XV.

he said, that he might be the willinger to help them in this CHAP. affair of the school before spoken of; and in so doing, he used these moving words to him, Mercedem reportabis a Anno 1563. Domino in resurrectione justorum; i. e. You shall receive your reward from the Lord at the resurrection of the just.

140

CHAP. XVI.

Bishop Thirleby and Dr. Boxal with the Archbishop at Bekesborn. Queen Mary's Bishops and Divines favourably dealt with. Archbishop Hethe, Bishop Bourn. John Bale, the antiquarian, Prebendary at Canterbury, dies.

Boxal

kesborn.

tled, Execu

not for Re

IN the month of September this year, the Queen's Council Thirlby and were so kind to Thirlby, late Bishop of Ely, and Boxal, placed with late Dean of Windsor, (whom the Lord Burghley* called him at Be"a person of great modesty and knowledge,") as to remove In his them for their preservation from London, where the plague book entigrew now very hot: and having been with the Archbishop tion for before at Lambeth, appointed them to harbour with him Treason, now at his house at Bekesborn. And their keeper, who ligion. conveyed them thither, brought also letters from the said Council to the Archbishop, signifying upon what conditions he was to receive them. Concerning this resolution of the Council, Thirlby also had wrote him a letter before. But this was some surprise to him, not only in regard of the inconveniency of the entertainment of them here, such was the straitness of his house, having not many less than an hundred persons uprising and down lying therein; besides divers of his family, which were forced to lodge abroad: but chiefly because of the great danger of harbouring persons that came from a place infected. And that if any peril should arise from them, the country would make such exclamation, which he saw was wonderfully afraid of all such as came from London. Nor did he, as he writ his

II.

BOOK friend, in respect of his own person, repine at this appointment, nor would he be thought slack to gratify his old acAnno 1563.quaintance, so far as his faith to God and his word, and his allegiance to his Prince and her government, might bear with it. But for the prevention of any danger of infection, he desired the Secretary that he would prefer his request unto the Lords of the Council, that it might stand with their pleasures, that for the fear his household was in of them, coming from a contagious air, he might place them in the town, not far from his house, in an house then standing empty, till such time as they were better blown, as his phrase was, with that fresh air for a fourteen days. He would see to their provision, and for the custody of their persons. As to one of them, he said, he was surely persuaded that he would not disappoint the Council's expectations which, I suppose, was Thirlby; with whom probably he might have contracted a good acquaintance, having been Bishop of Norwich (the Archbishop's native city) in King Edward's days. But the nature of the other he was not so well acquainted with. Whereupon, if ought should chance in the mean time, till he should receive them to himself, he trusted the Council would rather bear with him, in avoiding the danger of infection, as might be feared, than for their behoof endanger his whole family.

Thirlby

lived and died with

bishop.

Catal. of
Bishops.

This he prudently thought good to signify to the Secretary's own hands, praying him to be a means that his doings might be taken in the best part.

And so was Thirlby entertained henceforward with the Archbishop in all courteous and gentle manner, both here near Canterbury and at Lambeth, until his death, which the Arch- happened Aug. 26. in the year 1570. "Taking more pleasure," as Bishop Godwin assured himself, " in this time "of his imprisonment, than ever heretofore in the midst "and fullest stream of his highest honours." The Archbishop took care to have him decently buried in the chancel of Lambeth church, and a fair stone laid over him, with an inscription in brass, still remaining.

He was born in Cambridge, Fellow of Trinity hall, and

in degree Doctor of the Civil Law; and the first and last CHAP. Bishop of Westminster.

XVI.

Queen Ma

shops in

And here I will take this occasion to cast an eye back Anno 1563. upon Queen Mary's Bishops and other ecclesiastics. Rea-Favour to son of state, and their incompliance with the laws now esta- ry's Biblished, made it necessary to take them up and lay divers the Tower. of them in the Tower. In the year 1560, they petitioned 141 the Lords of the Council that they might have liberty to come together at their meals. This suit of theirs was left unto the discretion of the Archbishop, as head of the Queen's Commissioners ecclesiastical, that if he judged it not convenient that this liberty should be granted them, then they desired him by the Secretary to signify it unto the Lords: but if he approved it, then to send his orders to the Lieutenant of the Tower to allow them so to do as they had desired, prescribing nevertheless the order unto them: which was, that Dr. Hethe, Dr. Boxal, Dr. Pates, and Dr. Fecknam, be admitted to one company to one of the tables: and to the other table Dr. Thirleby, Dr. Bourne, Dr. Watson, and Dr. Turbervile. Which favour, no question, the Archbishop readily yielded them.

removed

infection.

And so they, or some of them, continued under an easy They are restraint till the year 1563, the year wherein the nation, and chiefly London, was visited with the plague: when fear of the they desired the Lords to be removed, because of the danger of infection. Whereupon the Lords dispersed them among the Bishops in their respective places of habitation, where they might be safe. Fecknam was sent to the Bishop of Winchester, Bourn to the Bishop of Lincoln; and to the Archbishop the Council wrote, to receive Thirleby and Boxal, his former guests, as was mentioned before; and "to give them convenient lodging, each of them one "man allowed them, and to use them as was requisite for "men of their sort; and that they should satisfy his Lord"ship for the charges of their commons." This letter was dated September 15. Upon this order, Dr. Thirleby wrote to him concerning his coming into his family, saying, “That he was an unbidden guest, who, according to the pro

BOOK "verb, wotteth not where to sit; and that he would bring II. "all his family with him, that is, his man and his boy." To Anno 1563. which the Archbishop made this very friendly answer:

The Archbishop to

Dr. Thirle

by.

"Sir, as an unbidden guest, as you write, knoweth not "where to sit, so a guest bidden or unbidden, being con"tent with that which he shall find, shall deserve to be the "better welcome. If you bring with you your man and

66

your querister too, ye shall not be refused. And if your "companion in journey [Dr. Boxal] can content himself "with one man to attend upon him, your lodging shall be "the sooner prepared. Your best way were to Maidstone "the first night, and the next hither. I would wish your "coming were the sooner afore night, that such as shall "come with you, being once discharged of their charge, C. C. C. C. 66 Vol. intit. may return that night to Canterbury, two miles off, to Epist. Prin-❝ their bed. And thus God send you a quiet passage. cipum, &c. "20th September, 63."

Ex Archiv.

Thirleby had lodgings in Black

Friars.

Boxal re

moves.

Thirleby continued with the Archbishop to his dying day; though sometimes, it seems, he lodged in London in Black Friars, at one Mrs. Blackwell's. In whose bedchamber some years after died one Mrs. Catharine Carus, a Lancashire woman, a zealous Papist, widow of a Justice of Peace of that name. Which gentlewoman, it is likely out of her devotion, hired that chamber in her age to die in, upon the supposed holiness and merit thereof, which the said Thirleby might be thought to convey to it. This news of her death thus Fleetwood, Recorder of London, writ to the Lord Burghley, "Katherin Carus, the late Justice wife, my countrywoman, with all her pride and Popery, is this "week gone, I trust, to God. She died in Bishop Thirleby's "chamber in Mrs, Blackwell's house in the Black Friars."

66

Boxal after some time removed to Bromley, whether it were to the Bishop of Rochester's, or to some other habitation of his own there, it is uncertain to me. Thence he wrote a letter of thanks to the Archbishop for his. hospitable entertainment. Which was in these words:

XVI.

His letter to

Arch

"I have none other business to trouble your Grace with CHAP. "a letter, but only to render unto the same my humble "thanks, as well for my very good entertainment, which so Anno 1563. "long time without desert your Grace exhibited unto me, the "as also for your gentleness shewed at this my removing bishop. " from Grace's house to Bromleigh. Which I do ac- Ex Archiv. knowledge, and most heartily wish I were able by any Vol. ubi means to declare myself mindful of it, as I am, &c. "Your Grace's debter and well-willer "to his small power,

66

66

your

"Jo. Boxall."

C. C. C. C.

supra.

This Boxal, it seems, after some time returned to the 142 custody of the Archbishop again, and was, as were the aforesaid Thirleby and Bishop Tunstal, a guest at his table continually. But afterwards falling sick and shook with a fever, he went to a friend of his at London, and there ex- He dies. pired a little after of that disease. He was Doctor of Divinity of Oxford, Dean of Peterburgh, Norwich, and Windsor, Secretary and Counsellor to Queen Mary. He abstained Mattheus. under that Queen from shedding innocent blood, or giving his consent thereto. There was in him as it were by nature a great modesty and courteous disposition.

As for Hethe he seemeth before this time to have had his Hethe lives at liberty in liberty of dwelling at large, and might be gone to his seat his own. at Cobham in Surrey, where he lived and died at full ease, Cobham. quiet, and safety, and as handsomely as most gentlemen in England. For Cobham (according to a particular of that manor which I have seen among Sir Michael Hicks's papers) was situate twenty miles from London, four miles wide of Windsor, held in sockage. It contained five hundred acres of land, meadow, wood, and pasture. The wood and timber valued at eight hundred pounds. A fair house, garden, and orchard. The whole ground paled about. It was rented at 1807. a year. The price of the purchase 3000l. It was now Sir Francis Lee's; formerly Mr. Hethe's, the heir, I suppose, of Dr. Hethe. This was that grave man's retirement in his old age.

easy