the death of the abbot, he was declared his successor. Here he experienced many vexations from some of the bishops, against whom he asserted the rights of the monastic order. His enemies charged him with some acrimony against his persecutors. In his justification, he wrote an apology, which he addressed to the kings Hugh and Robert. Some time afterwards he dedicated to the same princes a collection of canons on the duties of kings and the duties of subjects. King Robert, having sent him to Rome to appease the wrath of Gregory V. who had threatened to lay the kingdom under an interdict, the pope granted him all he requested. Abbo, on his return from this expedition, set about the reform of the abbey of Reole in Gascony. He was here slain in a quarrel that rose between the French and the Gascons, in 1004. His works are: 1. "Epitome de vitis Pontificum," taken from Anastasius Bibliothecarius, and published with an edition of that author by Busæus, Mentz, 1602, 4to. 2. "Vita S. Edmundi Anglorum Orientalium regis & martyris," printed in Surius' Lives of the Saints. There is a MS. of it in the Cottonian Library. 3. "Collectio, seu epitome Canonum," printed by Mabillon. 4. "Epistola ad abbatem Fuldensem," in Baluze's Miscellanies, 1678, 8vo. 5. "Letters to Hugh, king of France, to St. Bernard, Gregory," &c. and his Apology, are inserted whole, or in fragments, in his Life by Aimonius, a monk of Fleuri, and his pupil'. ABBOT (GEORGE), archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Guildford, in Surrey, Oct. 29, 1562, the son of Maurice Abbot, a clothworker in that town, and Alice March, who, having been sufferers by the persecution in queen Mary's reign, educated their children in a steady zeal for the Protestant religion. George * was sent, with his elder brother Robert, to the free-school of Guildford, where he was educated under Mr. Francis Taylor, and in 1578 was entered of Baliol college, Oxford. On April 31, 1582, he took the degree of bachelor of arts, and Nov. 29, 1583, was elected probationer fellow of his college. After taking his master's degree, Dec. 17, 1585, he entered into holy orders, became a celebrated preacher in the University, and was sometime chaplain to Thomas lord Buckhurst. In 1593, March 4, he commenced bachelor of divinity, and proceeded doctor of that faculty May 9, 1597. On September 6 he was elected master of University college, to which he afterwards proved a benefactor. About this time some differences took place between him and Dr. Laud, which subsisted as long as they lived. * Aubrey, in his Antiquities of Surrey, has a ridiculous story, that when Mrs. Abbot was pregnant with this son, she dreamt that if she could eat a jack, or pike, the child would prove a son, and rise to great preferment. She did catch a jack, "and had thus an odd opportunity of fulfilling her dream." Aubrey's Surrey, vol. III. p. 281. Cave Hist. Lit. vol. II.-Vossius. Fabricius Bibl. Gr. & Lat, Saxii Ono mast. Dict. Hist. 1810. Gen. Dict. In 1598 he published his "Quæstiones Sex," which obtained him great reputation. On March 6, 1599, he was installed dean of Winchester, and in 1600 was appointed vice-chancellor of Oxford, and while in this office decided a dispute which at that time engaged the attention of the public, respecting the repairing of the cross in Cheapside, which was ornamented with Popish images. The citizens of London requested the advice of both Universities; and Dr. Abbot, as vice-chancellor of Oxford, gave as his opinion, that the crucifix with the dove upon it should not be put up again. Dr. Bancroft, bishop of London, was of a different opinion; but Dr. Abbot's advice was followed, as expressed in a letter printed many years after. He published, the same year, his Sermons on the Prophet Jonah. In 1693 he was again chosen vice-chancellor; and in 1604, when king James ordered the new translation of the Bible, he was one of the eight divines of Oxford to whom the translation of the historical books of the New Testament was committed. In 1605 he was a third time vice-chancellor; and, in the succeeding year, he is thought to have had some share in the censures passed on Laud, on account of a sermon he preached before the University. The principles of the two men were continually at variance, Abbot being a rigid Calvinist, and a foe to every thing that had the appearance of Popery, and Laud equally strenuous for the opinions afterwards known by the name of Arminian, and a friend to the ceremonies and splendour of public worship. In 1608, on the death of his patron, lord Buckhurst, earl of Dorset, he became chaplain to George Hume, earl of Dunbar, and treasurer of Scotland; and went home with him, in order to establish an union between the Churches of England and Scotland. King James's object was to restore the antient form of government by bishops; and, notwithstanding the aversion of the people of Scotland to this measure, Dr. Abbot's skill, prudence, and moderation succeeded so far as to procure an act of the General Assembly, which was afterwards ratified and confirmed by the Parliament of Scotland. By this it was enacted, that the king should have the calling of all General Assemblies; that the bishops or their deputies should be perpetual moderators of the diocesan synods; that no excommunication or absolution should be pronounced without their approbation; that all presentations of benefices should be made by them, and that the deprivation or suspension of ministers should belong to them; that every minister, at his admission to a benefice, should take the oath of supremacy, and canonical obedience; that the visitation of the diocese should be performed by the bishop or his deputy only; and finally, that the bishop should be moderator of all conventions for exercisings or prophesyings, which should be held within their bounds. This service advanced Dr. Abbot's character very high in the opinion of king James, and an incidental affair about this time brought him yet more into favour. While he was at Edinburgh, a prosecution was commenced against one George Sprot, notary of Aymouth, for having been concerned in Gowrie's conspiracy eight years before, for which he was now tried before sir William Hart, lord justice general of Scotland, and condemned and executed. A long account of the affair was drawn up by the judge, and a narrative prefixed by Dr. Abbot unfolding the precise nature of the conspiracy, about the reality of which doubts had previously been entertained, and perhaps were afterwards. Dr. Robertson and Guthrie, however, are both persuaded of the authenticity of the generally-received account. Soon after this, the king being engaged in the mediation of peace between the crown of Spain and the United Provinces, by which the sovereignty of the latter was to be acknowledged by the former, he demanded the advice of the convocation then sitting, as to the lawfulness of espousing the cause of the States; but, instead of a direct answer, the members entered upon a wide field of discussion, which excited new jealousies and apprehensions. On this occasion the king wrote a confidential letter to Abbot, reflecting on the convocation for not being more explicit in their answer to his question, "how far a Christian and a Protestant king may concur to assist his neighbours to shake off their obedience to their own sovereign *?" It * This curious letter was first published during the dispute between dean Sherlock and his adversaries on bis taking the oaths to king William, in VOL. I. C 1 does not appear what effect this letter produced; but Dr. Abbot now stood so high in his majesty's favour, that on the death of Dr. Overton, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, he promoted him to the vacant see, May 27, 1609, and he was consecrated Dec. 3. Before he had held this above a month, he was translated to the bishoprick of London, and confirmed Jan. 20, 1609-10. During the short time that he held the bishoprick of London, he distinguished himself by the diligent performance of his function, and by frequent preaching, and patronizing learning and learned inen. In private life he was equally noted for ardent piety, generosity, and gentleness of manners. the New Observer, vol. III. No. 12, the author of which tells us, the original is in the hands of an eminent person; the four last lines in the king's own hand, and the rest in the secretary's: "Good Dr. Abbot, "I cannot abstain to give you my judgment on the proceedings in the convocation, as you will call it; and both as rex in solio, and unus gregis in ecclesia, I am doubly concerned. My title to the crown nobody calls in question, but they that love neither you nor me, and you may guess whom I mean: all that you and your brethren have said of a king in possession (for that word, I tell you, is no more than that you make use of in your canon) concerns not me at all. I am the next heir, and the crown is mine by all rights you can name, but that of conquest; and Mr. Solicitor has sufficiently expressed my own thoughts concerning the nature of kingship, and concerning the nature of it ut in mea persona; and I believe you were all of his opinion; at least, none of you said any thing contrary to it at the time he spoke to you from me: but you know all of you, as I think, that my reason of calling you together was to give your judgments how far a Christian and a Protestant king may concur to assist his neighbours to shake off their obedience to their own sovereign, upon account of oppression, tyranny, or what else you please to name it. In the late queen's time, this kingdom was very free in assisting the Hollanders both with arms and advice; and none of your coat ever told me that any scrupled at it in her reign. Upon my coming to England, you may know that it came from some of yourselves to raise scruples about this matter; and albeit I have often told my mind concerning jus regium in subditos, as in May last, in the star-chamber, upon the occasion of Hale's pamphlet; yet I never took any notice of these scruples, till the affairs of Spain and Holland forced me to it. All my neighbours call on me to concur in the treaty between Holland and Spain; and the honour of the nation will not suffer the Hollanders to be abandoned, especially after so much money and men spent in their quarrel; therefore I was of the mind to call my clergy together, to satisfy not so much me, as the world about us, of the justness of my owning the Hollanders at this time. This I needed not to have done, and you have forced me to say, I wish I had not; you have dipped too deep in what all kings reserve among the arcana imperii; and whatever aversion you may profess against God's being the author of sin, you have stumbled upon the threshold of that opinion, in saying upon the matter, that even tyranny is God's authority, and should be remembered as such. If the king of Spain should return to claim his old pontifical right to my kingdom, you leave me to seek for others to fight for it; for you tell us upon the matter beforehand, his authority is God's authority if he prevail. "Mr. Doctor, I have no time to express my mind further on this theory business; I shall give you my orders about it by Mr. Solicitor, and until then, meddle no more in it; for they are edge tools, or rather like that weapon that is said to cut with one edge, and cure with the other. I commit you to God's protection, good Dr. Abbot, and rest your good friend, JAMES R." In the following year he was preferred to the see of Canterbury, and confirmed April 9, and on the 23d of June he was sworn of his majesty's most honourable privycouncil. At this time he was in the highest favour both with prince and people, and appears to have taken an active part in all the great transactions in church and state. Although not thought excessively fond of power, or desirous of carrying his prerogative, as primate of England, to an extraordinary height, yet he was resolute in maintaining the rights of the high commission court, and would not submit to lord Coke's prohibitions. In the case of Vorstius, his conduct was more singular. Vorstius had been appointed to a professorship in the university of Leyden, and was a noted Arminian. King James, by our archbishop's advice, remonstrated with the States on this appointment; and the consequence was that Vorstius was banished by the synod of Dort, as will appear more at length in his life. This conduct on the part of the archbishop alarmed those who were favourers of Arminianism, and who dreaded Calvinism from its supposed influence on the security of the church; but their fears as far as he was concerned appear to have been groundless, his attachment to the church of England remaining firm and uniform. He had soon, however, another opportunity of testifying his dislike of the Arminian doctrines. The zeal which the king had shewn for removing, first Arminius, and then Vorstius, had given their favourers in Holland so much uneasiness, that the celebrated Grotius, the great champion of their cause, was sent over to England to endeavour to mitigate the King's displeasure, and, if possible, to give him a better opinion of the Remonstrants, as they then began to be called. On this occasion the archbishop wrote an account of Grotius and his negociation in a letter to sir Ralph Winwood, in which he treats Grotius with very little ceremony. For this he has met with an advocate in archdeacon Blackburn, who, in his Confessional, observes in his behalf, that "his disaffection to Grotius was owing to the endeavours and proposals of the latter, towards a coalition of the Protestants and Papists, which every wise and consistent Protestant, in every period since the Reformation, as well as Abbot, has considered as a snare, and treated accordingly." c2 |