the same subject which under colour of a desire to search after his death for some Writings in his Study were by certain Clergy-men who stood disaffected to the Discipline of the Church unhappily lurch'd away they did at length gain those very Books into their hands and not long after the beginning of this late unparallel'd Rebellion for the better accomplishing their long studyed ends most shamefully corrupted them in sundry places omitting divers passages which were unsutable to their purposes and instead thereof inserting what they thought might give countenance to their present evil practises amongst which was this in terminis that though the King were singulis major yet he was universis minor and having so done caus'd them to be publish'd in Print By which fallacy divers well meaning people were miserably captivated and drawn to their Party And at length were not ashamed in that Treaty which they had with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight to vouch the authority of this venerable man in derogation of his Supremacy and to place the Soveraign power in the People that great Antimonarchist William late Vicount Say and Sele being the person who boldly urged it Whereunto the good King answered that though those three Books were not allowed to be Mr. Hookers yet he would admit them so to be and consent to what his Lordship endeavoured to prove out of them in case he would assent to the judgment of Mr. Hooker declared in the other five Books which were unquestionably His. But as to these their indirect dealings in thus corrupting the works of that excellent man whose memory for his profound learning singular piety and most exemplary life will be ever precious to succeeding ages and his necessary vindication therein I shall for more full satisfaction to my Reader refer him to that seasonable Historical discourse lately compiled and published with great judgment and integrity by that much deserving person Mr. Isaac Walton containing a perfect Narrative of the life and death of this right worthy person Of which I hold it necessary that special notice should be taken by reason that since the happy Restauration of our present Soveraign K. Charles II. Dr. Gawden then Bishop of Exeter upon the reprinting those five genuine Books of Mr. Hooker together with the other pretended three taking upon him to write a Preface to the whole and therein to give an account of Mr. Hooker's life hath not only with great confidence used divers Arguments to satisfie the world that those three Books were penn'd by Mr. Hooker notwithstanding those poysonous assertions against the Regal power which are to be found therein but much misreported him in the Narrative of his life representing him to have been a single man with many other gross mistakes as whoso compares it with Mr. Walton's History of him may easily see Moreover well knowing that the City of London in respect of its Riches and Populousness must be the principal stage for this Tragic-Action there was no small care taken for fitting all places of Authority therein especially the Common-Council with such active men as might advance this blessed work Wherein having made a fair and succesful progress but discerning that the Sword must at length be made use of they then began to frequent the Artillery-yard and to be diligent Practisers of military Discipline in which they grew in a short time so great Proficients that most of the cheif Officers in that School were men of that stamp and got into their hands the best and choicest Arms. And that they might make the more secure progress in this their long studyed design they laid the Scene at first in Scotland the Subjects of that Realm being most tainted with Presbytery so that in case this their contrivance should speed there they might the more boldly adventure upon the like here The first thing therefore that was made use of towards their Master-piece in Scotland was an exception or rather cavil by divers eminent persons in that Kingdom at his Majesties Revocation of such things as had been passed away in prejudice of that Crown especially by some of his Progenitors in their minorities though not without example This being advised by those that were then his Majesties Privy-Councellers and Officers of State in that Realm whose late Actions have sufficiently manifested what effect they desired it should produce did accordingly occasion much repining by divers principal persons who thereupon infused into his Subjects a distaste of his Government And though the King was pleased to wave his interest therein and to remit as well the Equity as rigour of the Laws in that point the Male-contents would not be satisfyed but still endeavoured to work a disaffection in the people thereto And whereas his Majesty out of his pious care of the Clergy who had been much opprest by the Laity that pay'd Tythes being pleased to grant out Commissions in their behalf had so good issue therein as that both Parties were abundantly satisfyed the maintenance of the Clergy being thereby improv'd and the Laity freed from a dangerous dependance upon Subjects yet the Nobility and Lay-Patrons fretting privately for being rob'd as they conceiv'd of the dependance of the Clergy and Laity bent their envy against the Bishops under pretence that they were the principal causers thereof To quiet therefore these discontents in the year 1633 his Majesty made a progress into Scotland and was there crowned having not been personally there till then since the death of his Royal Father at which time he also held a Parliament in that Realm wherein great suggestions were made of fears that dangerous Innovations in Religion would be attempted as also instead of acceptance of an Act for Ratification of all other Acts concerning the Religion professed and established it was dissented to by divers of the after-chiefest Covenanters And no sooner was he returned back into England but that infinite Libels were disperst abroad to impoyson the People with his Majesties proceedings at that Parliament Of which Libellers amongst others the Lord Balmerino was found guilty by his Peers and accordingly should have receiv'd sentence of death for it nevertheless through his Majesties goodness was not only pardoned but enlarg'd and afterwards became an eminent Covenanter Which Insolency of the Scots did not a little animate and encourage the Puritan-faction here who loudly declaimed against the Discipline of the Church as it then by Law stood establish'd and to beget a greater contempt thereof in the generality of the people represented it to be superstitious and like to usher in Popery dispersing many scandalous seditious and libellous Pamphlets to that purpose infusing likewise into them strange apprehensions that their Liberty and Property were in no little danger and the better to give colour to their pretended fears of these approaching Evils they took ready hold of this following occasion The Soveraignty of the Brittish-Seas by antient right justly appertaining to the Crown
Miraculous a Preservation of His Majesties Person deserves for a perpetual Thankfulness to God Almighty to be specially recorded to Posterity So doth the Memorial of Gods most evident Judgments upon the Scottish Nation after their unhappy defection from the obedience which they did owe to His Royal Father their Native King levying divers Armies solemnly Covenanting with His English Subjects against him and the Establisht Government and lastly selling Him for Money when for his Safe-guard and Protection he became necessitated to fly from the fury of these and to put himself into their Hands For 't is not unknown that they did twice Raise their Covenanting Brethren in that Realm to invade this in an Hostile manner and after much spoil and Rapine made in this no less than Three of their Armies being utterly destroy'd the first at Preston in Lancashire the Second at Dunbar in Scotland and the last at Worcester the flower of their Youth and most Eminent for Chivalry were either slain in open Battail Famisht and wasted by most cruel and merciless usage in Prison or Barbarously sold to Forreign Plantations there to be Enslav'd with perpetual Servitude CHAP. XXXV BUT to go on with my Story Certain it is that this fatal blow at Worcester did not only much deject all true hearted and Loyal Persons but seem'd so firmly to establish this Barbarous Generation in their Tyrannous sway that nothing but a Miracle was ever like to alter the Scene Therefore the more to perpetuate their future oppressive Dominion their next business was to lessen and opress the Nobility and to Flatter the Commonalty into a Slavish subjection to their Usurped and Rigorous power To which end they shortly after passed Two Acts in their Grand Convention at Westminster called the Parliament the one relating to the Nobility which was to make void all Titles of Honour Dignities or Precedencies given by the late King The other a General Pardon in reference to the People for the first moving and at length obtaining whereof Cromwel himself was known to be the sole Instrument All being therefore now in their Power and no visible Enemy to disturb their quiet though at the beginning of their Rebellion Anno 1642. they highly complemented the Dutch desiring that the King might have no manner of Supplies from them in respect of the near Relation that was betwixt that Model into which they themselves then aimed to cast this Government and the State of their Provinces and for that reason expected not only their assistance but a Loan of Money from them upon the Publick Faith as in the Twelfth Chapter of this Work may more fully appear The case was now altered For looking upon themselves after all this wonderful success as Mighty Potentates in their New Common-wealth and Free-State they imployed Oliver St. Iohn the Chief Justice of their Court of Common Pleas commonly called Cromwel's Dark-Lanthorn as Embassador into the Netherlands not only to make a firm alliance with the Dutch from the similitude of their Governments against all Soveraign Monarchs and Princes but to weaken the Interest of the Prince of Orange with them who had Married the King's Daughter Which curteous overture being not at all relisht was taken in great disdain by our Grandees here But the Hogen Mogens on the other side being the Elder Common-wealth strong in Shipping and expecting to make themselves absolute Lords of the Worlds Commerce were resolved not to stoop by yielding them the Flag or the old duty of Herring-Fishing These differences therefore occasion'd a War at Sea with them which began in the Downes this year on the Nineteenth of Iune and was again renewed the Sixteenth of August Westwards of the Isle of Wight in both which the Dutch had the worst Sir George Ascue then commanding the English Fleet. So likewise on the Twenty eighth of October following Blake being then Vice-Admiral But upon another Fight with them in the Downes on the Twenty ninth of November ensuing Blake received a great defeat which did not end the dispute for on the Eighteenth of February not far from Portland they had another sharp fight in which both sides received no small loss As also at Legorne about the beginning of March in which the English were worsted ¶ Leaving therefore the farther Prosecution of these Sea Fights till the next year I find that at home they better to secure themselves against the Royallists the passed a Third Act in their Parliament for disabling of Delinquents by which name the Royallists were call'd to bear any Office of Trust or Power in the Common-wealth or to have any Voice or Vote in Election of any Publick Officer The King's Authority and Friends being thus absolutely supprest and Cromwel at every turn the chief Agent therein not only in those his bold adventures against the scots but in many other both here and in Ireland as though Victory had been entailed upon his Sword the time was now come that he thought fit to act his own part more nearly yet still under colour of solely minding the Publick As he had therefore made the Souldiery instrumental for the ruine of the King by the influence of his inferior Officers call'd Adjutators so now did he again set those active Engines on work for the utter confusion of that Impious Iuncto called the Parliament Which Adjutators being readily inclinable to any thing of change objected to the Iuncto that they had not approved themselves such worthy Patriots as they expected but had sought themselves and their own peculiar profit And therefore as good Common-wealths-men and Friends to the Publick required that they should suddenly prefix a Period to their Sitting to the end that the Godly Party and good People of the Nation might thereupon make choise of a more equal Representative for the rectifying and amendment of what was still out of order But notwithstanding this fair pretence the aim of the Souldiers was by outing those old Saints to reduce the whole sway of all under the power of themselves which made them so earnest and forward in the work being fed with those hopes through the insinuation of Cromwel The Iuncto therefore foreseeing this danger for preventing thereof were neither slack nor unactive endeavouring first to break the Army by Disbanding and in the next place to spoil their design by delays Nevertheless with much zeal seem'd earnest to retire affirming that they then were in contrivance for a new Representative to succeed them All which availed nothing there being no halting before an Old Cripple for Cromwel was not ignorant of what they aimed at being well assured that if he let them alone his design would be Cross'd and therefore determin'd without more ado to turn them out of Doors To which end having well seasoned the Souldiery for his purpose and for the better engratiating himself therewith taken the Officers into his Council he resolv'd as 't was usual with him
his person by the Rabble animated by some enraged Papists for thus disappointing them of making a Proselite of him as they boasted they had done and given publick thanks in divers Churches But his Lordship assured him that as he had spent the greatest part of his life and fortune in the Service of his Highnesses Royal Family and defence of the Protestant Religion he would willingly Sacrifice the remainder of both on so honourable an occasion as this With which hearty invitation his Highness was so pleased that he took no farther thoughts whither to go but remained with his Lordship Being thus gone from the Pallace-Royal the Queen Mother of France came immediately thither to try again as 't was thought if she could prevail with him to change his Religion And as soon as she came sent her Son the Duke of Anjou afterwards of Orleans to visit him who return'd with the news that he was not to be found But as soon as it was known that he was at the Lord Hatton's House she sent the then Marquess since Duke of Plessis a Person of such famed parts and abilities that in consideration thereof he was made Governour to the Duke of Anjou to perswade with him to comply with his Mothers advise for effecting whereof he exercised all his parts and elocution with great earnestness urging that since the Death of his Father the Queen his Mother had the sole Power and Authority over him Disputing whether the King his Brother as his Sovereign had equal Authority to dispose of him And the discourse growing somewhat publick the Marquess of Ormund and the Lord Hatton then present arguing in the Dukes defence the French Marquess finding himself overmatch't in great passion return'd without the success expected at the Pallace-Royal where the French Queen staid very late till he came back Whose report when both Queen 's heard they were then fully satisfied in the Dukes firmness to his Religion so that after that no considerable attempt was made on him though he continued for near two months very nobly entertained by the Lord Hatton until through the Marquess of Ormund's and his Lordships Interest Necessaries could be provided for his going into Germany CHAP. XXXVIII IT is not to be doubted but that the Convening of these persons from all parts of the Nation considering that divers of them being Members of the Old Long Parliament and eagerly thirsted to obtain their wonted power again having to that end corrupted a great part of the Army did not a little endanger his new-raised Dominion But such was his vigilancy that their Plots took no effect Seeing therefore both how and by whom his Authority had been thus affronted lest others in time by such examples might be swayed his next business was to gain some shadow of being owned by the generality of the people throughout the three Kingdoms which by the help of his Emissaries in short time he accomplisht first from Scotland by Gratulatory Petitions and next from the Counties and chief Places throughout England and Ireland Which being effected he then put on the Mask of a most tender and zealous Patriot earnestly promoting the performance of Justice encouraging Virtue and discountenancing Vice And to gain those of the Clergy who might be most serviceable to his purpose he made no small shews of his favours unto them yet with a check to the insolency of the Presbyterian and depressing the Episcopal and Orthodox To those also of the Romish persuasion though he seemed severe 't is certain enough that he did somwhat favour them there being not any sort of men to whom he carried not some shew of respect having an excellent faculty of courting them with some appearance of kidness But to captivate those who were seemingly Religious he had a singular art of discoursing with them most Divinely and not only so but Praying Sighing Groaning and somtimes shedding Tears in their presence yet having a special vigilancy upon all Parties and Interests which possibly might disturb his quiet So that the Royalists whose generous and active Spirits were ever prompting 〈…〉 our the Kings Restauration and to 〈…〉 a Rising in the West were soon 〈…〉 some of them were brought to Tryal amd 〈◊〉 death for the same But the lives of these Loyal 〈…〉 this subtle Tyrant for he took advantage thereby to cause the Estates of all others of that 〈◊〉 sate quiet to be decimated except such as by mony could free themselves from that great exaction And for the strict Levying of that most oppressive Tax he constituted fourteen select Major-Generals each of which had several Counties under his Jurisdiction who not only exercised their Authority in an Arbitrary and unlimited manner but at length grew so insolent that he thought it not fit to continue them in that power And now looking upon himself as an absolure Monarch he exercised the Authority of conferring the Honour of Knighthood first upon the Lord Mayor of 〈◊〉 And having soon after concluded a League 〈◊〉 France he went on and Knighted two of his Colonies Pride and Barksted the one who had been a Dray-man the other a seller of Thimbles and Bodkins of Silver And having throughout all parts of England by underhand practices those of his Preaching-Clergy serving him therein to some purpose made way for an Election of such Members for another Parliament as might best advance his future ambitious designs he sent out Writs of Summons for Convening of them accordingly At which meeting none were permitted to enter the House which refused to acknowledg and subscribe to his Authority Whereupon some being excluded went back to their Countries But those which sate went stoutly on with the work having made choice of Sir Thomas Widdrington to be their Speaker That the chief end whereat this proud and subtle Tyrant at that time drove was by the help of this Convention to be invested with the Title of King few there were to whom it was not evident enough though he cunningly seemed to look another way That there might therefore be the less suspicion thereof the design was so laid that the work should be brought about by degrees and in a Collateral way To which end in the first place as a preparation thereto they passed an Act whereby the Knights Citizens and Burgesses there assembled for so are the words did in the name of all the people of that Common-Wealth fully clearly and absolutely and for ever disclaim and renounce all Fealty Homage or Allegiance pretended to be due unto Charles Stuart Eldest Son of the late King Charles Iames Stuart c. or any other Issue or Posterity of the said King or any person or persons pretending or which should pretend Title by from or under them or any of them And soon after that another Act for security of the person of his Highness the Lord Protector and continuance of the Nation in Peace and Safety the
as when the truth which is but one shall appear to the simple Multitude no less variable than contrary to it self the Faith of Men will soon after dye away by degrees and all Religion be held in Scorn and Contempt CHAP. XLIV FOR the Laws of the Land with the Liberty and Property of the Subject because the first ought to be a Defence to the latter let us see what these great pretended Champions for both did for their Preservation Or rather how manifestly they violated them all by their unjust Practises Was it not for Execution of his Majesties Legal Writ grounded upon the Statute for Suppressing of Tumults that Justice Long was Committed to the Tower And were not Commands laid upon the Judges of the King's Bench that they should not grant any Habeas Corpus the Antient Remedy for the Peoples Security for such as the Members had Committed to Prison by their own Authority And did not Mr. Rigby a beloved Member move twice that those Lords and Gentlemen which were Prisoners for no cause but being Malignants as they term'd them should be sold as Slaves to Argiere or sent to the new Plantations in the West-Indies because he had Contracted with two Merchants for that purpose Though Mr. Pym himself had in a Speech in that Parliament acknowledged it against the Rules of Iustice that any Man should be Imprison'd upon a General Charge when no Particulars were proved against him As these things were most evident so was their Order against Publishing the King's Proclamation contrary to Acts of Parliament then in Force Likewise their Barbarous murther of his Majesties Messenger for bringing a Legal Writ to the Sheriffs of London to that purpose As also Collonel Nathaniel Fienes his causing the King's Proclamation concerning Marriners to be burnt in the open Market-place at Bristol by the Common Hangman he being then Governour there and Imprisoning the Earl of Bristol and Justice Malet for having an hand in the Kentish-Petition And notwithstanding the Statute in force against Loanes and Benevolences grounded upon the Petition of Right and that on Magna Charta which the Lord Say Mr. Pym and Mr. Hampden once held so Sacred that being asked upon occasion in King Iames his time why they would not then Contribute to the King's Necessities by way of Loan They Answered that they could be content to lend as well as others but that they feared to draw upon themselves that Curse in Magna-Charta which should be read twice every Year against the Infringers thereof Nevertheless did not these men Commit Mr. Fountain the Lawyer and divers others which refused to lend Money for advancement of their Rebellion And by a special Order sent those Loyal Citizens Sir George Whitmore Alderman Gurney Mr. Gardner and others to several Remote Prisons viz. Yarmouth Colchester Norwich c. for not submitting to their Lawless and Rigorous Tax of the twentieth part for the support of their Rebellious Forces And give power to their Officers to break open Trunks to search for Money and Plate and to seize the same for that purpose Mr. Strode one of the five Members in Justification of these heavy Oppressions saying that it was no more than they had right to do And that every Man in England had trusted his whole Estate to be disposed of as the Members of both Houses should think convenient For if the Members of both Houses quoth he think fitting to seize the Estate of every Man in England all the whole Kingdom is bound to submit to them And was not their Licentious Boldness such that Mr. Pym a single Member during a recess of both Houses by an Order under his own hand did dispence with the Act of Parliament 1. Eliz. for Uniformity of Common-Prayer And when upon a motion of the House that certain Gaolers should be tryed by Marshal Law by reason of some Prisoners escape and that it was opposed by divers Lawyers as an illegal course the Gaolers being answerable by the Law for the same was it not Replyed that they were not to be tyed to any Forms of Law those being to be laid by at such times as this when Necessity is the Rule by which they must guide their Actions What Misery have many Reverend and Orthodox Divines and others suffered by long Imprisonment some sent on Ship-board and kept under the Deck lying many days upon the hard Boards for no other Offence than their firm Loyalty to the King and Constancy in the true Protestant Religion Establish't by Law His Majesties Servant coming only to them on a Message for Peace being likewise so long Imprisoned that he dyed therein with hard Usage How partially Indulgent have they been to those of their own Rebellious Tribe is evident from sundry Instances as that of Mr. Gryffith one of their Members who was made a Captain of Horse with Silver Trumpets and extraordinary Bravery though he had Ravish't the Lady Sidley and was by her Accused for so doing Mr. Lenthall their Speaker having also six Thousand Pounds given him of that Money which had been raised by Act of Parliament for publick Service Having therefore thus trampled down the Laws and made seizure of the Kings Forts Towns Navy and Magazine whereby he was devested of all Power to protect his good Subjects no marvel that they deprived him of all other Authority declaring his nomination of Sheriffs Illegal and authorizing his Deputy Lieutenants and Trained-Bands to Suppress and Apprehend such Sheriffs Levying Money for Horse and Plate as also the twentieth part and a vast Weekly Tax by Distresses and Imprisonment to say nothing of Sequestrations and Plunders Add hereunto the Hanging of those Loyal Persons Mr. Yeomans and Mr. Bourchier at Bustol Likewise Mr. Tompkins and Mr. Chaloner at London And that the Oppressed People might take no benefit of the Law an Order and Declaration was set forth by Authority of both Houses that the Judges of Assize should forbear to go their Circuits as they would answer their Contempt to the Parliament Moreover to let the Reins of all Government loose they discharged all Apprentices from their Masters Service as would serve in their Rebellious Armies Compelling divers against their Parents good will Nor is it less observable that though by their own Fundamentals they had declared that the Subject was not to be forced unto the Wars against his will except it were by the consent of the King and the Estates in Parliament there being an Act in that Parliament passed also to that purpose Nevertheless they frequently pressed great numbers of Men to serve them in their Rebellious Armies And by a special Ordinance gave Power to any three of the Militia of London to raise and send out Men as also to Fine Imprison and Execute Martial-Law By the like Authority it was that they raised vast Sums upon Merchandize under the name of Tunnage
Humours began to Reign in them than well Composed Tempers Before the King would again submit himself as he had the last Parliament to so many strict Enquiries of his Disloyal Subjects he meaneth to pass through all the shifts that extremity and need with greatness of mind could lay upon him c. Beginning with the Sale of Lands and then of Iewels And in the end having not means to defray the Diet of his Court was enforced to break up House and with his Queen and Children cum Abbatibus Prioribus satis humiliter Hospicia quesivit prandia This low Ebb gave great assurance to the Rebellious Lords that they should now at last have the Soveraign Power left a Prey to their Ambitious Designes And to bring it faster on they desire nothing more than to see the King's Extremity constrain a Parliament For at such times Princes are ever less than they should be Subjects more To hasten on the time and adapt the means there are sown certain Seditious Orators that the King's Necessity must repair it self upon the Fortunes and Blessings of his People that having nothing of his own left he might and meant to take of other But seeing still that Majesty and Right subsist not without means and power and himself had of neither so much as would stop the present Breach in his own wants or his Subjects Loyalties he flyeth to the Bosom of his People for Relief and Council At Oxford they met in Parliament where his Necessities found so many undutiful demands that he was forced to render up to their Rebellious Will his Royal Power Here the Commons knowing that Quum eligere inceperunt they were loco libertatis stood with the King to have the managing of the State put to the care of XXIII whereof XII by their Election whereto they look't strictly and the other by him who in all things else was left as a Cipher Dober Castle the Key of the Kingdome they had furnished as most of the Forts of Reputation in the Realm with Guardians of their own sworne respectively to the State And then taking the like assurance of all the Sheriffs Bayliffs Coroners and other publick Ministers searching the behaviour of many by strict Commission upon Oath to win Opinion in shew among the Vulgar who groaned under their late Extortions whereas their end was truly as it proved by displacing the Faithful Subjects of the King to open a way to their own Dependents Thus changing sole Power into the Rule of many and those by popular Election made the State believe that by this form of limitted Policy they had utterly suppressed the Mind of Man for ever Dreaming more upon the Imaginary Humours of Licentious Soveraignty But it fell out nothing so For now every Man begun to estimate his own Worth and to hammer his Head on every design that might enlarge his Power and Command Then began the great Men to rent from the Crown and Regal Seignories all such Royal Sutors as Neighboured any of their Seats whereto they Inforce their Service And so as the Record saith ad sectas indebitas servitutes intolerabiles subditos Regis compulerunt Thus they made themselves of so many Subjects whilst they lived in Duty totidem Tyranni as the Book of St. Albans saith when they had left their Loyalty Montfort Gloucester and Spenser the Heads of this Rebellious Design having by the late Prouisions drawn to the hands of the XXIV Tribunes of the People the intire managing of the Royal Estate and finding that Power too much dispersed to work the end of their Designs forced the King again to call a Parliament where they delivered the Authority of the XXIV to themselves and Created a Triumvirate non constituenda Reipublicae causâ as they first pretended for their own ends And so in the interest of some private contented the publick was staid but to make a speedier way to one of them as it â—fatally did to become Dictatores perpetuos These three Elect nine Councellors and appoint quod tres ad minus alternatim semper in Curiâ sint to dispose of the Custody of Castles de alijs regni negotijs the Chief-Justice Chancellor and Treasurer with all Offices Majores Minores they reserve the choice of to themselves The Lords that had imped their Wings with Eagles Feathers and liked no gain but what was raked out of the Ashes of Monarchy made head against their Soveraign and to mate him the better called in some French Forces Thus the Common-Wealth turned again the Sword into her own Bowels And though these Men were more truly sensible of their own Design than of others Miseries yet found they no better pretext for private Interest than that of the publick And therefore at the entry of the Warr they cried Liberty although when they came near to an end they never spake word of it At Lewes the Armies met Where the King endeavours a Reconciliation but in vain For Perswasions are ever unprofitable when Justice is Inferior to Force The Sword decides the difference and gave the King and Prince Prisoners The Person now as well as the Regal Power thus in the hands of Montfort and Gloucester found neither bound of Security nor expectation of Liberty but what the emulous competition of greatness which now began to break out between these mighty Rivals gave hope of For Montfort meaning by ingrossing from his Partner to himself the Person of the King and to his Followers the best Portion of the Spoil to draw more fruit from this advantage than it should in Fellowship yield dissolved the knot of all their Amity Thus equal Authority with the same Power is very fatal we see to all great Actions For to fit Minds to so even a Temper that they should not have some motions of Dissenting is impossible The King now at the Victor's Discretion suted himself with incomparable Wisdome according to the Necessity of the time Neither did Humility wrong Majesty when there was not other means to contain Spirits so Insolent but Dissembling Leicester is become a Darling of the Common Rout who easily change to every new Master but the best durst not Sail along his Fortune by the Light of his Glory Christal that fairly glistereth doth easily break And as the Ascent of Usurping Royalty is slippery so the top is shaking and the Fast fearful For by this time the Imprisoned Prince was escaped and fast assured of Gloucester by the knot of his great Mind and Discontent And both with the torn remainder of the Loyal Army United and by speedy March Arrived unlook't for neer Evesham to the Unarmed Troops of the secure Rebels whom they instantly Assailed for it was no fit season to give time when no time did assure so much as Expedition did promise Dispenser and other Lords of that Faction made towards the King
Rebellion That the first Seeds of it were sown in Queen Elizabeth's time grew up in K. Iames and came to perfect ripeness in K. Charles his Reign is proportionably true of the Holy-League The first Platform of that was laid in the time of K. Charles the Ninth soon after the Reformation of Religion got footing in France It broke out in K. Henry the third's time and was at last suppressed by K. Henry the Fourth So that it infested the Reigns of three Kings no less than this of ours The cheif pretended occasion of it was the defence of Religion which the Ring-Leaders of that Faction did if not conceive themselves yet labour to perswade the People to be in danger of utter Ruine and Extirpation And that by reason of some Indulgence and Toleration granted by Charles the ninth and the Queen Mother and continued by Henry the third unto the Huguenots or Protestants who were as odious to them as Papists were with our Men though the truth was those Princes did as intirely detest the Religion of Protestants as the most zealous among ours can do the Papists And what they did in favour of them was meerly to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom Before the League was fully hatch't the State of that Kingdom was not much unlike this of ours before the late Troubles Some Grievances there were which waited upon it into the World For besides the Toleration of the Huguenots which distasted the Zealots the greatness of some new Men at Court bred an high discontent in divers of the Nobility And the heavy Taxes and Impositions upon the Common-People made them generally dissaffected with the present Government And this Variety of Malignant Humors rising from several Springs all met in the same Stream and bent their course to the same common end Innovation and Subversion of the Establish't Government A Parliament for so I shall take leave to call the general Assembly of the three Estates in France not according to the modern use of the Word in that Country from whence this Kingdom borrowed at first the name and thing but in compliance with our own Language was thought to be a sure Remedy at a pinch for â—etling the publick Distractions And though such Assemblies had been long intermitted in that Realm and the Kings of later time were grown out of love with them as conceiving that while they who represent the whole Nation are convened together with such Supream Power the Royal Authority in the mean time remained little better than suspended Yet upon a consultation had with a Council of Peers like that of ours at York and a motion from them to that purpose Francis the second was content to call a Parliament at Drleans which was quietly Dissolved by his Death before the States had done any thing but only shew'd their Teeth against the Protestants taking a solemn Protestation for Defence of their Religion and by that excluding all others from any Vote in that Assembly By the like exigence was Henry the third driven to have recourse to the like Remedy which proved indeed worse than the Disease For after his Intimation of a Parliament to Commence at Bloys the Duke of Guise and his Allies laid the Foundation of the League who being the most Popular and Powerful Subjects in the Kingdome sought by that means to augment their own greatness and secure the State of Religion which was so straitly twisted with their Interests This Duke besides his Ambition which prompted him sufficiently to those Turbulent Undertakings has formerly received some disgust at Court not much unlike that of Philip Earl of Pembroke for the Keys of the Pallace were taken from him and bestow'd upon the King of Navarr With which disgrace he was extreamly vexed and his Brother the Cardinal much more though they cunningly Dissembled and made a shew as if nothing troubled them but the Toleration of and connivence at Calvinisme by that means veiling their own Passions and Private Interests with an honest Cloak and colour of Religion So by little and little the Factious among the great ones were confounded with the differences in Religion and instead of Male-Contents and Guisards they put on the name of Catholicks and Huguenots Parties which under colour of Piety ministred so much the more Pernicious Fewel to all the Succeeding Combustions and Troubles The League was ushered in with Declarations Remonstrances and Protestations to the same effect and much in the same Language with this of our Covenanters We the Princes Noblemen Gentlemen and Commons Parties to that League profest that nothing but pure Zeal and Sincere Devotion which we bear to the Honour of God his Majesties Service the Publick Peace and Preservation of our Lives and Estates together with the Apprehension of our utter Ruine and Destruction hath necessitated us to this Resolution which we are constrained to put on for which we cannot any way be taxed or traduced for Suspition of Disloyalty Our Councils and Intentions having no other Design but meerly the Maintenance and Advancement of the Service of God Obedience to his Majesty and Preservation of his Estate And perceiving by what is past that our Enemies have not nor ever had any other aim but to Establish their Errors in the Kingdom to extirpate Religion and by little and little to undermine the King's Authority and totally alter the Government we can do no less in discharge of our Honours and Consciences than withstand the Sinister Designs of the Supream Enemies of God and his Majesty by a common Covenant and Association it being no more than time to divert and hinder their Plots and Conspiracies for all Faithful and Loyal Subjects to enter into a Holy Union and Conjunction which is now the true and only means left in our Hands by God for restoring of his own Service and Obedience to his Majesty The chief Heads of the League to which they swore were either altogether or in Proportion the same with those in our English Covenants viz. 1. To Establish Religion the Law and Service of God in its Pristine State according to the form and usage of the Catholick Roman-Church there as of the Protestant Reformed-Church here 2. As our Covenanters swore in the second Article to extirpate all Popery Heresy c. So did the Leaugers Renounce and abjure all Errors contrary to their Religion 3. As our Men in the third Article swore to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliament and Liberties of the Kingdom and to preserve the King's Person and Authority but with a Reservation in the Preservation and Defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdon So did they to preserve Henry the third of that Name and his Successors the Most Christian Kings in the State Splendour Authority Right Service and Obedience which are due unto him from his Subjects but with this Abatement according as is contained in
the King or the Government With which bait some Wise Men were allured into the snare among whom Villeroy the chief Secretary of State was one and Brissonius Primier President of the Parliament of Paris another the former entring himself one of the League out of a private grudge to the Duke D'Espernon desired the Duke of Guise's Faction might prevail that Espernons might be abated never imagining nor could be ever believe that the League would ever attempt any thing against the King's Person but only had an aim to cashiere his Minions and endeavour to extirpate the Huguenots The later though he had been at first a principal Instrument for the League fell off when he perceived that the ends of the Ring-leaders were not so sincere for the publick good as he at first had fancied And divers other there were as there will be in all Factions where great Men are engaged who adhered to that Party not out of any ends or Inclinations of their own but by reason of their Alliance with or dependence on the House of Lorrein and other chief Men of the League Having thus laid the grounds of their League upon these fair Pretences to gull the People their means of advancing it were such as our Men have transcribed from their Copy Not any thing of moment having been used here which was wanting there to increase their own and undermine the King's Power and Authority They had their Feares and Iealousies of dangerous Plots against their Persons at home of Designs to seize upon the City of Paris to overawe them by armed force and put an hundred of the chief to Death of Practises with Forrein Princes against them and their Religion and of suddain Invasion intended from abroad They had Reports broacht upon on grounds and Tumults raised in the City upon no other occasion than those Reports They had their Preachers h to amaze and fright the People out of their Witts by Strange and Miraculous Stories and out of their Allegiance by traducing and inveighing against the present Government They had their Scandalous Libels and Pictures first Published in the City and thence dispersed abroad to Poison the Countrey They neglected no means of courting and winning the Common-People by rubbing up their sores of new Taxes and Impositions and promising relief unto them by crying up the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the Subject by rendring the King's Person contemptible and his Actions Odious in the Eyes of his People setting forth Declarations and Remonstrances of the State of the Kingdom of such a tenor as it will be no new thing to Translate what they at Westminster have in a manner already done to my hand They wounded the King's Honour through the sides of his Councellers they stained the sincerity of his Professions and Protestations in point of Religion they went about to supplant his just Power and Authority by their new and insolent demands such as those of ours in the Nineteen Propositions Whil'st they seem'd to maintain his Authority they rob'd him of it transferring it wholly to the head of their League And though their Parliament in that point more moderate than ours waived that antient Question and would not contend about it viz. Whether the King or the Estates concerned in Parliament be Superior a point determinable by the very form of holding Parliaments and ever carried by the King in all former times yet they thought fit to Petition the King that for the more expedition and general satisfaction of all differences he would please to make choice of a certain number of Judges such in whom the States might confide who together with XII of their Members might hear and receive the several motions from the several Estates And whatsoever those Judges and XII Commissioners should jointly agree upon to have the force and strength of a Law without any Power in the King to alter or repeal it When this would not be granted by the King upon grave reasons of State which we need not here set down the Heads of the Faction and their Adherents took a new course to restrain the King's Power by proposing that the number of the Kings Council should be limitted to XXIV the very next number which our Lords and Commons in the second of their Nineteen Propositions would limit his Privy-Council to viz. not to exceed XXV and they to be chosen not by the King at pleasure but by every County of the Kingdon They required that all Moneys to be raised upon the Subject by way of Subsidy or Impost should be imployed for the defence of the Kingdom and that by all means at Free-Parliament should be called every three years at the least with full Power to any Man to present his Grievances to the States so Assembled They charged upon the King his Oath taken at his Coronation not only to be obliged to preserve the Antient Laws and Liberties of the Subject but such better Laws and more Commodious as should be presented unto him Their first grand Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom was cast in the same Mould with that of ours Which though it were the Contrivance but of a few chief Men of the League yet was it published in the name of all the Lords and Commons of France only signed by the Cardinal of Bourbon whom they made a Stale to their Ambition By this they declared that France had been miserably tormented by a Pestiferous Sedition raised for the Subversion of the antient Religion of their Fore-Fathers That no Remedies had been applyed but such as were more proper for nourishing than curing the Disease That the Catholick Religion being in great danger it was most necessary to take some speedy prudent course for prevention of the imminent ruine thereof That Agents were sent to practise with the Protestant Princes of Germany for Suppressing the Persons of Honest Men and pulling down the Catholick-Religion and an endeavour to destroy the great Men who had the principal places of Honour That the King's Favours whose Majesty was and ever should be Sacred to them and Government of the State were engrossed by such who had drained his Coffers and placed Officers in the Exchequer for their own private advantage That though some Rays of hopes appeared by that Assembly of the States-General at Bloys the antient Remedy for all Domestick-Wounds yet after their great Labours and Expences in that meeting no Fruits were Reaped by reason of the evil-Council of those Men so dissaffected to God and the good of the Common-Weal So that the abuses which by little and little at first stole upon them did then burst in like an Impetuous Torrent ready to overwhelm the Kingdom the Church of God being prophaned the Nobility scorn'd and vilified and every day opprest with Innumerable Grievances and Illegal Exactions And that upon these just Causes and Considerations they declared
occasion'd by the fears of the People without any consent of his That his Intentions were ever most Inclin'd to Loyalty and all due Obedience desiring nothing but that Evil Councillers might be removed and due care taken for the securing of Religion And though says my Author his Actions were for the most part quite contrary to his Professions yet the colour of Religion was so lively and plausible he knowing so well how to demean himself that the People generally believed him still a Loyal Subject to the King and that all he did was only out of Zeal to Religion and an Ardent desire for promoting the publick good of the Kingdom When things were in this State there followed the face of an accommodation betwixt the King and the Leaguers and for the composing of all differences another Parliament was convened at Bloys 16. Oct. 1588. In the Election of Members to assist at it though both parts laboured to have such chosen as were their own dependents yet those of the League prevailed by much above the Kings Party For the Commons being vexed with their pressing Grievances their end being mainly to shake off that Burthen did willingly adhere to the Kings Enemies who promised and professed an earnest desire of easing the People of their unsupportable burthen by Taxes and Contributions In this Parliament all the States took a Solemn Oath or Protestation for defence of Religion with the Kings Person and Authority Which Oath they ordered to be taken by all the Subjects of the Kingdom Notwithstanding all which Obligations whereby the Leaguers bound themselves to abandon their former Practises and to apply themselves to a sincere obedience of the King yet did they not remit any thing of their former Machinations For not only the Duke of Guise aspired to obtain the express Title of Lieutenant General which he could not before accomplish though he had the Power but the rest ceased not to tamper with the States that the Government migt be reformed in such a manner as that the King should have no share left him in it but the bare name and shadow of a Prince the whole Power to be transferred to this Duke and his Dependents of the League Nay the very number of the States which equaliz'd ours in the House of Commons engaging themselves in the Interests of the Faction did contend and squable for the same ends with them without any regard of their so many and Solemn Oaths in evident contempt of the Person Name and Majesty of the King The Commons in this Parliament notwithstanding they had resolv'd upon a War with the Huguenots which must needs be expensive Yet demanded from the King a moderation of Taxes and diminution of new Impositions which like that of Ship-money amounted to two Millions of Crowns yearly as also the Reformation of many Offices erected about the Customes and the total abolishing of some other Grievances They declared the King of Navarr who was next Heir to the Crown incapable of Inheriting and Sollicited the King to make a new Decree upon it unto which they would have him swear as a Fundamental Law After many other Plots and Practises in this Factious Parliament when business was now fully ripe and the Duke of Guise having sufficiently canvassed and prepared the States both in general and particular Grown now secure and bold upon confidence of former Experience he began to bring his Plot upon the Stage of being made Lieutenant-general at the Request and by the Authority of the Parliament which was the last end of his present hopes But those hopes were quickly frustrate by His untimely Death After which his Brother the Duke of Maine took up Arms to Prosecute that design of the League And though the King wrote kind Letters to him yet were they of no force to make him hearken to any Concord For making himself Head of the Holy Union he was by the Parisians declared Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France with the same authority and power wich is naturally inherent in the King abating only the name which Power was intended to continue until the States-General should think fit to alter it Upon the possession whereof he entred 22. Febr. 1589 Having taken a Solemn Oath to Protect and defend the Catholick Religion against all Persons whatsoever to preserve the Estate belonging to the Crown of France to defend the Priviledges of the three Estates of Parliament the Clergy Nobility and Commons to cause the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm to be observed and the Authority and Power of the Courts of Justice Having done this he chose and setled the Council of the Union like a close Committee consisting of fourty the chief and most eminent Persons of the League to manage all the most Important Affairs with his Assistance leaving still the Government of the City of Paris with the Sixteen And as our Men had their Committies in several Counties which received Directions from and sent Informations to their great Council So did these of the League ordain that there should be six eight twelve or more of them nominated in several places of the Kingdom to propose what was fitting to the Council and having received Directions from them to act accordingly Nor hath scarce any act of Insolence been Commited by our Men in which they might not urge these for an Example What hath been done to Justice Mallet taken off the Bench and Committed to the Tower the like was done in Paris For they in a Tumultuous manner beset the Hall of the Pallace where the Judges than sate seiz'd upon Harle and others whom they deem'd to be well affected to the King and Committed them Prisoners to the Bastile The King upon like Motives as his Majesty Adjourn'd the Term from London to Oxford adjourn'd the Courts of Justice the Parliament of Paris to Towrs that of Roan to Cane that of Dijon to Chalon And that nothing might be wanting in this Rebellion which was in that As our Men took upon them to make a new great Seal ransackt the Kings Pallace at White-hall seiz'd all his Revenues Forts and Magazine into their own hands usurped his Authority and called in a Forreign-Nation the Scots to their Assistance their Parliament Voting it and their Preachers being the Trumpeters of War against the King So our own Camden tells us the Leaguers of France did Populus ubique Magistratibus parere dedignatus Regias aedes Lutetiae diripuit Conjurati novo consilio instituto novo Sigillo ad res administrandas confecto Regiam sibi authoritatem arrogarunt munitissima quaeque loca immo integras Provincias sibi raptarunt Regni redditus interceperunt Auxiliares Hispanos è Belgio evocarunt Parliamentis suffragantibus Ecclesiasticis Bellum in Regem ubique buccinantibus The King after all this being straitned for Money and entertaining no Thoughts but of Peace and Accommodation procured the Popes Legate to Interpose
taken the Suburbs and sackt them The Convention of Estates thus met at Tours put out a Declaration in behalf of the King And that at Paris Publisht another against him After which contrary Declarations the Schollars being as eager to contend for their several Parties as the Souldiers there were publish't many Ordinances of Parliament infinite Writings of particular Men Decisions of the Sorbon Letters of the Pope's Legate Answers of the Bishops that adhered to the King and such a number of Books every where dispersed that it was a clear case there was not a Witt in the Kingdom but was Imploy'd Not a Pen but writ in defence of the Reasons of one side or other but with so much Obstinacy of Mind in their Arguments that it was easy to discern that the Arms of the Spirit when they are distorted and misused in divers manner in the Heat and Incogitancy of Wars are more apt to administer new Fewel to the Flame than quench the Fire already begâ—n At this time the Affairs of the League were in a very tottering condition the diversity of Pretensions and contrary ends of the Confederates much disturbing the course of their Enterprizes holding not only their Councils but the Effects and Actions of their common Interests in suspence Which in regard of the speedy Expedition and Resolutions of the King could not admit of delays The Duke of Mayne being Prince of the Faction and head of the Design who by the Authority of his Person Prudence of his Government and experience in Marshal-matters bore the chief burthen of their Affairs conceiving that the reward and fruits of his Paines did of Justice belong to himself projected therefore either to transfer the Crown upon himself or upon some of his House But in case he could not obtain so much then at least to set it upon the Head of some such Prince as might totally and absolutely be beholding to him for it being resolv'd that the Kingdom should not be divided much less that it should fall into the Hands of a Forein Prince On the contrary the King of Spain who in the beginning secretly but now openly protected and fomented the League and had of late Years laid out two Millions in the Service of the Confederates and was now to contribute vast Sums of Money both in publick and private besides his maintaining of Foot and Horse seeing that without his Assistance which they desired might be great and strong not only the main Design was like to come to nothing but the League could not long subsist without being Dissolved thought more than reasonable and more than just that as the Expences and Losses were his so the Fruits and Benefits should be his also And therefore besides an under-hand secret Design of Uniting the Crowns and gayning that of France to his Daughter Isabella the Infanta whom he had by his Queen Elizabeth King Henry the 3 ds Eldest Sister he farther endeavoured to get himself publickly declared Protector of the Crown of France with Sovereign Power and Authority to dispose of the Offices of the Crown to choose the Governours and Captains of the Armyâ— to conferr Bishopricks and to have all the Prerogatives pertaining to an absolute Prince All which was demanded and publickly Sollicited by his Agents Mendoza Mornea c. But the Citizens of Paris who perceived well that the main strength of the Faction consisted in them not only in regard of the Multitude of their People and Power of the City but by reason of their continual Contributions from whence the Sinews of the War were derived thought it was come to their share to dispose of the Crown And being all apay'd with the Duke of Mayne's bad Success in the Wars the same fate which the Earl of Essex had with the Londoners Imputing the loss of their Suburbs to his slackness whom they called Coward and Block-head p. 741. and that the City was now in a manner Besieged and much straitned for want of Provisions by reason of his want of Care inclin'd to submit themselves to be ordered by the Spaniards hoping by the help of their Forces to destroy the King's whose very Name was odious to them and to extirpate the Religion of the Huguenots whereunto they were naturally Enemies and by means of the Spanishâ—-Gold to be eased of the insupportable burthen of Contributions For the King of Spains Ministers bore them in hand and went about cunningly with fair Promises and big Words both in publick and private in order to their Assistance On the other side the Nobility which took part with the League in whose hands were the Arms and Forces of the Kingdom were much averse from submitting to the Spanish-Yoke inclined to the Duke of Mayne conforming themselves to his Pleasure to be guided by his Authority But in this great distraction of the Kingdom divers of them were not without their own particular Designs And of such variety of Councils was the League composed that by clashing with one another they interrupted the course of their Affairs and abated the heat by which they first Conspired in that Band which seemed to have no other end but Religion The King therefore taking advantage of these their Divisions dismissed the Marquess of Belin upon his Parole whom he had taken Prisoner at the Battel of Arches with Commission in his name to proffer Peace to the Duke of Mayne and to exhort him as a Prince of an honest and moderate temper not to assent to the Pernicious Designs of Foreigners but freeing himself from the base usage of the Vulgar and cunning of the Spaniard that he would hearken to an honest and safe Peace whereupon answerable to his Merit and Honour he should have as great a share in the Kings Favour as himself could desire When the Marquess made this overture to the Duke the Opinions of the Councillers about him were much divided some favouring it others declaming against it Telling how the War was founded upon the point of Religion and therefore nothing must be done in it without the Popes Approbation Also that the Duke of Mayne being not absolute Prince of the League but only the Head of his Party ought not to adventure upon such an Important Action without the joynt consent of all those that followed that Party and all the Princes that adhered to or favoured the League who if they should not follow his deliberation might choose another Head and he be left destitute of the support of the Catholick Party to the will of his Enemies And that this was but a trick of the Kings to work a diffidence in the Dukes Party and to sow Divisions and Suspitions amongst the Confederates though the King might promise Golden-Mountains to the end he might dissolve the Union of the League yet there was no security but that so soon as he should be Established King in Peace he would not observe the least Tittle of his promises The Duke therefore on the one side
having form'd sundry congregations as at Francfort Strasburg Geneva and other places they devised such new models of Discipline but all of them more or less favouring of those Tenets as upon their return after the death of that Queen not a few both of the Clergy and Laity were unhappily tainted therewith And at length through the countenance of some chief Ministers of State who then seemed to favour them for certain private respects became dangerous Enemies not only to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church but to the very temporal Government of the Realm as by their heterodox opinions which they boldly promoted and spread under the specious Title and name of the Gospel will evidently appear of which I have here thought fit out of their own Books and Writings to give a Taste Lay men may teach to get Faith Lay men may preach to Congregations to exercise their abilities Every member of the Church hath power to examine the manner of administring the Sacrament That to have a Liturgy or form of prayer is to have another Gospel Some Protestants are of opinion that Ordinances cannot be performed but by a Prelate or at least by Ministers only without whose Imposition of Hands it were no Ordination as if it did confer such an order whereas the prime and proper conferring of this Order is by Christ himself inwardly calling and gifting a man for the work of the Ministry To the people belongeth the laying on of Hands as a token of their approbation and confirmation of him that is chosen Arch-Bishops and Bishops are superfluous members of the Body of Christ. They are unlawful false and bastardly Governours of the Church they are the ordinances of the Devil yea they are petty-Popes petty-Antichrists Bishops of the Devil and incarnate Devils If the Hierarchy be not removed and the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom namely his own Discipline advanced there can be no healing of the sore If the Parliament do not abrogate the government of Bishops they shall betray God the Truth and the whole Kingdom Though the Parliament be for Bishops yet all the Godly and Religious will be against them If the Brethren cannot obtain their wills by Suit nor Dispute the multitude and people must work the feat Reformation of Religion belongs to the Commonalty Christian Sovereigns ought not to be called Heads under Christ of the particular invisible Churches within their dominion They ought not to meddle with the making of Laws Orders and Ceremonies for the Church The people may well enough be without Kings for there was none till Cain's days These therefore being their Principles that their continued Practises have been sutable thereto is not unknown to many viz. to subject all Princes and Governours to their own Rule and Authority and in ordine ad Spiritualia to determine in temporal matters Hence I shall proceed a little farther and out of their own Writings make manifest what a noise they have made that their Discipline founded on these Principles might be firmly setled The establishing the Presbytery saith T. Cartwright is the full placing of Christ in his Kingdom The Presbyterian Discipline is the Scepter of Christ swaying his own House according to his hearts desire the Soul the Cheif Commander in the Camp Royal. Huic Disciplinae omnes orbis Principes Monarchas fasces suas submittere parere necesse est There is a necessity that all Princes and Monarchs should submit their Scepters and obey this Discipline This Discipline ought to be set up and all Princes ought to submit themselves under the yoke of it Yea what Prince King or Emperor shall disanul the same he is to be reputed God's Enemy and to be held unworthy to reign above the people This Discipline is no small part of the Gospel it is the substance of it This Discipline is the Gospel of the kingdom of God They that reject this Discipline refuse to have Christ reign over them and deny him in effect to be their King or their Lord. This Discipline is the eternal Council of God If any refuse to have the Lord Jesus set up as Lord i. e. to submit to this Discipline let him be Anathema Maranatha Aut hoc aut nihil is their Ensign They who hinder Discipline bring the Estate at length to an extreamly desperate point None but Enemies to Christ are Enemies to this Government Strike neither at great nor small but at those troublers of Israel Smite that Hazael in the fifth rib Yea if Father or Mother stand in the way away with them Down with the colours of the Dragon Advance the standard of Christ. Those mine Enemies who would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Strike the Basilic vein Nothing but this will cure the Pleurisy of our State And Gibson threatned King Iames that as Ieroboam he should be rooted out and conclude his race if he maintained Bishops Which dangerous positions being thus maintained by this sort of men occasioned Mr. Perkins an eminent Divine of those times thus to express There is in England saith he a Schismatical and indiscreet Company that would seem to cry out for Discipline Their whole talk is of it and yet they neither know it nor will be reformed by it They are full of pride thinking themselves to be full when they are empty to have all knowledg when they are ignorant and had need to be catechised The poison of aspes is under their Lips They refuse not to speak evil of the blessed servants of God And as the German Sectaries upon the Principles before mention'd did act in those parts so did the Scots upon those Documents they had received chiesly from Iohn Knox who told his Countrymen in print that the Nobility and Commonalty ought to reform Religion and in that case might remove from Honours and punish such as God hath commanded of what estate condition or honour what soever Hereupon taking an Oath of confederacy and Subscription under hands to some agreement for a Reformation much strength was added thereunto by the Sacrilegious hoping thereby to swallow up the Church-Revenues Next without the authority of Sovereignty or knowledg of it those Confederates prescribed orders for Reformation of Religion to be observed and practised throughout the whole Kingdom Then preach'd against the Queen-Regent and Parliament and wrote to the Bishops and Clergy that except they did desist from dealing against them they would with all force and power execute just vengeance and punishment upon them likewise begin the same war which God commanded Israel to execute against the Cananites And lastly arriving at the highest pitch of Rebellion they deposed their Queen By that which hath been said it is no less apparent what those Disciplinarians in Queen Elizabeth's days did also aim at had their
of England having not only been invaded by the Dutch but their bold usupation therein openly justifyed by certain public Writings the King with the advice of his Council-learned did about the same time issue out certain Writs directed as well to all the Inland Counties as to the respective Port-Towns according to the example of his Royal Progenitors to set out a certain number of Ships furnish'd with Mariners Amunition Victual and all other necessaries for defence of the Realm By which means he did not only assert and recover that dominion on the Sea which really belong'd to this Kingdom but much improved Trade and Commerce whereby the generality of his Subjects were not a little enrich'd But this just and rational practise some of the malevolent Members of his former Parliaments and others of that stamp under pretence of standing up for the Rights and Properties of the Subjects did stubbornly oppose though his Majesty had the clear and unanimous opinion of all the grave and learned Judges of his Courts in Westminster-Hall under their hands to justify those his Proceedings Nevertheless waving any arbitrary power he freely gave leave that the Case should be solemnly debated in the Exchequer-Chamber Which being publikly done after divers solid Arguments thereon no less then ten of those twelve Judges fully declared their opinion for the Legality thereof Sr. George Crook and Sr. Richard Hulton only dissenting though they had formerly subscribed thereto This as to the Civil Liberties and what as hath been before observed of the great noise made every where touching the fear of Popery was it whereof not only the factious people here took great advantage but those of that leven in Scotland who thereupon began to set on foot a contrivance whereby they might have the colour of Religion* to help on their work Whereunto the rise they took was a pretended apprehension that the Liturgy sent to them in an 1637 was a meer Popish Service-book and purposely design'd to introduce the Romish worship into both Kingdoms From the ground of which seeming jealousies they fell foul upon the Bishops under colour that they were the framers thereof and the chief Instruments for obtruding it upon them To clear them therefore of this most impious scandal I shall here breifly represent to the world what that so much defam'd Liturgy was and on what occasion it was sent into that Realm King Iames after he came to enjoy the Crown of England well observing the Decency and Uniformity of God's worship here and the Deformity thereof in his own native Kingdom where no set or public form of Prayer was used but oftimes seditious expressions girding at Sovereignty and Authority and stuft with false Reports upon his Progress into Scotland an 1616 an Assembly being then held at Aberdene he proposed to that Convention a public Liturgy to be used in that Realm Which pious motion being then and there well approved of a Liturgy was accordingly framed and in all points properly fitted for that Kirk and after his return into England convey'd to him where it was viewed by some of his Scottish Subjects yet not sent thither whilst that King lived Being thus composed his Son and Successor K. Charles after a review thereof finding it in substance the same with the English Liturgy which his Majesty in point of prudence declin'd to recommend unto them lest they might cavil thereat under colour that it would be look'd upon as a badge of Dependency upon the Church of England then sent it to the Lords of the Privy-Council of that Realm by their advice to be publicly read without the least suspition of any dislike thereof in regard it did so little differ from the English Liturgy wherewith his Scottish Subjects of all sorts were well acquainted by reason of their frequent resort to his Majesties own Chappel and many other Churches in this Realm where it was constantly used as also in his Royal Chappel at Haly-Rood-House whereunto the Nobility Bishops Judges Gentry and people of all degrees did usually come Cathedrals of Scotland and University of St. Andrews and not only so but commended in the Sermons of some of their after principal Covenanters especially Mr. Rollock But Rebellion being the close and underhand design of these great Pretenders to Godliness whereby in case they did prosper they might swallow up the Possessions of the Crown and Church with the Estates of all his Majesties loyal Subjects the contrivance was so laid that the Common people should be possess'd with an opinion that the King having married a Popish Queen did resolve to introduce the Romish Religion first into Scotland and afterwards into the rest of his dominions and to that end first to settle this Liturgy there it being privately whispered that it was the very Mass translated into their Language Which so far incensed the vulgar that upon the reading thereof in the great Church at Edenborough upon the 23 d of Iuly the same year 1637 they made such a tumult as that the Dean who read it and many other persons of note had much adoe to escape thence with their lives Which uproar was so barbarous that the day following the Lords of the Council there set forth a Proclamation* in dislike thereof And the Magistrates of Edenborough to make up the Pageant sent Letters into England to the Archbishop of Canterbury desiring him to recommend to the King's Majesty their zeal and forwardness for setling the peaceable practise thereof Neither would any man of note then seem to own that Tumult but attributed it to the Rogues and base multitude except the zealous Kirkmen who cryed it up in their Pulpits and magnifyed them for the most heroical Sparks that ever God inspired and raised up in this last age of the world and for their happy Mouths and Hands which God was pleas'd to honour that day with the beginning of their new Blessed Reformation and occasioning their celestial Covenant as they call'd it that their memorial should be eternal and all succeeding generations should call them blessed After this about the end of Harvest began a tumultuous conflux of the Nobility Gentry Ministers and others at Edenborough from all parts of the Kingdom howbeit as yet the principal persons in authority there seemed to stand right enough in their loyalty so that his Majesty the less feared the ensuing mischeifs the more to prevent any suspition thereof set forth three Proclamations First that nothing should be treated of at the Council-Table there about Church-business till they saw the times and meeting of his Majesties Subjects more quiet and peaceable The Second for removing the Session or Term from Edenborough to Lithgow for fear of present danger The third for burning a seditious Book dispersed in derogation of the Ecclesiastical Government in England But these Proclamations were for little else then shew the Tumults increasing so that the next day
give no just cause of fears to the people But whilst he was thus zealous to satisfy his good Subjects of his real Intentions the Members at Westminister now confident of their own power sent down a Petition with Nineteen Propositions to his Majesty By which they demanded no less in effect than to yield up all his Regal power into their Hands Unto which he soon after returned a full and clear Answer by the Marquess of Hertford and Earl of Southampton To second which Propositions within four days ensuing they set forth a bold Declaration against his Proclamation of the xxvijth of May affirming it to be void in Law and in opposition thereto requiring all Officers to muster levy rise march and exercise according to their Ordinance assuring them for so doing of protection by both Houses of Parliament And within few days after sent out an Order in the name likewise of both Houses with Proposals for the bringing in of Money and Plate as also for providing Horse Horse-men and Arms in pursuance of their solemn vow and Protestation for suppressing the Traiterous attempts as they call'd them of those wicked and malignant Counsellers who sought to engage the King in a war against his Parliament and likewise with Instructions for the Deputy-Lieutenants to proceed therein themselves making Subscriptions accordingly the very same day Nor were the Lecturing-Preachers and other of that strain less active every where in this desperate and afterwards bloudy Scene the cheif of which throughout all England were then got into London Westminster and the Suburbs of both it being very well known both bâ— their public Sermons and sediticus Pamphlets what endeavours they sedulously used to stir up all persons able of Body to take up Arms and others to give aid with their Purses towards the advancing that Glorious work as they call'd it And for the better quickning the Members of Parliament therein they forthwith repaired to each man's particular House or Lodgings in and about those Cities to excite and animate them thereto as some of those Members have since acknowledged the drift and design of those Pulpiteers therein being the alteration of Church-government and inriching themselves with the lands and possessions of the Bishops and their Cathedrals as is very well known Whose Rebellious documents had such success that the Houses of Parliamen sent down divers of their most active Members to execute their Ordinance for the Militia in the Counties of Leicester Lincolne Essex Kent c. Who infused into the people strange fears and apprehensions of very great dangers to the end that they might be the better prepared to rise in the ensuing Rebellion But to return to the Propositions for bringing in of Horse Money and Plate Of this so soon as the King had notice he dispatch'd a Letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London intimating to them that if they should give or lend any money or provide or raise any Horse or Arms under pretence of a Guard for both Houses grounded upon those scandalous votes by which they had presumed to declare his intention to levy war against his Parliament he should look upon it as the raising of force against himself and to be done in malice and contempt of his authority But this came too late for the Londoners were so forward in their compliance with these Propositions that the very same day they brought in great sums of Money for which by a special Order they had public Thanks returned Which sums if we may credit one of their own Party did with their Plate Rings c. in London Middlesex and Essex amount to above Eleven millions of pounds besides vast sums from the rest of the Counties and otherwise So that all the effect his Majesties Letter produced was only an Order in the name of both Houses that the Deputy-Lieutenants throughout the Kingdom should tender Propositions to the several Counties for raising of Horse for the service of the King and Parliament and soon after that a Declaration of both Houses was issued out whereby they justifyed their raising of Forces alleadging the same to be for maintenance of the Protestant Religion the King's Authority and Person in his Royal dignity the free course of Justice the Laws of the Land priviledge of Parliament c. forbidding any Officers whatsoever to spread that Paper for so they stiled his Majesties Letter justifying their Votes that the King intended to levy war against his Parliament intimating that neither his Majesties commands nor threats could withdraw or deter such as were well affected to the public from contributing Money Horse and Plate And so indeed it proved for as they had deluded the people large proportions were daily brough in the County of Essex contributing twenty seven thousand pounds and upwards and eight hundred Horse Hertfordshire eight thousand pounds and three hundred Horse c. as appears by the calculation thereof made upon the twentieth of August ensuing The King therefore taking into consideration these their violent practises and that they had set up Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants in all Counties declaring his Commissions of Lieutenancy illegal upon mature deliberation and advice about this time issued out Commissions of Array into all parts of the Realm which course had been anciently used by his Royal Progenitors for prevention of Invasions or suppressing of any Insurrections and approved by divers Statutes and thereupon set forth a Proclamation informing all his loving Subjects of the lawfulness and use of them commanding their obedience thereunto Which Commissions the Earl of Derby in Lancashire the Earl of Huntingdon and Mr. Henry Hastings his Son afterwards Lord Loughborough in Leicestershire with others in those Counties to whom they were directed did first put in execution But hereupon the Members at Westminster published a large Declaration in the name of both Houses representing those Commissions of Array to be contrary to the Laws of the Land destructive to the Liberty and Property of the Subject yea so full of danger and inconvenience that it would bring an heavier yoke of bondage upon them than any that had been taken away that Parliament Their sactious Emissaries employ'd in sundry parts of the Realm perswading the people that those Commissions were to reduce the Estates of all the Yeomanry of England to ten pounds a year and to enslave them beyond expression And lest those who were thus seduced by these their subtil illusions should receive any satisfaction from his Majesties gracious Declarations whereby the uprightness of his Actions and candor of his Intentions might appear they sent out Orders strictly to prohibit the publishing of them promising Protection from the Parliament to those who should refuse so to do Moreover because the King out of his great sense of those imminent dangers which daily more and more threatned his safety desired a
Subscription of those Lords and other loyal persons then attending him at York for levying Horse in his own defence as also for safeguard of the two Houses of Parliament and the Protestant Religion they order'd that ten thousand pounds of the money which had been brought in upon the Propositions unto Guild-Hall should be forthwith laid out to buy Horses and that ten thousand Foot should be speedily raised in London and the parts adjacent to be employ'd according to the direction of the Parliament As also that Arms should be taken out of the Tower for their present occasions to be disposed of by authority of Parliament Likewise that the ten thousand men so raised should be forthwith listed under Officers trained entred into pay and march into any part of the Kingdom by direction and authority of Parliament And of this Army thus speedily to be raised they appointed that the Earl of Essex should be General with whom they voted that they would live and dye Likewise to the end that this great affair might yet carry a specious shew to the world they set forth two more Declarations in the name of both Houses Whereby they pretended their whole endeavour to be for his Majesties Honour and Safety the regaining the ancient Laws Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom so much invaded setling the Protestant Religion in peace and purity c. Taxing the King with endeavour of a change in Religion and Government as also with breach of his solemn Protestations and Imprecations and that he had already begun a war against them being seduced by Jesuitical Counsel and Cavaliers who had designed all to slavery and confusion which gave them occasion thus to raise Forces for defence of Religion and Laws And having given authority to the Earl of Warwick to command his Majesties Navy at Sea they made an Order for him to take provisions for the same out of the Kings stores at Chatham notwithstanding his Majesties command to the contrary Likewise for the better increase of their Army they made Orders for encouragement of Voluntiers within this Kingdom and dominion of Wales to exercise and discipline themselves in a military manner which promises of the Authority of both Houses for their indemnity As also that the Earl of Essex should go on to make all speedy preparation for the raising of Forces according to his Commission appointing Commissioners out of the Common-Council of London to assist him in raising Voluntiers within that City and the Liberties thereof And lastly that a Declaration should be published to satisfy the people concerning their proceedings herein as also to stir them up to afford all speedy aid towards the raising of Forces upon the Propositions for the intent aforesaid and for removing the evil Counsellers from his Majesty How forward and active the Londoners were to promote this Rebellion can hardly be imagined people of all sorts pouring out their Treasure as if it had been for the most advantageous purchase in the world thronging in with their Plate and Rings and not sparing their very Thimbles and Bodkins Neither were they backward in the adventure of their lives five thousand of them listing themselves under the Earl of Essex the next day in Moor-Feilds Which with the other Voluntiers then in readiness amounted to near ten thousand men being forthwith committed to Officers and distributed into Regiments were ordered to be daily exercised and to have constant pay But all these Forces and preparations were raised and made for the King's safety and preservation as 't was pretended though at the same time certain Provisions of Wheat and Wine for his Majesties own Table passing by water towards York were seized by Sir Iohn Hotham and that seizure approved of by the Houses at Westminister with encouragement to do the like upon occasion And as they took all care to hinder the King's good Subjects from the sight of his Declarations and Proclamations lest they should continue stedfast in their old obedience to his Majesty and the Laws as is evident from their imprisoning the Lord Mayor of London as also of the Mayors of Salisbury and St. Albans for the publishing of them according to their duties so were they not slack in spreading and divulging their own as is apparent from their frequent dispersing them And therefore though they had often vented the like before yet now again to remind the people of what was in hand they set forth another bitter Declaration whereby they taxed the King with a design to alter the Government both in Church and State and that the time for effecting thereof was then come to ripeness as did appear by the preparation of Arms made by his Majesty as they alleadged Scandalizing him with giving countenance to the Rebellion in Ireland and therefore declared that they were necessitated to take up Arms for the defence of all these which must otherwise perish The King therefore observing that in pursuance of their Votes and Declarations they had thus form'd a powerful Army and that they had already beseig'd the Town of Porstmouth did set forth a Proclamation declaring the Earl of Essex and all his adherents Traitors with pardon to such as should return to their obedience within six days But this gracious offer was so much contemn'd that so soon as it came to their notice they publish'd a Declaration in the name of both Houses of Parliament containing many shameful invectives against his Majesty declaring all such to be Traitors that were Contrivers or Countenancers of this last Proclamation of August the ninth And that if his Majesty would disband his Forces abandon those wicked Counsellers and hearken to the wholsome advice of his great Council they would endeavour to make him and his posterity as great and rich as any Prince that ever sway'd the Scepter CHAP. XII BUt what this specious offer meant the King by woful experience being sufficiently sensible and of all other helps in small hope publish'd another Proclamation declaring his purpose to erect his Standard-royal at Notingham upon the twentieth of August requiring the aid and assistance of all his Subjects on the North of Trent and twenty miles Southwards for suppressing the power of those Rebels which were then on their march against him And therewithall a Declaration setting forth their evil practises and proceedings from the beginning of that Parliament But the Rebels for so I shall now call them having brought their work to this height and for their better support therein having seized on an hundred thousand pounds of the money rais'd by Act of Parliament for the service of Ireland having also deposed Sir Richard Gurney Lord Mayor of London as also committed him to the Tower and by their own authority set up another they sent Forces into several parts of this Realm viz. into Kent putting them into Cotham-House as also into the Block-house
Laws and Liberty of the Subject to establish Popery and to set up an arbitrary Government for prevention whereof both Houses and the whole Realm should enter into a solemn Covenant never to lay down Arms so long as the Popish-party for so they called the King's forces were on foot and Papists and Delinquents protected from the Justice of the Parliament but to assist the Forces rais'd by authority of the two Houses of Parliament against the Forces rais'd by the King Which solemn Oath and Covenant thus drawn up was then taken by both Houses and within ten days following throughout all the Parishes of London And because the poor Country-people might throughout England be all caught upon one day they passed an Order of both Houses that a Public Thanksgiving should be made throughout the whole Kingdom on Thursday the thirteenth of Iuly following for the discovery of the late Plot at which time this Oath and Covenant should be tendred to every man in the several Parishes Also to secure the Pulpit-men the more cordially to them and to make them the more active in stirring up the people upon all occasions they made an Ordinance for calling an Assembly of Divines in order to the setting up of the Presbyterian Government Which Assembly was to consist of ten of the House of Lords and twenty of the House of Commons whose names are therein express'd and the rest Ministers all of the Presbyterian gang excepting three or four whom though for the more credit of that Convention they nominated there was little reason to expect any of their company The Preamble of which Ordinance runs thus Whereas amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God upon this Nation none is or can be more dear unto us then the purity of our Religion And for that as yet many things remain in the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church which do necessarily require a farther and more perfect Reformation than as yet hath been attained And whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the present Church-government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and other Eccleastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy is justly offensive and burthensome to the Kingdom a great impediment to Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the State and Government of this Kingdom and that therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away and that such a Government shall be setled in the Church as may be most agreeable to God's holy word and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at home and neerer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other reformed Churches abroad c. be it ordained c. 'T was no marvail indeed that they at Westminster bestir'd themselves so hard for by this time the success of his Majesties Armies was such that he had by God's blessing regained the greatest part of the North and West parts of this Realm and did daily so increase in strength that to uphold their Cause they bethought themselves of calling in their Brethren the Scots for aid Wherefore having prepared a Declaration to discover another dangerous Plot to extirpate the Protestant Religion in England Ireland and Scotland they agreed that some of their Members viz. the Lork Grey of Wark Sir William Ayrmia and Mr. Darley should go into Scotland to desire help from thence and prepare Instructions for them with Letters of Credence with promise that they should have allowance for the charge of such forces as they should send and that the debts they already owed them should be paid out of the lands of the Papists and Prelatical party in Northumberland Cumberland and Bishoprick of Durham Which Commissioners did accordingly set forwards upon the xxith of Iuly But about this time the Earl of Essex their General made complaint to them by Letters for want of Horse Arms c. and proposed to them a Treaty for peace Whereunto answer was soon made by the resolution of their House of Commons who debated the same that by their late Vow and Covenant they had bound themselves never to lay down Arms so long as the Papists for so they call'd the King's forces which were then in Arms against them should have protection from the Justice of the Parliament sending him word that they would recruit his Troops according to his desire And to complement their Western General Sir William Waller whose heartiness to the Cause suted so well with theirs they ordered five thousand pounds to be sent down to him and given as a Largess to his Souldiers the more to encourage them in that service But the certain charge of their Rebellious Armies did so vastly increase as was truly foretold by Mr. Green Chairman to their Committee for the Navy upon the sixth of December before viz. that the maintenance of the Lord General 's Army would for the ensuing year amount to above a million of Money that of the Navy having been two hundred and forty thousand pounds for the year passed and that without delay they must of necessity settle a round and constant Tax for maintenance thereof they therefore passed an Ordinance for Excise or new Impost upon Wine Beer Ale Cider Perry Raisins Figs Currans Sugar Spices wrought and raw Silks Furrs Hats Laces Lether Linnen of all sorts Thread Wier c. and for sweetning its relish with the people gave it out that part of its income should pay Debts for which the Public faith was engaged Moreover to raise men as well as money their Western-Army being then destroy'd at Round-way-down the Citizens had a meeting at Grocer's Hall where they made new Subscriptions to set up Sir William Waller again For the better furthering whereof there were new Petitions framed from London Westminster and Southwark and presented to the House of Commons that all the Kingdom might rise as one man against the Common Enemy and that the Parliament would give power to a Committee to list so many of the Petitioners as were willing to go out in their own persons as also to take the Subscriptions of others for the raising a considerable Body of Horse and Foot and that the like course might be taken throughout the Kingdom by a confiding Committee In pursuance whereof both Houses made an Ordinance for raising seven thousand Horse in London Middlesex and the Counties adjacent to be commanded by the Lord Kymbolton afterwards Earl of Manchester and of Eleven hundred Horse in the Counties of Bedford Buckingham Northampton and Hertford to be commanded by Sir Iohn Norwich In Norfolk and Suffolk Eleven hundred by Sir Miles Hobart in Surrey Sussex Southampton and Berkshire fourteen hundred by Colonel Richard Norton And all these thus to be rais'd to resist the Insolencies of the King's Army Certain it is
silenc'd yet by reason of his zeal to God's Glory as they term'd it that is to say his activeness against Episcopacie he was exempted from the Rigour of that sentence Moreover as they took care to disable those of the Clergy which were Orthodox and Loyal from preaching any more so to encourage all others who were for their turn though not at all qualified with learning they gave liberty to every bold and schismatical Mechanick to preach under the notion of Gifted-men To which purpose an Ordinance was brought in to the House and read for approving of such illiterate persons to be Ministers And that Episcopal Government might never return again they passed an Ordinance for the sale of all the Lands belonging to the Bishops with special instructions therein for the Contractors and Surveyors Amongst which Instructions it is not the least observable that for the better encouraging of Purchasers they should sell them at ten years purchase Nay such was their care to make this sacrilegious work as plausible to the people as might be that besides the extraordinary pay their Surveyors of those Lands had viz. 20 s. a day and five shillings a day to every Boy that did but carry the end of the measuring-Chain they gave special directions that the Gentry and other popular-men residing in those parts where such Lands lay should be feasted by the Surveyors which feasts amounted to no small charge saying Wee must pay well and hang well About this time also there was a Committee appointed to inquire into the Value of all Church-livings in order to the planting of an able Ministry as they gave out whereas in truth it was to discover which were the best and fattest Beneficies to the end that the principal Champions for the Cause might make choice of those for themselves whereof some had three a piece and some four as is very well known it being aparent that where any small Benefice was there the Church-dores were shut up The more to justify which practice of theirs I could name an Assembly man who being told by an Eminent person that a certain Church in the West of England had no Incumbent askt what the yearly value of the Benefice did amount unto and he answering sifty pounds per annum the Assembly man reply'd if it be no better worth no Godly-man will accept of it But notwithstanding all this the advancement of the Scepter of Iesus Christ that is to say the establishing the Presbyterean-Government by a Law went but slowly on insomuch as the Covenanting Brethren in London who were dayly agitated with the zealous breath of the Presbyterean Bellows from the Pulpits and otherwise growing hot for the Scotch Discipline busyed themselves not a little in getting Hands to a Petition for prosecuting the ends of the Covenant and that Presbyterie might be established And for the better speed of that blessed work the latter part of their new Confession of Faith being brought in by the Assembly of Divines and read in the House of Commons it was Ordered that marginal notes should be forthwith added thereto to prove every Article by Scripture and that the Assembly should also bring in their Answers to the Quaeres of the House concerning the Ius divinum of Presbyterie CHAP. XXII BUT oh the fates Now that after all this formal combining and Covenanting with the precious Brethren of Scotland Horse Arms Jewels Plate and Money in no small proportion so frankly offered up to this Dagon of Presbyterie and a numerous Army poured in from that Nation to help the Lord against the mighty so many dreadfull battels fought so much English-bloud lamentably spilt and such a vast Treasure spent and all to advance the Scepter of Iesus Christ nay the top stone of this glorious building ready to be laid on Now I say the perfect compleating of this great and glorious work was so near that the main Fabrick should begin to totter specially by the unhappy assaults of their own Godly party and at last to tumble down what could be more deplorable yet so it hapned I must therefore here begin to change my note and as I have Historically manifested whence that sacred Impe of Presbytery originally sprung How 't was first transplanted hither what a luxuriant growth in short time it had and what glorious fruit it produced So shall I now briefly shew how and by what means it fell to decay and how that prodigious Monster of Independencie creeping up by the body thereof at length did much overtop it and triumphing for a while at last produced no less direfull effects than what that old stock of Presbyterie always did even the barbarous destruction of our late gracious King of ever blessed memory in his Royal person after he had been most inhumanly persecuted despoiled of his Kingly authority and most shamefully made Prisoner by those devout Covenanters ¶ That Ambition and Avarice were most assuredly the primary causes which incited this Saint-like Generation to act such horrid things as no age hath formerly seen and to carry on these their foul designs under the specious veile of Religion the Laws of the Land and Liberty of the subject hath been already fully manifested Having therefore by this subtil stratagem got the sword and consequently the wealth of the Realm into their power I now come to observe how through the admirable justice of Almighty God upon these grand Hypocrites which first kindled the flames of Civil war amongst us the same power and wealth was by the like ravenous brood now called Independents which sprung forth of their own pharisaical loyns soon torn and wrested out of their greedy Jaws upon the like principles and what use they made of it By what hath been already said 't is sufficiently manifest how and to what end the establishment of the Scottish Discipline was first and principally aymed at by the Presbyterean party here but the severity thereof being at length discerned by some through a cleerer Light the new Reformers thought it most proper not onely to represent to the People the true face thereof in its proper shape but to hold forth unto them an absolute freedome from the merciless phangs and teeth of that cruel beast under the notion of Christian-Liberty whereby every man might exercise himself in the pretended service of God according to what form or order he list as Independent from any that could call him to account which pleasing Doctrine being not a little gratefull to the vulgar soon obtain'd so fair an entertainment especially amongst the souldiery as that not onely the generallity of the Army and many of the Garisons cheerfully embraced it but most of the people through out all parts of the Realm right willingly inclin'd thereto The Presbyterean-Hedge being therefore thus troden down no wonder was it that like scattered Flocks multitudes were gathered up by other Shepherds into new Congregations Anabaptists Millenaries or fifth Monarchy-men Quakers c.
each differing from other in divers material points but all centring in opposition to Presbyterie which strange opinions no less absurd than various were so inconsistent with the zealous Disciplinarians who termed them Heretical and Blasphemous that they spared for no pains in endeavouring to suppress them As to the Tenets and practices of these Independent Libertines let this one instance serve for a Tast one Mr. Gregory of Colonel Rich his Regiment preaching at a Widows house near Northampton told his Auditors that he thought he was obliged to unfold the Scripture as it was revealed to him Likewise that he hoped to see the Shop-windows open on the Lord's day Also that the Psalms were no Scripture and that the Parson of that Parish was a Minister of Antichrist But notwithstanding this apparent danger to the Disciplinarians from this blessed brood of their own hatching some confidence they yet had of putting a stop to their farther growth to that end therefore as to their former notable pranks they frequently did by a special Ordinance they caused a day to be set a part for humbling themselves and seeking of God as they term'd it by fasting and prayer the preamble whereof I have thought fit here to insert We the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England having entred into a solemn Covenant to endeavour sincerely really and constantly the Reformation of Religion in Doctrine Discipline and Worship and the extirpation of Popery Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlyness And having found the presence of God wonderfully assisting us in this Cause especially since our Engagement in pursuance of the said Covenant have thought fit lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues to set forth this our deep sense of the great dishonour of God and perillous Condition that this Kingdome is in through the abominable Blasphemies and damnable Heresies vented and spread abroad therein tending to the subversion of the Faith contempt of the Ministry and Ordinance of Iesus Christ. And as we are resolved to imploy and improve the utmost of our power that nothing be said or done against the Truth but for the Truth So we desire that both our selves and the whole Kingdome may be deeply humbled before the Lord for that great reproach and contempt which hath been cast upon his name and saving Truths and for that swift destruction which we may justly fear will fall upon the immortal Souls of such who are or may be drawn away by giving heed to seducing Spirits In the hearty and tender compassion whereof we the said Lords and Commons do order and ordain that Wednesday being the tenth day of March next be set apart for a day of publick Humiliation c. And to back this their Godly Exercise forasmuch as their solemn League and Covenant had effected such great matters otherwise the House of Peers soon after voted an Ordinance to be brought in for disabling every person whatsoever from bearing any office Civil or Military that should refuse to take the Covenant But that which they deemed above all not onely to get a hand over this many-headed-Monster Independencie but to establish to themselves a lasting dominion over the persons and Estates of all other people was to gain the King's person into their power concerning whom they had been trucking with the Scots for the space of six months at the least his Majestie being all that while at Newcastle upon Tine and their Army quartered in the Adjacent Counties not without some Heart-burnings towards those their dear Brethren for keeping him so long and continuing their Army in this Realm at so vast a charge and intollerable a burthen to those Northern parts having had no use thereof at all after the render of Newark Nor did this deteiner pass without some quick disputes betwixt them the Grandees here affirming and insisting stiffly upon it that the Kingdome of Scotland had no right of joynt exercise of interest in disposing the person of the King in the Kingdome of England urging likewise that forasmuch as he had deserted his Parliament and People entred into and continued in a bloudy and dangerous war against them had not granted those Propositions which by both Kingdomes were sent unto him as a means of a safe and well-grounded peace he was not therefore at present in a condition to exercise the duties of his place or be left to go or reside where and when himself pleased Farther objecting that the Commissioners of Scotland at a conference with theirs had declared that it would be prejudicial to both Kingdomes for the King to go into Scotland But after much dispute the Scots in brief told them that their Army by the Oath of Allegiance their Committee of Estates by their Commission and their Officers by their Military Oath ought to defend the King from harms and prejudices Often affirming that the King came to their Army for shelter and defence Adding that it was the Law and common practise of all Nations not to deliver the meanest subject fled to them though for the greatest crimes and that if the meanest were not to be delivered how would the world abroad condemn them for so base and dishonourable an act the King having cast himself into their hands They likewise said if it be considered that the Scottish Army was invited and called into this Kingdome by both Houses of Parliament in a Treaty for prosecuting the ends of a solemn League and Covenant whereof one Article is to preserve and defend his Majestie 's person there can remain no doubt concerning this exercise of that Right and Interest in this Kingdome And therefore said it seemed very strange that when upon invitation they were come into England as for other ends so to defend his Majestie 's person their being in England should be made use of as an Argument why they should deliver up the person of the King to be disposed of as both Houses should think fit Whereunto the English Commissioners replyed that the Scotch-Army came in hither as Auxiliaries under pay and therefore they ought not to capitulate herein at all And that whereas the Scots did so much urge their Obligation by the Covenant to preserve and defend the King's person and Authority they told them that they left out the principal Clause which was relative viz. in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes without which the other part ought never to be mention'd But the plain truth is that all this fencing with Arguments came at last to a meer Money-business For whereas the Grandees at Westminster by stipulation with the Scots for their Expedition into England had promised to pay them after the rate of thirty thousand pounds per mensem so long as they should have occasion to make use of their
an Execration upon his wife and children in asseverating thereof And as heretofore the leading-members at Westminster did usually pen petitions and send them into the City of London and elsewhere to be subscribed by those of their party for countenanceing whatsoever they had a mind to act so then did the Grandees of the Army not being ignorant what advantages had formerly been made of those devises viz. one from Essex to the General in the name of the well-affected-People there desiring that in regard of the present unsettled condition of the Kingdome and the design of many to deprive the subject of their liberty he would not consent to the disbanding of the Army nor any part thereof untill there should be a general settlement of things in the Kingdome The like Petitions from Norfolk and Suffolk desiring that there might be no disbanding untill the general grievances were redrest and Iustice done But see the dreadfull horrors and apprehensions which attend the Consciences of wicked men in times of distress and danger No sooner did the Army march from the parts about Triplo towards St. Albans but the Presbyterean-Members at Westminster and those of that gang in London fell into such Agonies that they forthwith ordered all the Trayned-Bands in London to be raised upon pain of Death and strong Guards to be set about the Line nay that all the Citizens should shut up their Shops So that whereas formerly his Majestie 's incessant Messages to them for peace were contemn'd and laid aside and when they had bought him of the Scots he must not be suffered to come nearer Westminster where they hatch'd all their barbarous contrivances against him than Holdenby in Northamptonshire now they voted his coming to Richmund and did vouchsafe to write Letters to him But alas too late Independencie being then triumphant and Presbytery gasping as you will see by and by For in answer to this Vote it was desired that no place might be proposed for his Majestie 's residence nearer unto London than where they would allow the Quarters of the Army to be And not many days after a paper was sent to the Houses at Westminster intituled the Representation of the Army In which it was in the first place required that the Houses should be speedily purged of such Members as for their Delinquencie so they were pleas'd to term it or for corruptions or abuse to the State c. ought not tosit there Which terrible news put the Presbyterean-party upon mustring up all their power and once for all to try what one strong blast could do Whereupon they Voted that the Army should remove fourty miles from London But this vote signified very little for instead of any obedience thereto the Army presently gave order for purging the House by an impeachment of high Treason of all the most able and active men which stood for the Presbyterean-Interest viz. Denzill Hollies Esq Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Lewes Sir Iohn Clotworthy Sir William Waller Sir Iohn Maynard Knights Major General Massye Iohn Glyn Esq Recorder of London Walter Long Esq Colonel Edward Harley and Anthony Nicholls Esq being in number no less than Eleven of their chief Members who had from the beginning vigorously born the heat of the day Great stickling indeed there was by all their party to have preserv'd those men still in that holy conclave but all would not do for it was clearly discern'd that by their power in the House the Ordinance for disbanding the Army did pass So that to avoid suspending the whole House it was thought most fit that these men should retire And so they did it being high time for the Army did not stick to threaten to march up to Westminster if those Members were not suspended courting the City of London to sit Neutralls and let them work their will with the Parliament This indeed was a stroke almost fatal to the Presbyterean for it lost them not onely all these leading-men but a far greater number that staid some falling off from that side under colour of clearer Illumination and some others were so much daunted thereat that they had not afterwards courage enough to hold up their heads as formerly But upon the retiring of these Eleven Members the prosecution of their charge was totally forborn And now that the House was thus purged the greater part of the remaining Members became most obsequious to the Army and declared that they owned it as their Army and would make provision for the maintenance thereof ordering that so soon as mony could be conveniently raised they should be payd equally with those who had left the Army CHAP. XXIV HAving thus garbled the House of Commons no wonder it was that the whole Presbyterean-party every where became highly incensed and the rather for that they had so imprudently slipt their oportunity of complying with the king in due time For then when 't was too late they would have gladly joyn'd with any Interest to work themselves again into some authority Which being discern'd by the Independents who then had the King in their Hands to spoyle the Presbyterean-design they not onely fell to Courting His Majesty with great civilities and favours such indeed as he never enjoy'd since he fled to the Scots for refuge admitting the Duke of Richmond to come and attend him and two of his own most desired Chaplains but the people also by many printed Books and Papers spread over all England and likewise by the Pulpits whereby they stirred up the vulgar to make loud complaints of their pressures and grievances and to make addresses to the Army as their onely Saviours Restorers of their Laws Liberties and Proprieties Setlers of Religion and Preservers of all just Interests pretending also to establish the King in his just Rights and Prerogatives to uphold the Priviledg of Parliament to reform and bring to account all Committees Sequestrators and others who had defil'd their fingers with publick moneys and to free the people from Excise and other Taxes Seeing therefore that the work of Reformation was now thus obstructed by the Seraphick Brethren here who walkt by more new and clear Lights those in Scotland grew so highly moved thereat that they indicted a publick Fast and solemn day of Humiliation to be kept throughout the whole Kirk of that Kingdome setting forth a Declaration of the Causes moving them thereunto the Copy whereof I have thought fit here to insert 1. That notwithstanding our solemn Engagement in the Covenant our Obligations for great and singular mercies and our many warnings by Iudgments of all sorts yet not onely do we come far short of that sobriety Righteousness and Holiness that becometh the Gospel of Iesus Christ but ungodliness and worldly lusts abound every where throughout the land unto the grieving of the Lord's Spirit and provoking of the eyes of his glory and to
himself in a Chayr of State where he had great Thanks given him by the Speakers of both Houses Which being done a publick day of Thanksgiving was appointed for this happy restoration of them to their old Seats again Sir Thomas Fairfax voted Generalissimo of all the Forces and Forts throughout England and Wales and Constable of the Tower of London and the Common-Souldiers one month's gratuity besides their pay And on the next day following the whole Army marcht triumphantly through London with their Train of Artillery and soon after demolish'd the Lines of Communication environing that great City CHAP. XXV AND now that the Fugitive-members were thus brought again to the House the chief business was to make null and void all that was acted by those that sate in their absence But in debating thereof the Presbytereans held up most stoutly insisting with great courage on the validity of them Insomuch as the Speaker finding it difficult for the Fugitives to carry the Votes by strength of Reason or Number shew'd forth a Letter from the General of the Army accompanied with a Remonstrance full of high language and not without threats against those that sate whilst the two Speakers were with the Army calling them Pretended Members and laying to their charge in general Treason Treachery and breach of Trust and protesting that if they should presume to sit before they had cleared themselves that they did not give their assents to some certain Votes they should sit at their peril and that he would take them as Prisoners of War and try them at a Council of War Which Letter though it did not a little startle the Presbyterean-Members yet were they loath to leave the House having sate there so long as absolute Dictators In order therefore to their continuance within those walls it was earnestly moved by some of them that the Speaker should command a general meeting of the whole House upon the next day and declare that they should be secured from danger as also that no more than the ordinary Guards might then attend the House But these motions were violently opposed with shrewd menaces by the Independent-Members the Speaker also declyning to put any Question therein and adjourning till the morrow so that the Presbytereans were left to come again at their peril Which hazzard of their safety occasion'd a very thin House the next day many of that party absenting themselves and of those which came 't was observ'd that some tackt about to the other side and some sate mute At last a Committee was appointed to bring in an Ordinance of Accommodation as they called it but more properly the Ordinance of Null an Voide which damn'd all the Votes Orders and Ordinances passed in the House from the xxvjth of Iuly that the Apprentices forc't the Members then sitting to vote and do as they required untill the sixth of August that those Members which fled to the Army were brought in Triumph again to the House Which Ordinance within few days was passed And soon after that another wholsome one for establishing of well affected Ministers in sequestred Livings But though this Ordinance of Null and Voide was thus passed the Independent-party thought not themselves secure enough and therefore erected a Committee of Examinations to enquire into and examine who they were that had been active in procuring the City Petition and Engagement to be subscribed or instrumental in that force upon the House on the twenty sixth of Iuly before mentioned or in any other endeavour to raise forces Which Committee hunted so close after them that had been busy therein that Sir Iohn Maynard Knt. of the Bath a Member of the House of Commons Iames Earl of Suffolk Theophilus Earl of Lincoln Iames Earl of Middlesex Iohn Lord Hunsdon George Lord Berkley William Lord Maynard and Francis Lord Willoughby of Parham were all of them impâ—ached of High Treason in the name of the Commons of England for levying war against the King Parliament and Kingdome Sir Iohn Maynard being thereupon committed to the Tower and the Lords to the custody of the usher with the Black-rod And to the end that this now predominant-party might the more engage the Common people to joyn with them upon occasion Agitators were imploy'd into several Counties for getting Subscriptions to Petitions against Tythes Inclosures and Copy-hold-sines which were uncertain ¶ Being thus entring upon one of the last Scenes in this most woful Tragedy I must look back a little and from what hath been said summarily observe first that however specious and plausible the Protestations Vows and Declarations of these monstrous men have otherwise been their chief design originally was to destroy and extirpate Monarchy in all His Majestie 's Realms and Dominions Secondly that when by the assistance of the giddy-multitude deluded and captivated with many glorious promises they had got the sway of all into their Hands they most traiterously murthered the King in his politick capacity setting him totally aside as to Authority and Rule and inhumanely burying him alive by a severe and barbarous imprisonment most insolently tooke the Reynes of Government into their own usurping power Next that as Ambition and Avarice eagerly incited some Grandees of the faction to shoulder out the rest from sharing with them in the spoyl they had got though no less active than themselves in accomplishing the general ruine the like haughty and covetous desires prompted others to be no less solicitous for their own temporal advantage So that as the Reformation of miscarriages and corruptions in Government was at first cryed up by the Presbyterean-Brethren and nothing in sted thereof exercised but oppression and destruction So likewise under as fair and plausible pretences the power was soon wrested from that seeming Holy Generation by the more Seraphick-Saints of the Independent Tribe who captivating the Souldierie at last as the Presbytereans had done the people at first by their splended allurements with an imaginary Happiness got the King by that means into their own cruel Hands and then subjugating the City of London which had been both Mother and Nurse to that Imparallel'd Rebellion made the remainder of their Task the less difficult And as this grand work was originally begun by the Presbytereans under the Popular name of a Blessed-Parliament by which subtile Enchantment the vulgar were at first most cunningly abused and pursued to the utter subversion of the King 's regal power So was it carryed on by the Independent to the last as by and by shall be manifested untill it became thoroughly compleated in the horrid murther of his royal person towards the perpetration of which prodigious Fact I shall now briefly shew by what degrees and steps they did most audaciously proceed CHAP. XXVI HAving thus subjugated the City and purg'd the two Houses at Westminster as is already observed they then put on a Presbyterean-cloak for a while and
be destructive to order and Government or to the peace of the Church or Kingdome That the Ordinances concerning the calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be desired to be confirmed by Act of Parliament That the Proposition for the confirmation of the Treaties betwixt the two Kingdomes and the proceedings betwixt them be expressed And that Treaty for the return of the Scots Army of the date of Decem. 23. 1646. be inserted amongst the rest That His Majestie 's assent be desired to what the two Kingdomes shall agree in the prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished and that all other things be inserted concerning the joynt Interest of both Kingdomes or the Kingdome of Scotland in particular That the Armies in both Kingdomes which were raised for the preservation of Religion and defence of the King's person may be disbanded now the war is ended and have due satisfaction for their arrears That speedy releif may be sent to Ireland and that an Act of Oblivion may be agreed upon to be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdomes That His Majesty be restored to His Rights and that in the Propositions a conclusion may be added promising all real endeavour that His Majesty may live in the splendor and glory of his royal progenitors as beseemeth his royal place that so all differences and troubles may end in a mutual confidence and rejoycing Upon debate of which Message from His Majesty Nov. 16. and of that Declaration and those Proposals by the Scottish-Commissioners the House of Commons passed these following Votes 1. That no more addresses be made from the Parliament to the King nor any Letters or Message received from him 2. That it should be Treason for any person whatsoever to deliver any Message to the King or receive any Letter or Message from him without leave from both Houses of Parliament 3. That the Members of both Houses and the Committee of both Kingdomes had power to sit and act alone asformerly the Committee of both Kingdomes had for the safety of the Kingdom 4. And that a Committee should be nominated to draw up a Declaration to be published to satisfy the Kingdome of the reasons of passing these Votes To back which Votes the General and Council of the Army did put forth a Declaration signifying their Resolutions to adhere to the Houses for setling and securing the Parliament and Kingdome without the King and against him or any other that should thereafter partake with him And sent Thanks to the House of Commons for those Votes To shew the people likewise the Reasons of those four Votes the Grandees at Westminster appointed a Committee to search into the King's conversation and errors of his Government and to publish them in a Declaration to the World wherein they objected as high crimes against him his father's death the loss of Rochell and the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland Which Declaration being printed by their authority was afterwards ordered to be dispersed throughout the whole Kingdome by the several Members of the House of Commons in those Countries and places for which they did serve CHAP. XXVIII THE King therefore seeing himself thus layd aside penned a Declaration with his own hand for the satisfaction of all his people which soon after was made publick by the Press Whereby representing his sad and most disconsolate condition through a long and strict Imprisonment together with his earnest endeavours to have composed all things by an happy peace whereunto he added most just cleer and undeniable Reasons why he could not assent to pass those four dethroning Bills before-mentioned farther shewed what usage he had endured by Colonel Hamond the Governour in whose custody he then was most of his servants being by him discharg'd the Guards redoubled and himself restrain'd of that Liberty which before he had been allowed Appealing also to the world how he had deserved that dealing from his subjects having sacrificed to them for the peace of the Kingdome all but what was much more dear to him than his life viz. his Conscience and Honour and desiring nothing more than to perform it in the most proper and usual way viz. by a personal Treaty Taking notice likewise of the often repeated professions and Engagements made to him by the Army at Newmarket and St. Albans for asserting his just Rights in General by their voted and revoted Proposals which he had reason to understand should be the utmost that would be expected from him yea that in some things he should be eased And conlcuded that if it were peace they desired he had shewed the way thereto being both willing and desirous to perform his part in it by a just complyance with all cheif Interests Was it plenty and Happiness Those were the inseperable effects of peace Was it security His Majesty who wisht that all men would forgive and forget like him did offer the Militia for his own time Was it Liberty of Conscience He who wanted it was most ready to give it Was it right administration of Iustice Officers of Trust were referred to the choyse of the two Houses Was it frequent Parliaments He had legally and fully concurred therewith Was it the Arrears of the Army Upon a settlement he told them that they would be certainly payd with much ease but before that there would be found much difficulty if not impossibility in it But all this was then to no purpose for having got the power of the Sword into their hands the Voice of an Angel from Heaven could have been nothing regarded for on they went with their great worke In order whereunto a Pamphlet was publisht by authority that is to say licensed by a publick Imprimatur where the Prophet Ezekiel was produced to discover what they intended Thus saith the Lord God concerning the prophane wicked Prince whose day is come when Iniquity shall end Remove the Diadem Take off the Crown This shall not be the same Exalt him that is low and abase him that is high And to cajole the Presbyterean having formerly secured themselves from the reach of their Holy Discipline they passed an Ordinance for the speedy dividing and setling the several Counties of this Kingdome into distinct Classical-Presbyteries and Congregational Elderships And desiring to seem men of the greatest Sanctity imaginable they constituted a Committee for the enumeration of great crying sins appointing that they should daily meet and do their utmost endeavour to suppress them And passed another Ordinance for suppressing of Stage-plays and demolishing Play-Houses But all these devices were meerly circumstantial those which more immediately tended to the carrying on their grand work being the chief viz. the approbation which the people then had or seem'd to have of their Votes for no more Addresses to the King Towards the obtaining whereof having been not a little sollicitous they imploy'd their most busy Emissaries and
â—wordsâ— this Ordinance and others likewise presented to hiâ— alterations should be made of some expressions in them which did reflect on former establisht Laws it being therefore necessary that they should be penned in other termes 7. That he would pass an Act for prevention of saying Mass in Court or other places provided onely that his Queen might have free exercise of her Religion for her self and her ordinary servants according to the Articles of Marriage made between the two Crowns France and England 8. Lastly that for the Covenant he could not in Conscience take it himself nor impose it upon others therefore hoped that it should not be insisted on in regard the imposing thereof could not tend to peace a great part even of the Parliaments-party being utterly persuaded against it And further because all the ends of the Covenant would be obtained if an agreement were made in the rest of the Propositions These were the chief referring the rest untill his coming to Westminster where he might personally advise with his two Houses and deliver his opinion with the reasons thereof which done he would leave the whole matter of those remayning Propositions to the determination of his two Houses But as His Majesty had formerly well observed the humours of these impious men to be restless ever altering and changing their Principles with their success So did he then find the greatest and most wofull experiment thereof For having by the defeat of D. Hamilton's Army the reducing of Colchester and subduing the Welch in Pembrokeshire cleared all opposition which any could make against them they then did openly manifest to the world that nothing should suffice but the absolute destruction of the King and utter extirpation of Monarchy Towards the accomplishing of which execrable designe a prodigious Remonstrance was contrived by Cromwel and his son Ireton with some other venemous-minded officers in the Army then at St. Albans and presented to the House of Commons by Colonel Evre and seaven other Officers of the Army whereby they fiercely declaymed against any peace at all with the King and likewise against his Restauration demanding that he should by a Tryal be brought to Iustice. So likewise against those Members of Parliament as had been impeached the year before and all others that sate when the Speaker and Members fled to the Army that they might be excluded the House Requiring that the Souldiers arrears should be paid out of the King 's and Dean and Chapters lands Moreover that a certain terme should be prefixed to that present Long-Parliament as also a more equal number of persons as Representatives of the People to be thenceforth elected in whom the supreme power should thereafter reside In which Remonstrance it is not unworthy observation that they said whereas it might be objected that by the Covenant they were obliged to the preservation of His Majestie 's person and authority it was with this restriction viz. in the preservation of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome So that considering Religion and the publick Interest were to be understood the principal and supream matters engaged for and of the King's person and authority as inferiour and subordinate thereto As also whereas the preservation of his person and authority was not consistent with the preservation of Religion and the publick Interest they were therefore by the Covenant obliged against it And the better to illustrate this they instanced the practice of the Parliament all along the late wars which not onely opposed his Majesty and his authority but really endeavoured to kill and destroy both his person and authority by Bullets and otherwise in order to the preservation of Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome Which Remonstrance was soon after presented to the House of Commons and tendred to the consideration of the whole Kingdome But three days after they Treaty having continued fourty days whereunto they limited it ended And here it is not improper to take notice that as they had frequently used to procure Petitions from sundry places to countenance the carrying on of any notable design which they had in hand So now having publisht this wicked Remonstrance they obteined Congratulations from those called the Well-affected in several parts to the end that others might be the more danted from any opposition thereto CHAP. XXX THIS business of the Treaty being therefore thus over I come now to the last Act of this afflicted King's life A Scene indeed of much sorrow and which cannot well be represented without great lamentation and the deepest expressions of sadness wherein I shall be as brief as well may be pointing chiefly at the times of the most notable passages therein but leaving the larger Narrative thereof to such of our Historians as have already or shall hereafter set forth the Life and Sufferings of this incomparable Prince As an Introduction whereunto it may be sit enough to observe that though the Parliament had been garbled as before is shewed whereby the Remnant of the Presbyterians was totally disheartened Yet did the Invasion from Scotland and Risings in other Parts about that time put so much Life and Courage into the drooping Spirits of that Party as that having with no little difficulty carryed the Vote for a Treaty they strugled to their utmost for such an issue thereof that the King might be at some better Liberty than he was at that time and the Administration of his Authority in the Two Houses as formerly And then though the Army stood not right to them at present the Majority of Votes might some time or other so alter the case as that the sweetness of Dominion might return to them again To second therefore what they had so vigorously begun discerning that the Army in pursuance of their late Remonstrance were on their March towards London they Voted a Letter to the General forbidding his nearer approach Which Vote so irritated the Souldiary that immediately they publisht a sharp Declaration therein accusing the Parliament with Breach of Trust Inconstancy and Indiscretion saying that they would appeal from them to the People threatning forthwith to advance up to Westminster and there to do what God should enable them and accordingly came up to the corner of Hide-park Where upon it was put to the Question in the House whether that approach of the Army were not prejudicial to the Freedom of Parliament But into such a terror were the Presbyterian Members then 〈◊〉 that they durst not hold up their Heads to give their Votes therein Nevertheless within two days following they took better heart and set on foot a debate touching the satisfactoriness of His Majesties Answer to the Propositions in the late Treaty And though the same day the General entred Westminster with Four Regiments of Foot and Six of Horse taking up his Head Quarters at White-hall and that soon after the King was seized on in his Bed-chamber and carryed to Hurst-Castle
Esq Thomas Boone Esq * Augustine Garland Esq Augustine Skinner Esq * Iohn Dixwell Esq * Colonel George Fleetwood * Simon Maine Esq * Colonel Iames Temple * Colonel Peter Temple * Daniel Blagrave Esq Sir Petter Temple Bar. * Colonel Thomas Wayte Iohn Brown Esq Iohn Lawry Esq * Iohn Bradshaw Serjeant at Law named President Councillers-Assistants to this Court and to draw up the Charge against the King * Doctor Isaac Dorislaw * Mr. Williams Steele * Mr. Aske * Mr. Cooke Sollicitor * Serjeant Dandy Serjeant at Armes * Mr. Phelps Clerks to the Court * Mr. Broughton Messengers and Door-keepers Mr. Walford Mr. Radley Mr. Paine Mr. Powell Mr. Hull Mr. King the Cryer And that these their Sanguinary proceedings might carry the more shew of Authority upon the Third day following they sent their Serjeant at Armes with his Mace accompanyed by six Trumpets on Horse-back into Westminster-Hall great Guards of Souldiers waiting in the Palace-yards Where in the midst of the Hall after the Trumpets had sounded he made solemn Proclamation on Horse-back that if any man had ought to alledge against Charles Start they should repaire the day following at Two of the Clock After-noon into the Painted Chamber where the Committees to receive the same were to Sit. The like Proclamation he made at the Exchange and other places in London The same day also they Voted that Writs should no longer run in the King's Name and the making of a new Great Seal with the Armes of England and Ireland viz. the Cross and Harpe on the one side and this Circumscription viz. The Great Seal of England On the other side the Figure of the Parliament and the Circumscription In the first year of Freedom by Gods Blessing restored 1648. According to which Proclamation so made in Westminster-Hall the next day following those High Court of Justice-men sate formally in the Painted Chamber to receive Informations from such whom they had then prepared to come in for that purpose For which time for the space of Nine days the Grandees had frequent Meetings to frame and settle the special order and form for executing of that their accursed design And having in the Interim erected a Bloody Theater at the upper end of Westminster-Hall which they call'd The High Court of Iustice they removed His Majesty from Windâ—â—â—â— to St. Iames's near Westmiâ—ster and upon Saturday Ianuary the Twentieth made their entrance in State into Westminster-Hall Bradshaw the President having a Sword and Mace carryed before him and for his Guard Twenty Souldiers with Partizans under the Command of Colonel Fox the Tinker Where after this Prodigious Monster Bradshaw with the rest of that Bloody-pack in all to the number of Seventy two the rest then declining to shew their Faces in so Horrid an Enterprize though most of them afterwards avowed the same were set and that Hellish Act read whereby they were constituted the King's Judges His Majesty was brought to the Bar by Colonel Hacker Guarded with a Company of Halberdeers In whose passage it is not unworthy of note that Hugh Peters one of their wicked Preachers did set on divers of the Souldiers to cry out Iustice Iustice against him and that one of them did then Spit in the King's Face Which being done that insolent Bradshaw stood up and most impudently told the King calling him Charles Stuart that the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament being sensible of the great Calamities brought upon this Nation and of the Innocent Blood shed which was referred to him as the Author according to that duty which they did owe to God the Nation and themselves and according to that Power and Fundamental Trust reposed in them by the People had Constituted that High Court of Iustice before which he was then brought and that he was to hear his Charge upon which the Court would proceed Then Cook their Sollicitor went on and said that he did accuse Charles Stuart there present of High Treason and Misdemeanors and did in the Name of the Commons of England desire that the Charge might be read against him Whereupon they caused their most false and Infamous Charge to be read Which importing that he being admitted King of England and trusted with a limited Power for the good and benefit of the People had Trayterously and Maliciously levyed War against that present Parliament and the People therein represented and caused and procured many Thousands of the Free People of this Nation to be slain Concluding that he did therefore impeach him as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publick and implacable Enemy to the Common-wealth of England Praying that he might be put to answer the premisses and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals Sentence and Iudgment might be thereupon had as should be agreeable to Iustice. I shall not stay here to give instance of the particular expressions then made by His Majesty unto those Blood-thirsty men Which were with the greatest Wisdom Gravity and Christian Courage imaginable considering that they already are by some Historians and others so exactly publisht to the World He absolutely denying and renouncing that their usurped Jurisdiction and Authority thus to convent him and stoutly refusing to submit to their power In which he most undauntedly persisted every time he was brought before them with incomparable magnanimity of Spirit On the Second day of their Sitting they held a Fast at White-Hall And on the Third day the Scots Commissioners delivered in certain Papers to them with a Declaration from the Parliament of Scotland importing a dislike of those their Proceedings against His Majesty but nothing regarded After which to the end that these Barbarous Regicides might the better consult touching the manner of his Execution and to perform it with the greater Ignominy they respited his Sentence of Death for Four or Five days But then having fully determined thereon upon Saturday the Twenty Seventh of Ianuary they caused Him to be brought before them again Where after a most insolent Speech made by the same Bradshaw the President His Sentence of Death was read there being then present no less than Seventy two of those His Bloody Murtherers called Judges who stood up and avowed the same the Names of which I have noted with an Asterism in the preceding Catalogue Which being done a Publick Declaration was appointed to be drawn against the Proclaiming of Prince Charles after the removal of his Father out of this Life denouncing it to be High Treason for any one so to do Likewise that no person upon Pain of Imprisonment and such other punishments as should be thought fit might speak or divulge any thing contrary to those their proceedings And upon the Morrow being Sunday some of the Grandees came and tendred to him a Paper Book with promise of Life and some shadow of Regality in case he would Subscribe it which contained many particulars destructive to the Religion establisht to the
Laws of the Land and to the Liberties and Properties of the People Whereof one was that he should pass an Act for keeping on Foot their Army during the pleasure of such as they should nominate to be entrusted with the Militia with power from time to time to recruit and continue them to the Number of Forty Thousand Horse and Foot under their present General and Officers and that the Council of War should have power to make choise of new Officers and Generals from time to time as occasion should happen and they think fit as also to settle a Tax upon the People by way of Land-rate for supporting the same Army to be Collected and levyed by the Souldiers themselves And for the establishing a Court-Marshal of extraordinary extent But so soon as His Majesty had read some few of those Tyrannous Proposals he threw them aside saying that he would rather become a Sacrifice for his People than thus betray their Laws Liberties Lives and Estates with the Church the Common-wealth and Honour of the Crown to so intolerable a Bondage of an Armed Faction And such a Sacrifice they really made him upon the Tuesday following which was the Thirtieth of Ianuary having the more to affront and deject him had it been possible built a Scaffold for His Murther before the Great Gate at White-Hall whereunto they fixed several Staples of Iron and prepared Cords to tye him down to the Block had he made any resistance to that Cruel and Bloody stroke To which place they then brought him on Foot from St. Iames's attended by Guards of Souldiers having filled all the Streets from Charing-Cross to Westminster with Troops of Horse and Companies of Foot Whereon being ascended with the Greatest Christian Magnanimity imaginable he told them that they were in a wrong way to the Kingdoms Peace their design being to do it by Conquest in which God would never prosper them Farther declaring to them that the right way thereto would be first to give God his due by regulating rightfully the Church in a National Synod freely call'd and freely debating Secondly the King his Successor his due wherein the Laws of the Land would sufficiently instruct them Thirdly the People theirs in such a Government whereby their Lives and Gods might be most their own It was for that quoth he I come now hither for would I have given way to an Arbitrary sway to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I needed not to have come here Telling them farther but praying God it might not be laid to their Charge that he was the Peoples Martyr And then most Christianly forgiving all praying for His Enemies he meekly submitted to the stroke of the Axe It is not unworthy of Observation and therefore not finding a more proper place for it I have thought fit to insert it here that some of those most Impious Regicides who sate and gave judgment of Death upon this Blessed Martyr when after the happy Restoration of our present Soveraign they were brought to their Tryals for that unparallel'd Murther stuck not in justification of themselves to plead that they were not within the compass of Treason as it is declared by the Statute of 25. E. 3. For that questionless said they must intend private Persons Councilling Compassing or imagining the Death of the King but you know said they that the War was first stated by the Lords and Commons the Parliament of Enlgand and by virtue of their Authority was raised they pretending by the Laws that the right of the Militia was in them whereupon accordingly they rais'd a Force making the Earl of Essex General and after that Sir 〈…〉 This therefore they insisted on for a legal Authority because said they that this Parliament was called by the King 's Writ and that the Members thereof were chosen by the People Adding that the Persons which acted under that Authority ought not therefore to be question'd as Persons Guilty because if that which they acted was Treason then the Lords and Commons in Parliament began the Treason Having thus finisht their Grand and long designed work they permitted the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford the Earl of Southampton and Earl of Lindsey to Interr his Corps in the Collegiate Chapel within the Castle at 〈◊〉 refusing him Burial with his Ancestors in the Church of Wesâ—minster under colour of preventing such confluence of People which out of a superstitious respect might resort to his Grave reserving that place therein which had been built by King Henry the Seventh purposely for the Sepulture on himself and his Posterity for the Bones of his chiefest Murtherers Some of which being afterwards accordingly there deposited have since been Translated and laid more properly under the Gallows Being thus come to the Period of this incomparable Prince's Life I may not omit to take notice that the time was when these Monsters of men did publickly declare that they would make his Majesty a Glorious King which now we see most truly verifyed though not as they then seem'd to intend it So Glorious indeed as Mortal man never was more First In that he suffered as an Heroick Champion for the Rights of the Church the Laws of the Land the Liberties and Properties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament in stoutly to his utmost withstanding the conjunctive Power of his Rebellious Subjects which under the colour of asserting these most Trayterously assaulted him in divers sharp Battels Next by his cheerful undergoing the many hardships of a destructive War and a tedious Imprisonment Thirdly by his patient enduring the many insolent affronts of this subtile false cruel and most implacable Generation in their Barbarous manner of conventing and Condemning him to Death and to see his most blood-thirsty Enemies then Triumph over him And that no part of true felicity might be wanting to him they have made him Glorious in his Memory throughout of the World by a Great Universal and most durable Fame and Glorious by his enjoyment of an Immortal Crown with the Blessed Saints Martyrs and devout Confessors in the highest Heavens CHAP. XXXI AND here having made a mournful stop for a while to contemplate the unspeakable loss of this excellent Prince and the direful actings of these matchless Conspirators I begin to consider that the Presbyterians may possibly take much exceptions at this Historical Narrative in regard that by the Life of the King was not taken away by them but by that Sect which are usually called Independants Whereunto I answer that it is not denyed but that he was actually put to death by those who in common discourse do pass under that name But whether the Presbyterians can clear themselves from the Guilt of his Murther as I know not how to excuse them so am I somewhat doubtful thereof For in the First place I would ask whether they were not the men which Originally put themselves in Armes
day of March instant be presented chosen or appointed to any Benefice formerly called Benefice with Cure of Souls or to Preach any publick setled Lecture in England or Wales shall before he be admitted c. be Iudged and Approved by the Persons hereafter named to be a Person for the Grace of God in him his Holy and unblameable Conversation as also for his knowledge and utterance able and fit to Preach the Gospel viz. Francis Rous Esq Dr. Thomas Goodwyn Dr. Iohn Owen Mr. Thankful Owen Dr. Arrowsmith Dr. Tuckney Dr. Horton Mr. Joseph Caryll Mr. Philip Nye Mr. William Carter Mr. Sidrak Simpson Mr. William Greenhill Mr. William Strong Mr. Thomas Manton Mr. Samuel Slater Mr. William Couper Mr. Stephen Marshall Mr. Iohn Tombes Mr. Walter Cradok Mr. Samuel Faircloath Mr. Hugh Peters Mr. Peter Sterrey Mr. Samuel Bamford Mr. Thomas Valentine of Chaford Mr. Henry Iesse Mr. Obediah Sedgwick Mr. Nicholas Lockyer Mr. Daniel Dike Mr. Iames Russel Mr. Nathaniel Campfield Robert Tichburne Alderman of London Mark Hildesley Thomas Wood. John Sadler William Goff Thomas St. Nicholas William Packer Edward Crescet Esq or any five or more of them Having now ended this year 1653. as to the Principal Transsactions at Home I must look back a little and take notice of our farther Military contests with the Dutch wherein I find that on the second of Iune upon another sharp Fight in Yarmouth rode they much worsted those Hogen-mogens so likewife on the last day of Iuly wherein Van Trump their famous Admiral was slain But both parties at length growing weary of this chargeable and destructive War before the end of this year a Peace was concluded betwixt them though not ratified till April ensuing Which Peace with the Dutch and the slavish condition whereunto this Monster Cromwell had brought the People of these Nations made him not only much Idolized here by all his Party but somewhat feared abroad For certain it is that most of the Princes of Europe made application to him amongst which the French King was the first his Embassador making this Speech to him in the Banquetting-house at White-Hall Your most serene Highness hath received already some principal assurances of the King my Master and of his desire to establish a perfect Correspondency between his Dominions and England His Majesty gives unto your Highness this day some publick Demonstration of the same and sending his Excellency for his Service in the quality of Embassador to your Highness doth plainly shew that the esteem which his Majesty makes of your Highness and the Interest of his People have more power in his Councils than many Considerations that would be of great concernment to a Prince less affected with the one and the other This proceeding grounded upon such sound principles and so different from that which is only guided by Ambition renders the Friendship of the King my Master as much considerable for its firmness as for the Utility it may produce and for that reason it is such eminent esteem and sought after by all the greatest Princes and Powers of the Earth But his Majesty doth Communicate none to any with so much Ioy and Chearfulness as unto those whose vertuous deeds and extraordinary Merits render them more eminently Famous than the greatness of their Dominions His Majesty doth acknowledge all these advantages wholly to reside in your Highness and that Divine Providence after so many Troubles and Calamities could not deal more favourably with these three Nations nor cause them to forget their past Misery with more content and satisfaction than by submitting them to so just a Government And whereas it is not enough for the compleating of their happiness to make them enjoy Peace at Home since it depends no less on a good correspondency with Neighbour-Nations abroad the King my Master doth not doubt but to find also the same disposition in your Highness which his Majesty doth express in those Letters which his Excellencie hath Order to present unto your Highness After so many Dispositions exprest by his Majesty and your Highness towards the accommodation of the two Nations there is cause to believe that their wishes will be soon Accomplisht As for me I have none greater than to be able to serve the King my Master with the good liking and satisfaction of your Highness and that the happiness I have to tender unto your Highness the first assurances of his Majesties esteem may give me occasion to deserve by my respects the honour of your Gracious Affection Being therefore thus puft up he soon after passed an Act of Grace and Pardon to all Persons of the Scottish Nation excepting Iames late Duke Hamilton William late Duke Hamilton Iohn Earl of Crawford-Lindsey Iames Earl of Calender and many more therein specially named As also another Act for making Scotland one Common-wealth with England Whereby it was likewise Ordained that thirty Persons of that Nation should serve in Parliament here for Scotland And that the People of that Nation should be discharged of their Allegiance to any Issue of the late King Also that Kingship and parliamentary-Parliamentary-Authority should be there abolished and the Arms of Scotland viz. St. Andrew's Cross should thenceforth be borne with the Arms of this Common-wealth All which being done he removed his Lodgings which were before at the Cockpit into those of the late King in his Royal Pallace at White-Hall About this time it was that Colonel Venables having been imploy'd by Cromwell to attempt some of the chief Plantations made by the Spanyard in the West-Indies Landing his Men in Hispaniola and expecting with little trouble to have taken S. Domingo he received a shameful defeat But the next Month he had better success in those Forreign parts For the Spaniards in Iamaco timorously flying before them when they Landed there an easie acquisition was made by the English of that large Island which hath since proved a very prosperous and beneficial Plantation But to return Cromwell by this time being grown very great to make himself the more formidable to all his late Majesties good Subjects then called Royalists by establishing his Dominion upon more Innocent blood having by the wicked practises of his Emissaries trayn'd in some Persons purpose of endeavouring their own and the Peoples freedome from his Tyrannous Power he caused another bloody Theater to be erected in Westminster-Hall calling it an high-Court of Iustice where Mr. Iohn Gerard and Mr. Wowell two Gentlemen of great Loyalty received Sentence of Death and were accordingly Sacrificed as a peace-Offering to this Moloch For the better maintenance likewise and encouragement of Preaching-Ministers and for uniting and severing of Parishes he made another Act which begins thus Whereas many Parishes in this Nation are without the constant and Powerful Preaching of the Gospel through want of competent maintenance c. Also another for Souldiers which had serv'd the Common-wealth in
and Poundage contrary to an express Act made also that very Parliament So likewise a new Imposition called Excise upon Victuals and all other Commodities against which they themselves had much declaimed And to countenance these grand Oppressions voted that an Ordinance of Parliament was as binding to the Subject as an Act of Parliament Thereupon ordaining that such Persons as ought to pay any Rents Debts c. due to those who are assessed and refused so to do should be Discharged against the Landlord or Creditor And at length became so bold as that their new Lord Mayor Isaac Pennington chalenging a Sturgeon which was taken above London-Bridge and it being answered that it belonged to the King or Lord Admiral Replyed you Malignant Rogue I would have you to know that there is neither King nor Admiral that hath any Power in London but my self Add thereunto their Ordinance for keeping Michaelmas Terme at Westminster notwithstanding his Majesties Proclamation And another Constituting the Earl of Warwick Governour and Lord Admiral of all the Islands in America Inhabited or Planted by the King's Subjects Another declaring the King's Broad-Seal Invalid and Commanding Obedience to all Writs c. to be issued under a new great Seal made by themselves And Sequestring all Offices of those Clerks in Westminster-Hall which were with the King The authority given to the Earl of Manchester by another Ordinance to deprive and displace all Masters and Fellows of Colledges and Halls in Cambridge and all other Clergy-Men within the Association as he should think convenient The Ordinances for seizing the Kings Queens and Princes Revenew for cutting down their Woods For Commanding all Men to pay nothing to his Majesty the Queen and Prince which was due and ought to have been paid to them for those are the words also the Commitment of Laughern and Vivian to Colchester-Goal for denying to pay two Thousand Pounds which was due to the Prince from them though the Receiver was Plundred of the Money And when it was told Mr. Strode Chair-Man to the Committee for raising Money that no more Money could be advanced their Purses having been so drain'd already he Replyed that they must have no denial for their Money was demanded by the Supream Court of Iudicature adding that those were times of necessity Another of the Members sticking not to say shortly after that if it would advantage their Cause he thought it lawful to unvote whatsoever had passed since the beginning of that Parliament Besides which grievous Impositions upon the Subjects Estates they stuck not at the like to their Persons upon pain of Death restraining all Persons for going from London to the King or Queen And for a farther Testimony of their dealing with the People in point of their Proprietie take their Governour of Abington's Answer viz. Coll. Browne to no less than Seven-score poor People which came thither to him at one time wringing their hands and begging for some small Pittance of what he had caused to be taken from them in the Villages thereabours which was no less than all their Goods even to part of their wearing Apparel which was thus with Tears in his Eyes Alas good People it is not in my Power to help you For if this were done by meet Rudeness of my Souldiers I could say something but you have not lost a Pin but according to the Command of both Houses of Parliament who injoin'd us to spare nothing Therefore said he whispering to one or two of them if you have any thing left 't is your best course to Convey it away quickly for the Parliament hath Commanded me to take all I can carry and burn up the rest before the King comes These and the like as by many Instances might be made apparent have been their Practises in violating the Laws of the Land with the Liberties and Properties of the Subject however Fair and Specious their Promises were otherwise until they had got Power into their hands being at length not ashamed to discover their full Intentions by those Propositions which they tendred to His Majesty at Oxford upon the 23d of November 1644. And whereupon a Treaty was had at Uxbridge Where it was judiciously observ'd by his Majesties Commissioners That after a War of near three Years for which the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of Parliament were made the cause and Grounds in a Treaty of full twenty days nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be there was nothing offered to be treated on concerning the Breach of any Law or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject or Priviledge of Parliament but only Propositions for the altering a Government Established by Law and for the making of new Laws by which all the old were or might be Cancelled there being nothing insisted upon on the part of his Majesties Commissioners which was not Laws or denied by them that the other demanded as due by Law The next and last particular for which they made such great Pretences is the Priviledge of Parliaments Having therefore under that colour justified most of their pernicious Actions let us take notice how consonant to Justice Reason or common Honesty their Practices upon this point have been Did they not soon after the beginning of that Unhappy Parliament without any president found a Close-Committee consisting of eight persons whereof no less than seven were principal Contrivers of the ensuing Rebellion And in the business of the Earl of Strafford was not their Bill for his attainder twice read and voted in one day and fifty-five of the Members Posted for not assenting thereto whose Names to their lasting Honour I have here added 1. George Lord Digby 2. Iames Lord Compton 3. Richard Lord Buckhurst 4. Sr. Robert Hatton 5. Sr. Thomas Fanshaw 6. Sr. Edward Alford 7. Sr. Nicholas Slanyng 8. Sr. Thomas Danby 9. Sr. George Wentworth 10. Sr. Peter Wentworth 11. Sr. Frederick Cornwallis 12. Sr. William Carnaby 13. Sr. Richard Wynn. 14. Sr. Gervace Clifton 15. Sr. William Widdrington 16. Sr. William Pennyman 17. Sr. Patricius Curwen 18. Sr. Richard Lee. 19. Sr. Henry Slingesby 20. Sr. William Portman 21. Mr. Gervase Hollies 22. Mr. Sidney Godolphin 23. Mr. Cooke 24. Mr. Coventrey 25. Mr. Benjamin Weston 26. Mr. William Weston 27. Mr. Selden 28. Mr. Alford 29. Mr. Llhoyd 30. Mr. Herbert 31. Captain Digby 32. Serjeant Hyde 33. Mr. Tailor 34. Mr. Gryffith 35. Mr. Scowen 36. Mr. Bridgman 37. Mr. Fettiplace 38. Dr. Turner 39. Capt. Charles Price 40. Dr. Parry a Civilian 41. Mr. Arundell 42. Mr. Newport 43. Mr. Holburne 44. Mr. Noell 45. Mr. Kirton 46. Mr. Pollard 47. Mr. Price 48. Mr. Trevanion 49. Mr. Iane. 50. Mr. Edgcombe 51. Mr. Chichley 52. Mr. Mallorey 53. Mr. Porter 54. Mr. White Secretary to the Earl of
his Government and in their Manifesto's reflected upon his Person To which he publisht an Answer wherein having first inform'd his People that though he had several times heretofore both by his Letters and Commands admonished them not to suffer themselves to be perswaded or perverted by such as endeavoured to raise Insurrections amongst them and to draw them into their Party and by so doing to turn them out of the ways of Peace And had also proferred and promised Grace and Favour to all such as being already engaged should return to their Obedience after they should truly understand his Intentions Nevertheless with great grief of Heart perceiving that notwithstanding his Commands and Gracious Advertisment some of his Subjects did not forbear to engage themselves in that Faction being drawn into it by several Interests But the most of them purely transported and blinded with the fair and specious Colours which the Authors of those Seditions put upon their Designs he thought it a part of his Duty for the general benefit of all his Subjects and in discharge of his Conscience to God and Honour to the World to oppose the clear light of the Truth to those Artifices of his Adversaries To the end that his Subjects being guided by the clearness of that Light might in time and without any Impediment discern and know the grounds and ends of those Troubles and by that means avoid the Miseries and Calamities both publick and private which were like to grow upon those Commotions After this Preface he proceeds to shew the Vanity of their Pretences and to remove the occasions of their Fears and Iealousies First in point of Religion appealing to his own constant practise of and endeavours for the Religion Established the dangers and hazards he had undergone for the defence of it That he should not refuse to conâ—ent to any Laws for the securing of it so they were just and possible in themselves and profitable for his Subjects Nor did he refuse any that were offred to him by the Parliament at Bloys in favour of it Nor did there ever any the least thought enter into his Heart of Countenancing Heresy in his Dominions Secondly in point of Justice and Defence of the Laws be shewed what he had done since his coming to the Crown in favour of it what good Laws and Constitutions he had made and how desirous he had been that they should be observed But if any default were in the Execution of them the blame must rest upon his Officers not upon him whose particular care had been so great for the Rebuilding of those two Pillars Religion and Iustice which the violence of former times had pull'd down and Level'd with the ground He likewise intreated all his Subjects to open their Eyes and consider the dangerous Consequences of these Wars which would not be ended so soon as they imagined and not to stain their Loyalty by suffring themselves to be made Instruments of their Countries ruine to their Enemies advancement Thirdly as touching the disposal of places of Honour and trust in the Kingdom first he stood upon his Prerogative that as all his Predecessors so he might freely confer such places upon whom he pleased being not restrained by any Law to make choice of one more than another Appealing to the People how groundless that Calumny was when they might see those that most complained and were the Authors of those Troubles to be such as had been most preferred by him Fourthly for the Grievances of the People he professed he had already begun and promised his continuance to relieve them Fifthly for the secret Plots and Conspiracies which the Heads of the Faction pretended to be laid against their Persons for preventing whereof they said they were inforced to take up Arms his Majesties known Clemency might sufficiently secure them from any on his part who was naturally so far from all desire of revenge that no Man living had ever the least cause to complain of him in that respect notwithstanding what ever Provocation he had from any But very many have had sufficient proof of his natural Bounty and Mercy Therefore his Majesty prayed and intreated the Heads of that Faction to Disband their Forces to relinquish their League and return to their Duty and Loyalty and so doing he promised to receive them into his favour But after the King and the Leaguers had for a long time bandied Writing one against the other they so far incensed each other that it was now full time either to come to Action and not to multiply any more words The Forces of the Kingdom which adhered to the King were very weak for he had not time sufficient to ripen his Designs being prevented by the sagacity and forwardness of the House of Guise his own Followers and those of his Favourites were divided sometaking one part some another And those which stood with the Royal Authority were very cold and slow their Courages being much daunted by the bold attempts of the Consederates Nay some of the King 's own Party and who had been highly favoured and preferred by him were revolted from him to the League But that which Afflicted the King above all was his feares of the City of Parts a just Parallel of our London which was indeed the Head of the Kingdom but a Head so great and Powerful that which way soever it inclined it was sure to turn the Scales This Citty was not only united with the general League but had entred into a particular League and Covenant amongst themselves And having secretly provided themselves of Arms was ready to revolt upon the first occasion and if need were to seize upon the Kings Person which very much troubled him For if he should stay in Paris he could not do it without great danger to himself being liable to every affront from the inconsiderable headiness of the Multitude And if he should abandon it it was sure to revolt To secure his stay there he was therefore forced to call all the Souldiers of his Ordinary Guard to their Colours and farther made choice of forty five Gentlemen in whom he could repose confidence whom he maintained at the charge of an hundred Crowns a Month besides their Expences at Court to attend continually upon his Person Yet for all this he lived in continual Jealousies and Affliction of Mind seeing himself upon such an Head-strong Beast as was not possible for him to manage Wherefore he endeavoured all fair means of accommodation with the Leaguers profering them all security The Citty of Paris erected a new Council of Sixteen as London new-moulded theirs which were the most interested and affected to the League according to the number of Wards in that Citty who were to manage all the affairs and dispose the minds of the People with whom were joined one of every Mistery in the City who made their Addresses to and
received their Orders from the Sixteen as well concerning the defence of the City and Service of the League as to counterpiose the Kings Designs When there was no hopes of accommodation left with the Leaguers the King began to raise Forces too and summon'd all the Nobility to assist him Wherein he met no where with so much Opposition as from the Turbulent Citizens of Paris where the Preachers and Council of Sixteen never ceased to provoke and incense the People and raise frequent Tumults in the City so as the Magistrates was set light by and trod under foot with danger of an open revolt which those Men desired and endeavoured Nor did it stand with the present condition of the King to chastise the Authors of those Tumults for fear of ministring any occasion to the City of revolting from him Whereupon they Multiplyed their Practises with much boldness which had doubtless arrived at that end which the Leaguers designed but that the fear of the German-Army and the Kings Protestation and Oath for defence of Religion against the Huguenots which he had solemnly taken upon New-years day 1587. did contain them within some bounds of Moderation The King therefore having with great Dexterity and Moderation many times stilled those Reports which had been raised on no grounds being likewise heartily vexed at the Ringleaders of those Tumults but deeply concealing his Passion left the Lord Villaclere to be Governour and the Queen-Mother Regent in Paris and departed thence about the end of Iuly 1587. Thus was that King driven from Paris by the Tumults The House of Lorrein who were the prime Men in the League puft up with the Opinion of their own Power forgot all Moderation and spread their Sailes to vast hopes talked of nothing but utter extirpation of the Huguenots of deposing the King and thrusting him into a Cloyster as they found in Stories that King Chilperick had been served of expelling all Favourites from the Court sharing the great places of the Kingdom amongst themselves and Governing all France as they pleased And so high were they in their own Conceits that their Councils were not bounded either by Justice or Possibility For supposing all things to be now in their own hands they imagined their Merit to be such as they might lawfully undertake and their Power no less as that they might easily perform any the highest and most advantagious atchievement what soever What was this other than as our Men told his Majesty If they should make the highest Precedents of former Parliaments their Patterns it would be no Breach of Modesty To which purpose they caused or suffred those Infamous Stories of King Richard the Second's time to be Published in Print When all their Plots were now ripe and they in readiness for Execution they took the very same course and upon the very same Grounds as our Men did actuate their Designs which was forsooth by an Humble Petition For they agreed that the Duke of Guise and other Lords of the League should not immediately set upon the King with open force But to make a shew as if the nature of the Affairs themselves did carry them on to their Designed end they should present a Petition which should contain manydemands very advantagious to themselves and such as would necessitate the King to declare himself to the full For if he granted their Requests without more ado than they had their end but if he should hold off and be unwilling than he would give them occasion to make use of their Armes and to take that from him by force which he was not willing to part with of his own accord The chief Heads of their Petition presented to the King by the Duke of Guise after many Preambles and Reasons couched together with a great deal of cunning were these viz. That the King would cordially Ioyn with the League for Extirpation of the Huguenots His Majesty join wirh his Parliament for defence of Religion That he would dismiss from his Privy-Council and other places of Trust and Command and from the Court and their several places all such Persons as they should name such as were suspected by them Such as they could not confide in dissaffected to the Catholick Religion That he would grant the Confederates some places of Strength wherein they might place Garrisons for their own security and those to be maintained at the charge of the Crown That an Army should be maintained on the confines of Lorein to hinder any Forreign Invasion and that to be commanded by one of the confederates This the Militia just That he would confiscate and cause to be sold all the Goods of the Huguenots Papists and Prelates and with the price of them defray the Charges of the former War and help to maintain the Leaguers for the future To this Petition which was presented to the King in the beginning of February Anno. 1588. his Majesty was not hasty to return an Answer nor did the Duke of Guise much desire it because the ends of their Demands were only to make the King contemptible and odious to his People as also suspected as a Favourer of Hereticks And in the mean time to give occasion to the League to rise in Arms and Prosecute their Designs while Fortune smiled upon them The Citizens of Paris being led away by their new Council of Sixteen could no longer endure the Kings Government but were full of Scandalous Libels politick Discourses Satirical Verses and feigned Stories wounding the Kings Honour The Preachers likewise after their usual manner but with more freedom speaking against the present State of things filled the Peoples Eares with new strange and miraculous Stories Which poison being derived from the Citty of Paris as from the Heart spread abroad into all other parts of the Kingdom all Counties being possess'd with the like Impressions in favour of the League and disadvantage of the King The Duke of Guise purposing to devive all the Kings Authority upon himself and his Adherents applyed himself mostly to the Parisians being inform'd by the Sixteen that the City was at his Devotion with Twenty Thousand Armed Men under Sixteen Commanders of their several Companies ready for any Imployment But not confiding in those Commanders he thought fit to lessen the number and sent them five Captains to regulate and Command the Popular Arms viz. Brissac Boisdaufin Chamois Escaroles and Colonel St. Paul with whom was joined the Lord of Menevil as the prime instrument of the Plot. And though the King in his own Person was a most Rigid Opposer of the Huguenots and none more Zealous in his Religion than himself yet did they defame him to the People as a Favourer of Hereticks yea and to Forrein Princes too Traducing him saith Thuanus who was otherwise a most intestine Enemy to the Protestant cause both in France and with Forrein Princes as if what he did for
the Peace and Quiet of his Kingdom he had done it in favour of the Protestants Touching the point of Placing and Displacing Councellors as their Demands and Colour for them were alike with our Mens so was the Kings Answer not much different It was the publick discourse of the Guisards in Paris that the Kingdom could never be setled in Peace nor the Minds of true Catholicks at ease so long as they saw the Kings Person inviron'd with non-confiding Persons and of uncertain resolutions in point of Religion The King made answer he was very willing to any thing that might conduce to the settlement of Religion and that he was heartily inclin'd to the Extirpation of Huguenots there being no Prince in Christendom that more hated and desired the Suppression of Hereticks than himself And that for those about his Person they had never suggested to him any Councils to the contrary That all Kings had ever enjoyed the free Liberty of preserving and favouring whom they pleased and to choose their Companions according to their own Gust Were it not so the liberty of Kings should be chained and limitted to that which private Men enjoy free and without restraint there being no person so mean but hath Power to live and converse with whom he please according to his own Genus and liking But if it should be proved against his Ministers that they had in any thing demeaned themselves with less Sincerity than they ought he would be ready to punish them accordingly to the quality of their Offence but would not Banish them from his Court to humour other Men. When the King by reason of the Tumults in Paris had as was said for his own Security enlarged the number of his Guard the Duke of Guise and his Partisans spread a Rumour in the City that the King had a purpose to put a Hundred and Twenty of the Principal Catholicks to Death and to put Garrisons in the chief places of the City to awe the Citizens and therefore that it was necessary for them to stand upon their Guard Upon this Succeeded the Barricados at Paris when the King was in a manner wholly in the Duke of Guises Power But yet he made a shift to slip away privately from his Palace the Louere attended only with Sixteen Gentlemen The Duke not taking care to prevent the escape whether out of Honesty of which he pretended to be the Protector or that he desired to cloak all his Designs with the Mantle of Piety and Religion or that he intended nothing more but his own safety and Reformation of the Government promising to himself that all would fall into his Lap by means of his cunning Carriage and that he needed not to make use of open Force brought the King to such a low Ebb that he must of necessity yield up himself to his Disposal and condescend to such Conditions as he desired which he doubted not but would be approved by the general consent of the People The King being desirous of an accommodation imploy'd the Queen Mother to treat with the Duke of Guise and his Adherents Which had the like success as his Majesties Message from Nottingham to those at Westminster But the Duke's demands were extream high and Exorbitant more like an absolute Conquerour than a Subject viz. That the King should declare him his Lieutenant-General over all the Provinces of his Dominions That a general Assembly of the States should be called at Paris and this Authority being then confirm'd to him by them that the Taxes and Impositions upon the People should be moderated That for removing all suspition of Innovations all Forms of Government should be setled in such a way as it might not be lawful for the King to make any alteration That the Duke D'Espernon and several other Ministers of State as persons suspected to keep Intelligence with the Hereticks and to be continually hammering out new Projects should be put out of their Places and Commands and for ever Banished from the Court That to remove the Jealousies generally conceived of too remiss Proceedings against the Hereticks the sole managery of that War should be Committed to the Duke That to take away the suspition of any Tyrannical Intentions or Actions srom the King he should dismiss his Guard of forty six and interdict them all his Majesty to return to the Court and content himself with such an ordinary Guard as his Predecessors used to have That Griglion the Captain of the Guard should be displaced and another put in his room in whom the Catholicks could confide That the forts of Provence should be consign'd to the Duke D'Aumarle and others to others of the League and that the King should deposite in the hands of certain Lords of the League six other strong Holds such as they should nominate which should be Garrison'd by them and have such Governours as were to their liking That a convenient Assignment should be made to the Cittizens of Paris for reimbursing the Expenses they had been at And that the Government of the City should be confer'd upon the Count of Brissac the Duke of Mayne made high Admiral and de Chatres Ldâ— Mareschall When the Duke of Guise failed of his Intentions upon the Kings Person by reason of his escape and his Design of obtaining from him as his Prisoner what Conditions he pleased was by that means crushed he bent his thoughts to the securing himself of the Command of the City of Paris For perceiving that he must now go to War with the King he knew very well that he could have no stronger Foundation than the Power and Assistance of the Parisians Therefore to assure himself of the City he got into his Hands the Bastile dispossessing Testate who held it formerly for the King but was now forc'd to surrender it into the hands of the People who instantly made the Duke Governour of it The Duke therefore loosing no time call'd the People together in a Common-Council and caused Hector Perose provost of the Merchants a place answerable to that of Lord Mayor of London to be deposed as a dependent on the King Committed him to the Bastile and made Capello Martell to be chosen Provost in his place he being a Principal Incendiary among the People and chief Minister of the League Just a Pennington for a Gurney The Duke of Guise seeing the King was got out of the toyl and that he could not bring his first Design about endeavoured to make it appear that it was done with his consent the King's Escape though it hapned by his Inadvertence Therefore with many fair words and plausible reasons laid down in several Writings both to the King and People of France he strove to make them believe that all his Actions had no other aim but the benefit of the Kingdom Allegiance and Obedience to the King and Zeal to the publick good That the Tumults in Paris were
by the disdain which he had conceived against the Inconstancy and Impertinency of the Citizens of Paris and the want of Money to pay his Souldiers was troubled much But above all the Subtilty and surliness of the Spaniard vexed him most who having caused Seignior de la Mot the Governour of Gravelin to come out of Flanders with their Forces to the confines of the Kingdom refused to let him advance one Foot further or to issue any Moneys for the maintenence of the War unless the Catholick King was first declared Protector of the Crown of France with Authority to dispose of the Principal Dignities as well Ecclesiastical as secular which they called marks of Justice whereby he desired to have Dominion and Superiority over the League Which demands seemed so Exorbitant unto him so prejudicial to the Crown and so dishonest that he could not endure to think of them himself Nor did he believe that any one Man of the Confederates from the Parisians downwards would ever condescend to Decree them Knowing that this were to put the Bridle into the King of Spaine's hands to let him carry all things to such ends as he pleased himself Nor did the Brethren of Scotland sell their Assistance at a much cheaper rate as is plainly to be seen by their Treaty of the 29th of November 1643. For their advance into England and their second demands for their managery of the Government of Ireland But on the other side his Fears of being abandoned and left alone his distrust of the Kings Sincerity in his Promises and the Antient grudge he bore to him but especially his hopes of getting the Crown for himself would not suffer him to hearken to those overtures made by the Marquess of Belin whom he sent back to his Imprisonment with some Ambiguous and General Expressions and cut off the Negotiation for any Accord So still the King seeks but the Faction declines all occasions of Peace For the People of Paris were so far Transported with Zeal to the Cause by reason of the continual denunciations from the Pulpits that there could be no Peace or accommodation made unless they would damn their own Souls that they were resolved to endure any thing rather than to hearken to an Accommodation Insomuch as many who had inconsiderately slipt a Word or two out of their Mouths saying that Accommodation was better than starving and rather Peace than a Siege were in the Rage and Fury of the People either publickly Condemn'd and Executed or without more ado thrown into the River as damn'd Miscreants Enemies of the Catholick Religion and infected with the Poyson of Heresy It is not unworthy Observation what Artifices the Heads of that Rebellion used to abuse the People During the Seige of Paris both the Duke of Mayne without and other Lords within the City imploying all their Art and Industry in giving out Reports and spreading News sometimes of a strong Power from Flanders coming to raise the Seige sometimes of great Provisions of Victual for Relief of the City sometimes of some Accident in favour of their Party Letters and Messengers coming in every day with a Mixture of true and False Reports together Which being Published in their Pulpits and divulged amongst their Guards served to feed the People for a few days And when there were certain Commissioners sent from Paris to treat with the King about an Acommodation Notwithstanding his Majesties Answer was returned in Writing with much sweetness of Language and proffer of all security and possible satisfaction upon return to their Obedience with Letters to the same effect to the Duke of Nemure and others exhorting them to Peace and assuring them that they should receive more from his Grace than they could desire Yet upon return of the Commissioners the Duke of Nemure and other great Persons dissaffected to Peace would not permit the true Copy of the Kings Answer to be Published to the People but caused Reports to be given out that the King would not have any Peace but upon condition of an absolute Submission and that the Duke of Mayne and other Lords of the League should not be included in the Pardon The King of Spaine therefore upon the Duke of Parma's Advice finding how much those of the League relyed upon his ayd and the necessity thereof endeavoured to prolong the War That by the weariness and weakness of the French he might at length compass those ends upon them which he saw it was impossible for him at first to obtain The Duke of Parma himself also to win the more upon the People when he came into France with his Army in assistance of the Leaguers considering that the name of a Spaniard was there odious strayn'd himself with all possible earnestness of Mind for to order his Army as that his Souldiers should not commit any Outrage or Oppression nor give any occasion of offence to the French The War thus Prolonged and the charge thereof grown heavy occasioned much repining in the People against the Duke of Mayne notwithstanding all his Faithful Services and Paines taken for the League against whom none complained more than the Cittizens of Paris who Accused the Duke of misgovernance of an over greediness to keep all things in his own Power and too much profuseness of other Mens Means With them Concurred the Ministers of Spain who liked not to see such a Supream Power in the hands of the Duke of whose Affection to their Designs they had no good Opinion Besides these discontents Brissonius Primier President of the Parliament at Paris who had been at first a principal Instrument for the League when he perceived as his Friends said that the ends of the Grandees were not so sincere for the publick good as he at first had conceived of them or as his Enemies reported being corrupted by large proffers made unto him on behalf of the King by some who were Prisoners in the City or as it was generally believ'd out of the Levity and Inconstancy of his nature began to favour the King's Party who taking heart unto them by means of his Protection making a considerable Body began to Plot how to bring the City to revolt and to reduce it to the Kings Obedience One of which Revolters who had been a chief Fomenter of the League being discovered for holding Intelligence and Plotting for the King was by the instigation of the Sixteen hurried to Prison But whilst they made slow proceeding to his Tryal he escaped which so vexed the Sixteen as that supposing the Judges had a hand therein they furiously raysed the People in Arms and upon the XV th of November beset all the Passes to the Palace of Justice seized upon three of the Judges Brisson Archier and Terdiu hauled them to Prison and there without any Legal Process Strangled them the same day Hang'd up their Bodies upon the Gallows next Morning and like Mad Men ran
about the City setting Guards in sundry places with Threats of the like Cruelty to divers others Upon endeavour to suppress which Uproar the City Garrison refused to obey being so much Devoted to the Councils and Actions of the Sixteen that Alexander de Monte said plainly He would not move against them who managed the Cause of God and all good Men with so much sincerity The Council of the Sixteen Condemning and Executing many Citizens whom they suspected to incline to the Kings Party in a precipitous manner About that time there being a consultation held at Rens by the chief Heads of the League where they Treated long about their Common Interests though every one did palliate their divers Pretences and coloured their private Designs yet was it plain enough that they would never concur in the same end As for the Spaniards they wholly trusted to their own Power and the necessity in which the rest stood of their Assistance The Popes Nuncio insisting upon the Majesty of the Apostolick See and the Foundation of Religion which the Pope must dispose The Duke of Lorreyne stood upon his credit as Head of the Family and pretended that the rest in Modesty must sit down to him The Duke of Savoy had an aim at the Compassing of Provence The Duke of Mercur at Brittain The Duke of Namurz meant to Cantonize the Government The Duke of Mayne as Head of the Army and chief of the Faction relyed upon the Union of the People and assent of the Nobility who stood well affected to him But things being not yet ripe and every one proceeding with great Caution and Secrecy concealed his own Designs and made a semblance as if he were moved with no other Considerations but of the publick good The Duke of Mayne attempted to Storm Mant where the Kings Council many Lords and Prelates and chief Officers of the Crown were with a less Guard than the Quality of the Persons and weakness of the place required To which purpose he brought divers of the Citizens of Paris drew out the Garrisons of Meaux Dreux and Pontois but was repulst by the Valour of the Lords themselves and their Families President Janin was sent into Spain to negotiate with the King of that Realm in behalf of the Leaguers but return'd without any resolution For it was desired in Spain that the War should move but a slow pace that the Duke of Mayne should not grow so much in Credit and Authority with his Party The Council of the Sixteen at Paris to whom the Preachers stuck close which was at first the Basis and Ground-work of the League pretending to carry all things according to their own liking demeaned themselves with much partiality and Passion proper to a Faction without any regard to preserve the Rights of the Crown or the Honour and Reputation of the French Nation their only Studies and whole Endeavours being set upon such things as might ruine the King whom they hated most perfectly and extinguish both his Name and all the Huguenot-Party so that they might put the Reins of Government into the hands of such Persons as would rule all things according to their Humours But the Duke of Mayne studying how to curb and moderate their turbulent desires instituted a Council of State distinct from that of the Sixteen consisting of many Wise and Moderate Men to counterpoise and restrain the heady courses of the other Amongst which were Villeroy Iannin c. Men not tainted with Spanish Practises nor the inconsiderate Zeal of the Preachers which kindled a great Heart-burning and emulation betwixt the Council of the State with the Parliament at Paris and Council of the Sixteen especially some of the Zealots amongst them Thus have we seen the main resemblance of the Holy League with this of ours as to the Original and Prosecution of it though in the ends of them they did somewhat differ Apparent it is that the carriage of the Scotts here was the very same with that of the Spaniards there Their Pretences the same viz. Religion and Assisting their Brethren Their private ends the same the advance of their own greatness Which were no sooner fully understood by the French but even those which were the Kings greatest Enemies began to detest them and chose rather to submit to the just Obedience of their King than undergo the Spanish-Yoke For when the Council of Spain were resolv'd to send but small Forces into France and to spin out the Wars to their own least cost and most advantage Hoping by that means to obtain their ends upon the French who without their help were not able to stand against the Kings Forces which were to procure the Lady Infanta Isabella of Spain to be declared Queen of France in a full Assembly of the States which they intended to force the Duke of Mayne to call for that purpose The Duke perceiving it began utterly to disgust them complaining of their niggardly and sparing assistance afforded to the League and eager desires of domineering which had occasioned the loss of all their former pains and given the King opportunity of recovering such strength as that he was now Superior to them both in Reputation and Forces with much more bitter Language to the Spanish Embassadors he underhand began to Treat of an accord with the King yet remitted nothing of his Violence and pursuit of his Ambitious ends but calling an Assembly of the States at Paris declared himself fully against the King and Proposed the new Election of another hoping the Crown might be conferr'd upon himself for his great Actions in the Wars none having merited more of the Cause Yet could he not prevail with those of his own Family the Dukes of Lorrein and Guise thinking as highly of themselves as he And when the matter came to be opened in a Close Committee of the chief Leaguers before some select Delegates of the three Estates the Duke of Feria in a set Speech full of Art and Eloqnence recommended the Infanta to their Election a thing which the Spanish Agents had before Practised under hand with many large proffers of Honour and Reward to those of the House of Lorrein and other chief Agents of the League Which Proposal sounded so strange in the Ears of the French generally that the Bishop of Saintliz William Rosa a Man of an harsh Temper and dogged Eloquence which he had many Years Exercised against the King and his Adherents though a Fiery-Zealous Leaguer could not endure to hear with Patience but instantly said he now saw the Kings Party was in the right of it who had always given out that they of the League did nothing but veil their State-Interests with the Mask of Religion Which Imputation himself and his Companions had ever laboured to consute out of the Pulpits and that now it grieved him to the Heart to see it confirm'd from the Mouths of the Embassadors
31 Aug. * 4 Sept. * 6 Sept. * 11 Sept. Scob. Coll. p. 54. * 13 Sept. * 25 Sept. The solemn League and Covenant fram'd in Scotland taken by the Members at Westminster Archbishop Laud's life p. 510. * See the Remonstrance of the Army in order to the King's Trial dated at St. Albans 16 Nov. 1648. * Covenant with Narrative p. 12. * 21 Sept. Scob. Coll. p. 54. * 2 Oct. * 5 Oct. * 6 Oct. * 7 Oct. * 18 Oct. * 9 Oct. Scob. Coll. p. 57. * 18 Oct. * Articles of the Treaty at Edenborough for bringing in the Scots Army * 29 Nov. * 20 Nov. * 28 Nov. Scob. Coll. p. 59. * 13 Dec. * 25 Dec. Scob. Coll. p. 60. * 9 Jan. Scob. Coll. p. 60. * See the Letter to his Majesty from the Lord Chancelour and divers Lords of that Realm â—ated at Edenâ—â—rough 1 Julii 1643. wherein they promise not 〈◊〉 raise any â—orces without special warrant from the King * His Majesties Declaration to all his Subjects of Scotland â— Jan. 1643. The Scots second Invasion See the Supplication of the Noblemen Barrons Burgesses c. exhibited to the Marquess of Hamilton his Majesties Commissioner an 1638. Wherein by way of Explication of their National Covenant they acknowledge that the quietness and stability of their Religion and Kirk depends upon the safety of the King's Majesty as God's vice-gerent See the Supplication of the general Assembly at Edenborough 12 Aug. 1639. Whereby it appeareth that the whole Kingdom was sworn with their means and lives to stand to the defence of their dread Sovereign his person and authority in every cause which may concern his Majesties Honour with their friends and followers in quiet manner or in Arms as they shall be required by his Majesty See Act 5. of the second Parliament of King Charles concerning the ratification of the Covenant by which their universal Protestation and promise under a solemn Oath and Hand-writing upon fearful pains and execrations is apparent viz. to defend the King's person and authority with their goods bodies and lives against all Enemies within the Realm or without as they desire God to be a merciful defender to them in the day of their death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. See the Petition presented to his Majesty Jan. 1642 manifesting the promise of the whole Clergy in their National Assembly to keep the people under their charge in obedience to his Majesty and to his Laws confessing it a duty well-beseeming the Preachers of the Gospel See the Petition of the Nobility Gentry Burroughs Ministers and Commons to the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council of that Kingdom wherein they acknowledged his Majesties zeal for maintaining the true Religion and that to call in question the same after so many reiterated professions and asseverations could not be but an unchristian distrustfulness and in them the height of disloyalty and ingratitude confessing themselves bound in duty to God by whose great name they had sworn to defend and maintain the person greatness and authority of their dread Soveraign as God's Vicegerent to the utmost of their power with their means and lives in every cause which might concern his Honour professing themselves fully satisfied and perswaded of his Majesties royal zeal and resolution and that malice and detraction could not prevail to make the least impression in their loyal hearts of jealousy and distrust or their intending any thing to the prejudice of that Brotherly and blessed conjunction of the two Nations attesting God the searcher of all hearts of their dutiful intentions towards his Majesty their dread and native King strictly bound thereto by all the ties of Nature Christianity and Gratitude 22 Jan. 27 Jan. * Dated 30 Jan. 3 Martii 9 Martii * 22 Jan. Scob. Coll. p. 61. * 20 Febr. Scob. Coll. ut supra Anno 1643. a 26. March b 29. March c 3. April d 6. May. * 16. May. f 18. June g 22. June h 30. June i 1. July k 2. July l 5. July m 13. July n 24. July o 26. July p 2. Aug. q 5. Aug. r 10. Aug. †20. Aug. t 28. Aug. v 1. 3. Sept. x 4. Sept. y 6. Sept. z 17. Sept. a 20. Sept. b 6. Oct. c 4. Decem. d 9. Decem. * 12. Decem. f 21. Decem. g 25. Decem. h 28. Decem. i 25. Jan. k 13. Feb. l 18. Feb. m 21. Mar. n 21. Mar. o 23. March p 16. April q 26. April r 8. May. †21. May. t 5. June v 6. July x 30. July y 2. Aug. z 10. Septem a 16. Septem b 20. Octob. c 3. Jan. d 22. Jan. The Scots Invasion Anno 1644. * 26. March Scab coll p. 65. f 8. July Ibid. p. 73 g 2. July The Battle at Marston-moore h 13. July i 4. July The King's Message from Evesham k 1. Septemb. l 5. Septemb. from Tavestoke m 23. Nov. f 26. Nov. g 2. Decem. Scob. Coll. p. 75. h 9. Decem. The self-denying Ordinance The Book of Common Prayer Abolisht The Directory Establisht i 4. Jan. k 10. Jan. Arch. Bp. of Canterb. beheaded Treaty at Vxbridge l Impr. Oxon. 1645. m Ibid. p. 31. n Ibid. p. 144. 145. o 3. Apr. p 6. Apr. q 25. May r 27. May †28. May t 12 Iune u 20. June x 30. June y 3. July z 15. August * 1. Septem a 14. Sept. b 25. Octob. c 7. Novem. d 17. Nov. * 23 Febr. f 1. March g 29. March h 2. July i 23. July k 19. Octob. l 27. Octob. The second Battel of Newbery * 9. Decemb. The self-denying Ordinance m 31. Dec. n 31. Dec. o Heath's Chron. p. 68. p Ibid. 23. Decemb. q Ibid. p. 18. * cap. 8. r 1. Jan. See the King's observation thereon in his Eikâ—n Basilike cap. †10. Jan. Anno 1645. a 22. April b 31. May. c 25. March d 24. April * 22. May. f 23. May. g 26. May. h 1. June i 14. June k 18. June l 27. June m 28. June n 21. July o 23. July p 25. July q 31. July r 15. August †17. Aug. t 21. Aug. v 22. Sept. x 26. Sept. y 1. Oct. z 14. Oct. a 15. Octob. b 5. Nov. c 16. Nov. d 4. Decem. * 17. Decem. f 17. Jan. g 19. Jan. h 2. Feb. i 3. Feb. k 16. Feb. l 25. Feb. m 28. Feb. n 29. Feb. o 3. March p 14. March q 21. March p 23. Aug. Scob. Col. p. 97. Message from the King for peace q 5. Decem. r 15. Decem. †26. Decem. t 29. Decem. u 15. Jan. x 17. Jan. y 24. Jan. z 29. Jan. a 26. Feb. b 23. March c 22. Octob. Anno 1642. Anno 1646. d 7. Apr. * 8. Apr. f 13. April g 15. April h 25. April i 26. April d The King's Letter to the Marquess