Theobald's, and
"descended to a persuasion, almost to a solicitation of him, to enter
into sacred orders," but Donne asked for a few days to consider.
Finally, early in 1614, King, bishop of London, "proceeded with all
convenient speed to ordain him, first deacon, then priest." He was,
perhaps, a curate first at Paddington, and presently was appointed royal
chaplain.

His earliest sermon before the king at Whitehall carried his audience
"to heaven, in holy raptures." In April, not without much bad grace, the
university of Cambridge consented to make the new divine a D.D. In the
spring of 1616, Donne was presented to the living of Keyston, in Hunts.,
and a little later he became rector of Sevenoaks; the latter preferment
he held until his death. In October he was appointed reader in divinity
to the benchers of Lincoln's Inn. His anxieties about money now ceased,
but in August 1617 his wife died, leaving seven young children in his
charge. Perhaps in consequence of his bereavement, Donne seems to have
passed through a spiritual crisis, which inspired him with a peculiar
fervour of devotion. In 1618 he wrote two cycles of religious sonnets,
_La Corona_ and the _Holy Sonnets_, the latter not printed in complete
form until by Mr Gosse in 1899. Of the very numerous sermons preached by
Donne at Lincoln's Inn, fourteen have come down to us. His health
suffered from the austerity of his life, and it was probably in
connexion with this fact that he allowed himself to be persuaded in May
1619 to accompany Lord Doncaster as his chaplain on an embassy to
Germany. Having visited Heidelberg, Frankfort and other German cities,
the embassy returned to England at the opening of 1620.

In November 1621, James I., knowing that London was "a dish" which Donne
"loved well," "carved" for him the deanery of St Paul's. He resigned
Keyston, and his preachership in Lincoln's Inn (Feb., 1622). In October
1623 he suffered from a dangerous attack of illness, and during a long
convalescence wrote his _Devotions_, a volume published in 1624. He was
now appointed to the vicarage of St Dunstan's in the West. In April 1625
Donne preached before the new king, Charles I., a sermon which was
immediately printed, and he now published his _Four Sermons upon Special
Occasions_, the earliest collection of his discourses. When the plague
broke out he retired with his children to the house of Sir John Danvers
in Chiswick, and for a time he disappeared so comple