OP FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 53 



propensity for the interests of learning in his forming one of the 

 best libraries in the kingdom. Of this repository of knowledge 

 there is so interesting a notice, by a biographer of the Bishop, that 

 we shall give it in his own words. " He had the notablest library 

 of bookes in all England, two long galleries full ; the bookes were 

 sorted in stalls, and a register of the names of every body at the 

 end of every stall. All these his bookes, and all his hangings, 

 plate, and vessels for hall, chamber, buttery, and kitchen, he gave, 

 long before his death, to St. John's College, by a deed of gift, and 

 put them in possession thereof, and then, by indenture, did borrow 

 all the said bookes and stuff, to have the use of them during his 

 life; but at his apprehension the Lord Cromwell caused all to be 

 confiscated, which he gave to Moryson Plankney, of Chester, and 

 other that were about him, and so the college was defrauded of this 

 noble gift."* 



The writings of the Bishop against the Lutheranst display the 

 powers of his extensive learning and his acuteness as a polemical 

 divine, while his pulpit discourses, however devoid of attraction 

 now, were considered as models of eloquence by his cotemporaries, 

 and to have done honour to his age. Had all his works come down 

 to us, for he was a most voluminous writer, we might conclude, 

 from the vehement admiration expressed of them by one of 

 those cotemporaries, that each of his productions approximated 

 so closely to excellence as to challenge the homage of posterity. 

 But though the specimens left will not justify this sanguine augury 

 of his eulogist, yet, from the following curious reference to his lite- 

 rary labours, he seems, from the fullness of the mind or the desire 

 of instructing mankind, never to have been happy without his un- 

 tiring pen. *^ In his lifetime he wrote many famous and learn- 

 ed treatises with great diligence, whereof none came to light, 

 because he lived not to finish them. But myself have seen 

 diverse of them, and some other I have heard of by report of 

 good and credible persons. And it was once told me by a re- 

 verend father that was Dean of Rochester many years toge- 

 ther, named Mr. Phillips, that on a time in the days of Edward 



* Harl. MS., 7047, p. 17. 



•f Those writings of his which are extant, were published separately in 

 England, and printed collectively at Wurtzburg in one volume folio, 1593. 

 Upon the title of one of them, Pro damnatione Luiheri, charity, justice, and 

 impartiality must all combine in actuating us to set a mark of reprobation, 

 however much Fisher might deem it a sacred duty to promulgate and record 

 his detestation of opinions considered by the Romish communion as heretical. 



