Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/327

Heylyn gerous fever at Alresford. On his recovery, undeterred by the fact that he had to depend on an uneducated amanuensis, he returned to his studies, and began to collect materials for his 'History of the Reformation of the Church of England.' But his literary pursuits were soon interrupted. When the Short parliament met in 1640, Heylyn in convocation proposed a conference with the commons about religious matters. He saw the need of some compromise, and was astounded when he heard of the dissolution. However, he showed his loyalty by suggesting to Laud a precedent of Elizabeth's reign for continuing convocation after parliament had ceased to sit, and by this means the clergy made a money grant to the king (Observations, p. 197). He is further said to have had the chief part in passing seventeen new canons which asserted the divine right of kings. The canons, however, were not efficacious against the Scottish arms, and Charles had to summon the Long parliament. Heylyn hastened from Alresford to London, when it was proposed that the bishops should take no part in Strafford's trial, as being a 'causa sanguinis.' Heylyn wrote a pamphlet, 'De jure paritatis episcoporum,' in which he asserted their right to take part in any matter brought before the House of Lords. But the tide had turned against Heylyn, and his enemies repaid him in kind. Prynne brought him before a committee of the commons to answer for his share in the condemnation of the 'Histriomastix.' Williams emerged from the Tower, and interrupted Heylyn's sermon in Westminster Abbey by knocking with his staff and exclaiming, 'No more of that point, Peter.' Heylyn soon found that between Williams and the committee of parliament life in London was impossible, and he was allowed to retire to Alresford. There for a time he was permitted to live in peace, but when war broke out, Sir William Waller in 1642 sent a troop of soldiers with orders to bring him prisoner to Portsmouth. He contrived, however, to escape and join the king at Oxford, where he was ordered to chronicle current events in the 'Mercurius Aulicus,' and to act as historian of the war, in which capacity he wrote several 'relations.' The news of this literary activity soon reached London, and led to his being declared a delinquent by the parliamentary committee, whereupon his house at Alresford was stripped of its contents, and his library dispersed, to his great grief. He was now reduced to destitution, and had to send his wife to London to live with her friends, while he wandered in disguise from house to house where he could find entertainment. His wife succeeded in raising some money, and joined her husband at Winchester, where they lived peaceably till the town was taken by the parliamentary forces in 1646. Heylyn had great difficulty in escaping, and again was condemned to wander in various disguises till in 1648 he settled at Minster Lovel, Oxfordshire, the seat of his elder brother, who rented it from his nephew, and farmed it himself. Though he was deprived of his ecclesiastical possessions, he compounded for his sequestered estate, and so obtained a little money. He was able again to return to his studies, and enlarged his 'Geography' into a 'Cosmography,' remembering, as he says in his preface, the advice given him by a bystander when he was examined before the commons' committee, 'Geography is better than divinity.' He was able to live quietly at Minster Lovel, where he entertained some of his old friends, who were less fortunate than himself. In 1653 he bought a house called Lacy's Court, near Abingdon, that he might be able to use the library at Oxford. Here he built a little chapel, and no man hindered him from daily using the liturgy of the church. His parishioners at Alresford showed their affection for him by restoring the chief articles of his furniture, which had been bought by them, and which quieter times allowed them to bring him as a present.

A quiet life, however, did not suit Heylyn. In 1656 he published anonymously 'Observations on Mr. Hamon L'Estrange's Life of Charles I,' in which he dissented from L'Estrange's views of the legality of the proceedings of the Laudian clergy. To this L'Estrange, who easily guessed the authorship, replied by a savage attack on Heylyn, who answered in 'Extraneus Vapulans, or the Observator rescued from the violent but vain attacks of Hamon L'Estrange, Esq.;' the smartest and most telling of Heylyn's controversial writings, abounding in sarcasm, and clothing a good deal of learning with a light garb of witty repartee. Encouraged by the reception of this book, he ventured next year to publish 'Ecclesia Vindicata, or the Church of England justified.' It is a sign of Cromwell's toleration that such a book was allowed to circulate; but though opinions were winked at, they had to be paid for, and Heylyn's estate was decimated by the major-general. Heylyn, however, was able to exercise his love of contention by struggling manfully to prevent a scheme for pulling down the church of St. Nicholas, Abingdon, a struggle in which he was practically successful. But he found a more important subject for controversy with Nicholas Bernard [q. v.], to some of whose remarks,