"his painful labours to the good of his church." And yet in this place he met with many oppofitions in the regulation of church affairs, which were much difordered at his entrance, by reafon of the age and remiffnefs of Bishop Grindal (his immediate predeceffor), the activity of the Non-conformifts, and their chief affiftant the Earl of Leicester; and indeed by too many others of the like facrilegious principles. With these he was to encounter; and tho' he wanted neither courage nor a good caufe, yet he forefaw, that without a great measure of the Queen's favour, it was impoffible to ftand in the breach that was made into the lands and immunities of the church, or to maintain the remaining rights of it. And therefore by juftifiable facred infinuations, fuch as St. Paul to Agrippa (" Agrippa, believeft thou? I know thou believeft"), he wrought himself into fo great a degree of favour with her, as, by his pious use of it, hath got both of them a greater degree of fame in this world, and of glory in that into which they are now entered.

His merits to the Queen, and her favours to him were fuch, that fhe called him her little black bufband", and called his fervants her fervants; and she saw so visible and bleffed a fincerity fhine in all his cares and endea

Rather, according to Strype, " By reason of his fufpenfion or fequefiration which he lay "under (together with the Queen's displeasure) for fome years when the ecclefiaftical affairs "were managed by certain Civilians." During the latter part of his life Archbishop Grindal was confined to his house, and fequeftered for a non-compliance with the directions of the Queen, when the ordered him to forbid the exercifes and prophecies which were then much. practised by the Puritans. He became totally blind in 1582. The refignation of his archbifhopric being frequently urged by her Majefty was delayed from time to time, until broken down with infirmity he died July 6, 1583, aged 63 years.-Though he has been blamed for holding the reins too loofe in respect to the Puritans, and for his flackness in the government of the affairs of the church, yet this has been confidered as too fevere a charge. Hollingfhead fays of him, "That he was so ftudious, that his book was his bride, and his study his "bride-chamber, wherein he spent both his eye-fight, his ftrength, and his health."-In fact, he was a perfon of mild manners, and of fingular moderation, and very unwilling to have recourfe to extremities. Hence the Puritans claimed him as their own, though in reality no one was ever more fincerely attached to the Church of England.

Whitgift's name gave occafion to the Queen to make a defcant upon him, expreffive of her regard, calling him "her White Gift." Mr. Hugh Broughton ftyled him "Archbishop "Lucodore;" and with the fame allufion the following lines were written:

"Quod paci, Whitgifte, faves ftudiifq; bonorum,

"Det tibi pacis amans candida dona Deus."

And

vours for the church's and for her good, that she was supposed to truft him with the very fecrets of her foul, and to make him her confeffor, of which fhe gave many fair teftimonies, and of which one was, "That he would never eat flesh in Lent, without obtaining a licenfe from her little black huf"band:" And would often fay, "fhe pitied him because she trufted him, and "had eafed herself by laying the burthen of all her clergy-cares upon his "fhoulders, which, fhe was certain, he managed with prudence and piety." I fhall not keep myfelf within the promised rules of brevity in this. account of his intereft with her Majefty, and her care of the church's rights, if in this digreffion I fhould enlarge to particulars; and therefore my defire is, that one example may ferve for a teftimony of both. And that the reader may the better understand it, he may take notice, that not many years before his being made archbishop, there paffed an act or acts of Parliament, intending the better prefervation of church-lands, by recalling a power which was vefted in others to fell or lease them, by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them only in the crown; and among t many that made a bad ufe of this power or truft of the Queen's,, the Earl of Leicester was one; and the good bishop having by his interest with her Majefty put a stop to the Earl's facrilegious defigns, they two fell to an open opposition before her; after which they both quitted the room, not friends in appearance. But the bishop made a fudden and feasonable return to her Majefty (for he found her alone), and spake to her with great humility and reverence, and to this purpose":

And a scholar at Oxford compofed this epitaph upon him.

"Candida dona tibi, Whitegyfte, funt nomen et omen.

"Nomen habes niveis nunc infcriptum ergo lapillis,

"Et ftola pro meritis redditur alba tuis."

"I befeech:

e Licenses were granted at that time by the Archbishops of Canterbury for a man to eat: flesh and white meats, even during his whole life; but with this provifo, "he do it foberly, and frugally, cautiously, and avoiding public fcandal as much as might be."

* Eliz. cap. 19.

8 This nobleman professed a great defire of unity in the church, and yet was an earnest pa-tron of Cartwright and others of the Puritan ftrain. He preferred Cartwright to the masterfhip of his hofpital, founded by him at Warwick. (Strype.)

This animated fpeech was delivered before the Queen in 1578, when Whitgift was. Bishop of Worcester,.

"I beseech your Majefty to hear me with patience, and to believe that "your's and the church's fafety are dearer to me than my life, but my con"fcience dearer than both; and therefore give me leave to do my duty, "and tell you, that princes are deputed nurfing fathers of the church, and "owe it a protection; and therefore God forbid that you should be fo "much as paffive in her ruin, when you may prevent it; or that I should "behold it without horror and deteftation; or fhould forbear to tell your "Majesty of the fin and danger. And though you and myself are born in an age of frailties, when the primitive piety and care of the church's “lands and immunities are much decayed; yet, Madam, let me beg that you will but firft confider, and then you will believe there are fuch fins as profaneness and facrilege: for if there were not, they could not have names in holy writ; and particularly in the New Testament. And I "beseech you to confider, that though our Saviour faid, ' He judged no "man;' and to teftify it, would not judge nor divide the inheritance be"twixt the two brethren, nor would judge the woman taken in adultery, yet in this point of the church's rights, he was so zealous, that he made "himself both the accuser and the judge, and the executioner to punish "these fins; witnesled, in that he himself made the whip to drive the pro"faners out of the temple, overthrew the tables of the money-changers, "and drove them out of it. And confider, that it was St. Paul that said to thofe Chriftians of his time that were offended with idolatry, yet, "Thou that abhorreft idols, doft thou commit facrilege?' fuppofing, I "think, facrilege to be the greater fin. This may occafion your Majefty "to confider, that there is fuch a fin as facrilege; and to incline you to 46 prevent the curse that will follow it: I beseech you also to confider, that "Conftantine' the first Christian Emperor, and Helena* his mother; that "King Edgar', and Edward the Confeffor", and indeed many others of Nn 2 your

i See "Ant. Univers. History," Vol. XV. p. 564, 569. "Hooker's Works,” Vol. III. p. 248, Oxford edit. 1793.

"Ant. Univerf. Hift." Vol. II. p. 406.

See "Collier's Ecclefiaftical Hiftory,"Vol. I. p. 185.

Ibid. Vol. I. p. 227, 229.

your predeceffors, and many private Christians, have also given to God "and to his church much land, and many immunities, which they might "have given to thofe of their own families, and did not, but gave them as an abfolute right and facrifice to God: And with thefe immunities and "lands they have entailed a curfe upon the alienators of them; God prevent your Majefty from being liable to that curfe.

"And to make you that are trufted with their prefervation the better to "understand the danger of it, I beseech you, forget not that, befides thefe "curfes, the church's land and power have been alfo endeavoured to be "preferved, as far as human reafon, and the law of this nation, have been "able to preserve them, by an immediate and moft facred obligation on the "confciences of the princes of this realm. For they that confult Magna "Charta fhall find, that as all your predeceffors were at their coronation, "fo you also were fworn before all the nobility and bishops then present, "and in the prefence of God, and in his ftead to him that anointed you, "to maintain the church lands, and the rights belonging to it"; and this tefti"fied openly at the holy altar, by laying your hands on the Bible then lying upon it. And not only Magna Charta, but many modern ftatutes "have denounced a curfe upon those that break Magna Charta. And now "what account can be given for the breach of this oath at the last "day, either by your Majefty or by me, if it be wilfully or but negligently violated, I know not.

great

"And therefore, good Madam, let not the late lord's exceptions against "the failings of fome few clergymen prevail with you to punish posterity "for the errors of this prefent age; let particular men fuffer for their par"ticular errors, but let God and his church have their right: And though I

pretend not to prophefy, yet I beg pofterity to take notice of what is already become vifible in many families; That church-land, added to an "ancient inheritance, hath proved like a moth fretting a garment, and fecretly confumed both: or like the eagle that stole a coal from the altar, "and thereby fet her neft on fire, which confumed both her young eagles, "and

The first Article of Magna Charta is " Que les Eglifes de Engleterre feront franches et "aient les dreitures franches, et enterinés, et pleniéres."

"and herself that ftole it. And, though I shall forbear to speak reproach"fully of your father, yet I beg you to take notice, that a part of the "church's rights, added to the vast treasure left him by his father, hath "been conceived to bring an unavoidable confumption upon both, notwithstanding all his diligence to preserve it.

"And confider, that after the violation of thofe laws, to which he had "fworn in Magna Charta, God did fo far deny him his reftraining grace, "that he fell into greater fins than I am willing to mention, Madam, "religion is the foundation and cement of human focieties; and when "they that ferve at God's altar fhall be expofed to poverty, then religion "itfelf will be expofed to fcorn, and become contemptible; as you may "already

This beautiful apologue is taken with fome alterations from "Afop's Fable of the Fox and the Eagle."-Appofite to this paffage are the remarks in a very scarce and curious tract, written by Mr. Ephraim Udall, and entitled "Noli me tangere," London, 1642. "And it is "a thing to be thought on, that many antient families (as fome intelligent men have obferved) "who inherited the lands of their ancestors, longâ ferie deductâ a majoribus; when they took in "fome of the fpoiles made in tithes and glebe by the ftatute of diffolution, their poffeffions "quickly fpued out the old poffeffors of them as a loathfome thing, the bread of God. proving as the bread of deceit, gravel in their teeth; and the portion of God's mini"fters becoming like antimony or fome fuch poyfon, that dranke into the ftomacke pro❝vokes fuch a nauceous abhorrence in it, that it never refts till it hath emptied itself both of "the poyfon that troubles it, and of whatsoever elfe before lay quietly and inoffenfively "therein. I could therefore wifh that all our gentry would preferve their inheritances with"out ruin to their pofterity, would beware they bring not any spoiles of the church into "their houses, left they be fpoyled by them: for they are like the eagle's feathers by which "the Ægyptians in their hieroglyphicks fignifie pernitiofa potentia; for they are faid to con"fume all feathers among which they are mingled, as Pierius relateth of them. And to pre"ferve them from this fin, that they would have a tablet hang up alwaies in the dining-roome "where they ordinarily take their repaft, in which should be drawne an altar with flesh and fire on "it for facrifice, with an eagle ready to take wing, having in her talons a piece of flesh with a burn

ing coale at it, and fomething befide it, and higher than the altar a tall tree with an eagle's nest in it, “and the heads of her young ones discovered above the neft, and the nest flaming with a light fire about them, with this infcription over the altar, NOLI ME TANGERE NE TE ET TUOS PERDAM. For things belonging to the altar will certainly prove a fnare to devourers of them.”—(Page 32). This fubject is fully difcuffed in Dr. South's twelve fermons, printed in 1692, p. 339, 345; and by Sir Henry Spelman, in "The Hiftory and Fate of Sacrilege, difcovered by Examples of Scripture, of Heathens, and of Chriftians, from the Beginning of the World, continually to this Day."