In the fpring of the year 1613, the affair of the Charterhoufe was fettled, and at the clofe of the month of June, his Grace, and the rest of the trustees, took posfeffion of that place, purfuant to the will of Mr. Sutton.

Towards the clofe of the next year, the famous Antonio de Dominis, archbishop of Spalato, took fhelter here, from the perfecution with which he was threatened by the pope, for difcovering his diflike both of the doctrine and difcipline of the church of Rome, and was very kindly received by his majefty, who was pleafed to order the archbishop to entertain him, which he did with generous hofpitality, till he was otherways provided for by the king. His Grace however thought himself fufficiently recompenced for the trouble given him in this affair, by this ftranger's procuring for him the manufcript of Father Paul's excellent hiftory of the Council of Trent. In the spring of the year 1618, viz. on the fecond of March, our good Archbishop loft his brother Robert, the bishop of Salisbury, and, before his grief was well over for fo near a relation, he met with frefh difturbance from the king's declaration for permitting fports and paftimes on the Lord's-day, which was dated at Greenwich, May 4, 1618. This declaration was ordered to be read in churches, and the Archbishop, being accidentally at Croydon in Surry when it came thither, had the courage to forbid its being read, which however the king winked at, notwithstanding there were fome about him, who let no opportunity flip of irritating him against this prelate. The council of Dort fat this year, to which were fent from hence, in the beginning of the month of October, four commiffioners, and amongst them Dr. Hall, dean of Winchester, with whofe health the climate of Holland difagreeing, he returned, and Dr. Goad, the archbishop's chaplain, was fent in his place.

The end of this year proved as difagreeable to the Bishop as its beginning; in autumn, the queen, his gracious miftrefs, falling ill of that diftemper, which, after a tedious ficknefs, brought her to her end on the first of March following. The Archbishop himself began alfo to grow infirm, and finding himfelf lefs fit for the affairs of

me this, I gave fuch an answer as was fit; and now, upon the receipt "of your letters, fhall upon the firft occafion give further fatisfaction. "All things reft there as they did, and I, as ready to do you all good "offices, remain, &c."

"GEORGE Cant."

the

the world than he had been, refolved, while he had ftill ftrength, to enter upon a great and good defign, which he had long meditated as a teftimony of affection to his native town of Guildford, where, on the fifth of April, 1619, he was prefent when Sir Nicholas Kempe laid the firft ftone of his hofpital, which the Archbishop afterwards nobly endowed.

It was towards the end of this year, that the Elector Palatine accepted of the crown of Bohemia, which occafioned great difputes in king James's councils, fome defiring that his majefty fhould not interfere in this matter at all, from a forefight that it would produce a war in Germany; others again, believing that both natural affection to his fon and daughter, and a juft concern for the protestant intereft, ought to have engaged his majesty warmly to fupport the new election. The Archbishop agreed in fentiment with the laft mentioned party, and not being able at that time to attend the privy council, he wrote his mind with great plainnefs and freedom to the fecretary of ftate. The next year was in a great measure spent in debates and negotiations upon this fubject, in which the king took a great deal of pains with little effect.

The Archbishop's declining ftate of health, making exercife a thing not only convenient but neceffary for him, he was accustomed in the fummer to make a tour into Hampshire for the fake of recreation, and being invited by the lord Zouch to hunt in his park at Brambil upon the edge of Berkshire, and not far from Hartford bridge, his Grace met there with the greatest misfortune that befel him in the whole courfe of his life; for hunting in this park on the 24th of July, he let fly a barbed arrow from a crofs bow at one of the deer, which unfortunately ftruck one Peter Hawkins, lord Zouch's keeper, (who was quite out of the bishop's fight, and had been warned more than once to keep out of the way,) in the left arm, by which wound a large blood-veffel being pierced, he bled to death in an hour's time. This unforeseen accident threw the Archbishop into a deep melancholy, though he was not confcious to himfelf of the least inadvertency or indifcretion; neither did this wear off in time, but throughout his whole life he obferved a monthly fast on a Tuesday, the day on which this fatal mifchance fell out, and fettled an annuity of twenty pounds on the widow, which foon procured her another husband. This affair made a very great noife, and there wanted not fome to VOL. III, reprefent

C

reprefent it in a finifter light to K. James, but his majefty gave his judgement of the matter in a fhort and clear fentence, An angel (faid he) might have mifcarried in this fort.' When he was afterwards informed of the legal penalties which his Grace had incurred by this accident, he wrote him a confolatory letter with his own hand, in which amongst other things he told him, that he would not add affliction to his forrow, or take one farthing from his chattels or moveables which were forfeited by law.'

It does not appear, that his Grace was at all leffened, by the fuggeftions of his enemies, in the king's favor, or his courage in any degree abated, by the troubles he had met with. On the contrary, we find him, in the year 1622, oppofing the Spanish match, which was a thing the king had fet his heart upon, with the greatest firmnefs and fpirit, and even venturing, under his hand, to give his fentiments on that fubject in terms fo vigorous and pathetic, that no pen can properly reprefent them but his own *. The king however remained fixed in his refolution,

This letter from the Archbishop to K. James is without date, but the fubject points out plainly enough the time when it was written; and it is inferted here, to fhew the Archbishop's principles in religion, in regard to which there cannot be a fuller testimony.

"

66

"May it please your Majefty,

"I HAVE been too long filent, and am afraid, by my filence, I "have neglected the duty of the place it hath pleafed GOD to call me unto, and your majefty to place me in: But now I humbly crave "leave I may difcharge my confcience towards GOD, and my duty to your majefty; and therefore I beseech you freely to give me leave "to deliver myself, and then let your majefty do with me what you pleafe. Your majefty hath propounded a toleration of religion, I "beseech you to take into your confideration what your act is, what "the confequence may be; by your act, you labour to set up the "moft damnable and heretical doctrine of the church of Rome, the "whole of Babylon. How hateful it will be to GOD, and grievous

to your good fubjects, the profeffors of the Gospel, that your majesty "who hath often difputed, and learnedly written against thofe herefies, "fhould now fhew yourself a patron of those wicked doctrines, which your pen hath told the world, and your confcience tells yourself, are fuperftitious, idolatrous, and deteftable. And hereunto I add what you have done, in fending the prince into Spain, without confent of "your council, the privity and approbation of your people; and al"though you have a charge and intereft in the prince, as fon of your "flesh, yet have the people a greater, as fon of this kingdom, upon "whom (next after your majesty) are their eyes fixed, and welfare depends; and fo tenderly is his going apprehended, as (believe it) however his return may be fafe, yet the drawers of him into this

« action,

refolution, and the articles, agreed on for the faid marriage, were fworn to, in the prefence of the Archbishop, and other great officers of state, notwithstanding which they never took effect. The Archbishop thenceforward affifted but seldom at council, being hindered chiefly by his infirmities; but in the king's laft ficknefs he was called for, and attended with great conftancy, and received the highest marks of the king's confidence, to the very last moment of his life, and was near him when he expired, on the twenty-feventh of March 1625.

At the coronation of K. Charles I, the Archbishop, as his office required, fet the crown upon his majesty's head, though he was extremely weak, and much troubled with the gout; but thenceforward he vifibly declined in the king's favour, and the duke of Buckingham, who was his declared enemy, watched for an opportunity to make the Archbishop feel the weight of his difpleasure. This was at laft taken, for his refufing to license a sermon, preached by one Dr. Sibthorpe, vicar of Brackley in Northamptonshire, to justify and promote a loan, which the king had demanded. This fermon was preached at Northampton, in the Lent affizes, 1627, before the judges at Northampton, and it was tranfmitted to the Archbishop, with the king's direction, to license it, which he refused to do, and gave his reasons for it; notwithstanding which, the fermon was licenfed by the bishop of London, [Dr. Mountaigne after many things had been corrected therein, from the lights given by the Archbishop's objections, for which however it was refolved that he fhould fuffer.

Difcourfes of this nature were fo loud at court, that fome of his Grace's friends overheard and reported them to him; upon which he thought fit to retire to his palace

"action, fo dangerous to himself, fo defperate to the kingdom, will "not pafs away unquestioned, unpunished. Befides, this toleration "which you endeavour to fet up by your proclamation, cannot be done "without a parliament; unless your majefty will let your fubjects fee, "that you will take unto yourself ability to throw down the laws of your land at your pleasure. What dreadful confequences thefe "things may draw afterward, I befeech your majesty to confider, and "above all, left by this toleration, and discountenancing of the true "profeffion of the Gofpel, wherewith GOD hath bleffed us, and this kingdom hath fo long flourished under it, your majetty do not draw "upon this kingdom in general, and yourself in particular, GOD's "heavy wrath and indignation.

"Thus in difcharge of my duty towards GOD, to your majesty, "and the place of my calling, I have taken humble leave to deliver "my conscience. Now, Sir, do what you please with me.”

at Croydon, a month before his ufual time. On the fifth of July, lord Conway, who was then fecretary of state, made him a vifit, and intimated to him, that the king expected he should withdraw to Canterbury, which the Archbishop declined, becaufe he had a law-fuit at that time with that city, and defired he might rather have leave to go to his houfe at Ford, five miles beyond Canterbury, which was yielded to; and, on the ninth of October following, the king granted a commiffion to the bifhops of London, Durham, Rochester, Oxford, and Bath, and Wells, to execute archiepifcopal authority, the caufe affigned being no more than this, That the Archbishop could not at that time, in his own perfon, attend those fervices, which were other wife proper for his cognizance and jurifdiction.'

Some writers have pretended, that his fuppofed irregularity, occafioned by the death of Peter Hawkins, was revived; but the commiffion, which is extant on record, fhews the contrary, nor indeed was that affair ever thought of afterwards; but the Archbishop did not remain long in this fituation, for the neceffities of the times rendering a parliament neceffary, his Grace was sent for about Christmas, and not only restored to his authority. and jurifdiction, but, on his coming to court from his palace at Lambeth, was received, when he quitted his barge, by the archbishop of York and the earl of Dorfet, who conducted him to his majefty, where, having kiffed the king's hand, he was defired not to fail the council table twice a week.

His Grace fat in that parliament which began on the feventeenth of March following, and continued in the. full exercife of his office ever after, of which it may not be amifs to take notice in this fingular inftance. On the twenty-fourth of August, 1628, he confecrated Richard Montagu, to the fee of Chichester, a man who had been remarkably bufy in fupporting the pretence of his irregu larity; and at this confecration Dr. Laud, then bishop of London, affifted, which is the cleareft proof that can be, that no doubts ftuck longer as to his irregularity, even with thofe who loved him leaft. In parliament, the Archbishop maintained his credit in as high a degree as any of his predeceffors, and it is more than probable, that the knowledge of this procured him fuch marks of respect, as were at this time afforded him by the court. When the Petition of Right,' that great pillar of the Englifo liberty, was under confideration, the Archbishop of Can

terbury