RICHARD KIRFOOTE.

BISHOP GRIFFITH.

205

GEORGE GRIFFITH, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, entered Christ Church, as a Westminster student, Nov. 12, 1619; B.A. June 26, 1623; M.A. May 9, 1626; B.D. Oct. 23, 1632; licensed to preach 1633; D.D. Nov. 4, 1634. He was the third son of Robert Griffith, of Carreylwyd, gent., and was born at Llanfaethlu, Anglesey, Sept. 30, 1601. He was distinguished as a college tutor and as a preacher. He became chaplain to Bishop Owen, who made him Canon and Archdeacon of St. Asaph (1632), and rector of Newtown, Llanfechain, Llandrinio, and Llanymyrach. In the Convocation of 1640 he urged the need of a new edition of Bishop Morgan's Welsh Bible, himself afterwards undertaking a translation of the revised Common Prayer of 1661 into the British tongue. He described himself as an episcopal presbyterian'; and in a public disputation with Vavasour Powel, in 1652, argued that 'mixt ways' were better than separation. Dr. Griffith had much controversy with the Itinerants. 'Keeping up the Offices and Ceremonies' of the Church he was deprived of most or all of his Spiritualities,' and 'therefore rewarded after his Majesties Restauration.' By Sheldon's influence he was nominated to St. Asaph, and consecrated Oct. 28, 1660, with four others. The see, however, had very meagre revenues. Griffith took some part in the Savoy Conference, 'speaking but once or twice a few words calmly.' Lloyd affirms that the new form of Adult Baptism was composed by him. Certainly he was one of three prelates charged with the task. In his diocese he restored order and cared for sacred fabricks. He died Nov. 28, 1666. The short inscription on his tomb in his cathedral church ends, 'Qui plura desiderat, facile investiget.'

The last four of these scholars were named on the Wightwick foundation.

CHAPTER XVI.

KING, CHANCELLOR, AND PRIMATE.

THE charter granted to the College designated it as 'of the foundation of KING JAMES'.' Kings, at any rate in more recent centuries, have not usually been able to give more than their favour and name to any institution; or if, like Henry VIII, they have bestowed more, it has been taken from Peter to enrich Paul. If James I gave Pembroke nothing but his patronage, Charles I presented it with a substantial endowment, and his Grand-daughter augmented the income of the Mastership with a canonry.

There is perhaps some disinclination to claim the shrewdest of Sophomores as Founder, as there is at Christ Church disinclination to own the greatest and most erudite of Robbers. But James I's many unkingly qualities have created a disposition to do him less than justice as an acute patron of letters, who attracted many learned men to England. When he visited Oxford he came, Mr. Goldwin Smith remarks, to 'a seat of learning where he felt supreme, and, to do him justice, was not unqualified to shine 2 Southey quotes Burton: 'When he went into the Bodleian he broke out into that noble speech: “If I were not a king I would be an University man; et si unquam mihi in fatis sit ut captivus ducar, si mihi daretur optio, hoc cuperem carcere concludi, his catenis illigari, cum hisce captivis concatenatis aetatem agere." He would have been pleased to know that, though the chains of that priceless captivity have long been struck off the books, a fellow of his own College succeeded in defeating the conversion of the Bodleian into a lending library. At the Hampton Court Conference the king excelled both sides not only in good temper but in

In a document of 1636, of the foundation of James late king, in the charge and custody of Thomas Teasdell and Richard Whitwick.'

2 Christopher Trevelyan reports to his father that the King showed great learning in his disputing and moderating: 'who always graced the University exceedingly' (Trevelyan Papers). He was not more pleasant at no time since he came into England.'

6

The late Professor Chandler.

A ROYAL FOUNDATION.

207

learning. It was to James that Shakespeare paid the fine compliment, 'Knowledge makes a king most like his Maker';

and he wrote with his own royal hand a letter to the playwright. If the splendid panegyric at the end of Henry the Eighth is flattery, to have been flattered by Shakespeare is glory enough. This prince was a considerable benefactor of the library of St. Andrews. For the Bodleian he procured the valuable right to a copy of every book issued. He loved to connect himself with the universities of his kingdoms and concern himself with their minutest affairs. He visited Oxford within two years of his accession. He confirmed it and Cambridge in their privileges, and gave them their representation in Parliament and patronage of Romanist livings. James augmented the Regius professorship of Divinity, and the chairs of Law and Physic. This set an example, and in his reign Saville founded two Mathematical lectures, Camden a History chair, Sedley one in Natural Philosophy, Dr. White one in Moral Philosophy, Tomlins an Anatomy lecture; the Physic Garden was inaugurated, and the noble structure of the Schools built. Besides the two new Oxford foundations, Harvard was endowed by a Cambridge man not long after James's accession. His wish, therefore, to be considered the founder of a new College at Oxford was not an unmeaning whim, but one of many proofs of an enlightened enthusiasm for the promotion of the arts and knowledges.

Over the south entrance of Wilton church, now destroyed, under the many-quartered arms of Herbert, was the following inscription, as given by Sir Richard Hoare1:

'Be it remembered, that at the 8th day of April 1589 [1580?], on Friday, before 12 of the clock at night of the same day, was born William Lord Herbert of Cardiffe, first child of the Noble Henry Herbert, Erle of Pembroke, by his most dere wyfe Mary, daughter of the Right Honble Sir Henry Sidney, Knight of the most noble order, &c. and the Lady Mary 2, daughter to the famous John Duke of Northumberland, and was Xt'ned the 28th day of the same month, in the mannour of Wilton. The Godmother, ye mighty and most excellent Princess Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queene of England, by her deputye the most virtuous Lady Anne Countice of Warwick; and the Godfathers were the Noble and famous Erle Ambrose, Erle of Warwick, and Robert Erle of Lycester, both great uncles to the infant by the mother's side, Warwick in person, and Lycester by his deputye Philip Sydney, Esq., uncle, by the mother's side, to the fore

1 History of Wiltshire, Hundred of Branch and Dole, p. 143.

* The Countess Mary was that 'Subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother,' of whom Jonson sings, and to whom the Arcadia was dedicated.

208

THE EARL OF PEMBROKE.

named young Lord Herbert of Cardiff, whom the Almighty and most precious God blesse, with his mother above-named, with prosperous life in all happiness, in the name of God. Amen.'

The petition of the burgesses of Abingdon to King James had been presented by the Chancellor of the University, WILLIAM HERBERT, third EARL OF PEMBROKE, the most eminent of a family, Welsh in origin, in which that title had been twice revived, viz. by Edward IV and by Henry VIII. It was resolved to name the College after him. Aubrey styles him the greatest Maecenas to learned men of any peer of his time or since.' He and his brother Philip, the Puritan libertine, are the 'incomparable pair of brethren' to whom Shakespeare's first folio was dedicated by the editors in 1623. Mr. Gardiner calls him 'the Hamlet of Charles's Court.' In his 'Observations on the Life of William, Earl of Pembroke,' Fuller says:

'He was an ancient gentleman of good repute, and therefor well esteemed; a proper person well set, and of graceful deportment, and therefor well beloved of King James and queen Anne; his inclination was as generous as his extraction, and manners ancient as his family. One of his ancestors is renowned, for that he would condescend to deliver his embassies in no language but Welsh; he is commended for that he would comply with no customs in his converse but the old Englishthough his contemporaries make that his defect rather than his ornament, proceeding from his want of travel rather than his observance of antiquity: he having had only (saith the historian) the breeding of England, which gave him a conceited dislike of foreign men their manners and mode, or of such English as professed much advantage thereby; so that the Scots and he were ever separate; and therefore he was the only old courtier that kept close to the commonalty and they to him, though never suspected by either of his sovereigns; not because he was not over-furnished with abilities (as that pen insinuates) to be more than loyal, but because he had too much integrity to be less.

'Being munificent and childless, the University of Oxford hoped to be his executor, and Pembroke Colledge his heir-Pembroke Colledge, I say, called so not only in respect to, but also in expectation from him, then chancellor of the university; and probably had not our noble Lord died suddenly soon after (according as a fortune teller had informed him, whom he laughed at that very night he departed, being his birth-night), this colledge might have received more than a bare name from him. "He was (saith one of his own time 1) the very picture and Viva Effigies of nobility; his person rather majestick than elegant; his presence, whether quiet or in motion, full of stately gravity; his mind generous and purely heroick; often stout but never disloyal; so vehement an opponent of the Spaniard as, when that match fell under consideration, he would some

Anthony Wood, Athenae, i. 795

THE EARL OF PEMBROKE.

209 times rouze to the trepidation of king James, yet kept in favour still; for that king knew plain dealing as a jewel in all men, so was in a privycouncellor an ornamental duty. . . . The same true-heartedness commended him to king Charles, with whom he kept a most admirable correspondence, and yet stood the firm confident of the commonalty; and that not by a sneaking cunning but by an erect and generous prudence, such as rendered him as unsuspected of ambition on the one side as of faction on the other, being generally beloved and regarded'."''

The story of his death on April 8, 1630, is thus referred to by Clarendon :

At a meeting of some Persons of Quality, of relation or dependence upon the said Earl of Pembroke (Sir Charles Morgan, Dr. Feild Bishop of St. David's, and Dr. Chafin the Earl's chaplain) at Supper one of them drank a health to the Lord Steward; upon which another of them said that he believ'd his Lord was at that time very Merry, for he had now outliv'd the day which his Tutor Sandford 2 had prognosticated upon his Nativity he would not outlive; but he had done it now, for that was his Birth-day, which had compleated his age to fifty years. The next morning, by the time they came to Colebrook, they met with the news of his Death.'

He died at Baynard's Castle, his house in London. Aubrey says that he intended to prove a great benefactor' to the College. He was master,' says Clarendon, 'of a great Fortune . . . but all serv'd not his Expence, which was only limited by his great mind and occasions to use it nobly. . . . He was rather regarded and esteem'd by King James than lov'd and favour'd. . . . As his Conversation was most with men of the most pregnant parts and understanding, so towards any such who needed support or encouragement, though unknown, if fairly recommended to him, he was very liberal.' Every New Year's day Jonson received £20 from Pembroke to buy books. Inigo Jones visited Italy at his charges. Massinger was trained up at Wilton and supported by the Earl at St. Alban Hall. He was the friend of Donne. Chapman, Davison, and others dedicated grateful poems to him. Bacon thanked him for the moderation and affection his lordship shewed in my business,' and solicited his future favour 'for the furtherance of my private life and fortune.' Across the ocean the Virginians spoke of the Pembroke River, now the Rappahannock, and part of the Bermudas was named after the powerful and princely noble. He died leaving no child to inherit, and the young College that bore his name may have hoped to be regarded as his issue. 1 State Worthies, ii. 230.

Similar predictions were made by Ellinor Davies, and by Thomas Allen of Gloucester Hall (Athenae, i. 866). Wood there says he died April 10th.

P