Christmas day to give a Testimony to Religion that it might flourish in persecution as the Thorn did blossom in the coldest time of Winter though the Sun in so great a distance might seem to want heat to bring forth the sap so Religion should stand or rather rise up though Religious houses were pull'd down I never heard nor read that any Ancient Author did mention this Thorn which certainly they had not omitted if there had been any such thing and by the growth of the Thorn truly I did judge the age thereof to be much about the time of the dissolution of that Abbey I do accuse no man but if I may judge of the inward faith by the outward tokens and signes then I must needs say that it is high time the Church being now undermined to set up props and to raise up Buttresses for the support of Christian Religion and I bethought my self to whose office this did properly belong Christ being the head-corner-stone laid the foundation of his Church the Apostles did finish the building they were very carefull in the choyce of their successors the first thing they did after the Ascension of Christ was the Election and choyce of Saint Matthias and generally they had the Authority Posuit vos regere Ecclesiam Dei So then I did conceive that the generall care of the Church did belong unto them and where things were not setled and that there was no superiour amongst them that then it did belong to every one of them in particular but especially to the Eldest for so in the state of Nature the primogenitus had ever the care of Gods service and in the Law Aaron was the eldest brother to Moses and the High-priest hood was setled on him and his Sons and here I bethought my self that having been these ten yeers the ancientest Bishop in the Province I was bound in conscience to do my uttermost indeavour to strengthen and support Religion or at least to enter a Protestation and to make a Publick confession of mine own Faith that such as would might follow my example this I took as part of my duty and office to which I was bound and obliged in conscience and to have neglected this I thought I should have greatly sinned then I did think my self bound to do the uttermost of my endeavours and when I considered that the custom of the Church in such like cases hath ever been to implore Brachium seculare to whom should I address my self but to your Lordship and humbly crave your assistance and furtherance herein and whereas formerly there was a course of Law for the punishment of open and scandalous blasphemers and that there were severall writs de Excommunicato capiendi de haretico comburendo c. There being now no Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction that your Lordship would be pleased to be a means to the Honourable and Reverend Judges to supply those wants and to settle a course whereby there may be a legall proceeding against these publick and scandalous blasphemers according to the true intent of the Law Thus both in composing this Treatise and for the Dedication thereof to your Lordship I have done no more then what I thought my self bound in conscience to perform and the rather to express my joy in some things which have lately hapned for living here in the Church-yard of Saint Margarets in Westminster which was the Church proper to the Parliament for here they kept their thanksgivings their humiliations and all other their solemnities when as in their time the Font was pulled down and so continued demolished and in ruines it is now set up again in a most decent and comely manner and I hope it will be an example for other Churches to follow so likewise they had a very solemn perambulation in Rogation week according to the old manner which had been omitted during the sitting of Parliament and Holydayes begin to be kept thus with joy and alacrity not without hopes of good times to suceed I thought fit to publish this Treatise as containing the grounds of Christian Religion for these are the two great and principall Mysteries which all others presuppose and herein if we should waver in the least kinde then Christian Religion would faile and come to nothing and by the publishing of these it will appear what satisfaction I gave in all the rest of the mysteries for these are the hardest and most difficult and as I have performed in these so let men judge of the rest and if God shall inable me and that I may have any competency of meanes to subsist together with the use of a library I shall then proceed in the rest God willing Thus much in generall though I am a stranger utterly unknown and never deserving the least favour from your Lordship yet I make bold to become a Petitioner When I undertook to write the History of the Church of England especially in the time of Henry the eight wherein there was the greatest Alteration and Change knowing that the Lord Cromwell your Lordships great Unckle was then in great favour for I have seen the Archbishops and the Lord Chancellor Audley their Letters unto him to desire his help in furthering their suits to the King and that he was then the only man imployed especially in spirituall causes for he did exercise the whole Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction under the King and by virtue thereof he took place of the Arch bishop of Canterbury which never any subject did and sat on the Bishops side in Parliament I thought it very necessary and fit to hearken after his writings and by the meanes of Sir Robert Cotton the great Antiquary now with God I had the perusall of his study where I read all his Letters Notes and Papers and where I found that it was the Lord Cromwell who made that Order in the Church that every one should learn in the English Tongue the Apostles Creed which may be some example and encouragement to your Lordship to defend these mysteries of our Faith and Religion which hath hitherto been my whole suit Amongst other Letters to the then Lord Cromwell I found one from John Fisher Bishop of Rochester a man famous for his devotion learning and courage when he was in far greater distress then ever I was I thank God for it the effect of the Letter was To desire his help for his relief the Letter is yet extant and may be produced What effect it took I cannot say but I do not finde that it was ever seconded with any other Letter which is usual in cases of distress nor did the Bishop complain at the time of his execution when he was beheaded and therefore I conceive he found some relief This hath encouraged me to become a Suitor to Your Lordship I shall not here acquaint you with any particulars for this were to be over-troublesome but I call God to witness that I know no man nor have I heard of any man that hath
suffered so much in such several kindes so unjustly in proportion as my self have done though things are onely known to God and my self and I have as fair Testimonials for my innocency as any man hath or can have in this world I have been now five years petitioning for a hearing if at length by your Lordships good favour I might prevail you should for ever oblige me that either I might know my offence or otherwise that I might have some means out of mine own to subsist The hearing cannot possibly take up half an hour and I hope to dispatch it in less then half a quarter for I will demand nothing for what is past but do as heartily forgive all men as I desire God to forgive me And I will likewise make this motion in behalf of my Brethren the Clergy that what hath been violently taken from them their cause never heard or what a Committee hath done being no Court of Record being not upon Oath and their power lasting onely during the Parliament that men upon slight pretences might not lose their Freeholds to the great prejudice of the Liberties and Laws of this Nation and Sequestrations which are but for a time might not be continued for ever contrary to their own nature but that men upon submission and satisfaction might be restored to their own possession until some just cause be shewed to the contrary in a legal way Hereby your Lordship shall do God good service discharge your own conscience you shall for ever engage them and give an earnest of your Justice and compassion So humbly craving pardon for my boldness with my prayers to God for your health and happiness MY LORD I am Your most humble Servant Godfree Goodman Bishop late of Gloucester June the 4. 1653. being the Eve of Trinity Sunday To the Reverend Master the Fellowes Scholars Students and all the Members of Trinity College in Cambridge My good Brethren I Do give God most humble thanks that I had the happiness to have my education and breeding in your College where I found the seeds of Religion and learning the good example of others and truly many favours in mine own particular I did ever resolve in token of my thankfulness to give you some memoriall not of any great value or price but onely out of a desire that I had wherewith I did acquaint some of your Fellowes that you would conform your Studies to the present occasion and necessity of these Times for whereas before your Studying of Philosophy did only serve for your Disputations and your keeping of Acts for your degrees now I could wish that they might tend to some practise whereby they might be more usefull and serviceable unto you in the course of your lives and therefore I had thought to have given you all the Mathematicall Instruments and some things which belong to Chymistrie together with Optick Glasses and Herballs and whatsoever else did tend to the Practise of Philosophy for seeing Man is not wholly spirituall therefore I would not have him to content himself onely with the Theorie the charge I confess had not been great but whatsoever it was I am now so utterly plundered that as yet I am able to perform nothing In stead of giving I am now become a suitor unto you while I was in your College I began a quarrell and it was against the Socinians and the Antitrinitarians and truly the rather for namesake because our College is dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Trinity and therefore we are bound both to the adoration and to the defence of that high Mysterie now in my old age upon some occasion this quarrell is again renewed and as it is usuall in all duels to have a second so I do desire your College to second me and being very old I cannot live long for I have now been these nine and twenty yeers together the Ancientest Bishop of your College I do therefore leave you this Legacy to be the Heires and Successors in this my quarrell and to continue a deadly fewd with the Socinians and Antitrinitariants and not only to spend your Inke but to adventure your blood in the cause Thus I have done my uttermost endeavour I have desired the secular power to asssist me by way of punishment and your selves in point of Learning and Religion to stand in defence of our Faith and cause for it concerns as your souls health so in effect no less then the foundation of your College This is all my business and here I should take my leave of you but in truth out of my love and affection I cannot so soon and so easily part with you but I must claim the privilege of old men to speak of things which are past and by calling them to minde to renew them and so to continue them ad perpetuam rei memoriam It is now much about 54 yeers since I came to your University and even then both the Church and Learning had many enemies and they raised up many malitions and false reports yet during all my time I may truly say for though I was a young Scholar yet I might fee and know the actions and carriages of my governors there was not an University in Christendom nor any City or Corporation better governed neither can I conceive how it could be better governed without Religious Vowes And for our College in particular I may truly say that as the Members were not inferiour to any others for their Learning and Studies so for their discreet carriage and behaviour for their wisdom and Prudence in worldly and temporall affairs I did verily believe that no society in England whether of Churchmen Lawyers or Citizens did exceed them I was then in the hardest times when the College in effect was new built when we could not get chambers or lodgings and the debts were great in regard of the building yet then did they flourish exceedingly and had much credit and reputation And because I was a Member of several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches which are now dissolved lest posterity may hereafter blame them and think their offence to be great I shall therefore give them this Testimony that I take God to witness I did never see any thing amongst them but what did proceed from Piety Charity and Goodness I was a very diligent observer and truly in their Chapters things past with as much wisdome and discretion as ever I did see business pass in the Lords House of Parliament What charity did we shew to our Tenants in accepting such small Fines by our counsel we sometimes made them good husbands very often we prevented the sale and preserved the Lease for the true Heirs especially if Orphans And in a word they lived better under us as Tenants then ever they will do as they are Land-lords and I do verily believe that if the Parliament had been pleased to imploy the Members of the Church in stead of their Committees Surveyors and other
Officers who were the very worst of men that with renewing Leases and putting years into lives they would have raised as great sums of money yet reserving the Rents and Inheritance to the State as now they have done by selling the Inheritance and truly we were very provident in improving the Church revenews I am at this time in wants I would desire of God no more to live upon then what I have raised and improved in Church Rents and what I have done together with others that I might have but according to my proportion so that in a maner pro tanto we were in effect Founders of the Church for we might have converted our improvement to our own private uses And that posterity might judge of the Clergy at this time that we were not so faulty or wanted courage which might occasion our Ruine there are two Common Lawyers who have done very ill offices to the Church Mr. Selden and Mr. Pryn and truly I did once think to have answered them both but when I considered that we did differ in the course of our Studies in our Method in our Style so that we should not have the same or the like weapons to encounter each other I did therefore forbear yet some of my intimate friends did it For Mr. Pryn he is pleased to write as bitterly as he could against Bishops yet could he not charge any one of them with Corruption or Bribery or any great sin no man is accused for ignorance or unworthiness yet it cannot be denied but the Gentlemen who were imployed for the buying of Impropriations whereof I conceive Mr. Pryn was a principal man did tempt Bishops with bribes with no other intent but to accuse them and to me in particular they sent twenty Angels in the business of Cicester but I thank God for it I had the grace to refuse it If a man were to write against other Professions suppose the Lawyers as God forbid any man should he might have found a hundred times more and worse faults then Mr. Pryn hath done against Bishops And on the contrary I dare boldly say that many Bishops in their own particular persons have done so many acts of Piety of Charity of Goodness as all the enemies of the Church taken together have not done the like They that did impeach us of high Treason onely for entring a Protestation they would never have spared us if they could have â—…ound any just cause of complaint against us Yet I confess that God would never have permitted us to have suffered in such a manner as we have done had we not provoked him with our sins and that I may be our own accuser I think our greatest offence did consist in these two things First that many of us did not spend our Church-means in a Church-like manner but converted them to our own private uses or otherwise misimployed them therefore God justly takes them away and permits Sacriledge we our selves having first offended in the same kinde for certainly Church-means should have relation as well to the uses as to the Persons and a Church-man in mis-spending them commits Sacriledge And whereas many excuse it in regard of their Wives and Children God forbid but regard should be had of them yeâ—… still with moderation I cannot excuse the excess of Apparel and some other courses of expence Yet this I must testisie â—…or a truth that speaking privately with some Bishops they told me and I beleeved them that they laid not up one farthing of their Bishopricks and this may appear â—…or many of them died very poor as Worcester Hereford Peterborough Bristol and not unlike but others will do â—…o Another great fault in the Church was the intolerable abuse of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction therefore God hath made us now uncapable of any Jurisdiction so just and wonderful is God in all his Judgements I confess in mine own particular I did as much desire and labour to reform it as any man could do yet I could never prevail Herein a little to excuse the Church I have it and can produce it at this time under the Kings own Hand and Seal wherein he forbids that any Church-man or Priest in holy Orders should be a Chancellor and this was the occasion of all the corruption of the Spiritual Court for the Judges at the Common Law have their Pensions and Allowances but Chancellors have none at all they live onely upon the Fees of the Court and foâ—… them to dismiss a cause it was to lose so much blood Now if they be naughâ—… in themselves then they must for their own advantage and prosit have Instruments and Agents accordingly so the Registers Proctors Apparators they were pessimum genus hominum Whilâ—… the Spiritual Court was onely governed by Church men and Priests as it ought to be and hath ever been so heretofore they haâ—… their Spiritual Benefices and Dignities to live upon and did scorn the Fees of the Court besides the holiness of the Profession kept them from bribing and corruption Little do men think how much they suffer by this one position That Church-men should not interpose in Civil and Moral affairs Whereas formerly Bishops and Church-men were onely trusted with Last Wills and Testa ments and granting out Administrations and certainly if therâ—… be any honesty amongst men it must be supposed to be rather in them then in others but there having been such an abuse it must be acknowledged that God is most just in all his wayes and what hatâ—… befaln us it is according to the deserts of our sin And now at length my good Brethren I will be no further troublesome unto you but onely make this small motion which proceeds out of my love Your Statutes do allow the Fellows to travel beyond Seas to see the state of the Christian world to better their experience whereby they may be fitter to do the Church and the State service at home Now I would fain adde some encouragement iâ—… this kinde and perswade you to be forward thereby to learn Languages and to enable your selves to do the State service and while you are in your Travel though you are not publickly imployed yet to do your Countrey what good office you can by way of information This is my suit to the Fellows in general but I do earnestly intreat the Master and the Seniors that they would be so far from abating any part of their allowance as that they would rather give them some addition towards their charge besides all brotherly assistance and furtherance This is the onely motion which I make but if any of your Members should offer me his help in my Study now that mine own sight and memory do fail me for I would very fain finish my intended course to give satisfaction to Natural Reason in all the Mysteries of Christian Religion truly if ever God should enable me I would reward him So GOD BLESSE YOU ALL. I rest Your loving Friend and Brother Godfree