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
That all the Lords of his Majesty's Council all the great Officers both of Court and State the two Chief Iustices and the Chief Barons of the Exchequer should be from thenceforth nominated and approved by both Houses of Parliament That all the great Affairs of the Kingdom should be managed by them even unto the naming of a Governour for his Majesty's Children and for disposing them in Marriage at the will of the Houses That no Popisâ— Lord as long as he continued such should vote in Parliament And amongst many other things of like importance That he would give consent to such a Reformation of Church-Government and Liturgy as both the Houses should advise But he knew well enough that to grant all this was plainly to divest himself of all Regal-Power which God had put into his hands And therefore he returned such an Answer to them as the necessity of his Affairs coâ—pared with those impudent Demands did suggest unto him But as for their Demand about Reformation he had answered it in part before they made it by ordering a Collection of sundry Petitions presented to himself and both Houses of Parliament in behalf of Episcopacy and for the preservation of the Liturgy to be printed and published By which Petitions it appeared that there was no such general disaffection in the Subjects unto either of them whether they were within the power of the Houses or beyond their reach as by the Faction was pretended the total number of Subscribers unto seven of them only the rest not being calculated in the said Collection amounting to Four hundred eighty two Lords and Knights One thousand seven hundred and forty Esquires and Gentlemen of note Six hundred thirty one Doctors and Divines and no fewer than Forty four thousand five hundred fifty nine Free-holders of good name and note 18. And now the Warr begins to open The Gentlemen of Yorkshire being sensible of that great affront which had been offered to his Majesty at the Gates of Hull and no less sensible of those dangers which were threatned to him by so ill a Neighbourhood offered themselves to be a Guard unto his person The Houses of Parliament upon the apprehension of some fears and jealousies had took a Guard unto themselves in December last but they conceived the King had so much innocence that he needed none and therefore his accepting of this Guard of Gentlemen is voted for a levying of Warr against the Parliament and Forces must be raised in defence thereof It hapned also that some Members of the House of Commons many of his Domestick Servants and not a few of the Nobility and great men of the Realm repaired from several places to the King at York so far from being willing to involve themselves in other mens sins that they declared the constancy of their adhaesion to his Majesty's service These men they branded first by the Name of Malignants and after looked upon them in the notion of evil Councellors for whose removing from the King they pretend to arm but now the stale device must be taken up as well as in their own defence Towards the raising of which Army the Presbyterian Preachers so bestir themselves that the wealthy Citizens send in their Plate the zealous Sisters rob'd themselves of their Bodkins and Thimbles and some poor Wives cast in their Wedding-Rings like the Widow's Mite to advance the Service Besides which they set forth Instructions dispersed into all parts of the Realm for bringing in of Horses Arms Plate Money Jewels to be repayed agâ—in on the Publick Faith appoint their Treasurers for the Warr and nominate the Earl of Essex for their chief Commander whom some Disgraces from the Court had made wholly theirs Him they commissionate to bring the King from his Evil Councellors with power to kill and slay all such as opposed them in it And that he might perform the Service with a better Conscience they laid fast hold on an Advantage which the King had given them who in his Declaration of the 16 th of Iune either by some incogitancy or the slip of his Pen had put himself into the number of the Three Estates for thereupon it was inferred That the Two Houses were co-ordinate with him in the Publick Government and being co-ordinate might act any thing without his consent especially in case of his refusal to co-operate with them or to conform to their desires Upon which ground both to encrease their Party and abuse the people who still had held the Name of King in some veneration the Warr is managed in the Name of King and Parliament as if both equally concerned in the Fortunes of it It was also Preached and Printed by the Presbyterians to the same effect as Buchanan and Knox Calvin and some others of the Sect had before delivered That all Power was originally in the people of a State or Nation in Kings no otherwise than by Delegation or by way of Trust which Trust might be recalled when the People pleased That when the underived Majesty as they loved to phrase it of the Common People was by their voluntary act transferred on the Supreme Magistrate it rested on that Magistrate no otherwise than cumulativè but privativè by no means in reference unto them that gave it That though the King was Major singulis yet he was Minor universis Superior only unto any one but far inferior to the whole Body of the People That the King had no particular property in his Lands Rents Ships Arms Towers or Castles which being of a publike nature belonged as much to the people as they did to him That it was lawful for the Subjects to resist their Princes even by force of Arms and to raise Armies also if need required for the preservation of Religion and the common Liberties And finally for what else can follow such dangerous premises That Kings being only the sworn Officers of the Commonwealth they might be called to an account and punished in case of Male-administration even to Imprisonment Deposition and to Death it self if lawfully convicted of it But that which served their turns best was a new distinction which they had coined between the Personal and Political capacity of the Supreme Magistrate alledging that the King was present with the Houses of Parliament in his Political capacity though in his Personal at York That they might fight against the King in his Personal capacity though not in his Politick and consequently might destroy CHARLES STVART without hurting the King This was good Presbyterian Doctrine but not so edifying at York as it was at Westminster For his Majesty finding a necessity to defend CHARLES STVART if he desired to save the King began to entertain such Forces as repaired unto him and put himself into a posture of defence against all his Adversaries 19. In York-shire he was countermined and prevailed but little not having above Two thousand men when he left that County At Nottingham he sets up his Standard
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
of those uncomfortable times which she found amongst them Against Sunday being the 24 there were great preparations made for celebrating Mass in the Chappel-Royal of Holyâ—ood-House At which the Brethren of the Congregation were so highly offended that some of them cryed out aloud so as all might hear them That the Idolatrous Priests should dye the death according to Gods Law others affirming with less noise but with no less confidence That they could not abide that the Land which God by his power had purged of Idolatry should in their sight be polluted with the same again And questionless some great mischief must have followed on it if the Lord Iames Steward to preserve the honour of his Nation in the eye of the French had not kept the door which he did under a preâ—ence that none of the Scottish Nation should be present at the hearing of Mass contrary to the Laws and Statutes made in that behalf but in plain truth to hinder them by the power and reputation which he had amongst them from thronging in tumultuously to disturb the business 33. For remedy whereof for the time to come an Order was issued the next day by the Lords of the Council and Authorized by the Queen in which it was declared that no manner of person should privately or openly take in hand to alter or innovate any thing in the State of Religion which the Queen found publickly and universally received at her Majesties arrival in that Realm or attempt any thing against the same upon pain of death But then it was required withal that none of the Leiges take in hand to trouble or molest any of her Majesties Domestick Servants or any other persons which had accompanied her out of France at the time then present for any cause whatsoever in word deed or countenance and that upon the pain of death as the other was But notwithstanding the equality of so just an Order the Earl of Arrane in the name of the rest of the Congregation professed openly on the same day at the Cross in Edenborough That no protection should be given to the Queens Domesticks or to any other person that came out of France either to violate the Laws of the Realm or offend Gods Majesty more then was given to any other subjects And this he did as he there affirmed because Gods Law had pronounced death to the Idolater and the Laws of the Realm had appointed punishment for the sayers and hearers of Mass from which he would have none exempted till some Law were publickly made in Parliament and such as was agreeable to the Word of God to annul the former The like distemper had possest all the rest of the Lords at their first coming to the Town to attend her Majesty to congratulate her safe arrival but they cooled all of them by degrees when they considered the unreasonableness of the Protestation in denying that Liberty of Conscience to their Soveraign Queen which every one of them so much desired to enjoy for himself Onely the Earl Arrane held it out to the last He had before given himself some hopes of marrying the Queen and sent her a rich Ring immediately on the death of the King her Husband but finding no return agreeable to his expectation he suffered himself to be as much transported to the other extreme according to the natural Genius of the Presbyterians who never yet knew any mean in their loves or hatred 34. Iohn Knox makes good the Pulpit in the chief Church at Edenborough on the Sunday following in which he bitterly inveighed against Idolatry shewing what Plagues and Punishments God had inflicted for the same upon several Nations And then he adds that one Mass was more fearful to him then if ten thousand armed Enemies were landed in any part of the Realm on purpose to suppress their whole Religion that in God there was strength to resist and confound whole multitudes iâ— unfeignedly they depended on him of which they had such good experience in their former troubles but that if they joyned hands with Idolatry they should be deprived of the comfortable presence and assistance of Almighty God A Conference hereupon ensued betwixt him and the Queen at the hearing whereof there was none present but the Lord Iames Steward besides two Gentlemen which stood at the end of the Room In the beginning whereof she charged him with raising Sedition in that Kingdom putting her own Subjects into Arms against her writing a Book against the Regiment of Women and in the end descendâ—d to some points of Religion To all which Knox returned such answers or else so favourably reports them to his own advantage for we must take the whole story as it comes from his pen that he is made to go away with as easie a victory as when the Knight of the Boot encounters with some Dwarf or Pigmy in the old Romances All that the Queen got by it from the mouth of this Adversary was that he found in her a proud minde a crafâ—y wit and an obdurate heart against God and his Truth And in this Character be thought himself confirmed by her following actions For spending the rest of the Summer in visiting sâ—me of the chief Towns of her Kingdom she carried the Mass with her into all places wheresoever she came and at her coming back gave order for setting out the Mass with more solemnity on Alhallows day then at any time or place before Of this the Minâ—sters complain to such of the Nobility as were then Resident in the City but finde not such an eagerness in them as in former times For now some of them make a doubt whether the Subjects might use force for suppressing the Idolatry of their Prince which heretofore had passed in the affirmative as a truth infallible A Conâ—erence is thereupon appointed between some of the Lords and such of the Ministers as appeared most Zâ—alous against the Mass the Lords disputing for the Queen and urging that it was not lawful to deprive her of that in which she placed so great a part of her Religion The contrary was maintained by Knox and the rest of the Ministers who seeing that they could not carry it as before by their own Authority desired that the deciding of the point might be referred to the godly Brethren of Geneva of whose concurring in opinion with them they were well assured And though the drawing up of the point and the Inditing of the Letter being committed unto Ledington the principal Secretary was not dispatched with such poâ—â— haste as their Zeal required yet they shewed plainly by insisting on that proposition both from whose mouth they had received the Doctrines of making Soveraign Princes subject to the lusts of the people and from whose hands they did expect the defence thereof 35. A general Assembly being indicted by them about that time or not long after a question is made by some of the Court-Lords whether such Assemblies might be holden
his Majesty his Council and proceedings or to meddle in the Affairs of his Highness under pain of treason And lastly an Act was paâ—s'd for calling in of Buchanans History that Master-piece of Sedition intituled De jure Regni apud Sootos and that most infamous Libel which he called The Detection by which last Acts his Majesty did not onely take care for preventing the like scandalous and seditious practices for the time to come but satisfied himself by taking some revenge upon them in the times foregoing 63. The Ministers could not want intelligence of particulars before they were passed into Acts. And now or never was the time to bestir themselves when their dear Helena was in such apparent danger to be ravished from them And first it was thought necessary to send one of their number to the King to mediate either for the total dismissing of the Bills prepared or the suspending of them at the least for a longer time not doubting if they gained the last but that the first would easily follow of it self On this Errand they imploy Mr. David Lindsay Minister of the Church of Leith a man more moderate then the rest and therefore more esteemed by the King then any other of that body And how far he might have prevailed it is hard to say But Captain Iames Stewart commonly called the Earl of Arran who then governed the Affairs of that Kingdom having notice of it caused him to be arrested under colour of maintaining intelligence with the Fugitive Ministers in England imprisoned him for one night in Edenborough and sends him the next day to the Castle of Blackness where he remained almost a year Upon the news of his commitment Lawson and Belcanqual two of the Ministers of Edenborough forsake their Churchâ—s and joyn themselves unto their Brethren in England first leaving a Manifest behind them in which they published the Reasons of their sudden departure Iohn Dury so often before mentioned had lately been confined at Montross so that no Preacher was now left in Edenborough or the Port adjoyning to intercede for themselves and the Kirk in that present exigent By means whereof the Acts were passed without interruption But when they were to be proclaimed as the custom is Mr. Robert Pont Minister of St. Cutberts and one of the Senators of the Colledge of Justice for the good Ministers might act in Civil Matters though the Bishops might not took Instruments in the hands of a publick Notary and openly protested against those Acts never agreed to by the Kirk and therefore that neither the Kirk nor any of the Kirk-men were obliged to be obedient to them Which having done he fled also into England to the rest of his Brethren and being proclaimed Rebel lost his place in the Sessions 64 The flying of so many Ministers and the noise they made in England against those Acts encreased a scandalous opinion which themselves had raised of the Kings being inclined to Popery and it began to be so generally believed that the King found himself under a necessity of rectifying his reputation in the eye of the world by a publick Manifest In which he certified as well to his good subjects as to all others whatsoever whom it might concern as well the just occasion which had moved him to pass those Acts as the great Equity and Reason which appeared in them And amongst these occasions he reckoneth the justifying of the Fact at Ruthen by the publick suffrage of the Kirk Melvins declining of the judgement of the King and Council the Fast indicted at the entertainment of the French Ambassadors their frequent general Fasts proclaimed and kept in all parts of the Realm by their Authority without his privity and consent the usurping of the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction by a certain number of Ministers and unqualified Gentlemen in the Presbyteries and Assemblies the alteration of the Laws and making new ones at their pleasure which must binde the Subject the drawing to themselves of all such Causes though properly belonging to the Courts of Justice in which was any mixture of scandal On which account they forced all those also to submit to the Churches Censures who had been accused in those Courts for Murther Theft or any like enormous crimes though the party either were absolved by the Court it self or pardoned by the King after condemnation But all this could not stop the Mouthes and much less stay the Pens of that Waspish Sect some flying out against the King in their scurrilous Libels bald Pamphlets and defamatory Rythmes others with no less violence inveighing against him in their Pulpits but most especially in England where they were out of the Kings reach and consequently might rail on without fear of punishment By them it was given out to render the King odious both at home and abroad That the King endeavoured to extinguish the light of the Gospel and to that end had caused those Acts to pass against it That he had left nothing of the whole ancient Form of Justice and Polity in the Spiritual Estate but a naked shaddow That Popery was immediately to be established if God and all good men came not in to help them That for opposing these impieties they had been forced to flee their Country and sing the Lords Song in a strange Land with many other reproachful and calumnious passages of like odious nature 65. But loosers may have leave to talk as the saying is and by this barking they declared sufficiently that they could not bite I have now brought the Presbyterians to their lowest fall but we shall see them very shortly in their resurrections In the mean time it will be seasonable to pass into England that we may see how things were carried by their Brethren there till we have brought them also to this point of time and then we shall unite them all together in the course of their story The end of the fifth Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB VI. Containing The beginning progress and proceedings of the Puritan-Faction in the Realm of England in reference to their Innovations both in Doctrines and Forms of Worship their Opposition to the Church and the Rules thereof from the beginning of the Reign of King Edward VI. 1548 to the Fifteenth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1572. 1. THE Reformation of the Church of England was put into so good a way by King Henry the Eighth that it was no hard matter to proceed upon his beginnings He had once declared himself so much in favour of the Church of Rome by writing against Martin Luther that he was honored with the Title of Defensor Fidei or the Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X. Which Title he afterwards united by Act of Parliament to the Crown of this Realm not many years before his death But a breach hapning betwixt him and Pope Clement VII concerning his desired Divorce he first prohibits all appeals and other occasions of resort to
together in the Temple-Church there to have Preaching and to joyn together in Prayer with Humiliation and Fasting for the assistance of Gods Spirit in all their consultations during this Parliament and for the preservation of the Queens Majesty and her Realms And though they were so cautious in the choice of their Preachers to refer the naming of them to the Lords of the Council which were then Members of the House in hope to gain them also to avow the action yet neither could this satisfie the Queen or affect their Lordships For some of them having made the Queen acquainted with their purpose in it she sends a Message to them by Sir Christopher Hatton who was then Vice-Chamberlain by which he lets them know That her Majesty did much admire at so great a rashness in that House as to put in execution such an Innovation without her privity and pleasure first made known unto them Which Message being so delivered he moved the House to make humble submission to her Majesty acknowledging the said offence and contempt craving the remission of the same with a full purpose to forbear the committing of the like hereafter Which motion being hearkned to as there was good reason Mr. Vice-Chamberlain is desired to present their submission to the Queen and obtain her pardon which he accordingly performed 20. This practice gave the Queen so fair a Prospect into the counsels of the Faction that she perceived it was high time to look about her and to provide for the preserving of her power and Prerogative-Royal but more for the security of her Realm and Person To which end she procured a Statute to be made in that very Parliament by which it was Enacted That if any person or persons forty days after the end of that Session should advisâ—dly devise or write or print or set forth any manner of Book Rhyme Ballad Letter or Writing containing any false seditious or slanderous matter to the Defamation of the Queens Majestie or to the encouraging stirring or moving of any Insurrection or Rebellion within this Realm or any of the Dominions to the same belonging Or if any person after the time aforesaid as well within the Queens Dominions as in any other place without the same should procure such Book Rhyme Ballad c. to be written printed published or set forth c. the said offence not being within the compass of Treason by vertue of any former Statute that then the said Offenders upon sufficient proof thereof by two lawful witnesses should suffer death and loss of goods as in case of Felony And that the Queen may be as safe from the Machinations of the Papists as she was secured by this Act from the plots of the Puritans a Law was past To make it Treason for any Priest or Iesuit to seduce any of the Queens Subjects to the Romish Religion and for the Subjects to be reconciled to the Church of Rome This Act intituled An Act for retaining the Queens Subjects in their due obedience the other For the punishing seditious words against the Queen 23 Eliz. cap. 1 2. Which Statutes were contrived of purpose to restrain the Insolency of both Factions and by which many of them were adjudged to death in times ensuing Some of them as in case of Treason and others as the Authors or the Publishers of Seditious Pamphlets But the last Statute being made with Limitation to the life of the Queen it expired with her And had it been revived as it never was by either of the two last Kings it might possibly have prevented those dreadful mischiefs which their posterity for so long a time have been involved in 21. Together with this Parliament was held a Convocation as the Custom is In the beginning whereof an Instrument was produced under the Seal of Archbishop Grindal for substituting Dr. Iohn Elmore then Bishop of London a Prelate of great parts and spirit but of a contrary humour to the said Archbishop to preside therein which in the incapacity of the other he might have challenged as of right belonging to him Nothing else memorable in this Convocation but the admitting of Dr. William Day then Dean of Windsor to be Prolocutor of the Clergie the passing of a Bill for the grant of Subsidies and a motion made unto the Prelates in the name of the Clergie for putting the late Book of Articles in execution Nothing else done within those walls though much was agitated and resolved on by those of Grindals party in their private Meetings Some of the hotter heads amongst them had proposed in publick That the Clergie should decline all business even the grant of Subsidies till the Archbishop were restored to his place and suffrage But this could find no entertainment amongst wiser men Others advised That a Petition should be drawn in the name of both Houses by which Her Majestie might be moved to that restitution And though I find nothing to this purpose in the Publick Registers which may sufficiently evince that it never passed as an Act of the Convocation yet I find that such a Petition was agreed upon and drawn into form by Dr. Tobie Matthews then Dean of Christ-Church and by some Friends presented to Her Majesties sight Matthews was master of an elegant and fluent stile and most pathetically had bemoaned those sad misfortunes which had befallen that Prelate and the Church in â—im by suffering under the displeasure of a gratious Sovereign The mitigation whereof was the rather hoped for in regard he had offended more out of the tenderness of his Conscience then from the obstinacy of his will But no such answer being given unto this Petition as by his Friends might be expected Grindal continued under his Suspension till the time of his death Once it was moved to have a Co-adjutor imposed upon him who should not onely exercise the Iurisdiction but receive all the Rents and profits which belonged to his Bishoprick And so far they proceeded in it that Dr. Iohn Whitgift who had been preferred to the See of Worcester 1576. was nominated for the man as one sufficiently furnished with abilities to discharge the trust But he most worthily declined it and would not suffer the poor man to be stript of his clothes though for the apparelling of his own body with the greater honour till death had laid him in the bed of Eternal rest 22. But the troubles of this year were not ended thus For neither those good Laws before remembred nor the Executions done upon them could prevail so far as to preserve the Church from falling into those distractions which both the Papists and the Presbyterians had projected in it The Jesuits had hitherto been content to be lookers on aâ—d suffered the Seminary Priests to try their Fortunes in the reduction of this Kingdom to the See of Rome But finding how little had been done by them in twenty years so little that it came almost to less then nothing they are resolved to take
against the Laws might very well afford them all his best assistances when Law and Liberty seemed to speak in favour of it But being there was nothing done by them which was more than ordinary as little more than ordinary could be done amongst them after they had betrayed their Countrey to the Power of Strangers We shall leave him to pursue their Warrs and return for England where we shall find the Queen of Scots upon the point of acting the last part of her Tragedy 13. Concerning which it may not be unfit to recapitulate so much of Her story as may conduct us fairly to the knowledg of her present condition Immediately on the death of Queen MARY she had taken on her self the Title and Arms of England which though she did pretend to have been done by the command of her Husband and promised to disclaim them both in the Treaty of Edenborough yet neither were the Arms obliterated in her Plate and Hangings after the death of that Husband nor would she ever ratifie and confirm that Treaty as had been conditioned On this first grudg Queen ELIZABETH furniâ—heth the Scots both with Men and Arms to expel the French affords them such a measure both of Money and Countenance as made them able to take the Field against their Queen to take her Prisoner to depose her and finally to compel her to forsake the Kingdom In which Extremity she lands in Cumberland and casts her self upon the favour of Queen ELIZABETH by whom she was first confined to Carlisle and afterwards committed to the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury Upon the death of FRANCIS the Second her first Husband the King of Spain designed her for a Wife to his Eldest Son But the Ambition of the young Prince spurred him on so fast that he brake his Neck in the Career The Duke of Norfolk was too great for a private Subject of a Revenue not inferior to the Crown of Scotland insomuch that the Queen was counselled when she came first to the Throne either to take him for her Husband or to cut him off He is now drawn into the Snare by being tempted to a hope of Marriage with the Captive-Queen which Leicester and the rest who had moved it to him turned to his destruction Don Iohn of Austria Governour of the Netherlands for the King of Spain had the like design that by her Title he might raise himself to the Crown of England To which end he recalled the Spanish Soldiers out of Italy to whose dismission he had yeelded when he first came to that Government and thereby gave Q. ELIZABETH a sufficient colour to aid the Provinces against him But his aspirings cost him deer for he fell soon after The Guisards and the Pope had another project which was To place her first on the Throne of England and then to find an Husband of sufficient Power to maintain her in it For the effecting of which Project the Pope commissionated his Priests and Jesuits and the Guisards employed their Emissaries of the English Nation by Poyson Pistol open Warr or secret practises to destroy the one that so they might advance the other to the Regal Diadem 14. With all these Practises and Designs it was conceived that the Imprisoned Queen could not be ignorant and many strong presumptions were discovered to convict her of it Upon which grounds the Earl of Leicester drew the form of an Association by which he bound himself and as many others as should enter into it To make enquiry against all such persons as should attempt to invade the Kingdom or raise Rebellion or should attempt any evil against the Queen's Person to do her any manner of hurt from or by whomsoever that layed any claim to the Crown of England And that that Person by whom or for whom they shall attempt any such thing shall be altogether uncapable of the Crown shall be deprived of all manner of Right thereto and persecuted to the death by all the Queen 's Loyal Subjects in case they shall be found guilty of any such Invasion Rebellion or Treason and should be so publickly declared Which Band or Association was confirmed in the Parliament of this year ending the 29 th of March Ann. 1585 exceedingly extolled for an Act of Piety by those very men who seemed to abominate nothing more than the like Combination made not long before between the Pope the Spaniard and the House of Guise called the Holy League which League was made for maintenance of the Religion then established in the Realm of France and the excluding of the King of Navarre the Prince of Conde and the rest of the House of Bourbon from their succession to the Crown as long as they continued Enemies to that Religion The Brethren in this case not unlike the Lamiae who are reported to have been stone-blind when they were at home but more than Eagle-sighted when they went abroad Put that they might not trust to their own strength only Queen ELIZABETH tyes the French King to her by investing him with the Robes and Order of St. George called the Garter She draws the King of Scots to unite himself unto her in a League Offensive and Defensive against all the World and under colour of some danger to Religion by that Holy League she brings all the Protestant Princes of Germany to confederate with her 15. And now the Queen of Scots is brought to a publick Tryal accelerated by a new Conspiracy of Babington Tichborn and the rest in which nothing was designed without her privity And it is very strange to see how generally all sorts of people did contribute toward her destruction the English Protestants upon an honest apprehension of the Dangers to which the Person of their Queen was subject by so many Conspiracies the Puritans for fear lest she should bring in Popery again if she came to the Crown the Scots upon the like conceit of over-throwing their Presbyteries and ruinating the whole Machina of their Devices if ever she should live to be Queen of England The Earl of Leicester and his Faction in the Court had their Ends apart which was To bring the Imperial Crown of this Realm by some means or other into the Family of the Dudley's His Father had before designed it by marrying his Son Guilford with the Lady Iane descended from the younger Sister of K. HENRY the Eighth And he projects to set it on the Head of the Earl of Huntington who had married his Sister and looked upon himself as the direct Heir of George Duke of Clarence And that they might not want a Party of sufficient strength to advance their Interest they make themselves the Heads of the Puritan Faction the Earl of Leicester in the Court and the Earl of Huntingdon in the Countrey For him he obtaineth of the Queen the command of the North under the Title of Lord President of the Councel iu York to keep out the Scots and for himself the Conduct
of the Way yet you think you are in the Right and walk according to that light which God hath given you But I cannot but complain of Mr. Cartwright and all others of his opinion from whom we have received the truth of these things and by whose Books we have been taught that your Calling is Antichristian And yet these men saith he forsake us in our Sufferings against their Consciences and rather chuse to save their lives than go out of Babylon To which when Dr. White objected That those Callings which he reproached as Antichristian had been embraced by Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and divers other godly persons who suffered Martyrdom for their Religion in Queen MARY's days Barrow thus gloriously replies Most true it is quoth he that they and others were Martyrs in Queen MARY's days but these holy Bands of mine and therewith shook his Fetters are much more glorious than any of theirs because they had the Mark of Antichrist in their hands Such was the Fortune of these men that these Learned Doctors could do as little good upon them as Cartwright and his Fellows had done before though to say the truth it had not been in Cartwright's power to have changed their minds unless he had first changed his own And thereupon it was very well said by Dr. Iohn Burges who had been once one of Cartwright's Followers That he was and ever had been of that opinion That no just confutation could be made of the Separatists by any of the Non-Conformists who had given them their Principles That though he had seen some endeavours that way yet did they never satisfie him in point of Conscience That the Arguments published in his time against Conformity were pretended for the grounds of the Separation That the Separatists did pretend their Pedigree from none but the Puritans which no man can deny saith he that hath any Modesty And finally that therefore the Puritans might well call them their dear Brethren of the Separation as Dighton and some others had began to do To bring this business to an end Barrow and Greenwood were brought to Tiburn in a Cart on the last of March and having been exposed for some time to the sight of the people were carried back again to Newgate But no repentance following on the sense of so great a mercy they were both hanged at Tiburn on the sixth of April The other three being reprieved with some hope of pardon as being only accessary to the Crimes of the other 31. In May next following Penry is brought upon his Tryal a man of most Seditious Malice and one of the chief Penners of those scurrilous Libels which had passed under the name of Martin Mar-Prelate But not content with having a hand in those Pestilent Pamphlets but must needs take upon him to be the Inter-Nuncio or common Agent between the Presbyters of Scotland and the English Puritans Having enflamed the Scots unto some Seditions he remained Leidger there till the beginning of Hacket's Treasons and thereupon writes to Arthington to this effect That Reformation must be shortly erected in England And thereupon he makes for London to have play'd his pranks if their Design had took effect it being his hope as possibly it was the hope of all the rest of that Faction That on the Proclamations which were made by Hacket's Prophets the people would have been inciâ—ed to an Insurrection But when he saw those hopes deluded and Hacket executed his guilty Conscience prompted him to fear the like cruel death which hurried him again to Scotland where he remained till the beginning of the Parliament before remembred At what time stealing privately back again towards London we was discovered at Stebunheth commonly called Stepny apprehended by the Vicar there committed Prisoner tryed at the King's-Bench-Barr at Westminster-Hall condemned of Felony on the Statute 23 Eliz. and executed not long after at St. Thomas of Waterings but executed with a very thin company attending on him for fear the Fellow might have raised some Tumult either in going to the Gallows or upon the Ladder But what he could not do when he was alive was put into a way of being effected when the Hang-man had done his office by publishing one of his Seditious Pamphlets entituled The History of Corah Dathan and Abiram applied to the Prelacy and Ministry of the Church of England by Mr. John Penry a Martyr of Iesus Christ as the Pamphlet calls him The Work not finished at the time of his Apprehension but was Printed however by some zealous Brother that he might poyson the Queen's Subjects as well dead as living 32. To which end we are told in the Preface of it by the zealous or rather Seditious Publisher That the Author Mr. Iohn Penry was a Godly man Learned Zealous and of a most Christian Carriage and Courage That he was born and bred in the Mountains of Wales and with all godly care and labour endeavoured to have the Gospel preached amongst his Countrey-men whose case he greatly seemed to pity wanting all the ordinary means for their salvation That being used by God for a special Instrument in the manifestation of his Truth he was hardly entreated imprisoned condemned and executed and so suffered Martyrdom for the Name of Christ. But more particularly That he was adjudged at the King's Bench by Sir Iohn Popham Lord Chief Justice and the rest of the Judges then assembled on the 25 th of the fifth Month and executed at St. Thomas of Waterings near London on the 29 th of the same in the year of our God 1593. And finally That he was not brought to execution the next second or third day as most men expected but that when men did least look for it he was taken while he was at dinner carried in a close manner to his Execution and hastily bereaved of his life without being suffered though he much desired to make a declaration of his Faith towards God or his Allegiance to the Queen And in a Postscript to the same he concludes it thus viz. That he was apprehended adjudged and executed for writing for the Truth of Christ whatsoever other things were pretended against him Let us no longer blame the Papists for making Martyrs of such Priests and Jesuits as suffered death according to the Law of the Land for their several Treasons the Puritans or Presbyterians have their Martyrs also Penry and Hacket and the rest condemned by the same Laws for their Treasons and Felonies And if these men with Barrow Greenwood and the rest who had gone before them must pass in our account for Martyrs because they suffered in pursuance of the Holy Discipline There is no question to be made but Cartwright Snape with such as suffered only by Imprisonment or the loss of their Benefices must be marked for Confessors in the next setting out of Gellibrand's Calender whensoever it be Which as it was the highest honour that any of Cartwright's Friends can pretend to for him
fearing nor having cause to fear the least disturbance With those of the Catholick Party they were grown so intimate by reason of their frequent inter-marriages with one another that in few years they might have been incorporated with them and made of the same Family though of different Faiths The exercise of their Religion had been permitted to them since the passing of the Edict of Nants 1598 without interruption And that they might have satisfaction also in the Courts of Justice some Courts were purposely erected for their ease and benefit which they called Les Chambres d' l' Edict wherein there were as many Judges and other Officers of their own Perswasions as there were of the contrary In a word they lived so secure and happy that they wanted nothing to perpetuate their Felicities to succeeding Ages but Moderation in themselves Gratitude to Almighty God and good Affections towards their King 44. Such were the Fortunes and Successes of the Presbyterians in the rest of Christendom during the last ten years of the Reign of K. IAMES and the beginnings of K. CHARLES By which both Kings might see how unsafe they were if men of such Pragmatical Spirits and Seditious Principles should get ground upon them But K. IAMES had so far supported them in the Belgick Provinces that his own Calvinists presumed on the like Indulgence which prompted them to set nought by his Proclamations to vilifie his Instructions and despise his Messages Finally they made tryal of his patience also by setting up one Knight of Broadgates now called Pembroke Colledg to preach upon the Power of such popular Officers as Calvin thinks to be ordained by Almighty God for curbing and restraining the Power of Kings In which though Knight himself was censured the Doctrines solemnly condemned execution done upon a Book of Pareus which had misguided the unfortunate and ignorant man yet the Calvinians most tenaciously adhered to their Master's tendries with an intent to bring them into use and practise when occasion served So that K. IAMES with all his King-craft could find no better way to suppress their Insolencies than by turning Mountague upon them a man of mighty Parts and an undaunted Spirit and one who knew as well as any how to discriminate the Doctrines of the Church of England from those which were peculiar to the Sect of Calvin By which he galled and gagged them more than his Popish Adversary but raised thereby so many Pens against himself that he might seem to have succeeded in the state of Ismael 45. In this conjuncture of Affairs K. IAMES departs this life and K. CHARLES succeeds who to ingratiate himself with this powerful Faction had plunged his Father in a Warr with the House of Austria by which he was brought under the necessity of calling Parliaments and gave those Parliaments the courage to dispute his Actions For though they promised to stand to him with their Lives and Fortunes in prosecution of that Warr yet when they had engaged him in it they would not part with any money to defray that Charge till they had stripped him of the Richest Jewels in the Regal Diadem But he was much more punished in the consequence of his own Example in aiding those of Rochel against their King whereby he trained up his own Subjects in the School of Rebellion and taught them to confederate themselves with the Scots and Dutch to seize upon his Forts and Castles invade the Patrimony of the Church and to make use of his Revenue against himself To such Misfortunes many Princes do reduce themselves when either they engage themselves to maintain a Party or govern not their Actions by the Rules of Justice but are directed by self-ends or swayed by the corrupt Affections of untrusty Ministers These things I only touch at here which I reserve for the Materials of another History as I do also all the intermediate passages in the Reign of K. CHARLES before the breaking out of the Scottish Tumults and most of the preparatives to the Warr of England AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB XIII Containing The Insurrections of the Presbyterian or Puritan Faction in the Realm of Scotland The Rebellions raised by them in England Their horrid Sacriledges Murders Spoils and Rapines in pursuit thereof Their Innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline And the greatest Alteration made in the Civil Government from the year 1636 to the year 1647 when they were stript of all Command by the Independents 1. THE Presbyterian-Scots and the Puritan-English were not so much discouraged by the ill successes of their Brethren in France and Germany as animated by the prosperous Fortunes of their Friends in Holland Who by Rebellion were grown Powerful and by Rapine Wealthy and by the Reputation of their Wealth and Power were able to avenge themselves on the opposite Party To whose Felicities if those in England did aspire they were to entertain those Counsels and pursue those courses by which the others had attained them that is to say They were by secret practises to diminish the King's Power and Greatness to draw the people to depend upon their Directions to dissolve all the Ligaments of the former Government and either call in Forreign Forces or form an Army of their own to maintain their doings And this had been the business of the Puritan Faction since the death of Bancroft when by the retirements of K. IAMES from all cares of Government and the connivance or remisness of Arch-bishop Abbot the Reins were put into their hands Which gave them time and opportunity to grow strong in Parliaments under pretence of standing for the Subjects Property against the encroachments of the Court and for the preservation of the true Religion against the practises of the Papists By which two Artifices they first weakned the Prerogative Royal to advance their own and by the diminution of the King's Authority endeavoured to erect the People's whom they represented And then they practised to asperse with the Name of Papist all those who either join not with them in their Sabbath-Doctrines or would not captivate their Judgments unto Calvin's Dictates Their actings in all which particulars either as Zealots for the Gospel in maintaining Calvinism or Patriots for the Common-wealth in bringing down the Power and Reputation of the two last Kings shall be at large delivered in the Life of the late Arch-bishop and consequently may be thought unnecessary to be here related And therefore pretermitting all their former practises by which their Party was prepared and the Design made ready to appear in publick we will proceed to a Relation of the following passages when they had pulled off their Disguise and openly declared themselves to be ripe for Action 2. The Party in both Kingdoms being grown so strong that they were able to proceed from Counsel unto Execution there wanted nothing but a fair occasion for putting themselves into a posture of defence and from that posture breaking