who had so much regard and esteem for him, (he being a zealous promoter of the Reformation,) that, a little before her death, she gave him a particular charge, to take care of her daughter Elizabeth, that she might not want his pious and wise counsel.

July 14, 1534, he commenced bachelor in divinity; and being presented, Nov. 4 following, by the favour of the queen his mistress, to the deanery of Stoke, near Clare in Suffolk, he was installed the 13th of the same month. At this place he founded a grammar school, and made new statutes for the college. March 1, 1537, after the queen's death, Henry VIII. took him into his own service, and made him one of his chaplains; as he was afterwards to Edward VI. During the rebellion that broke out that year, he preached at Clare, against Popish stiperstitions, for which he was articled against by some of his neighbours; but his own vindication was so satisfactory to the lord chancellor Audley, that he bid him go on, and not fear such enemies. On July, 1538, he was created doctor in divinity; and, October 28, 1541, installed prebendary of the second stall in the cathedral of Ely, having been nominated thereto by Henry VIII. in his new charter for that cathedral. In 1542, he was presented by the chapter of Stoke to the rectory of Ashen, in Essex, conveniently si tuated both for Cambridge and Stoke. He held this living not quite two years, but resigned it April 30, 1544, and the next day was presented to the rectory of Birlingham All Saints, in his own county of Norfolk; which he resigned October 1, 1550. December 4, 1544, upon the king's letters commendatory to the college, dated November 30, he was chosen master of Corpus Christi, or Ben'et College, to which he afterwards became a special benefactor, and compiled for it a new book of statutes. January 25, 1545, he was elected vice-chancellor of the university, which office he discharged afterwards in 1549. Sept. 22, 1545, he was presented by his college of Corpus Christi, to the rectory of Landbeach, in Cambridgeshire, to which he was admitted December 1. Notwithstanding all his endeavours to the contrary, he lost his deanery of Stoke by the dissolution of that college, April 1, 1547; but, in consideration of his merit, he had a yearly pension of forty pounds settled on him, in lieu of it, and a promise of the deanery of Lincoln. In the same year, on June 24, he married Mrs.

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Margaret Harlestone, daughter of Robert Harlestone of Mattishall, in Norfolk, gent. Happening to be in Norfolk, in 1549, during Ket's rebellion, he had the resolution to go to the rebels' camp; and, preaching to them out of the "Oak of Reformation," took an opportunity to exhort them to temperance, moderation, and submission to the king. In January, 1551, he was put into a commission for correcting and punishing some Anabaptists, newly sprung up in the kingdom. The February following, he preached a funeral sermon for Doctor Martin Bucer, regius professor of divinity in Cambridge. June 1, 1552, he was presented by Edward VI. to the prebend of Coringham, or Coldingham, in the cathedral of Lincoln; and being nominated, a few days after, by his majesty, to the deanery of the same church, he was elected July 30, and installed October 7 following.

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Thus he lived in great reputation under Henry VIII. and Edward VI. But, upon Mary's coming to the crown, he was reduced to low circumstances, and suffered much; though still contented and chearful: for, in the second year of her reign, he was deprived of all preferments, of which pretence was his being married. According to his own account, "In December, 1553, he resigned his mastership of Corpus Christi College to Laurence Moptye, whom in a kind of necessity he chose his successor, April 2, 1554, he was deprived of his prebend of Ely, and rectory of Landbeach, May 21, so he was of his deanery and prebend of Lincoln." "After that, (adds he) I lived privately; so joyful in my conscience before God; and so neither ashamed nor dejected, that the inost sweet leisure for study, to which the good providence of God recalled me, gave me much greater and more solid pleasures, than that former busy and dangerous kind of life ever afforded me." He had so heartily espoused the Reformation, which rendered him noxious, that he was fain to abscond, and to retire privately into Norfolk, among his friends, with his wife and family. He was often and diligently sought for, yet by shifting from place to place, without, however, going out of the kingdom, he escaped those bloody times, and was reserved for better days. One time, narrow search being made in order to take him; he receiving notice of it, fled in the night in great distress, and got so dangerous a fall from his horse, that he never recovered it. During this retirement,

he turned the book of Psalms into English verse; and wrote a defence of the marriage of priests. Queen Elizabeth's accession, in 1559, made a great change in his condition; for, he not only became free from all fear and danger, but was exalted to the highest station in the English church, to the archbishopric of Canterbury. A station for which he was looked upon as the fittest man; his great prudence, courage, conduct, learning, and experience, being wanting and necessary, for the Reformation that was now to be set on foot, and carried on with the utmost vigour. He was so far from seeking that high dignity, that it seems he earnestly avoided it. In the mean time, he was appointed one of the visitors of the university of Cambridge. And he privately addressed the queen, to dissuade her from ex changing the temporal revenues of bishoprics for impropriations, as she was impowered to do by act of parliament, upon a vacancy; which was a very unequal exchange. He likewise advised her to remove crucifixes and lighted tapers out of churches, particularly out of her own chapel.

Having been elected archbishop, August, 1, 1559, by the dean and chapter of Canterbury, he was confirmed, December 9, in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow; and conse crated, the 17th of the same month, in Lambeth Chapel, by William Barlow, late bishop of Bath and Wells, and then elect of Chichester, John Scory, late bishop of Chichester, and then elect of Hereford, Miles Coverdale late bishop of Exeter, and John Hodgkin suffragan bishop of Bedford. Archbishop Parker being thus constituted primate and me tropolitan of the church of England, took care to have the several sees filled with learned and worthy men, and well affected to the Reformation: and soon after performed his metropolitical visitation of the several dioceses*.

In 1560, he and the bishops of London and Ely addressed the queen, to enter into the blessed state of wedlock; but she chose to reign alone. He likewise, and some other bishops, exhorted her to remove images entirely out of churches, which she inclined to retain. By his encourage ment it was, that a free school was founded, in 1563, at

It has been observed, that in the space of fifteen years and five months (during which he was metropolitan) he either consecrated or confirmed the bishops of all the dioceses throughout the kingdom: a circumstance, which has occurred to him alone of all the archbishops of Canterbury.

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Sandwich in Kent; and he likewise recovered the stipend of the schoolmaster of Stoke, near Clare. In 1564 he completed the reparation and building of his palace at Canterbury, the expence whereof amounted to above one thousand four hundred pounds; and, about the same time, founded a free school at Rochdale, in Lancashire. One of his principal endeavours, was to introduce into this church an uni formity both in habits and ceremonies; but he met therein with great opposition. June 24, 1567, he founded three grammar scholarships, or exhibitions, in Ben'et College. And again, in May, 1569, he founded five more scholarships; and, the August following, two other scholarships, and two fellowships, in the same college. And, in July 1568, obtained also of the queen, for that college, the advowson of St. Mary, Abchurch, in London; for which he gave in exchange the rectory of Penshurst, in Kent. This last mentioned year, came out the great English Bible, commonly called "The Bishops' Bible;" which was put out chiefly through the archbishop's procurement and care

In 1570, he repaired the great hall at Lambeth, covering it with shingles; and made the long bridge into the Thames near the palace. He also made the regent walk, leading from the west of St. Mary's Church, in Cambridge, to the public schools, paving it, and building a brick wall on each side. In 1571, he gave handsome presents of plate, and other benefactions, to several colleges in that university, and in particular founded one scholarship in Trinity Hall, for the study of the law. Sept. 7, 1573, he magnificently

His heart was much set upon this great work, from the many defects which appeared in the Bibles then in use. He was the great spring which set this business in motion. He distributed the book in parts to several learned bishops and other divines, and revised the whole for the press. Edwin Sandys, then bishop of Worcester; Guest, bishop of Rochester, who had the Psalms; Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich; Davies, bishop of St. David's, Cox, bishop of Ely; and other eminent men; were employed in this translation. Strype says, “So highly pleased was this good prelate, when he saw an end put to this great work, that he seemed to be in the same spirit with old Simeon, using his very words, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation!" This was that which was commonly the Bishops' Bible, because the archbishops and the bishops had the chief hand in correcting, reviewing, and publishing it. Lawrence, a man very famous for his knowledge in Greek, had the care of the New Testament. The second edition of this Bible was published in 1572, much improved and embellished.

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entertained queen Elizabeth at Canterbury, as he had en tertained her several times before. Taking umbrage at the prophesyings set up in several dioceses, particularly in that of Norwich, he endeavoured to suppress them, which exposed him to censures from some warm Puritans. Towards the end of 1574, he gave a hundred volumes to the library of Cambridge; whereof twenty-five were valuable manuscripts; and added further benefactions to his favourite college of Corpus Christi. At length being arrived to the seventy-second year of his age, and finding himself in a declining condition, April 5, 1575, he signed his will, wherein he bequeathed legacies and gifts to several persons and places. He died May 17 following, of the stone and stranguary; and was buried with great solemnity, in his own private chapel, within his palace at Lambeth.

His magnificent, as well a generous and charitable disposition, is sufficiently manifest from what hath been said. As to his other virtues; he was pious, sober, temperate: modest even to a fault, being upon many occasions over bashful; immoveable in the distribution of justice; a great patron, and zealous defender, of the church of England; in which he acted with great resolution, it being his rule "in a good cause to fear no body;" notwithstanding he is for that censured by some, as having too much roughness. Among his other valuable episcopal qualities, he was a frequent preacher; and given to hospitality without profusion or offence; his family and entertainments, though large, being conducted with the utmost decency, elegance, reguJarity, and sobriety. Of his learning, the several books published by him are a sufficient evidence. Particularly, he was a great lover and preserver of manuscripts, and other antiquities; and a hearty encourager, if not the first reviver, of the study of the Saxon tongue in this kingdom. He recovered many books in that language, which would otherwise have been inevitably lost; and some of them were published by himself, or by his direction. The best antiquarians in his time, had the honour of standing in the number of his most intimate friends and acquaintance.

His works were as follow: 1. "A Defence of Priests' Marriages, established by the Imperial Lawes of the Realm of England: against a Civilian naming himself Thomas Martin, Doctor of the Civil Laws, going about to disprove the said Marriages lawful by the eterual Word of God, and by the High

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