Page images
PDF
EPUB

make restitution. Fourthly, That they should take notice of injuries done contrary to covenants. Fifthly, That they should carefully provide, that conditions should be faithfully observed. Sixthly, That they should treat and compound peace, and take notice what generals and commanders had done contrary to their oath. When they required restitution, they wore on their head a hood of yarn, and used these words: Audi Jupiter, audite Fines, audiat Fas; ego sum publicus nuncius populi Romani, justè pièque legatus venio, verbisque meis fides sit, &c. Likewise, when they proclaimed war, they did cast into the enemies' country a bloody spear burned at the upper end, uttering these words, as Au. Gellius reporteth: Quòd populus [Hermundulus] hominesque populi [Hermunduli] adversus populum Romanum bellum fecére deliquéreque; Quòdque populus Romanus cum populo[Hermundulo]hominibusque[Hermundulis] bellum jussit, ob eam rem ego populusque Romanus populo [Hermundulo] populisque [Hermundulis] bellum indico facioque. But this was, stante republicâ. Under the emperors, as I find no mention of the Faciales, yet it seemed they continued: for, when Ammianus Marcellinus maketh mention of the siege of Amidas under Julian, he reported that a Persian did cast into the town a bloody lance, ut moris est nostri. After the decay of the Roman empire, and erection of kingdoms, the heralds of the old Franks carried virgas consecratas, when they were employed in messages, that they might not be touched or troubled by any: and this was juxta ritum Francorum, as Gregorius Turonensis writeth, VII. 32.

But in the time of Carolus Magnus began both

6

the reputation, honour, and name of Heralds, as Æneas Sylvius reporteth out of an old library-book of St. Paul, the author whereof derived their name from Heros; but others, to whom most incline, from the German word Herald, which signifieth 'old and ancient master. Yet he which writeth notes upon Willeram saith, that Herald signifieth, faithful to the army;' and I have found, in some Saxon treatise, Heold interpreted Summus Præpositus. Nevertheless, this name is rare, or not found in the history of Charles the Great, nor in the times ensuing for a long space, either by our writers or French writers. The first mention, that I remember of them in England, was about the time of King Edward I. For in the statute of arms or weapons, [it was ordained] that the Kings of Heralds should wear no armour but their swords, pointless; and that they should only have their Houses des Armes, and no more, which as I conceive are their coats of arms.' The name and honour of them was never greater, in this realm, than in the time of King Edward III.; in whose times there were Kings of Arms, Heralds, and Poursevants by patent, not only peculiar to the King, but to others of the principal nobility and Froissart writeth, that King Edward III. made a Poursevant of Arms, which brought him speedy tidings of happy success in the battle of Auroye in Britanny, immediately upon the receipt of the news an herald, giving him the name of 'Windesore; and at that time were liveries of coats of arms first given unto heralds, with the King's arms embroidered thereon, as the King himself had his robe royal set with lions of gold. In France also, as the said Froissart writeth, the same time Philip

de Valois increased greatly the state royal of France with jousts, tourneys, and heralds. As for the privileges of heralds, I refer you to the treatise thereof purposely written by Paul, Bishop of Burgos in Spain.'

430

FRANCIS BACON,*

VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN'S.

[1561-1626.]

FRANCIS BACON, one of the most illustrious of mankind, was the younger son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper in the reign of Elizabeth, † and Anne second daughter of Sir Antony Cooke. ‡

* AUTHORITIES. Rawley's, and Mallet's Lives of Lord Bacon; Tenison's Baconiana; Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth; and British Biography.

See the Life of Lord Burghley, in this Volume, p. 183, Note t.

[ocr errors]

His mother, a woman of exemplary piety, born in 1528, from her eminent attainments in literature is said to have been appointed Governess to Edward VI. She translated from the Italian into English twenty-five sermons, written by Barn. Ochinus on The Predestination and Election of God,' which were published about 1550. Her version of Bishop Jewel's invaluable Apology for the Church of England' from the ' Latin, made for the use of the common people, she sent to that Prelate accompanied by an epistle in Greek, which he answered in the same language. It was praised likewise, in a very delicate stile of compliment, by Archbishop Parker. He returned it to her printed, knowing (as he observed in his letter) that he had thereby done for the best, and in this point used a reasonable policy; that is, to prevent such exeuses as her modesty would have made in stay of publishing it.'

He was born at York-House, in the Strand, January 22, 1561; and discovered such early indications of extraordinary genius, that the Queen herself, while he was yet but a boy, took a particular delight in trying him with questions; and, from the good sense and manliness of his answers, was wont to call him in mirth, her young Lord Keeper.'

[ocr errors]

His proficiency in learning was so rapid, that in the twelfth year of his age he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, under Whitgift (subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury) and had completed his studies there in his sixteenth;* when his father sent him to Paris, with a recommendation to Sir Amias Pawlet, at that time English Embassador in France. The confidence of this statesman he so entirely gained, that he was soon afterward entrusted with a secret commission to the Queen, upon the satisfactory execution of which he returned to the Continent to finish his travels.

While abroad, he spent his time, not in learning the vices and follies of foreigners, but in studying their constitutions of government, their manners and

[ocr errors]

That her literary reputation extended beyond her own country, appears from the circumstance of Beza's dedicating to her his • Meditations.' In Birch's Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth' her name frequently occurs, with portions of her correspondence amply justifying her character for learning. The time of her death, and the place of her burial, are equally uncertain.

* Extraordinary as it may appear, he was heard even at that early age to object to the Aristotelian system (then predominant), "not," as he himself observed to his chaplain and biographer Dr. Rawley, "for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high abilities, but for the unfruitfulness of the way; being a philosophy only for disputations and contentions, but barren in the production of works for the benefit of the life of man."

« PreviousContinue »