"from an enemy to his Royal Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia;" for fo fhe was pleased he should always call her. น Many other of his fervices to his Prince and this nation might be infifted upon; as namely, his procurations of privileges and courtefies with the German Princes and the Republic of Venice, for the English merchants; and what he did by direction of King James with the Venetian State, concerning the Bishop of Spalato's return to the Church of Rome. But for the particulars of thefe, and many more that I meant to make known, I want a view of fome papers that might inform me, (his late Majefty's letter-office having now fuffered a ftrange alienation), and indeed I want time too; for the printer's prefs ftays for what is written: fo that I must hafte to bring Sir Henry Wotton in an instant from Venice to London; leaving the reader to make up what is defective in this place, by the fmall fupplement of the infcription under his arms, which he left at all those houfes where he refted, or lodged, when he returned from his laft Embassy into England. u MARCUS ANTONIUS DE DOMINIS, Archbishop of Spalato in the territory of Venice, to whom we are obliged for the introduction of the celebrated" Hiftory of the Council of Trent" into this kindom. Having abandoned the religion in which he was educated, he came into England in the beginning of the reign of James I. and continued there to the year 1622. The Univerfity of Cambridge, at their commencement in 1617, paid the moft flattering attention to him, while he experienced many fignal inftances of kindnefs from the King. Yet the fickle nefs of his difpofition, and, as fome have affirmed, his vanity and avarice, foon loft him all credit. Upon the promotion of Gregory XV. his friend and relation, to the Popedom, he was artfully perfuaded by Gondamar, the Spanish Ambassador, to return to Rome, where he publicly renounced his errors, and was again admitted into the bofom of the church. He is faid also to have left England with a view to convoke a general council, having entertained hopes of compofing matters of religion by fuch a measure. The Pope at firft treated him with refpect: He was however foon delivered to the Inquifition, and imprifoned in the Castle of Angelo, on fufpicion of herefy; and it is fuggelied that he was there poifoned.Different accounts indeed are given of the miferable exit of this irrefolute man on his return to Rome; yet moft writers agree, that by an order of the Inquifition he was declared to be a relapfed heretic, and that, after his death, his body was publicly burnt. "In 1617 the Archbishop of Spalato, a convert, came into England, "and preached, wrote, and railed againft Rome, until he was made "Dean of Windfor, and Mafter of the Savoy: Afterward he returned "to Rome, and recanted there; as bitterly reproaching the Protestant "doctrine, as here he had extolled it: And his end was in a priton." (Welwood's Memorials, &c. p. 296.) He hurt the caule of Rome more by his pen, than by the defection of his perfon: His learned books entitled, "De Republicâ Ecclefiafticâ' being fill unanswered. Of the zeal which he once difplayed againft Popery, we may form fome opinion from the fiory related by Lord Bacon. Bishop Andrews being asked at the firft coming over of the Archbishop of Spalato, whether he was a Protestant or no? anfwered, "Truly "Henricus Wottonius Anglo-Cantianus, Thomæ optimi viri "filius natu minimus, à ferenifsimo Jacobo I. Mag. Brit. Rege, "in equeftrem titulum adfcitus, ejufdemque ter ad Rempubli"cam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius, femel ad Confoederatarum "Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacenfi negotio. Bis ad Carolum «Emanuel, Sabaudiæ Ducem; femel ad unitos fuperioris Ger"manie Principes in Conventu Heilbrunenfi, poftremò ad "Archiducem Leopoldum, Ducem Wittembergenfem, Civitates "Imperiales, Argentinam, Ulmamque, et ipfum Romanorum "Imperatorem Ferdinandum Secundum, Legatus Extraordi"narius, tandem hoc didicit, "Animas fieri fapientiores quiefcendo." To London he came the year before King James died; who having, for the reward of his foreign fervice, promised him the reverfion of an office which was fit to be turned into prefent money, which he wanted, for a fupply of his prefent neceflities, and also granted him the reverfion of the Mafter of the Rolls "Truly I know not; but I think he is Detestant, viz. of moft of the opinions of Rome." And in a print of this prelate engraved by Sparke, is an infcription, expressive of his firong averfion to the doctrines of that church which he had abjured. ་ "Welcome, grave primate, from th' erroneous holde Thy learned workes the beast shall deadly wound, Strengthen thy brethren, and confirm the tender." Bishop Burnet in his "Life of Bedel" has obferved, that De Dominis was utterly ignorant of the Greek Tongue, and that Mr. Bedel, when Chaplain to Sir Henry Wotton at Venice, corrected many ill applications of texts of fcripture and quotations of fathers, in his work, "De Republicâ Ecclefiafticà." 66 The opinion ufually entertained concerning the conduct of "De Dominis," upon his return to Rome, lefs favourable to his character than he deferves, if we may judge from the narrative of Dr. John Cofin, Bihop of Durham, in his Hiftory of Tranfubfiantiation," C. II. § vii, We are assured, that on his departure from England, he left in writing this memorable declaration: "I am refolved, even with the danger of my life, to profefs before the Pope himfelf, that the Church of England is a true and orthodox Church of Chrift " This he not only promited, but faithfully performed. He could never be perfuaded by the Jefuits or others, either to fubfcribe to the new-devised tenets of the Council of Trent, or to retract those orthodox books which he had printed in England and Germany, or to renounce the Communion of the Church of England, in whole defence he conftantly perfified to the very laft. It should never be forgotten that he acquired confiderable reputation in the philofophical world, by his explanation of the phænomelia of the rainbow, in his book, "De Radiis Visûs et Lucis." place, if he outlived charitable Sir Julius Cæfar*, who then pofsefsed it, and then grown fo old that he was faid to be kept alive beyond Nature's course by the prayers of those many poor which he daily relieved. But these were but in hope, and his condition required a prefent fupport: For in the beginning of these employments he fold to his elder brother, the Lord Wotton, the rent-charge left by his good father, and, which is worse, was now at his return indebted to several persons, whom he was not able to fatisfy but by the King's payment of his arrears due for his foreign employments. He had brought into England many fervants, of which fome were German and Italian artifts; this was part of his condition, who had many times hardly fufficient to fupply the occafions of the day: For it may by no means be said of his providence, as himself faid of Sir Philip Sidney's wit, "That "it was the very measure of congruity," he being always fo carelefs of money, as though our Saviour's words "Care not "for to-morrow" were to be literally understood. But it pleased the God of Providence that in this juncture of time the Provostfhip of his Majefty's College of Eaton became void by the death of Mr. Thomas Murray ", for which there * Sir JULIUS CESAR alias ADELMARE, the eldest son of Cæfar Dalmarius, an Italian physician to Queen Mary and to Queen Elizabeth. His bounty was fo extenfive, that he might be called “The Almoner General of the Nation." He printed a catalogue of the books, parchments, and papers belonging to the Court of Requefts, in quarto, of fingular ufe to antiquaries, but now almost as fcarce as the MSS. themfelves. (Peck's Desid. Cur. lib. xiv. p. 17.) "It was not," fays Lloyd in his State Worthies, p. 935, "without a profperous omen that his chief houfe in Hertfordshire was called Benington, that is villa benigna, as one author will have it, or as ano"ther, villa beneficii, the Town of Good Turns, from the river fo named running by it." 66 This venerable lawyer died April 28, 1639, in the 79th year of his age. He lies buried in great St. Helen's church, London, under a monument, having an inscription in the form of a deed with a feal to it, importing "That he was willing to pay his debt to nature whenever God pleased.” (Biogr. Brit.) y Archbishop Laud, in the account of his province of Canterbury, fent to the King for the year 1624, gives this honourable tefiimony to Sir Henry Wotton's conduct in the government of his college:-" For Eaton College within that diocefe (of Lincoln), I do not find but that the "Provost Sir Henry Wotton, hath carried himself very worthily.” 66 z The fuccefsor of Sir Henry Savile in the Provoftship of Eaton College. He was a native of Scotland, Tutor and Secretary to Prince Charles. His zeal in oppofing the marriage of the Prince with the Infanta of Spain, occafioned his imprisonment for fome time, along with Dr. George Hackwell, Archdeacon of Surry, the author of " A Difcourfe against the Spanish Match." He died April 1, 1623. In the Cabala is a letter from Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, on the appointment of Murray to the Provoltship were (as the place deserved) many earnest and powerful fuitors a to the King. And Sir Henry, who had for many years (like Sifyphus) rolled the refilefs ftone of a ftate employment, knowing experimentally that the great blefsing of fweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business, and that a College was the fitteft place to nourish holy thoughts and to afford reft both to his body and mind, which his age (being now almoft threefcore years) feemed to require, did therefore ufe his own and the intereft of all his friends to procure that place. By which means, and quitting the King of his promised reverfionary offices, and a piece of honeft policy (which I have not time to relate) he got a grant of it from his Majefty. And this was a fair fatisfaction to his mind: But money was wanting to furnish him with thofe necefsaries which attend voftship of Eaton. In this letter he complains of "The difpenfation given to him, who was a mere layman, to hold a place which was a "living with cure of fouls," and hints a fufpicion of his being averfe to the church government, as established in England. Among other unfuccessful candidates at this time was the great Lord Bacon, as appears from a letter written by him to Mr. Secretary Conway, dated Grey's Inn, March 25, 1623. And Dr. Birch has given the following extract from an unpublished letter of the Lord Keeper Williams to the Marquis of Buckingham, dated April 11, 1623. "Mr. Murray, "the Provoft of Eaton, is now dead: The place ftayed by the Fellows "and myfelf, until your Lordship's pleafure be known. Whomfoever your Lordship fhall name I fhall like of, though it be Sir William Becker, though this Provofifhip never defcended fo low. The King "named unto me yesterday morning Sir Albertus Morton, Sir Dudley Carlton, and Sir Robert Ayton, our late Queen's Secretary. But in my opinion, though he named him laft, his Majefty inclined to this Ayton moft. It will refi wholly upon your Lordship to name the man. "It is fomewhat necefsary he be a good fcholar, but more that he be a good husband, and a careful manager, and a stayed man, which no man can be that is fo much indebted as the Lord St. Alban's." (Bacon's Works, vol. iii. p. 636.) b He was inftituted to the Provoftship July 26, 1624, having obtained the appointment by furrendering a grant of the reverfion of the Mafterfhip of the Rolls, and of another office. The value of this preferment in the reign of Henry VIII. is known from the following ftory: Sir Thomas Wyat one day told the King, that he had found out a living of one hundred pounds in the year more than enough, and prayed him to beflow it on him. £6 Truly," faid the King, we have no fuch in Eng"land." "Yes, Sir," faid Sir Thomas, "the Provofifhip of Eaton, "where a man has his diet, his lodging, his horfe-meat, his fervants' wages, his riding charges, and 1001. per annum befides." (Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 79.) 66 66 © When he went to the election at Eaton, foon after he was made Provoft, he was fo ill provided that the Fellows of his College were obliged to furnish his bare walls, and whatever elle was wanting. In a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, after his return from his lafi ambafsage to Vepice, he thus writes: "I am left utterly deftitute of all pofsibility to "fubfift removes and a fettlement in fuch a place; and to procure that, he wrote to his old friend Mr. Nicholas Peyd for his afsiftance. Of which Nicholas Pey I fhall here fay a little for the clearing. of fome pafsages that I fhall mention hereafter. He was in his youth a clerk, or in fome fuch way a fervant to the Lord Wotton, Sir Henry's brother; and by him, when he was Comptroller of the King's Houfehold, was made a great officer in his Majefty's Houfe. This and other favours being conferred upon Mr. Pey, in whom there was a radical honefly, were always thankfully acknowledged by him, and his gratitude exprefsed by a willing and unwearied ferviceableness to that family even till his death. To him Sir Henry Wotton wrote to ufe all his intereft at court, to procure five hundred pounds of his arrears (for lefs would not fettle him in the College), and the want of fuch a fum wrinkled his face with care-(it was his own exprefsion);-and that money being procured, he fhould the next day after find him in his College, and "Invidiæ remedium" written over his ftudy-door". This money, being part of his arrears, was by his own, and the help of honeft Nicholas Pey's intereft in court, quickly procured him, and he as quickly in the College: the place where fubfift at home: Much like thofe feal-fishes, which fometimes, as they fay, overfleeping themfelves in an ebbing water, feel nothing about them in a dry thore when they are awake." (Reliq. Wotton, p. 320.) d Of whom Sir Henry Wotton writes in a letter to the Dake of Buckingham from Venice: "That he is his friend of truft to him at home in all his occafions." In other letters he always mentions him in language full of refpect. The name of this faithful fervant, thus tranfmitted to pofterity in the page of Ifaac Walton, will ever be remembered with honour. "Oh good old man! how well in thee appears The confiant fervice of the antique world, (Shakspeare's As You Like It, act II. scone III.) • One of the Clerks of the King's Kitchen. f See this letter in "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," p. 359. Yet, in a letter to the King in 1628, he requefis that, when the Rolls are difpofed of, his Majefly would be pleafed to referve for him fome fmall proportion towards the discharge of fuch debts as he had contracted in public fervice, and next to promife him the next good Deanery that shall be vacant by death or remove. (Reliq. Wott. p. 563.)—————And we find him in 1637, as a poor fuppliant unto the King to confer upon him the Mastership of the Savoy, in cafe Dr. Belcanquel, his good friend, fhall be removed to the Deanery of Durham. (Ibid. p. 340.) |