116 LIVES OF THE PURITAN'S. signified their full approbation ; so that he was chasmand admitted.. He afterwards united, with his brethren in subscribing the " Book of Discipline."-f In the above respectable situation, Mr. Charke, by the favour of his learned patrons, was protected some years from the tyrannical oppressions of the times ; and though a zealous nonconformist, he enjoyed his lecture at Lincoln's- inn till the year 1593. The periodat length arrived when they could no longer screen him from the fury of the prelates ; for in that year, it appears, he was silenced by Archbishop Whitgift4 Notwithstanding the treatment he met with, he was greatly admired and commended, even by rigid conformists, on account of his distinguished learn, mg and great moderation. After his suspension, pleading his cause before the archbishop, that he conducted himself peaceably, &c. his grace replied, " This is not enough. It is not sufficient, that youdo not preach against the bishops you do not preach for them."c Mr. Strype denominates him a man of eminent parts, and a chief leader among the puritans.l Dr. Nowell styles him a person of great learning and godliness.1 The Oxford historian, speaking of the various books of Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity,"observes, " That the three books, (meaning the three last,) which Hooker completed before his death, were, with the consent of his unlucky widow, seized upon in his study, soon after his decease, by William Charke, a noted puritan, and another minister that lived near Canterbury ; who, making the silly woman believe that they were writings not fit to be seen, did either burn them in the place, or carry them away."... Admitting this statement to be correct, the whole, it seems, was done by the permission of that silly woman, the unlucky widow; and if Mr. Charke and his companion persuaded her that the papers were not fit to be seen, all this might be perfectly just and true. But our historian's sole authority is the letter of Dr. King, bishop of Chichester, dated November 13, 1664, above sixty years after the event; and he has made considerable additions to it.f+ Mr. Charke was Strype's Annals, vol. iii. p. 55,.56. + Neal's Puritans, vol. 1. p. 423. t MS. Chronology, vol. i. p. 313. (4.) Minister's Reasons against Subscrip. part ii. p. 173. Edit. 1608: Strype's Whitgift, p. 43.-Annals, vol. ii.p. 533. 11 Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 278, note. Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. 5. p. 263. t King's Letter, prefixed to the Lifeof Hooker. Edit. 1665.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=