Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/367

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

368

HISTORY OF PRINTING.

for the convenience and benefit of the scholars, allotted them chambers in the college, and pro- cured certain books for them, which were ordered to be chained in the chambers. The greater part of his books and manuscripts he bequeathed to the university, forming a collection, which Fuller says was the Sun of English Antiquity, before it was eclipsed by that of sir Robert Cotton.

Stephen Bateman, in a work entitled the Doom, informs us, that by his grace's commission, he " gathered within four years, of divinity, as- tronomy, history, physic, and others of sundry arts and sciences, six thousand seven hundred books." By the queen's permission, the arch- bishop, or his deputies, were allowed to peruse all the records of the suppressed religious houses.

The archbishop was also the founder of the first Society of Anliqvaries, over which he pre- sided during his life, and in this office was suc- ceeded by archbishop Whitgift. The domestic habits and personal appearance of archbishop Parker, were simple and grave. After a long and active life, he died in his Tlst year, and was buried in his own chapel, at Lambeth ; but during the usurpation, his bones were taken up, and thrown into a dunghill, from whence they were removed in archbishop Sancroft's time, and replaced in the midst of the area of the chapel. The following epitaph upon archbishop Parker, which was affixed to a libel against him, is highly creditable to him, when considered as written by an adversary :•

Matthkw Farkik, Uued sober uid viae Learned by studle, and contlnaal practice, Loainge, true, off lyfe uncontrold The court did foeter him, both young and old Orderly he delt, the ryght he did defend. Be lyred unto Qod, to Ood be mad ende.

Lord Orford says, "so congenial an art as engraving, when once discovered, could not fail to spread in an age of literature. That accom- plished prelate, archbishop Parker, who thought that whatever tended to enlighten and cultivate the human mind, was within nis province, seems to have been the most conspicuous patron of the arts of engraving and printing in the reign of Elizabeth. He employed in his palace, at Lam- beth, engravers, wood cutters, drawers, limners, and other artists. Of these engravers, Regimius Hogenberg, was the chief, who twice engraved the archbishop's head, which, if Vertue be right, was the first portrait printed in England from an engraving in copper:" another of his engravers was named Lyne ; and amongst them was an artist named Lyle,an excellent penman,who could counterfeit any antique writing, and was usually employed by the archbishop in making ola books complete, by transcriptions from others.

He was also the particular friend and patron

• From a work entitled, the life of the 70 aichbishopi of Canterbury, presentlye sittinge ; Englished, and to he ad- ded to the IS9 lately sett forth in Latin. This number of seventy Is bo compleata number, as it i> great pitie ther shold be any more ; but that as Auguatin was the drat, so Matthew might be the last. lij*. i2mo. There is a sheet folded up in the book, with tbe names and sees of the then set of bishops.

of the famous printer, John Day, whose success and patronage excited the envy of the rest of his fraternity, who adopted illiberal methods to ' prevent the sale of his books, so that at one time he had two or three thousand pounds worth on hand, a great sum in those days.

With respect to the learned prelates of the established church during the reign of Elizabeth, archbishop Parker must be placed at the head of his cotemporaries ; though there is one cir- cumstance that reflects honour on the queen and her adminstradon, which is, that the greater number of those who were raised to the episcopal dignity, or rewarded with ecclesiastical perfer- ments, were men whose literature was an orna- ment to her reign. " Indeed," says Dr. Kippis, " the exertions of learning were then so necessary and so useful, amid the conflicts of opposition, that there was a peculiar propriety in calling the first theological scholars of the age to the highest ecclesiastical stations." A brief notice of the most eminent prelates of the EUzabethan era, may not be obtrusive on the reader's patience.

John Jewel, bishop of Salisbury, has rendered his name immortal by his Apology for the Church of England,* which was written in Latin ; but for more general use it was translated into English, with remarkable accuracy, by lady Bacon, the second of the four learned daughters of sir Anthony Cooke.f It was also translated into Greek ; and such was the esteem in which it was held, that there was a design of its being joined to the thirty-nine articles, and of causing it to be deposited not only in all cathedrals and col- legiate churches, but also in private houses. Bishop Bumet gives the following character of the Apology. " As it was one of the first books published m this (queen Elizabeth's) reign, so it was written with that strength and clearness, that it, together with the Defence of it, is still to this day reckoned one of our best books." It is worthy of being mentioned, as an example of the literary diligence of bishop Jewel, that, when he was at me university of Oxford, he rose at four o'clock in the morning, and studied till twelve at night. With such industry, it is not surprising that he acquired a large stock of learn- ing ; and his piety and virtue were equal to his knowledge. He was born 1522, and died 1571.

Edmund Grindal, successor to Parker, in the see of Canterbury, has already been mentioned at page 340, ante ; and it only remains to add, that he gave Elizabeth much uneasiness for the mildness of his conduct towards the puritans, whose opinions he is thought to have imbibed.

If Elizabeth was dissatisfied with the tender- ness of Grindal towards the puritans, she was amply compensated by the unchristian violence of John Whitgift, the next archbishop of Canter- bury, who was translated from the see of Wor-

  • A detection oferrowt and lye»in Mr. Jewltbook called

a defence of the apologie, ^c. At Louvain, printed by J. Fooler. ISSg.

t She was born at Oiddy liali, in Essex, about 1518, and became the wife of sir Nicholas Bacon, the lord keeper, and mother of the illustrious Francis Bacon. Lady Anne Bacon died about 1S03, and was buried at St. Albans.

VjOOQ IC