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.

and first of Bishop ELLMER.

MY purpose in this work from the beginning, and my promise to your Highnesse, being to adde to this Author, a supply of some matters that he pur∣posely omitted writing in the latter yeers of Queen Elizabeth, and my relation be∣ing

to write plainly, without feare or fa∣vour of those I doe write, I will proceed confidently, as I have begun; in which, I perswade my selfe I have some advantage of the Author himselfe, for freedome of speech, both in the time, and many other circumstances. For he was no foole that gave that rule,

Mitissima sors••est Regnorum, sub Rege novo.

Againe, I being a Lay-man; am not so obnoxious to their apprehensions; that may be offended with that I shall say, as he was being a Churchman.

Thirdly, I lived in a place, where I might know many things without enqui∣ry; which had been scarce safe for him, in that time to enquire after.

Lastly, he writes to the world pub∣liquely, and I but privately to your High∣nesse. Therefore I will proceed quoad sciam, poteroque.

The first Bishop of London I have to write of, is Mr. John Elmer, of whom my Author hath spoken-too little, and I per∣haps shall seem to say too much; yet once I thought to have said somewhat of Bonner, because I may remember him li∣ving in the late Queens time unbishop∣ped,

and went sometimes abroad; but I was so young then, as I could judge no∣thing; and he was so hated, that every ill-favoured fat fellow that went in the street, they would say, that was Bonner. But me thinks now, by that I have heard of him, I could liken him to Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse, who being cruell and peremptory in prosperity, was both pa∣tient and pleasant in adversity. For ex∣ample, that Tyrant being expelled his Realm, and living a poore pedant, was one day with men of mean sort drinking in a Tavern, some Diogenes espying him, came to him with reverence, opening, and shaking his upper garment (for so they used in those daies, that came into the Kings chambers, to shew they had no weapons.) Dionysius perceiving the scorn, was nothing troubled, but bad him come and drink with him, and shake his clothes at the going out, that his host might see he carried nothing with him. So Bonner having twice lost his Bishoprick, walking with his Tippet in the strete, one begg'd it of him (in scoffe) to line a coat; No (saith he) but thou shalt have a fooles head, to line thy cap. And to another, that bad him good morrow Bishop quou∣dam,

he straight replied, Farewell, Knave semper. I have been told also, that one shewed him his own picture in the Book of Martyrs, in the first edition, on pur∣pose to vexe him; at which he laught, saying, a vengeance on the foole, how could he get my picture drawn so right? and when one asked him if he were not ashamed to whip a man with a beard, he laught, & told him, his beard was grown since; but (saith he) if thou hadst been in his case, thou wouldst have thought it a good commutation of pennance, to have thy bum beaten, to save thy body from burning; but this is too much of this sloven.

I come now to Bishop Elmer, whom in my own particular I loved very well, and yet performing truly the taske I have un∣dertaken, I shall shew perhaps no great signe of it. He was ā man but mean of stature, yet in his youth very valiant, which he forgat not in his age. When he first became a preacher, following the po∣pular phrase, and fashion of the younger Divines of those times, which was to in∣veigh against the superfluities of the Churchmen, he is remembred, namely to have used these words in a Sermon, beforē

a great Auditory, Wherefore away with your Thousands, you Bishops, and come down to you: Hundreds, &c. but this was but a heat of his spirit; of which not long after, by reading and conference, he was throughly cured; in so much as being asked by one of his own ranke, after he was Bishop of London, what he meant, to preach of the brainsick fashion, he an∣swered with the words of St. Paul, Cum essem parvulus, loqu••bar ut parvulus, sapie∣bam ut parvulus.

But certain it is, no Bishop was more persecuted and taunted by the Puritans of all sorts, then he was, by libels, by scoffes, by open railing, and privy back∣biting. It is vulgar, yet a passage not unworthy remembring, that past between one Mr. Maddoxe, and him: For when the Bishop had recovered him about some matter concerning Paritanisme, and he had answered the Bishop somewhat untowardly and thwartly; the Bishop, (as he was ingenious ever) said unto him, thy very name exprefseth thy nature, for Maddox is thy name, and thou art as mad a beast as ever I talked with. The other not long to seek of an answer, by your favour, Sir, (said he) your deeds answer

your name righter then mine: for your name is Ellmar, and you have marr'd all the Elms in Fulham, by lopping them. He used for recreation to bowle in a Gar∣den; and Marton Marprelate thence takes this taunting scoff••, that the Bishop would cry, Rub, rub, rub to his bowle, and when it was gone too farre, say, The di∣vell goe with it; and then, quoth he, the Bishop would follow. Thus they rubb'd one another, till they were all gall'd sometimes; and the Bishop was so weary of the place, that he would gladly have removed to Ely, and made great suit for it, and was put in some hope of it. I have seen a Letter or two of his, to his friend, subscribed thus, Yours in love, but not in London; yet would he not take it with those hard conditions that were proposed, lest Mr. Maddox, and his like, might call him Ellmarr; so as it was no∣ted as an ill fortune of his, to have died Bishop of London, which eight before him in an hundred yeers had not done, but been either preferred, or deprived. He was diligent in preaching at his cure, where he was first beneficed; and when his Auditory grew dull, and unattentive, he would with some pretty and unex∣pected

conceit, move them to attention. Among the rest was this: He read a long Text in Hebrew, whereupon all seemed to listen what would come after such strange words, as if they had taken it for some conjuration. Then he shewed their folly, that when he spake English, whereby they might be instracted and edified, they neglected, and hearkned not to it; and now he read Hebrew, which they under∣stood no word of, they would seem so carefull and attentive. When there was talk of dangers, rumours of warres, and invasions, then he was commonly chosen to preach in the Court, and he would doe it in so chearfull a fashion, as not onely shewed he had courage, but would put courage into others. Here is much doubt, saith he, of Malum ab Aquilone, and our Coleprophets have prophecied that in exaltatione Lunae Leo jungetur Leaenae, The Astronomers tell of a watry Trigon.

But as long as Virgo is in that Ascen∣dent with us, we need not fear of nothing; Deus nobiscum, quis contra nos, and for this, the Queen would much commend him, yet would she not remove him. But though he were stout, and wise and rich,

yet had he beside his conflicts with those called Puritans, also some domesticall crosses. He had a Daughter, a modest Gentlewoman, and very well brought up, whom he gave in mariage to one Mr. A∣dam Squire, a Minister and Preacher, and learned, but a very fantasticall man, as appeared partly the first day; for as I have heard, he would needs preach at his own Mariage, upon this Text, It is not good for Adam to be alone. This Text he so pursued, after he had been some years maried, that though his Wife were away, yet Adam would not be alone. This course bread jealousie, jarrs and com∣plaints, and the Bishop as he had good cause, reprehended his Son in Law, he thinking to defend, or at least to revenge himself, by recrimination, accused her to have received a love letter from a Knight (but the Squire himself had indited that) and this was so cunningly handled by him, and with such probability, that her fault was as suspitious, as his was manifest, falshood will out at last. The Bishop that feared never a Knight, nor Lord in Eng∣land, sends for the Knight (contrary to the Squires expectation) boults out the whole matter, finds there were treache∣rous

tricks put on his Daughter, but no Meretrix, and being too wise to publish his own disgrace, and too stout to indure that; I have credibly heard (and believe that to be true) that with a good waster, he so mortified this old Adam of his Son in Law Squire, that he needed no other pennance but this, which was according to the old Canon per Disciplinam, & ver∣bera. In his Sons he was more fortunate, than many Bishops in England have been thought to have been; his eldest being a civil Gentleman, and well left, another an excellent Preacher, that hath preach∣ed oft before the King, and namely one Sermon on this Text out of the 2d of the Canticles, verse 15. Take us the Foxes, the little Foxes that destroy our Vines: for our Vine, have small Grapes: which Ser∣mon so pleased his Majesty, that besides other approbations of that, he said to me, that if Mr. Ellmer had not had his Fathers collections and notes against Puritans, he could never have made so good a Ser∣mon,

and so much of Bishop Ellmer.