into stability and glory, on the flood-tide of the Reformation.

6

Among the men whose personal and acquired endowments so greatly contributed, by the disposal of Providence, to perpetuate the blessings of religious liberty and knowledge-not only in England, but by the instrumentality of the Church of England, that bulwark of the reformation,' throughout the world-JEWELL stands confessedly pre-eminent. It is questionable whether even PARKER (exclusive of his political influence, of which JEWELL possessed little, if any,) brought more weight into the preponderant scale at the great crisis, or acted a more conspicuous part in the establishment of the Reformation on a firm basis in the Church of England.

JEWELL'S varied and well-digested learning, and the happy facility with which he could command that learning at any need-his rich vein of ready eloquence, both in Latin and in his mother tongue-the purity, integrity, and amiability of his deportment-the winning ease, joined with perfect dignity, of his personal appearance and demeanour-the prudence, conciliatory spirit, and yet unblenching firmness of his counsels-all combined to make him one of the fittest instruments for uniting discordant interests, softening asperities of feeling, promoting unanimity, and inspiring zeal, in a nation needing only such leaders to give it irresistible energies in the cause of truth. He was accordingly, high in the esteem of his sovereign, and at the same time popular beyond almost any of his coadjutors. With one mouth, his contemporaries and successors conspire to represent him as the great champion of the Reformation in its last struggle for predominance-his eloquence, and industry, and zeal, as the chief cause, under GOD, of the happy termination of that struggle.

JOHN JEWELL was born in the village of Buden, in Devonshire, on the 24th of May, 1522. Of his parents we are told, that they were both of ancient familiesthat their estate, though it had been more than two hundred years in his father's family, was small-that their private characters were in the highest degree respectable and exemplary-that after living in happy

union fifty years, and raising a family of ten children, they died on the same day-and that Jewell's attachment to his mother, in particular, was so great that he had her maiden name engraven in his signet.

At the age of seven years, Jewell was placed under the care of his maternal uncle John Bellamy, Rector of Hamton. As he was a younger son, and his father's limited circumstances precluded the bestowal of unnecessary expense upon a numerous family, it is probable that an early manifestation of his extraordinary parts was the occasion of his being destined to receive an education for which he would have to be in a great measure dependent upon the bounty of others. At Hamton, and subsequently at the schools of Branton, South Molton, and Barnstaple, Jewell's conduct is described as having given the fairest promise of future excellence. His amiable disposition and irreproachable morals left his teachers no occasion for reproof; while his assiduity and capacity for learning secured a rapid progress in his studies.

So great was this progress, that he was prepared to enter on his studies at the university when only thirteen years of age, and was accordingly admitted a member of Merton College, Oxford, in July, 1535.

In his journey to college, Jewell was accompanied by a school-fellow from Barnstaple; and as it is known that HARDING, afterwards his principal antagonist in his controversies with the Romish Church, was such, and that they were of the same standing at college, it is altogether probable that he was the person. If so, the influence of education in fixing the bent of mind and chalking out the path of life, and the wonderful dispositions of that Providence which orders the ways of men, have seldom been more singularly evident than in the case of these two young students. By what then appeared to be mere chance, Peter Burry, a fellow of Merton College, the person to whom they were commended as their tutor, was unable to take charge of both; and retaining the other, he transferred Jewell

a HUMFREDI Vita Juelli, p. 18, 19.

b FULLER as quoted by ISAACSON; Life, p. iv. © WOOD, FULLER, FEATLY.

strongly attached to the principles of Rome : on the contrary, was an indefatigable stud warm advocate of the doctrines of the Reform just beginning to spread. Had Burry retai Jewell, it is not improbable that his slender and Romish prejudices, if they had not wholly his scholar from receiving the new doctri have prepared him for an apostacy as easy an as that of Harding. Had Harding, instead been transferred to Parkhurst, how miserabl feeble mind and irritable temper have comp the loss of that bright intellect and lovely ch To the tutor thus providentially assigned was indebted for a situation, (that of 'p perhaps resembling those of 'sizars' and which provided him a maintenance; and fa assiduous training, not only in general learn the principles of the purer religion which he Parkhurst's frequent discussions of those prin his fellow-collegian, Burry, in the presence of and his engaging the latter to assist him in of TINDAL'S and COVERDALE's translations of tures; are recorded by Jewell's biographers instrumental in forming him to the opini he afterwards so nobly advocated.

Nearly four years after his admission to the Jewell was chosen to a scholarship in Corp College, by the interest of his tutor and oth whom his parts and good behaviour had secur he soon distinguished himself, and quickly head of the senior class. Even at this earl elocution was a principal source of his reputa many drew auguries of future eminence from and energy with which his college exerc performed. The diligence and studiousne young scholar at this period are spoken of i the highest commendation. As an evidenc intensity, it is related that while the busin university was suspended, and its members sca

In October, 1540, he took the degree of Bachelor rts, with uncommon success in the customary exercise lis studies were continued with increased assiduit equently occupying him from four in the mornin ntil ten at night, without intermission even for th urpose of taking food. The histories of Polybiu ivy, and Suetonius; the orations of Cicero and Demo henes, which he frequently declaimed in the open ai while walking for exercise; the works of Augustin and the writings of Erasmus, are said to have been h favourite subjects of study; although the mathematic and the scholastic sciences of logic and philosophy, then taught, received no inconsiderable portion of h attention. He was assiduous, also, in the practice composition, freely expressing his opinion that 'as mu profit is to be gained by committing one's own medit tions and acquired knowledge to paper, as by extensi reading.'

To these labours for his own improvement, we added the care of several pupils; and, shortly after th reception of his degree, the duties of Lecturer Humanity and Rhetoric, an office conferred on him the unanimous suffrages of the President and Fellow of his college. In this last capacity Jewell speedi acquired celebrity, not only without the walls of h own college, but beyond the limits of the universit The students of other colleges flocked to hear him; a his former tutor, Parkhurst, then settled in the recto of Cleve, at some distance from Oxford, being induc by the reputation of his lectures to visit the universi purposely to attend them, expressed his satisfactio in an extempore Latin distich, importing that it w now the teacher's place to learn from him who h once been his scholar.

This period of Jewell's life was indeed eminent honourable and happy. His assiduous cultivation an intellect naturally quick and fertile, placed him an enviable distance above his fellows in the vario branches of learning Vat the blameless innocence

him from any ill effects of jealousy or disappointed emulation. Even the enemies of his religious principles were constrained to allow him their unwilling praise: it is reported that Moren, the Dean of his college, a man zealously attached to the Romish faith, and notorious for a laxity of morals very disadvantageously contrasted with Jewell's conduct, often broke out in such exclamations as, 'I should love thee, Jewell, if thou wert not a Zuinglian !-or, In faith I hold thee a heretic; but surely thy life seemeth that of an angel!" -or, 'Thou art an honest man, but a Lutheran!'. The approbation of Parkhurst did not show itself only in empty praises: he committed his son to Jewell's tuition; and when the young man found an interval in which he could free himself from the charge of his pupils and the duties of his college lecture-ship, the rectory of Cleve was always open for the hospitable reception of himself and any friend whom he might think proper to invite as a companion in his jaunt. An amusing anecdote, illustrative of the slenderness of Jewell's pecuniary resources at the time, is told concerning one of these visits. He had been accompanied in his excursion by one Wilson, a doctor of Medicine, afterwards physician to the queen: on the morning of their intended departure, their hospitable host, entering their room, playfully searched their pockets, professing his intention to 6 see whether those poor beggarly Oxonians carried any money about them'; and finding their store but scanty, replenished it with a bountiful supply. The same bounty assisted Jewell in bearing the expenses of his Master's degree, which he took in February, 1544.

The accession of Edward the Sixth, in 1546, not only added to the other comforts of Jewell's situation the prospect of quiet enjoyment of his own opinions, and of increased usefulness in their propagation; but brought him an invaluable accession to his circle of friends, in Peter Martyr, who, by Cranmer's invitation, assumed the duties of Professor of Divinity at Oxford in 1548. To that eminent foreigner Jewell attached himself almost immediately in the closest intimacy-an intimacy from which he subsequently derived the most important benefits, in the time of his need, and which ended only