In judging Browne we must endeavour to look at matters with the eyes of Englishmen of 1664. Four years later another find of urns was briefly chronicled in Brampton Urns, which was not published till 1712. In September, 1671, King Charles visited Norwich, where he was feasted on the 29th in the New Hall, at a cost of £900. After the feast he was going to confer knighthood on the mayor, Thomas Thacker. The mayor modestly declined and begged his Majesty to bestow the honour upon their most distinguished townsman, meaning Dr Thomas Browne. Charles was graciously pleased to consent. About this time Browne composed two works, never finally revised by him, which were posthumously published: viz. A Letter to a Friend-a study of one of his cases-and Christian Morals. The first part of Christian Morals is an amplified version of the closing paragraphs of A Letter, while the rest gives admonitions and maxims on the conduct of life. Browne died in 1682, on the 19th of October, his birthday-an instance of "a remarkable coincidence," as he styled it in A Letter, when "the tail of the snake should return into its mouth precisely" upon the day of a man's nativity. An old friend, the Rev. John Whitefoot, recorded his impressions of Browne. His complexion and hair answered to his name, even when he was over seventy years of age. He was of moderate stature, and neither fat nor lean. In dress he avoided finery and affected plainness. He was careful to keep warm. He rarely jested; and, as a rule, was not talkative. His memory was retentive, both for persons he had seen and for books he had read. He had great evenness of temperament, neither transported with mirth nor dejected with sadness. He was diligent in attendance at religious services. We saw that, in the spring of 1661, Browne had spoken, not without satisfaction, of Cromwell's head cut from his dead body. Three years earlier he had, in Hydriotaphia, expressed his horror of any interference with the dead; "to have," as he phrased it, "our sculs made drinkingbowls, and our bones turned into Pipes, to delight and sport our Enemies, are Tragical abominations.” He himself was to suffer one of these “abominations.” In 1840 his coffin was accidentally broken into. The sexton carried off the skull, and sold it. Later it was placed in the pathological museum of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. Now, in 1922, we are glad to chronicle its restoration to its first resting-place*. "When the Funerall pyre was out," says "The Epistle Dedicatory" of Hydriotaphia, “and the last valediction over, men took a lasting adieu of their interred Friends, little expecting the curiosity of future ages should comment upon their ashes, and having no old experience of the duration of their Reliques, held no opinion of such after-considerations. But who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? who hath the Oracle of his ashes, or whether they are to be scattered." Browne composed Religio Medici in 1635–36 (see pp. 58, 106) while he was in the Halifax district. Writing in 1643 ("To the Reader"), he said: "This, I confess, about seven years past, with some others of affinity thereto, for my private exercise and satisfaction, I had at leisurable hours composed; which being communicated unto one, it became common unto many, and was by Transcription successively corrupted, until it arrived in a most depraved Copy at the Press. He that shall peruse that Work, and shall take notice of sundry particulars and personal expressions therein, will easily discern the intention was not publick: and being a private Exercise directed to my self, what is delivered therein was rather a memorial unto me, than an *See Sir Arthur Keith's letter in The Times Literary Supplement, 11th May, 1922. Example or Rule unto any other....It was penned in such a place and with such disadvantage, that (I protest) from the first setting of pen unto paper, I had not the assistance of any good Book, whereby to promote my invention, or relieve my memory..........There are many things delivered Rhetorically, many expressions therein meerly Tropical, and as they best illustrate my intention; and therefore also there are many things to be taken in a soft and flexible sense, and not to be called unto the rigid test of Reason. Lastly, all that is contained therein is in submission unto maturer discernments; and, as I have declared, shall no further father them than the best and learned judgments shall authorize them: under favour of which considerations, I have made its secrecy publick, and committed the truth thereof to every Ingenuous Reader." Browne's confession of faith as set forth in Religio Medici might be summarised as follows: §§ 1-4. His Christianity is that of the Reformed Faith. Though in the multiplicity of church systems, he sees little hope of union, he does not allow differences of opinion to separate him from other Christians. §§ 5-8. He is a Church of England man, but claims liberty on points outside the Articles. He avoids disputes on religion. He keeps the beaten path; and though, in his youth, he entertained errors, yet these never grew into heresies. §§ 9-10. Browne's attitude to the mysteries of religion. §§ 11-12 God's Eternity: its relation to the Trinity. § 13. God's Wisdom. It is honoured by man when he traces God in the works of Nature. S$ 14-17. God's Providence and Nature. Another way of Nature is misnamed Fortune. §§ 18-22. Atheism, and disbelief in the statements of Scripture. §§ 23-24. The Bible is God's word, and the best of books. There are too many books. §§ 25-26. The Jews' obstinacy: the Christians' want of constancy. Persecution and martyrs. §§ 27-34. Miracles, oracles, witches, magic and philosophy. The world-spirit. Man is the link between the world of spirits and the world of matter. §§ 35-36. The mystery of Creation. The creation of man. §§ 37-44. Browne's attitude to life and death. §§ 54-59. Salvation in Christ alone. §§ 1-2. Browne's motive in cultivating charity-with a digression on physiognomy. § 3. To impart knowledge is charity. Quarrels of learned men and libels in histories are breaches of charity. 4. An indictment against a whole nation is a breach of charity. Why Browne is not angry with the folly and madness of the multitude. The danger of judging others. How a man is his own worst enemy. §§ 5-6 Sympathy and friendship. § 7. Revenge. § 8. Browne's sins are many, but do not include pride. § 9. Marriage and harmony. Love to mankind. § 10. Every man has good in him. Browne fears the bad in himself. §§ 11-12. Browne's life has been a miracle, a romance. His happiness is the result of contentment. Dreams and sleep. §13. Browne is not rich and is not a slave to avarice. A poor man may be liberal. Fallacy of a commonwealth without poverty. § 14. Charity is to love God for Himself and our neighbour for God's sake. § 15. Conclusion: no happiness except in God. As Browne himself (see p. xv) has told us, soon after Religio Medici was written, it circulated among his friends in manuscript. Of the transcriptions, five are still extant. One copy fell into the hands of a London publisher, Andrew Crooke, who printed it, in 1642, without asking Browne's permission and without Browne's name on the title-page. The book was widely read and discussed. The Earl of Dorset recommended it to Sir Kenelm Digby, who at once sent his servant to St Paul's Churchyard to buy a copy. When the servant returned, Digby was in bed; but he read the whole book before he fell asleep, wakened early, and started to write animadversions with such impetuosity that, within twenty-four hours of receiving Dorset's letter, he had finished a treatise almost half the length of Religio Medici. Shortly after this, learning that the animadversions were to be published, Browne wrote requesting Digby to delay publication till an authentic text should appear. Digby refused. Browne then made necessary changes, and Crooke issued in 1643 the first authorised edition. It had many readers, not merely in England but also on the Continent. It was translated into French, Dutch, German, Italian, and Latin. Ten editions in Latin appeared between 1644 and 1743. Nearly forty English editions have been published. Some of its contemporary readers censured it severely, as Alexander Ross in Medicus Medicatus or the Physician's Religion cured by a Lenitive or Gentle Potion. Here Browne is accused of applying "rhetorical phrase" to religion, of believing in judicial. astrology, and generally of heresy. Other readers, as Guy Patin, the renowned Parisian savant, praised Religio Medici highly; while Samuel Pepys (Diary, 27th January, 1663-4) quotes Sir William Petty as saying that in all his life these three books were the most esteemed and generally cried up for wit in the world-Religio Medici, Osborne's Advice to a Son, and Hudibras. One thing puzzled Browne's readers. What was his religion? He called himself a Church of England man |