deadly Enemies and shall never decline his Majesty's Power and Jurisdiction as they shall answer it to God And all Persons who refuse to take this Oath to be uncapable of any publick Trust and to be look'd upon as Persons disaffected to his Majesty's Authority and Government And the 11th Act of the first Session says That it is the inherent Privilege of the Crown and undoubted Prerogative of the Kings of Scotland to have the sole Power of chusing Officers of State c. and of holding and dissolving Parliaments c. and That it is High Treason in any of the Subjects to make Leagues with Foreigners or among themselves without his Majesty's Authority first had c. And therefore the League and Covenant and all Treaties thereon are not obligatory and that none presume to require or renew the swearing the said League and Covenant The next Act I cannot say of Parliament for it was purely arbitrary was the total rooting out the Presbyterian Government in Scotland and upon this Occasion Mr. James Sharp Mr. Hamilton Mr. Farwel Mr. Leighton but whether sent for by the King or sent by the Kirk-Party I do not find came in 1661 to London and were ordained Deacons and Presbyters and after consecrated Bishops by the Bishop of Winchester and two other Bishops The Acceptance of which was a Renunciation of their Presbyterian Ordination nay it was a Declaration of the Invalidity of their former Ordination and thereupon the King on the 6th of September 1661 issued out a Proclamation declaring his Royal Pleasure to be for the restoring the Government of the Church of Scotland to be by Arch-bishops and Bishops as it was exercised in the Year 1637 and that he had nominated and presented Arch-bishops and Bishops to their several Bishopricks and to have the same Authority they had in the Reign of his Grand-father Thus you see the Presbyterian Government which was set up by such odd swearing without the King is by his sole Authority utterly subverted In Obedience to this Proclamation the Privy-Council the 9th of January following did discharge all Ecclesiastical Meetings in Synods Presbyteries and Sessions until they be authorized by the Arch-bishops and Bishops upon their Entry into the Government of their respective Sees which was to be done speedily Tho this Proclamation and Intimation of the Privy-Council had prevented the Parliament yet to make sure Work of both the Parliament in their second Sessions Redintegrated the Bishops to the Exercise of their Episcopal Function and to all their Privileges Dignities Jurisdictions and Possessions due and formerly belonging thereunto And another Act did ordain all Ministers to repair unto their Diocesan Assembly and concur in all Acts of Church-Discipline as they should be thereunto required by the Arch-bishops or Bishops of the Diocess under pain of being suspended from their Office and Benefice till the next Diocesan Meeting for their first Fault and if they amended not to be deprived and the Church to be declared vacant In the Year 1649 when there was no King in Israel the Parliament at the Instance of the Kirk by the 39th Act Discharge all Patrons and the King not excepted from Presentations to Church-Benefices for that the Estates of Parliament were sensible of the great Obligations that lie upon them by the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant and by many Deliverances and Mercies from God and by the late solemn Engagement unto Duties to preserve the Doctrine and vindicate the Liberties of the Kirk of Scotland and advance the Work of Reformation therein to the utmost of their Power And considering that Patronage and Presentation of Kirks is an Evil and Bondage under which the Lord's People and Ministers of the Land have long groaned and that it hath no Warrant in God's Word but founded on the Common Law and is a Custom Popish and brought into the Kirk in time of Ignorance and Superstition and that the same is contrary to the 2d Book of Discipline in which upon solid and good Grounds it is reckoned among the Abuses that are to be reformed and unto several Acts of the General Assembly and that it 's prejudicial to the Liberties of the People and planting of Kirks and unto the free calling and entring of Ministers unto their Charge This Act did not hold long for next Year Cromwel enter'd Scotland and overturned all the Tables of Presbytery nor was this much mended after the King's Restoration for in the second Session of the first Parliament 1662 the Parliament did ordain All Ministers who had enter'd to the Cure of any Parish within Burgh or Land in or since the Year of God 1649 to have no Right unto or up-lift the Rents of their respective Benefices modified Stipends Marsh or Glebe for this instant Year 1662 nor for the Year following unless they should obtain a Presentation from the lawful Patron and have Collation from the Bishop of the Diocess where he liveth before the 20th of September next Tho the High Commission which Laud so zealously endeavour'd to erect in Scotland was put down by Act of Parliament 1641. in England yet the King by the inherent Right of his Crown and by the Virtue of his Prerogative Royal and supreme Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical erected one in Scotland The Commissioners were partly Ecclesiasticks and partly Lay-men who or five of them whereof one to be a Bishop had a more arbitrary Power over the Clergy than was practised in England under Laud and more than Laud could have expected for a High Commission for Scotland in the King's Father's Reign Thus you see the Kirk which would be a distinct Table and independent upon the Crown of Scotland are by the Prerogative of it committed to the arbitrary Mercy of the Prelates whom for above 24 Years they had been railing against and by many Oaths sware to extirpate But the Tribulations of the Kirk for the time to come do not end here for the Parliament resolve to stigmatize them for their Actions past and therefore upon the 5th of September 1662 they form a Declaration to be subscribed by all who shall have any publick Charge Office and Trust within the Kingdom in these Words I do sincerely affirm and declare That I judg it unlawful for Subjects upon Pretence of Reformation or any other Pretence whatsoever to enter into Leagues and Covenants or to take up Arms against the King or those Commissionated by him and that all these Gatherings Convocations Petitions Protestations and erecting and keeping Counsel-Tables that were used in the beginning and for carrying on the late Troubles were unlawful and seditious and particularly That those Oaths whereof the one is called the National Covenant as it was sworn and explained in the Year 1638 and thereafter and the other entitled A Solemn League and Covenant were and are in themselves unlawful Oaths and were taken by and imposed upon the Subjects of this Kingdom against the Laws and Liberties of the same
presumed to take Cognizance of Cases which were in the Jurisdiction of or depending in Parliament for this was to depose the Parliament and usurp their Jurisdiction nor do we read that ever any other Court assumed this Authority but in the Reigns of Kings affecting Tyranny and Arbitrary Power The first Judges which I think gave their Opinion That the Courts in Westminster Hall might take Cognizance of Causes determinable in Parliament were Tresilian and Belknap in 11 Rich. II. for which they were impeached by the Commons in Parliament of no less than High Treason and for which by Judgment of the Lords in Parliament Tresilian was hanged and Belknap banished Mr. Williams in his Pleadings for Fitz-Harris cites another Case in 20 Rich. II. of a Person who exhibited a Petition in Parliament which suggested something which amounted to High Treason which it may be was determinable by Common Law This Person was after indicted at Common Law found guilty and pardoned but because the Business was depending in Parliament the Prosecution and Judgment were made void in Parliament The next Case I think but of an higher Nature for Tresilian and Belknap only gave their Opinion was that of Sir John Elliot my Lord Hollis c. 5 Car. I. when an Information was exhibited against them in the King's Bench they pleaded to the Jurisdiction of the Court being for Matters transacted in Parliament the Court over-ruled their Plea and gave Judgment against them and Reasons such as they were for their Judgment but in the 19 Car. I. upon a solemn Debate in the Commons House and upon their Reasons given at a Conference with the Lords the Judgment of the King's Bench Reasons and all were reversed by a Writ of Error in the Lords House and after the Judges who gave the Judgment were impeach'd of High-Treason by the Commons for endeavouring to subvert the fundamental Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom This Case of Fitz-Harris I take to be the fourth of this kind yet shall open a Gap for a fifth but that this Case may be better understood it will be necessary to distinguish between an Indictment or Information and an Indictment by the Commons in Parliament An Indictment or Information is at the Suit of the King and the Judges and Jury are tied up to some single Issue as in this Case of Fitz-Harris the Trial was whether he was guilty or not of the Treason whereof he was indicted But an Impeachment of the Commons is at their Suit and of all the Commons of England nor are they tied up to one single Issue but impeach for Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanours in the same Impeachment they assume to themselves That all the Commons in England have a Right in the King and all the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation and therefore can impeach where none of the Courts of Westminster-hall can take any Cognizance at the Suit of the King either by Indictment or Information After Fitz-Harris was committed to Newgate he was examined by the Earls of Essex and Shaftsbury Sir Robert Clayton and Sheriff Cornish who found in him a Disposition to discover the bottom of the Popish Plot and also to make a further Discovery of the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey but the next Day Fitz-Harris was carried to the Tower and kept close Prisoner and out of their Power to whom Fitz-Harris promised to make a Discovery The Commons conceiving themselves and all the Commons of England concerned in this Plot wherein the French Ambassador his Confessor my Lord H the Dutchess of Portsmouth and her Woman Wall and even the King himself for Fitz-Harris had several times acquainted the King with it and the King gave him Money and countenanced it were Agents impeached Fitz-Harris thereby to enquire into the Bottom of this Business which no Court in Westminster-Hall could do and this I take to be the Reason of the Commons Vote of the 27th of March 1681 That if any inferiour Courts shall proceed upon Fitz-Harris and he be found Guilty the House will declare them guilty of Murder and Betrayers of the Rights of the Commons of England And so it fell out that Fitz-Harris being indicted upon the single Issue of contriving and publishing the Libel was convicted and executed upon it tho he desired to proceed upon the Discovery of this Plot to the Earls of Essex Shaftsbury and to Sir Robert Clayton and to make an End of his Evidence against my Lord H which was denied So that whether Fitz-Harris was murder'd in his Person or not it 's no Question but his Evidence for further Discovery of this and the Popish Plot was murder'd by this Trial. I will make these Remarks more upon this Trial that in the Case of Tresilian and Belknap the Nation was in no other Danger than the Courts of Westminster-Hall's invading the Jurisdiction of Parliament and the Case of my Lord Hollis Sir John Elliot Mr. Selden c. was only for Misdemeanour whereas the King's Person and the Safety of the Nation were concerned in the Discovery which Fitz-Harris might have made see Mr. Hawles's fine Remarks upon the Practices and Illegalities of the Judgment of the Court not warranted by the Common or any Statute Law and that the Consequences of this Trial were manifoldly more mischievous to the Nation than if Fitz-Harris's Design had taken Effect The Fright of Fitz-Harris's Discovery of this new Popish Plot being seemingly allayed by his Death Revenge with winged Haste pursues the Discoverers of the old It was in Trinity-Term that Fitz-Harris was tried and executed and after this Term an Indictment of High Treason was exhibited to the Grand Jury of London against Stephen Colledge a mean Fellow but a great Talker against the Popish Plot who was more known by the Name of Protestant Joiner than Stephen Colledge The Fore-man was one Wilmer This Indictment would not down but the Grand Jury returned an Ignoramus upon it for which Wilmer was forced to fly his Country The Design not succeeding in London the Scene against Colledge is laid at Oxford the Judges were Chief Justice North Justice Jones Justice Raimond and Justice Levins To make sure of a Bill to be found there against Colledge the King's Counsel had prepared Witnesses at the Assizes to post thither and there to make sure Work the King's Counsel are privately shut up with the Jury till they had found the Bill which Mr. Hawles says was a most unjustifiable and unsufferable Practice Whilst these things were contriving Colledge had the Honour as well as Fitz-Harris to be committed and continued a close Prisoner in the Tower yet the Lords impeached in Parliament had the Liberty of it and free Access was permitted to them it 's true indeed Colledge was permitted to have a Solicitor and Counsel which was Mr. West I think a Plotter or Setter in the Rye-Plot as dark as Fitz-Harris's and as like it as two Apples are one to the other But this was
a long and particular Remonstrance which you may read at large in Mr. Rushworth's Collections fol. 40 41 42. setting forth the dangerous State of the Nation and of Christendom by the Alliances of the Pope and Popish Princes especially the King of Spain chief of the League and what dismal Consequences would follow by the Marriage of the Prince with the Infanta c. yet resolve to grant the King another Subsidy for carrying on the War for the Recovery of the Palatinate but withal humbly desired his Majesty to pass such Bills as shall be prepared for his Honour and the general Good of his People accompanied with a general Pardon as is usual concluding with their daily Prayers to the Almighty the great King of Kings for a Blessing upon their Endeavours and for his Majesty's long and happy Reign over them and for his Childrens Children after him for many and many Generations The Noise of this Remonstrance so disturbed the King in his Pleasures at New-market which all his Cares for the Preservation of his Son-in-law's Patrimony could not do that upon the 3d of December he wrote to Sir Thomas Richardson Speaker of the House of Commons this Letter which because of the Rarity of it by any King of England to his Parliament before we will give verbatim Mr. Speaker WE have heard by divers Reports to Our great Grief that Our distance from the Houses of Parliament caused by our Indisposition of Health hath imboldned the fiery and popular Spirits of some of the Commons to argue and debate publickly of Matters far above their Reach and Capacity tending to Our high Dishonour and breach of Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to command you to make known in Our Name unto the House that none therein from henceforth do meddle with any thing concerning Our Government and deep Matters of State and namely not to deal with Our dear Son's Match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the Honour of that King or any other of Our Friends and Confederates and also not to meddle with any Man's Particulars which have their due Motion in any of Our ordinary Courts of Justice And whereas We hear they have sent a Message to Sir Edwin Sandys to know the Reasons of his late Restraint you shall in Our Name resolve them that it is not for any Misdemeanor of his in Parliament but to put them out of doubt of any Question of that nature that may arise among them hereafter you shall resolve them in our Name that We think our self very free and able to punish any Man's Misdemeanors in Parliament as well during their Sitting as after which We mean not to spare hereafter upon any Occasion of any Man 's insolent Behaviour there that shall be ministred unto Vs And if they have already touched any of these Points which We have forbidden in any Petition of their which is to be sent to Vs it is Our Pleasure that you tell them That except they reform it before it comes to our Hands We will not deign the Hearing nor Answering of it The Commons having a publick Trust reposed in them and truly apprehensive of the dangerous State of the Protestants in Christendom as well as of the Kingdom and that not only the King's remisness in taking care of both but the Designs he prosecuted were equally dangerous to both in a most humble and supplicant Remonstrance represent to the King his recommendation of the Affairs of the Palatinate to them and the dangerous State of Christendom in discourse whereof they did not assume to themselves any Power to determine of any part thereof nor intend to encroach or intrude upon the Sacred Bounds of his Royal Authority to whom and to whom only they do acknowledg it does belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most noble Prince his Son but as his most loyal and humble Subjects do represent these things to his Majesty which otherwise could not so clearly come to his Knowledg c. They beseech his Majesty that they may not undeservedly suffer by the Misinformation of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers and not give Credit to private Reports against all or any of their Members whom the House hath not censured until his Majesty hath been truly informed from themselves that they may stand upright in his Majesty's Grace and good Opinion than which no worldly Consideration can be dearer to them c. Which you may read at large in Mr. Rushworth's Collections Fol. 44 45 46. The King having cast the Sheet-Anchor of all his Hopes upon the Spanish Match whereby he should not only re-establish his Son-in-law in the Palatinate and get more Money than he could hope for in Parliament furled all his Sails and resolved to ride out this Storm of the Commons notwithstanding his Pleasures and Indisposition of Health in a long Invective against them in a Scotisâ— Dialect which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections the Heads whereof were 1. That he must repeat the Words of Queen Elizabeth to aâ— insolent Proposition made by a Polonian Ambassador Legatuâ— expectabamus Heraldum accepimus that he had great Reason to have expected better from them for the 37 Monopolies and Patents called in by him since the last Recess and for the three whereof Mompesson and Michel were censured but of these he heard no news but on the contrary Complaints of Religion tacitely implying his ill Government 2. That the taxing him with trusting to uncertain Reports and partial Informations concerning their Proceedings was needless being an old and experienced King and in his Conscience the freest of any King alive from hearing or trusting to idle Reports That in the Body of their Petition they usurp upon his Prerogative Royal and meddle with things far above their Reach and then protest to the contrary as if a Robber should take away Man 's Purse and then protest he meant not to rob him 3. That his Recommendation of the War for regaining the Palatinate was no other than if it could not be recovered otherwise which can be no Inference that he must denounce War against the King of Spain break his dearest Son's Match and match him to one of our Religion which is all one as if we should tell Merchant we had great need to borrow Money of him for raising an Army and that thereupon it should follow that we were bound to follow his Advice in the Direction of the War That this Plenâ—potency of theirs invests them with all Power upon Earth lacking nothing but the Pope's to have the Keys both of Heaven and Purgatory That it was like the Puritans in Scotland to bring all Causes within their Jurisdiction or like Bellarmine's distinction of the Pope's Power over Kings in ordine ad Spiritualia whereby he gives them all temporal Jurisdiction over them 4. That he expected the Commons would have given him Thanks for the long maintaining a setled
Forfeitures by Papists would be insignificant viz. remitted this intended Act did ordain that such Fines and Forfeitures one half should be to the Informers the other to charitable Uses But this Act being so contrary to the Duke's Design the Committee of Religion was discharged from meeting again and another short Act was brought into Parliament ratifying all former Acts for securing the Protestant Religion so that in this first Act the Duke pursued not his Instructions but went contrary to them and to the Custom of Scotland At the passing this Act the Earl of Argyle proposed that all Acts against Popery might be added which was opposed by the King's Advocate and some of the Clergy yet seconded by Sir George Lockhart and the President of the Sessions it passed without a Vote but such was the Jealousy of the Parliament that this did not secure the established Religion that several of the Members desired other Additions and Acts which the Duke in open Parliament promised when Time and Opportunity offered should pass but when at any time this was proposed the Test was obtruded If the Parliament were so zealous to secure the established Religion the Duke was not less to secure the Succession of the Crown of Scotland shrewdly struck at in England in the very Person of the Duke and to that end a Bill was brought in and passed wherein it was declared High Treason to affirm that the Succession of the Crown of Scotland can be altered from the next of Proximity of Blood but how agreeable this was to the Title of the Bruces and Stuarts who had no Title to the Succession of the Crown of Scotland but by Act of Parliament has already been shewed and how disagreeable this Act was to the Duke's Grandfather's Succession to the Crown of Scotland without any Act of Parliament let any Man judg This Act was not only thus contrary to the Laws and Usages of Scotland but the Act is equivocal if not contradictory to the Duke's Design for there is a difference between the next Heir and the next in Proximity of Blood as if a Man had several Sons and the eldest has a Son or Daughter his Father living and after his Father dies his eldest Son's Son is Heir and his other Sons and Daughters are next in Proximity of Blood the Heir being a degree in Blood further removed from the common Ancestor than his Uncles or Aunts and this was the case of Richard II. of England Son of the Black Prince Edward the Third's Eldest Son who succeeded to the Crown of England though his Uncles the Dukes of Clarence Lancaster York and Cambridg were nearer of Blood to Edward the Third This Act for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland was succeeded by another called the Test as contradictory to it self as contrary to the Act of Succession to be taken by all Persons in publick Trust in Scotland wherein they solemnly Swear in the Presence of the Eternal God whom they invoke as Judg and Witness of their sincere Intention of this their Oath That they own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Parliament of King James the Sixth and believe the same to be founded on and agreeable to the Written Word of God That they will adhere thereto and endeavour to educate their Children therein and never consent to any Change or Alteration contrary thereto and renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith And by this their solemn Oath they Swear That King Charles the Second is the only Supream Governour of this Realm over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and renounce all Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope or any other Person and promise to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors and to their Power to defend all their Rights and Prerogatives And by this their solemn Oath they Swear They judg it unlawful for Subjects upon pretence of Reformation or any Pretence whatsoever to enter into any Covenants or Leagues or to convene c. in any Council to treat of any Matter of State Ecclesiastical or Civil without his Majesty's special Command or express Licence or to take up Arms against the King or those commissionated by him That they will never rise in Arms or enter into such Covenants or Assemblies That there lies no Obligation upon them by the National Covenant or the solemn League or Covenant or any other way to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either of Church or State as by Law established and promise and swear to the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Jurisdiction against all deadly and as they shall answer it before God and that they took this Oath in the true and genuine Sense and Meaning of the Words without any Equivocation Mental Reservation or Evasion and never to accept of any Dispensation from any Creature So God help them By these two Acts you may observe the Scotish Temper whether it were natural or in contradiction to the Kirk-Party I will not say nor how much higher it flew than the Tory in England but because of the extraordinariness of these two Acts it 's fit to make some Reflections upon them Such another Law as that of the Succession was made the twenty first of Richard the Second in the Case of Roger Mortimer which lasted not longer than the next Year after when the Law was not only repealed but Henry the Fourth succeeded contrary to it whereas this Law continued for above eight Years after when it not only lost its Force but another Face appeared in Scotland and so continues in spight of this Law Now from this treasonable Law let us make some Remarks upon this ranting swearing Law called the Test We have said elsewhere that all Oaths are assertory of the Truth of Things Speech and Actions in time past or promissory to do or forbear to do some Act in time to come and now let 's consider what is Truth and the End of an assertory Oath Truth is proper to intellectual and reasonable Creatures and is either the apprehension of intelligible Beings as God a Law the Soul Time c. which can never be the Objects of Sense and of the Causes and Consequences of Intentions Speech and Action for Sense is not of Futurity but of present Things and Actions the Consequence or Inference will be whether good or bad just or unjust c. However all intelligible Beings and the Causes of Things and Actions are ever assumed not sworn to and if another does not nor will assent to them swearing to the Truth of them will be to no purpose So it is of the Consequence of Speech and Actions if another be not convinced from the Reason of such Consequence or Inference swearing it to be so will never do it But though sensible Things Speech and Actions
and Tests against Dissenters was any ways intended in favour of the Protestants for notwithstanding the Slaughter Jeffries had made of them in the West the rest all over England were imprisoned and forced to give Security for their good Behaviour Nay my Lord D. of Albermarle who had done the K. so signal Service in keeping the Devonshire Men from joining with the D. of Monmouth must be sent out of England to Jamaica and the Earl of Pembroke and others who had been so active in suppressing Monmouth were scarce thanked and but coldly entertained at Court If things were acted with this indeed bare-fac'd dissimulation in England they were not less in Ireland for the King having revoked the Duke of Ormond from his Lieutenancy and given Talbot an independent Commission to make such a reform of the Army there as is aforesaid made my Lord Clarendon Deputy-Lieutenant and Sir Charles Porter Chancellour who arrived there the 10th of January 1685-86 with a Charge to declare that the King would preserve the Acts of Settlement and Explanation inviolable and to assure all his Subjects he would preserve these Acts as the Magna Charta of Ireland but this Declaration compared with Talbot's reforming the Army in Ireland seemed as strange as that the King 's dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests was in favour of the Protestant Dissenters in England In Scotland the King had so settled Affairs there when he was Commissioner that after the cutting off the Earl of Argyle he did not doubt to carry on his Designs more bare-fac'd there than in England or Ireland and therefore tho he did not call a Parliament till April 1686 yet in his Letter to them of the 12th he takes no Notice of the Protestant Dissenters but recommends to them his innocent Roman Catholick Subjects Who had with their Lives and Fortunes been always assistant to the Crown in the worst of Rebellions and Vsurpations tho they lay under Discouragements hardly to be named These he heartily recommended to their Care to the end that as they have given good Experience of their true Loyalty and peaceable Behaviour so by their Assistance they may have the Protection of his Laws and that Security under his Government which others of his Subjects had not suffering them to lie under Obligations which their Religion cannot admit of by doing whereof they will give a Demonstration of the Duty and Affection they had to him and do him most acceptable Service This Love he expected they would shew to their Brethren as they saw he was an indulgent Father to them all The King having settled his Prerogative in Westminster-Hall by dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests in the Beginning of the Year 1686 granted a Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs but it was not opened to act till the 3d of August following why it lay so long dormant I do not find but only guess that the King might the better settle his Dispensing Power in the Country by such Judges as he had made as well as in Westminster-Hall and that he might be more at leisure to carry on the Design for surrender of Charters wherein one Robert Brent a Roman Catholick was a prime Agent and great Care was taken that the beggarly Corporations might surrender their Charters and take new ones without paying Fees and if any should be so honest as to insist upon their Oaths and Trust reposed in them for Preservation of their Charters to be prosecuted as riotous and seditious Persons But in regard the Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs was not printed that I can find nor is in the State Tracts I thought fit to insert it here as I had it in Manuscript from a learned Hand JAMES the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To the most Reverend Father in God our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Counsellor William Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan and to Our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Counsellor George Lord Jeffries Lord Chancellour of England and to Our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor Lawrence Earl of Rochester Lord High Treasurer of England and to Our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor Robert Earl of Sunderland President of Our Council and Our Principal Secretary of State and to the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and well-beloved Counsellor Nathaniel Lord Bishop of Duresme and to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and well-beloved Thomas Lord Bishop of Rochester and to our Right Trusty and well-beloved Counsellor Sir Edward Herbert Knight Chief Justice of the Pleas before us to be holden assigned Greeting We for divers good weighty and necessary Causes and Considerations Us hereunto especially moving of our meer Motion and certain Knowledg by force and virtue of Our Supream Authority and Prerogative Royal do assign name and authorize by these our Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England you the said Arch Bp of Canterbury Lord Chancellor of England Lord High Treasurer of England Lord President of Our Council Lord Bishop of Duresme Lord Bishop of Rochester and our Chief Justice aforesaid or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one from time to time and at all times during our Pleasure to exercise use occupy and execute under us all manner of Jurisdiction Privileges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions within this our Realm of England and Dominion of Wales and to visit reform redress order correct and amend all such Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm can or may be lawfully reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the Pleasure of Almighty God and encrease of Vertue and the Conservation of the Peace and Unity of this Realm And we do hereby give and grant unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one thus by Us named assigned authorized and appointed by force of Our Supream Authority and Prerogative Royal full Power and Authority from time to time and at all times during Our Pleasure under us to exercise use and execute all the Premises according to the Tenour and Effect of these our Letters Patents any Matter or Cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And We do by these Presents give full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the Lord Chancellor to be one by all lawful Ways or Means from time to time hereafter during Our Pleasure to enquire of all Offences Contempts Transgressions and Misdemeanours done and commited contrary to the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Our Realm in any County City Borough or other Place or Places exempt or not exempt within this our Realm of England
and Dominion of Wales and of all and every the Offender or Offenders therein and them and every of them to order correct reform and punish by Censure of the Church And also We do give and grant full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one in like manner as is aforesaid from time to time and at all times during Our Pleasure to inquire of search out and call before you all and every Ecclesiastical Person or Persons of what Degree or Dignity soever as shall offend in any of these Particulars before mentioned and them and every of them to correct and punish for such their Misbehaviours and Misdemeanors by suspending or depriving them from all Promotions Ecclesiastical and from all Functions in the Church and to inflict such other Punishment or Censures upon them according to the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm And further we do give full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one by virtue hereof and in like manner and form as is aforesaid to inquire hear determine and punish all Incest Adulteries Fornications Outrages Misbehaviours and Disorders in Marriage and all other Grievances and great Crimes or Offences which are punishable or reformable by the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Our Realm committed or done or hereafter to be committed or done in any Place exempt or not exempt within this Our Realm according to the Tenor of the Ecclesiastical Laws in that Behalf Granting you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the Lord Chancellor to be one full Power and Authority to order and award such Punishment to every such Offender by Censures of the Church or other lawful Ways as is abovesaid And further We do give full Power and Authority to you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellour to be one to call before you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one all and every Offender and Offenders in any of the Premises and all such as you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall seem to be suspected Persons in any of the Premises which you shall object against them and to proceed against them and every of them as the Nature and Quality of the Offence or Suspicion in that Behalf shall require and also to call all such Witnesses or any other Person or Persons that can inform you concerning any of the Premises as you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one and them and every of them to examine upon their Corporal Oaths for the better Trial and opening of the Truth of the Premises or any Part thereof And if you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall find any Person or Persons whatsoever obstinate or disobedient in their Appearance before you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Chancellor to be one at your Calling and Commandments or else in not obeying or in not accomplishing your Orders Decrees and Commandments or any thing touching the Premises or any Part thereof or any other Branch or Clause contained in this Commission that then you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall have full Power and Authority to punish the same Person or Persons so offending by Excommunication Suspension Deprivation or other Censures Ecclesiastical And when any Persons shall be convented or prosecuted before you as aforesaid for any of the Causes above expressed at the Instance and Suit of any Person prosecuting the Offence in that Behalf that then you or any three or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall have full Power and Authority to award such Costs and Expences of the Suit as well to and against the Party as shall prefer or prosecute the said Offence as to and against the Party or Parties that shall be convented according as their Causes shall require and to you in Justice shall be thought reasonable And further Our Will and Pleasure is That you assume our well-beloved Subject William Bridgman Esquire one of the Clerks of our Council or his sufficient Deputy or Deputies in that behalf to be your Register whom we do by these Presents depute to that effect for the registring of all your Acts Decrees and Proceedings by virtue of this our Commission and that in like manner you or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one by your Discretions shall appoint one or more Messenger or Messengers and other Officer or Officers necessary and convenient to attend upon you for any Service in this behalf Our Will and express Commandment also is That there shall be two Paper-Books indented and made the one to remain with the said Register or his sufficient Deputy or Deputies the other with such Persons and in such Places as you the said Commissioners or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one shall in your Discretion think most fit and meet in both which Books shall be fairly enter'd all the Acts Decrees and Proceedings made or to be made by virtue of this Commission And whereas our Universities of Oxford and Cambridg and divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches Colleges Grammar Schools and other Ecclesiastical Incorporations have been erected founded and endowed by several of our Royal Progenitors Kings and Queens of this Realm and some others by the Charity and Bounty of some of their Subjects as well within our Universities as other Parts and Places the Ordinance Rules and Statutes whereof are either embezeled lost corrupted or altogether imperfected We do therefore give a full Power and Authority to you or any five or more of you of whom we will you the afore-named Lord Chancellor always to be one to cause and command in our Name all and singular the Ordinances Rules and Statutes of our Universities and all and every Cathedral and Collegiate Churches Colleges Grammar-Schools and other Ecclesiastical Incorporations together with their several Letters Patents and other Writings touching or in any wise concerning the several Erections and Foundations to be brought and exhibited before you or any five or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one willing commanding and authorizing you or any five or more of you as aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one upon the exhibiting and upon diligent and deliberate View Search and Examination of the said Statutes Rules and Ordinances Letters Patents and Writings as is aforesaid the
them tho at this time not only the Roman Emperours but all Kings and those in Authority were Heathen and Idolaters that we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty for this is good and acceptable in the Sight of God our Saviour who will have all Men to be saved and come to the Knowledg of the Truth for there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus If therefore by Divine Precept or Command from God Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgiving be to be made for Heathen Kings and Magistrates much more are Christians obliged to make all these for Christian Kings and Magistrates All Kingdoms consist in the mutual Office of Commanding and Obeying so that it is as well the Duty of Kings and those who are in Authority to command as it is of the Subjects to obey and no Obedience can be where there is no Command to which it is due for where there is no Law there is no Transgression or Omission Tho these Offices be distinct in their Relations to the Governors and Governed yet the Rules of these Offices are the same and common to both so as that they ought to be foreknown as well to those in Authority to command as those who are subject to them these Rules are the Laws and Constitutions of every Kingdom and Country which unite them into one Incorporeal or Intelligible Body and under these is Mankind in different Places in divers manners maintained in Society and Concord The Offices of Commanding and Obeying are not only restrained to Moral Speech and Actions but extend to Religious for the Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom as well in all publick as private Actions So that all Civil Nations to whom God had not revealed himself however they misplaced their Deities in Osyris Isis Jupiter c. worshipped their Gods in publick manner and had those Rites and Ceremonies which were performed by separate Persons ordained thereto As God governs the World and all Creatures in it so does he govern the Kingdoms in the World and has-set fatal Periods to them as well as to the Life of Man and all other Creatures yet as he has not in vain given Laws to Man to govern his Intentions Speech and Actions by and made him to subsist in the Labour of his Body and Cares of his Mind or both so has he not in vain commanded all Kingdoms and Nations to honour and serve him and to live justly and peaceably with one another and under these only can Kingdoms and Nations hope for Peace and God's Blessing upon them So that it is not the extent of the Territories of Kingdoms and Nations which is the Strength of them but the number of People in them nor is it their well-peopling only but their Unity in Religion and Civil Government for by these small Dominions increase upon others which are in Distraction and Dissension and where Kingdoms or Nations become distracted or divided either in Religion or Civil Government they become how great soever they be so much more enfeebled and tending to outward and intestine Dissolution as these shall be more These Discords in Religion and Justice have their Beginnings oft-times from Kings and those in Authority and often from the Subjects It was Solomon's Wives 1 Kings 11. that turn'd away his Heart from the Religion which God commanded which was the Cause ver 11. that God rent his Kingdom of Israel from him and gave it to his Servant Jeroboam and it was Jeroboam's Idolatry which distracted the Israelites into Factions which in time brought the Babylonish Captivity upon them from which they never returned And as Discords in Religion often arise from Kings and those in Authority which enfeeble the Strength of Kingdoms and Nations so does the Oppression and Injustice of Kings and Magistrates when they are not God's Ministers for their Subjects good make Kings Instruments of their vile Ends to the damage of their Subjects Thus Rehoboam to humour his Favourites bred up with him preferred them before his Subjects and threatned to oppress them more than his Father did whereby he lost the Dominion of ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel not only from himself but from his Father's House for ever and became so poor and feeble that the King of Egypt took Jerusalem and made Spoil of all the wonderful Riches which his Father had left him It was Ahab's Covetousness and Injustice in the Murder of Naboth and seizing his Vineyard that God not only disinherited his Posterity but rooted them out from the Face of the Earth 1 Kings 21. 21. And as this Discord in Religion and Justice may begin with the King and those in Authority so it may from those subject to them It was the People contrary to God's immediate Command forsook the Religion and Worship which was commanded them and set up the Molten Calf to be adored and worshipped Exod. 32. and it was the People which twice conspired to depose Moses from ruling over them Numbers 16. which brought so great a Destruction upon them I do not question but it was the intolerable Tyranny and Oppression of Dioclesian Maximinian Maximin and Maxentius as well as their horrible Persecution of the Christians so livelily described by Lactantius which gave so great a Reputation to the Christians and made Constantine's Passage to the Roman Empire more desirable not only by the Christians but even by the Gentiles Nor was the Roman Empire at any time of a greater extent unless under Trajan than when Constantine became sole Emperor Whereas this Roman Empire in the Body of it was never in so distracted and feeble a State for tho Constantine in regard of the Excellency of his natural Disposition was universally acknowledged Emperor yet above all things endeavouring the Propagation of Christian Faith and Religion and by his own Authority without the Concurrence of the Senate he granted an universal Toleration of Religion to all Sects of Christians as well as Jews and Gentiles and not only discharged the Christian Clergy which by the Constitutions of the Empire when they were not otherwise persecuted were subject to give their Attendance upon defraying the Lustral Sacrifices and watch and ward for Security of the Pagan Temples but made the Christians capable of receiving Legacies and of all publick Imployments so as the Christians were not only in an equal but better Estate than the Gentiles and upon all occasions had the Preference of Constantine's Favour But however this displeased the Gentiles it did not content all sorts of Christian Hereticks and Schismaticks who were so obstinate in their Opinions that all the Endeavours Constantine could use would not reconcile them For besides the Nicene Council he called four more viz. at Gaul Ancyra Neo Caesarea and Laodicea But when the Hereticks and Schismaticks would not submit to these Constantine restrained them from the Privileges he before granted them and left them in the same
Countess and Mrs. Turner to be Under-keeper to Sir Thomas and had a Promise of 200 l. Reward when Sir Thomas should be dispatched and that he might with more Secrecy work his Design the Lieutenant had Orders from Northampton and Rochester that no Man else should come at Sir Thomas and Turner only to wait upon him at Table and to give Order for his Diet and Drinks Sir Thomas thus mew'd up and excluded from the Sight of his nearest Relations and Servants upon the 9th of May was begun the Practice of poisoning Sir Thomas in his Broth which Weston brought him and this was continued with many Varieties of Poisoning till the 14th of September when by a Glyster for which the Administer had 20 l. Reward he was dispatched but the Malice against Sir Thomas did not end with his Death for the Blanes and Blisters which the Poison had caused upon his Body were interpreted to be the Effects of the French-Pox and his Body was irreverently buried in a Pit digged in a very mean Place Here we may see the unhappy Fate of Princes above other Men who neglecting their Duty give themselves up to be governed by Minions and Favourites for private Men are accountable only for their own Actions whereas Princes are accountable to God and Fame for all the ill Actions of their Ministers and how many ways was the King's Name used and abused in perpetrating this black and horrid Murder First in getting the King to send Sir Thomas on the Embassage to Russia Secondly in committing him to the Tower for refusal Thirdly in keeping him close Prisoner there which was a Practice never known before for a Contempt that any Man should be close confined from all his Relations and Servants and 't was a greater Villany to practise Sir Thomas his Death while he was the King's Prisoner than if he had been at large as being more immediately under the King's Protection These Considerations little affected the Court and Sir Overbury's Destruction went but half way towards the designed Marriage between Rochester and the Countess of Essex but a Commission of Delegates under the Broad Seal is issued out to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Abbot the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Litchfield and Coventry and Rochester Sir Julius Caesar Sir Thomas Parrey Sir Daniel Danne Sir John Bennet Francis James and Thomas Edwards Doctors of the Civil Law at the Suit of the Countess for a Divorce from the Earl of Essex Here you may see the Ascendant Rochester and Northampton had over the King not only in getting this Commission wherein the King's Name and Authority was abused but they procured the King in the hearing of the Countess's Cause to be her Advocate in answering the Objections which the Arch-Bishop made against the Divorce so as this Matter was managed the Bishops of Winchester Dr. Bilson of Ely Dr. Andrews of Litchfield and Coventry and Rochester with Sir Julius Caesar Sir Thomas Parrey and Sir Daniel Dunne were for the Divorce and that the Countess was Virgo non vitiata and that there was Frigidity in the Earl and the Marriage a Nullity and decreed the Earl to repay the Countess her Portion but the ABp the Bp of London and Bennet James and Edwards Doctors of the Civil-Law were against it Thus far was the King's Name and Authority abused in the attaining the Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and the designed Marriage between Rochester and the Countess of Essex for Overbury being dead and the Divorce obtained the Countess must not lose the Title by this Marriage and thereupon the 4th of November Rochester is created Earl of Somerset All things are now prepared for the hopeful Marriage and that the Solemnity at the ending of it might out-vie that of the Palsgrave and the Lady Elizabeth upon the 6th of December the Earl and Countess were married at White-hall in the Presence of the King and Queen Prince and a great confluence of the Bishopâ— and Temporal Nobility the Bishop of Bath and Wells married them and Dr. Mountaine Dean of Westminster preached the Nuptial Sermon and that Night there was a gallant Masque of Lords but upon the Wednesday following the 29th there was another of the Prince's Gentlemen which quite out-did this and pleased the King so well that he caused it to be acted again on the Monday following being the 3d of January But White-hall was too narrow to contain the Triumphs for this Marriage they must be extended into the City and upon the 4th of January the Bride and Bridegroom accompanied by the Duke of Lenox my Lord Privy Seal Northampton the Lord Chamberlain the Earls of Worcester Pembroke and Montgomery with a numerous Train of Nobility and Gentry were invited to a Treat in the City at Merchant-Taylors Hall where my Lord Mayor and Aldermen entertained them in their Scarlet Gowns At their Entry they were accosted by a gratulatory Speech and Musick the Feast which was most sumptuous served by the choicest Citizens selected out of the 12 Companies in their Gowns and rich Foines After Supper they were entertained with a Wassaile two pleasant Masques a Play and Dancing and after all the Bride and Bridegroom with all this Noble Crew were invited to a Princely Banquet and at three in the Morning the Bride and Bridegroom returned to Whitehall and before this Surfeit of Pleasure and Excess was well digested the Gentlemen of Grays-Inn upon Twelfth-Day invited the Bride and Bridegroom to a Masque Thus these Gaieties though they out-lived the Year yet ended in the Holy-days of Christmas as they began with them being the next Day after Christmas But before the end of this Year these Joys shall turn sharp and sower This Year 1614 as it was the Meridian of the King's Reign in England so was it of his Pleasures the King was excessively addicted to Hunting and Drinking not ordinary French and Spanish Wines but strong Greek Wines and though he would divide his Hunting from drinking these Wines yet he would compound his Hunting with drinking these Wines and to that purpose he was attended with a special Officer who was as much as could be always at hand to fill the King's Cup in his Hunting when he called for it I have heard my Father say that being hunting with the King after the King had drank of the Wine he also drank of it and though he was young and of an healthful Constitution it so disordered his Head that it spoiled his Pleasure and disordered him for three Days after Whether it were drinking these Wines or from some other Cause the King became so lazy and unweildy that he was treist on Horse-back and as he was set so would he ride without otherwise poising himself on his Saddle Nay when his Hat was set on his Head he would not take the pains to alter it but it sate as it was put on And as he thus gave himself up to Pleasure so he did to Favourites and Flatterers and scarce
she should take other French Catholicks in their Places but nevertheless by the Consent of the King of Great Britain That the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales his Son should oblige themselves by Oath not to attempt by any means whatsoever to make her change her Religion or to force her to any thing that might be contrary thereto and should promise by writing in the Faith and Word of a King and Prince to give Order that the Catholicks as well Ecclesiastical as Secular who have been imprisoned since the last Edict against them should be set at Liberty That the English Catholicks should be no more enquired after for their Religion nor constrained to take the Oath which contains something contrary to the Catholick Religion That their Goods that have been seized since the last Edict should be restored to them And generally that they should receive more Graces and Liberty in Favour of the Alliance with France than had been promised them in consideration of that of Spain The Deputation of Father Berule Superior General of the Fathers of the Oratory to his Holiness to obtain the Dispensation for the aforesaid Marriage THE Instructions which were given to Father de Berule were to render himself with all Diligence at Rome to obtain the Pope's Dispensation and to this Effect to represent to his Holiness That the King of Great Britain having demanded of the King his Sister Madame Henrietta Maria for a Wife for the Prince of Wales his Son his Majesty hearken'd the more willingly to this Proposition in that he esteem'd it very profitable towards the Conversion of the English as heretofore a French Princess married into England had induced them to embrace Christianity but the Honour which he had vowed to the Holy See and particularly to his Holiness who baptized him in the Name of Pope Clement VIII did not permit him to execute the Treaty without having obtained his Dispensations That this Marriage ought to be look'd upon not only for the Benefit of the English Catholicks but of all Christendom who would thereby receive great Advantage That there was nothing to be hazarded for in Madame seeing that she was as firm in the Faith and in Piety as he could desire That she had a Bishop and 28 Priests to do their Duties That she had not a Domestick that was not Catholick and that the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would oblige themselves by Writing and by Oath not to solicit her directly or indirectly neither by themselves or by Persons interposed to change her Religion On the contrary having nothing to fear for her he had great Cause to hope that she being dearly beloved of the King who was already well enough disposed to be a Catholick and of the Prince of Wales she might by so much the more contribute to their Conversion as Women have wonderful Power over their Husbands and their Fathers-in-law when Love hath given them the Ascendant over their Spirits That she was so zealous in Religion that there was no doubt but she would employ in this pious Design all that depended upon her Industry and that if God should not bless Intentions in the Person of King James and of the Prince of Wales it was apparent that their Children would be the Restorers of the Faith which their Ancestors had destroyed seeing she would have the Charge to educate them in the Belief and in the Exercises of the Catholick Religion till the Age of 13 Years and that these first Seeds of Piety being laid in their Souls cultivated with Care at the time when they should be more susceptible of Instructions would infallibly produce stable and permanent Fruits that is to say a Faith so firm that it may not be shaken by Heresy in a riper Age. That after all the Catholicks of England would receive no small Profit at present since the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would both oblige themselves upon their Faith and by Writing no more to enquire after them nor punish them when they should be discovered to enlarge all those that had been imprisoned and to make them Restitution of Money and of other Goods that had been taken from them since the last Edict if they were yet in being and generally to treat them with more Favour than they could have expected from the Alliance with Spain And further He had Orders to let the Pope understand that to render more Respect to the Church it had been agreed that Madame should be affianced and married according to the Catholick Form and agreeable to that which was followed at the Marriage which Charles IX made of Madam Margaret of France with the late King Henry IV. then King of Navarre All these things spoke themselves and appeared so visibly that they would admit of no doubt so this Father that wanted neither Spirit nor Fire represented them dexterously to the Pope and his Holiness made him hope for a speedy and favourable Answer c. See the Life of Cardinal Richlieu printed at Paris 1650. fol. 14 15. How does this agree with the King's Speech at the opening of the Parliament in the 18th Year of his Reign That if the Treaty of the Match between his Son and the Infanta of Spain were not for the Benefit of the Established Religion at home and of the Reformed abroad he was not worthy to be their King And how does this agree with that part of the King's Speech at the opening of this Parliament That as for the Toleration of the Roman Religion as God shall surely judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in Words expressed any thing that savoured of it Do not Religion Truth and Justice support the Thrones of Princes and Hypocrisy Falshood and Injustice undermine and overthrow them What future Happiness then could either the King or Prince hope to succeed this Treaty sworn to by them both so diametrically contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation wherein the Majesty of the King as well as the Safety of the Nation is founded and to govern by these and observe this Treaty will be impossible What Peace could the Prince find at home even in his Bed when an imperious French Wife shall be ever instigating him to break his Coronation-Oath to truckle to that imposed upon him by her Brother of France These Pills how bitter soever must be swallowed by the King rather than his Son shall be baulk'd a second time nay it seems they were very sweet to him For Mr. Howel in the Life of Lewis III. says fol. 66. that King James said passionately to the Lords of the Council of the King of France My Lords the King of France has wrote unto me That he is so far my Friend that if ever I have need of him he will render me Offices in Person whensoever I shall desire him the Truth of this you will see by and by Truly he hath gained upon
them with Men of War to guard their Fisheries and to do it whether he would or not A Prince that by his dissolute Life and prophane Conversation debauched and effeminated the Genius of the English Nation whereby it became more scandalized for Swearing and Drinking than in any Age before A Prince that broke all the Measures by which Hen. 8. and Queen Elizabeth were the Arbitrators of Christendom A Prince fearful of all his Enemies abroad while he was only great by exercising a Tyrannical Arbitrary Power over his Parliaments and Subjects who could only have made him great abroad and honoured at home whereby he became little beloved at home and suffered the Dutch to redeem their Cautionary Towns upon their own Terms and to dispossess the English at Amboyna and their other Factories in the East-Indies and Africa He only stood still looking on while the French upon the Matter supprest the Reformed in France and suffered Ferdinand the 2d to over-run and near subdue the Protestant Princes in Germany as well as his own Son-in-law And tho he were the 6th of that Name King of Scotland from John alias Robert Stuart the Son of Robert Stuart by his Paramour Elizabeth Moor yet if Sir James Melvil says true that Cardinal Bethoun poisoned James the 5th he was the first of that Name who died a natural Death if he did so for James the first was murdered by his Uncle the Earl of Athol his Grand-father's legitimate Son in his Queen's Arms with eight and twenty Wounds the Queen receiving two to defend him This was in the Year 1436. James the II. was killed by the breaking of a Piece of Cannon while he besieged the Castle of Roxburgh the 3d of Aug. 1460. James the III. having his Army routed by an Army headed by his Son James was killed at Bannoch-Burn by the Lord Gray and Robert Sterling of Ker after Sir Andrew Brothick a Priest had shriven him This was in 1488. James the IV. was killed the 9th of December 1514 at Flowdenfield by the English commanded by the Earl of Surrey and his Body never found and if James the 5th was poisoned then none of these Jameses died a natural Death neither did King James his Mother being put to death Ann. 1587 for conspiring the Death of Queen Elizabeth After the Dissolution of the Spanish Match the King as greedily prosecuted the French and tho he lived not to see it settled yet he saw the Army raised under Count Mansfield for the Recovery of the Palatinate ruined by trusting to the French Faith in this very Treaty When he died he not only left an empty Exchequer but a vast Debt upon the Crown yet was engaged in a foreingn War and the Monies given by the Parliament for carrying it on were squandred away in carrying on the French Treaty and the Nation imbroiled in intestine Feuds and Disorders At his Death he left a Son and Heir and one Daughter Before he died he saw his Son over-ruled by his Favourite against his determinate Will and Pleasure and the Prince's own Honour and Interest which was a great Mortification to him and which he often complained of but had not Courage to redress and so strongly was 〈◊〉 Favourite possessed of his Power over his Son in the King's Life that the Prince little regarded his Father's Precepts or the Counsels of any else after his Death whereby he encreased the Internal Feuds Jealousies and Discords of the Nation which ended in a sad Catastrophe both of the Favourite and the King At the King's Death his Daughter with her Husband and her many Children were driven into Exile and Poverty in the Dominion of the Dutch States where they were more relieved by the States the Prince of Orange and some Bishops and Noblemen of England than by either of the Kings Father or Son A DETECTION OF THE Court and State of England During the Reign of King CHARLES I. c. BOOK II. CHAP. I. This Reign detected to the Dissolution of the Parliament Tertio Car. 'T WAS a strange Reign this As this King's Father's Reign was introduced with a horrible Plague so was this King's with a greater and such as no Records of any Times before mention the like The first 15 Years of his Reign were perfectly French and such as never before were seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King whenas it was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done Baptista Nani in the sixth Book of the History of Venice An. 1625 f. 221 observes That after the Marriage of King Charles with the Daughter of France the Interest of State or rather the Passion of Favourites converted the Bonds of Affection into Causes of Hatred Europe in those times reckoned it amidst its unhappy Destiny that the Government of it fell upon three young Kings yet in the Flower of their Age Princes of great Power desirous of Glory and in Interest contrary but in this alone by Genius agreeing that they committed the Burden of Affairs to the Will of their Ministers for with equal Independency France was governed by Richlieu Spain by Olivares and Great-Britain by Buckingham confounding Affections with Interest as well publick as private Betwixt the Cardinal and Buckingham open Animosities discovered themselves for Causes so much more unadvised as they were more hard to be known When King James died the Nation was rent into four Parties viz. The Prerogative which exalted the King's divided Will from the Laws and Constitutions above his Royal and Legal Will The Country or Legal Party which stood for the Legal Establishment of Church and State and the Puritan and Popish Parties After the Treaties of Marriage between the Prince and the Daughters of Spain and France the Popish and Prerogative Parties joined for carrying on the Court-Designs and were opposed by the Country and Puritan Parties and as the Prerogative and Popish Factions grew more insolent so the Puritan Party gathered Strength and Reputation among the Vulgar or ordinary People insomuch that in Number they became more than all the other three We shall take a better View of this Reign if we look a little back into the former After the Treaty of the Match with Spain was broken off King James was perplext what to do he had neither Money nor Courage to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate and the Wounds which he had given the last Parliament by Imprisoning their Members for advising him to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate were yet fresh and bleeding and yet Buckingham whom he durst not offend not content to satisfy his Spite against Olivares by breaking off the Match was notwithstanding all Difficulties nay Impossibility of Success still pushing on the King to declare War against the King of Spain The King
Lord Keeper par 2. fol. 14 15. tit 14 15. The Lord Keeper at Woodstock was censured by the Duke and his Creatures for this the Keeper therefore unsent for comes to Woodstoock and thus applies himself to the Duke My Lord I am come unsent for and I fear to displease you yet because your Grace made me I must and will serve you though you are one that will destroy that which you made let me perish yet I deserve to perish ten times if I were not as earnest as any Friend your Grace hath to save you from perishing The Sword is the Cause of a Wound but the Buckler is in fault if it do not defend the Body You brought the two Houses hither my Lord against my Counsel my Suspicion is confirmed that your Grace will suffer for it What 's now to be done but to wind up a Session quickly The Occasion is for you because two Colleges in the Vniversity and eight Houses in the Town are visited with the Plague Let the Members be promised fairly and friendly that they may meet again after Christmas requite the Injuries done to you with Benefits not Revenge for no Man that is wise will shew himself angry with the People of England I have more to say but no more than I have said to your Grace above a Year past at White-hall confer one or two of your great Places upon your fastest Friends so shall you go less in Envy and not less in Power Great Necessities will excuse hard Proposals and horrid Counsels St. Austin says it was a Punick Proverb in his Country Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid At the Close of the Sessions declare your self to be forwardest to serve the King and Commonwealth and to give the Parliament Satisfaction Fear them not when they meet again in the same Body whose ill Affections I expect to mitigate but if you proceed trust me with your Cause when it comes into the House of Lords and I will lay my Life upon it I will preserve you from Sentence or the least Dishonour This is my Advice my Lord if you like it not Truth in the end will find an Advocate to defend it The Duke replied no more but I will look to whom I trust and flung out of the Chamber with Menaces in his Countenance Mr. Rushworth fol. 202. says that the Keeper told the Duke in Christ-Church when the Duke rebuked him for siding against him in that he engaged with William Earl of Pembroke to labour the Redress of Grievances That he was resolved to stand upon his own Legs and that the Duke should answer If that be your Resolution look you stand fast Where Mr. Rushworth had this I cannot tell but this being so unlike the Keeper's Carriage to the Duke both in King James's time and after and also to the Narrative before set forth by the Bishop of Litchfield who being the Keeper's Chaplain could have a better Inspection herein than Mr. Rushworth could have had but especially since the Reasons which the Keeper put into the King's hands which you may read in the Life of the Keeper par 2. tit 18. to satisfy the King of his Carriage while the Parliament sate at Oxford being so contrary to what Mr. Rushworth says I incline rather to believe the Bishop However the Commons presuming to enquire into Buckingham's Actions are censured at Woodstock for spiteful and seditious and therefore not fit to continue but to be dissolved which being understood by the Keeper with Tears and Supplications he implored the King to consider there was a time when his Father charged him in the Keeper's Hearing to call Parliaments often and to continue them though their Rashness might sometimes offend him that by his own Experience he never got good by falling out with them But chiefly Sir said he let it never be said that you kept not good correspondence with your first Parliament do not disseminate so much Unkindness through all the Counties and Boroughs of your Realm The Love of your People is the Palladium of your Crown Continue this Assembly together to another Session and expect Alteration for the better if you do not the next Swarm will come out of the same Hive The Lords of the Council did almost all concur with the Keeper but it wanted Buckingham's Suffrage who was secure that the King's Judgment would follow him against all the Table Thus far the Bishop But there was another Cause which the Bishop does not mention but Mr. Rushworth does fol. 336. which caused the hasty Dissolution of this Parliament Captain Pennington was come to Oxford from delivering the Fleet into the French Power to give an Account of the Reason of it but by the Duke's means was drawn to conceal himself and not to publish in due time his Knowledg of the Premises as it shortly after appeared and if this should have been made known it would not have been in the Power of the Keeper to have brought off the Duke from Sentence or the least Dishonour so upon the 12th of August the Parliament was dissolved but before their Dissolution the Commons made this following Declaration WE the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament being the Representative Body of the whole Commons of this Realm abundantly comforted in his Majesty's late gracious Answer touching our Religion and his Message for the Care of our Health do solemnly vow and protest before God and the World with one Heart and Voice that we are resolved and do hereby declare that we will ever continue most Loyal and Obedient Subjects to our most Gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles and that we will in a convenient time and in a Parliamentary way freely and dutifully do our utmost Endeavours to discover and reform the Abuses and Grievances of this Realm and State and in like sort to afford all necessary Supply to his most excellent Majesty upon his present Occasions and Designs Most humbly beseeching our said dear and dread Soveraign in his Princely Wisdom and Goodness to rest assured of the true and hearty Affections of his poor Commons and to esteem the same to be as we conceive it is indeed the greatest worldly Reputation and Security that a just King can have and to account all such as Slanderers of the Peoples Affections and Enemies to the Commonwealth that shall dare say the contrary But the mighty Buckingham shall not only dare to say but dare to do the contrary so much easier is it in such a Reign for a Favourite to ruine a Nation than for a Nation to have Justice against a Favourite Here let 's stay a little and see what state the King had brought himself to within less than five Months after he became King First he took Mountague to be his Chaplain a virulent seditious ill-natur'd Fellow to protect him from his Contempt against his Metropolitan and the Parliament for publishing new-fangl'd Opinions to the Disturbance of the Peace
might not another Parliament upon better Information alter what the Parliament 21 Jac. had done Which neither of these Parliaments did but granted and voted him and his Father greater Supplies than ever before were given to any of his Predecessors in three-fold the time But when the King enter'd into a View of his Treasure he found how ill provided he was to proceed effectually with so great an Action It seems by this one Action the King only designed the War against Spain But why does not the King set forth the Causes why his Treasure was so ill provided It was not ten Months before his Father's Death that the Parliament 21 Jac. which gave his Father three Subsidies and three Fifteenths was adjourned and his first Parliament gave him two Subsidies more within two or three Months after his Father's Death And what came of all this but the raising ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse under Mansfield the Expedition against the Rochellers and to Cadiz to neither of which latter he was ever invited by his Father or any Parliament The King makes the â—lague to be the Cause of the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford yet he might as well have secured the Members by a Prorogation as Dissolution And in this Parliament he tells how the House of Commons voted him three Subsidies and three Fifteenths and after four Subsidies and three Fifteenths and of the Letter he sent them the 9th of June to speed the passing these Supplies and how that the House being abused by the violent and ill-advised Passion of a few Members never so much as admitted one Reading to the Bill of Subsidies but voted a Remonstrance or Declaration which they intended to prefer to him tho palliated with glossing Terms containing many dishonourable Aspersions upon his Majesty and upon the sacred Memory of his deceased Father which his Majesty taking for a Denial of the promised Supplies upon mature Advisement he dissolved them But from whence should this mature Advisement come We do not find the Privy Council had any hand in it and the House of Lords petitioned against it But lest the Credit of this Declaration should not find Faith enough against the Commons Representatives the King sends a Proclamation after it wherein he takes notice of a Remonstrance drawn by a Committee of the late Commons to be presented to him wherein are many things to the Dishonour of himself and his Royal Father of blessed Memory and whereby through the sides of a Peer of this Realm they wound their Soveraign's Honour and to vent their Passions against that Peer and prepossess the World with an ill Opinion of him before his Case was heard who hinder'd it had scatter'd Copies of it Wherefore the King to suppress such an unsufferable Wrong upon pain of his Indignation and high Displeasure commanded all who had Copies thereof to burn them But why was not the Duke's Cause heard and who dissolved the Parliament to prevent it Had not the Earl of Bristol answered every Particular of the King 's and Duke's Charge against him And was there not an Order of the House of Lords the Duke should answer the Earl's Charge against him Where is this Answer to be found and why was it not Now see the Justice of this King and how he made good his Promise in his Declaration that he would so order his Actions as should justify him not only in his own Conscience but to the whole World for the very Day the Parliament was dissolved he committed the Earl of Bristol Prisoner to the Tower and left the Duke free to pursue his ungodly Designs Here I 'll stay a little and add this Augmentation of Honour to the Escutcheon of this noble Earl notwithstanding this Usage For when the Long Parliament in 1640 had put a full Stop to the King 's Absolute Will and Pleasure which if it had not God only knows where it would have ended and after that this King's Flatterers and Favourites his Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary Winde-bank had run into other Countries to save themselves from being hanged in this and that the Earl of Manchester after he had flatter'd this King and his Father in all the Shapes of Earl Viscount Baron Lord Chief Justice Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer and Lord President of the Council and his Son and the Earls of Pembroke and Holland and both the Sir Henry Vanes Father and Son and Sir Henry Mildmay c. sided with the Parliament against the King yet this noble Earl followed the King in all his Adversity however he had been persecuted by him in his Prosperity The late Keeper as he gave his Opinion against the War with Spain in King James's Reign so did he against the Expedition against Cales in this King's Reign his Reason was which you may read in the second Part of his Life fol. 65. That the King must make himself sure of the Love of his own People at home before he bid War to such a rich and mighty Nation But the Keeper's Counsels were as much feared and hated by the Duke as Bristol's and the Commons Articles were against him and therefore he resolved to be rid of them all and pursue the King 's and his own Designs without any Controul and the very same Day the Parliament was dissolved he caused the Earl of Bristol to be committed to the Tower as you may see in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1042. Nor would he have his Renown and Valour less known abroad than his Justice at home and France shall now be the Theatre upon which he will act it in spight of Spain or the Parliament and Nation of England without whose Assistance he will act Wonders by his own Power and in Vindication of his own Honour however some Cause must be shewed by others since the Duke concealed the true Cause Rushworth fol. 427. makes the Causes of this War to begin between the Priests of the Queen's Family and the Bishops by Articles of Agreement upon the Marriage and that the Pope had declared them Apostates if they should seek for any Establishment from the King being an Heretick and that the Queen sided herein with the Priests against the King and that Unkindnesses hereupon grew between them so as the King informed his Brother of France he could no longer bear them And much to this purpose has Mr. James Howel in the Life of Lewis XIII fol. 75. But these were but Pretences for this War the Cause was of another Complexion And herein we will cite the Authority of the great Nani who had better Means to enquire into the Causes than either Rushworth or Howel and was not biass'd by Interest Affection or Flattery You have heard before of the Emulation between Richlieu and Buckingham and of their Inclinations for the Queen's Favour and of the Queen 's noble Aversions to them both but I think Nani was therein a little mistaken for if I be not misinformed as I think verily I
Particulars not in General Did you ever know the King's Message to a Bill of Subsidies all succeeding Kings will say You must trust me as well as you did my Predecessors and trust my Messages but Messages never came into a Parliament Let us put up a Petition of â—â—ight not that I distrust the King but that I cannot take his Trust but in a Parliamentary way Hereupon the Commons desired a Conference with the Lords which was managed by Sir Edward Coke who said My Lords it is evident what necessity there is both in respect of your selves and your Posterity to have good Success in this Business we have acquainted your Lordships with the Reasons and Arguments and after we have had some Conference we have received from your Lordships Propositions and it behoves us to give your Lordships some Reasons why you have not heard from us before now for in the mean time as we were consulting this weighty Business we have received divers Messages from our great Soveraign the King and they consisted of five Parts 1. That his Majesty would maintain all his Subjects in their just Freedom both of their Persons and Estates 2. That he will govern according to his Laws and Statutes 3. That we shall find much Confidence in his Royal Word I pray observe that 4. That we shall enjoy all our Rights and Liberties with as much freedom as ever Subjects have done in former times 5. That whether we think fit either by Bill or otherways to go on in this great Business his Majesty would be pleased to give way tâ— it These gracious Messages did so work upon our Affections that we have taken it into deep Consideration My Lords what we had these Messages I deal plainly for so I am commanded by the House of Commons we did consider what way would be our most secure way nay yours We did think it the safest way to go on in a Parliamentary Course for we have a Maxim in the House of Commons and written in the Wall of our House That old Ways are the safest and surest Ways And at last we did fail upon that which we think if your Lordships did consent with us the most antient of all and that is my Lords the Via fausta both to his Majesty to your Lordships and to our selves For my Lords this is the greatest Bond that any Subject can have in open Parliament Verbum Regis That is a high Point of Honour but this must be done by the Lords and Commons and assented to by the King in Parliament This is the greatest Obligation of all and this is for the King's Honour and our Safety Therefore my Lords we have drawn the Form of a Petition desiring your Lordships to concur with us therein for we do come with an unanimous Consent of all the Commons and there is great reason your Lordships should do so for your Lordships be involved in the same Danger and then the Petition was read Upon the 20th of May the King wrote a Letter to the House of Lords wherein he said That as he had given leave to free Debates upon the highest Points of his Prerogative Royal which in the times of his Predecessors were ever restrained as Matters they would not have discussed yet he finds it insisted upon that in no Cause whatsoever he and his Council could commit without Cause shewed which if granted would dissolve the Frame of the Monarchy That as he had made fair Propositions to the Commons which might easily preserve the Liberty of the Subject so he thought good to let their Lordships know that without the overthrow of the Soveraignty he could not suffer his Power to be impeached yet that he will extend it beyond the just Rule of Moderation c. which he thought good to signify the rather to shorten the long Debates upon this great Question the Season of the Year being so far advanced and his great Occasions of State not lending many more days for the continuance of the Session The same day the Lords communicated the Letter to the Commons upon which Sir Thomas Wentworth said it was a Letter of Grace but the People will only like that which is done in a Parliamentary way and the Debate upon it would take up much time neither was it directed to the Commons and the Petition of â—ight would clear all Mistakes for some give out as if the House weâ—â— to pinch the King's Prerogative and so the Letter was laid aside These were while the Petition was in debate and before it was agâ—â—ed to by both Houses but after it was agreed upon the second of June the King came into the House of Lords and having sent for the Commons said Gentlemen I Am come hither to perform my Duty I think no Man can think it long since I have not taken so many days in answering your Petition as you have spent Weeks in framing it I am come hither to shew you that as well in formal Things as in essential I desire to give you as much Content as in me lies Then the Lord Keeper said MY Lords and ye the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons the King hath commanded me to say unto you That he takes it in good part that in Consideration of settling your own Liberties ye have generally professed in both Houses that ye have no intention to lessen or diminish his Majesty's Prerogative wherein as ye have cleared your Intentions so now his Majesty comes to clear his and to subscribe a firm League with his People which is ever likely to be most constant and perpetual when the Conditions are most equal and known to be so These cannot be in a more happy State than when your Liberties shall be an Ornament and Strength of his Majesty's Prerogative and his Prerogative a Defence of your Liberties in which his Majesty doubts not but that both he and you shall take a mutual Comfort hereafter and for his part he is resolved to give an Example in using his Power for the Preservation of your Liberties that hereafter you shall have no cause to complain and that they here read their own Petition and his Majesty's gracious Answer Then the Petition was read to which the King answered The King willeth that Right be done according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm and that the Statutes be put in due Execution that his Subjects may have no cause to complain of any Wrong or Oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties to the Preservation of which he holds himself in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative This Answer no ways satisfied the Commons whereupon Sir John Elliot made a pathetick and lively Representation of the Grievances of the Nation within and of the Danger and Weakness of it by the Mismanagement and Abuse of the King's Ministers and therefore wished that it might so stand with the Wisdom and Judgment of the House that these Dangers and Grievances
may be drawn into the Body of a Remonstrance and therein humbly exprest with a Prayer to his Majesty for the Safety of himself and for the Safety of the Kingdom and for the Safety of Religion that he would be pleased to give the House time to make perfect Inquisitions thereof or to take it into his own Wisdom and there give them such timely Reformation as the necessity of the Cause and his Justice does import Sir Edward Coke seconded Sir John Elliot 's Motion and propounded that a humble Remonstrance be presented to the King touching the Dangers and Means of the Safety of the King and Kingdom which was agreed to by the House and thereupon the House turned themselves into a grand Committee and the Committee for the Bill of Subsidies was ordered to expedite the said Remonstrance But this King rather than hear of what he had done did not care what he did and therefore the Speaker brought a Message from the King That his Majesty having upon the Petition exhibited by both Houses given an Answer so full of Justice and Grace for which we and our Posterity have just cause to bless his Majesty it is now time to draw to a Conclusion of the Session and therefore his Majesty thinks fit to let them know That he does resolve to abide by that Answer without further Change or Alteration and so he will Royally and Really perform unto them what he had thereby promised And further That he resolves to end this Session upon Wednesday the 11th of this Month and that this House should seriously attend those Businesses which may bring the Session to a happy Conclusion without entertaining new Matters and so to husband the time that his Majesty may with more Comfort bring them speedily together again at which time if there be any further Grievances not contained or expressed in the Petition they may be more maturely considered than the time will now permit But this did not disturb the Commons but they proceeded in their Declaration against Dr Manwaring and the same day presented it to the Lords at a Conference which was managed by Mr. Pym. The Commons impeached the Doctor upon these three Points in his Sermons of Allegiance and Religion 1. That he affirmed that the King is not bound to keep and observe the good Laws and Customs of this Realm concerning the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects and that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans Taxes and other Aids upon his People without common Consent in Parliament does so far bind the Consciences of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they cannot refuse the same without peril of Eternal Damnation 2. That those of his Majesty's Subjects that refused the Loan did therein offend against the Law of God and against his Majesty's Supream Authority and by so doing became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty Rebellion and Disobedience and liable to many other Taxes and Censures which he in the several Parts of his Book does most falsly and maliciously lay upon them 3. That the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for the raising of Aids and Subsidies that the slow Proceedings of such Assemblies are not fit to supply the urgent Necessities of State but rather apt to produce sundry Impediments to the just Design of Princes and to give them occasion of Displeasure and Discontent Whereupon the Commons demanded Judgment against the Doctor not accounting his Submission with Tears and Grief a Satisfaction for the Offence charged upon him and the Lords gave this Sentence 1. That he should be imprisoned during the Pleasure of the House 2. That he should be fined 1000 l. to the King 3. That he should make such Submission and Acknowledgment of his Offences as shall be set down by a Committee in Writing both at this Bar and the House of Commons 4. That he shall be suspended for the Term of three Years from the Exercise of the Ministry and in the mean time a sufficient preaching Minister shall be provided to serve the Cure out of his Livings this Suspension and Provision to be done by the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction 5. That he shall be disabled hereafter to have any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Secular Office 6. That he shall be disabled hereafter ever to preach at Court 7. That his Book is worthy to be burnt and that for the better effecting of this his Majesty may be moved to grant a Proclamation to call in the said Books that they may be burnt accordingly in London both the Vniversities and for the inhibiting the printing thereof upon a great Penalty This Censure immediately succeeding Sir Elliot's Representation of Grievances startled Laud as much as Sir John's Representation did the Duke of Buckingham and the King that he might not hear of any more Business of this kind upon the 5th of June commanded the Speaker to let the House know that he will certainly hold to the day fixed for ending the Session viz. the 11th and therefore requires them that they enter not into nor proceed in any new Business which may spend greater time or which may lay any Scandal or Aspersion upon the State-Government or the Ministers thereof This put the House into a fearful Consternation whereupon the House declared That every Member of the House is free from any undutiful Speech from the beginning of the Parliament to that day and ordered the House to be turned into a Committee to consider what was to be done for the Safety of the Kingdom and that no Man go out of the House upon pain of being committed to the Tower But before the Speaker left the Chair he desired leave to go forth which the House granted Then Sir Edward Coke spake freely We have dealt with that Duty and Moderation that never was the like Rebus sic stantibus after such a Violation upon the Liberties of the Subjects let us take this to Heart In 30 Edw. 3. were they then in any doubt to name Men that mislead the King They accused John of Gaunt the King's Son the Lords Latimer and Nevilâ—or â—or misadvising the King and they went to the Tower for it now when there is such a downfal of the State shall we hold our Tongues How shall we answer our Duty to God and Men 7 Hen. 4. Parl. Rot. 31 32. 11 Hen. 4. Numb 13. there the Council are complained of and removed from the King they mewed up the King and disswaded him from the common Good and why are we turned from that way we were in Why may not we name those that are the Cause of all our Evils In the 4 H. 3. 21 E. 3. 13 R. 2. the Parliament moderated the King's Prerogative and nothing grows to Abuse but this House hath Power to treat thereof What shall we do Let us palliate no longer if we do God will not prosper us I think the Duke of Bucks is the Cause of all our Miseries and till the King be informed thereof we shall neither go out with
Honour nor sit with Honour here That Man is the Grievance of Grievances let us set down the Causes of all our Disasters and all will reflect on him As for going to the Lords that is not via Regia our Liberties are now impeached we are concerned it is not via Regia the Lords are not participant with our Liberties Mr. Selden advised That a Declaration be drawn under four Heads First To express the House's dutiful Carriage to the King Secondly To tender the Liberties violated Thirdly To present what the House was to have dealt in Fourthly That that great Person viz. the Duke fearing to be questioned did interpose this Distraction All this time said he we have cast a Mantle on what was done last Parliament But now being driven again to look on that Man let us proceed with that which was then well begun and let the Charge be renewed that was last Parliament against him to which he made an Answer but the Particulars were sufficient that we may demand Judgment upon that Answer only In Conclusion the House agreed upon several Heads concerning Innovations in Religion the Safety of the King and Kingdom Misgovernment Misfortune of our late Designs with the Causes of them and when the Question was putting that it should be instanced that the Duke was the principal and chief Cause of all those Evils the Speaker came in and said that the King commands for the present that the House adjourn till to Morrow and that all Committees cease which was done accordingly And upon the 7th of June the King in Parliament passed the Petition of Right whereupon there was an universal Joy all over the City and the Commons returned to their own House with unspeakable Joy and resolved so to proceed as might express their Thankfulness and order the grand Committees for Religion Trade Grievances and Courts of Justice to sit no longer but that the House proceed only in Consideration of Grievances of most moment which was their Remonstrance to the King of the weak distracted and dangerous State of the Kingdom which was done in the most pathetick and humble manner which could be expressed and presented to the King in the Banqueting-House upon the 17th of June It 's very long and consisted of these six Branches 1. The Danger of the Innovation and Alteration of Religion This occasioned by First The great Esteem and Favour many of the Professors of the Romish Religion receive at Court Secondly Their publick Resort to Mass at Denmark-House contrary to his Majesty's Answer to the Parliament's Petition at Oxford Thirdly Letters to stay Proceedings against them Lastly The daily Growth of the Arminian Faction favoured and protected by Neal Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells whilst the Orthodox Party are silenced or discountenanced 2. Dangers of Innovation and Alteration in Government occasioned by Billeting Soldiers by Commission of procuring 1000 German Horse and Riders for the Defence of the Kingdom by a standing Commission granted to the Duke to be General at Land in time of Peace 3. Disasters of our Designs as the Expedition to the Isle of Rhee and that lately to Rochel wherein the English have purchased their Dishonour with the waste of a Million of Treasure 4. The Want of Ammunition occasioned by the selling 36 lasts of Gun-powder at low Rates 5. The Decay of Trade by the Loss of 300 Ships taken by the Dunkirkers and other Pirates within the three last Years 6. The not guarding the narrow Seas whereby his Majesty has almost lost the Regality Here note That none of these except Billeting of Soldiers which was yet continued were contained in the Petition of Right Of all which Evil and Dangers the principal Cause is the Duke of Buckingham his excessive Power and Abuse of that Power and therefore humbly submit it to his Majesty's Wisdom whether it can be safe for himself and Kingdom that so great Power should be trusted in the hands of any one Subject whatsoever It 's observable how cross the King set himself against the Commons in this Remonstrance for in the last Parliament when the Commons impeached the Duke and the Earl of Bristol exhibited Articles against him the King ordered the Attorney-General to exhibit an Information against the Duke in the Star-Chamber for the great Misdemeanours and Offences complained of against him by the Commons and Earl thereby to have stopt their Proceeding against the Duke in Parliament as he would have taken the Earl's Cause out of Parliament and proceeded against him by Indictment But the King hearing of this Remonstrance of the Commons against the Duke the Day before the Commons presented it viz. upon the 16th of June caused the Attorney-General to take the said Information and all the Proceedings to be taken off the File for that his Majesty was fully satisfied of the Duke's Innocency in all those things mentioned in the Information as well by his own certain Knowledg as by the Proofs taken in the Cause This was the first Fruit the Parliament and Nation reaped by the Petition of Right Now let 's see the next and whether the Commons deserved such a Censure as the King made upon them at the Prorogation of the Parliament After the Commons had presented a Remonstrance of their other Grievances to the King they then took into Consideration the preparing a Bill for granting his Majesty a Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage as might uphold the King's Profit and Revenue in as ample a manner as their just Care and Respect of Trade would permit But this being a Work of Time and would require much Time and Conference with Merchants and others and being often interrupted by Messages from the King and the Shortness of Time limited by the King for concluding this Sessions and fearing the King might be misinformed of this Particular they were forced by the Duty which they owed to his Majesty to declare That there ought not any Imposition to be laid upon Goods of Merchants exported or imported without Common Consent by Act of Parliament For Manifestation whereof they desired his Majesty to understand That tho the Kings of this Realm had often Subsidies granted them upon divers Occasions especially for guarding the Seas and Safeguard of Merchants yet the Subjects have been ever careful to use such Cautions and Limitations in these Grants that they did proceed not from Duty but the free Gift of the Subjects and that heretofore they used to limit a time for such Grants and for the most part but short as for a Year or two and at other times it has been granted upon occasion of War with Proviso that if the War ended in the mean time then the Grant should cease and of course it has been sequestred into the hand of some Subject to be employed for Guarding of the Seas very few of the King's Predecessors had it for Life until the Reign of Hen. VII who was so far from conceiving he had any Right
to fish without Licence they punished them with Loss of Life and Limb and were obliged to repair to Berghen and pay their Duties into the King's Exchequer there as appears by the Danish Records and other Monuments preserved in England and this avowed to have been practised consantly time out of mind Ann. 1432. Afterwards upon the Marriage of James 3. of Scotland with Margaret the Daughter of Christian 1. of Norway the Rights of the Fishery upon Schetland was transferred to the King of Scotland and his Heirs Anno 1470. and William Walwed a Scots Lawyer c. 3. de Dominio Maris says That in the past Age after a most bloody Quarrel between the Scots and Hollanders about the Fishery the Matter was at last composed in this manner That in time to come the Hollander should keep at least eighty Miles from the Coasts of Scotland And if by Accident they were driven nearer by the Violence of the Weather they paid a Tribute at the Port of Aberdeen before their Return where there was a Castle built and fortified for this and other Occasions Dr. Stubbe says that Gerard Malinus a most inquisitive Person informed him That after the Agreement between the King of Scotland and the Hollanders that the Dutch should not fish within eighty Miles of the Scots Coast lest the Shoals of Herrings should be interrupted King James before his coming to the Crown of England did let the Fishing upon the Coast of Scotland to the Hollanders for 15 Years And if this happen'd in the Year 1594 when Prince Henry was born then in the Year 1609 the Term expired when King James by his Proclamation enjoined the Dutch which fished upon the Coast of Scotland to take Licences But certain it is that the Dutch to caress King James the more at the Christning of Prince Henry were his Godfathers and presented the Prince with 400 Ounces of fine Gold and a Deed sealed whereby the Prince was yearly to receive 5000 Florins out of Camp-vere Mr. Stubbe says pag. 131 I believe from Authors truly cited by him The King of Denmark receives at his Ward-House in the Sound one Dollar for a Licence and for the Seal or Rose a Noble of every Ship and for every Last of Herrings being 12 Barrels one Dollar In Russia many Leagues from the Main or Land the Fishermen pay great Taxes to the King and in most places none but the Natives are permitted to fish but where the Hollanders are permitted to fish they pay the tenth Fish to the Emperor The King of Sweden amongst the Regalities of that Crown hath that of the tenth Fish caught in his Seas or if not that a Composition for the Fishery he has also several Districts Channels or Veins Royal in his Seas which are appropriated to his particular Use Nor is there any Fishing permitted in the open Seas there but by Leave and Direction of the Governour of the neighbouring Ports And Page 132 he says the same is practised by the King of Portugal in the Kingdom of Algarsues and the Natives pay a certain Tribute for their Liberty to fish And in Spain the Duke de Medina Sidonia does rent out of the Maritime Jurisdiction what he hath in reference to Fishing for 80000 Ducats of yearly Revenue Has not Grotius a fruitful Brain to find out those Usages by Princes and States in all Ages to be Usurpation against natural Right which lib. 1. sect 10. tit 5. de jure Belli Pacis is immutable by God himself and which never any Man before presumed to question But before we enquire into the Causes from which Grotius assumes to himself a Power which he denies to be in God Almighty let 's see how the Case stood with the Dutch when Grotius wrote his Mare Liberum both at home and abroad Tho the Seas were free Jure naturali as Grotius says yet I have seen a Dutch Placart printed the Year before Grotius wrote his Mare Liberum viz. 1632 and which Grotius might have seen as well as I wherein the States prescribe when and where the Dutch shall begin and proceed in their Fisheries and wherein they forbid the Use of French Salt in all their Fisheries and that Salts used in all of them shall be three times revised in three several Offices upon Penalty of Forfeiture of Fish and Salt which by Grotius's Doctrine is an Usurpation of the Natural Right which every Man has in the Sea and immutable by God himself Dr. Stubbe Page 132 says That the Fishermen in one Year paid the States 300000 l. for the Herrings and Codfish taken upon the Coasts of England and Scotland besides the tenth Fish and Cask paid for Waftage which comes at least to as much more which are Duties proper to the Kings of England and Scotland So that if what the Kings of England ever claimed by immemorial Prescription be an Usurpation against natural Right by Grotius's Doctrine I would be willingly informed by any of Grotius's Disciples by what Right then do these new States impose these things upon the Dutch who fish in these Seas If the Sea be free Jure naturali let any Man shew a Reason how the Dutch erect their East-India and West-India Companies only to trade in the East-Indies Africk and the West-Indies exclusive to the rest of the Dutch without a Violation of the natural Right of the other Dutch which Grotius says is immutable by God As Grotius's Title Mare Liberum is absurd and contrary to the Practice of his Country-men so his Manifesto of it is not less arrogant and intolerable viz. To the Princes and free People of the Christian World without so much as the Addition of sending greeting An Arrogance which no Pope ever assumed yet done by Grotius an exotick and proscribed Traitor for raising Arms and endeavouring to subvert the establish'd Church and State of his native Country The Topick whereon he founds his Manifesto is general and such as no Thief or Rogue ever pleaded to save their Lives viz. It is an Error not less old than pestilent which many Mortals but those especially who most abound in Wealth perswade themselves that Just and Vnjust is not distinguished by its own Nature but by an empty Opinion and Custom of Men and that all Right is to be measured by the Will and the Will by Profit But who these are who maintain these Opinions Grotius names none if they were his Acquaintance which I believe none of the Kings or Free People were except his Country-men were he should have convinced them to their Faces and not sneakingly have cavill'd at them behind their Backs I say I find this by no Nation or People so much practised as by the Tripolins Tunis Algier and Sally-men and his Country-men as will appear And if this will not oblige all Christian Princes and Free People to abandon all their Rights of Dominion to the Seas whereof they have been possessed by immemorial Prescription and leave all free for the
Man and therefore created Man for a Nobler End than can be found in this World viz. capable of Eternal Happiness in a better But though God made all things in this World for the Use of Man yet few things are useful to Man but as they are made so by Humane Labour Industry and Art yet no Art or Science in Man is innate or connatural or comes to pass by Inspiration Fate or Chance but by Education Learning and Experience We do not read that God ever made a House Cloth a Ship c. without Man whereas Nature of her own Accord has provided Food and all things necessary for other Creatures without any Act or Care of theirs Thus Nature clothed Sheep and Beasts with Wool and Hair Fowls with Feathers and Fish with Scales And tho Fowls make their Nests and Conies and Badgers Berries yet they do these by an insite connatural Power not learned or taught by any Creature Other Creatures live free and independent upon one another except the young ones of some Creatures while they can seek their Food and Preservation and are either Solivagous and Hurtful as Foxes Wolves and Tigers c. or live promiscuously in Herds and Flocks and are innocent Creatures as Sheep Goats c. whereas Men live in Dependency one upon another so as no Man can subsist of himself but depends upon another for things which conduce to their Welfare and Preservation and are neither Solivagous nor live promiscuously in Flocks and Herds but in Society and Conversation and keep Company by Election or Choice as they stand in need of other Men either for their Necessity Convenience or Pleasure and Men are distinguished from other Men by their Manners and Conversation so as it becomes Scandalous to keep Company with Debauched and Vicious Men. As other Creatures live free and independent upon one another so have they all things which Nature had provided for them in common whereas Man lives upon those things wherein he has Property exclusive to other Men So that it is wicked and unjust for any Man who has no Property in a thing without the Consent of him who has Property in it to take it from him In this State of Society out of which no Man lives God did not endue Man with Understanding and Reason in vain for whereas other Creatures pursue their Actions being excited by the Passions of Love Fear Hatred and Desire yet Man depresses these and governs his Actions by Understanding and Reason so that Humane Society may be preserved Speech and Letters are necessary in Humane Society and Conversation which wise Nature which never acts in vain hath denied other Sensitive Creatures which govern their Actions by Sense and their Passions these having no need of them Speech is the Mean or Instrument by which Men converse to the Hearing of one another and Letters to the Sight Other Creatures hear the Sound of Speech and can see Letters but do not understand the Power of the Words or Construction of them Man is born the most impotent of all other Creatures being naked and unarmed yet can neither clothe nor defend himself without the Help of another he has nothing to feed himself with but what he has from another yet if he takes any thing from another without the Consent of that other it will be Wickedness and Theft He is obliged to live uprightly and justly with other Men yet understands not how to live uprightly and justly but as he is instructed by Education Learning and Experience he is obliged to speak and write in Truth but neither Speech nor Letters are Insite or Connatural but acquired by Instruction and Learning from others All Humane Learning Reasoning and Instruction in Religion Morality and in every Art and Science is begotten from the Powers which God had before implanted in the Learner and from the Principles which were before understood by him so that if a Man be born blind it will be in vain to instruct him how to be a Painter or if Dumb to be a Musician or Orator or if he be not Compos Mentis so as to understand the Principles from which he is to be instructed Instruction will be as vain to him as to teach a Dumb Man to be an Orator or a blind Man a Painter So that it is from those Powers which God has implanted in Man without the Will of Man that Man becomes capable of being instructed by Man and therefore Man is obliged to give God all Honour and Praise before any other that he endued him without the Help of any other with an Intellectual and Reasonable Soul capable of Instruction The End of all Learning Reasoning and Instruction is how from Premises or Principles which a Man before understood as an Intellectual Creature to govern his Intentions Speech and Actions from them in time to come rationally So that as the Understanding is of the Causes of things and Actions which were before so Reason is of the Consequences of Speech and Actions in time to come The Understanding is from the Act and Power of God but Reason is from the Act or Power in Man So that though a Man may instruct another who hath a competent Understanding how to act Rationally in Consequence yet no Man can instruct another who is a Fool or Madman how to understand Principles from which he is to be instructed so as to judg and act rationally As every Learner is presumed to understand the Principles from which he is to be instructed so the Principles are assumed not proved and are to be without Question or Dispute For if the Question of any rational Proposition be but probable or uncertain the Conclusion or Consequence will be less probable and more uncertain For the better understanding an Oath it will be very requisite to distinguish between Understanding and Knowledg for Man understands Intelligible Beings as God the Soul a Law Religion Justice c. which can never be the Objects of Sense but may be said to know what he understands sensibly viz. of things and Actions which are perceived by Sense as a Man a Horse a Tree may be perceived by other Sensitive Creatures But that these do exist is intelligible So it is that Man is an Intellectual and Reasonable Creature and that God has made all sensible things in the World for the Use of Man c. and these can never be the Objects of Sense As Man excels all other Creatures as he is an intellectual and reasonable Creature â—hereby he honours God is helpful to other Men and preserves Peace in Society so on the contrary Man above all other Creatures abounds in Pride Ambition Arrogance Malice Revenge Covetousness and unlawful Lust whereby God becomes dishonoured and the Peace of Humane Society disturbed so as it is necessary in all Kingdoms and Countries that these be restrained and punished by Civil and Coercive Laws Laws are twofold Divine and Humane Divine Laws are twofold viz. Natural
and Supernatural revealed in the sacred Scriptures Natural which are presumed to be alike engraven on the Mind of Man Supernatural are those which Man obeys by God's special Favour and Grace Natural Laws are Affirmative and Negative Affirmative That Man honour God above all Creatures and that he converse truly and uprightly with Man Negative That he do not blaspheme or dishonour God nor wrong or deal falsly or deceitfully with another neither in his Intentions Speech nor Actions so that Civil Laws do not forbid Blasphemy or Immoral Speech and Actions but indifferently in divers Countries and Places punish them I say the Law of Nature is alike inplanted in all Intelligible Creatures for where there is no Law there is no Transgression nor Omission And therefore if all Men did not understand that Blasphemy and Immoral Speech and Actions were wicked it would be Tyranny to punish them So as Humane Judgment and Justice are necessary for Preservation of Humane Society and the End of Humane Judgment and Justice is as well to restore them to Right who suffer Wrongfully as to punish Wrong-doers It 's fit here to distinguish between Knowledg and Belief Knowledg is immediate of those things and Actions which fall under the Sense of Man and therefore not learned or taught but alike understood by all Men And Verity and true Speech is what a Man knows whereas Belief is a Reliance upon what another says to be true In all Legal Judgment upon which Justice is executed Judges in Civil Affairs assume two Premises which are to be without Question or Dispute viz. some foreknown Law and some Speech or Act done so that if the Law and Fact be but probable or uncertain the Judgment will be less probable and more uncertain But in giving Judgment Judges do not swear to their Opinions but make some Laws to be their Reasons of them A Promise is twofold Affirmative and Negative and is of time to come and is a Respecter of Persons An Affirmative Promise is a Speech or Writing wherein one or more assure another or more upon their Truth or Faith to do such an Act in his or their Power in some certain Time and Place or to be serviceable to another or more for some time or during Life as they shall be able a Negative Promise is when one or more upon their Truth or Faith assure another not to do such an Act and if the Parties mutually promise this is a Contract A Promissory Oath is when one or more affix God's Name which implies an Imprecation of God's Judgment upon them that they will do or not do what they promise But sure Men who give Promissory Oaths ought to be well assured they can do what they promise and ought considering the Frailty of Humane Nature and the infinite intervening Accidents which they annot foresee or if they could could not prevent to implore God's Assistance to enable them to perform their Promise And I do say and verily believe that of all Men those who soonest make Promissory Oaths do most break them and that Men who are so forward to make these Promissory Oaths by them cover their Designs of deceiving the other more than of performing their Promise An Oath is so sacred that as God will not have Divine Adoration or Worship to be given to any other but himself so neither will he have an Oath to be taken by any other Name not by the Sun Moon Earth or all the Host of Heaven And if he will not hold him Guiltless who takes his Name in vain how will he hold him Guiltless who swears in vain Thereby not only lessening the Veneration due to his Name but designing by it to deceive another In all my Observations I never knew any Man who made no Conscience of Swearing or taking God's Name in vain but made less in taking care to perform his Promises And when I hear a Man begin with Swearing not duly called unto it I suspect he has either some Design in it or that thereby he would create a Belief to that which is not true But how Legally or Illegally soever these Promissory Oaths are imposed I never heard of any who was prosecuted for Perjury upon them except Mr. Long Sheriff of Wilts prosecuted in the Star-Chamber for that he had sworn as all Sheriffs do not to go out of the County without leave from the King yet being chosen a Parliament-Man 3 Car. 1. came to serve in Parliament for which he pleaded the King's Writ which was Leave from the King and the Earl of Argyle about the Interpretation of the unintelligible Scotish Test And I dare say That if the Oath of Allegiance to the King were but once taken it would be held in greater Veneration than by often taking it upon these Premises Let 's see whether the Corporation-Oath be an Assertory or Promissory Oath or neither And in regard it is in two Parts consider both The first is I A. B. do declare and believe That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King This Part of the Oath is not Promissory and so an Assertory Negative Oath Here I will not dispute whether there can be a Negative Assertory Oath yet I do say such an Oath can never extend farther than to him who swears he does not know what he is required to swear But he can never swear that another does not know it So tho a Man may believe it 's not Lawful for a Man to take Arms against the King upon any Pretence whatsoever yet he can never extend it further than himself But I say this sort of Swearing destroys the Religion and End of an Assertory Oath which is only to what a Man knows certainly to be true but no Man certainly knows that an Opinion or Belief is certainly true But tho by some apparent Reason or the Authority of another I may be of an Opinion or Belief yet upon clearer Reason and better Authority I may alter my Opinion and Belief which a previous Assertory Oath can never oblige me to In Justice therefore an Assertory Oath That I Believe or am of Opinion is not admitted unless he that testifies swears the Ground or Cause of his Belief or Opinion to be certain and true of his own Knowledg I desire to know what were the Grounds or Reasons of this Corporation-Oath which every one ought to swear to be true of his own certain Knowledg before he believe it not to be lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King Or admit there might be Reason for this Belief yet if the Causes of this Belief were not before known to the Taker of this Oath so as the Taker knows them to be true of his certain Knowledg this Oath if any is Perjury The other Part of this Oath is And I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his the King's Authority against his Person or against those who
of State of Scotland and as Runnagadoes from Christianity become the greatest Persecutors of Christians so was Lauderdale of the Kirk and Presbyterian Government However Lauderdale seemed zealous for calling a Parliament in Scotland and demolishing the Forts thaâ— bridled the Scots which Monk opposed and hereby Lauderdale became popular in Scotland so that all Applications to the King from thence was by Lauderdale In this state it was not easily determined who should be Commissioner in Scotland in case a Parliament should be called for Affairs were not yet ripe enough to make a Popish one nor would the Court trust a Presbyterian one and Lauderdale would not forsake his Post at Court where he govern'd all but continue it that all the Motions in Parliament might receive their Life from him At last it was agreed That Middleton who first served the Kirk against King Charles I. and after changing Sides made some Bustle in Scotland after the King left it should be created an Earl and made Commissioner and a Parliament should be called in Scotland The Nobility and Gentry of Scotland clearly saw there was no other way to redeem Scotland from being a conquered Nation and a Province to England but by an entire Submission to the King Lauderdale knew this as well as they and therefore resolved to make them pay dear for their Deliverance and now you shall see the Nobility and Gentry which with the Kirk united against King Charles I. divide under his Son and sacrifice the Kirk and all their Discipline to make an Atonement for themselves The first Act which was shewed herein was upon this Occasion The firy Zeal of the Kirk-men burnt up all Rules of Prudence or the Consideration of the present State of Scotland so that even in this state Crowns and Scepters must submit to the Kirk And that the King might know his Duty a Company of them met together and drew up a Supplication as they said but in nature of a Remonstrance to the King setting forth the Calamities they groaned under in the Time of the Usurpers by their impious Incroachments upon the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Liberties thereof which of themselves they were not able to suppress and overcome and the Danger of the Popish and Prelatical Party now beginning again to lift up their Head they press him to mind his â—aths and Covenant with God c. The Committee of Estates well knowing how ungrateful this would be to the King upon the 23d of August 1660. sent a Party and apprehended these Men whereof one Mr. James Guthry was the chief of whom you 'll hear more hereafter and committed them Prisoners to Edinburgh-Castle and from thence Guthry was sent Prisoner to Dundee for treasonable and seditious reflecting on his Majesty and on the Government of England and the Constitution of the Committee of State and tending to raise new Tumults and kindling a new Civil War among his Majesty's good Subjects This was the first Spark which soon burnt into such a Flame as totally consumed the whole Kirk-Party in Scotland and left them in a much worse plight than before when they suffered under the Usurpation as they called it of the English For during the late Usurpations the Kirk enjoyed a Liberty of Conscience but it 's the Nature of some Men that unless they may persecute other Men they 'll exclaim they are persecuted themselves and therefore since they were not able to do it themselves they minded the King of his Covenant with God to extirpate Heresy Schism and Profaneness and to remove the stumbling which the King had given them in admitting Prelacy Ceremonies and Service-Book in the King's Chappel and other Places of his Dominions But these Men were mistaken in their Measures for after the King was expelled from Scotland by Cromwel he little I may say never observed the Directory of Worship Confession of Faith and Catechisms in his Family according to the National and Solemn League and Covenant as he repeated in his Coronation-Oath and less the establishing Presbyterian Government in England and Ireland and least of all in Scotland For one of the first Acts of the first Sessions was an Anniversary Thanksgiving to be observed on every May 29 with this Proem The States of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland taking into their Consideration the sad Condition Slavery and Bondage this antient Kingdom has groaned under these twenty three Years the time when the Troubles arose in K. Charles the First 's Reign in which under very specious Pretences of Reformation a publick Rebellion has been by the Treachery of some and Misperswasion of others violently carried on against sacred Authority to the Ruin and Destruction so far as was possible of Religion this King's Majesty and his Royal Government the Laws Liberties and Property of the People and all the publick and private Interests of the Kingdom so that Religion it self hath been prostituted for the Warrant of all these treasonable Invasions made upon the Royal Authority and disloyal Limitations upon the Allegiance of the Subjects Therefore upon the 29th of May be set apart for an Holy Day c. Yet soon after the King's Restoration he wrote to the Presbytery of Edinburgh promising to countenance the Church as by Law established But Lauderdale knew his Mind better Here it 's observable That in 1638 when the Kirk were so zealous with lifted-up Hands in the Presence of the Eternal God to swear to establish their National Covenant there was not one of the Nobility but the Popish except the Marquess of Hamilton and the Earl of Traquair but joined with the Kirk expresly against the King's Command Traquair the Kirk-Party proceeded against as an Incendiary and after Hamilton secretly joined with the Covenanters for which King Charles I. made him Prisoner in Pendennis-Castle from whence he was discharged when Fairfax had it surrender'd And not one of the Nobility except Argile and Cassels but declare this and all the Kirk-Proceedings since Treasonable Rebellion against the Laws Liberties and Property of the People and Prostitution of Religion and this Declaration was celebrated with a double Sacrifice the Marquess of Argile being executed as a Traitor for holding Correspondence with Cromwel and his Head set where Montross's stood on the Monday before and Mr. Guthry on Saturday after for refusing to own the Jurisdiction of the Judges in Ecclesiastical Affairs had his Head set upon one of the Ports of Edinburgh This was a sad Presage to the Kirk of what followed For as they without the King would impose their Solemn League and Covenant upon England now by the King and Parliament an Oath of Allegiance in the very Nature if not the Words of the Oath of Supremacy in England is imposed upon them wherein they are to swear That the King is the supreme Governour over all Persons and in all Causes c. and That they will maintain defend and assist his Majesty's Jurisdiction aforesaid against all
't was believed was carried on by French Counsels For so long as the English and Dutch stood united it would be very difficult if not impossible for the French King to encrease his Grandeur either by Sea or Land if the English and Dutch should oppose it However the outward Appearance seemed otherwise on the French Part for in the Favour of the Dutch he made War upon the English tho to no Benefit of the Dutch other than by the influence of his Party upon the English Counsels But to return his Courtesy the Dutch during this War built him six great Men of War and the Dane joining with the Dutch and French against the English built the French as many more so that whilst the English and Dutch were fighting with one another to destroy their Men of War the French King looked on and without fighting encreased his The English and Dutch had been above Eighty Years Competitors in the East-India African and American Trades so that if either had a mind to quarrel it would not be hard to find an Occasion for it Queen Elizabeth kept so severe a Hand over the Dutch that they durst not presume to give the English any Cause of Offence during her Reign nor do I find the English gave them any in King James's Reign Yet the Dutch gave the English a most abominable one in the Business of Amboyna The World taking notice of the Vast Power at Sea and Wealth which the Dutch acquired by the Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland King Charles I. required a Tribute or Acknowledgment from them about the Year 1630 as a Right belonging to his Crowns of England and Scotland The Dutch were resolv'd not to part with their Fishery and unwilling to pay the King any Acknowledgment for it and instead of Payment set Hugo Grotius to work with his Pen to discharge it Which he did in a little Treatise called Mare Liberum The King to vindicate his Soveraignty set Mr. Selden then at ill Terms with him for I think he was a Prisoner in the Tower for not submitting the Debates in Parliament to the Cognizance of the Council-Table and Court of King's Bench to write Mare Clausum in Answer to Grotius's Mare Liberum Yet this is observable how much the Dutch Interest governed their Reason for soon after I will not say the certain time in all their Manifesto's in the East-Indies the Dutch stiled themselves Soveraigns of the Southern Seas And as such you 'll hear how they exercised their Soveraignty over the English But King Charles though he raised Ship-Money upon Pretence of suppressing Pirates and for Safety of the Nation in May 1636 issued out a Proclamation forbidding the Dutch and all Foreign Nations Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland which the Dutch little regarding set out for this Fishery notwithstanding Whereupon the King commanded the Earl of Northumberland with a Fleet of sixty Men of War to take an Account of their Disobedience The Earl with this Fleet fell in upon the Dutch and dispersed them and cut their Nets so as the Dutch were forced to seek for Shelter in the King's Harbours where they were detained till they made a Composition to pay the King Thirty Thousand Pounds sterling yearly for Licence to fish And this was all the Action done by raising Ship-Money for the Safety of the Nation whereof the King was sole Judg and for Suppressing Pirates The Dutch in return next Year or the Year after upon Pretence of taking in fresh Water seize upon New-York in Long-Island in America and change the Name into New-Amsterdam But at this time things were in highest Ferment both in England and Scotland about establishing Laud's Injunctions in England and erecting a High Commission in Scotland by the King 's Supreme Ecclesiastical Power which the King was so intent upon that he neglected to call the Dutch to an Account for the Surprisal of New-York In the Year 1643 the Dutch by Virtue of their Soveraignty in the Southern Seas by one Geland in a Hostile Manner between Goa and Maccao in the Straits of Malacca made Prey of the Bona Esperanza and spoiled her of all her Tackle Apparel Furniture and all the Goods and Lading in her in her Return of a very hopeful Voyage from China and carried them to Batavia where without due Process of Law they were confiscated and the same Year the Ship called the Henry Bonadventura being come on Ground near the Island Mauritius was seized with all her Goods and Lading by the Dutch East-India Company and kept from the Owners And these Actions both in the East and West-Indies were done in time of Peace between England and Holland These Ships were set out by the Earl of Shrewsbury Sir William Courten Sir Paul Pindar and others by Virtue of a New Charter granted by King Charles the First in the Year 1635 and had laid the Foundation of a much more advantageous Trade for the English than that of the English East-India Company For the Northern and middle Parts of China are cold or temperate and so our Woollen Manufactures would have been very acceptable to them whereas they are of little Use in the Southern Parts of India and all the Islands in the Indian Ocean which lie in the Torrid Zone The Earl of Shrewsbury Sir Paul Pindar and Sir William Courten being Royalists took no Care for Satisfaction in the late times Nor do I find the Rump made any of these the Causes of the War between the Dutch and them nor did Oliver in the Peace he made with the Dutch take any Notice of these Violences used by the Dutch against the English or the Honour of the Nation yet he would not by his Peace discharge the Dutch from the Business of Amboyna but this was referred 't was said to the Cantons of Switzerland to be determined by them but was never after regarded But King Charles II. being at better Terms with his Parliament and Subjects than his Father the next Year after his Restoration viz. 1661 sent Sir Robert Holmes with a Squadron of Men of War and some Soldiers to America with which he reduced New York and all that which the Dutch had taken from the English in Long-Island And from thence Sir Robert Holmes sailed to Africa and took Cape Verd and some other Places where the English had Factories And about the same time the Earl of Shrewsbury with William Courten Grandson of Sir William and the Executors and Creditors of Sir Paul Pindar represented their Case to the King who by Letters under the King's Signet Manual demanded Reparations of the States for these Depredations by Sir George Downing the King's Envoy without any Satisfaction Thus things stood when the Algerines being at War with the English and Dutch the Dutch by their Ambassadour desired the King in 1663 to join a Squadron of Ships with the Dutch to reduce the Algerines to better Terms which the King did and
Marquess clearly and upon what Guard he should stand Yes said the Keeper and to that purpose I have dispatched some Pacquets Then continue says the King to help me and them in those Difficulties with your best Powers and Abilities and serve me faithfully in this Motion which like the highest Orb carries all my Raccalta's my Counsels at present and Prospects upon the future with it and I will never part with you Which you may read in the first part of the Keeper's Life fol. 115. tit 127. The Keeper hereupon continues to prosecute this Advice to the Marquess after Duke but hereby lost the Duke's Favour who ever after sought all means to ruin the Keeper which tho he could not effect in King James his Reign he did it in the first Year of his Son 's But when the King understood that the Contraventions of the Duke with Olivares and Bristol was like to make a Rupture in the Treaty he then began seriously to consider with himself the fickle State he stood in both at home and abroad if the Marriage succeeded not all the two Subsidies he had granted him by the Parliament and the Benevolence he had raised after upon his Subjects by his own Authority was expended and a great Debt contracted besides he also besides the Benevolence stood upon ill Terms with his Subjects for petitioning him against the Spanish Match and asserting their Privileges by imprisoning them after he had dissolved the Parliament the like whereof was never before done by any of his Predecessors and now Buckingham had so violently caused a Rupture of the Match wherein he placed his sole Felicity he had not Courage so much as to frown upon him who could contribute no Relief whereas he dissolved the Parliament and imprisoned the Members upon their Advice against the Match who could have relieved him in his Necessities besides he now saw that Buckingham by his Audacity more worshipped the Sun in its Rise than in its Declination Now did he not know to whom he should complain nor was there any about him but the Keeper who durst give him any Advice In case a Rupture happened the King after all this wild Expence of Foreign Embassies and the Charge of his Son's Voyage to Spain would be despised by all Foreign Princes and States in case he did not endeavour to recover his Son-in-law's Patrimony which would in all appearance bring on a War between him and the Emperor and King of Spain who kept nothing from him and therefore had no cause to make War upon either Besides in case the King made War for the Recovery of the Paâ—atinate he could not hope to do it upon his own single account but in Conjunction with Foreign Confederates and above all with the States of the Vnited Netherlands who now had renewed the War against the King of Spain the Truce made between them and the King of Spain in 1609 being expired But how uniust would this be for the King to make War upon the Emperor and King of Spain who kept nothing from him and join with the Dutch herein who against the Treaty made between the King and them but three Years before viz. in 1619 kept from the King and his Subjects the Isles of Amboyna Seran Nero Waire Rosingen Latro Cambello Mitto Larica Lantare Polaway and Machasser in the East-Idies and Cabo de Bon Esperanza in Africk But the Impolicy of such an Alliance would be as great as the Injustice of it for hereby the English must lose the benefit of the Spanish Trade which above all others enriched the Nation and the King his Customs which above any other did arise from it These Considerations fixed in the King's Mind fearful of any War so cleft his Heart That as the Bishop of Litchfield observes he effected neither yet he submitted himself to be ruled by some whom he should have awed by his Authority but wanted Courage to bow them to his Bent. A Prince that preserves not the Rights of his Dignity and the Majesty of his Throne is a Servant to some but a Friend to none and least to himself as you may see in his Book fol. 167. tit 173. In these Perplexities the King saw no visible Means under Heaven to relieve him but by closing with his next Parliament and it was observed that some Impressions were gotten into the King's Mind that he was so resolved to be a Lover of Parliaments that he would close with the next that was called nor was there any likelihood that any Man's Incolumity tho it were his Grace himself should cause an unkind Breach between him and his People This Resolution of the King 's was not concealed from a Cabinet or Cabal of the Duke's which met at Wallingford-House who hereupon set up to consider what Exploit the Duke should commence to be the Darling of the Commons and as it were to re-publicate his Lordship and to be precious to those who had the Vogue to be the chief Lovers of their Country and resolve that all Attempts would be in vain unless the Treaty of the Spanish Match were quash'd and that the Breach thereof should fall upon the Duke's Industry so that what the Duke did before in spite to Olivares and Bristol he now pursues for his own Safety tho the King had little reason to thank him for it See the first Part of the Keeper's Life fol. 137. tit 147. And this took such Impression in the Duke that the Bishop heard the Duke afterward in the Banqueting-House before the King and both Houses of Parliament ascribe to himself the sole Glory of breaking the Spanish Match and you will soon see how the Prince and Duke after their return from Spain over-awed the King and made his Authority bow to their Bent for notwithstanding Buckingham blasted all the Raccalta's of his Counsels and the Prospect of his future Happiness placed in the Spanish Match yet he shall become the Duke's Advocate herein and note his Fidelity Constancy and Conduct in breaking it off and from his Disciple become his Master and teach him that Dolosus versatur in Generalibus and also keep back the Earl of Bristol from coming to the Parliament that he might not spoil the â—ine Tale the Duke had told yet at other times the King would say If he had sent Williams into Spain with his Son he had kept Heart-ease and Honour both which he lacked See the first part of the Bishop of Litchfield fol. 168. tit 174. The Duke thus doubly engaged resolved to break the Spanish Match and to dispose the King James to it the Prince writes to him That he must look upon his Sister the Queen of Bohemia and her Children never thinking more of him and forgetting he ever had such a Son Though it be evident the generous Spaniards were far enough from entertaining such a thought however Buckingham's Behaviour might have prompted them to it that by the Authority of Litchfield and Rushworth they entertained him
with all imaginable Esteem as a truly noble discreet and well-deserving Prince however the Prince himself had given them Cause sufficient to have detained him if the Prudence of Bristol had not been greater than Buckingham's Rashness and Zeal to break off the Match solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself and this upon the Day when the Prince parted from the King of Spain from the Escurial as you may see in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Dr. Williams and Rushworth fol. 284 285. For though the King of Spain and the Prince had solemnly sworn to accomplish the Marriage and to make the Espousals within ten Days after the Ratifications should come from Rome to which purpose the Prince made a Procuration to the King of Spain and Don Charles his Brother to make the Espousals in his Name and left it in the Earl of Bristol's hands yet he the Prince left in the Hands of one of the Duke's Creatures Mr. Edward Clarke a private Instrument with Instructions to the Earl of Bristol to stay the Delivery of the Proxies till farther Direction from him But when this private Instrument was delivered to Bristol he told Buckingham's Favourite that it must for a time be concealed lest the Spaniard coming to the knowledgâ— of it should give Order to stay the Prince So that the Duke left the Earl's Instrument as perplexed and confounded when he went out of Spain as he had made the Treaty of Marriage when he came into it The Temper and Dissimulation of the Duke is so strange at his taking leave of Olivares as is I believe without all Example and also without any Care of the Safety of the Prince for the Duke told him after he had delivered the Instrument to stay the Delivery of the Proxy That he was obliged to the King and Queen and Infanta in an eternal Tie of Gratitude and that he would be an everlasting Servant to them and endeavour to do the best Offices for concluding the Match and strengthning the Amity between the two Crowns but as for himself Olivares he had so disobliged him that he could not without Flattery make the least Profession of Friendship to him Nor was the Ingratitude and Dissimulation of the Prince less than that of Buckingham for when the King of Spain had brought the Prince to the Escurial where the Prince and Duke after the delivery of the Instrument for staying the Proxy solemnly swore the Treaty of Marriage as you may read in Rushworth fol. 285. and the King and Prince had sworn a perpetual League of Friendship as the Bishop of Litchfield says the King at their Departure declared the Obligation which the Prince had put upon him the King by putting himself into his Hands a thing unusual with Princes and protested he earnestly desired a nearer Conjunction of Brotherly Affection for the more intire Unity between them The Prince answered him magnifying the high Favour which he had found during his Stay in his Court and Presence which had begotten such an Estimation of his Worth that he knew not how to value it but would leave a Mediatrix to supply his own Defects if he the King would make him so happy as to continue him the Prince in the good Opinion of her his Dear Mistress Yet the Prince so soon as he came on Ship-board was observed to say That it was a great Weakness and Folly in the Spaniards after they had used him so ill to grant him a free Departure and soon you 'll see both the Prince and the Duke urge the King James to break off the Match so solemnly sworn by them all and make War upon the Spaniards which was so dangerous to the Parliament to mention Having thus taken a View of the Duke's Prudence and deep Insight in Mysteries of State in managing this Match where King James's Proclamation could not restrain Men from talking of State-Affairs We will now take a View of the Duke's Profession in Religion that another may better judg whether he were more eminent in Religion or State-policy and herein I will take the Earl of Bristol's Charge upon him to be a full Proof since the Earl answered the Duke's Charges against him twice first before King James and afterward in Parliament in the 2d of King Charles without any reply and King Charles his dissolving the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to a Tryal upon the Articles which the Earl exhibited against him 1. The Earl in the said Articles charges the Duke that he did secretly combine with the Conde of Gundamor Ambassador from the King of Spain Anno 1622 to carry the Prince into Spain to the end he might be informed in the Roman Religion and thereby have perverted the Prince and subverted the true Religion established in England 2. That Mr. Porter was made acquainted therewith and sent into Spain and such Messages at his Return framed as might serve for a Ground to set on foot this Conspiracy the which was done accordingly and thereby the King and Prince highly abused and their Consents thereby gotten for the said Journey viz. after the Return of the said Mr. Porter which was about the latter end of December or beginning of January 1622. whereas the Duke plotted it many Months before 3. That the Duke at his Arrival in Spain nourished the Spanish Ministers not only in the Belief of his being popishly affected but did both by absenting himself from all Exercises of Religion constantly used in the Earl of Bristol's House and frequented by all other Protestant English and by conforming himself to please the Spaniards in divers Rites of their Religion even so far as to kneel and adore the Sacrament from time to time give the Spaniards Hopes of the Prince's Conversion the which he endeavoured to procure by all means possible and thereby caused the Spanish Minister to propound far worse Conditions for Religion than had been propounded by the Earl and Sir Walter Ashton setled and signed under the K. and Prince's Hand with a clause of the K. of Spain's Answer Dec. 12. 1622 that they held the Articles agreed on sufficicient and such as ought to induce the Pope to grant the Dispensation 4. That the Duke having several times moved and pressed the King James at the Instance of the Conde of Gundamor in the presence of the Earl of Bristol to write a Letter to the Pope and to that purpose having once brought a Letter ready drawn wherewith the Earl of Bristol by his Majesty being made acquainted did so strongly oppose the writing any such Letter that during the Abode of the said Earl in England the Duke could never obtain it but not long after the Earl was gone he the Duke procured such a Letter to be written from the King James to the Pope and to have him stiled Sanctissime Pater 5. That the Pope being informed of the Duke's Inclination and Intention in point of Religion sent unto him a particular Bull