of Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D. in 1565: and in the year following, he presided at the divinity-disputations held before the Queen in that learned seminary. His public conduct in his diocese, likewise, procured him the veneration and the esteem of all good men. By particularly attending to the proceedings of his Chancellor and his Archdeacons, presiding frequently in his Consistory Court, and inspecting the lives of the private clergy, he produced a great reformation, and rescued the people from the shameful extortions of the stewards and other inferior ecclesiastical officers. His humane concern for the welfare of the poor was extended, also, to the civil jurisdiction: for as he was in the commission of the peace, he frequently sat on the bench with the justices, and corrected numerous abuses in the exercise of that office: and acting in the same capacity at his episcopal seat, he composed various petty quarrels arising among neighbours, and prevented many vexatious law-suits. But though his unwearied application to these important concerns, combined with his fondness for study, and the little inclination which he had for recreations of any kind, destroyed his health; no entreaties of his friends could induce him to alter his usual hours, or to remit his accustomed exertions. He still continued his practice of rising about four in the morning: at five, he summoned his household to prayers; at six, he attended public worship in his cathedral; the remainder of the morning he passed in his library; and the afternoon he devoted to public audiences. About nine in the evening, he called his servants to an account, examining how they had passed their time; after which, he proceeded to 2 prayers with his family. Till midnight, he withdrew to his study, and he then retired to bed; where one of his chaplains, generally, read to him till he fell asleep. A life so laborious could not fail to bring on a decline but when a visible alteration was observed, the answer which he invariably returned to the hints of his friends upon the subject was, "A bishop should die preaching;" words, almost literally fulfilled! For a short time before his death, having promised to preach at a church in Wiltshire, he was met upon the road by a gentleman, who perceiving from his looks that he was much indisposed, urged him to return home; telling him, that the people had better lose one sermon, than be totally deprived of such a preacher.' He continued his journey, however; delivered his last discourse, though with considerable difficulty; and died a few days after his return, in September 1571, at Monkton Farley. He was buried in the choir of Salisbury Cathedral.* Bishop Jewel was one of the most learned of the Reformers. With the Latin and Greek languages he was critically acquainted, and was besides a proficient in the German and Italian. Of his interior * Buchanan's Iambics to his memory will be perused with pleasure by the classical reader: JUELLE, mater quem tulit Devonia, Quem Maria ferro et igne patriâ expulit, JEWEL ! whom Devon, gentlest mother, bred; and accurate knowledge of theology, ecclesiastical history, and the writings of the ancient Fathers, his voluminous works bear honourable testimony. Not less commendable than his learning, were his piety and his moderation. His moral conduct was highly exemplary; his command of his passions wonderful; and his temper invariably meek, modest, and obliging. To the poor, he was generous and charitable; and he was liberal to worthy foreigners, whenever he observed them in distress. He constantly maintained, and educated, some pious young men in his own house, and assisted several students at the University with yearly pensions. In the list of persons largely indebted to his bounty, may be included the venerable name of Hooker; to whom the English hierarchy is under such substantial obligations. Whom bigot Mary's rage from England drove, 'Mid prelates placed-now, whelm'd in dust thy frame, The following Elegy was written by Dr. Fuller. Holy learning, sacred arts, Fluent grace, an humble mind, F. W. He was remarkable for an uncommon memory, which he improved by art. By the first writer of his life (Dr. Lawrence Humfrey) it is asserted, that he taught this art to Dr. Parkhurst his old tutor, while they were in exile at Zurich; enabling him in the space of twenty-eight days, with only one hour's application each day, to repeat the whole Gospel of St. Matthew, and upon hearing any separate portion of it, to recite the preceding and subsequent verses. His sermons he chiefly delivered extempore from heads put down in writing, upon which he used to meditate while the bell was summoning him to church.* Beside the articles already enumerated, Jewel published Latin Orations' and Sermons;' and was the author of a View of a Seditious Bull sent into England by Pius V. Bishop of Rome, Anno 1569,' a Treatise of the Holy Scriptures,' a Treatise of the Sacraments,' an 'Exposition of the Two Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians,' and Certain Sermons preached before the Queen's Majesty at St. Paul's Cross and elsewhere;' all chiefly taken from his dis * He used to say, if ten thousand people were quarrelling or fighting all the while he was preaching, they could not put him out.' To try this extraordinary faculty, Dr. Parkhurst proposed to him some of the most difficult and barbarous terms out of a calendar, and Bishop Hooper gave him forty Welsh, Irish, and foreign words; all of which, after once or twice reading and a little recollection, he repeated correctly backward and forward. In 1563, the Lord Keeper Bacon recited to him out of Erasmus' paraphrase the last clauses of ten lines, confused and imperfect on purpose. Those broken parcels of sentences, after sitting silent awhile and covering his face with his hand, he rehearsed, both the right way and the contrary, without hesitation or error ! |