CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES the First Second MONARCH of Great Britain CONTAINING ALSO The Ecclesiastical History of the Three Kingdoms of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND from His first rising till His Death By P. Heylyn D. D. and Chaplain to Charles the first and Charles the second Monarchs of Great Britain ECCLUS 44. VERS 1 3. 1. Let us now praise Famous Men and our Fathers that begat Vs. 3. Such as did bear Rule in their Kingdoms Men Renowned for their Power giving Counsel by their Vnderstanding and Declaring Prophesies LONDON Printed for A. Seile MDCLXVIII To the Honourable Sir IOHN ROBINSON Kt. and Baronet HIS MAJESTIES Lieutenant of the Tower of London SIR YOV have here before you the History of an Eminent Prelate and Patriot a Person who lived the honour and died a Martyr of the English Church and State for it was his sad Fate to be crusht betwixt Popery and Schism and having against both defended the Protestant Cause with his Pen he after chearfully proceeded to Seal that Faith with his Bloud Together with the Story of this Great Man you have likewise that of the Age he lived in especially so far as concerned the Church wherein you will find recorded many notable Agitations and Contrivances which it were pity should be lost in silence and pass away unregarded These Considerations towards a Gentleman of your worth Curiosity and loyalty are warrant enough to justifie me in this Dedication And yet I must not conceal that it belongs to you by another right that is to say the Care of recommending this VVork to the Publick was committed to a Gentleman who himself had presented it to your hand if God had not taken him away just upon the point of putting his purpose in execution So that it seems in me as well matter of Conscience as of Respect to deliver it wholly up to your Patronage and Protection since in exposing it to the world I do but perform the will of my dead Father and in addressing it to your self together with my own I also gratifie that of my deceased Friend The value of the VVork it self I do not pretend to judge of my duty and interest for the Author forbids it but for the Industry Integrity and good meaning of the Historian I dare become answerable And in truth I hope well of the rest without which I should not have made bold with Sir John Robinson's Name in the Front of it who being so nearly related both in bloud and affection to that Incomparable and Zealous Minister of God and his Prince cannot besides a Natural but upon an Honourable Impression concern himself in the glories or blemishes of this Character defective in nothing but that it could not be as ample as his worth And now having discharged my trust and duty as I could do no less so I have little more to add for my self but that I am SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant HENRY HEYLYN A Necessary INTRODUCTION To the following HISTORY BEFORE we come unto the History of this Famous Prelate it will not be amiss to see upon what Principles and Positions the Reformation of this Church did first proceed that so we may the better Judge of those Innovations which afterwards were thrust upon her and those Endeavours which were used in the latter times to bring her back again to her first Condition 1. Know therefore that King Henry viii having obtained of the Bishops and Clergie in their Convocation Anno 1530. to be acknowledged the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England did about three years after in the 26 of his Reign confirm the said Supremacy to Himself his Heirs and Successors with all the Priviledges and Preheminencies thereunto belonging by Act of Parliament And having procured the said Bishops and Clergie in another of their Convocations held in the year 1532. to promise in verbo Sacerdotii not to assemble from thenceforth in any Convocation or Synodical Meeting but as they should be called by his Majesties Writ nor to make any Canons or Constitutions Synodal or Provincial without his Leave and Licence thereunto obtained nor finally to put the same in Execution till they were Ratified and Confirmed under the Great Seal of England Procured also an Act of Parliament to bind the Clergie to their promise Which Act called commonly The Act of the Submission of the Clergie doth bear this name in Poulton's Abridgment viz. That the Clergie in their Convocation should Enact no Constitutions without the Kings assent Anno 25. Henry viii c. 19. Which Grounds so laid he caused this Question to be debated in both Universities and all the Famous Monasteries of the Kingdom viz. An aliquid auâ—horitatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicumque Episcopo extero Which Question being concluded in the Negative and that Conclusion ratified and confirmed in the Convocation Anno 1534. there past an Act of Parliament about two years after Intituled An Act Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishops of Rome In which there was an Oath prescribed for abjuring the Popes Authority within this Realm The refusing whereof was made High-Treason Anno 28. H. viii c. 10. 2. But this Exclusion of the Pope as it did no way prejudice the Clergy in their power of making Canons Constitutions and other Synodical Acts but only brought them to a dependance upon the King for the better ordering of the same so neither did it create any diminution of the Power and Priviledges of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in the free exercise of that Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which anciently belonged to them For in the Act of Submission before-mentioned there passed a Clause that all former Constitutions Synodal or Provincial which were not contrary to the Word of God the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Laws and Statutes of this Realm should remain in force until they were reviewed and fitted for the use of the Church by 32 Commissioners to be nominated by the King for that end and purpose Which re-view being never made in the time of that King nor any thing done in it by K. Edw. vi though he had an Act of Parliament to the same effect the said Old Canons and Constitutions remained in force as before they were By means whereof all causes Testamentary Matrimonial and Suits for Tythes all matters of Incontinency and other notorious Crimes which gave publick Scandal all wilful absence from Divine Service Irreverence and other Misdemeanours in the Church not punishable by the Laws of the Land were still reserved unto the Ecclesiastical Courts Those Ancient Canons and Constitutions remaining also for the perpetual standing Rule
with the sins of the State But then he will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Gen. 49. Nay scatter Iacob and Israel it self for them Which said in general he descended to a more particular application putting his Auditory in mind of those words of Tacitus That nothing gave the Romans powerful enemies though they were more advantage against the ancient Britains than this Quod Factionibus studiis trahebantur That they were broken into Factions and would not so much as take counsel and advice together And they smarted for it But I pray what is the difference for men not to meet in counsel and to fall to pieces when they meet If the first were our Fore-fathers errour God of his mercy grant this second be not ours And for the Church that is as the City too just so Doctrine and Discipline are the Walls and the Towers of it But be the one never so true and the other never so perfect they come both short of Preservation if that body be not at unity in it self The Church take it Catholick cannot stand well if it be not compacted together into an holy unity with Faith and Charity And as the whole Church is in regard of the affairs of Christendom so is each particular Church in the Nation and Kingdom in which it sojourns If it be not at unity in it self it doth but invite Malice which is ready to do hurt without any invitation and it ever lies with an open side to the devil and all his batteries So both Church and State then happy and never till then when they are at unity within themselves and one with another Well both State and Church owe much to Vnity and therefore very little to them that break the peace of either Father forgive them they know not what they do But if unity be so necessary how may it be preserved in both How I will tell you Would you keep the State in Vnity In any case take heed of breaking the peace of the Church The peace of the State depends much upon it For divide Christ in the minds of men or divide the minds of men about their hopes of Salvation in Christ and tell me what unity there will be Let this suffice so far as the Church is an ingredient into the unity of the State But what other things are concurring to the unity of it the State it self knows better than I can teach This was good Doctrine out of doubt The Preacher had done his part in it but the hearers did not the Parliament not making such use of it as they should have done At such time as the former Parliament was adjourned to Oxon the Divinity School was prepared for the House of Commons and a Chair made for the Speaker in or near the place in which his Majesties Professor for Divinity did usually read his publick Lectures and moderate in all publick Disputations And this first put them into conceit that the determining of all Points and Controversies in Religion did belong to them As Vibius Rufus in the Story having married Tullies Widow and bought Caesars Chair conceived that he was then in a way to gain the Eloquence of the one and the power of the other For after that we find no Parliament without a Committee for Religion and no Committee for Religion but what did think it self sufficiently instructed to manage the greatest Controversies of Divinity which were brought before them And so it was particularly with the present Parliament The Commons had scarce setled themselves in their own House but Mountague must be called to a new account for the Popery and Arminianism affirmed to have been maintained by him in his books In which Books if he had defended any thing contrary to the established Doctrine of the Church of England the Convocation of the two was the fitter Judge And certainly it might have hapned ill unto him the King not being willing to engage too far in those Emergences as the case then stood if the Commons had not been diverted in pursuit of the Duke of Buckingham which being a more noble game they laid this aside having done nothing in it but raised a great desire in several Members of both Houses to give themselves some satisfaction in those doubtful Points To which end a Conference was procured by the Earl of Warwick to be held at York House between Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester and White Dean of Carlile on the one side Morton then of Lichfield and Preston then of Lincolns-Inn of whom more hereafter on the other The Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Pembroke many other Lords and many other persons of inferiour quality being present at it To this Conference which was holden on the eleventh of this February another was added the next week on the seventeenth In which Mountague acted his own part in the place of Buckeridge the Concourse being as great both for the quality and number of the persons as had been at the former And the success was equal also The Friends and Fautors of each side giving the victory to those as commonly it happens in such cases whose cause they favoured After this we hear no more of Mountague but the passing of some Votes against him in the April following which â—eats being over he was kept cold till the following Parliament And then he shall be called for In the mean time the King perceiving that the Commons had took no notice of his own occasions gave order to Sir Richard Weston then Chancellour of his Exchequer to mind them of it by whom he represented to them the return of the last years Fleet and the want of Money to satisfie the Mariners and Souldiers for their Arrâ—ars That he had prepared a new Fleet of forty Sail ready to set forth which could not stir without a present supply of money And that without the like supply not only his Armies which were quartered upon the Coasts would disband or mutiny but that the Forces sent for Ireland would be apt to rebell and therefore he desired to know without more adoe what present supply he must depend upon from them that accordingly he might shape his course These Propositions being made Clem. Coke a younger Son of Sir Edward Coke who had successively been Chief Justice of either Bench obstructs the Answer by this rash and unhandsome expression That it was better to dye by a Forreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home Which general words were by one Turner a Doctor of Physick and then a Member of that House restrained and applied more particularly to the Duke of Buckingham The Commons well remembred at what Point they were cut off in the former Parliament and carefully watcht all advantages to resume it in this They had begun a great clamour against him on the first of March for staying a French Ship called the St. Peter of Newhaven and Turner now incites them to a higher distemper by six
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
depriving the Bishops of their Vote and the Churches Birth-right And this was it which helped them in that time of need And yet not thinking this Device sufficient to fright their Lordships to a present compliance Stroud was sent up with a Message from the House of Commons to let them know That the Londoners would shortly bring a Petition with 20000 Hands to obtain that Ordinance By which stale and common Stratagem they wrought so far on some weak Spirits the rest withdrawing themselves as formerly in the case of the Earl of Strafford that in a thin and slender House not above six or seven in number it was pass'd at last The day before they pass'd the Ordinance for establishing their new Directory which in effect was nothing but a total abolition of the Common-Prayer-Book and thereby shewed unto the World how little hopes they had of settling their new Form of Worship if the foundation of it were not laid in the blood of this famous Prelate who had so stoutly stood up for it against all Novellism and Faction in the whole course of his Life â—e was certified by some Letters to Oxon. and so reported in the Mercurius Aulicus of the following week That the Lord Bruce 〈◊〉 better known by the name of the Earl of Elgin was one of the number of those few Lords which had Voted to the Sentence of his Condâ—mnation The others which concurred in that fatal Sentence being the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook together with the Lord North and the Lord Gray of Wark But whatsoever may be said of the other six I have been advertised lately from a very good hand That the said Lord Bruce hath frequently disclaimed that Action and solemnly professed his detestation of the whole Proceedings as most abhorrent from his nature and contrary to his known aâ—fections as well unto his Majesties Service as the Peace and Preservation of the Church of England This Ordinance was no sooner passed but it revived many of those Discourses which had before been made on the like occasion in the Business of the Earl of Strafford For hereupon it was observed That as the predominant Party in the Vnited Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnevelt subverted all those Fundamental Laws of the Belgick Liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip ii So the Contrivers of this Mischief had violated all the Fundamental Laws of the English Government for maintenance whereof they had pretended to take up Arms against the King It was said they a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable Yet to make way unto the Condemnation of this Innocent Man the Bishops must be Voted out of their Place in Parliament which most of them have held far longer in their Predecessors than any of our Noble Families in their Progenitors and if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the People must come down to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishâ—ps at the Parliament doors till by the terrour of their Tumults 〈◊〉 extort it from them It is a Fundamental Law of the English 〈◊〉 That no Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned without cause 〈◊〉 or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law Yet here we see a Freeman imprisoned ten whole weeks together before any Charge was brought against him and kept in Prison three whole years more before his General Accusation was by them reduced unto Particulars and for a year almost detained close Prisoner without being brought unto his Answer as the Law requires It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government 〈…〉 be disserzâ—â— of his Freehold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land Yet here we see a man disseized of his Rents and Lands spoiled of his Goods deprived of his Iurisdiction devested of his Right of Patronage and all this done when he was so far from being convicted by the Laws of the Land that no particular Charge was so much as thought of It is a Fundamental Law of the English Liberty That no man shall be condemned or put to death bâ—â— by the Lawful Iudgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land that is in the ordinary way of Legal Tryal And sure an Ordinance of both Houses without the Royal Assent is no part of the Law of England nor held an ordinary way of Tryal for the English Subject or ever reckoned to be such in former times And finally It is a Fundamental Law in the English Government That if any other cause than those recited in the Statute of King Edward iii. which is supposed to be Treason do happen before any of his Majesties Juâ—tices the Justices shall tarry without giving Iudgment till the Cause be shâ—wn and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or not Yet here we have a new found Treason never known before nor declared such by any of his Majesties Iustices nor ever brought to be considered of by the King and his Parliament but only Voted to be such by some of those Members which â—are at Westminster who were resolved to have it so for their private Ends. The first Example of this kind the first thaâ— ever suffered death by the shot of an Ordinance as himself very well observed in his dying Speech upon the Scaffold though purposely omitted in Hind's Printed Copy to which now he hasteneth For the passing of the Ordinance being signified to him by the then Lieutenant of the Tower he neither entertained the news with a Stâ—ical Apathy nor waâ—led his fate with weak and womanish Lamentations to which Extremes most men are carried in this case but 〈◊〉 it with so even and so smooth a Temper as shewed he neither was ashamed to live nor afraid to die The time between the Sentence and Execution he spent in Prayers and Applications to the Lord his God having obtained though not without some diâ—lâ—â—nâ—ty a Chaplain of his own to attend upon him and to assist him in the Work of his Preparation though little Preparation â—â—â—ded to receive that blow which could not but be welcome because long expected For so well was he studied in the Art of Dying especially in the last and strictest part of his Imprisonment that by continual Fastings Watchings Prayers and such like Acts of Christiaâ— Humiliation his Flesh was rarified into Spirit and the whole maâ— so fitted for Eternal Glories that he was more than half in Heaven before Death brought his bloody but Triumphant 〈◊〉 to convey him thither He that had so long been a Confessâ—â—â—ould â—ould not but think it a Release of Miseries to be made a 〈◊〉 It is Recorded of Alexander the Great That the night before his last and
have step'd into it of whom he knew too much to venture that great charge and trust of the Church of England to his Care and Government the dangerous Consequences whereof he was able to foretell without the Spirit of Prophecy Nor was this conjecture of his without very good grounds Williams declaring in his said Letter to the Marquis That his Majesty had promised him upon the relinquishing of the Seal one of the best places in this Church And what place could be more agreable to his affection than the Chair of Canterbury Nor was this unfortunate Prelate less befriended in this desperate plunge by Sir Edward Coke a man of most profound Learning in the Laws of this Land who being ask'd the Question Whether a Bishop might lawfully hunt in his own or in any other Park in which point lay the greatest pinch of the present difficulty returned this Answer thereunto viz. That by the Law a Bishop at his death was to leave his Pack of Dogs by the French called Marte de Chiens in some old Records to be disposed of by the King at his Will and Pleasure And if the King was to have the Dogs when the Bishop died there is no question to be made but that the Bishop might make use of them when he was alive By reason of this intercurrence the new Elected Bishops could not receive the Episcopal Character till November following on the eleventh day of which Month the Lord Keeper Williams was Consecrated Bishop of Lincoln in the Chappel of King Henry by vertue of a Commission under the Broad Seal directed to certain other Bishops according to the Statute of King Henry viij And on the Sunday following by vertue of a like Commission directed to the Bishops of London Worcester Chichester Ely Landaff and Oxon. Doctor Laud Lord Elect of St. Davids Doctor Davenant Lord Elect of Salisbury and Doctor Cary Lord Elect of Exceter received Episcopal Consecration in the Chappel of London-House The next day after he took his place amongst the Bishops in the House of Peers the Parliament having been re-assembled some few days before But there was little for them to do as the case then stood The Commons were so far from gratifying the King with fresh Supplies who before had gratified them in the destruction of such Ministers as were neer unto him that they entertained him with Petitions and Remonstrances touching the danger threatned to our Religion by the growth of Popery in which they were so far transported beyond their bounds as to propose unto the King the taking of the Sword into his Hands against the Spaniard and the Marrying of his dear Son the Prince to a Lady of the Reformed Religion Of this the King had speedy notice and in a Letter sent to Sir Thomas Richardson then Speaker of the House of Commons he lets them know how sensible he was of their incroachments how bold they had made themselves with the King of Spain forbidding them to deal hereafter in Affairs of State or meddle with the Marriage of his Son the Prince concluding That if any such Petition or Remonstrance should be brought unto him he would neither vouchsafe the Answering or the Reading of it The Commons startled with this Letter and thinking to have made a benefit of the Kings Necessities cry out against it as a violation of their Ancient Priviledges and on the nineteenth day of December then next ensuing drew up the following Protestation and caused it to be entred on Record in their Journal Books viz. The PROTESTATION of the COMMONS THe Commons now Assembled being justly occasioned thereunto concerning sundry Liberties Franchises and Priviledges of Parliament amongst others here mentioned do make this Protestation here following That the Liberties Franchises Priviledges and Iurisdictions of Parliaments are the ancient and undoubted Birthright and Inheritance of the Subjects of England and the maintenance and making of Laws and redresses of Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen within this Realm are proper Subjects and matter of Debate in Parliament and that in the handling or proceeding of those businesses every Member of the House of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of Speech to Propound Treat Reason and bring to conclusion the same and that the Commons in Parliament have like freedom and liberty to Treat of those Matters in such Order as to their Iudgments shall seem fittest and that every Member of the said House hath like freedom from all Impeachments Imprisonment and Molestation other than by Censure of the House it self for or concerning any Speaking Reasoning or Declaring of any Matter or Matters touching the Parliament or Parliament business and that if any of the said Members be complained of or questioned for any thing done or said in Parliament the same is to be shewed to the King by the Advice and Assent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament before the King give credence to any private Information More was the King startled at the news of this Protestation whereof he had Intelligence before it came unto the Vote than the Commons were upon the Reading of his Majesties Letters He saw his Prerogative invaded his Paternal Right disputed a popular State growing up in the midst of a Monarchy and at the present a great Faction formed against him which if not speedily suppressed might prove unresistable Way he found none to extricate himself out of these troubles but to proceed vigorously in the Treaty for the Match with Spain which he conceived to be the only expedient to compose all Differences and recover the Patrimony of his Children For should he break off with that King and declare for a present War against him as had been desired he was to cast himself entirely on the Love of his People of whose Affections and Designs their present Actions gave just cause to be distrustful He therefore first gives Order on the nineteenth of December being the very day on which the Protestation was Voted at Westminster to Adjourn the Parliament to the 8th of February under pretence that the Members might retire into the Country for keeping Hospitality and entertaining their Neighbours in the Christmas Holydays according to the laudable Custom of the English Nation But having thus dismissed them to their several Countries without noise or trouble it was not his intent or purpose that they should come together again at the time appointed according to which Resolution he Disolves the Parliament and by his Proclamation bearing date the ninth of Ianuary discharges the Members of both Houses from any further attendance The Dissolving of this Parliament and the Transactions in the same administred much variety of Discourse in all parts of the Kingdom It was observed by some That his Majesty had broken one of the strongest Ligaments of the Regal Power by delivering up his Servants and Ministers into the hands of his People in Parliament which was a thing not used by any of his Predecessors That neither
that none of them had neither perspicuity enough to see it or Zeal enough to give warning of it And therefore he must needs conceive that Religion was made use of only for a blind or Curtain to screen some dark design from the publick view which had not yet attained to so ripe a confidence as to shew it self abroad in the open light The Mystery of iniquity had long been working in this Church not so much in the Popish as the Puritan Faction Who seeing they had no more prevailed against it by their open batteries than the Roman Emperours had done on the Primitive Church by their persecutions resolved upon more secret and consequently more dangerous practises to attain their ends In order whereunto they had perpetually alarm'd this King from his first coming to the Crown with continual dangers from the Papists for which the Gun-powder-treason gave them too much ground Nor would they suffer any Session of Parliament pass from that time forward in which the dangerous practises of Priests Iesuits c. did not sound in his ears And this they did not so much because they saw any such visible increase of Popery as was by them pretended from time to time but that they thought it the best way to carry on their other projects which they were in hand with For well they knew that when the thoughts both of King and People were totally taken up with the apprehension of the dangers which were feared from the Papists the Puritan Party in the mean time might gather strength without being noted or observed But because these interposings of the Commons in the cause of Religion became to be more eagerly pursued in some following Parliaments we shall refer the further consideration of them to another time The Parliament being ended we must follow our new Bishop to his Diocess whom we will wait upon to St. Davids a poor City God wot scituate on the Promontory in Pembroke-shire by the Ancients called Ortopitae in a safe place and far enough from the Saxons whom the Welsh most feared but incommodious enough for all the rest of the Clergy to repair unto Nor did it prove so safe for the Bishop and other Inhabitants of it as had been presumed in respect of sundry other Nations who have often spoyled and defaced it For standing near the Sea it had been frequently visited and spoyled by the Danes Norwegians and other Pyrates insomuch that the Bishops were inforced to remove their dwelling to Caermarthen a fair Market Town and beautified with a goodly Collegiate Church not far from which in a Village called Aberguilly the Bishop hath his ordinary place of Residence This brought the City of St. Davids small enough before to the condition of a Village there being nothing almost remaining of it but the Church the ruines of the Bishops Palace and some Houses appertaining to the Canons of it The Church as now it stands if any of it be now left standing was the work of Bishop Peter the forty eighth Bishop of this Diocess and by him dedicated by the name of St. Andrew and St. David though now St. Andrew be left out and St David bears the name as before it did in reference to St. David who first removed the Archiepiscopal See from Caer-leon thither The place at that time by the Welsh called Menew whence the Latines borrow their Menevenses by which name these Bishops are entituled From this removal of the See which hapned in 519. the Bishops hereof were for some time the Metropolitans and for a long time the supreme Ordinaries of the Welsh or Brittish For although Archbishop Samson the twenty sixth from St. David in the year 910. or thereabouts had carried the Archiepiscopal Pall and therewithall the Archiepiscopal dignity to Dole in Bretagne by reason of an extreme Pestilence then raging amongst the Welsh yet his Successors though they lost the name reserved the power of an Archbishop Nor did the residue of the Welsh Bishops receive their Consecration from any other hand than his till the Reign of Hen. I. At what time Bernard the forty sixth Bishop of this See was forced to submit himself to the Church of Canterbury But our Bishops Journey into Wales was not so much to visit S. Davids in which Church he had been before installed by Proxie as to bestow a visitation upon his Diocess and therein to take order for the rectifying of such things as he found amiss A Diocess containing the whole Counties of Pembroke Cardigan Caermarthen Radnor and Brecknock with some small parts of Monmouth Hereford Montgâ—mery and Glamorgan Shires For managing whereof the Bishop hath under him four Archdeacons that is to say of Cardigan Caermarthen Brecknock and St. Davids distributing amongst them all the Parishes which belong to this Diocess amounting to no more in so great a quantity of ground than 308. of which 120. are accounted for Impropriations But then we are to understand this number of Parochial Churches not taking into the Account such subordinate Chappels as had been built in several Parishes for the case of the People which might very much increase the reckoning And yet he added one more to them of his own foundation and such a one as for the elegancy of the building and richness of the Furniture exceeded all the rest together Chappels he found none at his Episcopal house of Aberguilly and one he was resolved to bestow upon it proportionably to such a Family as was fit for a Bishop of St. Davids to have about him which being finished he provided it of Rich Furniture and Costly Utensils and whatsoever else was necessary or convenient for the Service of God the very Plate designed for the celebrating of the holy Supper amounting to one hundred fifty five pounds eighteen shillings four pence Insomuch that if Felix the Proconsul had been still alive he might have cried out now as he did in the time of Iulian the Apostate viz. Behold in what rich Vessels they administer to the Son of Mary But this unhapy Age hath given us Felix's enough to reckon this amongst his crimes and so they do his solemn Consecration of it performed by himself in person according to an order firmly drawn up by the most learned Bishop Andrews then whom there could not be a greater enemy to the Errours Superstitions and Corruptions of the See of Rome I know it was objected that neither Gratian nor the Roman Pontificall conceive such Consecrations necessary to a Private Chappel but then they are to be understood of such Chappels only as are meant for prayers and in propriety of speech are no more than Oratories and not of such as are intended for Preaching Ministring the Sacraments and other acts of Divine Worship as this Chappel was And this appears so plainly by the Authentick Instrument of the Dedication that no man who hath seen the same can make question of it I have laid all these things together from his
dies though his Munificence survive him It was then Midlent-Sunday and the Court-Sermon at Whitehall according to the ancient Custom in the after-noon At what time the sad News passing through London began to be rumored in the Court as Laud was going into the Pulpit to preach before the Lords of the Council the Officers of the Houshold and the rest of that great Concourse of all sorts of People which usually repaired thither at those Solemn Sermons Before he was come to the middle of it the certainty of the Kings death more generally known amongst them the confusion which he saw in the faces of all the Company his own griefs and the dolorous complaints made by the Duke of Buckingham occasioned him to leave the Pulpit and to bestow his pains and comforts where there was more need He did not think as I believe few wise men do that the carrying on of one particular Sermon was such a necessary part of Gods business as is not to be intermitted upon any occasion nor was this ever charged upon him amongst his crimes The sense of this great loss being somewhat abated he was requested by the Duke to draw up some Remembrances of the Life Reign and Government of the King Deceased which he accordingly performed and presented to him But they are but Remembrances or Memorials only like the first lines of a design or Picture which being polished and perfected by a skilâ—ul Workman might have presented us with the true and lively Pourtraiture of that gracious Prince But who will undertake to finish what Laud began I must therefore leave the deceased King to those Memorials and those Memorials to be found in his Breviate p. 5. But there was another Pourtraiture provided for that King before his Funeral His Body being brought from Theobalds unto Sommerset-house where a Royal and Magnificent Hearse was erected for him visited and resorted to by infinite multitudes of people for some Weeks together From Sommerset-house his Body was carried in great State on Saturday the seventh of May to St. Peters Church in Westminster where it was solemnly interred The Funeral Sermon preached by the Lord Keeper Williams and printed not long after by the name of Great Britains Solomon which afterwards administred the occasion of some discourse which otherwise might have been spared Thus is Iames dead and buried but the King survives his only Son Prince Charles being immediately proclaimed King of Great Britain France and Ireland first at the Court Gates by Sir Edward Zouch Knight Marshal most solemnly the next day at London and afterwards by degrees in all the Cities and Market Towns of the Kingdom At his first entrance on the Crown he found himself ingaged in a war with the K. of Spain the mightiest Monarch of the West for which he was to raise great Forces both by Sea and Land He was also at the Point of Marriage with the Daughter of France and some proportionable preparations must be made for that Nor was King Iames to be interred without a solemn and magnificent Funeral answerable in the full height to so great a Prince All which must needs exact great Sums of money and money was not to be had without the help of a Parliament which he therefore gave order to be called in the usual manner But in the middest of these many and great preparations he forgets not the great business of the Church He had observed the multitudinousness of his Fathers Chaplains and the disorder of their waitings which puts him on a Resolution of reducing them to a lesser number and limiting them to a more certain time of attendance than before they were He knew well also what an influence the Court had alwaies on the Country by consequence how much it did concern him in his future Government that his Officers and Servants should be rightly principled according to the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England And therefore that he might be served with Orthodox and Regular men Laud is commanded to prepare a Catalogue of the most eminent Divines and to distinguish them by the two Letters of O and P. according to their several perswasions and affections And that being done he is directed by the Duke and the Kings appointment to have recourse to the most learned Bishop Andrews to know of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of Religion Especially in reference to the five Articles condemned not long since in the Synod at Dort and to report his answer with convenient speed A Convocation was of course to accompany the ensuing Parliament And it was fit not only that the Prelates should resolve before-hand what Points they meant to treat on when they were assembled but that his Majesty also might have time to consider of them These seasonable cares being thus passed over he hastens both his own marriage and his Fathers Funeral The first he sollemnized by Proxie in the Church of Nostre Dame in Paris on Sunday the first of May according to the Style of England The news whereof being brought to the Court on the Wednesday following was celebrated in the Streets of London the Liberties and out-parts of it with more than ordinary Expressions of Joy and Gladness The Proxie made to Claud. de Lorain Duke of Chevereux one of the younger Sons of the Duke of Guise from which House his Majesty derived himself by his great Grand-Mother Mary of Lorain Wife of Iames the Fifth The Funeral he attended in his own Person as the principal Mourner Which though it were contrary to the Custome of his Predecessors yet he chose rather to express his Piety in attending the dead Body of his Father to the Funeral Pile than to stand upon any such old niceties and points of State This was the third Funeral which he had attended as the principal Mourner which gave some occasion to presage that he would prove a man of sorrows and that his end would carry some proportion to those mournful beginnings The Intervall before the coming of his Queen he spent in looking to his Navy and drawing his Land Forces together for that Summers service But hearing that his Queen was advancing toward him he went to Canterbury and rested there on Trinity Sunday the twelfth of Iune That night he heard the news of her safe arrival at the Port of Dover whom he welcomed the next morning into England with the most chearful signs of a true aâ—fection From thence he brought her unto Canterbury and from thence by easie Stages to Gravesend where entring in their Royal Barge attended by infinite companies of all sorts of People and entertained by a continual peal of Ordnance all the way they passed he brought her safely and contentedly unto his Palace at Westminster The Lords and Ladies of the Court having presented to her the acknowledgement of their humble duties such Bishops as were about the Town as most of them were in regard of
supposed it makes exceedingly to the honour and commendation of this our Bishop as well in point of Secrecy as unfeigned Fidelity that his Majesty should pick out him from all other men to be his Pen-man or Chief Secretary in such weighty businesses Then again it is affirmed That he not only corrected and amended the Dukes Answer to the Impeachment which was made against him by the Commons but that he also penned that Speech which the Duke subjoined unto his Answer A Crime of the same nature and proved by the same Mediums as the others was and such as rather might have served for a strong assurance both of his honest Fidelity to his Friend and Patron and the even temper of his own mind in the managing of it For if we may believe the Author of the first History of the Life and Reign of King Charles as I think we may this Answer of the Duke was so in-laid with Modesty and Humility that it became a new Grievance to his Adversaries and was like to have a powerful influence toward the conversion of many who expected a Defence of another and more disdainful Spirit Thus have we brought two Parliaments unto an end but we hear nothing of the Convocations which were summoned with them Nothing indeed of the first Convocation but the passing of a Grant for three Subsidies toward the Advancement of his Majesties Service In the second we find something more though no Subsidies are granted in it On the fifth Sunday in Lent Goodman then Bishop of Glocester preach'd before his Majesty and press'd so hard upon the Point of the Real Presence that he was supposed to trench too neer the borders of Popery which raised a great clamour both in Court and Country The matter of which Sermon was agitated pro and con in the Convocation March 29. without determining any thing on either side But his Majestie out of a desire to satisfie both himself and his Houses of Parliament touching that particular referred the consideration of it to Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Andrews Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of St. Davids who meeting and considering of it on the twelfth of April returned this Answer to the King That some things in that Sermon had been spoke less warily but nothing falsly That nothing had been innovated by him in the Doctrine of the Church of England But howsoever That they thought very fit that Goodman should be appointed to Preach again before his Majesty for the better explaining of his meaning and shewing how and in what Particulars he had been mistaken by his Auditors Which he accordingly performed But nothing was of such concernment to a Convocation as the cause of Mountague vexed and molested by the Commons in both the Parliaments for supposed Popery and Arminianism matters meerly Doctrinal And possibly it may be admired that they should do nothing in a matter of their own peculiar having his Majesty to Friend for it appears in the Letter of the three Bishops before-mentioned to the Duke of Buckingham That his Majesty had taken that business into his own care and had most worthily referred it in a right course to Church-consideration And it appears also by the Breviate pag. 8. That on Sunday April 22. of this present year his Majesty had commanded all the Bishops to come before him and reprehended such as came being fourteen in number for being silent in Causes which concerned the Church and had not made known unto him what might be profitable or unprofitable for it the Cause whereof he was so ready to promote But then we are to call to mind that Laud not long since had been sent by the Duke of Buckingham to consult with Andrews and learn of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of the Church and more especially in the Five Articles so hotly agitated between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces And it appears by the event That Andrews did not hold it fit for any thing to be done in that particular as the case then stood the truth in those Opinions not being so generally entertained amongst the Clergy nor the Archbishop and the greater part of the Prelates so inclinable to them as to venture the determining of those Points to a Convocation But that which was not thought fit in that present Conjuncture for a Convocation his Majesty was pleased to take order in by his Royal Edict Many Books had been written against Mountague by Carleton Bishop of Chichester Sutcliffe Dean of Exeter Yates and Rouse by which the differences were rather increased than diminished Which coming to his Majesties notice it pleased him by the Advice of his Bishops to signifie by his Proclamation of Iune 14. Not only to his own People but to all the World his utter dislike of all those who to shew the subtilty of their Wits or to please their own Humours or vent their own Passions do or shall adventure to stir or move any new Opinions not only contrary but differing from the sound and Orthodoxal Grounds of the true Religion sincerely Professed and happily Established in the Church of England and also to declare his full and constant Resolution That neither in matter of Doctrine nor Discipline of the Church nor in the Government of the State he will admit of the least Innovation but by Gods assistance will so guide the Scepter of these his Kingdoms and Dominions by the Divine Providence put into his hand as shall be for the comfort and assurance of his sober Religious and well-affected Subjects and for the repressing and severe punishing of such as out of any sinister respects or disaffection to his Person or Government shall dare either in Church or State to distract or disquiet the Peace thereof His Majesty thereupon commands all his Subjects the Clergy most especially both in England and Ireland That from thenceforth they should carry themselves so wisely warily and conscionably that neither by Writing Preaching Printing Conferences or otherwise they raise any doubts or publish or maintain any new Inventions or Opinions concerning Religion than such as are clearly grounded and warranted by the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England heretofore published and happily established by Authority Straightly charging all Archbishops and Bishops in their several Diocesses as also all Counsellors of State Judges and Ministers of Justice speedily to reclaim and repress all such Spirits as shall adventure hereafter to break this Rule of Sobriety and due Obedience to his Majesty his Laws and this Religious Duty to the Church of God or in the least degree attempt to violate this bond of Peace adding withal this intimation of his Royal Pleasure That whosoever from thenceforth should take the boldness wilfully to neglect this his Majesties gracious Admonition and either for the satisfying of their unquiet and restless Spirits or for expressing of their rash and undutiful Insolencies should wilfully break that
towards it Him therefore he sequestreth from his Metropolitical Jurisdiction confines him to his house at Ford in Kent and by his Commission bearing date the ninth day of October 1627. transfers the exercise of that Jurisdiction to Mountaine Bishop of London Neile Bishop of Durham Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester Houson Bishop of Oxon and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells To whom or any two or more of them he gives authority to execute and perform all and every those Acts matters and things any way touching or concerning the Power Jurisdiction or Authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury in causes or matters Ecclesiastical as amply fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as the said Archbishop himself might have done And this his Majesty did to this end and purpose that the Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction being committed to such hands as were no favourers of that Faction there might some stop be given to that violent current which then began to bear all before it Nor did his Majesty fail of the end desired For though Abbot on good reasons of State was restored unto his Jurisdiction toward the latter end of the year next following Yet by this breathing time as short as it was the Church recovered strength again And the disgrace put upon the man did so disanimate and deject the opposite Party that the Ballance began visibly to turn on the Churches side During the time that this Commission was in force some Beneficed persons in the Country who in themselves were well affected to ancient orders and now in more assurance of Protections than before they were adventured on removing the Communion Table from the middle of the Church or Chancel and setting it according to the pattern of the Mother Churches where the Altar formerly had stood Amongst the rest one Titly Vicar of Grantham a â—oted Town upon the Road in the County of Lincoln having observed the situation of the holy Table as well in his Diocesans Chappel as in the Cathedral mother Church transposed the Table from the middest of the Chancel in his Parish Church and placed it Altar-wise at the East end of it Complaint hereof being made by some of that Town to the Bishop of Lincoln he presently takes hold of the opportunity to discourage the work not because he disliked it in point of judgment for then his judgment and his practice must have crost each other but because Titly had Relation to the Bishop of Durham And for the Bishop of Durham he had no good thoughts partly because he kept his stand in the Court out of which himself had been ejected and partly by reason of the intimacy betwixt him and Laud whom he looked on as his open and professed enemy And then how was it possible that he should approve of Titly or his action either conceiving that it might be done by their or one of their appointments or at the least in hope of better preferment from them Hereupon he betakes himself unto his Books and frames a Popular Discourse against placing the Communion Table Altar-wise digests it in the Form of a Letter to the Vicar of Grantham but sends it unto some Divines of the Lecture there by them to be dispersed and scattered over all the Country But of this Letter more hereafter when we shall find it taken up for a Buckler against Authority and laid in Bar against the proceedings of the Church and the Rules of it when such transposing of the Table became more general not alone practised but prescribed But the noise of this Letter not flying very far at the first hindred not the removing of the Table in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas in the Burrough of Abingdon the occasion this One Blucknall dwelling in that Parish bestowed upon it amongst other Legacies an annual Pension to be paid unto the Curate thereof for reading duly prayer in the said Church according to the Form prescribed in the English Liturgie For the establishing of which Gifts and Legacies to the proper use and uses intended by him a Commission was issued out of the High Court of Chancery according to the Statute 43 Eliz. Directed amongst others to Sir Ed. Clark Knight Sam. Fell Doctor in Divinity George Purefez and Richard Organ Esquires who by their joynt consent made this Order following viz. And that the Table given by Mr. Blucknall should not by the multitude of People coming to Service or otherwise by sitting or writing upon it or by any other unreverent usage be prophaned spoyled or hurt We do order and decree that the said Table shall continually stand at the upper end of the Chancell upon which a Carpet by him given should be laid where it shall continually stand close to the upper Skreen there being of old within that Skreen a kind of Vestry for keeping the Plate Books and Vestments which belong to the Church and there to be covered with the Carpet aforesaid and in no place else Which Order together with many others for settling and disposing the said Gifts and Legacies were made at Abingdon on the twenty fifth of April 1628. and afterwards confirmed under the Great Seal of England This being the only Table as I conceive whose posture in that place is ratified by Decree in Chancery Now as some private Beneficed persons during the Suspension of the said Archbishop did thus adventure on the one side so divers Commissaries Officials Surrogates and other Ecclesiastical Officers began to carry a more hard hand on the Puritan Party their great Friend and Patron being thus discountenanced than they had done formerly Amongst these none more active than Lamb Sibthorp Allen and Burden according to their Power and Places the three last having some relation to Lamb as Lamb had to the Episcopal Court at Peterborough and thereby a neer neighbourhood to the Bishop of Lincoln then keeping in his House at Buckden in the County of Huntingdon at whose Table being entertained as they had been many times before they found there Morison Chancellor to that Bishop and Prigeion one of the Officers of the Court at Lincoln Their Discourse growing hot against the Puritans the Bishop advised them to take off their heavy hand from them informing them That his Majesty hereafter intended to use them with more mildness as a considerable Party having great influence on the Parliament without whose concurrence the King could not comfortably supply his Necessities To which he added That his Majesty had communicated this unto him by his own mouth with his Resolutions hereafter of more gentleness to men of that Opinion Which words though unadvisedly spoken yet were not thought when first spoken by him to be of such a dangerous and malignant nature as to create to him all that charge and trouble which afterwards beâ—el him upon that occasion For some years after a breach being made betwixt him and Lamb about the Officials place of Leicester which the Bishop had designed to another person Lamb complains of him to some
it was presented to his Majesty together with the Bill of Subsidies on the seventeenth of Iune At the receiving thereof his Majesty was pleased to use these words That on his Answer to their Petition of Right he expected no such Declaration from them which containeth divers points of state touching the Church and Common-wealth that he conceived they did believe he understood them better than themselves But that since the reading thereof he perceived they understood those things less than he imagined and that notwithstanding he would take them into such consideration as they deserved Nor was it long after his Majesties receiving of this Remonstrance but that they were drawing up another to take away his right to Tonnage and Poundage Which coming to his Majesties knowledge he resolved to be beforehand with them and dissolve the Parliament which was done accordingly Iune 26. At the dissolving whereof his Majesty gave this further censure on the said Remonstrance viz. That the acceptableness thereof unto him every man might judge and that he would not call in question the merit of it because he was sure no wise man could justifie it And possibly it had escaped without any further censure if the Commons for the ostentation of their Zeal and Piety had not caused it to be Printed and dispersed abroad with which his Majesty being acquainted he commanded it to be called in by Proclamation as tending to the defamation of his Person and Government But no sooner was the Parliament ended but he gave order unto Laud whom he â—ound to be much concerned in it to return an answer thereunto which he who knew no better Sacrifice than obedience did very chearfully perform which Answer for so much as concerns Religion the Preamble and Conclusion being laid aside we shall here subjoyn And first saith he that Remonstrance begins at Religion and fears of innovation in it Innovation by Popery but we would have our Subjects of all sorts to call to mind what difficulties and dangers we endured not many years since for Religions sake That we are the same still and our holy Religion is as pretious to us as it is or can be to any of them and we will no more admit innovation therein than they that think they have done well in fearing it so much It is true that all effects expected have not followed upon the Petitions delivered at Oxon but we are in least fault for that for supply being not afforded us disenabled us to execute all that was desired and caused the stay of those legal proceedings which have helped to swell up this Remonstrance Yet let all the Counties of England be examined and London with the Suburbs with them neither is there such a noted increase of Papists nor such cause of fear as is made nor hath any amounted to such an odious tolerating as is charged upon it nor near any such For that Commission so much complained of both the matter and intent of it are utterly mistaken for it doth not dispence with any penalty or any course to be taken with any Papists for the exercise of their Religion no nor with the Pecuniary Mulets or non-conformity to ours it was advised for the encrease of our profits and the returning of that into our Purse which abuse or connivency of inferiour Ministers might perhaps divert another way if that or any other shall be abused in the execution we will be ready to punish upon any just complaint The next fear is the dayly growth and spreading of the Arminian Faction called a cunning way to bring in Popery but we hold this Charge as great a wrong to our Self and Government as the former For our People must not be taught by a Parliament Remonstrance or any other way that we are so ignorant of Truth or so careless of the profession of it that any opinion or faction or whatever it be called should thrust it self so far and so fast into our Kingdom without our knowledge of it this is a meer dream of them that wake and would make our loyal and loving People think we sleep the while In this Charge there is great wrong done to two eminent Prelates that attend our Person for they are accused without producing any the least shew or shadow of Proof against them and should they or any other attempt Innovation of Religion either by that open or any cunning way we should quickly take other Order with them and not stay for your Remonstrance To keep on this our people are made believe That there is a restraint of Books Orthodoxal but we are sure since the late Parliament began some whom the Remonstrance calls Orthodox have assumed unto themselves an unsufferable Liberty in Printing Our Proclamation commanded a Restraint on both sides till the Passions of men might subside and calm and had this been obeyed as it ought we had not now been tossed in this Tempest And for the distressing and discountenancing of Good Preachers we know there is none if they be as they are called Good But our People shall never want that Spiritual Comfort which is due unto them and for the Preferments which we bestow we have so made it our great Care to give them as Rewards of Desert and Pains but as the Preferments are ours so will we be judge of the Desert Our self and not be taught by a Remonstrance For Ireland we think in case of Religion it is not worse than Queen Elizabeth left it and for other Affairs it is as good as we found it nay perhaps better and we take it as a great disparagement to our Government that it should be voiced That new Monasteries Nunneries and other Superstitious Houses are Erected and Replenished in Dublin and other great Towns of that our Kingdom For we assure our self our Deputy and Council there will not suffer God and our Government so to be dishonoured but we should have some account of it from them and we may not endure to have our good People thus misled with Shews There is likewise somewhat considerable in the time when these Practises to undermine true Religion in our Kingdoms are set on foot The Remonstrance tells us it is now when Religion is opposed by open force in all Parts But we must tell our People There is no undermining Practice at home against it if they practice not against it that seem most to labour for it for while Religion seems to be contended for in such a Factious way which cannot be Gods way the heat of that doth often melt away the Purity which it labours earnestly but perhaps not wisely to preserve And for Gods Iudgments which we and our People have felt and have cause to fear we shall prevent them best by a true Religious Remonstrance of the amendment of our Lives c. This and the rest of the Answer to the said Remonstrance is all what I find acted by Laud in reference to the present Parliament For That he should
other Bishops assisting at it And it is possible enough That if he had not made such haste as he did he might have had a worse rub in it than he had before Scarce was the Consecration finished when news came to Croyden of the unfortunate death of the Duke of Buckingham murthered the day before at Portsmouth by one Iohn Felton a Lieutenant who thought himself neglected in the course of his Service The Duke had wholly set his heart on the Relief of Rochel then block'd up by the French both by Sea and Land in hope thereby to redeem the Honour he had lost at the Isle of Rhe and to ingratiate himself with the People of England On the twelfth of August he set forwards from Portsmouth neer which the Navy lay at Anchor and where he had appointed the Rendezvouz for his Land-Forces to assemble and meet together The interval of time betwixt that and his death he spent in putting all things into Readiness that he was almost at the point of going on Board when Feliâ—n cut him off in the middest of his Glories The wretch in such a general confusion might have saved himself if either curiosity in attending the issue or some consternation in his countenance upon the horror of the Fact had not betrayed him to a present discovery Taken upon suspicion and questioned about the Murder he made no scruple to avow it as a meritorious Act of which he had more cause to glory than to be ashamed And being afterwards more cunningly handled by one of his Majesties Chaplains sent to him from the Court of purpose to work him to it he confessed plainly and resolvedly That he had no other motive to commit that Murder but the late Remonstrance in which the Duke had been accused for being the Cause of all the Grievances and Mischiefs in the Common-wealth This news was brouâ—â—t unto the King as he was at the Publick Morning-Prayers in â—is Presence-Chamber the Court being then at Southwick not far from Portsmouth which he received with such a stedfast Countenance so unmoved a Paâ—ience that â—e withdrew not from the place till the Prayers were ended It is not to be doubted but that his Majesty was much afflicted in the loss of so dear a Servant in whose bosom he had lodged so much of his Counsels and to whose Conduct he had so fully recommended the Great Concernments of the Kingdom But such was the constancy of his Temper and the known evenness of his Spirit that in the middest of all those sorrows he neither neglected his Affairs abroad nor his Friends at home For notwithstanding this sad accident the Fleet set forwards under the Command of the Earl of Lindsey whose coming within sight of Rochel was welcom'd by those in the Town with all the outward expressions of Hope and Joy But his desires to do them Service were without Success For when he came he found the Haven so strongly barred that though he gallantly attempted to force his way and give Relief to the Besieged yet finding nothing but impossibility in the Undertaking he discharged his Ordnance against the Enemy and went off with safety Which being perceived by those of the Town who had placed their last hopes in this Attempt they presently set open their Gates casting themselves upon the Mercy of their Natural Prince whose Government and Authority they had for so many years before both opposed and sleighted And on the other side being well assured of that infinite anguish and disconsolation which Laud his now most trusty Servant must needs suffer under by the most barbarous Assassination of so dear a Friend he dispatch'd Elphiston his Cup-bearer with a gracious Message to comfort him in those disquiets of his Soul and on the neck of that a Letter of his own hand-writing to the same effect He looks upon him now as his Principal Minister well practised in the Course of his Business of whose fidelity to his Person and perspicacity of Judgment in Affairs of State he had found such good proof And therefore at the first time that Laud could find himself in a condition to attend upon him he used many gracious Speeches to him not only to wipe off the Remembrance of that sad Misfortune but to put him into such a Power by which he might be able to protect himself against all his Enemies He was before but an inferiour Minister in the Ship of State and had the trimming of the Sails the super-inspection of the Bulgings and Leakings of it Now he is called unto the Helm and steers the Course thereof by his sage Directions Having obtained this heighth of Power he casts his eye back on his Majesties Proclamation of the fourteenth of Iune Anno 1626. Of which though he had made good use in suppressing some of those Books which seemed to foment the present Controversies yet he soon found as well by his own Observation as by Intelligence from others That no such general notice had been taken of it as was first expected For being only published in Market-Towns and perhaps very few of them the Puritan Ministers in the Country did not conceive themselves obliged to take notice of it And much less could it come to the ears of Students in Universities for whose restraint from medling either by Preaching or Writing in the Points prohibited it might seem most necessary He knew that by the Laws of the Land all Ministers were to read the Book of Articles audibly and distinctly in the hearing of their Parishioners when they first entred on their Cures and that by the Canons of the Church all that took Orders or Degrees were publickly to subscribe unto them A Declaration to the same effect before those Articles must needs give such a general signification of his Majesties pleasure that no body could from thenceforth pretend ignorance of it which must needs render his transgression the more inexcusable Upon which prudent considerations he moved his Majesty that the Book of Articles might be reprinted and such a Declaration placed before them as might preserve them from such misconstructions as had of late been put upon them and keep them to their native literal and Grammatical sense His Majesty approved the Counsel as both pious and profitable and presently gave order that all things should be done according as he had advised A Declaration of great influence in the course of our Story and therefore here to be subjoyned in its proper place By the King BEing by Gods Ordinance according to Our just Title Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governour of the Church within these Our Dominions We hold it most agreeable to Our Kingly Office and Our own Religious Zeal to conserve and maintain the Church committed to Our charge in the Unity of true Religion and in the bond of Peace and not to suffer unnecessary Disputations Alterations and Questions to be raised which may nourish Faction both in the Church and Common-wealth We have therefore upon
without Mayors Bayliffs Constables and other Officers to take notice and to see observed as they tender Our displeasure And We further Will That Publication of this Our Commmand be made by Order from the Bishops thorow all the Parish Churches of their several Diocesses respectively Given at our Palace at Westminster Oct. 18. in the ninth year of Our Reign 1633. His Majesty had scarce dried his Pen when he dipt it in the Ink again upon this occasion The Parishioners of St. Gregories in St. Pauls Church-yard had bestowed much cost in beautifying and adorning their Parish Church and having prepared a decent and convenient Table for the holy Sacrament were ordered by the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls as being Ordinaries of the place to dispose of it in such a Posture in the East end of the Chancel as anciently it had stood and did then stand in the Mother Cathedral Against this some of the Parishioners not above five in number appeal unto the Dean of the Arches and the Dean and Chapter to the King The third day of November is appointed for debating the Point in controversie before the Lords of the Council his Majesty sitting as chief Judge accompanied with Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Keeper Lord Archbishop of Yorke Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Duke of Lenox Lord High Chamberlaine Earle Marshal Lord Chamberlaine Earle of Bridgewater Earle of Carlisle Lord Cottington Mr. Treasurer Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Cooke Mr. Secretary Windebanke The cause being heard and all the Allegations on both sides exactly pondered his Majesty first declared his dislike of all Innovations and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons c. And afterwards gave Sentence in behalf of the Dean and Chapter But because this Order of his Majesty in the case of St. Gregories was made the Rule by which all other Ordinaries did proceed in causing the Communion Table to be placed Altarwise in the Churches of their several and respective Diocesses I will subjoyn it here verbatim as it lies before me At Whitehall Novem. 3. 1633. This day was debated before his Majesty sitting in Council the question and difference which grew about the removing of the Communion Table in St. Gregories Church near the Cathedral Church of St. Paul from the middle of the Chancel to the upper end and there placed Altarwise in such manner as it standeth in the said Cathedral and Mother-Church as also in other Cathedrals and in his Majesties own Chappel and as is consonant to the practice of approved Antiquity which removing and placing of it in that sort was done by order of the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls who are Ordinaries thereof as was avowed before his Majesty by Doctor King and Doctor Montfort two of the Prebends there Yet some few of the Parishioners being but five in number did complain of this act by appeal to the Court of Arches pretending that the Book of Common Prayer and the 82 Canon do give permission to place the Communion Table where it may stand with most fitness and convenience Now his Majesty having heard a particular relation made by the Counsell of both parties of all the carriage and proceedings in this cause was pleased to declare his dislike of all innovation and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons especially in matters concerning Ecclesiastical Orders and Government knowing how easily men are drawn to affect Novelties and how soon weak Iudgments in such cases may be overtaken and abused And he was also pleased to observe that if those few Parishioners might have their wills the difference thereby from the foresaid Cathedral Mother-Church by which all other Churches depending thereon ought to be guided would be the more notorious and give more subject of discours and disputes that might be spared by reason of the nearness of St. Gregories standing close to the Wall thereof And likewise for so much as concerns the Liberty by the said Common Book or Canon for placing the Communion Table in any Church or Chappel with most conveniency that liberty is not so to be understood as if it were ever left to the discretion of the Parish much less to the particular fancy of any humorous person but to the judgment of the Ordinary to whose place and Function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point both for the thing it self and for the time when and how long as he may find cause Vpon which consideration his Majesty declared himself that he well approved and confirmed the Act of the said Ordinary and also gave commandment that if those few Parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said Appeal then the Dean of the Arches who was then attending at the hearing of the cause should confirm the said Order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter Of this last Declaration there was no great notice took at first the danger being remote the case particular and no necessity imposed of conforming to it But the other was no sooner published then it was followed and pursued with such loud outcries as either the Tongues or Pens of the Sabbatarians could raise against it Some fell directly on the King and could find out no better names for this Declaration than a Profane Edict a maintaining of his own honour and a Sacrilegious robbing of God A Toleration for prophaning the Lords day Affirming That it was impossible that a spot of so deep a dye should be emblanched though somewhat might be urged to qualifie and alleviate the blame thereof Others and those the greatest part impute the Republishing of this Declaration to the new Archbishop and make it the first remarkable thing which was done presently after he took possession of his Graceship as Burton doth pretend to wit it in his Pulpit Libell And though these Books came not out in Print till some years after yet was the clamour raised on both at the very first encreasing every day more and more as the reading of it in their Churches had been pressed upon them To stop the current of these clamours till some better course might be devised one who wisht well both to the Parties and the Cause fell on a fancy of Translating into the English Tongue a Lecture or Oration made by Dr. Prideaux at the Act in Oxon. Anno 1622. In which he solidly discoursed both of the Sabbath and Sunday according to the judgment of the ancient Fathers and the most approved Writers of the Protestant and Reformed Churches This Lecture thus translated was ushered also with a Preface In which there was proof offered in these three Propositions First That the keeping holy of one day of seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Secondly That the alteration of the day is only an humane and Ecclesiastical Constitution Thirdly That still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Which as they are the general Tendries of the
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
â—eâ—t and three of his Servants nominated to attend the business But he was left uncertain of providing for their satisfaction His Solicitor must be first approved by them before he could settle to his cause and whether they would approve of such an one as he thought sit to trust with his life and same was to him unknown and if he point particularly to such of his Papers and Remembrances as he conceived most necessary to his preservation it was onely promised to be taken into consideration which kept him in as great suspence as all the rest In this distress he was advised by his Counsel to move their Lordships that a Discrimination might be made betwixt the Articles to the end that such of them as were held to contain High Treason might be distinguished from such matters as were to be câ—arged for misdeamenors But no clear answer coming from their Lordships in that behalf he was Commanded to make his personal appearance before them on the 13th of Novemb. where by the advise of his Counsel he pleaded not guilty to the whole charge without answering more particularly to any Article or clause contained in it And on that day month it was Ordered by the House of Commons that the Committee Formerly appointed to prepare the Evidence for his Tryal should put the business into a quick and speedy course with power to send for Parties Witnesses Papers Records c. And to make all things ready for the sight of the House the care thereof Committed specially to Wilde who had before brought up the additional Articles Brought to the Bar again on Tuesday the 16th of Ianuary their Lordships were informed by Maynard in the name of the House of Commons that â—is former Answer being made only to the Additional Articles and 〈◊〉 to tâ—e Original also they could not in defect thereof proceed as otherwise they would have done to draw up the Issue aâ—d thereupon he was required peremptorily to prepare his Answer to those also against Munday following though deemed so General by his Counsel as not to be sufficiently capable of a Particular Reply Which day being come he claimed the benefit of the Act of Pacification for his discharge from all matters comprehended in the 13th Article relating to the troubles of Scotland and to the rest pleaded not Guilty as before Which put the cause to such a stand that there was no further speech of it in the House of Commons till the 22th of February when the Committee was required to prepaâ—e their evidence and the distribution of the parts thereof with all possible speed And thus the business was drilled on hastned or slackned as the Scots advanced in their expedition and as the expedition prospered in success and fortune so was it prosecuted and advanced to its fatal Period For understanding that the Scots were entred England and had marcht victoriously almost as far as the Banks of the River Tine they prest the Lords to name a day for the beginning of his Tryal who thereupon fixed it upon Tuesday the twelfth oâ— March next ensuing The day being come and the Archbishop brought unto the Baâ— in the House of Peers the Articles of the Impeachment were first read by the Clerk of the House together with the several answers of Not Guilty before remembred upon the hearing whereof he most humbly prayed that the Commons might be Ordered to sever the Articles which were pretended to be Treason from those which contained misdemeanors only that so he might know which of them were Treason and which not To which it was reply'd by Maynard that the Commons would not give way to that Proposition in regard that all the Articles together not any of them by it self made up the Treason wherewith he was charged that is to say his several endeavours to subvert and destroy Religion the Fundamental Laws of the Land and Government of the Reaâ—m and to bring in Popery and an Arbitrary Tyrannical Government against Law So that we have a Cumulative and Constructive Treason such as had formerly been charged on the Earl of Strafford A Treason in the conclusion which could not be gathered from the Premisâ—s A Treason in the Summa Totalis when nothing but misdemeanors at the most could be found in the Items Which being thus Resolved upon a long Studied Speech was made by Wilde in which there wanted neither words nor animosity to make him culpable of the crimes wherewith he was charged if his words could â—ave done it One passage there was in it which was Subject to some misâ—â—nstruction and so interpreted by those which otherwise had no good aâ—â—ection to the Prisoners Person for having set forth his offences in their foulest Colours he seems to make a wonder of it that any thing could be expected of the people but that they should have been Ready to have stoned him as they did him that did but Act the part of Bellerophon in Rome Which Passage was interpreted for an intimation to the Raskal multitude to save the Houses the dishonor of putting him to death in a form of Law by Stoneing him to death oâ— Tearing him in pieces or laying violent hands upon him on some other way as he past between his Barge and the House of Peers Wilde having done he humbly craved Liberty to wipe of the dirt which so injuriously had been cast upon him that he might not depart thence so foul a Person as he had been rendred to their Lordships Which leave obtained as it could not reasonably be denied a far meaner Person without any trouble in his Countenance or perturbation of his Mind he spake as followeth My Lords MY being in this Place in this Condition recalls to my Memory that which I long since read in Seneca Tormentum est etiam si absolutus quis merit causâ—m dixiffe 6. de Benef. c. 28. 'T is not a 〈…〉 no 't is no less than Torment for an ingenious man to â—lâ—â—d caâ—itâ—lly or criminally though it should so fall out that he be absolved The great Truth of this I find at present in my self and so much the more because I am a Christian and not that only but in Holy Orders and not so only but by Gods Grace and Goodness preferred to the greatest place this Church affords and yet brought causam dicere to plead for my self at this Great Bar. And whatsoever the World think of me and they have been taught to think much more ill of me than I humbly thank Christ for it I was ever acquainted with yet my Lords this I find Tormentum est 't is no less than a Torment to me to appear in this Place nay my Lords give me leave to speak plain truth No Sentence that can justly pass upon me and other I will neâ—er fear from your Lordships can go so neer me as causam dicere 〈◊〉 plead for my self upon this occasion in this place But as for the â—â—ntence â—e it what it shall I thank
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