long to end this digrefsion, that I may lead my reader back to Mr. Hooker, where we left him at the Temple. John Whitgift was born in the county of Lincoln, of a family that was ancient and noted to be prudent and affable, and gentle by nature. He was educated in Cambridge ; much of his learning was acquired in Pembroke-Hall, where Mr. Bradford the martyr was his tutor: from thence he was removed to Peter-Houfe ; from thence to be Mafter of PembrokeHall; and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity College. About which time the Queen made him her Chaplain, and not long after Prebendary of Ely, and then Dean of Lincoln; and having for many years paft looked upon him with much reverence and favour, gave him a fair teftimony of both, by giving him the Bishopric of Worcester, and (which was not an ufual favour) forgiving him his firft-fruits; then by conftituting him Vice-prefident of the principality of Wales. And having for feveral years experimented his wifdom, his juftice, and moderation in the manage of her affairs in both these a Ifaac Walton's epitome of the life of Dr. Whitgift, is truly excellent. a hand or eye By Hilyard drawne, is worth a history DR. DONNE. WHITGIFT was defcended from an ancient family in Yorkshire, refident at Whitgift, a town in the Weft-Riding of that county. He was educated under a paternal uncle, Robert Whitgift, Abbot of a monaftery in Lincolnshire, from whom he often heard the following prophetic declaration: "That they and their religion could not long continue; because," faid he, "I have read the whole Scripture over and "over, and could never find therein that our religion was founded by God:" And to fupport his opinion the Abbot would allege that faying of our Saviour, "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted fhall be rooted out." Matt. xv. 13. 64 c He was firft admitted of Queen's College. He afterward removed to Pembroke-Hall, the Master of that College at that time being Bishop Ridley. d As holy a man as any who lived in his time and learned alfo. Of him fee " Fox's Book of Martyrs," and "Fuller's Abel redivivus," p. 179. e Dr. Whitgift was the great reftorer of order and difcipline in the University. In 1562 he was appointed Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, the falary of the Profefsorship being, on account of his extraordinary merit, augmented from twenty marks to twenty pounds. He did not continue Mafter of Pembroke Hall above three months, being appointed Master of Trinity College, July 4, 1567, on the death of Dr. Beaumont. To this good prelate has been applied what was faid of the Roman Fabius: "Unus homo nobis cunctando reftituit rem: Ergo pófique magisque viri nunc gloria claret." Fuller tells us, that Whitgift's finger moved more in church matters, than the hands of all the privy counsellors befides. (Ch. Hist. B. X. p. 218.) places, the, in the twenty-fixth of her reign, made him Archbishop of Canterbury, and not long after, of her Privy Council; and trufted him to manage all her ecclefiaftical affairs and preferments. In all which removes, he was like the ark, which left a blessing upon the place where it refted; and, in all his employments, was like Jehoiada that did good unto Ifrael. These were the fteps of this Bishop's afcenfion to this place of dignity and cares; in which place (to speak Mr. Camden's very words, in his "Annals"), "he devoutly confecrated both "his whole life to God, and his painful labours to the good of "his church." And yet in this place he met with many oppofitions in the regulation of church affairs, which were much difordered at his entrance, by reason of the age and remissnefs' of Bishop Grindal (his immediate predecessor), the activity of the Nonconformists, and their chief afsistant the Earl of Leicester; and indeed by too many others of the like facrilegious principles. With these he was to encounter; and though he wanted neither courage nor a good caufe, yet he forefaw, that without a great measure of the Queen's favour, it was impofsible to ftand in the breach that was made into the lands and immunities of the church, or to maintain the remaining rights of it. And therefore by justifiable sacred infinuations, fuch as St. Paul to Agrippa ("Agrippa, believeft "thou? I know thou believeft"), he wrought himfelf into fo great a degree of favour with her, as, by his pious use of it, hath got both of them a greater degree of fame in this world, and of glory in that into which they are now entered. His merits to the Queen, and her favours to him were fuch, Rather, according to Strype, "by reafon of his fufpenfion or fequeftration which he lay under (together with the Queen's difpleafure) for fome years when the ecclefiafiical affairs were managed by "certain Civilians." During the latter part of his life Archbishop Grindal was confined to his house, and fequestered for a non-compliance with the directions of the Queen, when the ordered him to forbid the exercifes and prophecies which were then much practifed by the Puritans. He became totally blind in 1582. The refignation of his Archbishopric being frequently urged by her Majefty was delayed from, time to time, until broken down with infirmity he died July 6, 1583, aged 63 years.Though he has been blamed for holding the reins too loofe in refpect to the Puritans, and for his flacknefs in the government of the affairs of the church, yet this has been confidered as too fevere a charge. Hollingshead fays of him, "That he was fo ftudious, that his book was his bride, and his ftudy his bride-chamber, wherein he spent both his eye-fight, his firength, and his health."--In fact, he was a perfon of mild manners, and of fingular moderation, and very unwilling to have recourfe to extremities. Hence the Puritans claimed him as their own, though in reality no one was ever more fincerely attached to the Church of England. that the called him her little black husband, and called his ser vants her servants; and fhe faw fo visible and blefsed a fincerity fhine in all his cares and endeavours for the church's and for her good, that fhe was fuppofed to truft him with the very fecrets of her foul, and to make him her confessor, of which the gave many fair teftimonies; and of which one was, "That the "would never cat flesh in Lent, without obtaining a licenfe "from her little black husband:" And would often fay, "fhe "pitied him because the trufted him, and had eafed herself by "laying the burthen of all her clergy-cares upon his fhoulders, "which, the was certain, he managed with prudence and "piety." I fhall not keep myself within the promifed rules of brevity in this account of his intereft with her Majesty, and her care of the church's rights, if in this digrefsion I fhould enlarge to particulars; and therefore my defire is, that one example may ferve for a teftimony of both. And that the reader may the better understand it, he may take notice, that not many years before his being made Archbishop, there pafsed an act or acts of Parliament, intending the better prefervation of churchlands, by recalling a power which was vested in others to fell or lease them, by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them only in the crown; and amongst many that made a bad use of this power or truft of the Queen's, the Earl of Leicester was one; and the good Bishop having by his intereft with her Majesty put a stop to the Earl's facrilegious defigns, they two fell to an open oppofition before her; after which they both quitted the room, not friends in appearance. But the Bishop made a sudden and seasonable return to her Ma Whitgift's name gave occafion to the Queen to make a defcant upon him, exprefsive of her regard, calling him "her White Gift." Mr. Hugh Broughton ftyled him " Archbishop Leucodore;" and with the fame allufion the following lines were written : "Quòd paci, Whitgifte, faves fludiisque bonorum, And a scholar at Oxford compofed this epitaph upon him:- h Licenses were granted at that time by the Archbishops of Canterbury for a man to eat flesh and white meats, even during his whole life; but with this provifo," he do it foberly and frugally, cautioufly, and avoiding public fcandal as much as might be." i 1 Eliz. cap. 19, * This nobleman profefsed a great defire of unity in the church, and yet was an earneft patron of Cartwright and others of the Puritan ftrain. He preferred Cartwright to the Mattership of his Hofpital, founded by him at Warwick. (Strype.) jefty (for he found her alone), and fpake to her with great hu mility and reverence, and to this purpose1: "I beseech your Majefty to hear me with patience, and to "believe that your's and the church's fafety are dearer to me "than my life, but my confcience dearer than both; and "therefore give me leave to do my duty, and tell you, that "princes are deputed nurfing fathers of the church, and owe "it a protection; and therefore God forbid that you should be "fo much as pafsive in her ruin, when you may prevent it; or "that I fhould behold it without horror and deteftation; or "fhould forbear to tell your Majefty of the fin and danger. "And though you and myself are born in an age of frailties, "when the primitive piety and care of the church's lands and "immunities are much decayed; yet, Madam, let me beg that you will but first confider, and then you will believe there "are fuch fins as profanenefs and facrilege; for if there were not, they could not have names in holy writ; and particu"larly in the New Teftament. And I befeech you to confider, "that though our Saviour said, ' He judged no man;' and to "teftify it, would not judge nor divide the inheritance betwixt "the two brethren, nor would judge the woman taken in adul "tery, yet in this point of the church's rights, he was fo zeal་ ous, that he made himself both the accufer and the judge, " and the executioner to punish these fins; witnessed, in that " he himself made the whip to drive the profaners out of the "Temple, overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and "drove them out of it. And confider, that it was St. Paul that "faid to thofe Chriftians of his time that were offended with "idolatry, yet, Thou that abhorrest idols, doft thou commit "facrilege?' fuppofing, I think, facrilege to be the greater fin. This may occafion your Majefty to confider, that there is "fuch a fin as facrilege; and to incline you to prevent the "curfe that will follow it: I beseech you also to confider, that "Conftantine the firft Chriftian Emperor, and Helena his "mother; that King Edgar, and Edward the Confessor P, and indeed many others of your predecefsors, and many private "Chriftians, have alfo given to God and to his church much "land, and many immunities, which they might have given to "thofe of their own families, and did not, but gave them as an 1 This animated fpeech was delivered before the Queen in 1578, when Whitgift was Bishop of Worcelier. "Hooker's m See "Ant. Univerf. Hiftory," Vol. XV. p. 564, 569. Works," Vol. III. p. 248, Oxford edit. 1793. n"Ant. Univerf. Hifi." Vol. II. p. 406. See Collier's Ecclefiaftical Hiftory," Vol. I. P. 185, "abfolute right and facrifice to God: And with these immu"nities and lands they have entailed a curfe upon the aliena"tors of them; God prevent your Majefly from being liable "to that curfe. "And to make you that are trufted with their prefervation "the better to understand the danger of it, I befeech you, forget "not that, befides these curfes, the church's land and power "have been alfo endeavoured to be preferved, as far as human "reason, and the law of this nation, have been able to preserve "them, by an immediate and moft facred obligation on the con"fciences of the princes of this realm. For they that confult "Magna Charta fhall find, that as all your predecessors were "at their coronation, so you also were fworn before all the nobility and bishops then prefent, and in the prefence of God, "and in his ftead to him that anointed you, to maintain the "church lands, and the rights belonging to it; and this testified "openly at the holy altar, by laying your hands on the Bible. "then lying upon it. And not only Magna Charta, but many "modern ftatutes have denounced a curfe upon thofe that "break Magna Charta. And now what account can be given "for the breach of this oath at the last great day, either by your Majefty or by me, if it be wilfully or but negligently " violated, I know not. "And therefore, good Madam, let not the late Lord's exceptions against the failings of fome few clergymen prevail "with you to punish posterity for the errors of this prefent age; "let particular men fuffer for their particular errors, but let "God and his church have their right: And though I pretend "not to prophefy, yet I beg pofterity to take notice of what is "already become visible in many families; That church-land, "added to an ancient inheritance, hath proved like a mtoh "fretting a garment, and fecretly confumed both: or like the "eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and thereby fet her neft 46 on fire, which confumed both her young eagles, and herself "that ftole it. And, though I fhall forbear to speak reproach The first article of Magna Charta is "Que les Eglifes de Engleterre "feront franches et aient les dreitures franches, et enterinés, et ple"niéres." This beautiful apologue is taken with fome alterations from "Elop's Fable of the Fox and the Eagle."-Appofite to this pafsage are the remarks in a very fearce and curious tract, written by Mr. Ephrain Udall, and entitled Noli me tangere," London, 1642. "And it is a thing to be thought on, that many antient families (as fome intelligent men have obferved) who inherited the lands of their ancestors, longá serie deductâ à majoribus; when they took in fome of the spoiles "made in tithes and glebe by the flatute of difsolution, their pofseisions quickly fpued out the old pofsefsors of them as a loathfome thing, "the bread of God proving as the bread of deceit, gravell in their "teeth; and the portion of God's minifters becoming like antimony or 02 fome |