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COVERBA

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From a Drawing in the Possession of Dr Gifford.

He married to prove, that the grace of a perpetual continency is neither given to all, nor for ever.

He published only some disputations, which he had held at Basil and Bern; being, as we observed before, much more considerable as a preacher than a writer.

MILES COVERDALF,

BISHOP OF EXETER.

HIS pious Reformer was born in Yorkshire, in the reign of Henry VIII. and being educated in the Romish religion, became an Augustine monk. He took his doctor's degree at Tubingen in Germany, and was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge. By GOD's grace embracing the Reformation, he entered into holy orders; and, as Bale tells us, he was one of the first, who, upon the delivery of the church of England from the see of Rome, together with Dr Robert Barnes, taught the purity of the gospel, and dedicated himself wholly to the service of the Reformed religion. He assisted Tindale and Rogers in the English version of the Bible, published in the years 1532 and 1587, which he afterwards revised and corrected for another edition in a larger volume, with notes, which was printed in or about the year 1540. Dr Coverdale succeeded Dr John Harman, alias Voysey, in the see of Exeter, August the fourteenth, in the year 1551, being promoted propter singularem sacrarum literarum doctrinam, moresque probatissimos; i. e. on account of his extraordinary knowledge in divinity, and his unblemished chaThe patent for conferring this bishopric on him, though a married man, is dated August 14th, 1551, at Westminster. Upon the accession of Q. Mary to the throne, bishop Coverdale was ejected from his see, and thrown into prison; out of which he was released at the earnest request of the King of Denmark, and, as a very great favour, permitted to go into banishment. In his confinement, he was one of those who signed the famous confession of faith, which we have given our Readers in the first volume, under the article of Ferrar. Upon this ejection, Harman was reinstated. Soon after Q. Elizabeth's

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in Oxford, under one Mr Peter Burrey, a man neither of any great learning, nor much addicted to the Refor mation, which then (in the reign of Henry VIII.) went on but slowly, and with much irregularity in its motions. But we are, however, obliged to his first tutor for this, that he committed Mr Jewel to Mr John Parkhurst, a fellow of the same college, and afterwards first minister of Cleave, and then Bishop of Norwich, who was a man both of more learning and of a better faith; and prudently instilled, together with his other learning, those excellent principles into this young gentleman, which afterwards made him the darling and wonder of his age.

During his continuance in this college, a plague happening in Oxford, he removed to a place called Croxham, where being lodged in a low room, and studying hard in 'the night, he got a lameness by a cold which attended him to his grave; having spent almost four years in this college, the nineteenth of August, A. D. 1539, the one and thirtieth of Henry VIII. in the seventeenth year of his age, he was, by the procurement of one Mr Slater, and Mr Burrey and Mr Parkhurst, his two tutors, removed into Corpus Christi-college in the same university, where, I suppose, he met with something of an encouragement; but it is much more certain he met with envy from his equals, who often suppressed his ingenious exercises, and read others that were more like their own.

The twentieth day of October in the following year, he took his first degree of bachelor of arts, with a great and general applause; when he prosecuted his studies with more vigour than before, beginning them at four in the morning, and continued them till ten at night, so that he seemed to need somebody to put him in mind of eating.

Being now attained to a great reputation for learning, he began to instruct others, and, among the rest, Anthony Parkhurst was committed to his care by Mr John Parkhurst his tutor, which was a great argument of his uncommon worth and industry.

Being thus employed, he was chosen reader of humanity and rhetoric, of his own college, and he managed this place seven years with great applause and honour. His example taught more than any precepts could; for he was a great admirer of Horace and Cicero, and read all Erasmus's works, and imitated them too, for it was his custom to write something every day; and it was his common saying, that men acquired more learning by a frequent exercising their pens, than by reading many

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"books." He affected ever rather to express himself fluently, neatly, and with great weight of argument and strength of reason, than in hunting after the flowers of rhetoric, and the cadences of words, though he understood them, no man better, and wrote a dialogue in which he comprehended the sum of the art of rhetoric.

The ninth of February, 1544, he commenced master of arts, the charge of it being borne by his good tutor Mr Parkhurst, who had then the rich rectory of Cleve, in the diocese of Gloucester, which is of better value than some of our smaller bishoprics. Nor was this the only instance whereby he partook of this good man's bounty, for he used twice or thrice in a year to invite him to his house, and not dismiss him without presents, money, and other things, that were necessary for the carrying on his studies. And one time above the rest, coming into his chamber in the morning, when he was to go back to the university, he seized upon his and his companions purses, saying, What money, I wonder, have these miserable • beggarly Oxonians?' And finding them all very empty, he stuffed them with money, till they became sufficiently weighty.

Edward VI. succeeding his father on the twenty-eighth of July, 1546, the Reformation went on more regularly and swiftly, and Peter Martyr being by that prince called out of Germany, and made professor of divinity at Oxford, Mr Jewel was one of his most constant hearers; and by the help of characters, which he had invented for his own use, took all his lectures almost as perfectly as he spoke them.

About this time, one Dr Richard Smith, predecessor to Peter Martyr in that chair at Oxford, who was more a sophister than a divine, made an insult upon Peter Martyr, and interrupted him publicly and unexpectedly in his lecture: The German was not to be baffled by a surprise, but extempore recollected his lecture, and defended it with great presence of mind; the two parties in the schools being just upon the point of a tumult, the Protestants for the present professor, and the Papists for the old one.

Peter Martyr, nettled with this affront, (which happened on the twenty-eighth of May, 1549) challenged Smith to dispute with him publicly, and appointed him a day: But Smith, fearing to be called in question for this uproar, fled before the time to St Andrews in Scotland. But then Thresham and Chadsy, two popish doctors, and one Morgan, entered the lists against Peter Martyr, and

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there was a very sharp, but regular dispute betwixt them concerning the Lord's-Supper. And Mr Jewel, having then a large share in Peter Martyr's affections, was by him appointed to take the whole disputation in writing, which was printed in the year 1549. For the regulating this disputation, the council sent to Oxford, Henry bishop of Lincoln, Dr R. Cox, chancellor of that university, Dr Simon Haines, Richard Morison, Esq. and Dr Christopher Nevison, commissioners and moderators.

In the year 1551, Mr Jewel took his degree of bachelor of divinity, when he preached an excellent Latin sermon, which is extant almost perfect; taking for his text the words of St Peter, Pet. iv. 11. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, &c. Upon which words he raised such excellent doctrines, and made such wise and holy reflections in so pure and elegant a style, as convinced every body of his great ability and deserts.

About the same time, Mr Jewel took a small living near Oxford called Sunningwell, more out of a desire to do good, than for the salary, which was but small; whither he went once a fortnight on foot, though he was lame, and it was troublesome to him to walk; and at the same time preached frequently both privately in his own college, and publicly in the university.

Besides his old friend Mr Parkhurst, amongst others, one Mr Curtop a fellow of the same college, afterwards canon of Christ-Church, allowed him forty shillings a year, which was a considerable sum in those days; and one Mr Chambers, who was entrusted with distributing the charity of some Londoners to the poor scholars of Oxford, allowed Mr Jewel out of it six pounds a year for books.

Edward VI. dying on the sixth of July, in the year 1553, and Q. Mary succeeding him, and being proclaimed the seventeenth of the same month, Jewel was one of the first that felt the fury of this tempest, and before any law was made, or so much as any order given by the queen, was expelled out of the college by the fellows, upon their private authority, who had nothing to object against him, but, 1. His following Peter Martyr. 2. His preaching some doctrines contrary to Popery. 3. And his taking orders according to the laws then in force: But Fuller in his Church History says, he was expelled for refusing to be present at mass. As for his life, it was acknowledged to be angelical and extremely honest, by John Moren, a fellow of the same college; who yet, at the same

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