surety he was a partaker of their severities also. The great cause of his suffering is, to some, a secret. I leave them to find it out by his words to King James:[1] 'I wish, that as I am the first, so I may be the last of sacrifices in your times:' and when, from private appetite, it is resolved that a creature shall be sacrificed, it is easy to pick up sticks enough from any thicket whither it hath strayed, to make a fire to offer it with."
Dr. Rawley[2] did not, as it seems, think it proper to be more explicit, because he judged "some papers touching matters of estate, to tread too near to the heels of truth, and to the times of the persons concerned."
Having read this intimation in the Baconiana, I procured, with some difficulty, a copy of the tract that contains the words to which Archbishop Tennison alludes. It is Bushel's Abridgment of the lord chancellor's philosophical theory. This work, written by Bushel more than forty years after his master's death, abounding with constant expressions of affection and respect, states that, during a recess of parliament, the king sent for the chancellor, and ordered him not to resist the charges, as resistance would be injurious to the king and to Buckingham.[3] Upon examining the journals of the House of Lords, I found that this interview between the king and the chancellor was recorded.
Having made this progress, I was informed that there were many of Lord Bacon's letters in the Lambeth Library. I immediately applied to the Archbishop of Canterbury for permission to read and take extracts from them. With this application, his grace, with his usual courtesy and kindness, most readily complied.
In one of the letters there is the following passage in Greek characters.
Οφ μγ οφφενς, φμρ βε φρομ το σαγ, δατ υενεαμ κηρυες; υεξατ κενσυρα κολυμβας: βυτ ι ωιλλ σαγ θατ ι ανε γοοδ ωαρραντ φορ: θεγ ωερε νοτ Οε γρεατεστ οφφενδερς ιν Ισραελ υπον ωηομ θε ωαλλ φελλ.[4]
In another letter he says, "And for the briberies and gifts wherewith I am charged, when the books of hearts shall be opened, I hope I shall not be found to have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart, in a depraved habit of taking rewards to pervert justice; howsoever I may be frail, and partake of the abuses of the times."[5]
From this ambiguity by a man so capable of expressing himself clearly, and whose favourite maxim was, "Do not inflate plain things into marvels, but reduce marvels to plain things," I was confirmed in the opinion which I had formed. I, therefore, proceeded to collect the evidence.
After great deliberation I arranged all the materials; and, from the chance that I might not live to complete the work, I some years since prepared that part which relates to the charge against him, and intrusted it to a friend, that, in the event of my death, my researches might not be lost.
The life is now submitted to public consideration. I cannot conclude without
- ↑ See Mr. Bushel's extract, p. 19.
- ↑ Baconiana, page 81.
- ↑ See page xcii.
- ↑ Deciphered it is as follows: Of my offence, far be it from me to say, dat veniam corvis; vexat censura Columbas: but I will say that I have good warrant for: they were not the greatest offenders in Israel upon whom the wall fell.
- ↑ Letter to the king, May 25. 1620.
