Griffith Williams (bishop)
Griffith Williams (c.1589–1672) was the Anglican
Life
Williams was born at Treveilian in the parish of Llanrug, near Carnarvon, in 1589 or 1590, the son of a freeholder in the parish. His mother was a descendant of the house of Penmynydd in Anglesey. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 15 June 1604. He was sent there by his uncle, but after his aunt took a dislike to him, his means of support were cut off.
Through
On 11 January 1611–12 he was instituted rector of
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,
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
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
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 October 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 Goodwin, 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 over-ruled 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.
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
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
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,[2] 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,[3] and also bequeathed his lands in Llanllechid for the benefit of the poor.[4] Both his successors had some degree of connection with the Bangor area of Wales.
Marriage
By his wife Anne he left children. 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.[5]
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 as concern the Law; proving it to be destructive of the Lawes of England, both Ancient and Moderne, Oxford, 1644, 4to.
Notes
References
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Carlyle, Edward Irving (1900). "Williams, Griffith (1589?-1672)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 61. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Cites:
- Williams's Works
- Ware's Irish Bishops, ed. Harris, pp. 420–7
- Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 952-6
- Notes and Queries, 1st ser. x. 252, 425, 6th ser. vi. 305
- Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714
- Graves and Prim's Hist. and Antiq. of Kilkenny Cathedral, 1857, pp. 39, 43–45
- Wynn's Hist. of Gwydir Family, 1878, p. 97
- Dwnn's Heraldic Visitations, p. 222
- Richard Mant, Church of Ireland, 1840, i. 565, 596–8, 663–4
- John Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 2
- Richard Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, London 1710, i. 304, 926
- Laud's Works (Libr. of Anglo-Catholic Theol.), iv. 495.