and more sorry that your wife proves not a more comfortable companion, after you have wearied yourself in your restless studies.”  To whom the good man replied, “My dear George, if Saints have usually a double share in the miseries of this life, I, that am none, ought not to repine at what my wise Creator hath appointed for me:  but labour—­as indeed I do daily—­to submit mine to his will, and possess my soul in patience and peace.”

[Sidenote:  Master of the Temple]

At their return to London, Edwin Sandys acquaints his father, who was then Archbishop of York, with his Tutor’s sad condition, and solicits for his removal to some benefice that might give him a more quiet and a more comfortable subsistence; which his father did most willingly grant him when it should next fall into his power.  And not long after this time, which was in the year 1585, Mr. Alvey,—­Master of the Temple,—­died, who was a man of a strict life, of great learning, and of so venerable behaviour, as to gain so high a degree of love and reverence from all men, that he was generally known by the name of Father Alvey.  And at the Temple-reading, next after the death of this Father Alvey, he, the said Archbishop of York being then at dinner with the Judges, the Reader, and the Benchers of that Society, met with a general condolement for the death of Father Alvey, and with a high commendation of his saint-like life, and of his great merit both towards God and man; and as they bewailed his death, so they wished for a like pattern of virtue and learning to succeed him.  And here came in a fair occasion for the Bishop to commend Mr. Hooker to Father Alvey’s place, which he did with so effectual an earnestness, and that seconded with so many other testimonies of his worth, that Mr. Hooker was sent for from Drayton-Beauchamp to London, and there the Mastership of the Temple proposed unto him by the Bishop, as a greater freedom from his country cares, the advantages of a better society, and a more liberal pension than his country parsonage did afford him.  But these reasons were not powerful enough to incline him to a willing acceptance of it:  his wish was rather to gain a better country living, where he might see God’s blessings spring out of the earth, and be free from noise,—­so he expressed the desire of his heart,—­and eat that bread which he might more properly call his own, in privacy and quietness.  But, notwithstanding this averseness, he was at last persuaded to accept of the Bishop’s proposal; and was by Patent for life, made Master of the Temple the 17th of March, 1585, he being then in the 34th year of his age. [This you may find in the Temple Records.  William Ermstead was master of the Temple at the Dissolution of the Priory, and died 2 Eliz. (1559).  Richard Alvey, Bat.  Divinity, Pat. 13 Febr. 2 Eliz. Magister, sive Custos Domus et Ecchsiae Novi Templi, died 27 Eliz. (1585).  Richard Hooker succeeded that year by Patent, in terminis, as Alvey had it, and he left it 33 Eliz. (1591).  That year Dr. Balgey succeeded Richard Hooker.]