Life of Matthew Parker (Strype, 1821)/Preface
PREFACE.
I HAVE some things to advertise the reader ; partly concerning this work, and partly concerning myself. The Wise Man (Prov. x. 7.) saith, that the memory ofthe righteous is blessed ; or, attended with praises, (according to the vulgar,) as a part of the reward of his virtues, after he is gone hence. This history is intended to contribute to this good end, viz. to revive and do right to the sacred memory of a righteous man : who was pious, and a confessor for pure religion ; learned, and a great fautor and promoter of good learning ; and also an illustrious member of this Church of England ; being both a chief instrument in its reformation, and a primary defender and patron of its constitution. And as honour to his name may be perpetuated by these memorials of him, so considerable advantage and benefit likewise may arise thence unto us that read them.
For the various passages and emergencies of
this great and good Prelate's life will administer plentiful matter for our own behaviour, and imitation of his piety, prudence, liberality, resolution, patience, unmoveable constancy in a good cause, adherence to, and zealous defence of, the Church of England, as reformed and legally established. Hence also we shall be instructed in much of our ecclesiastic and academic history ; which is necessarily and largely interwoven in these writings of his life, and runs along with each year of it. For though the chief matters herein related respect the Archbishop only, and his painful discharge of his peculiar function and office ; yet in the course of the history fall in many transactions about religion and the Church's affairs : as, how true religion was first brought in and settled :
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what was done afterwards in ecclesiastical commissions, synods, and convocations, and visitations both of dioceses and houses of learning : what methods and labours were used for the preserving of peace and concord among Christians, and uniformity and unanimity in the service of God, both against those that favoured the old superstitions, and the supremacy of the Roman Bishop in the Britannic dominions, and likewise against a strong faction of the Protestant denomination ; which laboured vehemently, not only to cast out the Liturgy of our Church, but to overthrow the ancient government of it by episcopacy ; and to set up a different new discipline and regiment in the room thereof : and finally, what the Queen's and Court's influences were in these matters. Here also are shewn the Bishops that were placed in the sees, and that succeeded from time to time, with their characters. And withal, notice is taken of many other learned and eminent ecclesiastics, that in those times made a figure in their places and vocations. Various and remarkable matters are also here declared, that fell out in the Universities, and of controversies that happened there in divers colleges, with respect either to religion or learning. That which I am next to do is, to reconcile (as far as I may) a reputation to this history. For which purpose I
must mention the advantages I have had for the enabling me to write it, and the unbiassed integrity I have used therein. As to the former, I have seen and perused numberless papers of those times, not only in my own custody, but remaining in the best archives of the nation, and in repositories of charters, letters, instruments , and other curious monuments, belonging to divers honourable and reverend men, some alive and some deceased ; whose names, in due respect and gratitude, I have mentioned in the margin of the book, where I have had occasion to cite their MSS. Besides registers of Archbishops, Bishops, cathedral churches, the University, &c. All these I have conversed in for many
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years, and taken collections from, and not seldom whole transcripts, thence, as might serve for my purpose. And that I have been just and faithful in the use I have made of these records, and made them my constant, steady guide in all I have writ, I do first solemnly declare and avow, that so I have done : and that, as I have been an unwearied searcher after, so a sincere lover of truth. And in this, as well as my other writings, I have no other end to serve, but to leave a true history of our reformed excellent Church to posterity. I cannot better utter my mind in this regard, than in the words of a late learned writer ; " As I never found in myself any great inclination Dr. Hody's Preface to "to be led away blindfold by any party ; so on the con his Hist. of trary, a very great one to search diligently after truth ; Eng. Councils. " and having once found it, never to betray it by adding, concealing, or false colouring." But further, besides my protestation, the truth of which I offer may appear, in that I have affected, through the course of the history, to digest into it the very words, sentences, and periods, as they stand in the originals. The rigorous care I have had to faithfulness and impartiality hath inclined me to present my narrations after that manner ; however the expressions may sometimes sound odd and obsolete to the ears of the present age ; and I am sensible I may be censured therefore for my language. But that of Modrevius (sometime a learned nobleman of Poland) speaks my mind ; “ That in speaking, truth ought altogether to be " more regarded than an artificial style a." The original papers also in the Appendix, (to the number of CVI . ) produced at length and verbatim, will be another witness for me. And as I have recorded them for the vindication of my history, so also for further service ; namely, as memorials and transcriptions that will find acceptance with the more ingenious and inquisitive sort of men : since hereby satisfaction may be gathered concern-
⚫ Omni no magis veritas in dicendo quàm artificium, spectandum. Fric. Modrev. de Eccles.
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ing many persons and things, either not known at all before, or dark, doubtful, or mistaken. And perhaps therefore the reviving of these old writings out of obscurity, and the restoring them as it were out of rubbish, and making them obvious to every eye, may deserve some thanks to him that hath taken the pains. It was this that made Flacius Illyricus's Catalogue of the Witnesses of Truth deservedly of such esteem, " that in that work he inserted very many histories, both weighty and profitable, and " also whole discourses sometimes, which neither in printed " books, nor easily any where else could be found, than in " his book ; having been by him searched out, and met " with in hidden and dusty holes and corners b." I must add here, that besides the said large collections in the Appendix, there be digested in the body of the history a great number of other original papers, or the contents of them ; and especially letters ; some from persons of the highest rank both in Church and State : as the Queen herself, and her Privy Counsellors, chief Statesmen, viz. Cecil, when Secretary of State, and when Lord Treasurer, Lord Keeper Bacon, the Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Knollys, Sir Anthony Denny, Sir Anthony Cook, Sir John Mason, &c.
Archbishops and Bishops, as (besides our Archbishop) Cranmer, Latymer, Thirl by, Boner, Gardiner, Goodrick, Ridley, Cox, Grindal, Scory, Coverdale, Sandys, Guest, Pilkington, Parkhurst, Loftus Archbishop of Armagh, &c. Of other learned and reverend men, as Boxal, Pern, Whittingham, Fox, &c. Besides letters of foreigners, as Calvin, Beza, Bullinger, Gualter, Peter Martyr, Flacius Illyricus, & c. And that credit may be given to my extracts from the said MSS. I do solemnly assure the reader, that I have taken them with all just and exact care, even to the very letter for the most part ; and therein have always made use b Illud igitur solum dico, mult as gravissimas atque utilissimas historias, et etiam integra scripta hic in serta esse, quæ nusquam alioqui in impress is libris reperiantur, nec facile aliunde, quàm ex hoc ipso scripto, reperiri queant. Præfat. ad Catal. Test.
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of mine own eyes and hands ; except in some few ; which the reverend Mr. Lun, Rector of Elseworth in Cambridgeshire, Mr. Thomas Harrison, B. D. Fellow of Sydney Sussex college, and Mr. Thomas Baker, B. D. Fellow of St. John's college in Cambridge, learned and exact transcribers, have favourably transcribed and sent me. Except also the MSS. in Ireland, sometimes belonging to the learned Sir James Ware, Knight ; printed in two books, called The Hunting of the Romish Fox, and, Foxes and Firebrands. And for the credit of the transcripts therein inserted, a very reverend and worthy Dean in Ireland wrote thus to me ; " That he did not forget to speak to Mr. Ware, the editor Dr. The" of those books. Who assured him, that his grandfather, rison, ophil. Dean Har" Sir James Ware, had his collections among the writings of ClonMacknois. " of those eminent persons, Sir Henry Sydney, Knight, " sometime Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , Sir William Cecil, " Knight, Sir Robert Cotton, Knight, &c."
And the same
reverend person added, " that he had the same account, many years since, from Dr. Jones, Bishop of Meath, de❝ceased, a man of great learning, and a nephew of Primate " Usher's, [in whose possession the MSS. originally were. ] "And that those printed collections from them were ge" nerally well esteemed among them in Ireland." I must make a particular remark on one storehouse of MSS. especially, that I have used, for instructing me in the writing of this history ; and that is Archbishop Parker's own most valuable treasure, kept in his own college of Corpus Christi. Who, as he was one of the greatest antiquarians of his time, so was a great collector of ancient and modern writings, and took especial care of the safe preserving of them for all succeeding times ; as foreseeing undoubtedly what use might be made of them by posterity : that by having recourse to such originals and precedents, the true knowledge of things might the better appear. For as he was a man of unaffected simplicity and truth, so he endeavoured by all means to promote it. And here I cannot but blame Brian Twine, who for the empty glory of gaining the University of Oxford the preference to that of
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Cambridge for antiquity, makes unhandsome reflections upon that venerable antiquarian ; as though he were either unskilful or unfaithful, or both, in his British Antiquities, and in his edition of Matthew Paris, Matthew Westminster, Thomas Walsingham, &c. insinuating, that he sometimes Apol. lib. mistook, and sometimes falsified his authors. As where he iii. p. 260. chargeth him to relate a false piece of history concerning a synod called at London by Thomas A rundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, and about a complaint made there by the scholars of Oxford. Where, after the recitation of the history as set down by our Archbishop, he undertakes the refutation of it ; setting these big words in the margin ; Refutatio relation is Matthæi Cantuar.
And in another
place he thus diminishes the credit of the Archbishop's history, Si illis standum sit historiis, quas Matthæus Parker Cant. Archiepiscopus edidit. And elsewhere in the margin appears Lapsus Matthæi Cantuar. As it is not a place here to examine Twine's assertions, so upon his sole credit one would not be ready to suspect our Archbishop's skill or faithfulness in antiquities ; who was so thoroughly studied in them ; and whose truth and conscience none could accuse. The abovesaid declaration of my impartiality and truth will, I hope, shield me against the censure of some parties, who, by reason of prepossession, may not like some things they read here, not so agreeable to their espoused principles and inclinations. For I am only an historian, and relate passages and events, and matters of fact, as I find them, without any design of favouring or exposing any side. And to such I speak in the words of Sir George Archbishop Paul, who wrote the life of another Archbishop . " The Whitgift. " discreet reader will see, that [what I write] is out of in Pref. to his Life. structions, records, and authors ; and not out of mine own disposition ; who desire as well herein, as in other " my courses, rather to imitate the Archbishop in his mild " and moderate carriage, than wilfully to be offensive or " displeasing to any. " It may be said, I am short and imperfect in some of my
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relations, and leave the reader unsatisfied in the conclusions and events of several things. It is true ; but this is unavoidable sometimes, when after my searches no more occurs.
And yet often what is omitted in one place of the
book is reserved on purpose to be related in another.
And
not seldom, what is briefly told here, may be supplied from some other history which hath before been published by me : and therefore purposely but only hinted, or more succinctly handled in this ; that I may not repeat what is elsewhere to be found : as, either in the Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, or the Annals of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth, or in the Life of Archbishop Grindal. To which I must join the Life of Aylmer, Bishop of London, an active Bishop, as those times required. And therefore for whom. our Archbishop Parker had a great esteem, and more than once recommended him to the Queen for a bishopric.
Thus, where mention is made of the Archbishop's care to have the Puritan book De Disciplina well answered ; that matter is more fully considered in the said Bishop Aylmer's Life. And where some things are spoken of T. Cartwright, the first broacher of Puritanism, if any require more of his history, and the troubles he fell into afterwards, he may read it there. And such further ac-Addition, counts may be there found of Campion, the Jesuit ; who is P. 301.307. but touched in this history.
Much of the Puritan story
and events are shewn in the said Life, which will amplify much what is said of them under this Archbishop. Divers things are read in this history concerning the Clergy of London ; and how they were all summoned before the ecclesiastical commission at Lambeth. But we must apply elsewhere, if we are minded to see what the said London Clergy's behaviour was after the Archbishop's decease. And this we shall find in Aylmer's discharge of his episcopal function in the said city ; and what concerns he had with them in his visitation. Again, much is spoken here of our Archbishop's actings in the ecclesiastical commission. The proceedings and judgments of this commission afterwards, the said Life of Aylmer will shew, while he was one
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of the chief there, and sat with Parker's next successor, viz. In short, these histories of the af-Archbishop Whitgift.
fairs of our Church, and the lives of some of the chief Prelates of it, set forth of late by me, will mutually illustrate and supply one another. And it must be noted, that in the said Annals and Grindal's Life will be found much more of our Archbishop's story, omitted here to avoid reTo the reading therefore of them I refer the
petition. reader.
There were three great Metropolitans that presided in the province of Canterbury during Queen Elizabeth's reign. The Lives of the two former, viz. Parker and Grindal, by God's permission and assistance, I have wrote, and now published to the world. Dr. Whitgift was the third, equal to both his predecessors in right godly and episcopal qualifications and endowments. And so much business occurring in his government, and such difficulties in preserving the Church in its primary constitution, happening ; and so great wisdom, diligence, steadiness, courage, (and yet gentleness intermixed,) accompanying all his orders and actions ; that it is pity but that (besides those brief notices that Sir George Paul hath appositely given of him) a just account of his life and acts also might be writ by some able pen. Whereby not only a due honour might accrue to that Archbishop's memory also, but that the present and future age might become better acquainted with the chief affairs of this Church of England for the last twenty years of that long and happy reign.
But to draw to a conclusion : what the observing reader sees in this and my other historical volumes, may justly reconcile a high respect and esteem both to the Church of England and its hierarchy of Archbishops and Bishops. The godly Prelates had the toil and trouble of the spiritual government, accompanied with continual discouragement, slander, and detraction . But maugre all envy and opposition, by their vigilancy, and patience, and learning, our reformed Church was happily settled and maintained . And we enjoy the blessed fruits of their labours, viz. deliver-THE PREFACE.
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ance from gross superstition, opportunities of Christian knowledge, the freedom of the Gospel, and singular means of grace and salvation.
And all these spiritual advantages are conferred upon us in the communion of this Church of England.
The blessings of which Church I choose to express in the words of one of the most eminent and learned Bishops of those times, in a sermon preached at the Queen's chapel ; " For Cooper, Bishop of " the truth of doctrine according to the word of God ; for Wint on , " the right administration of the sacraments ; for the true an. 1588. worship of God in our prayers, laid down in the Book of " Service ; (since the Apostles' age unto this present age " of the restoring of the Gospel ; ) there was never Church " upon the face of the earth so nigh the sincerity of God's " truth, as the Church of England is at this day." And when Martin Marprelate, taking notice of this passage in his sermon, had called him flattering hypocrite for these words ; he took occasion, in a book afterwards written by him, to say, " that he would justify what he had said Admonit. to the "to be true upon the danger, not of his living only, but of People of " his life also, against any man that would withstand it. England. " And that he did think, that not any learned man that " favoured the Gospel, though he misliked some things and " persons now, would reprove it." Though the foresaid foul-mouthed libeller for this called that venerable and godly Prelate desperate Dick, and, shameless, impudent, wainscot-faced Bishop : which rude words he meekly bore. To which I will subjoin the judgment of another later very learned, wise, and good Bishop in our times, now deceased ; expressing thus his sense of the Reformation and this Church : " There was no reformation in the world, " that was more orderly begun, more regularly pursued, " and more stedfastly maintained, than ours. It is a " Church, which was watered with the blood of the Re" formers, and hath for this hundred years [he might " have added many more] been still upheld by the un" wearied endeavours of those that were in place among " us.
Again, it is a constitution that we have had good
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experience of, and have seen how it hath kept its ground, " and bid such constant defiance to the Church of Rome, " that they have not been able to run it down with all their prowess c," [ I may add, nor policy. ] And a further ample experience of this, to the lasting honour and reputation of this Church, we had some years after this sermon was preached ; viz. in the trying reign of King James II. " And further, as to the opinion and esteem this consti" tution hath always had abroad among impartial persons " and learned Protestants, it is looked upon as the top of " the Reformation ; and to which in difficult cases others “ have made their appeals. It hath been honoured by our " friends, feared by our enemies, and contemned by none " but ourselves at home.” e Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor, October anno 1679, by Dr. Williams, after Bishop of Chichester.
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Source: John Strype, The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker, the First Archbishop of Canterbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821), Vol. I. Text transcribed from the Google Books scan; spelling and punctuation as in the original.
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