From Whitehall, the 11th of May 1630.
Mr Cooper annotates : ' Randolph in a poem " On Importunate Dunnes," after a curious malediction on the Cambridge tradesmen, adds —
" And if this vex 'um not, I'le grive the town, With this curse, State, put Trhii/i/ lecture down." '
Randolph's Poems, ed. 1G43, p. 119.
Ivi MEMOIR OF EICHAUD SIBBES, D.D.
(1674-77), bless God for the benefit which they received of him.'* Besides this, various regulations and ' orders' as to seats and right of entrance in the order-books, inform us of over-crowded attendance. Thus, under 1623, ' All strangers to be kept out of the Chapell at Sermon, but such as are brought in by some of y® society.* Per- haps even more significant of a crowd is what follows : ' And all y® gentlemen to goe out of y^ Chappell bare-headed in decent manner.' Of the latter, again, Clarke says, ' About the year 1625, or '26, he was chosen Master of Katharine Hall in Cambridge, the government whereof he continued till his dying day ; and, indeed, like a faithful governor, he was always very solicitous and careful to procure and advance the good of that little house. For he procured good means and maintenance, by his interest in many worthy persons, for the enlargement of the College, and was a means and instrument to establish learned and religious Fellows there ; inasmuch as, in his time, it proved a very famous society for piety and learning, both in Fellows and Scholars.'-f- To the same effect, though with character- istic quaintness, Fuller testifies, ' He found the House in a mean condition, the wheel of St. Katharine having stood still (not to say gone backwards) for some years together ; he left it replenished with scholars, beautified with buildings, better endowed with revenues.'^ Somewhat boastfully, perhaps, Daniel Milles, in his list of Masters, thus describes Sibbes : —
' Ricardus Sibbs, Sacrje Theologiae Professor,§ omnium quos prassens setas viderit "vir pientissimus, concionator mellitissimus, qui baud paucoram corda suavitate dicendi emolliit, et vivendi sanctitate ad bonam frugem plane rapuit. Hie erat qui collegium istud partim temporum injuria, partim Praefectonun socordia et avaritia bonis suis spoliatum, et omni honore exutum, ad pristinam famam et dignitatem restituit, quiaque erat apud omnes pios autoritate maxima, largam benefactorum messem, in hoc vacuum gymnasiiun feliciter diduxit. Adeo ut non nude Praefecti nomine dignus videatur, sed alter fundator censeri debeat.'
Other testimonies, as of Eachard,|| might be given, were it needful ; and, indeed, the tribute of Sir Philip Sidney to Hubert Languet must have been his, from many,
" hating what is naught,
For faithful heart, clean liands, and mouth as true. With his sweet skill my skill-less youth he drew To have a feeling taste of Ilim that sits Beyond the heaven, far mere beyond our wits.''
{Arcadia, Book iii. pp. 897-8, ed. 1755.)
Of the Fellows, during Sibbes's Mastership, may be named Anthony
* ' Clarke,' as ante, p. 144. f ' Clarke,' as ante, p. 144.
X Fuller. ' Worthies.' edited hy Nichols. 2 vols. 4to. 1811. Vol. ii. p. 343.
§ i.e., D.D. 11 ' Eachard,' History of England, p. 451.
MEMOIR OF EICHAED SIBBES, D.D. Ivii
Pym (1628), probably a relative of the John Pym, who was a per- sonal friend, and mentioned in his will ; William Spurstowe (1630) ;* John Sibbes (1631), his nepliew ; Charles Pym (1631), brother of Anthony; Roger Fleetwood (1632) ; Joseph Spurstowe (1634).
CHAPTER VII.
SIBBES AND LAUD — ' THE PALATINATE.'
The Puritans ■vratched — The Elector Palatine — Disasters — Shame of England — Battle of Prague — Frederick and Elizabeth fugitives — Persecution — Circular Letter by Sibbes, Gouge, Taylor, and Davenport — Citation before the Star- Chamber — Pronounced ' Notorious Delinquents.'
All the emotion and interest to hear such preaching as was that of Sibbes and Preston, while it gives a measure of the progress of Puritanism (using the word in its recognised historic and lustrous sense), is also to the student of the period a measure of the hate with which the king (in so far as he had stamina enough to hate) and Bishop Laud, now rising into notice, regarded it. So early as 1611, the latter was a ' ivhisjjerer,' a ' busy-body' ever going about with sly, stealthy-paced, panther-like foot-fall, and keen, cold eye, if by any means, he might possess himself of secrets. Between Gray's Inn, and Catharine Hall, and St Mary's, with not unfrequent ' sermons* elsewhere, Sibbes had noble vantage-ground for noble service, and he was occupying it to the full ; and Laud was ready to pounce upon him. I have now to narrate the occasion. Sibbes was not a man to narrow his activities to his own immediate sphere, or to his own country. He watched with profoundest interest the progress of the great Protestant sister-countries, rejoicing in their joy and mourning with their mourning. In 1620, he had spoken burning words 'of the Palatinate ;' words that reveal the common shame of England for her king's pusillanimous desertion of the Elector Frederick, a man true and good in himself, and knit by the tenderest ties to the king of England. From shore to shore the nation had rung with acclaim over revolting Bohemia — the land of John Huss and many martyr-nameg. They had said 'Amen' to the rejection of Ferdinand II., and their hearts beat high for the Elector Palatine chosen in his stead, when he fearlessly said ' Yes' to the call. History tells the tragic sequel.