therewithal recommended unto them Sir Christopher He recommends Sir Christopher Hatton who is chosen He is the Archbishop's constant Assistant in bridling the Puritan Faction Hatton being sometime of that University whom accordingly they did chuse for their Chancellor and whom the Archibishop ever found a great Assistant in bridling and reforming the in temperate Humour of these Novelists who by the Countenance of the aforesaid Great Personages E. Leicester c. were now grown to a strong head 61. For in the Year 1588. came Martin Marprelate and other Libels published 1588. forth those hateful Libels of Martin Marprelate and much about the same time the Epitome the Demonstration of Discipline the Supplication Diotrephes the Minerals Have you any work for a Cooper Martin Junior alias Theses Martinianoe Martin Senior More work for the Cooper and other such like Bastardly Pamphlets which might well be Nullius filii because no man durst A Private Puritan Press erected at Kingston and afterwards removed to several Places father their Births All which were printed with a kind of wandring Press which was first set up at Moulsey near Kingston upon Thames and from thence conveyed to Fausly in Northamptonshire and from thence to Norton afterwards to Coventry from thence to Welstone in Warwickshire from which place the Letters were sent to another Press in or near Manchester where by the means of Henry that good Earl of Derby the The Press discovered at Manchester Press was discovered in printing of More work for a Cooper Which shameless Libels were fraughted only with odious and scurrilous Calumniations against the Established Government and such Reverend Prelates as deserved honour with uprighter Judgments 62. Some of the Printers whilst they were busied about the last Libel The Printers apprehended prosecuted and fined in the Star-chamber On their submission and the Archbishop's Mediation were released and Fines remitted Penry and Udall Authors of the Libels were apprehended who with the Entertainers and Receivers of the Press were proceeded against in the Star-chamber and there Censured but upon their submission at the humble Suit of the Archbishop were both delivered out of Prison and eased of their Fines The Authors and Penners of some of these Libels were John Penry and John Udall the chief Disperser of them was Humphrey Newman a Cobler a choice Broker for such sowterly Wares and in regard of his Hempenly Trade a fit Newman a Cobler Disperser Person to cherish up Martin's Birds who as Pliny writeth do feed so greedily upon Hemp-seed that they be oftentimes choaked therewith Such was the unfortunate end of some of his Martin Birds as appeareth upon Record in the King's-Bench against John Penry Clerk John Penry condemned 1593. Udall pardoned Termino Pasch 1593. and at an Assize in Surrey against John Udall whose Pardon the Archbishop afterwards obtained 63. Thus the factious Ministers zealous of pretended Discipline having with these seditious Libels as the Forerangers and Harbingers of their further Designs made way in the hearts of the Vulgar who ever are apt to entertain Novelties though it be with danger and detriment to themselves and specially if it have a shew of restraining the Authority of their Superiors they thought it the fittest time to prosecute their Projects And while one sort of them were maliciously busied in slandering Thomas Cartwright with others proceeded with in the Star-chamber for their Conventicles 1591. and for publishing their Book of New Discipline the State of the Church already setled the other were as seditiously imployed in planting the Discipline which they had newly plotted Whereupon shortly after Thomas Cartwright and Edmund Snape with others were called in question and proceeded withal in the Star-chamber for setting forth and putting in practice without Warrant or Authority a new Form of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Presbyterial Discipline The particularities of which their dangerous Plots and Positions though most secretly carried amongst men only of their own combination were by Doctor Bancroft first discovered and by the Archbishop and the Lord Chancellor farther brought to light as the Records themselves in the Star-chamber do testify and may at large appear in Doctor Bancroft's Survey of the Pretended Discipline and dangerous Positions under Dr. Bancroft writes two Books against the Disciplinarians and their dangerous Practices and Positions pretence of Reformation Wherein also you shall see these Disciplinarians to exceed other Ministers from whom they have their Presbyterial Platform in Threatning Railing and undutiful Speeches against their Sovereign the High Court of Parliament the most Honourable Privy Council the Archbishops and Bishops the Reverend Judges of the Land and Lawyers of both Professions And generally against all Magistrates and other inferior Ministers of Justice and Officers under them that do maintain the present Government of the Church of England and withstand their desire 64. It was therefore high time for the Archbishop and State to look strictly to The Archbishop and State 's vigilant watch upon them these Perturbers of our Churches happy quiet But if we shall take a further view of those enormous and desperate Courses which after ensued tho' all Branches growing out of the same Root we shall be far from accusing either the Archbishop of too much Vigilancy or the Civil Magistrates of overmuch Severity in cutting off some of those outragious and unbridled Sectaries 65. Three Principal there were among them deeply infatuated with this reforming Spirit William Hacket Yeoman Edmund Coppinger and Henry Arthington Gentlemen all of them strongly possessed at the first with an earnest desire of the late invented Discipline and carried violently with the strength of their erroneous Fancy into a desperate and lamentable Course whereof though I will suppose that many are innocent who were led with the same Spirit and desire of Reformation with them in the beginning yet I am induced by just and weighty Reasons to conceive that unless the Vigilancy of the Magistrates had timely prevented their Courses the intemperate Zeal of these Novelists finding no certain ground to stay it self upon nor any determinate end where it might finally rest would have broken out into some like Combustion and Flame as these aforenamed did whereof I will give you but a little taste Two of these Edmund Coppinger and Henry Arthington Coppinger and Arthington their preaching in a Cart in Cheapside Julii 16. 1591. That Hacket represented Christ and Themselves Prophets from God came into Cheapside and there in a Cart proclaimed News from Heaven to wit That one William Hacket Yeoman represented Christ by partaking his glorious Body in his principal Spirit and that They were two Prophets the one of Mercy the other of Judgment called and sent of God to assist him in his great work c. But because the weight of the Matter requireth a larger Discourse than is fit to be inserted in this Work I refer the Reader
for the rest unto the perusal of Doctor Cosin his Book intituled Conspiracy for Pretended Reformation Conspiracy for pretended Reformation wrote by Dr. Cosin Where he shall find their Purposes Plots and Designments with many other markable things at large discoursed and taken truly out of their Conference and Writings under their own hands with their Confessions and Examinations subscribed by themselves before sundry honourable and worshipful Personages of great gravity and wisdom employed in those Affairs By all which together with their temperate direct and pertinent Speech and congruity of Phrase and Matter both before and after their Apprehension it will clearly appear that the said Conspirators were not Mad-men unless it be a kind of Madness to be a violent * Promoters Prosecutor of This Reformation as indeed it is howsoever some of that Fraternity and Sect have so given it out chusing thereby rather to accuse the honourable Justice of the Realm and all the Ministers thereof than that any professing desire of pretended Reformation should be noted with deep Disloyalty as they were charged withal 66. When the Queen and State saw the incredible height of these audacious Attempts so dangerous to the Commonwealth thus knotted and countenanced under pretence of reforming the Church they found it necessary to stop the Fountains of these Proceedings lest it might grow to the like outrage Amongst whom there were very forward to the like presumption Henry Barrow Gentleman and John Greenwood Clerk who were convented before the High Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical in November 1587. for 1587. Barrow and Greenwood their Schismatical and Seditious Positions their Schismatical and Seditious Opinions viz. That our Church is no Church or at the least no true Church yielding these Reasons therefore First That the Worship of the English Church is flat Idolatry Secondly That we admit into our Church Persons unsanctified Thirdly That our Preachers have no lawful Calling Fourthly That our Government is ungodly Fifthly That no Bishop or Preacher preacheth Christ sincerely and truly Sixthly That the People of every Parish ought to chuse their Bishop and that every Elder though he be no Doctor nor Pastor is a Bishop Seventhly That all the Precise which refuse the Ceremonies of the Church and yet preach in the same Church strain at a Gnat and swallow a Cammel and are close Hypocrites and walk in a left-handed Policy as Master Cartwright Wiggington c. Also in Norwich Master Moare Pawmone and Burges that all which make Catechisms or teach and expound printed and written Catechisms are Idol Shepherds as Calvin Ursin Nowell c. That the Child of ungodly Parents ought not to be baptized as of Usurers Drunkards c. nor any Bastards That Set-Prayer is blasphemous 67. The fore said Brochers of these The Ring-leaders on being convened make shew of Conformity but afterwards go back Opinions at this their first Convention made shew of their conformity upon conference with some Divines and in hope thereof were enlarged upon bonds but all in vain For after their liberty they burst forth into further Extremities and were again committed to the Were re-committed July 1588. and proceeded against March 1592. Fleet July 20. 1588. where they pub lished their Scandalous and Seditious Writings for which they were proceeded withal at Justice-Hall near Newgate in London March 21. 1592. 68. For suppressing this kind of People which as you see were grown unto a great height of violence and outrage the State held it fit at the next Parliament An Act of Abjuration and Banishment made against Schismaticks following to make a Law of Abjuration or Banishment of such as should either persuade others or be present themselves at these their Conventicles or Meetings which Law is entituled An Act to restrain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due obedience 69 LET the Reader now consider with what Contagion and Leprosy many poor Souls had like to have been infected through the divulging of their wicked Libels and dangerous Positions tending to Innovation and Rebellion had not the stroke of Justice and providence of the State wisely prevented the same selecting as out of an hundred thousand seditious Mutineers for so many they confessed were ready for that purpose only four Only four Persons prosecuted of a very great Number Persons as the chief Ring-leaders whose lot it was to be proceeded withal for the quenching of the fiery outrage of the rest kindled already to the like Attempts as those in Germany of the Great Troubles in Germany just cause of sears here from like Principles and Pretences of Reformation Cabinet-teachers and Reformers both at Mulhusin and Munster in Westphalia Which Seditions could not be appeased till Fifty thousand of them were killed and cut in pieces by the united Forces of most of the Princes of the Empire And though some not of the greatest foresight may think that the fear which our Archbishop conceived of Dangers to ensue out of these Sectaries Attempts was far greater than there was just cause yet the Examples of those foreign Pretenders of like Reformation as is aforesaid compared with these our Reformers Designs taught him not to be without fear or care for preventing these dangerous Events at home For all their Intendments sorted to one end viz. Reformation and to be brought to pass by one and the self-same means viz. by commotion of the unbridled multitude 70. For was it not in their Assemblies The Discipline decreed in their Assemblies to be put in Practice Classical and Synodical concluded That the Discipline should within a time limited be put in practice and erected all in one day by the Ministers together with the People whom these Disciplinarians bragged to be already enflamed with Zeal to lend so many thousand hands for the advancement of their Cause by whom they hoped and said such Reformation must be brought in And how I pray you did they incense the common People not only in their private Conventicles decreeing that the Queen's Authority The Queen's Authority Ecclesiastical to be restrain'd ought to be restrained in Causes Ecclesiastical but in their publick Sermons and Exhortations alienating the hearts of their Auditors from all obedience of the Ecclesiastical Magistrates As namely Master Cartwright who saith That no obedience Cartwright ' s seditious Doctrines ought to be given unto them either in doing that which they command or abstaining from that which they prohibit And that it should not be lawful for any one of the Brother-hood to take an Oath whereby he may discover any thing prejudicial to himself or his Brother especially if he be persuaded the matter to be lawful for which the punishment is like to be inflicted or having taken it he need not discover the very truth And in his Prayer before his Sermons he used thus to say Because they Cartwright ' s charitable Prayer for the Bishops in his Sermons at Banbury 1589. Penry '
in hearing the Suppliants and determining their Causes and when night came on the Party followed him still railing upon him till he came to his own House It being now dark Pericles as he entred in commanded one of his Servants to light him home 118. You see now of what an excellent The Archbishop's good nature Nature this Archbishop was how far from giving offence how ready to forgive a wrong merciful compassionate and tender-hearted Yet was he not void as no man is of infirmities The Holy Scripture noteth of Elias that James 5. 17. he was a man subject to the like passions as we are But as Horace saith optimus ille Serm. lib. 1. sat 3. Qui minimis urgetur So may it be confessed of this Archbishop that the greatest or rather only fault known in him was Choler and yet in him so corrected not by Philosophy alone as Socrates confessed of his Faults but by the Word and Grace of God as it rather served for a Whetstone of his Courage in just Causes than any Weapon whetted against the Person Goods or good Name of any other So that it may as I am verily persuaded be rightfully said of him That he was such a Magistrate as Jethro advised Moses to take in judging the People of God and such a Bishop as St. Paul requireth in the Church of Christ Provide saith Exod. 18. Jethro among all the People men of courage fearing God dealing truly hating covetousness and appoint such over them to be rulers And a Bishop saith St. Paul 1 Tim. 3. must be unreproveable the husband of one wife watching temperate modest harbarous apt to teach not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre but gentle no fighter not covetous one that can rule his one house honestly He may not be a young Scholar lest he being puffed up fall into the condemnation of the Devil He must also be well reported of even of them which are without lest he fall into rebuke and the snare of the Devil 119. And now what is there that the Devil himself with all his Imps Popish or Schismatical Libellers can rebuke or condemn in this good Archbishop's Saintly Life Let them examine his Actions in all his carriage and course if so they can convince him in any thing that was not agreeable to the directions of Jethro for a Magistrate and answerable unto the Rule of Saint Paul for a Bishop 120. As for good Works whereof His good Works in Lincoln Worcester Wales Kent Surry the Papists so vainly brag as particular effects of their superstitious Doctrines yea for which Heaven it self is a due reward by condignity many Towns Cities and Counties can yield a plentiful Testimony for him in this behalf namely Lincoln Worcester the Marches of Wales Kent and Surry wherein he lived and in particular that notable Monument of our time his Hospital of the Blessed Trinity in Croydon which he built very fair and College-wise for a Warden and Eight and twenty Brothers and Sisters He builed also near unto it a goodly Free school with a Schoolmaster 's House allowing unto the Schoolmaster Twenty pounds by year for ever All which he performed with such alacrity and good success that he hath been heard divers times to profess with great comfort that notwithstanding the charge of the Purchase and Building was not small unto him in comparison of his Estate who neither impaired House-keeping nor Retinue at that time yet when he had finished and done that whole Work he found himself no worse in his Estate than when he first began which he ascribed unto the extraordinary blessing and goodness of God 121. After the finishing of this Hospital among many other his good Deeds the French Lieger Embassador in England called Boys Sisi enquired what Works the Archbishop had published for that he would willingly read his Books who was reputed The Peerless Cambden Britan. in Comit. Lincoln Prelate for Piety and Learning in our days and whom in conference he found so grave godly and judicious when it was answered that he only published certain Books in the English Tongue in defence of the Ecclesiastical Government although it be very well known to many who were near unto him that he left divers learned Treatises in Written-hand well worthy the printing and that it was thereupon incidently told the Embassador that he had founded an Hospital and a School he used these words Profectò Hospitale Boys Sisi the French Embassador his opinion and speech of Archbishop Whitgift ad sublevandam paupertatem Schola ad instruendam Juventutem sunt optimi Libri quos Archiepiscopus conscribere potuit Truly an Hospital to sustain the Poor and a School to train up Youth are the worthiest Books that an Archbishop could set forth 122. And albeit the Archbishop had His love to Croydon for retirement ever a great affection to lie at his Mansion house at Croyáon for the sweetness of the Place especially in Summer time whereby also he might sometimes retire himself from the multiplicity of Businesses and Suitors in the Vacations yet after he had builded his Hospital and his School he was farther in love with the Place than before The chief comfort of repose or solace that he took was in often dining at the Hospital among his poor Brethren as he called them There he was often visited by his entire and honourable Friends the Earl of Shrewsbury Worcester and Cumberland the Lord Zouch the Bishop of London and others of near place about her Majesty in whose company he chiefly delighted 123. In the absence of his Friends Chearful and affable in his Family he would be exceeding chearful and affable with his own Gentlemen and Servants though his Bounty towards them and the Poor did not consist in words but in deeds for he was very liberal in Liberal to his Servants rewarding them both with Leases Offices and otherwise with Supplies as their Occasions required out of his Purse and would I make no question have done much more for them out of his own Estate if he had had ability and time after his Sickness first seized upon him to dispose of his worldly Affairs 124. As his Bounty was very great Bountiful to the industrious Poor and to the Disabled and Necessitous towards his own for in that number likewise he always accounted the poor Society of his Hospital so were his Hands every-where reached out to the necessities of all sorts Yea such was his Charity that if he had seen poor men addicted to labour he would have given them Money and waste Ground to employ in gardening or some such use as might be for their relief Or if he heard that any of his poor Neighbours were decrepit or destitute of means to follow their Trade he would supply their needs either with Money or Fewel and sometimes poor Watermens wants with Boats and such like wherein he dealt no
used may be furnished with such gifts and graces as every one have or shall have need of That it may appear that the Action now in hand is his own and therefore he will provide safety for his holy ones and destruction for those who are vessels of wrath who have accomplished the number of their sins which call for vengeance from Heaven These Letters Hacket carried to Pamplin Schoolmaster of Oundell to be read unto him for that himself could neither write nor read But I have not yet heard that he complained thereof to any in Authority When Arthington also about the midst of Arthington returns to London Coppinger visits him and magnifies Hacket to him as the Holiest man that ever was except Christ Trinity Term last was returned to London Coppinger hearing thereof came to his Lodging and then with many words extolled and magnified Hacket unto him for the holiest man that ever was Christ only excepted and one that travelled together with him for the good of the Queen and the Land but after an extraordinary manner and not both by one means And albeit Arthington seems not desirous of their Secrets Coppinger persuades him to hear Hacket's extempore Prayers which he admires as divine and esteems him as a most holy man Arthington as now he saith desired them to keep their Secrets to themselves and not to trouble him with them who had other business to attend yet Coppinger importuned him so as he could not avoid but yield to hear Hacket pray before them as a man of a singular Spirit albeit utterly unlearned of the Book The first Prayer of his that Arthington heard was about four or five Weeks before their apprehension All which Prayers conceived by Hacket even since his apprehension the said Arthington praised to be so divine sweet and heavenly that thereby he was drawn into a great admiration of him In all the Prayers that Hacket made in his presence Arthington observed this difference from other mens That he usually therein desired the Lord to confound A horrible execration used in his Prayer him if he did not seek only his honour and glory in all things Which Arthington marking from time to time in him and seeing him still to be so perfectly sound and very well was thereby drawn together with Coppinger's words and experience of him to reckon and esteem of him as of a most holy man This Lesson of wishing themselves confounded his said two Scholars by imitation did so perfectly learn of him that to the great astonishment and horror of such The same used by the other two in their Affirmations that afterward examined them they used this Execration Wishing themselves confounded and damned if they said not the truth in every matter whereof they made any asseveration and wherein they desired to be credited thinking as Arthington confesseth that whatsoever the Spirit as he fansied told him was a truth he was bound to bind it upon his Salvation or Damnation These being joined with the Relation of certain extreme Torments which Hacket had signified Hacket pretends to suffer extream inward torments from the Devil as well as outward from men for trail of the truth of the Gospel which they conclude he is to establish in all Kingdoms and that all Scepters are to be yielded to him unto them that he suffered not only outwardly by the instigation of certain noble and worshipful Persons as he untruly made them believe but more grievously a great deal he said by suffering whatsoever either Devils in Hell Sorcerers or Witches in Earth could practise against him all which he pretended to have endured for trial and proof that the Gospel was the true Religion against Popery and all other Sects did so deeply astonish or rather infatuate them that after great fasting and prayer used which fasting they usually performed on the Sabboth days they all did resolutely conclude That if Hacket indured in truth all these torments and practices against him for so holy an end no doubt he was a man which should not only establish the Gospel in all Kingdoms but all Kings and Princes should also yield their Scepters unto him and he should be established chief King over all Europe Reasoning thus with themselves that surely the Lord had some great good to be done by him that had indured so much for his sake Now this was the Opinion which to This was the main drift of Hacket's cunning and it succeeded have firmly planted in them two as indeed it was first in Coppinger and afterward in Arthington was the main scope and drift as may seem of all Hacket's cunning counterfeiting of so much Holiness Piety Zeal and Religion To work this he handled his Actions so Coppinger avouched that God would deny Hacket nothing warily with them that Coppinger seriously once avouched unto Arthington how himself had by good experience found that God would deny unto Hacket nothing which he prayed for or desired and namely protested that Hacket begged of God in a Drought that was not long afore their apprehension a Shower of Rain and that it was presently sent in good abundance Coppinger also so firmly believed Hacket that he told his own Man Emerson how Hacket being imprisoned the Bolts would often fall off his heels miraculously But for proof that such incredible Torments were indeed suffered by Hacket he appealed herein to some of the Nobility and to divers others both of worship and good credit This did Coppinger further confirm Coppinger and Wigginton attest to the truth of Hacket ' s pretended Torments unto Arthington saying that Master Wigginton also did justify the truth of the Torments that Hacket suffered and could do it with a hundred honest Witnesses more if need required And Arthington himself also once heard Wigginton pitifully tell how great and extreme Torments Hacket had endured But being asked by them why he was so tormented and how these could tend to prove the Gospel to be the only true Religion Hacket answered them thus That his Tormentors the better to colour their lewd purposes and malice gave out and surmised him to be out of his wits but the truth was said he that being once at Table with one G. H. an obstinate Papist and reasoning which was the true Religion I Hacket ' s strange way to prove the truth of Religion against Popery c. defending this which we now profess to be the truth against Popery and all other Sects amongst other Speeches I protested upon my Damnation that this was the truth and withal prayed that I might sink presently down into Hell if it was not so And that if he the said G. H. would say so much for his Religion if he did not sink presently into Hell then would I take Popery to be the true Religion But he refusing so to do and being greatly moved thereby against me complotted with a Knight a neer Kinsman of his and with another Gentleman
him see that they were all as drunken men and Fools without wit That in the end they should throw all their Books away and be at a great confusion one with another That afterward viz. about the beginning of Easter Term last the Lord brought him to London and how he was made acquainted with Coppinger at that time as hath been afore declared How after his departing out of the City from Coppinger he could not but remember him in his Prayers desiring the Lord to reveal himself extraordinarily to him so that he might be encouraged to go forward in the Action Whereupon as the said Coppinger affirmed he had two extraordinary Seals in very short space after Hacket ' s departure and was wonderfully strengthened to proceed in the Cause Then is told how the Lord commanded him to go from one place to another in and about the City for two days space and how he was commanded to rail against the said two great Counsellors in divers places where he came How being in that time commanded to see the Lyons in the Tower he took the fiercest of them by the Head and had none harm Then is told what Preachers in the City he heard and that going to hear one he saw a Surpless lie in the Church whereupon he would not stay there That he went to certain Preachers in Prison to command them to deal faithfully in the Lord's business And how he was commanded by God to deface the Arms of England in Kaye's House in Knight-Rider's-street Lastly It is said that God hath appointed two others to deal for and with Hacket whom it will stand upon to deal faithfully for the Lord for they know what Hacket is and what shall follow if their Counsels and Directions be not followed Now if any shall marvail how such an absurd and ridiculous lying Legend should seduce men of any consideration so earnest for a supposed Reformation and so exercised in praying and fasting let him remember not only the effectual but the efficacy it self of illusion and the spirit of slumber falling by God's secret yet always just Judgment upon the Children of disobedience such as be wise in their own conceits and not wise with sobriety that they might believe Lies because they have not believed the Truth And that they might ask and not obtain because they ask not as they ought After Arthington On Thursday morning had ended his aforesaid Treatise of Prophecy being the very day before their rising Coppinger told him that God the night before had enlightned him the said Coppinger who they all three were saying that Arthington had unawares prophesied truly for he was the greatest Prophet of God's Judgments against the whole World that ever was but that they both were greater than he for Coppinger himself was he said the greatest that ever was and last Prophet of mercy and that he must describe the new and holy Jerusalem with the several places of joy that the Elect should enjoy after this Life and that they the said Coppinger and Arthington were ordained to separate the Lambs from the Goats before the Lord Jesus at the last day Whereat it is said they were both astonished considering their own unworthiness and unfitness crying out against themselves and their Sins yet submitting themselves to the direction of God's Spirit which they were assured should sufficiently furnish them to do him that service which himself did command Then Coppinger proceeded to tell further That Hacket was greater than either of them and that they two must obey him in whatsoever he commanded but told not then what nor how great he was other than King of Europe which Title was afore this time concluded of amongst them Hereupon according to Coppinger's commandment Arthington offered to honour Hacket with his Title of the King of Europe and to demean himself toward him accordingly But Hacket himself herein dispensed with him until the time should come that he was to honour him before others bidding him withal to be of good cheer for faith he I serve a good Captain who makes so dear accompt of me that all the Devils in Hell nor Men in Earth cannot take my life from me Then Coppinger for confirmation of the like unto them two also said that Arthington and himself were possessed not only with Prophetical but also with Angelical Spirits which Arthington taking to be true by a great burning that he felt in himself after that time did thereupon fancy to himself that no power in Earth nor Hell could hurt either of them because they had the spirit of Angels and they were subject to no Power but to God alone And that God being the master of the whole Work all things should prosper with them they only seeking his glory which he faith he vowed with himself and to deal throughly in his Office to rebuke the World of Sin and to denounce Judgments against whomsoever the Spirit should move him without fear or favour of Men or of Devils in Hell which Spirit he faith then moved him according to his hatred afore conceived against them and his opinion that they were Trayors against the Queen's Majesty to utter and to declare his detestation he had against the aforesaid three worthy Counsellors being by their places the greatest Subjects in the Land But herein may be said with the Poet Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes Verrem de furto Who can with any patience indure such Seditious Companions as these to appeach others of Treason but especially so Loyal Honourable and Worthy Counsellors as they three are known to the World to be By the way we may note the subtil managing and carriage of this Action by Hacket and Coppinger in this one principal Point which Arthington himself also now observeth Videlicet in that they opened not at any time Hacket's chief pretended Office unto Arthington videlicet to represent and to participate with Jesus Christ's Office of severing with his Fan the good from the bad until the very time they were to go into the Streets to do the Message that Hacket enjoyned them For hereby they prevented a doubt of driving Arthington back who seemed a Man so serviceable for their purpose as that he was worthy to be still retained by them and the rather for that he had not yet finished the writing up of Hacket's History that was to be annexed to the Prophecy until late that Thursday night which was afore their rising for they might have feared if leisure had served him to have considered of it and examined it at full how this could be lest it might have made him at least to stagger and be doubtful of it Besides Hacket kept as Arthington now gathereth that honour wholly to himself to proclaim it to them both together as it were by a Voice from Heaven at that very instant when they should receive their charge of him and thereby have no time to reason against it being straightway to go forward as
to be bridled When he was brought to the place of Execution and saw no hope of Escape which before he hoped for he grew to be At his Execution is dejected and poplexed very much dejected and perplexed in Mind insomuch as without help of a Godly Prince which then stood by he could not repeat so much as the Articles of his Christian faith I shall not need to dwell long in the application The Story applied to our Disciplinarians and the Parallel alike in all particulars and resemblance of these points unto this late Tragedy the very reading of them over giving sufficient Light unto the same For the sharp and angry Zeal of some unadvised Preachers which pretend neither to like of the Pope nor of the present state of the Church for want of some purity as they fansy Hath it not incensed and made to boil over not only the foul Mouths of Martinists but also the traiterous actions of these Conspirators And albeit the common multitude whom the Disciplinarians brag to be already inflamed with Zeal ready to lend a hundred thousand hands for the advancement of their Cause and by whom they hope and say such Reformation must at last be brought in did better keep themselves out of this Action than was expected Yet the danger thereof was as great and if it had once taken head would happily as hardly as the other have been subdued Were not the Treaties of these men also in private Houses at Night-Fasts and the Consultations concerning it at Classical Conventicles and like Assemblies Did not these likewise shoot at the Overthrow of the whole State Ecclesiastical and at the displacing of her Majesty's most Honourable Council and that under pretence of Reformation and to advance the preaching of the Gospel in every Congregation throughout this Land Made not these the like Complaints of wicked Counsellors Noblemen and Magistrates for keeping out the Discipline for persecuting sincere Preachers and afflicting God's People like Lyons and Dragons And do they not pretend this to be a special Grievance of theirs That the common people of every Congregation may not elect their own Ministers That the People are brought under the Yoak of the Law Ceremonial by paying Tythes c. and is not the hand and head of Satan as plainly in this Action to seek the overthrow of sound Professors by others of the same Profession under pretence of greater Sincerity Do not these likewise almost appropriate to themselves and their Favourites the Terms of God's Church of Christian Brethren and of true and reformed Preachers Is any Speech more rise in their mouths than that they will only be tried and judged by God's Book and by his Spirit Do they not tax all other men not so far gone as themselves of loose Lives of Antichristianism of Hypocrisy and Idolatry in the mean time never looking at their own Treasons Disloyalties and other Vices Make they not great Ostentation of Love and Fidelity to her Majesty's Person and of Care of her Safety even when they secretly nourished a fancy of Forfeiture of her Crown and sought to over-rule her by Hacket their imagined Sovereign King of Europe Had they not their Cabinet Preachers their Table-end Teachers their Guides of Fasts c. that teach pray for and attend extraordinary Callings by Visions Dreams Revelations and Enlightnings Was not Giles Wigginton and some others unto them as Thomas Muncer and Phifer were to the Germans men of supposed great Austerity of Life Holiness Favour with God Resoluteness in his Cause Singleness and Uprightness of heart Did not Wigginton resolve them by Examples he gathered touching Extraordinary Callings in these days by reason of the great Waste of this Church of England Had not he and they likewise learned of the same Devil in the Prayers at Fasts to ask Signs and Seals of God for their extraordinary Callings Doth not Arthington say that he importuned God in his Prayers And Coppinger That he had leave given to talk more familiarly with God than afore Did not Hacket in praying for the pretended possessed Gentlewoman sawcily expostulate with God and charge him with his Promise as if he dealt not well with him Did he not at his Arraignment and Execution shew such Anger in his Prayers against God thinking belike as those did to be excused by his Fervency of Zeal Did not both he and Coppinger pretend Conference with God by sundry Revelations and Dreams Do not they and the rest of the Disciplinarian Humour Fenneritheol exact and seek to square out even in Hypothesi all Civil Policies and Judgments in Causes Criminal especially unto the Judicials of Moses given for the People of the Jews Is there any thing they stand more upon or condemn the contrary deeper than to have an Equality among all Persons Ecclesiastical Do they not inveigh sharply against Prince and Nobles for upholding the State Ecclesiastical and in this respect intended to have them brought to Repentance when their Opinions grew to a Ripeness Was not this their principal pretended purpose to plant the Gospel and their Reformation by rooting out wicked Magistrates and Counsellors as they judged and by setting others in their places Did Hacket's fancied Fan instead of Christ to sever the good from the bad import any thing else or should it have served any other turn than for the killing up of all that thought not well of their Discipline and Reformation Did they not pretend the Will of the Lord so to be And was it not plainly meant this to be effected by tumult of the common people Did not these likewise bear one another in hand that all things should succeed and prosper with them that no violence could harm them nor any man had power to hurt them as having Angelical Spirits and being in most high favour with God And Hacket accordingly even in going to execution did he not call for and expect a miraculous deliverance from heaven out of the hands of those whom he called his enemies Did he not likewise for a certain sign of his favour with God make Coppinger believe that he could and did obtain rain and could stay it at his pleasure Was not the chiefest of their plots and conspiracies detected by their letters found with them Did not they likewise when they were convented before the Magistrate stoutly and resolutely defend their dealings and maintain that the Princess had for seited her right and was now to be bridled and over-ruled by others and lastly Was not that impious Wrech Hacket as irresolute dejected and base-minded towards his death as Muncer or any man either could be or as so bad a cause might procure Not long after those former Rebellions in Another like Commotion of the Anabaptist's in Munster Germany another strange and memorable Commotion happened in Munster the principal City of Westphalia a Province also of Germany which is not unmeet to be in some points also touched in this place for the
their goods into Common moveable goods into a great common store-house appointed for that purpose to the end they might be used and bestowed in common for so he protested to them it was the will of his heavenly Father The people were greatly grieved with this rigorous Edict nevertheless they obeyed though sore against their wills Neither They affrighted obey was it possible without great danger for any to conceal or hide any part from them because there were in the City two Girls soothsayers that did reveal whatsoever was concealed at least so it was believed Then the said Matthew commanded every one to bring all his Books whatsoever saving the holy Bible to be publickly burned He commands all Books to be burnt but the Bible which was accordingly performed Thus taking great confidence and boldness that his hestes and advices were so readily obeyed and had so good success he most insolently and cruelly thrust in with a Pike and after shot in with a Harquebuz one He murders Hub. Truteling Hubert Truteling only for a merry jest that he made touching one of their Prophets Yet seeing that he did not die thereof out of hand the said Prophet told them it was revealed to him from heaven that Trueteling should live and continue and that God had forgiven him Nevertheless he died of his wounds within few days after Then Matthew got into his hand a long Pike and running hastily therewith through the Town towards the Gates he proclaimed as he went that God the Father had commanded him to beat back all the enemies that besieged them from the Town But being met near the Camp by one only souldier he was by him thrust through and He is slain by a Souldier so died And albeit the falsehood of his forged prophesies was thus twice detected yet the other Prophets his companions did so disguise the matter and bewitch the people that they could not perceive his coggeries but did rather much lament his death as a matter ominating some great mishap towards them for that so excellent a man was taken away Yet John of Leyden John of Leyden and Knipperdoling comfort the People and Prophecy comforted them saying that God had revealed unto him long before that Matthew should have such an end and that he should marry his widow Some few days after Knipperdoling also prophesied that high mountains should be brought low and the poor and mean should be exalted and thereupon commanded all which was left standing Command the Churches to be demolished of the Churches to be demolished even with the ground assuring them and that with a constant setled gravity and great earnestness that this Commandment came from God himself And in further accomplishment as may seem of such his prophesy John of Leyden gave to the said Knipperdoling John of Leyden gives Knipperdoling the sword of Execution the sword of execution and so made him the common Hangman of the City that immediately afore was Consul and chief Officer This office of Executioner belike upon compact between them he willingly accepted and obeyed Leyden therein as the messenger of God Now after that some assaults had been made against the City by the Bishops Army besieging it albeit with no success John of Leyden laid him John of Leyden dreams three days together down to rest and dreamed three days together Being awaked he spake not a word to any person but calling for paper writ down the names of twelve men He awakes and names Twelve men to govern the City whereof some were indeed Gentlemen of blood who should have the sovereign charge of all and should govern the City as the heads of the Tribes did in Israel for so he said it was the heavenly Father's will But hereby in very truth he laid the foundation of a kingdom whereunto he aspired Then he propounded unto their Reformed Preachers certain Articles to be resolved in He propounds certain articles to the Preachers by the Scriptures alone by which if they could not confute them then he would as he said put them up unto the people that by their authority they might be establish'd The effect of them was that a man was not bound unto one wife but might marry One was about Bigamy so many as himself lusted When their Preachers made some difficulty and sticking They boggle at it he called them into the Council-house together with the Twelve new Governors-or Elders Then he put off his Coat and laid it and the New Testament down together He swears it is from God afore them swearing by those two as by assured tokens that the Articles by him proposed were revealed unto him from Heaven and that God would never be merciful unto them if they did not yield unto them Hereupon they gave their assents They assent and after for three days together they preached of nothing but of Marriage Then He marries three Wives Leyden married three Wives one whereof was the Widow of their great Prophet Matthew lately deceased and divers other followed Others follow his example the like example as if it had been a matter most allowable and laudable But Some Citizens abhorring the Practice seize the Prophets some of the Citizens of better disposition finding this course to be most abominable gave a watch-word through the Town for all that truly favoured the Gospel without fantastical Novelties to come into the Market place where being assembled they apprehended Leyden Knipperdoling and all the rest of their Prophets But when the Common people were advertised hereof they The People rescue them and stay 50 of the Citizens straightway took Arms and rescued the Prisoners from them The people also laid hands on them which had apprehended their Prophets putting them to death with most exquisite torments namely they fastened fifty of them unto Trees and shot at them with Harquebuzes their great Prophet all the while crying thus unto them That he that would do God good service should first shoot at them and others were put unto sundry other several kinds of death In the Month of July that year a new Prophet being a Goldsmith by his Trade A Goldsmith A New Prophet ariseth and declares from God John of Leyden to be Emperor of the Earth and the Godly only must rule did arise up among them who having called the Multitude together into the Market-steed signified unto them It was the Will and Commandment of the heavenly Father that John of Leyden should be Emperor of all the Earth and that he marching forth with a puissant Army should destroy all Kings and Princes but should spare the Common people that loved righteousness and sincerity to the intent he may hold the seat of David his Father until the heavenly Father should receive again the Kingdom For said he Godly men must only rule in the World after they have once dispatched all the wicked out of the way When