1063 



FULLER, THOMAS. 



FULLER, THOMAS. 



July 16, 1850. A few of the passengers and crew were saved, but 

 Margaret Fuller, her husband, and child were among the drowned. 

 The body of her child came ashore, but her own tomb was the ocean. 



The writings of Margaret Fuller will have no permanent value in 

 themselves, either for their literary merits, their social opinions, or 

 their estimates of character, of art, or of literature. But they will 

 retain a certain value, in connection with the history of their author, 

 as illustrative of a peculiar phase of society in America during the 

 second quarter of the 19th century. Margaret Fuller herself was 

 undoubtedly a woman of great ability as well as of considerable 

 attainments, but she had thoroughly studied not a single subject, and 

 her writings are all disfigured by dogmatism, assumption, and self- 

 reference. In them you often come upon a striking and apparently 

 original thought, but if the thought be dwelt on for a moment, it is 

 recognised as owing its uncommonncai maicly to peculiarity of 

 expression : and sometimes these peculiarities degenerate into gro- 

 tesquer.ess. Had her life been spared however there can be little 

 doubt that what was strange, and almost repulsive in her earlier 

 works, would have disappeared, and the better and lovelier part of 

 her character and intellect have revealed itself. The severe mental 

 me el,e had undergone in Rome had, as the said in one or more 

 of her letters, subdued her pride ; and with humility came in all the 

 gentler virtues and intellectual graces. Nothing could be more noble 

 and b> autiful than her conduct as a woman, a wife, and a mother 

 under her marriage trials, and during and after the siege of Rome ; 

 and the letters which she wrote then are more graceful and eloquent 

 than perhaps anything else which has fallen from her pen. She 

 wrote an account of the Roman revolution, the progress and sup- 

 pression of which she had watched so eagerly, but the manuscript 

 P' ri-hed with her. 



(Slemoin (if Margnret Puller Ossoli, compiled by her friends J. F. 

 Clarke, R. W. Emerson, and W. H. Channing, 2 vols. 8vo, Boston, 

 1852, and 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1852.) 



FULLER, THOMAS, was the son of the Rev. Thomas Fuller, 

 rector of St. Peter's Aldwinckle, in Northamptonshire, where he was 

 born in Juno 1608. He was educated under his father, and was sent 

 in his thirteenth year to Queen's College, Cambridge, of which his 

 uncle Davenent bishop of Salisbury was president. He became B.A. 

 in 1625, and M.A. in 1628, but afterwards removed to Sidney Sussex 

 College, where he obtained a fellowship in 1631, and nearly at the 

 eame time the prebend of Netherby, in the church of Salisbury, and 

 the living of St. Beliefs, Cambridge. In this year also he issued his first 

 publication, a quaint poem, now little known, entitled ' David's Hainous 

 Sin, Heart ie Repentance, Heavie Punishment,' in 12mo. He was 

 soon after presented by Ms uncle to the rectory of Broad Windsor, in 

 Dorsetshire, where he remained about seven years ; when he removed 

 to London, and distinguished himself BO much in the pulpits there, 

 that he was iuvited by the master and brethren of the Savoy to be 

 their lecturer. In 1539 he published his 'History of the Holy War :' 

 it was printed at Cambridge, in folio, and by his striking originality 

 became so popular that a third edition appeared in 1647. On April 

 13, 1640, a parliament was called, and a convoca'iou also began at 

 Westminster, in Henry Vllth's chapel, having licence granted to make 

 new canons for the better government of the church : of this convoca- 

 tion he was a member, and has detailed its proceedings in his ' Church 

 History.' During the commencement of the Rebellion, and when the 

 king left London, in 1641, to raise an army, Fuller continued at the 

 Savoy, to the great satisfaction of his congregation and the neighbouring 

 nobility and gentry, labouring all the while in private and in public to 

 i-often the angry feelings existing between the two great parties into 

 which society was rapidly dividing. On the anniversary of the accession 

 of Charles, March 27, 1643, Fuller preached at Westminster Abbey on 

 this text, 2 Sam. xix. 30, " Yea, let him take all, so that my lord the 

 king return in peace," in which he earnestly urged the duty of mutual 

 concession with a view to peace. But as he had taken occasion in bis 

 discourse to laud the piety and personal character of the king, and to 

 expatiate on the liberality of the royal offers, his sermon on which 

 being printed, gave great offonce to those who were engaged in the 

 opposition, and exposed the preacher to a good deal of danger. This 

 offence was increased by a sermon he preached on the Fast day, 

 July 27 ; and soon after refusing to take an oath to the parliament, 

 unless with such reserves as they would not admit, Fuller with- 

 drew from London in the autumn of 1 653, and joined the king at 

 Oxford. Charles, having heard of his extraordinary abilities in the 

 pulpit, was desirous of knowing them personally, and accordingly 

 Fuller preached before him at St. Mary's church. But his entreaties 

 to moderation as a means to a reconciliation were as little acceptable 

 in Oxford as they had been in London. In London he had been cen- 

 mred aa too hot a rojaliet; and now, at Oxford, he was pronounced 

 little better than a puritan. During his stay here, his residence was 

 in Lincolr College, but he was not long after sequestered, and lost 

 all his books and manuscripts. This loss, the heaviest he could 

 sustain, was made up partly by Henry Lord Eeauchamp, and partly 

 by Lionel Craufield, earl of Middlesex, who gave him the remains of 

 his father's library. Fuller found matters at Oxford so little to his 

 liking, that he left it within about four months from entering it ; but 

 in order that he might not lie under the suspicion of want of zeal or 

 courage in the royal cause, he determined to join the army, and there- 



fore, being well recommended, was received by Sir Ralph Hopton in 

 the quality of chaplain. For this employment he was at liberty, 

 being deprived of all other preferment. Though he attended the 

 army from place to place, and constantly exercised his duty as 

 chaplain, he yet found proper intervals for his favourite studies, 

 which he employed chiefly in making historical collection's, and espe- 

 cially in gathering materials for his 'Worthies of England,' which he 

 did, not _only by an extensive correspondence, but by personal 

 inquiries in every place which the army had occasion to pass through. 



After the battle at Cheriton Down, March 29, 1614, Lord Hoptou 

 drew on his army to Basing House, and Fuller, being left there by 

 him, animated the garrison to so vigorous a defence of that place, 

 that Sir William Waller was obliged to raise the siege with consider- 

 able loss. But the war coming to an end, and part of the king's 

 army being driven into Cornwall under Lord Hopton, Fuller, with 

 the permission of that nobleman, took ivfuge at Exeter, where he 

 resumed his studies, and preached constantly to the citizens. During 

 his residence at Exeter he' was appointed chaplain to the infant 

 princess, Henrietta Maria, who was born at Exeter in June 1043. He 

 continued his attendance on the princess till the surrender of Exeter 

 to the parliament, in April 1646. He is said to have written or 

 finished his 'Good Thoughts in Bad Times' at Exeter, where the 

 book was published in 1645, 16rao: and also, 'Good Thoughts in 

 Worse Times," published in 1647. On the garrison being forced to 

 surrender, he, being " weak in health and dejected iu spirits," retired 

 for awhile to the residence of the Countess of Rutland, at Boughton, 

 near Northampton ; where, by way of medicine for his mental weak- 

 ness, he wrote his ' Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience.' At 

 the end of a few months he returned to London, where, though he 

 found his lectureship at the Savoy filled by another, he preached 

 wherever his services were permitted. After a time he appears to 

 have delivered regularly a week-day lecture at St. element's, near 

 Lombard-street, and at St. Bride's, Fleet-street. In 1647 ha pub- 

 lished, in 4to, 'a Sermon of Assurance, fourteen years ago preached 

 at Cambridge, since iu other places, now by the importunity of his 

 friends exposed to public view.' He dedicated it to Sir John Danvers, 

 who had beeu a royalist, was then an Oliverian, and next year one of 

 the king's judges ; and in the dedication ho says, that "it had been 

 the pleasure of the present authority to make him mute, forbidding 

 him, till further order, the exercise of his public preaching." Not- 

 withstanding his being thus silenced, he was, about 1648, presented to 

 the rectory of Walthain Abbey, in Essex, by the Earl of Carlisle, and 

 there, after having undergone the customary ordeal of the ' Triers,' 

 he was permitted to preach undisturbed. In 1648 he published his 

 ' Holy State,' folio, Cambr. His ' Pisgah-sight of Palestine and tho 

 Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament, 

 acted thereon,' was published, fol. Lond. 1650, and reprinted iu 1662. 

 At this period he was still employed upon his 'Worthies.' In 1651 

 he published his ' Abel Redivivus, or the Dead yet Speaking ; the 

 Lives and Deaths of the Modern Divines,' Loud. 4to. In the two or 

 three following years he printed several sermons and tracts upon 

 religious subjects : 'The Infant's Advocate,' Svo, Lond. 1653; 'Per- 

 fection and Peace, a Sermon,' 4to, Lond. 1653 ; ' A Comment on 

 Ruth, with two Sermons,' 8vo, Lond. 1654 ; ' A Triple Recon- 

 ciler,' 8vo, Lond. 1654. About this last year he took as a second, 

 wife a sister of the Viscount Baltinglasse. In 1655, notwithstanding 

 Cromwell's prohibition of all persons from preaching or teaching 

 school who had been adherents to the late king, he continued preach- 

 ing and exerting his charitable disposition towards those ministers 

 who were ejected, as well as towards others. In 1655 he published 

 in folio ' The Church History of Britain, from the birth of Jesus 

 Christ until the year MDOXLVIII.,' to which he subjoined ' The History 

 of the University of Cambridge since the Conquest,' and ' The 

 History of Waltham Abbey, in Essex, founded by King Harold.' 

 The Church History was animadverted upou by Dr. Peter Heylyn iu 

 his ' Exameu Historicum,' to which Fuller replied iu his 'Appeal of 

 Injured Innocence,' fol. Lond. 1659. It is said that Lord Berkeley, in 

 1658 or 1659, took him over to the Hague, and introduced him to 

 Charles II. It is certain however that a short time before the Resto- 

 ration he was re-admitted to his lecture in the Savoy, and on that 

 event restored to his prebend of Salisbury. He was chosen chaplain 

 extraordinary to the king; and created D.D., at Cambridge, by u 

 mandamus dated August 2, 1660. Upon his return from Salisbury, 

 in August 1661, ho was attacked by a severe fever, then very pre- 

 valent, and known as " the new disease," of which he died on tho 

 16th of that month. His funeral was attended by at least two 

 hundred of his brethren of the ministry. He was buried in his church 

 of Cranford, on the north wall of the chancel of which his monument 

 is still remaining. His ' History of the Worthies of England,' was not 

 published till after his death, fol. Lond. 1662 : it has been more than 

 once reprinted ; the best modern edition is that issued from the 

 Oxford University press in 6 vols. Svo, 1845, under the editorial care 

 of the Rev. J. S. Brewer. 



Besides the works already mentioned, Fuller was the author of 

 several others of a smaller kind. 'Joseph's Parti-coloured Coat,' a 

 comment on Chap. xi. of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the 

 Corinthians, with eight sermons, 4to, Lond. 1640. 'Andronicus, or 

 the Unfortunate Politician,' 12uio, Loud. 1646. 'A Comment on the. 



