At the end of December, 1650, we meet with Fuller in attendance at the death-bed in the Heralds' Office of an intimate friend-perhaps a college acquaintance-Mr. EDWARD NORGATE, "a right honest man." There are some lines upon him, as Clerk of the Signet to the King, in Herrick's Hesperides. Among other employments Norgate used to insert the initial letters in the patents of peers, &c. Fuller called him "the best illuminer or limner of our age." There is a notice of him in the Worthies, whence we gather that he was born at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, being the son of the Master. In early life1 he devinctissimum confiteor" (xi. 181). Fisher's widow was married to William, second son of Lord Mainard.--Jona than Ash, merchant, belonged to a family settled at Freshford, Kent. To another of the same surname, Francis Ash, a rich merchant and a benefactor to Emanuel College, Cambridge, was inscribed sect. viii. of Hist. Camb.--Wm. and Thomas Humble were worthy merchants, the former of whom, afterwards a baronet, supplied Charles II. in exile with £20,000.-Thomas Williams, Esq., was a younger son of Sir Henry Williams, of Gwernevet, and also patronised the Ch.History, where Fuller remarks (iii. 109) that he is not the "happiest man who has the highest friends (too remote to assist him) whilst others lesser might be nearer at his need. My own experience can avouch the truth thereof in relation to your courtesies bestowed upon me." With Williams, Fuller associates William Vanbrug (or Van Brugs), who has also a place in the Plate of Arms. He was the son of a Ghent merchant, who fled to London to escape Alva's persecution.Mr. Peter Matthews, also of Dutch extraction, appears as patron of both works (Ch.-Hist. xi. 197).- -The above are named on the Pisgah Plate. Upon the maps are found the names of Mr. Thomas Bowyer, of Old Jewry (ii. 100), who also liberally patronised Fuller's ChurchHistory-his grandfather preserved Dr. Alexander Nowell when designed for death (Ch.-Hist. viii. 16); of Richard Pigott, citizen (ii. 88); of Leonard Gleane, merchant, a munificent patron (ii. 119); and of William Allot, citizen (ii. 205). In the fourth book the following patrons find places: Mr. Simeon Bonnel, a merchant of London, who is thus pleasantly reminded that he was little of stature (page 1): "Amico meo in re incerta cer tissimo inter minutiores viros (si staturam spectes) sed maximos hujusce operis promotores reponendo, Tabulam hanc dedico." Afterwards, dedicating to him two pages (!) of his Church-History (Bk. i. 15), Fuller, in an epistle of corresponding brevity, says: "It is proportionable to present a century, short in story, to one low in stature, though deservedly high in the estimation of your friend T. F." Mr. Henry Barnard, another London citizen, is described by Fuller as being a most unassuming gentleman "non minus liberae quam Secretae in inopes largitionis." (Pisgah-Sight, iv. 19.) He afterwards removed into Shropshire. "My pen" (says Fuller, in 1655) "is resolved to follow after and find you out: seeing the hand of your bounty hath had so long a reach, let the legs of my gratitude take as large a stride." (Ch.-History, v. 201.)Mr. John Taylor, and Mr. John Taylor, who had the same name, surname, arms, way of life "et prona in me benevolentia, ut huius seculi molesties (quas hæc eremus horrida piis obumbrat) deo duce virtute comite feliciter Superent unice precatur T. F." (Pisgah, iv. 41.) One of these gentlemen was doubtless the churchwarden of Eastcheap, whom we have already met with.--Mr. James Bovey is addressed, as one devoted to literature (Pisgah, iv. 62; Ch.-History, ix. 119). There is an account of one of his name in Aubrey's Letters, ii. 246.-The hospitality of Henry Neville, Esq. (" dum fas fuit et tempora ferebant ") is extolled by Fuller as if he had experienced it. (Pisgah, iv. 74), From the relation of his friend, Fuller tells a story, how Norgate, when sent by the Earl of Arundel to buy pictures in Italy, missed, on his return to Marseilles, the receipt of a sum of money. A Frenchman who saw him daily walking showed a fondness for heraldry, became Bluemantle Pursuivant, and Windsor Herald, to which he was appointed by his patron Thomas, Earl of Arundel. "Exemplary" (says Fuller) "his patience in his sickness (whereof I was an eye-witness), though a complication of diseases, &c. seized upon him." He was buried on Dec. 23rd, at St. Bennet's, Paul's Wharf, a church in which many noblemen and gentlemen worshipped during the Commonwealth, the Rector, Dr. Adams, and the Churchwardens continuing to have the Liturgy constantly used, and the Sacraments administered. "with swift feet and sad face" before the Exchange, asked the cause of his discontent; and having heard it, advised him to put his needless going and coming into progressive motion, and it would bring him to his own country; giving him money for that end. "Norgate very cheerfully consented, and footed it " home. 1 Worthies, § Cambridgeshire, p. 161. CHAPTER XVII. LECTURER AT LONDON. MINOR WORKS. (1651-4). FULLER APPOINTED LECTURER AT ST. CLEMENT'S.-SERMONS ON THE TEMPTA- "Grand is the difference betwixt an hireling whose mind is merely mercenary, and him that works for his hire." (Pisgah-Sight, ii. 277.) T was in part to Fuller's extensive patronage by the London merchants and others that his re-appearance as a City Lecturer must be attributed. The Lecturers came into their employment in consequence of the unsettled condition of the parish churches. Evelyn, in 1650, notes that he wandered to divers of the churches, where he found that the pulpits were "full of novices and novelties." But gradually many of the exiled parish clergy began more openly to re-engage in their calling, there being then less fear of interruption; and they were receiving encouragement from their former hearers. Frequent meetings of the clergy also took place in London to adopt measures for the benefit of the Church. It is related that during Faringdon's forced retirement from "the scholars' church," St. Mary Magdalene's, in Milk Street, a friend, appealing on his behalf to the congregation, said that there had been seen in that church those "who were able to create a temple wheresoever they went; men, each of whom singly and alone made up a full congrega. tion." Other assemblies were also formed in many of the City mansions. The memoir of Dr. George Wilde illustrates the kind of life generally led by the clergy of the time. For some years, says Dr. Mossome, "Wilde hovered, sometimes preaching in the country and sometimes in the City, sometimes in private and sometimes in public, as he found opportunity offered to promote piety and persuade loyalty. At length. . . an house is provided near Fleet Street, in London; and in the house an vπeρov, an upper room is prepared, which upper room becomes an oratory fitted for the preaching of the Word and administering the sacraments, with constant use of the public liturgy of the Church." Among others, Fuller was finally settled in a stated London pulpit. His biographer, alluding to the ministers who again appeared to exercise their vocation, "through the zeal of some right worthy citizens, who hungred after the true and sincere Word from which they had so long been restrained," adds among the chief of whom was our good Doctor, being settled Lecturer for a time at St. Clement's Lane, near Lombard Street, where he preached every Wednesday in the afternoon to a very numerous and Christian audience."1 66 2 Fuller's settlement at ST. CLEMENT'S (which was near Eastcheap rather than in it, being now in St. Clement's Lane, near King William Street) belongs to his second appointment there, his first Lectureship, in 1647, having been interrupted, as described page 411, by an inhibition of "the powers that were." There is nothing to show who then succeeded Fuller; but his place had probably been filled by occasional clergymen, towards the payment for whose ministrations it was ordered at a vestry meeting in October, 1648, that," in the vacancy of a parson, the rent of the parson's house shall be paid, as it is due, towards the payment for preaching during the parishes pleasure.' From the fact that in Spencer's Things New and Old there are five references3 to a sermon or sermons by Fuller, preached at this church in 1650, the conclusion might be drawn that he was even in that year also an occasional Lecturer. The parishioners seem to have made their arrangements with their Lecturers about the autumn of each year; and in the arrangements made in the year now under notice (1651) there is a record in the vestrybock which throws an interesting light upon the relations between Fuller and the parish: "The 5th of September, 1651. Item, Whereas it was then declared that Mr. Thomas Fuller, minister, did resolve, according to his promise, to preach his weekly lec 2 Vestry Book. 1 Life, p. 41. ture in the parish church of St. Clement's: the persons then present did give their free consent (nemine contradicente) that hee should preach, and that the churchwardens should provide candells and other necessaries for the said lecture upon the account of the parish. And that the friends and auditors of the said Mr. Fuller may be accommodated with convenient pewroome, it was then ordered that the present churchwardens should cause to be made two decent and necessary pews of the two seats in the chancell where the youths of the parish doe now sit."1 Fuller's doctor, Baldwin Hamey, who was connected with the church, and to whom Dr. Pearson inscribed encomiastic Latin verses, may have been concerned in this arrangement. He is mentioned in the Worthies as connected with the beautifying or rebuilding of the parochial churches, " amongst which St. Clement's, Eastcheap, is not to be forgotten: the monument of the bounty of Baldwin Hamey, doctor in physic." The "right worshipful and well-beloved" parishioners are commended in the dedication of An Exposition of the Creed, by the celebrated Dr. Pearson, who was Lecturer at the church in the years 1654, 1655, and 1656, he being probably appointed in succession to Fuller. The discourses on the Creed were delivered in the years in question or just subsequently, being printed by Roger Daniel and published in 1659 by John Williams under the above well-known title. The chief discourses preached by Fuller at St. Clement's are his xii. Sermons on the Temptations of Christ. Though these discourses are now little known, they are certainly the most characteristic and finished of his pulpit compositions. They were published in 1652 by a new "stationer," George Eversden. As the best present his condition could then afford, Fuller dedicated the volume to "the truly religious" ISABELLA, the COUNTESS of James the third Earl of NORTHAMPTON, and daughter and co-heiress of Richard Sackville, third Earl of Dorset. The lady had been married at Clerkenwell Church, July 1647, about 1 Archdeacon Churton, who copied the above minute in his Edition of the Minor Theol. Works of Bp. Pearson (p. cxi.), says that this occasional Lecturer was Thomas Fuller "the jester;" adding that the record seemed to imply that his droll, quaint way made him popular. § London, p. 192. 3 66 At a Vestry-meeting the 18th of August, 1654, in the Vestry-house of St. Clement's, Eastcheape: Whereas it was declared that Mr. [John] Pearson, Mr. Hall, and Mr. [Nathanael] Hardy, ministers, would preach a lectuer sermon weekly in the parish church of St. Cle ments, Eastcheape, it was freely consented unto by the persons then present, and that the churchwardens should provide candells and other necessaries for the said lectuer uppon the accompt of the parish." The entries in the following years are similar, Mr. Hardinge's name being added to the others. (Churton's Pearson's Minor Works, pp. cxi. cxii.) |