Nov. 20. 1852.J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



489 



and not for King James. " Even James II.," &c. 

 would naturally suggest a very opposite idea. 



Lord Rochester, the pupil, friend, and patron of 

 South, who was the brother of Lord Clarendon, 

 the brother-in-law of King James II., the Lord 

 High Treasurer of England, and, above all, the 

 son of the great Lord Chancellor Clarendon, Avhen 

 pressed by King James to become a Romanist, 

 boldly refused to do so ; but yet was so confident 

 of the doctrines he had received from the primitive 

 Church, that — 



" He was willing to abide by the result of a dispute 

 between two Church of England divines, and two of 

 the Church of Rome : being not fearful of venturing 

 to say, that to which side soever the victory should in- 

 cline, his Lordship would from that time abide by that 

 which conquered. Hereunto the King very readily 

 agreed, and immediately nominated the P'athers Giffard 

 and Tilden for his two champions ; and appointed the 

 Hide of Faith to be the subject-matter of the contro- 

 versy. The persons at first proposed by the Earl were 

 Dr. Jane and Dr. South ; but the latter was so unac- 

 ceptable to his majesty, by the bitter invectives he was 

 said to make use of in the pulpit against the Papists 

 [Why did Vindex omit this?] and Presbyterians, who 

 then joined in their endeavours for liberty of conscience, 

 that he told his Lordship he could not agree to the 

 choice of Dr. South ; who, instead of arguments, would 

 bring railing accusations, and had not temperament of 

 mind enough to go through a dispute that required the 

 greatest attention and calmness. 



" Hereupon the Earl chose Dr. Patrick, then Dean 

 of Peterborough, and minister of St. Paul's, Covent 

 Garden, a very able divine, in his room ; but would 

 needs have the assistance of Dr. South in a consulta- 

 tion held the night before the conference was to com- 

 mence, wherein were such irrefragable arguments drawn 

 up by him on the subject they were to discourse upon, 

 as totally obtained a conquest over their two opponents, 

 and made the King dismiss his two pretended advo- 

 cates with this rebuke: That he could say more in he- 

 half of his religio7i than they could, and that he never 

 heard a good cause managed so ill, nor a had one so well 

 So that if Dr. South could not be said to be in the 

 battle, he was a very great instrument in obtaining the 

 victory ; and Dr. Jane has often owned (though a 

 most excellent casuist himself) that the auxiliary argu- 

 ments contributed by Dr. South did more towards 

 flinging their antagonists on their backs, than his or 

 bis colleague's." — South's Posthumous fVorks, pp. Ill, 

 112. : Lond. 1717, 8vo. 



Unsophisticated readers of " N. & Q." will now 

 perhaps be able to guess why " Even James II. 

 objected to South as a controversialist." Not to 

 dwell upon the arguments urged by Vindex, I 

 must now allude to his wild and delusive generality, 

 that " It had long been South's practice to accom- 

 modate his principles to those of the times." And 

 here again I rejoice to be able to come to facts 

 and figures, and heartily to defy Vindex, or any 

 one else on earth, to prove the truth of his assertion. 



It is, I must confess, difficult to understand why 

 Vindex should quote from the Biogi-aphia Britan-' 

 nica aspersions against Dr. South, which the same 

 work gave him the means of refuting. The case 

 is as follows : The celebrated antiquary, Anthony 

 a Wood, " whose temper and talents were naturally 

 at variance with those of Mr. South " {Biog. Brit.y 

 sub voc. South, note b.), in his Athen. Oxon. gives 

 full vent to his querulous and vindictive feelings 

 by producing all manner of slanderous accusations 

 against him, which he never attempts to prove. 



In fact, to avoid this proof, in more than one 

 instance he quotes the Mirabilis Annus SecunduSy 

 1662, 4to., the author of which he does not hesitate 

 to call " a rank fanatic," or, in the words of the 

 same note just quoted from the Biog. Brit, : 



" The Oxford antiquary has taken care to draw up 

 the story in such a manner as to leave a door open to 

 escape from the shame of any charge that might be 

 brought of his vouching for the truth of it." 



May I charitably hope that Vindex had never 

 seen Huddesford's Character of Wood, which is 

 given in an appendix to his Life ? (vol. i. p. cxxxviii. 

 Lond. 1813); at all events, its omission here 

 would not answer my purpose. He says : 



" But it may be further urged, that in some par- 

 ticulars the gloomy disposition of Mr. Wood has 

 exhibited itself to the prejudice of characters, through 

 mere personal disgust, and from much weaker incen- 

 tives than those already mentioned. No instance of 

 this nature can be produced, perhaps, with more pro- 

 priety than the account given of Dr. South {Ath. 

 2nd edit. vol. ii. c. 1041.). This severe, and in some 

 respects unjust, character of this gentleman is said to 

 have taken rise from a joke of the Doctor's, uttered 

 probably by him without any design of giving offence.'*' 



The "joke" I need not repeat, but it is givea 

 in the note to the above-quoted passage. However, 

 it cost the facetious author dearly, for " Anthony 

 went home and wrote South's Life." Why Tan- 

 ner retained this Life of South without correction, 

 when he had altered Wood in so many cases, is 

 indeed not easy to say; but he was doubtless 

 guided by Charlet, who was " a hater of South." 

 (Bliss's Preface, p. H-) 



I shall shortly have to prove that this Life was 

 not sufficiently harsh or unfair for Vindex ; but I 

 must first allude to South's verses upon Oliver 

 Cromwell, which Vindex designates as " an in- 

 tractable fact" for my "purpose." The memoirs 

 of South's Life thus allude to the matter : 



" He {i. e. Dr. South) took the degree of Bachelor 

 of Arts, which he completed by his determination in 

 Lent 1654-5. The same year he wrote a Latin copy 

 of verses, published in the University Book, set forth to 

 congratulate Oliver Cromwell upon the peace then 

 concluded with the Dutch ; upon which some people 

 have made invidious reflections, as if contrary to the 

 sentiments he afterwards espoused ; but these are to 



