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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    books, to the end that he might be instructed in mathe¬ matics and music, in which last he became excellent, and by the help of his mathematics could compose a song or lesson. (6) That after five years being thus spent, and his mother (who was very charitable to the poor) dead, he did design to travel, so that obtaining the rudiments of the Ital. tongue, and instructions how to demean himself from sir Hen. Wotton, who delighted in his company, and gave him letters of commendation to certain persons living at Venice, he travelled into Italy, an. 1638. (7) That in his way thi¬ ther, he touched at Paris, where Job. Scudamoure, viscount Slego, ambassador from K. Ch. I. to the French king, re¬ ceived him very kindly, and by his means became known to Hugo Grotius, then and there ambassador from the qu. of Sweden 5 but the manners and genius of that place being not agreeable to his mind, he soon left it. (8) That thence by Geneva and other places of note, he went into Italy, and thro’ Leghorne, Pisa, &c. he went to Florence, where con¬ tinuing two months, he became acquainted with several learned men, and familiar with the choicest wits of that great city, who introduced and admitted him into their pri¬ vate academies, whereby he saw and learn’d their fashions of literature. (9) That from thence he went to Sena and Rome, in both which places he spent his time among the most learned there, Lucas Holsteinius being one y and from thence he journied to Naples, where he was introduced into the acquaintance of Joh. Bapt. Mansus an Italian Mar¬ quess (to whom Torquatus Tassus an Italian poet wrote his book De Amicitia) who shewed great civilities to him, ac¬ companied him to see the rarities of that place, visited him at his lodgings, and sent to, the testimony of his great esteem for, him, in this distich, Ut mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, si pietas sic. Non Anglus, verum hercuR Angelas ipse fores. And excus’d himself at parting for not having been able to do him more honour, by reason of his resolute owning his (Protestant) religion : which resoluteness he using at Rome, many there were that dared not to express their civilities to¬ wards him, which otherwise they would have done: And I have heard it confidently related, that for his said resolutions, which out of policy, and for his own safety, might have been then spared, the English priests at Rome were highly dis¬ gusted, and it was question’d whether the Jesuits his coun¬ trymen there did not design to do him mischief. Before he left Naples he return’d the marquess an acknowledgment of his great favours in an elegant copy of verses entit. Mansus, which is among the Latin poems. (10) That from thence (Naples) he thought to have gone into Sicily and Greece, but upon second thoughts he continued in Italy, and went to Luca, Bononia, Ferrara, and at length to Venice 5 where continuing a month, he went and visited Verona and Milan. (11) That after he had ship’d the books and other goods which he had bought in his travels, he returned through Lombardy, and over the Alps to Geneva, where spending- some time, he became familiar with the famous Joh. Deo- date D. D. Thence, going through France, he returned home, well fraught with knowledge and manners, after he had been absent one year and three months. (12) That soon after he setled in an house in St. Bride’s churchyard, near Fleetstreet, in London, where he instructed in the Lat. tongue two youths named John and Edw Philips, the sons of his sister Anne by her husband Edward Philips : both w hich were afterwards writers, and the eldest principled as his uncle. But the times soon after changing, and the re¬ bellion thereupon breaking forth, Milton sided with the faction, and being a man of parts, was therefore more capa¬ ble than another of doing mischief, especially by his pen, as by those books which I shall anon mention, will appear. (13) Tliat at first we find him a presbyterian and a most sharp and violent opposer of prelacy, the established eccle¬ siastical discipline and the orthodox clergy. (14) That shortly after he did set on foot and maintain very odd and novel positions concerning divorce, and then taking part with the independents, he became a great antimonarchist, a bitter enemy to K. Ch. I. and at length arrived to that mon¬ strous and unparallel’d height of profligate impudence, as in print to justify the most execrable murder of him the best of kings, as I shall anon tell you. Afterwards being made Latin secretary to the parliament, we find him a com¬ monwealth’s man, a hater of all things that looked towards a single person, a great reproacher of the universities, scho- lastical degrees, decency and uniformity in the church. (15) That when Oliver ascended the throne, he became the [264] Latin secretary, and proved to him very serviceable when employed in business of weight and moment, and did great matters to obtain a name and wealth. To conclude, he was a person of wonderful parts, of a very sharp, biting and satyrical wit. He wras a good philosopher and historian, an excellent poet, Latinist, Grecian and Hebritian, a good ma¬ thematician and musician, and so rarely endowed by nature, that had he been but honestly principled, he might have been highly useful to that party, against which he all along appeared with much malice and bitterness. As for the things which he hath published, are these, (1) Of Re¬ formation, touching Church Discipline in England, and the Causes that hitherto have kindred it, &c. Lond. 1641. qu. at which time, as before, the nation wras much divided upon the controversies about church government between the prelatical party, and puritans, and therefore Milton did with gi’eat boldness and zeal offer his judgment as to those matters in his said book of reformation. (2) Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnus. Lond. 1641. qu. Which Rem. Defence was written (as ’tis said) by Dr. Jos. Hall, bishop of Exeter. (3) Apology against the humble Remonstrant. This was written in vindication of his Animadversions. (4) Against prelatical Episcopacy. This I have not yet seen. (5) The Reason of Church Government; nor this. (6) The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, &c. in two books. Lond. 1644, 45. qu. To which is added in some copies a translation of The Judgment of Mart. Bucer concerning Divorce, &c. It must be now known, that after his settlement, upon his return from his travels, he in a month’s time courted, married, and brought home to his house in London, a wife from Forsthill lying between Hal- ton and Oxford, named Mary the daughter of Air. -—— Powell of that place, gent. But she, who was very young, and had been bred in a family of plenty and freedom, being not well pleas’d Avith her husband’s retired manner of life, did shortly after leave him and went back into the country with her mother. Whereupon, tho’ he sent divers pressing- invitations, yet he could not prevail with her to come back, till about 4 years after when the garrison of Oxon was surrender’d (the nighness of her father’s house to which having for the most part of the mean time hindred any communication between them) she of her own accord re¬ turned and submitted to him, pleading that her mother had been the chief promoter of her frowardness. But he being not able to bear this abuse, did therefore upon considera¬ tion, after he had consulted many eminent authors, write 2 I*
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