Volume 1
Athenae Oxonienses : An exact history of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the University of Oxford. To which are added the fasti, or annals of the said University / By Anthony A. Wood.
- Anthony Wood
- Date:
- 1813-20
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Athenae Oxonienses : An exact history of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the University of Oxford. To which are added the fasti, or annals of the said University / By Anthony A. Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![* wisdom hath made artificial, a prefeiTcr of many, ' a father to his servants, and both in war and * peace of commendable courage.' [Sir Henry Sidney was so highly esteemed by Edward the sixth, that he was very rarely allowed to be absent from that monarch's presence, who drew his last breath in the arms of his friend and favourite. In the 4th of Edw. VI. he was con- stituted chief cup-bearer, and chief cypherer, to the king, for hfe, with a fee of fifty marks per annum. In 5 Edw. VI. he accompanied the mai'quis of Northampton in his legation, wiih the habit of the order of the garter, to Hemy the second of France, and at his return was married to the lady Mary Dudley, eldest daughter of John earl of Warwick ^ In 1562,5 Eliz. he was sent to France, but too late to be of any effectual ser- vice It appears that sir Henry Sidney's public life not only impaired his patrimony, but greatly endangered his health. Collins, in his Letters of State, p. 93, has preserved a very curious account of the situa- tion to which he was reduced by the stone, and there is every reason to suppose that his constant exertion of mind and body finally overcame his constitution. He died not at Worcester, as Wood affirms, but at Ludlow, May 5, 1586, in the fifty- seventh year of his age. Sir Henry Sidney's administration in Ireland ■was productive of several very important benefits to that country. He suppressed three very dan- gerous insurrections, one by Shan O'Neile, ano- ther by the Butlers, and the third by the earl of Clanrikard. He caused the old statutes for the abolishing of coin and livery to be revived, and put in execution. He appointed presidents for the more remote provinces, and divided the coun- try into shires for the better currency of her majesty's writs. He increased the revenues of the crown 1000/. a year. He built the bridge of Athlone over the Shannon, began the walling and fortifying of the town of Carrick-fergus in Ulster, rebuilt the town of Athenny in Connaught, strengthened Athlone with gates and fortifications, laid the foundation of a bridge at Caterlogh, and built a strong gaol at Molinger. He built rooms for the preservation of the records of that king- dom, that were before kept in an open place, sub- ject to the weather, and so neglected that they were taken for common uses, causing them to be diligently perused, and carefully arranged; and he directed the statutes of the realm to be collect- ed and published for the first time ^ Few persons perhaps understood the temper of the Irish nation so completely, or managed it so judiciously, as Sidney, Lloyd ^ says, that he first 3 ['oHins, Memoirs of the Sidnej/s, 1746, i. 85.] ♦ Camdeui Amides Elizubct/ta^ ed. Hearne, i. 90.] 5 [Collins, ut supra, p. 90 ] 6 [See his Stuicmen a7id Fuvourites, edit, 1665, p. 412.] Studied and then ruled the people, making himself first master of their humour, and then of their government. In Collins's Letters and Memorials of Siate^ 1746, will be found a variety of interesting col- lections by sir Henry Sidney, relative to Wales and Irelandwith a great number of authentic letters from and to him, dated from 1559 to the time of iris decease, and others among the Cotto- nian MSS, Vespasian, F. xii. fol. 153. Titus B, xiii. 174, 224, 250. The last 1o the earl of Lei- cester, wishing that Philip (his son) might not go to serve in Flanders, dated Dublin, ^Aug, 1, 1578, There is a good head of sir H, Sidney in Hol- land's Heroo/ogia-l WILLIAM GOOD was born in the ancient town of Glastenbury in Somersetshire, educated in grammar learning there, admitted scholar of C, C, coll. 26 Feb. 1545, afterwards fellow, mas- ter of arts 1552, and about that time humanity reader in the said college. After queen Mary came to the crown, being then a most zealous R. Catholic, he was promoted to an ecclesiastical benefice in his own country called Middle Chin- noke, and to a little prebendship in the church of Wells called Comba octava, in Nov. 1556, besides the rectory of a school in the said city. Ail which he keeping till qu. Elizabeth came to the crown and for some time after, he voluntarily left them, and his native country, for religion sake, and retiring to Tournay in Flanders, entred him- self there into the society of Jesus, in 1562, aged 35. After he had served his probationship, he went into Ireland with father David the titular archbishop of Armagh, who left no stone unre- moved there for the settling of that kingdom in the Catholic faith and obedience. Four years being spent in that country, not without some danger, he went to Lovain, where he met with Rob. Persons about to enter into the said society, whom he strengthened with many arguments ia order thereunto. In 1577 he was called to Rome to take upon him the profession of the four vows ; which being done, he went into Sweden and Po- land in the company of Anth. Possevein to settle certain affairs relating to the society. Two years after he returned to Kom.e, and became confessor to the English coll, there, newly converted from an hospital dedicated to the Holy Trinity, to a [22^;] seminary for the educating the youth of England that profess the R. Cuth. religion, ' Vir fuit pro- batcB virtutis & doctrineE,' (as one® of his society saith) ' atque imprimis in historiis Sanctorum An- glise optime versatus, quorum res gestas in templo collegii Anglicani curavit coloribus exprimi, quae 7 [Letters to qu. Elizabetli and tlie lords of her privy coun- cil, concerning the state of Ireland,froin 'ibjb to 1578. MS. Coiton, Titus B. x. fol, 1 to 170.] ** Pet. llibadeueira in Bib, scnptorum soc. Jesu ia lit, G-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24751236_0001_0462.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
