Bohemia, which occafioned great difputes in king James's councils: fome were defirous that his majefty fhould not interfere in this matter, foreseeing that it would produce a war in Germany; others again were of opinion, that natural affection to his fon and daughter, and a just concern for the Proteftant intereft, ought to engage his majefty to fupport the new election. The latter was the archbishop's fentiment, and not Heylin's life being able at that time to attend the privy council, he wrote his mind with great boldness and freedom to the fecretary of ftate (e). The archbishop being now in a declining state of health, (e) The letter is as follows*. Good Mr. Secretary, 'I have never more defired to be prefent at any confultation than 'that which is this day to be handled, ' for my heart and all my heart goeth · with it; but my foot is worse than it was on Friday, fo that by ad'vice of my physician, I have sweat this whole night paft, and am directed to keep my bed this day. 'But for the matter; my humble advice is, that there is no going back, but a countenancing it against all the world; yea, fo far as with ringing of bel's, and making of 'bonfires in London, fo foon as it 'fhall be certainly understood that of the earth that gave their power 6 unto the beaft (all the word of God must be fulfilled) shall now tear the whore and make her defolate, as St. John in his revelation has foretold. I pray you therefore with all the fpirits you have, to put life into this bufinefs; and let a return be made into Germany with speed, and with comfort, and let it be really profecuted, that it may appear to the world, that we are awake when God in this fort calleth 6 us. If I had time to exprefs it, I could be very angry at the shuffling which was used towards my lord Doncaster, and the flighting of his ⚫ the coronation is past. I am fatis-embalfage fo, which cannot but touch upon our great matter who Our ftriking in will comfort the I of abp. Laud, hift. cent. XVIII. b. x. p. 87. health, used in the fummer to go to Hampfhire for the fake of recreation, and being invited by lord Zouch to hunt in his park at Bramzill, he met there with the greatest misfortune that ever befell him, for he accidentally killed my lord's keeper, by an arrow from a cross-bow which he fhot at one of the deer. This accident threw him into a deep melancholy, and he ever afterwards kept a monthly faft on tuefday, the day on which this fatal mifchance happened, and Fuller's ch. he fettled an annuity of 201. on the widow. There were feveral perfons who took an advantage of this misfortune, to leffen him in the king's favour, but his majefty faid, “ An angel "might have mifcarried in this fort." His enemies alleging, that he had incurred an irregularity, and was thereby incapacitated for performing the offices of a primate; the king directed a commiffion to ten perfons to enquire into this matter. The points referred to their decifion, were 1. Whether the archbishop was irregular by the fact of involuntary homicide. 2. Whether that act might tend to scandal in a churchman. 3. How his grace should be restored in cafe the commiffioners fhould find him irregular. All agreed, that it could not be otherwife done, than by reftitution from the king; but they varied in the manner. The bishop of Winchefter, the lord chief justice, and Dr. Steward, thought it fhould be done by the king, and by him alone. The lord keeper and the bifhops of London, Rochefter, Exeter, and St. David's, were for a commiffion from the king directed to fome bithops. Judge Dodderidge, and fir Henry Martin, were defirous it should be done both ways, by way of caution. The king accordingly paffed a pardon and difpenfation, by which he affoilied the archbishop of all irregularity, fcandal or infamation, and declared him capable of all the authority I know not; yet I will hope the like a noble princess, had profeffed to her husband, not to leave herself one jewel, rather than not to mainOurtain fo religious and righteous a · given to the action, many brave fpirits will voluntarily go. great maiter, in fufficient want of money, gave fome aid to the duke of Savoy, and furnished out a pretty army in the caufe of Cleve, must try once again what can be done in this bufinefs of a higher nature, and all the money that may be fpared is to be turned that way. And 'perhaps God provided the jewels 'that were laid up in the tower, to be gathered by the mother for the 'prefervation of her daughter, who, ་ caufe. You see that Jying on my bed I have gone too far; but if I were with you, this fhould be my language, which I pray you humbly and heartily to reprefent to the king my mafter, telling him, that when I can ftand, I hope to do his majefty fome fervice herein. So co.nmending me unto you, I • remain Your very loving friend, of was of a primate The archbishop thence forward feldom affifted Saunderfon's at the council, being chiefly hindered by his infirmities; but continuat, of Rymer's feein the king's laft illnefs he was fent for, and attended with dera, vol. great constancy, till his majefty expired on the 27th of March, XVII, p. 1625. He performed the ceremony of the coronation of king 337. Charles I though very infirm and much troubled with the gout. He was never greatly in this king's favour, and the duke of Buckingham being his declared enemy, watched an opportunity of making him feel the weight of his difpleasure. This he at laft accomplished, upon the archbishop's refufing to license a fermon preached by Dr. Sibthorpe, to justify a loan which the king had demanded. This fermon preached at Northampton, in the Lent affizes, 1627, before the judges, and was tranfmitted to the archbishop with the king's direction to licenfe it, which he refused to do, and gave his reafons for it; nevertheless, the fermon was licensed by the bishop of London. On the 5th of July, lord Con- Rushworth's way, who was then fecretary of state, made him a vifit and collect. . Li intimated to him, that the king expected he should with- P. 438. draw to Canterbury, which the archbishop declined becaufe he had at that time a law fuit with that city, and defired he might rather have leave to go to his houfe at Ford, five miles beyond Canterbury, which was granted; and on the ninth of October following the king gave a commiffion to the Bishops of London, Durham, Rochefter, Oxford, and Bath and Wells, to execute the archiepifcopal authority, the cause affigned being no more than this, that the archbishop could not at that time in his own person attend those fervices, which were otherwife proper for his cognizance and direction. The archbishop did not remain long in this fituation, for a lb. vol. I. p. parliament being abfolutely neceflary, his grace was fent for 435 about Chriftmas, and restored to his authority and jurifdiction. The intereft of bishop Laud being now very confiderable at court, he drew up inftructions, which having the king's hame were transmitted to the archbishop, under the pompous title of his majefty's inftructions to the most reverend father in God, George, lord archbishop of Canterbury, containing certain orders to be obferved and put in execution by the feveral bishops in his province. His grace communicated them to his fuffragan bishops, but in feveral respects he endeavoured to soften their rigour, as they were contrived to enforce the particular notions of a prevailing party in the church, which the archbishop thought too hard for those who made the fundamentals of religion their study, and were not fo Heylin's life zealous for forms. His conduct in this and other refpects of abp. Laud, made P. 195. made his prefence unwelcome at court, fo that upon the birth of the prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II. Laud had the honour to baptize him, as dean of the chapel. The archbishop being worn out with cares and infirmities, died at Croydon, the 5th of Auguft, 1633, aged feventy-one years, and was buried in the chapel of our lady, within the church dedicated to the Holy Trinity at Guilford. A stately monument was erected over the grave, with the effigy of the archbishop in his robes. He fhewed himfelf, in molt circumftances of his life, a man of great moderation to all parties, and was defirous that the clergy fhould attract the esteem of the laity by the fanctity of their manners, rather than claim it as due to their function. His notions and principles, however, not fuiting the humour of fome writers, have drawn upon him many fevere reflections. Fuller, in his Cent. XVII. church history, fays, "that he forfook the birds of his own xip 128. feather to fly with others, generally favouring the laity 66 more than the clergy, in caufes that were brought before him." Mr. John Aubrey having tranfcribed what is faid of the archbishop on his monument, adds, "Notwithstanding this most noble character tranfmitted to pofterity, he was, though a benefactor to this place, no friend to "the church of England, whereof he was head, but "fcandaloufly permitted that poisonous fpirit of puritanism P Antiquit of to fpread over the whole nation by his indolence, at least, "if not connivance and encouragement, which fome years "after broke out and laid a flourishing church and state in "the moft miferable ruins, and which gave birth to those prin"ciples, which unless rooted out will ever make this nation unhappy." The earl of Clarendon fpeaks of him thus: "Abbot confidered the chriftian religion no otherwife than as it abhorred and reviled popery, and valued those men most 66 who did that mot furiously. For the ftrict obfervation "of the difcipline of the church, or the conformity of the "articles or canons eftablished, he made little enquiry and took "le's care; and having himself made a very little progress in "the ancient and folid ftudy of divinity, he adhered only "to the doctrine of Calvin; and, for his fake, did not think "fo ill of the difcipline as he ought to have done. But if men prudently forbore a publick reviling and railing at the hierarchy and ecclefiaftical government, let their opinions and private judgment be what it would, they were not only "fecure from any inquifition of his, but acceptable to him, "and at leaft equally preferred by him and though many "other bishops plainly difcerned the mifchiefs which daily "broke το broke in, to the prejudice of religion, by his defects and "remiffness, and prevented it in their own diocefes as much as they could, and gave all their countenance to men of other parts and other principles; and though the bishop of "London (Dr. Laud) from the time of his authority and "credit with the king, had applied all the remedies he could to thofe defections, and from the time of his being chan"cellor of Oxford had much discountenanced and almoft fuppreffed that fpirit, by encouraging another kind of learning "and practice in that univerfity, which was indeed according "to the doctrine of the church of England; yet that temper " in the archbishop, whofe house was a fanctuary to the most "eminent of that factious party, and who licensed their most pernicious writings, left his fucceffor a very difficult work to "do, to reform and reduce a church into order,that had been fo "long neglected, and that was fo ill filled by many weak, " and more wilful churchmen." Dr. Wellwood has done Hift. of the Oxon. 1707. σε more justice to the merit and abilities of our prelate : "Arch-rebellion, "bifhop Abbot, fays he, was a perfon of wonderful tem- 8vo. p. 38, CC per and moderation, and in all his conduct fhewed an un- 89. "willingness to ftretch the act of uniformity beyond what "was abfolutely, neceffary for the peace of the church, or "the prerogative of the crown any farther than conduced "to the good of the state. Being not well turned for a "court, tho' otherwise of confiderable learning and genteel "education, he either could not, or would not ftoop to the "humour of the times; and now and then by an unfeafon"able stiffness, gave occafion, to his enemies to represent "him as not well inclined to the prerogative, or too much "addicted to a popular intereft; and therefore not fit to be "employed in matters of government." As to the arch- Memoirs, bifhop's learning and abilities as a writer, pofterity may judge Svo. 1700. p. 38. thereof from his writings upon various fubjects, of which we fhall give, in a note, a lift as they were published (ƒ). (f) 1. Quæftiones fex, totidem prælectionibus in fchola theologica Oxoniæ pro forma habitis, difcuffæ et difceptate, anno 1597, in quibus e facra fcriptura et patribus quid ftatuendum fit definitur, Oxoniæ, 1598, 4to. Francoforti, 1616, 4to. 2. Expofition on the prophet Jonah, in certain fermons preached in St. Mary's church in Oxford; Londont 1600. AB 3. His answer to the questions of the citizens of London, in January, 1600, concerning Cheapfide crofs; London, 1641. The crofs in Cheapfide was taken down in the year 600, in order to be repaired, and upon this occafion the citizens of London defired the advice of both univerfities, Whether the crofs fhould be re-erected or not? Dr. Abbot, as vice-chancellor of Oxford, said, that the |