Promotions Fourthly That all persons to be admitted to any Benefice with cure should likewise subscribe to the said Articles and publickly read the same in the open Church within two months after their Induction with declaration of their unseigned assent to the same on the pain aforesaid In all which there was nothing done to confirm these Articles but only a pious care expressed for reformation of such disorders as were like to rise amongst the Ministers of the Church by requiring their subscription and assent unto them under such temporal punishments which at that time the Canons of the Church had not laid upon them But it is time to leave these follies of my own and return to our Bishop who had thus seasonably manifested both his Zeal and Judgment in reference to the peace of the Church in general nor shewed he less in reference to the peace of that Universitie which had the happiness and honour of his Education The Proctorship had beâ—ore been carried by a combination of some houses against the rest the weaker side calling in strangers and non-residents to give voyces for them For remedie whereof a Letter in another year was procured from the Earl of Pembroke then Chancellour of that University by which it was declared that only such as were actually Residents should be admitted to their Suffrages in the said Elections which Letter was protested against by the Proctors for the year 1627. as knowing how destructive it was of their plot and party And on the other side such Colledges as had many Chappelries and other places which were removable at pleasure invested many which came out of the Country in the said Offices and Places one after another thereby admitting them for the time into actual residence In which estate things stood when the great competition was April 23. 1628. betwixt Williamson of Magdalens and More of New-Colledge on the one side and Bruch of Brazen-nose with Lloyd of Iesus Colledge on the other side These last pretending foul play to be offered to them as indeed it was not very fair made their appeal unto the King before whom the proceedings being heard and examined Williamson and Lloyd were returned Proctors for that year the last pretending Kindred to the Dutchess of Buckingham And to prevent the like disorders for the time to come it was resolved by the King with the Advice of his Council but of Laud especially that the Proctors should from thenceforth be chosen by their severall Colledges each Colledge having more or fewer turns according to the number and greatness of their Foundations To which end a Cycle was devised containing a perpetual Revolution of three and twenty years within which Latitude of time Christ-Church was to enjoy six Proctors Magdalen five New-Colledge foure Merton All-Souls Exeter Brazen-Nose St. Iohns and Wadham Colledges to have three a piece Trinity Queens Orial and Corpus Christi to have only two the rest that is to say Vniversity Baliol Lincoln Iesus and Pembroke but one alone which Cycle was so contrived that every Colledge knew their turn before it came and did accordingly resolve on the fittest man to supply the place And for the more peaceable ordering of such other matters in the University as had relation thereunto some Statutes were digested by Laud and recommended by the King to the said University where they were chearfully received without contradiction and Entred on Record in the Publick Registers in December following Yet was not this the only good turn which that University recieved from him in this Year For in the two Months next ensuing he procured no fewer than 260 Greek Manuscripts to be given unto the Publick Library that is to say 240 of them by the Munificence of the Earl of Pembroke and 20 by the Bounty of Sir Thomas Row then newly returned from his Negotiations in the Eastern parts And now the time of the next Parliamentary Meeting which by divers Adjournments had been put off till the twentieth of Ianuary was neer at hand And that the Meeting might be more agreeable to his Intendments his Majesty was advised to smooth and prepare his way unto it first by removing of some Rubs and after by some popular Acts of Place and Favour Savill of Yorshire a busie man in the House of Commons but otherwise a politick and prudent Person he had taken off at the end of the former Parliament by making him one of his Privy Council and preferring him to be Comptroller of his Houshold in the place of Suckling then deceased and at the end of the last Session had raised him to the honour of Lord Savill of Pontfract Competitor with Savill in all his Elections for that County had been Sir Thomas Wentworth of Wentworth Woadhouse a man of most prodigous Parts which he had made use of at first in favour of the Popular Faction and for refusing of the Loan had been long imprisoned He looked on the Preferments of Savill his old Adversary with no small disdain taking himself to be as indeed he was as much above him in Revenue as in Parts and Power To sweeten and demulce this man Sir Richard Weston then Lord Treasurer created afterwards Earl of Portland used his best endeavours and having gained him to the King not only procured him to be one of his Majesties Privy Council but to be made Lord President of the North and advanc'd unto the Title of Viscount Wentworth by which he over-topped the Savills both in Court and Country Being so gained unto the King he became the most devout Friend of the Church the greatest Zealot for advancing the Monarchical Interest and the ablest Minister of State both for Peace and War that any of our former Histories have afforded to us He had not long frequented the Council-Table when Laud and he coming to a right understanding of one another entred into a League of such inviolable Friendship that nothing but the inevitable stroke of Death could part them and joining hearts and hands together cooperated from thenceforth for advancing the Honour of the Church and his Majesties Service These Matters being carried thus to assure himself of two such Persons in which he very much pleased himself his Majesty must do something also to please the People and nothing was conceived could have pleased them more than to grant them their desires in matters which concerned Religion and bestow Favours upon such men as were dear unto them In pursuance of his gracious Answer to the Lords and Commons touching Priests and Jesuits the growth of Popery and obstinacy of Recusants he had caused his Proclamation to be issued on the third of August for putting the Laws and Statutes made against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants in due Execution And now he adds another to it dated on the eleventh day of December for the Apprehension of Richard Smith a Popish Priest styling and calling himself the Bishop of Chalcedon a dangerous man and one who under colour of a
by which the proceedings in those Courts were to be regulated and directed so as it doth appear most clearly that it was not the purpose of that King either to diminish the Authority or to interrupt the Succession of Bishops which had continued in this Church from the first Plantation of the Gospel to that very time but only to discharge them from depending on the Popes of Rome or owing any thing at all to their Bulls and Faculties which had been so chargeable to themselves and exhausted so great a part of the Treasure of the Kingdom from one year to another 3. Upon this ground he past an Act of Parliament in the 25. year of his Reign for the Electing and Consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops In which it was Enacted that on the Vacancy of every Bishoprick within his Realm his Majesty should issue out his Writ of Conge d' eslire to the Dean and Chapter of the Church so Vacant thereby enabling them to proceed to the Election of another Bishop that the Election being returned by the Dean and Chapter and ratified by the Royal Assent his Majesty should issue out his Writ to the Metropolitan of the Province to proceed unto the Confirmation of the Party Elected and that if the Party so Confirmed had not before been Consecrated Bishop of some other Church that then the Metropolitan taking to himself two other Bishops at the least should proceed unto the Consecration in such form and manner as was then practised by the Church so that as to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Consecration there was no alteration made at all Those which were Consecrated after the passing of this Statute were generally acknowledged for true and lawful Bishops by the Papists themselves or otherwise Dr. Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Westminster had never been admitted to have been one of those who assisted at the Consecrating of Cardinal Pool when he was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the death of Cranmer All which recited Statutes with every thing depending on them being abrogated by Act of Parliament in the time of Queen Mary were revived in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth and so still continue But so it was not with another alteration made in the form of exercising their jurisdiction by King Edw. 6. In the first Parliament of whose Reign it was enacted that all process out of the Ecclesiastical Courts should from thence forth be issued in the Kings Name only and under the Kings Seal of Arms contrary to the usage of the former times Which Statute being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth the Bishops and their subordinate Ministers have ever since exercised all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in their own Names and under the distinct Seals of their several Offices 4. In Doctrinals and forms of Worship there was no alteration made in the Reign of K. Hen. 8. though there were many preparations and previous dispositions to it the edge of Ecclesiastical Affairs being somewhat blunted and the people indulged a greater Liberty in consulting with the Holy Scriptures and reading many Books of Evangelical Piety then they had been formerly which having left the way more open to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and divers other learned and Religious Prelates in K. Edwards time seconded by the Lord Protector and other great ones of the Court who had their ends apart by themselves they proceeded carefully and vigorously to a Reformation In the managing of which great business they took the Scripture for their ground according to the general explication of the ancient Fathers the practise of the Primitive times for their Rule and Pattern as it was expressed to them in approved Authors No regard had to Luther or Calvin in the procedure of their work but only to the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Iesus being the Corner-stone of that excellent Structure Melancthons coming was expected Regiis Literis in Angliam vocatus as he affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius but he came not over And Calvin made an offer of his service to Arch-Bishop Cranmer Si quis mei usus esset if any use might be made of him to promote the work but the Arch-Bishop knew the man and refused the other so that it cannot be affirmed that the Reformation of this Church was either Lutheran or Calvinian in its first original And yet it cannot be denied but that the first Reformers of it did look with more respectful eyes upon the Doctrinals Government and Forms of Worship in the Lutheran Churches then upon those of Calvins platform because the Lutherans in their Doctrines Government and Forms of Worship approach't more near the Primitive Patterns than the other did and working according to this rule they retain'd many of those ancient Rites and Ceremonies which had been practised and almost all the Holy Dayes or Annual Feasts which had been generally observed in the Church of Rome Nothing that was Apostolick or accounted Primitive did fare the worse for being Popish I mean for having been made use of in times of Popery it being none of their designs to create a new Church but reform the old Such Superstitions and Corruptions as had been contracted in that Church by long tract of time being pared away that which was good and commendable did remain as formerly It was not their intent to dig up a foundation of such precious stones because some superstructures of Straw and Stubble had been raised upon it A moderation much applauded by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court whose golden Aphorisme it was That no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony then she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate p. 77. 5. The succession of Bishops continued as it did before but fitted in the form and manner of their Consecrations according to the Rules laid down with the fourth Council of Carthage celebrated Anno 407. or thereabouts and generally received in all the Provinces of the Western Church as appears by the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. Approved first by the Book of Articles and confirmed in Parliament Anno 5.6 Edw. VI. as afterwards justified by the Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation in Queen Elizabeths time Anno 1562. And by an Act of Parliament in the 8th Year of her Reign accounted of as part of our Publick Liturgies And by that book it will appear that Bishops were then looked upon as a distinct Order of themselves and not as a different degree only amongst the rest of the Presbyters For in the Preface to that Book it is said expresly That it is evident to all men diligently reading Holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons Not long after which it followeth thus viz. And therefore to the intent these Orders should be continued
Archbishop knew full well how small a Progress he should make in his Reformation for reducing the French and Dutch to a Communion with the Church of England and the Church of England to it self if London were not brought to some Conformity Which City having a strong influence on all parts of the Kingdom was generally looked on as the Compass by which the lesser Towns and Corporations were to steer their Course the practice of it being pleaded upon all occasions for Vestries Lectures and some other Innovations in the State of the Church And to this nothing more concurred than that the Beneficed Clergy being but meanly provided for were forced to undertake some Lectures or otherwise to connive at many things contrary to their own Judgment and the Rules of the Church in hope that gaining the good will thereby of the Chief of their Parishes they might be gratified by them with Entertainments Presents and some other helps to mend their Maintenance The Lecturers in the mean time as being Creatures of the People and depending wholly on the Purse of the wealthier Citizens not only overtopped them in point of Power and Reputation but generally of Profit and Revenue also Not that these Lecturers were maintained so much by the Zeal and Bounty of their Patrons as by a general Fraud which for many years last past had been put upon the Regular Clergy by the diminishing of whose just Dues in Tythes and Offerings such Lecturers and Trencher-Chaplains had been fed and cherished For the better understanding whereof we are to know That in the year 1228. Roger Niger Bishop of London ordained by a Synodical Constitution That the Citizens should pay of every pounds Rent by the year of all Houses Shops c. the Sum of 3 s. 5 d. as time out of mind had formerly been paid Which 3 s. 5 d. did arise from the Offerings upon every Sunday and thirty of the principal Holydays in the same year after the Rate of one halspeny for every twenty shillings Rent of their Houses Shops c. This Order of Roger Niger remaining in force till the year 1397. and the Câ—â—â—gy being kept to such Rates for the Rents of Houses as at the first making of the same it was decreed by Thomas Arundell then Bishop of Canterbury That as the Rent increased so the Offerings or Tythes should increase also That the said Order should be read in every Parish-Church four times in the year and a Curse laid upon all those who should not obey it Confirmed by Pope Innocent vii and Nicholas v. with a Proviso That the said Oblations should be paid according to the true yearly value of the Shops and Houses It so remained until the twenty fifth year of Henry viii at what time many of the former Holydays being abrogated by the Kings Authority the yearly Profit of the Clergy found a great abatement the greater in regard of the variances which arose betwixt them and their Parishioners about the payment of their Dues the People taking the advantage of some Disorders which the Clergy at that present had been brought unto by acknowledging the King for the Supream Head of the Church of England Upon this variance a Complaint is made unto the King who refers the whole matter to Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Audley Lord Chancellor Gardiner Bishop of Winton Cromwell Chief Secretary of Estate Fitz-Iames and Norwich Chief Justices of the several Benches by whom it was concluded That from thenceforth 2 s. 9 d. only should be paid out of every pound for the Rents of Houses Shops c. And to this Order the Citizens did not only consent as they had good reason but bound themselves by an Act of Common Council to perform the same the said Decree confirmed by Act of Parliament in the twenty seventh and afterwards in the thirty seventh of that King with a power given to the Lord Mayor to commit to Prison every person whatsoever who should not pay his Tythes and Dues according to that Proportion But contrary to the true intent and meaning of the said Decrees and the several Acts of Parliament which confirmed the same the covetous and unconscionable Landlords who had the Fee-simple or some long Leases at the least of such shops and houses devised many base and fraudulent waies to put a cheat upon the Law and abuse the Clergie reserving some small sum in the name of a Rent and covenanting for other greater Sums to be paid quarterly or half yearly in the name of Fines Annuities Pensions Incomes Interest money c. Finding these Payments so conditioned and agreed upon to be too visible a cheat some were so wise as to take their Fines in gross when they sealed their Leases some inconsiderable Rent being charged upon them others so cunning as to have two Leases on foot at the same time one at a low contemptible Rent to gull the Incumbent of his dues the other with a Rent four or five times as great to keep down the Tenant and some by a more cleanly kind of conveyance reserving a small Rent as others did caused their Tenants to enter into several bonds for the payment of so much money yearly with reference to the term which they had in their Leases By which Devises and deceits the house-Rents were reduced to so low a value that some Aldermen who do not use to dwell in Sheds and Cottages could be charged with no more than twenty shillings for a whole years Tythe the Rent reserved amounts after that proportion but to seven pounds yearly The Clergie by the Alteration of Religion had lost those great advantages which had before accrued unto them by Obits Mortuaries Obventions to the Shrines and Images of some special Saints Church Lands and personal Tythes according to mens honest gain which last was thought to have amounted to more than the Tythe of houses Being deprived of the one and abused in the other they were forced in the sixteenth of King Iames Anno 1618. to have recourse to the Court of Exchequer by the Barons whereof it was declared that according to the true intent of the said Acts the Inhabitants of London and the Liberties thereof ought to pay the Tythe of their houses shops c. after the rate of two shillings nine pence in the pound proportionable to the true yearly value of the Rent thereof In order whereunto it was then ordered by the Court that a Shed which had been built and made a convenient dwelling house should pay twenty four shillings nine pence yearly in the name of a Tythe as was afterwards awarded by Sir Henry Yelverton upon a reference made unto him that one Rawlins who paid forty shillings yearly to his Landlord in the name of a Rent and twelve pound by the name of a fine should from thenceforth pay his Tythe to the Incumbent of the Parish in which he dwelt after the rate of fourteen pound yearly This and the like Arbitrements about that time
years and more since it first was made in all which time we hear no news of that performance for which the Ground could be but Little and the evidence less To the other branches of his Charge consisting in Words or Actions he answered first That the Dissolving of the said Parliaments was no Act of his the business being publickly debated at the Council Table and carried by the Unanimous consent of all then Present that the hard measure which he was complained of to have shown to Corbet of Shropshire he being but a Private Subject could not be called an Act of Treason That the words charged upon him at the Council Table and elswhere might well have been spared That no ill effect did follow on them and that they were innocently though suddenly spoken which he hoped might proceed from a man of such a hasty and Incircumspect humour as himself made so as well by nature as by the multiplicity of vexations which were put upon him without involving him in the crime or guilt of Treason That for his words unto the King touching his being absolved from the Rules of Government they contained only matter of opinion and in opinion delivered at the Council Table where all had Liberty to speak their own sense as he did at time which if it were Erroneous and contrary to the sense of others he hoped that no man should justly be condemned of Treason for shewing himself no wiser then God had made him And thereupon he desired the Lords from his misfortune to provide for their own safety and seriously to consider what a way was chalked out to ruine them both in their Lives and their Estates if for every Opinion given in Council or Words suddenly or hastily spoken they who are born to wield the great affairs of the Kingdom should be Arraigned or Sentenced as Traytors To which he added in the close That there was no likelyhood that he had commited Real Acts of Treason when his adverse Party was content to trifle away so much time about Words Neither was there any Treason in them though they had been fully verified and therefore in that as in all other Articles he reserved a Power for his Counsel to dispute in matter of Law Which when it came to the Dispute not called on by the Commons till October 11. the Question or Point in Issue was Whether any Treason was contained in all or any of the Articles which were charged against him And therein Hearn so plaid his part as the mouth of the rest that after the expectation of more months and the expence of almost as many days as had been spent in the Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford his Enemies in the House of Commons were forced to fall again on a Bill of Attainder as they had been before after so much â—â—ise and ostentation of Wit and Eloquence in the case of that Gentleman For being too far engaged to go back with Honour and yet not having confidence enough to venture him to the Judgment of the House of Peers as in the way of Legal Tryal they seemed to be at such a stand as the Thames is said to be at under London-Bridge betwixt Ebb and Flood In which perplexity some who were fit for any mischief imployed themselves to go from door to door and from man to man to get hands against him and so Petition those to hasten to his Condemnation who must forsooth be forced to their own desires whereof and of the Magistrates standing still and suffering them to proceed without any Check he gave them a Memento in his dying Speech Which Preparations being made they followed it with such double diligence that by the beginning of November most men were great with expectation of a final Sentence Conceived by some That the whole Evidence being transmitted with the Prisoner to the Justices of his Majesties Bench he should have been put over to a Middlesex-Iury but they were only some poor Ignorants which conceived so of it The Leading Members of the House thought of no such matter and to say truth it did concern them highly not to go that way For though there was no question to be made at all but that they could have Impanelled a Iury to have found the Bill yet by a Clause in the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford they had bound the Judges not to declare those Facts for Treason in the time to come for which they had Condemned and Executed that Heroick Peer And therefore they resolved on the same course now which they had found before so prosperous and successful to them to proceed now as then by Bill of Attainder and condemn him by Ordinance in which being Parties Witnesses and Judges too they were assured to speed as they would themselves And though for fashion sake he was brought unto the Commons Bar on the eleventh of that Month not without magnifying the Favour of giving him leave to shew some Reason why the Bill should not pass against him yet was this but a matter of Formality only the Ordinance passing in that House within two days after But yet the Business was not done for the Lords stuck at it some of which having not extinguished all the Sparks of Humanity began to find themselves compassionate of his Condition not knowing how soon it should or might be made their own if once disfavoured by the Grandees of that Potent Faction For the Ordinance having been transmitted to the House of Peers and the House of Peers deliberating somewhat long upon it it was Voted on December 4. That all Books Writings and Evidences which concerned the Tryal should be brought before the Lords in Parliament to the end that they might seriously and distinctly consider of all Particulars amongst themselves as they came before them But meaning to make sure work of it they had in the mean time after no small Evaporations of Heat and Passion prepared an Ordinance which they sent up unto the Lords importing the displacing of them from all those Places of Power and Command which they had in the Army Which being found too weak to hold they fall upon another and a likelier Project which was to bring the Lords to sit in the Commons House where they were sure they should be inconsiderable both for Power and Number And to effect the same with more speed and certainty they had recourse to their old Arts drawing down Watkins with his general muster of Subscriptions and putting a Petition into his hands to be tendred by him to the Houses that is themselves wherein it was required amongst other things That they should vigorously proceed unto the punishment of all Delinquents and that for the more quick dispatch of Publick Businesses of State the Lords would please to Vote and Sit together with the Commons On such uncertain terms such a ticklish Tenure did they then hold their Place and Power in Parliament who so officiously complied with the House of Commons in
that every man that could pronounce well was not found able to endite and every man that could endite not being to be trusted in a business of such weight and moment it seemed good in the Wisdom of the first Reformers to compile some good and profitable Sermons called by the name of Homilies to be read carefully and distinctly on the Sundayes and Holy dayes for the instruction of the people 11. Such course was taken for the peace and edification of the Church by the first Reformers not only in the choice of the men to whom they gave Licences to preach but in supplying the defect and want of such preaching by the Book of Homilies and they had as great a care too for the keeping the people in good stomach not cloying them with continual Preaching or Homilizing but limiting them to once a day as appears by the Rubrick after the Nicene or rather the Constantinopolitan Creed One Sermon or Homily in the mornings of Sundayes and other Holy dayes for the edification of the â—lder and Catechizing by way of question and answer in the afternoon for the instruction of the younger was esteemed sufficient Lectures upon the week dayes were not raised upon this foundation but were brought in afterwards borrowed by Travers and the â—est toward the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign from the new fashions of Geneva the Lecturer being super-added to the Parson or Vicar as the Doctor was unto the Pastor in some forreign Churches Nor were they raised so much out of care and conscience for training up the people in the wayes of Faith and Piety as to advance a Faction and to alienate the peoples mindes from the Government and Forms of Worship here by Law established For these Lecturers having no dependance upon the Bishops nor taking the Oath of Canonical Obedience to them nor subscribing to the doctrine and establisht Ceremonies made it their work to please those Patrons on whose arbitrary maintenance they were planted and consequently to carry on the Puritan interest which their Patron drove at A generation of men neither Lay nor Clergy having no place at all in the Prayers of the Church where we finde mention only of Bishops Pastors and Curates nor being taken notice of in the terms of Law as being neither Parsons nor Vicars or to speak them in the vulgar proverb neither flesh nor fish nor good red herring No creature in the world so like them as the Bats or Reremice being neither Birds nor Beasts and yet both together Had these men been looked upon in time before their numbers were increased and their power grown formidable before the people went a madding after new inventions most of the mischiefs which have thence ensued might have been prevented And had there been more reading of Homilies in which the Reader speaks the sense of the Church and not so much of Sermonizing in which the Preacher many times speaks his own factious and erronâ—ous sense the people might have been trained up in no less knowledge but in much more obedience then they have been in these latrer times 12. As for the Sacraments which were advanced to the number of seven in the Church of Rome this Church hath brought them back to two as generally necessary to salvation Baptisme and the Holy Supper Four of the rest that is to say Marriage Orders Confirmation and the Visitation though not the Extream Vnction of the Sick being retained under the name of Sacramentals in our publick Liturgy Of which the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. is by the Act of Parliament 8 Eliz. c. 1. affirmed to be a Supplement or Additional only added put to and annexed as the words do vary to the said Book of Common-Prayer And of these four two are reserved unto the Bishop that is to say Confirmation and the giving of Orders the other two viz. Marriage and the Visitation of the Sick being common to both alike though executed in the most part by the Presbyter only Of those reserved unto the Bishop the one is so reserved ad necessitatem operis because it cannot be done without him the other ad honorem sacerdotii as the Schools distinguish because it cannot be well done but by him Touching the first we have the general consent of all ancient Writers and the example of Coluthus who took upon him the ordaining of Presbyters contrary to the Rules of the Church and the Canons of thâ— most famous Councils But when the business came to be examined his Ordinations were declared to be null and void because he was a Presbyter only and not a Bishop as is affirmed by Athanasius in Apol. 2. The other grounded on the 8th Chapter of the Acts as St Cyprian in his 73. Epistle tells us where Peter and Iohn are said to have laid hands on them in Samaria which had been before Baptized in the Name of the Lord Iesus that they might receive the Holy Ghost and that by laying on of their hands they did receive the Holy Ghost accordingly verse 16 17. Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur c. Which is also done saith St. Cyprian and Cyprian flourisht in the middle of the third Century amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought unto the Prelates of the Church Praepositis Ecclesiae offeruntur that by our Prayer and Imposition of our hands they may receive the Holy Ghost and be strengthened by the Seal of the Lord. Upon which grounds beâ—iâ—â—â—â—he great antiquity of it it was retained by the first Reformers as in the Rubrick before Confirmation in the Common-Prayer-Book And â—ad it been as diligently practised by the Bishops in the declining times of this Church as it was piously and religiously retained by them it would have much conduced to their saâ—e standing in the Church and procured a greater veneration to their Persons also The other two viz. Marriage and the Visitation of the Sick together with the Burial of the Dead and the Churching of Women after Child-birth are left to the officiating of the Priest or Parochial Minister unless the Bishop please to take that work upon himself in some certain cases 13. But as for Penance one of the seven Sacraments in the Church of Rome we must look upon in a double capacity First As it was solemnly performed on Ashwednesday as a preparative to the approaching Feast of Easter the people humbling themselves before the Lord in Sackcloth and Ashes whence it had the name And secondly As imposed on such particular persons as lay under the censures of the Church Touching the first it is related in the beginning of the Commination that in the Primitive Church there was a godly Discipline That at the beginning of Lent such persons as were notorious sinners were put to open Penance and punished in this world that their Souls might be saved in the day of the Lord and that others admonished by their example might be the more afraid to
reject the sense of the Iesuites Arminians and all others wherein they differ from us Which Declaration of the Commons as it gave great animation to those of the Calvinian Party who entertained it with the like ardency of affection as those of Ephesus did the Image of DIANA which fell down from heaven so gave it great matter of discourse to most knowing men The Points were intricate and weighty such as in all Ages of the Church had exercised the wits of the greatest Scholars Those which had taken on them to declare for truth that which they took to be the sense and meaning of the Articles in those intricate Points were at the best no other than a company of Lay Persons met together on another occasion who though they might probably be supposed for the wisest men could not in reason be relied on as the greatest Clerks And therefore it must needs be looked on as a kind of Prodigie that men unqualified and no way authorized for any such purpose should take upon them to determine in such weighty matters as were more proper for a National or Provincial Council But being it proceeded from the House of Commons whose power began to grow more formidable every day than other no body durst adventure a Reply unto it till Laud himselâ— by whose procurement his Majesties Declaration had been published laying aside the Dignity of his Place and Person thought fit to make some Scholia's or short notes upon it Which not being published at that time in Print for ought I have either heard or seen but found in the rifling of his Study amongst the rest of his Papers I shall present unto the Reader in these following words And first saith he the Publick Acts of the Church in matters of Doctrine are Canons and Acts of Councils as well for expounding as determining The Acts of the High Commission are not in this sense Publick Acts of the Church nor the meeting of a few or more Bishops Extra Concilium unless they be by lawful Authority called to that work and their decision approved by the Church Secondly The currant Exposition of Writers is a strong probable argument De sensu Canonis Ecclesiae vel Articuli yet but probable The currant Exposition of the Fathers themselves have sometimes missed Sensum Ecclesiae Thirdly Will you reject all sense of Jesuite or Arminian May not some be true May not some be agreeable to our Writers and yet in a way that is stronger than ours to confirm the Article Fourthly Is there by this Act any Interpretation made or declared of the Articles or not If none to what end the Act If a sense or interpretation be declared what Authority have Lay-men to make it For interpretation of an Article belongs to them only that have power to make it Fifthly It is manifest there is a sense declared by the House of Commons the Act saies it We avow the Article and in that sense and all other that agree not with us in the aforesaid sense we reject these and these go about misinterpretation of a sense Ergo there is a Declaration of a sense yea but it is not a new sense declared by them but they avow the old sense declared by the Church the publick Authentick Acts of the Churcâ— c. yea but if there be no such publick Authentick Acts of the Church then here is a sense of their own declared under the pretexts of it Sixthly It seems against the Kings Declaration 1. That say We shall take the general meaning of the Articles This Act restrains them to consent of Writers 2. That says The Articles shall not be drawn aside any way but that we shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense This Act ties us to consent of Writers which may and perhaps do go against the literal sense for here is no exception so we shall be perplexed and our consent required to things contrary Seventhly All consent in all Ages as far as I have observed to an Article or Canon is to it self as it is laid down in the body of it and if it bear more senses then one it is lawful for any man to chuse what sense his judgment directs him to so that it be a sense secundum Analogiam fidei and that he hold it peaceably without distracting the Church and this till the Church that made the Article determine a sense And the wisdom of the Church hath been in all Ages or in most to require consent to Articles in General as much as may be because that is the way of unity and the Church in high points requiring assent to particulars hath been rent as De Transubstantiatione c. It is reported of Alphonso King of Castile Sirnamed the Wise that he used many times to say never the worse for so saying That if he had stood at God Almighties Elbow when he made the world he would have put him in mind of some things which had been forgotten or otherwise might have been better ordered than they were And give me leave to say with as little wisdom though with no such blasphemy that if I had stood at his Lordships Elbow when he made these Scholia's I would have put him in mind of returning an answer to that Clause of the said Declaration in which it is affirmed That the Articles of Religion were established in Parliament in the thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth But I would fain know of them whether the Parliament they speak of or any other since or before that time did take upon them to confirm Articles of Religion agreed on by the Clergy in their Convocations or that they appointed any Committee for Religion to examine the Orthodoxie of those Articles and make report unto the House All which was done in that Parliament was this and on this occasion Some Ministers of the Church so stifly wedded to their old Mumsimus of the Mass and some as furiously prosecuting their new Sumpsimus of inconformity it was thought fit that between those contending parties the Doctrine of the Church should be kept inviolate And thereupon it was Enacted That every person under the degree of a Bishop which did or should pretend to be a Priest or Minister of Gods holy Word and Sacraments in the Church of England should before Christmass next following in the presence of his Diocesan Bishop testifie his assent and subscribe to the said Articles of the year 1562. Secondly That after such subscribing before the Bishop he should on some Sunday in the Forenoon in the Church or Chappel where he served in time of Divine Service read openly the said Articles on pain of being deprived of all his Ecclesiastical Promotions as if he were then naturally dead Thirdly That if any Ecclesiastical person should maintain any Doctrine contrary to any of the said Articles and being Convented before his Bishop c. and should persist therein it should be just cause to deprive such person of his Ecclesiastical
about it Maxwell applying himself to Laud then Bishop of London from whom he received this positive Answer That if his Majesty would have a Liturgie setled there different from what they had already it was best to take the English Liturgie without any variation from it that so the same Service-Book might pass through all his Majesties Dominions Maxwell replying That the Scottish Bishops would be better pleased to have a Liturgie of their own but such as should come near the English both in Form and Matter the Cause was brought before the King who on a serious consideration of all Particulars concurred in Judgment for the English And on these terms it stood till this present year Laud standing hard for admitting the English Liturgie without alteration the Scottish Bishops pleading on the other side That a Liturgie made by themselves and in some things different from the English Service would best please their Countrymen whom they found very jealous of the least dependence on the Church of England But because Letters writtten in the time of Action are commonly conceived to carry more truth in them than Relations made upon the post-fact for particular ends take here this short Remembrance in one of his Letters to the Earl of Traquaire dated September 11. 1637. where we find this Passage And since saith he I hear from others That some exception is taken because there is more in that Liturgie in some few particulars than is in the Liturgie of England Why did they not admit the Liturgie of England without more ado But by their refusal of that and the dislike of this 't is more than manifest they would have neither and perhaps none at all were they left to themselves But besides this there was another Invitation which wrought much upon him in order to the present Journey At his first coming to the Crown the great Engagements then upon him want of Supply from England and small help from Scotland forced him to have recourse to such other ways of assistances as were offered to him of which this was one In the Minority of King Iames the Lands of all Cathedral Churches and Religious Houses which had been setled on the Crown by Act of Parliament were shared amongst the Lords and great men of that Kingdom by the connivence of the Earl of Murrey and some other of the Regents to make them sure unto that side And they being thus possessed of the same Lands with the Regalities and Tythes belonging to those Ecclesiastical Corporations Lorded it with Pride and Insolence enough in their several Territories holding the Clergy to small Stipends and the poor Peasant under a miserable Vassalage and subjection to them not suffering them to carry away their nine parts till the Lord had carried off his Tenth which many times was neglected out of pride and malice those Tyrants not caring to lose their Tythe so that the poor mans Crop might be left unto spoil and hazard King Iames had once a purpose to revoke those Grants but growing into years and troubles he left the following of that Project to his Son and Successor Having but little help from thence to maintain his Wars by the Advice of some of the Council of that Kingdom he was put upon a course of resuming those Lands Tythes and Regalities into his own hand to which the present Occupants could pretend no other Title than the unjust Usurpation of their Predecessors This to effect he resolves upon an Act of Revocation Commissionating for that purpose the Earl of Annandale and the Lord Maxwell afterwards Earl of Niddisdale to hold a Parliament in Scotland for Contribution of Money and Ships against the Duynkirkers and arming Maxwell also with some secret Instructions for passing the said Act of Revocation if he found it feasible Being on the way as far as Barwick Maxwell was there informed That his chief errand being made known had put all at Edenborough into Tumult That a rich Coach which he had sent before to Dalkeith was cut in pieces the poor Horses killed the People seeming only sorry that they could not do so much to the Lord himself Things being brought unto this stand the King was put to a necessity of some second Counsels amongst which none seemed more plausible and expedient to him than that of Mr. Archibald Achison who from a puisne Judge in Ireland was made his Majesties Procurator or Solicitor-General in the Kingdom of Scotland who having told his Majesty That such as were Estated in the Lands in question had served themselves so well by the bare naming of an Act of Revocation as to possess the People whom they found apt to be inflamed on such Suggestions That the true intendment of that Act was to revoke all former Laws for suppressing of Popery and settling the Reformed Religion in the Kirk of Scotland And therefore That it would be unsafe for his Majesty to proceed that way Next he advised That instead of such a General Revocation as the Act imported a Commission should be issued out under the Great Seal of that Kingdom for taking the Surrendries of all such Superiorities and Tythes within the Kingdom at his Majesties Pleasure And that such as should refuse to submit unto it should be Impleaded one by one to begin first with those whom he thought least able to stand out or else most willing to conform to his Majesties Pleasure Assuring him That having the Laws upon his side the Courts of Iustice must and would pass Iudgment for him The King resolved upon this course sends home the Gentleman not only with Thanks and Knighthood which he had most worthily deserved but with Instructions and Power to proceed therein and he proceeded in it so effectually to the Kings Advantage that some of the impleaded Parties being cast in the Suit and the rest seeing that though they could raise the People against the King they could not raise them against the LaWs it was thought the best and safest way to compound the business Hereupon in the year 1630. Commissioners are sent to the Court of England and amongst others the Learned and right Noble Lord of Marcheston from whose mouth I had this whole Relation who after a long Treaty with the King did at last agree That the said Commission should proceed as formerly and That all such Superiorities and Tythes as had been or should be surrendred should be re-granted by the King on these Conditions First That all such as held Hereditary Sheriffdoms or had the Power of Life and Death over such as lived within their Iurisdiction should quit those Royalties to the King Secondly That they should make unto their Tenants in their several Lands some permanent Estates either for their Lives or one and twenty years or some such like Term that so the Tenants might be encouraged to Build and Plant and improve the Patrimony of that Kingdom Thirdly That some Provisions should be made for augmenting the Stipends of the
consent of their several Churches they prepared these several Answers To the first it was answered That they had that Liturgie which all the Churches of the French Tongue both in France and in the United Provinces of the States have had since the blessed Reformation and which their Churches refuged here have had this sixty or seventy years or more That the English Liturgie was Translated into French but that they used it not and that they knew not whether it were Translated in Dutch or not To the second it was answered That the greatest part of the Heads of the Families were not born here but about a third part because that the greatest part of the old ones were Strangers born and many others are newly come since a few years But to the third they desired to be excused from making any Answer at all foreseeing as it was pretended a dissipation of their Churches in reference to the maintainance of their Ministry and relief of their poor if such Conformity should be pressed which they endeavoured to avoid by all means imaginable But before these Answers were returned it was thought fit to consult with the Coetus as they style it of the French and Dutch Churches in London who were concerned as much as they and who by reason of their wealth and number governed all the rest by whom they were advised to suppress those Answers and to present their Declinator fixing themselves upon their Priviledges and challenging the Exemption granted them by King Edward vi confirmed by several Acts of Council in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and his Sacred Majesty This Declinator no way satisfied his Grace of Canterbury He knew none better That Acts of Council were not like the Laws of the Medes and Persians but might be changed and varied as occasion served That the Letters Patents granted by King Edward vi to the first Congregation of Strangers under Iohn A Lasco by which they were Licenced to use their own Forms both of Worship and Government without any disturbance were vacated by the departure of the said Congregation in the time of Queen Mary and that the French and Dutch Churches now in England could pretend no succession unto that in the time of King Edward vi And therefore as soon as Brent returned from his Visitation of which we shall hear more anon and had a while reposed himself after that long Journey he was dispatched to Canterbury with these Injunctions viz. 1. That all the Natives of the Dutch and Walloon Congregations in his Graces Diocess are to repair to their several Parish Churches where they inhabite to hear Divine Service and Sermons and perform all Duties and Payments required in that behalf And 2. That all the Ministers and all other of the same Walloon or French Congregations which are Aliens born shall have and use the Liturgie used in the English Churches as the same is or may be faithfully Translated into French or Dutch These two Injunctions being given on the nineteenth of December with time for conforming thereunto till the first of March were presently communicated by the Kentish to the London Churches and by those of London to the rest in the Province of Canterbury requiring them to send their Deputies to consult together with them in this Common Danger There were at that time ten Churches of Strangers in this Province that is to say two in London two in Norwich and one apiece in Canterbury Sandwich Maidstone Southampton Colchester and Yarmouth who were to send their sufficient Deputies consisting of Ministers and Lay-Elders to make this Synod But because the time might be elapsed before these Deputies from so many Places could meet together and resolve upon any Conclusion it was determined by the Coetus that those of Kent whom it most immediately concerned should address themselves to the Archbishop and desire his favour for the enjoying of their Priviledges as in former times whose Propositions being heard and their Reasons pondered he answered That it was his purpose to make a General Visitation of all his Province and that he would begin at home That he did nothing but what had been communicated to the King and resolved by the Council That neither the Letters Patents of King Edward vi nor any Reasons by them alledged should hinder him from proceeding in the said Injunctions That their Churches were nests and occasions of Schism which he would prevent in Kent as well as he could That it were better there were no Foreign Churches nor Strangers in England than to have them thereby to give occasion of prejudice or danger to the Church-Government of it That they endeavoured to make themselves a State in a State and had vaunted That they feared not his Injunctions but That he hoped the King would maintain him in it as long as he Governed by the Canons That the dissipation of their Churches and maintenance of two or three Ministers was not to be laid in the same Balance with the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England That their ignorance in the English Tongue ought not to be used for a pretence for their not going to their Parish Churches considering that it was an affected Ignorance and they might avoid it when they would And finally That he was resolved to have his Injunctions put in execution and that they should conform to them at their peril by the time appointed Finding no hope of Good this way they expect the Sitting of the Synod on the fifth of February to which the Deputies made a Report of their ill Successes and thereupon it was resolved That a Petition in the name of all the Foreign Churches should be presented unto the King which way they found as unsuccessful as the other was For his Majesty having read the Petition delivered it to the Earl of Pembroke commanding him to give it to one of the Secretaries And though Pembroke either out of love to the Cause or hate to the Archbishops Person chose rather to deliver it to Cooke than Windebank yet neither Cooke himself nor Weckerly his chief Clerk a Walloon by birth who had very much espoused the Quarrel could do any thing in it The next course was to back that Petition with a Remonstrance containing the chief Reasons which they had to urge in their own behalf and that Remonstrance to be put into his Majesties hands by the Duke of Soubize a Prince of great Descent in France and a chief stickler in the Wars of the Hugonots against their King In which Reasons when they came to be examined more particularly there was nothing found material but what had formerly been observed and answered except it were the fear of a Persecution to be raised in France when it should there be known how much the French Churches in this Kingdom had been discountenanced and distressed And this they after aggravated by some fresh Intelligence which they had from thence by which they were advertised of some words of
Archbishop of Canterbury to the Stake at Oxon. this Covenant and the Makers of it did express no less in bringing the Last Protestant Archbishop to the Block in London For no sooner was this Covenant taken but to let the Scots see that they were in earnest a further impeachment consisting of ten Articles was prepared against him which being digested into Form and Order were to this effect viz. 1. That to introduce an Arbitrary Government and to destroy Parliaments he had caused the Parliament held in the third and fourth year of his Majesty to be dissolved and used many reproachful speeches against the the same 2. That out of an endeavour to subvert the fundamental Laws of the Land he had laboured to advance the power of the Council Table the Canons of the Church and the Kings Prerogative against the said Fundamental Laws and had used several Speeches to the same effect 3. That to advance the Ecclesiastical Power above the Laws of the Land he had by undue means to the Judges procured a stop of his Majesties Writs of Prohibition whereby Justice had been delayed and hindred and the Judges diverted from doing their duties 4. That a judgment being given against one Burly for wilful non-residency he caused execution on it to be staid saying That he would never suffer a Judgment to pass against any Clergy-man by a nihil dicit 5. That he had caused Sir Iohn Corbet of Shropshire to be committed to prison by an Order of the Council Table for calling for the Petition of Right and causing it to be read at the Sessions of the Peace for the County upon just and necessary occasion and had used some other Acts of Injustice toward him 6. That he had supprest the Corporation of Feoffees for buying in Impropriations under pretence of being dangerous to the Church and State 7. That contrary to the known Laws of the Land he had advanced Popery and Superstition within this Realm and to that end had wittingly and willingly harboured divers Popish Priests as Sancta Clara and St. Giles 8. That he had said about four years since there must be a blow given to the Church such as hath not been yet given before it could be brought to Conformity 9. That after the dissolution of the Parliament 1640. he caused a Synod or Convocation to be held and divers Canons to be made therein contrary to the Laws of the Realm the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament c. and particularly the Canon which enjoyns the Oath which he caused many Ministers of the Church to take upon pain of Suspension c. 10. That a Vote having been passed at the Council Table a little before the last Parliment for supplying his Majesty in Extraordinary ways if the said Parliament should prove peevish he wickedly advised his Majesty to dissolve the same telling him not long after that now he was absolved from all Rules of Government and left free to use Extraordinary ways for his supply Such was the substance of the Charge which some intended Chiefly for an Introduction to bring on the Tryal or to revive the noise and clamor amongst Ignorant People which rather judge of such particulars by tale then weight For otherwise there is nothing in these last ten which was not easily reducible to the first fourteen no not so much as his suppressing the Feoffees for Impropriations which seemed most odious in the eyes of any knowing men These Articles being thus digested were sent up to the Lords the 23th of Octob. presented by the hands of Wilde a Serjeant at Law and one of the Members of the House of Commons by whom he was designed to manage the Evidence when the cause was Ready for a hearing on the Receipt whereof it was Ordered that he should appear on that day Sevennight and to bring in his answer in writing to the particular Articles of the several charges which Order being served upon him within few hours after found him not very well provided for a present conformity He had obtained leave at his first Commitment to repair to his Study at Lambeth House and to take thence such Papers and Memorials as might conduce to his defence but all these had been forcibly seazed on and in a manner ravisht from him by Prynne and others which made his case not much unlike to that of the Israelites in the House of Bondage deprived first of their former allowance of Straw and Stubble and yet injoyned to make up their whole tale of Brick as at other times His Rents and Goods were Sequestred for the use of others so that he had not a sufficiency for a poor Subsistence but by the Charity of his Friends much less a superabundance out of which to Fee his Counsel and reward his Solicitors And what were seven days to the drawing up of an Answer unto twenty four Articles most of them having young ones in their bellies also as like to make as Loud a cry as the Dams themselves No way to Extricate himself out of this perplexities but by petitioning the Lords and to them he flys humbly beseeching that Chute and Hearn two able Lawyers might be assigned him for his Counsel that he might be allowed money out of his own Estate to reward them and others for their pains in his business his Books and Papers restored to him for the instruction of his Counsel and his own Defence some of his own Servants to attend him for following all such necessary occasions as the cause required and that a Solicitor and further time might be allowed as well for drawing up his answer as providing witnesses To which this Answer was returned Upon reading of the Petition of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury this 24th day of Octob. It is Ordered c. that time is given him until Munday the 6th of November next for putting in his answer in writing into this house unto the particular Articles brought up from the House of Commons in maintenance of their former impeachment of High Treason c. That Master Hearn and Master Chute are hereby assigned to be of Counsel for the drawing up of his Answer who are to be permitted to have free access in and out to him That this house doth hereby recommend to the Committee of Sequestrations that the said Lord Archbishop shall have such means afforded him out of his Estate as will enable him to pay his Counsel and defray his other Charges That when his Lordship shall set down particularly what Papers and Writings are Necessary for his Defence that should be restored unto him their Lordships will take it into consideration That upon his Lordships nominating who shall be hiâ— Solicitor the Lords will return their Answer And for the witnesses when a day shall be appointed for his Lordships tryal this House will give such directions therein as shall be juâ—â— This doubtful Answer gave him small assurance of an equal hearing His desired Counsel was allowed him Hales superadded to the
what his Pleasure was for the Prosecution of the business And so far both the King and he had very good Reason to be sensible of the dangers which were threatned to them But when the large discovery was brought unto him transmitted in Boswel's letter of the 15th oâ— Octob. â—e found some names in it which discredited the whole Relation as well in his Majesties Judgement as his own For besides his naming of some profest Papists as the Dutches of Buckingham the Countesses of Arundel and Newport Mountague Digby and Winter oâ— whose Fidelity the King was not willing to have any suspicion 〈◊〉 named the Earl of Arundel Windebank Principal Secretarie of State and Porter one of the Grooms of the Bed-Chamber whom 〈◊〉 charged to be the Kings utter enemies and such as betrayed his secrets to the Popes Nuncio upon all occasions all which his 〈◊〉 beheld as men of most approved Loyalty and affections to him By reason whereof no further credit being given to the Advertisement which they had from Boswel the danger so much scared at first became more slighted and neglected then consisted with his Majesties safety and the condition of the times which 〈◊〉 apt to mischief For though the Party who first brake the â—ee to this Intelligence might be mistaken in the names of some of the Accomplices which were interessed in the designe whose Relations unto those of the Church of Rome might give some ground for the mistake yet the calamities which soon after â—ell upon them both the deplorable death of the Archbishop first and his Majesty afterwards declare sufficiently that there was some greater Reality in the Plot then the King was willing to believe But it â—ad been a Maxime with King Iames his Father That Suspicion was the sickness and disease of a Tyrant which laid him open to all the subtle Practices of malicious cunning And it had been taken up by this King for an Axiom also That it was better to be deceived than to distrust which paved a plain and easie way to all those misfortunes which in the whole course of his Reign especially for ten years last past had been brought upon him And as for Canterbury himself he had so many dangers threatned from the Puritan Faction as made him bend his whole thoughts to prevent their Practices who had already declared their Purpose towards his Destruction For a bruiâ—e being maliciously spread abroad that the late Parliament had been dissolved by his Procurement the Rabble became so inâ—lamed that a Paper was pasted up at the Exchange on Saterday the ninth of May advising and animating the Apprentices to Sack his House at Lambeth on the Munday following This gave him a sufficient warning to expect a storm and to prepare himself against it which he did with so much care and courage that though he was assaulted that night with a confused Raskal Rabble of five hundred persons yet they were not able either to force the House or do any visible harm unto it The next day he procured some pieces of Cannon which he caused to be planted for defence of the great Gate which leads into the house and strengthned all the lesser doors which opened towards the Garden and other places so that there was no danger to be feared from the like alarms though prudently he withdrew to his Chamber at Whitehall till the Rage of the People was blown over Some of the principal Actors in this Sedition being apprehended and committed to the Goal in Southwark were forcibly delivered by others of their Accomplices who brake open that and all the other Prisons in that Precinct for which one Benslead who appeared in the head of that Riot was on the 21. of May condemned for Treason and was accordingly drawn hanged and quartered for a terrour to others Which seasonable Execution put an end to the Outrage but not to the malice of the People Libels against him being scattered in most parts of the City For though about the end of August a Paper was dropt in the Covent Garden encouraging the Souldiers and Apprentices to fall upon him in the Kings Absence his Majesty being then newly gone against the Scots yet there was no Tumult raised upon it the People standing in more fear of the Hangman than to expose themselves again to the Knife and Halter Howsoever thinking it as unsafe as it was imprudent to tempt the Rabble to bestow another visit on him at his house in Lambeth he gave order that the High Commission should be kept in St. Pauls and he did well and wisely in it For the Commissioners sitting there on October 22. were violently assaulted by a mixt multitude of Prâ—wnists Anabaptists and Puritans of all sorts to the number of 2000. and upwards crying out they would have no Bishops nor no High Commission In which Tumult having frighted away the Judges Advocates and Officers of the Court they brake down all the Seats and Benches which they found in the Consistory putting the King to a new necessity of keeping a Guard upon that Church as before at Westminster not only at the next sitting of the said Commissioners but at the first meeting of the Convocation which soon after followed And though one Quatreman had appeared in the head of this company and animated all the rest to commit these insolencies yet there was nothing done in order to his Punishment or Apprehension the Party being grown so audacious in their disorders partly upon the near approach of the Parliament but principally by the coming in of the Scots that they contemned the Law and defied the Magistrates For the Scots being put into a stock of Reputation by the Kings Recalling of his Forces the year before had took up store of Arms and Ammunition as before was said upon days of Payment Advertised of his Majesties Preparation to make war upon them and confident oâ— a strong party which they had in England they entred the Realm in hostile manner taking in all places of importance which they found in their way And having put by his Majesties Forces near a place called Newbourn they past over the Tine and presently made themselves Masters of the strong Town of New-Castle by which they put a bridle into the mouths of the Londoners his Majesties Forces looking on or not very far distant The news of this Invasion being brought to the King on August 20. he began a Posting Journey towards his Army in the North But he neither found the same men nor the same affections as he had so unfortunately discharged the year before Many of these Souldiers being so ill principled or so ill perswaded that in their marchings through the Country they brake into Churches pulled up the Railes threw down the Communion Tables defac'd the Common-Prayer-Books tore the Surplices and committed many other Acts of outragious insolence The chief Command he had entrusted to the Earl of Northumberland whom he had before made Admiral of his Royal Navy for defence
of the Kingdom honoured him with the Order of the Garter and made him one of the Lords of his Privy Council so that no greater characters of Power and Favour could be imprinted on a Subject The Office of Lieutenant General he had committed unto the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland of whose Fidelity and Courage he could make no question And the Command of the Horse to Edward Lord Conway whose Father had been raised by King Iames from a private condition to be one of his principal Secretaries and a Peer of the Realm Of which three great Commanders it was observed that one had sufficient health but had no will to the business That another had a good will to it but wanted health and that a third had neither the one nor the other And yet as crasie and infirm as the Earl of Strafford found himself he chearfully undertook the charge of the Army in the Generals absâ—nce and signified by Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he durst venture upon the peril of his head to drive the Scots out of England but that he did not hold it Counsellable as the case then stood If any other of the Lords had advised the King to try his Fortune in a Battel he doubted not of sending them home in more haste than they came but the Scots had rendred him unfit to make the motion for fear it might be thought that he studied more his own Concernments than he did the Kings For these Invadors finding by whose Counsels his Majesty governed his Affairs resolved to draw them into discredit both with Prince and People And to that end it was declared in a Remonstrance publisht before their taking Arms That their Propositions and Desires so necessary and vital unto that Kingdom could find no access unto the ears of the gracious King by reason of the powerful Diversion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Deputy of Ireland who strengthned with the high and mighty Faction of Papists near his Majesty did only side in all matters of Temporal and Spiritual affairs making the necessity of their Service to his Majesty to appear in being the only fit Instruments under the pretext of vindicating his Majesties Honour to oppress both the just Liberties of his Free Subjects and the true Reformed Religion in all his Kingdoms Seconding this Remonstrance with another Pamphlet called The Intention of the Army they signified therein to the good People of England that they had no design either to waste their Goods or spoyl their Country but only to become Petitioners to his Sacred Majesty to call a Parliament and to bring the said Archbishop and Lord Lieutenant to their condign Punishments In which those modest men express That as they desired the unworthy Authors of their trouble who had come out from themselves to be tried at home according to their own Laws so they would press no further Process against Canterbury and the Lieutenant of Ireland and the rest of those pernicious Counsellors in England whom they called the Authors of all the miseries of both Kingdoms than what their own Parliament should discern to be their just deserving And that the English might see the better whom they chiefly aimed at a book was published by the name of Laudensium Autocatacrisis or the Canterburians Self-conviction in which the Author of it did endeavour to prove out of the Books Speeches and Writings of the Archbishop himself as also of some Bishops and other learned men who had exercised their Pens in the late disputes That there was a strange design in hand for bringing in Superstition Popery and Arminianism to the subversion of the Gospel and of suppressing the Religion here by Law established But as these Reproaches moved not him so neither did their Remonstrance or any other of their Scribbles distract his Majesties Resolutions untill he found himself assaulted by a Petition from some Lords in the South which threatned more danger at his back than he had cause to fear from the Northern Tempest which blew directly in his teeth Complaint was made in this Petition of the many inconvenicences which had been drawn upon this Kingdom by his Majesties engagings against the Scots as also of the great encrease of Popery the pressing of the present payment of Ship-money the dissolving of former Parliaments Monopolies Innovations and some other grâ—evances amongst which the Canons which were made in the late Convocation could not be omitted For Remedy whereof his Majesty is desired to call a Parliament to bring the Authors of the said pretended grievances to a Legal Trial and to compose the present War without Bloudshed Subscribed by the Earls of Essex Hartford Rutland Bedford Exeter Warwick Moulgrave and Bullingbrooke the Lords Say Mandevil Brooke and Howard presented to the King at York on the third of September And seconded by another from the City of London to the same effect His Majesty being thus between two Milstones could find no better way to extricate himself out of these perplexities than to call the great Council of his Peers to whom at their first meeting on the 24 of the same month he signified his purpose to hold a Parliament in London on the third of November and by their Counsel entertained a Treaty with those of Scotland who building on the confidence which they had in some Lords of England had petitioned for it According unto which Advice a Commission is directed to eight Earls and as many Barons of the English Nation seven of which had subscribed the former Petition enabling them to treat with the Scots Commissioners to hear their Grievances and Demands and to report the same to his Majesty and the Lords of his Council These points being gained which the Puritan Faction in both Kingdoms had chiefly aimed at the Scots were insolent enough in their Proposals Requiring freedom of Commerce Reparation of their former Losses and most especially the maintenance of their Army at the charge of the English without which no Cessation would be harkned to Satisfaction being given them in their last Demand and good Assurances for the two first they decline York as being unsafe for their Commissioners and procure Rippon to be named for the place of the Treaty where the Lord Lieutenant was of less influence than he was at York and where being further from the King they might shuffle the Cards and play the Game to their best contentment The rest of October from the end of the first week of it when they excepted against York was drilled on in requiring that some persons of quality intrusted by the Scottish Nation might have more Offices than they had about his Majesty and the Queen and in the Court of the Prince That a Declaration might be made for naturalizing and settling the Capacities and mutual Priviledges of the Subjects in both Kingdoms but chiefly that there might be an Unity and Uniformity in Church-Government as a special means for conserving