another upon his better Care of his Majesties Commands I gave him both the Answers and the Reason and the Promise which His Majesty gave me and Commanded me to write to him It follows That I taxed him that is Bishop Ballantine for his boldness in Preaching the sound Doctrine of the Reformed Kirks against Mr. Michell who had taught the Error of Arminius in the Point of the Extent of the Merit of Christ. They should do well to shew my Letter and then I will answer punctually to any thing in it In the mean time I do not know that ever Mr. Michell Preached Arminianism For that Christ died for all Men is the Universal and constant Doctrine of the Catholick Church in all Ages and no Error of Arminius And are the express words of Scripture it self in more places than one And the Synod of Dort called purposely about the Errours of Arminius allows this for Orthodox Christum Mortuum esse pro omnibus And for my part I wish with all my heart that this had been the greatest Error of Arminius But yet whether I taxed that worthy Prelate for this or no I know not This I know that if I did tax him he deserved it And for Bishops even of divers Churches to write one to another about Points of Divinity yea and sometimes to tax one another too as their Judgments lead them hath been usual in all Times and Places The next Charge is That I bid him send up a List of the Names of the Counsellors and Senators of the Colledge of Justice who did not Communicate in the Chappel in a Form which was not received in our Kirk And that I commended him when I found him Obsequious to these my Commandments telling him that I had moved the King the Second time for the Punishment of such as had not received in the Chappel Here I must desire again that this Letter of mine may be produced For I have cause enough to suspect some material Change in the Matter or Form of my Words Howsoever if they be justly set down I answer That if this be one of the Things which made great Disturbance amongst them they would be greatly disturbed with a very little For first I writ nothing in this but what I was expresly Commanded by His Majesty And I have His Majesties Warrant under His Hand to keep a Correspondence with that Bishop of Dunblain that from time to time he might receive His Majesties Direction by me for the Ordering of all those Things And howsoever the thing it self is no more than as if His Majesty should Command all his Counsellors and Judges here once in the Year at least to receive the Communion in his Chappel at White-Hall And if you say 't is more because it was to Communicate in such a Form as was not received in the Church of Scotland under Favour that is not so neither For this Form here spoken against was to receive it Kneeling And to receive the Sacrament Kneeling was an Article of the Synod of Perth made in a General Assembly and Confirmed by Act of Parliament Both then in force when my Letters were written And therefore either this Form was received in their Kirk which is here denied Or else there was little Obedience in their Kirk and Kirk-Men either to General Assembly or Parliament As for that which comes fluttering after That I commended him when I found him Obsequious I had reason to do it For whatsoever is said here it was to the Kings Commands not to mine And the Reason why I writ that I had moved the King a Second time for the Punishment of such as disobeyed was because the Bishop had written unto me that if some were not Checked or Punished none would obey And 't is true too that I took occasion once and a second time but upon Second Letters of his to the same effect to move the King But only by shewing His Majesty what was written by him that was upon the place and trusted with the Office Nor did I ever meddle farther in those Businesses than by laying before His Majesty what was written to me to that end Leaving the King as it became me to Judge both of the Motion and the Person that made it as in his Princely Wisdom he thought fit The next thing is that in these Letters I did upbraid him Bishop Ballantine that is that in his First Synod at Aberdeen he had only disputed against our Custom in Scotland of Fasting sometimes on the Lord's Day And that I did Presumptuously Censure their Kirk that in this we were opposite to Christianity it self and that amongst us there was no Canon at all More of this stuff may be seen in the Letters themselves And my humble desire is that the Letters may be seen For whatsoever account is made of this Stuff it was once and in far better times of the Church valued at a better rate And I shall not be ashamed of any Stuff contained in any of my Letters to this Bishop or any other let them be produced when they please But what then is this Stuff 'T is that I upbraid this worthy Prelate about their Custom in Scotland of Fasting sometimes on the Lord's Day And censure their Church presumptuously as opposite herein to Christianity Surely I do not use to upbraid meaner Men than the Bishop is much less presumptuously to censure a Church If I thought as I do that 〈◊〉 in an Errour for only disputing against that which he should have reformed I conceive it was no upbraiding As for the Custom in Scotland of Fasting on the Lord's-Day It is not only sometimes as is here expressed but continually when they have any Solemn Fast the Lord's-Day is the Day for it And if I did Write that that was opposite to Christianity it self I doubt it is too true For it is against the Practice of the whole Church of Christ And that which is so must oppose Christianity it self And this I find That as Apostolical Universal Tradition settled the Lord's-Day for Holy and Publick Worship So from the very Apostles times the same general Tradition hath in all times accounted it unlawful to Fast upon that Day And if an Ordinary Fast were not Lawful upon that Day much less was a Solemn Nor is there any thing more clear in all Antiquity For in the Canons of the Apostles which if they be not theirs are very antient If a Priest did fast upon the Lord's day he was to be deposed and if a Layman he was to be Excommunicated And S. Ignatius tells us if any Man fast upon the Lords Day he is Christ's Interfector a Murtherer of Christ And that I am sure is against Christianity it self Tertullian professes 't is altogether unlawful The Council of Gangra held An. 324. decreed against it and set an Anathema upon it and that not only when it is done in contempt of the Day
from the Press both Old and New and expunging some things out of them 1. The first Instance was about the English Bibles with the Geneva Notes The Bibles with those Notes were tolerated indeed both in Queen Elizabeths and King James his Time but allowed by Authority in neither And King James said plainly That he thought the Geneva Translation was the worst and many of the Notes very Partial Vntrue Seditious and savouring too much of Dangerous and Traiterous Conceits And gave Instance This passage I then read to the Lords And withal told them that now of late these Notes were more commonly used to ill purposes than formerly and that that was the Cause why the High-Commission was more careful and strict against them than before Here Michael Sparks the Elder came in as Witness and said he was called into the High Commission about these Books But he confesses it was not only for them He says the restraint of those Bibles was for the Notes But he adds as he supposes And his Supposal is no Proof Besides he might have added here also that the restraint was not for the Notes only For by the numerous coming over of Bibles both with and without Notes from Amsterdam there was a great and a just fear conceived that by little and little Printing would quite be carried out of the Kingdom For the Books which came thence were better Print better Bound better Paper and for all the Charges of bringing sold better Cheap And would any Man Buy a worse Bible Dearer that might have a better more Cheap And to preserve Printing here at home as well as the Notes was the Cause of stricter looking to those Bibles And this appears by a Letter of Sir William Boswell's his Majesty's Agent in the Low Countreys the Letter written to me and now produced against me But makes for me as I conceive For therein he sends me word of two Impressions of the Bible in English one with Notes and the other without And desires me to take care to regulate this business at home What should I do Should I sleep upon such Advertisements as these and from such a hand Especially since he sends word also that Dr. Amyes was then Printing of a Book wholly against the Church of England So my Care was against all underminings both at home and abroad of the Established Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England for which I am now like to suffer And I pray God that point of Arminianism Libertas Prophetandi do not more Mischief in short time than is expressible by me 2. The Second Instance was about the New Decree of the 〈◊〉 concerning Printing Four Articles of this Decree were read namely the 1 2 18 24. What these are may be seen in the Deecree And as I think that whole Decree made Anno 1637. useful and necessary So under your Lordships Favour I think those Four Articles as necessary as any Mr. Waly and Mr. Downes two Stationers Witnesses in this Particular say That they desired some Mitigation of the Decree and that Judge Bramston said he could not do it without me I saw my Lord Chief Justice Bramston here in the Court but the other Day why was not he examined but these Men only who oppose all Regulating of the Press that opposes their Profit And sure that grave Judge meant he could not do it alone without the consent of the Court. Or if he would have me Consulted it was out of his Judicious Care for the Peace of this Church almost Pressed to Death by the Liberty of Printing The Chief Grievance they Expressed against the new Licensing of Books was only for matter of Charges But that is provided for in the Eighteenth Article And Mr. Downes takes a fine Oath which was that he makes no doubt but that all was done by my Direction and yet adds that he cannot say it So he swears that which himself confesses he cannot say And manifest it is in the Preface that this Decree was Printed by Order of the Court and so by their Command sent to the Stationers Hall And the end of it was to suppress Seditious Schismatical and Mutinous Books as appears in the First Article 3. The Third Instance was That I used my Power to suppress Books in Holland This was drawn out of a Letter which John le Mare one of the Prime Preachers in Amsterdam writ to me expressing therein that since the Proclamation made by the States no Man durst meddle with Printing any Seditious Libels against either the State or Church of England Where 's the Fault For this Gentleman did a very good Office to this Kingdom and Church in procuring that Proclamation For till this was done every discontented Spirit could Print what he pleased at Amsterdam against either And if he had any Direction from me about it which is not proved I neither am nor can be sorry for it And the Fear which kept Men in from Printing proceeded from the Proclamation of the States not from any Power of mine 4. The Fourth Instance was in the Book of Martyrs But that was but named to Credit a base Business an Almanack made by one Mr. Genebrand In which he had left out all the Saints Apostles and all and put in those which are named in Mr. Fox And yet not all them neither for he had left out the Solemn Days which are in Fox as Feb. 2. Feb. 25. Mar. 25. And Cranmer Translated to Mar. 23. In this Particular Mr. Genebrand Brother to this Almanack-maker witnesseth that the Queen sent to me about this New Almanack If her Majesty did send to me about it as 't is probable she would disdain the Book is that any Crime in me Could I prevent her Majestys sending who could not know so much as that she would send He says his Brother was acquitted in the High-Commission but charged by me that he made a Faction in the Court If I did say so surely my Lords I saw some practising by him in this new-found way He says the Papists bought up a great number of these Almanacks and burnt them It seems he could not hinder that nor I neither unless it shall not be Lawful for a Papist to buy an Almanack For when he hath bought him he may burn him if he please But since the Book of Martyrs was named I shall tell your Lordships how careful I was of it It is well known how easily Abridgments by their Brevity and their Cheapness in short time work out the Authors themselves Mr. Young the Printer laboured me earnestly and often for an Abridgment of the Book of Martyrs But I still withstood it as my Secretary here present can Testifie upon these two Grounds The one lest it should bring the large Book it self into disuse And the other lest if any Material thing should be left out that should have been charged as done of purpose by me as now I see it is in other Books
Lecturers and that they had their Lectures Read by a Company of Learned and Orthodox Ministers by turns As appeared by the Munday Sermon at Burye during that Learned Bishop's time Nor were any forbid to Preach in the Afternoon so the Catechising were not omitted before it or with it And the Bishop is Living to Answer it if ought were then done amiss by him In all which he did nothing as any Deputy or Surrogate of mine but as Diocesan of the Place As for the Yearly Account to the King according to his Royal Instructions in that behalf though it were pressed here again to multiply noise yet nothing being new I gave my Answer as before and to that I refer my self 3. The Third Answer was concerning Mr. Lee of Wolverhampton The Evidence was a Letter of my Secretary Mr. Dell written by my Command to my Visitors there to this Effect That whether there were Cause or no they should either punish Mr. Lee or bring him into the High-Commission Had the Words or the Sense been thus they might well say It was hard for the Judge before whom the Party was to Answer to write thus But I called to have the Letter read again and the Words were these If there were found against him that which might justly be Censured then they should punish c. And the Reason why this strict care was taken was because the Dean of Windsor his Ordinary complained unto me that Mr. Lee's Carriage was so Factious there that he could contain him in no Order If he were a Man after this approved at Shrewsbury as Mr Walker witnesses I hope the Proceedings at Wolverhampton did him good But my Lords had it so fallen out that my Secretary had forgotten my Instructions and himself too and expressed himself amiss shall that slip of his had it been such be imputed to me I believe your Lordships would not willingly answer for every Phrase of your Secretaries Letters which yet you command them to write 4. The last Instance was the Sentence in the High-Commission against Mr Barnard for Words about Pelagian Errors and Popery First if he were Sentenced in the High-Commission it was the Act of the Court and not mine as has been often said Secondly no Proof is offer'd that he was Sentenced for those Words only Thirdly the Recantation howsoever refused by him as Mr. Pryn says it was makes mention of four Points for which he was Censured of which these words are one But not the words themselves but his Unjust and Scandalous Application of them to me which deserved them not And lastly Dr Cumber Master of Trinity College in Cambridge was Prosecutor against him which Office so Grave and Worthy a Man would not I suppose have undertaken had there not been great and just Cause for it Hence they proceeded to the Sixth Additional Article which follows in these Words That whereas divers Gifts and Dispositions of divers Summs of Money were heretofore made by divers Charitable and well disposed Persons for the buying in of divers Impropriations for the Maintenance of Preaching the Word of God in several Churches the said Arch-Bishop about Eight Years last past wilfully and maliciously caused the said Gifts Feoffments and Conveyances made to the uses aforesaid to be overthrown in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer contrary to Law as things dangerous to the Church and State under the specious pretence of buying in Appropriations whereby that Pious Work was suppressed and trodden down to the great Dishonour of God and Scandal of Religion This Article is only about the Feoffments That which I did was this I was as then advised upon such Information as was given me clearly of Opinion that this was a cunning way under a Glorious pretence to overthrow the Church-Government by getting into their power more dependency of the Clergy than the King and all the Peers and all the Bishops in all the Kingdom had And I did conceive the Plot the more dangerous for the fairness of the pretence and that to the State as well as the Church Hereupon not maliciously as 't is charged in the Article but Conscientiously I resolved to suppress it if by Law it might be done Upon this I acquainted his Majesty with the thing and the danger which I conceived would in few Years spring out of it The King referred me to his Attorney and the Law Mr. Attorney Noye after some pause upon it proceeded in the Exchequer and there it was by Judicial Proceeding and Sentence overthrown If this Sentence were according to Law and Justice then there 's no fault at all committed If it were against Law the fault what e're it be was the Judges not mine for I solicited none of them And here I humbly desired that the Lords would at their leisure read over the Sentence given in the Exchequer which I then delivered in but by Reason of the length it was not then read Whether after it were I cannot tell I desired likewise that my Councel might be heard in this and all other points of Law 1. The First Witness was Mr. Kendall He says that speaking with me about Presteen I thanked God that I had overthrown this Feoffment 2. The Second Witness Mr. Miller says he heard me say They would have undone the Church but I have overthrown their Feoffment These two Witnesses prove no more than I confess For in the manner aforesaid I deny not but I did my best in a Legal way to overthrow it And if I did Thank God for it it was my Duty to do so the thing being in my Judgment so pernicious as it was 3. The Third Witness was Mr. White one of the Feoffees He says that coming as Councel in a Cause before me when that Business was done I fell bitterly on him as an underminer of the Church I remember well his coming to me as Councel about a Benefice And 't is very likely I spake my Conscience to him as freely as he did his to me but the Particulars I remember not nor do I remember his coming afterwards to me to Fulham nor his offer to change the Men or the Course so the thing might stand For to this I should have been as willing as he was and if I remember right there was order taken for this in the Decree of the Exchequer And his Majesty's Pleasure declared that no Penny so given should be turned to other use And I have been and shall ever be as ready to get in Impropriations by any Good and Legal way as any Man as may appear by my Labours about the Impropriations in Ireland But this way did not stand either with my Judgment or Conscience 1. First because little or nothing was given by them to the present Incumbent to whom the Tythes were due if to any that the Parishioners which payed them might have the more cheerful Instruction the better Hospitality and more full Relief for their Poor 2. Secondly because most of the Men they
Chamber-Fellow in Oxford when we were Boys together I am sure he was then no Priest and he was but a Boy when he left the College He confesses that I gave Order to observe who and how many resorted to Embassadours Houses and Signior Conn's and says he thought I could prove it But I believe he would never have confessed it but that he knew I could prove it And thereupon I shewed the Lords many Papers certifying me what Numbers were found resorting to each place respectively And Thomas Mayo's Hand to many of those Papers He says he took one Peter Wilford and brought him to me to Whitehall while Sir Jo. Lambe was with me But he confesses withal that Wilford then shewed Mr. Secretary Windebank's Warrant to Discharge him And then what could I do to him Nay I have some Cause to think he would never have apprehended him had he not known he had that Warrant Lastly he says that once at the Star-Chamber I told him he was too quick and nimble for me And I hope it is no Treason if I did say so Nor could I mean he was too quick in apprehending Priests for I found both him and his Fellows after Crosse's Death slow enough at that But if I said so it was because I could not tell how to trust his Shifting and his Wyliness 4. The Fourth Witness was Elizabeth Graye Wife to another Messenger And this is a very fine Witness For first she says Her Husband was committed by my Means And then with a Breath she says She doth not know by whom he was committed but she thinks by Secretary Windebank and me But since she doth not know but think only I hope her Thinking can be no Evidence She says that she delivered me a Petition and that I flung it away saying I would not meddle with any Priest-catching Knave The Witness single and I doubt doating and the Words far from Treason 5. The Fifth Witness was John Cooke a Messenger too and one that for his Misdemeanour had stood in the Pillory This I urged against him as unfit to witness against me My Witness that saw him in the Pillory was so threatned that he sent me word he durst not come I may not say from whom this Threatning came But the thing was so true that Cooke himself confessed it but excused the Cause And his Testimony received He told how Fisher the Jesuit was taken by Graye That when he was brought to the Council-Table Secretary Cooke and I went to the King to know his Pleasure about him That we brought back word from his Majesty to the Lords that he should be Banished All this while here 's no hurt done Then he says that notwithstanding this Order of his Majesty Graye and he met Fisher at Liberty by a Warrant from Secretary Windebank That hereupon Graye repaired to Secretary Cooke and to me and that Dell told him I would not meddle with it My Secretary must answer this I remember it not But if Mr. Dell received any such Answer from me that I would not meddle with it there were two apparent Reasons for it One that I would not meddle with it alone his Majesty's Order being to all the Lords The other that Fisher was the Man I had written against and Men would have been apt to say that when I could not answer I sought means to destroy So I no way fit alone at least to meddle with him of all Men. He says that Graye was committed to the Fleet for Railing on me in my own House Yet he confesses that he was not committed by me And I presume your Lordships will think there was Cause of his Commitment if he did Rail upon me And 't is confessed by Mr. Pryn though he had then received no Answer from my self that he said he saw now how the Game went and hoped e're long to see better Days c. He says that Smith alias Fludd desired Sir Kenelm Digbye as he was going to Lambeth to tell me that he could not Dine with me that Day but desired his Business might be remembred No such Man ever Dined at my Table to my knowledge And if any Priest would say so to Sir Kenelm how could I possibly hinder it And Sir Kenelm when this Cooke was Examined was a Prisoner in Winchester-House why was not he Examined to sift out this Truth If Truth be in it 6. The Sixth Witness was John Thresher a Messenger too He says that he took Mors and Goodwin two Priests and that Secretary Windebank took away his Warrant and dismissed them saying he would speak with me about it And that when he came to me I was angry with him about the Warrant Mr. Secretary Windebank will I hope be able to answer for his own Actions Why he dismiss'd the Priests I know not But he had great Reason to take away his Warrant And I a greater Reason to be angry with him for it For no Warrant can issue from the High-Commission Court but under three of their Hands at least Now Thresher having gotten my Hand to the Warrant never goes for more Hands but proceeds in his Office upon this unwarrantable Warrant Had not I Reason to be offended at this He says that at the same time I said that Graye was an ill-tongued Fellow and that if he kept him Company I should not regard him I had good Cause to say this and more considering how Graye had us'd me And I believe no Arch-Bishop would have born his Words Lastly he says that by a Warrant from me he Arrested Sir Toby Matthewe and that the Earl of Strafford stayed him from going to Prison saying he should answer it before the Lords Here by the Witness himself it appears that I did my Duty And Sir Toby did appear before the Lords as was assumed he should In the mean time I was complained of to the Queen And a great Lady who perhaps made the Complaint stood by and made her self Merry to hear me chid The Queen was pleased to send to the Lords and Sir Toby was released Where my Fault was in all this I do not yet see 7. The last of these famous Witnesses was Goldsmith Who says nothing but that one Day before the High-Commission Court began I forewarned the Messengers of that Court of Graye in regard he was openly spoken against at the Council-Table Which all things considered I had great Reason to do He says likewise that then Graye's Wife tender'd me a Petition which I rejected saying I would meddle with no Priest-catching Knaves I think his Carriage deserv'd no better of me than to reject his Petition But as for the Words I cannot own them let the Goldsmith look to it that he have not Forged them And I would very willingly know whether when the Apostle required that an Accusation should not be received against an Elder but under two or three Witnesses 1 Tim. 5. he had any meaning they should be such as
sadness I was much concerned at the Envy and undeserved Hatred born to me by the Lord Keeper I took into my Hands the Greek Testament that I might Read the portion of the day I lighted upon the XIII Chapter to the Hebrews wherein that of David Psal. 56. occurred to me then grieving and fearing The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me I thought an Example was 〈◊〉 to me and who is not safe under that Shield Protect me O Lord my God Januar. 31. A Commission passed under the Broad Seal of England constituted me among others a Judge Delegate in a Suit of Dilapidation between the Rev. Father in God Richard Neile Lord Bishop of Durham and Francis James Son and Heir of his Predecessor I attended the Execution of this Commission from Two to Five a Clock in the Afternoon on Saturday in the great Chamber at Doctors Commons Februar 1. Sunday I stood by the most Illustrious Prince Charles at Dinner He was then very merry and talked occasionally of many things with his Attendants Among other things he said that if he were necessitated to take any particular Profession of Life he could not be a Lawyer adding his Reasons I cannot saith he defend a bad nor yield in a good Cause May you ever hold this Resolution and succeed most Serene Prince in Matters of greater moment for ever prosperous Februar 4. Wednesday my Conference held with Fisher the Jesuit May 24. 1622. and put in writing at the Command of King James having been before Read to the King was this day put into the Press being Licensed by the Bishop of London I had not hitherto appeared in Print I am no Controvertist May God so Love and Bless my Soul as I desire and endeavour that all the never to be enough deplored distractions of the Church may be composed happily and to the Glory of his Name This day I waited on the Duchess of Buckingham That Excellent Lady who is Goodness it self shewed me a Form of Devotions which another Woman unknown to me had put into her Hands I Read it All was mean in it nothing extraordinary unless that it was more like to Poetry Febr. 6. Friday my Lord Duke of Buckingham told me of the Reconciliation the day before made with the Lord Keeper Febr. 10. Shrove-Tuesday at the Commons Sentence in my Lord of Durham's Case Febr. 12. Thursday the Parliament was to begin but was put off to Monday the 16 of February Febr. 15. Sunday I Assisted at the Consecration of Dr Harmer Bishop of St. Asaph Febr. 16. Dies Lunae erat Dux Richmondiae subitâ Paralysi correptus mortuus est Hoc fatum rejecit Parliamentum in 19 Februarii Febr. 16. Munday The Duke of Richmond being seized suddenly with the Palsie died This accident put off the Parliament to the 19 of February Februar 18. Wednesday my Lord Duke of Buckingham told me of the Reconciliation and Submission of my Lord Keeper and that it was confessed unto him that his Favour to me was a chief Cause Invidia quo tendis c. At ille de novo foedus pepigit Februar 19. Thursday The Parliament began Februar 20. Friday The Convocation began Februar 22. Will. Fulwell Mr. of Arts of Qu. Coll. in Cambridge made Deacon Februar 24. Tuesday The Duke of Buckingham's Relation of the Negotiation with Spain about the Prince's Marriage to both Houses of Parliament Febr. 29. Sunday In the Evening the Duke of Buckingham's Coach overthrown between Exeter-House and the Savoy The Spanish Embassador lay there No Omen I hope more than that they thought to Soyl him Secretary Conway was in the Coach with him Mr. Bond came into the help and told it me March 7. Mid-Lent-Sunday I Preached at White-Hall March 14. Passion-Sunday I Preached at Westminster March 17. Lord Keeper his Complementing with me Will. Fulwell made Priest March 22. Munday Dismal day The Accident of my Lord of Rutland giving Not Content to the Form consented to in the Parliament House being the only Voice dissenting March 23. Tuesday The Censure of Morley Waterhouse and the Printer about the Petition against my Lord Keeper That Afternoon the King declared to the Committee that he would send a Messenger presently into Spain to signifie to that King that his Parliament advised him to break off the Treaties of the Match and the Palatinate and to give his Reasons of it and so proceed to recover the Palatinate as he might Bonfires made in the City by the forwardness of the People for Joy that we should break with Spain O quoties tenuit me illud Psal. LXVII 31. Dissipa gentes quae bella volunt Sed spero quia coacti March 24. Wednesday Initium Regis Jacobi The Earl of Oxford practising a Tilt fell and brake his Arm. That Night inter horas 6. 7. a great Eclipse of the Moon March 25. Thursday The Recess of the Parliament for a Week Anno 1624. March 26. Good-Friday Viscouut Mansfeild running at Tilt to practice with the shock of the meeting his Horse weaker or resty tumbled over and over and brake his own neck in the place the Lord had no great harm Should not this day have other Imployment March 27. Saturday Easter-Even my Speech with my Lord Duke of Buckingham about a course to ease the Church in times of Payment of the Subsidy now to be given His Promise to prepare both the King and the Prince March 28. Easter-day Richard Earl of Dorset died being well and merry in the Parliament House on Wednesday the 24. Quà m nihil est vita Hominis Miserere nostri Deus His Grand-father Thomas Earl of Dorset died suddenly at the Council-Table His Grand-mother rose well and was dead before Dinner His Father Robert lay not above two days And now this Man Sir Edward Sackvill ...... March 29. Easter-Munday I went and acquainted my Lord Keeper with what I had said to my Lord Duke He approved it and said it was the best Office that was done for the Church this Seven Years And so said my Lord of Durham They perswaded me to go and acquaint my Lord's Grace of Canterbury with what I had done I went His Grace was very angry Asked what I had to do to make any Suit for the Church Told me never any Bishop attempted the like at any time nor would any but my self have done it That I had given the Church such a wound in speaking to any Lord of the Laity about it as I could never make whole again That if my Lord Duke did fully understand what I had done he would never indure me to come near him again I answered I thought I had done a very good Office for the Church and so did my Betters think If his Grace thought otherwise I was sorry I had offended him And I hoped being done out of a good Mind for the support of many poor Vicars abroad in the Country who must needs sink under Three
wished it had fallen upon that same day when I Consecrated the Chappel However I was pleased that I should perform that solemn Consecration at least on the Eve of that Festival For upon that day his Majesty King James heard my Cause about the Election to the Presidentship of St. John's Colledge in Oxford for three hours together at least and with great Justice delivered me out of the hands of my powerful Enemies Septemb. 4. Sunday The Night following I was very much troubled in my Dreams My Imagination ran altogether upon the Duke of Buckingham his Servants and Family All seemed to be out of order that the Dutchess was ill called for her Maids and took her Bed God grant better things Septemb. 11. Sunday I Preached at Carmarthen the Judges being then present The same Night I Dreamed that Dr Theodore Price admonished me concerning Ma 3. and that he was unfaithful to me and discovered all he knew and that I should therefore take heed of him and trust him no more c. Afterwards I dreamed of Sackville Crow that he was dead of the Plague having not long before been with the King Septemb. 24. One only Person desired to Receive Holy Orders from me and he found to be unfit upon Examination Septemb. 25. I sent him away with an Exhortation not Ordained It was then Saturday Septemb. 26. Sunday That Night I dreamed of the Marriage of I know not whom at Oxford All that were present were cloathed with flourishing green Garments I knew none of them but Thomas Flaxnye Immediately after without any intermission of Sleep that I know of I thought I saw the Bishop of Worcester his Head and Shoulders covered with Linnen He advised and invited me kindly to dwell with them marking out a place where the Court of the Marches of Wales was then held But not staying for my Answer he subjoyned that he knew I could not live so meanly c. Octob. 8. Saturday the Earl of Northampton President of Wales returned out of Wales taking his Journey by Sea Octob. 9. Sunday I Preached at Carmarthen Octob. 10. Munday I went on Horseback up to the Mountains It was a very bright day for the time of Year and so warm that in our return I and my Company dined in the open Air in a place called Pente-Cragg where my Registrary had his Country-House Octob. 30. Sunday Sir Thomas Coventry made Lord Keeper Novemb. 11. Friday I began my Journey to return into England Novemb. 17. Thursday Charles the Duke of Buckingham's Son was born Novemb. 20. Sunday I Preached at Honye-Lacye in Herefordshire Novemb 24. Thursday I came to the House of my great Friend Fr. Windebank There the Wife of my Freind for himself was then at Court immediately as soon as I came told me that the Duke of Buckingham then negotiating for the Publick in the Low-Countries had a Son born whom God bless with all the good things of Heaven and Earth Decemb. 4. Sunday I Preached at Hurst I stayed there in the Country until Christmas Decemb. 14. Wednesday I went to Windsor but returned the same day Decemb. 25. Sunday I Preached at Hurst upon Christmas day Decemb. 31. Saturday I went to the Court which was then at Hampton-Court There Januar. 1. Sunday I understood that I was Named among other Bishops who were to consult together on Wednesday following at White-Hall concerning the Ceremonies of the Coronation I was also at the same time informed that the bigger part of the Bishop of Durham's House was appointed for the Residence of the Ambassadour Extraordinary of the King of France Januar. 2. Munday I returned to Hains-Hill For there not then knowing any thing of these Matters I had left my necessary Papers with my Trunk When I had put these in order I went to Sir Richard Harrison's House to take leave of my Friends There if I mistake not I first knew what F. H. thought of me I told my mind plainly c. I returned Januar. 3. Tuesday I came to London and fixed my self at my own House at Westminster For the week before Christmas I had sent my Servant who had brought all my things out of the House of my good Friend the Bishop of Durham with whom I had abode as a Guest for Four Years compleat to my own House save only my Books the removal of which I unadvisedly put off till my own coming For the coming of the French Ambassadour forced me to make over-much haste and the multitude of business then laying upon me made it requisite that I should have my Books at hand In the Evening I visited the Duke of Buckingham Januar. 4. Wednesday We met at White-Hall to consult of the Ceremonies of the Coronation I sent my Servant to bring my Books who brought them That Night I placed them in order in my Study And it was high time For while we were in consultation about the Ceremonies the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold to his Majesty came from the King to us and delivered to me the King's Order to be ready against the sixth day of February to Preach that day at the opening of the Parliament Januar. 6. Friday Epiphany day We met again to consult concerning the Ceremonies and gave up our Answer to the King Januar. 16. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made known to me the King's Pleasure that at the Coronation I should supply the place of the Dean of Westminster For that his Majesty would not have the Bishop of Lincoln then Dean to be present at the Ceremony It was then Munday The same day by the King's Command a Consultation was held what was to be done in the Cause of Richard Montague There were present the Bishops of London Durham Winchester Rochester and St. Davids Januar. 17. Tuesday We gave in our Answer in Writing Subscribed this day This day also the Bishop of Lincoln deputed me under his Hand and Seal to supply the place for him which he as Dean of Westminster was to Execute in the Coronation of King Charles Januar. 18. Wednesday The Duke of Buckingham brought me to the King to whom I shewed my Notes that if he disliked any thing therein c. The same day by the King's Command the Arch-Bishop of Cant. and the Bishops of London Durham Winchester Rochester and St. Davids consulted together concerning a Form of Prayer to give Thanks for the decrease of the Plague Januar. 23. I had a perfect Book of the Ceremonies of the Coronation made ready agreeing in all things with the Kings Book It was Munday Januar. 29. Sunday I understood what D. B. had collected concerning the Cause Book and Opinions of Richard Montague and what R. C. had determined with himself therein Methinks I see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God of his Mercy dissipate it Januar. 31. Tuesday The Bishops and other Peers before nominated by the King to consult of the Ceremonies of the Coronation that
me in my Sleep having been dead two Years before at least He seemed to me in very good plight and merry enough I told him what I had done for his Widow and Children He after a little thought answered That the Executor had satisfied him for those Legacies while he was yet alive And presently looking upon some Papers in his Study adjoyning he added that it was so He moreover whispering in my Ear told me that I was the Cause why the Bishop of Lincoln was not again admitted into Favour and to Court Apr. 4. Wednesday When his Majesty King Charles forgave to Doctor Donne certain slips in a Sermon Preached on Sunday Apr. 1. what he then most graciously said unto me I have wrote in my Heart with 〈◊〉 Characters and great 〈◊〉 to God and the King Apr. 7. Saturday Going to Court to wait upon the King at Supper in going out of the Coach my foot stumbling I fell headlong I never had a more dangerous fall but by God's mercy I escaped with a light bruise of my Hip only Apr. 24. Tuesday There were then first sent to me the Exceptitions which the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had Exhibited against Doctor Sibthorp's Sermon and what followed April 29. Sunday I was made Privy-Councellour to his Majesty King Charles God grant it may conduce to his Honour and to the good of the Kingdom and the Church May 13. Whitsunday I Preached before the King c. Junij 7 8. I attended King Charles from London to Southwick by Portsmouth Junij 11. His Majesty dined a-board the Triumph where I attended him June 17. The Bishoprick of London was granted me at Southwick June 22. We came to London June 24. I was commanded to go all the Progress June 27. The Duke of Buckingham set forwards towards the Isle of Ree June 30. The Progress began to Oatlands July 4. The King lost a Jewel in Hunting of a 1000 l. value That day the Message was sent by the King for the Sequestring of A. B. C. July 7. Saturday-night I dreamed that I had lost two Teeth The Duke of Buckingham took the Isle of Ree July 26. I attended the King and Queen at Wellingburrough July 29. The first News came from my Lord Duke of his Success Sunday August 12. The second News came from my Lord Duke to Windsor Sunday August 26. The third News came from my Lord Duke to Aldershot Sunday September News came from my Lord Duke to Theobalds The first fear of ill Success News from my Lord Duke to Hampton-Court I went to my Lord of Rochester to consider about A. B. C. and returned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court 〈◊〉 King's Speech to me in the withdrawing Chamber That if any did c. I c. before any thing should sink c. The business of Doctor Bargar Dean of Canterbury began about the Vicaridge of Lidd October The Commission to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and my self then Bath and Wells to Execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction during the Sequestration of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury's Speech that the business could not go well in the Isle of Ree There must be a Parliament some must be Sacrificed that I was as like as any Spoken to Doctor W. The same Speech after spoken to the same Man by Sir Dudlye Diggs I told it when I heard it doubled Let me desire you not to trouble your self with any Reports till you see me forsake my other Friends c. Ita Ch. R. The Retreat out of the Isle of Ree November My Lord Duke's return to Court The Countess of Purbeck censured in the High Commission for Adultery December 25. I Preached to the King at White-Hall January 29. Tuesday A resolution at the Council Table for a Parliament to begin March 17. if the Shires go on with levying Money for the Navy c. January 30. Wednesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham's Son was Born the Lord George New Moon die 26. February 5. Tuesday The straining of the back sinew of my right Leg as I went with his Majesty to Hampton-Court I kept in till I Preached at the opening of the Parliament March 17. but I continued lame long after saving that Februar 14. Thursday Saint Valentine's-day I made a shift to go and Christen my Lord Duke's Son the Lord George at Wallingford-House March 17. I Preached at the opening of the Parliament but had much ado to stand it was Munday Anno 1628. June 1. Whitsunday I Preached at White-Hall June 11. My Lord Duke of Buckingham Voted in the House of Commons to be the Cause or Causes of all Grievances in the Kingdom June 12. Thursday I was complained of by the House of Commons for warranting Doctor Manwaring's Sermons to the Press June 13. Dr. Manwaring answered for himself before the Lords and the next day June 14. Being Saturday was Censured After his Censure my Cause was called to the Report And by God's Goodness towards me I was fully cleared in the House The same day the House of Commons were making their Remonstrance to the King One Head was Innovation of Religion Therein they Named my Lord the Bishop of Winchester and my self One in the House stood up and said Now we have Named these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it Sir Edw. Cooke answered Have we not Named my Lord of Buckingham without shewing a Cause and may we not be as bold with them June 17. This Remonstrance was delivered to the King on Tuesday June 26. Thursday The Session of Parliament ended and was Prorogued to October 20. July 11. Tuesday My Conge-deslier was Signed by the King for the Bishoprick of London July 15. Tuesday St. Swithin and fair with us I was Translated to the Bishoprick of London The same day the Lord Weston was made Lord Treasurer August 9. Saturday A terrible salt Rheum in my left Eye had almost put me into a Fever August 12. Tuesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham went towards Portsmouth to go for Rochell August 23. Saturday St Bartholomew's Eve the Duke of Buckingham slain at Portsmouth by one Lieutenant Felton about Nine in the Morning August 24. The News of his Death came to Croydon where it found my self and the Bishops of Winchester Ely and Carlile at the Consecration of Bishop Montague for Chichester with my Lord's Grace August 27. Wednesday Mr. Elphinston brought me a very Gracious Message from his Majesty upon my Lord Duke's Death August 30. As I was going out to meet the Corps of the Duke which that Night was brought to London Sir W Fleetwood brought me very Gracious Letters from the King's Majesty written with his own Hand September 9. Tuesday The first time that I went to Court after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham my dear Lord The Gracious Speech which that Night the King was pleased to use to me September 27. Saturday I fell Sick and came Sick from Hampton-Court Tuesday Septemb. ult I was sore
ready made That which was mine is here confessed to be but Interlinings and Marginals and Corrections and at most some Additions And they would be found a very small Some were the Original Book seen And yet it must be Evident that no Hand but mine did this by my Magisterial way of Prescribing in an Interlining or a Marginal Excellent Evidence Secondly they have another great Evidence of this But because that is so nervous and strong I will be bold to reduce it to some Form that it may appear the clearer though it be against my self There was they say a new Copy of these Canons all written with S. Andrews own Hand and according to the former Castigations and Directions sent to have the King's Warrant to it which was obtained Therefore these Interlinings and Marginals c. were done by no other than Canterbury Most Excellent Evidence and clear as Mid-Night The plain Truth is contrary to all this Evidence For by the same Command of His Majesty the Reverend Bishop of London was joyned with me in all the view and Consideration which I had either upon the Book of Canons or upon the Service-Book after So it is utterly untrue that these Interlinings or Marginals or Corrections or call them what you will were done by no other than Canterbury For my Lord of London's both Head and Hand were as deep in them as mine And this I avow for well known Truth both to the King and those Scottish Bishops which were then imployed and this notwithstanding all the Evidences of a Magisterial way and a New Copy And yet this General Charge pursues me yet farther and says The Kings Warrant was obtained as is said to these Canons but with an Addition of some other Canons and a Page of New Corrections according to which the Book of Canons thus Composed was Published in Print The inspection of the Books Instructions and his Letters of Joy for the success of the Work and of other Letters from the Prelate of London and the Lord Sterling to the same purpose all which we are ready to exhibit will put the Matter out of all debate Yet more ado about nothing Yet more noise of Proof to put that out of all debate which need never enter into any For if no more be intended than that I had a view of the Book of Canons and did make some Interlinings and Marginals and the like I have freely acknowledged it and by whose Command I did it and who was joyned with me in the Work So there will need no Proof of this either by my Letters or the Prelate of Londons or the Lord Sterlings Yet let them be exhibited if you please But if it be intended as 't is laid that this was done by no other than Canterbury then I utterly deny it and no Proof here named or any other shall ever be able to make it good As for the Addition of some other Canons and Pages of New Corrections according to which the Book of Canons is said to be Composed and Published Truly to the utmost of my Memory I know of none such but that the Copy written by my Lord of S. Andrews own Hand and sent up as is before mentioned was the very Copy which was Warranted by His Majesty and Published without any further Alteration But if any further Alteration were it was by the same Authority and with the same Consent And for my Letters of Joy for the Success of the Work let them be exhibited when you please I will never deny that Joy while I live that I conceived of the Church of Scotland's coming nearer both in the Canons and the Liturgy to the Church of England But our gross unthankfulness both to our God and King and our other many and great Sins have hindred this great Blessing And I pray God that the loss of this which was now almost effected do not in short time prove one of the greatest Mischiefs which ever befel this Kingdom and that too This is the General Charge about the Canons Now follow the Particulars Beside this General Charge there be some things more special worthy to be adverted unto for discovering his Spirit First the Fourth Canon of Cap 8. For as much as no Reformation in Doctrine or Discipline can be made perfect at once in any Church Therefore it shall and may be Lawful for the Kirk of Scotland at any time to make Remonstrances to His Majesty or his Successours c. Because this Canon holds the Door open to more Innovations he writes to the Prelate of Ross his Prime Agent in all this Work of his great Gladness that this Canon did stand behind the Curtain And his great desire that this Canon might be Printed fully as one that was to be most useful Now come the Particulars worthy to be adverted unto for the discovery of my Spirit And the first is taken out of the Fourth Canon of Cap. 8. The Charge is that this Canon holds the Door open to more Innovations First I conceive this Accusation is vain For that Canon restrains all Power from private Men Clergy or Laye nay from Bishops in a Synod or otherwise to alter any thing in Doctrine or Discipline without Authority from His Majesty or his Successours Now all Innovations come from private assumption of Authority not from Authority it self For in Civil Affairs when the King and the State upon Emergent Occasions shall abrogate some Old Laws and make other New that cannot be counted an Innovation And in Church-Affairs every Synod that hath sate in all times and all places of Christendom have with leave of Superiour Authority declared some Points of Doctrine condemned other-some Altered some Ceremonials made new Constitutions for better assisting the Government And none of these have ever been accounted Innovations the Foundations of Religion still remaining firm and unmoved Nay under favour I conceive it most necessary that thus it ought to be And therefore this Canon is far from holding a Door open for more Innovations since it shuts it upon all and leaves no Power to alter any thing but by making a Remonstrance to the Supream Authority that in a Church-way approbation may be given when there is Cause And therefore if I did write to the Prelate of Ross that this Canon might be Printed fully as one that was to be most useful I writ no more then than I believe now For certainly it is a Canon that in a well-governed Church may be of great use And the more because in Truth it is but Declaratory of that Power which a National Church hath with leave and approbation of the Supream Power to alter and change any alterable thing pertaining to Doctrine or Discipline in the Church And as for that Phrase said to be in my Letter that this Canon did stand behind the Curtain it was thus occasioned My Lord the Bishop of Ross writ unto me from the Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews that no words might
with Truth and preserve all the Foundations of Religion entire For I have Learned from a Prime School-Man of their own That every Vnion doth not perfect the true Reason or Definition of that which is good but that only upon which depends Esse perfectum Rei the perfect Essence of that thing So that in this particular if the substance of Christian Religion be not perfected by any Vnion that Vnion it self cannot have in it Rationem boni the true Being and Nature of Good And therefore I did never desire that England and Rome should meet together but with forsaking of Errour and Superstition especially such as grate upon and frett the Foundations of Religion But were this done God forbid but I should Labour for a Reconciliation if some Tenets of the Roman Party on the one side and some deep and imbittered Disaffections on the other have not made it impossible as I much doubt they have But that I shou'd practice with Rome as now it stands and to that end should confederate with Priests and Jesuits or hold secret intelligence with the Pope or treat with him or any Instruments Authorised by him or by any Agents is utterly untrue As I hope may fully appear by that which follows vid. init libri And First in hope that they which have observed my Life in times past will give me Credit in this time of my Affliction I do here make my solemn Protestation in the Presence of God and this great Court that I am Innocent of any thing greater or less that is charged in this Article or any part of it And I do here offer my Corporal Oath Please it the Lords to give it me in the strictest form that any Oath can be conceived that I am wholly Innocent of this Charge And let nothing be tendred against me but Truth and I do challenge whatsoever is between Heaven and Hell to come in and Witness whatsoever they can against me in this Particular For all that I have feared in all this Charge against me is not Guilt but Subornation of Perjury Against which Innocency it self cannot be safe And I have found the deadly Hatred of some Men against me to be such as that though I cannot suspect the House of Commons of such an Irreligious Baseness yet I have great Cause to suspect some particular Men which I see make no Conscience of the Way so they may compass their End Secondly Should I practice be it with whom you will to superinduce Romish Tyranny and Superstition over the true Religion established in England I have taken a very wrong way to it For I have hindred as many from going to the Roman Party and have reduced as many from it and some of great Quality and some of great Learning and Judgment as I believe any Divine in England hath done And is this the way to bring in Romish Superstition to reduce Men from it Or is this the Reward from the State which Men must look for that have done these Services Thirdly The Book which I have Written against Mr. Fisher the Jesuit must of Necessity either acquit me of this Calumny or proclaim me a Villain to the World And I hope I have so lived as that Men have not that Opinion of me sure I am I have not deserved it And had this Book of mine been written according to the Garb of the Time fuller of Railing than Reason a Learned Jesuit would have Laughed at it and me and a Learned Protestant might have thought I had Written it only to conceal my self and my Judgment in those Difficulties But being Written in the way it is I believe no Romanist will have much Cause to Joy at it or to think me a Favourer of their Cause And since I am thus put to it I will say thus much more This Book of mine is so Written by God's great blessing upon me as that whensoever the Church of England as they are growing towards it apace shall depart from the Grounds which I have therein laid she shall never be able before any Learned and disingaged Christian to make good her Difference with and her Separation from the Church of Rome And let no Man think I speak Pride or Vanity in this For the Outrages which have been against me force me to say it and I am confident future times will make it good unless Profaneness break in and over-run the whole Kingdom which is not a little to be feared Fourthly I must confess I am in this Particular most unfortunate For many Recusants in England and many of that Party beyond the Seas think I have done them and their Cause more Harm than they which have seemed more fierce against them And I doubt not but I shall be able to prove that I have been accounted beyond Sea the greatest Enemy to them that ever sat in my Place And shall I suffer on both sides Shall I be accounted an Enemy by one part for opposing the Papist and accused for a Traytor by the other for Favouring and Complying with them Well If I do suffer thus 't is but because Truth usually lies between two Extreams and is beaten by both As the poor Church of England is at this day by the Papist and the Separatist But in this and all things else in despight of all Malice Truth shall be either my Protection from Suffering or my Comfort while I suffer And by God's gracious assistance I shall never depart from it but continue at the Apostle's Ward 2 Cor. 13. Nihil possum contra veritatem I can do nothing against the Truth and for it I hope God will enable me patiently to suffer any thing Fifthly If I had practised with the Pope or his Agents for the alteration of Religion in England surely I must have used many great and dextrous Instruments to compass my end And in a business of so great Consequence Difficulty and Danger to all that should have a Hand nay but a Finger in it no Man would venture to meddle without good pay And 't is well known that I have filled no Purse nor laid up any store to set ill Instruments on work upon that or any other unworthy design Sixthly I am a Man in Years great Years for a Man so loaded with business as I have been all my Life And it cannot be long before I must go to give God Almighty an account of all my Actions And whatsoever the Malignity of the Time may put upon me yet they which know me and my ways will easily believe that I have not so little Conscience or care of my Soul as to double with God to my very Death Nay could I have doubled thus I could easily have seen a way through all this difficulty and how to have been as gracious with the People as any even the worst of my Predecessours But I have ever held that the lowest depth of Baseness to frame Religion to
said that I did often wish from my Heart that His Majesty had kept the Army which he had at Barwick together but Eight or Ten Days longer And that I did not doubt but that if he had so done he might have had more Honourable Conditions of his Scottish Subjects This I said and more or otherwise I said not and whosoever shall relate them otherwise forgets Truth Now to say that His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions doth not infer that the Pacification then made was upon Dishonourable Conditions but only upon less Honourable than it might have been And I had great Reason to observe my own words and remember them because I saw some Lords at the Table touched with them perhaps in their own Particulars Nor was I alone in this Judgment For my Lord the Earl of Holland though he then said nothing at the Council-Table yet at his first return from Barwick his Lordship did me the Honour to come and see me at Lambeth And in the Gallery there while we were discoursing of the Affairs in the North of himself he used these words to me That His Majesty did too suddenly dissolve his Army there indeed so suddenly that every body wondered at it And that for his part he was so sorry especially for the dismissing of all the Horse which he said were as good as any were in Christendom And farther that he offer'd His Majesty to keep one Thousand of them for a Year at his own and his Friends Charge till the King might see all things well setled again in Scotland By which it is apparent that in his Lordships Judgment things might have been better had not that Army been so suddenly dissolved And I hope it was no Sin in me to wish the best success and the most Honour to the King's Affairs Now that which moved me to say thus at the Council-Table was this The last Article in the Pacification was To restore to every one of His Majesties Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time But within two Days or three at the most after the Pacification agreed upon and concluded the Lord Lindsay made an open and publick Protestation either in the Camp at Dunns or at the 〈◊〉 in Edenburgh or both that no Clergy Man his Goods or Means was included in the Pacification Which yet expresses every one of His Majesties Subjects And this I did then conceive and do still was a very bold audacious Act of that Lord very injurious to the Poor Clergy and not so Honourable for the King And this made me say and I say it still His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions and his Pacification better kept had he continued his Army but Eight or Ten Days longer For in all probability the Scots could not so long have continued their Army together And I did farther conceive that by this Act of the Lord Lindsay in protesting and by the Scots making his Protestation good against the Clergy there was a direct and manifest Breach of the Pacification on their behalf And then though I saw no Reason why the King should be bound to keep that mutual Pacification which they had broken for a Knot must be fast at both ends or loose at both Yet remembring my Calling I did not Incense His Majesty against his Subjects in Scotland nor did hereupon advise the undertaking of an Offensive War against them nor ever give other Counsel in this Particular than what I openly gave before the Lords either in the Committee or at the Board And there my Concurring in Opinion with all the rest of the Lords was I hope no other nor no greater fault than in them though I be thus singled out And for the Pacification I shall say thus much more Though I could with all my Heart have wished it more Honourable for the King and more express and safe for my Brethren of the Clergy yet all things Considered which were put unto me I did approve it For before the Pacification was fully agreed upon His Majesty did me the Honour to write unto me all with his own Hand In this Letter He Commanded me all delay set apart to send him my Judgment plainly and freely what I thought of the Pacification which was then almost ready for conclusion I in all Humility approved of the Pacification as it was then put to me and sent my Answer presently back and my Reasons why I approved it Little thinking then but that my Poor Brethren the Bishops of Scotland should have had all restored unto them according to the Article of the Pacification before recited or at least for so long till they had defended themselves and their Calling and their Cause in a free General Assembly and as free a Parliament Now this was ever assumed to me should be done and to procure this was all which the Bishops seemed to desire of me And for the Truth of this I appeal to His Majesty to whom I writ it And to my Lord Marquess Hamilton to whom the King shewed my Letter As my Lord Marquess himself told me at his return And to Dr. Juxon Lord Bishop of London then Lord High Treasurer of England to whom I shewed my Letter before I sent it away And this is all I did concerning the Pacification 14. That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Trayterous Courses he hath laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliament and the Ancient Course of Parliamentary proceedings And by false and malicious Slanders to incense His Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Counsels and Actions he hath Trayterously and contrary to his Allegiance laboured to alienate the Hearts of the Kings Liege People from his Majesty to set a Division between them and to 〈◊〉 and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms For which they do impeach him of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity I did never Labour to subvert the rights of Parliaments or the antient Course of their Proceedings And not doing it at all I could not do it to keep my self from being questioned Much less did I by any malitious Slanders or any other way incense his Majesty against Parliaments nor ever thereby labour to alienate the Hearts of the King's Liege People from his Majesty nor to set any Division between them or to Ruine and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms And am no way Guilty in the least Degree of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity It is true I have been much and very often grieved to see the great distractions which have happened of later Years both in King James his time and since about the Breaches which have been in Parliaments And I have as heartily wished and to my Power endeavoured that all Parliaments which have been called might come to their Happy Issue and end in the Contentment of
Gifts were great but that I perverted them all And that I was guilty of Treason in the highest Altitude These were the Liveries which he liberally gave me but I had no mind to wear them And yet I might not desire him to wear this Cloth himself considering where I then stood and in what Condition This Treason in the Altitude he said was in my Endeavour to alter the Religion established by Law and to subvert the Laws themselves And that to effect these I left no way unattempted For Religion he told the Lords That I laboured a Reconciliation with Rome That I maintained Popish and Arminian Opinions That I suffered Transubstantiation Justification by Merits Purgatory and what not to be openly Preached all over the Kingdom That I induced Superstitious Ceremonies as Consecrations of Churches and Chalices and Pictures of Christ in Glass-Windows That I gave liberty to the Prophanation of the Lords-day That I held Intelligence with Cardinals and Priests and endeavoured to ascend to Papal Dignity Offers being made me to be a Cardinal And for the Laws he was altogether as Wild in his Assertions as he was before for Religion And if he have no more true sense of Religion than he hath knowledge in the Law though it be his Profession I think he may offer both long enough to Sale before he find a Chapman for either And here he told the Lords That I held the same Method for this which I did for Religion And surely that was to uphold both had the Kingdom been so happy as to believe me But he affirmed with great Confidence That I caused Sermons to be Preached in Court to set the Kings Prerogative above the Law and Books to be Printed to the same effect That my Actions were according to these Then he fell upon the Canons and discharged them upon me Then that I might be guilty enough if his bare Word could make me so he Charged upon me the Benevolence the Loan the Ship-money the Illegal pulling down of Buildings Inclosures saying that as Antichrist sets himself above all that is called God so I laboured to set the King above all that is called Law And after a tedious stir he concluded his Speech with this That I was like Naaman the Syrian a great Person he confessed but a Leper So ended this Noble Celeustes I was much troubled to see my self in such an Honourable Assembly made so vile Yet seeing all Mens Eyes upon me I recollected my self and humbly desired of the Lords two things One that they would expect Proof before they give up their Belief to these loud but loose Assertions Especially since it is an easie thing for Men so resolved to Conviciate instead of Accusing when as the Rule given by Optatus holds firm Quum intenditur Crimen when a Crime is objected especially so high a Crime as this Charged on me 't is necessary that the Proof be manifest which yet against me is none at all The other that their Lordships would give me leave not to Answer this Gentleman's Particulars for that I shall defer till I hear his Proofs but to speak some few things concerning my self and this grievous Impeachment brought up against me Which being yielded unto me I then spake as follows My Lords my being in this Place and in this Condition recalls to my memory that which I long since read in Seneca Tormentum est etiamsi absolutus quis fuerit Causam dixisse 'T is not a grief only no 't is no less than a Torment for an ingenuous Man to plead Criminally much more Capitally at such a Bar as this yea though it should so fall out that he be absolved The great truth of this I find at present in my self And so much the more because I am a Christian And not that only but in Holy Orders And not so only but by Gods Grace and Goodness preferred to the greatest Place this Church affords and yet now brought Causam dicere to Plead and for no less than Life at this Great Bar. And whatsoever the World thinks of me and they have been taught to think more ill than I humbly thank Christ for it I was ever acquainted with Yet my Lords this I find Tormentum est 't is no less than Torment to me to appear in this Place to such an Accusation Nay my Lords give me leave I beseech you to speak plain Truth No Sentence that can justly pass upon me and other I will never fear from your Lordships can go so near me as Causam dixisse to have pleaded for my self upon this occasion and in this Place For as for the Sentence I thank God for it I am at St. Paul's Ward If I have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to die For I bless God I have so spent my time as that I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die Nor can the World be more weary of me than I am of it For seeing the Malignity which hath been raised against me by some Men I have carried my Life in my Hands these divers years past But yet my Lords if none of these things whereof these Men accuse me merit Death by Law though I may not in this Case and from this Bar appeal unto Caesar yet to your Lordships Justice and Integrity I both may and do Appeal not doubting but that God of his Goodness will preserve my Innocency And as Job in the midst of his Affliction said to his mistaken Friends so shall I to my Accusers God forbid I should justifie you till I Dye I will not remove my Integrity from me I will hold it fast and not let it go my Heart shall not reproach me as long as I live My Lords I see by the Articles and have now heard from this Gentleman that the Charge against me is divided into two main Heads the Laws of the Land and the Religion by those Laws established For the Laws first I think I may safely say I have been to my Understanding as strict an Observer of them all the Days of my Life so far as they concern me as any Man hath and since I came into Place I have followed them and been as much guided by them as any Man that sat where I had the Honour to sit And for this I am sorry I have lost the Witness of the Lord Keeper Coventry and of some other Persons of Honour since Dead And the Learned Councel at Law which attended frequently at the Council Table can Witness some of them that in References to that Board and in Debates arising at the Board I was usually for that part of the Cause where I found Law to be And if the Councel desired to have their Clyents Cause referred to the Law well I might move in some Cases for Charity or Conscience to have admittance but to the Law I left them if thither they would go And
to give an easie Account for this But whereas I said the Repair of St. Pauls was a strange piece of Treason And they presently Replyed that they did not Charge the Repair upon me but the Manner of doing it by demolishing of Mens Houses To that I Answered as follows with this first that the Work hath cost me above One Thousand and two Hundred Pounds out of my own Purse besides all my Care and Pains and now this heavy Charge to boot No one Man offering to prove that I have Mis-spent or diverted to other use any one Penny given to that work or that I have done any thing about it without the Knowledge Approbation and Order of his Majesty or the Lords of the Council or both To the Particulars then For the three Orders taken out of the Council-Books I shall not need to repeat them But what is the Mystery that these Orders are reckoned backward the last first Is it to aggravate as if it rose by steps That cannot well be because the first Order is the Sourest if I conceive it right Besides here was real Composition allotted for them and that by a Committee named by the Lords not by me And I think it was very real for it Cost Eight or Nine Thousand Pounds as appears upon the Accounts meerly to take down the Houses which had no Right to stand there before we could come at the Church to Repair it And if any thing should be amiss in any of these which is more than I either know or believe they were the Council's Orders not mine And shall that be urged as Treason against me which is not Imputed to them so much as a Misdemeanour Besides the Lords of the Council are in the ancient Constitution of this Kingdom one Body and whatsoever the Major Part of them concludes is reputed the Act of the whole not any one Man's And this I must often Inculcate because I see such Publick Acts like to be heaped upon my Particular 1. The first Witness about this Business of St. Pauls is Mich. Burton and 't is charged that his House was pulled down in King James's time That he was Promised relief but had none That hereupon he got a Reference from his Majesty that now is and came with it to the Council and was referred to the Committee That Sir Hen. Martin told him that the Arch-Bishop was his hinderance That he resorted to me and that I bid him go to King James for his Recompence To this my Answer was That this House which he says was his was as is confessed by himself taken down in King James's Time when an attempt was made about the Repair of this Cathedral but nothing done If he desired satisfaction he was to seek it of them who took down his House not of me If his Majesty that now is gave him a Reference he was by the Lords of the Council or by me if to me it were Referred to be sent to the Sub-Committee because Satisfaction for each House was to be Ordered by them Nor had I any Reason to take it on my Care which was done so long before He says that Sir Henry Martin told him that I hindred him But that 's no Proof that Sir Hen Martin told him so For 't is but his Report of Sir Henry Martin's Speech And I hope Sir Henry neither did nor would do me such apparent Wrong He was the third Man to whom I brake my Intentions touching the Repair and the Difficulties which I foresaw I was to meet with And he gave me all Encouragement And it may be when nothing would satisfie the eager Old Man I might bid him go to King James for Recompence but 't is more than I remember if I did so And this Man is single and in his own Case and where lyes the Treason that is in it Besides least Consideration was due to this House For not many Years before the Demolishing of it it was Built at the West End of St. Pauls for a Lottery it was said to be the House of one Wheatly and after the Lottery ended finished up into a Dwelling-House to the great annoyance of that Church The Bishop and Dean and Chapter being asleep while it was done 2. The next Charge about St. Pauls was Witnessed by Mary Berry That her Husband was fain to set up his Trade elsewhere and that every Man reported the Bishop was the Cause of it Her Husband was forced by this Remove to set up his Trade elsewhere so she says And perhaps in a better Place and with Satisfaction sufficient to make him a better Stock Where 's the Wrong Beside she is single and in her own Cause and no Proof but that every Man reported the Bishop was the means to remove him And it is Observable that in King James his Time when the Commission issued out for the demolishing of these very Houses the Work was highly applauded and yet no Care taken for Satisfaction of any Private Mans Interest That now great Care hath been taken and great Sums of Money Expended about it yet I must be a Traytor and no less for doing it This makes me think some Party of Men were heartily angry at the Repair it self though for very Shame it be turned off upon the demolishing of the Houses 3. The next that came in was Tho Wheeler He says that his House was pulled down by the Committee by my Direction above Eleven Years ago And that Word was brought him of it His House was pulled down but himself confesses it was by the Committee It was he says above eleven Years ago and the time limited in that Article is Six Years He says that Word was brought him that I was the Cause or gave the Direction Word was brought him but he Names not by whom nor from whom so all this Proof is a single Hearsay of he knows not whom Whereas I had the Broad-Seal of England for all that was done It was replyed here That for demolishing of these Houses the King's Commission was no full and legal Warrant I should have procured Authority from Parliament I replyed to this Interruption That Houses more remote from the Church of St. Pauls were pulled down by the King's Commission only in K. Ed. 3. time and humbly desired a Salvo might be entered for me till I might bring the †Record which was granted 4. The last Instance for this Charge of St. Pauls was the House of W Wakern who Witnessed that he had a Hundred Pound recompence for his House but then was after Fined in the High-Commission-Court 100 l. for Prophanation of which he paid 30 l. To this I gave this Answer That his Charge is true and that after he had received 100 l. Composition the Cry of the Prophanation brought him into the High-Commission It was thus The Skulls of Dead-Men perhaps better than himself were tumbled out of their Graves into his Draught and part of the Foundation of the
I. 11 Then he says That at last Mr. Holt came to him but was threatned that very Afternoon for it But he doth not tell your Lordships by whom and for my part more than civil giving him the time of the Day I never spake with him in all my Life 12 He tells your Lordships next how he passed through Coventry to which I have spoken already and how through Chester and how some Chester men were used concerning him and his entertainment But my Lords whatsoever was done in this was by the High-Commission at York and if any thing be therein amiss they must answer that did it 13 Lastly he spake of sending Sir William Balfore to me and some other like Particulars Of all which there is no Proof but a bare Relation what Mr. Hungerford Mr. Ingram and Sir William Balfore said which is all Hearsay and makes no Evidence unless they were present to Witness what is said And here give me leave to observe that Mr. Pryn hath in this Charge woven together all that he cou'd say concerning both Causes for which he was Censured For in the third Particular he speaks of his Book for which he was first Censured and in the Ninth and Tenth of his Cross-Bill and the like which were in his second Cause 6. The sixth Witness was Mr. Burton a Party too For that which he said agreeable to Mr. Pryn it received the same Answer And he added nothing new but that his Wife was kept from him by Warrant from the Lords And if it was by the Lords Order then was it not by me And when it was replyed that till he was Sentenced to Garnsey his Wife had access to him Mr. Burton answered Yea but my Lords she was not suffered to be with me at Nights At which the Lords fell a Laughing and there ended his Charge 7. The last Witness was Mrs. Bastwick And she also said nothing different from Mr. Pryn but that she was kept from her Husband and that she Petitioned the Lords about it But of me in particular not one Word And though Mr. Brown in his last Reply upon me said The Time of these Mens Censure was the noted Time of the Oppression of the Subjects Liberty yet I shall crave leave to say of these Men as S. Augustin once said of two great Donatists in his time who it seems had received some Sentence and afterwards a return not altogether unlike these Men They were Felicianus and Pretextatus of those thus S. Augustin If these Men were Innocent why were they so Condemned And if they were Guilty why were they with such Honour returned and received This applies it self And here I am willing to put the Reader in Mind too that Mr. Brown drawing up an exact Summ of my Charge and pressing it hard against me to my Remembrance and I think my Notes could not have slipped it passed by this Charge concerning Mr. Pryn and I cannot but think he had some Reason for it This tedious Charge being over the World ran round and I was brought back again to another Charge about demolishing the Houses at St Pauls and here three Witnesses more came against me 1. The first was Mr. Bently He said there were above Sixty Houses pulled down I Answered I know not the number but if there were so many the Recompence given was sufficient for more He said farther That there was Twenty Yards between the Church and some of the Houses There were very few if any such let him look to his Oath but then some were close upon the Wall of the Church And suppose all had been Twenty Yards distant that was not room enough to bring in and Lodge Materials for the Repair and to turn the Carriages And here again I made mention of my Salvo before desired for the Record of Ed. 3. touching the like Buildings and their Demolition 2. The second Witness was Mr. Goare For the Sixty Houses as was before testified I gave the same Answer as also that the Act of the Council-Table cannot be said to be my Act. For St. Gregory's Church they were not left without a Place for Divine Service as he would fain have it thought For they were assigned to a part of Christ-Church till another Church might be built for them And for the pulling down of St. Gregory's 't is well known to divers of that Parish that I was not so much as one of the Referees to whose view and consideration it was referred But the Truth is this Man Rented the Parsonage-House and had a good Penniworth of it to gain by his Under-Tenant The going down of that House troubles him and not the Church 3. The Third Witness Walter Biggs says nothing different from the two former but that I said I was opposed for the pulling down of the Houses Whence it was inferred that it was my Act because I was opposed But my Lords I hope I might say I was Opposed without any Offence or without taking the Order of the Council-Table to my self For 't is well known the Work of that Repair under God was mine and I took no indirect no oppressing Way to it nor can I now be ashamed of that which in future times in despight of the present Malice will be my Honour So that the Care of the Work lying upon me I might well say I was opposed though the Opposition went higher against the Orders of the Lords The last Charge of this Day was about the putting down of two Brewers in Westminster because the Excessive and Noysom Smoak from thence much annoyed the King's House Gardens and Park at St. James These two were Mr Bond and Mr Arnold 1. For Mr. Bond he begins with somewhat that I should say at the Council-Table As Namely that he must Seal a Bond of two Thousand Pounds to Brew no more with Sea-Coal Now this argues if I did so speak that it was in delivering to him the Sense of the Board which Office as I have before expressed and is well known was usually put upon me if I were present And your Lordships may here again see what Envy hath followed me upon that which I could not decline He says farther that upon this Mr. Attorney Banks proceeded against him in the Exchequer That there upon some occasion the Lord Chief Baron should say ye are wise Witnesses for the King That his Councel were forbid to Plead and so a Verdict passed for the King All this is nothing to me I was neither Chief Baron nor Witness nor one of the Jury that gave the Verdict He says he was informed that there was an Order of Council made that no Man should put up a Petition for him But himself doth not so much as mention that this Order was procured by me And it is but a Report that no Petition might be delivered for him and none of them that told him so produced for proof So he scandalizes the Lords by Hearsay Next he says
opened it so wide in the other when we moved to defend our selves and our Proceedings Where I humbly desire this Passage of the Law may be considered In the Case of depraving the Common-Prayer Book so much Scorned and Vilified at this Day and for not coming to Church The Words of the Law are For due Execution hereof the Queens most Excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled do in God's Name earnestly require and Charge all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour to the uttermost of their Knowledge that the due and true Execution hereof may be had throughout their Diocesses and Charges as they will answer before God c. Now if I do not this here 's an apparent Breach of the Law And if I do it against this common and great Depraver of this Book then the Judge who by this Law should assist me Cries O the Bishop and this Answer I gave Mr. Browne when he Summ'd his Charge against me The Fifth Charge of this Day was Mr. John Ward 's Case in a Suit about Symony in the High Commission He says for he also is in his own Cause That upon a pretence of a Lapse by Symony I procured a Presentation from the King to the Church of Dinnington His Majesty trusted me with the Titles which did accrew to him in that kind and because Symony had been so rife Commanded me to be careful I might not betray this Trust and therefore the Symony being offer'd to be proved I procured his Majesties Presentation for Tryal of the Title And this I conceive was no Offence Though this be that which he calls the heaviness of my Hand upon him He farther says That I sent to the Bishop of Norwich to admit the King's Clerk the Church being void 7. Junij 1638. Nor do I yet see my Lords what Crime it is in me trusted especially as before to send to the Bishop to admit when the Church is void Many Lay Patrons do that upon Allegation of Symony before Proof And Mr. Bland produced as a Witness also says that the Lord Goring prevailed with the Lord Bishop of Norwich not to admit And I hope an Arch-Bishop and trusted therein by his Majesty may as lawfully write to the Ordinary for Admission of the King's Clerk as any Lay-Lord may write against it But Mr. Ward says nothing to this of the Lord Goring but adds That Sir John Rowse prevented this Admission by a Ne admittas Junij 12. And that thereupon I said it was to no purpose for us to sit there if after a long Tryal and Judgment given all might be stopped If I did say so I think it is a manifest Truth that I spake For it were far better not to have Symony tryed at all in Ecclesiastical Courts than after a long Tryal to have it called off into Westminster-Hall to the double Charge and trouble of the Subject But if the Law will have it otherwise we cannot help that Nor is this Expression of mine any Violation of the Law Then he says a Letter was directed from the Court of the High Commission to the Judges to revoke the Ne admittas and that I was forward to have the Letter sent How forward soever I was yet it is confessed the Letter was sent by the Court not by me And let the Letter be produced it shall therein appear that it was not to revoke the Ne Admittas but to desire the Judges to consider whether it were not fit to be revoked considering the Church was not void till Junij 14. And it hath been usual in that Court to Write or send some of their Body to the Temporal Judges where they conceive there hath been a Misinformation or a mistake in the Cause the Judges being still free to judge according to Law both for the one and the other And here he confesses the Writ of Ne admittas was revoked by three Judges and therefore I think Legally But here he hopes he hath found me in a Contradiction For when I writ to the Bishop of Norwich Junij 7. 1638. I there said the Church was void whereas this Letter to the Judges says it was not void till Junij 14. But here is no Contradiction at all For after the Tryal past and the Symony proved the Church is void to so much as the Bishop's giving of Institution and so I writ Junij 7. But till the Sentence was pronounced in open Court and Read the Church was not void as touching those Legalities which as I humbly conceive do not till then take place in Westminster-Hall And the Reading of the Sentence was not till Junij 14. However if I were mistaken in my own private Letter to the Bishop yet that was better thought on in the Letter from the High Commission to the Judges He says lastly That upon a Quare Impedit after taken forth it was found that the King had no Right Why my Lords if different Courts judge differently of Symony I hope that shall not be imputed to me In the Court where I sate I judged according to my Conscience and the Law and the Proof as it appeared to me And for Dr. Ryve's his Letter which he says was sent to the Cursitor to stop the Ne admittas Let Dr. Ryves answer it The Witness himself confesses that Dr. Ryves says the Command to the Cursitor was from the Lord Keeper not from me And here ends the Treason against Mr. Ward and till now I did not think any could have been committed against a Minister Then follow'd the Case of Ferdinando Adams his Excommunication and the Suits which followed it As it will appear in the Witnesses following which were four 1. The first was Mr Hen. Dade the Commissary then before whom the Cause began And he confesses He did Excommunicate Adams for not blotting out a Sentence of Scripture which the said Adams had caused to be written upon the Church-Wall as in many Churches Sentences of 〈◊〉 are written But he tells your Lordships too that this Sentence was My House shall be called the House of Prayer but ye have made it a Den of Thieves The Commissary's Court was kept as usually it is at or toward the West-end of the Church And just over the Court Adams had written this Sentence upon the Wall meerly to put a scorn and a scandal though I hope an unjust one upon that Court He was commanded to blot it out He would not because it was Scripture as if a Man might not Revile and Slander nay speak Treason too if he will be so wicked and all in Scripture-Phrase Witness that lewd Speech lately utter'd To your Tents O Israel c. Upon this he was Excommunicated and I cannot but think he well deserved it For the Suit which followed against Mr. Dade in the Star-Chamber the Motion that Mr. Attorney would leave him to the common Prosecutor
I may write to any Judge for Information And there is nothing Peremptory in the Letter The Words are If things be rightly suggested But howsoever the Letter is Dell's and if he have done amiss in it he is here present to Answer And it will be a hard business with Men of Honour if when any Lord shall Command his Secretary to Write and give him Directions for the Matter he shall afterwards be answerable for every slip of his Secretary's Pen especially in so high a way as 't is Charged on me But the best is here 's nothing amiss that I know CAP. XXVII The Sixth Day of my Hearing THE First Charge of this Day concerned the Censure Deprivation and Imprisonment of Mr Huntly The Witnesses produced are Four 1. Mr. Merifield comes on first He says That himself was Committed by the Lords of the Council and that there I said that he the said Merifield deserved to be laid by the Heels and to be called into the Star-Chamber This Man was as I take it Mr Huntly's Attorney and if I did speak those Words concerning him surely his Words and Carriage deserved it Else I am confident the Lords would not have Committed him for a naked and an orderly following of his Clyent 's Cause especially in the presence of two Judges Justice Jones and Justice Crook who he says himself were present And this Answer I gave Mr Brown who in the Sum of his Charge against me omitted not this Case of Mr Merifield for so was this Attorney's Name 2. The next Witness is Mr Huntly himself He says That I said unto him that he being an Ecclesiastical Person and in an Ecclesiastical Cause ought not to decline the Church-Censure Then followed his Imprisonment and his Action for false Imprisonment and the rest of his proceedings In all which the High-Commission proceeded against him and he proceeded against the High-Commissioners nothing done by me or against me in particular So nothing of this Charge falls upon me but the Words and for them they are very far from offering to Exempt any Clergyman him or other from the Temporal Laws it things cognizable by them But I humbly conceive his Oath of Canonical Obedience considered that he ought not to decline the Ecclesiastical Judicature in things meerly Ecclesiastical And if in this my Judgment I do Err yet it is Error without Crime And surely my Lords no Treason 3. The Third Witness is John Dillingham He says That Mr Huntly moved before the Lord Chief Justice Richardson and that the Judge replyed By his Faith he durst not do him Justice To this my Lords I answer Here 's never a Word that he durst not do him Justice for fear of me that 's not said by the Witness and ought not by Conjectures be inforced against me But howsoever if he spake those Words the more shame for him He is Dead and I will not rake into his Grave but if he so spake it seems he was none of those Judges which Jethro advised Moses to make for the ease of himself and the good of the People Mr Brown in summing up of his Charge pressed this Speech of the Judge hard upon me which inforces me to add thus much more That this 〈◊〉 lays it hard upon the Judge not upon me For no Proof is offered that I did Solicit him in that Cause And if he wanted Courage to do Justice why sat he there 4. The Fourth Witness was Mr Pit a sworn Officer he says The Order concerning Mr Huntly was from the Council and that there was then a full Board So this was no single Act of mine He says farther That he was not simply Prohibited but only till he had acquainted the Lord Keeper with it or those Judges whose Courts it concerned And this was so Ordered as I concelve to remedy the tedious and troublesome Interpositions of Mr Huntly Where it is not unfit for me to inform your Lordships that this Cause of Mr Huntly's was in my Predecessor Arch-Bishop Abbot his time I had nothing to do in it but as any other ordinary Commissioner then present had And here at the entring upon my Answers this Day I did in general put the Lords in mind that nothing of late times was done either in Star-Chamber or at Council-Table which was not done in King James and Queen Elizabeth's Times before I was born and that many Parliaments have been since and no Man accused of Misdemeanour for things done there much less of Treason Nor is there any one Witness that hath charged me That that which I did was to overthrow the Laws or to introduce Arbitrary Government That 's only the Construction made on 't at the Bar which as it is without all Proof for any such Intention so I am confident they shall answer for it at another Bar and for something else in these Proceedings Then followed the Charge about Prohibitions In which are many Particulars which I shall take in Order as the several Witnesses Charge them upon me 1. The First is Mr Pryn. He says That An 4 Caroli he brought a Prohibition and that thereupon I should say Doth the King give us Power and then are we prohibited Let us go and Complain First If this were An 4 Caroli it was long before the Article so that I could neither expect the Charge nor provide the Answer Secondly I humbly conceive there 's no Offence in the Words For if a Prohibition be unjustly granted upon Misinformation or otherwise or if we do probably conceive it is ill grounded I hope 't is no Sin to complain of it to the King the Fountain of Justice in both Courts Yea but he says farther That I said I would lay him by the Heels that brought the next And this Mr Burton witnesses with him First if I did say so they were but a few hasty Words For upon second thoughts it was not done Next I desire your Lordships to consider what manner of Witness Mr Burton is who confesses here before your Lordships that he brought the next with a purpose to tempt me You know whose Office that is and so Mr Burton hath abundantly shewed himself and proclaimed his Religion 3. As for Mr Comes he says just the same with Mr Pryn and I give the same Answer Then about taking down of a Pew in a Church in London my Notes are uncertain for the Name which Pew was set above the Communion Table That I required to have it pulled down That they came to me to have an Order for it and that thereupon I should say You desire an Order of Court that you may have it to shew and get a Prohibition But I will break the Back of Prohibitions or they shall break mine And this is joyntly Witnessed by Mr Pocock and Mr Langham And this they say was Thirteen or Fourteen Years ago Excellent Memories that can punctually swear Words so long after But my Lords
his Province to the King for the Year 1637. In Dei Nomine Amen May it please Your most Gracious Majesty ACcording to your Commands in your Instructions Published for the good of the Clergy and my bounden Duty I here present my Annual Account for the Province of Canterbury for the Year last past 1637. And First to begin with mine own Diocess I must give your Majesty to understand that at and about Ashford in Kent the Separatists continue to hold their Conventicles notwithstanding the Excommunication of so many of them as have been discovered They are all of the poorer sort and very simple so that I am utterly to seek what to do with them Two or three of their principal Ringleaders Brewer Fenner and Turner have long been in Prison and it was once thought fit to proceed against them by the Statute for Abjuration But I do much doubt they are so ignorantly wilful that they will return into the Kingdom and do a great deal more hurt before they will again be taken And not long since Brewer slipt out of Prison and went to Rochester and other parts of Kent and held Conventicles and put a great many simple People especially Women into great Distempers against the Church He is taken again and was called before the High Commission where he stood silent but in such a jeering scornful manner as I scarce ever saw the like So in Prison he remains In the Churchyard of the same Town a Butcher's Slaughter-House opened to the great Annoyance of that place which I have commanded should be remedied and the Door shut up At Biddenden I have Suspended Richard Warren the School-Master for refusing the Oath of Allegiance of Canonical Obedience and to Subscribe to the Articles Besides this precise Man will read nothing but Divinity to his Scholars No not so much as the Grammar Rules unless Mars Bacchus Apollo and Pol AEdepol may be blotted out The Strangers in Canterbury do not so much resort to their Parish-Churches as formerly they did at my first giving of my Injunctions But Visiting this Year I have given a publick and strict Charge that the Delinquents be presented and punished if they do not their Duty in that behalf There is one dwelling in Addisham a Married Man called by the Name of Thomas Jordan He was formerly called Thomas Mounton because he was found in the Church Porch of Mounton in Swadling Clothes left there in all likelyhood by his Mother who was some Beggar or Strumpet It is believed he was never Christned I have therefore given Order that he shall be Christned with that Caution which is prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer where the Baptism is doubtful About Sittingborn there are more Recusants than in any other part of my Diocess And the Lady Roper Dowager is thought to be a great means of the increase of them But I have given strict charge that they be carefully presented according to Law There is still a remainder of Schismaticks in Egerton and the Parishes adjacent But they are as mean People as those about Ashford and I am as much to seek what to do with them My Lord Treasurer complains that he hath little assistance of his Archdeacons and I believe it to be true and shall therefore if your Majesty think fit cause Letters to be written to them to awake them to their Duties His Lordship likewise complains of some inconformable Men which his Chancellor hath met with in this his last Visitation but they have received such Censure as their Faults deserved or else submitted themselves Only Mr. John Knolles a Lecturer at Colchester had forborn to receive the Holy Communion for two Years since he came to be Lecturer And being enjoyned to perform that Duty within a Month he was so zealous as that he forsook Lecture and Town and all rather than he would receive the Communion I find likewise in this Account 28 Ministers Convented before the Chancellor for some Inconformities And five for excess in Drinking But there is as good Order taken with them as could be The Lectures in this Diocess continue many But there is great care taken to keep them in order I find in the Diocess of Winchester divers Recusants newly pretended But whether they be newly perverted doth not appear by my Lord the Bishops Account to me There are some five complained of for not Catechising which I shall require of the Bishop to see remedied Here my Lord the Bishop Certifies that he is very careful and sees all things done according to your Majesty's Instructions My Lord the Bishop of this Diocess dyed before the time came that he was to give up his Accounts so that I can relate nothing upon certainty but shall give the succeeding Bishop Charge to be very careful because his Predecessor lay languishing and was able to look to little for three whole Years before his Death The Account from hence is very brief But my Lord is confident that his Diocess is clean through in good Order and I will hope it is so My Lord of Peterburgh hath taken a great deal of pains and brought his Diocess into very good order Only he saith there are three Lecturers in the same one at Northampton but that is read by the Vicar of the place one at Rowel which hath Maintenance allowed and a third at Daventree maintained by the Contribution of the Town And this last I think the Bishop had need take care of This Diocess appears by my Lord's Certificate to be in marvelous good order for all things and a great Reformation hath been wrought there by his Care and Industry For Popish Recusants the number of them is there much decreased neither are any newly presented for Recusancy My Lord the Bishop of Lincoln is not as your Majesty knows in case to make any Return for his Diocess And since the Jurisdiction thereof came by his Suspension into my Hands I have neither had time nor leisure to make any great Inquiry how conformable in Doctrine or Discipline Men in those parts are Yet this I find that both in Buckinghamshire and in Bedfordshire there are many too refractory to all good Order And there are a great number of very poor and miserable Vicarages and Curatships in many parts of this large Diocess and which are almost past all cure and hope of help unless by your Majesties Grace and Favour some may be had My Lord of Norwich hath been very careful of all your Majesty's Instructions And upon the 24th of September last being then in his Diocess and giving Orders he refused to admit five well Learned and well Mannered Men because they wanted a sufficient Title according to the Canon of the Church I find that there are in this Diocess six Lectures namely at Wimondham North-walsham East-Earling Norwich Linn and Bungay But they are all performed by Conformable and Neighbouring Divines and under
so many innocent Souls from imminent Danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in Writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the Hinge of the Business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those Factions with which all Christendom is at this Day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the First Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble reform the State of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the Third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court Businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in Civil Affairs Of the Fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies Men of Inferiour condition who submit themselves to the services of great Men Princes Barons Noblemen Citizens to deceive or corrupt the Minds of their Masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth For scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than Fifty Scottish Jesuits There the said Society hath elected to it self a seat of Iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed Society hath determined to effect an universal Reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said Society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowledgeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarino his Substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the Society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose Bosom these Dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the Residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontif by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarino to work so much the more easily and safely upon the King and Kingdom For none else could so freely circumvent the King as he who should be palliated with the Pope's Authority 6. Master Cuneus did at that time enjoy the Office of the Pope's Legat an universal Instrument of the conjured Society and a serious promoter of the business whose secrets as likewise those of all the other Intelligencers the present good Man the Communicator of all these things did receive and expedite whither the business required Cuneus set upon the chief Men of the Kingdom and left nothing unattempted by what means he might corrupt them all and incline them to the Pontifician Party He inticed many with various Incitements yea he sought to delude the King himself with gifts of Pictures Antiquities Idols and of other Vanities brought from Rome which yet would prevail nothing with the King Having entred familiarity with the King he is often requested at Hamptoncourt likewise at London to undertake the cause of the Palatine and that he would interpose his Authority and by his Intercession persuade the Legat of Colen that the Palatine in the next Diet to treat of Peace might be inserted into the Conditions which verily he promised but performed the contrary He writ indeed that he had been so desired by the King concerning such things yet he advised not that they should be consented to lest peradventure it might be said by the Spaniard that the Pope of Rome had patronized an heretical Prince In the mean time Cuncus smelling from the Arch-Bishop most trusty to the King that the King's Mind was wholly pendulous or doubtful resolved That he would move every Stone and apply his Forces that he might gain him to his party Certainly considing that he had a means prepared For he had a command to offer a Cardinal's Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the Name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him also with higher Promises that he might corrupt his sincere Mind Yet a sitting ocasion was never given whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Arch-Bishop for the Scorpion sought an Egg Free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel likewise by Secretary Windebank The intercession of all which being neglected he did fly the Company or familiarity of Cuneus worse than the Plague He was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank well known to him neither yet was he moved 7. Another also was assayed who hindred access to the detestable wickedness Secretary Cook he was a most bitter hater of the Jesuits from whom he intercepted access to the King he entertained many of them according to their deserts he diligently enquired into their Factions by which means every incitement breathing a Magnetical attractive power to the Popish Party was ineffectual with him for nothing was so dear unto him that might incline him to wickedness Hereupon being made odious to the Patrons of the Conspiracy he was endangered to be discharged from his Office it was laboured for three Years space and at last obtained Yet notwithstanding there remained on the King's part a knot hard to be untied for the Lord Arch-Bishop by his constancy interposed himself as a most hard Rock When Cuneus had understood from the Lord Arch-Bishop's part that he had laboured in vain his Malice and the whole Societies waxed boyling hot Soon after Ambushes began to be prepared wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be taken Likewise a Sentence is passed against the King for whose sake all this business is disposed because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the Popish Religion but especially when he had opened his Mind that he was of this Opinion that every one might be saved in his own Religion so as he be an honest and pious Man 8. To perpetrate the Treason undertaken the Criminal execution at Westminster caused by some Writings of Puritans gave occasion of the first Fire Which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the Papists to the Puritans that if it remained unrevenged it would be thought a blemish to their Religion the Flames of which Fire the subsequent book of Prayers increases 9. In this heat a certain Scottish-Earl called Maxfield if I mistake not was expedited to the Scots by the Popish party with whom two other Scottish Earls Papists held correspondency He ought to stir up the People
and not follow it in his own Name himself confesses was made in open Court by Mr. Bierly and that from me he had no Instructions at all 2. The second Witness is Adams in his own Cause To the place of Scripture I have spoken already And the next that he says is That Sir Nath. Brent in my Visitation commanded the setting of the Communion Table at the upper end of the Chancel That upon his not blotting out the passage of Scripture he had an Action and that his Solicitor was Committed by J. Jones till he relinquished his Suit In all this there is not one word of any thing that I did And for that which Sir Nath. Brent did about placing the Communion Table 't is answered before He says also that when he saw that he must Prosecute his Suit against Commissary Dade in his own Name he left the Kingdom And surely my Lords if he would leave the Kingdom rather than Prosecute his Cause in his own Name 't is more than a sign that his Cause was not very good 3. The third Witness was Mr. Cockshot one of Mr. Attorney Banks his Servants He says that Adams moved him and he Mr. Attorney and that thereupon Mr. Attorney gave his Warrant against Dade By which your Lordships may see how active Mr. Cockshot was against a Church-Officer and in so foul a Scandal He says also that Mr. Dade came to Mr. Attorney and told him that I did not think it fit a Prosecution in such a Cause should be followed in Mr. Attorney's Name First 't is true I did not think it fit nor did Mr. Attorney himself when upon Mr. Bierlye's Motion he fully understood it Secondly the Cause being so scandalous to a Church-Officer I conceive I might so say to Mr. Dade or any other without offence But then thirdly here 's not one word that I sent Mr. Dade to Mr. Attorney about it He came and used my Name so Mr. Cockshot says but not one word that I sent him Lastly he says That Mr. Attorney told him that I blamed him for the business and that thereupon he chid this Witness and sent him to me and that I rebuked him for it but he particularly remembers not what I said Nor truly my Lords do I remember any of this But if I did blame Mr. Attorney for lending his Name in such a Scandalous Cause as this I did as I conceive what became me And if he chid his Man he did what became him And if I rebuked Mr. Cockshot when he was sent to me sure he deserved it and it seems it was with no great sharpness that he cannot remember any thing of it And so I answer'd Mr. Browne when he instanced in this 4. The last Witness was Mr. Pryn who says no Appeal was left him But that under Favour cannot be For if my Courts refused him which is more than I know he might have Appealed to the Delegats He says That he advised Adams to an Action of the Case that he blamed Lechford for deserting the Suit and that he advised him to go to Mr. Attorney So here 's no assistance wanting to Adams but the Church-Officer Mr. Dade must have none Yet I blame not Mr. Pryn because he says he did it as his Councel He says farther That when Adams was put to prefer his Bill in his owne Name that then the Excommunication was pleaded in Bar But he doth not say it was pleaded by me or my Advice nor do I hear him say it was unjustly pleaded And had not Adams been wilful he might have taken off the Excommunication and then proceeded as it had pleased him Then the Charge went on against me about the stop of Mr. Bagshawe the Reader of the Middle-Temple The Witnesses are two Lawyers which accompanied Mr. Bagshawe to Lambeth Mr. White and Mr. Pepys They say that Mr. Bagshawe insisted upon these two points First that a Parliament might be held without Bishops and Secondly that Bishops might not meddle in Civil affairs My Lords these things are now setled by an Act of this Parliament but then they were not And I conceive under Favour that Mr. Bagshawe the Crasiness of these Times considered might have bestowed his time better upon some other Argument And sure no Man can think that either my self or any Church-Governour could approve his Judgment in that Particular And whereas they say that the Lord Keeper Finch and the Lord Privy Seal told them that I was the Man that complained of it to the King and the Lords 'T is most true I did so and I think I had been much to blame if I had not done it And if when they came over to Lambeth about it they heard me tell Mr. Bagshawe as they also say they did that he should answer it in the High-Commission Court next Term I humbly conceive this no great Offence but out of all Question no Treason to threaten the High-Commission to a Reader of the Inns of Court The last Charge of this Day was concerning the Lord Chief Justice Richardson and what he suffered for putting down Wakes and other disorderly Meetings in Sommersetshire at the Assises there holden The single Witness to this is Edward Richardson a Kinsman of the Judges as I suppose He says That Complaints were made to the Judge of Wakes and Feasts of Dedication that his Majesty writ Letters about it to Sir Robert Philips and others They Certify a Command comes by the Lord Keeper to revoke the Order next Assises First 't is not done Then by Command from the Lords of the Council the Judge upon that second Command revokes it but as 't is Certified not fitly In all this here 's not one Word that concerns me Then he says That upon this last Certificate the business was referred to the Lord Marshal and my self and the Judge put from that Circuit I cannot now remember what Report we made But what e're it was the Lord Marshal agreed to it as well as I. Then a Letter of mine was produced of Octob. 4. 1633. But the Letter being openly read nothing was found amiss in it And under your Lordships Favour I am still of Opinion that there is no Reason the Feasts should be taken away for some Abuses in them and those such as every Justice of Peace is able by Law to remedy if he will do his Duty Else by this kind of proceeding we may go back to the old Cure and Remedy Drunkenness by rooting out all the Vines the Wine of whose Fruit causes it As for the Pretences which this Witness spake of they were none of mine as appears Evidently by the Letter it self As an Appendix to these was added a Letter of my Secretary Mr. Dell to Sir John Bridgman Chief Justice of Chester in a Cause of one Ed. Morris It was as I think it appears upon an Incroachment made in the Marches Court upon the Church In which Case I conceive by my Place