Anglorum speculum, or The worthies of England, in church and state Alphabetically digested into the several shires and counties therein contained; wherein are illustrated the lives and characters of the most eminent persons since the conquest to this present age. Also an account of the commodities and trade of each respective county, and the most flourishing cities and towns therein.

CHAP. VI. Of States-men.

UNder this head I intend to Write of those who have been, by their Princes Favor preferred to the Offices and Dignities of Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer of England, Lord Admiral of England, Secre∣tary of State, to whom some Lord Deputies of Ireland are added. The word Chancellour is deri∣ved by some, à Cancellendo, from Cancelling things amiss, and mitigating the rigour of the Common Law by the Rules of Equity. The Chancellour is the highest Officer of the Land, and his Jurisdiction is either ordinary in the exercise of which he is to proceed, according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm; or Extraordinay, and as to this he proceeds Secundùm Aequum & Bonum, in the Court of Con∣science, where three things are to be judged, Covin, Accident, and Breach of Confidence, Cook, Jurisd. of Courts. He also keeps the Great Seal. As for the Antiquity of the Office, King Ethelred appointed the Abbot of Elye, Quatenus Ecclesiam de Elye, extunc et semper, in Regis Curia Cancellarii ageret Dignitatem, which albeit it was void in Law to grant the Chan∣cellourship in Succession, yet it proveth that then, there was a Court of Chancery. The Lord Keeper is in effect the same with the Lord Chancellour: save that

some will have the Lord Chancellors Place, ad termi∣num Vitae, and the Lord Keepers, ad placitum Regis. Sure it is, that because Nicholas Heath, late Arch-Bishop of York, and Chancellour of England, was still alive, tho outed of his Office, Sir Nich. Bacon was made Lord Keeper, and in his time, the Power of the Keeper was made equal with the Authority of the Chancellour, by Act of Parliament. The Catalogue begins with Sir Tho. Moor, before whom Clergy-Men were Chancellours, and these are entered, under the Title of Eminent Prelats. As for the Lord Treasurer, His Office was ever beheld as a Place of great Charge and Profit. One well skill'd in the Per∣quisits thereof, said, The value of the place was worth some thousands of Pounds, to him, who (after Death) would go instantly to Heaven, twice as much to him who would go to Purgatory, and a Nemo scit, to him who would adventure to go to a worse place. The Catalogue begins at Will. Lord Paulet Marquess of Winchester, because, before him, Clergy-Men generally enjoyed the Dignity. As to Secretaries of State, there are two of them, Principal Secretary, and the Secretary of State, the first for Forraign, the other for Domestick business, as some would have it; their Salaries were in the late Kings time, some two hun∣dred Pounds a Piece, and five hundred Pounds apiece, for Intelligence and secret Service; the Catalogue begins with Th. Cromwel, in the reign of H. 8. Lord Admiral follows, the Original of which word is Amir, in Arabick, a Prince and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the Greek, belonging to the Sea; the Occasion of the composition of the two Languages seems to be the extent of the Sultans Dominions in the time of the Holy War from Sinus Arabicus, to the North Eastern part of the Midland-Sea, where a Barbarous kind of Greek was spoken, and we do not mend the matter in pro∣nouncing

Admiral for Amiral. There was a Trium∣virate of Admirals, for the North, South, and West; The Jurisdiction of the first reached from the Mouth of the Thames, to the outmost Orcades, and had Yarmouth for his prime residence. The second, from the Thames Mouth, to the Lands end, his station at Portsmouth. The third, from the Lands end, to the Hebrides, his station Milford Haven. Rich. Fitz Allen, Earl of Arundel was made the first Admiral of all England, John Vere Earl of Oxford was 1. H. 7 Admiral of England, and kept it during his Life, afterwards, according to the pleasure of the Prince, Men took their turns in that Office; because of this uncertainty there are some Admirals inserted under the Title of States-Men, and Vice-Admirals, under the Topic of Seamen. As for Lord-Deputies of Ireland, they were constituted, upon the Conquest of that place, by H. 2. and have there continued the same Power under that and the other titles of Lord Liue∣tenants, and Lord Chief Justices, with this difference, that a Lord Lieutenant might have made a Deputy; and as to the last, there was sometimes one, and at other times two Lord Chief Justices of all Ireland. The Word Lieutenant denotes the largeness of his Power, which represents the Kings. Ireland was divided in former times into many petty Kingdoms, yet, before H. 8. the Kings of England were con∣tent with the Title of Lords of Ireland. King Henry assumed that of King, for Quod efficit tale, est magis tale, and the Commission whereby King H. 2. made Will. Fitz Adelm his Lieutenant of Ireland, hath this Direction, To the Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Kings, &c.