r. was commanded p. 113. l. 40. r. Scrinia p. 119. l. 26. r. home p 134. l. 24. 〈◊〉 it p. 144 l. 23 r. named any p. 150. l. 4. 〈…〉 p. 151. 4. 11. r. â—een p. 161. l. 1. r. land p. 170. l. 8. r. in the. p. 172. l. 14. â— â—â—gden p. 174. l. 17. r. at it p. 181. l. 26. r. the suppâ—sed p. 182. l. 28. r. there â— p. â—â—9 l. 36. r. tares p. 192. l. 14. for worse r. wiser p. 194. l. 19. r. Acts of Grace p. 197. l. 4. â—eie for l. 27. r. Embarrassâ—s p. 215. l. 40. r. Twisse p. 219. l. 41. r Subscriptiâ—ns p. 233. l. 3. r. given p. 250. l. 31. r. of them p. 271. l. 20. r. Dauphine p. 〈…〉 33. 〈◊〉 them p. 298. l. 36. r. quarrelled with p. 308. l. 38. r. in a manner p. 321. l. 25â— but. p. 331. l. 11. r. knows p. 340. l. 26. r. they come p. 343. l. 37. r. keep p. 345. l. 15. r. Osbeston p. 378 l. 36. r. distaste p. 381. l. 8. r. too blame p. 390. l. 23 r. sentences of the Kirk l. 25. r. calumnies p. 392. l. 39. r. Vâ—rres p. 401. l. 43. r. 〈◊〉 p. 407. l. 8. dele be p. 410. l. 35. dele as p. 412. l. 39. r. imploy p. 413. l. 23. r 〈◊〉 p. 415. l. 45. dele for p. 432. l. 28. r. in the. p. 436. l. 37. r. thwarting p. 465. l. 45. r. â—y the Lord. p. 464. l. 46. r. he l. 46. till p. 465. l. 45. r. silliest p. 467. l. 31. r. tâ—le p. 476. l. 44. r. as to take p. 488. l. 37. r. nor p. 491. l. 11. r. them p. 493. l. 30. r. Scotland p. 495. l. 9. â— Consents of p. 500. l. 40. dele the. p. 515. l. 29. r. nor AN ELEGIE ON THE DEATH OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury c. Ianuary 10. 1644. Horat. Carm. Lib. 4. Od. 8. Dignum Laude Virum musa vetat mori AND yet not leave thee thus I fain would try A Line or two in way of Elegie And wail so sad a Loss if to express The greatness of it would not make it less If to Lament thee might not vex thee more Than all the Scorns thou hast endur'd before And make thee think we envied thee thy start Or doubted that thou wert not where thou art Yet with thy leave I needs must drop a Verse Write it with Tears and fit it for thy Herse And at this distance from thy Grave which lacks The Pomps of Sorrow hang my Heart with Blacks Religious Prelate What a Calm hast thou I' th' midst of those turbulent Storms which now Shipwrack this Island At how cheap a Rate Hast thou procur'd this Change of thy Estate The Mitre for a Crown A few poor days For endless Bliss Vile Earth for Heavenly Joys Such Glories has thou found such Alteration In this thy Highest as thy last Translation How were thine Enemies deceiv'd when they Advanc'd thee thus and chalk'd thee out the Way A Way so welcome to thee No Divine But knows the Red-Sea leads to Palestine And since Christ Iesus Sanctified the Cross Death 's the best Purchase Life the greatest Loss Nor be thou griev'd Blest Soul that Men do still Pursue thee with black Slanders and do kill Thy Shadow now and trample on thy Ghost As Hectors Carcass by the Grecian Host Or that thou want'st Inscriptions and a Stone T' ingrave thy Name and write thy Titles on Thou art above those Trifles and shalt stand As much above Mens malice Though the hand Of base Detraction hath defil'd thy Name And spotless Virtues yet impartial Fame Shall do thee all just Honours and set forth To all succeeding Times thy matchless Worth No Annals shall be writ but what Relate Thy happy Influence both on Church and State Thy Zeal to Publick Order Thy Great Parts For all Affairs of Weight Thy Love to Arts And to our shame and his great Glory tell For whose dear Sake by whose vile Hands he fell A Death so full of Merits of such Price To God and Man so sweet a Sacrifice As by good Church-Law may his Name prefer To a fixt Rubrick in the Kalender And let this silence the Pure Sects Complaint If they make Martyrs we may make a Saint Or should Men envie thee this Right thy Praise An Obsequie unto it self can raise Thy brave Attempt on Pauls in time to come Shall be a Monument beyond a Tombe Thy Book shall be thy Statua where we find The Image of thy Nobler Part thy Mind Thy Name shall be thy Epitaph and he Which hears and reads of that shall publish thee Above the reach of Titles and shall say None could express thy Worths a braver way And thus though murther'd thou shalt never die But live Renown'd to all Posterity Rest thou then happy in the Sweets of Bliss Th' Elyzian the Christians Paradise Exempt from Worldly Cares secure from Fears And let us have thy Prayers as thou our Tears FINIS Submission of the Clergie Character and Ejection of the Pope No Diminution of the Power and Priviledges of the Church by the Alteration The manner of Electing and Confirming Archbishops and Bishops Established by King HENRY viii still continuing in effect notwithstanding some Statutes to the contrary by K. EDW. vi The Reformation of the Church under EDW. vi Modelled according to the Scriptures and the Ancient Fathers but with relation rather to the Lutheran then Calvinian Forms Bishops a distinct Order from that of the Presbytery The Power ascribed unto the Priest or Presbyter in hearing the Confession of and giving Absolution to the Penitent Party The security of the Penitent provided for by the Church and the Authority of Absolution more fully justified The several Offices which be performed by the Priest attired at ordinary times in his Surplice and at extraordinary in his Cope The Priest in his officiating the Divine Service of the Church Restrained to his appointed Postures Not permitted to use any Form of his own Composing Tyed to officiate daily both at morning and evening but With a liberty of officiating in the Latin tongue at some times and places Presbyters not to Preach without being Licenced By whom they were to be so licenced And why they were directed to the reading of Homilies Preaching or Homilizing only once a day on the Sundays and Holy dayes Lectures upon working dayes by whom and for what ends erected and Of the dangers which arose from the Institution Of Sacraments and Sacramentals No orders to be given but by Bishops only and Confirmation reckoned for one of their peculiars The rest promisenously permitted to the Presbyter also Penance how far retain'd in the Church of England Not only as commemorated on Ashwednesday yearly but As judicially imposed on scandalous and notorious Sinners in the open Consistory Consecration of Churches truly Primitive Honoured with Dedication Feasts and Those Feasts made annually and
Patience perforce as the Proverb hath it For much they feared that Abbot would unravel all the Web which Bancroft with such pains had weaved and that he was as the same Author well observes better qualified with Merit for the Dignity than with a spirit answering the Function Follow his Character to the end and you shall be told That in the exercising of his Function he was conceived too facil and yielding His extraordinary Remisness in not exacting strict Conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremonie seemed to resolve those Legal Determinations to their first Principle of Indifferency and led in such an habit of Inconformity as the future Reduction of those tender Conscienced men to long discontinued Obedience was at the last interpreted an Innovation If Andrews had succeeded Bancroft and Laud followed Andrews the Church would have been setled to sure on a Foundation that it could not easily have been shaken to the preventing of those deplorable Miseries which the Remiss Government of that Popular Prelate did so unfortunately bring both on the Church and State But to go forward where we left Laud was no sooner setled in the Presidentship of his Colledge but he conceived himself advanced one step at the least towards a Precedency in the Church and therefore thought it was high time to cast an eye upon the Court His good Friend and Patron Bishop Neile then being of Rochester had procured him a Turn before the King at Theobalds on the 17th of September 1609. and by the power and favour of the same man being then translated unto Litchfield he was sworn one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary on the third of November Anno 1611. yet so that he continued his dependencies on his former Lord to whom he was as dear and necessary as before he was injoying freely all the accomodations of his House whensoever his occasions brought him to London Having thus set foot within the Court he promised himself great hopes of some present preferment but those hopes deceived him Nothing is more uncertain than Court Preferments Some have them suddenly at the first and then continue at a stand without farther Additions as in the case of Doctor Young Dean of Winchester Some attend long and get nothing as in the case of Mr. Arthur Terringham and many others and some are in the same case with the Apostles in St. Iohn when they went a fishing of whom it is said That having caught nothing all the night they cast their net the next morning on the right side of the Ship and then they were not able to draw it for the multitude of Fishes And so it was with this new Chaplain many Preserments fell but none fell to him For whensoever any opportunity was offered for his Advancement Archbishop Abbot who had before defamed him to the Lord Chancellor Egerton and by his mouth unto the King would be sure to cast somewhat in his dish sometimes inculcating to him all his actings at Oxon. and sometimes rubbing up the old sore of his unfortunate business with the Earl of Devonshire These Artifices so estranged the Kings Countenance from him that having waited four years and seeing his hopes more desperate than at the first he was upon the point of leaving the Court and retiring wholly into his Colledge But first he thought it not amiss to acquaint his dear Friend and Patron Bishop Neile both with his resolution and the reasons of it But Neile was not to be told what he knew before and therefore answered That he was very sensible of those many neglects which were put upon him and saw too clearly that he had been too long under a cloud but howsoever advised him to stay one year longer and that if he had no better encouragement within that year he would consent to his retirement In the mean time to keep him up in heart and spirit as he had given him the Prebendary of Bugden belonging to the Church of Lincoln to which See he had been translated Anno 1613. but the year before so in the year of his complaint which was 1615. he conferred upon him also the Archdeaconry of Huntington It had pleased God so to dispose of his Affairs that before the year of expectation was fully ended his Majesty began to take him into his better thoughts and for a testimony thereof bestowed upon him the Deanry of Glocester void by the death of the Reverend Right Learned Doctor Feild whose excellent Works will keep his Name alive to succeeding Ages A Deanry of no very great value but such as kept him up in reputation and made men see he was not so contemptible in the eyes of the King as it was generally imagined But before we follow him to Glocester we must take Oxon. in our way in which had hapned no small alteration since we left it laâ—t Doctor Henry Holland Rector of Exceter Colledge and his Majesties Professor for Divinity having left this Life in the end of the year 1611. it seemed good to Archbishop Abbot to make use of his Power and Favour with King Iames for preferring to that place his elder Brother Doctor Robert Abbot being then Master of Baliol Colledge and Rector of Bingham in the County of Nottingham He had before been Fellow of it and Doctor Lilly dying so opportunely for the furtherance of his Preferment in the University he succeeded Master in his place March 9. 1609. being the next Month after his Brother had been advanced to the See of London A man he was of eminent Learning as his Works declare and a more moderate Calvinian than either of his Predecessors which he expressed by countenancing the Sublapsarian way of Predestination by means whereof he incurred the high displeasure of the Supralapsarians who until then had carried all before them without gaining any thing on those who liked well of neither But depending altogether on the will of his Brother he thought he could not gratifie and oblige him more than in pursuing his old quarrels against Laud and others whom he knew to be disrellished by him which he thus pursued It hapned that Laud preaching on Shrove-Sundar Anno. 1614. insisted on some points which might indifferently be imputed either to Popery or Arminianism as about that time they began to call it though in themselves they were no other than the true and genuine Doctrines of the Church of England And having occasion in that Sermon to touch upon the Presbyterians and their Proceedings he used some words to this effect viz. That the Presbyterians were as bad as the Papists Which being so directly contrary to the Judgment and Opinion of this Doctor Abbot and knowing how much Laud had been distasted by his Brother when he lived in Oxon. conceived he could not better satisfie himself and oblige his Brother the Archbishop than by exposing him on the next occasion both to shame and censure which he did accordingly For being Vice-chancellor
CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES the First Second MONARCH of Great Britain CONTAINING ALSO The Ecclesiastical History of the Three Kingdoms of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND from His first rising till His Death By P. Heylyn D. D. and Chaplain to Charles the first and Charles the second Monarchs of Great Britain ECCLUS 44. VERS 1 3. 1. Let us now praise Famous Men and our Fathers that begat Vs. 3. Such as did bear Rule in their Kingdoms Men Renowned for their Power giving Counsel by their Vnderstanding and Declaring Prophesies LONDON Printed for A. Seile MDCLXVIII To the Honourable Sir IOHN ROBINSON Kt. and Baronet HIS MAJESTIES Lieutenant of the Tower of London SIR YOV have here before you the History of an Eminent Prelate and Patriot a Person who lived the honour and died a Martyr of the English Church and State for it was his sad Fate to be crusht betwixt Popery and Schism and having against both defended the Protestant Cause with his Pen he after chearfully proceeded to Seal that Faith with his Bloud Together with the Story of this Great Man you have likewise that of the Age he lived in especially so far as concerned the Church wherein you will find recorded many notable Agitations and Contrivances which it were pity should be lost in silence and pass away unregarded These Considerations towards a Gentleman of your worth Curiosity and loyalty are warrant enough to justifie me in this Dedication And yet I must not conceal that it belongs to you by another right that is to say the Care of recommending this VVork to the Publick was committed to a Gentleman who himself had presented it to your hand if God had not taken him away just upon the point of putting his purpose in execution So that it seems in me as well matter of Conscience as of Respect to deliver it wholly up to your Patronage and Protection since in exposing it to the world I do but perform the will of my dead Father and in addressing it to your self together with my own I also gratifie that of my deceased Friend The value of the VVork it self I do not pretend to judge of my duty and interest for the Author forbids it but for the Industry Integrity and good meaning of the Historian I dare become answerable And in truth I hope well of the rest without which I should not have made bold with Sir John Robinson's Name in the Front of it who being so nearly related both in bloud and affection to that Incomparable and Zealous Minister of God and his Prince cannot besides a Natural but upon an Honourable Impression concern himself in the glories or blemishes of this Character defective in nothing but that it could not be as ample as his worth And now having discharged my trust and duty as I could do no less so I have little more to add for my self but that I am SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant HENRY HEYLYN A Necessary INTRODUCTION To the following HISTORY BEFORE we come unto the History of this Famous Prelate it will not be amiss to see upon what Principles and Positions the Reformation of this Church did first proceed that so we may the better Judge of those Innovations which afterwards were thrust upon her and those Endeavours which were used in the latter times to bring her back again to her first Condition 1. Know therefore that King Henry viii having obtained of the Bishops and Clergie in their Convocation Anno 1530. to be acknowledged the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England did about three years after in the 26 of his Reign confirm the said Supremacy to Himself his Heirs and Successors with all the Priviledges and Preheminencies thereunto belonging by Act of Parliament And having procured the said Bishops and Clergie in another of their Convocations held in the year 1532. to promise in verbo Sacerdotii not to assemble from thenceforth in any Convocation or Synodical Meeting but as they should be called by his Majesties Writ nor to make any Canons or Constitutions Synodal or Provincial without his Leave and Licence thereunto obtained nor finally to put the same in Execution till they were Ratified and Confirmed under the Great Seal of England Procured also an Act of Parliament to bind the Clergie to their promise Which Act called commonly The Act of the Submission of the Clergie doth bear this name in Poulton's Abridgment viz. That the Clergie in their Convocation should Enact no Constitutions without the Kings assent Anno 25. Henry viii c. 19. Which Grounds so laid he caused this Question to be debated in both Universities and all the Famous Monasteries of the Kingdom viz. An aliquid auâ—horitatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicumque Episcopo extero Which Question being concluded in the Negative and that Conclusion ratified and confirmed in the Convocation Anno 1534. there past an Act of Parliament about two years after Intituled An Act Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishops of Rome In which there was an Oath prescribed for abjuring the Popes Authority within this Realm The refusing whereof was made High-Treason Anno 28. H. viii c. 10. 2. But this Exclusion of the Pope as it did no way prejudice the Clergy in their power of making Canons Constitutions and other Synodical Acts but only brought them to a dependance upon the King for the better ordering of the same so neither did it create any diminution of the Power and Priviledges of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in the free exercise of that Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which anciently belonged to them For in the Act of Submission before-mentioned there passed a Clause that all former Constitutions Synodal or Provincial which were not contrary to the Word of God the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Laws and Statutes of this Realm should remain in force until they were reviewed and fitted for the use of the Church by 32 Commissioners to be nominated by the King for that end and purpose Which re-view being never made in the time of that King nor any thing done in it by K. Edw. vi though he had an Act of Parliament to the same effect the said Old Canons and Constitutions remained in force as before they were By means whereof all causes Testamentary Matrimonial and Suits for Tythes all matters of Incontinency and other notorious Crimes which gave publick Scandal all wilful absence from Divine Service Irreverence and other Misdemeanours in the Church not punishable by the Laws of the Land were still reserved unto the Ecclesiastical Courts Those Ancient Canons and Constitutions remaining also for the perpetual standing Rule
not engaged upon either side might succeed in their places But notwithstanding all this care the Faction still held up against him the younger fry inclining to the same side which had been taken by their Tutors But whiles these things were in agitation there hapned a great alteration in the Church of England by the death of the most Reverend Archbishop Bancroft who died on the second of November 1610. and with whom died the Vniformity of the Church of England A man he was of eminent parts and of a most undaunted spirit one who well knew his work and did it When Chaplain only to the Lord Chancellor Hatton he piec'd himself with Doctor Whitgift not long after his first coming to the See of Canterbury to whom he proved a great support in gaining the Lord Chancellor for him by whose assistance he was enabled to hold out against the over-ruling Power of the Earl of Leicester the Patron-General of the Faction In the year 1588. he Preached a Sermon at St. Paul's Cross and therein made an open Declaration of those manifold Dangers which the prevalency of that Faction would bring upon the Church and State if they might be suffered which blow he followed in a Book entituled Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within this Island of Britain under pretence of Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline And in that Book he made such a perfect discovery of their Plots and Practises and so anatomized them in every part that he made them odious unto those who before had been their greatest Patrons In the year 1593. he published another Treatise entituled A Survey of the Pretended holy Discipline in which he so dissected the whole Body of Calvin's Presbyterial Platform shewing the incoherencies of it in it self and the inconsistencies thereof with Monarchical Government that he took off the edge of many and those Great ones too who had not only seemed to like it but had longed for it The Plot was so laid down by Whitgift that at the same time there should come out two other Books the one written by Doctor Thomas Bilson Warden of the Colledge neer Winton for proof of the Antiquity and perpetual Government of the Church by Bishops the other by Doctor Richard Cosens a right Learned Civilian in justification of the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts By which four Books the Puritan Faction was so muzled that they were not able to bark in a long time after Nor do they want their several and just Rewards for such good performances Bilson being first made Bishop of Worcester and not long after Bishop of Winton Bancroft advanced to the See of London and Doctor Cosens Vicar-general and Dean of the Arches within few years after being consecrated Bishop of London on the eighth of May 1597. he kept such a watchfull eye over it and held so strict a hand upon it that from a receptactle and retreat of the Grandees of the Puritan party it became almost as free from Faction as any other in the Kingdom And knowing how much the Peace of this Church did depend upon it he managed a secret Corespondency with King Iames in Scotland insinuating unto him the necessity of conforming the Churches of both Kingdoms in Government and Forms of Worship and laying down a plot for restoring Episcopacy to that Kirk without noise or trouble Which counsel being advisedly followed by King Iames before his coming into England was afterwards so well pursued though not without some violent strugling of the Presbyterians of that Kingdom that on the 21. day of October in the year 1609. the designed Bishops of Glascow Brechen and Gallo-Way received Episcopal Consecration in the Chappel of London-house by the hands of Doctor George Abbot then Bishop of London Doctor Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Ely Doctor Iames Montague Bishop of Bath and Wells and Doctor Richard Neile then Bishop of Rochester Bancroft himself forbearing to lay hands upon them for the avoiding of all scruples amongst the Scots as if he pretended any Jurisdiction or Authority over them In the mean time Anno 1603. he carried a chief hand in the Conference at Hampton Court and had the sole management of the Convocation of the same year also in which he passed that excellent body of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical to serve for a perpetual standing Rule to the Church of England Succeeding Whitgift in the See of Canterbury Anno 1604. he resolved to put the Canons into execution and press'd it with so stout a courage that few had confidence enough to stand out against him Some of them did and those he either depriv'd or silenc'd and thereby terrified the rest to an open Conformity They saw too plainly that they must not dally with his patience as they did with Whitgifts and that he was resolved to break them if they would not bow And they did wisely in so bowing for who could stand against a man of such a spirit armed with Authority having the Law on his side and the King to friend who had declared publickly in the Conference at Hampton Court That if they would not conform he would either hurry them out of the Kingdom or else do worse In the year 1608. he was chosen Chancellor at Oxon. and questionless would have set all things right in that University if Sickness and the stroke of Death had not prevented his intendments But die he must and being dead there was a Consultation amongst some of the Bishops and other Great men of the Court whom to commend unto King Iames for his Successor in that See They knew that Mountague and Abbot would be venturing at it but they had not confidence enough in either of them both of them being extremely popular and such as would ingratiate themselves with the Puritan Faction how dearly soever the Church paid for it And thereupon it was resolved to fix on Andrews for the man a man as one says very well of him of Primitive Antiquity in whom was to be found whatever is desirable in a Bishop even to admiration to whom they found the King to be well affected for taking up the Bucklers for him against Cardinal Bellarmine The Motion was no sooner made but it was embraced and they departed from the King with as good assurance as if the business had been done and Andrews fully setled in the Throne of Canterbury In confidence whereof some of them retired to their Country Houses and others lessened their accustomed diligence about the King and thereby gave an opportunity to the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister of State to put in for Abbot who had attended him in some Negotiations which he had with the Scots and he put in so powerfully in his behalf that at last he carried it and had the Kings Hand to the passing of the publick Instruments before the other Bishops ever heard of the Plot But when they heard of it there was no Remedy but Patience but it was
as Barwick and from thence visiting the West parts of Scotland came at last to Edenburgh where he soon found that he might have saved himself a great part of his care and taken such of his Chaplains with him as came next to hand the Presbyterian Scots not being to be gained by Reason as he had supposed For he was scarce setled in that City when the Presbyters conceiving that his coming was upon design to work an Uniformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms set up one Struthers to preach against it who laid so lustily about him in the chief Church of Edenburgh that he not only condemned the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England but prayed God to save Scotland from the same Laud and the rest of the Chaplains who had heard the Sermon acquainted his Majesty with those passages but there was no remedy The Scots were Scots and resolved to go their own way whatsoever came of it For though the Archbishop of St. Andrews had forewarned them that they should not irritate his Majesty whom they should finde a gracious Prince and one that would hear Reason and give way unto it yet this prevailed nothing with them they were resolved neither to give Reason to him nor take any from him but only to gain time by delays and artifices For they knew well that his Majesty had no resolution to stay long amongst them and that when he was gone they might do what they listed And therefore when his Majesty in a Speech made to them at St. Andrews had told them That it was a Power belonging to all Christian Princes to order matters in the Church and that he would never regard what they approved or disapproved except they brought him a Reason which he could not answer all that they did was to require a little time of Consultation which being granted they returned with this Resolution That if his Majesty would grant them a free Assembly they would therein satisfie his Majesty in all the Points he had propounded Patrick Galloway one of the chiefest amongst them passing his word for the performance But when the King was gone and the day of the Assembly come those promises vanished in the smoak so that the King gained nothing by that chargeable Journey but the neglect of his Commands and a contempt of his Authority His Majesty therefore took a better course than to put the point to Argument and Disputation which was to beat them by the Belly and to withdraw those Augmentations which he had formerly allowed them out of his Exchâ—quer Which Pill so wrought upon this indigent and obstinate People that the next year in an Assembly held at Perth they pass'd an Act for admitting the five Articles for which his Majesty had been courting them for two years together But whatsoever the King lost by the Journey I am sure the Bishop of Lincoln got well by it For Iames the Bishop of Durham dying during the Kings abode in Scotland his Majesty bestowed upon him that wealthy Bishoprick one of the wealthiest in Revenues but Absolutely the greatest in Power and Priviledges Into this Bishoprick being canonically confirmed on the ninth of October he presently set himself on work to repair the Palaces and Houses belonging to it which he had found in great decay but he so adorned and beautified them in a very short space that they that saw them could not think that they were the same Three thousand pounds he is affirmed by Bishop Godwin to have disbursed only upon this account having laid out before no less than a thousand Marks on the Episcopal Houses of the See of Lincoln besides a good round Sum on the House of Bromley the Habitation and Retreat of the Bishops of Rochester But that which gave him most content was his Palace of Durham-house in the Strand not only because it afforded him convenient Room for his own Retinue but because it was large enough to allow sufficient Quarters for Buckridge Bishop of Rochester and Laud Dean of Glocester which he enjoyed when he was Bishop of St. Davids also some other Quarters were reserved for his old servant Doctor Linsell and others for such Learned men of his Acquaintance as came from time to time to attend upon him insomuch as it passed commonly by the name of Durham Colledge A man of such a strange composition that whether he were of a larger and more publick Soul or of a more uncourtly Conversation it were hard to say But to return again to Laud Finding his Majesty resolved to pass thorow Lancashire and other Counties of the North-west of England in his way to London he obtained leave to go directly unto Oxon. and on the second of August was inducted into the Rectory of Ibstock in the County of Leicester a Rectory belonging to the Patronage of the Bishop of Rochester of whom he had it in exchange for his Kentish Benefices At his return unto the Colledge he was joyfully welcomed by his Friends and chearfully received after so long an absence by the greatest part of that Society But that which seemed most agreeable to him at his coming home was the good News he heard from Glocester how all things had been quieted there and that there was no fear or danger of any further opposition to be made against him for the Rabble being terrified by the severe proceedings of Alderman Iones and more affrighted at the noise of being brought into the Court of High-Commission began to grow more sensible of the error which they had committed the â—ury of their first heats being abated and Reason beginning by degrees as it is ordinary in such cases to take place of Passion Nothing else memorable in this year as in relation to his Story but some misfortunes which befel the Archbishop his perpetual enemy the greatest whereof though perhaps not took most to heart was the death of his Brother the Bishop of Salisbury which produced great sorrow to his Friends the rather in regard of the manner and occasion of it For after his advancement to the See of Sarum being then neer sixty years of Age he married the Widdow of one Doctor Cheynell a Physician who had been one of his Contemporaries in Baliol Colledge the news whereof being presented with some circumstances to his disadvantage to his Brother the Archbishop of Canterbury he received from him such a sharp and bitter Letter so full of Reproaches and Revilings that not being able to bear the burthen of so great an insolency he presently took thought upon it and as presently died leaving this life on the second of March the year almost expiring with him The Archbishop had been off the hooks ever since the affront as he conceived was put upon him in burning his Chaplain Doctor Mockett's Book entituled De Politia Ecclesiae Anglicanae which had given no small Reputation to the Church of England beyond the Seas for which severity though many just Reasons were
book he found that besides some few Doctrines which properly and truly did belong to the Church of England there were crouded into it all Points of Calvinism such Heterodoxies and out-landish Fancies as the Church of England never owned And therefore in his Answer to that Popish Gagger he severed or discriminated the opinions of particular men from the Authorized Doctrines of this Church leaving the one to be maintained by their private Fautors and only defending and maintaining the other And certainly had he not been a man of a mighty Spirit and one that easily could contemn the cry and clamours which were raised against him for so doing he could not but have sunk remedilesly under the burden of disgrace and the fears of Ruine which that performance drew upon him This Book came out about the latter end of December and coming out made such a general amazement amongst those of the Calvinian Party that they began to fear the sad consequents of it The opening of this secret was of such importance that if the Author and his Book were not speedily crushed they must no longer shroud their private opinions under the name of the received Doctrine of the Church of England excluded from that Sanctuary they could find no place of strength and saâ—ety in which they should not be exposed to assaults and dangers And that the Author and the Book might be crusht together it was thought fit that Yates and Ward two of the Lecturers or Preachers in Ipswich should gather out of his Book some especial Points tending to Popery and Arminianism as they conceived to be presented to the Censure of the following Parliament Having got a Copy of the Information intended to be made against him he flies for refuge to King Iames now grown more moderate and since the death of Mountague the late Bishop of Winton into a better liking of those opinions which he had laboured to condemn at the Synod of Dort His Majesty knew the man and his great abilities and was well pleased with his performance against the History of Tithes where he had beaten the then thought matchless Selden at his own weapon and shewed himself the greater Philologer of the two Upon which ground he looked upon him as the fittest man to encounter Baronius against whom the right learned Casanbon had some preparatory velitations before his death but made no further progress in it Mountague flying to King Iames as before is said had presently his discharge or quietus est as to his Majesties good opinion both of him and the book it self And more than so his Majesty took notice that the Information was divulged and the Clamor violent and therefore gave him leave to make an Appeal from the said Defamers unto his own mosâ— Sacred Cognizance in publick and to represent his just defence against their slanders and false surmises unto the world And that the queaziness of the times might the better brook it he gave express order unto Dr. White then Dean of Carlile cried up when Lecturer of St. Pauls for the stoutesâ— Champion of this Church against those of Rome for the authorizing and publishing thereof which was done accordingly This Book he entituled by the name of APPELLO CAESAREM or a just APPEAL from two unjust INFORMERS But the King dying before it was finished at the Press it was presented to King Charles in the first entrance of his Reign and there we shall be sure to hear further of it In the mean time it may not be unnecessary to enquire what the said Informers Yates and Ward might and did mean by Popery and Arminianism with which two crimes they charged the Answer to the Gagger And first we find upon due search That by Popery they understood all such Points of Doctrine as being determined by this Church hold some correspondence and agreement with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome or being not determined by this Church are left at liberty for every man to please himself in his own opinion how hear soever he may come to such compliance Of the first sort they reckoned for points of Popery The Doctrine of the Perpetual Visibility of the Church of Christ The Local Descent of Christ into Hell The Lawfulness of Images Signing with the Sign of the Cross Confession and Sacerdotal Absolution The Real Presence The Reward of Good Works The Sacrament of Orders quarrelling even with very words Sacrifice Altar and the like All which upon a perfect Examination will be found to be the genuine Doctrines and to speak nothing but the Language of the Church of England as we have punctually discovered in our Introduction Amongst the last I reckon the Disputes concerning Evangelical Counsels Antichrist and Limbus Patrum of which the Church of Englâ—nd hath determined nothing and therefore the Appellant was left at liberty to follow his own Judgment and to chuse what guides he pleased to direct his Judgment in those particular Debates Yet such was the temper of those Times that whosoever held any of the Points aforesaid or any other controverted with the Church of Rome contrary to the sense of Calvin must presently be accused of Popery He that adhered unto the Tendries of the Ancient Fathers in such particulars as the Church was pleased to leave undetermined or bound himself in matters publickly resolved on to vindicate this Church to her genuine Tenents was presently made Subject to all those Clamors and Reproaches which the Tongues and Pens of that Predominating Faction could either raise upon him or asperse him with Laud had found good experience of it when he lived in Oxon. and so had Houson and Corbet too as before was noted But none of them were able to break through those difficulties till Mountague took the Work in hand who being well back'd and having the Ice somewhat broke before him waded with confidence and courage through the middest of those Waters which otherwise might have overwhelmed the most tried Adventurer In the next place it will be no hard work to finde what they meant by Arminianism under which name they comprehend the Melancthonian Doctrine of Predestination The Vniversal Redemption of Mankind by the Death of Christ The cooperation of the Will of Man with the Grace of God and The Possibility of falling from Grace received All which appear by plain and evident proofs in our said Introduction to have been the true original and native Doctrines of this Church at her first Reformation But Calvinism had so overspread the face of this Church by Humphries long sitting in the Chair at Oxon. and the discountenancing of Peter Baro at Cambridge that the natural Doctrines and Determinations of it were either so forgotten that they were not known or else so overpowred that none durst undertake to own them And so it stood till thâ— breaking out of the Predestinarian Quarrels in the Belgick Churches between Arminius and his Followers on the one side and the Rigid Calvinians on the other
also with higher promises that he might corrupt his sincere mind yet a fitting occasion was never offered whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Archbishop to whom free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel as also by Secretary Windebank all whose intercessions he neglected and did shun as it were the Plague the company or Familiarity of Con. He was also sollicited by others of no mean Rank well known to him and yet he continued unmovable And whereas some found a way to help at last by making Windebank the Internuncio betwixt him and them that only serves to make the matter rather worse than better there being a great strangeness grown betwixt him and Windebank not only before Con's coming into the Realm but before Panzani had settled any course of intelligence in the Court of England As for his favours towards those of the Catholick Party and his connivence of their Practices which is next objected as he had good reason for the one so there could be no reason to object the other He had good reason for the one viz. That by shewing favours to the Papists here they might obtain the like favours for such Protestants as lived in the Dominion of Popish Princes Upon which ground King Iames extended many favours to them in his time as opinions as that Writer makes them appears first by the Testimony of the Archbishop of Spalato declaring in the High Commission a little beâ—ore â—iâ—â—oing hence that he acknowledged the Articles of the Church to be true or profitable at the least and none of them to be Heretical It appears secondly by a Tractate of Franciscus a Sancta Clara as he calls himself in which he pâ—tteth such a gloss upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England as rendreth them not inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome And iâ— without prejudice to the truth the controversies might have been composed it is most probable that other Protestant Churches would have suâ—d by their Agents to be included in the Peace if not the Church of England had lost nothing by it as being hated by the Calvinists and not loved by the Lutherans Admitting then that such a Reconciliation was endeavoured betwixt the Agents for both Churches Let us next see what our great States-men have discoursed upon that particular upon what terms the Agreement was to have been made and how far they proceeded in it And first the book entituled the Popes Nuncio affirmed to have been written by a Venetian Ambassador at his being in England doth discourse it tâ—us As to a Reconciliation saith he between the Churches of England and Rome there were made some general Propositions and overtures by the Archbishops Agents they assuring that his Grace was very much disposed thereunto and that if it was not accomplisht in his life time it would prove a work of more difficulty after his death that in very truth for the last three years the Archbishop had introduced some Innovations approaching â—ear the Rites and Forms of Rome that the Bishop of Chichester a great Confident of his Grace the Lord Treasurer and eight other Bishops of his Graces party did most passionately desire a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome that they did day by day receed from their Ancient Tenents to accommodate with the Church of Rome that therefore the Pope on his part ought to make some steps to meet them and the Court of Romeâ—â—mit â—â—mit something of its Rigor in Doctrine or otherwise no accord would be The composition on both sides in so good a forwardness before Panzam leâ—t the Kingdom that the Archbishop and and Bishop of Chichester had often said that there were but two sorts of People likely to impede and hinder the Reconciliation to wit the Puritans amongst the Protestants and the Iesuites amongst the Catholicks Let us next see the judgement and Relation of another Author in a gloss or Comment on the Former intituled the English Pope Printed at London in the same year 1643. And he will tells us that after Con had undertook the managing of the affairs matters began to grow toward some agreement The King required saith he such a dispensation from the then Pope as that his Catholick Subjects might resort to the Protestant Churches and to take the oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity and that the Popes Jurisdiction here should be declared to be but of humane Right And so far had the Pope consented that whatsoever did concern the King therein should have been really performed so far forth as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be Independent both from King and Pope there was no fear of breach on the Popes part So that upon the point the Pope was to content himself amongst us in England with a Priority instead of a Superiority over other Bishops and with a Primacy in stead of a Supremacy in thâ—se parts of Christendom which I conceive no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him It was also condescended to in the name of the Pope that marriage might be permitted to Priests that the Communion might be Administred sub utraque specie and that the Liturgy might be officiated in the English tongue And though the Author adds not long after that it was to be suspected That so far as the inferiour Clergy and the people were concerned the after-performance was to be leâ—t to the Popes Discretion yet this was but his own suspicion without ground at all And to obtain a Reconciliation upon these Advantages the Archbishop had all the Reason in the world to do as he did in ordering the Lords Table to be placed where the Altar stood and making the accustomed Reverence in all approaches towards it and accesses to it in beautifying and adorning Churches and celebrating the Divine Service with all due Solemnities in taking care that all offensive and exasperating passages should be expunged out of such Books as were brought to the Press and for reducing the extravagancy of some opinions to an evener temper His Majesty had the like Reason also for tolerating Lawful Recreations on the Sundays and Holy-days The rigorous Restraint whereof made some Papists think those most especially of the vulgar sort whom it most concerned that all honest Pastime were incompetible with our Religion And if he approved Auricular Confession and shewed himself willing to introduce it into the use of the Church as both our Authors say he did it is no more then what the Liturgy Commends to the care of the Penitent though we find not the word Auricular in it or what the Canons have provided for in the point of security for such as shall be willing to confess themselves But whereas we are told by one of our Authors that the King should say he would use force to make it be received were it not for fear of Sedition
what his Pleasure was for the Prosecution of the business And so far both the King and he had very good Reason to be sensible of the dangers which were threatned to them But when the large discovery was brought unto him transmitted in Boswel's letter of the 15th oâ— Octob. â—e found some names in it which discredited the whole Relation as well in his Majesties Judgement as his own For besides his naming of some profest Papists as the Dutches of Buckingham the Countesses of Arundel and Newport Mountague Digby and Winter oâ— whose Fidelity the King was not willing to have any suspicion 〈◊〉 named the Earl of Arundel Windebank Principal Secretarie of State and Porter one of the Grooms of the Bed-Chamber whom 〈◊〉 charged to be the Kings utter enemies and such as betrayed his secrets to the Popes Nuncio upon all occasions all which his 〈◊〉 beheld as men of most approved Loyalty and affections to him By reason whereof no further credit being given to the Advertisement which they had from Boswel the danger so much scared at first became more slighted and neglected then consisted with his Majesties safety and the condition of the times which 〈◊〉 apt to mischief For though the Party who first brake the â—ee to this Intelligence might be mistaken in the names of some of the Accomplices which were interessed in the designe whose Relations unto those of the Church of Rome might give some ground for the mistake yet the calamities which soon after â—ell upon them both the deplorable death of the Archbishop first and his Majesty afterwards declare sufficiently that there was some greater Reality in the Plot then the King was willing to believe But it â—ad been a Maxime with King Iames his Father That Suspicion was the sickness and disease of a Tyrant which laid him open to all the subtle Practices of malicious cunning And it had been taken up by this King for an Axiom also That it was better to be deceived than to distrust which paved a plain and easie way to all those misfortunes which in the whole course of his Reign especially for ten years last past had been brought upon him And as for Canterbury himself he had so many dangers threatned from the Puritan Faction as made him bend his whole thoughts to prevent their Practices who had already declared their Purpose towards his Destruction For a bruiâ—e being maliciously spread abroad that the late Parliament had been dissolved by his Procurement the Rabble became so inâ—lamed that a Paper was pasted up at the Exchange on Saterday the ninth of May advising and animating the Apprentices to Sack his House at Lambeth on the Munday following This gave him a sufficient warning to expect a storm and to prepare himself against it which he did with so much care and courage that though he was assaulted that night with a confused Raskal Rabble of five hundred persons yet they were not able either to force the House or do any visible harm unto it The next day he procured some pieces of Cannon which he caused to be planted for defence of the great Gate which leads into the house and strengthned all the lesser doors which opened towards the Garden and other places so that there was no danger to be feared from the like alarms though prudently he withdrew to his Chamber at Whitehall till the Rage of the People was blown over Some of the principal Actors in this Sedition being apprehended and committed to the Goal in Southwark were forcibly delivered by others of their Accomplices who brake open that and all the other Prisons in that Precinct for which one Benslead who appeared in the head of that Riot was on the 21. of May condemned for Treason and was accordingly drawn hanged and quartered for a terrour to others Which seasonable Execution put an end to the Outrage but not to the malice of the People Libels against him being scattered in most parts of the City For though about the end of August a Paper was dropt in the Covent Garden encouraging the Souldiers and Apprentices to fall upon him in the Kings Absence his Majesty being then newly gone against the Scots yet there was no Tumult raised upon it the People standing in more fear of the Hangman than to expose themselves again to the Knife and Halter Howsoever thinking it as unsafe as it was imprudent to tempt the Rabble to bestow another visit on him at his house in Lambeth he gave order that the High Commission should be kept in St. Pauls and he did well and wisely in it For the Commissioners sitting there on October 22. were violently assaulted by a mixt multitude of Prâ—wnists Anabaptists and Puritans of all sorts to the number of 2000. and upwards crying out they would have no Bishops nor no High Commission In which Tumult having frighted away the Judges Advocates and Officers of the Court they brake down all the Seats and Benches which they found in the Consistory putting the King to a new necessity of keeping a Guard upon that Church as before at Westminster not only at the next sitting of the said Commissioners but at the first meeting of the Convocation which soon after followed And though one Quatreman had appeared in the head of this company and animated all the rest to commit these insolencies yet there was nothing done in order to his Punishment or Apprehension the Party being grown so audacious in their disorders partly upon the near approach of the Parliament but principally by the coming in of the Scots that they contemned the Law and defied the Magistrates For the Scots being put into a stock of Reputation by the Kings Recalling of his Forces the year before had took up store of Arms and Ammunition as before was said upon days of Payment Advertised of his Majesties Preparation to make war upon them and confident oâ— a strong party which they had in England they entred the Realm in hostile manner taking in all places of importance which they found in their way And having put by his Majesties Forces near a place called Newbourn they past over the Tine and presently made themselves Masters of the strong Town of New-Castle by which they put a bridle into the mouths of the Londoners his Majesties Forces looking on or not very far distant The news of this Invasion being brought to the King on August 20. he began a Posting Journey towards his Army in the North But he neither found the same men nor the same affections as he had so unfortunately discharged the year before Many of these Souldiers being so ill principled or so ill perswaded that in their marchings through the Country they brake into Churches pulled up the Railes threw down the Communion Tables defac'd the Common-Prayer-Books tore the Surplices and committed many other Acts of outragious insolence The chief Command he had entrusted to the Earl of Northumberland whom he had before made Admiral of his Royal Navy for defence
signed with the same Penful of Ink for the continuance of the present Parliament during the pleasure of the Houses The Act thus past on Munday Morning the Earl was brought unto the Scaffold on the Wednesday following desiring earnestly but in vain to Exchange some words with the Archbishop before his Death Which gave occasion to a report that a little before his Death he had charged his misfortunes oversights and misdemeanours upon the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Prime Author of the same and had bitterly Curst the day of their first acquaintance Which being so scandalous and dishonourable to this great Prelate I shall lay down the whole truth in this particular as it came from the Archbishops own mouth in the presence of Balfore a Scot and then Lieutenant of the Tower who was required to attest to each period of it The Lord Strafford the night before the Execution sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower and asked him whether it were possible he might speak with the Archbishop The Lieutenant told him he might not do it without Order from the Parliament Whereupon the Earl replied You shall hear what passeth between us for it is not a time now either for him to plot Heresie or me to plot Treason The Lieutenant answered That he was limited and therefore desired his Lordship would Petition the Parliament for that Favour No said he I have gotten my dispatch from them and will trouble them no more I am now Petitioning an Higher Court wâ—ere neither partiality can be expected nor Error â—eared But my Lord said he turning to the Primate of Ireland whose company he had procured of the Houses in that fatal Exigent I will tell you what I should have spoken to my Lords Grace of Canterbury You shall desire the Archbishop to lend me his Prayers this night and to give me his Blessing when I do go abroad to morrow and to be in his Window that by my last Farewell I may give him thanks for this and all other his former Favours The Primate having delivered the Message without delay the Archbishop replied That in conscience he was bound to the first and in duty and obligation to the second but he feared his weakness and passion would not lend him eyes to behold his last Departure The next morning at his coming forth he drew near to the Archbishops Lodging and said to the Lieutenant Though I do not see the Archbishop yet give me leave I pray you to do my last observance towards his Rooms In the mean time the Archbishop advertised of his approach came out to the Window Then the Earl bowing himself to the ground My Lord said he your Prayers and your Blessing The Archbishop lift up his hands and bestowed both but overcome with grief fell to the ground in Animi deliquio The Earl bowing the second time said Farewell my Lord God protect your Innocency And because he feared that it might perhaps be thought an effeminacy or vnbecoming weakness in him to sink down in that manner he addâ—d That he hoped by Gods Assistance and his own Innocency that when he came to his own Execution which he daily longed for the World should perceive he had been more sensible of the Lord Strafford's Loss than of his own And good reason it should be so said he for the Gentleman was more serviceable to the Church he would not mention the State than either himself or any of all the Church-men had ever been A gallant Farewell to so eminent and beloved a Friend Thus march'd this Great Man to the Scaffold more like a General in the Head of an Army to breath out Victory than like a Condemned Man to undergo the Sentence of death The Lieutenant of the Tower desired him to take Coach for fear the People should rush in upon him and tear him in pieces No said he to the Lieutenant I dare look Death in the face and I hope the People too Have you a care that I do not escape and I care not how I die whether by the hand of the Executioner or the madness and fury of the People If that may give them better content it is all one to me In his last Speech upon the Scaâ—fold he declared That in all his Imployments since he had the honour to serve his Majesty he never had any thing in the purpose of his heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity both of King and People That he was so far from being an Enemy to Parliaments which had been charged amongst his Crimes that he did always think the Parliaments of England to be the most happy Constitution that aâ—y Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy That he acquitted all the World for his death heartily beseeching the God of Heaven to forgive all them that contrived it though in the intentions and purposes of his heart he was not guilty of the Oâ—fences which he was to die for That it was a great comfort to him that his Majesty conceived him not meriting so severe and heavy a Punishment as the utmost execution of this Sentence And finally after many other Expressions That he died a true Son of the Church of England in which he had been born and bred for the Peace and Prosperity whereof he most heartily prayed Turning his eyes unto his Brother Sir George Wentworth he desired him to charge his Son to fear God to continue an obedient Son to the Church of England and not to meddle with Church-Livings as that which would prove a Moth or Canker to him in his Estate And having several times recommended his prepared Soul to the Mercies of God he submiâ—ted his Neck with most Christian Magnanimity to the stroke of the 〈◊〉 which took his Head from him at one blow before he had filled up the number of fifty years A man on whom his Majesty looked as one whose great Abilities might rather make a Prince afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest Affairs of State â—or those were proâ—e to create in him great confidence of Undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great Errors and many Enemies whereof he could not but contract good store while moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous a Lustre he must needs as the Sun raise many envious Exhalations which condensed by a Popular Odium were capable to cast a Cloud upon the highest Merit and Integrity So far he stood commended by the Pen of his sorrowful Sovereign who never could sufficiently â—â—waâ—l his own Infelicity in giving way unto an Act of such 〈…〉 justice as he calls it there of which he gives this Testimony in his Meditation on the Death of this unfortunate Earl That he wa◠〈◊〉 far from excusing or denying that Compliance on his part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in his own judgment he thought not by any clear
Law guilty of death that he did never bear any touch of Conscience with greater regret which as a sign of his Repentance he had often with sorrow confessed both to God and Men as an Act of so sinful frailty that it discovered more a â—ar of Man than of God whose Name and Place on Earth no man is worthy to bear who will avoid Inconveniences of State by Acts of so high Injustice as no Publick Convenience can compâ—nsat◠〈◊〉 loss of this Gentlemans Life after such a manner so terrified 〈…〉 oâ— his Majesties Servants that as some had deserted him in 〈…〉 appearance of his Troubles so there were few that durst stand to him or put him upon â—â—solute or couragious Counsels when he most wanted such Assistance In which respect it was no 〈◊〉 matter for the Houses of Parliament to wire draw him by de 〈…〉 Conâ—â—secâ—sions as finally left the Church without any Authority and the Crown with little more Prerogative than a Tâ—tular and precarious Empire He had before passed an Act for Triâ—â—nial Parliaments to be called in his default by Sheriffs and Constaples and signed a Bill for the continuance of the present Parliament during the pleasure of the Houses at such time as he passed away this poor Gentlemans Life He must now give up so much of his Power at once as would disable him from subsisting by any other means than the Alms of his Parliament or keeping down those factions and seditious Humours for which the ordinary Courts of Justice tied to Formalities of Law could provide no remedy In reference to the first having kept him hungry and in appetite for seven Months and more from their first meeting in November they present him with a Bill for Tonnage and Poundage to be paid only for the three Months following and that too clogged in the Preamble with such a Condition as to disclaim all such Right unto it as had been formerly enjoyed by his Predecessors They prepared also other Bills for Repealing the Statute concerning Knighthood made by K. Edward ii and then made rather for the ease of the Subâ—â—ct than the advantage of the Crown as also For abolishing his Preâ—â—ntions to the Raising of Ship-money For retrenching the Perambu 〈◊〉 of his Forests For suppressing the Court of Stanneries in Cornwâ—â— And 〈◊〉 long-continued Jurisdiction of his Clerk of the Market Aâ—â— in relation to the other they prepared two Bills more the one for pâ—â—ting down the Court of Star-Chamber the other for destroying the Higâ— Commission without which bridles there had been no ruling of the Puritan Faction But as in the Bill for putting down the Star-Chamber there were some Clauses which extended to the overthrow of tâ—e Court of the Marches and the Council established in the North and for Regulating the Authority of the Council-Table so 〈…〉 for destroying the High-Commission there was a Clause which took away the Coercive power of Bishops Chancellors Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Judges To these two last the Royal Assent having been passed unto all the former without any difficulty the King was pleased to demur which bred such a heat amongst the Commons that he was forced on Munday the fifth of Iuly being but two daies after his passing of the other to make an excuse for this small delay the business being of such importance as the Altering in a great measure those Fundamental Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil which so many of his Predecessors had established How great a blow was given by the first Act to the Royal Authority I leave to be considered by our Civil Historians What the Church suffered by the second will appear by these words in which it was Enacted under the several penalties therein contained That from the fifth day of August then next following no Archbishop or Bishops or any other Person or Persons having or exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under the Kings Majesty within the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales should award impose or inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or any Corporal Punishment for any Contempt Misdemeanour Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction or should Ex Officio or at the instance or promotion of any person whatsoever urge enforce tender give or minister unto any Churchwarden Sideman or person whatsoever any Corporal Oath whereby they shall be obliged to make any Presentment concerning others or confess any thing against themselves which might make them lyable or expose them to any Censure Pain Penalty of what sort soever Which in effect was to take away the Power of Ecclesiastical Censures belonging naturally and originally to the Episcopal Function that is to say Suspensions Excommunications Deprivations and Degradations all which are both inflicted and renounced as Pains or Penalties to the no small encouragement of Inconformity Incontinency and all other irregular Courses both in Clergy and Laity because it nourisht an opinion of impunity in the hearts of those who formerly had been awed respectively by those several Censures For when the Subject fears neither Pain nor Penalty the Superiour under whom he lives will find little obedience and the Laws much less But we have too long left our Archbishop in his cares and sorrows and therefore must return to ease him of some part of his cares though his sorrows continued as before Hitherto he had given himself no improbable hopes of being called unto his Trial and given such strong proof of his integrity and innocence from the Crimes objected as might restore him to a capacity of doing those good offices to the University as that place of Chancellor did require But finding by the late proceedings of the Houses of Parliament in the business of his dear Friend the Earl of Strafford that his affairs were like to grow from bad to worse he would no longer undergo the name of that Office which he was not able to perform Resolved to put the University into such a condition as might enable them to proceed in the choice of a more fortunate Patron he acquaints the King with his intent by the Bishop of London and finding his Majesties Concurrence in opinion with him he sends his Resignation in his Letter of Iune 28. Which being published and excepted in the Convocation of the University on Iuly 1. The Earl of Pembroke was now elected to succeed him who had before been named in competition for the Office with him MY Present Condition saith the Letter is not unknown to the whole World yet by few pitied or deplored The righteous God 〈◊〉 knows the Iustice of my sufferings on whom both in life and death I will ever depend the last of which shall be unto me most welcome in that my life is now burdensome unto me my mind attended with variety of sad and grievous thoughts my soul continually vexed with Anxietie and troubles groaning under the burden of a displeased Parliament my name aspersed and
be delivered in Parliament before the thirtieth of October next ensuing Anno 1641. It may be justly wondred at that all this while we have heard nothing of the Scots the chief promoters of these mischiefs but we may rest ourselves assured that they were not idle soliciting their affairs both openly and underhand instant in season and cut of season till they had brought about all ends which invited them hither They had made sure work with the Lord Lieutenant and feared 〈◊〉 the Resurâ—â—ction of the Lord Archbishop though Doâ—med at that time only to a Civil death They had gratified the Commons in procuring all the Acts of Parliament before remembred and paring the Bishops nails to the very quick by the only terrour of their Arms and were reciprocally gratified by them with a gift of three hundred thousand pounds of good English money in the name of a brotherly assistance for their pretended former losses which could not rationally be computed to the tenth part of that Sum. And in relation to that Treaty they gained in a manner all those points which had been first insisted on in the meeting at Rippon and many additionals also which were brought in afterwards by London In their Demand concerning Unity in Religion and Uniformity in Church-Government the Answer savoured rather of delay than satisfaction amounting to no more than this That his Majesty with the Advice oâ— both Houses of Parliament did well approve of the affections of his Subjects of Scotland in their desires of having a Conformity of Church-Government between the two Nations And that as the Parliament had already taken into consideration the Reformation of Church-Government so they would proceed therein in due time as should best conduce to the glory of God and peace of the Church and of both Kingdoms Which Condescensions and Conclusions being ratified on August 7. by Act of Parliament in England a Provision was also made for the security of all his Majesties Party in reference to the former troubles excluding only the Scottish Prelates and four more of that Nation from the benefit of it And that being done his Majesty sâ—t forwards toward Scotland on Tuesday the tenth of the same month giving order as he went for the Disbanding of both Armies that they might be no further charge or trouble to him Welcomed he was with great joy to the City of Edenborough in regard he came with full desires and resolutions of giving all satisfaction to that People which they could expect though to the Diminution of his Royal Rights and just Prerogative He was resolved to sweeten and Caress them with all Acts of Grace that so they might reciprocate with him in their Love and Loyalty though therein he found himself deceived For he not only ratified all the Transactions of the Treaty confirmed in England by Act of Parliament in that Kingdom but by like Act abolished the Episcopal Government and yielded to an alienation of all Church-Lands restored by his Father or himself for the maintenance of it A matter of most woful consequence to the Church of England For the House of Commons being advertised of these Transactions prest him with their continual importunities after his Return to subvert the Government oâ— Bishops here in England in the destruction whereof he had been pleased to gratifie his Scottish Subjects which could not be râ—puted so considerable in his estimation nor were so in the eye of the World as the English were What followed hereupon we may hear too soon â—â—is good sucâ—â—ss of the Scots encouraged the Irish Papists to attempt the like and to attempt it in the same way the Scots had gone that is to say by seâ—sing his Majesties Towns Forts and Castles putting themselves into the body of an Army banishing and imprisoning all such as opposed their Practices and then Petitioning the King for a publick exercise of their Religion And they had this great furtherance to promote their hopes For when the King was prest by the Commons for the disbanding of the Irish Army a suite was made unto him by the Embassadour of Spain that he might have leave to list three or four thousand of them for his Masters Service in the Wars to which motion his Majesty readily condescending gave order in it accordingly But the Commons never thinking themselves 〈◊〉 as long as any of that Army had a Sword in his hand never 〈◊〉 inâ—pâ—â—tuning the King whom they had now brought to the condition 〈◊〉 dâ—â—ying nothing which they asked till they had made him â—at his word and revoke those Orders to his great dishonour which so â—xâ—â—pâ—rated that Army consisting of 8000 Foot and 1000 Horse that it was no hard matter for those who had the managing of tâ—at Plot to make sure of them And then considering that the Scâ—â—s by raising of an Army had gained from the King an abolition of tâ—e Episcopal Order the Rescinding of his own and his Fathers Acts aâ—out the reducing of that Church to some Uniformity with this aâ—d settled their Kirk in such a way as best pleased their own humours Why might not the Irish Papists hope that by the help of such an Army ready raised to their hands or easily drawn together tâ—ough dispersed at present they might obtain the like indulgences and grants for their Religion The 23 of October was the day designed for tâ—e seizing of the City and Castle of Dublin and many places of great Importance in that Kingdom But failing in the main dâ—â—ign which had been discovered the night before by one O Conally they brake out into open Arms dealing no better with the Protestants there than the Covenanters had done with the Royal Party in Scotland Oâ— this Rebellion for it must be called a Rebellion in the Irish though not in the Scots his Majesty gives present notice to the Houses of Parliament requiring their Counsel and assistance for the extinguishing of that Flame before it had wasted and consumed that Kingdom But neither the necessity of the Protestants there â—ot the Kings importunity here could perswade them to Levy one man toward the suppression of those Rebels till the King had disclaimed his power of pressing Souldiers in an Act of Parliament and thereby laid himself open to such Acts of violence as were then hammering against him But to proceed his Majesty having settled his Affairs in Scotland to the full contentment of the People by granting them the Acts of Grace before remembred and giving some addition of Honour to his greatest enemies amongst whom Lesly who commanded their two lâ—te Armies most undeservedly was advanced to the Title of Earl of Leven prepared in the beginning of Novemb. for his journey to London where he was welcomed by the Lord Mayor and Citizens with all imaginable expressions of Love and Duty But the Commons at the other end of the Town entertain'd him with a sharp Declaration Entituled The Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom which they presented to
depriving the Bishops of their Vote and the Churches Birth-right And this was it which helped them in that time of need And yet not thinking this Device sufficient to fright their Lordships to a present compliance Stroud was sent up with a Message from the House of Commons to let them know That the Londoners would shortly bring a Petition with 20000 Hands to obtain that Ordinance By which stale and common Stratagem they wrought so far on some weak Spirits the rest withdrawing themselves as formerly in the case of the Earl of Strafford that in a thin and slender House not above six or seven in number it was pass'd at last The day before they pass'd the Ordinance for establishing their new Directory which in effect was nothing but a total abolition of the Common-Prayer-Book and thereby shewed unto the World how little hopes they had of settling their new Form of Worship if the foundation of it were not laid in the blood of this famous Prelate who had so stoutly stood up for it against all Novellism and Faction in the whole course of his Life â—e was certified by some Letters to Oxon. and so reported in the Mercurius Aulicus of the following week That the Lord Bruce 〈◊〉 better known by the name of the Earl of Elgin was one of the number of those few Lords which had Voted to the Sentence of his Condâ—mnation The others which concurred in that fatal Sentence being the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook together with the Lord North and the Lord Gray of Wark But whatsoever may be said of the other six I have been advertised lately from a very good hand That the said Lord Bruce hath frequently disclaimed that Action and solemnly professed his detestation of the whole Proceedings as most abhorrent from his nature and contrary to his known aâ—fections as well unto his Majesties Service as the Peace and Preservation of the Church of England This Ordinance was no sooner passed but it revived many of those Discourses which had before been made on the like occasion in the Business of the Earl of Strafford For hereupon it was observed That as the predominant Party in the Vnited Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnevelt subverted all those Fundamental Laws of the Belgick Liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip ii So the Contrivers of this Mischief had violated all the Fundamental Laws of the English Government for maintenance whereof they had pretended to take up Arms against the King It was said they a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable Yet to make way unto the Condemnation of this Innocent Man the Bishops must be Voted out of their Place in Parliament which most of them have held far longer in their Predecessors than any of our Noble Families in their Progenitors and if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the People must come down to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishâ—ps at the Parliament doors till by the terrour of their Tumults 〈◊〉 extort it from them It is a Fundamental Law of the English 〈◊〉 That no Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned without cause 〈◊〉 or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law Yet here we see a Freeman imprisoned ten whole weeks together before any Charge was brought against him and kept in Prison three whole years more before his General Accusation was by them reduced unto Particulars and for a year almost detained close Prisoner without being brought unto his Answer as the Law requires It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government 〈…〉 be disserzâ—â— of his Freehold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land Yet here we see a man disseized of his Rents and Lands spoiled of his Goods deprived of his Iurisdiction devested of his Right of Patronage and all this done when he was so far from being convicted by the Laws of the Land that no particular Charge was so much as thought of It is a Fundamental Law of the English Liberty That no man shall be condemned or put to death bâ—â— by the Lawful Iudgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land that is in the ordinary way of Legal Tryal And sure an Ordinance of both Houses without the Royal Assent is no part of the Law of England nor held an ordinary way of Tryal for the English Subject or ever reckoned to be such in former times And finally It is a Fundamental Law in the English Government That if any other cause than those recited in the Statute of King Edward iii. which is supposed to be Treason do happen before any of his Majesties Juâ—tices the Justices shall tarry without giving Iudgment till the Cause be shâ—wn and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or not Yet here we have a new found Treason never known before nor declared such by any of his Majesties Iustices nor ever brought to be considered of by the King and his Parliament but only Voted to be such by some of those Members which â—are at Westminster who were resolved to have it so for their private Ends. The first Example of this kind the first thaâ— ever suffered death by the shot of an Ordinance as himself very well observed in his dying Speech upon the Scaffold though purposely omitted in Hind's Printed Copy to which now he hasteneth For the passing of the Ordinance being signified to him by the then Lieutenant of the Tower he neither entertained the news with a Stâ—ical Apathy nor waâ—led his fate with weak and womanish Lamentations to which Extremes most men are carried in this case but 〈◊〉 it with so even and so smooth a Temper as shewed he neither was ashamed to live nor afraid to die The time between the Sentence and Execution he spent in Prayers and Applications to the Lord his God having obtained though not without some diâ—lâ—â—nâ—ty a Chaplain of his own to attend upon him and to assist him in the Work of his Preparation though little Preparation â—â—â—ded to receive that blow which could not but be welcome because long expected For so well was he studied in the Art of Dying especially in the last and strictest part of his Imprisonment that by continual Fastings Watchings Prayers and such like Acts of Christiaâ— Humiliation his Flesh was rarified into Spirit and the whole maâ— so fitted for Eternal Glories that he was more than half in Heaven before Death brought his bloody but Triumphant 〈◊〉 to convey him thither He that had so long been a Confessâ—â—â—ould â—ould not but think it a Release of Miseries to be made a 〈◊〉 It is Recorded of Alexander the Great That the night before his last and
greatest Battel with Darius the Persian he fell into so â—ound asleep 〈◊〉 his Princes â—ardly could awake him when the morning came And it was likewise certified of this Great Prelate That on the Evening before his Passover the night before the dismal Combate betwixt him and Death after he had refreshed his Spirits with a moderate Supper he betook himself unto his Rest and slept very soundly till the time came in which his Servants were appointed to attend his Rising A most assured sign of a Soul prepared The fatal morning being come he first applied himself to his private Prayers and so continued till Pennington and others of their Publick Officers came to conduct him to the Scaffold which he ascended with so brave a Courage such a chearful Countenance as if he had mounted rather to behold a Triumph than be made a Sacrifice and came not there to Die but to be Translated And though some rude and uncivil People reviled him as he pass'd along with opprobrious Language as loth to let him go to the Grave in Peace yet it never discomposed his Thoughts nor disturb'd his Patience For he had profited so well in the School of Christ that when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously And as he did not fear the Frowns so neither did he covet the Applause of the Vulgar Herd and therefore rather chose to read what he had to speak unto the People than to affect the ostentation either of Memory or Wit in that dreadful Agony whether with greater Magnanimity than Prudence I can hardly say As for the matter of his Speech besides what did concern himself and his own Purgation his great care was to cleer his Majesty and the Church of England from any inclination to Popery with a perswasion of the which the Authors of the then present Miseries had abused the People and made them take up Arms against their Sovereign A faithful Servant to the last By means whereof as it is said of Samson in the Book of Iudges That the men which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life So may it be affirmed of this famous Prelate That he gave a greater blow unto the Enemies of the Church and the King at the hour of his death than he had given them in his whole life before But this you will more clearly see by the Speech it self which followeth here according to the best and most perfect Copy delivered by his own hands unto one of his Chaplains and in his name presented to the King by the Lord Iohn Bellasis at the Court in Oxon. The Speech of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury spoken at his Death upon the Scaffold on the Tower Hill Ian. 10. 1644. Good People THis is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Heb. 12.2 Let us run with Patience the Race which is set before us looking unto JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him enâ—dured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God I have been long in my Race and how I have looked to JESUS the Author and finisher of my faith he best knows I am now to come to the end of my Race and here I find the Cross a death of shame but the shame must be despised or no coming to the right hand of God JESUS despised the shame for me and God forbid but that I should despise the shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my feet are now upon the very brinke of it anâ— Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his people But before they came to it he instituted a Passeover for them a Lamb it was but it must be eaten with soure herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the soure herbs as well as the Lamb. And I shall remember it is the Lords Passeover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the hand which gathereth them but look up only to him who instituted that and governs these for men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this passage through the Red Sea for I have the weakness and infirmities of flesh and bloud plentifully in me And I have prayed with my Saviour Ut transirâ—t Calix iste that this Cup of red wine might pass from me but if not Gods will not mine be done and I shall most willing drink of this Cup as deep as he pleases and enter in this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People That when Gâ—â—â— Servants were in this boysterous Sea and Aaron amongst them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know my God whom I serve is as able to deliver me from the sea of bloud as he was to deliver the three Children from the Furnace and I humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then They would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the truth of God to follow the bleating of Jeroboams Calves in Dan and Bethel And as for this People they are at this day miserably misled God of his mercy open their â—â—es that they may see the right way for at this day the blind lead the blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all humility a most grievous sinâ—â— many waies by thought word and deed I cannot doubt but that 〈◊〉 hath mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other sinners I have now and upon this sad occasion ransacked every corner of my 〈◊〉 and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any 〈◊〉 sin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom and yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Iudges for if they proceed upon proof by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may be justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of my Sentence he heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Archbishop but the first man that ever 〈◊〉 by an Ordinance in Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tiler and his Fellows Before
condemned in the Primitive times others so new and every day begetting newer that few of them have served out their Apprenticeship and yet Trade as freely as if they had served out all their Time The Sacred Ministry in the mean time or that part of it at the least which consists in Preaching usurped by Handicraâ—ts-men Boys and Women to the dishonour of God the infamy and disgâ—â—ce of the English Nation and the reproach of our Religion so much renowned as long as he remained in Power both for external Glory and internal Purity And yet it cannot be denied but that he fell very opportunely in regard of himself before he saw those horrible Confusions which have since brake into the Church the dissipation of the Clergy the most calamitous death of his Gracious Sovereign and the Extermination threatned to the Royal Family any of which would have been far more grievous to him than a thousand deaths The opportunity of a quiet and untroubled death was reckoned for a great felicity in the Noble Agricela who could not but in the course of a long life have felt the hundredth part of those Griefs and Sorrows which would have pierced the Soul of this Pious Prelate had not God gathered him to his Fathers in so good an hour But fallen he is and being fallen there is no question to be made but most men would spend their Judgments on his Life and Actions One tells us of him That the roughness of his uncourtly Nature sent most men discontented from him though afterwards of his own accord he would find means to sweeten many of them again when they least looked for it Another That he had so little command of his passions that he could not repress them at the Star-Chamber or the High-Commission which made his Censure always follow the severer side Some thought That out of a dislike of that Popularity which was too much affected by his Predecessor he was carried on so â—ar to the t'other extreme as to fail in many necessary Civilities to the Nobility and Gentry by which he might have obliged them and indeed himself Others that by this reserved and implausible humor he so far lost the love of his own Diocess the Gentry whereof he neither entertained at Canterbury nor fâ—ailed at Lambeth as all his Predecessors had done before him that one of them who served in Parliament for the County of Kent threw the first dirt at him Some said that he trusted too much to his own single judgement in the Contriving and carrying on of his designs seldom advising with any of the other Bishops till he had digested the whole business and then referring nothing to them bâ—t the Execution which made it less Cordially followed by the greater part then it had been otherwise And others that he preâ—â—med too much on the Love and Goodness of the King whose Love aâ—d Goodness not being seconded by Power proved afterward so insufficient to save him harmless and keep his head upon his shoulders that it served rather to expose him to the publick hatâ—ed In which Respect it was conceived that the Lord Protector â—ommerset followed his work more like a States-man though of himself he was accounted no deep Polititian not venturing on the Alteration of Religion which he had projected till he had put himself into the head of an Army under Pretence of making War against the Scots nothing but the unseasonable disbanding whereof could 〈◊〉 plunged him into those Calamities which ensued upon it It was discoursed by some that he was too suddain and precipitate in the persuit of his undertakings the fruits whereof he desired to â—aile before they were ripe and did not think the work well doâ—e except he might enjoy as well the comfort of it in his Life as the Honour of it after his death quite contrary therein to the Grandees of the Puritan faction who after the first heats were over in Queen Elizabeths time carried their work for thirty years together like Mâ—lâ—s under the Ground not casting up any earth before 〈◊〉 till they had made so strong a party in the House of Commons 〈◊〉 was able to hold the King to their own Conditions And thereâ—â—â—â— it was thought by others that his business was not so well 〈◊〉 as it should have been the three first Parliaments of this King 〈◊〉 dissolved in such discontentments as could not easily be for 〈◊〉 the Scots as much exasperated by the Commission of Sur 〈◊〉 which they exprest plainly by their disaffections to his Person and Government at his first Parliament in that Kingdom and the English shortly after startled by the Writs for Shipmony which seemed to threaten a destruction to that Legal Property which every man challenged in his own Some who seemed wiser then the Rest complained that his Emâ—â—acements were two large and general and that he had more 〈◊〉 in the fire at once then could be well hammer'd in one forge Not suffering any one of his Counsels to hold on a Probationship before it was retarded and pulled back by another By means whereof the whole piece being laid open at once the Figures of it appeared more terrible and unhansomly wrought then otherwise they would have done in case they had been shown by little and little By these it was discoursed that within the spaâ—e oâ— one year after his coming to the Chair of Canterbury he had enâ—aged himself in Six several Counsels and designs all of them oâ— so high a nature that each of them might have been enough to take up that short remainder of time which he had to live It was confesseâ— that the connivence and Remisness of his Predecessor had left him work enough to do but then it was averred withal and proved by Ordinary observation that an unskilâ—ful Carpenter might pull down more in one day then the ablest Architect in the World could build up in twenty and therefore that the Ruines of twenty years were not to be repaired in one And for the Proof of this they weâ—â— pleased to note that within six weeks after his coming to thâ—â— Chair his Majesty had laid the Foundation of the Scottish Liturgy by Issuing out his Instructions of the 8 of Octob. for Officiatinâ— the Divine Service in his Chappel at Edenborough according to 〈◊〉 form and Ceremony of his Royal Chappel at White Hall that â—e had seconded it within ten days after by reviving his Fathers Declaration about Lawful Sports with some additions of his own and thirded it in the very beginning of Novemb. by an Order oâ— the Council Table in the case of S. Gregories for transposing the Communion Table to the Place of the Altar and that within the first six Months of the year next following he sent out two Injunctions for reducing the Congregations of the French and Dutch to the Liturgy and Church of England Countenanced the Petition of the London Ministers for encrease of maintenance in the just payment
of their Tithes and procured the Repealing of the Irish Articles and those of England to be approved and received in the placâ— thereof And what said they could be more unadvisedly and unâ—politickly done then to draw upon himself at once the 〈…〉 pleasure of three Kingdoms in the several Concernments of each Nation as also all the Genevian Churches abroad in their Propâ— Interesses Fomented by the Pride and Purse of the City of 〈◊〉 and prosecuted by the Malice and Activity of the Puritanâ—â—ction â—â—ction in them all united in the Common quarrel or the Lords day Sabbath They added that King Edward the first began not with the Conquest of Wales before he had well settled his affairs in England and that he undertook not the following War against the Scots whom afterwards he brought under his obedience till some years after he had finished the Conquest of Wales that as all Supâ—râ—â—tations are dangerous to the Product of the Births of Nature and nothing more Repugnant to a Regular Diet than to fill the 〈◊〉 with fresh viands before it is Emptied of the Former so notâ—ing 〈◊〉 iâ— more destructive to the Body Politick than to try two many Expâ—riments at once upon it which cannot possibly work well together to tâ—e publick health and therefore that he should have practised upon one Kingdom after another as best became so able a Physician and so exact a Maâ—ter in the Art of a Christian Warfare that one of them might have followed the good Example of the other and not all joyn together like so many ill humours to the common disturbance of the work Such were the Censures and Discourses which were passed upon him betwixt his Imprisonment and his Death and for some years after In which how much or little there is of truth is left unto the â—udgment of those who are more thoroughly acquainted with his disposition and aâ—â—ections his secret Counsels and the Reasons which directed him in the conduct of them than I can honestly pretend to All I can say is that which may be said by any other which â—ad no more access to him than my self Of Stature he was low but of strong Composition so short a Trunck never contained so much excellent Treasure which therefore was to be the stronger by reason of the wealth which was lodged within it His Countenance chearful and well-bloudied more fleshy as I have often heard him say than any other part of his body which chearfulness and vivacity he carried with him to the very Block notwithstanding the Afflictions of four years Imprisonment and the infelicity of the times For at his first Commitment he besought God as is observed in the Breviate to give him full patience proportionable comfort and contentment with whatsoever he should send and he was heard in what he prayed for for notwithstanding that he had fed long on the bread of carefulness and drank the water of affliction yet as the Scripture telleth us of the four Hebrew Children His Countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than any of those who eat their portion of the Kings Meat and drank of his Wine A gallant Spirit being for the most part like the Sun which shews the greater at his setting But to proceed in that weak Character which my Pen is able to afford him Of Apprehension he was quick and sudden of a very sociable Wit and a pleasant Humour and one that knew as well how to put off the Gravity of his Place and Person when he saw occasion as any man living whatsoâ—ver Accessible enough at all times but when he was tired out with multiplicity and vexation of business which some who did not understand him ascribed unto the natural ruggedness of his Disposition Zealous he was in the Religion here established as hath been made apparent in the course of this History Constant not only to the Publick Prayers in his Chappel but to his private Devotions in his Closet A special Benefactor to the Town of Reading where he had his Birth and to the University of Oxon. where he had his Breeding so much the more to this last as he preferred his Well 〈…〉 〈◊〉 his Bâ—â—â—iâ— Happy in this that he accomplished those good works in the time of his Life which otherwise must have â—hrunk to nothing in the hands of Executors To speak of the Integrity of so great a Person would be an injury to his Vertues One Argument whereof may be if there were no other That in so long a time of Power and Greatness wherein he had the principal managing of Affairs both in Church and State he made himself the Master of so small a Fortune that it was totally exhausted in his Benefactions unto Oxon. and Reading before remembred The rest I shall refer to the Breviate of his Life and Action though published of purpose to defame him and render him more odious to the Common People In which it will appear to an equal and impartial Reader That he was a man of such eminent Vertues such an exemplary Piety towards God such an unwearied Fidelity to his Gracious Sovereign of such a publick Soul towards Church and State so fixt a Constancy in Friendship and one so little byassed by his private Interesses that Plutarch if he were alive would be much troubled to find a sufficient Parallel wherewith to match him in all the Lineaments of perfect Vertue Thus lived this most Reverend Renowned and Religious Prelate and thus he died when he had lived seventy one years thirteen Weeks and four daies if at the least he may be properly said to die the great Example of whose Vertue shall continue alway not only in the Minds of Men but in the Annals of succeeding Ages with Renown and Fame His Death the more remarkable in falling on St. Williams day as if it did design him to an equal place in the English Calendar with that which William Archbishop of Bourgeois had obtained in the French Who being as great a Zealot in his time against the spreading and increase of the Albigenses as Laud was thought to be against those of the Puritan Faction and the Scottish Covenanters hath ever since been honoured as a Saint in the Gallican Church the tenth of Ianuary being destined for the solemnities of his Commemoration on which day our Laud ascended from the Scaffold to a Throne of Glory The End of the Second Part. ERRATA PAge 12. l. 33. read accâ—rding to p. 14. l. 4. r. out of l. 5. r. that it is p 31. l. 32. r. Pâ—â—seâ—â—nce p. 35. l. 13. r. there be no. p. 47. l. 30. r. Lord â—ip p. 59. l. 43. for 〈◊〉 Colledge r. Pâ—rnâ—â—â—ke Hall p. 66 l 41. r. redounded p. 68. l. 42. â— Chair 〈◊〉 14. r. â—â—â—sances l. 30. r. divuâ—ged it over r. also The City was p. 74. l. 21. ◠〈…〉 smâ—â—â— p. 91. l. 38. r. commends and propounds p. 108. l. 40. r. Pâ—pe p. 〈◊〉 l. 25. r. Church of p. 112. l. 39