Volume 1

The history of the worthies of England ... / Endeavoured by Thomas Fuller.

  • Thomas Fuller
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of the worthies of England ... / Endeavoured by Thomas Fuller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Now although not the quick but (the) dead Worthies properly pertain to my pen, yet I crave leave of the reader in my following work, to enter a brief memorial of the place of their nativities: partly because lately they were dead, though not in law, in the list of a pre¬ valent party ; partly because they are dead to the world, having most attained, if not ex¬ ceeded, the age of man, three score and ten years. To conclude: though the Apostle’s words be most true, “ that the lesser are blessed of the greater,” and that imperative and indicative blessings always descend from the superior ; yet an optative blessing (no more then a plain prayer) may properly proceed from an in- feriour ; so that a plain Priest and submissive Son of the Church of England may blesse the Bishops and Fathers thereof. God sanctifie their former afflictions unto them, that as the “ fire in the furnace l” only burnt the bonds (setting them free who went in fetter'd) not the cloths (much less the bodies) of the children of the captivity, so their sufferings, without doing them any other prejudice, may only disingage their souls from all servitude •to this world. And that, for the future, they may put together, not only the parcels of their scattered revenues, but compose the minds of the divided people in England, to the confusion of the factious, and confirmation of the faithful in Israel. CHAPTER VI. OF SUCH WHO HAVE BEEN WORTHY STATESMEN IN OUR LAND. The word Statesmen is of great latitude, sometimes signifying such who are able to manage Offices of State, though never actually called thereunto. Many of these men, con¬ cealing themselves in a private condition, have never arrived at publick notice. But we confine the term to such who, by their Prince’s favour, have been preferred to the prime places, r l. Lord Chancellours. Of < 2. Lord Treasurers of England. 3. Secretaries of State. To whom we have added some Lord Admirals of England, and some Lord Deputies of Ireland. LORD CHANCELLOURS. The name is taken from Cancelli, which signifies a kind of wooden network, which admitteth the eyes of people to behold, but forbids their feet to press on persons of quality, sequestered to sit quietly by themselves for publick employment. Hence Chancells have their denomination, which by such a fence were formerly divided from the body of the Church; and so the Lord Chancellour had a seat several to himself, free from popular intrusion. I find another notation of this office, some deducing his name a cancellando, from cancelling things amisse, and rectifying them by the rules of equity and a good conscience: and this relateth to no meaner Author then Johannes Sarisburiensis2. Hie est qui Leges Regni cancellat iniquas, ’Tis lie, who cancelleth all cruel lawes, Et mandata pii principis cequafacit. And in Kings mandates equity doth cause, / Siquid obest populis, aut legibus est inimicum, If ought to Land or Laws doth hurtful prove,] Quicquid obest, per eum desinit esse nocens. His care that hurt doth speedily remove. He is the highest Officer of the Land, whose principal imployment is to mitigate the rigour of the Common Law with conscientious qualifications. For as the Prophet com- * Dan. iii. 25. • In his book called <( Nugse Curialium,” or Polycraticon. plaineth
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