BISHOP AYLMER. 129 



sum at last, and to sell some part of his estate to make sa- CHAP, 

 tisfaction. x - 



CHAP. XL 



Some observations upon Bishop Aylmer. Certain things 

 charged upon him cleared. The Lord Burghley his 

 friend. 



WE cannot leave our Bishop yet, till we have in some A review 

 reflections and considerations taken a review of him, aiulSJhop . 1 

 looked into his nature and disposition, his good acquired 

 accomplishments of learning and judgment, his friends and 

 enemies, and what things were charged upon him as faults 

 in the administration of his episcopal function. 



I shall begin with the last of these. For however care- Faults 

 fully and conscientiously the Bishop behaved himself in his J^f hi,. 

 office, he could not escape many and various censures and 

 ill representations made of him and his actions. But I must 

 premise, that the ground of all the accusations that were 

 preferred to the Queen and Council against him, for the 

 most part were his prosecutions of such as went contrary to 

 the rules and orders appointed in the Church. For he 

 spared not his pains to keep the Church of England in that 

 stay of doctrine and discipline wherein it was settled, when 

 with so much mature advice and deliberation it shook off 

 Popery at first. 



The greatest broil he met with was, that he was reported Wronging 

 to have made a great waste of his woods, to the injury and felling 6 the 

 impoverishment of the see. In the year 1579, he made woml - 

 indeed a considerable fall of wood and timber. The inform 

 ation whereof was brought to the Council : and the Lord 

 Treasurer soon wrote to him upon this complaint ; and in 

 his free and plain manner blamed him for what he had 

 done ; and withal told him, that there was a Bishop once 

 deprived for such a thing. But the Bishop on the other 



