* ' Passion-Flowers,' by Mrs Howe. Boston, 1854, p. 113.
t "Works, Geneva, fol. 1610, vol. i. p. 706 ; previously published in 1596. 4to.
Ixxxii MEMOIR OF EICHARD SIBBES, D.D.
and Fenners, Cartwright, Fuller, Chadderton, and Dod, Whitaker could not but be known and esteemed by him. He was venerated by all parties. He was, says even the atrabilious Anthony Wood, ' one of the greatest men his college ever produced, the desire and love of the present times and the envy of posterity, that cannot bring forth a parallel.' * ' The learned Whitaker,' observes Leigh, ' the honour of our schools and the angel of our church, than whom our age saw nothing more memorable.' f 'Who,' exclaims Bishop Hall, ' ever saw him without reverence, or heard him without won- der?'! Whitaker died in 1596, the second year of Sibbes's stu- dentship. It is significant that the verses of such a mere youth received a place beside the tributes of the greatest men of the a^e:—
T'/^K o^driv ffccgoSoi/ ToXkoig, 'ga/tfr^oa Ua'TTiSTUtv
"E^o^&S U'Travruv, o d' avid^a/jusv sbvsi 'laog, Kat Mcusojv o^dSjg rag dv'sifjyi &\i^ag.
T^v Xv/JLTjv TiaxYiV Zojv 7i davuv Ti<p-oyi. NDc yi aii[j.vriSrov iprj/xriv, xZhog n u,iyiG70v^ A/TWi', 'zriyd^ii hoyiMara OiS'TriGia.
E.[ichard] S[ibbes].§
It is hardly worth while turning these verses into English, but one remark is suggested by them. Spite of the "^a/ffrJjpa llameTuiv' (= hammer of the papists), won by his controversies with Cam- pian and Bellarmine and others, Bellarmine thought so highly of Whitaker that he sent for his portrait, and gave it a prominent place in his study ; and when his friends were introduced to him he used to point to it and say, ' he was the most learned heretic he ever read.' II
Though it anticipates the order in date, it may be as well to in- troduce here the only other verses of Sibbes that are known (this time Latin) — on the birth of the Duke of York : — H
* Fasti Oxon. (ed. by Bliss, vol. i. p. 210, &c.)
■f Edward Leigh's Treatise of Keligion and Learning, folio, 1656, p. 363.
X Quoted in Leigh, supra, p. 364. Hall wrote an English ' Elegy ' and Latin verses on Whitaker. The former -will be found in Caroli Horni Carmen Funebre in Obitum Ornatissimi viri Gul., Wliitakeri, &c. Lond. 4to, 1596. The latter pre- fixed to Whitaker's Prajlectionos, 1599, 4to. Both, in Hall's Works by Peter Hall, xii. 323-25 and 330. § Given verbatim et literatim froin the volume of Whitaker.
II Wood's Athenae, ante. For full notice of Whitaker, with, as usual, ample authorities, consult Cooper's Athena Cantab., vol. ii., p. 126, seq.
^ From ' Ducis Eboracensis Fasciae a Musis Cantabrigiensibus,' 1633, p. 6. For pointing out both the Greek and Latin verses I am indnbted to Charles H. Cooper, Esq., Cambridge, not more erudite than willing to place his multitudinous col- lections at the disposal of a fellow-labourer.
MEMOIR OF EICHARD SIBBES, D.D. IxXXJiJ
IN NATALEM DUCIS EBORACENSIS AUSPICATISSIMUM.
Anglia ter felix, terna jam pvole beata :
Pax regno namque est pignore firma novo. Major si ex populi numero sit gloria regis ;
Natorum ex numero an non mage surgit lionos ? Candidiora nitent tria Lilia, tresquo Leones
Exultant, sceptra ut nobilitata vident, Fratribus et binis stipatur utrinque Maria:
Delicias junctas cum Patre Mater liabet. Regia stirps crescit ; crescunt liinc gaudia regni :
Crescat et hinc summo gloria summa Deo !
At Tu, Magna puer, Regum de stemmate germen,
Cura Dei, Patriae spes nova, vive, vige. Gloria Te niveis semper circumvolet alis,
Teque ipso major crescito, parve puer ! Gratia te et virtus semper comitentur euntem !
In vultu et labris sessitet ipsa Charts ! Angelicusque chorus tua stet cuuabula circum,
Sitque Duci semper Dux Deus atque Comes! Et nali natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis
Peri)etuent seriem, Carole magne, tuam ! Germiuet usque, ferax jam fauste, rcgia vitis
Germinet, 0 fructus edat et usque uovos !
E[ichard] S[ibbes], AuUb Sanctas CatharincB Prcefectus*
It were a waste of pains to translate these lines. Neither their subject nor their merit claims this.*}*
It is clear that Sibbes wanted the afflatus of the poet, of whom the old axiom, one of the world's Tnemorabilia, must ever hold, nascitur non fit. And alas ! for the ' gratia' and other prayers ! for this Duke of York became the Second Charles of England.
Returning upon our chronology, Paul Bayne, whose ' ministry ' along with Sibbes has been described in an earlier part of this Memoir, I having died in 1617, there was issued immediately a quarto volume containing an Exposition of the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians.§ Its main theme is 'Predestination,' one of the 'doctrinal' points forbidden by royal proclamation to be discussed. Soberly, wisely, suggestively, and with much beauty of wording does Sibbes introduce his ' father in the gospel.'
' Notwithstanding the world's complaint of the surfeit of books (hasty wits being over forward to vent their unripe and misshapen conceits), yet
* This also is given verbatim from the volume.
t Perhaps the classical scholar will agree with me, that in the couplet, Gratia te et virtus semper comitentur euntem, In vultu et labris sessitet ipsa Charis ! = ' May grace itself sit on thy countenance and lips,' we have a reminiscence of a fragment from Diodorus 'jrndui rig iTr/.ddiasv s-rri roig ^iiXsffn = ' Persuasion sat upon his lips.' Quoted in Kcightley's History of Greece, p. 160. X See pages xxx^i, xxxviii,