Lewes Bayly

, was born in the antient Borough of Caermerthen in Wales, but in what house educated, unless in Exeter coll. or what degrees he took in Arts, I find not, only that as a member of the said coll. he was admitted to the reading of sentences, an. 1611. being about that time Minister of Evesham, in Worcestershire, Chaplain to Prince Henry, and Minister of St. Matthews Church in Friday-street, in London, and that he proceeded in Divinity two years after. Much about the same time, he being fam’d for his eminence in preaching, was made one of the Chaplains to King James 1. who nominating him Bishop of Bangor in the place of Dr. H. Rowlands, was consecrated thereunto at Lambeth, with Dr. Lake to the See of B. and Wells, on the 8. of Dec. an. 1616. On the 15. July 1621. I find this (e)(e) In. Annal. Reg. Jac. 1. [•] t supr [•] , sub. an. 1621. passage of him. Episcopus Bangoriensis examinatur, & in Le Fleet datur, sed paulo post liberatur. What his crime was, my author tells me not, nor do I lift further to inquire, unless it concern’d the Princes match with the Infarta of Spain. He hath published.

The practice of Piety; directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God.—Printed about 40 times in oct. and tw. the eleventh edition of which was printed at Lond. 1619. It was also printed once or more in the Welsh tongue; and once or more in the French, an. 1633. &c. And in France having been much cried up, did therefore cause John Despagne a French writer, and a Preacher in Somerset-house Chappel, an. 1656. to make some complaint of, not for any ill thing in, it, because the generality of the Plebeians do look upon the authority of it, equal with that of the Scripture. It is said by an author, (f)(f) Lu [•] ov. Molinaeus in lib. suo cui tit. est, Patronus bonae fidei, &c. edit. in oct. an. 1672. in cap. continent. Specimen contra Durellum, p. 48. who takes all advantages to speak against the Bishops, and Church of England, that this book called, The practice of Piety, was written by a Puritan Minister, and that a Bishop not altogether of a Chast life, did, after the Authors death bargain with his Widdow for the Copy, which he received, but never paid her the money. Afterwards he interlopating it in some places, did publish it as his own, &c. But let this report, which hath been common with some, as also that, which saith it was written by one Price Archdeacon of Bangor, remain with their authors, while I tell you that Dr. Bayly dying in the beginning of the year sixteen hundred thirty and two, was buried in his Church of Bangor. 1632 He left behind him four Sons, Nicholas, John, Theodore and Thomas. John was Fellow of Exeter coll. and a publisher of certain Sermons, as I have already told you. Thomas Bayly the youngest Son, was not educated in this University, but in Cambridge, and after he had taken the degrees in Arts, he was presented by his Majesty to the Sub-deanry of Wells, in the latter end of May 1638. upon the promotion of Dr. Will. Roberts to the See of Bangor. In 1644. he, among other Loyal Ministers, retired to Oxon, and in the month of Aug. was incorporated Master of Arts, and afterwards had the degree of D. of D. confer’d upon him. In 1646. I find him with the Marquess of Worcester in Ragland Castle, which, as a Commission-Officer, he help’d to defend against the Parliamentarians. But that Castle being surrendred on the 19. Aug. the same year, upon good Articles, mostly of Bayly’s framing, he travelled afterwards into France and other Countries, where spending that considerable stock of money which he had gotten from the said Marquess, he returned into England, and published a book intit. Certamen religiosum: or a conference between K. Ch. 1. and Henry late Marquess of Worcester concerning Religion, in Ragland Castle, an. 1646. Lond. 1649. oct. but blamed by the true Sons of the Church of England for so doing, because the Romish cause is there set out in great pomp, he being then warping towards, if not altogether drawn over to, the Church of Rome, and it was looked upon by some as nothing else but his Prologue in order to the declaring himself a Papist, and thereupon the said conference was suspected by the Orthodox party to have nothing therein of the stile of K. Ch. 1. and that the Marquess had not those abilities in him to maintain a discourse of religious matters with the said King. There was An answer with considerations on Dr. Bayly’s parenthetical interlocution, printed at Lond. 1651. in tw. made unto it, by Ham. L’estrange, and also answered upon account as being fictitious by Christop. Cartwright of York. About the same time an Advertisement was put cut against it, as a counterfeit thing, by Dr. Pet. Heylyn, in his Epistle to the Reader before his collection of his Majesty’s works (wherein the said conference is put) intit. Bibliotheca Regia, &c. but omitted in other impressions of it, as also in the works of the said King printed in folio. The same year (1649.) Dr. Bayly published, The Royal Charter granted unto Kings by God himself, &c. To which he added, A treatise wherein is proved that Episcopacy is jure divino. Both which were afterwards reprinted at Lond. 1656. and 1680. oct. But in them the Doctor doth in many particulars egregiously (g)(g) See the Errours in a book called Legenda lignea, &c. printed at London 1653. in oct. chap. 37. p. 165. 166. err, and as an unskilful builder, diruit aedificat, for what he rears with one hand, he pulls down with the other: And amongst many stories of his travels, having freely rail’d at all the Commonwealths in Europe, doth at last fall desperately on the new erection of that in Eng. Which angry and unpleasing history provoked strict examination; whereupon the author being found out, he was committed prisoner to Newgate, where being kindly and easily used he penned a book intit. Herba parietis: Or, the wall Flower, as it growes out of the Stone-Chamber belonging to the metrapolitan Prison, &c. being a History which is partly true, partly Romantick, morally divine. Whereby a marriage between reality and fancy is solemnized by Divinity. Lond. 1650. in a thin fol. In the Epistle before which he falls foul on P. Heylyn, whom he calls a fellow without a name, &c. for his advertisement before mention’d, which charged him with six matters; the first for wronging the late K. (Ch. 1.) very much, and another that he composed the said Conference himself, &c. Bayly also tells us there of his great sufferings in the late Civil War, that he had not only lost 1000 l. per an. for his Majesties sake, but also blood and liberty, that he was a Peers Son and his Mother a Knights Daughter, &c. As soon as this book was published, he made an escape out of Prison, went into Holland, and having rambled abroad, much more in his mind, than he had in his body, he at last declared himself a Rom. Catholick, and became a grand zealot in that interest, wherein (if he met with any occasion) he would break forth into rage and fury against the Protestant Religion, which he before had preached and professed. Thence he went into Flanders, and setling for a time at Doway, he published this book. The end to Controversie between the Rom. Catholick, and Protestant, Religions, justified by all the several manner of ways, whereby all kind of Controversies of what nature soever, are usually, or can possibly be, determined, &c. printed at Doway 1654. in qu. and dedicated to Walt. Montague Abbot of Nanteul, afterwards L. Abbot of Pantoise. There also goes under his name. The life and death of that renowned John Fisher Bishop of Rochester, &c. Lond. 1655. oct. but he was not the author of it. The true and genuine writer thereof was one Rich. Hall, D. D. sometimes of Christs coll. in Cambridge (the same, of which B. Fisher was a member) afterwards Canon, and Official of the Cathedral Church at St. Omer, who leaving it behind him in MS. at his death, an. 1604. ’twas as a choice rarity reposed in the Library of the English Benedictines at Dieuward in Lorain. Afterwards several Copies of it going abroad, one came into the hands of a person who call’d himself West. From him it came into the possession of Franc. a Sancta Clara, an 1623. and from his (as he himself hath told me divers times) to Sir Wingfield Bodenham, who keeping it in his hands several years, with an intention to print it in the name of the true author, did impart it for a time to Dr. Tho. Bayly. So that forthwith he taking a Copy of it, and making some alterations therein, he sold the said Copy to a Bookseller for a small sum of money, who caus’d it to be printed at London, under the name of Tho. Bayly D. D. I have seen a MS. containing the said Bishops Life, beginning thus, Est in Eboracensi comitatu, octogesimo a Londino lapide ad aquilonem Beverleiae oppidum, &c. But who the author was, I cannot tell: ’Twas written before Halls time, and ’tis not unlikely, but that he had seen it. There also goes under Tho. Baylys name The golden Apothegmes of King Ch. 1. and Henry Marquess of Worcester, &c. Lond. 1660. in one sh. in qu. All which were taken from a book intit. Witty Apothegmes delivered at several times and upon several occasions by K. James, K. Ch. 1. and the Marq. of Worcester, &c. Lond. 1658. oct. published by Anonymus. After Dr. Bayly had left Flanders, he went into Italy, where, as several Rom. Catholicks have told me, he was received into the service of Cardinal Ottobon, and that he died in his family, while the said Cardinal was Embass. or Nuntio at Ferrara from the Pope, and also that Prince Cajetan had a care of his Son (whom he took with him) after his death. But an English Traveller hath told me otherwise, viz. that he was no other than a common Soldier, that he lived poor at Bononia, and saw his Grave there. Another also named Dr. Rich. Trevor Fellow of Morton coll. (younger brother to Sir John Trevor sometimes Secretary of State) who was in Italy in 1659. hath several times told me that he the said Dr. Bayly died obscurely in an Hospital, and that he saw the place where he was buried.