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his declining days. Richard Corbet received the rudiments of his education at Westminster, and was thence removed, in 1597-8, to Broadgate Hall, and, the year following, was admitted a student of Christ Church, Oxford. In 1605, he took the degree of Master of Arts.

The following early specimen of his humour, somewhat faded, it must be confessed, is preserved, in a collection of "Mery Passages and Jeastes," Harl. MS. No. 6395. Ben Jonson was at a tavern, and in comes bishop Corbet (but not so then) into the next room. Ben Jonson calls for a quart of raw wine, and gives it to the tapster; Sirrah!' says he, carry this to the gentleman in the next chamber, and tell him I sacrifice my service to him.' The fellow did, and in those terms; Friend,' says Bishop Corbet, I thank him for his love, but, prythee, tell him, from me, that he is mistaken, for sacrifices are always burnt.”

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In 1612, upon the death of Henry, Prince of Wales, the University deputed Corbet, then one of the proctors, to pronounce a funeral oration, who," to use the words of Antony Wood, very oratorically speeched it in St. Marie's Church, before a numerous auditory." The oration still exists (in Latin), and is printed in Mr. Gilchrist's edition. On the 18th March, in the following year, he performed the same duty, in the Divinity School, on occasion of the interment of Sir Thomas Bod-ley, the founder of the library known by his name. We learn, from Heylyn, that about this time Corbet gave considerable offence, by openly opposing one of the doctrines of Calvin, which doctrines were espoused by Abbot, the then Archbishop of Canterbury." Preaching the Passion sermon, at Christ Church (1613), he insisted on the article of Christ's descending into hell, and therein grated upon Calvin's manifest perverting of the true sense and meaning of it: for which, says Heylyn, he was so rattled up by the Repetitioner (Dr. Robert Abbot, brother to the archbishop) that if he had not been a man of a very great courage, it might have made him afraid of staying in the University. This, it was generally conceived, was not done without the archbishop setting on; but, the best was, adds Heylyn, that none sunk under the burthen of these oppressions, if (like the Camomil) they did not rise the higher for it.*

This observation was proved in the person of Corbet him

*

Nor wants it here through penury, or sloth,

Who makes the one, so be it first, makes both.

Jonson's Underwoods.

Heylyn's Life of Archbishop Laud, p. 68, fol. 1668.

self. He was either now, or soon after, dean of Christ Church, vicar of Cassington, near Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, and prebendary of Bedminster secunda in the church of Sarum. He next obtained a chaplaincy to the king, which is supposed to be the object of the following characteristic letter to Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

"May it please your Grace

"To consider my two great losses this week: one, in respect of his Majesty, to whom I was to preach; the other, in respect of my patron, whom I was to visit. If this be not the way to repair the latter of my losses, I fear I am in danger to be utterly undone. To press too near a great man is a meanness; to be put by, and to stand too far off, is the way to be forgotten: so Ecclesiasticus. In which mediocrity, could I hit it, would I live and die, my lord. I would neither press near, nor stand far off; choosing rather the name of an ill courtier, than a saucy scholar.

"I am your Grace's most humble servant,
"RICHARD CORBET."

"Christ Church, this 26 Feb."

When James paid a visit to Oxford, in 1621, Corbet preached before him. The monarch presented him with a mark of his favour, in the shape of a ring, of which, during his sermon, the chaplain seems to have made an ostentatious display. The wits of the time did not lose so favourable an opportunity of holding up to ridicule a man from whom they had so often suffered in a similar way. The following is a specimen of their attacks upon him, transcribed from Antony Wood's papers in Ashmole's Museum.

"The king and the court,
Desirous of sport,

Six days at Woodstock did lie:
Thither went the doctors,

And satin-sleev'd proctors,
With the rest of the learned fry;

Whose faces did shine

With beer and with wine,
So fat, that it may be thought
University cheer,

With college strong beer,

Made them far better fed than taught.

A number beside,

With their wenches did ride,

(For scholars are always kind)

And still evermore,

While they rode before,

They were kissing their wenches behind.

A number on foot,

Without cloak or boot,

And yet with the court go they would;
Desirous to show

How far they could go

To do his high mightiness good.

The reverend dean,

With his band starch'd clean,
Did preach before the king;
A ring was his pride
To his bandstrings tied-
Was not this a pretty thing?

The ring, without doubt,
Was the thing put him out,

And made him forget what was next;

For every one there,

Will say, I dare swear,

He handled it more than his text."

It is again demanded in another poem (MS. Ashmole, A. 37.) if

He would provoke court wits to sing

The second part of bandstrings and the ring.

About the year 1625, Corbet married the daughter of Dr. Leonard Hutton, of Flore, in Northamptonshire. He had, by this marriage, a daughter named Alice, and also a son, Vincent, to whom a very affectionate poem in this collection is addressed.

In 1629, Corbet was elected Bishop of Oxford. This bishoprick he held but a short time; for, in 1632, he was translated to the see of Norwich. In 1633, Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, died, and was succeeded by Laud, who soon bestirred himself to reform the abuses of the church, and regulate its ceremonies, which, it was alleged, had been sadly neglected in the time of his Calvinistic predecessor. For this purpose, Laud issued certain orders and instructions to the several bishops, requiring a strict examination into the state of religion and its ceremonies, in their several dioceses. On his

part, Corbet certified that he had suppressed the lectures of some factious men, and, particularly, that he had suspended one Bridges, curate of St. George's parish, Norwich. Among others, he had heard complaint of Mr. Ward, of Ipswich, for words in some sermon, for which he was called before the high commission. The words were, that he had told his congregation that "the Church of England was ready to ring changes on religion, and that the gospel stood on tiptoe to be gone." We may conclude, from the following friendly letter from Corbet, that Ward had made his peace.

"My worthy friend,

"I thank God for your conformity, and you for your acknowledgment: stand upright to the church wherein you live; be true of heart to her governors; think well of her significant ceremonies; and be you assured I shall never displace you of that room which I have given you in my affection; prove you a good tenant in my heart, and no minister in my diocese hath a better landlord. Farewell! God almighty bless you with your whole congregation.

66 From your faithful friend to serve you in Christ Jesus, "RICH. NORWICH.' We also find a letter of the bishop's to the Walloon congregation, who rented from his see the chapel of the Virgin Mary in Norwich. Laud had disturbed the whole of these congregations, many of which were established in London, and spread over the country; and he probably instigated Corbet to the composition of the following threatening letter.

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To the minister and elders of the French church, in Norwich, these:

"Salutem in Christo.

"You have promised me from time to time to restore my stolen bell, and to glaze my lettice windows. After three years' consultation, (besides other pollution) I see nothing mended. Your discipline, I know, care not much for a consecrated place, and any other room in Norwich, that hath but breadth and length, may serve your turn as well as the chapel: wherefore I say unto you, without a miracle, Lazare, prodi. foras! Depart, and hire some other place for your irregular meetings: you shall have time to provide for yourselves betwixt this and Whitsuntide. And that you may not think I mean to deal with you as Felix did by Paul, that is, make you afraid, to get money, I shall keep my word with you, which you did not with me, and, as near as I can, be like you in nothing.

*Harl. MS. No. 464. fol. 13. See Gilchrist's Ed..

"Written by me, Richard Norwich, with mine own hand, Dec. 26, anno 1634."

The bishop was not, however, a persecutor; the Walloon company having undertaken to make the necessary repairs, they afterwards obtained a lease of the church for forty years.

Corbet, though a wit and a poet, and an ardent lover of enjoyment, was by no means an idle bishop Of his numerous sermons there are no remains, except some extracts from a very lively exhortation in behalf of the subscription for restoring St. Paul's Cathedral, which had remained in ruins from its second destruction by fire, early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He himself gave four hundred pounds, and the sermon exhibits as much zeal in the project as his donation.

"Saint Paul's church! One word in the behalf of Saint Paul; he hath spoken many in ours: he hath raised our inward temples. Let us help to requite him in his outward. We admire commonly those things which are oldest and greatest: old monuments, and high buildings, do affect us above measure and what is the reason? Because what is oldest cometh nearest God for antiquity, and what is greatest, comes nearest his works for spaciousness and magnitude: so that in honouring these we honour God, whom old and great do seem to imitate. Should I commend Paul's to you for the age, it were worth your thought and admiration. A thousand years, though it should fall now, were a pretty climacterical. See the bigness, and your eye never yet beheld such a goodly object. It's worth the reparation, though it were but for a land mark; but, beloved, it is a church, and consecrated to God. From Charles to Ethelbert she hath been the joy of princes. It was once dedicated to Diana (at least some part of it); but the idolatry lasted not long. And see a mystery in the change: Saint Paul confuting twice the idol, there in person, where the cry was, Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" and here by proxy. Paul installed, where Diana is thrust out. It did magnify the creation, it was taken out of the darkness: light is not the clearer for it, but stronger and more wonderful: and it doth beautify this church, because it was taken from pollution. The stones are not the more durable, but the happier for it. It is worthy the standing for the age, the time since it was built, and for the structure, so stately an edifice is it: it is worthy to stand for a memorial of it from which it is redeemed, but chiefly for his house that dwells therein. We are bound to do it, for the service sake that is done in it. Are we not beholden to it, every man, either to the body, or the choir: for a walk or a warbling note: for a prayer or a thorough-path? Some way or other, there is a topic may make room for your benevolence.

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