Circle of Order which without apparent danger both to Church and State may not be broken his Majesty will proceed against them with that severity as upon due consideration had of their Offences and Contempts they and every one of them should deserve c. Such was the tenor of his Majesties Proclamation of Iune 14. And the effect thereof was this The House of Commons in pursuance of their Quarrel against Mountague's Books had referred the consideration of it to their Committee for Religion from whom Pym brought a Report on the eighteenth of April concerning some Arminian and Popish Tenents comprized in them It was thereupon Voted in that House 1. That he had disturbed the Peace of the Church by publishing Doctrines contrary to the Articles of the Church of England and the Book of Homilies 2. That there are divers Passages in his Book especially against those he calleth Puritans apt to move Sedition betwixt the King and his Subjects and between Subject and Subject 3. That the whole frame and scope of his Books is to discourage the well affected in Religion from the true Religion established in the Church and to incline them and as much as in him lay to reconcile them to POPERY This gave great animation to the opposite Party who thought it a high point of Wisdom to assault the man whom they perceived to have been smitten with this terrible Thunder-bolt and not to lose the opportunity of a Parliament-time when the Press is open to all comers for publishing their Books against him Some of them we have named already besides which there appeared so many in the List against him viz. Goad â—eatly Ward Wotton Prynne and Burton that the Encounter seemed to be betwixt a whole Army and a single Person Laud and some of those Bishops on the other side incouraged by his Majesties Proclamation endeavoured to suppress those Books which seemed to have been published in defiance of it some of them being called in some stopped at the Press some Printers questioned for Printing as the Authors were for writing such prohibited Pamphlets Burton and Prynne amongst the rest were called into the High-Commission and at the point to have been censured when a Prohibition comes from Westmâ—nster-Hall to stay the Proceedings in that Court contrary to his Majesties Will and Pleasure expressed so clearly and distinctly in the said Proclamation Which Prohibition they tendred to the Court in so rude a manner that Laud was like to have laid them by the heels for their labour From henceforth we must look for nothing from both these hot-spurs but desire of revenge a violent opposition against all Persons whatsoever who did not look the same way with them and whatsoever else an ill-governed Zeal could excite them too And now being fallen upon these men it may not be amiss to say something of them in this place considering how much they exercised the patience of the Church and State in the Times succeeding Burton had been a Servant in the Closet to his Sacred Majesty when he was Prince of Wales and being once in the Ascendent presumed that he should culminate before his time He took it very ill that he was not sent as one of the Chaplains into Spain when the Prince was there but worse that Laud then Bishop of St. Davids should execute the Office of Clerk of the Closet at such time as Bishop Neil was sick and he be looked on no otherwise than as an underling still Vexed with that Indignity as he then conceived it he puts a scandalous Paper into the hands of the King for which and for some other Insolencies and factious carriage he was commanded by him to depart the Court into which being never able to set foot again he breathed nothing but rage and malice against his Majesty the Bishops and all that were in place above him and so continued till the last it being the custom of all those whom the Court casts out to labour by all means they can to out-cast the Court Prynne lived sometimes a Commoner of Oriall Colledge and afterwards entred himself a Student in Lincolns-Inn where he became a great follower of Preston then the Lecturer there Some parts of Learning he brought with him which afterwards he improved by continual Study and being found to be of an enterprising nature hot-spirited and eager in pursuit of any thing which was put into him he was looked upon by Preston as the fittest person to venture upon such Exploits which a more sober and considerate man durst not have appeared in Being once put into the road it was not possible to get him out of it again by threats or punishments till growing weary of himself when he had no Enemy in a manner to encounter with he began to look up at the last and setled on more moderate and quiet courses becoming in the end a happy Instrument of Peace both to Church and State And now I am fallen on Preston also I shall add something of him too as being a man which made much noise in the World about this time A man he was beyond all question of a shrewd Wit and deep Comprehensions an excellent Master in the Art of Insinuation and one who for a long time sate at the Helm and steared the Course of his Party as one well observeth Toward the latter end of the Reign of King Iames he was brought into the Court by the Duke of Buckingham in hope to gain a Party by him There he was gazed on for a time like a new Court-Meteâ—r and having flashed and blazed a little went out again and was forgotten in case he did not leave as most Meteors do an ill smell behind him Much was he cried up by his Followers in the University City and all places else as if he might have chosen his own Mitre and had been as likely a man as any to have been trusted with the Great Seal in the place of Williams but he was not principled for the Court nor the Court for him For long he had not been in that School of Policy but he found other men as wise and cunning as himself and that he could not govern there with such an absolute Omni-regency as he had done in the Families of private Gentlemen in most parts of the Kingdom Nor was it long before the Duke began to have some suspicion of him as one not to be trusted in his Majesties Service when it seemed any way to cross with the Puritan Interest which he drove on with so much openness in the Court as was not proper for a man of so famed a cunning But that which lost him at the last was a Letter by him written to a great Peer of the Realm in which he spake disadvantageously enough if not reproachfully of the Court and signified withal how little hope there was of doing any good in that place for the advancement of the Cause Which Letter or a Copy of it being unluckily
other Bishops assisting at it And it is possible enough That if he had not made such haste as he did he might have had a worse rub in it than he had before Scarce was the Consecration finished when news came to Croyden of the unfortunate death of the Duke of Buckingham murthered the day before at Portsmouth by one Iohn Felton a Lieutenant who thought himself neglected in the course of his Service The Duke had wholly set his heart on the Relief of Rochel then block'd up by the French both by Sea and Land in hope thereby to redeem the Honour he had lost at the Isle of Rhe and to ingratiate himself with the People of England On the twelfth of August he set forwards from Portsmouth neer which the Navy lay at Anchor and where he had appointed the Rendezvouz for his Land-Forces to assemble and meet together The interval of time betwixt that and his death he spent in putting all things into Readiness that he was almost at the point of going on Board when Feliâ—n cut him off in the middest of his Glories The wretch in such a general confusion might have saved himself if either curiosity in attending the issue or some consternation in his countenance upon the horror of the Fact had not betrayed him to a present discovery Taken upon suspicion and questioned about the Murder he made no scruple to avow it as a meritorious Act of which he had more cause to glory than to be ashamed And being afterwards more cunningly handled by one of his Majesties Chaplains sent to him from the Court of purpose to work him to it he confessed plainly and resolvedly That he had no other motive to commit that Murder but the late Remonstrance in which the Duke had been accused for being the Cause of all the Grievances and Mischiefs in the Common-wealth This news was brouâ—â—t unto the King as he was at the Publick Morning-Prayers in â—is Presence-Chamber the Court being then at Southwick not far from Portsmouth which he received with such a stedfast Countenance so unmoved a Paâ—ience that â—e withdrew not from the place till the Prayers were ended It is not to be doubted but that his Majesty was much afflicted in the loss of so dear a Servant in whose bosom he had lodged so much of his Counsels and to whose Conduct he had so fully recommended the Great Concernments of the Kingdom But such was the constancy of his Temper and the known evenness of his Spirit that in the middest of all those sorrows he neither neglected his Affairs abroad nor his Friends at home For notwithstanding this sad accident the Fleet set forwards under the Command of the Earl of Lindsey whose coming within sight of Rochel was welcom'd by those in the Town with all the outward expressions of Hope and Joy But his desires to do them Service were without Success For when he came he found the Haven so strongly barred that though he gallantly attempted to force his way and give Relief to the Besieged yet finding nothing but impossibility in the Undertaking he discharged his Ordnance against the Enemy and went off with safety Which being perceived by those of the Town who had placed their last hopes in this Attempt they presently set open their Gates casting themselves upon the Mercy of their Natural Prince whose Government and Authority they had for so many years before both opposed and sleighted And on the other side being well assured of that infinite anguish and disconsolation which Laud his now most trusty Servant must needs suffer under by the most barbarous Assassination of so dear a Friend he dispatch'd Elphiston his Cup-bearer with a gracious Message to comfort him in those disquiets of his Soul and on the neck of that a Letter of his own hand-writing to the same effect He looks upon him now as his Principal Minister well practised in the Course of his Business of whose fidelity to his Person and perspicacity of Judgment in Affairs of State he had found such good proof And therefore at the first time that Laud could find himself in a condition to attend upon him he used many gracious Speeches to him not only to wipe off the Remembrance of that sad Misfortune but to put him into such a Power by which he might be able to protect himself against all his Enemies He was before but an inferiour Minister in the Ship of State and had the trimming of the Sails the super-inspection of the Bulgings and Leakings of it Now he is called unto the Helm and steers the Course thereof by his sage Directions Having obtained this heighth of Power he casts his eye back on his Majesties Proclamation of the fourteenth of Iune Anno 1626. Of which though he had made good use in suppressing some of those Books which seemed to foment the present Controversies yet he soon found as well by his own Observation as by Intelligence from others That no such general notice had been taken of it as was first expected For being only published in Market-Towns and perhaps very few of them the Puritan Ministers in the Country did not conceive themselves obliged to take notice of it And much less could it come to the ears of Students in Universities for whose restraint from medling either by Preaching or Writing in the Points prohibited it might seem most necessary He knew that by the Laws of the Land all Ministers were to read the Book of Articles audibly and distinctly in the hearing of their Parishioners when they first entred on their Cures and that by the Canons of the Church all that took Orders or Degrees were publickly to subscribe unto them A Declaration to the same effect before those Articles must needs give such a general signification of his Majesties pleasure that no body could from thenceforth pretend ignorance of it which must needs render his transgression the more inexcusable Upon which prudent considerations he moved his Majesty that the Book of Articles might be reprinted and such a Declaration placed before them as might preserve them from such misconstructions as had of late been put upon them and keep them to their native literal and Grammatical sense His Majesty approved the Counsel as both pious and profitable and presently gave order that all things should be done according as he had advised A Declaration of great influence in the course of our Story and therefore here to be subjoyned in its proper place By the King BEing by Gods Ordinance according to Our just Title Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governour of the Church within these Our Dominions We hold it most agreeable to Our Kingly Office and Our own Religious Zeal to conserve and maintain the Church committed to Our charge in the Unity of true Religion and in the bond of Peace and not to suffer unnecessary Disputations Alterations and Questions to be raised which may nourish Faction both in the Church and Common-wealth We have therefore upon
be his Parishioners or of his peculiar But Abbot being at that time infirm or otherwise of no desirable Company this Office was devolved on Laud as Dean of the Chappel and he accordingly performed it The Birth of this young Prince as it gave cause of great Rejoycings to all good Subjects so it gave no small matter of discouragement to the Puritan Faction who had laid their Line another way and desired not that this King should have had any Children Insomuch that at a Feast in Fryday-street when some of the Company shewed great joy at the news of the Queens first being with Child a leading man of that Faction whom I could name were it worth the while did not stick to say That he could see no such cause of joy as the others did Which said he gave this Reason for it That God had already better provided for us than we had deserved in giving such a hopeful Progeny by the Queen of Bohemia brought up in the Reformed Religion whereas it was uncertain what Religion the Kings Children would follow being to be brought up under a Mother so devoted to the Church of Rome And I remember that being at a Town in Glocestershire when the news came of the Princes Birth there was great Joy shewed by all the rest of the Parish in causing Bonfires to be made and the Bells to be rung and sending Victuals unto those of the younger sort who were most busily imployed in the publick Joy But so that from the rest of the Houses being of the Presbyterian or Puritan Party there came neither Man nor Child nor Wood nor Victuals their doors being shut close all the evening as in a time of general mourning and disconsolation It was not long after the Birth of this new Prince that the Feoffees for buying in Impropriations were called in question The Project took beginning about four years since when Preston Governed the Affairs of the Puritan Faction at what time it was resolved amongst them to set up stipendary Lectures in all or most Market-Towns where the People had commonly less to do and consequently were more apt to Faction and Innovation than in other places and of all Market-Towns to chuse such as were Priviledged for sending Burgesses to the High Court of Parliament Which that it might be done with the less charge to the People who commonly love that Religion best which comes cheapest to them it was agreed to raise a common Stock amongst them for buying in such Impropriations as were remaining in the hands of the Laity To this end they erected a kind of Corporation amongst themselves consisting of twelve Persons Clergymen Citizens and Lawyers enabling them to receive and expend such Monies as their Emissaries should bring in from their several Circuits Their names Gouge Offspring Sibbs and Davenport Ministers Eyre Brown White and Sherland Lawyers Geering Davis Harwood and Bridges Citizens to whom was afterwards added Rowland Heylyn Aldernian of the City of London by the name of Treasurer to the Company that there might be a casting Voice amongst them as occasion served Great were the Sums of Money which the Piety of the Design and the Diligence of their Limitaries brought in from their several Walks most men admiring all applauding the nobleness of such a Popular and Religious Act. But so it hapned that one of the Fellows of Magdalen Colledge resorting frequently to a Town in Glocestershire where one of these new Lectures had been founded by them observed these two things First That the Impropriation of that place remained in the same Lay-hands as before it did and therefore that the Lecturer must receive his Stipend from the Profits of some other Parish And secondly he observed That the man there planted in that Lecture was one of a notorious Inconformity found upon further search to have been hunted from one Diocess to another till at last he was Silenced upon that account by the High-Commission This gave him the first hint of making a more diligent Inquiry into that Design and the more he looked into it the worse he liked it He knew so much of some and heard so much of all the rest which were trusted in the Conduct of it that he could hope for no good to the Church of England from any thing of their projectment For if such publick mischiefs be presaged by Astrologers from the Conjunctions of Iupiter and Saturn though the first of them be a Planet of a most sweet and gentle Influence what Dangers what Calamities might not be feared from the Conjunction of twelve such Persons of which there was not one that wished well to the present Government Having gone thus far in the Discovery it pleased the President of his Colledge being then Vice-Chancellor to appoint him to Preach the Act Sermon at St. Maries on Sunday in the afternoon Iuly 11. 1630. To which appointment he submitted resolving to deliver something in that great concourse of People from all parts of the Kingdom which might serve to undeceive them in that Particular He had chosen for his Text those words in the thirteenth of St. Matthew viz. But while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares amongst the wheat and went his way Beginning to draw toward the end of his Sermon he thus began to unfold the Arras and shew the Portraicture thereof in as lively Colours as he could Planting saith he also many Pensionary Lecturers in so many places where it need not and upon days of common labour will at the best bringing forth of fruit appear to be a tare indeed though now no wheat be counted tares c. We will proceed a little on further in the proposal of some things to be considered The Corporation of Feoffees for buying in Impropriations to the Church Doth it not seem in the appearance to be an excellent piece of Wheat A noble and gracious point of piety Is not this Templum Domini Templum Domini But blessed God that men should thus draw near unto thee with their mouths and yet be far from thee in their hearts For what are those intrusted in the managing of this great business Are they not the most of them the most active and the best affected men in the whole cause and Magna Partium momenta Chief Patrons of the Faction And what are those whom they prefer Are they not most of them such as must be serviceable to their dangerous innovations And will they not in time have more preferments to bestow and therefore more dependencies than all the Prelates in the Kingdom c. Yet all this while we sleep and slumber and fold our hands in sloth and see perhaps but dare not note it No sooner were these words delivered but a general consternation shewed it self in the looks of his Auditors Some honest and well meaning men seemed much to pitty his misfortune in being put as it was then generally but falsly thought on that odious task by some higher power of
but confidence multiplying in some numbers about the Court and resorting in more open manner to the Masses at Somerset house where the Capuchins had obtained both a Chappel and Convent Of this none bears the blame but Laud who is traduced in Libels and common talk for the principal Architect in the Plot and the Contriver of the mischief On this account and the proceedings of the Star-Chamber before remembred one Libel is dropt at the South Gate of St. Pauls on August 23. declaring that the Devil had left that house to him for the saying of Mass and other abominations of the Church of Rome another two daies after fastned to the North Gate of it signifying that the Church of England was like a Candle in a Snuff going out in a stench His Speech in the Star-Chamber put into a kind of Pillory and hanged up at the Standard in Cheapside and another short Libel made against him in Verse four daies after that Awakened by so many Alarms he had good cause to look about him but more at the great noise not long after raised about the seducing of the Countess of Newport a Kinswoman of the late Duke of Buckinghams to the Church of Rome effected by the Practices of Walter Mountague a younger Son of the Earl of Manchester and the importunities of Toby Matthews an undeserving Son of a worthy Father Con interposing in it as he found occasion The Archbishop had long stomackt at the Insolencies of Matthews and Mountague and had forborn the taking of any publick notice of them till he had almost lost himself in the sight of the people But laying hold on this opportunity he passionately declares himself at the Council Table on October 22. in a full and free Speech to the King concerning the increase of the Roman Party the frequent resort of Papists to Somerset house the unsufferable misdemeanors of Matthews and Mountague in practicing upon his Subjects and chiefly upon those which lived within the verge of the Court and were nearest to him humbly beseeching him to put some strong restraint upon them whereby they either might be barred from coming into the Court at all or to give no offence and scandal by their misbehaviours Of this the Queen had notice that very night who seemed much displeased at the matter and let him see it in her Countenance whensoever he had any cause of coming where she was But the Pill was given in a very good hour and wrought so effectually with the King that Mountague and Matthews were purged out of the Court the one betaking himself to his Country practice the other for a time to his former travels in France and Italy Which the Queen finding to be past remedy and knowing how necessary a Servant the Archbishop was to his Great Master and how useful he might be to her in her own affairs she admitted him to her speech again in December following and after some expostulations concerning Mountague she began to clear her Countenance and to part fair with him Follow this business into the next year and we shall find him moving for a Proclamation about the calling in of a Popish Book written in French by Francis Sales Bishop of Geneva translated into English and published by the name of an Introduction to a devout life which Book being brought to Haywood the Archbishops Chaplain and by him purged of divers unsound passages apparently tending unto Popery before it was licenced to the Press was notwithstanding published as it came to his hands without alteration the Translator inserting the same passages into it again and the Printer conniving at the same The Printer was thereupon apprehended and the Translator diligently sought for to be brought to Justice his Majesties care for maintaining the Religion professed in the Church of England in its natural purity being so remarkable that he caused the said Book to be called in and as many as could be seised on to be publickly burned But that which did most generally vindicate his Reputation was the enlarging and re-printing of his Conference with Fisher the Iesuite to which he had been moved by some of his private friends none of them knowing that any other but himself had made the motion when the Libellers were most fierce against him and afterwards advised to it by the King himself at the Council Table The former Propositions had disposed him to it and this desire of the Kings served for a command to confirm him in it But multiplicity of business gave him so little leisure to attend his Studies that the year was almost ended before the Book could be made ready for the publick view But at the last it came from the Press and was presented to his Majesty on Sunday the tenth of February and the next day exposed unto open sale A Piece so solidly compacted that one of our Historians who shews himself to be none of his greatest Friends gives it the commendation of being the exactest Master-piece of Polemique Divinity of any extant at that time further affirming That he declared himself therein to be so little theirs he means the Papists as he had for ever disabled them from being so much their own as before they were And DERING his most professed Adversary in the Preface to his Book of Speeches could not but confess but that in his Book especially the last half of it he had muzzled the Iesuite and should strike the Papists under the fifth Rib when he was dead and gone And being dead that wheresoever his grave should be Pauls would be his perpetual Monument and his own Book his Epitaph But such was his unhappy Fate that many obstinate and malicious Puritans would not be otherwise perswaded of him than before they were which they spared not to express upon this occasion One of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary had Preached two Sermons in Ianuary foregoing on Matt. 13.26 which being brought into discourse at such time as the Archbishops Book was newly published it was affirmed by some moderate men that the Doctor in those two Sermons had pulled up Popery by the very roots one of the company replying thereunto That the Archbishop might Print and the Doctor might Preach what they pleased against Popery but that he should never think them or either of them to be the less Papists for all that A Censure of so strange a nature and so little savouring of Christianity that I believe it is not easie to be paralelled in the worst of times And when no Priest nor Jesuite could be found so confident as to venture on an Answer to it one of the Presbyterian Scots for such he was then generally affirmed to be published an unlicenced Piece against him under the Title of A Reply to a Relation of the Conference betwixt William Laud and Mr. Fisher the Iesuite said to be writ by a Witness of Iesus Christ. In the whole course whereof the Author whosoever he was most miserably perverts
as forward in it as any other that their Contributions mounted higher than was expected The Benevolence of the Diocess of Norwich only aâ—ounting to 2016 l. 16 s. 5 d. The Archdâ—acorry of Winchester only to the sum of 1305 l. 5 s. 8 d. And though we may not conclude of all the rest by the greatness of thâ—se yet may it be very safely said that they did all exceeding bountifully in their several proportions with reference to the extent of their Diocesses and the ability of their Estates Nor were the Judges of the several Benches of the Courts at Westminster and the great Officers under them Protonotaries Secondaries and the like deficient in expressing their good aâ—â—ections to this general cause in which the safety of the Realm was as much concerned as his Majesties honour And for the Doctors of the Laws Chancellors Commissaries Officials and other Officers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Courts they were spurred on to follow the example of the Secular Judges as having a more particular concernment in it by a Letter sent from the Archbishop to the Dean of the Arches on February 11. and by him communicated to the rest By which Free-will offerings on the one side some commanded duties on the other and the well-husbanding of his Majesties Revenue by the Lord Treasurer Iuxon he was put into such a good condition that he was able both to raise and maintain an Army with no charge to the Common Subject but only a little Coat and Conduct money at their first setting out These preparations were sufficient to give notice of a War approaching without any further denouncing of it by a publick Herald and yet there was another accident which seemed as much to fore-signifie it as those preparations Mary de Medices the Widow of King Henry iâ— of France and Mother to the Queens of England and Spain arrived at Harwich on October 19. and on the last of the same was with great State conducted through the Streets of London to his Majesties Palace of St. Iames. A Lady which for many years had not lived out of the smell of Powder and a guard of Muskets at her door embroyled in wars and troubles when she lived in France and drew them after her into Flanders where they have ever since continued So that most men were able to presage a Tempest as Mariâ—eâ—s by the appearing of some Fish or the flying of some Birds about their ships can foresee a storm His Majesty had took great care to prevent her comming knowing â—ull well how chargeable a guest she would prove to him and how unwelcome to the Subject To which end â—eswel was commanded to use all his wits for perswading her to stay in Holland whither she had retired from Flanders in the year precedent But she was wedded to her will and possibly had received such invitations from her Daughter here that nothing but everlasting foul weather at Sea and a perpetual cross-wind could have kept her there All things provided for the War his Majesty thought sit to satisfie his good Subjects of both Kingdoms not only of the Justice which appeared in this Action but in the unavoydable necessity which enforced him to it To which end he acquaints them by his Proclamation of the 20 of February How traiterously some of the Scottish Nation had practiced to pervert his Loyal Subjects of this Realm by scattering abroad their Libellous and Seditious Pamphlets mingling themselves at their publick meetings and reproaching both his Person and Government That he had never any intention to alter their Religion or Laws but had condescended unto more for defence thereof than they had reason to expect That they had rejected the Band and Covenant which themselves had prest upon the people because it was commended to them by his Authority and having made a Covenant against God and him and made such Hostile preparations as if he were their sworn Enemy and not their King That many of them were men of broken Fortunes who because they could not well be worse hoped by engaging in this War to make themselves better That they had assumed unto themselves the power of the Press one of the chief markes of the Regal Authority prohibiting to Print what he commanded and commanding to Print what he prohibited and dismiâ—â—ng the Printer whom he had established in that Kingdom That they had raised Arms blockt up and besieged his Castles laid Impositions and Taxes upon his people threatned such as continued under Loyalty with force and violence That they had contemned the Authority of the Council Table and set up Tables of their own from which they send their Edâ—cts throughout all parts of the Kingdom contrary to the Laws therein established pretending in the mean time that the Laws were violated by himself That the question was not now whether the Service-Book should be received or not or whether Episcopacy should continue or not but whether he were King or not That many of them had denied the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance for which some of them had been committed as inconsistent and incompatible with their holy Covenant That being brought under a necessity of taking Arms he had been traduced in some of their writings for committing the Arms he had then raised into the hands of professed Papists a thing not only dishonourable to himself and the said noble persons but false and odious in it self That some of power in the Hierarchy had been defamed for being the cause of his taking Arms to invade that Kingdom who on the contrary had been only Counsellors of peace and the chief perswaders as much as in them lay of the undeserved moderation wherewith he had hitherto proceeded toward so great Offenders That he had no intent by commending the Service-Book unto them to innovate any thing at all in their Religion but only to create a conformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms and not to infringe any of their Liberties which were according to the Laws That therefore he required all his loving Subjects not to receive any more of the said seditious Pamphlets but to deliver such of them as they had received into the hands of the next Justice of the Peace by him to be sent to one of his Majesties principal Secretaries And finally That this his Proclamation and Declaration be read in time of Divine Service in every Church within the Kingdom that all his People to the meanest might see the notorious carriages of these men and likewise the Justice and Mercy of all his proceedings And now his Majesty is for Action beginning his Journey towards the North March 27. being the Anniversary day of his Inauguration His Army was advanced before the best for quality of the Persons compleatness of Arms number of serviceable Horse and necessary Provision of all sorts that ever waited on a King of England to a War with Scotland Most of the Nobility attended on him in their Persons and such as were to be
these St. John Baptist had his head danced off by a lewd woman and St. Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting Sword Many examples great and 〈◊〉 and they teach me patience for I hope my cause in heaven will 〈◊〉 of another dye than the colour that is put upon it here And some comfort it is to me not only that I go the way of these great men in their several Generations but also that my charge as foul as it is made 〈◊〉 like that of the Jews against St. Paul Acts 25.3 for he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion and like that of St. Steven Acts 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the holy place and the Temple v. 13. But you will then say Do I then compare my self with the Integrity of St. Paul and St. Steven No far be that from me I only raise a comfort to my self that these great Saints and Servants of God were laid at 〈◊〉 their time as I am now And it is memorable that St. Paul who helped on this accusation against St. Steven did after fall under the very same himself Yea but here is a great clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you knâ—w what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him ET VENIENT ROMANI and the Romans will come and take away both our Place and Nation Here was a causeless cry against Christ that the Romans would come and see how just the Iudgment was they Crucified Christ for fear least the Romans should come and his death was it which brought in the Romans upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared And I pray God this clamour of Venient Romani of which 〈…〉 no cause help not to bring them in For the Pope never had such an harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as a Deceiver and yet true am I passing through this world 2 Cor. 6.8 Some Particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And first This I shall be bold to speak of the King our Gracious Soveraign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but on my conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know him to be as free from this Charge as any man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law Established as any man in this Kingdom And that he will venture his life as far and as freely for it And I think I do or should know both his affection to Religion and his grounds for it as fully as any man in England The second Particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a Fashion taken up to gather Hands and then go to the great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and clamour for Iustice as if that great and wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to many could not or would not do Iustice but at their Appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his bloud upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also and this hath been lately practiced against my self the Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without any check God forgive the Setters of this with all my heart I beg it but many well-meaning People are caught by it In St. Stevens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him and Herod went the same way when he had killed St James yet he would not venture on St. Peter till he found how the other pleased the People But take heed of having your hands full of bloud for there is a time best known to himself when God above other sins makes Inquisition for bloud and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us That God remembers that 's not all He remembers and forgets not the complaint of the poor that is whose bloud is shed by oppression ver 9. Take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for bloud And with my prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26.15 The third Particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other Neighbouring Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now it is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse thâ—â— the storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and at every cleft Prophaneness and Irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speaks in his second book De vitae contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce profaneness are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the substance and dwell too much in opinion and that Church which all the Iesuites Machinations could not ruine is fallen into danger by her own The last Particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was born and baptized in the Bosome of the Church of England establâ—â—hed by Law in that Profession I have ever since lived and In that I come nâ—w to die This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in 〈◊〉 of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I â—ave alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and â— that I come now to dye What clamours and slanders I have endured 〈…〉 to keep an Vniformity in the external Service of God accordinâ— tâ— the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church all men know and I 〈◊〉 abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of High Treason in Parliament a Crime which my soul ever abhorred This Treason was charged to consist of two parts An endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and a like endeaâ—our to overthrow the true Protestant Religion established by Law Besides my Answers to the several Charges I protested my innocency in â—oth Houses It was said Prisoners Protestations at the Bar must 〈…〉 taken I can bring no witness of my heart and the inten 〈◊〉 thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar â—ut my Protestation of this hour and instant of my death in which I 〈◊〉 all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would 〈◊〉 and dissemble being instantly to give God an account for the truth of 〈…〉 therefore here in the presence of God and
long experience with his great abilities his constancy courage and dexterity for managing affairs of moment And thereupon entring into speech with him in the beginning of Iune he was pleased to take notice of the long and unrewarded service which he had done him telling him that he looked on the Deanry of Glocester but as a Shell without a Kernel This gave him the first hopes of his growing Fortunes On Sunday the nineteenth of that Month he preached before the King at Wansteed that being the first of those Sermons which are now in Print And on St. Peters day next following there was a general expectation about the Court that he should have been made Dean of Westminster in the place of Williams who having been sworn Privy-Counsellor on the tenth of that Month and nominated to the See of Lincoln was on the tenth of Iuly honoured with the Custody of the great Seal of England upon the Deprivation of the Lord Chancellor St. Albans which before we spake of but Williams so prevailed at Court that when he was made Bishop of Lincoln he retained this Deanry in Commendam together with such other Preferments as he held at that time That is to say A Prebend and Residentiary place in the Cathedral Church at Lincoln and the Rectory of Walgrave in Northampton-shire so that he was a perfect Diocess within himself as being Bishop Dean Prebend Residentiary and Parson and all these at once But though Laud could not get the Deanry yet he lost nothing by the example which he made use of in retaining not only his Prebends place in the same Church of Westminster and his Benefices in the Country that being an ordinary indulgence to such as were preferred to the smaller Bishopsricks but also the Presidentship of his Colledge in Oxon which he valued more than all the Rest. For that his own expectation might not be made as frustrate as was that of the Court his Majesty nominated him the same day to the See of St. Davids in former times the Metropolitan City of the Welsh or Brittish But though he was nominated then he could not receive the Episcopal Character till five Months after the stay was long but the necessity unavoydable by reason of a deplorable misfortune which had befallen Archbishop Abbot and was briefly this The Archbishop had long held a dear and entire Friendship with Edward Lord Zouch a person of an eminent and known Nobility On whom he pleased to bestow a visit in his house at Bramshall invited to see a Deer hunted that he might take the fresh air and revive his Spirits a Cross-bow was put into his hand to shoot one of the Deer but his hand most unhappily swerving or the Keeper as unfortunately coming in his way it so pleased God the Disposer of Humane Affairs that he missed the Beast and shot the Man On which sad accident being utterly uncapable of consolation he retired himself to Guilford the place of his birth there to expect the Issue of his wofull Fortunes in an Hospital of his own Foundation The news of this wretched misadventure as ill news flies far came the same day to the Lord Keeper Williams and he as hastily dispatches this Advertisement of it to the Marquess of Buckingham My most Noble Lord AN unfortunate occasion of my Lords Grace his killing of a man casually as it is here constantly reported is the cause of my seconding of my yesterdays Letter unto your Lordship His Grace upon this Accident is by the Common Law of England to forfeit all his Estate unto his Majesty and by the Canon Law which is in force with us irregular ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical Function until he be again restored by his Superiour which I take it is the Kings Majesty in this Rank and Order of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction If you send for Doctor Lamb he will acquaint your Lordship with the distinct Penalties in this kind I wish withal my heart his Majesty would be as merciful as ever he was in all his life but yet I held it my duty to let his Majesty know by your Lordship that his Majesty is fallen upon a matter of great Advice and Deliberation To add affliction unto the afflicted as no doubt he is in mind is against the Kings Nature To leave virum sanguinum or a man of blood Primate and Patriarch of all his Churches is a thing that sounds very harsh in the old Councils and Canons of the Church The Papists will not spare to descant upon one and the other I leave the knot to his Majesties deep Wisdom to advise and resolve upon A rheum fallen into mine eye c. Which Letter bearing date Iuly 27. 1621. points us directly to the time of this woful Accident Being thus pre-judged and pre-condemned the miserable man must needs have had a hard bout of it if his cause had been referred to an hearing in Chancery But King Iames was as compassionate as just and as regardful of the Church as he was compassionate to the man Advising therefore with his Council and some chief Clergy-men about him though more with his own gracious disposition he after issued a Commission to the Lord Keeper Williams the Bishops of London Winchester St. Davids and Exon as also unto Hubbert and Dodderidge two of the Justices of the Courts at Westminster-hall Martin and Steward Doctors of the Civil Laws men of great Eminence and Abilities in their several Studies to make Inquiry into the Fact And having made Inquiry into the Fact they were to give their Resolution unto His Majesty whether the Archbishop had been made irregular by that sad accident as it was commonly reported In the managing of which great Cause there was much variety of Opinions amongst the Delegates some making him obnoxious to Irregularity and others as much labouring to acquit him of it Amongst these last were Doctor Andrews then Bishop of Winchester and Sir Henry Martin then Dean of the Arches and not long after Judge of the Prerogative Court to whose Authority and Judgment the rest of the Commissioners did in time conform Martin for his part had received his Offices and Preferments from him and therefore in an honest Gratitude thought himself obliged to bend the Law as much as possibly he could to his best Advantage But Andrews had no such impulsives there being between them some disgust which might have rather prevailed with him to have been his Enemy First therefore he was willing not to stand too rigidly upon the strictness of the Canons for fear lest others of the Bishops and himself amongst them either through ignorance or incogitancy might commit some acts which without a fair and mild construction might render them as uncanonical as that poor man was And then he saw that if the Archbishop at that time had been pronounced irregular and the See made void Williams being then Lord Keeper and in great favour with his Majesty and the Marquis too would
discontentments which appeared in the people for the Princes Journey into Spain the sad consequents which were feared to ensue upon it in reference to his Person and the true Religion that the blame of all was by the People laid on the Duke and that it was safest for his Majecty to let it rest where they had laid it But nothing could be thought more strange unto him than that the Lord Keeper Williams and the Lord Treasurer Cranfield should be of Counsel in the Plot both of them being of his raising and both in the stile of Court his Creatures Of all which practises and proceedings Laud gives intelligence to the Duke and receives back again Directions in his actings for him Pity it is that none of these reciprocal Letters have been found to make up the Cabala and to enrich the treasures in the Scrinea Sacra From hence proceeded the constancy of affection which the Duke carried to him for ever after the Animosity between Laud and Williams the fall of Cranfield first and of Williams afterwards Laud by his diligence and fidelity overtopping all The news of these practices in the Court made the Duke think of leaving Spain where he began to sink in his Estimation and hasting his return to England for fear of sinking lower here than he did in Spain Some clashings there had been betwixt him and the Conde d' Olivarez the Principal Favorite of that King and some Caresses were made to him by the Queen of Bohemia inviting him to be a God-father to one of her Children In these disquiets and distractions he puts the Prince in mind of the other Game he had to play namely the Restitution of the Palatinate which the Spaniard would not suffer to be brought under the Treaty of the Match reserving it as they pretended and perhaps really intended to be bestowed by the Infanta after the Marriage the better to ingratiate her self with the English Nation Which being a point of too great moment to depend upon no other assurance than a Court-Complement only it was concluded by the Prince That since he could not prevail in the one he would not proceed to the Consummation of the other But then it did concern him so to provide for his own saâ—ety that no intimation might be made of the intended Rupture till he had unwinded himself out of that Labyrinth into which he was cast For which cause having desired of his Father that some Ships might be sent to bring him some he shewed himself a more passionate Lover than ever formerly bestowed upon the Lady Infanta many rich Jewels of most inestimable value and made a Proxie to the Catholick King and Don Charles his Brother in his name to Espouse tâ—e Lady Which Proxie being made and executed in due form of Law on the Fourth of August 1623. was put into the Hands of Digby on the Fifteenth of September after made Earl of Bristol by him to be delivered to the King of Spain within ten days after the coming of the Dispensation from the new Pope Vrban which was then every day expected But no sooner had he took his leave and was out of danger but he dispatch'd a Post unto him commanding him not to deliver up the Proxie until further Order And having so done he hoised Sails for England Arriving at Portsmouth on Sunday the fifth of October he rides Post the next day to London and after Dinner on the same day to the Court at Royston his welcom home being celebrated in all Places with Bells and Bonfires and other accustomed Expressions of a Publick Joy Being come unto the Court they acquaint his Majesty with all that hapned informing him that no assurance of regaining the Palatinate could be had in Spain though the Match went forwards His Majesty thereupon dispatches Letters to the Earl of Bristol on the eighth of October requiring him not to deliver up the Proxie and so not to proceed to the Espousals till the Christmas Holy-days and in the mean time to press that King to a positive Answer touching the Palatinate The expectation whereof not being answered by success a Parliament is summoned to begin on the 17th of February then next following to the end that all things might be governed in this Great Affair by the publick Counsel of the Kingdom Not long after the beginning whereof the Duke declaâ—ed before both Houses more to the disadvantage of the Spaniard than there was just ground for how unhandsomly they had dealt with the Prince when he was in Spain how they had fed him with delays what indignities they had put upon him and finally had sent him back not only without the Palatinate but without a Wife leaving it to their prudent consideration what course to follow It was thereupon Voted by both Houses That his Majesty should be desired to break off all Treaties with the King of Spain and to engage himself in a War against him for the recovery of the Palatinate not otherwise to be obtained And that they might come the better to the end they aimed at they addressed themselves unto the Prince whom they assured That they would stand to him in that War to the very last expence of their Lives and Fortunes and he accordingly being further set on by the Duke became their instrument to perswade his Father to hearken to the Common Votes and Desires of his Subjects which the King press'd by their continual Importunities did at the last but with great unwillingness assent to Such was the conduct of this business on the part of the English Look we next what was done in Spain and we shall find in Letters from the Earl of Bristol That as soon as news was come to Spain that King Iames had sworn the Articles of the Treaty which was done on the 26th of Iuly the Lady Infanta by all the Court with the Approbation of that King and her own good-liking was called La Princessa d' Inglaterra That as such she gave her self the liberty of going publickly to such Comedies as were presented in the Court which before was not allowable in her That as such also not only he himself as the Kings Embassadour was commanded to serve her but the Duke and all the English were admitted to kiss her hands as her Servants and Vassals That after the Princes departure there was no thought of any thing but of providing Presents for the King and him the setling of the Princesses Family and making Preparations for the Journey on the first of March That the Princess also had begun to draw the Letters which she intended to have written the day of her disposories to the Prince her Husband and the King her Father in Law That besides such assurances as were given by the Count of Olivarez and other Ministers of that King the Princess had made the business of the Palatinate to be her own and had therein most expresly moved the King her Brother and written to the Conde
with the sins of the State But then he will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Gen. 49. Nay scatter Iacob and Israel it self for them Which said in general he descended to a more particular application putting his Auditory in mind of those words of Tacitus That nothing gave the Romans powerful enemies though they were more advantage against the ancient Britains than this Quod Factionibus studiis trahebantur That they were broken into Factions and would not so much as take counsel and advice together And they smarted for it But I pray what is the difference for men not to meet in counsel and to fall to pieces when they meet If the first were our Fore-fathers errour God of his mercy grant this second be not ours And for the Church that is as the City too just so Doctrine and Discipline are the Walls and the Towers of it But be the one never so true and the other never so perfect they come both short of Preservation if that body be not at unity in it self The Church take it Catholick cannot stand well if it be not compacted together into an holy unity with Faith and Charity And as the whole Church is in regard of the affairs of Christendom so is each particular Church in the Nation and Kingdom in which it sojourns If it be not at unity in it self it doth but invite Malice which is ready to do hurt without any invitation and it ever lies with an open side to the devil and all his batteries So both Church and State then happy and never till then when they are at unity within themselves and one with another Well both State and Church owe much to Vnity and therefore very little to them that break the peace of either Father forgive them they know not what they do But if unity be so necessary how may it be preserved in both How I will tell you Would you keep the State in Vnity In any case take heed of breaking the peace of the Church The peace of the State depends much upon it For divide Christ in the minds of men or divide the minds of men about their hopes of Salvation in Christ and tell me what unity there will be Let this suffice so far as the Church is an ingredient into the unity of the State But what other things are concurring to the unity of it the State it self knows better than I can teach This was good Doctrine out of doubt The Preacher had done his part in it but the hearers did not the Parliament not making such use of it as they should have done At such time as the former Parliament was adjourned to Oxon the Divinity School was prepared for the House of Commons and a Chair made for the Speaker in or near the place in which his Majesties Professor for Divinity did usually read his publick Lectures and moderate in all publick Disputations And this first put them into conceit that the determining of all Points and Controversies in Religion did belong to them As Vibius Rufus in the Story having married Tullies Widow and bought Caesars Chair conceived that he was then in a way to gain the Eloquence of the one and the power of the other For after that we find no Parliament without a Committee for Religion and no Committee for Religion but what did think it self sufficiently instructed to manage the greatest Controversies of Divinity which were brought before them And so it was particularly with the present Parliament The Commons had scarce setled themselves in their own House but Mountague must be called to a new account for the Popery and Arminianism affirmed to have been maintained by him in his books In which Books if he had defended any thing contrary to the established Doctrine of the Church of England the Convocation of the two was the fitter Judge And certainly it might have hapned ill unto him the King not being willing to engage too far in those Emergences as the case then stood if the Commons had not been diverted in pursuit of the Duke of Buckingham which being a more noble game they laid this aside having done nothing in it but raised a great desire in several Members of both Houses to give themselves some satisfaction in those doubtful Points To which end a Conference was procured by the Earl of Warwick to be held at York House between Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester and White Dean of Carlile on the one side Morton then of Lichfield and Preston then of Lincolns-Inn of whom more hereafter on the other The Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Pembroke many other Lords and many other persons of inferiour quality being present at it To this Conference which was holden on the eleventh of this February another was added the next week on the seventeenth In which Mountague acted his own part in the place of Buckeridge the Concourse being as great both for the quality and number of the persons as had been at the former And the success was equal also The Friends and Fautors of each side giving the victory to those as commonly it happens in such cases whose cause they favoured After this we hear no more of Mountague but the passing of some Votes against him in the April following which â—eats being over he was kept cold till the following Parliament And then he shall be called for In the mean time the King perceiving that the Commons had took no notice of his own occasions gave order to Sir Richard Weston then Chancellour of his Exchequer to mind them of it by whom he represented to them the return of the last years Fleet and the want of Money to satisfie the Mariners and Souldiers for their Arrâ—ars That he had prepared a new Fleet of forty Sail ready to set forth which could not stir without a present supply of money And that without the like supply not only his Armies which were quartered upon the Coasts would disband or mutiny but that the Forces sent for Ireland would be apt to rebell and therefore he desired to know without more adoe what present supply he must depend upon from them that accordingly he might shape his course These Propositions being made Clem. Coke a younger Son of Sir Edward Coke who had successively been Chief Justice of either Bench obstructs the Answer by this rash and unhandsome expression That it was better to dye by a Forreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home Which general words were by one Turner a Doctor of Physick and then a Member of that House restrained and applied more particularly to the Duke of Buckingham The Commons well remembred at what Point they were cut off in the former Parliament and carefully watcht all advantages to resume it in this They had begun a great clamour against him on the first of March for staying a French Ship called the St. Peter of Newhaven and Turner now incites them to a higher distemper by six
Queries raised about him that is to say First Whether the King had not lost the Regality of the Narrow Seas since the Duke became Admiral Secondly Whether his not going as Admirall in this last Fleet was not the cause of the ill success Thirdly Whether the Kings Revenue hath not been impaired through his immense liberality Fourthly Whether he hath not ingrossed all Offices and preferred his Kindred to unfit places Fifthly Whether he hath not made sale of places of Judicature Sixthly Whether the Recusants have not dependance on his Mother and Father in Law For this days work Coke was severely reprehended by his Father who could not be perswaded to look upon him for a long while after But Turner having none whom he stood in fear of escaped not only without a private reprehension but without any publick Censure His Majesty thereupon complained by Weston to the House of Commons who were so far from censuring the offence that they seemed rather willing to protect the Offendors And yet this was not all the affront they had done him neither For seeming well satisfied with his Majesties gracious Answer to their Petition against Recusants which they received from him at Oxon in the former Parliament they now resolved to see what execution had been done upon it And to that end they appoint a Committee for Religion and that Committee substitutes a Sub-Committee which Sub-Committee were impowered to search the Signet Office concerning such indulgencies as had been granted to the Papists since the end of that Parliament and to examine the Letters of the Secretaries of State leaving his Majesty nothing free from their discovery as to that particular A point which never was presumed on in preceding times And which seemed worst of all in the present conjuncture they had voted him three Subsidies and three fifteens but voted them with such a clog that they should not pass into a Bill till their Grievances were both heard and answered Which Grievances what they were both in weight and number as it was not known unto themselves so did his Majesty look upon it not only as a thing dilatory in it self but as a baffle put on him and his proceedings These indignities coming thus upon the neck of one another he caused the Lords and Commons to come before him at White Hall March 29. 1626. where first he signified unto them by the mouth of the Lord Keeper how sensible he was of those affronts which were put upon him touching upon every one of them in particular and aggravating each of them in their several kinds letting them also know That as he loved his people so he regarded his honour and that if he were sensible of his Subjects Grievances of his own he was sensible much more The Keeper also had Command to tell them in his Majesties Name That the Duke had acted nothing of Publick Employment without his Majesties Special Warrant That he had discharged his Trust with abundant both Care and Fidelity That since his Return from Spain he had been sedulous in promoting the Service and Contentment of the Commons House And therefore That it was his express Command That they desist from such Vnparliamentary Proceedings and resign the Reformation of what was amiss to his Majesties Care Wisdom and Iustice. Which Speech being ended his Majesty saith as followeth I must withal put you in mind of Times past you may remember my Father moved by your Counsel and won by your Perswasions brake the Treaties In these Perswasions I was your Instrument towards him and I was glad to be instrumental in any thing which might please the whole Body of this Realm Nor was there any in greater favour with you than this man whom you so traduce And now when you find me so sure intangled in War as I have no honourable and safe Retreat you make my Necessity your Priviledge and set what rate you please upon your Supplies A Practise not very obliging unto Kings Mr. Coke told you It was better to die by a Foreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home Indeed I think it more honourable for a King to be invaded and almost destroyed by a Foreign Enemy than to be despised at home But all this did not edifie with the House of Commons So little were they moved with the Eloquence of the one and the smart Expressions of the other that both their own Members remained uncensured and the Prosecution of the Duke was followed with more violence then before it was But for all this his Majesty and the Duke might thank themselves His Majesty had power in his own hands to have righted himself according to the practice of Queen Elizabeth and others of his Majesties Royal Predecessors in the times foregoing But by complaining in this manner to the House of Commons he chose rather to follow the Example of King Iames who in like manner had complained of one Piggot for some seditious words by him spoken in the House of Commons Anno 1607. and with like success He that divests himself of a natural and original Power to right the injuries which are done him in hope to find redress from others especially from such as are parcel guilty of the Wrong may put up all his gettings in a Seamstress Thimble and yet never fill it All that which both Kings effected by it was but the weakning of their own Power and the increasing of the others who had now put themselves upon this Resolution not to suffer any one of their Members to be questioned till themselves had considered of his Crimes By which means they kept themselves close together and emboldened one another to stand it out against the King to the very last And of this Maxime as they made use in this present Parliament in the Case of Coke Turner Diggs and Eliot which 2 last had been imprisoned by the Kings Command so was it more violently and pertinaciously insisted on in the Case of the Five Members impeach'd of High Treason by the Kings Atturney Ianuary 14. 1641. the miserable effects whereof we finde two sensibly And as for their prosecuting of the Duke the Commons might very well pretend that they had and should do nothing in it for which as well his Majesty as the Duke himself had not given encouragement They had both joined together against Cranfeild the late Lord Treasurer and to revenge themselves on him had turned him over to the power and malice of his Enemies in the House of Commons The Commons had served their turns on Cranfeild and will now serve their own turns on the Duke himself let the King do the best he could to preserve him from them So unsafe a thing it is for Princes to deliver any of their Servants into the hands of their People and putting a Power out of themselves which they cannot call back again when it most concerns them At the same time the Earl of Bristol being charged with Treason by the Duke exhibited
against him certain Articles in the House of Peers in which he accused him of the like Crime in reference to his Actings in the Spanish business This made good sport amongst the Commons for a time but at last sâ—aring either the Weakness of Bristol's Charge or the insufficiency of his Proofs they resolved to follow their own way and to that end a large Impeachment was drawn up against him and presented to the Lords on the eighth of May managed by six of the ablest Lawyers in the House that is to say Glanvile Herbert Selden Pym Wansford and Sherland the Prologue made by Sir Dudly Diggs and the Epilogue by Sir Iohn Eliot The principal Branches of this Impeachment related to his engrossing of Offices his buying the Places of Lord Admiral and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports His not guarding the Seas His stay of a Ship called the St. Peter of Newhaven and of the East-India Fleet Lending his Majesties Ship called the Vantgard to the French King which the French King employed against Rochel His selling of Honours and Offices procuring Honours for his Kindred His diminishing the Revenues of the Crown and his applying Physick to King Iames in the time of his Sickness To every one of these there was returned in Writing a particular Answer by the Duke himself And then addressing his Discourse unto the Peers he humbly referred it to their Judgment how full of danger and prejudice it was to give too ready an ear and too easie a belief unto a Report or Testimony without Oath which are not of weight enough to condemn any With like humility he acknowledged how easie a thing it was for him in his younger years and unexperienced to fall into thousands of Errors in thâ—se ten years wherein he had the honour to serve so great and so open-hearted a Sovereign Master But still he hoped the fear of God his sincerity in the true Religion established in the Church of England though accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections which he is not ashamed humbly and heartily to confess his carefulness not willingly to offend so good and gracious a Master and his love and duty to his Country had restrained and preserved him from running into any hainous misdemeanours and crimes Which said and having craved the benefit of two several Pardons the one granted in the last Parliament of King Iames the other at the Coronation of King Charles he added That he could not chuse but hope so much in their Lordships Justice and Honour that they would acquit him of and from those Misdemeanours Offences Misprisions and Crimes wherewith he had bee charged and for his own part he both hoped and would daily pray That for the future he might so watch over all his Actions both publick and private as not to give cause of just offence to any person Of these Proceedings his Majesty was exceeding sensible He saw himself wounded through the Dukes sides That his Fathers Favours and his own were the greatest Crimes of which the Duke had been impeached and That their Regal Authority in bestowing Offices and Honours on whom they pleased was not only questioned but controlled With which disturbances being very much perplex'd and troubled he receives a Letter written to him from an unknown Person in which he first met with a Recital of the several Interests and Affections which were united in this Prosecution against the Duke and after that this Application to himself and his own Concernments viz. These men saith the Writer of the Letter either cannot or will not remember That never any noble man in favour with his Sovereign was questioned in Parliament except by the King himself in case of Treason or unless it were in the nonage and tumultuary times of Richard the Second Henry vi or Edward vi which hapned to the destruction both of King and Kingdom And that not to exceed our own and Fathers Memory in King Henry viii his time Wolseys exorbitant Power and Pride and Cromwels contempt of the Nobility and the Laws were not yet permitted to be discussed in Parliament though they were most odious and grievous to all the Kingdom And that Leicesters undeserved Favour and Faults Hattons insufficiency and Releighs Insolencies far exceed what yet hath been objected against the Duke yet no Lawyer durst abet nor any man else begin any Invectives against them in Parliament And then he adds some other Passages intervening That it behoves his Majesty to uphold the Duke against them who if he be but discourted it will be the Corner stone on which the demolishing of his Monarchy will be builded For if they prevail with this they have hatched a thousand other Demands to pull the Feathers of the Royalty they will appoint him Counsellors Servants Alliances Limits of his Expences Accounts of his Revenue chiefly if they can as they mainly desire they will now dazle him in the beginning of his Reign How true a Prophet this man proved the event hath shewed and the King saw it well enough and therefore since he could not divert them from that pursuit on the 15th of Iune he dissolved the Parliament I have been the more punctual and particular in relating these Proceedings of the Commons against the Duke by reason of that Influence which Laud either had or is reported to have had in managing his Cause against them For first it is affirmed by the Publisher of this Bishops Breviate That the Copy of the Kings Speech made in behalf of the Duke March 29. was of Lauds enditing and That the Original Copy thereof under his own hand was given in evidence against him at the time of Trial. Secondly That he likewise penned the Kings Speech to the House of Peers touching the Duke and the Commitment of the Earl of Arundel May the 11th In which he spake concerning the preservation of the Honour of Noblemen against the vile and detestable Calumnies of those of the Lower House by whom the Duke had been accused as before was said Most grievous Crimes indeed if they had been true for a Subject to assist his Prince and a Servant to be aiding to his Master in penning a short Speech or two when either the pressure of Affairs or perplexities of minde might require it of him But for the truth of this there is no proof offered but that the Copies of both Speeches the Original Copies as he calls them were found in the Archbishops Study as probably they might have been in the Studies of many other men if they had been searched For who can rationally suppose That his Majesty who was the Master of such a pure and elegant Style as he declared himself to be in his Discourse with Henderson at Newcastle and his Divine Essays made in Prison when he could have no other helps but what he found in himself should stand in need of the Expressions of another man in matters of so great concernment Or if it be to be
any business to bring about amongst the people she used to tune the Pulpits as her saying was that is to say to have some Preachers in and about London and other great Auditories in the Kingdom ready at command to cry up her design as well in their publick Sermons as their private Conferences Which course was now thought fit to be followed in preparing the people toward a dutifull compliance to these his Majesties desires And to that end Laud received a Command from his Majesty by the Duke of Buckingham to reduce certain instructions into Form partly Political partly Ecclesiastical in the Cause of the King of Denmark not long before beaten and now much distressed by Count Tilly to be published in all Parishes within the Realm To this he chearfully conformed and brought the said Instructions to the Duke within two daies after being the sixteenth of September And having read them over first to the Duke and after to the King himself he received from both a very favourable acceptation On the next day they were communicated to the Lords of the Council who approved them also By whose advice he sent them to the Archbishop of Canterbury requiring him by his Letters bearing date September 29. to see them published and dispersed in the several Diocesses of his Province The like Letters he also writ to the Archbishop of York And they accordingly gave order to their several and respective Suffragans To see them made known to the worthy Preachers and Ministers in their Diocess and so far as their Lordships might in their own persons to put these things in execution and to call upon the Clergy which was under them in their Preachings and private Conferences to stir up all sorts of people to express their Zeal to God their Duty to the King and their Love unto their Country and one to another that all good and Christian-like course might be taken for the preservation of true Religion both in this Land and through all Christendom Now the tenour of the said Instructions was as followeth Most Reverend Father in God right trusty and right well-beloved Counsellour We greet you well WE have observed that the Church and the State are so nearly united and knit together that though they may seem two bodies yet indeed in some relation they may be accounted but as one inasmuch as they both are made up of the same men which are differenced only in relation to Spiritual or Civil ends This neerness makes the Church call in the help of the State to succour and support her whensoever she is pressed beyond her strength And the same nearness makes the State call in for the service of the Church both to teach that duty which her Members know not and to exhort them to and encourage them in that duty which they know It is not long since we ordered the State to serve the Church and by a timely Proclamation settled the peace of it And now the State looks for the like assistance from the Church that she and all her Ministers may serve God and us by preaching peace and unity at home that it may be the better able to resist Forraign Force uniting and multiplying against it And to the end that they to whom we have committed the Government of the Church under us may be the better able to dispose of the present occasions we have with the Advice of our Council thought fit to send unto you these Instructions following to be sent by you to the Bishops of your Province and such others whom it may concern and by them and all their Officers directed to all the Ministers throughout the several Diocesses that according to these punctually they may instruct and exhort the people to serve God and us and labour by their Prayers to divert the dangers which hang over us The danger in which we are at this time is great It is encreased by the late blow given our good Vncle the King of Denmark who is the chief Person in those parts that opposed the spreading Forces of Spain If he cannot subsist there is little or nothing left to hinder the House of Austria from being Lord and Master of Germany And that is a large and mighty Territory and such as should it be gotten would make an open way for Spain to do what they pleased in all the West part of Christendom For besides the great strength which Germany once possessed would bring to them which are two strong already you are to consider first how it enables them by Land in that it will joyn all or the most part of the Spaniards now distracted Territories and be a means for him safely and speedily to draw down Forces against any other Kingdom that shall stand in his way Nor can it be thought the Low Countries can hold out longer against him if he once become Lord of the upper parts And secondly You are to weigh how it will advantage him by Sea and make him strong against us in our particular which is of easie apprehension to all men And besides if he once get Germany he will be able though he had no Gold from India to supply the necessity of those Wars and to hinder all Trade and Traffick of the greatest Staple Commodities of this Kingdom Cloth and Wool and so make them of little or no value You are to know therefore that to prevent this is the present care of the King and State and there is no probable way left but by sending Forces and other Supplies to the said King of Denmark our dear Vncle to enable him to keep the Field that our Enemies be not Masters of all on the sudden You are further to take notice how both we and the whole State stand bound in Honour and Conscience to supply the present necessity of the King of Denmark For this quarrel is more nearly ours the recovery of the Ancient Inheritance of our dear Sister and her Children The King of Denmark stands not so near in bloud unto her as we do Yet for her and our sakes that brave and valiant King hath adventured into the field and in that ingagement hath not only hazarded his Person but as things go now it may turn to some danger to his own Kingdom and Posterity should he not receive aide and succour from us without delay Which should it happen as God forbid will be one of the greatest dishonours that ever this Kingdom was stained withall Nor is danger and dishonour all the mischief that is like to follow this disaster For if it be not presently relieved the Cause of Religion is not only likely to suffer by it in some one part as it hath already in a fearful manner in the Palatinate but in all places where it hath gotten any footing So that if we supply not presently our Allies and Confederates in this case it is like to prove the extirpation of true Religion and the re-planting of Romish Superstition in all
to the Peers on the twelfth of May That by shewing the cause of the Commitment the whole Service many times might happen to be destroyed and that the cause also might be such and of a nature so transcending the Rules of Law that the Judges had no capacity in a Court of Judicature to determine in it The intermitting of which power being one of the constant Rules of Government practised for so many Ages within this Kingdom would as he said soon dissolve the very frame and foundation of his Monarchy and therefore that with out the overthrow of his Soveraignty he could not suffer these powers to be impeached But what reason soever he had to alledge for himself he was so bent on his desires to relieve the Rochellers and keep that honour up abroad which he lost at home that at the last he condescended unto their desires and confirmed the prayer of their Petition by Act of Parliament Nor would they rest upon that point They thought they had not done themselves right enough in disputing their Property with the King in Parliament if they suffered it to be preached down in the Court and Country Manwaring therefore of whose Sermons we have spake before must be brought in for an example unto others Whose charge being drawn up by the Commons was reported to the Peers by Pym Iune 13. The Book of his two Sermons produced before them the passages which gave offence openly read and aggravated to the very height And though the poor man on his knees with tears in his eyes and sorrows in his heart had most humbly craved pardon of the Lords and Commons for the errors and indiscretions he had committed in the said two Sermons yet could he find no other mercy than 1. To be imprisoned during the pleasure of the House 2. To be fined one thousand pounds to the King 3. To make such an acknowledgment of his offence at the Commons Bar as it should please them to prescribe 4. To be suspended from his Ministry for three years to come 5. To be disabled from ever preaching at the Court 6. To be uncapable of any further Ecclesiastical preferment or secular Office And finally That his Majesty should be moved to call in the said Book by Proclamation and cause it to be publickly burnt An heavy Sentence I confess but such as did rather affright than hurt him For his Majesty looking on him in that conjuncture as one that suffered in his cause preferred him first to the Parsonage of Stamford-Rivers in Essex void not long after by the promotion of Mountague to the See of Chichesâ—er afterwards to the Deanry of Worcester and finally to the Bishoprick of St. Davids This was indeed the way to have his Majesty well served but such as created some ill thoughts amongst the Commons for his Majesties Indulgence to him But they had a greater game to fly at than to content themselves with so poor a Sacrifice The day before complaint was made unto the Commons that Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells had warranted those Sermons to the Press and him they had as good a mind â—o as to any other There had been some liftings at him in the Court by Sir Iohn Cook who had informed against him to the Lord Treasurer then being And by the Lord Treasurer to the Duke where the business stopt And there had been some liftings at him in the Country also there being some mutterings spread abroad that some Sacrifices must be made for expiating the ill success in the Isle of Rhe and that he was as like as any to be made the Sacrifice Which comming to his ears from two several persons he thought fit to acquaint his Majesty with it who thereupon returned this most gracious answer That he should not trouble himself with such reports till he saw him forsake his other friends Had he stood still upon that principle he had never fallen Such Princes as forsake their Servants will be forsaken by their Servants in their greatest need and neither be well served at home nor observed abroad But it appeared by the event that those mutterings were not made without some ground and that somewhat was then plotting toward his destruction For Manwaring was no sooner censured but Lauds cause was called to the report some daies before viz. Iune 11. they had voted the Duke of Buckingham to be the cause of all the grievances and now they were hammering a Remonstrance both against him and all that depended on him In which Remonstrance having first besprinkled the King with some Court holy-water for granting their Petition of Right they make bold to represent unto him That there was a general fear conceived in his people of some secret working and combination to introduce into this Kingdom innovation and change of holy Religion Which fear proceeded as they said from the encrease of Popery in this Kingdom and the extraordinary favours and respects which they of that Religion found in the Court from persons of great quality and power there unto whom they continually resort more especially by name from the Countess of Buckingham the Dukes Mother Secondly From some Letters written by his Majesty to stop all legal proceedings against Recusants and the Compositions which had been made with some of them for such fines and penalties as were laid upon them by the Laws which seemed in their opinion little less than a Toleration Thirdly From the dayly growth and spreading of the Faction of the Arminians that being as they thought his Majesty knew but a cunning way to bring in Popery the professors of those opinions being common disturbers of the Protestant Churches and Incendiaries of those states wherein they have gotten any head being Protestants in shew but Iesuites in opinion and practice Of which growing Faction Neile Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells are named particularly for the principal Patrons Fourthly From some endeavours to suppress the diligent teaching and instructing the people in the true knowledge of Almighty God by disparaging pious painful and Orthodox Preachers Fifthly From the miserable condition of the Kingdom of Ireland in which without controule the Popish Religion is affirmed to be openly professed Popish Superstition being generally exercised and avowed Monasteries and Nunneries newly erected c In the last place they lay before him their former grievances now redressed the design of raising moneys by the way of Excise and of bringing in some Regiments of German horse though never put into execution a Commission of Lieutenancy granted to the Duke of Buckingham they supposed decay of Trade in all parts of the Kingdom the improvident consumption of the stock of Gunpowder the loss of the Regality of the Narrow Seas the taking of many Merchants Ships by the Pyrates of Dunkirk c. The cause of all which mischiefs is imputed to the excessive power of the Duke of Buckingham and his abusing of that power This Remonstrance being thus digested
Cure so soon as the same shall be fairely procured for him VI. That the Bishops do incourage and countenance the grave and Orthodox Divines of their Clergy and that they use all means by some of their Clergy or others that they have knowledge how both Lecturers and Preachers within their Diocesses behave themselves in their Sermons that so they may take order for any abuse accordingly VII That the Bishop suffer none under Noblemen and men qualified by the Law to have any private Chaplain in his house VIII That they take especial care that Divine Service be diligently frequented as well for the Prayers and Catechism as Sermons and take particular notice of all such as absent themselves as Recusants or otherwise IX That every Bishop who by Our Grace and Favour and good opinion of his Service shall be nominated by Vs to another Bishoprick shall not from that day of nomination presume to make any Lease for three Lives or one and twenty years or Concurrent Lease or any way renew any Estate or cut any wood or timber but meerly to receive the Rents due and so quit the place For we think it a hateful thing that any mans leaving the Bishoprick should almost undo his Successor And if any man shall presume to break this Order We will refuse him at Our Royal Assent and keep him at the place which he hath so abused X. And lastly We command you to give Vs an account every year on the second of January of the performance of these Our Commands The Reader may think strange that in the second of these Instructions we should find any Bishop under a supposition of having no Episcopal house for his habitation concerning which he is to know that the Bishops of Oxon at that time had no house left belonging to their Episcopal See either in the City or in the Country but dwelt at their Parsonage houses which they held in commendam as before Dr. Bridges who had no commendam within the Diocess did for the most part in hired houses For though at the foundation of the Bishoprick of Oxon in the Abbey of Oseney the King appointed Glocester Hall for the Bishops Palace yet when that foundation was dissolved and the Bishops See removed to Christ Church the Grant of Glocester Hall was dissolved also The Bishops thereupon retired to some Country house within the Diocess which appertained unto them in the right of their See as long as any of their Mannours Land and Houses were left unsould But they being finally made a prey to the Lust and Sacriledge of some great persons they have since lived for the most part in hired houses or on their Commendams if they had any such within their Diocesses till the year 1632. when Dr. Iohn Bancroft was made Bishop of Oxon who having at or about that time obtained of the King that the Vicaridge oâ— Cudsden about five miles from Oxon being of his own proper Patronage and Donation might be annexed for ever unto his Episcopal See built there at the perswasion of our Bishop of London a very fair and convenient house with a decent Chappel thereunto to be the ordinary dwelling place of himself and his Successors But the house proved almost as short lived as the Founder being burned down by Collonel Leg during the short time that he was Governour of Oxon for fear it might be made a Garrison by the Parliament Forces though with as much reason and more piety he might have garrisoned it for the King and preserved the house But to proceed No sooner were these Instructions come to the hands of Archbishop Abbot but they were presently dispersed and communicated to the Suâ—raâ—an Bishops In this he acted only Ministerially and durst do no otherwise but when he came to act Authoritatively in his own capacity he betrayed the cause he neither liked the third Instruction for observing his Majesties Declaration before the Articles that being looked on as an Artifice to bring in Arminianism Nor was he pleased with any of the Limitations concerning Lecturers to whom as the chief sticklers in the Puritan Cause he was alwaies favourable which last affection he was so unable to conceal that when the Dean and Archdeacon of Canterbury had suspended Palmer and Vdnay two of the Lecturers in that Diocess whom they found obstinately inconformable to the Kings Directions He restored them not long after to their several Lectures inhibiting the Archdeacon from his Jurisdiction and exposing all that Acted in it to contempt and scorn And if an Archbishop could be so unsatisfied for putting these Instructions into execution as his place required there is no question to be made but various descants and reports would be raised upon them by most sorts of People The Country Gentlemen took it ill to be deprived of the liberty of keeping Chaplains in their houses from which they had not been debarred by the Laws of the Land The Laws indeed had taken order that no persons under the Degree of a Baron some Judges and great Offices excepted only should qualifie any of their Chaplaines for a dispensation to hold more than one Benefice with Cure of Soules or to be dispensed with for not residing on such Cures as they were preferred to And they had taken order how many Chaplains every such person according to his Rank and Degree in the Scale of Nobility should be enabled to qualifie to those ends and purposes but otherwise all persons had been left at liberty to keep as many as they would and as long as they pleased without any comptroll Nor were the Chaplains better pleased than their Masters were For having lived upon hard commons and perhaps under some smart Discipline also in their Halls and Colledâ—es they thought that they had spent their studies to good purpose by finding ease and a full belly in these Gentlemens houses from whom there was some possibility of preferment also which better Scholars then themselves might have otherwise hoped for Such of the Bishops as were possessed of the poorer Bishopricks were as much troubled as the other and thought it the worst kind of banishments to be confined unto the Country complaining privately that now the Court-Bishops had served their own turns upon the King they cared not what miseries their poor brethren were exposed unto who if they were constrained to live in their Episcopal houses or in any other place within their Diocesses must be constrained also to keep up such a Port and maintain such open Hospitality as their Revenues could not bear Nor was it thought a less injury to them that they could not make the best of their time but were required to be good husbands for another man who was to enjoy the place which they were to leave when they were fain to take it as it came to their hands without any prevention going before or satisfaction following after But greater were the clamours of the Puritan Faction reviving all whâ—ch had been made
the Resisters of Authority and that the rest of the Houses erected or employed there or elsewhere to the use of Superstitious Societies be converted to Houses of Correction and to set the People on work or to other Publick uses for the Advancement of Justice good Arts or Trade Which Order of the Council-Table bears date 31 Ianuary 1629. That part of the Remonstrance of the House of Commons which related to the Affairs of Ireland first alarm'd Laud to take the Business of that Church into consideration And that he might be the better informed in all Particulars which concerned it he took order with Doctor William Beadle designed unto the Bishoprick of Killmore to give him an exact Account of the Estate of that Church as soon as he could make any perfect Discovery of it This Order of the Council-Table reinforced that case and quickned the dispatch of Beadle for his satisfaction from whom he received a Letter dated April the first Anno 1630. In which he signified That he had not been unmindful of his Lordships commands which he was now the better able to perform because saith he I have been about my Diocess and can set down out of my knowledge and view what I shall relate and shortly to speak much ill matter in few words Which said he lets his Lordship know That the Estate of his Church was very miserable That the Cathedral Church of Ardagh united to the See of Killmore one of the most ancient in Ireland and said to be built by St. Patrick together with the Bishops House there was down to the ground That the Church at Killmore had been built but without Bell or Steeple Font or Chalice That the Parish-Churches were all in a manner ruined or unroofed and unrepaired That the People saving a few British Planters here and there which are not the tenth part of the Remnant were obstinate Recusants That there was a Popish Clergy more numerous by far than the English Clergy That they were in full Exercise of all Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical by their Vicars-general and Officials who were so confident as to Excommunicate those that come to the Courts of the Protestant Bishops That the Popish Primate for Ireland lived within two miles of his House and the Bishops in another part of his Diocess further off That every Parish had their Priest and some two or three apiece and so their Massing-houses also and that Masses are sometimes said in their Churches That there were Friars in divers places who went about though not in their Habit who by their importunate begging did impoverish the People That Poverty was much increased as well by their paying double Tythes both to their own Clergy and the English as by the dearth of Corn and the death of their Cattel That the Oppressions of the Courts Ecclesiastical which was reckoned for another cause of the common poverty were not indeed to be excused which for his part he had a purpose to reform That in each Diocess there were some seven or eight Ministers of good sufficiency but being English they neither understood the Tongue of the People nor could perform any Divine Offices nor converse with them as they ought and consequently could give no stop to the growth and increase oâ— Popery That most of the said Ministers held two three four or more Vicaridges apiece and that sometimes one man was Clerk of three or four Parishes which were ordinarily bought sold and let to Farm And finally That by those and such other means his majesty was King as to the Hearts and Consciences of that People but so that it remained wholly at the Popes Discretion Here was sufficient work for a Reformation and we shall see Laud taking care of it in convenient time But first we must look back to England where we shall find a new Honour attending on him On Saturday being the tenth of April William Lord Herbert Earl of Pembroke Lord Steward of his Majesties Houshold and Chancellor of the University of Oxon. died suddenly at his House called Baynards-Castle having then made up the â—iâ—tieth year of his life beyond which it had been foresignified by some Learned Mathematicians that he should not live This News being brought to Oxon. the same night or else betimes on Sunday morning Laâ—d's friends not only in St. Iohns but in other Colledges so bestirred themselves that before noon there was a Party strong enough to confer that honourable Office on him Frewen of Magdalen Colledge being then Vice-Chancellor was at that time as far as Andover in a Colledge-Progress where hearing accidentally of the Earls decease he made such haste back again to Oxon. that he came thither before the end of Evening Prayer and finding his own Colledge in so good a posture advised with some other Heads of Houses whom he knew to have the same Inclinations to make sure work of it by whom it was agreed That a Convocation should be called the next day to speed the business before any other Competitor should appear against him Nor did they make more haste than good speed in it some Agents coming thither before night in behalf of Philip Earl of Montgomery Brother to the Earl deceased and they so well discharged their Trust that those of the Welch Nation generally Prideaux and some other Heads of Houses who were of the Calvinian Party and the four Colledges belonging to the Visitation of the Bishop of Lincoln that is to say Baliol Orial Lincoln and Brazen-nose were wholly in a manner for him that Bishop stickling in the Cause not so much out of love to him as hate to Laud. But all their diligence could not carry it as they desired the Election passing clear for the Bishop of London of which he was presently advertised by the University On his receiving of which Message he presently addressed himself unto the King acquainted him with what had hapned and humbly submitted the Place unto his disposal To which his Majesty most graciously returned this Answer That he knew none more worthy of it than himself and that he should rathâ—r study how to add further Honours to him than take any from him On which incouragement he appointed Wednesday the twenty eighth of the same Month for the Solemnity of his Investiture in that Oâ—fice which was performed in a frequent Convocation of that University held at London-House to the great contentment oâ— both Parties To add a further Honour to him it pleased his Majesty to send him the joyful news under his Royal Signature of the Princes Birth born at his Majesties House of St. Iames's on Saturday May the twenty ninth about one of the Clock in the afternoon He had the happiness of seeing the Royal Infant in the first hour of his Birth and the honour afterwards to Baptize him By ancient Priviledge belonging to the See of Canterbury those Archbishops are Ordinaries of the Court his Majesties Houshold wheresoever the same shall be being reckoned to
purpose to discourage such a pious work which good men rejoyced at But greater was the clamour of the Puritan Faction who in a meeting held that night conceived no punishment great enough to inflict upon him which either Law Malice or Revenge could expose him to Being thus alarmed on the one side and threatned by the other he sent a Copy of his Sermon to the Bishop of London not long before made Chancellour of that University and signified in a Letter therewith sent that he was both able and ready to make good his charge whensoever it should be required This information came opportunely to his Lordship with whom the King had used some Speech as appears by his Breviate p. 12. about restoring Impropriations to the Church which this new project seemed to frustrate And thereupon he entred it in the Memorandum at the end of his Breviate viz. To overthrow the Feoffment dangerous both to Church and State going under the specious pretence of buying in Impropriations The Preacher in the mean time making a further search into the business observed these particulars first That no Impropriation by them bought was laid unto the Parish Church and settled upon the present Incumbent as was first expected that being utterly destructive of their design Secondly That a great part of that Revenue was spent in maintaining a dayly Lecture in the Church of St. Antholins at six a clock in the Morning to serve for a Seminary for the training up of such Novices as were to be sent into the Country Thirdly That another part of it was laid out not only for the support of silenced Ministers during their own lives but of their Wives and Children also after their decease than which there could not be a greater tye to unite men to them and make them sticklers in the Cause Fourthly These Pensions neither were so settled nor their Lectures so well established in their several places but that the one might be withdrawn and the other removed at the will and pleasure of their Patrons if they grew slack and negligent in the holy cause which fastened a dependence on them to the very last It was not long before Noy that Renowned Lawyer was made his Majesties Atturney General to whom the Preacher was commanded to deliver a particular of all such passages as he had observed in the carrying on of this design the Feoffees thereupon being called into the Court of Exchequer the Feoffment damned the Impropriations by them bought confiscated to his Majesties use and the merit of the cause reâ—erred to a further censure And though the Sentence past not on them in the Court of Exchequer Anno 1632. yet I have laid all here together that so I might proceed to the rest of my business with the less disturbance For whilest the business of these Feoffees was under a more strict enquiry some things were acted by this Bishop which brought him into the like danger of an Inquisition St. Catherine Creed Church in London being ruinous and in great decay had in some places been taken almost down to the ground and rebuilt again by the Parishioners at such time as Mountain was their Bishop who suffered it to be made use of for Religious Offices without any new consecration of it which coming to the knowledge of Bishop Laud he caused it for a time to be suspended from all Divine Service Sermons and Sacraments till it was reconsecrated by himself Which Office he solemnly performed on Sunday Ianuary 16. An infinite number of people of all sorts drawing together to behold that Ceremony to which they had so long been strangers ignorant altogether of the Antiquity and the necessity of it The like done also at the Church of St. Giles in the Fields on the Sunday after which had been generally repaired and for the greatest part new built in the time of his Predecessor also Divine Service Preaching and Administration of the Sacraments being used therein without any such dedication of it contrary to the practice of the Primitive times and the Ancient Canons And that we may lay these things together the next year after Iune the seventh he consecrated a new Church at Hammersmith built at the charges of that Village and the next â—ear after that Iuly the seventeenth a new Church built at Stanmore magna in the County of Middlesex erected at the sole cost and charges of Sir Iohn Wolstenholm one of the Farmers of the Customs who made that day a sumptuous and magnificent Feast for the entertainment of all such persons of quality as resorted thither to behold the Consecration It was my chance to bestow a visit on his Lordship at his house in Fulham as he was preparing to set forwards to this last Consecration and being one of his Chaplains was at that time absent and that he was of ordinary course to make use of two he took me along with him to perform the Office of the Priest in the solemnity in which his Chaplain Bray was to Act the Deacons I observed all the Circumstances and religious Ceremonies which were used by him in that sacred Action from his first coming into the Church till his going out but could see nothing in it savouring of that Superstition which had raised so much talk amongst ignorant People and afterwards was certified by Willingham at the time of his trial in reference to the consecration of St. Katherine Creed Church The Antiquity of which Consecrations hath been shown in our Introduction performed by the Fathers at such times when the Church hated nothing more than superstitious vanities or the accumulating of unnecessary and fruitless Ceremonies The form and manner of it left by our first Reformers to the care and discretion of the Bishops whom it most concerned Presuming that nothing would be done by them which would not be consistent with the Rules of Piety and the ancient practise of the Church in the times foregoing And such a Form was that which this Bishop now made use of digested first by the learned Andrews for his own particular use but afterwards copied out approved and followed though possibly not without some alterations by most Bishops else Nor did he take care only of the Fabrick the material Church to make it fit and ready for Gods publick Service but that Gods publick Service should be so done in it as might most tend to the edification of the Mystical Church the body aggregate of Gods People His Majesty had took special care as well by his Proclamation of the fourteenth of Iune 1626. as by his Declaration before the Articles 1628. for the silencing of all disputes touching Predestination and the points depending thereupon which had begun to threaten such a general disturbance to the peace of the Church But neither Proclamation nor Declaration could perswade the Calvinian Party unto any such silence which they interpreted to be a plain betraying of Gods Cause into the hands of his enemies Somewhat is to be done to
conjure down these unruly Spirits which otherwise would not be confined within their Circle Mady the Lecturer of Christ-Church near Newgate must needs fly out upon the Point of Election and the motives to it For this contempt he is called before the Bishop of London and on some further misbehaviour prohibited from preaching any more within that Diocess Burges who afterwards pulled down the Cross in St. Pauls Church-yard must needs add scorn to his contempt telling his Auditors that if their Minister preached Popery or Arminianism they might change their dwellings and not trouble the peace and order of their Church For which about the same time he is questioned also White and some others in that Diocess suspended by this Bishop on the same occasion From the City pass we to the Court Where toward the end of the same Month we find Davenant Bishop of Sarum preaching a Lent Sermon before the King and therein falling upon some of those prohibited points even before his face for which the King being much offended as he had good reason he caused him to be called before the Lords of his Council The cause is managed against him by Archbishop Harsnet Laud all the while walking by in silence who gravely laid before him as well the Kings Piety in setting forth the said Declaration as the greatness of his the said Davenants offence in making so little reckoning of it Davenant at first endeavoureth many defences to make good his Action but at last wisely casts himself upon this submission he tells the Lords in answer to one of Harsnets objections That he was sorry he did no sooner understand his Majesties intention which if he had done before he would have taken some other matter to treat of which might have given none offence and that for the time to come he would conform himself as readily as any other to his Majesties Command Arundel Earl Marshal bids him hold to that as his safest plea and that he should proceed to no further defence a bad cause not being made the better by two much handling To this counsel he conforms himself And being afterwards admitted to the kiss of his Majesties hand which his attendance might deserve though his Sermon did not his Majesty declared to him his Resolution That he would not have this high Point meddled withal or debated either the one way or the other because it was too high for the Peoples understanding and that other Points which concerned Reformation and Newness of life were more needful and profitable I hope the lower Clergy will not say hereafter as some did of old That Laws are like the Spiders Cobwebs which suffer the great flies to break through and lay hold only upon those of the smaller size From the Court let us go to Oxon. where we find the next year beginning in a manner with a Sermon preached at St. Maries Church by one Hill of Heart-hall May 24. point blank enough against his Majesties Declaration and more than bitter enough against those of different perswasion from him whom he charged with handling Scriptures worse than poor Christians were by the Turk at Tunis enforcing them to the vassallage of the foulest errours not without some reflection on the Higher Powers by whom they were mischieved into honour For which indiscretion being convented before the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses but not without the Chancellors privity he confessed his fault and craved pardon for the same which he obtained on his submission made in the Convocation the sixteenth of Iuly following But worse it fared not long after with Ford of Magdalen Hall Hodges of Exeter Colledge and Thorne of Baliol who in their several Sermons had not only committed the like error but charged their Renovation of some ancient order in the Church to be no other than plain Innovation Questioned for this by Smith then Warden of Wadham Colledge and Vice-Chancellor of that University they appeal from him to the Convocation The Proctors having unadvisedly received the Appeal were at the point to have named Delegates when Smith appealed to the King But they took their aim amiss when they shot this bolt For both his Majesty and the Chancellor were alike concerned in it the King to justifie his Declaration the other to preserve his own power and dignity neither of which could have been done but by defending Smith in his lawful acting On the twenty third of August all Parties interessed in the Cause appeared before the King at Woodstock who after a full hearing of both sides it was ordered thus That the three Delinquents should be expelled the University Doughty and Bruch the two Proctors should be deprived of their places Prideaux and Wilkinson this last then Principle of Magdalen Hall being checked for stickling so much in it and glad they were that they escaped without further censure But they shewed not the same mercy which they found for Rainsford of Wadham Colledge preached at St. Maries in August following in defence of Vniversal Grace and Mans Election unto life from Faith foreseen No man more forward than Prideaux to appeach him of it on whose complaint and prosecution he was sentenced to a publick acknowledgment of his offence in a form prescribed which was as much as had been done in the case of Hill So that the Rigid Calvinians can pretend no just ground for that so great Calumnie that none but they were censured from preaching those prohibited Doctrines those of the Arminian Party as they commonly called them going off unpunished From Oxon. cross we into Ireland where we shall see Lauds care as great for preserving the Kings Authority and the Churches peace as it was in England Vsher the Lord Primate of that Church had published a Book this same year in the Latine Tongue called The History of Gotteschalchus for which he was after much extolled by Twist of Newbury as professed a Calvinian as himself in a Letter of his dated May 29. 1640. For having first commended him for his great learning and various reading manifested in his Book De Primodiis Britannicarum Ecclesiarum he magnifies next his singular wisdom for taking an occasion to insert therein the History of the Pelagian Heresie coming so opportunely in his way and then he addeth that his History of Gotteschalchus was a piece of the like nature and came forth most seasonable so much the more because it seemed to give some check to a Book written by Vossius a right Learned man which had been much cried up by the Remonstrants Downham then Bishop of Derry had somewhat before that published a Discourse about Perseverance wherein some Passages were found directly thwarting his Majesties most pious purpose in the said Declaration But Vshâ—r's Book being writ in Latin gave the less offence Nor seemed it fit to put any publick disgrace on a man to whom the Government of the whole National Church had been committed by King Iames of most Blessed Memory By questioning
about it Maxwell applying himself to Laud then Bishop of London from whom he received this positive Answer That if his Majesty would have a Liturgie setled there different from what they had already it was best to take the English Liturgie without any variation from it that so the same Service-Book might pass through all his Majesties Dominions Maxwell replying That the Scottish Bishops would be better pleased to have a Liturgie of their own but such as should come near the English both in Form and Matter the Cause was brought before the King who on a serious consideration of all Particulars concurred in Judgment for the English And on these terms it stood till this present year Laud standing hard for admitting the English Liturgie without alteration the Scottish Bishops pleading on the other side That a Liturgie made by themselves and in some things different from the English Service would best please their Countrymen whom they found very jealous of the least dependence on the Church of England But because Letters writtten in the time of Action are commonly conceived to carry more truth in them than Relations made upon the post-fact for particular ends take here this short Remembrance in one of his Letters to the Earl of Traquaire dated September 11. 1637. where we find this Passage And since saith he I hear from others That some exception is taken because there is more in that Liturgie in some few particulars than is in the Liturgie of England Why did they not admit the Liturgie of England without more ado But by their refusal of that and the dislike of this 't is more than manifest they would have neither and perhaps none at all were they left to themselves But besides this there was another Invitation which wrought much upon him in order to the present Journey At his first coming to the Crown the great Engagements then upon him want of Supply from England and small help from Scotland forced him to have recourse to such other ways of assistances as were offered to him of which this was one In the Minority of King Iames the Lands of all Cathedral Churches and Religious Houses which had been setled on the Crown by Act of Parliament were shared amongst the Lords and great men of that Kingdom by the connivence of the Earl of Murrey and some other of the Regents to make them sure unto that side And they being thus possessed of the same Lands with the Regalities and Tythes belonging to those Ecclesiastical Corporations Lorded it with Pride and Insolence enough in their several Territories holding the Clergy to small Stipends and the poor Peasant under a miserable Vassalage and subjection to them not suffering them to carry away their nine parts till the Lord had carried off his Tenth which many times was neglected out of pride and malice those Tyrants not caring to lose their Tythe so that the poor mans Crop might be left unto spoil and hazard King Iames had once a purpose to revoke those Grants but growing into years and troubles he left the following of that Project to his Son and Successor Having but little help from thence to maintain his Wars by the Advice of some of the Council of that Kingdom he was put upon a course of resuming those Lands Tythes and Regalities into his own hand to which the present Occupants could pretend no other Title than the unjust Usurpation of their Predecessors This to effect he resolves upon an Act of Revocation Commissionating for that purpose the Earl of Annandale and the Lord Maxwell afterwards Earl of Niddisdale to hold a Parliament in Scotland for Contribution of Money and Ships against the Duynkirkers and arming Maxwell also with some secret Instructions for passing the said Act of Revocation if he found it feasible Being on the way as far as Barwick Maxwell was there informed That his chief errand being made known had put all at Edenborough into Tumult That a rich Coach which he had sent before to Dalkeith was cut in pieces the poor Horses killed the People seeming only sorry that they could not do so much to the Lord himself Things being brought unto this stand the King was put to a necessity of some second Counsels amongst which none seemed more plausible and expedient to him than that of Mr. Archibald Achison who from a puisne Judge in Ireland was made his Majesties Procurator or Solicitor-General in the Kingdom of Scotland who having told his Majesty That such as were Estated in the Lands in question had served themselves so well by the bare naming of an Act of Revocation as to possess the People whom they found apt to be inflamed on such Suggestions That the true intendment of that Act was to revoke all former Laws for suppressing of Popery and settling the Reformed Religion in the Kirk of Scotland And therefore That it would be unsafe for his Majesty to proceed that way Next he advised That instead of such a General Revocation as the Act imported a Commission should be issued out under the Great Seal of that Kingdom for taking the Surrendries of all such Superiorities and Tythes within the Kingdom at his Majesties Pleasure And that such as should refuse to submit unto it should be Impleaded one by one to begin first with those whom he thought least able to stand out or else most willing to conform to his Majesties Pleasure Assuring him That having the Laws upon his side the Courts of Iustice must and would pass Iudgment for him The King resolved upon this course sends home the Gentleman not only with Thanks and Knighthood which he had most worthily deserved but with Instructions and Power to proceed therein and he proceeded in it so effectually to the Kings Advantage that some of the impleaded Parties being cast in the Suit and the rest seeing that though they could raise the People against the King they could not raise them against the LaWs it was thought the best and safest way to compound the business Hereupon in the year 1630. Commissioners are sent to the Court of England and amongst others the Learned and right Noble Lord of Marcheston from whose mouth I had this whole Relation who after a long Treaty with the King did at last agree That the said Commission should proceed as formerly and That all such Superiorities and Tythes as had been or should be surrendred should be re-granted by the King on these Conditions First That all such as held Hereditary Sheriffdoms or had the Power of Life and Death over such as lived within their Iurisdiction should quit those Royalties to the King Secondly That they should make unto their Tenants in their several Lands some permanent Estates either for their Lives or one and twenty years or some such like Term that so the Tenants might be encouraged to Build and Plant and improve the Patrimony of that Kingdom Thirdly That some Provisions should be made for augmenting the Stipends of the
reference to the Statute of the Third of this King a Warrant is granted in the Month of April 1629. by Richard Dean then Lord Mayor of London for apprehending all Porters carrying Burthens or Water-men plying at their Oars all Tankerd-bearers carrying Water to their Masters Houses all Chandlers and Hucksters which bought any Victuals on that day of the Country-Carriers all Vinteners Alehouse-keepers Strong water-men and Tobacco-sellers which suffered any Person to fit drinking on that day though possibly they might do it only for their honest necessities In which as Dean out-went the Statute so Raynton in the same Office Anno 1633. over-acted Dean prohibiting a poor woman from selling Apples on that day in St. Paul's Church-yard within which place he could pretend no Jurisdiction and for that cause was questioned and reproved by Laud then Bishop of London But none so lastily laid about him in this kind as Richardson the Chiâ—â— Justice of his Majesties Bench who in the Lent-Assizes for the County of Somerset Anno 1631. published the like Order to that which had been made by Walter for the County of Devon not only requiring that the Justices of the Peace in the said County should see the same to be duly put in execution but also as the other had done before that publication should be made thereof in the Parish-Churches by all such Ministers as did Officiate in the same with which encroachment upon the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in imposing upon men in Holy Orders the publishing of Warrants and Commands from the Secular Judges Laud being then Bishop of London and finding his Majesties Affairs in a quieter condition than they had been formerly was not meanly offended as he had good reason so to be and made complaint of it to the King who thereupon commanded Richardson to revoke the said Order at the next Assizes But Richardson was so far from obeying his Majesties Command in that particular that on the contrary he not only confirmed his former Order but made it more peremptory than before Upon complaint whereof by Sir Robert Philips and other chief Gentlemen of that County his Majesty seemed to be very much moved and gave Command to the Bishop of London to require an Account from the Bishop of Bath nnd Wells then being how the said Feast-days Church-Ales Wakes or Revels were for the most part celebrated and observed in his Diocess On the Receipt of which Letters the Bishop calls before him 72 of the most Orthodox and ablest Clergy-men amongst them who certified under their several hands That on the Feast-days which commonly fell upon the Sunday the Service of God was more solemnly performed and the Church was better frequented both in the forenoon and afternoon than upon any Sunday in the year That the People very much desired the continuance of them That the Ministers in most Places did the like for these Reasons specially viz. For preserving the memorial of the Dedication of their several Churches For civilizing the People For composing Differences by the mediation and meeting of Friends For encrease of Love and Unity by those Feasts of Charity For Relief and Comfort of the Poor the Richer part in a manner keeping open House c. On the Return of which Certificate so seasonably seconding the Complaint and Information of the Gentry Richardson was again convented at the Council-Table and peremptorily commanded to reverse his former Orders at the next Assizes for that County withal receiving such a rattle for his former Contempt by the Bishop of London that he came out blubbering and complaining That he had been almost choaked with a pair of Lawn Sleeves Whilst these things were thus in agitation one Brabourne a poor School-master in the Diocess of Norfolk being seduced and misguided by the continual inculcating of the Morality of the Lords-day Sabboth from the Press and Pulpit published a Book in maintenance of the Seventh-day Sabboth as it was kept amongst the Iews and prescribed by Moses according to Gods Will and Pleasure signified in the Fourth Commandment This Book at the first not daring to behold the Light went abroad by stealth but afterwards appeared in publick with an open confidence an Epistle Dedicatory to his Majesty being placed before it His Majesty extremely moved with so lewd an impudence and fearing to be thought the Patron of a Doctrine so abhorrent from all Christian Piety gave Order for the Author to be Censured in the High-Commission Brabourne being thereupon called into that Court and the Cause made ready for an Hearing his Errour was so learnedly confuted by the Bishops and other judicious Divines then present that he began to stagger in his former Opinion which hint being taken by their Lordships he was admonished in a grave and Fatherly manner to submit himself unto a Conference with such Learned men as should be appointed thereunto to which he chearfully consented and found such benefit by that Meeting that by Gods Blessing he became a Convert and freely conformed himself to the Orthodoxal Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Sabboth and Lords-day Which Tendences of some of the People to downright Iudaism grounded upon the Practices and Positions of the Sabbatarians and seconded by the petulancy of some Publick Ministers of Justice in debarring his good Subjects in keeping the ancient Dedication-Feast of their several Churches occasioned his Majesty to think of the reviving of his Royal Fathers Declaration about Lawful Sports To which end he gave Orders to the Archbishop of Canterbury to cause the same to be re-printed word for word as it had issued from the Press in the time of his late Royal Father Anno 1618. at the end whereof he caused this Declaration of his own sense to be super-added that is to say Now out of a like Pious Care saith his Sacred Majesty for the Service of God and for suppressing of any humours that oppose the Truth and for the case and comfort and recreation of Our well-deserving People We do Ratifie and Publish this Our Blessed Fathers Declaration the rather because of late in some Counties of Our Kingdom we find that under pretence of taking away Abuses there hath been a general forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes Now Our express Will and Pleasure is That these Feasts with others shall be observed and that our Iustices of the Peace in their several Divisions shall look to it both that all Disorders there may be prevented or punished and that all neighbourhood and freedom with manlike and lawful exercises be used And We further command Our Iustices of Assize in their several Circuits to see that no man do trouble or molest any of Our lâ—yal and dutiful People in or for their Lawful Recreations having first done their Duty to God and continuing in Obedience to Vs and Our Laws And of this We command all Our Iudges Iustices of the Peace as well within Liberties as
it was not easie to Transcribe them insomuch that few of the Presbyters themselves could tell which of them were authentical which not So unsafely and uncertainly kept that they knew not where to address themselves for consulting with them That by reducing those numerous Act and those not known unto themselves to such a paucity of Canons published and exposed to the publick view no man should be insnared by ignorance or have just reason to complain of their multiplicity And finally That not one in all that Kingdom did either live under the Obedience of the Acts of those General Assemblies or did know what they were or where to find them Upon which grounds the Book of Canons being drawn up and presented to him he gave a Warrant under his Hand to the Archbishop of Canterbury requiring him together with the Bishop of London to peruse the same to see that they were well fitted to the Church-Government and as near as conveniently might be to the Canons of the Church oâ— England giving them and either of them full power to alter any thing in the said Canons as they found most fitting Which being done as he commanded and the Book made ready for the Press he pass'd his Royal Confirmation of it under the Great Seal oâ— the Kingdom in this manner following CHARLES REX WE 〈◊〉 of Our Royal Care for the Maintenance of the present Estate and Government of the Church of Scotland have diligently and with great content considered all the Canons and Constitutions after following and finding the same such as We are perswaded will be profitable not only to our whole Clergy but to the whole Church of that our Kingdom if so they be well observed Have for Vs Our Heirs and Lawful Successors of Our especial Grace certain Knowledâ—â— â—nd meer â—otion given and by these presents do give Our 〈◊〉 Assâ—â—t â—nto all the said Canons Orders and Constitutions 〈◊〉 all and every thing in them contained as they are afterwards set 〈◊〉 And further We do not only by Our Prerogative Royal and Supreme 〈◊〉 in Causes Ecclesiastical Ratifie and Confirm by these Our Letters Patâ—nts the said Canons Orders and Constitutions â—nd all â—nd every thing in them contained But likewise We command by 〈◊〉 â—uthority Royal and by these Letters Patents the same to be diligently observed and executed by all Our Loving Subjects of that Our Kingdom both within the Province of St. Andrews and â—lascow in all points wherein they do or may concern every or any of them according to this Our Will and Pleasure hereby expressed and declared And for the better observation of them We straightly Charge and Command all Our Archbishops Bishops and all others thaâ— exercise any Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction within that Our Realm to see the same Canons Orders and Constitutions to be in all points duly observed not sparing to execute the Penalties in them severally mentioned upon any that shall willingly break or neglect to observe the same as they tender the Honour of God the Peace of the Church the Tranquility of the Kingdom and their Service and Duty to Vs their King and Sovereign Given at Our Mannor of Greenwich 23 May 1635. These Canons when they came abroad were presently quarrelled and disclaimed by the Scottish Presbyters Quarrelled in reference to the subject matter comprehended in them Disclaimed because imposed upon them without their own approbation and consent The points most quarrelled at were these 1. That whosoever should affirm That the Kings Majesty had not the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical that the Godly Kings had among the Jews or the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church or impugn in any part his Royal Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical was to incur the Censure of Excommunication 2. The like Censure to be inflicted on those who should affirm That the Worship contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments though at the making of these Canons there was no such Book of Common Prayer recommended to them or That the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops or the form of Making and Consecrating Archbishops and Bishops c. did contain any thing repugnant to the Scriptures or was corrupt superstitious or unlawful in the Service and Worship of God 3. That the Ordinations were restrained to four times in the year that is the first Weeks of March June September and December 4. That every Ecclesiastical Person at his Admission should take the Oath of Supremacy according to the form required by Parliament and the like Oath for avoiding Symonie required in the Book of Consecration 5. That every Presbyter shall either by himself or by another Person lawfully called read or cause Divine Service to be done according to the form of the Book of that Common Prayer before all Sermons and that he should Officiate by the said Book of Common Prayer in all the Offices Parts and Rubricks of it when as yet none of them had seen the said Book or Liturgie 6. That no Preacher should impugn the Doctrine delivered by another in the same Church or any neer adjoining to it without leave from the Bishop which they conceived to be the way to pin their whole Religion on the Bishops Sleeves 7. That no Presbyter should hereafter become Surety or Cautioner for any Person whosoever in Civil Bonds and Contracts under pain of Suspension 8. That whatsoever remained of the Bread and Wine prepared for the Communion should be distributed to the poorer sort which receive that day to be eaten and drunken of them before they go out of the Church 9. That Presbyters are enjoined to Minister the Sacrament of Baptism in private Houses and upon every day alike in case of infirmity and that the People were required not to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but upon their knees 10. That in all Sentences of Separation a Thoro Mensa there shall be a Caution inserted and given accordingly That the Persons so separated should live continently and chastly and not contract Marriage with any Person during each others life which seemed to put the innocent Party into as bad a condition as the guilty contrary to the Judgment of the Reformed Churches 11. That no private Meeting be kept by Presbyters or any other Persons whatsoever for expounding Scripture or for consulting upon matters Ecclesiastical Such matters to be handled only in the Lawful Synods held by Bishops 12. That under pain of Excommunication no Presbyter or Layman jointly or severally make Rules Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical or to add or detract from any Rubricks or Articles or other things now established without the Authority of the King or his Successors 13. That National or General Assemblies were to be called only by the Kings Authority That the Decrees thereof should bind as well the Absent as the Present in Matters Ecclesiastical and That it should not be lawful for the Bishops themselves in such Assemblies or otherwise to
Church of St. Matthews in Friday Street took for his Text those words in the Proverbs viz. My Son fear thâ—n the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Chap. 24.22 In this Sermon if I may wrong the Word so far as to give it to so lewd a Libel he railes most bitterly against the Bishops accuseth them of Innovating both in Doctrine and Worship impeacheth them of exercising a Jurisdiction contrary to the Laws of the Land 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. and for falsifying the Records of the Church by adding the first clause to the twentieth Article arraigneth them for oppressing the Kings Liege people contrary unto Law and Justice exciting the people to rise up against them magnifying those disobedient Spirits who hitherto have stood out in defiance of them and seems content in case the Bishops lives might be called in question to run the hazard of his own For this being taken and imprisoned by a warrant from the High Commission he makes his appeal unto the King justifies it by an Apology and seconds that by an Address to the Nobility In which last he requires all sorts of people Noblemen Judges Courtiers and those of the inferiour sort to stand up stoutly for the Gospel against the Bishops And finally Prints all together with an Epistle Dedicatory to the King himself to the end that if his Majesty should vouchsafe the reading of it he might be brought into an ill opinion of the Bishops and their proceedings in the Church Whose actions tend only as he telleth us to corrupt the Kings good peoples hearts by casting into them fears and jealousies and sinister opinions toward the King as if he were the prime cause of all those Grievances which in his name they oppress the Kings good Subjects withall Thus also in another place These Factors of Antichrist saith he practice to divide Kings from their Subjects and Subjects from their Kings that so between both they may fairly erect Antichrists Throne again For that indeed that is to say the new building of Bable the setting up again of the throne of Antichrist the bringing in of Popery to subvert the Gospell is made to be the chief design of the Prelates and Prelatical party to which all innovations usurpations and more dangerous practices which are unjustly charged upon them served only as preparatives and subservient helps Such being the matter in the Libell let us next look upon the Ornaments and dressings thereof consisting most especially in those infamous Attributes which he ascribes unto the Bishops For Fathers he calls them Step-fathers for Pillars Caterpillars their houses haunted and their Episcopal Chairs poysoned by the Spirit that bears rule in the air They are saith he the Limbs of the Beast even of Antichrist taking his very courses to bear and beat down the hearing of the Word of God whereby men might be saved p. 12. Their fear is more toward an Altar of their own invention towards an Image or Crucifix toward the sound and syllables of Iesus then toward the Lord Christ p. 15. He gives then the reproachful Titles of Miscreants p. 28. The trains and wiles of the Dragons doglike flattering taile p. 30. New Babel builders p. 32. Blind Watchmen dumb dogs thieves and robbers of Souls False Prophets ravening Wolves p. 48. Factors for Antichrist p. 75. Antichristian Mushrumps And that it might be known what they chiefly aimed at we shall hear him say that they cannot be quiet till res novas moliendo they set up Popery again in her full Equipage p. 95. Tooth and naile for setting up Popery again p. 96. Trampling under feet Christs Kingdom that they may set up Antichrists Throne again p. 99. According to the Spirit of Rome which breaths in them by which they are so strongly biassed to wheel about to their Roman Mistress p. 108. The Prelates consederate with the Priests and Jesuites for rearing up of that Religion p. 140. Calling them upon that account in his Apology Iesuited Polipragmaticks and Sons of Belial Having thus lustily laid about him against all in general he descends to some particulars of most note and eminence Reviling White of Ely with railing and perverting in fighting against the truth which he makes to be his principal quality p. 127. and Mountague of Chichester for a tried Champion of Rome and the devoted Votary to his Queen of Heaven p. 126. And so proceeding to the Archbishop for of Wren he had spoke enough before he tells us of him That he used to set his foot on the Kings Laws as the Pope did on the Emperors neck p. 54. That with his right hand he was able to sweep down the third part of the Stars in heaven p. 121. And that he had a Papal infallibility of Spirit whereby as by a divine Oracle all Questions in Religion are finally determined p. 132. These are the principal flowers of Rhetorick which grew in the Garden of H. B. sufficient questionless to shew how sweet a Champion he was like to prove of the Church and Gospel And yet this was not all the mischief which the Church suffered at that time for presently on the neck of these came out another entituled The holy Table name and thing intended purposely for an Answer to the Coal from the Altar but cunningly pretended by him to be written long ago by a Minister in Lincolnshire against Dr. Coale a judicious Divine in Queen Maries daies Printed for the Diocess of Lincoln by the Bishop whereof under the name of Iohn Lincoln Dean of Westminster it was authorized for the Press In managing whereof the point in Controversie was principally about the placing of the Holy Table according to the practice of the Primitive Church and the received Rules of the Church of England at the first Reformation of it In prosecution of which point he makes himself an Adversary of his he know not whom and then he useth him he cares not how mangling the Authors words whom we would confute that so he might be sure of the easier conquest and practising on those Authors whom he was to use that they may serve his turn the better to procure the victory Of the composure of the whole we may take this Character from him who made the Answer to it viz. That he that conjectured of the house by the trim or dress would think it very richly furnished the Walls whereof that is the Margin richly set out with Antick hangings and whatsoever costly workmanship all nations of these times may be thought to brag of and every part adorned with flourishes and pretty pastimes the gay devices of the Painter Nor is there any want at all of Ornaments or Vtensils to set out the same such especially as may serve for ostentation though of little use many a fine and subtle Carpet not a few idle couches for the credulous Reader and every where a pillow for a Puritans elbow all very pleasing to the eye
first Innovation touching the suppressing of Sermons during the time of the late Fast in infected places contrary to the Orders in former times he answered First That after-Ages might without offence learn to avoid any visible inconvenience observed in the former And secondly That the suppressing of those Sermons was no Act of the Bishops but a Command proceeding on a full debate from the Lords of the Council the better to avoid the spreading of the Contagion And thirdly That as Sermons on the Fast-days had been used of late they were so far from humbling men in the sight of God that they were fitter for other operations as the raising of Sedition amongst the People of which there could not be a clearer instance than in that of Burton To the second That by appointing the Weekly Fasts to be on Wednesdays and those Fasts to be kept without any Sermons there was a plot for suppressing all Wednesday Lectures for ever after It was answered That Wednesday was the usual day for such Publick Fasts That it was named by the Lord Keeper no great Friend to Popery and that those men had lived to see the Fast ended and the Wednesday Lectures still continued To the third That the Prayer for Seasonable Weather was left out of the last Book and that the leaving of it out was one cause of the Shipwracks and Tempestuous Weather which followed after He answered generally first That all Fast-Books are made by the command of the King who alone had Power to call such Fasts and that the Archbishops and Bishops who had the ordering of those Books had also Power under the King of putting in and leaving out of those Books whatsoever they think fit for the present occasion Secondly as to this particular That when the Fast-Book was made the Weather was very Seasonable and the Harvest in and that it was not the Custom of the Church to pray for seasonable Weather when they had it but when it was wanting Thirdly That it was very boldly done to ascribe the cause of those Tempests to the leaving out of that Prayer which God had never revealed unto them and they could not otherwise know but by Revelation To the fourth touching a Clause omitted in the first Collect in which Thanks had been given to God for delivering us from Popish Superstition He answered That though our Fore-fathers had been delivered from such Superstitions yet God be blessed that for our parts we were never in them and therefore could not properly be said to have been delivered To the fifth touching the leaving out of a passage in one of the Orders for the Fast concerning the abuse thereof in relation to Merit he answered That it was left out because in this Age and Kingdom there was little opinion of Merit by Fasting insomuch that all Fasts were contemned and scorned both at Lent and all other set times except such as some humerous men called for of themselves to promote their ends The sixth Innovation charged upon them was the leaving of the Lady Elizabeth and her Children out of one of the Collects And the seventh That out of the same Collect the words Father of thine Elect and of their Seed was expunged also To which it was answered That the said Collect was not in the Common-Prayer-Book confirmed by Law neither King Edward vi nor Queen Elizabeth having any Children Secondly That it was added to the Book at the coming in of King Iames who brought a Princely Issue with him and left out again in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles who at that time and for four years after had no Issue neither Thirdly That as the Lady Elizabeth and her Children were put into the Collect when the King had no Issue of his own so when the King had Issue of his own there was as much reason to leave them out Fourthly For the leaving out of that Clause Father of thine Elect c. it was done by his Predecessor and that the leaving out of the Lady Elizabeth and her Issue was done by the Command of the King The eighth Innovation charged upon them was bowing at the Name of IESVS and altering to that end the words in the Epistle on the Sunday next before Easter by changing IN the Name of Iesus to AT the Name of Iesus And it was answered unto this That bowing at the Name of IESVS was no Innovation made by the Prelates of this Age but required by the Injunction of Queen Elizabeth in the very first beginning of the Reformation And secondly Though it be IN the Name of Iesus in the old Editions of the Liturgie yet it is AT the Name of Iesus in the Translation of Geneva Printed in the year 1567. and in the New Translation Authorised by King Iames. The ninth relates to the Alteration of two Passages in the Form of Prayer set forth by Act of Parliament for the Fifth of November in which Form it is thus expressed Root out the Babylonish Sect which say of Jerusalem Down with it c. And in the other place Cut off those Workers of Iniquity whose RELIGION is REBELLION Which are thus altered in the Books which came out last viz. Root out that Babylonish and Antichristian Sect of them which say c. And in the other Cut off those workers of Iniquity who turn RELIGION into REBELLION c. To which it was replied That the Book of Prayer appointed for the Fifth of November was neither made set forth or commanded to be read by Act of Parliament but only made and appointed to be read by the Kings Authority Secondly That being made and appointed to be read by no other Authority than the Kings the King might alter in it what he thought convenient and that he had the Kings hand for those Alterations What Reasons there might be to move his Majesty to it we may enquire into hereafter on another occasion To the tenth for the leaving out the Prayer for the Navy he answered that the King had then no Fleet at Sea nor any known enemy to assault as he had when that Prayer was first put in and that howsoever if there had been any design to bring in Popery to which these Innovations must be made subserviâ—nt they should rather have kept in that Prayer than have left it out Concerning the Communion Table there were three Innovations urged the placing of it Altarwise reading the second Service at it and bowing towards or before it For answer to the first It was proved to have been no Innovation in regard of Practice because it had so stood in his Majesties Chappels and divers Cathedrals of this Kingdom since the first Reformation Which posture if it be decent and convenient for the Service of God either in the Kings Chappels or Cathedrals it may be used also in other Churches but if it served to bring in Popery it was not to be used in them Nor was it any Innovation in regard of Law
a base and Libellous Answer without the name of any Author Place or Printer or any Bookseller according to the unusual Custom where and of whom it might be bought I shall not trouble my self any more about it than by a Transcript of the Title which was this that followeth viz. DIVINE and POLITICK OBSERVATIONS newly translated out of the Dutch Language wherein they were lately divulged upon some lines in the Speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced in the STAR-CHAMBER the fourteenth of June 1637. VERY expedient for preventing all prejudice which as well through ignorance as through malice and flattery may be incident to the judgment which men make thereby either of his Graces power over the Church and with the King or of the Equity Iustice and Wisdom of his ENDS in his said Speech and of the reasons used by him for attaining to his said ENDS And though he took great care and pains concerning that supposed additional clause to the 20th Article so much as might satisfie any man not extremely partial yet find I a late Writer so unsatisfied in it that he leaves it to the State-Arithmeticians to decide the Controversie whether the Bishops were more faulty in the addition than the opposites in their substraction of it One other Charge there was and a great one too which I find not touched at in this Speech and that is that the Prelates neither had nor sought to have the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. but did all in their own Names and under their own Seals contrary to the Law in that behalf Concerning which we are to know that by a Statute made in the first year of King Edward the Sixth it was Enacted That all Summons Citations and other Process Ecclesiastical in all Suites and causes of Instance and all causes of Correction and all causes of Bastardy or Bigamy or De jure Patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of Administrations of persons deceased be made in the name and with the Style of the King as it is in Writs Original or Iudicial at the Common Law c. As also that no matter of person or persons who hath the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction use any other Seal of Jurisdiction but wherein his Majesties Arms be engraven c. on pain of incurring his Majesties indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure Which Statute and every branch thereof being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth in all her Reign the Bishops of her time were safe enough from any danger on that side But in the first Parliament of King Iames there passed an Act for continuing and reviving of divers Statutes and for repealing of some others 1 Iac. c. 25. Into the Body whereof a Clause was cunningly conveyed his Majesties Council learned not considering or fraudulently conniving at it for the repealing of that Statute of the Reign of Queen Mary by which King Edwards stood repealed of which no notice being taken for some while by those whom it chiefly did concern it was now discovered and made use of as a Rod to affright the Prelates from exercising their Jurisdiction over obstinate and incorrigible Non-conformists as formerly they had been accustomed For remedy whereof and for encouraging the Bishops to perform their duties iâ— was declared by the Judges with an unanimous consent and so delivered by the Lords Chief Justices in the Star-Chamber the fourteenth of May in this present year That the said Act of Repeal 1 of Queen Mary did still stand in force as unto that particular Statute by them so much pressed This was sufficient for the present but the Archbishop would not trust to it for the time to come and thereupon in in his Epistle to the King before remembred He humbly desired his Majesty in the Churches name That it might be resolved by all the Reverend Judges of England and then published by his Majesty that the Bishops keeping of their Courts and issuing Processes in their own names and the like exceptions formerly taken and now renued were not against the Laws of this Realm that so the Church Governours might go on chearfully in their duty and the peoples minds be quieted by this assurance that neither their Law nor their Liberty as Subjects was thereby infringed A motion favourably heard and graciously granted his Majesty issuing out his Royal Proclamation on the eighteenth day oâ— August then next following For declaring that the proceedings of his Ecclesiastical Câ—urts and Ministers were according to Law The Tenour of which Proclamation or Declaration was as followeth By the King WHereas in some of the Libellous Books and Pamphlets lately published the most Reverend Fathers in God the Lord Archbishops and Bishops of the Realm are said to have usurped upon his Majesties Prerogative Royal and to have proceeded in the High Commission and other Ecclesiastical Courts contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm It was Ordered by his Majesties High Court of Star-Chamber the twelfth of June last that the Opinion of the two Lords Chief Justices the Lord Chief Baron and the rest of the Judges and Barons should be had and certified in these particulars viz. whether Processes may not issue out of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the names of the Bishops Whether a Patent under the Great Seal be necessary for the keeping of the Ecclesiastical Courts and enabling Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And whether the Citations ought to be in the Kings Name and under his Seal of Arms and the like for Institutions and Inductions to Benefices and correction of Ecclesiastical offences And whether Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical persons may or ought to keep any Visitation at any time unless they have express Commission or Patent under the great Seal of England to do it and that as his Majesty Visitors only and in his name and right alone Whereupon his Majesties said Judges having taken the same into their sâ—rious consideration did unanimously agree and concur in opinion and the first day of Iuly last certified under their hands as followeth That Processes may issue out of Ecclesiastical Courts in the name of the Bihops and that a Patent under the Great Seal is not necessary for the keeping of the said Ecclesiastical Courts or for the enabling of Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And that it is not necessary that Summons Citations or other Processes Ecclesiastical in the said Courts or Institutions and Inductions to benefices or correction of Ecclesiastical offences by Censure in those Courts be in the Kings name or with the Style of the King or with the Kings Seal or the Seals of the Office have in them the Kings Arms And that the Statute 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. which enacted the contrary is not now in force And that the Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical
his words and mistakes his meaning wresting the most Orthodox and innocent truths to his wicked ends and putting his own corrupt Gloss and sense upon them And which is yet most strange of all with an unparalelled impudence he dedicates it to his Sacred Majesty calling upon him To send out his Royal Edict for the taking down of all Altars which where ever they stand are by him said to stand in open defiance of Christ Another for calling in the Book for Sports on the Lords day A third for calling in his Declaration before the Articles of Religion A fourth for calling in of all Orders for the Restraint of Preaching A fifth for restoring to their place and Ministry all those who out of Conscience of their duty to God had by the Prelates been thrust out of all for refusing to read the said Book And finally for releasing and setting at liberty the three poor banished prisoners the loud cry of whose oppressions might otherwise provoke the thunderbolt of Divine Revenge to blast the beauty of his State Now as he laboured by these means to preserve the Church of England from the growth of Popery so he took care for preventing the subversion of it by the spreading of the Socinian Heresies He had before took care for suppressing all Books of that nature which had been imported into England out of other Countries and had received thanks for it from the Pen of a Jesuit But Burton chargeth it upon him among his Crimes reproaching him for suppressing those books for no other reason but because they magnified the Authority of the holy Scriptures and by the late Decree for Printing of which more anon he had took such order that no Eggs of that pestiferous Brood should be laid in England or if they were should ever peep out of the Shell or appear in sight There had been published a Discourse called Disquisitio Brevis in which some of the principal Socinian Tenents were cunningly inserted pretending them for the best Expedients to appease some Controversies betwixt us and Rome The Book ascribed in common Speech to Hales of Eaton a man of infinite reading and no less ingenuity free of Discourse and as communicative of his knowledge as the Coelestial Bodies of their light and influences There past also up and down a Discourse of Schism not Printed but transmitted from hand to hand in written Copies like the Bishop of Lincolns Letter to the Vicar of Grantham intended chiefly for the encouragement of some of our great Masters of Wit and Reason to despise the Authority of the Church Which being dispersed about this time gave the Archbishop occasion to send for him to Lambeth in hope that he might gain the man whose abilities he was well acquainted with when he lived in Oxon. An excellent Grecian in those daies and one whom Savil made great use of in his Greek Edition of St. Chrysostoms Works About nine of the Clock in the Morning he came to know his Graces pleasure who took him along with him into his Garden commanding that none of his Servants should come at him upon any occasion There they continued in discourse till the Bell rang to Prayers and after Prayers were ended till the Dinner was ready and after that too till the coming in of the Lord Conway and some other Persons or honour put a necessity upon some of his Servants to give him notice how the time had passed away So in they came high coloured and almost panting for want of breath enough to shew that there had been some heats between them not then fully cooled It was my chance to be there that day either to know his Graces pleasure or to render an account of some former commands but I know not which and I found Hales very glad to see me in that place as being himself a meer stranger to it and unknown to all He told me afterwards That he found the Archbishop whom he knew before for a nimble Disputant to be as well versed in books as business That he had been ferretted by him from one hole to another till there was none left to afford him any further shelter That he was now resolved to be Orthodox and to declare himself a true Son of the Church of England both for Doctrine and Discipline That to this end he had obtained leave to call himself his Graces Chaplain that naming him in his Publick Prayers for his Lord and Patron the greater notice might be taken of the Alteration Thus was Hales gained unto the Church and gained a good preferment in it promoted not long after by the Archbishops Commendation to be Prebend of Windsor and to hold the same by special dispensation with his place in Eaton Nor was the Archbishop less intent upon all Advantages for keeping down the Genevian Party and hindring them from Printing and Publishing any thing which might disturb the Churches Peace or corrupt her Doctrine To this end he procured a Decree to be pass'd in the Star-Chamber on Iuly 1. Anno 1637. to Regulate the Trade of Printing and prevent all Abuses of that Excellent Art to the disturbance of the Church By which Decree it had been Ordered That the Master-Printers from thenceforth should be reduced to a certain number and that if any other should secretly or openly pursue that Trade he should be set in the Pillory or whipped through the Streets and suffer such other Punishment as that Court should inflict upon him That none of the said Master-Printers should from thenceforth Print any Book or Books of Divinity Law Physick Philosophy or Poetry till the said Books together with the Titles Epistles Prefaces Tables or Commendatory Verses shall be lawfully Licenced either by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London for the time being or by some of their Chaplains or by the Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors of either of the two Vniversities upon pain of loosing the Exercise of his Art and being proceeded against in the Star-Chamber or the High-Commission Court respectively That no Person or Persons do hereafter Re-print or cause to be Re-printed any Book or Books whatsoever though formerly Printed with Licence without being reviewed and a new Licence obtained for the Re-printing thereof That every Merchant Bookseller or other Person who shall Import any Printed Books from beyond the Seas shall present a true Catalogue of them to the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being before they be delivered or exposed to Sale upon pain of suffering such Punishment as by either of the said two Courts respectively shall be thought fit That none of the said Merchants Booksellers or others shall upon pain of the like Punishment deliver any of the Books so Imported till the Chaplains of the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being or some other Learned Man by them appointed together with the Master and Wardens of the Company of Stationers or one of them shall take a view of the same with Power to seize
excused for Age and indisposition testified their affections to his Majesties Service in good Sums of money The Flower of the English Gentry would not stay behind but chearfully put themselves into the Action upon a confidence of getting honour for themselves as well as for their King or Country many of which had been at great charge in fâ—rniâ—â—ing themselves for this Expedition on an assurance of being repaid in Favours what they spent in Treasure And not a few of our old Commanders which had been trained up in the Wars of Holland and the King of Sweden deserted their Employments 〈◊〉 to serve their Soveraign whether with a greater gallantry or a â—ection it is hard to say The Horse computed to 6000. as good as ever charged on a standing Enemy The Foot of a sufficient number though not proportionable to the Horse stout men and well a 〈◊〉 for the most part to the Cause in hand the Canon Bullets and all other sorts oâ— Ammunition nothing inferiour to the rest of the Preparations An Army able to have trampled all Scotland under their feet Gods ordinary providence concurring with them and made the King as absolutely Master of that Kingdom as many Prince could be of a conquered Nation The chief Command committed to the Earl of Arundel who though not biassed toward Rome as the Scots reported him was known to be no friend to the Puritan Faction The Earl of Holland having been Captain of his Majesties Guard and formerly appointed to conduct some fresh â—ecruits to the Isle of Rhee was made Lieutenant of the Horse And the Earl of Essex who formerly had seen some service in Holland and very well understood the Art of War Lieutenant-General of the Foot Besides which power that marcht by Land there were some other Forces embarqued in a considerable part of the Royal Navy with plenty of Coin and Ammunition which was put under the command of Hamilton who must be of the Quorum in all businesses with order to ply about the Coasts of Scotland and thereby to surprise their Ships and destroy their Trade and make such further attempts to Landward as opportunity should offer and the nature of affairs require It is reported and I have it from a very good hand that when the old Archbishop of St. Andrews came to take his leave of the King at his setting forward toward the North he desired leave to give his Majesty three Advertisements before his going The first was That his Majesty would suffer none of the Scottish Nation to remain in his Army assuring him that they would never fight against their Countrymen but rather hazard the whole Army by their â—ergiversation The second was that his Majesty would make a Catalogue of all his Counsellors Officers of Houshold and domestick Servants and having so done would with his Pen obliterate and expunge the Scots beginning first with the Archbishop of St. Andrews himself who had given the Counsel conceiving as he then declared that no man could accuse the King of Partiality when they found the Archbishop of St. Andrews who had so faithfully served his Father and himself about sixty years should be expunged amongst the rest A third was That he must not hope to win upon them by Condescensions or the sweetness of his disposition or by Acts of Grace but that he should resolve to reduce them to their duty by such waies of Power as God had put into his hands The Reason of which Counsel was because he found upon a sad experience of sixty years that generally they were a people of so cross a grain that they were gained by Punishments and lost by Favours But contrary to this good Counsel his Majesty did not only permit all his own Servants of that Nation to remain about him but suffered the Earls of Roxborough and Traquaire and other Noblemen of that Kingdom with their several Followers and Retinues to repair to York under pretence of offering of some expedient to compose the differences Where being come they plyed their business so well that by representing to the Lords of the English Nation the dangers they would bring themselves into by the Pride and Tyranny of the Bishops if the Scots were totally subdued they mitigated the displeasures of some and so took off the edge of others that they did not go from York the same men they came thither On the discovery of which Practice and some intelligence which they had with the Covenanters they were confined to their Chambers the first at York the other at Newcastle but were presently dismissed again and sent back to Scotland But they had first done what they came for never men being so suddenly cooled as the Lords of England or ever making clearer shews of an alteration in their words and gestures This change his Majesty soon found or had cause to fear and therefore for the better keeping of his Party together he caused an Oath to be propounded to all the Lords and others of chief Eminency which attended on him before his departure out of York knowing full well that those of the inferiour Orbs would be wholly governed by the motion of the higher Spheres The Tenor of which Oath was this that followeth I A. B. do Swear before the Almighty and Ever-living God That I will bear all faithful Allegiance to my true and undoubted Sovereign King CHARLES who is Lawful King of this Island and all other his Kingdoms and Dominions both by Sea and Land by the Laws of God and Man and by Lawful Succession And that I will mâ—st constantly and most chearfully even to the utmost hazard of my Life and Fortunes oppose all Seditions Rebellions Conjurations Conspiracies whatsoever against his Royal Dignity Crown and Person raised or set up under what pretence or colour soever And if it shall come vailed under pretence of Religion I hold it more abominable both before God and Man And this Oath I take voluntarily in the Faith of a good Christian and Loyal Subject without Equivocation or mental Reservation whatsoever from which I hold no Power on Earth can absolve me in any part Such was the Tenour of the Oath which being refused by two and but two of the Lords of which one would not Say it nor the other â—rock it the said Refusers were committed to the Custody of the Sheriffs of York and afterwards for their further Tryal Interrogated upon certain Articles touching their approbation or dislike of the War To which their Answers were so doubtful and unsatisfactory that his Majesty thought it safer for him to dismiss them home than to keep them longer about him to corrupt the rest By means whereof he furnished them with an opportunity of doing him more disservice at home where there was no body to attend and observe their Actions than possibly they could have done in the Army where there were so many eyes to watch them and so many hands to pull them back if they proved extravagant As to the
carrying on of the War the Earl of Essex was Commanded by his Majesty at his first coming to York to put a Garrison into Berwick and to take with him such Provisions of Canon Arms and Ammunition as were assigned for that Imployment Which as he chearfully undertook so he couragiously performed it notwithstanding all the terrours and affrightments which he found in his March For being encountred in his way with the Earls of Roxborough Traquaire and the rest of the Scots then going to York they laboured all they could to disswade him from it assuring him That either the Scots would be in the Town before him or that their whole Army would be so near that he must needs run the hazard of losing all without doing any thing Which notwithstanding he went on entred the Town repaired the Breaches in the Walls and placed his Cannon on the same proceeding in the Work as became a Souldier With less fidelity and courage dealt the Earl of Holland at the Kings coming near the Borders where long he had not been encamped when he had Intelligence that the Scots Army was advancing on which Advertisement he dispatch'd Holland with a great Body of Horse to attend upon them Lesly had drawn his Army into a very large Front his Files exceeding thin and shallow but intermingled with so many Ensigns as if every twenty or thirty men had been a Regiment and behind all a great Herd of Cattel which raised up so much dust with their feet as did cloud the Stratagem Holland dismayed with such a formidable appearance or being afraid that his great Horse would be under-ridden with the Galloway Nags sent Messenger after Messenger to acquaint the King with his present condition who sent him order to draw off and retire again and not to hazard himself and the Forces under him on such a visible disadvantage How Hamilton behaved himself we are next to see who having anchored his Fleet in the Frith of Edenborough and landing some of his spent men in a little Island to give them breath and some refreshments received a Visit from his Mother a most rigid and pragmatical Covenanter the Scots upon the shore saying with no small laughter That they knew the Son of so good a Mother could not do them hurt And so it proved for having loytered thereabouts to no purpose till he heard that the Treaty of the Pacification was begun neer Berwick he left his Ships and came in great haste as it was pretended to disturb the business which was to be concluded before he came thither For so it hapned That as soon as Essex had brought his Forces into Berwick the Scots began to fear the approaching danger which they had drawn upon themselves and thereupon some Chiefs amongst them addressed their Letters to him on the 19th of April laying the cause of all these Troubles to some ill Countrymen of their own whom they conceived to have provoked the King against them endeavouring to make the Remedy of their Evils and the scope of their deserved Punishment the beginning of an incurable Disease betwixt the two Nations to whom the Quarrel should in no way extend They complained also That there were many of the English in Place and Credit whose Private Byass did run clean contrary to the Publick Good such as did rise early to poyson the Publick Fountain and to sow the Tares of unhappy Jealousies and Discords between the Kingdoms before the good Seed of our Love and Respect to the English Nation could take place in their hearts They declared next how strange and unexpected it was unto them to see his Forces drawn toward the Borders which they could not but interpret as a pregnant presumption of some further Project against their Nation by his Power which must needs cause them to bestir themselves in time for their own preservation And though they gave themselves some assurance grounded upon the Reputation of his former Life that his Lordship would be very wary to begin the Quarrel at which Enemies only would rejoyce and catch advantage yet at the last fearing that neither Threats nor Complements would do the business they fall to a downright begging of a Pacification For having taken God to witness That they desired no National Quarrel to arise betwixt them or to taste any of the bitter Fruit which might set their Childrens Teeth on edge They professed themselves obliged in conscience to God their Prince Nation and Brethren to try all just and lawful means for the removal of all Causes of Diâ—â—erence betwixt the two Nations and to be always ready to oâ—fer the occasion of greater Satisfaction for clearing of their Loyal Intentions to their Prince and to all those whom it may concern â—ut more particularly to his Lordship in regard of his Place and Command at that time And this to do by any means whatsoever which should be thought expedient on both sides But Essex though perhaps he might like their Cause did not love their Nation the Affront put upon him by Carr Earl of Somerset running still in his mind so that the Practice edified very little with him for ought I can find whatsoever it might do with others about the King to whom the Letter was communicated which in duty he was bound to do on the first receiving With greater comfort they applied themselves to the Earl of Arundel whom at first they feared more than all the rest but had now placed the greatest part of their confidence on him For whilst the Puritans in both Kingdoms stood at a gaze upon the Issue of this War one Mosely Vicar of Newark upon Trent obtained leave to pass through the Army into Scotland A man of zeal enough to be put upon any business which the wiser ones durst not be seen in and of such silliness withal that no body could fear any danger from him By this Man as appears by their Letter they understood of his Lordships particular Affection to the continuance of the Common Peace betwixt the Nations being before assured of his Noble Disposition in the general as the Letter words it And this being said they signifie unto him and wish that they could do the like to all the good Subjects of England That they were neither weary of Monarchical Government nor had entertained the least thougâ—â—s of casting of the yoke of Obedience or invading England That they desired nothing else than peaceably to enjoy their Religion and the Liberties of their Country according to the Laws and that all Questions about the same might be decided by Parliament and National Assemblies which they conceived his Lordship would judge to be most equitable and for which no National Quarrel as they hoped could justly arise And finally That they had sent him a Copy of the Supplication which they intended to present unto the King as soon as he was prepared for it to the end that by the mediation of his Lordship and other Noble Lords of England
it was chearfully entertained by the Lords of the Council who joined together with them in the Proposition promising his Majesty to assist him in extraordinary ways if the Parliament should fail him in it as they after did Upon these Terms his Majesty yielded to the Motion on the fifth of December causing an Intimation to be publickly made of his Intent to hold a Parliament on the 13th of April then next following An Intimation which the Londoners received with great signs of joy and so did many in the Country but such withal as gave no small matter of disturbance unto many others who could not think the calling of a Parliament in that point of time to be safe or seasonable The last Parliament being dissolved in a Rupture the Closets of some Members searched many of them imprisoned and some fined it was not to be thought but that they would come thither with revengeful Spirits And should a breach happen betwixt them and the King and the Parliament be Dissolved upon it as it after was the breach would prove irreparable as it after did Besides which fear it was presumed that the interval of four Months time would give the discontented Party opportunity to unite themselves to practice on the Shires and Burroughs to elect such Members as they should recommend unto them and finally not only to consult but to conclude on such Particulars as they inteâ—â—ed to insist upon when they were Assembled In which Resâ—â—â—â— the calling a Parliament at that time and with so long warning beforehand was conceived unsafe And if it was unsafe it was morâ— unseasonable Parliaments had now long been discontinued the People lived happily without them and few took thought who should see the next And which is more the Neighbouring Kings and States beheld the King with greater Veneration than they had done formerly as one that could stand on his own Legs and had raised up himself to so great Power both by Sea and Land without such discontents and brabbles as his Parliaments gave him So that to call a Parliament was â—eared to be the likeliest way to make his Majesty seem less in estimation both at home and abroad the eyes of men being distracted by so many objects But whatsoever others thought it was thought by Wentworth that he could manage a Parliament well enough to the Kings Advantage especially by setting them such a Lesson as should make them all ashamed of not writing after such a Copy Two ends they had in advising the Intimation of the Parliament to be given so long before the Sitting First That the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland might in the mean time hold a Parliament in that Kingdom which he did accordingly and governed the Affair so well that an Army of 8000 Horse and Foot some of our Writers say 10000 was speedily raised and Money granted by the Parliament to keep them in pay and furnish them with Ammunition Arms and all other Necessaries Secondly That by the Reputation of a following Parliament he might be the better enabled to borrow Money for the carrying on of that War if the Parliament should chance to fail of doing their Duty wherein the Lords performed their parts in drawing in great Sums of Money upon that account For causing a List to be made of most of the Persons of Ability which had relation to the Courts of Judicature either Ecclesiastical or Civil of such as held Offices of the Crown as attained unto his Majesties Service or otherwise were thought to be well affected to the present Cause and had not formerly contributed toward it they called them to the Council-Table where they endeavoured by the prevailing Rhetorick of Power and Favour to perswade them to a bountiful Contribution or a chearful Loan according to the Sums proportioned and requested of them In which they did proceed so well that money came flowing in apace enough to put the King into a condition of making new Levies of Men both for Horse and Foot Listing them under their Commanders and putting them into a Posture for the War approaching And that they might be sure to speed the better by the encouragement of a good Example the Lord Lieutenant subscribed for a Loan of 20000 l. the other Lords with the same Loyalty and Affection proportioning their Engagements to their Abilities and thereby giving Law to most of the Noblemen in all parts of the Kingdom Nor was the Queen wanting for her part to advance the Service For knowing how great a share she had in his Majesties Fortune she employed her Secretary Winter Mountague Digby and others of her Confidents of that Religion to negotiate with the rest of their party for being Assistant to his Majesty in so just a quarrel In which design she found such a liberal correspondence from the Roman Catholicks as shewed them to be somewhat ambitious of being accounted amongst the most Loyal and best affected of his Majesties Subjects These preparations being Resolved on and in some part made it was thought convenient that his Majesty should take the opportunity of the coming of some Commissioners from the Scots to call for an account of their late proceedings According unto which advice his Majesty appointed a Select Committee from the rest of the Council to bring those Commissioners to a reckoning to hear what they could say for themselves and the rest of their fellows and to make report thereof to his Majesty The Commissioners were the Earl of Dumfermelling the Lord London Douglas and Barkley both of inferiour rank but of like Authority Of which the Speakers part was performed by London A confident bold man of a Peâ—antical expressâ—on but one that loved to hear himself above all men living Being Commanded to attend the Committee at the time appointed they râ—nted high touching the Independency of the Crown of Scotland and did not think themselves obliged to Treat with any but his Majesty only His Majesties vouchsaâ—eâ—ng his presence at the said Committee London begins with a defence of their proceedings both in the General Assembly and the late Parliament held at Edenborough by his Majesties Order Alledged that nothing was done in them contrary to the Laws of the Land and the Precedents of former times and finally besought his Majesty to ratifie and confirm the Acts and Results of both Commissions They could shew none to qualifie them in the nature of Publick Agents Nor had they any power to Oblige their party in the performance of any thing which might give his Majesty full satisfaction for the time to come whatsoever satisfaction he was able to give them in debating the business His Majesty endeavoured not by reason only but by all fair and gentle means to let them see the unreasonableness of their demands the legality of their proceedings and the danger which would fall upon them if they continued obstinate in their former courses But London governed all the rest who being of a fiery nature in himself and a dependent
and Dangers in the Premises Lastly Whereas these fears are not built upon Conceits but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie Men of Resolution and much Constancy they do in all Humility and Duty Protest before Your Majesty and the Peers of the Most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as of themselves Null and of None Effect which in their Absence since the 27th of this Instant Moneth of December 1641. have already passed As likewise that all such as shall hereafter Pass in the Most Honourable House during the time of this their Forced and Violent Absence from the said Most Honourable House not denying but if their absenting of themselves were Wilful and Voluntary that Most Honourable House might Proceed in all their Premises their Absence or this Protestation Notwithstanding And humbly beseeching Your Most Excellent Majesty to Command the Clerk of the House of Peers to Enter this their Petition and Protestation among his Records They will ever Pray God to bless c. This Petition being presented to his Majesty was by him deliâ—vered to the Lord Keeper Littleton to be Communicated the next day being the 30th of Decemb. to the House of Peers But the Lord Keeper contrary to his Majesties directions did first impâ—rt iâ— to some of the Preaching party in both Houses of Parliament and after as the plot was laid to the Peers in general Upon the â—eading whereof a conference was desired with the House oâ— Câ—mmons to whom the Lord Keeper whom they had under the Laâ—â— was pleased to signifie that this Petition and Protestation of the twelâ—e Bishops contained matters of high and dangerous consequence extending to the deep intrenching upon the Fundamental Priviledges and Being of Parliament Whereupon the said twelve Bishops were Impeached by the Commons of high Treason The Usher called Black-Rod Commanded to find them out and to bring them to the Bar in the House of Peers which by reason of their scattered and divided Lodgings could not be effected till eight of the Clock at night at what time being brought together their offence was signified unto them and an Order presently made for their commitment to the Tower whither they were all carried the next day Except the Bishops of Durham and Lichfield who found the favour the one by reason of his Eminent Learning and both of them in regard of their age and Infirmities to stand committed to the custody of the Gentleman Usher Our Archbishop had now more Neighbours then â—e desired but not more company then before it being prudently Ordered amongst themselves that none of them should bestow any visits on him for fear of giving some advantage to their common enemy as if they had been hatching some conspiracy against the Publick But they refrained not on either side from sending meâ—â—ages of Love and consolation unto one another those mutual civilities being almost every day performed betwixt the two Archbishops also though very much differing both in their Counsels and Affections in the times foregoing The Archbishop of York was now so much declined in favour tâ—at he stood in as bad terms with the Common People as the other did His picture cut in Brass attired in his Episcopal Robes with his square Cap upon his head and Bandileers about his Neck shouldering a Musket upon one of his shoulders in one hand and a Rest in the other either presaging that which followed or else relating unto that which had passed in defence of the Abbey Together with which a book was Printed in which he was Resembled to the Decoy-Duck alluding to the Decâ—yes in Lincolnshire where he had been Bishop restored to Liberty on design that he might bring more company with him at his coming back and a device Ingraven for the Front of the Book which represented the conceit and that not unhappily Certain I am that our Archbishop in the midst of those sorrows seemed much pleased with the Fancy whither out of his great Love to wit oâ— some other self-satisfaction which he found therein is beyond my knowledge These Bishops bâ—ing thus secured and no body left in a manner to solicite the Common Cause but the Bishop of Rochester the Bill against their Votes passed currantly in the House of Peers on February 6. the Citizens who before had feasted the King with such signs oâ— Affection now celebrating the Concurrence of the House against his Interest with Bâ—lls and Bonfires Nor was it long before the â—ing gave over the Cause for which he had so long contended For either terrified with the Apprehension of his own Dangers or wrought on by the importunity of some about him he signed the Bill at Canterbury on February 14. to which place he had accompanied the Queen in her way toward Holland And by that Bill it was desired to be Enacted That no Archbishop Bishop or any other Person in Holy Orders from February 15. then next following should have any Seat or Place Suffrage or Voice use or execute any Power or Authority in the Parliaments of this Realm nor should be of the Privy-Council of his Majesty his Heirs or Successors or Justices of the Peace of Oyer and Terminer or Gaol-delivery or execute any Temporal Authority by vertue of any Commission but should be wholly disabled or be uncapable to have receive use or execute any of the said Offices Places Powers Authorities and Things aforesaid The passing of which Act what specious Pretences soever were given out for it redounded little to his Majesties Benefit and far less to his Comfort For by cutting off so many of his Friends at a blow he lost his Power in the House of Peers and not long after was deprived of his Negative Voice when the great Business of the Militia came to be disputed And though he pleased himself sometimes with this perswasion of their contentedness in suffering a present diminution of their Rights and Honours for his sake and the Commonwealths yet was it no small trouble to his Conscience at other times that he had added this to the former injury in consenting to the taking away of the Coercive Power of their Jurisdiction for this we find to be one of those three things which lay heaviest on him in the time of his Solitude and Sufferings as appears by this passage in one of his Prayers viz. Was it through ignorance that I suffered innocent Blood to be spilt by a false pretended Iustice Or that I permitted a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotlan Or injured the Bishops in England By which we see that the Injury done unto the Bishops of England is put into the same scale with his permitting a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotland and the shedding of the innocent Blood of the Earl of Strafford And if this Act proved so unpleasing to the King it must needs be grievous to the Bishops themselves to none more than the
Archbishop of Canterbury who had sâ—t so great a part of his affections on the preserving of this Church in her Power and Glory Whose sense hereof is thus express'd by one who for the time was his greatest Adversary That it struck proud Canterbury to the heart and undermined all his Prelatical Designs to advance the Bishops Pomp and Power whether with greater bitterness or truth is hard to say Their great hâ—pe was though it was such a hope as that of â—â—â—aham which the Scripture calls a hope against hope that havinâ— pâ—red the Jurisdiction of the Bishops and impaired their Power tâ—â—y would have suffered them to enjoy their Function with Peace and quiet as the only remaining Ornament and Honour of the Church oâ— England Conform therein unto the gallantry of the Ancient Romans who when they had brought the Carthaginians unto that condition as to compel them to deliver up their Ships Arms and Elephants and to make neither War nor Peace without their permission esteemed it an especial honour to their Commonwealth to preserve the City which was no longer to be feared though formerly it had contended for the Superiority But the Bishops Crimes were still unpunished And as the old Roman Citizen cried out upon his fine Country-house and pleasant Gardens when he found his name posted up amongst the Proscripts in the time of Sylla so might these Holy men complain of those fair Houses and goodly Manors which belonged to their Episcopal Sees as the only mâ—ans of the Subverâ—â—on of their Sacred Calling This had been formerly resolved oâ— but was not to be done at once as before was noâ—ed nor to be followed now but on some such colour as was pretended â—or depriving them of their Jurisdiction and Place in Parliament It was pretended for suppressing the Court of High-Commissiâ—n and the coercive Power of Jurisdiction That the Prelates had abused them both to the insufferable wrong and oppression of his Majesties Subjects And for the taking away of their Votes in Parliament with all other Civil Power in Church-men That it was found to be an occasion of great mischief both to Church and State â—he Office of the Ministry being of such great importance as to take up the whole Man And now to make way for the Abolition of the Calling it self it was given out amongst the People to have been made of no use to the Church by the Bishops themselves against whom these Objections were put in every mans mouth That they had laid aside the use of Confirming Children though required by Law whereby they had deprived themselves of that dependence which People of all sorts formerly had fastned on them That they had altogether neglected the duty of Preaching under the colour of attending their several Governments That in their several Governments they stood only as Cyphers transmitting their whole Jurisdiction to their Chancellors and under-Officers That none of them used to sit in their Consistories for hearing Grievances and Administring Justice to the Subject whether Clergy or Laity leaving them for a prey to Registers Proctors and Apparitors who most unconscionably extorted from them what they pleased That few or none of them held their Visitations in person whereby the face of the Bishop was unknown to the greatest part of the Clergy and the greatest part of the Clergy was unknown to him to the discouragement oâ— the Godly and painful Ministers and the encouragement of vicious and irregular Parsons That few of them lived in their Episcopal Cities and some there were who had never seen them whereby the Poor which commonly abound most in populous places wanted that Relief and those of the better sort that Hospitality which they had reason to expect the Divine Service in the mean time performed irreverently and perfunctorily in the Cathedrals of those Cities for want of the Bishops Residence and Superinspection That they had transferred the solemn giving of Orders from the said Cathedrals to the Chappels of their private Houses or some obscure Churches in the Country not having nor requiring the Assistance of their Deans and Chapters as they ought to do That they engrossed a sole or solitary Power to themselves alone in the Sentence of Deprivation and Degradation without the Presences and Consents of their said Deans and Chapters or any Members of the same contrary to the Canons in that behalf by which last Acts they had rendred those Capitular Bodies as useless to the Church as they were themselves And finally That seeing they did nothing which belonged unto the place of a Bishop but the receiving of their Rents living in ease and worldly pomp and domineering over the rest of their Brethren it was expedient to remove the Function out of the Church and turn their Lands and Houses unto better uses This I remember to have been the substance of those Objections made by some of the Gentry and put into the mouths of the Common People in which if any thing were true as I hope there was not such Bishops as offended in the Premises or in any of them have the less reason to complain of their own misfortunes and the more cause to be complained of for giving such Advantages to the Enemies of their Power and Function Nor was the alienating of their Lands and Houses the Total Sum of the Design though a great part of it As long as the Episcopal Jurisdiction stood much Grist was carried from the Mills in Westminster-Hall Toll whereof was taken by the Bishops Officers Therefore those Courts to be suppressed which could not be more easily done than in abolishing the Bishops whose Courts they were that so the managing of all Causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil might be brought into the hands of those who thought they could not thrive sufficiently by their own Common Law as long as any other Law was Common besides their own By means whereof all Offices and Preferments in the Admiral Archiepiscopal and Diocesan Courts being taken from the Civil Lawyers nothing can follow thereupon but the discouragement and discontinuance of those Noble Studies which formerly were found so advantagious to the State and Nation It is not to be thought that such a general Concussion should befal the Church so many Practices entertained against it and so many Endeavours used for the Ruine of it and that no man should lend a helping hand to support the Fabrick or to uphold the Sacred Ark when he saw it tottering Some well-affected in both Houses appeared stoutly for it amongst which none more cordially than the Lord George Digby in a Speech made upon occasion of the City-Petition and Sir Lucius Cary Viscount Faulkland both Members of the House of Commons Which last though he expressed much bitterness against the Bishops in one of his Speeches made in the first heats and agitation of business yet afterwards in another of them he shewed himself an especial Advocate in behalf of the Episcopal Order In which Speech of his
the Kingdom At Hull he had a Magazine of Arms and Ammunition provided for the late intended War against the Scots and laid up there when the occasion of that War was taken away Of this Town he intended to possess himself and to make use of his own Arms and Ammunition for his own preservation but coming before the Gates of the Town he was denied entrance by Hoâ—ham who by the appointment of the House of Commons had took charge of that place The Gentry of Yorkshire who had Peâ—â—tioned the King to secure that Magazine became hereby more firmly united to him The like had been done also by the Yeomandry and those of the inferiour sort if his proceedings had not been undermined by a Committee of four Gentlemen all the Members of the House of Commons and all of them Natives of that County sent thither purposely in a new and unprecedent way to lie as Spies upon his Counsels and as Controllers to his Actions Some Messages there were betwixt him and the Houses of Parliament concerning the atoning of these differences whilst he was at York but the nineteen Propositions sent thither to him did declare sufficiâ—â—tly that there was no peace to be expected on his part unless he had made himself a Cypher a thing of no signification in the affairs of State It was desired in the eighth of these Propositions That his Majesty would be pleased to consent to such a Reformation as should be made of the Church Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament should Advise wherein they intended to have Consultation with Divines as was Expressed in their Declaration And that his Majesty would contribute his best assistance to them for the raising of a sufficient maintenance for Preaching Ministers throughout the Kingdom And that his Majesty would be pleased to give his Consent to Laws for taking away of Innovations and Superstitions and of Pluralities and against Scandalous Ministers For satisfaction whereunto he first repeats unto them so much of a former Answer returned to their Petition which accompanied the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom as hath already been laid down in the year foregoing and after calls to their Remembrance a material clause in his Message of the 14th of February at such time as he yielded his consent to deprive the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament In which it was declared That his Majesty had Observed great and different troubles to arise in the hearts of his people concerning the Government and Liturgy of the Church and therefore that he was willing to refer the whole consideration to the Wisdom of his Parliament which he desired them to enter into speedily that the present Distractions about the same might be composed that he desired not to be pressed to any single Act on his part till the whole was so digested and settled by both Houses that his Majesty might cleerly see what was fit to be left as well as what was fit to be taken away Of which he addeth that he the more hoped for a good success to the general satisfaction of his People because they seemed in their Proposition to desire but a Reformation and not as had been daily Preached for Necessary in those many Coventicles which for the ninteen Months last past had so swarmed in this Kingdom a Destruction of the Present Discipline and Liturgy that he should most cheerfully give his best assistance for raising a sufficient maintenance for Preaching Ministers in such course as should be most for the encouragement of Piety and Learning that to the Bills they mentioned and the Consultation which they intimated as he knew nothing of the particular matters of the one though he liked the Titles of themselves so neither did he of the manner of the other but by an Informer to whom he gave little credit and wisht no man did more Common Fame he could say nothing till he saw them With which general well studied answer he dismissed that Article These Propositions and the entertaining of so many Petitions by the Houses of Parliament visibly tending to the Abolition of Episcopal Government made it appear most necessary in the Eyes of those who wisht well to it to hasten the publishing of such Petitions as had been presented to the King in behalf thereof and by his Majesty had been Ordered to be published accordingly For what could otherwise be expected but that many such Petitions should be presented to his Majesty and both Houses from several Counties in the Kingdom for the preserving of that Government under which this Church had flourished with Peace and Happiness since the Reformation Amongst which none did plead the cause with greater servency then that which was tendred in the name of the Gentry and Clergy of the Diocess of Canterbury partly out of the esteem they had to their Metropolitan and partly out of the affection which they carried to the cause it self In which Petition it was sâ—ewed That notwithstanding this Kingdom hath by the singular Providence of Almighty God for many years last past happily flourished above all other Nations in the Christian World under the Religion and Government by Law Established yet hath it been of late mâ—st miserably disâ—racted through the sinister Practices of some private persons ill affected to them both By whose means the present Government is disgraced and traduced the houses of God are profaned and in part deâ—aced the Ministers of Christ are contemned and despised the Ornaments and many Vtensils of the Church are abused the Liturgie and Book of Common Prayer depraved and neglected That absolute model of Prayer the Lords Prayer vilified the Sacraments of the Gospel in some places unduly administred in other places omitted Solemn days of Fasâ—ing observed and appointed by private Persons Marriages Illegally Solemnized Burials uncharitably performed And the very Fundamentals of Religion subverted by the Publication of a new Creed and teaching the Abrogation of the Moral Law For which purpose many offensive Sermons are daily Preached and many Impious Pamphlets Printed And in contemning of Authority many do what seemeth good in their own Eyes onely as if there were no King nor Government in this our Israel Whereby God is highly provoked his Sacred Majesty dishonoured the Peace of the Kingdom endangered the Câ—nsciences of the People disquieted the Ministry of Gods word disheartned and the Enemies of the Church imboldned in their enterprise For redress whereof May it please this great and Honourable Council speedily to Command a due observation of the Religion and Government by Law Established in such manner as may seem best to the Piety and Wisdom of his Royall Majesty aâ—d this Honourable Court Your Petitioners as they shall confidently expect a blessing from heaven upon this Church and Kingdom so shall they have this further cause to implore the Divine Assistance upon this Honourable Assembly To this Petition there subscribed no fewer then 24 Knights and Baronets Esquires and Gentlemen
depriving the Bishops of their Vote and the Churches Birth-right And this was it which helped them in that time of need And yet not thinking this Device sufficient to fright their Lordships to a present compliance Stroud was sent up with a Message from the House of Commons to let them know That the Londoners would shortly bring a Petition with 20000 Hands to obtain that Ordinance By which stale and common Stratagem they wrought so far on some weak Spirits the rest withdrawing themselves as formerly in the case of the Earl of Strafford that in a thin and slender House not above six or seven in number it was pass'd at last The day before they pass'd the Ordinance for establishing their new Directory which in effect was nothing but a total abolition of the Common-Prayer-Book and thereby shewed unto the World how little hopes they had of settling their new Form of Worship if the foundation of it were not laid in the blood of this famous Prelate who had so stoutly stood up for it against all Novellism and Faction in the whole course of his Life â—e was certified by some Letters to Oxon. and so reported in the Mercurius Aulicus of the following week That the Lord Bruce 〈◊〉 better known by the name of the Earl of Elgin was one of the number of those few Lords which had Voted to the Sentence of his Condâ—mnation The others which concurred in that fatal Sentence being the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook together with the Lord North and the Lord Gray of Wark But whatsoever may be said of the other six I have been advertised lately from a very good hand That the said Lord Bruce hath frequently disclaimed that Action and solemnly professed his detestation of the whole Proceedings as most abhorrent from his nature and contrary to his known aâ—fections as well unto his Majesties Service as the Peace and Preservation of the Church of England This Ordinance was no sooner passed but it revived many of those Discourses which had before been made on the like occasion in the Business of the Earl of Strafford For hereupon it was observed That as the predominant Party in the Vnited Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnevelt subverted all those Fundamental Laws of the Belgick Liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip ii So the Contrivers of this Mischief had violated all the Fundamental Laws of the English Government for maintenance whereof they had pretended to take up Arms against the King It was said they a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable Yet to make way unto the Condemnation of this Innocent Man the Bishops must be Voted out of their Place in Parliament which most of them have held far longer in their Predecessors than any of our Noble Families in their Progenitors and if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the People must come down to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishâ—ps at the Parliament doors till by the terrour of their Tumults 〈◊〉 extort it from them It is a Fundamental Law of the English 〈◊〉 That no Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned without cause 〈◊〉 or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law Yet here we see a Freeman imprisoned ten whole weeks together before any Charge was brought against him and kept in Prison three whole years more before his General Accusation was by them reduced unto Particulars and for a year almost detained close Prisoner without being brought unto his Answer as the Law requires It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government 〈…〉 be disserzâ—â— of his Freehold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land Yet here we see a man disseized of his Rents and Lands spoiled of his Goods deprived of his Iurisdiction devested of his Right of Patronage and all this done when he was so far from being convicted by the Laws of the Land that no particular Charge was so much as thought of It is a Fundamental Law of the English Liberty That no man shall be condemned or put to death bâ—â— by the Lawful Iudgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land that is in the ordinary way of Legal Tryal And sure an Ordinance of both Houses without the Royal Assent is no part of the Law of England nor held an ordinary way of Tryal for the English Subject or ever reckoned to be such in former times And finally It is a Fundamental Law in the English Government That if any other cause than those recited in the Statute of King Edward iii. which is supposed to be Treason do happen before any of his Majesties Juâ—tices the Justices shall tarry without giving Iudgment till the Cause be shâ—wn and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or not Yet here we have a new found Treason never known before nor declared such by any of his Majesties Iustices nor ever brought to be considered of by the King and his Parliament but only Voted to be such by some of those Members which â—are at Westminster who were resolved to have it so for their private Ends. The first Example of this kind the first thaâ— ever suffered death by the shot of an Ordinance as himself very well observed in his dying Speech upon the Scaffold though purposely omitted in Hind's Printed Copy to which now he hasteneth For the passing of the Ordinance being signified to him by the then Lieutenant of the Tower he neither entertained the news with a Stâ—ical Apathy nor waâ—led his fate with weak and womanish Lamentations to which Extremes most men are carried in this case but 〈◊〉 it with so even and so smooth a Temper as shewed he neither was ashamed to live nor afraid to die The time between the Sentence and Execution he spent in Prayers and Applications to the Lord his God having obtained though not without some diâ—lâ—â—nâ—ty a Chaplain of his own to attend upon him and to assist him in the Work of his Preparation though little Preparation â—â—â—ded to receive that blow which could not but be welcome because long expected For so well was he studied in the Art of Dying especially in the last and strictest part of his Imprisonment that by continual Fastings Watchings Prayers and such like Acts of Christiaâ— Humiliation his Flesh was rarified into Spirit and the whole maâ— so fitted for Eternal Glories that he was more than half in Heaven before Death brought his bloody but Triumphant 〈◊〉 to convey him thither He that had so long been a Confessâ—â—â—ould â—ould not but think it a Release of Miseries to be made a 〈◊〉 It is Recorded of Alexander the Great That the night before his last and