the Superiority of Bishops and the Supremacy of the Queen together with the dangerous Practises and Designs of the Disciplinarians exemplified by their Proceedings in Scotland and their Positions in England of which more anon All which particulars with many more upon the by he proved with such evidence of demonstration such great variety of Learning and strength of Arguments that none of all that Party could be found to take Arms against them in defence either of their leud Doctrine or more scandalous Vses And this being done he closed up all with a grave and serious Application in reference to the prevalency and malignity of the present Humours which wrought so much upon his Auditors of both Houses of Parliament that in the passing of a general Pardon at the end of the Sessions there was Exception of Seditious Books Disturbances of Divine Service and Offences against the Act of Vniformity in the Worship of God 30. And yet it is not altogether improbable but that this Exception was made rather at the Queen's Command or by some Caveat interposed by the House of Peers than by the sole Advice or any voluntary Motion of the House of Commons in which the Puritans at that time had a very strong Party By whose Endeavour a smart Petition is presented to the Lords in the Name of the Commons for rectifying of many things which they conceived to be amiss in the state of the Church The whole Petition did consist of Sixteen particulars of which the first Six did relate to a Preaching-Ministry the want of which was much complained of in a Supplication which had been lately Printed and presented to them but such a Supplication as had more in it of a Factious and Seditious Libel than of a Dutiful Remonstrance In the other Ten it was desired 1. That no Oath or Subscription might be tendred to any at their entrance into the Ministry but such as was prescribed by the Statutes of the Realm and the Oath against corrupt Entring 2. That they may not be troubled for omission of some Rites or Offices prescribed in the Book of Common-Prayer 3. That such as had been suspended or deprived for no other offence but only for not subscribing might be restored 4. That they may not be called and urged to answer before the Officials and Commissaries but before the Bishops themselves 5. That they might not be called into the High Commission or Moot of the Diocess where they lived except for some notable Offence 6. That it might be permitted to them in every Arch-Deaconry to have some common Exercises and Conferences amongst themselves to be limited and prescribed by the Ordinaries 7. That the high Censure of Excommunication may not be denounced or executed for small matters 8. Nor by Chancellors Commissioners or Officials but by the Bishops themselves with the assistance of grave persons 9. That Non-residency may be quite removed out of the Church Or 10. That at least according to the Queen's Injunctions Art 44. no Non-resident having already a License or Faculty may enjoy it unless he depute an able Curate that may weekly Preach and Catechise as was required by Her Majesty in the said Injunctions Against the violence of this Torrent Arch-bishop Whitgift interposed both his Power and Reason affirming with a sober confidence in the H. of Peers not only that England flourished more at that time with able Ministers than ever it had done before but that it had more able men of eminent Abilities in all parts of Learning than the rest of Christendom besides But finding that the Lord Gray and others of that House had been made of the Party he drew the rest of the Bishops to joyn with him in an humble Address to Her Sacred Majesty in which they represented to Her the true estate of the Business together with those many Inconveniences which must needs arise to the State present and to come to the Two Universities to all Cathedral Churches and the Queen Her Self if the Commons might have had their will though in no other Point than in that of Pluralities All which they prest with such a Dutiful and Religious Gravity that the Queen put an end to that Dispute not only for the present but all Parliaments following 31. Somewhat there must be in it which might make them so afraid of that Subscription which was required at their hands to the Queen's Supremacy as well as to the Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops to the Liturgy and to the Articles of Religion by Law established and therefore it will not be amiss as we have done already in all places else to touch upon the Principles and Positions of our English Puritans that we may see what Harmony and Consent there is betwixt them and their dear Brethren of the Discipline in other Nations For if we look into the Pamphlets which came out this Year we shall find these Doctrines taught for more Sacred Truths viz. That if Princes do hinder them that seek for this Discipline they are Tyrants both to the Church and Ministers and being so may be deposed by their Subjects That no Civil Magistrate hath pre-eminence by ordinary Authority either to determine of church-Church-Causes or to make Ecclesiastical Orders and Ceremonies That no Civil Magistrate hath such Authority as that without his consent it should not be lawful for Ecclesiastical persons to make and publish Church-Orders That they which are no Elders of the Church have nothing to do with the Government of it That if their Reformation be not hastned forward by the Magistrate the Subjects ought not any longer to tarry for it but must do it themselves That there were many thousands which desired the Discipline And That great Troubles would ensue if it were denied them That their Presbyteries must prevail And That if it be brought about by such ways and means as would make the Bishops hearts to ake let them blame themselves For explication of which last passage Martin Mar-Prelate in his first Book threatens only fists but in the second he adviseth the Parliament then assembled to put down Lord Bishops and bring in the Reformation which they looked for whether Her Majesty would or not 32. But these perhaps were only the Evaporations of some idle Heads the Freaks of Discontent and Passion when they were crossed in their Desires Let us see therefore what is taught by Thomas Cartwright the very Calvin of the English as highly magnified by Martin and the rest of that Faction as the other was amongst the French Dr. Harding in his Answer to Bishop Iewel assures us That the Office of a King is the same in all places not only amongst Christians but amongst the Heathen Upon which Premises he concludes That a Christian Prince hath no more to do in deciding of Church-matters or in making Ceremonies and Orders for the same than hath a Heathen Cartwright affirms himself to be of the same opinion professing seriously his dislike of all such Writers
the other two In whose behalf when it was moved by one Mr. Wroth That the House should be humble Suitors to Her Majesty for the releasing of such of their Members as were under restraint it was answered by such of the Privy-Councellors as were then Members of the House That Her Majesty had committed them for causes best known to Her self and that to press Her Highness with this Suit would but hinder those whose good it sought That the House must not call the Queen to an account for what she did of Her Royal Authority That the Causes for which they are restrained may be high and dangerous That Her Majesty liketh no such Questions neither did it become the House to deal in such matters Upon which words the House desisted from interposing any further in their behalf but left them wholly to the Queen by whom Wentworth was continued Prisoner for some years after 24. In the same Parliament one Morrise Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster proposed unto the House That some course might be taken by them against the hard courses of Bishops Ordinaries and other Ecclesiastical Judges in their several Courts towards sundry godly Ministers and painful Preachers who deserved more encouragement from them They also spake against Subscription and the Oath Ex Officio and offered a Bill unto the House against the imprisonment of such as refused the same Of this the Queen had present notice and thereupon sends for Coke then Speaker of the House of Commons but afterwards successively Chief Justice of either Bench to whom she gave command to deliver this Message to the House that is to say That it was wholly in Her Power to call to determine to assent or dissent to any thing done in Parliament That the calling of this was only that the Majesty of God might be more Religiously observed by compelling with some sharp Laws such as neglect that Service and that the safety of Her Majesty's Person and the Realm might be provided for That it was not meant they should meddle with matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical That She wondered that any should attempt a thing so contrary to Her Commandment and that She was highly offended at it and finally that it was Her pleasure That no Bill touching any matters of State or for the Reformation of Causes Ecclesiastical should be there exhibited On the delivery of which Message Morrise is said to have been seized on in the House by a Serjeant at Arms but howsoever seized on and committed Prisoner kept for some years in Tutbury Castle discharged from his Office in the Dutchy and disabled from any Practise in his Profession as a common Lawyer Some others had prepared a Bill to this effect That in lieu of Excommunication there should be given some ordinary Process with such sute and coertion as thereunto might appertain that so the dignity of so high a Sentence being retained and the necessity of mean Process supplied the Church might be restored to its ancient splendor Which Bill though recommended somewhat incogitantly by one of the Gravest Councellors of State which was then in the House was also dashed by Her Majesty's express Command upon a Resolution of not altering any thing the quality of the times considered which had been setled in the Church both by Law and Practise Which constancy of Hers in the preserving of Her own Prerogative and the Church's Power kept down that swelling humour of the Puritan Faction which was even then upon the point of overflowing the banks and bearing down all opposition which was made against them 25. And that they might be kept the better in their natural Channel she caused an Act to be prepared and passed in this present Parliament for retaining them and others of Her Subjects in their due obedience By which it was Enacted for the preventing and avoiding of such Inconveniencies and Perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous Practices of Seditious Sectaries and Disloyal persons That if any person or persons above the age of sixteen years should obstinately refuse to repair to some Church Chappel or usual place of Common-Prayer to hear Divine Service established or shall forbear to do the same by the space of a Month without lawful cause or should move or perswade any other person whatsoever to forbear and abstain from coming to the Church to hear Divine Service or to receive the Communion according to the Laws and Statutes aforesaid or to come or be present at any unlawful Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under pretence of Religious Exercise contrary to the Laws and Statutes made in that behalf or should at any time after forty days from the end of that Session by Printing Writing or express Words or Speeches advisedly and purposely go about to move or perswade any of Her Majesty's Subjects or any other within Her Highness Realms and Dominions to deny withstand or impugn Her Majesty's Power and Authority in causes Ecclesiastical united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm That then every person so offending and convicted of it should be committed unto Prison without Bail or Main-prise till he or they should testifie their Conformity by coming to some Church Chappel or other place of Common-prayer to hear Divine Service and to make open submission and declaration of the same in such form and manner as by the said Statute was provided Now that we may the better see what great care was taken as well by the two Houses of Parliament as by the Queen Her self for preserving the Honour of the Church the Jurisdiction of the Bishops and the Royal Prerogative in both it will not be amiss to represent that Form to the eye of the Reader in which the said Submission was to be delivered The tenour whereof was as followeth viz. 26. I A. B. do humbly confess and acknowledg That I have grievously offended God in contemning Her Majesty's godly and lawful Government and Authority by absenting my self from Church and from hearing Divine Service contrary to the godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm and in using and frequenting disordered and unlawful Conventicles and Assemblies under pretence and colour of exercise of Religion And I am heartily sorry for the same and do acknowledg and testifie in my Conscience That no person or persons hath or ought to have any Power or Authority over Her Majesty And I do promise and protest without any dissimulation or any colour of means of any Dispensation That from henceforth I will from time to time obey and perform Her Majesty's Laws and Statutes in repairing to the Church and hearing Divine Service and do mine utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same 27. This Declaration to be made in some Church or Chappel before the beginning of Divine Service within three Months after the conviction of the said Offenders who otherwise were to abjure the Realm and to depart the same at such time and place as should be limited
in regard the Bishop could not satisfie them in their expectations they are resolved to satisfie themselves out of his Estate and either for his sake or their own to cast off all relation to the Duke of Savoy as their Patron Paramount And though both Lords did afterwards unite against them and besieged the Town yet by the help of those of Berne with whom they joyned themselves in a strict Confederacie they repulsed them both Since which time they have strongly fortified the Town on all sides but most especially on that side which lies toward Savoy and would never since permit the Duke to arm any Boats or Galleys upon the Lake for fear he might make use of them to their disadvantage 5. The power and dominion of that Citie being thus put into the hands of the common people it could not be expected that any Discipline or good Order should be kept in the Church The Common-Council of the Town disposed of all things as they pleased and if any Crime which anciently belonged to the Ecclesiastical Discipline did happen to be committed in it it was punished by order from the Council No Censures Ecclesiastical no Sentence of Excommunication was either thought on at Geneva or at that time in any other of the Popular Churches modelled according to the Form devised by Zuinglius as Beza hath observed in the Life of Calvin The like affirmed by Calvin also in his Letter above-mentioned to those of Zurick who grants it to have been a received opinion with some very grave and learned men that Excommunication was not necessary under Christian Magistrates And so it stood till Calvin's coming to the Citie Anno 1536 who being born at Noyon Noviodunum the chief Town of Picardie was by his father destined to the Civil Laws but his own inclination carried him rather to the studie of Divinity in the pursuit whereof he first began to fancie the Reformed Religion and finding no assurance in the Realm of France resolved to fix himself in Strasburgh or Basil. But taking Geneva in his way upon the importunity of Farellus he condescended to make that place the Scene of his actions and endeavours and his aâ—â—eâ—â— being once made known he was forthwith admitted to be one of their Preachers and in the Month of August chosen their Divinity Reader This done he presently negotiates with them not onely to abjure the Papacie with all obedience to their Bishop forth enime to come but to admit some heads of Doctrine and such a Form of Discipline as he and his colleagues had devised for them And he prevailed in it at the last though with no small difficulty the said Discipline being generally sworn and subscribed unto 20 Iuly 1537. Which Form of Discipline what it was I have nowhere found but sure I am that it had no affinity with the practice of the Primitive Church which Calvin plainly doth acknowledge in his Letter to Sadolet who had objected it against him But the people being proud and headstrong and not willing to be stripped so easily of the precious Liberty which so happily they had acquired became soon weary of the yoke though they disguised it under colour of not giving offence to those of Berne Zurick and the rest of their neighbours whose friendship was most necessary for them in all time of trouble But Calvin being peremptory not to administer the Communion unto any of those who could not quietly without contradiction submit themselves unto the Discipline which themselves had sworn to and having Farellus and Coraldus two of his Associates in conjunction with him together with his two Associates is expelled the Town 6. Three years or thereabouts he continued in his excile being bountifully entertain'd at Strasburgh where by his diligent preaching and laborious writings he grew into a greater reputation then the rest of their Ministers the fame whereof being daily posted to Geneva made them first sensible of the loss that they suffered in him and afterwards procured them to sollicite the Chief Magistrates of the City of Strasburgh to license his return unto them from whence at last with unresistable importunity he was again recalled by that unconstant multitude A desire to which by no means he would hearken unless both they and all their Ministers would take a solemn Oath to admit a compleat Form of Discipline not arbitrary nor changeable but to remain in force for ever after Upon assurance of their conformity herein he returns unto them like another Tully unto Rome and certainly we may say of him as the Historian doth of the other that never man was banished with greater insolence nor welcomed home again with an equal gladness On the 13 day of September 1541 he is received into the Town and on the 20 of November following he confirm'd his Discipline which he had modelled in this manner A standing Ecclesiastical Court to be established perpetual Judges in that Court to be the Ministers others of the people annually chosen twice so many in number to be Judges together with them in the same Court this Court to have care of all mens Manners power of determining all kinde of Ecâ—lesiastical causes and Authority to convent to control and to punish as far as with Excommunication whensoever they should think to have deserved it none either small or great excepted To this device he brought the people to submit without any reluctancie for what cause had they to suspect any yoak or bondage to be intended in that project wherein they had a double Vote to each single Minister and consequently a double number on their side upon all occasions But when the first year was expired and that the Elders of that year were to leave their places they then perceived how much they had inthralled themselves by their own facility And now they began to have some fear that the filling up of the Seats in the Consistory with so geat a number of Lay-men was but to please the mindes of the people to the end they might think themselves of some power therein that their Pastors being men of parts and practised in affairs of that nature would easily over-rule the rest though the greater number that the Lay-elders being onely annual and changed from one year to another might first or last come under the severe lash of their Pastors who were in a perpetuaâ— residencie if they should dare at any time to act against them by their double Vote and that amongst the Ministers themselves one being far in estimation above the rest the rest of the voices are most likely to be given with reference to his will and pleasure which what else were it in effect but to bring in Popery again by another name in setting over them a Supream Pastor or perpetual Residence with power to carry all before him 7. But nothing gave them more offence then the confidence of that vast and unlimited power which was to be put
obedient subjects The Kings escape was made in the end of Iune and in December following he calls a Convention of the Estates in which the subject of his Proclamation was approved and verified the fact declared to be Crimen laesae Majestatis or Treason in the highest degree For which as some were executed and others fled so divers of the Ministers that had been dealers in that matter pretending they were persecuted had retired into England For notwithstanding his Majesties great clemency in pardoning the Conspirators on such easie conditions they preferred rather the pursuing of their wicked purposes then the enjoying of a peaceable and quiet life For whether it were that they presumed on supplies from England of which they had received no inâ—â—obable hopes as afterwards was confessed by the Earl of Gowry or that they built upon the Kirk-Faction to come in to aid them as the General Assembly had required they begin in all places to prepare for some new Commotion but being deceived in all their hopes and expectations they were confined to several Prisons before the Convention of Estates and after it upon a further discovery of their preparations and intentions compelled to quit the Kingdome and betake themselves for their protection unto several Nations Onely the Earl of Gowry staid behind the rest and he paid well for it For being suspected to be hammering some new design he was took Prisoner at Dundee in the April following 1584 thence brought to Edenborough and there condemned and executed as he had deserved In the mean time the Kirk-men were as troublesome as the Lay-Conspirators Dury so often mentioned in a Sermon at Edenborough had justified the fact at Ruthen for which being cited to appear before the Lords of the Council he stood in maintainance of that which he had delivered but afterwards submitting himself unto the King on more sober thoughts he was kept upon his good â—ehaviour without further punishment But Andrew Melvin was a man of another metal who being commanded to attend their Lordships for the like offence declined the judgement of the King and Council as having no cognizance of the cause To make which good he broached this Presbyterian Doctrine That whatsoever was spoken in the Pulpit ought first to be tryed by the Presbyterie and that neither the King nor Council were to meddle with it though the same were treasonable till the Presbyterie had first taken notice of it But finding that the King and Council did resolve to proceed and had entred upon Examination of some Witnesses which were brought against him he told the King whether with greater Confidence or Impudence is hard to say That he preached the Laws both of God and man For which undutiful Expression he was commanded Prisoner to the Castle of Blackness Instead whereof he takes Sanctuary in the Town of Berwick where he remained till way was made for his return the Pulpits in the mean time sounding nothing but that the Light of the Countrey for Learning and Piety was forced for safety of his life to forsake the Kingdom In which Exile he was followed within few moneths after by Palvart Sub-Dean of Glasgow Galloway and Carmichiel two inferior Ministers who being warned to tender their appearance to the King and Council and not appearing at the time were thereupon pronounced Rebels and fled after the other Nor was the General Assembly held at Edenborough of a better temper then these Preachers were in which the Declaration made at the last Convention of Estates was stoutly crossed and encountred The King with the advice of his Estates had resolved the Fact of surprizing His Majesties person to be treasonable But the Brethren in the said Assembly did not onely authorize and avow the same but also esteeming their own judgement to be the Soveraign judgement of the Realm did ordain all them to be excommunicated that would subscribe unto their opinion 61. The King perceiving that there was no other way to deal with these men then to husband the present opportunity to his best advantage resolved to proceed against them in such a way as might disable them from committing the like insolencies for the time to come The chief Incendiaries had been forced to quit the Kingdom or otherwise deserted it of their own accords the better to escape the punishment which their crimes had merited The great Lords on whose strength they had most presumed were either under the like exile in the neighbouring Countries or else so weakned and disanimated that they durst not stir So that the King being clearly Master of the Field his Counsellors in good heart and generally the Lords and Commons in good terms of obedience it was thought fit to call a Parliament and therein to enact such Laws by which the honour of Religion the personal safety of the King the peace and happiness of the Kingdom and the prosperity of the Church might be made secure In which Parliament it was enacted amongst others things the better to encounter the proceedings of the Kirk and most Zealous Kirkmen That none of his Highness Subjects in time coming should presume to take upon them by word or writing to justifie the late treasonable attempt at Ruthen or to keep in register or store any Books approving the same in any sort And in regard the Kirk had so abused his Majesties goodness by which their Presbyterial Sessions the general Assemblies and other meetings of the Kirk were rather connived at then allowed an Act was made to regulate and restrain them for the times ensuing for by that Act it was ordained That from thenceforth none should presume or take upon them to Convocate Convene or assemble themselves together for holding of Councils Conventions or Assemblies to treat consult or determine in any matters of Estate Civil or Ecclesiastical excepting the ordinary judgements without the Kings special commandment 62. In the next place the Kings lawful Authority in causes Ecclesiastical so often before impugned was approved and confirmed and it was made treason for any man to refuse to answer before the King though it were concerning any matter which was Ecclesiastical The third Estate of Parliament that is the Bishops were restored to the ancient dignity and it was made treason for any man after that time to procure the innovation or diminution of the Power and Authority of any of the three Estates And for as much as through the wicked licentious publick and private Speeches and untrue calumnies of divers his Highness subjects I speak the very words of the Act to the disdain contempt and reproach of his Majesty his Council and proceedings stirring up his Highness subjects thereby to misliking sedition unquietness to cast off their due oâ—edience to his Majesty Therefore it is ordained that none of his subjects shall presume or take upon them privately or publickly in Sermons Declamations oâ— familiar Conferences to utter any false scandalous and untrue Speeches to the disdain reproach and contempt of
his Majesty his Council and proceedings or to meddle in the Affairs of his Highness under pain of treason And lastly an Act was paâ—s'd for calling in of Buchanans History that Master-piece of Sedition intituled De jure Regni apud Sootos and that most infamous Libel which he called The Detection by which last Acts his Majesty did not onely take care for preventing the like scandalous and seditious practices for the time to come but satisfied himself by taking some revenge upon them in the times foregoing 63. The Ministers could not want intelligence of particulars before they were passed into Acts. And now or never was the time to bestir themselves when their dear Helena was in such apparent danger to be ravished from them And first it was thought necessary to send one of their number to the King to mediate either for the total dismissing of the Bills prepared or the suspending of them at the least for a longer time not doubting if they gained the last but that the first would easily follow of it self On this Errand they imploy Mr. David Lindsay Minister of the Church of Leith a man more moderate then the rest and therefore more esteemed by the King then any other of that body And how far he might have prevailed it is hard to say But Captain Iames Stewart commonly called the Earl of Arran who then governed the Affairs of that Kingdom having notice of it caused him to be arrested under colour of maintaining intelligence with the Fugitive Ministers in England imprisoned him for one night in Edenborough and sends him the next day to the Castle of Blackness where he remained almost a year Upon the news of his commitment Lawson and Belcanqual two of the Ministers of Edenborough forsake their Churchâ—s and joyn themselves unto their Brethren in England first leaving a Manifest behind them in which they published the Reasons of their sudden departure Iohn Dury so often before mentioned had lately been confined at Montross so that no Preacher was now left in Edenborough or the Port adjoyning to intercede for themselves and the Kirk in that present exigent By means whereof the Acts were passed without interruption But when they were to be proclaimed as the custom is Mr. Robert Pont Minister of St. Cutberts and one of the Senators of the Colledge of Justice for the good Ministers might act in Civil Matters though the Bishops might not took Instruments in the hands of a publick Notary and openly protested against those Acts never agreed to by the Kirk and therefore that neither the Kirk nor any of the Kirk-men were obliged to be obedient to them Which having done he fled also into England to the rest of his Brethren and being proclaimed Rebel lost his place in the Sessions 64 The flying of so many Ministers and the noise they made in England against those Acts encreased a scandalous opinion which themselves had raised of the Kings being inclined to Popery and it began to be so generally believed that the King found himself under a necessity of rectifying his reputation in the eye of the world by a publick Manifest In which he certified as well to his good subjects as to all others whatsoever whom it might concern as well the just occasion which had moved him to pass those Acts as the great Equity and Reason which appeared in them And amongst these occasions he reckoneth the justifying of the Fact at Ruthen by the publick suffrage of the Kirk Melvins declining of the judgement of the King and Council the Fast indicted at the entertainment of the French Ambassadors their frequent general Fasts proclaimed and kept in all parts of the Realm by their Authority without his privity and consent the usurping of the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction by a certain number of Ministers and unqualified Gentlemen in the Presbyteries and Assemblies the alteration of the Laws and making new ones at their pleasure which must binde the Subject the drawing to themselves of all such Causes though properly belonging to the Courts of Justice in which was any mixture of scandal On which account they forced all those also to submit to the Churches Censures who had been accused in those Courts for Murther Theft or any like enormous crimes though the party either were absolved by the Court it self or pardoned by the King after condemnation But all this could not stop the Mouthes and much less stay the Pens of that Waspish Sect some flying out against the King in their scurrilous Libels bald Pamphlets and defamatory Rythmes others with no less violence inveighing against him in their Pulpits but most especially in England where they were out of the Kings reach and consequently might rail on without fear of punishment By them it was given out to render the King odious both at home and abroad That the King endeavoured to extinguish the light of the Gospel and to that end had caused those Acts to pass against it That he had left nothing of the whole ancient Form of Justice and Polity in the Spiritual Estate but a naked shaddow That Popery was immediately to be established if God and all good men came not in to help them That for opposing these impieties they had been forced to flee their Country and sing the Lords Song in a strange Land with many other reproachful and calumnious passages of like odious nature 65. But loosers may have leave to talk as the saying is and by this barking they declared sufficiently that they could not bite I have now brought the Presbyterians to their lowest fall but we shall see them very shortly in their resurrections In the mean time it will be seasonable to pass into England that we may see how things were carried by their Brethren there till we have brought them also to this point of time and then we shall unite them all together in the course of their story The end of the fifth Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB VI. Containing The beginning progress and proceedings of the Puritan-Faction in the Realm of England in reference to their Innovations both in Doctrines and Forms of Worship their Opposition to the Church and the Rules thereof from the beginning of the Reign of King Edward VI. 1548 to the Fifteenth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1572. 1. THE Reformation of the Church of England was put into so good a way by King Henry the Eighth that it was no hard matter to proceed upon his beginnings He had once declared himself so much in favour of the Church of Rome by writing against Martin Luther that he was honored with the Title of Defensor Fidei or the Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X. Which Title he afterwards united by Act of Parliament to the Crown of this Realm not many years before his death But a breach hapning betwixt him and Pope Clement VII concerning his desired Divorce he first prohibits all appeals and other occasions of resort to
their Bishop to whom the planting of so many Dutch Churches in the principal City and other of the chief Towns of his Diocess had given trouble enough To the Petition of the Kentish Ministers which concerned himself he was required to answer at the Council-Table on the Sunday following Instead whereof he lays before them in the Letter That the Petitioners for the most part were ignorant and raw young men few of them licensed Preachers and generally disaffected to the present Government That he had spent the best part of two or three days in labouring to reduce them to a better understanding of the points in question but not being able to prevail he had no otherwise proceeded then the Law required That it was not for him to sit in that place if every Curate in his Diocess might be permitted so to use him nor possible for him to perform the Duty which the Queen expected at his hands if he might not proceed to the execution of that power by her Majesty committed to him without interruption That he could not be perswaded that their Lordships had any purpose to make him a party or to require him to come before them to defend those actions wherein he supposed that he had no other Iudge but the Queen her self and therefore in regard that he was called by God to that place and function wherein he was to be their Pastor he was the rather moved to desire their assistance in matters pertaining to his Office for the quietness of the Church the credit of Religion and the maintainance of the Laws in defence thereof without expecting any such attendance on them as they had required for fear of giving more advantage to those wayward persons then he conceived they did intend And thereunto he added this protestation That the three Articles whereunto they were moved to subscribe were such as he was ready by Learning to defend in manner and form as there set down against all opponents either in England or elsewhere 39. In reference to the paper of the Suffolk Ministers he returns this answer It seemeth something strange to me that the Ministers of Suffolk finding themselves agrieved with the doings of their Diocesans should leave the ordinary course of proceeding by the Law which is to appeal unto me and extraordinarily trouble your Lordships in a matter not so incident as I think to that honourable Board seeing it hath pleased her Majesty her own self in express words to commit these causes Ecclesiastical to me as to one who is to make answer unto God and her Majesty in this behalf my Office also and place requiring the same In answer unto their complaint touching their ordinary proceedings with them I have herewith sent your Lordships a Copy of a Letter lately received from his Lordship wherein I think that part of their Bill to be fully answered Touching the rest I know not what to judge of it but in some points it talketh as I think modestly and charitably They say they are no Iesuits sent from Rome to reconcile c. True it is neither are they charged to be so but notwithstanding they are contentious in the Church of England and by their contentions minister occasion of offence to those which are seduced by Jesuits and give the Sacraments against the form of publick Prayer used in this Church and by Law established and thereby increase the number of them and confirm them in their wilfulness They also make a Schism in the Church and draw many other of her Majesties Subjects to a misliking of her Laws and Government in Causes Ecclesiastical So far are they from perswading them to obedience or at the least if they perswade them to it in the one part of her Authority it is in Causes Civil they disswade them from it as much in the other that iâ— in Causes Ecclesiastical so that indeed they pluck down with the one hand that which they seem to build with the other 40. More of which Letter might be added were not this sufficient as well to shew how perfectly he understood both his place and power as with what courage and discretion he proceeded in the maintenance of it Which being observed by some great men about the Court who had ingaged themselves in the Puritan quarrels but were not willing to incur the Queens displeasure by their opposition it was thought best to stand a while behind the Curtain and set Beal upon him of whose impetuosity and edge against him they were well assured This Beal was in himself a most eager Puritan trained up by Walsingham to draw dry-foot after Priests and Jesuits his extream hatred to those men being looked on as the onely good quality which he could pretend to But being over-blinded by zeal and passion he was never able to distinguish rightly between truth and falshood between true Sanctity and the counterfeit appearance of it This made him first conceive that whatsoever was not Puritan must needs be Popish and that the Bishops were to be esteemed no otherwise then the sons of Antichrist because they were not looked upon as Fathers by the holy Brotherhood And so far was he hurried on by these dis-affections that though he was preferred to be one of the Clerks of the Council yet he preferred the interest of the Faction before that of the Queen Insomuch that he was noted to jeer and gibe at all such Sermons as did most commend Her Majesties Government and move the Auditory to obedience not sparing to accuse the Preachers upon such occasions to have broached false Doctrine and falsly to alledge the Scriptures in defence thereof This man had either writ or countenanced a sharp Discourse against Subscription inscribed to the Archbishop and presented to him and thereupon caused speeches to be cast abroad that the three Articles to which Subscription was required should shortly be revoked by an Act of the Council which much encreased the obstinacy of the self-willed Brethren But after fearing lest the Queen might have a sight of the Papers he resolved to get them out of his hands and thereupon went over to Lambeth where he behaved himself in such a rude and violent manner as forced the Archbishop to give an acconnt thereof by Letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh who hitherto had stood fair towards him in these following words 41. I have born saith he with Mr. Beals intemperate speeches unseemly for him to use though not in respect of my self yet in respect of Her Majestie whom he serveth and of the Laws established whereunto he ought to shâ—w some duty Yesterday he came to my house as it seems to demand the Book he delivered unto me I told him That the book was written unto me and therefore no reason why he should require it again especially seeing I was assured that he had a Copy thereof otherwise I would cause it to be written out for him Whereupon he fell into very great passions with me which I think
Tyrants of preceding times which comes up close to those irreverent and lewd expressions which frequently occur in Calvin Beza Knox c. in reference to the two Mary's Queens of England and Scotland and other Princes of that age which have been formerly recited in their proper places 35. The Royal Family being thus wretchedly exposed to the publick hatred he next applyes himself to stir up all the world against them both at home and abroad And first he laboureth to excite some desperate Zealot to commit the like assassinate on the King then Reigning as one Bodillus is reported in some French Histories to have committed on the person of Chilprick one of the last Kings of the Merovignians which he commemorates for a Noble and Heroick action and sets it out for an example and encouragement to some gallant French-man for the delivery of his Country from the Tyranny of the House of Valois the ruine whereof he mainly drives at in his whole designe And though he seem to make no doubt of prevailing in it yet he resolves to try his Fortune otherwise if that should fail And first beginning with their next neighbour the King of Spain he he puts them in remembrance of those many injuries which he and his Ancestors had received from the House of Valois acquaints him with the present opportunity which was offered to him of revenging of thoâ—e wrongs and making himself Master of the Realm of France and chalks him out a way how he might effect it that is to say by coming to a present Accord with the Prince of Orange indulging Liberty of Conscience to the Belgick Provinces and thereby drawing all the Hugonots to adhere unto him which counsel if he did not like he might then make the same use of the Duke of Savoy for whom the Hugonots in France had no small affection and by bestowing on him the adjoyning Regions of Lyonoise Dâ—ulphine and Provence might make himself Lord of all the rest without any great trouble The like temptation must be given to the Queen of England by putting her in minde of her pretences to the Crown it self and shewing how easie a thing it might be for her to acquire those Countries whose Arms and Titles she assumed with like disloyalty he excites the Princes of the Empire to husband the advantage which was offered to them for the recovering of Metz Toule and Verdun three Imperial Cities by this Kings Father wrested betwixt fraud and force from Charles the Fifth and ever since incorporated with the Realm of France If all which failed he is resolved to cast himself on the Duke of Guise though the most mortal and implacable enemy of the Hugonot Faction and makes a full address to him in a second Epistle prefixt before the Book it self in which he puts him in remembrance of his old pretensions to the Crown of France extorted by Hugh Capet from his Ancestors of the House of Loraigne offereth him the assistance of the Hugonot party for the recovery of his Rights and finally beseeches him to take compassion of his ruined Country cheerfully to accept the Crown and free the Kingdom from the spoil and tyranny of Boyes and Women together with that infinite train of Strangers Bawdes and Leachers which depend on them which was as great a Master-piece in the art of mischief as the wit of malice could devise 36. As for his Doctrines in reference to the common duties between Kings and Subjects we may reduce them to these heads that is to say 1. That the Authority of Kings and Supreme Magistrates is circumscribed and limited by certain bounds which if they pass their Subjects are no longer tyed unto their obedience that Magistrates do exceed those bounds when either they command such things as God forbiddeth or prohibit that which he commands that therefore they are no longer to be obeyed if their Commands are contrary to the Rules of Piety or Christian Charity of which the Subjects must be thought the most competent Judges 2. That there were companies and societies of men before any Magistrates were set over them which Magistrates were no otherwise set over them then by common consent that every Magistrate so appointed was bound by certain Articles and Conditions agreed between them which he was tyed by Oath to preserve inviolable that the chief end for which the people chose a Superiour Magistrate was that they might remain in safety under his protection and therefore if such Magistrates either did neglect that end or otherwise infringe the Articles of their first Agreement the Subjects were then discharged from the bond of obedience and that being so discharged from the bond of obedience it was as lawful for them to take up Arms against their King in maintainance of their Religion Laws and Liberties if indangered by him as for a Traveller to defend himself by force of Arms against Thieves and Robbers 3. That no Government can be rightly constituted in which the Grandeur of the Prince is more consulted then the weal of the People that to prevent all such incroachments on the Common Liberty the people did reserve a power of putting a curb upon their Prince or Supreme Magistrates to hold them in such as the Tribunes were in Rome to the Senate and Consuls and the Ephori to the Kings of Sparta that such a power as that of the Spartan Ephori is vested in the seven Electors of the German Empire which gives them an Authority to depose the Emperour if they see cause for it and that the like may be affirmed of the English Parliaments who oftentimes have condemned their Kings but he knows not whom 4. That by the first constitutions of the Realm of France the Supreme power was not entrusted to the King but the three Estates so that it was not lawful for the King to proclaim a War or to lay Taxes on the people but by their consent that these Estates assembled in a Common Council did serve instead of eyes and ears to a prudent Prince but to a wicked and ungoverned for Bit or Bridle and that according to this power they dethroned many of their Kings for their Lusts Luxuries Cruelty Slothfulness Avarice c. that if they proceeded not in like manner with the King then Reigning it was because they had an high esteem with scorn and insolence enough of his eminent Vertues his Piety Justice and Fidelity and the great commendations which was given of his Mothers Chastity and therefore finally which was the matter to be proved by those Factious Principles that it was altogether as lawful for the French to defend themselves their Laws and Liberties against the violent assault of a furious Tyrant so he calls their King as a Traveller by Thieves and Robbers Which Aphorisms he that listeth to consult in the Author may finde them from pag. 57. to 66. of the second Dialogue and part 1. pag. 8. 37. But notwithstanding these indignities
in earnest the name of Gheuses and by that name were solemnly proclaimed by that Raskal Rabble at their coming out which name being taken thus upon them as the mark of their Faction was afterwards communicated to all those of the same Religion 28. Returning to their several dwellings they caused a mischievous report to be spread abroad not onely that they had obtained a suspension of the Emperours Edicts and an exemption from the power of the Inquisition but that the Companions of the Order of the Golden Fleece being men of most Authority both in Court and Council had declared for them in the Cause To gain belief to which report a false and counterfeit paper is dispersed amongst them in which it was notified to all that should read the same that the Lords and Companions of the Fleece had sworn by their Order to the Gentlemen chosen by the Estates of the Country to present the desires of the people to the Lady Regent That from thenceforth the Ecclesiastical Inquisitors and other Magistrates should punish no man for his Religion neither by imprisonment exile or death unless it were joyned with a popular tumult and the publick ruine of their Country of which the Covenanters themselves were to be the Iudges And though the Governess took the wisest and most speedy course both to discover and proclaim the danger of so lewd a practice and used all honest ways for the undeceiving of the people in that Particular yet either she obtained no credit to her Anti-Remonstrances or found the Venome too far spread for so weak an Antidote For presently upon the scattering and dispersing of the said Declaration as many of the Reformed parties as had fled the Country returned again unto their Houses and such as had concealed themselves or otherwise dissembled their Religion began more confidently to a vow the profession of it For whose incouragement and increase there was no want of diligence in such of the Ministers as resorted to them out of France first preaching to them in the Fields and afterwards in some of their open Towns but every where bitterly inveighing against the Tyranny of the Pope the pride of Spain and the corruptions of the Clergy but most especially of the Bishops whom they chiefly aimed at By these invectives and their continual preaching up of a popular liberty their followers so exceedingly increased in a very short time that in the Fields near the Citie of Toâ—rnay there were seen no fewer then eight thousand persons at a Sermon a greater multitude then that in the Fields near Lisles and sometimes more then double that number in the fields near Antwerp But in such Parts and Provinces as lay nearest France they took greater liberty and fell from Preaching to the Ministration of the Sacraments and Sacramentals Marrying some and Baptizing others according to the Form devised by Calvin but Sanctifying all by a continual intermixture of Davids Psalms translated into French Meter as before was said Together with these French Preachers and Calvinian Ministers there entred several Emissaries sent from the Admiral Colligni the Prince of Conde and others of the Heads of the Hugonot Faction whose interest it was to imbroyl the Netherlands that they themselves might fear no such danger on that side as formerly they had received And these men play'd their parts so well that a confused Rabble of the common people furnished with Staves Hatchets Hammers and Ropes and armed with some few Swords and Muskets upon the Eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin fell violently into the Towns and Villages about St. Omers one of the chief Cities of Artois forced open all the Doors of Churches and Religious Houses if they found them shut demolished all the Altars and defaced the Shrines and broke the Images in pieces not sparing any thing which in the Piety of their Ancestors was accounted sacred Encouraged by which good success they drive on to Ipres a Town of Flanders where they were sure to finde a party prepared for them by which the Gates of the City were set open to give them entrance no sooner were they entred but they went directly to the Cathedral their multitudes being much increased all the way they came where presently they fell to work some beating down the Images with Staves and Hammers some pulling down the Statues of our Saviour with Ropes and Ladders other defacing Pulpits Altars and the Sacred Ornaments burning the Books and stealing the Consecrated Plate With the same fury they proceeded to the burning of the Bishops Library and the destroying of all Churches and Religious Houses within that City in which they found as little opposition from the hands of that Magistrate as if they had been hired and imployed in that service by the Common Council About the same time that is to say on the morrow after the Assumption another party being of the same affections and taking both example and encouragement from this impunity fall into Menim Commines Vervich and other Towns upon the Lys In all which they committed the like impious out-rages carrying away with them Plate and Vestments and all other consecrated things which were easily portable but burning or destroying what they could not carry The like they would have done also at the Town of Seclin but that the people rose in Arms assaulted them and drove them back not without great slaughter of that mutinous and seditious Rabble and some loss of themselves 30. In Antwerp the chief City of Brabant they found better Fortune They had before attained to so great a confidence that having assembled in the Fields to hear a Sermon according to their usual custom and finding their number to amount unto fifteen thousand they mounted their Preacher on a Horse and brought him triumphantly into the City attended by a strong Guard both of Horse and Foot to the great terrour and affrightment of the principal Magistrates For remedy of which disorders the Governess sent thither the Count of Megen and afterwards the Prince of Orange with some slender Forces on the approaching of which last for the first was presently recalled as a man less popular infinite multitudes of the people went out to meet him entertained him with the accustomed acclamation of Vive les Gueux and cryed him up for the great Patron and Protector of the Belgick Liberty At which though he seemed outwardly to be somewhat offended yet it was easie to be seen that he received a secret contentment in it and therefore acted nothing whilst he stayed amongst them by which he might become less gracious in the eye of that Faction then he was before Encouraged by which remisness and being privately excited by some of his Followers they abate little or nothing of their former insolencies which they discovered not long after his departure to the Court of Brussels by their violent disturbance of a solemn Procession made by the Clergy of that City in honour of their supposed Patroness the
run on till they came to the end of the Race of which in general King Iames hath given us this description in a Declaration of his published not long after the surprising of his person by the Earl of Gowry 15â—2 where we finde it thus The Bishops having imbraced the Gospel it was at first agreed even by the Brethren with the consent of Regent that the Bishops estate should be maintained and authorized This endured for sundry years but then there was no remedy the Calling it self of Bishops was at least become Antichristian and down they must of necessity whereupon they commanded the Bishops by their own Authority to leave their Offices and Iurisdiction They decreed in their Assemblies That Bishops should have no vote in Parliament and that done they desired of the King that such Commissioners as they should send to the Parliament and Council might from thenceforth be authorized in the Bishops places for the Estate They also directed their Commissioners to the Kings Majesty commanding him and the Council under pain of the Censures of the Church Excommunication they meant to appoint no Bishops in time to come because they the Brethren had concluded that State to be unlawful And that it might appear to those of the suffering party that they had not acted all these things without better Authority then what they had given unto themselves they dispatched their Letters unto Beza who had succeeded at Geneva in the Chair of Calvin from whence they were encouraged and perswaded to go on in that course and never re-admit that plague he means thereby the Bishops to have place in that Church although it might flatter them with a shew of retaining unity 17. But all this was not done at once though laid here together to shew how answerable their proceedings were to their first beginnings To cool which heats and put some Water in their Wine the Queen by practising on her Keepers escapes the Prison and puts her self into Hamilton Castle to which not onely the dependants of that powerful Family but many great Lords and divers others did with great cheerfulness repair unto her with their several followers Earl Murray was at Stirling when this news came to him and it concerned him to bestir himself with all celerity before the Queens power was grown too great to be disputed He therefore calls together such of his Friends and their adherents as were near unto him and with them gives battail to the Queen who in this little time had got together a small Army of four thousand men The honour of the day attends the Regent who with the loss of one man onely bought an easie Victory which might have proved more bloudy to the conquered Army for they lost but three hundred in the fight it he had not commanded back his Souldiers from the execution The Queen was placed upon a Hill to behold the battail But when she saw the issue of it she posted with all speed to the Port of Kerbright took Ship for England and landed most unfortunately as it after proved at Wirckington in the County of Cumberland From thence she dispatched her Letters to Queen Elizabeth full of Complaints and passionate bewailings of her wretched fortune desires admittance to her presence and that she might be taken into her protection sending withal a Ring which that Queen had given her to be an everlasting token of that love and amity which was to be maintained between them But she soon found how miserably she had deceived her self in her Expectations Murray was grown too strong for her in the Court of England and others which regarded little what became of him were glad of her misfortunes in relation to their own security which could not better be consulted then by keeping a good Guard upon her now they had her there And so instead of sending for her to the Court the Queen gives order by Sir Francis Knollis whom she sent of purpose to remove the distressed Lady to Carlisle as the safer place until the equity of her cause might be fully known She hath now took possession of the Realm which she had laid claim to but shall pay dearly for the purchase the Crown whereof shall come at last to her Posterity though it did not fall upon her person 18. Now that the equity of her cause might be understood the Regent is required by Letters from the Court of England to desist from any further prosecution of the vanquished party till that Queen were perfectly informed in all particulars touching these Affairs Which notwithstanding he thought fit to make use of his Fortune summoned a Parliament in which some few of each sort noble and ignoble were proscribed for the present by the terrour whereof many of the rest submitted and they which would not were reduced by force of Arms. Elizabeth not well pleased with these proceedings requires that some Commissioners might be sent from Scotland to render an account to her or to her Commissioners of the severity and hard dealing which they had shewed unto their Queen And hereunto he was necessitated to conform as the case then stood The French being totally made against him the Spaniards more displeased then they and no help 〈◊〉 be had from any but the English onely At York Commissioners attend from each part in the end of September From Queen Elizabeth Thomas Duke of Norfolk Thomas Earl of Sussex and Sir Ralph Sadlier Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster For the unfortunate Queen of Scots Iohn Lesly Bishop of Ross the Lords Levington Boyd c. And for the Infant King besides the Regent himself there appeared the Earl of Morton the Lord Lindsay and certain others After such protestations made on both sides as seemed expedient for preserving the Authority of the several Crowns an Oath is took by the Commissioners to proceed in the business according to the Rules of Justice and Equity The Commissioners from the Infant-King present a Declaration of their proceedings in the former troubles to which an answer is returned by those of the other side Elizabeth desiring to be better satisfied in some particulars requires the Commissioners of both sides some of them at the least to repair unto her where after much sending and proving as the saying is there was nothing done which might redound unto the benefit of the Queen of Scots 19. For whilst these matters were in agitation in the Court of England Letters of hers were intercepted written by her to those which continued of her party in the Realm of Scotland In which Letters she complained that the Queen of England had not kept promise with her but yet desired them to be of good heart because she was assured of aid by some other means and hoped to be with them in a short time Which Letters being first sent to Murray and by him shewed to Queen Elizabeth prevailed so much for his advantage that he was not onely dismissed with favour but waited
leaving the Reader for his further satisfaction to the History of the Reformation not long since published in which they are laid down at large in their times and places 9. Nor did they work less trouble to the Church in those early days by their endeavouring to advance some Zuinglian Doctrines by which the blame of all mens sins was either charged upon Gods will or his Divine Decree of Predestination These men are called in Bishop Hooper's Preface to the Ten Commandments by the name of Gospellers for making their new Doctrines such a necessary part of our Saviours Gospel as if men could not possibly be saved without it These Doctrines they began to propagate in the Reign of King Edward but never were so busie at it as when they lived at Geneva or came newly thence For first Knox publisheth a book against an Adversary of Gods Predestination wherein it is declared That whatsoever the Ethnicks and ignorant did attribute to Fortune by Christians is to be assigned to Gods heavenly Providence That we ought to judge nothing to come of Fortune but that all cometh by the determinate counsel of God And finally that it would be displeasing unto God if we esteem any thing to proceed from any other and that we do not onely behold him as the principal cause of all things but also the Author appointing all things to one or the other by his onely Counsel After came out a book first written in French and aâ—terwards by some of them translated into English which they called A brief Declaration of the Table of Predestination In which is put down for a principal Aphorism That in like manner as God hath appointed the end it is necessary that he should appoint the causes leading to the same end but more particularly That by virtue of Gods will all things are done yea even those things which are evil and execrable 10. At the same time came out another of their books pretended to be writ Against a privy Papist as the Title tells us wherein is maintained more agreeably to Calvins Doctrine That all evil springeth of Gods Ordinance and that Gods Predestination was the cause of Adams fall and of all wickedness And in a fourth book published by Robert Cowley who afterwards was Rector of the Church of S. Giles near Cripplegate intituled The confutation of Thirteen Articles it is said expresly That Adam being so perfect a creature that there was in him no lust to sin and yet so weak that of himself he was not able to resist the assault of the subtile Serpent that therefore there can be no remedy but that the onely cause of his fall must needs be the Predestination of God In which book it is also said That the most wicked persons that have been were of God appointed to be wicked even as they were That if God do predestinate a man to do things rashly and without any deliberation he shall not deliberate at all but run headlong upon it be it good or evil And in a word That we are compelled by Gods Predestination to do those things for which we are damned By which Defenders of the absolute Decree of Reprobation as God is made to be Author of sin either in plain terms or undeniable consequence so from the same men and the Genevian Pamphlets by them dispersed our English Calvinists have borrowed all their Grounds and Principles on which they build the absolute and irrespective Decree of Predestination contrary to the Doctrines publickly maintained and taught in the Church of England in the time of King Edward and afterwards more clearly explicated under Queen Elizabeth 11. Such was the posture of affairs at Queen Elizabeths first coming to the Crown of England when to the points before disputed both at home and abroad was raised another of more weight and consequence then all the rest and such as if it could be gained would bring on the other Such as had lived in exile amongst the Zwitzers or followed Knox at his return unto Geneva became exceedingly enamored of Calvins Platform by which they found so much Authority ascribed unto the Ministers in the several Churches as might make them absolute and independant without being called to an account by King or Bishop This Discipline they purposed to promote at their coming home and to that end leaving some few behind them to attend the finishing of the Bible with the Genevian Notes upon it which was then in the Press the rest return a main for England to pursue the Project But Cox had done their errand before they came and she had heard so much from others of their carriage at Frankfort and their untractableness in point of Decency and comely Order in the Reign of her brother as might sufficiently forewarn her not to hearken to them Besides she was not to be told with what reproaches Calvin had reviled her Sister nor how she had been persecuted by his followers in the time of her Reign some of them railing at her person in their scandalous Pamphlets some practising by false but dangerous allusions to subvert her Government and others openly praying to God That he would either turn her heart or put an end to her days And of these men she was to give her self no hope but that they would proceed with her in the self-same manner whensoever any thing should be done how necessary and just soever which might cross their humours The consideration whereof was of such prevalency with those of her Council who were then deliberating about the altering of Religion that amongst other remedies which were wisely thought of to prevent such dangers as probably might ensue upon it it was resolved to have an eye upon these men who were so hot in the pursuit of their flattering hopes that out of a desire of Innovation as my Author tells me they were busied at that very time in setting up a new Form of Ecclesiastical Polity and therefore were to be supprest with all care and diligence before they grew unto a head 12. But they were men of harder metal then to be broken at the first blow which was offered at them Queen Maries death being certified to those of Geneva they presently dispatched their Letters to their Brethren at Frankfort and Arrow to which Letters of theirs an answer is returned from Frankfort on the third from Arrow on the 16 of Ianuary And thereupon it is resolved to prepare for England before their party was so sunk that it could not without much difficulty be buoyed up again Some of their party which remained all the time in England being impatient of delay and chusing rather to anticipate then expect Authority had set themselves on work in defacing Images demolishing the Altars and might have made foul work if not stopped in time Others began as hastily to preach the Protestant Doctrine in private Houses first and afterwards as opportunity was offered in the open Churches Great multitudes of people resorting to
had begun to raise their thoughts unto higher matters then Caps and Tippets In order whereunto some of them take upon them in their private Parishes to ordain set Fasts and others to neglect the observation of the Annual Festivals which were appointed by the Church some to remove the holy Table from the place of the Altar and to transpose it to the middle of the Quire or Chancel that it might serve the more conveniently for the posture of sitting and others by the help of some silly Ordinaries to impose Books of Forreign Doctrine on their several Parishes that by such Doctrine they might countenance their Actings in the other particulars All which with many other innovations of the like condition were presently took notice of by the Bishops and the rest of the Queens Commissioners and remedies provided for them in a book of Orders published in the year 1561 or the Advertisements before mentioned about four years after Such as proceeded in their oppositions after these Advertisements had the name of Puritans as men that did profess a greater Purity in the Worship of God a greater detestation of the Ceremonies and Corruptions of the Church of Rome then the rest of their brethren under which name were comprehended not onely those which hitherto had opposed the Churches Vestments but also such as afterwards endeavoured to destroy the Liturgy and subvert the Goverment 18. In all this time they could obtain no countenance from the hands of this State though it was once endeavoured for them by the Earl of Leicester whom they had gained to their Patron But it was onely to make use of them as a counterpoise to the Popish party at such time as the Marriage was in agitation between the Lord Henry Stewart and the Queen of Scots if any thing should be attempted by them to disturb the Kingdom the fears whereof as they were onely taken up upon politick ends so the intended favours to the opposite Faction vanished also wiâ—h them But on the contrary we finde the State severe enough against their proceedings even to the deprivation of Dr. Thomas Sampson Dean of Christ-church To which dignity he had been unhappily preferred in the first year of the Queen and being looked upon as head of this Faction was worthily deprived thereof by the Queens Commissioners They found by this severity what they were to trust to if any thing were practised by them against the Liturgy the Doctrine of the Church or the publick Government It cannot be denyed but Goodman Gilbie Whittingham and the rest of the Genevian Conventicle were very much grieved at their return that they could not bear the like sway here in their several Consistories as did Calvin and Beza at Geneva so that they not onely repined and grudged at the Reformation which was made in this Church because not fitted to their Fancies and to Calvins Plat-form but have laboured to sow those Seeds of Heterodoxy and Disobedience which afterwards brought forth those troubles and disorders which ensued upon it But being too wise to put their own Fingers in the fire they presently fell upon a course which was sure to speed without producing any danger to themselues or their party They could not but remember those many advantages which Iohn Alasco and his Church of strangers afforded to the Zuinglian Gospellers in the time of King Edward and they despaired not of the like nor of greater neither if a French Church were setled upon Calvin's Principles in some part of London 19. For the advancement of this project Calvin directs his Letters unto Bishop Grindal newly preferred unto that See that by his countenance or connivance such of the French Nation as for their Conscience had been forced to flee into England might be permitted the Free Exercise of their Religion whose leave being easily obtained for the great reverence which he bares to the name of Calvin they made the like use of some Friends which they had in the Court. By whose sollicitation they procured the Church of St. Anthony not far from Merchant-taylors-Hall then being of no present use for Religious Offices to be assigned unto the French with liberty to erect the Genevian Discipline for ordering the Affairs of their Congregation and to set up a Form of Prayer which had no manner of conformity with the English Liturgy Which what else was it in effect but a plain giving up of the Cause at the first demand which afterwards was contended for with such opposition what else but a Foundation to that following Anarchy which was designed to be obtruded on the Civil Government For certainly the tolerating of Presbytery in a Church founded and established by the Rules of Episcopacie could end in nothing but the advancing of a Commonwealth in the midst of a Monarchy Calvin perceived this well enough and thereupon gave Grindal thanks for his favour in it of whom they after served themselves upon all occasions a Dutch-Church being after setled on the same Foundation in the Augustine Fryars where Iohn Alasco held his Congregation in the Reign of King Edward The inconveniences whereof were not seen at the first and when they were perceived were not easily remedied For the obtaining of which ends there was no man more like to serve them with the Queen then Sir Francis Knollis who having Married a Daughter of the Lord Cary of Hunsdon the Queens Cosin-German was made Comptroller of the Houshold continuing in good Credit and Authority with her upon that account And being also one of those who had retired from Frankfort to Geneva in the time of the Schism did there contract a great acquaintance with Calvin Beza and the rest of the Consistorians whose cause he managed at the Court upon all occasions though afterwards he gave place to the Earl of Leicester as their Principal Agent 20. But the Genevians will finde work enough to imploy them both and having gained their ends will put on for more The Isles of Guernsey and Iarsey the onely remainder of the Crown of England in the Dukedom of Normandy had entertained the Reformation in the Reign of King Edward by whose command the publick Liturgy had been turned into French that it might serve them in those Islands for their Edifications But the Reformed Religion being suppressed in the time of Queen Mary revived again immediately after her decease by the diligence of such French Ministers as had resorted thither for protection in the day of their troubles In former times these Islands belonged unto the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Constance who had in each of them a Subordinate Officer mixt of a Chancellor and Archâ— Deacon for the dispatch of all such business as concerned the Church which Officers intituled by the name of Deans had a particular Revenue in Tythes and Corn allotted to them besides the Perquisites of their Courts and the best Benefices in the Islands But these French Ministers desiring to have all things modelled by the Rules of Calvin
onely Excommunicate her person deprive her of her Kingdoms and absolve all her Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance but commands all her Subjects of what sort soever not to obey her Laws Injunctions Ordinances or Acts of State The Defection of the Papists had before been voluntary but is now made necessary the Popes command being superadded to the scandal which had before been given them by the Puritan Faction For after this the going or not going to Church was commonly reputed by them for a signe distinctive by which a Roman Catholick might be known from an English Heretick And this appears most plainly by the Preamble to the Act of Parliament against bringing or executing of Bulls from Rome 13 Eliz. 2. Where it is reckoned amongst the effects of those Bulls and Writings That those who brought them did by their lewd practices and subtile perswasions work so farforth that sundry people and ignorant persons have been contented to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and to have withdrawn and absented themselves from all Divine Service most godlily exercised in this Realm By which it seems that till the roaring of those Bulls those of the Popish party did frequent the Church though not so generally in the last five years as our Learned Andrews hath observed as they did the first before they were discouraged by the Innovations of the Puritan Faction 33. But for their coming to our Churches for the first ten years that is to say before the first beginning of the Puritan Schism there is enough acknowledged by some of their own Parsons himself confesseth in his Pamphlet which he calls by the name of Green-Coat That for twelve years together the Court and State was in great quiet and no question made about Religion Brierly in his Apologie speaks it more at large by whom it is acknowledged That in the beginning of the Queens Reign most part of the Catholicks for many years did go to the Heretical Churches and Service That when the better and truer opinion was taught them by Priests and Religious men from beyond the Seas as more perfect and necessary there wanted not many which opposed themselves of the elder sort of Priests of Queen Maries days and finally That this division was not onely favoured by the Council but nourished also for many years by divers troublesome people of their own both in teaching and writing On which the Author of the Reply whomsoever he was hath made this Descant viz. That for the Catholicks going to Church it was perchance rather to be lamented then blamed before it came to be a sign Distinctive by which a Catholick was known from one who was no Catholick Thus as the Schisms began together so are they carried on by the self-same means by Libelling against the State the Papists in their Philopater the Puritans in Martin Mar-Prelate and the rest by breeding up their novices beyond the Seas the Roman Catholicks at Rheims and Doway the Presbyterians at Geneva Amsterdam or Saumure by raising sedition in the State and plotting Treason against the person of the Queen the Papists by Throgmorton Parry Tichbourn Babington c. the Puritans by Thacker Penry Hacket Coppinger c. And finally by the executions made upon either part of which in reference to the Presbyterians we shall speak hereafter But as none of Plutarchs Parallels is so exact but that some difference may be noted and is noted by him betwixt the persons and affairs of whom he writes so was there a great difference in one particular between the fortunes of the Papists and the contrary faction The Presbyterians were observed to have many powerful Friends at Court in which the Papists had scarce any but mortal Enemies Spies and Intelligencers were employed to attend the Papists and observe all their words and actions so that they could not stir without a discovery But all mens eyes were shut upon the other party so that they might do what they listed without observation Of which no reason can be given but that the Queen being startled at the Popes late Bull and finding both her Person and Estate indangered under divers pretences by many of the Romish party both at home and abroad might either take no notice of the lesser mischief or suffer that faction to grow up to confront the other 34. And now comes Cartwright on the Stage on which he acted more then any of the Puritan Faction till their last going off again in the Reign of this Queen It was upon a discontent that he first left Cambridge and in pursuance of the same that he left the Church For being appointed one of the Opponents at the Divinity-Act in Cambridge Anno 1564 at such time as the Queen was pleased to honor it with her Royal presence he came not off so happily in her esteem but that Preston of Kings Colledge for action voyce and elocution was preferred before him This so afflicted the proud man that in a sudden humour he retires from the University and sets up his studies in Geneva where he became as great with Beza and the rest of that Consistory as ever Knox had been with Calvin at his being there As soon as he had well acquainted himself with the Form of their Discipline and studied all such points as were to be reduced to practice at his coming back well stocked with Principles and furnished with Instructions he prepares for England and puts himself into his Colledge Before upon the apprehension of the said neglect he had begun to busie himself with some discourses against the Ecclesiastical Government then by Law established and seemed to entertain a great opinion of himself both for Learning and Holiness and therewithal a great contemner of such others as continued not with him But at his coming from Geneva he became more practical or pragmatical rather condemning the Vocation of Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers the Administration of our holy Sacraments and observations of our Rites and Ceremonies And buzzing these conceits into the Heads of divers young Preachers and Scholars of the University he drew after him a great number of Disciples and Followers Amongst whom he prevailed so far by his secret practices but much more by a Sermon which he Preached one Sunday-morning in the Colledge-Chappel that in the afternoon all the Fellows and Scholars threw aside their Surplices which by the Statutes of the House they were bound to use and went to the Divine Service onely in their Gowns and Caps Dr. Iohn Whitgift was at that time Master of Trinity Colledge and the Queens Professor for Divinity a man of great temper and moderation but one withal that knew well how to hold the Reins and not suffer them to be wrested out of his hand by an Head-strong beast Cartwright was Fellow of that Colledge emulous of the Masters Learning but far more envious at the Credit and Authority which he had acquired for which cause he procured himself to be
Establishment yet she knew very well both by their Preachings and Writings that they had defamed the Church of England that many of them refused to be present at that Form of Worship which had the countenance of the Laws and had set up a new Form of their own devising Which moved the Queen to look upon them as men of an unquiet and seditious spirit greedy of change intent on the destruction of all things which they found established and ready once again to break out into open Schism For the preventing whereof she gave command That the severity of the Laws for keeping up the Vniformity of Gods Publick Worship should be forthwith put in execution And that all such scandalous Books and Pamphlets the first and second Admonition amongst the rest should either be immediately delivered to some Bishop in their several Diocesses or to some one or other of the Lords of the Council upon pain of imprisonment 4. This Proclamation much amazed the Disciplinarians who were not onely more sollicitous in searching into the true Cause and Originial of it then ready to execute their vengeance upon all such Councellors as they suspected for the Authors Sir Christopher Hatton was at that time in especial favour Vice-chamberlain Captain of the Guard and aftewards Lord-Chancellor also in the whole course of his preferments of a known aversness to the Earl of Leicester and consequently no friend to the Puritan Faction This obstacle must be removed one way or other according to that Principle of the ancient Donatists for murthering any man of what Rank soever which opposed their Practices This Office Burchet undertakes and undertakes the Office upon this Opinion that it was lawful to assassinate any man who opposed the Gospel But being blind with too much light he mistook the man and meeting in the Street with Hawkins one of the greatest Sea-Captains of the times he lived in he stabbed him desperately with a Ponyard conceiving that it had been Hatton their professed Enemy For which committed to the Tower he was there examined found to hold many dangerous and erronious Tenents and thereupon sent Prisoner to the Lollards-Tower From thence being called into the Consistory of St. Pauls before the Bishop of London and divers others and by them examined he still persisted in his errors till the sentence of death was ready on the 4 of November to be pronounced against him as an Heretick Through the perswasions of some men who took great pains with him he made a shew as if he had renounced and abjured those Opinions for erronious and damnable which formerly he had imbraced with so strong a passion From thence returned unto the Tower by the Lords of the Council he took an opportunity when one of his Keepers was withdrawn to murther the other intending the like also to his Fellow if he had not happily escaped it For which Fact he was arraigned and condemned at Westminster on the morrow after and the next day he was hanged up in the very place where he wounded Hawkins his Right hand being first cut off and nailed to the Gibbet a piece of Justice not more safe then seasonable the horridness of the Fact and the complexion of the times being well considered 5. The Regular Clergy slept not in so great a tempest as was then hanging over their heads but spent themselves in censuring and confuting Cartwrights Pamphlets which gave the first Animation to those bold attempts What censure Bishop Iewel past upon Cartwrights Papers hath been shewn before and he will give you his opinion of the Author also of whom it is reported that he gave this Character viz. Stultitia nata est in corde pueri sed virga Disciplinae fugabit eam That is to say That folly had been bred in the heart of the young man and nothing but a Rod of correction would remove it from him But Iewel had onely seen some scattered Papers intended for materials in the following Pamphlet which Whitaker both saw and censured when it was compleat For writing of it unto Whitgift he reports him thus Quem Cartwrightus nuper emisit libellum c. I have read over saith he a great part of the Book which Cartwright hath lately set forth Let me never live if I ever saw any thing more loose and almost more childish As for words indeed he hath store of them trim and fresh enough but as for matter none at all Besides which he not onely holds some peevish opinions derogatory to the Queens Authority in causes Ecclesiastical but had revolted also in that point to the Popish party from whom he would be thought to fly with such deadly hatred He adds in fine That he complied not with the Papists in that point alone but borrowed from them most of his other weapons wherewith he did assault the Church And in a word as Jerome did affirm of Ambrose that he was in words but a Triflâ—r and for his matter but a Dreamer and altogether unworthy to be refuted by a man of Learning But these were onely some preparatory drops to the following Tempest which fell upon him from the pen of the Learned Whitgift who punctually dissected the whole Admonition and solidly discoursed upon the Errors and Infirmities of it Which Book of his intituled An Answer to the Admonition followed so close upon the heels of the other that it was published in the same year with it 1572. To which Answer Cartwright sets out a Reply in the year next following and Whitgift presently rejoyns in his Defence of the Answer An. 1574. against which Cartwright never stirred but left him Master of the field possest of all the signs of an absolute Victory And not long after on the apprehension of his foil therein he withdraws to Guernsey first and to Antwerp afterwards erecting the Presbytery in those Forreign Nations which he could not compass in his own 7. For though the Brotherhood had attempted to advance their Discipline and set up their Presbyterie in the Church of Wandsworth yet partly by the terror of the Proclamation and partly by the seasonable execution of Burchet they were restrained from practising any further at the present on the Church of England But what they durst not do directly and in open sight they found a way to act obliquely and under the disguise of setting up another Church of strangers in the midst of London Many of the Low Countrey men both Merchants Gentlemen and others had fled their Countrey at the coming in of the Duke of Alva settled their dwellings in the Ports and Sea-Towns of England which lay nearest to them and in good numbers took up their abode in London Nor did they onely bring Families with them but their Factories also Their several Trades and Manufactures as the making of all sorts of Stuffs rich Tapistries and other Hangings of less worth and by their diligence therein not onely kept many poor English Families in continual work but taught the English
which I hold under Her Majesty the defence of the Religion and the Rites of the Church of England to appease the Schisms and Sects therein to reduce all the Ministers thereof to Uniformity and to due Obedience and not to waver with every wind which also my Place my Person the Laws Her Majesty and the goodness of the Cause do require of me and wherein the Lords of Her Highness Privy Council all things considered ought in duty to assist and countenance me But How is it possible that I should perform what I have undertaken after so long Liberty and lack of Discipline if a few persons so meanly qualified as most of these Factious Sectaries are should be countenanced against the whole state of the Clergy of greatest account both for Learning Years Stayedness Wisdom Religion and Honesty and open Breakers and Impugners of the Law young in Years proud in Conceit contentious in Disposition should be maintained against their Governours seeking to reduce them to Order and Obedience Haec sunt initia Haereticorum ortus atque conatus Schismaticorum male cogitantium ut sibi placeant ut praepositum superbo tumore contemnant sic de Ecclesiâ— receditur sic altare profanum foris collocatur sic contra Pacem Christi Ordinationem atque Veritatem Dei Rebellatur The first Fruits of Hereticks and the first Births and Endeavours of Schismaticks are To admire themselves and in their swelling-pride to contemn any that are set over them Thus do men fall from the Church of God thus is a Forreign Unhallowed Altar erected and thus is Christ's Peace and God's Ordination and Unity rebelled against 20. For my own part I neither have done nor do any thing in these matters which I do not think my self in Conscience and Duty bound to do and which Her Majesty hath not with earnest Charge committed unto me and which I am not well able to justifie to be most requisite for this Church and State whereof next to Her Majesty though most unworthy if not most unhappy the chief Care is committed to me which I will not by the Grace of God neglect whatsoever come upon me there-for Neither may I endure their notorious Contempts unless I will become Aesop's Block and undo all that which hitherto hath been done It is certain that if way be given unto them upon their unjust Surmises and Clamours it will be the cause of that confusion which hereafter the State will be sorry for I neither care for the honour of this Place I hold which is onus unto me nor the largeness of the Revenue neither any Worldly thing I thank God in respect of doing my duty neither do I fear the displeasure of man nor the evil Tongue of the uncharitable who call me Tyrant Pope Knave and lay to my charge things that I never did or thought Scio enim hoc esse opus Diaboli ut servos Dei mendaciis laceret opinionibus falsis gloriosum nomen infamet ut qui Conscientiae suae luce clarescunt alienis Rumoribus sordidentur For I know that this is the work of that Accuser the Devil that he may tear in pieces the Servants of God with Lyes that he may dishonour their glorious Name with false surmises that they who through the clearness of their own Consciences are shining bright may have the filth of other men's slanders cast upon them So was Cyprian himself used and other godly Bishops to whom I am not comparable But that which most of all grieveth me and is to be wondered at and lamented is That some of those who give countenance to these men and cry out for a Learned Ministry should watch their opportunity and be Instruments and Means to place most unlearned men in the chiefest Places and Livings of the Ministry thereby to make the state of the Bishops and Clergy contemptible and I fear salable This Hypocrisie and Dissembling with God and Man in pretending one thing and doing another goeth to my heart and maketh me think that God's Judgments are not far off The day will come when all mens hearts shall be opened In the mean time I will depend upon Him who never faileth those that put their trust in Him 21. It may be gathered from this Abstract what a hard Game that Reverend Prelate had to play when such great Masters in the Art held the Cards against him For at that time the Earls of Huntington and Leicester Walsingham Secretary of Estate and Knolls Comptroller of the Houshold a professed Genevian were his open Adversaries Burleigh a Neutral at the best and none but Hatton then Vicechamberlain and afterwards Lord Chancellor firmly for him And him he gained but lately neither but gained him at the last by the means of Dr. Richard Bancroft his Domestick Chaplain of whom we shall have cause to speak more hereafter By his procurement he was called to the Council-Table at such time as the Earl of Leicester was in Holland which put him into a capacity of going more confidently on without checks or crosses as before in the Church's Cause A thing which Leicester very much stomacked at his coming back but knowing it was the Queen's pleasure he disguised his trouble and appeared fair to him in the publick though otherwise he continued his former Favours to the Puritan Faction Sure of whose countenance upon the perfecting and publishing of the Book of Discipline they resolved to put the same in practise in most parts of the Realm as they did accordingly But it was no where better welcome than it was in London the Wealth and Pride of which City was never wanting to cherish and support those men which most apparently opposed themselves to the present Authority or practised the introducing of Innovations both in Church and State The several Churches or Conventicles rather which they had in that City they reduced into one great and general Classis of which Cartwright Egerton or Traverse were for the most part Moderators and whatsoever was there ordered was esteemed for current from thence the Brethren of other places did fetch their light and as doubts did arise thither they were sent to be resolved the Classical and Synodical Decrees of other places not being Authentical indeed till they were ratified in this which they held the Supreme Consistory and chief Tribunal of the Nation But in the Countrey none appeared more forward than they did in Northampton-shire which they divide into three Classes that is to say the Classis of Northampton Daventry and Kettring and the device forthwith is taken up in most parts of England but especially in Warwick-shire Suffolk Norfolk Essex c. In these Classes they determined in points of Doctrine interpreted hard places of Scripture delivered their Resolution in such Cases of Conscience as were brought before them decided Doubts and Difficulties touching Contracts of Marriage And whatsoever was concluded by such as were present but still with reference to the better judgment of the
as put a difference between the Rights of a Prophane and a Christian Magistrate Specanus a stiff Presbyterian in the Belgick Provinces makes a distinction between potestas Facti and potestas Iuris and then infers upon the same That the Authority of determining what is fit to be done belongs of right unto the Ministers of the Church though the execution of the Fact in Civil Causes doth properly appertain to the Supreme Magistrate And more than this the greatest Clerks amongst themselves would not give the Queen If she assume unto Her self the exercise of Her farther Power in ordering Matters of the Church according to the lawful Authority which is inherent in the Crown She shall presently be compared unto all the wicked Kings and others of whom we read in the Scriptures that took upon them unlawfully to intrude themselves into the Priest's Office as unto Saul for his offering of Sacrifice unto Osias for burning Incense upon the Altar unto Gideon for making of an Ephod and finally to Nadab and Abihu for offering with strange fire unto the Lord. 33. According to these Orthodox and sound Resolves they hold a Synod in St. Iohn's Colledg in Cambridg taking the opportunity of Sturbridg-Fayr to cloak their meeting for that purpose At which Synod Cartwright and Perkins being present amongst the rest the whole Book-Discipline reviewed by Traverse and formally approved of by the Brethren in their several Classes received a more Authentick approbation insomuch that first it was decreed amongst them That all which would might subscribe unto it without any necessity imposed upon them so to do But not long after it was made a matter necessary so necessary as it seems that no man could be chosen to any Ecclesiastical Office amongst them nor to be of any of their Assemblies either Classical Provincial or National till he had first subscribed to the Book of Discipline Another Synod was held at Ipswich not long after and the Results of both confirmed in a Provincial and National Synod held in London which gave the Book of Discipline a more sure establishment than an Act of State It is reported that the night before the great Battel in the Fields of Thessaly betwixt Caesar and Pompey the Pompeyan Party was so confident of their good success that they cast Dice amongst themselves for all the great Offices and Magistracies of the City of Rome even to the Office of the Chief-Priest-hood which then Caesar held And the like vanity or infatuation had possessed these men in the opinion which they had of their Strength and Numbers Insomuch that they entred into this consideration how Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors Deans Cannons Arch-Deacons Commissaries Registers Apparitors c. all which by their pretended Reformation must have been thrust out of their Livings should be provided for that the Commonwealth might not be thereby pestered with Beggars And this they did upon the confidence of some unlawful Assistance to effect their purposes if neither the Queen nor the Lords of the Council nor the Inferior Magistrates in their several Counties all which they now sollicited with more heat than ever should co-operate with them For about this time it was that Cartwright in his Prayer before his Sermon was noted to have used these words viz. Because they meaning the Bishops which ought to be Pillars in the Church combine themselves against Christ and his Truth therefore O Lord give us Grace and Power all as one man to set our selves against them Which words he used frequently to repeat and to repeat with such an earnestness of spirit as might sufficiently declare that he had a purpose to raise Sedition in the State for the imposing of that Discipline on the Church of England which was not likely to be countenanced by any lawful Authority which put the Queen to a necessity of calling him and all the rest of them to a better account to which they shall be brought in the years next following 33. In the mean time we must pass over into France where we find HENRY the Third the last King of the House of Valoise most miserably deprived of his Life and Kingdom driven out of Paris first by the Guisian Faction and afterwards assassinated by Iaques Clement a Dominican Fryar as he lay at St. Cloud attending the reduction of that stubborn City Upon whose death the Crown descended lineally on HENRY of Bourbon King of Navarre and Duke of Vendosme as the next Heir-male For the excluding of which Prince and the rest of that House the Holy League was first contrived as before is said There was at that time in the late King's Army a very strong Party of French Catholicks who had preferred their Loyalty to their Natural Prince before the private Interest and Designs of the House of Guise and now generally declare in favour of the true Successor By their Assistance and the concurring-Forces of the Hugonot-Faction it had been no hard matter for him to have Mastered the Duke of Maine who then had the Command of the Guisian Leagues But in the last he found himself deceived of his expectation The Hugonots which formerly had served with so much cheerfulness under his Command their King would not now serve him in his just and lawful Warrs against his Enemies Or if they did it shall be done upon Conditions so intolerable that he might better have pawned his Crown to a Forreign Prince than on such terms to buy the favour of his Subjects They looked upon him as reduced to a great necessity most of the Provinces and almost all the Principal Cities having before engaged against HENRY the Third and many others falling off when they heard of his death So that they thought the new King was not able to subsist without them and they resolved to work their own Ends out of that Necessity Instead of leading of their Armies and running cheerfully and couragiously towards his defence who had so oft defended them they sent Commissioners or Delegates to negotiate with him that they may know to what Conditions he would yeeld for their future advantage before they acted any thing in order to his preservation and their Conditions were so high so void of all Respects of Loyalty and even common Honesty that he conceived it safer for him and far more honourable in it self to cast himself upon the Favour of the Queen of England than condescend to their unreasonable and unjust demands So that in fine the Hugonots to a very great number forsook him most disloyally in the open Field drew off their Forces and retired to their several dwellings inforcing him to the necessity of imploring succours from the professed Enemies of his Crown and Nation Nor did he find the Queen unwilling to supply him both with Men and Money on his first desires For which She had better reason now than when She aided him and the rest of the French Hugonots in their former Quarrels And this She did with such a cheerful
to go off with credit he prepares for Ireland But long he had not dwelt on his new Preferment when either he proved too hot for the Place or the Countrey by reason of the following Warrs grew too hot for him Which brought him back again to England where he lived to a very great age in a small Estate more comfortably than before because less troublesome to the Church than he had been formerly 18. Thus have we seen Travers taken off and Beza quieted nor was it long before Cartwright was reduced to a better temper But first it was resolved to try all means for his delivery both at home and abroad Abroad they held intelligence with their Brethren in the Kirk of Scotland by means of Penry here and of Gibson there two men as fit for their Designs as if they had been made of purpose to promote the Mischief Concerning which thus Gibson writes in one of his Letters to Coppinger before remembred whereby it seems that he was privy to his practices also The best of our Ministers saith he are most careful of your estate and had sent for that effect a Preacher of ours the last Summer of purpose to confer with the best affected of your Church to lay down a plot how our Church might best travel for your relief The Lord knows what care we have of you both in our publick and private Prayers c. For as feeling-members of one body we reckon the affliction of your Church to be our own This showed how great they were with child of some good Affections but there wanted strength to be delivered of the Burthen They were not able to raise Factions in the Court of England as Queen ELIZABETH had done frequently on their occasions in the Realm of Scotland All they could do was to engage the King in mediating with the Queen in behalf of Cartwright Vdal and some others of the principal Brethren then kept in Prison for their contumacy in refusing the Oath And they prevailed so far upon Him who was not then in a condition to deny them any thing as to direct some Lines unto Her in this tenour following 19. RIght Excellent High and Mighty Princess Our dearest Sister and Cousin in Our heartiest manner We recommend Us unto You. Hearing of the Apprehension of Master Vdal and Master Cartwright and certain other Ministers of the Evangel within Your Realm of whose good Erudition and Faithful Travels in the Church We hear a very credible commendation however that their diversity from the Bishops and other of Your Clergy in matters touching their Conscience hath been a mean by their delation to work them your misliking at this time We cannot weighing the Duty which We owe to such as are afflicted for their Conscience in that Profession but by Our most effectuous and earnest Letter interpone Us at Your Hands to stay any harder usage of them for that cause Requesting You most earnestly That for Our Cause and Intercession it may please You to let them be relieved of their present Strait and whatsoever further Accusation or Pursuit depending upon that ground respecting both their former Merit in setting forth the Evangel the simplicity of their Conscience in this Defence which cannot well be their Lett by Compulsion and the great slander which would not fail to fall out upon their further straitning for any such occasion Which We assure Us Your Zeal to Religion besides the expectation We have of Your good will to pleasure Us will willingly accord to Our Request having such proofs from time to time of Our like disposition to You in any matter which You recommend unto Us. And thus Right Excellent Right High and Mighty Princess Our dear Sister and Cousin We commit You to God's Protection Edenborough Iune 12. 1591. 20. This Letter was presented to the Queen by the hands of one Iohnson a Merchant of that Nation then remaining in London But it produced not the Effect which the Brethren hoped for For the Queen looked upon it as extorted rather by the importunity of some which were then about Him than as proceeding from Himself who had no reason to be too indulgent unto those of that Faction This Project therefore not succeeding they must try another and the next tryal shall be made on the High Commission by the Authority whereof Cartwright and Snape and divers others were committed Prisoners If this Commission could be weakned and the Power thereof reduced to a narrower compass the Brethren might proceed securely in the Holy Discipline the Prisoners be released and the Cause established And for the questioning thereof they took this occasion One Caudreys Parson of North-Luffengham in the County of Rutland had been informed against about four years since in the High Commission for preaching against the Book of Common-Prayer and refusing to celebrate Divine Service according to the Rules and Rubricks therein prescribed For which upon sufficient proof he was deprived of his Benefice by the Bishop of London and the rest of the Queen's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes Four years together he lay quiet without acting any thing against the Sentence of the Court But now it was thought by some of those Lawyers whom Travers had gained unto the side to question the Authority of that Commission and consequently the illegality of his Deprivation In Hillary Term Anno 1591 the Cause was argued in the Exchequer Chamber by all the Judges according to the usual custom in all cases of the like importance and it was argued with great Learning as appears by the sum and substance of their several Arguments drawn up by Coke then being the Queen's Sollicitor-General and extant amongst the rest of his Reports both in English and Latin inscribed De Iure Regis Ecclesiastico but known most commonly by the name of Cawdrey's Case In the debating of which Point the Result was â—his That the Statute of 10 of the Queen for restoring to the Crown the ancient Iurisdiction c. was not to be accounted introductory of a new Authority which was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old which naturally and originally did belong to all Christian Princes and amongst others also to the Kings of England For proof whereof there wanted not sufficient evidence in our English Histories as well as in some old Records of unquestioned Credit exemplifying the continual practise of the Kings of England before and since the Norman Conquest in ordering and directing matters which concerned the Church In which they ruled sometimes absolutely without any dispute and sometimes relatively in reference to such opposition as they were to make against the Pope and all Authority derived from the See of Rome 21. Against this Case so solidly debated and so judiciously drawn up when none of the Puritan Professors could make any Reply Parsons the Iesuit undertook it but spent more time in searching out some contrary Evidence which might make for the Pope than in disproving that
his defence And he accordingly declared in all humble manner That he and his Associates had not made any Canons Articles or Decrees with an intent that they should serve hereafter for a standing-Rule to direct the Church but only had resolved on some Propositions to be sent to Cambridg for quieting some unhappy differences in that University With which Answer Her Majesty being somewhat pacified commanded notwithstanding That he should speedily recall and suppress those Articles Which was performed with such Care and Diligence that a Copy of them was not to be found for a long time after 8. As for the Articles themselves they were so contrived that both the Sabbatarians and the Supra-lapsarians very considerably at odds amongst themselves might be sheltred under them to the intent that both may be secured from the common Adversary Which Articles I find translated in these following words viz. I. God from Eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobated II. The moving or efficient Cause of Predestination unto life is not the fore-sight of Faith or of Perseverance or of Good Works or of any thing that is in the person predestinated but only the Good Will and Pleasure of God III. There is predetermined a certain number of the Predestinate which can neither be augmented nor diminished IV. Those who are not predestinate to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins V. A true living and justifying-faith and the Spirit of God justifying is not extinguished falleth not away it vanisheth not away in the Elect either totally or finally VI. A man truly faithful that is such an one who is endued with a justifying-faith is certain with the full assurance of Faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. VII Saving-Grace is not given is not granted is not communicated to all men by which they may be saved if they will VIII No man can come unto Christ unless it be given unto him and unless the Father shall draw him and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son IX It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved 9. Such were the Articles of Lambeth so much insisted on by those of the Calvinian Faction in succeeding times as comprehending in them the chief Heads of Calvin's Doctrine in reference to the points of the Divine Election and Reprobation of Universal Grace and the impossibility of a total or a final falling from the true justifying-faith which were the subject of the Controversies betwixt Baroe and Whitacre Some have adventured hereupon to rank this most Reverend Arch-bishop in the List of these Calvinists conceiving that he could not otherwise have agreed to those Articles if he had not been himself of the same Opinion And possible it is that he might not look so far into them as to consider the ill consequences which might follow on them or that he might prefer the pacifying of some present Dissenters before the apprehension of such Inconveniences as were more remote or else according to the custom of all such as be in Authority he thought it necessary to preserve Whitacre in power and credit against all such as did oppose him the Merit and Abilities of the man being very eminent For if this Argument were good it might as logically be inferred That he was a Iesuit or a Melancthonian at the least in these points of Doctrine because he countenanced those men who openly and professedly had opposed the Calvinian In which respect as he took part with Hooker at the Council-Table against the Complaints and Informations of Travers as before is said so he received into his service Mr. Samuel Harsnet then being one of the Fellows of Pembroke-Hall who in a Sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross the 27 th of October 1584 had so dissected the whole Zuinglian Doctrine of Reprobation as made it seem most ugly in the ears of his Auditors as afterwards in the eyes of all Spectators when it came to be Printed Which man he did not only entertain as his Chaplain at large but used his Service in his House as a Servant in ordinary employed him in many of his Affairs and finally commended him to the care of King IAMES by whom he was first made Master of Pembroke-Hall and afterwards preferred to the See of Chichester from thence translated to Norwich and at last to York 10. No less remarkable was this year for the repairing of the Cross in Cheap-side which having been defaced in the year 1581 and so continued ever since was now thought fit to be restored to its former beauty A Cross it was of high esteem and of good Antiquity erected by K. Edward the first Anno 1290 in honour of Queen Elienor his beloved Wife whose Body had there rested as it was removed to the place of her Burial But this Cross being much decayed Iohn Hatherly Lord Mayor of London in the year 1441 procured leave of K. HENRY the 6 th to take it down and to re-edifie the same in more beautiful manner for the greater honour of the City Which leave being granted and 200 hundred Fodder of Lead allowed him toward the beginning of the Work it was then curiously wrought at the charge of divers wealthy Citizens adorned with many large and massie Images but more especially advanced by the Munificence of Iohn Fisher Mercer who gave Six hundred Marks for the finishing of it The whole Structure being reared in the second year of K. HENRY the 7 th Anno 1486 was after gilded over in the year 1522 for the entertainment of the Emperor CHARLES the fifth new burnished against the Coronation of Queen Anne Bullen Anno 1533 as afterwards at the Coronation of King EDWARD the sixth and finally at the Magnificent Reception of King PHILIP 1554. And having for so long time continued an undefaced Monument of Christian Piety was quarrelled by the Puritans of the present Reign who being emulous of the Zeal of the French Calvinians whom they found to have demolished all Crosses wheresoever they came they caused this Cross to be presented by the Jurors in several Ward-Motes for standing in the High-way to the hindering of Carts and other Carriages but finding no remedy in that course they resolved to apply themselves unto another In pursuance whereof they first set upon it in the night Iune 21 Anno 1581 violently breaking and defacing all the lowest Images which were placed round about the same that is to say the Images of Christ's Resurrection of the Virgin MARY K. EDWARD the Confessor c. But more particularly the Image of the blessed Virgin was at that time robbed of her Son and her Arms broke by which she held Him in her Lap and her whole Body haled with Ropes and left likely to fall Proclamation presently was made with promise of Reward to any one that could or would discover the chief Actors in it But without effect
Noble Lord command is given unto the Provost of Edenborough To attach the Ministers But they had notice of his purpose and escape into England making Newcastle their retreat as in former times 25. It is a true saying of the wise Historian That every Insurrection of the people when it is suppressed doth make the Prince stronger and the Subject weaker And this the King found true in his own particular The Citizens of Edenborough being pinched with the Proclamation and the removal of the Court and the Courts of Justice offered to purge themselves of the late Sedition and tendred their obedience unto any thing whatsoever which his Majesty and the Council should be pleased to enjoyn whereby they might repair the huge Indignity which was done to his Majesty provided that they should not be thought guilty of so great a Crime which from their hearts they had detested But the King answers That he would admit of no purgation that he would make them know that he was their King And the next day proclaims the Tumult to be Treason and proclaims all for Traytors who were guilty of it This made them fear their utter ruine to be near at hand The ordinary Judicatories were removed to Leith the Sessions ordained to be held at Perth their Ministers were fled their Magistrates without regard and none about the King but their deadly Enemies And to make up the full measure of their disconsolation Counsel is given unto the King to raze the Town and to erect a Pillar in the place thereof for a perpetual Monument of so great an Insolence But he resolves to travel none but Legal ways and being somewhat sweetned by a Letter from the Queen of England he gives command unto the Provost and the rest of the Magistrates to enter their persons at Perth on the first of February there to keep ward until they either were acquitted or condemned of the former uproar Whilst things remained in this perplexity and suspence he is advised to make his best use of the conjuncture for setling matters of the Church and to establish in it such a decent Order as was agreeable to God's Word To which end he appoints a National-Assembly to be held at Perth and prepares certain Queries fifty five in number to be considered and debated in the said Assembly all of them tending to the rectifying of such Abuses which were either crept into the Discipline or occasioned by it Nothing so much perplexed the principal Ministers who had the leading of the rest as that the Discipline should be brought under a dispute which they had taught to be a part of the Word of God But they must sing another Tune before all be ended 26. For the King having gained a considerable Party amongst the Ministers of the North and treated with many of the rest in several whom he thought most tractable prevailed so far on the Assembly that they condescend at the last upon many particulars which in the pride of their prosperity had not been required The principal of which were these viz. That it should be lawful to his Majesty by himself or his Commissioners or to the Pastors to propone in a general Assembly whatsoever point he or they desired to be resolved in or reformed in matters of External Government alterable according to Circumstances providing it be done in right time and place Animo aedificandi non tentandi 2. That no Minister should reprove his Majesty's Laws and Statutes Acts or Ordinances until such time as he hath first by the advice of his Presbytery or Synodal or General Assemblies complained and sought remedy of the same from his Majesty and made report of his Majesty's Answer before any further proceedings 3. That no man's Name should be expressed in the Pulpit except the Fault be notorious and publick and so declared by an Assize Excommunication Contumace and lawful Admonition nor should he be described so plainly by any other Circumstances than publick Vices always damnable 4. That in all great Towns the Ministers shall not be chosen without his Majesty's consent and the consent of the Flock 5. That no matter of Slander should be called before them wherein his Majesty's Authority is pre-judged Causes Ecclesiastical only excepted 6. And finally That no Conventions shall be amongst Pastors without his Majesty's knowledg except their Sessions Presbyteries and Synods the Meetings at the Visitation of Churches admission or deprivation of Ministers taking up of deadly Feuds and the like which had not already been found fault with by his Majesty According to which last Artiele the King consents unto another general Assembly to be held at Dundee and nominates the tenth of May for the opening of it 27. It was about this time that Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London began to run a constant course of Correspondence with the King of Scots whom he beheld as the undoubted Heir and Successor of the Queen then Reigning And well considering how conducible it was to the Peace of both Kingdoms that they should both be governed in one Form of Ecclesiastical Policy he chalked him out a ready way by which he might restore Episcopacy to the Kirk of Scotland To which end as the King had gained the liberty in the last Assembly to question and dispute the Government then by Law established and gained a power of nominating Ministers in the principal Cities so in the next they gratified him in this point That no man should from thenceforth exercise a Minister without having a particular Flock nor be admitted to that Flock without Ordination by the Imposition of hands He required also in the same That before the conclusion of any weighty matter his Highness Advice and Approbation should be first obtained And so far they consented to the Proposition as to express how glad they were to have his Majesty's Authority interposed to all Acts of importance which concerned the Church so as matters formerly concluded might not be drawn in question He gained some other points also in the same Assembly no less important than the other towards his Design as namely 1. That no Minister shall exercise any Iurisdiction either by making of Constitutions or leading of Processes without advice and concurrence of his Session Presbytery Synod or General Assembly 2. That Presbyteries shall not meddle with any thing that is not known without all controversie to belong to the Ecclesiastical Iudicatory and that therein Vniformity should be observed throughout the Countrey And 3. That where any Presbyteries shall be desired by his Majesty's Missive to stay their proceedings as being prejudicial to the Civil Iurisdiction or private men's Rights they should desist until his Majesty did receive satisfaction But that which made most toward his purpose was the appointing of Thirteen of their number to attend his Majesty as the Commissioners of the Kirk whom we may call the High Commissioners of Scotland the King 's Ecclesiastical Council the Seminary of the future Bishops to whom
the Ambassadors of some Forreign States as if they had been a Common-wealth distinct from the Realm of France More than which they audaciously importuned the King of whose affection to them they presumed too far by their several Agents for liberty of going wheresoever they listed or sending whomsoever they pleased to the Councils and Assemblies of all Neighbouring-Estates and Nations which profest the same Religion with them This though it had not been the first was looked on as their greatest encroachment on the Royal Authority which in conclusion proved the ruin of their Cause and Party For what else could this aim at as was well observed by the King then reigning but to make themselves a State distinct and independent to raise up a new Commonwealth in the midst of a Kingdom and to make the Schism as great in Civil as in Sacred matters Which wrought so far upoa the Councils of his next Successor who had not been trained up amongst them as his Father was that he resolved to call them to a sober reckoning on the next occasion and to deprive them all at once of those Powers and Priviledges which they so wantonly abused unto his disturbance Of which we shall speak more hereafter in its proper place In the mean time let us cross over into Scotland where all Assairs moved retrograde and seemed to threaten a relapse to their old Confusions A general Assembly had been intimated to be held at Aberdeen in the Month of Iuly Anno 1604 which by reason that the King was wholly taken up with effecting the Union was adjourned to the same Month in the year next following In the mean season some of the more Factious Ministers hoping to raise no small advantage to themselves and their Party by the absence of so many persons of most Power and Credit began to entertain new Counsels for the unravelling of that Web which the King had lately wrought with such care and cunning The King hears of it and gives Order to suspend the Meeting till his further Pleasure were declared Wherein he was so far obeyed by the major part that of the fifty Presbyteries into which the whole Kingdom was divided Anno 1592 nine only sent Commissioners to attend at Aberdeen When the day came the Meeting was so thin and slender that there appeared not above one and twenty when they were at the fullest But they were such as were resolved to stand stoutly to it each man conceiving himself able in the Cause of God to make resistance to an Army The Laird of Lowreston commands them in the King's Name to return to their Houses to discontinue that unlawful Assembly and not to meet on any publick occasion which concerned the Church but by his Majesty's Appointment They answer That they were assembled at that time and place according to the word of God and the Laws of the Land and that they would not betray the Liberties of the Kirk of Scotland by obeying such unlawful Prohibitions Which said and having desired him to withdraw a while they made choice of one Forbes for their Moderator and so adjourned themselves to September following Lowreston thereupon denounced them Rebels and fearing that some new affront might be put upon him and consequently on the King in whose Name he acted he seeks for Remedy and Prevention to the Lords of the Council Forbes and Welch the two chief sticklers in the Cause are by them convented and not abating any thing of their former obstinacy are both sent Prisoners unto Blackness A day is given for the appearance of the rest which was the third day of October at what time thirteen of the number made acknowledgment of their offence and humbly supplicated that their Lordships would endeavour to procure their Pardon the rest remaining in their disobedience are by the Lords disposed of into several Prisons 19. But these proceedings did so little edifie with that stubborn Faction that the Lords of the Council were condemned for their just severity and all their Actings made to aim at no other end but by degrees to introduce the Rights and Ceremonies of the Church of England The King endeavours by a Declaration to undeceive his good people and reclaim these obstinate persons from the ways of ruin and intimates withall that a new Assembly should be held at Dundee in the Iuly following But this prevails as little as the former course Which puts the business on so far that either the King must be conformable to their present humour or they submit themselves to the King 's just Power The Lords resolve upon the last command them to appear at the Council-Table to receive their Sentence and nominated the 24 th of October for the Day of Doom Accordingly they came but they came prepared having subscribed a publick Instrument under all their hands by which they absolutely decline the Judgment of the King and Council as altogether incompetent and put themselves upon the tryal of the next Assembly as their lawful Judg. Before they were convented only for their Disobedience but by this Declinator they have made themselves Traytors The King is certified of all this and being resolved upon the maintenance of his own Authority gave order That the Law should pass upon them according to the Statute made in Parliament Anno 1584. Hereupon Forbes Welch Duncam Sharp Davie Straghan are removed from Blackness arraigned at an Assize held in Linlithgoe found guilty by the Jury and condemned to death but all of them returned to their several Prisons till the King's Pleasure should be known for their Execution The Melvins and some other of the principal Zealots caused Prayers and Supplications to be made in behalf of the Traytors though they had generally refused to perform that office when the King's Mother was upon the point of losing her life upon a more unwarrantable Sentence of Condemnation This brought forth first a Proclamation inhibiting all Ministers to recommend the condemned persons unto God in their Prayers or Sermons and afterwards a Letter to some Chiefs amongst them for waiting on His Majesty at the Court in England where they should be admitted to a publick Conference and have the King to be their Judg. 20. Upon this Summons there appear in behalf of the Church the Arch-bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow the Bishops of Orkney and Galloway together with Nicolson the designed Bishop of Dunkeeden And for the Kirk the two Melvins Colt Carmichall Scot Balfour and Watson The place appointed for the Conference was Hampton-Court at which they all attended on Septemb. 20. But the Kirk-Party came resolved neither to satisfie the King nor be satisfied by him though he endeavoured all fit ways for their information To which end he appointed four Eminent and Learned Prelates to preach before them in their turns the first of which was Dr. Barlow then Bishop of Rochester who learnedly asserted the Episcopal Power out of those words to the Elders at Ephesus recorded Acts 20.
Acts being past Patterns were sent from London in a short time after for the Apparel of the Lords of the Session the Justice and other inferior Judges for the Advocates the Lawyers the Commissairs and all that lived by practise of the Law with a command given to every one whom the Statutes concerned to provide themselves of the Habits prescribed within a certain space under the pain of Rebellion But for the habit of the Bishops and other Church-men it was thought fit to respite the like appointment of them till the new Bishops had received their Consecration to which now we hasten 23. But by the way we must take notice of such preparations as were made towards it in the next General Assembly held at Glasgow Anno 1610 and managed by the Earl of Dunbar as the former was in which it was concluded That the King should have the indiction of all General Assemblies That the Bishops or their Deputies should be perpetual Moderators of the Diocesan Synods That no Excommunication or Absolution should be pronounced without their approbation That all presentations of Benefices should be made by them and that the deprivation or suspension of Ministers should belong to them That every Minister at his admission to a Benefice should take the Oath of Supremacy and Canonical Obedience That the Visitation of the Diocese shall be performed by the Bishop or his Deputy only And finally That the Bishop should be Moderator of all Conventions for Exercisings or Prophesyings call them which you will which should be held within their bounds All which Conclusions were confirmed by Act of Parliament in the year 1612 in which the Earl of Dumferling then being Lord Chancellor of that Kingdom sate as chief Commissioner who in the same Session also procured a Repeal of all such former Acts more patticularly of that which passed in favour of the Discipline 1592. as were supposed to be derogatory to the said Conclusions In the mean time the King being advertised of all which had been done at Glasgow calls to the Court by special Letters under his Sign-Manual Mr. Iohn Spotswood the designed Arch-bishop of Glasgow Mr. Gawen Hamilton nominated to the See of Galloway and Mr. Andrew Lamb appointed to the Church of Brechin to the intent that being consecrated Bishops in due Form and Order they might at their return give consecration to the rest of their Brethren They had before been authorized to vote in Parliament commended by the King unto their several Sees made the perpetual Moderators of Presbyteries and Diocesan Synods and finally by the Conclusions made at Glasgow they were restored to all considerable Acts of their Jurisdiction The Character was only wanting to compleat the Work which could not be imprinted but by Consecration according to the Rules and Canons of the Primitive times 24. And that this Character might be indelibly imprinted on them His Majesty issues a Commission under the Great Seal of England to the Bishops of London Ely Wells and Rochester whereby they were required to proceed to the Consecration of the said three Bishops according to the Rules of the English Ordination which was by them performed with all due solemnity in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's House near the Church of St. Pauls Octob. 21 1610. But first a scruple had been moved by the Bishop of Ely concerning the capacity of the persons nominated for receiving the Episcopal Consecration in regard that none of them had formally been ordained Priests which scruple was removed by Arch-bishop Bancroft alledging that there was no such necessity of receiving the Order of Priesthood but that Episcopal Consecrations might be given without it as might have been exemplified in the Cases of Ambrose and Nectarius of whichâ— the first was made Arch-bishop of Millain and the other Patriarch of Constantinople without receiving any intermediate Orders whether of Priest Deacon or any other if there were any other at that time in the Church And on the other side the Prelates of Scotland also had their Doubts and Scruples fearing lest by receiving Consecration of the English Bishops they might be brought to an acknowledgment of that Superiority which had been exercised and enjoyed by the Primates of England before the first breaking out of the Civil Warrs betwixt York and Lancaster Against which fear the King sufficiently provided by excluding the two Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York who only could pretend to that Superiority out of His Commission which Bancroft very cheerfully condescended to though he had chiefly laid the plot and brought on the work not caring who participated in the Honour of it as long as the Churches of both Kingdoms might receive the Benefit 25. This great Work being thus past over the King erects a Court of High Commission in the Realm of Scotland for ordering all matters which concerned that Church and could not safely be redressed in the Bishops Courts He also gave them some Directions for the better exercise of their Authority by them to be communicated to the Bishops and some principal Church-men whom he appointed to be called to Edenborough in the following February where they were generally well approved But as all general Rules have some Exceptions so some Exceptions were found out against these Commissions and the proceedings thereupon Not very pleasing to those great Persons who then sate at the Helm and looked upon it as a diminution to their own Authority and could not brook that any of the Clergy should be raised to so great a Power much more displeasing to the principal sticklers in the Cause of Presbytery who now beheld the downfall of their glorious Throne which they had erected for themselves in the Name of Christ. One thing perhaps might comfort them in the midst of their sorrows that is to say the death of the most Reverend Arch-bishop Bancroft who left this life upon the second of November not living above thirteen days after the Scottish Bishops had received Consecration For which great blessing to the Church he had scarce time to render his just acknowledgments unto God and the King when he is called on to prepare for his Nunc Dimittis And having seen so great a work accomplished for the glory of God the honour of his Majesty and the good of both Kingdoms beseecheth God to give him leave to depart in peace that with his eyes he might behold that great Salvation which was ordained to be a Light unto the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his people Israel 26. Bancroft being dead some Bishops of the Court held a Consultation touching the fittest Person to succeed him in that eminent Dignity The great Abilities and most exemplary Piety of Dr. Lancelot Andrews then Bishop of Ely pointed him out to be the man as one sufficiently able to discharge a Trust of such main importance and rather looked on as a Preferment to that See than preferred unto it Him they commended to King IAMES who had him in a high