136

BROWNE'S TUTOR AND FRIENDS.

tould me that Mr. Barret had there showen a sermon unprinted, lately preached at Whitehall before the King, upon Mat. 28. 13, saying, "Say ye his disciples came by night and stole him away" by Dr. Lushington, Oxfordiens. I asked the drifte of it; he tould me "witte." I asked what was remarkeable; he said, first the beginning, "What newes." Every man askes what newes; the Puritan talkes of Bethlehem Gabor1, etc. Besides this, the doctor fell belike to personate the chiefe priests and elders, in a florishing description of our Saviour and his apostles, as imposters, etc. (a wicked witte), and then comes to demande why the soldiers should say it, etc. "Because," saith he (yet he mistooke his marke, see verse 14) "the soldiers were audacious and durst doe anything. In those times (said he) the soldiers did depose and chuse Emperors, yet the time had beene when the priests did this. But now peasants will doe all, by prerogative of parliament," etc.'

In 1634, ‘Dr. L. at Norwich, after his sermon to the trayners, gave out these verses:

"Skill, Number, Courage cannot prosper us

Without our posie, Nisi Dominus.

The strongest cities have been ominous
To theire own keepers, Nisi Dominus.
And every stone to the towne and us

May prove a bullet, Nisi Dominus.

The gunne or sticke may make a piteous

And bloody muster, Nisi Dominus.

Since power and skill in armes be governed thus,
We dare say nothing, Nisi Dominus."

Walker (Sufferings of the Clergy) says of Lushington: 'He was indeed a learned man, but I wish I could honestly omit him, for his translating the Socinian Comment on the Hebrews plainly shows that he was infected with that Heresie; and his Sermon on the Resurrection (lately Reprinted in a Collection of other Prophane Pieces, under the title of the Phonix) shews him, I doubt, to be something worse.'

With Lushington SIR NICHOLAS BACON of Gillingham, SIR CHarles LE GROS of Crostwich, and SIR JUSTINIAN Lewyn had a share in persuading Browne to go to Norwich. Wilkins thinks that all these were contemporaries at Broadgates. Certainly Lewyn was there. He was made Doctor of Law in 1637, and became Judge-martial of the army under Thomas, Earl of Arundel, in the Scottish expedition of 1639, and afterwards a Master in Chancery and a knight. He was a nephew to Sir Justinian Lewyn, Dean of the Arches, who died 1598. Sir Charles Le Gros (son of Sir Thomas; knighted in 1603) was father of the Thomas Le Gros to whom Browne dedicated his 'Urn Burial.'

1 Waivode of Transylvania.

CHAPTER XII.

HIGH POLITICS.

PETER SMART, a man of considerable attainments, regarded by the Puritans as the Protomartyr of these latter days of Persecution,' 'a Minister's son of Warwickshire, was educated in the College School at Westminster, became a batler of Broadgates Hall, 1588, aged nineteen years, and in the same year was elected Student of Christ Church, where he was esteemed about that time a tolerable Latin Poet.'

'Afterwards taking the degrees in Arts, he entered into orders, became Chaplain to Dr. W. James, Bishop of Durham, who not only confer'd upon him a Prebendship in that Church [1609-1629], but also the Parsonage of Bouden1, and was the chief instrument of promoting him to be one of his Majesties High Commissioners in the Province of York. But this person being puritannically given, took occasion in 1628 to preach against certain matters, which he took to be popish Innovations 2, brought into the Church of Durham by Mr. John Cosin and his Confederates, as Copes, Tapers, Crucifixes, bowing to the Altar, praying towards the East, turning the Communion Table of Wood, standing in the middle of the Choire, into an Altar-stone railed in at the East end thereof, etc. But this his Sermon 3 or Sermons, preached several times to the people, being esteemed seditious, he was questioned... in the High Commission Court at York, where for his said seditious Sermon or Sermons and his refusal 1 Boldon. He was non-resident. Smart was also Master of Durham grammar school.

"Everything before Bishop Neile had been ruinous and filthy. The 'copes embroidered with idols, used a long time at Mass and May-games,' had been suffered to be taken from the Cathedral and used by boys in their sports.

The Vanitie and downefall of Superstitious Popish Ceremonies; or, a Sermon preached in the Cathedrall Church of Durham by one Peter Smart, a Præbend there, July 27, 1628. Contayning not onely an historicall relation of all those popish ceremonies and practises which Mr. Iohn Cosens hath lately brought into the said Cathedrall Church, but likewise a punctuall confutation of them; especially of erecting altars and cringing to them (a practise much in use of late) and of praying towards the East-Psal. 4. 2, Phil. 3. 18, 19.-Printed at Edenborough in Scotland 1628 By the Heyres of Robert Charteris.'

* See 'The Acts of the High Commission at Durham' (Surtees), App. 198. The trial was adjourned to York. While it was dragging on Smart indicted

138 THE PROTOMARTYR' OF PURITANISM.

to be conformable to the Ceremonies of the Church, he was deprived of his Prebendship and Parsonage, degraded from his Ministry, fined 500/.

Cosin at the Durham Assizes. Sir James Whitelocke quashed the indictment, but it was renewed the next year (1629) before Sir Henry Yelverton, who, in a colloquy with the prebendaries the day before the Assizes were opened, assured them that he considered Smart's discourse to be a very good and an honest sermon.' One of them said, 'that in that sermon singeing of service was condemned for a superstitious ceremonie and an idle vanitie; but he hoped his lordship did not think soe.' The judge answered, that he thought so too, and that truely for his parte he never liked of our singeing of the service; and he gave this reason for his dislike, because he could never understand a word of it when the organs plaied, and this he repeated often.' One of the company told him that they were bound by the statutes of that Church to perform ther service in the Choir in this manner, cum cantu scilicet et jubilatione.' • Cum jubilatione,' said Judge Yelverton, that is, with whistling. And for my part, said he, I never liked of your whistling of service. One of the prebendaries hereupon desired him, saying, Good my lord, doe not call it whistling, for it is a word of disgrace. The judge replied upon him short again, and said, Sir, I know what I say. I call it whistling. . . . He said, moreover, that he had been alwaise accounted a Puritane, and he thanked God for it; and that soe he would die. One of the company told him, that he imagined one of Mr. Smart's indictments would be for standing up at the Nicene Creed, which notwithstanding the Bishop, as ordinarius loci, had appointed to be done. To this he said, That the Bishop could not do it, and that they must stand only at the Apostles Creede.' However the judge's legal instincts afterwards came to the top, and he told Smart the indictment could not be grounded on any direct law, and forbade the Clerk of the Crown to file it. When Cosin was impeached in 1611 he related that after the rising of the Court Judge Yelverton had called Mr. Smart, and caused him to take defendant by the hand and promise peace and unity with him. In a subsequent interview with the prebendaries he went so far as to insist that Smart's 'courses against Mr. Cosen & the Church were truly unchristian. That through Mr. Cosin's sides he strooke deepe into all the Cathedrall Churches in England. That he found Mr. Cosin of a better temper and disposition than Mr. Smart by farr. That he wondered at his refusal to stand at the Nicene Creed, the Bishop having counselled it, whose counsells were commandes to him.' Terms of peace might have been arranged, but the prosecution of Smart had now been removed from Durham to York and Lambeth. In this year Smart issued his Treatise on Altars, which formed the groundwork of the future accusations against Cosin. Of course the principal matter was the fixing the Holy Table altar-wise against the east wall, the result being that 'the minister cannot stand at the north side, there being neither side toward the north.' The usual Laudian reply to this very pertinent objection was the questionable one that north side meant or might mean north end; since when, as the duellists in Hamlet their rapiers, the disputants have exchanged arguments. Smart's other points were such as the 'glorious Copes embroidered with images,' a 'precious golden pall to cover the altar, having upon it the false story of the Assumption of our Lady,' the gilded and painted altar of stone with its crucifix and tapers and other ornamenta, the making 'profound legs' and curtsies towards the altar, and going from it backwards, the organs, and horrible profanation of the Lord's Supper and also of the Sacrament of Baptism with 'an hideous noise of musick.' In Mr. Parker's Introduction to the Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer the charges of Peter Smart occupy considerable space. They influenced the subse

THE HISTORIAN OF INDEPENDENCY.

139 and imprisoned many years. At length when the Long Parliament began, he, upon petition and complaint, was freed from his Prison in the Kingsbench (where he had continued above eleven years), was restored to all he had lost, had reparations made for his losses and became a witness against Archbishop Laud.' Smart on his release in 1640 was the principal promoter of the impeachment of Maynwaring and Cosin. He died in 1642, the severity of his long imprisonment having impaired his constitution. His poems in Latin and English were called, à Wood says, in auction catalogues Old Smart's Verses. Neal says he was a person of grave and reverend aspect.

A notable Parliamentarian who, Wood thinks, had his name on the books of Broadgates—' a receptacle mostly in the Reign of K. Jam. I. for Dorsetshire men'-was CLEMENT WALKER, author of the History of Independency, written (says Warburton) in a rambling way, and with a vindictive presbyterian spirit, full of bitterness; but it gives an admirable idea of the character of the times, parties, and persons.'

Leaving Oxford without a degree, he played the part of royalist countrygentleman in Somerset, his declamations against the Puritans expressing, à Wood considers, his real mind. 'Before the Civil War commenc'd, he was made Usher of the Exchequer, but when the Presbyterians were like to carry all before, he closed with them, was elected one of the Burgesses for the City of Wells, and became a zealous Covenantier, and was Advocate to that Congregation of Murderers that adjudged Rob. Yeomans and George Bowcher Citizens of Bristow to death, having had (as 'tis said) his hands stayned with his own Wives blood before he dipped them so deep in those Martyrs. He and Prynne were 'inseparable Brethren.' Walker took a prominent part against the Independents. He attacked Fairfax 'for his folly to be led by the nose by O. Cromwell,' and Cromwell for his 'devilish hypocrisy.' Cromwell put him in the Tower, where he died in 1651, being buried in Allhallows, Barking.

'The greatest Member of Parliament that ever lived,' JOHN PYм, entered as a gentleman-commoner, May 18, 1599, aged fifteen1. At Broadgates he displayed an unpuritanic joy in the Muses, his fellowstudent FitzGeffrey styling him, in 1601, Phoebi deliciae, lepos puelli.' Wheare was his tutor. Leaving, as it seems, without a degree, he was entered of the Middle Temple in 1602.

A clerkship in the Exchequer was obtained for Pym, and the foundation of his great acquaintance with finance was thus laid. In 162 he was chosen for Calne, and in the next few years was second only to Eliot as quent ritual controversy and the final revision of the Prayer Book in 1661; e. g. the present rubric prescribes that the Nicene Creed shall be said or sung, and that standing.

1 He was the orphaned heir of Alexander Pim. When he was six years old his mother married Sir Anthony Rous, father of Speaker Rous, the Pembroke benefactor. FitzGeffrey describes her as 'no Lyonnesse in her House,'' making her

a leader of opposition. Pym's persistency in urging the strict execution of the penal laws against papists cemented his popularity, and in 1626 the impeachment of Buckingham was confided mainly to his hands, in 1628 that of Maynwaring. The scabbard was now thrown away on both sides, and Pym had twice seen the inside of a prison. There is a tale that he, Cromwell, and Hampden were prevented in 1638 from embarking for America. He was certainly a patentee of Connecticut and Providence. When however he had brought about Strafford's condemnation, the Queen contrived that Pym should be offered the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, the Earl of Bedford engaging that Strafford's head should not fall. But Bedford died, and, Pym being supposed now to meditate the daring step of impeaching the Queen herself, Charles resolved to openly arrest him with four others, in the face of Parliament. The charge was treasonable correspondence with the Scots rebels. The miscarriage of this design raised the west country gentleman to the height of influence out of doors, as his abilities had already made him master of the House of Commons. He had been one of the 'twal kings' for whom James I ordered 'twal chairs' to be set, and the royalists lampooned him as 'King Pym.' He has been called 'the English counterpart of Mirabeau,' without the profligacy. The Grand Remonstrance was drawn up by him, and carried by his eloquence. He was not only the orator of his party, but its soul and centre. Though by temperament a legalist, Pym now discarded all legality-' a master of revolution,' Mr. Goldwin Smith calls him. He refused to discountenance the rabbling of the Bishops in the precincts of St. Stephen's1, urged Parliament to seize the forces of the Crown and the machinery of government, secured the presbyterians by placing the re-modelling of the Church in the hands of the Assembly of Divines-himself (though an Episcopalian) taking the Covenant—and swept on the nation and parliament into irretrievable war. Being excepted, with a few others, from the King's proclamation of pardon, Pym committed his followers beyond recall by the impeachment of Henrietta Maria. No man,' says the royalist historian, 'had more to answer for the Miseries of the Kingdom, or had his Hand or Head deeper in their contrivances.' He was 'the most popular Man, and the most able to do hurt, that hath lived at any time.' 'His parts,' Clarendon continues, were rather acquired by industry than supply'd by Nature or adorned by Art.... He had a very comely and grave way of expressing himself, with great volubility of words, natural and proper; and understood the Temper and Affections of the Kingdom as well as any Man; and had observ'd the errors and mistakes in Government, and knew well how to make them appear greater than they were.' To organize the revolting forces

Closet as an Apothecaries shop for the poore Neighbours in time of their sicknes.' Brymore House, near Bridgewater, the ancient seat of the Pyms, belongs now to the Earls of Radnor, descended from John Pym's sister Mary, wife of Sir Thos. Hales of Bekesbourne. Neal, I know not why, styles Pym 'a Cornish gentleman.'

1 God forbid the House of Commons should proceed in any way to dishearten the people to obtain their just desires in such a way.'