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.

WORCESTER.

Doctor Gervase Babington.

WOrcester hath been fortunate in this last age to many excellent Bishops; of which but two in an hun∣dred yeeres have died Bishops thereof, the rest having been removed. Also in lesse then fourteen yeeres that had one Bishop became Pope, namely Clement the seventh; another that was a Protestant, as Hugh Ladymer. Of the seven therefore that were in Queen Elizabeths time, I shall in this place speak but of one, and that is him now living, who by birth is a Gen∣man of a very good house; for Learning inferiour to few of his rank. Hee was sometime Chaplaine to the late Earle of Pembrooke, whose Noble Countesse used this her Chaplaines advice, I suppose, for

the translation of the Psalmes; for it was more then a womans skill to expresse the sence so right as she hath done in her verse, and more then the English or La∣tine translation could give her. They first were means to place him in Landaffe, neere them; where he would say merrily his true Title should be Aff, for all the Land was gone thence. He came back over the Sea to the Sea of Exeter, and thence on terra firma to Worcester; a place where both the Church and Town are at this day in very flourishing estate, and the Church especially in good Repa∣rations, which I take ever for one good argument of a good Bishop; for where the sheep be ragged, and the folds rot∣ten, there I straight suppose is no very good shepheard: yet, as every generall Rule, hath commonly some exceptions, so hath this in some places in England, and many more in Wales, of which I shall in their due place note somewhat in the insuing Treatise. And thus much of Wor∣cester.