Bohemia was deliver'd from the Saxons,

The Swede's career of conquest check'd. These lands
Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland
From all the streams of Germany forced hither
The scatter'd forces of the enemy;

Hither invoked, as round one magic circle,
The Rheingrave, Bernhard, Bannier, Oxenstiern,
Yea, and the never-conquer'd king himself:
In Nürnberg's camp the Swedish monarch left
His fame-in Lützen's plains, his life.

With Gustavus, on that 6th of November, 1632, fell Protestant ascendancy; and the Schwedenstein, which marks his resting-place on the field of Lützen, may also be regarded as the boundary-stone which proclaims, Thus far shalt thou go, but no further,' to the conquests of Lutheranism. It was in the Wetterau that Dury heard of the great event; and he thence wrote to Abbot and to Laud, acquainting them with what he had already performed, pledging himself to more extended efforts, and imploring further assistance. Ile thence went to a general meeting of Protestant states at Heilebron, in company with Sir Robert Anstruther, who was to represent England in the assembly. By this time, considerable interest was felt throughout Europe; friends to the cause sprang up everywhere; the most distinguished were the Swiss, John Millet, the Frenchman, Anne Coligny, Paul Ferrius, of Metz, and John Matthiæ, Lutheran Bishop of Strengnås. Some of the legates at Frankfort had brought divines who promised to render all assistance; such were Dunner from Sweden, and Tettelbach from Frankfort. Our hero, who by this time repented of not having accepted the offer made by Gustavus, applied to Oxenstiern for a similar circular. The chancellor was more wary than the king, and declined setting his hand to any such document; he joined, however, with the other ambassadors in signing a more general paper, importing their wish for peace, their recognition of Dury's labours, and the esteem they felt for his character. They also promised to bring to a meeting of the States, which was to be held at Erfurt in the following spring, a divine or two from their respective kingdoms; and, in the meantime, to propose to their several communions the following questions:-1. Whether the acts of the Conference at Leipsic, in so far as they were agreeable to the Confession of Augsburg, might not be received by all? 2. Whether the disagreements existing between Lutherans and Reformed might be reconciled. yes, or no? If yes, how? If no, were the discrepancies such as necessarily to imply a schism between the two communions? With these documents, and a portmanteau full of other communications, especially from Paris, Geneva, and Metz, our pacifi

1

cator, finding that nothing was likely to occur in Germany during the winter, took his way through Holland, calling on the chief pastor of every town through which he travelled, for the purpose of disseminating his own views, and arrived in England in the autumn of 1633. Here he found the face of affairs somewhat changed; Abbot was dead, and Laud had succeeded him at Canterbury. He, however, received Dury in a friendly manner, wrote him a courteous letter which has been printed by Benzelius, asked him to dinner at Lambeth, observed that he should have taken him for a German-by this time, according to every one's testimony, he spoke German more fluently than English-and finally inquired whether he were in orders, and if so, by whom they had been conferred? If we may believe Dury, he had been for several years under some scruple with respect to the validity of independent Ordination; and if so, his expressions on the subject probably influenced the Archbishop in his favour. We say if so, because here, for the first time, the shifts and manoeuvres which procured for Dury the titles of the double-faced Didymus,' the treacherous Ambidexter,' and other the like unsavoury appellations, begin to manifest themselves. The fact seems to be that he did not intentionally deceive; but, fully persuaded himself of the utter unimportance of all disputes about Church polity, and even about matters of faith not expressly laid down in the Apostles' Creed, and penetrated with a sense of the supreme importance peace, he sacrificed not only rites and ceremonies, but weighty points of doctrine, sometimes asserting them, sometimes denying them, with an ease which seemed to those who did not regard the question from precisely his point of view, the grossest duplicity. His was not a candid mind; and though it would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, in any of his numerous works (we ourselves have seen more than twenty), to convict him of a deliberate falsehood through all the tangled skein of events which he relates, yet it must be confessed that he clips, and smooths down, and rounds off, and omits what was conveniently omitted, and exaggerates what it was expedient to exaggerate,-all, be it observed, in furtherance of his mission,till some part of his history assumes a very different aspect, as related by him, from that which it bears in the accounts of his biographers.

of

But we are keeping our hero and the Archbishop waiting. By all means,' said the latter, consult Master Bray; he will give you full satisfaction on these points.' Bray, principally

This is his constant assertion throughout 'The Unchanged and Single-hearted Peacemaker;' and as the statement could hardly have been calculated to procure him favour at the time when it was made, it may probably be true.

known to us as the licenser of divinity works at that time, and as the author of one or two pamphlets in defence of the tenets of the High Church party, bows, expresses his readiness to obey his Grace's injunctions, speaks of the pleasure which it had given him to make the acquaintance of so renowned a divine as Master Dury, and is certain that he shall be able to satisfy him with respect to any little points of discipline on which they may differ. Would Master Dury do him the honour of visiting him at his poor lodgings in Lambeth Palace on the following morning? Our hero assents, and the two become intimate. It is then suggested by his old friend, Sir Thomas Rowe, who is passing the winter in London, that his capabilities for action would be very much increased if he received orders in the English Church. As for the Church of England,' they are Dury's own words in The Unchanged Peacemaker,' I said that 'I did look upon it as a Church of Christ, true in respect of the doctrine professed therein, and eminent for all spiritual gifts bestowed upon it: that I judged the government thereof by bishops with indifference, and that I took them as men commissioned by the king to be his delegates.' It is certain that if he thus spoke to Sir Thomas, his communications to Bray were in another strain; but whatever they were, they satisfied him, and what was more to Dury's purpose, they pleased Laud. The Archbishop had the presentation to a living in Devonshire then vacant. He offered it to our negotiator. The latter declined it if it would have the effect of obliging him to residence. It shall not,' replied Laud; you shall have a licence 'of non-residence, and will thus be enabled to pursue your 'negotiations with the more effect.' Dury accepted the preferment, went down to Exeter, and was ordained priest by Bishop Hall, on Monday, S. Matthias's Day, 1634. Immediately afterwards it was found that the incumbent of the living to which he had been presented was alive; our pacificator, therefore, returned to London. This is his own account; and it must be confessed that one or two things related in it seem rather improbable.

He spent the winter in procuring further testimonials from English divines. Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, Morton of Durham, and Hall of Exeter, the leaders of what we should now call the Low Church party, received him with open arms, and gave him all kind of certificates. From Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, he received still more substantial tokens of approbation; that munificent prelate allowing him a pension during the remainder of his life. Archbishop Laud so far gave in to the scheme, as to write a kind of circular to Protestant pastors. Enriched with all these documents, Dury set forth in

the spring of 1634 to join Sir Robert Anstruther at Hamburg. With that statesman he proceeded to Frankfort, where the proposed meeting of Protestant States was held; with the divines in attendance on their respective ambassadors he had repeated conferences, and obtained from them a kind of circular to their brethren throughout Europe. Armed with this, which bears date September 14, 1634, he went back to England, where he arrived in what Laud calls the extreme hot and faint October and November, the leaves being not all off the trees at the beginning of December.' The Archbishop presented him to the king. In England he remained till the ensuing summer, and apparently, it would seem, visited Aberdeen and Edinburgh for the purpose of procuring from the divines of those places an adhesion to his plan of pacification. In July 1635, having gained all that he could expect from his English visit, he proceeded to the Netherlands, and presented himself at the provincial Synod of Holland. Here he endeavoured to interest all those who had any influence in ecclesiastical or civil matters; and this Synod being concluded, he appeared successively at those of Zealand, Leyden, and Utrecht. Whether among his other multifarious attainments he had acquired a knowledge of Dutch, we know not; but to judge from the facility with which, both now and at subsequent periods, he-to use his favourite expression-dealt with' various high and mighty personages in Holland, it would seem that he had acquired their language. At all events, he spoke and wrote French like a native; and presenting himself to the Walloon Synod, he received from them warmer sympathy than he had met with in any other place. These proceedings took up about a year, and he then determined to visit Sweden, still, under the Chancellor Oxenstiern, the leading Protestant power. He arrived in that country in July 1636, visited in turn Stockholm, Upsala, Westerås and Strengnas, and returning to Upsala endeavoured to interest the University in his plans. Not succeeding to his wishes, our indefatigable hero accompanied Oxenstiern in a tour through the whole kingdom. While these events were in progress, that State had lost the pre-eminence which, under Gustavus, it had acquired. Wallenstein had fallen, and the Catholic armies were under the command of the King of Hungary, eldest son to the Emperor. After he had obtained several brilliant successes, and had been reinforced by 20,000 men from Spain, he was attacked by the Protestant leaders near Nordlingen. The battle was one of the most obstinate which history records; but finally, notwithstanding the almost supernatural efforts made by the Swedes, the Protestant confederates were utterly defeated, and Sweden began its downward career among European nations,

known to us as the licenser of divinity works at that time, and as the author of one or two pamphlets in defence of the tenets of the High Church party, bows, expresses his readiness to obey his Grace's injunctions, speaks of the pleasure which it had given him to make the acquaintance of so renowned a divine as Master Dury, and is certain that he shall be able to satisfy him with respect to any little points of discipline on which they may differ. Would Master Dury do him the honour of visiting him at his poor lodgings in Lambeth Palace on the following morning? Our hero assents, and the two become intimate. It is then suggested by his old friend, Sir Thomas Rowe, who is passing the winter in London, that his capabilities for action would be very much increased if he received orders in the English Church. As for the Church of England,' they are Dury's own words in The Unchanged Peacemaker,' I said that 'I did look upon it as a Church of Christ, true in respect of the 'doctrine professed therein, and eminent for all spiritual gifts 'bestowed upon it: that I judged the government thereof by 'bishops with indifference, and that I took them as men commissioned by the king to be his delegates.' It is certain that if he thus spoke to Sir Thomas, his communications to Bray were in another strain; but whatever they were, they satisfied him, and what was more to Dury's purpose, they pleased Laud. The Archbishop had the presentation to a living in Devonshire then vacant. He offered it to our negotiator. The latter declined it if it would have the effect of obliging him to residence. It shall not,' replied Laud; you shall have a licence of non-residence, and will thus be enabled to pursue your negotiations with the more effect.' Dury accepted the preferment, went down to Exeter, and was ordained priest by Bishop Hall, on Monday, S. Matthias's Day, 1634. Immediately afterwards it was found that the incumbent of the living to which he had been presented was alive; our pacificator, therefore, retorned to London. This is his own account; and it must be confound that one or two things related in it seem rather improvable.

He spent the winter in procuring further testimonials from Bagian divines, Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, Morton Duran, and Hall of Exeter, the leaders of what we sh wow on the Low Church party, received him with oper 4 yare in all kind of certificates. From Bedell, K Ardagh, he received still more subst w; that munificent prelate allowing Gremainder of his life. Archbishop

, as to write a kind of cin

yedine. Youred with all these docum