him
Archbishop of Canterbury, and, not long after, of her Privy Council;
and trusted him to manage all her Ecclesiastical affairs and
preferments. In all which removes, he was like the Ark, which left a
blessing on the place where it rested; and in all his employments was
like Jehoiada, that did good unto Israel.

These were the steps of this Bishop's ascension to this place of
dignity and cares: in which place--to speak Mr. Camden's very words in
his Annals of Queen Elizabeth--"he devoutly consecrated both his whole
life to God, and his painful labours to the good of his Church."

And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation
of Church affairs, which were much disordered at his entrance, by
reason of the age and remissness of Bishop Grindal,[18] his immediate
predecessor, the activity of the Non-conformists, and their chief
assistant the Earl of Leicester; and indeed by too many others of
the like sacrilegious principles. With these he was to encounter; and
though he wanted neither courage, nor a good cause, yet he foresaw,
that without a great measure of the Queen's favour, it was impossible
to stand in the breach that had been lately made into the lands and
immunities of the Church, or indeed to maintain the remaining lands
and rights of it. And therefore by justifiable sacred insinuations,
such as St. Paul to Agrippa,--"Agrippa, believest thou? I know thou
believest," he wrought himself into so great a degree of favour with
her, as, by his pious use of it, hath got both of them a great degree
of fame in this world, and of glory in that into which they are now
both entered.

[Sidenote: The "little black husband"]

His merits to the Queen, and her favours to him were such, that she
called him, "her little black husband," and called "his servants her
servants:" and she saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all
his cares and endeavours for the Church's and for her good, that she
was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of her soul, and to
make him her confessor; of which she gave many fair testimonies; and
of which one was, that "she would never eat flesh in Lent, without
obtaining a licence from her little black husband:" and would often
say "she pitied him because she trusted him, and had thereby eased
herself by laying the burthen of all her Clergy-cares upon his
shoulders, which he managed with prudence and piety."

[Sidenote: Church-lands Acts]

I shall not keep mysel