Your lordship's loving brother, G. Cant.
Lambeth, March 19. 1626.
Sibbes no doubt found, on his arrival in Dublin, that the ' place • Ussher, letter cccxci., xvi. 453. f Ussher, xv. 369. J Usshen xv. 376
Xlviii MEMOIR OF EICHARD SIBBES, D.D.
was likely. to prove harassing, and to lead him into controversy. A sentence from a letter of Joseph Mede, in like circumstances, explains his declinature : — ' I would not/ he writes to Ussher, ' be willing to adventure into a strange country upon a litigious title, having seen the bad experience at home of perpetual jars and dis- contents from such beginnings.' * Similar reasons, combined with the attractions of Gray's Inn and Cambridge, led Sibbes to return, leaving the provostship of Trinity College, Dublin, to be filled by the afterwards revered Bishop Bedell.
CHAPTER VI.
MASTER OF CATHARINE HALL, CAMBRIDGE.
Accepts Mastership — Relaxation of ' order' at Gray's Inn — Founder of Catharine Hall and its celebrities — Its condition — ' Troublous times' — Dr John Preston — Trinity Lectureship — Bishopric declined — Friendship between Sibbes and Preston — Fellow-labourers — Conversion of Preston — The effect of the preach- ing of the two Puritan Masters — Auditory of St Mary's — Memorials of Trinity Lecture — Success of Sibbes as Master — Clarke and Fuller — Fellows.
Having dechned the Provostship of Trinity College, Dubhn, Sibbes at once accepted the Mastership of Catharine Hall, Cam- bridge, to which, as has been narrated, he was almost simultane- ously elected. No record remains of the influence used to secure this coveted and often contested honour for the 'outed' Fellow and ' deprived' Lecturer. It is not improbable that it was to Dr John Preston, the Puritan Master of the 'nest of Puritans' (so his enemies designated it), Emmanuel, that he was indebted. Preston was then in the height of his favour with the Duke of Buckingham, — the acceptance of whose patronage is one of the stains upon the memory of the Puritans. He had long been in close friendship with the preacher of Gray's Inn.
There must have been some relaxation of the 'order' under which Sibbes accepted the appointment of preacher to Gray's Inn, — to admit of his accepting the mastership of Catharine Hall, without resignation of the other. The statute is very explicit, as will be seen : — ' 15 Nov. 40 Eliz. (1598-9). — The divinity-reader to be chosen shall be nominated, having oio ecclesiastical prefer- ment other than a prebend without cure of souls, nor readership in an}'' other place ; and shall keep the same place as long as he con- tinues thus qualified, and no longer ; and to be charged with reading but twice a week, except when there is a communion.'")"
* Ussher, as ante, p. 455-56, vol. xvi.
t This ' order ' was made in the term provious to the election of the successor of
■MEMOIR OF EICHARD SIBBES, D.D. tIi't
There were then, as now, the two distinct offices of reader, some- times called chaplain, and of preacher, sometimes called lecturer, and as in above order, ' divinity-reader.' * So that it was the more easy to arrange for Sibbes's absence during the week. From an entry, under date 19th Jan. 1612, we learn that * The preacher, ye chap- lain, ye steward were to be allowed such commons as
gentlemen.'] Not as ' gentleman ' merely, but as associate and friend, was Sibbes regarded. The anxiety of the ' ancients, barris- ters, students,' to retain his services, would also smoothe the way to place in practical desuetude the ' order ' as to * no other ecclesiastical 'preferment! Be all this as it may, Sibbes entered on the master- ship of Catharine Hall forthwith. |
Catharine or Katharine Hall, on whose Mastership Sibbes thus entered, was then, as it continues, one of the minor Colleges of the University. Yet is it not without its own celebrities, even the foremost names of English theology, Church and Puritan, before and since. It proudly tells of John Bradford the martyr, John Maplet, John Overall, William Strong, Ralph Robinson, Ralph Brownrig, John Arrowsmith, William Spurstowe, James Shirley (the dramatist), John Lightfoot, Thomas Goodwin, John Ray, Wil- liam Wotton, John Strype, Thomas Sherlock, Joseph Milner, and has recently lost Charles Hardwick. It was founded by a Robert Woodlark, D.D., § (whose name has passed away like his namesake's song of a previous summer), in 1475 ; and took its name in honour of the ' virgin and martyr St Katherine.' Its original endowment, beyond ' the tenements and garden,' was small for even those days.
a certain Dr Crooke, •who was preacher from 1583 to 1599. His successor was a Mr Fenton, elected 7th Feb., 41st Eliz., 1598-99. In respect to the preacher being unmarried, the ' order ' was rigid, and probably explains why Sibbes remained so to the end. I cull a couple of entries that don't say very much for the chivalry of the Gray's Inn authorities : — 1612. 'A ffine paid upon change of life.' 1630, ' Noe women to come into any pt. of ye Chapell.' 1647, ' No familie to bee in the house.' — Segar MS.
* ' Chaplain.' — I note certain little memoranda in relation to the ' Chaplain,' as distingushed from the ' preacher :' the later from Segar, being one of the items included in the destroyed originals — the warrrant itself having perished ; and the earlier from the 'order-book' at Gray's Inn: — 1625, Warrant (granted) to pay to the treasurer of Gray's Inn £6:13:4, June 25. yearly, during pleasure, for a chap- lain to read service daily in the chapel there. An earlier entry runs thus : — ' 5th Feb. 1620. Mr Finch allowed 4/ a week for reading in the Chappell.'