by the noblemen were valued at two thousand five hundred pounds; but that which made it a good marriage was a gift of the king's, of five hundred pounds land, for the bride's jointure. They were lodged in the council chamber; where the king, in his shirt and night gown, gave them a reveillée matin before they were up, and spent a good time in, or upon, the bed, choose which you will believe. No ceremony was omitted of bride-cakes, points, garters, and gloves, which have been ever since the livery of the court; and at night there was sewing into the sheet, casting of the bride's left hose, with many other petty sorceries."*

But we must confess, (with some feelings of shame for the hierarchy of James's reign,) that this servility of spirit, which could accommodate itself to such base and ignoble conduct in the monarch, was not peculiar to the secular courtiers. The majority of the bishops were equally ductile, if we may credit a variety of anecdotes which record their complaisance. One may suffice.

* Ib. page 43.

On the day of the dissolution of the last parliament of King James I. Mr. Waller, out of curiosity or respect, went to see the king at dinner, with whom were Doctor Andrews, the bishop of Winchester, and Doctor Neal, bishop of Durham, standing behind his Majesty's chair. There happened something very extraordinary in the conversation those prelates had with the king; on which Mr. Waller did often reflect. His Majesty asked the bishops, My lords, cannot I take my subjects' money when I want it, without all this formality in parliament?' The Bishop of Durham readily answered, G―d forbid, Sir, but you should; you are the breath of our nostrils.' Whereupon the king turned, and said to the Bishop of Winchester, Well, my lord, what say you 6 ?' Sir,' replied the bishop, I have no skill to judge of parliamentary cases.' The king answered, No put-offs, my lord; answer me presently.'

6

6

Then, Sir,' said he, I think it is lawful to take my brother Neal's money, for he offers it.' Mr. Waller said, the company was pleased with this answer, and the wit of it seemed to

affect the king." however, that the English prelacy owed much to James, for his civility to their order; for he sacrificed, in their behalf, his consistency, veracity, and honour. In 1590, addressing the general assembly of Scotland, standing "with his bonnet off, he praised God that he was born in such a time as in the time of the light of the gospel; to such a place as to be king of such a kirk-the sincerest kirk in the world. The kirk of Geneva keepeth Pasche and Yule," (Easter and Christmas,)

It must be acknowledged,

up

what have they for them? They have no institutions. As for our neighbour kirk in England, their service is an evil-said mass in English: they want nothing of the mass but the liftings" (elevation of the host). " I charge you, my good people, ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort the people to do the same; and I, forsooth, so long as I brook my life and crown, shall maintain the same against all deadly." And, in his speech to

* Account of the Life, &c. of Mr. Waller, pre-fixed to his poems, p. 67, edit. 1710.

the Scotch Parliament in 1598, he re-assured them that he minded not to bring in papistical or Anglican bishops.* Yet, such was the insincerity of this monarch, there is reason to believe that he had even then determined upon the subverting of this (what he asserted to be) purest of all institutions, which he charged the people, and so solemnly pledged himself, to maintain; for in his work, entitled Basilicon Doron, printed and clandestinely circulated a few years afterwards, and which must have cost time in the composition, he contends that "parity among ministers cannot agree with monarchy; that without bishops the three estates cannot be established; that ministers sought to establish a democracy in the land, and to bear the sway of all the government; that by time they hope, by the example of the ecclesiastical policy, to draw the civil to the same parity; that no man is more to be hated of a king than a proud puritan; and that the chief of them are

Calderwood's Church History of Scotland, page 256, 418.

not to be allowed to brook the land."* And in the conference at Hampton Court, James asserted, that "the Scotch presbytery agreed with a monarchy, as God and the devil. Then," said he, "Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick, shall meet, and at their pleasure censure me and my council, and all our proceedings. Then Will shall stand up, and say, It must be thus; then Dick shall reply, and say, Nay, marry, but we will have it thus.” Such was the tergiversation of James in favour of the English church; and such the precious logic, which drew from Archbishop Whitgift the solemn declaration, that, "undoubtedly, his Majesty spake by the special assistance of God's spirit;" and which compelled Bishop Bancroft, on his knee, to protest, that "his heart melted with joy, and made him haste to acknowledge unto Almighty God the singular mercy in giving them such a king, as since Christ's time the like had not been."t

R

** Brodie's Hist. Brit. Emp. vol. i. introduction, page 396.

Barlow's Account of the Conference at Hampton Court, Phoenix, vol. i. page 145.