Person Page - 654

After attending the Collegiate School at Ely, he entered Cambridge University at the age of fifteen years, and was quickly elected a scholar. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1580; elected to a fellowship at Christmas, 1583; Master of Arts in 1584, and in the same year was incorporated as a member of the University of Oxford. He took holy orders in 1585, and was admitted, July 22, 1587, on the presentation of the Queen, to the prebendal stall at Ely, which his father had resigned in his favour. He quickly gained fame as a preacher, and was selected to read the lectures for three years in the cathedral church at Ely, and for one year at St. Paul's Church, London. He held the living of Childerly until 1594. He was graduated Bachelor of Divinity in 1591, and Doctor of Divinity in 1601, and in 1597 was admitted to the rectory of Gransden Parva, in Huntingdonshire, but shortly after exchanged to Barley, his father having died, and was instituted January 29, 1599. Twenty-three years of his life were spent here in the ministry. He was a very prolific writer, making it a rule to produce not less than one work each half year, and so learned and profound were these writings, that it was said of him that he was a "walking library," and that "he must write in his sleep, it being impossible he should do so much waking." The method and regularity with which he worked were, however, the secret of his success. He was chaplain-in-ordinary and tutor to Prince Henry, as well as a frequent preacher before the court. He was greatly admired by King James, yet able to adapt himself to his rural parishioners. It is owing to his influence with his friend, Thomas Sutton, that we owe that masterpiece of Protestant charity, Charterhouse. He fell into disfavour at court by his opposition to the Spanish marriage, and in consequence suffered imprisonment for a month.¹