illa quibus conciliatur plebis animus cò usque ne differantur donec ea praestare cogi videantur Passing right is Sir J. Haward's Hist of H. IV. p. 4. says he The Multitude are more strongly drawn by unprofitable Courtesies than by churlish Benefits Among those that argued for this Petition de Droit I shall remember what past from two eminent Prelates Archbishop Abbot offer'd his own Case to be consider'd banish'd from his own Houses of Croydon and Lambeth confin'd to a moorish Mansion-place of Foord to kill him debarr'd from the management of his Jurisdiction and no cause given for it to that time harder measure than ever was done to him in his Pedagogy for no Scholar was ever corrected till his Fault was told him But he had fuller'd the Lash in a Message brought by the Secretary and no cause pretended for it And what Light of Safety could be seen under such dark Justice The Bishop of Lincoln likewise promoted the Petition but he was a great Stickler for an Addition that it might come to the King's Hands with a mannerly Clause That as they desir'd to preserve their own Liberties so they had regard to leave entire that Power wherewith His Majesty was entrusted for the Protection of his People which the Commons disrelish'd and caused to be cancell'd This caused the Bishop to be suspected at first as if he had been sprinkled with some Court-holy-water which was nothing so but a due Consideration flowing from his own Breast that somewhat might be inserted to bear witness to the Grandeur of Majesty A Passage in Xenophon commends such unbespoken Service lib. 8. Cyrip says he Hystaspus would do all that Cyrus bade but Chrysantus would do all which he thought was good for Cyrus before he bade him 77. In the Debate of this great matter among the Lords this Bishop hath left under his own Pen what he deliver'd partly in glossing upon a Letter which His Majesty under the Signet sent to the House May the 12th partly in contesting with the chief Speakers that quarrel'd at the Petition As to the former First the King says That his Predecessors had never given Leave to the free Debates of the highest Points of Prerogative Royal. The Bishop answered The Prerogative Royal should not be debated at all otherwise than it is every Term in Westminster-hall Secondly the Letter objects What if some Discovery nearly concerning Matters of State and Government be made May not the King and his Council commit the Party in question without cause shewn For then Detection will dangerously come forth before due time Resp No matter of State or Government would be destroyed or defeated if the Cause be exprest in general terms And no danger can likely ensue if in three Terms the Matter be prepared to be brought to Trial. Ob. 3. May not some Cause be such as the Judges have no Capacity of Judicature or Rules of Law to direct or guide their Judgment Resp What can those things be which neither the Kings-bench nor Star-chamber can meet them Obj. 4. Is it not enough that we declare our Royal Will and Resolution to be which God willing we will constantly keep not to go beyond a just Rule and Moderation in any thing which shall be contrary to our Laws and Customs And that neither we nor our Council shall or will at any time hereafter commit or command to Prison for any other cause than doth concern the State the Publick Good and Safety of our People Resp Not the Council-Table but the appointed Judges must determine what are Laws and Customs and what is contrary to them And this gracious Concession is too indefinite to make us depend upon that broad Expression of Just Rule and Moderation Especially be it mark'd That all the Causes in the Kingdom may be said to concern either the State the Publick Good or the Safety of the King and People This under Favour is abundantly irresolute and signifies nothing obtain'd Obj. 5. In all Causes hereafter of this nature which shall happen we shall upon the humble Petition of the Party or Signification of our Judges unto us readily and really express the true cause of the Commitment so as with Conveniency and Safety it be fit to be disolosed And that in all Causes of ordinary Jurisdiction our Judges shall proceed to the delivery or bailment of the Prisoner according to the known and ordinary Rules of this Land and according to the Statutes of Magna Charta and those six Statutes insisted on which we intend not to abrogate or weaken according to the true intention thereof Resp To disclose the cause of Imprisonment except Conveniency and Safety do hinder are ambiguous words and may suffice to hold a man fast for coming forth And if all Causes be not of ordinary Jurisdiction as I hope they are who shall judge which be the extraordinary Causes We are lost again in that Uncertainty So likewise for the Intention of Magna Charta and the six Statutes who shall judge of the true Intention of them That being arbitrary we are still in nubibus for any assurance of legal Liberty So the Concessions of His Majesty's Letter were waved as unsatisfactory 78. And the Bishop went on to shew that the Contents of the Petition were suitable to the ancient Laws of the Realm ever claimed and pleaded expedient for the Subject and no less honourable for the King which made him a King of Men and not of Beasts of brave-spirited Freemen and not of broken-hearted Peasants The Statute in 28 Edw. 3. is as clear for it as the day at Noon-tide That no man of what state or condition soever shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements nor taken nor imprison'd nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law I know one Lord replied to this lately That the Law was wholsom for the good of private men and sometime it might be as wholsom for the Publick Weal that the Soveraign Power should commit to Custody some private man the cause not being shew'd in Law upon more beneficial occasion than a private man's legal Liberty And though the Hand of Power should seem to be hard upon that one person a Benefit might redound to many First be it consider'd if no Law shall be fixt and inviolable but that which will prevent all Inconveniencies we must take Laws from God alone and not from men Then be it observ'd that to bring the exception of a Soveraign Power beside the Laws in Cases determined in the Laws takes away all Laws when the King is pleas'd to use and put forth this Soveraign Power wherewith he is trusted and makes the Government purely arbitrary and at the Will of the King So shall this Reason of State eat up and devour the Reason of Laws Shew me he that can how the affirmation of a Soveraign Power working beside the Law insisted upon shall not bring our Goods and our
angry at the least Slackness of his Ministers and was us'd to say They might provoke him with Negligence but never molest him with double Diligence for he could read as much in an Hour as they would write to him in a Week Mr. W. Boswel his Secretary and Custos of his Spirituality and chief Servant under him in this Work was all in all sufficient for it eximious in Religion Wisdom Integrity Learning as the Netherlands know where he was long time Agent and Embassador for King Charles Through Mr. Boswell's Collection and narrow Search the Diocesan of so large a Precinct together with the Names of every Parson and Vicar was able to speak of their Abilities and manner of Life which I think no Memory could carry away but that it is credible he had some Notes affixed to every one of their Persons For he could decipher the Learning of each Incumbent his Attendance on his Cure his Conformity his Behaviour as well as most men knew them in their respective Proximities I do not say he had a passive Infallibility but that he might be abused with untrue Relations But for the most part a good Head-piece will discover a counterfeit Suggestion and crush the Truth out of Circumstances The Sum is He did as much as a Bishop could do while for the space of four Years and a half Necessity would not suffer him to reside with his Clergy whom they knew not that they mist him till he removed from London to live among them and made a large Amends for his Absence when he setled at Bugden In the mean time his Apocrisarii they to whom he had committed his Trust and Authority were among them to hear their Complaints and to Judge Right Now it is a good Rule in St. Cyprian to a laudable Purpose though the Father applies it for once to a Bad Epist 61. Non potest videri certasse qui vicarios substituit qui pro se uno plures succidaneos suggerit He that fills his Office with a good Co-adjutor his Absence may be dispenc'd with for a time upon reasonable Cause For a good Substitute is not a Shadow but a Substance Howsoever whether his Abode were within his Diocess or without it he knew that the Calling of a Bishop went along with him in every Place And whatsoever the standing Weight of his Business was that lay upon him he remembred to stir up the Gift of God that was in him by the Putting on of Hands He Preached constantly in the Abby of Westminster at the great Festivals of our Saviour's Nativity Resurrection and Whit-Sunday On which high Days he sung the Common Prayers Consecrated and Administred the Sacrament the Great Seal of the Righteousness of Faith besides the Sermon which he Preach'd every Lent in the King 's Royal Chappel Which was Work indeed being so learnedly performed For when he put his Hand to that Plough no man cut up a deeper Furrow that came into the Pulpit 99. Such Examples of Preaching were necessary for this time but very ill follow'd For there were Divines more Satyrical than Gospel-spirited chiefly some among the Lecturers in populous Auditories that were much overseen Banding their Discourses either under the Line or above the Line against the quiet Settlement of present Government Some carried their Fire in Dark-Lanthorns and deplor'd the Dangers that hung over us Some rail'd out-right and carried the Brands end openly in their Mouth to kindle Combustion Both did marvellously precipitate slippery Dispositions into Discontents and Murmurings The Treatise about the Spanish Match was the Breize that bit them and made them wild That was such a Bugbear that at the Motion of it some that were conscientious and some that seem'd so thought that the true Worship of God was a Ship-board and Sailing out of the Realm True Religion is the Soul of our Soul and ought to be more tender to us than the Apple of our Eye But we all know what will grow out of that Religion when it is marked with Charity It is not easily provok'd thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. It is not distrustful of it own fastness as if so good a Fortress could be push'd down with a bruised Reed It will not raise Tumults and Tragedies from Misapprehensions that float upon the idle Lake of Suspicion That the Orthodox Church of England should totter upon this Occasion God be thanked it was not in proof nor could be made evident Sometimes Jealousie is too watchful sometimes it is fast asleep When the French Marriage was in Treaty when it was concluded when the Navy was under Sail to Land the Royal Bride the Preachers were modest and made no stir not one Zealot complain'd of for jerking at it with unadvis'd passion And yet the Daughter of France was a Daughter of the Roman Chair no less then Donna Maria. She never had Commerce nor ever like to have with the Hugonots The Swarms of her own Train all Papists by Profession were ready to abound in our Land far more than from the Spanish Coast Because of the short and easie passage from Calis to Dover their Shavelings would fly over as thick as Wasps about a Honey-Pot This was mightily dreaded when the Mariage was in some forwardness between Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjoy and opposed strongly by some that were hot in the Mouth to their cost But now no Leprosie was suspected but from Spanish Popery Which was aggravated with such Insolencies by some Ecclesiastical Fencers against the King's Honor and the Sincerity of his Oath which he had taken to maintain true Religion that they were at the height of Rage to profess Come and let us smite him with the Tongue Jerem. 18. Vers 18. So that his Majesty rouzed up like a Lyon silenc'd some of the Offenders imprison'd some threatned to arraign some for their Lives Yet after he was come to more Serenity of Passion the Lord Keeper who thought as hardly of their Indiscretion as the King himself did was Advocate for them all undertook to settle their Brains and procur'd them their Liberty and their Livings Among the rest he invented a merry Contrivance in the behalf of a very learned and misguided Scholar a Prisoner upon that score He told the King that he had heard that some idle Gossips complain'd of him grievously and did not stick to curse him Why What Evil have I done to them says the King Sir says the Lord-Keeper Such a Man's Wife upon Tidings of her Husband's Imprisonment fell presently in Labour and the Midwifes can do her no good to deliver her but say it will not be effected till she be comforted to see her Husband again For which the Women that assist her revile you that her Pains should stick at such a Difficulty Now Weal away says the King send a Warrant presently to release him lest the Woman perish There was none that was worse to be tamed
Cause It is the Author of the Observations upon H. L. his History of the Reign of King Charles pag. 137. He hath not bestowed his Name upon his Reader but he hath a Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Homer Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I ought not to put him to the first Question of our Catechism Quo nomine vocaris For good Writers nay Sacred Pen-Men do not always Inscribe their Names upon their Books Scholars do invariably Father the Work and some of them say they have it from the Printer upon one that hath Wrote and Publish'd much favoring of Industry and Learning And they give Reasons which will come into the Sequel though a great while deferr'd why he blotts the good Name of King James Why he grates so often upon the mild Nature and matchless Patience of King Charles And if Fame have taken the right Sow by the Ear it is one that had provok'd the then Bishop of Lincoln in Print with great Acrimony Twenty years ago and that Anger flames out in him now as hot as ever Panthera domari nescia non semper saeuit Yet when that Bishop came out of the Tower and this Adversary sought him for Peace and Love because the Bishop was then able to do him a Displeasure he found him easie to be Reconciled What should move this Man to forget that Pacification so truly observ'd on the Bishops part who was the greater and the offended Party Naturale est odisse quem laeseris And Malice is like one of the Tour Things Prov. 30.15 That never say it is enough 'T is Degenerous for the Living to Trample upon the Dead but very Impious that he that was once a Christian nay a Christian Priest should never cease to be an Enemy The Words with which he wounds the Spanish Match through his side though otherwise he is one that witheth it had succeeded are these That that Bishop being in Power and Place at C◠the time of King James made himself the Head of the Popish Faction because he thought the Match with Spain which was then in Treaty would bring not only a Connivance to that Religion but a Toleration of it And who more like to be in Favour if that Match went on than such as were most zealous in doing Good Offices to the Catholick Cause Here 's a Knot of Catter-Pillars wrapt in a thin Cobweb so easie it will be to sweep them of The accused Person was always free of Conference Let any now living say that heard him often Discourse of the adverse Church if he did not constantly open himself not for a Gainsayer only but for a Stiff Defier of their Corrupt Doctrines although he was ever pitiful for Relaxation of their Penalties And would that Party cleave unto him for their greatest Encourager Encouragement was the least their Head could give them Beside the Thing is a Chimaera I never knew any Head of the Popish Faction in this Kingdom Others and Bishops in Rank above him have been traduced in that Name but who durst own that Office especially in the end of King James his Reign when every year almost was begirt with a Parliament and every Parliament procreated an inquisitive Committee for Matters of Religion What Mist did he walk in that neither Parliament nor Committees did detect him for Head or Patron or Undertaker call it what you will of the Pseudo-Catholick Cause could nothing but the goggle Eye of Malice discover him 135. Perhaps the Contemplation of the Spanish Match might embolden him so this Author would have us think It could not it did not take a little in the highest Topicks to both It could not For as the Anteceding Parliament was much taken with King James's Words That if the Match should not prove a fartherance to our Religion he were not Worthy to be our King so this his Majesties near Counsellor knew his meaning of which he often discours'd that when the Holy-Days of the Great Wedding were over his Majesty would deceive the Jealousies of his Subjects and be a more vigorous Defender of the Cause of the True Faith than ever And Judge the Bishop by his own Words in his Sermon Preach'd at the Funerals of that Good King that his Majesty charg'd his Son though he Married the Person of that Kings Sister never to Marry her Religion I said likewise he did not Look back to the first Letters he dispatch'd into Spain but much more let every Reader enjoy the Feature of his own Piety and Wisdom which he put into the Kings Hand to have his liking while his Majesties Dear Son was in Spain to Cure popular Discontents and sickly Suspicions which had come forth with Authority in October following if the long Treaty had not Set in a Cloud The Original Draught of his Contrivances yet remaining is thus Verbation That when the Marriage was Consummated and the Royal Bride received in England His Majesty should Publish his Gracious Declaration as followeth First To assure his Subjects throughout his three Kingdoms that there is not one word in all the Treaty of the Marriage in prejudice of our own Religion Secondly To Engage himself upon his Kingly Word to do no more for the Roman-Catholics upon the Marriage than already he did sometime voluntarily Grant out of Mercy and Goodness and uncontroulably may do in disposing of his own Mulcts and Penalties Thirdly That our Religion will be much Honoured in the Opinion of the World that the Catholic King is content to match with us nor can he Persecute with Fire and Sword such as profess no other Religion than his Brother-in-Law doth Fourthly That His Majesty shall forthwith advance strict Rules for the Confirmation of our Religion both in Heart and in the outward Profession 1. Common-Prayer to be duly performed in all Churches and Chappels Wednesdays and Fridays and two of every Family required to be present 2. Every Saturday after Common-Prayer Catechising of Children to be constantly observed 3. Confirmation called Bishopping to be carefully executed by the Bishop both in the General Visitations of his Diocese and every Six months in his own House or Palace 4. That Private Prayers shall no Day be omitted in the Family of him that is of the Degree of an Esquire else not to be so named or reputed 5. All Ladies and all Women in general to be Exhorted to bestow two hours at the least every Day in Prayer and Devotion 6. All our Churches to be Repaired and outwardly well Adorned and comely Plate to be bought for the Communion-Table 7. Dispensations for Pluralities of Livings to be granted to none upon any Qualification but Doctors and Batchelors in Divinity at the least and of them to such as are very Learned Men. 8. Bishops to encourage Public Lectures in Market-Towns of such Neighbouring Ministers as be Learned and Conformable 9. A Library of Divinity-Books to be Erected in every Shire-Town for the help of the poorer Ministers and Leave shall be
dare Swear it was he that bolted the Flower and made it up into this Paist Sir says the Prince I was precluded by my Promise not to Reveal him but I never promis'd to tell a Lye for him Your Majesty hath hit the Man And God do him good for it says the King I need not tell you both what you owe him for this Service and he hath done himself this Right with me that I discern his sufficiency more and more All this the Prince Related at his next Meeting to the Lord Keeper This passage so memorable hath pluck'd on a Prolix Narration for divers Reasons It was a secret manag'd between few persons though the greatest and likely to be buried for ever unless it rise from the Dust where it was smother'd upon this occasion It will expound to inquisitive Men why after this time the old King never retrieved the Spanish Match as if suddenly it were sunk and set beneath the Horizon of his Thoughts it demonstrates why in a year after being the First of King Charles there was such Willingness in the young King and such Readiness in the Duke to Rigg a great Navy and to send it with Defiance of Hostility to Cales for though the Grandee Inoiosa received a sharp Rebuke here to vex his Gorge and suddenly pack'd up his portable Gods and went to his own Country in a Fume yet he received no Disfavour or Frown upon it from the Court of Spain Nihil nefas est malitiae It tells you what a Stone of Offence was laid before the King able to make him to Dissolve the Parliament just upon the Expectation of a happy Winding up if the Lord Keeper had not removed the Jealousie away which is one of the best Offices of a Christian for it is God's own Attribute in the Prophets to be a Repairer of Breaches Lastly His Wit was in Conjunction with the Safety of his great Friend the Duke Et vincente Odenato triumphavit Gallienus says Pollio The Keeper had Content enough that the Duke triumphed over those Foes whom he had vanquished for him 206. Soon as those Hobgoblins which haunted the King to fright him were frighted away themselves and the Magicians which conjured them up were rendered odious his Majesty was never in a better Mood to please his Subjects and the Subjects in Parliament never from that day to this in so dutiful a Frame to please their Soveraign Fatebimur regem talibus ministris illos tanto rege fuisse dignissimos Curt. l. 4. As Alexander deserved such brave Commanders under him so they deserved to be commanded by so brave a Prince as Alexander Their long Counsels which had been weather bound came to a quiet Road and their Vessel was lighted of those Statutes which are of immortal Memory The wise Men of those times ask'd for good Laws with Moderation for Moderation had not yet out-liv'd the Peoples Palate and they were brought forth with Joy and Gladness And that which was gotten with Peace and Joy will out-last that were it ten times more which is extorted in a Hurly-burly There were no Rents no Divisions among the Members much less did the Stronger Part spurn out the Weaker The Voices went all one way as a Field of Wheat is bended that 's blown with a gentle Gale One and all And God did not let a general Concurrence pass without a general Blessing Sic viritim laboraverunt quasi summa res singulorum manibus teneretur Nazar Paneg. The Laws devised were confirmed in Clusters by the Royal Authority And though one of them about the strict Keeping of the Sabbath was then stop'd the Name of Sabbath being unsatisfactory to the King's Mind yet Amends were made that the Kingdom had a Sabbath granted it from many Suits and Unquietnesses That which Crowned all was the Pardon the most general that ever was granted which was the sooner got because the Pillars of the Common-wealth had discharged their publick Trust without Offence The next Session of this Parliament was appointed in April following and this Session shut up with the End of June The Lord Keeper was not a little joy'd with the sweet Close of it for which he had gained a noble Report Praeter laudem nullius avarus Horat. Ar. Poet. And after three years Experience having now spent so much time in the High Court of Chancery his Sufficiency was not only competent but as great as might be required in a compleat Judge He was one of them in whom Knowledge grew faster upon him than his Years As Tully praised Octavius Cesar Ex quo judicari potest virtutis esse quà m aetatis cursum celeriorem Philip 8. In eminent Persons Virtue runs on swifter than Age. And it is a Slander whereof late Writers are very rank in all Kinds which one hath publish'd that this Man's Successor the Lord Coventry reversed many of his Decrees and corrected his Errors I do not blame Lawyers if they would have us believe that none is fit for the Office of Chancellor but one of their own Profession But let them plead their own Learning and able Parts without traducing the Gifts of them that are excellently seen in Theological Cases of Conscience and singularly rare in natural Solertiousness Lord Coventry was a renowned Magistrate and his Honour was the Honour of the Times wherein he liv'd the vast Compass of that Knowledge wherein he was always bred and his strong Judgment in searching into those Causes did transcend his Predecessor yet not to obscure him as if he were wanting in that which was required to his Place A good Carpenter knows how to frame a House as well as the Geometer that surveyed the Escurial Let me quote a couple of Witnesses what they asserted herein and they are rightly produced as God the great Witness of all things knows The Duke of Buckingham in the beginning of the next Term at Michaelmas perswaded the Lord Chief Justice Hobart either to deliver it to the King with his own Mouth or to set it under his Hand that Lord Williams was not sit for the Keeper's Place because of his Inabilities and Ignorance and that he would undertake thereupon to cast the Complained out and himself should succeed him My Lord says Reverend Hobart somewhat might have been said at the first but he should do the Lord Keeper great Wrong that said so now After this Grave and Learned Lord I bring forth Mr. G Evelin one of the Six Clerks and in his time the best Head-piece of the Office who delighted to divulge it as many yet living know that Lord Keeper Williams had the most towring sublime Wit that he ever heard speak magnified his Decrees as hitting the White in all Causes and never missing That Lord Coventry did seldom after any thing he had setled before him but upon new Presumptions and spake of him always in Court with due Praise and Justification of his Transactions He that hath insinuated the contrary aiming to
of an evil Life mention'd in the 109 Canon Wherein the Bishop did not commend the Proceedings of his deputed Judges Though it might be said in favour of them that Humane Laws are strictest against them that act contrary to publick Peace Or that Crimes are punishable by Statutes and are fitter for Tryal at a Quarter Sessions Some spied into another Reason that Proctors and Registers wanted not those Scandals themselves for which in the Eye of the World they were fit to be presented Yet when all is said it were more laudable in Courts Christian to be more severe against Evils which the Light of Nature had made Evils than against Evils which were made Evils by the Laws of Holy Church Both were to be corrected but rather Works of Commission against known Light than Trespasses of Omission for want of Light of Understanding The hardest Task which the Bishop had was to perswade his Officers to live by honest Gains to moderate their Fees to wash their Hands from bribes and filthy Lucre the only way to live in clear Fame that Men might speak well of them and of their Authority Covetousness is not a Branch but a Root of Evil says St. Paul all that grows may be seen in a Plant but not the Root Whose Example is more fit to shew it than Tribonius who digested the Code of the Civil Law of whom Suidas says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was most subtle to shadow and cover the Disease of Covetousness From thence proceed the Delays that consume the Substance of Appellant and Defendant and make them curse such expectative Proceedings Whose Clamors incited the Bishop to Passion sometimes and to call upon them instantly for dispatch For how long will an Horse-leach suck if it be not pull'd off A little is taken to enter a Cause but the Price increaseth at every turn when it is brought to Examination Like German Toss-pots that drink small Cups at first and quaff down great Bowls when they are drunk Similer says of the Cantons where he liv'd that the People lik'd Expedition in their Causes as much as Justice Quod si in judiciis nostris error aliquis committitur in causis implicicis obscuris nequaquam tantum damni inde datur quantum ex litium diuturna prorogatione accipitur Res â—â—el p. 140. 46. If a Curse were of moment as when a whole Parish were in a Broil about it the bishop appointed a Consistory to rule it with his own Presence and Judgment He trusted not his Chancellor and Commissaries upon old Experience but like a wise Governour he look'd upon them with a new Probation in every great Cause as if he had never known them What greater Praise could Symmachus have given to Theodosius in point of using his Counsellors than this Solenne est ei singulos ut novos semper expendere nec consuetudini condonare judicium Ep. p. 124. A Magistrate that will not research his Deputies but leaves them to their Work with an indefinite Confidence in their Honesties doth as absurdly as Tanner the Jesuite spake absurdly in the Colloquy at Reinsberg That the Pope might err unless he did use all due and ordinary means but without all doubt and question he did ever use those means The Bishop had a deeper insight into Man and never fail'd to be Rector Chori in Causes that requir'd a more special Audience Wherein he spared himself so little and gave so much ease to the People that he did often ride to the parts of his Diocess remotest from his ordinary home as Leicester Buckinghamshire Wellen in Hartfordshire c. and kept his Courts where all the Complainants were at hand to attend them A way of great content and much neglected Yet the 125 Canon provides That all Officials should appoint meet places for the keeping of their Courts as should be expedient for entertainment of those that made their appearance and most indifferent for their Travail and that they may return homewards in as due season as may be But these Courts which kept Peace among the Sons of the Church and super-intended over Delinquents are quite ex-authorized taken in pieces as musty Vessels wherein nothing kept sweet that was put into them The Fault was in the Demolishers that had no better Scent they had Noses and smelt not For whereas the Grievance pretended was that they had too much Power the Truth is on the contrary that they could not do their work as they ought to satisfie the People and to beat down Sin because they had too little Take their highest and in a manner their only censure Excommunication terrible in it self What doth a profane Person care for it Prosecute them with Writs de Excommunicatis capiendis and all the Grist that came to their Mill would not pay the cost of it What a Coil hath been made to set up Consistories of Ministers and ruling Elders that should proceed against Scandals with rebukes suspension from the Sacrament open penance and lastly as they expound it let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Make the Sinner liable to Imprisonment to destraining to a Forfeiture to some loss in his profit and he will be sure to feel it and sly from the occasion Confess the Truth will not many look better to outward Honesty if you discipline them in their Purse Bucer fell upon this in an Epistle to Luther Scrip. Anglic. p. 657. Excommunicationis loco egregiam in multis civitatibus disciplinam poenas sceleribus dignas sancitas esse And Erastus writes like a wise Man that noted other ways than Presbyterian Censures to rectifie the common Disorders of Christians as to straiten them in Priviledges of Reputation and Matters of Gain which none should communicate in but the obedient Simler says Helv. Hist p. 148. There was not a Minister admitted into the Consistory of Scaphuse but the most Judicious of the Laity exercis'd that Authority because their Punishments did chiefly extend against the Body or the Fortunes of the Peccant What little good hath the Stool of Repentance wrought among the fierce natur'd Scots They have sat so long upon it that they know not how to blush at it We should be shame-fac'd Nay which is better we should be innocent but we are neither Plato says in his Protagoras that lest Men should fall into the Confusion of all Sin God had given them two Blessings to restrain them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shame and Justice But since we have lost Shame Justice must take another course and let us blood in that Vein which may most probably cure us Ploratur lacrymis amissa pecunia veris Juven Sat. 13. Set a Fine upon their Heads that deserve it and it will vex their Hearts But no more of Jurisdiction dissolv'd Rosa hyeme non est rosa It was yet to be remembred for his sake that was the Honour of it whilst it stood 47. For it was murmur'd a good while before the
were living But though they are all under Earth Faith forbid that their Names should be abused to a wrong Report To keep History uncorrupt from such baseness 't is daintily observ'd out of the Poets by Salmasius Clymac p. 819. Apud orcum defunctae animae jurare dicuntur ne quid suos quos in vitâ reliquerint contra fas adjuvent The Souls departed take an Oath not to help their surviving Friends against Justice But no such Protestation needs in this Cause There is a Petition to be produced written with the Hand of Dr. Walker a Gentleman living and well known wherein His Majesty is minded that he had cancell'd this Complaint and had given his Royal Hand to confirm it What could be more sure Yet it turn'd to nothing the Wound was never suffer'd to heal by the daily Whispering of Bishop Laud diligent in the King's Ear. You may read of one in Suetonius's Caligula Cui ad insaniam Caius favebat So the King suffer'd this Prelate in excess of Power to turn and return Causes as he would and was obnoxious by the bewitching of his Tongue to facility of Perswasions to grant and retract as he possest him Which was seen too late in this excellent Passage of His Majesty in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wish I had not suffer'd mine own Judgment to be overborn in some things more by others Importunities than their Arguments As Erasmus wrote honestly to a mighty Monarch Harry the Eighth Ep. p. 74. Eximia quaedam inter mortales res est Monarcha sed homo tamen And with much liberty our Poet Johnson in his Forrest p. 815. I am at feud With that is ill tho' with a Throne endu'd The Faults of the Blessed Charles were small yet some he had who having assured Lincoln he should never be question'd again about the matter brought against him by Lamb and Sibthorp yet remitted it to the Star-chamber The Defendant conceived it would spend like a Snail or the untimely Fruit of a Woman but when he found himself deceiv'd and that the Cause was glowing hot in Prosecution he sought the King's Clemency Quaedam enim meliùs fugiuntur quà m superantur it is in Erasm Ep. p. 18. He thought it better to fly the Trial than to get the Cause and he put up this which follows into the Hands of His Majesty The Humble Petition and Submission of John Bishop of Lincoln c. THAT although he is innocent from any Crime committed against your Majesty in thought word or deed yet abhorring as he finds by Presidents all other Bishops of this Realm have done Placitare cum Domino rege to have any Suit with his Sovereign Lord Master and Patron he casts himself in all humility at Your Majesties Feet and implores your Royal Mercy and Clemency Non intrare in judicium cum servo tuo coveting to ascribe his Deliverance to Your Majesties Clemency And whereas your most Excellent Majesty having in the fourth year of your happy Reign received the Opinion of the four Lords Committees concerning these very self-same Charges did in your Majesties Gallery at Whitehall admit this Defendant brought in by the Right Honourable the Lord Treasurer one of the said Committees to kiss your Majesties Hand and did use unto him this Defendant in the presence and hearing of the said Right Honourable Lord these gracious words That your Majesty was pleased to forgive all that was past and would esteem of this Defendant according as he should deserve by his Service for the time to come He most humbly beseecheth your most Excellent Majesty that according to that so gracious Remission and Absolution no further Prosecution at your Majesties Suit may be used against him concerning the said Charges all which he doth the rather hope for from your Majesty because he is a Bishop that hath endeavoured not to live scandalously in his Calling and hath formerly had the Favour from Almighty God with his own Hands to close your Majesties Father's Eyes and to have written and drawn up that Commission and Contract for your Majesties Marriage whereupon ensued to this Kingdom a most unvaluable Blessing and heartily prayeth that God who hath delivered your Majesty from your late Sickness may bless you in all Health Happiness and Prosperity So far the Petition I will not teach the Reader what Sallads to pick out of it but only the Herb of Grace that the Bishop kist the King's Hand upon the assurance of his Peace that the Offence which was taken was buried and should never rise up in Judgment more Nihil periculi Soloni à Pisistrato Diog. Laert. Now who ever liked Julian the Cardinal that made Ladislaus K. of Polonia break his League with the Turk And who will defend B. L. that made his Soveraign break his word with his Subject It was he and none else that put in an unseasonable Bar to hinder Lincoln the fulness of the Benefit I know none that had the nearest part in B. L's Favour that can deny it And let them turn it about as they will is it possible they should excuse it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Theodoret's Ep. 2. Children see no uncomeliness in their Parents But although they will see no ill in the Person they must in the Fact For what a Trespass is this in Justice to punish that which was forgiven Let the King do Righteous Judgment like God in whose Throne he sits before whom this holds inviolable Peccata dimissa nunquam redeunt No not original Sin when remitted in Baptism it shall not be imputed to them any more that are damned for actual Crimes whereof they did not repent So Grotius cites it out of Prosper in Matth. c. 18. v. 34. Extinctam semel obligationem non reviviscere sed propter postrema crimina affici The most that seems to be against this Rule but falls in with it is this That when former Sins are forgiven and new ones are superadded the latter shall be punish'd the more for the ungratefulness of the Sinner Non quod jam remissa puniantur sed quod sequens peccatum minùs graviter punâ—retur si priora remissa non fuissent says Maldonat My Sentence is at the last of all with Syracides c. 29.3 Keep thy word and deal faithfully revoke not your Kindness pluck not up the Seeds of a Benefit which you had sown with your own Hand It is worse to turn Mercy than Justice into Wormwood 111. Destiny is unavoidable A Bill is filed in the Star-Chamber and prosecuted for the King for Revealing his Councils The Defendant made him ready for his Answer and plyed the King with Petitions together in Parody like Virgil's Aeneas Et se collegit in arma Poplite subsidens At first he tried Bishop Laud if he would be so generous as to heal the Wound that he had made and anointed him with the Weapon-Salve of remembrance of Friendship past and protestation of the like for ever he courted him to
on whose silent consent the Bishop had not to awaken the King that he would look upon these Courses that cried abroad to the amazement of his Subjects All wish it done and the Bishop did not fear to do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Theodorets stout Divinity Ep. 21. Under the hand of God there is no remedy but patience suffering under the hand of Man the best Remedy is Courage So he stept forward to his Majesty with the confidence of this Petition To the King 's most Excellent Majesty c. THat if your Majesty be not pleased to accept as yet of his humble Submission for his Peace your Majesty would graciously vouchsafe not to interrupt but to permit the Petitioner to proceed according to the ordinary Rules and Course of the Court of Star-Chamber against Kilvert the Sollicitor for his manifold Falshoods and Injuries in the Prosecution of this Cause particularly first for menacing and frighting your Petitioners Witnesses 2. For publickly defaming this Petitioner to be your Enemy averring that neither he nor any of his did know what the name of a King meant 3. For offering to sell the Prosecution of your Majesties Cause against this Petitioner for Money and because this Petitioner refused to tamper with him in that kind for procuring base People to make false and aspersing Affidavits to incense your Majesty and that Court against your Petitioner 4. For menacing the Judges that should report and certifie any thing for your Petitioner 5. For not sparing to tax most falsly your most Sacred Majesty with pressing upon the Lords the Sentencing of your Petitioner All which the Petitioner will clearly prove and pray to God c. So strong an Accusation upon such foul Heads was fit to be sifted especially upon the last Branch For grant it was a lye here 's a false Report raised against the King's Honour If it were true what more criminal than to impart such Secrets of his Majesty 's to his Gossips at a Tavern where they flew abroad But some may more safely steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge The Bishop could get no leave to call this shameless Mate to an answer From that day Kilvert was free from Righteousness and might do any thing Ipse sibi Lex est quà fert cunque voluntas Praecipitat vires Manil. lib. 5. He that hath no Conscience and need to fear nothing will turn a Monster So true is that of Livy Dec. 1. lib. 4. Hominem improbum non accusari tutius est quà m absolvi 'T is safer to have a nocent Person never accus'd than to have him discharg'd for an Innocent 113. For all this the Defendant thought he had said so much against the Prosecutor that he should never appear in Court again But as Calvin said of Bucer Ep. 30. Qui sibi est optimè conscius securior est quam utile sit Yet he proved against him as foul a prank as ever was committed That he got Warren the Examiner to the Fountain Tavern near to Shoe-Lane Kilvert's daily Rendezvouz from whence the Bishop got continual and sure intelligence and fetch 't out of him contrary to his express Oath the Depositions which the Defendants Witnesses had made an heinous wrong to be done before Publication which coming to light Warren fled away from his Office and never appeared more But whether could he run from God's Vengeance Omnia quidem Deo plena sunt nec ullus perfidis tutus est locus Sym. p. 54. Kilvert stood to it as if the sin were not his that drew the Examiner to Perjury and no notice was taken of that constant Rule which the Casuists took from Tertullian de Bapt. c. 11. Semper is dicitur facere cui praemmistratur The Sin was Ahab's that purchast a Field of Blood by the Oath of the Sons of Belial Let Religion look to this for that Court would not nothing would lace it in it was so wide in the waste From this exorbitancy from this and nothing else sprung the Iliad of wrongs which the Bishop endured for Kilvert finding by Warren's disclosures that the Depositions for the Defendant were material and some of the Witnesses to be Learned men that had deposed upon Notes and Remembrances he turned himself into all shapes to crack their Credit At first he made an Affidavit of slight pretended Abuses which were over-ruled against him Whereupon he vapour'd in the hearing of the Register and divers others That he cared not what Orders the Lords made in Court for he would go to Greenwich and cause them all to be changed It was the most scornful Defiance that ever was given to the Honour and Justice of the Star-Chamber as the Bishop's Counsel prest it home Every one expected the Ruin of the Prosecutor yet the Lords perceiving up-upon the Archbishop's Motion that it was not safe to punish him it past over with a slight Submission One presaged the Ruin of the Athenian State because Rats had eaten up the Books of Plato's Commonwealth And might not a man that had no more Prophecy than Prudence foresee the Ruin of this Court when such a Rat-catcher did despise their Authority telling them he could fetch Orders to sweep away theirs from such Powers Quae nec tutò narrantur nec tutò audiuntur Seneca de Tranquil Sir Robert Heath Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was but one of the Lords Assessors yet as just and sufficient as any of his order and the Indignity done to him was as if done to all Who made his own Complaint That Kilvert threatned to procure him to be turn'd out of his place for his forwardness Yet this also was slubber'd over with a little acknowledgment of Rashness So much were those honourable Persons now no longer themselves fearing that Severity which they perceived impending upon them As Pliny bewails the Roman Senate in his Panegyrick Vidimus curiam sed curiam trepidam elinguem cum dicere quid velles periculosum quod nolles miserum esset It was become like Ezekiel's Vine-tree c. 15. v. 3. you could not make a Pin out of it to hang a good Order upon it that was equal and generous Beshrew the Varlet that kept his word which he was not wont to do for Sir Robert Heath was displaced and for no Misdemeanour proved But it was to bring in a Successor who was more forward to undo Lincoln than ever the Lord Heath was to preserve him A man of choice parts which yet he shewed not in this Cause which cannot be smother'd without defacing the truth which Posterity must not want Desipiunt qui faeces ob vâ—ni nobilitatem absorbent The Dregs of the best Wine are but Dregs and must be spit out as distastful his Lordship's part cannot be spared in this Tragedy yet it shall be short because I will leave him to those Figures that live in the House of Memory 114. The main Bill against the Defendant being not like to
Xeno Ath. Resp 'T is pardonable for every man to help himself Nor was it an indirect way no not a jot for there was neither Perjury nor Contradiction found between the first and second Depositions of the Parties And what the Bishop did was by the advice of the best Counsel in England to draw up some few Interrogatories to be put to the four Witnesses only to interpret and not to vary from or to substract or contradict what they had deposed before For the words being ambiguous in themselves might be taken in one sense to Defame in another fence not at all to touch upon the credit of Pregion It was agreed that Pregion offer'd money to A. Tubb and Alice Smith to procure Eliz. Hodgson to lay the base Child upon another man this they had sworn this the Bishop never endeavoured to impeach But an interrogatory is drawn up and offer'd to them whether El. Hodgson was dealt with to lay it upon the right Father which was a just and lawful motion or upon some other whether he had been the Father or no. They both answer That Pregion sollicited her to lay it upon another that was the true Father And this variation is all the Offence that is none at all in that particular And in that right meaning Sir J. Wray Sir J. Bolls and Richardson the Clerk of the Peace did receive it in the Sessions This Practice so little as it is is the grand Objection all beside comes not to so much as a filip on the Forehead For instance one Ward swears that he heard a Servant of the Bishop C. Powel offer Alice Smith Monies to take an Oath of his framing but Alice swears directly it was not so Powel swears he offer'd and paid her Money to bear her Charges as a Witness which is fit and lawful Nec ist a benignitas adimenda est quae liberalitatem magis significat quà m largitionem Cic. pro Murenâ T. Lund takes his Oath That Pregion told him that he never had touch'd El Hodgson but twice Being demanded hereof more strictly in his examination in the Star-chamber he swears That Pregion did not say to him that he touch'd her carnally nor did he know what he meant by touching Is there either substraction or contradiction in this or any more than a plain interpretation Lastly Wetheral had deposed That he was entreated by Pregion not to be at the Sessions He stands to it but adds that he was not bound to be there nor summoned He had deposed That Pregion spake to him to swear to no more than the Court should ask him What harm was there in that Caution Being examined in Star-chamber he swears That Pregion tempted him to nothing by Bribes or Reward but that he told him if he were sworn to tell the whole Truth he would not conceal it Only one Witness George Walker layeth it on the Bishop how Powel and Richard Owen entreated him in the Bishop's Name to speak with Witheral upon these matters which though it include no ill yet Owen and Powel depose They were never employed by the Bishop to deal with G. Walker upon such an Errand So the Bishop is cleared in every Information by sufficient Oaths of such against whose Faith there was no exception How easie a Province had the Defendant's Counsel to crumble these Impeachments into Dust and to blow them into the Eyes of the Impeachers Verba innocenti reperire facilè est Curt. lib. 6. Yet the Oratory of the Court by pre-instructions did turn them into filthy Crimes As Irenaeus says in the beginning of his Work That out of the same Jewels which being handsomly put together make the Image of a Prince being taken asunder you may contrive them into the Shape of a Monster 119. Could it be expected that such Driblets or rather Phantoms of Under-dealing with Witnesses should hold the Court ten days hearing in the long Vacation after Trinity-Term What leisure was taken to bolt out to exaggerate to wrack to distort to make an Elephant of a Fly which I may justly pour forth in the words of Tully for his Client Quintius de fortunis omnibus deturbandus est Potentes diserti nobiles omnes advocandi Adhibenda vis est veritati minae intentantur pericula intenduntur formidines opponuntur But here were worse things which the Oratour had never cause to complain of under the Roman Laws All the Depositions of the main Witnesses for the Bishop were deleted not fairly by a Hearing in open Court where their Lordships might every one have consider'd of it but were spunged out by that Judge in his private Chamber who was the bane of the Cause from the beginning to the end and forsooth because they were impertinent Scandals against Kilvert and others that had deposed for the King Only the Bishop was allowed to put in a cross Bill when it was too late after he was first ruin'd in his Honour Fortunes and Liberty and then lest to seek a Remedy against a Companion not worth a Groat And who was ever used like this Defendant since the Star-chamber sate that when his Cause was so far proceeded as to be heard in three sittings that two new Affidavits should be brought in by Kilvert which struck to the very substance of the Cause to which no Answer could be given because they were new matters quite out of the Books obtruded long after publication yet from thenceforth produced every day which seduced divers of the noble Lords and no doubt many of the Hearers as though they had been Depositions in that Cause which were not so but Materials of another information and in their due time were fully cleared and disproved When was it known before that in every of the ten days that the Cause was in debate a Closet-meeting was held at Greenwich the Lords sent for to it one by one the Proofs there repeated to them and their Votes bespoken Which was no better than when Junius Marius in Tacitus bespake the Emperor Claudius to impart his private Commentaries unto him Per quos nosceret quisque quem accusandum poposcisset And between the full hearing and sentencing the Cause the Lords were well told a Passage That a noble Personage had offered Ten thousand pounds to compound for the Bishop's Peace which is true that the Duke of Richmond did it when he saw how the Game went in the Cabinet Which was the very reason that induced their Lordships to lay such an immense Fine upon a Fault conceiv'd that was never sentenc'd in any Kingdom or State before Yet all this did not suffice but in that morning of the day when the Cause was sentenc'd it was first debated in an inner Chamber so long till many hundreds waited for their coming forth till high noon wherein Agreement was concluded by all Parties before they sate There and then it was that the Archbishop press'd for the degradation of his Brother Bishop and his deportation God knows whither Now
the Bishop doth thus remonstrate for himself That when a Defendant is examin'd upon Interrogatories in the Court and certified by a Judge to have answer'd insufficiently he is to pay twenty shillings costs the first time and to be re-examin'd If he be reported to fail the second time to pay forty shillings Costs The third time to be imprisoned but never in close Imprisonment These were ever the constant Rules of the ancient Lords that sate upon those Causes The Bishop being called to answer to these Eighty Interrogatories his Answers are certified to be imperfect to forty of them But the Judges did not point out wherein the Imperfection lay as it ought to be done But the Defendant is left in a mist and knows not how to direct his course to please them Yet goes them over again and answers so fully the second time that the Examiner thought his part was done and himself protests if he failed in any thing it was for want of direction from the Judges All that he had done and he had done to his best is not allow'd his Answers are again return'd to be insufficient yet not challeng'd in a word for such and such Omissions or Tergiversations for which an Amercement of 40 s. was the most that could be exacted by Rule That 's all one he is committed close Prisoner to his Chamber with order that neither Counsellor or Sollicitor should come near him or send to him The first night of his close restraint he perfected his Answer the third time to his best Abilities The Judges Jones and Berkeley are so awed that they refuse to certifie the sufficiency of this Answer till Kilvert will acknowledge it to be compleat So he continued in a melancholy Retirement from Allhollantide till the end of Christmas and then he finds a new Charge or rather no new one but the After-birth of the second Cause heard and censur'd before about Tampering A Course against the Fundamentals of Justice as Budaeus Tom. 2. in Pandec fol. 17. Senatus censuit ne quis ob idem crimen pluribus legibus reus fieret But in this latter Bill the Mystery of Mischief broke out by God's wondrous work and the detection of some Friends whom the Bishop had never sollicited to look after it Thus it runs Cad Powel George Walker T. Lund W. Wetherall in this new Charge are made Co-defendants with the Bishop these all were partly sentenced partly in durance before and must do some Service for their Freedom and Indempnity also with expectation of Reward that is they must couragiously accuse themselves in their Examination that they may be more forcible Witnesses against the Bishop but shall be as so many Coy-duks to cry a little in the ears of the World until the great Mallard be catch't in the Coy themselves then to be set free and to be fed with good Corn. The particulars of this Bill are branch't into Ten Heads For the greatest part they consisted of old matter That he had dictated Answers to Witnesses taught them cunning Evasions sent some Witnesses out of the way with addition that he had made Conveyances of his Lands and Leases to prevent the levying of the King 's Fine Nay lastly to sill it up that he did not allow competent Means to a Vicar from the Prebend of Asgaby I would their Lordships had sat upon such Reformations for seven years together if it did belong to their cognisance What a Task had the poor Bishop to fence with his Adversaries at all these Weapons As Isocrates extolls Evagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was Master but of one City and no more when he waged War with all Asia But our forlorn Defendant had no shelter left under Heav'n but a Prison wherein he was mured to encounter Perjuries Conspiracies Malice Kilvert with all his Party and all the Rulers in high places that back't him only that promise of Christ remained good Matth. 10.19 Dabitur in illa horâ It shall be given you in that same hour what to speak And it did not fail him 127. First he demurs and pleads That five Charges chained together in this Information had been heard before and censur'd in the Charge upon Tampering with Witnesses To bring the same Fault again to trial that had been once punish't is contrary to the Justice of God and exceeds the cruelty of the worst men The Lord Popham ' s Rules were famous and registred in the Court That bounds should be set to the process of Causes that they might not be infinite If a fourth Bill be admitted to survey the management of a former Defence then a fifth may start up in the management of the fourth a sixth upon the fifth and prosecutions will be endless Then he produceth his main defence That he could prove that T. Lund and W. Wetherall were drawn by Kilvert with divers indirect means of Terrors and Promises to accuse themselves to have had under hand dealings with the Defendant to teach them to shift direct Answers and to evade Interrogatories with Collusions That they had assurance given them when the Bishop was wounded through their sides their wounds should be healed their fines remited and their good service gratified The Bishop had this Confession of Lund and Wetherall under the hands of credible Gentlemen who smelling that Villany had conferred with them and galled them with suspicions that they might thrust themselves into the Briars and be forsaken by Kilvert who was very false And what if he should drop away which might be look't for from a man of his daily Surfeits And let him do his best when they had confest Perjury against themselves with their own mouth he could never soder up their crack't Credit but the disgrace would cleave to them and render them despicable as long as they liv'd Which Terrours being spread before these Men they exclaim that they were circumvented and undone for ever This being inferred into the Bishop's Defence his Counsel came twice to the Bar to move for a Hearing and were put off His well willers which droopt before had a strong opinion of a good Issue So often we see there is life in an Apoplectick though he seem to be dead Kilvert curseth his Fortune that his Spells are disinchanted Et fragilâ— quaerâ—ns illidere dentem Insregâ— solido Horace The Bishop's Innocency was not so brittle as he thought to be torn in sunder but the Solidity of it did break his Teeth Howsoever Kilvert is grown gracious for his good parts I wiss and must not be forsaken in this plungâ— But upon a reference all this matter about Lund and Witherall is expung'd as scandalous to Kilvert's good name Scandalous to his good name Non entis nulla sunt attributa Nay but give us andience says the Bishop's Counsel Is not all this necessary to our Clients Defence That cannot be denied say the Judges Brampston and Berkeley it is the very body of his defence but reproachful to the Man
and so it did for certain in Adam the first Father and first King Yet grant them their asking here is an Instance to silence them All the Creatures were made before Man yet God gave him the Dominion to govern them that were created before and after him It is to no more purpose to cavil That the King is made for the good of the People Is that which is appointed for the good of another the less for that Cause Quite contrary 't is therefore the greater So is a Preceptor and Shepherd the one above the Scholars the other above the Flock Saravia distinguisheth skilfully de Obed. p. 228. Quod est propter aliud si benesicium ab co accipit minus esl si dat majus est They stretch their Wit further and say That the King gives his Oath to his Subjects to mamtam them in their known Laws It well befits him So God gave an Oath to Abraham and David Quare juramentum praes itum Inseriori non ei subjicn Superiorem says the same Author As for the matter of the Oath to keep the Laws it puts him not under the Wrath of Men if he do not keep them but under the Wrath of God A King is to keep the Laws of Nations with other Princes yet is not subject to them God defend us from making Experiments what would come to pass if the choice of a Governor or Governors were referred to the thousands and millions of England Beware a Heptarchy again beware an Hecatontarchy Things give better Counsel to men than men to things Look behind enquire into Histories what bloody meetings the World hath known upon such ambitious bandings between Gogs and Magog's Parties An quae per totam res atrocissima Lesbon Non audita tibi est Metam l. 2. Is it forgotten how they have lifted up their Friends in a Fit and straightway pluck'd them down in a Fury As the Greek Emperor said to a Bishop Ego te Furne condidi ego te destruam For as Painters delight in Pieces not being made but in their making so the Hare-brain'd Multitude run on to a Choice with Greediness and when it is pass'd they loath it with Fickleness The Conclusion shall be That this Stratagem to unthrone a King by the pretended inherent Right of the People can come to no conclusion For if there were occasion for all Cities Counties Burroughs Hamblets to come to try that Right who shall warn them that the opportunity is ripe to require their concurrence Who shall summon them Why A. rather than B Who shall propound Upon what place shall they meet Who shall preserve Order and Peace For every Hog when you drive them must have a String about his own Leg. Who shall umpire and stop Outrages Such there will be Saevitque animis ignobile vulgus An hundred impossible Dissiculties may be added to these and he that can rowl them up all into Sence deserves the Philosopher's Stone for his Labour To divert the vulgar fort from meddling with things improper to and so much above them Budaeus remembers me how to call them to such a Choice as is fitter for them lib. 1. de As In Pervigilio Epiphamae regnum ad sesquiboram lusu sabae sortiuntur Let them chuse the King of the Bean on Twelsth-night and be merry with the Cake-bread 189. The best of Kings had some that fell off from him after the fust and second year of the War when they saw his Enemies had got ground in some Skirmishes and Sieges and were possest of the best part of his Navies surrendred to them by a false Faitour This was a colour for their Rhetoricians to impute Righteousness to the fortunate Part. And their Orders for Thanksgivings boast of it that God did own their Cause because of the Victories which had besall'n them But Wisdom dresseth her self by her own Light and minds not the shadow of Success for after the first dark Cloud that comes it can be seen no more It is not strange that Self-lovers are so wary and rash Springolds so sond to like that which is most lucky Thucyd. l. 1. notes it upon the variable turnings of the Peloponnesian Wars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men cannot leave but they will bend their Fancies to the Casualties of Events Nay says Matth. de Prin. c. 25. There is no living for us without that Tropical Humour Si tempora mutant ur statim perit qui in agendo rationem non mutat But all such Errours shall be reversed and the mistakes consuted before a Tribunal Eternal Impartial which will deceive none Go not about then to try right and wrong as they are bandied among us No man knows either Love or Hatred by all that is before them All things come alike to all There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked Eccles 9.2 If you Judge the merit of a Cause or the integrity of a Man by prosperous Chance Epicurus will have a strong tentation to say Is there a God whose wisdom sees and governs all things Dionysius when he had rob'd a Temple and failed away merrily with his Booties scost at it Videt is amici quà m bona à Diis immortalibus navigatio sacrilegis datur Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 3. Such a Scandal another of the voluptuary Sect took at a Courtezan that had forsworn her self and look't more amiably after it Obligasti Perfidum diris caput enitescis Pulchrior multo juvenumque prodis Publica cura Horat. Od. l. 4. We that are bred under holy Discipline know that it will be the worse for thee hereafter for their Torments will appear more bitter in the next World because they felt nothing but pleasure in this The ways of God are past finding out He permits that Evil which he hates and he Corrects that Good which he loves This is the Trial of Faith Quicquid imponitur molit All that is brought to her Mill she will grind it into fine slour of Thanksgiving and Patience and is afsured That as a Ball mounts higher when it is thrown to the ground so a good Cause when it is beaten will rebound higher to Heaven Otherwise says Manilius l. 5. Si sorte accesserit impetus ausis Improbitas fiet virtus If Sin get the better at hand-blows Vertue shall hold up its hand at the Bar and be condemned for Vice Joshuah's discomfit at Ai Josiah's at Megiddo the hundred Victories that the Saracens have had against the Christians tell us how they that sight the Lord's Battels are not priviledged from turning their Backs to their Enemies It is an acute passage of S. Ambrose in an Epistle to Valentinian That the Heathen had no reason to beast that the Idols whom they worshipt were true Gods and gave them â—icleries for if the Romans prevailed where were the Carthaginian Gods to help them if the Carthaginians triumpht where were the Roman Gods when they were beaten Success will neither serve Christians nor Heathen
Eudaemon and Fitz-Herbert Sons of Anak among the Jesuits do noise him far and wide But they that heard him speak would most admire him No Flood can be compared to the Spring-Tide of his Language and Eloquence but the milky River of Nilus with his seven Mouths all at one disemboguing into the Sea O how voluble how quick how facetious he was What a Vertumnus when he pleas'd to Argue on the right side and on the contrary These Things will be living in the memory of the longest Survivor that ever heard him In this Trial wherein he stood now to be judged by so many Attic and Exquisite Wits he striv'd to exceed himself and shew'd his Cunning marvelously that he could invalidate every Argument brought against him with variety of Answers It was well for all sides that the best Divine in my Judgment that ever was in that place Dr. Davenant held the Rains of the Disputation he kept him within the even Boundals of the Cause he charm'd him with the Caducaean Wand of Dialectical Prudence he order'd him to give just Weight and no more Horat. l. 1. Od. 3. Quo non Arbiter Adriae major tollere seu ponere vult freta Such an Arbiter as he was now such he was and no less year by year in all Comitial Disputations wherein whosoever did well yet conslantly he had the greatest Acclamation To the close of all this Exercise I come The grave elder Opponents having had their courses Mr. Williams a new admitted Batchelor of Divinity came to his Turn last of all Presently there was a Smile in the Face of every one that knew them both and a prejudging that between these two there would be a Fray indeed Both jealous of their Credit both great Masters of Wit and as much was expected from the one as from the other So they fell to it with all quickness and pertinency yet thank the Moderator with all candor like Fabius and Marcellus the one was the Buckler the other the Sword of that Learned Exercise No Greyhound did ever give a Hare more Turns upon Newmarket Heath then the Replier with his Subtleties gave to the Respondent A Subject fit for the Verse of Mr. Abraham Hartwel in his Regina Literata as he extols Dr. Pern's Arguments made before Queen Elizabeth Quis sulmine tanto tela jacet tanto fulmine nemo jacet But when they had both done their best with equal Prowess the Marshal of the Field Dr. Davenant cast down his Warder between them and parted them A Fable comes into my Memory That Vulcan to despite Diana made a Dog which should catch every thing he hunted called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Diana to despite Vulcan made a Fox which could never be catch'd in Hunting called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all the Gods and Goddesses could never reconcile the Contradiction till upon one Chase both the Dog and the Fox ran themselves to death which Ovid compriseth in a little Lib. 3. Metamor Scilicet invictos ambo certamine cursus Esse Deus Voluit The Moral in a great part may suit well with these two unvanquish'd Disputants The Bishop of Bath and Wells Dr. Montagu gave great demonstration of Affection to Mr. Williams ever after his Negotiation in this Act. As Velleius says Nulla festinatio hujus viri mentionem debet transgredi That Bishop was a Reverend and Learned Father in the Church a most loving Son to his Mother the University he was full of good Works as Bath and Farnham and Winchester-house in Southwark could testifie if these impious and overthrowing Times had let them stand and many more recited by Bishop Godwin in his Catalogue of Bishops This was the good Man who from henceforth was the truest Friend to Mr. Williams of all that did wear a Rochet to his Last Day who after these two sublime Performances of the Responsion for Batchelorship of Divinity and Opponent's Place in the Great-Day before the most Illustrious Princes retired to his Home for so I must now call the Lord Chancellor's Family 34. He was now in the House of Obed-Edom where every thing prosper'd and all that pertain'd to him The Chaplain understood the Soil on which he had set his Foot that it was rich and fertile able with good Tendance to yield a Crop after the largest Dimensions of his Desires To be well then was but to be well now His fore-casting Mind thought of the future how to stock himself with Experience with Wisdom with Friends in greatest Grace with other Viaticum for the longest Journey of his ensuing Life Let me use the Phrase correctedly He lived not for half a Time but for a Time and Times He never liv'd Ex tempore but upon premeditation to day what to do long after As a wise Man says Non disponet singula nisi cui jam vitae summa propesita est Sen. Ep. 71. Particular Actions will be kept in method when Providence hath affected the Sum and End of them As at Chess the Idea of the Game must be in the Head of the Gamester then the Remove of every Chess-man promotes it The Chaplain began his part as any wise Man would to demerit his Lord with all due Offices and prudent bearing and he got it faster then he fought it He pleas'd him with his Sermons He took him mainly with his sharp and solid Answers to such Questions as were cast forth at Table to prove his Learning His Fashion and Garb to the Ladies of the Family who were of great Blood and many was more Courtly a great deal then was expected from a Scholar He receiv'd Strangers with courtesie and labour'd for their satisfaction He Interposed gravely as became a Divine against the Disorders of the lowest Servants And unto all these plausible Practises the Back-bone was continual diligence Other Things that commended him no less or perhaps more were these My Lord Elsmore was at that time Chancellor of the University of Oxford whose References and Petitions when they were brought before that great Judge the Chaplain newly come from the Sister-Corporation understood them more suddenly then all that were about his Master and was cunning at the first Opening to propound how to bring them into the just Academical way to be determin'd And the Opinion which he gave did so constantly Arbitrate all those Complaints that the truly admired Bishop of London Dr. King would sometimes call him pleasantly The Chancellor of Oxford The second Part of his Industry to make his Acceptance so gracious was That he was stored with Friends in the Courts of the King and Prince from whence he gather'd Intelligence fit for the Hearing of his Master Not blind Rumours or the frothy Talk of the Lobbies but weighty Passages carried in a Mist before they came to Light Clouds that at the first rising were scarce so big as an hand yet portending mighty Tempests when they fell For he had a Palate to taste their Court-Wine when it was
Vows on them and their Posterity These were the Deans Instructions which the Lord Marquess received with as much Thankfulness as he could express and requited his Adviser with this Complement that he would use no other Counsellor hereafter to pluck him out of his plunges for he had delivered him from Fear and Folly and had Restor'd him both to a light Heart and a safe Conscience To the King they go together forthwith with these Notes of honest Settlement whom they found accompanied in his Chamber with the Prince and in serious Discourse together upon the same perplexities Buckingham craves leave That the Dean might be heard upon those particulars which he had brought in Writing which the King Mark'd with Patience and Pleasure And whatsoever seem'd contentious or doubtful to the King 's piercing Wit the Dean improved it to the greater liking by the Solidity of his Answers Whereupon the King resolv'd to keep close to every Syllable of those Directions Sir Edward Villiars was sent abroad and return'd not till September following Michel and Mompesson received their censure with a Salvo that Mompesson's Lady not guilty of his Crimes should be preserv'd in her Honour And before the Month of March expir'd Thirty seven Monopolies with other sharking Prouleries were decry'd in one Proclamation which return'd a Thousand praises and Ten Thousand good prayers upon the Sovereign Out of this Bud the Deans Advancement very shortly spread out into a blown Flower For the King upon this Tryal of his Wisdom either call'd him to him or call'd for his Judgment in Writing in all that he deliberated to Act or permit in this Session of Parliament in his most private and closest consultations The more he founded his Judgment the deeper it appear'd so that his Worth was Valued at no less than to be taken nearer to be a Counsellor upon all Occasions The Parliament wearied with long sittings and great pains was content against the Feast of Easter to take Relaxation and was Prorogued from the 27 of March to the 18 of April The Marquess had an Eye in it upon the Lord Chancellor to try if time would mitigate the displeasure which in both Houses was strong against him But the leisure of three Weeks multiplied a pile of New Suggestions against him and nothing was presaged more certain than his downfal which came to Ripeness on the third of May. On that day the Patent of his Office with the Great Seal was taken from him which Seal was deliver'd to Four Commissioners the Lord Treasurer Mountagu Duke of Lenox Lord Steward of the King's Houshold William Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King and Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surry with whom it rested till the 10th of July following In the mean time Sir James Leigh Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench was Commissioned to be Speaker in the Upper House and Sir Julius Caesar Master of the Rolls was Authorized with certain Judges in equal power with him to hear dispatch and decree all Causes in the Court of Chancery 62 The Competitors for the Office of the Great Seal were many Sir James Leigh before mention'd a Widower and upon Marriage with a Lady of the Buckingham Family Sir Henry Hobart Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Chancellor to the Prince a Step to the Higher Chancellorship and as fit as any man for his Learning and Integrity which of these it was uncertain but one of these was expected And verily a fitter Choice could not be made than out of the pre-eminent Professors of the Common Laws but that all Kings affect to do somewhat which is extraordinary to shew the liberty of their power The Earl of Arundel was thought upon a Master of Reason and of a great Fortune For it was remembred upon the Death of Lord Chancellor Bromly anno 1587 That Queen Elizabeth designed a Peer of the Realm for his Successor Edward Earl of Rutland whose Merit for such a place is favour'd by Mr. Cambden because he was Juris scientiâ omni politiori literaturâ ornatissimus and if his Death much bewailed had not prevented the Great Seal had been born before him But the likeliest to get up and I may say he had his Foot in the Stirrup was Sir Lionel Cranfield Married in the kindred that brought Dignity to their Husbands a man of no vulgar head-piece yet scarce sprinkled with the Latin Tongue He was then Master of the Court of Wards and did speak to the Causes that were brought before him quaintly and evenly There seemed to be no Let to put him in Possession of the great vacant Office but that the Lord Marquess set on by the King was upon enquiry how profitable in a just way it might be to the Dignitary and whether certain Branches of Emolument were natural to it which by the endeavour of no small ones were near to Lopping Sir Lionel besought the Marquess to be sudden and to Advise upon those things with the Dean of Westminster a found man and a ready who did not wont to clap the Shackles of delay upon a business He being spoken to to draw up in Writing what he thought of those Cases return'd an Answer speedily on the Tenth of May with the best advantage he could foresee to the promotion of the Master of the Wards Yet it fell out cross unto him that the Dean woing for another utterly beyond expectation sped for himself The Paper which he sent to the Marquess hath his own Words as they follow My most Noble Lord ALthó the more I Examine my self the more unable I am made to my own Judgment to wade through any part of that great Employment which your Honour vouchsafed to confer with me about yet because I was bred under the place and that I am credibly inform'd my True and Noble Friend the Master of the Wards is willing to accept it and if it be so I hope your Lordship will incline that way I do crave leave to acquaint your Honour by way of prevention with secret underminings which will utterly overthrow all that Office and make it beggerly and contemptible The lawful Revenue of that Office stands thus or not much above at any time In Fines certain 1300 l. per annum or thereabout In Fines Casual 1250 l. or thereabout In greater Writs 140 l. for impost of Wine 100 l. in all 2790. and these are all the true means of that great Office Now I am credibly inform'd that the Lord Treasurer begins to Entitle the King to to the casual Fines and the greater Writs which is a full Moiety of the profits of the place not so much to Enrich the King as to draw Grist to his own Mill and to wind from the Chancellor the donation of the Cursitors places The preventing the Lord Treasurers in these Cases made Queen Elizabeth ever Resolve suddenly upon the disposing of the Great Seal Likewise they are very busie in the House of Commons and I saw a Bill which
For confirmation of it I will anticipate how he was breath'd till he was almost out of breath with a violent but short Sickness upon the end of the first Term that he appeared in Chancery It was the Term of Michaelmas and in the November of it the Parliament sate again in which he attended in the Office of Speaker in the Lords House With these concur'd a spiny and difficult Treaty between our Merchants and the Agents of the United-Provinces for the most savage Insolencies committed at Amboyna a Treaty wherein he was the Chief Commissioner and the sharpest against those Thieves and Murderers Which Treaty took up three Afternoons constantly in every week while it continued to hear that Cause In the Court of Chancery beside the ordinary Work several Causes and of a reaching number were referred in the preceding Session of Parliament to the succeeding Lord Keeper to review the Orders of the Predecessor displaced Into this vast Sea of Business he launch'd forth all at once Hereupon my self and half an hundred more have seen his Industry that he was compel'd to sit by Candle-light in the Court two hours before day and there to remain till between eight and nine that the Prince being come to the Lords House sent for him to take his Place there to Propound and Report the Questions of that Honourable House till past twelve every day not seldom till past one After a short Repast at home he returned to hear the Causes in Chancery which he could not dispatch in the morning Or if he did attend at Council in Whitehall he came back toward evening and followed his Employment in Chancery till eight at night and later Then on the neck of this when he came home he perused such Papers as were brought to him by his Secretaries And after that though far in the night prepared himself for so much as concerned him to have in readiness for the Lords House in the morning In this overwhelming hurry of Troubles of such divers sorts and compositions what time come could he borrow for necessary Refreshment or the Repose of his wearied Body night or day And as the good King pick'd him out for this Task because He foresaw that none would outdo him in Diligence so He prefer'd him to be Great in Place because He knew he was great in Courage The Supporters on the Steps of Salomon's Throne were not Sheep but Lions The way to be Just is to be Inflexible the way to be Inflexible is to be Stout casting all thoughts of Fears and Favours under feet No man by natural complexion could be better engrained for it I will take it up from one that had no mind to say the best of him Mr. Art Wil. p. 196. He was of a comely and stately Presence and that animated with a great Mind made him appear very proud to the vulgar Eye Quaedam videntur non sunt So far was his Heart from Pride that he never thought himself the finer for the Trappings of Fortune Yet so far from baseness that he knew the Bench he sate upon and would not be made despicable in the Eyes of the World much less be brought about to serve great Men's turns and stretch the Causes of the Court according to the Contents of their Letters and Messages which were no better in a rude Phrase then to be a Pandar to their Lust to let them deflower Justice Therefore in the same Leaf says Ar. Wil. again The height of his Spirit made him odious to them that raised him happily because they could not attain to those Ends by him which they required of him The height of his Spirit made him speak freely and counsel faithfully and decree justly though that Lord to whom he had espoused his greatest Devotion were concerned in the Opposition Which was rectitude and magnitude of Mind as Tully in his Brutus makes Atticus decipher Caesar Splendidam miniméque veteratoriam dicendi rationem tenet voce motu formâ etiam magnifieâ generosâ quodammodò His Person his Gesture his Eloquence were magnificent and generous whose wont it was to reduce his chief Friends to Reason not craftily and timidly but with a noble and sublime Sincerity 65. Among the Qualities of a good Judge there is one remaining and fit to bring up the Rear which the King look'd upon as verily to be presaged in his new Officer an Hand clean from corruption and taking Gifts which blind the Eyes of the Wise and pervert the Words of the Righteous Deut. 16.19 'T was loudly exclaimed and the King was ashamed to have so far mistaken the Persons that there were sucking Horse-Leeches in great places Things not to be valued at Money were saleable and what could not Gold procure As Meander writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Friends and Judges and Witnesses you may have them for a Price nay such as sit in the place of God will serve you for such Wages The wise King having little prevailed by Monitions and Menaces against this fordid Filthiness cast his Liking upon a Man whom He might least suspect for Gripleness and Bribery The likeliest indeed of all others to shake this Viper from his hand and to be armed with a Breast-plate of Integrity against the Mammon of Iniquity for he was far more ready to give then to take to oblige then to be beholding Magis illud laborare ut illi quamplurimi debeant as Salust of Jugurtha He was well descended of a fortunate and ancient Lineage and had made his progress to Advancements by Steps of Credit a good Bridle against base Deviations What then made an an unsavoury Historian call him Country Pedant A Reproach with which H. L. doth flirt at him in his History of King Charles a scornful Untruth So I shake off this Bar and return to the Reverend Dean who was in a Function of Holy Calling next to God Among them I know all have not been incorrupt the Sons of Samuel turned aside after Lucre and took Bribes and perverted Judgment 1 Sam. 8.3 But commonly I trust they do not forget what a Scandal it is if God's Stewards turn the Devils Rent-Gatherers He was also unmarried and so unconcerned in the natural Impulsion of Avarice to provide for Wife and Children Our old moral Men touched often upon this String that Justice is a Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Hesiod and therefore fit to be committed to the trust of a Virgin Magistrate He was never fullied with Suspicion that he loved Presents no not so much as Gratuidad di Guantes as the Spaniards Phrase is but to go higher they are living that know what Sums of Value have been brought to his Secretaries such as might have swayed a man that was not Impregnable and with how much Solicitousness they have been requested to throw them at his Feet for Favours already received which no man durst undertake as knowing assuredly it would displace the Broker and be his Ruine And
and Decrees of my Predecessors I would be loth to succeed any man as Metellus did Caius Verres Cuius omnia erant ejusmodi ut totam Verris Praeturam retexere videretur Whose Carriage saith Tully was a meer Penclopes Web and untwisting of all the Acts of Verres ' s Pretorship Upon New matter I cannot avoid the re-viewing of a Cause but I will ever expect the forbearing of Persons so as the Ashes of the Dead may be hereafter spared and the Dust of the Living no further Raked Fourthly I will be as cautelous as I can in referring of Causes which I hold of the same Nature of a By-way Motion For one Reference that Spurs on a Cause there are ten that bridle it in and hold it from hearing This is that which Bias calls the backward forwarding of a Cause for as the Historian speaks Quod procedere non potest recedit Fifthly I profess before hand this Court shall be no Sanctuary for Undiscreet and Desperate Sureties It is a Ground of the Common Law That a man shall make no Advantage of his own Follies and Laches When the Mony is to be borrowed the Surety is the first in the Intention and therefore if it be not paid let him a God's Name be the first in Execution Lastly I will follow the Rules of this Court in all Circumstances as near as I can And considering that as Pliny speaks Stultissimum est adimitandum non optima quaeque proponere It were a great Folly to make Choice of any other then the very best for Imitation I will propound my Old Master for my Pattern and Precedent in all things Beseeching Almighty God so to direct me That while I hold this place I may follow him by a True and Constant imitation And if I prove Unfit and Unable for the same That I may not play the Mountebank so in this Place as to Abuse the King and the State but follow the same most Worthy Lord in his Chearful and Voluntary Resignation Sic mihi contingat vivere sicque mori 88. This he deliver'd thus much and I took Councel with my self not to Abbreviate it For it is so Compact and Pithy That he that likes a little must like it all Plutarch gives a Rule for Sanity to him that Eats a Tortoise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eat it up all or not a whit for a Modicum will Gripe the Belly He that fills himself with a great deal shall procure a Cleansing Evacuation So the Speech of a Great Orator is Instructive when it is entire Pinch it in with an Epitome you mangle the meaning and avile the Eloquence From Words he fell to Practise Industry I think was his Recreation for certain he had not a drop of Lazy Blood in his Veins He fill'd up every hour of the Day and a good part of the Night with the dispatch of some public and necessary business And though as a Counsellor of State and both as a Peer and Speaker in Parliament he had many diversions yet none of the work in Chancery was diminish'd which Attendance grew so light and familiar to him that in a little while it seem'd to be no more a burthen to him then the Water is to the Fishes under which they Swim He would not excuse himself a day for any the most lawful pretence he would not impart himself to the Star-Chamber or Parliament when it sate before he had spent two hours or more among the Pleaders Two or three Afternoons he Allotted every Week to hear Peremptories By which unequall'd diligence commonly he dispatch'd five or six Causes in a morning according to the quality or measure of the Points that came to be debated He did not only labour Six Days but as it follows in the Commandment He did all that he had to do For of all the Causes that were usually set down for hearing he never left any of them unheard at the End of the Term which was both an especial Ease and Comfort to the Subject and a full Testimony of his labour and ability to expedite so many Knotty and Spacious Causes that came before him in as little time as the Clients could expect The Survey of an whole year will give better satisfaction then every Term a part by it self Whereupon he Writes thus to the Lord Marquess July 10. 1622. In this Place I have now serv'd His Majesty one whole Year diligently and honestly But to my Hearts Grief by Reason of my Rawness and Inexperience very unprofitably Yet if his Majesty will Examine the Regâ—ers there will be found more Causes finally Ended this one Year then in all the Seven Years preceding How well ended I confess ingeniously I know not His Majesty and your Lordship who no doubt have Received some Complaints though in your Love 〈…〉 from me are in that the most competent Judges A Testimony of Great Labour and not more Copious then Clear For the Registry could not I ye Thus Joseph in his faithful Service under King Pharaoh gather'd in as much in one Year as was wont to be Reap'd in Seven And truly it becomes him that he was not confident but mistrustful of himself least some Waspish and Vexatious men had attempted to lay open some Errors to his Superiors which should escape him in fixing so many Planetary Causes But there was I had almost said none Yet then I had forgotten Sir John Bourcher who complain'd to both Houses of Parliament that his matters in debate were for ever shut up in a Decree before his Counsel was ready having some Allegations which expected more time to be Ripen'd still more time The business of this Knight was Arbitrated with consent by the Chief Baron Jac. 7. That Arbitration he would not stand to It was Decreed in full hearing by the Lord Elsmore Jac. 10. This did not please him Yet it was Order'd to the same Effect by the Lord Bacon Jac. 17. And after this the same Decree was confirm'd by the Lord William's Jac. 19. Having the consent of Justice Hutton Justice Chamberlain and the Master of the Rolls with an hundred Pounds advantage more then was given him before And was not this Suit come to Adultage for Tryal after Seventeen Years Vexation in it first and last If a Suitor shall have Power to define when his Cause is sufficiently heard a Fidler would not undertake the Office of a Judge Sir John durst not have presum'd to this Boldness but that he was encourag'd by his Father-in-Law the Lord Sheffeild who was a Scholar a Judicious Lord and of great Experience that knew well enough the Futility of this Appeal for it was discharg'd with a general Rebuke But the Spirits usually beat with an un even Pulse when they stirr too much in pity to our own Relations 89. Some others there were I yet remember it of the coarsest Retainers to Court who liv'd by picking up Crumbs that fell from Stale Bread these Whisper'd their Discontents that Causes
their Generation Sir J. Davies Sir Ron. Crâ—w Sir T. Coventry Sir R. Hâ—ath Sir J. Walter Serjeant Fâ—nch Serjeant Richardson Serjeant Astly Sir Hâ—n Finch Mr. T. Crew Mr. W. Nâ—â— Mr. A. Pâ—nâ— Mr. J. Glanvil Mr. J. Finch Mr. E. Littleton Mr. D. Jenkyn Mr. J. Baâ—kes Mr. E. Hâ—rbâ—rt Mr. T. Gardner Mr. T. Hâ—dly Mr. Egr. Thin Mr. R. Mason The Chief among them that did deserve to Fight next the Standard my Memory perhaps is not Trusty enough after the space of 30 years to remember all those Worthies are fill'd in the Margent like a Row of Cedars and are set down in those Titles which they carried then which most of them by their Deserts did far out-grow But these contributed all they could to his Credit with as much Observance with as great Reverence with as full Applause and Praise as could be required from ingenious Gentlemen towards one that was a Stranger to their Studies whose acceptance no doubt was a Whetstone to his Industry In the first Term that he came abroad into Westminster-Hall a Parliament sate in it's second Session wherein by Command from the King he spake to both Houses Of which Speech thus my Lord of Buckingham in a Letter to him dated Novemb. 24. I know not how the Upper House of Parliament approve your Lordships Speech But I am sure he that call d them together and as I think can best judge of it is so taken with it that he saith it is the best that ever he heard in Parliament and the nearest to his Majesties meaning which beside the contentment it hath given to his Majesty hath much comforted me in his choice of your Lordship who in all things doth so well Answer his expectation This is laid aside by some negligence the more is the pity that it cannot he found But here are two credible Witnesses how well he could open the great Affairs of the Kingdom for the best of Orators gave this Rule to Brutus Nâ—m disertus esse potest in eo quod nesciat no man can speak well to that which he doth not understand At this time I find in safe Records how advisedly he carried himself in the House of Peers upon the starting of two particulars The Priviledg of the Nobility was discuss'd and ready to be determin'd finally by the more Active part that they should take no Oath save only by their Honour which through his Intercession was laid aside for these Reasons That the Word of God allows of no Swearing for the finding out of Truths and deciding of Controversies but by an Invocation of the Name of God Quod confirmatur per cortius confirmatur and it is God's Glory that his Name and no other should be accounted more certain then any thing in the World In all Controversies the last Appeal is to him and to none beside because there is none above him The last Appeal is ever to the highest therefore we make no further Inquisition for Truth after our furthest provocation to the Lord in Heaven In Assertory Oaths we Swear That thereby we may put an End to contentious Causes And it is not Man's but God's Honour to end them who is the God of Peace and that maketh men to be of one mind Moreover our best consulting Divines collect that the Ground of an Oath builds upon his holy Name because He is most True and cannot Deceive likewise because he is Omniscient and cannot be ignorant and therefore to be the only due Witness for all contentious matters where there is no other Witness The Honour of the Peerage is a very Estimable Prerogative but a Creature to Swear is to put our Soul upon a Religious Action And shall a Creature be the Object of Religious Worship God forbid shall a Creature be brought in as the Witness of all Truth Or shall it be Raised up as the Judge which avengeth all falsehood There is none but God that is privy to all Truth And Vengeance belongs to none but him that can cast both Body and Soul into Everlasting Fire He added that singularities are ever to be suspected and challeng'd any man to shew the contrary that no other Oath but In the Name of God was used in Solemn Tryals at that day in any part of Christendom And he bad them look to themselves at home how prejudicial it would prove to all Courts of Justice and how unwillingly the Gentry and lower condition'd people of the Land would be brought unto it How loth they would be to refer their Free-hold their Meum and Tuum to the protestation of Honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If it be stood upon that in the highest Criminal Causes of Life and Death their Lordships vouched their Honour only to Guilty or not Guilty it might receive this Satisfaction If a Peer be produced as a Witness against another Peer before the Lord High Steward he lays his hand upon the Book and takes his Oath No man can be cast by the deposition of a Witness that is not Sworn But when the Peers bring their Verdict into the same Court against a Peer they lay not their Hand upon the Book but upon their Breast which is a Sign that their vouchment by their Honour in that Tryal is not an Oath Indeed it is not For their Lordships utter it not Via juramenti but Via Comparationis That is they do not Swear by their Honour but pronounce comparatively that as sure as they are Honourable they find the Prisoner Guilty or not Guilty Like to that frequent expression in Scripture As thy Soul Liveth it is thus and thus The living Soul comes not in as an Oath but as a Comparison As who should say As sure as your Soul lives or as sure as Pharaoh lives I affirm the Truth Thus far he contended and to general Satisfaction It was much that in his Novitiatship in that house he durst contradict such mighty ones in so tender a Cause But a Wise man commends the Wisest of Heathen men Socrates for that Gallant Freedom 1 Tusâ—ul adhibuit liberam contumaciam à magnitudine animi inductam non à Superbiâ 'T is Pride that makes men obstinate in their Errors But magnanimity makes them confident in the Truth 91. In the same morning while this Debate continued very long he had another Pass with a Master-Fencer For the question being canvas'd throughly concerning Oaths an Aged Bishop very infirm in health excus'd himself if he could not stay so long whereupon some Lords who bore a grudge to that Apostolical Order cried out they might all go home if they would and not contented with that Vilipendency grew higher in their demand and would have this contempt against the Prelates inserted in their Journal Book The Earl of Essex press'd it more passionately then the rest who wanted Theological Advice about the strict Obligation of Oaths as much as any Christian which appear'd by his Attempts and Practice about twenty years after But nothing
Clergy of England as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be Licenced henceforward in the Court of Faculties only with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Lord Bishop of the Diocess or in his Default by the Lord Arch-Bishop of the Province Ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day untill his Majesty by the Advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further Punishment 102. These Orders were well brought fourth but Success was the Step-Mother Destinata salubriter omni ratione potentior fortuna discussit Curtius lib. 5o. Crossness and Sturdiness took best with the Vulgar and he was counted but a Cockney that stood in awe of his Rulers No marvel if some were brought to no State of Health or toward any Temper of Convalesence with these Mandates Nothing is so hardly bridled as the Tongue saith St. James especially of a mis-guided Conscience when their Bladder if full of Wind the least Prick of a Thorn will give it eruption A Fool traveleth with a Word as a Woman in Labour of a Child Ecclus. 19.11 Restraint is not a Medicine to cure epidemical Diseases for Sin becomes more sinful by the Occasion of the Law Diliguntur immodice sola quae non licent says one of the Exteriors Quintil. decl 1a. The less we should the more we would Curb Cholerical Humours and you press out Bitterness as it is incident to those that are strait-lac'd to have sower Breaths The Scottish Brethren were acquainted by common Intercourse with these Directions that had netled the aggrieved Pulpitarians And they says Reverend Spotswood P. 543. accuse them to be a Discharge of Preaching at least a Confining of Preachers to certain Points of Doctrine which they call Limiting of the Spirit of God But the Wiser Sort judged them both necessary and profitable considering the Indiscretion of divers of that sort who to make Ostentation of their Learning or to gain the Applause of the Popular would be medling with Controversies they scarce understood and with Matters exceeding the Capacity of the People But what a Pudder does some make for not stinting the Spirit or Liberty of Prophecying as others call it They know not what they ask Such an indefinite Licence is like the Philosopher's Materia Prima a monstrous Passive Subject without Form A Quid libet which is next to nothing Indeed it is a large Charter to pluck down and never to build up Every Man may sling a Stone where he will and let it light as Luck carries it But how can the House of God be built unless the Builders be appointed to set up the Frame with Order and Agreement among themselves according to the Pattern which was shewn in the Mount Try it first in Humane Affairs and see how it will sadge with them before we proceed to Heavenly Dissolve the publick Mint let every Man Coin what Money he will and observe if ever we can make a Marchandable Payment Their Confusion is as like to this as a Cherry to a Cherry Give their Spirit as much Scope as they ask Let them Coin what Doctrine they will with the Minting-Irons of their own Brain They may pay themselves with their own Money but will it pass with others for Starling Will it go for current Divinity To meet them home Suppose this Priviledge were allow'd yet every good Spirit will limit it self to lawful Subjection Yet these would not Then what Remedy in earnest none was try'd It is the height of Infelicity to be incurable As Pliny in his Natural History said of Laws made against Luxury in Rome which would not be kept down therefore the Senators left to make Laws against it Frustra interdicta quae vetucrant cernentes nullas potiùs quam irritas esse Leges maluerunt 103. Neither were uncharitable Suspicions like to mend For the Unsatisfied that sung so far out of Tune had another Ditty for their Prick-Song The King's Letters were directed to the Lord Keeper to be Copy'd out and sent forth to the Judges and Justices to afford some Relaxation of our Penal Laws to some but not all Popish Recusants Which made sundry Ministers interpose very harshly and in the Prophet Malachy's Stile Chap. 2. Ver. 13. To cover the Altar of God with Tears and Weeping and Crying but the Lord regarded not the Offering neither received it with Good-will at their Hands What could this mean as they conjectured but the highest Umbrage to the Reformed Religion and â—at Toerâ—ion of Popery Leave it at that cross way that they knew not whither this Project will turn Nay Should they not hope for the best Event of the Meaning A King is like to have an ill Audit when every one that walks in the Streets will reckon upon his Councels with their own casting Counters It is fit in sundry Occurrences for a Prince to disguise his Actions and not to discover the way in which he treads But many times the Wisdom of our Rulers betrays them to more Hatred than their Follies because Idiots presume that their own Follies are Wisdom Plaurus displays these impertinent Inquisitors very well in Trinummo Quod quisque habet in animo aut habiturus est sciunt Quod in aurem Rex Reginae dixerit sciunt Quae neque futura neque facta sunt illi sciunt Yet these Fault-sinders were not jear'd out of their Melancholly though they deserv'd no better but were gravely admonished by his Majesty Vivâ voce in these Words I understand that I am blamed for not executing the Laws made against the Papists But ye should know that a King and his Laws are not unfuly compared to a Rider and his Horse The Spur is sometime to be used but not always The Bridle is sometime to be held in at other times to be let loose as the Rider finds Cause Just so a King is not at all times to put in Execution the Rigor of his Laws but he must for a time and upon just Grounds dispense with the same As I protest to have done in the present Case and to have conniv'd only for a time upon just Cause howbeit not known to 〈◊〉 If a Man for the Favour shew'd to a Priest or Papist will judge me to be inclining that way he wrongs me exceedingly My Words and Writings and Actions have sufficiently 〈◊〉 what my Resolution is in all Matters of Religion That Cause not known to 〈…〉 in part unfolded by that grave Father Spotswood where I quoted him 〈◊〉 Says he The Better and Wiser Sort of his Country-men who considered 〈…〉 Estate of things gave a far other Judgment thereof than the Discontented 〈…〉 then our King was treating with the French King for Peace to the Protestants of France and with the King of Spain for withdrawing his Forces from the Palatinate At which time it was no way fitting that
gained divers Beneficed Men to conform who had stumbled at that Straw that the Lord Keeper could do no less then compound the Troubles of so Learned and Industrious a Divine And I aver it upon the Faith of a good Witness that after this Bishop Harsnet acknowledged that he was as useful a man to assist him in his Government as was in all his Diocese Another Rank for whose sake the Lord Keeper suffer'd were scarce an handful not above three or four in all the wide Bishoprick of Lincoln who did not oppose but by ill Education seldom used the appointed Ceremonies Of whom when he was certified by his Commissaries and Officials he sent for them and confer'd with them with much Meekness sometime remitted them to argue with his Chaplain If all this stirred them not he commended them to his Old Collegiate Dr. Sibbs or Dr. Gouch Who knew the scruples of these mens Hearts and how to bring them about the best of any about the City of London If all these labour'd in vain he protracted the hearing of their Causes de die in diem that time might mollisie their refractory Apprehensions But had it not been better said some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stop the mouth of the unruly Tit. 1.11 I Answer Their mouth was slept in St. Paul's meaning Estius hath begun the distinction and it is easily made up Alind est silontium indicere quod est imperamis Alind ad metas saciturnitatis reduccre quod est docte redarguentis They were not imperiously commanded to be silent but enough was spoken wifely to their Face to put their Folly to silence Men that are found in their Morals and in Minutes imperfect in their Intellectuals are best reclaimed when they are mignarized and strok'd gently Seldom any thing but severity will make them Anti-practise For then they grow desperate Facundus Dominus quosdam aâ—fugam cogit quosdam ad mortem says Seneca And they are like to convert more with their sufferings then with their Doctrine He that is openly punish'd whatsoever he hath done he shall find Condolement But I will spend no more Words to wipe away this stur of Puritanism it needs not a laborious Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Proverb is in Athenaeus Let Lubbars Talk of it over a Winter Fire when they Droll out Tales 107. Yet I want not matter how to wash out this spot of Jealousie by great Actions In this year 1622 he began to expend a great Sum upon St. John's College the Nurse of his hopeful breeding A right stampt Puritan is not a Founder but a Demolisher of good Works He laid the platform of his Beneficence on this Wife Four Scholars he Added to the 40 Alumni in the College of Westminster For their Advancement he provided and endowed four Scholarships in St. John's College upon their Maturity and Vacancy of those places to be Translated to them Two Fellowships he Newly Erected in that House into which only out of those four the best were to be chosen Withal he purchas'd the Patronage of four Rich Benefices to receive those Scholars and Fellows of his Foundation upon the Death or other Cessation of the Incumbents But the Chief Minerval which he bestowed upon that Society was the Structure of a most goodly Library the best in that kind in all Cambridge And as he had pick'd up the best Authors in all Learning and in all plenty for his own use so he bequeathed them all to this fair Repository This was Episcopal indeed to issue out his Wealth as the Lord brought it in in such ways This is the Purse that Mr. H. L. says he Ran away withal after he had departed with the Great Seal wherein we see how far the Portion of over-flowing wast which 〈◊〉 from Great Ones and is spilt if it were sav'd and well bestow'd would 〈◊〉 the Land with all sort of Monumental Bravery What a good Steward he was for his Master Christ Jesus's Houshold and how provident to put none into part of the Care but such as were Obedient to Civil and Sacred Rulers appears most in his happy choice of those upon whom he confer'd the livings that fell into his Patronage They were ever pick'd out of the best Learned the best Qualified the most Cordially affected to our most Godly Liturgy and to the Government of the Prelates Within these Apostatizing times wherein so many have departed from them without Cause I cannot remember any of his preferring but kept their Traces and to their best Power never run out of the Ring I have a short Story to tell and then I leave this Subject Among the poor distressed Protestants in Bohemia many of them were Braziers by their Occupation These sent sent some messengers from them with a Petition to his Majesty that they might Transplant a Colony into England London especially Men Wives Children and their full Families Signifying that they would bring with them to the Value of two hundred Thousand Pounds in Coin and Materials of their Trade That their Substance and Labour should be subject to all Customs and Taxes for the King's profit They desired to live in a Body of their own Nation and to serve Christ Jesus in that Church Discipline which they brought with them from Bohemia Though they had inclin'd his Majesty to admit them being a great Swarm of People and bringing Wax and Honey along yet the Lord Keeper diverted it from the Example of the Dutch and French that were setled among us These brought commodious Manufacture into the Realm but they brought a Discipline with it according to the Allowance of their Patent which was a Suffocation to the Temperate Crisis of our own Church Government Which Peril of Distemper would be increased by the Access of the Bohemick Congregation A great Forecast to keep our Hierarchy found from the Contagion of Foreigners and he was more Religious to keep the Church of England in its Sabbath and Holy Rest than to help out the Neighbours Ox that was fallen into the Pit Yet I have somewhat to alledge in the Behalf of the Bohemians I have in my little Library a Book printed 1633 eleven years after the Lord Keeper appear'd against their Petition called Ratio Disciplinae ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate sratrum Bohemorum Their Platform in that Piece comes so near to the old Protestant Church of England above all the Reformed that for my part I wish we had had their Company This is sufficient I am sure against those Opposite and Self-overthrowing Aspersions Let them do their worst there is one Metal that will never be the worse for them of whose Property this Lord partak'd It is Gold of which Pliny writes Lib. 33. N. H. c. 3. that nothing makes it more precious Quam contra salis aceti succos domitores rerum constantia The Spirits of Salt and Vinegar the most biting and sowrest Reproaches cannot hurt it with their Tartness That which corrodes all
Spur and Incentive to all the Students of the Law that they might more easily concoct those otherwise insupportable Difficulties and Harshness of their Studies in hope one Day to attein unto those Honours wherewith all of you by his Majesties Favour and your own Merits are now to be Invested Those outward Decorums of Magnificence which set forth your Exaltation this Day are very specious and sparkle so much in the Eyes of the young Fry that swim up after you that they cannot but make very sensible Impression in their Minds to follow your Industry that they may attein to your Dignity That Gold which you give away secundum Consuetudinem regni in hoc casu implies that by your faithful Labour and Gods Providence you have attein'd to the Wealth of a fair Estate And Wisdom is good with an Inheritance Eccles 7.11 Nay I wish heartily that all wise Men had plentiful Inheritances and that the Silly and Sottish were not so fortunate in gathering Treasure For a Rich ignorant Man is but a Sheep with a Golden Fleece Then your great and sumptuous Feast is like that at a Kings Coronation At which you entertain the Ambassadors of Foreign Kings now Resident about the City and the prime Officers and Nobility of this Realm But to ascend higher King Henry the Seventh in his own Person did Grace the Sergeants Feast held then at Ely-Palace in Holborn So estimable was your Order in those Days to that Mighty Monarch I should be too long if I should speak of the Ornament of your Head your pure Linen Coif which evidences that you are Candidates of higher Honour So likewise your Librata Magna your abundance of Cloth and Liveries your Purple Habits belonging antiently to great Senators yea to Emperors all these and more are but as so many Flags and Ensigns to call up those young Students that fight in the Valleys to those Hills and Mountains of Honour which you by your Merits have now atchieved Neque enim virtutem amplectimur ipsam Praemia si tollas 124. Gentlemen I have told you from the Explanation of your Title what you are by Denomination You must be dutiful and respect my Lords the Judges because you are but Servientes Servants And you must be Reverenced by all of your Robe but the Judges because you are Servientes ad Legem Journey-Men of the Law whereas the rest though call'd to the Bar are no more than Discipuli in Justinian's Phrase or as your own Books term Apprenticii mere Apprentices You serve in that Law which is of excellent Composure for the Relief of them that seek Redress in this Nation through all Cases And of rare Privilege it is above the Tryals of all other Kingdoms and States for the Tryal of those that are under Criminal Attainder by a Jury of their own Peers Which I find as one to have used in antient Polities but Cato major in his own Family Supplicium de Servo non sumsit nisi postquam damnatus est conservorum judicio He punish'd none of his Bondmen unless they were cast by the Verdict of their fellow Bondmen To be elected the prime Servants of our most wise and most equal Laws supposeth in you great Reading great Reason great Experience which deservedly casts Honour upon your Persons Emulous I may say Envious Censurers speak scornfully of your Learning and Knowledge that it is gainful to your at Home in your own Country but of no use or value abroad For what is a Sergeant or Counsellor of these Laws if he get Dover Cliffs at his back So I remember Tully in his Oration pro Murenâ being more angry than he had cause with Sâ—lpitius who was Vir juris consultissimus disdains his Skill with this Taunt Sapiens existimari nemo potest in eâ prudentiâ quae extra Romam nequicquam valet That was a wise Art indeed which was wise no further than the Praetors Courts in Râ—e Let Sulpitius answer for himself But in your behalf I have this to answer That beside your Judicious Insight into the Responsa Prudintum and the laudable Customs of this Kingdom which are proper with our Statute-Laws to our own People I say beside these the Marrow of the whole Wisdom of the Caesarcan Transmarine Law is digested into our Common and Statute-Laws as wiâ— easily appear to him that examines the Book of Entries or Original Writs Which makes you sufficient to know the Substance and Pith of the Civil Law in all Courts through Europe So that you would be to seek in their Text not in their Reason and in their Traverses and Formalities of Pleadings which are no prejudice to the Worthiness of your Function Now I have told you as a judge that you are Servants but Honourable Servants of the Law before I conâ— let me admonish you as a Bishop that you are in your highest Title the Servants of God Therefore keep a good Conscience in all things Serve that holy Law which bids you Not to pervert the Right and Cause of the Innocâ— I know it is very hard to discern the Right from the Wrong in many Suits till they come to be throughly sisted and examin'd So truly did Quimilian say Lib. 2. Cap. 8. Potest accidere ut ex utráque parte vir bonus dicat An honest Man in many Pleaâ— may be entertain'd on either side Therefore it is no discredit to your Profession that as the Aetolians in Greece of old and the Suitzers in the Cantâ—ns at this Day are often Auxiliaries of both sides in a pitcht Battail so you should be Feed to try your Skill either for Plaintiff or Defendant But when you discern a Clients Cause is rotten then to imploy your Cunning to give it Victory against Justice is intolerable The more vulgar that Iniquity is the more it is odious As Pliny said Lib. 8. Episto ad Russiuum Decipere pro meribus temporum prudentia est It was the great Blindness and Corruption of the Times when Cheating past for Wisdom He that labours by Witty Distortions to overthrow the Truth he serves Lucre and not God he serves Mammon and not the Law You know you cannot serve those two Masters for they are utterly opposite But to conclude three Masters you may nay you ought to serve which are subordinate Serve God Serve the King Serve the Law Ite alacres tantaeque precor confidite Causae I have ended The Fear of God go with you and his Blessing be upon you 125. All things upon this Festival Day of the new Sergeants were answerable to this Eloquent Speech Yet every Day look'd clowdy and the People were generally indisposed to Gawdy Solemnities because the Prince was in a far Country Others may undertake to write a just History of that Journey into Spain and a just History gives Eternity to Knowledge I fall upon no more than came under the dispatch of one Person upon whom I insist Yet some Passages upon the whole Matter will require their
they of our part before you bring forth the whole Plump of your Articles No Fence could thrust by this Question but that it would stick fast in the Cause So we gained again that King Philip was restreined from making Faith for King James And although the Froathy Formality of promulging the Dispensation was kept back yet the Articles came into Play that the Commissioners on both sides might fall to a Session 142. But from Strife of Tongues from Fundamental Contradictions from Clashings every day what Fruit could be look'd for Do Men gather Grapes of Thorns If you will believe the Parties what this Lord objected against that Lord there was none that did Good no not one If you will believe their respective Defences to those Objections there was none that did amiss I cannot take up all the Blots they made with my Pen lest I make them bigger None of those Peers hath Justified himself so well in his Letters Apologies and Reports but that strong Inferences may be drawn from some Parts to disprove the rest What was spoken at the Conference of the Junto was within the Veil and under Covert but what is published out of it is most uncertain For the Lord Keeper after he had consulted with the Prince and searched all Papers to pass his Judgment what Countenance the Business should put on when the Parliament looked upon it but ten days before Feb. 2. 1623 He writes thus to the Duke Cabal P. 90. That all the Reckoning must not be cast up before the Parliament for fear they should fall to particular Dispatches wherein they cannot but find many Contradictions After whom I glean up this Handful He that writes upon this Subject what is reserved in the Memorials of those Days writes after the Canon of Integrity but when he is monished that there are Contradictions in those Memorials he can never be secure that he hath compiled an uncorrupt History Upon this Staff he may rest That when the Chief Counsellors fell out among themselves like the Midianites every Man's Hand against his Brother as worthy Actors as I count them to be yet every one was out in his Part. Nay He that will adjust the Course of any one in this high Transaction in all things will burn Truth in the Hand and spare the Guilty He that aspired to be Dioscorus the most preeminent in the Company let him be first considered That is Conde Olivarez the Abner in the Service of his Master Ishbosheth whose Humor would brook to be crost by no Man ingrained in Nature to be Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Opiniator a costive Counsellor that would hold the Ground where he stood and move for no Perswasion By the fortunate Gale of Court-Favour he had lived in continual Custom to carry all before him without being stopt As Velleiâ—s says of M. Agrippa Parendi sed uni scientissimus aliis sanè imperandi cupidus so he was very servile to please King Philip and look'd that all beside should be as servile to please him Such a Spirit is intolerable in Counsel and not to be coapt with that thinks it an indignity unless he speak for all and Vote for all Such a States-man is like to bring nothing to a good End but himself to an ill one Our Princes Reports may be held of all other to be most Authentical from whom take it thus His Highness representing the Treatise of Spain to the Lords of the Privy-Councel at St. James's Octob. 30. 1623. Begins that the first man that did give him great Profession of welcom into Spain was this Olivares and in the interview in the Garden assured him that all business should be dispatch'd as fast as his Highness wish'd That the Temporal Articles should straightway be Concluded and the Spiritual Articles about Religion should cause no delays but be remitted to the Wisdom of the King his Father and his Gracious Promises But says his Highness The longer I staid the less I found him my Friend and the oftner I spoke with him the less he kept his Word But our Duke of Buckingham after a little acquaintance found the Conde Duke a great deal worse to him They came in no place but with shews of disdain at one anothers Persons and like two great Caraques in a foul Sea they never met in Counsel but they stemmed one another In every Proposal if one said so the other said no if one lik'd it the other slighted it Could it be expected that the Counsels of the whole Table should not be at a Fault when the two Presidents appear'd in Hostility of Opinions When the Malady of disaffection lay not hid in the Veins but broke out in the Body When they never brought their Offers within compass of Probability One Observes for their parts that run Races Alex. lib. 2. c. 21. Quanto minor in corpore splen foret tanto perniciores homines esse He that hath the least Spleen will make the best Footman So in all Negotiations he that is most Calm will dispatch most work but put Wise-Heads together yet where there is much Spleen there will be little done There was no likelihood but the Northern and Southern Favourites as the Lord Keeper foretold would look proudly one upon another when they met in the same Cock-Pit Courtesie was quite out of fashion with them that he that receiv'd it might not seem the greater Emulation was all in Fashion to dim each others Light by casting Shadows of Opposition Only these Animosities between two high Spirits so ill Match'd were the Seed of the Quarrel which I press against a vulgar and a scandalous Error made Table Talk in all England that our Duke had Attempted the Chastity of the Condessa Olivares and was Cheated with a diseased Strumpet laid in his Bed c. This is grosly contumelious The Lady was never solicited by Buckingham to defile her Honour with him as Sir Wal. Aston will Testifie in a Postscript of a Letter to the Duke Cabal p. 33. The Condessa of Olivares bids me tell you that she Kisseth your Grace's Hands and does every Day Recommend you particularly by Name in her Prayers to God which Salutation she durst not have sent to his Lordship no not for her Life if the Duke had offer'd toward that Indignity to make her a Strumpet And for the Rest of this Obscene Tale the worthiest Gentlemen that waited upon his Person in that Journey have assur'd me that as well in Spain as when he came from thence into England his Body was Untainted from that Loathsomness not to be Named the just Recompence of Rotten Lust Yet perhaps more will Read these Reasons then believe them though they cannot Answer them Few have been so happy to be Redeemed from the Rumor of a common Slander For as the most Eloquent of Men says Orat. pro Plancio Nihil est tam volucre quà m Maledictum nihil facilius emittitur nihil citius excipitur nihil latius
Quarrel between his Ministers in Spain which did so much disturb the Match Sir John Hipsley and such as he the Duke could pass them over for rash Writers but he would never forgive it to the Lord Keeper who invited him to see his Errors But like old Galesus in Virgil Aen. 7. who was knocked down while he went betwen the Latins and Trojans to reconcile them Dum paci medium se offert justissimus unus Qui fuit So it hapned to him that pleaded in this Mediation to be offered upon the Sacrifice and Service of making Love 159. Nevertheless to draw out the Thread of Favour to more length which the Duke had with the King and that the Destinies might not cut it off the Lord Keeper wrote to his Majesty upon Sir John Hipsley's Arrival in the midst of August That he had heard more of the Duke's most laudable Diligence in Spain from Sir John than ever he could learn before that Malice it self could not but commend his Zeal and that Humanity could not but pity the Toil he had to reduce that intricate and untoward Business of the Palatinate to some good Success He might well call them intricate and untoward for the Spanish Motions were circular Nothings much about and nothing to the Point Most true it is that the Articles anent the Marriage were drawn up and restricted to some Heads and Numbers though not perfected three years before the Emperor had entred into the Palz with any Hostility Therefore the Spaniards disputed thus Bring not the motion of it into this Treaty as a thing born out of due time What were it else but as the Proverb says Extra chorum saltare to Dance well but quite out of the measure of the Mascarata We answered if things had been as they are now at the beginning this had then been a principal Capitulation Nor had we honerated the Articles with a new Proposition unless themselves that is the House of Austria had cast us into the Gulph of a new Extremity Reduce the King and his Posterity to the same Peace they were in when we began to treat and we ask no more But as Seneca says Lib. 4. de ben c. 35. Omnia esse debent eadem quae fuerant cum promitterem ut promittentis fidem teneas But upon so great a Change there is neither Inconstancy nor Encroachment to fall into new Consultations For all this though nothing but Pertinacy durst stand the Breath of so much Truth the others came no nearer to us but kept further off affirming as it is in the Report made at St. James's that they conceived our King expected no Restitution at all for his Son and Daughter and that they supposed his Majesty had already digested that bitter Potion We told them they must not dissemble before us as if they knew not the Contrary For his Majesty never intermitted to rouse up their Embassadors to give him a fair Answer about it and had stopt the Treaty of the Match if they had not opened the Way by Protestation made in the Faith of their King that the Palatinate should be rendred up with Peaceable Possession What Shape could Olivarez put on now none but his own a stately Impudency For he told us in the broad Day-light that all former Promises spoken before the Prince's Coming whether by Embassadors to our King or by Count Gondamar to my Lord of Bristol and others were but Palabras de cumplimiento Gratifications of fine Words but no more to be taken hold of than the Fables and Fictions of Greece before the Wars of Theseus The Prince came over him at this with a blunt Anger that if there were no more Assurance in their Word it was past the Wit of Man to know what they meant but he would tell them really his Father's and his own Meaning That without his Sister 's and her Husband's Inheritance restored they neither intended Marriage nor Friendship When King Philip had heard with what Courage and Determination his Highness had spoken like Caesar in Velleius Se virtute suâ non magnitudine hostium metiens it put that King and his Counsel to a middle-way as they called it To treat upon the old Articles and no other as falling perpendicularly on the Marriage but to take into a concurrent Deliberation the Restitution of the Prince Elector's Country Let Metaphysical States-men scratch their Heads and find a real Distinction if they can between these Formalities Yet Sir Walter Aston followed them in that Way and paid them in the same Coin with this Distinction Cab. P. 38. That the King his Master prest for the Restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity to the Prince his Son-in-Law not as a Condition of the Marriage but to be setled together with the Marriage And again Not as a Condition but as a Fruit and Blessing of the Alliance And to make the Coming of the Excellent Princess the Infanta of more Esteem to his Subjects bringing with her beside the Glory of her own Virtue and Worth the Security of a perpetual Peace and Amity These were Punctilio's in Honour but just Nothings in Wisdom the Cause of the Palatinate must not be tempered at the same Forge but apart not a Rush was gotten by it and time wasted for our Ministers were resolved to conclude neither unless they perfected both 160. The Sennor Duca Olivarez made such Work upon this Theme and turn'd it into so many Forms that it makes him ridiculous in the History Vertumnis quotquot sunt natus iniquis Horat. And so disastrous a Counsellor through his Variableness that it was his Fault that caused a Distrust in the main as wise Spotswood says Pag. 544. The Prince conceived there was nothing really intended on the King of Spain's Part but that the Treaty was entertained only till he and the House of Austria had reduced Germany into their Power which might be suspected without Injury by looking upon this Vertumnus in all his Changings Seven Months before the Prince took his Journey and came to cast the Die upon the whole Stake to win or loose all Mr. End Porter was sent to Spain and spake with the great Conde who snapt him up and gave him this unkind Welcome in a Chase That they neither meant the Match nor the Restitution of the Palatinate Presently the Earl of Bristol gave him a Visit and a Discourse about it In a trice he winds himself out of his former Fury and vows he would do his best to further both The next Discovery breaks out by Mr. Sanderson's Diligence Pag. 540. in a Letter of the Conde's to King Philip Novemb. 8. 1622. That the King of Great Brittain affected the Marriage of his Son with the Infanta and was more engaged for the Palatinate And as a Maxim I hold these two Engagements in him to be inseparable For us though we make the Marriage we must fail in the other Then you will be forced to a War with England with
concur to propugn him And in fine this great complaint produc'd but small Effect towards that for which it was so vigorously follow'd The close of all is the best part of the Story The Lady Darcy ever impotent in her Passions and the more in this Case because she could not endure the Calling and hated the Honour of a Bishop was even distracted with Anger that she was cross'd in her will whom the L. Keeper mitigated with such Sweetness and Generosity that she came out of her froward Mood and confess'd she had had no cause to be his Enemy In the instance whilst the Cause was hot in Agitation he sent to her Ladyship to let her know That if she would accept of the Living from him and in his Right he would dispose of Dr. Grant in some other Place and present her Clerk Mr. Glover But her Ladyship would not hearken her thoughts were too high for the cause was depending she hop'd to obtain it with Dr. Grant's Ejection and his Patrons Ruin After all was cleared against her and she found her self at a loss of her expectation the Lord Keeper sent to her upon the Old Terms That if she would submit to have right done her in the right way and take the presentation from him let her send the Man to him for whom she had contended in vain and it should be effected which she accepted of very gladly when necessity had taught her Wisdom and a milder Temper In all this his Lordship shew'd that he had no particular Spleen against the Lady not the least aim to oppress her with his Power but his Scope was to preserve the Jurisdiction of his Court in which he was ever stiff and unvanquishable and when that was acknowledg'd it was an Heroick Spirit in him to pass by a most violent prosecution as if it had never concern'd it It was an Object sit to prove all the dimensions of Christian forgiveness For what more true then that of Pliny to Sabinianus as I have cited it before Ep. lib. 9. Tune praecipua mansuetudinis laus cum â—rae causa justissima est What more Charitable then not only not to return Offence for Offence but to make a beneficent Requital For he found that Yoke of Christ easie to him which is so heavy to others Do good to them that despitefully entreat you Matth. 5.45 201. Let all now be drawn up into a Word no Garland could look more fresh upon a Magistrates Head then this that being narrowly look'd into by the Eyes of all the Kngdom nothing was amiss nothing out of Frame in all his Carriage which Credit stuck so close to him in the next Parliament in which he still kept the Great Seal That not so much as a Dog did open his Mouth against him Judith 11.19 Nor was awak'd out of security with the least Whisper of a Grievance Yet I am as ready to say it as another that to be acquit from having done no ill is a Testimony of harmless not of fruitful Honesty I admire Coriolanus for that Elogy in Halicarn Vix inter virtutes numeravit innocentiam He scarce reckon'd Innocency for a Virtue Innocency is none of the Artillery of Virtue with which it tries and shews it's strength but only a privy Coat to keep a Man from being Wounded I bring him forth therefore from this shade into the light of Action in an instance wherein he did so well that it will break forth that he had a Wit which was such a sudden Architect of Devises so apt in a pleasant cunning so full of Pit-falls to catch the Bird he would snare yet not to hurt it as never a Head-piece in this Nation could overtake him in that ingenuity And the success suited with the Stratagem Fortune favouring it to the help of his best Friends the continuation of a Happy Parliament and the enlightning of his Majesty who was stricken far into Melancholly by a persidious contrivance and illegitimate born in an ill day in the Spanish Embassadors House which Family was vext to the Gall because their Nation was curried in Parliament and most of all that the Match the Treaty and Friendship with them were handled there as the Prince and Duke had set them on with sharp and declamatory disdeigns Therefore they cast about to infect the King with an ill opinion of the Proceedings and the persons and like desperate men they look'd for Redress from Malice and safety from Confusion Nothing did put them by their Piots so long as that they had not the freedom to speak with his Majesty and could never get an Audience in the Absence of Buckingham So that Sir W. Aston writes That it was complain'd in Spain that Marq. Inoiosa hath lately advertis'd hither that he hath several times desir'd to have private Audience with his Majesty and hath not been able to procure any but what your Grace assists at Cab. p. â—â— But after this Parliament had fate seven Weeks and toused their matters sufficiently that Marquess with Don Carlo de Colonna came adventurously to White-Hall and out-reach'd the Spies that watch'd them For while Don Carlo held the Prince and Duke with earnest Discourse Inoiosa put a Paper into the King's Hand and made a sign with a Wink of his Eye that his Majesty would thrust it into his Pocket which was done and not discern'd Nothing can be more broken and imperfect or more corrupt in time and other circumstances then what is Entred into the Cabal p. â—7 and p. 90. out of this Paper There was a worse Pad in the Straw then is there discover'd or else Inoiosa that juggled the Paper into the Kings Hand had not been so roundly check'd by the Lords of the Privy Counsel And if for his part he put no more into the Paper then to procure his Secretary private Access to the King to tell Tales it would not have been disputed whether he should be devested of the Privileges of an Embassador or whether the Speakers of both Houses then sitting should call him to an Account But he that is confest in the Cabal to be the Pioneer that blew up the Mine and found out the Plot hath lest a Note of the particulars in the Paper so Tragical and Scandalous that certainly the Spanish Don would never have stufft it with them Si unquam jub legum ac judiciorum potestatem se casurum putasset as Tully said of Verres Act. 7. If he had ever dreamt to be Confronted for them and brought Face to Face First He terâ—isies the King that he was not nor could be acquainted with the Passages either of the Parliament or of his own Court for he was kept from all faithful Servants that would inform him by the Ministers of the Prince and Duke and that he was a Prisoner as much as King John of France in England or King Francis and Madrid and could not be spoken with but before such as watch'd him Secondly That there was a
it was not set off with much Ceremony to quicken Devotition yet it wanted neither a stamp of Reverence nor the metal of Godliness Yet he would be careful in Launching out so far in Curiosity to give no Scandal to Catholicks whose Jealousie might perhaps suspect him as if he thought it lawful to use both ours and the Church of Rome's Communion Therefore he made suit to be placed where none could perceive him and that an Interpreter of the Liturgy might assist him to turn the Book and to make right Answers to such Questions as fell by the way into his Animadversions None more forward then the Lord Keper to meet the Abbat in this Request Veritas oculatos testes non refermidat The Abbat kept his hour to come to Church upon that High Feast and a Place was well fancied aloft with a Latice and Curtains to conceal him Mr. William Beswell like Philip Riding with the Treasurer of Queen Candace in the same Chariot sate with him directing him in the Process of all the Sacred Offices perform'd and made clear Explanation to all his scruples The Church Work of that ever Blessed day fell to the Lord Keeper to perform it but in the place of the Dean of that Collegiate Church He sung the Service Preach'd the Sermon Consecrated the Lords Table and being assisted with some of the Prebendaries distributed the Elements of the Holy Communion to a great multitude meekly kneeling upon their knees Four hours and better were spent that morning before the Congregation was dismiss'd with the Episcopal Blessing The Abbat was entreated to be a Guest at the Dinner provided in the College-Hall where all the Members of that Incorporation Feasted together even to the Eleemosynaries call'd the Beads-men of the Foundation no distinction being made but high and low Eating their Meat with gladness together upon the occasion of our Saviours Nativity that it might not be forgotten that the poor Shepherds were admitted to Worship the Babe in the Manger as well as the Potentates of the East who brought Rich Presents to offer up at the shrine of his Cradle All having had their comfort both in Spiritual and Bodily Repast the Master of the Feast and the Abbat with some few beside retired into a Gallery The good Abbat presently shew'd that he was Bred up in the Franco-Gallican Liberty of Speech and without further Proem defies the English that were Roasted in the Abbies of France for lying Varlets above all others that ever he met We have none of their good word I am sure says the Keeper but what is it that doth empassion you for the present against them That I shall calmly tell your Lordship says the Abbat I have been long inquisitive what outward Face of God's Worship was retein'd in your Church of England What Decorums were kept in the external Communion of your Assemblies St. Paul did Rejoyce to behold good Order among the Colossians as well as to hear of the stedfastness of their Faith cap. 2.5 Therefore waving Polemical Points of Doctrine I demanded after those things that lay open to the view and pertain'd to the Exterior Visage of the House of God And that my Intelligence might not return by broken Merchants but through the best Hands I consulted with none but English in the Affairs of their own home and with none but such as had taken the Scapular or Habit of some Sacred Order upon them in Affairs of Religion But Jesu how they have deceiv'd me What an Idea of Deformity Limm'd in their own Brain have they hung up before me They told me of no composed Office of Prayer used in all these Churches by Authority as I have found it this day but of extemporary Bablings They traduc'd your Pulpits as if they were not possest by Men that be Ordein'd by imposition of Hands but that Shop-keepers and the Scum of the people Usurp that Place in course one after another as they presum'd themselves to be Gifted Above all they turn'd their Reproaches against your behaviour at the Sacrament describing it as a prodigious Monster of Profaneness That your Tables being furnish'd with Meats and Drinks you took the Scraps and Rellicks of your Bread and Cups and call upon one another to remember the Passion of our Lord Jesus All this I perceive is infernally false And though I deplore your Schism from the Catholick Church yet I should bear false Witness if I did not confess that your Decency which I discern'd at that Holy Duty was very allowable in the Consecrator and Receivers 218. My Brother Abbat says the Lord Keeper with a Smile I hope you will think the better of the Religion since on Christ's good Day your own Eyes have made this Observation among us The better of the Religion says the Abbat taking the Words to relate to the Reformed of France nay taking all together which I have seen among you and he brought it out with Acrimony of Voice and Gesture I will lose my Head if you and our Hugenots are of one Religion I protest Sir says the Keeper you divide us without Cause For the Harmony of Protestant Confessions divulg'd to all the World do manifest our Consonancy in Faith and Doctrine And for diversity in outward Administrations it is a Note as Old as Irenaeus which will justifie us from a Rupture that variety of Ceremonies in several Churches the Foundation being preserv'd doth commend the Unity of Faith I allow what Irenaeus writes says the Abbat for we our selves use not the same Offices and Breviares in all Places But why do not the Hugonots at Charenton and in other Districts follow your Example Because says the Lord Keeper no part of your Kingdom but is under the Jurisdiction of a Diocesan Bishop and I know you will not suffer them to set up another Bishop in the Precincts of that Territory where one is establish'd before that would savour of Schism in earnest And where they have no means to maintain Gods Worship with costly Charge and where they want the Authority of a Bishop among them the people will arrogate the greatest share in Government so that in many things you must excuse them because the Hand of constraint is upon them But what constreins them says the Abbat that they do not Solemnize the Anniversary Feast of Christ's Nativity as you do Nay as we do for it is for no better Reason then because they would be unlike to us in every thing Do you say this upon certainty says the Keeper or call me Poultron if I feign it says the other In good troth says the Keeper you tell me News I was ever as Tully writes of himself to Atticus in Curiositate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to search narrowly into Foreign Churches and I did never suspect that our Brethren that live with you were deficient in that Duty For the Churches of the Low-Countries of Heidelberg Helvetia Flassia Breme and others do observe a yearly Day to the
Memory of our Saviours Birth I conceive the like for Geneva For when Calvin had retir'd to Basil some mutation about Holy Feasts was made in Geneva Upon his Return thither again Hallerius both in his own and in Musculus his Name complains that the Celebration of that Memorable Feast was Neglected Calvin Returns him Answer the Epistle is extant dat anno 1551. Jan. Sancte testari possum me inscio ac ne optante quidem hanc rem â—uisse transactam Ex quo sum revocatus hoc temperamentum quaesivi ut Christi Natalis celebraretur vestro more But will you have the Judgment of Protest out Divines when they were in a Globe and Collection together from all Quarters At the Synod of Dort convened about six years past all the Divines with the Assessors from the States intermitted their Sessions against the Feast of Christ's Nativity with 〈◊〉 Suffrages and the Reason is given in plain Words Sessio 36. Decem. 1â— Quia to tempore Festum Natalis D. N. Jesu Christi instabat propter cujus celebrationem c. It will be the harder for those of the Religion in France to Answer for this Omission Yet Judg more Charitably then to think they do it only out of Crossness to disconform to your Practise He that runs backward further then he need from his Adversary plays his Prize like a Coward And I use to say it often that there ought to be no secret Antipathies in Divinity or in Churches for which no Reason can be given But let every House sweep the Dust from their own Door We have done our endeavour God be Praised in England to Model a Churchway which is not afraid to be search'd into by the sharpest Criticks for Purity and Antiquity But as Pacat. said in his Paneg in another Case Parum est quando caeperit terminum non habebit Yet I am confident it began when Christ taught upon Earth and I hope it shall last till he comes again I will put my Attestation thus far to your Confidence says the Abbat that I think you are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven So with mutual Smiles and Embraces they parted 219. Paulo Majora The next was the greater grapple upon Terms Political and Scholastical between the Lord Keeper and Mounsieur Villoclare who is mention'd before The King was now at White-Hall and the French Agents plied it to concord Conditions for the Royal Marriage And who so busie to trouble the Scene with a new part not concern'd in the Plot of the Comedy as our Nimble-headed Recusants The Secretary Villoclare was accounted and not mistaken to be a servent Zealot in his own Religion which our English had learnt by resorting daily to Mass in the Embassadors House These found Access unto him and sighed out their Grievances before him that their Priests who adventur'd to come to them for their Souls Health were Executed for Traytors and themselves were set such Fines for their Conscience that they were utterly impoverish'd How happy should that Honourable Person be that would skreen them from the scorching of this Persecution That his Lordship had Opportunity for his Power and his Piety could not want will to enter into a Motion for a relaxation of their Miseries among such Articles as were to be Granted for the Honour and Happiness of the approaching Nuptials The Secretary heard them and condoled with them promis'd his Pains and to be an earnest Proctor in their Cause holding it most meritorious to go or run on such an Errand And he sell to his work in good earnest and ask'd such large concessions for his Clients or rather challeng'd such Grace with horrid Liberty then Petition'd for it that the King was observ'd to begin to be cooler in the Treaty for the Marriage then he had been The Lords that plied it beyond the Seas at the Lâ—â—r had not discouraged the Embassadors before they set forward but rather pleased them with hopes of English Courtesies and condescentions And I fear they were perswaded into too much confidence for I have heard it often from the Followers of the Earl of Carlile that after Articles had been drawn and Engross'd some things were Erazed some things Interlaced which never had his Lordships Approbation Our Courtiers at White-Hall through whose Counsels and Resolves the Grants of Monsieur Villoclare were to pass though directly they did dot yield to him yet his driving was so furious that they declin'd to deny him and shift for themselves that the first Storm of his Passion might not fall upon them Therefore they told him they could not assure him he had prevail'd till he had spoke with the Lord Keeper whose Duty it was to Examine such things upon his Peril what were sit or not sit for the King's Conscience Honour and Safety before the Great Seal were put to The Keeper heard of all this and sent to the Duke as he had wrote to him before Cab. p. 95. I shall be in a pitiful perplexity if his Majesty shall turn the Embassadors upon me altogether unprovided how to Answer But he cast it up into this short Sum that the disappointment of this Vexatious Solicitor so far engag'd must light upon himself and the displeasure of all the French that wish'd it good speed He was not to learn that a Magistrate in his Place must have a strong back to bear the Burthen of Envy So he Collected his thoughts into rational preparations and was provided for a Bickering which began on the Eighth of January and held long And it must be warned that the Report of it which follows extends the length above that which past between them on that occasion The Secretary Villâ—are after he had parted from the Lord Keeper and brought his business to a justifiable Maturity through the direction of some of our best Lawyers as the way was chalked to to him had Audience with the King and Entreated with his Majesty upon Terms of greater moderation then formerly he had done which he confest was brought about from a Conference with the Lord Keeper And told his Majesty That Counsellor had given him small content in a long Argument vext between them for he had Preach'd to him till he was weary to hear his Divinity tho' it was Learned and of more Acuteness then he expected in that Cause but unsatisfactory to Catholicks as could be fram'd Yet he made him amends with such Counsel in the end that now he knew upon what Ground he stood what Laws and Statutes were in force against that model of Mercy which he had urg'd and how the Clemency and Power of his Majesty was retrench'd by them Therefore as he hoped to find his Majesty Sweet and Gracious so his Majesty should find him tractable that the Thrice Noble and Primary design about which he came might not hover any longer in suspence Blessed be the Reduction of things to this good pass said the King And that Aequanimity might not slip the Knot his
Employment by and from your excellent Majesty First your Majesty knoweth I was threatned before your Majesty to be complained of in Parliament on the third Day of your Reign And though your Majesty most graciously promis'd to do me Justice therein Yet was I left under that Minacy and the Minacer for ought I know left to his course against me 2. My Lord-Duke confest he knew the Complaints and Complainants and gave me leave to suspect his Grace which indeed I had cause to do if within three days and three days he should not acquaint me with the Names of the Parties Which I desir'd to know not to expostulate but to watch and provide to defend my innocency His Grace failed me in his promise herein I employed Sir Charles Glemham and Mr. Sackvile Crowe to press him for an Answer which was such as they durst not in modesty return unto me 3. Sir Francis Seymore a Knight whom I know not by sight told many of that House who imparted it unto me that upon his first coming to Oxford he was dealt with by a Creature of my Lord-Dukes whom I can name to set upon the Lord-Keeper and they should be backed by the greatest Men in the Kingdom Who gave this Answer That he found nothing against the Lord-Keeper but the Malice of those great Men. 4. Sir John Eliot the only Member that began to thrust in a Complaint against me the Lord-Viscount Saye who took upon him to name Sir Thomas Crew to succeed in my Place Sir William Stroud and Sir Nathanael Rich whom my Friends most noted to malice me were never out of my Lord-Duke's Chamber and Bosom 5. Noble-men of good Place and near your Majesty gave me often intelligence that his Grace's Agents stirred all their Powers to set the Commons upon me 6. I told the Lord-Duke in my Garden that having been much reprehended by your Majesty and his Grace in the Earl of Middlesex's Tryal for thanking the last King at Greenwich for promising to protect his Servants and great Officers against the People and Parliament I durst not be so active and stirring by my Friends in that House as otherwise I should be unless your Majesty by his Grace's means would be pleas'd to encourage me with your Royal Promise to defend and protect me in your Service If I might hear your Majesty say so much I would venture then my Credit and my Life to manage what should be entrusted to me to the uttermost After which he never brought me to your Majesty nor any Message from you Standing therefore upon these doubtful terms unemploy'd in the Duties of my Place which were now assign'd over to my Lord Conway and Sir J. Cooke and left out of all Committees among the Lords of the Council which I know was never done by the direction of your Majesty who ever conceiv'd of me far above my Merit and consequently fallen much in the Power and Reputation due to my place I durst not at this time with any Safety busie my self in the House of Commons with any other than that measure of Zeal which was exprest by the rest of the Lords of the Privy-Council Gracious and dread Sovereign if this be not enough to clear me let me perish 19. The King was a Judge of Reason and of Righteousness and found so much in that Paper that he dismist him that presented it graciously for that time his Destiny being removed two Months further off though it was strongly urg'd not to delay it for a day But in St. Cyprian's words Nemo diu tutus est periculo proximus About a Fortnight after at Holdbery in New-forrest the Duke unfast'ned him utterly from the good Opinion of his Majesty and at Plimouth in the midst of September obtain'd an irrevocable Sentence to deprive him of his Office If the Queen could have stopt this Anger he had not been remov'd with whom he had no little Favour by the Credit he had got with the chief Servants of her Nation and by a Speech which took her Majesty very much which he made unto her in May upon her coming to White-hall and in such French as he had studied when he presented his Brethren the Bishops and their Homage to her Majesty His Friends of that Nation shew'd themselves so far that Pere Berule the Queen's Confessor and not long after a Cardinal was the first that advertis'd him how my Lord-Duke had lifted him out of his Seat 'T is custom to Toll a little before a Passing-bell ring out and that shall be done in a Moral strode as Chaucer calls it Such as would know the true Impulsion unto this Change shall err if they draw it from any thing but the Spanish Negotiation Not as if the Lord-Keeper had done any one much less many ill Services to the Duke as one mistakes For I take the Observator to be so just that he would have done as much himself if he had been in place King James was sick'till that Marriage was consummated and died because he committed it to the Skill of an Emperick The Keeper serv'd the King's directions rather than the cross ways of the Duke which was never forgiven Though the late Parliament had wrought wonders to the King 's Content as it gave him none this innocent Person had receiv'd the Blow which was aimed at him before the Parliament sat He bestirr'd him in the former King's Reign to check the encroaching of the Commons about impeaching the great Peers and Officers of the Realm which the Duke fomented in the Earl of Middlesex's Case Since that House began to be filled with some that were like the turbulent Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meursius Ath. Attic. p. 79. It grieved him at the Heart that more time was spent by far to pluck up an honest Magistrate than to plant good Laws There was no Sin I think that he hated more than that Epidemick violence which he saw was come about that the People extoll'd them most as it was once in the Days of Marius that endeavour'd to thrust down the most noble Patricians This is the right Abstract what was and what was not the Cause of this Mutation 20. There were yet other things that did concur to precipitate his Downfall First My Lord of Buckingham's honest Servants would say that he gave their Master constantly the best Counsel but that he was too robustious in pressing it Vim temperatam Dii quoque provehunt in majus Horat. lib. 3. Od. Well I do not deny it But the more stout in that Point the more true and cordial He that loses such a one that comes to prop him up who had rather offend him than not save him Navem perforat in quâ ipse navigat Cicer. pro Milone he sinks the Bark wherein himself fails The Scythians were esteemed barbarous but this is wise and civil in them as Lucian reports in his Toxaris They have no wealth but he is counted the richest Man that hath
and known to Thousands Nam lux altissima fati-occultum nihil essesinit Claud. Paneg. 4. Honor. What Spight is this to be silent in that which was certainly so and to engrave with a Pen of Steel that which was ignominous uncertain nay a falsity which hath travelled hither out of the Mountains 200 Miles So Jos Scaliger revealed his Disdain against some Criticks in his Notes upon Manil. p. 175. Ubi reprehendendi sumus tunc nominis nostri frequens mentio alià s mirum silentium I need no Pardon that I could not hold in to leave this Admonition behind at the last Stage of his Episcopal Work his general Visitation which was applauded much by all except two sorts of men Some that had not done their Duty and were mulcted Quid tristes querimoniae si non supplicio culpa reciditur Horat. Od. 24. lib. 3. such could not escape Censure who suffer'd with moderation by one that appeared in his temperate Judicature rather to be above the Faults than above the Men. Two others and of the Ministry were sullen because they did not speed in their Presentments according to their mind the reason was the Complainants were found to be rugged and contentious not giving good Example of Yielding and Peace 62. Let me cast in a small handful of other things fit to be remark'd In adject is mensura non quaeritur The Bishop of Lincoln is a Visitor of some Colleges by their local Statutes in both Universities This Bishop visited Kings-College in Cambridge upon the Petition of the Fellows thereof anno 1628. when he shew'd himself to be a great Civilian and Canonist before those learned Hearers but the Cause went for the right worthy Provost Dr. Collins in whose Government the Bishop could perceive neither Carelesness nor Covetousness The most that appeared was That the Doctor had pelted some of the active Fellows with Slings of Wit At which the Visitor laugh'd heartily and past them by knowing that the Provost's Tongue could never be worm'd to spare his Jests who was the readiest alive to gird whom he would with innocent and facetious Urbanity The Provost of Orial-College in Oxford Dr. Tâ—lson with others of his Society visited the Bishop at his Palace of Bugdâ— with a Signification to the Bishop that they might eject one of the Members of their Foundation Mr. Tailour The Bishop saw there was small reason to raise such a Dust out of a few indiscreet words yet he satisfied Dr. Tolâ—on that Mr. Taâ—our should depart so it were with a farewel of Credit and he liked Mr. Tadour so well that he took him into his own House till he had provided the Living of Hempsted for him As 〈◊〉 said of his own Brother in Erasm Epist p. 417. Illius mores tales sunt ut omnibus possint congruere A benevolent Nature will agree with all men and please the Adversaries of both sides Those of young and tender years were much in his Care as appeared that he seldom travelled but Notice being given before he staid at some Town or Village to confirm such as were but even past children to lay his Hands on them and to bless them and did it ostener than the 60 Canon requires An ancient and an admirable Order when such were presented as were before made ready by being exactly catechized And for Childrens sakes he listen'd much what good Schoolmasters he had in his Diocess that bare the irksome and tedious Burden to rear up a good Seminary for Church and State such he valued and thought their Place was better than is usually given them in the World They are the tertia that make up a happy Corporation as Charles the Fifth thought who entring into any Imperial City or Burough was wont to ask the Recorder that did congraturate him Have you a good Magistrate Have you a good Pastor Have you a good Schoolmaster If he said Yes Then all must be well among you said the Emperor Our Bishop had the opportunity to consecrate Churches new re-edisied and Chappels erected which he perform'd with much Magnificence and Ceremony that the Houses of God his Houses of Prayer might be had in a venerable regard Nothing was more observ'd in that Performance than that at the hallowing of a Chappel belonging to the Mansion-place of Sir Gostwick in Bedfordshire the Knight's Son and Heir being born deaf and dumb and continuing in that defect no sooner did the Bishop alight and come into the House but the young Gentleman kneeled down and made signs to the Bishop that he craved his Blessing and had it with a passionate Embrace of Love A sweet Creature he was and is of rare Perspicacity of Nature rather of rare Illumination from God whose Behaviour Gestures and zealous Signs have procur'd and allow'd him admittance to Sermons to Prayers to the Lord's Supper and to the Marriage of a Lady of a great and prudent Family his Understanding speaking as much in all his motions as if his Tongue could articulately deliver his Mind Nor was any of the Prelacy of England more frequented than this Lord for two things First by such as made Suit unto him to compound their Differences that they might not come to the chargeable and irksome attendance of the Courts of Law Aversos solitus componere amicos Horat. Serm. 5. And so many Causes were referred to him and by no mean ones that he continued like a petty Chancellor to arbitrate Contentions Secondly Sundry did appeal to his Judgment for Resolution of Cases of Consciences and most in Matrimonial Scruples and of intricate Points of Faith as about Justisication and Predestination in which when he thought the doubting Person would not be contented with Discourse he gave them his Resolutions very long and laborious in Writing which gathered together and as I have seen them digested would have made an handsome Tractate but the worst Visitor that ever came to a Bishop's House seized on them and never restored them This was Kilvert a vexatious Prosecutor of many in the Court of Star-chamber for the King whose Lineaments are drawn out in the Ninth Book of Apul. Metam Omnia prorsus ut in quandam comorum latrinam in ejus animum vitia consluxerunt Every Beast hath some ill Property this Beastly Fellow had all He stands too near so good a Subject as is in hand for this is the lively Image of a renowned Bishop the Image but of one though the good Parts of many may be concentred in this one as the Agrigentine Painter made Juno by the Pattern of five well-favour'd Virgins All that I have drawn up of his Pastoral Behaviour was seen in the Day-light therefore as St. Paul said of the Corinthians whom he had commended so I may with Modesty apply it to my Subject If I have boasted any thing of him to you I am not ashamed 2 Cor. 7.14 Nor is this all of him in that Holy Charge not by a great deal but so much as is preserved in
Good Works to blow out his Light that in common Opinion did outshine him Which I may allude to in way of Parody from the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.10 He that was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth And what a Temptation it was to follow his Thrust when he was perswaded that the removing of one suspected would be the bottom of his Safety Therefore according to the Prudence and Charity that God hath given me I will neither altogether shake off the good Esteem I had of him nor think too highly and absolutely of human Infirmity And this is inserted to do him Justice who was the chiefest cause under God's Providence and Permission of all the Injustice and Troubles that did light upon Lincoln It is an old Rule in Gregorius Thaumat in Orat. Paneg. ad Originem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I think it not fit to praise one man with the reproach of others for it implies a Contradiction to think to do Right to one by doing Wrong to another Which is enough to bring off the mention of the Causes that dealt not well with an innocent man And though for all he suffer'd he had no reason to thank his Enemies I may chearfully write it he had reason to thank God for his Enemies 67. The Particulars at which the person aggrieved took Unkindness are now to be remembred keeping near to the Shore at first before we launch into the Deep And had the Bishop's humble Petition been heard which he made to His Majesty Cabal p. 118. that deep had never been sounded I Beseech your Majesty for Christ Jesus sake not to believe News or Accusations against me concerning my Carriage past present or to come while I stand thus enjoyned from your Royal Presence before you shall have heard my Answer and Defence to the Particulars They that inform your Majesty may God knoweth be oftentimes misinformed It was time for him to supplicate for this Justice for he knew that his Name was abused in the King's Bed-chamber with continual Scandals Lyes that were untraceable in their ground and original And he had reason to suspect that of such Stuff there was more than came to his Knowledge But Jealousies had better sigh themselves away than crave Redress from Princes against such secret Stingings there 's no prevention but great Fear for they that go a Batt-fowling in the dark to seek matter of Crimination and inject mistrustful and uncharitable Reports day by day to undermine the man they aim at fetch that about by many Fly-blowings which they cannot do at once As a little Sand gathers into a body by many Tydes and in time becomes a Shelf and at last a Bar or Quick-sand able to drown the best Frigat It is fit that Kings should have Intelligence but upon the Peril of him that brings not a Truth It is fit they should know their Subjects but not in a false Glass He that abuseth a Kings Ears robs not from the Sheaf or from the Stack but from the Seed-corn which is treble Thievery A man that spreads Libels corrupts the People A Delator that whispers invented Tales into his Soveraign is worse for he corrupts him that is worth Ten thousand of the People Bishop Hall's sweet Passage is worth the learning That it is good to be Led not to be Carried by the Ears That is it is good to use the Ear not to trust to it These Blob-tales when they could find no other News to keep their Tongues in motion laid open our Bishop for a Malignant because he gave Entertainment at his Board to such as carried a Grudge to the Lord Duke's Prosperity who if such came in their course to his House upon old acquaintance but upon no factious design that ever was proved Hard was the Condition of Archbishop Abbot as he complains in his Manuscript That he was accused for Sir Tho. Wentworth's resorting to him who had been with him but once in three quarters of a Year and then to consult about Sir George Savile's Son and Heir to whom jointly they were both Guardians This Superintendency to watch every man that goes in and out in a great Family is too mean for the Care and too base for the Fear of a Generous Ruler Listen to Caesar's Mind as Mutius reports it to Cicero in the familiar Epistles Caesar nunquam interpellavit quin quibus vellem atque etiam quos ipse non diligebat tamen uterer Admit there was no Harm for there was none in the Society that this Bishop kept yet the Case is alter'd when a man is despighted and when Grievances are blown out to their utmost wideness by the Hatred carried against him Yet well-fare Circumspection and Innocency that these privy Suggestions went out one by one like Sparks that fall upon dank and unprepared matter More Harm was expected to come from a Commission of Thirteen who had Order from the Duke to meet together to sift into every part and passage of the Bishop's Transactions and to collect what was culpable and would bear Censure in the Kings-bench Star-chamber or High Court of Parliament The chiefest of the Thirteen in Place was Sir Rob. Heath Attorny-General but an honest man and a fair dealer This was carried with that little noise that for a good space the vigilant Bishop was not awaked with it till some of his old Officers broke it to him who were called and interrogated upon some of his Decrees and Dispatches Sir Anth. Welden I borrow the Testimony of an Enemy expresseth it thus p. 174. His Rum was determin'd not upon any known Crime but upon Circumstances and Examinations to pick out Faults committed in his whole Life-time And as it were to confront the Tribunal of this unusual Inquisition the Bishop writes to His Majesty just at the time when it sate That no use might be made of his Sacred Name to wound him but that he craved no Protection against any other Accuser or Accusation whatsoever Cab. p. 118. See the stoutness of a clear Conscience He knew how the Bushes were beaten and how the Beagle ranged the Field for Game He heard the Cry of the Blood-hounds that nosed the Ground where he trod Qui si non cecidit potuit cecidisse videri Metam lib. 2. But all was well that Commission ended at Labour in vain not as the old Emblem is to go about to make a Black-moor white but to make him that was White to appear like a Black-moor That Inquisition could find no Fault in him but it is easie to find Fault with that Inquisition A Magistrate must try him that is accused for a Delinquent because he is a Judge but he must not try how he may make a Delinquent because he is a Father There was nothing good in that privy Search but that the Patient was no Patient and that his Enemies lookt far into him and found nothing which they fought for Like them that delve
Hall to be printed to which he hath no more Right than Sir Ro. H had to Charing-cross Thirdly My Breviate shall only tell you and no more who they were in great Place that trod this man down by oppression and false ways whose Pictures are drawn out at length in the larger Frame 'T is too much the Recreation of the common man to stick longest in that Page wherein he reads Invectives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demosth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So engrafted it is in us to listen unto Contumelies as unto Musick But I will not feed my Guests with such Acorns It is enough for a Warning to others that God did quickly bring the day which he had called and they were made like him Lam. 1.21 Or worse that opprest the Bishop for the abuse of Fiduciary Power will never pass long unpunish'd 108. Every Effect is best known in its Cause that 's the best ground for a beginning It is apparent that much Anger was seeded and thrust out of one bitter Root The chief Counsellors of K. James and of his Cabinet that devised with their Master how to compass the Spanish Match and took no joy in the Failing pleased their old Master but lost the Prince his Son alienated from them by Buckingham after he had returned home Richmond Hamilton Belfast lived not long after Middlesex and Bristol the first blown down the other shaken by Impeachments in Parliament and both laid aside Arundel sent to the Tower and there had continued but for the clamour of the Peers in the Upper House for nothing but for marrying his eldest Son to a Daughter of the House of Lenox How then could Lincoln escape who was K. James's right hand in all Dispatches about that Treaty Nothing was unassay'd to scourge him because he knew more Secrets than any man and shewed most Stomach to defend himself Sir A. Wel. beyond his wont tells Truth in this p. 174. That his Ruine was determined not upon any known Crime but upon Circumstances and upon Examinations to pick out Faults committed in his whole life-time And the blow was given after nine years had been spent upon one matter to frame a Censure out of it Majora animalia diutiùs visceribus parentum continentur Quint. lib. II. The Whelps and Cubbs of great Beasts are long in the Womb before they be brought forth It came about anno 1628. that the Bishop had suspended Burden and Allen the one a Surrogate to Sir J. Lamb the other a Proctor in his Court both of Leicestershire for doing Injustice and being vexatious both to Clergy and Laity Ut non Compositus meliùs cum Bytho Baccius They petition'd and clamour'd to be restored but as Budaeus says proverbially of a Land-leaper that makes himself a Cripple and cries out for help Tolleeum qui non novit De Asse p. 104. Let him pity him that doth not know him So Burden and Allen were too well known to get any Favour At last Sir J. Lamb a Creature of dark Practices and Dr. Sibthorp undertook for them and propounded it to the Bishop at his Table when their Hand was with him in the Dish But when they would ingratiate them for their good Parts as Mr. Hooker said of Ithacius that there was nothing commendable in him but his Zeal against the Priscillianists so these had nothing to brag of in their Brace of Greyhounds but that they were the swiftest of their kind to chase the Puritans The Bishop told them Dr. Morrison and Mr. Pregian Register of Lincoln and Leicester being present That men of erroneous but tender Consciences would never be reduced by such as were scandalous for Bribes and Taverns and other bad haunts how that Severity against that Party was not seasonable at that time for he had lately conferred with the King and that His Majesty had condescended to give them some forbearance though not openly profess'd to get his ends out of some Members of Parliament who were leading men and more easie to be brought about by holding a gentle hand over the Ministers of their Faction Here 's the sum of all This was the King's mind And how could it be follow'd but by being revealed to some that were in Office If there be any blame in this let him that said it cry out as Philotas did Curt. lib. 6. Fides veri consilii periculosa libertas vos me decepistis vos quae sentiebam ne reticerem impulistis Patt to the Bishop's case to a word This was carried to Bissham in the Progress where Bishop Laud attended and by him exaggerated to the King that his secret Counsels were abused The Historian Sanderson taking it out of another I suppose who wrote the Reign of K. Charles hath fancied an Accusation that was never dreamt of p. 220. That the Bishop's Wit and Will tempted him to talk disloyally of the King and a Bill put in against him for it A Woodcock 's Bill but no such Bill was put in Star-chamber Nullum decuit haec scribere nisi quem constat optasse Sym. Ep. p. 129. He that wrote so would have had it so Piety forbid that a Bishop should violate the sacred Honour of his Prince with a disloyal word Yet how moderately did Q. Elizabeth speak of Sir J. Perrott's Offence in that kind Camden anno 1592. quoting the Saying of Theodosius Si quis Imperatori maledixerit si ex levitate contemnendum si ex insaniá miserandum si ab injuriâ remittendum But Aurelian went further that he might not hear of such Complaints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanxit ne audirentur qui deferebant malè locutos de principibus Carion l. 3. c. 61. It was a generosity in those heroical men which Shimei and Railers at Kings did not deserve but Lincoln was not touch'd with the lightest suspicion of this Fault O but His Majesty's Counsels were revealed and expiable Crime in the adverse Bishop's Construction Kings Counsels may be of that reach and choice that to blab them abroad may touch his Life that did it Upon such great points of State Bodin moves a Question De Repub. p. 386. An poena capitis statuenda sit iis qui principis arcana divulgant Augustus told a Secret to one of the â—abii that he would bring Agrippa home again from Mitylene Fabius told this to his Wife and she to Livia who disaffected Agrippa and it cost Fabius his Life as Salmasius enlargeth it in his Preface to Solinus Plutarch hath wrote more upon it Lib. de Cur. Aud. how dangerous it is to know the Privacies of Potentates lest they should be vented in rashness So that Philippides asking Lysimachus what he should give him says Lysimachus any thing but a Secret But the thing communicated to our Bishop was but petty in comparison and no Secret neither not imparted at the Council-Table but in Conference in the time of Parliament as to a Peer of the House lock'd up with no Seal of Silence but to
hold the quarrel broke out into a collateral Point the weighing of the Credit of Jo. Pregion a man that had enjoyed two Oâ—lices of great account for divers years and was never questioned before this time in his Reputation So the Siege of Troy was forgot and the Battel was drawn out on both sides to get or to recover the Body of Patroclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Il. Ï. The Bishop could not defend his first Cause without the Testimony of Pregion which made him diligent to keep his good Name from being stained and the Adversaries were as resolute to Impeach him looking to spring up a new Information from the Defence of the old Matter This tugg held eighteen Months to the Bishop's Vexation and Cost having spent as much upon it as would have founded an Hospital to keep twenty poor People The Archbishop took occasion upon the spinning out of so much time to blame the Defendant for Traverses and Delays a Course which the wisdom of Treasurer Weston had put into him and if it were bad to fly with his Grace's leave was it not worse to Persecute Baronius justifies the Christians that made escape from Heathen Tyrants with a good reason An. 205. p. 12. Qui non fugit cum potest adjuvat ejus iniquitatem qui persequitur The Exceptions against Pregion were referred to the Lord Chief Justice Richardson and Lord Chief Baron Damport which charged Pregion that he endeavour'd to lay a Bastard-Child of his own begetting upon another The two Judge having heard all that could be alledged pro and con disallowed the Exception and an order being drawn up for it when the Lord Richardson was about to sign it Kilvert most imperiously charg'd him not to do it till he had heard from the King The Judge whose Coat had been sing'd at the Court before stopt his Hand but delivered a Copy of the Certificate to the Bishop's Sollicitor and avowing he would maintain it that is to say if he durst but fear shook his Conscience out of him The Lord Damport would not vary from himself and charg'd his Brother Richardson freely with Inconstancy Of which Disagreement the Star-Chamber having notice added to these three more the Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Judge Jones and Judge Vernon These sitting together in the Lord Richardson's Lodgings Kilvert brought in Secretary Windebank among them though neither Referree nor Witness nor Party in the Cause who argued the Business an hour and half against the Bishop's Witness and perform'd it weakly for all men are not call'd to knowledge with their places as Isâ—crates would have us believe in his Areopag Oration that the Office of an Areopagite transform'd a man Ut tanquam loci genio afflatus ex ingenio suo migraret Budaeus in 1. lib. Pand. p. 283. The Secretary having done his part and shewn what was expected from White-hall departed The five Judges drew up a Certificate signed it and assured the Bishop all in general and one by one it should not be changed So said the L. F. among the rest but he sup't a Promise into his mouth and spit it out again This predominant Judge like a Falcon upon her stretches took home the Certificate with him and the Bishop with him who staid at his House till almost midnight because the Lord F. would not give him the Order till Kilvert had carried it to the Court to shew it to some body This was not fair for to be just and honest is so forcible that it should be done extempore not an hour should be borrowed to advise upon it Yet the Judge solemnly protested That he would dye rather than recede from it it being the sense and under the Hand of all his Brethren The Bishop being in a withdrawing Chamber read over the Order so often that by the benefit of a good memory he got it by heart verbatim and so departed to Bugden against Christmas-day About the midst of the Holy-days he heard by a good Hand that the Certificate was alter'd and all that Matter inserted which had been rejected by the Judges He came up in all haste to London and finding Judge Jones ask't him if these things were so Yes says he 't is true all is chang'd from white to black and your Friend the L. F. hath done all this A Friend he might call him if merit might have purchast him for whom the Bishop had done more than for any pleader in England when he was in great place Quae potest esse jucunditas sublatis amicitiis quae porrò amicitia potest esse inter ingratos The Bishop charging this Alteration upon the Judge to his Face he replyed Quod scripsi scripsi and would not hear Mr. Herbert the Defendant's Counsel who told the Judge with some passion That there was more matter for Examination of Witnesses couched in the new Certificate than was in all the Cause But the Bishop demanded calmly of that Lord that had alter'd all What he meant to use an old Acquaintance in that unheard of manner He answer'd and said the same to others He had been soundly chidden by his Majesty and would not destroy himself for any man's sake This Judge was worthy of greater Honours and did affect them Haud sanè aequo animo in secundo se sustinens gradu Curt. lib. 4. and not long after he got the Garland by being the most active of all his Rank to bring about the King's Undertakings chiefly against this forlorn Defendant but held not the place one full year From whence a Scholar may Contemplate upon those two Verses of Homer Il. Ï. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom God doth honour if with him you war The quarrel 's Gods your ruin is not far 115. By this time Kilvert put in Courage with these Stratagems is ready to proceed to examination of Witnesses Let me shew how he is armed like Pliny's Ichneumon lib. 8. Nat. Hist Mergit se limo saepiùs siccatque sole mox ubi plurimis eodem modo se coriis loricavit in dimicationem pergit He dips himself often in Mudd and every time crusts it hard in the Sun and being covered with this dirty Harnass he falls to fight with his Enemy All will run even in the application The Bishop is forced at an intolerable expence to tumble in person with his Lawyers and Sollicitors from place to place over six or seven Counties of the Kingdom The first Abuse done unto him in this course was to deny him several Commissions to dispatch his Troubles about the Witnesses which was never denied to any Subject before and to force him to take an Examiner of the Court whether he would or no. 2ly Every Defendant being allow'd to chuse which Examiner he likes best by the practice of that Court the Bishop pitch'd upon an ancient and experienc'd Clerk yet could not enjoy him for in conference with Kilvert he had said That in this Service he must be an indifferent
same Building Where should we look for kindness but in the Rulers of the Church the noblest part of Christ's Family And kindness is nobleness says St. Chrysostom and mercy is a generous thing The Beraeans were more noble than the Thessalonians Acts 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he It doth not signifie nobleness of blood but gentleness of pity Now for the Book the Stone of Scandal at which his Grace stumbled so much it was known unto him that some things got into practice in the Church under his Government and by his Authority were disrelisht by a considerable part in his Province and they of the best conformity whose averseness he thought would be the stiffer by the contents of that Book His remedy was to bring the Author into question and to crush all that sided with him in his Person as the State Maxim goes Compendium est victoriae devincendorum hostium duces sustulisse Paneg. to Constantine p. 339. But which way shall the Book be brought into Disgrace with bad Interpretations It will do no good Forced Earth in time will fall to its own level First then besides some Answers publisht to decry it he incensed his Majesty with a relation of it in whose Ecclesiastical Rights it was mainly written for what he had collected and offered in a Paper to his Majesty Lincoln got a sight of it by the Duke of Lennox and proved that all the Matters of Fact set down against him were false and not to be found in the Book but that it strongly maintain'd the contrary Positions which when his Majesty saw he seem'd to take it ill from the Informer So these flitting Clouds were blown over before they could pour down the Storm they were big with His Grace sent the Book to the Attorney Generâ— to thrust it into an Information who return'd it back that it would not bear it Here again was Tencer's luck in Homer Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had a good will to hit Hector with an Arrow but he mist him Then in his Speech made against Burton Prin and Bastwick which he printed with a Dedication to the King he fell upon this Book reading out of his Notes that he that gave allowance to thrust it at that time into the Press did countenance thosethâ—ee Libellers and did as much as in him lay to fire the Church and State Now under colour to Censure others to fall upon a man that was neither Plaintiff Defendant nor Witness in their Cause would amount to a Libel in anothers mouth against whom Justice had been open But as Demosthenes says against Aristogiton 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sword is useless if it have not an edg to cut so this bitter flam was but a leaden Dagger and did not wound What remained next but take him Bull-begger fetch him into the High-Commission Court where his Grace was President Judge and might be Advocate Proctor Promotor or what he would And he was so hot upon it that three Letters were written by Secretary Windebank in his Majesties Name to hasten the Cause Whereas honest and learned Dr. Rive the King's Advocate knew not where to act his part upon it Lincoln is now in his Coup in the Tower whither four Bishops and three Doctors of the Civil Laws came to take his Answer to a Book of Articles of four and twenty sheets of Paper on both sides The Defendant refuseth to take an Oath on the Bible claiming the Priviledge of a Peer but his Exception was not admitted He stood upon it that himself was a Commissioner that they had no power over him more than he had over them which did not suffice him Then they come to the Articles whose Proem in usual form was That he must acknowledge and submit to the power of that high Court which he did grant no otherwise than in such things and over such persons as were specified in their Commission The second Article contain'd That all Books licensed by his Grace's Chaplains are presumed to be Orthodox and agreeable to sound and true Religion which he denied and wondred at the Impudency that had put such an Article upon him The third That he had licensed a Book when none but the Archbishops and Bishop of London had such power Nay says Lincoln my self and all Bishops as learned as they have as much power as they not only by the Council of Lateran under Leo the Tenth and the Reformatio Cleri under Cardinal Pool but by Queen Elizabeth ' s Injunctions and a Decree in Star-Chamber The fourth That he named a Book called A Coal from the Altar a Pamphlet The fifth That he said all Flesh in England had corrupted their ways The sixth That in a jear he said he had heard of a Mother Church but never of a Mother Chappel The seventh That again in a scoff he derived the word Chappel from St. Martin 's Hood The eighth That he said the people were not to be lasht by every mans whip The ninth That he maintain'd the people were God's people and the King's people but not the Priest's People The tenth That be flouted at the prety of the Times and the good work in hand The rest of the Cluster were like these and these as sharp as any of the seven and twenty Articles and one and thirty Additionals This was the untemper'd Mortar that crumbled away or as the Vulgar Latin reads it Ezech. 13.10 Liniebant parietem luto absque paleis So here was dirt enough but not so much as a little straw or chaff to make it stick together But such as they were the Bishop had the favour to read them all over once before he was examined a favour indeed not shew'n to every body After the Examination past over he required a Copy of it which the three Civilians voted to be granted but his Grace and Sir J. Lamb would first have him re-examined again upon the same Interrogatories to try the steadiness of his memory and to catch him in a Snare if he did vary An Error that may easily be slipt into by the tediousness of the Matter and the intricate Forms of the Clerk's Pen wherein an aged or illiterate man will scarce avoid the danger of Perjury But the Bishop being of a prodigious memory had every word by heart which he had deposed before against two subsequent Examinations which laid this Cause asleep till God shall awaken it and hear it on both sides at the last day 124. No worse could be lookt for than that their frivolous Articles should go out as they did in a Cracker And less was expected from that which followed whose steam when it came abroad was laught at in good Company but it cost the unfortunate Bishop some thousands in good earnest for Cyphers for Riddles for Quibbles for Nothing It made a third Information in Star-Chamber for like Herulus in Virgil Aen. 8. Ter letho sternendus erat The driver on and the dealer in it was the
and to stand to their Courtesie when they would resign them again Nec missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo Hor. Art Poet. It could be for no small time that they itch'd to hold the Reins and having govern'd so long they would never be brought to obey The Fox in the Fable crept into a Granary of Corn and staid till his Belly was so full that he could not get out It is a wise Note of Spartianus upon Did. Julianus Reprchensus in eo praecipuè quod ques rogere auctoritate suâ debuit praesules sibi ipse fecit When the prudent Augustus saw he could not shake off a standing Senate he saw no way but to divide the Provinces of the Empire between him and them and to take the worst half the remotest to himself But did the King think to escape so well with an indissoluble Parliament Balsack writes prophanely That the World ought not to end until the French King's Race should fail And it proved by this concession to continue the two Houses to sit as long as they would that the Glory of the Crown should fail before they would endure their old Stump to be rooted up When a Swarm of luxurious men that made love to Penelope wasted Ulysses's Substance in his absence Homer breaks out Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no King henceforth be gracious and kind for he shall fare as ill as the worst So let no King suppose to oblige his Subjects with the greatest Trust that was ever committed to men for he shall speed the worse for his considence in them The Bishop of Lincoln but two days before ask'd the King If his wise Father would have suffer'd such a thing to be demanded much left have granted it And Whether it would be possible for his truest Lieges to do him Service any more So bold he was and ply'd his good Master to the last with new Motives to dehort him from it I know not what ill Star scouled upon so good a King to listen to no good Counsel in that point There was one that thrust him on whose Advices were more loving than lucky And on a Sunday May 9. he signed the indefinite continuance of the Parliament as it is commonly voiced and Strafford's Execution with the same drop of Ink. A sad Subject and as I found it so I leave it 155. Wisdom and Reason were not wanting in that noble King Fortune was Darius called Codomann was the best of all the Kings of the Porsian Race from Cyrus downward to himself yet under him the Persian Monarchy was ruined and fell to the Macedonians Destinatus sorti suae jam nullius salubris consilii patiens says the Historian Curt. lib. 5. It cuts my Heart to say that this agrees to a far better Monarch than himself King Charles makes ready in the Summer for a Journey into Scotland hoping to bring over the Seditious there to love him with Sweetness and Caresses by Bounties as he was able by Honours bestow'd on some by Promises and by the gracious Interview of his presence for we owe Affection naturally to them that offer us Love Or if all this wrought not he was so oversway'd with Disdain to be near to Westminster where his Person his Justice his Court or his Clergy were slander'd every hour that he would ride far enough from the strife of Tongues and not be near the Furnace where the steam was so hot I heard one of his Bed-chamber say That nothing made him remove so far from his Court and Council as the tediousness of Intelligence brought to him every minute with variety of Glosses and Opinions upon it As Adrian the Emperor said in his last Sickness that he had too many Physicians about him to be cured so our King thought he had too many Counsellors at London to take distinct Advice Walk in the Spring-Garden in May and what Bird can you listen to particularly when there is not a Bough but hath a Bird upon it that warbles his own Note There is pleasure in that But those that press'd so thick upon the King came with some ill Augury Seraque fatidici cecinerunt omnia vates AEn lib. 5. Howsoever Home is homely says the Country Adagy and this Journey to Scotland was not begun in a good day There was never any Parliament like it which now fate that bewrayed openly so many foolish Fears raked up in the cold Embers of Distrust and Guiltiness Quae pueri in tenebris pavitant sing untque futurâ Therefore a Jealousie was straightway in their Heads that this Journey could not be good for them Why What can a King do to be good for himself and pernicious to his People Well said the Persians Xen. lib. 8. Cyr. paed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cyrus can undertake nothing and make it good for himself alone and not for us But upon their Jealousie they resolve to give the King such a Welcome home as should offend him O Hypocrites that seem to be afraid of the King when none had more cause than he to be afraid of them Watchful Lincoln had dived into the Secrets of the Masters of the private Assembly Hannibali omnia hostium non secus ac sua nota sunt Liv. lib. 22. Every man knows his own mind a wise man like Hannibal will know his Enemies if he can The Bishop coming to the King besought His Majesty that for his sake he would put off his Scotch Journey to another season His written Notes in my keeping are long and impersect the sum is thus He besought His Majesty to consider that the Scotts were Sear-boughs not to be bent whatsoever he said to them they would reveal it to their Cronies at Westminster for there was a Trade and Exchange that ran currently among them Some of them and not the meanest make it a slight thing to be persidious and will laugh at it when they are derected They have distinctions for it from their Kirk which straddle so wide that flat Contraries Yea and Nay Truth and Lyes may run between them K. James the Fourth had the knack of such Devices who having made a strong League of Peace with Harry VIII and yet invaded England with an Army remember it was at Flodden-Field Drummond p 142. said He did not break his League with England but departed from it The Bishop pray'd the King to remember that those Lowns had been in Hubbubs and Covenants and Arms two years together could they be converted of a sudden without a Miracle Integrum non est ad virtutem semel reliclam remigrare Cic. Lelius It will be a long time before Rebels find their Fidelity again when they have lost it They have shew'd their Despight so lately that it is too soon to offer them Courtesie they know in what condition your Majesty is and they will not take it for Kindness but Fear Keep near to the Parliament all the Work is within those Walls win them man by man inch
another Sentiment of Wrongs then common People Yet one Rulo is as good for them as for their Vassals to let Counsels mellow and to grow unto a taste by leisure waiting for time and opportunity are such advantages as tire out the spirits of others till we have melted their metal As every sweet thing mixt with Oil will keep its odour the longer so Deliberations the longer they are compounded with Patience in the end they will be the sweeter The King says for himself Declar. p. 40. He would have expected longer if there had been any hope in them to return to their duty It is as the Spanish Proverb says A crooked Cucumber will never grow straight But are all crooked What was in his heroick Mind to think that no Parliament would be right for ever after which appeared because he summoned none in twelve years nor then but when extremity forc't him When did he expect a better Generation that despaired of all for so many years This was to fall out with a whole Nation But says Cyrus to Cyaxares in the Cipher of an absolute King Lib. 5. Cyr. P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a great fault in a Ruler to be at odds with all his Subjects He may have his will by taking all Empire into his own hands but with no good will of others The last Tarquin rob'd the Senate of their power omnia in domo regiâ privatim tractabantur Mach. Resp lib. 3. cap. 5. for which Brutus and his party take up Arms till they prosper'd in their sin In more recent memory H. Grotius writes Hist Belg. lib. 1. p. 7. That the disusing of the Assemblies of the States by Philip the Second was the beginning of the Revolt of the Netherlands Discontents that fell in should not abolish Courts fundamental for the Maintainance of Justice We have had most corrupt general Councils for some Ages in the Church therefore shall we never hope to obtain a good one Well did Warsovius speak in his Oration to Stephen King of Polonia Millies licet homo defraudetur ab homine utique hominem cum homine vivere debere Though we have been cheated over and over we must trade again with men It is to be prais'd and admir'd that while Parliaments were laid asleep so long we could not say that we wanted Justice Peace and Plenty much less the true worship of God But for want of that politick Court the People thought they were under a new shaped Monarchy like to an Arbitrary Government which lost the King their Affections more then he could lose them by a seditious Parliament For better to endure frowardness then hatred As Suetotonius says of Caesar De ampliando imperio plura majora indies cogitabat so great Ones both Male and Female carried such Tales out of the Bed-chamber that a more absolute Empire was intended then England had known since the Norman Line All that the King 's incomparable Vertues could plead for him would not satisfie for that Suspicion Men love themselves and like a good Governour better then a Godly Our Bolton writes That not a year of Nero ' s Reign but was stained with some foul fact of manners but the Senators finding content in his Government he was redeem'd into their sufferance and the tolerable Opinion of the People Faults of an impious Life oppress not the Subjects but oblique ways of Government gall them Holy King Charles was full of constant and great Vertues all of them Pearls of a clear water but he did not study to oblige the Generality to gratifie to insinuate nay to go down so low as to slatter them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. lib. 5. cap. 3. That is some are of rare worth take them single and alone that fall short of that persection in those things which they do that relate to others Our King would not buy Applause so cheap as with Blandishments and Courtesie He would not dissemble with the Nobles that had offended him and win them in with Art to recover them He would not purchase the People with fineness of words but purpos'd a more real satisfaction Yea a few drops of water infused into Wine makes it not cease to be Wine nor do a few drops of Cunning â—â—er the Essence of Honesty A King of a most nice Conscience shall still â—â—â—â—in the Servant of God and yet by the verdict of wise men he should be the Servant of the People The Duke of Millain the King of Naples about our Grandfathers days lost their Principalities for not woing their Citizens and espousing their hearts strongly to them The Scepter of the old Latin Princes was a Lituus an Ensign of Majesty crooked at the stronger end because a little bending Policy is necessary in a Magistrate Which Xenophon makes to be the Opinion of his exact Cyrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 8. That sometime he must couzin the Multitude into good frame and quiet obedience So might our Josiah have done with good success and sincerity of heart preserv'd Such as saw to what he was inclin'd made him abhorrent the more from Parliaments by remembring them with all disadvantage of flirts and contumelies And what did they in it but piss into the common Well from whence all the Neighbourhood drew water John Major pleading for the Authority of a General Council breaks off and says he knew that many more would plead very stiffly for the Pope Quia Concilium rarò congregatur nec dat dignitates Ecclesiasticas Councils met seldom and gave no Preferments as the Pope did So Flatterers and Ambitious Persons stuck to the surer side and desired the King would forget Parliaments and act all himself for the King could promote them so could not a Parliament But in fine to say a very little upon the whole case as St. Austin is quoted by Gratian for this Sentence That it is too great an attempt for Church Discipline to excommunicate a Nation of People so it was no fit Punishment to exterminate or lay aside the Parliaments of a Nation No Parliament for twelve years and too much Parliament for twelve years put all out of order 84. Which Court formidable to Opposers being like a Bow so long unbent some eminent ones that abused the greatness of their power and some ignoble ones that lived upon the impurity of secure Times seared not the Arrows of its Jurisdiction nor to come under account for their Actions at that Tribunal Says Quintilian lib 12. Quaedam animalia in angustiis mobilia in campo deprehenduntur Some Creatures can shift in their own holes but are snapt up easily in the open Fields So such as could do mischief in their Court had no hope to escape in so publick Examination The Bishop of Lincoln felt it who fell into troubles not for want of Innocence but for want of a Parliament to keep him from Malef icence The cause of his uncessant Molestations for twelve years would
discover himself though I should conceal him by an open affectation to be known his Enemy I mean Bishop Laud. Could he so soon forget him that first made him a Bishop and in twelve years could he not forget an Injury I know of none if the other had trespass'd against him The undoing of his Brother and Colleague in dignity did so run in his mind that it was never out of his dreams to be seen in the Notes drawn with his own hand in Mr. Prinn's Breviate He dream't the Lord Keeper was dead Octob. 23. 1623. that is being interpreted in the Duke's Affections June 14. 1626. He dream't the Bishop of Lincoln came he knew not with whom with Iron Chains but returning freed from them he leapt upon an Horse and departed neither could he overtake him March 17. 1627. Sir G. Wright whisper'd in his Ear in his sleep that he was the cause that Lincoln was not admitted again into Favour in the Court Jul. 13. 1633. He dreamt at Anderwick that this Bishop came and offer'd to sit above him at the Council Table Tibul. lib. 3. Elâ—g Quae Deus in melius â—rudelia somnia vertat that the Earl of Holland came and placed him there Some hearken to Dreams which themselves caused to be dream't says the Prophet Jeremiah cap. 29. v. 8. Sabini quod volunt solent somntare says the Adagy The Sabines dream what they would have But for this Vision at Anwick it was not what my Lord wish't but what he feared Let Babie be frighted with such Visors Ecquid ait vani terremur imagine visus says the Preacher Eccl. 5.3 A Dream cometh through the multitude of Business That which the Fancy is troubled with most in the Day it rencounters in the Night yet without any deliberation of Reason and therefore must be most groundless to collect an observation from it of any act that hath an intellectual touch in it I except the infusions of Prophetical Inspiration which commonly who can suppose he hath attained without Enthusiastical Presumption Juggling Astrologers that will fly at any game for profit and credit held the People in a Dream how they could interpret Dreams which would hit and which not by the Planet as Salmâ—sius says Clymact p. 789. that it was Hephestions prosession to unfold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what nights of every Moon they will happen to be true But he that records his Dreams as if he weigh'd a thing so light in the Balance of Observation his Wits are built upon Fairy Ground and needs no other Astrology to deceive him but his own Superstition Isaiah says That which shall come to nothing shall be as the dream of a night vision c. 29.7 Ens siclum a Toy of no Entity that hath no place in a Predicament The greater is their Sin that make it some part of a Quarrel if they dream that another was ominous to their Life or Honour As Plutarch relates in Dion's Life how Dionysius the elder dreamt that one Marsyas had killed him which made him take opportunity to kill Marsyas to prevent it I am certain it was for no Good-will that the Bishop of Lincoln was notch'd so often upon the Tally of ill-boding Dreams God did promise that old men should dream Dreams of holy revelation Act. 2.17 But these came from the old man which is corrupt Eph. 4.22 who had Art and Part as the Scottish Indictment runs in all our Bishops Persecutions After my L. Bishop Laud had begun to go a sharer with the Duke to suppress him he knew not how to sound a Retreat and desist like to Pope Julius the Second in his Character Nunquam ab eo ad quod ingenio feroci impellebatur recedendum putavit Match Prin. c. 26. Whatsoever he set himself about though unpleasing and dangerous he never look'd back to Repentance and it was beyond his Sufferance to let a parallel Line side with him but he saw if he did not cut this man down he was like to grow to as much heighth of Glory as himself Beside being dazled with too much Light of Royal Favour he did not see that he needed to make Friends least of all to fear an Enemy Whether he had little or sufficient insight into Government is disputable but he knew how to govern the King Like Anaximander the Soothsayer to Alexander the Great Cui credulitatem suam rex addixerat Alexander believ'd any thing that Anaximander told him Curt. lib. 7. Mediators were not wanting that endeavour'd a renewing of Friendship between these two Prelates which the Haughtiness or perhaps the Dissidence of Bishop Laud would not accept a Symptom of Policy more than of Christian Grace not to trust a reconciled Enemy Which is not approved by a good Heathen Tul. Ep. lib. 3. Ep. 37. Si quis est qui neminem in gratiam putat redire posse non is nostram persidiam arguit sed indicat suam He that will not trust is not to be trusted 85. Many did suspect that there was small hope to unite these because the one was hard Wax the other soft Bishop Laud would not connive at the Puritans nor seek them with fair Entreaties but went on to suppress the Ring-leaders or to make them fly the Kingdom Bishop Williams perceived that this made the Faction grow more violent to triumph against Justice as if it were Persecution that the cutting of some great Boughs made the Under woods grow the faster His way to mitigate them was to turn them about with the fallacy of Meekness If they came to him they had courteous Hospitality if they ask'd his Counsel in Suits of Law he gave them all assistance if some Ceremonies would go down with them he waited till their queasie Stomachs would digest the rest he thought it no dishonest thing if he might win his weak Brethren to shift a Point of the Compass when the Winds blew overthwart and to fetch them in not always by a streight course but sometimes by Obliquity Another Disunison was this Bishop Laud was not only a great Patron of them that maintain Arminius or as they would have it Melancthon's Doctrin but a great discountenancer of the opposite part And since he shook the Box they were but Duices and Trays in all Church-Preferments The Indraught of this Partiality wax'd into a new Faction never known before he sate at the Stern The King's Declaration pag. 21. speaks not a little to it that Bishop Montague's Book did open the way to those Schisms and Divisions which since have ensued in the Church Some both then and at this day are so alien'd from the Followers of Calvin as they call them that the Samaritans were not more strange to the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They will not shake Hands with a dissenting Dogmatist This our prudent Bishop did both dislike and despise as a very causeless Breach maintain'd by them Qui eruditionem discordiâ metiuntur as Aventine says of the Schoolmen Annal. lib.
the World is more civil than in Ages past but the longer it lasts our Wars are more licentious and barbarous Livy says Fabritius was as innocent in War as in Peace Just in boasts of greater things lib. 25. Multa tune honest iùs bella gerebantur quà m nunc amicitiae coluntur Formerly they found honester Foes in the Field than we find Friends in the City When the rudeness of the common Soldier abated by courteous treatment the greater disliculty was to thrust back the Ambition of divers more than enough that would be Commanders Words of high Language past between him and some Gallants before they would sit down Ambrosius vir optimae ment is sed elatae says Lud. Molin Paren p. 539. So this Ambrose was not to be out-braved with a Buff-Jerkin and a Feather And though some of the Cavaâ—iers love not his memory for it to this time yet I shall give no scratch to Truth or Reputation to declare my self in his Defence that it was to be praised in him that he repuised the English from being chief Oâ—icers oâ—er the old Britains in their own Soil And it was prudence to preserve the Bulkly's that great Family of Anglesey in the Vice-Admiralty of those Seas rather than a valiant Gentleman born in Cambridgeshire for they will venture further with their own Deputy-Lieutenants Gentry and Landlord than with a Stranger The Western-men were never so well in heart as with their own Bevile Greenvile Ralph Hopton Killigrew Godolphin c. when they chang'd these for other Generals and Colonels their Purses were shut their Courage fell and their Duties were slackned In all these Contrasts the Archbishop prevailed and broke through Mutinies and high Threats which had been impossible but that he was ever most obliging and merciful in his greatest Fortune Bona sibi comparat praesidia misericordia He that would never hurt any when he might was most like if any to be shot free 196. Let it stick upon his good Name as a mark of Heroick Loyalty that he fell to these works upon his own cost and peril before the King was aware nor had yet requir'd it of him which will bring in that of Xenophon l. 3. Hist Hystaspas and Chrysantus were Cyrus his most faithful Ministers Hystaspas would do all that Cyrus bad him Chrysantus would do that which he thought was pleasing to Cyrus's Service before he bad him But when his Majesty heard of this Prelates Actions he posted Letters often to him and those so sweet and affecting that they did recoct his drooping Age into Youth and cozened him that he saw no danger in the Camp and selt no envy from the Parliament Of those Letters there are many reserv'd yet no more shall be produced than concerns the keeping of Conway-Castle because it turn'd to a sharp quarrel and procur'd him obloquy From Oxford Aug. 1. 1643. CHARLES R. MOst Reverend Father in God c. We are informed by our Servant Orlando Bridgman not only of the good Encouragement and Assistance you have given him in our Service but also of your own personal and earnest endeavours to promote it And though we have had long experience of your fidelity readiness and zeal in what concerns us yet it cannot but be most acceptable unto us that you still give unto us fresh occasions to remember it And we pray you to continue to give all possible assistance to our said Servant And whereas you are new resident at our Town of Aber-Conway where there is a Castle heretofore belonging to our Crown and now to the Lord Conway which with some charge is easily made defensible but the Lord Conwaybeing imprison'd by some of our rebellious Subjects and not able to furnish it as is requisite for our Service and the defence of those parts You having begun at your own charge to put the same into repair We do heartâ—y desire you to go on in that Work assuring you that whatsoever Moneys you shall lay out upon the Fortification of the said Castle shall be repayed unto you before the Cusiody thereof shall be put into any other hand than your own as such as you shall recommend Upon the backside of this gracious Letter this the Archbishop hath written with his own Hand I Jo. Archbishop of York have assigned my Nephew Mr. Will. Hookes Esq Alderman of Conway to have the Custody of this Castle mention'd in his Majesty's Letter under his Signet until I shall be repay'd the Moneys and Money-worth disbursed by me in the repair thereof by virtue of this Warrant And in case of Mortality I do assign my Nephew Gryffith Williams to the same effect Jan. 2. 1643. 197. New Motions and sudden started Counsels were no new thing at the Court in Oxford Now the illustrious Prince Rupert is made the Generalissimo and the Powers of the War are given to him The Lord John Byron is entrusted and furnish't with a part to secure North-Wales Neither of them had success according to his Cause or according to his Courage What Charge his Majesty gave to them both to listen to the Archbishops Counsels appears in the following Letters From the King to Prince Rupert Apr. 17. 1646 Right dear and right entirely beloved Nephew c. WHereas our most Reverend Father in God our right trusty and entirely beloved John Archbishop of York makes his abode in the remotest parts of North-Wales and hath been heretofore by reason of his great and long experience very useful to us in the advising and directing of the Commissioners of the Peace and Array in the several Counties of Carnarvan Anglesey and Merioneth in all things nearly concerning our Service Supplies and Assistance and that we have required the said Commissioners from time to time to listen to all his reasonable Counsels and Advice to that effect We thought it sit to let you understand that we have laid our Commands upon the said most Reverend Father in God to do you upon whom we have placed the care and government of those parts the like Service in this kind if you shall hold it fit to require it the said Archbishop humbly desiring us it might be no otherwise imposed upon him which we thought fit to signifie unto you As also that esteem we have of his Abilities and entire Affections in our Service which we desire you to encourage by all fair respects So we bid you heartily farewel Another of his Majesty's follows to the Archbishop Febr. 25. 1645. WHereas we have appointed the Lord Byron to Command in chief over all our Garrisons and Forces in North-Wales and hope that by his good Conduct in those parts our Service and the Countreys Security will be furthered with all diligence Nevertheless for his better and more effectual proceeding therein we have thought to fit desire the ready concurrence with him of your self and all our Friends knowing well how considerable advantage yours and their hearty and unanimous endeavours with him there will bring to our
Service and Affairs And in that respect as well as your common interest and duty we command your suitable compliance which we assure you shall be looked upon by us as a fresh acceptable Testimony of your Affections to Us and our Cause and preserved in our Royal remembrance with the rest of your Merits against the time when it may please God to enable Us to reflect thereon for your good Thus far his Majesty to make way for the Lord Byron a gallant Person a great Wit a Scholar very Stout full of Honour and Courtesie yet favour'd the English Interest above the Welsh in those Counties which did not take And the Dye of War run so false that he lost the Cast to one who had not the Ames-Ace of Valour in him Neither did the scatter'd Forces of those distressed Parts ever set them another Stake Prince Rupert observing the Royal Directions wrote largely as followeth May 16. 1644. To all Governours and Officers to all Sheriffs Commissioners of the Array or Peace all Vice-Admirals or Captains of Ships in the three Counties WHereas I understand by his Majesty's Letters unto me lately directed that the most Reverend Father in God John Lord Archbishop of York by reason of his great Experience and Imployments in the Affairs of this Kingdom as well under my Grandfather of famous memory as under his Majesty that now is hath been intrusted in the three Counties c. from the first beginning of these Troubles and gives his best Advice in Matters of Importance which have relation to the King's Service and the Peace and safe keeping of those Counties from all Invasions by Sea or Land And that he hath discharged that Trust reposed in him faithfully and successfully during the time of his abode in those parts My will and pleasure is That according to his Majesty's intimation to me you and every one of you in all matters of importance and moment touching or concerning his Majesty's or my Service under his Majesty in those Counties as also in all Matters of Questions Doubts and Variances which may fall out either among your selves or between your selves and the several Counties wherein you govern or command shall from time to come consult and advise with the said most Reverend Father in God and follow such his Advices and Counsels in the Premisses which shall be grounded upon the Laws of the Land or the pressing Necessities of these times and agreeing with our Directions and future Instructions from time to time RUPERT Nothing was wanting of Royal and Princely care to preserve the Archbishop in Conway-Castle yet all would not serve There was none whom Envy did more strive to hold down upon all occasions which his great Deservings brought upon him So true is that of Synesius de provid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue doth not quench Envy but rather kindle it One violent Person unframed all good Order who would submit to no Authority a hot Man for he was ever dry and he did not conceal it for he was always drinking 198. That Affront waited more leisure to break forth and suffered him to take a long and a tedious Journey in Winter to Oxford in obedience to these Lines which he received from his Majesty Decemb. 16. 1644. CHARLES R. WE having had frequent experience of your good Affection and Ability to serve us and having occasion at this time to make use of them here We have thought fit and do by these Presents require you to repair hither to Us to Oxon with all convenient expedition Desiring you to come as throughly informed as you can of the true condition of Our Affairs c. Presently he set forward though the ways were much beset and came in January with the first to the King for he had many things to represent and was not in his Element when he was consined in private Walls He took up his Lodging with the Provost of Queens-Colledge Dr. Christopher Potter a Master in Divinity and a Doctor of Piety He was received in the Court with much Grace where he saw his stay must be short For that City could not long receive so many Nobles and Gentry as came to make a Session of Parliament neither could so many of the King 's principal Friends be spared from their Countries Being then a good Husband of his time and having private Audience with his Majesty he gave him that Counsel to which Wisdom and Allegiance led him as Thraseas Paetus the famous Senator said Suum esse non aliam quà m optimam sententiam dicere One passage is fit to see the light which had much of prudence in it and too much of prophesie He desir'd his Majesty to be informed by him and to keep it among Advices of weight That Cromwel taken into the Rebels Army by his Cousin Hambden was the most dangerous Enemy that his Majesty had For though he were at that time of mean rank and use among them yet he would climb higher I knew him says he at Bugden but never knew his Religion He was a common Spokes-man for Sectaries and maintained their part with stubbornness He never discoursed as if he were pleased with your Majesty and your great Officers indeed he loves none that are more than his Equals Your Majesty did him but Justice in repulsing a Petition put up by him against Sir Thomas Steward of the Isle of Ely but he takes them all for his Enemies that would not let him undo his best Friend and above all that live I think he is Injuriarum persequentissimus as Porcius Latro said of Catiline He talks openly that it is sit some should act more vigorously against your Forces and bring your Person into the power of the Parliament He cannot give a good word of his General the Earl of Essex because he says the Earl is but half an Enemy to your Majesty and hath done you more favour than harm His Fortunes are broken that it is impossible for him to subsist much less to be what be aspires to but by your Majesty's Bounty or by the Ruin of us all and a common Confusion as one said Lentulus salvâ Repub. salvus esse non potuit Paterc In short every Beast hath some evil properties but Cromwel hath the properties of all evil Beasts My humble motion is that either you would win him to you by the Promises of fair Treatment or catch him by some stratagem and cut him short Now if it shall be objected Who reports this saving the Archbishop himself to magnifie his own parts that he was so excellent in fore-sight and as Ajax slighted his Rival Sua narret Ulysses Quae sine teste gerit I satisfie it thus His Servants and they that daily listned to his Discourses have heard it come from him long before the accident of saddest experience how some of them would live to see when Cromwel would bear down all other Powers before him and set up himself The King received it with a