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Art. VI. The Court of King James the First; by Dr. Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester; to which are added, Letters illustrative of the Personal History of the most distinguished Characters in the Court of that Monarch and his Predecessors. By JOHN S. BREWER, M.A., of Queen's College, Oxford. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 846. London: Bentley, 1839.

THE 'HE author of these memoirs was born in 1583, and was educated at Westminster School, under the celebrated historian Camden, whence he was removed in 1600 to Trinity College, Cambridge. His celebrity as a preacher, aided by the friendly influence of Bishops Andrews, Vaughan, and Williams, obtained him a canonry of Windsor, in 1617, and three years later the deanery of Rochester, whence he was translated in 1625 to the bishopric of Gloucester. His ecclesiastical predilections were popish, and the policy of the Court of Charles, who had just succeeded to the throne, encouraged him to avow them more openly than befitted the times. Goodman, however, had miscalculated the policy of the monarch, and was therefore restrained. Main'taining,' says Wood, 'several heterodox opinions in his sermons at Court, he was checked for so doing in 1626;' and for some years contented himself with adorning his cathedral church, and with setting up, after the approved fashion of the school of Laud, pictures of the death and resurrection of the Saviour, in places of public resort. In 1640 he was brought into trouble by refusing to subscribe the canons which Laud, with such singular fatuity caused to be passed by a convocation, illegally continued after the dissolution of Parliament. Insensible to the dangers which surrounded the mitre and the crown, this short-sighted and superstitious prelate sought to achieve a momentary triumph at the risk of still further irritating an indignant and threatening people. Good

was the only bishop who refused to comply with Laud's injunction. Others had opposed some of the canons in committee; but, yielding to the decision of the majority, had finally subscribed; Goodman, however, refused to do so, and the following account of what took place, furnished by Fuller, who was present on the occasion, is too characteristic to be omitted. He alone utterly refused his subscription thereunto. Whereupon the ' archbishop being present with us in king Henry the Seventh's 'chapel, was highly offended at him.' 'My lord of Gloucester,' 'said he, 'I admonish you to subscribe;' and presently after, 'My 'Lord of Gloucester I admonish you the second time to sub'scribe;' and immediately after, 'I admonish you a third time to 'subscribe.' To all which the bishop pleaded conscience, and re' turned a denial.'

Then were the judgments of the Bishops severally asked, whether they should proceed to the present suspension of Glou'cester, for his contempt herein. Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, 'being demanded his opinion, conceived it fit some lawyers should 'first be consulted with, how far forth the power of a synod in such 'cases did extend.

'He added, moreover, that the threefold admonition of a bishop ought solemnly to be done with some considerable intervals 'betwixt them, in which the party might have time of convenient 'deliberation. However, some days after, he was committed (by 'the King's command, as I take it) to the Gate-house, where he got by his restraint what he could never have got by his liberty; namely, of one reputed popish, to become for a short time po'pular, as the only confessor suffering for not subscribing the canons.'*

Wood informs us on the authority of Laud's papers, that 'with 'much persuasions, he (Goodman) was drawn to subscribe;' but that 'for his obstinate refusal at first, and the scandal of it, he was by both houses, with a general consent, suspended ab officio et beneficio, till he had given the King and church satisfaction.'+ This was in the true spirit of the dominant faction of the day, whose great object was to establish in Britain as absolute a spiritual despotism as the Inquisition had set up in Spain. Happily there were counteracting forces, which Laud was unable to control, and their expansive power was now about to be displayed.

During the time of the 'great rebellion,' as Mr. Brewer with genuine high-church orthodoxy terms the civil war, Goodman lived at Westminster in obscurity, having, according to the Oxford historian, been 'plundered, spoiled, robbed, and utterly undone.' He employed himself in the preparation of works designed to make known his own sufferings, and to explain the mysteries of the Christian religion.

It was to the honor of Cromwell, though these facts are overlooked by his libellers, that the deprived bishop, whom all parties suspected to be a concealed papist, was permitted to continue in the immediate neighbourhood of Whitehall, and in habits of intimate fellowship with the popish chaplain of the Queen Henrietta Maria. It was not against episcopalians or catholics that the protector warred, but against political factions, of which episcopacy and popery were the rallying points.

During the latter period of his life, Francis à S. Clara, a Do

Ch. Hist. B. XI. Cent. 17.

+ Athenæ Oxonienses, i. 623.

minican friar, whose real name was Christopher Davenport, was Goodman's most intimate companion, and exercised such influence over his mind, as to induce him to adopt the Romish faith. The editor of his memoirs leaves this matter in doubt; but it is sheer folly to do so when Wood and Walker unhesitatingly admit it. The evidence of the bishop's Will, to say nothing of other proof, is conclusive on this point. It may be very possible and very easy to charge Goodman with inconsistency; but the language of his Will is incapable of any other fair construction than that which has been generally put on it. The fact would appear to be that, in this, as in some other points, the ex-bishop of Gloucester was but a specimen-only a little more perfected-of a large portion. of the clergy of his day. Protestant in name, but popish in spirit, they were indebted to the accidents of their age rather than to any enlightened appreciation of the reformed faith, for their position in the English church.

We have deemed it advisable to preface our remarks on the work before us with this brief sketch of the history of its author, as the weight of the opinions delivered, and the general accuracy of the views broached, must be regarded, in all fairness, in connexion with the known sentiments and predilections of the writer.

The Bishop's memoirs are contained in the first volume, and fully bear out the character which Wood ascribes to Goodman. They are written in an unostentatious and homely style, are remarkably free from acrimony, and destitute of any of those points of strong interest which arise from superior sagacity, or a profound development of the inward and spiritual springs of human conduct. Most of the leading statesmen of the day are sketched, but it is with a feeble hand. The rude outline, rather than the finished portrait, is presented to view; but there is a good-nature and kind-heartedness evinced throughout the whole, which wins upon us in the absence of higher intellectual qualities. The writer passes at will, backwards and forwards, from the reign of Elizabeth to that of James; and then again to the maiden Queen;' and withal, though somewhat tiresome, is sufficiently amusing to lead us on to the end of his volume. His narrative is, consequently, desultory; and many of the personages who figure in it are too insignificant to be viewed with much interest. Still, we confess, the volume is such an one as we love occasionally to take up, and the light it throws on some of the intrigues and conspiracies of the day, renders it a useful and amusing addition to our history of the times. The good bishop was induced to draw up his narrative by the publication of a pamphlet by Sir Anthony Weldon, severely reflecting on the character and government of King James.

'I cannot say,' he remarks, that I was an eye and ear witness, but truly I have been an observer of the times, and what I shall relate of my own knowledge, God knows, is most true; my conjecturals I conceive to be true, but do submit them to better judgment. I shall take the liberty of an historian, and whereas the knight is pleased to speak some things on the word of a gentleman, truly what I write shall be in verbo sacerdotis, which I did ever conceive to be an oath.'-Vol. I. page 1.

The following account of Queen Elizabeth exhibits some of the more striking points of the character of that celebrated princess, whose dignified condescension and high-minded confidence in her people, were so strongly blended with feminine vanity and weakness.

In the year '88, I did then live at the upper end of the Strand near St. Clement's Church, when suddenly there came a report unto us, (it was in December, much about five of the clock at night, very dark,) that the Queen was gone to council, and if you will see the Queen you must come quickly. Then we all ran; when the Court gates were set open, and no man did hinder us from coming in. There we came where there was a far greater company than was usually at Lenten Sermons; and when we had staid there an hour and that the yard was full, there being a number of torches, the Queen came out in great state. Then we cried, God save your majesty! God save your majesty' Then the Queen turned unto us and said, 'God bless you all, my good people!' Then we cried again, 'God save your majesty ! God save your majesty!' Then the Queen said again unto us, 'You may well have a greater prince, but you shall never have a more loving prince' and so looking one upon another awhile the Queen departed. This wrought such an impression upon us, for shows and pageants are ever best seen by torch-light, that all the way long we did nothing but talk what an admirable queen she was, and how we would adventure our lives to do her service. Now this was in a year when she had most enemies, and how easily might they have then gotten into the crowd and multitude to have done her a mischief! But here we were to come in at the Court gates, and there was all the danger of searching.

Take her then in her yearly journeys at her coming to London, where you must understand that she did desire to be seen and to be magnified; but in her old age she had not only wrinkles, but she had a goggle throat, a great gullet hanging out, as her grandfather Henry the Seventh is ever painted withal; for in young people the glandels do make all things seem smooth and fair, but in old people the glandels being shrunk, the gullet doth make a little deformity. And truly, there was then a report that the ladies had gotten false looking-glasses, that the Queen might not see her own wrinkles; for having been exceeding beautiful and fair in her youth, such beauties are ever aptest for wrinkles in old age. So then the Queen's constant custom was a little before her coronation-day to come from Richmond

to London, and to dine with my Lord Admiral at Chelsea, and to set out from Chelsea at dark night, where the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen were to meet her; and here all the way long from Chelsea to Whitehall was full of people to see her, and truly any man might very easily have come to her coach. Now if she thought that she had been in danger, how is it credible that she should so adventure herself? King James, who was as harmless a king as any was in our age, and consequently had as few enemies, yet wore quilted doublets stiletto proof: the Queen had many enemies; all her wars depended upon her life; she had likewise very fearful examples: the first Duke of Guise was shot; Henry the Third, the French king, was stabbed; the Duke of Orange was pistoled;-and these might make the Queen take heed.'-Ib. pp. 163–165.

It is well known that Elizabeth's popularity greatly declined toward the close of her reign. All contemporary historians bear witness to this, however they may differ in their attempts to account for it. The following is our bishop's version :

Then, for the Queen, she was ever hard of access, and grew to be very covetous in her old days: so that whatsoever she undertook, she did it to the halves only, to save charge; that suits were very hardly gotten, and in effect more spent in expectation and attendance than the suit could any way countervail; that the court was very much neglected, and in effect the people were very generally weary of an old woman's government. And this no doubt might be some cause of the Queen's melancholy, and that she should break out into such words as these: They have yoked my neck,-I can do nothing,-I have not one man in whom I can repose trust: I am a miserable forlorn woman.' But after a few years, when we had experience of the Scottish government, then in disparagement of the Scots, and in hate and detestation of them, the Queen did seem to revive; then was her memory much magnified,—such ringing of bells, such public joy and sermons in commemoration of her, the picture of her tomb painted in many churches, and in effect more solemnity and joy in memory of her coronation than was for the coming in of King James.'-Ib. pp. 96–98.

Goodman speaks of King James with all the affection of an old domestic. He acknowledges that he 'was more beholden to King 'James than to all the men in the world;' and expresses a hope that he may never live to be wanting unto him in all those 'Christian duties which are required from the living to the 'dead. This is amiable and praiseworthy, but obviously militates against our placing entire confidence in the brighter colorings of the picture which he draws. He is obviously concerned to extenuate his master's faults;-to such an extent, indeed, is this disposition manifested, as to destroy the weight of his testimony when favorable to the monarch. Truth, however, will vindicate itself, and the admissions which it extorts are of greater authority