pected from reprinting such trash? Is it to convert papists, or to instruct protestants ? or to persuade the world that the church of England has no resource against Rome but railing and calling names? I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, S. R. MAITLAND. ANTIQUITIES, ETC. DISPOSAL OF HIGHER CHURCH PREFERMENT. (Continued from p. 508.) THE extracts contained in the present number carry us on through the concluding period of Buckingham's administration. We have seen him courting the "popular" party, till he found it impossible any longer to keep in with them; we find him then turning over to the church party, and endeavouring to make them the tools of the new line of politics which he was then taking up. By this means, as we shall see, the disposal of the higher church preferment came back into episcopal hands; and thus, much abuse was corrected. The minister, however, still endeavoured to make his church patronage, though in the hands of one of the bishops, the means of furthering his own political ends. Meanwhile, the archbishop was virtually, and, at length, actually, suspended; and if the laxity of his principles was such that churchmen can scarcely regret that his influence was thus absolutely destroyed, they will, at the same time, remember, that it was the power of a court favourite, setting aside the united judgment of the bench of bishops, that placed Abbott, instead of Andrews, in the vacant see. And if those who take an unfavourable view of Laud's character and influence, think too much power was put into his hands, when only a junior bishop, they will remember that his elevation was in the face of the archbishop's strenuous opposition. Altogether the system was out of order, through a political appointment to the metropolitan see; and Buckingham's administration throughout stands out, in contrast with the general practice of those times, as a kind of specimen, by anticipation, of the system which it was reserved for our own times to see fully carried out, the prime minister taking into his own hands the patronage which had been committed to the crown, and employing it as might seem at the moment best to fall in with the ever-changing policy of an arbitrary despotism. "Laud was now (1624, while bishop of St. David's) brought into a higher degree of credit with the Duke of Buckingham than he was before, by means whereof he came to be of great power and authority with him; insomuch that, when the duke fell sick of an ague in the beginning of May, he was extreme impatient of his fits till Laud came to visit him; by whom he was so charmed and sweetened, that at first he endured his fits with patience, and by that patience did so break their heats and violences, that at last they left him. From this time forwards, he was not used only as a confessor, but a counsellor also employed by him, in considering and advising whether the great endowments belonging to the hospitals founded in the dissolved house of Carthusian monks, (commonly, but corruptly, called the Charter House,) might not be inverted to the maintenance of an army for the present wars, as well for his Majesty's advantage as the ease of the subject. And to this proposition (as it seems) he returned a negative, for I find not that the business advanced any further. He liked not any inversions or alienations of that nature, lest being drawn into example, the lands of colleges, or cathedral churches, might in like manner be employed unto secular uses. Besides, he could not choose but know that a project had been set on foot about ten years before, for the entituling of the king to all Sutton's lands; which probably might have succeeded, if Coke, then being Lord Chief Justice, and one of the trustees for erecting the hospital, had not stood stoutly to his trust; by which, though he got the king's displeasure, yet amongst others he preserved the reputation of an honest man. And Laud might very well conclude, that he who durst oppose the king when he was in his favour, would be found more intractable at this time when he was in disgrace; which rendered him the less solicitous to appear in a business not otherwise approved of by him. But in another point, which was more to his liking, and lay within the sphere of his activity, he gave him as much satisfaction as he had desired. This was the giving him the heads of doctrinal puritanism; that is to say, the heads of such doctrines as were maintained by those of the puritan faction, though not maintained by them as puritans, but as Calvinists only. The duke had a desire to know them, and he served him in it."* "The lord keeper Williams stood upon no good terms with the duke in the life of King James; but he declined more and more in favour after his decease. .... But as he fell, so Laud ascended. Neil, his good friend, then bishop of Durham, had fallen sick in the beginning of the spring, at whose request he was appointed to wait upon his Majesty as clerk of the closet; in which service, though he continued not long, yet he made such use of it, that from that time forwards he grew as much into the king's favour, as before he had been in the duke's, becoming, as it were, his Majesty's secretary for all church concernments."+ "It happened, during the sitting of the late parliament (1626), that Arthur Lake, bishop of Bath and Wells, a man of great learning and exemplary piety, departed this life; into whose place his Majesty, on the 20th of June, nominates our Bishop of St. David's. . . . . "To welcome him to this new honour, his Majesty commanded him to draw up certain Instructions to be communicated to the archbishops, bishops, and the rest of the clergy of this realm upon this occasion. The late parliament being dissolved without acting anything in order to his Majesty's service, he was necessitated, by the urgency of his affairs, to try his fortune on the subject in the way of loan, which seemed to have some regality in it..... And to that end Laud received a command from his Majesty, by the Duke of Buckingham, to reduce certain instructions into form, partly political, partly ecclesiastical, in the cause of the King of Denmark. . . . . To this he cheerfully conformed, and brought the said instructions to the duke within two days after, being the 16th of September. . . . . "Such were the Instructions issued by his Majesty's command, in the present exigent. The dexterous performance of which service, as it raised Laud higher in his Majesty's good opinion of him than before he was, so was it recompensed with a place of greater nearness to him than before he had; for on that very day which gives date to the said Instructions, the most learned and reverend Bishop Andrews, bishop of Winton, and dean of his Majesty's chapel royal, departed this life at his episcopal house in Southwark; whose funerals were solemnized in St. Saviour's Church, on the 11th day of Novem Heylyn's Life of Laud, anno 1624. Ibid., anno 1625. ber following, Buckeridge, then bishop of Rochester, bestowing his last duty on him in a funeral sermon. . . . . But after his decease, ninety-six of his sermons were collected with great care and industry, published in print, and dedicated to his sacred Majesty, by Laud, then bishop of London, and Buckeridge, at that time bishop of Ely, (1628.) For Felton, of Ely, dying the year before, Buckeridge had been translated thither by the power and favour of that his dear friend and quondam pupil; Curle, dean of Lichfield, and one of the residentiaries of Salisbury, succeeding, after his translation, in the see of Rochester..... After his (Andrews') death, the see of Winton was kept vacant till the latter end of the year next following; the profits of it being, in the meantime, taken up for his Majesty's use, and answered into the exchequer, according to an ancient custom (but more old than commendable) used frequently by the kings of England, since the time of William, surnamed Rufus, from whom it is said to have took beginning."* "On Sunday, the 29th of April (1627), it pleased his Majesty to admit the Bishop of Bath and Wells for one of the lords of his most honourable privy council; an honour which he would not have accepted with so great cheerfulness if his dear friend, the Lord Bishop of Durham, had not been sworn at, or about, the same time also. So mutually did these two prelates contribute their assistances to one another, that as Neile gave Laud his helping hand to bring him first into the court, and plant him in King James his favour, so Laud made use of all advantages in behalf of Neile to keep him in favour with King Charles, and advance him higher. The fleet and forces before mentioned being in readiness, and the duke provided for the voyage, it was not thought either safe or fit that the duke himself should be so long absent, without leaving some assured friend about his Majesty, by whom all practices against him might be either prevented or suppressed, and by whose means the king's affections might be always inflamed towards him. To which end Laud is first desired to attend his Majesty to Portsmouth, before which the navy lay at anchor, and afterwards to wait the whole progress also; the inconveniences of which journeys he was as willing to undergo as the duke was willing to desire it. The church, besides, was at that time in an heavy condition, and opportunities must be watched for keeping her from falling from bad to worse. No better her condition now in the realm of England than anciently in the eastern churches, when Nectarius sate as supreme pastor in the chair of Constantinople. . . . a man, as the historian saith of him, of an exceeding fair and plausible demeanour, and very gracious with the people: one that chose rather (as it seems) to give free way to all men's fancies, and suffer every man's proceedings, than draw upon himself the envy of a stubborn clergy and a factious multitude. Never was church more like to church, bishop to bishop, time to time, (the names of the sects and heresies being only changed,) than those of Constantinople then, and of England now. A pregnant evidence, that possibly there could not be a greater mischief in a church of God than a popular prelate. .... "But before that parliament (1627) begins, we must take some notice of some changes then in agitation amongst the governors of the church. His Majesty, in the June foregoing, had acquainted Laud with his intent of nominating him to the see of London, in the place of Mountain, whom he looked on as a man unactive, and addicted to voluptuousness, and one that loved his ease too well to disturb himself in the concernments of the church. . . . . In order unto this design, it was thought expedient to translate Neile (whose accommodations Laud much studied) to the see of Winchester, then vacant by the death of Andrews, and to remove Mountain unto Durham, in the place of Neile. But the putting of this design into execution did require some time. Such officers of state as had the management of the king's revenue thought it * Ibid., anno 1626. not fit, in that low ebb of the exchequer, that the church of Winton should be filled with another bishop before the Michaelmas rents, at least, (if not some following pay-days also,) had flowed into his Majesty's coffers; which, though it were no very long time compared with the vacancies of some former reign, yet gave it an occasion to some calumniating spirits to report abroad, that this bishopric was designed to be a subsistence for one of the Queen of Bohemia's younger sons, who was to hold it by the name of an administrator, according to an ill custom of some princes amongst the Lutherans. But this obstruction being passed by, Neile, with great cheerfulness in himself, and thankfulness unto the king, proceeded in his translation to the see of Winton; his election being ratified by his Majesty, and confirmed in due form of law, before the end of the next year, 1627."* "No sooner was the parliament ended, but Laud prepares for his translation to the see of London, (anno 1628.).. "His own translation being past, his next employment of that nature was his assisting at the consecration of Mountague, nominated by his Majesty to the see of Chichester in the place of Carleton, who died about the latter end of the parliament; which action in the king seemed more magnanimous than safe. For though there was much magnanimity in preferring the man, whom he beheld as well in his personal sufferings as his great abilities, yet was it not held safe for him (as his case then stood) to give such matter of exasperation to the House of Commons, of whom he did expect a supplement to the former subsidies within few months after. Nor did the business pass so clearly on Mountague's side, but that he found a rub in his way, which was like to have hindered his preferment for the present time, but possibly enough, for the times to come.... which rub thus happily removed, August 22nd, Mountague hastens all he could to his consecration, which was performed on Sunday, the 24th, at the archbishop's house in Croydon, Laud, amongst other bishops, assisting at it. And it is possible enough, that if he had not made such haste as he did, he might have had a worse rub in it than he had before. Scarce was the consecration finished, when news came to Croydon of the unfortunate death of the Duke of Buckingham, murdered the day before at Portsmouth, by John Felton, a lieutenant. . . . . The duke had wholly set his heart on the relief of Rochel, then blocked up by the French both by sea and land, in hope thereby to redeem the honour he had lost at the Isle of Rhee, and to ingratiate himself with the people of England .... he was almost at the point of going on board when Felton cut him off in the midst of his glories. Taken upon suspicion, and questioned about the murder, he made no scruple to avow it, as a meritorious act, of which he had more cause to glory than to be ashamed: and being afterwards more cunningly handled by one of his Majesty's chaplains, (sent to him from the court on purpose to work him to it,) he confessed plainly and resolvedly, that he had no other motive to commit that murder but the late remonstrance, in which the duke had been accused for being the cause of all the grievances and mischiefs in the commonwealth. "It is not to be doubted but that his Majesty was much afflicted in the loss of so dear a servant, in whose bosom he had lodged so many of his counsels, and to whose conduct he had so fully recommended the great concernments of the kingdom. But such was the constancy of his temper, and the known evenness of his spirit, that in the midst of all these sorrows he neither neglected his affairs abroad nor his friends at home. . . . . And.. being well assured of that infinite anguish and disconsolation which Laud (his now most trusty servant) must needs suffer under, by the most barbarous assassination of so dear a friend, he despatched Elphinston, his cup-bearer, with a gracious message to comfort him in those disquiets of his soul; and on the neck of that, a Ibid., 1627. letter of his own hand-writing to the same effect. He looks upon him now as his principal minister, well practised in the course of his business, of whose fidelity to his person, and perspicacity of judgment in affairs of state, he had found such good proof. . . . . He was before but an inferior minister in the ship of state, and had the trimming of the sails, the superinspection of the bulgings and leakings of it; now he is called unto the helm, and steers the course thereof by his sage directions."* "Who is sufficient for these things?" Dare I presume to stand before thy throne- Alas! I am undone! my fainting eyes The LORD of Hosts, the Eternal King have seen : Amidst a world of sinners, and unclean! O for a seraph's touch of flame divine, Borne from the depths of heaven's mysterious shrine ! January 12, 1837. Ꮎ. INFIDELITY. "Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this philistine." "I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." High is thy look, thy gait, thy word, Thou that against God's church dost rise, Down thou must come! thy haughty heart Must yet be levelled with the dust: Thou fallest not by earthly darts, Thy breastplate mocks at mortal's thrust; * Ibid., anno 1628. |
