Section 8 of Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy Volume 1 by John Tulloch. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter III Lord Falkland, a moderate and liberal church. Part IV A crowd of stirring political events now rapidly succeeded each other. The debates on the grander monstrance, the attempt of Charles to arrest the five members, the retirement of the court from London, the assumption of military powers by Parliament, and finally the raising of the royal standard at Nottingham, 23 August 1642. Falkland had plainly drawn himself off from the extreme party during the summer of 1641, and when the attempt was renewed, which had been unsuccessfully made at an earlier stage, of attaching certain of the parliamentary leaders to the king's service as ministers, he was at length induced to accept the office of Secretary of State, along with Colpepper as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Falkland has told all the story of his hesitation and yet his ultimate acceptance. No man could be more surprised than he was when the first intimation was made to him of the king's purpose. He had never proposed any such thing to himself nor had any veneration for the court, but only such a loyalty to the king as the law required from him. Whatever we may think of Falkland's judgment in accepting office in the circumstances, with his obvious distrust of the king's character and the evident dislike which existed betwixt him in that inner circle of counsellors, with the queen at their head, who guided Charles far more than any minister, it is impossible to doubt the purity of the patriotism which animated him now as in all preceding stages of his career. The study of his character and speeches reveals his deep devotion to the English constitution, both in church and state. With all his love of liberty, religious and political, he had a genuine enthusiasm for the church and for royalty. For Charles himself he may have had little affection or esteem. He dreaded the demands which a character like his was sure to make upon a minister. He feared, quote, lest the king should expect such a submission and resignation of himself and his own reason and judgment to his commands as he should never give or pretend to give. Close, quote. With all he was ardently loyal. His attachment was to a principal and not to a man, and he allowed all his personal scruples to be overcome by the enthusiasm of his belief in the reconciliation of royalty and constitutional government, of church order and religious freedom. It has been lately insinuated, notwithstanding Clarendon's express assertions to the contrary, that Falkland, along with Hyde himself and Colpepper, were privy to Charles' attempt to arrest the five members. But there is really not a tittle of evidence in favour of this suggestion, which is at the same time opposed to all we know of Falkland's character, his transparent truthfulness and hatred of rash and crooked courses, features so transparent in all his career that Mr. Forster himself admits he could as easily have given himself to steal as to dissemble. We cannot therefore conceive him entering upon office with such a stain of evil secrecy in his mind, or such a purpose of ill concerted vengeance towards men with whom he had been lately acting. To some it may be equally difficult to conceive his going on after the event with the negotiations which were then in progress and accepting office at all in the circumstances. But there is all the difference in the two cases betwixt a man it may be unwisely impelled by a sense of duty to enter the service of his sovereign for the sake of his country, and a man clearly committing himself from the first to a course which neither patriotic nor moral judgment can approve. The gravest doubts may be raised as to the wisdom of Falkland's policy in identifying himself with a cause which, however great and beautiful it appeared in his own eyes, was in hopeless and impracticable hands, in hands with many of whose doings he could have no sympathy. It must have been a bitter humiliation to him on many occasions to find himself associated with the Digmes and the Germans, and the general crew of ultra-royalists which gathered around the royal standard. It may also be true that he had misgivings as to his position from first to last, that there were even points on which his heart was as much with the parliament as with the king, for he was a man of infinite self-questionings. It is impossible to doubt that he had chosen what appeared to him to be the right side in a great crisis in which he felt he could not stand aloof or fail in service to his country. The result was not what he expected, and he soon began to despair. He had hoped to conciliate opinions, and they grew every month more irreconcilable, to mitigate party feeling and the exasperation between the parliament and the king every day increased, and when civil war became inevitable and blood was shed on both sides, his heartbreak proved intolerable. He lacked the firmness or coarseness of fiber which gathers strength in the face of opposition and rises in proud defiance to meet menace with menace. From the entrance into this unnatural war, says Clarendon, quote, his natural cheerfulness and vivacity grew clouded, and a kind of sadness and ejection of spirit stole upon him which he had never been used to, close, quote. And even after hostilities had begun he hoped and hoped that peace would ensue after a decisive trial of strength. When this hope perished, and negotiations with the parliament seemed finally broken off, quote, those in dispositions which had before touched him grew into a perfect habit of un-cheerfulness, and he who had been so exactly easy and affable to all men that his face and countenance were always present and vacant to his company, and held any cloudiness and less pleasantness of the visage of kind of rudeness or incivility, became on a sudden less communicable and thus very sad, pale, and exceedingly affected with the spleen. In his clothes and habit, which he had minded before always with more neatness and industry and expense than is usual to so great a soul, he was not now only incurious but too negligent, and in his reception of suitors and the necessary or casual addresses to his place so quick and sharp and severe that there wanted not some men, strangers to his nature and disposition, who believed him proud and imperious, from which no mortal man was ever more free. When there was any overture or hope of peace he would be more erect and vigorous and exceedingly solicitous to press anything which he thought might promote it, and sitting among his friends often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs, would, with a shrill and sad accent, ingeminate the word peace, peace, and would passionately profess that the very agony of the war and the view of the calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him and would shortly break his heart. To those disposed to idealize the one party or the other Falcon's attitude may not appear magnanimous, but to others, looking below the surface to the real horrors of the fratricidal war in which parliamentarians and royalists were engaged, and to the blows inflicted upon liberty, civil and religious, by the exasperated passions of both sides, there may be part in some feeling, not only of pathos but of enthusiasm for this martyr of moderation. Moderation may have its heroes surely as well as fanaticism, and if Pym's political daring and Cromwell's rude and powerful genius claim our admiration, we may reserve some share of it, for one, inferior to both in statecraft and firmness of purpose, but greatly their superior in elevation of personal character and range of intellectual and spiritual thoughtfulness. The drooping figure of Falkland may seem weak as he sits in geminating peace, peace, but all the while his heart was well nigh broken by the calamities he could not avert, his intellect was cool and luminous in counsel, and his spirit courageous to recklessness in the hour of danger. We cannot think less of a man that his patriotism was tender as well as intrepid, and that he mourned for a broken ideal of order and peace which his higher intelligence assured him could never come from the excesses of either side. Of the cause which he thus nobly but sadly served, Falkland was destined soon to be the victim. The war was begun on the 23rd of August in 1642, in the September of the following year, after varying alternations of success and defeat, the parliamentary forces moved to the relief of Gloucester, which had been invested by the royalists, and the siege of which is memorable to us in connection with Chillingworth's attempts at engineering. Having succeeded in raising the siege, the Earl of Essex gradually advanced to Newbury, where the royalist forces had already established themselves two hours before his arrival. Falkland accompanied the king on his march from Gloucester, but Hyde was detained at Bristol. From thence he has found remonstrating with his friend for the indiscreet manner in which he had been exposing himself to danger. It was not, Hyde said, quote, the office of a privy councillor and a secretary of state to visit the trenches, as he usually did, and conjured him out of the conscience of his duty to the king, and to free his friends from those continual uneasy apprehensions, not to engage his person to those dangers which were not incumbent to him. Close, quote. Falkland replied that, as the trenches were at an end, there would be no further danger there, but, quote, that his case was different from other men's, that he was so much taken notice of for an impatient desire of peace, that it was necessary that he should likewise make it appear that it was not out of fear of the utmost hazard of war, close, quote. He was evidently sensitive that his personal courage should be suspected in his eagerness for peace, and this may have given a touch of recklessness to his gallantry which had been conspicuous throughout. On the morning of the battle there are different accounts of his bearing. A well-known story is told by Whitelock of his having called for a clean shirt, saying that if he were slain he should not be found in foul linen, and further that he was weary of the times and foresaw much misery to his own country, and did believe he should be out of it air-night. Clarendon, on the other hand, who was much more likely to have been well informed, says that he was very cheerful, as he usually was, in the prospect of action. He put himself at the head of Sir John Byron's regiment, and as he was advancing to the charge of a body of foot, the hedges on both sides being lined by the enemy's musketeers, he fell mortally wounded by a musket-shot. His body was not found till next morning, and having been transferred to Great Tew was so hastily interred that its exact resting-place remains unknown. Thus perished in his thirty-fourth year, one who seemed to many in his age incomparable both for his virtues and his talents. For many days Hyde was so absorbed in grief for the loss of his dear friend, his sweetheart, as Falkland had affectionately addressed him, that he was unable to attend to any business. And long afterwards, when twenty-six years of an eventful life had passed, he felt that time had in no degree effaced the love and grief with which he cherished the image of his friend. I had with him, he said to his children in his will, a most perfect and blameless friendship. It could only have been some rare charm of character which thus fixed so much love and admiration, which not only drew forth in comiums from poetic friends and the applause of literary and theological associates, but the memory of which melted to tenderness the hearts of two such men as Clarendon and Chillingworth. Like his friends Hales and Godolphon, Falkland was of low stature, a little man with no great strength of body, blackish hair, something flaggy, and I think his eyes black. Such is Aubrey's portrait, and Clarendon's account confirms the impression that Falkland was not in any degree indebted for his remarkable influence to external attractions. His motion was ungraceful, his voice untuned, and his aspect so far from inviting that it had somewhat in it of simplicity. Quote, sure no man was less beholden to nature for its recommendation into the world, but then no man sooner or more disappointed this general and customary prejudice. Close quote. But his little person was quickly found to contain a great heart and a fearless nature, his untuned voice to be the organ of an understanding and wit so excellent as to need no ornament of delivery, while his disposition, quote, was so gentle and obliging, so much delighted in courtesy, kindness, and generosity that all mankind could not but admire and love him. Close quote. It now only remains to estimate more distinctly the significance of Falkland's position as the head of the moderate or rational party in the Church of England at the outbreak of the Civil War. We have already quoted at length his views concerning Episcopacy. He believed in its antiquity and utility as an order of church government. He proved its ardent supporter in the hour of trial and earnestly repudiated the attempts to subvert it. But his defense of Episcopacy was the defense of an ancient Christian institution and not of an exclusive divine system. His own studies had convinced him that the order of bishops was co-evil with the organization of the Christian Church. He had lasted, as he said, these sixteen hundred years, and it was contrary to all his instincts as a student and a statesman to change in an instant the whole face of the Church like the scene of a mask. But in the very same breath in which he advocated this rational conservatism, he repudiated with a terse emphasis, which may bear to be repeated, the used-to-venom of bishops. Mr. Speaker, he said, I do not believe them to be ure divino, nay I believe them not to be ure divino. In short, while vindicating the Reformed Church of England, he rejected on its behalf not only the arbitrary impositions of the Lodian bishops, but all sacerdotal pretensions and all idea of radical distinction betwixt it and the other churches of the Reformation. It was one of his express charges against Lod and his co-editors that they had, quote, slackened the strictness of that union which was formerly between us and those of our religion beyond the sea, an action as impolitic as ungodly, close quote. The same enlightened principles which guided his attitude towards episcopacy appear in his estimate of other forms of church government. He objected to the scotch ecclesiastical government, not because it was Presbyterian, but because of its ure divino pretensions and arbitrary interferences with social manners and the course of civil government. He recognized in its advocates the same desire of uniformity, which in the Lodian bishops had led to such disastrous results, the destruction of unity, as he said, under pretence of uniformity. He saw the intolerance which laid beneath the aggressive puritanism of the time and reprobated it as strongly as he had done the aggressions of Anglicanism. It appeared to him worse than the ure divino pretensions of some bishops, because more likely to be believed by the people. This is very much the strain of his second speech concerning episcopacy, in which he points out the inconveniences of abolishing, without any satisfactory substitute, a form of government which hath very well agreed with the constitution of our laws, with the disposition of our people, and under which we have lived long, happily, and gloriously. The conclusion of this speech is less pointed and eloquent than that of the former, but scarcely less significant of his position as a liberal churchman. For us he says, quote, to bring in any unlimited, any independent authority. The first is against the liberty of the subject, the second against the right and privilege of parliament, and both against the protestation. If it be said that this unlimitedness and independence is only in spiritual things, I answer first that arbitrary government being the worst of governments, and our bodies being worse than our souls, it will be strange to set up that over the second, of which we were so impatient over the first. Secondly that Monsieur Solicitor, speaking about the power of the clergy to make cannons to bind, did excellently inform us what a mighty influence spiritual power hath upon temporal affairs, so that if our clergy had the one they had inclusively almost all the other. And to this I may add, or all men may see, the vast temporal power of the Pope allowed him by such who allowed him only in ordine ad spirituality. For the fable will tell you if you make the lion judge, and the clergy assisted by the people is lion enough, it was a wise fear of the foxes lest he might call a nub a horn. And sure, sir, they will in this case be judges not only of that which is spiritual, but of what it is that is so, and the people receiving instruction from no other will take the most temporal matter to be spiritual if they tell them it is so. His discourse on the infallibility of the Church of Rome explains most clearly and fully his religious position. In this brief discourse, and in his more lengthened reply to the answer there too, we see how vital was his interest in religious questions, and especially in the great question of religious certitude or authority, which invariably in a time of spiritual excitement comes to the front. He had a special interest in the question, like his friend Chillingworth, on account of the insidious activity of the Jesuit missionaries, but his thoughts naturally ran in the same direction. The necessity of looking into the whole subject for himself was one of the special reasons which led to his retirement to Tew and the theological reunions which he encouraged there. For in religion he thought too careful and too curious and inquiry could not be made. Above all others this was the intellectual interest which united him with Chillingworth, and in the discussion of which they both sharpened their reasoning faculties. A good deal in the general argument of the discourse reminds us of the religion of Protestants. There are passages, and especially turns of reasoning, which are a distinct echo of its great author. We seem almost to catch his voice, but there does not seem after all, on the one side or the other, any formal traces of indebtedness. Through the common tone of argument the individuality of each writer is sufficiently manifest. Footnote. Falkland and Chillingworth and Hales are supposed to have been indebted in their Revolte Against Church Authority to Daie's well-known treatise concerning the right use of the Fathers, published in 1628. There can be no doubt that Falkland greatly admired it, Daie's book, and partly translated it, although the papers were on this translation was half-finished, were long since lost, even in 1651. But beyond a certain tone of speaking as to the inconsistencies of patristic tradition and the difficulty of finding its meaning, there is no evidence of his having made much use of it, and none at all of his having borrowed from it. Daie's treatise, we can imagine, was a welcome assistance to both Chillingworth and Falkland in their researches, but the value of their writings is quite independent of any assistance which it could have given them. In Hales we have not found any trace of indebtedness to Daie. End of footnote. The position of the Church of Rome is clearly stated in the outset. This Church defends herself against all allegations of error by saying that she cannot err. She has no errors because she never can have any. She appeals, in short, to her infallibility. But this, as Falkland points out, is the very point to be proved, and so much harder is it to be believed than the first that it needs more certain proof. A claim to infallibility can never be accepted on its own authority. It must be vindicated on the clearest and most indubitable grounds. And so, under pretense of escaping argument as to religious truth, we end in an infinite regression of argument. We can never get out of the shadow of our own reason, nor rest on any sureer grounds than those of rational conviction, in some form or another. We can never infallibly know that the Church is infallible. And if Romanists say, quote, that an argument out of Scripture is sufficient ground of divine faith, why are they offended with the Protestants for believing every part of their religion upon that ground upon which they build all theirs at once? And if following the same rule, with equal desire of finding the truth by it, having neither of those qualities which is adorus of Pelusium, a Christian writer of the fifth century, sayeth are the cause of all heresy, pride and prejudication, why should God be more offended with the one than with the other, though they chance to err, close quote. The alleged ground of infallibility is the necessity of some certain guide in religious matters. But supposing such a guide to exist, of what use is it unless it be plainly manifest, an infallible Church which does not plainly appear to be so, is as if God, quote, were to set a ladder to heaven and seem to have a great care of my going up, whereas unless there be care taken that I may know this ladder is here to that purpose, it were as good for me it never had been set, close quote. And what he asks is to be made of the case in which the Church of Rome contradicts herself, here surely the principle of infallibility plainly breaks down, quote. For to say, I am to believe the present Church that it differs not from the former, though it seems to me to do so, is to send me to a witness and bid me not believe it, close quote. This suggests to him the further question, which is the Church? Supposing the idea of infallibility granted, all that this imports is that God will have a Church always which shall not err, but not that such and such a succession shall be in the right. The Greek Church may be the true Church, or it may have been the Church, although it has now fallen into error. To maintain the Church of Rome to be the true Church, because its opinions are more consonant to Scripture or antiquity, is to, quote, run into a circle, proving the Romanist tenets to be true, first because the Church holds them, and then theirs to be the Church because the Church holds the truth, which last, though it appears to me the only way, yet it takes away its being a guide which we may follow without examination, without which all they say besides is nothing, close quote. This necessity for examination brings him back to the center of the subject. The right of private judgment or examination is repudiated by the Romanists, because when differences arise as to the meaning of Scripture there is no way, as they say, to end them. But whereas the assumption of infallibility itself is no security against difference of opinion, as Falkland shows by various instances of such difference in the Church of Rome, the only reasonable inference to be drawn from the fact of such difference is that it is not hurtful in itself, nor displeasing to God. Where God has not clearly and indubitably revealed his will, it will not stand with his goodness to damn man for not following it. To those, quote, who follow their reason in the interpretation of the Scriptures, God will either give his grace for assistance to find the truth, or his pardon if they miss it. And then this supposed necessity of an infallible guide, with the supposed damnation for the want of it, fall together to the ground. These words, in their trenchant force and magnanimous confidence, closely resemble those of Chillingworth. And there is a good deal of the same hunting of the adverse argument from point to point in which this great writer delights, leaving no loophole of escape and no ground on which to rest. The idea of infallibility is looked at in every aspect and its futility exposed unsparingly, though without much logical arrangement or clear advance of reasoning. There is a lack of definite arrangement, and we find ourselves frequently returning upon the same path. As a whole, however, the subject is well conceived, and its handling worthy of Falkland's argumentative ability and fairness and vigor of mind, while it shows throughout a firm grasp of the rational principles lying at the basis of Protestantism or any form of intelligent religious faith. The details of the treatise, from its want of connection, do not readily fall into order. It is enough to indicate its main ideas and to quote such passages as may throw an additional light on the thought and position of the writer. Having shown first that infallibility itself must be proved before it can be erected into a principle of religious authority, and secondly that it must be located or, in other words, proved to belong to the Church of Rome and no other church, in all the steps of which prove there may be uncertainty and mistake, he proceeds to point out that even admitting these two points at the principle is, after all, of no practical utility. For every Christian in the end must rest on his own understanding of the supposed infallible dogma or decree. Let the voice of the Church be ever so authoritative, it can only reach me through my intelligence, and, after all, I may misunderstand it. Of its sense I can have no better expounder than my reason, and should I fail with all my efforts to understand it, surely I shall not be damned for my failure? Why then, quote, shall I, for mistaking the sense of the Scripture, or why am I a less-fit interpreter of the one than of the other, of the Bible than of the Church, and when both seem equally clear and yet contradictory, shall not I as soon believe Scripture, which is without doubt as of great authority? Falkland enters into many special questions with the Church of Rome, particularly in his reply, but his argument mainly interests us and is in itself most luminous and interesting where it keeps the level of general principles or deals with his own personal convictions. Good footnote. Falkland's reply is considerably longer than his original essay, but it is mainly an expansion of its general line of thought. The answer to which he replied is said to have been written by a Roman Catholic priest of the name of Holland, who had been a Cambridge student. It is distinguished by great courtesy of tone towards Falkland and is well and temperately written, but not otherwise remarkable. The discourse with answer and his lordship's reply are all found in a single volume which seems at first to have been published in 1651 and afterwards in 1660 with one of Falkland's speeches on Episcopacy prefixed. The volume is edited by Dr. Thomas Triplet, who appears to have been tutored to Falkland's son Henry and who says in an introductory letter of dedication addressed to his pupil that he had received the manuscripts not long before her death from Lady Falkland. Triplet afterwards became a probandary of Westminster and is said to have been a man of great wit and a great companion of Lord Falkland. Henry III Lord Falkland was a man of considerable distinction, no less than his father and grandfather. He inherited, apparently, their literary ability without the earnestness of character that might have been supposed due to him both from father and mother. A good story is told of him by Walpole in Royal and Noble Authors, 5.121, that, quote, being brought early into the House of Commons and a grave senator objecting to his youth and to his not looking as if he had sowed his wild oats, he replied with great quickness, then I am come to the properest place where are so many geese to pick them up. He wrote, while pole adds, the marriage night, a comedy. Close, quote. Henry was the second son, the eldest Lorenzo having died in youth to the great grief of his mother. End of footnote. Like his friend Chillingworth, he kindles into indignation at the idea of persecution for religious opinions. Dogmatic differences, however vital, can never justify intolerance. He refers to Constantine's famous letter on the Trinitarian controversy as showing that even on a question so great as this, neither side was deemed without the pale of the church. Punishing for opinions was entirely foreign to the best ages of Christianity and was, in fact, a mark to no false opinions by. And I believe, he adds, quote, throughout antiquity you will find no putting any to death unless it be such as begin to kill first as the Circumcelians or such like. I am sure the Christian religion's chiefest glory is that it increases by being persecuted. And having that advantage of the Mohammedan, he thinks it should be to take ill care of Christianity to hold it up by Turkish means. At least it must breed doubts that if the religion had always remained the same, it would not now be defended by ways so contrary to those by which, at first, it was propagated. I desire recrimination may not be used, for though it be true that Calvin had done it, and the Church of England a little, which is a little too much. But she, confessing she may err, is not so chargeable with any fault as those which pretend they cannot, and so we'll be sure never to mend it.  The rite of rational inquiry appears to him more sacred and truly religious than any blind faith whatsoever. Grant the Church, he says, quote, to be infallible, it me thinks he that denies it, and employs his reason to seek if it be true, should be in as good case as he that believeth it and searcheth not at all the truth of the proposition he receives. For I cannot see why he should be saved because by reason of his parents' belief, or the religion of the country, or some such accident the truth was offered to his understanding when, had the contrary been offered, he would have received that, and the other, damned, that believes falsehood upon his good ground as the other doth truth, unless the Church be like a conjurer's circle that will keep a man from the devil, though he came into it by chance. They grant no man is in heretic that believes not his heresy obstinately, and if he be no heretic he may sure be saved. It is not then certain damnation for any man to deny the infallibility of the Church of Rome, but for him only that denies it obstinately. And then I am safe, for I am sure I do not. Neither can they say I shall be damned for schism, though not for heresy, for he is as well no schismatic, though in schism, that is, willing to join in communion with the true Church when it appears to be so to him, as he is no heretic, though he holds heretical opinions, who holds them not obstinately. That is, as I suppose, with the desire to be informed if he be in the wrong. I have the less doubt of this opinion that I shall have no harm for not believing the infallibility of the Church of Rome because of my being so far from leaning to the contrary, and so suffering my will to have power over my understanding, that if God would leave it to me which tenet should be true, I would rather choose that that should than the contrary, for they may well believe me that I take no pleasure in tumbling hard and unpleasant books, and making myself giddy with disputing obscure questions. To believe he continues that there must always be, quote, a society of men whom I might always know, whose opinions must be certainly true, is a more agreeable way than to endure endless volumes of commenters, the harsh Greek of Epiphanius and the harder Latin of Irenaeus. To the objection that it is mere pride of reason that is at the bottom of all doubts about the Church's infallibility, he retorts that too much impatience and laziness of examining is the cause that many do not doubt it. What pride, he says, can there be in desiring to have a rational foundation for belief, since even the infallibilist must pretend to some reason for his position, and that the writer himself is willing to be led wherever truth may lead him, remembering that truth in likelihood is, where her author God was, in the still voice and not the loud wind. His mind, he professes, is open to every reasonable influence, prayer as well as argument. He would neither be willfully blind, nor deny impudently what he sees, but save reason herself he can imagine no ultimate guide to the truth. Every intelligence in the end must incline to the side of the greater reason." Fork to be persuaded by reason that to such an authority I ought to submit it is still to follow reason and not to quitter. And by what else is it that you examine what the Apostles taught when you examine that by ancient tradition and ancient tradition by a present testimony? Yet when I speak thus of finding the truth by reason, I intend not to exclude the grace of God, which I doubt not, for as much as is necessary to salvation, is ready to concur to our instruction, as the sun is to our sight if we by a willful winking choose not to make not it but ourselves guilty of our blindness. Yet when I speak of God's grace I mean not that it infuses the knowledge without reason, but works by it, as by its minister, and dispels those mists of passions which do wrap up truth from our understandings. For if you speak of its instructing any other way, you leave visible arguments to fly to invisible, and your adversary, when he hath found your play, will be soon at the same lock. And I believe in this sense, infused faith is but the same thing otherwise apparelled, which you have so often laughed at in the Puritans under the title of private spirit. These quotations are enough to indicate Falkland's religious attitude and to show what claims he had, apart from his mere social and political position, to lead the group of rational thinkers who, amidst the conflicts of the seventeenth century, sought to take a middle course and to fix the minds of their countrymen upon a broader and more tolerant view both of the church and of Christianity. It is evident that Falkland added to his general intellectual accomplishments and political sagacity a deep and serious interest in the religious questions which really lay at the root of all the national difficulties of his time. He had pondered these questions thoughtfully and worked out for himself clear and definite conclusions in favour at once of religious liberty and the national church. While professedly arguing against the infallibility of the Church of Rome, his argument is equally valid against the Prolatic sacerdotalism which had more or less suppressed England since the accession of the Stewards, and the Puritan dogmatism which sought to take its place. His plea against infallibility is really a plea in favour of freedom of religious opinion in a sense which neither prelitist nor Puritan in the seventeenth century understood. It seemed to him then, as it has seemed to many sense, possible to make room within the national church for wide differences of dogmatic opinion, or, in other words, for the freerites of the Christian reason incessantly pursuing its inquest after truth and molding the national consciousness to higher conceptions of religious thought and duty. The frame of the Church of England was admirably suited for such a purpose as linking together in its Catholic order the Christian ages and being in itself both apostolic and rational. He would have reformed but preserved and purified it as the flexible and appropriate vehicle of the nation's religious progress. This was the conservative side of his thought where he separated entirely from the root and branch men on the principle succinctly expressed by him that, where it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change. His mind, like all higher minds, sought not so much outward as inward change. He shrank from revolution in church or state, but he would have liberalized both in a truer and nobler sense than his contemporary revolutionists, ecclesiastical or political. His ideas were born out of due time, and the extremes, first of destruction and then of reaction, were destined to run their course. In all times of excitement this is more or less likely to be the case. The voice of reason is unheard amongst the clamors of party, and a Falkland dies broken-hearted when a Cromwell and a Clarendon take their turn of success. But the seed of wise thought never perishes, and Falkland's ideal of the Church, no less than of the State, may yet be realized when bigotries, Christian and anti-Christian, have more thoroughly consumed themselves in their internecine heat, and men have learned that the patient's search for truth is better than all dogmas, and that the charity that thinketh no evil and rejoiceth in the truth is a higher Christian gain than the most definite opinions, or even the faith that could remove mountains. Chapter 4 John Hales of Eaton John Hales, often dignified as the ever-memorable Mr. John Hales of Eaton, deserves the first place in our series of theologians. He was the oldest of the group that surrounded Falkland, and although the quiet tenor of his life brought him into few prominent points of contact with the great events in England through which he passed, his temporary residence in Holland during the very crisis of the struggle betwixt the Calvinists and Arminians, the influence which this struggle evidently had upon his thought, and the interesting account which he has left in his letters of the meetings of the Synod of Dort, all connect him directly with the origin of the rational movement which it is our aim to sketch. Hales's writings, moreover, were amongst the first, as they remain in some respects the best, expression of the principles inspiring and guiding the movement. They present a very complete picture of a singularly fresh, acute, and boldly ingenious and reflective mind whose influence has been felt far beyond the circle of those more intimately associated with him or who joined with him in a common object. Of the man himself, unhappily, we have not the same full means of information as we have of the writer. There is no record of his life of any value. We must glean as we best can its particulars and their connected significance from Maizot's meager and somewhat confused volume, Wood's Aténae oxoniensis, and the biographical dictionaries. Footnote An historical and critical account of the life and writings of the ever-rememorable Mr. John Hales, a thin volume published in 1719 as a specimen of an historical and critical English dictionary by P. de Maizot, author of a similar volume of a more elaborate and valuable character on Schillingworth. The volume contains few facts beyond those given by Wood, but it throws some light upon the accessory features of his later life. There is also a life written in Latin, with care and appreciation, by the well-known Mosheim, prefixed to a Latin translation of Hales's letters and published in 1724, but it is almost entirely founded on Maizot's volume. Wood's notice of Hales is interesting, but inaccurate and misleading. End of Footnote So far indeed his own letters from the Synod of Dort, which are full of life and meaning, will help us, and we shall weave their personal and descriptive touches with some detail into our sketch. Clarendon's lively but brief portraiture and Aubrey's gossip will also furnish some points of interest. John Hales was born at Bath, Aubrey says Wells, in 1584. His father was steward to the family of the Horners in Somersetshire. He was educated in his native city in grammar-learning, and at thirteen years of age entered a scholar of Corpus Christi College. Here he took his degree in July 1603, and very soon began to attract attention by the remarkable character of his attainments. The prodigious pregnancy of his parts, says Wood, being discovered by the hedge-beaters of Sir Henry Seville, he was encouraged by them to stand for a fellowship of Merton College. He obtained this fellowship in 1605, in which election he showed himself a person of learning above his age and standing. Through the whole course of his scholarship Wood adds, quote, there was never any one in the then memory of man that ever went beyond him for subtle disputation in philosophy, for his eloquent declamations and orations, as also for his exact knowledge of the Greek tongue, close quote. His Greek scholarship formed a special bond betwixt him and Seville, who was then engaged in his famous edition of Crisisdom, in which he found the young scholar eminently serviceable. Their friendship was a lasting one, and the friends were afterwards associated at Eaton as they had been at Oxford. Shortly after obtaining his fellowship he appears to have entered into orders and obtained some fame as a preacher. In 1612 he was appointed Greek professor, and the founder of the Bodleian Library, Sir Thomas Bodle, having died in the following year, Hales was appointed to deliver his funeral oration. The oration is published among his writings, under the title of Oratio Funebris Habita in Collegio Mertonensi, a Johana Halesio, an of 1613, Marti E. 29, Codie Clarissimo Equiti di Tome Bodleo Funus De Sabatur, close quote. On the 24th of May of the same year he was admitted a fellow of Eaton. This is all that we learn of his life during these years. It is not till November 1618 that we see him in the full daylight of his own letters written from Holland. Thither he accompanied Sir Dudley Carlton, ambassador to the Hague, as his chaplain, and when the Synod met at Dort he went there to report the proceedings for the interest and benefit of his right honourable and very good Lord. He held no official commission to the Synod and took no part in its doings along with the deputation from the Church of England. He is only as an interested onlooker. But this very fact gives a certain pecancy and liveliness to his letters, and our readers will not regret to have their attention called to them. Moreover, the attitude of the remonstrants, or Arminians, and the arguments employed by them in their conflict with the majority of the Synod, have a significant bearing upon our general subject. He was commended to Mr. Bogermanus, the president of the Synod, who gave him facility for making himself acquainted with the business transacted day by day and reporting it. Footnote. John Bogerman, a zealous opponent of the remonstrants. End of footnote. His letters open on a scene more edifying than much that otherwise engaged the Synod, the appointment of a committee to translate the scriptures. This is on Monday, the 16th, 26th, November, 1618. On the following day we have a curious glimpse of the state of practical religion in the provinces in the midst of all the doctrinal disputes which had so long rent them as under. The Synod gave itself to consider the prevailing defect of the afternoon sermons and catacysing, especially in the country villages. This was attributed to three causes, pastoral negligence, pluralities, and the difficulty of reclaiming the country people on the Sundays either from their sports or from their work. Various stringent remedies were proposed and adopted, among others that the ministers should give good example by bringing their own family to church. The several deputies from England and Switzerland were desired to deliver their custom in this behalf. My Lord Bishop, Carlton Bishop of Landauf, stated that the, quote, magistrate imposed a pecuniary mulked upon such as did absent themselves from divine duties, which pecuniary mulked generally prevailed more with our people than any pious admonitions could. The deputies from Geneva said that every Sunday they had four sermons. George Carlton, who does not appear to have been in any way connected with the ambassador, had also been of Merton College and is said by Wood to have been a severe Calvinist. The other deputies from England were, besides Carlton, Dr. John Davenant, Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, Dr. Samuel Ward, Master of Sydney College, and the well-known Dr. Joseph Hall, mentioned in the text, Afterward's Bishop of Norwich. Dr. Hall's health, after a short period requiring his return, was replaced by Dr. Thomas Goad, and a footnote. He then describes, on the 19th, 29th, a sermon preached by Mr. Dean of Worcester, Hall, Afterward's Bishop of Norwich, a polite and pathetical Latin sermon made in the Synod House, from Ecclesiastes 7.16, No li ese justus nemium neque estus sapiens nemis. Quote, After a witty coining upon his text, how it should come that righteousness and wisdom which are everywhere commended unto us should here seem to receive a check, he showed how men might seem to be too just by too strictly keeping the letter of the law when sitting in places of justice, or by inflicting too heavy punishment. Next, in the second word, sapiens nemis, he taxed the divines by presuming too far in prying into the judgments of God, and so came to reprove the curious disputes which our age hath made concerning predestination, that this dispute for its endlessness was like the mathematical line, divisibilis in semper divisibilia, that it was in divinity as the rule of cost is in arithmetic. It is pleasing to recognize thus early Hall's mild and liberal spirit. The earnest exhortations to peace and union were taken in good part. The preces, it is said, gave him thanks for his good pains. It would have been better, no doubt, if the Synod had taken his words to heart and acted upon them. During this time the remonstrance, or Arminians, had not yet arrived, and for some days still their coming, or at least their appearance at the Synod, was delayed. In the interval the Synod busied itself with various practical questions as to the best manner of catechizing and whether there should be one or several modes adapted to different classes of persons, the education of the clergy, and the celebration of baptism. In reference to this last question the chief difficulty was asked to the baptism of children born of those who were called ethnic parents. It was decided that the children of such parents should, by no means, be baptized till they came to the years of discretion. A strange decision, says Hall's, quote, and such as, if my memory or reading fail me not, no church, either ancient or modern, ever gave. When it was objected, what if they were in danger of death, their answer was that the want of baptism could not prejudice them with God except we would determine as the papists do that baptism is necessary to salvation, which is as much, he adds, to undervalue the necessity of baptism as the Church of Rome doth overvalue it. It is obvious in this, as in other matters, that there was considerable difference of opinion and still more of spirit between the representatives of the Anglican Church and the dominant party in the Synod. The Synod was not a numerous body. The Dutch and Walloon clergy numbered thirty-eight. There were five university professors and twenty-one secularists or lay elders. The foreign divines numbered twenty-eight and of these the English had the precedents. And the footnote. On the great question at issue, however, with the remonstrance, there was at first apparently perfect unanimity. Of all connected with the Church of England, Hales himself, not accepting Hall, was probably the most liberal-minded, and it is impossible to mistake his bias against them when the remonstrance are first introduced, and Episcopius makes his first appeal in opposition to the competency of the Synod. Before the end, however, and under the force of certain arguments of Episcopius or of others, a considerable change passed upon his sentiments. It was on the 6th December that the remonstrance, headed by Episcopius, appeared at the Synod. Footnote. In the midst of the Synod house, a long table was as if set apart for them, for it had been hither to void, no man sitting at it. Here chairs and forms being set, they were willed to sit down. Whereupon Episcopius, standing up, made a short speech in which he prayed God, to give a blessing to this meeting and to pour into their minds such conceits as best-fitted men come together for such ends. Then he signified that, according to their citation, they were now come ad colatio nem in situ endam, concerning that cause which hither to with a good conscience they had maintained. Close quote. On the 10th of December Episcopius opened the conflict of his party with the Synod, and the letters of our author assume a higher interest. He characterizes, by no means in a complementary manner, the speech made by the leader of the remonstrance on this occasion, and the opinions expressed by him. Once recited he says, quote, a screpto, a long and tedious speech of two hours at the least, consisting of two general heads, first of exceptions they had against the Synod, Tanquam in Utisem incompetentim. Secondly, of a conceit of their own, what manner of a Synod they thought fit it should be which was to compose these controversies in hand? Close quote. The remonstrance objected to the Synod as entirely composed of the adverse party, and it was against all equity and nature that the adverse party should be judged. They objected also because this dominant party had schismatically separated themselves from their brethren. They desired a Synod composed of certain select men who had taken part with neither side. Amir Khmer Saltan's Invakuo, he continues, such a Synod as never was nor can be. I think it could scarcely be found in the Netherlands, though the sun itself should seek it. Failing this they wished that a Synod should be formed of an equal number of both parties, each with their several preces and assessors, who should debate the matter betwixt themselves. And if they were unable to agree, the civil magistrate, as a deus emachina, was to be called in and prescribed the modoramen from which there was to be no appeal. Of the same thread was the whole of their speech, says Hales, contemptuously adding, when they had well and thoroughly weary their auditory they did that which we much desired. They made an end. Obviously our author has no bias towards the Armenian side. And to his own representation of the purport of their demands his judgment seems severe and one-sided. But on the next appearance of Episcopius he expresses himself more favorably. Standing up he says, quote, Episcopius required that a little time might be granted to them, and forthwith uttered an oration, akrem sane et animosam, about which by reason of some particulars in it there will grow some stir, close, quote. He gives an abstract of the speech which it is impossible to read without being struck by the wisdom, ability, moderation, and courtesy it displays. Hales himself, in some parts, might be supposed speaking according to the wisdom of his later writings, for example, in the following statements, quote, They, the remonstrance, thought it sufficient if the chief points of religion remain unshaken, that there had always been sundry opinions even amongst the fathers themselves which yet had not broken out into separation of minds and breach of charity that it was impossible for all wits to jump in one point. It was the judgment of Piraeus, a great divine, that the greatest cause of contention in the church was this, that the schoolmen's conclusions and cathedral decisions had been received as oracles and articles of faith, that they were, therefore, unjustly charged with the bringing in of a skeptic theology. They sought for nothing else but for that liberty which is the mean betwixt servitude and license, close, quote. Episcopius then described the points against which he and his friends had set themselves, quote, First, against those conclusions concerning predestination which the authors themselves have called horrid de decretà, Second, against those who for the five articles, so-called, have made a separation, Third, against those who cast from them all those who in some things dissent from them, and Lastly, against those who taught the magistrate should with a hoodwinked obedience except what the divines taught without further inquiry, close, quote. He maintained that the smaller part does not necessarily make the schism nor the major part the right. Although they had been overborn, they were not defeated, quote. The scriptures and solid reason shall be to us instead of multitudes. The conscience rests not itself upon the number of suffrages, but upon the strength of reason. Tamparati sumus vinci qu'am vincere. He gets a greater victory that, being conquered, gains the truth. Amicus socrates, Amicus plato, Amicus sinodos, sed magis, Amica veritas. Such are fragments of this remarkable oration of Episcopius, paired with great grace of speech and oratorical gesture. It is not wonderful that it impressed Hales and that he should have been at pains to report it. It remains to this day a splendid specimen of eloquent, moderate, and Christian argument. The lay members particularly were much affected by the candid enthusiasm of the speaker, and had they not been powerless in the hands of the political party that was really guiding the movement, good might have come from it. As it was, no result worthy of such an effort followed. The President, with characteristic rudeness, rebuked Episcopius for having spoken at such length without special leave, and then demanded a copy of the speech, in reference to which he subsequently sought to fix a charge of falsehood upon the speaker. Our author gives us a vivid glimpse of all these personal details, and also of various altercations between the Senate and the remonstrance as to the order of proceeding, and the delivery of what are called the considerations of the latter by which are meant certain proposals of change, particularly in regard to the confession and catechism which on former occasions had been urged by the remonstrance. Various incidents of interest follow. The reception of the Scottish Commissioner, Walter Balkanqual, who reports that the King at his coming away did charge him verbus sublimibus to exhort them unto peace, is described in a separate letter on the 20th of December. The Scotch nation, according to their Commissioner, quote, had evermore so linked itself to this people, the Dutch, that it hath always labored to endeavour the peace of this state, and now it was ready to do as much for the peace of the churches amongst them. They had very straightly bound unto them the Scottish Church. De Meroestus ecclesiam scuticanum, by so kindly welcoming him, close quote. The lighter humorous aspects of the Senate are not forgotten. Quote, Old Goklanius, one of the foreign divines, could not let the remonstrance pass without a jest, such a one as it was, for being asked for judgment he put off his hat and told us that the remonstrance were canonisi irregulares, regular irregulars, and put on his hat again. Where the sap of the jest is, I know not, but the gravest in the Senate had much adieu to compose their countenances. Close quote. These glimpses, like all real insight into ecclesiastical assemblies, excite our astonishment at the importance which subsequent generations have attached to them and their decisions. All such conventions are found more or less to present aspects ridiculous from their absurdity or shocking from their violence and unfairness when the veil is once lifted and we see them for a moment as they appeared to an onlooker. If Old Goklanius play the fool, the precese politicus, Mr. Bogermanus, plays the tyrant. Upon a decree of the states being read to the remonstrance, Episcopius required a copy of it. The precese asked him why. Utt Pariamus, said Episcopius, no said the same precese, it is only that you may find some words to cabal at, and therefore they should have none. It was sufficient that they knew the meaning of it. This at first hails, adds, quote, seemed to me somewhat hard, but when I considered that these were the men which here to forehead in prejudice of the church so extremely flattered the civil magistrate I could not but think this usage of fit reward for such service, close quote. Our author is far from himself here. He forgets his charity as well as lays aside his judgment. In appealing to the civil magistrate the remonstrance may have been mistaken, but they only consistently maintained an opinion which they were entitled to hold as a party which many good men have held in every age and which both parties, Calvinists and remonstrance alike, held when it suited them. But supposing that they had thereby judged wrongly, this would be no justification of a clear wrong done them by the precese politicus of the Synod in refusing them a copy of a decree directed against them. The truth appears to be that hails were somewhat wearied with the importunity and calm resistance of the remonstrance. The slowness and delays of the business troubled him, for he speaks of the session at which these things took place Friday the 21st, as a long, a troublesome, and a fruitless session. He is puzzled also about his movements. The Synod is adjourned to Thursday of the following week, and his honor the ambassador had evidently wished him in the interval to return to the Hague, but he excuses himself as a poor traveler. Quote, I am but a silly traveler, and conveniently I cannot travel without a guide. The days being short, and the tide coming somewhat late, night would quickly come. Now, for me to go by night, having neither language nor any to conduct me, must needs be very inconvenient, close quote. During the next three weeks or so, that is, from the 27th of December to 15th of January, 16, 18, 19, the business of the Synod came to a great crisis, as it is described by our author. He sets forth the main details in a very graphic way, still showing upon the whole strong sympathy with the dominant side. So far, evidently, the foreign deputies tried to mediate between the parties but without success. The remonstrants continued firm in their attitude of resistance. The points in dispute were, first, as to the order to be held in discussing the articles, whether the question of reprobation were to be handled after the five articles or whether it should be handled in the first place as the remonstrants desired. They pretended, says Hales, their doubts lay especially there, and that being cleared they thought they could show good conformity in all the rest. The second difficulty was the objection of the remonstrants to be assailed with interrogations which they very much disdained as pedagogical. The third was as to their liberty of disputation, whether it was to be limited by the discretion of the Synod or large and unlimited according as it pleased them. The first of these points particularly excited a very vehement discussion in which Episcopius, as usual, on the side of the remonstrants and D. Gomaris, on the side of the Synod, are the prominent figures. Footnote. Francis Gomar was the great opponent of Arminius at Leiden, where they were colleagues as professors of divinity in the first decade of the seventeenth century. In the year 1618, at the close of which the Synod of Dort opened, he was settled as professor of Hebrew and divinity at Groeningen, where he died in 1641. He was partially educated in England, and was a Calvinist of the extreme school. End of footnote. The point of reprobation is that, said Episcopius, quote, Quod maxime nos egre habit. He could not endure that doctrine concerning the absolute decree of God, that God should peremptorily decree to cast the greatest part of man kind away only because he would. Corvinus answered that he could not salva concientia versare in ministerio, till that point was cleared. Isacus Federici, that precipium momentum, was in that question. Others that, on the question of election, they had no scruple, all their doubt was on the point of reprobation, and, therefore, their conscience would not suffer them to proceed further in disputation till that matter were discussed, close quote. On the other hand, Gomar, quote, that saw that his iron was in the fire, for I persuade myself that the remonstrance spleen is chiefly against him, began to tell us that Episcopius had falsified the tenet of reprobation, that no man taught that God absolutely decreed to cast man away without sin, but as he did decree the end, so he did decree the means, that so as he predestinated man to death so he predestinated him to sin, the only way to death, and so he mended the question, as our author, whose sympathies cannot stand such a strain as this, as tinkers mend kettles and made it worse than it was before, close quote. Reiterated discussion was of no use, the remonstrance were called in, and the president, after a short admonition, requested to know whether they would proceed according to the order desired by the synod, but as invariably they declined to do so. Evidently they saw that their cause was prejudged, in truth they had been summoned not as Episcopius signified on his first appearance at Colationum in Stituendum, not to conference, but merely to give in an account of their opinions and leave them to the judgment of the synod. This was urged quite fairly against them according to the terms of their summons. Footnote, with the exception of Episcopius, who had been originally summoned in the same terms as the other professors of Divinity to take his seat in the synod, end of footnote. They could not claim to be exempted from these terms, and yet they would not yield without a free discussion in all things, and especially on the point of reprobation, which they knew was the weak point in the contra remonstrance doctrine. They had no alternative but ignominiously to submit to condemnation or to take up an attitude which they should have taken up primarily and refused to appear under such a summons at all. Virtually they declined the judgment of the synod as Parse adversa. When driven to it Episcopius said, we are resolved, ageri pro judicio nostro non pro judicio sinodi. Words which one of the secular or political members of the synod willed should be noted. At length on the 14th of January they were dismissed with bitter reproaches by the preces. Quote, I will dismiss you, he said, with no other elegy that one of the foreigners gave you. Quo che pistis peri e odem sedite. With a lie you made your entrance into the synod, with a lie you take your leave of it, in denying lately that ever you protested yourselves provided to give answer on the articles, or to have had any such writing ready which all the synod knows to be false.  That therefore the synod may at length piously and peaceably proceed to the perfecting of that business for which it has come together, you are dismissed. But assure you the synod will make known your pertinacy to all the Christian world, and know that the Belgic churches want not arm a spiritualia with which in time convenient they will proceed against you. Quam obrem vos delegatorom et sinode nomine dimito exite. So with much muttering the remonstrance went out, and Episcopius going away said, dominus deus yuricabit de fralibus et mendassis, sapma exeo execclisia malignantium. And so the synod break up. Thus were the remonstrance thrust from the synod of Dort. The issue was probably inevitable. The synod was entitled to vindicate its jurisdiction, and the terms on which it had been convened, which the Armenians had so far accepted by obeying the summons. Yet the result was unhappy, and the mode of their dismissal in the highest degree undignified and unbecoming. It was very soon felt that a great mistake had been committed. Hales gives expression to this feeling. The most partial spectator of our synodal acts, he says, cannot but confess that in the late dismission of the remonstrance with so much collar and heat there was a great oversight committed. There appears to have been some idea of trying to repair the mistake, but this was found to be impossible. As our author remarks, such mistakes of public action are, with less inconvenience tolerated than amended. The synod could not retrace its steps without loss of dignity. And so another example was presented of the folly of ecclesiastical assemblies convened under the impulse of sectarian zeal rather than of enlarged Christian enlightenment, and an honest wish to deal fairly and charitably with questions which must always divide men so long as they are serious subjects of thought. After the dismissal of the remonstrance from the synod of Dort, the interest of Hales's letters very much diminishes, although they continue for about a month longer. Then on the 9th of February 1619 they suddenly terminate. After about three months' attendance he was evidently well wearied of the business. Several causes contributed to this. His own interest in the dogmatic distinctions under discussion, never very keen, grew languid with the apparently interminable altercations and delays. He was no zealot, and while approving upon the whole of the position of the dominant party he was clear-sighted enough to see the unfair violence with which men like Gomar maintained their opinions and assailed those of others. Martinius of Bremé, having after the departure of the remonstrance ventured to state some scruples, quote, about the manner of Christ's being Fundamentum electionis, Gomar started up and exclaimed, Ego honk rem in May recipient, and therewith cast his glove and challenged Martinius with the proverb, ex se rodum, ex se saltum, and required the synod to grant them a duel, close quote. The synod was glad by fair words to pacify the combatants, and according to custom the session was concluded with prayer, but slyly adds our author, quote, zeal and devotions had not so well allayed Gomarus his collar, but immediately after prayers he renewed his challenge and required combat with Martinius again, but they parted for that night without blows, close quote. Hales plainly felt himself less and less at home amidst such scenes of polemic violence. Another feature of the proceedings shocked his sense of justice while it necessarily abated his interest. The main business of the synod was transacted, not in public but in private. The real conclusions were prearranged at private sessions and the evening sessions, which appear henceforth to have been the only public ones, he says, are only to entertain the auditory, not to determine anything at all. Footnote, in the same letter he says, quote, all this business of sighting, referring, examining must needs seem only as acted on a stage if the synod in tempestively beforehand berate a resolution. End of footnote. It had been at first debated in the synod whether they should admit of hearers or do all in private. Old Sibrandus, an old and irascible opponent of Episcopius at Frannacher, was very hot against the auditory and thought it not fit that any care should be had of them as being only Boulierquilet at Pauquilly-Uvinus in Couty, a complaint in which our author admits there was some reason, quote, for many youths, yea, and artificers, and I know not what rabble besides, thrust in and hurtle the place, and as for women, he somewhat un-gallantly adds, whole troops of them have been seen there, and the best places for spectators reserved for them, while they must needs expose the synod to the scorn of those who lie in wait to take exception against it, close quote. The decision, however, was in favor of the public, as it generally is in such cases. Hale's language, in speaking of the auditory, almost implies some feeling of personal affront, for we must remember that he was not, like his brother Devine's from England, a member of the synod. He was merely there himself as an auditor and reporter, seated probably among the youth's artificers, and I know not what rabble besides, without even the means of light to carry on his reporting, as he says in a letter a few days later. I would willingly, he writes, on the 29th of January, have given your honor an account of his speech, a speech by Altingius, one of the Palatine professors whose discourse appeared to him the most sufficient of any he had yet heard, but it was in the evening and the auditory are allowed no candles so that I could not use my tables. We do not wonder therefore that a few days further we find him intimating that if he had his lodging discharged he would willingly leave. He inquires, like a prudent man, whether his honor was to answer the charge of his lodging or the public purse. I would willingly be resolved of it, he continues, quote, because I have a desire to return to the Hague, first because the synod proceeding as it doth, I do not see that it is operae praetium for me here to abide, and then because I have sundry private occasions that call upon me to return, close quote. So after a single letter more, which contains no further hint of his movements, he returned, and we hear no more of him in connection with the synod of dhort. His presence there, however, was not without a lasting influence on his opinions. His letters help us but slightly to trace the progress of this influence, but his subsequent writings make it plainly manifest. There is a story told by his intimate friend, Farindon, according to which he himself attributed a distinct change in his theological sentiments to a speech of Episcopius in handling St. John 3.16. There he did bid John Calvin good night, as he often told. There is some confusion, but probably also some truth in this story. The only reference we find in his letters to John 3.16 is not in regard to Episcopius, but Martinius of Breme, to whom illusion has been already made, and who founded much on this famous text. Martinius was evidently an able man, of liberal and, at the same time, evangelical sentiments, and it is possible that his arguments drawn from this passage of the Gospels may have moved our author. There is, on the other hand, no evidence from his own correspondence that his opinions were, at the time, much affected by anything Episcopius said. Of the gradual change in his sentiments there can be no doubt, and there were probably many concurring causes for it. Of a calm, reflective, and patient temper, gifted with a shrewd, quiet insight, and a great natural love of fairness, he could not be an auditor for three months of an assembly like that of Dort, without feeling that the truth did not all lie on one side. The spectacle presented to him, of extreme orthodoxy with un-Christian collar, of contentious zeal aiming at triumph rather than of earnest thoughtfulness anxious for light, could not but start new trains of inquiry in a mind so open and candid as his. It naturally forced upon him the general question of the value of theological dogmatism, and the grounds on which men seek to control each other's opinions and beliefs. All his writings prove that this was the form in which a theological change matured in his mind. His was no passage from one extreme of opinion to another. If he bad John Calvin good night, he did not say good morning to Arminius. He did not pass from one side to another. His mind was of far too high an order, his gift of spiritual insight far too delicate and subtle, to admit of his doing this. When he left the narrowness of Calvinism, he did so not because he became possessed by some other narrowness, but because he saw from a higher field of vision how little dogmatic precision has to do with spiritual truth, and how hopeless it is to tie and confine this truth under definite creeds and systems. We shall find abundant evidence of this immediately. Hale's returns to England in the beginning of 1619, February, and appears to have settled at Eaton in the quiet enjoyment of his fellowship. He passed his time probably betwixt Eaton and London, suddenly working out the deeper thoughts about religion, which had been quickened in him by his experience in Holland, and occasionally joining in the more stirring social life of the Metropolis. It was in the years following that Ben Johnson gathered around him the brilliant set of intellectualists and young poets known as the Apollo, whom we have already described. He was appointed Poet Laureate in the very year of Hale's return, and, we are told, was frequently received at Windsor, where he was on familiar terms with the royal family. It may have been during one of these visits that he and our author became acquainted, for it is also said of the latter that, quote, when the king and court resided at Windsor, he was much frequented by noblemen and courtiers, who delighted much in his company not for his severe and retired walks of learning, but for his polite discourses, stories, and poetry, close, quote. This is not inconsistent with Clarendon's description of his living a life of studious seclusion amongst his books, but very well pleased with the resort of his friends to him who were such as he had chosen and in whose company he delighted, and only making at rare intervals, once in a year, a journey to London to enjoy the conversation of his friends there. Falkland, it is to be remembered, had not yet, nor for nearly ten years after Hale's retirement to Eaton, joined the Johnson's set of wits, nor suckling either, and it is in connection with them especially that we hear of him in this society. From the time that Falkland appears in London, or during the significant decade that preceded the meeting of the long Parliament, we can hardly suppose Hale's life at Eaton to have been so extremely secluded as Clarendon's words suggest. His mind for one thing was by this time actively at work regarding the alarming state of the Church and public affairs in general. He was maintaining an active intercourse or correspondence with Chillingworth as to the composition of his great work. We are told, moreover, that his company was much desired by the wits and poets in town, amongst whom Falkland and suckling, with Ben Johnson himself, are particularly mentioned, and that he used often to meet with them and held very well his part in those ingenious conversations. Suckling's allusion to him in the session of poets and some interesting lines which he has directly addressed to him imply the same thing. Hale's was evidently at this time no stranger in the poetic fraternity, although coy of his visits. He loved his quiet ease at Eaton and his books. He required to be tempted to town, but the attractions there were evidently sufficient to draw him not infrequently from his retreat. Suckling writes as a pleasant genial friend who often met him and enjoyed his company. The lines give a very pleasing picture of our author's mingled sweetness and gravity, his retired studiousness and fondness for subtle argument, and yet his appreciation of wit and wine, and the claims of good fellowship. Whatever may be his theological preoccupations, whether these lines do find you out, putting or clearing of a doubt, whether predestination or reconciling three in one, or the unriddling how men die and live at once eternally. He is exhorted to leave Sosinus and the schoolmen and be striding the college steed to come to town. Tis fit you show yourself abroad that men may know what heirsome learned men have guessed, that oracles are not yet ceased. There you shall find the wit and wine flowing alike and both divine, dishes with names not known in books and less amongst the college cooks, with sauce so pregnant that you need not stay till hunger bids you feed. The sweat of Lerna Johnson's brain and gentle Shakespeare's easier strain, a hackney coach conveys you too, in spite of all that rain can do. And for your eighteen pence you sit the lord and judge of all fresh wit. News in one day, as much weave here as serves all Windsor for a year, and which the carrier brings to you, aftert has here been found not true. Then think what company is designed to meet you here, men so refined, their very common talk at board makes wise or mad a young court-lord, and makes him capable to be umpire in Lerna Johnson's father's company, where no disputes nor forced defence of a man's person for his sense take up the time, all strive to be masters of truth as victory, and where you come I'd boldly swear a sin it might as easily err. Agreeable, however, as Hales's occasional visits to London and its refined and sparkling society may have been, his life at Eaton was, after all, his main business. It would have been interesting to lift the veil upon him amongst his books, as he pursued his studies in the seclusion of the college, or meditated amidst the rich and peaceful glades around. But we have no adequate means of doing this. That old scholastic life has not been preserved in any clear traces that can be set before our readers. Yet we can tell something of Hales's companionship also at Eaton, and see that it must have been not only pleasant, but in a high degree congenial and stimulating. CHAPTER IV CHAPTER X During the period of his residence as a fellow there were two provosts, both of them his special friends, of marked character and distinction. One, Sir Henry Seville, has been already mentioned. He was Hales's patron and friend at Oxford, where they belonged to the same college, Merton, and worked together at the addition of Chrysostom, so well known under Seville's name. After his own transference to Eaton, it was probably his influences provost that procured Hales's later appointment to a fellowship there. This is indeed expressly affirmed. Seville was a man of solid and fine acquirements, devoted to science no less than scholarship as his grants to Oxford abundantly testify. His liberality was on a truly magnificent scale. His addition of Chrysostom, in eight folio volumes, is said to have cost even then eight thousand pounds, and for the purpose of completing it he himself visited all the public and private libraries of Britain, and sent learned men for similar research into France, Germany, Italy, and the East. A much older man than Hales, having been born in the middle of the previous century, their relation throughout was probably somewhat of the nature of patron and pupil, but their joint labours on Chrysostom had brought them into very cordial fellowship, and their tastes and spirit of thought were in many respects suited to one another. But Hales's theological as well as personal sympathies found more to engage them in Seville's illustrious successor after a brief interval in the provost's ship of Eaton College. Of all who have adorned this high position, no one has brought to it more distinction or displayed in it a more wise and exalted mind than Sir Henry Watten. Belonging to an accomplished family, all the members of which more or less distinguished themselves, he had been carefully educated at Oxford, and then for six years abroad, in intercourse with Beza, Isaac Casabon, and the most eminent men for learning and all manner of arts. Footnote. Walton, one of whose charming lives is that of Sir Henry Watten, has nine years, but a comparison of dates shows this is a mistake. From a letter of date July 1592 it appears that he had been then abroad three years, and about three years later he was at home, and appointed secretary to the Earl of Essex. It has been supposed that the mistake had arisen out of a transposition of the figures nine and six. End of footnote. He became both a great German and Italian scholar, and an amateur and most excellent judge of painting, sculpture, chemistry, and architecture. His introduction to political life in connection with the famous Earl of Essex, Elizabeth's favorite, was unfortunate, but he escaped from this connection, went again abroad, and entered into the confidential service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was while in this service that he was employed in a remarkable mission which prepared the way for his future advancement. Letters having been intercepted by the Grand Duke, which discovered a design of taking away the life of James VI of Scotland, Watten was sent secretly into that country disguised as an Italian, obtained a private conference with his majesty, and in return for his information received high marks of favor. He departed, says Walton, as true an Italian as he came. On James's accession to the English throne, Watten came home, was knighted, and obtained an important diplomatic appointment as ambassador to the Republic of Venice. A series of similar posts, culminating with that of the Embassy at the Court of Vienna, occupied him till the year before James's death, when he finally returned to England, and in 1624 was appointed provost of Eden. The statutes of the college requiring the provost to be in holy orders, he resolved to comply with them and was ordained deacon, notwithstanding his advanced years and long political career. Footnote. Born in 1568 he was, of course, when appointed provost of Eden, fifty-six years of age, end of footnote. This change in his mode of life gave a turn to his whole thoughts, and he betook himself earnestly to the study of divinity and the spiritual exercises becoming his new position. After his customary public devotions his use was to retire into his study, and there to spend some hours in reading the Bible and authors in divinity, closing up his meditations with private prayer. This was, for the most part, his employment in the forenoon. But when he was once sat to dinner, then nothing but cheerful thoughts possessed his mind, and those still increased by constant company at his table of such persons as brought thither additions both of learning and pleasure. But some part of most days was usually spent in philosophical conclusions. Nor did he forget, Walton characteristically adds, his innate pleasure of angling, which he would usually call his idle time not idly spent, saying often he would rather live five May months than forty December's. Close quote. Footnote. Walton's life. The place where Sir Henry Watton and Isaac Walton were accustomed to angle in company is known as the Black Pots. It is close to the college, in a bend of the Thames, where the southwestern railway now crosses the river. End of footnote. Through his divinity studies Walton brought the varied experience and wide thoughtfulness which he had acquired in intercourse with learned and religious men throughout Europe. He had seen what Christian good there may be in very different forms of religious faith and worship. And so, like Hales, he disliked greatly the prevalent spirit of religious contentiousness. Footnote. He directed the following inscription to be put upon his tombstone. Hic yacet huyus sentente i primus, author disputandi pruitus ecclesiarum scabies nomen alias quere. End of footnote. Humorous stories have been preserved of his catholicity of feeling and the successful repartee with which he would retort on troublesome questioners. To one that asked him whether a papist may be saved, he replied, You may be saved without knowing that. Look to yourself. To another who was railing against the papists he gave this advice. Quote. Pray, sir, for bear till you have studied the points better, for the wise Italians have this proverb, he that understands amiss concludes worse, and to take heed of thinking the farther you go from the Church of Rome the nearer you are to God. Close quote. But he had no less something pointed to say to the disputatious Romanist. Being at Rome, a pleasant priest invited him one evening to hear their vests per music at church. The priest, seeing Sir Henry stand obscurely in a corner, went to him by a boy of the choir, the question written on a small piece of paper, where was your religion to be found before Luther? To which question, Sir Henry presently under writ, my religion was to be found then where yours is not to be found now in the written word of God? His testimony to Arminius is as creditable to his Christian fairness as anything recorded of him. Quote. In my travel toward Venice, as I passed through Germany, I rested almost a year at Leiden, where I entered into an acquaintance with Arminius, then the professor of divinity in that university, a man much talked of in this age which is made up of opposition and controversy. And indeed, if I mistake not Arminius in his expressions, as so weak a brain as mine is, may easily do, then I know I differ from him in some points, yet I profess my judgment of him to be that he was a man of most rare learning and I know him to be of a most strict life and of a most meek spirit. Close quote. These stories and others of a similar import are told us on the best authority by Walton and all serve to show how entirely Sir Henry Watton must have been a man after Hales' own heart. Their intercourse cannot fail to have been frequent and pleasant in those afternoons which the provost was want to give to his friends and such persons as brought additions of learning and pleasure. He was a great lover of his neighbors and there was no one like-minded who could enter into his thoughts or share his learning or care for his state like his erudite, acute and bright-witted colleague. This may have learned something of his breadth and freedom of opinion from one to whose experience and knowledge of the world he would be disposed to defer. Watton's cast of mind and large charity would certainly help the development of his own thoughts. Their intercourse is said to have been particularly frequent in the latter part of Watton's life when he became more retired and contemplative. In one of those visits, when he felt his end drawing near, he is said to have addressed Hales to the following purpose. Quote. I have in my passage to my grave met with most of those joys of which a discursive soul is capable. Nevertheless in the voyage I have not always floated on the calm sea of content, but have often met with cross winds and storms, and with many troubles of mind and temptations to evil. Yet Almighty God hath by his grace prevented me from making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, the thought of which is now the joy of my heart, and I most humbly praise him for it. And, my dear friend, I now see that I draw near my harbour of death, that harbour that will secure me from all the future storms and waves of this restless world. And I praise God I am willing to leave it and expect a better, that world wherein dwelleth righteousness, and I long for it. Quote. Watton died in the autumn of 1639, and before this Hales had in some degree emerged from his retirement, in connection not only with a London literature whose feasts he occasionally graced, but with the great church questions of his time. His famous Tract-Concerning Schism and Schismatics was certainly written before this, although not printed till sometime later, 1642. There is no reason indeed to doubt the statement that it was written about 1636 at Chillingworth's request to assist him in the composition of The Religion of Protestants, absurd as our Wood's comments in connection with the statement. It has the air of being intended for such a purpose, and Hales himself says that it was written for the use of a private friend. But there are at least two other and very characteristic writings of Hales which belong to this important period, namely his tracts concerning the power of the keys and on the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The former bears the date of 1637, and the latter, which is particularly interesting, must be concluded to be as early, if not earlier. It was evidently written in the heart of the Romanist controversy which was then violently agitating England, and more or less engrossing all inquiring minds. Like all his writings at this time, it was elicited from him by the application of some correspondent or friend whose name is not disclosed. The following significant allusion to the influence of the Romish teachers closes the tract. If you shall favour me so much as to carefully read what I have carefully written, you shall find, at least in those points you occasioned me to touch upon, sufficient ground to plant yourself strongly against all discourse of the Romish corner creepers which they use for the seducing of unstable souls. Besides these acknowledged writings of Hales at this period there are two brief Latin treatises which have been attributed to him, one of his earlier date of 1628 and the other published in 1633. The first bears the general title Anonymi Dissertatio de Passe et Concordia ecclesiae, and the second is spoken of as the Braavis Disquisitio. Footnote. The full title of this tract is as follows. Braavis Disquisitio an et comodo vulgo dicti evangelisia pontificios ac nominatim val magni de acatholicorum credendi regula judisium, soli de acque evidente refutare quiant. Maisot has examined with patience, and not a little critical ecumen, the external evidence as to the authorship of these tracts, and concludes decidedly not only that they are not the production of Hales, but that they belong to the writers to which they are respectively attributed in Sandias's Biblioteca Antitrinitariorum, the Dissertatio de Passe, et cetera. Having been written by a Polish knight, Samuel Cipcovius, and the Braavis Disquisitio, et cetera, by Joachimus Stigmanus, a celebrated Sosinian minister, both pamphlets may be found by the English reader admirably translated in the second volume of the phoenix, a collection of rare pamphlets chiefly of the seventeenth century. End of footnote. The question of the authorship of these treatises, at least of the second of them, is important in its bearing on Hales's general position and his honesty as a religious thinker. Wood may be considered the chief and in a sense the only definite authority for attributing these writings to our author. He enumerates them among the things written by him, but not to insist upon the suspicious source on which he evidently relied in making his statement, the obvious prejudices and frequent inaccuracy of the worthy author of the attene oxoniensis deprive his evidence of any value on such a point. Extended footnote. The original source of the rumor which connected Hales with the Braavis Disquisitio seems to have been ecclesiastical gossip in the heyday of Lod's power, revived by Halen, his biographer, after the restoration, and emphasized by a somewhat reckless and coarse writer, Dr. Samuel Parker, who became Bishop of Oxford in the reign of James II. Parker whom we may afterwards meet in the course of our history, in connection with the Cambridge Platonic School, had a famous controversy in 1673 regarding the separatists from the Church of England, with Andrew Marvel, Milton's friend, in which the latter introduced Hales's name with commendation and appealed to his tract on schism. He ventured to contrast the spirit of the writer with that of Parker, and to add, I could not but admire that majesty and beauty which sits upon the forehead of masculine truth and generous honesty, but no less detest the deformity of falsehood disguised in all its ornaments. Rehearsal Transposed. Page 134. 135. The comparison seems to have excited Parker's coarse temper, and in his reply, a reproof to the rehearsal transposed, he fell foul of Hales as well as of his admirer. The next time, he said, you knows the Church of England with Mr. Hales, let the disquisitio brevis be your book. Wood speaks of this pen combat between Parker and Marvel as briskly managed, with much smart cutting and satirical wit on both sides. But he admits that it was generally thought even by many of those who were otherwise favourers of Parker's cause that he, Parker, threw a too loose and unwary handling of the debate, though in a brave, flourishing and lofty style, laid himself too open to the severe strokes of his sneering adversary and that the odds and victory laid on Marvel's side. Atene oxoniensis c. 619 quoted by Mizzot. End of Footnote. The examination of the tracts themselves is sufficient to convince every student of Hales's writings that he is not their author, and beyond all question not the author of the bravest disquisitio, which chiefly warrants the charges of Sosinianism made by Wood and repeated by others. With a certain likeness of tone in speaking of the general subject of reason, a likeness, after all, more superficial than real, as the writer of the disquisition lacks the finer temper and balance of mind with which our author always expresses himself on this subject. There is otherwise no resemblance whatever betwixt the writers. The dogmatic attitude of the author of the Latin treatise is a clearly defined one, equally opposed to Lutherans, Calvinists and Papists. He distinctly separates himself from the two former, those who follow Luther and Calvin for their guides in religion, as well as from the latter, and objects not only to the superstitions of popery, but to the distinctive tenets of evangelical Protestantism, the trinity, the incarnation, the meritorious satisfaction of Christ, and even original sin and infant baptism as unreasonable and unscriptural. This is entirely inconsistent with the spirit of Hales and the characteristic tenancies of his mode of thought. The earlier treatise on the peace and concord of the Church might more possibly be conceived to have preceded from his pen. It is in some respects a beautiful and striking composition, and in its general character, highly consistent with his enlightened and tolerant Protestantism. It has nothing of the hard, dogmatic, and somewhat flippant tone with which the bravest disquisito opposes orthodox dogmatism. But it too bears clear internal marks of foreign authorship. It is evidently written by one with the miseries of the Thirty Years War before his eyes, and with more information as to the state of religious opinion and religious parties on the Continent than Hales, even with the advantage of his residence at Holland, can well be supposed to have. While an auditor at the Synod of Dort he was still, we have seen, a Calvinist, and although he may have afterwards bid Calvin good night, he never took up a line of definite antagonism to Calvinism, and it may be said with confidence would never have written regarding the doctrine of predestination as the author of this dissertation does. Still less was he likely to do this anonymously at so early a date after his return from Holland in 1628 and in the first writing deliberately given by him to the world. We are freed, therefore, from the necessity of examining these writings, and we might be excused from considering the charge founded on them, did it not crop out so frequently in the literature of the century, and reappear in ignorant comment on our author's acknowledged writings such as the tract on Schism. Aubrey, of course, repeats it in his usual gossiping manner. He, Hales, was one of the first Sosinians in England, I think the first, is his confident statement, and Professor Masson quotes Aubrey apparently without any consciousness that he is doing Hales a gross injustice. Extended Footnote Aubrey, II, 363, 1813, Life of Milton, I, 500. There can be no doubt that it is a real injustice to writers of acknowledged theological eminence, and to have been at pains to make their religious views and position clear to the world, to have talk like that of Aubrey's quoted against them. In matters of religious opinion, Aubrey's judgment is of no more value than that of any social gossip monger would be in our own day. The phrase, the first Sosinian in England, seems to have been a favorite catch phrase with him, borrowed probably from his gossiping circle. He applies it in an exactly similar manner and with the same wantonness to Falkland, although Falkland we have seen placed the encouragement even of Arminianism on the same level with that of potpourri as a charge against the Laudian bishops. The worth of Aubrey's statements about Sosinianism may be guessed by his further statements in the same page, almost in the same breath. Hales was something of a familist as well as a Sosinian if he is to be believed. For he adds, I have heard his nephew, Mr. Sloper, say that he much loved to read Stefanus, who was a familist. I think that first wrote of that sect of the family of love. He was mightily taken with it and was wont to say that some time or other these fine notions would take in the world. Even Wood, whose own accuracy and insight are frequently to be questioned, speaks of Aubrey and words quoted by Professor Masson as a credulous person, roving and maggoty-headed, who was in the habit of stuffing his letters with follaries and misinformation. End of footnote. The charge moreover recurs in the case of Chillingworth in a still more definite and flagrant form, had thus forces itself upon the attention of the historian of the rational school of thought in the seventeenth century and deserves a passing notice. The truth is that there is not the slightest ground for suspecting either Hales or Chillingworth of Sosinianism, beyond the fact that they argue vigorously and directly for the claims of reason in the interpretation of scripture and the criticism of dogma. To carry out in this manner Protestantism to its legitimate conclusions and vindicate consistently the right of private judgment has always been adjudged by certain limited dogmatists, supposed heroes of Protestantism, but really traitors to its essential principles to partake of the nature of Sosinianism. As if it were a matter of course that the conclusions of scripture and reason must be opposed and that to rest finally in the arbitration of enlightened Christian thought must be to rest in something short of, or contrary to, the conclusions of evangelical theology. But this is to be unfair at once to evangelical theology and to reason. We may surely ask, with a candid Roman Catholic author of the 17th century, does the making private reason judge of the true sense of scripture infer that neither Christ nor the Holy Ghost are God, that the pains of hell are not eternal, that separate souls have no being or at least no perception, etc. God forbid, for then how many innocent persons would be guilty of blasphemies unawares to themselves. Then not only Mr. Chillingworth, but Dr. Stillingfleet, and besides them God knows how many more in London and in the universities of England would be Sosinians. As to Hales the charge of Sosinianism is peculiarly unwarrantable, for he has left us of his own free thought, his confession of the Trinity, which is as clear, full, and explicit as any Trinitarian can desire. We cannot quote the whole of it, but the following statements will be allowed to leave his orthodoxy beyond question. God is one, yet so one, that he admits of distinction, and so admits of distinction that he still retains unity. As he is one, so we call him God, the deity, the divine nature, and other names of the same signification. As he is distinguished, so we call him Trinity, Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In this Trinity there is one Essence. The one Essence is God, which with his relation that it doth generate or beget makes the person of the Father. The same Essence with this relation that it is begotten makeeth the person of the Son. The same Essence with this relation that it procedeth makeeth the person of the Holy Ghost." It is in connection with this question of orthodoxy and his tract on schism that we find our author brought into significant connection with Lod in 1638. Halen's account of his visit to the Archbishop is extremely graphic, and so far characteristic of the two men. But like many other graphic stories it is probably more interesting than accurate. It is introduced with an allusion to the brevice disquisito, which appears to have been the foundation of all subsequent statements connecting Hales' name with this treatise. It was ascribed to him, it is said, in common speech. But Halen does not venture on his own authority to say that he knew anything of the authorship. Of Hales himself he speaks with the generous admiration with which almost all mention him. He was a man, he says, of infinite reading and no less ingenuity, free of discourse and as communicative of his knowledge as the celestial bodies of their light and influences. Such a man it might have occurred to Halen was not likely to insert cunningly some of the principal Sosinian tenets in a discourse really and professedly on another subject. The tract on schism, although not printed at this time, had passed from hand to hand in written copies, and evidently excited much attention both amongst Hales' friends, who are spoken of as our great masters of wit and reason, and the ecclesiastical authorities. The tone of it must have been far from pleasing to Lod. It struck, in fact, at the root of his whole system of church authority. But he could not, even if he had been disposed, act harshly towards one who was so intimately associated with Chillingworth, his own friend, and moreover to do him justice he seems to have had no disposition to do so. He hoped rather, as Halen says, that he might gain the man whose abilities he was well acquainted with when he lived in Oxford. Accordingly he sent for him to Lambeth and had a long conference with him, thus described by his biographer. Quote, about nine o'clock in the morning he, Hales, came to know his gracious pleasure, who took him along with him into his garden, commanding that none of his servants should come at him upon any occasion. There they continued to discourse till the bell rang to prayers, and after prayers were ended, till the dinner was ready, and after that, too, till the coming in of the Lord Conway and some other persons of honour put a necessity upon some of his servants to give him notice how the time had passed away. So in they came, high-coloured, and almost panting for want of breath, enough to show that there had been some heats between them, not then fully cooled. It was my chance to be there that day, and I found Hales very glad to see me in that place, as being himself a mere stranger to it, and unknown to all. He told me afterwards that he found the archbishop, whom he knew before for a nimble disputant, to be as well versed in books as business, that he had been ferreted by him from one hold to another till there was none left to afford him any further shelter, that he was now resolved to be orthodox and to declare himself a true son of the Church of England, both for doctrine and discipline. Such is Halen's story, and we must judge of its credibility according to our knowledge of the person's concern. Clarendon's description of the same visit deserves to be placed beside that of Halen, and probably gives a more accurate account of what really passed. Laud, he says, quote, sent for Mr. Hales whom, when they had both lived in the University of Oxford, he had known well, and told him that he had in truth believed him to be long since dead, and chid him very kindly for having never come to him, having been of his old acquaintance, then asked him whether he had lately written a short discourse of schism, and whether he was of that opinion which that discourse implied. He told him that he had for the satisfaction of a private friend, who was not of his mind, a year or two before, writ such a small tract without any imagination that it would be communicated, and that he believed it did not contain anything that was not agreeable to the judgment of the primitive fathers, upon which the Archbishop debated with him, upon some expressions of Irenaeus and the most ancient fathers, and concluded with saying that the time was very apt to set new doctrines on foot, of which the wits of the age were too susceptible, and that there could not be too much care taken to preserve the peace and unity of the Church, and from thence asked him of his condition, and whether he wanted anything, and the other answering that he had enough, and wanted or desired no addition, so dismissed him with great courtesy," end of footnote. Maizot is very indignant at its misrepresentations, and sets forth at length the grounds on which he conceives a man like Halon is not to be trusted in his account of such a matter. He was a violent sacerdotalist and constant assertor of the Church's right, like the subject of his biography. He had also much of the blind confidence and narrow intensity of spirit characteristic of his class, which frequently passes with others and even with themselves, for spiritual zeal. Of Hales's mode of thought, and of the real significance of his attitude on the subject of the Church, he had evidently no conception. Such men never have of anything which transcends the bonds of party or the lines of a customed tradition. It would be almost certain, therefore, even if we had only his own story, that he had misinterpreted the natural and complementary deference of Hales's remarks into an expression of his submission to the supreme superiority of the Archbishop's arguments. Hales, more over, was a wit, and may have delighted in playing with a man like Halon, whose mind would not readily catch the subtler aspects of a subject. In reporting what passed between him and the primate, he may have put his own case very much at a disadvantage. There might seem to him humor as well as humility in representing himself as overcome by his grace's searching logic. He may have even jocularly owned that he was henceforth resolved to be orthodox and a good son of the Church, as good as Halon himself. But we have happily the means of testing to what extent Hales submitted or in any degree owned himself in the wrong on this occasion. After his interview he addressed a letter to Lod on the subject of their conversation, or, as the letter bears, upon occasion of the tract concerning schism, in which he acknowledges regret that what he had written had given offence, and professes his desire to repair any mischief that may have arisen from a scribbled paper dropped from so worthless and inconsiderable a hand as his. The apologetic tone of this letter is not to be admired. It is altogether too deprecatory. It would have been much better if he had stood up manfully for his abortive discourse, as he calls it, and not have spoken of any of its statements as the issues of unfortunate inquiry over which the sponge might be passed. But, after all, he nowhere recalls any of the principles he had laid down. There is nothing throughout of the nature of a recantation suggested by Halen and caught up and repeated affirmatively by subsequent writers. Footnote. Hallam agrees strongly that there is no evidence of Hales's recantation, although we cannot say with him that his letter is full as bold as his treatise on schism. The story he adds is one of Halen's many willful falsehoods, and the idea of Lod having the superiority of Hales in argument is ludicrous considering the relative abilities of the two men. 277th Edition. End of Footnote. And so far as even his tone is concerned, it is impossible not to recognize in it something of that humorous irony which we supposed to have lain under his conversation with Halen. He apologizes for the style of his tract as in some things overfamiliar and subrastic, and sometimes more pleasant than needed, and sometimes more sour and satirical. But his grace is to be pleased to remember what the liberty of a letter might entice him to, and that he was by genius open and uncantilous, and therefore some pardon might be afforded to harmless freedom and gaiety of spirit. Yet all the while he is conscious of a higher spirit, and in a noble passage speaks of the earnestness and single-mindedness with which he has sought the truth. Like many a man he was willing to concede for himself any deference to existing authority. He would gladly live at peace, but he felt at the same time the instinctive necessity of a true mind only to yield to what he felt to be the truth. For the pursuit of truth, he says, quote, hath been my only care ever since I first understood the meaning of the word. For this I have forsaken all hopes, all friends, all desires, which might bias me and hinder me from driving right at what I aimed. For this I have spent my money, my means, my youth, my age, and all I have, that I might remove for myself that censure of Tertullian, suovitio quiscuid ignorat. If, with all this cost and pains, my purchase is but error, I may safely say, to err hath cost me more than it has many to find the truth, and truth itself shall give me this testimony at last, that if I have missed of her it is not my fault, but my misfortune." This glimpse of Hale's in connection with Lod is almost the only occasion in which he can be said to emerge into the light as a churchman during those troubled and ominous years which preceded the great outbreak. His, it must be confessed, was a nature little fitted for conflict or for carrying forward in the face of opposition a cause however dear to him. The idea of ecclesiastical turmoil, of the brawls grown from religion, was hateful to his whole soul and on no account would he have added to them. He had confidence in the quiet growth of higher thought. He had none, apparently, in party action or agitation, even for the higher side. From this time forward, therefore, he may be said to disappear from view. It is to be remembered that even now he was no longer young. At the time of his interview with Lod he was fifty-four years of age. In the following year he accepted the only church preferment that seems ever to have been offered to him, a cannery at Windsor. According to Clarendon, who calls the preferment a pre-bendery of Windsor, the Archbishop could not, quote, without great difficulty persuade him to accept it, and he did accept it rather to please him than himself because he really believed he had enough before. End of footnote. But he had hardly entered on his duties when the storm came, and for many years afterwards, as wave after wave of revolution broke upon the church that he loved, and the college where he had lived so pleasantly amongst his books, there is hardly any trace of him. All that is known is that he was driven from his offices and his residence in the college, and reduced to great penury. Yet we may be sure that, in so reflective and generous a nature, his own straits were by no means the worst that he endured in those years. The miseries of his country, and the rapid loss of all his friends in the wretched struggle, must have inflicted upon him still deeper pangs. One by one they perished within a brief period, suckling in exile and disgrace, then the blameless Falkland, and, lastly, within a few months, Chillingworth. The times were very hard, and it is somewhat pitiful to think of the loneliness as well as the poverty of the aged scholar. He had been used to say, in his prosperous days, that he thought he should never die a martyr, playfully alluding to his lack of zeal and the comprehensiveness of his theological opinions. But he seems to have suffered scarcely less than the severities of martyrdom. He was left alone without friends, or nearly so, and even at length without books. A kind lady in the neighborhood of Eaton, the Lady Salter, is said by Aubrey to have shown him attention in his last years after his sequestration. He was very welcome to her ladyship, says Aubrey, and spent much of his time there. End of footnote. He was soon forced to dispose of the only thing left which could afford him some satisfaction in the world. I mean one of the best collections of books that a person of his station ever enjoyed. All that his charity and his generosity had allowed him to spare, he had constantly employed towards the completing of it. Footnote Clarendon also mentions his fine collection of books. A greater and better collection than was to be found in any other private library that I have seen. As he had sure read more, and carried more about him in his excellent memory than any man I ever knew, my Lord Falkland only accepted, who I think cited him. End of footnote. But the same charitable and generous temper that had prevented his acquiring any other estate besides those books would not permit him to keep long the produce that had arisen from the selling of them. He shared it with several ministers, scholars, and others who had been also deprived of their substance, whereby this resource soon failed him. He might have found it supplied by a gentleman who invited him to come to his house had he not declined to accept that generous offer. He rather chose to take upon him the education of a youth who lived near Eaton. But the fury of the ruling party would not suffer him to continue in that family so that he at last retired to Eaton and lodged in the house of a widow whose husband had been his servant. In this obscure retreat he was reduced to extreme want and a celebrated author, Andrew Marvel, continues my zoo, very justly observes that it is not one of the least ignominies of that age that so eminent a person should have been by the iniquity of the times reduced to those necessities under which he lived. Some few months before his death his friend Mr. Farringdon found him in this retreat. Farringdon, or Farringdon as the name is sometimes written, was one of those moderate Episcopalian divines and who, though ejected from his vicarage at the commencement of the Civil War, found employment by abstaining from the use of the formularies of the church. He became minister of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street. He was an admirable preacher and held in high esteem, end of footnote. His lodgings were mean, he had only a few books of devotion in his chamber, the remnant of his magnificent library, and for money about seven or eight shillings and besides said he, I doubt I am indebted for my lodging. Yet his temper was gravely cheerful and he was able to offer his friends some refreshment. After a slight and very homely dinner, suitable to the lodgings, some discourse passed between them concerning their old friends and the black and dismal aspect of the times. At last he asked his friend to walk out with him to the churchyard, where, after some communications as to his circumstances, he added, When I die, which I hope is not far off, for I am weary of this uncharitable world, I desire you to see me buried in that place of the churchyard, pointing to the place. But why not in the church, asked Mr. Farrandon, with the provost Sir Henry Watton and the rest of your friends and predecessors? Because, says he, I am neither the founder of it nor have I been the benefactor to it, nor shall I ever now be able to be so. I am satisfied. This is the last glimpse we get of him. He died at Eaton on the 19th of May, 1656, and was buried according to his desire, in plain and simple manner without any sermon or ringing the bell or calling the people together. So he had enjoined in his will, which is a very quaint and characteristic document. It is hardly necessary to sum up the features of Hale's character. We can readily realize from the whole tenor of his life, as well as of his writings, the picture suggested by Clarendon of a modest, sensitive, yet profound and discerning spirit, hating religious controversy, yet apt and keen in religious argument when once engaged in it, honest and open-minded to a fault, yet with a great power of reserve in him before the unwise and unreflective, loving peace yet detesting tyranny and severe to himself while kind and charitable in all his thoughts of others. He was a very hard student to the last, according to Wood, and a great faster, and though a person of wonderful knowledge yet he was so modest as to be patiently contented to hear the disputes of persons at table and those of small abilities without interposing or speaking a word till desired. He was, says another authority, of a nature so kind, so sweet, so courting, all mankind, of an affability so prompt, so ready to receive all conditions of men, that I conceive it near as easy a task for anyone to become so knowing as so obliging. There is an interesting story preserved of his special appreciation of Shakespeare's genius, which should not be forgotten. He is reported to have said, in the course of those ingenious conversations which he had with Sir John Suckling, Ben Johnson, and others, that if any topic was produced, finally treated by any of the ancient poets, he would undertake to show something upon the same subject, at least as well written, by Shakespeare. Footnote The story is given by Rowe in his account of Shakespeare's life and quoted in the notes to Miseau's Life of Hales, page 60. It is also told in a still stronger form by Dryden in his essay of Dramatic Poisy, page 32, 1693, but neither Rowe nor Dryden mentioned the authority on which he gives the story. Footnote In personal appearance he is said by those who remembered and were well acquainted with him to have had the most ingenious countenance they ever saw. It was sanguine, cheerful, and full of air. His stature was small but well proportioned, and his motion quick and nimble. Aubrey, who saw him at his retired lodging at Eaton shortly before his death, and who may be safely trusted for personal characteristics, speaks of him as, quote, a pretty little man sanguine of a cheerful countenance, very gentle and courteous. I was received by him with much humanity, he was in a kind of violet-colored cloth gown with buttons and loops, he wore not a black gown, and was reading Thomas a Kempis. It was within a year before he deceased. He loved Canary but moderately to refresh his spirits. He had a bountiful mind. All together a pleasant picture of a large, thoughtful, affable, and devout soul whom adversity had not soured and whose piety blended with, without absorbing or discoloring, the genial warmth of his humanity.