deadly Enemies and shall never decline his Majesty's Power and Jurisdiction as they shall answer it to God And all Persons who refuse to take this Oath to be uncapable of any publick Trust and to be look'd upon as Persons disaffected to his Majesty's Authority and Government And the 11th Act of the first Session says That it is the inherent Privilege of the Crown and undoubted Prerogative of the Kings of Scotland to have the sole Power of chusing Officers of State c. and of holding and dissolving Parliaments c. and That it is High Treason in any of the Subjects to make Leagues with Foreigners or among themselves without his Majesty's Authority first had c. And therefore the League and Covenant and all Treaties thereon are not obligatory and that none presume to require or renew the swearing the said League and Covenant The next Act I cannot say of Parliament for it was purely arbitrary was the total rooting out the Presbyterian Government in Scotland and upon this Occasion Mr. James Sharp Mr. Hamilton Mr. Farwel Mr. Leighton but whether sent for by the King or sent by the Kirk-Party I do not find came in 1661 to London and were ordained Deacons and Presbyters and after consecrated Bishops by the Bishop of Winchester and two other Bishops The Acceptance of which was a Renunciation of their Presbyterian Ordination nay it was a Declaration of the Invalidity of their former Ordination and thereupon the King on the 6th of September 1661 issued out a Proclamation declaring his Royal Pleasure to be for the restoring the Government of the Church of Scotland to be by Arch-bishops and Bishops as it was exercised in the Year 1637 and that he had nominated and presented Arch-bishops and Bishops to their several Bishopricks and to have the same Authority they had in the Reign of his Grand-father Thus you see the Presbyterian Government which was set up by such odd swearing without the King is by his sole Authority utterly subverted In Obedience to this Proclamation the Privy-Council the 9th of January following did discharge all Ecclesiastical Meetings in Synods Presbyteries and Sessions until they be authorized by the Arch-bishops and Bishops upon their Entry into the Government of their respective Sees which was to be done speedily Tho this Proclamation and Intimation of the Privy-Council had prevented the Parliament yet to make sure Work of both the Parliament in their second Sessions Redintegrated the Bishops to the Exercise of their Episcopal Function and to all their Privileges Dignities Jurisdictions and Possessions due and formerly belonging thereunto And another Act did ordain all Ministers to repair unto their Diocesan Assembly and concur in all Acts of Church-Discipline as they should be thereunto required by the Arch-bishops or Bishops of the Diocess under pain of being suspended from their Office and Benefice till the next Diocesan Meeting for their first Fault and if they amended not to be deprived and the Church to be declared vacant In the Year 1649 when there was no King in Israel the Parliament at the Instance of the Kirk by the 39th Act Discharge all Patrons and the King not excepted from Presentations to Church-Benefices for that the Estates of Parliament were sensible of the great Obligations that lie upon them by the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant and by many Deliverances and Mercies from God and by the late solemn Engagement unto Duties to preserve the Doctrine and vindicate the Liberties of the Kirk of Scotland and advance the Work of Reformation therein to the utmost of their Power And considering that Patronage and Presentation of Kirks is an Evil and Bondage under which the Lord's People and Ministers of the Land have long groaned and that it hath no Warrant in God's Word but founded on the Common Law and is a Custom Popish and brought into the Kirk in time of Ignorance and Superstition and that the same is contrary to the 2d Book of Discipline in which upon solid and good Grounds it is reckoned among the Abuses that are to be reformed and unto several Acts of the General Assembly and that it 's prejudicial to the Liberties of the People and planting of Kirks and unto the free calling and entring of Ministers unto their Charge This Act did not hold long for next Year Cromwel enter'd Scotland and overturned all the Tables of Presbytery nor was this much mended after the King's Restoration for in the second Session of the first Parliament 1662 the Parliament did ordain All Ministers who had enter'd to the Cure of any Parish within Burgh or Land in or since the Year of God 1649 to have no Right unto or up-lift the Rents of their respective Benefices modified Stipends Marsh or Glebe for this instant Year 1662 nor for the Year following unless they should obtain a Presentation from the lawful Patron and have Collation from the Bishop of the Diocess where he liveth before the 20th of September next Tho the High Commission which Laud so zealously endeavour'd to erect in Scotland was put down by Act of Parliament 1641. in England yet the King by the inherent Right of his Crown and by the Virtue of his Prerogative Royal and supreme Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical erected one in Scotland The Commissioners were partly Ecclesiasticks and partly Lay-men who or five of them whereof one to be a Bishop had a more arbitrary Power over the Clergy than was practised in England under Laud and more than Laud could have expected for a High Commission for Scotland in the King's Father's Reign Thus you see the Kirk which would be a distinct Table and independent upon the Crown of Scotland are by the Prerogative of it committed to the arbitrary Mercy of the Prelates whom for above 24 Years they had been railing against and by many Oaths sware to extirpate But the Tribulations of the Kirk for the time to come do not end here for the Parliament resolve to stigmatize them for their Actions past and therefore upon the 5th of September 1662 they form a Declaration to be subscribed by all who shall have any publick Charge Office and Trust within the Kingdom in these Words I do sincerely affirm and declare That I judg it unlawful for Subjects upon Pretence of Reformation or any other Pretence whatsoever to enter into Leagues and Covenants or to take up Arms against the King or those Commissionated by him and that all these Gatherings Convocations Petitions Protestations and erecting and keeping Counsel-Tables that were used in the beginning and for carrying on the late Troubles were unlawful and seditious and particularly That those Oaths whereof the one is called the National Covenant as it was sworn and explained in the Year 1638 and thereafter and the other entitled A Solemn League and Covenant were and are in themselves unlawful Oaths and were taken by and imposed upon the Subjects of this Kingdom against the Laws and Liberties of the same
and Dominion of Wales and of all and every the Offender or Offenders therein and them and every of them to order correct reform and punish by Censure of the Church And also We do give and grant full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one in like manner as is aforesaid from time to time and at all times during Our Pleasure to inquire of search out and call before you all and every Ecclesiastical Person or Persons of what Degree or Dignity soever as shall offend in any of these Particulars before mentioned and them and every of them to correct and punish for such their Misbehaviours and Misdemeanors by suspending or depriving them from all Promotions Ecclesiastical and from all Functions in the Church and to inflict such other Punishment or Censures upon them according to the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm And further we do give full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one by virtue hereof and in like manner and form as is aforesaid to inquire hear determine and punish all Incest Adulteries Fornications Outrages Misbehaviours and Disorders in Marriage and all other Grievances and great Crimes or Offences which are punishable or reformable by the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Our Realm committed or done or hereafter to be committed or done in any Place exempt or not exempt within this Our Realm according to the Tenor of the Ecclesiastical Laws in that Behalf Granting you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the Lord Chancellor to be one full Power and Authority to order and award such Punishment to every such Offender by Censures of the Church or other lawful Ways as is abovesaid And further We do give full Power and Authority to you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellour to be one to call before you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one all and every Offender and Offenders in any of the Premises and all such as you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall seem to be suspected Persons in any of the Premises which you shall object against them and to proceed against them and every of them as the Nature and Quality of the Offence or Suspicion in that Behalf shall require and also to call all such Witnesses or any other Person or Persons that can inform you concerning any of the Premises as you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one and them and every of them to examine upon their Corporal Oaths for the better Trial and opening of the Truth of the Premises or any Part thereof And if you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall find any Person or Persons whatsoever obstinate or disobedient in their Appearance before you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Chancellor to be one at your Calling and Commandments or else in not obeying or in not accomplishing your Orders Decrees and Commandments or any thing touching the Premises or any Part thereof or any other Branch or Clause contained in this Commission that then you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall have full Power and Authority to punish the same Person or Persons so offending by Excommunication Suspension Deprivation or other Censures Ecclesiastical And when any Persons shall be convented or prosecuted before you as aforesaid for any of the Causes above expressed at the Instance and Suit of any Person prosecuting the Offence in that Behalf that then you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall have full Power and Authority to award such Costs and Expences of the Suit as well to and against the Party as shall prefer or prosecute the said Offence as to and against the Party or Parties that shall be convented according as their Causes shall require and to you in Justice shall be thought reasonable And further Our Will and Pleasure is That you assume our well-beloved Subject William Bridgman Esquire one of the Clerks of our Council or his sufficient Deputy or Deputies in that behalf to be your Register whom we do by these Presents depute to that effect for the registring of all your Acts Decrees and Proceedings by virtue of this our Commission and that in like manner you or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one by your Discretions shall appoint one or more Messenger or Messengers and other Officer or Officers necessary and convenient to attend upon you for any Service in this behalf Our Will and express Commandment also is That there shall be two Paper-Books indented and made the one to remain with the said Register or his sufficient Deputy or Deputies the other with such Persons and in such Places as you the said Commissioners or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall in your Discretion think most fit and meet in both which Books shall be fairly enter'd all the Acts Decrees and Proceedings made or to be made by virtue of this Commission And whereas our Universities of Oxford and Cambridg and divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches Colleges Grammar Schools and other Ecclesiastical Incorporations have been erected founded and endowed by several of our Royal Progenitors Kings and Queens of this Realm and some others by the Charity and Bounty of some of their Subjects as well within our Universities as other Parts and Places the Ordinance Rules and Statutes whereof are either embezeled lost corrupted or altogether imperfected We do therefore give a full Power and Authority to you or any five or more of you of whom we will you the afore-named Lord Chancellor always to be one to cause and command in our Name all and singular the Ordinances Rules and Statutes of our Universities and all and every Cathedral and Collegiate Churches Colleges Grammar-Schools and other Ecclesiastical Incorporations together with their several Letters Patents and other Writings touching or in any wise concerning the several Erections and Foundations to be brought and exhibited before you or any five or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one willing commanding and authorizing you or any five or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one upon the exhibiting and upon diligent and deliberate View Search and Examination of the said Statutes Rules and Ordinances Letters Patents and Writings as is aforesaid the
see what Fruits the Petition of Right passed but the Year before had and the King 's repeated Declarations to maintain the Laws of the Land and the Liberty and Property of the Subject But if this Prince has not kept his Word for the time past he will keep it he says for the time to come in the Declaration he made for the Dissolution of this last Parliament I do not find the Date of it yet it begins with the usual Prologue However Princes are not bound to give an account of their Actions but only to God In this the King says nothing of the Eyes of all Christendom being upon him but tells how the Aids granted this last Parliament were for Payment of his Fleet and Army and that with part of those Monies he began to supply his Magazines and Stores and to put his Navy into a constant Form and Order and that notwithstanding the Provocations of evil Men whose Punishment he reserves to a due time he will maintain the Established Religion and Doctrine of the Church of England and the antient and just Rights and Liberties of the Subject Yet as he will maintain the Subjects Rights so he expects that they yield as much Submission and Duty to his Royal Prerogative and as ready Obedience to his Authority and Command as had been performed to any of his Predecessors Then wills his Ministers not to be terrified by the harsh Proceedings strained against them for as he will support them by his Authority and Prerogative so he expects they should obey him and that he will receive the Customs and the Duty of Five in the 100 and if any factious Merchants refuse to pay they shall be assured he will find honourable and just means to support his Estate and Soveraignty and preserve the Authority God had put into his Hands and for this his Subjects ought to acknowledg their own Blessedness and for the same to be thankful to God the Author of all Goodness For this you must take the Prince's Word for the next twelve Years But being thus great and happy at Home let 's see what is doing Abroad The War against France was not more inconsiderately begun about two Years before than the Peace made with it was secret The first time it was made known was when the French King besieged Privas he proclaimed the Peace with his good Brother of England The Reformed were astonished and confounded that the King of England who brought them into the War should leave them out of the Peace Hereupon Privas surrenders so does Castres and Nismes the great Rohan is forced to submit and disband The Power of the Reformed thus rooted up and while the King of England is making War against the Members of Parliament Richlieu marches with an Army into Italy and takes Salusses and Pignerol from the Duke of Savoy Richlieu having thus secured the King of England took no less care that the Empire should not put a stop to the swelling Ambition of his Master and to this purpose enters into a Confederacy with the Protestant Princes of Germany to call the King of Sweden in to Germany who next Year entred into it where for eighteen Years the French Protestant Princes joining the Swede a most dreadful War was raised all over Germany so as the French had no cause to fear any Danger thence on the contrary they took Brisac and other Places and had opportunity to wrest Lorain from that Duke But King Charles prospering as he thought in his Domestick War having taken more Prisoners in it I mean the Members of Parliament and Constables of Hertfordshire than his Father and he had done in all their Wars against France Spain and the Empire for the recovery of the Palatinate was very unwilling to enter into a Foreign and therefore in a kind of petitioning way sends Sir Henry Vane his Ambassador to the King of Sweden to take care of the Patrimony of his Brother but with no better Success yet in a more rough scornful and dishonourable manner than his Father's Ambassadors had with the Emperor But that he might seem to do something the King sent Marquess Hamilton with 6000 Men to assist the Swede who tho every-where else victorious yet this Army under Hamilton had worse Success than that under Mansfield being starved and mouldred away almost to nothing and yet fought not at all and being reduced to two Regiments the King of Sweden would not permit King Charles to name the Officers See Whitlock's M. f. 15. and Franklin's Anno 1630. The ill Success of Hamilton's Army put the King out of all Conceit of prosecuting any Foreign War and therefore wholly makes it his Business to make himself more Absolute at Home There is but one Rub in the way viz. the great Prop of the Church the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Abbot a Prelate of most eminent Learning whose upright Integrity stood as an unshaken Rock against the Innovations both in Church and State which were now so fiercely push'd on by the Arminians I find but little Action in this Year 1631 things were only preparing to what followed yet altho Arch-bishop Abbot was living the Torrent run so high in the University of Oxford that several of the Members were proceeded against and censured for Sermons preach'd against Arminianism and expell'd the University and the Book of Sports and Pastimes upon the Lord's-day was republished Judg Richardson was so hardy as to repress them but the Bishops took this as an intruding upon the Ecclesiastical Power and Bishop Laud complained thereof to the King and the Judg was check'd for it See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 16 17. But in the Year 1632 this Reverend Prelate died and thereby left room for Laud the Fire-brand of Arminianism to take Possession Before we see what follows let 's look back upon what went before He being of a restless aspiring Temper in the beginning of King James his Reign got to be Chaplain to Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire and to shew he would be great upon any account he marries the Earl to the Lady Rich tho her Husband was then alive and had many Children by her viz. Robert then Earl of Warwick and Henry Earl of Holland which Act so displeased King James that the Earl fell into his Displeasure and tho Laud hanker'd near twenty Years after the Court to get Preferment principally under the Countenance of Neal Bishop of Winchester yet the King would never endure to hear of it But at last by the Importunity of Neal and others Williams Bishop of Lincoln and Lord-Keeper was prevailed upon to intercede for him without any Success till at length the Keeper told the King It would be hard to serve a King who could not forgive one Fault At last he got the King to prefer Laud to the Bishoprick of St. Davids but he had not been scarce one Year in his Bishoprick before he became Williams his bitter Enemy and Prosecutor as you may read in the second Part
so grave an Author as the Bishop of Litchfield had not reported it in the Bishop of Lincoln's Life See the second Part fol. 138. The Writs for Ship-Money are now issued out the Proceedings against the Officers for not collecting the Assessments as Constables Bayliffs and other Officers were to bind them over to answer at the Council-board and Commitment if any refused to give Bond but if Sheriffs neglect to collect all such Assessments in their Year they shall stand charged with the Arrears Thus things at present stood but the breaking the Bounds of the Forests was but in Embrio yet in a hopeful Production Thus things stood in the State about the end of the Year 1634. In the Church the Arch-Bishop had the sole Supremacy not only in England but in Scotland having got a Warrant from the King to hold Correspondence with the Bishops and also in Ireland being chosen Chancellor of the University of Dublin and having got Sir Thomas Wentworth to be Lieutenant of Ireland who was now as much his intimate Confident as Noy was before In England the Arch-bishop's Injunctions for wearing the Surplice receiving the Sacrament kneeling and placing the Communion-Table Altar-ways and railing it about c. were vehemently prosecuted with the opprobrious Names of Puritan and Schismatick fixed upon Nonconformists with Deprivations and Censures upon Lecturers and Chaplains who refused to come up to them if they did they must forsake their Patrons Patronesses and Flocks who provided them Bread so that they contended pro Aris Focis and otherways no Provision was made for them On the contrary they retorted on the Bishops and promoted Clergy with bitter Terms of Popishly affected and Rags of Superstition and Idolatry so that the Contentions all over the Kingdom were as fierce as in the Universities But it had been happy for this Nation if the Effects of these Contentions had been terminated in the Bounds of it For the Arch-bishop in his Metropolitan Visitation this Year 1634 summoned the Ministers of the Dutch and French Churches to appear before his Vicar-General where all the Natives viz. born in England were enjoined to repair to their several Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service and Sermons and perform all Duties and Payments required in that behalf The Descendants of those Walloons persecuted by Alva and of the French by Henry II. of France had for near ninety Years been allowed their several Congregations by Queen Elizabeth King James I and had the Royal Word of King Charles for enjoying of them But now at once they must be turn'd out of them When these Injunctions were to be put in Execution at Norwich the Dutch and French Congregations petitioned Dr. Matthew Wren that these Injunctions might not be imposed upon them but finding no Relief appealed to the Arch-bishop who return'd a sharp Answer that unless they would submit he would proceed against them according to the Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical Here take notice that as the Spanish Trade was the most enriching Trade to this Nation so the Trade to Hamburg and the Countries and Kingdoms within the Sound with our Woollen Mafactures was the best the English had for Employment of People Shipping and Navigation The Company which traded into the Sound was called the East-Country Company and Queen Elizabeth and after her King James to honour them called it the Royal Company This Trade the English enjoyed time out of mind and the Cloths which supplied it were principally made in Suffolk and Yorkshire And Ipswich as it was the finest Town in England and had the Noblest Harbour on the East and most convenient for the Trade of the Northern and Eastern Parts of the World so till this time it was in as flourishing a State as any other in England The Bishop of Norwich straining these Injunctions to the utmost frighted thousands of Families out of Norfolk and Suffolk into New-England and about 140 Families of the Workers of those Woollen Manufactures wherewith Hamburg and the Countries within the Sound were supplied went into Holland where the Dutch as wise as Queen Elizabeth was in entertaining the Walloons persecuted by the Duke of Alva established these English Excise-free and House-Rent free for seven Years and from these the Dutch became instructed in working these Manufactures which before they knew not The Consequence whereof shall be shewn hereafter But the Care of the Arch-bishop for Reformation of the Church of Scotland was not less than for that of England and to that end got the King to sign a Common-Prayer Book for the Use of the Church of Scotland and gave order to the Bishops there to compile certain Canons for the Government of the Church and there to be imposed by Regal and Episcopal Authority and to this end Laud held Correspondence with the Arch-bishop of Saint Andrews and other Bishops of Scotland Whilst these things were brewing in England and Scotland you need not fear Ireland now Sir Thomas Wentworth was Lieutenant there a most dreadful War overspread Germany and Philip the 4th a weak lascivious Prince reigned in Spain so as Richlieu had a fair Opportunity to subdue Monsieur the King's Brother and overthrow the Forces raised by the Duke of Momerancy to assist Monsieur wherein the Duke was unhappily taken Prisoner and had his Head cut off being a young Prince of greatest Hope the most antient of the French Nobility and the last of his Line But the Cardinal did not rest here but built more and better Men of War than had been before in France and Spain shall first find the Force of them in return of their Kindness in joining their Fleet with the French in relieving St. Martins in the Isle of Rhee besieged by the English And this Year 1634 Richlieu trickt Charles Duke of Lorain out of his Dutchy and the next the King of France proclaims open War against Spain by Sea and Land and in 1638 ten Years after the Spaniards joining with the French against the English the French besieged Fontaraby by Land which the Spaniards intending to relieve by Sea the Spanish Fleet is encountred by the French and beaten the French took eleven great Ships whereof six of them were richly laden for the Indies and burnt two Gallions upon the Stocks and six others entirely finished In the Ships taken besides their Equippage and other Ammunition of War the French took an incredible Number of Cannons 100 whereof were Brass with the Arms of the House of Austria upon them Afterward the French and Spanish Fleet fight in the Mediterranean Sea where the Spaniard is again beaten by the French and by Land the French take from the Spaniard Landrecy Beaumont and de la Valette in the Spanish Netherlands Perpignan the Key of Spain on the Foot of the Pyrenean Hills in the Country of Rousillion and Barcelona a good Port and the capital City of Catalonia In England this Year 1635 there was great Contrivance between the Arch-bishop Laud and Bishops of Scotland
how to erect a High Commission Court in Scotland by the King's Authority without Consent in Parliament for proceeding against such as would not submit to the Common-Prayer Book and Canons enjoined by the King and Bishops of Scotland and upon the 28th of February the Arch-bishop consecrated Dr. Manwaring Bishop of St. Davids a worthy Successor to so Saint-like and pious a Predecessor for this Bishoprick was Laud's first Preferment You have seen his Grace of Canterbury's Temper towards the King's Subjects now see how it was towards the King His Grace being as high as England could admit viz. Metropolitan and first Peer thereof would visit both Universities by his Metropolitan Right and not by Commission from the King and signified so much to both to which both answered That to admit it without a Warrant from the King was a Wrong to the Vniversities his Grace was Chancellour of Oxford and the Earl of Holland of Cambridg The Cause came to a hearing before the King and Council the 21st of June 1634 where the Attorney General Banks was for his Grace against the King Mr. Gardener the Recorder of London â—or Cambridg and Serjeant Thyn for Oxford the Cause was shortly this Both sides agreed in this that both Universities were of the King's Foundation and so might be visited as they had often been by Commission from the King But this would not do with his Grace he would to use his own Words visit by his own Right Serjeant Thyn urged against this the King's Foundation of the University of Oxford and that never any Arch-bishop so visited But the Recorder could not say so of Cambridg which happened upon this Occasion In the Reign of Richard the Wickliff's Doctrine prevailed much in both Universities and Arundel then Arch-bishop of Canterbury as zealous to suppress the Wicklevites as Laud was the Puritans to suppress them did visit Jure Metropolitano but Oxford opposed him forti Manu Upon this Arundel appeals to the King who being a weak Prince and as zealous for the then Church as King Charles was for Laud's declares the Right to be in the Bishop so did Henry the 4th the Current running against Wickliff which was after confirmed in Parliament but Cambridg was not in it Yet never before did any Arch-bishop visit Oxford nor Cambridg since the Year 1404 Jure Metropolitano as his Grace would do and so the Cause went for the Arch-bishop Plum'd thus in his own Feathers all black and white without one borrowed from Caesar whereby the more he assumes to himself the less he leaves the King he now soars higher the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury in their own Names enjoin the Removal of the Communion Table in the Parish-Churches and Universities from the Body of the Church or Chancel to the East of the Chancel and cause Rails to be set about the Table and refuse to administer the Sacrament to such as shall not come up to the Rails and receive it kneeling that the Book of Sports on Sundays be read in Churches and enjoin Adoration I do not find that Adoration was ever enjoined before nor any of the fore-named Injunctions in any Canon of the Church sure I am they were never publickly put in Execution so that whether these were any of the Canons of the Church or not was not understood by one of 10000 and the Lecturers Chaplains and School-masters who had no Maintenance from the Church being principally struck at by these Injunctions make all the sinister and worst Constructions they could invent against them so that though those Injunctions had been founded in the Canons of the Church yet the contrary was believed and so had the same Effect as if they had not been founded in the Church-Canons Here I cannot omit one Passage That several were deprived by the Bishop's Authority for refusing to read the Book of Sports on Sunday Whereas King James the 2d allowed the seven Bishops a legal Trial for refusing to enjoin the Clergy to read his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and the Bishops were acquitted That the Legality of these Proceedings might be manifest a Proclamation was issued out that it was the Opinion of the Judges that the Act of the 1 Edw. 6. 2. which ordains that Bishops should hold their Ecclesiastical Courts in the King's Name or by Commission from him was repealed by the 1st of Queen Mary though this Act was repealed by the 1 Jac. 25. and so the Act 1 Edw. 6. 2. was revived and so resolved upon a full Debate in Parliament 7 Jacobi The Thunder of those Canons the terrible and unheard of Execution of them in the Star-Chamber against all Opposers by Speech or Writing so terrified the Puritans which would not submit that incredible Numbers of them left the Kingdom to inhabit in foreign Plantations especially in New-England where these Ecclesiastical Canons could not well play upon them But to restrain the further Evasion of them the King by Proclamation the 30th of April 1638 stops all the Ports of England to keep them in it The Reason was no doubt that they might be better instructed in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England here than elsewhere But Ship-Money notwithstanding my Lord Keeper Coventry's Charge to the Judges last Year that in their Circuits they should give Charge how justly the King required Ship-Money for the common Defence and with what Alacrity and Chearfulness they the Subjects are bound in Duty to contribute yet this did not pass-for true Doctrine with all for Mr. Hambden upon Advice with Holborn St. John and Whitlock denied the Payment whereupon several other Gentlemen refused also Hereupon the King was advised by the Lord Chief Justice Finch to require the Opinion of his Judges which he did in a Letter to them and after much Solicitation by the Chief Justice promising Preferment to some and highly threatning others whom he found doubting he got from them in Answer to the King's Letter and Case their Opinion in these Words We are of Opinion that when the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger you may by your Writ under the Great Seal of England command all your Subjects of this your Kingdom at their Charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victuals and Ammunition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from Peril and Danger And that your Majesty may compel the doing thereof in case of Refusal or Refractoriness And we are also of Opinion that in such Case your Majesty is sole Judg both of the Danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided This Opinion was signed by Davenport Denham Hutton Croke Trevor Bramston Finch Vernon Berkly Crawley and Weston See Whitlock ' s Memoirs f. 24. The King having previously extorted the Judges Opinions exparte gave order for the Proceedings against Mr. Hambden in the
and that there lieth no Obligation upon me or any of the Subjects from the said Oaths or either of them to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either in Church or State as it is now established by the Laws of the Kingdom Thus you see the Parliament throw this upon the Son which his Father so zealously contended for even to the Loss of his Life and when they had done all they could the Son little cared for what they had done For the Year after viz. 1663 the King granted a Toleration and Indulgence to Dissenters from the Church Thinking Men thought this strange that the King should the Year before pass the Act of Vniformity as the best Means to secure the Church against Popery and Fanaticism and in this grant a Toleration It could not be in Favour of them termed Fanaticks who kept him from his Crown and last Year Venner with his Party would have expell'd him again And this Year Swarms of Pamphlets were spread abroad to defame his Person and Government For printing some of which Twyn the Printer was hanged Thinking Men considered too the time when this Indulgence was granted for as the King in the Sale of Dunkirk chose to do it in the Interval of the Sitting of the Parliament so he did grant this Indulgence I think in November when the Parliament was prorogued to February But tho the Parliament would take no notice of the Sale of Dunkirk they did of this and therefore the Commons upon their Meeting entred into a serious Debate about it and made an Address to the King humbly representing How it would reflect upon the Wisdom of the Parliament to have such an Alteration made so soon and that for ought they could foresee would end in Popery And sure the Commons were true Prophets herein However whether the King fearing the Continuance of the Indulgence might retard the Commons in giving him Money or that time was not yet ripe enough to insist upon it at present he recalled his Declaration So that tho the King did establish a High Commission in Scotland by his Prerogative Inherent in his Crown which the Parliament agreed to in Scotland yet this Indulgence had not the like Effect in England This Indulgence may seem more strange if we look into Ireland where the Irish this very Year were contriving a Massacre of the Protestants and holding Intelligence with the French King which you may read at large in Plunket's Trial and this proved by Popish Witnesses I do not find the Irish had any Countenance herein by the King nor do I believe the French King acquainted his Brother of England with it Yet the Insincerity of the King's Intentions of any Benefit the Protestant Dissenters should have by this Indulgence will appear by this that when the Parliament seeing the Danger which the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters might bring upon the Nation had prepared Bills for the Ease of Protestant Dissenters the King would not pass them However the Memory of the Rage and Tyranny of the late Times took deeper Impression in the Parliament than the Fear of Popery intended by the King's Toleration and Indulgence and therefore the Parliament from new invented Swearing and new invented Declaring proceed to new invented Laws against Dissenters and Conventicles and the Act of the 16 Car. 2. c. 4. does declare the 35 of Eliz. c. 1. to stand in full Force and ought to be put in Execution and did also enact That if any Number above Five more than the Family shall meet in any Assembly or Conventicle upon Colour or Pretence of Religion in any other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England he shall be committed Prisoner for the first Offence there to remain for a Term not exceeding three Months unless such Offender shall pay a Sum of Money not exceeding Five Pounds for the second Offence to be committed to Prison for a Term not exceeding Six Months or pay a Sum not exceeding Ten Pounds and for the third Offence to be transported beyond the Seas for the Space of seven Years unless he pay one hundred Pounds I will not dispute the Justice of these Laws but I say no Human Laws can divest Men of Human Nature but that Man as well as all other Creatures will endeavour by such Means as they are endued with to preserve their Being and Subsistence in this World And herein I again observe the unhappy State of this Nation in the Education of Youth in the Grammar-Schools and our Academical Learning as 't is called For tho a great Part of the Youth of England have Means to maintain them after they have lost their time of Youth under this unprofitable Breeding whereby they are no way instructed how to live and converse in this World yet double if not treble Numbers of Youth are thus bred who have little or no Means to maintain them after they become Men and more than can be maintained by the Revenues of the Church as they are established I say therefore this kind of Breeding Youth shall eternally create Feuds and a kind of Civil War between those who are in Church-Preferments and those excluded from them and these for their necessary Subsistence shall become Patrons of Factions opposite to the Church within the Kingdom and to the promoting the Popish Interest without In the late Times when the Presbyterians bare the Sway were there not enow of that Party to supply the Vacancies of the Sequestred Clergy besides such Swarms of the Patrons of Independency as were more numerous than they and who turned them out Yet was there a large Relick for to promote the Popish Faction Upon the Restoration of the King when the Sequestred Clergy were restored were there not Multitudes of such Clergy as would have conformed yet could not get any Preferment in the Church Thus excluded what other means had they to subsist but to become Nurseries of Factions which were opposite to the Church and tho these Laws were intended against Protestant Dissenters who had no other means of living but dissenting yet you shall soon hear of another Sort of Dissenters and these secretly countenanced by this most Religious and Gracious King which shall be much more dangerous to this Church and State than those against whom these Laws were made And I say the Vnreasonableness of Separation from the Communion of the Church of England will no more prevent this than Origines Sacrae by not only confounding but inverting all Rules and Methods of Reasoning prove a Deity or the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures thereby making them the Creatures of a Creature and the Production of a Fantastick Brain CHAP. II. A further Account of this Reign to the End of the Second Dutch War THe King being thus established in England and Scotland tho he was not so in Ireland this Year shews the Effects of his Power by making a War upon the Dutch and even this War
not mean by taking the Test to bind up himself from wishing and endeavouring any Alteration in a lawful Way which he shall think fit for advancing the Church and State where by his Example he invited others to be loose from the Test to make Alterations 6. That he understood this as part of his Oath which was Treasonable Invasion upon the Royal Legislative Power as if it were lawful for him to make to himself an Act of Parliament For the better understanding the Earl's Case it 's fit to consider first the Test was not to be imposed upon any but those who bear Office and the Earl was desirous to have laid down all his Offices which was denied him Secondly it was not to be imposed before the first of January whereas all these Proceedings against the Earl upon the Test were not only unwarrantable but the Council usurped the Royal Legislative Authority by imposing the Test upon the Earl before Thirdly that this Explanation of the Test by the Earl was by the Duke's Command and Allowance of the Council one Day and the next Day made Treason for publishing it the Earl being peremptorily commanded by the Duke to deliver the Explanation he had drawn in Writing to the Council 1. The Earl's Counsel insisted that the Earl having before always dutifully and loyally behaved himself to the King his Words and Intentions ought to be interpreted in the best Sense and in his Favour 2. That the Act against Leasing-making and depraving the King's Laws were for plain Words and Speeches tending to make Discords between the King and People and were never intended against a Person in Judicature required to give the true Sense of a Law to the best of his Skill and Conscience and that it would be strange in such a Case that this should be a Crime if one Man differ from another whereas oftentimes not only learned Lawyers but the Judges themselves differ about the Interpretation of Laws 3. That the Act of Parliament does not impose the Test generally but as a Qualification for those who shall bear publick Office and therefore it is just and commendable in any Person who has a Scruple of Conscience upon him to declare his meaning in taking of it how he understands it it matters not whether he errs or not for Conscientia etiam erronea obligat especially where a Man's Conscience is opposite to his Interest as in this Case to lose his Preferment nor was this any Reflection by the Earl upon the Act of Parliament nor their Prudence in imposing the Test 4. Tho the Earl could not take the Test otherwise than he explained it yet by the Act there was no greater Penalty than that Habetur pro recusante he should not hold his Places of Trust 5. That the Counsel allowed the Earl's Explanation by bidding him take his Place after he had made his Explanation 6. The Earl's Explanation could not be treasonable viz. Animo defamandi whenas he only made it to the Council when required whereas some Bishops whole Presbyteries and Synods had made Explanations of the Test and in downright Terms charged it with Inconsistencies and Contradictions and these allowed to be printed before the Earl made his and even the Council themselves had made an Explanation of it before the Earl was tried tho the Parliament was then in being and this made publick Q. If this were not more Treason than the Earl's tho his Counsel durst not say so 7. That the Earl by making his Explanation has assumed a Legislative Power to which it was answered The Legislative Power extends to all but the Earl's Explanation refers only to himself how he understood he might take the Test and this was done without any Diminution to the Legislative Power of making or interpreting Laws and if the Legislative Power be not satisfied it cannot extend any further than that the Earl shall be a Refuser of the Oath which is neither Treason nor Perjury as was charged upon the Earl 8. That the Earl was ready to give Obedience as far as he could did not import the Parliament had imposed an unlawful Oath for here is no Impeachment of the Justice or Prudence of the Law-giver nor can any Law be so plain especially affirmative Laws as this is that every Man shall understand it alike and if one Man declare one Sense of it and another otherwise how does this become Treason in one or the other or import the Injustice or Illegality of the Law 9. That the Earl was confident the Parliament never intended contradictory Oaths which was so far from being treasonable that considering the plain downright Objections spread abroad of the Inconsistencies and Contradictions of the Test it was a high Vindication of the Parliament 10. Therefore he thinks no Body can explain it but for himself which having no reference to any other this cannot be taken for any diminution of the Parliamentary Authority or depraving of the Law 11. That he takes it so far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion if this be a Crime the Earl is neither the Beginner nor Promoter of it so many Bishops Synods and Presbyteries having before printed it with Allowance from the Council nor the Promoter of it for the Earl said this only for himself and was passive in it being required by the Council to make his Explanation and if they divulged it 't was their Fault 12. That he did not bind up himself in his Station and in a lawful way to wish and endeavour any Alteration he thinks to the Advantage of the Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and his Loyalty This has reference to the Earl in his Station as he is a Peer of Scotland who has not only a Right in Parliament to debate freely of any Law in being but is a Member which has a Legislative Right and Vote to repeal as well as make Laws and herein can no more bind up himself than one Act of Parliament can bind another Parliament Note the Earl does not say this is part of the Test-Oath but part of his Oath in the Sense he takes the Test which makes no alteration of the Test The King's Advocate Sir George Mackenzy being one of the Conspiracy in contriving the Earl's Destruction you need not fear but he 'll strain his Wit to make good his Indictment of the Earl He begins with a long Invective against the jugling Covenant and this excellent Law the Test was established to prevent the like for the future and that no Law is of private Interpretation and if it were Men would be loose from Obedience to all Law and concludes with a Lie that there was no force upon the Earl to take the Oath that he took it for his own Advantage It 's true no private Interpretation of any Law is of force to bind another and whatsoever Interpretation another makes of any Law it makes no Alteration in the Law but if a
Service and that all the Bishops in their respective Diocesses should take care to have this done accordingly The Bishops who knew the Declaration of Indulgence was designed to conjoin the Protestant Dissenters with the Popish to ruin the Established Church easily foresaw that the Order to them was to pick a Quarrel with them for the King might have ordered it to be read without as well as by them And besides the Injustice of it it was deemed an undecent thing that the Fathers of the Church in time of Divine Setvice should be the Instruments to give a Liberty to all whether they should come to Divine Service or not Besides the Bishop of London who stood suspended thes Bishops viz. the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Bath and Wells Ely Peterborough Chichester St. Asaph and Bristol were in or about the Town and this Order of Reading the Declaration in Churches was served upon them The Bishops in a humble Petition to the King gave their Reasons in Writing but so cautiously that after it was drawn up they would let no other Man see it before they presented it why they could not comply with the Order of Council The Chancellor tho he thought his Commission big enough to suspend the Bishop of London and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridg and expel the Master and Fellows of Magalen College in Oxford yet it seems did not think it sufficient to suspend these Bishops and therefore advised the King 't was said to try them upon an Information of High Misdemeanour in the King's Bench and in order to it they were committed Prisoners to the Tower Accordingly the Bishops were tried in the King's Bench in Trinty Term following upon an Information of High Misdemeanour for their Petition to the King but how secure soever the King and Chancellor thought themselves of the Judges and tho Sir Robert Wright who was Chief Justice and Sir Richard Allibone a known Papist were two of them yet they were not all of a Piece for Mr. Justice Powel both learnedly and stoutly defended the Bishops Cause If we look down to the Bar we shall see as strange a mixture as in the Bench for the late Attorney-General Sawyer and Solicitor Finch who were so zealous to find my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney and Mr. Cornish c. guilty of High Treason and for Surrender of Charters now they are turned out are as zealous for the acquittal of the Bishops and the then Solicitor-General of a most zealous Prosecutor of Abhorrers and Searcher into the bottom of the Popish Plot as zealous for finding their Misdemeanour However the Jury acquitted the Bishops Unless it were when Monk came into the City the 12th of February 1659-60 and Colonel Cloberry told the Citizens at Guild-Hall they should have a free Parliament or when King Charles came into London the 29th of May following never were such loud Acclamations of Joy exprest as upon the Acquittal of the Bishops nor did the Bounds of the City terminate this Joy but it flew like Lightning to Hounslow Heath where the King would be present to see the Army exercised wherein he trusted more than in Justice and Righteousness to accomplish his Design It seems the King was treated that Day by my Lord of Feversham General of the Army in his Tent when the News of the Bishops Acquittal arrived at the Army which entertained it with a general Shout the King 't was said was startled at it and sent the Earl to enquire the Cause the Earl in return told the King 't was nothing but the Souldiers Joy for the Acquittal of the Bishops And call you that nothing replied the King who was much discomposed upon it and well he might for now he saw how little Confidence was to be imposed in the Army he so much relied upon It 's a Duty incumbent upon Mankind to honour and worship God and give him Thanks for the Benefits received from him and to petition and pray to him for continuance of them Next after God it 's the Duty of all Subjects to honour the King for the Benefits they receive by his Justice and Protection and to petition and pray Relief from him for Oppressions and Injuries which cannot be redressed by the ordinary Course of Law or where the Ministers of the Law either cannot or refuse to do Justice It 's therefore the Wisdom of our Constitution that Parliaments frequently meet not only to receive Petitions against Oppressions or Injuries received which were not or could not be redressed by the King's Ministers of the Law but also to correct and punish the King's Ministers themselves if they transgressed or neglected their Duty But tho frequent Parliaments are the most proper Expedients for the Subjects herein yet oftentimes Accidents may be which will not stay for relief by Parliament as in Case of the Bishops In May they are ordered to have the King's Declaration of Indulgence read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses and to do it and to give no Reasons why they could not do it would have been a manifest Contempt of the King's Authority they could not do it either in Honour or Conscience and by an humble Petition and Address represent this to the King and for ought appeared then the King never intended to call another Parliament till he had modelled them as much to his Will as Cromwel did Barebone's Parliament This Petition is made a High Misdemeanour and the Bishops committed upon it and Father Petre the Club of Jesuits the Attorney and Solicitor-General Graham Burton c. are all plotting how to make it so So as now the Kingdom is without all hopes of a free Parliament and yet it is a High Misdemeanour to address to or petition the King And that this Order upon the Bishops to enjoin the Reading of the King's Declaration for Indulgence was a Design upon their Persons as well as upon the Church is apparent for after their Acquittal Orders from the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs were sent into all parts of England to return an Account to the Lord Chancellor of those that refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence that they might be proceeded against for their Contempt but the Reign and Rage of these Commissioners was too hot to last long and now let 's see what return of Praises and Thanksgivings the Bishops can make to God for their Deliverance God requires Truth in the inward Parts and that it should govern all the Intentions Speech and Actions of every Man in his Conversation with Man yet more in his Prayers and Petitions to God and if it be an High Crime of Hypocrisy to speak or act contrary to a Man's Knowledg or Belief for the end designed thereby is to deceive another though God cannot be deceived it 's a greater Crime to approach his Omniscience with Prayers and Petitions contrary to a Man's certain Knowledg or firm Belief I take it for granted that the Bishops understood the King's Declaration
all other imaginable Advantages they would not be of further use to the Nation than they had Hands to carry them on The Commons in the third Westminster Parliament upon the 31st of December in 1680 Gave leave to bring in a Bill for a General Naturalization of Alien Protestants and allowing them Liberty to exercise their Trades in all Corporations But why was this leave to be given only to Protestant Foreigners Let 's see how the Case stands and what Benefit the Nation can reap from it now the French King has expelled the Reformed out of France As the Case stands Holland France and Flanders are the Places from whence we can expect any Benefit by this Liberty In Holland Protestant Artificers are as free and easy as in England but in Flanders though they be an industrious and honest Sort of People yet are they all Popish and I am confident if they thought they might freely exercise their Religion in England Multitudes of them would seek an Asilum in England to be freed from the Insults and Tyranny they are always subject to from the French and it may be reasonably expected that Multitudes of People in the French Conquests would flee the French Tyranny in them if they might be free in their Religion in England and it is not unlike but upon Advantages given the French we might procure many of them to fish from our Western Ports if they were free in their Religion Object But this Permission would disturb the Peace and endanger the Safety of the Church of England Answ Good Men are scarce and so these Men had need of taking care for themselves and these Men are as careful of the Church as the Free-men are of their Privileges and rather suffer the Nation to sink than they any ways endangered Is not the Church of England in the Kingdom of England and protected by it so that if the Kingdom falls the Church cannot stand Did not our Saviour send his Apostles to propagate the Gospel in this World though they suffered Persecution and Martyrdom for it Yet these good Men are fearful of themselves and the Church of England if others come to support the Kingdom and enrich them When any Foreigners are planted here have not the Church-men if they will make it their Business an Opportunity of winning them to the Church of England and have Reason and the Authority of the Kingdom to do it and if these will not prevail the Fault is others not theirs For my part I detest the Roman Superstition and Idolatry as much as any Man and am as fearful of the Tyranny which the Pope claims as well over Princes as Mens Consciences yet I apprehend no Danger of either by this Liberty granted to Popish Artificers for it is one thing for Jesuits and Popish Priests to make it their Business to pervert Men to their Sentiments and another thing for poor Popish People to make it their Business how to subsist which will take up their whole time especially where they are in a strange Place and Strangers to the People unless by accident in their Dealings for their Support and also to the Language of the People where they live I would know what Inconvenience has followed for permitting Brewer and his Followers which were all Papists to instruct our Natives in making and dying fine Woollen Cloths and in all the Disturbances and Tumults of the late Times after 1640 let any Man shew me one Instance wherein the Walloons and their Descendants planted in London Norwich Colchester or Canterbury contributed to any of them however they had been sufficiently provoked thereto both by Arch-Bishop Laud and Bishop Wren Expedient XX. That it be free for all Foreigners to purchase Lands and Tenements in England The Reason hereof is because where Men purchase Lands and Tenements they design a Habitation whereby the Nation will be so much more peopled as Purchasers are more and the Kingdom so much strengthned and the King's Revenues so much increased as these Purchasers and their Families consume more excizable Goods or foreign which pay Customs and so much more as the Purchase-Money shall be more so much more will the Nation be enriched for the Lands and Houses we retain still and the Purchase-Money is an Addition to the Treasure of the Nation and this is so much an Advantage to the Nation because no Man in it runs any Hazard or Venture of Loss by it whereas in all the Wealth which Merchants acquire by Foreign Trades they run not only the Hazard of Loss but of being undone Expedient XXI That a publick Encouragement be given to all Foreigners which shall carry on the Fishing Trade from the Ports of England in the New-found-land Fishery and to Greenland Iseland Westmony and upon the Coasts of England and Scotland for the taking and curing White-Herring and Cod-fish The Reasons hereof are manifold for above all other Trades the Fishing-Trade encreases Mariners and Navigation for every Man in the Fishing-Trade becomes a Mariner whereas in the East-India and other Trades it may be a thousand Artificers do not employ one Mariner and in the East-India Trade it may be a Question whether we do not lose more Sea-men or make more Mariners and those which survive by reason of the Diversities of the Climates and their feeding upon salted Meats and drinking sour Drinks are so feeble that a Fisherman is able to fight and beat two of them Add hereto the Fishermen are always at home and so at hand upon all Occasions to serve the Nation whereas in the East-India Trade you scarce hear of one in two Years and not in a Year from those to Turkey and our American Plantations Besides these Fishing-Trades above all others employ all sorts of poor People at home in making Ropes Sails and Nets for it If ever these Fisheries be retrieved it will be with great Difficulty and a Work of Time considering the Poverty of the Coast-Towns of England and the Potency of the Dutch and French in opposing us who are possessed of them and it is more difficult to retrieve a lost Game than not to be able to play it before it be lost yet this Benefit we have by it that we have discovered how we lost our Game and how the Dutch and French won theirs In the Fisheries upon the Coast of England and Scotland besides the King 's indubitable Right whatever Grotius in his Mare Liberum says to the contrary the English may take in fresh Water and Provisions and dry their Nets upon the Shore which the King may forbid Foreigners to do in their Fisheries which may be of great Advantage to the English for the Dutch begin their Fisheries of White Herring upon the Coast of Schotland or Schetland upon the Rising Grounds as they call them and follow that Fishery four Months in the Year before the Herrings come to the Coast of Norfolk and Suffolk where we begin ours which Fishery we enjoy no longer than