processerint did in the ministration of the Sacraments bestir themselves in a white Vesture so he advers Pelag Lib. 2. with which compare St. Chrysostom in his 83 Homily on St. Matthews Gospel for the Eastern Churches And hereunto the Cope was added in some principal Churches especially in the Celebration of the Blessed Eucharist Both which appear most evidently by the first Liturgy of K. Edw. 6. compared with one of the last clauses of the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. in which it is provided that such ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers shall be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by Authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edw. vi But this Vestur◠having been discontinued I know not by what fatal negligence many years together it pleased the Bishops and Clergy in the Convocation Anno 1603. to pass a Canon to this purpose viz. That in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches the Holy Communion shall be administred upon principal Feast dayes sometimes by the Bishops c. and that the principal Minister using a decent Cope c. Canon 24. 9. In that part of Divine Service which concerns the offering of the peoples Prayers to Almighty God it was required of the Priest or Presbyter first that in all the dayes and times appointed he used the Prayers prescribed in the publick Liturgy according to the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. and many subsequent Canons and Constitutions made in that behalf Secondly That he conformed himself to those Rites and Ceremonies which were prescribed in that Book and unto such as should be afterwards ordained by the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners appointed and authorized under the great Seal of England for causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm as may be most for the advancement of Gods Glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs Holy Mysteries and Sacraments And thirdly and more particularly That in his reading of the Prayers and Psalms he turn his face toward the East and toward the People in the reading of the Lessons or Chapters as appears plainly by the Rubrick which directs him thus That after the reading of the Psalms the Priest shall read two Lessons distinctly that the people may hear the Priest that reads the two Lessons standing and turning himself so as he may best be heard of all such as be present The Psalms or Hymns to be indifferently said or sung at the will of the Minister but the Hymns for the most part sung with Organs and sometimes with other Musical Instruments both in the Royal Chappels and Cathedral Churches Fourthly That he makes use of no other Prayers in the Congregation and therefore neither before nor after Sermon then those which are prescribed in the said Book of Common Prayer it being specially provided in the Act aforesaid that no Priest nor Minister shall use any other Rite Ceremony Order Form or manner of Celebrating the Lords Supper openly or privately or Mattens Evening Song Administration of the Sacraments or other open Prayers that is to say such Prayers as are meant for others to come unto or hear either in common Churches or private Chappels c. then is mentioned or set forth in the same Book Fifthly That all Priests and Deacons shall be bound to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly except they be lett by Preaching studying of Divinity or some other urgent cause And sixthly That the Curate that ministreth in every Parish Church or Chappel being at home and not being otherwise reasonably letted shall say the same in the Parish Church or Chappel where he ministreth and shall toll a Bell thereto at convenient time before he begin that such as ar◠disposed may come to hear Gods Word and pray with him so as in some cases it may be said of the Priest as the Father doth of Christ that he is Os ipsum per quod loquimur The very mouth by which we speak unto our Father which is in Heaven And though it be intended in the Act of Parliament and exprest in the Articles of Religion that the Prayers are to be made in such a tongue as may be understood of the common people yet it is not meant as is declared in the Preface to the Book it self but that when men say Morning and Evening Prayers privately they may say the same in any language that they themselves understand Nor was it meant but that the Morning and Evening Service might be used in the Colledges and Halls of either University in the Latine tongue where all may be supposed to understand it as appears clearly by the constant and continual practise of Christ-Church in Oxon in which the first Morning Prayers commonly read about six of the Clock were in Latine the Morning and Evening Service with the Psalms of David being printed in Latine by themselves for that end and purpose 10. As for the Preaching of the Word that belongs properly and originally as the performance of all other Divine Offices did of old to the Bishops themselves as being the ordinary Pastors of the several and respective Diocesses and to the Priests no otherwise then by deputation as Curates and substitutes to the Bishops as may be proved out of the Instrument of their Institution For when a Clerk is to be admitted into any Benefice he puts himself upon his knees and the Bishop laying one Hand upon his Head and having the Instrument in the other repeats these words viz. Te N. N. ad Rectoriam de N. Ritè Canonicè instituimus curam regimen animarum Parochianorum ibidem tibi in Domino committentes committimus per presentes that is to say that he doth institute him into the said Benefice according to the Laws and Canons committing to him by these presents the care and Government of the Souls of all the Parishioners therein And therefore it concerns the Bishop not to Licence any man to Preach to the Congregation of whose good affections to the Publick abilities in Learning sobriety of Life and Conversation and conformity to the Government Discipline and form of Worship here by Law established he hath not very good assurance For though the Priest or Presbyter by his Ordination hath Authority to preach the word of God in the Congregation yet it is with this clause of Limitation If he shall be so appointed that is to say sufficiently Licenced thereunto and not otherwise And none were Licenced heretofore as was expresly ordered in the injunctons of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth but either by the Bishop of the Diocess who is to answer by the Law for every Minister he admits into the same for that Diocess only or by the Metropolitan of the Province for that Province alone or finally by either of the Universities upon the well performing of some publick exercise over all the Kingdom Considering therefore
on all such Books which they found to be Schismatical and Offensive and bring them to the said Archbishop or Bishop or to the High-Commission Office And finally That no Merchant Bookseller c. should Print or cause to be Printed beyond the Seas any Book or Books which either totally or for the greatest part were written in the English Tongue whether the said Books have been here formerly Printed or not nor shall willingly or knowingly Import any such Books into this Kingdom upon pain of being proceeded against in either of the said two Courts respectively as before is said By means of which Decree he had so provided both at home and abroad That neither the Patience of the State should be exercised as in former times with continual Libels nor the Church troubled by unwarrantable and Out-landish Doctrines But good Laws are of no effect without execution and if he took no care for that he had lost his labour King Iames had manifested his dislike of the Genevian Bibles and the Notes upon them some of which did not only teach Disobedience to Kings and Princes but the murthering of them also if they proved Idolaters and others did not only teach the Lawfulness of breaking Faith and Promise when the keeping of it might conduce to the hurt of the Gospel but ranked Archbishops Bishops and all men in Holy Orders or Academical Degrees amongst those Locusts in the Revelation which came out of the Pit That King gave Order thereupon That the Bible of the New Translation should be printed with no Notes at all which course he also recommended to the Synod of Dort to be observed in the new Translation of the Bible into the Dutch or German Tongue which was then intended Upon this ground the Printing of those Bibles with Notes upon them had been forbidden in this Kingdom but were Printed in Holland notwithstanding and brought over hither the better to keep up the Faction and aâ—â—ront Authority Some of them had before been seised in Holland by the care of Boswel the Resident at the Hague And in the beginning of this year he received Advertisement of a new Impression of the same designed for England if the terrour of this Decree did not stop their coming Because Holland and the rest of the Provinces under the Government of the States was made the Receptacle of many of our English Malecontents who there and from thence vented their own Passions and the Discourses of their Party in this Kingdom to the disturbance of the Church it concerned him to keep a careful watch over them and their Actions Of these he had Advertisement from time to time by one Iohn Le Maire and thereupon by the means of Boswell his right trusty Friend he dealt so effectually with the States-General of those Provinces that they made a Proclamation against the Printers and Spreaders of Libellous and Seditious Books against the Church and Prelates of England and tooke Order with the Magistrates of Amsterdam and Rotterdam two great Towns in Holland for apprehending and punishing of such Englishmen as had Printed any of the said Lawless and Unlicenced Pamphlets There was a time when Queen Elizabeth beheld the Pope as her greatest Enemy in reference to her Mothers Marriage her own Birth and consequently her Title to the Crown of England and many of the Books which were Printed in and about that time were full of bitterness and revilings against the Church of Rome it self and all the Divine Offices Ceremonies and Performances of it There was a time also when the Calvinian Doctrines were embraced by many for the Genuine Doctrines of this Church to the great countenancing of the Genevian Discipline and Forms of Administration And not a few of the Books then Printed and such as after were Licenced in Abbot's Time aimed principally at the Maintenance of those Opinions which the latter Times found inconsistent with the Churches Doctrines With equal diligence he endeavoured by this Decree to hinder the Reprinting of the one and the other that so the Church might rest in quiet without any trouble or molestation in her self or giving offence to any other As little Trouble could be feared from Lecturers as they now were Regulated The greatest part of those who had been Superinducted into other Mens Cures like a Doctor added to the Pastor in Calvin's Plat-form had deserted their Stations because they would not read the Common-Prayers in their Hoods and Surplices according to the Kings Instructions before remembred such as remained being either founded on a constant or certain Maintenance or seeing how little was to be gotten by a fiery and ungoverned Zeal became more pliant and conformable to the Rules of the Church Not a Lecturer of this kind found to stand out in some great Diocesses to keep up the Spirits of the Faction and create disturbances And as for Combination-Lecturers named for the most part by the Bishops and to them accountable they also were required in some places to read the second Service at the Communion-Table to go into the Pulpit at the end of the Nicene Creed to use no other form of Prayer than that of the 55th Canon after the Sermon ended to go back to the Table and there read the Service All which being to be done in their Hoods and Surplices kept off the greatest part of the rigid Calvinists from exercising their Gifts as formerly in great Market-Towns And as for the position of the Communion-Table it was no longer left to private Instructions as it was at the first when the Inquiry went no further than Whether the Lords Table was so conveniently placed that the Minister might best be seen and heard of the Congregation The more particular disposing of it being left to Inference Conjecture or some private Directions It now began to be more openly avowed in the Visitation-Articles of several Bishops and Archdeacons some of which we shall here produce as a light to the rest For thus we find it in the Articles for the Archdeaconry of Buckingham Anno 1637. Art 5. Have you a decent Table or a Frame for the Holy Communion placed at the East end of the Chancel Is it Railed in or Enclosed so as Men or Boys cannot sit upon it or throw their Hats upon it Is the said Rail and Inclosure so made with Settles and kneeling-Benches at the foot or bottom thereof as the Communicants may fitly kneel there at the Receiving of the Holy Communion The like for the Diocess of Norwich in the year before where we find it thus viz. Have you in your Church a Communion Table a Carpet of Silk c. And is the same placed conveniently so as the Minister may best be heard in his Administration and the greatest number may reverently Communicate To that end Doth it ordinarily stand up at the East end of the Chancel where the Altar in former times stood the ends thereof being placed North and South And in another Article it is
paid for that purpose all which amounted to three thousand two hundred forty seven pound sixteen shillings two pence half-peny The Clergy of England within the Province of Canterbury freely contributed the fortieth part of all such Church Livings as were charged with First-fruits and the thirtieth part of all their Benefices not so charged those of London only excepted who besides the thirtieth part of such as paid First-fruits gave the twentieth part of all the rest Which Contribution of the Clergy amounted to one thousand four hundred sixty one pound thirteen shillings and eleven pence whereunto was added by the benevolence of the Bishop of London at several times coming in all to nine hundred five pound one shilling and eleven pence By the Dean and Chapter one hundred thirty six pound thirteen shillings and four pence and made of the surplusage of Timber one hundred nineteen pound three shillings and nine pence Given by the Justices and Officers of the Common Pleas thirty four pound five shillings and by those of the Kings Bench seventeen pound sixteen shillings eight pence All which together made no more than six thousand seven hundred and two pound thirteen shillings and four pence And yet with this small Sum such was the cheapness of those Times the Work was carried on so prosperously that before the Month of April 1566. all the Roofs of Timber whereof those large ones of the East and West framed in Yorkshire and brought by Sea were perfectly finished and covered with Lead the adding of a new Steeple being thought unnecessary because too chargeable though divers Models have been made and presented of it The whole Roof being thus Repaired the Stone-work of it stood as before it did sensibly decaying day by day by reason of the corroding quality of the Sea-coal smoke which on every side annoyed it Which being observed by one Henry Farley about the middle of the Reign of King Iames he never left solliciting the King by several Petitions and Addresses to take the Ruinous Estate thereof into his Princely Consideration till at last it was resolved on by the King And to create the greater Veneration to so good a Work he bestowed that magnificent Visit on it described at large in the first Book of this History Anno 1620. The product and result whereof was the issuing out a Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the sixteenth day of November then next following directed to Sir Francis Iones Knight then Lord Mayor of London George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Francis Lord Verulam then Lord Chancellor of England and divers others to the number of sixty Persons and upwards Which Commission importing That this Church being the greatest and most eminent as also one of the principal Ornaments of the Realm and in much decay any six or more of these Commissioners whereof three to be of the said Kings Privy-Council should meet to make Particulars of the decay and likewise what Houses Cellars c. had been built near it either to the annoyance of it or the Church-yard And moreover to Inquire what Lands Rents c. had been given towards its Repair or Sums of Money collected to that purpose and not accordingly employed And further to consider of the most fit and proper means to raise money to carry on the said Repair And lastly to appoint Surveyors and other Officers of their Work and to make Certificate of their Proceedings therein into the Chancery Upon the Meeting of which Commissioners and diligent search made into the Particulars afore-mentioned it was acknowledged that the Bishop of London had the whole care of the Body of that Church and the Dean and Chapter of the Choires But that which each of them enjoyed to this purpose was so little that they yearly expended double as much upon the Roof and other parts decayed to preserve them from present ruine Which being made evident to the Commissioners as also that in former times even from the very first foundation thereof it had been supported partly out of the large Oblations of those that visited the Shrines and Oratories therein and partly from Publick Contributions in all parts of the Kingdom It was concluded to proceed in the same way now as had been done formerly And that it might proceed the better the King himself and many of the principal Nobility and Gentry declared by their Superscriptions for the encouragement of others to so good a Work what Sums they resolved to give in pursuance of it Doctor Iohn King then Bishop of London subscribing for 100 l. per Annum as long as he should continue in that See Mountain who succeeded not long after in that Bishoprick procured with great charge and trouble some huge massie Stones to be brought from Portland for the beginning of the Work But money coming slowly in and he being a man of small activity though of good affecâ—ions the heat of this great business cooled by little and little and so came to nothing But Laud succeeding him in the See of London and having deservedly attained unto great Authority with his Majesty no sooner saw his Office settled both at home and abroad but he possessed him with a Loyal and Religious Zeal to persue that Work which King Iames had so piously designed though it went not much further than the bare design Few words might serve to animate the King to a Work so pious who aimed at nothing more than the Glory of God in the Advancement of the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England And therefore following the example oâ— his Royal Father he bestowed the like Visit on St. Pauls whither he was attended with the like Magnificence and entertained at the first entrance into the Church with the like Solemnity The Divine Service being done and the Sermon ended which tended principally unto the promoting of a Work so honourable both to his Majesties Person and the English Nation his Majesty took a view of the Decays of that Church and there Religiously promised not to be wanting in the Piety of his best Endeavours to the Repair of those Ruines which Age the Casualties of Weather or any other Accidents had brought upon it In order whereunto in the beginning oâ— this year he issued out his Royal Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the tenth of April in the seventh year of his Reign directed to Sir Robert Ducy Lord Mayor of the City of Londan George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal c. William Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Winton Iohn Lord Bishop of Ely c. Nicholas Rainton Ralph Freeman Rowland Heylyn c. Aldermen of the City of London Edward Waymack and Robert Bateman Chamberlain of the said City of London In which Commission the said King taking notice of this Cathedral as the goodliest Monument and most ancient Church of his whole Dominions as also that it was the principal
Protestant Lutheran and Calvinian Writers beyond the Seas so were they briefly touched at and maintained in the Doctors Lecture which came out thus translated in the next Candlemas Term under the Title of The Doctrine of the Sabbath delivered in the Act at Oxon. An. 1622. By D. Prideaux his Majesties Professor for Divinity in that Vniversity The name of Prideaux was so Sacred that the Book was greedily bought up by those of the Puritan Faction presuming they should find in it some invincible Arguments to confirm both the Party and the Cause But when they found how much they had deceived themselves in that expectation and that nothing could be writ more smartly against them and their Lords-day-Sabbath as it did very much cool their courage and abate their clamours so did it no less tend to the diminution of that high esteem and veneration which before they had harboured of the man What followed afterwards when the reading of the book was pressed and the clamours multiplied by such as refused to read it future time shall shew These passages concerning England being laid together we must look back into the North which still took up a great part of his Majesties thoughts He had observed how much his Fathers Pious Order for officiating by the English Liturgie in the Chappel Royal of that Kingdom had been discontinued and neglected imputing thereunto the opposition which he found amongst them at his late being there And being resolved to pursue his said Fathers most Religious purpose of settling an uniformity of Divine Worship in all the Churches of these Kingdoms he thought it most expedient to pursue the same Method also to the end that the people being prepared by little and little might the more willingly admit of that or some other Liturgie like unto it when he should think it reasonable to commend it to them In order whereunto he sends to Ballentine then Bishop of Dumblaine and Dean of the Chappel of that Kingdom these Instructions following to be observed in the Chappel Royal of Holy Rood house in the City of Edenburgh CHARLES REX I. Our express Will and Pleasure is That the Dean of Our Chappel that now is and his Successors shall be assistant to the Right Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of St. Andrews at the Coronation so often as it shall happen II. That the Book of the Form of Our Coronation lately used be put in a little Box and laid into a Standard and committed to the care of the Dean of the Chappel successively III. That there be Prayers twice a day with the Choires as well in Our absence as otherwise according to the English Liturgy till some other course be taken for making one that may fit the Customes and Constitutions of that Church IV. That the Dean of the Chappel look carefully that all that receive the blessed Sacrament there receive it kneeling and that there be a Communion held in that Our Chappel the first Sunday of every Month. V. That the Dean of Our Chappel that now is and so successively come duly thither to Prayers upon Sundaies and such Holidaies as the Church observes in his Whites and preach so whensoever he preach there and that he be not absent thence but upon necessary occasion of his Diocesses or otherwise according to the course of his preferment VI. That these Orders shall be Our warrant to the Dean of Our Chappel that the Lords of Our Privy Council the Lords of the Session the Advocate Clerk Writers to the Signet and Members of Our Colledge of Iustice be commanded to receive the holy Communion once every year at the least in that Our Chappel Royal and kneeling for example sake to the Kingdom and we likewise command the Dean aforesaid to make report yearly to Vs how We are obeyed therein and by whom as also if any man shall refuse in what manner he doth so and why VII That the Copes which are consecrated for the use of Our Chappel be delivered to the Dean to be kept upon Inventory by him and in a Standard provided for that purpose and to be used at the Celebration of the Sacrament in Our Chappel Royal. To these Orders we shall hereafter add others if we find others more necessary for the Service of God there Together with these directions bearing date the eighth of October he sends a Letter of the same Date to the said Bishop of Dumblaine requiring him to put them speedily in execution and all things to be carefully performed by him as he was directed commanding also that he should certifie the Lords of the Council there if any person who had been formerly appointed to communicate in the said Chappel Royal should either neglect or refuse conformity to his Majesties pleasure to the end that the Council might take such further order in it as had been directed by his Majesty in some former Letters But knowing or at the least suspecting that Ballentine might have somewhat more of the Presbyter than the Bishop in him as indeed he had he gave a Warrant under his hand to his Grace of Canterbury Requiring him to hold correspondency with the said Bishop of Dumblaine that the said Bishop might from time to time receive his Majesties directions for ordering of such things as concerned his Service in that Chappel He had before a Primacy in the Church of England and a strong influence on the Government of the Church of Ireland This Warrant gives him some just ground of a superintendency over the Kirk of Scotland also which from henceforth was much directed by his power and wisdome as will appear by that which follows in its proper place Mean while we will behold such alterations as by his power were made in the Preâ—erments of the Church of England which in the beginning of this year lamented the death of Bishop Godwin made Bishop of Landaff in the year 1601. from thence translated unto Hereford Anno 1617. A man whose memory shall be precious in succeeding times for his indefatigable pains and travel in collecting the Catalogue of Succession of all the Bishops of this Church since the first planting of the Gospel amongst the Saxons not pretermitting such of the Brittish Church as by the care and diligence of preceding Writers or any old Monument and Record had been kept in memory For his Successor in that See Iuxon then Dean of Worcester and Clerk of his Majesties Closet as before was said is recommended and elected But before the business had proceeded to confirmation there was a Supersedeas to it by Lauds preferment to the Metropolitan See of Canterbury who having a great confidence in him and no less aâ—fection to his Person than confidence of his Wisdom and Moderation commended him so efficaciously to his Majesties Favour that he made him not only Bishop of London but Dean oâ— the Chappel Royal also It had been Lauds great care as he grew into credit with his Majesty to give a stop
it was not easie to Transcribe them insomuch that few of the Presbyters themselves could tell which of them were authentical which not So unsafely and uncertainly kept that they knew not where to address themselves for consulting with them That by reducing those numerous Act and those not known unto themselves to such a paucity of Canons published and exposed to the publick view no man should be insnared by ignorance or have just reason to complain of their multiplicity And finally That not one in all that Kingdom did either live under the Obedience of the Acts of those General Assemblies or did know what they were or where to find them Upon which grounds the Book of Canons being drawn up and presented to him he gave a Warrant under his Hand to the Archbishop of Canterbury requiring him together with the Bishop of London to peruse the same to see that they were well fitted to the Church-Government and as near as conveniently might be to the Canons of the Church oâ— England giving them and either of them full power to alter any thing in the said Canons as they found most fitting Which being done as he commanded and the Book made ready for the Press he pass'd his Royal Confirmation of it under the Great Seal oâ— the Kingdom in this manner following CHARLES REX WE 〈◊〉 of Our Royal Care for the Maintenance of the present Estate and Government of the Church of Scotland have diligently and with great content considered all the Canons and Constitutions after following and finding the same such as We are perswaded will be profitable not only to our whole Clergy but to the whole Church of that our Kingdom if so they be well observed Have for Vs Our Heirs and Lawful Successors of Our especial Grace certain Knowledâ—â— â—nd meer â—otion given and by these presents do give Our 〈◊〉 Assâ—â—t â—nto all the said Canons Orders and Constitutions 〈◊〉 all and every thing in them contained as they are afterwards set 〈◊〉 And further We do not only by Our Prerogative Royal and Supreme 〈◊〉 in Causes Ecclesiastical Ratifie and Confirm by these Our Letters Patâ—nts the said Canons Orders and Constitutions â—nd all â—nd every thing in them contained But likewise We command by 〈◊〉 â—uthority Royal and by these Letters Patents the same to be diligently observed and executed by all Our Loving Subjects of that Our Kingdom both within the Province of St. Andrews and â—lascow in all points wherein they do or may concern every or any of them according to this Our Will and Pleasure hereby expressed and declared And for the better observation of them We straightly Charge and Command all Our Archbishops Bishops and all others thaâ— exercise any Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction within that Our Realm to see the same Canons Orders and Constitutions to be in all points duly observed not sparing to execute the Penalties in them severally mentioned upon any that shall willingly break or neglect to observe the same as they tender the Honour of God the Peace of the Church the Tranquility of the Kingdom and their Service and Duty to Vs their King and Sovereign Given at Our Mannor of Greenwich 23 May 1635. These Canons when they came abroad were presently quarrelled and disclaimed by the Scottish Presbyters Quarrelled in reference to the subject matter comprehended in them Disclaimed because imposed upon them without their own approbation and consent The points most quarrelled at were these 1. That whosoever should affirm That the Kings Majesty had not the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical that the Godly Kings had among the Jews or the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church or impugn in any part his Royal Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical was to incur the Censure of Excommunication 2. The like Censure to be inflicted on those who should affirm That the Worship contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments though at the making of these Canons there was no such Book of Common Prayer recommended to them or That the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops or the form of Making and Consecrating Archbishops and Bishops c. did contain any thing repugnant to the Scriptures or was corrupt superstitious or unlawful in the Service and Worship of God 3. That the Ordinations were restrained to four times in the year that is the first Weeks of March June September and December 4. That every Ecclesiastical Person at his Admission should take the Oath of Supremacy according to the form required by Parliament and the like Oath for avoiding Symonie required in the Book of Consecration 5. That every Presbyter shall either by himself or by another Person lawfully called read or cause Divine Service to be done according to the form of the Book of that Common Prayer before all Sermons and that he should Officiate by the said Book of Common Prayer in all the Offices Parts and Rubricks of it when as yet none of them had seen the said Book or Liturgie 6. That no Preacher should impugn the Doctrine delivered by another in the same Church or any neer adjoining to it without leave from the Bishop which they conceived to be the way to pin their whole Religion on the Bishops Sleeves 7. That no Presbyter should hereafter become Surety or Cautioner for any Person whosoever in Civil Bonds and Contracts under pain of Suspension 8. That whatsoever remained of the Bread and Wine prepared for the Communion should be distributed to the poorer sort which receive that day to be eaten and drunken of them before they go out of the Church 9. That Presbyters are enjoined to Minister the Sacrament of Baptism in private Houses and upon every day alike in case of infirmity and that the People were required not to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but upon their knees 10. That in all Sentences of Separation a Thoro Mensa there shall be a Caution inserted and given accordingly That the Persons so separated should live continently and chastly and not contract Marriage with any Person during each others life which seemed to put the innocent Party into as bad a condition as the guilty contrary to the Judgment of the Reformed Churches 11. That no private Meeting be kept by Presbyters or any other Persons whatsoever for expounding Scripture or for consulting upon matters Ecclesiastical Such matters to be handled only in the Lawful Synods held by Bishops 12. That under pain of Excommunication no Presbyter or Layman jointly or severally make Rules Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical or to add or detract from any Rubricks or Articles or other things now established without the Authority of the King or his Successors 13. That National or General Assemblies were to be called only by the Kings Authority That the Decrees thereof should bind as well the Absent as the Present in Matters Ecclesiastical and That it should not be lawful for the Bishops themselves in such Assemblies or otherwise to
Iews commanded by Antiochus gave up the Divine Books to his Officers to be destroyed it was afterwards adjudged in favour of them by Optatus Bishop of Milevis a right godly man to be sin rather in them that commanded than of those who with fear and sorrow did obey their Mandates That when the Emperour Mauritius had made an Edict That no Souldier should be admitted into any Monastery and sent it to be published by Gregory sirnamed the Great the Pope forthwith dispersed it into all parts of the Christian World because he was subject to his command though in his own judgment he conceived the said Edict to be unlawful in it self and prejudicial unto many particular persons as well in reference to their spiritual as their temporal benefit and finally That it was resolved by St. Augustine in his Book against Faustus the Manichee cap. 75. That a Christian Souldier fighting under a Heathen Prince may lawfully pursue the War or exercise the Commands of his immediate or Superior Officers in the course of his Service though he be not absolutely assured in the justice of the one or the expedience of the other Such were the Reasons urged in behalf of all Parties concerned in this business and such the Defences which were made for some of them in matter of fact but neither the one nor the other could allay that storm which had been raised against him by the Tongues and Pens of unquiet Persons of which more anon Nor was the Clamour less which was raised against such of the Bishops as either pressed the use of his Majesties Instructions concerning Lecturers and silencing the Arminian Controversies or urged the Ministers of their several and respective Diocesses to use no other form of Prayer before their Sermons than that which was prescribed Canon 55. It had been prudently observed That by suâ—fering such long Prayers as had accustomably been used of late before the Sermons of most Preachers the Publick Liturgie of the Church had been much neglected That the Puritan Preachers for the most part had reduced all Gods Service in a manner to those Pulpit-Prayers That the People in many places had forborn to go into the Church till the Publick Liturgie was ended and these Prayers begun That by this means such Preachers prayed both what they listed and how they listed some so seditiously that their very Prayers were turned into Sin others so ignorantly and impertinently that they dishonoured God and disgraced Religion For remedy whereof it was thought convenient by the Archbishop and some other Prelates to reduce all to the form of Prayers appointed in the Canon above-mentioned according to the like form prescribed in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth and before her time by King Edward the Sixth and before his time also by King Henry the Eighth practised accordingly in the times of their several Reigns as appears by the Sermons of Bishop Latimer Bishop Gardiner Archbishop Parker Bishop Iewell Bishop Andrews and generally by all Divines of the Church of England till by the artifices and endeavours of the Puritan Faction these long Prayers of their own making had been taken up to cry down the Liturgie Which being in charge in the Visitation and afterwards in the Articles of several Bishops made as much noise amongst ignorant and factious People under colour of quenching the Spirit of God expressed in such extemporary Prayers of the Preachers conceiving as silencing the Doctrines of Predestination changing the afternoons Sermons into Catechisings and regulating the Extravagances of some of their Lecturers under the colour of a Plot to suppress the Gospel In which last Calumny as most of the Bishops had a share so did it fall as heavy on Pierce of Bath and Wells as on any other though he did nothing in that kind but what he was required to do by the Kings Instructions His Crimes were That he had commanded the Ministers in his Diocess to turn their afternoons Sermons into Catechisings and those Catechisings to be made according to the Questions and Answers in the Catechism authorised by Law and extant in the Book of Common Prayer which some few absolutely refusing to conform unto and others contrary to the meaning of the said Instructions taking some Catechism-point for their Text and making long Sermons on the same were by him suspended and so continued till they found a greater readiness in themselves to obey their Ordinary But the Great Rock of Offences against which they stumbled and stumbling filled all places with their Cries and Clamours was That he had suppressed the Lecturers in most parts of his Diocess and some report That he proceeded so far in it as to make his brag not without giving great Thanks to God for his good Success That he had not left one Lecturer in all his Diocess of what sort soever whether he Lectured for his Stipend or by a voluntary combination of some Ministers amongst themselves Which if it should be true as I have some reason to believe it is not ought to be rather attributed to some exiliency of humane frailty of which we are all guilty more or less than to be charged amongst his Sins But for his Actings in this kind as also for his vigorous proceedings in the Case of Beckington he had as good Authority as the Instructions of the King and the Directions of his Metropolitan could invest him in And so far Canterbury justified him in the last particular as to take the blame if any thing were blame-worthy in it upon himself though then a Prisoner in the Tower and under as much danger as the Power and Malice of his Enemies could lay upon him For such was his undaunted Spirit that when Ash a Member of the House of Commons demanded of him in the Tower Whether the Bishop of Bath and Wells had received his Directions from him in the Case of Beckington he answered roundly That he had and that the Bishop had done nothing in it but what became an obedient Diocesan to his Metropolitan So careful was he of preserving those who had acted under him that he chose rather to augment the number of his own misfortunes then occasion theirs If all the Bishops of that time had joined their hearts and hands together for carrying on the work of Uniformity as they were required the Service might have gone more happily forwards and the Envy would have been the less by being divided but leaving the whole burden upon so few and turning it over to their Chancellors and Under-Officers if they did so much they did not only for as much as in them was destroy the business but expose such as took care of it to the publick hatâ—ed For such was their desire to ingratiate themselves amongst the People that some of them being required to return the names of such Ministers as refused the reading of the Book made answer That they would not turn Informers against their Brethren there being enough besides
Right of that Dukedom to the Crown of England Iersey the bigger of the two more populous and of richer soil but of no great Trading Guernsey the lesser the more barren but nourishing a wealthier People Masters of many stout Barques and managing a rich Trade with the neighbouring Nations Attempted often by the French since they seised on Normandy but always with repulse and loss the People being very affectionate to the English Government under which they enjoy very ample Priviledges which from the French they could not hope for As parts of Normandy they were subject in Ecclesiastical Matters to the Bishops of Constance in that Dukedom and so continued till the Reformation of Religion here in England and were then added to the Diocess and Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Winchester But the Genevian Discipline being more agreeable to such Preachers as came to them from France they obtained the Exercise thereof in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1565. The whole Government distinguished into two Classes or Colonies that of Iersey of it self being one and that of Guernsey with the Islands of Sark and Alderney making up the other both Classes meeting in a Synod every second or third year according to the Order of their Book of Discipline digested by Snape and Cartwright the two great Ring-leaders of that Faction here in England in a Synod held at Guernsey Iune 28. 1576. And this manner they continued till the time of King Iames when the Churches in the Isle of Iersey falling into some disorder and being under an immediate Governour who was no great Friend to Calvin's Plat-form they were necessitated for avoiding of a greater mischief to cast themselves into the Arms of the Church of England The principal Ecclesiastical Officer whilst they were under the Bishops of Constance had the Title of Dean for each Island one the several Powers both of the Chancellor and Archdeacon being united in his Person This Office is restored again his Jurisdiction marked out his Fees appointed his Revenue settled but made accountable for his Administration to the Bishops of Winchester The English Liturgie is Translated also into French to be read in their Churches Instructions first and afterwards a Body of Canons framed for Regulating both the Ministers and People in their several Duties those Canons bearing date the last of Iune in the one and twentieth year of that King For the confirming of this Island in their Conformity to the Government and Forms of Worship there established and the reducing of the others to the like condition it was resolved That the Metropolitical Visitation should be held in each of them at the next opening of the Spring And that it might be carried on with the greater assurance the Archbishop had designed a Person for his Principal Visitor who had spent some time in either Island and was well acquainted with the Bayliffs Ministers and men of special note amongst them But the Affairs of Scotland growing from bad to worse this Counsel was discontinued for the present and at last laid by for all together But these Islands were not out of his mind though they were out of sight his care extending further than his Visitation The Islanders did use to breed such of their Sons as they designed for the Ministry either at Saumur or Geneva from whence they returned well seasoned with the Leaven of Calvinism No better way to purge that old Leaven out of the Islands than to allure the people to send their Children to Oxon or Cambridge nor any better expedient to effect the same than to provide some preferments for them in our Universities It hapned that while he was intent on these Considerations that one Hubbard the Heir of Sir Miles Hubbard Citizen and Alderman of London departed this Life to whom upon an inquisition taken after his death in due form of Law no Heir was found which could lay claim to his Estate Which falling to the Crown in such an unexpected manner and being a fair Estate withal it was no hard matter for the Archbishop to perswade his Majesty to bestow some small part thereof upon pious uses To which his Majesty consenting there was so much allotted out of it as for the present served sufficiently to endow three Fellowships for the perpetual Education of so many of the Natives of Guernsey and Iersey not without some probable â—ope of doubling the number as the old Leases of it â—â—ould expire These Fellowships to be founded in Exeter Iesus and Pembroke Colledges that being disperst in several Houses there might be an increase both of Fellows and Revenues of the said foundations By means whereof he did both piously and prudently provide for those Islands and the advancement of Conformity amongst them in the times to come For what could else ensue upon it but that the breeding of some Scholars out of those Islands in that University where they might throughly acquaint themselves with the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship establisht in the Church of England they might afterwards at their return to their native Countries reduce the Natives by degrees to conform unto it which doubtless in a short time would have done the work with as much honour to the King and content to himself as satisfaction to those People It is not to be thought that the Papists were all this while asleep and that neither the disquiets in England nor the tumults in Scotland were husbanded to the best advantage of the Catholick Cause Panzani as before is said had laid the foundation of an Agency or constant correspondence between the Queens Court and the Popes and having so done left the pursuit of the design to Con a Scot by birth but of a very busie and pragmatical head Arriving in England about the middle of Summer Anno 1636. he brought with him many pretended reliques of Saints Medals and Pieces of Gold with the Popes Picture stamped on them to be distributed amongst those of that Party but principally amongst the Ladies of the Court and Country to whom he made the greatest part of his applications He found the King and Queen at Holdenby House and by the Queen was very graciously entertained and took up his chief Lodgings in a house near the new Exchange As soon as the Court was returned to Whitehall he applied himself diligently to his work practising upon some of the principal Lords and making himself very plausible with the King himself who hoped he might make some use of him in the Court of Rome for facilitating the restitution of the Prince Elector And finding that the Kings Councils were much directed by the Archbishop of Canterbury he used his best endeavours to be brought into his acquaintance But Canterbury neither liked the man nor the Message which he came about and therefore kept himself at a distance neither admitting him to Complement nor Communication Howsoever by the Kings Connivence and the Queens Indulgence the Popish Faction gathered not only strength
his words and mistakes his meaning wresting the most Orthodox and innocent truths to his wicked ends and putting his own corrupt Gloss and sense upon them And which is yet most strange of all with an unparalelled impudence he dedicates it to his Sacred Majesty calling upon him To send out his Royal Edict for the taking down of all Altars which where ever they stand are by him said to stand in open defiance of Christ Another for calling in the Book for Sports on the Lords day A third for calling in his Declaration before the Articles of Religion A fourth for calling in of all Orders for the Restraint of Preaching A fifth for restoring to their place and Ministry all those who out of Conscience of their duty to God had by the Prelates been thrust out of all for refusing to read the said Book And finally for releasing and setting at liberty the three poor banished prisoners the loud cry of whose oppressions might otherwise provoke the thunderbolt of Divine Revenge to blast the beauty of his State Now as he laboured by these means to preserve the Church of England from the growth of Popery so he took care for preventing the subversion of it by the spreading of the Socinian Heresies He had before took care for suppressing all Books of that nature which had been imported into England out of other Countries and had received thanks for it from the Pen of a Jesuit But Burton chargeth it upon him among his Crimes reproaching him for suppressing those books for no other reason but because they magnified the Authority of the holy Scriptures and by the late Decree for Printing of which more anon he had took such order that no Eggs of that pestiferous Brood should be laid in England or if they were should ever peep out of the Shell or appear in sight There had been published a Discourse called Disquisitio Brevis in which some of the principal Socinian Tenents were cunningly inserted pretending them for the best Expedients to appease some Controversies betwixt us and Rome The Book ascribed in common Speech to Hales of Eaton a man of infinite reading and no less ingenuity free of Discourse and as communicative of his knowledge as the Coelestial Bodies of their light and influences There past also up and down a Discourse of Schism not Printed but transmitted from hand to hand in written Copies like the Bishop of Lincolns Letter to the Vicar of Grantham intended chiefly for the encouragement of some of our great Masters of Wit and Reason to despise the Authority of the Church Which being dispersed about this time gave the Archbishop occasion to send for him to Lambeth in hope that he might gain the man whose abilities he was well acquainted with when he lived in Oxon. An excellent Grecian in those daies and one whom Savil made great use of in his Greek Edition of St. Chrysostoms Works About nine of the Clock in the Morning he came to know his Graces pleasure who took him along with him into his Garden commanding that none of his Servants should come at him upon any occasion There they continued in discourse till the Bell rang to Prayers and after Prayers were ended till the Dinner was ready and after that too till the coming in of the Lord Conway and some other Persons or honour put a necessity upon some of his Servants to give him notice how the time had passed away So in they came high coloured and almost panting for want of breath enough to shew that there had been some heats between them not then fully cooled It was my chance to be there that day either to know his Graces pleasure or to render an account of some former commands but I know not which and I found Hales very glad to see me in that place as being himself a meer stranger to it and unknown to all He told me afterwards That he found the Archbishop whom he knew before for a nimble Disputant to be as well versed in books as business That he had been ferretted by him from one hole to another till there was none left to afford him any further shelter That he was now resolved to be Orthodox and to declare himself a true Son of the Church of England both for Doctrine and Discipline That to this end he had obtained leave to call himself his Graces Chaplain that naming him in his Publick Prayers for his Lord and Patron the greater notice might be taken of the Alteration Thus was Hales gained unto the Church and gained a good preferment in it promoted not long after by the Archbishops Commendation to be Prebend of Windsor and to hold the same by special dispensation with his place in Eaton Nor was the Archbishop less intent upon all Advantages for keeping down the Genevian Party and hindring them from Printing and Publishing any thing which might disturb the Churches Peace or corrupt her Doctrine To this end he procured a Decree to be pass'd in the Star-Chamber on Iuly 1. Anno 1637. to Regulate the Trade of Printing and prevent all Abuses of that Excellent Art to the disturbance of the Church By which Decree it had been Ordered That the Master-Printers from thenceforth should be reduced to a certain number and that if any other should secretly or openly pursue that Trade he should be set in the Pillory or whipped through the Streets and suffer such other Punishment as that Court should inflict upon him That none of the said Master-Printers should from thenceforth Print any Book or Books of Divinity Law Physick Philosophy or Poetry till the said Books together with the Titles Epistles Prefaces Tables or Commendatory Verses shall be lawfully Licenced either by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London for the time being or by some of their Chaplains or by the Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors of either of the two Vniversities upon pain of loosing the Exercise of his Art and being proceeded against in the Star-Chamber or the High-Commission Court respectively That no Person or Persons do hereafter Re-print or cause to be Re-printed any Book or Books whatsoever though formerly Printed with Licence without being reviewed and a new Licence obtained for the Re-printing thereof That every Merchant Bookseller or other Person who shall Import any Printed Books from beyond the Seas shall present a true Catalogue of them to the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being before they be delivered or exposed to Sale upon pain of suffering such Punishment as by either of the said two Courts respectively shall be thought fit That none of the said Merchants Booksellers or others shall upon pain of the like Punishment deliver any of the Books so Imported till the Chaplains of the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being or some other Learned Man by them appointed together with the Master and Wardens of the Company of Stationers or one of them shall take a view of the same with Power to seize
come he was conveyed in Maxwell's Coach without any disturbance till he came to the end of Cheapside from whence he was followed by a railing Rabble of rude and uncivil People to the very Gates of the Tower Where having taken up his Lodging and settled his small Family in convenient Rooms he diligently resorted to the Publick Chappel of that place at all times of Worship being present at the Prayers and Sermons and some 〈…〉 â—earing himselâ— uncivilly reviled and pointed at as it were by 〈…〉 Preachers sent thither of purpose to disgrace and vex 〈◊〉 All which Indignities he endured with such Christian meekâ—â—ss as rendred him one of the great Examples both of Patience and 〈◊〉 these latter Times The principal things contained in the Charge of the Scots Commissioners were these that follow viz. That he had press'd upon that 〈◊〉 many Innovations in Religion contained in the Liturgie and 〈◊〉 of Canons contrary to the Liberties and Laws thereof That he had written many Letters to Ballentine Bishop of Dumblane and Dean of the Kings Chappel in Scotland in which he required him and the 〈◊〉 of the Bishops to be present at the Divine Service in their Whites 〈◊〉 blamed the said Bishop for his negligence and slackness in it and â—â—xing him for Preaching Orthodox Doctrine against Arminianism that he had caused the said Bishop to be reprehended for commanding a Solemn Fast to be kept in his Diocess on the Lords day as if they had offended in it against Christianity it self That he gave order for the â—aking down of Stone Walls and Galleries in the Churches of Edenborougâ— to no other end but for the setting up of Altars and Adoration 〈◊〉 the East That for their Supplicating against these Novations they were encountred by him with terrible Proclamations from his Maâ—â—â—â— declared Rebels in all the Parish-Churches of England and a 〈…〉 against them by his Arts and Practices That after the Pa 〈◊〉 made at Perwick he frequently spake against it as dishonou 〈◊〉 and unfit to be kept their Covenant by him called ungodly and 〈…〉 Oaths imposed upon their Countrymen to abjure the same That 〈…〉 nâ—t in the presence of the King and their Commissioners to 〈…〉 the General Assembly held at Glasco and put his Hand un 〈…〉 for Imprisoning some of those Commissioners sent from the Parliament of Scotland for the Peace of both Nations That when the late Parliament could not be moved to assist in the War against them he had caused the same to be dissolved and continued the Con 〈◊〉 to make Canons against them and their Doctrines to be punished four times in every year That he had caused six Subsidies to 〈…〉 on the Clergy for maintaining the War and Prayer to be made 〈◊〉 all Parish-Churches That shame might cover their faces as Enemies to God and the King And finally That he was so industrious in advancing Popery in all the three Kingdoms that the Pope himself could not have been more Popish had he been in his place Such was the Charge exhibited by the Scots Commissioners in which was nothing criminal enough to deserve Imprisonment much less to threaten him with Death And as for that brought up from the House of Commons it consisted of fourteen General Articles as before was said ushered in with a short Preamble made by Pym and shut up with a larger Aggravation of the Offences comprehended in the several Articles the substance of which Articles was to this effect 1. That he had Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Realm to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government and to perswade his Majesty That he might Lawfully raise Money of the Subject without their common Consent in Parliament 2. That to this end he had caused divers Sermons to be Preached and Books to be Printed against the Authority of Parliaments and for asserting an absolute and unlimited Power over the Persons and Goods of the Subjects to be not only in the King but also in himself and the rest of the Bishops and had been a great Promoter of such by whom the said Books and Sermons had been made and published 3. That by several Messages Letters Threatnings c. he had interrupted and perverted the Course of Iustice in Westminster-Hall whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects had been stopp'd in their just Suits and thereby made subject to his will 4. That he had traiterously and corruptly sold Iustice to such as had Causes depending before him and taken unlawful Gifts and Bribes of his Majesties Subjects and had advised and procured his Majesty to sell Places of Iudicature and other Offices 5. That he had caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published without lawful Authority in which were many things contained contrary to the Kings Prerogative the Fundamental Laws c. and had caused many of the same to surreptitiously passed and afterwards by fear and compulsion to be subscribed by the Prelates and Clerks there assembled notwithstanding they had never been Voted and Passed in the Convocation 6. That he hath assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Eccesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesties Subjects in this Realm and other places to the disherison of the Crown dishonour of his Majesty and derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters 7. That he had endeavoured to alter and subvert Gods true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end had maintained many Popish Doctrines enjoyned many Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies and cruelly vexed and persecuted such as refused to conform unto them 8. That 〈◊〉 order thereunto he had intruded into the Rights of many of his Majesties Officers and Subjects in procuring to himself the Nomination of divers Persons to Ecclesiastical Benefices and had taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King promoting and commending none but such as were Popishly affected or otherwise unsound in Doctrine or corrupt in Manners 9. That to the same intent he had chosen such men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion and had committed unto them or some of them the Licencing of Books to be Printed whereby many false and Superstitious Books had been Published to the great scandal of Religion and the seducing of many of his Majesties Subjects 10. That he had endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome confederating to that end with divers Popish Priests and Iesuits holding Intelligence with the Pope and permitting a Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be established in this Kingdom 11. That in his own Person and by others under his Command he had caused divers Godly and Orthodox Ministers of Gods Word to be Silenced Suspended and otherwise grieved without any lawful or just cause hindred the Proaching of Gods Word cherished Prophaneness and Ignorance amongst the People and compelled
point that he put himself into a Cock-boat with Stapleton and some others of his principal Friends and left his whole Army to his Majesties mercy His Horse taking the Advantage of a dark night made a shift to escape but the Commanders of the Foot came to this Capitulation with his Majesty that they should depart without their Arms which with their Cannon Baggage and Ammunition being of great Consideration were left wholly to his disposing Immediately after this success his Majesty dispatched a message from Tavestock to the two Houses of Parliament in which he laid before them the miserable Condition of the Kingdom remembring them of those many Messages which he had formerly sent unto them for an accommodation of the present differences and now desiring them to bethink themselves of some expedient by which this Issue of blood might be dried up the distraction of the Kingdom settled and the whole Nation put into an hope of Peace and Happiness To which message as to many others before they either gave no Answer or such an one as rather served to widen then close the breach falsly conceiving that all his Majesties offers of Grace and Favour proceeded either from an inability to hold out the War or from the weakness and irresolution of his Counsels But if instead of thâ—s Message from Tavestock his Majesty had gone on his own errand and marched directly toward London it was conceived in all probability that he might have made an end of the War secured the life of the Archbishop his most trusty Servant and put an end to those calamities which the continuance and conclusion of the War brought with it The Army of Essex being thus broken and that of Manchester not returned from the Northern Service He could not chuse but have observed in the course of that Action with what a Military Prudence Lesly had followed at the heels of the Marquis of Newcastle not stopping or diverting upon the by till he had brought his Army before York the gaining whereof as being the chief City of those parts brought in all the Rest. And certainly it hath been counted no dishonour in the greatest Souldiers to be instructed by their enemies in the feats of War But the King sitting down before Plymouth as before Glocester the last year and staying there to perfect an Association of the Western Counties he spent so much time that Essex was again in the head of his Army and being seconded by Manchester and Waller made a stand at Newbury where after a very sharp dispute the Enemy gained some of his Majesties Cannon which struck such a terrour into many of those about him that they advised him to withdraw his Person out of the danger of the Fight as he did accordingly But this he did so secretly and with so slender a Retinue that he was not mist His Army holding on the â—ight with a greater courage because they thought the safety of his Majesties Person did depend upon it whose departure if it had been known would questionless have created such a general dejection in the hearts of his Souldiers as would have rendred them to a cheap discomfiture But the Lost Cannon being regained and the fight continued with those of his Majesties party with greater advantage then before each Army drew of by degrees so that neither of them could find any great cause to boast of the victory This Summers Action being ended in which the Scots had done very good service to the Houses of Parliament it was thought necessary to proceed in the Tryal of the Archbishop of Canterbury which had taken up so much time already that it seemed ready for a sentence But there appeared more difficulty in it then at first was lookt for For being admitted to a Recapitulation of his whole defence before the Lords in the beginning of September it gave such a general satisfaction to all that heard it that the mustering up of all the evidence against him would not take it off To prove the first branch of the charge against him they had ript up the whole course of his Life from his first coming to Oxford till his Commitment to the Tower but could find no sufficient Proof of any design to bring in Popery or suppress the true Protestant Religion here by Law Established For want whereof they insisted upon such Reproches as were laid upon him when he lived in the University the beautifying of his Chappel Windows with Pictures and Images the Solemn Consecration of Churches and Chappels the Placing of the Communion Table Altar-wise and making Adoration in his Accesses to or Approches toward it Administring the Sacrament with some more Solemnities then in Ordinary Parochial Churches though constantly observed in his Majesties Chappels the care and diligence of his Chaplains in expunging some offensive passages out of such Books as were to be licenced for the Press and tâ—eir permitting of some passages to remain in others which were supposed to â—avor of Popery and Arminianism because they crost the sense of Calvin the preferring of many able men to his Majesties Service and to advancements in the Church who must the Stigmatized for Papists or Arminians because they had not sworn themselves into Calvins Faction his countenancing two or three Popish Priests for no more are named of whom good use was to be made in Order to the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England as had before been done by Bancroft and others of his Predeâ—â—ssors since the Reformation Such were the proofs of his designs to bring in Popery and yet his plots and purposes for suppressing tâ—e true Protestant Religion had less proofs then this Of which sort were His severe proceedings in the High Commission against some Factious Ministers and Seditious Lecturers the sentencing of Sherfield for defacing a Parish Church in Salisbury under colour of a Vestry-order in contempt of the Diocesan Bishop who then Lived in that City the pressing of his Majesties two Declarations the one for Lawful Sports the other for Silencing unnecessary though not unlawful Disputations His zeal in overthrowing the Corpoâ—ation of Feoffees which had no Legal Foundation to stand upon and seemed destructive to the Peace of the Church and State in the eyes of all that pierc'd into it and finally the Piety of his endeavours for uniting the French and Dutch Congregations to the Church of England in which he did nothing without Warrant or against the Law Such were the Crimes or Treasons rather which paint him out with such an ugly countenance in the Book called Canterburies Doom as if he were the Greatest Traytor and the most Execrable Person that ever had been bred in England And he is promised to be Painted out in such Lively Colours in the following Branches of his Charge as should for ever render him as Treasonable and as Arch a Malefactor as he was in the others and in both alike that promise never being performed in the space of a Dozen
by which the proceedings in those Courts were to be regulated and directed so as it doth appear most clearly that it was not the purpose of that King either to diminish the Authority or to interrupt the Succession of Bishops which had continued in this Church from the first Plantation of the Gospel to that very time but only to discharge them from depending on the Popes of Rome or owing any thing at all to their Bulls and Faculties which had been so chargeable to themselves and exhausted so great a part of the Treasure of the Kingdom from one year to another 3. Upon this ground he past an Act of Parliament in the 25. year of his Reign for the Electing and Consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops In which it was Enacted that on the Vacancy of every Bishoprick within his Realm his Majesty should issue out his Writ of Conge d' eslire to the Dean and Chapter of the Church so Vacant thereby enabling them to proceed to the Election of another Bishop that the Election being returned by the Dean and Chapter and ratified by the Royal Assent his Majesty should issue out his Writ to the Metropolitan of the Province to proceed unto the Confirmation of the Party Elected and that if the Party so Confirmed had not before been Consecrated Bishop of some other Church that then the Metropolitan taking to himself two other Bishops at the least should proceed unto the Consecration in such form and manner as was then practised by the Church so that as to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Consecration there was no alteration made at all Those which were Consecrated after the passing of this Statute were generally acknowledged for true and lawful Bishops by the Papists themselves or otherwise Dr. Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Westminster had never been admitted to have been one of those who assisted at the Consecrating of Cardinal Pool when he was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the death of Cranmer All which recited Statutes with every thing depending on them being abrogated by Act of Parliament in the time of Queen Mary were revived in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth and so still continue But so it was not with another alteration made in the form of exercising their jurisdiction by King Edw. 6. In the first Parliament of whose Reign it was enacted that all process out of the Ecclesiastical Courts should from thence forth be issued in the Kings Name only and under the Kings Seal of Arms contrary to the usage of the former times Which Statute being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth the Bishops and their subordinate Ministers have ever since exercised all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in their own Names and under the distinct Seals of their several Offices 4. In Doctrinals and forms of Worship there was no alteration made in the Reign of K. Hen. 8. though there were many preparations and previous dispositions to it the edge of Ecclesiastical Affairs being somewhat blunted and the people indulged a greater Liberty in consulting with the Holy Scriptures and reading many Books of Evangelical Piety then they had been formerly which having left the way more open to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and divers other learned and Religious Prelates in K. Edwards time seconded by the Lord Protector and other great ones of the Court who had their ends apart by themselves they proceeded carefully and vigorously to a Reformation In the managing of which great business they took the Scripture for their ground according to the general explication of the ancient Fathers the practise of the Primitive times for their Rule and Pattern as it was expressed to them in approved Authors No regard had to Luther or Calvin in the procedure of their work but only to the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Iesus being the Corner-stone of that excellent Structure Melancthons coming was expected Regiis Literis in Angliam vocatus as he affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius but he came not over And Calvin made an offer of his service to Arch-Bishop Cranmer Si quis mei usus esset if any use might be made of him to promote the work but the Arch-Bishop knew the man and refused the other so that it cannot be affirmed that the Reformation of this Church was either Lutheran or Calvinian in its first original And yet it cannot be denied but that the first Reformers of it did look with more respectful eyes upon the Doctrinals Government and Forms of Worship in the Lutheran Churches then upon those of Calvins platform because the Lutherans in their Doctrines Government and Forms of Worship approach't more near the Primitive Patterns than the other did and working according to this rule they retain'd many of those ancient Rites and Ceremonies which had been practised and almost all the Holy Dayes or Annual Feasts which had been generally observed in the Church of Rome Nothing that was Apostolick or accounted Primitive did fare the worse for being Popish I mean for having been made use of in times of Popery it being none of their designs to create a new Church but reform the old Such Superstitions and Corruptions as had been contracted in that Church by long tract of time being pared away that which was good and commendable did remain as formerly It was not their intent to dig up a foundation of such precious stones because some superstructures of Straw and Stubble had been raised upon it A moderation much applauded by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court whose golden Aphorisme it was That no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony then she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate p. 77. 5. The succession of Bishops continued as it did before but fitted in the form and manner of their Consecrations according to the Rules laid down with the fourth Council of Carthage celebrated Anno 407. or thereabouts and generally received in all the Provinces of the Western Church as appears by the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. Approved first by the Book of Articles and confirmed in Parliament Anno 5.6 Edw. VI. as afterwards justified by the Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation in Queen Elizabeths time Anno 1562. And by an Act of Parliament in the 8th Year of her Reign accounted of as part of our Publick Liturgies And by that book it will appear that Bishops were then looked upon as a distinct Order of themselves and not as a different degree only amongst the rest of the Presbyters For in the Preface to that Book it is said expresly That it is evident to all men diligently reading Holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons Not long after which it followeth thus viz. And therefore to the intent these Orders should be continued
that every man that could pronounce well was not found able to endite and every man that could endite not being to be trusted in a business of such weight and moment it seemed good in the Wisdom of the first Reformers to compile some good and profitable Sermons called by the name of Homilies to be read carefully and distinctly on the Sundayes and Holy dayes for the instruction of the people 11. Such course was taken for the peace and edification of the Church by the first Reformers not only in the choice of the men to whom they gave Licences to preach but in supplying the defect and want of such preaching by the Book of Homilies and they had as great a care too for the keeping the people in good stomach not cloying them with continual Preaching or Homilizing but limiting them to once a day as appears by the Rubrick after the Nicene or rather the Constantinopolitan Creed One Sermon or Homily in the mornings of Sundayes and other Holy dayes for the edification of the â—lder and Catechizing by way of question and answer in the afternoon for the instruction of the younger was esteemed sufficient Lectures upon the week dayes were not raised upon this foundation but were brought in afterwards borrowed by Travers and the â—est toward the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign from the new fashions of Geneva the Lecturer being super-added to the Parson or Vicar as the Doctor was unto the Pastor in some forreign Churches Nor were they raised so much out of care and conscience for training up the people in the wayes of Faith and Piety as to advance a Faction and to alienate the peoples mindes from the Government and Forms of Worship here by Law established For these Lecturers having no dependance upon the Bishops nor taking the Oath of Canonical Obedience to them nor subscribing to the doctrine and establisht Ceremonies made it their work to please those Patrons on whose arbitrary maintenance they were planted and consequently to carry on the Puritan interest which their Patron drove at A generation of men neither Lay nor Clergy having no place at all in the Prayers of the Church where we finde mention only of Bishops Pastors and Curates nor being taken notice of in the terms of Law as being neither Parsons nor Vicars or to speak them in the vulgar proverb neither flesh nor fish nor good red herring No creature in the world so like them as the Bats or Reremice being neither Birds nor Beasts and yet both together Had these men been looked upon in time before their numbers were increased and their power grown formidable before the people went a madding after new inventions most of the mischiefs which have thence ensued might have been prevented And had there been more reading of Homilies in which the Reader speaks the sense of the Church and not so much of Sermonizing in which the Preacher many times speaks his own factious and erronâ—ous sense the people might have been trained up in no less knowledge but in much more obedience then they have been in these latrer times 12. As for the Sacraments which were advanced to the number of seven in the Church of Rome this Church hath brought them back to two as generally necessary to salvation Baptisme and the Holy Supper Four of the rest that is to say Marriage Orders Confirmation and the Visitation though not the Extream Vnction of the Sick being retained under the name of Sacramentals in our publick Liturgy Of which the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. is by the Act of Parliament 8 Eliz. c. 1. affirmed to be a Supplement or Additional only added put to and annexed as the words do vary to the said Book of Common-Prayer And of these four two are reserved unto the Bishop that is to say Confirmation and the giving of Orders the other two viz. Marriage and the Visitation of the Sick being common to both alike though executed in the most part by the Presbyter only Of those reserved unto the Bishop the one is so reserved ad necessitatem operis because it cannot be done without him the other ad honorem sacerdotii as the Schools distinguish because it cannot be well done but by him Touching the first we have the general consent of all ancient Writers and the example of Coluthus who took upon him the ordaining of Presbyters contrary to the Rules of the Church and the Canons of thâ— most famous Councils But when the business came to be examined his Ordinations were declared to be null and void because he was a Presbyter only and not a Bishop as is affirmed by Athanasius in Apol. 2. The other grounded on the 8th Chapter of the Acts as St Cyprian in his 73. Epistle tells us where Peter and Iohn are said to have laid hands on them in Samaria which had been before Baptized in the Name of the Lord Iesus that they might receive the Holy Ghost and that by laying on of their hands they did receive the Holy Ghost accordingly verse 16 17. Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur c. Which is also done saith St. Cyprian and Cyprian flourisht in the middle of the third Century amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought unto the Prelates of the Church Praepositis Ecclesiae offeruntur that by our Prayer and Imposition of our hands they may receive the Holy Ghost and be strengthened by the Seal of the Lord. Upon which grounds beâ—iâ—â—â—â—he great antiquity of it it was retained by the first Reformers as in the Rubrick before Confirmation in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book And â—ad it been as diligently practised by the Bishops in the declining times of this Church as it was piously and religiously retained by them it would have much conduced to their saâ—e standing in the Church and procured a greater veneration to their Persons also The other two viz. Marriage and the Visitation of the Sick together with the Burial of the Dead and the Churching of Women after Child-birth are left to the officiating of the Priest or Parochial Minister unless the Bishop please to take that work upon himself in some certain cases 13. But as for Penance one of the seven Sacraments in the Church of Rome we must look upon in a double capacity First As it was solemnly performed on Ashwednesday as a preparative to the approaching Feast of Easter the people humbling themselves before the Lord in Sackcloth and Ashes whence it had the name And secondly As imposed on such particular persons as lay under the censures of the Church Touching the first it is related in the beginning of the Commination that in the Primitive Church there was a godly Discipline That at the beginning of Lent such persons as were notorious sinners were put to open Penance and punished in this world that their Souls might be saved in the day of the Lord and that others admonished by their example might be the more afraid to
house but many Weavers Spinners and Fullers at continual work living in good Esteem and Reputation amongst his Neighbours to the very last His Mother Lucy Webb was Sister to Sir William Webb Lord Maior of London Anno 1591. the Grand-Father of Sir William Webb not long since deceased She was first Marryed to Iohn Robinson a Clothier of the same Town also but a Man of so good Wealth and Credit that he Marryed one of his Daughters to Dr. Cotsford and another unto Dr. Layfield men of parts and worth and left his youngest Son called William in so good a way that he came to be Doctor of Divinity Prebend of Westminster and Archdeacon of Nottingham beside some other preferments which he dyed possest of Having buryed her Husband Iohn Robinson she was Re-marryed unto Laud this Archbishops Father to whom she brought no other child than this Son alone as if she had satisfied that duty which was owing to her second Marriage bed by bringing forth a Son who was to be the Patriarch in a manner of the British Islands He was not born therefore of such Poor and obscure Parents as the Publisher of his Breviat makes him much less E faece Plebis of the dregs of the People as both he and all the rest of the Bishops were affirmed to be by the late Lord Brook who of all others had least Reason to upbraid them with it in a book of his touching the nature of that Episcopacy which had been exercised in England But granting that he had been born of as poor and obscure Parents as those Authors make him yet must it needs add to the commendation of his Parts and Industry who from so mean and low a Birth had raised himself into such an eminent height of Power and Glory that no Bishop or Archbishop since the Reformation had attained the like The greatest Rivers many times have the smallest Fountains such as can hardly be found out and being found out as hardly quit the cost of the discovery and yet by long running and holding on a constant and continual course they become large navigable and of great benefit unto the Publick Whereas some Families may be compared to the Pyramides of AEgypt which being built on great Foundations grow narrower and narrower by degrees until at last they end in a small Conus in a point in nothing For if we look into the Stories of the Times foregoing we shall find that poor and obscure Cottages have bred Commanders to the Camp Judges unto the Seats of Justice Counsellors to the State Peers to the Realm and Kings themselves unto the Throne as well as Prelates to the Church When such as do pretend to a Nobler Birth do many times consume themselves in effeminate Luxuries and waste their Fortunes in a Prodigal and Libidinous Course Which brings into my mind the Answer made by Mr. Pace one of the Secretaries to King Hen. viii to a Nobleman about the Court For when the said Nobleman had told him in contempt of Learning That it was enough for Noblemens Sons to wind their Horn and carry their Hawk fair and to leave Study and Learning to the Children of mean men Mr. Pace thereunto replied Then his Lordship and the rest of the Noblemen must be content to leave unto the Sons of meaner Persons the managing of Affairs of Estate when their own Children please themselves with winding their Horns and managing their Hawks and other Follies of the Country But yet notwithstanding such was the envy of the Times that he was frequently upbraided in the days of his Greatness as well in common Speech a scattered Libells with the mean condition of his Birth And I remember that I found him once in his Garden at Lambeth with more than ordinary Trouble in his Countenance of which not having confidence enough to enquire the Reason he shewed me a Paper in his hand and told me it was a printed Sheet of a Scandalous Libel which had been stopp'd at the Press in which he found himself reproach'd with so base a Parentage as if he had been raked out of the Dunghil adding withal That though he had not the good fortune to be born a Gentleman yet he thank'd God he had been born of honest Parents who lived in a plentiful condition employed many poor People in their way and left a good report behind them And thereupon beginning to clear up his Countenance I told him as presently as I durst That Pope Sixtus the Fifth as stout a Pope as ever wore the Triple Crown but a poor mans Son did use familiarly to say in contempt of such Libells as frequently were made against him That he was Domo natus Illustri because the Sun-beams passing through the broken Walls and ragged Roof illustrated every corner of that homely Cottage in which he was born with which facetiousness of that Pope so applicable to the present occasion he seemed very well pleased But to go forwards with our Story Having escaped a dangerous Sickness in his Childhood he was trained up as soon as he was sitted for it in the Free Grammar-School of Reading in which he profited so well and came on so fast that before he was sixteen years of age which was very early for those times he was sent to Oxon and entred a Commoner in St. Iohn's Colledge and there committed to the tuition of Mr. Buckeridge one of the Fellows of that Colledge and afterwards the worthy President of it It proved no ordinary happiness to the Scholar to be principled under such a Tutor who knew as well as any other of his time how to employ the two-edged Sword of Holy Scripture of which he made good proof in the times succeeding brandishing it on the one side against the Papists and on the other against the Puritans or Nonconformists In reference to the first it is said of him in the general by Bishop Godwin That he endeavoured most industriously both by Preaching and Writing to defend and propagate the True Religion here by Law established Which appears plainly by his Learned and Laborious Piece entituled De potestate Papae in Temporalibus Printed at London Anno 1614. in which he hath so shaken the Foundation of the Papal Monarchy and the pretended Superiority of that See over Kings and Princes that none of the Learned men of that Party did ever undertake a Reply unto it With like success but with less pains unto himself he managed the Controversie concerning Kneeling at the Lords Supper against those of the Puritan Faction the Piety and Antiquity of which Religious Posture in that Holy Action he asserted with such solid Reasons and such clear Authorities in a Treatise by him published Anno 1618. that he came off without the least opposition by that Party also But before the publishing of these Books or either of them his eminent Abilities in the Pulpit had brought him into great credit with King Iames insomuch that
and Apollo's watering do receive increase For being thus resolved upon the point it was not long before he had an opportunity to set it forwards He had before attained unto an high esteem for Arts and Oratory and was conceived to have made so good a proficiency in the Studies of Divinity also that in the year 1602. he was admitted to read the Lecture of Mrs. May's Foundation with the general liking of that Colledge With the like general consent and approbation he was chosen out of all the rest of that Society to be a Candidate for the Proctorship in the University into which Office he was chosen on the fourth of May 1603. which was as soon as he was capable of it by the University Statutes which Office he discharged with great applause as to himself and general satisfaction unto others Doctor George Abbot Master of Vniversity Colledge who afterwards attained to the See of Canterbury was at that time Vice-chancellor of the University whom with the rest of the Doctors and Heads of Houses he accompanied to Woodstock Manor to present themselves and tender their most humble service to the most Mighty Prince King Iames succeeding on the 24th of March before to the Crown of England And in this year it was but whether in reading of the Lecture of Mrs. May's Foundation or some other Chappel Exercise I am not able to say he maintained the constant and perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ derived from the Apostles to the Church of Rome continued in that Church as in others of the East and South till the Reformation Dr. Abbot Master of Vniversity Colledg and Vice-chancellor was of a different opinion and could not finde any such visibility of the Christian Church but by tracing it as well as he could from the Berengarians to the Albigenses from the Albigenses to the Wickliffists from the Wickliffists unto the Hussites and from the Hussites unto Luther and Calvin for proof whereof we may consult a Book of his entituled The Visibility of the Church published in those busie Times when this impertinent Question viz. Where Was your Church before Luther was as impertinently insisted on by the Priests and Jesuites This being his opinion also when he lived in Oxon he thought it a great derogation to his Parts and Credit that any man should dare to maintain the contrary and thereupon conceived a strong grudge against him which no tract of time could either abolish or diminish In the next year viz. 1604. he peformed his Exercise for Batchelor of Divinity in which he maintained these two Points First The necessity of Baptism Secondly That there could be no true Church without Diocesan Bishops For which last he was shrewdly ratled by Doctor Holland above-mentioned as one that did endeavour to cast a bone of Discord betwixt the Church of England and the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and for the first it was objected That he had taken the greatest part of his Supposition out of Bellarmines Works as if the Doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God or any necessary Truths were to be renounced because they are defended by that Learned Cardinal But misfortunes seldom come alone if at the least it may be counted a misfortune to be reproach'd for standing up in defence of truth For not long after viz. Anno 1606. he was questioned by Dr. Airy being Vice-chancellor for that year for a Sermon preached in St. Maries Church on the 26th of October as containing in it sundry scandalous and Popish passages the good man taking all things to be matter of Popery which were not held forth unto him in Calvins Institutes conceiving that there was as much Idolatry in bowing at the Name of IESVS as in worshipping the brasen Serpent and as undoubtedly believing that Antichrist was begotten on the Whore of Babylon as that Pharez and Zara were begotten on the body of Tamar Which advantage being taken by Doctor Abbot he so violently persecuted the poor man and so openly branded him for a Papist or at least very Popishly enclined that it was almost made an Heresie as I have heard from his own mouth for any one to be seen in his company and a misprision of Heresie to give him a civil Salutation as he walked the Streets But there will one day come a time when Doctor Abbot may be made more sensible of these Oppressions when he shall see this poor despised man standing upon the higher ground and more above him in respect of Power than beneath in Place So unsafe a thing it is for them that be in Authority to abuse their Power and carry matters on to the last extremities as if they had Fortune in a string and could be sure to lead her with them whithersoever they went This scandal being raised at Oxon it was not long before it flew to Cambridge also at what time Mr. Ioseph Hall who died Bishop of Norwich about the year 1657. was exercising his Pen in the way of Epistles in one of which inscribed to Mr. W. L. the two first Letters of his Name it was generally supposed that he aimed at him and was this that followeth I would saith he I knew where to finde you then I could tell how to take direct aims whereas now I must pore and conjecture To day you are in the Tents of the Romanists to morrow in ours the next day between both against both Our Adversaries think you ours we theirs your Conscience findes you with both and neither I flatter you not This of yours is the worst of all tempers Heat and Cold have their uses Lukewarmness is good for nothing but to trouble the stomack Those that are spiritually hot find acceptation those that are stark cold have a lesser reckoning the mean between both is so much worse as it comes neerer to good and attains it not How long will you halt in this indifferency Resolve one way and know at last what you do hold what you should Cast off either your wings or your teeth and loathing this Bat-like Nature be either a Bird or a Beast To die wavering and uncertain your self will grant fearful If you must settle when begin you If you must begin why not now It is dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly and whose opportunity is doubtful God cryeth with Iehu Who is on my side who Look at last out of your window to him and in a resolute courage cast down the Iezebel that hath bewitched you Is there any impediment which delay will abate Is there any which a just answer cannot remove If you had rather waver who can settle you But if you love not inconstancy tell us why you stagger Be plain or else you will never be firm c. But notwithstanding these false bruits and this smart Epistle Doctor Buckridge who had been his Tutor and from whom he received his Principles had better assurance of his unfeigned sincerity in the true
not engaged upon either side might succeed in their places But notwithstanding all this care the Faction still held up against him the younger fry inclining to the same side which had been taken by their Tutors But whiles these things were in agitation there hapned a great alteration in the Church of England by the death of the most Reverend Archbishop Bancroft who died on the second of November 1610. and with whom died the Vniformity of the Church of England A man he was of eminent parts and of a most undaunted spirit one who well knew his work and did it When Chaplain only to the Lord Chancellor Hatton he piec'd himself with Doctor Whitgift not long after his first coming to the See of Canterbury to whom he proved a great support in gaining the Lord Chancellor for him by whose assistance he was enabled to hold out against the over-ruling Power of the Earl of Leicester the Patron-General of the Faction In the year 1588. he Preached a Sermon at St. Paul's Cross and therein made an open Declaration of those manifold Dangers which the prevalency of that Faction would bring upon the Church and State if they might be suffered which blow he followed in a Book entituled Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within this Island of Britain under pretence of Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline And in that Book he made such a perfect discovery of their Plots and Practises and so anatomized them in every part that he made them odious unto those who before had been their greatest Patrons In the year 1593. he published another Treatise entituled A Survey of the Pretended holy Discipline in which he so dissected the whole Body of Calvin's Presbyterial Platform shewing the incoherencies of it in it self and the inconsistencies thereof with Monarchical Government that he took off the edge of many and those Great ones too who had not only seemed to like it but had longed for it The Plot was so laid down by Whitgift that at the same time there should come out two other Books the one written by Doctor Thomas Bilson Warden of the Colledge neer Winton for proof of the Antiquity and perpetual Government of the Church by Bishops the other by Doctor Richard Cosens a right Learned Civilian in justification of the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts By which four Books the Puritan Faction was so muzled that they were not able to bark in a long time after Nor do they want their several and just Rewards for such good performances Bilson being first made Bishop of Worcester and not long after Bishop of Winton Bancroft advanced to the See of London and Doctor Cosens Vicar-general and Dean of the Arches within few years after being consecrated Bishop of London on the eighth of May 1597. he kept such a watchfull eye over it and held so strict a hand upon it that from a receptactle and retreat of the Grandees of the Puritan party it became almost as free from Faction as any other in the Kingdom And knowing how much the Peace of this Church did depend upon it he managed a secret Corespondency with King Iames in Scotland insinuating unto him the necessity of conforming the Churches of both Kingdoms in Government and Forms of Worship and laying down a plot for restoring Episcopacy to that Kirk without noise or trouble Which counsel being advisedly followed by King Iames before his coming into England was afterwards so well pursued though not without some violent strugling of the Presbyterians of that Kingdom that on the 21. day of October in the year 1609. the designed Bishops of Glascow Brechen and Gallo-Way received Episcopal Consecration in the Chappel of London-house by the hands of Doctor George Abbot then Bishop of London Doctor Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Ely Doctor Iames Montague Bishop of Bath and Wells and Doctor Richard Neile then Bishop of Rochester Bancroft himself forbearing to lay hands upon them for the avoiding of all scruples amongst the Scots as if he pretended any Jurisdiction or Authority over them In the mean time Anno 1603. he carried a chief hand in the Conference at Hampton Court and had the sole management of the Convocation of the same year also in which he passed that excellent body of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical to serve for a perpetual standing Rule to the Church of England Succeeding Whitgift in the See of Canterbury Anno 1604. he resolved to put the Canons into execution and press'd it with so stout a courage that few had confidence enough to stand out against him Some of them did and those he either depriv'd or silenc'd and thereby terrified the rest to an open Conformity They saw too plainly that they must not dally with his patience as they did with Whitgifts and that he was resolved to break them if they would not bow And they did wisely in so bowing for who could stand against a man of such a spirit armed with Authority having the Law on his side and the King to friend who had declared publickly in the Conference at Hampton Court That if they would not conform he would either hurry them out of the Kingdom or else do worse In the year 1608. he was chosen Chancellor at Oxon. and questionless would have set all things right in that University if Sickness and the stroke of Death had not prevented his intendments But die he must and being dead there was a Consultation amongst some of the Bishops and other Great men of the Court whom to commend unto King Iames for his Successor in that See They knew that Mountague and Abbot would be venturing at it but they had not confidence enough in either of them both of them being extremely popular and such as would ingratiate themselves with the Puritan Faction how dearly soever the Church paid for it And thereupon it was resolved to fix on Andrews for the man a man as one says very well of him of Primitive Antiquity in whom was to be found whatever is desirable in a Bishop even to admiration to whom they found the King to be well affected for taking up the Bucklers for him against Cardinal Bellarmine The Motion was no sooner made but it was embraced and they departed from the King with as good assurance as if the business had been done and Andrews fully setled in the Throne of Canterbury In confidence whereof some of them retired to their Country Houses and others lessened their accustomed diligence about the King and thereby gave an opportunity to the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister of State to put in for Abbot who had attended him in some Negotiations which he had with the Scots and he put in so powerfully in his behalf that at last he carried it and had the Kings Hand to the passing of the publick Instruments before the other Bishops ever heard of the Plot But when they heard of it there was no Remedy but Patience but it was
That there was no design in the King or Prince or in any of the Court or Court-Bishops of what name soever to alter the Religion here by Law established or that the Prince was posted into Spain of purpose that he might be perverted or debauched from it But the best is that he which gave the Wound hath made the Plaister and such a Plaister as may assuredly heal the Sore without troubling any other Chyrurgeon It is affirmed by him who published the Breviate of our Bishops Life That he was not only privy to this Journey of the Prince and Buckingham into Spain but that the Journey was purposely plotted to pervert him in his Religion and reconcile him to Rome And this he makes apparent by the following Prayer found amongst others in the Bishops Manual of Devotions than which there can be nothing more repugnant to the Propositions â—or proof of which it is so luckily produced Now the said Prayer 〈◊〉 thus verbatim viz. O Most merciful God and gracious Father the Prince hath put himself to a great Adventure I humbly beseech thee make clear the way before him give thine Angels charge over him be with him thy self in Mercy Power and Protection in every step of his Iourney in every moment of his Time in every Consultation and Address for Action till thou bring him back with Safety Honour and Contentment to do thee service in this place Bless his most truly and faithful Servant the Lord Duke of Buckingham that he may be diligent in Service provident in Business wise and happy in Counsel for the honour of thy Name the good of the Church the preservation of the Prince the contentment of the King the satisfaction of the State Preserve him I humbly beseech thee from all Envy that attends him and bless him that his eyes may see the Prince safely delivered to the King and State and after it to live long in happiness to do thee and them service through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen And with this Prayer so plainly destructive of the purpose for which it was published I shut up the Transactions of this present year We will begin the next with the dismission of the Archbishop of Spalato a man defamed by the Italians at his coming hither and as much reproached by the English at his going hence His name was Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Fact and Primate of Dalmatia in Title Such anciently and of right those Archbishops were till the Bishop of Venice being made a Patriarch by Pope Eugenius the Fourth Anno 1450. assumed that Title to himself together with a Superintendency over all the Churches of that Country as subordinate to him He had been long conversant with the Fathers and Ancient Councils By this Light he discerned the Darkness of the Church of Rome and the blind Title which the Popes had for their Supremacy Inclining to the Protestant Religion he began to fear that his own Country would prove too hot for him at the last and therefore after he had sate in the See of Spalato about fourteen years he quitted his Preferments there and betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England Anno 1616. Extremely honoured at his first coming by all sorts of people entertained in both Universities with solemn Speeches presented complemented feasted by the great Lords about the Court the Bishops and some principal Persons about the City Happy was he that could be honoured with his Company and satisfied with beholding his comely presence though they understood not his Discourses Commended by King Iames at first for a constant Sojourner and Guest to Archbishop Abbot in whose Chappel at Lambeth he assisted at the Consecration of some English Bishops Made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor and by himself made Rector of West-Illesby in the County of Berks A Revenue not so great as to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of Covetousness for the sake of filthy Lucre nor so contemptible but that he might have lived plentifully and contentedly on it During his stay here he published his learned and elaborate Book entituled De Republica Ecclesiastica never yet answered by the Papists and perhaps unanswerable He had given great trouble to the Pope by his defection from that Church and no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his coming over unto ours The foundring of so great a Pillar seemed to prognosticate that the Fabrick of that Church was not like to stand And yet he gave greater blows to them by his Pen than by the defection of his person the wound so given being conceived to be incurable In these respects those of that Church bestirred themselves to disgrace his person devising many other causes by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those parts wherein he durst no longer tarry but finding little credit given to their libellous Pamphlets they began to work upon him by more secret practises insinuating That he had neither that Respect nor those Advancements which might encourage him to stay That the new Pope Gregory the Fifteenth was his special Friend That he might chuse his own Preferments and make his own Conditions if he would return And on the other side they cunningly wrought him out of credit with King Iames by the Arts of Gundamore Embassadour at that time from the King of Spain and lessened his esteem amongst the Clergy by some other Artifices So that the poor man being in a manner lost on both sides was forced to a necessity of swallowing that accursed bait by which he was hooked over to his own destruction For having sollicited King Iames by several Letters the last of them bearing date on the third of February to licence his departure home he was by the King disdainfully turned over to the High-Commission or rather to a special Commission directed to Archbishop Abbot the Lord Keeper Lincoln the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester with certain of the Lords of the Privy Council These Lords assembling at Lambeth on the 30th of March and having first heard all his Excuses and Defences commanded him to depart the Realm within twenty days or otherwise to expect such punishment as by the Laws of the Land might be laid upon him for holding Intelligence by Letters Messages c. with the Popes of Rome To this Sentence he sorrowfully submitted protesting openly That he would never speak reproachfully of the Church of England the Articles whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable and none of them to be Heretical as appears by a Book entituled SPALATO's Shiftings in Religion published as it was conceived by Laud's especial Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham How well or rather how ill he performed this promise and what became of him after his return to Rome is not now my business The man is banished out of England and my History leads me next into Spain not Italy The
Church of England had a great stock at that time to be driven in Spain and many of the Romish Factors were desirous to be trading in it No sooner was the Princes Train of Lords and Gentlemen come to the City of Madrid but the King of Spain assigned a day for his Reception A Reception so Magnificent so full of State and Royal Pomp that it redounded infinitely to the honour of the Spanish Court and the satisfaction of the Prince Never was King of Spain on the day of his inauguration received into that City with a more general concourse of all sorts of people and greater signs of Joy and Gallantry then the Prince was conducted through it to the Palace Royal. In which his Quarters being assigned him there wanted no allurements on their parts to win him to a fair esteem of their Religion and to put some high value also on their Court and Nation Nor was the Prince wanting for his part in all fit compliances by which he might both gain on them and preserve himself for by his Courtly Garb he won so much on the affections of the Lady Infanta and by his Grace and circumspect behaviour got so much ground upon that King and his Council that the Match went forward in good earnest A dispensation for the Marriage was procured from Gregory the fifteenth then sitting in the See of Rome The Articles of the Marriage with all the circumstances thereof were agreed upon and solemnly sworn to by both Kings Nothing remained to bring the whole business to a joyfull issue but the Consummation But before that could be obtained the Prince must try his fortunes in an harder Conflict than any he had learnt in the Schools of Love The change of his Religion was much hoped for by the Court of Spain at his first coming thither To perfect which he was plied from time to time with many perswasive Arguments by many persons of great Honour about that King And many of the most learned Priests and Jesuites made their Addresses to him with such Rhetorical Orations with such insinuating Artifices and subtle Practises as if they had a purpose rather to conquer him by kindness than by disputation Nor stop they there but dedicated many Books unto him to gain him fairly to their Party invited him to behold their solemn Processions to captivate his outward senses and carried him to the most Religious places famous for their magnificent Fabricks and pretended Miracles In which conjuncture of designs it is not to be thought but that the Pope bestirred himself in gaining to his Church a Prince of such parts and greatness For first he writes unto the Bishop of Conchen Inquisitor general of Spain not to be wanting to the opportunity which God had put into his hands The next day being the twentieth of April he addressed his lines unto the Prince extolling the piety of his Predecessors their Zeal unto the Catholick Church and to the head thereof the Pope inviting him by all the blandishments of Art to put himself upon the following of their brave examples Never had Prince a harder game to play than Prince Charles had now He found himself under the Power of the King of Spain and knew that the whole business did depend on the Popes dispensation with whom if he complied not in some handsome way his expectation might be frustrate and all the fruits of that long Treaty would be suddenly blasted He therefore writes unto the Pope in such general terms as seemed to give his Holiness some assurances of him but being reduced unto particulars signified nothing else but some civill complements mixt with some promises of his endeavours to make up the breaches in the Church and restore Christendom to an happy and desirable peace Which notwithstanding was after reckoned amongst his crimes by such as rather would not then did not know the necessity which lay upon him of keeping at that time a plausible correspondence with the Catholick party But these Temptations and Allurements these Artifices and Insinuations prevailed so little with the Prince that he still kept his stand and was found impregnable carrying himself with such a prudent Moderation in these Encounters that he came off alwaies without Envy but not without Glory And that it might appear on what grounds he stood it was thought fit to let them see that he professed no other Religion than what was agreeable to the Rules of Antiquity and not much abhorrent from the Forms then used in the Church Rome And to this end by the prudent care of the Lord Keeper Williams the English Liturgie was translated into Spanish so many Copies of the book then Printed being sent into Spain as gave great satisfaction both to the Court and Clergy The work performed by a converted Dominican who was gratified for his pains therein by a good Prebend and a Benefice as he well deserved And this I must needs say was very seasonably done For till that time the Spaniards had been made believe by their Priests and Jesuites that when the English had cast off the Pope they had cast off all Religion also That from thenceforth they became meer Atheists and that the name of God was never used amongst them but with a purpose to expose it to profanation An Argument whereof may be the extreme squeamishness of the Constable of Castile sent into England in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames to swear the peace between both Kings Who understanding that the business was to be performed in the Chappel where some Anthems were to be sung desired that whatsoever was sung Gods name might not be used in it and that being forborn he was content they should sing what they listed And when the Earl of Nottingham attended by many Gentlemen of worth and quality went into Spain to take the like Oath of the Catholick King it was reported by his followers at their coming back how much it was commiserated by the Vulgar Spaniards that so many goodly persons should be trained up in no other Religion than to worship the Devil But let us leave the Prince and return for England where the King had as hard a game to play For having left such a Pawn in Spain he was in a manner bound to his good behaviour and of necessity to gratifie the Popish Party in this Kingdom with more than ordinary Favours He knew no Marriage could be made without the Popes Dispensation and that the Popes Dispensation could not be obtained without indulging many graces to his Catholick Subjects To smooth his way therefore to the point desired he addresseth several Letters to the Pope and Cardinals in which he gives him the title of most holy Father and imploys Gage as his Agent in the Court of Rome to attend the business At home he dischargeth all such Priests and Iesuites as had been formerly imprisoned inhibiting all Processes and Superseding all proceedings against Recusants and in a word suspends
Circle of Order which without apparent danger both to Church and State may not be broken his Majesty will proceed against them with that severity as upon due consideration had of their Offences and Contempts they and every one of them should deserve c. Such was the tenor of his Majesties Proclamation of Iune 14. And the effect thereof was this The House of Commons in pursuance of their Quarrel against Mountague's Books had referred the consideration of it to their Committee for Religion from whom Pym brought a Report on the eighteenth of April concerning some Arminian and Popish Tenents comprized in them It was thereupon Voted in that House 1. That he had disturbed the Peace of the Church by publishing Doctrines contrary to the Articles of the Church of England and the Book of Homilies 2. That there are divers Passages in his Book especially against those he calleth Puritans apt to move Sedition betwixt the King and his Subjects and between Subject and Subject 3. That the whole frame and scope of his Books is to discourage the well affected in Religion from the true Religion established in the Church and to incline them and as much as in him lay to reconcile them to POPERY This gave great animation to the opposite Party who thought it a high point of Wisdom to assault the man whom they perceived to have been smitten with this terrible Thunder-bolt and not to lose the opportunity of a Parliament-time when the Press is open to all comers for publishing their Books against him Some of them we have named already besides which there appeared so many in the List against him viz. Goad â—eatly Ward Wotton Prynne and Burton that the Encounter seemed to be betwixt a whole Army and a single Person Laud and some of those Bishops on the other side incouraged by his Majesties Proclamation endeavoured to suppress those Books which seemed to have been published in defiance of it some of them being called in some stopped at the Press some Printers questioned for Printing as the Authors were for writing such prohibited Pamphlets Burton and Prynne amongst the rest were called into the High-Commission and at the point to have been censured when a Prohibition comes from Westmâ—nster-Hall to stay the Proceedings in that Court contrary to his Majesties Will and Pleasure expressed so clearly and distinctly in the said Proclamation Which Prohibition they tendred to the Court in so rude a manner that Laud was like to have laid them by the heels for their labour From henceforth we must look for nothing from both these hot-spurs but desire of revenge a violent opposition against all Persons whatsoever who did not look the same way with them and whatsoever else an ill-governed Zeal could excite them too And now being fallen upon these men it may not be amiss to say something of them in this place considering how much they exercised the patience of the Church and State in the Times succeeding Burton had been a Servant in the Closet to his Sacred Majesty when he was Prince of Wales and being once in the Ascendent presumed that he should culminate before his time He took it very ill that he was not sent as one of the Chaplains into Spain when the Prince was there but worse that Laud then Bishop of St. Davids should execute the Office of Clerk of the Closet at such time as Bishop Neil was sick and he be looked on no otherwise than as an underling still Vexed with that Indignity as he then conceived it he puts a scandalous Paper into the hands of the King for which and for some other Insolencies and factious carriage he was commanded by him to depart the Court into which being never able to set foot again he breathed nothing but rage and malice against his Majesty the Bishops and all that were in place above him and so continued till the last it being the custom of all those whom the Court casts out to labour by all means they can to out-cast the Court Prynne lived sometimes a Commoner of Oriall Colledge and afterwards entred himself a Student in Lincolns-Inn where he became a great follower of Preston then the Lecturer there Some parts of Learning he brought with him which afterwards he improved by continual Study and being found to be of an enterprising nature hot-spirited and eager in pursuit of any thing which was put into him he was looked upon by Preston as the fittest person to venture upon such Exploits which a more sober and considerate man durst not have appeared in Being once put into the road it was not possible to get him out of it again by threats or punishments till growing weary of himself when he had no Enemy in a manner to encounter with he began to look up at the last and setled on more moderate and quiet courses becoming in the end a happy Instrument of Peace both to Church and State And now I am fallen on Preston also I shall add something of him too as being a man which made much noise in the World about this time A man he was beyond all question of a shrewd Wit and deep Comprehensions an excellent Master in the Art of Insinuation and one who for a long time sate at the Helm and steared the Course of his Party as one well observeth Toward the latter end of the Reign of King Iames he was brought into the Court by the Duke of Buckingham in hope to gain a Party by him There he was gazed on for a time like a new Court-Meteâ—r and having flashed and blazed a little went out again and was forgotten in case he did not leave as most Meteors do an ill smell behind him Much was he cried up by his Followers in the University City and all places else as if he might have chosen his own Mitre and had been as likely a man as any to have been trusted with the Great Seal in the place of Williams but he was not principled for the Court nor the Court for him For long he had not been in that School of Policy but he found other men as wise and cunning as himself and that he could not govern there with such an absolute Omni-regency as he had done in the Families of private Gentlemen in most parts of the Kingdom Nor was it long before the Duke began to have some suspicion of him as one not to be trusted in his Majesties Service when it seemed any way to cross with the Puritan Interest which he drove on with so much openness in the Court as was not proper for a man of so famed a cunning But that which lost him at the last was a Letter by him written to a great Peer of the Realm in which he spake disadvantageously enough if not reproachfully of the Court and signified withal how little hope there was of doing any good in that place for the advancement of the Cause Which Letter or a Copy of it being unluckily
great men about the Court for revealing the Kings Secrets committed to his trust and privacy contrary to the Oath taken by him as a Privy Counsellor The Bishop was conceived to live at too great a height to be too popular withal and thereby to promote the Puritan Interest against the Counsels of the Court This Information was laid hold on as a means to humble him to make him sensible of his own duty and the Kings displeasure and a Command is given to Noy then newly made his Majesties Atturney-General to file a Bill and prosecute against him in the Star-Chamber upon this delinquency Though the Bishop about two or three years since had lost the Seal yet he was thought to have taken the Purse along with him reputed rich and one that had good Friends in the Court about the King which made him take the less regard of this prosecution By the Advice of his Counsel he first demurred unto the Bill and afterwards put in a strong Plea against it both which were over-ruled by Chief Justice Richardson to whom by Order of the Court they had been referred Which artifices and delays though they gained much time yet could he not thereby take off the edge of the Atturney grown so much sharper toward him by those tricks in Law And in this state we shall finde the business about ten years hence when it came to a Sentence having laid so much of it here together because the occasion of the Suit was given much about this time About the same time also came out a Book entituled A Collection of Private Devotions or the Hours of Prayer composed by Cozens one of the Prebends of Durham at the Request and for the Satisfaâ—ction as it was then generally believed of the Countess of Denbigh the only Sister of the Duke and then supposed to be unsetled in the Religion here established if not warping from it A Book which had in it much good matter but not well pleasing in the form said in the Title page to be framed agreeably to a Book of Private Prayers Authorized by Queen Elizabeth Anno 1560. After the Kalendar it began with a Specification of the Apostles Creed in Twelve Articles the Lords Prayer in Seven Petitions the Ten Commandements with the Duties enjoined and the Sins prohibited by them The Precepts of Charity The Precepts of the Church The Seven Sacraments The Three Theological Virtues The Three kinds of Good Works The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost The Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost The Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy The Eight Beatitudes Seven deadly Sins and their contrary Vertues and the Quatuor novissima After which some Prefaces and Introductions intervening followed the Forms of Prayer for the first third sixth and ninth Hours as also for the Vespers and Compline known here in former Times by the vulgar name of Canonical Hours Then came the Litany The Seven Penitential Psalms Preparatory Prayers for Recâ—iving the Holy Communion Prayers to be used in time of Sickness and of the near approach of Death besides many others The Book approved by Mountain then Bishop of London and by him Licenced for the Press with the Subscription of his own hand to it Which notwithstanding it startled many at the first though otherwise very moderate and sober men who looked upon it as a Preparatory to usher in the Superstitions of the Church of Rome The Title gave offence to some by reason of the correspondence which it held with the Popish Horaries but the Frontispiece a great deal more on the top whereof was found the Name of IESVS figured in three Capital Letters IHS with a Cross upon them incircled with the Sun supported by two Angels with two devout Women praying toward it It was not long before it was encountred by Prynne and Burton of whom we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter Prynn's Book for of the other there was but little notice taken was Printed by the name of A Brief Survey and Censure of Cozens his Cozening Devotions Anno 1628. In which he chargeth it for being framed in general according to the Horaries and Primers of the Church of Rome but more particularly to be directly moulded framed and contrived according to Our Ladies Primer or Office Printed in Latin at Antwerp 1593. and afterwards in Latin and English Anno 1604. Next he objects That the Book of Latin Prayers published by Queen Elizabeth 1560. was called Orarium not Horarium sive Libellus Precationum that is to say A Book of Prayers That in that Book there was mention of no other hours of Prayer than first third and ninth and that in the second and third Editions of the same Book published in the years 1564. and 1573. there occurred no such distribution into hours at all which said he reproacheth all the Specifications before-remembred by the name of Popish trash and trumpery stollen out of Popish Primers and Catechisms not mentioned in any Protestant Writers and then proceeds to the canvasing of every Office and the Prefaces belonging to them which with the like infallible Spirit he condemns of Popery But for all this violent opposition and the great clamors made against it the Book grew up into esteem and justified it self without any Advocate insomuch that many of those who first startled at in regard of the Title found in the body of it so much Piety such regular Forms of Divine Worship such necessary Consolations in special Exigencies that they reserved it by them as a Jewel of great Price and value But of this Author and his Book the following Parliament to whom Prynne dedicates his Answer will take further notice But before that Parliament begins we must take notice of some Changes then in agitation amongst the Governours of the Church His Majesty in the Iune foregoing had acquainted Laud with his intent of nominating him to the See of London in the place of Mountain whom he looked on as a man unactive and addicted to voluptuousness and one that loved his ease too well to disturbe himself in the concerments of the Church He also looked upon that City as the Retreat and Receptacle of the Grandees of the Puritan Faction the influence which it had by reason of its Wealth and Trading on all parts of the Kingdom and that upon the Correspondence and Conformity thereof the welfare of the whole depended No better way to make them an example of Obedience to the rest of the Subjects then by placing over them a Bishop of such Parts and Power as they should either be unable to withstand or afraid to offend In order unto this design it was thought expedient to translate Neile whose accommodations Laud much studied to the See of Winchester then vacant by the death of Andrews and to remove Mountain unto Durham in the place of Neile But the putting of this design into execution did require some time Such Officers of State as had the management of the Kings
conjure down these unruly Spirits which otherwise would not be confined within their Circle Mady the Lecturer of Christ-Church near Newgate must needs fly out upon the Point of Election and the motives to it For this contempt he is called before the Bishop of London and on some further misbehaviour prohibited from preaching any more within that Diocess Burges who afterwards pulled down the Cross in St. Pauls Church-yard must needs add scorn to his contempt telling his Auditors that if their Minister preached Popery or Arminianism they might change their dwellings and not trouble the peace and order of their Church For which about the same time he is questioned also White and some others in that Diocess suspended by this Bishop on the same occasion From the City pass we to the Court Where toward the end of the same Month we find Davenant Bishop of Sarum preaching a Lent Sermon before the King and therein falling upon some of those prohibited points even before his face for which the King being much offended as he had good reason he caused him to be called before the Lords of his Council The cause is managed against him by Archbishop Harsnet Laud all the while walking by in silence who gravely laid before him as well the Kings Piety in setting forth the said Declaration as the greatness of his the said Davenants offence in making so little reckoning of it Davenant at first endeavoureth many defences to make good his Action but at last wisely casts himself upon this submission he tells the Lords in answer to one of Harsnets objections That he was sorry he did no sooner understand his Majesties intention which if he had done before he would have taken some other matter to treat of which might have given none offence and that for the time to come he would conform himself as readily as any other to his Majesties Command Arundel Earl Marshal bids him hold to that as his safest plea and that he should proceed to no further defence a bad cause not being made the better by two much handling To this counsel he conforms himself And being afterwards admitted to the kiss of his Majesties hand which his attendance might deserve though his Sermon did not his Majesty declared to him his Resolution That he would not have this high Point meddled withal or debated either the one way or the other because it was too high for the Peoples understanding and that other Points which concerned Reformation and Newness of life were more needful and profitable I hope the lower Clergy will not say hereafter as some did of old That Laws are like the Spiders Cobwebs which suffer the great flies to break through and lay hold only upon those of the smaller size From the Court let us go to Oxon. where we find the next year beginning in a manner with a Sermon preached at St. Maries Church by one Hill of Heart-hall May 24. point blank enough against his Majesties Declaration and more than bitter enough against those of different perswasion from him whom he charged with handling Scriptures worse than poor Christians were by the Turk at Tunis enforcing them to the vassallage of the foulest errours not without some reflection on the Higher Powers by whom they were mischieved into honour For which indiscretion being convented before the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses but not without the Chancellors privity he confessed his fault and craved pardon for the same which he obtained on his submission made in the Convocation the sixteenth of Iuly following But worse it fared not long after with Ford of Magdalen Hall Hodges of Exeter Colledge and Thorne of Baliol who in their several Sermons had not only committed the like error but charged their Renovation of some ancient order in the Church to be no other than plain Innovation Questioned for this by Smith then Warden of Wadham Colledge and Vice-Chancellor of that University they appeal from him to the Convocation The Proctors having unadvisedly received the Appeal were at the point to have named Delegates when Smith appealed to the King But they took their aim amiss when they shot this bolt For both his Majesty and the Chancellor were alike concerned in it the King to justifie his Declaration the other to preserve his own power and dignity neither of which could have been done but by defending Smith in his lawful acting On the twenty third of August all Parties interessed in the Cause appeared before the King at Woodstock who after a full hearing of both sides it was ordered thus That the three Delinquents should be expelled the University Doughty and Bruch the two Proctors should be deprived of their places Prideaux and Wilkinson this last then Principle of Magdalen Hall being checked for stickling so much in it and glad they were that they escaped without further censure But they shewed not the same mercy which they found for Rainsford of Wadham Colledge preached at St. Maries in August following in defence of Vniversal Grace and Mans Election unto life from Faith foreseen No man more forward than Prideaux to appeach him of it on whose complaint and prosecution he was sentenced to a publick acknowledgment of his offence in a form prescribed which was as much as had been done in the case of Hill So that the Rigid Calvinians can pretend no just ground for that so great Calumnie that none but they were censured from preaching those prohibited Doctrines those of the Arminian Party as they commonly called them going off unpunished From Oxon. cross we into Ireland where we shall see Lauds care as great for preserving the Kings Authority and the Churches peace as it was in England Vsher the Lord Primate of that Church had published a Book this same year in the Latine Tongue called The History of Gotteschalchus for which he was after much extolled by Twist of Newbury as professed a Calvinian as himself in a Letter of his dated May 29. 1640. For having first commended him for his great learning and various reading manifested in his Book De Primodiis Britannicarum Ecclesiarum he magnifies next his singular wisdom for taking an occasion to insert therein the History of the Pelagian Heresie coming so opportunely in his way and then he addeth that his History of Gotteschalchus was a piece of the like nature and came forth most seasonable so much the more because it seemed to give some check to a Book written by Vossius a right Learned man which had been much cried up by the Remonstrants Downham then Bishop of Derry had somewhat before that published a Discourse about Perseverance wherein some Passages were found directly thwarting his Majesties most pious purpose in the said Declaration But Vshâ—r's Book being writ in Latin gave the less offence Nor seemed it fit to put any publick disgrace on a man to whom the Government of the whole National Church had been committed by King Iames of most Blessed Memory By questioning
my old friend was sworn Secretary of State which Place I obtained for him of my gracious Master King Charles About the same time also Sir Francis Cottington who succeeded the Lord Treasurer Weston in the place of Chancellor was made Successor unto Nanton in the Mastership of the Wards and Liveries No sooner was he in this place but some difference began to grow betwixt him and Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England about the disposing of such Benefices as belonged to the King in the Minority of his Wards Coventry pleaded a joynt interest in it according to the Priviledge and usage of his Predecessors it standing formerly for a rule that he of the two which first heard of the vacancy and presented his Clerk unto the Bishop should have his turn served before the other But Cottington was resolved to have no Competitor and would have either all or none During which Competition betwixt the parties Laud ends the difference by taking all unto himself Many Divines had served as Chaplains in his Majesties Ships and ventured their persons in the Action at the Isle of Rhe during his Majesties late engagements with France and Spain some reward must be given them for their Service past the better to encourage others on the like occasions for the time to come It is cold venturing in such hot Services without some hope of Reward And thereupon he takes occasion to inform his Majesty that till this Controversie were decided he might do well to take those Livings into his own disposing for the reward of such Divines as had done him service in his Wars or should go forth hereafter on the like imployments Which Proposition being approved his Majesty committed the said Benefices unto his disposal knowing full well how faithfully he would discharge the trust reposed in him for the advancement of his Majesties Service the satisfaction of the Suitors and the Churches peace Neither did Cottington seem displeased at this designation As being more willing that a third man should carry away the prize from both than to be overtopt by Coventry in his own Jurisdiction By the accession of this power as he encreased the number of his dependents so he gained the opportunity by it to supply the Church with regular and conformable men for whom he was to be responsal both to God and the King Which served him for a Counter-Ballance against the multitude of Lecturers established in so many places especially by the Feoffees for impropriations who came not to their doom till February 13. of this present year as before was said But greater were the Alterations amongst the Bishops in the Church than amongst the Officers of Court and greater his Authority in preferring the one than in disposing of the other Buckeridge his old Tutor dying in the See of Elie makes room for White then Bishop of Norwich and Lord Almoner to succeed in his place A man who having spent the greatest part of his life on his private Cures grew suddenly into esteem by his zealous preachings against the Papists his Conferences with the Jesuite Fisher and his Book wrote against him by command of King Iames. Appointed by that King to have a special eye on the Countess of Denbigh whom the Priests much laboured to pervert he was encouraged thereunto with the Deanry of Carlisle advanced on that very account to the Bishoprick thereof by the Duke her brother The Duke being dead his favour in the Court continued remove to Norwich first and to Ely afterwards Corbet of Oxon. one of Lauds fellow-sufferers in the University succeeds him in the See of Norwich and Bancroft Master of Vniversity Colledge is made Bishop of Oxon. Kinsman he was to ever renowned Archbishop Bancroft by whom preferred unto that Headship and looked upon for his sake chiefly though otherwise of a good secular living in this Succession The Bishoprick of small Revenue and without a House but Laud will find a remedy for both in convenient time The Impropriate Parsonage of Cudesdens five miles from Oxon. belonged to the Bishop in the right of his See and he had the Donation of the Vicaridge in the same right also The Impropriation was in Lease but he is desired to run it out without more renewing that in the end it might be made an improvement to that slender Bishoprick The Vicaridge in the mean time falling he procured himself to be legally instituted and inducted and by the power and favour of our Bishop of London obtains an annexation of it to the See Episcopal the design of bringing in the impropriation going forwards still and builds that beautiful house upon it which before we mentioned The See of Bristow was grown poorer than that of Oxon. both having been dilapidated in Queen Elizabeths time though by divers hands To improve the Patrimony thereof his Majesty had taken order that Wright then Bishop of that Church should suspend the renewing of a Lease of a very good Farm not very far distant from that City well Housed and of a competent Revenue to serve as a Demesn to the following Bishops for which he was to be considered in some other Preferment Houson of Durham being dead Morton removes from Lichfield thither A man who for the greatest part of his time had exercised his Pen against the Papists but gave withall no small contentment to King Iames by his learned Book in defence of the three harmless Ceremonies against the Puritans Wright follows him at Lichfield and Cooke brother to Secretary Cooke follows Wright at Bristoll tyed to the same conditions and with like encouragement The Secretary had formerly done our Bishop some bad Offices But great Courtiers must sometimes pay good turnes for injuries break and be pieced again as occasions vary The like care also taken by him for mending the two Bishopricks of Asaph and Chester as appears by his Breviate Nor were these all the Alterations which were made this year Archbishop Harsnet having left his life the year before care must be taken for a sit man to succeed at York a man of an unsuspected trust and one that must be able to direct himself in all emergencies Neiles known sufficiencies had pointed him unto the place but he was warm at Winton and perhaps might not be perswaded to move toward the North from whence he came not long before with so great contentment Yet such was the good mans desires to serve his Majesty and the Church in what place soever though to his personal trouble and particular loss that he accepted of the offer and was accordingly translated in the beginning of this year or the end of the former Two Offices fell void by this remove one in the Court which was the Clerkship of the Closet and another in the Church of Winton which was that of the Bishop To the Clerkship of the Closet he preferred Dr. William Iuxon whom before he had made President of St. Iohns Colledge and recommended to his Majesty for
not the name of the other when it came to his turn The Ships being come and staying for a change of wind the like curtesie was desired of Pennington Admiral of that little Fleet for the present Service Pennington told them that he had no Chaplain that there was in the Ship one Dr. Ambrose his Friend and Kinsman who had borne him company in that Voyage and that he doubted not but that he would readily hearken to them if they made the motion The motion being made and granted Ambrose attends his Admiral to the place of Exercise where he took up his stand very near the Pulpit The Congregation being filled and the Psalm half done a Deacon is sent to put him in mind of going into the Pulpit of whom he desires to be accommodated with a Bible and a Common-Prayer Book The Deacon offered him a Bible but told him that they had no such thing as a Common-Prayer Book and that the Common Prayers were not used amongst them Why then said Ambrose the best is that I have one of my own which being presently taken out of his pocket he began with the Sentences and invitation and was scarce entred into the Confession when all the Church was in an uprore The Elders thereupon in a great amaze sent back the Deacon to desire him to go into the Pulpit and not to trouble them with that which they were not used to Ambrose replied That if they were an English Church they were obliged to serve God by the English Liturgie and that if they would have no Prayers they should have no Sermon and so proceeded on with the rest of the Liturgy which Message being delivered to the Elders the Deacon was sent back the third time requiring him to desist from that unnecessary Service On the receiving of which Message he puts the book into his pocket and goes out of the Church the two Embassadours following him and the Admiral them to the great honour of himself and the confusion of Iohnson from whose mouth I received the story and the other Chaplain being thus shewed their errour in not doing the like That our Bishop was ever made acquainted by the said Iohnson with this passage I am not able to say but whether he were or not he had too much ground for what he did in offering to their Lordships his considerations for regulating Divine Service in that and all other Factories Imployments and Commands of the English Nation That is to say First That the Colonels of the English Regiments in the Low-Countries should entertain no Minister as Preacher to their Regiments but such as should conform in all things to the Church of England to be commended to them by their Lordships the Advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury and York being taken in it Secondly That the Company of Merchants there residing or in any other parts shall admit no Minister as Preacher to them but such as are so qualified and so commended as aâ—oresaid Thirdly That if any Minister hath gotten himself by indirect means to be so commended and should be afterwards found to be unconformable and should not conform himself within three months upon warning giving him by the said Colonels or Deputy Governour of the Factors under whom he liveth he shall be dismist from his imployment and a more orderly man recommended to it Fourthly That every Minister or Chaplain in any Factory or Regiment whether of English or Scots shall read the Common Prayers Administer the Sacraments Catechise the Children and perform all other publick Ministerial duties according to the Rules or Rubricks of the English Liturgie and not otherwise Fifthly That if any Minister or Preacher being the Kings born Subject should with any bitter words or writings in Print or otherwise defame the Church of England by Law established notice thereof is to be given to the Ambassador there and by him to this State by whom the party so offending should be commanded over again to answer for his said offences the like to be done also in derogating from the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and in Preaching Writing or Printing any thing prejudicial to the Temporal State and Government of the Realm of England Sixthly That no Colonel or Deputy Governour should permit their Minister or Preacher in the case of sickness or necessary absence to bring in any to preach or officiate for him but such an one for whose conformity he would be accountable Seventhly That no Deputy Governours should be sent to Delfe or any other place of Residence for the English Merchants but one that being conformable to the Church of England both in Doctrine and Discipline would take care also that such as be under him shall perform all Church duties before expressed that the party so designed shall be presented to their Lordships by the Merchant Adventurers giving assurance of his fitness and sufficiency for that charge and that some of the chief of the Merchants be sent for to the board and made acquainted with this order Eightly That as often as the said Merchants shall renew their Patents a clause for the due observation of these Instructions or so many of them at the least as should seem necessary to their Lordships to be inserted in the same Ninthly That all his Majesties Agents there from time to time have these Instructions given them in Charge and that once a year they be required to give the Board an account of the Progress of the business that further order might be taken if occasion be Tenthly That the English Ministers in Holland being his Majesties born Subjects be not suffered to hold any Classical meetings but howsoever not to assume the power of Ordination from which if they should not be restrained there would be a perpetual Seminary for breeding up men in Schism and Faction to the disturbance of this Kingdom In reference to the French and Dutch Churches here in England he proceeded in another method first representing the occasion of their settling here their several abuses of that Favour together with the manifold dangers and inconveniencies which might thence arise and next advising such agreeable remedies as he thought most proper for the cure And first he represented to them the great piety of this State in giving liberty to those Nations to enjoy the freedom of their own Religion at London and elsewhere in this Kingdom when being under persecution in their own Countries they could not enjoy the same at home Secondly That it was not the meaning of this State then or at any other time since that the first Generation being worn out their Children and Childrens Children being naturally born Subjects of this Realm should still remain divided from the rest of the Church which must needs alienate them from the State and make them apt to any innovation which may sort better with their humour Thirdly That they still keep themselves as a distinct body of themselves marrying only in their own Tribe with one
Canonry in Christ-Church to be annexed for ever to the Orators place whose yearly Pension till that time was but twenty Nobles Injoyed first by Dr. William Strode admitted thereunto on the first of Iuly Anno 1638. and after his decease by Dr. Henry Hammond Anno 1644. Such were the benefits which the University received from him in this present year And that he might both do himself and the University some honour in the eye of the Kingdom he invites the King the Queen the Prince Elector and his Brother to an Academical entertainment on the twenty ninth day of August then next following being the Anniversary day on which the Presidentship of St. Iohns Colledge was adjudged to him by King Iames. The time being come and the University put into a posture for that Royal visit their Majesties were first received with an eloquent Speech as he passed by the house being directly in his way betwixt Woodstock and Christ-Church not without great honour to the Colledge that the Lord Archbishop the Lord Treasurer the Chancellor the Vice-Chancellor and one of the Proctors should be at that time of the same foundation At Christ-Church his Majesty was entertained with another Oration by Strode the University Oratour the University presenting his Majesty with a fair and costly pair of Gloves as their custome was the Queen with a fair English Bible the Prince Elector with Hookers Books of Ecclesiastical Politie his Brother Rupert with Caesars Commentaries in English illustrated by the learned Explanations and Discourses of Sir Clement Edmonds His Majesty was lodged in Christ-Church in the great Hall whereof one of the goodliest in the World he was entertained together with the Queen the two Princes and the rest of the Court with an English Comedy but such as had more of the Philosopher than the Poet in it called Passions Calmed or the settling of the Floating Islands On the morrow morning being Tuesday he began with a Sermon preacht before him in that Cathedral on these words of St. Luke viz. Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest Luk. 19.38 The Sermon being ended the Archbishop as Chancellor of the University calls a Convocation in which he admits the Prince Elector his Brother Prince Rupert and many of the chief Nobility to the degree of Masters of Art and that being done attends the King and Queen to St. Iohns Colledge Where in the new Gallery of his own building he entertains the King and Queen the two Princes with all the Lords and Ladies of the Court at a stately and magnificent Dinner the King and Queen sitting at one Table at the South end of the Room the two Princes with the Lords and Ladies at a long Table reaching almost from one end to the other at which all the Gallantry and beauties of the Kingdom seemed to meet Nor did he make Provision only for those two Tables but every Office in the Court had their several diets disposed of in convenient places for their reception with great variety of Achates not only sufficient for contentment but for admiration After dinner he entertains his principal Guests with a pleasant Comedy presented in the publick Hall and that being done attends them back again to Christ-Church where they were feasted after Supper with another Comedy called The Royal Slave the Enterludes represented with as much variety of Scenes and motions as the great wit of Inigo Iones Surveyor General of his Majesties Works and excellently well skilled in setting out a Court Masque to the best advantage could extend unto It was the day of St. Felix as himself observeth and all things went happily On Wednesday the next morning the Court removed his Majesty going that same night to Winchester and the Archbishop the same day entertaining all the Heads of Houses at a solemn Feast order being given at his departure that the three Comedies should be acted again for the content and satisfaction of the University in the same manner as before but only with the Alteration of the Prologues and Epilogues But to return unto the publick On the same day in which the new Statutes were received at Oxon. he procured a Supplement to be added to the old Statutes of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches touching the letting of their Lands Some Informations had been given that the Deans and Prebends of those Churches had enricht themselves their Wives and Children by taking great Fines for turning leases of twenty one years into leases for lives leaving their Successors destitute of that growing means which otherwise might come in to help them This was the outside of the business but the chief motive to it was that the Gentry and Yeomanry and some of the Nobility also holding Lands of those Churches might have a greater respect to the Church and Church-men when they must depend upon them from time to time for renewing of their said Estates at the end of every ten or twelve years at the most For though it be a like lawful by the Law of the Land 13 Eliz. c. 20. to make Leases of three lives or one and twenty years at the pleasure of the Dean and Chapter yet the difference is so great between them that once a Tenant to my knowledge after a Lease for three lives had continued 29 years in being chose rather to give a Fine for the change of one life than to take a new Lease of 21 years without paying any thing All which his Majesty taking into his Princely consideration he caused Letters under his Royal Signature to be sent to all the Deans and Chapters of this Kingdom respectively Calling and commanding them upon pain of his utmost displeasure that they presumed not to let any Lease belonging to their Church into lives which was not in lives already and further that when any fair opportunity was offered if any such be they fail not to reduce such as are in lives into years requiring further that those his Majesties said Letters should be exemplified in the Register-books of the said Churches and preâ—erved in the Registries of the Bishops of their several Diocess to the end that the said Bishop might take notice of their doing therein and give his Majesty and his Successors notice thereof if any presumed to disobey And in regard that some of the Deans of the said Cathedrals were a Corporation of themselves and held their Lands distinct from the rest of their Chapters a clause was added to those Letters to preserve those Lands for the benefit of their Successors as formerly in his Majesties Instructions for ordering and disposing the Lands of Bishops on the like occasions His Majesty therefore first declares That he had taken order by his late Instructions that no Bishop should let any Lease after they had been named to a better Bishoprick but had not therein named the Deans as he therein intended And therefore secondly that no Dean should presume from thenceforth
gives an account to Wederbourne by his Letters of the twentieth of April being the morrow after his Majesty had Signed the said Memorial It seems that Wederbourne had given our Archbishop notice of some defects which he had found in the Book of Consecration of Archbishops Bishops c. as it was then used amongst the Scots viz. 1. That the Order of Deacons was made but a Lay-Office at the best as by that Book might be understood And 2. That in the Admission to the Priesthood the very essential Words of conferring Orders were left out With which the King being made acquainted he gave command to the Archbishop to make known unto them That he would have them either to admit the English Book or else to rectifie their own in those two great oversights After which taking the whole business of that Church into his consideration it pleased him to direct his Further Instructions to the Archbishops and Bishops of it bearing date on the eighteenth of October following In which he requires them to take care That the Proclamation to be made for Authorising the Service-Book should not derogate in any thing from his Royal Prerogative 2. That in their Kalendar they should keep such Catholick Saints as were in the English such of the Saints as were most peculiar to that Kingdom especially those which were of the Royal Blood and some of the most holy Bishops being added to them but that in no case St. George and St. Patrick be omitted 3. That in their Book of Ordination in giving Orders to Presbyters they should keep the words of the English Book without change Receive the Holy Ghost c. 4. That they should insert among the Lessons ordinarily to be read in the Service out of the Book of Wisdom the first second third fourth fifth and sixth Chapters and out of the Book of Ecclesiasticus the first second fifth eighth thirty fifth and forty ninth Chapters 5. That every Bishop within his Family twice a day cause the Service to be read and that all Archbishops and Bishops make all Universities and Colledges within their Diocesies to use daily twice a day the Service 6. That the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer Signed by his Majesties Hand and the Proclamation for Authorising the same should be Printed and inserted in the Book of Common-Prayer According to which Instructions and the Corrections above-mentioned this Liturgie at the last after it had been twenty years in consideration was fully finished and concluded and being thus finished and concluded was Ratified and Confirmed by his Majesties Royal Edict as followeth viz. CHARLES By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To Our Lovits Messengers Our Sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally specially constitute Greeting Forasmuch as We ever since Our entry to the Imperial Crown of this Our ancient Kingdom of Scotland especially since Our late being here in the same have divers times recommended to the Archbishops and Bishops there the publishing of a Publick Form of Service in the Worship of God which We would have uniformly observed therein and the same being now condescended unto Although We doubt not but all our Subjects both Clergie and others will receive the said Publick Form of Service yet thinking it necessary to make Our Pleasure known touching the Authority thereof Our Will is and We straightly command That incontinent these Our Letters seen you pass and in Our Name and Authority command and charge all our Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Civil by open Proclamation at the Market-Crosses of the Head Burroughs of this Our Kingdom and other Places needful to conform themselves to the said Publick Form of Worship which is the only Form which We having taken the Counsel of Our Clergie think fit to be used in Gods Publick Worship in this Our Kingdom Commanding also all Archbishops and Bishops and other Presbyters and Church-men to take a special care that the same be duly obeyed and observed and the Contraveners condignly censured and punished and to have special care that every Parish betwixt this and Pasche next procure unto themselves two at the least of the said Books of Common-Prayer for the use of the Parish The which to do We commit to you conjunctly and severally Our full Power by these Our Letters Patents delivering the same to be by you duly executed and endorsed again to be delivered to the Bearer Given under Our Signet at Edenborough 20 December in the Twelfth year of Our Reign 1636. Such was the form of Passing and Confirming the Scottish Liturgie never presented to that Kirk nor tendred to the Approbation of any General Assembly as in the Restitution of Episcopal Government and Introduction of the five Articles of Perth had been done before And this is that at which the Scottish Presbyters did seem to be most offended sufficiently displeased with any Liturgie at all but more in having such an one as either was so near the English or so different from it Which fault if any fault it were is rather to to be charged upon the Scottish than the English Prelates For when the way of introducing it was in agitation our Archbishop ever advised them as well in his Majesties presence as elsewhere To look carefully to it and to be sure to do nothing in it but what should be agreeable to the Laws of the Kingdom and not to fail of taking the Advice of the Lords of the Council and governing themselves according to it But as it seems those Bishops durst not trust their Clergy or venture the reception or refusal of it to the Vote of a General Assembly from which they could not promise themselves any good success So that the Case seems to be much like that of King Edward vi when the first Liturgie was Composed by some few of the Bishops and other Learned men not above thirteen in number especially thereto Authorised Or unto that of Queen Elizabeth when the second Liturgie of that King was fitted and corrected by her appointment Neither of which durst trust their Clergy but acted Sovereignly therein of their own Authority not venturing either of the said Books to their Convocations but only giving them the strength of an Act of Parliament and then the Point in issue will be briefly this viz. Whether the King consulting with a lesser part of the Bishops and Clergie and having their consent therein may conclude any thing in the way of a Reformation the residue and greatest part not advised withal nor yielding their consent in a formal way Now for my Answer that it may be built upon the surer grounds it is to be considered 1. Whether the Reformation be in corruption of Manners or abuses in Government Whether in matters Practical or in points of Doctrine 2. It in matters Practical Whether such Practice have the Character of Antiquity Vniversality and Consent imprinted on it or that it be the Practice
also with higher promises that he might corrupt his sincere mind yet a fitting occasion was never offered whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Archbishop to whom free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel as also by Secretary Windebank all whose intercessions he neglected and did shun as it were the Plague the company or Familiarity of Con. He was also sollicited by others of no mean Rank well known to him and yet he continued unmovable And whereas some found a way to help at last by making Windebank the Internuncio betwixt him and them that only serves to make the matter rather worse than better there being a great strangeness grown betwixt him and Windebank not only before Con's coming into the Realm but before Panzani had settled any course of intelligence in the Court of England As for his favours towards those of the Catholick Party and his connivence of their Practices which is next objected as he had good reason for the one so there could be no reason to object the other He had good reason for the one viz. That by shewing favours to the Papists here they might obtain the like favours for such Protestants as lived in the Dominion of Popish Princes Upon which ground King Iames extended many favours to them in his time as opinions as that Writer makes them appears first by the Testimony of the Archbishop of Spalato declaring in the High Commission a little beâ—ore â—iâ—â—oing hence that he acknowledged the Articles of the Church to be true or profitable at the least and none of them to be Heretical It appears secondly by a Tractate of Franciscus a Sancta Clara as he calls himself in which he pâ—tteth such a gloss upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England as rendreth them not inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome And iâ— without prejudice to the truth the controversies might have been composed it is most probable that other Protestant Churches would have suâ—d by their Agents to be included in the Peace if not the Church of England had lost nothing by it as being hated by the Calvinists and not loved by the Lutherans Admitting then that such a Reconciliation was endeavoured betwixt the Agents for both Churches Let us next see what our great States-men have discoursed upon that particular upon what terms the Agreement was to have been made and how far they proceeded in it And first the book entituled the Popes Nuncio affirmed to have been written by a Venetian Ambassador at his being in England doth discourse it tâ—us As to a Reconciliation saith he between the Churches of England and Rome there were made some general Propositions and overtures by the Archbishops Agents they assuring that his Grace was very much disposed thereunto and that if it was not accomplisht in his life time it would prove a work of more difficulty after his death that in very truth for the last three years the Archbishop had introduced some Innovations approaching â—ear the Rites and Forms of Rome that the Bishop of Chichester a great Confident of his Grace the Lord Treasurer and eight other Bishops of his Graces party did most passionately desire a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome that they did day by day receed from their Ancient Tenents to accommodate with the Church of Rome that therefore the Pope on his part ought to make some steps to meet them and the Court of Romeâ—â—mit â—â—mit something of its Rigor in Doctrine or otherwise no accord would be The composition on both sides in so good a forwardness before Panzam leâ—t the Kingdom that the Archbishop and and Bishop of Chichester had often said that there were but two sorts of People likely to impede and hinder the Reconciliation to wit the Puritans amongst the Protestants and the Iesuites amongst the Catholicks Let us next see the judgement and Relation of another Author in a gloss or Comment on the Former intituled the English Pope Printed at London in the same year 1643. And he will tells us that after Con had undertook the managing of the affairs matters began to grow toward some agreement The King required saith he such a dispensation from the then Pope as that his Catholick Subjects might resort to the Protestant Churches and to take the oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity and that the Popes Jurisdiction here should be declared to be but of humane Right And so far had the Pope consented that whatsoever did concern the King therein should have been really performed so far forth as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be Independent both from King and Pope there was no fear of breach on the Popes part So that upon the point the Pope was to content himself amongst us in England with a Priority instead of a Superiority over other Bishops and with a Primacy in stead of a Supremacy in thâ—se parts of Christendom which I conceive no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him It was also condescended to in the name of the Pope that marriage might be permitted to Priests that the Communion might be Administred sub utraque specie and that the Liturgy might be officiated in the English tongue And though the Author adds not long after that it was to be suspected That so far as the inferiour Clergy and the people were concerned the after-performance was to be leâ—t to the Popes Discretion yet this was but his own suspicion without ground at all And to obtain a Reconciliation upon these Advantages the Archbishop had all the Reason in the world to do as he did in ordering the Lords Table to be placed where the Altar stood and making the accustomed Reverence in all approaches towards it and accesses to it in beautifying and adorning Churches and celebrating the Divine Service with all due Solemnities in taking care that all offensive and exasperating passages should be expunged out of such Books as were brought to the Press and for reducing the extravagancy of some opinions to an evener temper His Majesty had the like Reason also for tolerating Lawful Recreations on the Sundays and Holy-days The rigorous Restraint whereof made some Papists think those most especially of the vulgar sort whom it most concerned that all honest Pastime were incompetible with our Religion And if he approved Auricular Confession and shewed himself willing to introduce it into the use of the Church as both our Authors say he did it is no more then what the Liturgy Commends to the care of the Penitent though we find not the word Auricular in it or what the Canons have provided for in the point of security for such as shall be willing to confess themselves But whereas we are told by one of our Authors that the King should say he would use force to make it be received were it not for fear of Sedition
supply but in the grant thereof blasted his Majesties Expedition against the Scots whose Cause they resolved to make their own and received thanks from them for that favour in their next Remonstrance Which coming to his Majesties ears on Munday the fourth of May he called his Council together on the next Morning betimes by whose unanimous consent he dissolved the Parliament On Tuesday April 14 the Convocation assembled in the Chapter-house of the Church of St. Paul from whence they waited on his Grace and the rest of the Bishops to hear the Sermon in the Quire The Sermon preacht by Turner Residentiary of the Church His Text was taken out of Mat. 10.16 Behold I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves which he followed home unto the Purpose In the close of the Sermon he had a passage in these words or to this effect that all the Bishops held not the Reins of Church Discipline with an even hand but that some of them were too easie and remiss in the ordering thereof Whereby though they sought to gain to themselves the popular plause of meekness and mildness they occasionally cast on other Bishops more severe than themselves the unjust imputation of Rigour and Tyranny and therefore he advised them withall with equal strictness to urge an universal Conformity The Sermon ended the Clergy fell to the electing of their Prolocutor as before commanded pitching unanimously on Dr. Richard Steward Clerk of his Majesties Closet and Dean of Chichester to be presented the next day to the Archbishop and the rest of the Prelates in the Chappel of King Henry vii at Westminster to which the Synod was adjourned The next day being come after a Protestation made in writing by the Sub-Dean and Prebendaries of that Church for not acknowledging the Archbishop of Canterbury or the rest of the Bishops to have any Jurisdiction in that place and the admitting of the same for good and valid they were permitted to proceed in their Convocation The business of that day was the presenting of the Prolocutor by Sheldon Warden of All-souls his Admission by the Archbishop and Stewards unwilling readiness to discharge the Office each of them delivering their conceptions in Elegant Latine Speeches as the custome is but the Archbishops longer than both the rest Which Ceremonies being performed his Grace produced a Commission under the Great Seal by which they were enabled according to the said Statute of King Henry viii to propose treat consult and agree upon the Exposition or Alteration of any Canon then in force and upon such new Canons Orders and Constitutions as the said Bishops and Clergy of which the Lord Archbishop to be alwaies one should think â—it necessary and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof to be performed and kept by the said Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Clergy in their several places as also by the Dean of the Arches and by all others having Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Province of Canterbury and by all other persons within this Realm so far as being Members of this Church they may be concerned Provided alwaies that no such Canons Orders or Constitutions so to be considered on as aforesaid be contrary or repugnant to the Liturgy established or the Rubricks in it or the 39 Articles or any Doctrinal Orders and Ceremonies of the Church of England already established as also that nothing should be done in execution of the same till being exhibited to his Majesty in writing to be allowed approved confirmed and ratified or otherwise disallowed annihilated and made void as he should think fit requisite and convenient and then to be allowed approved and confirmed by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England Also the said Commission to continue and remain in force during the present Session of Parliament and to expire together with it For the procuring of this Commission as the Archbishop had good reason as well for countenancing and confirming his former Actings as for rectifying many other things which required reformation so had his Majesty as good reasons for the granting of it the grounds whereof contained in his Commission of Iune 13. for confirming all the Acts of this Convocation are to this effect He had been given to understand that many of his Subjects being misled against the Rites and Ceremonies then used in the Church of England had taken offence at the same upon an unjust supposal That they were not only contrary to Law but also introductive unto Popish Superstitions whereas it well appeared unto him upon mature deliberation that the said Rites and Ceremonies which were then so much quarrelled at were not only approved of and used by those godly and learned Divines to whom at the time of the Reformation under King Edward vi the compiling of the Book of Common-Prayer was committed divers of which suffered Martyrdom in Queen Maries daies but also again taken up by this whole Church under Queen Elizabeth Which Rites so taken up had been so duly and ordinarily practiced for a great part of her Reign within the memory of divers living as that it could not then be imagined that there would need any Rule or Law for the observation of the same nor that they could be thought to savour of Popery He found too plainly that since those times for want of an express Rule therein and by the subtle practices of some men the said Rites and Ceremonies began to fall into disuse and in place thereof other Foreign and unfitting usages by little and little to creep in But being he found withal that in the Royal Chappels and in many other Churches most of them had been ever constantly used and observed his Majesty could not but be very sensible of the inconvenience And he had cause also to conceive that the Authors and Fomenters of those Jealousies though they coloured the same with a pretence of zeal and did seem to strike only at some supposed iniquity in the said Ceremonies yet aimed at his Royal Person and would have his good Subjects think that he himself was perverted and did worship God in a superstitious way and that he did intend to bring in some alteration in the Religion here established From which how far he was and how utterly he detested the very thought thereof he had by his many Declarations and upon sundry other occasions given such assurance to the World that no man of wisdom and discretion could ever be so beguiled as to give any serious entertainment to such brainsick Jealousies And as for the weaker sort who were prone to be misled by crafty seducers he alwaies assured himself that as many of them as had loyal or but charitable hearts would from thenceforth utterly banish all such causeless fears and surmises upon those his Sacred Professions so often made as a Defender of the Christian Faith their King and Sovereign He
ex Officio And finally That no person or persons subject to the said Writ shall be Absolved by virtue of an Appeal into any Ecclesiastical Court till they have first taken in their own persons the usual Oath De parendo juri stando mandatis Ecclesiae With a Petition to his Majesty in the Name of the Synod to give command both to his Officers in Chancery and the Sheriffs of the several Counties for sending out and executing the said Writs from time to time without any Charge to the Diocesans whose Estates it would otherwise much exhaust as often as it should be desired of them Such is the substance of this Canon in laying down whereof I have been the more punctual and exact that the equal and judicious Reader may the better see what point it was which the Archbishop aimed at from the first beginning of his Power and Government as before was noted In the mean time whilst this Canon was under a Review another ready drawn was tendred to the Prolocutor by the Clerk of Westminster for the better keeping of the day of his Majesties most happy Inauguration By which it was decreed according to the Example of the most pious Emperours of the Primitive Times and our own most Godly Kings and Princes since the Reformation and the Form of Prayer already made and by his Majesties Authority Appointed to be used on the said days of Inauguration That all manner of persons within the Church of England should from thenceforth celebrate and keep the morning of the said day in coming diligently and reverently unto their Parish Church or Chappel at the time of Prayer and there continue all the while that the Prayers Preaching or other Service of the day endureth That for the better observing of the said day two of the said Books should be provided at the Charge of each several Parish by the Churchwardens of the same with an Injunction to all Bishopâ— Archdeacons and other Ordinaries to inquire into the premises at their Visitations and punish such as are delinquent as in case of such as absent themselves on the other Holydays Another Canon was brought in against Socinianism by the spreading of which damnable and cursed Heresie much mischief had already been done in the Church For the suppressing whereof it was ordained by the Synod after some explication and correction of the words and phrases That no Stationer Printer or other person should print buy sell or disperse any Book broaching or maintaining the said Abominable Doctrine or Positions upon pain of Excommunication ipso facto and of being proceeded against by his Majesties Atturney-General on a Certificate thereof to be returned by the several Ordinaries to their Metropolitan according to the late Decree of Star-Chamber against Sellers of prohibited Books That no Preacher should presume to vent any such Doctrine in any Sermon under pain of Excommunication for the first Offence and Deprivation for the second That no Student in either of the Universities nor any person in Holy Orders excepting Graduates in Divinity or such as have Episcopal or Archidiaconal Jurisdiction or Doctors of Law in Holy Orders shall be suffered to have or read any such Socinian Book or Discourse under pain if the Offender live in the University that he shall be punished according to the strictest Statutes provided there against the publishing reading and maintaining of false Doctrines or if he lived in the City or Country abroad of a Suspension for the first Oâ—fence Excommunication â—or the second and Deprivation for the third unless he should absolutely and in terminis abjure the same That if any Lay-person should be seduced unto that Opinion and be convicted of it he should be Excommunicated and not Absolved but upon due Repentance and Abjuration and that before his Metropolitan or his own Bishop at least With several Clauses for seizing and burning all such Books as should be found in any other hands than those before limited and expressed Which severe course being taken by the Convocation makes it a matter of no small wonder That Cheynell the Usufructuary of the 〈◊〉 Parsonage of Petworth should impute the Rise and Growth of 〈◊〉 in a Pamphlet not long after Printed unto many of those who had been principal Actors in suppressing of those wicked and detestable Heresies Another Canon was presented to the Prolecutâ—r by one of the Members of that Body advanced the next year to a 〈◊〉 Dignity for Restraint of Sectaries By which it was deâ—â—â—â—d That all those Proceedings and Penalties which are mentiâ—â—â—d in the Canon against Popish Recusants so far forth as may be appliable should be in full force and vigour against all Anabaptists Brownists Sâ—peratists Familists or other Sect or Sects Person or Persons whatsoever who do or shall either obstinately refuse or ordinarily not having a lawful impediment that is for the space of a Month neglect to repair to their Parish Churches or Chappels where they inhabit for the hearing of Divine Service established and receiving of the Holy Communion according to Law That the Clause in the former Canon against Books of Socinianism should also extend to the Makers Importers Printers and Publishers or Dispersers of any Book Writing or Scandalous Pamphlet devised against the Discipline and Government of the Church of England and unto the Maintainers and Abettors of any Opinion or Doctrine against the same And finally That all despisers and depravers of the Book of Common Prayer who resorted not according to Law to their Church or Chappel to joyn in the Publick Worship of God in the Congregation contenting themselves with the hearing of Sermons only should be carefully inquired after and presented to their several and respective Ordinaries The same Proceedings and Penalties mentioned in the aforesaid Canons to be used against them unless within one whole Month after they are first Denounced they shall make Acknowledgment and Reformation of their fault So far the Bishops and Clergy had proceeded in the Work recommended to them when the Parliament was most unhappily Dissolved And possibly the Convocation had expired the next day also according to the usual custom if one of the Clergy had not made the Archbishop acquainted with a Precedent in Queen Elizabeths Time for the granting a Subsidy or Benevolence by Convocation to be Taxed and Levied by Synodical Acts and Constitutions without help of the Parliament directing to the Records of Convocation where it was to be found Whereupon the Convocation was Adjourned from Wednesday till the Friday following and then till the next day after and so till Munday to the great amazement of many of the Members of it who expected to have been Dissolved when the Parliament was according to that clause in the Commission aforesaid by which it was restrained to the Time of the Parliament only Much pains was taken by some of the Company who had been studied in the Records of Convocation in shewing the difference betwixt the Writ for calling a Parliament
some Articles peculiar to their several Jurisdictions for the space of three years The same to be allowed by their Metropolitan And afterwards to content themselves with the said Articles so enlarged and accommodated for al times succeeding Some other tâ—ings there were in Proposition and Design that never ripened into Act or Execution There had been a Design in deliberation touching the drawing and digesting of an English Pontifical to be approved by this Convocation and tendred to his Majesties Confirmation Which said Pontifical was to contain the form and manner of his Majesties late Coronation to serve for a perpetual standing Rule on the like occasions Another form to be observed by all Archbishops and Bishops for Consecrating Churches Church-yards and Chappels and a third for Reconciling such Penitents as either had done open Penance or had revolted from the Faith to the Law of Mahomet Which three together with the form of Confirmation and that of Ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons which were then in force were to make up the wâ—ole Body of the Book intended But the Troubles of the Time growing greater and greater it was thought expedient to defer the Prosecution of it till a fitter conjuncture Many had took exception against the tying up of Preachers to the Form of Prayer appointed to be used before their Sermons Can. 55. For whose Relief therein a short Prayer was drawn containing all the Heads of that in the Canon And being so drawn up it was to have been tendred by the hands of one of the Clergie who would have undertaken that it should be universally received by all those which dislike the other But the Archbishop chose rather to adhere to the Canon than to venture on any new Experiment that Canon being founded on the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth and King Edward vi at the first Reformation And so the Proposition fell without moving further Gryffith a Clerk for one of the Welsh Diocesses a moderate and sober man proposed unto the House That a new Edition might be made of the Welsh Church-Bible the old one being corrupt in some places and defective in others which he instanced in The Motion well approved by the Clergie and by the House of Bishops committed to the care of the â—our Welsh Bishops of whose proceeding in the Work by reason of the following Troubles there was little hope Nor did the Archbishop speed much better in a Motion of his which was That his Majesty might be moved for the new Printing of the Common-Prayer Book in the Latin Tongue to the end though I cannot positively say that he expressed so much at that time that it might be used in all Colledges and Halls in Officiating the Morning-Prayer at which noâ—e are bound to be present but such as are presumed to understand the Language For doing whereof he conceived he had good ground in the first Rubricks after the Preface to the Common-Prayer Book in which it is declared That though it be appointed in the aforesaid Preface that all things should be Read and Sung in the English Tongue to the end that the Congregation may be thereby Edified yet it is not meant but when men say Morning and Evening Prayer privately they may say the same in any Language that they themselves do understand And he had also the constant example of Christ-Church in Oxon. in which the first Morning-Prayers were continually Officiated in the Latin Tongue for the Prebends Students and others of the Foundation and at the Cathedral-hours in the English only for Instruction and Devotion of the Choir-men Alms-men Servants and all others which resort unto them It is a matter which deserves no small Admiration That these Canons like the first building of the Temple without the noise of Ax and Hammer should pass the House with such a general calm and quiet and be received with so many Storms and Tempests when they went abroad The very sitting of the Convocation condemned â—or an illegal Act as if it were a Crime to outlive the Parliament And much sport made by ignorant and malicious men touching the Metamorphosis of an old Convocation into a new Synod as they scoffed it which hath sufficiently been answered in that before The whole Body of the Canons Voted by the House of Commons in the following Parliament to be against the Fundamental Laws of the Realm against the Kings Prerogative Property of the Subject the Right of Parliaments and to tend to Faction and Sedition which shall be answered as sufficiently in that which follows The seven lasâ— passionately opposed by Martin and some other Ecclesiastical Judges before they passed the Royal Assent as tending to the visible discouragement if not the plain overthrow of their Profession To which it was answered by the Archbishop and the Council too That nothing but their Excrescences and Exorbitances were by those Canons pared away all their Preferments with the Profits and Lawful Fees which belonged unto it remaining as before they were Yet the Civilians made not so much noise as some Common Lawyers who look'd upon the Granting of a Benevolence by Convocation and the Levying of it by Synodical Acts and Constitutions as being an Incroachment on the Priviledges and Rights of Parliament without the Midwifery whereof the Clergie could Enact no Canons to bind the Subjects in such pecuniary Payments as were laid upon them Which were it so and that the Clergie could not give away their own without leave from others they must needs be the greatest Slaves the Sun ever shined on Whereas in truth the Clergie in Convocation have as much power to give away the money of the Clergie by whom they are chosen to that Imployment as the Commons in Parliament have to command the Money of the Cities Towns and Counties for which they serve For in the choosing of the Clerks for the Coâ—vocation there is an Instrument drawn and sealed by the Clergy in which they bind themselves to the Archdeacon or Archdeacons of their several Diocesses upon pain of forâ—eiting all their Lands and Goods to allow stand to and perform whatsoever their said Clerks or Proctors shall say do or condescend to on their behalf Greater Authority than this as the Commons have not so why the Clergie in the Convocation should not make use of this Authority as they see occasion I can find no reason Nor is it a speculative Authority only and not reducible unto Practice an Authority which was then in force but not in use as is distinguished in some Cases They had a Precedent for it in Queen Elizabeths time as before was noted not then behâ—ld as an Incroachment on the Right of Parliaments But then was then and now is now the change of Times without any alteration oâ— the Laws diversifying the same Action into good and bad But nothing raised so much noise and clamour as the Oath required by the sixth Canon Exclaimed against both from the Pulpit and the Press Reproached in printed Pamphlets
of his Majesties Privy-Council had any thing been contained in them derogatory to the Kings Prerogative or tendinâ— to Faction and Sedition So far they were from being liable to Condemnation in those respects that Justice Crook whose Argument in the Case of Ship-money was Printed afterwards by Order from the House of Commons is credibly affirmed to have lifted up his hands and to have given hearty Thanks to Almighty God that he had lived to see so good Effects of a Convocation On these Encouragements and such a solemn Approbation the Clergy were called up to the House of Bishops to be present at the subscribing oâ— them which was accordingly performed May 29. by the Bishops Deans and Archdeacons in their Seniority and promiscuoâ—sly by the rest of the Clergy till all the Members had Subscribed every mans heart going together with his hand as it is to be presumed from all men of that holy Profession Recusant there was none but the Bishop of Glocester suspected of some inclinations to the Romish Religion in the Times preceding which inclinations he declared more manifestly by this Refusal for which there could be no imaginable Reason to prevail upon him but the severity of the Canon for suppressing the Growth of Popery Some pains was taken with him in the way of perswasion and some Commands laid on him by his Metropolitan as President of the Convocation But when neither of the two Endeavours could remove him from his former obstinacy the Prolocutor and Clergy were required to return to their House again and to consider of the Penalty which he had incurred according to the Rules and Practice of the Catholick Church in National and Provincial Councils Which being done the Proloâ—â—tor had no sooner put the Question but the Clergy unanimously condemned him to a Suspension a Beneficio Officio and found at their return that the House of Bishops who had had some speech thereof before had pronounced the same Sentence against him also A Sentence which might have produced more dangerous effects on this obstinate Prelate if he had not prevented it in time by his submission For the Sentence being reduced into Writing subscribed by the Archbishops hand and publickly pronounced in 〈◊〉 Convocation his Majesty took such just offence at so great a scandal that he committed him to Prison where he staid not long 〈◊〉 on the tenth of Iuly he made acknowledgment of his fault before the Lords of the Council and took the Oath injoyned in the sixth Canon for preserving the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England against all Popish Doctrines which were thereunto repugnant Upon the doing whereof his Majesty was graciously pleased to restore him to his former Liberty though this Submission appeared within few years after to be made either with some mental Reservation or Jesuitical Equivocation which he came prepared with For in the time of his last Sickness he declared himself to be a Member of the Church of Rome and caused it so to be expressed in his last Will and Testament that the news thereof might spread the further and his Apostacy stand upon Record to all future Ages A Scandal so unseasonably given as if the Devil himself had watched an opportunity to despite this Church But these things hapned not till after The Sentence of Suspension was no sooner pronounced but the Archbishop giving great thanks to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy for their pains and diligence in doing so much Work in so little time produced his Majesties Writ for dissolving the said Convocation which he accordingly executed and dissolved the same The Acts whereof being transmitted unto York were by the Convocation for that Province perused debated and approved without any disputing and so presented to his Majesty with their Names subscribed according to the ancient Custom There remained now nothing more to do for giving these Canons the Authority and Reputation of his Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws but the signifying of his Royal Assent and confirming them by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England And this his Majesty upon mature deliberation was graciously pleased to do commanding in the same That they should be diligently observed executed and equally kept by all his Subjects both within the Provinces of Canterbury and York respectively That for the better observation of them all Ministers should audibly and distinctly read all the said Canons in the Church or Chappel in which they Minister at the time of Divine Service The Book of the said Canons to be provided before Michaelmas at the charge of their Parishes And finally That all Archbishops and Bishops and others having Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall take special care that the said Canons and Ordinances be in all points duly observed not sparing to execute the Penalties in them severally mentioned upon any that shall wittingly or wilfully break or neglect to observe the same as they tendred the Honour of God the Peace of the Church the Tranquility of the Kingdom and their Duties and Service to his Majesty their King and Sovereign With which his Majesties Letters Patents bearing date on Iune 13. confirmatory of the Acts of the said Convocations I conclude the fourth and busiest part of this present History THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB V. Extending from the end of the Convocation Anno 1640. till the day of his Death Jan. 10 th 1644. THus have we brought this Renowned Prelate and with him the Church unto the very Battlement and Pinacle of External Glories But such is the vicissitude of humane affairs that being carried to the height they begin to fall it being no otherwise with the fortunes of States or Men then it is with Plants which have their times of taking Root their Growing Flourishing Maturity and then their Fading and decay And therefore it was very well observed by Paterculus an old Roman Historian that when either Emulation or natural Courage had given to any man an edge to ascend to the highest after they had attained that height they were according to the course of Nature to descend again and that it was no otherwise with States and Nations then with Private men It was just fourscore years from the beginning of the Reformation under Queen Eliz. to the Pacification made at Berwick when the King so unfortunately dismist his Forces and thereby left himself and his party in a worse condition then before the raising of his Army The Church till then might seem to be in the Ascendent in the point of Culminating and was then ready to decline which our Judicious Hooker had before presaged Who had assigned her fourscore years for her growth and flourishing and nothing afterwards but sorrow and disconsolation For taking notice of the inclination of the times to Sacriledge and Spoil and Rapine and finding nothing more frequent in the mouths of men then this that they which endowed Churches with Lands
and Dangers in the Premises Lastly Whereas these fears are not built upon Conceits but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie Men of Resolution and much Constancy they do in all Humility and Duty Protest before Your Majesty and the Peers of the Most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as of themselves Null and of None Effect which in their Absence since the 27th of this Instant Moneth of December 1641. have already passed As likewise that all such as shall hereafter Pass in the Most Honourable House during the time of this their Forced and Violent Absence from the said Most Honourable House not denying but if their absenting of themselves were Wilful and Voluntary that Most Honourable House might Proceed in all their Premises their Absence or this Protestation Notwithstanding And humbly beseeching Your Most Excellent Majesty to Command the Clerk of the House of Peers to Enter this their Petition and Protestation among his Records They will ever Pray God to bless c. This Petition being presented to his Majesty was by him deliâ—vered to the Lord Keeper Littleton to be Communicated the next day being the 30th of Decemb. to the House of Peers But the Lord Keeper contrary to his Majesties directions did first impâ—rt iâ— to some of the Preaching party in both Houses of Parliament and after as the plot was laid to the Peers in general Upon the â—eading whereof a conference was desired with the House oâ— Câ—mmons to whom the Lord Keeper whom they had under the Laâ—â— was pleased to signifie that this Petition and Protestation of the twelâ—e Bishops contained matters of high and dangerous consequence extending to the deep intrenching upon the Fundamental Priviledges and Being of Parliament Whereupon the said twelve Bishops were Impeached by the Commons of high Treason The Usher called Black-Rod Commanded to find them out and to bring them to the Bar in the House of Peers which by reason of their scattered and divided Lodgings could not be effected till eight of the Clock at night at what time being brought together their offence was signified unto them and an Order presently made for their commitment to the Tower whither they were all carried the next day Except the Bishops of Durham and Lichfield who found the favour the one by reason of his Eminent Learning and both of them in regard of their age and Infirmities to stand committed to the custody of the Gentleman Usher Our Archbishop had now more Neighbours then â—e desired but not more company then before it being prudently Ordered amongst themselves that none of them should bestow any visits on him for fear of giving some advantage to their common enemy as if they had been hatching some conspiracy against the Publick But they refrained not on either side from sending meâ—â—ages of Love and consolation unto one another those mutual civilities being almost every day performed betwixt the two Archbishops also though very much differing both in their Counsels and Affections in the times foregoing The Archbishop of York was now so much declined in favour tâ—at he stood in as bad terms with the Common People as the other did His picture cut in Brass attired in his Episcopal Robes with his square Cap upon his head and Bandileers about his Neck shouldering a Musket upon one of his shoulders in one hand and a Rest in the other either presaging that which followed or else relating unto that which had passed in defence of the Abbey Together with which a book was Printed in which he was Resembled to the Decoy-Duck alluding to the Decâ—yes in Lincolnshire where he had been Bishop restored to Liberty on design that he might bring more company with him at his coming back and a device Ingraven for the Front of the Book which represented the conceit and that not unhappily Certain I am that our Archbishop in the midst of those sorrows seemed much pleased with the Fancy whither out of his great Love to wit oâ— some other self-satisfaction which he found therein is beyond my knowledge These Bishops bâ—ing thus secured and no body left in a manner to solicite the Common Cause but the Bishop of Rochester the Bill against their Votes passed currantly in the House of Peers on February 6. the Citizens who before had feasted the King with such signs oâ— Affection now celebrating the Concurrence of the House against his Interest with Bâ—lls and Bonfires Nor was it long before the â—ing gave over the Cause for which he had so long contended For either terrified with the Apprehension of his own Dangers or wrought on by the importunity of some about him he signed the Bill at Canterbury on February 14. to which place he had accompanied the Queen in her way toward Holland And by that Bill it was desired to be Enacted That no Archbishop Bishop or any other Person in Holy Orders from February 15. then next following should have any Seat or Place Suffrage or Voice use or execute any Power or Authority in the Parliaments of this Realm nor should be of the Privy-Council of his Majesty his Heirs or Successors or Justices of the Peace of Oyer and Terminer or Gaol-delivery or execute any Temporal Authority by vertue of any Commission but should be wholly disabled or be uncapable to have receive use or execute any of the said Offices Places Powers Authorities and Things aforesaid The passing of which Act what specious Pretences soever were given out for it redounded little to his Majesties Benefit and far less to his Comfort For by cutting off so many of his Friends at a blow he lost his Power in the House of Peers and not long after was deprived of his Negative Voice when the great Business of the Militia came to be disputed And though he pleased himself sometimes with this perswasion of their contentedness in suffering a present diminution of their Rights and Honours for his sake and the Commonwealths yet was it no small trouble to his Conscience at other times that he had added this to the former injury in consenting to the taking away of the Coercive Power of their Jurisdiction for this we find to be one of those three things which lay heaviest on him in the time of his Solitude and Sufferings as appears by this passage in one of his Prayers viz. Was it through ignorance that I suffered innocent Blood to be spilt by a false pretended Iustice Or that I permitted a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotlan Or injured the Bishops in England By which we see that the Injury done unto the Bishops of England is put into the same scale with his permitting a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotland and the shedding of the innocent Blood of the Earl of Strafford And if this Act proved so unpleasing to the King it must needs be grievous to the Bishops themselves to none more than the
greatest Battel with Darius the Persian he fell into so â—ound asleep 〈◊〉 his Princes â—ardly could awake him when the morning came And it was likewise certified of this Great Prelate That on the Evening before his Passover the night before the dismal Combate betwixt him and Death after he had refreshed his Spirits with a moderate Supper he betook himself unto his Rest and slept very soundly till the time came in which his Servants were appointed to attend his Rising A most assured sign of a Soul prepared The fatal morning being come he first applied himself to his private Prayers and so continued till Pennington and others of their Publick Officers came to conduct him to the Scaffold which he ascended with so brave a Courage such a chearful Countenance as if he had mounted rather to behold a Triumph than be made a Sacrifice and came not there to Die but to be Translated And though some rude and uncivil People reviled him as he pass'd along with opprobrious Language as loth to let him go to the Grave in Peace yet it never discomposed his Thoughts nor disturb'd his Patience For he had profited so well in the School of Christ that when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously And as he did not fear the Frowns so neither did he covet the Applause of the Vulgar Herd and therefore rather chose to read what he had to speak unto the People than to affect the ostentation either of Memory or Wit in that dreadful Agony whether with greater Magnanimity than Prudence I can hardly say As for the matter of his Speech besides what did concern himself and his own Purgation his great care was to cleer his Majesty and the Church of England from any inclination to Popery with a perswasion of the which the Authors of the then present Miseries had abused the People and made them take up Arms against their Sovereign A faithful Servant to the last By means whereof as it is said of Samson in the Book of Iudges That the men which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life So may it be affirmed of this famous Prelate That he gave a greater blow unto the Enemies of the Church and the King at the hour of his death than he had given them in his whole life before But this you will more clearly see by the Speech it self which followeth here according to the best and most perfect Copy delivered by his own hands unto one of his Chaplains and in his name presented to the King by the Lord Iohn Bellasis at the Court in Oxon. The Speech of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury spoken at his Death upon the Scaffold on the Tower Hill Ian. 10. 1644. Good People THis is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Heb. 12.2 Let us run with Patience the Race which is set before us looking unto JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him enâ—dured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God I have been long in my Race and how I have looked to JESUS the Author and finisher of my faith he best knows I am now to come to the end of my Race and here I find the Cross a death of shame but the shame must be despised or no coming to the right hand of God JESUS despised the shame for me and God forbid but that I should despise the shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my feet are now upon the very brinke of it anâ— Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his people But before they came to it he instituted a Passeover for them a Lamb it was but it must be eaten with soure herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the soure herbs as well as the Lamb. And I shall remember it is the Lords Passeover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the hand which gathereth them but look up only to him who instituted that and governs these for men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this passage through the Red Sea for I have the weakness and infirmities of flesh and bloud plentifully in me And I have prayed with my Saviour Ut transirâ—t Calix iste that this Cup of red wine might pass from me but if not Gods will not mine be done and I shall most willing drink of this Cup as deep as he pleases and enter in this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People That when Gâ—â—â— Servants were in this boysterous Sea and Aaron amongst them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know my God whom I serve is as able to deliver me from the sea of bloud as he was to deliver the three Children from the Furnace and I humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then They would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the truth of God to follow the bleating of Jeroboams Calves in Dan and Bethel And as for this People they are at this day miserably misled God of his mercy open their â—â—es that they may see the right way for at this day the blind lead the blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all humility a most grievous sinâ—â— many waies by thought word and deed I cannot doubt but that 〈◊〉 hath mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other sinners I have now and upon this sad occasion ransacked every corner of my 〈◊〉 and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any 〈◊〉 sin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom and yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Iudges for if they proceed upon proof by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may be justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of my Sentence he heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Archbishop but the first man that ever 〈◊〉 by an Ordinance in Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tiler and his Fellows Before