Life of Richard Steward
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BY T H E LAT E A NI H M . R EV C A O . L S O O P C CK, ’ OM ETI M E MI CHEL FE LLOW O O FO RD S O F &UEEN S C LLEGE , & “ & AUTHO R O F R ECORDS O R THE R EFOR MATI ON “ TROUBLE S CONNECTED WI TH THE PRAYER BOOK O F WI TH PO RT RAI T TO TH E ME MORY OF TH E AUTHOR TH I S WORK I S DEDI CATED PR EFACE TH E m a n u sc ri t f L i Dr S t wa r p o the f e of . e d 1 852 was written by my father in the year , and together with a considerable number o f other papers o n Church History was kept till 89 his death in 1 7 . A few years before writing it he had edited the Works o f Henry Hammond, a friend and contemporary of fo r A n lo - Ca tho lic L ibr a r o Steward, the g y f The o lo n g y, and had made researches i to con o f temporary history , the results which he published in a series o f twenty-seven articles The olo ia n a n d E c clesi a stic in the g , between 1 84 1 853 l o f 7 and , entitled Il ustrations Church History during the time o f the Great l ” Al l . Rebe lion . that related to Dr Steward in these articles was in corporated in the ” Life . T ll he . nl MS had o y been partia y revised , and some alterations were found necessary in the editing. A good many verbal changes have been made, and in a few places a sentence vii viii PREFACE has been recast, but no new matter has been introduced . Further information on some points is now available from works published since the “ ” Life was written, but it does not seem necessary to quote this here except in the fo r following cases , which I am indebted to the authorities mentioned in the Diction a ry of Na ti on a l Biogr aphy 1 . Richard Steward was the third son of o f Nicholas Steward Pattishall, not the nephew as conjectu red o n page 2 of this book . 2 . His wife was the daughter of Sir W Button of To ke n ha m in Wiltshire (p . 3 . His first piece o f preferment was the o f rectory Harrietsham in Kent , a living in f o f ll the gi t All Souls Co ege, to which he 1 626 T was presented in . his was probably the occasion o f his giving up his fellowship and leaving Oxford (p . 4 . Golde n R e m a i n s published in 1 66 1 seems to have been a reissue of Tr ia s S a cr a published 1 659 in (p . The author makes frequent all usions in the course o f the book to Church matters of the i t me at which he wrote , and the reader may be reminded that this was not the twentieth o f century but the middle the nineteenth, when the controversy o n baptismal regenera PREFACE ix tion was at its height and secessions o f emi nent Churchmen to the Roman Communion were especiall y numerous . The footnotes , which have been added by ’ to l myself, refer books in the author s ibrary, an d are probably those which he actually f made use o . T O CO CK . I . P N r o vem be 1 908 . CO NTENTS P AGE PREFACE CHAPTE R I a n d Edu c a ti on CHAPTER II The Co n vo ca tion of 1640 CHAPTER III ’ t wa r D a n of S t Pa u l s S e d, e . CHAPTER I V The Tre a ty a t Uxbridge CHAPTER V Dr t wa rd in Exil . S e e CHAPTE R VI D r. a Ge rm a in s Ste wa rd t S t. xii CONTENTS CHAPTER VI I The Chu rc h o f En glan d a n d Fore ign Prote sta n ti sm 1 18 CHAPTE R VIII D k f Yo rk Atte n da n c e on the u e o . CHAPTER I & Co n ve rts to Rom e CHAPTER & H is De a th an d Cha ra c te r INDE& LI FE O F RI CHARD ST EWARD CHAPTER I EARLY L IFE AND EDUCATI ON TH E next writer that must foll ow according to time is the greatest Royalist in the age he lived , and a person much reverenced by those k who new his virtues and piety. Such is the character given of the subject o f this memoir by An thony Wood in his A then ae ’ O a 'on ie n ses , and it is hoped that the reader s goodwill has been alr eady en listed in favour o f o n e whose name may perhaps be quite u n he known to him , and who, though exercised a great influence for good o n those who figure o f f in the history the time, himsel plays no ff conspicuous part in political a airs , and is scarcely , known more than by name to readers o f Church history. 2 LIFE OF RICHARD STEWARD The family of Steward seems to have held a fair position in the county of Northampton in T the sixteenth century. heir estate was at L o din to n in g in that county, and it remained possession of some of their descendants till the beginning ofthe nineteenth century. But there is no evidence to show how long they had The o f l possessed it . earliest record the fami y which we have been able to meet with is an inscription o n a tombstone in Pattishall church in yard , which simply states Latin that under neath lie the bodies o f John Steward gentleman and Jane his wife, and that their two deeply a fll ic te d children Nicholas and John had in Th o f scribed the names . e dates their deaths r 1 5 1 59 1 The ecorded are 77 and . same stone contains also an inscription dedicated to the memory o f Nicholas Steward gentleman and f Anne his wi e, whose deaths took place 1 628 1 1 5 Th respectively in and 6 . is is said to have been placed there by Richard Steward . o r LL D . , but whether he was the son nephew n does o t appear. From its immediately follow o f ing the other, and the expression grief being l ed less strong, we may be to infer that he was not their son . If so, they probably died child less , and were succeeded in the family estate by Richard Steward eldest or perhaps only son o f v o u n the ge r brother John . At least it is EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION 3 tolerably clear that he was a grandson o f the - first mentioned John and Jane Steward . He u 1 594 was born at Pattishall abo t the year , o r but at what school he was educated , whether at any public school, does not appear. The first record o f his life is that he was entered at Magdalen Hall in the Uni versity 1 609 his o f Oxford in , and that he took degree o f Bachelor of Arts there in regular course , and was elected a fellow o f Al l Souls College in 1 61 3 o f , where he proceeded in the study law accordin g to the provisions o f the statutes o f o f . that college . He took the degree B C L 1 0 1 6 1 . December , 7 He was probably entered at Magdalen Hall n o f o account of the principles its members , i which were at that time strictly Pur tan . It would be an interesting subject to describe the mode of life of an undergraduate at Oxford at the commencement o f the seventeenth r centu y, but we unfortunately possess no diaries o f the period to refer to for information o f the kind . We are al most entirely ignorant o f the habits of the place, and indeed are indebted to Anthony Wood for almost all ff that is known about university a airs , matters ll o f in co ege being of course less public interest , and in consequence having passed into oblivion . ’ But the few years o f Steward s residence in 4 LIFE OF RICHARD STEWARD Oxford were very remarkable in many points o f w Vie , and as the proceedings which marked them seem to have exercised considerable influence in forming his character, it may be worth while to say a few words about them . Theology of one sort or another certainly was more studied than it now is, and men, accord in g to the peculiar bent of their minds , devoted themselves to the reading o f favourite authors but amongst these Calvin’s works had decidedly - the pre eminence, and hence arose the absorbing interest in the topics which are generally called The after his name . five points were de bated as if there really were n o other questions possible in theology, neither indeed, if the principal o n e o f them be admitted and general iz e d n as , philosophically viewi g it, it ought to o n be, is there any room for further debate o r either Divine attributes human actions .