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to attend and instruct him, till time made him capable, and his learning, expressed in public exercises, declared him worthy, to receive his first degree in the schools, which he forbore by advice from his friends, who, being for their religion of the Romish persuasion, were 'conscionably averse to some parts of the oath that is always tendered at those times, and not to be refused by those that expect the titulary honour of their studies. About the fourteenth year of his age he was transplanted from Oxford to Cambridge, where, that he might receive nourishment from both soils, he staid till his seventeenth year; all which time he was a most laborious student, often changing his studies, but en'deavouring to take no degree, for the reasons formerly 'mentioned.

About the seventeenth year of his age he was removed to London, and then admitted into Lincoln'sInn, with an intent to study the law, where he gave 'great testimonies of his wit, his learning, and of his improvement, in that profession, which never served him for other use than an ornament, and self-satisfaction.

His father died before hisantission into this society, and, being a merchant let him his portion in money, (it was 300c.) His mother, and those to whose care he was committed, were watchful to improve his knowledge, and to that end appointed him tutors in the mathematics, and all the liberal sciences, to attend him; but with these arts they were advised to instilĮ

particular principles of the Romish church, of which those tutors professed, tho' secretly, themselves to be members.

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They had almost obliged him to their faith, having for their advantage (besides many opportunities) the example of his dear and pious parents, which was a most powerful persuasion, and did work much upon him, as he professeth in his Preface to his Pseudo-Martyr, a book of which the reader shall have some account in what follows.

He was now entered into the eighteenth year of his age, and at that time had betrothed himself to no religion that might give him any other denomination than a Christian; and reason and piety had both persuaded him that there could be no such sin as schism, if a adherence to some visible church were not necessary.

He did, therefore, at his entrance into the nineteenth year of his age, (tho' his youth and strength then promised him a long life) yet being unresolved in his religion, he thought it necessary to rectify all scruples that concerned that; and therefore waving the law, and betrothing himself to no art or profession that might justly denominate him, he begun to survey the body of divinity, as it was then controverted betwixt the Reformed and the Roman church; and as God's blessed Spirit did then awaken him to the search, and in that industry did never forsake him, (they be his own words, in his Preface to Pseudo-Martyr) so he calls

the same holy Spirit to witness this protestation, that in that disquisition and search he proceeded with hu mility and diffidence in himself, and by that, which he took to be the safest way, namely, frequent prayers, and an indifferent affection to both parties; and indeed, Truth had too much light about her to be hid from so sharp an inquirer, and he had too much ingenuity not to acknowledge he had found her. 14 **** Being to undertake this search, he believed the Cardinal Bellarmine to be the best defender of the Roman cause, and therefore betook himself to the examination of his reasons. The cause was weighty, and wilful delays had been inexcusable both towards God and his own conscience; he therefore proceeded in this search with all moderate haste, and before the twentieth year of his age did shew the then Dean of Gloucester (whose name my memory hath now lost) all the Cardinal's works, marked with many weighty observations under his own hand, which works were bequeathed by him at his death as a legacy to a most dear friend.

The year following he resolved to travel, and the Earl of Essex going first to Calais, and after the Island voyages, he took the advatage of those opportunities, waited upon his Lordship, and was an eye-witness of those happy and unhappy employments.

But he returned not back into England till he had staid some years first in Italy, and then in Spain, where

he made many useful observations of those countries, their laws, and manner of government, and returned perfect in their languages,

The time that he spent in Spain was, at his first going into Italy, designed for travelling the Holy Land, and for viewing Jerusalem and the sepulchre of our Saviour; but at his being in the furthest parts of Italy, the disappointment of company, or of a safe convoy, or the uncertainty of returns of money into those remote parts, denied him that happiness, which he did cften occasionally mention with a deploration.

Not long after his return into England, that exemplary pattern of gravity and wisdom, the Lord Else more, then Keeper of the Great Seal, and Lord Chancellor of England, taking notice of his learning, langu ges, and other abilities, and much affecting his person and condition, took him to be his chief Secretary, supposing and intending it to be an introduction to some more weighty employment in the state, for which his Lordship did often protest he thought him very fit.

Nor did his Lordship, in this time of Mr. Donne's attendance upon him, account him to be so much his şervant as to forget he was his friend; and, to testify it, did always use him with much courtesy, appointing him a place at his own table, to which he esteemed his company and discourse a great ornament.

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He continued that employment for the space of five years, being daily useful, and not mercenary to his

friends; during which time he (I dare not say unhap-. pily) fell into such a liking as, with her approbation, increased into a love, with a young gentlewoman that lived in that family, who was niece to the Lady Elsemore, and daughter to Sir George Moor, then Chancellor of the Garter, and Lieutenant of the Tower.

Sir George had some intimation of it, and knowing prevention to be a great part of wisdom, did therefore remove her with much haste from that to his own house at Lothesley, in the county of Surrey; but too late, by reason of some faithful promises, which were so interchangeably passed as never to be violated by either party.

These promises were only known to themselves, and the friends of both parties used much diligence and many arguments to kill or cool their affections to each other, but in vain; for love is a flattering mischief, that hath denied aged and wise men a foresight of those evils that too often prove to be the children of that blind father; a passion that carries us to commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds remove feathers, and begets in us an unwearied industry to the attainment of what we desire: and such an industry did, notwithstanding much watchfulness against it, bring them secretly together, (I forbear to tell how) and to a marriage too, without the allowance of those friends whose approbation always was, and everwill be, necessary to make even a virtuous love become lawful.

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