Griffith Williams (bishop)
Encyclopedia
Griffith Williams was the Anglican bishop of Ossory
. He was opposed to the puritans.
, near Carnarvon
, in
1589 or 1590, was the son of a freeholder in the parish. His mother was a descendant
of the ancient house of Penmynydd
in Anglesey
. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford
, on 15 June 1604. He was sent thither by his uncle, but his aunt taking a dislike to him, his means of support were cut off. Through the kindness of John Williams, afterwards archbishop of York
, he obtained employment at Cambridge as a private tutor, and was admitted to Jesus College
, whence he graduated B.A. in 1605-6 and M.A. in 1609. He was incorporated M.A. at Oxford on 10 July 1610, graduated B.D. at Cambridge in 1616, and proceeded D.D. in 1621. He was ordained deacon by the bishop of Rochester
and priest by the bishop of Ely
, serving as curate at Hanwell in Middlesex. In 1608 he was presented to the rectory of Foxcott in Buckinghamshire by Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
, and afterwards became lecturer at St. Peter's in Cheapside
and at St. Paul's Cathedral for five years.
On 11 January 1611-12 he was instituted rector of St Benet Sherehog
in London through the influence of his patron, John Williams, and resigned the rectory of Foxcott. He had strong high-church sympathies, which roused the dislike of the puritans, and after the appearance of his first publication, The Resolution of Pilate, they prevailed on John King
, bishop of London
, to suspend him in 1616. He was also bound over to appear at Newgate
to answer the charges brought against him, but was discharged by Thomas Coventry
(afterwards Lord Coventry), who estreated the recognisances of his accusers.
After his suspension, from which he was eventually released on appeal to the prerogative court, he resigned his living, retired for a short time to Cambridge, and, on his return to London, found friends in the archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot
, and in the chancellor, Sir Thomas Egerton
, who presented him to the rectory of Llanllechid in Carnarvonshire. Here he became involved almost immediately in a dispute with his diocesan, Lewis Bayly
, bishop of Bangor
, a strong puritan, to whom his ecclesiastical views cannot have been acceptable. Bayly wished him to exchange his living for another, and, on his refusal, presented articles against him ex officio. Williams appealed to the court of arches, and Abbot came to his rescue, reprimanding Bayly, and giving Williams license to preach through several dioceses in his province.
(afterwards 4th Earl of Pembroke), and tutor to his children. In 1626 he was presented to the rectory of Trefdraeth in Anglesey. On 17 July 1628 he was installed prebendary of the eighth stall at Westminster, and on 28 March 1634 he was instituted dean of Bangor
. About 1636 he was appointed a royal chaplain. He was on the point of being nominated tutor to Prince Charles
and the Duke of Gloucester
, but at the last moment William Laud
, who disliked him in spite of their theological sympathies, obtained the appointment of Brian Duppa
instead. Williams also states that "before he was forty years old, he narrowly escaped being elected bishop of St. Asaph," probably on the death of John Hanmer
, but on that occasion also saw another preferred to him at the instance of Laud.
till his death. On 26 September he was consecrated, but in less than a month he was forced to fly to England by the outbreak of the Irish rebellion of 1641
. He came to Apethorpe
in Northamptonshire, where he possessed a house, and where he had settled his wife and children. On the night of his arrival he was arrested by a troop of cavalry, under Captain Flaxon, and carried before the parliamentary commissioners at Northampton.
His position was perilous, for he had with him the manuscript of his Vindiciæ Regum, with the words "The Grand Rebellion" written largely on the cover. The sheets were actually in the hands of Sir John North, one of the commissioners, but Williams contrived to get it from him before he had looked at the title, and afterwards, by representing himself as a victim of the Irish rebels, he procured a safe-conduct and the restitution of his belongings. He immediately rejoined the king
, and attended him, as chaplain, at the battle of Edgehill
on 23 Oct. 1642.
, entitled Os Ossorianum, or a Bone for a Bishop to pick,which also appeared in an abridged form, as Os, Ossis, and Oris, within the same year.
In the meantime, after spending most of the winter of 1642-3 at Oxford, Williams retired to Wales to compose a second onslaught on the parliamentarians, The Discovery of Mysteries, or the Plots and Practices of a prevalent Faction in this present Parliament to overthrow the established Religion ... and to subvert the fundamentall Lawes of this famous Kingdome (Oxford, 1643, 4to; 1645, 4to). Falkland
, misliking some of its sentiments, desired to suppress it, but he was overruled by the king. Its publication earned Williams fresh notoriety and substantial punishment. On 8 March 1643/44, while he was preaching at the university church before the royalist parliament
, his house at Apethorpe was plundered by the parliamentary troops, his wife and children driven forth, and his possessions sequestered
. His sufferings increased his zeal, and in the following winter appeared Jura Majestatis; the Rights of Kings both in Church and State, granted first by God, secondly, violated by Rebels, and, thirdly, vindicated by the Truth; and the Wickedness of the Faction of this pretended Parliament at Westminster (Oxford, 1644, 4to).
In 1643, shortly before his last work was published, he was employed by the king to try to bring over his patron, the Earl of Pembroke. Repairing to London he found the earl in bed, and so incensed him by his exhortations that he was forced to retire hastily in great dread that the earl would deliver him into the hands of parliament.
On trying to quit the city he was stopped and brought before the lord mayor, to whom he said that "he was a poor pillaged preacher from Ireland, who came to London to see his friends," and now desired to go to some friends in Northampton. By this means he obtained a pass to Northampton and reached Oxford, whence, shortly after, he passed into Wales, and thence to Ireland. During these years he contributed to the royal cause as freely from his purse as with his pen, giving the king the greater part of his private revenue.
. After in vain exhorting the royalists to resist, he managed by a succession of adroit stratagems to reach Ireland, and on 1 April 1647 was presented to the rectory of Rathfarnham
, near Dublin. He resided in that city until its surrender in the same year, when he was included by name in the benefits of the capitulation. Ormonde
sent him a sum of money to relieve his necessities, but on his way to Wales, to live on a small patrimony he possessed there, he was taken prisoner by Captain Beeche, who robbed him of all he had and left him to make his way back to Dublin in a destitute condition. Dr. Loftus furnished him with money to carry him to London, and he appealed to the committee of sequestrations for the benefits of the Dublin capitulation. On learning that he was the author of Vindiciæ Regum, the committee told him he deserved to have his head cut off, and passed on to the next business without giving him any redress. Armed with a letter from Fairfax
, he had better fortune with the committees at Northampton and Anglesey, to which he was driven by poverty to resort on foot. After regaining his small possessions, he lived at his house in Llanllechid in great poverty, preparing his Great Antichrist for press. His old patron, Pembroke, offered him a valuable living in Lancashire if he would submit to parliament; but this he refused, as well as an offer of Henry Cromwell
's of £100 a year on the same terms. In 1651, when Charles was marching on Worcester, he preached before the judges at Conway, and manifested such strong royalist tendencies that he saved himself only by flight.
, and the next morning, preaching in Dublin at St. Bride's, was the first in Ireland to pray publicly for the king. He further celebrated the event by the publication of his 'O' Αντιχριστός, the Great Antichrist revealed (London, 1660, fol.), in which he triumphantly showed antichrist to be "neither pope nor Turk," but the Westminster Assembly
, whom he characterised in the title as a "collected pack or multitude of hypocritical, heretical, blasphemous, and most scandalous wicked men, that have fulfilled all the prophesies of the Scripture, which have forespoken of the coming of the great Antichrist."
On repairing to his diocese he found his palace and cathedral in ruins, and was immediately involved in numerous lawsuits in his endeavours to recover the alienated lands of the see, in which he was generally unsuccessful. In 1664 he published The Persecution and Oppression of John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, and of Griffith Williams, that was called to the same Bishopric (London, 4to), an animated autobiography, to which he appended a description of the distressed condition of the clergy of his diocese. Some statements in the appendix drew down the censure of the upper house of convocation at Dublin, and he was reduced to plead that they had inadvertently slipped in. He spent considerable sums in restoring his cathedral and repairing the damage wrought by the rebels.
For some years he held the prebendary of Mayne in his diocese in commendam, exchanging it on 21 Feb. 1671-2 for the precentorship, which, however, he resigned on 14 March. Rumours of his death were rife in 1671, but he died on 29 March 1672, and was buried in his cathedral at Kilkenny. He left property to endow almshouses for eight poor widows to be erected in the churchyard of the cathedral, and also bequeathed his lands in Llanllechid for the benefit of the poor.. Both his successors had some degree of connection with the Bangor area of Wales.
To him also has been ascribed An Examination of such Particulars in the Solemne League and Covenant
as concern the Law; proving it to be destructive of the Lawes of England, both Ancient and Moderne, Oxford, 1644, 4to.
Bishop of Ossory
The Bishop of Ossory is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Province of Leinster, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bishoprics.-History:The diocese of Ossory...
. He was opposed to the puritans.
Life
He was born at Treveilian in the parish of LlanrugLlanrug
Llanrug is a large village in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It lies about 4 miles to the east of Caernarfon, 7 miles south of Bangor and 3 miles to the west of Llanberis. It is the largest populated village in the Arfon area of Gwynedd, Wales. The old name term of the village was initially...
, near Carnarvon
Carnarvon
Carnarvon and Caernarvon are older forms of the name of the town in North Wales currently known as Caernarfon. The older names, in place for centuries, were anglicised phonetic spellings; since the 1970s the Welsh spelling has been generally adopted...
, in
1589 or 1590, was the son of a freeholder in the parish. His mother was a descendant
of the ancient house of Penmynydd
Penmynydd
Penmynydd is a village on Anglesey situated on a slight hill on the B5420 road between Menai Bridge and Llangefni, at...
in Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, on 15 June 1604. He was sent thither by his uncle, but his aunt taking a dislike to him, his means of support were cut off. Through the kindness of John Williams, afterwards archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
, he obtained employment at Cambridge as a private tutor, and was admitted to Jesus College
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
, whence he graduated B.A. in 1605-6 and M.A. in 1609. He was incorporated M.A. at Oxford on 10 July 1610, graduated B.D. at Cambridge in 1616, and proceeded D.D. in 1621. He was ordained deacon by the bishop of Rochester
Bishop of Rochester
The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the west of the county of Kent and is centred in the city of Rochester where the bishop's seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin...
and priest by the bishop of Ely
Bishop of Ely
The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
, serving as curate at Hanwell in Middlesex. In 1608 he was presented to the rectory of Foxcott in Buckinghamshire by Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley , 3rd Earl of Southampton , was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu...
, and afterwards became lecturer at St. Peter's in Cheapside
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Mansion House Street. To the east is Mansion House, the Bank of England, and the major road junction above Bank tube station. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St...
and at St. Paul's Cathedral for five years.
On 11 January 1611-12 he was instituted rector of St Benet Sherehog
St Benet Sherehog
St Benet Sherehog, additionally dedicated to St Osyth, was a medieval church built before the year 1111, situated at No. 1 Poultry in Cordwainer Ward, in the then wool-dealing district of the City of London. It was one of the 86 churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and it was not...
in London through the influence of his patron, John Williams, and resigned the rectory of Foxcott. He had strong high-church sympathies, which roused the dislike of the puritans, and after the appearance of his first publication, The Resolution of Pilate, they prevailed on John King
John King (bishop of London)
John King was a Church of England clergyman and bishop of London from 1611 to 1621.John King was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. A chaplain to bishop John Piers, King became preacher to the city of York before becoming domestic chaplain to Thomas Egerton in London...
, bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
, to suspend him in 1616. He was also bound over to appear at Newgate
Newgate
Newgate at the west end of Newgate Street was one of the historic seven gates of London Wall round the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. From it a Roman road led west to Silchester...
to answer the charges brought against him, but was discharged by Thomas Coventry
Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry
Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry was a prominent English lawyer, politician and judge during the early 17th century.-Education and early legal career:...
(afterwards Lord Coventry), who estreated the recognisances of his accusers.
After his suspension, from which he was eventually released on appeal to the prerogative court, he resigned his living, retired for a short time to Cambridge, and, on his return to London, found friends in the archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot
George Abbot (Archbishop of Canterbury)
George Abbot was an English divine and Archbishop of Canterbury. He also served as the fourth Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, between 1612 and 1633....
, and in the chancellor, Sir Thomas Egerton
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley PC was an English Nobleman, Judge and Statesman who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-one years.-Early life, education and legal career:...
, who presented him to the rectory of Llanllechid in Carnarvonshire. Here he became involved almost immediately in a dispute with his diocesan, Lewis Bayly
Lewis Bayly
Lewis Bayly was an Anglican bishop.-Life:He was educated at Oxford, became vicar of Evesham, Worcestershire, and probably in 1604 became rector of St. Matthew's Church, Friday street, London...
, bishop of Bangor
Bishop of Bangor
The Bishop of Bangor is the Ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Bangor.The diocese covers the counties of Anglesey, most of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire and a small part of Montgomeryshire...
, a strong puritan, to whom his ecclesiastical views cannot have been acceptable. Bayly wished him to exchange his living for another, and, on his refusal, presented articles against him ex officio. Williams appealed to the court of arches, and Abbot came to his rescue, reprimanding Bayly, and giving Williams license to preach through several dioceses in his province.
London and Bangor
Four years later, however, finding his position intolerable, after a visit to Cambridge he returned to London, and in 1625 became domestic chaplain to Philip Herbert, 1st earl of MontgomeryPhilip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery KG was an English courtier and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I...
(afterwards 4th Earl of Pembroke), and tutor to his children. In 1626 he was presented to the rectory of Trefdraeth in Anglesey. On 17 July 1628 he was installed prebendary of the eighth stall at Westminster, and on 28 March 1634 he was instituted dean of Bangor
Bangor Cathedral
Bangor Cathedral is an ancient place of Christian worship situated in Bangor, Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It is dedicated to its founder, Saint Deiniol....
. About 1636 he was appointed a royal chaplain. He was on the point of being nominated tutor to Prince Charles
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
and the Duke of Gloucester
Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester
Henry Stuart, 1st Duke of Gloucester was the third adult son of Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria of France...
, but at the last moment William Laud
William Laud
William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
, who disliked him in spite of their theological sympathies, obtained the appointment of Brian Duppa
Brian Duppa
Brian Duppa was an English bishop, a noted Royalist and adviser to Charles I of England.-Life:He was educated at Westminster School and Christchurch, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1609. He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1612, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1632...
instead. Williams also states that "before he was forty years old, he narrowly escaped being elected bishop of St. Asaph," probably on the death of John Hanmer
John Hanmer (bishop)
-Life:Hanmer was born at Pentrepant, in the parish of Selattyn, near Oswestry in Shropshire. He matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, 2 June 1592, and became a fellow of All Souls College in 1596, proceeding B.A. 14 July 1596, M.A. 5 April 1600, B.D. 1 Dec. 1615, and D.D. 13 November 1616...
, but on that occasion also saw another preferred to him at the instance of Laud.
Ossory
In 1641 he was raised to the Irish see of Ossory by a patent dated 11 September. He had resigned his prebend a few months before, but retained his deanery in commendamIn Commendam
In canon law, commendam was a form of transferring an ecclesiastical benefice in trust to the custody of a patron...
till his death. On 26 September he was consecrated, but in less than a month he was forced to fly to England by the outbreak of the Irish rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
. He came to Apethorpe
Apethorpe
Apethorpe is a village and civil parish in East Northamptonshire district of the shire county of Northamptonshire, England. The 2001 census records a population of 133....
in Northamptonshire, where he possessed a house, and where he had settled his wife and children. On the night of his arrival he was arrested by a troop of cavalry, under Captain Flaxon, and carried before the parliamentary commissioners at Northampton.
His position was perilous, for he had with him the manuscript of his Vindiciæ Regum, with the words "The Grand Rebellion" written largely on the cover. The sheets were actually in the hands of Sir John North, one of the commissioners, but Williams contrived to get it from him before he had looked at the title, and afterwards, by representing himself as a victim of the Irish rebels, he procured a safe-conduct and the restitution of his belongings. He immediately rejoined the king
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, and attended him, as chaplain, at the battle of Edgehill
Battle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642....
on 23 Oct. 1642.
1642-1644
Early in 1643 he published his Vindiciæ Regum, or the Grand Rebellion; that is a Looking-glass for Rebels, whereby they may see, how by Ten Several Degrees they shall ascend to the Heighth [sic] of their Design (Oxford, 4to). This vigorous invective against the parliamentarians attained considerable fame, and was publicly burnt by order of parliament. It immediately drew a reply from John GoodwinJohn Goodwin (preacher)
John Goodwin was an English preacher, theologian and prolific author of significant books.-Early life:Goodwin was born in Norfolk and educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. and obtained a fellowship on 10 November 1617. He left the university and married, took orders and...
, entitled Os Ossorianum, or a Bone for a Bishop to pick,which also appeared in an abridged form, as Os, Ossis, and Oris, within the same year.
In the meantime, after spending most of the winter of 1642-3 at Oxford, Williams retired to Wales to compose a second onslaught on the parliamentarians, The Discovery of Mysteries, or the Plots and Practices of a prevalent Faction in this present Parliament to overthrow the established Religion ... and to subvert the fundamentall Lawes of this famous Kingdome (Oxford, 1643, 4to; 1645, 4to). Falkland
Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland
Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland was an English author and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1642...
, misliking some of its sentiments, desired to suppress it, but he was overruled by the king. Its publication earned Williams fresh notoriety and substantial punishment. On 8 March 1643/44, while he was preaching at the university church before the royalist parliament
Oxford Parliament (1644)
The Oxford Parliament was the Parliament assembled by King Charles I for the first time 22 January 1644 and adjourned for the last time on 10 March 1645, with the purpose of instrumenting the Royalist war campaign.Charles was advised by Edward Hyde and others not to dissolve the Long Parliament as...
, his house at Apethorpe was plundered by the parliamentary troops, his wife and children driven forth, and his possessions sequestered
Committee for Plundered Ministers
The Committee for Plundered Ministers was appointed by the Long Parliament, then under the influence of the Presbyterians, after the start of the English Civil War in August 1643 for the purpose of replacing and effectively silencing those clergy who were loyal to the King Charles...
. His sufferings increased his zeal, and in the following winter appeared Jura Majestatis; the Rights of Kings both in Church and State, granted first by God, secondly, violated by Rebels, and, thirdly, vindicated by the Truth; and the Wickedness of the Faction of this pretended Parliament at Westminster (Oxford, 1644, 4to).
In 1643, shortly before his last work was published, he was employed by the king to try to bring over his patron, the Earl of Pembroke. Repairing to London he found the earl in bed, and so incensed him by his exhortations that he was forced to retire hastily in great dread that the earl would deliver him into the hands of parliament.
On trying to quit the city he was stopped and brought before the lord mayor, to whom he said that "he was a poor pillaged preacher from Ireland, who came to London to see his friends," and now desired to go to some friends in Northampton. By this means he obtained a pass to Northampton and reached Oxford, whence, shortly after, he passed into Wales, and thence to Ireland. During these years he contributed to the royal cause as freely from his purse as with his pen, giving the king the greater part of his private revenue.
1645-1660
In 1645 he visited England and had an interview with the king, and on his return found himself in Anglesey when it submitted to General Thomas MyttonThomas Mytton
-Life:Born about 1597, son of Richard Mytton of Halston, Shropshire, by Margaret, daughter of Thomas Owen of Condover, he matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, on 11 May 1615, aged 18. He became a student of Lincoln's Inn in 1616...
. After in vain exhorting the royalists to resist, he managed by a succession of adroit stratagems to reach Ireland, and on 1 April 1647 was presented to the rectory of Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham or Rathfarnam is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin County Councils.The area of Rathfarnham...
, near Dublin. He resided in that city until its surrender in the same year, when he was included by name in the benefits of the capitulation. Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...
sent him a sum of money to relieve his necessities, but on his way to Wales, to live on a small patrimony he possessed there, he was taken prisoner by Captain Beeche, who robbed him of all he had and left him to make his way back to Dublin in a destitute condition. Dr. Loftus furnished him with money to carry him to London, and he appealed to the committee of sequestrations for the benefits of the Dublin capitulation. On learning that he was the author of Vindiciæ Regum, the committee told him he deserved to have his head cut off, and passed on to the next business without giving him any redress. Armed with a letter from Fairfax
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron , English parliamentary general.-Early life:He was born in Yorkshire the eldest son of Thomas Fairfax, whom Charles I in 1627 created Lord Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland and received a military education in the Netherlands. Two of his...
, he had better fortune with the committees at Northampton and Anglesey, to which he was driven by poverty to resort on foot. After regaining his small possessions, he lived at his house in Llanllechid in great poverty, preparing his Great Antichrist for press. His old patron, Pembroke, offered him a valuable living in Lancashire if he would submit to parliament; but this he refused, as well as an offer of Henry Cromwell
Henry Cromwell
Henry Cromwell was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier, and an important figure in the Parliamentarian regime in Ireland.-Life:...
's of £100 a year on the same terms. In 1651, when Charles was marching on Worcester, he preached before the judges at Conway, and manifested such strong royalist tendencies that he saved himself only by flight.
Return to Ireland
He made various attempts to get his Great Antichrist printed, but could find no one bold enough to venture on it. In 1660, while crossing to Ireland, he heard at Holyhead the news of the RestorationEnglish Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
, and the next morning, preaching in Dublin at St. Bride's, was the first in Ireland to pray publicly for the king. He further celebrated the event by the publication of his 'O' Αντιχριστός, the Great Antichrist revealed (London, 1660, fol.), in which he triumphantly showed antichrist to be "neither pope nor Turk," but the Westminster Assembly
Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. It also included representatives of religious leaders from Scotland...
, whom he characterised in the title as a "collected pack or multitude of hypocritical, heretical, blasphemous, and most scandalous wicked men, that have fulfilled all the prophesies of the Scripture, which have forespoken of the coming of the great Antichrist."
On repairing to his diocese he found his palace and cathedral in ruins, and was immediately involved in numerous lawsuits in his endeavours to recover the alienated lands of the see, in which he was generally unsuccessful. In 1664 he published The Persecution and Oppression of John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, and of Griffith Williams, that was called to the same Bishopric (London, 4to), an animated autobiography, to which he appended a description of the distressed condition of the clergy of his diocese. Some statements in the appendix drew down the censure of the upper house of convocation at Dublin, and he was reduced to plead that they had inadvertently slipped in. He spent considerable sums in restoring his cathedral and repairing the damage wrought by the rebels.
For some years he held the prebendary of Mayne in his diocese in commendam, exchanging it on 21 Feb. 1671-2 for the precentorship, which, however, he resigned on 14 March. Rumours of his death were rife in 1671, but he died on 29 March 1672, and was buried in his cathedral at Kilkenny. He left property to endow almshouses for eight poor widows to be erected in the churchyard of the cathedral, and also bequeathed his lands in Llanllechid for the benefit of the poor.. Both his successors had some degree of connection with the Bangor area of Wales.
Marriage
By his wife Anne he left issue. He was not always on good terms with her, and in October 1635 she brought a suit for alimony against him in the court of high commission, but the case terminated in a reconciliation.Works
Besides the works already mentioned, Williams was the author of:- The Delights of the Saints, London, 1622, 8vo.
- Seven Golden Candlestickes, holding the Seven Greatest Lights of Christian Religion, London, 1627, 4to.
- The True Church, shewed to all Men that desire to be Members of the Same, London, 1629, fol.
- The Right Way to the Best Religion, London, 1636, fol.
- Seven Treatises very necessary to be observed in these very bad Days, to prevent the Seven Last Vials of God's Wrath, that the Seven Angels are to pour down upon the Earth, London, 1661, fol.
- The Description and the Practice of the four most admirable Beasts explained in Four Sermons, London, 1663, 4to.
- A True Relation of a Law Proceeding, betwixt ... Griffith, lord bishop of Ossory, and Sir G. Ayskue, London, 1663, 4to.
- Several Sermons on Solemn Occasions and Treatises, London, 1665, 4to.
- Four Treatises, London, 1667, 4to.
To him also has been ascribed An Examination of such Particulars in the Solemne League and Covenant
Solemn League and Covenant
The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians. It was agreed to in 1643, during the First English Civil War....
as concern the Law; proving it to be destructive of the Lawes of England, both Ancient and Moderne, Oxford, 1644, 4to.