CHAPTER XIII MADE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S 1621-1624 THE time had now come when Donne might reasonably expect promotion in the Church. He had been promised Salisbury, but there had been no vacancy there; he was now to receive a deanery much more suited to his tastes. and habits. Three deans were raised to the episcopate in 1621, Williams being promoted from Westminster to Lincoln, Laud from Gloucester to St. David's, and Carey from St. Paul's to Exeter. Of these three deaneries it was obviously the last for which Donne was pre-eminently fitted. Cotton, Bishop of Exeter, died on the 26th of August, and a fortnight later Valentine Carey was nominated to succeed him. Carey was a man unknown as a writer and unvalued as a divine, but a person of undaunted "push "; he was elected to the see of Exeter on the 27th of September. It would appear that Donne, in his anxiety to see the matter of the Deanery of St. Paul's settled, had turned to Villiers. "To the Marquis of BUCKINGHAM.1 "MY MOST HONOURED LORD,—I most humbly beseech your Lordship to afford this rag of paper a room amongst your evidences. It is your evidence, not for a manor, but for a man. As I am a priest, it is my sacrifice of prayer to God for your Lordship; and as I am a priest made able to subsist, and appear in God's service, by your Lordship, it is a sacrifice of myself to you. I deliver this paper as my image; and I assist the power of any conjuror with 1 From Cabala. this imprecation upon myself, that as he shall tear this paper, this picture of mine, so I may be torn in my fortune and in my fame, if ever I have any corner in my heart dispossessed of a zeal to your Lordship's service. His Majesty hath given me a royal key into your chamber, leave to stand in your presence; and your Lordship hath already such a fortune, as that you shall not need to be afraid of a suitor when I appear there. So that, I protest to your Lordship I know not what I want, since I cannot suspect, nor fear myself, for ever doing, or leaving undone, anything by which I might forfeit that title of being always your Lordship's, &c., "September 13, 1621.” J. D. Donne was immediately assured of his succession in the picturesque way described by Walton: "The king sent to Dr. Donne, and appointed him to attend him at dinner the next day. When his Majesty was sat down, before he had eat any meat, he said, after his pleasant manner, 'Dr. Donne, I have invited you to dinner, and, though you sit not down with me, yet I will carve to you of a dish which I know you love well; for, knowing you love London, I do therefore make you Dean of Paul's; and when I have dined, then do you take your beloved dish home to your study, say grace there to yourself, and much good may it do you." Donne could not, however, to continue King James's "pleasant" humour, fall to at the beloved dish then and there. The case of Archbishop Abbot, threatened with deprivation for the involuntary homicide of a keeper in Lord Zouch's park, was dragging on, and certain ecclesiastical acts had to be postponed till the status of the Primate was defined. Meanwhile Williams refused consecration from Abbot, and after some delay all the new bishops were consecrated by the Bishop of London as the Archbishop's commissary. Abbot refrained from the performance of all metropolitical acts until after the Commission had decided upon his case. It is not accurate to say that the promo |