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so much of the steam of dead bodies rising about them; he was likewise much offended at the rudeness which the crowding the dead bodies in a small parcel of ground occasioned; for the bodies already laid there, and not yet quite rotten, were often raised and mangled; so that he made a canon in his Synod against burying in churches: And as he often wished that burying places were removed out of all towns, so he chose the most remote and least frequented place of the church-yard of Kilmore for his wife, and by his will he ordered that he should be laid next her, with this bare inscription,

Depositum Gulielmi quondam Episcopi Kilmorensis.

Depositum cannot bear an English translation, it signifying somewhat given to another in trust, so he considered his burial as a trust left in the earth till the time that it shall be called on to give up its dead.

This account is chiefly taken from Bishop Burnet, who assures us, that those who knew Bishop Bedell well, believed that his real character exceeded these memorials, communicated by his zealous and worthy friend, and that his memory will outlive all the perishing trophies in brass or marble. Annexed to the above volume, are several letters, written by our Bishop and Bishop Hall, to and concerning Mr. Wadsworth, who had been perverted to popery: They are very excellent in their kind, and contain a solid and masterly refutation of the errors in the Romish communion.

JOHN DAVENANT, D. D.

BISHOP OF SALISBURY.

THIS very learned Prelate was the son of an eminent merchant, and born in Watling Street, London, about the year 1570, but originally descended from the ancient family of the Davenants of Sible-Heningham in Essex, and of Davenant's Lands in that parish, where his father was born, and his ancestors (says Mr. Fuller) continued

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in a worshipful degree from Sir John Davenant, who lived in the time of King Henry III. What school he was educated in, we cannot find. But he was admitted to Queen's college in Cambridge, in 1587, where he took his degrees in arts regularly, after having given in his juvenile exercises such an earnest of his future maturity, that Dr. Whitaker hearing him dispute, said, That he ⚫ would in time prove the honour of the university;' a prediction (as Fuller observes) that proved not untrue.

A fellowship was offered him about 1594, but his father would not suffer him to accept it, on account of his plentiful fortune; however, after his father's decease he accepted of one, and was admitted into it in September 1597. Being thus settled in the college, he distinguished himself (as he had already done before) by his learning and other excellent qualifications; and in the year 1601 took his degree of bachelor of divinity. In 1609 he proceeded doctor; and the same year was elected Lady Margaret's professor of divinity.

In the year 1614 he was chosen master of his college; and became so considerable, that he was one of those eminent English divines sent by King James I. to the Synod of Dort, in the year 1618.* He returned to England in May 1619, after having visited the most eminent cities and other remarkable places in the Low Countries. Upon the death of his brother-in-law, Dr. Robert Townson, he was advanced to the see of Salisbury, and continued in favour during the remainder of King James's reign; but in Lent 1630-1, he incurred the court's displeasure, for meddling (in a sermon preached before the King at Whitehall) with the predestinarian controversy, 'all curious search into which,' his majesty King Charles

had

*The others were, George Carleton, D. D. then Bishop of Landaff, and afterwards Bishop of Chichester; Joseph Hall, D. D. then Dean of Worcester, and afterwards Bishop of Exeter and Norwich; and Samuel Ward, D. D. Master of Sidney College, Cambridge, and Archdeacon of Taunton. [But the air not agreeing with Dr. Hall, he obtained leave to return to England about Christmas, and Thomas Goad, D. D. was sent in his room.] They embarked October the seventeenth, landed at Middleburgh the twentieth; came to the Hague the twenty-seventh of the same month; and thence removed to Dort, where the Synod was opened November the third, O. S. and ended April the twenty-ninth. They came back to England, May the seventh. During their stay in Holland, these four divines had ten pounds a-day allowed them by the, States, and a present of two hundred pounds, at their departure, for their charges; besides a golden medal to each of them, on which was represented the Synod sitting.

had strictly enjoined, in his declaration prefixed to the thirty-nine articles in 1628, to be laid aside.'

As soon as his sermon was ended, it was signified to him, That his majesty was displeased he had stirred this question, which his majesty had forbidden to be meddled withal, one way or the other. The Bishop's answer was, That he had delivered nothing but the received doctrine of our church, established in her seventeenth article, and that he was ready to justify the truth of what he had then taught. He was told, The doctrine was not gainsaid, but his majesty had given command these questions should not be debated, and therefore he took it more offensively that any should be so bold as in his own hearing to break his royal commands. To which he replied, That he never understood his majesty had forbid the handling of any doctrine comprised in the articles of our church, but only raising of new questions, or adding of new sense thereunto, which he had not done, nor ever should do.

Two days after, when he appeared before the privycouncil, Dr. Samuel Harsnet, Archbishop of York, made a speech near half an hour long, aggravating the boldness of Bishop Davenant's offence, and shewing many inconveniencies that it was likely to draw after it. When the Archbishop had finished his speech, the Bishop desired, That since he was called thither as an offender, he might not be put to answer a long speech upon the sudden, but that his Grace would be pleased to charge him point by point, and so to receive his answer; for he did not yet understand wherein he had broken any commandment of his majesty's, which was taken for granted.

After some pause, the archbishop told him, He knew well enough the point which was urged against him, namely, the breach of the King's declaration. Then he stood upon this defence, That the doctrine of predestination, which he taught, was not forbidden by the declaration: First, Because in the declaration all the articles are established, amongst which the article of predestination is one. Secondly, Because all ministers are urged to subscribe unto the truth of the article, and all subjects to continue in the profession of that, as well as of the rest. Upon these and such like grounds, he gathered, it could not be esteemed amongst forbidden, curious, or needless doctrines; and here he desired that out of any clause in the declaration it might be shewed him, that keeping himself within the bounds of the article, he had trans

gressed

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