superstition; a great inducement, and may be a ready way to idolatry; and that there can be no tolerable use of this matter, which may be able to countervail the dangers and obloquy arising upon the retaining of it: and so much the rather, because it is perceived that many evil-affected men do make their advantage from hence, to insinuate into the minds of their credulous hearers, that it is a token of the return of their faith again into this land, since their monuments are not extinguished in the chief street of our greatest city." He afterwards desires that the reader would observe, that the magistrates are to redress such enormities: "For (continues he) I do not permit inferior men to run headlong about such matters; and to rend, break, and tear, as well within as without the churches, which was that which Luther reprehended; but the advice and consent of superior powers is to be had herein, that all things may be done decently and in order." He held it therefore necessary, that they should apply to the archbishop of Canterbury [Whitgift] and to the bishop of London [Bancroft] for instructions. The issue of the matter was, that the cross only was erected again, without either the body or the dove, which was agreeable in the main to the sentiments of the vice-chancellor, and the heads of houses at Oxford.

He likewise published the same year, 1600, his sermons on the prophet Jonah, which were received with great applause. In 1603, he was again chosen vice-chancellor of the university, and discharged that office a second time with general approbation. In the succeeding year, 1604, that translation of the Bible, which is now in use, was made by the direction of K. James, and Dr. Abbot was the second of eight learned divines in the university of Oxford, to whom the care of translating the whole New Testament (excepting the Epistles) was committed. He likewise published this year an answer to Dr. Hill's Reasons for upholding Popery. In 1605, he was a third time vice-chancellor. In the succeeding year, he is said to have had a great share in the troubles of Laud, who was called to an account by the vice-chancellor, Dr. Ayry, for a sermon of his preached before the university; and that year, likewise, he lost his mother. In 1608, his great patron Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, lord high treasurer of England, and chancellor of the university, died suddenly at the council table; at whose funeral, Dr. Abbot preached a sermon, which was afterwards printed, and generally commended. After his decease, Dr. Abbot became chaplain to George

8

Hume,

Home, earl of Dunbar, and treasurer of Scotland, one of K. James's early favourites, and who had a very high share in his esteem: with him he went this year into Scotland, to assist in the execution of a very important design, the establishing an union between the churches in that kingdom and this; wherein he behaved with great prudence and moderation. This is thought to have been the first

step to his future preferment.

Dean Abbot now stood so high in the king's favour, that on the death of Dr. Overton, bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, at the close of April, 1609, his majesty thought of Dr. Abbot for his successor and he was accordingly 'consecrated bishop of those united sees, Dec. 3, following. But this not appearing in the king's eyes a sufficient recompence for the services the doctor had rendered him, before he had sat a month in this bishopric, he was translated to London, that see becoming void by the death of Dr. Thomas Ravis; and he was accordingly removed thither Jan. 20, following. It was but a short time that he possessed both these bishoprics; and yet, in that short time, he so remarkably distinguished himself by the diligent performance of his function, by constant preaching, and by expressing the utmost readiness to promote learning and learned men, that he obtained a general good character. While the bishop was thus employed, a new opportunity offered of the king's testifying his esteem of, and confidence in him, by the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury becoming vacant, Nov. 2, 1610, by the death of Dr. Richard Bancroft. The court bishops immediately cast their eyes upon the celebrated Dr. Lancelot Andrews, then bishop of Ely, and pointed him out to the king, as one sufficiently qualified to take upon him the government of the church; and they thought this recommendation, joined to the king's known regard for the parts and piety of this eminent man, enough to secure his promotion to the primacy: but for some reason, without taking the advice of those prelates, his majesty preferred bishop Abbot, and he was seated in the archiepiscopal chair, April 9, 1611; and, on June 23, following, was sworn of his majesty's most honourable privy council. Thus we see him, before he had arrived at the age of fifty, exalted to the highest dignity in the church, and celebrated by Godwin, one of his contemporaries, and a bishop too, for his learning, eloquence, and indefatigable diligence in preaching and writing, notwithstanding the great burthen that lay upon him, from the necessary atVOL. I. No. 1. tendance

C

tendance on the duties of his high office; especially presiding in the high-commission court, which sat weekly at his palace, and his regular assisting at council, which, while his health permitted, he never failed. At this time, he was in the highest favour both with prince and people, and appears to have had a principal hand in all the great transactions in church and state; he was never esteemed excessively fond of power, or desirous of carrying his prerogative, as primate of England, to an extraordinary height; yet, as soon as he had taken possession of the archbishopric, he resolved to maintain the rights of the high-commission court, and would not submit to lord Coke's prohibitions.

His great concern for the Protestant interest made h zealous promoter of the match between the elector Palatine and princess Elizabeth; and that prince being here in the beginning of 1612, his Grace thought fit to invite the nobility that attended him to an entertainment, at Lambeth palace, where, though uninvited and unexpected, the elector himself resorted, to shew his great respect for the archbishop, and was so well pleased with his welcome, that when he feasted the members of the privy council at Essexhouse, he shewed particular respect to the archbishop, and those who attended him. On Feb. 14 following, the marriage was solemnized with great splendour, the archbishop performing the ceremony on a stage erected in the middle of the royal chapel; and, April 10, his electoral highness returned to Germany; but, before his departure, he made a present of plate to the archbishop, in value a thousand pounds, as a mark of the just sense he had of the pains his grace had taken in the accomplishing his marriage; and as an additional mark of his confidence, he wrote to him from Canterbury, in relation to the causes of that discontent, with which he left England.

In the following year, 1613, happened the famous case of divorce betwixt the lady Frances Howard, daughter of the earl of Suffolk, and Robert earl of Essex. This affair been considered by many as one of the greatest blemishes of king James's reign, but the part acted therein by archbishop Abbot added much to the reputation he had already acquired for incorruptible integrity*.

The

This affair was by the king referred to a court of delegates. It was drawn out into great length, and many accidents happened in the course of it, which gave the archbishop disquiet. He saw plainly, that the king was very desirous the lady should be divorced; but he was, in his

own

The concern which king James had shewn, at the insti gation of Dr. Abbot, for removing Arminius first, and then Vorstius, had given their favourers in Holland so much uneasiness, that Hugo' Grotius, the great champion of their cause, was sent over to England, to endeavour to mitigate the king's displeasure, and, if possible, to give him a better opinion of the Remonstrants, as they began then to be called; and we have a very singular account of the

own judgment, directly against the divorce. He laboured all he could to extricate himself from these difficulties, by having an end put to the cause some other way than by sentence: but it was to no purpose; for

who drove on this affair had got too great power to be restrained ringing it to the conclusion they desired. He prepared a speech, which he intended to have spoken, against the nullity of the marriage, in the court at Lambeth; but he did not make use of this speech, because the king ordered them to deliver their opinion in few words. He continued, however, inflexible in his opinion; and when sentence was pronounced, the court was divided in the following manner :

The commissioners who gave sentence in the lady's behalf, were Winchester, (Thomas Bilson,)

Ely, (Lancelot Andrews,)

Lichfield and Coventry, (Richard Neale,)

Sir Julius Cæsar,

Sir Thomas Parrey,

Sir Daniel Dunn,

}

Bishops.

Doctors of Law.

The Commissioners dissenting.

Archbishop of Canterbury, (George Abbot,)

Bishop of London, (John King,)

Sir John Bennet,

Francis James,

Thomas Edwards,

Doctors of Law:

The king was desirous that the lady should be devorced; but the archbishop, being against it, drew up his reason, which the king thought fit to answer himself. Vid. Saunderson's History of King James, p. 390. It is confidently asserted that king James upbraided the archbishop with founding his opinion on Puritan principles. Dr. Bilson, one of the judges, having spoken very strenuously to prove the nullity of the marriage, his son was soon after knighted: but the world, says Rapin, was so malicious as to call him sir Nullity Bilson.

The earl of Southampton, in a letter, dated Aug. 6, 1613, to sir Ralph Winwood, thus expresses himself: "Of the nullity I see you have beard as much as I can write, by which you may discern the power of a king with judges, for of those which are now for it, I knew some of them when I was in England were vehemently against it, as the bishops of Ely and Coventry." Vid, Collection of Papers in the Reign

of James I. vol. III. p. 475.

It is well known, that the countess of Essex wished to be divorced from her husband, that she might marry her paramour, the earl of Rochester; and because sir Thomas Overbury advised Rochester to the contrary, she persuaded him to cause bis being poisoned.

the man, and of his negociation, from the pen of the archbishop *.

In the spring of the year 1613, the affair of the Charterhouse

* This is contained in a letter from his Grace to sir Ralph Winwood, dated June 1, 1613, from Lambeth; it contains a great variety of curious particulars, some of which follow: "You must take heed how you trust Dr. Grotius too far, for I perceive him to be so addicted to some partialities in those parts, that he feareth not to lash, so it may serve a turn. At his first coming to the king, by reason of his good Latin tongue, he was so tedious, and full of tittle-tattle, that the king's judgment was of him, that he was some pedant, full of words, and of no great judgment. And I myself discovering that to be his babit, as if he did imagine that every man was bound to hear him so long as he would talk (which is a great burthen to men replete with business) did privately give him notice thereof, that he should plainly and directly deliver his mind, or else he would make the king weary of him. This did not so take place, but that afterwards he fell to it again, as was especially observed one night at supper at the lord bishop of Ely's, whither being brought by Mr, Causabon, (as I think,) my lord entreated him to stay to supper, which he did. There was present Dr. Steward, and another civilian, unto whom he flings out some questions of that profession, and was so full of words, that Dr. Steward afterwards told my lord, that he did perceive by him, that, like a smatterer, he had studied some two or three questions, whereof when he came in company he must be talking, to vindicate his skill; but if he were put from those, he would shew himself but a simple fellow. There was present also, Dr. Richardson, the king's professor of divinity in Cambridge, and another doctor in that faculty, with whom he falleth in also about some of those questions, which are now controverted amongst the ministers in Holland. And being matters wherein he was studied, he uttered all his skill concerning them: my lord of Ely sitting still at supper all the while, and wondering what a man he had there, who, never being in the place or company before, could overwhelm them so with talk for so long a time. I write this unto you so largely, that you may know the disposition of the man. and how kindly he used my lord of Ely, for his good entertainment. You will ask me what is this to you? I must tell you therefore, that you shall not be without your part. At the same time that sir Noe Caron was together with Grotius, being now to take his leave of the king, it was desired of his majesty, that he would not hastily give his judgment concerning points of religion, now in difference in Holland for that his majesty had information but of one side, and that his am bassador did deal partially, making all reports in favour of the one side and saying nothing at all for the other. For he might have let his majesty know, how factious a generation these contradictors are; how they are like to our Puritans in England; how refractory they are to the authority of the civil magistrate; and other things of like nature as I wrote you in my former letter. I doubt not but Grotius had his part in this information, whereout I conceive you will make some use keeping these things privately to yourself, as becometh a man of you employment. When his majesty told me this, I gave such an answe as was fit; and now, upon the receipt of your letters, shall upon the first occasion give further satisfaction. All things rest there as they did, and I, as ready to do you all good offices, remain, &c." "GEORGE CANT.”