to come in there but no one witnesse was seene to appeare Which was a pretty delusion and worth all your observations that read it And so concluded as the rest that this Booke also deserved a heavy and deepe Censure Mr. Harbert Lastly followes Mr. Harbert whose descant was upon Dr. Bastwickes Letanie picking out one or two passages therein and so drawing thence his conclusion that jointly with the rest it deserved a heavy Censure The Kings Counsell having all spoken what they could the Lord Keeper sayd to the Prisoners at the Barre Lord Keeper You heare Gentlemen wherewith you are charged and now least you should say you cannot have liberty to speake for your selves the Court gives you leave to speake what you can with these conditions First that you speake within the bounds of modesty Secondly that your speeches be not Libellous Prisoners They all three answered they hoped so to order their speech as to be free from any immodest or Libellous speaking L. Keeper Then speake a Gods name and shew cause why the Court should not proceed in Censure as taking the cause pro confesso against you M. Prynne My honorable good Lord such a day of the moneth there came a Subpoena from your Honours to enter my appearance in this Court which being entred I tooke forth a coppy of the Information which being taken I was to draw my Answer which I endeavoured to doe but being shutt up close prisoner I was deserted of all meanes by which I should have done it for I was no sooner served with the Subpoena but I was shortly after shutt up close prisoner with a suspention of pen inke and paper which close imprisonment did eate up such a deale of my time that I was hindred the bringing in of my Answer You did assigne me Counsell t' is true but they neglected to come to me and I could not come to them being under lock and key Then upon motion in Court yee gave me liberty to goe to them but then presently after that motion I know not for what cause nor upon whose commaund I was shutt up againe And then I could not compell my Counsell to come to me and my time was short and I had neither pen nor inke nor Servant to doe any thing for me for my Servant was then also kept close prisoner under a Pursevants hands this was to put impossibilities upon mee Then upon a second motion for pen and inke which was graunted me I drew up some Instructions and in a fortnight time sent 40 sheetes to my Counsell suddainly after I drew up 40 sheetes more and sent to them My Lord I did nothing but by the advise of my Counsell by whom I was ruled in the drawing up of all my Answer and payd him twice for drawing it and some of my Counsell would have set their hands to it Here is my Answer I tender it upon my oath which your Lordships cannot deny with the Iustice of the Court. L. Keeper Wee can give you a President that this Court hath proceeded and taken a cause pro confesso for not putting in an Answer in sixe dayes you have had a great deale of favour shewed in affording you longer time and therefore the Court is free from all calumny or aspersion for rejecting your Answer not signed with the Counsells hands M. Prynne But one word or two my Lords I desire your Honours to heare me I put a case in Law that is often pleaded before your Lordships one man is bound to bring in two witnesses if both or one of them sayle that hee cannot bring them in doth the Law my Lords make it the mans act You assigned me two Counsellors one of them fayled I cannot compell him here he is now before you let him speake if I have not used all my endeavours to have had him sighed it which my other Counsell would not have done if this would have set his hand to it with him and to have put it in long since Counsell My Lord there was so long time spent ere I could doe any thing after I was assigned his Counsell that it was impossible his Answer could be drawne vp in so short a time as was allotted for after long expectation seeing hee came not to mee I went to him where I found him shut up close prisoner so that I could not have accesse to him Whereupon I motioned to the Lieftenant of the Tower to have free liberty of speech with him concerning his Answer which being graunted me I found him very willing and desirous to have it drawne up whereupon I did moove in this Court for pen and paper which was graunted the which he no sooner had gotten but he set himself to draw up Instructions and in a short time sent me 40 sheetes and soone after I received 40 more but I found the Answer so long and of such a nature that I durst not set my hand to it for feare of giving your Honours distate M. Prynne My Lords I did nothing but according to the direction of my Counsell onely I spake mine owne words my Answer was drawne up by his consent it was his owne act and hee did approove of it and if he will be so base a Coward to doe that in private which hee dares not acknowledge in publick I will not let such a sinne lye on my conscience let it rest with him Here is my Answer which though it be not signed with their hands yet here I tender it upon my oath which you cannot in Justice deny L. Keeper But Mr. Prynne the Court desires no such long Answer Are you guilty or not guilty M. Prynne My good Lord I am to answer in a defensive way Is here any one that can witnes any thing against me Let him come in The Law of God standeth thus That a man is not to be condemned but under the mouth of two or three witnesses Here is no witnes comes in against me my Lord neither is there in all the Information one clause that doth particularly fall on mee but onely in the generall there is no Booke layd to my charge And shall I be condemned for a particular act when no accusation of any particular act can be brought against mee This were most unjust and wicked Here I tender my Answer to the Information upon my oath My Lord you did impose impossibilities upon me I could doe no more then I was able L. Keeper Well hold your peace your Answer comes too late Speake you Dr. Bastwicke Dr. Bastwicke My Honorable Lords me thinks you looke like an Assembly of Gods and sit in the place of God yee are called the Sonnes of God And since I have compared you to Gods give me leave a little to paralell the one with the other to see whither the comparison betweene God and you doth hold in this noble and righteous cause This was the carriage of Almighty God in the cause of Sodome Before hee would pronounce sentence or
A BRIEFE RELATION Of certain speciall and most materiall passages and speeches in the Starre-Chamber occasioned and delivered Iune the 1â—th 1637. at the censure of those three worthy Gentlemen Dr. BASTWICKE Mr. BVRTON and Mr. PRYNNE as it hath beene truely and faithfully gathered from their owne mouthes by one present at the sayd Censure Printed in the Yeere 1637. A Briefe Relation of certain speciall and most materiall passages and speeches in the Starre-Chamber occasioned and delivered Iune the 14th 1637. at the censure of those three worthy Gentlemen Dr. BASTWICKE Mr. BVRTON and Mr. PRYNNE as it hath beene truely and faithfully gathered from their owne mouthes by one present at the sayd Censure BEtweene eight and nine a clocke in the morning the 14. of Iune the Lords being sett in their places in the said Court of Starre-chamber and casting their eyes upon the Prisoners then at the Barr Sr. Iohn Finch chiefe Iustice of the Common Pleas began to speake after this maner Sr. Iohn Finch I had thought Mr. Prynne had had no eares but me thinkes hee hath eares which caused many of the Lords to take the stricter view of him and for their better satisfaction the Vsher of the Court was commaunded to turne up his haire and shew his eares upon the sight whereof the Lords were displeased they had beene formerly no more cut off and cast out some disgracefull words of him M. Prynne To which Mr. Prynne replied My Lords there is never a one of your Honours but would be sorry to have your eares as mine are L. Keeper The Lord Keeper replied againe In good faith hee is somewhat sawcy M. Prynne I hope sayd Mr. Prynne your Honours will not be offended I pray God give you eares to heare L. Keeper The busines of the day sayd the Lord Keeper is to proceed on the Prisoners at the Barr. M. Prynne Mr. Prynne then humbly desired the Court to give him leave to make a motion or two which being graunted he mooves First that their Honours would be pleased to accept of a crosse Bill against the Prelates signed with their owne hands being that which stands with the Iustice of the Court which he humbly craved and so tendred it L. Keep r. As for your crosse Bill it is not the busines of the day Hereafter if the Court shall see just cause and that it savours not of Libelling we may accept of it for my part I have not seene it but have heard somewhat of it M. Prynne I hope your Honours will not refuse it being it is on his Majesties behalfe wee are his Majesties Subjects and therefore require the Iustice of the Court. L. Keeper But this is not the busines of the day M. Prynne Why then My Lords I have a second motion which I humbly pray your Honours to graunt which is That your Lordships will be pleased to dismisse the Prelates here now sitting from having any voyce in the censure of this cause being generally knowne to be Adversaries as being no wayes agreeable with equity or reasoâ— that they who are our Adversaries should be our Iudges Therefore wee humbly crave they may be expunged out of the Court. L. Keeper In good faith it s a sweet motion is' t not Herein you are become Libellous And if you should thus Libell all the Lords and Reverend Iudges as you doe the most Reverend Prelates by this your Plea you would have none to passe sentence upon you for your Libelling because they are parties M. Prynne Vnder correction My Lord this doth not hold your Honour need not putt that for a certainty which is an uncertainty wee have nothing to say to any of your Honours but onely to the Prelates L. Keeper Well proceed to the busines of the day Read the Information Which was read being very large and these five Bookes annexed therevnto viz. a Booke of Dr. Bastwicks written in Latin The second a little Booke intiteled Newes from Ipswich The third intiteled A Divine Tragedy recording Gods fearefull judgements on Sabbath breakers The fourth Mr. Burtons Booke intiteled An Apology of an Appeale to the Kings most Excellent Majesty with two Sermons for God and the King preached on the fifth of November last The fifth and last Dr. Bastwickes Letany The Kings Counsell being five tooke each of them a severall Booke and descanted there at the Barre upon them according to their pleasure Mr. Attorney Mr. Attorney began first with Dr. Bastwickes Latin Booke picking out here and there particular conclusions that best served for his owne ends as did all the other Counsell out of the fower other Bookes to the great abuse of the Authors as themselves there immediately complained intreating them to read the foregoing grounds upon which the sayd conclusions depended without which they could not understand the true meaning of them Ser. Next unto the Attorney Serjeant Whitfeild falls upon Reverend Mr. Burtons Booke who vented much bitternes against that unreprooveable Booke as all that read it with an honest and orthodox heart may clearely perceive swearing In good faith My Lords there is never a page in this Booke but deserves a heavier and deeper Censure then this Court can lay upon him Next followed A. B. who in like maner descanted upon the Newes from Ipswich charging it to be full of pernitious lyes and especially vindicating the honor of Mathew Wren Bishop of Norwich as being a learned pious and Reverend Father of the Church Mr. Littleton In the fourth place followes the Kings Solicitor who acts his part upon the Divine Tragedy To which part of it concerning Gods judgements on Sabbath breakers hee had little to say but onely putt it off with a scoffe saying that they sate in the Seate of God who judged those accidents which fell out upon persons suddainly strooken to be the judgement of God for Sabbath-breaking or words to the like effect but enlarged himselfe upon that passage which reflected upon that late Reverend as hee termed him and learned Professor of the Law and his Majesties faithfull Servant Mr. William Noy his Majesties late Attorney who as hee said was most shamefully abused by a slaunder layd upon him which was That it should be reported that Gods judgement fell upon him for so eagerly prosecuting that innocent person Mr. Prynne which judgement was this That he laughing at Mr. Prynne while hee was suffering upon the Pillory was strooke with an yssue of blood in his privy part which by all the art of man could never be stopped unto the day of his death a. which was soone after But the truth of this My Lords sayth hee you shall finde to be as probable as the rest for wee have here three or fower Gentlemen of good credit and ranke to testify upon oath that hee had that yssue long before and thereupon made a shew as if hee would call for them in before the Lords to witnesse the truth thereof with these particular words Make roome for the Gentlemen
execute judgement hee would first come downe and see whither the crime was altogether according to the cry that was come up And with whom doth the Lord consult when hee came downe with his Servant Abraham and hee gives the reason for I know sayth hee that Abraham will commaund his children and household after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord to doe Iustice and Iudgement My good Lords thus stands the case betweene your Honours and us this day There is a great cry come up into your eares against us from the Kings Attorney why now be you pleased to descend and see if the crime be according to the cry and consult with God not the Prelates being the adversary part and as it is apparant to all the World doe proudly set themselves against the wayes of God and from whom none can expect Iustice or Iudgement but with righteous men that will be impartiall on either side before you proceed to Censure which Censure you cannot passe on us without great injustice before you heare our Answers read Here is my Answer which I here tender upon my oath My good Lords give us leave to speake in our owne defence wee are not conscious to our selves of any thing wee have done that deserves a Censure this day in this Honourable Court but that wee have ever laboured to maintaine the Honor Dignity and Prerogative Royall of our Soveraigne Lord the King Let my Lord the King live forever Had I a thousand lives I should thinke them all too little to spend for the maintenance of his Majesties Royall Prerogative My good Lords can you proceed to Censure before you know my cause I dare undertake that scarce any one of your Lordships have read my Bookes And can you then Censure me for what you know not and before I have made my defence O my Noble Lords Is this righteous Iudgement This were against the Law of God and man to condemne a man before you know his crime The Governour before whom S. Paul was carried who was a very Heathen would first heare his cause before he would passe any Censure upon him And doth it beseeme so Noble and Christian Assembly to condemne me before my Answer be perused and my cause knowne Men Brethren and Fathers into what an age are wee fallen I desire your Honours to lay aside your Censure for this day and inquire into my cause heare my Answer read which if you refuse to doe I here professe I will cloath it in Roman Buffe and send it abroad unto the view of all the World to cleare mine innocency and see your great injustice in this cause Lord Keeper But this is not the busines of the day Why brought you not in your Answer in due time Dr. Bastwicke My Lord a long time since I tendred it to your Honour I sayled not in any one particular And if my Counsell be so base and cowardly that they dare not signe it for feare of the Prelates as I can make it appeare therefore have I no Answer My Lord here is my Answer which though my Counsell out of a base spirit dare not set their hands unto yet I tender it upon my oath L. Keeper But Mr. Dr. you should have beene briefe you tendred in too large an Answer which as I heard is as Libellous as your Bookes Dr. Bastw No my Lord it is not Libellous though large I have none to answer for me but my selfe and being left to my selfe I must plead my conscience in answer to every circumstance of the Information L. Keeper What say you Mr. D. are you guilty or not guilty Answer aye or no you needed not to have troubled your self so much about so large an Answer Dr. Bastwicke I know none of your Honours have read my Bookes And can you with the Iustice of the Court condemne me before you know what is written in my Bookes L. Keeper What say you to that was read to you even now Dr. Bastw My Lord He that read it did so murther the sence of it that had I not knowne what I had written I could not tell what to have made of it L. Keeper What say you to the other Sentence read to you Dr. Bastw That was none of mine I will not father that which was none of my owne L. Dorseit Did not you send that Booke as now it is to a Noble mans house together with a Letter directed to him D. Bastw Yea my Lord I did so but withall you may see in my Epistle set before the Booke I did at first disclayme what was not mine I sent my Booke over by a Dutch Merchant who it was that wrote the addition I doe not know but my Epistle set to my Booke made manifest what was mine and what was not and I cannot justly suffer for what was none of mine L. Arund My Lord you heare by his owne speech the cause is taken pro confesso L. Keeper Yea you say true my Lord. Dr. Bastw My noble Lord of Arundell I know you are a noble Prince in Israel and a great Peere of this Realme There are some honorable Lords in this Court that have beene forced out as combatants in a single duell it is betweene the Prelates and us at this time as betweene two that have appointed the feild The one being a coward goes to the Magistrate and by vertue of his Authority disarmes the other of his weapons and gives him a Bullrush and then challenges him to fight If this be not base cowardice I know not what belongs to a Souldier This is the case betweene the Prelates and us they take away our weapons our Answers by vertue of your Authority by which we should defend our selves and yet they bidd us fight My Lord doth not this favour of a base cowardly spirit I know my Lord there is a Decree gonne forth for my Sentence was passed long since to cut of our eares Lord Keeper Who shall know our Censure before the Court passe it Doe you prophesy of your selves Dr. Bastw My Lord I am able to proove it and that from the mouth of the Prelates owne Servants that in August last it was decreed that Dr. Bastwicke should loose his eares O my Noble Lords Is this righteous judgement I may say as the Apostle once sayd What whipp a Roman I have beene a Souldier able to lead an Army into the field to fight valiantly for the honour of their Prince Now I am a Physitian able to cure Nobles Kings Princes and Emperors And to curtolize a Romans eares like a Curre O my honorable Lords is it not too base an act for so noble an assembly and for so righteous and honorable a cause The cause my Lords is great it concernes the glory of God the honour of our King whose Prerogative wee labour to maintaine and to set up in a high maner in which your Honours Liberties are engaged And doth not such a cause deserve your Lordships
consideration before you proceed to Censure Your Honours may be pleased to consider that in the last cause heard and censured in this Court betweene St. Iames Bagge and the Lord Moone wherein your Lordships tooke a great deale of paynes with a great deale of patience to heare the Bills on both sides with all the Answers and Depositions largely layd open before you which cause when you had fully heard some of your Honours now sitting in Court sayd You could not in conscience proceed to Censure till you had taken some time to recollect your selves If in a cause of that nature you could spend so much time and afterwards recollect your selves before you would passe Censure How much more should it moove your Honours to take some time in a cause wherein the glory of God the Prerogative of his Majestie your Honours dignity and the Subjects Liberty is so largely ingaged My good Lords it may fall out to be any of your Lordships cases to stand as Delinquents at this Barre as wee now doe It is not unknowne to your Honours the next cause that is to succeed ours is touching a person that sometimes hath beene in greatest power in this Court And if the mutations and revolutions of persons and times be such then I doe most humbly beseech your Honours to looke on us as it may befall your selves But if all this will not prevaile with your Honours to peruse my Bookes and heare my Answer read which here I tender upon the word and oath of a Soldier a Gentleman a Scholler and a Physitian I will cloath them as I sayd before in Roman Buffe and disperse them throughout the Christian world that future generations may see the Innocency of this cause and your Honors unjust proceedings in it all which I will doe though it cost me my life L. Keeper Mr. Dr. I thought you would be angry Dr. Bastw No my Lord you are mis-taken I am not angry nor passionate all that I doe presse is that you would be pleased to peruse my Answer L. Keeper Well hold your peace Mr. Burton what say you M. Burton My good Lords your Honors it should seeme doe determine to Censure us and take our cause pro confesso although we have laboured to give your Honors satisfaction in all things My Lords what you have to say against my Booke I confesse I did write it yet did I not any thing out of intent of Commotion or Sedition I delivered nothing but what my Text ledd me too being chosen to suite with the day namely the fifth of November the words were these c. L. Keeper Mr. Burton I pray stand not naming Texts of Scripture now we doe not send for you to preach but to answer to those things that are objected against you M. Burton My Lord I have drawne up my Answer to my great paynes and charges which Answer was signed with my Counsells hands and received into the Court according to the Rule and Order thereof And I did not thinke to have beene called this day to a Censure but have had a legall proceeding by way of Bill and Answer L. Keeper Your Answer was impertinent M. Burton My Answer after it was entred into the Court was referred to the Iudges but by what meanes I doe not know whither it be impertinent and what cause your Lordships had to cast it out I know not But after it was approoved of and received it was cast out as an impertinent Answer L. Finch The Iudges did you a good turne to make it impertinent for it was as Libellous as your Booke so that your Answer deserved a Censure alone L. Keeper What say you Mr. Burton are you guilty or not M. Burton My Lord I desire you not onely to peruse my Booke here and there but every passage of it L. Keeper Mr. Burton time is short are you guilty or not guilty What say you to that which was read Doth it become a Minister to deliver himself in such a rayling and scandalous way M. Burton In my judgement and as I can proove it it was neither rayling nor scandalous I conceive that a Minister hath a larger liberty then alwayes to goe in a milde strayne I being the Pastor of my people whom I had in charge and was to instruct I supposed it was my duety to informe them of those Innovations that are crept into the Church as likewise of the danger and ill consequence of them As for my Answer yee blotted out what yee would and then the rest which made best for your owne ends you would have to stand And now for mee to tender onely what will serve for your owne turnes and renounce the rest were to desert my cause which before I will doe or desert my conscience I will rather desert my body and deliver it up to your Lordships to doe with it what you will L. Keeper This is a place where you should crave mercy and favour Mr. Burton and not stand upon such termes as you doe M. Burton There wherein I have offended through humane frailty I crave of God and man pardon And I pray God that in your Sentence you may so Censure us that you may not sinne against the Lord. Then the Prisoners desiring to speake a little more for themselves were commaunded to silence And so the Lords proceeded to Censure The Lord Cottingtons Censure I Condemne these three men to loose their eares in the Pallace-yard at Westminster To be fined five thousand pounds a man to his Majestie And to perpetuall imprisonment in three remote places of the Kingdome namely the Castles of Carnaruan Cornwall and Lancaster The Lord Finch added to this Censure MR. Prynne to be stigmatized in the Cheekes with two Letters S L for a Seditious Libeller To which all the Lords agreed And so the Lord Keeper concluded the Censure THe Execution of the Lods Censure in Starre-Chamber upon Dr. Bastwicke Mr. Prynne and Mr. Burton in the Pallace-yard at Westminster the 30th day of Iune last 1637. at the spectation whereof the number of people was so great the place being very large that it caused admiratâ—on in all that beheld them who came with tender affections to behold those three renowned Souldiers and Servants of Iesus Christ who came with most undaunted and magnanimous courage thereunto having their way strawed with sweet hearbes from the house out of which they came to the Pillary with all the honour that could be done unto them Dr. Bastwicke and Mr. Burton first meeting they did close one in the others armes three times with as much expressions of love as might be rejoycing that they mett at such a place upon such an occasion and that God had so highly honoured them as to call them forth to suffer for his glorious Truth Then immediately after Mr. Prynne camme the Dr. and hee saluting each other as Mr. Burton and hee did before The Dr. then went up first on the Scaffold and his wife immediately