A briefe view of the state of the Church of England as it stood in Q. Elizabeths and King James his reigne, to the yeere 1608 being a character and history of the bishops of those times ... / written ... by Sir John Harington ..., Knight.

Doctor Thomas Cooper.

I intend therefore to speak next of Dr. Cooper, because of Bishop Herne, and Bi∣shop Watson, I cannot add any thing up∣on sure ground, for of the former times, I have either Books of stories, or relation of my Fathers that lived in those dayes; but or these that lived in the first twenty yeeres of the Queens Raign when I was at school, or at the University, I could hear little, yet at my first coming to the Court, I heard this pretty tale, that a Bi∣shop of Winchester one day in pleasant talk, comparing his Revenue with the Arch-bishops of Canterbury, should say, your Graces will showe better in the Rack, but mine will be found more in the Manger, upon which a Courtier of good place said, it might be so in diebus illis; But saith he, the Rack stands so high in

sight, that it is fit to keep it full, but that may be, since that time, some have with a provideatur swept some provender out of the Manger: and because this Meta∣phor comes from the Stable, I suspect it was meant by the Mr. of the Horse. To come then to Bishop Cooper, of him I can say much, and I should do him great wrong, if I should say nothing; for he was indeed a reverent man, very well learned, exceeding industrious, and which was in those dayes counted a great praise to him, and a chief cause of his preferment, he wrote that great Dictio∣nary that yet bears his name, his Life in Oxford was very commendable, and in some sort Saint-like; for if it be Saint∣like to live unreprovable, to bear a cross patiently, to forgive great injuries freely: this mans example is sampleless in this age.

He maried a Wife in Oxford, for that speciall just cause (I had almost said onely cause) why Clergymen should ma∣ry, viz. for avoiding of sin. Melius est e∣nim nubere qu am uri, yet was that his very hard hap that she proved too light for his gravity by many grains, or rather many pounds. At the first he winkt at that with

a Socraticall and Philosophicall patience, taking, or rather mistaking the equivoca∣ting counsel of Erasmus Ecchoe. Quid si mihi veniat usu quod his qui incidunt in uxores parum pudicas parum{que} frugiferas? Feras. At qui cum talibus morte durior est vita? vita; wherein I observe in the two Ecchos, how in the first Feras signifies ei∣ther the verb, suffer, or that Nown, wild beasts, or shrews. In the latter, vita signi∣fieth the Nown life, or the verb shun or eschew: so he (good man) construed Feras, Vita. suffer during life, and I should take that vita Feras shun shrews. But this Fe∣ra whom his Feras made Feram, com∣mitted wickedness even with greediness, more then was in power of flesh and blood to bear: wherewith being much afflicted, having warned his Brother pri∣vatly, and born with him perhaps 70. times seven times. In the end taking him both in a place and fashion (not fit to be named) that would have angred a Saint, he drave him thence, (not much unlike) as Tobias drove away the spirit Asmo••eus, for that was done with a Roste, and this with a spit. It was high time now to follow the Counsel. Dic Ecclesiae, so (as all Oxford knows) her Paramor

was bound from her in a bond of one hundred pound, but they should rather have been bolts of an hundred pound.

The whole University in reverence of the man and indignity of the matter, offered him to separate his wife from him by publique authority, and so to set him free, being the innocent party. But he would by no means agree thereto, al∣ledging he knew his own infirmity, that he might not live unmarried; and to di∣vorce and marry againe, he would not charge his conscience with so great a scandall.

After he was Bishop, mad Martin, or Marprelate wrote his book or rather Li∣bell, which some (playing with Martin at his own weapon) answered pleasantly both in Ryme and Prose, as perhaps your Highnesse hath seen, or I wish you should see, for they are short and sharp. But this Bishop with authority and gravity confu∣ted him soundly; whereupon Martin Madcap, (for I think his cap and head had like proportion of wit) replying, and anabaptized his bastard book by the name of Work for the Cooper; and had not the wisdome of the State prevented him, I think he and his favourers would have

made work for the Tinker.

And so much of Bishop Cooper, though I could adde a report, that a great Lord dying in his time bequeathed him a great Legacy, but because I have not seen his last testament, I cannot precisely affirm it.