Cecil's Reputation
What did Cecil's contemporaries have to say about him? (
after his death):
- Dr. Godfrey Goodman, Anglican Bishop of Gloucester: "The Great Stateman...because he would show his service to the state, he would first contrive and then discover a treason; and the more odious and hateful the treason were, his service would be the greater and more acceptable.7
- Francis Osborne (published in 1658): The Gunpowder Plot was "a neat device of the [Lord] Treasurer's .. He being very plentiful in such plots, wrote a book a little after, wherein to magnify his zeal to religion and the State, he published a libel where they threatened to kill him, with a well-penned answer; both thought to smell of the same ink."8
- John Chamberlin: "He juggled with religion, with the king, queene, theyr children, with nobilitie, parlement, with friends, foes and generally with all." 9