SIR HENRY VANE, THE YOUNGER-EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON MDCLXII. * HE had an unusual aspect, which, though it might naturally proceed both from his father and mother, neither of which were beautiful persons, yet made men think there was something in him extraordinary; and his whole life made good that imagination. He was indeed a man of extraordinary parts, a pleasant wit, a great understanding, which pierced into and discerned the purposes of other men with wonderful sagacity, whilst he had himself vultum clausum, that no man could make a guess of what he intended. He was of a temper not to be moved, and of rare dissimulation, and could comply when it was not seasonable to contradict, without losing ground by the condescension; and if he were not superior to Mr. Hampden, he was inferior to no other man, in all mysterious artifices. There need no more be said of his ability, than that he was chosen to cozen and deceive a whole nation, which was thought to excel in craft and cunning; which * State Trials, II. 435. he did with notable pregnancy and dexterity, and prevailed with a people, that could not otherwise be prevailed upon than by advancing their idol presbytery, to sacrifice their peace, their interest, and their faith, to the erecting a power and authority that resolved to persecute presbytery to extirpation; and in process of time, very near brought their purpose to pass. I. 186. II. 379. DENZEL HOLLES, CR. LORD HOLLES- DIED MDCLXXIX. HE was the younger son, and younger brother, of the earls of Clare; was as much valued and esteemed by the whole party as any man; as he deserved to be, being of more accomplished parts than any of them, and of great reputation by the part he acted against the court and the duke of Buckingham, in the parliament of the fourth year of the king (the last parliament that had been before the short one in April) and his long imprisonment, and sharp prosecution afterwards, upon F that account; ♦ of which he retained the memory with acrimony enough. But he would in no degree intermeddle in the counsel, or prosecution of the earl of Strafford (which he could not prevent) who had married his sister, by whom he had all his children, which made him a stranger to all those consultations, though it did not otherwise interrupt the friendship he had with the most violent of those prosecutors. In all other contrivances, he was in the most secret councils with those who most governed, and was respected by them, with very submiss applications, as a man of authority. I. 188. WILLIAM PRYNNE - -DIED MDCLXIX. HE was not unlearned in the profession of the law, as far as learning is acquired by the mere reading of books; but, being a person of great industry, had spent more time in reading divinity; State Trials, VII. 242. + Amb. Ext. to Paris, 1663. See the trial of Prynne, libel. State Trials, I. 481. : and which marred that divinity, in the conversation of factious and hot-headed divines and so, by a mixture of all three, with the rudeness and arrogance of his own nature, had contracted a proud and venomous dislike to the discipline of the church of England; and so, by degrees (as the progress is very natural), an equal irreverence to the government of the state too; both which he vented in several absurd, petulant, and supercilious discourses in print. I. 200. JOHN BASTWICK, M. D.-DIED ABOUT MDCL. HE was a half-witted, crack-brained fellow, unknown to either university, or the college of physicians; but one that had spent his time abroad, between the schools and the camp (for he had been in, or passed through armies), and had gotten a doctorship, and Latin; with which, in a very flowing style, with some wit, and much malice, he inveighed against the prelates of the church in a book which he printed in Holland, and industriously dispersed in London, and throughout the kingdom; having presumed (as their modesty is always equal to their obedience) to dedicate it to the sacred majesty of the king. I. 200. HENRY BURTON, B. D.-DIED MDCXLVII. HE had formerly a kind of relation by service to the king; having, before he took orders, waited as closet keeper, and so attended at canonical hours with the books of devotion upon his majesty, when he was prince of Wales; and a little before the death of king James took orders: and so his highness coming shortly to be king; the vapours of ambition fuming into his head that he was still to keep his place, he would not think of less than being clerk of the closet to the new king, which place his majesty conferred upon, or rather continued in, the bishop of Durham, doctor Neyl, who had long served king James there. Mr. Burton thus disappointed, and, as he called it, despoiled of his right, would not, in the greatness of his heart, sit down by the affront; but committed two or three such weak, saucy indiscretions, as |