Barnaby Patter*. BISHOP OF CARLISLE. 1578-1642. "Virtus, repulsæ nescia sordidæ, Nec sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis auræ."-HOR. Virtue is the surest foundation both of reputation and fortune; and the great step to greatness is to be honest. HE man before us stands from the canvass in bold relief, by the side of the Arch-Apostate Curwen, and of the Wolsey-like figure of St. Praxis with the poisoned chalice to his lips. Though the age in which Potter lived and moved and had his being was crowded with great events in which he had his share, yet, in truth, he was a good, rather than a great man. A man truly penitent, full of brotherly love, and of great kindness. In him Christianity was not a philosophy of life, but a life-a living process; with the blessings of Heaven on his head, and its purity in his heart. * See Lloyd's Memoirs, fol. 1677, the fullest account; Wood's Ath. Ox. (Edit. Bliss 1817); Fuller's Worthies; Hall's Remains, 4to. 1660; Clark's Lives of Modern Div.; Chambers' Biog. Dict. In his pastoral charge, he was exemplary in carriage, and powerful in discourse. As the Provost of his College strict, but not overbearing. As a Prelate learned and zealous, but moderate and discreet; when moderation and discretion with men of his order were pre-eminently acts of wisdom. By birth, by education, and at heart a Puritan, yet free from the leaven of the Pharisee. The staunch friend of Civil and Religious Liberty. His house an open sanctuary for the non-conformists and persecuted Recusants, yet raised by a Stuart to the dignities and responsibilities of the Episcopal Bench. A Puritanical Bishop, and yet courted and confided in by the House of Stuart. When Popery, the Divine Right of Kings, Toleration, the Rights of Man, and no Bishops, were the Shibboleths of faction, and the Io Pæans of the Sovereign people, "Justum ac tenacem propositi virum, Mente quatit solidâ.”. He stood, like the just man, firm, resolute, and undaunted. But when he saw that the Altar and the Throne must sink together in the dust,-in the conflicting elements of civil strife; when he saw the mild, and gentle, and liberal-minded Charles buffeted and spit upon; when he heard the savage yell of No Bishops; when he beheld the Spiritual Peers reduced to the necessity of petitioning the House for the protection of their persons, and for daring to do so, put on their trial and convicted of High Treason; and, to fill up the measure of their sorrows, deprived by a cool and deliberate vote of Parliament of their vested rights there. When he saw these things, unwilling to outlive the good he had done, and the Majesty of the Law, "full of repentance, Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows, Many of our distinguished brethren are from the Barony of Kendal; a spot of earth where mind and matter seem in fullest harmony; where man's intellect seems here and there to vie in strength and boldness with Nature's grandest efforts*. Dr. Burn assigns Kendal as the venue of his birth; others Westmestert. When the seven cities of Greece contended for the honour of Homer's birth-place, one of their wise men suggested, in order to end the dispute, that it should be referred to Heaven. If our fellow-countrymen will not accede to the suggestion that Westmester (there being no such place now to be found) means Winster, then we are willing to assign to so good a man a Divine origin. Winster and Westmester, perhaps we may *Baynbrigg, Waugh, Smith, Dr. Burn, and Langhorne, are from the bottom of Westmorland, and not from the Barony. + See Lloyd's Memoirs, fol. 1677. VOL. I. F be allowed to observe, are not more unlike in sound than Peter Gower and Pythagore, the discovery of whose identity (disguised by poor John Leland's blunder) raised the great John Locke among the Free Masons to the highest pinnacle of his craft. We look for no Masonic honors for this discovery, simply because we think it is too plain to deserve any. He was born in Winster chapelry (as we believe) in 1577. He was of poor, but respectable parents, who gave him an education suited to their means and to their religious views. We have reason to believe that, at this period, Puritanism had widely enfibred itself, and laid deep hold of the minds of men in and about Kendal; certain it is that his parents were of that way of thinking, and that Mr. Maxwell, his schoolmaster, did not instil other precepts, or, by example, teach other ways. In a word (according to his best Biographer, David Lloyd) he had puritanical parents, a puritanical schoolmaster, a puritanical college tutor: he lived in puritanical times, and died a puritanical Bishop. From this school, and not from Kendal, as some will have it, he went to Queen's College, Oxford, where he successively became Tabarder, Fellow, and Provost. The dates of his University Degrees are as follow: Matriculation 1594. B. A. April 24, 1599. M. A. June 30, 1602. B.D. July 5, *Wood's Fast. Ox. Wood's Ath. Ox. (Bliss, 1817, n.) Hence it appears 1610. D. D. June 27, 1615. that no time was lost in the University. We are told also, that while an undergraduate he made such progress in his studies, that he took his degree with great reputation. His success in this respect was, in all probability, his introduction to those men of rank and worth whom he so assiduously trained in learning and religion. As tutor he seems to have employed his time until his ordination. So extensively had he been employed in this way, that when he was made Bishop of Carlisle in 1628, no less than thirty-three eminent divines, lawyers, physicians, and statesmen, formerly his pupils, waited on him together for his blessing. In 1601 or 1602 he seems to have been admitted into the Ministry; for soon after this we find him Lecturer at Abingdon, and then at Totness in Devonshire, where he was reputed an affecting preacher, and much followed by the Puritans. During his residence at Totness he became acquainted with the family of Sir Edward Giles, whose daughter Elizabeth he afterwards married. In 1610 he was chosen Principal of St. Edmund Hall, but resigned (May 1st 1610), and was never admitted. In 1616 Sir Edward Giles gave him a living, and the marriage took place. They intended to settle in that county, but such was the fame and reputation he had left in College, that on the death of the learned Henry Airay (whose memoir will be found in a subsequent page), when at a great dis |