native place, forty shillings a year for a monthly sermon*. For aught that we can learn, he was never married. There was afterwards (1621-1670) a Christopher Airay, who was born at Clifton, and was Fellow of Queen's; he was also author of the "Fasciculus præceptorum logicalium in gratiam juventutis Academica compositus," &c. There was also a Christopher Airay, nephew to Dr. Adam Airay (Principal of Edmund Hall), who in 1660 contributed to enlarge the buildings of the College. Wood seems to think both were related to the Provost. On a brass plate is the following + Wood's Ath. Oxon. Annals of Colleges and Halls; Biog. Diet. In the College Chapel there is a black marble monument, erected to his memory by the College. The figure of him is most striking, bending in a most sublime posture of devotion, with the words Te Sequar ascending to Heaven in prayer; above his head are the forms of clouds, and the figure of Elias in the act of translation to the world of spirits. The following words are written underneath : There is a line engraving of it in the College, executed with equal fidelity and power, a proof copy whereof is in our possession. On the South wall of the Chapel there is another, put up by Christopher Potter, with the following Juscription: Memoriæ viri sanctitate et prudentiâ clarissimi HENRICI AIRAY, S. Theol. D. hujus collegii Præpositi vigilantiss. Reverendi ROBINSONI, [ut Eliæ Elisha] successoris et æmuli, Clariss. Patruelis CHRISTOPHER POTTER, hujus Coll. Socius, hoc amoris et observantiæ testimonium M. Q. posuit. Non satis Elishæ est Eliæ palla relicta, Dum [licet in cœlum raptus] amicus abest, Tristis agit quæritque amissum turturis instar In laudem Christi hoc ære perennis erit. Mortalitatem exuit anno 1616, 6to. Idus Octob. natus an, 57 et hic sepult. alterum Messiæ adventum spectat. Christopher Patter*. DEAN OF WORCESTER AND DURHAM,-CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO KING CHARLES THE FIRST, &c. 1590-1645. "This zealot Is of a mongrel divers kind. 'HAT industrious and exact Antiquary and Biographer, Anthony Wood, says of this our fellow-countryman, "that he was a person esteemed by all that knew him to be learned and religious, exemplary in his behaviour and discourse,―-courteous in his carriage, and of a sweet and obliging nature and comely presence.' And (upon the authority of Fuller) let us add, a friend to the poor; yet, withal, a man with faults unwhipped of justice. One who so acted "As if hypocrisie and nonsense Had got th' advowson of his conscience;" See Wood's Ath. Oxon. + Hudibras. whose defects were in the heart, not in the brain. He crawled into the Provostship of his College by some underhand dealing with his unsuspecting uncle; he became a dignitary of the Church by the sacrifice of his creed; from a Puritan he became an Armenian; from a Roundhead he became a Royalist, changes brought about by court influence, and put on to please Archbishop Laud*. We love the man who has the moral courage to think for himself, and to reduce his thoughts to practice; whether right or wrong, he is entitled to respect, if not sympathy: such a man is indeed worthy of Reason,-Reason the last and best gift of Heaven! But the world expects him in such a crisis to be not only pure, but, like Cæsar's wife, beyond suspicion. He must rebut the presumption arising from his fallen nature, or expect its penalties. Laud's creature, as Potter is sometimes called, was not beyond suspicion. Although in a letter to Mr. Vicars, he says he was more sinned against than sinning, and elaborately denies the desertion of his former principles; yet no one, after a calm review of his life, can seriously doubt but that the sprinkling of Court Holy water, like an exorcism, had enchanted and conjured him into this new shapet. Upon the whole, he seems to have had a trifling share (if any) in that admirable * Wood. + Wordsworth's "Life of Sanderson," 504, n. |