Epiphaniae dies Veneris nocte 〈◊〉 avi Matrem meam diu ante defunctam lecto meo astitisse deductis paululum stragulis hilarem in me aspexisse laetatus sum videre eam aspectu tam jucundo Ostendit deindè mihi Senem diù ante defunctum quem ego dum vixit novi amavi Jacuisse videbatur ille humi laetus satis sed rugoso vultu Nomen ei Grove Dum paro salutare evigilavi Januar. 8. Dies erat Lunae 〈◊〉 visum Ducem Buck. Gavisus est in manus dedit Chartam de Invocatione Sanctorum quam dedit ei Mater Illi vero nescio quis Sacerdos Jan. 13. Dies erat Saturni Episcopus Lin. petiit reconciliationem cum 〈◊〉 Buckinghamiae c. Januar. 14. Die Solis versùs manè somniavi Episcopum Lin. nescio què advenisse cum catenis ferreis sed redeuns liberatus ab iis equum insiluit abiit nec assequi potui Januar. 16. Die Martis Somniavi Regem venatum 〈◊〉 quòd quum esuriit abduxi eum de improviso in Domum Fran. Windebanck Amici mei Dum parat comedere ego dum alii aberant Calicem ei de more porrigebam Potum attuli non placuit Iterum adduxi sed poculo argenteo Dicit Serenissimus Rex Tu 〈◊〉 me semper è vitro bibere Abeo iterum evigilavi Januar. 17. Die Mercurij Ostendi Rationes Regi cur Chartae Episcopi Winton defuncti de Episcopis quòd sint Jure Divino praelo tradendae sint contra illud quod miserè in maximum damnum Ecclesiae Anglicanae Episcopus Lincoln significavit Regi sicut Rex ipse mihi antea narravit Febr. 7. Dies erat Cinerum Concionatus sum in Aulâ ad White-Hall Feb. 9. Die Veneris nocte sequente somniavi me morbo scorbutico laborasse repentè Dentes omnes mihi laxos fuisse unum praecipuè in inferiori maxillâ vix digito me retinere potuisse donec opem peterem c. Feb. 20. Die Martis Incaepit Jo. Fenton 〈◊〉 pruriginis 〈◊〉 c. Febr. 22. Die Jovis Iter suscepi versus Novum Mercatum ubi tum Rex fuit Martij 3. Dies Saturni erat Cantabrigiam concessi unà cum Duce Buckinghamiae Cancellario istius almae Academiae alijs Comitibus Baronibus Incorporatus ibi fui sic primus qui praesentatus fuit Illustrissimo Duci tum sedenti in domo Congregationis ipse fui Habitus ibi fuit ab Academicis Dux insignis Academicè celebriter Redimus Martij 6. Die Martis Rediit Rex è Novo Mercato ego versùs Londinum Martij 8. Die Jovis Veni Londinum Nocte sequente somniavi me reconciliatum fuisse Ecclesiae Romanae Hoc anxiè me habuit miratus sum 〈◊〉 unde accidit Nec solum mihi molestus fui propter Errores illius Ecclesiae sed etiam propter scandala quae ex illo lapsu meo multos egregios doctos viros in Ecclesiâ Anglicanâ onerarent Sic turbatus insomnio dixi apud me me statim iturum confessione factâ veniam ab Ecclesiâ Anglicanâ petiturum Pergenti obviam se dedit Sacerdos quidam voluit impedire Sed indignatione motus me in viam dedi Et dum fatigavi me morosis cogitationibus evigilavi Tales impressiones sensi ut vix potui credere me somniâsse Martij 12. Die Lunae cum Rege concessi Theobaldas Redij die proximo Martij 13. Martij 17. Die Saturni Vigiliâ Palmarum Horâ noctis ferè mediâ sepelivi Carolum Vicecomitem Buckinghamiae Filium natu maximum tum unicum Georgij Ducis Buckinghamiae AEtdtis 〈◊〉 fuit Anni unius ferè quatuor mensium Mortuus est Die Veneris praecedente Anno 1626. March 26. Sunday D. B. sent me to the King There I gave to the King an account of those two Businesses which c. His Majesty thanked me March 29. King Charles spoke to both Houses of Parliament but directed his Speech chiefly to the Lower House both by himself and by the Right Honourable the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the Palace at White-Hall He also added much concerning the Duke of Buckingham c. In the Convocation held that Day there was much debating concerning the Sermon which Gabriel Goodman Bishop of Glocester had Preached before the King on the Sunday preceding being the fifth Sunday of Lent April 5 Wednesday The King sent in the Morning commanding the Bishops of Norwich Litchfeild and St Davids to attend him I and the Bishop of Litchfeild waited upon him the Bishop of Norwich being gone into the Country We received the King's Commands about c. and returned April 12. Wednesday at 9. in the Forenoon we met together viz. the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Winchester Durham and St Davids being commanded by the King to consult together concerning the Sermon which Dr Goodman the Bishop of Glocester had Preached before his Majesty on the 5th Sunday in Lent last past We advised together and gave this Answer to the King That some things were therein spoken less cautiously but nothing falsely That nothing was innovated by him in the Doctrine of the Church of England That the best way would be that the Bishop should preach the Sermon again at some time to be chosen by himself and should then shew how and wherein he was misunderstood by his Auditors That Night after 9. a Clock I gave to the King an account of what I had received in command on the 5th of April and of other things relating thereto Among the rest concerning restoring Impropriations The King spoke many things very graciously therein after I had first discoursed of the manner of effecting it April 14. Friday The Duke of Buckingham fell into a Fever April 19. Wednesday The Petition of John Digby Earl of Bristol against the Duke of Buckingham was read in the House of Lords It was very sharp and such as threatens Ruin to one of the Parties April 20. Friday King Charles referred the Cognisance of that whole matter as also of the Petition of the Earl of Digby to the House of Parliament April 21. Saturday the Duke of Buckingham sent to me to come to him There I first heard what Sir John Cook the King's Secretary had suggested against me to the Lord Treasurer and he to the Duke Lord be merciful to me thy Servant April 22. Sunday The King sent for all the Bishops to come to him at 4. a Clock in the Afternoon We waited upon him 14. in number Then his Majesty chid us that in this time of Parliament we were silent in the Cause of the Church and did not make known to him what might be Useful or was Prejudicial to the Church professing himself ready to promote the Cause of the Church He then commanded us that in the Causes of the Earl of Bristol and Duke of Buckingham we should follow the direction of our own Consciences being led by Proofs
to give an easie Account for this But whereas I said the Repair of St. Pauls was a strange piece of Treason And they presently Replyed that they did not Charge the Repair upon me but the Manner of doing it by demolishing of Mens Houses To that I Answered as follows with this first that the Work hath cost me above One Thousand and two Hundred Pounds out of my own Purse besides all my Care and Pains and now this heavy Charge to boot No one Man offering to prove that I have Mis-spent or diverted to other use any one Penny given to that work or that I have done any thing about it without the Knowledge Approbation and Order of his Majesty or the Lords of the Council or both To the Particulars then For the three Orders taken out of the Council-Books I shall not need to repeat them But what is the Mystery that these Orders are reckoned backward the last first Is it to aggravate as if it rose by steps That cannot well be because the first Order is the Sourest if I conceive it right Besides here was real Composition allotted for them and that by a Committee named by the Lords not by me And I think it was very real for it Cost Eight or Nine Thousand Pounds as appears upon the Accounts meerly to take down the Houses which had no Right to stand there before we could come at the Church to Repair it And if any thing should be amiss in any of these which is more than I either know or believe they were the Council's Orders not mine And shall that be urged as Treason against me which is not Imputed to them so much as a Misdemeanour Besides the Lords of the Council are in the ancient Constitution of this Kingdom one Body and whatsoever the Major Part of them concludes is reputed the Act of the whole not any one Man's And this I must often Inculcate because I see such Publick Acts like to be heaped upon my Particular 1. The first Witness about this Business of St. Pauls is Mich. Burton and 't is charged that his House was pulled down in King James's time That he was Promised relief but had none That hereupon he got a Reference from his Majesty that now is and came with it to the Council and was referred to the Committee That Sir Hen. Martin told him that the Arch-Bishop was his hinderance That he resorted to me and that I bid him go to King James for his Recompence To this my Answer was That this House which he says was his was as is confessed by himself taken down in King James's Time when an attempt was made about the Repair of this Cathedral but nothing done If he desired satisfaction he was to seek it of them who took down his House not of me If his Majesty that now is gave him a Reference he was by the Lords of the Council or by me if to me it were Referred to be sent to the Sub-Committee because Satisfaction for each House was to be Ordered by them Nor had I any Reason to take it on my Care which was done so long before He says that Sir Henry Martin told him that I hindred him But that 's no Proof that Sir Hen Martin told him so For 't is but his Report of Sir Henry Martin's Speech And I hope Sir Henry neither did nor would do me such apparent Wrong He was the third Man to whom I brake my Intentions touching the Repair and the Difficulties which I foresaw I was to meet with And he gave me all Encouragement And it may be when nothing would satisfie the eager Old Man I might bid him go to King James for Recompence but 't is more than I remember if I did so And this Man is single and in his own Case and where lyes the Treason that is in it Besides least Consideration was due to this House For not many Years before the Demolishing of it it was Built at the West End of St. Pauls for a Lottery it was said to be the House of one Wheatly and after the Lottery ended finished up into a Dwelling-House to the great annoyance of that Church The Bishop and Dean and Chapter being asleep while it was done 2. The next Charge about St. Pauls was Witnessed by Mary Berry That her Husband was fain to set up his Trade elsewhere and that every Man reported the Bishop was the Cause of it Her Husband was forced by this Remove to set up his Trade elsewhere so she says And perhaps in a better Place and with Satisfaction sufficient to make him a better Stock Where 's the Wrong Beside she is single and in her own Cause and no Proof but that every Man reported the Bishop was the means to remove him And it is Observable that in King James his Time when the Commission issued out for the demolishing of these very Houses the Work was highly applauded and yet no Care taken for Satisfaction of any Private Mans Interest That now great Care hath been taken and great Sums of Money Expended about it yet I must be a Traytor and no less for doing it This makes me think some Party of Men were heartily angry at the Repair it self though for very Shame it be turned off upon the demolishing of the Houses 3. The next that came in was Tho Wheeler He says that his House was pulled down by the Committee by my Direction above Eleven Years ago And that Word was brought him of it His House was pulled down but himself confesses it was by the Committee It was he says above eleven Years ago and the time limited in that Article is Six Years He says that Word was brought him that I was the Cause or gave the Direction Word was brought him but he Names not by whom nor from whom so all this Proof is a single Hearsay of he knows not whom Whereas I had the Broad-Seal of England for all that was done It was replyed here That for demolishing of these Houses the King's Commission was no full and legal Warrant I should have procured Authority from Parliament I replyed to this Interruption That Houses more remote from the Church of St. Pauls were pulled down by the King's Commission only in K. Ed. 3. time and humbly desired a Salvo might be entered for me till I might bring the †Record which was granted 4. The last Instance for this Charge of St. Pauls was the House of W Wakern who Witnessed that he had a Hundred Pound recompence for his House but then was after Fined in the High-Commission-Court 100 l. for Prophanation of which he paid 30 l. To this I gave this Answer That his Charge is true and that after he had received 100 l. Composition the Cry of the Prophanation brought him into the High-Commission It was thus The Skulls of Dead-Men perhaps better than himself were tumbled out of their Graves into his Draught and part of the Foundation of the
that Troubles him S Luc 22. Then they urged my Predecessor Arch-Bishop Parker That he found Fault with the Consecration of New Churches I answered then upon Memory that he did not find fault simply with Consecrations of Churches but only with the Superstitious Ceremonies used therein And this since upon perusal of the Place I find to be true For after he had in some sort Commended the Popes for taking away some gross and superstitious Purgations he adds that yet for want of Piety or Prudence their later Pontifical and Missal-Books did outgo the Ancient In Multitudine Ceremoniarum peragendi Difficultate Taedio 〈◊〉 amentiâ So these were the things he found fault with not the Consecration it self which he could not well do himself being then a Consecrated Bishop 2. The Second Witness was Mr. Hope He says That he agrees with the former Witness and saw all and the throwing up of the Dust c. Since he agrees with the former Witness I give him the same Answer Yet with this Observation upon him and his Oath The former Witness says that at the beginning of this Action I took Dust and threw it up This Man agrees with him and saw all and almost in the very next Words confesses he was not there at the beginning Not there Yet he saw it My Lords if you mark it this is a wholsom Oath He says That then the Church-Yard was Consecrated by it self It was ever so the one Act must follow the other though both done the same Day For the Places being different the Act could not pass upon them at the same time Then he said there were Fees required and a good Eye had to the Money This is a poor Objection against me If the Officers did exact any Money without Rule or beyond President let them answer for it But for that which was said to belong to me I presently gave it to the Poor of the Parish And this Mr. Dell my Secretary then present attested to the Lords Lastly he said they were not New Churches Let him look to his Oath again for 't is notoriously known they were both New Built from the Ground and St. Giles not wholly upon the Old Foundation The Third Charge was laid on me only by Mr. Nieolas and without any Witness It was That I out-went Popery it self for the Papists Consecrated Churches only but I had been so Ceremonious that I had Consecrated Chappels too My Lords the use of Chappels and of Churches in regard of God's Service is the same Therefore if Consecration be fit for the one it must needs be for the other And the Consecrations of Chappels was long before Popery came into the World For even Oratories Newly Built were Consecrated in or before Eusebius his Time And he Flourished about the Year of Christ 310. So ancient they are in the course of Christianity and for any Prohibition of them there is neither Law nor Canon in the State or Church of England that doth it The Chappels they instance in are Three First they say I Consecrated a Chappel of the Right Honourable the Lord Treasurer Weston's I did so and did no harm therein As for the touch given by the way upon that Honourable Person he is gone to God I have nothing to do with it Secondly they Instanced in a Chappel of Sir John Worstenham's Building 'T is true I Consecrated that too but that was a Parish-Church Built in the Place where he was born and it was in my Diocess and so the Work proper for me The Third Instance was in my own Chappel in my House at Aberguilly when I was Bishop of St. Davids the Room lay waste and out of Repair and I fitted it at my own Cost and Consecrated it into a Chappel that House having no Oratory before Here they farther aggravated many circumstances As First that I named it at the Dedication The Chappel of S. John the Baptist. I did so Name that Chappel in Memory of the College where I was Bred which bears the same Name but I dedicated it to God and his Service And to give the Names of Angels and Saints to Churches for distinction sake and for the Honour of their Memory is very Ancient and Usual in the Church as appears in S. Augustin and divers others of the Fathers but Dedicated only to God Which in the midst of Superstitious times the School it self confesses So yet no Offence Secondly That I did it upon the 29th of August And why might I not do it that Day as well as upon any other But resolving to Name the Chappel as I did I the rather made choice of that Day both because it was the Day of the Decollation of S John the Baptist and because as upon that Day God had wonderfully Blessed me in the Hearing of my Cause concerning the Presidentship of S. John's College in Oxford by King James of ever blessed Memory So yet no Offence Thirdly there was a Paper read and Avowed to be mine in which was a fair description of Chappel Furniture and Rich Plate and the Ceremonies in use in that Chappel and Wafers for the Communion At the reading of this Paper I was a little troubled I knew I was not then so Rich as to have such Plate or Furniture and therefore I humbly desired sight of the Paper So soon as I saw it I found there was nothing in it in my Hand but the Indorsement which told the Reader plainly that it was the Model of Reverend Bishop Andrews his Chappel with the Furniture Plate Ceremonies therein used and all Things else And this Copy was sent me by the Household Chaplain to that Famous Bishop This I laid open to the Lords and it would have made any Man ashamed but Mr. Pryn who had delivered upon Oath that it was a Paper of my Chappel Furniture at Aberguilly contrary to his Conscience and his own Eye-sight of the Paper And for 〈◊〉 I never either gave or received the Communion but in Ordinary Bread At Westminster I knew it was sometimes used but as a thing indifferent As for the Slur here given to that Reverend Dead Bishop of Winchester it might well have been spared he deserved far better usage for his Service to the Church of England and the Protestant Cause The Fourth Charge was the Publishing the Book of Recreations And it was ushered in with this Scorn upon me That I laboured to put a Badge of Holiness by my Breath upon Places and to take it away from Days But I did neither the King commanded the Printing of it as is therein attested and the Warrant which the King gave me they have And though at Consecrations I read the Prayers yet it was God's Blessing not my Breath that gave the Holyness And for the Day I ever laboured it might be kept Holy but yet free from a Superstitious Holyness And First it was said That this was done of
thus That God would preserve the Prince in the true Religion of which there was cause to fear Could this Prayer have any other Operation upon the People than to make them think his Majesty was careless in the Education of the Prince especially in point of Religion And this was so Grievous and Graceless a Scandal cast upon a Religious King as nothing could be greater Upon the matter it was the shew of a Prayer for the Prince but was indeed to destroy the King in the Hearts of his People And had I not there consented to his Punishment I had deserved to be punished my self Mr. Brown when he repeated the Summ of the Evidence laid this Charge upon me but spake not one Word to my Remembrance of this Answer given to it The Ninth Charge That I did Extol Queen Mary's Days The Proof for it was taken out of the Preface to the Statutes of the Vniversity of Oxford I took a great deal of pains about those Statutes and might justly have expected Thanks for it not such an Accusation But as for the Preface it was made and Printed at Oxford I medled not with it I could trust the University with little if not with the making of a Preface If they have done any thing amiss in it let them answer it The Passage was about certain Offers made to amend those Confused Old Statutes both in Ed. 6. and Queen Mary's Days but no Effect came of the pains then taken Recruduit Labor says the Preface So that this I can answer for them There 's not a Word spoken of Religion but of Manners only and that as much in relation to the Times of Princes following as Hers. For the Words to my remembrance are Interim optandâ Temporum Foelicitate c. And that Interim cannot be restrained to Queen Mary's Days only but must include the whole Interim or middle distance of Time to that present in which I setled the Body of their Statutes that is all Queen Elizabeth's and King James his Days which I think no Man can deny was Optanda Temporum Foelicitas Here Mr. Nicolas confessed there was no down-right Proof against me That was his Phrase But he added that was not to be expected in such a Work of Darkness Then he produced a Paper found in my Study Printed at Rome So were divers of my Books Printed there What of this They may Print what they will at Rome I cannot hinder it And I may have and keep whatever they Print no Law forbidding it Then he shewed a Letter sent unto me from Mr. Graves The Gentleman is at this present Fellow of Merton College in Oxford a great Traveller and a Man of great Worth As far as I remember his Letter came to me from Alexandria It was fit to be sent and kindly received as by me it was I desired it might be read Then were mentioned Sir William Boswell's Letters and the Papers sent by Andreas ab Habernfeld about a great Plot to destroy the King and Religion and that I concealed these Papers I might have been amazed at the Impudence of this Charge above all the rest Diaboli Impudentia the Devils Impudence and no less as S. Augustin speaks in another Case Did I conceal these Papers First the same Day that I received them I sent them by an Express to his Majesty I had a speedy Answer from his Majesty and that I returned with equal speed to his Majesty's Agent Sir William Boswell as I was commanded And this Mr. Pryn and Mr. Nicolas knew For Mr. Pryn took all these Letters and Papers from me when he searched me at the Tower and out of them made his Book called Rome's Masterpiece Excepting the Slanders which he hath Jugled in of his own So soon as his Majesty came home I humbly besought him that he would be pleased to appoint a time and call some Lords to him to hear and examine the Business and this Examination continued till I was Committed What was after done I cannot account for Besides my Lords it appears by those Paprs that my Life was sought for because I would not give way to the Change of Religion and Mr. Pryn himself hath Printed this and yet now Mr. Nicolas from his Testimony presses these Papers against me But the King and the Lords and both Secretaries of State then present can witness that I took all the Care and Pains above-mentioned to have it sifted to the Bottom Notwithstanding all this Mr. Nicolas falls upon this Plot again upon the next Day of my Hearing as if nothing had been said unto it And was so shameless as to say that I followed this Business so long as I thought the Plot was against the Puritans But so soon as I found it was against the Papists I kept it secret till Mr. Pryn discovered it in his search of my Papers Where First there 's no one Word in all the Papers to make me or any Man think the Puritans were concerned in it And Secondly I did not sleep upon the Receipt of these Papers till I had sent them to his Majesty But I had reason to keep the Papers as safe as I could considering how much they justifie me against these foul Calumnies put upon me Then followed the Charge of Sancta Clara's Book alias Monsieur St Giles So they expressed it and I must follow the way they lead me First then they Charge that I had often Conference with him while he was writing his Book Intituled Deus Natura Gratia No he never came to me till he was ready to Print that Book Then some Friends of his brought him to me His Suit then was That he might Print that Book here Upon Speech with him I found the Scope of his Book to be such as that the Church of England would have little Cause to thank him for it And so absolutely denyed it Nor did he ever come more at me after this but twice or thrice at most when he made great Friends to me that he might Print another Book to prove that Bishops are by Divine Right My Answer then was that I did not like the way which the Church of Rome went in the Case of Episcopacy And howsoever that I would never give way that any such Book should be Printed here from the Pen of a Romanist and that the Bishops of England were able to defend their own Cause and Calling without calling in Aid from Rome and would in due time Maintenance he never had any from me nor did I then know him to be a Priest Nor was there any Proof so much as offered in contrary to any of this 2. Secondly they did specially except against a Passage in the Licenser and another at the end of the Book The Book was Printed at Lions where I could not hinder the Printing either of the whole or any part This might have been something had I Licensed it here But that I constantly denyed 3. Thirdly
were brought up against me My very Pockets searched and my Diary nay my very Prayer-Book taken from me and after used against me And that in some Cases not to prove but to make a Charge Yet I am thus far glad even for this sad Accident For by my Diary your Lordships have seen the Passages of my Life And by my Prayer-Book the greatest Secrets between God and my Soul So that you may be sure you have me at the very bottom Yet blessed be God no Disloyalty is found in the one no Popery in the other 3 That all Books of Council-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission Signet-Office my own Registeries and the Registeries of Oxford and Cambridge have been most exquisitely searched for matter against me and kept from me and my use and so affording me no help towards my Defence 4. I humbly desire your Lordships to remember in the Fourth Place That the things wherein I took great Pains and all for the Publick Good and Honour of this Kingdom and Church without any the least Eye to my own Particular nay with my own great and large Expences have been objected against me as Crimes As namely the Repair of S. Pauls and the Setling of the Statutes of the Vniversity of Oxford 1 For S. Pauls not the Repair it self they say no for very shame they dare not say that though that be it which Galls the Faction but the Demolishing of the Houses which stood about it Yea but without taking down of these Houses it was not possible to come at the Church to repair it which is a known Truth And they were taken down by Commission under the Broad Seal And the Tenants had Valuable Consideration for their several Interests according to the number of their Years remaining And according to the Judgment of Commissioners named for that purpose and named by his Majesty and the Lords not by me Nor did I ever so much as sit with them about this Business And if the Commission it self were any way Illegal as they urge it is that must reflect upon them whose Office was to Draw and Seal it not on me who understood not the Legality or Illegality of such Commissions nor did I desire that any one circumstance against Law should be put into it nor is any such thing so much as offered in Proof against me And because it was pressed that these Houses could not be pulled down but by Order of Parliament and not by the King's Commission alone I did here first read in part and afterwards according to a Salvo granted me deliver into the Court Three Records two in Ed. 1. Time and one in Ed. 3. Time in which are these Words Authoritate nostra Regali prout opus fuerit cessantibus quibuscunque Appellationum Reclamationum diffugiis Juris Scripti aut Patriae strepitu procedatis Nova AEdificia quae c. amoveri divelli penitus faciatis c. And a little after Quousque per nos cum deliberatione avisamento nostri Consilii super hoc aliter fuerit Ordinatum c. Here 's no staying for a Parliament here 's no Recompence given here 's Barring of all Appeal nay all remedy of Law though written And all this by the King 's own Authority with the Advice of his Council And is a far more moderate way taken by me yet under the same Authority and for the removal of far greater Abuses and for a more noble End become Treason 2 As for the Statutes of Oxford the Circumstances charged against me are many and therefore I craved leave to refer my self to what I had already answered therein 5. Fifthly Many of the Witnesses brought against me in this Business are more than suspected Sectaries and Separatists from the Church which by my place I was to punish and that exasperated them against me whereas by Law no Schismatick ought to be received against his Bishop And many of these are Witnesses in their own Causes and pre-examined before they come in Court At which pre-examination I was not present nor any for me to cross-interrogate Nay many Causes which took up divers Days of Hearing in Star-Chamber High-Commission and at Council-Table are now upon the sudden easily overthrown by the Depositions of the Parties themselves And upon what Law this is grounded I humbly submit to your Lordships And such as these are the Causes of Mr. Pryn Mr. Burton Mr. Wilson Alderman Chambers Mr. Vassal Mr. Waker Mr. Huntly Mr. Foxlye and many other Where I humbly represent also how impossible it is for any Man that sits as a Judge to give an account of all the several Motives which directed his Conscience in so divers Causes and so many Years past as these have been and where so many Witnesses have been Examined as have been here produced against me My Lords above a Hundred and Fifty Witnesses and some of them Three Four Six Times over and Mr. Pryn I know not how often Whereas the Civil Law says expresly that the Judges should moderate things so that no Man should be oppressed by the multitude of Witnesses which is a kind of Proof too that they which so do distrust the truth and goodness of their Cause Besides my Lords in all matters which came before me I have done nothing to the uttermost of my Understanding but what might conduce to the Peace and Welfare of this Kingdom and the maintenance of the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church established by Law and under which God hath blessed this State with so great Peace and Plenty as other Neighbouring Nations have looked upon with Admiration And what Miserie 's the overthrow of it which God in Mercy forbid may produce he alone knows 6. Sixthly my Lords there have been many and different Charges laid upon me about Words But many of them if spoken were only passionate and hasty And such upon what occasion soever drawn from me and I have had all manner of Provocations put upon me may among humane Errours be pardoned unto me if so it please your Lordships But for such as may seem to be of a higher Nature as those witnessed by Sir Henry Vane the Elder I gave my Answer again now fully to the Lords but shall not need to repeat it here 7. Then my Lords for my Actions not only my own but other Mens have been heavily Charged against me in many Particulars and that Criminally and I hope your Lordships will think Illegally As Secretary Windebank's Bishop Montague's my Chaplains Dr. Heilyn's Dr. Cosens Dr. Pocklinton's Dr. Dove's Mr. Shelford's and divers others And many of these Charges look back into many Years past Whereas the Act made this present Parliament takes no notice of nor punishes any Man for any thing done and past at the Council-Table Sar-Chamber or High-Commission much less doth it make any thing Treason And out of this Act I am no way Excepted Besides as I have often Pleaded all Acts done in in the Star-Chamber
in their Cause and medled in decernendo in determining and that before-hand what the Prelats should do and sometimes in Commanding the Orthodox Prelats to Communicate with the Arrians This they refused to do as being against the Canons of the Council of Nice And then his Answer was Yea but that which I will shall go for Canon But then we must know withal that Athanasius reckn'd him for this as that Antichrist which Daniel Prophesied of Hosius also the Famous Confessor of those Times condemned in him that kind of medling in and with Religion And so doth St. Hilary of Poictiers Valentinian also the Younger took upon him to judge of Religion at the like presuasion of Auxentius the Arrian but he likewise was sharply reproved for it by St. Ambrose In like manner Maximus the Tyrant took upon him to judge in Matters of Religion as in the Case of Priscillian and his Associates But this also was checkt by St. Martin Bishop of Tours Where it is again to be observed that though these Emperours were too busie in venturing upon the determination of Points of Faith yet no one of them went so far as to take Power from the Synods and give it to the Senate And the Orthodox and Understanding Emperours did neither the one nor the other For Valentinian the Elder left this great Church-work to be done by Church-Men And though the Power to call Councils was in the Emperour And though the Emperours were sometimes personally present in the Councils and sometimes by their Deputies both to see Order kept and to inform themselves yet the decisive Voices were in the Clergy only And this will plainly appear in the Instructions given by the Emperor Theodosius to Condidianus whom he sent to supply his place in the Council of Ephesus which were That he should not meddle with Matters of Faith if any came to be debated And gives this Reason for it Because it is unlawful for any but Bishops to mingle himself with them in those Consultations And Basilius the Emperour long after this in the Eighth General Council held at Constantinople 〈◊〉 870. affirms it of the Laity in general That it is no way lawful for them to meddle with these things But that it is proper for the Patriarchs Bishops and Priests which have the Office of Government in the Church to enquire into these Things And more of this Argument might easily be added were that needful or I among my Books and my Thoughts at liberty And yet this crosses not the Supremacy which the King of England hath in Causes Ecclesiastical as it is acknowledged both by the Church and Law For that reaches not to the giving of him Power to determine Points of Faith either in Parliament or out or to the acknowledgment of any such Power residing in him or to give him Power to make Liturgies and publick Forms of Prayer or to Preach or Administer Sacraments or to do any thing which is meerly Spiritual But in all things which are of a mixed Cognizance such as are all those which are properly called Ecclesiastical and belong to the Bishops External Jurisdiction the Supremacy there and in all things of like Nature is the Kings And if at any time the Emperour or his Deputy sit Judge in a Point of Faith it is not because he hath any right to judge it or that the Church hath not Right but meerly in case of Contumacy where the Heretick is wilful and will not submit to the Church's Power And this the Hereticks sometimes did and then the Bishops were forced to Appeal thither also but not for any Resolution in the point of Faith but for Aid and Assistance to the just Power of the Church I cannot but remember a very Prudent Speech utter'd in the beginning of the late preceding Parliament and by that Lord who now made this The occasion was A Lord offer'd to deliver a Message from the King before he was formally brought into the House and his Patent shew'd This Lord who thinks Church-Ceremonies may so easily be alter'd stood up and said He would not be against the delivery of the Message he knew not how urgent it might be but desired withal that it might be enter'd that this was yielded unto by Special leave of the House For that saith he though this be but a Ceremony yet the Honour and Safety of the Priviledges of this Great House is preserved by nothing more than by keeping the Ancient Rights and Ceremonies thereof intire And this I think was very wisely spoken and with great Judgment And could my Lord see this in the Parliament and can he not see it in the Church Are Ancient Ceremonies the chief Props of Parliamentary Rights and have they no use in Religion to keep up her Dignity yea perhaps and Truth too The House of Parliament is I confess a Great and Honourable House But the whole Church of Christ is greater And it will not well beseem a Parliament to maintain their own Ceremonies and to kick down the Ceremonies of the National Church which under God made all their Members Christians Most sure I am they cannot do it without ossence both to State and Church and making both a Scorn to Neighbouring Nations Now in the close of all my Lord tells his Fellow Peers and all others in them That if they shall thus wound the Consciences of their Brethren the Separatists they will certainly offend and sin against Christ. Soft and fair But what shall these Lords do if to Humour the Consciences of those Brethren some weak and many wilful and the cunning misleading the simple they shall disgrace and weaken and perhaps overthrow the Religion they profess Shall they not then both wound their own Consciences and most certainly sin against Christ Yes out of all doubt they shall do both Now where it comes to the wounding of Consciences no question can be made but that every Man ought first to look to his own to his Brethrens after A Man must not do that which shall justly wound his Brother's Conscience though he be his Brother in a Separation and stand never so much a-loof from him But he must not wound his own to preserve his Brother from a wound especially such a one as happily may cure him and by a timely pinch make him sensible of the ill Condition in which he is As for these Men God of his Mercy give them that Light of his Truth which they want and forgive them the boasting of that Light which they presume they have And give them true Repentance and in that Sense a wounded Conscience for their breaking the Peace of this Church And forgive them all their Sins by which they still go on with more and more violence to distract this Church And God of his Infinite Goodness preserve this Church at all times and especially at this time while the Waves of this Sea of Separation
Original now in my Hands will not only supply the defect of what the Arch-Bishop intended in the words before related but never effected but will also undeniably assert his Innocence from those greater Accusations 〈◊〉 brought against him and will farther clear 〈◊〉 from many later Aspersions of lesser moment I will name but one which is to be found in the Life of Arch-Bishop Williams wrote by Bishop Hacket and lately Published Therein pag. 63 64. Dr. Laud is taxed of high Ingratitude against Williams who is there in a long Relation represented as his great Benefactor and who particularly gained of King James the Bishoprick of St. Davids for him by his great and restless importunity when the King had determined not to Promote him as unworthy of his Favour for Reasons there expressed I question not Bishop Hacket's Veracity or that Arch-Bishop Williams did indeed relate this to him But then Williams will be found strongly to have prevaricated when he pretended that Laud owed that Preferment to his Kindness and thereupon taxed him of Ingratitude For from what is related in the following Diary at June 29 1621. it appears indeed that Williams stickled hard to gain the Bishoprick of St. Davids for Laud not out of any Kindness to him but for his own ends that so himself might retain the Deanry of Westminster with the Bishoprick of Lincoln to which he was then Nominated which otherwise had slipped from him the King having designed to give it to Dr. Laud upon the avoidance of it by the Promotion of Dr. Williams to the See of Lincoln But whatever may be in this Matter alledged against Dr. Laud I am sure no Art or Colour can defend that bitter Revenge of Arch-Bishop Williams related in this History which prompted him to move earnestly in the House of Lords that the Jurisdiction of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury then a Prisoner in the Tower might be Sequestred and put into the Hands of his Inferiour Officers which by his importunity he obtained to the great Prejudice of the Church and no small Infamy of himself I do not pretend to justifie the whole Proceeding of Arch-Bishop Laud during the whole course of his Power and Government against Arch-Bishop Williams I do rather lament it as the great Misfortune both of themselves and the Church at that time that two such Eminent Prelates equally endued with extraordinary Learning Wisdom and Greatness of Mind should be engaged in constant Opposition and Enmity to each other at first raised by mutual Distrust and Emulation and ever after kept up and fomented by reciprocal Injuries and false Representations on each side But that the blame of this Misfortune should be cast wholly on the one side that unworthy Reflections should be made and Published in prejudice of Arch-Bishop Laud that he should be accused of base Ingratitude of impotent Malice of insatiable Revenge while the other is represented as the most Calm most Innocent and most Heroical Person imaginable I cannot without some Indignation observe in the before mentioned Historian otherwise of Eminent Worth and Character who to approve his Gratitude to his Patron and Promoter hath grosly neglected the Laws of History and cared not how injuriously he treated the Memory of Arch-Bishop Laud that he might justifie the Quarrel and heighten the Encomium of Arch-Bishop Williams Vpon this Account and with this design Williams is pretended to have been the great Patron and Benefactor of Laud to have procured him his first Rotchet c. that so the latter might appear guilty of the highest Ingratitude against the other Hence these Reflections are frequently repeated Of all Men Bishop Laud was the Man whose Enmity was most tedious and most spightful against his great Benefactor Williams This dealing of Laud is past Excuse and can bear no Apology And the Cause of his Bishop Williams's incessant molestations for Twelve Years was his known Enemy Bishop Laud. Could he so soon forget him that first made him a Bishop c. The undoing of his Brother was so much in his Mind that it was never out of his Dreams In other places Laud is represented as utterly implacable and irreconcilable in his Malice against Williams is accused of impotent Malevolence and his implacable spight against a Bishop his Raiser and now by being a Prisoner in the Tower become a spectacle of pity said to be unpardonable Again he is Traduced to have been possessed with a Revengeful Mind Whereas to the other this lofty Encomiam is beslowed that There did not Live that Christian that hated Revenge more than he or that would forgive an Injury sooner These and many like Passages are as far remote from Truth and Justice as they are from that Sincerity and Impartiality which become an Historian I had intended to have said no more upon this Head But I cannot prevail with my self to pass by an heinous Accusation formerly brought against Arch-Bishop Laud concerning his having altered the Oath Administred to King Charles I at his Coronation in favour of the Crown and prejudice of the People Which Accusation it hath pleased an Honourable Reverend and Learned Person very lately to renew in a Publick Speech in these words The striking out of that part of the Ancient Oath in King Charles his time at his Coronation by Arch-Bishop Laud that the King should consent to such Laws as the People should choose and instead of that another very unusual one inserted Saving the King's Prerogative Royal. And I could tell you of somewhat more of that kind done since in the time of the late King James at the time of his Coronation there was much more struck out of the Coronation Oath which might well be worth the enquiring how it came about I must not presume to oppose any thing delivered by an Oracle of the Law in a Court of Judicature to a great Auditory upon a Solemn Occasion However I beg leave to acquaint the Reader that a full and undeniable justification of Arch-Bishop Laud from this Charge may be found in this History cap. 33. I may farther presume that the Author of this Speech is too Just and Honourable to intend by the latter Clause any 〈◊〉 upon another Arch-Bishop who Administred the Coronation Oath to King James II. Or if any Reader should be so ill informed as to mis-conceive his Lordship herein I hope it will be no offence to say that it would be no difficult matter to justifie in this Case the Proceeding of the one Arch-Bishop as clearly as this History doth the other I might farther add that the entire Publication of this Diary contributes very much to Illustrate the History of those Times and that both it and the following History discover many Secrets before unknown in Matters of Church and State and correct many Errours commonly taken up and received in Relation to either To give one particular instance I know a certain 〈◊〉 who would fain be esteemed and is generally accounted by these of his Party
Subsidies in a Year my Error if it were one was pardonable So we parted I went to my Lord Duke and acquainted him with it lest I might have ill Offices done me for it to the King and the Prince Sic Deus beet me servum suum laborantem sub pressurà eorum qui semper voluerunt mala mihi So may God bless me his Servant labouring under the pressure of them who alway wished ill to me April 16. Friday My Conference with Fisher the Jesuit Printed came forth April 18. Sunday I Preached at Paul's Cross. April 27. Tuesday My very good Friend Dr. Linsell cut for the Stone Circiter horam nonam ante Meridiem About Nine a Clock in the Forenoon May 1. Saturday E. B. Marryed The Sign in Pisces May 5. Wednesday Ascension-Eve The King's Speech in the Banquetting House at Whitehall to the upper House of Parliament concerning the Hearing of the Lord Treasurer's Cause which was to begin the Friday following This day my Lord Duke of Buckingham came to Town with his Majesty Sick And continued Ill till Saturday May 22. May 13. Thursday Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer of England and Master of the Wards Censured in Parliament for Bribery and Extortion and Deceiving the King c. To lose his Offices To be ever disinabled to bear any Fined to the King in 50000 l. Imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure Never to sit again as a Peer in Parliament Not to come within the Verge of the Court. May 15. Saturday Whitson-Eve The Bill passed in Parliament for the King to have York-House in exchange for other Lands This was for the Lord Duke of Buckingham May 16. Whitsunday night I watched with my Lord Duke of Buckingham This was the first Fit that he could be perswaded to take orderly May 18. Tuesday night I watched with my Lord Duke of Buckingham he took this Fit very orderly May 19. Wednesday The Bishop of Norwich Samuel Harsnet was presented by the House of Commons to the Lords His Cause was referred by the House to my Lord's Grace of Canterbury and the High Commission May 22. Saturday My Lord Duke of Buckingham missed his Fit May 26. Wednesday He went with his Majesty to Greenwich May 28. Friday E. B. came to London He had not leisure to speak with me though I sent and offered to wait all opportunities till June 16 being Wednesday May 29. Saturday The first Session of Parliament ended And the Prorogation was to the Second of November June 6. Second Sunday after Trinity I Preached at Westminster June 8. Tuesday I went to New-Hall to my Lord Duke of Buckingham and came back to London on Friday June 11. June 16. Wednesday I took my lasting leave of E. B. The great dry Summer My Dream June 4. Wednesday night 1623. In this Dream was all contained that followed in the carriage of E. B. towards me and that Night R. B. Sickned to the Death May 29. Saturday night 1624. I was marvellously troubled with E. B. before they came to London That there was much declining to speak with me but yet at last I had Conference and took my lasting leave And this so fell out Respice ad Maij 28. See May 28. July 7. Wednesday night My Lord of Durham's quarrel about the trifling business of Fr. N. July 23. Friday I went to lye and keep House and Preach at my Livings held in Commendam Creek and Ibstock That Friday night at St. Albans I gave R. R. my Servant his first Interest in my Businesses of moment July 27. This I confirmed unto him the Wednesday Morning following at Stanford August 7. Saturday while I was at Long Whatton with my Brother my passion by Blood and my fear of a Stone in my Bladder August 8. Sunday I went and Preached at my Parsonage at Ibstock and set things in order there August 26. Thursday My Horse trod on my foot and lamed me which stayed me in the Country a week longer than I intended Septemb. 7. Tuesday I came to London Septemb 9. Thursday My Lord of Buckingham consulted with me about a Man that offered him a strange way of Cure for himself and his Brother At that time I delivered his Grace the Copies of the two little Books which he desired me to write out Septemb. 16. Thursday Prince Charles his grievous fall which he had in Hunting Septemb. 25. Saturday My Lord Duke's proposal about an Army and the Means and whether Sutton's Hospital might not c. Octob. 2. Saturday In the Evening at Mr. Windebanks my Ancient Servant Adam Torless fell into a Swoon and we had much ado to recover him but I thank God we did Octob. 10. Sunday I fell at Night in Passionem Iliacam which had almost put me into a Fever I continued ill fourteen days Octob. 13. Wednesday I delivered up my Answer about Sutton's Hospital Novemb. 21. Sunday I Preached at Westminster Decemb. 6. Munday There was a Referment made from his Majesty to my Lord's Grace of Canterbury My Lords of Durham and Rochester and my self to Hear and Order a Matter of Difference in the Church of Hereford concerning a Residentiaryship and the Lecturer's place which we that day Ordered Decemb. 13. Munday I received Letters from Brecknock that the Salt-Peter Man was dead and buried the Sunday before the Messenger came This Salt-Peter Man had digged in the Colledge-Church for his work bearing too bold upon his Commission The News of it came to me to London about Novemb. 26. I went to my Lord Keeper and had a Messenger sent to bring him up to answer that Sacrilegious abuse He prevented his punishment by Death Decemb. 21. Tuesday Fest. Sancti Thomae Mr. Crumpton had set out a Book called St Augustins Summe His Majesty found fault with divers passages in it He was put to recall some things in Writing He had Dedicated this Book to my Lord Duke of Buckingham My Lord sent him to me to overlook the Articles in which he had recalled and explained himself that I might see whether it were well done and fit to shew the King This day Mr Crumpton brought his Papers to me Decemb. 23. Thursday I delivered these Papers back to Mr. Crumpton The same day at York-House I gave my Lord Duke of Buckingham my Answer what I thought of these Papers The same day I delivered my Lord a little Tract about Doctrinal Puritaenism in some Ten Heads which his Grace had spoken to me that I would draw for him that he might be acquainted with them Decemb. 31. Friday His Majesty sent for me and delivered unto me Mr. Crumpton's Papers the second time after I had read them over to himself and commanded me to correct them as they might pass in the Doctrin of the Church of England Januar. 3. Munday I had made ready these Papers and waited upon my Lord Duke of Buckingham with them and he brought me to the King There I was about an hour and a
21. Dies erat Martis Carnivale Misit D. Buckinghamiae ut ad se venirem Tum in Mandatis mihi dedit ut c. Feb. 23. Die Jovis Quaesivi Ducem apud Chelsei Ibi primò vidi nuper Natum Haeredem ejus Carolum Ducem non inveni Redij dein inveni 〈◊〉 ejus me quaerentem Cum eo propero in Aulâ invenio Quid à me factum narro Febr. 24. Die Veneris S. Matthiae Cum eo fui in AEdibus suis per Horas fere tres ubi suâ manu c. aliquid ut adderem jussit Dicto obsequutus sum proximo Die attuli Feb. 25. Feb. 26 Dominicâ primâ Quad. Concionem quam habui in initio Parlamenti Regio Mandato Typis jam excusam in manus Serenissimi Regis Caroli dedi Vesperi Feb. 27. Die Lunae Periculum Regis Caroli ab Equo qui fractis duobus Ephippiorum cingulis Ephippio unà cum Sessore in ventrem devoluto tremens constitit donec Rex salvus c. Martij 1. Dies erat Mercurij Festum S. Davidis Clamor incaepit in Domo Inferiori Parlamenti Nominatim contra Ducem Buckinghamiae ob moratam Navim dictam The St. Peter of Newhaven post Sententiam latam Perpetuae in Domo illâ agitationes erant à die illo Martij 6. Resignavi Rectoriam de Ibstock quam habui in Commendam Martij 11. Proposuit in Domo Dr. Turner Medicus Quaesita Septem vulgò dicta Quaeres contra Ducem Buckinghamiae Non alio tamen nixas Fundamento quam quod ex Famâ quidem Publicâ ut dixit petijt Dies erat Saturni Martij 16. Die Jovis Proposuit quidam è Belgia Nomine Joh. Oventrout se viam ostensurum quî Occidentalis-India excuteret Jugum Hispaniae se Regi nostro Carolo subderet Res refertur 〈◊〉 Comiti de Totnes Baroni Conway Secretario Principali quia dixit Stratagema suum à Religione non minimas vires petiturum adjungor ego Proposuit Senex quaedam de Aricâ capiendâ Nec qui capi potuit ullis Argumentis edocuit nisi quòd velit dividi Incolarum animos in causâ Religionis immisso illic Catechismo Hidelbergiae Dimisimus Hominem nec Sapientiores redimus Anno 1625. March 27. Midlent Sunday I Preached at White-Hall I ascended the Pulpit much troubled and in a very melancholy moment the Report then spreading that his Majesty King James of most Sacred Memory to me was Dead Being interrupted with the dolours of the Duke of Buckingham I broke off my Sermon in the middle The King died at Theobalds about three quarters of an hour past Eleven in the forenoon He breathed forth his Blessed Soul most Religiously and with great constancy of Faith and Courage That day about five a Clock Prince Charles was Solemnly Proclaimed King God grant to him a Prosperous and Happy Reign The King fell Sick March 4. on Friday The Disease appeared to be a Tertian Ague But I fear it was the Gout which by the wrong application of Medicines was driven from his feet to his inward vital parts April 1. Friday I received Letters from the Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King and therein a Command from his Majesty King Charles to Preach a Sermon before himself and the House of Peers in the Session of Parliament to be held on the 17 day of May next following Apr. 3. Sunday I delivered into the Duke of Buckingham's hands my short Annotations upon the Life and Death of the most August King James which he had commanded me to put in writing April 5. Tuesday I Exhibited a Schedule in which were wrote the Names of many Church-Men marked with the Letters O. and P. The Duke of Buckingham had commanded to digest their Names in that method that as himself said he might deliver them to King Charles April 9. Saturday The Duke of Buckingham whom upon all accounts I am bound for ever to Honour signified to me that a certain Person moved through I know not what envy had blackened my Name with his Majesty King Charles laying hold for that purpose of the Error into which by I know not what Fate I had formerly fallen in the business of Charles Earl of Devonshire 1605. Decemb 26. The same day I received in Command to go to the Right Reverend the Bishop of Winchester and learn from him what he would have done in the Cause of the Church and bring back his Answer especially in the matter of the Five Articles c. April 10. Sunday after Sermon was done I went to the Bishop who was then in his Chamber at Court I acquainted him with what I had received in Command He gave to me his Answer From thence we went together to hear Prayers in Somerset-House Having heard Prayers we afterwards saw there the Body of the late King James which rested there till the day of his Funeral Rites April 3. Wednesday I brought back to the Duke of Buckingham the Answer of the Bishop of Winchester At the same time the Duke made known to me what the King had determined concerning his Clerk of the Closet the Right Reverend the Bishop of Durham and about his Successor in that Office April 17. Easter-day The Bishop of Durham being Sick I was appointed but at the desire of the said Bishop by the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain of the Household to wait upon his Majesty in the Quality of Clark of the Closet which place I Executed till the first of May. April 23. Burton presented his Paper to the King May 11. The Marriage was Celebrated at Paris between his Majesty King Charles and the most Illustrious Princess Henrietta Maria of France Daughter of Henry IV. May 7. Saturday we Celebrated the Funeral of King James May 1. Early in the Morning the Duke of Buckingham went towards the Sea-side to pass over into France to meet Queen Mary I wrote Letters to the Duke that day which might follow after him For he went in great haste May 17. The Parliament was put off till the last day of May. May 18. I took a short Journey with my Brother to Hammersmith that we might there see our common Friends It was Wednesday May 19. Thursday I sent Letters the second time to the Duke of Buckingham then staying for a while at Paris May 29. Sunday I gave a third Letter into the hands of the Bishop of Durham who was to Attend the King that he might deliver them to the Duke of Buckingham at his first Landing May 30. Munday I went to Chelsey to wait upon the Dutchess of Buckingham May 31. Tuesday The Parliament was a second time put off till Munday the 13. of June King Charles set forward toward Canterbury to meet the Queen June 5. Whitsunday in the Morning just as I was going to Prayers I received Letters from France from the most Illustrious Duke of Buckingham June 6. I wrote an Answer next Morning After
wished it had fallen upon that same day when I Consecrated the Chappel However I was pleased that I should perform that solemn Consecration at least on the Eve of that Festival For upon that day his Majesty King James heard my Cause about the Election to the Presidentship of St. John's Colledge in Oxford for three hours together at least and with great Justice delivered me out of the hands of my powerful Enemies Septemb. 4. Sunday The Night following I was very much troubled in my Dreams My Imagination ran altogether upon the Duke of Buckingham his Servants and Family All seemed to be out of order that the Dutchess was ill called for her Maids and took her Bed God grant better things Septemb. 11. Sunday I Preached at Carmarthen the Judges being then present The same Night I Dreamed that Dr Theodore Price admonished me concerning Ma 3. and that he was unfaithful to me and discovered all he knew and that I should therefore take heed of him and trust him no more c. Afterwards I dreamed of Sackville Crow that he was dead of the Plague having not long before been with the King Septemb. 24. One only Person desired to Receive Holy Orders from me and he found to be unfit upon Examination Septemb. 25. I sent him away with an Exhortation not Ordained It was then Saturday Septemb. 26. Sunday That Night I dreamed of the Marriage of I know not whom at Oxford All that were present were cloathed with flourishing green Garments I knew none of them but Thomas Flaxnye Immediately after without any intermission of Sleep that I know of I thought I saw the Bishop of Worcester his Head and Shoulders covered with Linnen He advised and invited me kindly to dwell with them marking out a place where the Court of the Marches of Wales was then held But not staying for my Answer he subjoyned that he knew I could not live so meanly c. Octob. 8. Saturday the Earl of Northampton President of Wales returned out of Wales taking his Journey by Sea Octob. 9. Sunday I Preached at Carmarthen Octob. 10. Munday I went on Horseback up to the Mountains It was a very bright day for the time of Year and so warm that in our return I and my Company dined in the open Air in a place called Pente-Cragg where my Registrary had his Country-House Octob. 30. Sunday Sir Thomas Coventry made Lord Keeper Novemb. 11. Friday I began my Journey to return into England Novemb. 17. Thursday Charles the Duke of Buckingham's Son was born Novemb. 20. Sunday I Preached at Honye-Lacye in Herefordshire Novemb 24. Thursday I came to the House of my great Friend Fr. Windebank There the Wife of my Freind for himself was then at Court immediately as soon as I came told me that the Duke of Buckingham then negotiating for the Publick in the Low-Countries had a Son born whom God bless with all the good things of Heaven and Earth Decemb. 4. Sunday I Preached at Hurst I stayed there in the Country until Christmas Decemb. 14. Wednesday I went to Windsor but returned the same day Decemb. 25. Sunday I Preached at Hurst upon Christmas day Decemb. 31. Saturday I went to the Court which was then at Hampton-Court There Januar. 1. Sunday I understood that I was Named among other Bishops who were to consult together on Wednesday following at White-Hall concerning the Ceremonies of the Coronation I was also at the same time informed that the bigger part of the Bishop of Durham's House was appointed for the Residence of the Ambassadour Extraordinary of the King of France Januar. 2. Munday I returned to Hains-Hill For there not then knowing any thing of these Matters I had left my necessary Papers with my Trunk When I had put these in order I went to Sir Richard Harrison's House to take leave of my Friends There if I mistake not I first knew what F. H. thought of me I told my mind plainly c. I returned Januar. 3. Tuesday I came to London and fixed my self at my own House at Westminster For the week before Christmas I had sent my Servant who had brought all my things out of the House of my good Friend the Bishop of Durham with whom I had abode as a Guest for Four Years compleat to my own House save only my Books the removal of which I unadvisedly put off till my own coming For the coming of the French Ambassadour forced me to make over-much haste and the multitude of business then laying upon me made it requisite that I should have my Books at hand In the Evening I visited the Duke of Buckingham Januar. 4. Wednesday We met at White-Hall to consult of the Ceremonies of the Coronation I sent my Servant to bring my Books who brought them That Night I placed them in order in my Study And it was high time For while we were in consultation about the Ceremonies the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold to his Majesty came from the King to us and delivered to me the King's Order to be ready against the sixth day of February to Preach that day at the opening of the Parliament Januar. 6. Friday Epiphany day We met again to consult concerning the Ceremonies and gave up our Answer to the King Januar. 16. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made known to me the King's Pleasure that at the Coronation I should supply the place of the Dean of Westminster For that his Majesty would not have the Bishop of Lincoln then Dean to be present at the Ceremony It was then Munday The same day by the King's Command a Consultation was held what was to be done in the Cause of Richard Montague There were present the Bishops of London Durham Winchester Rochester and St. Davids Januar. 17. Tuesday We gave in our Answer in Writing Subscribed this day This day also the Bishop of Lincoln deputed me under his Hand and Seal to supply the place for him which he as Dean of Westminster was to Execute in the Coronation of King Charles Januar. 18. Wednesday The Duke of Buckingham brought me to the King to whom I shewed my Notes that if he disliked any thing therein c. The same day by the King's Command the Arch-Bishop of Cant. and the Bishops of London Durham Winchester Rochester and St. Davids consulted together concerning a Form of Prayer to give Thanks for the decrease of the Plague Januar. 23. I had a perfect Book of the Ceremonies of the Coronation made ready agreeing in all things with the Kings Book It was Munday Januar. 29. Sunday I understood what D. B. had collected concerning the Cause Book and Opinions of Richard Montague and what R. C. had determined with himself therein Methinks I see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God of his Mercy dissipate it Januar. 31. Tuesday The Bishops and other Peers before nominated by the King to consult of the Ceremonies of the Coronation that
not by Reports April 30. Sunday I Preached before the King at White-Hall May 1. Munday The Earl of Bristol was accused in Parliament of High Treason by the King's Attorney Sir Robert Heath the Earl then and there preferred 12. Articles against the Duke of Buckingham and therein charged him with the same Crime and other Articles also against the Lord Conway Secretary of State The Earl of Bristol was committed to the Custody of James Maxwell the Officer in Ordinary of the House of Peers May 4. Thursday Arthur Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Died at London May 8. Munday At Two a Clock in the Afternoon the House of Commons brought up to the House of Peers a Charge against the Duke of Buckingham consisting of 13. Articles May 11. Thursday King Charles came into the Parliament House and made a short Speech to the Lords concerning preserving the Honour of the Nobility against the vile and malicious Calumnies of those in the House of Commons who had accused the Duke c. They were Eight who in this matter chiefly appeared The Prologue Sir Dudly Digges the Epilogue John Elliot were this day by the King's Command committed to the Tower They were both dismissed thence within few days May 25. Thursday The Earl of Arundel not being sent back to the House nor the Cause of his detainment made known the House of Peers began to be jealous of the breach of their Priviledges and resolved to Adjourn the House to the next day On which day May 26. They Adjourned again to June 2. resolving to do nothing until the Earl should be set free or at least a Cause given c. May 25. On which day these Troubles first began was the Feast of Pope Vrban and at this time Vrban VIII sitteth in the Papal Chair to whom and to the Spaniard if they who most desire it would do any acceptable service I do not see what they could better devise in that kind than to divide thus into Parties the great Council of the Kingdom June 15. Thursday After many Debates and Struglings private Malice against the Duke of Buckingham prevailed and stopped all publick Business Nothing was done but the Parliament was dissolved Junij 20. Tuesday His Majesty King Charles named me to be Bishop of Bath and Wells And at the same time commanded me to prepare a Sermon for the Publick Fast which he had by Proclamation appointed to be kept on the 5th of July following July 5. A Solemn Fast appointed partly upon account of the Pestilence yet raging in many Parts of the Kingdom partly on account of the Danger of Enemies threatning us I Preached this day before the King and Nobility at White-Hall It was Wednesday July 8. The King commanded me to Print and Publish the Sermon It was Saturday July 16. Sunday I presented that Sermon which was now Printed to his Majesty and returned July 26. Wednesday The King signed the Conge d' Eslire empowering the Dean and Chapter to elect me Bishop of Bath and Wells July 24. Thursday In the Morning Dr. Feild Bishop of Landaff brought to me 〈◊〉 Letters from the most Illustrious Duke of Buchingham The Letters were open and wrote partly in Characters The Duke sent them to me that I should consult one Named Swadlinge mentioned in those Letters as one who could read the Characters I was also named in them as to whom that Swadling was known having been educated in S. John's Colledge in Oxford at what time I was President of that Colledge Aug. 1. Thomas Swadlinge came to me whom from his leaving the Colledge to that day for almost 8. Years I had not once seen He bestowing some pains at length read the Characters and Aug. 4. Friday I and he went to the Duke He read them They were certain malicious things The Duke as was fit despised them We returned Aug. 16. I was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells being Wednesday the Letter D. Aug. 25. Friday Two Robin-red-breasts flew together through the Door into my Study as if one pursued the other That sudden motion almost startled me I was then preparing a Sermon on Ephes. 4. 30. and Studying Septemb. 14. Thursday Evening the Duke of Buckingham willed me to form certain Instructions partly Political partly Ecclesiastical in the Cause of the King of Denmark a little before brought into great streights by General Tilly to be sent through all Parishes Certain heads were delivered to me He would have them made ready by Saturday following Sept. 16. I made them ready and brought them at the appointed hour I read them to the Duke He brought me to the King I being so commanded read them again Each of them approved them Sept. 17. Sunday They were read having been left with the Duke before the Lords of the Privy-Council and were thanks be to God approved by them all Sept. 18. Munday My election to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells was confirmed Sept. 19. Tuesday At Theobalds I swore Homage to his Majesty who there presently restored me to the Temporalties from the death of my Predecessor What passed between me and the Lord Conway Principal Secretary to the King in our return Sept. 21. Munday about four a Clock in the Morning Died Lancelot Andrews the most worthy Bishop of Winchester the great Light of the Christian World Sept. 30. Saturday The Duke of Buckingham signified to me the King's Resolution that I should succeed the Bishop of Winchester in the Office of Dean of the Chappel-Royal Octob. 2. Munday The Duke related to me what the King had farther resolved concerning me in case the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury should die c. Octob. 3. Tuesday I went to Court which was then at Hampton-Court There I returned Thanks to the King for the Deanry of the Chappel then granted to me I returned to London Octob. 6. I took the Oath belonging to the Dean of the Chappel in the Vestry before the Right Honourable Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain Stephen Boughton the Sub-Dean Administring it It was Friday Novemb. 14. Or thereabout taking occasion from the abrupt both beginning and ending of Publick Prayer on the fifth of November I desired his Majesty King Charles that he would please to be present at Prayers as well as Sermon every Sunday and that at whatsoever part of the Prayers he came the Priest then Officiating might proceed to the end of the Prayers The most Religious King not only assented to this Request but also gave me thanks This had not before been done from the beginning of K. James's Reign to this day Now thanks be to God it obtaineth Decemb. 21. I dreamed of the burial of I know not whom and that I stood by the Grave I awaked sad Decemb. 25. Christmas-day Munday I Preached my first Sermon as Dean of the Chappel-Royal at White-Hall upon S. John 1 14. part 1. Januar. 5. Epiphany-Eve and Friday In the Night I dreamed that my Mother long since dead stood by my
me in my Sleep having been dead two Years before at least He seemed to me in very good plight and merry enough I told him what I had done for his Widow and Children He after a little thought answered That the Executor had satisfied him for those Legacies while he was yet alive And presently looking upon some Papers in his Study adjoyning he added that it was so He moreover whispering in my Ear told me that I was the Cause why the Bishop of Lincoln was not again admitted into Favour and to Court Apr. 4. Wednesday When his Majesty King Charles forgave to Doctor Donne certain slips in a Sermon Preached on Sunday Apr. 1. what he then most graciously said unto me I have wrote in my Heart with 〈◊〉 Characters and great 〈◊〉 to God and the King Apr. 7. Saturday Going to Court to wait upon the King at Supper in going out of the Coach my foot stumbling I fell headlong I never had a more dangerous fall but by God's mercy I escaped with a light bruise of my Hip only Apr. 24. Tuesday There were then first sent to me the Exceptitions which the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had Exhibited against Doctor Sibthorp's Sermon and what followed April 29. Sunday I was made Privy-Councellour to his Majesty King Charles God grant it may conduce to his Honour and to the good of the Kingdom and the Church May 13. Whitsunday I Preached before the King c. Junij 7 8. I attended King Charles from London to Southwick by Portsmouth Junij 11. His Majesty dined a-board the Triumph where I attended him June 17. The Bishoprick of London was granted me at Southwick June 22. We came to London June 24. I was commanded to go all the Progress June 27. The Duke of Buckingham set forwards towards the Isle of Ree June 30. The Progress began to Oatlands July 4. The King lost a Jewel in Hunting of a 1000 l. value That day the Message was sent by the King for the Sequestring of A. B. C. July 7. Saturday-night I dreamed that I had lost two Teeth The Duke of Buckingham took the Isle of Ree July 26. I attended the King and Queen at Wellingburrough July 29. The first News came from my Lord Duke of his Success Sunday August 12. The second News came from my Lord Duke to Windsor Sunday August 26. The third News came from my Lord Duke to Aldershot Sunday September News came from my Lord Duke to Theobalds The first fear of ill Success News from my Lord Duke to Hampton-Court I went to my Lord of Rochester to consider about A. B. C. and returned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court 〈◊〉 King's Speech to me in the withdrawing Chamber That if any did c. I c. before any thing should sink c. The business of Doctor Bargar Dean of Canterbury began about the Vicaridge of Lidd October The Commission to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and my self then Bath and Wells to Execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction during the Sequestration of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury's Speech that the business could not go well in the Isle of Ree There must be a Parliament some must be Sacrificed that I was as like as any Spoken to Doctor W. The same Speech after spoken to the same Man by Sir Dudlye Diggs I told it when I heard it doubled Let me desire you not to trouble your self with any Reports till you see me forsake my other Friends c. Ita Ch. R. The Retreat out of the Isle of Ree November My Lord Duke's return to Court The Countess of Purbeck censured in the High Commission for Adultery December 25. I Preached to the King at White-Hall January 29. Tuesday A resolution at the Council Table for a Parliament to begin March 17. if the Shires go on with levying Money for the Navy c. January 30. Wednesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham's Son was Born the Lord George New Moon die 26. February 5. Tuesday The straining of the back sinew of my right Leg as I went with his Majesty to Hampton-Court I kept in till I Preached at the opening of the Parliament March 17. but I continued lame long after saving that Februar 14. Thursday Saint Valentine's-day I made a shift to go and Christen my Lord Duke's Son the Lord George at Wallingford-House March 17. I Preached at the opening of the Parliament but had much ado to stand it was Munday Anno 1628. June 1. Whitsunday I Preached at White-Hall June 11. My Lord Duke of Buckingham Voted in the House of Commons to be the Cause or Causes of all Grievances in the Kingdom June 12. Thursday I was complained of by the House of Commons for warranting Doctor Manwaring's Sermons to the Press June 13. Dr. Manwaring answered for himself before the Lords and the next day June 14. Being Saturday was Censured After his Censure my Cause was called to the Report And by God's Goodness towards me I was fully cleared in the House The same day the House of Commons were making their Remonstrance to the King One Head was Innovation of Religion Therein they Named my Lord the Bishop of Winchester and my self One in the House stood up and said Now we have Named these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it Sir Edw. Cooke answered Have we not Named my Lord of Buckingham without shewing a Cause and may we not be as bold with them June 17. This Remonstrance was delivered to the King on Tuesday June 26. Thursday The Session of Parliament ended and was Prorogued to October 20. July 11. Tuesday My Conge-deslier was Signed by the King for the Bishoprick of London July 15. Tuesday St. Swithin and fair with us I was Translated to the Bishoprick of London The same day the Lord Weston was made Lord Treasurer August 9. Saturday A terrible salt Rheum in my left Eye had almost put me into a Fever August 12. Tuesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham went towards Portsmouth to go for Rochell August 23. Saturday St Bartholomew's Eve the Duke of Buckingham slain at Portsmouth by one Lieutenant Felton about Nine in the Morning August 24. The News of his Death came to Croydon where it found my self and the Bishops of Winchester Ely and Carlile at the Consecration of Bishop Montague for Chichester with my Lord's Grace August 27. Wednesday Mr. Elphinston brought me a very Gracious Message from his Majesty upon my Lord Duke's Death August 30. As I was going out to meet the Corps of the Duke which that Night was brought to London Sir W Fleetwood brought me very Gracious Letters from the King's Majesty written with his own Hand September 9. Tuesday The first time that I went to Court after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham my dear Lord The Gracious Speech which that Night the King was pleased to use to me September 27. Saturday I fell Sick and came Sick from Hampton-Court Tuesday Septemb. ult I was sore
found him with his Mother sitting in the Room It was a fair Chamber he went away and I went after but missed him and after tyred my self extreamly but neither could I find him nor so much as the House again Anno 1637 March 30. Thursday I Christened the Lady Princess Ann King Charles his third Daughter She was born on Friday March 17. Junij 10. My Book of the Records in the Tower which concerned the Clergy and which I caused to be Collected and Written in Vellam was brought me finished 'T is ab Ann. 20. Ed. 1. ad Ann. 14. Ed. 4. Junij 14. This Day Jo Bastwick Dr of Physick Hen Burton Batch of Divinity and Will Prynne Barrister at Law were Censured for their Libells against the Hierarchy of the Church c. Junij 26. The Speech I then spake in the Star-Chamber was commanded by the King to be Printed And it came out Junij the 25. Junij 26. This Day Munday The Prince Elector and his Brother Prince Rupert began their Journey toward the Sea Side to return for Holland Junij 30. Friday the above named three Libellers lost their Ears Julij 7. Friday A Note was brought to me of a Short Libel pasted on the Cross in Cheapside that the Arch-Wolf of Cant. had his Hand in persecuting the Saints and shedding the Blood of the Martyrs Memento for the last of June Julij 11. Tuesday Dr. Williams Lord Bishop of Lincoln was Censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering and corrupting of Wit in the King's Cause Julij 24. Being Munday He was suspended by the High Commission c. Aug. 3. Thursday I Married James Duke of Lenox to the Lady Mary Villars sole Daughter to the Lord Duke of Buckingham The Marriage was in my Chappel at Lambeth the Day very Rainy the King present Aug. 23. Wednesday My Lord Mayor sent me a Libel found by the Watch at the South Gate of St. Pauls That the Devil had lett that House to me c. Aug. 25. Friday Another Libel brought me by an Officer of the High Commission fastned to the North Gate of St. Pauls That the Government of the Church of England is a Candle in the Snuff going out in a Stench Aug. 25. The same Day at Night my Lord Mayor sent me another Libel hanged upon the Standard in Cheapside My Speech in the Star-Chamber set in a kind of Pillory c. Aug. 29. Tuesday Another short Libel against me in Verse Octob. 22. Sunday A great Noise about the perverting of the Lady Newport Speech of it at the Council My free Speech there to the King concerning the increasing of the Roman Party the Freedom at Denmark-house the Carriage of Mr. Wal. Montague and Sir Toby Matthews The Queen acquainted with all I said that very Night and highly displeased with me and so continues Novemb. 22. Wednesday The extream and unnatural hot Winter Weather began and continued till Decemb. 8. Decemb. 12. Tuesday I had Speech with the Queen a good space and all about the Business of Mr. Montague but we parted fair Anno 1638. April 29. The Tumults in Scotland about the Service-Book offered to be brought in began July 23. 1637. and continued increasing by fits and hath now brought that Kingdom in danger No question but there is a great Concurrence between them and the Puritan Party in England A great aim there to destroy me in the King's Opinion c. Maij 26. Saturday James Lord Marquess Hamilton set forth as the King's Commissioner to appease the Tumults in Scotland God prosper him for God and the King It was a very Rainy Day June My Visitation then began of Merton Coll. in Oxford by my Visitors was Adjourned to my own Hearing against and upon Octob. 2. Octob. 2. 3. 4. I sate upon this Business these Three Days and Adjourned it to July 1. inter Horas primam tertiam Lambeth The Warden appeared very foul Octob. 19. Friday News was brought to us as we sate in the Star-Chamber That the Queen-Mother of France was Landed at Harwich many and great Apprehensions upon this Business Extream Windy and Wet Weather a Week before and after the Water-men called it Q Mother Weather Octob. 26. Friday A most Extream Tempest upon the Thames I was in it going from the Star-Chamber Home between six and seven at Night I was never upon the Water in the like Storm And was in great Danger at my Landing at Lambeth Bridge Octob. 31. Wednesday The Q Mother came into London and so to St James's Novemb. 13. Tuesday The Agreement between me and Ab. S. c. Novemb. 21. Wednesday The General Assembly in Scotland began to Sit. Novemb. 29. Thursday The Proclamation issued out for dissolving the General Assembly in Scotland under pain of Treason Decemb. 20. They sate notwithstanding and made many strange Acts till Decemb. 20. which was Thursday and then they rose But have indicted another Assembly against July next Januar. 14. Munday About 5. at Night a most grievous Tempest of Wind Thunder Lightning and Rain Feb. 10. My Book against Fisher the Jesuit was Printed and this day being Sunday I delivered a Copy to his Majesty Feb. 12. Tuesday-night I dreamed that K. C. was to be Married to a Minister's Widow And that I was called upon to do it No Service-Book could be found and in my own Book which I had I could not find the Order for Marriage Anno 1639. March 27. Wednesday Coronation-day King Charles took his Journey Northward against the Scottish Covenanting Rebels God of his infinite Mercy bless him with Health and Success March 29. Friday An extream Fire in St. Olaves Parish Southwark forty Houses burnt down April 3. Wednesday Before the King 's going I setled with him a great business for the Queen which I understood she would never move for her self The Queen gave me great Thanks And this day I waited purposely on her to give her Thanks for her gracious acceptance She was pleased to be very free with me and to promise me freedom April 29. Munday This day the King went from York toward New-Castle but stayeth at Durham for a week at least Maij 28. His Majesty incamped two Miles West from Barwick by Tweed Junij 4. Whitson-Tuesday As I was going to do my duty to the Queen an Officer of the Lord Mayor's met me and delivered to me two very Seditious Papers the one to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen the other to excite the Apprentices c. Both Subscribed by John Lilburn a Prisoner in the Fleet Sentenced in the Star-Chamber c. Junij 5. Wednesday I delivered both these to the Lords of the Council Junij 15 17. Saturday and Munday The Peace concluded between the King and the Scottish Rebels God make it safe and Honourable to the King and Kingdom Junij 28. Friday I sent the remainder of my Manuscripts to Oxford being in number 576. And about an Hundred of them were Hebrew Arabick and Persian
and Soul diers to fall up on me in the King's absence Sept. 21. I received a Letter from John Rockel a M an both by Name and Person unknown to me He was among the Scots as he tra velled through the Bishoprick of Durham he heard them inveigh and rail at me exceedingly and that they hoped Shortly to see me as the Duke was Slain by one least suspected His Letter was to advise me to look to my self Septemb. 24. Thursday A great Council of the Lords were called by the King to York to consider what way was best to be taken to get out the Scots and this day the Meeting began at York and continued till Octob. 28. Octob. 22. Thursday The High Commission sitting at St. Pauls because of the Troubles of the Times Very near 2000 Brownists made a Tumult at the end of the Court tore down all the Benches in the Consistory and cryed out they would have no Bishop nor no High Commission Octob. 27. Tuesday Simon and Jude's Eve I went into my upper Study to see some Manuscripts which I was sending to Oxford In that Study hung my Picture taken by the Life and coming in I found it fallen down upon the Face and lying on the Floor the String being broken by which it was hanged against the Wall I am almost every day threatned with my Ruine in Parliament God grant this be no Omen Novemb. 3. Tuesday The Parliament began the King did not ride but went by Water to Kings Stairs and thorough Westminster-Hall to the Church and so to the House Novemb. 4. Wednesday The Convocation began at St. Pauls Novemb. 11. Wednesday Thomas Vis count Wentworth Earl of Straffor d Accused to the Lords by the House of Commons for High Treason and restrained to the Usher of the House Novemb. 25. Wednesday He was sent to the Tower Decemb. 2. Wednesday A great Debate in the House that no Bishop should be so much as of the Committee for preparatory Examinations in this Cause as accounted Causa Sanguints put off till the next day Decemb. 3. Thursday The Debate declined Decemb. 4. Friday The King gave way that his Council should be Examined upon Oath in the Earl of Strafford's Case I was Examined this day Decemb. 16. Wednesday The Canons Condemned in the House of Commons as being against the King's Prerogative the Fundamental Laws of the Realm the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject and containing divers other things tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence Upon this I was made the Author of them and a Committee put upon me to enquire into all my Actions and to prepare a Charge The same Morning in the Upper House I was na med as an Incendiary by the Scot tish Commissioners and a .... Complaint promised to be drawn up to morrow Decemb. 18. Friday I w as Accu sed by the House of Commons for High Trea son without any particular Charge laid against me which they said should be prepared in convenient time Mr. Denzell Hollys was the Man that brought up the Message to the Lords Soon after the Charge was brought into the Upper-House by the Scottish Commissioners tending to prove me an Incendiary I was presently committed to the Gentleman Us her but was permitted to go in his Company to my House at Lam beth for a Book or two to Read in and such Papers as pertained to my Defence against the Scots I stayed at Lambeth till the Evening to avoid the gazing of the People I went to Evening Prayer in my Chappel The Psalms of the day Psal. 93 and 94. and Chap. 50. of Esai gave me great Comfort God make me worthy of it and fit to receive it As I went to my Barge hundreds of my poor Neighbours stood there and prayed for my safety and return to my House For which I bless God and them Decemb. 21. Munday I was Fined 500 l. in the Parliament House and Sir John Lambe and Sir Henry Martin 250 l. a piece for keeping Sir Robert Howard close Prisoner in the Case of the Escape of the Lady Viscountess Purbecke out of the Gate-House which Lady he kept avowedly and had Children by her In such a Case say the Imprisonment were more than the Law allow what may be done for Honour and Religion sake This was not a Fine to the King but Damage to the Party Decemb. 23. Wednesday The Lords Ordered me to pay the Money presently which was done Januar. 21. Thursday A Parliament Man of good Note and Interessed with divers Lords sent me word that by Reason of my patient and m oderate Carriage since my Commit ment four Earls of great power in the Upper-House of the Lords were not now so sharp against me as at first And that now they were resolved only to Se quester me from the King's Coun cil and to put me from my Arch Bishoprick So I see what Justice I may expect since here is a Resolution taken not only before my Answer but before my Charge was brought up against me Febr. 14. Sunday A. R. And this if I Live and continue Arch-Bishop of Canterbury till after Michaelmas-day come Twelve-month Anno 1642. God bless me in this Febr. 26. Friday This day I had been full ten weeks in restraint at Mr. Maxwell's House And this day being St. Augustin's day my Charge was brought up from the House of Commons to the Lords by Sir Henry Vane the Younger It consisted of fourteen Articles These Generals they craved time to prove in particular The Copy of this General Charge is among my Papers I spake something to it And the Copy of that also is among my Papers I had Favour from the Lords not to go to the Tower till the Munday following March 1. Munday I went in Mr. Maxwell's Coach to the Tower No noise till I came into Cheapside But from thence to the Tower I was followed and railed at by the Prentices and the Rabble in great numbers to the very Tower Gates where I left them and I thank God he made me patient March 9. Shrove-Tuesday ........ was with me in the Tower and gave great engagements of his Faith to me March 13. Saturday Divers Lords Dined with the Lord Herbert at his new House by Fox-Hall in Lambeth Three of these Lords in the Boat together when one of them saying he was sorry for my Commitment because the buil ding of St. Pauls went slow on there-while the Lord Brooke replied I hope some of us shall live to see no one stone left upon another of that Building March 15. Munday A Committee for Religion setled in the Upper-House of Parliament Ten Earls ten Bishops ten Barons So the Lay-Votes shall be double to the Clergy This Committee will meddle with Doctrine as well as Ceremonies and will call some Divines to them to consider of the Business As appears by a Letter hereto annexed sent by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln to some Divines to attend this Service Upon
but also though it be done as a help to Continency And S. Hilary agrees with this and calls it not a Custom but a Constitution such a Constitution as that if any Man shall advisedly and of set purpose Fast on the Lord's Day by the Decree of the Fourth Council of Carthage he should not be accounted a Catholick And they must needs do it advisedly and of set purpose who appoint a publick solemn Fast upon that Day and then keep it And this was so strictly observed in S. Ambrose his time that it was not held Lawful to Fast upon that Day no not in Lent Nay he goes farther For he says expresly If any Man make a Law or give a Command for Fasting on the Lord's Day he believes not in the Resurrection of Christ. And is not this opposite to Christianity it self And is not that Legem indicere when they Proclaim or Command a Publick Fast With him S. Augustin joyns very fully and first says it is a great Scandal Then he gives the reason of it Because Christ joyned Mourning with Fasting which becomes not this Day unless Men think 't is fit to be sorry that Christ is risen from the Dead And this I am sure is opposite to Christianity it self For if Christ be not Risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain 1. Cor. 15. After this he asks this Question Who doth not offend God if with the Scandal of the whole Church of Christ he will Fast upon the Lord's Day I will not go lower down This is enough if any thing be Yet this I will add that as this Fasting on Sunday was antiently prohibited so was it never practised of old but by notorious and professed Hereticks as by the Manichees who appointed that Day for fasting so S. Aug. and were justly condemned for it so S. Ambrose And by Aerians who Fasted on Sunday and Feasted on Fridays so Epiphanius And by the Priscilianists whom S. Aug. therefore calls the Imitators of the Manichees and so they were indeed For neither of them believed that our Blessed Saviour was a true Man and therefore disregarded the Day of his Resurrection as appears in S. Leo. And as against these the Council held at Caesar-Augusta An. 381. provided so before An. 324. the Council at Gangra made their Canon against Eutactus the Armenian Monk and his Ground was pretence of Abstinence as if he could never Fast enough This is enough and all this is within the compass of the Primitive Church which certainly if these Men did not scorn they would never have urged this against me Well! This is they say drawn out of my fourteen Letters Next they will prove me the Author of many Disturbances among them 2. By two Papers of Memoirs and Instructions from the Pretended Bishop of St. Andrews to the pretended Bishop of Ross coming to this Prelate that is of Canterbury for ordering the Affairs of the Kirk and Kingdom of Scotland It is manifest here by their own Words that these Memorials and Instructions whatsoever they were had not me the Prelate of Canterbury for their prime cause on Earth for they came from the Reverend and Prudent Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews to the Reverend Bishop of Ross by him to deliver to me for the ordering of the Affairs of the Kirk and Kingdom of Scotland Surely I think no Man will judge it to be a Crime in me to give my Bretheren the Bishops of Scotland the Best Counsel and with that Counsel the best Assistance to his Majesty that I could in their Church-Affairs considering their absence and remoteness from him and the Place that I bear about him And for my own part had I been defective therein I should have thought my self not only unkind to them but faulty otherwise in my Duty both to his Majesty and that Church But for the Affairs of that Kingdom though I had the Honour to be a Sworn Counsellor of that State as well as this yet I never medled with them but at such time and in such a way as I was called and commanded to by his Majesty Let us therefore see the Particulars which are Named As not only to obtain Warrants to order the Exchequer the Privy-Council the great Commission of Surrenders The matter of Balmerinoe's Process as might please our Prelates but Warrants also for the sitting of the High-Commission-Court once a Week in Edinburgh and to gain from the Noble-Men for the Benefit of the Prelates and their Adhaerents the Abbacies of Kelsoe Arbroth St. Andrews and Lindores For the first of these my obtaining Warrants to order the Exchequer there that is indeed an Affair of the Kingdom and a great one But all or most that I did herein was at the earnest entreaty of the Earl of Traquair Treasurer Depute and after that Lord Treasurer who avowed to me that if the Orders were setled for the Exchequer he would not only bring the King out of Debt but raise him some Revenue also with a Protestation farther that for that and some such like particulars he could trust no hand but mine in his absence to get them done and kept private And at so great an Officers intreaty and for Matters under his own Charge I could not refuse so much Service for the King as was pretended by him As for Orders to the Privy-Council I remember not any procured by me And sure I am if I did any thing to that Honourable Body it was by his Majesty's Command and in relation to Church Affairs there And for the Great Commission of Surrenders in which both the Bishops and the inferiour Clergy were deeply interessed and did much fear the loss of their Tythes and to be made Stipendiaries I conceive I had all the reason in the World to give them my best assistance and yet I undertook not this Care till his Majesty gave me a special Command to do what I did And if the Bishops were in any thing mistaken in this Commission that cannot charge upon me who followed it no farther than I received special directions from his Majesty for the publick good For the Lord Balmerinoe's Process I heard much discourse of it at Court but I medled nothing with it one way or other saving that at the intreaty of some Men of Honour of that Nation I did twice if not thrice adventure to become an humble Suitor to his Majesty in that Lord's behalf And this was all the Harm I did him As for the High-Commission-Court if there were no fault in it as such a Court then I am sure there could be none in the Sitting of it once a Week If the having of such a Court be a Fault as it seems 't is now accounted as well here as there yet for my own part with all humble Submission to better Judgment I cannot think it is and I must still pray that both Nations
CAP. IV. NOW follows Adam Blair the second with a Codicil or a Corollary to this Charge And this though it concerns my Brethren the Bishops as much as me yet because it charges upon the Calling and was delivered in with the Charge against me though under another date of December 15. I shall express what I think of that too For I think the Scotch Commissioners took another day in upon advice that they might have a fling at the whole Calling And I cannot but think it was upon design among them when I consider how eagerly the House of Commons hath followed Episcopacy ever since This Codicil to their last Will and Testament concerning me begins thus We do indeed confess that the Prelates of England have been of very different humours some of them of a more hot and others of them Men of a moderate Temper some of them more and some less inclinable to Popery yet what known Truth and constant Experience hath made undeniable we must at this Opportunity express And so must we For we as ingenuously confess that the Presbyters of Scotland have been of very different humours some of them of a more hot and others of them Men of a moderate Temper And the more moderate for Temper and the more able for Learning among them have ever declared for the Episcopacy of England But whereas they say some of the Bishops of England are more and some less inclinable to Popery that may seem to imply that all of them are more or less inclinable to Popery which I dare say is a loud untruth Perhaps that which some of them call Popery is Orthodox Christianity and not one whit the worse for their miscalling it though they much the worse for disbelieving it But now you shall hear what that known truth is which constant experience they say hath made undeniable That from the first time of the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland not only after the coming of King James of Happy Memory into England but before the Prelates of England have been by all means uncessantly working the overthrow of our Discipline and Government A little change in the words answers this For from the very first of the Reformation of the Church of England as well before as after the coming in of King James of Happy Memory the Presbyters of Scotland have been by all means uncessantly working the overthrow of Episcopacy our Discipline and Government As appears most manifestly in Archbishop Bancroft's Works So then either this is a loud untruth if our Prelates did not so practise against them Or if it be truth our Bishops had altogether as much reason if not more the justice of the Cause considered to work the overthrow of their Discipline than they had of Episcopacy But they tell us It hath come to pass of late that the Prelates of England having prevailed and brought Vs to Subjection in point of Government and finding their long-waited-for Opportunity and a rare Congruity of many Spirits and Powers ready to co-operate for their Ends have made a strong Assault upon the whole External Worship and Doctrine of our Kirk Surely for their Doctrine 't is too large a Field to beat over at this time Yet many Doctrines are on foot amongst them which are fitter to be weighed than swallowed would they permit them to be brought to the Sanctuary and Balanced there And for the whole External Worship which they speak of I have heard it said they have none at all and out of doubt 't is very little they have if any And therefore if the Prelates of England had gotten an Opportunity and a Congruity of Spirits and Powers to co-operate which yet is not so they had been much to blame if they had not pursued it till they had brought both the one and the other to a better Condition than they stand in at present And if they had such an Opportunity they were much to blame that deserted it And if they had not these Men are unworthy for asserting it But what End had the Prelates of England in this Why sure By this their doing they did not aim to make us conform to England but to make Scotland first whose weakness in resisting they had before experienced in Novations of Government and of some Points of Worship and therefore England conform to Rome even in those matters wherein England had separated from Rome ever since the time of Reformation These Men out of doubt have or take on them to have a great insight into the Hearts and Souls of the Prelates of England They know that we did not aim to make them conformable to England but to make Scotland first and then England conformable to Rome But I know the contrary and will leave the Book it self to be judged by the Learned in all parts of Christendom for it is carefully Translated into Latin whether it teach or practise Conformity with Rome or not which trial is far beyond their unlearned and uncharitable Assertion And if any other of my Brethren have had this aim they should do well to name them But they are so void of Charity that they cannot forbear to say that we aim to make them Conformable to Rome even in those things wherein England had separated from Rome ever since the Reformation Which is so monstrous an untruth that I wonder how Impudence it self dare utter it considering what the Bishops of England have written in defence of their Reformation against Rome and how far beyond any thing which the Presbyters of Scotland have written against it As for the Reason which is given why we began with Scotland namely because we had experience of their weakness in resisting Novations of Government and of some Points of Worship I know not what they mean by their weakness in resisting unless it be That they did not prevail against King James of Blessed Memory for resist they did to their power when he brought in Bishops which it seems they call Novations in Government and the Articles of Perth which they stile Novations in some Points of Worship And if this be that which they mean there is no Novation in the one or the other And for their weakness in resisting you may see what it is For no sooner have they gotten the Opportunity which they speak of in the beginning of this Codicil but they cast out all their Bishops reversed all the Articles of Perth all the Acts of Parliament which confirmed both brought back all to the rude draught of Knox and Buchanan saving that they have made it much worse by admitting so many Lay-Elders with Votes in their General Assemblies as may inable the Lay-men to make themselves what Religion they please A thing which the Church of Christ never knew in any part of it Nor have they stayed here but made use of the same Opportunity to cry down the Bishops and Church-Government in England As you will see by that
which comes next An Evil therefore which hath issued not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office and Prelatical Hierarchy which did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times and never ceaseth till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship where it is once rooted and the Principles thereof fomented and constantly followed They tell us here that this Conformity with Rome is an Evil that issues not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office Conformity with Rome in any Error or Superstition is doubtless an Evil but that it issues from the Nature of a Bishop's Office cannot be For that Office is to Preach Christ and to govern the Church of Christ according to his Laws If any Bishop break this 't is his Personal Error and most unnatural to his Office to which if he adhere he can neither teach nor practise Superstition Therefore certainly what Error soever comes is from his Person not his Office And 't is great Ignorance to call this Evil an innate Quality of the Office when the Office is a thing of Institution not of Nature and therefore cannot possibly have any innate Quality in it But since they will needs have it thus let us invert it a little and see how it will fit them against their King more than it can fit the Bishops for the Pope For if we should say as perhaps we may too truly that the dangerous Positions which too many of the Presbyterian Faction publickly maintain and in Print proceed not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Presbyterians themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Presbyteries and their Antimonarchical Party I believe it would trouble them to shape a good Answer to it unless they will admit of that which I before have given But then if they do this they Charge themselves with falshood in that which they lay upon the Bishops Office Next they tell you that this Prelatical Hierarchy did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times But truly I think they are thus far deceived The Hierarchy cannot be said to bring forth the chief parts of it self Now the Patriarchs of which the Bishop of Rome was one if not Prime in Order were the Principal parts of the Hierarchy Therefore the Hierarchy cannot well be said to bring them forth But suppose it be so that the Pope were brought forth by the Bishops what fault is there in it For the Pope was good both Nomine Re in name and in being as they were at first For thirty of them together were Martyrs for Christ And the Church of Rome was famous for her Faith over the World in the very Apostles times Rom. 1. And if either the Popes or that Church have degenerated since that is a Personal Crime and not to be imputed to the Office And therefore these Men do very ill or very ignorantly to affirm that this Office of Episcopacy never ceases till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship For in all the time of these thirty Popes there was no Doctrine brought forth which may justly be accounted Superstitious or called Popery For the last of those thirty died in the Year 309. ..... And they cannot be ignorant that Bishop Jewell on the behalf of the Church of England challenged the Current of the Fathers for full Six Hundred Years to be for it against Rome in very many and main Points of Popery And therefore I may well say there was no Popery in the World when the Thirtieth Pope died Well if this Evil do not arise from the Hierarchy yet it doth From the Antipathy and Inconsistence of the two Forms of the Ecclesiastical Government which they conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear The one being the same in all the Parts and Powers which it was in the time of Popery and still is in the Roman Kirk The other being the Form of Government received maintained and practised by all the Reformed Kirks wherein by their own Testimonies and Confessions the Kirk of Scotland had amongst them no small Eminency Sure these Men have forgotten themselves For they tell us immediatly before that this Evil of bringing forth Popish Doctrine and Worship proceeds from the very Office of a Bishop And now they add and from the Antipathy of these two Forms of Church Government Doth the Bishops Office produce Popery And doth the Antipathy between the Presbytery and Episcopacy produce Popery too So then belike in these Men's Judgments both Bishops and they which oppose Bishops produce Popery And if that be true Popery must needs increase that is produced on all sides An Evil then there is though perhaps not this which issues from that Antipathy and Inconsistence of these two Forms of Ecclesiastical Government which they say we Prelates of England conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear And that Evil was as I conceive the continual Jarrs and Oppositions which would daily arise among His Majesties Subjects of both Kingdoms concerning these different Forms of Government And these would bring forth such Heart-burnings and Divisions among the People that the King might never be secure at home nor presume upon united Forces against a Foreign Enemy And this is Evil enough to any Monarch of two divided Kingdoms especially lying so near in one Island Now if the Bishops of England did conceive thus and as our Adversaries here confess not without Cause Then certainly by their own Confession the Prelates of England had Reason to use all just endeavours to remove and take away this Inconsistence that the Form of the Ecclesiastical Government might be one in one Island and under one Monarch that so Faction and Schism might cease which else when they get Opportunity find a way to rent the Peace of Kingdoms if not Kingdoms themselves And this Island God of his Mercy preserve it is at this time in great hazard to undergo the fatality of it in a great measure The next is a manifest untruth For though there be as is said an Inconsistence between the Governments which makes one Island under one King unable to bear both in the different parts of the Island or at least unsafe while it bears them Yet neither is Episcopacy in all the Parts and Powers of it that which it was in time of Popery and still is in the Roman Church And this is most manifest to any Man that will but look upon what Power the Prelates had before and what they have since the Statute of the Submission of the Clergy in Hen. 8. time Beside all those Statutes which have since been made in divers Particulars to weaken their Power Nor is the other Form of Government received
maintained and Practised in all other Reformed Churches unless these Men be so strait Laced as not to admit the Churches of Sweden and Denmark and indeed all or most of the Lutherans to be Reformed Churches For in Sweden they retain both the Thing and the Name and the Governours of their Churches are and are called Bishops And among the other Lutherans the Thing is retained though not the Name For instead of Bishops they are called Superintendents and instead of Archbishops General Superintendents And yet even here too these Names differ more in sound than in sense For Bishop is the same in Greek that Superintendent is in Latin Nor is this change very well liked by the Learned Howsoever Luther since he would change the Name did yet very wisely that he would leave the Thing and make choice of such a name as was not altogether unknown to the Ancient Church For St. Augustine mentions it as plainly and as fully as any of these As for the Eminency which they say their Kirk of Scotland had amongst them I envy it not but God bless it so that it may deserve Eminence and have it And now we are come to the close of all in which their desire is expressed This also we represent to your Lordships most serious Consideration That not only the Fire-brands may be removed but the Fire may be provided against that there be no more Combustion afterwards Decemb. 15. 1640. Ad. Blayer Their request is That not only the Bishops whom they are pleased to call the Fire-brands which indeed themselves and their Adherents are but the Office or Episcopacy it self which they call the Fire may be provided against That there may be no combustion after This I as heartily wish as any Man can but see as little cause to hope for For what hope can there be against after-Combustion while the Fire which they themselves have kindled while they call other Men Incendiaries burns on still and is like to fasten upon the very Foundations to the eating of them out Yet I desire here that the Justice and the Indifferency of these Men may be well considered and that in two things The one in the Cause it self For Episcopacy is settled by Law here Nay it is many ways woven into the Laws and Customs of this Realm And their great Complaint is that their Presbyteries which they say are established by their Law were offer'd to be supprest So they are angry that their Presbyteries should be touch'd against their Law but Episcopacy must be destroyed though it be never so much against our Law The other piece of their Justice is Personal to me For here at one and the same time and in this one and the same Charge they do by Consequences lay load on me as if I had invaded their Laws while they invade ours avowedly and dare present this their Invasion as well as that by Arms in full and open Parliament of England to have their Will in the one and their Reward for the other Now if these two Forms of Ecclesiastical Government by Episcopacy and by Presbyteries be inconsistent under one Monarch as they themselves here confess then I were I at liberty would humbly beseech the Lords to consider First whether these men have any shew or colour of Justice in this their demand Secondly whether that Form of Church-Government which hath come down from the Apostles continued to this Day is established by the Laws and usage of this Kingdom ever since it was Christian be not fitter for them to embrace and settle than that Form which is but of Yesterday and hath no acquaintance at all with our Laws nor is agreeable with Monarchy And lastly when the Bishops are taken away and a Parity the Mother of confusion made in the Church and the Church-Lands Sacrilegiously made a Prey which I have long feared is not the least Aim of too many whether then the Temporal Lords shall not follow after And whether their Honour will not then soon appear too great and their Means too full till a Lex Agraria will pass upon them and lay them level with them whom some of them Favour too much And when these things are considered God Bless them whom it most concerns to lay it to Heart betimes if Time be not slipped already Here having answer'd to all which the Scots have laid in against me I would have the Scotch Service inserted and Printed The Book lyes by me very exactly translated into Latin And so I hope this Tract shall be CAP. V. AND now having answered and I hope sufficiently to all the Particulars in the Charge of the Scots against me I must return to the History again as I left it Where I told you the House of Commons were very angry with the late Canons and joyning this Accusation of the Scots to such Articles as they in their Committee had framed against me upon Decemb. 18. 1640. they accused me of High Treason †as is before expressed and I was committed to Custody to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the Vpper House When they had lodg'd me here I was follow'd with sharpness in both Houses upon all Occasions of any Complaint made against the proceedings at Council-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission or any place or thing in which I had ought to do Nothing omitted by some cunning Agents which might increase the Rage and Hatred of the People against me The chief Instruments herein were the Brownists and they which adhered unto them who were highly offended with me because I hindred and Punished as by Law I might their Conventicles and Separation from the Church of England And though I pitied them as God knows from my very Heart yet because necessity of Government forc'd me to some Punishment their Malignity never gave me over Among and above the rest there were three Men Mr. Henry Burton a Minister Benificed in Friday-street in London Dr. John Bastwick a Phisician and Mr. William Pryn a Common Lawyer who were censured Junii 14. 1637. in the Star-Chamber for notorious Libels Printed and Published by them against the Hierarchy of the Church They were then and there Sentenced to stand in the Pillory and lose their Ears and because they should not stay farther to infect London they were sent away by Order of that Court Mr. Burton to Garnsey Dr. Bastwick to Silly and Mr. Pryn to Jersy In the giving of this Sentence I spake my Conscience and was after commanded to Print my Speech But I gave no Vote because they had fallen so personally upon me that I doubted many Men might think Spleen and not Justice led me to it Nor was it my Counsel that advised their sending into those remote Parts The Brownists and the preciser Part of the Kingdom were netled at this and the Anger turned upon me tho' I were the Patient all along For they had published most venomous Libels against me and I did but shew such as came
a great deal of Thanks in the Name of that Nation Nor did I labour to introduce into the Kingdom of Scotland any Innovations in Religion or Government Neither do all or the most part or indeed any of those pretended Innovations tend to Popery or Superstition as hath before been sufficiently proved Neither did I upon their refusal to submit to these Advise his Majesty to Subdue them by force of Arms but the Counsels which I gave were open either at the Committee or the Council-Table Neither did I by my own Power and Authority contrary to Law procure any of his Majesty's Subjects or inforce the Clergy of England to contribute to the maintenance of that War But the Subsidies which were given to his Majesty at that time were given freely and in open Convocation and without any practice of my self or any other as appears by what I have formerly laid down But because so much noise hath been made against me both in the Scottish Charge before answered and in this Article about Popish Innovations in that Service-Book and that I laboured the introducing both of it and them I think it fit if not necessary to set down briefly the Story what was done and what I did and by what Command in all that Business And it follows Dr. John Maxwel the late Bishop of Ross came to me from his Majesty it was during the time of a great and dangerous Fever under which I then laboured It was in the Year 1629. in August or September which come that time is Thirteen Years since The Cause of his coming was to speak with me about a Liturgy for Scotland At his coming I was so extream Ill that I saw him not And had Death which I then expected daily as did my Friends and Physicians also seized on me I had not seen this heavy time After this when I was able to sit up he came to me again and told me it was his Majesty's Pleasure that I should receive Instructions from some Bishops of Scotland concerning a Liturgy for that Church and that he was imployed from my Lord the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and other Prelates there about it I told him I was clear of Opinion that if his Majesty would have a Liturgy setled there it were best to take the English Liturgy without any variation that so the same Service-Book might be established in all his Majesty's Dominions Which I did then and do still think would have been a great Happiness to this State and a great Honour and Safety to Religion To this he replyed that he was of a contrary Opinion and that not he only but the Bishops of that Kingdom thought their Country-men would be much better satisfied it a Liturgy were framed by their own Clergy than to have the English Liturgy put upon them yet he added that it might be according to the Form of our English Service-Book I answered to this that if this were the Resolution of my Brethren the Bishops of Scotland I would not entertain so much as Thoughts about it till I might by God's Blessing have Health and Opportunity to wait upon his Majesty and receive his farther directions from himself When I was able to go abroad I came to his Majesty and represented all that had passed His Majesty avowed the sending of Dr. Maxwell to me and the Message sent by him But then he inclined to my Opinion to have the English Service without any alteration to be established there And in this Condition I held that Business for two if not three Years at least Afterwards the Scottish Bishops still pressing his Majesty that a Liturgy Framed by themselves and in some few things different from ours would relish better with their Countrymen They at last prevailed with his Majesty to have it so and carried it against me notwithstanding all I could say or do to the contrary Then his Majesty Commanded me to give the Bishops of Scotland my best Assistance in this Way and Work I delayed as much as I could with my Obedience and when nothing would serve but it must go on I confess I was then very serious and gave them the best help I could But wheresoever I had any doubt I did not only acquaint his Majesty with it but Writ down most of the Amendments or Alterations in his Majesty's Presence And I do verily believe there is no one thing in that Book which may not stand with the Conscience of a right Good Protestant Sure I am his Majesty approved them all and I have his Warrant under his Royal Hand for all that I did about that Book And to the end the Book may be extant and come to the view of the Christian World and their Judgment of it be known I have caused it to be exactly Translated into Latin and if right be done it shall be Printed with this History This was that which I did concerning the Matter and Substance of this Service-Book As for the way of Introducing it I ever advised the Bishops both in his Majesty's Presence and at other times both by Word and by Writing that they would look carefully to it and be sure to do nothing about it but what should be agreeable to the Laws of that Kingdom And that they should at all times be sure to take the Advice of the Lords of his Majesty's Council in that Kingdom and govern themselves and their Proceedings accordingly Which Course if they have not followed that can no way reflect upon me who have both in this and all things else been as careful of their Laws as any Man who is a Stranger to them could be And in a Letter of mine after my last coming out of Scotland thus I wrote to the late Reverend Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Septemb. 30. 1633. concerning the Liturgy That whether that of England or another were resolved on yet 〈◊〉 should proceed Circumspectly Because his Majesty had no intendment to do any thing but that which was according to Honour and Justice and the Laws of that Kingdom And a Copy of this Letter I have yet by me to shew And for the truth of this Narration I know His Majesty and my Lord of Ross himself will avow it And here I take leave to acquaint the Reader That this was no new Conceit of His Majesty to have a Liturgy framed and Canons made for the Church of Scotland For he followed his Royal Father King James his Example and Care therein who took Order for both at the Assembly of Perth An. 1618. And now to return again to the Article There is one Charge more in it and that 's concerning the Pacification made the 〈◊〉 Year The Article says I did Censure it as Dishonourable and Advise for a new War But I did neither That which I spake was openly at the Council-Table and in His Majesty's presence And it was this There arose a debate at the Table about these Affairs and the Pacification and I
said that I did often wish from my Heart that His Majesty had kept the Army which he had at Barwick together but Eight or Ten Days longer And that I did not doubt but that if he had so done he might have had more Honourable Conditions of his Scottish Subjects This I said and more or otherwise I said not and whosoever shall relate them otherwise forgets Truth Now to say that His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions doth not infer that the Pacification then made was upon Dishonourable Conditions but only upon less Honourable than it might have been And I had great Reason to observe my own words and remember them because I saw some Lords at the Table touched with them perhaps in their own Particulars Nor was I alone in this Judgment For my Lord the Earl of Holland though he then said nothing at the Council-Table yet at his first return from Barwick his Lordship did me the Honour to come and see me at Lambeth And in the Gallery there while we were discoursing of the Affairs in the North of himself he used these words to me That His Majesty did too suddenly dissolve his Army there indeed so suddenly that every body wondered at it And that for his part he was so sorry especially for the dismissing of all the Horse which he said were as good as any were in Christendom And farther that he offer'd His Majesty to keep one Thousand of them for a Year at his own and his Friends Charge till the King might see all things well setled again in Scotland By which it is apparent that in his Lordships Judgment things might have been better had not that Army been so suddenly dissolved And I hope it was no Sin in me to wish the best success and the most Honour to the King's Affairs Now that which moved me to say thus at the Council-Table was this The last Article in the Pacification was To restore to every one of His Majesties Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time But within two Days or three at the most after the Pacification agreed upon and concluded the Lord Lindsay made an open and publick Protestation either in the Camp at Dunns or at the 〈◊〉 in Edenburgh or both that no Clergy Man his Goods or Means was included in the Pacification Which yet expresses every one of His Majesties Subjects And this I did then conceive and do still was a very bold audacious Act of that Lord very injurious to the Poor Clergy and not so Honourable for the King And this made me say and I say it still His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions and his Pacification better kept had he continued his Army but Eight or Ten Days longer For in all probability the Scots could not so long have continued their Army together And I did farther conceive that by this Act of the Lord Lindsay in protesting and by the Scots making his Protestation good against the Clergy there was a direct and manifest Breach of the Pacification on their behalf And then though I saw no Reason why the King should be bound to keep that mutual Pacification which they had broken for a Knot must be fast at both ends or loose at both Yet remembring my Calling I did not Incense His Majesty against his Subjects in Scotland nor did hereupon advise the undertaking of an Offensive War against them nor ever give other Counsel in this Particular than what I openly gave before the Lords either in the Committee or at the Board And there my Concurring in Opinion with all the rest of the Lords was I hope no other nor no greater fault than in them though I be thus singled out And for the Pacification I shall say thus much more Though I could with all my Heart have wished it more Honourable for the King and more express and safe for my Brethren of the Clergy yet all things Considered which were put unto me I did approve it For before the Pacification was fully agreed upon His Majesty did me the Honour to write unto me all with his own Hand In this Letter He Commanded me all delay set apart to send him my Judgment plainly and freely what I thought of the Pacification which was then almost ready for conclusion I in all Humility approved of the Pacification as it was then put to me and sent my Answer presently back and my Reasons why I approved it Little thinking then but that my Poor Brethren the Bishops of Scotland should have had all restored unto them according to the Article of the Pacification before recited or at least for so long till they had defended themselves and their Calling and their Cause in a free General Assembly and as free a Parliament Now this was ever assumed to me should be done and to procure this was all which the Bishops seemed to desire of me And for the Truth of this I appeal to His Majesty to whom I writ it And to my Lord Marquess Hamilton to whom the King shewed my Letter As my Lord Marquess himself told me at his return And to Dr. Juxon Lord Bishop of London then Lord High Treasurer of England to whom I shewed my Letter before I sent it away And this is all I did concerning the Pacification 14. That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Trayterous Courses he hath laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliament and the Ancient Course of Parliamentary proceedings And by false and malicious Slanders to incense His Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Counsels and Actions he hath Trayterously and contrary to his Allegiance laboured to alienate the Hearts of the Kings Liege People from his Majesty to set a Division between them and to 〈◊〉 and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms For which they do impeach him of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity I did never Labour to subvert the rights of Parliaments or the antient Course of their Proceedings And not doing it at all I could not do it to keep my self from being questioned Much less did I by any malitious Slanders or any other way incense his Majesty against Parliaments nor ever thereby labour to alienate the Hearts of the King's Liege People from his Majesty nor to set any Division between them or to Ruine and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms And am no way Guilty in the least Degree of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity It is true I have been much and very often grieved to see the great distractions which have happened of later Years both in King James his time and since about the Breaches which have been in Parliaments And I have as heartily wished and to my Power endeavoured that all Parliaments which have been called might come to their Happy Issue and end in the Contentment of
into the Hands of the Parliament His Words are concerning the Government and Liturgy of the Church his Majesty is willing to declare that he will refer that whole Consideration to the Wisdom of his Parliament which he desires them to enter into speedily that the present Distractions about the same may be composed But desires not to be pressed to any single Act on his part till the whole be so digested and setled by both Houses that his Majesty may clearly see what is fit to be left as well as what is fit to be taken away So here they are made Masters of all and in a time of great exasperation against the Clergy and the Bishops and their Votes being newly thrust out of the House So God bless the poor Church of England for I very much fear this can bode no good The same Day being Munday there came an Order from the Lords that the Twelve Bishops which were Committed Decemb. 30. might put in Bayl if they would and that they should have their Hearing upon Friday Febr. 25. They were glad Men procured their Bayl and went out of the Tower on Wednesday Febr. 16. This Order of the Lords was known to the House of Commons well enough yet they would take no Notice of it nor offer to stay the Bishops But on Wednesday after they were sure the Bishops were come forth and gone to their several Lodgings they sent a Message to the Lords that they desired the Bishops might be presently remanded to safe Custody or else they might and would Protest against their Lordships for Breach of the Priviledges of their House Because being Impeached by them the Lords had Bayled them without acquainting them first with it in a Parliamentary way This Message was very high and so delivered by Mr. Denzil Hollis The Lords yielded And the poor Bishops were brought back again to the Tower the next Morning Febr. 17. But with an Order that they should not pay new Fees and with a Promise that their Cause should be heard on Saturday Febr. 19. I will not so much as dispute any Priviledge of the House of Commons and I presume the Lords were not willing to break any This I am sure of that as this Business was carried though the Bishops had a great Indignity and Scorn put upon them yet that which was put upon the Lords was far greater and might certainly have been carried in a smoother way on all Hands On Saturday Febr. 19. according to appointment the Twelve Bishops were all at the House and at the Bar Mr. Glin pressed the Charge of High Treason against them in the Name of the House of Commons The Bishops said not much but their Counsel were very earnest that they might be presently Heard But they were not admitted to speak And so the Business was put off to Thursday Febr. 24. That Night when the Commons were returned into their own House there was a Motion made to proceed against the Bishops by Bill and not in the other Ordinary Way CAP. XIII ON Sunday Feb. 20. there came a tall Gentleman by the Name of Mr. Hunt to my Lodging in the Tower to speak with me I was then in my Bed-Chamber speaking with Mr. Edward Hide one of the House of Commons I went forth to speak with this Mr. Hunt When I came he professed that though he was unknown to me yet he came to do me service in a great Particular And Prefaced it farther that he was not set on to come to me by any States-Man or by any of the Parliament nor did expect any Reward but only was desirous to serve me I wondred what the matter should be Then he drew a Paper out of his Pocket and gave it me to read It contained four Articles fairly Written and drawn up against me to the Parliament All of them were touching my near Conversation with Priests and my endeavour by them to subvert Religion in England He told me when I had read them that the Articles were not yet put into the House They were subscribed by one Willoughby who he said was a Priest but now turned and come away from them I asked him what Service it was that by this he could do to me He said he left me to think on that but professed he looked for no advantage to himself I conceived hereupon this was some piece of Villany and bad him tell Willoughby from me that he was a Villain to subscribe such a Paper and for the Articles let him put them into the Parliament when he pleased Mr. Hunt desired me to take nothing ill from him for he meant me Service I reply'd that he came to me Civilly and used me in Speech like a Gentleman But Willoughby was in this as I had called him I left him and his Paper and returned to Mr. Hide into my Bed-Chamber There I told him and my Servant Mr. Richard Cobb all that passed And they were glad I gave him so short and so harsh an Answer and did think as I my self did that it was a Plot to intrap me After they were gone I sat thinking with my self and was very Sorry that my Indignation at this base Villany had made me so hasty to send Hunt away and that I did not desire Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower to seize on him till he brought forth this Willoughby I am since informed that this Hunt is a Gentleman that hath spent all or most of his Means and I verily believe this was a Plot between him and Willoughby to draw Money from me to conceal the Articles in which way had I complyed with him I had utterly undone my self But I thank God for his Mercy to me I am Innocent and defy in this Kind what any Man can truly say against me On Friday Mar. 4. the two Bishops which were at Mr. Maxwell's namely Thomas Moreton Bishop of Duresme and Robert Wright Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield having formerly Petitioned were present in the House of Commons to speak for themselves and they did so At the same time the Petition of the other ten Bishops which were in the Tower which was sent into that House upon the Example of the other two was read After this a Committee was named to draw up a Bill But what it shall contain is not yet known So herein they departed not from their former Resolution On Sunday Mar. 6. after I came from Sermon I walked in a large Room of which I had the use before I went to Dinner And after I had walked a pretty while expecting some Company upon the sudden as I walked on I heard a great Crack as loud as the Report of a small Dag to my thinking And the Noise being near me I had a conceit that one of the Boards brake under me but it was a Tendon of my right Leg which brake asunder God knows how For I was upon plain Boards and had no uneven step
Two Hundred And the Arms I bought of my Predecessor's Executors only some I was forced to mend the Fashion of Arms being changed He left to defend that large House but six Swords six Carbines three Halberds and two half Pikes Though the Order formerly made by the Lords required necessary defence for the House should be left But it seems Captain Royden's Order now given was stricter for he was towards me and my House very Civil in all things This day Sept. 1. 1642. the Bishops were Voted down in the House of Commons And that Night there was great Ringing and Bonfires in the City which I conceive was cunningly ordered to be done by Alderman Pennington the new Lord Mayor chosen in the room of Sir Richard Gurney who was then in the Tower and put out of his Office by the Parliament And my Mind gives me that if Bishops do go down the City will not have cause to joy in it About this time the Cathedral Church of Canterbury was grosly Prophaned yet far worse afterward All-Hallows Bredstreet was now fallen void and in my Gift and September 9. there came an Order from the House of Peers for me to give it But having Six Months Respite by Law I delayed it for that time which created me much trouble from the Parishioners who often sollicited me About the Tenth of this Month the Bishops were Voted down in the Vpper House So it seems I must live to see my Calling fall before me Upon Saturday Octob. 15. it was Resolved upon the Question That all Rents and Profits of all Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Chapters and other Delinquents should be Sequestred for the Use and Service of the Common-Wealth According to which Ordinance all the Profits of my Arch-Bishoprick were taken away from me and not one Penny allowed me for Maintenance Nay whereas this Order was not made till a full Fortnight after Michaelmas yet so hard a hand was carried over me as that my Rents due at Michaelmas were seized on to the use of the Parliament By which means my Estate was as good as Sequestred almost from our Lady-day before more than two parts of three of the Rents being payable only at Michaelmas An Order came from the House Octob. 24. that no Prisoner should keep above two Servants nor speak with any Man but in the presence and hearing of his Warder My Case for the former Branch of this Order differ'd from all other Prisoners For they lay in several Warders Houses in which they might be fitted by the Servants of the House for Ordering their Dyet but I was in a Prison-lodging void of all Comfort and Company And therefore upon Octob. 27. which was the very next day after the Order was shewed to me I humbly besought the Lords for a Cook and Butler beside the Two which were to attend me in my Prison by Reason of my Age and Infirmities which though with difficulty yet I humbly thank their Lordships was granted me Octob. 28. On Wednesday Novemb. 2. I Dreamed that Night that the Church was undone and that I went to St Johns in Oxford where I found the Roof off from some part of the College and the Walls ready to fall down God be merciful Upon Wednesday Novemb. 9. about Five of the Clock in the Morning Captain Brown and his Company entred my House at Lambeth to keep it for Publick Service Hereupon I Petitioned the Lords the same day for the safety of the Library of my own Study and of such Goods as were in my House All which was very Honourably granted unto me by a full Order of the Lords that very day with a strict Charge that they which were there employed in the Publick Service should take special care that all the fore-named things should be preserved in safety Either this day or the day before Mr Holland and Mr Ashurst two of the House of Commons came accompanied with some Musketeers and entred my House and searched for Mony and took away Seventy and Eight Pound from my Receiver Mr Walter Dobson and said it was for the Maintenance of the Kings Children God of his Mercy look favourably upon the King and bless his Children from needing any such poor Maintenance Novemb. 16. Wednesday an Order forbidding the Prisoners Men to speak one with another but in the presence of the Warder and to bar them the liberty of the Tower Only this Order was so far inlarged Novemb. 22. that any of them might go out of the Tower to buy Provision or other Necessaries On the 24th of this Month the Souldiers at Lambeth-House brake open the Chappel-doors and offer'd violence to the Organ but before much hurt was done the Captain heard of it and stayed them Upon the Death of Sir Charles Caesar the Mastership of the Faculties fell into my gift but I could not dispose of it by Reason of the Order of Parliament of Octob. 23. 1641. but with their Approbation Therefore I Petitioned the Lords that I might give it to 〈◊〉 Aylet or Dr Heath both then Attendants in that Honourable House well knowing it would be in vain to Name any other And the Lords sent me an Order to give it to 〈◊〉 Aylet and I did it accordingly The Vicaridge of Horsham in Sussex was in my gift and fell void At the intreaty of Sir John Conniers then Lieutenant of the Tower I Petitioned the House that I might give it to Mr. Conniers the Lecturer at Bow But before my Petition came to be delivered the House had made an Order against him upon complaint from Horsham of his disordered Life so busie were that Party of Men to complain of all Men who were not theirs in Faction and such ready admittance had both they and their Complaints in both Houses For my part the Man was a Stranger to me and inquiring after him as well as a poor Prisoner could I heard no ill of him for his Life Nevertheless hearing how the Lords were possessed against him I forbare the sending of that Petition and sent another for my own Chaplain 〈◊〉 William Brackstone But he was refused yet no exception taken against him for Life or Learning nor indeed could any be Upon the 〈◊〉 of the same Month 〈◊〉 Layton came with a Warrant from the Honourable House of Commons for the Keys of my House at Lambeth to be delivered to him that Prisoners might be brought thither I referred my self to God that nothing might trouble me But then I saw it evident that all that could should be done to break my patience Had it not been so some body else might have been sent to Lambeth and not Layton who had been Censured in the Star-Chamber to lose his Ears for a base and a most virulent Libel against Bishops and the Church-Government Established by Law In which Book of his were many things which in some Times might have cost him dearer
confessed that in the first Business the Church-Wardens had Remedy by their Appeal to me but that then the Bishop began again as the former Witness declared Nor knew I any thing of this Business till the Appeal came As for my Answer to himself that under Favour is quite mistaken For I did not say That in this Particular but that in his General Proceedings in his Diocess the Bishop of Bath carried himself like an Obedient Bishop to his Metropolitan Nor can my Words be drawn to mean this Particular For how could I say that in this Particular he carried himself like an Obedient Bishop to me when after Remedy given to these Men by their first Appeal into my Court he began with them again upon the same Cause Besides my Lords this is not the first time Mr. Ash hath mistaken me Mr. Browne in summing up this Charge against me falls twice very heavily upon this Business of Beckington First for the point of Religion And there he Quoted a passage out of my Speech in the Star-Chamber where I do reserve the indifferency of the standing of the Communion-Table either way and yet saith he they were thus heavily Sentenced for that which I my self hold indifferent But first this Sentence was laid upon them by their own Bishop not by me Secondly the more indifferent the thing was the greater was their Contumacy to disobey their Ordinary And had it not been a thing so indifferent and without danger of advancing Popery would Queen Elizabeth who banished Popery out of the Kingdom have endured it in her own Chappel all her time Thirdly the heaviness of the Sentence so much complained of was but to confess their Contumacy in three Churches of the Diocess to Example other Men's Obedience Secondly for the same Point as it contained Matter against Law I answered Mr. Browne as I had before answered the Lords The third Charge was about certain Houses given to S. Edmunds Lumbard-street where old Mr. Pagett is Parson The Witnesses are Two 1. The first is Mr. Symms who says that after a Verdict Mr. Pagett the Incumbent upon a pretenc that these Tenements were Church-Land got a Reference to the Lord Bishop of London then Lord Treasurer and my self My Lords we procured not the Reference But when it was brought to us under the King's Hand we could not refuse to sit upon it Upon full Hearing we were satisfied that the Cause was not rightly stated and therefore we referred them to the Law again for another Tryal and for Costs to the Barons of that Court. And this was the Answer which I gave to Mr. Browne when he instanced in this Case He says the Houses were given to Superstitious Vses But Possessions are not to be carried away for saying so If Men may get Land from others by saying it was given to Superstitious Uses they may get an easie Purchase And Mr. Symms is here in his own Case But whether the Houses were given to Superstitious Uses or not is the thing to be tryed in Law and not to be Pleaded to us He complains that I would not hear his Petition alone And surely my Lords I had no reason since it was referred to another with me And yet I see though I was not in the Reference alone nor would hear it alone yet I must be alone in the Treason And here I desired that Mr. Pagett the Incumbent might be heard 2. The other Witness was Mr. Barnard He says he was present at the Hearing and that Mr. Symms said he was undone if he must go to a new Tryal But my Lords so many Men say that by their troublesomness in Law-Suits go about to undo others He says that Mr. Pagett named his own Referees If that be so 't is no fault of mine He says the Reference was made to us only to Certifie not to make any Order in it If this be so here 's no Proof so much as offer'd that we did not Certifie as we were required and then had Power given to order it which we did And he confesses the Councel on both sides had full Hearing before ought was done The Fourth Charge of this Day was concerning the Imprisonment of one Grafton an Upholster in London The Witnesses Three Of which 1. The first is Grafton in his own Cause and 't is much if he cannot tell a plausible Tale for himself He says first That twelve Years ago he was Committed and Fined Fifty Pounds by other Commissioners By others my Lords therefore not by me And an Act of the High Commission by his own Words it appears to be He says He was continued in Prison by my procurement as he verily believes First as he verily believes is no Proof And the ground of his Belief is as weak For he gives no reason of it but this That Dr. Ryves the King's Advocate spake with the Barons But he doth not say about what or from whom He adds farther that Mr. Ingram Keeper of the Fleet would not give way to his Release notwithstanding the Barons Orders till he heard from me Here 's no Man produced that heard Mr. Ingram say so Nor is Mr. Ingram himself brought to Testifie Lastly he says that he then made Means in Court and so repaired to the Barons again but all in vain And that Baron Trevor cryed out O the Bishop O the Bishop First here 's a Confession of Means in Court made to the Judges So belike they may have Means made to them so it be not by me For the Particular I did humbly desire the Baron being then present might be asked He was asked he blushed and fumbled the Lords laughed and I could not hear what he said 2. The second Witness was Mr. Lenthall But he said nothing but that there was an Order for Grafton's Liberty which is not denied 3. The third was Mr Rivett He says that Mr. Ingram said that Grafton was a Brownist and must be brought into the Fleet again because he did much hurt among the King's Subjects This is a bare Report of a Speech of Mr. Ingram it no way concerns me And a Separatist he is from the Church of England but whether a Brownist or no I cannot tell there are so many Sects God help us And much harm he hath done among weak People For most true it is which S. Cyril observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Devil prepares these Schismatical Separations that so much the more easily the Enemy may be received As for this Man he was in his way cunning enough for under pretence that he suffer'd by me he got Madam Vantlett and other of the French to Negotiate with the Queens Majesty in his behalf And this I found that sometimes when her Majesty knew not of it they sent to the Barons for Favour for him And yet I never heard that Baron Trevor ever cryed out O the French O the French Nor can I tell what stopped his Mouth in this Cry and
opened it so wide in the other when we moved to defend our selves and our Proceedings Where I humbly desire this Passage of the Law may be considered In the Case of depraving the Common-Prayer Book so much Scorned and Vilified at this Day and for not coming to Church The Words of the Law are For due Execution hereof the Queens most Excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled do in God's Name earnestly require and Charge all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour to the uttermost of their Knowledge that the due and true Execution hereof may be had throughout their Diocesses and Charges as they will answer before God c. Now if I do not this here 's an apparent Breach of the Law And if I do it against this common and great Depraver of this Book then the Judge who by this Law should assist me Cries O the Bishop and this Answer I gave Mr. Browne when he Summ'd his Charge against me The Fifth Charge of this Day was Mr. John Ward 's Case in a Suit about Symony in the High Commission He says for he also is in his own Cause That upon a pretence of a Lapse by Symony I procured a Presentation from the King to the Church of Dinnington His Majesty trusted me with the Titles which did accrew to him in that kind and because Symony had been so rife Commanded me to be careful I might not betray this Trust and therefore the Symony being offer'd to be proved I procured his Majesties Presentation for Tryal of the Title And this I conceive was no Offence Though this be that which he calls the heaviness of my Hand upon him He farther says That I sent to the Bishop of Norwich to admit the King's Clerk the Church being void 7. Junij 1638. Nor do I yet see my Lords what Crime it is in me trusted especially as before to send to the Bishop to admit when the Church is void Many Lay Patrons do that upon Allegation of Symony before Proof And Mr. Bland produced as a Witness also says that the Lord Goring prevailed with the Lord Bishop of Norwich not to admit And I hope an Arch-Bishop and trusted therein by his Majesty may as lawfully write to the Ordinary for Admission of the King's Clerk as any Lay-Lord may write against it But Mr. Ward says nothing to this of the Lord Goring but adds That Sir John Rowse prevented this Admission by a Ne admittas Junij 12. And that thereupon I said it was to no purpose for us to sit there if after a long Tryal and Judgment given all might be stopped If I did say so I think it is a manifest Truth that I spake For it were far better not to have Symony tryed at all in Ecclesiastical Courts than after a long Tryal to have it called off into Westminster-Hall to the double Charge and trouble of the Subject But if the Law will have it otherwise we cannot help that Nor is this Expression of mine any Violation of the Law Then he says a Letter was directed from the Court of the High Commission to the Judges to revoke the Ne admittas and that I was forward to have the Letter sent How forward soever I was yet it is confessed the Letter was sent by the Court not by me And let the Letter be produced it shall therein appear that it was not to revoke the Ne Admittas but to desire the Judges to consider whether it were not fit to be revoked considering the Church was not void till Junij 14. And it hath been usual in that Court to Write or send some of their Body to the Temporal Judges where they conceive there hath been a Misinformation or a mistake in the Cause the Judges being still free to judge according to Law both for the one and the other And here he confesses the Writ of Ne admittas was revoked by three Judges and therefore I think Legally But here he hopes he hath found me in a Contradiction For when I writ to the Bishop of Norwich Junij 7. 1638. I there said the Church was void whereas this Letter to the Judges says it was not void till Junij 14. But here is no Contradiction at all For after the Tryal past and the Symony proved the Church is void to so much as the Bishop's giving of Institution and so I writ Junij 7. But till the Sentence was pronounced in open Court and Read the Church was not void as touching those Legalities which as I humbly conceive do not till then take place in Westminster-Hall And the Reading of the Sentence was not till Junij 14. However if I were mistaken in my own private Letter to the Bishop yet that was better thought on in the Letter from the High Commission to the Judges He says lastly That upon a Quare Impedit after taken forth it was found that the King had no Right Why my Lords if different Courts judge differently of Symony I hope that shall not be imputed to me In the Court where I sate I judged according to my Conscience and the Law and the Proof as it appeared to me And for Dr. Ryve's his Letter which he says was sent to the Cursitor to stop the Ne admittas Let Dr. Ryves answer it The Witness himself confesses that Dr. Ryves says the Command to the Cursitor was from the Lord Keeper not from me And here ends the Treason against Mr. Ward and till now I did not think any could have been committed against a Minister Then follow'd the Case of Ferdinando Adams his Excommunication and the Suits which followed it As it will appear in the Witnesses following which were four 1. The first was Mr Hen. Dade the Commissary then before whom the Cause began And he confesses He did Excommunicate Adams for not blotting out a Sentence of Scripture which the said Adams had caused to be written upon the Church-Wall as in many Churches Sentences of 〈◊〉 are written But he tells your Lordships too that this Sentence was My House shall be called the House of Prayer but ye have made it a Den of Thieves The Commissary's Court was kept as usually it is at or toward the West-end of the Church And just over the Court Adams had written this Sentence upon the Wall meerly to put a scorn and a scandal though I hope an unjust one upon that Court He was commanded to blot it out He would not because it was Scripture as if a Man might not Revile and Slander nay speak Treason too if he will be so wicked and all in Scripture-Phrase Witness that lewd Speech lately utter'd To your Tents O Israel c. Upon this he was Excommunicated and I cannot but think he well deserved it For the Suit which followed against Mr. Dade in the Star-Chamber the Motion that Mr. Attorney would leave him to the common Prosecutor
just Grievances is not the least Cause of my present Condition In which my Case though not my Abilities is somewhat like Cicero's For having now for many Years defended the Publick State of the Church and the Private of many Church-Men as he had done many Citizens when he by prevailing Factions came into danger himself ejus Salutem defendit nemo no Man took care to defend him that had defended so many which yet I speak not to impute any thing to Men of my own Calling who I presume would have lent me their just Defence to their Power had not the same Storm which drove against my Life driven them into Corners to preserve themselves The First Instance was in Mr. Shervil's Case in which Mr. John Steevens tells what I said to the Councel Pleading in the Star-Chamber which was that they should take care not to cause the Laws of the Church and the Kingdom to clash one against another I see my Lords nothing that I spake was let fall nor can I remember every Speech that passed from me he may be happy that can But if I did speak these Words I know no Crime in them It was a good Caveat to the Councel for ought I know For surely the Laws of Church and State in England would agree well enough together if some did not set them at Odds. And if I did farther say to the then Lord Keeper as 't is Charged that some Clergy-Men had sat as high as he and might again which I do not believe I said yet if I did 't is a known Truth For the Lord Coventry then Lord Keeper did immediately succeed the Lord Bishop of Lincoln in that Office But though I dare say I said not thus to the Lord Keeper whose Moderation gave me no Cause to be so round with him yet to the Councel at the Bar I remember well upon just occasion given that I spake to this Effect That they would forbear too much depressing of the Clergy either in their Reputation or Maintenance in regard it was not impossible that their Profession now as high as ours once was may fall to be as low as ours now is If the Professors set themselves against the Church as some of late are known to have done And that the sinking of the Church would be found the ready way to it The Second Instance was about calling some Justices of the Peace into the High-Commission about a Sessions kept at 〈◊〉 1. The First Witness for this for Three were produced was Mr. Jo. Steevens He says That the Isle where the Sessions were kept was joyned to the Church If it were not now a part of the Chuch yet doubtless being within the Church-Yard it was Consecrated Ground He says That Sessions were kept there heretofore And I say the more often the worse He says That I procured the calling of them into the High-Commission But he proves no one of these Things but by the Report of Sir Rob Cook of Gloucestershire a Party in this Cause He says again that They had the Bishop's License to keep Sessions there But the Proof of this also is no more than that Sir Rob. Cook told him so So all this hitherto is Hearsay Then he says the 88. Canon of the Church of England was urged in the Commission Court which seems to give leave in the close of the Canon that Temporal Courts or Leets may be kept in Church or Church-Yard First that Clause in the end of the Canon is referred to the Ringing of Bells not to the Profanations mentioned in the former part of that Canon Nor is it probable the Minister and Church-Wardens should have Power to give such leave when no Canon gives such Power to the Bishop himself And were it so here 's no Proof offered that the Minister and Church-Wardens did give leave And suppose some Temporal Courts might upon urgent Occasion be kept in the Church with leave yet that is no Warrant for Sessions where there may be Tryal for Blood He says farther That the Civilians quoted an Old Canon of the Pope's and that that prevailed against the Canon of Our Church and Sentence given against them All those Canons which the Civilians urged are Law in England where nothing is contrary to the Law of God or the Law of the Land or the King's Prerogative Royal And to keep off Profanation from Churches is none of these Besides were all this true which is urged the Act was the High-Commissions not mine Nor is there any thing in it that looks toward Treason 2. The Second Witness is Mr. Edward Steevens He confesses that the Sentence was given by the High-Commission and that I had but my single Vote in it And for the Place it self he says The Place where the Sessions were kept was separated from the Isle of the Church by a Wall Breast-high which is an evident Proof that it was formerly a Part of that Church and continued yet under the same Roof 3. The Third Witness is Mr. Talboyes who it seems will not be out of any thing which may seem to hurt me He says The Parish held it no part of the Church Why are not some of them examined but this Man's Report from them admitted They thought no harm he says and got a License But why did they get a License if their own Conscience did not prompt them that something was Irregular in that Business He says he was informed the Sessions had been twice kept there before And I say under your Lordships Favour the oftner the worse But why is not his Informer produced that there might be Proof and not Hearsay Upon this I said so he concludes That I would make a President against keeping it any more If I did say so the Cause deserved it Men in this Age growing so Bold with Churches as if Profanation of them were no Fault at all The Third Instance concerned Sir Tho. Dacres a Justice of Peace in Middlesex and his Warrant for Punishing some disorderly Drinking The Witnesses the two Church Wardens Colliar and Wilson two plain Men but of great Memories For this Business was when I was Bishop of London and yet they agree in every Circumstance in every Word though so many Years since Well what say they It seems Dr. Duck then my Chancellor had Cited these Church-Wardens into my Court Therefore either there was or at least to his Judgment there seemed to be somwhat done in that business against the Jurisdiction of the Church They say then That the Court ended Dr. Duck brought them to me And what then Here is a Cause by their own confession depending in the Ecclesiastical Court Dr. Duck in the King's Quarters where I cannot fetch him to Testifie no means left me to know what the Proceedings were and I have good cause to think that were all the Merits of the Cause open before your Lordships you would say Sir Tho. Dacres did not all according to
Law But what is the Heart of this Charge It is say they That I Commanded Dr. Duck to prosecute them And what fault was in this For if it were Just why should not Dr. Duck go on with his Prosecution If Dr. Duck and I were both mistaken in the Particular 't was easy getting a Prohibition Yea but they say I said If this must be so Sir Thomas Dacres shall be Bishop of London and I 'll be Sir Tho. Dacres For ought I see in the Weight of it this whole Charge was but to bring in this Speech And truly my Lords my old decayed Memory is not such as that I can recall a Speech Thirteen or Fourteen Years since But if I did say it I presume 't is not High Treason for a Bishop of London to say so much of Sir Tho. Dacres Mr. Browne in the summing up the Charge against me laid the weight of the Charge in this That these Church-Wardens were Prosecuted for Executing the Warrant of a Justice of Peace upon an Ale-House-Keeper for Tipling on the Sabbath-Day contrary to the Statutes Jacobi 7. Caro. 3. To which I Answer'd That those Statutes did concern the Ale-House-Keepers only nor were the Church-Wardens called in question for that but because being Church Officers and a Church-Man Tipling there they did not complain of that to the Chancellor of the Diocess Mr. Browne replied there was no Clergy-Man there I am glad I was so mistaken But that excuseth not the Church-Wardens who being Church Officers should have been as ready to inform the Bishop as to obey the Justice of Peace The Fourth Instance was about Marriages in the Tower which I opposed against Law The Witness Sir William Balfore then Lieutenant of the Tower He says that I did oppose those Marriages And so say I. But I did it for the Subject of England's sake For many of their Sons and Daughters were there undone Nor Banes nor Licence nor any means of fore-knowledge to prevent it Was this ill He says that when he spake with me about it I desired him to speak with his Majesty about it because it was the King's House What could I do with more moderation He confesses he did so and that he moved the King that the Cause might be heard at the Council-Table not at the High-Commission To this his Majesty inclined and I opposed nothing so the general Abuse might be rectified Then he says Mr. Attorney Noye said at the Council-Table it was the King's Free-Chappel and that no Pope in those times offer'd to inhibit there First if Mr. Attorney did so say he must have leave to speak freely in the King's Cause Secondly as I humbly conceive the Chappel for ordinary use of Prisoners and Inhabitants of the Tower where these disorderly Marriages are made is not that which is called the King's Free-Chappel But another in the side of the white Tower by the King's Lodgings Thirdly if it be yet I have herein not offended for I did all that was done by the King's leave not by any assumption of Papal Power Then he tells the Lords that in a Discourse of mine with him at Greenwich about this business I let fall an Oath I am sorry for it if I did But that 's no Treason And I know whom the Deponent thinks to please by this Interposition For to the matter it belongs not In conclusion he says truly that the King committed the business to some Lords and Judges that so an end might be put to it And in the mean time Ordered that till it were ended there should be no more Marriages in the Tower How this business ended I know not It began I am sure by Authority of his Majesty's Grant of the High Commission to question and punish all such Abuses Tam in loois Exemptis quam non Exemptis And his Majesty having Graciously taken this Care for the Indempnity of the Subject I troubled my self no more with it My aim being not to cut off any Priviledges of that Place but only to prevent the Abuses of that Lawless Custom And if cui bono be a considerable Circumstance as it uses to be in all such Businesses then it may be thought on too that this Gentleman the Lieutenant had a considerable share for his part out of the Fee for every Marriage Which I believe was as dear to him as the Priviledge The next Instance is broke out of the Tower and got as far as Oxford The Witness Alderman Nixon He says the Mayor and the Watch set by him were disturbed by the Proctors of the Vniversity and a Constable Imprisoned The Night-Walk and the keeping of the Watch is the ancient known and constant Priviledge of the University for some Hundred of Years and so the Watch set by the Town purposely to pick a quarrel was not according to Law He adds That when the Right Honourable the Earl of Barkshire would have referred the business to the King's Councel Learned I refused and said I would maintain it by my own Power as Chancellor If I did say this which I neither remember nor believe I might better refuse Lawyers not the Law but Lawyers than they a Sworn Judge of their own Nomination which they did The Case was briefly this There were some five or six Particulars which had for divers Years bred much trouble and disagreement between the Vniversity and the City of which to my best remembrance this about the Night-Watch and another about Felons Goods were two of the chief The Vniversity complained to me I was so far from going any by-way that I was resolved upon a Tryal at Westminster-Hall thinking as I after found that nothing but a Legal Tryal would set those two Bodies at quiet The Towns-Men liked not this Came some of the Chief of them to London Prevailed with their Honourable Steward my Lord the Earl of Barkshire to come to me to Lambeth and by his Lordship offer'd to have all ended without so great Charge at Law by Reference to any of the Judges I said I had no mind to wrong the Town or put them to Charge but thought they would fly off from all Awards and therefore stuck to have a Legal Tryal After this some of the chief Aldermen came to me with my Lord and offer'd me that if the Vniversity would do the like they would go down and bring it up under the Mayor and Aldermens Hands that they would stand to such end as Judge Jones who rode that Circuit should upon Hearing make They did so And brought the Paper so Subscribed and therefore I think Alderman Nixon's Hand is to it as well as the rest upon this I gave way the Vniversity accepted the Judge heard and setled And now when they saw my Troubles threatning me they brake all whistled up their Recorder to come and complain at the Council-Table his Majesty present And I remember well I told his Lordship then making the aforesaid Motion to refer to the
considerable also that as the state of the Church yet stands the Laity have the benefit by the Leases which they hold of more than five parts of all the Bishops Deans and Chapters and College Revenues in England And shall it be yet an Eye-sore to serve themselves with the rest of their own This Evidence Mr. Browne whose part it was to summ up the Evidence against me at the end of the Charge wholly omitted For what Cause he best knows The next Charge was about my Injunctions in my Visitation of Winton and Sarum for the taking down of some Houses But they were such as were upon Consecrated Ground and ought not to have been built there and yet with caution sufficient to preserve the Lessees from over-much dammage For it appears apud Acta that they were not to be pulled down till their several Leases were expired And that they were Houses not built long since but by them and that all this was to be done to the end that the Church might suffer no dammage by them And that this demolition was to be made Juxta Decreta Regni according to the Statutes of the Kingdom Therefore nothing injoyned contrary to Law Or if any thing were the Injunction took not place by the very Tenor of that which was charged Mr. Browne omitted this Charge also though he hung heavily upon the like at St. Pauls though there was satisfaction given and not here The Ninth Charge was my intended Visitation of both the Vniversities Oxford and Cambridge For my Troubles began then to be foreseen by me and I Visited them not This was urged as a thing directly against Law But this I conceive cannot be so long as it was with the King's Knowledge and by his Warrant Secondly because all Power of the King's Visitations was saved in the Warrant and that with consent of all parts Thirdly because nothing in this was surreptitiously gotten from the King all being done at a most full Council-Table and great Councel at Law heard on both sides Fourthly because it did there appear that three of my Predecessors did actually Visit the Vniversities and that Jure Ecclesiae suae Metropoliticae Fifthly no Immunity pleaded why the Arch-Bishop should not Visit for the instance against Cardinal Poole is nothing For he attempted to Visit not only by the Right of his See but by his power Legatin from the Pope whereas the University Charters are Express that such power of Visitation cannot be granted per Bullas Papales And yet now 't is charged against me that I challenged this by Papal Power Mr. Browne wholly neglected this Charge also which making such a shew I think he would not have done had he found it well grounded The Tenth Charge was my Visitation of Merton College in Oxford The Witness Sir Nathaniel Brent the Warden of the College and principally concerned in that business He said First that no Visitation held so long But if he consult his own Office he may find one much longer held and continued at All-Souls College by my worthy Predecessor Arch-Bishop Whitgift Secondly he urged that I should say I would be Warden for Seven Years If I did so say there was much need I should make it good Thirdly That one Mr. Rich. Nevil Fellow of that College lay abroad in an Ale-House that a Wench was got with Child in that House and he accused of it and that this was complained of to me and Sir Nath. Brent accused for Conspiring with the Ale-Wife against Nevil I am not here to accuse the one or defend the other But the Case is this This Cause between them was publick and came to Hearing in the Vice-Chancellor's Court Witnesses Examined Mr. Nevil acquitted and the Ale-Wife punished In all this I had no Hand Then in my Visitation it was again complained of to me I liked not the business but forbare to do any thing in it because it had been Legally Censured upon the place This part of the Charge Mr. Browne urged against me in the House of Commons and I gave it the same Answer Lastly when I sate to hear the main Business of that College Sir Nathaniel Brent was beholding to me that he continued Warden For in Arch-Bishop Warham's time a Predecessor of his was expelled for less than was proved against him And I found that true which one of my Visitors had formerly told me namely That Sir Nathaniel Brent had so carried himself in that College as that if he were guilty of the like he would lay his Key under the Door and be gone rather than come to Answer it Yet I did not think it fit to proceed so rigidly But while I was going to open some of the Particulars against him Mr. Nicolas cut me off and told the Lords this was to scandalize their Witnesses So I forbare Then followed the last Charge of this day concerning a Book of Dr Bastwick's for which he was Censured in the High-Commission The Witnesses in this Charge were three Mr. Burton a Mortal Enemy of mine and so he hath shewed himself Mrs. Bastwick a Woman and a Wife and well Tutoured For she had a Paper and all written which she had to say though I saw it not till 't was too late And Mr. Hunscot a Man that comes in to serve all turns against me since the Sentence passed against the Printers for Thou shalt commit Adultery In the Particulars of this Charge 't is first said That this Book was written Contra Episcopos Latiales But how cunningly so-ever this was pretended 't is more than manifest it was purposely written and divulged against the Bishops and Church of England Secondly that I said that Christian Bishops were before Christian Kings So Burton and Mrs. Bastwick And with due Reverence to all Kingly Authority be it spoken who can doubt but that there were many Christian Bishops before any King was Christian Thirdly Mr. Burton says that I applied those words in the Psalm whom thou may'st make Princes in all Lands to the Bishops For this if I did err in it many of the Fathers of the Church mis-led me who Interpret that place so And if I be mistaken 't is no Treason But I shall ever follow their Comments before Mr. Burton's Fourthly Mrs. Bastwick says that I then said no Bishop and no King If I did say so I Learned it of a Wise and Experienced Author King James who spake it out and plainly in the Conference at Hampton-Court And I hope it cannot be Treason in me to repeat it Fifthly Mrs. Bastwick complained that I committed her Husband close Prisoner Not I but the High-Commission not close Prisoner to his Chamber but to the Prison not to go abroad with his Keeper Which is all the close Imprisonment which I ever knew that Court use Lastly the pinch of this Charge is that I said I received my Jurisdiction
for that 2. Yet the Second Witness Mr. Tomlyns says also that I did justifie this Picture God forgive him the Malice or Ignorance of this Oath be it which it will He might have been as wary as Mr. Caril and added as he remembers For so many Years since as this Hearing was he may easily mistake But if I did say any such thing why are not my own Papers here produced against me I had that written which I then spake and the Paper was in my Study with the rest and came for ought I know into their Hands which follow the Charge against me I ask again why is not this Paper produced Out of all doubt it would had there appeared any such thing in it He says also that I said then that if the Idol of Jupiter were set up yet it were not lawful to pull it down in a Popular Tumult but by Order and Authority I did say so or to that effect indeed and must say it still For I find in St. Augustin almost the very words And Bishop Davenant a Man very Learned 〈◊〉 this place of St. Augustin and approves it And they both prove this Doctrine from Deut. 12. Where the Command given for destroying of the Idols when they came into the Land of Canaan was not left at large to the People but setled in Moses the chief Magistrate and his Power And according to this Rule the Temple of AEsculapius though then grown very Scandalous was not pulled down but by 〈◊〉 Command Which place I then shewed the Lords But this Witness added that Mr Sherfeild had Authority to do this from the Vestry If he had that 's as good as none for by the Laws of England there is yet no power given them for that or any thing else And all that Vestries do is by usurpation or consent of the Parish but reaches not this The Bishop of the Diocess had been fitter to be consulted herein than the Vestry Here as if these Witnesses had not said enough Mr Nicolas offered himself to be a Witness And told the Lords he was present at the Hearing of this Cause and that four Witnesses came in clear that the Picture broken down was the Picture of God the Father and that yet the Sentence of the Court passed against Mr Sherfeild First if this be so it concludes against the Sentence given in the Star-Chamber not against me and he calls it here the Sentence of the Court. Secondly be it that it were undoubtedly the Picture of God the Father yet he ought to have taken Authority along with him and not to go about it with violence which he did and fell and brake his Leg in the Business Thirdly by his own description of the Picture it seems to me to be some old Fabulous Picture out of a Legend and not one of God the Father For he then told the Lords it was a Picture of an Old Man with a Budget by his side out of which he was plucking Adam and Eve And I believe no Man ever saw God the Father so Pictured any where Lastly let me observe how Mr Nicolas takes all parts upon him wherein he may hope to do me mischief The Sixth Charge was concerning a Bible that was Printed with Pictures and sold. The Witness Mr Walsal a Stationer Who says That this Bible was Licensed by Dr Weeks my Lord of London's Chaplain not mine so thus far it concerns not me Yes says Mr. Brown in his last Reply For it appears in a List of my Chaplains under my own Hand that Dr Weeks was one 'T is true when I was Bishop of Bath and Wells he was mine but my Lord of London had him from me so soon as ever he was Bishop And was his not mine when he Licensed that Book And Mr. Brown knew that I answer'd it thus to the Lords He says that I gave him direction that they should not be sold openly upon the Stalls but only to discreet Men that knew how to use them The Case was this As I was at Prayers in the King's Chappel I there saw one of them in Mrs. Kirk's Hand She was far enough from any affection to Rome And this being the first knowledge I had of it many were vented and sold before I could prevent it Upon this I sent for one whether to this Witness or another I cannot say and acquainted the Lords of the Council with it and craved their direction what should be done It was there Ordered that I should forbid the open Sale of them upon their Stalls but not otherwise to Learned and Discreet Men. And when I would have had this Order stricter no Man stuck to me but Mr Secretary Cook So according to this Order I gave direction to Mr Walsal as he witnesses Here Mr. Maynard replyed that I ought to have withstood this Order in regard it was every way faulty For said he either these Pictures were good or bad And if they were good why should they not be Sold openly upon the Stalls to all that would buy And if they were bad why should they be Sold privately to any To this Reply I was not suffer'd to Answer But when I heard Mr. Brown charge this Bible with Pictures against me then I answer'd the thing as before and took occasion thereby to answer this Dilemma thus Namely that this kind of Argument concludes not but in things Necessary and where no Medium can be given For where a Medium can be given the Horns of this Argument are too weak to hurt And so 't is here For Pictures in themselves are things indifferent not simply good nor simply bad but as they are used And therefore they were not to be sold to all comers because they may be abused and become evil and yet might be sold to Learned and Discreet Men who might turn them to good And that Images are things indifferent of themselves is granted in the Homilies which are against the very Peril of Idolatry He said there was some inconvenient Pictures among them as the Assumption and the Dove Be it so the Book was not Licensed by me or mine And yet as I then shewed the Lords they were not so strict at Amsterdam against these Pictures For the Book which Mr. Walsal shewed me was Printed and sent thence before it was Printed here Besides our old English Bibles in the beginning of the Queen were full of Pictures and no fault found As for that which is added at the Bar that one of these Bibles was found in Secretary Windebank's Trunk and another in Sir John Lambs That 's nothing to me The last Charge of this day was that something about Images was Expunged out of Dr Featly's Sermons by my Chaplain Dr Bray before they could be suffer'd to be Printed But first he himself confesses that I told him he might Print them so nothing were in them contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England
that I maintained some Catholick Opinions yet he named none by which there might be Tryal and Judgment whether they were such or no in the Sense he meant them Lastly Mr. Perkins in his Reformed Catholick sets down divers Opinions in which they of Rome and we agree Shall he be a Papist for this Or shall not that which is Lawful for him be as Lawful for me 2. The Second Witness was one Harris He says that Mr. Ireland who was some time Student of Christ-Church in Oxford and after School-Master at Westminster told him that I would leave the Church of England This is a bare Report from Mr. Ireland with whom I never had any Acquaintance nor was scarce in his Company twice in all my Life Nor is it in my Power to hinder what Mr. Ireland will say or Mr. Harris from him He says That one that called himself Leander came over on purpose to make this Reconciliation If he did which is more than I know or believe I think he would hardly make such a one as Harris is reported to be acquainted with it But howsoever if he did come with that purpose was it in my Power to hinder his coming And here is no Proof offered that I did help on his Purpose or so much as know of it He says he often Petitioned me for Relief but had none It may be I well knew he deserved none And your Lordships know that by Law I might not afford him any Had I given him any I should now have heard it with both Ears For I am informed he is a Priest and Condemned in a Praemunire and was let out of Prison on purpose to be a Witness against me And having set that which is aforesaid under his Hand is now slipped away and gone Who got him out of Prison for this good purpose I know not but fure somewhat there is in it for your Lordships see his Testimony is now read but he appears not 3. The Third Witness was Sir Nathaniel Brent now absent but came in the next Day He says I was esteemed Popishly Affected in Oxford and he gave Three Instances very carefully to prove it The First was That in the Divinity School there I maintained the Necessity of Baptism I did so and my Predecessor Arch-Bishop Abbot was then Vice-Chancellor and present and approved my Opinion and my Grace passed for my Degree to be Batchellour of Divinity without any one Man's Opposition He says That Mr. Dale of Merton College then shewed him all my Supposition taken out of Bellarmin This is a bold and a dangerous Oath He might Swear that Mr. Dale shewed him in Bellarmin that which he said was my Supposition But that he shewed him all my Supposition there is a strange Oath for a Man of Learning and Law to make and in such a Presence Besides I have my Supposition which I then made yet by me and if my Tenet of that Question be the same with Bellarmin's or that there be any Line taken out of him but what I cite for my own advantage against him I will utterly forfeit my Reputation of any Learning to your Lordships His Second Instance was That I was acquainted with one Mr Brown Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford who was suspected to be a Papist and after his Death proved to be one by a Book that was found in his Study proving that a Man might be a Roman-Catholick and yet go to Church and Conform in England I was acquainted with this Man he was a very good Scholar and an Honest man and a good Protestant for ought I know For the Tract found after his Death among his Papers that 's no Proof For Scholars get all the Papers they can especially such as belong to their own Profession And the more strange the Opininions are the more do they labour to get them Nor is it any Proof that the Tract was of his making because written in his own Hand as 't is urged For the Argument being so foul and dangerous it could not be safe for him nor any way fit to commit it to any other to write for him Nor is there any Proof that I knew he had such a Tract by him neither indeed did I. The Opinion is very base and unworthy and was first broached by the Jesuit Azorius and it seems some of his Fellows had inlarged him and made this Tract out of his Principles His Third Instance was That I Petitioned King James in this Business I was complained of to King James by a great Person That I had inward Acquaintance with this Man Hereupon my waiting Month being June and not long after the Complaint made I took Occasion in my first Sermon to confute this Opinion and then Petitioned his Majesty that it might be examined that such an Imputation might not lie upon me His Majesty referred it to the Lords Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Bishops of London Winchester and Duresm where after full examination I was Acquitted The Second Charge was that the same Opinion was held of me beyond the Seas That I was a cunning Promoter of the Roman Cause And here the Witnesses are the same which were produced before Mr. Challoner who told over his old Tale again of I know not what Plot he heard from a Jesuit Nothing but Hearsay at the best And it savours like an Almanack de Post Facto or rather of somwhat else which I will spare to name because he is upon his Oath The other Witness is Mr. Anthony Mildmay who also tells over his Old Tale of his Father Fitton But he was out of the way again and appeared not till the next Day with Sir Nathaniel Brent So here 's a Repetition again of the same Witnesses and the same things to multiply the Noise Only Noble Sir Henry Mildmay appeared not the Second time but whether it were because he had enough at his first appearance or whether his Face was scratched then as since Men say it was I cannot tell The Third Charge was That I had a damnable Plot to reconcile the Church of England with the Church of Rome If to reconcile them with the maintenance of Idolatry it were a damnable Plot indeed But if Christian Truth and Peace might meet and unite together all Christendom over were that a Sin too Were I able to Plot and effect such a Reconciliation I would think my self most Happy whatever I suffered for it But how is this damnable Plot proved Pope Gregory writ a Letter to his Nuncio in Spain and a Letter also to King Charles which Letter is Printed Copies of these Letters were found in my Study Could I hinder the Pope from writing to whom he pleased Shall not I get Copies of any Letters I can to see what practising is abroad for private Interest Shall it be Lawful for all my Predecessors to get and keep Copies of such Letters by them and shall it be Unlawful for me only And here
short of Treasons the application to those Generals cannot make them Treasons We shall only single out Two Particulars and in those be very brief in that most which hath been said to the former Generals is appliable to them inasmuch as none of them is declared to be a Treason by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. or by any other Law enacted 1. The first of these in the 10th Original Article viz. That he hath Traiterously endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England with the Church of Rome Which if it be any Treason must be a Treason within the Statute of 5 Jac. Cap. 4. whereby is provided That if any Man shall put in practice to Reconcile any of his Majesty's Subjects to the Pope or See of Rome the same is enacted to be Treason which we conceive clearly is none of this Charge 1. First For that here only is Charged an Endeavour there a Putting in Practice 2. Here a Reconciling of the Church of England with the Church of Rome there a Reconciling some of his Majesty's Subjects to the See of Rome And a Reconciling with may as well be a Reducing of that of Rome to England as England to Rome The Second in the 7th additional Article for wittingly and willingly Receiving and Harbouring divers Popish Priests and Jesuits namely Sancta Clara and Monsieur St. Gyles Which Offence as to the Harbouring Priests and Jesuits born within his Majesty's Dominions by the Statute of 27 Eliz. Cap. 2. is made Felony not Treason and extends only to Priests English born which these are not charged to be My Lords We have now gone through those Articles wherein we conceive the Treasons Charged were intended and have endeavoured to make it appear That none of the Matters in any of the Articles Charged are Treason within the Letter of any Law And if not so then they cannot by Inference or Parity of Reason be heightned to a Treason It is true the Crimes as they are laid in the Charge are great and many Yet if the Laws of this Realm which have distinguished Crimes and accordingly given them several Names and inflicted Punishments raise none of these to a Treason That we humbly conceive will be worthy of your Lordships Consideration in this Case and that their Number cannot make them exceed their Nature And if they be but Crimes and Misdemeanours apart below Treason or Felony they cannot make a Treason by putting them together Otherwise the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. which we have so much insisted upon had been fruitless and vain if after all that exactness any Number of Misdemeanours in themselves no Treason should by complication produce a Treason and yet no mention made of it in that Law much less any Determination thereby that any Number or what Number and of what Nature of Crimes below Treason should make a Treason It is true my Lords That by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. there is a Clause in these Words It is accorded That if any other Case supposed Treason which is not therein specified doth happen before any Justices the Justices shall tarry without any going to Judgment of the Treason until the Cause be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament Whether it ought to be judged Treason or Felony And that hereby might seem to be inferred That there should be some other Treasons than are mentioned in that Law which may be declared in Parliament But my Lords we shall observe 1. If such Declaration look only forward then the Law making it Treason preceeds the Offence and is no more than an Enacting Law If it look backward to the Offence past then it appears by the very Clause it self of 25 Edw. 3. it should be at the least a Felony at the Common Law and that a Crime or Crimes below a Felony were never intended to be by this Law to be declared or to be heightned to a Treason And we find not any Crime declared Treason with a Retrospect unless it were a Felony before And in the late Case of the Earl of Strafford Attainted by Bill there is a Treason within this Law charged and declared by the Bill of his Attainder to have been proved 2. Secondly We are not now in case of a Declaration of a Treason but before your Lordships only upon an Impeachment and in such case we humbly conceive the Law already established as it hath been so it will be the Rule Thus my Lords we have gone through that Part which belongs to us directed us by your Lordships viz. Whether in all or any the Articles exhibited before your Lordships there is contained any Treason by any established Law of this Kingdom without medling at all with the Facts or Proof made of them which together with our weak Endeavours we humbly submit to your Lordships great Judgment And for any Authorities cited by us are ready if so Commanded to produce them Here this Day ended and I had a few Days rest But on Tuesday October 22. being a Day made Solemn for Humiliation my Chamber at the Tower was searched again for Letters and Papers But nothing found After this there went up and down all about London and the Suburbs a Petition for the bringing of Delinquents to Justice and some Preachers exhorted the People to be zealous in it telling them it was for the Glory of God and the Good of the Church By this means they got many Hands of Men which little thought what they went about In this Petition none were named but my self and the Bishop of Ely so their Drift was known to none but their own Party and was undoubtedly set on foot to do me mischief Whose Design this was God knows but I have cause to suspect Mr. Pryn's Hand in it This barbarous way of the Peoples clamouring upon great Courts of Justice as if they knew not how to govern themselves and the Causes brought before them is a most unchristian Course and not to be endured in any well-governed State This Petition with a Multitude of Hands to it was delivered to the House of Commons on Munday Octob. 28. Concerning which I shall observe this That neither the Lord Mayor nor the Sheriffs made any stop of this Illegal and Blood-thirsty Course though it were publickly known and the People exhorted to set Hands to it in the Parish-Churches What this and such-like Courses as these may bring upon this City God alone knows whom I humbly pray to shew it Mercy CAP. XLV THis Day being All-hallan-day a Warrant came to the Lieutenant from the House of Commons to bring me to their Barr to hear the Evidence formerly summed up and given against me in the Lords House I knew no Law nor Custom for this for though our Votes by a late Act of Parliament be taken away yet our Baronies are not And so long as we remain Barons we belong to the Lords House and
with that which they most feared And I pray God this Clamour of venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in For the Pope never had such an Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and Dishonour by good Report and evil Report as Deceivers and yet true am I passing through this World 2 Cor. 6. 8. Some Particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And First this I shall be bold to speak of the King our Gracious Soveraign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but in my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present Account I know him to be as free from this Charge as any Man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law Established as any Man in this Kingdom and that he will venture his Life as far and as freely for it And I think I do or should know both his Affection to Religion and his Grounds for it as fully as any Man in England The Second Particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a Fashion taken up to gather Hands and then go to the great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and Clamour for Justice as if that Great and Wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent Man and pluck his Blood upon their own Heads and perhaps upon the City 's also and this hath been lately practised against my self the Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without any Check God forgive the Setters of this with all my Heart I beg it but many well-meaning People are caught by it In St. Stephen's Case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him And Herod went the same way when he had killed St. James Yet he would not venture on St. Peter till he found how the other Pleased the People But take heed of having your Hands full of Blood for there is a time best known to himself when God above other Sins makes Inquisition for Blood and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us that God remembers that 's not all he remembers and forgets not the Complaint of the Poor That is whose Blood is shed by Oppression ver 9. Take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for Blood And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26. 15. The Third Particular is the Poor Church of England It hath Flourished and been a shelter to other Neighbouring Churches when Storms have Driven upon them But alas now it is in a Storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out And which is worse than the Storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to Shivers with Wedges made out of it 's own Body and at every Cleft Profaneness and Irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speaks in his Second Book de Contemptu Vitae cap. 4. Men that introduce Profaneness are Cloaked over with the Name Religionis imaginariae of Imaginary Religion For we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion And that Church which all the Jesuites Machinations could not Ruine is fallen into Danger by her own The last Particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was Born and Baptized in the Bosom of the Church of England Established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to Die This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matters of Religion And therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to Die What Clamours and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the external Service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church all Men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am Accused of High-Treason in Parliament a Crime which my Soul ever abhorred This Treason was Charged to consist of two Parts An Endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and a like Endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my Answers to the several Charges I protested my Innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners Protestations at the Bar must not be taken I can bring no Witness of my Heart and the Intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar but my Protestation at this Hour and Instant of my Death in which I hope all Men will be such Charitable Christians as not to think I would Die and Dissemble being Instantly to give God an Account for the Truth of it I do therefore here in the Presence of God and his Holy Angels take it upon my Death that I never Endeavoured the subversion of Law or Religion And I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my Innocency in this and from all Treasons whatsoever I have been Accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the Benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the Misgovernments of some Parliaments many ways and I had good Reason for it For Corruptio Optimi est Pessima there is no Corruption in the World so bad as that which is of the Best Thing within it self for the better the thing is in Nature the worse it is Corrupted And that being the Highest Court over which no other hath Jurisdiction when it is misinformed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all Remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those Bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God First and then of every Man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgiveness of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me Which said with a distinct and audible Voice he Prayed as followeth O Eternal God and Merciful Father look down upon me in Mercy in the Riches and fulness of all thy Mercies look down upon me But not till thou hast nailed my Sins to the Cross of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the Blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the Wounds of Christ that so the Punishment due unto my Sins may pass over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the utmost
and my Lords at the Council-Board and humbly desired That they both of the French Italian and Dutch Congregations which are born Subjects may not be suffered any longer to live in such a Separation as they do from both Church and State And have according to that which I thought might best sort with your Majesty's Intentions commanded my Vicar-General when he was lately at Canterbury to begin fairly to call them to Conform with the English Church Which business I do hereby humbly beseech your Majesty to look upon with a provident Eye not here only but much more in London for the better settling of both Church and Commonwealth in that Particular And for your Majesty's Instructions I have for my own part punctually observed them The rest of the Diocesses which I visited this Year are Rochester Salisbury Bristol Bath and Wells Exeter and Lincoln For Rochester I found no eminent thing amiss but the Bishop himself fell into a Palsie and was thereby forced to go to the Bath and so to be longer absent from his Diocess than otherwise he would have been and he is now returned God be thanked much better though not perfectly well And for the Diocess I did not find in my Visitation any noted Breach upon any your Majesty's Instructions For Salisbury I found the Bishop had taken a great deal of Care about your Majesty's said Instructions and that they might be the better both known and obeyed he hath caused Copies of them to be sent to most of the Ministers in his Diocess which hath done a great deal of good And though it be not amongst your Instructions yet I am bold to signifie unto your Sacred Majesty that I find the greatest part of Wiltshire overgrown with the Humours of those Men that do not Conform and are as backward both Clergy and Laity towards the Repair of St. Paul's Church as any part of England that I have observed The Cathedral at Salisbury is much pestered with Seats and I have given Order to remove them which I hope your Majesty will approve as well as you did at York and Durham and add your Power if mine be not sufficient For Bristol I find in my Visitation that the Bishop there hath taken very good Pains and Care since his coming thither And that some Clergy-men in Dorsetshire which gave great cause of Suspicion have quit themselves in a better manner than was expected though all be not right in those Parts Concerning Bath and Wells I must needs return to your Majesty that which I would to God I could do of all the rest namely That all your Instructions are punctually observed and the Lectures as many as are in that Diocess read not by any particular factious Persons but by a Company of Learned neighbouring Ministers which are every way conformable to the Church For Exeter where according to many Complaints that had been made here above I might have expected many things out of Order I must do my Lord the Bishop this Right that for your Majesty's Instructions they have been carefully observ'd But a great Division there is between the Dean and Chapter I have twice set them at Peace yet it breaks out again And I doubt there being so many Brothers and Brothers-in-Law in that Chapter is not the least Cause of it the rest siding together for fear of Oppression I find also there hath been and is at this present a great Difference between the Dean and Chapter and the City about Burial within the Church-yard of the Cathedral I shall do my best to set Peace between them and if I cannot as I much fear it I shall be an humble Suitor to your Majesty to take it into your Princely Consideration lest it do more Prejudice to both Bodies than is yet thought of As for Lincoln it being the greatest Diocess in the Kingdom I have now reduced that under Metropolitical Visitation also and visited it this preceding Year My Visitors there found Bedfordshire for the bigness most tainted of any part of the Diocess And in particular Mr Buckley is sent to the High-Commission for Inconformity And in Leicester the Dean of the Arches Suspended one Mr Angell who hath continued a Lecturer in that great Town for these divers Years without any License at all to Preach yet took Liberty enough I doubt his Violence hath crackt his Brain and do therefore use him the more tenderly because I see the Hand of God hath overtaken him For Lincoln it self my Vicar General certifies me there are many Anabaptists in it and that their Leader is one Johnson a Baker and that in divers parts of that Diocess many both of Clergy and Laity are excessively given to Drunkenness That the Town of Boston which was a great Nursery of Inconformity is since the calling of some of the Magistrates into the High-Commission become very Orderly and setled to Obedience But the Town of Louth somewhat to blame At Kelstern dwells the wild young Gentleman Mr South concerning whom I have lately spoken and that often with your Majesty he hath committed a horrible Incest and gotten two Sisters with Child I have called him into the High-Commission against the next Term and I hope your Majesty will give me leave to make South blow West for St. Pauls At Kensworth in Hertfordshire and some other Places many gadd from their own Churches by Troops after other Ministers Which is a common fault in the South Parts of that Diocess where the People are said to be very giddy in matters of Religion The Cathedral of this Diocess is not well ordered either for Reparation or Ornaments but the Dean and Chapter to whom that Care belongs have promised speedy amendment For Eaton College within that Diocess I do not find but that the Provost Sir Henry Wotton hath carried himself very worthily The greatest things thought to be amiss in that Society are those which are referred to me by your Majesty upon the Complaint of Kings College in Cambridge to which I have no more to say till I see whether they of Eaton will decline the Reference or no. Thus far concerning the Diocesses which I have visited this Year In all which I find one great Complaint and very fit to be redressed It is the general grievance of the poor Vicars that their Stipends are scarce able to Feed and Cloath them And which is worse the Vicars in great Market-Towns where the People are very many are for the most part worst provided for But I humbly thank your Majesty some good hath of late been done for them and I shall pursue all just and fair ways to give them Relief Humbly beseeching you to give your gracious Assistance to me and them For Winchester I find my Lord Bishop there hath been very careful for all your Majesty's Instructions and that they are well observed through that Diocess save only that in two Parishes the Bishop finds some defect
do here upon the Second of Januay 1635. Comput Angl. present my Account both for the Diocess and Province of Canterbury concerning all those Church-Affairs which are contained in your Majesty's most gracious Instructions published out of your most Princely and Religious care to preserve Unity in Orthodox Doctrine and Conformity to Government within this your Church of England And First for my own Diocess I humbly represent to your Majesty that there are yet very many Refractory Persons to the Government of the Church of England about Maidstone and Ashford and some other Parts the Infection being spread by one Brewer and continued and increased by one Turner They have been both Censured in the High-Commission Court some Years since but the Hurt which they have done is so deeply rooted as that it is not possible to be plucked up on the suddain but I must crave time to work it off by little and little I have according to your Majesty's Commands required Obedience to my Injunctions sent to the French and Dutch Churches at Canterbury Maidstone and Sandwich And albeit they made some shew of Conformity yet I do not find they have yielded such Obedience as is required and was ordered with your Majesty's Consent and Approbation So that I fear I shall be driven to a quicker proceeding with them The Cathedral Church begins to be in very good Order And I have almost finished their Statutes which being once perfected will mutatis mutandis be a sufficient Direction for the making of the Statutes for the other Cathedrals of the new Erection which in King Henry the Eighth's Time had either none left or none Confirmed and those which are in many things not Canonical All which Statutes your Majesty hath given Power to me with others under the Broad Seal of England to alter or make new as we shall find Cause And so soon as these Statutes for the Church of Canterbury are made ready I shall humbly submit them to your Majesty for Confirmation There is one Mr Walker of St John's the Evangelist a Peculiar of mine in London who hath all his time been but a disorderly and a peevish Man and now of late hath very frowardly Preached against the Lord Bishop of Ely his Book concerning the Lord's Day set out by Authority But upon a Canonical Admonition given him to desist he hath hitherto recollected himself and I hope will be advised For the Diocess of London I find my Lord the Bishop hath been very careful for all that concerns his own Person But Three of his Arch-Deacons have made no return at all to him so that he can certifie nothing but what hath come to his knowledge without their help There have been convented in this Diocess Dr Stoughton of Aldermanbury Mr Simpson Curate and Lecturer of St Margarets New-Fishstreet Mr Andrew Moline Curate and Lecturer of St Swithin Mr John Goodwin Vicar of St Stevens Colman-street and Mr Viner Lecturer of St Laurence in the Old 〈◊〉 for Breach of the Canons of the Church in Sermons or Practice or both But because all them promised Amendment for the future and submission to the Church in all things my Lord very moderately forbore farther proceeding against them There were likewise convented Mr Sparrowhawke Curate and Lecturer at St Mary Woolchurch for Preaching against the Canon for Bowing at the Name of Jesus who because he wilfully persisted is suspended from Preaching in that Diocess As also one Mr John Wood a wild turbulent 〈◊〉 and formerly Censured in the High-Commission-Court But his Lordship forbore Mr White of Knightsbridge for that his Cause is at this present depending in the Court aforesaid Concerning the Diocess of Lincoln my Lord the Bishop returns this Information That he hath Visited the same this Year all over in Person which he conceives no Predecessor of his hath done these Hundred Years And that he finds so much good done thereby beyond that which Chancellours use to do when they go the Visitation that he is sorry he hath not done it heretofore in so many Years as he hath been Bishop He farther Certifies that he hath prevailed beyond Expectation for the Augmenting of Four or Five small Vicarages and conceives as your Majesty may be pleased to remember I have often told you upon my own Experience that it is a Work very necessary and fit to be done and most worthy of your Majesty's Royal Care and Consideration For Conformity his Lordship professeth that in that large Diocess he knows but one unconformable Man and that is one Lindhall who is in the High-Commission Court and ready for Sentence My Lord the Bishop of Bath and Wells Certifies that his Diocess is in very good Order and Obedience That there is not a single Lecture in any Town Corporate but grave Divines Preach by course and that he hath changed the Afternoon Sermons into Catechising by Question and Answer in all Parishes His Lordship farther Certifies that no Man hath been Presented unto him since his last 〈◊〉 for any Breach of the Canons of the Church or Your Majesty's Instructions and that he hath received no notice of any increase of Men Popishly affected beyond the number mentioned in his last Certificat The Bishop of this See died almost Half a Year since and had sent in no Certificat But I find by my Visitation there this present Year that the whole Diocess is much out of Order and more at Ipswich and Yarmouth than at Norwich it self But I hope my Lord that now is will take care of it and he shall want no Assistance that I can give him Mr Samuel Ward Preacher at Ipswich was Censured this last Term in the High-Commission Court for Preaching in Disgrace of the Common-Prayer-Book and other like gross Misdemeanours These Six Bishops respectively make their Answer that in their own Persons they have observed all your Majesty's Instructions and that they find all their Clergy very conformable no one of them instancing in any particular to the contrary In this Diocess the Bishop found in his Triennial Visitation the former Year two noted Schismaticks Wroth and Erbury that led away many simple People after them And finding that they willfully persisted in their Schismatical course he hath carefully preferred Articles against them in the High-Commission Court where when the Cause is ready for Hearing they shall receive according to the Merits of it Concerning this Diocess your Majesty knows that the late Bishop's Residence upon the place was necessarily hindred by his Attendance upon your Majesty's Person as Clerk of the Closet But he hath been very careful for the observance of all your Instructions and particularly for Catechizing of the Youth As also for not letting of any thing into Lives to the Prejudice of his Successor in which he hath done exceeding well And I have by your Majesty's Command laid a strict Charge upon his Successor to look to those Particular Leases which
Answer and assures me that by his care and vigilancy they shall all be rectified and that out of hand My Lord informs me that in his Predecessor Bishop Whites absence he living most commonly at London being your Majesty's Almoner there was cut down and wasted above a Thousand Loads of Wood. For all other businesses they are in good condition within that Diocess saving that my Lord the Bishop humbly craves leave hereby to represent a great grievance to your Majesty which concerns the Bishoprick the Dean and Chapter and all other Clergy Men or indeed rather all your Majesty's Liege People inhabiting within the Isle of Ely In this Diocess the Bishop found out one Jeffryes who commonly Administred the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist being either not in Holy Orders at all or at least not a Priest So soon as he was discovered he slipt out of the Diocess and the Bishop thinks that he now serves in a Peculiar under the Dean and Chapter of Wells I will send thither to know the certainty and see the abuse punished if I can light upon the Person The Bishop further Certifies me that there are very many within that small Diocess who stand Excommunicate and divers of them only for not payment of Fees And again that many of these are not able to pay them I think it were not amiss that once every Year in Lent the Chancellor were commanded to take an Account of all the Excommunicats in the Diocess and to cause all to be Absolved that shall be fit for Absolution and particularly to see that no Man be suffered to continue Excommunicated where nothing but Poverty hinders the payment of Duties or other Fees The Bishop likewise informs me that Monuments even of obscure and mean Persons are grown very common in those Parts and prejudicial both to the Walls and Pillars and Liberty of Churches which the Bishop opposes as much and as fairly as he can But all is too little There were in this Diocess the last year but two Refractory Ministers known to the Bishop Mr. Wroth and Mr Erbury The former hath submitted but the other would neither submit nor satisfie his Parishioners to whom he had given publick offence so he resigned his Vicarage and hath left thereby the Diocess in peace For this Diocess the Bishop humbly craves your Majesty's Pardon for his longer stay in London than ordinary and professes his Excuse formerly made to your Majesty to be most true viz. That he was forced to it by extremity of Sickness falling upon him in those parts and forcing his change of Air. That Diocess hath been a little out of quiet this year by some Mens medling with those nice Questions which your Majesty hath forbidden should be commonly preached in the Pulpit But the Relation being somewhat imperfect I shall inform my self farther and then give your Majesty such Account as I receive In this Diocess the Bishop Certifies me two considerable things and both of them are of difficult Cure The one concerns his Bishoprick where every thing is let for Lives by his Predecessors to the very Mill that Grinds his Corn. The other concerns the Diocess in general where by Reason of the Poverty of the Place all Clergy-Men of Hope and Worth seek Preferment elsewhere And he tells me plainly some weak Scholars must be Ordained or else some Cures must be left altogether unsupplied My Lord of Glocester confesseth he hath been absent from his Diocess a good part of this Year being kept from his Dwelling-Houses by the Infection at Glocester which just Cause of Absence he humbly submits to your most gracious Majesty Concerning that Diocess the Bishop speaks not much more But the Arch-Deacon at his Visitation finding the Clergy conformable gave them this grave and fitting Admonition viz. That no Man should presume his conformity should excuse him if in the mean time his Life were Scandalous Which was very necessary for that Place and these Times And the Arch-Deacon certifies farther that there are divers which as far as they dare oppose Catechising and but for fear of losing the Livings would almost go as far as Burton and Bastwick did which is his own expression under his Hand My Lord the Bishop there complains much of the Decay of his Houses and the impoverishing of that Bishoprick by some of his Predecessors And this partly by letting of long Leases before the Statute restrained it and partly by a coarse exchange of some Lands in former times This latter cannot now be helped but for the decay of his Houses if he pursue that faculty which I granted to his immediate Predecessor he may help a great part of that decay without much charge And this God willing I shall put him in mind to do and give him the best assistance that I can by Law For the Churches in that Diocess which are very many my Lord acknowledges that they are in very decent and good order generally The only thing which he saith troubles his Diocess is that the People have been required to come up and receive at the Rail which is set before the Communion-Table and that heretofore many have been Excommunicated or Suspended for not doing so For the thing it self it is certainly the most decent and orderly way and is practised by your Majesty and by the Lords in your own Chappel and now almost every where else And upon my knowledge hath been long used in St Giles his Church without Cripplegate London with marvellous Decency and Ease and yet in that Parish there are not so few as Two Thousand Communicants more than within any Parish in Norwich Diocess And when your Majesty had the Hearing of this Business in the now Bishop of Ely's Time you highly approved it And therefore I presume you will be pleased to command that the present Bishop continue it and look carefully to it And whereas they plead that many stood suspended for it the Bishop of Ely in whose Time it was doth assure me that in above One Thousand Three Hundred Parishes there were not Thirteen either Excommunicated or Suspended for refusing of this In this Diocess the Bishop gives a fair Account to all your Majesty's Instructions so that I have cause to hope that that Diocess is in reasonable good Order Only he complains that his Predecessors have Leased out part of his House at Lichfield which puts him to very great Annoyance But he is entring into a Legal way for redress of his Abuse in which I presume your Majesty will give him all fair and just Assistance if he shall be forc'd to crave the same My Lord the Bishop came but lately to this See and hath not as yet found much amiss The Bishop of that Diocess is Dead and no other yet setled so I can have no Account from thence this Year These Four Bishops Certifie that all things are orderly and well
Ear-witness of his Destiny from the Legat's own Vaunt will inform his Majesty and all his Protestant Subjects who will tremble at the very apprehension of it that they have an Indian poisoned Nut reserved for him amongst this Jesuitical Society or if it be lost a poisoned Knife perchance or some other Instrument to dispatch him out of the World and to get the possession and protection of the Prince whom they will educate in their Antichristian Religion which how possible how probable it is for them considering their present Power and Endeavours to effect it their poisoning of the Emperour Henry the Seventh in the sacred Host of King John in the Chalice their stabbing of Henry the Third of France with a Knife in the Belly of Henry the Fourth his Successor first in the Mouth next in the Heart-strings though all of their own Religion because they would not humour the Pope in every unreasonable Demand though Henry the Fourth turned an Apostate from the Protestant Religion wherein he was bred restored the Jesuits formerly banished out of France rased the Pillar erected in Paris as a standing Monument of their Treasons against their Sovereigns and built them a stately College to secure his Life from their Assassination which yet would not save him from their Butchery Together with their pistolling of the Prince of Orange and poisoning of King James himself as the Legat boasted may inform his Majesty and all his faithful Protestant Subjects especially such as by their confederating with them in these their Wars have done nought but executed their fore-named Designs whom it concerns now very nearly to prevent if possible such a sad Catastrophe of that bloody Tragedy which hath been acted over-long in Ireland and England by these Conspirators fore-plotted Treasons The execrable Horrridness and Reality whereof made the very Discoverer of the Plot out of remorse of Conscience to desert the Conspirators Conspiracy and that bloody Religion which begot it and therefore should much more incite all such in his Majesty's Army who are cordially faithful to their Sovereign Religion Country Posterity and have hitherto ignorantly acted these Conspirators Treasonable Designs under colour of serving the King to consider with remorse of Conscience whose Instruments they have thus long been whose Treasons they have ripened what Protestant Blood they have shed how much they have weakened impoverished betrayed their own Protestant Party who have really stood for God Religion King Country Parliament against these Romish Conspirators and what Hopes what Advantages they have given these Confederates both in England and Ireland to over-top suppress and ere long utterly to extirpate the Protestant Religion themselves and all others who cordially profess it as they have done many thousands of them already And then upon all these sad most serious Considerations the very Thoughts whereof should cause their Souls to bleed and tremble speedily to desert these traiterous Papists ere they get all into their Power and unite all their Heads Hearts Hands Forces to the Parliament's Party who had so good cause to take up defensive Arms to prevent the imminent ruin which otherwise is like to befal both King Kingdom Religion Parliament Liberty Property Posterity ere we be aware especially since the most cowardly unworthy yielding up of Bristol a fit Inlet for the Irish Rebels who have conspired to come over hither with all expedition and Welsh Papists to cut all our Throats Eleventhly That those Protestants who now side with Popish Conspirators when they have accomplished their Designs whatsoever they may now fancy to themselves shall find no more Mercy or Favour from them than the greatest Roundheads if they comply not with them in all things and even in Popery it self For if they will not spare the King 's own Person and Life after so many Favours Graces extended to them as they will not if we believe this Relation or the late Story of King Henry the Fourth of France yet fresh in memory what inferiour Person can think to be secure to fare better than the King himself And if Con the Legat to insinuate himself into the King's and Palatine's Favours at the first when he had no interest in them would not so much as advise the Legat of Cologne to mediate for the Palsgrave lest peradventure the King of Spain should report that the Pope had Patroniz'd an Heretical Prince as the Relation attests though he promised the King effectually to do it How can Prince Rupert Maurice or any other Commanders in the King's Army when they have fully accomplished the Pope's and these his Instruments Designs under whose Banner they ignorantly yet really militate and promote his Cause instead of the King 's and Kingdoms to whom they and others have been so much engaged hope to receive the least Dram of Favour Pity much less any Recompence from the Pope and Popish Party if they continue Hereticks still notwithstanding all their present goodly Promises Will they part with any other Inheritances to them then who will not so much as now mediate for them to regain their own Will these who have butchered so many thousands of innocent Protestants in Ireland in England even before they were sure of the Day without any provocation given spare any Mother's Son of them alive if they once erect their Trophies over them Certainly the Experience of all former Ages compared with the present may fully resolve all That the very tender Mercies of these wicked ones will be nought but extream Cruelty and if they prevail we all must perish without distinction sooner or later unless we will turn Apostates and lose our Religion God Heaven Souls to save our transitory Lives Finally Therefore let the serious Consideration of all the Premises instruct us to learn Wisdom from these our Adversaries let their indefatigable Industry subtil Policy sincere Fidelity chearful Constancy bountiful Liberality fraternal Unanimity undaunted Magnanimity indissolvable Confederacy and uninterrupted Pertinacy in prosecuting establishing propagating their Antichristian Religions Treasons Designs excite all Protestants according to their several late Covenants and Protestations much forgotten to equalize if not transcend them in all these in defending securing propagating our true Christian Religion protecting our King Kingdoms Parliament Laws Liberties Posterities all we yet have or hereafter hope for from that imminent ruin which these Popish Conspirators threaten to them Fore-warn'd fore-arm'd If now we perish through our own private Dissentions Folly Cowardise Covetousness Treachery or Security or monstrous Credulity that these Conspirators and Papists now in Arms fight only for the King and establishment of the Protestant Religion as it was in Queen Elizabeth's days against whom they plotted so many Treasons even for her very Religion and the Powder-Plot since against King James and the whole Parliament our Blood shall rest upon our own Heads who would not take timely notice of our incumbent Dangers nor suddenly prevent them whiles we might THE EXAMINATION OF HENRY
Legat should be so familiar with the King and the King make much of him instead of banishing him is a Riddle * The Archbishop therefore and he had some familiarity and acquaintance at first * This offer appears under the Arch Bishop's own hand in the 〈◊〉 of his Life The Papacy of Cant. and this otherWorld is of greater value than an Italian Cardinalship But he kept not him from the Court. Jesuits are both diligent and able to remove their 〈◊〉 at Court from out of Place and Favour too It is admirable this Faction should be so powerfully predominant as to displace the greatest and faithfulest Officers Jesuit I will be sure to move Hell when they cannot prevail with Heaven Jesuits cannot indure neuters If a man may be saved in any Religion be may safely imbrace any and cleave close to none * The Bishop's Tyranny against Puritans the best advantage and greatest advancement of Popes designs * He means the Scottish Prayer-book the alterations whereof from the English were found in the Original Copy under the Arch-Bishop's own hand when his Chamber was 〈◊〉 The Jesuits love to Fish when the Bishops trouble the Streams with their Innovations and Popish Ceremonies The Jesuits the plotters and chief directors of the Scottish War * The King tied to Conditions by Papists before they aided him †Now practised in Oxford Wales and the Northern parts by open toleration * The more shame and pity and a good Caveat for the Parliament henceforth to look to it †The King then must needs be in great danger among Papists now * Jesuits make but a vaunt of poysoning Kings †The Jesuits it seems know very well King James was poysoned belike by some of their Instruments * It seems some Noblemens Chaplains are but the Popes and Jesuits Intelligencers if not their Confederates All foreign Popish States contribute their best assistance to reduce England to Rome * A meet Guerdon for such a Service Jesuits will not give over acting till they 〈◊〉 their Designs Bishops Sons oft-times the Pope's greatest Agents 〈◊〉 industrious Activity should shame our Slothfulness The Protestants want of such mutual correspondency and intelligence is a great weakning to their cause Let them learn Wisdom by their Enemies * A 〈◊〉 place for their intelligence and correspondency with Ireland lying in the midst between both The Jesuits 〈◊〉 make 〈◊〉 use of all Nations and 〈◊〉 * O that such Romish Seducers should obtain such Power and Rewards for being seducing Instiuments The Jesuits it seems are very powerful at 〈◊〉 The Pope's weekly intelligence at Rome from hence can 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 England Jesuits 〈◊〉 how to 〈◊〉 their Names and 〈◊〉 There are more Popish Chapel in and about London than are 〈◊〉 known Jesuits can 〈◊〉 any 〈◊〉 or Part to delude the 〈◊〉 Papists large Contributions to undermine our Religion should make us liberal to defend it Jesuits are as wise as Serpents though not so innocent as Doves The Jesuits 〈◊〉 of the Serpent to seduce men by female 〈◊〉 to their ruin Her Voyage to Rome to visit the Pope made her frequently to visit his Legat The Countess belike was his forerunner 〈◊〉 No wonder theEarls Debts be so great A School of Nunns Is not the King in gre it danger who hath such a Person in his Bed-chamber now keeper of the great Seal Both King and Prince have Jesuitical 〈◊〉 in their Bed-chambers All businesses and imployments must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aside to 〈◊〉 this Plot. A Jesuitical Secretary his 〈◊〉 and Articles in Parliament confirm 〈◊〉 this and more Papists spare no cost The other Conspirators Names A sit Cover for such a Dish It seems their Purses were strong and their hopes great A good Caveat for England now †Jesuits know well how to equivocate thus * Ij Popes must not favour Protestant Princes it s a Miracle that they should favour them or harbour any of their Agents now neer them a I did all I could and the whole Business was examined at a Committee of Lords his Majesty being present And Sir William Roswell's last Answer to these Lords Committees came after I was committed when it lay not in my Power to follow it any farther * This must needs be the 〈◊〉 or one employed from him b Yet by 〈◊〉 c Most false d This is added * Page 171. e 'T is no Challenge neither f Most false g I could not prosecute him Nor the Author of this Tract had he been in my place h The slanderous Tongues of your Faction made him presume if any thing i These Words are not mine Besides take the whole Sentence and then c. * See the General Hist. of France in the Life of H. 3. 4. ‖ See the English Pope k I had 〈◊〉 with either of them And have received Blame from some Great Men that I would not make use of them as my Predecessor 〈◊〉 have done k I had 〈◊〉 with either of them And have received Blame from some Great Men that I would not make use of them as my Predecessor 〈◊〉 have done l I had good reason to write them in my own Hand Yet shall they never be proved to be all 〈◊〉 And if they were yet c. m This is according to the First Book of Edw 6. * With which his Speech in Star-chamber agrees There it is Hoc est corpus meum c. n This is no greater Proof of Corporal Presence than the retaining of it is only to make a bare remembrance c. * To elevate the Hostia as Papists do o It was never meant of Dr. 〈◊〉 p I hope I shall not answer for other Men if they prove not as they should * See the Articles against him in Parliament q He was 〈◊〉 inward with another Bishop and who laboured his Preferment more 〈◊〉 I. r Go Potlids s My Chaplains have answered their Faults or may when 〈◊〉 t Who told you so u Vtterly False x I helped on that Parliament And Sir Henry Vane was the Man that brake it for ought I know y When 't is prepared it shall be welcome to me to have any end * 〈◊〉 Eccles. 〈◊〉 p. 322. Ead. lib. 1. and 〈◊〉 Acts and Mon. Vol. 1. Edit ult p. 926. * 23 Eliz. c. 1. 35 Eliz. c. 2. 3 〈◊〉 c. 3 4 5. * See 1 2 Phil. Mary c. 8. * Joh. 10. 10 11 12 13. †2 Joh. 10 11. * Gratian. caus 23. a Sir Henry Vane wrought him out * Gen. 3. †1 King 11. ‖ Qui amat 〈◊〉 peribit in co * Chamberlain Cardinal Richelieu his Agent * Now a Prisoner in the Tower and taken in the Field in actual Rebellion in Ireland * Grimston in his Life Fox Speed †General History of France * 〈◊〉 Grimston †See Dr. 〈◊〉 Book and the Commons Charge against the Duke of 〈◊〉 * It should seem that this Popish 〈◊〉 had assumed a wrong Name and made use of that of a much 〈◊〉 Person then a Member of the Vniversity who perhaps being absent at that time might have unadvisedly left a Commission with this Emissary to receive the Letters directed to him at Oxford For from Dr Bayly's Answer to the Arch-Bishop it appears that after all the enquiry he could make into the matter he could not find any reason to fasten any Suspicion upon Mr. Pully or that he was in the least inclined to Popery * His Name is Weale Ethic. l. 1.