I resolved once more to enter into the List to follow my alwaies very honourable Friend my Lord Chancellours Advice and try the Success with him by the Verdict of an honest Jury and Lindired 6 of the Tenants and Servants of Sir Geo. Ayskue for a forcible Entry and 5 of them now the third time and I had six Counsellours help to draw and compose the Indictment and so to review it and correct it if any thing was amiss therein that being found Billa Vera by the Jury it might so stand good and not be quashed as my two former Indictments were by the Judges of the Kings Bench. And the 6 forcible Enterers being indited for fear lest the Record should be falsified and corrupted as the former indirement of them had been I got the Clerke of the Peace to send it inclosed in a Letter sealed up by my man to his Agent in Dublin to be â—elivered into the Office which mine Adversaries presently told to my Lord of Santree and was objected as a Piaculum Meaning as I conceived by the Relation that I had printed of the former Proceedings and when the Record came to the Court my Lord Chief Justice said upon the Bench that my Lord Bishop had abused the Court to whom I replied that I had not abused the Court for that I had set down nothing but the Truth and was as Ioah as any man to offer the least Abuse to any of his Majesties Courts or Judges of his Courts And after my Lord Chief Justice and my self had conferred together I found him my very honourable Friend and I retained three of the Kings Counsel to follow the said Cause for his Majesty and the Counsellours of the Fanaticks failing to quash the Indictment my Lord Chief Justice told them they must either submit or be bound to prosecute their Traverse and they became bound in 200 l. to prosecute the same upon the 10th day of Easter Term which was the sixth day of May. And when upon that day the Jury were sworn That their children and their childrens children may understand from what I will not say Canaanites but Catharisâ—s they are sprung Who and what my Witnesses proved viz. William Baker of Ballytobin John Pursel of Lismore William Baxter of Earlstown Isaac Jackson of Kâ—lamery John Jones of Ri _____ Robert Hawford of Ballyneboly Nicholas Pharoe Thomas Tomlins of Lismoteag Chrystopher Render of Fadenarah John Nixon of Brawnebarn William Cheshire of _____ and Thomas Huswife of Gowran good men and true or neither good men nor true 1. I brought in evidence Mr. Sheriff Reigly who was the Sheriff that gave me possession and Mr. Connel and Hugh Linon that was thought needless to prove my possession given by the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny by vertue of an Order of the House of Lords of this Lordship of Bish Court the Lands thereto belonging and of the Tenements in Freshfoord as it was expressed in a Shedule annexed to the Order of the Lords upon the 29th day of April 1662. and that the Tenants did atturne Tenants and gave pieces of money in earnest of their rents and promised to keep the possession and to continue Tenants unto me during my pleasure 2. Mr. Thomas Bulkley Mr. William Williams Thomas Davies and my self proved the multitude of persons to the number of ten or twelve that upon the 8th day of October 1662. were entred into the said Bishops Court and there forcibly kept the possession against the Bishop and some one with a sword by his side and a staff or Cane in his hand and another with a long staff in his hand threatned that they would make him repent his doings and coming there and that Sir George Ayskue would spend 500 li. before he would leese this Bishops Court and that Captain Burges said he would keep and uphold the possession for Sir George Ayskue with his life and fortune and others having shut the Iron Grate to hinder the Bishop to go out or his Servants to come in when his Servants demanded what they meant to murder their Lord And desired to come in to wait upon their Master they threatned them and said that if they offered to come in there they would beat them down and knock out their Brains 3. Mr. Richard Marshal Mr. George Farre Mr. John Murphey and Ed. Dalton that proved how he was thrust out of the house by head and shoulders proved the forcible entry with arms and weapons a Gun and a Pike and Staves into some of the Tenements in Freshford and that for nine daies they kept the same with such a company of Fanaticks Anabaptists and other Sectaries that they seemed rather to be a Garrison than the keeping of the possession of any house And after nine daies they bound George Farre and others in a bond of a thousand pounds that they should continue true Tenants to Sir George Ayskue and keep the possession for him against the Bishop of Ossory And because the said George Farre proved this point so fully and so plain that nothing could be said against it one of the Fanaticks Counsellours said what I conceive was very unfit to be spoken in so publick a place and before such honourable Judges of any of the Kings Witnesses that this man the principal of the Witnesses was a parricide which I dare justifie to be most untrue 4. For impounding the Cattle and beating and wounding them that sought to hinder it the said George Farre proved the same so fully and that one of the women that was beaten lay long sick after her beating that Sir Audley Mervin and Serjeant Gruffith would not suffer three other Witnesses that I had there at the Bar that is John Duran Barbara Marshal and another Wench to be sworn and examined and so to trouble the Court any further because said they you see the Lords Justices and the whole Court are sufficiently satisfied that I had more than abundantly proved the forcible entry and detaining of this Bishops Court but they gave way to six of the Intruders Counsel to say what they could for their Clients And when each one of them had made his Oration and spent much time and my Lord Chief Justice heard them with a great deal of patience to prove what I never denied but was ready to confess all that they said touching the large Writings and Evidences that they produced to prove the Title and Interest of Mr. Robert Shea to this Bishops Court which at this time when the question was only of the forcible entry I had no reason to contradict and which perhaps might be good and perhaps not before he forfeited the same unto his Majesty But for Sir George Ayskue that for his Service How S. George Ayskue came to have this Bishops Court. you know to whom which makes me believe it will never prosper with him had a Commission from the Usurper Crummel that for 200 li. which was due unto him for
and domineered over most and almost all the Nations of the World that the Jews will they nill they may see that omne mundi regnum omnis mundana sapientia omnia divinae legis sacramenta testantur quia Jesus est Rex every kingdom of the earth all the wisdom of the World and all the sacraments of the divine law do bear witness that Christ is King and this Lion here spoken of in this Text. And the difference betwixt this Lion and all other Lions is that as Franciscus Vallesius de sacra Philosophia c. 55. saith Mos Leonis est sibi tantum pradam capere non Leaenae but Christ took the prey for his Church and not for himself And we finde that his kingdome by three special prerogatives excelleth all other kingdomes of the world that is 1. Preheminence of Christs kingdome threefold 1. Eternity 2. Purity 3. Largity 1. The Prophet saith thy Throne O God Psal 110. is for ever and ever and thy Dominion shall endure throughout all Ages but transibit gloria mundi all other Kings within so many years shall not govern and after so many dayes they shall not be for death spareth none but sceptra ligonibus aequat And as Nazianzen saith Constantinus Imperator famulus meus ossa Agamemnonis Thyrsitis death makes no difference betwixt the bones of King Agamemnon and base Thyrsites the Emperour Constantine and my servant but when their race is run and their glass is out we may say of each of them as Horace saith of his Friend Torquatus Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Horat. Restituet pietas But this King hath a prerogative above them all for he was Rex à seculo a King from everlasting and he shall be a King in secula seculorum world without end Luke 1.33 for so the Angel Gabriel testifieth that of his kingdome there shall be no end And this should batter down the pride of Tyrants that say with Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built For mene mene tekel peres their glory is but as the grass of the field or otherwise if they were immortal they were intolerable And this should teach us to labour to become the Subjects of this King in whose kingdome there shall be Aug. l. 1 c. 10. de Trinitate as Saint Augustine saith requies sempiterna gaudium quod nunquam anferetur à nobis An everlasting rest and joy that shall never be taken from us 2. Preheminence The second preheminence of his kingdome is purity for of this King the Prophet speaketh thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity and the scepter of thy kingdome is a scepter of righteousness For this King is not like Ahab that would take away Naboths Vineyard nor like Rehoboam that would oppress his Subjects with over-grievous Taxes but he is a righteous King and a most just Judge far unlike some Judges of former dayes that for a word have made a man a transgressour and for a syllable or one letter have quite overthrown a mans cause and right and so have made the Laws a nose of wax to bend and turn as they pleased and to be rete Vulcanium like Vulcans iron net to catch the poor and friendless but tela aranea like the spiders web so easie for the rich and powerful to passe through it But blessed be God for it we have few such now and we hope we shall not provoke God so far as to send such amongst us for if you suffer oppression and wrongs when as the Poet saith Mensuraque juris vis erit Then surely peaceable men shall not be able to live in the Common-wealth But the equity and justice of this King should perswade all other Kings to follow his Example and as the wise man saith Sep. 1.1 to love righteousness all they that are Judges of the earth 3. Preheminence The third preheminence of his kingdome is that God anointed this King with the oyle of gladness in all things above his fellows for their time hath an end their dominion a limitation but his time is not limited and his rule hath no marches but exivit in omnem terram it hath gone forth into all Lands because he is the King of all the earth and when as all other Kings are but Reges Gentium Kings of some few Nations he is Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium the King of all other Kings and the Lord of all Lords And therefore Eusebius saith that the distinction or difference betwixt this true Christ and the other imaginary Christs that were anointed Kings before him may truely and very easily be discerned Euseb l. 1. c. 1. Eccl. Histor quia illi priores Christi nulli penè nisi genti propriae cogniti sunt those former Kings were scarce known to any but to their own proper people but not onely the name but also the rule power and kingdome of this true King is extended over all Nations per universum orbem terrae and through the compasse of the round world And though when the Jewes would have crowned him King Rex fieri noluit he refused the same yet to shew that this Dominus Angelorum was also Rex Judaeorum Beda l. 5. in c. 19. Luc. as Beda speaketh when he rid to Jerusalem upon the Asse he willingly permitted the people to cry Hosanna and to intitle him King of the Jewes and he confessed as much himself unto Pilat that he was a King And what meaneth this saith the Venerable Bede that he now willingly embraceth quod prius fugicudo declinavit that which before he declined and fled from it and the kingdome that while as yet he lived in the world he would not accept he now denieth not to take it when he is by and by ready to go out of the world He answereth that he formerly refused it Beda l. 3. in c. 11. S. Mar. because of the gross imagination of the Jewes that conceited him to be a temporal King like unto others but he doth now accept it to shew quod non temporalis terreni sed aeterni in coelis Rex esset imperii that his kingdome was not of this world as himself said unto Pilate but as the King of Heaven he ruled all the world Well then What we may learn from this Doctrine that Christ is our King seeing Saint Matthew doth by so many inanswerable arguments prove Christ to be a King and that he is a perpetual universal and principal King and here exprest by the Lion in this Text we may collect and draw matter both of comfort and fear both of joy and of grief For 1. Seeing Christ is King then as the Psalmist saith Psal 97.1 exultet terra let the earth rejoyce for if we will obey him and be ruled by him he will appoint over us such Viceroyes and under-rulers that will lead us sicut
he have done it Yet this man sold his God that had done such great things for him and brake his Commandment for an Apple What moved Adam and Evah to offend God Ambition And what moved him to doe this but that which moveth all his children ever since to destroy themselves and all the Kingdoms of the earth Ambition That he might be as Lucifer desired to be before him similis Altissimo like Gods knowing good and evil And this infernal weed that first took life in Lucifer's breast hath poysoned all his Posterity ever since and especially all the great men of this world that desire to be greater and affect and contend for honour and greatness above measure For as Eudoxus the Philosopher desired of the Gods that he might behold the Sun very near to comprehend the forme greatness and beauty thereof and afterwards be burnt of it as the Poets say Phaeton was so Ambition is the boldest and the most disorderly passion of all those desires which trouble mens mindes and fills their heads with an unsatiable greediness of obtaining those things which they should no wayes desire and by that means as Adam did they undoe themselves and many thousands more for so Mar. Crassus the richest man in Rome M. Crassus burning with ambition and an excessive desire of new triumphs presumed at sixty years of age to undertake the warr against Arsaces King of the Parthians and therein his whole Army was discomfited himself miserably slain twenty thousand of his men killed C. Marius and ten thousand taken Prisoners So Caius Marius weakened with old age but strengthened by Ambition to continue in sovereign authority would undertake the warr against Mithridates King of Pontus and thereby he was the cause of his own utter overthrow and of that great slaughter which imbrued all Italy and Spain with the deluge of bloud that Sylla by his extreme cruelty brought upon them Spurius Melius Marc. Manlius Hen. 5. And the like may be said of Spurius Melius the Roman Senator of Marc. Manlius of Henry the Fifth whose ambition deprived his own father from the Empire and caused him to dye miserably in Prison and indeed of those threescore and thirteen Emperours that within the space of one hundred years dyed all of them excepting three that dyed of sickness in their beds by violent deaths And as the ambition of the Triumvirate Octav. Antonius and Lepidus had well-nigh ruinated the Roman Empire Pet. de la Primauday fr. accad pag. 223. so Peter de la Primauday saith that the ambition of the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy had almost utterly consumed the Kingdom of France and was the occasion that more then four thousand men were slain within Paris in one day and so I may say that this wilde plant and bitter root of Ambition that first sprang up in Paradise and afterwards grew worse and worse in the accursed earth was the cause that moved the late Vsurper and many others of those Traytors and Rebels that followed him to bring all the calamities that we have both seen and felt in these Dominions And therefore we ought to detest this cursed Plant that brought forth such bitter fruits of undutifulness unthankfulness and rebellion to be rendred unto God for all the great good that he had done for man But now after that man had fallen and thus disloyally sinned against God Non dignus est peccator panc quo vescitur nec lumine coeli quo illuminatur The sinner even the best of us all that are Adam's seed is not worthy of the bread that he eateth or the light of the Sun that shines unto him for if before his being he deserved no good how much evil doth he now deserve when he hath so fouly defiled himself and so highly offended his God And yet Vtinam saperent How graciously God dealt with Adam after he had sinned I would to God we would cast our eyes behinde us to behold and see the goodness of God and what wonders he hath done for the children of men for he pittyed Adam when he was naked and made them coats of skin to hide and cover their nakedness and to preserve their bodies from the storms of winter and the scorching heat of summer And when all the World had corrupted their wayes before God he saved Noah and his family And with the seed of Adam when the deluge destroyed all other flesh and afterward he snatched away Abraham out of the very flames of Idolatry that was begun to be kindled in his father Terah's house and then he delivered him out of Egypt and preserved him out of all his troubles And for the seed of Abraham The Israelites the children of Israel Moses tells you what God hath done for them for when he divided to the Nations their inheritance Deut. 32.8 9 10 11 12 13 14. he took Jacob for the lot of his own inheritance and though he found him in a desart land and in the waste howling wilderness yet he led him about he instructed him and kept him as the apple of his eye and he made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the encrease of the fields and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oyl out of the flinty rock butter of kinc and milk of sheep fat of lambs and ramms of the breed of Basan and goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat and to drink the pure bloud of the grape And the Prophet Ezekiel doth amplifie the great goodness of God towards this people more at large saying that their birth and their nativity was of the land of Canaan their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite i. e. an accursed people and in the day that thou wast born thy navel was not cut neither wast thou washed in water nor salted nor swadled at all no eye pittyed thee to have compassion upon thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person and when I saw thee polluted in thine own bloud I said unto thee live and I washed thee with water and anointed thee with oyl I cloathed thee also with broydered work and shod thee with badgers skin and I girded thee about with fine linnen and I covered thee with silk I decked thee also with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chain on thy neck even as our fine Ladyes have in these dayes and I have put a jewel on the forehead and ear-rings in thine eares and a beautiful Crown upon thy head and thou didst eat fine flower Ezech. 16.3 ad v. 15. and honey and oyl and thou becamest exceeding beautiful and perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God How unthankful and undutiful they were to God And what reward did this people render unto God and what requital have they made unto him for all these
that is himself upon Earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetual custom in the race of the Ottomans and Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend to succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom to do so but it is the practice of most of them that are bewitched with this inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like for Plutarch writeth that Deiotarus having many Sons and being desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Phrahartes the Son of Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his Bretheren that he might reign and rule alone And the Sacred Storie sheweth that the very people of God the Sons of Israel were not free from this fault Judges 9. but were pestered with this disease for Abimelech the Son of Gedeon slew seventy of his Bretheren in one day and played many other Tragical parts that he might make himself a King and the furious ambition of Absolon did let him on to play the Parricide 2 Sam. 15 16. and to end his Fathers days that he might reign in his place And not to go from our own home did not Henry the Fourth put by Richard the Second his own King and Cozen German that himself might be the King And did not Richard the Third cause the true King and his own Nephews the Sons of his own Brother Edward the Fourth to be done to death that he himself might be King And did not that arch-Rebel and Traytor now of late amongst our selves play the like Tragical parts that he might gain the rule of these Kingdoms And so did many others in many other Kingdoms for there is not any thing so Sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not violate and spare neither King Father Brother or Friend to bring themselves unto advancement and to be the rulers of the People and to have the command and power over their Goods and Lives as the proof hereof is seen in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had murthered his own Brother Geta in his Mothers lap and betwixt her arms and being advised by some of his friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him among the Gods to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a wretch sit divus modo non sit vivus let him be a God among the dead so he be not alive among Men Camerar quo supra so great an enemy is the inordinate desire of bearing rule to all Piety and right saith mine Author Therefore our Saviour doth not stop when he had said seek a Kingdom which he knew most men would be ready enough and some too ready to do without bidding but he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of this world nor the Kingdom of the Antichrist nor of sin but the Kingdom of God And the Kingdom of God is taken many waies but especially The Kingdom of God three fold 1. For the Kingdom of Nature 2. For the Kingdom of Grace 3. For the Kingdom of Glory 1. The Kingdom of nature The first is all the world Heaven Hell Sea and Earth and all men good and bad are the subjects of this his Kingdom for he is Rex universae terrae super omnes nationes mundi whom he ruleth with his mighty power and by his wisedom disposeth all things sweetly even when he permitteth the wicked to flourish and chasteneth his own children every morning our King doing herein as the Husband-man doth with his Oxen mactandus liber ibit ad pascua servandus jugo premitur that which is appointed for the slaughter shall freely run to the best Pasture but that which is to be preserved shall be pressed under the Yoak 2. The Kingdom of Grace 2. The Kingdom of Grace comprehendeth not all creatures nor all men but the elect only that is the good and godly men in whose hearts this King writeth his holy Laws and ruleth them by his Spirit that guideth and directeth them to observe his Laws 3. The Kingdom of Glory 3. The Kingdom of Glory is that which the Apostle describeth whose joyes passeth all understanding whose subjects are the Saints and Angels and whose King is Jesus Christ the King of kings The first of these was established by power when the Almighty God created all things by his powerful Word or the Word of his power which is Jesus Christ but it shall be finished through its weakness when languishing Nature that still groweth weaker and weaker can hold out no longer The second was begun in weakness when Christ the Son of God began the same in the the infirmity of our flesh and to gather his Church by the preaching of a few Fisher-men but it shall end in power when after he hath put all his enemies under his feet he shall by the power of his Deity absolve the same and deliver it as the Apostle sheweth 1 Cor. 15. unto God his Father but The third shall begin in power and continue in power without ending when as the Poet saith Gloriosum Imperium siue fine dabit Cui nec metas rerum nec tempora ponit God shall give us a glorious Kingdom without ending and eternal happiness unto his Saints where there shall be no fight because they have no enemie no tears because they can recieve no hurt no fear because there is no danger and no grief because there is no evil but all peace all joy all felicity because God will be all in all And of these three Kingdoms we ought to submit our selves with all contentedness unto the first and with all care and diligence to seek the second that so to our everlasting comfort we may attain unto the third Which kingdom we shall never come unto unless we seek the second which is the kingdome of grace as we ought to do for as among the Romans none came to the Temple of Honour but by the Temple of Virtue so none shall come to the Kingom of glory but the Subjects of the Kingdom of grace and therefore we must seek for that as we ought to do and that is 1. Generally that the Church of Christ may be enlarged by the preaching of the Gospel and by all other ways that we can to convert men to the faith of Christ and not to pervert them by wicked errours or the evil examples of an ungodly conversation 2. Particularly that the Spirit of God and not the Spirit of Satan the grace of Christ and not our fleshly lusts or any other sin might reign in us and rule our hearts to do all things according to Gods Laws that so we our selves might be members of his Church and subjects of this kingdom And as I told you before our seeking for this kingdom must not be as children seek for their
say or do I could not prevail to have the Record amended according to the original Record And when I saw that I desired my Counsel to desire their Lordships either to grant that it might be amended or to quash it out of hand that I should not spend my self in Dublin but go to begin a fresh and to indict them again and then my Lord Chief Justice answered seeing we desired to quash it let it be quasht which in respect of the Kings fine I conceived should not be done if the original Indictment found by the Jury was good Then I got the Kings Sollicitor Mr. Temple and the Kings Sergeant Sergeant Griffith and Mr. Darcy to draw me an Indictment that would stand good in Law and presently I went to Kilkenny and required the Justices of the peace to send their preÌ„cipe to the Sheriff to summon 24 men to appear at Freshfoord the 23 of the instant which they did accordingly and the Deputy Sheriff appointed these Gentlemen to be summoned Nom. Jur. ad inquirend John Grace of Courtstowne Esq Jonas Wheeler Gent. Rich. Donvil Gent. William Davies Gent. Walter Bushop Gent. Walter Nosse Gent. John Pursel Gent. William Pay Gent. William White Gent. Ralph Hale Gent. Lewis Mathews Gent. Robert Grace Gent. George Lodge Gent. Edmund Butler Gent. Matthew White Gent. William Hunter Gent. Thomas Green Gent. Vincent Knatehbul Gent. Ric. Comerford of Degenmore G. Tho. Bowers of Knoctopher G. Emanuel Palmer Gent. Mathias Reilegh Gent. Chri. Auetstone of Thomastone Tho. Hussie of Gowrom Gent. Toby Boyle of Condonstown Gent. Tho. Tomlius of Lyniate Abby Joseph Wheeler of Killrush George Barton of Goslingstown G. But before the Bayliffs were gone to summon them the High Sheriff was come to the Town and seeing the List of the Subscribed and having conferred with Sir George Ayscue that lay in the next Room where the Sheriff lay he said those men should not serve in the Jury but he would choose a Jury for this business and he nominated such men Anabaptists Presbyterians and others of the most rigid Sectaries that were in all the whole County Yet because I knew two or three of them to be very honest men I was very well contented with them But as soon as ever I was gone from the Sheriff those men were put by and other Sectaries put into the List in their stead * A Jury as my friends that knew them said would hang all the Bishops in Ireland if they were their Jury to try them And the Bailiff coming to me for more money then I had given him for summoning those that the Deputy Sheriff had appointed because now the High Sheriff had appointed men that he had picked out over all the County of Kilkenny Then I suspected some evil determined against me and I desired the Bayliff to shew me the List of those that he was to summon and when I saw those honest men that I knew put our and others put in their room I put the Warrant in my Pocket and bad the Bayliff tell the Sheriff that my Witnesses for the King were not ready and after he told this to the Sheriff he câ—me to me again weeping and crying and desired me for Gods sake to give him his Warrant For the Sheriff was very angry with him and he was utterly undone for shewing me the Warrant but I kept it still in my Pocket And thus was I served with a great deal of travel and charge above 60 li. in seeking to recover the Church Lands which I resolved and vowed if I could recover it to bestow it wholly for the repairing and re-edifying of the flat-fallen Church of Kilkenny And now let the Judge of all the World and let all just and honest men judge whether this be a fair and just proceeding But quorsum haec To what purpose is all this pains of this Relation Is it to taxe and charge the Reverend Judges either of injustice or partiality No By no means I taxe no man but I set down rem gestam the whole matter a capite ad calcem and they the Judges and Counsellours being great Lawyers may find all this to be just and especially to make it seem so to be and though for all cheating Pettifoggers and covetous Counsellours that against the dictate of their own consciences and against their King and against the Church of God will for a Fee sell their souls unto the devil I hate their doings that are Sicutatri â—anua ditis Yet I do from my heart honour and reverence all the grave and just Judges and Learned Lawyers without whose help and Counsel and Judgment we could not live in this Common-wealth And though I failed at the Kings Bench to prevail to procure those Fines unto the King which I conceived should be imposed upon those five that I indicted whereof the chief of them that is Captain Burges is now sent Prisoner to Dublin by my Lord of Ossory which may be a just Judgement that he should be committed by my Lord of Ossory for his abuse done to the Bishop of Ossory yet I have had very fair Justice done me by the Judges of the Court of Claim and I am confident to find the like from them again and to be righted by the Judges of the Court of Exchequer * And so likewise from the Kings Bench and Common Pleas. for the wrongs and damages that I sustained by those that forcibly entered upon my Possessions and do still detain it from me when I shall bring the cause before them Therefore I have no reason for the biting of a mad Dog to hang all the good Dogs in the Countrey or for the abuse or injustice done me by some one man or few Lawyers to exclaim against all others when as the Poet adviseth us Parcere paucorum diffundere crimen in omnes But I do exceedingly tax my self and mine own understanding that understanding both Greek and Latine and having read what Lambert Bolton and Dalton have written of Forcible Entries I should be such a Dolt as not to understand this Proceeding of mine about the Indictment of those Forcible Enterers to be a just and a fair Proceeding Therefore mine apprehension conceiving such proceedings to be foul and very much amiss and that the justice which I had upon the whole matter had not what Pindarus such Justice useth to have that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thought good to set down the same not to accuse and complain against any one for being unjust or to seek any redress unto my self for I have born and can be contented still to bear more wrongs than this But I do it for these ends 1. To let poor men see how they may be wronged and oppressed and have their Land and Possessions taken from them by great and powerful men and what they are best to do in such a case and my counsel is to be patient because as I said before Levius fit patientia quicquid
corrigere est nefas and as our Saviour saith If any man sue thee for thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also So I say if any great man that hath a great Place or great Friends take away thy Lands let him take away thy House also rather then spend thy Money and lose that with thy Lands for as Christ saith If these things be done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry So if these Proceedings pass against me that can both speak and follow my businesse to the uttermost and I thank God have ability to go through with it what shall become of thee and thy Cause that art a poor man when thou swimmest against the stream and kickest against the pricks Therefore I advise thee rather in such a case to cry to God than complain to any Judge lest that as the Poet saith Excessit medicina modum thy remedy will prove worse than thy disease For thou seest how I am served put our of my House and spend above 60 li. and have no redress 2. If this proceeding and dealing with me be as I conceive it not so fair and so just as it should be both for the King and my self that am ejected out of my House and Lands then I conceive His Majesty and the Parliament should to prevent the like Oppression and wrongs to poor men provide an easier and plainer way to relieve the oppressed and to set down an usual Form of Indictment or to cause that the Indictments should not be so easily and so frequently upon every Lawyers motion quasht as they are reported to be Especially when the matter of Force is plain and evidently proved And this redress of Injuries I petition and move for for these four special reasons 1. Because the difficulty of framing the Indictments so that a cunning Lawyer cannot easily find a fault and a flaw in it and then the frequent quashing of such Indictments as are found faulty is a great wrong to his Majesty in depriving him of those Fines that otherwise are due and should be rendered unto him 2. It is a great Abuse and injury unto the poor Subject that shall be driven out of his Possession and for want of a sufficient Clerke or Counsellour to draw the right form of his Indictment which as I see few can do he shall both spend his Money and lose his labour and perhaps he is not able to do as I did three or four times to draw Indictments till he finds one that may stand good 3. This frequent quashing of Indictments is a great encouragement for Oppressors and wicked men to wrong their neighbours more and more for say they I will enter upon him and thrust him out and if he doth indite me I will remove it to the Kings Bench and I shall find a Lawyer that will quash his Indictment by and by 4. This very practise and proceeding may be feared to prove the very bane and destruction of whole Nations and Kingdoms For if Righteousness exalteth a Nation and a Kingdom is translated from one Nation to another People because of unrighteousness as Solomon saith and as we may read it in all Histories Then you may see how requisite it is for Kings and Princes to look to those things and not to suffer unrighteous Judges either for favour to one or hatred to another to do what they list and to make their Laws like a Nose of Wax to bend which way they please or like a Spiders Web that catcheth the small Flies but is broken by the great humble Bees all to pieces but to be like the Chancellour Steel that although he hated my person yet he said though I deserved it not I should have Justice and so he did me Justice presently and I love to do right to my Adversary and to say the truth of mine enemy But for my self I thank God for it as I lived many years very quietly and contentedly with far less means then 20 li. a year and with far less pains and troubles then I have now so I doubt not but I could live so still and I resolved and vowed as I have attested in my Epistle to his Majesty that if I should recover this Bishops Court unto the Church I would wholly and fully bestow the same for the repairing of the Cathedral Church of Kilkenny So that recovering it I should not be one Penny the richer or not recovering it not a Penny the poorer and so the wrong done by this Proceeding whosoever did it is as I conceive more against the King and the Church than against my self And if the Proviso for Sir George Ayskue carrieth this Bishops Court to him from the Church which in my understanding is clean contrary to the very words of the Act pag. 72. Let him pray that he hath it not with that Sauce which God prescribeth in Psal 83. And so I end and so be it as God pleaseth Amen And after I had delivered this same Relation unto his Majesty and shewed the Effect and sum thereof by the next day I gave him this Petition To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of Gruffith Lord Bishop of Ossory Sheweth THat your Petitioner hath caused five of the Tenants of Sir George Ayskew to be twice Indited for a forcible Entry upon the House and Lands of the Bishop of Ossory and yet your Petitioner with the Expence of above 60 l. could not prevail to have them punished as the Law requireth whereby your Majesty is wronged in not receiving the Fines that should be imposed upon them for that offence and your Petitioner is abused in being still kept out of his Possession to about 300 l. Damages May it therefore please your Majesty to write to the Duke of Ormond or to the Parliament to see that the former Proceedings may be reviewed and that your Petitioner may be relieved according to Justice And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. And my Lords Grace of Canterbury very graciously and like a most Religious Father and Countenancer of the Fathers of the Church going with me to deliver it to his Majesty and to let him understand the substance of it said here is the good Bishop of Ossory so his Grace was pleased beyond my Desarts to stile me that hath a very reasonable Petition to your Majesty and telling him the sum of it his Majesty like a most Pious King most graciously answered I will do it with all my heart and my Lords Grace sent for Secretary Benet and he drew me this his Majesties Answer the next day Whitehal July 16th 1663. HIs Majesty is graciously pleased effectually to recommend the Consideration of this Petition to his Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to the end his Grace may forthwith take care to settle and establish the Petitioner in his Right and that such who disturb him may be punished according to Law I know not what more I could have desired his
was risen in Cheshire and was so near the time that I expected and foreshewed his Majesties restauration I took a young Philly that I had of three years old and in a very cold snow and frost in January I went soft and fair towards London hoping that now so many men looking after the coming in of our King and Collonel Monk expected to assist him I should have my Great Antichrist published yet still the Rump was so strong that it could not be therefore I was fain to retire towards Wales again and going from my house by Tocester where I had left my Mare some ten miles in a frosty morning a foot I afterwards went a horse-back but had not rid one quarter of a mile but my Mare whom all my Neighbours there said she was great with foal lay down under me and I fearing she would cast her Foale and so perhaps lose my Mare or forced to leave her behind me was resolved to lead her in my hand and so I did from that place which was Daintry to my house in Wales about seven score miles the way being somewhat fair in the latter end of March. Then having some occasions to go to Ireland being at Holy Head I had notice with the Post from London that the Parliament according as I found in Scripture had voted the coming in of the King and I landing in Dublin about seven of the Clock the next morning being Sunday preâ—ched at St. Brides and publickly prayed for the King I am sure the first man in the Kingdom of Ireland and the next morning went towards Kilkenny and going to Donmore to present my service to my Lady of Ormond I found her as she was ever the most honourable of all the Ladies that ever I knew and taking me aside informed me of the state of Kilkenny and of all things thereabouts so I went to Kilkenny and preached there and publickly prayed for his Majesty the next Sunday after I had done the like at Dublin and then hasted back to Dublin and from thence without stay to Holy Head and resting but one night in mine own house I rode as fast as I could to London and having left all the Lands that I had in Ireland in pawn for 100 li. which mine own self carried to London I agreed for the Printing of my Great Antichrist and immediately after his Majestiâ—s happy arrival in London having the same printed in three Printing-houses and my self paying for the printing of it with ready money I got it presently done and presented it to his Majesty who very graciously accepted thereof But one of my Countrymen had begg'd of his Majesty the Deanery of Bangor yet when I informed his Majesty that my good King and gracious Master his Father had conferred it upon me to hold it in commendum so firm as Law could make it his Majesty was most graciously pleased presently to send to Sir Edward Nicholas to recall the Grant that he had made to Mr. Lloyd but the same being past to the Great Seal my Lord Chancellour to whom I ever was very much obliged knowing my Faithfulness to my late King and best Master and my sufferings for him did most honourably stop it before I could come unto his Lordship and so by his Majesty and my Lord Chancellours goodness I still enjoyed my Masters favour Then things being somewhat setled I went to live upon my Bishoprick in Kilkenny where I found the Cathedral Church and the Bishops house all ruined and nothing standing but the bare walls without Roofs without Windows but the holes and without doors yet I resolved presently to mend and repair one Room and to live in the Bishops house and as I had vowed that if I should ever come to my Bishoprick I should wholly and fully bestow the first years profit for the reparation of the Church so my witness is in heaven that I have done it and have since bestowed more as forty pound the last Summer for repairing the Steeple of the Cathedral * And this Summer six score pounds for to make a Bell worth they say 200 l. and yet a thousand pounds more will not sufficiently repair that Church which I vowed to bestow If I recover the Bishops house and live to it and a great deal of cost more I laid out upon the Bishops house Yet now began my Oppression which grieves me much more than my Persecution because my persecution was personal and concerned my self alone but mine Oppression doth now reach to the dishonour of God and the robbing of Jesus Christ of his service and the destruction of his Servants when as the Church of Christ cannot be ruled without Governours nor instructed without Teachers and neither of them can subsist without maintenance And yet now Noblemen and Gentlemen Souldiers and Citizens and all think no Bread so sweet no Wine so pleasant as that which they snatch from the Altar and no Land so fertile as that which they hold from the Church and keep it by force from the Church-men and to give you a taste of this truth I have printed a Narrative and a true Relation of a Law proceeding betwixt my self and Sir George Ayskue a civil Gentleman I confess and one that hath been Vice-Admiral to the Long Parliament but now is very faithful to our present King and sorry for what he hath been as I verily believe and is a man of a very fair carriage and of very good parts yet bewitched with the disguised spirit of Sacriledge to hold fast in his hands the Lands of the Church and not only he but many others are sick of the same disease as appeareth by the subsequent of this relation A true Relation of a Law-proceeding betwixt the Right Reverend Father in God Griffith L. Bishop of Ossory and Sir George Ayskue Knight c. Sheweth THat the Lordship of Bishops Court alias upper Court belongs to the Bishop of Ossory And as I am informed Jo. Bale Bishop of Ossory dwelt in the Mannor house thereof and was from thence driven by the Tories in Queen Maries daies to flee to Geneva to save his life when he looking out at his Window saw his Steward that was with his Hâ—y-makers killed before his face and he being fled to Geneva Jo. Tonery was made Bishop of Ossory and he made away divers Lordships and among the rest this Bishops Court in Fee-farm as they pre end to one Rich. Shea Bishop Bale being yet alive and lived in Queen Elizabeths daies after Tonery came Bishop Gafney and Bishop Bale still alive and after Gafney came Bishop Walsh and he finding the invalidity of the Fee farmes made by the Popish Bishops while the right Bishop was alive petitioneth to Queen Elizabeth and had her Letters to the Lord Lieutenant and Council to hear the Cause and to relieve the Bishop according as they found the equity of his Cause but before he could have any redress he was killed by some Irish man to
prevent the recovery of the said Lordship as it is conceived in his own house After that came Bishop Deane and he vigorously prosecutes the recovery of the said Lordship and he had not done much more then begun but he dieth Then came Bishop Wheeler and he petitioneth to my Lord of Strafford for the said Lordship of Bishops Court and by the great care and desire of the now most Reverend Primate of all Ireland to benefit the Church of Christ Bishop Wheeler had the Lordship of Frenis-Town that was one of the pretended Fee-farms made by Tonery and formerly yielded the Bishop but 4 li. yearly and doth now yield 50 li. every year yielded up unto him so that Shea might still continue in the Bishops Court and when Wheeler died my gracious King and good Master Charles the First commended me to the Bishoprick of Ossory then came the Rebellion and I was driven to flee before I had received one Penny from my Bishoprick or had continued two Moneths therein but blessed be God for it I was restored by our now most gracious King and having an Order from the most Honourable House of Lords to be put into the possession of all the Houses and Lands of the Bishop of Ossory that the last Bishop died seized of the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny did put me among divers other places into the possession of the said Bishops Court and the Tenants attourned Tenants unto me and continued from the _____ dâ—y of April until the 8th day of October following 1662. at which time one Captain Burges and divers others Anabaptists and Sectaries the Tenants of Sir George Ayskue that never come into the Church yet came into the Bishops House and thence expelled the Bishop and his Tenants from his possession And I the Bishop hearing of it went thither my self with two men and my Chaplain Mr. Thomas Bulkley and finding the door open I and my Chaplain went in and one of them that kept the possession affronted and justled me at the door of the Loft to hinder my entrance in and yet I got in and then more and more came into the Room to the number of 9 or 10 persons And some of them especially Captain Burges vilified and threatned me to the fear of my Life and some did shut the Iron Grate and locked it as I conceived to keep me there for their Prisoner and to hinder my two servants that I had sent with my horses to Freshfoord to come in and when they demanded if they meant to murder their Lord and desired to come in one of them that had a Cudgel in his hand said that if he offered to come in there he would knock him in the head and my man answered him with the like menaces and I hearing of their high threats and fearing what mischief might fall out there sent a peremptory command to my men to go home and let what death soever pleased God come to me but after that I got liberty to go unto mine own house I called a private Sessions and Indicted Will. Portis Tho. Collins Jo. Rayman Josias Scot Will. Burges for their forcible entry but the Indictment being removed by a Certiorari to the Kings Bench though I had retained two Counsellors and gave them twenty shillings for their Fee to do things right and according to Law yet through the errour of the Clerke there were some faults found in the Indictment and so the same was quasht by the Judges of the Kings Bench Then I got the best Attourney that I thought was in Dublin and is so reputed by all my friends to draw me another Indictment against the foresaid forcible enterers and being drawn I carried it to Sir William Donvil the Kings Atturney and gave him his Fee to review it and mend it if any thing was amiss in it and make it so as it might stand good in Law the which thing he very carefully did and amended some things with his own hands And I knew not what I could or should do more to draw a good Indictment Then I desired the Justices of the Peace to send a precipe to the Sheriffe to summon a Jury to examine the force which they did upon the said place where the force was committed And though Sir George Ayskue had for his Atturney Mr. Smith the now High Sheriffe of the County of the City of Kilkenny and Mr. Johnson the Recorder of the City of Kilkenny for his Counsellour to plead against the finding of the Indictment true as much as ever they could and another Counsellour stood against it as much or more than either of them both and I had neither Atturney nor Counsellour to say any thing for it but what the Witnesses proved yet the Jury did presently find it Billa Vera. Then I desired the Justices of the Peace to restore me to my Possession but to prevent the same Mr. Smith Sir George Ayskues Atturney having a Certiorari ready in his Pocket did immediately as soon as ever the Jury had brought in their Verdict deliver the same into the hands of the Justices of the Peace and they delivered it to the Clerk of the Peace and the Justices said that now they could not restore me to my Possession because that their hands were stopt and all the proceedings must be transmitted to the Kings Bench by Octab. Hillarii And when I came to Kilkenny I went to the Clerk of the Peace and examined the same Indictment which the Jury found and which I had done before ad amussim very diligently with that Copy which the Kings Atturney had amended and averred to be sufficient and I prayed the Clerke of the Peace to give me a Copy of that Indictment which the Jury found the which he did under his hand and I examined all again and found them in all things to be verbatim word for word agreeable one to another Then by Octab. Hillarii the time set to return the proceedings to the Kings Bench I went to Dublin But there was no Indictment returned still I expected but still in vain At last I complained to the Lords Justices but they answered that they could not help it for they knew not whether the Certiorari was delivered or not At last seeing it was neither returned nor like to be returned I was advised to make Affidavit that I had seen it delivered into the hands of the Justices of the Peace and that I heard it read and then saw it delivered to the Clerke of the Peace and then upon the reading of my Affidavit and a motion made by my Counsel thereupon there was an Order set down that there should be 20 li. fine set upon the Clerke of the Peace if the proceedings and the Indictment came not in by such a day So at last it came in but it was the last day of the Term that it came into the Court and then the Kings Sergeant moved for my possession but the Counsel on the other side