33. JOHN RICHARDSON, D.D
He left a bequest of one hundred pounds to Peter-house.
He was noted as a "most excellent linguist," as every good theologian must be; for, as Coleridge says, "language is the armory of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future conquests."
In those days, it was the custom, at seats of learning, for the ablest men to hold public disputes, in the Latin tongue, with a view to display their skill in the weapons of logic, and "the dialectic fence." As the ancient knights delighted to display and exercise their skill and strength in running at tilt, and amicably breaking spears with one another; so the great scholars used to cope with each other in the arena of public argument, and strive for literary "masteries." Those scholastic tournaments were sure to be got up whenever the halls of science were visited by the king, or some chief magnate of the land; and the logical conflicts, always conducted in the Latin tongue, were attended with as much absorbing interest as were the shows of gladiators among the Romans.
On such an occasion, when James the First was visiting Cambridge, "an extraordinary act
5* in divinity was kept for His Majesty's entertainment. Dr. John Davenant, a famous man, and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, was "respondent." His business was to meet all comers, who might choose to assail the point he was to defend,—namely, that kings might never be excommunicated. Well did Dr. Davenant urge the wordy war, till our Dr. Richardson pushed him tremendously with the example of Ambrose, the famous Bishop of Milan, who, to the admiration of the whole Christian world, excommunicated the emperor Theodosius the Great. Here was a poser! King James, who was always very nervous on the subject of regal prerogative, saw that his champion was staggering under that stunning fact; and, to save him, cried out in a passion,—"Verily, this was a great piece of insolence on the part of Ambrose!"* To this, Dr. Richardson calmly rejoined,—"A truly royal response, and worthy of Alexander! This is cutting our knotty arguments, instead of untying them."† And so taking his seat, he desisted from further discussion. The mild dignity of this remonstrance, in
* Profecto fuit hoc ab Ambrosio insolentissime factum.
† Respousum vere regium, et Alexandro dignum; hoc est non argumenta dissolvere, sed desecare.
LAWRENCE CHADERTON.
which independence and submission are happily combined, presents him in such a light as to constrain us to regret that this detached incident is about all we know of the personal character of the man. We can readily believe that he was a wise and faithful, as well as learned, Translator of the Book of God.
LAWRENCE CHADERTON.
This divine was a staunch Puritan, brave and godly, learned and laborious, full of moderation and the old English hardihood. He was born at Chaderton in Lancashire, in the year 1537. His family was wealthy, but bigotted in popery, in which religion he was carefully bred. Being destined to the bar, he was sent to the Inns of Court, at London, where he spent some years in the study and practice of the law. Here he became a pious protestant; and, forsaking the law, entered, as student, at Christ's College, Cambridge. Oh that, in a far higher sense, all divinity-students might be trained in Christ's own college, and learn their science from the Great Teacher himself!
These changes took place in 1564. Mr. Chaderton applied to his father for some pecuniary aid; but the wrathful old papist "sent him a poke, with a groat in it, to go a-begging;" and disinherited his son of a large estate. The son had no occasion to use the begging-poke. His high character and scholarship procured him much favor; while his mind was sustained by the promises of the Saviour, for whose sake he had "endured the loss of all things." He took his first degree in 1567, and was then chosen one of the Fellows of his College. He became Master of Arts in 1571; and Bachelor of Divinity in 1584. He did not receive the degree of Doctor in Divinity till 1613, when it was pressed upon him, at the time when Frederick, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, who married King James's daughter Elizabeth, visited Cambridge in state. Fuller, remarking upon this matter, writes,— "What is said of Mount Caucasus, 'that it was never seen without snow on the top,' was true of this reverend father, whom none of our father's generation knew in the University before he was gray-headed."
"He made himself familiar with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, and was thoroughly skilled in them.