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one of the greatest blemishes of James's reign.

The king referred

the matter to a court of delegates, consisting of bishops and civilians, which he expected would decide in favour of the divorce; but the archbishop boldly resisted the measure, and sentence was given in the lady's favour. On another occasion, the archbishop set himself against the views and wishes of the king and court, when these ran counter to a higher allegiance which he owed. Happening to be at Croydon, in 1618, on the day when the king's proclamation permitting sports and pastimes on the Sabbath was ordered to be read in all churches, he forbaile it to be published in the church of that place. A fatal accident, to which he was made an innocent party, greatly affected him. Whilst enjoying the recreation of hunting in Lord Zouch's park, at Bramzill, in Hampshire, he accidentally killed one of the keepers by a barbed arrow from a cross-bow. Advantage was eagerly taken of this misfortune to his prejudice. Four bishops were waiting for consecration at his hands at this very moment, but refused to receive it from a homicide, whilst his enemies eagerly alleging that he had thereby incurred an irregularity which incapacitated him for performing the of fices of primate, obtained the appointment of a commission of ten persons to inquire into this matter; but the result disappointed them, it being declared that, as the offence was involuntary, it could not affect his archiepiscopal character. His grace, during the remaining twelve years of his life, kept a monthly fast on Tuesday, the day on which the accident happened.

His increasing infirmities prevented him from regularly assisting at the deliberations of the council; but he attended the king in his last illness, and performed the ceremony of the coronation of Charles I. He was never greatly in the new king's favour, in consequence of his vigorously opposing his projected union with a Spanish princess; and upon his refusing to license an assize-sermon preached by Dr Sibthorpe, at Northampton, in 1617, in which that divine attempted to justify a loan which the king had demanded, and advanced many obnoxious principles, he was immediately suspended from all his functions as primate, which were devolved on a commission of five bishops, of whom Laud, the archbishop's enemy, and afterwards his successor, was one. He did not, however, remain long in this situation, for a parliament being absolutely necessary, he was sent for, and restored to his authority and jurisdiction; though he never fully recovered the royal favour, and, upon the birth of the prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II, his rival, Laud, had the honour to perform the ceremony of baptism, as dean of the chapel. Worn out with cares and infirmities, the good archbishop expired at Croydon, on the 5th of August, 1633, in the 71st year of his age. Agreeably to his own desire, he was buried in the church of the Holy Trinity at Guildford, where a stately monument was erected over the grave, bearing his effigy in his robes.

The public character of Archbishop Abbot has been variously estimated by different writers. Clarendon has treated him with considerable severity; but Welwood has done more justice to his merits and abilities. The former says of him :-"He had been head or master of one of the poorest colleges in Oxford, and had learning sufficient for that province. He was a man of very morose manners, and a very sour aspect, which at that time was called gravity; made

bishop before he had been a parson, vicar, or curate, of any parish church of England, or dean, or prebend of any cathedral church; and was, in truth, totally ignorant of the true constitution of the church of England, and the state and interest of the clergy, as sufficiently appears through the whole course of his life. He considered the Christian religion no otherwise than as it abhorred or reviled popery; and valued those men most who did that most furiously. For the strict observation of the discipline of the church, or the conformity to the articles or canons established, he made little inquiry, and took less care; and having himself made a very little progress in ancient and solid study of divinity; he adhered only to the doctrine of Calvin, and for his sake did not think so ill of the discipline as he ought to have done."1 Dr Welwood thus characterises the archbishop:-" He was a person of wonderful temper and moderation, and in all his conduct showed an unwillingness to stretch the act of uniformity beyond what was absolutely necessary for the peace of the church or the prerogative of the crown. Being not well turned for a court, though otherwise of considerable learning, he was either unwilling or incapable to submit to the humour of the times, and now and then, by an unseasonable stiffness, gave occasion to his enemies to represent him as not well inclined to the prerogative, or too much addicted to popular interest, and therefore not fit to be employed in matters of government." He appears to have been a learned and a conscientious man,-moderate, upon the whole, in his conduct to all parties, and sincerely desirous to promote purity of manners, and soundness of doctrine among the clergy. In his religious opinions he was a rigid Calvinist. The following is a list of his works, as given in Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary:-1st. Quæstiones sex, totidem prælectionibus in Schola Theologica Oxoniæ, pro forma habitis, discussæ et disceptatæ, anno 1597, in quibus e Sacra Scriptura et Patribus, quid statuendum sit definitur. Oxon, 1598, 4to.-reprinted in 1616 at Frankfort. 2d. Exposition on the Prophet Jonah, contained in certain sermons preached in St Marie's church, in Oxford, 1600.—4to. 3d. Answer to the Questions ⚫ of the Citizens of London, in January, 1600, concerning Cheapside Cross; not printed until 1641. 4th. The Reasons which Dr Hill hath brought for the upholding of Papistry, unmasked, and showed to be very weak, &c. Oxon, 1604, 4to. 5th. A Preface to the examination of George Sprot, &c. 6th. Sermon preached at Westminster, May 26, 1608, at the funeral of Thomas, earl of Dorset, late lord-high-treasurer of England, on Isaiah xl. 6. 1608.—4to. 7th. Translation of a part of the New Testament, with the rest of the Oxford divines, 1611. 8th. Some Memorials touching the nullity between the earl of Essex and his lady, pronounced September 25, 1613, at Lambeth; and the dif

The learned translator of Mosheim censures Lord Clarendon's ace unt of this eminent prelate as most unjust and partial; and in a long note, ably and judiciously appreciates the archbishop's merit and excellence. It was, he shows, by the zeal and dexterity of Abbot, that things were put into such a situation in Scotland as afterward produced the entire establishment of the episcopal order in that nation. It was by the mild and prudent counsels of Abbot, when he was chaplain to the lord-high-treasurer Dunbar, that there was passed a famous act of the general assembly of Scotland, which gave the king the authority of calling all general assemblies, and investing the bishops, or their deputies, with various powers of interference and influence over the Scotch ministers. These facts confute the charge of his disregarding the constitution of the

church.

ficulties endured in the same. 9th. A Brief Description of the Whole World, wherein is particularly described all the monarchies, empires, and kingdoms of the same, with their academies, &c. 1617, 4to., frequently reprinted. 10th. A Short Apology for Archbishop Abbot, touching the death of Peter Hawkins, dated October 8, 1621. 11th. Treatise of perpetual visibility and succession of the true church in all ages. London, 1624, 4to.; published without his name; but his arms impaled with those of Canterbury, are put before it. 12th. A Narrative, containing the true cause of his sequestration and disgrace at court, in two parts; written at Ford, in Kent, 1627-printed in Rushworth's Historical Collections, vol. 1. p. 438-461, and in Annals of King Charles, p. 213-224. 13th. History of the Massacre in the Valteline-printed in the third volume of Fox's Acts and Monuments. 14th. Judgment on bowing at the name of Jesus. Hamburgh, 1632, 8vo.

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ROBERT ABBOT, bishop of Salisbury, and elder brother of the former, was born at Guilford, in Surrey, in 1560, and educated at the same school and college with George. He soon became a celebrated preacher, and was chosen lecturer at Worcester, and subsequently rector of All Saints in that city. In 1597, he took the degree of D.D., and in the beginning of Janies's reign was appointed one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary. The pedantic monarch was so well pleased with the doctor's book, De Antichristo,' that he ordered it to be printed along with his own 'Paraphrase on the Apocalypse,' "by which," says Granger, "he paid himself a much greater compliment than he did the doctor." In 1609 he was elected master of Baliol college; in 1610 he was made prebendary of Normanton; and in 1612 he was appointed regius professor of divinity at Oxford. His vindication of the supreme power of kings, against Bellarmine and Suarez, gave his royal master great satisfaction, and obtained for him the see of Salisbury, in 1615, which, however, he did not long enjoy; his sedentary life and intensely studious habits having brought upon him the disease of gravel, of which he died on the 2d of March, 1618, in the 58th year of his age. His remains were interred in Salisbury cathedral. He wrote:-1st. The Mirror of Popish Subtleties. Lond. 1594, 4to. 2d. The Exaltation of the Kingdom and Priesthood of Christ-sermons on the first seven verses of the 110th Psalm.-Lond. 1601, 4to. 3d. Antichristi Demonstratio, contra Fabulas Pontificias, et ineptam Rob. Bellarmini de Antichristo Disputationem. Lond. 1603, 4to. 4th. Defence of the Reformed Catholic of Mr W. Perkins against the Bastard Counter Catholic of Dr William Bishop, seminary priest; in three parts, 1606, 4to. 5th. The Old Way; a sermon at St Mary's Oxon. Lond. 1610, 4to. 6th. The true ancient Roman Catholic; being an apology against Dr Bishop's Reproof of the Defence of the Reformed Catholic, 1611, 4to. 7th. Antilogia; adversus Apologiam Andreæ Eudæmon-Johannis, Jesuite, pro Henrico Garnetto, Jesuita Proditore. Lond. 1613, 4to. 8th. De Gratia et Perseverantia Sanctorum, Exercitationes habitæ in Academia Oxon. Lond. 1618, 4to. 9th. In Ricardi Thomsoni Angli-Belgici Diatribam, de Amissione et Intercessione Justificationis et gratiæ, Animadversio brevis. Lond. 1618, 4to. 10th. De Suprema Potestate Regia Exercitationes habitæ in Academia Oxoniensi contra Rob. Bellaminum et Franciscum Suarez. Lond. 1619, 4to. He

likewise wrote several commentaries on the Scriptures, which were never printed; among these is a Latin commentary on the epistle to the Romans, in four volumes folio, in which we are assured by the English editors of Bayle, "the learned prelate has shown his great skill in polemical divinity in every article which admits of controversy." Comparing the merits of the two brothers, Fuller remarks that " George was the more plausible preacher, Robert the greater scholar; George was the abler statesman, Robert the deeper divine."

William Ames.

BORN A. D. 1576.-died a. D. 1633.

WILLIAM AMES, or AMESIUS, was a very learned and distinguished puritan divine, descended from an ancient and honourable family in Norfolk. He was born in 1576, and educated at Christ's college, Cambridge. Here he attached himself to the celebrated theologian of the Calvinistic school, Mr W. Perkins. But his tenets proved the bar to his advancement, and after suffering some troubles, he left that university, and went to Friesland, where his learning and polemical skill soon obtained for him the distinction of a professorship in the university of Franeker. He mingled in most of the theological controversies of the age, and was looked up to with much respect by all learned men of the protestant church. He continued his divinity professorship for twelve years, when, finding the locality of Franeker incongenial with his constitutional complaint, which was an asthma, he removed to Rotterdam, where he became pastor of the English congregation. Here he had a dispute with Grevinchovius, a minister of that place, which appeared in print about 1613. He attended at the synod of Dort, and communicated to the English ambassador from time to time a full report of the debates of that assembly. One of his most celebrated works was di rected against the famous popish author, Cardinal Bellarmine. The work is entitled, Bellarminus Enervatus,' and is a specimen of the most condensed and comprehensive argumentation which was perhaps ever directed against the church of Rome. Though a single and very small volume, it contains every material point in the popish controversy, It was written in Latin, and published at Amsterdam, 1628. He wrote many other works in Latiu. These were all collected and reprinted in five vols. 8vo. in 1658, at Amsterdam. His English works were also numerous, but mostly controversial. Finding the religious affairs of his native country by no means inviting, nor likely to admit his return, he had formed the design of following many of his puritan brethren to New England, and probably would have done so the ensuing spring, but he was cut off in the winter of 1633, at the age of 57.

Joseph Mede, B.D.

BORN A. D. 1586.-DIED A. d. 1638.

JOSEPH MEDE was born, October, 1586, at Berden, near Bishop Stortford, Essex. His parents were persons of good reputation, and related to Sir John Mede of Lofts Hall, in that county, whose eldest son subsequently became the pupil of Mr Joseph Mede. Both himself and his father took the small-pox at the same time, when he was about ten years of age. The father died, but the son recovered, and was sent to school first at Hoddesden, and afterwards at Wetherfield, in Essex. About this period, Joseph, being in London, met with a copy of Bellarmine's Hebrew grammar, which he procured. Having taken it to school with him, his master endeavoured to dissuade him from the study of it, but such was his ardour in the acquisition of that language, that he made considerable progress in it, without the assistance of any tutor, before he left school. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the university of Cambridge, and entered at Christ's college as a pupil under Mr Daniel Rogers, and three years after under Mr William Addison. Having taken the degrees of B. A. and M. A., he was advanced by his tutor to the office of reader to his pupils, and moderator at their disputations. His high attainments and excellent character procured him much respect, not only in his own college, but throughout the university. During this period he laboured under great defects of utterance, which, by diligent attention and perseverance, he at length overcame. But his studies were embittered and impeded by a trial of a far worse and very different kind. In the chamber of a fellow-student he met with a book not named, which for a considerable time shook his confidence in first principles, and brought him near to Pyrrhonism. It was not without much difficulty that he was enabled to rid himself of this troublesome perplexity, and escape from the toils of universal scepticism. At length, however, he emerged from these clouds, and found his way back to the high way of truth and common sense. Henceforward, his course was happy and distinguished. He became celebrated for his knowledge of many languages, for mathematics, anatomy, and philosophy in general. His first production which excited attention was a Latin address to Dr Andrews, bishop of Ely and Winchester, De Sanctitate relativa,' &c. This was afterwards published in a treatise on 1 Cor. xi. 22, and in his 'Concio ad Clerum' on Levit. xix. 30. This address procured him the warm patronage of Bishop Andrews, who recommended him to a fellowship, and made him his household chaplain; but it appears Mr Mede declined serving the latter appointment, because it would have drawn him away from his studies. He met with formidable opposition in his election to the fellowship, on account of his Calvinistic principles, but ultimately succeeded. He was next chosen lecturer on Greek, on the foundation of Sir Walter Mildmay, and continued in this office through life. His labours were not, however, confined to his lectureship. He undertook the charge of pupils, and was both diligent and successful in the direction of their studies. But while thus engaged in assisting others, he was ardently employed in the augmentation of his own stores of know

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