race, in cold earth clad,
Who died with want of what he had."

We find a characteristic trait of this Bishop of London in this
conference. When Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor, observed that "livings rather
want learned men, than learned men livings, many in the universities
pining for want of places. I wish therefore some may have _single coats_
(one living) before others have _doublets_ (pluralities), and this method
I have observed in bestowing the king's benefices." Bancroft replied, "I
commend your memorable _care_ that way; but a _doublet_ is necessary in
cold weather." Thus an avaricious bishop could turn off, with a miserable
jest, the open avowal of his love of pluralities. Another, Neile, Bishop
of Lincoln, when any one preached who was remarkable for his piety,
desirous of withdrawing the king's attention from truths he did not wish
to have his majesty reminded of, would in the sermon-time entertain the
king with a merry tale, which the king would laugh at, and tell those near
him, that he could not hear the preacher for the old--bishop;
prefixing an epithet explicit of the character of these merry tales.
Kennet has preserved for us the "rank relation," as he calls it; not, he
adds, but "we have had divers hammerings and conflicts within us to leave
it out."--Kennet's "History of England," ii. 729.]

These studies of polemical divinity, like those of the ancient
scholastics, were not to be obtained without a robust intellectual
exercise. James instructed his son Charles,[A] who excelled in them; and
to those studies Whitelocke attributes that aptitude of Charles I. which
made him so skilful a summer-up of arguments, and endowed him with so
clear a perception in giving his decisions.

[Footnote A: That the clergy were somewhat jealous of their sovereign's
interference in these matters may be traced. When James charged the
chaplains, who were to wait on the prince in Spain, to decline, as far as
possible, religious disputes, he added, that "should any happen, my son is
able to moderate in them." The king, observing one of the divines smile,
grew warm, vehemently affirming, "I tell ye, Charles shall manage a point
in controversy with the best studied divine of ye all." What the king
said was afterwards confirmed on an extraordinary occasion, in the
conference Charles I. held with Alexander Henderson, the old champion of
the kirk. Deprived of books, which might furnish the sword and pistol of
controversy, and w