eyes and lamentable voices they cried, saying one to another, Ah, good Lord! there goeth our good shepherd from us, who so faithfully hath taught us, so fatherly hath cared for us, and so godly hath governed us. O merciful God! what shall we poor scattered lambs do? What shall come of this most wicked world? Good Lord, strengthen him and comfort him," with such other most lamentable and piteous voices. Wherefore the people were sore rebuked by the sheriff and the catchpoles his men, that led him. And Dr. Taylor evermore

The defcription of Smythfielde witn the order and maner

of certayne of the Councell, fytting there at the

burnyng of Anne Afkewe and Lacets with the others.

said to the people, "I have preached to you God's word and truth, and am come this day to seal it with my blood."

A little before his death, certain there were of his familiar acquaintance and friends, who frequented his company more familiarly, who seemed not a little to be confirmed both by the example of his constancy and by his talk; yet notwithstanding, the same again, being feared with the sharpness of the punishment which he was going to, privily desired that in the midst of the flames, he would show them, if he could, some token whereby they might be the more certain whether the pain of such burning were so great that a man might not therein keep his mind quiet and patient. Which thing he promised them to do, and so, secretly between them, it was agreed that if the rage of the pain were tolerable and might be suffered, then he should lift up his hands

FOXE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

75

above his head towards heaven before he gave up the ghost. Not long after, when the hour was come, Thomas Haukes was led away to the place appointed for the slaughter, by the Lord Riche and his assistants, who, being now come unto the stake, mildly and patiently addressed himself to the fire, having a strait chain cast about his middle, with no small multitude of people on every side compassing him about: unto whom after he had spoken many things, especially unto the Lord Riche, reasoning with him of the innocent blood of the saints; at length after his fervent prayers first made and poured out unto God, the fire was set unto him. In the which when he continued long, and when his speech was taken away by violence of the flame, his skin also drawn together, and his fingers consumed with the fire, so that now all men thought certainly that he had been gone, suddenly, and contrary to all expectation, the blessed servant of God, being mindful of his promise afore made, reached up his hands burning on a light fire, which was marvellous to behold, over his head to the living God, and with great rejoicing, as it seemed, struck or clapped them three times together. At the sight whereof here followed such applause and outcry of the people, and especially of them which understood the matter, that the like hath not commonly been heard, and you would have thought heaven and earth to have come togethe. And so the blessed man, martyr of Christ, straightway sinking down into the fire, gave up his spirit, A.D. 1555, June 10. And thus have you plainly and expressly described unto you the whole story as well of the life as of the death of Thomas Haukes, a most constant and faithful witness of Christ's holy gospel.

Besides its other claims to notice, Foxe's book is remarkable as, with the exception of Hooker's, the one theological work of the age which has a place in literature. In scarcely any other period of our history has religious controversy aroused more interest, or the proportion of theological publications been so considerable; but the controversialists were too strictly professional, and sermons and devotional works fell below the level of literature. Bishop Jewel's Apologia pro Ecclesia Anglicana was indeed a great work, but as the gainsayers wrote in Latin, the apologist must imitate them, and the translation, by Lady Bacon, mother of the Chancellor, failed to obtain the classical position in English literature which the original had acquired in divinity. The theological unrest, nevertheless, was indirectly of great service to literature by the spirit of keen inquiry which it fostered and the patriotic scorn of Roman pretensions which inspires sɔ much of our contemporary literature, and finds poetical expression in Shakespeare's King John. It has been well said that Pope Pius V.'s deposition of Elizabeth in 1570 signalises the liberation of the English mind in every department of the intellectual life. A very few years previously the ecclesiastical authorities had issued. a thanksgiving for the relief of Malta, without a word to indicate consciousness of any difference between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Churches of the Continent, but after Pius's ill-advised step, promptly followed by Babington's conspiracy and the St. Bartholomew, nothing of the kind is to be found. It could not be supposed, however, that the spirit of inquiry would be satisfied with the repudiation of Papal pretensions. Ere long, the conflict between Anglican and Puritan became still more lively, penetrating every university college, and producing shoals of Marprelate tracts and similar scurrilities, far below literary rank, yet not unimportant as preludes to the free newspaper press of later generations. The publication abroad

Foxe and the
Church of
England

William Camden

of Roman Catholic writings, especially by Cardinal Allen and the Jesuit Parsons, contributed towards the same end. On the whole, however, the divines of the sixteenth century, except in zeal and erudition, rank below their successors of the next age. Archbishop MATTHEW PARKER (1504-1575) is, indeed, entitled to the highest praise as the munificent and enlightened patron of learning, the principal agent in the production of the Bishops' Bible, and the preserver of much Anglo-Saxon and other ancient literature; but his chief work, De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ et Privilegiis Ecclesiæ Cantuariensis, is in Latin. Nor were the departments of literature most nearly allied to theology fertile in eminent writers. RICHARD MULCASTER, successively headmaster of Merchant Taylors' and of St. Paul's (1530?-1611), was probably a better practical educationist than Roger Ascham, but ranks much lower as an author.

As a rule, an author whose works have been originally composed in Latin, and subsequently rendered into English, cannot claim to be accounted an English author, unless the translation has been made by himself. We have had, nevertheless, to recognise exceptions to this rule in Mandeville and Sir Thomas More, and a third and hardly less important one must be made. in the person of WILLIAM CAMDEN, whose Britannia and Annals, though written in Latin, are so intersely English in spirit that the question of language becomes of minor importance. There is, moreover, reason to believe that the translation of the former by Philemon Holland, though not Camden's own, was made under his direction. It is, at all events, certain that Camden's work as a topographer was more important than that which had gained an honourable place in literature for his predecessor Leland; and that he was the first English historian of contemporary events who rose above the grade of a chronicler.

Camden's life was that of a schoolmaster and an antiquary. He was born in London on May 2, 1551; his father, a native of Lichfield, is described as a painter, but seems to have followed his profession rather as a trade than as an art. Camden was educated at Christ's Hospital and at St. Paul's School, and seems to have been helped through Oxford partly by friends, partly as a servitor or chorister at Magdalen College. He afterwards studied at Pembroke and Christ Church, but did not obtain a degree. Even then he showed a strong inclination to antiquarian pursuits, in which he was encouraged by a fellow student at Christ Church, Philip Sidney. After leaving the University he travelled much through the country, collecting antiquarian particulars, but his means of support seem obscure until, in 1575, he was appointed assistant-master at Westminster School. He became headmaster in 1593, but in 1597 retired upon being appointed Clarenceux King-of-Arms, which seems to have been considered the higher dignity, and was certainly more congenial to one who had spent all his holiday time in antiquarian journeys. He, nevertheless, distinguished himself as a schoolmaster by the production of a Greek grammar, which continued in use at Westminster for more than two centuries. The first edition of his Britannia had been published in 1586, the last published in his lifetime appeared in 1607. His other great work,

the Annals of the reign of Elizabeth, was published down to 1589 in 1615; the second part, completing the book, did not appear till after the author's death. Both these great works were in Latin, but translations were speedily provided, and the former has had three, the standard version by Gough, with copious additions, appearing in 1789. Camden also collected the epitaphs in Westminster Abbey, edited Asser and other ancient historians, and performed much other antiquarian work. In personal character he was gentle, simple, and unworldly, and his industry was prodigious. In his latter years he resided principally at

Chislehurst, where he died on November 9, 1623. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Of Camden's two chief works, the Britannia belongs to the class of monumental achievements which form great literary landmarks without being in themselves literature. Continuing the succession of Leland, it marks the definitive acceptance of antiquarianism as a branch of culture, while its own spirit is rather scientific than literary. The essence of literary grace is tasteful selection, but the topographer must be exhaustive. Pausanias probably provided but dry

reading for his own age: if it be otherwise now, it is from the consciousness that so much of what he saw can never be seen again. The piety of Pausanias was piety in the strictest sense of the term: Camden treads in the vestiges, not of the gods, but of the historians. "My first and principal design," he says, "was to trace out and rescue from obscurity those places which had been mentioned by Cæsar, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Antoninus Augustus, the Notitia Provinciarum, and other ancient writers." He also confined himself to the most illustrious families, thus incurring the displeasure of upstarts. Altogether, he left so much untold that his translator, Gough, spent seven years in rendering and supplementing him, and nine more in seeing him through the press. Gough's additions are frequently more interesting than the text, but want the charm of Camden's stately diction, a legacy from the original Latin.

It has rarely happened that a book of worth, not lost or grievously

Camden's
"Britannia"