677 



WHITELOCKE, BULSTRODE. 



WHITGIFT, JOHN, ARCHBISHOP. 



678 



of Commons the acceptance of the king's propositions. In June 

 1646 he was one of Fairfax's council of the siege of Oxford, and urged 

 that honourable terms should be offered, in order to avoid damaging 

 the university buildings. In December 1646 he supported the ordi- 

 nances for taking away the arbitrary power of both Houses of par- 

 liament, and opposed the disbanding of the army. In 1647-48 he 

 withdrew for a time from the House in order to avoid being called on 

 to act as Speaker. In March 1647-48 he was appointed one of the 

 commissioners of the Great Seal. Shortly after the purging of the 

 House of Commons by Cromwell and the soldiers, on December 6, 

 1648, "a sad and most disorderly day" as he himself calls it, though 

 not expelled, he retired. He had been named one of the members >to 

 draw up the charges against Charles, but declined the commission, 

 " being resolved to avoid meddling in that bad business .... it being 

 contrary to his judgment, as he himself declared in the House." This 

 is his own statement in his ' Memorials,' and it marks the character of 

 the man, too conscientious to do what he thought wrong, but without 

 sufficient vigour of mind to oppose himself against a powerful party 

 with whom he had many feelings in common. Though he refused to 

 take any part in the proceedings of the High Court of Justice, he had 

 frequent and free conferences with Cromwell. In February 1648-49 

 he declared in the House his disapprobation of the proceedings on the 

 king's trial, but was within a few days ordered to draw up a bill for 

 abolishing the House of Lords, and was made one of the commis- 

 sioners of the Great? Seal, both of which he wished to decline, but 

 was not allowed. While in this office he rescued the royal library 

 and the medals at St. James's from being sold, and provided for their 

 safe keeping. In 1650 he was at the head of a commission to consoli- 

 date the statute laws. In Dec. J1651 he proposed in the House that 

 terms should be made with the Prince of Wales or Duke of York, 

 and in November 1652 urged the same course on Cromwell, who, he 

 says, thereupon began to look cool upon him, and would have senthim 

 as commissioner to Ireland, but he refused to go. On April 20, 1653, 

 he unsuccessfully opposed the dissolution of the parliament, and Crom- 

 well, offended, did not name him to his first parliament. In Septem- 

 ber 1653 however he was appointed ambassador to Queen Christina of 

 Sweden, of which embassy he left an interesting account. As ambas- 

 sador he resolutely maintained the dignity of his country, and insisted 

 successfully on all the outward marks of respect paid to the ambas- 

 sadors of the sovereigns of Europe. He was not a man to succumb 

 to outward dignity or even physical danger ; it was the influence of 

 genius only that kept his powers in subordination. He returned in 

 June 1654, having concluded a satisfactory treaty, and in August he 

 was elected member for Buckinghamshire in Cromwell's second parlia- 

 ment, but on its dissolution, and the issue of an ordinance by the 

 Protector for regulating the jurisdiction of the chancery courts he 

 resigned the Great Seal, and was made a commissioner of the treasury. 

 Though Cromwell knew that Whitelocke did not approve of his 

 present policy, he had much confidence in his truthfulness, honesty, 

 and good sense, and therefore frequently consulted him on important 

 matters. Whitelocke recommended him to govern by means of par- 

 liaments, which advice, though he could not resolve upon adopting it 

 to its full extent, gave no offence, and Whitelocke was appointed one 

 of the council of trade, and to negociate a treaty with the Swedish 

 ambassador in England. In the third parliament he acted as Speaker 

 during Sir J. Widdringtou's illness, and as one of a deputation from 

 the House urged Cromwell to take the title of king ; but he attended 

 his inauguration as Protector in June 1657, with the Speaker and 

 others investing him with the purple velvet robes, and riding in one 

 of the boots of the state coach with the Protector's son, Richard. 

 Shortly afterwards he applied for the provostship of Eton College, 

 then vacant by the death of Dr. Rouse, but not receiving it he retired 

 to private life for a while. In December 1657 he was appointed one 

 of the Lords of the Other House, and again advised the Protector 

 against the frequent dissolutions of parliament. In April 1658 he was 

 appointed one of the commissioners of the High Court of Justice for 

 the trial of Dr. Hewett for high treason, though he had previously 

 advised Cromwell to have recourse to the common law courts, and he 

 therefore refused to act. These instances of opposition did not 

 altogether lose him the esteem of the Protector, one of whose latest 

 acts was to create Whitelocke a Viscount on August 21, which title 

 he declined to accept, and on September 3, Cromwell died. Richard, 

 in January, made him one of the commissioners of the Great Seal, and 

 consulted him about dissolving parliament, the judiciousness of which 

 measure Whitelocke doubted. When the Council of Officers displaced 

 Richard, Whitelocke's office ceased, but he was named one of the 

 Council of State on May 13, and as its president took successful 

 measures for repressing the insurrection of Sir George Booth. He 

 joined in an engagement to renounce the title of the house of Stuart, 

 or the government of a single person, and he brought a bill before 

 parliament for effecting a Union with Scotland. General Monk, then 

 in Scotland, sent him an invitation to repair thither, but he declined, 

 and continued to support the government until the remains of the 

 Long Parliament being reassembled on December 26, 1659, he found 

 that he was in danger. He therefore sent the Great Seal by his wife 

 to Lenthal, the Speaker, and retired into the country, though it would 

 appear from Lord Campbell's 'Lives of the Chancellors' that he pro- 

 posed carrying the Great Seal to Breda, and would have done so but 



for the timidity of Fleetwood. On the Restoration a small majority 

 in the House of Commons inserted his name in the Act of Pardou 

 and Oblivion. He retired to his estate of Chilton in Wiltshire, that 

 at Fawley 'Court having being rendered uninhabitable by the royal 

 troops, where he lived for fifteen years, dying on January 28, 1676. 

 He left a number of manuscripts, of which ' Memorials of the English 

 Affairs from the beginning of the reign of King Charles the First to 

 the Happy Restoration of King Charles the Second/ was printed 

 in 1682, again in 1732 with many additions, reprinted at Oxford in 

 4 volumes in 1853, and is a valuable contribution to the history of the 

 period. His ' Journal of the Swedish Embassy in 1653 and 1654 from 

 the Commonwealth of England,' a most interesting work was first 

 published in 1772, and was again printed in 1855, carefully edited by 

 A. Reeve. In 1709 was published ' Memorials of the English Affairs 

 from the supposed Expedition of Brute to this Island, to the end of 

 the reign of King James tho First, published from his original manu- 

 script, with some account of his life and writings, by W. Penn, Esq. 

 governor of Pennsylvania, and a preface by James Welwood, M.D.' 

 Several of his speeches are reported in his ' Memorials,' and elsewhere. 



WHITGIFT, JOHN, ARCHBISHOP, the third primate of the 

 Protestant Church of England after the Reformation, in the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth, was distinguished for his learning and for his zeal on 

 behalf of the new establishment. He was the son of a merchant at 

 Great Grimsby in Lincolnshire, where he was born in 1530. He was 

 entrusted at an early age to the care of his uncle, Robert Whitgift, the 

 abbot of a monastery of Black Canons dedicated to St. Augustine, at 

 Wellow, or Welhove juxta Grimsby. To this circumstance the decided 

 and consistent character of Whitgift's religious views may .be chiefly 

 attributed ; for the abbot had predicted the downfall of the Roman 

 Catholic Church, on account of its corruptions, some years before the 

 Reformation, and had often been heard to say " that he had read the 

 Holy Scriptures over and over, but could never find there that their 

 religion was founded by God." The mind of his pupil was therefore 

 prepared at an early age to approve and hold fast to the doctrines of 

 the Reformation, which were then rapidly spreading both in Germany 

 and in England. After studying for some years with his uncle, young 

 Whitgift was sent by him to an eminent school belonging to St. 

 Anthony's, a religious house, situated between Broad-street and 

 Threadneedle-street, London. While at this school he lodged with his 

 aunt in St. Paul's Churchyard, a staunch Roman Catholic, to whom he 

 gave great offence by his aversion to the ceremonies of the church. 

 She in vain endeavoured to persuade him to accompany her to St. 

 Paul's and attend at mass, and at last determined to keep him no 

 longer under her roof. On sending him home to his father in the 

 country, she said " that she thought at first that she had received a 

 saint into her house, and now she perceived he was a devil." In 1584 

 he was sent to the University of Cambridge, where he was entered at 

 Queen's College. Thence he soon removed to Pembroke Hall, which 

 had a more Protestant character, Bishop Ridley being the master, and 

 Bradford (the martyr) and Grindal, fellows of that college. 



In 1554 he commenced Bachelor of Arts, and in the following year 

 was elected Fellow of Peter-house. At this college he formed a strong 

 attachment to the master, Dr. Andrew Perne, to whom he was indebted 

 for much kindness and protection, which he never forgot. As he had 

 pursued his studies at Cambridge in the reign of Edward VI., when 

 the Protestant faith had been encouraged and protected, he made no 

 secret of his opinions; but on the accession of Queen Mary he found 

 himself, in common with other members of that university, in serious 

 danger. Cardinal Pole, then archbishop of Canterbury, and the pope's 

 legate, ordered a visitation of the university, and, in 1557, sent com- 

 missioners to Cambridge to extirpate the Reformed religion, and to 

 censure and punish its professors. Whitgift was so much alarmed at 

 this visitation, that he had determined to escape it by quitting the 

 university and going abroad. He was fortunately dissuaded from this 

 intention by Dr. Perne, who contrived to screen him from the search 

 of the visitors. His fears however were not exaggerated, for not only 

 the public opinions and characters of men were canvassed, but their 

 very books for private study were searched out, and, if deemed here- 

 tical, were burned in the market-place. The bigotry of the visitors 

 was displayed by digging up the dead bodies of Bucer and Fagius, 

 and burning them in the market-place : and Whitgift had good reason 

 to be grateful for his impunity. In this perilous year he took his 

 degree of Master of Arts, and during the remainder of Queen Mary's 

 reign he continued his studies at the university, maintaining a cautious 

 reserve as to his religious views. The accession of Elizabeth opened 

 to him the happy prospect of preaching the gospel conscientiously, as 

 a minister of the Protestant Reformed Church of England, and in 

 1560 he entered into holy orders, and preached before the university 

 at St. Mary's. He continued his residence at Cambridge for upwards 

 of fifteen years, being distinguished for his learning and talents, and 

 holding many high offices and preferments. His lectures as the Lady 

 Margaret's professor of divinity obtained him much distinction. Iii 

 1567 he was chosen master of Pembroke Hall, but only remained in 

 that situation for three months ; for his fame as a preacher having 

 obtained him the honour of preaching before the queen, he acquitted 

 himself so well that she made him her chaplain, and shortly afterwards 

 master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In the same year also he took 

 the degree of D.D., and succeeded Dr. Hutton as Regiua Professor of 



