Note 94b — PART I. INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)

This bishop, whose christian name, as it is called, was Lancelot, seems to have been in his day one of the better sort of the men of that order, as appears by the following anecdote, related of him after he had been translated from Ely to Winchester.—Waller, the poet, being one day at court, while James I. was dining, overheard the following conversation between his sacred majesty and two of his bishops, of whom one was Andrews of Winchester, and the other Neale of Durham. These two prelates, standing behind the king’s chair, were asked by him, “If he might not take his subjects’ money when he wanted it, without all the usual formality in parliament?” To which his lordship of Durham readily answered, “God forbid, sir, but you should; you are the breath of our nostrils.” The other being silent, James addressed himself to him, “Well, my lord of Winchester, and what say you?” Andrews replied, that he was “not competent to judge in parliamentary cases.” Upon which the king exclaimed, “No evasions, my lord, I expect an immediate and direct answer to my question!” “Then, sir,” said he, “I think it lawful for you to take my brother Neale’s money, for he offers it.”—It is easy to see that there was some difference between these two bishops, and that the latter was the better man of the two, being by no means so lost to all shame and decency, or so abject a flatterer of majesty as the other. Which of them the majority of their successors have resembled most, may be a point not very easy to determine: nor would it be, perhaps, of very material consequence.