Chap. V. The HISTORY of the PuRITANS. 169 cafion to an unlucky proverb, that the church was repaired with the jim oj K. ?~:~.es I. the people. · ~"-.,) As to the archbifhop's religion, he declared himfelf upon the fcaffold, a protefl:ant according to the confl:itution of the church ?f England, but with more charity to the church of Rome than to the fore1gn protefl:ants; and though he was an avowed enemy to fectaries and fanatics of all forts, yet be bad a great deal of fuperfiition in his make•. as appears from th_ofe paifages in his diary, in which he takes notice of hts dre~n:s, of th~ fallm.g down of pictures, of the blced~ng of his nofe, of aufptcwus and maufpt– cious days of the year, and of the poGtion of the !tars; a variety of whtch may be collected out of that performance. Hisgracemufi be allowed to have bap a conGderable fhareof knowledge, Diary, p. . and to have been a learned man, though he was more a man cf bufinefs 56. than of letters. He was a great benefactor to the college in which he was educated, enriching it with a variety of valuable manufcriptF, beGdes five hundred pounds in money. He gave eight hundred _pounds to the repair of the cathedral of St. Paul, and fundry other legacies of the like nature. But with all his accomplifhments, he was a cruel perfecutor, as long as he was in power, and the chief incendiary in the war between the king and parliament, the calamities of which are in a great meafure chargeable on 1-iim. " That which gave me the fl:rongefl: prejudices a- " gainfl: him (fays bifhop Bm·net) is, that in his diary, after he had ieen " the ill effects of his violent counfels, and had been fo long fhut up, and " fo long at leifure to refleCt on what had pa!fed in the hurry of paffion, "in the exaltation of his profperity, he does not in any one part of that " great work acknowledge his own errors, nor mix any wife or ferious re- " flections on the ill ufage he met with, or the unhappy fl:eps he had " made." The bifhop adds withal, " that he was a learned, fincere, and H.ill:. df bis " zealous man, regular in his own life, and humble in his private deport- Lrfe, Vol. I. " ment, bu t hot and indilcreet, eagerly purfuing fuch matters as were ei- P· 4 9• so. " ther very inconfiderable or mifchievous; fuch as fettling the commu- " niou-table by the eafl: wall of the church, bowing to it and calling it " an altar, fuppreffing the wal/oon privileges, breaking of lectures, and " encouraging of fportson the Lord's day, &c. His feverity in the fiar-cham- " ber a~Jd in the high commiffion court, but above all his violent, ar:d in- " d:ed rnexcufableinjufl:ice, in theprofecution of biQwpWilliams, were fuch '' vdible blemifhes, that nothing but the putti ng him to death in fo unjuft ': a ma1:ner, could have raifed his character. His diary reprefents him as '· an abject Lwner upon the duke of Buckingham, and as a fuperflitious " reg~rder of dreams ; his defence of himfelf, writ with (o much care " when he was in the Tower, is a very mean performance; and his friends " have really leifened him ; Hey/in by writing his life, and Wharton by VOL. II. z " pub-
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