tels us secondly of Archbishop Abbot in particular That his extraordinary remiâ—ness in not exacting a strict conâ—oâ—mity to the prescâ—â—bed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremony seemed to dissolve those legall ceâ—erminations to their firsâ— principle of indifferency â—nd led in such an habit of inconformity as the future edâ—cation of those tender conâ—cienced men too long discontinued obedience was interpreted an innovation And finally he tels of Archbishop Laud who succeeded Aâ—bâ—t in that See that being of another minde anâ— mettle he did not like that the externall worship of God should follow the fashion of every private fancy and what he did not like in that subject as he was in State so he thought it was his duty to reform To which enâ— in his Metropolitical visitation he cals upon all both Clergy and Laity to observe the Rules of the Church And this is that which our Author calâ— the enjoyning his private practices private perhaps iâ— the private opinion of some men who had declared themselves to be professed enemies to all publicâ— Order Fol. 127. A Commission was granted unto five Bishopâ— Whereof Bishop Laâ—d of the Qâ—orum to suspend Archbishop Abbot from exercising his Authority any longer because uncanonical for casual Homicide Had our Author said that Bishop Laud had been one of the number he had hit it right the Commission being granted to five Bishops viz. Dr. Montain Bishop of London Dr. Neil Bishop of Durham Dr. Buckeridge Bishop oâ— Rochester Dr. Howson Bishop of Oxford and Dr. Lauâ— Bishop of Bathe and Wels or to any four three 〈◊〉 two of them and no more then so Had Bishop Laud been of the Quorum his presence and consent had been so necessary to all their Consultations Conclusions and dispatch of Businesses that nothing could be done without him whereas by the words of the Commission any two of them were impowered and consequently all of them must be of the Quorum as well as he which every Iustices Clerk cannot chuse but laugâ—â— at Nor is there any such thing as a Casual Homicidâ— mentioned or so much as glanced at in that Commiâ—sion the Commission only saying That the saiâ— Archbishop could not at that pâ—esent in his own person attend those services which were otherwiâ—e proper for his 〈◊〉 and Jurisdiction and which as Archbishop of Canterbury he might and ought in his own person to have performed and executed I am loth to rub longer on this sore the point having been so vext already betwixt the Historian and the Observator that I shall not trouble it any further Only I must crave leave to rectifie our Author in another passage relating to that sad Accident for which saith he Ibid. It would be of dangerous consequence to condemn him by the Canons of forain Councels which were never allowed any Legislative power in this Land Which words are very ignorantly spoken or else very improperly For if by Legislative power he means a Power of making Laws as the word doth intimate then it is true That the Canons of forain Councels had never any such power within this Land But if by Legislative power he means a Power or Capability of passing for Laws within this Kingdom then though he use the word improperly it is very false that no such Canons were in force in the Realm of England The Canons of many forain Councels General National and Provincial had been received in this Church and incorporated into the body of the canon-Canon-Law by which the Church proceeded in the exercise of her juriâ—diction till the submission of the Clergy to King Henry the eighth And in the Act confirmative of that Submission it is said expâ—esly That all Canons Conâ—titutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial as were made befoâ—e the said Submission which be not contrary or repugnant to the Laws Sâ—â—tutes and Cusâ—oms of this Realm nor to the dammage or hurt of the Kings pâ—erogative Royal weâ—e to be used and executed as in â—ormer times 25 H. 8. c. 19. So that unlesse it can be proved that the proceedings in this case by the Canons of forain 〈◊〉 was either contrary or repuâ—â—ant to the Lawes and 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 or to the dammage of the Kings prerogative Royal there is no dangerous consequence at all to be â—ound therein But whereas our Author addes in some following words that ever since he means ever since that unhappy accident he had executed his jurisdiction without any interruption I must needs add that he is very much mistaken in this partilar Dr. Williams Lord elect of Lincoln Dr. Carew Lord elect of Exceter and Dr. Laud Lord elect of St. Davids and I think some others refusing to receive â—piscopal Consecration from him upon that accompt Far more mistaken in the next in which he telleth us that Fol. 128. Though this Archbishop survived some years after yet henceforward he was buried to the world No such matter neither For though for a while he stood confined to his house at Ford yet neither this confinement nor that Commission were of long continuance For about Christmas in the year 1628 he was restored both to his liberty and jurisdiction sent for to come unto the Court â—eceiv'd as he came out of his Barge by the Archbishop of York and the Earl of Dorset and by them conducted to the King who giving him his hand to kisse enâ—oyned him not to fail the Councel Table twice a week After which time we finde him sitting as Archbishop in the following Parliament and in the full exercise of his Jurisdiction till the day of his death which hapned upon Sunday August 4. 1633. And so much for him Fol. 137. My pen passing by them at present may safely salute them with a God speed as neither seeing nor suspecting any danger in the design Our Author speaks this of the Feoffees appointed by themselves for buying in such Impropriations as were then in the hands of Lay-persons I say appointed by themselves because not otherwise authorized either by Charter from the King Decree in Chanâ—â—ery or by Act of Parliament but only by a secrâ—t combination of the Brothâ—rhood to advance their projects For though our 〈…〉 us fol. 136. that they were legally setled in trust to make such Purchaces yet there is more required to a legal settlement then the consent of some few persons â—mongst themselves for want whereof this combinâ—tion wâ—s dissolved the Feoffees in some danger of sentence and the impropriations by them purchased adjudged to the King on a full hearing of the cause in the Couâ—t of Exchequer Anno 1632. Howsoever our Author 〈◊〉 them good speed as neither seeing nor suspecting any danger in their design but other men as wiâ—e as he did not only suspect but see the danger And this our Author might see also if zeal to the good cause had not darkened the eyes of his understanding For first the Parties tâ—usted in the managing of this Design were of such affections
thereof in the main body of it not far from a little dore which openeth into one of the Prebends houses This I can say on certain knowledge being casually invited to his Funeral when I thought not of it though since his Statua hath been set up in the other place which our Author speaks of Fol. 153. The Right to the Crown lay not in this Henry but in Edmund Mortimer Earl of March descended by his Mother Philippa from Lionel Duke of Clarence elder son to Edward the third I shall not now dispute the Title of the House of Lancaster though I think it no hard matter to defend it and much less shall I venture on the other controversie viz. whether a King may Legally be depos'd as is insinuated by our Author in the words foregoing But I dare grapple with him in a point of Heraldry though I finde him better studied in it then in matter of History And certainly our Author is here out in his own dear Element Edmund Mortimer Earl of March not being the Son but Husband of the Lady Philippa Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence and Mother of Roger Mortimer Earl of March whom Richard the second to despite the House of Lancaster declared Heir apparent to the Kingdom of England 'T is true this Edmond was the son of another Philippa that is to say of Philip Montacute wife of a former Roger Earl of March one of the founders of the Garter So that in whomsoever the best Title lay if lay not in this Edmond Mortimer as our Author makes it 〈◊〉 154. This is one of the clearest distinguishing 〈…〉 the Temporaâ—â— and Spiritual Lordsâ— that 〈…〉 be tryed per pares by their Peers being 〈…〉 Noâ— shall I here dispute the point 〈…〉 may not challenge to be tryed by his 〈…〉 wheâ—â—er the Bishops were not Barons and 〈◊〉 of the Realm Our Author intimates that they were not but I think they were and this I think on the authority of the learned Selden in whom we finde that at a Parliament at Northampton 〈◊〉 Henry the 2. the Bishops thus challenge their own â—ee age viz. Non sedemus hiâ— Episcopi sed Barones Nos â—â—â—â—nes vâ—s Barones Pares hiâ— sumus that is to 〈◊〉 We 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 as Bishops only but as Barons We are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Which last is also 〈…〉 in terminis by the words of a Statuâ—e 〈◊〉 Act of Parliament wherein the Bishops are acknowledged to â—e Peers of the Land And for further proof heâ— eoâ— Ihon â—tratford Archbishop of Canterbury if I remember it aright being fallen into the displeâ—sure of King Edward the third and denyed entrance into the House of 〈◊〉 made his Protest that he was Primus 〈◊〉 Regni the 〈◊〉 Peer of the Realm and therefoâ—e not to be 〈…〉 from his place and Suffrage But of this Argument enough iâ— not too much as the case now stands 〈…〉 thing to consider what they have 〈…〉 what they are at this preâ—ent 〈…〉 Reign theâ—e paâ—â— an Act of Paâ—liament by which it was enacted That the Countrey of Wales should be stand and continue for ever from thenceforth incorpoâ—aâ—ed united and annexed to and with this Realm of England And that all and singular person and persons born and to be born in the said principality countrey or dominion of Wales shall have inâ—oy and inhe â—it all and singular Freedoms Liberties Rights Priviledges and Lawes within this Realm and other the Kings Dominions as other the Kings Subjects naturally boâ—n within the same have and injoy and inheâ—â—it And thirdly between the time which our Author speaks of being the 14 year of King Henry the fourth and the making of this Act by King Henry the eighth there passed boâ—e an hundâ—ed and twenty years which intimates a longer time then some years after as out Author words it Fol. 168. I will not complain of the dearness of this Univeâ—sity where seventeen weeks cost me more then seventeen years in Cambridge even all that I had The oâ—dinary and unwary Reâ—der might collect from hence that Oxford is a chargeable place and that all commodities there are exceeding dear but that our Author lets him know that it was on some occasion of distâ—â—bance By which it seems our Author doth 〈◊〉 to the time of the War when men from all 〈◊〉 did repair to Oxford not as a University but a place of safety and the fear Royall of the King at 〈◊〉 time notwithstanding all provisions were so plenâ—â—ull and at such cheap rates as no man had reason to complain of the 〈◊〉 of them No better argument of the 〈◊〉 of the soil and richness of the 〈◊〉 in which Oxford standeth then that the 〈…〉 on the accession of such 〈…〉 at that 〈◊〉 and on that occasion 〈◊〉 Author therefoâ—e 〈◊〉 be thought to relate unto somewhat else then is here expâ—essed and possibly may be that his being at Oxford at that time 〈◊〉 him within the compass of Delinquency and consequently of Sequestration And 〈…〉 hath 〈…〉 son to complain of the Vniversity or the dearness of it but rather of himself for coming to a place so chargeable and destructive to him He might have tarryed where he was for I never heard that he was sent foâ— and then this great complaint against the dearness of that Vniversity would have found no place Fol. 175. Surely what Charles the fifth is said to have said of the City of Florence that it is pity 〈◊〉 should be seen save only on holy-dayes c. Our Author is somewhat out in this in fachering that saying on Charles the fifth Emperor and King of Spain which Boterus and all other Authors ascribe to Charles Archduke of Austria that is to say to Charles of Inspruch one of the younger sons of the Emperor Ferdinand the first and consequently Nephew to Charles the fifth Not is oâ—r Author very right in taking Aquensis for Aix in Provence Fol. 178. Especially â—aith he if as I take it by Aquensis Aix be meantâ— scited in the fâ—rthermost parts of Provence though even now the English power in France was a waning For first the English never had any power in Provence no interest at all therein nor pretentions to it as neither had the French Kings in the times our Author speaks of Provence in thoâ—e dayes was independent of that Crown an absolute Estate and held immediately of the Empire as being a part and member of the Realm of Burgundy and in the actual possession of the Dukes of â—njou on the expiring of which House by the last will and Testament of Duke Rene the second it was bequeathed to Lewis the eleventh of France by him and his successors to be enjoyed upon the death of Charles Earl of Maine as it was accordingly And secondly that Bernard whom the Latine cals Episcopus Aquensis is very ill taken by our Author to be Bishop of Aix He was indeed Bishop of Acqus or
the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions and to all and every thing in them contained And furthermore we do not only by our said Prerogative Royall and Supreme Authority in causes Ecclesiasticall ratifie confirme and establish by these our Letters Patents the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions and all and every thing in them contained as is aforesaid but do likewise propound publish and straightly enjoyne and command by our said Authority and by these our Letters Patents the same to be diligently observed executed and equally kept by all our loving Subjects of this our Kingdom both within the Province of Canterbury and York in all points wherein they do or may concerne every or any of them according to this our Will and Pleasure hereby signified and expressed No other Power required to confirme these Canons or to impose them on the people but the Kings alone And yet I â—row there are not a few particulars in which those Canons do extend to the property and persons of such Refusers as are concerned in the same which our Author may soon finde in them if he list to look And having so done let him give us the like Precedent for his Houses of Parliament either abstractedly in themselves or in cooperation with the King in confirming Canons and we shall gladly quit the cause and willingly submit to his â—er judgement But if it be Obâ—ected as perhaps it may That the Subsidies granted by the Clergy in the Convocation are ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament before they can be levied either on the Granters themselves or the rest of the Clergy I answer that this makes nothing to our Authors purpose that is to say that the person or property of Refusers should not be subjected to temporal penalty without consent of Parliament For first before the submission of the Clergy to King Henry the 8. they granted Subsidies and other aids unto the King in their Convocations and levied them upon the persons concerned therein by no other way then the usuall Censures of the Church especiall by Suspension and deprivation if any Refuser prove so refractary as to dispute the payment of the sum imposed And by this way they gave and levied that great sum of an Hundred thousand pounds in the Province of Canterbury only by which they bought their peace of the said King Henry at such time as he had caused them to be attainted in the Praemunire And secondly there is a like Precedent for it since the said Submission For whereas the Clergy in their Convocation in the year 1585. being the 27 year of Queen Elizabeth had given that Queen a Subsidy of four shillings in the pound confirmed by Act of Parliament in the usual way they gave her at the same time finding their former gift too short for her present occasions a Benevolence of two shillings in the pound to be raised upon all the Clergy by vertue of their own Synodical Act only under the penalty of such Ecclesiastical Censures as before were mentioned Which precedent was after followed by the Clergy in their Convocation an 1640. the Instrument of the Grant being the same verbatim with that before though so it hapned such influence have the times on the actions of men that they were quarreld and condemned for it by the following Parliament in the time of the King and not so much as checkt at or thought to have gone beyond their bounds in the time of the Queen And for the ratifying of their Bill by Act of Parliament it came up first at such times after the Submission before mentioned as the Kings of England being in distrust of their Clergy did not think fit to impower them by their Letters Patents for the making of any Synodical Acts Canons or Constitutions whatsoever by which their Subsidies have been levied in former times but put them off to be confirmed and made Obligatory by Act of Parliament Which being afterwards found to be the more expedite way and not considered as derogatory to the Churches Rights was followed in succeeding times without doubt or scruple the Church proceeding in all other cases by her â—â—tive power even in cases where both the person and property of the Subject were alike concerned as by the Canons 1603 1640. and many of those past in Q. Elizabeths time though not so easie to be seen doth at full appear Which said we may have leisure to consider of another passage relating not unto the power of the Church but the wealth of the Churchmen Of which thus our Authoâ— Fol. 253. I have heard saith he that Queen Elizabeth being informed that Dr. Pilkington Bishop of Durham had given ten thousand pounds in marriage with his Daughter and being offended that a Prelates daughter should equal a Princesse in portion took away one thousand pounds a year from that Bishoprick and assigned it for the better maintenance of the Garrison of Barwick In telling of which story ouâ— Author commits many mistakes as in most things elâ—e For first to justifie the Queens displeasure if she were displeased he makes the Bishop richer and the Portion greater then indeed they were The ten thousand pounds Lib. 9. fol. 109. being shrunk to eight and that eight thousand pound not given to one Daughter as is here affirmed but divided equally between two whereof the one was married to Sir Iames Harrington the other â—nto Dunch of Berk-shire Secondly this could be no cause of the Queens displeasure and much lesse of the Courâ—ieâ—s envy that Bishop having sat in the See of Durham above seventeen years And certainly he must needs have been a very ill Husband if our of such a great Revenue he had not saved five hundred pounds per annum to prefeâ— his Children the income being as great and the charges of Hospitality lesse then they have been since Thirdly the Queen did not take away a thousand pound a year from that Bishoprick as is here affirmed The Lands were left to it as before but in regard the Garrison of Barwick preserved the Bishops Lands and Tenants from the spoil of the Scots the Queen thought fit that the Bishops should contribute towards their own defence imposing on them an annuall pension of a thousand pound for the better maintaining of that Garrison Fourthly Bishop Pilkington was no Doctor but a Batchelor of Divinity only and possibly had not been raised by our Author to an higher Title and Degree then the University had given him but that he was a Conniver at Non-conformity as our Author telleth us Lib. 9. fol. 109. Lastly I shall here add that I conceive the Pension above mentioned not to have been laid upon that See after Pilkingtons death but on his first preferment to it the French having then newly landed some forces in Scotland which put the Queen upon a necessity of doubling her Guaâ—ds and increasing her Garrisons But whatsoever was the cause of imposing this great yearly payment upon that Bishoprick certain I
Commons in matters Doctrinally delivered without the least diminution of the Kings Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes there is nothing of the Presbyter or the Papist to be charged upon him as the Historian to create him the greater odium would fain have it to be Fol. 115. But how suddenly the Commons House 〈◊〉 upon the Lorâ—s liberties excluding the words the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the very grant of the Bill of Subsidies c. And to say truth the Lords were but serv'd in their own kinde who having so unworthily joyn'd with the Commons in devesting the King from whom they deriv'd all their Honors of his just Prerogatives are now assaulted by those Commons and in danger of losing their own Rights which by the favor of the King or his Predecessors were conferr'd upon them which might have given them a sufficient warning but that there was a Spirit of Inâ—atuation over all the Land not to joyn with them any more in the like Designs against the King whose Authority could not be diminisht without the lessening of their own nor any Plot carried on toward his Destruction by which they would not be reduc'd to the same condition with the rest of the People But Quos Iupiter vult perdere dementat prâ—us so it prov'd with them Fol. 123. His body brought to York House and after sumptuously intombed at Westminster in St. Edwards Chappel The Church of Westminster was indeed founded by King 〈◊〉 the Confessour whom they called sometimes by the name of St. Edward the King 〈◊〉 that part of it that lies betwen the crosse Isle and the Chappel of King Henry 〈…〉 best known by the name of the Chappel of 〈◊〉 by reason of the many Kings and Queens which are there 〈◊〉 In a side Isle or inclosure whereof the Dukes body was Sumptuously interred with this glorious Epitaph which in honour of his invincible fidelity to his gracious Masters for I am otherwise a meer stranger to all his Selatious I shall here Subjoyn P. M. S. Vanae multitudinis improperium hic jacet Cujus tamen Hispania Prudentiam Gallia Fortitudinem Belgia Industriam Tota Europa mirata est Magnanimitatem Quem Daniae Sweciae Reges integerrimum Germaniae Transilvaniae Nassautiae Princip Ingenuum Veneta Reipublica Philobasileia Sahaudiae Lotharingiae Duces Politicum Palatinus Comes Fidelem Imperator Pacificum Turca Christianum Papa Protestantem Experti sunt Quem Anglia Archithalassum Cantabrigia Cancellarium Buckinghamia Ducem habuit Verùm siste viator quid ipsa Invidia Sugillare nequâ—t audi Hic est ille Calamitosae virtutis Buckinghamius Maritus redamatus Pater amaâ—s Filius obsequens Frater amicissimus Affinis Beneficus Amicus perpetuus Dominus Benignus Optimus omnium servus Quem Reges adamarunt optimates honorarunt Ecclesia deflevit Vulgus Oderunt Quem Iacobus Carolus Regum perspicacissimi intimum habuerunt A quibus Honoribus auctus negotiis onustus Fato succubuit Antequam par animo periculum invenit Quid jam Peregrine Aenigma mundi moritur Omnia fuit nec quidquam habuit Patriae parens hostis audiit Deliciae idem querela Parliamenti Quidum Papistis bellum infert insimulatur Papista Dum Protestantium partibus consulit Occiditur à Protestante Tesseram specta rerum humanarum At non est quòd serio triumphet malitia Interimere potuit laedere non potuit Scilicet has preces fundens expiravit Tuo ego sanguine potiar mi Iesu dum mali pascuntur meo Fol. 127. But the Religious Commons must reform Gods causâ— before the Kings nor would they be prescribed their Consultations but resolved to remit the Bill of Tunnage and Poundage at pleasure This is another new incroachment of the House of Commons that is to say the poasting off of the Kings businesse and the publick concernments of the State till they had either lessened his prerogative weakned the Authority of the Church or advanced the interest of the people Which resolution of not being prescribed their Consâ—ltations became at last so fixt amongst them that when the King had frequently recommended to them his Message of the 20. of Ianuary Anno 1641. So necessary for the setling of the peace of the Kingdome they returned answer at the last that it was an infringing of their Priviledges to be pâ—est with any such Directions Fol. 128. And King Iames commended them over to the Synod of Dort and there asserted by suffrage of those Doctors and were afterwards commended to the Convocation in Ireland Our Authour takes this Errour from the former Historian but takes no notice of the correction of it by the Observator though it â—ppears by his citation in the margin that he had consulted with those Observations in this very point And therefore I must let him know since otherwise he will not take notice of it that this is a strange Hysteron Proteron setting the Cart before the Horse as we use to phrase it The Convocation in Ireland by which the Articles of Lambeth were incorporated into the Articles of that Church was holden in the Year 1615. the Synod of Dort not held till three years after anno 1618. and therefore not to Dâ—rt first and to Ireland afterwards The like mistake in point of time we finde in our Authour fol. 134. where speaking of that wilde distemper which hapned in the House of Commons on the dissolving of the Parliament Anno 1628. he telleth us That the effects of those Malignities flew over Seas and infected the French Parliaments about this time where that King discontinued the Assemblies of the three Estates upon farre lesse Provocations Whereas he lets us know from the Observator within few lines after that those Assemblies of the three Estates in Francâ— were discontinued by King Lewis thâ— 13. and a new form of Assembly instituted in the place thereof Anno 1614. So that the malignity of those distempers which happened in the Parliament of England Anno 1628. could not about that time passe over the Seas and infect the French Parliaments which had been discontinued and dissolved 14. years before Fol. 133. This was ratiâ—ied by the Contract of this Nation which the Conquerour upon his admittance had declared and confirmed in the Laws which he published Our Author speaks this of an hereditary Freedom which is supposed to have been in the English Nation from paying any Tax or Tallage to the King but by Act of Parliament And I would fain learn so much of him as to direct me to some creditable Authour in which I may finde this pretended contract between the Norman Conquerour and the English Subject and in what Book of Statutes I may finde these Laws which were publisht by him to that purpose The Norman Conquerour knew his own strength too well to reign precariò to ground his Title on his admittance by the people or to make any such contract with them by which he might more easily win them
he ushers in the last with this short Apology Contra morâ—m â—â—storiae liceat quaeso inserere c. Let me saith he I beseech you insert these following verses though otherwise against the Rule and Laws of History But what alass were eighteen or twenty verses compared with those many hundred six or seven hundred at the least which we finde in our Author whether to shew the universality of his reading in all kinde of Writers or his faculty in Translating which when he meets with hard Copies he knows how to spare I shall not determine at the present Certain I am that by the interlarding of his Prose with so many Verses he makes the Book look rather like a Church-Romance our late Romancers being much given to such kinde of Mixtures then a wellâ— built Ecclesiastical History And if it be a marter so inconvenient to put a new piece of cloth on an old garment the putting of so many old patches on a new piâ—â—e of cloth must be more unfashonable Besides that many of these old ends are so light and ludicrous so little pertinent to the business which he has in hand that they serve onely to make sport for Children ut pueris placeas Declamatio fias and for nothing else 5. This leads me to the next impertinency his raking into the Chanel of old Popish Legends writ in the daâ—ker times of Superstition but written with an honest zeal and a good intention as well to raise the Reader to the admiration of the person of whom they write as to the emulalation of his vertues But being mixt with some Monkâ—â—h dotages the most learned and ingenious men in the Church of Rome have now laid them by and it had been very well if our Author had done so to but that there must be something of entertainment for the gentle Reader and to inflame the reckoning which he pays not for But above all things recommend me to his Merry Tales and scraps of Trencherâ— jests frequently interlaced in all parts of the History which if abstracted from the rest and put into a Book by themselves might very well be serv'd up for a second course to the Banquet of Iosts a Supplement to the old Book entituled Wits Fits and Fancies or an Additional Century to the old Hundred Merry Tales so long since extant But standing as they do they neither do become the gravity of a Church-Historian nor are consistent with the nature of a sober Argument But as it seems our Author came with the same thoughts to the writing of this present History as Poets anciently addrest themselves to the writing of Comedies of which thus my Terence Poeta cum primum animum ad scribendum appulit Id sibi negâ—tii credidit solum dari Populo ut placerent quas â—ecisset fabulas That is to say Thus Poets when their minde they first apply In looser verse to frame a Comedy Think there is nothing more for them to do Then please the people whom they speak unto 6. In the last place proceed we to the manifold excursions about the Antiquity of Cambridge built on as weak Authoritie as the Monkish Legends and so impertinent to the matter which he hath in hand that the most Reverend Mat. Parker though a Cambridge Man in his Antiquitates Britanicae makes no business of it The more impertinent in regard that at the fag-end of his Book there follows a distinct History of that University to which all former passages might have been reduced But as it seems he was resolved to insert nothing in that History but what he had some probable ground for leaving the Legendary part thereof to the Church-Romance as mâ—st proper for it And certainly he is wondrous wise in his generation For fearing lest he might be asked for those Bulls and Chartularies which frequently he relates unto in the former Books he tells us in the History of Cambridge fol. 53. That they were burnt by some of the seditious Townsmen in the open Market place Anno 1380. or thereabouts So that for want of otâ—eâ— ancient evidence we must take his word which whether those of Cambridge will depend upon they can best resolve For my part I forbear all intermedling in a controversie so clearly stated and which hath lain so long asleep till now awakened by our Author to beget new quarrels Such passages in that History as come under any Animadversion have been reduced unto the other as occasion served which the Reader may be pleased to take notice of as they come before him 7. All these extravagancies and impertinencies which make up a fifth part of the whole Volumn being thus discharged it is to be presum'd that nothing should remain but a meer Church History as the Title promiseth But let us not be too presumptuous on no better grounds For on a Melius inquirendum into the whole course of the Book which we have before us we shall finde too little of the Church and too much of the State I mean too little of the Ecclesiastical and too much of the Civil History It might be reasonably expected that in a History of the Church of England we should have heard somewhat of the foundation and enlargement of Cathedral Churches if not of the more eminent Monasteries and Religious Houses and that we should have heard somewhat more of the succession of Bishops in their several and respective Sees their personal Endowments learned Writings and other Acts of Piety Magnificence and publick Interess especially when the times afforded any whose names in some of those respects deserv'd to be retain'd in everlasting remembrance it might have been expected also that we should have found more frequent mention of the calling of National and Provincial Synods with the result of their proceedings and the great influence which they had on the Civil State sparingly spoken of at the best and totally discontinued in a maner from the death of King Henry the fourth until the Convocation of the year 1552. of which no notice had been taken but that he had a minde to question the Authority of the Book of Articles which came out that year though publisht as the issue and product of it by the express Warrant and Command of King Edward the sixth No mention of that memorable Convocation in the fourth and fifth years of Philip and Mary in which the Clergy taking notice of an Act of Parliament then newly passed by which the Subjects of the Temporaliâ—y having Lands to the yearly value of five pounds and upwards were charged with finding Horse and Armour according to the propertion of their yearly Revenues and Possessions did by their sole Authority as a Convocation impose upon themselves and the rest of the Clergy of this Land the finding of a like number of Horses Armour and other Necessaries for the War according to their yearly income proportion for proportion and rate for rate as by that Statute had been laid on the
have produc'd those arguments by which some shameless persons endeavoured to maintain both the conveniency and necessity of such common Brothel houses Had Bishop Iewel been alive and seen but half so much from Dr. Harding pleâ—ding in behalf of the common women permitted by the Pope in Rome he would have thought that to cal to him an Advocate for the Stews had not beeen enough But that Doctor was nor half so wise as our Author is and doth not fit each Argument with a several Antidâ—te as our Author doth hoping thereby by but vainly hoping that the arguments alleadged will be wash'd away Some of our late Criticks had a like Design in marking all the wanton and obscene Epigrams in Martial with a Hand or Asterism to the intent that young Scholars when they read that Author might be fore-warn'd to pass them over Whereas on the contrary it was found that too many young fellows or wanton wits as our Author calls them did ordinarily skip over the rest and pitch on those which were so mark't and set out unto them And much I fear that it will so fall out with our Author also whose Arguments will be studied and made use of when his Answers will not Fol. 253. Otherwise some suspect had he survived King Edward the sixth we might presently have heard of a King Henry the ninth Our Author speaks this of Henry Fitz Roy the Kings natural Son by Elizabeth Blunt and the great disturbance he might have wrought to the Kings two Daughters in their Succession to the Crown A Prince indeed whom his Father very highly cherished creating him Duke of Somerset and Richmond Earl of Nottingham and Earl Marshal of England and raising him to no small hopes of the Crown it self as appears plainly by the Statute 22 H. 8. c. 7. But whereas our Author speaks it on a supposition of his surviving King Edward the sixth he should have done well in the first place to have inform'd himself whether this Henry and Prince Edward were at any time alive together And if my Books speak true they were not Henry of Somerset and Richmond dying the 22. of Iuly Anno 1536. Prince Edward not being born till the 12. of October An. 1537. So that if our Author had been but as good at Law or Grammar as he is at Heraldry he would not have spoke of a Survivor-ship in such a case when the one person had been long dead before the other was born These incoherent Animadversions being thus passed over we now proceed to the Examination of our Authors Principles for weakning the Authority of the Church and subjecting it in all proceedings to the power of Parliaments Concerning which he had before given us two Rules Preparatory to the great business which we have in hand First that the proceedings of the Canon Law were subject in whatsoever touched temporals to secular Laws and National Customs And the Laitie at pleasure limited Canons in this behalf Lib. 3. n. 61. And secondly that the King by consent of Parliament directed the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Court in cases of Heresie Lib. 4. n. 88. And if the Ecclesiastical power was thus curbed and feâ—â—ered when it was at the highest there is no question to be made but that it was much more obnoxious to the secular Courts when it began to sink in reputation and decline in strength How true and justifiable or rather how unjustifiable and false these two principles are we have shewn already and must now look into the rest which our Author in pursuance of the main Design hath presented to us But first we must take notice of another passage concerning the calling of Convocations or Synodical meetings formerly called by the two Archbishops in their several Provinces by their own sole and proper power as our Author grants fol. 190. to which he adds Fol. 190. But after the Statute of Praemunire was made which did much restrain the Papal power and subject it to the Laws of the Land when Archbishops called no more Convocations by their sole and absolute command but at the pleasure of the King In which I must confess my self to be much unsatisfied though I finde the same position in some other Authors My reasons two 1. Because there is nothing in the Statute of Praemunire to restrain the Archbishops from calling these meetings as before that Act extending only to such as purchase or pursue or cause to be purchased or pursued in the Court of Rome or elsewhere any such translatations Processes Sentences of Excommunication Bulls Instruments or any other things whatsoever which touch the King against him his Crown and his Regality or his Realm or to such as bring within the Realm or them receive or make thereof notification or any other Execution whatsoever within the same Realm or without c. And 2. because I finde in the Statute of the submission of the Clergy that it was recognized and acknowledged by the Clergie in their Convocation that the Convocation of the said Clergie is always hath been and ought to be assembled always by the Kings Writ And if they had been always call'd by the Kings Writ then certainly before the Statute of Praemunire for that the whole Clergy in their Convocation should publickly declare and avow a notorious falsehood especially in a matter of fact is not a thing to be imagined I must confess my self to be at a loss in this intricate Labyrinth unless perhaps there were some critical difference in those elder times between a Synod and a Convocation the first being call'd by the Archbishops in their several and respective Provinces as the necessities of the Church the other only by the King as his occasions and affairs did require the same But whether this were so or not is not much material as the case now stands the Clergie not assembling since the 25 of King Henry the eighth but as they are convocated and convened by the Kings wâ—it only I only adde that the time and year of this submission is mistook by our Author who plâ—ceth it in 1533. whereas indeed the Clergy made this acknowledgement and submission in their Convocation Anno 1532. though it pass'd not into an Act or Statute till the year next following Well then suppose the Clergy call'd by the Kings Authority and all their Acts and Constitutions ratiâ—ied by the Râ—yal assent are they of force to binde the Subject to submit and conform unto them Not if our Author may be judge for he tels us plainly Fol. 191. That even such Convocations with the Royal assent subject not any for recusancy to obey their Canons to a civil penalty in person or property untill confirmed by 〈◊〉 of Parliament I marvel where our Author took up this opinion which he neither finds in the Registers of Convocation or Records of Parliament Himself hath told us fol. 190. that such Canons and Constitutions as were concluded on in Synods or Convocations before the
passing of the Statute of Praemunire were without any further Ratification obligatory to all subjected to their jurisdiction And he hath told us also of such Convocations as had been called between the passing of the Statute of Praemunire and the Act for Submission that they made Canons whiche were binding although none other then Synodical Authority did confirme the same Upon whiâ—â—â—remisses I shall not fear to raise this Syllogism viz That power which the Clergy had in their Convocations before their submission to the King to binde the subject by their Canons and Constitutions without any further Ratification then own Synodicall Authority the same they had when the Kings power signified in his Royal assent was added to them but the Clergy by our Authors own confession had power in their Convocations before their submission to the King to binde the Subject by their Canons and Constitutions without any further ratification then their own Synodical Authority Ergo they had the same power to binde the Subjects when the Kings power signified by the Royal assent was added to them The Minor being granted by our Author as before is shewed the Major is only to be proved And for the proof hereof I am to put the Reader in minde of a Petition or Remonstrance exhibited to the King by the House of Commons Anno 1532. in which they shewed themselves agrieved that the Clergy of this Realm should act Authoritatively and Supremely in the Convocations and they in Parliament do nothing but as it was confirmed and ratified by the Royal assent By which it seems that there was nothing then desired by the House 〈◊〉 â—ommons but that the Convocation should be brought down to the same level with the Houses of Parliament and that their Acts and Constitutions should not binde the Subject as before in their Goods and Possessions untill they were confirmed and ratified by the Regal power The Answer unto which Remonstrance being drawn up by Dr. Gardiner then newly made Bishop of Winchester and allowed of by both Houses of Convocation was by them presented to the King But the King not satisfied with this Answer â—â—solves to bring them to his bent leâ—t else perhaps they might have acted something to the hindrance of his divorce which was at that time in agitation and therefore on the 10 of May he sends a paper to them by Dr. Fox after Bishop of Hereford in which it was peremptorily required That no Constitution or Ordinance shall be hereafter by the Clergy Enacted Promulged or put in Execution unlesse the Kings Highness do approve the same by his high Authority and Royal assent and his advice and favour be also interponed for the execution of every such constitution among his Highnesse Subjects And though the Clergy on the receipt of this paper remov'd first to the Chappel of St. Katherines and after unto that of St. Dunstan to consult about it yet found they no Saint able to inspiâ—e them with a resolution contrary to the Kings desires and therefore upon the Wednesday following being the 15 of the same Moneth they made their absolute submission binding themselves in Verbo Sacerdotii not to make or execute any Canons or other Synodical Constitutions but as they were from time to time enabled by the Kings Authority But this submission being made unto the King in his single person and not as in conjunction with his Houses of Parliament could neither bring the Convocation under the command of Parliaments nor render them obnoxious to the power thereof as indeed it did not But to the contrary hereof it is said by our Author that Fol. 194. He viz. the King by the advice and consent of his Clergy in Convocation and great Councel in Parliament resolved to reform the Church under his inspection from grosse abuses crept into it To this I need no other Answer then our Author himself who though in this place he makes the Parliament to be joyned in Commission with the Convocation as if a joynt Agent in that great business of Reforming the Church yet in another place he tels us another tale For fol. 188. it will appear saith he and I can tell from whom he saith it upon serious examination that there was nothing done in the Reformation of Religion save what was acted by the Clergy in their Convocations or grounded on some Act of theirs precedent to it with the Advice Counsel and Consent of the Bishops and most eminent Churchmen confirmed upon the Postfact and not otherwise by the Civill Sanction according to the usage of the best and happiest times of Christianity So then the Reformation of the Church was acted chiefly by the King with the advice of the Clergy in their Convocation the confirmation on the post-fact by the King in Parliament and that by his leave not in all the Acts and Particulars of it but in some few only for which consult the Tract entituled The Way and Manner of the Reformation of the Church of England Now as our Author makes the Parliament a joynt Assistant with the King in the Reformation so he conferreth on Parliaments the supreme Power of ratifying and confirming all Synodicall Acts. Fol. 199. The Parliament saith he did notifie and declare that Ecclesiasticall power to be in the King which the Pope had formerly unjustly invaded Yet so that they reserved to themselves the confirming power of all Canons Ecclesiastical so that the person or property of Refusers should not be subjected to temporal penalty without consent of Parliament But certainly there â—is no such matter in that Act of Parliament in which the submission of the Clergy and the Authority of the King grounded thereupon is notified and recorded to succeeding times nor any such reservation to themselves of a confirming power as our Author speaks of in any Act of Parliament I can knowingly and boldly say it from that time to this Had there been any such Priviledge any such Reservation as is here declared their power in confirming Ecclesiastical Canons had been Lord Paramount to the Kings who could have acted nothing in it but as he was enabled by his Houses of Parliament Nor is this only a new and unheard of Paradox an Heterodoxie as I may call it in point of Law but plainly contrary to the practice of the Kings of England from that time to this there being no Synodical Canons or Constitutions I dare as boldly say this too confirmed in Parliament or any otherwise ratified then by the superadding of the Royal assent For proof whereof look we no further then the Canons of 603 and 640 confirmed by the two Kings respectively and without any other Authority concurring with them in these following words viz. We have therefore for Us our Heirs and lawful Successors of our especial Grace certain knowledge and meer motion given and by these pâ—esents do give our Royal assent according to the foâ—m of the said Statute or Act of Parliament aforesaid to all and every of
read and compared with the Statute he had not needed to have made this Qâ—ere about the true intent and meaning of the Kings Injunction Fol. 386. In the first year of King Edward the sixth it was recommended to the care of the most grave Bishops and others assembled by the King at his Castle at Windfor and when by them compleated set forth in Print 1548. with a Proclamation in the Kings name to give Authority thereunto being also recommended unto every Bishop by especiall Letters from the Lords of the Councel to see the same put in execution And in the next year a penalty was imposed by Act of Parliament on such who should dâ—prave or neglect the use thereof Our Author here mistakes himself and confounds the business making no difference between the whole first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth and a particular form of Administration For the better understanding whereof he may please to know that in the first Parliament of this King there past a Statute Entituled An Act against such as speak against the Sacrament of the Altar and for the receipt thereof in both kindes Upon the coming out whereof the King being no lesse desirous as Fox relates it to have the form of Administration of the Sacrament reduced to the right Rule of the Scriptures and first use of the Primitive Church then he was to establish the same by Authority of his own Regal Lawes appointed certâ—in of the most grave and learned Bishop and others of his Realm to assemble together at his Castle of Windsor there to argue and intreat of this matter and conclude upon and set forth one perfect and uniform Order accoâ—ding to the Rule and use aforesaid which Book was printed and set out March 8. 1548. which is 1547. according to the accompt of the Church of England with a Proclamation of the Kings befoâ—e as by the Book it self appeaâ—â—â— But this Book thus set out and publisht contained nothing but a Form and Order of Adminisâ—ing the Holy Communion under both kinds in pursuâ—nce of the Statute before mentioned and served but as a preamble to the following Liturgy a Bâ—eâ— fast as it were to the Feast insuing The Liturgy came not out till near two years after confirmed in Parliament Anno 2. 3. Edw. 6. cap. 1. and in that Parliament cryed up as made by the immediate aide and inspiration of the holy Ghost Which notwithâ—â—anding some exceptions being taken at it as our Author notes by Calvin abâ—oâ—d and some Zealots at home the Book was brought under a Review much altered in all the parts and offiâ—es of it but whethâ—r â—nto the better or unto the worse let some others judge Fol. 404. At last the great Earl of Warwick deserted his Chaplain in open field to shift for himself Indeed he had higher things in his head then to attend such trifles A man may easily discern a Cat by her claw and we may finde as easily by the scratches of our Authoâ—s pen to what party in the Church he stands most inclined He had before declared for the Dominicans and Rigid Calvinists in some points of Doctâ—ine and now declares himself for the Non-Conformists in point of Ceremony He had not else called the Episcopal Ornaments particularly the Rochet Chimere and Square-cap by the name of trifles such trifles as were not worth the contending for if Resâ—lute Ridley had been pleased to dispense therein The truth is that Hoopers opposition in this particulaâ— gave the first ground to those Combustions in the Church which after followed Calvin extremely stickling for him and writing to his party here to assist him in it And this I take to be the reason why our Author is so favourable in his censure of him fol. 402. and puts such Answers in the mouthes of the Non-Conformist fol. 404. as I can hardly think were so well hammered and accommodated in those early dayes Such as seem rather fitted for the temper and acumen of the present times after a long debating of all particulars and a strict search into all the niceties of the Controversie then to the first beginnings and unpremeditated Agitatious of a new-born Quarrel Fol. 406. Yet this work met afterwards with some Frowns even in the faces of great Clergy-men c. because they concoived these singing Psalms erected in Corrivality and opposition to the reading Psalms which were formerly sung in Cathedral Churches And thoâ—e great Church-men â—ad good reâ—son for what they did wisely foreseeing that the singing of those Psalms so translated in Rythme and Meeter would work some alteration in the executing of the publique Liturgy For though it be exprest in the Title of those singing Psalms that they were set forth and allowed to be sung in all Churches before and after morning and eveniâ—g Prayer and also before and after Sermons yet this allowance seems rather to have been a Connivence then an approbation no such allowance being â—ny wheâ—e found by such as have been most industrious and concerned in the search thereof Secondly whereas â—t was intended that the said Psalms should be only 〈◊〉 before and after morning and evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons which shews they were not to be intermingled in the publique Liturgy in very little time they pâ—evailed so far in most Parish Churches as to thrust the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis quite out of the Church And thirdly by the practices and endevours of the Puritan party they came to be esteemed the most divine part of Gods publique service the reading Psalms together with the first and second Lessons being heard in many places with a covered head but all men â—itting bare-headed when the Psalm is sung And to that end the Parish Clerk must be taught when he names the Psalm to call upon the people to sing it to the praise and glory of God no such preparatory Exhortation being used at the naming of the Chapters of the dayly Psalms But whereas our Author seems to intimate that the Reading Psalms were formerly sung only in Cathâ—dral Churches he is exceedingly mistaken both in the Rubriâ—ks of the Church and the practice too the Rubricks lâ—â—ving them indifferently to be said or sung according as the Congregation was fitted for it the practice in some Parish Churches within the time of my memory being for it also And this our Author as I think cannot chuse but know if he be but as well studied in the Rules of the Church as in some Popish Legends and old ends of Poetry Fol. 407. Let Adonijah and this Lords example deterr Subjects from medling with the Widows of their Soveraigns lest in the same match they espouse their own danger and destruction I see little reason for this Rule lesse for his examples For first Abishag the Shunamite whom Adonijah desâ—red to have to wife was â—ever marryed unto David and therefore cannot properly be called his Widow And secondly Queen
Katheriâ—e Parr the Widow of King Henry the eighth and wife unto Sir Thomas Seimor the Lord here mentioned is generally charactered for a Lady of so meek a nature as not to contribute any thing towards his destruction Had the Dutchesse of Somerset been lesse impetious then she was or possest but of one half of that aequanimity which carryed Queen Katherine off in all times of her troubles this Lord might have lived happily in the armes of his Lady and gone in peace unto the grave We finde the like match to have been made between another Katherine the Widow of another Henry and Owen Tudor a private Gentleman of Wales prosperous and comfortable to them both though Owen was inferior to Sir Thomas Seimor both in Birth and Quality and Katherine of Valois Daughter to Charles the sixth of France far more superiour in her bloud to Queen Katherine Parr The like may be said also of the marriage of Adeliza Daughter of Geofry Earl of Lâ—vain and Duke of Brabant and Widow to King Henry the first marryed to William de Albeney a noble Gentleman to whom she brought the Castle and Honour of Arundel conâ—erred upon her by the King her former Husband continuing in the possession of their posterity though in severall Families to this very day derived by the Heirs general from this House of Albeney to that of the Fitz-â—lans and from them to the Howards the now Earls thereof Many more examples of which kinde foâ—tunate and succesful to each party might be easily â—ound were it worth the while Fol. 421. This barren Convocation is entituled the Parent of those Articles of Religion forty two in number which are printed with this Preface Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinensi c. Our Author here is guilty of a greater crime then that of Scandalum Magnatum making King Edward the sixth of pious memory no better then an impious and leud Impostor For if the Convocation of this year were barren as he saith it was it could neither be the Parent of those Articles nor of the short Catechisme which was Printed with them countenanced by the Kings Letters Patents preâ—ixt before it For First the Title to the Articles runneth thus at large viz. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinensi Anno 1552 inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat ad tollendam opinionum dissensionem consensum verae Religionis firmandum Regia Authoritate in lucem editi Which title none durst have adventured to set before them had they not really been the products of that Convocation Secondly the King had no reason to have any such jealousie at that time of the major part of the Clergy but that he might trust them with a power to meddle with matters of Religion which is the only Argument our Author bringeth against those Articles This Convocation being holden in the sixth year of his Reign when most of the Episcopal Sees and Parochial Churches were filled with men agâ—eeâ—ble to his desiâ—es and generally conformâ—ble to the form of worship theâ— by Law established Thiâ—dly the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no otheâ— as the publick tendries of the Church in poinâ—s of Doctrine which ceâ—tainly she had not done had they been reâ—ommended to her by a lesse Authoâ—ity then a Convocation Fourthly and lasâ—ly we have the testimony of our Author against himself who telling us of the Catechisme above mentioned that it was of the sanâ—e extraction with the Book of Articles addes afteâ—wards that being first composed by a single person it was perusâ—d and allowed by the Bishops and other learned men understand it the Convocation and by Royall Authority commended to all Subjecâ— and câ—mmanâ—ed to all School-masters to teach it their Scholars So that this Catechism being allowed by the Bishops and other learned men in the Convocation and the Articles being said to be of the same extraction it must needs follow thereupon that these Articles had no other Parent then this Convocation The truth is that the Records of Convocation during this Kings whole Reign and the first years of Queen Mary are very imperfect and defective most of them lost and amongst others those of this present year and yet one might conclude as strongly that my Mother died childless because my Christning is not to be found in the Parish Register as that the Convocation of this year was barren because the Acts and Articles of it are not entred in the Journal Book The Eighth Book OR The Reign of Queen MARY WE next proceed unto the short but troublesome Reign of Queen Mary in which the first thing 〈◊〉 occurs is â—ol 1. But the Commons of England who for many yeâ—â—s together had conn'd Loyalty by-heart out of the Staâ—â—â—e of the succession were so perfect in their Lesson that they would not be put out of it by this new started design In which I am to note these things first that he makes the Loyalty of the Commons of England not to depend upon the primogeniture of their Princes but on the Statute of Succession and then the object of that Loyalty must not be the King but the Act of Parliament by which they were directed to the knowledge of the next successor and then it must needs be in the power of Parliaments to dispose of the Kingdom as they pleas'd the Peoples Loyalty being tyed to such dispositions Secondly that the Statutes of Succession had been so many and so contrary to one another that the common people could not readily tell which to trust to and for the last it related to the Kings last Will and Testament so lately made and known unto so few of the Commons that they had neither opportunity to see it nor time to con the same by heart Nor thirdly were the Commons so perfect in this lesson of Loyalty or had so fixt it in their hearts but that they were willing to forget it within little time and take out such new lessons of disobedience and disloyalty as Wiat and his Partizans did preach unto them And finally they had not so well conn'd this lesson of Loyalty in our Authors own judgement but that some strong pretender might have taught them a new Art of Oblivion it being no improbable thing as himself confesseth to have heard of a King Henry the ninth if Henry Fitz-Roy the Duke of Somerset and Richmond had liv'd so long as to the death of King Edward the sixth Fol. 11. Afterwards Philpot was troubled by Gardiner for his words spoken in the Convocation In vain did he plead the priviledge of the place commonly reputed a part of Parliament I cannot finde that the Convocation at this time nor many years before this time was commonly reputed as a part of the Parliament That antiently it had been so I shall easily grant there being a clause in every letter of Summons by which the Bishops were required to attend in
Altar as it either was or could be in the power of our English Zealots to beat down superstitious Pictures and Images had they been so minded Solomon in the Book of Canticles compares the Church unto a Army Acies Castrorum ordinaâ—a as the Vulgar hath it an Army terrible with Banners as our English reads it A powerful Body out of doubt able which way soever it moves to waste and destroy the Countrey to burn and sack the Villages through which it passeth And questionless too many of the Souldiers knowing their own power world be apt to do it if not restrained by the Authority of their Commanders and the Laws of war Ita se Ducum Authoritas sic Rigor Disciplinae habet as we finde in Tacitus And if those be not kept as they ought to be Confusi Equites Peditesque in exitium ruunt the whole runs on to a swift destruction Thus is it also in the Church with the Camp of God If there be no subordination in it if every one might do what he list himself and make such uses of that power and opportunity as he thinks are put into into his hands what a confusion would ensue how speedy a calamity must needs fall upon it Courage and zeal do never shew more amiably in inferior powers then when they are subordinate to good directions especially when they take directions from the right hand from the Supreme Magistrate not from the interests and passion of their fellow subjects It is the Princes office to command and theirs to execute With which wise caution the Emperor Otho once represt the too great forwardness of his Souldiers when he found them apt enough to make use of their power in a matter not commanded by him Vobis Arma Animus mihi Consilium virtutis vestrae Regimen relinquites as his words there are He understood their duty and his own authority allows them to have power and will but regulates and restrains them both to his own command So that whether we behold the Church in its own condition proceeding by the warrant and examples of holy Scripture or in resemblance to an Army as compared by Solomon there will be nothing left to the power of the people either in way of Reformation or Execution till they be vested and intrusted with 〈◊〉 lawful power deriv'd from him whom God hath plac'd in Authority over them And therefore though Idolatry be to be destroy'd and to be destroyed by all which have power to do it yet must all those be furnisht with 〈◊〉 lawful power or otherwise stand guilty of as high a crime as that which they so zealously endeavour to condemn in others 3. But our Author is not of this minde and therefore adds That if the Soveraign do forget the Subjects should remember their duty A lesson which he never learn'd in the Book of God For besides the examples which we have in demolishing the Brazen Serpent and the Altar of Bethel not acted by the power of the people but the command of the Prince I would 〈◊〉 know where we shall finde in the whole courâ—e and current of the holy Scriptures that the common people in and by their own authority removed the high places and destroyed the Images or cut down the Gâ—oves those excellent Instruments of Superstition and Idolatry or that they did attempt any such thing till warranted and commissionated by the Supreme Powers Where shall we finde that any of the seven thousand person which had not bowed the knee to Baal did ever go about to destroy that Idol Or that Eliah or Elisha two men as extraordinary for their calling as their zeal and courage did excite them to it Where shall we finde the Primitive Christians when living under the command of Heathenish Emperors busied in destroying Idols or defacing the Temples of those Gods whom the Pagans worshipped thoâ—gh grown in those times to such infinite multitudes that they filled all places of the Empire Vestra omnia implevimâ—â— Cities Illes Castles Burroughs your places of Assembly Camps Tribes Palaces yea the very Senate and common Forum as Tertullian pleads it No other Doctrine 〈◊〉 â—eard of till either the new Gospel of Wickliffe or the new Lights shining from Geneva gave beginning to it when the Genevians were resolv'd on a Reformation and could not get the consent of their Bishop who was also their immediate Prince they resolv'd to take the work into their own hands and proceed without him And that the presence of their Bishop might not be a hinderance unto their designs they rais'd a tumult put themselves in to a posture of war and thereby force him and his Clergy to forsake the City And this being done they did not only order matters of Religion as they pleas'd themselves but took the Soveraignty of the City into their own hands changing the Government thereof to the form of a Common-wealth Eo ejecto Genevates Monarchiam in popularem Statum commutarunt as Calvin hath it in his Epistle unto Cardinal Sadolet The practice of these men drawn afterwards into example by Knox and others became at last to be the standing Rule and Measure of all Reformations For when the King and Queen of Scots refus'd to ratifie two Acts which were sent unto them concerning the abolishing of the Mass and the Popes supremacy Knox Winram and the rest of that gang without more ado devised and set up a new form of Discipline ingrossing that power unto the Kirk which formerly had been usurped by the Popes of Rome Afterwards when the Queen was return'd into Scotland and that some of their importunate Petitions were neglected by her it was concluded by the Ministers in as plain terms as might be that if the Queen will not then we must ibid. fol. 33. According to this Rule the Netherlands proceeded also not only driving on the design which they had in hand as the French Hugonots also did without the Kings Authority but against it also Finally from a matter practical it came at last to be delivered for a point of Doctrine that if the Prince or Supreme Magistrate did not reform the Church then the people might For this I finde in Clesselius one of the Contra-Remonstrants of Roterdam If saith he the Prince and Clergy do neglect their duties in the Reforming of the Church Necesse est tumid facere plebeios Israelitas that then it doth belong to the common people And it is with a Necesse too if you mark it well they might not only do it but they must be doing Not in the way of Mediation or Petition by which the dignity of the Magistrate might be preserv'd but by force and violence Licet ad sanguinem usque pro eo pugnent even to the shedding of their own bloud and their brethrens too Our Author preacheth the same Doctrine whether by way of Application or Instruction it comes all to one for Qui Parentes laudat filios provocat as
Design 'T is 〈◊〉 the stomack of the Scots were sharp set still crying Give give but never satisfied King Iames as bounâ—â—ful and open handed towards them as they could desire But neitheâ— were they to impudent as to crave nor the King to impotent as to give a whole Bishopâ—ick 〈◊〉 onâ—e especially so rich a Bishoprick as this of Durham But the truth is that George Hume Earl of Dunbar Lord Treasurer of Scotland and highly favour'd by the King having procur'd a grant of all the batable grounds as they then called them upon the Borders of both Kingdoms began to cast his eye upon Norham-Castle and the Lands about it belonging to the See of Durham conceiving it a fit place to command the rest But being a well principled man and a great Minister of that Kings in restoring the Episcopal Government to the Church of Scotland he acquainted Bishop Bancroft with his desires who knowing what great use might be made of him for the good of this Church and being sure enough of the consent of Dr. Matthews then Bishop of Durham he thus ordered the business Whereas the Revenue of Norham-Castle and the lands adjoyning were valued at one hundred twenty pounds per annum in the Bishops Rental it was agreed that the Earl should procure of the King an abatement of sixscore pounds yearly out of the annual pension of a thousand pound which had been said upon that Bishoprick by Queen Elizabeth as before is said Secondly that he should obtain from the King for the said Dr. Matthews and his Successors a restitution of his House in the Strand called Durham-House with the Gardens Stables and Tenements thereto appertaining which had been alienated from that Bishoprick ever since the dissolving of it by King Edward the sixth Thirdly that in consideration hereof Bishop Matthews should make a grant of Norham-Castle and the Countrey adjoyning in Feefarm to the King by him immediately to be convey'd to the Earl of Dunbar And fourthly that his own 〈◊〉 being thus serv'd the said Earl should joyn with Bishop Bancroft and his friends for obtaining from the King an Act of Parliament whereby both he and his successors should be made uncapable of any the like Grants and Alienations for the time to come which as it was the 〈◊〉 Markeâ— that ever Toby Matthews was at so was it the best bargain which was ever driven for the Church of England so â—ar from swallowing up that Bishoprick that it was the only means to save that and preserve the rest And yet perhaps the credible information which our Author speaks of might not relate unto the Bisâ—oprick but the Deaâ—ry of Durham bestowed by that King being then not well studied in the Composition of the Church of England on Sir Adam Newton a Courtier prevalent enough as having been Tutor to Prince Henry the Kings eldest Son And possible it is that the Scots might have kept it in their hands from one generation to another if Dr. Hunt not otherwise to be remembred had not bought him out of it and put himself into the place Fol. 59. And as about this time some perchance overvaluâ—d the Geneva Notes out of that especial love they bare to the Authors and place whence it proceeded so on the other side some without cause did slight or rather without charity did slander the same â— I trow our Author will not take upon him to condemn all those who approve not of the Genevian Notes upon the Bible or to appear an Advocate for them though he tells us not many lines before that they were printed thirty times over with the general liking of the people I hope he will not do the first for King Iames his sake who in the Conference at Hampton-Court did first declare that of all the Translations of the Bible into the English Tongue that of Geneva was the worst and secondly that the Notes upon it were partial untrue seditious and savouring too much of dangerous and traiterous conceits For pâ—oof whereof his Majesty instanced in two places the one on Exod. 1. vers 19. where disobedience to Kings is allowed of the other in â— Chron. 8. 15 16. where Asa is taxed for deposing his Mothâ—r only and not killing her A Note wheâ—eof the Scottish Presbyterians made special use not only deposing Mary their lawful Queen from the Regal Thâ—one but prosecuting â—er openly and under hand till they had took away her life These instances our Author in his Summary of that Conference hath passed over in silence as loath to have such blemishes appear in the Genevians or their Annotations And I hope also that he will not advocate for the rest For let him tell me what he thinks of that on the second of St. Matthews Gospel v. 12. viz Promise ought not to be kept where Gods honour and preaching of his truth is hindered or else it ought not to be broken What a wide gap think we doth this open to the breach of all Promises Oaths Covenants Contracts and Agreements not only betwixt man and man but between Kings and their Subjects Whâ—t Rebel ever took up Arms without some pretences of that nature What Tumults and Rebellions have been rais'd in all parts of Christendom in England Scotland Ireland France the Netherlands Germany and indeed where not under colour that Gods honour and the preaching of the truth is hindered If this once pass for good sound Doctrine neither the King nor any of his good Subjects in what Realm â—oever can live in safety Gods Honour and the preaching 〈◊〉 his Truth are two such pretences as will make void all Laws elude all Oathes and thrust our all Covenants and Agreements be they what they will Neâ—â— I would have our Author tell me what he thinks of this Note on the ninth of the Revelation ver 3. where the 〈◊〉 which came out of the smoak are said to be 〈◊〉 teachers Hereticks and worldly subtil â—relates with 〈◊〉 Fâ—iers Cardinals Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops 〈◊〉 Batchelors and Masters Does not this note 〈◊〉 fasten the name of Locusts on all the Cleâ—â—y of 〈◊〉 Realm that is to say Archbishops Bishops and all 〈◊〉 as are graduated in the University by the name of Doctors Batchelors and Masters And doth it not as plainly yoak them with Fâ—iers Monkâ— and Cardinals pâ—incipal instruments in all times to advance the Popecom I know the words which follow after are alleadged by some to take off the envy of this Note viz. who forsake Christ to maintain false doctrines But the enumeration of so many particulars makes not the Note the lets invidious the said explication notwithstanding because the Note had been as perfect and significant had it gone thus in generals only that is to say by Locusts here are meant false Teachers Hereticks and other worldly subtil men that seduced the people perswading them to foâ—sake Christ to maintain false Doctrine But the Genevians who account Archbishops and Bishops to be limbs of the Pope
himself possibly â—an be And therefore I must not by â—â—â—obeying my Pâ—ince commit a certain â—in in preventing a pâ—obable but contingent inconveniency This if it were good Doctâ—ine then when both the Author and the Book weâ—e crâ—ed up even to admiration is not to be reâ—â—â—ted as falâ—e Doctâ—ine now truth being constant to 〈◊〉 not varying nor altering with the change of times Bâ—t oâ—r Author will not sâ—op here he goes on and saith Ibid. Mâ—â—y moderate men are of opinion that this abuse of the Lord-day was a principal procurer of Gods anger 〈◊〉 poured out on this Land in a long and bloudy Civil 〈◊〉 And moderate peâ—haps they may be in apparel 〈…〉 the like civil acts of life and conversation but 〈…〉 moderate enough in this Observation For who hath kâ—â—wn the minde of the Lord or who hath been his Counsâ—ll◠〈…〉 the great Apostle But it is as common with some men of the newest Religions to adscribe 〈…〉 judgements to some special Reasons as 〈…〉 the Key which opens into his Cabinet 〈…〉 as iâ— they were admitted to all 〈…〉 in the 〈…〉 Heaven before that dreadful 〈◊〉 oâ— the year 1562. and 1565. the constant 〈◊〉 of the Chappels in his Majesties Houses most 〈◊〉 the Cathedral and some of the Paâ—ochial Churches and â—inally a Declaration of the King Anno 1633. â—ommending a Conâ—ormity in the Parish Churches to their own Cathedrals They on the other side stood chiefly upon disâ—ontinuâ—nce but urged withall that some Rubâ—â—â—ks in the Common-Prayer-Book seemed to make for them So that the Question being reduced to a matter of â—â—act that is to say the Table must 〈◊〉 this way or it must stand that way I would fain know how any condescension might be made on either 〈…〉 to an accommodation or what our Moderatâ—â— would have done to at one the differences Suppoâ—e him â—â—tting in the Chair the Arguments on both 〈…〉 â—nd all the Audience full of expectation 〈…〉 would carry it The Moderator Fuller of old Meâ—â—y-Tales then ordinary thus resolves the businesse that he had heard it commended for a great piece of wisdom in Bishop Andrews That wheresoever he was a Parson a Dean or a Bishop he never troubled Parish Colledge or Diocess with pressing other Ceremonies upon them then such which he found used there before his coming thither that King Iames finding the Archbishop of Spalato in a resolution of â—â—eâ—â—ioning all such Leases as had been made by his 〈◊〉 in the Savoy gave him this wise Counsell Relinque res sicut eas invenisti That he should leave things as he found them that the sâ—id King being told by a great person of the invertâ—d situation of a Chappel in Cambridge 〈◊〉 â—nswer that it did not matter how the 〈◊〉 stood so their hearts who go thither were 〈…〉 in Gods service But for his part he liked 〈◊〉 of the Resolution of Dr. Prideaux when wearied with the Businesses of the Councel-Table and the High Commission But as he was soon hot so he was soon cool'd And so much is observed by Sir Edward Deering though his greatest adversary and the first that threw dirt in his face in the late long Parliament who telleth us of him that the roughness of his uncourtly Nature sent most men discontented from him 〈◊〉 so that he would often of himself â—inde wayes and means to sweeten many of them again when they least looked for it In this more modest then our Author who gives us nothing of this Pâ—elate but his wants and weaknesses But of this Reverend Prelate he will give cause to speak more hereafter Let us now on unto another of a different judgement his proâ—est enemy Mr. Prin of whom thus our Author Fol. â—57 Mr. William Prinne was borne about Bath in Glocestershire c. and began with the writing of some Orthodox books In this story of Mr. Prinne and his suffeâ—ings our Author runs into many errors which either his love unto the Man or zeal to the good cause or carelesness of what he writes have brought upon him For first Bath is not in Glostershire but a chief City in the County of Somerset Secondly though I look on Mr. Prinne so far forth as I am able to judge by some Books of his not long since published as a man of a far more moderate spirit then I have done formerly yet can I not think his first Books to have been so Orthodox as our Author makes them For not to say any thing of his Perpetuity his Books entituled Lame Giles his Haltings Cozens Cozening Devotions and his Appendix to another have many things repugnant to the Rules and Canons of the Church of England No 〈◊〉 Champion against bowing at the name of Iesus nor greater enemy to some Ceremonies here by Law 〈◊〉 In whicâ— paâ—â—iculars iâ— our Author tâ—iâ—k him to be Orthodox he declares himself to be no true Son of the Church of England Thirdly the Book called Histrio-Mastix was not writ by Mr. Prinne about three years before his 〈…〉 as our Author telleth us for then it must be wâ—it or publisht Anno 1634. whereas indeed that Book was published in Print about the latter end of 1632. and the Author censur'd in Sâ—ar-Chamber for some pâ—ssâ—ges in iâ— abouâ— the latter end of the year 1633. Otheâ—wise had it been as our Author telleth us the punishment 〈…〉 the offence and he must suffer for â— Book which was not publisht at that â—ime and peâ—haps not wâ—itten But our Author hâ—th a special facâ—lty in this kinde which few writers 〈◊〉 For â—s he post-dateth this Histrio-Mastix by making it come into the 〈…〉 after it did so he ante 〈◊〉 a Book of Dâ— White then Lord Bishop of Ely which he makes to be publisht two yeaâ—s sooner then indeed it wâ—s Thâ—t book of his entituled A Treatise of the Sabbath came noâ—â—ut â—ill Michaelmas Anno 1635. though placed by ouâ— Authoâ— as then written Anno 1633. for which see fol. 144. Next unto Mr. Prinne in the coâ—â—se of his Censure comes the Bishop of Lincoln the 〈◊〉 whereof we have in our Author who having left a 〈…〉 somewhat which he thinks not â—it to make known to all gives some occasion to suspect that the matter was far woâ—se on the Bishops side then perhaps it was And therefore to prevent all further misconstructions in thi◠〈◊〉 I will lay down the story as I finde it thus viz. The Bishops purgation depending chiefly upon the testimony of one Prideon it hapned â—hat the 〈◊〉 after one Elizabeth Heaâ—on was delivered of a base childe and laid to this Prideon The Bishop finding his great witness charged with such a load of filth 〈…〉 would invalidate all his 〈…〉 valid the Bishop could easily prognosticate his own ruine therefore he bestirs himself amain and though by order of the Justices at the publick Session at Lincoln Prideon was charged as the reputed father the Bishop by his two Agents Powel and Owen
procured that order to be suppressed and by subornation and menacing of tampeâ—ing with Witnesses at length in May 10. Car. procured the childe to be fathered upon one Boon and Prideon acquit Which leâ—d practises for the supportation of his Favorites credit cost the Bishop as he confest to Sir Iohn Munson and others twelve hundred pounds so much directly and by consequence much more But to proceed the cause being brought unto a censure Fol. 157. Secretary Windebank motioned to degrade him which saith he was lustily pronounced by a Knight and a Lay-man having no precedent for the same in former ages But first it is not very certain that any such thing was moved by Sir Francis Windebank A manuscript of that dayes proceedings I have often seen containing the Decree and Sentence with the substance of every Speech then made and amongst others that of Sir Francis Windebank in which I finde no motion tending to a Degradation nor any other punishment inflicted on him then Fine Suspension and Inprisonment in which the residue of the Lords concurred as we finde in our Author Secondly it had been more strange if the Knight had not been a Lay-man the Church of England not acknowledging any Order of Spiritual Knighthood Knights in Divinity are greater strangers in this Land then Lay-Divines these last being multiplied of late even ad infinitum the first never heard of And thirdly had it been so mov'd and so lustily mov'd as our Author makes it the Knight and Lay-man might have found a precedent for it in the former ages Which last clause is to be understood as I suppose with refeâ—ence to the times since the Reformation For in the former times many precedents of like nature might be easily found And being understood of the times since the Reformation it is not so infallibly true but that one precedent of it at the least may be found amongst us Marmaduke Middleton advanced to the Bishoprick of St. Davids Anno 1567. after he had sat in that See three and twenty years was finally condemned for many notable misdemeanors not only to be deprived of his Bishoprick but degraded from all holy Orders Which sentence was accordingly executed by and before the High Commissioners at Lambeth house not only by reading it in Scriptis but by a formal devesting of him of his Episcopal Robes and Priestly vestments as I have heard from a person of good credit who was present at it And somewhat there is further in the story of this Marmaduke Middleton which concerns the Bishop now before us Of whom our Author telleth us further that being prest by two Bishops and three Doctors to answer upon Oath to certain Articles which were tendred to him in the Tower he utterly refused to do it claiming the priviledge of a Peer fol. 159. Which Plea was also made by the said Bishop of St. Davids offering to give in his Answer to such Articles as were fram'd against him on his Honour only but refusing to do it on his Oath Which case being brought before the Lords then sitting in Parliament was ruled against him it being ordered that he should answer upon Oath as in fine he did To this Bishop let us joyne his Chaplain Mr. Osbolstone who being engag'd in the same Bark with his Patron suffered shiprack also though not at the same time nor on the same occasion Censured in Star-Chamber not only to lose his Ecclesiastical Promotions but to corporal punishments Fol. 166. But this last persâ—nal penalty he escaped by going beyond Canterbury conceived sâ—asonably gone beyond the Seas whilst he secretly concealed himself in London And he had scapt the last penalty had he staid at home For though Mr. Osbolston at that time conceived the Archbishop to be his greatest enemy yet the Archbishop was resolved to shew himself his greatest friend assuring the Author of these Papers before any thing was known of Mr. Osbolstons supposed flight that he would cast himself at the Kings â—eet for obtaining a discharge of that corporal punishment unto which he was sentenced Which may obtain the greater credit First in regard that no course was taken to stop his flight no search made after him nor any thing done in Order to his apprehension And secondly by Mr. Osbolstons readiness to do the Archbishop all good Offices in the time of his troubles upon the knowledge which was given him at his coming back of such good Intentions But of these private men enough passe we now to the publick Lib. XI Part. II. Containing the last 12. years of the Reign of King Charles ANd now we come to the last and most unfortunate part of this Kings Reign which ended in the loss of his own life the Ruine of the Church and the Alteration of the Civil Government Occaâ—â—oned primarily as my Author saith by sending a new Liturgie to the Kirk of Scotland for he thus proceeds Fol. 160. Miseries caused from the sending of the Book of Service or new Liturgie thither which may sadly be termed a Rubrick indeed died with the bloud of so many of both Nations slain on that occasion Our Aâ—thor speaks this in relation to the Scottish tumults Anno 1637. In telling of which story he runs as commonly elsewhere into many Errors For first those miseries and that bloud-shed was not caused by sending the Liturgy thither the Plot had been laid long before upon other grounds that is to say questioning of some Church Lands then in the hands of some great Persons of which they feared a Revocation to the Crown And secondly the Manu-mitting of some poor subjects from the Tyranny and Vassalage which they liv'd under in respect of their Tithes exacted with all câ—â—elty and inâ—uâ—tice by those whom they call the 〈…〉 for raising of a tumult first a Rebellion afterwards and this occasion they conceiv'd they had happily gain'd by sending the new Liturgy thither though ordered by their own Clergy first as our Author tells us at the Assembly of Aberdeen Anno 1616. and after at Perth Anno 1618. and fashioned for the most part by their own Bishops also But of this there hath so much been said between the Observator and his Antagonist that there is nothing necessary to be added to it Secondly there was no such matter as the passing of an Act of Revocation for the restoring of such Lands as had been aliened from the Crown in the Minority of the King Predecâ—ssors Of which he tells us fol. 192. The King indeed did once intend the passing of such an Act but finding what an insurrection was likely to ensue upon it he followed the safer counsel of Sir Archibald Acheson by whom he was advis'd to sue them in his Courts of Justice Which course succeeding to his wish so terâ—ified many of those great Persons who had little else but such Lands to maintain their Dignities that they never thought themselves secure as long as the King was in a condition to demand his
thought it best to stand aloof without ingaging further against this Author in hope that I might have some satisfaction from him either publick or private But understanding that notice had been given unto him of some just cause for my dislike no acknowledgement or reparation following oâ— it I conceived that it concerned me in point of Credit to let him see that I knew as well how to offend an unjust Adversary as to defend my self In the pursute whereof I have carried on the work with that sobriety in it self and such respect unto his person as cannot be displeasing to the Author or any discerning friend of his or unto any equal and impartial Reader His Errors I have corrected rectified his Mistakes and aâ—ded here and there some Observations in the way of a Supplement For which cause I have called these papers by the name of Adverâ—sments that I might use such honest freedom as well in the last as in the first as might conduce unâ—o the bâ—nefit of such as should pâ—cale to read them Hiâ— History is not maâ—e the worâ—e nor the sale thereof retarded by such Additionals and Correctiveâ— as are here preâ—ented Which though he may not thank me for yet I am apt to flattâ—r my self that I may receive some thanks from others Howsoever I shall comfort my self with this that I have not trespassed against good manners or the truth the vindicating of which last hath been the main impulsive to this underâ—aking And being comâ—ortâ—d in that I shall the better indure such censures either of pragmaticalnesse or the love of revenge which may perhaps be laid upon me by such as do not understand me Deleâ—aâ—it tameâ—se Conscientia quod est Aâ—imi paâ—ulum incredibili jucundiâ—ate persusum as Lactantius hath it With which I shut up this Survey and proceed to the businesse ADVERTISEMENTS ON A BOOK Intituled A Compleat HISTORY OF THE LIFE and REIGN OF KING CHARLES From his CRADLE to his GRAVE THE Author of the History which we have before us entitles it A compleat History of the Life and Reign of King Charles from his Cradle to his Grave By which the Reader might expect a compleat Account of all the passages of his life not onely from his coming to the Imperial Crown of this Realm but from his first coming into the world In which intervall besides the nature and condition of his education First under Mr. Thomas Murrey and afterwards under the immediat care of King Iames his Father he had the conduct of one of the most weighty Affaires of State that ever was managed by any prince in his fathers life time And if Iames Howel in writing the life of Lewis 13. thought fit to begin his History with the acts of his Daulphinage which could afford no great variety of matter considering he came unto the Crown at ten years of age assuredly the first part of the life of King rash assuming of the Crown of 〈◊〉 and that it gave the Spâ—niards a free passe for his Italiâ—n forces to march towards the Netherlands I shall adventure to lay down the first cause of that Quarrel It was about the year 1â—15 that a designe was put into the head of the Bishop of Spires being an Homager and Feudatory of the Prince Elector Palatâ—â—e to forâ—â—fie the Town and Castle of Vdenheim which by â—om little help of Art added unto the natural strength of the sitâ—ation might be made impregnable In Order wherunto the Bishop inviteâ— the Prince and the Princesse Elizabeth his wiâ—e to a solemn feast and after Dinner shewes him from the top of one of the â—urrets of the Castle the prospect of the â—own and Country adjoâ—ning telling him that if that Town were fortified by Art as well as by nature it wâ—uld be a very strong Bulwark not onely to the States of his Highnesse but unto all the rest of his Neighbours in thoâ—e parts of Germaâ—y and that he had a great desire to proceed to the acting of those thoughts if his Highnesse were but pleaâ—ed to give way unto it The Prince considering very wisely that he was now in his power returned this answer that if the fortifying of that place did startle no other jealousies in the minds of the Neighbouring Princes then it did in his he might go on with it when he pleased which words being taken by the Bishop for a permission and encouragement to proceed in the work it went on accordingly But scarce were the works half finisht when the Duke of 〈◊〉 the Marquesse of Baden and other of the Neighbouring Princes amazed to see such preparations for a war in a time of peace dispatcht their Agents to the Prince desiring to know the reason why he suffered the Bishop to entrench that place which might in tâ—â—e be made use of to their common 〈◊〉 The Prince made answer that the Bishop had no permission from him and that he would send a servant of his to 〈◊〉 the prosecution of the work and to comâ—â—and the casting dâ—wn of that which was 〈…〉 And though he did perform this promise yet the work went forward the Bishop having secretly obtained license from the Emperor as the Lord Paramount of all to proceed therein The Princes hereupon muster up their Forces which under the command of Colonel Obâ—râ—raâ—d a servant of the Prince Electors came before the Town and sent a Trumpet to the Bishop requiring him to give present order for the dismantling of the place or to give them leave to do it for him The Bishop returns no other Answer but that they should go to such a post where they should find a copy of the Emperors Placard in justification of his act touching those Intrenchments But the Souldiers taking notice of no other authority then that which they received from their several Princes made themselves masters of the place the Ports and Circumvallations of it being unfinisht without any resistance and having made all level again disbanded and went home to their several Countries For this contempt of the Imperial Authority the Prince Elector who had the chief conduct of this Action was cited to the Chamber of Spires where the cause went on so fast against him that he was at the point to be Proscribed when the unfortunate Crown of Bohemia was offered to him of which more hereafter But through that spot the Spaniard had free Passage with his Forces of Italy and other parts to pass into the Netherlands to reduce them to obedience No freer passage thorow that Spot if so fair and large a Countrey may be called a Spot then he had before the Spanish Armies finding an uncontroll'd March from the Alps to the Netherlands without touching on any part of the lower Palatinate And so it will be found by any who shall follow the tract of the Duke of Alva conducting an Army of old Souldiers both Horse and Foot some Germâ—n and Burgundian Forces being taken in by the way from the Dukedom
of Millain into Flanders So that if there had not been some other reason why the Spaniards engaged themselves in the Conquest of this Countrey then the opening a free passage for their Armies to march out of Italy into the Netherl it might have remained unconquered by them to this very day But the truth is that both the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria being wholly acted by the Counsels of the Jesuits resolv'd upon some compulsory courses to bring all Germany under the obedience of the Pope of Rome and to that end thought fit to begin with the Prince Elector Palatine as appears by several Letters exemplified in the Book entituled Cancellaria Bavarica as being the chief head of the Calvinian party in the Empire and having made himself doubly obnoxious to a present proscription which Proscription being issued out the Execution of it was committed to the Duke of Bavaria who was to have the upper Palatinate together with the Electoral Dignity the better to enable him to carry on the Design and to the King of Spain as best able to go thorow with it who was to have the lower Palatinate wholly to himself that his Forces might be always in readiness to carry on the War from one Prince to another till the Emperor had made himself the absolute Master of them all From Germany we pass into Scotland where we finde the busie Arch-Bishop so he calls him in a time of high discontentment pressing a full conformity of the Kirk in Scotland with the English Discipline So here and hereupon the credit of hear-say onely but in another place where he rather acts the part of an Historian then of one that is to speak in the Prologue he relates it thus King Iames had a Design not once but always after his coming into England to reform that deformity of the Kirk of Scotland into a decent Discipline as in the Church of England which received Opposition and Intermissions till the year 1616. Where at Aberdine their General Assembly of Clergy made an Act authorizing some of their Bishops to compile a form of Liturgy or book of Common Prayer first for the King to approve which was so considerately there revised and returned for that Kingdom to pâ—actice which same Service Book was now sent for by this King and committed to some Bishops here of their own to review and finding the difference not much from the English he gave command in Scotland to be read twice a day in the Kings Chappel at Holy-Rood House at Eâ—inburgh that the Communion should be administred in that form taken on their knees once a Moneth the Bishop to wear his Rochet the Minister his Surplice and so to inure the people by president of his own Chappel there first and afterwards in all parts for the publick The Scotch Bishops liked it reasonable well for the matter but the maner of imposing it from hence upon them was conceived somewhat too much dependancy of theirs on our English Church and therefore excepting against the Psalms Epistles and Gospels and other Sentences of Scripture in the English Book being of a different Translation from that of King Iames they desired a Liturgy of their own and to alter the English answerable to that and so peculiar to the Church of Scotland which indeed was more like to that of King Edward the sixth which the Papist better approved and so was the rather permitted by the King as to win them the better to our Church And so had it been accustomed to the Scotish several Churches for some years without any great regret and now particularly proclaimed to be used in all Churches c. fol. 221. In all which Narrative we finde no pressing of the Book by the busie Arch-Bishop how busie soever he is made by the Author in the Introduction None having power to carry away his nine parts or any part until the propriâ—tâ—ry had set out his tenth part Our Author speaks this of the miserable condition of the poor Scotish Husbandman under the Lords of new erection as they commonly called them who on the dissolution of Abbies and other Religious Houses to which almost all the Tithes in Scotland had been appropriated iâ—grost them wholly to themselves And were it no otherwise with the poor Husbandman then is here related his condition had been miserable enough it not being permitted unto him in default of the Parsone or his Bailyff to set apart the Tythes in the presence of two or three sufficient Neighbors as with us in England But their condition if I remember it aright was far worse then this not being suffered to carry away their own Corn though the Tithes had been set out in convenient time before the Impropriator had carried his by means whereof they were kept in a most intollerable slavery by these their Masters who cared not many times for losing the tenth part so they might destroy the other nine By means whereof the poor Peasants were compell'd to run swear fight to kill and be killed too as they were commanded From which being freed by the Grace and goodness of King Charls they prov'd notwithstanding the most base and disloyal People that the Sun ever shined on This Bishop John Maxwell Minister of Edinburgh was set up by Laud then Bishop of London who finding him Eloquent and Factious enough placed him a Bulwark against adverse Forces This Bishop the Bishop of Ross he meaneth was by the King preferred to great Offices of Trust both in Church and State That he was Eloquent is confessed by our Author and that he was a learned man appears by his judicious and elaborate Treatise entituled Sacro-sancta Regum Majestas in which he hath defended the Rights and Soveraignty of Kings against all the Cavils of the Presbyterian or Puritan Faction But that he was also Factious was never charged upon him but by those who held themselves to the Assembly at Glasco by whom he was indeed lookt on as a Factious person for acting so couragiously in defence of his own Episcopal Rights the publick Orders of the Church and the Kings Authority According to which Rule or Noâ—ion the generality of the Bishops in all the three Kingdoms might be called a Faction if Tertullian had not otherwise stated it by saying this viz. Cum pii cum boni coëunt non factio dicenda est sed Curia The like unhandsome Character he gives us of Sir Archiâ—â—â— Atchison of whom he tells us That he was of such a◠〈…〉 he means his first coming out of 〈…〉 to all thâ—se afâ—er-Seditions But ceâ—tainly the paâ—â—y whom he speaks of was of no such temper For being of a â—udge in 〈◊〉 made the Kings Sollicitor or Procuratoâ— for the Realm of Scotland he diverâ—â—d the King from 〈◊〉 the intended Act of Revocatâ—on which indeed 〈◊〉 have brought more fuel to the fire then could be suddenly extinguisht advising rather that he should enter his Action in the Courts of Iustice against
Free-holders grand Inquest pag. 57. No news of any such attempt in all the rest of her Reign nor of any Parliament Fasts as far as I can remember till the 21 of King Iames when they first engaged him in this War whose example followed by King Charls who indeed was not in a condition to dispute the point gave such incouragement to the Commons that no Parliament could begin without them and gave them such an head at last as to appoint and continue Fasts by their own Authority not onely without the Kings consent but against the very express words of his Proclamations How well this Fast was kept by some leading Members when they had procured it that is to say with a good neck of Mutton and broath in the Morning a Collation of sweet Meats between the Sermons and a Sabbatarian Supper in the Evening I could make known by a very memorable story had I list and leisure And what ill use was made of another in the Pulpits Prayers and Sermons of many seditious Lectures to stir up and continue the War rais'd against this King appears by his Proclamation of the fifth of October Anno 1643. by which he endeavored to translate the then Monethly Fast from the second Wednesday to the second Friday in every Moneth but without success Of this indulgence of the Kings our Author takes no notice as he doth of the other viz. the laying of such a restraint from Recreations on the Lords day as never had been known in this Kingdom since the Reformation Concerning which he telleth us that Fol. 13. These Lawes are enacted this Sessions viz against Abuses committed on Sundayes c. Now it appeareth by the Act that the Abuses as he calls them which were prohibited at that time were first the Concourse of people out of their own Parishes on the Lords-day for any sports or Pastims whatsoever and secondly the use of Bull-baiting Bear-baiting Enter ludes common plaies and other unlawful exercises and pastimes used by any person or persons within their own parishes In the composure of which Act the first clause made against the concourse of people out of their own Paâ—ishes on that day was purposely intended for a counterballance to the Declaration of King Iames about lawful sports and was afterwards made use of by some publick ministers of Justice to suppresse the Annual feasts of the dedication of Churches commonly called and known by the name of Wakes Such feasts of love and entertainments of good Neighbour-hood though they drew some People out of their own Parishes were no abuses in themselves though so called by our Author And as for Bull-baiting Bear-baiting and the rest there mentioned they had been all prohibited by a Proclamation of King Iames bearing date the 7. of May in the first year of his Reign Anno 1603. Nor were they used upon that day for ought that I am able to call to mind in all the time of my Boyage So that this Parliament by interdicting those rude Sports did but actum agere save that they gained unto themselves the reputation of more then ordinary Zeal to the day of worship and laid the first foundation of those many Rigorâ— which afterward they imposed upon it For in the next Parliament of this King they passed an Act that no Carrier with any horse or horses no Waggon men with any waggon or waggons nor Carmen with any Cart or Carts nor Wain-men with any wain or waines nor any Drovers with Cattle should fourty dayes next after the end of that Session by themselves or any others travel upon the said day upon pain that every person or persons so offending should forfeit 20 s for every such offence committed and that no Butcher after the said time should kill or sell any Flesh upon that day on the forfeiture of 6s 8 d. toties quoties Matters whith had been moved in Parliament in the 18 year of K. Iames but without success the Lords unanimously opposing the Bill when sent up by the Commons as tending to the disturbance of the Trade of the Kingdom and some inconveniencies to the Poor But having brought the King to a condition of denying nothing they obtain'd this also of him as they had done the other and at last became their own Carvers imposing since the first beginning of the long Parliament by their Orders and Ordinances so many several restraints on that day from all kindes of lawful pleasure and civil businesses that greater never were imposed on the Jews by the Scribes and Pharisees nor by some Casuits on the Papists nor by Dr. Bound the first Broacher of these Sabbath-speculations in the Church of England on his Puritan Proselytes But notwithstanding these condescensions of the King to the desires of the Commons the Commons were resolv'd to condescend in nothing to the desires of the King unless as they had moved the war so they might also be made acquainted with the Kings Design in the conduct of it which point they prest with such importunity that the King commanded M. Glanvil to serve as Secretary to the Navy for that Expedition that knowing all the secrets and intentions of it when he was at Sea he might acquaint the members with it at his coming back Fol. 20. For Mansel was vice-Admiral of the Narrow Seas that 's his Office and there indeed he succeeds to the Admiral Our Author is as much out in this particular as the Mariners had been in another The Mariners thought if Mr. H. L. report them rightly that Sr. Robert Mansel the then vice-Admiral had an unquestionable right to the chief conduct of that Enterprise upon the Dukes default The Mariners in this point sailed without their compasse as is proved by the Observator And this our Author building upon the Observator calls a Monstrous Error although not half so Monstrous as that Error which himself committeth in making this Sr. Robert Mansel to be no other then the vice-Admiral of the Narrow seas and restraining his Office and Authority to those Seas alone But had he consulted with the Sailers as Mr. H. L. may be thought to have done they would have told him that Sr. Robert Mansel was vice Admiral of England and that it belonged unto his Office next under the Admiral to see the Royal Navie kept in good reparation the wages of the Mariners and shiprights to be duly paid and that the ships should be provided of all things necessary for any occasionall expedition They could have told him also that there is no such Officer as a Vice-Admiral of the narrow Seas but that those narrow Seas are commanded by two several Admirals which hold their places from the King and not by grant or patent from the Lord Admiral of England and that one of these Admirals commandeth in the East and the other in the Western partâ— of those Seas And finally that at the time of his Expedition Sr. Henry Palmer was Vice-Admiral of the Eastern parts of those
to that admittance He won the Kingdome by his sword and by that he kept It. 'T is true that the people did petition him for a Restitution of the Laws of Edward the Conâ—essor in which such an immunity from extraordinary Taxes might be granted to them But I cannot finde that either he or William Rufus who succeeded did ever part with so much of their powet as not to raise money on the Subject for their own occasions whensoever they pleased And it is true also that both King Hen. 1. and K. Steven who came to the Crown by unjust or disputable Titles did flatter the people when they first entred on the Throne with an hope of restoring the said Laws but I cannot finde that ever they were so good as their words nay I finde the contrary The first of our Kings which gave any life to those old Laws was King Hen. 2. the first granter of the Magna Charta which notwithstanding he kept not so exactly as to make it of any strength and consequence to binde his Heirs But the Commons having once tasted the sweetnesse of it and with the Lords in a long war against King Iohn from whom they extorted it by strong hand and had it confirmed unto them at a place called Running Mead near Stanes Anno 1215. Confirmed afterward in more peaceable times by King Hâ—n 3. in the Ninth year of hiâ— Reign But so that he and his Successors made bold with the Subject notwithstanding in these money matters till the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo was past by Edward of Carnarvon eldest Son to King Edward the third at such time as his Father was beyond the Seas in the war of Flanders which being disâ—llowed by the King at his coming home seems to have been taken off the File to the intent it might not passe for a Law for the time to come nor is it to be found now in the Records of the Tower amongst the Laws of that Kings time as are all the rest But from the generall position touching the hereditary freedom of the Eâ—glish subject from Taxes and Tallage not granted and confirmed by Parliament our Authour passeth to such Râ—tes and Impositions as are laid on Merchandize of which he telleth us that Ibid. Moâ—â—ly these upon Merchandise were taken by Parliament six â—r twelve per pound fâ—r time and years as they saw cause for defence of the Sea and afterwards they were granted to the King for life and so continued for divers descents Our Authour had before told us that the Merchant in â—ormer times usually gavâ— consent to such taxes but limited to a time tâ— the ratification of the next following Parliament to be cancelled â—r confirmed By which it seems that the Kings hands were so tied up that without the consent of the Merchant or Authority of the Parliament he could impose no tax upon â—ny Merchandise either exported or imported But cerâ—ainly whatever our Authour saies to the contrary the King might impose rates and taxes upon either by his sole prerogative not troubling the Parliâ—ment in it nor asking the leave of the Merchant whom it most concerned Which Taxes being accustomably paid had the name of Customes as the Officers which received them had the name of Customers Concerning which we finde no old Statute or Act of Parliament which did enable the King to receive them though some there be by which the King did binde himself to a lesser rate then formerly had been laid upon some commodities as appears by the Statute of the 14. of King Edward 3. where it is said that neither we nor our Heirs shall demand assesse nor take nor suffer to be taken more custome for a Sack of Wool of any English man but half a mark only And upon the Woolfels and Lether the old Custome And the Sack ought to contain 26. stone and every stone 14. pound By which it seems that there had been both Customes and old Customes too which the Kings of England had formerly imposed on those commodities now by the goodnesse of this King abated to a lesser summe and deduced to a certainty The like Customes the Kings of England also had upon forreign Commodities 〈◊〉 namely upon that of wine each Tun of Wine which lay before the Mast and behinde the Mast bâ—ing duâ— unto the King by Câ—stome receiv'd accordingly sic de câ—teris But being these old Customes were found insufficient in the times of open hostility betwixt uâ— and France both to mâ—intain the Kings Port and to enable him to guard the Seas and secure his Merchants a Subsidie of Tâ—nnage and Poundage impos'd at a certain rate on all sorts of Merchandize was granted â—â—rst by Act of Parliament to King Hen. 6. and afterward to King Edw. 4. in the 12. Year of his Reign and finally to all the Kings successively for term of life Never denied to any of them till the Coâ—mons begâ—n to think of lessening the Authority Royall in the first Yâ—ar of King Charles whom they had engaged in a War with the King of Spain and meâ—nâ—â—o make use of the advantage by holding him to hard meats till they had brought him to a necessity of yeelding to any thing which they pleased to ask For in the first Pâ—rliament of his Reign they past the Bill â—or one Year only which for that cause was rejected in the House of Lords In the 〈◊〉 Parliament they were too busie with the Duke to do any thing in it And in the first Session of the third theâ— drew up a Remonstrance against it as if the King by passâ—â—g 〈◊〉 Petition of Right had parted with his Interest in that Imposition Nor staid they there but in the â—umultuous end of the next Session they thundred out their Aâ—athema'sâ—ot â—ot only against such of the Kings Ministers as should act any thing in the levying of his Subsidie of Tunnage and Poundage but against all such as voluntarily should yield or pay thâ— same not being granted by Parliament as betrayers of the Liberties of England and enemies to this Common-wealth And though the King received it but not without some losse and difficulty from the first year of his Reign to the sixteenth current yet then the Commons being backt with a Scottish Army resolved that he should hold it not longer but as a Tenant at will and that but from three Moneths to three Moneths neither And then they past it with this clogge ' which the King as his case then stood knew not how to shake off viz. that it must be declared and enacted by the Kings Authority â—nd by the Authority of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament Thâ—t it is and hath been the ancient Right of the Subjects of this Realm that no Subsidy Custome Impost or other charge whatsoever ought or may be laid or imposed upon any Merchandise exported or imported by Subjects Denizenâ— or Aliens without common consent in Parliament As for the Imposition raised on
men set on John Scot Director of the Chancery a busie person to inform against his Descent In the story of this Earl not only as to his Original and descent but as to his being Earl of Menteith our Authour is not to be faulted but on the other side not to be justified in making him to be Earl of Strathern by the power of Buckingham that Duke being dead some years before though by his power made Lord President of the Council for the Realm of Scotland Therefore to set this matter right and to adde something to our Authour that may not be unworthy of the Readers knowledge I am to let him understand that after the death of David Earl of Strathern second Son to King Robert the third this Title lay dormant in the Crown and was denied to the Lord Dromond created afterwards Earl of Perth when a Suitor for it But this Gentleman Sir William Graham Earl of Menteith descended from an Heir General of that David a man of sound abilities and approved affections was by the King made Lord President of the Councill of Scotland as before is said In which place he so behaved himself and stood so stoutly in behalf of the King his Master upon all occasions that nothing could be done for advance of Hamiltons designs till he was removed from that place In order whereunto it was put into his head by some of that Faction that he should sue unto the King to be created Earl of Strathern as the first and most honourable Title which belonged to his House that his merits were so great as to assure him not to meet with a deniall and that the King could do no lesse then to give him some nominall reward for his reall services On these suggestions he repaired unto the Court of England where without any great difficulty he obtained his Suit and waited on the King the most part of his Summers progresse no man being so openly honoured and courted by the Scottish Nation as he seemed to be But no sooner was he gone for Scotland but the Hamiltonians terrified the King with the dangers which he had run into by that Creation whereby he had revived in that proud and ambitious person the Rights which his Ancestors pretended to the Crown of Scotland as being derived from David Earl of Strathern before mentioned the second Son of Robert the Second by his lawfull Wife that the King could not chuse but see how generally the Scots slockt about him after this Creation when he was at the Court and would do so much more when he was in Scotland And finally that the proud man had already so farre declared himself as to give it ouâ— that the King held the Crown of him Hereupon a Commission was speedily posted into Scotland in which those of Hamiltons Faction made the greatest Number to enquire into his life and actions and to consider of the inconveniences which might redound unto the King by his affecting this New Title On the Return whereof the poor Gentleman is removed from his Office from being one of the Privy Council and not only deprived of the Title of Earl of Strathern but of that also of Menteith which for a long time had remained in his Ancestors And though he was not long after made Earl of Airth yet this great fall did so discourage him from all publike businesses that he retired to his own house and left the way open to the Hamiltonians to play their own game as they listed Faithfull for all this to the King in all changes of Fortune neither adhering to the Covenanters nor giving the least countenance to them when he might not only have done it with safety but with many personal advantages which were tendered to him Fol. 238. The Marquesse now findes this place too hot for him and removes to Dalkieth without any adventuring upon the English Divine Service formerly continuâ—lly used there for twenty years in audience of the Council Nobility and Iudges Compare this passage with another and we shall finde that our Authour hath mis-reckoned no lesse then fifteen years in twenty For in the year 1633. he puts this down after the Kings return from Scotland agreeable to the truth of story in that particular What care saith he King Iames took heretofore to rectifie Religious worship in Scotland when he returned from his last visiting of them the like does King Charles so soon as he came home The â—oul undecent Discipline he seeks to reform into sacred worship and sends Articles of order to be observed only by the Dean of his private Chappell there as in England That Prayers be performed twice a day in the English manner A monethly Communion to be received on their knees He that officiates on Sunday and Holydaies to do his duty in his Surplice No publick reading of the English Liturgy in Scotland since the year 1562. but only during the short time of King Iames his being there Anno 1617. therefore not read continually twenty years together as our Authour states it But twenty years is nothing in our Authours Arithmetick For telling us that the sufferers viz. Dr. Bastwick Mr. Prinne and M. Burton obtained an order for satisfaction to be made them out of the Estates of those who imposed their punishments that none of those Judges being left but Sir Henry Vane the Elder it was ordered that satisfaction should be given by him to one of their Widows and thereupon it was observed for a blessed time when a single Counsellour of State after twenty years opinion should be sentenced by Parliament to give satisâ—action for a mis-judgement acted by a body of Counsell fol. 867. But the punishment inflicted on those sufferers was in the year 1637. and this order made about eight years after Anno 1645. being but twelve years short of our Authours twenty which is no great matter Fol. 282. As for Sir John Finch Chief Iustice of the Common Pleas who succeeded him in the place of the Lord Keeper he could not hold out so many moneths as he did years from being in hazard to have forfeited his head But first this Gentleman was somewhat more then Sir Iohn Finch he being created Lord Finch of Forditch in the beginning of the April before Secondly If he were in any hazard it was not for any thing he had done in the place of Lord Keeper but only for his zeal to the Kings service in the case of Ship money or to his actings under the Earl of Holland in Forrest businesses before he came unâ—o that place neither of which could have extended to the losse of his head though he thought not fit to trust that head to such mercilesse Judges With like prudence did Sir Francis Windebank principal Secretary of Estate withdraw into France of whom our Author telleth us That he remained there to his death a profest Roman Catholick fol. 338. But first Sir Francis Windebank remained not there until his death for he came
Secondly he bought not the Dutchy of Gelders neither but possest himself of it by a mixt Title of Arms and Contract The first Contract made between Charls the Warlike Duke of Burgundy and Arnold of Egmond Duke of Gelders who in regard of the great Succors which he received from him when deprived and Imprisoned by his own ungracious son passed over his whole Estate to him for a little mony But this alienation being made unprofitable by the death of Charls the intrusion of Adolph the son of Arnold and the succession of Charls the son of Adolph this Emperor reviv'd the claim and prest Duke Charls so hotly on all sides with continual Wars that he was forc'd to yield it to him upon condition that he might enjoy it till his death which was afterwards granted Thirdly if he had any right to the Dukedom of William it accrued not to him by discent as King of Spain but as a â—ief forfeited to the Empire for want of Heirs male in the House of Sforsa which not being acknowledged by the French who pretended from the Heir General of the Galeazzo's he won it by his Sword and so disposed thereof to his Son and Successor King Philip the second and his Heirs by another right then that of Conquest The proceeding of the short Parliament and the surviving Convocation have been so fully spoken of in the Observations on the former History that nothing need be added here But the long Parliament which began in November following will afford us some new matter for these Advertisements not before observ'd And first we finde That Fol. 336. There came out an Order of the Commons House that all Projectors and unlawful Monopolists that have or had â—â—tely any benefit from Monopolies or countenanced or issued out any Warrants in favor of them c. shall be disabled to sit in the House A new piece of Authority which the Commons never exercised before and which they had no right to now but that they knew they were at this time in such a condition as to venture upon any new Incroachment without control For ancientlyâ— and legally the Commons had no power to exclude any of their Members from their place in Parliament either under colour of false elections or any other pretence whatsoever For it appears on good Record in the 28 year of Queen Elizabeth that the Commons in Parliament undertaking the examination of the chusing and returning of Knights of the Shire for the Counâ—y of Norfolk were by the Queen sharply reprehended for it that being as she sent them word a thing improper for them to deal in as belonging onely to the Office and Charge of the Lord Chancellor from whom the Writs issue and aâ—e returned And if they may not exclude their Members under colour of undue Elections and false Returns much less Authority have they to exclude any of them for acting by vertue of the Kings Letters Patents or doing any thing in order to his Majesties Service For if this power were once allowed them they might proceed in the next place to shut out all the Lords of the Privy Councel his Counsel learned in the Laws his Domestick Servants together with all such as hold any Offices by his Grant and Favor because forsooth having dependance on the King they could not be true unto the Interest of the Commonwealth And by this means they might so weed out one another that at the last they would leave none to sit amongst them but such as should be all ingag'd to drive on such projects as were laid before them But whereas our Author tells us in the following words that it was Ordered also That Mr. Speaker should issue out new Warrants for electing other Members in their places he makes the Commons guilty of a greater incroachment then indeed they were All that they did or could pretend to in this case was to give order to the Speaker that intimation might be given to his Majesty of the places vacant and to make humble suit unto him to issue out new Writs for new Elections to those places But the next Incroachment on the Kings Authority was far greater then this and comes next in order Fol. 360. The Bill for the Trienial Parliament having pâ—ssed both Houses was confirmed with the Kings Royal Assent Febr. 16. And then also he past the Bill of Subsidies fol. 361. The Subsidies here mentioned were intended for the relief of the Northern Counties opprest at once with two great Armies who not onely liv'd upon Free Quarter but raised divers sums of money also for their present necessities the one of them an Army of English rais'd by the King to right himself upon the Scots the other being an Army of Scots who invaded the Kingdom under colour of obtaining from the King what they had no right to So that the King was not to have a peny of that Money and yet the Commons would not suffer him to pass the one till he had before hand passed the other which the King for the relief of his poor Subjects was content to do and thereby put the power of calling Parliaments into the hands of Sheriffs and Constables in case he either would not or should not do it at each three years end But the nexâ— incroachment on the Power and Prerogative Royal was worse then this there being a way left for the King to reserve that Power by the timely calling of a Parliament and the dissolving of it too if called within a shorter time then that Act had limited But for the next sore which was his passing of the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage there was no Plaister to be found the King being for'd remember that the Commons had an Army of Scots at their devotion to pass away all his Right unto it before he could obtain it but for three Moneths onely as was said before In which Bill it is to be observ'd that as they depriv'd the King of his Right to Tonnage and Poundage so they began then to strike at the Bishops Rights to their Vote in Parliament For whereas generally in all former Acts the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were distinctly named in this that distinction was left out and the Bill drawn up in the name of the Lordâ— and Commons which being disputed by the Bishops as well fore-seeing what the Commons intended by it was notwithstanding carried for the Commons by the Temporal Lords who thereby made a way for their own exclusion when the Commons were grown as much too strong for them as they were for the Bishops The secular Lords knew well that the Lords Spiritual were to have the precedence and therefore gave them leave to go first out of the House that they themselves might follow after as they ought to do Proceed we next to the business of the Earl of Strafford aâ— whose Tryal our Author tells us That Fol. 376. The Earl of Arundel was made Lord High Steward and the Earl of
promise which the King is said to have made him of not consenting to his death The sum of the story is briefly this viz. That the King had promised the Earl of Strafford under his hand that his prerogative should savâ— him that he would never passe the Bill nor consent to the acting of any thing to take away his life that being satisfied in all other scruples he rested in this only affirming that in regard of this promise he could not passe the Bill though the Earl were guilty the Bishop of Lincoln finding him harping on that string assured him that he thought that the Earl was so great a Lover of his Majâ—sties peace so tender of his conscience and the Kingdoms safety that he would willingly acquit the King of that promise that though the King received this intimation with a brow of anger yet the said Bishop in pursuance of the Earls destruction sends a Message to him to that purpose by the Lieutenant of the Tower or some other person whom he found attending near the place that as the devil and he would have it the Earl received that intimation with great disdain saying that if that were all which bound the King he would soon release him and thereupon opening his Cabinet drew out that Paper in which the Kings promise was contained and gave it to the said Lieutenant or that other person but whether sealed or unsealed that he cannot tell by whom it was delivered to the Bishop of Lincoln and finally that the Bishop of Lincoln finding no other scruple to remain in the Kings Conscience but the respect he had to that promise he put the fatall paper into the Kings hands which as it seems gave a full end to the conference and the Kings perplexities This is the substance of the Legend and in all this there is nothing true but the names of the parties mentioned in it And first I would fain know from what Authour he received this fiction unlesse it were from say I and say some as his own words are that is to say either from himself or from some body else but he knew not whom Most certainly he had it not from any of the Bishops then present the Lord Primate affirming in the end of his first Narrative that neither he nor the rest of his Brethren knew what was contained in that Paper and no lesse certain it is that the Bishop of Lincoln was too wise to accuse himself of such a practise if he had been really guilty of it And then as for the thing it self no man of reason can imagine that the King would either make such a proviso to the Earl or that the Earl would so far distrust his own integrity as to take it of him If the Kings knowledge of his innocence of his signal merits and the declaration which he made in Parliament to the Lords and Commons that he could not passe the Bill with a good Conscience were not sufficient to preserve him there was no help to be expected from such Paper-promises Such a Romance as this we finde in Ibrahim the Illustrious Bassa who is said to have obtained the like promise from Solyman the Magnificent which notwithstanding the Mufti or Chief Priests of the Turks devised a way to discharge the Emperour of that promise and to obtain from him an unwilling consent to the Bassa's death as the Bishop of Lincoln is said to do for the Earl of Straffords Secondly There was no such scruple of conscience propounded to the Bishops in the morning conference as the obligation which that promise laid upon him there being no other question propounded at that time but whether he might in justice passe the Bill of Attainder against the Earl To which the Bishops gave their Answer when it was again renewed in the Evening as appears by the Lord Primates first Narrative that if upon the Allegations on either â—ide at the hearing whereof the King was present he did not conceive him guilty of the crime wherewith he was charged he could not in justice condemn him and by this answer it appears that no such scruple as the obligation of that Paper-promise had been before tendred to the Bishops Thirdly Admitting that the Bishop of Lincoln might be so bold as to make that overture to the King forgetting a release of that promise from the Earl of Strafford yet was he too carefull of himself too fearfull of the Kings everlasting displeasure to pursue that fatall project when he perceived his Majesty to entertain it with a brow of anger Fourthly Admitting this also that the Bishop was so thirsty of the Earls bloud as to neglect his own safety in pursuance of it yet cannot our Historian tell us whether that intimation were sent by the Lieutenant of the Tower or some other person And certainly as the Lieutenant of the Tower was not so obscure a person but that he might easily be known from another man so is it most improbable that he should go on such an errand without speciall order from the King or that the Earl should admit of such an intimation from any other who was like to run on the Bishops bidding but only from the Lieutenant himself Fifthly It cannot be beleeved that the Earl should fall into such a passion when the Tale was told him considering that he knew that by a Letter sent unto the King on the Tuesday before he had set the Kings Conscience at liberty most humbly beseeching him for the prevention of such mischief as might happen by his refusall to passe the Bill So that the passing of the Bill could be no News to him which he had reason to expect because it was a thing so much prest by his enemies and so humbly and affectionatelyâ— desired by himselfe Sixthly and finally Though our Historian make it doubtfull whether that Paper-promise were sent back sealed or unsealed yet no man can suspect the Earl to be so imprudent in his actions so carelesse of his own honour and so untrusty to the King in so great a secret as to send it open by which it must needs come first to the eyes of others before it came unto the Kings And if it were not sent unsealed how came our Authour to the knowledge that that paper contained the Kings promise as he saies it did But nothing more betrays the vanity and impossibility of this fiction then the circumstance in point of time in which this promise must be made which must needs fall between the passing of the Bill of Attainder and the Kings conference with the Bishops sent to him for the satisfaction of his Conscience by the Houses of Parliament Our Authour tels us that at the conference with the Bisâ—ops the King being satisfied in all other scruples started his last doubt If in his Conscience he could not passe the Bill although the Earl were guilty having promised under his hand that his prerogative should save him never to passe that Bill nor to
and Wife to Roger Mortimer Earl of March from whom the House of York laid their claim to the Diadem But our Author is as good at the Pedigree of the House of the Beauforts as of that of Mortimer telling us That Cardinal Beaufort was not onely great Uncle to King Henry the sixth but Son to John of Gaunt and his Brother Cardinal of York The first two parts whereof are true but the last as false Cardinal Beaufort I am sure had no such Brother as our Author gives him for so he must be understood though the Grammar of the words will not bear so much sense namely a Cardinal of York unless it were King Henry the fourth whom Iohn of Gaunt had by Blanch of Lancaster his first Wife Iohn Earl of Somerset or Thomas Duke of Excester which two together with this Cardinal Beaufort he had by his last Wife Katherine Swinfort More Sons then these none of our Heralds or Historians give to Iohn of Gaunt and therefore no such Brother as a Cardinal of York to be found out any where for this Cardinal Beaufort except onely in our Authors Dreams Fol. 419. That in Anno 37. of Henry the eighth Letters Patents were granted to Lay-men to exercise all maner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction as the Kings Officers not the Bishops These are the words of Mr. Thomas in his Invective against the Bishops before mentioned and these our Author swallows without chewing not searching whether Mr. Thomas had rightly given the sense of that Act of Parliament or not but telling his in his gloss upon it That no Reason or Iustice are to be deduc'd from that Kings Actions more like an Atheist then a Christian either Ecclesiastical or Temporal But by the leave of good Mr. Thomas there can be no such matter gathered from that Statute of King Henry the eighth viz. That Letters Patents were granted to Lay-men to exercise all maner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction as the Kings Officers not the Bishops Before this time no man could be admitted to the Office of a Chancellor Vicar-General Commissary or Official in any Ecclesiastical Court or exercise any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction except he were a single person and in Holy Orders To take away which curb and thereby to give the better incouragement to Students in the Civil Laws it was Enacted by this Statute that all such Ecclesiastical Officers whether made by the Kings Letters Patents as in the case of Sir Thomas Cromwel the Kings Vicar General or by any Arch-Bishop Bishop or Arch-Deacon within this Realm might from thencforth lawfully execute and exercise all maner of Iurisdiction commonly called Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and all Censures and Coercions appertaining or in any wise belonging unto the same albeit such person or persons be Lay married or unmarried so that they be Doctors of the Civil Law lawfully created and made in any Vniversity Out of which premises if Mr. Thomas can conclude that such Lay-men so quallified to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction were the Kings Officers and not the Bishops he must have some new piece of Sandersons Logick which never was read in any of the Universities in which those lay persons did receive the Degree of Doctors Fol. 419. She was the right Heir apparent to her Brother and the onely right Issue to the Crown begotten no donbt in lawful Matrimony I dare not take upon me to dispute of Titles to the Crown but I dare take upon me to tell our Author that there was some doubt made by the most learned men of that time whether Queen Mary of whom he speaks were begotten and born in lawful Marriage All the Bishops in this Realm by a publick Writing under their Hands and Seals declared the Marriage of King Henry the eighth with Queen Maries Mother to be unlawful and so did the most eminent Divines in both the Universities as also in the Cathedrals Monasteries and other Conventual Bodies within this Realm The like declared also by several Universities in France and Italy under their publick Seals And so it was declared finally by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in â— full and free Parliament in which it was pronounced That the Marriage between the King and the Lady Katherine of Spain the Relict of his Brother was null and void to that it seems there was some doubting in this case though our Author makes no doubt of it at all Nor is it very certain neither that Queen Mary was the right Heir apparent to her Brother For if the Law of the Crown diffâ—r not from the Law of the Land in this particular which I leave unto our learned Lawyers she could not be the Heir to her Brother King Edward the sixth as being born of another Venter and consequently his Sister by the half blood onely Now as he makes no doubt of Queen Maries Title to the Crown so he makes the Title of Queen Elizabeth to be subject unto some dispute which all the Estates of the Realm convened in her first Parliament declared in the way of Recognition to be past disputing But I leave these inviduous Arguments and proceed to some other Fol. 429. Doctor Wren Bishop of Ely and Dean of the Kings Chappel had been accused of Misdemeanors in his Diocess amounting to Treason And being committed to the Tower there he hath lain ever since But fitst no misdemeanors how great soever can amount to a Treason nor ever was it so adjudged but onely in the Case of the Earl of Strafford Secondly There was no Evidence taken upon Oath to prove any of the misdemeanors which were charged upon him our Author confessing that after he had been Voted in the House of Commons unworthy and unfit to hold and exercise any Office or Dignity in Churh or Commonwealth there was no further speech of him or his Crimes Thirdly He was not committed to the Tower for any misdemeaners charged against him by those of his Diocess but for subscribing to the Protestation with the rest of the Bishops in the end of Dâ—cember 1641. who were committed at the same time also Fourthly He hath not remain'd there ever since his commitment neither but was discharged with the other Bishops about the end of February then next followâ—ng and about three or four Moneths after brought back again Anno 1642. without any Accusation brought against him either then or since Fol. 430. And then they adjourned until the twentieth of October and a standing Committee of the House of Commons consisting of fifty Members appointed during the Recess Of this Committee Mr. Iohn Pim was the principal Man without whom all the rest were Ciphers of no signification And by him there issued out an Order against Innovasions extended and intended also for taking down the Rails before the Communion-Table levelling the ground on which the said Table stood and placing the said Table in the middle of the Church or Chancell In which it is to be admired how eagerly this Order was pursued by
the Church-Wardens generally in all the Parishes of the Kingdom notwithstanding they were told that the Lords had never given their consent unto it and that it would be safest for them to suspend their proceedings till the Parliament was again assembled But so mighty was the name of Pym that none of them durst refuse Obedience unto his Commands Nor did the Lords ever endeavour to retrench this Order but suffered their Authority and priviledge to be torn from them peece-meal by the House of Commons as formerly in imposing the Protestation of the third of May so now in this great Alteration in the face of the Church Fol. 432. The late Irish Army raised for the Assistance of the Kings Service against the Scots was disbanded and all their armes brought into Dublin This though our Authour reckoneth not amongst the grounds and reasons of the Irish Rebellion yet was it really one of the chief encouragements to it For when the King was prest by the Commons in Parliament for the disbanding of that Army a Suit was made unto him by the Embassadour of Spain that he might have leave to List three or four thousand of them for his Masters Service in the wars The like Suit was made also by the Embassadour of France and the King readily condescended to their severall motions and gave order in it accordingly But the Commons never thinking themselves safe as long as any of that Army had a sword in his hand never left importuning the King whom they had then brought to the condition of denying nothing which they asked till they had made him eat his word and revoke those Orders to his great dishonour Which so exasperated that Army consisting of 10000 Foot and 1500 Horse that it was no hard matter for those who had the managing of the Plot to make sure of them And then considering that the Scots by raising of an Army had gain'd from the King an Abolition of the Episcopall Order the reâ—cinding of his own and his Fathers Acts about the reducing of that Church to some Uniformity with this and setled their Kirk in such a way as best pleased their own humours why might not the Irish Papists hope that by the help of such an Army ready raised to their hands or easily drawn together though disperst at that present they might obtain the like indulgences and grants for their Religion Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum as true on the one side as the other Fol. 443. The next Morning the Vpper house sent them down to the House of Commons by the Lord Marshal Privy Seal c. the Lords Goring and Wilmot Our Authour speaks this of the first Letter sent from Ireland touching that Rebellion but is mistaken in the last man whom he makes to be sent down with these Letters The Lord Wilmot at that time was no Peer of England and therefore had no place in the English Parliaments The honour of an English Baron being first conferred on his Son the Lord Henry Wilmot by Letters Patents bearing date 29. of Iune Anno 1643. And as I am sure that the Lord Wilmot was not of that number so I am doubtfull whether the Lord Marshall were or not Our Authour not long before tels us that his Office of Lord High Steward was like to be begg'd from him in regard of his Absence which is to be understood of his absence out of the Realm and if he were then absent out of the Realm he could not now be present in the House of Peers Either not absent then or not present now is a thing past questioning Fol. 462. The King returns from Scotland magnificently â—easted by the City of London But while the Citizens at one end of the Town were at their Hosanna some of the Commons at the other end were as busie at their Crucifige intent on hammering a Remonstrance which they entitled A Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom in which they ript up all the actions which they had complained of in the King and sum'd up all those services which they had done for the common people The whole so framed that it served for a pair of Bellows to blow that fire which afterwards flamed out and consumed the greatest part of the Kingdom In the presenting whereof to the King at his coming from Scotland though the Lords refused to joyn with them in it yet was it presented to the King by some of their Members an Order made for the publishing and dispersing of it and the Lords brought at last to justifie what they had condemned Nor did the Citizens continue long in their good Affections For though they gave him Rost-meat now yet they beat him with the Spit in the Christmas following of which our Authour tels us saying Fol. 471. The loose people of the City and the Mechanick sort of Prentices were encouraged by the Ministers and Lecturers and other Incendiaries in tumultuous manner to come down to Westminster and by the way at Whitehall to be insolent in words and actions And insolent they were indeed both in words and actions some of them crying out as they past by that the King was not fit to live others that the Prince would govern better all of them with one voice that they would have no Porters lodge between them and the King but would come at him when they pleased using some other threatning words as if they meant to break open the Gates But so it happened that some of the Officers of the Kings late Army being come to the Court some of them to receive the Arrears of their pay and others to know the Kings Commands before they returned into the Low Countries to their severall Charges and observing the unsufferable Insolencies of this Rascal Rabble sallied upon them with drawn swords in which scuffle some of that tumultuous Rabble were slightly hurt and others dangerously wounded To these men being profest Souldiers was the Name of Cavaliers first given communicated afterwards to all the Kings party and Adherenâ—s though never in Arms or otherwise appearing for him then in the Loyalty of their Affections Fol. 477. This fell out as many would have it a lâ—â—â—ing case to their confusion How so Because saith he at a conference desired by the Lords with the House of Commons they were told by the Lord Keeper that this Petition and Protestation of the twelve Bishops was extending to the deep intrenching upon the fundamentall priviledges and beings of Parliaments c. Upon which Declaration the Bishops were voted to be guilty of High Treason committed first to the custody of the black rod and from thence to the Tower But first the Authour is to know that the Lord Keeper at that time was not altogether so rectus in Curia as might have been wished and therefore having received that Petition and Protestation from the hands of the King to whom in the first place it was addressed he communicated it privately to such of both
ordinary temper And so much was the King startled when he heard of the giving up of that City with the Fort and Castle and that too in so short a time that he posted away a Messenger to the Lords at Oxford to displace Col. Legg a well known Creature of Prince Ruperts from the Government of that City and Garison and to put it into the hands of Sir Thomas Glenham which was accordingly done and done unto the great contentment of all the Kings party except that Prince and his Dependents But Legg was sweetned not long after by being made one of the Grooms of his Majesties Bed-chamber a place of less command but of greater trust Fol. 891. And now the Parliament consider of a Term or Titleâ— to be given to the Commissioners intrusted with their Great Seal and are to be called Conservators of the Common-wealth of England Not so with reference either to the time or the thing it self For first The Commissioners of the Great Seal were never called the Conservators fo the Common-wealth of England And Secondly If they ever had been called so it was not now that is to say when the Kings Seals were broken in the House of Peers which was not long after Midsummer in the year 1646. But the truth is that on the 30 of Ianuary 1648. being the day of the Kings most deplorable death the Commons caused an Act or Order to be printed in which it was declared that from thenceforth in stead of the Kings Name in all Commissions Decrees Processes and Indictments the â—â—tle of Custodes Libertatis Angliae or the Keepers of the Liberties of England as it was afterwards englished when all Legall Instruments were ordered to be made up in the English-Tongue should be alwaies used But who these Keepers of the Liberties were was a thing much questioned some thought the Commissioners for the great Seal were intended by it whom our Authour by a mistake of the Title cals here the Conservators of the Common-wealth others conceiv'd that it related to the Councel of State but neither rightly For the truth is that there were never any such men to whom this Title was appliable in one sense or other it being onely a Second Notion like Genus and Species in the Schools a new devised term of State-craft to express that trust which never was invested in the persons of any men either more or fewer Fol. 892. â—o then the eldest Son and the yongest Daughter are with the Quâ—â—n in France the two Dukes of York and Glocester with the Princess Elizabeth at St. James 's The Prince in the Weâ—t with his Army â— This is more strange then all the rest that the Kings eldest Son should be with his Mother in France and yet that the Prince at the same time should be with his Army in the West of England I always thought till I saw so good Authority to the contrary that the Prince and the Kings eldest Son had been but one person But finding it otherwise resolved I would fain know which of the Kings Sonâ— is the Prince if the eldest be not It cannot be the second or third for they are here called both onely by the name of Dukes and made distinct persons from the Prince And therefore we must needs believe that the Kings eldest Son Christned by the name of Charls-Iames who dyed at Greâ—nwich almost as soon as he was born Anno 1629. was raised up from the dead by some honest French Conjurer to keep company with the yong Princess Henrietta who might converse with hâ—m as a Play-Fellow without any terror as not being able to distinguish him from a Baby of Clouts That he and all that did adhere unto him should be safe in their Persons Honors andâ—â—onsciences in the Scotish Army and that they would really and effectually joyn with him and with such as would come in unto him and joyn with them for his preservation and should employ their Armies and Forces to assist him to his Kingdomâ— in the recovery of his â—ust Rights But on the contrary these jugling and perfidious 〈◊〉 declare in a Letter to their Commissioners at London by them to be communicated to the Houses of Parliament that there had been no Treaty nor apitulation betwixt his Mâ—â—esty and them nor any in their names c. On the receit of which Letters the Houses Order him to be sent to Warwick Castle But Lesâ—ly who had been us'd to buying and selling in the time of his Pedlâ—ry was loth to lose the benefit of so rich a Commodity and thereupon removes him in such post-haste that on the eighth of May we finde him at Southwel and at Newcastle on the tenth places above an hundred Miles distant from one another and he resolv'd before-hand how to dispose of him when he had him there â—o Scotland he never meant to carry him though some hopes were given of it at the first for not onely Lesly himself but the rest of the Covenanters in the Army were loth to admit of any Competitor in the Government of that Kingdom which they had ingrossed whoâ—y to themselves but the 〈◊〉 in an Assembly of theirs declare expresly against his coming to live amongst them as appears fol 〈◊〉 So that there was no other way left to dispose of his person but to â—ell him to the Houses of Parliament though at the first they made 〈◊〉 of it and would be thought to stand upon Terms or Honor The Eaâ—l of Lowdon who lov'd to hear himsâ—lf speak more â—hen â—ny man living in some Speâ—ches made beâ—ore â—he Houses protested strongly against the dâ—livery of their Kings Person into their Power 〈◊〉 what in 〈◊〉 â—â—amy would lie upon them and the whole Nation â—f 〈◊〉 â—hould to 〈◊〉 But this was but a coâ—y of their Countenance onely 〈◊〉 â—â—vice to raise the Marâ—eâ— and make is â—uch money 〈…〉 as they could At last they came to this Agreement that for the sum of Two hundred thousand pounds they should deliver him to such Commissioners as the Houses should Authorize to receive him of them which was done accordingly For Fol. 939. The Commissioners for receiving the Person of the King came to Newcastle Iune 22. c. Not on the 22 of Iune I am sure of that the Commodity to be bought and sold was of greater value and the Scots too cunning to part with it till they had raised the price of it as high as they could The driving of this Bargain took up all the time betwixt the Kings being carried to Newcastle and the middle of the Winter then next following so that the King might be delivered to these Commissioners that is to say from Prison to Prison on the 22 day of Ianuary but of Iune he could not And here it will not be amiss to consider what loss or benefit redounded to those Merchants which traded in the buying and selling of this precious Commodity And first The Scots not long before their breaking out
against their King had in the Court two Lords High Stewards and two Grooms of the Stool successively one after another And at their taking up of Arms they had a Master of the Horse a Captain of the Guard a Keeper of the privy Purse seven Grooms of eight in his Majesties Bed-Chamber and an equal number at the least of Gentlemen Ushers Quarter-Waiters Cup-Bearers Carvers Sewers and other Officers attending daily at the Table I speak not here of those which had places in the Stables or below the Stairs or of the Servants of those Lords and Gentlemen which either lived about the Court or had Offices in it All which together made up so considerable a number that the Court might well be called an Academy of the Scots Nation in which so many of all sorts had their Breeding Maintenance and Preferment Abroad they had a Lieutenant of the Tower a Fortress of the most consequence in all the Kingdom and a Master-â—unner of the Navy an Office of as great a trust as the other and more of those Monopolies Suits and Patents which were conceiv'd to be most grievous to the Subject then all the English of the Court. In the Church they had two Deanries divers Prebendaries and so many Excclesiastical Benefices as equalled all the Revenue of the Kirk of Scotland All which they lost like Aesops Dog catching after a shadow For what else were those empty hopes of ingrossing to themselves all the Bishops Lands and participating equally with both Houses in the Government of this Kingdom which drew them into England the second time but an airy shadow And yet by catching at that shadow they lost all those Advantages which before they had both in Court and Countrey and that not onely for the present but in all probability for the times to come The Presbyterians laid their Heads and Hands together to embroil the Realm out of a confidence that having alienated the greatest part of the Tribes from the House of David they might advance the golden Calves fo their Presbyteries in Dan and Bethel and all other places whatsoever within this Land And for the maintenance thereof they had devoured in conceit all Chapter Lands and parcelled them amongst themselves into Augmentations But no sooner had they driven this Bargain but a Vote passed for selling those Lands towards the payment of the Debts of the Commonwealth Nor have they lived to see their dear Presbytery setled or their Lay-Elders entertained in any one Parish of the Kingdom for the advancement whereof the Scots were first incouraged to begin at home and afterwards to pursue their work by invading England Others there were who labored for nothng more then the raising of a New Commonwealth out of the Ruins of the old Monarchy which Plot had been a carrying on from the first coming of this King to the Crown till they had gotten him into their hands these being like the Husbandmen in Saint Matthews Gospel who said among themselves this is the Heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his Inheritance Matth. 21. 38. A Commonwealth which they had so modelled in their Brains that neither Sir Thomas Moors Vtopia nor the Lord Verulams new Atlantis nor Plato's Platform nor any of the old Idaeas were equal to it the Honors and Offices whereof they had distributed amongst themselves and their own Dependents And in pursuance of this project they had no sooner brought the King to the end they aimed at but they pass an Act for so they called it prohibiting the Proclaiming of any Person to be King of England c. That done they passed another for the abolishing the Kingly Office in England c. dated the 17 of March One thousand six hundred forty eight A third for declaring and a constituting the People of England to be a Commonwealth and Free State dated May 19. 1649 which last they solemnly proclaimed by their Heralds and Serjeants in the most frequented parts of London and made themselves a new Great Seal with the Arms and Impress of their new Commonwealth ingraven on it And yet these men that had the purse of all the Kingdom at command and Armies raised for defence of their Authority within the space of six years were turned out of all And this was done so easily and with so little noise that the loss of that exorbitant Power did not cost so much as a broken Head or a Bloody Nose in purchasing whereof they had wasted so many Millions of Treasure and more then an Hundred thousand Lives So that all reckonings being cast up it will appear that all were losers by the Bargain as it happens commonly to such men as love to traffick in the buying and selling of prohibited Commodities and thereby make themselves obnoxious to all such forfeitures as the severity of the Laws and the King Displeasure shall impose upon them How he was carried by those Commissioners to Holdenbyâ—House â—House and from thence by a party of Horse to the Head-Quarters of the Army our Author hath inform'd us in the course of this History But being there he tells us that he was permitted to give a meeting to his Children Fol. 995. And accordingly they met at Maidstone where they dined together Well boul'd Vincent as our Authour knows who says in another place He gives us the Copy of a Letter in the very same fol. from the King to the Duke of York dated at Casam Iuly 4. 1647. in which he declares his hope that the Duke might be permitted with his Brother and Sister to come to some place betwixt that and London where he might see them adding withal that rather then hâ— might not see them he would be content they should come to some convenient place to dine and go back at night So then the place for this joyful meeting must be some convenient Town or other betwixt Casam and London But Casam is a Village of Berkshire distant about thirty Miles from London Westward and Maidstone one of the chief Townâ— of Kent is distant about thirty Miles from London towards the East so that London may be truly said to be in the middle betwixt Maidstone and Casam but Maidstone by no means to be in any position betwixt Casam and London Perhaps our Author in this place mistakes Maidstone for Madenhith from Reading ten and from London two and twenty miles distant and then he may do well to mend it in his second Edition And then he may correct also another passage about Judge Ienkins whom fol. 836. he makes to be taken Prisoner in the City of Hereford and fol. 976. at Castle in Wales So strangely does he forget himself that one might think this History had several Authors and was not written nor digested by any one man Fol. 96â— Nay did not Heraclius the Greek Emperor call for aid of theâ— Râ—ke-hell rabble of Scythians to assist him against the Saracens â— I believe he did not For as I remember not to
it But upon the best judgement which I am able to make I conceive it to be so full so punctuall and satisfactory that our Authour calling all the Doctors of his own making to his assistance is not able to mend it Fol. 1068. Some of these mutinied against each other and in the dissention a rumour was rais'd there of a Designe to impoyson the King c. Our Historian makes very slight of this matter disparaging both the Informer and the Information The Informer he disparageth by telling us that he was but an ordinary man though Osburn himself in a Letter to the Earl of Manchester takes on himself the Title of Gentleman which is as much as our Authour though he take upon himself the name of an Esquire can pretend unto The Information and the Evidence which was brought to prove it he censures to be disagreeing in it self and irregular in Law of which more anon In the mean time take here the whole Information word for word as Osburn published it in print as well for his own justification as the satisfaction of all loyall and wellâ—affected Subjects But not to leave your Lordship unsatisfied with this generall account the Intelligence I speak of concerning his designe I received from Captain Râ—lfe a person very intimate with the Governour privy to all Counsels and one that is very high in the esteem of the Army he my Lord informed me that to his knowledge the Governour had received severall Letters from the Army intimating they desired the King might by any means be removed out of the way either by pâ—â—son or otherwise And that another time the same person perswaded me to joyn with him in a deâ—igne to remove the King out of that Castle to a place of more secrecy profering to take an Oath with me and to do it without the Governours privity who he said would not consent for losing the allowance of the House His pretence for this attempt was that the King was in too publike a place from whence he might be â—escued but if he might be conveighed into some place of Secrecy he said we might dispose of his person upon all occasions as we thought fit and this he was confident we could effect without the Governours privity This Nâ—rrative he inclosed in a Letter to the Lord Wharton dated Iuâ—e 1. 1648. But finding that the Lord Wharton had done nothing in it the better as he conceived to give those time that were concerned in it to think of some stratagem to evade the discovery He inclosed it in another Letter to the Earl of Manchester by whom it was communicated to the House of Peers on the 19. of Iune But they in stead of sending for him to make good the Information on his corporall Oath as he earnestly desired in the said Letters committed both him and Rolfe to prison there to remain till the next Assizes for the County of Southhampton and not the Southhampton Assize as our Authour makes it At what time M. Sergeant Wilde a man for the nonce as we poor Countrey folks use to say was sent to manage the proceedings who so cunningly intangled the evidence and so learnedly laid the Law before the Jurors that Rolfe was acquitted and Osburn left under the disgrace of a salse Informer But the best is I should rather have said the worst though M. Serâ—eant could finde no Law to condemn Rolfe for an attempt to poison the King he could finde Law enough within few moneths after to condemn and execute Captain Burleigh for an intent to free him from the hands of those who were suspected to have no good intentions towards him as it after proved Fol. 1069. The Earl of Holland is sent Prisoner to Warwick Castle where he continued until his Arraignment and execution at Westminster the 9. of March â— Of this Earl we have said somewhat already enough to shew with what disloyalty and ingratitude he forsook the King his Master in the time of his greatest need To which I shall adde nothing now but this generall Note viz. that none of those who had prov'd disloyall to the King or acted openly against him in the Wars or otherwise had ever so much blessing from Heaven as to prevail in any thing which they undertook either for the re-establishment of his person or the re-stauration of his posterity witnesse in the first place Sir Iohn Hotham accursed in his mothers belly as himself confessed in an intercepted Letter brought to Oxford witnesse the fruitlesse attempts of Lougnern Powell and Poier not only in Pembrokeshire but other Counties of Southwales which they had made themselves Masters of in order to his Majesties Service witnesse the unfortunate expedition of Marquesse Hamilion of which more anon and the unseasonable rising of the Earl of Holland of whom now we speak witnesse the frequent miscarriages of the Lord Willoughby of Parham a man whom the King had courted to Loyalty beyond all example in his attempt to head a New Army against the old to employ some part of the Kings Navy against the rest and to make good the Barbador in despight of the Houses I take no notice â—ere of the miscarriages of such who had at first declared against him in set Speeches in the Houses of Parliament none of which prospered either in their persons or their actings when they returned to their own duty and endeavored the Advancement of the Kings Affairs And that I may not contain may self within England onely or be thought perhaps to partial in this Observation we have the Examples of the Lord Inchequin in Ireland and of the gallant Marquess of Montross in Scotland Of which the first for the actings of the other are known well enough was one of the first if not the very first of all who openly read any Protestation at the Market-Cross in Edinburgh against the Kings Proceedings in the Book of Common Prayer and other subsequent Actions which concerned the happiness of that Kingdom Fol. 1071. The Estates of Scotland had formed a Committee of Danger who had of themselves Voted to raise Forty thousand Men. â— But the Vote was bigger then the Army though the Army were much bigger then our Author makes it by whose calculation it amounts not to above Ten thousand five hundred men besides such additional Forces as were expected out of England and Ireland An Army gallantly appointed both for Horse and Arms which they had plundered out of England in the long time of their Service there for both Houses of Parliament the like being never set so out by that people since they were a Nation And it was big enough also to do more then it did had it been under a more forâ—unate Commander then the Marquess of Hamilton who brought from Scotland a greater Enemy within him then he was like to finde in England And possibly that inward Enemy might spur him on to a swift destruction by rendring him impatient of tarrying the coming of
Monroe an old experienced Commander with his three thousand old and experienced Scots train'd up for five or six years then last past in the Wars of Ireland By whose assistance it is possible enough that he might not have lost his first Battle not long after his Head which was took from him on the same day with the Earl of Hollands But God owed him and that Nation both shame and punishment for all their â—reacheries and Rebellions against their King and now he doth begin to pay them continuing payment after payment till they had lost the Command of their own Countrey and being reduced unto the form of a Province under the Commonwealth of England live in as great a Vassalage under their new Masters as a conquered Nation could expect or be subject to Fol. 1078. This while the Prince was put aboard the revolted Ships c. and with him his Brother the Duke of York c. the Earls of Brentford and Ruthen the Lord Cuâ—pepper c. In the recital of which names we finde two Earls that is to say the Earls of Brentford and Ruthen which are not to be found in any Records amongst our Heralds in either Kingdom Had he said General Ruthen Earl of Brentford he had hit it right And that both he and his Reader also may the better understand the Risings and Honors of this Man I shall sum them thus Having served some time in the Wars of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden he was Knighted by him in his Camp before Darsaw a Town of Pomerella commonly counted part of Prussia and belonging to the King of Poland Anno 1627. at what time the said King received the Order of the Garter with which he was invested by Mr. Peter Yong one of his Majesties Gentlemen Huishers and Mr. Henry St. George one of the Heralds at Arms whom he also Kinghted In the long course of the German Wars this Colonel Sir Patrick Ruthen obtain'd such a Command as gave him the title of a General and by that title he attended in a gallant Equipage on the Earl of Morton then riding in great pomp towards Windsor to be installed Knight of the Garter At the first breaking out of the Scots Rebellion he was made a Baron of that Kingdom and Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh which he defended very bravely till the Springs which fed his Well were broken and diverted by continual Batteries Not long ater he was made Earl of Forth and on the death of the Earl of Lindsey was made Lord General of his Majesties Army and finally created Earl of Brentford by Letters Patents dated the 27 of May Anno 1644. with reference to the good Service which he had done in that Town for the fiâ—st hanselling of his Office So then we have an Earl of Brentford but no Earl of Ruthen either as joyn'd in the same Person or distinct in two Not much unlike is that which follows Ibid. His Commissions to his Commanders were thus stiled Charls Prince of great Britain Duke of Cornwal and Albany Here have we two distinct Titles conferred upon one Person in which I do very much suspect our Authors Intelligence For though the Prince might Legally stile himself Duke of Cornwal yet I cannot easily believe that he took upon himself the Title of Duke of Albany He was Duke of Cornwal from his Birth as all the eldest Sons of the Kings of England have also been since the Reign of King Edward the third who on the death of his Uncle Iohn of Eltham E. of Cornwal invested his eldest Son Edw. the Black Prince into the Dukedom of Cornwal by a Coronet on his head a ring on his finger and a silver Verge in his hand Since which time as our learned Camden hath observed the King of Englands eldest Son is reputed Duke of Cornwal by Birth and by vertue of a special Act the first day of his Nativity is presumed and taken to be of full and perfect age so that on that day he may sue for his Livery of the said Dukedom and ought by right to obtain the same as well as if he had been one and twenty years old And he hath his Royalties in certain Actions and Stannery Matters in Wracks at Sea Customs c. yea and Divers Officers or Ministers assigned unto him for these or such like matters And as for the Title of Duke of albany King Charls as the second Son of Scotland receiv'd it from King Iames his Father and therefore was not like to give it from his second Son the eldest Son of Scotland being Duke of Rothsay from his Birth but none of them Dukes of Albany for ought ever I could understand either by Birth or by Creation Fol. 1094. And so the dignity of Arch-Bishops to fall Episcopal Iurisdiction also Our Author concludes this from the general words of the Kings Answer related to in the words foregoing viz. That whatsoever in Episcopacy did appear not to have clearly proceeded from Divine Institution he gives way to be totally abolished But granting that the Dignity of Arch-Bishops was to fall by this Concession yet the same cannot be affirmed of the Episcopal Iurisdiction which hath as good Authority in the holy Scripture as the calling it self For it appears by holy Scripture that unto Timothy the first Bishop of Ephâ—sus St. Paul committed the power of Ordination where he requires him to lay hands hastily on no man 1 Tim. 5 22 And unto Titus the first Bishop of Crete the like Authority for ordaining Presbyters or Elders as our English reads it in every City Tit. 1. v. 5. Next he commands them to take care for the ordering of Gods publick Service viz. That Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men 1 Tim. 2. 1. which words relate not to the private Devotions of particular persons but to the Divine Service of the Church as it is affirmed not onely by St Chrysostom Theophylact and Oâ—cumenius amongst the Ancients and by Estius for the Church of Rome but also by Calvin for the Protestant or Reformed Churches Next he requires them to take care that such as painfully labor in the Word and Doctrine receive the honor or recompence which is due unto them 1 Tim. 5. 17. as also to censure and put to silence all such Presbyters as preached any strange Doctrine contrary unto that which they had received from the Apostles 1 Tim 1. 3. And if that failed of the effect and that from Preaching Heterodoxies or strange Doctrines they went on to Heresies then to proceed to Admonition and from thence if no amendment followed to a rejection from his place and deprivation from his Function 1 Tit. 3. 10. as both the Fathers and late Writers understand the Text. Finally for correction in point of Manners as well in the Presbyter as the people St. Paul commits it wholly to the care of his Bishop where he adviseth Timothy not to receive an Accusâ—ation against
consent to the acting of any thing to take away his life By which it needs must follow if the Bill of Attainder was first passed or at the least in probability to be passed in the House of Peers before the King had given any such promise under his hand for the words are that the King had given him a promise under his hand never to passe that Bill Now that Bill was not taken into consideration in the House of Lords till Saturday the 24. of April in which considering their own danger and the little satisfaction they are able to give themselves M. St Iohn the Kings Sollicitor Generall was appointed by the House of Commons to open the Bill before their Lordships and to give them information in it which was done upon Thursday the nine and twentieth of the same Moneth On the next day some of the Lords began to stagger in their resolutions and to incline unto the Commons which moved the King to declare himself before both Houses on the first of May That he could not with a good Consciâ—nce condemn the Earl of High Treason which he must needs do if he passe that Bill and therefore hoped that they would not expect that from him which neither fear nor any other respect whatsoever should enforce him to Other assurance then this of not passing the Bill as the King never made the Earl so indeed he could not the Earl being a close Prisoner and so narrowly watcht especially after his Majesties said Declaration of the first of May that no such Paperâ—promise under the Kings hand could be sent unto him if either the King had thought it necessary to make any such promise or the Earl to seek it Adeo mendaciorum natura est ut coherere non possint as Lactantius hath it This point thus cleared and the King discharged from making any such promise under his hand there must some other way be found out to preserve the Earl by devising some means for his escape and to this plot the King must be made a party also our Authour telling us positively That Some Designe there was no doubt of delivering the Earl of Strafford by escape in order whereunto Sir William Balfour Lieutenant of the Tower must be commanded by the King to receive one Captain Billingsley with an hundred men to secure the place If so how durst Balfour refuse to yeeld obedience to the Kings command Marry forfooth because three good Women of Tower-street peeping into the Earls Gallery through the Key-hole could by the Spectacles of their eyes discern him talking with this Captain and by the Otocoâ—sticon of their ears could hear them talk of some Desigâ—e for this escape The Summe of their Discourse being this that a Ship of Captain Billingsleys Brothers should be in readinesse which was fallen down on purpose below in the River that they three might be there in twelve hours that if the Fort were but secur'd for three or four Moneths there would come aid enough and that there was nothing to be thought upon but an escape and much more broken speech to that purpose It seems the womens ears must be very long and the tongues both of the Earl and Billingsly must be very loud or else how could a practise of such a close and dangerous nature be so plainly heard Assuredly by the same means by which the Zealous Brother in More fields discovered a dangerous plot against the Parliament discoursed of by some who were passing by but he knows not who they were as he was sunning himself under an hedge Of whom as creditable an Authour as Sir William Balfour hath told me this That while he was contriving some Querpo-cut of Church-Government by the help of his out-lying ears and the Otocousticon of the Spirit â—e discovered such a Plot against the Parliament that Selden intends to combat Antiquity and maintain it was a Taylors Goose that preserved the Capitol But in good earnest I would fain know of our Author or of Sir William Balfour or of both together whether the three Good-Wives of Tower-street did hear these Passages in discourse by their eyes or their ears Not by their Eyes for the Eye is not the sense of hearing nor by their Ears for it is not said that they laid their Ears to the Key-hole but that they peeped thorow it And next I would fain know whâ—ther they peep'd or hearkned all at once or one after another If all at once the Key-hole must be wondrous wide as Heavenly-wide as Mopsus mouth in Sir Philip Sidney which could admit of three pair of hearing Eyes or of three single seeing Ears at one time together And if they peep'd or hearkned one after another they must needs have both very quick Wits and strong Comprehensions that could make up so much of a set Discourse from such broken Speeches though they within spake never so loudly Letting this pass therefore with a Risum teneatis Amici we have next a more serious discovery of this Design by the Conference which the Earl of Strafford had with Sir William Balfour offering him but four days before his death no less then Twenty thousand pounds and a Marriage of his Daughter to Balfours Son if he would assent to his Escape And for this also as well as for the tale of the three Good-Wives of Tower-Street and the command of admitting Billingsley with an hundred men to secure the Tower we must take Sir Williams bare word for he gave it not in upon his Oath in the House of Commons And what the bare word of a Scot a perfidious Scot and one that shortly after took up Arms against his Master will amount unto we all know too well Nor was the Earl so ignorant of the hatred which generally the Scotish Covenanters bare unto him or of the condition of this man particularly as to communicate any such design unto him had he been so unprepar'd for death as our Author makes him And so this second Romance of Sir William Balfour and the three Women Good-Wives of Tower Street being sent after that of the Bishop of Lincoln we leave the Earl of Straffords business and go on with our Author to some other Fol. 418. Then follows King Henry the fourth c. ofâ—larence â—larence Title to precede that of Mortimer That some of the Lords combined to depose this King I shall easily grant though not upon those grounds which our Author mingles with the Speech of one Mr. Thomas a Member of the House of Commons against the Bishops For though the Title of Clarence did precede that of the King yet was not the Kings Title derived from Mortimer the Title of Mortimer and Clarence being one and the same The Title of King Henry the fourth came by his Father Iohn Duke of Lancaster the fourth Son of King Edward the third the title of Mortimer came by Philip the sole Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third son of the said King Edward