of the Authors: whence the reader receives a truer and more lasting idea of Men than it is possible for Pencils or Colours to convey.

The Author of the following elaborate Treatise ought to be so well known to Englishmen, that his Name alone should be a sufficient recommendation to any Work which can claim a descent from him. But it now being more than two Centuries since his death; and his Books, which were for a long time chained up in all Churches, being now almost entirely unknown to a large majority of his Countrymen, it may not be esteemed an unseasonable piece of service to the Church to use every means for reviving the Memory or extending the Reputation of this great and good Man, the invincible Champion of the Church of England; who losing the opportunity of sacrificing himself for that Church in the Reign of Queen Mary, did it with more advantage to us, though with pain to himself, under her Royal Successor; when

he so freely devoted himself to her service, that having exhausted his slender body by excessive labour and intense study, he died young, bequeathing to himself the reward of his meritorious and good deeds; a glorious and imperishable Name.

John Jewell was born May 24th, A.D. 1522, at Buden, in the Parish of Berinerber, in the County of Devon; and, though a younger brother, he inherited the name of his Father. For his Mother he had so great an esteem, that he caused her family name, Bellamy, to be engraved on his Signet; and had it always impressed on his mind, as a lasting token of her Virtue and Maternal Affection. His Father was descended from an ancient and good, but not rich family; and though his Ancestors had enjoyed the Estate for more than two hundred years, yet having, as is recorded, ten children, it is no wonder that Jewell in his early days required the assistance of benevolent men in the prosecution of his Studies.

At the age of seven, Jewell received the first rudiments of his Education, under the eye of his uncle, John Bellamy, Rector of Hamton; afterwards he attended a school at Branton, under Mr. Thomas Stotes; at South Molton, under Antony Simons; and at Barnstaple, under Walter Bowin, where he had for his school-fellow, Dr. John Harding, who was afterwards his furious antagonist *.

He was of an amiable and industrious disposition in his Youth, and gave early indication of his great talent and insatiable thirst for Knowledge; which was carefully cultivated both by his Parents and Teachers: and so rapid was his progress, that at the age of thirteen he was admitted a Student of Merton College, Oxford, under a Mr. Burrey, a man neither possessed of much Knowledge nor favourable notions towards the Reformation, which then, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, made but little progress.

* Vide Fuller's Worthies, in Devonshire, p. 253.

But to this his first Tutor we are nevertheless much beholden for having committed so promising a youth to the care of Mr. John Parkhurst, a fellow of the same College, who was afterwards Bishop of Norwich; a man of greater Learning and better Faith: who prudently instilled into the mind of his pupil, together with instruction, those Principles which ultimately made him the favourite and Wonder of the Age.

During his residence at Merton College a plague broke out at Oxford, which obliged him to remove to a place called Croxham, when, by lodging in a low room and ardently pursuing his studies in the night, he caught a Cold, which brought on a lameness that afflicted him to the last moment of his life. Having spent almost four years at Merton College, August 19th, A.D. 1539, in the thirty-first year of the reign of Henry the Eighth, and seventeenth of his age, he was, through the interest of a Mr. Slater, Mr.

Burrey, and Mr. Parkhurst, his Tutors, removed to Corpus Christi College, in the same University, where it is said he met with some countenance; but it is certain also, that he encountered envy from his equals, who often suppressed his ingenious Exercises, and read others in their stead more like their own. In the month of October of the following year, Jewell proceeded to the degree of Bachelor of Arts with great and general applause; and he now prosecuted his studies with more vigour than before, beginning them at four in the morning and continuing them till ten at night, absolutely needing some person to remind him of the necessity of taking food. He soon attained a great Reputation for Learning, and began to instruct others: indeed so much was he esteemed, that Mr. John Parkhurst, his Tutor, intrusted his son Anthony to his care; which was a great argument in favour of his Worth and Industry. His own College now chose him Reader of Humanity and Rhetoric, which duty he for seven years dis