23. Notwithstanding the respondent acquitted him- [1627] self most bravely before all the company, ascribing no more honour to Bellarmine than for his deserts in learning, and integrity in that particular point before spoken of; which any generous man would give to his learned antagonist. For many Lutherans and Calvinists, I may say, (pace tanti viri), so angry at a word, have not grudged, much less judged it any crime, to praise the Cardinal's learning. Doctrinam et nos in ipso commendamus1, saith a rigid Lutheran, and St Paul himself would not stick to call him who was an inveterate enemy of the Christians, "most noble Festus2." 110 And though Cardinals, we know, were originally but parish Priests, by pride and usurpation have made themselves compeers to Kings, that which is unjustly once obtained by time groweth common and familiar, that none will refuse to give such their ordinary titles of honour, although they come by indirect means and not by merit to them. Bellarmine also was of no poor and base extraction, but better than his fellows; for which reason he was created Cardinal by Clement the Eighth. Hunc eligimus (saith he) quia est nepos optimi et sanctissimi Pontificis3, because he was the nephew of Marcellus the Second, who said that he could not see how any one could be saved who sat in the pon

Norwich] preaching to the University in the Chapel of Merton Coll.
(of which he was fellow) touched upon the passages which had hap-
pened between Prideaux and Heylyn, impertinently to his text, but
pertinently enough to his purpose, which was to expose Heylyn to dis-
grace and censure. But so it was, that, though he was then present,
yet it did little trouble him, as he himself acknowledgeth."-Ath. Oxon.

iii. 553.

1 Quensted. Dialog. de Patriis Illustr. Virorum, [328, ed. Witteb. 1691.] A.

2 Acts xxvi. 25.

3 ["Quia non habet parem Ecclesia Dei quoad doctrinam, et quia,” &c.] Quensted. 327. A.

[1627-8] tifical chair-Non video quomodo qui locum hunc altissimum tenent, salvari possunt1.

24. After those heats of disputation were over, Mr Heylyn took a journey to London2, where he waited on Bishop Laud, then Bishop of Bath and Wells, who had heard of all the passages that had happened at Oxford. Of which Mr Heylyn gave a more perfect account to his Lordship, who was pleased to read over the supposition at which Dr Prideaux was so highly 111 offended: but the good Bishop, on the other side, commended it, and encouraged Mr Heylyn in his studies" saying that he himself had in his younger days maintained the same positions in a disputation in St John's College3; that Mr Heylyn's hypothesis could not be overthrown in a fair way: exhorting him to continue in that moderate course; and that, as God had given him more than ordinary gifts, so he would pray to God, that he and others might employ them in such a way and manner as might make up the breaches in the walls of Christendom." Mr Heylyn,

1 Onuphr. [ap. Platin. de Vitis Pontif. 430.] A.

2 The interval was longer than the text might lead us to suppose, the disputations having taken place in April 1627, while the interview with Laud was in the following February.

3 "For which he was much blamed by Archbishop Abbot, then Vicechancellor, and made a by-word and reproach in the University." -Vern. 29. Comp. Cypr. Angl. 53-4.

4 ["On Tuesday, the fifth of February, he strained the back sinew of his right leg, as he went with his Majesty to Hampton Court, which kept him to his chamber till the 14th of the same; during which time of his keeping in, I had both the happiness of being taken into his special knowledge of me, and the opportunity of a longer conference with him than I could otherwise have expected. I went to have presented my service to him as he was preparing for this journey, and was appointed to attend him on the same day sevennight, when I might presume on his return. Coming precisely at the time, I heard of his mischance, and that he kept himself in his chamber; but order had been left with the servants, that if I came he should be made ac'quainted with it; which being done accordingly, I was brought into his chamber, where I found him sitting in a chair, with his lame leg

112

to clear himself from the suspicion of popery, which [1628]
Dr Prideaux had most unjustly branded him with, in
November next following preached before the King on
those words, John iv. ver. 20: "Our fathers worshipped
on this mountain," &c. In which sermon he declared
himself with such smart zeal and with as quick judg-
ment against several errors and corruptions in the
Church of Rome, that his sermon was otherwise re-
sented by the King and court than his supposition by
the King's Professor at Oxon.

And when that clamour was revived again by his
enemies, that he had some inclinations to the Romish
religion, he gave such satisfaction in his third and
fourth sermon preached at Whitehall, in the year 1638,
upon the Parable of the Tares, on these words, Matt.
xiii. ver. 26, Tunc apparuerunt zizania, ("Then ap-
peared the tares also"), that some of the court did
not stick to say that he had done more towards the
subversion of popery in those two sermons than Dr
Prideaux had done in all the sermons which he had
ever preached in his life 2. For that Doctor was a
resting on a pillow. Commanding that nobody should come to inter-
rupt him till he called for them, he caused me to sit down by him,
inquired first into the course of my studies, which he well approved of,
exhorting me to hold myself in that moderate course in which he
found me. He fell afterwards to discourse of some passages in Oxon
in which I was specially concerned, and told me thereupon the story of
such oppositions as had been made against him in that University by
Archbishop Abbot and some others; encouraged me not to shrink, if
I had already or should hereafter find the like. I was with him thus,
remotis arbitris, almost two hours: it grew towards twelve of the
clock, and then he knocked for his servants to come unto him. He
dined that day in his ordinary dining-room, which was the first time
he had so done since his mishap. He caused me to tarry dinner with
him, and used me with no small respect, which was much noted by
some gentlemen who dined that day with him."]-Cypr. Angl. 166.
[=175-6.] 4.

1 Exam. Hist. ii. Append. 215.

2 Ibid. Comp. Certamen Epistolare, 141; Pref. to the Sermons on the Tares, ed. 1659.

[1628] better disputant than a preacher, and, to give him his due, a right learned man in his place of Regius Professor; yet withal so dogmatical in his own points, that he would not abide to be touched, much less contradicted by Mr Heylyn

Non aliam ob causam, nisi quod virtus in utroque,

Summa fuit 1....

More especially being a great man, at that time very
popular in the University, profoundly admired by the
junior masters, and some of the seniors inclined to
Puritanism; his own College then observed to be (com-
munis pestis adolescentum2) the common nursery of west- 113
country-men in Puritan principles, so that Mr Heylyn
could expect no favour nor fair dealing in the way of
his disputation, when it ran contrary to the Professor's
humour.

25. After these academical contests, growing weary
of obs. and sols. in scholastical disputations, which was
ever opposite to his genius, and for this purpose being
unwilling to be always cloistered up within the walls
of a College, where he must be tied to such exercises;
-besides, a man of an airy and active spirit, (though
studious and contemplative,) would not be perpetually
devoted to a melancholy recluse life-also emulation
and envy, the two inseparable evils that accompany
learned men in the same society, hath frequently stirred
up animosities and factions among them, that I have
known some ingenious persons for this reason have
been wearied out of a collegiate life;-resolved there-
fore he was to marry, and alter the condition of his
life, which he thought would prove more agreeable to
the content and satisfaction of his mind;-(Neque aliud
1 Horat. Sat. 1. vii. 14-15.

2

"Pernicies communis adolescentium, Perjurus, pestis."

Terent. Adelph. II. i. 34-5.

114 probis quam ex matrimonio solatium esse1, saith the good [1628] author, "because marriage is the only comfort of minds honestly given.") Accordingly a fair fortune was offered to him, a wife with a thousand pounds portion, and a gentlewoman of a very ancient family and of as excellent education, Mrs Letitia High-gate2, third daughter of Thomas High-gate of Heyes, Esq., one of his Majesty's justices of peace for the county of Middlesex, (who in his younger days, whilst his elder brother was alive, had been Provost-MarshalGeneral of the army under the Earl of Essex at the action of Cales3), and of Margery Skipwith his wife, one of the daughters of that ancient family of the Skipwiths in the county of Leicester, of which family still there is a worthy person living, Sir Thomas Skipwith, Knight, a learned Serjeant in the Law. Which said Thomas High-gate, the father before mentioned, was second son of that Thomas High-gate who was Field-Marshal-General of the English forces before St Quintine, under the command of the Earl of Pembroke, anno Dom. 15574, and of Elizabeth Stoner his 115 wife, a daughter of the ancient family of the Stoners in the county of Oxon5.

26. To this young gentlewoman, Mrs Letitia Highgate aforesaid, Mr Heylyn was no stranger; for his elder brother, Mr Edward Heylyn, had married some years before her eldest sister. His seat was at Minster Lovel in Oxfordshire, where his son (to whom Dr

1 Tacit. [Ann.] iv. [53.] 4.

2 Vernon writes the name Heygate; the folio, in both ways.

3 The expedition to Cadiz was in 1596.-Hume, v. 334.

4 See the History of the Reformation, Mary, v. 1.

5 Vernon gives the same account of Mrs Heylyn's pedigree, and adds, "These particulars are set down by our learned Doctor in his little manuscript, to this end-That [his] posterity might know from what roots they sprang, and not engage in anything unworthy their extraction.""-33-4.