conceive so called from haste or speed, because William the [afterwards] Conqueror, landing there, did, as Matthew Paris sayeth, with haste, or speedily, erect some small fortification. But sure it is that there is a noble and ancient family of the Hastings in this land (I will not say first taking their name from this town), who formerly were earls of Pembroke, and still are of Huntingdon. Now men commonly say, They are none of the Hastings, who being slow and slack go about business with no agility. Such they also call dull dromedaries by a foul mistake, merely because of the affinity of that name to our English word dreaming, applied to such who go slowly and sleepily about their employment; whereas indeed dromedaries are creatures of a constant and continuing swiftness, so called from the Greek word póμos, cursus, or a race; and are the cursitors for travel for the Eastern country. MARTYRS. Grievous the persecution in this county under John Christopherson the bishop thereof. Such his havoc in burning poor Protestants in one year, that had he sat long in that see, and continued after that rate, there needed no iron mills to rarefy the woods of this county, which this BONNER, junior, would have done of himself. I confess, the Papists admire him as a most able and profound divine; which mindeth me of an epigram made by one who, being a suitor to a surly and scornful mistress, after he had largely praised her rare parts and divine perfections, concluded, "She hath too much divinity for me: Oh! that she had some more humanity!" The same may this diocese say of Christopherson, who, though carrying much of Christ in his surname, did bear nothing of him in his nature; no meekness, mildness, or mercy; being addicted wholly to cruelty and destruction; burning no fewer than ten in one fire in Lewes, and seventeen others at several times in sundry places. CARDINALS. HERBERT de BOSHAM was born at Bosham, a goodly manor in this county* (which earl Godwin craftily kissed out of the archbishop of Canterbury +); and, being a good scholar, he was a manubus (I mean to write not to fight for him) unto Thomas Becket archbishop of Canterbury. He was present at his murder-martyring; and had the discretion to make no resistance, lest he had been sent the same way with his master. However, amongst many other books, he wrote the story of his master's death. Going over into Italy, he was, by Pope Alexander the Third, Bishop Godwin, in his Catalogue of Cardinals, p. 165. + Camden's Britannia, in Sussex. CARDINALS-PRELATES. 245 made archbishop of Beneventum; and, in the month of December 1178, created cardinal; but by what title it is unknown, as also is the exact date of his death. PRELATES. JOHN PECKHAM, born of obscure parents in this county ;* bred, when a boy, in Lewes; when a youth, a Franciscan in Oxford; when a young man, in Paris; when a man, he lived in Lyons (where he became canon); when a grave man, in Rome, there made auditor of causes in that court; when an old man, in Canterbury, preferred against his will (except out of cunning he would seem courted into what he coveted), by the Pope's plenary power to be archbishop thereof. Peckham believed the pope invited him freely to that place, when soon after he was called upon to pay a sad reckoning, no less than four thousand marks. A worthy man he was in his place, who neither feared the laity nor flattered the clergy, impartially imposing on both (if appearing peccant) most severe penance. He was a great punisher of pluralists, and enjoiner of residence. His canon's place at Lyons he not only kept during his life, but left it to his successors, who held it in commendam some hundred years afterwards. Loath they were to part with it, as a safe retreating place in case our English kings should banish them the realm: besides it was a convenient inn for them to lodge at, as almost in the midway of their journey betwixt Canterbury and Rome. He sat archbishop almost fourteen years; built and endowed a college at Wingham; yet left a great estate to his kindred. I believe his wealth well gotten, because the land purchased therewith hath lasted so long in the lineage of his allies, in this and the next county, even to our age. He died anno Domini 1294. ROBERT WINCHELSEY.-Although Bishop Godwin† saith, "Ubi natus traditur, opinor, à nemine;" yet, considering the custom of the clergy in that age, none can doubt his birth in this county, except any should deny Winchelsea to be therein. He was bred in the neighbouring shire of Kent, where he was such a proficient in grammar learning, all did foretell that he [then the arch-scholar in the school] in due time would be archbishop of the see of Canterbury. He was afterwards admitted in Merton College in Oxford; went thence to Paris, where he took the degree of master of arts, and became rector (perchance no more than a regent amongst us) of that university. Returning to Oxford, he there The substance of his life is taken out of Bishop Godwin, in his Catalogue of Archbishops of Canterbury. Out of whom the substance is taken of what followeth. proceeded doctor of divinity, and became chancellor thereof; successively canon of Paul's, archdeacon of Essex, and archbishop of Canterbury. He went to Rome, to procure his pall of Pope Celestine. This is that Celestine, formerly an Eremite, whom a cardinal (afterward his successor by the name of Boniface the Eighth) persuaded, by a voice through a hollow trunk, to resign his Popedom, and return into the wilderness; which he did accordingly. Herein his Holiness did trust the spirit before he did try it, contrary to the counsel of the apostle. But this Pope, appearing fallible in his chamber, if in his chair, and consulting his conclave of cardinals, no doubt would not have been deceived. He easily obtained his pall, and refused a cardinal's cap offered unto him. Returning to Canterbury, he was there solemnly enthroned, and on the same day consecrated one bishop, bestowed twelve rich benefices on twelve doctors, and twelve meaner livings on as many bachelors in divinity. Confiding in the canon of the council of Lyons, which forbad the clergy to pay any taxes to princes without the consent of the Pope, he created much molestation to himself, king Edward the First using him very harshly, till at last he overcame all with his patience. For the main, he was a worthy prelate and excellent preacher. Being learned himself, he loved and preferred learned men. Prodigious his hospitality, being reported that Sundays and Fridays he fed no fewer than four thousand men when corn was cheap, and five thousand when it was dear ;† and because it shall not be said but my belief can be as large as his bounty, I give credit thereunto. Otherwise it seemeth suspicious, as a mock-imitation of those self-same numbers of persons, which Christ, at two several times, miraculously fed with loaves and fishes. His charity went home to them which could not come to it, sending to such who were absented by their impotencies. After his death, happening anno Domini 1313, he was accounted (though not the Pope's) the poor man's saint (bounti ful men will always be canonized in the calendar of beggars); poor people repairing in flocks to the place of his burial, and superstitiously praying unto him; and they could best tell whether they found as much benefit from his tomb when dead, as at his table when living. THOMAS BRADWARDINES was descended of an ancient family at Bradwardine in Herefordshire, who removing thence 1 John iv. 1. † Godwin, in his Catalogue of Bishops of Canterbury, p. 147. Matthew xv. 38, and xiv. 21. § Bale, Mr. Parker in Antiquitates Britannica, J. Pits, Bishop Godwin, and Sir Henry Savile, in his Life prefaced to his book "De causâ Dei.' had settled themselves for three generations in this county where this Thomas was born, in or near the city of Chichester. He was bred fellow of Merton College in Oxford, where he became a most exquisite mathematician and deep divine, being commonly called Doctor Profundus. He was confessor to king Edward the Third; and some impute our great conquest in France, not so much to the prowess of that king, as to the prayers of this his chaplain. He constantly preached in the camp, industry to officers, obedience to common soldiers, humility to all in good, patience in bad success. He exhorted them to be pious to God, dutiful to their king, pitiful to all captives; to be careful in making, faithful in keeping articles with their enemies. After the death of Stratford, he was made archbishop of Canterbury; and at Avignon (where the Pope then resided) received his consecration. Here he was accounted ȧypoιKÓTEрOS somewhat clownish, by the Romish court; partly because he could not mode it with the Italians, but chiefly because, money being the general turnkey to preferment in that place, he was merely advanced for his merit. But that which most recommended his memory to posterity, is that worthy book he made de Causâ Dei, wherein speaking of Pelagius, he complaineth in his second book, that, “totus pænè mundus, ut timeo et doleo, post hunc abiit, et erroribus ejus favet," (I fear and lament that almost the whole world runs after him, and favours his errors.) Bradwardine, therefore, undertook to be champion for grace and God's cause, against such who were not "defensores, sed deceptores, sed inflatores, sed præcipitatores liberi arbitrii," as Augustine* calleth them; and as the same father saith of Cicero, "dum liberos homines esse volunt, faciunt sacrilegos." He died at Lambeth, in October, anno Domini 1349. THOMAS ARUNDELL was the fourth archbishop of Canterbury who was born in this county: son he was to Robert, brother to Richard Fitz Alen, both earls of Arundell. Herein he standeth alone by himself, that the name Arundell speaks him both nobleman and clergyman; the title of his father's honour, and place of his own birth, meeting both in the castle of Arundell. It was either his nobility, or ability, or both, which in him did supplere ætatem, qualifying him to be bishop of Ely at twenty-two years of age. He was afterwards archbishop of York, and at last of Canterbury 1396; and three several times lord chancellor of England, viz. in the tenth of Richard the Second, 1386: in the fifteenth of Richard the Second, 1391; the eleventh of Henry the Fourth, 1410. By king Richard the Second, when his brother the earl of Arundell was beheaded, this Thomas was banished the land. Let him thank his Orders for saving his life; the tonsure of his hair for the keeping of his head; who otherwise had been sent the same path and pace with his brother. Returning in the first of king Henry the Fourth, he was restored to his archbishopric. Such who commend his courage for being the church's champion, when a powerful party in parliament pushed at the revenues thereof, condemn his cruelty to the Wickliffites, being the first who persecuted them with fire and faggot. As for the manner of his death, we will neither carelessly wink at it, nor curiously stare on it; but may with a serious look solemnly behold it. He who had stopped the mouths of so many servants of God from preaching his word, was himself famished to death by a swelling in his throat. But seeing we bear in our bodies the seeds of all sicknesses (as of all sins in our souls) it is not good to be over-bold and busy in our censures on such casualties. He died February 20, 1413, and lieth buried in his cathedral at Canterbury. Reader, for the greater credit of this county, I put there four archbishops together; otherwise bishop Burwash (following hereafter) in time preceded the two latter. HENRY BURWASH, so named, saith my author,* (which is enough for my discharge) from Burwash, a town in this county. He was one of noble alliance. And when this is said, all is said to his commendation, being otherwise neither good for church nor state, sovereign nor subjects; covetous, ambitious, rebellious, injurious. Say not," what makes him here then amongst the Worthies?" For, though neither ethically nor theologically, yet historically he was remarkable, affording something for our information, though not imitation. He was recommended by his kinsman Bartholomew de Badilismer (baron of Leeds in Kent) to king Edward the Second, who preferred him bishop of Lincoln. It was not long before, falling into the king's displeasure, his temporalities were seized on, and afterwards on his submission restored. Here, instead of new gratitude, retaining his old grudge, he was most forward to assist the queen in the deposing of her husband. He was twice lord treasurer, once chancellor,+ and once sent over ambassador to the duke of Bavaria. He died anno Domini 1340. Such as mind to be merry may read the pleasant story of his apparition, being condemned after death to be viridis viridarius (a green forester,) because in his lifetime he had violently *Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 213. + Godwin, in the Bishops of Lincoln. |