porting his doctrine with the highest authorities. "The most meek Moses instructs us about making cases for books in the neatest manner, wherein they may be safely preserved from all damage. Take this book, says he, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. O befitting place, made of imperishable Shittim wood, and covered all over, inside and out, with gold! But our Saviour also, by his own example, precludes all unseemly negligence in the treatment of books, as may be read in Luke iv. For when he had read over the scriptural prophecy written about himself, in a book delivered to him, he did not return it till he had first closed it with his most holy hands; by which act students are most clearly taught that they ought not, in the smallest degree whatever, to be negligent about the custody of books."* He might well say of himself—" ecstatico quodam librorum amore potenter se abreptum."+ He died at Bishops Auckland on the 14th of April, 1345, full of years and of honours. Fourteen days after his death he was buried "quodammodo honorifice, non tamen cum honore satis congruo," says Chambre, before the altar of the blessed Mary Magdalene, in his own cathedral. But the exalted situation he occupied in the opinion and esteem of Petrarch and other eminent literary men of the fourteenth. century, shed brighter lustre on his memory than it could have derived from funeral processions, or from monuments and epitaphs. "What can be more delightful to a lover of his country's intellectual reputation, than to find such a character as De Bury in such an age of war and bloodshed, uniting the calm and mild conduct of a legislator with the sagacity of a philosopher and the elegant mind of a scholar?" On De Bury's resignation of the Great Seal in 1335, it was restored to Archbishop Stratford, whose second Chancellorship [JUNE 6, 1335.] extended to 1337.§ Now, from the groundless claim set up by the Plantagenets to the crown of France, against the house of Valois, began the bloody wars which lasted above a century, and which laid the foundation of that jealousy and hostile rivalry between the two nations, which unfortu nately has never since entirely subsided. While the great bulk of the people of England eagerly supported the warlike measures of the King, *P. 101. Luke, iv. 20. "And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down." † As it was said that Garth did not write his own Dispensary," the Philobiblon has been attributed to Holcot, a Dominican friar, who was the author's amanuensis,' -but without any reason, for it bears the strongest internal evidence of being the composition of the Chancellor De Bury himself; it was attributed to him by his contemporaries, and a notice on an early copy of it says:-"Quod opus (Philobiblon) Auclandiæ in habitatione suâ complevit 24 die Januarii, anno a communis salutis origine 1344, ætatis suæ 58, et 11 sui pontificatus." + Dibdin, Bibliomania, p. 247.—I am rather surprised that a "De Bury Club" has not yet been established by Philobiblists, as he was undoubtedly the founder of the order in England. § Rot. Cl. 9 Ed. 3, m. 28. 1 See "Bibliographical and Retrospective Miscellany," Art. De Bury. it ought to be recorded, to the immortal honour of this Chancellor, that he dissuaded the enterprise in its commencement, and always strove for the restoration of peace, at the hazard of offending the King, and with the certainty of incurring public odium by combating the popular delusion. It must be confessed, that, on this occasion, we not only were the aggressors, but that there was not even any plausible or colourable pretence for going to war. No national grievance could be urged, for the French had merely assisted the Scotch in fulfilment of ancient treaties. Then, as to the family dispute,-by the Salic law which had regulated the descent of the crown of France from the foundation of the monarchy, no female could wear the crown, so that no claim to the crown could be made through a female, and the title of Philip de Valois, which Edward himself had, though reluctantly, recognised, by doing homage to him as his liege Lord, was unquestionable, both by hereditary right and the general consent of the French people. But the glaring absurdity in the claim was, that if the Salic law were entirely disregarded, and female descent were admitted in France as in England, there were females in existence, and males descended through emales, whose title was clearly preferable to that of Edward.* Archbishop Stratford resigned the Great Seal the second time just before Edward assumed the title of King of France, with the armorial bearings of that crown, and set out on his first expedition to support his title. There is great reason to think that it was the Chancellor's pacific policy which led to his retreat. Still, however, he was on good terms with the King, and his brother was appointed to succeed him.† ROBERT DE STRATFORD appears to have been almost as much distinguished for ability, and to have had a career almost as brilliant, as John, and they exhibit the single instance of [A. D. 1337.] two brothers holding successively the office of Lord Chancellor. He, too, had studied at Oxford, and had gained the highest honours of the University. When the Great Seal was delivered to him, his rank in the Church was only that of Archdeacon of Canterbury, but he was soon after raised to the see of Chichester; and he was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford, probably as much from hopes excited by his present power as from the recollection of his academical proficiency. He had several times previously been intrusted with the custody of the Great Seal as Vice-chancellor, and he must have been familiar with the duties of the office; but, on account of his many avocations, soon after his elevation he delivered the Great Seal into the keeping of St. Paul, the Master of the Rolls, who was to act as his deputy.‡ He continued Chancellor till the 6th of July, 1338, when he retired *This was the sensible view of the question taken by the Chancellor, who gave very different advice to Edward III. from that which, according to Shakspeare, was given by Archbishop Chicheley to Henry V. K. Hen.-"May I with right and conscience make this claim?" + Rot. Cl. 11 Ed. 3, m. 29. for a time, and was succeeded by Richard de ByntEWORTH, or BENTWORTH, OF WENTWORTH,* Bishop elect of London. What was the reason of this change I have not been able to discover. The Stratfords do not seem then to have lost the favour of the King, and while he was engaged in preparing to prosecute the French war they still assisted him with their counsels, however much they might disapprove of his mea sures. I find little respecting the history of the new Chancellor, except that he had been a prebendary of St. Paul's. He enjoyed for a very short time his new dignities. Having received the Great Seal and been sworn in as Chancellor at Walton, he immediately returned the Seal to the King, being obliged to go to London to be consecrated. It was then given in charge to St. Paul and Baumburgh, to keep until the Chancellor should be returned to court. The King left England for France on the 11th of July, having sent them a new Great Seal, which he wished to be used in England during his absence, he taking abroad with him the Great Seal before in use. The temporary Seal was delivered to the Chancellor on the 19th of July following,t [A. D. 1339.] and continued in his possession till the 7th of December in the following year,-when he suddenly died. The Seal was delivered the next morning, by two of the officers of the deceased Chancellor to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who immediately sent it to the council appointed by the King to administer the government in his absence. They handed it over to three persons to be used for sealing necessary writs, and on the 16th of February following it was placed in the sole custody of the Master of the Rolls, by virtue of a letter of Prince Edward, Guardian of the realm. The King having returned to England in about a fortnight after, he delivered to the Master of the Rolls a new Seal with the fleur-de-lys engraved upon it, which he had brought with him from France,-impressions of which were sent into every county in England for the purpose of making it generally known.‡ On the 28th of April, 1340, John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, was made Lord Chancellor for the third time. The King was again to pass beyond the seas, and he placed this old public servant at the head of the council to govern in his absence, in the belief that he was the fittest man that could be selected to obtain supplies from Parliament, to levy the subsidies that might be voted, and to raise men for the war now carrying on to win the crown of France. While Edward lay at the siege of Tournay a parliament was held by commission at Westminster, and the Chancellor, on the [A. D. 1340.]7th of July, the first day of the session, declared that it *Rot. Cl. 12 Ed. 3. This is an instance of B. and W. being interchangeable, of which we have another in the Bicestre at Paris, built by the Bishop of Winchester, Vincester-Bincester, Bicestre. So in some parts of England walnuts are called balnuts or bannets. In the Spanish language every v is convertible into b. Hence the felicitous pun:-" Beati quibus vivere est bibere." + Rot. Cl. 12 Ed. 3, m. 22. Rot. Cl. 14 Ed. 3, m. 42. had been summoned "to consult what farther course was best for the King and his allies to take against France."* Liberal supplies in money and provisions were voted, and notwithstanding the charge of treachery or remissness afterwards brought against the Archbishop, he seems to have exerted himself to the utmost to render them available to the public service. On account of his infirmity of body he again resigned the office of Chancellor, and the King again appointed Robert Stratford, Bishop of Chichester, as his successor.† The two brothers continued jointly to manage the King's affairs in England without the slightest suspicion of any change in his sentiments towards them till his sudden and wrathful return, when they were dismissed from their employments, and, but for their sacred character as ecclesiastics, would have been in great danger of losing their heads. Edward had derived no fruits from the great naval victory he had lately gained on the coast of Flanders, and though he had commanded a more numerous army than ever before or since served under the banner of an English sovereign, he had been able to make no progress in his romantic enterprise. He had incurred immense debts with the Flemings, for which he had even pawned his own person. The remittances from England came in much slower than he expected, and he found it convenient to throw the blame on those he had left in authority at home. He escaped from his creditors, and after encountering a violent tempest, arrived at the Tower of London in the middle of the night of the 30th of November. He began by committing to prison and treating with unusual rigour the constable and others who had charge of the Tower, on pretence that it was negligently guarded. His vengeanee then fell on the Lord Chancellor, whom next day he deprived of his office, and ventured for some time to detain in prison. Nay more, he inveighed against the whole order of the priesthood as unfit for any secular employment, and he astonished the kingdom by the bold innovation of appointing a layman as Chancellor. Considering how ecclesiastics in those ages had entrenched themselves in privileges and immunities, so that no civil penalty could regularly be inflicted upon them for any public malversation, and that they were so much in the habit, when once elevated to high station by royal favour, of preferring the extension of priestly domination to gratitude or respect for temporal authority, it seems at first sight wonderful that the great offices of state were ever bestowed upon them. On the other hand, there were peculiar causes which favoured their promotion. Being the only educated class, they were best qualified for civil employments requiring * 1 Parl. Hist. 99. + Rot. Cl. 14 Ed. 3, m. 13. Upon this occasion the Great Seal was broken on account of a change in the King's armorial bearings, and another Seal, with an improved emblazonment of the fleur-de-lys, was delivered by the King, when embarking for France, to St. Paul, the Master of the Rolls, to be carried to the new Chan. cellor. knowledge and address; when raised to the prelacy they enjoyed equal dignity with the greatest barons, and gave weight by their personal authority to the official powers intrusted to them, while at the same time they did not excite the envy, jealousy, and factious combinations which always arose when laymen of obscure birth were elevated to power. They did not endanger the Crown by accumulating wealth or influence in their families, and they were restrained by the decency of their character from that open rapine and violence so often practised by the nobles.* These motives had hitherto induced Edward to follow the example of his predecessors, and to employ ecclesiastics as his ministers, at the risk of their turning against him and setting him at defiance. But, finding that by the Clementine Constitutions he was obliged immediately to release the dismissed Chancellor from prison, and that the Archbishop, whom he likewise wished to call to account, fulminated an excommunication against him, he resolved in future to employ only men whom he could control and punish. CHAPTER XIV. CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL, FROM THE APPOINTMENT OF SIR ROBERT BOURCHIER TILL THE APPOINTMENT OF WILLIAM DE WICKHAM. THE first lay Lord Chancellor appointed by an English king was Sir ROBERT BOURCHIER, Knight,t-a distinguished soldier. He was the eldest son of Sir John Bourchier, a Judge of the Court [DEC. 14, 1340.] seated at Halstead, in Essex. His education was very of Common Pleas,-the representative of a family long slender, being engaged in military adventures from early youth; but he showed great capacity as well as courage in the field, and was a particular favourite of King Edward III., whom he accompanied in all his campaigns. In 1337 he was at the battle of Cadsant, and had lately before Tournay witnessed the discomfiture of all Edward's mighty preparations for the conquest of France. He joined in the loud complaints against the ministers who had been appointed to superintend the supplies and levies at home, and in the advice that the Stratfords should be punished for their supposed misconduct. The resolution being taken to put down the ascendency of ecclesiastics, -from the shrewdness and energy of this stout knight, he was thought a fit instrument to carry it into effect, and not only was the Great Seal delivered to him, but he was regarded as the King's chief councillor. * Hume's Hist. vol. ii. p. 409. + Rot. Cl. 14 Ed. 3. m. 10. |