Friday 3 April 1663

Waked betimes and talked half an hour with my father, and so I rose and to my office, and about 9 o’clock by water from the Old Swan to White Hall and to chappell, which being most monstrous full, I could not go into my pew, but sat among the quire. Dr. Creeton, the Scotchman, preached a most admirable, good, learned, honest and most severe sermon, yet comicall, upon the words of the woman concerning the Virgin, “Blessed is the womb that bare thee (meaning Christ) and the paps that gave thee suck; and he answered, Nay; rather is he blessed that heareth the word of God, and keepeth it.”

He railed bitterly ever and anon against John Calvin, and his brood, the Presbyterians, and against the present term, now in use, of “tender consciences.” He ripped up Hugh Peters (calling him the execrable skellum), his preaching and stirring up the maids of the city to bring in their bodkins and thimbles.

Thence going out of White Hall, I met Captain Grove, who did give me a letter directed to myself from himself. I discerned money to be in it, and took it, knowing, as I found it to be, the proceed of the place I have got him to be, the taking up of vessels for Tangier. But I did not open it till I came home to my office, and there I broke it open, not looking into it till all the money was out, that I might say I saw no money in the paper, if ever I should be questioned about it. There was a piece in gold and 4l. in silver.

So home to dinner with my father and wife, and after dinner up to my tryangle, where I found that above my expectation Ashwell has very good principles of musique and can take out a lesson herself with very little pains, at which I am very glad. Thence away back again by water to Whitehall, and there to the Tangier Committee, where we find ourselves at a great stand; the establishment being but 70,000l. per annum, and the forces to be kept in the town at the least estimate that my Lord Rutherford can be got to bring it is 53,000l.. The charge of this year’s work of the Mole will be 13,000l.; besides 1000l. a-year to my Lord Peterborough as a pension, and the fortifications and contingencys, which puts us to a great stand, and so unsettled what to do therein we rose, and I to see my Lord Sandwich, whom I found merry at cards, and so by coach home, and after supper a little to my office and so home and to bed.

I find at Court that there is some bad news from Ireland of an insurrection of the Catholiques there, which puts them into an alarm.

I hear also in the City that for certain there is an embargo upon all our ships in Spayne, upon this action of my Lord Windsor’s at Cuba, which signifies little or nothing, but only he hath a mind to say that he hath done something before he comes back again.

Late tonight I sent to invite my uncle Wight and aunt with Mrs. Turner to-morrow.

30 Annotations

First Reading

TerryF  •  Link

The Scotchman is ba-a-a-a-ack

"chappell...being most monstrous full, I could not go into my pew, but sat among the quire."

It cannot be Good Friday already; why is the chapel so full that our man must sit in the choir?

Perhaps the draw is Dr. Creighton, whom Sam'l heard preach before the King, the Duke and the Duchess, 7 March 1661/62, also mid-lent on a Friday (the why of which we could not fathom) another learned sermon, "but, in his application, the most comical man that ever I heard in my life. Just such a man as Hugh Peters" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Sunday 15 March 1662/63 Sam'l raised - and we discussed, at Bradford's instance - the issue of the overpopulation of the Navy Office pew http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

* * *

Today "Dr. Creeton, the Scotchman, preached a most admirable, good, learned, honest and most severe sermon, yet comicall, upon the words of the woman concerning the Virgin, 'Blessed is the womb that bare thee (meaning Christ) and the paps that gave thee suck; and he answered, Nay; rather is he blessed that heareth the word of God, and keepeth it.'"

Often he paraphrases the text of the Bible, but today Sam'l very nearly quotes the very words of two verses of Luke.11 in the KJV: 27. "And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, 'Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.' 28. But he said, 'Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.'" http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/k/kj…

* * *

"[Dr. Creeton] railed bitterly ever and anon against John Calvin, and his brood, the Presbyterians, and against the present term, now in use, of 'tender consciences.' He ripped up Hugh Peters [for] his preaching and stirring up the maids of the city to bring in their bodkins and thimbles."

L&M say "tender consciences," included in Charles's Declaration of Breda, had been in use in the time of James I, but now referred to the scruples of nonconformists. Hugh Peters had been the New Model Army's chief chaplain; L&M say his "begging sermons," appealing for huswifery support, had led to the moniker, "The Thimble and Bodkin Army."

Re bodkins and thimbles, needles, etc. http://www.sealedknot.org/knowbas…

* * *

What is "comicall" about Dr. Creighton's "application"? Friday 7 March 1661/62 it was not fathomed, even with the help of the OED, though these uses by Pepys weren't cited there, perhaps someone can check the OED again.

Etymology on Line says "something is comical (c.1432) if the effect is comedy, whether intended or not " http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

Creighton was known for his wit, and he applied it to politics as had Hugh Peters and other non-Anglican preachers. And his very manner of delivery may have been, in its way, also parodic of Hugh Peters's own, as well as being otherwise risible -- which may not have been in keeping with the solemnity the usual conforming Anglican sermon provoked after the Restoration -- though many Christians, Anglicans included, nearly 350 years on are quite accustomed to and even value some sermonic "comic relief" and are Dr. Creighton's successors in 'playing to the crowd' in this way (homiletics as, in part, also acting)?

Pedro  •  Link

"there is an embargo upon all our ships in Spayne, upon this action of my
Lord Windsor's at Cuba, which signifies little or nothing, but only he
hath a mind to say that he hath done something before he comes back again."

The raid on Cuba was agreed by Windsor, in accordance with his orders from London, for two reasons. Firstly to send Madrid a message to say that England was serious about free trade in the Indies, and secondly to remove the threat to Jamaica of an invasion from Spanish Cuba. After the raid on St. Jago in Cuba (5th October 1662), in Madrid, the British Ambassador, received a letter from the under-secretary of State, Henry Rumbold, telling him that the Spanish King had sent to England "To know if the King would own to Lord Windsor's action in Cuba, but it will probably be easily answered as the Spaniard is most pliable when he is well beaten" and noted that reports from Cadiz said the Spanish "are much dejected there hearing from the West Indies of our hostile carriage towards them, which has wholly ruined their trade." Then, almost as an afterthought, he added that the King had sent orders to Lyttleton in Jamaica telling him "to desist those hostilities towards the Spaniards and other neighbours, as much disturbing the settlement of that plantation."

These orders did not reach Jamaica until 4th August 1663.

Windsor had left Lyttelton in charge. Myngs was itching to have another raid at the Spaniard, but the acting Governor was cautious waiting a gesture of conciliation from Spain. On the 12th January 1663 Myngs sailed to raid Campeche in New Spain (Mexico/Central America), and after trouble on the way back, arrived 5 months from the St.Jago raid, with another successful haul.

In fact Spain had demanded the restoration of Jamaica, and the request arrived when the Privy Council was about to choose a new Governor.

(Summary from Pope's Biography of Henry Morgan.)

Bradford  •  Link

"I did not open it till I came home to my office, and there I broke it open, not looking into it till all the money was out, that I might say I saw no money in the paper, if ever I should be questioned about it."

As pretty a piece of casuistical equivocation before the act as one could possibly devise. Nota bene, ye who would rise in The World.

In Dr. Creighton's sermon, perhaps it is the image---worthy of a Metaphysical poet like Crashaw---of blessing the nipples with which our Lord was nursed, that might possibly strike a comical note in the minds of the low-minded. I wonder if this note will make it past the Censor.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Language hat can probably elucidate this, but I do rather think that there would have been a different slant on the word "comical" at that time - meaning odd or eccentric as opposed to side-splitting risibility. That would fit better in this context.

I was interested in what Sam says about "my pew" in the Chapel Royal: would this be a pew reserved for Naval Commissioners? Or just Royal employees? Or is it just that Sam has developed a particular preference? We have had no information about Sam paying pew rent on a Chapel Royal pew.

Calvin's rigid view on salvation: souls are pre-destined from birth for salvation or damnation and nothing can change this; and his obsession with the sinfulness of the human body did not accord at all well with the Restoration society, especially the Court! James I's reference to "tender consciences" harks back to Elizabeth's pronouncement at the start of her reign that she would not "make a window in men's souls" : both Elizabeth and James were primarily concerned with good order in their realm and an avoidance of civil disturbance, not an absoulte conformity to certain religious practices and beliefs.

TerryF  •  Link

Australian Susan, in Calvin’s view souls are pre-destined from BEFORE birth for salvation or damnation, indeed eternally, God's mind and will not being subject to time (Calvin in this respect following St. Augustine's several writings about this matter). Calvin's view of the saved and others was based on the careful exegesis of several places in the NT wherein those who hear God's Word and do God's will are among the "elect" or those "elected" to do so. Just who those were was, for Calvin himself, in his several editions of *The Institutes of the Christian Religion* -- first in Latin and then in the elegant French, for which language it helped define the early modern standard (which are lawyerly as befit his education) -- finally a secret in the mind of God; but later generations of Calvinists were certain that they were the elect -- whence, to some extent the ferocity of their party in the uncivil 17th century English religious wars.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"That's one for me...And another for me...And one more for me..."

"Pepys?! What's that money on your desk?!" a stern voice from behind.

"Mr....Coventry? I...Money?"

Wait a bit? Coventry? In my house?

"You jumped five full feet in the air, Sam'l." Bess chuckles. "From a seated position, no less." Rather pleased to have displayed one talent Ashwell lacks.

"Now tell me again how it's ok cause it's just a few pounds thanks and everyone expects it..." she frowns.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...where we find ourselves at a great stand; the establishment being but 70,000l. per annum, and the forces to be kept in the town at the least estimate that my Lord Rutherford can be got to bring it is 53,000l.. The charge of this year’s work of the Mole will be 13,000l.; besides 1000l. a-year to my Lord Peterborough as a pension, and the fortifications and contingencys, which puts us to a great stand, and so unsettled what to do therein we rose..."

Sam, you and the boys just go about town with official government handbills proclaiming "The ungodly Turk is on the march bearing plague and Greek fire! England is in (yellow level) peril! No real godfearing patriot can worry about deficits at a time like this!! Support our troops at Tangier!"

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"...his preaching and stirring up the maids of the city to bring in their bodkins and thimbles..." Peters gets in the neck for telling lasses to have their Hat pin ready to prick those lumbering skellum of 'prentices. Of course the thimble be for protection against any penitration.

dirk  •  Link

bodkins and thimbles

"...in England during the Civil War, while Royalist families contributed their silverware and gold plate towards the coffers of King Charles, the Parliamentary forces earned the title of the ‘thimble and bodkin army’, as these humble items were to be found in considerable numbers amongst the offerings of their supporters. These political gifts are a recurring theme in English literature of the 17th century. Pepys alludes to it in his Diary, 3 April 1663, mentioning that Hugh Peter’s preaching during the Civil War stirred up the maids of the City to bring in their bodkins and thimbles."

http://www.sealedknot.org/knowbas…

TerryF  •  Link

Today in The House of Commons [with apologies to in Aqua Scripto]

Preventing Popory, &c.
Ordered, That the Committee to which the Bill to prevent the Growth of Popery is re-committed, be revived; and do sit To-morrow in the Afternoon: And that the Committee concerning the King's Revenue, and all other Committees, do forbear to sit then.

From: 'House of Commons Journal Volume 8: 3 April 1663', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 8: 1660-1667 (1802), p. 464. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 04 April 2006.

Yesterday Stolzi observed that "His Majesty doesn’t care nearly as much about getting his revenues, as he does about firmly establishing Protestantism", and today the House of Commons obliges him very.

uusee  •  Link

is it just that Sam has developed a particular preference? We have had no information about Sam paying pew rent on a Chapel Royal pew.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

As pretty a piece of casuistical equivocation before the act as one could possibly devise.

Well said. So much guilt for so paltry a bribe -- or courtesy. RGertz has aptly drawn Sam's jumpiness on the subject. I'm struck and entertained by Sam's ability to relish a good sermon ("a most admirable, good, learned, honest and most severe sermon, yet comicall" -- I'd like to have heard that!), slink home with Capt. Grove's letter, then fret about the Tangier budget. No Johnny One-Note he.

Stolzi  •  Link

Of course Stolzi was being sarcasticall.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Hugh Peter(s)

The Cambridge man who proposed the founding of what became Harvard College while a preacher in Salem, Mass., in 1636 (Cousin Hugh “Blood, Guts and Haircut”by Donna Trefry http://www.thetreasuredepot.com/i…) was awarded 200 pounds a year to himself and heirs in perpetuity by Parliament in 1646. The heirs will be quite wealthy if the English republican movement, when it regains power, decides to honor the just debts of the Commonwealth.

(with further apologies to IAS):
An Ordinance for the Passing of Two hundred Pounds per Annum to Mr. Hugh Peter, and his Heirs for ever, out of the Lands of the Earl of Worcester, or the Lord Herbert, or Sir John Sommersett, his Sons, the particular Lands passed being mentioned in the Ordinance, was this Day read; and, upon the Question, passed; and ordered to be sent unto the Lords for their Concurrence.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Nix  •  Link

Comical --

Here are the various definitions given in OED. I haven't copied the citations, but I have inserted the date of the earliest under each sense of the word.

1. = COMIC 1. Obs. [1432]

2. Of style, subject, etc.: Befitting comedy; trivial, mean, low; the opposite of tragical, elevated or dignified. Obs. [1586]

b. Of persons: ? Low, mean, base, ignoble; or ? clownish. Obs. [1670]

3. Like the conclusion of a comedy; happy or fortunate. (Opposed to tragical.) Obs. [1584]

4. Resembling comedy, mirth-provoking; humorous, jocose, funny; ludicrous, laughable. (Of persons and things.) The ordinary sense. [1685]

5. Queer, strange, odd. colloq. [1793]

b. = ‘Queer’ in the sense of ‘peculiar or disagreeable in temper or nature, difficult to deal with, awkward, troublesome, dangerous’. dial. [1864]

c. = ‘Queer’ in the sense of ‘strangely out of sorts, unwell, ill’. dial. [1884]

B. n. A comical person. rare{em}1. [1825]

Clement  •  Link

..."bad news from Ireland of an insurrection of the Catholiques there..."

The news he's referring to is likely the ongoing discontent over property ownership. Catholic landholders were completely dispossessed, or given poorer lands that were a fraction of the size of their previous holdings, by the Cromwellian parliament, while their lands were granted to soldiers and financiers of the Protestant war against the Royalists. Many of the Irish lords were part of the rebellion against Parliament or even actively supported the claim of Charles II to the throne.
At the Restoration the dispossessed expected some similar restoration their estates, but were largely disappointed since the new Parliament and Charles II were interested in maintaining English control in Ireland, though it largely consisted of those who funded and made war against him. The found the accomodations of the 1662 Act of Settlement unsatisfactory. Many interesting details here:
http://bible.tmtm.com/wiki/Act_of…

Mary  •  Link

"insurrection of the Catholiques there"

L&M offers the terse comment that a number of Tories (i.e. Catholic peasants) had risen in protest against the decision of the Court of Claims.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Chapel Royal pew

The Chapel Royal is a a household chapel, not a parish church. It and its clerical and musical establishment would be paid for as part of the expenses of the household and not, in part, by renting out pews.

language hat  •  Link

put to a stand (OED):

stand 5a. A state of checked or arrested movement; a standstill; spec., the rigid attitude assumed by a dog on finding game. Chiefly in the phrases to be at a stand, to come to a stand, to bring or put to a stand.
[..]1698 FRYER Acc. E. India & P. 10 The Winds shrank upon us from off the Coast of Ginea.. and had left us at a stand.[...]

As for "comical," I think sense 2 (see nix's comment above) is applicable; here's a comparable OED citation:
a1674 CLARENDON Surv. Leviath. 18 This Comical mention of the power and goodness of God.. in a place so improper and unnatural for those reflexions.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

The House of Commons first session to-day be one on Privilege:
Reading it, shows how many whom have a bad guy arrested will be in trouble if he [the arrested one ] be one that be covered by a privilege. No wonder Sam be skittish about his little foray with arresting a cursing man.
Details here.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Also today, The House be looking into the legalities of the Admiralty.
"A Bill for settling the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty, was this Day read the First time."

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

A nice brisk walk of 5 to 6 furlongs [or 200 plus rods or approx 10-15 min hike] to get to a safe place to embark for Whitehall, nice short canter if he a bit late to catch the 9 of the clock wherry "...about 9 o’clock by water from the Old Swan to White Hall ..."

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

“where we find ourselves at a great stand”

A STAND, a Pause or Stay, Doubt or Uncertainty; also a Frame to set any thing upon .
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

Bill  •  Link

“Dr. Creeton, the Scotchman, preached a most admirable, good, learned, honest and most severe sermon, yet comicall”

COMICAL, Merry, Facetious, Pleasant, belonging to, or fit for a Comedy.

COMEDY, a Play composed with Art, either in Prose or Verse, to represent some Action agreeable to Human Life, and not cruel.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

Bill  •  Link

"He ripped up Hugh Peters (calling him the execrable skellum), his preaching and stirring up the maids of the city to bring in their bodkins and thimbles."

And now for a fling at your Thimbles,
Your Bodkins, Rings, and Whistles,
In truck for your Toyes,
We'll fit you with Boyes:
('Tis the doctrine of Hugh's Epistles.)
...
To pull down their King,
Their plate they could bring,
And other precious things,
So that Sedgwick and Peters,
Were no small getters
By their Bodkins, thimbles and rings.
---Rump: Or An Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs. 1662.

BODKIN, an Utensil Women roll their Hair on, and also for other Uses.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

Bill  •  Link

Did they coin Piss-pots, Bowls, and Flaggons,
Int' Officers of Horse and Dragoons;
And into Pikes and Musquetteers
Stamp Beakers, Cups, and Porringers?

A Thimble, Bodkin, and a Spoon,
Did start up living Men, as soon
As in the Furnace they were thrown,
Just like the Dragon's Teeth b'ing sown.
---Hudibras. Samuel Butler, 1709.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘skelm, n. and adj. < Dutch < German schelm rascal, devil, pestilence, carcass, etc. . .
1. A rascal, scamp, scoundrel, villain. Now arch. (except in S. Africa).
. . 1663 S. Pepys Diary 3 Apr. (1971) IV. 93 He ripped up Hugh Peters (calling him ‘that execrable Skellum’).
1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xlviii. 386 Pander, Knave, Rogue, Skelm, Robber or Thief . .
1956 T. Huddleston Naught for your Comfort ii. 29 As for Absalom—he is a ‘skellum’, a ‘tsotsi’—the kind of Kaffir who ought to be sjambokked every day: it would teach him sense . . ‘

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" 1000l. a-year to my Lord Peterborough as a pension"

L&M: Peterborough had resigned his government of Tangier after s few months' service in 1661-2, in return for a life-pension £1000 p.a. on the establishment there. Its payment was to give Pepys some difficulty.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

..."bad news from Ireland of an insurrection of the Catholiques there..."

An Irishman well known to English schoolchildren, Thomas Blood, was alienated in the early 1660s by the Restoration settlement of Ireland: the 'hard usage' that he received at the hands of the Court of Claims, some of his lands being taken away from him, reinforced the dissatisfaction of an Irish Protestant and former parliamentarian with the policies of the new regime.

In 1663 Col. Thomas Blood was said to have possessed a small house and to have £100 a year in Dunboyne, which was of 'ancient inheritance', but all his lands were lost to him for his rebellious actions in that year (CSP Ire., 1663–5, 133).

By 1662 Thomas Blood had begun his life as a conspirator, heavily involved in the plot that came to light in Dublin in May 1663 by acting as go-between and recruiter for the plot in Ireland. Those involved had connections with conspirators across the Irish Sea who were active in the north of England.

[The details of this plot will have to wait a few months ... just know the Irish are very unhappy, and the Lord Lt. James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, living in Dublin Castle, is doing his best to keep the lid on things. But don't necessarily blame the Catholics -- as stated above, Blood was a Protestant.]

Thomas Blood's bio at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography requires a subscription:
https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10…

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