but also though it be done as a help to Continency And S. Hilary agrees with this and calls it not a Custom but a Constitution such a Constitution as that if any Man shall advisedly and of set purpose Fast on the Lord's Day by the Decree of the Fourth Council of Carthage he should not be accounted a Catholick And they must needs do it advisedly and of set purpose who appoint a publick solemn Fast upon that Day and then keep it And this was so strictly observed in S. Ambrose his time that it was not held Lawful to Fast upon that Day no not in Lent Nay he goes farther For he says expresly If any Man make a Law or give a Command for Fasting on the Lord's Day he believes not in the Resurrection of Christ. And is not this opposite to Christianity it self And is not that Legem indicere when they Proclaim or Command a Publick Fast With him S. Augustin joyns very fully and first says it is a great Scandal Then he gives the reason of it Because Christ joyned Mourning with Fasting which becomes not this Day unless Men think 't is fit to be sorry that Christ is risen from the Dead And this I am sure is opposite to Christianity it self For if Christ be not Risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain 1. Cor. 15. After this he asks this Question Who doth not offend God if with the Scandal of the whole Church of Christ he will Fast upon the Lord's Day I will not go lower down This is enough if any thing be Yet this I will add that as this Fasting on Sunday was antiently prohibited so was it never practised of old but by notorious and professed Hereticks as by the Manichees who appointed that Day for fasting so S. Aug. and were justly condemned for it so S. Ambrose And by Aerians who Fasted on Sunday and Feasted on Fridays so Epiphanius And by the Priscilianists whom S. Aug. therefore calls the Imitators of the Manichees and so they were indeed For neither of them believed that our Blessed Saviour was a true Man and therefore disregarded the Day of his Resurrection as appears in S. Leo. And as against these the Council held at Caesar-Augusta An. 381. provided so before An. 324. the Council at Gangra made their Canon against Eutactus the Armenian Monk and his Ground was pretence of Abstinence as if he could never Fast enough This is enough and all this is within the compass of the Primitive Church which certainly if these Men did not scorn they would never have urged this against me Well! This is they say drawn out of my fourteen Letters Next they will prove me the Author of many Disturbances among them 2. By two Papers of Memoirs and Instructions from the Pretended Bishop of St. Andrews to the pretended Bishop of Ross coming to this Prelate that is of Canterbury for ordering the Affairs of the Kirk and Kingdom of Scotland It is manifest here by their own Words that these Memorials and Instructions whatsoever they were had not me the Prelate of Canterbury for their prime cause on Earth for they came from the Reverend and Prudent Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews to the Reverend Bishop of Ross by him to deliver to me for the ordering of the Affairs of the Kirk and Kingdom of Scotland Surely I think no Man will judge it to be a Crime in me to give my Bretheren the Bishops of Scotland the Best Counsel and with that Counsel the best Assistance to his Majesty that I could in their Church-Affairs considering their absence and remoteness from him and the Place that I bear about him And for my own part had I been defective therein I should have thought my self not only unkind to them but faulty otherwise in my Duty both to his Majesty and that Church But for the Affairs of that Kingdom though I had the Honour to be a Sworn Counsellor of that State as well as this yet I never medled with them but at such time and in such a way as I was called and commanded to by his Majesty Let us therefore see the Particulars which are Named As not only to obtain Warrants to order the Exchequer the Privy-Council the great Commission of Surrenders The matter of Balmerinoe's Process as might please our Prelates but Warrants also for the sitting of the High-Commission-Court once a Week in Edinburgh and to gain from the Noble-Men for the Benefit of the Prelates and their Adhaerents the Abbacies of Kelsoe Arbroth St. Andrews and Lindores For the first of these my obtaining Warrants to order the Exchequer there that is indeed an Affair of the Kingdom and a great one But all or most that I did herein was at the earnest entreaty of the Earl of Traquair Treasurer Depute and after that Lord Treasurer who avowed to me that if the Orders were setled for the Exchequer he would not only bring the King out of Debt but raise him some Revenue also with a Protestation farther that for that and some such like particulars he could trust no hand but mine in his absence to get them done and kept private And at so great an Officers intreaty and for Matters under his own Charge I could not refuse so much Service for the King as was pretended by him As for Orders to the Privy-Council I remember not any procured by me And sure I am if I did any thing to that Honourable Body it was by his Majesty's Command and in relation to Church Affairs there And for the Great Commission of Surrenders in which both the Bishops and the inferiour Clergy were deeply interessed and did much fear the loss of their Tythes and to be made Stipendiaries I conceive I had all the reason in the World to give them my best assistance and yet I undertook not this Care till his Majesty gave me a special Command to do what I did And if the Bishops were in any thing mistaken in this Commission that cannot charge upon me who followed it no farther than I received special directions from his Majesty for the publick good For the Lord Balmerinoe's Process I heard much discourse of it at Court but I medled nothing with it one way or other saving that at the intreaty of some Men of Honour of that Nation I did twice if not thrice adventure to become an humble Suitor to his Majesty in that Lord's behalf And this was all the Harm I did him As for the High-Commission-Court if there were no fault in it as such a Court then I am sure there could be none in the Sitting of it once a Week If the having of such a Court be a Fault as it seems 't is now accounted as well here as there yet for my own part with all humble Submission to better Judgment I cannot think it is and I must still pray that both Nations
Tyranical Power he went about to establish in the Hands of our Prelates over the Worship of God and the Souls and Goods of Men overturning from the Foundation the whole Order of our Kirk and how large an entry he did make for the grossest Novations afterward which hath been a main Cause of this Combustion This is the last Shot against these Canons and me for them And I conceive this is no great thing For Arbitrary Government is one thing And 't is quite another that wheresoever there is no Penalty expresly set down it is provided that it shall be Arbitrary as the Ordinary shall think fittest which are the words of the Canon For since no Law can meet with all particulars some things must of necessity be left Arbitrary in all Government though that be perfectest and happiest that leaves least Nor is it an unheard of thing to find something Arbitrary in some Canons of the Church which are very antient As in the Council of Eliberis the Punishment of him who was absent from the Church three Sundays was that he should be Abstentus and barred from the Church for some small time that his negligence in the Service of God may seem to be punished But this small Time being not limited is left to Arbitrary Discretion So likewise in the Council of Valence An. 374. The giving of the Sacrament to such as had vowed Virginity and did afterwards Marry was to be deferr'd as the Priest saw Reason and Cause for it and that sure is Arbitrary The like we find in the third Council of Carthage where the Time of Penance according to the quality of the Sin is left to the Discretion of the Bishop And these Councils were all within the fourth Century By all which it is apparent that in Church as well as in State some things may be left Arbitrary and have been in Better and Wiser Times than these of ours Nay 't is confest by one that Writes almost as well as Junius Brutus that there is an Arbitrary Power in every State somewhere and that no Inconvenience follows upon it And the Council of Ancyra inflicting Censures upon Presbyters first and then Deacons which had fallen in time of Persecution yet gives leave to the Bishop to mitigate the Penance at his Discretion Again 't is manifest by the care taken in the preceeding Canons that here 's little or nothing of moment left Arbitrary And then the Ordinary will fall into an Excess more dangerous to himself than his Arbitrary Punishment can be to him that suffers it if he offer to Tyrannize For this Clause wheresoever it is inserted in Canon or Statute as it is in the Statutes of very many Colledges stands but for a Proviso that Disorderly persons may not think they shall escape Punishment if they can cunningly keep off the Letter of the Law And yet so that the Arbitrary Punishment be Regulated by that which is expressed in the Canons or the Statutes for Omissions or Commissions of like nature And therefore that which is inferred upon all this Charge and the Particulars in it Namely That I went about to establish a Tyranical Power in the Hands of their Prelates either over the Worship of God or the Souls and Goods of Men is utterly false and cannot be proved to follow out of any of the Premises Not over the Goods of the People For no Prelate not invested with Temporal Power can meddle with them so that were there any Canon made for that it would be void of it self Nor over the Souls of Men for they are left free in all things save to commit Sin and Disorder which to repress by Canons is and hath been the Church way Much less over the Worship of God For these Canons have laboured nothing so much as to Honour and Establish that in Decency and Uniformity And as for that which follows That these Canons over-turn from the Foundation the whole Order of their Kirk 'T is more than I believe will be proved that they have over-turned any good Order in their Church much less Foundations Though it may be thought by some and perhaps justly that there is so little Order in their Church and that so weakly founded that it may be over-turned with no great stress And for the large Entry made for the Gross Novations afterwards you see what it is And when you have considered the Gross Novations which are said to come after I hope you will not find them very Gross nor any way fit to be alledged as a main Cause of this Combustion Now follows ART III. The third and great Novation which was the Book of Common-Prayer Administration of Sacraments and other parts of Divine Service brought in without Warrant from our Kirk to be Vniversally received as the only Form of Divine-Service under the highest pains both Civil and Ecclesiastical Now we are come to the Arraignment of the Liturgy and the Book of Common-Prayer and this they say was brought in without Warrant from their Kirk If this be true it was the fault of your own Prelates and theirs only for ought I know For though I like the Book exceeding well and hope I shall be able to maintain any thing that is in it and wish with all my Heart that it had been entertained there yet I did ever desire it might come to them with their own liking and approbation Nay I did ever upon all Occasions call upon the Scottish Bishops to do nothing in this Particular but by Warrant of Law And farther I professed unto them before His Majesty that though I had obeyed his Commands in helping to Order that Book yet since I was ignorant of the Laws of that Kingdom I would have nothing at all to do with the manner of introducing it but left that wholly to them who do or should understand both that Church and their Laws And I am sure they told me they would adventure it no way but that which was Legal But they go on And say this Book Is found by our National Assembly besides the Popish Frame and Forms in Divine Worship to contain many Popish Errors and Ceremonies and the Seeds of manifold and gross Superstitions and Idolatries and to be repugnant to the Doctrine Discipline and Order of our Reformation to the Confession of Faith Constitutions of General Assemblies and Acts of Parliament Establishing the true Religion That this was also Canterbury's Work we make manifest This is a great Charge upon the Service-Book indeed But it is in Generals and those only affirmed not proved And therefore may with the same case and as justly be denied by me as they are affirmed by them And this is all I shall say till they bring their Proofs And though this be no more Canterbury's Work than the Canons were yet by their good will I shall bear the burden of all And therefore before they go to prove this great Charge against the Service-Book
I had formerly sent them above 700 Volumes Aug. 1. Thursday His Majesty came back from his Northern Journey to Theobalds and to White-Hall on Saturday Aug. 3. Many Varieties since the Assembly held and ended in Scotland The Bishops thrust out The Parliament there yet sitting Octob. 11. 12. Friday and Saturday The Spanish Navy was set upon by the Hollanders in the Downs The Fight began to be hot when they were past Dover They were in all near 60 Sail. The Spaniards suffered much in that Fight not without our dishonour that they should dare to begin the Fight there But this is one of the effects of the Scottish daring Decemb. 2. Munday A. Sh. my Chyrurgeon in trust gave me great and unexpected ease in my great Infirmity But after the weakness continued Decemb. 5. Thursday The King declared his Resolution for a Parliament in case of the Scottish Rebellion The first Movers to it were my Lord Deputy of Ireland my Lord Marquess Hamilton and my self And a Resolution Voted at the Board to assist the King in extraordinary ways if the Parliament should prove peevish and refuse c. Decemb. 27. Friday Being St John's-day at Night between 12 and 2 of the Clock next Morning the greatest wind that ever I heard blow Many of the poor Watermen at Lambeth had their Boats tumbled up and down as they lay on the Land and broken to pieces One of my Servants went into London and durst not come home the Evening was so foul And it was God's great Blessing both on him and me For that Night the shafts of two Chimneys were blown down upon the Roof of his Chamber and beat down both the Lead and the Rafters upon his Bed where had he been that Night he must have perished At Croydon one of the Pinnacles fell from the Steeple and beat down the Lead and the Roof of the Church near 200 foot square Januar. 24. Friday At Night I dreamed that my Father who died 46 Years since came to me and to my thinking he was as well and as chearful as ever I saw him He asked me what I did here And after some Speech I asked him how long he would stay with me He answered he would stay till he had me away with him I am not moved with Dreams yet I thought fit to remember this Januar. 25. Saturday St. Paul's A very blustering and a tempestuous day Januar. 26. Sunday I received the Queen's Gracious Assurance of her favour in the business which his Majesty had committed to me with others c. February 9. Sunday A large passage inserted and afterwards blotted out Anno 1640. April 13. Munday The Parliament sat down called about the Rebellion of Scotland April 14. Tuesday The Convocation began at Saint Pauls April 24. Friday The hot Contestation in the Lords House which should have precedence the King's Supply or the Subjects Grievance Voted in the upper House for the King May. 5. Tuesday The Parliament ended and nothing done The Convocation continued May 9. Saturday A Paper posted upon the Old-Exchange animating Prentices to sack my House upon the Munday following May 11. early H W From this place four Pages together in the Original are in part burned in the form of a Crescent This damage was done to the Book while it was in Mr Prynne's hands before it was produced as Evidence against the Arch-Bishop at his Trial. For in the following History at March 13 1643. The Arch-Bishop saith I know into whose Hands my Book is fallen but what hath been done with it I know not This is to be seen some passages in that Book are half burnt out whether purposely or by chance God knoweth And the like words of the Arch-Bishop occur afterwards at July 29 1644. That passage of Febr 11 1640. urged against the Arch-Bishop out of his Diary is more than half burnt out as is to be seen whether of purpose by Mr Prynne or casually I cannot tell yet the passage as confidently made up and read to your Lordships as if nothing were wanting It is indeed undeniably evident to any one who compareth the Original with Prynne's Printed Copy that this Accident had befallen the Book before Prynne had caused it to be Transcribed for the Press Yet he taketh no notice of it but filleth up the places with such Words as himself pleaseth and publisheth the whole without any distinction of his own Additions I have partly from Prynne partly from my own conjecture supplied the mutilated places as well as I could but have included all such suppletory Words in Crotchets that so the Reader may easily distinguish those Words which are yet to be Read in the Original from those which are not and may judge whether the several places be aptly filled up May 11. Munday-night At Midnight my House a t Lam beth was beset with 500 of these Rascal Routers I had notice and stren gthened the House as well as I could and God be thanked I had no harm t hey continued there full two hours Since I hav e for tified my House as well as I can and hope all may be safe But yet Libels are continually set up in all places of Note in the City My deliverance was great God make me thankful for it Maij 21. Thursday One of the Chief being taken was Condemned at Southwark and Hanged and Quartered on Saturday Morning following Maij 23. But before this May 15. Some of these mutinous People came in the day time and brake the White-Lyon Prison and let loose their Fellows both out of that Prison and the King's-Bench and 〈◊〉 other Prisoners also out of the White-Lyon Maij 29. Friday The Convocation sate after the ending of the Parliament till May 29. and then ended having made in that time 17. Canons which I hope will be useful to the Church Maij. 29. The Bishop of Glocester Godfrye Goodman suspended for notorious Scandal to the Church in refusing first to subscribe the Canons and after to profess a Reservation He had long before been suspected as inclining to Popery The Canons were all voted Nemine dissenti ente save this Bishop who had in general consented before Julij 10. Friday I took my Oath to the new Canons at the Council-Table and so did my Lord Bishop of London and after him the Bishop of Glocester submitted himself and took the Oath and was released out of Prison by the King's Command Julij 22. Tuesday I Christned the King's young Son Henry at Oatlands The Queen was there happily Delivered of him Julij 8. On Wednesday being the Day of the Solemn Fast about 6. of the Clock in the Evening Aug. 20. Thursday His Majesty took his Journey towards the North in haste upon Information that the Scots were entred the Munday before into England and meant to be at New-Castle by Saturday The Scots entred Aug. 20. Aug. 22. Saturday A vile Libel brought me found in Covent-Garden Ani mating the Apprentices
to be there at Seven in the Morning as if need be I can prove by sufficient Witness and at that Hour I came By this accident I came late and found a Resolution taken to Vote the dissolution of that Parliament and the Votes entred upon my Lord Cottington being in his Speech when I came into the Council-Chamber All Votes concurred to the ending of that Parliament save two The Persons dissenting were the Earls of Northumberland and Holland I co-operated nothing to this breach but my single Vote Yet the very next day Libels were set up in divers parts of the City animating and calling together Apprentices and others to come and meet in St. George's Fields for the Hunting of William the Fox for the Breach of the Parliament This setting up of Libels and animation of the baser People continued I acquainted his Majesty and the Council with it But upon Munday night following being May 11. Five Hundred of them came about my House at Lambeth to offer it and me violence By God's Merciful Providence I had some Jealousie of their intent and before their coming left the best Order I could to secure my House and by the Advice of some Friends went over the water and lay at my Chamber in White-Hall that Night and some other following So I praise God no great hurt was done One young Fellow only had a little hurt with a Dag who was after taken and Executed Thus you see how the malignity of the Time fastned and continued upon me For this Libelling in a very base and most unworthy manner continued against me But not one of them charged me with any one Particular save the breaking of the Parliament of which I was not guilty During this Parliament the Clergy had agreed in Convocation to give his Majesty six Subsidies payable in six Years which came to Twenty Thousand Pound a Year for six Years but the Act of it was not made up His Majesty seeing what lay upon him and what fears there were of the Scots was not willing to lose these Subsidies and therefore thought upon the continuing of the Convocation though the Parliament were ended but had not opened those Thoughts of his to me Now I had sent to dissolve the Convocation at their next sitting haste and trouble of these businesses making me forget that I was to have the King 's Writ for the Dismissing as well as the Convening of it Word was brought me of this from the Convocation-House while I was sitting in Council and his Majesty present Hereupon when the Council rose I moved his Majesty for a Writ His Majesty gave me an unlooked for reply Namely that he was willing to have the Subsidies which we had granted him and that we should go on with the finishing of those Canons which he had given us power under the Broad Seal of England to make And when I replyed it would be excepted against in all likelyhood by divers and desired his Majesty to Advise well upon it The King Answered me presently That he had spoken with the Lord Keeper the Lord Finch about it and that he assured him it was Legal I confess I was a little troubled both at the difficulties of the Time and at the Answer it self that after so many Years faithful Service in a business concerning the Church so nearly his Majesty would speak with the Lord Keeper both without me and before he would move it to me And somewhat I said thereupon which pleased not but the Particulars I do not well remember Upon this I was Commanded to sit and go on with the Convocation At first some little Exception was taken there by two or three of the Lower House of Convocation whether we might sit or no. I acquainted his Majesty with this doubt and humbly besought him that his Learned Council and other Persons of Honour well acquainted with the Laws of the Realm might deliver their Judgment upon it This his Majesty Graciously approved and the Question was put to them They answer'd as followeth under their Hands The Convocation being called by the King 's Writ under the Great Seal doth continue until it be dissolved by Writ or Commission under the Great Seal notwithstanding the Parliament be Dissolved 14. Maij 1640. Jo. Finch C. S. H. Manchester John Bramston Edward Littleton Ralph Whitfield John Bankes Rob. Heath This Judgment of these great Lawyers setled both Houses of Convocation So we proceeded according to the Power given us under the Broad-Seal as is required by the Statute 25 H. 8. Cap. 19. In this Convocation thus continued we made up our Act perfect for the gift of six Subsidies according to Ancient Form in that behalf and delivered it under Seal to his Majesty This passed Nemine Refragante as may appear apud Acta And we followed a President in my Lord Arch-Bishop Whitgift's time An. 1586 who was known to be a Pious and a Prudent Prelate and a Man not given to do boisterous things against the Laws of the Realm or the Prerogative of the Crown but one that went just and fair ways to both Nor did this Grant lye dead and useless for divers Processes are yet to be seen for the fetching in of that which was so Granted to the Queen's use in case any Man refused payment Together with this Act for Subsidies we went on in deliberation for certain Canons thought necessary to be added for the better Government and more setled Peace of the Church which began to be much disquieted by the proceedings of some Factious Men which have since more openly and more violently shewed themselves In the Debates concerning these Canons I dare be bold to say never any Synod sate in Christendom that allowed more freedom either of Speech or Vote The Canons which we made were in number seventeen and at the time of the Subscription no Man refused or so much as checked at any one Canon or any one Branch in any one of them Saving a Canonist or two who excepted against two or three Clauses in some of the last of the Canons which concerned their Profit and their Carriage towards the Clergy in which they were publickly and by joint consent over-ruled in the House And excepting Godfrey Goodman Lord Bishop of Glocester who was startled at the first Canon about the Proceedings against the Papists This Canon is very express for the use of all good and Christian means to bring them out of their Superstitious Errors and to settle them in the Church of England This Canon would not down with my Lord of Glocester And the Morning before the Subscription was to be he came over to Lambeth to me and after great expressions of his dislike I gave him the best Counsel I could that he would keep himself out of that scandal which his refusing to Subscribe would bring both upon his Person his Calling and the Church of England in these broken times especially But I fell so short of
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
was it from all suspition of being so much as built like an Antient Church Now since his Majesty took down these Galleries and the Stone-wall to make St. Giles's Church a Cathedral there certainly my Command took them not down to make way for Altars and Adoration towards the East which I never commanded in that or any other Church in Scotland The Charge goes on ART II. The second Novation which troubled our Peace was a Book of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical obtruded upon our Kirk found by our General Assembly to be devised for Establishing a Tyrannical Power in the Persons of our Prelates over the Worship of God and over the Consciences Liberties and Goods of the People and for Abolishing the whole Discipline and Government of our Kirk by General and Provincial Assemblies Presbyteries and Kirk-Sessions which was setled by Law and in continual practice from the time of Reformation This Charge begins with a General and will come to Particulars after And first it seems they are angry with a Book of Canons Excellent Church-Government it seems they would have that will admit of no Canons to direct or controul their Liberty And if they mean by obtruding upon their Church that the Canons were unduly thrust upon them because that Book was Confirmed by the King's Anthority then 't is a bold Phrase to call it Obtruding For if His Majesty that now is did by his Sole Authority Command the present Book of Canons to the Church of Scotland he did but Exercise that Power which King James challenged did in the right of his Crown belong to him As appears manifestly by a Letter of his to the Prelates of Scotland then Assembled at Perth That Royal Letter is large but very worthy any Mans Reading and is to be seen in the Relation of those Proceedings But because they speak of my Novations if they mean that this Book of Canons was Obtruded upon their Church by me Or if it were found in a Just Synod and upon fair Proceedings to Establish a Tyrannical Power of the Prelates over the Worship of God or the Consciences Liberties or Goods of the People Or for Abolishing any thing that was setled by Laws they had Reason both to be troubled and to seek in a Dutiful manner first rightly to inform His Majesty and then to desire a Remedy from him But if the Book of Canons did really none of these things as for ought I yet know it did not and as I hope will appear when they come to Particulars then this will be no longer a Charge but a Slander And howsoever if any thing in those Canons were Ordered against their Laws it was by our invincible Ignorance and their Bishops fault that would not tell us wherein we went against their Laws if so we did And for my own part I did ever advise them to make sure in the whole Business that they attempted nothing against Law But if their late General Assembly in which they say these things were found to be against Law did proceed Unwarrantably or Factiously as the most Learned Men of that Kingdom avow it did the less heed must and will in future times be given to their Proceedings But before they come to Particulars they think fit to lay Load on me and say That Canterbury was Master of this Work is manifest by a Book of Canons sent to him written upon the one side only with the other side blank for Corrections Additions and putting all in better Order at his pleasure Which accordingly was done as may appear by the Interlinings Marginals and filling up of the Blank Pages with Directions sent to our Prelates I was no Master of this Work but a Servant to it and Commanded thereunto by His Sacred Majesty as I have to shew under his Hand And the Work it self was begun in His Majesties Blessed Fathers Time For the Bishops of Scotland were gathering their Canons then And this is most manifest by a Passage in the Sermon which my Lord the Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Preached before the General Assembly at Perth An. 1618 when I was a private Man and had nothing to do with these things The words are these And when I least expected these Articles that is the five Articles of Perth were sent unto me not to be proponed to the Church but to be inserted amongst the Canons thereof which were then in gathering touching which Point I humbly excused my self c. So this Work was begun and known to that Church long before I had any thing to do with it And now when it came to be Perfected I did nothing but as I was Commanded and Warranted by His Majesty But indeed according to this Command I took a great deal more pains than I have thanks for as it too often falls out with the best Church-Men To this end 't is true a Book of Canons was not sent me but brought by my Lord the Bishop of Ross and delivered to me And if it were written on one side only and left Blank on the other for Corrections or Additions I hope there 's no sin in that to leave room and space for me to do that for which the Book was brought to me As for that which follows it hath less fault in it For they say it was for my putting all in better Order And I hope to put all in better Order is no Crime Censurable in this Court. And whatever they of Scotland think that Church did then need many things to be put in better Order and at this Day need many more Yea but they say this should not be done at my pleasure I say so too Neither was it For whatsoever I thought fit to correct or add in the Copy brought to me I did very humbly and fairly submit to the Church of Scotland And under those Terms delivered it back to the Bishop which brought it with all the Interlinings Marginals and fillings up of Blank Pages and the best Directions I was able to give them And all this was in me Obedience to His Majesty and no Wrong that I know to the Church of Scotland I am sure not intended by me Neither are these Interlinings or Additions so many as they are here insinuated to be for the Bishops of Scotland had been very careful in this Work All which would clearly appear were the Book produced Yet the Charge goes on against me still And that it was done by no other than Canterbury is evident by his Magisterial way of Prescribing and by a new Copy of these Canons all written with S. Andrews own hand precisely to a Letter according to the former Castigations and Directions sent back to procure the King's Warrant unto it which accordingly was obtained By no other Hand than Canterburies is very roundly affirmed How is it proved Why by two Reasons First they say 't is evident by his Magisterial way of Prescribing An Excellent Argument The Book of Canons was delivered to me
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
be made of this Canon what their Reason was they best know I returned Answer belike in this sort That the Canon stood behind the Curtain and would not be throughly understood by every Man yet advised the Printing in regard of the necessary use of it For let this Canon be in force and right use made of it and a National Church may ride safe by God's Ordinary Blessing through any Storm which without this Latitude it can never do The next Charge is in 2. The Title prefixed to these Canons by our Prelates For there 't is thus Canons agreed on to be proponed to the several Synods of the Kirk of Scotland And is thus changed by Canterbury Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical c. Ordained to be observed by the Clergy He will not have Canons to come from the Authority of Synods but from the Power of Prelates or from the Kings Prerogative I perceive they mean to sift narrowly when the Title cannot scape But truly in this Charge I am to seek which is greater in my Accusers their Ignorance or their Malice Their Ignorance in the Charge or their Malice in the Inference upon it The Title was Canons agreed upon to be proponed to the Synods of the Kirk of Scotland And this was very fit to express the Prelates intendment which for ought I know was to propose them so But this Book which was brought to me was to be Printed And then that Title could not stand with any Congruity of Sense For no Church uses to Print Canons which are to be proponed to their Synods but such as have been proposed and agreed on Nor did this altering of the Title in any the least thing hinder those worthy Prelates from Communicating them with their Synods before they Printed them And therefore the Inference must needs be extream full of Malice to force from hence that I would not have Canons come from the Authority of Synods but from the Power of Prelates or the King's Prerogative Whereas most manifest it is that the fitting of this Title for the Press doth neither give any Power to Prelates nor add to the King's Prerogative more than is his due nor doth it detract any thing from the Authority of Synods For I hope the Bishops had no purpose but to Ordain them in Synod to be observed by the Clergy c. and Approved and Published by the King's Consent and Authority After this comes 3. The formidable Canon Cap. 1. 3. threatning no less than Excommunication against all such Persons whatsoever shall open their Mouths against any of these Books proceeded not from our Prelates nor is to be found in Copies sent from them but is a Thunderbolt forged in Canterbury's own Fire First whether this Canon be to be found in the Copies sent from your Prelates or not I cannot tell but sure it was in the Copy brought to me or else my Memory forsakes me very strangely Secondly after all this Noise made of a Formidable Canon because no less is threatned than Excommunication I would fain know what the Church can do less upon Contempt of her Canons Liturgy and Ordinations than to Excommunicate the Offenders or what Church in any Age laid less upon a Crime so great Thirdly suppose this Thunderbolt as 't is called were forged in Canterbury's Fire yet that Fire was not outragious For this Canon contains as much as the 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Canons of the Church of England made in the beginning of the gracious Reign of King James And yet to every one of those Canons there is an Excommunication in Facto affixed for every one of these Crimes single Whereas this Canon shoots this one Thunderbolt but once against them all And this I would my Accusers should know that if no more Thunderbolts had been forged in their Fire than have been in mine nor State nor Church would have Flamed as of late they have done 4 Our Prelates in divers Places witness their dislike of Papists A Minister shall be deposed if he shall Rushw. be found negligent to convert Papists Cap. 8. 15. The Adoration of the Bread is a Superstition to be condemned Cap. 6. 6. They call the Absoluteness of Baptism an Errour of Popery Cap. 6. 2. But in Canterbury's Edition the Name of Papists and Popery are not so much as mentioned Here 's a great general Accusation offered to be made good by three Particulars The general is that in the Copy of the Canons which their Prelates sent there 's a dislike of Papists But none in the Edition as it was alter'd by me Now this is utterly untrue for it is manifest cap. 1. 1. There is express care taken for the King's Majesty's Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and abolishing all Foreign Power repugnant to it And again in the same Canon That no Foreign Power hath in his Majesty's Dominions any Establishment by the Law of God And this with an Addition That the Exclusion of all such Power is just And Cap. 2. 9. 't is Ordained that every Ecclesiastical Person shall take the Oath of Supremacy And Cap. 10. 3. All Readers in any Colledge or Schools shall take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And sure I think 't is no great matter whether Papists or Popery be Named so long as the Canons go so directly against them This for the General Now for the three Particulars And first That which was in Cap. 8. 15. That a Minister shall be deposed if he be found negligent to convert Papists I did think fit to leave out upon these two Grounds The one that the Word Negligent is too general an Expression and of too large an extent to lay a Minister open to Deposition And if Church-Governours to whom the execution of the Canons is committed should forget Christian Moderation as they may Pati humana a very worthy Minister might sometimes be undone for a very little Negligence for Negligence is Negligence be it never so little Besides I have learned out of the Canons of the Church of England that even gross Negligence in a matter as great as this is is punished but with Suspension for three Months The other Ground why I omitted this clause is Because I do not think the Church of Scotland or any other particular Church is so blessed in her Priests as that every of her Ministers is for Learning and Judgment and Temper Able and Fit to convert Papists And therefore I did think then and do think yet that it is not so easie a work or to be made so common but that it is and may be much fitter for some able selected Men to undertake And if any Man think God's Gifts in him to be neglected as Men are apt to overvalue themselves let them try their Gifts and labour their Conversion in God's Name But let not the Church by a Canon set every Man on work lest their Weak or Indiscreet Performance hurt the Cause and blemish the Church The
second Particular is an excellent one 'T is about the Adoration of the Bread in the Blessed Sacrament Cap. 6. 6. And 't is implyed as if this Superstition were condemned in the Copies sent by their Prelates but left out by me Good God! how shameless are these Church-Men for they drew up these Articles against me though the Lay-Commissioners delivered them And was there neither Clergy nor Lay-Man among them so careful as to compare the words of the Charge with the words of the Canon before they would venture to deliver them into so great a Court as the Parliament of England Would not Mr. Alexander Henderson who was the Prime Leader in these Church-Affairs be so careful for himself and his own Reputation as not publickly to deliver in a most Notorious Untruth For most manifest it is that these words As therefore the Adoration of the Bread is condemned c. stand still in the Copy Revised by me as is to be seen in the Printed Copy of those Canons and in the same place by them quoted and in a different Character that I wonder how any Man's Eye could miss them So here I am accused for putting that out which I left in The third Particular is That their Prelates call the Absoluteness of Baptism an Error of Popery Cap. 6. 2. Which is 〈◊〉 out too they say in my Edition as they will needs call the Printed Copy The Truth is this we did think fit to leave out Because the Absolute necessity of Baptism in the Ordinary way of the Church leaving God as he is most free to save with Baptism or without as himself pleases is no Popish Error but the true Tenet of the Catholick Church of Christ and was by their good leave an Error in your Prelates to call it so And I provided both for Truth and their Credit by keeping it from the view of Christendom Nor could you expect other from me in this Point being an Arch-Bishop of the Church of England which maintains the Necessity of Baptism such as is above mentioned As appears in the Rubrick before Publick Baptism in the Service-Book confirmed by Act of Parliament The Words are these Though it be fittest to Administer Baptism on Sundays and other Holy-days c. Nevertheless if Necessity so require Children may at all times be Baptised at Home And again in the Rubrick before private Baptism thus When great need shall compel them to Baptise their Children at Home it shall be Administred on this fashion And farther the Church of England takes care to have such Ministers Punished as shall defer Baptism if the Child be in Danger So that I could not let this Clause stand in the Scottish Canons but I must Charge my Mother the Church of England as guilty of maintaining an Error of Popery and the Parliament of England for confirming it 5. Our Prelates have not the boldness to trouble us in their Canons with Altars Fonts Chancels Reading of a long Liturgy before Sermons c. But Canterbury is Punctual and Peremptory in all these When I met so often with this Phrase Our Prelates do not this and that in which Canterbury is Punctual and Peremptory It made me hope at first these Men had some good Opinion of their own Prelates But so soon as they had once gotten the Power into their own Hands they made it presently appear that though their Prelates had not the boldness to trouble them yet they had the Impudence to cast the Prelates out of all the Means they had and without any the least Mercy to themselves their Wives and Children And that in a most Ignorant and Barbarous manner calling them the Limbs and Members of Antichrist But what 's the Crime which your Prelates had not the boldness to trouble you with and in which Canterbury that strange Man is so Punctual and Peremptory O! Grave Crimen Caie Caesar 'T is a Charge indeed A mighty Charge A Novation of above Thirteen Hundred Years old For after the Church was once formally setled under the Christian Emperours nay and for some Years before I challenge these Men to shew any Church under Heaven without that which was promiscuously called The Holy Table or Altar Or without a Font or a Chancel or a formal set Liturgy before Sermon c. And therefore if I were punctual in these I did but my Duty But Peremptory I am sure I was not as well knowing the difference between things of Decency and Uniformity and things of Necessity to Salvation But the Charge must go on for all this 6. For although the words of the 10 Canon Cap. 3. be fair yet the wicked Intentions of Canterbury and Ross may be seen in the point of Justification of a Sinner before God by comparing the Canon as it came from our Prelates and as it was returned from Canterbury and Printed Here 's a Confession that the words of the 10 Canon Cap. 3. are fair And so they are indeed The Canon runs thus It is manifest that the Superstition of former Ages is turned into great Prophaneness and that People for the most part are grown cold for doing any good esteeming that Good Works are not necessary Therefore shall all Presbyters as their Text gives occasion urge the necessity of Good Works to their Hearers These words they say are fair and sure they are so What 's amiss then What Why the wicked Intentions of Canterbury and Ross. God bless us Wicked Intentions under such fair words Now God forbid I hope Ross had none I am sure Canterbury had not But how come they to be Judges of our Intentions How Why they say they may be seen in the point of the Justification of a Sinner before God That 's a high Point and a dangerous for any Man to have Wicked Intentions about it How then may our Wicked Intentions be seen Why by comparing the Canons so they say And I desire nothing more than that the Book which I perused may be produced And upon sight of it I will acknowledge and make good whatsoever I did or humbly crave Pardon for what I cannot make good And though I cannot get to see the Book yet you shall hear the Comparison Our Prelates say thus It is manifest that the Superstitions of former Ages are turned into a great Prophaneness and that People are grown cold for the most part in doing any good thinking there is no place for Good Works because they are excluded from Justification Therefore shall all Ministers as their Text gives occasion urge the necessity of Good Works as they would be Saved and remember that they are Via Regni the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven quamvis non sint Causa Regnandi howbeit they be not the Cause of our Salvation How the Canon goes now is manifest in the words preceeding How it went before in the Copy which their Prelates sent is now expressed And if it be fairly related here are two things Charged to
be left out The one is this passage Because they are Excluded from Justification And the other is that known place of St. Bernard That Good Works are Via Regni non Causa Regnandi Now I conceive both these Passages may be left out of this Canon without any Wicked Intentions in either Canterbury or Ross against the point of Justification But let the Charge proceed Here Ross gives his Judgment that he would have this Canon simply commanding Good Works to be Preached and no mention made what place they have or have not in Justification Vpon this motion so agreeable to Canterbury's mind the Canon is set down as it stands without the distinction of Via Regni Causa Regnandi or any word sounding that way urging only the Necessity of Good Works Well! now at last I see the bottom of this Charge And I see too that too many Men are shye of Good Works and for fear more should be attributed to them than is fit refuse to acknowledge that which is due unto them But sure I am there is a Command and more than one expresly in the Text for the doing of Good Works and that without any distinction And so I conceive the Scripture is warrant enough for this Canon to command the Preaching of Good Works even without any distinction at all whatsoever since God hath so absolutely and so expresly commanded that we should serve him in Good Works To which Moses and Christ The Prophets and Apostles do sufficiently bear witness But it seems these Men have very good Intelligence that when I looked over these Canons which I protest I did alone by my self and then sent them to my Lord the Bishop of London for him to do the like can yet tell that here Ross gave his Judgment and would have the Canon go absolutely and that this being according to Canterbury's mind so it went Where yet I shall humbly crave leave to observe two Things The one is That if this be true that Ross would have these things out Then one of their own Prelates and he trusted from the rest was the Cause of this omission And so Canterbury was neither Master of the Work nor were all things in it done by him and no other as is before affirmed in the beginning of the second Novation The other thing is the omission it self Of which I shall say two things The one is That if Ross did give that Reason That it was fit that Canon should command the Preaching of Good Works in general because it was a time of such Prophaneness as is mentioned in the beginning of the Canon I for my part cannot but approve it The other is That the leaving out of that known saying of St. Bernard's I humbly conceive is no fault either in my self or any other For though the Speech be good and though the Sayings of private Men Eminent in their times were some-times put into the Canons of National Churches yet usually it was not so And since themselves confess the words of the Canon as it now is are fair were any Charity in them they would not make so foul an Interpretation of other Mens Intentions 7. By comparing Canon 9. Cap. 18. as it was sent in Writing from our Prelates and as it is Printed at Canterbury's Command may be also manifest that he went about to Establish Auricular Confession and Popish Absolution I have shew'd before that this Book of Canons was not Printed by my Command But I have a long time found by sad experience that whatsoever some Men disliked was presently my doing God forgive them But to the present Charge I shall answer nothing but only Transcribe that Canon and leave it to the Judgment of all Orthodox and Moderate Christians whether I have therein gone about to establish Auricular Confession and Popish Absolution The Canon is as follows Albeit Sacramental Confession and Absolution have been in some Places very much abused yet if any of the People be Grieved in Mind for any Delict or Offence committed and for the unburdening of his Conscience Confess the same to the Bishop or Presbyter they shall as they are bound Minister to the Person so Confessing all Spiritual Consolations out of the Word of God and shall not deny him the Benefit of Absolution after the manner which is prescribed in the Visitation of the Sick if the Party shew himself truly Penitent and humbly desire to be Absolved And he shall not make known or reveal what hath been opened to him in Confession at any time or to any Person whatsoever except the Crime be such as by the Laws of the Realm his own Life may be called in question for concealing the same This is the Canon word for word where first give me leave to observe the Care that I had of the Laws of the Kingdom For I believe it will hardly be found that such a Clause is inserted in any Canon concerning the Seal of Confession as is expressed in this Canon in relation to the Laws of the Realm from the time that Confession came into solemn use till our English Canon was made Anno 1603. with which this agrees And then for the matter of the Canon if here be any thing to establish Popish Confession or Absolution I humbly submit it to the Learned of the Reformed Churches thorough Christendom All Men for ought I yet know allowing Confession and Absolution as most useful for the good of Christians and condemning only the binding of all Men to confess all Sins upon absolute danger of Salvation And this indeed some call Carnificinam Conscientiae the Rack or Torturing of the Conscience but impose no other Necessity of Confessing than the weight of their own Sin shall lay upon them nor no other inforcement to receive Absolution than their Christian Care to ease their own Conscience shall lead them unto And in that way Calvin commends Confession exceedingly and if you mark it you shall find that our Saviour Christ who gives the Priest full Power of the Keys to Bind and Loose that is to receive Confession and to Absolve or not Absolve as he sees Cause in the Delinquent yet you shall not find any Command of his to inforce Men to come to the Priest to receive this Benefit 'T is enough that he hath left Power in the Ministery of the Church to give Penitent Christians this Ease Safety and Comfort if they will receive it when they need If they need and will not come or if they need and will not believe they do so let them bear their own Burden But yet they have not done with our Prelates one Charge more comes 8. Our Prelates were not acquainted with Canons for inflicting of Arbitrary Penalties But in Canterbury's Book wheresoever there is no Penalty expresly set down it is provided that it shall be Arbitrary as the Ordinary shall think fittest By these and many other like it is apparent what
all the Envy they could upon me alone Thirdly Here 's the same Phrase used by my Lord of London that was used a little before by me Namely that these Canons would be for the good of the Kirk And yet here 's never a wise Observation upon it as was upon me that they would be for the good not of that Church but of the Church Now for the force of Mr. Henderson's Logick for these Arguments out of doubt are his Ross writ to the Prelate of London to have from Canterbury an Explanation of some passages of the Service-Book because the Press staid and he obtained them Therefore this Book was Canterbury's work as is before asserted Certainly if Mr. Henderson had any Learning in him he would be ashamed of this stuff Ross sent to me for the Explanation of some things which perhaps were my Additions or Alterations in that Book and used the Prelate of London for his means and the Press staid and I know not what As if any of this could make me Author of that Book Which yet if I were I would neither deny nor be ashamed of Howsoever he should do well to let Canterbury alone and answer the Learned Divines of Aberdeen who have laid him and all that Faction open enough to the Christian World to make the Memory of them and their Cause stink to all Posterity 5. But say they the Book it self as it standeth interlined margined and patched up is much more than all that is expressed in his Letters and the Changes and Supplements themselves taken from the Mass-Book and other Romish Rituals by which he makes it to vary from the Book of England are more pregnant Testimonies of his Popish Spirit and Wicked Intentions which he would have put in Execution upon us than can be denyed In the next place the Book it self is brought in Evidence and that 's a greater Evidence than all that is expressed in my Letters A greater Evidence But of what Not that the Book was of my sole making which they have hitherto gone about to prove and which the former part of this Argument would seem to make good But now these Interlinings and Margins and Changes and Supplements are pregnant proofs of my Popish Spirit and Wicked Intentions First I Praise God for it I have no Popish Spirit And God bless me as to the utmost of my knowledge I had no Wicked Intentions in any thing which I did in or about that Service-Book For the other stuff which fills up this Argument That these Changes and Supplements are taken from the Mass-Book and other Romish Rituals and that by these the Book is made to vary from the Book of England I cannot hold it worth an Answer till I see some particulars named For in this I could retort many things could I think it fit to put but half so much Gall into my Ink as hath made theirs black In the mean time I would have them remember that we live in a Church Reformed not in one made New Now all Reformation that is good and orderly takes away nothing from the old but that which is Faulty and Erroneous If any thing be good it leaves that standing So that if these Changes from the Book of England be good 't is no matter whence they be taken For every line in the Mass-Book or other Popish Rituals are not all Evil and Corruptions There are many good Prayers in them nor is any thing Evil in them only because 't is there Nay the less alteration is made in the Publick Ancient Service of the Church the better it is provided that nothing Superstitious or Evil in it self be admitted or retained And this is enough till I see particulars charged Yet with this That these Variations were taken either from the first Book of Edw. 6. which was not Popery or from some Antient Liturgies which savour'd not of Popery The Large Declaration professeth that all the variation of our Book from the Book of England that ever the King understood was in such things as the Scottish Humours would better comply with than with that which stood in the English Service That which the Large Declaration professeth I leave the Author of it to make good Yet whosoever was the Author thus much I can say and truly That the Scottish Bishops some of them did often say to me that the People wou'd be better satisfied by much to have a Liturgy composed by their own Bishops as this was than to have the Service-Book of England put upon them But to what end is this added out of the Large Declaration Why 't is to cast more hatred upon me For thus they infer These Popish Innovations therefore have been surreptitiously inserted by him without the King's knowledge and against his Purpose This is as false as 't is bold For let them prove that any one particular be it the least was so added by me to that Book and let no Justice spare me In the mean time here I take it upon my Salvation that I inserted nothing without his Majesties Knowledge nor any thing against his Purpose Our Scottish Prelates do Petition that somewhat may be abated of the English Ceremonies as the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage and some other Things But Canterbury will not only have those kept but a great many more and worse super added which was nothing else but the adding of Fuel unto the Fire I cannot remember that ever any such Petition was shewed to me This I remember well that when a deliberation was held whether it were better to keep close to the English Liturgy or venture upon some additions some of your Scottish Bishops were very earnest to have some Alterations and some Additions And they gave this for their Reason Because if they did not then make that Book as perfect as they could they should never be able to get it perfected after Canterbury therefore was not the Man that added this Fuel to your Fire And whereas to heap on farther hatred it is said That I did not only add more but worse Ceremonies I can say nothing to that Because I know no one Ceremony in the one Book or the other that is Bad. And when they give an Instance in the Ceremonies which they say are worse in their Book than in ours I shall give such answer as is fitting and such as I doubt not shall be sufficient And now it seems they 'll come to particulars For they say 1. This Book inverteth the Order of the Communion in the Book of England as may be seen by the numbers setting down the Order of this new Communion 1. 5. 2. 6. 7. 3. 4. 8. 9. 10. 11. Of the divers secret Reasons of this Change we mention one only injoyning the Spiritual Sacrifice and Thanksgiving which is in the Book of England pertinently after the Communion with the Prayer of Consecration before the Communion and that under the Name of Memorial or
Peace of both Kingdoms which must be little less than a Miracle if he do As for my Hand that it was at the Warrant of Restraint of the Commissioners sent from the Parliament c. This also is but a meer clamour to bring me into further hatred which hath been their aim all along For why else is my Hand picked out alone whereas the Hands of all for ought I know that were then present at the Committee were subscribed to that Warrant And yet it seems no Hand hath troubled them but mine And for these Commissioners seeking the Peace of the Kingdom I will not offer to enter upon their Thoughts what they sought but leave it to future times that will discover the success of things and by it open the aim of the Agents how they sought the Peace of these Kingdoms But yet they go on For when we had say they by our Declarations Remonstrances and Representations manifested the Truth of our Intentions and Lawfulness of our Actions to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England when the late Parliament would not be moved to assist or enter into a War against us maintaining our Religion and our Liberties Canterbury did not only advise the breaking up of that High and Honourable Court to the great grief and hazard of the Kingdom but which is without Example did sit still in the Convocation and make Canons and Constitutions against us and our Just and Necessary defence They did indeed offer by many Pamphlets Printed and sent into England to manifest the Truth of their Intentions which was to join close with their Party here and come and gain some good Booty in England And this end they have obtained But the lawfulness of their Actions they neither have nor can make good to any Impartial and Judicious Reader of them And whereas they say they have made the lawfulness of them manifest to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England you must know that they are only such English as joyn with them in their Plot or at least in Affection to Religion And 't is easie to make any thing that fits their Humour and comes from their Associats manifest enough But God forbid these should be all the good Subjects of England which it may too justly be feared are none of them And yet it cannot be denied but that England hath at this day much too many of these good Subjects They add further that the late Parliament would not assist nor enter into a War against them I believe that is true and I leave the Parliament to give their own Reasons why they would not But I am sure that which follows is most untrue That I gave Advice for the breaking of it up as appears by that which I have formerly set down and will not repeat And I shall ever wish from my Heart that the Kingdom may never be hazarded more than it hath been by my Counsels and then by God's Blessing it shall be a happier Kingdom than the youngest now alive are like to see it if things go on in the Track they now are Next they say that without all Example I sat still in Convocation though the Parliament were risen Without Example What is that to them if it were so But the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury have sate in Convocation and made Canons too when no Parliament hath been sitting as is most manifest by the Records of that See Yea but there is no Example of it since the Reformation Be it so Nor is it for all that forbidden in the Statute of the submission of the Clergy 25 H. 8. so they sit by the King 's Writ And yet here I was so careful as that I caused the great Lawyers of the Kingdom to be consulted abaut it and followed their Judgments as is before expressed And for the Canons which were made they were not against them One branch indeed of the first Canon is against Subjects bearing Arms against their King offensive or defensive under any pretence whatsoever But this as it is the Antient Doctrine which the Church of Christ hath ever Taught in all times and places So is it not against them at all unless they against Christian Religion and Natural All giance bear Arms against their King But if they do or have done so the Canon that was not made against them hits them full And in this Case let them pretend what they list their Defence can neither be Just nor Necessary Yea but they say farther that I Ordained under all highest pains That hereafter the Clergy shall Preach four times in the Year such Doctrine as is contrary not only to our Proceedings but to the Doctrine of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks and tending to the utter Slavery and Ruine of all States and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This goes high indeed if it were as full in proof as 't is loud in expression But here is not one shew of Proof added either from Reason or Authority Divine or Humane more than their bare word And therefore I must answer it in the same Key First then 't is true that in the Preface of the first Canon every Minister is injoyned under a Penalty to Publish to his People the Exposition of Regal Power contained in that Canon and this once every quarter of a Year So then if the Doctrine contained in that Canon be true and it was approved for Truth by the whole National Synod of England then all this high Charge falls low enough Besides it will concern them to consider well what their Proceedings have been For as for this Canon it is according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church And they surely were both Pious and Sound Divines that lived in it and I for my part shall hold no Man a Sound Divine that runs contrary to it Now that the Primitive Christians were of Opinion that Subjects ought not to take Arms against their Kings Offensive or Defensive upon any pretence whatsoever which are the words in our Canon which they are so angry with no not for or under pretence of Religion see the Proofs in the Margin For in the most bitter Times of Persecution for the very highest points of Religion whatever Miseries they indured they still contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience And that too not out of any want of Power but will to hurt And if the Doctrine of other Reformed Churches be contrary to this they shall do well to shew it and then I 'll give such farther Answer as is fit But if the Canon be contrary to the Judgment of sound Politiques I know not which they call sound For if they mean such as are of their Feather I think their Judgments are alike Sound that is neither And if they mean Learned and well experienced Politiques I believe they will be able to shew none of
of the said pretended Canons enjoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Laity of this Kingdom I Composed no Book of Canons The whole Convocation did it with unanimous Consent So either I must be free or that whole Body must be guilty of High-Treason For in that Crime all are Principals that are guilty Accessory there is none Neither did I publish or put in Execution those Canons or any of them but by Lawful Authority And I do humbly conceive and verily believe there is nothing in those Canons contrary either to the King's Prerogative the Fundamental Laws of the Realm the Rights of Paliament the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects or any matter tending to Sedition or of dangerous consequence or to the establishment of any vast or unlawful Power in my self and my Sucessors Neither was there any Canon in that Convocation surreptitiously passed by any practice of mine or without due Consideration and Debate Neither was there any thing in that Convocation but what was voted first and subscribed after without fear or compulsion in any kind And I am verily perswaded there never sate any Synod in Christendom wherein the Votes passed with more freedom or less practice than they did in this And for the Oath injoyned in the sixth Canon as it was never made to confirm any unlawful or exorbitant Power over his Majesty's Subjects so I do humbly conceive that it is no Wicked or Ungodly Oath in any respect And I hope I am able to make it good in any learned Assembly in Christendom that this Oath and all those Canons then made and here before recited and every Branch in them are Just and Orthodox and Moderate and most necessary for the present Condition of the Church of England how unwelcom soever to the present Distemper 6. He hath traiterously assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesty's Subjects in this Realm of England and other places to the Disinherison of the Crown Dishonour of his Majesty and Derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And the said Arch-Bishop claims the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crown of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his Royal Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the King's Liege-People in their Persons and Estates I have not assumed Papal or Tyrannicl Power in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal to the least Disinherison Dishonour or Derogation of his Majesty's Supream Authority in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal I never claimed the King's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to my Episcopal or Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom Nor did I ever deny that the exercise of my Jurisdiction was derived from the Crown of England But that which I have said and do still say concerning my Office and Calling is this That my Order as a Bishop and my Power of Jurisdiction is by Divine Apostolical Right and unalterable for ought I know in the Church of Christ. But all the Power I or any other Bishop hath to exercise any the least Power either of Order or Jurisdiction within this Realm of England is derived wholly from the Crown And I conceive it were Treasonable to derive it from any other Power Foreign or Domestick And for the Exercise of this Power under his Majesty I have not used it to the Contempt but to the great Advantage of his Royal Person and to the Preservation not the Destruction of his People Both which appear already by the great Distractions Fears and Troubles which all Men are in since my Restraint and which for ought I yet see are like to increase if God be not exceeding Merciful above our Deserts 7. That he hath traiterously endeavoured to alter and subvert God's true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and Printed Books divers Popish Doctrines and Opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion established by Law He hath urged and injoyned divers Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies without any warrant of Law and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by Corporal Punishment and Imprisonment and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conform thereto by Ecclesiastical Censures of Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Law of the Kingdom I never endeavoured to alter or subvert God's true Religion established by Law in this Kingdom or to bring in Romish Superstition Neither have I declared maintained or Printed any Popish Doctrine or Opinion contrary to the Articles of Religion established or any one of them either to the end mentioned in this Article or any other I have neither urged nor injoyned any Popish or Superstitious Ceremonies without warrant of Law nor have I cruelly persecuted any Opposers of them But all that I laboured for in this particular was that the external Worship of God in this Church might be kept up in Uniformity and Decency and in some Beauty of Holiness And this the rather because first I found that with the Contempt of the Outward Worship of God the Inward fell away apace and Profaneness began boldly to shew it self And secondly because I could speak with no conscientious Persons almost that were wavering in Religion but the great motive which wrought upon them to disaffect or think meanly of the Church of England was that the external Worship of God was so lost in the Church as they conceived it and the Churches themselves and all things in them suffered to lye in such a base and slovenly Fashion in most places of the Kingdom These and no other Considerations moved me to take so much care as I did of it which was with a single Eye and most free from any Romish Superstition in any thing As for Ceremonies all that I injoyned were according to Law And if any were Superstitious I injoyned them not As for those which are so called by some Men they are no Innovations but Restaurations of the ancient approved Ceremonies in and from the beginning of the Reformation and setled either by Law or Custom till the Faction of such as now openly and avowedly separate from the Church of England did oppose them and cry them down And for the Censures which I put upon any I presume they will to all indifferent Men which will Understandingly and Patiently hear the Cause appear to be Just Moderate and according to Law 8. That for the better advancing of his Traiterous Purpose and Designs he did abuse the great Power and Trust his Majesty reposed in him and did intrude upon the Places of divers great Officers and upon the Right of divers his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry
a great deal of Thanks in the Name of that Nation Nor did I labour to introduce into the Kingdom of Scotland any Innovations in Religion or Government Neither do all or the most part or indeed any of those pretended Innovations tend to Popery or Superstition as hath before been sufficiently proved Neither did I upon their refusal to submit to these Advise his Majesty to Subdue them by force of Arms but the Counsels which I gave were open either at the Committee or the Council-Table Neither did I by my own Power and Authority contrary to Law procure any of his Majesty's Subjects or inforce the Clergy of England to contribute to the maintenance of that War But the Subsidies which were given to his Majesty at that time were given freely and in open Convocation and without any practice of my self or any other as appears by what I have formerly laid down But because so much noise hath been made against me both in the Scottish Charge before answered and in this Article about Popish Innovations in that Service-Book and that I laboured the introducing both of it and them I think it fit if not necessary to set down briefly the Story what was done and what I did and by what Command in all that Business And it follows Dr. John Maxwel the late Bishop of Ross came to me from his Majesty it was during the time of a great and dangerous Fever under which I then laboured It was in the Year 1629. in August or September which come that time is Thirteen Years since The Cause of his coming was to speak with me about a Liturgy for Scotland At his coming I was so extream Ill that I saw him not And had Death which I then expected daily as did my Friends and Physicians also seized on me I had not seen this heavy time After this when I was able to sit up he came to me again and told me it was his Majesty's Pleasure that I should receive Instructions from some Bishops of Scotland concerning a Liturgy for that Church and that he was imployed from my Lord the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and other Prelates there about it I told him I was clear of Opinion that if his Majesty would have a Liturgy setled there it were best to take the English Liturgy without any variation that so the same Service-Book might be established in all his Majesty's Dominions Which I did then and do still think would have been a great Happiness to this State and a great Honour and Safety to Religion To this he replyed that he was of a contrary Opinion and that not he only but the Bishops of that Kingdom thought their Country-men would be much better satisfied it a Liturgy were framed by their own Clergy than to have the English Liturgy put upon them yet he added that it might be according to the Form of our English Service-Book I answered to this that if this were the Resolution of my Brethren the Bishops of Scotland I would not entertain so much as Thoughts about it till I might by God's Blessing have Health and Opportunity to wait upon his Majesty and receive his farther directions from himself When I was able to go abroad I came to his Majesty and represented all that had passed His Majesty avowed the sending of Dr. Maxwell to me and the Message sent by him But then he inclined to my Opinion to have the English Service without any alteration to be established there And in this Condition I held that Business for two if not three Years at least Afterwards the Scottish Bishops still pressing his Majesty that a Liturgy Framed by themselves and in some few things different from ours would relish better with their Countrymen They at last prevailed with his Majesty to have it so and carried it against me notwithstanding all I could say or do to the contrary Then his Majesty Commanded me to give the Bishops of Scotland my best Assistance in this Way and Work I delayed as much as I could with my Obedience and when nothing would serve but it must go on I confess I was then very serious and gave them the best help I could But wheresoever I had any doubt I did not only acquaint his Majesty with it but Writ down most of the Amendments or Alterations in his Majesty's Presence And I do verily believe there is no one thing in that Book which may not stand with the Conscience of a right Good Protestant Sure I am his Majesty approved them all and I have his Warrant under his Royal Hand for all that I did about that Book And to the end the Book may be extant and come to the view of the Christian World and their Judgment of it be known I have caused it to be exactly Translated into Latin and if right be done it shall be Printed with this History This was that which I did concerning the Matter and Substance of this Service-Book As for the way of Introducing it I ever advised the Bishops both in his Majesty's Presence and at other times both by Word and by Writing that they would look carefully to it and be sure to do nothing about it but what should be agreeable to the Laws of that Kingdom And that they should at all times be sure to take the Advice of the Lords of his Majesty's Council in that Kingdom and govern themselves and their Proceedings accordingly Which Course if they have not followed that can no way reflect upon me who have both in this and all things else been as careful of their Laws as any Man who is a Stranger to them could be And in a Letter of mine after my last coming out of Scotland thus I wrote to the late Reverend Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Septemb. 30. 1633. concerning the Liturgy That whether that of England or another were resolved on yet 〈◊〉 should proceed Circumspectly Because his Majesty had no intendment to do any thing but that which was according to Honour and Justice and the Laws of that Kingdom And a Copy of this Letter I have yet by me to shew And for the truth of this Narration I know His Majesty and my Lord of Ross himself will avow it And here I take leave to acquaint the Reader That this was no new Conceit of His Majesty to have a Liturgy framed and Canons made for the Church of Scotland For he followed his Royal Father King James his Example and Care therein who took Order for both at the Assembly of Perth An. 1618. And now to return again to the Article There is one Charge more in it and that 's concerning the Pacification made the 〈◊〉 Year The Article says I did Censure it as Dishonourable and Advise for a new War But I did neither That which I spake was openly at the Council-Table and in His Majesty's presence And it was this There arose a debate at the Table about these Affairs and the Pacification and I
the Bar there was Alderman Hoyle of York and some other which I knew not very Angry and saying it was a very strange Conversion that I was like to make of them with other Terms of Scorn I went patiently into the little Committee-Chamber at the entring into the House Thither Mr. Peters followed me in great haste and began to give me ill Language and told me that he and other Ministers were able to name Thousands that they had Converted I knew him not as having never seen him to my remembrance in my Life though I had heard enough of him And as I was going to answer him one of my Councel Mr. Hearn seeing how violently he began stepped between us and told him of his uncivil Carriage towards me in my Affliction And indeed he came as if he would have struck me By this time some occasion brought the Earl of Essex into that Room and Mr. Hearn complained to him of Mr. Peters his usage of me who very Honourably checked him for it and sent him forth Not long after Mr. Hearn was set upon by Alderman Hoyle and used as coursly as Peters had used me and as far as I remember only for being of Councel with such a one as I though he was assigned to that Office by the Lords What put them into this Choler I know not unless they were Angry to hear me say so much in my own Defence especially for the Conversion of so many which I think they little expected For the next day a great Lord met a Friend of mine and grew very Angry with him about me not forbearing to ask what I meant to Name the Particulars which I had mentioned in the end of my Speech saying many Godly Ministers had done more And not long after this the day I now remember not Mr. Peters came and Preached at Lambeth and there told them in the Pulpit that a great Prelat their Neighbour or in words to that effect had bragged in the Parliament-House that he had Converted Two and Twenty but that he had Wisdom enough not to tell how many Thousands he had Perverted with much more abuse God of his Mercy relieve me from these Reproaches and lay not these Mens causeless Malice to their Charge After a little stay I received my Dismission for that time and a Command to appear again the next day at Nine in the Morning Which was my usual Hour to attend though I was seldom called into the House in two Hours after CAP. XXIII The Second Day of my Hearing I Came as commanded But here before the Charge begins I shall set down the Articles upon which according to the Order of March 9. they which were intrusted with the Evidence meant this Day to proceed They were the First and Second Original Articles and the Second Additional Article which follow in these words 1. That he hath Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law and to that end hath wickedly and traiterously advised his Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure Levy and take Money of his Subjects without their Consent in Parliament and this he affirmed was Warrantable by the Law of God 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his traiterous Design advised and procured divers Sermons and other 〈◊〉 to be Preached Printed and Published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the Force of the Laws of the Kingdom are denyed and an Absolute and Unlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesty's Subjects is maintained and defended not only in the King but also in himself and other Bishops above and against the Law and he hath been a great Protector Favourer and Promoter of the Publishers of such false and Pernicious Opinions Second Additional Article 2. That within the space of Ten Years last past the said Arch-Bishop hath Treacherously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Realm and to that end hath in like manner endeavoured to advance the Power of the Council-Table the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative above the Laws and Statutes of the Realm And for manifestation thereof about Six Years last past being then a Privy Counsellor to his Majesty and sitting at the Council-Table he said That as long as he sate there they should know that an Order of that Board should be of equal Force with a Law or Act of Parliament And at another Time used these Words That he hoped e're long that the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative should be of as great Power as an Act of Parliament And at another Time said That those which would not yield to the King's Power he would crush them to pieces These three Articles they begun with and the first Man appointed to begin was Mr. Maynard And after some general things against me as if I were the most violent Man for all illegal Ways The First Particular charged against me was out of my Diary The Words these The King Declared his Resolution for a Parliament in Case of the Scottish Rebellion The First Movers of it were my Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Marquess Hamilton and my self And a Resolution voted at the Board to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways if the Parliament should prove peevish and refuse c. The Time was Decemb. 5. 1639. That which was inforced from these Words was First that I bestowed the Epithete Peevish upon the Parliament And the Second that this Voting to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways in Case the Parliament refused proceeded from my Counsel 1. To this I replyed And first I humbly desired once for all that all things concerning Law may be saved entire unto me and my Councel to be heard in every such Particular 2. Secondly that the Epithete Peevish was a very Peevish Word if written by me I say If For I know into whose Hands my Book is fallen but what hath been done with it I know not This is to be seen some Passages in that Book are half burnt out whether Purposely or by Chance God knows And some other Papers taken by the same Hand from me are now wanting Is it not possible therefore some Art may be used in this Besides if I did use the Word Peevish it was in my Private Pocket Book which I well hoped should never be made Publick and then no Disgrace thereby affixed to the Parliament And I hope should a Man forget himself in such an Expression of some Passage in some one Parliament and this was no more it is far short of any thing that can be called Treason And yet farther most manifest it is in the very Words themselves that I do not bestow the Title upon that Parliament in that Case but say only If it should prove Peevish which is possible doubtless that in some particulars a Parliament may Though
else took care of And the Summ of these Answers I gave to Mr. Browne when he gave up the Summ of his Charge against me The next Particular was about Depopulations A Commission of Grace to compound with some Delinquents in that kind was Issued under the Broad Seal to some Lords and other Persons of Honour of the Council of which I was one One Mr. Talboys was called thither And the Charge about this was that when he pleaded that by Statute 39. Eliz. he might convert some to Pasture I should say Do you plead Law here Either abide the Order or take your Tryal at the Star-Chamber And that he was Fined 50 l. In this Particular Mr. Talboys is single and in his own Cause but I was single at no sitting of that Commission Nor did I ever sit unless the Lord Privy-Seal and Mr. Secretary Coke were present that we might have direction from their Knowledge and Experience And for the Words if spoken they were not to derogate from the Law but to shew that we sate not there as any Judges of the Law but to offer his Majesty's Grace to such as would accept it As for the Fine mentioned we imposed none upon him or any other but by the consent of the Parties themselves If any Man thought he was not faulty and would not accept of the Favour shewed him we left him to the Law But the plain truth is this Gentleman being Tenant to the Dean and Chapter of Christ-Church in Oxford offer'd them as they conceived great wrong in the Land he held of them in so much as they feared other their Tenants might follow his Example and therefore complained of him And because I laid open his usage of his Landlords before the Commissioners he comes here to vent his Spleen against me And 't is observable that in all the business of Depopulations in which so many appeared no one complained either against me or any other Lord but only this Talboys Mr. Browne when he pressed the Summ of this Charge against me added That at the Council-Table I was for all Illegal Projects as well as for these Inclosures But First I was neither for this nor any other either longer or otherwise than I understood them to be Lawful And Secondly I opposed there the business of Salt and the Base Mony and I alone took off that of the Malt and the Brewing And three Gentlemen of Hertfordshire which County was principally concerned in the Case of the Malt came over to Lambeth to give me Thanks for it Then was charged upon me the Printing of Books which asserted the King's Prerogative above Law c. The instance was in Dr. Cowell's Book Verbo Rex That this Book was decryed by Proclamation that Complaint was made to me that this Book was Printing in a close House without Licence and by Hodgkinson who was my Printer that I referred them to Sir John Lambe that they came to me again and a third time and I still continued my Reference which Sir John Lambe slighting the Book came forth The Witnesses to this were Hunt and Wallye if I mistook not their Names 1. For this Book of Dr. Cowell's I never knew of it till it was Printed or so far gone on in Printing that I could not stay it And the Witnesses say it was in a close House and without Licence so neither I nor my Chaplains could take notice of it 2. They say they informed me of it but name no time but only the Year 1638. But they confess I was then at Croydon So being out of Town as were almost all the High Commissioners I required Sir John Lambe who being a High Commissioner had in that business as much power as my self to look to it carefully that the Book proceeded not or if it were already Printed that it came not forth If Sir John slighted his own Duty and my Command as themselves say he is Living and may answer for himself and I hope your Lordships will not put his Neglect upon my Account 3. As for Hodgkinson he was never my Printer but Badger was the Man whom I imployed as is well known to all the Stationers Nor was Hodgkinson ever imployed by me in that kind or any other Upon just Complaint I turned him out of a place but never put him into any And therefore those Terms which were put upon me of my Hodgkinson and my Sir John Lambe might have been spared Sir John was indeed Dean of the Arches and I imployed him as other Arch-Bishops did the Deans which were in their Times otherwise no way mine And Hodgkinson had his whole dependance on Sir Henry Martin and was a meer Stranger to me And this Answer I gave to Mr. Browne when he summ'd up the Charge Nor could any danger be in the Printing of that Book to mislead any Man Because it was generally made known by Proclamation that it was a Book Condemned and in such Particulars But for other things the Book very useful The next Charge was That when Dr Gill School-Master of Paul's School in London was warned out by the Mercers to the Care of which Company that School some way belongs upon Dr Gill's Petition to the King there was a Reference to some other Lords and my self to hear the Business The Charge is that at this Hearing I should say the Mercers might not put out Dr Gill without his Ordinary's Knowledge And that upon mention made of an Act of Parliament I should reply I see nothing will down with you but Acts of Parliament no regard at all of the Canons of the Church And that I should farther add That I would rescind all Acts which were against the Canons and that I hoped shortly to see the Canons and the King's Prerogative of equal force with an Act of Parliament To this I Answer'd That if all this Charge were true yet this is but the single Testimony of Samuel Bland an Officer belonging to the Company of the Mercers and no small Stickler against Dr. Gill whose Aged Reverend Father had done that Company great Service in that School for many Years together The Reference he grants was to me and others So I neither thrust my self into the Business nor was alone in it And as there is a Canon of this Church That no Man may be allowed to 〈◊〉 School but by the Bishop of the Diocess so à paritate rationis it stands good They may not turn him out without the said Bishops knowledge and Approbation And 't is expressed in another Canon That if any School-Master offend in any of the Premises there spoken of he shall be 〈◊〉 by his Ordinary and if he do not amend upon that his 〈◊〉 he shall then be Suspended from Teaching Which I think makes the Case plain that the Mercers might not turn out Dr. Gill without so much as the Knowledge of his Bishop And for the Words That I saw nothing would down with them
but an Act of Parliament and that no regard was had to the Canons I humbly conceive there was no offence in the Words For though the Superiority by far in this Kingdom belongs to the Acts of Parliament yet some regard doubtless is or ought to be had to the Canons of the Church And if nothing will down with Men but Acts of Parliament the Government cannot be held up in many Particulars For the other Words God forgive this Witness For I am well assured I neither did nor could speak them For is it so much as probable that I should say I would rescind all Acts that are against the Canons What power have I or any particular Man to rescind Acts of Parliament Nor do I think any Man that knows me will believe I could be such a Fool as to say That I hoped shortly to see the Canons and the Kings Prerogative equal to Acts of Parliament Since I have lived to see and that often many Canons rejected as contrary to the Custom of the Place as in choice of Parish-Clerks and about the Reparation of some Churches and the King's Prerogative discussed and weighed by Law Neither of which hath or can be done by any Judges to an Act of Parliament That there is Malice in this Man against me appears plainly but upon what 't is grounded I cannot tell Unless it be that in this business of Dr. Gill and in some other about placing Lecturers which in some Cases this Company of the Mercers took on them to do I opposing it so far as Law and Canon would give me leave crossed some way either his Opinion in Religion or his Purse-profit I was I confess so much moved at the Unworthiness of this Man's Testimony that I thought to bind this Sin upon his Soul not to be forgiven him till he did publickly ask me Forgiveness for this Notorious Publick Wrong done me But by God's Goodness I master'd my self and I heartily desire God to give him a sense of this Sin against me his poor Servant and forgive him And if these words could possibly scape me and be within the danger of that Statute then to that Statute which requires my Tryal within six Months I refer my self The Eleventh Charge of this day was the Imprisonment of Mr. George Waker about a Sermon of his Preached to prove as he said That 't is Sin to obey the greatest Monarchs in things which are against the Command of God That I had Notes of his Sermons for four or five Years together of purpose to intrap him That I told his Majesty he was Factious That Sir Dadly Carlton writ to keep him close That in this Affliction I protested to do him Kindness and yet did contrary My Answer was That for the Scope of his Sermon To Obey God rather than Man no Man doubts but it ought to be so when the Commands are opposite But his Sermon was viewed and many factious Passages and of high Nature found in it And yet I did not tell the King he was Factious but that he was so complained of to me and this was openly at the Council-Table And whereas he speaks of Notes of his Sermons for divers Years with a purpose to intrap him all that he says is that he was told so but produces not by whom And truly I never had any such Notes nor ever used any such Art against any Man in my Life For his Commitment it was done by the Council-Table and after upon some Carriage of his there by the Court of Star-Chamber not by me nor can that be imputed to me which is done there by the major part and I having no Negative And if Sir Dudly Carlton writ to keep him close at his Brother's House contrary to the Lords Order let him answer it And if he supposes that was done by me why is not Sir Dudly examined to try that Truth As for the Protestation which he says I made to his Wife and his Brother that I complained not against him it was no Denyal of my Complaint made against him at the first that I heard he was Factious but that after the time in which I had seen the full Testimony of grave Ministers in London that he was not Factious I made no Complaint after that but did my best to free him And the Treason in these two Charges is against the Company of the Mercers and Mr. Waker The next Charge was that Dr Manwaring having been Censured by the Lords in Parliament for a Sermon of his against the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject was yet after this preferred by me in Contempt of the Parliament-Censure both to the Deanery of Warcester and the Bishoprick of St Davids And my own Diary witnesses that I was complained of in Parliament for it And that yet after this I did consecrate him Bishop 1. To this I answered that he was not preferred by me to either of these and therefore that could not be done in contempt of the Parliament-Censure which was not done at all For as for St Davids 't is confessed Secretary Windebank signified the King's Pleasure not I. And whereas it was added that this was by my means That is only said but not proved And for Worcester there is no Proof but the Docket-Book Now my Lords 't is well known in Court that the Docket doth but signifie the King's Pleasure for such a Bill to be drawn it never mentions who procured the Preferment So that the Docket can be no Proof at all against me and other there is none 2. For the Sermon 't is true I was complained of in Parliament that I had been the Cause of Licensing it to the Press and 't is as true that upon that Complaint I was narrowly sifted and an Honourable Lord now present and the Lord Bishop of Lincoln were sent to Bishop Mountain who Licensed the Sermon to Examine and see whether any Warrant had come from me or any Message But when nothing appeared I was acquitted in open Parliament To some Body 's no small Grief God forgive them and their Malice against me for to my knowledge my Ruin was then thirsted for And as I answered Mr. Brown's Summary Charge when he pressed this against me could this have been proved I had been undone long since the Work had not been now to be done That he was after Consecrated by me is true likewise and I hope 't is not expected I should ruine my self and fall into a Premunire by refusing the King 's Royal Assent and this for fear lest it might be thought I procured his Preferment But the Truth is his Majesty commanded me to put him in mind of him when Preferments fell and I did so But withal I told his Majesty of his Censure and that I fear'd ill Construction would be made of it To this it was replyed That I might have refused to Consecrate the Cause why being sufficient and justifiable in Parliament and excepted
appears by a Sermon of mine appointed to be Preached at the opening of the Parliament in the Year 1625. My Words are these If you would have indeed a flourishing both State and Church The King must trust and indear his People and the People must Honour Obey and Support their King c. This I hope is far enough from derogating from any Law And if I should privately have spoken any thing to him contrary to this which I had both Preached and Printed how could his Majesty have trusted me in any thing CAP. XXIV THis brought this tedious Day to an End And I had an Order the same Day to appear again on Saturday March 16. 1643. with a Note also from the Committee which were to Charge me that they meant then to proceed upon part of the Second Additional Article and upon the Third Original and the Third and Fifth Additional Articles The Second Additional Article is written down before And here follow the rest now mentioned to be next proceeded upon 3. The third Original is He hath by Letters Messages Threats Promises and divers other ways to Judges and other Ministers of Justice Interrupted and Perverted and at other Times by the means aforesaid hath endeavoured to Interrput and Pervert the Course of Justice in his Majesty's Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the Subversion of the Laws of this Kingdom whereby sundry of his Majesty's Subjects have been stopped in their just Suits and deprived of their Lawful Rights and subjected to his Tyrannical Will to their utter Ruine and Destruction The Third and Fifth Additionals follow 3. That the said Arch-Bishop to advance the Canons of the Church and Power Ecclesiastical above the Law of the Land and to Pervert and hinder the Course of Justice hath at divers Times within the said Time by his Letters and other undue Means and Solicitations used to Judges opposed and 〈◊〉 the granting of his Majesty's Writs of Prohibition where the same ought to have been Granted for Stay of Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Court whereby Justice hath been delayed and hindered and the Judges diverted from doing their Duties 5. That the said Arch-Bishop about Eight Years last past being then also a Privy-Counsellor to his Majesty for the End and Purpose aforesaid caused Sir John Corbet of Stoak in the County of Salop Baronet then a Justice of Peace of the said County to be Committed to the Prison of the Fleet where he continued Prisoner for the space of half a Year or more for no other Cause but for calling for the Petition of Right and causing it to be Read at the Sessions of the Peace for that County upon a just and necessary Occasion And during the Time of his said Imprisonment the said Arch-Bishop without any Colour of Right by a Writing under the Seal of his Arch-Bishoprick granted away Parcel of the Glebe-Land of the Church of Adderly in the said County whereof the said Sir Jo. Corbet was then Patron unto Robert Viscount Kilmurry without the consent of the said Sir John or the then Incumbent of the said Church which said Viscount Kilmurry Built a Chappel upon the said Parcel of Glebe-Land to the great prejudice of the said Sir John Corbet which hath caused great Suits and Dissentions between them And whereas the said Sir John Corbet had a Judgment against Sir James Stonehouse Knight in an Action of Waste in his Majesty's Court of Common Pleas at Westminster which was afterward affirmed in a Writ of Error in the King's Bench and Execution thereupon Awarded yet the said Sir John by means of the said Arch-Bishop could not have the Effect thereof but was committed to Prison by the said Arch-Bishop and others at the Council Table until he had submitted himself unto the Order of the said Table whereby he lost the benefit of the said Judgment and Execution The Third Day of my Hearing In the Interim between the 13th and this 16th of March upon some strict Charge to look to the Tower my Solicitor was not suffer'd to come in to me Whereupon so soon as I was setled at the Bar before the Evidence began to be open'd I spake to the Lords as follows My Lords I stand not here to complain of any thing or any Man but only am inforced to acquaint your Lordships with my sad Condition Your Lordships have appointed my Secretary to be my Solicitor and given him leave to assist me in the turning of my Papers and to warn in such Witnesses and to fetch me the Copies of such Records as I shall have occasion to use And I humbly desire your Lordships to consider that my self being Imprisoned and so utterly disinabled to do these things my self it will be absolutely impossible for me to make any Defence if my Solicitor be denyed to come to me as now he is This was granted and the Hearing adjourned till Munday following and I humbly thanked their Lordships for it CAP. XXV The Fourth Day of my Hearing THE fourth Day of my Hearing was Munday March 18. and was only my Answer to the third Day 's Charge and the only time in which I was not put to answer the same Day The first Charge of this Day was about St. Pauls And first out of my Diary where I confess it one of my Projects to repair that Ancient Fabrick And three strict Orders of the Lords of the Council for the demolishing of the Houses Built about that Church One was Novemb. 21. 1634. The demolishing of the Houses commanded by this before Jan. 6. for one and for the rest by Midsummer Another was Mar. 26. 1631. a Committee appointed with Power to compound with the Tenants and with Order to pull down if they would not Compound The third was Mar. 2. 1631. which gives Power to the Sheriffs to pull down if Obedience be not yielded To this I confess I did when I came first to be Bishop of London Project the Repair of that Ancient and famous Cathedral of St. Paul ready to sink into its own Ruins And to this I held my self bound in general as Bishop of the Place and in particular for the Body of the Church the Repair of which is by the Local Statutes laid upon the Bishop And the Bishop was well able to do it while he enjoyed those Lands which he had when that Burthen was laid upon him But what Sacrilegious Hands despoiled that Bishoprick of them 't is to no purpose to tell And truly my Lords since I am in this present Condition I humbly and heartily thank God that St. Pauls comes into my Sufferings and that God is pleased to think me worthy to suffer either for it or with it any way Though I confess I little thought to meet that here or as a Charge any where else And so God be pleased as I hope in Christ he will to Pardon my other Sins I hope I shall be able Humane Frailties always set aside
stands now Established and as by right it ought to stand nor yet ever to subject it to the Usurpations and Superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and Swear according to the plain and common Sense and Understanding of the same Words without any Equivocation or Mental Evasion or secret Reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the Faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ. Which Oath the said Arch-Bishop himself did take and caused divers other Ministers of the Church to take the same upon pain of Suspension and Deprivation of their Livings and other severe Penalties and did also cause Godfrey then Bishop of Gloucester to be committed to Prison for refusing to Subscribe to the said Canons and to take the said Oath and afterward the said Bishop submitting himself to take the said Oath he was set at Liberty On Thursday April 4. I was again brought to the House made a sufficient scorn and gazing-stock to the People and after I had waited some hours was sent back by Reason of other Business unheard But Order'd to appear again Munday April 8. Then I appeared again and was used by the basest of the People as before I did not appear any day but it cost me six or seven Pound I grew into want This made my Councel and other Friends to perswade me the next time I had admittance to speak to move the Lords again for some necessary Allowance notwithstanding my former Petition had been rejected This Advice I meant to have followed that day But after some Hours Attendance I was sent back again unheard and Order'd to come again on Thursday April 11. This day I did not come to the House a Warrant being sent to the Tower which stayed me till Tuesday April 16. CAP. XXIX The Seventh Day of my Hearing THen I appeared and as I remember here Mr. Maynard left off save that now and then he interposed both in the Reply and otherwise and Mr. Nicolas a Man of another Temper undertook the managing of the Evidence And the first Charge was concerning the late Canons which he said were against Law to sit the Parliament being Dissolved No my Lords nothing against Law that I know For we were called to Sit in Convocation by a different Writ from that which called us as Bishops to the Parliament And we could not rise till his Majesty sent us another Writ to discharge us and this is well known to the Judges and the other Lawyers here present So we continued sitting though the Parliament rose Nor was this sitting continued by any Advice or Desire of mine For I humbly desired a Writ to dissolve us But the best Councel then present both of Judges and other Lawyers assured the King we might Legally sit And here is a Copy attested under their Hands Then he urged out of my Diary at May 29. 1640. That I acknowledged there were Seventeen Canons made which I did hope would be useful to the Church 'T is true my Lords I did hope so And had I not hoped it I would never have passed my Consent unto them And when I writ this there was nothing done or said against them And if by any Inadvertency or Humane Frailty any thing Erroneous or Unfit have slipped into those Canons I humbly beseech your Lordships to remember it is an Article of the Church of England that General Councils may Err and therefore this National Synod may mistake And that since if any Error be it is not Wilful it may be rectified and in Charity passed by For the Bishop of Gloucester's refusing to Subscribe the Canons and take the Oath Which is here said by the Council but no Proof offered The Truth is this He first pretended to avoid his Subscription that we could not sit the Parliament risen He was Satisfied in this by the Judges Hands Then he pretended the Oath But that which stuck in his Stomach was the Canon about the suppressing of the growth of Popery For coming over to me to Lambeth about that Business he told me he would be torn with Wild Horses before he would Subscribe that Canon I gave him the best Advice I could but his Carriage was such when he came into the Convocation that I was forced to charge him openly with it and he as freely acknowledged it As there is plentiful Proof of Bishops and other Divines then present And for his Lordship's being after put to take the Oath which was also urged it was thus I took my self bound to accquaint his Majesty with this Proceeding of my Lord of Gloucester's and did so But all that was after done about his Commitment first and his Release after when he had taken the Oath was done openly at a full Council-Table and his Majesty present and can no way be charged upon me as my Act. For it was my Duty to let his Majesty know it to prevent farther Danger then also discovered But I am here to defend my self not to accuse any Man else Next he urged that I had Interlined the Original Copy of the Canons with my own Hand But this is clearly a mistake if not a wilful one For perusing the Place I find the Interlining is not in my Hand but my Hand is to it as I humbly conceive it was fit it should And the Words are in the Ratification of the Canons and therefore were necessarily to be in the Original howsoever slipped in the writing of them As for the Oath so bitterly spoken of at the Bar and in the Articles either it was made according to Law or else we were wholly mis-led by President and that such as was never excepted against For in the Canons made in King James his Time there was an Oath made against Symonie and an Oath for Church-Wardens and an Oath about Licences for Marriages and an Oath for Judges in Ecclesiastical Courts And some of these Oaths as dangerous as this is acounted to be And all these established by no other Authority than these late were And yet neither those Canons nor those Oaths were ever declared Illegal by any ensuing Parliament nor the Makers of them accused of any Crime much less of Treason So that we had in this Synod unblamed President for what we did as touching our Power of doing it But after all this he said he would pass these things by that is when he had made them as Odious as he could and would Charge nothing upon me but the Votes of both Houses namely That these Canons contain Matters contrary to the King's Prerogative to the Fundamental Laws of the Realm to the Rights of Parliaments to the Propriety and Liberty of the Subject and Matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence So these Votes of the Honourable Houses made so long after and therefore cannot well be an Evidence against the
just Grievances is not the least Cause of my present Condition In which my Case though not my Abilities is somewhat like Cicero's For having now for many Years defended the Publick State of the Church and the Private of many Church-Men as he had done many Citizens when he by prevailing Factions came into danger himself ejus Salutem defendit nemo no Man took care to defend him that had defended so many which yet I speak not to impute any thing to Men of my own Calling who I presume would have lent me their just Defence to their Power had not the same Storm which drove against my Life driven them into Corners to preserve themselves The First Instance was in Mr. Shervil's Case in which Mr. John Steevens tells what I said to the Councel Pleading in the Star-Chamber which was that they should take care not to cause the Laws of the Church and the Kingdom to clash one against another I see my Lords nothing that I spake was let fall nor can I remember every Speech that passed from me he may be happy that can But if I did speak these Words I know no Crime in them It was a good Caveat to the Councel for ought I know For surely the Laws of Church and State in England would agree well enough together if some did not set them at Odds. And if I did farther say to the then Lord Keeper as 't is Charged that some Clergy-Men had sat as high as he and might again which I do not believe I said yet if I did 't is a known Truth For the Lord Coventry then Lord Keeper did immediately succeed the Lord Bishop of Lincoln in that Office But though I dare say I said not thus to the Lord Keeper whose Moderation gave me no Cause to be so round with him yet to the Councel at the Bar I remember well upon just occasion given that I spake to this Effect That they would forbear too much depressing of the Clergy either in their Reputation or Maintenance in regard it was not impossible that their Profession now as high as ours once was may fall to be as low as ours now is If the Professors set themselves against the Church as some of late are known to have done And that the sinking of the Church would be found the ready way to it The Second Instance was about calling some Justices of the Peace into the High-Commission about a Sessions kept at 〈◊〉 1. The First Witness for this for Three were produced was Mr. Jo. Steevens He says That the Isle where the Sessions were kept was joyned to the Church If it were not now a part of the Chuch yet doubtless being within the Church-Yard it was Consecrated Ground He says That Sessions were kept there heretofore And I say the more often the worse He says That I procured the calling of them into the High-Commission But he proves no one of these Things but by the Report of Sir Rob Cook of Gloucestershire a Party in this Cause He says again that They had the Bishop's License to keep Sessions there But the Proof of this also is no more than that Sir Rob. Cook told him so So all this hitherto is Hearsay Then he says the 88. Canon of the Church of England was urged in the Commission Court which seems to give leave in the close of the Canon that Temporal Courts or Leets may be kept in Church or Church-Yard First that Clause in the end of the Canon is referred to the Ringing of Bells not to the Profanations mentioned in the former part of that Canon Nor is it probable the Minister and Church-Wardens should have Power to give such leave when no Canon gives such Power to the Bishop himself And were it so here 's no Proof offered that the Minister and Church-Wardens did give leave And suppose some Temporal Courts might upon urgent Occasion be kept in the Church with leave yet that is no Warrant for Sessions where there may be Tryal for Blood He says farther That the Civilians quoted an Old Canon of the Pope's and that that prevailed against the Canon of Our Church and Sentence given against them All those Canons which the Civilians urged are Law in England where nothing is contrary to the Law of God or the Law of the Land or the King's Prerogative Royal And to keep off Profanation from Churches is none of these Besides were all this true which is urged the Act was the High-Commissions not mine Nor is there any thing in it that looks toward Treason 2. The Second Witness is Mr. Edward Steevens He confesses that the Sentence was given by the High-Commission and that I had but my single Vote in it And for the Place it self he says The Place where the Sessions were kept was separated from the Isle of the Church by a Wall Breast-high which is an evident Proof that it was formerly a Part of that Church and continued yet under the same Roof 3. The Third Witness is Mr. Talboyes who it seems will not be out of any thing which may seem to hurt me He says The Parish held it no part of the Church Why are not some of them examined but this Man's Report from them admitted They thought no harm he says and got a License But why did they get a License if their own Conscience did not prompt them that something was Irregular in that Business He says he was informed the Sessions had been twice kept there before And I say under your Lordships Favour the oftner the worse But why is not his Informer produced that there might be Proof and not Hearsay Upon this I said so he concludes That I would make a President against keeping it any more If I did say so the Cause deserved it Men in this Age growing so Bold with Churches as if Profanation of them were no Fault at all The Third Instance concerned Sir Tho. Dacres a Justice of Peace in Middlesex and his Warrant for Punishing some disorderly Drinking The Witnesses the two Church Wardens Colliar and Wilson two plain Men but of great Memories For this Business was when I was Bishop of London and yet they agree in every Circumstance in every Word though so many Years since Well what say they It seems Dr. Duck then my Chancellor had Cited these Church-Wardens into my Court Therefore either there was or at least to his Judgment there seemed to be somwhat done in that business against the Jurisdiction of the Church They say then That the Court ended Dr. Duck brought them to me And what then Here is a Cause by their own confession depending in the Ecclesiastical Court Dr. Duck in the King's Quarters where I cannot fetch him to Testifie no means left me to know what the Proceedings were and I have good cause to think that were all the Merits of the Cause open before your Lordships you would say Sir Tho. Dacres did not all according to
from God and from Christ contrary to an Act of Parliament which says Bishops derive their Jurisdiction from the King This is Witnessed by all three and that Dr. Bastwick read the Statute That Statute speaks plainly of Jurisdiction in foro Contentioso and places of Judicature and no other And all this forinsecal Jurisdiction I and all Bishops in England derive from the Crown But my Order my Calling my Jurisdiction in foro Conscientiae that is from God and from Christ and by Divine and Apostolical Right And of this Jurisdiction it was that I then spake if I named Jurisdiction at all and not my Calling in general For I then sate in the High-Commission and did Exercise the former Jurisdiction under the Broad Seal and could not be so simple to deny the Power by which I then sate Beside the Canons of the Church of England to which I have Subscribed are plain for it Nay farther The Use and Exercise of my Jurisdiction in foro Conscientiae may not be but by the Leave and Power of the King within his Dominions And if Bishops and Presbyters be all one Order as these Men contend for then Bishops must be Jure Divino for so they maintain that Presbyters are This part of the Charge Mr. Browne pressed in his Report to the House of Commons And when I gave this same Answer he in his Reply said nothing but the same over and over again save that he said I fled to he knew not what inward Calling and Jurisdiction which point as I expressed it if he understood not he should not have undertaken to Judge me CAP. XXXII THE 16th of May I had an Order from the Lords for free access of four of my Servants to me On Friday May 17. I received a Note from the Committee that they intended to proceed upon part of the Sixth Original Article remaining and upon the Seventh which Seventh Article follows in haec Verba That he hath Trayterously indeavoured to alter and subvert God's True Religion by Law Established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry And to that end hath Declared and Maintained in Speeches and Printed Books divers Popish Doctrins and Opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion Established He hath urged and injoyned divers Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies without any Warrant of Law and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by Corporal Punishment and Imprisonment and most unjustly vexed others who refused to Conform thereunto by Ecclesiastical Censures of Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Law of this Kingdom The Tenth Day of my Hearing This day May 20. Mr. Serjeant Wild undertook the Business against me And at his Entrance he made a Speech being now to charge me with Matter of Religion In this Speech he spake of a Tide which came not in all at once And so he said it was in the intended alteration of Religion First a Connivence then a Toleration then a Subversion Nor this nor that But a Tide it seems he will have of Religion And I pray God his Truth the True Protestant Religion here Established sink not to so low an Ebb that Men may with ease wade over to that side which this Gentleman seems most to hate He fears both Ceremonies and Doctrine But in both he fears where no fear is which I hope shall appear He was pleased to begin with Ceremonies In this he Charged first my Chappel at Lambeth and Innovation in Ceremonies there 1. The First Witness for this was Dr. Featly he says there were Alterations since my Predecessor's time And I say so too or else my Chappel must lye more undecently than is fit to express He says I turned the Table North and South The Injunction says it shall be so And then the Innovation was theirs in going from not mine in returning to that way of placing it Here Mr. Browne in his last Reply in the House of Commons said that I cut the Injunction short because in the Words immediately following 't is Ordered That this Place of standing shall be altered when the Communion is Administred But first the Charge against me is only about the Place of it Of which that Injunction is so careful that it Commands That when the Communion is done it be placed where it stood before Secondly it was never Charged against me that I did not remove it at the Time of Communion nor doth the Reason expressed in the Injunction require it which is when the Number of Communicants is great and that the Minister may be the better heard of them Neither of which was necessary in my Chappel where my Number was not great and all might easily Hear 2 The second thing which Dr. Featly said was in down-right Terms That the Chappel lay nastily all the time he served in that House Was it one of my Faults too to cleanse it 3 Thirdly he says The Windows were not made up with Coloured Glass till my time The Truth is they were all shameful to look on all diversly patched like a Poor Beggars Coat Had they had all white Glass I had not stirred them And for the Crucifix he confesses it was standing in my Predecessors time though a little broken So I did but mend it I did not set it up as was urged against me And it was utterly mistaken by Mr. Brown that I did repair the Story of those Windows by their like in the Mass-Book No but I and my Secretary made out the Story as well as we could by the Remains that were unbroken Nor was any Proof at all offered that I did it by the Pictures in the Mass-Book but only Mr. Pryn Testified that such Pictures were there whereas this Argument is of no consequence There are such Pictures in the Missal therefore I repaired my Windows by them The Windows contain the whole Story from the Creation to the Day of Judgment Three Lights in a Window The two Side-Lights contain the Types in the Old Testament and the middle Light the Antitype and Verity of Christ in the New And I believe the Types are not in the Pictures in the Missal In the mean time I know no Crime or Superstition in this History And though Calvin do not approve Images in Churches yet he doth approve very well of them which contain a History and says plainly that these have their use in Docendo Admonendo in Teaching and Admonishing the People And if they have that use why they may not instruct in the Church as well as out I know not Nor do the Homilies in this particular differ much from Calvin But here the Statute of Ed. 6. was charged against me which requires the Destruction of all Images as well in Glass-Windows as elsewhere And this was also earnestly pressed by Mr. Brown when he repeated the Summ of the Charge against me in the House of Commons To
which I answered at both times First that the Statute of Ed. 6. spake of other Images and that Images in Glass-Windows were neither mentioned nor meant in that Law The Words of the Statute are Any Images of Stone Timber Alabaster or Earth Graven Carved or Painted taken out of any Church c. shall be Destroyed c. and not reserved to any Superstitious Use. So here 's not a Word of Glass-Windows nor the Images that are in them Secondly that the Contemporary Practice which is one of the best Expounders of the meaning of any Law did neither destroy all coloured Windows though Images were in them in the Queens time nor abstain from setting up of new both in her and King James his Time And as the Body of this Statute is utterly mistaken so is the Penalty too which for the First and Second Offence is but a small Fine and but Imprisonment at the King's Will for the Third A great way short of Punishment for Treason And I could not but wonder that Mr. Brown should be so earnest in this Point considering he is of Lincolns-Inn where Mr. Pryn's Zeal hath not yet beaten down the Images of the Apostles in the fair Windows of that Chappel which Windows also were set up new long since that Statute of Edward 6. And t is well known that I was once resolved to have returned this upon Mr. Brown in the House of Commons but changed my Mind lest thereby I might have set some furious Spirit on Work to destroy those harmless goodly Windows to the just dislike of that Worthy Society But to the Statute Mr. Brown added That the Destruction of all Images as well in Windows as elsewhere were Condemned by the Homilies of the Church of England and those Homilies confirmed in the Articles of Religion and the Articles by Act of Parliament This was also urged before and my Answer was First that though we Subscribed generally to the Doctrine of the Homilies as good Yet we did not express or mean thereby to justifie and maintain every particular Phrase or Sentence contained in them And Secondly that the very Words of the Article to which we subscribe are That the Homilies do contain a Godly and a wholesom Doctrine and necessary for those Times Godly and wholesom for all Times but necessary for those when People were newly Weaned from the Worship of Images Afterwards neither the Danger nor the Scandal alike Mr. Brown in his Reply said That since the Doctrine contained in the Homilies was wholesom and good it must needs be necessary also for all Times But this worthy Gentleman is herein much mistaken Strong Meat as well Spiritual as Bodily is good and wholesom but though it be so yet if it had been Necessary at all Times and for all Men the Apostle would never have fed the Corinthians with Milk and not with Meat The Meat always good in it self but not necessary for them which were not able to bear it 4 The Fourth thing which Dr. Featly Testifies is That there were Bowings at the coming into the Chappel and going up to the Commanion-Table This was usual in Queen Elizabeth's Time and of Old both among Jews as appears in the Story of Hezekiah 2 Chro. 29. 28. and among Christians as is evident in Rhenanus his Notes upon Tertullian And one of them which have written against the late Canons confesses it was usual in the Queens Time but then adds That that was a Time of Ignorance What a Time of such a Reformation and yet still a Time of Ignorance I pray God the Opposite be not a Time of Prophaneness and all is well Mr. Brown in the Summ of his Charge given me in the House of Commons instanced in this also I answered as before with this Addition Shall I Bow to Men in each House of Parliament and shall I not bow to God in his House whither I do or ought to come to Worship him Surely I must Worship God and Bow to him though neither Altar nor Communion-Table be in the Church 5 For Organs Candlesticks a Picture of a History at the back of the Altar and Copes at Communions and Consecrations All which Dr. Featly named First these things have been in use ever since the Reformation And Secondly Dr. Featly himself did twice acknowledge that it was in my Chappel as it was at White-Hall no difference And it is not to be thought that Queen Elizabeth and King James would have endured them all their Time in their own Chappel had they been introductions for Popery And for Copes they are allowed at Times of Communion by the Canons of the Church So that these all or any are very poor Motives from whence to argue an Alteration of Religion 2. The second Witness against my Chappel was Sir Nathaniel Brent But he says not so much as Dr. Featly And in what he doth say he agrees with him saving that he cannot say whether the Picture at the Back of the Communion-Table were not there before my time 3. The third Witness for this Charge was one Mr. Boreman who came into my Chappel at Prayers time when I had some new Plate to Consecrate for use at the Communion And I think it was brought to me for that end by Dr. Featly This Man says first he then saw me Bow and wear a Cope That 's answer'd Secondly That he saw me Consecrate some Plate That in that Consecration I used some part of Solomon's Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple And that in my Prayer I did desire God to accept those Vessels No fault in any of the Three For in all Ages of the Church especially since Constantine's Time that Religion hath had publick allowance There have been Consecrations of Sacred Vessels as well as of Churches themselves And these Inanimate things are Holy in that they are Deputed and Dedicated to the Service of God And we are said to Minister about Holy Things 1 Cor. 9. And the Altar is said to Sanctifie the Gift S. Matt. 23. which it could not do if it self were not Holy So then if there be no Dedication of these Things to God no separation of them from common use there 's neither Thing nor Place Holy And then no Sacriledge no difference between Churches and common Houses between Holy-Tables so the Injunction calls them and ordinary Tables But I would have no Man deceive himself Sacriledge is a grievous Sin and was severely Punished even among the Heathen And S. Paul's Question puts it home would we consider of it Thou which abhorrest Idols Committest thou Sacriledge Rom. 2. Thou which abhorrest Idols to the very defacing of Church Windows dost thou Thou of all other Commit Sacriledge which the very Worshippers of Idols punished And this being so I hope my use of a part of Solomon's Prayer or the Words of my own Prayer That God would be pleased to accept them shall not be reputed Faults But
to see what I did at Oxford 1. There the first Witness is Sir Nathaniel Brent And he says The standing of the Communion-Table at St. Mary's was altered I have answered to this Situation of the Communion-Table already And if it be lawful in one place 't is in another For the Chappel of Magdalen College and Christ-Church Quire he confesses he knows of no Direction given by me to either Nor doth he know whether I reproved the things there done or no. So all this is no Evidence For the Picture of the Blessed Virgin at St. Mary's Door as I knew nothing of it till it was done so never did I hear any Abuse or Dislike of it after it was done And here Sir Nathaniel confesses too that he knows not of any Adoration of it as Men passed the Streets or otherwise When this Witness came not home they urged the Statute of Merton College or the Vniversity where if I took my Notes right they say I enjoyned Debitam Reverentiam And as I know no fault in that Injunction or Statute so neither do I know what due Bodily Reverence can be given to God in his Church without some Bowing or Genuflection 2. The Second Witness was Mr. Corbett He says that when decent Reverence was required by my Visitors 〈◊〉 one of my Articles he gave Reasons against it but Sir Jo. Lambe urged it still First my Lords if Mr. Corbett's Reasons were sufficient Sir Jo. Lambe was to blame in that but Sir Jo. Lambe must answer it and not I. Secondly it may be observed that this Man by his own Confession gave Reasons such as they were against due Reverence to God in his own House He says that Dr. Frewen told him from me That I wished he should do as others did at St. Mary's or let another Execute his place as Proctor This is but a Hearsay from Dr. Frewen who being at Oxford I cannot produce him And if I had sent such a Message I know no Crime in it He says that after this he desired he might enjoy in this Particular the Liberty which the King and the Church of England gave him He did so And from that Day he heard no more of it but enjoyed the Liberty which he asked He says Mr. Channell desired the same Liberty as well as he And Mr. Channell had it granted as well as he He confesses ingenuously that the Bowing required was only Toward not to the Altar And To the Picture at St. Mary's Door he says he never heard of any Reveverence done to it And doth believe that all that was done at Christ-Church was since my Time But it must be his Knowledge not his Belief that must make an Evidence 3. The Third Witness was one Mr. Bendye He says There was a Crucifix in Lincoln College Chappel since my time If there be 't is more than I know My Lord of York that now is when he was Bishop of Lincoln worthily bestowed much Cost upon that Chappel and if he did set up a Crucifix I think it was before I had ought to do there He says there was Bowing at the Name of Jesus And God forbid but there should and the Canon of the Church requires it He says there were Latin Prayers in Lent but he knows not who injoyned it And then he might have held his Peace But there were Latin Sermons and Prayers on Ash-Wednesday when few came to Church but the Lent Proceeders who understood them And in divers Colleges they have their Morning-Prayers in Latin and had so long before I knew the University The last Thing he says was That there were Copes used in some Colleges and that a Traveller should say upon the sight of them that he saw just such a thing upon the Pope's Back This Wise Man might have said as much of a Gown He saw a Gown on the Pope's Back therefore a Protestant may not wear one or entring into S. Pauls he may cry Down with it for I saw the Pope in just such another Church in Rome 4. Then was urged the conclusion of a Letter of mine sent to that Vniversity The Words were to this Effect I desire you to remember me a Sinner Quoties coram 〈◊〉 Dei 〈◊〉 The Charge lay upon the Word Procidatis which is no more than that when they there fall on their Knees or Prostrate to Prayer they would remember me In which Desire of mine or Expression of it I can yet see no Offence No nor in coram Altare their Solemnest time of Prayer being at the Communion Here Mr. Brown Aggravated the things done in that University And fell upon the Titles given me in some Letters from thence but because I have answered those Titles already I refer the Reader thither and shall not make here any tedious Repetition Only this I shall add That in the Civil Law 't is frequent to be seen that not Bishops only one to another but the great Emperours of the World have commonly given that Title of Sanctitas vestra to Bishops of meaner place than my self to say no more But here Mr. Brown in his last Reply was pleased to say This Title was not given to any Bishop of England First if I had my Books about me perhaps this might be refuted Secondly why should so Grave a Man as he so much Disparage his own Nation Is it impossible be my Unworthiness what it will for an English Bishop to deserve as good a Title as another Thirdly be that as it may if it were as certainly it was Lawfully given to other Bishops though they not English then is it neither Blasphemy nor Assumption of Papal Power as was Charged upon it From Oxford Mr. Serjeant went to Cambridge And I must be Guilty if ought were amiss there too For this Fifth Charge were produced three Witnesses Mr. Wallis Mr. Greece and Mr. Seaman Their Testimonies agreed very near So I will answer them together First they say That at Peter-House there were Copes and Candlesticks and Pictures in the Glass-Windows and the like But these things I have often answered already and shall not repeat They say the Chief Authors of these things were Dr. Wren and Dr. Cosens They are both living why are they not called to answer their own Acts For here 's yet no shew of Proof to bring any thing home to me For no one of them says that I gave direction for any of these No says Mr. Serjeant but why did I tolerate them First no Man complained to me Secondly I was not Chancellor and endured no small Envy for any little thing that I had occasion to look upon in that place And thirdly this was not the least Cause why I followed my Right for Power to visit there And though that Power was confirmed to me yet the Times have been such as that I did not then think fit to use it It would have but heaped more Envy on me who bare too much already As
for Mr. Greece who hath laboured much against me in all this Business God forgive him and while he Inherits his Father's ill Affections to me God preserve him from his Father's End From Cambridge he went to the Cathedrals and first to Canterbury Here the Charge is Bowing versus Altare the two Witnesses two Prebendaries of that Church Dr Jackson and Dr Blechenden And first Dr Jackson says the Bowing was versus Altare So not to but toward the Altar and Dr Blechenden says it was the Adoration of the High Majesty of God to whom if no Altar were there I should Bow Dr Jackson says this Bowing was to his Grief Strange I avow to your Lordships and the World no Man did so much approve all my Proceedings in that Church as he And for this Particular he never found the least fault with it to me and if he conceal his Grief I cannot ease it He says this Bowing was not in use till within this Six or Seven Years Sure the Old Man's Memory fails him For Dr. Blechenden says the Communion-Table was railed about and Bowings before it when he came first to be a Member of that Church and saith upon his Oath that 's above Ten Years ago And that it was practised before their new Statutes were made and that in those Statutes no Punishment is infticted for the Breach or not Performance of this Reverence I could tell your Lordships how often Dr Jackson hath shifted his Opinions in Religion but that they tell me their Witnesses must not be Scandalized As for the Statutes my Secretary Mr Dell who copied them out testified here to the Lords that I left out divers Superstitions which were in the Old Book and Ordained many Sermons in their rooms The next Cathedral he instanced in was Winchester But there 's nothing but the old Objections Copes And the wearing of them is warranted by the Canon and Reverence at coming in and going out of the Church And that great Kings have not in better Ages thought much to do And they did well to instance in the College of Winchester as well as the Church for 't is confessed the Injunction sent thither requires that the Reverence used be such as is not dissonant from the Church of England So this may be a Comment to the other Injunctions But for the Copes in Cathedrals Mr. Brown in his last Reply was not satisfied For he said the Canon mentioned but the wearing of one Cope Be it so But they must have that before they can wear it And if the Canon enjoyn the wearing of one my Injunction might require the providing and using of one Besides if there be no Popery no introduction to Superstition in the having or using of one then certainly there can be none in the having of more for the same use The Superstition being lodged in the misuse not in the number From the Cathedrals Mr. Serjeant went to view some Parish-Churches And First 't is Charged That in a Parish-Church at Winchester two Seats were removed to make way for Rayling in of the Communion-Table But for ought I know this might have been concealed For it was liked so well that they to whom the Seats belonged removed them at their own Charges that the other might be done The next instance was in St Gregory's Church by S Pauls The Charge was the Placing of the Communion-Table Altar-wise To the Charge it self Answer is given before The Particulars which are new are these The Witness Mr Wyan He says the Order for such placing of the Table was from the Dean and Chapter of S Pauls And S Gregory's is in their peculiar Jurisdiction So the Holy-Table was there placed by the Ordinary not by me He says next That the Parishioners appealed to the Arches but received an Order to Command them and the Cause to the Council Board That it was a full Board when the Cause was heard and his Majesty present And that there I maintained the Queens Injunction about placing the Communion-Table In all this here 's nothing Charged upon me but maintenance of the Injunction And I had been much to blame if I should not have maintained it He says Sir Henry Martin came and saw it and said it would make a good Court Cupboard If Sir Henry did say so the Scorn ill became either his Age or Profession though a Court Cupboard be somewhat a better Phrase than a Dresser God forgive them who have in Print called it so He says That hereupon I did say that he which spake that had a Stigmatical Puritan in his Bosom This Man's Memory serves him long for Words This was many Years since and if I did speak any thing sounding this way 't is more like I should say Schismatical than Stigmatical Puritan But let him look to his Oath and which Word soever I used if Sir Henry used the one he might well hear the other For a prophane Speech it was and little becoming a Dean of the Arches He says that soon after this Sir Henry was put out of his Place Not very soon after this for I was at the time of this Business as far as I remember Bishop of London and had nothing to do with the disposing of his Place After when I came to be Arch-Bishop I found his Patent was void neither could Sir Henry himself deny it And being void and in my Gift I gave it to another He says farther That it was urged that this way of Placing the Communion Table was against the Word of God in Bishop Jewel and Mr Fox his Judgment and that I replied it were better they should not have these Books in Churches than so to abuse them First for ought I yet know and in these straights of time the Books I cannot come at their Judgment rightly understood is not so Secondly Though these two were very worthy Men in their Time yet every thing which they say is not by and by the Doctrine of the Church of England And I may upon good reason depart from their Judgment in some Particulars and yet not differ from the Church of England As in this very Particular the Injunction for placing of the Table so is the Act of the Queen and the Church of England And I concieve the Queen then upon the Act of Reformation would not have enjoyned it nor the Church obeyed it had it been against the Word of God Thirdly if I did say That if they could make no better use of Jewel and the Book of Martyrs it were better they had them not in the Churches They gave too great occasion for the Speech For they had picked divers things out of those Books which they could not master and with them distempered both themselves and their Neighbours And yet in hope other more Modest Men might make better use of them I never gave Counsel to have those Books removed nor is that so much as Charged but said only thus That if no better use
that Troubles him S Luc 22. Then they urged my Predecessor Arch-Bishop Parker That he found Fault with the Consecration of New Churches I answered then upon Memory that he did not find fault simply with Consecrations of Churches but only with the Superstitious Ceremonies used therein And this since upon perusal of the Place I find to be true For after he had in some sort Commended the Popes for taking away some gross and superstitious Purgations he adds that yet for want of Piety or Prudence their later Pontifical and Missal-Books did outgo the Ancient In Multitudine Ceremoniarum peragendi Difficultate Taedio 〈◊〉 amentiâ So these were the things he found fault with not the Consecration it self which he could not well do himself being then a Consecrated Bishop 2. The Second Witness was Mr. Hope He says That he agrees with the former Witness and saw all and the throwing up of the Dust c. Since he agrees with the former Witness I give him the same Answer Yet with this Observation upon him and his Oath The former Witness says that at the beginning of this Action I took Dust and threw it up This Man agrees with him and saw all and almost in the very next Words confesses he was not there at the beginning Not there Yet he saw it My Lords if you mark it this is a wholsom Oath He says That then the Church-Yard was Consecrated by it self It was ever so the one Act must follow the other though both done the same Day For the Places being different the Act could not pass upon them at the same time Then he said there were Fees required and a good Eye had to the Money This is a poor Objection against me If the Officers did exact any Money without Rule or beyond President let them answer for it But for that which was said to belong to me I presently gave it to the Poor of the Parish And this Mr. Dell my Secretary then present attested to the Lords Lastly he said they were not New Churches Let him look to his Oath again for 't is notoriously known they were both New Built from the Ground and St. Giles not wholly upon the Old Foundation The Third Charge was laid on me only by Mr. Nieolas and without any Witness It was That I out-went Popery it self for the Papists Consecrated Churches only but I had been so Ceremonious that I had Consecrated Chappels too My Lords the use of Chappels and of Churches in regard of God's Service is the same Therefore if Consecration be fit for the one it must needs be for the other And the Consecrations of Chappels was long before Popery came into the World For even Oratories Newly Built were Consecrated in or before Eusebius his Time And he Flourished about the Year of Christ 310. So ancient they are in the course of Christianity and for any Prohibition of them there is neither Law nor Canon in the State or Church of England that doth it The Chappels they instance in are Three First they say I Consecrated a Chappel of the Right Honourable the Lord Treasurer Weston's I did so and did no harm therein As for the touch given by the way upon that Honourable Person he is gone to God I have nothing to do with it Secondly they Instanced in a Chappel of Sir John Worstenham's Building 'T is true I Consecrated that too but that was a Parish-Church Built in the Place where he was born and it was in my Diocess and so the Work proper for me The Third Instance was in my own Chappel in my House at Aberguilly when I was Bishop of St. Davids the Room lay waste and out of Repair and I fitted it at my own Cost and Consecrated it into a Chappel that House having no Oratory before Here they farther aggravated many circumstances As First that I named it at the Dedication The Chappel of S. John the Baptist. I did so Name that Chappel in Memory of the College where I was Bred which bears the same Name but I dedicated it to God and his Service And to give the Names of Angels and Saints to Churches for distinction sake and for the Honour of their Memory is very Ancient and Usual in the Church as appears in S. Augustin and divers others of the Fathers but Dedicated only to God Which in the midst of Superstitious times the School it self confesses So yet no Offence Secondly That I did it upon the 29th of August And why might I not do it that Day as well as upon any other But resolving to Name the Chappel as I did I the rather made choice of that Day both because it was the Day of the Decollation of S John the Baptist and because as upon that Day God had wonderfully Blessed me in the Hearing of my Cause concerning the Presidentship of S. John's College in Oxford by King James of ever blessed Memory So yet no Offence Thirdly there was a Paper read and Avowed to be mine in which was a fair description of Chappel Furniture and Rich Plate and the Ceremonies in use in that Chappel and Wafers for the Communion At the reading of this Paper I was a little troubled I knew I was not then so Rich as to have such Plate or Furniture and therefore I humbly desired sight of the Paper So soon as I saw it I found there was nothing in it in my Hand but the Indorsement which told the Reader plainly that it was the Model of Reverend Bishop Andrews his Chappel with the Furniture Plate Ceremonies therein used and all Things else And this Copy was sent me by the Household Chaplain to that Famous Bishop This I laid open to the Lords and it would have made any Man ashamed but Mr. Pryn who had delivered upon Oath that it was a Paper of my Chappel Furniture at Aberguilly contrary to his Conscience and his own Eye-sight of the Paper And for 〈◊〉 I never either gave or received the Communion but in Ordinary Bread At Westminster I knew it was sometimes used but as a thing indifferent As for the Slur here given to that Reverend Dead Bishop of Winchester it might well have been spared he deserved far better usage for his Service to the Church of England and the Protestant Cause The Fourth Charge was the Publishing the Book of Recreations And it was ushered in with this Scorn upon me That I laboured to put a Badge of Holiness by my Breath upon Places and to take it away from Days But I did neither the King commanded the Printing of it as is therein attested and the Warrant which the King gave me they have And though at Consecrations I read the Prayers yet it was God's Blessing not my Breath that gave the Holyness And for the Day I ever laboured it might be kept Holy but yet free from a Superstitious Holyness And First it was said That this was done of
purpose to take away Preaching But First there is no Proof offered for this And Secondly 't is impossible For till the Afternoon Service and Sermon were done no Recreation is allowed by that Book nor then to any but such as have been at both Therefore it could not be done to take it away Thirdly the Book names none but Lawful Recreations Therefore if any unlawful be used the Book gives them no Warrant And that some are Lawful after the Publick Service of God is ended appears by the Practice of Geneva where after Evening Prayer the Elder Men Bowl and the Younger Train And Calvin says in express Terms That one Cause of the Institution of the Sabbath was that Servants might have a Day of rest and remission from their Labour And what time of the Day fit if not after Evening Prayer And what Rest is there for able Young Men if they may use no Recreation Then it was urged That there was great Ryot and Disorder at Wakes kept on the Lords Day That is a very sufficient Cause to regulate and order those Feasts but not quite to take them away I make no doubt for my part but that the Feast of the Dedication was abused by some among the Jews and yet Christ was so far from taking it away for that as that he honoured it with his own Presence S. John 10. As for the Paper which was read containing three Causes why that Book was Published that was a Note taken for my own Private Use and Memory Then came in Mr. Pryn who said that the Lord Chief Justice Richardson had made an Order in his Circuit against these Wakes and was forced to revoke it This was done by Authority as is before answered to which I refer my self Here 't is added to help fill up the Noise But Mr. Pryn says That all the Gentlemen in the Country Petitioned on the Judges behalf No there was a great Faction in Sommersetshire at that time and Sir Robert Philips and all his Party writ up against the Judge and the Order he made as was apparent by the Certificates which he returned And Sir Robert was well known in his time to be neither Popish nor Prophane He says farther That William then Earl of Pembrooke was out of Town and the Book Printed in the Interim by my Procurement But for this last here 's not one Word of Proof offered and so I leave it The Fifth Charge was that some Ministers were punished for not reading this Book Witnesses for this were produced 1. The First was Sir Nathaniel Brent who says he had Charge from me to call for an account of not reading this Book both in my Province at my Visitation and in my Diocess His Majesty having Commanded this I could do little if I had not so much as inquired what was done And he confesses that for my Province he gave time to them which had not read it and then never asked more after it So here was no eager Prosecution But then he says that three in my Diocess stood out and asked time And confesses that I granted it But adds that when he asked more time for them I denyed and that they were then suspended ab Officio only I thought I had reason to deny when I saw they did but dally by asking time And it was then evident that in the Diocess of other Bishops far more than Three were punished and their Punishment greater However this my proceeding was far from Rigour And this was the Answer that I gave Mr. Brown who in the Summ of his Charge instanced in this Particular against me 2. The Second witness was Mr. Culmer one of the Three Ministers that was suspended He says That he was suspended by Sir Nathaniel Brent and that when he came to me about it I said If you know not how to Obey I know not how to Grant your Petition Truly my Lords finding him both Wilful and Ignorant I cannot tell what I could say less He says that his Patron took away his Benefice Why my Lords he had none he was only a 〈◊〉 and God knows unfit for that So being Suspended from his Office this must needs be done He says he was not absolved till the Scots came in and that he was Conformable in all things else For the time of his Absolution I leave that to the Record But for his Conformity in other things 't is more than ever I heard of any This I can say for him he is good at Purchasing a Benefice For he offered a Servant of mine One Hundred and Fifty Pound so he could procure me but to Name him to the Parliament for Chartham in Kent Since I have heard he is as good at doing Reverence in the Church For he 〈◊〉 in the Body of the Cathedral at Canterbury at Noon-Day as will be Justified by Oath And for this very Particular the Book of Recreations he informed at the Council-Table against a Gentleman of Quality for saying it was unfit such Books should be sent for Ministers to read in the Church And was himself laid by the Heels for the Falshood of this Information So he is very good at the point of Conscience too that can refuse to read the Book as being unfit and complain to have another Punished for saying 't is so 3. The Third Witness is Mr. Wilson He says That I sent to Sir Nath. Brent to Suspend him That is true but it was when he would neither Obey nor keep in his Tongue He says his Living was Sequestred for almost Four Years But it was not for Not Reading this Book For himself confesses it was done in the High-Commission and that for Dilapidations in Not Repairing his House 4. The Fourth Witness was one Mr. Snelling a Minister in the Diocess of Rochester All that was done against this Man was openly in the High-Commission Court And there he was Censured for other things as well as for this Himself confesses his open refusing to Bow at the Name of Jesus though the Canon of the Church Command it I kept him off from being Sentenced a long time and when he was Sentenced he confesses I was not present He says somewhat was expunged out of his Brief If it were it was with the consent of his Councel which in that Court was ordinary Howsoever it cannot touch me For those things were done at Informations where I was not present He says that when I heard of the Nature of his Defence I said If any such Defence were put in it should be burnt This was upon just Complaint of the Judge then present at Informations affirming it was against all the course of that Court He says there is no Penalty mentioned in that Declaration And I say his Obedience and other Mens should have been the more free and chearful Well I pray God keep us in the mean in this business of the Sabbath as well as in other things that we run not
at Council-Table High Commission or Convocation are all Joynt Acts of that Body in and by which they were done and cannot by any Law be singly put upon me it being a known Rule of the Law Refertur ad universos quod publice fit per Majorem Partem And Mr. Pryn himself can stand upon this Rule against the Independents and tell us that the Major Voice or Party ought to over-rule and bind the less And he quotes Scripture for it too In which place that which is done by the Major part is ascribed to all not laid upon any one as here upon me And in some of these Courts Star-Chamber especially and Council-Table I was accompanied with Persons of great Honour Knowledge and Experience Judges and others and 't is to me strange and will seem so to Future Ages that one and the same Act shall be Treason in me and not the least Crime nay nor Misdemeanour in any other And yet no Proof hath been offered that I Solicited any Man to concur with me and almost all the Votes given preceeded mine so that mine could lead no Man 8. After this I answered to divers others Particulars as namely to the Canons both as they concerned Aid to the King and as they looked upon matters of the Church and Religion 9. To the Charge about Prohibitions 10. To the base Charge about Bribery But pass them over here as being answered before whither I may refer the Reader now though I could not the Lords then 11. My Lords after this came in the long and various Charge of my Vsurping Papal Power and no less than a design to bring in all the Corruptions of Popery to the utter overthrow of the Protestant Religion established in England And this they went about to prove 1 By my Windows in the Chappel An Argument as brittle as the Glass in which the Pictures are 2 By Pictures in my Gallery which were there before the House was mine and so proved to your Lordships 3 By Reverence done in my Chappel As if it were not due to God ospecially in his Church And done it was not to any other Person or Thing 4 By Consecration of Churches Which was long before Popery came into the World As was also the care of safe laying up of all Hallowed and Sacred things For which I desire your Lordships I may read a short Passage out of Sir Walter Rawley's History The rather because written by a Lay-Man and since the Times of Reformation But this Mr. Maynard excepted against both as new Matter and because I had not the Book present though the Paper thence transcribed was offered to be attested by Oath to be a true Copy But though I could not be suffered to read it then yet here it follows So Sacred was the moveable Temple of God and with such Reverence guarded and transported as 22000 Persons were Dedicated to the Service and Attendance thereof of which 8580 had the peculiar Charge according to their several Offices and Functions the Particulars whereof are in the Third and Fourth of Numbers The Reverend care which Moses the Prophet and chosen Servant of God had in all that belonged even to the outward and least Parts of the Tabernacle Ark and Sanctuary witnessed well the inward and most humble Zeal born toward God himself The Industry used in the Framing thereof and every and the least part thereof the curious Workmanship thereon bestowed the exceeding Charge and Expence in the Provisions the Dutiful Observance in laying up and preserving the Holy Vessels the Solemn removing thereof the Vigilant Attendance thereon and the Provident Defence of the same which All Ages have in some Degree imitated is now so forgotten and cast away in this superfine Age by those of the Family by the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries as all Cost and Care bestowed and had of the Church wherein God is to be Served and Worshipped is accounted a kind of Popery and as proceeding from an Idolatrous Disposition Insomuch as Time would soon bring to pass if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barns and from thence again into the Fields and Mountains and under the Hedges and the Office of the Ministery robbed of all Dignity and respect be as contemptible as those Places all Order Discipline and Church Government left to newness of Opinion and Mens Fancies Yea and soon after as many kinds of Religions would spring up as there are Parish-Churches c. Do ye not think some body set Mr. Maynard on to prohibit the Reading out of this Passage as foreseeing whither it tended For I had read one third part of it before I had the stop put upon me 5 But they went on with their Proof By my Censuring of Good Men that is Separatists and Refractory Persons 6 By my Chaplains Expunging some things out of Books which made against the Papists It may be if my Chaplains whom it concerns had Liberty to answer they were such Passages as could not be made good against the Papists and then 't is far better they should be out than in For as S. Augustin observed in his and we find it true in our time the Inconvenience is great which comes to the Church and Religion by bold Affirmers Nay he is at a satis dici non potest the Mischief is so great as cannot be expressed 7. Then by altering some things in a Sermon of Dr Sybthorp's But my Answer formerly given will shew I had cause 8. By my preferment of unworthy Men So unworthy as that they would be famous both for Life and Learning were they in any other Protestant Church in Christendom And they are so Popishly affected as that having suffered much both in State and Reputation since this Persecution of the Clergy began for less it hath not been no one of them is altered in Judgment or fallen into any liking with the Church of Rome 9. By the Overthrow of the Feoffment But that was done by Judgment in the Exchequer to which I referred my self And if the Judgment there given be right there 's no fault in any Man If it were wrong the fault was in the Judges not in me I solicited none of them 10. By a Passage in my Book where I say The Religion of the Papists and Ours is one But that 's expressed at large only because both are Christianity and no Man I hope will deny that Papists are Christians As for their notorious Failings in Christianity I have in the same Book said enough to them 11. By a Testimony of Mr. Burton's and Mr. Lane's that I should say We and the Church of Rome did not differ in Fundamentals but in Circumstantials This I here followed at large but to avoid tedious repetition refer my Reader to the place where 't is anaswered 12. By my making the Dutch Churches to be of another Religion But this is mistaken as my Answer will shew the
Reader And if they do not make themselves of another Religion I shall never endeavour to make them 13. By a Pack of such Witnesses as were never produced against any Man of my Place and Calling Messengers and Pursevants and such as have shifted their Religion to and again Pillory-men and Bawds And these the Men that must prove my Correspondence with Priests 12. In the midst of these upon occasion of the Ceremonies at the Coronation it was pressed against me That I had altered the King's Oath 14. And last of all That I had shewed my felf an Enemy to Parliaments Upon both these I did very much enlarge my self But here also that I may not be a burden in repeating the same thing I desire the Reader to look upon them in their proper places where I doubt not but my Answer will give him full satisfaction that I did not the one nor am the other But my Lords there are other strange Arguments produced against me to prove my Compliance with Rome which I most humbly desire your Lordships may not be forgotten 1. As first my Lords it hath been Charged upon me That I made the Oath recited in the first of the late Canons one Clause whereof is this That I will never give my Consent to subject this Church to the Vsurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome Whence the Argument drawn against me must be this and can be no other That I did endeavour to bring in Popery because I made and took a solemn Oath never to give my Consent to subject this Church of England to the Usurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome I beseech your Lordships mark the force of this Argument And they which follow are as pregnant against me 2. Secondly My Book against Fisher hath been charged against me where the Argument must lie thus I have endeavoured to advance Popery because I have written against it And with what strength I have written I leave to Posterity to judge when the Envy which now over-loads me shall be buried with me This I will say with St. Gregory Nazianzen whose Success at Constantinople was not much unlike mine here save that his Life was not sought I never laboured for Peace to the Wrong and Detriment of Christian Verity nor I hope ever shall And let the Church of England look to it for in great Humility I crave to write this though then was no time to speak it That the Church of England must leave the way it 's now going and come back to that way of Defence which I have followed in my Book or She shall never be able to justifie Her Separation from the Church of Rome 3. Thirdly All the late Canons have been charged against me and the Argument which is drawn from thence must lie thus The Third of these Canons for suppressing the Growth of Popery is the most full and strict Canon that ever was made against it in the Church of England Therefore I that made this Canon to keep it out am guilty of endeavouring to bring it in 4. Fourthly I have by my Industry and God's great Blessing upon my Labours stayed as many from going and reduced to the Church of England as many that were gone to Rome as I believe any Minister in England can truly say he hath done I named them before and had Scorn enough put upon me for it as your Lordships could not but both see and hear where the Argument lies thus I converted many from Popery and setled them in the Religion established in England Therefore I laboured to bring in Popery which out of all doubt can be no sober Man's way 5. Fifthly The Plot discovered to Sir William Boswell and my self by Andreas ab Habernfield hath been charged against me That Plot for altering of Religion and by what ways your Lordships have heard already and is to be seen at full in Rome's Master-piece Now if this Plot in the Issue proved nothing but a confused Information and no Proof of any Particular as indeed it did What 's become of Rome's Master-piece But if it had any reality in it as it appeared to be a sad Plot not only to me but to all Men that saw the short Propositions which were first sent with an absolute Undertaking to prove them then it appears expresly that I was in danger of my Life for stiffly opposing the bringing in of Popery and that there was no hope to alter Religion in England 'till I was taken out of the way And though in conclusion the Proofs failed yet what was consulted and it seems resolved concerning me is plain enough And then the Argument against me lies thus There 's no hope to bring in Popery 'till I am taken out of the way therefore I did labour to bring it in Do not these things my Lords hang handsomly together 6. Lastly There have been above Threescore Letters and other Papers brought out of my Study into this Honourable House they are all about composing the Differences between the Lutherans and the Calvinists in Germany Why they should be brought hither but in hope to charge them upon me I know not and then the Argument will be this I laboured to reconcile the Protestants in Germany that they might unanimously set themselves against the Papists therefore I laboured to bring Popery into England Now that your Lordships have heard the Arguments and what Proof they make against me I must be bold to put you in Mind of that which was said here at the Barr April 16. 1644. That they did not urge any of these particular Actions as Treason against me but the Result of them all together amounted to Treason For answer to which I must be bold to tell your Lordships That if no Particular which is charged upon me be Treason the Result from them cannot be Treason which will appear by these Reasons following 1. First The Result must be of the same Nature and Species with the Particulars from which it rises But 't is confessed no one of the Particulars are Treason Therefore neither is the Result that rises from them And this holds in Nature in Morality and in Law In Nature and that both for Integral and Essential Parts for neither can the Body of a Bear and the Soul of a Lion result into a Fox nor the Legs of a Bull the Body of a Horse and the Head of an Ass result into a Man In Morality and that is seen both in Vertues and Vices For neither can many Actions of Liberality Meekness and Sobriety rise up into a Result of Fortitude neither can many Actions of Malice Drunkenness and Covetousness result into Treason In Law 't is so too For be there never so many particular Crimes yet there is no Law in this Kingdom nor any where else that I know that makes a Result of different Crimes to be Treason where none of the Particulars are Treason by Law So this imaginary Result is
and continued Practice of the whole Church of Christ. Thirdly Let them profess they are not bound to this Form they use more than any other but that it is free for them to conceive Prayer c. Harder and harder For they stand bound not only by Church-Ordinance but by Injunction and Command of the State in Parliament strictly to observe this Form And they are therefore bound to this Form more than any other And therefore so long as this Act of Parliament remains in force with what Honour or Conscience can this Lord who seems to stand so much upon Law ask this at the Bishops Hands that they should profess that they are not bound to any Forms Nor to this more than any other when his Lordship must needs know they are bound to this and no other and that by an Act of Parliament Besides What a Coil hath been kept by some of this Lord's Favourites against Innovations of Religion as contrary to Law No Rails to fence the Holy Table from Prophanation Though that be no Ceremony nor forbidden by Law No coming up to it or the steps of the Chancel to receive the Communion though most decent and in ancient usage and forbidden by no Law that I know No Reverence to God himself at coming in or going out of his Temple though that of the Psalmist began the ancient Liturgies of the Church and is continued in our O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker c. Psal. 95. The Communion-Table must not stand North and South though the Queens Injunction commanded it to be set just in that Place in which the Altar then stood So they innovate themselves and then cry out of Innovation And if this Lord's Doctrin be good let 's have no Injunction for North and South and all 's well But then we must have no Injunction for East and West neither For if there be an Injunction East and West is Superstition as well as North and South But then if my Lord would have all free what would he have in this Particular Why First he would have it free for these Men to conceive Prayer Let them in due time and place conceive Prayer on God's Name But let them not make publick Abortion in the Church 'T is an over-hasty Mother that brings forth so soon as she has Conceived And yet Extemporary Men out-run these Mothers and Conceive and bring forth their unnatural Monsters both at once Next he would have these Men to help themselves by the use of any other Forms they please as well as this which is prescribed So then belike these great Men of Gifts in my Lord's Eye are not so perfect in the Spirit but that they may need helps And if my Lord be so indifferent that these may help themselves by the use of any other Forms as well as this which is prescribed let him be as fair at least to the Church that made him a Christian as to others and give Men leave to help themselves by the use of this Form which is prescribed as well any other And if it be the Injunction only that sticks in his Stomach I am sorry he should shew himself so Guilty of the great Sin of Disobedience Fourthly Let them practise the same indifferently that so it may be manifest the Fault rests in the Person and not in the Service c. This is his Lordship's last Condition And either I am dulled with this Business or the Expression is somewhat obscure But I will take it as right as I can It seems my Lord would not refuse coming to the Prayers of the Church for the Personal Fault of him that Officiates And that 's well It seems likewise that to manifest this whether the Sin lies in the Person that offers or in the Service that is Offered up his Lordship would have an indifferent practice of that which is enjoyned and other Forms And that 's stark naught For by this we shall have no certain Service of God for the People It shall 〈◊〉 and perhaps more dangerously than is fit not only in different Parishes but in the same Congregation at different times And were not this so yet I cannot assent to my Lord in this that these Men he means can so easily offer better if they will and that when they do not it is their Negligence that is the only Cause And besides it is useless For it is known already to sober Minds that the Fault when any arises in that Work is neither in the Service which is very good nor in the Injunction which is very Lawful but in the Person which Officiates if he do not his Duty And so there is no need of a confused practising of divers Forms indifferently to manifest that which is known already And if my Lord brings no worse Sins about him when he comes to Church than he will find Faults in the Liturgy he may safely come to Church and be a Happy Man in so doing And I might well doubt of my Lord's meaning herein for himself is jealous of his Auditors Therefore he adds I know not whether I express my self clearly to be understood in this or not and it may seem to be a nice Scrupulosity Give me leave therefore to endeavour to clear it by an Instance or two Truly my Lord takes himself right For neither hath he expressed himself very clearly nor is the matter so material in it self but that it may be as it seems a very nice Scrupulosity and altogether unable to warrant his Lordship's Separation from the Prayers of the Church Yet since my Lord desires to clear it by an Instance or two I shall be well content to hear and consider of them His First Instance is In the time of the Law when God appointed himself to be Worshipped by Offerings and Sacrifices the Shadows and Types of those Truths which were to come If a Poor Man which had not Ability to bring a Bullock or a Ram or a Lamb had brought a pair of Turtle Doves or two Young Pigeons it would have been in him an acceptable Service But if a Man of Ability who had Herds and Flocks should out of Negligence or Covetousness have spared the Cost of a Bullock or Ram and brought Young Pigeons his Service would have been rejected and himself punished How much more would the Service have been Abomination if Men should have taken Authority to have enjoyned all to bring no other but Turtles or Young Pigeons because some were not able to do more In one kind there might be a tolerable and lawful use of that which otherways used especially if generally enjoyned would have been most unlawful God will be Worshipped with the Fat and best of the Inwards the best of Mens Gifts and Abilities which he that worships or officiates in Worshipping is to do at his own Peril And if it be left free unto him the Worship may be Lawful to him that
yokes of Bondage and our other gross Corruptions be removed And I must doubt they embrace not the same Faith till they admit the whole Creed and will use the Lord's Prayer which few of them will As for the Spirit that works by Love I much fear he is a great stranger to many of these Men. For I have many ways found their Malice to be fierce and yet endless And therefore I wonder my Lord should have the Boldness to tell my Lords in Parliament that they know all these things of these Men and that they are their Brethren and concur with them in all these forenamed things whom in the mean time their Lordships do and cannot but know different from them nay separating from them in the very Worship of God Next I agree with my Lord again that I would have no pressure put upon those Men in whom the Spirit of Love causes an unblamable Conversation without any offence to the State But in this I must disagree that the Separatists from the Church of England are such manner of Men. For the private Conversation of very many of them whom I could name were it fit is far from being unblamable And the Publick Conversation of all or most of them is full of offence to the State Unless my Lord think the State is or ought to be of their Humour For how can their Conversation be without great offence very great to this or any State Christian who shall have and maintain private Conventicles and Meetings in a different way of Religion from that which is Established by the State Nay which shall not only differ from but openly and slanderously oppose that which is so Established Besides no well governed State will allow of private Meetings especially under pretence of Religion which carry far without their privity and allowance For if this be permitted there lies a way open to all Conspiracies against the State whatsoever and they shall all be satisfied under the pretence of Religion The third thing in which I agree with my Lord is that I would not that for Ceremonies and Things indifferent these Men should be thrust out of the Land and cut off from their Native Country No God forbid if any thing will reclaim them But then I must disagree with my Lord in this That these Men whether such as my Lord describes them or no are thrust out of the Land or cut off from their Native Country for Ceremonies or Things indifferent For First they are not all Ceremonies for which they separate from the Church For they pretend certain gross Corruptions in the very Worship of God as my Lord a little before delivers Secondly be the Cause what it will none of them have been banished or thrust out of the Land or cut from their Native Country as is here spoken to move Hatred against the Government But 't is true they have thrust themselves out and cut themselves off and run a Madding to New England scar'd away as they say by certain gross Corruptions not to be endured in this Church Nor after they have gone a Madding enough is their return denyed to any And I know some that went out like Fools and are come back so like that you cannot know the one from the other In this Passage 't is said by my Lord that these Ceremonies and Things indifferent unto you speaking to the Lords in Parliament are not so to them but Burthens In this Passage I can agree with my Lord in nothing For First my Lord but a very little before tells of Yokes of Bondage and gross Corruptions And are they so soon become but Ceremonies and Things indifferent If they be more than Ceremonies and Things indifferent then my Lord delivers not the whole Truth And if they be but Ceremonies and Things indifferent then his Lordship and all other Separatists ought rather to yield to the Church in such things than for such things to separate from it And certainly so they would if the Spirit that worketh by Love did work in them Yea but my Lord says they are such things as though they be indifferent to others yet to them they are not but burthens And it may be they make them so for in their own Nature they are nothing less And of great use they are to preserve the Substance and the Body of Religion But this I find let any thing in the World be enjoyned by the Church Authority and it is a Burthen presently And so you see all along this Speech how earnest my Lord is in behalf of himself and these Separatists against all Injunctions of set Forms and Yokes of Bondage This is an excellent way of Religion to settle Temporal Obedience And I can as little agree with that which follows Namely that the Lords may without any Offence to the State or prejudice to the Churches take away if they will these Things indifferent to them but Burthens to these Brethren For First suppose them to be but 〈◊〉 and Things indifferent yet can they not be taken away without offence to the State or prejudic to the Churches who to please a few unruly Separatists must make an Alteration in that part of Religion which hath continued with great Happiness to this Church ever since the Reformation Secondly I will not dispute it here what Power a Lay Assembly and such a Parliament is hath to determine Matters of Religion Primely and Originally by and of themselves before the Church hath first agreed upon them Then indeed they may confirm or refuse And this course was held in the Reformation But Originally to take this Power over Religion into Lay Hands is that which hath not been thus assumed since Christ to these unhappy days And I pray God this Chair of Religion do not prove Cathedra Pestilentiae as the vulgar reads it Psal. 1. 1. to the infecting of this whole Nation with Schism and Heresie and in the end bring all to confusion I meddle not here with the King's Power For he may be present in Convocation when he pleases and take or leave any Canons as he pleases which are for the Peace and well Ordering of the Church as well as in Parliament take or leave any Laws made ready for him for the good and quiet of his People But if it come to be Matter of Faith though in his Absolute Power he may do what he will and Answer God for it after Yet he cannot commit the ordering of that to any Lay Assembly Parliament or other for them to determine that which God hath intrusted into the Hands of his Priests Though if he will do this the Clergy must do their Duty to inform him and help that dangerous Error if they can But if they cannot they must suffer an unjust Violence how far soever it proceed but they may not break the Duty of their Allegiance 'T is true Constantius the Emperour a great Patron of the Arrians was by them interested
Obeyed And hereof in any wise fail you not Jan. 19. 1634. Comput Angl. A Memorial of the Arch-Bishop's Annual Account to the King's Majesty of his Province for the Year 1635. Ex Registro Laud fol 241. WHereas his Majesty in his late Instructions to the Lords the Bishops hath amongst other things commanded that every Bishop respectively should give an Account in Writing to his Metropolitan of all those Instructions or so many of them as may concern him at or before the Tenth day of December yearly And likewise that the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace do make out of them a Brief of his whole Province and present it to his Sacred Majesty every year by the second day of January following My Lord Arch-Bishop in Obedience to the said Commands did present an Account in Writing to his Majesty how those Prudent and Pious Instructions for the Good and Welfare of the Church of Christ in this Kingdom have been obeyed and performed by the several Bishops within his Province of Canterbury for the Year of our Lord God 1634. Which Account by his Grace's Command is Registred amongst the other Acts of his Province by his principal Register And that in farther Obedience to the said Instructions his Grace delivered another Brief in Writing of his said Province for this present Year of our Lord God 1635. unto Sir John Cooke Knight one of the Principal Secretaries of State to be presented to his Majesty by the time aforesaid but by Reason of his the said Secretary's Sickness it is mislaid or lost and so hath not been presented to his Majesty nor any Observation by the King put upon it which loss notwithstanding the Lord Arch-Bishop commanded instead of Registring the Brief it self that this Memorial of the loss of it should be Registred Martij 14. 1635. W Cant. W. S. A. C. NOtwithstanding this Memorial the Arch-Bishop's Account for the Year 1635. is very happily come to my Hand after this manner My very Worthy Friend Sir Will. Cooke of Broom in Norfolk sent me a Letter dated Nov 6 1681. that being Executor to an Uncle of his then lately Deceased in Suffolk he found in his Study a Bundle of Original Papers of Arch-Bishop Laud which are the Annual Accounts here following from 1632. to 1639. with a Letter to me in the Words following May it please your Grace c. vide infra The Writer of this Letter Mr Thomas Raymond a very Ingenious Gentleman was as Sir Will C tells me bred up under Sir Will. Boswell Embassadour in Holland and was after Governour to the present Earl of Peterborough in his Travels And was after his Return as I have heard one of the Clerks of his Majesty's Privy Council possibly under Sir Jo Cooke Principal Secretary by which Means these Papers might come into his Hands The Originals are all Signed by the Arch-Bishop that of 1632. by G. Cant. being Abbot's last and the rest W Cant. being Arch-Bishop Lauds all which are Apostilled in the Margin with the King 's own Hand except only that of 1635. which it seems by Secretary Cook 's default never came to the King's view I found also among Arch-Bishop Laud's Papers Duplicates of the Accounts for 1634 6 7 8 and 9. with the King's Notes also Copied in the Margin And 3 of them scil the 3 last are Registred in Registr Laud f. 215. 254. 289. Mr. Raymond's Letter to my Lord Arch-Bishop Sancroft concerning the following Papers May it please your Grace THE inclosed Papers being of Ecclesiastick Concern and true and mighty Evidences of the abundant Love and Care of a Blessed King for the good of the Church as well as that of a most Pious and Learned Prelate your Grace's Predecessor I thought my self bound both in Duty and Prudence to Transmit them to your Grace as to their proper place both for use and safety And this I have endeavoured to do in the carefullest manner I could and do implore your Grace's Pardon for this intrusion beseeching most humbly Almighty God to grant your Grace multos annos in all Health and Prosperity so much conducing to the good of his Church amongst us And withdrawing my self unto my wonted Solitude do crave the great Honour to be esteemed as I am ready to approve my self Della mia povera Capanna 18 di Novembre 78. Your GRACE's Most Humble and Most Faithful Servant THO. RAYMOND Arch-Bishop Laud's Account of his Province sent to the King for the Year 1633. with the King 's Apostills in the Margin May it please Your most Sacred Majesty ACcording to Your Royal Commands I do here upon the Second of January 1633. Comput Aglic present my Accompt of both the Diocess and Province of Canterbury concerning all those Church Affairs which are contained within your Majesty's most gracious Declaration and Instructions Published out of your most Princely and Religious Care to preserve Unity in Orthodox Doctrine and Conformity to Government in this your Church of England And First for my own Diocess of Canterbury I hear of many things amiss but as yet my time hath been so short that I have had no certain knowledge of any thing fit to certifie save only that some of my Peculiars in London are Extreamly out of order For the Bishoprick of London it is certified that my Lord the now Bishop hath not received complaint against any of his Clergy since his coming to that See which was since Michaelmas last For all the former part of this First Year I must give your Majesty Accompt for my self being then Bishop there And First having heretofore after long patience and often conference proceeded against Nathaniel Ward Parson of Stondon in Essex to Excommunication and Deprivation for refusing to subscribe to the Articles established by the Canon of the Church of which I certified the last Year I have now left him still under the Censure of Excommunication I did likewise convent Mr John Beedle Rector of Barnstone in Essex for omitting some parts of Divine Service and refusing Conformity But upon his submission and promise of reformation I dismissed him with a Canonical Admonition only Since my return out of Scotland Mr John Davenport Vicar of St Stephens in Coleman-street whom I used with all Moderation and about Two Years since thought I had setled his Judgment having him then at advantage enough to have put extremity upon him but forbare it hath now resigned his Vicarage declared his Judgment against Conformity with the Church of England and is since gone as I hear to Amsterdam For Bath and Wells I find that the Lord Bishop hath in his late Visitation taken a great deal of pains to see all your Majesty's Instructions observed And particularly hath put down divers Lecturers in Market-Towns which were Beneficed Men in other Bishops Diocesses Because he found that when they had Preached Factious and Disorderly Sermons they retired into other Countries where his Jurisdiction would not reach to punish them
do here upon the Second of Januay 1635. Comput Angl. present my Account both for the Diocess and Province of Canterbury concerning all those Church-Affairs which are contained in your Majesty's most gracious Instructions published out of your most Princely and Religious care to preserve Unity in Orthodox Doctrine and Conformity to Government within this your Church of England And First for my own Diocess I humbly represent to your Majesty that there are yet very many Refractory Persons to the Government of the Church of England about Maidstone and Ashford and some other Parts the Infection being spread by one Brewer and continued and increased by one Turner They have been both Censured in the High-Commission Court some Years since but the Hurt which they have done is so deeply rooted as that it is not possible to be plucked up on the suddain but I must crave time to work it off by little and little I have according to your Majesty's Commands required Obedience to my Injunctions sent to the French and Dutch Churches at Canterbury Maidstone and Sandwich And albeit they made some shew of Conformity yet I do not find they have yielded such Obedience as is required and was ordered with your Majesty's Consent and Approbation So that I fear I shall be driven to a quicker proceeding with them The Cathedral Church begins to be in very good Order And I have almost finished their Statutes which being once perfected will mutatis mutandis be a sufficient Direction for the making of the Statutes for the other Cathedrals of the new Erection which in King Henry the Eighth's Time had either none left or none Confirmed and those which are in many things not Canonical All which Statutes your Majesty hath given Power to me with others under the Broad Seal of England to alter or make new as we shall find Cause And so soon as these Statutes for the Church of Canterbury are made ready I shall humbly submit them to your Majesty for Confirmation There is one Mr Walker of St John's the Evangelist a Peculiar of mine in London who hath all his time been but a disorderly and a peevish Man and now of late hath very frowardly Preached against the Lord Bishop of Ely his Book concerning the Lord's Day set out by Authority But upon a Canonical Admonition given him to desist he hath hitherto recollected himself and I hope will be advised For the Diocess of London I find my Lord the Bishop hath been very careful for all that concerns his own Person But Three of his Arch-Deacons have made no return at all to him so that he can certifie nothing but what hath come to his knowledge without their help There have been convented in this Diocess Dr Stoughton of Aldermanbury Mr Simpson Curate and Lecturer of St Margarets New-Fishstreet Mr Andrew Moline Curate and Lecturer of St Swithin Mr John Goodwin Vicar of St Stevens Colman-street and Mr Viner Lecturer of St Laurence in the Old 〈◊〉 for Breach of the Canons of the Church in Sermons or Practice or both But because all them promised Amendment for the future and submission to the Church in all things my Lord very moderately forbore farther proceeding against them There were likewise convented Mr Sparrowhawke Curate and Lecturer at St Mary Woolchurch for Preaching against the Canon for Bowing at the Name of Jesus who because he wilfully persisted is suspended from Preaching in that Diocess As also one Mr John Wood a wild turbulent 〈◊〉 and formerly Censured in the High-Commission-Court But his Lordship forbore Mr White of Knightsbridge for that his Cause is at this present depending in the Court aforesaid Concerning the Diocess of Lincoln my Lord the Bishop returns this Information That he hath Visited the same this Year all over in Person which he conceives no Predecessor of his hath done these Hundred Years And that he finds so much good done thereby beyond that which Chancellours use to do when they go the Visitation that he is sorry he hath not done it heretofore in so many Years as he hath been Bishop He farther Certifies that he hath prevailed beyond Expectation for the Augmenting of Four or Five small Vicarages and conceives as your Majesty may be pleased to remember I have often told you upon my own Experience that it is a Work very necessary and fit to be done and most worthy of your Majesty's Royal Care and Consideration For Conformity his Lordship professeth that in that large Diocess he knows but one unconformable Man and that is one Lindhall who is in the High-Commission Court and ready for Sentence My Lord the Bishop of Bath and Wells Certifies that his Diocess is in very good Order and Obedience That there is not a single Lecture in any Town Corporate but grave Divines Preach by course and that he hath changed the Afternoon Sermons into Catechising by Question and Answer in all Parishes His Lordship farther Certifies that no Man hath been Presented unto him since his last 〈◊〉 for any Breach of the Canons of the Church or Your Majesty's Instructions and that he hath received no notice of any increase of Men Popishly affected beyond the number mentioned in his last Certificat The Bishop of this See died almost Half a Year since and had sent in no Certificat But I find by my Visitation there this present Year that the whole Diocess is much out of Order and more at Ipswich and Yarmouth than at Norwich it self But I hope my Lord that now is will take care of it and he shall want no Assistance that I can give him Mr Samuel Ward Preacher at Ipswich was Censured this last Term in the High-Commission Court for Preaching in Disgrace of the Common-Prayer-Book and other like gross Misdemeanours These Six Bishops respectively make their Answer that in their own Persons they have observed all your Majesty's Instructions and that they find all their Clergy very conformable no one of them instancing in any particular to the contrary In this Diocess the Bishop found in his Triennial Visitation the former Year two noted Schismaticks Wroth and Erbury that led away many simple People after them And finding that they willfully persisted in their Schismatical course he hath carefully preferred Articles against them in the High-Commission Court where when the Cause is ready for Hearing they shall receive according to the Merits of it Concerning this Diocess your Majesty knows that the late Bishop's Residence upon the place was necessarily hindred by his Attendance upon your Majesty's Person as Clerk of the Closet But he hath been very careful for the observance of all your Instructions and particularly for Catechizing of the Youth As also for not letting of any thing into Lives to the Prejudice of his Successor in which he hath done exceeding well And I have by your Majesty's Command laid a strict Charge upon his Successor to look to those Particular Leases which
that by God's Blessing and the well Ordering of Church Affairs there have been fewer Popish Recusants presented than formerly and that the number of them is much decreased And this I cannot but highly approve to your Majesty if there be not fewer presented either by the over-awing of them which should present or some Cunning in those which would not be presented For this Diocess my Lord hath given me in a very careful and punctual Account very large and in all Particulars very considerable And I shall return it to your Majesty as briefly as I can reduce it And first he hath for this Summer but by your Majesty's leave lived from both his Episcopal Houses in Ipswich partly because he was informed that that side of his Diocess did most need his presence and he found it so And partly because his Chappel at his House in Norwich was possessed by the French Congregation and so the Bishoprick left destitute But he hath given them warning to provide themselves elsewhere by Easter next His Lordship found a general defect of Catechising quite through the Diocess but hath setled it And in Norwich where there are 34 Churches there was no Sermon on the Sunday Morning save only in four but all put off to the Afternoon and so no Catechising But now he hath ordered that there shall be a Sermon every Morning and Catechising in the Afternoon in every Church For Lectures they abounded in Suffolk and many set up by private Gentlemen even without so much as the knowledge of the Ordinary and without any due observation to the Canons or the Discipline of the Church Divers of these his Lordship hath carefully regulated according to Order and especially in St. Edmonds-bury and with their very good content and Suspended no Lecturer of whom he might obtain Conformity And at Ipswich it was not unknown unto them that now Mr Ward stands Censured in the High Commission and obeys not Yet the Bishop was ready to have allowed them another if they would have sought him but they resolve to have Mr. Ward or none and that as is conceived in despight of the Censure of the Court. At Yarmouth where there was great division heretofore for many Years their Lecturer being Censured in the High Commission about two Years since went into New-England since which time there hath been no Lecture and very much peace in the Town and all Ecclesiastical Orders well observed But in Norwich one Mr Bridge rather than he would Conform hath left his Lecture and two Cures and is gone into Holland The Lecturers in the Country generally observing no Church Orders at all And yet the Bishop hath carried it with that Temper and upon their promise and his hopes of Conformity that he hath Inhibited but three in Norfolk and as many in Suffolk of which one is no Graduate and hath been a common Stage-player His Lordship craves direction what he shall do with such Scholars some in Holy Orders and some not as Knights and private Gentlemen keep in their Houses under pretence to Teach their Children As also with some Divines that are Beneficed in Towns or near but live in Gentlemens Houses For my part I think it very fit the Beneficed Men were punctually commanded to reside upon their Cures And for the rest your Majesties Instructions allow none to keep Chaplains but such as are qualified by Law All which notwithstanding I most humbly submit as the Bishop doth to your Majesty's Judgment For Recusants whereas formerly there were wont to be but two or three Presented his Lordship hath caused above forty to be Endicted in Norwich at the last Sessions and at the Assizes in Suffolk he delivered a List of such as were Presented upon the Oath of the Churchwardens to the Lord Chief Justice and his Lordship to the Grand Jury But they slighted it pretending the Bishop's Certificat to be no Evidence But the true Reason is conceived to be because he had also inserted such as had been Presented to him for Recusant Separatists as well as Recusant Romanists His Lordships Care hath been such as that though there are about One Thousand Five Hundred Clergy-Men in that Diocess and many Disorders yet there are not Thirty Excommunicated or Suspended whereof some are for Contumacy and will not yet submit some for obstinate denyal to Publish your Majesty's Declaration and some for contemning all the Orders and Rites of the Church and intruding themselves without License from the Ordinary for many Years together Last of all he found that one half of the Churches in his Diocess had not a Clerk able to Read and Answer the Minister in Divine Service by which means the People were wholly disused from joyning with the Priest and in many places from so much as saying Amen But concerning this his Lordship hath strictly enjoyned a Reformation If this Account given by my Lord of Norwich be true as I believe it is and ought to believe it till it can be disproved he hath deserved very well of the Church of England and hath been very ill rewarded for it His humble Suit to your Majesty is That you will be graciously pleased in your own good time to hear the Complaints that have been made against him that he may not be overborn by an Outcry for doing Service In the Diocess of Oxon I find all your Majesty's Instructions carefully obeyed and there is but one Lecture in the whole Diocess and that is read at Henly upon Thames by some Ministers of the Diocess conformable Men and allowed by the Bishop His Lordship hath also called upon divers Recusants but upon their being questioned they plead an Exemption from his Authority under your Majesty's Great Seal From my Lord of Ely I have received a very fair Account that his Diocess is very orderly and obedient insomuch that he hath not any thing of Note to acquaint me with My Lord in his Certificat mentions two Particulars fit for your Majesty's Knowledge The First is that one of His Clergy in Bedfordshire a Learned and Pious Man as he saith set up a Stone upon Pillars of Brick for his Communion-Table believing it to have been the Altar-Stone And because this appeared to be but a Grave-Stone and for avoiding of farther Rumours in that Country among the preciser sort his Lordship caused it to be quietly removed and the ancient Communion-Table placed in the room of it But did not farther question the Party because they found him a harmless Man and otherwise a Deserver But how deserving soever he be I must judge it a very bold part in him to attempt this without the Knowledge and Approbation of his Ordinary The Second is that there are risen some Differences in the Southern parts of his Diocess about the Ministers urging the People to receive at the Rails which his Lordship saith he hath procured to be placed about the Holy Table and the People in
some places refusing so to do Now because this is not Regulated by any Canon of the Church his Lordship is an humble Suitor that he may have Direction herein And truly I think for this Particular the People will best be won by the Decency of the Thing it self and that I suppose may be compassed in a short time But if your Majesty shall think it fit that a quicker way be held I shall humbly submit From the Lord Bishop of this Diocess I have received no Particular but in General thus That all your Majesty's Instructions are now observed there without repugnance for ought either Chancellor or any other Officer of his hath informed him My Lord the Bishop of this See certifies That your Majesty's Instructions are carefully observed and that there are only two Lecturers in the City of Worcester both very conformable and that they shall not longer continue than they are so And that the one of them preaches on Sundays in the Afternoons after Chatechizing and Service in the Parish-Churches and ending before Evening Prayers in the Cathedral I may not here forbear to acquaint your Majesty that this Sunday Lecture was ever wont to be in the Cathedral and that it is removed because the City would suffer no Prebendary to have it And Evening Prayers in their Parish-Churches must needs begin betimes and their Catechizing be short and the Prayers at the Cathedral begin very late if this Lecture can begin and end in the space between But if it can be so fitted I think the Dean and Chapter will not complain of the remove of the Lecture to a Parish-Church For these Three Diocesses my Lords the Bishops Certifie that all your Majesty's Instructions are carefully observed neither do any of them mention any thing amiss in the general either for Doctrine or Discipline Only the Bishop of Exeter hath sent me up two Copies of the late Libel Intituled News from Ipswich which were sent thither to a Stationer with Blank Covers These Five Diocesses following I have Visited this Year by my Vicar General and other Commissioners And for Hereford I find not many things amiss though the often change of the Bishop there which hath of late hapned hath done no good among them But some pretensions there are to certain Customs which I conceive were better broke than kept And I shall do my best to reform them as I have Opportunity and humbly beg your Majesty's Assistance if I want Power For St. Davids the Bishop is now there and will take the best care he can to see all things in Order But there is one Matthews the Vicar of Penmayn that preaches against the keeping of all Holy-Days with divers other as Fond or Prophane Opinions The Bishop hath inhibited him and if that do not serve I shall call him into the High-Commission Court Baronet Rudde is in this Diocess the Son of a late Bishop there who is a sober Gentleman He hath Built him a Chappel and desires the Bishop to Consecrate it But his Lordship finding one of your Majesty's Instructions to be that none should keep a Chaplain in his House but such as are qualified by Law which he conceives a Baronet is not hath hitherto forborn to Consecrate this Chappel as being to be of small use without a Chaplain and humbly craves direction herein what he shall do I humbly propose to your Majesty whether considering the Charge this Gentleman hath been at and the ill Ways which many of them there have to Church it may not be fit to Consecrate this Chappel and then that he may have a License to use the Minister of the Parish or any other lawfully in Orders Always provided that he use this Chappel but at times of some necessity not making himself or his Family strangers to the Mother-Church and that there be a Clause expressed in the License for recalling thereof upon any Abuse there committed and that this License be taken either from the Bishop under his Seal or from the Arch-Bishop of the Province For Landaff there is very little found amiss Only the Bishop complains that whereas Mr. Wroth and Mr. Erbury are in the High-Commission for their Schismatical proceedings the slow prosecution there against them makes both them persist in their By-ways and their Followers judge them Faultless But for this I humbly present to your Majesty this Answer That now the loss of two Terms by reason of the Sickness hath cast the Proceedings of that Court as well as of others behind-hand And there is no Remedy where all things else stay as well as it In the Diocess of St. Asaph there is no Complaint but the usual That there is great resort of Recusants to Holy-Well and that this Summer the Lady Falkland and her Company came as Pilgrims thither who were the more observed because they travelled on Foot and Dissembled neither their Quality nor their Errand And this Boldness of theirs is of very ill construction among your Majesty's People My humble Suit to your Majesty is That whereas I complained of this in open Council in your Majesty's presence you would now be graciously pleased that the Order then resolved on for her Confinement may be put in execution For Bangor I find that Catechising was quite out of use in those remote parts the more the Pity But the Bishop is now in hope to do much good and sees some Reformation in that particular already And I would say for this and the other Diocesses in Wales that much more good might be done there in a Church-way if they were not overborn by the Proceedings of the Court of the Marches there And this present Year in this Diocess of Bangor my Commissioners for my Metropolitical Visitation there complain unto me that the Power which belongs to my place hath been in them very much wronged and impeached by that Court And I do most humbly beseech your Majesty in your own good time to give this my Cause a Hearing if it take not a fair end without that trouble For Rochester the Bishop God comfort him is very ill of a Palsy and that I fear hath made him forget his Account Neither hath the Bishop of Glocester sent me any but why I know not And for Bristol that See is void For this Diocess I have likewise received no Account But I fear that whereas the Bishop was lately complained of to your Majesty for making Waste of the poor Woods there remaining he is not over-willing to give an Accotnt of that Particular Nor of the gross Abuse committed in the Cathedral Church by the Lady Davis who I most humbly beseech your Majesty may be so restrained as that she may have no more Power to commit such horrible Profanations And so I most humbly submit this my Yearly Account of my Province of Canterbury to your Majesty's Princely Wisdom W CANT The Arch-Bishop's Account of
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