Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/389

Basset late Discourses against Transubstantiation,' London, 1687, 4to. This book, which is attributed to Basset in the Bodleian and Dublin catalogues, was answered by Dr. Thomas Bainbrigg in the same year, and in 1705 by Nathaniel Spinckes, M.A., and Edward Stephens. Dodd (Church History, iii. 482) ascribes the authorship to John Goter, but it can scarcely be the production of that eminent controversialist, because the writer represents himself as having been converted to catholicism after the publication of Tillotson's ‘Discourse against Transubstantiation,' which appeared in 1685. Indeed, Dodd himself states elsewhere (Certamen utriusque Ecclesiæ, 16) that the treatise on 'Church Authority,' which was answered by Stephens, was the production of Basset's pen. It seems to be established also that Basset was the author of 'An Essay towards a Proposal for Catholick Communion. Wherein above sixty of the principal controverted points which have hitherto divided Christendom being call'd over, 'tis examin'd how many of them may and ought to be laid aside, and how few remain to be accommodated for the effecting a General Peace. By a Minister of the Church of England,' London, 1704, 1705, 1812, 1879, this last edition being entitled 'An Eirenicon of the Eighteenth Century,' and having a long introduction by the editor, Henry Nutcombe Oxenham, M.A. The reprint of 1705 is accompanied with a reply by the Rev. Edward Stephens, and the ‘Essay’ was also attacked by two nonjuring clergymen, viz. Samuel Grascome and Nathaniel Spinckes. Dodd (Certamen utriusque Ecclesiæ, 16) attributes the authorship to Thomas Deane, a catholic fellow of University College, Oxford; but Wood, who has given some account of Deane (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 450), does not include this essay among his other works. Mr. Oxenham is disposed to think that the real author was William Basset [q. v.], rector of St. Swithin's, London; but his ingenious theory is completely upset by the fact that this Basset died eight years before the 'Essay' was published (, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, i. 544). It must, however, be admitted that the following account of the author given by Michel le Quien (Nullité des Ordinations Anglicanes, Paris, 1725, i. introd. p. xxx) is, if correct, irreconcilable with the known date of Joshua Basset's conversion:—

‘Tant s'en faut que les Anglois pensent aussi sérieusement qu'on voudroit le faire croire, à se réünir avec nous, qu'il y a peu d'années qu'un de leurs ministres, nommé M. Basset, qui le souhaittoit plus que les autres, ayant publié un Ecrit en maniere d'Essai ['An Essay towards a Proposal for Catholick Communion'] pour y parvenir, fut cité à comparoître devant la Convocation ou Assemblée du Clergé pour y rendre compte de ses sentimens et de sa doctrine; et sur le refus qu'il fit de se rétracter, il fut déposé du Ministere et de la Cure dont il joüissoit dans Londres; ensorte qu'ayant été obligé de chercher une retraitte à la campagne, il fut réduit à gagner sa vie en apprenant à lire aux enfans des paysans. Cette persecution a contribué à lui ouvrir les yeux: il a enfin abjuré absolument l'hérésie, et est entré dans la Communion de l'Eglise qu'il avoit long-temps desirée.'

Joshua Basset contributed verses to the 'Cambridge University Collections' on the death of the Duke of Albemarle (1670), the accession of James II (1684), and the birth of the Prince of Wales (1688).

[MS. Addit. 5821 f. 119, 5846 f. 447, 5864 f. 92; MS. notes in copy of Essay towards a Proposal for Catholick Communion (1705), in Brit. Mus.; MS. Lansd. 88 f. 40; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 614, 616, 636, 642; Bibl. Hearniana, 25; Oxenham's Eirenicon of the Eighteenth Century, introd. 17; Jones's Cat. of Popery Tracts (Chetham Soc.), i. 148; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. v. 199, 3rd ser. iii. 140, xi. 479.]  BASSET, PETER (fl. 1421), biographer of Henry V, is stated by Bale to have been the chamberlain and intimate friend of Henry V, and to have written in English a detailed and interesting life of his patron under the title of 'Acta Regis Henrici Quinti.' Tanner ascribes to Basset another historical work, called 'De Actis Armorum et Conquestus Regni Franciæ ducatus Normanniæ, ducatus Alenconiæ, ducatus Andegaviæ et Cenomanniæ, etc. Ad nobilem virum Johannem Falstolf, baronem de Cyllyequotem.' Edward Hall, the chronicler of the wars of the Roses, writing before 1542, mentions 'Ihon Basset' among the English writers whose works he had consulted, and this reference almost certainly applies to Peter Basset, whom Pits likewise miscalls 'John.' Hall quotes 'Peter Basset, esquire, which at the time of his death was his chamberlayn,' as his authority for the statement that Henry V 'died of a plurisis.' Thomas Hearne, in the preface to his edition of Thomas Elmham's 'Vita et Gesta Henrici V' (1727, p. 31), describes, among the extant accounts of Henry V's actions in France, a work in manuscript entitled 'Petri Basseti et Christophori Hansoni adversaria.'

Both Tanner and Hearne speak of Basset's historical works as lying in manuscript at the College of Arms, but no distinct mention of