VIII.

Oxon.) preaching the Wednesday before, being Ash- CHAP. Wednesday; and Bishop Skory the Sunday following; and Mr. Whitehead the Wednesday ensuing: all eminent Anno 1558. reformed Divines in King Edward the Sixth's days.

for Arch

In these beginnings and dispositions toward a reforma- Parker contion, the Church wanted a pious, grave, wise, and suitable cluded on Metropolitan: which therefore was necessary in the first bishop. place to provide. The Queen left the ordering of Church matters, for the most part, to the two brothers-in-law, Secretary Cecil, and Sir Nicolas Bacon, before mentioned. Who, in serious debate between themselves, concluded on Dr. Parker, as the fittest man to be preferred to the archbishopric; after Dr. Wotton, the Dean of Canterbury, Whitehead, and some other, are said by some to have been under their consideration.

and cha

For their purpose and full intent was to provide such a His fitness person for Archbishop, who might govern his province with racter. that discretion and moderation, as might abolish Popery, and promote the Gospel; yet not by methods of severity or sharp contention, but by persuasion rather than force. There was now before them a greater choice of learned and godly men, than any age ever before produced in this land. The lot in these two wise counsellors' judgments fell upon the foresaid Doctor, who had in him an admirable mixture of gravity and honesty, learning and prudence, gentleness and obliging behaviour.

the Lord

Therefore, December the 9th, Bacon, Lord Keeper, Sent for to summoned the reverend man, then (as it seems) at Cam- Keeper: bridge, to come up to him at Burgeny house in Paternoster Row, London, for matters touching himself; which (as he wrote to him) he trusted would turn to his good; or that if he, the Lord Keeper, were gone out of town, then he should repair to the Secretary. But our modest learned man suspecting by those words some public high honour in the Church designed him, endeavoured earnestly to put it by; choosing much rather in his own mind to be employed in some more private capacity.

For the good Divine pleaded at large his excuse, by his But ear

F 4

nestly declines it.

BOOK answer wrote from Cambridge, where he was with some I. relations. He pleaded a quartan ague, that then afflicted Anno 1558. him, and so distempered the state of his health, that with

out apparent danger he could not as yet commit himself to the adventure of the air. And prayed Bacon to signify as much to such as sent for him. And then, more than suspecting what burden was intended him, he sued 36 to him, "in confidence, as he said, of his good old heart

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"to him, to decline this intended dignity in the Church "from him. He said, he should be inwardly heavy and 66 sorry, that his favourable affection should procure him any thing above the reach of his ability, whereby he "should but dishonest himself, and disappoint the expec"tation of such as might think that in him which was not. "But especially that he might clog and cumber his con"science to God-ward, before whom he looked every day "to appear to make his answer, which he thought and "trusted was not far off. Notwithstanding, that though "he would most fain wear out the rest of his life in private "state; yet concerning that small talent credited unto him, "he would not so unthankfully unto God ensue his quiet, "that he could not be content to bestow it, so it were there "whither his heart and conscience afore that time, and daily yet did incline him; namely, to be further enabled, "by the revenue of some prebend, without charge of cure "or of government, to occupy himself to dispense God's "word among the simple strayed sheep of God's fold in

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poor destitute parishes and cures; more meet, he said, "for his decayed voice and small quality, than in theatrical "and great audience. Which walk he wished and would, "to be near those quarters, [viz. Norfolk,] where they "both [Parker and Bacon] were born, that he might have "opportunity to wait other while on him at Redgrave.—If University he might yet be bolder with him, to disclose his desire, "of all places in England he would wish to bestow most "his time in the University. The state whereof, he said, "was miserable at that present, as he had intelligence from "time to time thereof. And if in any respect he could do

Desires an

life above

all:

"service, as a weak member of the commonwealth, he CHAP., thought he might do it with them, having long acquaint

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VIII.

And Bene't

ance, and some experience in the doings thereof.And Anno 1558. "to tell Bacon his heart, he had rather have such a thing "as Bene't college, and a living of twenty nobles a year at there. "the most, than to dwell in the deanery of Lincoln, which "was two hundred at the least. And so he prayed him "to insinuate these things to Mr. Secretary. And at the "reverence of God he entreated him, either to help that "he be quite forgotten, or else so appointed, that he were "not entangled now of new with the concourse of the "world, in any respect of public state of living."

again to

Again, December 20, he wrote again to the Lord Keeper, Writes in answer (as it seems) to a second summons of that Lord; the Lord importing, that he would wait upon him either at Burgany, Keeper. or at New Market in his return down into Suffolk. And that Lord being at that time afflicted with a quartan ague, (which about this time cut off a great many people,) he prayed God to restore his strength, that he might be the sooner restored to the commonwealth, which, in that apparent danger of worthy persons, he feared felt God's hand in this his visitation. And added his advice, that he should not stir much abroad in that distemperance of the air, so contrarious to the state of men's bodies, once pierced with that insolent quartan, (as he called it,) as experience shewed. And he thought the spring-time in natural respects must be expected, though Almighty God, he said, was bound to no

time.

Thus hitherto had Dr. Parker delayed coming up, choosing rather (if he might) to stay till the Lord Keeper went down, that he might have opportunity to deal the more effectually with him, to help him to avoid the great burden that he feared was to be laid upon him.

from Secre

In the mean while another letter, dated the 30th of De- A letter cember, comes to him from Court; which was more per-tary Cecil, emptory. Wherein the Secretary wrote to him in the to summon Queen's name, that she was minded presently to use his Court; service in certain matters of importance; and therefore that

him to

I.

BOOK he [the Secretary] was commanded so to signify to him: to the end, that he should forthwith, upon the sight hereof, Anno 1558. put himself in order to make his undelayed repair unto London: and then he would declare unto him the Queen's further pleasure. But our Doctor made use again of his indisposition and want of health, to retard his coming so speedily.

And an

other from the Lord Keeper.

It was but four or five days after, viz. January the 4th, that the Lord Keeper sends again to him, mentioning the Secretary's letter, and requiring him to come up immediately, if his health would suffer, for certain weighty matters touching the Queen's service; adding, that he had been willed to hasten his coming up,

37 At these last summons the reverend man comes up, and Appointed understands more perfectly that the archbishopric was inArchbishop.tended for him: and therefore that he should accordingly

Returns

prepare himself. Which message held him in such carefulness all the time of his being at London, with the recurring of a dull distemperance in his head by the dregs of his quartan, and some other displeasant cogitations of the state of the time, that made him take so little joy of his being at London, as he never had less in his life; and glad he was back again. when his back was turned thereunto, as his own words were. And hoping yet he had half got himself off from this honour, in an excellent letter to Bacon, dated the beginning of March, at his return home, gave his advice what sort of man the Queen should make choice of for this place: and the rather, because the office being bestowed well, they might care the Describes a less for the residue. "He prayed God then to grant that fit man for it chanced neither on an arrogant man, nor a faint-hearted Parker to 66 man, nor on a covetous man. The first, he said, should "both sit in his own light, and should discourage his felvol. ii. Col-lows to join with him in unity of doctrine, which must be lect. p. 857. their whole strength. For if any heart-burnings be amongst

this see.

Lord Bacon.

Hist. Ref.

"them, if private quarrels stirred abroad be brought home, " and so should shiver them asunder, it might chance to have "that success, which he feared in the conclusion would "follow. The second should be too weak to commune with

VIII.

"the adversaries, who would be the stouter upon his pusil- CHAP. "lanimity. The third man not worth his bread, profitable "for no estate in a Christian commonwealth, to serve it Anno 1558. " rightly."

endure im

to accept

Then again as to himself, as conscious of his own abili- Resolves to ties, he thus bespake both Bacon and Cecil: "that except prisonment "they moderated and restrained their over-much good-will rather than "in the former respect towards him, he feared in the end he any bishop"should dislike them both; and that their benevolences "should, by occasion of his obstinate untowardness, jeopard "him into prison. Yet he had rather, he said, suffer it " in a good conscience, than to be intruded into such a room "and vocation, wherein he should not be able to answer the 66 charge to God nor the world: and wherein he should not "serve the Queen's honour, nor live to the honour of the "realm. And in fine, he said, by God's favour, and their "good helps, he never intended to be of that order, [of episcopacy,] better or worse, higher or lower." So far was he from affecting the archbishopric, that he resolved against being the meanest Bishop. He shewed likewise his own poverty," that he was worth thirty pounds when he came up " to London, and then wasted a good part. And what would "that do to furnish his household? He gave an instance in "Hopton, the last Bishop of Norwich, lately deceased, that upon his departure was so in debt, that the creditors seized "his goods to answer his debts to them; and then straight"way came the Queen's officers and discharged them all; "[sweeping all from the creditors, to satisfy his debts to the

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Queen.] So that for all his spare hospitality, he was not "able to pay half he owed.” Then Parker shewed Bacon another of his imperfections, as he called them, namely, his painful bodily infirmity, taken by a fall from his horse in his flight once, under Queen Mary in the night time, from such as sought for him: whereby he was so dangerously hurt, that he should never recover it: and in his late journey to London it was increased, to his greater pain. "So that he was fain, he said, sometimes to be idle, when he would "be occupied, and to keep his bed, when his heart was not

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