Volume 2

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 à Wood.

  • Anthony Wood
Date:
1813-1820
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 à Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    332 who took him then not to be the same man as they did before. In 1641 he was by his maj. favour, purposely to please the puritan then dominant, translated from Lincoln to York, and soon after was in the head of the bishops when they made their protestation against the house of lords in behalf of themselves; for which being imprison’d in the Tower again, continued there eighteen weeks. At length being with much ado released, he retired to the king at Oxon, where he provided himself with a commission, and instructions what to do when he went farther. Afterwards he went into his own country, repaired his castle at Aber- conway, fortified it, and spared not any cost or labour to make it tenable for his majesty’s service. But then his majesty and privy council suspecting that he would not be faithful to him, they put a commander therein, and in a manner thrust the archb. out. Whereupon taking these matters in high disdain, he retired to his house at Pentryn or Penrhyn, not far from Aberconway, which he fortified; and having gained the favour of the parliament, put a gar¬ rison therein, and declared for them. Afterward obtaining some forces from one Tho. Mitton a parliamentarian colonel in those parts, wrent forthwith and set upon Aberconway castle, took it and kept it to his dying day in his own pos¬ session. This was in the latter end of 1645, at which time the king’s cause did daily decline, as the archbishop did in the minds of the royalists, who, for these his actions, spared not to stile him a perfidious prelate, the shame of the clergy, and the apostate archbishop of York • whereas while he was in his greatness, he was characterized to be a person of a generous mind, a lover and encourager of learning and learned men (he himself being very learned) hospitable, and a great benefactor to the public, yet always high and proud, and sometimes insolent, and to have pha- risaical leaven in him. His works are (1) A Sermon of Apparel before the King and Pr. at Theobalds, 22 Feb. 1619 ; on Matth. 11.8. Lond. 1620. qu. [Bodl. 4to. F. 26. Th.] (2) Serm. before the Lords. Lond. 1623. qu. (3) Serm. at the Funeral of K. James; on 1 Kings 11. 41, 42, 43. Lond. 1625. qu. [Bodl. 4to. T. 17- Th. BS.] (4) Preseverantia Sanctorum, ike. on Job 42. 12.—pr. 1628, qu. (5) Letter to the Vicar of Grantham, &c. pr. 1636, qu. answered by Dr. Pet. Heylin in his Coal from the Altar, &c. (6) Holy Table, Name, and Thing, more antiently used under the New Testam.. than that of an Altar, pr. 1637, [Bodl 4to. HH. 29. Th.] which is a reply to the Coal from the Altar, &c. Where¬ upon Heylin came out with a rejoynder, called Antidotum Lincolniense, &c. as I shall tell you more at large when I come to him in another part of this work. (7) Annotationes in Vet. Testam. # in Ephesios, Cantab. 1653, oct. published under the name of Johan Eboracensis,7 by which, I pre¬ sume, is meant John Williams. He hath also published one or more sermons which I have not seen, and hath also extant Parliamentary Speeches, “ (one speech in defence of “■ the bishops rights to sit and vote in parliament was “ printed 1661, qu. if not before,)” and Letters of State. In 1672 was printed at London in octavo, A Manual: or, three small and plain Treatises, viz. 1. Of Prayer, or active, 2. Of Principles, or passive, 3. Of Resolution, or opposite, Divi¬ nity. Translated and collected out of antient writers for the private use of a most noble lady, to preserve her from the danger of popery. In the title page ’tis said to have been written by John archbishop of York, yet certain _ 7 Uncerto Autore, e Bibliotheca Joannis Archiep. Eboracensis in Lucem eriita But Wasse thinks Williams might be the author. Vid. Joumel Bntanniqu pour les mois de Mars, &c. 1753, p. 283. Loveday.] authors who lived and wrote after his death are therein quoted ; which are unadvisedly done by another hand. At length this archb. dying in the house of the lady Mostyn at Glodedd8 near Aberconway, on the 25 of Mar. 1649, was buried, I presume, at Aberconway. “ Rob. Vaughan in “ his addit. to the Hist, of Wales says thus of Dr. Joh. Wil- “ Hams archb. of York. — His places and preferments brought him wealth which enabled him to purchase Cych “ WiUan in Carnarvonshire, w hich had been the house of “ his ancestors, and also Penrhyn the seat of the antient and once flourishing family of the Griffiths with other “ lands, which came (he dying intestate) to sir Griffith “ Williams of Penrhyn his eldest brother’s son and heir.” There is extant a Latin apology for this Dr. Williams archb. of York, written in good Latin by Joh. Harmer M. A. sometimes ofMagd. coll, in Oxon, to Lambert Osbaldeston a great creature of the said archb. in which are many things, that are true, inserted. But the reader is to know, that the said Harmar, who sometimes taught in the college school at Westminster, had often participated of the genero¬ sity of archb. Williams ; and when afterwards he became Greek professor of the univ. of Oxford, he was esteemed a paiasite, and one that would do any thing below him to gain a little money or a meals-meat. July 12. Matthew Wren M. of A. of Pembroke hall in Cambridge, was then incorporated in the same degree._I * have spoken largely of him elsewhere. Will. Boswell9 M. A. of Jesus coll, in the said univer¬ sity, was incorporated the same day.—He was afterwards proctor of that university, secretary to sir Dudl. Carleton while ordinary ambassador to the states of the United Pro- [183] vinces, and afterward resident or leiger ambassador there himself; in which capacity he was knighted by the lord Hor. A ere of Tilbury, and other commissioners, named in his majesty’s letters patents, in the army of the said states at Bockstal near Balduck in Brabant, 25 Julv 1633. He was a learned man, a great encourager of learning, zealous for the church of England, faithful in the execution of his embassy, and highly valued by eminent persons. Fie died much lamented in 1647. Joh. Squire M. A. of Jesus coll, in the same university, was also then incorporated.—He was afterwards vicar of St. Leonard’s Shoreditch in Middlesex, a zealous and ortho¬ dox preacher, and therefore respected by Dr. Laud archb. of Canterbury. But when the puritan or presbyterian brake into an open rebellion, he was one of those many godly ministers that suffered by imprisonment, sequestration, plundering, and I know not what. Fie hath written Lec¬ tures, being an Exposition of the first Part of the second Chapter to the Thessalonians, proving the Pope to be Antichrist. Lond. 1630, qu. and also published several sermons,* the titles of most of which you may see in the Bodleian or Oxford Cata¬ logue. Pray be pleased to see more of him in that vile 8 [He dyed at Glodduith not Glodedd, anno 1650, not 49. He was buried in the parish church of Llandegai near Bangor, where a very fair monument was erected for him sometime after by his nephew and heir sir Griffith Williams of Penhryn, baronet, where is his effigies in alabaster, the arms of his family, and the purse and mace, the ensignes of his being lord keeper, finely done, and a very handsom inscription, ot black marble, com¬ posed by his chaplain Dr. Hacket, to which I refer you tor his vindication and character; as also to his life writ by the same Dr. Hacket, extant in MS. |; I presume in the hands of sir Andrew Hacket. Humph keys. Dr. John Hacket (afterwards bishop of Litchfield and Coventry) ’s Life of Archbishop and Lord Keeper Williams, was published in folio, Loudon 1693, prefixed to whichas a head of the lord-keeper by It. White.] 9 [Gul. Boswell Suffolc. electus socius coll. Jes. 1606. art. mag. coll. Jes. 1607. Baker.1
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