2Q2 
THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
Chichester, whom four years later he followed also in that see. 
The cares of his dual office rendered the earlier one less successful 
than it might have been and led to many, possibly not unfounded, 
complaints. 
As Vice Chancellor of the University he entertained 
King James, the British .Solomon, accompanied by Prince 
Charles, with apostolic hospitality and noticeable, dignity. He 
evinced his sturdy independence by his refusal to sanction the 
bestowal of honorary degrees indiscriminately, and went so 
far as to refuse the royal request made on behalf of John Donne, 
afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, notable alike as a preacher and a 
poet. 
In 1619 he was translated to Norwich in succession to 
his friend Overall. Impartiality can hardly be predicated 
among 17th century historians, so we can scarcely expect 
a true picture of his rule over his two dioceses, of which 
the latter was one of the most puritan in the kingdom. We 
may at any rate remember that what his critics complained of 
was, not the enforcement of discipline in the abstract, but that 
it was enforced on the wrong people, that is, themselves. Be 
that as it may, the bishop was able to satisfy a strongly puritan 
Parliament that his course of action had been correct and 
justifiable. 
Whatever the ultimate verdict of history may be as to the 
traditional position taken up by the Church of England as the 
via media, it was, with Harsnett and his better known, but not 
abler colleagues, Bancroft, Andrewes and Laud, the “ articulus 
stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae," the very foundation of a standing 
or a falling church. 
In 1628 Harsnett was again translated, now to the Chair of 
St. Paulinus and the archiepiscopal throne at York. His rule 
here was scarcely long enough to make much impression on 
his province, still the stronghold of the Roman Catholic party. 
His work was done, his health had become undermined and his 
spirits sank before the prospect, which as a Privy Councillor 
was now more than ever patent to his view, of the growth of 
opposition to the King’s policy. 
The Archbishop shared the political aspirations which led 
statesmen, in most European countries as well as here, to see 
in the strengthening of the royal prerogatives the only sure 
