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nument e ected in Estifan! Califax Church, to hobert Ferrar3whop fit.

vias.

was seen, to the great amusement of the court, disporting himself with that most mercurial of monarchs, at this undignified recreation. He returned to France in 1653, and died suddenly of apoplexy on

16th May 1661, while speaking to an assembly of the Academicians at Caen. The very happy and elegant lines made by M. de Brieux, in allusion to the circumstance, are worth transcribing :

Scilicet hæc cuique est data sors æquissima, talis
Ut sit mors qualis vita peracta fuit;
Musarum in gremio teneris qui vixit ab annis
Musarum in gremio debuit ille mori.

"Of his collected opera, the best edi- 3 vols. folio, edited by Leusden and Villation is that printed at Leyden, in 1712, mandy."

MONUMENT OF BISHOP FERRAR AT HALIFAX.
(With a Plate.)

IF the erection of monuments of stone or marble may be relied upon as testimonies of heart-felt sentiment, the present generation has shown itself impressed beyond its predecessors with a conviction of the benefits which are derived from the Reformation of the English church in the sixteenth century, to which those called "the Protestant Martyrs" so materially contributed.

Besides a simple memorial erected some years since at Gloucester, on the spot where Bishop Hooper was burned,

we have seen a magnificent structure raised at Oxford to the memory of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer ;* and we have now to notice a monument less expensive, but scarcely less elegant, to Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's,† which was erected last year in the parish church of Halifax, by public subscription.

It was designed and executed by Mr. J. B. Leyland, sculptor, of London, who, like the object of his labours, is a native of the parish of Halifax. The material is that called huddle-stone.

sung it was said, "Nihil magis lætabile in orbitate regni videri solebat quam celebrari a magni nominis poetis. Preter cæteras enim piλavrn et erat et habebatur." He whom the greatest of our living poets has called "Great Filicaia," said, "Io mi pregerò che si dice un dì, Cristina benche straniera lesse è gustò le opere del gran Filicaia." His Latin ode also should be read, beginning, "Regum Maxima grandiorque regno," &c. Thus the noblest lyrical poet of Italy did not blush to own that at her command the Tuscan lyre was swept with a bolder hand, and celebrated nobler deeds, "Gratulari ætati suæ videtur, quod factum Christina Suecorum reginæ opera fuerit, ut Italicæ fidicinis lyræ totæ essent aut in divinis hymnis, aut in heroum laudibus canendis." The elegant biographer of Clement the Ninth says of her, "Mansit Romæ ad vitæ usque terminum, in quo non minus quani in abdicatione regni, femina ceteroqui inconstans et levis singularem animi magnitudinem, humanarumque rerum contemptum ostendit." When Angelo Fabroni dedicated the ninth volume of his incomparable biography of the Italian scholars and philosophers to Gustavus the Third, he made the following honourable mention of the self-exiled queen :-" Quod Christinam, cui apud nos commoranti, nihil tam magnificum et tam regium videbatur, quam aut de nocte, cum astronomiæ cultoribus eximiis vigilare, aut adesse naturæ interpretatibus, seque erudito pulvere aspergere, aut in terræ abdita cum antiquitatis investigatoribus penetrare, aut in musarum choro cum summis poetis versari; aut Themidis oracula cum ejus nobilioribus antistibus perscrutari. Omnino difficile esset enumerare quot viri, quantâ scientia, quantâque in studiis varietate et copia fuerint, qui ejus aut vocibus, aut exemplo aut beneficiis se ad præclara suscipienda commotos fuisse affirmarant." Vol. ix. p. v.-Rev.

* Engraved in our Magazine for October, 1840.

We may here also allude to a monumental tablet to Bishop Wickliffe, erected in Thurcaston church, Leicestershire; to another to Bishop Coverdale in St. Magnus church, London Bridge; and to a memorial of several victims of persecution in Essex, erected we believe at Colchester.

The Monument is placed in the south-west angle of the ante-church, in the old baptistery. It consists of a tomb, ornamented in front with figures bearing shields, placed under ogeearched panels, which are croketed and finished with finials, and divided by panelled and crocketed buttresses. The covering of the tomb bears a cross, inlaid with encaustic tiles. The tomb is placed within a recess, under a fine ogee arch deeply moulded, cusped, and croketed, and terminating in an elaborate finial. The side buttresses are panelled in the upper stages, and support angels with clasped hands and expanded wings. The whole stands upon a step inlaid with encaustic tiles. The inscription, placed on the back of the recess, is as follows:

"In memory of the holy Bishop and Martyr, ROBERT FERRAR, who was born at Ewood in Midgley, in the parish of Halifax, in the reign of King Henry the Seventh.

"Not less distinguished by piety, learning, and zeal, than by integrity, firmness, and courage, he was preferred under King Henry the Eighth to the Priory of St. Oswald's at Nostel, and under King Edward the Sixth to the See of St. David's.

"In the same reign, for resisting the spoliation of the church, he suffered per secution and imprisonment; and, under Queen Mary, for rejecting doctrines not taught by the Apostles, he endured the martyrdom of fire at Caermarthen Cross, 30th March, 1555, forgiving his enemies, and glorifying his Lord and Redeemer.

"If I stir through the pains of my burning,

believe not the doctrine I have taught.' His words on being chained to the stake."

The great object of the Committee in drawing up this inscription has been to avoid desecrating the House of God by placing there any record of the contentions and disputes of sinful men. Every watchword of party or controversy has therefore been carefully excluded. In this respect the Committee would not depend solely on their own judgment, but submitted their draught to some of the most distinguished dignitaries of the Church,

from whom it received several amendments. It contains no statement which does not rest on the clearest evidence, or that could have been expressed in language less capable of giving offence.

Our ecclesiastical historians, from Godwin to Soames, have done scanty

justice to Bishop Ferrar's character. From the first to the last one echoes to another the charge of austerity and impracticability of temper, and that by due amenity of manners and prudence of conduct he might have avoided both the persecution of the Protestant party under Edward VI. and the condemnation of the Romanists under Queen Mary.

Now, as a man, we grant that his character must have partaken of human imperfection; but, whilst the failings of Cranmer, and our other great Reformers, leaned towards too feeble an opposition to the spoilers of the church, why brand with obstinacy and austerity the man who signalized himself in that too complying age by a fearless maintenance of her rights, and by his efforts to bring the plunderers to justice? And Godwin's phrase of "commodè respondens," intimating how Ferrar might have propitiated Gardiner and escaped the country, what does it mean but a cowardly equivocation, which led to his condemnation? instead of the manly avowal of his faith

In King Edward's time our Bishop gave offence not merely by instituting judicial proceedings against the precentor Dr. Young, the prebendary Dr. Merrick, and others who had plundered the cathedral of St. David's of the shrines and silver ornaments, and misappropriated part of the revenues of the see; but also by resisting the encroachments of the Crown in the presentation of livings, the right to

*This fact is circumstantially preserved by an appeal made to Foxe on Dr. Young's preferment to the see of York, by one of the archbishop's friends, urging him to prevent scandal to the church by suppressing the part which Young had acted in the first persecution of Ferrar under Edward VI. As a further reason for this, he alleges that Young had besought and received Ferrar's forgiveness previous to his execution, and that the matter ought now to be dropped. Merrick and Contential visit to their victim in Caermarthen stantine accompanied Young in this penihad not altered his disposition when he Prison. (Strype's Memorials.) But Young reached the archiepiscopate. One of his first acts at York was to pull down the hall of his palace, having no desire, it would seem, to continue its ancient hospitalities.

which was vested in the Bishop. See the charges against Bishop Ferrar laid before King Edward's Privy Council, and his defence, in the Harleian MSS. No. 420.

The consecration of Bishop Ferrar was remarkable as being the first at which the service was conducted in the English language. It took place at the archiepiscopal manor of Chertsey in Surrey, on the 9th Sept. 1548, and was performed by Archbishop Cranmer, assisted by Henry (Holbeche) Bishop of Lincoln and Nicholas (Ridley) Bishop of Rochester.

He was the first Bishop consecrated " ex nuda Regis nominatione," which royal nomination, dated at Leigh or Leez (the seat of Lord Chancellor Rich in Essex) on the 1st of July preceding, is printed in Rymer's Fœdera, &c. vol. xv. p. 173.

In Strype's Life of Cranmer will be found some account of the new office of Consecration of Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's, consisting of hymns, psalms, and prayers, with portions of scripture in the vulgar tongue, and the celebration of the communion in English.

Bishop Ferrar has encountered the blame of Wharton,* Cole, and other literary antiquaries, for the destruction of the records of his see. This charge is founded upon the return made to an inquest on Thursday, 17 April, 4th Edward VI.: "The jurors say they have neither age sufficient nor any records whereby they can give any more full account concerning the successions of the Bishops and vacancies of the see, because the present Bishop Robert Ferrar hath, by the present king's command as is said, burnt all the martyrologies, portiforiums, and ancient missals of the cathedral church of St. David's, with their kalendars, wherein were entered the names of the

* See the preface to Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. x. He does not mention Ferrar by name, but the allusion is evident: " Atque utinam ecclesiæ cathedrales sacrilegorum rapinam effugere potuissent! Harum etiam aliquot archiva homines nequissimi mutilârunt, distraxerunt, fœdârunt. Id in plurimis avaritia et impietas, in nonnullis superstitio effecit. Comperi enim Episcopum quendam ante centum et quod excurrit annos, avitæ superstitionis delendæ prætextu, omnia Ecclesiæ suæ Monumenta et Registra igni tradidisse."

Bishops, and the days and years of their entrance, translation, and death. So that they give no other account," &c.

But this passage scarcely bears out the charge; for the books mentioned are only the Latin service-books, and, though they may have contained obituaries of the Church (which is evidently the kind of record alluded to), yet their enumeration does not justify Wharton's paraphrase of "omnia Ecclesiæ Monumenta et Registra." It is not likely that the Registers of the see were included in the holocaust.

The Bishop's admirers will be gratified by the perusal of a Vindication of his character, to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1791, in which the reflections of Godwin and

Burnet, the still more injurious aspersions of Browne Willis, and the tone of depreciation adopted by Anthony Wood and other biographers, are all critically and judiciously examined. The writer was Mr. W. Williams, of Ivytower, in Pembrokeshire, who had inherited the Bishop's "small estate in Abergwilly parish, even now only forty pounds a-year," and was also possessed of his seal and walking-staff. (Gent. Mag. vol. LXI. p. 603.)

We are authorised to say, that it was this able article which called the attention of the descendants of the Bishop's family in the parish of Halifax, and of other friends of the Church, to the propriety of erecting the monument we have described.

MR. URBAN,

Maidstone, Nov. 13. ROMAN or medieval inscriptions in this country recording victories are so rare that the list of them would be small indeed, Roman inscriptions which have come down to us generally being monumental or votive, and mediæval inscriptions being also almost invariably of some other nature. In short, to explain an ancient inscription as having such an application is always most justly to be suspected as erroneous, as the result usually proves; but in the present instance there seems an exception to this rule, and there is no rule, we are informed, that does not admit of an exception.

The inscription now alluded to, for which the exemption as above is claimed, is one found at Northampton, originally engraved on an obelisk about 6 feet high, but now reduced to nearly

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