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Eton College) affirmed to me, he had not feen a life written with more advantage to the subject, or more reputation to the writer, than that of Dr. Donne's P.

After the performance of this task for Dr. Donne, you undertook the like office for your friend Sir Henry Wotton; betwixt which two there was a friendfhip begun in Oxford, continued in their various travels, and more confirmed in the religious friendship of age: and doubtlefs this excellent perfon had writ the life of Dr. Donne, if death had not prevented him; by which means his and your pre-collections for that work fell to the happy manage of your pen; a work which you would have declined, if imperious perfuafions had not been. ftronger than your modeft refolutions against it. And I am thus far glad, that the firft life was fo impofed upon you, because it gave an unavoidable caufe of writing the fecond: if not; it is too probable, we had wanted both; which had been a prejudice to all lovers of honour and ingenious learning. And let me not leave my friend Sir Henry, without this teftimony added to yours; that he was a man of as florid a wit, and as elegant a pen, as any former (or ours, which in that kind is a moft excellent) age hath ever produced.

And now having made this voluntary obfervation of our two deceafed friends, I proceed to fatisfy your defire concerning what I know and believe of the ever-memorable Mr. Hooker, who was Schifmaticorum Malleus, fo great a champion for the Church of England's rights, against the factious torrent of Separatifts, that then ran high againft church-difcipline; and in his unanfwerable books continues to be fo against the unquiet difciples of their fchifm, which now under other names ftill carry on their defign, and, who as the proper heirs of their irrational zeal) would again rake into the fcarce-clofed wounds of a newly-bleeding ftate and church.

And first, though I dare not fay that I knew Mr. Hooker; yet, as our Ecclefiaftical History reports to the honour of St. Ignatius, "that he lived in the time of St. John, and had seen him in his childhood," fo I alfo joy, that in my minority I have

P This was fpoken of the firft edition of Ifaac Walton's Life of Dr. Donne, which was printed in 1640; and not, as Wood affirms, in 1653.

The Separatifts from the Church of England, were originally called by a general term, "Puritans." Split into parties, they were foon difcriminated by the various appellations of "Prefbyterians," "Independents," "Brownifts," Familifis," &c.

IGNATIUS, Bishop of Antioch, is in the lift of the Apostolic Fathers, among whom were placed fuch Chriftian doctors as had converfed with the apoftles themselves, or their difciples. This pious and venerable man, who being expofed to wild beafts by the order of Trajan, fuffered martyrdom with the utmost confiancy, was educated under the apoftle and evangelift St. John, and intimately acquainted with St. Peter and St. Paul.

often feen Mr. Hooker with my father, who was after Bishop of London; from whom, and others, at that time, I have heard moft of the material pafsages which you relate in the Hiftory of his Life; and from my father received fuch a character of his learning, humility, and other virtues, that like jewels of invaluable price, they ftill caft fuch a lustre, as envy or the ruft of time fhall never darken.

From my father I have alfo heard all the circumftances of the plot to defame him; and how Sir Edwin Sandys out-witted his accufers, and gained their confeffion: and I could give an account of each particular of that plot, but that I judge it fitter to be forgotten, and rot in the fame grave with the malicious authors s.

I may not omit to declare, that my father's knowledge of Mr. Hooker, was occafioned by the learned Dr. John Spencer; who, after the death of Mr. Hooker, was fo careful to preferve his invaluable fixth, feventh, and eighth books of Ecclefiaftical Polity," and his other writings, that he procured Henry Jackfon, then of Corpus Chrifti College, to tranfcribe for him all Mr. Hooker's remaining written papers; many of which were imperfect: for his ftudy had been rifled, or worfe ufed, by Mr. Chark, and another, of principles too like his. But these papers were endeavoured to be completed by his dear friend Dr. Spencer', who bequeathed them as a precious legacy to my father, after whose death they refted in my hand, till Dr. Abbot ", then Archbishop of Canterbury, commanded them out of my cuftody, by authorizing Dr. John Barkeham to require, and bring

s The writer of this letter experienced, in his own perfon, a pleasure equal to any, of which human nature is capable, that of vindicating the injured fame of a beloved parent. When Dr. John King, Bishop of London, a man of folid gravity and piety, and of fuch an excellent volubility of tongue as well as invention, that James I. denominated him "the King of Preachers," was traduced as having abjured that religion, which in the courfe of a long life he had uniformly defended and adorned, this his fon detected the falfehood of the accufation, and in a fermon at St. Paul's Cross, clearly exposed the artificers of an infamous, but at that time no unufual calumny.

t Prefident of Corpus Chrifti College in Oxford. After the death of Mr. Hooker he published the five books of the Ecclefiaftical Polity, with an excellent preface, fubfcribed I. S. the initial letters of his name. (See Wood's Ath. Ox. vol. I. p. 393.)

u The character of this prelate, juftly to be admired for his truly Chriftian moderation and mildness, has been moft happily pourtrayed by the pen of the Right. Hon. Arthur Onflow, for many years the venerable Speaker of the British Houfe of Commons, in "The Life of Dr. George Abbot, &c. reprinted with fome additions, &c. Guildford, 1777."

x Chaplain to Archbishop Bancroft, as well as to his fuccefsor, Dr. Abbot, and Dean of Bocking in Efsex: an able divine, and an amiable man. To his knowledge in divinity he added other literary accomplish

ments,

them to him to his palace in Lambeth; at which time, I have heard, they were put into the Bishop's library, and that they remained there till the martyrdom of Archbishop Laud; and were then, by the brethren of that faction, given, with all the library, to Hugh Peters, as a reward for his remarkable fervice in those fad times of the Church's confufion: And though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand; yet there wanted

ments, being an accurate hiflorian, well fkilled in coins and antiquities, and fo great a proficient in heraldry, that he is generally fupposed to have been the author of that celebrated work, which was published in the name of John Guillim. He was alfo the editor of Crakanthorpe's book against the Archbishop of Spalato, entitled "Defenfio Ecclefiæ," &c. Speed, at the conclufion of his liftory of Great Britain, gratefully acknowledges "The moft acceptable helps both of books and collections (efpecially in matters remoter from our times) from that worthy di"vine, Mafter John Barkeham, a gentleman compofed of learning, ver"tue, and courtefie, as being no leffe ingenioufly willing, than learnedly "able, to advance and forward all vertuous endeavours." He bequeathed his valuable coins to Archbishop Laud, through whole munificence they were depofited in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

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HUGH PETERS, a man of loose morals, having been expelled in the earlier part of his life from the University of Cambridge, became afterward an itinerant preacher in New England, Holland, and other countries, and was at length appointed one of Oliver Cromwell's Chaplains, and a Colonel in the army. He and Dr. Burgefs are claffed among thofe precious-gifted teachers, to whom Butler alludes in the heroical epifile of Hudibras to his Lady, ver. 305, 306. He occafionally preached the lecture at Stepney, and from thence was called by William Greenhill, the noted Independant, "The Evening Star of Stepney." Many infiances are recorded of the violence of his zeal againft monarchy. When Oxford was surrendered in 1646, for the ufe of the Parliament, he was one of the chaplains who, by propagating the moft feditious doctrinesin the town and in the univerfity, endeavoured to feduce the inhabitants and the young scholars from their allegiance. In the pulpit he not unfrequently acted the part of a buffoon or merry-andrew. He used to lay, that it would never be well till 150-"The three L's, the Lords, the Levites, and the Lawyers," were put down. He preached divers fermons to perfuade the army to deftroy the King, whom he compared to Barabbas. It was given in evidence againfi him, that he was wont to call the King tyrant and fool; and that, on the Sunday after his Majefty was brought to his trial, in the courfe of his fermon, he uttered thefe words,—“ Lord, "now letteft thou thy fervant depart in peace, for mine eyes have feen thy falvation."

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Such was the man who got poffeffion, not only of the Archbishop's library at Lambeth, but alto of the invaluable one which belonged to the King. A commifsion was granted by Charles II. dated Sept. 10, 1660, to Thomas Rofs, tutor to the Duke of Monmouth, and Elias Athmole, Efquires, empowering them to examine Hugh Peters concerning the books and medals which he was suspected of having embezzled. It was well known that he had ranfacked the royal library and closet, and that their most valuable curiofities were taken out, and difperled over Europe. In his examination (Biogr. Brit. vol. II. p. 230. K.) he declared, that he gave up the key and cuftody of them to Major General Ireton.— Of his behaviour, during his trial and at his execution, fee the State Trials.

B

not other endeavours to corrupt and make them fpeak that language for which the faction then fought, which indeed wasto subject the sovereign power to the people.

But I need not trive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this parti cular; his known loyalty to his prince, whilft he lived, the forrow expreffed by King James at his death, the value our late fovereign (of ever-bleffed memory) put upon his works, and now, the fingular character of his worth by you, given in the paffages of his Life, efpecially in your Appendix to it, do fufficiently clear him from that imputation. And I am glad you mention how much value Thomas Stapleton, Pope Clement the VIII. and other eminent men of the Romifh perfuafion, have put upon his books: Having been told the fame in my youth by perfons of worth that have travelled Italy.

Laftly, I must again congratulate this undertaking of yours, as now more proper to you than any other perfon, by reason of your long knowledge and alliance to the worthy family of the Cranmers (my old friends alfo), who have been men of noted wifdom, especially Mr. George Cranmer, whofe prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys, proved very useful in the completing of Mr. Hooker's matchlefs books: one of their letters I herewith send you, to make use of if you think fit. And let me fay further; you merit much from many of Mr. Hooker's best friends then living; namely, from the ever-renowned Archbishop Whitgift, of whofe incomparable worth, with the character of the times, you have given us a more fhort and fignicant account than I have received from any other pen. You have done much for the learned Sir Henry Savile, his contemporary and familiar friend; amongst the furviving monuments of whofe learning (give me leave to tell you fo) two are omitted; his edition of Euclid, but efpecially his tranflation of "King James's Apology for the Oath of Allegiance," into elegant Latin; which flying in that drefs as far as Rome, was by the Pope and Conclave fent to Salamanca unto Francifcus Suarez * (then refiding there as Prefident of that college) with a com

z Or rather his works entitled "Prælectiones tredecim in Principium Elementorum Euclidis Oxoniæ habitæ. Oxon. 1621." 4to. Sir Henry' Savile having read thirteen lectures upon the firft eight propofitions of Euclid, furrendered the chair to Mr. Briggs, taking leave of his audience in his last lecture with these words, "Trado lampadem fucceffori meo, "doctiffimo viro, qui vos ad intima Geometriæ myfteria perducet."

(Ward's Professors of Gresham College, p. 121.y

a A celebrated Jefuit, the author of many controverfial and other tracts. He was born in 1548, and died in 1617. His works are contained in 32 vol. folio. The treatise here alluded to, is entitled "Defenfio Fidei Catholicæ, contra Anglicanæ Sectæ Errores, unà cum Refponfione ad Jac. Regis Apologiam pro Juramento Fidelitatis. Mag. 1619." A copy of this book was burnt in England by public autho rity. It is related of him, that he met death with the moft joyful tranquillity and compofure of mind, uttering these words, "Non putabam

"tam

mand to answer it. And it is worth noting, that when he had perfected the work, which he calls "Defenfio Fidei Catholicæ," it was tranfmitted to Rome for a view of the inquifitors; who, according to their custom, blotted out what they pleased, and (as Mr. Hooker hath been used fince his death) added whatfoever might advance the Pope's fupremacy, or carry on their own intereft; commonly coupling together Deponere et Occidere, the depofing, and then killing of princes. Which cruel and unchriftian language, Mr. John Saitkel, the amanuenfis to Suarez, when he wrote that answer (but fince a convert, and living long in my father's houfe), often profeffed the good old man (whofe piety and charity Mr. Saltkel magnified much) not only difavowed, but detefted. Not to trouble you further; your reader (if according to your defire, my approbation of your work carries any weight) will here find many just reasons to thank you for it; and poffibly for this circumstance here mentioned (not known to many) may happily apprehend one to thank him, who heartily wishes your happiness, and is unfeignedly,

Sir, your ever-faithful and affectionate old friend,

CHICHESTER, Nov. 17,

1664.

"

HENRY CHICHESTER.

"tam dulce, tam fuave effe mori." (Dictionnaire Historique, &c. à Paris, 1777.)-Dr. Robert Abbot, Bishop of Salisbury, delivered a course of lectures against Suarez. They were published after his death by his fon, with this title, De Supremâ Poteftate Regiâ Exercitationes habita in Academiâ Oxonienfi, contra Rob Bellarmine et Francif. Suarez. Londini, 1619." 4to.-Pope Paul V. difhonoured his title of Holiness, and caft an indelible stain on his infallibility, by an express approbation of the doctrine advanced in the writings of Suarez in defence of the murder of Kings.

b Mr. JOHN SALTKEL OF SALKIELD, a native of Cumberland, was for fome years a member of the Church of Rome and a Jefuit. He was profoundly read in theological and other authors: but being for the fame of his learning brought before King James, he was fo far convinced by his Majefty's arguments, as to come over to the Church of England, for for which he was wont to ftyle himfelf "The Royal convert" and the King honoured him fo far, as to call him "The Learned Salkeld" in his works and writings.-(Echard's History of England, vol. II. p. 871.)"Never had England more learned bithops and doctors: Which of "them ever returned from his Majefty's difcourfe without admira"tion? What king chriftened, hath written fo learned volumes? To "omit the reft, his laft of this kind, wherein he hath fo held up Cardinal "Bellarmine and his mafter Pope Paulus, is fuch, that Pleffis and Mou"line, the two great lights of France, profefs to receive their light in "this difcourfe from his beams, and the learned Jefuit, Salkeild, could "not but be converted with the neceffity of thofe demonftrations." (Holy Panegyric, Bishop Hall's Works, p. 1142.)-Mr Salkeild became Rector of Church Taunton in Devonshire, in 1635, and was afterwards, for his loyalty, deprived of his preferment, and died at Ulculm, in Feb. 1659-60.

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