there was a persecution of Protestants (give me leave so to antedate their name) in this county, under Edmund Audley bishop of Salisbury, as by computation of time will appear. Yet I find but one man, Richard Smart by name (the more remarkable because but once, and that scentingly, mentioned by Mr. Fox*), burnt at Salisbury, for reading a book called "Wickliff's Wicket" to one Thomas Stillman, afterwards burnt in Smithfield. But, under cruel bishop Capon, Wiltshire afforded these MARIAN MARTYRS. John SPICER,† free-mason; William COPERLY, tailor; John MAUNDRELL, husbandman; all of Kevel; martyred in Salisbury, anno 1556, April. CONFESSORS. John HUNT, and Richard WHITE, husbandmen, of Marlborough; persecuted in Salisbury, anno 1558. These both being condemned to die, were little less than miraculously preserved, as will appear hereafter.§ ALICE COBERLY must not be omitted, wife to William Coberly forenamed (charitably presuming on her repentance), though she failed in her constancy on this occasion. The jailor's wife of Salisbury, heating a key fire-hot, and laying it in the grass, spake to this Alice to bring it in to her; in doing whereof she piteously burnt her hand, and cried out thereat. "Oh," said the other, "if thou canst not abide the burning of a key, how wilt thou endure thy whole body to be burnt at the stake?" Whereat the said Alice revoked her opinion.]] I can neither excuse the cruelty of the one (though surely doing it not out of a persecuting but carnal preserving intention), nor the cowardliness of the other; for she might have hoped that her whole body, encountering the flame with a Christian resolution, and confidence of divine support in the testimony of the truth, would have found less pain than her hand felt from the sudden surprise of the fire, wherein the unexpectedness added (if not to the pain) to the fright thereof. This sure I am, that some condemn her shrinking for a burnt hand, who would have done so themselves for a scratched finger. CARDINALS. WALTER WINTERBURN was born at Salisbury in this county, and bred a Dominican friar. He was an excellent * Acts and Monuments, p. 815. † Idem, page 1894. Idem, p. 2054. ¶ Bishop Godwin, in his Catalogue of Cardinals, p. 171. scholar in all studies suitable to his age, when a youth; a good poet and orator, when a man; an acute philosopher, "Aristotelicarum doctrinarum heluo," saith he who otherwise scarce giveth him a good word,* when an old man; a deep controversial divine, and skilful casuist; a quality which commended him to be confessor to king Edward the First.† Now news being brought to Pope Benedict the Eleventh, that William Maklesfield, Provincial of the Dominicans, and designed cardinal of Saint Sabin, was dead and buried at London before his cap could be brought to him, he appointed this Walter to be heir to his Honour. The worst is, as meddlers are never ripe till they are rotten, so few are thought fit to be cardinals but such as are extremely in years. Maklesfield had all his body buried, and our Winterburn had one foot in the grave, being seventy-nine years of age before he was summoned to that dignity. However, over he went with all haste into Italy; and though coming thither too late to have a sight of Pope Benedict the Eleventh, came soon enough to give a suffrage at the choice of Clement the Fifth. This Walter's cardinal's cap was never a whit the worse for wearing, enjoying it but a year. In his return home he died, and was buried at Genoa; but afterwards his corpse was brought over, and re-interred most solemnly in London, anno 1305. [S. N.] ROBERT HALAM was, saith my author, "Regio sanguine Angliæ natus," born of the blood royal of England, though how, or which way, he doth not acquaint us. But we envy not his high extraction, whilst it seems accompanied with other eminences. He was bred in Oxford, and afterwards became chancellor thereof, 1403. From being archdeacon of Canterbury, he was preferred bishop of Salisbury. On the sixth of June 1411, he was made cardinal, though his particular title is not expressed. It argueth his abilities, that he was one of them who was sent to represent the English cergy, both in the council of Pisa and Constance, in which last service he died, anno Domini 1417, in Gotleby Castle. PRELATES. JOANNES SARISBURIENSIS was born at, and so named from, Old Sarum in this county; though I have heard of some of the Salisburies in Denbyshire, who essay to assert him to their family; as who would not recover so eminent a person? Leland saith that he seeth in him "omnem scientiæ orbem," (all the world, or, if you will the whole circle, of learning.) Bale saith, that "he was one of the first who, since Theodorus · Pits, de Angliæ Scriptoribus, anno 1305. Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 85. archbishop of Canterbury, living five hundred years before him (oh the péya káspa of barbarism in England!) endeavoured to restore the learned languages to their original purity, being a good Latinist, Grecian, Musician, Mathematician, Philosopher, Divine, and what not?"* What learning he could not find at home, he did fetch from abroad, travelling into France and Italy, companion to T. Becket in his exile, but no partner in his protervity against his prince, for which he sharply reproved him. He was highly in favour with Pope Eugenius the Third and Adrian the Fourth; and yet no author in that age hath so pungent passages against the pride and covetousness of the court of Rome. Take a taste of them: "Sedent in Ecclesiâ Romanâ Scribæ et Pharisæi, ponentes onera importabilia in humeros hominum. Ita debacchantur ejus Legati, ac si ad Ecclesiam flagellandam egressus sit Satan à facie Domini. "Peccata populi comedunt; eis vestiuntur, et in iis multipliciter luxuriantur, dum veri adoratores in Spiritu adorant Patrem. Qui ab eorum dissentit doctrinâ, aut hæreticus judicatur, aut schismaticus. Manifestet ergo seipsum Christus, et palàm faciat viam, quâ nobis est incedendum."t ("Scribes and Pharisees sit in the church of Rome, putting unbearable burthens on men's backs. His Legates do so swagger, as if Satan were gone forth from the face of the Lord to Scourge the Church. "They eat the sins of the people; with them they are clothed, and many ways riot therein, whilst the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit. Whoso dissent from their doctrine are condemned for heretics or schismatics. Christ therefore will manifest himself, and make the way plain, wherein we must walk.") How doth our author Luther it (before Luther) against their errors and vices! the more secure for the general opinion men had of his person, all holding our John to be, though no prophet, a pious man. King Henry the Second made him bishop of Chartres in France, where he died 1182. [S. N.] RICHARD POORE, dean of Sarisbury, was first bishop of Chichester, then of Sarisbury, or Old Sarum rather. He found his cathedral most inconveniently seated, for want of water and other necessaries; and therefore removed it a mile off, to a place called Merryfield (for the pleasant situation thereof), since Sarisbury; where he laid the foundation of that stately structure which he lived not here to finish. Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iii. num. 1. † Joannes Sarisburiensis, in Polycratico. Now, as the place whence he came was so dry, that, as Malmsbury saith, "miserabili commercio ibi aqua veneat;" (by sad chaffer they were fain to give money for water); so he removed to one so low and moist, men sometimes (upon my own knowledge) would give money to be rid of the water. I observe this for no other end but to shew that all human happiness, notwithstanding often exchange of places, will still be an heteroclite, and either have too much or too little for our contentment. This Poore was afterwards removed to the bishopric of Durham, and lived there in great esteem; Matthew Paris characterising him, "eximiæ sanctitatis et profundæ scientiæ virum." His dissolution, in a most pious and peaceable manner, happened April 5, anno Domini 1237. His corpse, by his will, was brought and buried at Tarrant in Dorsetshire, in a nunnery of his own founding; and some of his name [and probably alliance] are still extant in this county. WILLIAM EDENDON was born at Edendon in this county; bred in Oxford, and advanced by king Edward the Third to be bishop of Winchester and lord treasurer of England. During his managing of that office, he caused new coins (unknown before) to be made (groats and half-groats) both readier for change and fitter for charity. But the worst was, "imminuto nonnihil pondere," (the weight was somewhat abated.)* If any say this was an unepiscopal act, know, he did it not as bishop but as lord treasurer; the king, his master, having all the profit thereby. Yea, succeeding princes, following this pattern, have sub-diminished their coin ever since. Hence is it that our nobility cannot maintain the port of their ancestors with the same revenues; because so many pounds are not so many pounds; though the same in noise and number, not the same in intrinsical valuation. He was afterwards made lord chancellor, and erected a stately convent for Bonhommes at Edendon in this county, the place of his nativity, valued at the Dissolution per annum at five hundred twenty-one pounds, twelve shillings, five-pence half-penny. Some condemn him for robbing St. Peter (to whom, with St. Swithen, Winchester church was dedicated) to pay All Saints collectively, to whom Edendon convent was consecrated, suffering his episcopal palaces to decay and drop down, whilst he raised up his new foundation.† This he dearly paid for after his death, when his executors were sued for dilapidations by his successor William Wickham (an excellent architect, and therefore well-knowing how to proportion his charges for reparations), who recovered of them one thousand six hundred sixtytwo pounds ten shillings, a vast sum in that age, though paid Godwin, Catalogue of the Bishops of Winchester. † Speed, in his Catalogue of Religious Houses, in Wiltshire. in the lighter groats and half-groats.* Besides this, his executors were forced to make good the standing stock of the bishopric, which in his time was impaired: viz. oxen, 1556; weathers, 4717; ewes, 3521; lambs, 3521; swine, 127. This Edendon sat in his bishopric twenty-one years; and, dying 1366, lieth buried on the south side [of Winchester cathedral], in the passage to the choir, having a fair monument of alabaster, but an epitaph of coarse stone; I mean, so barbarous that it is not worth the inserting. RICHARD MAYO, alias MAYHOWE, was born nigh Hungerford in this county, of good parentage, whose surname and kindred was extinct in the last generation, when the heirs-general thereof were married into the families of Montpesson and Grove. He was first admitted in New College,† and thence removed to Magdalen's in Oxford, where he became president thereof for twenty-seven years. It argueth his abilities to any indifferent apprehension, that so knowing a prince as Henry the Seventh, amongst such plenty of eminent persons, elected and sent him into Spain, anno 1501, to bring over the lady Catherine to be married to prince Arthur; which he performed with all fidelity, though the heavens might rather seem to laugh at, than smile on, that unfortunate marrying. After his return, he was rewarded with the bishopric of Hereford, and having sat eleven years therein, died 1516; and lieth buried in his church, on the south side of the high altar, under a magnificent monument. SINCE THE REFORMATION. JOHN THORNE BOROUGH, B.D. was born (as I am credibly informed) in the city of Salisbury, bred in Magdalen College in Oxford. He did evrрoσornoa iv oapri, and his godly presence made him more acceptable to queen Elizabeth, preferring him dean of York, and bishop of Limerick in Ireland, where he received a most remarkable deliverance, in manner as followeth : Lying in an old castle in Ireland, in a large room, partitioned but with sheets or curtains, his wife, children, and servants, in effect a whole family in the dead time of the night, the floor over head being earth and plaster, as in many places is used, overcharged with weight, fell wholly down together, and crushing all to pieces that was above two feet high, as cupboards, tables, forms, stools, rested at last on certain chests, as God would have it, and hurt no living creature.§ In the first of king James, 1603, he was consecrated bishop of Bristol; and held his deanery and Irish bishopric in commendam with it, and from thence was translated to Worcester. Godwin, Catalogue of the Bishops of Winchester. † New College Register, in anno 1459. Godwin. Catalogue of the Bishops of Hereford. Sir John Harrington, in his Additions to Bishop Godwin, p. 158., |