Herbert's Experience of Politics and Patronage in 1624

Herbert's Experience of Politics and Patronage in 1624 by Diana Benet Recent scholarship has added important features to "George Herbert," the figure variously interpreted and constructed by readers from Izaak Walton's biography, from Amy M. Charles's A Life of George Herbert, and, of course, from different combinations of his own writings in prose and poetry. The emerging Herbert differs from previous versions primarily by being more aware of and more involved in the issues engaging the world around him: Claude J. Summers, TedLarry Pebworth, and Sidney Gottlieb, for instance, have focused on the stances Herbert takes on some of the controversies of the day as these are embedded in his poetry.' In this essay, I shall add another facet (albeit a small one) to the distinctly this-worldly Herbert by looking at his foray into politics and patronage in 1624. No one has really "placed" Herbert in his one Parliamentary session before, or assessed the nature of his experience. Doing this seems worthwhile because, against all the things we do not know about the poet, we do know that his application to be ordained followed his term in the House of Commons. A review of some of the issues and events of the Parliament Herbert attended enables us to evaluate some of his biographers' statements regarding his prospects and his ordination; furthermore, it may elucidate, as far as anything short of undiscovered personal papers can, Herbert's decision to be ordained following the session. Herbert's biographers give different accounts of the circumstances surrounding his entry into holy orders. According to Walton, he faced a choice between a career in the Church or one in the state. The ambitious young man had chosen to seek worldly preferment, influenced in part by the success of Sir Robert Naunton and Sir Francis Nethersole. the previous Cambridge University Orators, and by the favorable notice King James had taken of him: 34Diana Benet His two precedent Orators, were Sir Robert Nanton, and Sir Francis Nethersoll: The first was not long after made Secretary of State; and Sir Francis, not very long after his being Orator, was made Secretary to the Lady Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia. [Herbert hoped] that as his Predecessors, so he might in time attain the place of Secretary of State, he being at that time very high in the Kings favour.2 But the deaths in 1624 and 1625 of the influential friends who would have assisted his advancement, especially of King James, practically forced him into ordination. Against Walton, Amy M. Charles argued that the poet's decision to enter holy orders was a matter of course since 1615; consequently, he never needed to choose between the Church and a secular career. His early resolve notwithstanding, Charles's Herbert was not without ambition or an interest in secular preferment, but his role model was not an orator-predecessor in a civil career. Another role model presented a different option: Herbert's ordination, Charles wrote, would "close off most routes of secular preferment — unlesss, like [Bishop John] Williams, he could find a way of combining the sacred and the secular."3 In spite of her argument that Herbert intended ordination since 1615, Charles hinted that the Parliamentary session of 1624 was somehow crucial in his determination of a career. She wrote that "the school of Parliament apparently helped Herbert to see that the lines of his life did not lie in that direction." Charles was compelled to this formulation by her discovery of the special dispensation (dated 3 November 1624) permitting Bishop Williams to ordain Herbert at any time.4 By November 1624, Herbert had delayed twenty months beyond the time dictated by the Cambridge University statute regarding the ordination of fellows. Since he was eligible for civil employment as long as he was not ordained, his delay strongly suggests that he did consider a secular career, and his subsequent haste to be ordained, that he had decided against it. The fact that Herbert's request for the special dispensation was made immediately following his Parliamentary service, coupled with his single, unelaborated statement in The Country Parson that "there is no School to a Parliament" suggests that HERBERT...