Our People may discern that these provocations of evill men whose punishments we reserve to a due time have not changed Our good intentions to Our Subjects We do here professe to maintain the true Religion and Doctrine established in the Church of England without admitting or conniving at any back-sliding either to Popery or Schism We do also declare That vve will maintain the antient and just rights and liberties of Our Subjects with so much constancy and justice that they shall have cause to acknowledge That under Our government and gratious protection they live in a more happy and free estate then any subjects in the Christian world Yet let no man hereby take the boldnesse to abuse that liberty turning it to licentiousnesse nor misinterprett the Petition by perverting it to a lawlesse liberty wantonly or frowardly under that or any other colour to resist lawfull and necessary authority For as We will maintain Our Subjects in their just liberties so We do and will expect that they yield as much submission and duty to Our Royal prerogatives and as ready obedience to Our authority and commandments as hath been performed to the greatest of Our Predecessors And for Our Ministers We vvill not that they be terrified by those harsh proceedings that have been strained against some of them For as we will not command any thing unjust or dishonourable but shall use Our authority and prerogatives for the good of Our People so we will expect that Our Ministers obey Us and they shall assure themselves We will protect them As for Our Merchants We let them know We shall alwaies endeavour to cherish and enlarge the Trade of such as be dutifull without burthening them beyond what is fitting but the Duty of Five in the Hundred for guarding of the Seas and defence of the Realm to which we hold Our selves still obliged and which Duty hath continued without interruption so many succession of Ages We hold no good or dutifull Subject will deny it being so necessary for the good of the whole Kingdom And if any factious Merchant vvill affront Us in a thing so reasonable and vvherein we require no more nor in no other manner than so many of Our Predecessors have done and have been dutifully obeyed Let them not deceive themselves but be assured that We shall find honourable and just means to support Our Estate vindicate Our Soveraignty and preserve the Authority vvhich God hath put into Our Hands And now having laid down the truth and clearnesse of Our proceedings all wise and discreet men may easily judge of those rumours and jealous fears that are malitiously and vvickedly bruited abroad and may discern by examination of their own hearts whether in respect of the free passage of the Gospel indifferent and equall administration of Justice freedom from oppression and the great peace and quietnesse which every man enjoyeth under his own Vine and Fig-tree the happinesse of this Nation can be parallel'd by any of Our neighbour-Countries and if not then to acknowledge their own blessednesse and for the same be thankfull to God the Author of all goodnesse A Proposition for His Majestie 's Service to bridle the Impertinency of Parliaments Afterwards questioned in the Star-Chamber THe Proposition for your Majestie 's service containeth two parts the one to secure your State and to bridle the impertinency of Parliaments the other to increase your Majestie 's Revenue much more then it is Touching the first having considered divers means I find none so important to strengthen your Majesties Regall authority against all oppositions and practises of troublesome spirits and to bridle them than to fortifie your Kingdome by having a Fortresse in every chief Town and important place thereof furnished with Ordnance Munition and faithfull Men as they ought to be with all other circumstances fit for to be digested in a businesse of this nature ordering withall the trained Souldiers of the County to be united in one dependency with the said Fort as well to secure their beginning as to succour them in any occasion of suspect and also to retain and keep their Armes for more security whereby the Countries are no lesse to be brought in subjection than the Cities themselves and consequently the whole Kingdom your Majesty having by this course the power thereof in your own hands The reasons of the suggests are these 1. That in Policy it is a greater tye of the People by force and necessity then meerly by love and affection for by the one the Government resteth alwaies secure but by the other no longer then the people are contented 2. It forceth obstinate subjects to be no more presumptuous than it pleaseth your Majesty to permit them 3. That to leave a State unfurnished is to give the Bridle thereof to the Subject when by the contrary it resteth onely in the Prince's hands 4. That modern Fortresses take long time in winning with such charge and difficulty as no Subjects in these times have means probable to attempt them 5. That it is a sure remedy against Rebellions and popular Mutinies or against forraigne powers because they cannot well succeed when by this course the apparent means is taken away to force the King and Subject upon a doubtfull fortune of a set Battle as was the cause that moved the pretended invasion against the land attempted by the King of Spain in the year 1588. 6. That your Majestie 's government is the more secure by the people's more subjection and by their subjection your Parliament must be forced consequently to alter their style and to be conformable to your will and pleasure for their words and opposition import nothing where the power is in your Majesties own hands to do with them what you please being indeed the chief purpose of this discourse and the secret intent thereof fit to be concealed from any English at all either Counsellors of State or other For these and divers other weighty reasons It may be considered in this place to make your Majesty more powerfull and strong some orders be observed that are used in fortified Countries the government whereof imports as much as the States themselves I mean in times of doubt or suspect which are these Imprimis That none wear Arms or Weapons at all either in City or Country but such as your Majesty may think fit to priviledge and they to be inrolled 2. That as many high-waies as conveniently may be done be made passable through those Cities and Townes fortified to constrain the passengers to travell through them 3. That the souldiers of Fortresses be sometimes chosen of another Nation if subject to the same Prince but howsoever not to be born in the same Province or within forty or fifty miles of the Fortresse and not to have friends or correspondency near it 4. That at all the Gates of each walled Town be appointed Officers not to suffer any unknown passengers to passe without a Ticket shewing from
require of you by these Presents is Which we do promise in the name of Us our Heirs and Successors to repay to you or your Assigns within Eighteen moneths after the paiment thereof unto the Collector The person whom we have appointed to collect it is To whose hands we do require you to send it within Twelve days after you have received this Privy-Seal which together with the Collectors Acquittance shall be sufficient Warrant unto the Officers of our Receipt for the repaiment thereof at the time limited Given at c. The Collectors of this Loan were appointed to pay into the Exchequer the Sums received and to return the Names of such as discovered a disposition to delay or excuse the paiment of the Sums imposed Amidst the preparations for War with Spain the Privy-Council issued out Warrants for the disarming of Popish Recusants grounding their Order upon the Petition of the late Parliament HIs Majesty and we of his Council having received information from so many several parts of the bold and impudent spéeches used by many Romish Catholicks of this Realm declaring how much they are offended with the gracious satisfaction given by his Majesty to the Lords and Commons in Parliament in the points concerning the Conservation of true Religion as it is at this day by Authority preached in the Church of England And having just cause to doubt that many violent Papists through the instigation of Iesuited Priests may be inclined to take part with such as we well understand at this time practise with the Kings Subjects to raise stirs and tumults which they do not only foment by perswasions and instigations but with promise of assistance and seconding them with Arms their pretext being Religion but their ends Conquest pushed thereunto by an unlimited Ambition to a General Monarchy of which we have too large and clear proof And although we do not misjudge and condemn all his Majesties Subjects Romish Catholicks but believe that many of them will imploy their Arms and lives in his service Yet because we are not able to distinguish betwéen the well and worse-affected We have seconded with one Advice his Majesties Princely inclination following the example of his wiâ—e Predecessors of happy memory and government to take out of the possession of all Romish Recusants convicted or justly suspected according to the Acts of State heretofore expressed all such Martial Ammunitions Arms and Weapons as shall be found in their houses or discovered to be in the houses of any other persons belonging by right to any of the said Romish Recusants But so that the said Arms be only taken to be safely kept and the Property to be reserved to the Owners according to the former Presidents in like Cases This Design proceeded and the Council directed their Letters to these Lords Recusants viz. The Marquis of Winchester and the Lord St. John his son Lord Viscount Mountague Lord Viscount Colchester Lord Peter the Earl of Castlehaven Lord Morley Lord Vaux Lord Eures Lord Arundel of Warder Lord Tenham Lord Herbert Lord Windsor requiring them to render their Arms and Furniture thereunto belonging together with all their Habiliments of War to be removed into places convenient and to remain there till the King shall determine otherwise Moreover the Privy-Council having received information from the Lords-Lieutenants in divers parts of the Kingdom That there was great and unaccustomed Resort to the houses of Papists and that other Courses justly to be suspected were held among them Authorised the Lords-Lieutenants to examine the truth and reason of such Assemblies and Entertainment and of the conveyance and intercourse of Letters as also to enquire and search if there were any preparation of Men or Arms or Practice of Arms or endeavors of Alteration among persons discontented with the present Government In the mean time the Fleet was ready and Ten brave Regiments were designed for this Expedition The Duke not going in person Sir Edward Cecil was created Lord Viscount Wimbleton and made Commander in Chief In the Choice of the Officers for this service Sir Robert Mansel an experienced Sea-Commander was neglected which much disgusted the Mariners The Common Censure that passed both upon the Duke and this Enterprise may be known by the Lord Cromwels free language to the Duke in this Letter THey offer to lay wagers the Fleet goes not this year And that of necessity shortly a Parliament must be which when it comes sure it will much discontent you It is wondred at that since the King did give such great Gifts to the Duchess of Chevereux and those that then went how now a small Sum in the Parliament should be called for at such an unseasonable time And let the Parliament sit when it will begin they will where they ended They say the Lords of the Council knew nothing of Count Mansfield's Iourney or this Fleet which discontents even the best sort if not all They say it is a very great burden your Grace takes upon you since none knows any thing but you It is conceived that not letting others bear part of the burden you now bear it may ruine you which Heaven forbid Much discourse there is of your Lordship here and there as I passed home and back And nothing is more wondred at then that one Grave man is not known to have your ear except my good and Noble Lord Conway All men say if you go not with the Fleet you will suffer in it because if it prosper it will be thought no act of yours and if it succeed ill they say it might have been better had not you guided the King They say your undertakings in the Kingdom will much prejudice your Grace And if God bless you not with goodness as to accept kindly what in duty and love I here offer questionless my freedom in letting you know the discourse of the world may much prejudice me But if I must lose your favor I had rather lose it for striving to do you good in letting you know the talk of the wicked world then for any thing else so much I heartily desire your prosperity and to see you trample the ignorant multitude under foot All I have said is the Discourse of the World and when I am able to judge of Actions I will freely tell your Lordship my mind Which when it shall not always incline to serve you may all Noble thoughts forsake me But whilst the English Fleet was preparing for this Voyage great Reports were given out that the Spaniard would land Forces upon the Coast of Essex Wherefore the Earl of Warwick was commanded with Three thousand of the Trained Bands of Essex to secure the Port of Harwich and Langer-Point which service he performed with much readiness But upon the Blocking up of Dunkirk with Ships belonging to the English and to the States of the United Provinces his Lordship was ordered to dismiss his men Presently after Advertisements came to
all Ages who shine in vertue and are firm for our Religion but the contrary Faction I like not I remember a character I have seen in a Diary of E. 6. that young Prince of famous memory where he doth expresse the condition of the Bishops of that time under his own hand writing That some for sloath some for age some for ignorance some for luxury and some for Popery were unfit for Discipline and Government We see there are some among our Bishops who are not Orthodox nor sound in Religion as they should be witness the two Bishops complained of the last meeting of the Parliament I apprehend such a feare that should we be in their power we may be in danger to have our Religion overthrown some of these are Masters of Ceremonies and they labour to introduce new Ceremonies into the Church Yet some Ceremonies are useful give me leave to joyn that I hold it necessary and commendable that at the repetition of the Creed we should stand up to testifie the resolution of our hearts that we will defend the Religion which we profess and in some Churches it is added they did not only stand upright with their bodies but with their Swords drawn Let us go to the ground of our Religion and lay down a Rule on which all others may rest then when that is done it will be time to take into consideration the breakers and offendors of that Rule Hereupon after some Debate the Commons entered into this Vow The Vow of the House of Commons in Parliament WEE the Commons in Parliament Assembled do Claim Protest and Avow for truth the sence of the Articles of Religion which were established by Parliament in the thirteenth year of our late Queen Elizabeth which by the publique Act of the Church of England and by the generall and currant Expositions of the Writers of our Church have been delivered unto us And we reject the sence of the Jesuites and Arminians and all others wherein they differ from us Friday the thirtieth of January 1628. Both Houses joyn in Petitioning the King for a Fast. MOst Gracious Soveraign It is the very earnest desire of us your most dutiful Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this Parliament Assembled that this meeting may be abundantly blessed with all happy successe in the great affairs of Church and State upon which we are to consult and that by a cleare understanding both of your Majesties goodness unto us and of our ever faithfull and Loyal hearts to your Majesties Royal Person and service all jealousies and distractions which are apparent signs of Gods displeasure and of ensuing mischief being removed there may this Session and for ever be a perfect and most happy union and agreement between your Majesty and all the Estates of this Realm But acknowledging that neither this nor any other blessing can be expected without the especiall favour of Almighty God upon the observation of the continued increasing miseries of the Reformed Churches abroad whose cases with bleeding hearts we compassionate as likewise of those punishments already inflicted And which are like in great measure to fall upon our selves we have just cause to conceive that the Divine Majesty is for our sins exceedingly offended against us wherefore we do in these and all other pious respects most Dread Soveraign humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty by your Royal consent and Commandment that not only our selves but all people of your Kingdom may be speedily enjoyned upon some certain day by your Majesty to be prefixed by publique Fasting and Prayer to seek reconciliation at the merciful hands of Almighty God So that the prayers of the whole Kingdom joyned with your Majesties most Princely care and the faithful hearts and endeavours of this great Councel assembled may procure honour to Almighty God in the preservation of his true Religion much honour to your Majesty prosperity to your people and comfort to your Majesties Friends and Allies The Kings Answer to the Petition MY Lords and Gentlemen The chief Motive of your Petition being the deplorable Condition of the Reformed Churches abroad is too true And our duty is so much as in us lieth to give them all possible help But certainly fighting will doe them more good then fasting though I doe not wholly disallow of the latter yet I must tell you that the custome of fasting every Session is but lately begun and I confesse I am not fully satisfied with the necessity of it at this time Yet to shew you how smoothly I desire your businesse to go on eschewing as much as I can Questions or jealousies I doe willingly grant your request herein but with this Note That this shall not hereafter be brought into president for frequent Fasts except upon great occasions And for form and time I will advise with my Lords the Bishops and then send you a particular Answer Soon after the House of Commons presented a Declaration to the King touching their resolutions to give precedency to Religion MOst Gracious Sovereign We have within these three dayes received from your Majesty a Message putting us in minde of our present entring upon the consideration of a Grant of Tunnage and Poundage but the manner of possessing the House therewith being disagreeable to our Orders and Priviledges that we could not proceed therein And finding our selves in your Majesties name pressed in that businesse and that we should give precedency thereunto we cannot but expresse some sence of sorrow fearing that the most hearty and forward affections wherewith we desire to serve your Majesty are not clearly represented unto you besides such is the solicitous care we have in preserving our selves in your Majesties most gracious and good opinion that it cannot but breed much trouble in us when ever we find our selves as now we are enforced to spend that time in making our humble Apologies from whence doe usually arise long Debates which we conceive might very profitably be applyed in the greater Services of your Majesty and the Common-wealth which we did with all humble diligence apply our selves unto and finding the extream dangers wherewith our Religion is threatned clearly presenting it unto our thoughts and considerations We thought and we think we cannot without impiety to God disloyalty to your Majesty and unthankfulnesse to those from whom we are put in trust retard our proceedings until something be done to secure us in this maine point which we prefer above our lives and all earthly things whatsoever And here we do with all humble thankfulnesse acknowledge your Majesties most pious care and Princely Intentions to suppresse both Popery and Arminianism the Professor of the one being an open enemy 〈◊〉 the maintainer of the other a subtil and more dangerous underminer of the Religion of Almighty God established within your Realmes and Dominions The truth of which our whole Religion or any part thereof as being sufficiently known and received generally here
concerning the Electoral Bonds and to dissolve their League The Protestants in their Answer acknowledged the good will of the Emperor their Cheif and shewed that the Catholicks had oppressed them contrary to the Pacification and having sought Redress in vain they were compelled to use means of preserving Publick Tranquillity according to the Laws That their League and Union consisting onely of Protestant Germans was a known practice in the Empire and not against the Golden Bull and tended not to a separation from his Imperial Majestie but the Catholicks made their League with strangers and declared a stranger cheif over them The Count of Thurne and other Defenders Evangelick with the Estates of Bohemia assembled at Prague to advise of publick safety and conservation of priviledges The Emperor required his Council held at the Castle of Prague to oppose and hinder this Assembly which he said was called to raise Sedition and to plot against his person and Government Nevertheless in all their publick worship the Evangelicks prayed to God to confound the Emperors enemies and to grant him long to live and reign over them in Peace and Justice The Bohemian troubles took their first rise from the breach of the Edict of Peace concerning Religion and the Accord made by the Emperor Rodolph whereby the Protestants retained the free exercise of their Religion enjoyed their Temples Colledges Tithes Patronages places of Burial and the like and had liberty to build new Temples and power to chuse Defenders to secure those Rights and to regulate what should be of service in their Churches Now the stop of building certain Churches on Lands within the Lordships of the Catholick Clergy in which places the Evangelicks conceived a Right to build was the special grievance and cause of Breach On the Twenty third of May the cheif of the Evangelicks went armed into the Castle of Prague entred the Council Chamber and opened their Grievances but inraged by opposition threw Slabata the Cheif Justice and Smesansius one of the Council and Fabritius the Secretary from an high Window into the Castle Ditch others of the Council temporising in this Tumult and seeming to accord with their demands were peaceably conducted to their own houses Hereupon the Assembly took advice to settle the Towns and Castle of Prague with new Guards likewise to appease the people and to take an Oath of Fidelity They chose Directors Governors and Counsellors Provincial to govern affairs of State and to consult of raising forces against the enemies of God and the King and the Edicts of his Imperial Majesty They banished the Iesuits throughout all Bohemia Moreover to defend their own cause and to give an accompt of their late proceedings and present posture a Declaration was drawn up and sent with Letters to the Estates of Moravia Silesia and Lusatia and to all the Princes and States their Allies throughout the Empire with request of aid in case of need They declare to this effect THat they had endured infinite Injuries and Afflictions by certain Officers Ecclesiastick and Civil and by the Iesuits above all others who sought to bring them under the yoke of Popery reviled them with the names of Hereticks heaved them out of places of Dignity provoked the Magistrates to pursue them with Fire and Sword That their Ministers were banished and their Charges given to Roman Catholicks The Senators of Prague who were Evangelicks were evil-intreated and divers persons persecuted for Religion under pretence of Civil Offences And whereas in case of difference touching the Agréement and Edict of Peace the Estates of both parties were to hear and judge their Enemies procured Commands from the Emperor to bear them down before a due hearing Their lawful Méetings to advise and séek redress were declared to be manifest Sedition and Rebellion and themselves threatned with loss of estates and lives This Declaration they sent likewise to the Emperor with a submissive Letter asserting their own Fidelity and praying for the removal of those evil Counsellors that threaten so much danger to his Majesty and his Kingdoms The Emperor herewith was no way pacified but charged them with an evil design required them to lay down Arms and to make no more Levies but to live in peace as becometh faithful Subjects Upon which terms he promised to disband his own Soldiers to forgive what was past and to protect all that will obey him This prevailed nothing but the breach grows wider The Emperor published a Manifesto in Answer to the Apology of the Bohemian States and wrote Letters to the Electors Princes and States of the Empire with high Aggravations of the violence offered at Prague to his principal Officers against Divine and Humane Rights the Constitutions of the Kingdom and the Customs of all Nations without hearing without summoning without any form of Proces yea without giving a moment of time to Repent or make Confession or receive the Sacrament which is never denied to the worst offenders Forthwith a pernicious War and all confusion breaks out The Emperor raised forces under the conduct of divers Commanders of whom the cheif were Count de Buquoy and Count de Ampiere The Evangelicks raised two Armies under Count de Thurne and Count Mansfelt Moravia Silesia and Lusatia with all the Estates Protestant Germans and Neighbors of Bohemia very few excepted assist the Evangelicks with Counsel Men and Money Likewise the Prince of Orange and the States of the United Provinces promised to aid them with their forces The Electors and Princes Protestant favoring the Bohemians whose Countrey the Imperialists destroy with Fire and Sword perswade the Emperor to stop the rage of Civil War the success whereof is doubtful and the end ever miserable The Emperor propounded an Arbitration of these differences by the Elector of Mentz and the Duke of Bavaria Princes Catholicks and by the Electors Palatine and of Saxony Princes Protestants and Pilsen should be the place of Treaty The Evangelicks consent to the Arbitration but dislike the place where the people were wholly Catholicks and followed the Emperors party besides the Directors had designed the besieging of it New Actions of War made the overtures of peace more difficult Several Armies were now raising throughout Bohemia and the Neighboring Provinces As yet the Elector of Saxony stood Neutral the Duke of Bavaria cast in his lot with the Emperor whose estate was then every where imbroiled At this time there appeared a Comet which gave occasion of much discourse to all sorts of men among others a Learned Knight our Countreyman confidently and boldly affirmed That such persons were but abusers and did but flatter greatness who gave their verdict that that Comet was effectual as some would have it or signal as others judge it onely to Africa whereby they laid it far enough from England When this Knight out of the consideration of the space of the Zodiack which this Comet measured the inclination of his
points of Grace to the people but also by the labor we took for the satisfaction of both Houses in those three Articles recommended unto us in both their names by the Right Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and likewise for the good Government of Ireland we are now in hand with at your request but not onely have we heard no news of all this but contrary great complaints of the danger of Religion within this Kingdom tacitely implying our ill Government in this point And we leave you to judge whether it be your duties that are the Representative Body of our people so to distaste them with our Government whereas by the contrary it is your duty with all your endeavors to kindle more and more a dutiful and thankful love in the peoples hearts towards us for our just and gratious Government Now whereas in the very beginning of this your Apology you tax us in fair terms of trusting uncertain Reports and partial Informations concerning your proceedings we wish you to remember that we are an old and experienced King needing no such Lessons being in our Conscience freest of any King alive from hearing or trusting idle Reports which so many of your House as are nearest us can bear witness unto you if you would give as good ear to them as you do to some Tribunitial Orators among you And for proof in this particular we have made your own Messengers confer your other Petitions sent by you with the Copy thereof which was sent us before Between which there is no difference at all but that since our receiving the first Copy you added a conclusion unto it which could not come to our hands till it was done by you and your Messengers sent which was all at one time And if we had had no Copy of it before-hand we must have received your first Petition to our great dishonor before we had known what it contained which would have enforced us to return you a far worse Answer then now we do for then your Messengers had returned with nothing but that we have judged your Petition unlawful and unworthy of an Answer For as to your conclusion thereof it is nothing but Protestatio contraria facto for in the Body of your Petition you usurpe upon our Prerogative Royal and meddle with things far above your reach and then in the conclusion you protest the contrary As if a Robber would take a mans purse and then protest he meant not to rob him For first you presume to give us your advice concerning the Match of our dearest Son with some Proâ—â—stant we cannot say Princess for we know none of these fit for hâ—m and disswade us from his Match with Spain urging us to a presenâ— War with that King and yet in the conclusion forsooth ye protest ye intend not to press upon our most undoubted and Regal Prerogative as if the Petitioning of us in matters that your selves confess ye ought not to meddle with were not a meddling with them And whereas ye pretend That ye were invited to this course by the Speeches of Three honorable Lords yet by so much as your selves repeat of the Speeches nothing can be concluded but that we were resolved by War to regain the Palatinate if otherwise we could not attain unto it And you were invited to advise forthwith upon a Supply for keeping the forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to foresee the means for the raising and maintenance of the Body of an Army for that War against the Spring Now what inference can be made upon this that therefore we must presently denounce War against the King of Spain break our dearest Sons match and match him to one of our Religion let the World judge The difference is no greater than if we would tell a Merchant that we had great need to borrow Money from him for raising an Army that thereupon it should follow that we were bound to follow his advice in the direction of the War and all things depending thereupon But yet not contenting your selves with this excuse of yours which indeed cannot hold water ye come after to a direct contradiction to the conclusion of your former Petition saying That the honor and safety of us and our Posterity and the Patrimony of Our Children invaded and possessed by their enemies the Welfare of Religion and State of our Kingdom are matters at any time not unfit for your deepest considerations in Parliament To this generality we answer with the Logicians That where all things are contained nothing is omitted So as this Plenipotency of yours invests you in all power upon Earth lacking nothing but the Popes to have the Keys also both of Heaven and Purgatory And to this vast generality of yours we can give no other answer for it will trouble all the best Lawyers in the House to make a good Commentary upon it For so did the Puritan Ministers in Scotland bring all kinde of causes within the compass of their jurisdiction saying That it was the Churches office to judge of slander and there could no kinde of crime or fault be committed but there was a slander in it either against God the King or their Neighbor and by this means they hooked into themselves the cognisance of all causes Or like Bellarmines distinction of the Popes power over Kings in Ordine ad Spiritualia whereby he gives them all Temporal Jurisdiction over them But to give you a direct Answer to the matter of War for which you are so earnest We confess we rather expected you should have given us thanks for the so long maintaining a setled Peace in all our Dominions when as all our Neighbors about are in miserable combustion of War but dulce bellum inexpertis And we indeed finde by experience that a number of our Subjects are so pampered with Peace as they are desirous of change though they knew not what It is true that we have ever professed and in that minde with Gods grace we will live and die that we will labor by all means possible either by Treaty or by force to restore our Children to their ancient Dignity and Inheritance And whatsoever Christian Princes or Potentates will set themselves against it we will not spare any lawful means to bring our so just and honorable purpose to a good end neither shall the match of our Son or â—ny other worldly respect be preferred to this our resolution For by our credit and intervention with the King of Spain and the Arch-Dutches and her Husband now with God we preserved the Lower Palatinate one whole year from any further conquering in it which in eight days space in that time might have easily been swallowed up by Spinola's Army without any resistance And in no better case was it now at our Ambassador the Lord Digbies coming through Heidelburgh if he had not extraordinarily succored it But because we conceive that ye couple this War of the Palatinate with
outward practices and no secret motions of the Conscience are adjudged by the Laws of England to be meerly Civil and Political and are excluded by the Letter from the benefit of those Writs But because the peoples mouths were open and some Preachers were too busie and the Puritan party increased the King gave directions for the regulation of the Ministry in his Letters to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury MOst Reverend Father in God Right trusty and intirely beloved Counsellor we greet you well Forasmuch as the abuses and extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been in all times suppressed in this Realm by some Act of Council or State with the Advice and Resolution of grave and learned Prelates insomuch that the very Licencing of Preachers had beginning by an Order of Star-Chamber the Eighth day of July in the Nineteenth year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth our Noble Predecessor And whereas at this present divers yong Students by reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach many times unprofitable unsound seditious and dangerous Doctrines to the scandal of the Church and disquiet of the State and present Government We upon humble Representations unto us of these Inconveniencies by your self and sundry other grave and reverend Prelates of this Church as also of our Princely care and zeal for the extirpation of Schism and Dissention growing from these Seeds and for the settling of a religious and peaceable Government both in Church and Commonwealth Do by these our special Letters straitly charge and command you to use all possible care and diligence that these Limitations and Cautions herewith sent unto you concerning Preachers be duly and strictly from henceforth put in practice and observed by the several Bishops within your Iurisdiction And to this end our pleasure is that you send them forthwith Copies of these Directions to be by them speedily sent and communicated unto every Parson Vicar Curate Lecturer and Minister in every Cathedral or Parish Church within their several Diocesses and that you earnestly require them to employ their utmost endeavors in the performance of this so important a business letting them know That we have a special eye unto their proceedings and expect a strict accompt thereof both from you and every of them And these our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf Given under our Signet at our Castle of Windsor c. Directions concerning Preachers sent with the Letter I. THat no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiat Church and they upon the Kings days and set Festivals do take occasion by the expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any set discourse or common place otherwise then by opening the Coherence and Division of the Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in Essence Substance Effect or Natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth One thousand five hundred sixty and two or in some of the Homilies set forth by Authority of the Church of England Not onely for a help for the Non-Preaching but withal for a pattern and boundary as it were for the Preaching Ministers And for their further Instructions for the performance hereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies II. That no Person Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation hereafter upon Sundays and Holidays in the afternoon in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout the Kingdom but upon some part of the Catechism or some Text taken out of the Creed Ten Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons onely excepted And that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend the Afternoons Exercise in the Examination of Children in their Catechism which is the most antient and laudable custom of Teaching in the Church of England III. That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a Bishop or Dean at the least do from henceforth presume to Preach in any Popular Auditory the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacy Resistibility or Irresistibility of Gods Grace but leave those Themes rather to be handled by the Learned Men and that Moderately and Modestly by way of Use and Application rather then by way of Positive Doctrines being fitter for the Schools then for simple Auditories IV. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever from henceforth shall presume in any Auditory within this Kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of Positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative and Jurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or otherwise meddle with matters of State and the differences between Princes and the people then as they are instructed and presidented in the Homilies of Obedience and the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to those two heads of Faith and good Life which are all the Subject of the Antient Sermons and Homilies V. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall presume causelesly or without invitation from the Text to fall into bitter Invectives and undecent railing Speeches against the persons of either Papists or Puritans but modestly and gravely when they are occasioned thereunto by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either Adversary especially where the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other infection VI. Lastly That the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for their former remissness be more wary and choice in their Licencing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licences in this kinde And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom of England a new body severed from the Antient Clergy as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be Licenced hence-forward in the Court of Faculties by Recommendation of the party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his Hand and Seal with a Fiat from the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as do transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocess or in his Default by the Archbishop of the Province Ab officio beneficio for a year and a day until his Majesty by the Advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further punishment These Directions were warily communicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Bishops within his Province The King lost no time in pursuing the Match with Spain but the Dispensation from Rome which was the Key of the business had long lain in a kinde of Dead-Palsie till the new King of Spain had by a
Majesty will be likewise pleased strictly to command all your Iudges and Ministers of Iustice Ecclesiastical and Temporal to sée the Laws of this Realm against Popish Recusants to be duly executed And namely that the Censure of Excommunication be declared and certified against them and that they be not absolved but upon publick satisfaction by yielding to Conformity Answ. His Majesty leaves the Lawes to their Course and will order in the point of Excommunication as is desired X. That your Majesty will be pleased to remove from places of Authority and Government all such persons as are either Popish Recusants or according to direction of former Acts of State to be justly suspected Answ. This his Majesty thinks fit and will give order for it XI That present order be taken for disarming all Popish Recusants legally convicted or justly suspected according to the Laws in that behalf and the Orders taken by his late Majesties Privy-Council upon reason of State Answ. The Laws and Acts in this Case shall be followed and put in due execution XII That your Majesty be also pleased in respect of the great resort of Recusants to and about London to command forthwith upon pain of your indignation and severe execution of the Laws that they retire themselves to their several Countries there to remain confined within Five miles of their places Answ. For this the Laws in force shall be forthwith executed XIII And whereas your Majesty hath strictly commanded and taken order that none of the natural born Subjects repair to the hearing of Masses or other Superstitious Service at the Chappels or Houses of Foreign Ambassadors or in any other places whatsoever we give your Majesty most humble thanks and desire that your Order and Commandment therein may be continued and observed and that the Offenders herein may be punished according to the Laws Answ. The King gives assent thereto and will see that observed which herein hath been commanded by him XIV That all such Insolencies as any that are Popishly affected have lately committed or shall hereafter commit to the dishonor of our Religion or to the wrong of the true Professors thereof be exemplarily punished Answ. This shall be done as is desired XV. That the Statute of 1 Eliz. for the payment of Twelve-pence every Sunday by such as shall be absent from Divine service in the Church without a lawfull excuse may be put in due execution the rather for that the penalty by Law is given to the poor and therefore not to be dispenced withal Answ. It is fit that this Statute be executed and the Penalties shall not be dispenced withal XVI Lastly That your Majesty would be pleased to extend your Princely care also over the Kingdom of Ireland that the like courses may be there taken for the restoring and establishing of true Religion Answ. His Majesties cares are and shall be extended over the Kingdom of Ireland and he will do all that a Religious King should do for the restoring and establishing of true Religion there And thus most gracious Soveraign according to our duty and zeal to God and Religion to your Majesty and your safety to the Church and Common-wealth and their peace and prosperity we have made a faithfull Declaration of the present Estate the causes and remedies of this increasing disease of Popery humbly offering the same to your Princely care and wisdom The Answer of your Majesties Father our late Soveraign of famous memory upon the like Petition did give us great comfort of Reformation but your Majesties most gracious promises made in that kinde do give us confidence and assurance of the continual performance thereof In which comfort and confidence reposing our selves we most humbly pray for your Majesties long continuance in all Princely felicity The Petition and Answer being read it was further intimated to the Commons That as his Majesty took well their minding him of the care of Religion so he would have done and granted the same things though they had never petitioned him neither doth he place his Answer to this Petition as a wheel to draw on other affairs and designs but he leaves them to move in their own Sphere and what he hath done in this particular comes from these two Fountains Conscience and Duty to his Father who in his last speech recommended unto him the Person but not the Religion of his Queen At the same time the Duke signified to both Houses that by the Kings command he was to give an account of the Fleet and the preparations thereof and said that the first and last time he had the happiness to speak in that Auditory it was of the Spanish Treaty and then he was so happy as to be honored and applauded by both Houses of Parliament and he made no question but speaking now with the same heart he should be no less acceptable to them And he made this request to the House of Commons to believe that if any hath spoken or shall speak in discharge of his conscience his zeal of Reformation any thing which may seem to reflect upon some particular persons he shall be the last man that will apply this to himself because he is confidently assured of two things first that they are just not to fall upon him without cause and secondly that himself shall do nothing that unbecomes a faithfull Englishman And for the Method of his ensuing Discourse he chose rather to speak by way of Objection and Answer then in one continued Speech as a speedier means to give the Commons satisfaction Object 1. By what Counsel those Designs and Actions of War were carried and enterprised Answ. By the Counsel of the Parliament appointed according to the Act of both Houses the 23. of March 1623. by those Counsels his Majesty was guided and applied himself accordingly for the defence of the Realm the securing of Ireland the assisting of our Neighbors and others our Friends and Allies and for the setting forth the Navy-Royal His Majesty looking into his purse saw enough to do all the former Actions but not this latter For when he came to consider of the Navy there was neither money nor preparations yet looking upon the Affairs of Christendom he found that of most necessity Hereupon his Majesty of famous memory did him viz. the Duke the honor as to write from Newmarket to him at London a Letter to this effect That looking into the Affairs of Christendom he found it necessary that a Royal-Fleet shouâ—d be prepared and set in readiness but that he had no Money wherefore himself meaning the Duke and his Friends must begin to lay it out and no doubt but others would follow and by this means the King might lie the longer concealed and undiscovered in the Enterprise as bearing the name of the Subject onely and other Princes in hope to draw him on would sooner come to the business Upon this Letter the Duke said he leaped into the Action with all alacrity and
Coronation was briefly thus THe King went that day from Westminster-Hall to the Abbey Church attended by the Aldermen of London Eighty Knights of the Bath in their Robes the Kings Serjeants at Law Solicitor and Attorney Generals the Judges Barons Bishops Viscounts and such of the Earls who bore no particular Office that day in their Parliament Robes going two by two before the King all uncovered and after them followed his Officers of State being Eight Earls and one Marquess those persons according to their respective places and offices carried the Swords the Globe the Scepter the Crown and the Lord Major of London carried the short Scepter two Bishops carried the one the Golden Cup and the other the Plate for the Communion Next before his Majesty went the Earl of Arundel as Earl-Marshal of England and the Duke of Buckingham as Lord High-Constable of England for that day The King being cloathed in White Sattin went under a rich Canopy supported by the Barons of the Cinque Ports the King having on each hand a Bishop and his Train of Purple-Velvet was carried up by the Master of the Robes and the Master of the Wardrobe At the entring into the Church Bishop Laud delivered into the Kings hands the Staff of King Edward the Confessor with which the King walked up to the Throne then the Archbishop of Canterbury presented his Majesty to the Lords and Commons there present East West North and South who gave their consent to his Coronation as their lawful Soveraign After Sermon was done the King went to the Altar where the Old Crucifix amongst other Regalia stood as also the Ointment consecrated by a Bishop to take the Coronation Oath which as is said was performed in this manner viz. SIS says the Archbishop will You grant and kéep and by Your Oath confirm to the People of England the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England Your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward Your Predecessor according to the laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agréeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the Antient Customs of the Realm I grant and Promise to keep them Sir will You kéep Peace and Godly Agréement according to Your Power both to God the Holy Church the Clergy and the People I will keep it Sir will You to Your Power cause Law Justice and Discretion to Mercy and Truth to be executed to Your Judgment I will Sir will You grant to hold and kéep the Laws and Rightful Customs which the Communalty of this Your Kingdom have and will You defend and uphold them to the honor of God so much as in you lyeth I grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops read this Passage to the King Our Lord and King we beseech You to Pardon and to Grant and to Preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to Your Charge all Canonical Priviledges and do Law and Iustice and that You would Protect and Defend us as every good King to His Kingdoms ought to be Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government The King answereth With a willing and devout Heart I promise and grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your Charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government Then the King arose and was lead to the Communion Table where he takes a Solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe all the Premisses and laying his hand upon the Bible said The things which I have here promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book After the Oath the King was placed in the Chair of Coronation and was Anointed by the Archbishop with a costly Ointment and the Antient Robes of King Edward the Confessor was put upon him and the Crown of King Edward was put upon his Head and his Sword girt about him and he offered the same and two Swords more together with Gold and Silver at the Communion Table He was afterwards conducted by the Nobility to the Throne where this Passage was read to his Majesty Stand and hold fast from henceforth the place to which You have been Heir by the Succession of Your Forefathers being now delivered to You by the Authority of Almighty God and by the hands of us and all the Bishops and Servants of God And as You see the Clergy to come nearer to the Altar then others so remember that in all places convenient You give them greater honor that the Mediator of God and Man may establish You in the Kingly Throne to be a Mediator betwixt the Clergy and the Laity and that You may Raign for ever with Iesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Afterwards the Nobility were swâ—rn to be Homagers to the King and some other Ceremonies were performed which being done the Lord Keeper by the Kings command read a writing unto them which declared the Kings free Pardon to all his Subjects who would take the same under the Great Seal The Ceremonies of the Coronation being ended the Regalia were offered at the Altar by Bishop Laud in the Kings Name and then reposited The Bishop of Lincoln faln into disgrace by the displeasure of the Duke of Buckingham had not received his Writ of Summons which he represented to the King with Submission to his Majesties pleasure denied as he said to no Prisoners or condemned Peers in his Fathers Reign to enable him to make his Proxy if his Personal attendance be not permitted Likewise he besought his Majesty That he would be pleased to mitigate the Dukes causless anger towards him who was so little satisfied with any thing he could do or suffer that he had no means left to appease him but his Prayers to God and his Sacred Majesty Also that in his absence in this Parliament no use might be made of his Majesties Sacred Name to wound the Reputation of a poor Bishop who besides his Religion and Duty to that Divine Character which his Majesty beareth hath affectionately honored his very person above all Objects in this World as he desired the Salvation of the World to come And he craveth no Protection against any other Accuser or Accusation whatsoever On Monday the Sixth of February began the Second Parliament of the Kings Reign The King being placed in his Royal Throne the Lords in their Robes and the Commons below the Bar it pleased his Majesty to refer them to the Lord Keeper for what he had to say The Lord Keepers Speech My Lords ANd you the Knights
our Countrey That it hath béen the antient constant and undoubted Right and Usage of Parliaments to question and complain of all persons of what degree soever found grievous to the Commonwealth in abusing the power and trust committed to them by their Soveraign A course approved not onely by the examples in your Fathers days of famous memory but by frequent presidents in the best and most glorious Reigns of your Noble Progenitors appearing both in Records and Histories without which liberty in Parliament no private man no servant to a King perhaps no Counsellor without exposing himself to the hazard of great enmity and prejudice can be a means to call great Officers into question for their misdemeanors but the Commonwealth might languish under their pressures without Redress And whatsoever we shall do accordingly in this Parliament we doubt not but it shall redound to the Honor of the Crown and welfare of your Subjects Lastly We most humbly beseech Your Majesty gratiously to conceive that though it hath been the long Custom of Parliaments to handle the matter of Supply with the last of their businesses yet at this time out of extraordinary respect to your Person and care of your Affairs We have taken the same into more speedy consideration and most happily on the very day of your Majesties Inauguration with great alacrity and unanimous consent After a short Debate we grew to the Resolution for a present Supply well-known to your Maiesty To. which if Addition may be made of other great things for your Service yet in Consultation amongst us we doubt not but it will appear That we have not receded from the Truth of our first Intention so to supply you as may make you safe at home and feared abroad especially if your Maiesty shall be pleased to look upon the way intended in our promise as well as to the measure of the gift agreed With like humility we beseech your Majesty not to give ear to the officious reports of private persons for their own ends which hath occasioned so much loss of time nor to judge our proceedings whilst they are in agitation but to be pleased to expect the issue and conclusion of our labors which we are confident will manifest and justifie to your Majesty the sincerity and Loyalty of our hearts who shall ever place in a high degree of happiness the performing of that duty and service in Parliament which may most tend to your Majesties Honor and the good of your Kingdom Unto this Remonstrance the King said He could give no present answer but desired the House to adjourn for a week as the Lords had done and they adjourned accordingly In the interim it was intimated in Writing to the Duke that he should procure his Majesty to signifie to a certain number of Lords that he hath endeavored to divert the Charge against the Duke because his Majesty hath had sound knowledge and experience of his service and fidelity That his Majesty may let them know that he is now pleased to reveal some secrets and mysteries of State That the King his Father finding the Palatinate more then in danger to be lost and his Majesty being in Spain and there deluded and his abode and return both unsafe it was a necessity of State to sweeten and content the Spaniard with the hope of any thing which might satisfie and redeem those Engagements And that therefore the King willed the Duke to yield discreetly to what he should find they most desired and this was chiefly the point of Religion So as in this and all of the like kind the Duke upon his Majesties knowledge was commanded and but the Instrument trusted by the King in this Exigent or if you will say Extremity Upon the same ground though not in so high a degree the sending of the Ships to Rochel may be excused Touching the vast Creation of Nobility his Majesty may declare that his Father who was born a King and had long experience of that Regiment found that this State inclined much to popularity and therefore thought fit to enlarge the number of his Nobles that these being dispersed into several Counties might shine as Lamps of Soveraignty in protecting their own degrees and at their own chaâ—â—e inure the people with respect and obedience to greatness And the King may protest that this was a child of his Fathers best Judgment and the Duke the Instrument thereof And if you say there was money many times given for these Honors nay if you say that money hath been given for places of Clergy and Judicature take this of me it is so in all other Countreys as in France and Spain c. though I am not satisfied in this opinion And if it be said the King should have had the money which the Duke took to his own use I beleeve this last may the King say is more then any man can prove Neither will I deliver what I know therein onely this I will say I know the Dukes particular service and affection towards me and that he and his will lay down themselves and all they have at my feet Is it for a King to use his Servant and Instrument as he doth his Horses and being by hard riding in his service foundred and lame to turn them out to Grass or to the Cart I must therefore may the King say in right of the King my Fathers Honor protect a man though justly seeming guilty yet in my own knowledge innocent Will you therefore deny the King to favor whom he pleaseth which the King never denied to you that are his Subjects Well commend me to my Lords and tell them that if any thing hath been formerly done amiss by others I have power and will to redress it and to prevent the like At this time the King commanded all the Bishops to attend him and when they were come before him being fourteen in number he reprehended them that in this time of Parliament they had not made known unto him what might be profitable for the Church whose cause he was ready to promote And he laid this Charge upon them that in the Cause of Bristol and Buckingham their Consciences being their Guides they should follow onely proofs and not rumors The Commons sent again to the Duke by Sir Iohn Epsley to let him know that they were passing Articles against him and that they had given the Messengers leave to take Notes thereof out of the Clerks Book whereof he might take a Copy if he pleased and that they expected his Answer that day before ten of the Clock if he pleased to send any This the Duke signified to the Lords who did not think fit that he should answer as appears by the ensuing Report made by Sir Iohn Epsley This day his Grace gave us this Answer after he had moved the Lords that he should with great care make all due acknowledgment of your respect and favors in giving him this notice
for Posterity to strike at the propriety of their Goods contrary to the piety and intention of your Majesty so graciously exprest And these being the true Grounds and Motives of his forbearance to the said Loan shewing such inconveniences in Reason and representing it an Act contradicting so many of your Laws and most of them by the most prudent and happiest of our Princes granted which could not without presumption beyond pardon in your Suppliant in taking to himself the Dispensation of those Laws so piously Enacted by him be violated or impeached In the fulness of all Submission and Obedience as the Apology of his Loyalty and Duty he lowly offers to your most Sacred Wisdom for the satisfaction of your Majesty most humbly praying your Majesty will be graciously pleased to take them into your Princely consideration where when it shall appear as he doubts not but from hence it will to your déep judgment that no factious humor nor disaffection led on by stubbornness and will hath herein stirred or moved him but the just Obligation of his Conscience which binds him to the service of your Majesty in the observânce of your Laws he is hopeful presuming upon the Piety and Iustice of your Majesty that your Majesty according to your innate Clemency and Goodness will be pleased to bestow him to your Favor and his Liberty and to afford him the benefit of those Laws which in all humility he craves Notwithstanding the said Petition he still continued a prisoner in the Gate-house till the general Order of Discharge came Sir Peter Hayman refusing to part with Loan-money was called before the Lords of the Council who charged him with refractoriness and with an unwillingness to serve the King and told him if he did not pay he should be put upon service Accordingly they commanded him to go upon his Majesties service into the Palatinate and having first setled his estate he undertook and performed the journey and afterwards returned into England Archbishop Abbot having been long slighted at Court now fell under the Kings high displeasure for refusing to Licence Doctor Sibthorps Sermon as he was commanded intituled Apostolical Obedience and not long after he was sequestred from his Office and a Commission was granted to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and Doctor Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells to execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction The Commission as followeth CHARLS by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To the Right Reverend Father in God George Bishop of London and to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Trusty and Welbeloved Counsellor Richard Lord Bishop of Durham and to the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Lord Bishop of Rochester and Iohn Lord Bishop of Oxford to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Counsellor William Lord Bishop of Bathe and Wells Greeting WHereas George now Archbishop of Canterbury in the right of the Archbishoprick hath several and distinct Archiepiscopal Episcopal and other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Powers and Iurisdictions to be exercised in the Government and Discipline of the Church within the Province of Canterbury and in the Administration of Iustice in Causes Ecclesiastical within that Province which are partly executed by himself in his own person and partly and more generally by several persons nominated and authorised by him being learned in the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm in those several places whereunto they are deputed and appointed by the said Archbishop Which several places as We are informed they severally hold by several Grants for their several lives as namely Sir Henry Martin Knight hath and holdeth by the Grants of the said Archbishop the Offices and places of the Dean of the Arches and Iudge or Master of the Prerogative Court for the Natural life of the said Sir Henry Martin Sir Charls Caesar Knight hath and holdeth by Grants of the said Archbishop the places or Offices of the Iudge of the Audience and Master of the Faculties for the term of the Natural life of the said Sir Charls Caesar. Sir Thomas Ridley Knight hath and holdeth by the Grant of the said Archbishop the place or Office of Uicar-General to the said Archbishop And Nathaniel Brent Doctor of the Laws hath and holdeth by Grant of the said Archbishop the Office or place of Commissary to the said Archbishop as of his proper and peculiar Diocess of Canterbury And likewise the several Registers of the Arches Prerogative Audience Faculties and of the Uicar-General and Commissary of Canterbury hold their places by Grants from the said Archbishop respectively Whereas the said Archbishop in some or all of these several places and Iurisdictions doth or may sometimes assume unto his personal and proper Iudicature Order or Direction some particular Causes Actions or Cases at his pleasure And forasmuch as the said Archbishop cannot at this present in his own person attend these Services which are otherwise proper for his Cognisance and Iurisdiction and which as Archbishop of Canterbury he might and ought in his own person to have performed and executed in Causes and Matters Ecclesiastical in the proper Function of Archbishop of that Province We therefore of Our Regal Power and of Our Princely Care and Providence that nothing shall be defective in the Order Discipline Government or Right of the Church have thought fit by the Service of some other Learned and Reverend Bishops to be named by Us to supply those things which the said Archbishop ought or might in the Cases aforesaid to have done but for this present cannot perform the same Know ye therefore That We reposing special Trust and Confidence in your approved Wisdoms Learning and Integrity have nominated authorised and appointed and do by these presents nominate authorise and appoint you the said George Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Durham John Lord Bishop of Rochester John Lord Bishop of Oxford and William Lord Bishop of Bathe and Wells or any four thrée or two of you to do execute and perform all and every those Acts Matters and things any way touching or concerning the Power Iurisdiction or Authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Causes or Matters Ecclesiastical as amply fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as the said Archbishop himself might have done And We do hereby Command you and every of you to attend perform and execute this Our Royal Pleasure in and touching the premisses until We shall declare Our Will and Pleasure to the contrary And We do further hereby Will and Command the said Archbishop of Canterbury quietly and without interruption to permit and suffer you the said George Bishop of London Richard Bishop of Durham John Bishop of Rochester John Bishop of Oxford and William Bishop of Bathe and Wells any four thrée or two of you to execute and perform this Our Commission according to Our Royal Pleasure thereby signified And We do further Will
of Magna Charta is That no free-man be imprisoned but by the Law of the Land And it appears by these Books that it is against the Law of the Land that the King should imprison any one 2. Admit that this be onely a signification and notification given by the King himself of the commitment of the prisoner yet it seems that that signification is of no force 1. Because the words are general uncertain for notable contempts There are in the Law many contempts of severall natures there are contempts against the Common law against the Statute-law contempts in words gestures or actions And it appears not to the Court of what nature these contempts were Notable Every contempt which is made to the King is notable Against Our Government Contempt which is committed in a Court of Record or Chancery is a contempt against the Government of the King to wit because they disobey the King when he commands them by his Writs C. 8. 60. a. Beechers case The last two words of the Return are For stirring up of sedition against Us which words likewise are indefinite and generall I find not the word Sedition in our Books but taken adjectively as seditious books seditious newes c. in the Statute of 1 st and 2 d. of Phil. and Mary cap. 3. the words are If any person shall be convicted c. for speaking c. any false seditious or slanderous newes saying of the tayles of the Queen c. he shall lose his ears or pay 100 l. There the penalty imposed upon such Sedition is but a Fine C. 4. Lord Cromwell's case 13. where Sedition is defined to be seorsum itio when a man takes a course of his own And there it is said that the words maintain sedition against the Queen's proceedings shall be expounded according to the coherence of all the words and the intent of the parties So that it is plain that there is a sedition that is onely finable and which is no cause of imprisonment without bail And what the sedition is that is here intended cannot be gathered out of the words they are so generall against Us those words are redundant for every sedition is against the King Upon the generality and incertainty of all the words in the Return he put these cases 18. E. 3. A man was indicted quia furatus est equum and doth not say Felonic and therefore ill 29. ass 45. A man was indicted that he was communis latro and the indictment held vitious because too generall So here the offences are returned generally But there ought to be something individuall C. 5.57 Specot's case quia schismaticus inveteratus is no good cause for the Bishop to refuse a Clerk for it is too generall and there are schisms divers kinds 38. E. 3.2 Because the Clerk is criminosus it is no good cause for the Bishop to refuse him 8 and 9 Eliz. Dy. 254. The Bishop of N. refuseth one because he was a haunter of Taverns c. for which and divers other crimes he was unfit held that the last words are too generall and incertain 40. E. 3.6 In the tender of a marriage and refusall of the heir he ought to alledge a certain cause of refusall Whereupon issue may be taken C. 8.68 Trollop's case to say That the Plantiff is excommunicated for divers contumacies shall not disable him without shewing some cause in speciall of the excommunication upon which the Court may judge whether it were just or no. So here And he concluded with a case that was resolved Hill 33 Eliz. Peak and Paul the Defendants said of the Pantiff Thou art a mutinous and seditious man and maintains sedition against the Queen and the words adjudged not actionable Mason of Lincolns-Inne of Counsell with Mr. Long moved also that the Return was insufficient For the first Warrant that he was committed by command of the King signified by the Privy Councill I will not argue that because it was claimed as an antient right pertaining to the Subject in the Petition of Right whereto the King himself hath given his consent For the second Warrant the Return is for stirring up sedition against Us and Our Government Sedition is not any determined offence within our Law our Law gives definitions or descriptions of other offences to wit of Treason Murder Felony c. but there is no crime in our Law called Sedition It is defined by a Civilian to be Seditio or Secessio cum pars reipublicae contra partem infurgit so that sedition is nothing but division Braeton and Glanvill have the word Seditio generally Before the Statute of 25 E. 3. chap. 2. it was not clear enough what thing was Treason what not by which Statute it is declared what shall be said Treason and that the Iudges shall not declare any thing to be Treason that is not contained within the said Statute but it shall be declared onely by Parliament And that Statute speaks not of Sedition nor the Statute of 1 H. 4. chap. 10. which makes some things Treason which are not contained within the said Statute of 25 E. 3. The Statute of 1 E. 6. chap. 12. takes away all intervenient Statutes which declared new Treasons and the said Act declares other things to be Treason but mentions not Sedition Sedition is the quality of an offence and is oftentimes taken Adverbially or Adjectively To raise tumults or trespasses is sedition Tim. 2. E. 3. rot 23. Garbart's case A man was indicted because in the high street he took I. S. there being in hostile manner and usurped over him royall power which is manifest sedition and there it was but an indictment of trespasse Mich. 20. E. 1. rot 27. One that was surveyor of the Wood-work for the King was indicted for stealing of timber and detaining wages ridding Carpenters wages by one that was but a boy and this is there tearmed Sedition and yet it was but a petty Fellony Mich. 42. E. 3. rot 65. B. R. R. Pope was appealed by the wife of I. S. because he feloniously and seditiously murdered I. S. and seditiously was there put in because it was done privily By which cases it appears that sedition is not taken as a Substantive so that it may be applyed to treason trespasse or other offences By the Statute of 2 H. 4. chap. 15. there is punishment inflicted for the raising of seditious doctrine and yet no punishment could have been inflicted for it untill the said Statute yet it was seditious as well before the said Statute as after And this appears also by the Statute of 1 and 2 of Phil. and Mar. chap. 3. which hath been cited The Statute 13 Eliz. chap. 2. reciâ—es that divers seditious and evill disposed persons c. obtained Bulls of reconciliation from the Pope which offence was made treason by the said Statute for it was not before and yet there was sedition and by the saâ— Statute the aiders and abettors