The Right Reverend John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, English Reformer, 1522-1571. Jewel was one of the Reformers of England and one of the exiles to Frankfort, Strasburg, Zurich, and Geneva; these were men who monopolized the learning and talents of the clergy of England in the Elizabethan period. Jewel had invaluable accession to his circle of friends, in Peter Martyr, who later, by Cranmer's invitation, assumed the duties of Professor of Divinity at Oxford in 1548
The memoir is produced below, but is accessible at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=l17TMgynV8IC&pg=PA1&dq=john+jewel&output=text#c_top
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That Popery was not fully and finally re-established in England, on the accession of Elizabeth—in a less revolting form, perhaps, than Mary's bigotry had allowed it to assume, but in all the substantiality of its dominion —was unquestionably owing to the zeal and abilities of comparatively a few distinguished individuals among the clergy and laity. The queen did not join to her acknowledged noble qualities the spirit of martyrdom for the sake of religion; and furthermore, was very plainly biassed towards the ' pomp and circumstance' of Romish worship, if not to many of the peculiarities of Romish belief. The disposition of the people was favourable to the Reformation, no doubt: but the little avail of which that disposition would have been, if left to its own workings, was fully tested in the reign of Mary. Without leaders, and leaders of a character to command the co-operation of the Queen, the people would have done nothing.
But the statesmen who were most known as supporters of Elizabeth's title to the crown, were firmly attached to the principles of the Reformation. The exiles of Frankfort, Strasburg, Zurich, and Geneva, almost monopolized the learning and talents of the clergy of England; and they lost no time in hastening to the support of the men on whom, they clearly saw, depended all human probability of the re-establishment of pure religion in the English realm. The combined ranks of these different classes furnished a most formidable band of leaders for the populace, ready to second any measure tending to the subversion of the sanguinary and detested faith of Mary.
Elizabeth felt the necessity of identifying her interests with a cause possessed of such preponderating strength ; and after a brief delay of hesitation, buoyed herself into stability and glory, on the flood-tide of the Reformation.
Among the men whose personal and acquired endowments so greatly contributed, by the disposal of Providence, to perpetuate the blessings of religious liberty and knowledge—not only in England, but by the instrumentality of the Church of England, that ' bulwark of the reformation,' throughout the world—Jewell stands confessedly pre-eminent. It is questionable whether even Parner (exclusive of his political influence, of which Jewell possessed little, if any,) brought more weight into the preponderant scale at the great crisis, or acted a more conspicuous part in the establishment of the Reformation on a firm basis in the Church of England.
Jewell's varied and well-digested learning, and the happy facility with which he could command that learning at any need—his rich vein of ready eloquence, both in Latin and in his mother tongue—the purity, integrity, and amiability of his deportment—the winning ease, joined with perfect dignity, of his personal appearance and demeanour—the prudence, conciliatory spirit, and yet unblenching firmness of his counsels—all combined to make him one of the fittest instruments for uniting discordant interests, softening asperities of feeling, promoting unanimity, and inspiring zeal, in a nation needing only such leaders to give it irresistible energies in the cause of truth. He was accordingly, high in the esteem of his sovereign, and at the same time popular beyond almost any of his coadjutors. With one mouth, his contemporaries and successors conspire to represent him as the great champion of the Reformation in its last struggle for predominance—his eloquence, and industry, and zeal, as the chief cause, under God, of the happy termination of that struggle.
John Jewell was born in the village of Buden, in Devonshire, on the 24th of May, 1522. Of his parents we are told, that they were both of ancient families— that their estate, though it had been more than two hundred years in his father's family, was small—that their private characters were in the highest degree respectable and exemplary—that after living in happy union fifty years, and raising a family of ten children, they died on the same day—and that Jewell's attachment to his mother, in particular, was so great that he had her maiden name engraven in his signet.
At the age of seven years, Jewell was placed under the care of his maternal uncle John Bellamy, Rector of Hamton. As he was a younger son, and his father's limited circumstances precluded the bestowal of unnecessary expense upon a numerous family, it is probable that an early manifestation of his extraordinary parts was the occasion of his being destined to receive an education for which he would have to be in a great measure dependent upon the bounty of others. At Hamton, and subsequently at the schools of Branton, South Molton, and Barnstaple, Jewell's conduct is described as having given the fairest promise of future excellence. His amiable disposition and irreproachable morals left his teachers no occasion for reproof; while his assiduity and capacity for learning secured a rapid progress in his studies.
So great was this progress, that he was prepared to enter on his studies at the university when only thirteen years of age, and was accordingly admitted a member of Merton College, Oxford, in July, 1535.
In his journey to college, Jewell was accompanied by a school-fellow from Barnstaple* ; and as it is known that Hardino, afterwards his principal antagonist in his controversies with the Romish Church, was such,r and that they were of the same standing at college," it is altogether probable that he was the person. If so, the influence of education in fixing the bent of mind and chalking out the path of life, and the wonderful dispositions of that Providence which orders the ways of men, have seldom been more singularly evident than in the case of these two young students. By what then appeared to be mere chance, Peter Burry, a fellow of Merton College, the person to whom they were commended as their tutor, was unable to take charge of both; and retaining the other, he transferred Jewell
to the care of John Parkhurst, another fellow of the same college. Burry was a man of little learning, and strongly attached to the principles of Rome : Parkhurst. on the contrary, was an indefatigable student, and a warm advocate of the doctrines of the Reformation, then just beginning to spread. Had Burry retained young Jewell, it is not improbable that his slender instructions and Romish prejudices, if they had not wholly prevented his scholar from receiving the new doctrines, would have prepared him for an apostacy as easy and complete as that of Harding. Had Harding, instead of Jewell, been transferred to Parkhurst, how miserably would his feeble mind and irritable temper have compensated for the loss of that bright intellect and lovely character!
To the tutor thus providentially assigned him, Jewell was indebted for a situation, (that of 'postmaster,' perhaps resembling those of ' sizars' and ' servitors',) which provided him a maintenance ; and far more, for assiduous training, not only in general learning, but in the principles of the purer religion which he professed. Parkhurst's frequent discussions of those principles with his fellow-collegian, Burry, in the presence of his pupil; and his engaging the latter to assist him in a collation of Tindal's and Coverdale's translations of the Scriptures ; are recorded by Jewell's biographers as mainly instrumental in forming him to the opinions which he afterwards so nobly advocated.
Nearly four years after his admission to the university, Jewell was chosen to a scholarship in Corpus Christi College, by the interest of his tutor and other friends, whom his parts and good behaviour had secured. Here he soon distinguished himself, and quickly rose to the head of the senior class. Even at this early date, his elocution was a principal source of his reputation ; and many drew auguries of future eminence from the grace and energy with which his college exercises were performed. The diligence and studiousness of the young scholar at this period are spoken of in terms of the highest commendation. As an evidence of their intensity, it is related that while the business of the university was suspended, and its members scattered, on account of a pestilential sickness, Jewell, by prosecuting his studies at late hours in a damp lower-floor apartroent in Whitney, a neighbouring village, contracted a lameness (probably a rheumatic affection) which remained with him through life.
In October, 1540, he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, with uncommon success in the customary exercises. His studies were continued with increased assiduity, frequently occupying him from four in the morning until ten at night, without intermission even for the purpose of taking food. The histories of Polybius. Livy, and Suetonius ; the orations of Cicero and Demosthenes, which he frequently declaimed in the open air, while walking for exercise; the works of Augustine; and the writings of Erasmus, are said to have been his favourite subjects of study; although the mathematies, and the scholastic sciences of logic and philosophy, as then taught, received no inconsiderable portion of his attention. He was assiduous, also, in the practice of composition, freely expressing his opinion that 'as much profit is to be gained by committing one's own meditations and acquired knowledge to paper, as by extensive reading.'
To these labours for his own improvement, were added the care of several pupils ; and, shortly after the reception of his degree, the duties of Lecturer in Humanity and Rhetoric, an office conferred on him by the unanimous suffrages of the President and. Fellows of his college. In this last capacity Jewell speedily acquired celebrity, not only without the walls of his own college, but beyond the limits of the university. The students of other colleges flocked to hear him ; and his former tutor, Parkhurst, then settled in the rectory of Cleve, at some distance from Oxford, being induced by the reputation of his lectures to visit the university purposely to attend them, expressed his satisfaction in an extempore Latin distich, importing that it was now the teacher's place to learn from him who had once been his scholar.
This period of Jewell's life was indeed eminently honourable and happy. His assiduous cultivation of an intellect naturally quick and fertile, placed him at an enviable distance above his fellows in the various branches of learning. Yet the blameless innocence of his life, and his engaging urbanity of manner, preserved
Vol. HI.—D
him from any ill effects of jealousy or disappointed emulation. Even the enemies of his religious principles were constrained to allow him their unwilling praise : it is reported that Moren, the Dean of his college, a man zealously attached to the Romish faith, and notorious for a laxity of morals very disadvantageously contrasted with Jewell's conduct, often broke out in such exclamations as, ' I should love thee, Jewell, if thou wert not a Zuinglian !'—or, ' In faith I hold thee a heretic ; but surely thy life seemeth that of an angel!' —or, ' Thou art an honest man, but a Lutheran V— The approbation of Parkhurst did not show itself only in empty praises: he committed his son to Jewell's tuition ; and when the young man found an interval in which he could free himself from the charge of his pupils and the duties of his college lecture-ship, the rectory of Cleve was always open for the hospitable reception of himself and any friend whom he might think proper to invite as a companion in his jaunt. An amusing anecdote, illustrative of the slenderness of Jewell's pecuniary resources at the time, is told concerning one of these visits. He had been accompanied in his excursion by one Wilson, a doctor of Medicine, afterwards physician to the queen: on the morning of their intended departure, their hospitable host, entering their room, playfully searched their pockets, professing his intention to 'see whether those poor beggarly Oxonians carried any money about them'; and finding their store but scanty, replenished it with a bountiful supply.—The same bounty assisted Jewell in bearing the expenses of his Master's degree, which he took in February, 1544.
The accession of Edward the Sixth, in 1546, not only added to the other comforts of Jewell's situation the prospect of quiet enjoyment of his own opinions, and of increased usefulness in their propagation ; but brought him an invaluable accession to his circle of friends, in Peter Martyr, who, by Cranmer's invitation, assumed the duties of Professor of Divinity at Oxford in 1548. To that eminent foreigner Jewell attached himself almost immediately in the closest intimacy—an intimacy from which he subsequently derived the most important benefits, in the time of his need, and which ended only with Martyr's life. He attended all the Professor's lectures, taking full notes—' so full,' says Humphrey, ' that they almost amount to a commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians and that to the Romans.' On his preaching, also, Jewell was no less diligent in his attention, and endeavours to preserve what he heard. He even acted as Martyr's notary, or shorthand writer, on occasion of the public dispute between him and Chedsey, Tresham, and Morgan, in May, 1549 : thus affording a proof, not only of the confidence placed in him by Martyr, and of his expertness in the business of reporting, or taking notes; but also of his decided attachment to the principles of Reformation, and boldness in avowing them ;—for Martyr had, but a short while previously, been under the necessity of temporary flight from the University to save his life, in the commencement of the very same dispute.
About or before this time, Jewell must have received holy orders, since Humphrey has preserved the outline of a sermon which he delivered to the students in the absence of Peter Martyr, some time before he took his degree of Bachelor in Divinity; and the sermon preached as an exercise for that degree was delivered on the Sunday after Ascension, in 1550. This last sermon is also preserved by Humphrey, nearly entire, and furnishes a specimen both of eloquent Latin composition, and of faithful statement of the fundamental principles of Gospel truth, in the highest degree creditable to its author. The text is 1 Peter iv. 11.
Jewell's situation at this period, as to pecuniary matters, was little better than in the earlier stages of his eollege life. It is recorded that a Dr. Curtop, a fellow of his college, and warmly attached to Peter Martyr, assisted him with an annual stipend of forty shillings; and that he received six pounds per annum for the purchase of theological books from Richard Chambers, a munificent individual, who liberally expended his own time and money, and contributions which he procured from others, in the patronage of learning and the principles of the Reformation in both universities. It was at a lecture supported by this gentleman, that Jewell addressed the scholars in the absence of Peter Martyr, as mentioned above.
The office of Lecturer on the Sentences, a sort of Professorship of Scholastical Divinity, which he received from the University in 1550, and that of preacher and catechist at Sunningwell, a small parish in the neighbourhood of Oxford, while they materially increased Jewell's duties, were probably desirable as aids towards his support. It is, however, expressly stated by his biographers that the stipend of the latter office was very small, and would have been no compensation for his labour, had not higher motives induced him to accept the situation, as an opportunity of doing good, though in an humble sphere. Once a fortnight, notwithstanding his lameness, he walked out to his little cure, and spent a#day in assiduous endeavours to spread the knowledge of salvation through Christ alone among both old and young, by faithful sermon?, and plain, affectionate catechetical instructions.
Beside these properly parochial labours, Jewell's anxiety to advance his Master's cause by winning souls, suffered him to lose no opportunity of preaching, either privately in his college, or before the university; and he is said to have done both frequently, although, with the exception of the discourses already mentioned, an English oration in commemoration of the founder of his college, and the text (James i. 21) of one other sermon, no relics of his labours are preserved. The accession of Queen Mary, in 1553, brought other times and occupations. The Popish doctrines had never been entirely rooted out from Oxford, however thoroughly the strong hand of power had suppressed their cognate practices. The strenuous exertions of Peter Martyr, Jewell, and the few like-minded with them, had accomplished little more than the dissemination of purer religion among the younger portion of the members of the University. Most of the heads of colleges and fellows were, at heart, attached to the faith which they had imbibed in infancy and inseparably associated with all their acquirements and opinions— although not a few had servilely pretended compliance and consent with the prevailing principles. These men—and more especially the latter class—wanted only opportunity to wreak their vengeance upon the individuals who had been so active in subverting their religion, destroying their influence and hold upon popular opinion, and reducing them to the hard alternative of silent submission to the adverse current, or mean prevarication. The time was now come. A bigoted favourer of their opinions had succeeded to the throne with hardly a show of opposition. They were sure of countenance in whatever measures they might take to humble and distress their late triumphant adversaries ; and might even claim thanks for vengeance done in their personal quarrel, as a meritorious exhibition of their zeal for the true Church.
Jewell, as one of the most zealous and able propagators of the obnoxious doctrines, was among the first who experienced the effects of the altered state of things. Almost immediately on the reception of the news of the queen's accession, before any public measures on the subject of religion had been originated, the head and fellows of his college hastily concerted his expulsion, according to Fuller,'i on the pretext that he refused to assist in the celebration of mass, which they had already restored; but more probably, on the charges mentioned by his biographers—that he was a follower of Peter Martyr; that he had taught the new doctrines; and that he had been ordained by the new ritual established in the reign of Edward. His public collegiate engagements were thus brought to a dose. He resigned them in a pathetic valedictory, of which the conclusion has been preserved, and may serve to give some idea of his feelings at the time, as well as of the ability with which they had been fulfilled.
" I see," he said, " that I have incurred the ill-will and malign regards of some. How far I have deserved them, let them answer. Certainly, they who will not suffer me here, would not allow me to live, were it at their option. For my part, I yield to the times : and if those men derive gratification from my calamities, I oppose no obstacle. I adopt the prayer of Aristides, when he went into exile and changed his country,— that none may hereafter have cause to remember me : and what more can they desire ? Pardon me, I beseech you, young men, if I am grieved at being torn by force
from a place where my early years were spent, where I have passed my life, where I have enjoyed some degree of consideration! But why do I delay the one word which consummates my misery ? Wo is me, that speaking it at last with anguish, I must bid farewell to my studies, to these roofs, to this polished seat of learning, to your loved society ! Farewell, young men! Farewell, striplings! Farewell, Fellows; farewell, brothers; farewell, beloved as mine eyes! Farewell, all! Farewell!"
There is more of tenderness, and unresisting submission to ill-treatment, in this passage, than of bold determination to suffer in the cause of truth. The same observation applies to the whole of Jewell's subsequent conduct. His past activity and eminent abilities excluded the hope of being suffered to pass unnoticed in the new order of things, on condition merely of silence and retirement. He was a marked man, and must expect to furnish an example of the treatment destined for his party. Yet he appears to have avoided this unenviable eminence as long, and as carefully, as possible. To his expulsion, as he declares in the passage quoted, he opposed no obstacle, but quietly retired to Broadgates Hall, another university foundation, where, for the time, he was suffered to find an asylum, and busied himself in the instruction of pupils whom his reputation still attracted round him. Even when, almost immediately after his expulsion, he was chosen by the University for its orator, probably with a view to the congratulatory address to be made to Mary on her accession, and, as it seems hardly possible not to suspect, with the very design of ensnaring him into some inconsistency or imprudence in the discharge of that delicate duty;—even then, he appears to have made no effort to decline the dangerous and insidious honour. Still less did he embrace the opportunity it afforded for a manly, though hazardous, avowal of his principles. On the contrary, his gifted pen was employed in the expression of congratulations and hopes which could hardly have been sincere on the part of the writer; although some palliation is afforded by the fact that he, in common with many others, was at the time deluded by the false promises of the queen, made at her accession, and sedulously propagated by her emissaries, that she would make no alteration in the state of religion.
This compliance, however humiliating and distressing, did not yet satisfy the enemies of Jewell. They had resolved that he should drink the cup of bitterness to the dregs; and were but too successful. The odious office of Inquisitor was established in the University ; and as one of the most suspected, Jewell was among the first subjects of its exercise. A list of the distinguishing articles of the Romish faith was offered him, as a test of his freedom from ' heretical pravity,' and his signature required, with the customary alternative—imprisonment, and ultimately death. The trial was too hard for him: he dared not refuse ; but to conceal, if possible, even from himself, the baseness of subscription to articles which he was known to disbelieve, he affected to turn the matter into jest, and exclaiming with a smile ' What, must I write ? will the sight of my hand-writing give you such pleasure 1 have you set it so much to heart to see how well I can write ?'—he signed.
Even this was not enough. The very manner of Jewell's subscription gave evidence that he was not sincere ; and it is not unlikely, that his after-thoughts vented themselves in expressions of regret or disgust. Certain it is, that remorse on his part, and renewed persecution by his enemies, speedily followed up the degrading compliance. Marshall, then Dean of Christ Church, himself an apostate, was the willing instrument of the machinations now carried on against the life of the intended victim, and despatehed a letter of accusation to Bonner—the ' bloody Bonner,' bishop of London.— Jewell providentially learned the fact, just in time to flee for his life. On foot, alone, in every respect unprovided for his journey, he left Oxford in the evening, to travel up to London. He took a by-road, and to that circumstance owed his escape from persons already commissioned to apprehend him. Most probably it was the road to Cleves, for thither he is said to have gone, in search of Parkhurst, whom he found already fled to London, and almost to have perished in the snow. That he did nearly perish on the way from Oxford to London, is certain; he was found lying on the earth in a state of complete exhaustion, by one Augustine Berner, once a servant of Latimer, and at the time in holy orders, and by him carried on his horse to the house of Lady Warcop, a hospitable and pious widow residing in the neighborhood. There the poor fugitive met with a kind reception ; and when completely recovered, was forwarded, without cost or further trouble, to his journey's end.
At London, Jewell remained some time in concealment at different places, until by the intervention of Giles Lawrence, (a fellow collegian, and subsequently the preacher of his funeral sermon,) he was provided with the means of escape to the continent, by the bounty of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, then a privy counsellor, and afterwards distinguished by several foreign embassies under Elizabeth.
He arrived safely at Frankfort in Germany, and was joyfully received by a number of his countrymen who had preceded him in voluntary exile for conscience' sake. Among their first cares was the administration of Christian reproof to a brother whose weakness had disgraced the common cause by tergiversation in the hour of trial. Chambers, Jewell's Oxford benefactor, and Sampson, afterwards eminent among the Puritans, admonished him, in the name of the rest, that it was his duty by a public recantation of his subscription, and acknowledgment of its criminality, to make the only amends now rn his power. To Sandys, at that time his chamber-fellow, and afterwards his colleague in the Episcopate, Jewell frankly declared, the same evening, that he would freely comply with their advice—that he had already resolved on the same steps, of his own accord—intimating that his conscience would never be at rest till he had done it. Accordingly, on the very next occasion of public worship he preached, and concluded his sermon with a full confession of his fault; attributing it to 'his abject and cowardly mind, and faint heart, that made his weak hand commit that wickedness,' and begging forgiveness of God and of his brethren with such humble earnestness and evident contrition as to move the whole audience to tears, and to raise himself higher than ever in their esteem.
Jewell did not stay long at Frankfort. Peter Martyr, who had escaped from England in the beginning of the troubles, and had not forgotten his friend and pupil, pressed him with such urgent and repeated solicitations to remove to Strasburgh, where he was then Professor, that he at length complied, and, more fortunate than his companions in exile, found a peaceful and happy home in the family of his bosom friend. In requital for this hospitality, Jewell rendered material services to his host. Martyr was at the time reading lectures on the book of Judges, which his guest assisted him to prepare for publication. The lectures were delivered in the morning, from brief notes or sketehes. Jewell's readiness in shorthand writing enabled him to commit them to paper nearly as uttered by the professor. After the conclusion of the lecture, they compared their notes. The afternoon was spent by Jewell in transcribing his corrected copy fairly for the press.
In 1566, Martyr accepted an invitation to fill the Hebrew professorship at Zurich, and was accompanied thither by his guest. There Jewell filled the station of clerk, or reader, to his benefactor; being employed not only to take notes of his lectures as before, but also, in the afternoons, to read aloud from the writings of some of the fathers—generally Auoustine, of whom both were peculiarly fond.
Both at Strasburgh and at Zurich, Jewell associated with numbers of his countrymen, like him fugitives from persecution, and most of them, like him, subsequently distinguished. Sir John Cheke, the eminent Greek scholar ; Sir Anthony Cooke ; Sir Richard Morison ; Sir Peter Carey; Sir Thomas Worth; Poynet, at the time bishop of Winchester ; Grindal, afterward archbishop of York; and Thomas Heaton, a London merchant, by whose liberality most of the others were supported in their exile ; were among his intimates at Strasburgh. Pilkington, afterwards bishop of Durham ; Humphrey, Jewell's biographer; and ten others of less note, who boarded with them at a common table in the house of Froschover, the printer, were his companions at Zurich.—Sandys, afterward bishop of London ; Home, afterward bishop of Winchester; Whitehead, the noted Puritan; Sir Francis Knollys, subsequently lord treasurer, and his son; were among those who had first received him on his arrival at Frankfort.— With all these, in his successive changes of residence, not only the claims of fellow-citizenship, and the stronger tie of community in suffering for a common faith, but reputation for learning and talents, joined with unusual facility and suavity of manners, secured to Jewell a most favorable reception. It is greatly to his honor, that, connected as he was with the residents at each of the three principal places of retreat for the English exiles, he escaped entanglement in the unhappy dissensions which broke out so early, and raged so bitterly, among them. His only interference, (if, indeed he interfered at all, was to exhort his brethren to lay aside their contentions, and to warn them of the ill consequences which must result.
Jewell's friendships commenced during his four years of exile, were by no means limited to his associates in misfortune. Beside Peter Martyr, he formed intimacies with Bullinger, Simler, Herman, Zanchius, Walter, Gesner, Lavater (the son-in-law of Zuingle), Wolf, and Haller; all divines of learning, and eminent among that branch of Protestants known as the Reformed or Zuinglians. From expressions in the correspondence which he kept up with Martyr and Bullinger to the end of his life, it is evident that with most of these associates he contracted a strong mutual attachment. Their respect for him was testified in various ways long after he had quitted his temporary asylum. We find Simler dedicating to him his life of Martyr, in 1563 ; and Lavater and Bullinger paying similar compliments, at a still later period. On the other hand Jewell's affection showed itself,- not only in his frequent letters, but in presents and pensions, which he contrived to save out of his scanty episcopal revenues, and remit to individuals whom he deemed in need. His correspondence with Martyr and Bullinger, in particular, was of the most confidential character: in it his occupations, his views of the state and prospects of religion, and his lord treasurer, and his son; were among those who had first received him on his arrival at Frankfort.— With all these, in his successive changes of residence, not only the claims of fellow-citizenship, and the stronger tie of community in suffering for a common faith, but reputation for learning and talents, joined with unusual facility and suavity of manners, secured to Jewell a most favorable reception. It is greatly to his honor, that, connected as he was with the residents at each of the three principal places of retreat for the English exiles, he escaped entanglement in the unhappy dissensions which broke out so early, and raged so bitterly, among them. His only interference, (if, indeed he interfered at all, was to exhort his brethren to lay aside their contentions, and to warn them of the ill consequences which must result.
Jewell's friendships commenced during his four years of exile, were by no means limited to his associates in misfortune. Beside Peter Martyr, he formed intimacies with Bullinger, Simler, Herman, Zanchius, Walter, Gesner, Lavater (the son-in-law of Zuingle), Wolf, and Haller; all divines of learning, and eminent among that branch of Protestants known as the Reformed or Zuinglians. From expressions in the correspondence which he kept up with Martyr and Bullinger to the end of his life, it is evident that with most of these associates he contracted a strong mutual attachment. Their respect for him was testified in various ways long after he had quitted his temporary asylum. We find Simler dedicating to him his life of Martyr, in 1563 ; and Lavater and Bullinger paying similar compliments, at a still later period. On the other hand Jewell's affection showed itself,- not only in his frequent letters, but in presents and pensions, which he contrived to save out of his scanty episcopal revenues, and remit to individuals whom he deemed in need. His correspondence with Martyr and Bullinger, in particular, was of the most confidential character: in it his occupations, his views of the state and prospects of religion, and his
footnote • Peatlt says that he did, while resident at Zurich, and to the effect stated in the text. But he appears to have inferred this, without sufficient reason, from a sentence of Humphrey, whom he generally translates, and sometimes misrepresents.
opinions of men and measures, are so fully stated, that to the portion which has been preserved and published we are indebted for a very large share of our information concerning the religious history of the first years of Elizabeth. He laid open to them all his difficulties and all his fears; consulted them on the delicate questions of duty and expediency, which were continually arising; and not unfrequently even asked and obtained assistance in the prosecution of his studies/
The death of Mary, and the accession of Elizabeth, on the 17th of November, 1558, were the joyful signal of return to the exiles. Jewell was not among the earliest revisitants of his country, and the date of his arrival in England is uncertain. That he met his old tutor, Parkhurst, at Strasburgh, on his way home ; that he had an unusually long passage, being fifty-seven days on his journey from Zurich; and that he arrived in time to be appointed one of the disputants in the famous conference between the Romish and Protestant Divines, held during the sitting of Parliament, in March, 1558-9, is all that is known.
He found England, by his own account, in 'a worse state than he expected : the Pope not yet expelled : no part of religion restored: the mass every where predominant: the pomp and insolence of the bishops the same as before the reformation. Yet all this beginning to change, and displaying indications of a rapid downfall.' Of the queen's disposition he speaks favorably, as prudent, courageous, and pious, though impeded by her counsellors, and still more by the pertinacious adherence of the bishops to their old faith.'—The queen's proclamation of Dec. 30th, 1558, had forbidden any immediate alteration in the state of religion, or innovation in rites or ceremonies; sanctioning only, for the present, the use of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Epistle and Gospel, in the English language—which was accordingly commenced on the ensuing Sunday, Jan. 1, 155S-9; and had made provision for a revision of the Liturgy. This revision had
footnote. A letter to BuIIinger is extant, in -which he asks for information in several of the most difficult points discussed between Hardino and himself in the Confutation and Defence.
been made : and it was with a view to facilitate the introduction of the new form of service, that a disputation between nine divines of either contending party, to be conducted in writing, in the English language, before the members of the Council and both houses of Parliament, in the church of Westminster, was appointed to be held on the 13th of March, 1558-9. The points to be discussed were : 1, the lawfulness of prayers in the vulgar tongue; 2, the power of the Church to change rites and ceremonies ; and 3, the scriptural authority for the sacrifice of the Mass : all having an immediate bearing upon the contemplated measure. It may be presumed that the most able men among the favourers of the new opinions were selected to advocate their cause on this occasion: the association of Jewell's name in the list of the nine reformed divines, with those of Scory, Coxe, Whitehead, Sandys, Grindal, Home, Aylmer, and Guest, is no slight testimony to the estimation in which he was held. The conference was, however, attended with no direct result. The Romish divines refused to adhere to the regulations prescribed, to which they had previously assented ; and after two meetings, in which a temperate and able treatise on the first question in dispute, read in behalf of the Reformers by Home, was answered with vehement vituperation and childish reasoning in an extempore speech by Dr. Cole, it was broken up, and two of the Romish bishops committed to the Tower for contumacious and insolent behaviour.—A discourse upon the second question, which had been prepared by the Reformers, and though not handed in, is still extant, has been attributed, on internal evidence, to the pen of Jewell. Its style sufficiently resembles his, except that it is less diffuse—which may be accounted for by the occasion, requiring brevity, and by the revision which it no doubt received from his coadjutors. Be this as it may, it is certain from his correspondence with Martyr, that he took a lively interest in this conference ; and from a passage in one of his sermons, it appears that he regretted its interruption, and even wished for a renewal.E
footnote. * Sermon, p. 207, as quoted by Strype, Annals, I. 95.
footnote. 1 From this time, Jewell was wholly occupied in the advancement of the work of reformation, and the settlement of the doctrines and worship of the Church of England upon a firm and solid basis.
In April, he joined with other leading divines in presenting to the queen a set of articles containing an account of their faith, drawn up, according to his own representation to Peter Martyr, in close adherence to the confession of the Reformers of Zurich.h
In the following month, after the dissolution of Parliament, it was resolved to set on foot a visitation of all parts of the kingdom by special commissions, for the purpose of discovering and rectifying ecclesiastical errors and abuses : the vacancy of a majority of the bishopries, by death, and the determined opposition of all the surviving occupants of sees to the reformation, rendering such a measure absolutely necessary. The preparation of instructions for the commissioners was a work of no small importance, as it involved, in a measure, the settlement of the plan upon which all subsequent proceedings were to be conducted. It accordingly excited much discussion, in which we find from Jewell's correspondence that he was both deeply interested and actively engaged. He warmly opposed, both the use of images, which the queen was inclined to retain, with certain restrictions and explanations ; and the enforcement of the use of the surplice, and of the cape and hood, according to their respective degrees, upon the officiating clergy. With relation to the former point, the strenuous and firm remonstrances of the leading Protestant divines prevailed so far that the ' Articles and Injunctions' were silent upon the subject. As to the other, the result was different.
The exiles during Mary's reign had, without exception, returned to England indisposed for the use of the distinctions in habit,' which it was proposed to enjoin.
footnote. o "Neminimo quidem apice discessimus a Confessione Tigurina." Ep. in Strype, Annals, I. 114, ss.
foontoe. i It does not appear that in the beginning of the differences, any objection was taken to the use of the surplice alone. Hooper, one of the earliest, if not the first, who expressed conscientious scruples on the score of dress, objected to the episcopal robes : and if they were such as described by Strype (Annals, I. 255,) as "scarlet lined, and
Vol. III.—E
Some among them had imbibed conscientious scruples, grounded on a supposed connexion with Popery and contrariety to the simplicity of the Gospel. Jewell, and many others, while they had no such scruples, were equally strenuous against the enforcement of the habits ; partly out of regard for their weaker brethren, but principally on the score of the manifest impropriety of ' tithing mint and cumin' by rigidly exacting conformity in matters of so little real importance, while the ' weightier matters of the law' so imperiously required undivided attention and the combination of the energies and zeal of all. But these salutary counsels did not prevail. Conformity with prescribed rules of dress was one of the requisitions which the commissioners were directed to enforce ; and Jewell indignantly complained to his German friends, that, while he and those who agreed with him in opinion were excluded from the queen's counsels, matters hardly worthy of discussion except in jest, ' were seriously and gravely pondered ; as if the religion of Christ could not stand without a parcel of rags.' " We," he concludes, " are not so free from more important cares, as to be able to set such value on these trifles.'" It is, indeed, no wonder that men filled with distracting anxiety relative both to the event of the proceedings on religious matters and to their own concerns, should have felt vexed at petty enactments about hoods and capes which hardly deserve a milder epithet than ' superlatively ridiculous !'
Yet, however little respect may have been paid to Jewell's opinions in the preparation for the approaching visitation, his honourable standing in the estimation hoods down their backs of miniver," his dislike is not surprising. In the articles brought into the lower house of Convocation, in 1563-3, by those who were afterwards the Puritans, the surplice is declared ' sufficient,' evidently on the ground that the objections lay against the additions—the cape and hood ; and ministers are forbidden to say service except ' in a comely garment or habit.' Stnype, Annals, I. 299 s.
footnote. * The vestments enjoined w4re : 1, a long gown, close at the hands, with no cape—to be worn on, fll occasions: 2, a sarcenet tippet, to be assumed by dignitaries, on .going abroad: 3, a square cap, to be worn except when travelling.—sfworthless was the cause of the dispute !
footnote. ' Letter No. 50 in th^. Appendix to Burnet's History of the Reformation, Vol. III. '" : ' ' •
of men in power was evinced by his appointment to a principal share in the execution; and, on the other hand, his acceptance of the appointment proved thathl» opposition to the injunction concerning vestments had arisen from dislike to the measure, and fear of its consequences, rather than principle or conscientious scruple.
The commissioners intrusted with the visitation were chiefly laymen. The kingdom was apportioned among several committees, in each of which there was one clerical member. Jewell held this placein the committee appointed to visit the dioceses of Sarum, Bristol, Bath and Wells, and Gloucester—a district including Devonshire, his own native county." The method of visitation was by progress through the district, holding sittings at every principal town, and making the requisite examinations and inquiries relative to the neighbouring parishes, both in writing, and by personal inspection. Jewell's committee began this progress on the 1st of August, 1559, and were occupied in its prosecution until the 30th of October; travelling more than seven hundred miles in the interval.
Before undertaking this laborious task, Jewell preached at Paul's cross" on the 18th of June,—a duty
footnote. » Not only Sandys (like Jewell, an exile,) but even Parker, seems, in an expression in a letter of the former to him, to have been inclined to oppose the distinctions in the habits; at least, to wish them not imposed. Strype, Annals, I. 84. From the same passage it appears that the order to retain them until the queen's farther pleasure, was the work of the queen's lay-counsellors; no doubt, in subservience to the inclinations of their mistress.
footnote. Featlt quaintly remarks, that "it fell out fitly that he presented the first-born of his labours in the ministry, after his return from exile, in Devonshire, and parts adjacent; there first breaking the bread of life, where he first received the breath of life." Life, prefixed to Jewell's Works, fol. 1611, p. 8.
footnote. • This was a ' pulpit cross of timber, mounted upon steps ol stone,' in the churchyard of St. Paul's. It had been a custom, almost from time immemorial, to have a sermon preached there every Sunday morning by some eminent divine; ' at which the court and magistrates of the city, beside a vast concourse of people, usually attended.' It Was a place of great resort for persons of every class and character; to such a degree, that the crowd and bustle were sometimes complained of, as disturbing the preacher, and making him forget his matter.
Of course, in the progress of the reformation, an opportuinty such as this afforded for gaining the popular ear, was not to be neglected; and at the time considered as the very championship of the reformation, and committed to none but the most learned and eloquent divines. The appointment was, therefore, no small honour, and an evidence of his growing reputation. Parkhurst had long before remarked, when struck with the acuteness of some observation made by Jewell during one of their collations of the English versions of the New Testament, ' Surely, Paul's cross will one day ring of this boy V He little thought how literally he should live to see his prediction verified!
A still higher testimony to Jewell's worth was given him, just before the commencement of the visitation, by his nomination to the vacant bishopric of Salisbury. There is no evidence in his correspondence, or in the records of his life, that he had any intimacy with the leading men at court. On the contrary, the frequent intimations in his letters of discontent with their measures, and exclusion from their counsels, seem to show that for some months after his return, at least, he had very little direct intercourse with the court and counsellors of Elizabeth. Yet his merits forced their way to notice and trust. Duty after duty was committed to him, until six short months saw the homeless wanderer exalted to one of the highest dignities of his calling.
This burthensome and responsible office was not accepted without some hesitation. In a letter dated the first of August, mentioning the fact of his nomination, he adds, ' which burthen I am utterly determined to throw off.'"' Possibly the delay of his election by either party, as they alternately came in power, were careful to provide their ablest men, to promulgate and defend their opinions at Paul's Cross.
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