St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, having joined the communion of the Anglican Church. Of this he practically gave public notice in his pamphlet, published in 1675, entitled, “Take heed of both extreams, or plain and useful Cautions against Popery and Presbytery.” He earned considerable fame by translating into English a valuable Latin MS. composed by the then deceased Bishop Cosin. When King Charles II. was in exile, the Romanists presented his titular Majesty with a Latin MS., asserting and defending the dogma of transubstantiation. Dr Cosin, on the part of the Protestants, composed and presented a reply in the same language. On the restoration he was made a bishop, but always refused to print the aforesaid MS.; on his deathbed, however, in 1672, he was understood to consent to its being translated and published. The work was undertaken by De Beaulieu, and was published in 1676; and it is in the English of this accomplished refugee that Cosin en Transubstantiation obtained, and has retained, celebrity. I give the contents of the original title-page:
The History of Popish Transubstantiation, to which is premised and opposed the Catholick Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, the Ancient Fathers, and the Reformed Churches about the sacred elements and presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist — Written Nineteen years ago in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God, John, late Lord Bishop of Durham, and allowed by him to be published a little before his death at the earnest request of his friends. London : Printed by Andrew Clark for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West of St. Pauls. 1676.”
The translator presented a copy to the Bodleian Library, and wrote upon the bottom of the title-page, donum interpretis.
The Epistle Dedicatory is addressed, “To the Right Honourable Heneage Lord Finch, Baron of Daventry, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.”
“My Lord, — The excellency of this Book answers the greatness of its author, and perhaps the badness of the Version is also proportioned to the meanness of the Translator. But, the English being for those that could not understand the original, that they also might be insiructed by so instructive a Discourse, I hope with them my good intent will excuse my fault; only my fear is, I shall want a good Plea wherewith to sue out my pardon for having intituled a person of the highest honour to so poor a labour as this of mine. My Lord, these were the inducements which set me upon this attempt, it being the subject of the Book, to clear and assert an important truth, which is as a Criterion whereby to know the Sons of the Church of England from her adversaries on both hands, those that adore and those that profane the blessed Sacrament; these that destroy the visible sign, and those that deny the invisible Grace: I thought I might justly offer it to so pious and so great a son of this Church, who own'd her in her most calamitous condition, and defends her in her happy and most envied restauration. I was also perswaded that the Translation, bearing your illustrious name, would be thereby much recommended to many, and so become the more generally useful. And I confided much in your goodness and affability, who being by birth and merits raised to a high eminency, yet doth willingly condescend to things and persons of low estate.
“My Lord, I have only this one thing more to alledge for myself: That besides the attestation of publick fame which I hear of a long time speaking loud for you, I have these many years lived in a Family where your Vertues being particularly known are particularly admired and honoured; so that I could not but have an extraordinary respect and veneration for your Lordship, and be glad to have any occasion to express it. If these cannot clear me, I must remain guilty of having taken this opportunity of declaring myself
Your Lordship’s
most humble and
most obedient servant,
Luke de Beaulieu.”
(The second edition was published in 1679.)
His attraction to Oxford was its library. He seems to have early made the acquaintance of Dr. John Fell, Dean of Christ Church, and through his favour or approval he was made a member of that renowned college in Oxford University. The reverend doctor, soon afterwards, became Bishop of Oxford, and to him as a “Right Reverend Father in God,” Beaulieu dedicated a small devotional manual, signing himself, “Your Lordship’s most dutiful Son and most humble Servant, L.B.” This book was entitled, “Claustrum Animae: The Reformed Monastery; or, The Love of JESUS. A sure and short, pleasant, and easie way to Heaven. In Meditations, Directions, and Resolutions to Love and Obey Jesus unto Death. In two Parts. London, Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul’s Churchyard the West-End. mdclxxvii.” (The Second Part has a shorter title-page, dated mdclxxvi., and the Imprimatur is dated February 16, 1675-6.) This pocket manual has been much admired, especially by one school of divines, and was reprinted in 1865 by [Rev.] F. G. L[ee]. But I have the original before me. The long Preface
