Bishop Burnet

“ Bishop Burnet says, "she was a woman of little knowledge, but of a clear apprehension, and a true judgment; a warm and hearty friend, violent and sudden in her resolutions, and impetuous in her way of speaking. ”

“ This throws more light upon the limitations of Bishop Burnet than those of Peter the Great, and fairly illustrates the incompetency of contemporary estimates of genius; or, perhaps, the inability of talent to take the full measure of genius at any time. The good Bishop adds that he adores the wise Providence which "has raised up such a furious man to reign over such a part of the world." ”

“ Burnet says of this last letter, which he tells us was written at the "earnest solicitations" of Lady Rachael, that as Russell was folding it up, he said to him, "This will be printed, and will be selling about the streets as my submission, when I am led out to be hanged."
All efforts failed, and the patriot and husband composed himself to die. The touching particulars of his last days we shall extract from the account of his friend Bishop Burnet. It is one that, as it contains no disputed points, may be safely relied on ”

“ In 1713 he was made bishop of Rochester and dean of Westminster, two posts which, according to the objectionable custom of the times, always went together. 'Thus,' says his enemy, Bishop Burnet, 'he was promoted and rewarded for all the flame he had raised in our church.' As a debater and public speaker he had long held the highest rank among the representatives of the clergy in convocation, and he soon became almost as prominent a figure in the House of Lords. ”

“ Bishop Burnet, in the History of his own Times, says of the year 1680, (and his words are true of the times just before) , "I was indeed amazed at the labours and learning of the ministers among the Reformed. They understood the Scriptures well in the original tongues, they had all the points of controversy very ready, and did thoroughly understand the whole body of divinity. In many places they preached every day, and were almost constantly employed in visiting their flock. ”

“ Bishop Burnet observes, that she lived the longest, on the most public scene, and made the greatest figure in all the revolutions of these kingdoms for above fifty years, of any woman of that age. That she employed it all in doing good to others, in which she laid out her time, her interest, and her estate, with the greatest zeal, and the most success, that he had ever known. She was indefatigable, as well as dexterous in it; and as her great understanding, and the vast esteem she was in, made all persons in their turns of fortune, desire and value her ”

“ He died at the age of fifty-two, in 1724. “He was,” says Bishop Burnet, “a bold, insolent man, with a very small measure of religion, virtue, learning, or good sense; but he forced himself into popularity and preferment by the most petulant railings at Dissenters and Low Churchmen!” Daniel Defoe says of him, “Bear-garden language is his peculiar talent. He is known in his books as a pulpit incendiary; the Church’s bloody standard-bearer; the trumpeter sent out by High Church authority to preach against union, to proclaim open war between parties, and to hang out flags of defiance.” ”

“ His shocking treatment was long remembered as one of the worst crimes committed by the Stuart administration in Scotland. Bishop Burnet, who was his cousin, describes him as “in the presbyterian principles but ... a man of great piety and virtue, learned in the law, in mathematics and in languages.” ”

“ An intended speech had to go undelivered, Thus, says Bishop Burnet, 'A learned and worthy gentleman, after twenty months' hard usage, was brought to such a death, in a way so foul, in all the steps of it of the spirit and practice of the courts of the Inquisition, that one is tempted to think that the methods taken in it were suggested by one well studied if not fostered in them.' The illustrious nonconformist divine Dr. ”

“ The character of Burnet, written by the Marquis of Halifax, and given by that nobleman himself to the Bishop, portrays with much delicacy of touch, and probably in not too severe a light, both the brilliant parts and the strong shadows of Burnet’s mind: it brings to view the singleness of heart, the impetuosity of temper, the quickness 198to be offended, the readiness to forgive, the disinterestedness, the christian heroism, which were offensive to lesser men, from the high example which they presented, and which could not, without inconvenience to more selfish minds, be imitated. ”

“ He was consecrated to the see of Salisbury on the 31st of March 1689 by a commission of bishops to whom Archbishop Sancroft had delegated his authority, declining personally to perform the office. In his pastoral letter to his clergy urging them to take the oath of allegiance, Burnet grounded the claim of William and Mary on the right of conquest, a view which gave such offence that the pamphlet was burnt by the common hangman three years later. As bishop he proved an excellent administrator, and gave the closest attention to his pastoral duties. ”

“ Yet Dartmouth wrote, 'I do not think he designedly published anything he believed to be false.' At a later period, Dartmouth, provoked by some remarks on himself in the second volume of the Bishop's history, retracted this praise; but to such a retraction little importance can be attached. Even Swift has the justice to say, 'After all he was a man of generosity and good nature.'"—Short Remarks on Bishop Burnet's History.
"It is usual to censure Burnet as a singularly inaccurate historian; but I believe the charge to be altogether unjust. ”

“ Excessive love of preferment, and culpable inactivity in performing the duties of their office, are the worst accusations that are brought against them as a body. Even men like Lord Hervey, and Horace Walpole and Lord Chesterfield rarely bring, and still more rarely substantiate, any charges against them on this head. Speaking of the shortcomings of the clergy in the early part of the century, Bishop Burnet, who does not spare his order, carefully guards against the supposition that he accuses them of leading immoral lives. ”

“ Bishop Burnet, who attended him on his deathbed, believed him to have been sincerely repentant. In addition to his short pieces he wrote a Satyr against Mankind, and a tragedy, Valentinian, adapted from Beaumont and Fletcher. ”

“ Dr. Douglas, talking of Burnet, mentioned that several of his characters were softened down by his son the judge, chiefly by omissions. The person who had been employed as amanuensis, a clergyman I believe of Salisbury, was not faithful to his trust, and some of these omissions appeared afterwards in a pamphlet which the Bishop possesses. He has some more in manuscript which are not in that pamphlet.
“Burnet, he said, was extremely passionate and violent in his resentments. He piqued himself on preaching without book. Some of his sermons, however, are in print. ”

“ Burnet's esteem for him is further confirmed by an adversary, the author of a pamphlet entitled ‘The Salisbury Quarrel Ended’ [1710] , relating to some local squabbles, in which whatever the high church party thought obnoxious in Burnet's conduct was attributed to the influence of his chaplain. He was also attacked for his friendship with Chubb by pamphleteers on the controversies provoked by the latter. In 1717 Lord King, then chief justice of the common pleas, presented him to the rectory of Ockham in Surrey; and in 1727 he was consecrated bishop of Leighlin and Ferns. ”

“ Upon this he fearlessly embarked, and, guiding it by means of his curling-brush, he soon reached the iceberg to which Susan Hamilton was clinging. Having prevailed upon her to leap down into his arms, he placed her carefully on board his icy raft, and then steered back towards the shore, where by this time [Pg 172] a few of the villagers, including the child’s father, were collected. He was so fortunate as to return in safety, and had the satisfaction—which Bishop Burnet considered to be the greatest on earth—of rendering a man truly happy. ”

“ The patrons, in most cases, had allowed their rights to devolve upon the bishops; and thus the whole undivided obloquy rested on their consecrated heads, which was not lessened when some of the careless or profane heritors, to ingratiate themselves with the rulers, feasted the clergy at their settlements, and, aping the loyalty of their superiors, conducted their entertainments with an equally jovial disregard of decency and temperance.
31. Bishop Burnet, himself an Episcopalian, thus characterizes them:—“They were the worst preachers I ever heard. They were ignorant to a reproach ”

“ It was moved that the Pastoral Letter should be burned by the common hangman. A long and vehement debate followed. For Burnet was a man warmly loved as well as warmly hated. The great majority of the Whigs stood firmly by him; and his goodnature and generosity had made him friends even among the Tories. The contest lasted two days. Montague and Finch, men of widely different opinions, appear to have been foremost among the Bishop's champions. ”

“ If the habit of drinking to excess prevailed in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century to the extent represented, may not the expression have arisen from that circumstance, and been equivalent to the contempt which is usually entertained for the loose or imperfect statements made by a tipsy or drunken man?
When quoting opinions upon Burnet, we must not forget the brief but pregnant character which Burke has given of the Bishop's History of his Own Times. In his admirable speech at Bristol, previous to the election if 1780, Burke says, "Look into the History of Bishop Burnet ”

“ Burnet, bishop of Sarum, a lady of an uncommon degree of knowledge, and whose Method of Devotion, which passed through several editions, is a proof of her exemplary piety, and who, as well as that prelate, honoured our author with a particular friendship, notwithstanding the difference of her religion, being informed that she was engaged in writing, and that it was not poetry, was desirous to know the subject. ”

“ In 1664 he joined with Nairne in a protest against his diocesan's deposing a minister without the consent of his synod; and in 1669, when the Scottish bishops were coerced into voting for a very Erastian act of supremacy, Charteris was 'one of the episcopal clergy who thought,' says Burnet, 'that it made the king our pope.' Nor in spite of strong pressure from his friend Leighton, now bishop of Dunblane, would he accept a bishopric. ”

“ Deprived of this office also on 16 Oct. 1678, he died on 27 Nov. 1679, and was buried in the church of Dalmeny, in which parish the estate of Bambougle or Dalmeny, purchased by him from the Earl of Haddington in 1662, is situated. Bishop Burnet, a contemporary though not unprejudiced witness, has drawn his character with some justice: ‘He was a dexterous man in business. He had always expedients ready at every difficulty. ... ”

“ Preface (sign. a 2) to Life of Aylmer, 1701, 8vo. Burnet thus describes his fine library when he was Bishop of Ely. "This noble record was lent me by my reverend and learned brother, Dr. More, Bishop of Ely, who has gathered together a most valuable treasure, both of printed books and manuscripts, beyond what one can think that the life and labour of one man could have compassed; and which he is as ready to communicate, as he has been careful to collect it." ”

“ See Burnet, Vol. I. pp. 220, 221: Vol. III. p. 135; and Lord Herbert. Du Bellay's brother, the author of the memoirs, says that the king, at the bishop's entreaty, promised that if the pope would delay sentence, and send "judges to hear the matter, he would himself forbear to do what he proposed to do,"—that is, separate wholly from the See of Rome. If this is true, the sending "judges" must allude to the "sending them to Cambray," which had been proposed at Marseilles.
[256] See the letter of the Bishop of Bayonne, dated March 23, in Legrand. A paraphrase is given by Burnet, Vol. III. p. ”

“ Burnet is the Bishop Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715) who was so strongly anti-Romanistic that he left England during the reign of James II and joined the ranks of the Prince of Orange. William made him bishop of Salisbury.
[191] There is some substantial basis for De Morgan's doubts as to the connection of that mirandula of his age, Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665) , with the famous poudre de sympathie. It is true that he was just the one to prepare such a powder. A dilletante in everything,—learning, war, diplomacy, religion, letters, and science—he was the one to exploit a fraud of this nature. ”

“ Which ended, my Lord Cardinal went home to dinner with all the other prelates."
The Bishop of Rochester was, of course, Fisher. He was both learned and pious. Burnet says he strongly disliked Wolsey, because of the latter's notoriously immoral life. Fisher, though in his unflinching conservatism he regarded the proceedings of Luther with hostility, was anxious, as were More and Erasmus and Colet, for reformation on Catholic lines. He, like them, favoured the new learning, and even declared that the Continental reformers had brought much light to bear upon religion. ”

“ Wariston was an abominable dog.
P. 135. Burnet, of Bishop Leightoun's character:—The grace and gravity of his pronunciation was such, that few heard him without a very sensible emotion. ... His style was rather too fine.—Swift. Burnet is not guilty of that.
P. 140. Burnet. Leightoun did not stand much upon it. He did not think orders given without bishops were null and void. He thought, the forms of government were not settled by such positive laws as were unalterable; but only by apostolical practices, which, as he thought, authorized Episcopacy as the best form. ”