[143] Dr. Heylin's principal work, "_Ecclesia Restaurata_; or, the
History of the Reformation of the Church of England," was reprinted
at the Cambridge University press, for "the Ecclesiastical History
Society," in 2 vols. 8vo, 1849, under the able editorship of J. C.
Robertson, M.A., Vicar of Bekesbourne, Kent. The introductory
account of Heylin has enabled us to correct the present article in
some particulars, and add a few useful notes.
[144] Dr. John Barnard married the daughter of Heylin, when he lived
at Abingdon, near Oxford. He afterwards became rector of the rich
living of Waddington, near Lincoln, of which he purchased the
perpetual advowson, holding also the sinecure of Gedney, in the same
county. He was ultimately made Prebendary of Asgarby, in the church
of Lincoln, and died at Newark, on a journey, in August, 1683. His
rich and indolent life would naturally hold out few inducements for
literary labour.
[145] Mr. George Vernon, according to Wood (Athen. Oxon. iv. 606),
was made Chaplain of All Souls' College, afterwards Rector of
Sarsden, near Churchill, in Oxfordshire, of Bourton-on-the-Water, in
Gloucestershire, and of St. John and St. Michael, in the city of
Gloucester. Wood enumerates several works by him, so that he was
evidently more of a "literary man" than Barnard, who enjoyed
"learned ease" to a great degree, and was evidently only to be
aroused by something flagitious.
[146] This was Harper, a bookseller, who had undertaken a
republication of the _Ecclesia Vindicata_, and other tracts by
Heylin, to which the Life was to be prefixed.
[147] The author had "desired Mr. Harper to communicate the papers
to whom he pleases, and cross out or add what is thought
convenient." A leave very few literary men would give!
[148] The most curious part of the story remains yet to be told. Dr.
Barnard was mistaken in his imputations, and Vernon was not the
really blamable party. We tell the tale in Mr. Robertson's words in
the work already alluded to.--"Who was the party guilty of these
outrages? Barnard assumed that it could be no other than Vernon; but
the truth seems to be that the Rector of Bourton had nothing
whatever to do with the matter. The publisher had called in a more
important adviser--Dr. Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln (Ath. Oxon. iii.
567; iv. 606); the mutilations of Barnard's MS. were really the
work, not of the obscure Gloucestershire clergyman, but of the
indignant author's own diocesan; and we need not hesitate to ascribe
the abruptness of the conclusion, and the smallness of the type in
which it is printed, to Mr. Harper's economical desire to save the
expense of an additional sheet." Thus "Bishop Barlow and the
bookseller had made the mischief between the parties, who, instead
of attempting a private explanation, attacked each other in print."