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
Catalogue details

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.

    548/600
    answer to the said letter entit. A just and tempe- rate defence of the 5 Books of Ecclesiastical polity, S)C. against an uncharituhle letter of certain En- glish Protestants,Sec. Load. 1603, qu. [Bodl. 4to. D. 8. Th.] written and published by Will. Covel D. D. * born in Lancashire near the place where Dr. Chaderton B. of Lincoln received his first breath, bred in Christ's and Queen's coll. in Cam- bridge, and a writer of other books that came out soon after. As for the other three books of Eccle- siastical Polity, which our author Hooker com- pleated before his death, they, with the consent of his unlucky widow, were seized on in his study soon after his decease, by Will. Charke a noted puritan, and another minister that lived near to Canterbury; who making the silly woman believe that they were writings not fit to be seen, did either burn them in tlie place, or convey them away secretly : So that the foul copy being only remaining, with many interlinings, I)r. Joh. Spen- ser of C.C coll. in Oxon, his ancient and entire friend, got it into his hands, who using the assis- tance x){ Hen. Jackson of the said coll. as an amanuensis, and otherwise, did compleat it as much as could be, and kept it by him till his latter end, with an intent that it should be pub- lished, but upon what account he was hindred I cannot tell. Sure it is, that when he lay on his death-bed, he bequeathed the said copy, (con- taining the three last books) fairly transcribed by the hand of the said H. Jackson, to Dr. Jo. King B. of London. After his death the copy rested in the hands of his son Henry (who became B. of Chichester 1641) till Dr. Abbot archb. of Canter- bury commanded them out of his custody, autho- rizing Dr. Joh. Barcham to require and bring them to him to Lambeth, which accordingly was done. The said archbishop esteeming them as rarities, did put them into the library there, where remain- ing till the decollation of archb. Laud, were then by the brethren of the predominant faction, given,' with the library, to that most notorious villain Hugh Peters, as a reward for his remark- able service in those sad times of the church's confusion. And though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand, yet there wanted not other endeavours to corrupt and make them speak that language for which the faction then fought, which was to subject the sovereign power to the people. From the said copy several transcripts were taken, not only, I presume, while it remained in the said [27 Jan. 1602, Will'us Covell presb. S. T. P. ad vie. per- pet. eccl. dc Syttingbourn. Will'us Covell presb. S. T. P. ad vie. de Sittingborne com. Cane, vac. per mort. Franeisci Lyttleton ad coll. d'ni Cant, archiep'i 27 Jan. 1602-3. Thomas Tailour presb. A. B. ad eccl. de Laveland, vac. per resign. Will. Cuvall S. T. P. ad pres. D. Mich. Soodes militis, 9 May 1603. B.eg.Whitgift. Kennet.] 3 Dr. Hen. King in his Letter to h. Walton, 13 Nov. 1664, £et before Mr. Hooker's Life published in 1665 by the said Walton. library, but while it continued in the hands of Peters, differing much in words. There was a cop} of the sixth and eighth books publisheci at London in 1648, in qu. and said by the editor of them to be collected and compared with five copies, viz. with that in Bodley's library, that at [304] Lambeth, that in bishop Andrew's, that in archb. Usher's library, and that of the lord Edw, Conway at Ragley; but whether the publisher may be believed I know not. Sure I am, that the said three last books, which are said to be true and genuine, (but from whence obtained I cannot tell,) were published by Dr. Joh. Gauden under this title, The Works of Mr. Rich. Hooker (that learned, godly, judicious, and eloquent Divi7ie) vindicating the Church of England as truly Christian arid duly rejhrmed, in eight Books of Ecclesiastical Polity, now compleated, as with the sixth and eighth, so zeith the seventh, &)C. out of his own MSS-. never before published, with an account of his holy L fe aiid happy Death. Lond. l662, fol. [Bodl. H. 9. 5. Th.] But whether the said MSS. were of his own hand-writing, we have good reason to question, as also the greater part of his life, which he the said Gauden hath falsly written; who with gieat confidence hath used divers ar- guments to satisfy the world, that the before-men- tioned three books were pen'd by Mr. Hooker, notwithstanding thosepoysonous assertions against the regal power, which are to be found in them. Now altho' this is generally confessed, that the said three books ea-e not genuine, yet some non- conformists, and among these chiefly Mr. Rich. Baxter, do urge seemingly probable reasons to induce a belief that these posthumous books, as published by Dr. Gauden, are to be accounted the true and authentic writings of Mr. Hooker; yet this must be known, that the reason why the said Mr. Baxter contends so eagerly for their genuineness, is because the said three books, but more especially the eighth, do contain certain popular and false principles, concerning the true nature of the legislative power, the original of government, and the office of kings it self, as de- rived from the people. And oa this account it is, that he seems to take a more than ordinary delight in so often telling the world, that the abet- tors of these seditious positions have so great a church-man 5 as our author was justly esteemed, on their side. It were these and such like prela'- list's .principles as he^ saith (meaning, I guess bish. Jewell, but chiefly bish. Bilson in his book of Christian Subjection, &c, which he frequently cites as defending the resistance of superiors in * Fasdc7il. Literarum, kc. by Jo. Hinkley. Lond. 1080, in Oft. p. 107. s lb. in Fasc. p. 102, 103, 104, 105, 106. and in the Se- cond part of the Nonconformist's plea fur peace, kc. Lond. 1680, in qu. p. 54. 64, and elsewhere in the said book.