly censured him for engaging in such an office without first obtaining his consent, made him his chaplain, and took him into his confidence. He was afterwards made a prebendary of York, and after that of Ripon ; at which last place he resided after the arch- bishop's death, which happened in 1628, and managed most of the affairs of that church in the quality of sub- dean. He had great iiilluence in the town of Ripon, and was also appointed one of his majesty's high commissioners. Here he shewed his love for his flock, by staying among them to minister to their wants in the time of a most contagious and destructive pestilence, visiting them in their houses, baptizing their children, and giving them the Eucharist. He was a constant preacher.

In the year 1630 he took a doctor of divinity's degree at Cambridge ; and soon after was invited to Ireland by

48 BEAMHALL.

the lord viscount Wentworth, deputy of that kingdom, and Sir Christopher Wandesford, master of the rolls. He went over in the year 1633, having first resigned all his church preferments in England ; and a little while after, obtained the archdeaconry of Meath, the best in that king- dom. The first public service he was employed in was a royal visitation ; in which, it seems, he acted as one of thfi king's commissioners. The church of Ireland was at this time entirely distinct from the church of England, although it had been reformed on similar principles. It was not governed by the same canons, neither did it receive the thirty-nine articles. Whether wisely or not, Bramhall laboured to unite the two churches. Of the miserable state of things in the church of Ireland we have an account in the following letter from Bramhall to Laud, at that time bishop of London : ♦• Right Reverend Father,

"My most honoured lord, presuming partly upon your license, but especially directed by my lord deputy's commands, I am to give your fatherhood a brief account of the present state of the poor Church of Ireland, such as our short intelligence here, and your lordship's weightier employments there, will permit.

" First, for the fabrics, it is hard to say, whether the churches be more ruinous and sordid, or the people irre- verent, even in Dublin, the metropolis of this kingdom and seat of justice. To begin the inquisition, where the reformation will begin, we find our parochial church con- verted to the lord deputy's stable, a second to a nobleman's dwelling-house, the choir of a third to a tennis-court, and the vicar acts the keeper.

"In Christ's church, the principal church in Ireland, whither the lord deputy and council repair every Sunday, the vaults, from one end of the minster to the other, are made into tipling- rooms for beer, wine, and tobacco, de- mised all to popish recusants, and by them and others so much frequented in time of divine service, that though there is no danger of blowing up the assembly above their

BRAMHALL. 49

heads, yet there is of poisoning them with the fumes. The table used for the administration of the blessed Sacra- ment in the midst of the choir, is made an ordinary seat for maids and apprentices.

"I cannot omit the glorious tomb in the other cathedral church of St. Patrick, in the proper place of the altar, just oj^posite to his majesty's seat, having his father's name superscribed upon it, as if it were on purpose to gain the worship and reverence, which the chapter and whole church are bound by special statute to give towards the east. And either the soil itself, or a license to build and huYj, and make a vault in the place of the altar, under seal, which is a tantamount passed to the earl and his heirs. ' Credimus esse.Deos ?' This being the case in Dublin, your lordship will judge what we may expect in the country.

" Next, for the clergy : I find few footsteps yet of foreign differences, so I hope it will be an easier task not to admit them than to have them ejected. But I doubt much whether the clergy be very orthodox : and could wish both the articles and canons of the Church of England vere established here by Act of Parliament or state ; that, as we live all under one king, so we might both in doctrine and discipline observe an uniformity.

" The inferior sort of ministers are below all degrees of contempt, in respect of their poverty and ignorance. The boundless heaping together of benefices by commendams and dispensations in the superiors is but too apparent : yea, even often by plain usurpation, and indirect compo- sitions made between the patrons, as well ecclesiastic as lay, and the incumbents ; by which the least part, many times not above forty shillings, rarely ten pounds in the year, is reserved for him that should serve at the altar : insomuch that it is affirmed, that by all or some of these means one bishop in the remoter parts of the kingdom doth hold three-and- twenty benefices with cure. Generally their residence is as little as their livings. Seldom any

VOL. III. E

30 BRAMHALL.

suitor petitions for less than three vicarages at a timer. And it is a main prejudice to his majesty's service, and an hindrance to the right establishment of his church, that the clergy have in a manner no dependence upon the lord deputy, nor he any means left to prefer those that are deserving amongst them. For besides all those advowsons, which w^ere given by that good patron of the church, king James, of happy memory, to bishops and the college here, many also were conferred upon the plan- tations, (never was so good a gift so infinitely abused :) and I know not how, or by what order, even in these bles- sed days of his sacred majesty, all the rest of any note have been given or passed away in the time of the late lord deputy. (Viscount Falkland.)

" Lastly, for the revenues : how small care hath been taken for the service of his majesty, or the good of the church, is hereby apparent, that no officer, or other person, can inform my lord, what deanery or benefices are in his majesty's gift; and about three hundred livings are omitted out of the book of tax for first-fruits and twentieth parts ; sundry of them of good value, two or three bishoprics, and the whole diocese of Killfannore. The alienations of church possessions, by long leases and deeds, are infi- nite : yea, even since the Act of State to restrain them, it is believed that divers are bold, still to practise in hopes of secrecy and impunity, and will adventure until their hands be tied by act of parliament, or some of the delin- quents censured in the Star Chamber. The earl of Cork holds the whole bishopric of Lismore, at the rent of forty shillings, or five marks, by the year : many benefices, that ought to be presentative, are by negligence enjoyed as though they were appropriate.

•' For the remedying of these evils, next to God and his sacred majesty, I know my lord depends on your fatherhood's wisdom and zeal for the church. My duty binds me to pray for a blessing upon both your good en- deavours. For the present, my lord hath pulled down

BRAMHALL. 51

tiie deputy's seat in his own chapel, and restored the altar to its ancient place, which was thrust out of doors. The 3ike is done in Christ's Church. The purgation and restitution of the stable to the right owners and uses will follow next ; and strict mandates to my lords the bishops, to see the churches repaired, adorned, and preserved from profanation, throughout the kingdom.

" For the clergy and their revenues, my lord is careful that no petitions be admitted ^vithout good certificate and diligent inquiiy, (thought a strange course here :) and to enable himself and the succeeding deputies, to encourage such as shall deserve well in the church, his lordship intends, as well in the commission for defective titles, as for the plantations, to reserve the right of advowson to his majesty, and as well by diligent search in the records, as by a selected commission of many branches, to regain such advowsons as have been usui'ped through the negligence of officers, change of deputies, or power of great men ; and by the same to inform himself of the true state of the church and clergy, to provide for the cui^s and residence, to per- fect his majesty's tax, to prevent and remedy alienations, to restore illegal impropriations, to dispose, by way of lapse, of all those supernumerary benefices which are held unjustly, and not without infinite scandal, under the pre- tence of commendams and dispensations, and to settle, as much as in present is possible, the whole state of the church. This testimony I must give of his care, that it is not possible for the intentions of a mortal man to be more serious and sincere than his in those things, that concern the good of the poor church.

"It is some comfort to see the Romish ecclesiastics cannot laugh at us, who come behind none in point of disunion and scandal.

" I know my tediousness w^ill be offensive, unless your lordship's license, and my Lord Deputy's command, pro- cure my pardon. I will not add a w^ord more, but the profession of my humble thanks and bounden service ;

52 BRAMHALL.

and so being ready to receive your lordship's commands, I desire to remain, as your noble favours have for ever bound me,

Your lordship's

Daily and devoted servant,

John Bramhall." Dublin Castle, August the lOth, 1663.

Bramhall immediately applied himself to the recovery of the alienated property of the church, and eventually recovered much of the land belonging to it, which had been illegally alienated by his predecessors, and procured the passing of some acts for the better support of the church, and the protection of its property: under the authority of which he abolished fee-farms, and obtained compositions for the rent, instead of small reserved rents ; and in the course of four years, he recovered to the church about £40,000 a year, which had been wasted and impro- priated. While labouring, under the lord deputy, for the externals of the church, he sought to resuscitate a spirit of piety within, not only by his preaching, but by the holy example which he set.

In a letter from archbishop Laud to the lord deputy, Strafford, dated Lambeth, Oct. 14, 1663, the following remarks occur about the manner proposed for supplying vacancies in the Irish Episcopate.

" I heartily thank your lordship for the inclosed paper that you sent me, though you might have spared the pains ; for I was never jealous that you would do anything against the good of the Church, or such intentions as I have towards it. For I am most confident (and I protest my heart and pen go together) that since the Reformation there was never any deputy in that kingdom intended the good of the church so much as your lordship doth. And I hope you are as resolute in your thoughts for me, that, since I was the first man that humbly besought his ma- jesty to send of his chaplains to be bishops in that king-

BRAMHALL. 53

dom, I shall not now recede from it, unless it he at some times, and on some particular occasions, when I may receive information from your lordship of some very able and discerning men on that side.

" Concerning the age of such as should be made bishops in those parts, I see your lordship and I shall not differ much ; for I did never intend, may I have free use of my own judgment, to send you any decrepid man amongst you. For I very well know, that in places where less action is necessary than in Ireland, a man may be as well too old as too young for a bishopric. Your lordship would not have any there under thirty-five, nor above forty-five. And truly, my lord, I am in the middle way, and that useth to be best : for I would have no man a bishop any- where under forty. And if your lordship understood clergymen as well as I do, I know you would in this be wholly of my judgment. I never in all my life knew any more than one made a bishop before forty ; and he proved so well, that I shall never desire to see more, nor will, if I can hinder it ; but this way that I have expressed, have with you for all occasions, both for church and state. And, if at any time I send you any of my acquaint- ance, and break rule of age, life, or doctrine, lay it upon me home."

It is not a little remarkable, that the first vacancy, which occurred amongst the Irish bishops, caused a devia- tion from the rule thus formally announced. But it so happened, that precisely seven months after the date of the preceding, on the 14th of May, 1634, the archbishop wrote thus to the lord deputy : — " Now, my lord, to your great business. Since the bishop of Derry is dead, I have (though against the rule which I have lodged with his majesty) moved earnestly for Dr. Bramhall to succeed him ; and given him the reasons, why, for his own service, and the good of the church in that kingdom, he should dispense in this particular for the doctor's being a little too young. His majesty, after some arguing on the busi- E-2

54 BRAMHALL.

ness, and with great testimony of your lordship's good service to himself and the church, granted him the bishop- ric, as you will see by the letters which accompany these. This I have readily done to serve you, with some depar- ture from my own judgment in matter of age, hoping the doctor will supply it with temper ; and then he hath the more strength for his business, which he says he will not, and I say he must not, leave, till that church be better settled ; which I dare say must be now, when a king, a lord deputy, and a poor archbishop, set jointly to it, or never." Bramhall, at the time in question, must have been hard upon, if not rather more than, forty years of age ; beyond the limit, therefore, which the archbishop haddefined for the episcopal qualification.

The case gave occasion for another important general observation from archbishop Laud : " What Dr. Bramhall holds in England, he must leave : that bishopric, being good, needs no commendam ; if it did, it must be helped there. For I foresee marvellous great inconvenience, and very little less than mischief, if way be given to bishops there to hold commendams here."

Bramhall was consecrated in the chapel of the castle of Dublin on the 26th of May, in the year 1634. In the July of that year the parliament sat, and the bishop of Derry obtained several acts of parliament by which his labours with respect to the temporalities of the church were confined. In the convocation which met at the same time, he laboured to have the correspondence betw^een the church of Ireland and the church of England more com- plete, and discoursed, with great moderation and sobriety, of the convenience of having the articles of peace and communion in every national church, worded in that latitude, that dissenting persons in those things, that concerned not the Christian faith, might subscribe, and the church not lose the benefit of their labours for an opinion, which, it may be, they could not help : that it were to be washed that such articles might be contrived

BRAMHALL. 55

for the whole Christian world, but especially that the protestant churches under his majesty's dominion might ' all speak the same language ;' and particularly that those of England and Ireland, being reformed by the same principle and rule of Scripture, expounded by universal tradition, councils, fathers, and other ways of conveyance, might confess their faith in the same form. For, if they were of the same opinion, why did they not express them- selves in the same words ?

But he was answered, " that, because their sense was the same, it was not material if the expressions differed ; and therefore it was fitter to confirm and strengthen the articles of this church, passed in convocation, and con- firmed by king James, in 1615, by the authority of this present synod."

To this the bishop of Derry replied, " That though the sense might be the same, yet our adversaries clamoured much that they were dissonant confessions; and it was reasonable to take away the offence, when it might be done easily: but for the confirmation of the articles of 1615, he knew not what they meant by it; and wished the pro- pounder to consider, whether such an act would not, instead of ratifying what was desired, rather tend to the diminution of that authority, by which they were enacted, and seem to question the value of that synod, and conse- quently of this : for that this had no more power than that, and therefore could add no moments to it, but by so doing might help to enervate both."

By thus meeting the objection, he avoided the blow he most feared ; and therefore again earnestly pressed the receiving of the English articles, which were at last admitted. Whereupon immediately " drawing up a canon," says his biographer, rather perhaps we may suppose, bringing forward the canon which had been pre- viously drawn up by the lord deputy, and with a copy of which he would naturally be intrusted for the occasion, " and proposing it, it passed accordingly." The canon is the first of those that were made in that convocation :

56 BRAMHALL.

uamely, " of the agreement of the church of England and Ireland in the profession of the same christian reli- gion ;" and is expressed in the following terms : —

"For the manifestation of our agreement with the church of England in the confession of the same Christian faith, and the doctrine of the sacraments ; we do receive and approve the book of articles of religion, agreed upon by the archbishops, and bishops, and the whole clergy, in the convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord 1562, for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion. And therefore, if any hereafter shall affirm, that any of those articles are in any part superstitious or erroneous, or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto, let him be excommunicated, and not absolved before he make a public recantation of his error."

Thus the English articles were received and approved by the Irish convocation with the single dissentient voice of a nonconformist minister from the diocese of Down.

The agreement with the church of England in doctrine having been settled in the convocation, it was further moved by the bishop of Derry, that, as they had received the articles, so they would likewise the canons, of the church of England, in order that the two churches might have the same rule of government as well as of belief. An objection to this proposal was made with great earnestness by the lord primate, that it would appear to be the betray- ing of the privileges of a national church : that it might lead to placing the church of England in a state of abso- lute superintendence and dominion over that of Ireland : that it was convenient for some discrepancy to appear, if it were but to declare the free agency of the church of Ireland, and to express her sense of rites and ceremonies, that there is no necessity of the same in all churches, which are independent of each other ,; and that different canons and modes might co-exist with the same faith, charity, and communion.

By these and similar arguments the lord primate pre-

BRAMHALL. 57

vailed with the convocation, in which the prepossessions of many of its members inclined them to a favourable recep- tion of his reasonings. The fact, indeed, seems to have been in some degree agreeable to the statement of Carle, in his Life of the Duke of Ormonde, that the convo- cation contained many members inclined in their hearts to the puritanical peculiarities, as distinguished from the more sober and chastised ordinances of the church of England, and of themselves prepared to object to some of the English canons, now offered to their judgment and approbation : particularly to such as concerned the solem- nity and uniformity of divine worship, the administration of the sacraments, and the ornaments used therein ; the qualifications for holy orders, for benefices, and for plu- ralities : the oath against simony, the times of ordination, and the obligations to residency and subscription.

It was accordingly concluded, that such canons as were fit to be transplanted should be adopted in the church of Ireland, and others be added to them, having been con- structed afresh for the purpose, so as to form a complete rule peculiarly suited to the circumstances of the country.

The execution of this task was committed to the bishop of Derry ; and the result was the book of constitutions and canons for the regulation of the church of Ireland, which, having been passed in convocation, received its final confirmation and authority from his majesty's assent, according to the form of the statute, or act of parliament, made in that behalf.

These canons for the most part agreed in substance and intention with the English canons, from w^hich, how^- ever, they differed much in arrangement and coDstruction, without any obvious improvement, rather perhaps the con- trary. In number also they were fewer, amounting to one hundred only, w^hereas the English code comprised one hundred and forty-one. This diminution is attributable in a considerable degree to a combination, occasionally, of more than one of the English into one only of the Irish canons.

68 BRAMHALL.

The Irish canons do not command men to bow at the name of Jesus, nor do they insist upon the use of the surplice, or appoint the bidding prayer.

In these his labours of love, bishop Bramhall met with much opposition and obloquy, and was, according to the fashion of the times, charged with popery and Arminianism by those who were unfriendly to his views. He visited his native country in 1637, and met with much respect from Charles I., archbishop Laud, and men of the highest rank ; but was much surprised, on his arrival in London, to find an information exhibited against him in the Star Chamber, of which he soon cleared himself. The frivolous nature of the charge shewed the animus of the puritans, who were determined to ruin, if possible, every dutiful member of the church. On his return to Ireland, he determined to adopt that country for his own, and selling his estate in England for six thousand pounds, he purchased one in the county of Tyrone, and began a plantation at Omagh. But his attention was soon diverted from his private affairs by the distraction of the times. The withdrawal of the virtuous and noble earl of Strafford from the viceroyalty of Ireland, encouraged the presby- terians of the north to indulge without reserve their bitter enmity against the church ; and upon bishop Bramhall the most vehement assault was made, an impeachment in 1641 being lodged against him, together with the lord chancellor Bolton and lord chief justice Lowther. The attack was a powerful one, the popish and puritan parties having combined their forces. The impeachment was made by Sir Bryan O'Neal, the leader of the popish party, supported by protestant non-conformists The bishop s friends advised him to continue in Derry, where he was superintending his charge, and not expose himself to trial in Dublin. But conscious of his integrity and innocence, he hastened to the metropolis ; and appeared the next day in the parliament house, greatly to the astonishment of his enemies, by whom he was made a close prisoner.

BRAMHALL. 59

The course of this persecution shall be related in the forcible and eloquent language of bishop Taylor, who thus describes the discomfiture of malignity before uprightness and truth.

" When the numerous armies of vexed people heaped up catalogues of accusations ; when the parliament of Ireland imitated the violent proceedings of the disordered English ; w^hen his glorious patron was taken from his head, and he was disrobed of his great defences ; when petitions were invited, and accusations furnished, and calumny was rewarded and managed with art and power ; when there were above two hundred petitions put in against him, and himself denied leave to answer by word of mouth ; when he was long imprisoned and treated so that a guilty man would have been broken into affright- ment, and pitiful and low considerations : yet then he himself, standing almost alone, like Callimachus at Mara- thon, invested with enemies and covered with arrows, defended himself beyond all the powers of guiltiness, even with the defences of truth and the bravery of innocence, and answered the petitions in writing, sometimes twenty in a day, with so much clearness, evidence of truth, reality of fact, and testimony of law, that his very enemies were ashamed and convinced. They were therefore forced to leave their muster-rolls, and decline the particulars, and fall to their ev jixsya, to accuse him for going about to sub- vert the fundamental laws ; the way by which great Straf- ford and Canterbuiy fell ; which was a device, when all reasons failed, to oppress the enemy by the bold aflfirma- tion of a conclusion they could not prove."

A letter written at this time, April the 26th, 1641, by the bishop to the lord primate, contains much of the charge against him, and of the defence which he pleaded : and an extract from it may be here fitly inserted from Bishop Vesey's Life.

" It would have been a great comfort and contentment to me, to have received a few lines of counsel or comfort in this my great affliction, which has befallen me for my

60 BRAMHALL.

zeal to the service of his majesty, and the good of this church ; in being a poor instrument to restore the usurped advowsons and appropriations to the crown, and to increase the revenue of the church, in a fair just way, always with the consent of the parties, which did ever use to take away errors.

" But now it is said to be obtained by threatening and force. What force did I ever use to any? What one man ever suffered for not consenting ? My force was only force of reason and law. The scale must needs yield when weight is put into it. And your grace knows to what pass many bishoprics were brought, some to £100 per annum ; some £50, as Waterford, Kilfenoragh, and some others ; some to five marks, as Cloyne and Kil- macduagh : how in some dioceses, as in Ferns and Leighlin, there was scarce a living left that was not farmed out to the patron, or to some for his use, at £2, £3, £4, or £5, per annum, for a long time, three lives, or a hundred years : how the chantries of Ardee, Dondalk, &c., were employed to maintain priests and friars, which are now the chief maintenance of the incumbents.

" In all this, my part was only labour and expense : but I find that losses make a deeper impression than benefits. I cannot stop men's mouths ; but I challenge all the world for one farthing I ever got, either by refer- ences or church preferments. I fly to your grace as an anchor at this time, when my friends cannot help me. God knows how I have exulted at night, that day I had gained any considerable revenue to the church, little dreaming that in future times that act should be ques- tioned as treasonable. I never took the oath of judge or counsellor ; yet do I not know, wherein I ever in all these passages deviated from the mle of justice. My trust is in God, that, as my intentions were sincere, so He will deli- ver me

Since I was a bishop, 1 never displaced any man in niy diocese, but Mr. Noble for his professed popery, Mr. Hugh

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for confessed simony, and Mr. Dimkine, aD illiterate curate, for refusing to pray for his majesty.

" Almighty God bless your grace, even as the church stands in need of you at this time : which is the hearty and faithful prayer

Of your grace's obedient servant and suffragan, Jo. Deeensis. Ajyril '2Wi, 1461."

The primate in his answer, gave the bishop, among other things, an assurance of his own sympathy and exer- tions in his behalf; of the good will of the king; and of the interest taken in his welfare by the excellent noble- man, who had recently fallen a sacrifice to the malevolence of their enemies.

" I assure you my care never slackened in soliciting your cause at court, with as great vigilancy as if it did touch my own proper person. I never intermitted an occasion of mediating with his majesty in your behalf, who still pitied your case, acknowledged the faithfulness of your services both to the Church and to him, avowed that you were no more guilty of treason than himself, and assured me that he would do for you all that lay in his

power

My Lord Strafford, the night before his suffering, (which was most Christian and magnanimous, adstiqwrem usque,) sent me to the king, giving me in charge, among other particulars, to put him in mind of you, and of the ^ther two lords that are under the same pressure."

In the end, the king, being anxious that the bishop's death should not be added to that of the noble earl, who had made his safety one of the objects of his dying request to his majesty, sent over to Ireland a letter, to provide for the bishop's deliverance. But the word of a king was scarcely powerful enough to procure obedience. However, at length, the bishop was restored to liberty, though with- out any public acquittal, the charge still lying dormant

6-2 BRA^IHALL.

against him, to be awakened when his enemies should please. "But; alas!" says Bishop Bramhall's biographer, •' these were flashes that caused more fear than hurt: the fier}^ matter at last burst into such thunder-claps, that the foundation of the whole kingdom reeled."

A letter from Bishop Bramhali to his wife written at this time, is here subjoined to show how the virtues and charities of domestic life blended with qualities of a more commanding kind. •'My dearest joy,

" Thou mayest see by my delay in writing that I am not wilHng to write while things are in these conditions. But shall we receive good at the hands of God, and shall we not receive ill ? He gives and takes away, blessed be His holy name ! I have been near a fortnight at the black rod, charged with a treason. Never any man was more innocent of that foul crime : the ground is only my re- sei-vedness. God in His mercy, I do not doubt, will send us many merry and happy days together after this, when this storm is blown over. But this is a time of humili- ation for the present. By all the love between us, I re- quire thee that thou do not cast down thyself, but bear it with a cheerful mind, and trust in God that He will deliver us."

Shortly after the bishop's return to Londonderry, Sir Phelim O'Neil contrived his ruin in the following manner. He directed a letter to him, wherein he desired, " that according to their articles such a gate of the city should be delivered to him:" expecting that the Scots in the place would upon the discovery become his executioners. But the person, who was to manage the matter, ran away with the letter. Though this •lesign miscarried, the bishop did not find any safety there. The city daily filling with discontented persons out of Scotland, he began to be afraid, lest they should deliver him up. One night they turned a cannon against his house to afPrcmt him ; whereupon, being persuaded by

BRAMHALL. 63

his fnends to look on that as a warning, he took their advice, and privately embarked for England. Here he continued active in the kings service, till his affairs ^ere grown desperate ; and then, embjarking with several per- sons of distinction, he landed at Hamburgh upon the Hth of July, 1644. Shortly after the treaty of Uxbridge, the parliaments of England and Scotland made this one of their preliminary demands, that Bishop Bramhall, together with Archbishop Laud, &c., should be excepted out of the general pardon.

From Hamburgh he went to Brussels, where he con- tinued for the most part till 1648, with Sir Henry de Vic, the king's resident; constantly preaching every Sunday, and frequently administering the Holy Communion. In that year he returned to Ireland ; from whence, after having undergone several dangers and difficulties, he nar- rowly escaped in a little bark. All the while he was there, his life was in continual danger. At Limerick he was threatened with death, if he did not suddenly depart the town. At Portumnagh indeed he afterwards enjoyed more freedom, and an allowance of the Church Service, under the protection of the Marquis of Claniicard: but, at the revolt of Cork, he had a very narrow deliverance.; which deliverance however troubled Cromwell so much, that he declared he would have given a large sum of money for that Irish Canterbury, as he called him. His escape from Ireland is accounted wonderful : for the vessel he was in was closely hunted by two of the parliament frigates ; and when they were come so near, that all hopes of being saved were taken away, on the sudden the wind sunk into a perfect calm, yet some how suffered the vessel ti) get off, while the frigates were unable to proceed at all. During this second time of being abroad, he had many controversies on the subject of religion with the learned o( all nations, sometimes occasionally, at other times by ap- pointment and formal challenge ; and wrote several works in defence of the Church of England : indeed, most of his works were written at different times during his exile

64 BRAMHALL.

from Ireland, between the years 1613 and 1660. Among tbese we may especially mention his "Answer to M. de Milletiere his impertinent dedication of his imaginary tri- umph : intitled, the Victory of Truth ; or his epistle to the king of Great Britain, wherein he invited his majesty to forsake the Church of England, and to embrace the Roman Catholic religion : with the said Milletiere's epistle prefixed." This was first published at the Hague in 1654, r2mo, but not by the author. It was occasioned by the fact, that the Romanists endeavoured to persuade king Charles 11. during his exile, to expect his restoration by embracing their religion : and for that pui'pose employ- ed Milletiere, councillor in ordinary to the king of France, to write him this epistle. We may here mention that Theo- phile Brachet, Sieurde la Milletiere, was originally a mem- ber of the French Reformed congregations, and sufficiently distinguished among them to be selected as a deputy and secretary to the Assembly of La Rocbelle in 1621, He entered subsequently into the plans of Cardinal Richelieu for the union of the Roman Catholic and Reformed Churches in France, — published a great number of letters, pamphlets, and treatises upon the doctrines in dispute between them, assimilating gradually to the Roman Catholic tenets, — was suspended in consequence by the Synod of Alengon in 1637, and expelled by that of Cha- renton in 1645, from the Reformed communion, — aiKi finally became a Roman Catholic " of necessity, that he might be of some religion." " He was a vain and shallow man, full of himself, and persuaded that nothing ap- proached to his own merit and capacity ;" and, after his change of religion, " was perpetually playing the mis- sionary, and seeking conferences, although he was always handled in them with a severity sufficient to have damped his courage, had he not been gifted with a perversity which nothing could conquer" (Benoit, Hist, de I'Edit de Nantes, tom. ii. liv. 10. pp. 514, 516). The work to which Bramhall replied seems fully to bear out the truth of this sketch of his character.

BRAMHALL. m

Bramhall was thoroughly armed as an Anglican divine, and the reader will peruse with interest the following ex- tract from this powerful work : —

" If jour intention be only to invite his majesty to em- brace the Catholic Faith, you might have spared both your oil and labour. The Catholic Faith flourished 1,200 years in the world before transubstantiation was defined among yourselves. Persons better acquainted with the primitive times than yourself (unless you wrong one another) do acknowledge, that " the Fathers did not touch either the word or the matter of transubstantiation." Mark it well, neither name nor thing. His majesty doth firmly believe ail supernatural truth revealed in Sacred Writ. He embraceth cheerfully whatsoever the holy Apostles, or the Xicene Fathers, or blessed Athanasius, in their respective Creeds, or Summaries of Catholic Faith, did set down as necessary to be believed. He is ready to receive whatsoever the Catholic Church of this age doth unanim- ously believe to be a particle of saving truth. But, if you seek to obtrude upon him the Roman Church, with its adherents, for the Catholic Church, — excluding three parts of four of the Christian world from the communion of Christ, — or the opinions thereof, for articles and funda- mentals of Catholic Faith; neither his reason, nor bis religion, nor his charity, will suffer him to listen unto you. The truths received by our Church, are sufficient in point of faith to make him a good Catholic. More than this your Roman bishops, your Roman Church, your Tri- dentine Council, may not, cannot, obtrude upon him.

Listen to the third general Council, that of Ephesus, which decreed, that ' it should be lawful for no man to publish or compose another faith' or creed ' than that which was defined by the Nicene Council ;' and ' that who- soever should dare to compose or offer any such to any persons willing to be converted from paganism, Judaism, or heresy, if they were bishops or clerks, should be de- posed,— if laymen, anathematized.' Suffer us to enjoy f2

66 bra:vihall.

the same creed the primitive Fathers did, ' which none will say to have been insufficient, except they be mad,' as was alleged by the Greeks in the Council of Florence. You have violated this canon, you have obtruded a new creed upon Christendom ; new, I say, not in words only, but in sense also.

Some things are de Synibolo, some things are contra Symholum, and some things are only prcBter Symholum.

Some things are contained in the creed, either expressly or virtually, either in the letter or in the sense, and may be deduced by evident consequence from the creed ; as the Deity of Christ, His Two Natures, the Procession of the Holy Ghost. The addition of these was properly no addition, but an explication ; yet such an explication, no person, no assembly under an (Ecumenical council, can impose upon the Catholic Church. And such an one your Tridentine Synod was not.

Secondly, some things are contra Synibolum — contrary to the Symbolical Faith, and either expressly or virtually overthrow some article of it. These additions are not only unlawful, but heretical also in themselves, and after conviction render a man a formal heretic : — whether some of your additions be not of this nature, I will not now dispute.

Thirdly, some things are neither of the Faith, nor against the Faith, but only besides the Faith ; that is, opinions or truths of an inferior nature, which are not so necessary to be actually known : for though all revealed truths be alike necessary to be believed when they are known, yet all revealed truths are not alike necessary to be known. It is not denied but that general or provincial Councils may make constitutions concerning these for unity and uniformity, and oblige all such as are subject to their jurisdiction to receive them, either actively or passively, without contumacy or opposition. But to make these, or any of these, a part of the Creed, and to oblige all Christians under pain of damnation to know

BRAMHALL. 67

and believe them, is really to add to the Creed, and to change the Symbolical, Apostolical Faith, to which none can add, from which none can take away ; and comes within the compass of St. Paul's curse, — ' If we, or an angel from heaven, shall preach unto you any other gospel' (or faith) 'than that which we have preached, let him be accursed.' Such are, your universality of the Roman Church by the institution of Christ (to make her the mother of her grandmother, the Church of Jerusalem, and the mistress of her many elder sisters), your doctrine of l~)urgatory and indulgences, and the worship of images, and all other novelties defined in the Council of Trent; all which are comprehended in your new Roman Creed, and obtruded by you upon all the world to be believed under pain of damnation. He that can extract all these out of the old Apostolic Creed, must needs be an excellent che- mist, and may safely undertake to ' draw water out of a pumice.' "

In the same work we find him speaking thus of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

" First, you say we have renounced your sacrifice of the Mass. If the sacrifice of the Mass be the same with the sacrifice of the Cross> we attribute more unto it than your- selves ; we place our whole hope of salvation in it. If you understand another propitiatory sacrifice distinct from that (as this of the Mass seems to be ; for confessedly the priest is not the same, the altar is not the same, the tem- ple is not the same); if you think of any new meritorious satisfaction to God for the sins of the world, or of any new supplement to the merits of Christ's passion ; you must give us leave to renounce your sacrifice indeed, and to adhere to the apostle ; — ' By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.'

" Surely you cannot think that Christ did actually sacri- fice Himself at His last supper (for then he had redeemed the world at His last supper; then His subsequent sacrifice npon the cross had been superfluous,) nor that the priest now doth more than Christ did then. We do readily

68 BRAJMHALL.

acknowledge an Eucbaristical sacrifice of prayers and praises : we profess a commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross ; and in the language of holy church, things commemorated are related as if they were then acted ; as, — ' Almighty God, who hast given us Thy Son as this day to be born of a pure virgin' : — and, ' Whose praise the younger Innocents have this day set forth;' — and between the x\scension and Pentecost, ' Which hast exalted Thy Son Jesus Christ with great triumph into heaven, we beseech Thee leave us not comfortless, but send unto us Thy Holy Spirit:' we acknowledge a representation of that sacrifice to God the Father: we acknowledge an impetration of the benefit of it : we maintain an application of its virtue : so here is a commemorative, impetrative, applicative sacrifice. Speak distinctly, and 1 cannot understand what you can desire more. To make it a suppletory sacrifice, to supply the defects of the only tru§ sacrifice of the cross, I hope both you and I abhor."

Another and perhaps his principal work, is "A just vindication of the Church of England from the unjust aspersion of criminal schism ; wdierein the nature of criminal schism, the divers sorts of schismatics, the liberties and privileges of national churches, the rights of sovereign magistrates, the tyranny, extortion, and schism of the Roman court, with the grievances, complaints, and opposition of all princes and states of the Roman com- munion of old, and at this very day, are manifested to the view of the world." This was originally designed to form an appendix to the answer to La Millitiere, and is intended to refute the charge of schism, brought forward by the Romanists against the Church of England. He proves that the separation was not made by us, but by the court of Rome, that the British Church was always exempted from all foreign jurisdiction for the first six hundred years, and had both sufficient authority and sufficient grounds to withdraw from obedience to Rome. This, indeed, is one of Bishop Bramhall's favourite topics, and on these points he is especially strong, as an advo-

BRAMHALL. 69

cate of Anglicanism. In this treatise we find the following pointed remarks on internal communion. : —

" The communion of the Christian Catholic Church is partly internal, partly external.

" The internal communion consists principally in these things : to believe the same entire substance of saving necessary truth revealed by the Ajoostles, and to be ready implicitly in the preparation of the mind to embrace all other supernatural verities when they shall be sufficiently proposed to them ; to judge charitably one of another ; to exclude none from the Catholic communion and hope of salvation, either eastern, or western, or southern, or north- ern Christians, which profess the ancient Faith of the Apos- tles and primitive Fathers, established in the first general Councils, and comprehended in the Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds; to rejoice at their well doing; to sorrow for their sins ; to condole with them in their sufferings ; to pray for their constant perseverance in the true Chris- tian Faith, for their reduction from all their respective errors, and their re-union to the Church in case they be divided from it, that we may be all one sheepfold under that One Great • Shepherd and Bishop of our souls;' and, lastly, to hold an actual external communion with them ' in votis — in our desires, and to endeavour it by all those means which are in our power. This internal communion is of absolute necessity among all Catholics.

"External communion consists, first, in the same Creeds or Symbols or Confessions of Faith, which are the ancient badges or cognizances of Christianity ; secondly, in the participation of the same sacraments ; thirdly, in the same external worship, and frequent use of the same Divine Offices or Liturgies or forms of serving God ; fourthly, in the use of the same public rites and cere- monies ; fifthly, in giving communicatory letters from one church or one person to another; and, lastly, in admission of the same discipline, and subjection to the same supreme ecclesiastical authority, that is. Episcopacy, or a general Council : for as single bishops are the heads of particular

70 BRAMHALL.

churches, so Episcopacy, that is, a general Council, or (Ecumenical assembly of bishops, is the head of the universal Church."

And a little after we find him stating who are Catholics, and who are not.

" To sum up all that hath been said ; whosoever doth preserve his obedience entire to the universal Church, and its representative a general Council, and to all his supe- riors in their due order, so far as by law he is obliged ; who holds an internal communion with all Christians, and an external communion so far as he can with a good con- science ; who approves no reformation but that which is made by lawful authority, upon sufiQcient grounds, with due moderation; who derives his Christianity by the unin- terrupted line of Apostolical succession ; who contents himself with his proper place in the ecclesiastical body ; who disbelieves nothing contained in Holy Scripture, and if he hold any errors unwittingly and unwillingly, doth implicitly renounce them by his fuller and more firm ad- herence to that infallible rule ; who believeth and prac- tiseth all those credenda and agenda, which the universal Church spread over the face of the earth doth unanim- ously believe and practise as necessary to salvation, without condemning or censuring others of different judgment from himself in inferior questions, without obtruding his own opinions upon others as articles of Faith ; who is implicitly prepared to believe and do all other speculative and prac- tical truths, when they shall be revealed to him ; and, in sum, ' qui sententiam diverscB opinionis vinculo non prcBponit unitatis — 'that prefers not a subtlety or an imaginary truth before the bond of peace ;' he may securely say, 'My name is Christian, my surname is Catholic'

" From hence it appeareth plainly, by the rule of con- traries, who are schismatics ; whosoever doth uncharitably make ruptures in the mystical Body of Christ, ' or sets up altar against altar' in His Church, or withdraws his obedi- ence from the Catholic Church, or its representative a general Council, or from any lawful superiors, without just

BRAMHALL. 71

grounds ; whosoever doth hmit the Catholic Church unto his own sect, excludiug all the rest of the Chnstiau world, by new doctrines, or erroneous censures, or tyrannical impositions ; whosoever holds not internal communion with all Christians, and external also so far as they con- tinue in a Catholic constitution ; whosoever, not contenting himself v/ith his due place in the Church, doth attempt to usurp an higher place, to the disorder and disturbance of the whole body ; whosoever takes upon him to reform without just authority and good grounds ; and, lastly, Vv^hosoever doth wilfully break the line of Apostolical suc- cession, which is the very nerves and sinews of ecclesias- tical unity and communion, both with the present Church, and with the Catholic Symbolical Church of all successive ages ; he is a schismatic (qua talis), whether he be guilty of heretical pravity or not.

"Now, having seen who are schismatics, for clearing the state of the question whether the Church of England be schismatical or not, it remaineth to shew in a word what we understand by the Church of England.

First, we understand not the English natiou alone, but the English dominion, including the British, and Scottish or Irish, Christians : for Ireland was the right Scotia major ; and that which is now called Scotland, was then inhabited by British and Irish under the name of Picts and Scots.

" Secondly, though I make not the least doubt in the world, but that the Church of England before the Reforma- tion and the Church of England after the Reformation are as much the same Church, as a garden, before it is weeded and after it is weeded, is the same garden ; or a vine, before it be pruned and after it is pruned and freed from the luxuriant branches, is one and the same vine ; yet, because the Roman Catholics do not object schism to the Popish Church of England, but to the Reformed Church, therefore, in this question, by the Church of England we understand that Church, which was derived by lineal suc- cession from the British, English and Scottish bishops.

T2 BRAMHALL.

by mixed ordiDation, as it was legally established in the days of king Edward the Sixth, and flourished in the reigns of queen Elizabeth, king James, and king Charles of blessed memory, and now groans under the heavy yoke of persecution; w^hether this Church be schismatical by reason of its secession and separation from the Church of Rome, and the supposed withdrawing of its obedience from the Patriarchal jurisdiction of the Roman bishop."

His replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon, Richard Smith, first bishop of the Romish schism in this country, was written in answ^er to that titular's " Survey of the Vindication of the Church of England from criminous Schism," which appeared in 1654. The replication was printed in London in 1656. The unsold copies of this edition w^ere bound up under a common title-page with the new impression of 1661 of the Just Vindication. In the dedication of this work to The Christian Reader, he says, " no man can justly blame me for honouring my spiritual mother the Church of England ; in whose womb I was conceived, at whose breasts I was nourished, and in whose bosom I hope to die. Bees, by the instinct of nature, do love their hives, and birds their nests. But God is my witness, that according to my uttermost talent, and poor understanding, I have endeavoured to set down the naked truth impartially, without either favour or pre- judice, the two capital enemies of right judgment ; — the one of which, like a false mirror, doth represent things fairer and straighter than they are ; the other, like the tongue infected with choler, makes the sweetest meats to taste bitter. My desire hath been to have truth for my chiefest friend, and no enemy but error. If I have had any bias, it hath been desire of peace, which our common Saviour left as a legacy to His Church ; that I might live to see the re-union of Christendom, for which I shall always bow the ' knees of my heart' to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not impossible but that this desire of unity may have produced some unwilling error of love, but certainly I am most free from the wulful love

BRAMHALL. 13

of error. In questions of an inferior nature Christ regards a charitable intention much more than a right opinion.

" Howsoever it be, I submit myself and my poor endea- vours, first, to the judgment of the Catholic CEcumenical essential Church : which if some of late days have endea- voured to hiss out of the schools as a fancy, I cannot help it. From the beginning it was not so. And if I should mistake the right Catholic Church out of human frailty or ignorance (which for my part I have no reason in the world to suspect; yet it is not impossible, when the Romanists themselves are divided into five or six several opinions, what this Catholic Church, or what their infalli- ble judge is), I do implicitly and in the preparation of my mind submit myself to the true Catholic Church, the spouse of Christ, the mother of the saints, the 'pillar of truth.' And seeing my adherence is firmer to the infal- lible rule of Faith, that is, the Holy Scriptures interpreted by the Catholic Church, than to mine own private judg- ment or opinions ; although I should unwittingly fall into an error, yet this cordial submission is an implicit retractation thereof, and I am confident will be so accept- ed by the Father of Mercies, both from me and all others who seriously and sincerely do seek after peace and truth.

" Likewise I submit myself to the representative Church, that is, a free general Council, or so general as can be procured ; and until then, to the Church of Eng- land, wherein I was baptized, or to a national English Synod : to the determination of all which, and each of them respectively, according to the distinct degrees of their authority, I yield a conformity and compliance, or at the least, and to the lowest of them, an acquiescence.'

In 1658 appeared his "Schism guarded and beaten back upon the right Owners, shewing that our great contro- versy about Papal Power is not a question of Faith, but of Interest and Profit ; not with the Church of Rome but VOL. Til. a

T4 BRAMHALL.

with the Court of Rome ; wherein the true controversy doth consist ; who were the first Innovators ; when and where these Papal Innovations first began in England ; with the opposition that was made against them." It commences with the following address to " The Chris- tian Readers," especially to the Roman Catholics of England : —

" Christian Reader,

" The great bustling in the controversy concerning Papal power, or the discipline of the Church, hath been either about the true sense of some texts of Holy Scripture ; as, 'Thou art Peter,' and, 'upon this rock will I build My Church,' and, ' To thee will I give the keys of the king- dom of heaven,' and ' Feed My sheep :' or about some privileges, conferred upon the Roman See by the canons of the Fathers, and the edicts of emperors, but pretended by the Roman Court and the maintainors thereof to be held by Divine right. I endeavour in this treatise to dis- abuse thee, and to shew that this challenge of Divine right is but a blind, or diversion, to withhold thee from finding out the true state of the question. So the hare makes her doubles and her jumps before she comes to her form, to hinder tracers from finding her out.

" I demonstrate to thee, that the true controversy is not concerning St. Peter; we have no formed difference about St. Peter, nor about any point of Faith, but of interest and profit ; nor with the Church of Rome, but with the Court of Rome: and wherein it doth consist ; namely, in these questions, — who shall confer English Bishoprics; who shall convocate English synods ; who shall receive tenths and first-fruits and oaths of allegiance and fidelity ; whe- ther the Pope can make binding laws in England without the consent of the king and kingdom, or dispense with English laws at his own pleasure, or call English subjects to Rome without the prince's leave, or set up legantine courts in England against their wills. And this I shew

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not out of the opinions of particular authors, but out of the pubhc laws of the kingdom.

" I prove moreover out of our fundamental laws and the writings of our best historiographers, that all these branches of Papal power were abuses and innovations and usurpations, first attempted to be introduced into England above eleven hundred years after Christ ; with the names of the innovators, and the precise time when each innova- tion began, and the opposition that was made against it, by our kings, by our bishops, by our peers, by our parlia- ments, with the groans of the kingdom under these Papal innovations and extortions.

" Likewise, in point of doctrine, thou hast been in- structed, that the Catholic Faith doth comprehend all those points which are controverted between us and the Church of Rome, without the express belief whereof no Christian can be saved ; whereas, in truth, all these are but opinions, yet some more dangerous than others. If none of them had ever been started in the world, there is sufiQcient to salvation for points to be believed in the Apostles' Creed. Into this Apostolical Faith, professed in the Creed and ex- plicated by the four first general Councils, and only into this Faith, we have all been baptized. Far be it from us to imagine, that the Catholic Church hath evermore bap- tized, and doth still baptize, but into one half of the Christian Faith.

" In sum. — Dost thou desire to live in the communion of the true Catholic Church ? So do I. But as I dare not change the cognizance of my Christianity, that is, my Creed ; nor enlarge the Christian Faith (I mean the essen- tials of it) beyond those bounds which the Apostles have set ; so I dare not (to serve the interest of the Roman Court) limit the Catholic Church, which Christ hath pur- chased with His blood, to a fourth or a fifth part of the Christian world.

♦' Thou art for tradition, so am I. But my tradition is not the tradition of one particular Church contradicted by the tradition of another Church, but the universal and

76 BRAMHALL.

perpetual tradition of the Christian ^vorld united. Such a tradition is a full proof, -sYhich is received ' semper, nhique, et ah omnibus — ' always, every where, and by all' Christians. Neither do I look upon the opposition of a handful of heretics — they are no more being compared to the innumerable multitudes of Christians) — in one or two ages, as inconsistent with universality, any more than the highest mountains are inconsistent with the roundness of of the earth.

" Thou desirest to bear the same respect to the Church of Rome that thy ancestors did ; so do I. But for that fulness of power, yea, co-active power in the exterior court, over the subjects of other princes, and against their wills, devised by the Court of Rome, not by the Church of Rome, — it is that pernicious source from whence all these usurpations did spring. Our ancestors from time to time made laws against it ; and our Reformation in point of dis- cipline, being rightly understood, was but a pui*suing of their steps. The true controversy is, whether the bishop of Rome ought by Divine right to have the external regi- ment of the English Church, and co-active jurisdiction in English courts, over English subjects, against the will of the king and the laws of the kingdom."

From this most powerful work, in which the Anglican cause is nobly maintained against Popery, many extracts might be made of assertions generally as well as contro- versially useful. We may give as an example his position that every one involved in a schism is not a formal schis- matic. His words are " Every one who is involved mate- rially in a schism, is not a formal schismatic ; no more than she that marrieth after long expectation, believing, and having reason to believe, that her former husband was dead, is a formal adulteress ; or than he who is drawn to give Divine worship to a creature by some misappre- hension, yet addressing his devotions to the true God, is a formal idolater. A man may be ' haptisatus voto' (as St. Ambrose said) — 'baptized in his desire,' and God Almighty doth accept it ; why may he not as well commu-

BRAMHALL. 77

nicate in his desire, and be accepted with God likewise ? If St. Austin sav true of heresy, that ' he who did not run into his error out of his own overweening presumption, nor defends it pertinaciously, but received it from his seduced parents, and is careful to search out the truth, and ready to be corrected if he find it out, he is not to be reputed among heretics. ' It is much more true of schism, that he who is involved in schism through the error of his parents or predecessors, who seeketh carefully for the truth, and is prepared in his mind to embrace it when- soever he finds it, he is not to be reputed a schismatic. This very bond of unity, and preparation of his mind to peace, is an implicit renunciation and abjuration of his schism before God. This is as comfortable a ground for ignorant Roman Catholics, as for any persons that I know; who are hurried hood-winked into erroneous tenets as necessary points of Faith, and schismatical practices, merely by the authority, and to uphold the interest and ambitious or avaricious courses, of the Roman Court."

Speaking of the Thirty-nine Articles in this work, he remarks, — "We do not suffer any man 'to reject' the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England ' at his pleasure ;' yet neither do we look upon them as essentials of saving Faith, or 'legacies of Christ and of His x\postles;' but in a mean, as pious opinions fitted for the preservation of unity : neither do we oblige any man to believe them, but only not to contradict them."

In Bishop Bramhalls "The Consecration and succes- sion of Protestant Bishops justified," the "infamous fable" of the ordination at the Xag's Head is clearly confuted And we may add that, in the last edition of Bramhall 's works in the Anglo-catholic library, the editor pursues the subject, and vindicates our ordinations against the dishonest refer- ence to this fable on the part of modern Romanists. The Romanists never had a more powerful opponent than this great prelate, who opposes them entirely upon Anglican grounds, and the member of the Church of England who G-2

78 BRAMHALL.

should join the Romish schismatics in this country, with- out first studying the works of Bramhall, would incur an awful responsibility.

His works against English sectaries are of equal vigour : — 1. Fair warning to take heed of the Scottish dis- cipline, as being of all others most injurious to the civil magistrate, most oppressive to the subject, most pernicious ' to both. Written in the beginning of the civil wars. 2. The Serpent salve : or, a remedy for the biting of an asp. Written in vindication of king Charles I., wherein the author endeavours to prove, that power is not originally inherent in, and derived from, the people. First printed in 1643, and was his first publication. 3. Vindication of himself and the Episcopal Clergy from the Presbyterian charge of Popery, as it is managed by Mr. Baxter in his treatise of the Grotian religion.

There are several publications of BramhalFs against Mr. Hobbes. — 1. A Defence of true liberty from an- tecedent and extrinsical necessity. Printed in 1656. 2. Castigations of Mr. Hobbes's animadversions upon the same, in 1658. 3. The Catching of Leviathan, or the great whale. Demonstrating out of Mr. Hobbes's own works, that no man, who is thoroughly an Hobbist, can be a good Christian, or a good commonwealth's man, or reconcile himself to himself: because his principles are not only destructive to all religion, but to all societies, extinguishing the relation between prince and subject, parent and child, master and servant, husband and wife; and abound with palpable contradictions.

The controversy between Bramhall and Hobbes, which gave occasion to the foregoing works, took its rise from a conversation, that passed between them at an accidental meeting, in 1645, at the house of the Marquis of Newcastle in Paris. It appears from the works them- selves, that the Bishop subsequently committed his thoughts upon the subject to writing, and transmitted hi? " discourse" through the Marquis to Hobbes. This

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called forth an answer from the latter, in a letter addressed to the Marquis (dated Rouen, Aug. 20, 1645), to be com- municated " only to my Lord Bishop ;" to which Bramhall replied in a second paper, not however until the middle of the following year, and privately as before. Here the controversy rested for more than eight years, having been hitherto carried on with perfect courtesy on both sides. In 1654, however, a friend of Hobbes procured without his knowledge a copy of his letter, and published it in London with Hobbes' name, but with the erroneous date of 1652 for 1645 ; upon which Bramhall, finding himself thus deceived, rejoined in the next year by the publication of the " Defence, &c." (Lond. 1655. 8vo.) consisting of his own original " discourse," of Hobbes' answer, and of his own re]>ly, printed sentence by sentence, with a dedication to the Marquis of Newcastle, and an advertisement to the reader explaining the circumstances under which it was published.

The fourth part of the folio edition of Bi-amhall's works contains his smaller pieces and occasional sermons. From these we present the reader with the bishop's opinion " of persons dying without baptism :"

" The discourse which happened the other day, about your little daughter, I had quite forgotten till you were pleased to mention it again last night. If any thing did fall from me, which gave offence to any there present, I am right sorrowful, but I hope there did not ; as, on the other side, if any occasion of offence had been given to me, I should readily have sacrificed it to that reverend respect, which is due to the place your table, anciently accounted a sacred thing, and to the lord of it, yourself. This morning, lying musing in my bed, it produced some trouble to me, to consider how passionately we are all wedded to our own parties, and how apt w^e are all to censure the opinions of others before we understand them, while our want of charity is a gi-eater error in ourselves, and more displeasing to Almighty God, than any of those supposed assertions which we condemn in others; espe-

80 BRAMHALL.

cially when they come to be rightly understood. And to show this particular breach is not so wide, nor the more moderate of either party so disagreeing, as is imagined, I digested these sudden meditations, drawn wholly, in a manner, from the grounds of the Roman schools ; and so soon as I was risen, I committed them to writing.

" First, there is a great difference to be made between the sole want of Baptism upon invincible necessity, and the contempt or wilful neglect of Baptism when it may be had. The latter we acknowledge to be a damnable sin, and, without repentance and God's extraordinaiy mercy, to exclude a man from all hope of salvation. But yet if such a person, before his death, shall repent and deplore his neglect of the means of grace, from his heart, and desire, with all his soul, to be baptized, but is debarred from it invincibly, we do not, w^e dare not pass sentence of condemnation upon him ; nor yet the Roman Catholics themselves. The question then is, whether the want of Baptism, upon invincible necessity, do evermore infallibly exclude from heaven ?

"Secondly, we distinguish between the visible sign, and the invisible grace ; between the exterior sacramental ablution, and the grace of the Sacrament, that is, interior Regeneration. We believe that whosoever hath the former, hath the latter also, so that he do not put a bar against the efficacy of the Sacrament by his infidelity or hypocrisy, of which a child is not capable. And therefore our very Liturgy doth teach, that a child baptized, dying before the commission of actual sin, is undoubtedly saved.

" Thirdly, we believe that without baptismal grace, that is, Regeneration, no man can enter into the kingdom of God. But whether God hath so tied and bound himself to His ordinances and Sacraments that He doth not or cannot confer the grace of the Sacraments, extraordinarily, where it seemeth good to His eyes, without the outward element ; this is the question between us."

It is said that he prepared a hundred sermons for the press, but that they were torn by rats before his death.

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At the Restoration, eveiy one, of course, concluded that Bishop Bramhall would be nominated to that high post in the Church, which his learning, his genius, and his piety so eminently qualified him to occupy. On the 18th of January, 1601, he was translated to the archiepiscopal see of Armagh, and became Lord Primate of Ireland. How acceptable this nomination of Bishop Bramhall was to the friends of the Church, appears from the following letter of congratulation, which was addressed by Lord Caulfield, aftei'wards known by the honourable epithet of the good Lord Charlemont, to the new Primate, on the 2'^nd of October, 1660.

*' As the news of your lordship's safe arrival is most welcome to me, so is it likewise occasion of great re- joicing to all those in the kingdom who truly fear God and pray for the welfare of His Church : it being yet fresh in the memories of us all, how eminent an instniment your lordship hath been long since in the propagating the true ancient Protestant religion in this kingdom.

" My lord, never had the Church more need of such a champion than now tliat the looseness of the late times hath been the occasion of so many schisms, and given opportunity to such numberless number of heresies to creep in amongst us, that not many days ago it was hardly possible to find two of one religion. And therein are these unhappy northern quarters most miserable, abounding with all sorts of licentious persons ; but those whom we esteem most dangerous are the Presbyterian factions, who do not like publicly to preach up the authority of the kirk to be above that of the crown and our dread sovereign. I have myself discoursed with divers of their ministers, both in public and private, who have maintained that the kirk hath power to excom- municate their kings ; and when the oaths of allegiance and supremacy were administered here, one of them told me that we had pulled down one Pope and set up another. But I made bold to inflict such punishments as I thought

82 BRAMHALL.

were proper for their offences ; and hindered their meet- ings where I considered there might be anything con- sulted of, tending to the breach of the peace, either in Church or commonwealth."

Soon after he consecrated two archbishops and ten bishops for the vacant sees in Ireland, and among these was the celebrated Jeremy Taylor. The consecration, at the same time, and by imposition of the same hands, of twelve Christian bishops, two of the number being of metro- politan eminence, to their apostolical superintendence of the Church of Christ, is an event probably without a parallel in the Church. The event, and its consequences, with reference to the illustrious Primate engaged in the consecration, is thus noticed by Bishop Taylor in his ser- mon preached at the funeral of Archbishop Bramhall in the year 1663. " There are gi'eat things spoken of his predecessor, St. Patrick, that he founded seven hundred churches and religious convents ; that he ordained five thousand priests ; and with his own hands consecrated three hundred and fifty bishops. How true the story is I know not ; but we were all witnesses that the late Primate, whose memory we now celebrate, did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence, in one day, consecrate two archbishops and ten bishops ; and did benefit to almost all the churches of Ireland ; and was greatly instrumental in the re-endowments of the whole clergy; and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry was inferior to none of his antecessors."

The same year he visited his diocese, which he found in the greatest disorder, some having committed horrible outrages, and many imbibed violent prejudices both against himself, and the doctrine and discipline of the Church. By lenity and firmness, reproof, argument, and persuasion, he at last gained the point at which he aimed.

Bishop Mant, in his history of the Church of Ireland, quotes a passage from Archbishop Vesey's life of Arch- bishop Bramhall, and explains it : the passage, and the

BPtAMHALL. 83

explanation, which appears to be perfectly satisfactory, we submit to the reader.

"When the benefices were called at the visitation, seve- ral appeared, and exhibited only such titles as they had received from the late powers. He told them, they w-ere no legal titles ; but m regard he heard well of them, he w^as willing to make such to them by institution and induction, which they humbly acknowledged, and intreated his lordship so to do. But, desiring to see their letteis of orders, some had no other but their certificates of ordi- nation by some Pivsbyterian classes, which, he told them, did not qualify them for any preferment in the Church. Whereupon the question imraediatrly arose, ' Are we not ministers of the Gospel?' To which his grace answered, that that was not the question : at least he desired for peace sake, of which he hoped they were ministers too, that that might not be the question for that time. ' I dispute not,' said he, ' the value of your ordination, nor those acts you have exercised by virtue of it : what you are, or might do, here when there was no law, or in other Churches abroad. But we are now to consider our- selves as a National Church, limited by law% which among other things takes chief care to prescribe about ordination ; and I do not know, how you could recover the means of the Church, if any should refuse to pay you your tithes, if you are not ordained, as the law of this Church requi- reth. And I am desirous, that she may have your labours, and you such portions of her revenue, as shall be allotted you in a legal and assured way.' By this means he gained such as were learned and sober ; and for the rest it was not much matter,"

"Just as I was about to close up this particular," con- tinues the biogi'apher, " I received full assurance of all that I offered in it, which for the reader's sake I thought fit to add, being the very words which his grace caused to be inserted in the letters of one Mr. Edward Parkinson, whom he ordained at that time, and from whom I had them by my reverend brother and neighbour, the Lord

84 BRAMHALL.

Bishop of Killalow. ' Non annihilantes priores ordines, (si quos habuit,) uec validitalem aut invaliditatem eorum determinantes, multo minus omnes ordines sacros eccle- siarum forensicarum condemnantes, quos proprio judici relinquimus : sed solummodo supplentes, quicquid phus defuit, per Canones Ecclesiae Anglicanae requisitum ; et providentes paci ecclesise, ut schismatis tollatur occasio, et conscientiis fidelium satisfiat, nee uUo modo dubitent de ejus ordinatione, aut actus suos Presbyteriales tanquam invalidos aversentur : in cujus rei testimonium, &c."

From this statement and document, says Bishop Mant, the reader will understand, that, on admitting to episcopal orders a person who had been previously ordained by Presbyterians, Primate Bramhall made profession, "that he did not annul the minister's former orders, if he had any, nor determine their validity or invalidity ; much less did he condemn all the sacred orders of the foreign Churches, whom he left to their own Judge : but that he only supplied, whatever was before w^anting, as required by the canons of the Anglican Church ; and that he pro- vided for the peace of the Church, that occasion of schism might be removed, and the consciences of the faithful satisfied, and that they might have no manner of doubt of his ordination, nor decline his presbyterial acts as being invalid." And this profession the primate inserted in the newly-ordained minister s " letters," his letters of orders, as they are technically called ; being the regular certifi- cate, or formal official testimonial, which every clergyman of the Church receives, of his having been lawfully ordained.

It is, therefore, not a little remarkable, that this account should have been taken by a respectable historian of the Church of England, as the ground for an assertion, that, with regard to any ministers w^ho had received Pres- byterian orders in the confusion of the great Rebellion, the method, employed by Archbishop Bramhall, was, not to. cause them to " undergo a new ordination, but to admit them into the ministry of the Church, by a

BRx\MHALL. 85

conditional ordination, as we do in the baptism of those, of whom it is uncertain, whether thej are baptized or not."

But this assertion is not supported by the statement of Bishop Vesey, and the document alleged by him : on the contrary it is directly opposed to both. For they give us to understand, that the archbishop did " ordain'" the persons in question, " as the law of this Church re- quireth ;" therefore not conditionally, for the law of this Church recognises no conditional ordination : but that subsequently he introduced into his " letters" of orders an explanatory remark. The historian seems to identify the form of ordination with the subsequent letters of orders, or certificate. But, whatever be the cause, the error is manifest : and it requires correction, both that the character of such a man, as Primate Bramhall, may be vindicated from the allegation, and even from the suspi- cion, of illegally deviating from the prescript forms of the Church, whereas he acted professedly and strictly, " as the law of the Church requireth ;" and that the principles and provisions of the Church herself may not be misappre- hended, in a matter of such infinite importance as the due ordination of candidates for the sacred ministry.

He was officially president of the Convocation, and was chosen speaker of the House of Lords, in the parliament which met May 8th, 1661. On the 31st of May, 1661, the Irish House of Commons adopted a course, to propose which in the present House of Commons would be deemed a mark of insanity : the Master of the Wards reported to the house, that according to their order he had waited on the Lord Primate with an intimation of their request, that the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper might be administered to them by his hands ; that he had accord- ingly appointed the Sabbath Day next come fortnight for the celebration at St. Patrick's Church, according to the Liturgy of the Church of Ireland, and the Friday before for a preparatory sermon between nine and ten in the

VOL. III. H

86 BRAMHALL.

morning. The subject of the sermon, delivered in pur- suance of this appointment, was the duty of repentance, as testified by the forsaking and amendment of former sins. By order of the house, on the 17th of June, thanks were returned to his grace for his great pains on the occasion, with a request that he would cause the sermon to be printed, which was in consequence done, and the sermon remains amongst his works under the title of " The right ivay to safety after Shijywreck.''

On the 18th of June, an order was entered on the journals of the House of Lords, and a corresponding one on those of the Commons, the 15th of July.

" That such matters as may seem to be intrench ments on the honour, worth, and integrity of Thomas Earl of Strafford, the Lord Primate, the Lord Chancellor Bolton, and the Lord Chief Justice Lowther, whose memory this house cannot in justice suffer to be sullied with the least stain of evil report, be totally and absolutely expunged and obliterated from the journals and records of the house."

In this parliament '' many advantages were procured^ and more designed, for the Church, in which Archbishop Bramhall was very industrious. Several of the bishops obtained their augmentations through his intercession ; as likewise the inferior clergy the forfeited impropriate tithes; and the whole Church all the advantageous clauses in the acts of settlement and explanation," [although she did not reap the benefit of them to the full extent that w^as in- tended.] " There were two bills, for the passing of which he took great pains, but was defeated in both :" one was, " for making the tithing-table of Ulster the rule for the whole kingdom :" the other, "for enabling the bishops to make leases for sixty years." About this time he had a violent sickness, being the second fit of a palsy, which was very near putting an end to his life ; but he recovered. " Before his death, he was intent upon a royal visitation, in- order to the correction of some disorders he had

BKAMHALL. 87

o\)served, and the better settlement of ministers upon their cures," by a more convenient distribution or union of parishes, and the building of churches : but he could not put this and some other designs he had formed in execution. A little before his death he visited his diocese, and having provided for the repair of his cathedral, and other affairs suitable to his pastoral office, he returned to Dublin about the middle of May, 1663. The latter end of the month follo\ving, he was seized with the third fit of the palsy, which quickly put an end to his life.

We may conclude this article by a few sentences from one whom it is always a pleasure to quote, Jeremy Taylor,- in his sermon preachciJ at Bramhall's funeral he tells us : " At his coming to the Primacy, he knew h^ should first espy little besides the ruins of discipline, a harvest of thorns and heresies prevailing in the hearts of the people, the churches possessed by wolves and intruders, men's hearts greatly estranged from true religion ; and, there- fore, he set himself to weed the fields of tlie Church. He treated the adversaries sometimes sweetly, sometimes he ■confuted them learnedly, sometimes he rebuked them shai'ply. He visited his charges diligently, and in his own person, not by proxies and instrumental deputations. He designed nothing that we knew- of, but the redintegra- tion of religion, the honour of God and the King, the restoring of collapsed discipline, and the renovation of faith and the service of God in the churches. And still he was indefatigable ; and, even at the last scene of his

life, intended to undertake a regal visitation

" Upon a brisk alarm of death, which God sent him the last Januaiy, he gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed restoration of his majesty and the Church of England, confessed his faith to be the same as ever, gave praises to God that he was bora and bred up in this religion, and prayed to God, and hoped he should die in the communion of this Church, w^hich he declared to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole world

88 BRAMHALL.

" To sum up all, he was a wise prelate, a learned doctor, a just man, a true friend, a great benefactor to others, a thankful beneficiary where he was obliged himself. He was a faithful servant to his masters, a loyal subject to the king, a zealous assertor of his religion, against Popery on one side and fanaticism on the other. The practice of his religion was not so much in forms and exterior ministeries, although he was a great obsei^er of all the public rites and ministeries of the Church, as it was in doing good to others

" He was a man of great business and great resort. He divided his life into labour and his book. He took care of his churches, when he w^as alive, and even after his death, having left five hundred pounds for the repair of his cathedral of Armagh, and St. Peter's church in Drogheda. He was an excellent scholar, and rarely well accomplished ; first instructed to great excellency by natural parts, and then consummated by study and experience

" It will be hard to find his equal in all things. For in him were visible the great lines of Hooker's judicious- ness, of Jewel's learning, of the acuteness of Bishop

Andrewes He showed his equanimity in poverty,

and his justice in riches : he was useful in his country,

and profitable in his banishment He

received public thanks from the Convocation, of which he was president, and public justification from the Parliament, where he was speaker ; so that, although no man had greater enemies, no man had greater jus- tifications."

His works were collected and reprinted at Dublin, in one volume, folio, in 1674-7. A beautiful edition has lately formed part of the Anglo- Catholic Library. — Life prefixed to Works hy Archbishop Vesey. Funeral Seimon. by Jeremy Taylor. Ware's Coniment. de Prccsul. Hibernice. Mant's History of the Church in Ireland. Bramhall's Works.

BRANDT. ^f^

BEANDT, GERAED.

Gekird Brandt was bom at Amsterdam in 16'26. He became the pastor of a congregatioD of RemoDStrants, or Arminians, at Nieukoop, where he married the daughter of Gaspard Barloeus, who is well known for the excellence of his Latin poetry. In 1667 he settled at Amsterdam, and died there in 1685. His works are — 1. A short History of the Reformation, and of the War between Spain and the Netherlands, 1658. 2. A History of the Refor- mation in the Low Countries, 4 vols, 4to. This has been translated into English, in 4 vols, folio ; and an abridg- ment of it has also been published in 2 vols, 8vo. 3. The History of Enkhuysen. 4. The Life of Admiral de Ruyter, folio. 5. An Historical Diary, with Biographical Notices of Eminent Men, 4to. 6. Poemata, 2 vols, Svo. 7. Historia judicii habiti annis 1618 et 1619; de tribus captivis Bameveldt, Hogerbeets et Grotio, 4to. — Moreri.

BRANDT, GASPARD.

Gaspard Brandt, eldest son of the preceding, was born in 1653, at Nieukoop, and educated under Limborch. In 1673 he was licensed to the ministiy, which ofiQce he discharged at several places, and lastly at Amsterdam, where he died in 1696. He published some religious pieces in German, and the lives of Arminius and Grotius ; the last were re-published by Mosheim, in 1725, Svo. — Moreri

BRANDT, GERARD.

Gerard Brandt, second son of Gerard, and brother of

the preceding, was born in 1657. He was instructed in

philosophy and divinity by Limborch. He exercised the

ministry at Rotterdam, and died there in 1683. He

' h2

90 BRENTZ.

translated Hejlyn's Quinqu articular History from the English into German ; besides which he was the author of a History of Public Events in Europe ; and sixty-five Sermons. — Moreri.

BRANDT, JOHN.

John Brandt, the youngest son of Gerard, was born at Nieukoop, in 1660. He was successively minister at Hoorn, the Hague, and iVmsterdam, where he died in 1708. His works are— 1. The Life of St. Paul, 4to. 2. A Funeral Oration on Mary, Queen of England. 3. A Treatise against Leydecker. He also edited the "Clarorum virorum Epistolae." — Moreri.

BRAULIO.

Beaulio w^as Bishop of Saragossa in the 7th century, and was the friend of Isidore, Bishop of Seville, to whom he addressed two letters. He made an encomium upon Isidore, containing a catalogue of his works, in which he informs us that he himself completed and arranged that father s etymological treatise, entitled Origines. He also wrote a life of (Emilianus, a Spanish hermit, commonly called St. Milan. The life of St. Leocadia is also attributed to him. He assisted at the fourth, fifth, and sixth councils of Toledo. In a treatise of Isidore, entitled, De Claris praesertim Hispanise Scriptoribus, published by Scholt, at Toledo, in 1592, there are some pieces by Braulio. His Epistles and Encomium are extant in Isidore's works. He died in the year 646, having been a bishop twenty years. — Dupin. Isidores Works. Mahillon.

BRENTZ, OR BRENTIUS.

Brentz, or Brentius was born at Weil in Suabia, in 1499. He was educated at the school and university of

BREXTZ. 91

Heidelberg. His application was unequalled. He was accustomed to rise at midnight for study, and this custom had become so confirmed, that in after life he could never sleep after that hour. Martin Luther had now appeared as an author, and his works were perused with juvenile enthusiasm by young Brentz, whose joy was indescribably great when he had an opportunity of hearing him preach at Heidelberg. One of Luther's paradoxes especially struck the youth. It was this, "that man is not justified in the sight of God who does many works ; but he who without having done any works, has much faith in Christ." He visited Luther, talked and conferred with him, and requested an explanation of what he did not understand. This naturally led to his becoming a confirmed Lutheran, After Luther's departure, he and others began to teach Lutheranism in Heidelberg. Brentz, though a very young man, undertook to expound St. Matthew's Gospel, at first in his own room, and afterwards, when that apart- ment was too small, in the Hall of Philosophy. The theologians were, of course, ofiended at this proceeding, as he acted without authority, and shewed symptoms of irritation at the concourse of hearers which the young man drew together. The heads of the university sought to silence him. But Brentz took orders, and then transferred his lecture to the College of the Canons of the Holy Ghost. He now became a popular preacher, and was chosen pastor at Halle, in the twenty-third year of his age. We find him afterwards attending a Protestant conference, for the purpose of reconciling the contention between Luther and Zuinglius, respecting the real presence, the latter doctrine being held by the Protestants generally. In 1530, he attended the diet of Augsburg, and took a share in the proceedings of that assembly. In 1534 he was invited by Ulric, prince of Wirtemberg, to undertake the direction of the university of Tubingen, conjointly with Camerarius, and to introduce the reformed religion. In 1547, while at Halle, he was obliged to conceal himself from the imperial forces, in consequence of a threat on the part of

92 BRETT.

Charles V. that he would destroy the city if Brentz were not given up to him. Letters were found in which Brentz contrary to the doctrines of the Christian religion, had exhorted the Protestant princes to take up arms against the emperor. Brentz, however, effected his escape in disguise, and wandered as a fugitive from place to place. His great solace at this time was the book of Psalms, which he said afterwards that no one could fully compre- hend, except under circumstances similar to his own. In 1553, Christopher, Prince of Wirtemberg, son and suc- cessor of Ulric, afforded him an asylum in his castle at Stutgard. Here, at the prince's request, he drew up the Confession of Wirtemberg ; and shortly after, on the death of the pastor of that place, Brentz was appointed to succeed him. In 1557 he attended the conferences at Worms, and died at Stutgard, Sept. II, 1570. His opinions nearly coincided with those of Luther ; he held the ubiquity of the body of Jesus Christ, and hence he and his followers have been denominated Ubiquitarians. His works were first published at Tubingen, 1576 — 1590, in 8 vols, folio, and at Amsterdam, in 1666. — Melchior Adam. Fuller. Milner. D'AuUgny.

BRETT, THOMAS.

Thomas Brett was born at Bettishanger in Kent, on the 3rd of September, 1667. He was sent to the grammar school of Wye, in that county, where his father resided, whence he proceeded to Queen's College, Cambridge, where he took his first degree, and then removed to Corpus Christi, January 17, 1689, where he proceeded LL. B. on St. Barnabas' day following, and did not at that time hesitate to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary ; his father, and other relations, who were accounted whigs, ha\ing brought him up in whig principles. He was ordained deacon, Dec. 21. 1690, when he undertook the cure of Folkstone for a twelve-

BRETT. 93

month ; after which he came to London, entered into priests orders, and was chosen lecturer of Ishngton Oct. 4, 169-^.

Upon his fathers death, at the earnest sohcitation of his mother, he left Islington with some reluctance, and in May, 1696, took upon him the cure of Great-Chart, where he became acquainted with the family of Sir Nicholas Toke, whose daughter he married. In the following year he took the degree of LL.D., as a member of Queen's, and soon after entered upon the cure of Wye, but had no benefice of his own before April 1"2, 1703, when, upon the death of his uncle, who was rector of Bettishanger, he was instituted to that living. Archbishop Tenison made him an offer of the vicarage of Chislet, and soon after gave him also the rectory of Rucking, April 12, 1705. But although he had up to this time complied with the oaths, he began to have his scruples, which were strengthened by the representations and reasonings of Bishop Hickes, who urged upon him the necessity of refraining from all communion with the Church established, on the ground of the danger and sin of schism. On this he had recourse to Mr. Dodwell's tracts on that subject, whose arguments not satisfying his mind, he resolved to surrender himself up to the bishop, and he was accordingly received into his communion, July 1, 1715, according to a penitential form prepared especially for such occasions. The year after he was consecrated a bishop. He had sacrificed nobly all his worldly interests and prospects to his principles, and whatever may be thought of his principles, he must be honoured for the consistency of his conduct. He had now no living to support him ; no Church open to him, but was accustomed, like many other Nonjurors, to officiate privately in his own house. His literary labours were very numerous, and all of them were distinguished for great ability and extensive learning. Brett was once pre- sented at the assizes for holding a conventicle in his house : but an Act of Indemnity rescued him from the penalties. He afterwards spent his time between Fever-

94 BRETT.

sham and Canterbury, in which places he had congrega* tions. Unquestionably the Nonjurors made a wise and judicious choice in selecting Brett as a bishop. The choice was made probably at the desire of Hickes, though he died before the consecration.

Bishop Brett soon became an active member of the Nonjuring communion; and among the late venerable Bishop Jolly's papers, we have a most interesting account of the correspondence between the Nonjurors and the Pa- triarchs of the Oriental Church, drawn up by Brett himself some few years after the scheme had failed. It has been published by Mr. Lathbury in his valuable History of the Nonjurors. The scheme alluded to was first thought of in 1716, when Arsenius, an Archbishop of the Eastern Church, was in London soliciting assistance for his afflicted brethren in Alexandria. Campbell, one of the Scottish Bishops, became acquainted with the Archbishop : " and," as Skinner says, " having a scheming turn for every thing which he thought of general usefulness to the Church, took occasion in conversation to hint something of this kind." Campbell mentioned the matter to his friends at a meeting. At first all were united : but the disputes respecting the usages having arisen, Spinkes, though he had previously translated their proposals into Greek, together with Hawes and Gandy, declined to proceed any further in the business, which was subse- quently carried on by Collier, Brett, and Griffin, with the Scottish Bishops Campbell and Gadderer.

The statement of Bishop Brett is as follows : — " In the month of July, 1716, the Bishops called Nonjurors meet- ing about some affairs relating to their little Church, Mr. Campbell took occasion to speak of the Archbishop of Thebais then in London ; and proposed that we should endeavour a union with the Greek Church, and draw up some propositions in order thereto, and deliver them to that Archbishop, with whom he intimated, as if he had already had some discourse upon that subject. I was then a perfect stranger to the doctrines and forms of worship

BRETT. 95

of that Church, but as I wished most heartily for a gene- ral union of all Christians in one communion, 1 was ready to have joined with Mr. Campbell on this occasion. But Mr. Lawrence being in the room, drew me aside, and told me, that the Greeks were more corrupt and more bigoted than the Romanists, and therefore vehemently pressed me not to be concerned in the affair : but Mr. Collier, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Spinkes joined in it, and drew up proposals, which Mr. Spinkes (as Mr. Campbell in- formed me) put into Greek, and they went together and delivered them to the Archbishop of Thebais, who carried them to Moscovy, and engaged the Czar in the affair, and they were encouraged to write to his majesty on that occasion, who heartily espoused the matter, and sent the proposals by James, Proto-Cyncellus to the Patriarch of Alexandria, to be communicated to the four Eastern Patriarchs. Before the return of the Patriarchs' answer to the proposals, a breach of communion happened among the Nonjurors here, Mr. Hawes, Mr. Spinkes, and Mr. Gandy on the one side, and Mr. Collier, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Gadderer, and myself on the other. So that when the Patriarchs' answer came to London, in 17^2, Mr. Spinkes refused to be any further concerned in the affair, and Mr. Gadderer and I joined in it. After Mr. Gadderer went to Scotland, Mr. Griffin, being consulted, joined with us. The rest of the story relating to this matter may be gathered from the letters and the sub- scriptions to them. Mr. Collier subscribes Jeremias, Mr. Campbell Archibaldus, Mr. Gadderer Jacobus, and I, Thomas,

Sic Sub. Thomas Brett." March 30th, 1728.

"A Proposal for a concordate between the orthodox and Catholic remnant of the British Churches, and the Catho- lic and Apostolic Oriental Church.

" 1. That the Church of Jerusalem be acknowledged as the true mother Church and principal of ecclesiastical

96 BRETT.

unity, whence all the other Churches have heen derived, and to which, therefore, they owe a peculiar regard.

"2. That a principality of Order be in consequence hereof allowed to the Bishop of Jerusalem above all other Christian Bishops.

" 3. That the Churches of Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople, with the Bishops thereof, his colleagues, be recognized as to all their ancient canonical rites, privi- leges, and pre-eminences.

" 4. That to the Bishop and Patriarch of Constanti- nople in particular an equality of honour with that of the Bishop of Rome be given, and that the very same powers and privileges be acknowledged to reside in them both alike.

" 5. That the Catholic remnant of the British Churches, acknowledging that they first received their Christianity from such as came forth from the Church of Jerusalem, before they were subject to the Bishop of Rome and that Church, and professing the same holy Catholic faith, delivered by the Apostles, and explained in the councils of Nice, and Constantinople, be reciprocally acknowledged as part of the Catholic Church in com- munion with the Apostles, with the holy fathers of these councils, and with their successors.

" 6. That the said Catholic remnant shall thereupon oblige themselves to revive what they long professed to wish for, the ancient godly discipline of the Church, and which they have already actually began to restore.

"7. That in order still to a nearer union, there be as near a conformity in worship established as is consistent with the different circumstances and customs of nations, and with the rites of particular Churches, in that case allowed of.

"■ 8. That the most ancient English Liturgy, as more near approaching the manner of the Oriental Church, be in the first place restored, with such proper additions and alterations, as may be agreed on to render it still more conformable both to that and the primitive standard.

BRETT. 97

•'9. That several of the Homilies of St. Chrysostom, and other approved Fathers of the said Oriental Church be forthwith translated into English and read in our holy assemblies.

"10. That in the public worship, when prayer is made for the Catholic Church, there be an express commemoration made of the Bishop of Jerusalem, and that, especially in the Communion Service, prayer be offered up for him and the other Patriarchs, with all the Bishops of the same communion, and for the deliverance and restoration of the whole Oriental Church.

"11. That the faithful and orthodox remnant of the Britannic Church is to be also, by the said Oriental Church, on proper occasions, or on certain days publicly commemo- rated and prayed for.

"12. That there be letters communicatory settled betwixt one and the other, and the acts and deeds on both sides be mutually confirmed.

" Wherefore in order to establish such a concordate, until that a firm and perfect union can be fixed, the suf- fering Catholic Bishops of the old constitution of Great Britain have thought fit hereby to declare, wherein they agree and wherein they cannot come to a perfect agree- ment.

" ] . They agree in the twelve Articles of the Creed as delivered in the first and second General Councils, which they take to be sufiGlcient for faith, and thereupon cannot agree with the Latin Church, which hath superadded thereto twelve other articles of faith.

" 2. They agree in beheving the Holy Ghost to be con- substantial with the Father and the Son, according to the orthodox confession of the Oriental Church; and moreover, that the Father is properly the fountain and original whence the Holy Ghost proceedeth ; and that it is altoge- ther sufficient for salvation to believe herein what Christ Himself hath taught.

" 3. They agree that the Holy Ghost is sent forth by

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98 BRETT.

the Son from the Father, and when they say in any of their confessions, that He is sent forth or proceedeth from the Son, they mean no more than what is, and always has been confessed by the Oriental Church, i. e. from the Father by the Son.

"4. They agree, that the Holy Ghost did truly speak by the prophets and apostles, and is the genuine author of all the Scriptures.

"5. They agree, that the Holy Ghost assisteth the Church in judging rightly concerning matters of faith, and that both general and particular orthodox councils, convened after the example of the first council of Jeru- salem, may reasonably expect that assistance in their resolutions.

"6. They agree, in the number and nature of the charismata of the Spirit.

" 7. They agree, that there is no other foundation of the Church but Christ alone, and that the prophets and apostles are no otherwise to be called so, but in a less proper and secondary sense respectively only.

" 8. They agree that Christ alone is the head of the Church, which title ought not therefore to be assumed by any one, much less by any secular power, how great soever, and that Bishops under Him have a vicarious head- ship, as His proper representatives and vicegerents, being thence subject in spirituals to no temporal power on earth : and in consequence hereof they hope the patriarchs of the Oriental Church will be pleased, by an express article, to signify, that they own the independency of the Church in spirituals upon all lay powers, and consequently declare against all lay deprivations.

" 9. They agree, that every Christian ought to be subject to the Church, and that the Church is by Christ suffi- ciently instructed and authorized to examine the writings and censure the persons of her subjects or ministers, though never so great.

/' 10. They agree, that the Sacrament of the body and

BRETT. m

blood of Christ ought to be administered to the failhfvil in both kinds, and that the Latin Church have transgressed the Institution of Christ by restraining from the laity one kind.

"11. They agree, that Baptism and this are of general necessity to salvation, for all the faithful, and that the other holy mysteries instituted by Christ, or appointed by His Apostles, which are not so generally necessary unto all, ought nevertheless to be received and celebrated with due reverence, according to Catholic and immemorial practice.

"12. They agree, that there is no proper purgatorial fire in the future state, for the purgation of souls, nor consequently any redemption of souls out of the fire of purgatory by the suffrages of the living : but that notwith- standing none do immediately ascend into the heaven of heavens, but do remain until the resurrection in certain inferior mansions, appropriated to them, waiting in hope for the revelation of that day, and joining in the prayers and praises of the militant Church upon earth, offered up in faith."

"As to the points wherein they cannot, at present, per- fectly agree, they declare.

" 1. They have a great reverence for the canons of ancient general councils, yet they allow them not the same authority as is due to the sacred text, and think, they may be dispensed with by the governors of the Church, where charity or necessity require.

" 2. Though they call the mother of our Lord blessed, and magnify the grace of God, which so highly exalted her, yet are they afraid of giving the glory of God to a creature, or to run into any extreme by blessing and magnifying her, and do hence rather choose to bless and magnify God, for the high grace and honour conferred upon her, and for the benefits which we receive by that means.

"3. Though they believe that both saints and angels have joy in the conversion of one sinner, and in the pro-

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gress of a Christian, and do unite with us in our prayers and thanksgivings, when rightly offered to God in the communion of the Church : yet are they jealous of detract- ing from the mediation of Jesus Christ, and therefore can- not use a direct invocation to any of them, the ever blessed Virgin herself not excepted, w^hile we desire nevertheless to join with them in spirit, and to communicate with them in perfect charity.

" 4. Though they believe a perfect mystery in the Holy Eucharist, through the invocation of the Holy Spirit, upon the elements, whereby the faithful do verily and indeed receive the body and blood of Christ, they believe it yet to be after a manner, w^hich flesh and blood cannot conceive ; and seeing no sufficient ground from Scripture or tradi- tion to determine the manner of it, are for leaving it indefinite and undetermined : so that every one may freely, according to Christ's own institution and meaning, receive the same in faith, and also worship Christ in spirit, as verily and indeed present, without being obliged to worship the Sacred symbols of his presence.

" 5. Though they honour the memory of all the faithful witnesses of Christ, and count it not unlawful in itself to assist the imagination by pictures and representations of them and their glorious acts and sufferings, yet they are afraid of giving thereby, on one hand, scandal to the Jews and Mahometans, or on the other, to many well meaning Christians: and they are moreover apprehensive that, though the wise may be safe from receiving any damage, by a wrong application, yet the vulgar may come thereby to be ensnared, and be carried to symbolize too much with the custom of idolaters, without designing it : to prevent which they therefore propose, that the 9th Article of the second Council of Nice, concerning the worship of Images, be so explained by the wisdom of the Bishops and Patriarchs of the Oriental Church, as to make it inoffen- sive, and to remove the scandal, which may be occasioned by, a direct application to them.

" If a concordate can be agreed on with some limita-

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tions and iudulgences on both sides, then it is proposed that a Church, to be called the Concordia, be built in or about London, which may be under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Alexandria, and in which, at certain times to be agreed on, there shall be the Enghsh service of the united British Catholics perlbrmed according as the same shall be approved or licensed by that Patriarch, or by the representatives of the Oriental Church. And that on the other side, if it should please God to restore the suffering Church of this island and her Bishops to her and their just rights, they promise to use their endeavours, that leave be granted to a Greek bishop here for the time residing, or to such as shall be deputed by him, to celebrate, upon certain days, divine service in the cathedral church of St. Paul according to the Greek rites. But if one common Liturgy could be on both sides agreed on, which should be unexceptionable, being compiled out of the ancient Greek Liturgies, some passages and rites only omitted, which are not of the substance, and which may give offence to one side, it is thought that nothing can more conduce to the establishing a union and communion be- tween both parties on catholic terms, would but the Patriarchs of the Oriental Church graciously condescend, that the same common Liturgy should be used in Great Britain, both by the Greeks themselves here residing, and by the united British Catholics.

" None to be excluded from entering into this con- cordate who are willing, and all endeavours to be used on both sides to heal the breaches of Christendom, and to promote and propagate Christian unanimity and peace.

London. August 18th, 1716."

In the October following a letter was addressed to the Czar of ^Muscovy relating to the preceding proposal which, his majesty, it seems, encouraged.

The answer of the Eastern Patriarchs to the proposals I 2

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of the Nonjurors is dated from St. Petersburg, August 21, 1721. It is entitled " The Answer from the Orthodox of the East to the proposals sent from Britain for a union and agreement with the Oriental Church."

In this document the Patriarchs refuse to make the desired concessions, giving their reasons at great length. To the first five proposals they state, that they shall give one answer, since they all relate to one point, namely, the order of the five patriarchal thrones. " They who call themselves the remnant of primitive orthodoxy in Britain, would (if this be their meaning, which will be shewn to be otherwise hereafter) have them dispossessed of their situation given them by orthodox princes, and confirmed by divine and holy synods, and be settled in a new and different order : so that neither the Pioman nor Constantinopolitan throne should any longer have the preference, but that of Jerusalem. But somebody may thus bespeak them, if gentlemen, the subject of your union with the orthodox Oriental Church be matter of doctrine and holy faith, to what purpose should the order of the patriarchal thrones be changed, which can neither tVie one way nor the other, be any advantage or detriment to religion ? It would rather create divisions than con- ciliate an union, for it has the face of an innovation; whereas our Oriental Church, the immaculate Bride of the Lord, has never at any time admitted any novelty, nor will at all allow of any. And why should they have the preference given to the throne of Jerusalem? Be- cause, say they, from thence came out the evangelical law of grace and truth, according to that prophesy, * but out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' Now they would by these words seem wiser and more provident, than those who place the thrones in this order, as if they had acted rashly and unadvisedly in making such an appointment, which God forbid. For the authors and legislators of this order were divine men, of extensive knowledge and judgment, and

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had the Spirit of the Lord : nor can we pretend to be better and more sagacious than they, or to overturn, or in the least disorder their wise settlements, lest we be found to fight against the saints and against God." —

They afterwards say :

" Some time since, the Pope of Rome, being deceived by the malice of the de\dl, and falling into strange novel doctrines, revolted from the unity of the holy Church, and was cut off : and it is now like a shattered rag of a sail of the spiritual vessel of the Church, which formerly con- sisted and was made up of five parts, four of which con- tinue in the same state of unity and agreement : and by these we easily and calmly sail through the ocean of this life, and \vithout difficulty pass over the waves of heresy, till we arrive within the haven of salvation. But he who is the fifth part, being separated from the entire sail, and remaining by himself in a small piece of the torn sheet, is unable to perform his voyage, and therefore we behold him at a distance tossed with constant waves and tempest till he return to our Catholic, Apostolic, Oriental, immacu- late faith, and be reinstated in the sail from whence he was broken off: for this will make him secure, and able to weather the spiritual storms and tempests that beset him. Thus therefore the holy Church of Christ with us subsists on four pillars, namely, the four Patriarchs, and continues firm and immoveable. The first in order is the Patriarch of Constantinople The second the Pope of Alexandria. The third of Antioch. The fourth of Jerusalem."

They grant however :

" If those who are called the remains of the primitive orthodoxy, out of any particular affection of piety to the holy and Apostolical throne of Jerusalem, would prefer and esteem it above the rest, we have no objection to it : for we ourselves, though for order's sake we number it in the 4th place, yet pay it the utmost reverence and respect, and honour it as the place where the light of religion and salvation arose, where the redemption of man and the preaching of the Gospel shone out into all the world, and

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because there our Lord