in all the Churches of his Platform In which as his Doctrine in some other points had first prepared the way to bring in his Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support these Doctrines and crush all them that durst oppose them Onely it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat milder then the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself though in some passages of his Writings he may seem to look the same way also hath placed more judiciously in Massa corrupta in the corrupted mass of mankinde and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for Election or Reprobation of particular Persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election oâ— Reprobation of particular men the restoring of the benefit of our Saviours sufferings to those few particulars whom onely they had honoured with the glorious Name of Gods Elect the working on them by the irresistable power of Grace in the act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the said Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of their Deviation insomuch that they were scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main Foundation which they built upon but generally passed under the name of Calvinists as the other did Which Doctrines though I charge not wholly on the score of Presbytery in regard that many of our English Divines who abhorred that Government appeared in favour of the same yet I may truely father them on the two grand Patrons of the Presbyterians by whom they have been since exposed as their dearest darling and no less eagerly contended for then the holy Discipline 23. Another of Calvins great designs was to cry down that Civil Idolatry which he conceived had been committed unto Kings and Princes in making them Supreme and uncontrollable in their several Countries For pulling down of whose Authority even in Civil Matters he attributes such power to such popular Officers as are by them appointed for the ease of their Subjects that by his Doctrine they may call the Supreme Magistrate to a strict account whensoever they shall chance to exceed those bounds which they had prescribed unto themselves onely by which they may be circumscribed by others For having in the last Chapter of his Institutions first published in the year 1536 exceeding handsomely laid down the Doctrine of Obedience and the unlawfulness of resistance in what case soever he gives in the close such a qualification as utterly overthrows his former Doctrine and proved the sole ground of such Rebellions Treasons and Assassinates as have disfigured the otherwise undefiled beauty of the Church of Christ. Which passages I shall here lay down in the Authors words with a translation by their side that the Reader may perceive there is no wrong done him and afterwards proceed to the discovery of those sad effects which have ensued upon them in too many places wherein his Discipline hath either been received or contended for His Doctrine in which point is this that followeth 24. Neque enim si ultio Domini est â—ffraenaiae dominationis correctio ideo protinus demandatum nobis arbitremur quibus nullum aliud quam parendi patiendi datum est mandatum De privatis hominibus semper loquar Nam si qui nunc sint Populares Magistratus ad moderandum Regum libidinem constituti quales olim erant qui Lacedemoniis Regibus oppositi erant Ephori aut Romanis Consulibus Tribuni Plebis aut Atheniensium Senatui Demarchi qua etiam forte potestate ut nunc res habent funguntur in singuli Regnis tres Ordines cum primarios conventus peragunt adeo illos ferocienti Regum licentiae pro officio intercedere non veto ut si Regibus impotenter grassantibus humili plebeculae insultantibus conniverunt eorum dissimulationem nefaria nefaria perfidia non carere affirmem quia populi libertatem cujus se Dei ordinatione tutores positos norunt fraudulenter produnt 24. Nor may we think because the punishment of Licentious Princes belongs to God that presently this power is devolved on us to whom no other warrant hath been given by God but onely to obey and suffer But still I must be understood of private persons For if there be now any Popular Officers ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings such as were the Ephori set up of old against the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people against the Roman Consuls and the Demarchy against the Athenian Senate and with which power perhaps as the world goes the three States are seiz'd in each several Kingdom when they are solemnly assembled so far am I from hindring them to put restraints upon the exorbitant power of Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them rather to be guilty of a persidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the Common people in that they treacherously betray the Subjects liberties of which they knew they were made Guardians by Gods own Ordinance 25. Which dangerous Doctrine being thus breathed and broached by Calvin hath since been both professed and practised by all his Followers as either they had opportunity to declare themselves or strength enough to put the same in execution Some of whose words I shall here add as a tast to the rest and then refer the rest to their proper places And first we will begin with Beza who in his twenty fourth Epistle inscribed to the Outlandish Churches in England doth resolve it thus If any man saith he contrary to the Laws and Liberties of his native Country shall make himself a Lord or Supreme Magistrate over all the rest or being lawfully invested with the Supreme Magistracie should either unjustly spoil or deprive his Subjects of those Rights and Priviledges which he hath sworn to them to observe or otherwise oppress them by open Tyranny that then the ordinary and inferiour Officers are to oppose themselves against them who both by reason of their several Offices and by Gods appointment are bound in all such cases to protect the Subjects not onely against Forreign but Domestick Tyrants Which is as much as could be possibly contrained in so narrow a compass And if he were the Author as some say he was of the Book called Vindiciae contra Tyrannos published under the name of Stephanus Brutus there hath been no Rebellion raised since that Book was written or likely to be raised in the times ensuing which may not honestly be charged upon his account But because the Author of this Book is commonly reported to be meerly French and none of the Genevian Doctors we may possibly hear more of him in that part of our History which relateth to the Actings of the Presbyterians in the
Friends and Followers they could finde in Edenborough but they found that place too hot for them also the Captain of the Castle did so ply them with continual shot that it was held unsafe for them to abide there longer From thence therefore they betook themselves to the Town of Dumfreis not far from the City of Carlisle in England into which they might easily escape whatsoever happened as in time they did For the King leaving his old Father the Earl of Lenox to attend them there march'd with his Forces into Fife where the party of the Lords seemed most considerable which Province they reduced to their obedience some of the great Lords of it had forsook their dwellings many were taken prisoners and put to Ransome and some of the chief Towns fined for their late disloyalty Which done they march to Edenborough and from thence followed to Dumfreis On whose approach the Lords unable to defend themselves against their Forces put themselves into Carlisle where they are courteously received by the Earl of Bedford who was then Lord-Warden of the Marches from thence Duke Hamilton the Earls of Glencarne and Rothes the Lord Vchiltry the Commendator of Kilvinning and divers others of good note removed not long after to New-castle that they might have the easier passage into France or Germany if their occasions so required The Earl of Murray is dispatched to the Court of England but there he found so little comfort at the least in shew as brought the Queen under a suspition amongst the Scots either of deep dissimulation or of great inconstancy The news whereof did so distract and divide the rest that Duke Hamilton under-hand made his own peace with his injured Queen and put himself into her power in the December following The falling off of which great person so amazed the rest that now they are resolved to follow all those desperate counsels by which they might preserve themselves and destroy their enemies though to the ruine of the King the Queen and their natural Country But what they did in the pursuance of those counsels must be reserved for the subject of another Book The end of the fourth Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB V. Containing A further discovery of their dangerous Doctrines their oppositions to Monarchical and Episcopal Government their secret Practices and Conspiracies to advance their Discipline together with their frequent Treasons and Rebellions in the pursuance of the same from the year 1565 till the year 1585. 1. AMongst the many natural Children of King Iames the Fifth none were more eminent and considerable in the course of these times then Iames Pryor of St. Andrews and Iohn Pryor of â—oldingham neither of which were men in Orders or trained up to Learning or took any further charge upon them then to receive the profit of their several places which they enjoyed as Commendators or Administrators according to the ill custom of some Princes in Germany Iohn the less active of the two but Father of a Son who created more mischief to King Iames the Sixth then Iames the other Brother did to the present Queen For having took to Wiâ—e a Daughter of the House of Hepbourn Sister and next Heir of Iames Hepbourn Earl of Bothwel of whom more anon he was by her the Father of Francis Stewart who succeeded in that Earldom on the death of his Unckle But Iames the other Brother was a man of a more stirring spirit dextrous in the dispatch of his business cunning in turning all things to his own advantage a notable dissembler of his love and hatred and such a Master in the art of insinuation that he knew how to work all parties to espouse his interest His preferments lay altogether in Ecclesiastical Benefices designed unto him by his Father or conferred upon him by his Sister or the King her Husband But that all three conjured to the making of him appears by the Kings Letter on the seventeenth day of Iuly upon this occasion At what time as the Marriage was solemnized between Francis then Daulphin of France and the Queen of Scots he went thither to attend those tryumphs where he became a Suiter to the Queen his Sister that some further Character or Mark of Honour might be set upon him then the name of Pryor But the Queen having been advertised by some other Friends that he was of an aspiring minde and enterprising nature and of a spirit too great for a private Fortune thought it not good to make him more considerable in the eye of the people then he was already and so dismist him for the present 2. The frustrating of these hopes so exceedingly vexed him as certainly some are as much disquieted with the loss of what they never had as others with the ruine of a present possession that the next year he joyned himself to those of the Congregation took Knox into his most immediate and particular care and went along with him hand in hand in defacing the Churches of St. Andrews Stirling Lithgow Edenborough and indeed what not And for so doing he received two sharp and chiding Letters from the King and Queen upbraiding him with former Benefits received from each and threatning severe punishment if he returned not immediately to his due obedience Which notwithstanding he continues in his former courses applies himself unto the Queen and Council of England and lays the plot for driving the French Forces out of Scotland Which done he caused the Parliament of 1560 to be held at Edenborough procures some Acts to pass for banishing the Popes Supremacie repealed all former Statutes which were made in maintainance of that Religion and ratifies the Confession of the Kirk of Scotland in such form and manner as it was afterwards confirmed in the first Parliament of King Iames the Sixth Upon the death of Francis the young French King he goes over again And after some condolements betwixt him and the Queen intimates both to her and the Princes of the House of Guise how ill the rugged and untractable nature of the Scots would sort with one who had been used to the compliances and affabilities of the Court of France adviseth that some principal person of the Realm of Scotland might be named for Regent and in a manner recommends himself to them as the fittest man But the worst was that his Mother had been heard to brag amongst some of her Gossips that her Son was the lawful Issue of King Iames the Fifth to whose desires she had never yeilded but on promise of Marriage This was enough to cross him in his present aims and not to trust him with a power by which he might be able to effect his purposes if he had any such aspirings And so he was dismist again without further honour then the carrying back of a Commission to some Lords in Scotland by which they were impowered to manage the affairs of that Kingdom till the Queens return 3. This second disappointment
condemned the Calling of Bishops the Articles of Perth the Liturgy and the Book of Canons as inconsistent with the Scripture and the Kirk of Scotland They proceed next to the rejecting of the five controverted points which they called Arminianism and finally decreed a general subscription to be made to these Constitutions For not conforming whereunto the Bishops and a great part of the Regular Clergy are expelled the Countrey although they had been animated unto that Refusal as well by the Conscience of their duty as by his Majesty's Proclamation which required it of them 5. They could not hope that the King's Lenity so abused might not turn to Fury and therefore thought it was high time to put themselves into Arms to call back most of their old Soldiers from the Warrs in Germany and almost all their Officers from such Commands in the Netherlands whom to maintain they intercept the King's Revenue and the Rents of the Bishops and lay great Taxes on the people taking up Arms and Ammunition from the States Vnited with whom they went on Ticket and long days of payment for want of ready money for their satisfaction But all this had not served their turn if the King could have been perswaded to have given them battel or suffered any part of that great Army which he brought against them to lay waste their Countrey Whose tenderness when they once perceived and knew withall how many friends they had about him they thought it would be no hard matter to obtain such a Pacification as might secure them for the present from an absolute Conquest and give them opportunity to provide better for themselves in the time to come upon the reputation of being able to divert or break such a puissant Army And so it proved in the event For the King had no sooner retired his Forces both by Sea and Land and given his Soldiers a License to return to their several Houses but the Scots presently protest against all the Articles of the Pacification put harder pressures on the King's Party than before they suffered keep all their Officers in pay by their Messengers and Letters apply themselves to the French King for support and succours By whom encouraged under-hand and openly countenanced by some Agents of the Cardinal Richelieu who then governed all Affairs in France they enter into England with a puissant Army making their way to that Invasion by some Printed Pamphlets which they dispersed into all parts thereby to colour their Rebellions and bewitch the people 6. And now the English Presbyterians take the courage to appear more publickly in the defence of the Scots and their proceedings than they had done hitherto A Parliament had been called on the 13 th of April for granting Moneys to maintain the Warr against the Scots But the Commons were so backward in complying with the King's Desires that he found himself under the necessity of dissolving the Parliament which else had blasted his Design and openly declared in favour of the publick Enemies This puts the discontented Rabble into such a fury that they violently assaulted Lambeth-House but were as valiantly repulsed and the next day break open all the Prisons in Southwark and release all the Prisoners whom they found committed for their Inconformities Benstead the Ring-leader in these Tumults is apprehended and arraigned condemned and executed the whole proceeding being grounded on the Statute of the 25 th of K. EDWARD the 3 d for punishing all Treasons and Rebellions against the King But that which threatned greater danger to the King and the Church than either the Arms of the Scots or the Tumults in Southwark was a Petition sent unto the King who was then at York subscribed by sundry Noble-men of the Popular Faction concluded on the 28 th of August carried by the Lord Mandevil and the Lord Howard of Escrigg and finally presented on the third of September In which it was petitioned amongst other things That the present War might be composed without loss of blood That a Parliament should be forthwith called for redress of Grievances amongst which some pretended Innovations in Religion must be none of the least and that the Authors and Counsellors of such Grievances as are there complained of might be there brought to such a Legal Tryal and receive such condign punishment as their Crimes required This hastned the assembling of the great Council of the Peers at York and put the King upon the calling of a Parliament of His own accord which otherwise might be thought extorted by their importunity 7. The Scots in the mean time had put by such English Forces as lay on the South-side of the Tine at the passage of Newborn make themselves Masters of Newcastle deface the goodly Church of Durham bring all the Countreys on the North-side of the Tees under contribution and tax the people to all payments at their only pleasure The Council of Peers and a Petition from the Scots prepare the King to entertain a Treaty with them the managing whereof was chiefly left unto those Lords who had subscribed the Petition before remembred But the third day of November coming on a-pace and the Commissioners seeming desirous to attend in Parliament which was to begin on that day the Treaty is adjourned to London which gave the Scots a more dangerous opportunity to infect that City than all their Emissaries had obtained in the times fore-going Nor was it long before it openly appeared what great power they had upon their Party in that City which animated Pennington attended with some hundreds of inferior note to tender a Petition to the House of Commons against the Government of Bishops here by Law established It was affirmed that this Petition was subscribed by many thousands and it was probable enough to be so indeed But whether it were so or not he gave thereby such an occasion to the House of Commons that they voted down the Canons which had passed in the late Convocation condemned the Bishops and Clergy in great sums of Money which had subscribed to the same decry the Power of all Provincial or National Synods for making any Canons or Constitutions which could bind the Subject until they were confirmed by an Act of Parliament And having brought this general terror on the Bishops and Clergy they impeach the Arch-bishop of High Treason cause him to be committed to the Black Rod and from thence to the Tower Which being done some other of the Bishops and Clergy must be singled out informed against by scandalous Articles and those Articles printed without any consideration either true or false 8. And though a Convocation were at that time sitting yet to encrease the Miseries of a falling-Church it is permitted that a private Meeting should be held in the Deanry of Westminster to which some Orthodox and Conformable Divines were called as a foil to the rest which generally were of Presbyterian or Puritan Principles By them it was proposed That many passages
imployed themselves to advance his projects Amongst whom none more practical or pragmatical rather then Iohn Alasco of a Noble Family in that Country but a professed Calvinian both for Doctrine and Discipline for the promoting whereof when he had setled himself and his Church in London Anno 1550 he publisheth a Pamphlet in defence of sitting at the Holy Sacrament incouraged those who had refused conformity to the Cap and Surplice and eagerly sollicited M. Bucer a man of greater parts but of more moderation to shew himself on their behalf Driven out of England he betakes himself to the Dukedom of Saxony where he behaved himself with such indiscretion that he was fain to quit those parts and retire to Poland in which the greatness of his kindred was his best protection There he sets up again for Calvin By the Activity of this man the diligence of Vtenhorius and the compliance of some great persons upon Politick ends the Eldership is advanced in many places of that Kingdom as appears by the Letters of the said Vtenhorius bearing date Ian. 27. 1559. In which he signifies unto him that the most illustrious Prince the Palatine of Vilâ—a in Lithuania being come to the Assembly of the States which was held at Petrico resolved not to depart from thence before some Convention of the Brethren should be held there also to which as well the Elders which his Highness brought thither with him as those he found there at his coming should consult together for the establishing of a greater purity in Rites and Ceremonies to be used amongst them For which admission of the Discipline into Lithuania Calvin expresseth no small joy in his Letters to a nameless Friend in that Country bearing date Octob. 9. 1561. In which he lets him know how much he did congratulate the happiness of the Realm of Poland and more particularly of the Province of Lithuania that the Reformed Religion made so great a progress in those Countries by which addition Christs Kingdom had been much enlarged that his joy was very much increased by hearing that together with the same Religion they received the Discipline that it was not without very good cause that he used to call the Discipline the Nerves of the Church in regard of the great strength which it added to it By which last words we may perceive what kinde of Church Government it was which he commended to Ligerus before remembred under this very title of the Nerves of Discipline by which Religion was to be preserved inviolable for the times to come 33. In the Assembly at Petrico before remembred the Palatines and other great men of the Kingdom obtained a Priviledge whereby it was made lawful for them to reform all the Churches under their command to reform them in such manner as to them seemed best It was then also moved by the Count of Tarnaco that the Bishops should no longer hold their place or suffrage in the Assembly of Estates but keep themselves only to such matters as concerned the Church which though it did not take effect yet the attempt appeared so dreadful in the eye of those Prelates then present that they became more tractable and obsequious to the great State-Officers then they had been formerly And what could follow hereupon but that the great men being left to please themselves in their own Religion and the Bishops not daring to oppose not onely Zuinglianism and the Discipline but many other Sects and Innovations should get ground upon them In reference to the Discipline as it was fitted and accommodated to whole Realms and Nations they had not onely their Presbyteries as in Geneva Strasbourg and some other Cities but their Classical and Synodical Meetings as in France and Scotland wherein they took upon them to make Laws and Ordinances for the directing of their Churches after Calvins Model For in the Synod held at Tzenger in the year 1564 it was Decreed that they should use no other Musick in their Churches then the singing of Psalms after the manner of Geneva understand it so condemning that which was then used in the Church of Rome partly because the Psalms and Hymns were sung in the Latine Tongue and partly because the Priests did bellow in them as they pleased to phrase it like the Priests of Baal Concerning which we are to know that the device of turning Davids Psalms into Rhyme and Meter was first taken up by Clement Marrot one of the Grooms of the Bed-chamber to King Francis the First who being much addicted to Poetry and having some acquaintance with those which were thought to wish well to the Reformation was perswaded by the learned Vatablus Professor of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Paris to exercise his Poetical Fancies in translating some of Davids Psalms For whose satisfaction and his own he translated the first fifty of them into Gallick Meters and after fleeing to Geneva grew acquainted with Beza who in some tract of time translated the other hundred also and caused them to be fiâ—ted unto several Tunes Which thereupon began to be sung in private Houses and by degrees to be taken up in all the Churches of the French and other Nations which followed the Genevian Platform For first in imitation of this Work of Marrot's Sternhold a Groom of the Privy-Chamber to King Edward the Sixth translated thirty seven of them into English Meeter Anno 1552 the rest made up by Iohn Hopkins and some others in the time of Queen Mary but most especially by such as had retired unto Geneva in those very times Followed therein by some Dutch Zealots who having modelled their Reformation by the Rules of Calvin were willing to imbrace this Novelty amongst the rest So as in little tract of time the singing of these Psalms in Meter became a most especial part of their publick Worship and was esteemed as necessary to the Service of God as were the acts of Prayer and Preaching and whatsoever else was esteemed most Sacred In the next place to take away all difference in Apparel whether Sacred or Civil and all distinction in the choice of Meats and Drinks he accounted it a ridiculous and ungodly thing for those which are the Heirs of all things with dominion over all the Creatures to suffer themselves to be restrained by any superstitious use of Meats Drinks or Vestments The Temples built unto their hands they were contented to make use of for their publick Meetings being first purged of Idols Altars the Bellowings beforementioned and other the like dregs of Popery though formerly they had been abused who sees not a Calvinian spirit walking in all these lines by the Priests of Baal They seem content also to allow their Ministers Meat Drink and wages condemning those which grutch them such a sorry Pittance But as for Tithes and Glebes and Parsonage-Houses they kept them wholly to themselves that being the Fish they angled for in those troubled waters and the
years were spent before the Pope could be assured of the love of his Subjects or they relye upon the Clemency and good will of their Prince Such issue had the first attempts of the Calvinians in the Realm of France 10. In the mean time it was determined by the Cabinet Council in the Court to smother the indignity of these insurrections that the hot spirits of the French might have time to cool and afterwards to call them to a sober reckoning when they least looked for it In order whereunto an Edict is published in the Kings name and sent to all the Parliamentary Courts of France being at that time eight in all concerning the holding of an Assembly at Fountain-bleau on the 21 of August then next following for composing the distractions of the Kingdom And in that Edict he declares that without any evident occasion a great number of persons had risen and taken Arms against him that he could not but impute the cause thereof to the Hugonots onely who having laid aside all belief to God and all affection to their Country endeavoured to disturb the peace of the Kingdom that he was willing notwithstanding to pardon all such as having made acknowledgement of their errours should return to their Houses and live conformable to the Rites of the Catholick Church and in obedience to the Laws that therefore none of his Courts of Parliament should proceed in matters of Religion upon any manner of information for offences past but to provide by all severity for the future against their committing of the like and finally that for reforming all abuses in Government he resolved upon the calling of an Assembly in which the Princes and most Eminent Persons of the Kingdom should consult together the saâ—d Assembly to be held at his Majesties Palace of Fountain-bleau on the 21 of August then next following and free leave to be therein granted to all manner of persons not onely to propound their grievances but to advise on some expedient for redress thereof According unto which appointment the Assembly holds but neither the King of Navar nor the Prince of Conde could be perswaded to be present being both bent as it appeared not long after on some further projects But it was ordered that the Admiral Collignie and his brother D' Andelot should attend the service to the end that nothing should be there concluded without their privity or to the prejudice of their Cause And that they might the better strike a terrour into the Heart of the King whom they conceived to have been frighted to the calling of the present Assembly the Admiral tenders a Petition in behalf of those of the reformed Religion in the Dukedom of Normandy which they were ready to subscribe with one hundred and fifty thousand hands if it were required To which the Cardinal of Lorrain as bravely answered that if 150000 seditious could be found in France to subscribe that paper he doubted not but that there were a million of Loyal Subjects who would be ready to encounter them and oppose their insolencies 11. In this Assembly it was ordered by the common consent that for rectifying of abuses amongst the Clergy a meeting should be held of Divines and Prelates in which those discords might be remedied without innovating or disputing in matters of Faith and that for setling the affairs of the Kingdom an Assembly of the three Estates should be held at Orleance in the beginning of October to which all persons interested were required to come All which the Hugonots imputed to the consternation which they had brought upon the Court by their former risings and the great fear which was conceived of some new insurrections if all things were not regulated and reformed according unto their desires Which misconceit so wrought upon the principal Leaders that they resolved to make use of the present fears by seizing on such Towns and places of consequence as might enable them to defend both themselves and their parties against all opponents And to that end it was concluded that the King of Navar should seize upon all places in his way betwixt Bearn and Orleance that the City of Paris should be seized on by the help of the Marshal of Montmorency the Dukes Eldest Son who was Governour of it that they should assure themselves of Picardy by the Lords of Tenepont and Bouchavanne and of Britain by the Duke of Estampes who was powerful in it that being thus fortified well armed and better accompanied by the Hugonots whom they might presume of they should force the Assembly of the Estates to depose the Queen remove the Guises from the Government declare the King to be in his minority till he came to twenty two years of age appoint the King of Navar the Constable and the Prince of Conde for his Tutors and Governours which practice as it was confessed by Iaques de la Sague one of the Servants of the King of Navar who had been intercepted in his journey to him so the confession was confirmed by some Letters from the Visdame of Chartres which he had about him But this discovery being kept secret the Hugonots having taken courage from the first conspiracie at Amboise and the open profession of the Admiral began to raise some new commotions in all parts of the Kingdom and laying aside all obedience and respect of duty not onely made open resistance against the Magistrates but had directly taken arms in many places and practised to get into their hands some principal Towns to which they might retire in all times of danger Amongst which none was more aimed at then the City of Lyons a City of great Wealth and Trading and where great numbers of the people were inclined to Calvins Doctrine by reason of their neer Neighbourhood to Geneva and the Protestant Cantons Upon this Town the Prince of Conde had a plot and was like to have carried it though in the end it fell out contrary to his expectation which forced him to withdraw himself to Bearn there to provide for the security of himself and his Brother 12. But the King of Navar not being so deeply interested in these late designs in which his name had been made use of half against his will could not so much distrust himself and his personal safety as not to put himself into a readiness for his journey to Orleance To which he could by no means perswade the Prince and was by him much laboured not to go in person till they were certified that the King was sending Forces to fetch them thence which could not be without the wasting of the Country and the betraying of themselves unto those suspicions which otherwise they might hope to clear No sooner were they come to Orleance but the Prince was arrested of high Treason committed close Prisoner with a Guard upon him the cognizance of his Cause appointed unto certain Delegates his Process formed and Sentence of death pronounced against him which questionless had
in point of courage And yet the anger of God did not stay here neither that Plague being carried into England at the return of the Soldiers which raged extreamly both in London and most parts of the Realme beyond the precedent and example of former ages It was on the 17 of Iuly an 1563 that New-haven was yielded to the French that being the last day of the first war which was raised by the Hugonots and raised by them on no other ground but for extorting the free exercise of their Religion by force of Arms according to the doctrine and example of the Mother-City In the pursuit whereof they did not only with their own hands ruinate and deface the beauty of their native Country but gave it over for a prey to the lust of Strangers The calling in of the English to support their faction whom they knew well to be the antient enemies of the Crown of France and putting into their hands the chief strength of Normandy of whose pretensions to that Dukedome they could not be ignorant were two such actions of a disloyal impolitick nature as no pretence of zeal to that which they called the Gospel could either qualifie or excuse Nor was the bringing in of so many thousand German Souldiers of much better condition who though they could pretend no title to the Crown of France nor to any particular Province in it were otherwise more destructive to the peace of that Country and created far more mischief to the people of it then all the forces of the English for being to be maintained on the pay of the Hugonots and the Hugonots not being able to satisfie their exorbitant Arrears they were suffered to waste the Country in all parts where they came and to expose the whole Kingdom from the very borders of it toward Germany to the English Chanell unto spoyle and rapine so that between the Hugonots themselves on the one side and these German Souldiers on the other there was nothing to be seen in most parts of the Kingdom but the destruction of Churches the profanation of Altars the defacing of Images the demolishing of Monasteries the burning of Religious Houses and even the digging up of the bones of the dead despitefully thrown about the fields and unhallowed places 25. But this first was only raked up in the Embers not so extinguished by the Articles of the late agreement but that it broke out shortly into open flames for the Hugonots pressing hard for the performance of the Edict of Ianuary and the Romanists as earnestly insisting on some clauses of the pacification the whole Realm was filled in a manner with such fears and jealousies as carryed some resemblance of a War in the midst of Peace The Hugonots had some thoughts of surprising Lyons but the Plot miscarryed they practised also upon Narbonne a chief City of Languedock and openly attempted the Popes Town of Avignion but were prevented in the one and suppressed in the other A greater diffidence was raised against them by the unseasonable Zeal of the Queen of Navar who not content with setling the reformed Religion in the Country of Berne when she was absolute and supreme suffered the Catholicks to be infested in her own Provinces which she held immediately of the Crown insomuch that at Pamiers the chief City of the Earldom of Foix the Hugonots taking offence at a solemn Procession held upon Corpus Christi day betook themselves presently to Arms and falling upon those whom they found unarmed not onely made a great slaughter amongst the Church-men but in the heat of the same fury burnt down their Houses Which outrage being suffered to pass unpunished gave both encouragement and example to some furious Zealots to commit the like in other places as namely at Montaban Gaelion Rodez Preieux Valence c. being all scituate in those Provinces in which the Hugonots were predominant for power and number But that which most alarmed the Court was a seditious Pamphlet published by a Native of Orleance in which it was maintained according to the Calvinian Doctrines that the people of France were absolved from their Allegiance to the King then Reigning because he was turned an Idolater In which reason it is lawful also to kill him as opportunity should be offered Which Doctrine being very agreeable unto some designs which were then every where in agitation amongst the Hugonots was afterward made use of for the justifying of the following Wars when the opinion grew more general and more openly maintained both from Press and Pulpit 26. The Catholicks on the other side began to put themselves into a posture of Arms without so much as taking notice of those misdemeanors which they seemed willing to connive at not so much out of any inclinations which they had in themselves but because they found it not agreeable to the will of the Court where such dissimulations were esteemed the best arts of Government The Catholick King had sent the Duke of Alva with a puissant Army to reduce the Low Countries to obedience where the Calvinians had committed as great spoils and Rapines as any where in France or Scotland This Army being to pass in a long march near the Borders of France gave a just colour to the King to arm himself for fear lest otherwise the Spaniards might forget their errand and fall with all their Forces into his Dominions To this end he gives order for a Levy of six thousand Switz which he caused to be conducted through the heart off the Kingdom and quartered them in the Isle of France as if they were to serve to a Guard for Paris far enough off from any of those parts and Provinces by which the Spaniards were to pass But this gave such a jealousie to the heads of the Hugonots that they resorted to Chastillion to consult with the Admiral By whose advice it was resolved that they must get the King and Queen into their power and make such use of both their names as the Catholicks had made of them in the former War This to be done upon the sudden before the opening of a War by the raising of Forces should render the surprize impossible and defeat their purposes The King and Queen lay then at Monceux an House of pleasure within the Territory of Byre in Champaigne not fearing any the least danger in a time of peace and having the Switz near enough to secure their persons against any secret Machinations And thereupon it was contrived that as many Horse as they could raise in several places should draw together at Rosay not far from Monceux on the 27 of September that they should first surprize the King the Queen and her younger Sons and then fall in upon the Switz who being quartered in several places and suspecting nothing less then the present danger might very easily be routed and that being done they should possess themselves of Paris and from thence issue out of all Mandates which concerned
Tyrants of preceding times which comes up close to those irreverent and lewd expressions which frequently occur in Calvin Beza Knox c. in reference to the two Mary's Queens of England and Scotland and other Princes of that age which have been formerly recited in their proper places 35. The Royal Family being thus wretchedly exposed to the publick hatred he next applyes himself to stir up all the world against them both at home and abroad And first he laboureth to excite some desperate Zealot to commit the like assassinate on the King then Reigning as one Bodillus is reported in some French Histories to have committed on the person of Chilprick one of the last Kings of the Merovignians which he commemorates for a Noble and Heroick action and sets it out for an example and encouragement to some gallant French-man for the delivery of his Country from the Tyranny of the House of Valois the ruine whereof he mainly drives at in his whole designe And though he seem to make no doubt of prevailing in it yet he resolves to try his Fortune otherwise if that should fail And first beginning with their next neighbour the King of Spain he he puts them in remembrance of those many injuries which he and his Ancestors had received from the House of Valois acquaints him with the present opportunity which was offered to him of revenging of thoâ—e wrongs and making himself Master of the Realm of France and chalks him out a way how he might effect it that is to say by coming to a present Accord with the Prince of Orange indulging Liberty of Conscience to the Belgick Provinces and thereby drawing all the Hugonots to adhere unto him which counsel if he did not like he might then make the same use of the Duke of Savoy for whom the Hugonots in France had no small affection and by bestowing on him the adjoyning Regions of Lyonoise Dâ—ulphine and Provence might make himself Lord of all the rest without any great trouble The like temptation must be given to the Queen of England by putting her in minde of her pretences to the Crown it self and shewing how easie a thing it might be for her to acquire those Countries whose Arms and Titles she assumed with like disloyalty he excites the Princes of the Empire to husband the advantage which was offered to them for the recovering of Metz Toule and Verdun three Imperial Cities by this Kings Father wrested betwixt fraud and force from Charles the Fifth and ever since incorporated with the Realm of France If all which failed he is resolved to cast himself on the Duke of Guise though the most mortal and implacable enemy of the Hugonot Faction and makes a full address to him in a second Epistle prefixt before the Book it self in which he puts him in remembrance of his old pretensions to the Crown of France extorted by Hugh Capet from his Ancestors of the House of Loraigne offereth him the assistance of the Hugonot party for the recovery of his Rights and finally beseeches him to take compassion of his ruined Country cheerfully to accept the Crown and free the Kingdom from the spoil and tyranny of Boyes and Women together with that infinite train of Strangers Bawdes and Leachers which depend on them which was as great a Master-piece in the art of mischief as the wit of malice could devise 36. As for his Doctrines in reference to the common duties between Kings and Subjects we may reduce them to these heads that is to say 1. That the Authority of Kings and Supreme Magistrates is circumscribed and limited by certain bounds which if they pass their Subjects are no longer tyed unto their obedience that Magistrates do exceed those bounds when either they command such things as God forbiddeth or prohibit that which he commands that therefore they are no longer to be obeyed if their Commands are contrary to the Rules of Piety or Christian Charity of which the Subjects must be thought the most competent Judges 2. That there were companies and societies of men before any Magistrates were set over them which Magistrates were no otherwise set over them then by common consent that every Magistrate so appointed was bound by certain Articles and Conditions agreed between them which he was tyed by Oath to preserve inviolable that the chief end for which the people chose a Superiour Magistrate was that they might remain in safety under his protection and therefore if such Magistrates either did neglect that end or otherwise infringe the Articles of their first Agreement the Subjects were then discharged from the bond of obedience and that being so discharged from the bond of obedience it was as lawful for them to take up Arms against their King in maintainance of their Religion Laws and Liberties if indangered by him as for a Traveller to defend himself by force of Arms against Thieves and Robbers 3. That no Government can be rightly constituted in which the Grandeur of the Prince is more consulted then the weal of the People that to prevent all such incroachments on the Common Liberty the people did reserve a power of putting a curb upon their Prince or Supreme Magistrates to hold them in such as the Tribunes were in Rome to the Senate and Consuls and the Ephori to the Kings of Sparta that such a power as that of the Spartan Ephori is vested in the seven Electors of the German Empire which gives them an Authority to depose the Emperour if they see cause for it and that the like may be affirmed of the English Parliaments who oftentimes have condemned their Kings but he knows not whom 4. That by the first constitutions of the Realm of France the Supreme power was not entrusted to the King but the three Estates so that it was not lawful for the King to proclaim a War or to lay Taxes on the people but by their consent that these Estates assembled in a Common Council did serve instead of eyes and ears to a prudent Prince but to a wicked and ungoverned for Bit or Bridle and that according to this power they dethroned many of their Kings for their Lusts Luxuries Cruelty Slothfulness Avarice c. that if they proceeded not in like manner with the King then Reigning it was because they had an high esteem with scorn and insolence enough of his eminent Vertues his Piety Justice and Fidelity and the great commendations which was given of his Mothers Chastity and therefore finally which was the matter to be proved by those Factious Principles that it was altogether as lawful for the French to defend themselves their Laws and Liberties against the violent assault of a furious Tyrant so he calls their King as a Traveller by Thieves and Robbers Which Aphorisms he that listeth to consult in the Author may finde them from pag. 57. to 66. of the second Dialogue and part 1. pag. 8. 37. But notwithstanding these indignities
excited him with many Captains and Commanders who for the most part lived upon spoil and plunder to raise an Army of seven thousand Horse and four thousand Foot with which they made foul work in France wasting and spoiling all Countries wheresoever they came for being joyned unto the rest of the Hugonots Army they found them brought to such a poor and low condition that they were not able to advance the least part of that sum which they had promised to provide against their coming Somewhat was raised by way of Contribution to keep them in some present compliance and for the rest they were permitted to pay themselves in the spoil of the Country especially Churches Monasteries and Religious Houses But the Queen offering termes of Peace none were more forward then these Germans to imbrace the offer and Casimir more forward in it then all the rest The King had offered to disburse a great part of the money which belonged to the Souldiers for their pay which to those mercenary spirits was too strong a temptation to be resisted or neglected 8. These Germans were scarcely setled in their several Houses when the Hugonots brake out again and a new Army must be raised by the Duke of Zudibruck whom the French call the Duke of Deuxponts a Prince of the Collateral Line to the Electoral Family who upon hope of being as well paid as his Cozen Casimir tempted with many rich promises by the Heads of the Hugonots and secretly encouraged by some Ministers of the Queen of England made himself Master of a great and puisâ—ant Army consisting of eight thousand Horse and six thousand Foot With this Army he wastes all the Country from the very edge of Burgundy to the Banks of Loire crosseth that River and commits the like outrages in all the Provinces which lye between that River and the Aquitain Ocean In which action either with the change of Air the tediousness of his Marches or excessive drinking he fell into a violent Feaver which put a period to his travails within few days after Nor did this Army come off better though it held out longer for many of them being first consumed with sickness arising from their own intemperance and the delicious lusts of the Strumpets of France the rest were almost all cut off at the Battail of Mont-counter in which they lost two Colonels and twenty seven Captains of Foot and all their Horse except two thousand which saved themselves under Count Lodowick of Nassaw But the love of money prevailed more with them then the fear of death For within few years after Anno 1575 we finde them entring France again under Prince Iohn Casimir in company with the young Prince of Conde who had sollicited the Cause The Army at that time consisting of eight thousand Horse three thousand French Fire-locks and no fewer then fourteen thousand Switz and Germane Foot joyned with the Hugonots and a new Faction of Politicks or Male-contents under the Command of the Duke of Alanzon who had revolted from his Brother became so terrible to the King that he resolved to buy his Peace upon any rates To which end having somewhat cooled the heats of his Brother he purchaseth the departure of the Germane Souldiers by ingaging to pay them their Arrears which came in all to twelve hundred thousand Crowns on a full computation Besides the payment of which vast sum he was to gratifie Prince Casimir with the Siguory of â—hasâ—eau-Thierry in the Province of Champagne the command of one hundred French Lances and an annual pension of fourteen thousand Crowns as before was said 9. In the mean time the flames of the like civil War consumed a great part of Flanders to which the Prince Elector must bring Fewel also For being well affected to the House of Nassaw and more particularly to the Prince of Orange and knowing what encouragements the Calvinians in the Netherlands had received from them he hearkned cheerfully to such Propositions as were made to him at the first by Count â—odowick his Ministers and after by the Agents of the Prince himself But those small Forces which he sent at their first ingaging doing no great service he grants them such a large supply after the first return of Prince Casimirs Army Anno 1568 as made them up a Body of French and Germans consisting of seven thousand Foot and four thousand Horse with which he sent Prince Christopher a younger Son to gain experience in the War and to purchase Honour And though he might have been discouraged by the loss of that Army and the death oâ— his Son into the bargain from medling further in that quarrel yet the Calvinian spirit so predominated in his Court and Counsels that another Army should be raised and Casimir imployed as Commander of it as soon as he could give himself the least assurance that the French required not his assistance During the languishing of which Kingdom between Peace and War the War in Flanders grew more violent and fierce then ever which moved the Provinces confederated with the Prince of Orange to enter into a strict union with the Queen of England who could not otherwise preserve her self from the plots and practices of Don Iohn of Austria by which he laboured to embroyl her Kingdom By the Articles of which League or Union she bound her self to aid them with one thousand Horse and five thousand Foot the greatest part whereof she raised in the Dominions of the Prince Elector or indeed rather did contribute to the payment of so much money for his Army which was drawn together for the service of the Prince of Orange as might amount unto that number And that they might receive the greater countenance in the eye of the World she sends for Casimir into England where he arrived about the latter end of Ianuary 1578 is Royally feasted by the Queen rewarded with an annual Pension and in the next year made Knight of the Garter also By these encouragements he returns to his charge in the Army which he continued till the calling in of the Duke of Anjou and then retired into Germany to take breath a while where he found such an alteration in the State of affairs as promised him no great assurance of employment on the like occasion 10. For Lodowick the fifth succeeding Prince Elector in the place of his Father and being more inclined to the Lutheran Forms did in time settle all his Churches on the same Foundation on which it had been built by the Electors of the former Line so that it was not to be thought that either he could aid the Hugonots or the Belgick Calvinists in any of their Insurrections against their Princes if either of them possibly could have had the confidence to have moved him in it But he being dead and Frederick the Fourth succeeding the Zuinglian Doctrines and the Genevian Discipline are restored again and then Prince Casimir is again sollicited to raise a greater
Bishops of Leige some to the jurisdiction of the Archbishops of Rheims and Colen and others under the Authority of the Bishops of Munster Of which the first were in some sort under the Protection of the Dukes of Burgundy the three last absolute and independent not owing any suite or Service at all unto them By means whereof concernments of Religion were not looked into with so strict an eye as where the Bishops are accomptable to the Prince for their Administration or more united with and amongst themselves in the publick Government The inconvenience whereof being well observed by Charles the Fifth he practised with the Pope then being for increasing the number of the Bishopricks reducing them under Archbishops of their own and Modeling the Ecclesiastical Politie under such a Form as might enable them to exercise all manner of spiritual jurisdiction within themselves without recourse to any Forreign Power or Prelate but the Pope himself Which being first designed by him was afterwards effected by King Philip the Second though the event proved contrary to his expectation For this enlargement of the number of the Sees Episcopal being projected onely for the better keeping of the Peace and Unity of the Belgick Churches became unhappily the occasion of many Tumults and Disorders in the Civil State which drew on the defection of a great part of the Country from that Kings obedience 14. For so it was that the Reformed Religion being entertained in France and Germany did quickly finde an entrance also into such of the Provinces as lay nearest to them where it found people of all sorts sufficiently ready to receive it To the increase whereof the Emperor Charls himself gave no small advantage by bringing in so many of the Switz and German Souldiers to maintain his Power either in awing his own Subjects or against the French by which last he was frequently invaded in the bordering Provinces Nor was Queen Mary of England wanting though she meant it not to the increasing of their numbers For whereas many of the Natives of France and Germany who were affected zealously to the Reformation had put themselves for Sanctuary into England in the time of King Edward they were all banished by Proclamation in the first year of her Reign Many of which not daring to return to their several Countries dispersed themselves in most of the good Towns of the Belgick Provinces especially in such as lay most neer unto the Sâ—a where they could best provide themselves of a poor subsistance By means whereof the Doctrine of the Protestant and Reformed Churches began to get much ground upon them to which the continual intercourses which they had with England gave every day such great and manifest advantage that the Emperour was fain to bethink himself of some proper means for the suppressing of the inconveniences which might follow on it And means more proper he found none in the whole course of Government then to increase the number of the former Bishopricks to re-inforce some former Edicts which he made against them and to bring in the Spanish Inquisition which he established and confirmed by another Edict bearing date April 20. 1548. Which notwithstanding the Professors of that Doctrine though restrained a while could not be totally suppressed some Preachers out of Germany and others out of France and England promoting underhand those Tenents and introducing those opinions which openly they durst not own in those dangerous times But when the Emperour Charles had resigned the Government and that King Philip the Second upon some urgent Reasons of State had retired to Spain and left the Chief Command of his Belgick Provinces to the Dutchess of Parma they then began to shew themselves with the greater confidence and gained some great ones to their side whom discontent by reason of the disappointment of their several aims had made inclinable to innovation both in Church and State 15. Amongst the great ones of which time there was none more considerable for Power and Patrimony then William of Nassaw Prince of Orange invested by a long descent of Noble Ancestors in the County of Nassaw a fair and goodly Territory in the Higher Germany possest of many good Towns and ample Signories in Brabant and Holland derived upon him from Mary Daughter and Heir of Philip Lord of Breda c. his great Grand-fathers Grand-mother and finally enriched with the Principality of Orange in France accruing to him by the death of his Cozen Rene which gave him a precedencie before all other Belgick Lords in the Court of Brussels By which advantages but more by his abilities both for Camp and Counsel he became great in favour with the Emperour Charles by whom he was made Governour of Holland and Zealand Knight of the Order of the Fleece imployed in many Ambassies of weight and moment and trusted with his dearest and most secret purposes For Rivals in the Glory of Arms he had the Counts of Horne and Egmond men of great Prowess in the Field and alike able at all times to Command and Execute But they were men of open hearts not practised in the Arts of Subtilty and dissimulation and wanted much of that dexterity and cunning which the other had for working into the affections of all sorts of people Being advanced unto this eminencie in the Court and knowing his own strength as well amongst the Souldiers as the common people he promised to himself the Supreme Government of the Belgick Provinces on the Kings returning into Spain The disappointment of which hope obliterated the remembrance of all former favours and spurred him on to make himself the Head of the Protestant party by whose assistance he conceived no small possibility of raising the Nassovian Family to as great an height as his ambition could aspire to 16. The Protestants at that time were generally divided into two main bodies not to say any thing of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries who thrust in amongst them Such of the Provinces as lay toward Germany and had received their Preachers thence embraced the Forms and Doctrines of the Lutherâ—â— Câ—â—â—ches in which not onely Images had been still retained â—ogether with set-Forms of Prayer kneeling at the Communioâ— the Cross in Baptism and many other laudable Ceremonies of the Elder times but also most of the ancient Fasts and Fâ—â—tivals of the Catholick Church and such a Form of Eccleâ—â—tical Polity as was but little differing from that of Bishops which Forms and Doctrines being tolerated by the Edicts of Paussaw and Ausberg made them less apt to work disturbance in the Civil State and consequently the less obnoxious to the fears and jealousies of the Catholick party But on the other side such Provinces as lay toward France participated of the humour of that Reformation which was there begun modelled according unto Calvins Platform both in Doctrine and Discipline More stomacked then the other by all those who adhered to the Church of Rome or otherwise pretended to the peace
and safety of the Common-wealth For the French Preachers being more practical and Mercurial then the other were and not well principled in respect of Monarchical Government were looked upon as men more likely to beget commotions and alienate the peoples hearts from their natural Governour And at the first the Prince of Orange enclined most to the Lutheran party whose Forms and Doctrines had been setled by his Father in the County of Nassaw And for the clear manifestation of the good opinion which he harboured of them he Married Anne the Daughter of Maurice Duke Elector of Saxony the greatest of the Lutheran Princes At which when the Dutchess of Parma seemed to be displeased he openly assured her of his Adhesion to the Catholick Cause and caused his Eldest Son which he had of that Marriage to be Baptized according to the Prescript of the Church of Rome but underhand promoted for a time the Lutheran Interest which he had sucked in as it were with his Mothers Milk But it was onely for a time that he so promoted it For finding the Calvinians to be men of another Metal more quick and stirring of themselves more easily exasperated against their Governours and consequently more fit to advance his purposes he made â—imself the great Protector of that faction and spared not to profess himself for such upon all occasions insomuch that being afterwards questioned about his Religion by the Duke of Arescot he discovered to him his bald head and told him plainly thâ—t there was not more Calvism on his head then there was Calvinism in his heart 17. But to make way for these designes there were two obstacles to be removed without which nothing could be done in pursuance of them King Philip at his going for Spain had left three thousand Spanish Souldiers the onely remainder of those great Armies which had served his Father and himself against the French in Garrison upon the Borders under pretence of shutting up the back-door against the French but generally thought to be left of purpose for a curb to the Natives in case of refractoriness or opposition unto his Commands They must be first removed and the Country cleared of all such rubs as otherwise would have made the way less passable unto private ends For though the King had put those Souldiers under the Command of two Lords of the Netherlands that is to say the Prince of Orange himself and the Count Egmont that they might rather seem to be the natural Militia of the Country then a power of strangers yet that device did little edifie amongst them for the two Lords especially the Prince of Orange expressed such contentment in the trust and honour which was therein conferred upon them that they excited the whole Country both to move the King before his going and the Governess after his departure to dismiss those Souldiers which could not be imposed upon them without breach of their Priviledges To this request the King had given a gratious answer and promised to remove them within four months after his going into Spain but secretly gave order to the Lady Regent to retain them longer till the new Bishops and the Inquisition were confirmed amongst them And she conceived her self so bound to those instructions and their â—etaining there so necessary for his Majesties Service that she delayed time as long as possibly she could Which being observed by those which were of greatest power and credit with the common people it was resolved that no more contribution should be raised on the several Provinces toward the payment of their wages and on the other side the Regent was so constant to her resolution that she took up money upon interest for their satisfaction But being wearied in the end by the importunity of all sorts of people counselled by her Husband the Duke of Parma to give way unto it and authorized at last by the King himself to hearken unto their desires she gives order to have them drawn out of their several Garrisons and Shipt at Flushing from thence to be transported into Spain with the first fair winde 18. The easie removing of this rub incouraged those who managed the designe for innovating in the Church and State to make the like attempt against the Cardinal Granvel whose extraordinary parts and power they were more affraid of then of all the Spaniards in the Country This man being of the â—erenots of Granvel in the Country of Burgundy was trained up by a Father of such large abilities that he was by Charles the Fifth made Chancellor of the German Empire and trusted by him in Affairs of the greatest moment And he declared himself to be such a quick proficient in the Schools of Learning that he became the Master of no fewer then seven Languages in all which he was able to express himself with a fluent eloquence and at twenty four years of age was made Bishop of Arras commended by his Father to the Emperour Charles and by him unto King Philip the Second he served them both with great fidelity and courage and had withall such a dexterity of dispatch in all concernments as if he had been rather born then made a States-man And unto these he added such a moderation in his pleasures such abstinence both from food and sleep when the case required it such extraordinary pains in accommodating all the difficulties which came before him and such a diligent observance of his Princes motions that his greatest Adversaries could not chuse but say that he was a Jewel fit to be owned by none but the greatest Kings By means whereof he so prevailed upon the King whilst he staid amongst them that he did nothing eitheâ— at home or abroad made neither Peace nor League with Kings or Nations concluded no Marriage quieted no Seditions acted nothing that related to Religion or the Church in which the counsels of this mâ—n were not influential The like Authority he held with the Dutchess of Parma not onely out of that report which the King made of him but her own election who found his counsel so applyable to all occasions that seldom any private or publick business came in agitation in which his judgement had not been previously required before it was openly delivered And though his previous resolutions in matters of counsel were carried with all imaginable care and closeness from the eyes of the Courtiers yet no man doubted but that all Affairs were tâ—ansacted by him imputing many things unto him as it often happeneth which he had no hand â—n 19. In the first risings of this man he was dâ—spised for an upstart by the Prince of Orange and some other great men of the Country not fearing any thing from him as an alien born unfurnished of dependants and who by reason of his caâ—ling could make no strong Alliance to preserve his Power But when they found that his Authority increased that all things bended to that point at which he aimed and that some of
Tumults for in the middle of these heats nine of the Lords not being Officers of State convened together at Breda the principal Seat and most assured hold of the Prince of Orange where they drew up a Form of an Association which they called the Covenant contrived by Philip Marnixius Lord of Aldegand a great admirer of the person and parts of Calvin In the preamble whereof they inveighed bitterly against the Inquisition as that which being contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane did far exceed the cruelty of all former Tyrants they then declared in the name of themselves and the rest of the Lords that the care of Religion appertained to them as Councellors born and that they entred into this Association for no other reason but to prevent the wicked practices of such men as under colour of the sentences of death and banishment aimed at the Fortunes and destructions of the greatest persons that therefore they had taken an holy Oath not to suffer the said Inquisition to be imposed upon their Country praying therein that as well God as man would utterly forsake them if ever they forsook their Covenant or failed to assist their Brethren which suffered any thing in that Cause and finally calling God to witness that by this Covenant and Agreement amongst themselves they intended nothing but the Glory of God Honour of their King and their Countries peace And to this Covenant as they subscribed before their parting so by their Emissaries they obtained subscription to it over all their Provinces and for the credit of the business they caused the same to be translated into several Languages and published a Report that not onely the Chief Leaders of the Hugonots in France but many of the Princes of Germany had subscribed it also which whether it were true or not certain it is that the Confederacie was subscribed by a considerable number of the Nobility some of the Lords of the Privy-Council and not a few of the Companions of the Golden Fleece 26. Of the nine which first appeared in the designe the principal were Henry Lord of Brederode descended lineally from Sigefride the second Son of Arnold the fourth Earl of Holland Count Lodowick of Nassaw before mentioned and Florence Count of Culemberg a Town of Gueldres but anciently priviledged from all subjection to the Duke thereof Accompanied with two hundred of the principal Covenanters each of them having a case of Pistols at his Saddle-bow Brederode enters Brussels in the beginning of April to which he is welcomed by Count Horne and the Prince of Orange which last had openly appeared for them at the Council-Table when the unlawfulness of the confederacy was in agitation And having taken up their Lodging in Culemberg-house they did not onely once again subscribe the Covenant but bound themselves to stand to one another by a solemn Oath The tenour of which Oath was to this effect That if any of them should be imprisoned either for Religion or for the Covenant immediately the rest all other business laid aside should take up arms for his assistance and defence Marching the next day by two and two till they came to the Court they presented their petition to the Lady Regent by the hands of Brederode who desired her in a short Speech at the tendry of it to believe that they were honest men and propounded nothing to themselves but obedience to the Laws Honour to the King and safety to their Country The sum of the Petition was That the Spanish Inquisition might be abolished the Emperours Edicts repealed and new ones made by the advice of the Estates of the Countries Concerning which we are to know that the Emperour had past several Edicts against the Lutherans the first of which was published in the year 1521 and the second about five years after Anno 1526 by means whereof many well-meaning people had been burnt for Hereticks but that which most extremely gaulled them was the Edict for the bringing in of the Inquisition published upon the 29 of April as before was said Against these Edicts they complained in the said Petition To which upon the morrow she returned such an answer by the consent of the Council as might give them good hopes that the Inquisition should be taken away and the Edicts moderated but that the King must first be made acquainted with all particulars before they passed into an Act. With which answer they returned well satisfied unto Culemberg-house which was prepared for the entertainment of the chief Confederates 27. To this House Brederode invites the rest of his Company bestows a prodigal Feast upon them and in the middle of their Cups it was put to the question by what name their Confederacie should be called Those of their party in France were differenced from the rest by the name of Hugonots and in England much about that time by the name of Puritans nor was it to be thought but that their followers might be as capable of some proper and peculiar appellation as in France or England It happened that at such time as they came to tender their Petition the Governess seemed troubled at so great a number and that Count Barlamont a man of most approved fidelity to his Majesties service advised her not to be discouraged at it telling her in the French tongue betwixt jest and earnest that they were but Gueux or Gheuses as the Dutch pronounced it that is to say men of dissolute lives and broken fortunes or in plain English Rogues and Beggars Upon which ground they animated one another by the name of Gheuses and calling for great bowls of Wine drank an health to the name their Servants and Attendants crying out with loud acclamations Vive les Gueus long live the Gheuses For the confirming of which name Brederode takes a Waâ—let which he spyed in the place and laid it on one of his Shoulders as their Beggars do and out of a Wooden dish brim-full drinks to all the Company thanks them for following him that day with such unanimity and binds himself upon his honour to spend his life if need should be for the generality of the Confederates and for every member of them in particular Which done he gave his Dish and Wallet to the next unto him who in like manner past it round till they had bound themselves by this ridiculous Form of initiation to stand to one another in defence of their Covenant the former acclamation of Long live the Gheuses being doubled and redoubled at every Health The jollity and loud acclamations which they made in the House brought thither the Prince of Orange Count Egmont and Count Horne men of most Power and Reputation with the common people who seemed so far from reprehending the debauchery which they found amongst them that they rather countenanced the same the former Healths and Acclamations being renewed and followed with more heat and drunken bravery then they were a first on which incouragement they take upon themselves
propositions as were made to him at the first by Count Lodowick his Ministers and alter by the Agent of the Prince himself He had sent some aid not long before to support the Hugonots But now his Souldiers being returned from France and grown burdensome to him are drawn together into a body and with the help of some others out of France and Germany compound an Army of seven thousand Foot and four thousand Horse with which he sends Prince Christopher a younger son under the conduct of Count Lodowick and his Brother Henry But they had scarce entred within the Borders of Gelderland where they expected an addition of fresh Forces from the Prince of Orange when they were set upon by Sanchio d' Avila before mentioned and routed with so great a slaughter that almost all the whole Army were either taken prisoners remedilesly wounded or slain outright and as for their three Generals Lodowick of Nassaw Grave Henry and the young Prince Christopher they were either slain fighting in the battail or trampled under the Horses Feet or finally stisled in the flight as they crossed the Fens the last more probable because their bodies were not to be found on the strictest search 43. But not withstanding this misfortune neither the Prince Elector nor the Prince of Orange could be moved to desert the Cause which by the temptation of revenge was grown dearer to them For after this we finde Prince Casimir another of the Palatine Princes in the Head of an Army raised for assisting the Confederates in the Belgick Provinces by which name they began to be commonly called after the death of Requesenes who had succeeded Alva in the publick Government but wanting time before his death to settle the command in some trusty hands till some Supreme Officer might be sent unto them from the Court of Spain the Government devolved for the present on the Council of State and was invaded afterwards by the States themselves whose Deputies assembling in the Council-house or Court of Brussels made up the body of that Council which governed all Affairs both of Peace and War But great contentions growing betwixt them and the Souldiers and those contentions followed on either side with great animosities the Prince of Orange had a most excellent opportunity for the establishing of his new Dictatorship over Holland and Zealand and some of the adjoyning Provinces of less name and note But being weary at the last of their own confusions and more impatient of the insupportable insolencies of the Spanish Souldiers an Association is first made in the Provinces of Brabant Flanders Artois and Haynalt By which it was agreed in Writing and confirmed by Oath that they should mutually assist each other against the Spaniards till they had cleared the Country of them And with these Provinces consisting for the most part of such as were counted Catholicks Holland and Zealand with the rest though esteemed heretical did associate also which Union is called commonly the Pacification of Gaunt because agreed on in that City and was so much insisted on by the Heads of the Leaguers that it was counselled by the Prince not to admit of Don Iohn for their Supreme Governour till he had ratified and confirmed that Association 44. But because there was no mention of maintaining the Kings Authority or preserving the Catholick Religion in the Originals of the League it was found necessary to provide for both by some explication to take away the envy and suspition of that great disloyalty which otherwise must have fallen upon them And by that explication it was thus declared viz. that they would faithfully from thenceforth maintain the League for the conservation of their most Sacred Faith and the Roman Catholick Religion for preserving the Pacification made at Gaunt for the expulsion of the Spaniards and their adherents their due obedience to the Kings most excellent Majesty being always tendered According to which explication it was confirmed by Don Iohn under the name of the perpetual Edict with the Kings consent who thought his own Authority and the Roman Religion to be thereby sufficiently provided for but he found the contrary For when the Prince of Orange was required to subscribe to the Pacification with the addition of two Clauses for constancie in this Religion and the Kings obedience he refused it absolutely assuring such as moved it to him that the Provinces under his command or consederacie with him were barred in Conscience from subscribing to the preservation of the Romish Faith And at this time it was that he merrily told the Duke of Arescot who was one of the Delegates that there was not more Calvism on his head then there was Calvinism in his heart He well foresaw that the agreement betwixt Don Iohn and the Estates of the Country would not long continue and he resolved to make some advantage of the breach whensoever it hapned Nor was he any thing mistaken in the one or the other for discontents and jealousies encreasing mutually between the parties Don Iohn leaves Brussels and betakes himself to the Castle of Namure for fear of an Assassinate as it was given out which was intended on his person which so incensed the Estates that by a general consent a Dictatorian or Soveraign power was put into the hands of the Prince of Orange by the name Ruart according to the priviledge and practice of the Brabanters in extreme necessities Invested with which power he instituteth a new face of Government both in Brussels it self and many of the Towns adjoyning modelled after the Example of Holland and Zealand He demolished also the great Fort at Antwerp which had been raised with so great Pride and Ostentation by the Duke of Alva The like done also in demolishing the Castles of Gant Vtrecht Lisle Valenciennes and some other places performed by such alacrity by them that did it as if they had shaken off the Yoke of some Forreign servitude An Oath was also framed for renouncing all obedience to Don Iohn their Governour and people of all sorts compelled to take it for the refusal whereof by the Iesuits of Antwerp a Rabble of Calvinian Zealots on the day of Pentecost forced open the doors of that Society plundred their houses of all things Sacred and Prophane and set the Father on board a Ship of the Hollanders with great scorn and insolencie to be landed in some other Country 45. The like done also to the Fathers of Tournay Bruges and Maestricht banished on the same account from their several Cities with whom were also exiled in some places Franciscan Fryars in others many secular Priests who would not easily be perswaded to abjure their Loyalty By whose departure divers Churches were left destitute and unprovided of incumbents to instruct the people which so increased the confidence and hopes of the Calvinians that they not onely petitioned the Estates for liberty of Conscience but for the publick use of Churches in their several Territories but being refused in their
pardon And when men once are brought unto such a condition they must resolve to fight it out to the very last and either carry away the â—arland as a signe of Victory or otherwise live like Slaves or dye like Traytors But this was done according to Calvins Doctrine in the Book of Institutes in which he gives to the Estates of each several Country such a Coercive Power over Kings and Princes as the Ephori had exercised over the Kings of Sparta and the Roman Tribunes sometimes put in practice against the Consuls And more then so he doth condemn them of a betraying of the Peoples Liberty whereof they are made Guardians by Gods own appointment so he saith at least if they restrain not Kings when they play the Tyrants and want only insult upon or oppress the Subjects So great a Master could not but meet with some apt Scholars in the Schools of Politie who would reduce his Rules to practice and justifie their practice by such great Authority 54. But notwithstanding the unseasonable publication of such an unprecedented sentence few of the Provinces fell off from the Kings obedience and such strong Towns as still remained in the hands of the States were either forced unto their duty or otherwise hard put to it by the Prince of Parma To keep whom busied in such sort that he should not be in a capacity of troubling his Affairs in Holland the Prince of Orange puts the Brabanders whose priviledges would best bear it to a new Election And who more fit to be the man then Francis Duke of Anjou Brother to Henry the Third of France and then in no small possibility of attaining to the Marriage of the Queen of England Assisted by the Naval power of the one and the Land-Forces of the other What Prince was able to oppose him and what power to withstand him The young Duke passing over into England found there an entertainment so agreeable to all expectations that the Queen was seen to put a Ring upon one of his Fingers which being looked on as the pledge of a future Marriage the news thereof posted presently to the Low Countries by the Lord Aldegund who was then present at the Court where it was welcomed both in Antwerp and other places with all signes of joy and celebrated by discharging of all the Ordnance both on the Walls and in such Ships as then lay on the River After which triumph comes the Duke accompanied by some great Lords of the Court of England and is invested solemnly by the Estates of those Countries in the Dukedoms of Brabant and Limburg the Marquisate of the holy Empire and the Lordship of Machlin which action seems to have been carryed by the power of the Consistorian Calvinists for besides that it agreeth so well with their common Principles they were grown very strong in Antwerp where Philip Lord of Aldegund a profest Calvinian was Deputy for the Prince of Orange as they were also in most Towns of consequence in the Dukedom of Brabant But on the other side the Romish party was reduced to such a low estate that they could not freely exercise their own Religion but onely as it was indulged unto them by Duke Francis their new-made Soveraign upon condition of taking the Oath of Allegiance to him and abdicating the Authority of the King of Spain the grant of which permission had been vain and of no significancie if at that time they could have freely exercised the same without it But whosoever they were that concurred most powerfully in conferring this new honour on him he quickly found that they had given him nothing but an airy Title keeping all power unto themselves So that upon the matter he was nothing but an honourable Servant and bound to execute the commands of his mighty Masters In time perhaps he might have wrought himself to a greater power but being young and ill advised he rashly enterprised the taking of the City of Antwerp of which being frustrated by the miscarriage of his plot he returned ingloriously into France and soon after dyes 55. And now the Prince of Orange is come to play his last part on the publick Theatre his winding Wit had hitherto preserved his Provinces in some terms of peace by keeping Don Iohn exercised by the General States and the Prince of Parma no less busied by the Duke of Anjou nor was there any hope of recovering Holland and Zealand to the Kings obedience but either by open force or some secret practice the first whereof appeared not possible and the last ignoble But the necessity of removing him by what means soever prevailed at last above all sence and terms of Honour And thereupon a desperate young Fellow is ingaged to murther him which he attempted by discharging a Pistol in his face when he was at Antwerp attending on the Duke of Anjou so that he hardly escaped with life But being recovered of that blow he was not long after shot with three poyson Bullets by one Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian born whom he had lately taken into his service which murder was committed at Delph in Holland on the 10 of Iune 1584 when he had lived but fifty years and some months over He left behind him three Sons by as many Wives On Anne the Daughter of Maximilian of Egmont Earl of Bucen he begat Philip Earl of Bucen his eldest Son who succeeded the Prince of Orange after his decease By Anne the Daughter of Maurice Duke Elector of Saxony he was Father of Grave Maurice who at the age of eighteen years was made Commander General of the Forces of the States United and after the death of Philip his Elder Brother succeeded him in all his Titles and Estates And finally by his fourth Wife Lovise Daughter of Gasper Colligny great Admiral of France for of his third being a Daughter to the Duke of Montpensier he had never a Son he was the Father of Prince Henry Frederick who in the year 1625 became Successor unto his Brother in all his Lands Titles and Commands Which Henry by a Daughter of the Count of Solmes was Father of William Prince of Orange who married the Princess Mary Eldest Daughter of King Charles the second Monarch of great Britain And departing this life in the flower of his youth and expectations Anno 1650 he left his Wife with Childe of a Post-humous Son who after was baptized by the name of William and is now the onely surviving hope of that famous and illustrious Family 56. But to return again to the former William whom we left weltring in his bloud at Delph in Holland He was a man of great possessions and Estates but of a soul too large for so great a Fortune For besides the Principality of Orange in France and the County of Nassaw in Germany he was possessed in right of his first Wife of the Earldom of Bucen in Gelderland as also of the Town and Territories of Lerdame and Iselstine in Holland
place because of that influence which they had on the Realm of England and the connexion of affairs between both the Kingdoms till they were both united under the command of one Soveraign Prince And this being said I shall without more preamble proceed to the following History 2. It was about the year 1527 that the Reformation of Religion begun by Luther was first preached in Scotland by the Ministry of one Patrick Hamilton a man of eminent Nobility in regard of his birth as being Brothers Son to Iames Earl of Arran but far more eminent in those times for his parts and piety then the Nobility of his House spending some time at Witteberg in the pursuit of his Studies he grew into acquaintance with Martin Luther Philip Melancthon and other men of name and note in that University and being seasoned with their Doctrine he returned into Scotland where he openly declared himself against Pilgrimages Purgatory Prayer to the Saints and for the dead without going further And further as he did not go so indeed he could not For on the noise of these his preachings he was prevailed with by Iames Beton Archbishop of St. Andrews to repair to that City but was so handled at his coming that after some examinations he was condemned to the fire which sentence was inflicted on him on the last of February But the Church is never made more fruitful then when the soyl thereof is watered with the blood of Martyrs For presently upon the commiâ—ting of this Fact most men of Quality begâ—n to look into the Reasons of such great severities and were the more inquisitive after all particulars because they had not been affrighted with the like Example in the memory of the oldest man which then lived amongst them By this means the opinions of this man being known abroad found many which approved but very few which had just reason to condemn them and passing thus from hand to hand gave further cause to those of the Popish Party to be watchful over them And for long time they were on the suffering hand patiently yeilding up their lives to the Executioners wheresoever any sentence of death was past upon them And it stood till the decease of King Iames the Fifth Anno 1542 when the unsetledness of Affairs the tender infancie of the young Queen not above nine days old at the death of her Father and the conferring of the Regencie after some disputes on Iames Earl of Arran who was thought to favour their opinions imboldned them to appear more openly in defence of themselves and to attempt upon the Chiefs of the contrary party whereof they gave a terrible Example in the death of Cardinal David Beton immediately or not long after the cruel burning of George Wischart whose name is mollified by Buchanan into Sofocardius a man of great esteem amongst them who having spent some time in France and being conversant with some Calvinists of that Nation returned into his Native Country with such French Commissioners as were sent unto the Earl of Arran Anno 1544. In little time he had gained unto himself so many followers that he became formidable to the greatest Prelates but unto none more then unto Cardinal David Beton Archbishop of St. Andrews also and Nephew unto Iames his Predecessor By whose Authority and procurement he was condemned to the like death as Hamilton before had suffered in the year next following 3. Amongst the followers of this man the most remarkable in reference to my present purpose were Norman Lesly eldest Son to the Earl of Rothes Iohn Lesly Uncle unto Norman Iames Melvin and the Kirkaldies Lairds of Grange By whom and others of that party a plot was laid to surprise the Castle and take revenge upon the Cardinal for the death of Wishart Having possest themselves of the Gates of the Castle they forced their way into his Chamber and were upon the point of striking the fatal blow when Iames Melvin told them with great shews of gravity that the business was not to be acted with such heat and passion And thereupon holding a Ponyard at his brest put him in minde of shedding the innocent bloud of that famous Martyr Mass George Wishart which now called loud to God for vengeance in whose name they were come to do justice on him which said he made this protestation That neither hatred to his person nor love to his Riches nor the fear of any thing concerning his own particular had moved him to the undertaking of that execution but onely because he had been and still remained an obstinate enemy against Christ Jesus and his holy Gospel Upon which words without expecting any answer or giving the poor man any time of application to the Father of Mercies he stabbed him twice or thrice into the body with so strong a malice that he left him dead upon the place In the relating of which Murder in Knox hâ—s History a note was given us in the Margent of the first Edition printed at London in Octavo which points us to the godly act and saying of Iames Melvin for so the Author calls this most wicked deed But that Edition being stopt at the Press by tâ—â— Queens command the History never came out perfect till the year of our Lord 1644 when the word godly was left out of the Marginal Note for the avoiding of that horrible scandal which had been thereby given to all sober Readers But to proceed unto my story it was upon the 29 of May that the Murderers possest themselves of that strong peece into which many flocked from all parts of the Realm both to congratulate the act and assist the Actors So that at last they cast themselves into a Congregation and chose Iohn Rough who after suffered death in England to be one of their Preachers Iohn Knox that great incendiary of the Realm of Scotland for another of them And thus they stood upon their guard till the coming of one and twenty Gallies and some Land-Forces out of France by whom the Castle was besieged and so fiercely battered that they were forced to yeild on the last of Iuly without obtaining any better conditions then the hope of life 4. The Castle being yeilded and the Country quieted the French returned with their booty of which their Prisoners which they brought along with them made the principal part not made the tamer by their sufferings in the enemies Gallies insomuch that when the Image of the Virgin Mary was offered to them to be kissed on some solemn occasion one of them snatched it into his hands flung it into the Sea and said unto them that brought it in a jeering manner That her Ladyship was light enough and might learn to swim Which desperate and unadvised action as it was no other is said by Knox to have produced this good effect that the Scots were never after tempted to the like Idolatries Knox at this time was Prisoner in the Gallies amongst the
rest and with the rest released upon the Peace made between France and England at the delivering up of Bulloigne from whence he past over into England where he was first made Preacher at Barwick next at New-castle afterwards to some Church of London and finally in some other places of the South so that removing like our late Itinerants from one Church to another as he could meet with entertainment he kept himself within that Sanctuary till the death of King Edward and then betook himself to Geneva for his private Studies From hence he published his desperate Doctrine of Predestination which he makes not onely to be an impulsive to but the compulsive cause of mens sins and mens wickednesses From hence he published his trayterous and seditious Pamphlet entituled The first blast of the Trumpet in which he writes most bitterly amongst other things against the Regiment of Women aiming therein particularly at the two Mâ—ries Queens of Scotland Queen Mary of England and Mary Qâ—eâ—n Dowager of Hungary Governess of the Low-Countries for Charles the Fifth and finally from hence he published another of the like nature entituled An Admonition to Christians In which he makes the Emperour Charles to be worlâ— then Nero and Mary Queen of England nothing better then Iesabel According to which good beginning he calls her in his History but not published hence that Idolatrous and Mischievous Mary of the Spaniards bloud a cruel persecutrix of Gods people as the Acts of her unhappy Reign did sufficiently witness In which he comes as close to Calvin as could be desired 5. By this means he grew great with Calvin and the most leading men of the Consistorians who looked upon him as a proper Engine to advance their purposes But long he had not stayed amongst them when he received an invitation from some Friends of his of the same temper and affections as it after proved to take charge of the Church of Frankfort to which some learned men and others of the English Nation had retired themselves in the Reign of Queen Mary which call he first communicated unto Calvin by whose encouragement and perswasion he accepted of it and by his coming rather multiplyed then appeased the quarrels which he found amongst them But siding with the inconformable party and knowing so much of Calvins minde touching the Liturgie and Rites of the Church of England he would by no means be perswaded to officiate by it and for that cause was forced by Dr. Cox and others of the Learned men who remained there to forsake the place as hath been shewn at large in another place Outed at Frankfort he returns again to his Friends at Geneva and being furnished with instructions for his future carriage in the cause of his Ministry he prepares for his journey into Scotland passeth to Dieppe form thence to England and at last came a welcome man to his Native Country which he found miserably divided into sides and factions Mary their Infant Queen had been transported into France at six years of age the Regency taken from Iames Earl of Arran given to Mary of â—orraign the Queens Mother not well obeyed by many of the Nâ—bility and great men of the Country but openly opposed and reviled by those who seemed to be inclinable to the Reformation To these men Knox applyed himself with all caâ—e and cunning preaching from place to place and from house to house as opportunity was given him In which he gathered many Churches and set up many Congregations as if he had been the Apâ—stle-General of the Kirk of Scotland in all points holding a conformity unto Calvins Platform even to the singing of Davids Psalms in the English Meter the onely Musick he allowed of in Gods publick Service From Villages and private Houses he ventured into some of the great Towns and more eminent Cities and at the last appeared in Edenborough it self preaching in all and ministring the Communion in many places as he saw occasion This was sufficient to have raised a greater storm against him then he could have been able to indure but he must make it worse by a new provocation For at the perswasion of the Earl of Glencarne and some others of his principal followers he writes a long Letter to the Queen Regent in which he earnestly perswades her to give ear to the Word of God according as it was then preached by himself and others which Letter being communicated by the Queen to the Archbishop of Glasco and dispersed in several Copies by Knox himself gave such a hot Alarm to the Bishops and Clergy that he was cited to appear in Blackfryars Church in Edenborough on the 15 of May and though upon advertisement that he came accompanied with so great a train that it could not be safe for them to proceed against him he was not troubled at that time yet he perceived that having made the Queen his enemy he could not hope to remain longer in that Kingdom but first or last he must needs fall in their hands 6. But so it happened that when he was in the midst of these perplexities he received a Letter from the Schismatical English which repaired to Geneva when they had lost all hope of putting down the English Liturgie in the Church of Frankfort by which he was invited to return to his former charge this Letter he communicated to his principal Friends resolves to entertain the offer and prepares all things for his journey And to say truth it was but time that he should set forwards for the danger followed him so close that within few days after his departure he was condemned for not appearing and burnt in his Effigies at the Cross in Edenborough But first he walks his round visits all his Churches takes a more solemn farewel of his especial Friends and having left sufficient instructions with them for carrying on the Reformation in despite of Authority in the latter end of Iuly he sets sail for France His party was by this time grown strong and numerous resolved to follow such directions as he left behind him To which encouraged by the preaching of one Willock whom Knox had more especially recommended to them in the time of his absence they stole away the Images out of most of their Churches and were so venturous as to take down the great Image of St. Gyles in the chief Church of Edenborough which they drowned first in the Northlake and burnt it afterwards But this was but a Prologue to the following Comedy The Festival of St. Gyles draws near in which the Image of that Saint was to be carryed through the chief Streets of Edenborough in a solemn Procession attended by all the Priests Fryars and other Religious persons about that City another Image is borrowed from the Gray-Fryars to supply the place and for the honour of the day the Queen Regent her self was pleased to make one in the Pageant But no sooner was she retired to her private repose when a
privy Postern The news of this disorder is carried post to the Queen who thereupon gives order to the Provost of Edenborough to seize upon the persons of Andrew Armstrong or Patrick Craâ—ston the Chief-Ringleaders of the tumult that they might undergo the Law at a time appointed for fore-thought Felony in making a violent invasion into the Queens Palace and for spoliation of the same This puts the Brethren into a heat and Knox is ordered by the consent of the rest of the Ministers to give notice unto all the Church of the present danger that they might meet together as one man to prevent the mischief In the close of which Letter he â—ets them know what hopes he had that neither flattery nor fear would make them so far to decline from Christ Jesus as that against their publick Promise and solemn Bond they would leave their dear Brethren in so just a cause It was about the beginning of August that the tumult hapned and the beginning of October that the Letter was written A Copy of it comes into the hands of the Lords of the Council by whom the writing of it was declared to be treason to the great rejoycing of the Queen who hoped on this occasion to revenge her self upon him for his former insolencies But it fell out quite contrary to her expectation Knox is commanded to appear before the Lords of the Council and he comes accordingly but comes accompanied with such a train of godly Brethren that they did not onely fill the open part of the Court but thronged up stairs and prest unto the doors of the Council This makes the man so confident as to stand out stoutly against the Queen and her Council affirming that the convocating of the people in so just a Cause was no offence against the Law and boldly telling them that they who had inflamed the Queen against those poor men were the Sons of the Devil and therefore that it was no marvail if they obeyed the desires of their Father who was a Murtherer from the beginning Moved with which confidence or rather terrified with the clamours of the Rascal Rabble even ready to break in upon them the whole Nobility then present absolved him of all the crimes objected to him not without some praise to God for his modesty and for his plain and sensible answers as himself reports it 49. Worse fared it with the Queen and those of her Religion in another adventure then it did in this At the ministring of the Communion in Edenborough on the first of April the Brethren are advertised that the Papists were busie at their Mass some of which taking one of the Bayliffs with them laid hands upon the Priest the Master of the House and two or three of the Assistants all whom they carryed to the Tole-booth or Common-hall The Priest they re-invest with his Massing-Garments set him upon the Market-cross unto which they tye him holding a Chalice in his hand which is tyed to it also and there exposed him for the space of an hour to be pelted by the boys with rotten Eggs. The next day he is accused and convicted in a course of Law by which he might have suffered death but that the Law had never been confirmed by the King or Queen So that instead of all other punishments which they had no just power to inflict upon him he was placed in the same manner on the Market-cross the Common-hang-man standing by and there exposed to the same insolencies for the space of three or four hours as the day before Some Tumult might have followed on it but that the Provost with some Halberdiers dispersed the multitude and brought the poor Priest off with safety Of this the Queen complains but without any Remedy Instead of other satisfaction an Article is drawn up by the Commissioners of the next Assembly to be presented to the Parliament then sitting at Edenborough in which it was desired That the Papisâ—ical and blasphemous Mass with all the Papistical Idolatry and Papal Iurisdiction be universally supprest and abolished throughout this Realm not onely in the subjects but the Queens own person c. of which more hereafter It was not long since nothing was more preached amongst them then the great tyranny of the Prelates and the unmerciful dealing of such others as were in Authority in not permitting them to have the liberty of Conscience in their own Religion which now they denyed unto their Queen 50. But the affront which grieved her most was the perverse but most ridiculous opposition which they made to her Marriage she had been desired for a Wife by Anthony of Bourbon King of Navar Lewis Prince of Conde Arch-duke Charles the Duke of Bavaria and one of the younger Sons of the King of Sweden But Queen Elizabeth who endeavoured to keep her low disswaded her from all Alliances of that high strain perswaded her to Marry with some Noble Person of England for the better establishment of her Succession in the Crown of this Realm and not obscurely pointed to her the Earl of Leicester Which being made known to the Lady Margaret Countess of Lenox Daughter of Margaret Queen of Scots and Grand-childe to King Henry the Seventh from whom both Queens derived their Titles to this Crown she wrought upon the Queen of Scots by some Court-Instruments to accept her Eldest Son the Lord Henry Steward for her Husband A Gentleman he was above all exception of comely personage and very plausible behaviour of English Birth and Education and much about the same age with the Queen her self And to this Match she was the more easily inclined because she had been told of the King her Father that he resolved if he had dyed without any Issue of his own to declare the Earl of Lenox for his Heir Apparent that so the Crown might be preserved in the name of the Stewarts But that which most prevailed upon her was a fear she had lest the young Lord being the next Heir unto her self to the Crown of England might Marry into some Family of power and puissance in that Kingdom by means whereof he might prevent her of her hopes in the succession to which his being born in England and her being an Alien and an Enemy might give some advantage Nor did it want some place in her consideration that the young Lord and his Parents also were of the same Religion with her which they had constantly maintained notwithstanding all temptations to the contrary in the Court of England To smooth the way to this great business the Earl desires leave of Queen Elizabeth to repair into Scotland where he is graciously received and in â—ull Parliament restored unto his native Country from whence he had been banished two and twenty years The young Lord follows not long after and findes such entertainment at the hands of that Queen that report voiced him for her Husband before he could assure himself of his own affections This proved no
That the Iews dealt not so with any of their Princes and that there was no example to be found in Scripture to shew that subjects may so use their Governours as is there pretended To all these he returns his particular answers and in this sort he answereth to them that is to say That there is nothing more dangerous to be followed then a common custom That the example is but singular and concludeth nothing That as God placed Tyrants to punish the people so he appoints private men to kill them That the Kings of the Iews were not elected by the people and therefore might not deal with them as they might in Scotland where Kings depend wholly on the peoples Election And finally that there were sundry good and wholesome Laws in divers Countries of which there is no example in holy Scripture And whereas others had objected That by St. Pauls Doctrine we are bound to pray for Kings and Princes The Argument is evaded by this handsome shift That we are bound to pray for those whom we ought to punish But these are onely velitations certain preparatory skirmishes to the grand encounter the main battail followeth For finally the principal objection is That St. Paul hath commanded every soul to be subject to the higher Powers and that St. Peter hath required us to submit our selves to every Ordinance of man whether it be unto the King as to the Supreme or unto such as be in Authority by and under him And hereunto they frame their Answer in such a manner as if they knew Gods minde better then the Apostles did or that of the Apostles better then they did themselves 11. The answer is that the Apostles writ this in the Churches infancy when there were not many Christians few of them rich and of ability to make resistance As if said he a man should write to such Christians as are under the Turk in substance poor in courage feeble in strength unarmed in number few and generally subject unto to all kinde of injuries would he not write as the Apostles did who did respect the men they writ to their words not being to be extended to the body or people of the Common wealth For imagine saith he that either of the Apostles were now alive and lived where both the Kings and people did profess Christianity and that there were such Kings as would have their wills to stand for laws as cared neither for God nor Man as bestowed the Churches Revenues upon Iesters and Rascals and such as gibed at those who did profess the more sincere Religion what would they write of such to the Church Surely except they would dissent from themselves they would say That they accounted no such for Magistrates they would forbid all men from speaking unto them and from keeping their company they would leave them to their subjects to be punished nor would they blame them if they accounted not such men for their Kings with whom they could have no society by the Laws of God So excellent a proficient did this man shew himself in the Schools of Calvin that he might worthily have challenged the place of Divinity-Reader in Geneva it self 12. To put these Principles into practice a Bond is made at Stirling by some of the chief Lords of the Congregation pretended for the preservation of the Infant-Prince but aiming also at the punishment of Bothwel and the rest of the Murtherers The first that entred into this Combination were the Earls of Athol Arguile Morton Marre and Glencarne with the Lords Lindsay and Boyd to which were added not long after the Lords Hume and Ruthen this Ruthen being the Son of him who had acted in the Murther of David Risio together with the Lairds of Drumlanrig Tulibardin Seffourd and Grange men of great power and influence on their several Countries besides many others of good note The Earl Murray having laid the plot obtained the Queens leave to retire into France till the times were quieter committing to the Queen the Government of his whole Estate that so if his designe miscarried as it possibly might he might come off without the least hazard of estate or honour Of this conspiracie the Queen receives advertisement and presently prepares for Arms under pretence of rectifying some abuses about the Borders The Confederates were not much behind and having got together a considerable power made an attempt on Borthwick Castle where the Queen and Bothwel then remained But not being strong enough to carry the place at the first attempt Bothwel escaped unto Dunbar whom the Queen followed shortly after in mans apparel Missing their prey the Confederates march toward Edenborough with their little army and make themselves Masters of the Town But understanding that the Queens Forces were upon their march they betook themselves unto the field gained the advantage of the ground and thereby gave her such a diffidence of her good success that having entertained them with a long parley till Bothwel was gone off in safety she put her self into their hands without striking a blow 13. With this great prey the Confederates returned to Edenborough in the middle of Iune and the next day order her to be sent as Prisoner to Lâ—chlevin-house under the conduct of the Lords Ruthen and Lindsay by whom she was delivered in a very plain and sorry attire to the custody of Murray's Mother who domineered over the unfortunate Lady with contempt enough The next day after her commitment the Earl of Glencarne passeth to the Chappel in Halyrood house where he defaceth all the Vestments breaks down the Altar and destroys the Images For which though he was highly magnified by Knox and the rest of the Preachers yet many of the chief Confederates were offended at it as being done without their consent when a great storm was gathering towards them by the conjunction of some other of the principal Lords on the Queens behalf To reconcile this party to them and prevent the Rupture Knox with some other of their Preachers are dispatched away with Letters of Credence and instructions for attoning the difference But they effected nothing to the benefit of them that sent them and not much neither to their own though they had some concernments of self-interest besides the publick which they made tender of to their considerations A general Assembly at the same time was held in Edenborough with which upon the coming back of these Commissioners it was thought necessary to ingratiate themselves by all means imaginable And thereupon it was agreed that the Acts of Parliament made in the year 1560 for the suppressing of Popery should be confirmed in the next Parliament then following that the assignation of the Shires for the Ministers maintainance should be duly put in execution till the whole Patrimony of the Church might be invested in them in due form of Law which was conditioned to be done if it could not be done sooner in that Parliament also Some other points of huge
obedient subjects The Kings escape was made in the end of Iune and in December following he calls a Convention of the Estates in which the subject of his Proclamation was approved and verified the fact declared to be Crimen laesae Majestatis or Treason in the highest degree For which as some were executed and others fled so divers of the Ministers that had been dealers in that matter pretending they were persecuted had retired into England For notwithstanding his Majesties great clemency in pardoning the Conspirators on such easie conditions they preferred rather the pursuing of their wicked purposes then the enjoying of a peaceable and quiet life For whether it were that they presumed on supplies from England of which they had received no inâ—â—obable hopes as afterwards was confessed by the Earl of Gowry or that they built upon the Kirk-Faction to come in to aid them as the General Assembly had required they begin in all places to prepare for some new Commotion but being deceived in all their hopes and expectations they were confined to several Prisons before the Convention of Estates and after it upon a further discovery of their preparations and intentions compelled to quit the Kingdome and betake themselves for their protection unto several Nations Onely the Earl of Gowry staid behind the rest and he paid well for it For being suspected to be hammering some new design he was took Prisoner at Dundee in the April following 1584 thence brought to Edenborough and there condemned and executed as he had deserved In the mean time the Kirk-men were as troublesome as the Lay-Conspirators Dury so often mentioned in a Sermon at Edenborough had justified the fact at Ruthen for which being cited to appear before the Lords of the Council he stood in maintainance of that which he had delivered but afterwards submitting himself unto the King on more sober thoughts he was kept upon his good â—ehaviour without further punishment But Andrew Melvin was a man of another metal who being commanded to attend their Lordships for the like offence declined the judgement of the King and Council as having no cognizance of the cause To make which good he broached this Presbyterian Doctrine That whatsoever was spoken in the Pulpit ought first to be tryed by the Presbyterie and that neither the King nor Council were to meddle with it though the same were treasonable till the Presbyterie had first taken notice of it But finding that the King and Council did resolve to proceed and had entred upon Examination of some Witnesses which were brought against him he told the King whether with greater Confidence or Impudence is hard to say That he preached the Laws both of God and man For which undutiful Expression he was commanded Prisoner to the Castle of Blackness Instead whereof he takes Sanctuary in the Town of Berwick where he remained till way was made for his return the Pulpits in the mean time sounding nothing but that the Light of the Countrey for Learning and Piety was forced for safety of his life to forsake the Kingdom In which Exile he was followed within few moneths after by Palvart Sub-Dean of Glasgow Galloway and Carmichiel two inferior Ministers who being warned to tender their appearance to the King and Council and not appearing at the time were thereupon pronounced Rebels and fled after the other Nor was the General Assembly held at Edenborough of a better temper then these Preachers were in which the Declaration made at the last Convention of Estates was stoutly crossed and encountred The King with the advice of his Estates had resolved the Fact of surprizing His Majesties person to be treasonable But the Brethren in the said Assembly did not onely authorize and avow the same but also esteeming their own judgement to be the Soveraign judgement of the Realm did ordain all them to be excommunicated that would subscribe unto their opinion 61. The King perceiving that there was no other way to deal with these men then to husband the present opportunity to his best advantage resolved to proceed against them in such a way as might disable them from committing the like insolencies for the time to come The chief Incendiaries had been forced to quit the Kingdom or otherwise deserted it of their own accords the better to escape the punishment which their crimes had merited The great Lords on whose strength they had most presumed were either under the like exile in the neighbouring Countries or else so weakned and disanimated that they durst not stir So that the King being clearly Master of the Field his Counsellors in good heart and generally the Lords and Commons in good terms of obedience it was thought fit to call a Parliament and therein to enact such Laws by which the honour of Religion the personal safety of the King the peace and happiness of the Kingdom and the prosperity of the Church might be made secure In which Parliament it was enacted amongst others things the better to encounter the proceedings of the Kirk and most Zealous Kirkmen That none of his Highness Subjects in time coming should presume to take upon them by word or writing to justifie the late treasonable attempt at Ruthen or to keep in register or store any Books approving the same in any sort And in regard the Kirk had so abused his Majesties goodness by which their Presbyterial Sessions the general Assemblies and other meetings of the Kirk were rather connived at then allowed an Act was made to regulate and restrain them for the times ensuing for by that Act it was ordained That from thenceforth none should presume or take upon them to Convocate Convene or assemble themselves together for holding of Councils Conventions or Assemblies to treat consult or determine in any matters of Estate Civil or Ecclesiastical excepting the ordinary judgements without the Kings special commandment 62. In the next place the Kings lawful Authority in causes Ecclesiastical so often before impugned was approved and confirmed and it was made treason for any man to refuse to answer before the King though it were concerning any matter which was Ecclesiastical The third Estate of Parliament that is the Bishops were restored to the ancient dignity and it was made treason for any man after that time to procure the innovation or diminution of the Power and Authority of any of the three Estates And for as much as through the wicked licentious publick and private Speeches and untrue calumnies of divers his Highness subjects I speak the very words of the Act to the disdain contempt and reproach of his Majesty his Council and proceedings stirring up his Highness subjects thereby to misliking sedition unquietness to cast off their due oâ—edience to his Majesty Therefore it is ordained that none of his subjects shall presume or take upon them privately or publickly in Sermons Declamations oâ— familiar Conferences to utter any false scandalous and untrue Speeches to the disdain reproach and contempt of
the coming of the Duke a shot was made at him from a ship with which one of the Watermen was killed but the Ambassador therewith more amazed then hurt The Gunner afterwards was pardoned by the great power the Earl of Leicester had in Court it being pretended that the Piece was discharged upon meer accident and not upon malice or design After this follows a seditious Pamphlet writ by one Stubs of Lincolns Inn who had married one of the Sisters of Thomas Cartwright and therefore may be thought to have done nothing in it without his privity This Book he called The Gaping Gulf in which England was to have been swallowed the wealth thereof consumed and the Gospel irrecoverably drown'd writ with great bitterness of spirit and reproachful language to the disgrace of the French Nation the dishonor of the Dukes own person and not without some vile reflections on the Queen herself as if she had a purpose to betray her Kingdom to the power of Strangers 28. For publishing this book no such excuse could be pretended as was insisted on in defence of the former shot nor could the Queen do less in Justice to her self and her Government as the case then stood then to call the Authors and the Publishers of it to a strict account To which end the said Stubs together with Hugh Singleton and William Page were on the 13 day of October arraigned at Westminster for Writing Printing and dispersing that Seditious Pamphlet and were all then and there condemned to lose their right hands for the said offence Which Sentence was executed on the third of November upon Stubs and Page as the chief offenders but Singleton was pardoned as an Accessary and none of the Principals in the Crime Which execution gave great grief to the Disciplinarians because they saw by that Experiment that there was no dallying with the Queen when either the honor of her Government or the peace of her Dominions seemed to be concerned And they were most afflicted at it in regard of Cartwright whose inability to preserve so near a Friend from the severity and shame of so great a punishment was looked on as a strong presumption that he could be as little able to save himself whensoever it was thought expedient upon reason of State to proceed against him But now they are engaged in the same bottom with him they were resolved to steer their course by no other Compass then that which this grand Pilot had provided for them Not terrified from so doing by the open Schism which was the next year made by one Robert Brown once a Disciple of their own and one who built his Schism upon Cartwrights Principles nor by the hanging of those men who had dispersed his Factious and Schismatical Pamphlets For the better clearing of which matter we must fetch the story of this Brown a little higher and carry it a little lower then this present year 29. This Robert Brown was born at Tolâ—thorp in the County of Rutland the Grand-child of Francis Brown Esquire priviledged in the 18 year of King Henry VIII to wear his Cap in the presence of the King himself or any other Lords Spiritual or Temporal in the Land and not to put it off at any time but onely for his own ease and pleasure He was bred sometimes in Corpus Christi Colledge commonly called Bennet Colledge in the University of Cambridge Where though he was not known to take any degree yet he would many times venture into the Pulpit It was observed that in his preaching he was very vehement which Cartwrights Followers imputed onely to his zeal as being one of their own number But other men suspected him to have worse ends in it Amongst many whom rather curiosity then Devotion had brought to hear him Dr. Iohn Still though possibly not then a Doctor hapned to be one Who being afterwards Master of Trinity-Colledge and finally Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells was used to say That he discerned something extraordinary in him at the very first which he presaged would prove a disturbance to the Church if it were not seasonably prevented Being well verst and conversant in Cartwrights Books and other the like Pamphlets of that time he became more and more estranged from the Church of England Whose Goveâ—â—ment he found to be deâ—amed for Antichristian her Sacraments affirmed to be defiled with Superstition her Liturgie reproached for Popish and in some part Heathenish and finally her Ordination to be made no better then those of Baals Priests amongst the Jews Not able to abide longer in a Church so impure and filthy he puts himself over into Zealand and joyns with Cartwrights new Church in the City of Middleborough But finding there some few remainders of the old impiety he resolves to constitute a new Church of his own Projectment which should have nothing in it but what was most pure and holy The Draught whereof he comprehended in a Book which he printed at Middleborough An. 1582 intituled A Treatise of Reformation and having sent as many of them into England as might serve his turn he followed after in pursuit of his new Plantation 30. The Dutch had then a Church at Norwich as before was said more numerous then any other Church or Congregation within the Precincts of that City Many of which enclining of themselves to the Anabaptists were apt enough to entertain any new Opinions which held Conformity with that Sect. Amongst them he begins and first begins with such amongst them as were most likely to be ruled and governed by him he being of an imperious nature and much offended with the least dissent or contradiction when he had uttered any Paradox in his discourses Having gotten into some Authority amongst the Dutch whose Language he had learned when he lived in Middleborough and grown into a great opinion for his Zeal and Sanctity he began to practise with the English using therein the service and assistance of one Richard Harrison a Country School master whose ignorance made him apt enough to be seduced by so weak a Prophet Of each Nation he began to gather Churches to himself of the last especicially inculcating nothing more to his simple Auditors then that the Church of England had so much of Rome that there was no place left for Christ or his holy Gospel But more particularly he inveighed against the Government of the Bishops the Ordination of Ministers the Offices Rites and Ceremonies of the publick Liturgie according as it had been taught out of Cartwrights Books descending first to this Position That the Church of England was no true and lawful Church And afterwards to this conclusion That all true Christians were obliged to come out of Babylon to separate themselves from those impure and mixt Assemblies in which there was so little of Christs Institution and finally that they should joyn themselves to him and to his Disciples amongst whom there was nothing to be found which savoured not
to reject the publick Liturgie and being resolved not to conform themselves unto it they fell upon a course of hiring some Lay-brother as Snape did a Lame Souldier of Barwick or possibly some ignorant Curate to read the Prayers to such as had a minde to hear them neither themselves nor their Disciples coming into the Church till the singing of the Psalm before the Sermon Concerning which one of the brethren writes to Field That having nothing to do with the prescribed form of Common-prayer he preached every Lords day in his Congregation and that â—e did so by the counsel of the Reverend Brethren by whom such was Gods goodness to him he had been lately called to be one of the Classis which once a week was held in some place or other 36. In this condition stood the Affairs when the Reverend Whitgift came to the See of Canterbury A man that had appeared so stoutly in the Churches quarrels that there could be no fear of his Grindâ—llizing by winking at the plots and practices of the Puritan Faction So highly valued by the Queen that when she first preferred him to the See of Worcester Anno 1576 she gave him the disposing of all the Prebendaries of that Church to the end he might be served with the ablest and most Learned men Nor was he less esteemed for his civil prudence which moved Sir Henry Sidney to select him before all others to be his Vice-President in Wales at such time as he was to go Lord-Deputy for the Realm of Ireland Upon this man the Queen had always kept her eye since Grindal fell into disfavour and willingly would have made him his Co-adjutor if he could have been perswaded to accept the offer Which moderation altered nothing of the Queens minde toward him who was so constant in her choice and designations of fit men to serve her that upon Grindals death which happened on the 6 of Iuly 1583 she preferred Whitgift to the place To which he was actually translated before Michaelmas following that he might have the benefit of the half-years-rent Which as it was another Argument of the Queens good affection to him who otherwise was sufficiently intent on her personal profit so for a further demonstration of it she caused one hundred pounds to be abated in his Tenths and first Fruits which had been over-charged on his Predecessor And which was more then both together she suffered him to Commence a Suit against Sir Iames Crofts Comptroller of her Houshold Governour of the Town of Barwick and a privy Councellor for the recovery of some Lands to the quantity of one thousand Acres which had been first alienated to the Queen and by the Queen was given to Crofts on a Court-petition Which suit as he had courage enough to take in hand so had he the felicity of an happy Issue in the recovering of those Lands from such Potent Competitors without loosing any part of her Majesties favour But these things are not pertinent to my present business unless it be to shew upon what ground he stood and that he was resolved to abate of nothing which concerned the honour of the Church who was so vigilant and intent without fear of envy or displeasure on the profit of it 37. The Queen was set upon a point of holding her Prerogative-Royal at the very height and therefore would not yield to any thing in Civil matters which seemed to tend to any sensible diminution of it And in like sort she was resolved touching her Supremacy which she considered as the fairest Jewel in the Regal Diadem and consequently could as little hearken to such Propositions as had been made in favor of the Puritan Faction by their great Agents in the Court though she had many times been sollicited in it To ease herself of which Sollicitations for the time to come she acquaints Whitgift at his first coming to the place that she determined to discharge herself from the trouble of all Church-concernments and leave them wholly to his care That he should want no countenance and encouragement for carrying on the great trust committed to him That she was sensible enough into what disorder and confusion the affairs of the Church were brought by the connivance of some Bishops the obstinancy of some Ministers and the power of some great Lords both in Court and Countrey but that notwithstanding all these difficulties he must resolve not onely to assert the Episcopal Power but also to restore that Uniformity in Gods Publick Worship which by the weakness of his Predecessor was so much endangered Thus authorized and countenanced he begins his Government And for the first Essay thereof he sends abroad three Articles to be subscribed by all the Clergy of his Province The Tenour of which Articles because they afterwards created so much trouble to him I shall here subjoyn First therefore he required the Clergy to subscribe to this That the Queen had Supreme Authority over all persons born within her Dominions of what condition soever they were and that no other Prince Prelate or Potentate either had or ought to have any jurisdiction Civil or Ecclesiastical within her Realms and Dominions 2. That the Book of Common-prayer and the Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons contained nothing contrary to the Word of God but might lawfully be used and that they would use that and no other 3. That he allowed the Articles of Religion agreed in the Synod holden at London in the year of our Lord 1562 and published by the Queens Authority and did believe them to be consonant to the Word of God 38. It is not easie to imagine what clamours were raised amongst the Brethren upon this occasion how they moved Heaven and Earth the Court and Country and all the Friends they had of the Clergie or Laity to come to their assistance in this time of their tryal By means whereof they raised so strong an opposition against his proceedings that no man of less courage then Whitgift and none but Whitgift so well backed and countenanced by a gratious Mistress could have withstood the violence and fury of it But by the Queens constancie on the one side who gave Semper Eadem for her Motto to shew that she was always one and by his most invincible patience on the other side whose Motto being Vincit qui patitur declared what hopes he had that by a discreet patience he might get the Victory he had the happiness to see the Church reduced to her former lustre by the removing of all obstacles which lay before him The first of which was laid by some of his own Diocess who being required by him to subscribe for an Example to others not onely refused so to do but being thereupon suspended for their contumacy in due Form of Law they petitioned to the Lords of the Council for relief against him the like Petition was presented to them by some Ministers of the Diocess of Norwich against Dr. Edmond Freak
shall hereafter treat of them as they come before us with reference to the Practises and Proceedings of their English Brethren And first beginning with the Scots it is to be remembred that we left them at a very low ebb the Earl of Goury put to death many of the Nobility exiled into Forreign Countreys and the chief Zealots of the Faction amongst the Ministers putting themselves into a voluntary Banishment because they could not have their wills on the King and Council England as nearest hand was the common Sanctuary to which some Lords and almost all the Refractory Ministers had retired themselves Much countenanced by Mr. Secretary Walsingham who had set them on work and therefore was obliged to gratifie them in some fit proportion To such of the Nobility as had fled into England he assigned the Isle of Lindisfarm commonly called the Holy Island not far from Berwick with order to the Lord Hundsdon who was then Governour of that Town to give them the possession of it But Hundsdon though he had less Zeal had so much knowledg of his Duty as to disobey him considering the great consequence of the place and that there was no impossibility in it but that the Scots might make use of it to the common prejudice if they should prove Enemies to this Crown as perhaps they might A matter which the Secretary would not have passed over in so light a manner but that an Ambassador was sent at the same time from the King of Scots by whom it was desired that the Fugitives of that Nation whatsoever they were might either be remitted home or else commanded not to live so near the Borders where they had opportunity more than stood with the good of that Kingdom to pervert the Subjects Which Reasonable Desire being yeelded unto the Lords and Great men of that Nation were ordered to retire to Norwich and many of the Ministers permitted to prepare for London Oxon Cambridg and some other places where some of them procured more mischief to the Church of England than all of them could have done to their own Countrey had they staid at Berwick 2. At London they are suffered by some zealous Brethren to possess their Pulpits in which they rail without comptroll against their King the Council of that Kingdom and their natural Queen as if by the practises of the one and the connivence of the other the Reformed Religion was in danger to be rooted out Some Overtures had been made at that time by the Queen of Scots by which it was desired that she might be restored unto the Liberty of her person associating with the young King in the Government of the Realm of Scotland and be suffered to have the Mass said in her private Closet for her self and her Servants The news whereof being brought to London filled all the Pulpits which the Scots were suffered to invade with terrible Complaints and Exclamations none of them sparing to affirm That her Liberty was inconsistent with Queen Elizabeth's Safety That both Kingdoms were undone if she were admitted to the joynt-Government of the Realm of Scotland and That the Reformed Religion must needs breathe its last if the Popish were permitted within the Walls of the Court. Which points they pressed with so much vehemence and heat that many were thereby inflamed to join themselves in the Association against that Queen which soon after followed Against their King they railed so bitterly and with such reproach one Davinson more than any other that upon complaint made by the Scottish Ambassador the Bishop of London was commanded to silence all the Scots about the City and the like Order given to the rest of the Bishops by whom they were inhibited from preaching in all other places But the less noise they made in the Church the more closely and dangerously they practised on particular persons in whom they endeavoured to beget an ill opinion of the present Government and to engage them for advancing that of the Presbyterian in the place thereof But this they had followed more successfully at the Act in Oxon where they are liberally entertained by Genebrand and the rest of the Brethren amongst which Wilcox Hen and Ackton were of greatest note And at this time a question was propounded to them concerning the proceeding of the Minister in his duty without the assistance or tarrying for the Magistrate How they resolved this question may be easily guessed partly by that which they had done themselves when they were in Scotland and partly by the Actings of their English Brethren in pursuance of it 3. For presently after Gelibrand deals with divers Students in their several Colledges to put their hands unto a paper which seemed to contain somewhat in it of such dangerous nature that some did absolutely refuse and others required further time of deliberation of which Gelibrand thus writes to Field on the 12 th of Ian. then next following I have already saith he entred into the matters whereof you write and dealt with three or four several Colledges concerning those amongst whom they live I find that men are very dangerous in this point generally favouring Reformation but when it comes to the particular point some have not yet considered of the things for which others in the Church are so much troubled others are afraid to testifie any thing with their hands lest it breed danger before the time and many favour the Cause of the Reformation but they are not Ministers but young Students of whom there is good hope if they be not cut off by violent dealing before the time As I hear by you so I mean to go forward where there is any hope and to learn the number and certifie you thereof c. But that these secret practises might not be suspected they openly attend the Parliament of this year as at other times in hope of gaining some advantage against the Bishops and the received Orders of the Church For in the Parliament of this year which began on the Twenty third of November they petitioned amongst other things That a Restraint might be laid upon the Bishops for granting of Faculties conferring of Orders as also in the executing of Ecclesiastical Censure the Oath Ex Officio permitting Non-residence and the like But the Queen would not hearken to it partly because of the dislike she had of all Innovations which commonly tend unto the worse but chiefly in regard that all such Applications as they made to the Parliament were by her looked on as derogatory to her own Supremacy So that instead of gaining any of those points at the hands of the Parliament they gained nothing but displeasure from the Queen who is affirmed by Stow to have made a Speech at the end of their Session and therein to have told the Bishops That if they did not look more carefully to the discharge of their Duties she must take order to deprive them Sharp words and such as might necessitate the Bishops to
to wonder and much more marvelled that the Bishops had not yet suppressed the Puritans some way or other Pandocheus is made to tell him That one of their Preachers had affirmed in the Pulpit That there were One hundred thousand of them in England and that their Number in all places did encrease continually 10. By this last brag about their Numbers and somewhat which escaped from the mouth of Paul touching his hopes of seeing the Consistorian Discipline erected shortly it may be gathered That they had a purpose to proceed in their Innovations out of a hope to terrifie the State to a compliance by the strength of their Party But if that failed they would then do as Penry had advised and threatned that is to say they would present themselves with a Petition to the Houses of Parliament to the delivering whereof One hundred thousand Hands should be drawn together In the mean time it was thought fit to dissemble their purposes and to make tryal of such other means as appeared less dangerous To which end they present with one Hand a Petition to the Convocation in which it was desired That they might be freed from all Subscriptions and with the other publish a seditious Pamphlet entituled A Complaint of the Commons for a Learned Ministry But for the putting of their Counsels in execution they were for the present at a stand The Book of Discipline upon a just examination was not found so perfect but that it needed a review and the review thereof is referred to Traverse By whom being finished after a tedious expectation it was commended to the Brethren and by them approved But the worst was it was not so well liked of in the Houses of Parliament as to pass for current which so incensed those meek-spirited men that they fell presently to threatning and reviling all who opposed them in it They had prepared their way to the Parliament then sitting Anno 1586 by telling them That if the Reformation they desired were not granted they should betray God his Truth and the whole Kingdom that they should declare themselves to be an Assembly wherein the Lords Cause could not be heard wherein the felicity of miserable men could not be respected wherein Truth Religion and Piety could bear no sway an Assembly that willingly called for the Judgments of God upon the whole Realm and finally that not a man of their seed should prosper be a Parliament-man or bear rule in England any more 11. This necessary preparation being thus premised they tender to the Parliament A Book of the form of Common-Prayer by them desired containing also in effect the whole pretended Discipline so revised by Traverse and their Petition in behalf thereof was in these words following viz. May it therefore please your Majesty c. that the Book hereunto annexed c. Entituled A Book of the Form of Common-Prayers and Administration of Sacraments c. and every thing therein contained c. may be from henceforth put in use and practised through all your Majesty's Dominions c. But this so little edified with the Queen or that Grave Assembly that in the drawing up of a General Pardon to be passed in Parliament there was an Exception of all those that committed any offence against the Act for the Uniformity of Common-Prayers or that were Publishers of Seditious Books or Disturbers of Divine Service And to say the truth the Queen had little reason to approve of that Form of Discipline in which there was so little consideration of the Supreme Magistrate in having either vote or place in any of their Synodical Meetings unless he be chosen for an Elder or indicting their Assemblies either Provincial or National or what else soever or insomuch as nominating the particular time or place when and where to hold them or finally in requiring his assent to any of their Constitutions All which they challenge to themselves with far greater arrogancy than ever was exercised by the Pope or any Bishop or inferior Minister under his Command during the times of greatest Darkness But the Brethren not considering what just Reason the Queen had to reject their Bill and yet fearing to fall foul upon her in regard of the danger they let flye at the Parliament in this manner that is to say That they should be in danger of the terrible Mass of God's Wrath both in this life and that to come and that for their not abrogating the Episcopal Government they might well hope for the Favour and Entertainment of Moses that is the Curse of the Law the Favour and loving-Countenance of Jesus Christ they should never see 12. It may seem strange that Queen ELIZABETH should carry such a hard hand on her English Puritans as well by severe Laws and terrible Executions as by excluding them from the benefit of a General Pardon and yet protect and countenance the Presbyterians in all places else But that great Monster in Nature called Reason of State is brought to plead in her defence by which she had been drawn to aid the French Hugonots against their King to supply the Rebel Scots with Men Money Arms and Ammunition upon all occasions and hitherto support those of the Belgick Provinces against the Spaniard Now she receives these last into her protection being reduced at that time unto great Extremities partly by reason of the death of the Prince of Orange and partly in regard of the great Successes of the Prince of Parma In which extremity they offered her the Soveraignty of Holland Zealand and West-Friesland to which they frame for her an unhandsom Title grounded on her descent from Philippa Wife of Edward the third Sister of William the third Earl of Heynalt Holland c. But she not harkning to that offer about the Soveraignty as a thing too invidious and of dangerous consequence cheerfully yeelded to receive them into her protection to raise an Army presently toward their defence consisting of Five thousand Foot and One thousand Horse with Money Ammunition Arms and all other necessaries and finally to put the same Arms so appointed under the Command of some Person of Honour who was to take the charge and trust of so great a Business The Confederates on the other side being very prodigal of that which was none of their own delivered into her hands the Keys of the Countrey that is to say the Towns of Brill and Flushing with the Fort of Ramekins And more then so as soon as the Earl of Leicester came amongst them in the Head of this Army which most ambitiously he affected for some other Ends they put into his hands the absolute Government of these Provinces gave him the Title of His Excellency and generally submitted to him with more outward cheerfulness than ever they had done to the King of Spain It is not to be thought but that the Presbyterian Discipline went on succesfully in those Provinces under this new Governor who having countenanced them in England
About this time one of the Ministers named Rosse uttered divers Treasonable and Irreverent speeches against His Majesty in a Sermon of his preached at Perth for which the King craved Justice of the next Assembly and he required this also of them That to prevent the like for the times ensuing the Ministers should be inhibited by some Publick Order from uttering any irreverent speeches in the Pulpit against His Majesty's Person Council or Estate under the pain of Deprivation This had been often moved before and was now hearkned to with as little care as in former times All which the King got by it was no more but this that Rosse was only admonished to speak so reverently of His Majesty for the time to come as might give no just cause of complaint against him As ill success he had in the next Assembly to which he recommended some Conditions about the passing of the Sentence of Excommunication two of which were to this effect 1. That none should be excommunicated for Civil causes for any Crimes of leight importance or for particular wrongs offered to the Ministers lest the Censure should fall into contempt 2. That no summary Excommunication should be thenceforth used but that lawful citations of the Parties should go before in all manner of Causes whatsoever To both which he received no other Answer but That the Points were of too great weight to be determined on the sudden and should be therefore agitated in the next Assembly In the mean time it was provided That no Summary Excommunication should be used but in such occasions in which the Safety of the Church seemed to be in danger Which Exception much displeased the King knowing that they would serve their turn by it whensoever they pleased Nor sped he better with them when he treated severally than when they were in the Assembly The Queen of England was grown old and he desired to be in good terms with all his Subjects for bearing down all opposition which might be made against his Title after her decease To which end he deals with Robert Bruce a Preacher of Edenborough about the calling home the Popish Lords men of great Power and Credit in their several Countreys who had been banished the last year for holding some intelligence with the Catholick King Bruce excepts only against Huntley whom the King seemed to favour above all the rest and positively declared That the King must lose him if he called home Huntley for that it was impossible to keep them both And yet this Bruce was reckoned for a Moderate man one of the quietest and best-natur'd of all the Pack What was the issue of this business we shall see hereafter 42. In the mean time let us pass over into France and look upon the Actions of the Hugonots there of whose deserting their new King we have spoke of before And though they afterwards afforded him some Supplies both of Men and Money when they perceived him backed by the Queen of England and thereby able to maintain a defensive Warr without their assistance yet they did it in so poor a manner as made him utterly despair of getting his desired Peace by an absolute Victory In which perplexity he beholds his own sad condition his Kingdom wasted by a long and tedious Warr invaded and in part possessed by the Forces of Spain new Leagues encreasing every day both in strength and number and all upon the point of a new Election or otherwise to divide the Provinces amongst themselves To prevent which he reconciles himself to the Church of Rome goes personally to the Mass and in all other publick Offices which concerned Religion conformed himself unto the directions of the Pope And for so doing he gives this account to Wilks the Queen's Ambassador sent purposely to expostulate with him upon this occasion that is to say That Eight hundred of the Nobility and no fewer than Nine Regiments of the Protestant Party who had put themselves into the Service of his Predecessor returned unto their several homes and could not be induced to stay with him upon any perswasions That such of the Protestants as he had taken at the same time to his Privil-Council were so intent on their own business that they seldom vouchsafed their presence at the Council-Table so that being already forsaken by those on whom he relyed and fearing to be forsaken by the Papists also he was forced to run upon that course which unavoidable necessity had compelled him to and finally that being thus necessitated to a change of Religion he rather chose to make it look like his own free Act that he might thereby free the Doctrine of the Protestants from those Aspersions which he conceived must otherwise needs have fallen upon it if that Conversion had been wrought upon him by Dispute and Argument for hearkening whereunto he had bound himself when he first took the Crown upon him If by this means the Hugonots in France shall fall to as low an ebb as the Fortunes of their Brethren did in England at the same time they can lay the blame on nothing but their own Ingratitude their Disobedience to their King and the Genevian Principles that were rooted in them which made them Enemies to the Power and Guidance of all Soveraign Princes But the King being still in heart of his own Religion or at least exceeding favourable to all those that professed the same he willingly passed over all unkindness which had grown between them and by his countenance or connivence gave them such advantages as made them able to dispute the point with his Son and Successor whether they would continue Subjects to the Crown or not 43. In the Low-Countreys all things prospered with the Presbyterians who then thrive best when they involve whole Nations in Blood and Sacriledg By whose example the Calvinians take up Arms in the City of Embden renounce all obedience to their Prince and put themselves into the Form of a Commonwealth This Embden is the principal City of the Earl of East-Friesland situate on the mouth of the River Emns called Amasus by Latin Writers and from thence denominated Beautified with a Haven so deep and large that the greatest Ships with full sail are admitted into it The People rich the Buildings general fair both private and publick especially the Town-Hall and the stately Castle Which last being situate on a rising-ground near the mouth of the Haven and strongly fortified toward the Town had for long time been the Principal Seat of the Earls of that Province The second Earl hereof called Ezard when he had governed this Countrey for the space of sixty years or thereabouts did first begin to introduce the Doctrines of Luther into his Estates Anno 1525. But being old he left the Work to be accomplished by Enno his eldest Son who first succeeded in that Earldom and using the assistance of Hardimbergius a Moderate and Learned man established the Augustine Confession in the
main business of these times were the Commotions raised in Transylvania Hungary Austria and Bohemia by those of the Calvinian Party which drew all the Provinces of the Empire into such confusions as have disturbed the Peace thereof to this very day For laying down the true Original thereof we may please to know that Ferdinand the younger Brother of Charles the fifth succeeding on the death of Maximilian the Emperor in the Dukedom of Austria and afterwards attaining by Marriage to the Crown of Hungary and Bohemia which he was not born to endeavoured to oblige his Subjects in all those Dominions by a connivance at such Deviations from the Church of Rome as were maintained by those who adhered to Luther and held themselves to the Confession of Ausberg which afterwards was ratified by Imperial Edict Followed therein by Maximilian the second who succeeded him in his Estates and being a mild and gracious Prince not only showed himself unwilling to challenge any Power over Souls and Consciences but was pleased to mediate in behalf of his Protestant Subjects with the Fathers at Trent amongst whom he incurred the suspition of being a Lutheran But Rodolphus the eldest of his Sons and his next Successor was of a different temper from his Father and Grandfather a profest Enemy to all that held not a Conformity with the Church of Rome which he endeavoured to promote with such terrible Edicts as threatned nothing but destruction unto all gain-sayers He had five Brethren at that time but none of them the Father of any children which made him cast his eyes on Ferdinand of Gratts Son of Charles Duke of Gratts and Nephew of Ferdinand the Emperor before remembred Who going to Rome in the Year of Iubile Anno 1600 obliged himself by Oath to the Pope then being to extirpate all the Protestants out of his Dominions which upon the instigation of the Iesuits he did accordingly by pillaging and banishing all of the Augustan Confession thorough Styria Carinthia and Carniola though they had paid for the Freedom of their Conscience a great sum of Money 18. This so endeared him to Rodolphus that he resolved upon him for his next Successor and at the present to estate him in the Realm of Hungary as a step unto it In which Design as he was seconded by the Pope and Spaniard so questionless it had been effected if Matthias the Emperor's Brother and next Heir had not countermined them by countenancing those of the Calvinian or Reformed Religion who then began to seem considerable in the eye of that Kingdom To carry on which Spanish Plot to the End desired the Prelates of Hungary in an Assembly held at Presburgh Anno 1604 published a Decree without the consent of the Nobility and Estates of the Kingdom for the burning or perpetual banishment of all such as were of the Reformed Religion Which having been entertained in the Realm of Poland found no great difficulty in crossing the Carpathian Mountains and gaining the like favourable admission in this Kingdom also Against which Edict of the Bishops a Protest is presently made by the Estates of the Realm under the Seal of the Palatine the chief Officer of it By whom it was publickly affirmed That they would with just Arms defend themselves if they should be questioned for the Cause of Religion Which notwithstanding Beliojosa one of the Emperor 's chief Commanders in the Realm of Hungary first got into his hands the strong Town of Cassovia standing upon the borders of Transylvania And that being done he did not only interdict all those of the Reformed Religion from making any uses of them as they had done formerly but he inhibits them from having Sermons in their private Houses from reading in the holy Bible and from the burying of their dead in hallowed places 19. Nor staid he there but pick'd a needless quarrel with Istivon â—otscay a great man of that Countrey two of whose Castles he surprised and razed and thereupon provoked him to become â—his Enemy For being so provoked he takes upon himself the Patronage of his Native Countrey then miserably oppressed by the German Soldiers calls himself Prince of Transylvania confederates himself with the Turkish Bassa's and thrived so well in his Designs that he compelled the Emperor to recall his Forces out of Transylvania and procured Liberty of Conscience for all his Followers For being assisted by the Turks he encountred the said Beliojosa cuts off 6000 of his men and sends a great part of the Enemy's Ensigns to the Visier Bassa as a sign of his Victory Which Blow he followed by a Proclamation to this effect viz. That all such as desired Liberty of Conscience and to live free from the Corruptions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome should repair to him as to their Head and that he would allow to each of them Five Dollars weekly Which Proclamation did not only draw unto him many thousands of the common people together with a great part of the Nobility and Gentry but tempted many of the Emperor's Soldiers to forsake their General and joyn themselves unto his Party Strengthned wherewith he makes himself Master of Cassovia in which he changed not only the Religion but the Civil Government insomuch that many of those which were addicted to the Church of Rome were presently slain upon the place and most of the rest turned out of the City together with the greatest part of the Church-men the Bishops and the Emperor's Treasurer Upon which fortunate Success a great Party in the Vpper Hungary declare in favour of his Cause violently break open the Religious Houses compel the Fryers to put themselves into fortified places and finally to abandon Presburgh the chief Town of that Kingdom and to flye for shelter to Vienna as their surest Refuge 20. After this Basta the Lord-General of the Emperor's Forces obtained the better of them in some Fortunate Skirmishes which rather served to prolong than to end the Warr. For Botscay was grown to so great strength and made such spoil in all places wherever he came that Pallas Lippa his Lieutenant was found to be possessed at the time of his death of no fewer than Seven hundred Chains of Gold and One hundred thousand Ducats in ready money which he had raked together within less than a year This Treasure coming into Botscay's hands by the death of Lippa he mightily encreased his Army with which he took in many strong Towns and brought in some of the Nobility of the Vpper Hungary sending his Forces into Styria Austria and Moravia which he spoiled and wasted Insomuch that the Emperor being forced to send Commissioners to him to accord the Differences could obtain no better Conditions from him but That Liberty of Conscience and the free exercise of the Reformed Religion should be permitted to all those who demanded the same and that himself should be estated in the Principality of Transylvania for the term of his life And though the Emperor
which by an unexpected Tempest was blown down to the ground and looked on as a sad presage of his following Fortunes Passing thorough Staffordshire he gained some small encrease to his little Party but never could attain unto the reputation of an Army till he came to Shrewsbury to which great multitudes flocked unto him out of Wales and Cheshire and some of the adjoining Countreys Encouraged with which supplies and furnished as well by the Queen from Holland as by the Countrey-Magazins with Cannon Arms and Ammunition he resolves for London gives the first brush unto his Enemies at Poick near Worcester and routs them totally at Edg-hill in the County of Warwick This battel was fought on Sunday the 23 d of October Anno 1642 being a just Twelve-month from the breaking out of the Irish Rebellion this being more dangerous than that because the King's Person was here aimed at more than any other For so it was that by corrupting one Blake once an English Factor but afterwards employed as an Agent from the King of Morocco they were informed from time to time of the King's proceedings and more particularly in what part of the Army he resolved to be which made them aim with the greater diligence and fury at so fair a Mark But the King being Master of the Field possest of the dead Bodies and withall of the Spoil of some of the Carriages discovered by some Letters this most dangerous practise For which that wretched Fellow was condemned by a Court of Warr and afterwards hanged upon the Bough of an Oak not far from Abington 20. In the mean time the King goes forward takes Banbury both Town and Castle in the sight of the Enemy and enters triumphantly into Oxon which they had deserted to his hands with no fewer than Six-score Colours of the vanquished Party But either he stayed there too long or made so many halts in his way that Essex with his flying-Army had recovered London before the King was come to Colebrook There he received a Message for an Accommodation made ineffectual by the Fight at Brentford on the next day after Out of which Town he beat two of their choicest Regiments sunk many pieces of Cannon and much Ammunition put many of them to Sword in the heat of the Fight and took about Five hundred Prisoners for a taste of his Mercy For knowing well how miserably they had been mis-guided he spared their Lives and gave them liberty on no other Conditions but only the taking of their Oaths not to serve against him But the Houses of Parliament being loath to lose so many good men appointed Mr. Stephen Marshall a principal Zealot at that time in the Cause of Presbytery to call them together and to absolve them from that Oath Which he performed with so much Confidence and Authority that the Pope himself could scarce have done it with the like The next day being Sunday and the 13 th of November he prepares for London but is advertised of a stop at Turnham-Green two miles from Brentford where both the remainders of the Army under the Earl of Essex and the Auxiliaries of London under the Conduct of the Earl of Warwick were in a readiness to receive him On this Intelligence it was resolved on mature deliberation in the Council of Warr That he should not hazzard that Victorious Army by a fresh encounter in which if he should lose the day it would be utterly impossible for him to repair that Ruin Accordingly he leads his Army over Kingston-Bridg leaves a third part of it in the Town of Reading and with the rest takes up his Winter-Quarters in the City of Oxon. 21. But long he had not been at Oxon when he received some Propositions from the Houses of Parliament which by the temper and complexion of them might rather seem to have proceeded from a conquering than a losing-side One to be sure must be in favour of Presbytery or else Stephen Marshal's zeal had been ill regarded And in relation to Presbytery it was thus desired that is to say That his Majesty would give consent to a Bill for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their Vnder-officers out of the Church of England And that being done that he would consent to another Bill for consultation to be had with Godly Religious and Learned Divines and then to settle the Church-Government in such a way as upon consultation with the said Divines should be concluded and agreed on by both Houses of Parliament A Treaty howsoever did ensue upon these Propositions but it came to nothing the Commissioners for the Houses being so straitned in point of time and tyed up so precisely to the Instructions of their Masters that they could yeeld to nothing which conduced to the Publick peace Nor was the North or South more quiet than the rest of the Kingdom For in the North the Faction of the Houses was grown strong and prevalent commanded by Ferdinand Lord Fairfax who had possest himself of some strong Towns and Castles for maintenance whereof he had supplies from Hull upon all occasions The care of York had been committed by the King to the Earl of Cumberland and Newcastle was then newly Garrisoned by the Ecrl thereof whose Forces being joined to those of the Earl of Cumberland gave Fairfax so much work and came off so gallantly that in the end both Parties came to an accord and were resolved to stand as Neutrals in the Quarrel Which coming to the knowledg of the Houses of Parliament they found some Presbyterian Trick to dissolve that Contract though ratified by all the Obligations both of Honour and Conscience 22. But in the South the King's Affairs went generally from bad to worse Portsmouth in Hampshire declared for him when he was at York but being besieged and not supplied either with Men Arms or Victuals as had been promised and agreed on it was surrendred by Col. Goring the then Governour of it upon Capitulation Norton a Neighbouring Gentleman of a fair Estate was one of the first that shewed himself in Arms against it for the Houses of Parliament and one that held it out to the very last For which good Service he was afterward made a Collonel of Horse Governour of Southampton and one of the Committee for Portsmouth after the Government of that Town had been taken from Sir William Lewis on whom it was conferred at the first surrendry A Party of the King 's commanded by the Lord Viscount Grandison was followed so closely at the heels by Brown and Hurrey too mercenary Scots in the pay of the Houses that he was forced to put himself into Winchester-Castle where having neither Victuals for a day nor
Practises the Sacriledges Spoils and Rapins the Tumults Murthers and Seditions the horrid Treasons and Rebellions which have been raised by the Presbyterians in most parts of Christendom for the time of One hundred years and upwards Which having seen we shall conclude this History in the words of that Censure which by the Doctors of the Sorbonne was once passed on the Jesuits that is to say Videtur haec Societas in negotio fidei periculosa pacis Ecclesiae perturbativa Religionis rectae eversiva magis ad destructionem quà m ad aedificationem FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and are to be sold by Thomas Basset at the George in Fleetstreet near Cliffords-Inn Folio's 1. COsmography in four Books containing the Chorography and History of the whole World and all the principal Kingdoms and Provinces Seas and Isles thereof By P. Heylin Printed 1669 in Columns much better than any of the former Editions Price 20 s. 2. Ecclesia Restaurata or the History of the Reformation of the Church of England containing the beginning progress and successes of it the Counsels by which it was conducted the Rules of Piety and Prudence upon which it was founded the several steps by which it was promoted or retarded in the change of times from the first preparations to it by King Henry the 8th until the legal setling and establishment of it under Queen Elizabeth together with the intermixture of such Civil Actions and Affairs of State as either were co-incident with it or related to it By P. Heylin The second Edition 3. The Voyages and Travels of the Duke of Holstein's Embassadours into Muscovy Tartary and Persia begun in the year 1633 and finisht in 1639 containing a compleat History of those Countreys Whereunto are added the Travels of Mandelso from Persia into the East-Indies begun in 1638 and finisht in 1640. The whole illustrated with divers accurate Maps and Figures Written originally by Adam Olearius Secretary to the Embassy The second Edition corrected Englished by I Davies of Kidwelly Price bound 18 s. 4. An Historical Display of the Romish State Court Interest Policies c. and the mighty influence of the Iesuits in that Church and many other Christian States not hitherto extant Being a full Account of all the Transactions both in France and at Rome concerning the five famous Propositions controverted between the Iansenists and the Molinists from the beginning of that Affair till the Pope's Decision Written originally by Mons. de St. Amour Doctor of Sorbonne Englished by G. Havirs Price bound 14. s. 5. The Compleat Body of the Art Military in three Books being perfect Directions for the right ordering and framing of an Army both of Horse and Foot Together with all the manner of Fortifications and the Art of Gunnery By Rich. Elton Lieutenant-Colonel Price bound 8 s. 1517. a Habebat jus gladii alias civilis jurisdictionis paâ—tes sed magistratui ereptas 1528. b Quae à Vireto Farello facta sunt suffragio meo comprobavi c Libertatis suae patrem c d Farellus cui se totos debent c. e Si quidem Excommunicationi in aliena Ecclesia nullus locus f Quibus sub Principibus Christianis non videtur esse necessaria Excommunicatio f Quod Doctrinam Disciplinam capitibus aliquot comprehensam admitterent Bez. in vit Calv. g Disciplinam qualem vetus habuit Ecclesia apud nos non esse dicis neque nos diffitemur 1537. 1538. h Nec quisquam aut expulsus est invidiosius nec receptus latius Paterc Hist. lib. 2. 1541. a Impudenteâ— Deo â—â—bis meuâ—â—â—â— sunt b Censui ut jurejurando ad veri confessionem adigerentur 1537. a Congressus publici Ecclesiae diebus Dominicis c. Bez. Epist. 241 a Testium seu concuratorum ad paedo-bapâ—esmum advoâ—at â—b 1547 a Si quis mei usus foret c. b Vt ritus illos qui superstitiâ—nis aliquid redolent tâ—llenter è medio c Illa omnia abscindi semel d In qua nihil non ad Dei verbum exegi â—as est e Vt vel moderemur vel reseâ—â—damus c. 1551. a Quae non obscuret modo sed propemodum obruat puâ—um geruinum Dei culium Epist. 1554. a In Liturgia Anglicana qualem mihi describitis multas video tolerabiles ineptias b Si hactenus in Anglia viguisset sincera Religio aliquid in melius correctum multaque detracta esse oportet a Quae sibi velint nescio quos 〈◊〉 Paposhâ—a rantopeâ—e delectant a Certâ—luâ— narta 〈◊〉 ejus facinae nugas ex supersâ—â—â— ne manasâ—e nemo sani judicii negabit unde Constituâ— qui eas in libera optione retineant â—imis â—uâ—ide fâ—ceâ— bauâ—â—â—â— a Vt vigeat purus integer Dei cultus Ecclesia à sâ—â—dibus repurgetur deinde ut filiis Dei apud vos liberum sit nomen ejus puâ—è invocaâ—e Institut lib 4. c 10.8 31. a Si quisquiâ— repugnanâ—bus legibus patriae privilegus sâ—se Dominum auc Magistratum constituit c. Epist 24. a 〈…〉 Amos cap 7 b Infeâ—sissinâ—us Evaâ—ge 〈…〉 Ad Altar Damasc Epist. c Natuâ—â—â—â—situm est 〈◊〉 omnibus 〈◊〉 Châ—isti â—diâ—m 〈◊〉 a 〈…〉 câ—nsiderati c. hoc tâ—e sâ—mper gâ—aviâ—er vexavit In Amos cap. 7. v. 13. b Officium magistratus est Ecclesiam Dei gladio tueri ac conservare c. Bez. Epist. 24. a Moralem esse uniuâ— dici observationem in hebdâ—madâ Instituâ— lib. 2. c. 8. Sect. 34. b Numerum Septenarium non ejus serviâ—uâ—e Ecclesias astringam Li. Ibid. c Quem veteres in eorum subbaâ—um subrogarunt De transferenda solenniâ—ate dominica in feriam quintum lib. 1. cap. ult a Nâ—n posse consisteâ—e Ecclesiam niâ—i câ—rtum Regimen constitueretur quale ex verbo Deâ— nobis presâ—râ—ptum est in veteri Ecclesia fuit observatuâ— Epist. ad Farâ—ll b Excommunicationem apud noâ— adhuc nullam esse c Sed non simul conjunctos esse Disciplinae nervos docendum est c. d Nunquam utile putaâ—i jus Excommunicandi permitti singulis pastoribus nam res odrosa est c. Alium usum Apostoli tradiderunt a De hâ—â—c â—upeâ—em abâ—te commonâ—â—fieri Eccâ—esiam Argentineâ—s c cujus Ecclesiae consideâ—aâ—uroâ— spero Sâ—ntoâ—â—s c. b De mâ— Concionaâ—ore Calvintana c. Ibid. c Legeâ— Coâ—â—â—stoâ—â—â— vâ—stâ—â— opâ—avt 〈◊〉 ad me traâ—smiâ—â—i â— d Ex quo â—ormam aliquam conciperes quam prescribere non debuâ— a Quanti nobis esse debeat sincer a Religio per quam Christo inter nos Tribunal eâ—igitur b In statu Regni nil movendum quod omnis novitas graves motus exitâ—ales minaâ—eretur a Ad quem nâ—stri 〈…〉 etiam sut quidem quos serum adduxii c. b Cum audio Disciplinam Evangelii profâ—ssione conjungi c Vt toti nobilâ—ati libeâ—a reformardiâ—e
in which they come up close to Calvin and the Rules of Geneva First therefore taking them for Zuinglians in the point of the Sacrament and Anti-Lutherans in defacing Images abolishing all distinction of Fasts and Festivals and utterly denying all set-Forms of publick Worship they have declared themselves as high in maintainance of Calvins Doctrines touching Predestination Grace Free-will c. as any sub-lapsarian or supra-lapsarian which had most cordially Espoused that Quarrel For proof whereof the Writings of Vrsine and Parcus Alsted Piscator and the rest Professors in the Schools of Heidelberg Herborne and Sedan being all within the limits of the Higher Germanâ— might be here produced did I think it necessary But these not being the proper Cognizances of the Presbyterians and better to be taken by their actings in the Synod of Dort then in scattered Tractates I shall take notice onely of those points of Doctrine which are meer Genevian in reference to their opposition to Monarchical Government a Doctrine not unwelcome to the Zuinglian Princes in either Germany because it gives them a fit ground for their justification not onely for proceeding to reform their Churches without leave of the Emperour whom they must needs acknowledge for their Supreme Lord but also for departing from the Confession of Ausberge which onely ought to be received within the bounds of the Empire 5. First then beginning with Vrsine publick Professor for Divinity in the Chair of Heidelberg he thus instructs us in his Commentary on the Palatine Catechism Albeit saith he that wicked men sometimes bear Rule and therefore are unworthy of honours yet the Office is to be distinguished from their persons and that the man whose vices are to be detested ought to be honoured for his Office as Gods Spiritual Ordinance which is a truth so consonant to the Holy Scriptures that nothing could be said more piously in so short a position But then he gives us such a Gloss as corrupts the Text telling us in the words next following That since Superiours are to be honoured in respect of their Office it is therefore manifest that so far onely we must yeild obedience unto their commands as they exceed not in the same the bounds of their Offices Which plainly intimates that if Princes be at any time transported beyond the bounds of their Offices of which the people and their popular Magistrates are the onely Judges the Subjects are not bound to yeild obedience unto their commands under pretence that they are past beyond their bounds and have no influence on the People but onely when they shine within the compass of their proper Spheres 6. More plainly speaks Parcus who succeeded him both in place and Doctrines out of whose Commentary on the 13 Chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans the following propositions were extracted by some Delegates and Divines of Oxon when the unsoundness of his Judgement in this particular was questioned and condemned by that University First then it was declared for a truth undoubted That Bishops and other Ministers or Pastors in the Church of Christ both might and ought with the consent of their several Churches to Excommunicate or give over to the power of Satan their Superiour Magistrates for their impiety towards God and their injustice towards their Subjects if they continued in those errours after admonition till they gave some manifest signs of their repentance 2. That subjects being in the condition of meer private men ought not without some lawful calling either to take arms to assault a Tyrant before their own persons be indangered or to deâ—end themselves though they be indangered if by the ordinary Magistrates they may be defended from such force and violence 2. That Subjects being in the condition of meer private men may lawfully take Arms to defend themselves against a Tyrant who violently shall break in upon them as a Thief or Ravisher and expedite themselves from the present danger as against a common Thief and Robber when from the ordinary Magistrates there appeareth no defence or succour 4. That such Subjects as are not meerly private men but are placed in some inferiour Magistracy may lawfully by force of Arms defend themselves the Common-wealth the Church and the true Religion against the pleasure and command of the Supreme Magistrate These following conditions being observed that is to say if either the Supreme Magistrate become a Tyrant practiseth to commit Idolatry or blaspheme Gods Name or that any great and notable injustice be offered to them as that they cannot otherwise preserve their consciences and lives in safety conditioned finally that under colour of Religion and a Zeal to Iustice they do not rather seek their private ends then the publick good And this last Proposition being so agreeable to Calvins Doctrines he flourisheth over and inforceth with those words of Trajan which before we cited out of Buchan when he required the principal Captain of his Guard to use the Sword in his defence if he governed well but to turn the point thereof against him if he did the contrary 7. Building their practice on these Doctrines we finde the Palatine Princes very forward in aiding the French Hugonots against their King upon all occasions In the first risings of that people Monsieur d' Andelot was furnished with five thousand Horse and four thousand Foot most of them being of the Subjects of the Prince Elector Anno 1562 when he had out newly entertained the thoughts of Zuinglianism and had not fully settled the Calvinian Doctrines But in the year 1566 when the Hugonots were upon the point of a second War he joyns with others of the German Princes in a common Ambathe by which the French King was to be desired that the Preachers of the Reformed Religion might Preach both in Paris and all other places of the Kingdom without control and that the people freely might repair to hear them in what numbers they pleased To which unseasonable demand the King though naturally very Cholerick made no other answer then that he would preserve a friendship and affection for those Princes so long as they did not meddle in the Affairs of his Kingdom as he did not meddle at all in their Estates After which having somewhat recollected his Spirits he subjoyned these words with manifest shew of his displeasure that it concerned him to sollicite their Princes to suffer the Catholicks to say Mass in all their Cities With which nipping answer the Ambassadors being sent away they were followed immediately at the heels by some of the Hugonots who being Agents for the rest prevailed with Prince Iohn Casimir the second Son of the Elector to raise an Army in defence of the common Cause To which purpose they had already furnished him with a small sum of money assuring him that when he was come unto their Borders they would pay down one hundred thousand Crowns more towards the maintainance of his Army Which promises perswading more then the greatest Rhetorick