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.

Dr. John Thornbury.

BRistoll being a Bishoprick of the later erection, namely but 66. years since, no marvaile it never had any Bishop thereof Cannonized for a Saint, yet it can∣not be denyed since to have had one Holy∣man; and if copulation with a Bishop might make them holy, it hath had also in his short time more then one holy woman. Ispent a roving shaft on Fletchers second Marriage, I would I could as well plucke out the Thorne of Doctor Thornburies first Marriage out of every mans conscience that have taken a scandall of his second. For my part whatsoever I think in my pri∣vate, it becoms us not to Judge our Judges, the Customes and Lawes of some Coun∣tries differ from other, and sometimes are changed and mended in the same, as this case of divorce is most godly reformed in ours, and as Vincentius Lirinensis saith well of St. Cyprian who had before the

Councell of Carthage defended rebapti∣zing. The Author of this errour, saith he, is no doubt in heaven, the followers and practifers of it now goe to hell, so I may say of this Bishop, his remarriage may be pardoned, Et in hoc saeculo et in futuro, but he that shall so do, again may be met with in hoc saeculo. But it was the Bishop of Limbrick in Ireland and not the Bishop of Bristoll in England that thus married; what? doth this lessen the scandall? I suppose it doth. For I dare affirme, that most of that Diocesse are so well catechi∣sed, as they thinke it as great a scandall for their Bishop, (yea rather greater) to have one wife as to have two, and though for Lay mens Marriage, their Priests tell them it is a holy Sacrament in them (which they count a Sacriledge in a Bi∣shop) and they conferre to them out of St. Paul 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, there is a great Sacrament, yet their people and some of their Peers also regard it as slight∣ly, and dissolve it more uncivilly then if it were but a civill contract, for which they draw not onely by their bastardies and bigamies many apparent scourges of God the heavenly Father, but also a pecu∣liar pennance unto their Nation of one

fasting day extraordinary from their holy father the Pope. But setting aside this misfortune rather then fault, which is God and the King pardon him for, who shall impute to him? for other matters, I have reason to think him and his in Gods and the Kings favour. He and his whole family had a miraculous escape in Ireland, which I would all our Bishops did know▪ that they might remember to keep their houses in better reparations. Lying in an old Castle in Ireland in a large room, partitioned but with sheets or curtens, his wife, children, and servants, in effect a whole family; In the dead time of the night, the floore over head being earth and plaster, as in many places is used, o∣vercharged with weight, fell wholly downe together, and crushing all to pie∣ces that was above two foot high as cup∣bords, tables, formes, stooles, rested at last upon certaine chests, as God would have it, and hurt no living creature. He did many good services in Ireland for our Queen and State, for which he was thought worthy of a better aboade, then in that Purgatory.

He hath very good understanding of that Countrey, and if some others, who

are since gone out of this world, had been as willing as he to have reported to his Majesty the diseases of that Countrey and the fittest cures, it may be it would not in long time have needed those desperate re∣medies of Secandum and Vrendum, as sharp to the Surgeons oftentimes as to the Patients. But to conclude, of this Bishop, whom I love more then I praise, he is not unfurnisht of Learning, of Wis∣dome, of Courage and other as well E∣piscopall as temporall panoplia or furni∣ture beseeming a gentleman, a Dean, and a Bishop.