Bishop Ken

A NEW and fuller biography of the author of the Morning and Evening Hymns is an addition to those memorials of Christian character which are the best ornament of the Anglican church, welcome to all branches of the Christian faith, and especially acceptable to lovers of piety rather than dogma. Bishop Ken had the misfortune to fall upon the unquiet times of controversy in religion and of revolution in the state, which could only offend and perplex a man of his temperament, and in consequence he ended his days in misfortune. It was a sign of his future that he was bred in near neighborhood to the studies and pursuits of Izaak Walton, who was his brother-in-law, and so much older than himself as to have a guardianship of care and counsel over him. He was early an orphan, and it seems not unlikely that Walton’s house was the home to which the schoolboy came on his vacations from Winchester, where he passed his boyhood. It was due to Walton, too, that he was sent to Hart Hall and New College at Oxford. The years of his education, however, were those of the Puritan ascendency, and he was thus familiarized with disturbance and doubt in matters both ecclesiastical and secular while still a youth, and thus from the first united in his career opposing influences. It is more to the purpose to note that from Walton he must have derived the beginning of those studies in literature which were the source and example of his own poetical labors. The influence of Herbert is traceable in his life as a parish priest, and the remembrance ring of Christ on the anchor, which Donne gave to Walton and Walton bequeathed to Ken, was a lifelong souvenir to the suffering bishop of the happier auspices under which he had set out in life. The lasting nature of these early influences was singularly attested by his last act. Donne had wrapped himself in his own shroud, and it was in imitation of him that Ken carried a shroud in his traveling-bag for many years, and when the time came put it on with his own hands.

The external events of Ken’s life were not out of the ordinary for a man in his position, but they sometimes brought him into connection with interesting historical events. He was at first a parish priest where he had intimate associations with Lady Maynard, one of the saints of that unsainted age, whose diary is still remembered by kindred souls. He was then successively attached to Winchester school, where he wrote that Manual of Prayers for the scholars which centuries have not displaced as a spiritual guide for the young; to the court at The Hague as chaplain to Princess Mary, where he offended William by his boldness in rebuking the vices of the courtiers, but won his regard; to the English court as chaplain, where he gave occasion for some well-remembered words of Charles II., who praised and liked “ the little black fellow; ” to the expedition to Tangier, also as chaplain (Colonel Kirke of " Kirke’s Lambs” being in his flock), where he attracted the unfavorable comment of Councilor Pepys, who differed with him in argument with regard to “ spirits ; ” and finally to the cathedral at Wells, to which see Charles II. elevated him. It was but shortly after this preferment that he attended at the bedside of the dying king, and spoke “ like one inspired,” Burnet says, in endeavoring to effect repentance in the royal bosom, persuading the king to remove the Duchess of Portsmouth and to send for the queen, and absolving him before the secret and more desired absolution of the Catholic priest, Huddleston, was clandestinely obtained. A few months after he stood by the unhappy Monmouth on the scaffold to perform the same offices for the dying, but of his part in that not over-pleasing scene there is scanty record. He was one of the seven bishops who presented the “ standard of rebellion ” petition to King James, suffered imprisonment and trial with them, and, resisting the enthronement of William and Mary, was deprived of his pastoral charge, and afterwards wandered about in friendly houses, principally established, however, at Lord Weymouth’s seat at Longleat, until death put an end to his trials.

The history of his more important actions on the stage of events is of less consequence than the exhibition of his character. He was naturally meditative and pious ; not lacking in boldness, as became an eloquent preacher, he nevertheless took more pleasure in the duties of retirement. His personal habits were almost ascetic. He took but one meal and one sleep, and rose at three in the morning. An organ in his room was his only luxury. His musical taste seems to have been a leading trait of his nature, and he accompanied himself on the lute as he sang his morning hymns. His library was dear to him, and was curious in that it contained an unusual number of Catholic books of mystical devotion in the southern languages. He was never married, and it is rather humorously suggested that the anecdote which Walton may have told him of Hooker s uncomfortable wife" was the occasion of his habitual morning vow that he “ would not marry that day. In the discharge of his pastoral duties he was exemplary, and, besides writing proper hooks and counsels for the pious instruction of his people, he himself set them a living rule. He was not avaricious, He gave the largest lease-fine that fell in his incumbency, £4000, to the relief of the Huguenot refugees in England. He visited the prisons that were crowded with the victims of Monmouth’s rebellion, provided for their wants, protested against Jeffries’ cruelties, and interceded with the king. Each Sunday he had twelve beggars to dine at his table. In more private ways he also showed continuously the eminent goodness and charity of his nature. His toleration included so kind a feeling toward the Catholics that he lay under the suspicion of a leaning toward the Roman church: and he was, in the view of Dean Plumptre, a loyal and really attached friend of King James, even when he felt forced, in the interest of the liberties of England, to do him such serious disservice.

He had from time to time much leisure, especially in his last years, and this he apparently habitually devoted to the composition of poetry. He left a large mass of verse, which never came into any wide public notice. Dean Plumptre, with the pardonable interest and closer observation of a biographer, finds in Ken’s epics matter which would entitle them to more high consideration than they have received. They have, it is true, an autobiographical interest, and they show the ideals of the man, but he had not the gift of sustained or of lofty poetical expression. The Morning and Evening Hymns, in which his devout spirit poured itself out with directness, elevation, and simplicity, remain his only contribution to lasting literature; and these have obtained a breadth of acceptance in all communions which may well make up for the narrow fame of his other labors in poetry. They have kept his memory green, and have attracted to him the curiosity and the admiration of the most spiritually minded of Englishmen in later days. The tribute of Cardinal Newman to him is a striking instance of this, and, though not so well known as Dryden’s portrait of him as the parish priest, attests the spirituality of Ken as nobly as Dryden’s lines honor his humane labors. The list of those who have cared for his memory would be one of great distinction. The proper public memorials of him, however, have been erected only within late years. Out of one of these the present biography grew ; and weighted as it is with documents, appendixes, and the undigested materials of history, marred as we must think it by needless speculation in regard to the obscure portions of his life, guesses, and literary parallels, either too high or far too low for the subject, it affords materials for a patient reader to glean in; and if he discovers in these volumes, as it is quite possible to discover, the inner life, the noble serviceableness, and the conscientious public conduct of an ill-starred soul, he will obtain a treasure which is beyond our congratulation.