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INTRODUCTION. 49
The effort was, however, unsuccessful, for the Court dragged on its
existence for many years, the last cause concerning the bearing of arms
being that between Blount and Blunt, in 1720.
But a significance was still attributed to Heraldry, and even an
unintentional and imaginary reference thereto was likely to result in
serious consequences, for Bishop Burnet, in the History of His Own Times,
tells us that " on November 6th, 1
684, at the Rolls Chapel, I chose for my
" text these words :
'
Save me from the lion's mouth ; thou hast heard me
" '
from the horns of the unicorns.' I made no reflection in my thoughts
" on the lion and the unicorn as being the two supporters of the King's
" escutcheon for I ever hated all points of that sort as a profanation of
" Scripture but I shewed how Popery might be compared to the lion's
" mouth, thus opened to devour us, and I compared our former deliverance
" from the extremities of danger to the being on the horn of a rhinoceros ;
" and thus leading me to the subject of the day, I mentioned that wish of
" King James against any of his posterity that should endeavour to bring
" that religion in amongst us. This was immediately carried to the Court,
" but it
only raised more anger against me, for nothing could be made of
" it.
They talked most of the choice of the text, as levelled against the
" King's coat-of-arms. That had never been once in my thoughts. Lord
" Keeper North diverted the King from doing anything on account of my
" sermon, and so the matter slept until the end of term. And then North
" writ to the Master of the Rolls that the King considered the Chapel of
" the Rolls as one of his own Chapels ;
and since he looked on me as a
" person disaffected to the Government, and had for that reason dismissed
" me from his own service, he therefore required him not to suffer me to
" serve any longer in that Chapel, and thus all my service in the Chapel
" was now stopped."
Heralds' College has, however, even in its more degenerate days,
contained worthies who have shed a lustre on the
institution, and are also ornaments of the general
literature of Great Britain.
Earliest, and highest perhaps, stands the learned
Camden, the son of a paper-stainer in the Old Bailey,
and educated at Christ's Hospital, St. Paul's School,
and Magdalen College, Oxford. He was head-master
of Westminster School, 1592 ;
Clarenceux King of
Arms, 1597, "by the singular favour of Queen
" Elizabeth." His Britannia, his Annals of Queen
Elizabeth, and his Remains concerning Britain, will
ever enable posterity to ratify what was said of him
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by his contemporaries, that he was "worthily admired for his great learning,
" wisdom, and virtue, throughout the Christian world."