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
processerint did in the ministration of the Sacraments bestir themselves in a white Vesture so he advers Pelag Lib. 2. with which compare St. Chrysostom in his 83 Homily on St. Matthews Gospel for the Eastern Churches And hereunto the Cope was added in some principal Churches especially in the Celebration of the Blessed Eucharist Both which appear most evidently by the first Liturgy of K. Edw. 6. compared with one of the last clauses of the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. in which it is provided that such ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers shall be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by Authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edw. vi But this Vestur◠having been discontinued I know not by what fatal negligence many years together it pleased the Bishops and Clergy in the Convocation Anno 1603. to pass a Canon to this purpose viz. That in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches the Holy Communion shall be administred upon principal Feast dayes sometimes by the Bishops c. and that the principal Minister using a decent Cope c. Canon 24. 9. In that part of Divine Service which concerns the offering of the peoples Prayers to Almighty God it was required of the Priest or Presbyter first that in all the dayes and times appointed he used the Prayers prescribed in the publick Liturgy according to the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. and many subsequent Canons and Constitutions made in that behalf Secondly That he conformed himself to those Rites and Ceremonies which were prescribed in that Book and unto such as should be afterwards ordained by the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners appointed and authorized under the great Seal of England for causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm as may be most for the advancement of Gods Glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs Holy Mysteries and Sacraments And thirdly and more particularly That in his reading of the Prayers and Psalms he turn his face toward the East and toward the People in the reading of the Lessons or Chapters as appears plainly by the Rubrick which directs him thus That after the reading of the Psalms the Priest shall read two Lessons distinctly that the people may hear the Priest that reads the two Lessons standing and turning himself so as he may best be heard of all such as be present The Psalms or Hymns to be indifferently said or sung at the will of the Minister but the Hymns for the most part sung with Organs and sometimes with other Musical Instruments both in the Royal Chappels and Cathedral Churches Fourthly That he makes use of no other Prayers in the Congregation and therefore neither before nor after Sermon then those which are prescribed in the said Book of Common Prayer it being specially provided in the Act aforesaid that no Priest nor Minister shall use any other Rite Ceremony Order Form or manner of Celebrating the Lords Supper openly or privately or Mattens Evening Song Administration of the Sacraments or other open Prayers that is to say such Prayers as are meant for others to come unto or hear either in common Churches or private Chappels c. then is mentioned or set forth in the same Book Fifthly That all Priests and Deacons shall be bound to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly except they be lett by Preaching studying of Divinity or some other urgent cause And sixthly That the Curate that ministreth in every Parish Church or Chappel being at home and not being otherwise reasonably letted shall say the same in the Parish Church or Chappel where he ministreth and shall toll a Bell thereto at convenient time before he begin that such as ar◠disposed may come to hear Gods Word and pray with him so as in some cases it may be said of the Priest as the Father doth of Christ that he is Os ipsum per quod loquimur The very mouth by which we speak unto our Father which is in Heaven And though it be intended in the Act of Parliament and exprest in the Articles of Religion that the Prayers are to be made in such a tongue as may be understood of the common people yet it is not meant as is declared in the Preface to the Book it self but that when men say Morning and Evening Prayers privately they may say the same in any language that they themselves understand Nor was it meant but that the Morning and Evening Service might be used in the Colledges and Halls of either University in the Latine tongue where all may be supposed to understand it as appears clearly by the constant and continual practise of Christ-Church in Oxon in which the first Morning Prayers commonly read about six of the Clock were in Latine the Morning and Evening Service with the Psalms of David being printed in Latine by themselves for that end and purpose 10. As for the Preaching of the Word that belongs properly and originally as the performance of all other Divine Offices did of old to the Bishops themselves as being the ordinary Pastors of the several and respective Diocesses and to the Priests no otherwise then by deputation as Curates and substitutes to the Bishops as may be proved out of the Instrument of their Institution For when a Clerk is to be admitted into any Benefice he puts himself upon his knees and the Bishop laying one Hand upon his Head and having the Instrument in the other repeats these words viz. Te N. N. ad Rectoriam de N. Ritè Canonicè instituimus curam regimen animarum Parochianorum ibidem tibi in Domino committentes committimus per presentes that is to say that he doth institute him into the said Benefice according to the Laws and Canons committing to him by these presents the care and Government of the Souls of all the Parishioners therein And therefore it concerns the Bishop not to Licence any man to Preach to the Congregation of whose good affections to the Publick abilities in Learning sobriety of Life and Conversation and conformity to the Government Discipline and form of Worship here by Law established he hath not very good assurance For though the Priest or Presbyter by his Ordination hath Authority to preach the word of God in the Congregation yet it is with this clause of Limitation If he shall be so appointed that is to say sufficiently Licenced thereunto and not otherwise And none were Licenced heretofore as was expresly ordered in the injunctons of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth but either by the Bishop of the Diocess who is to answer by the Law for every Minister he admits into the same for that Diocess only or by the Metropolitan of the Province for that Province alone or finally by either of the Universities upon the well performing of some publick exercise over all the Kingdom Considering therefore
mature deliberation and with the Advice of so many of Our Bishops as might conveniently be called together thought fit to make this Declaration following That the Articles of the Church of England which had been allowed and authorized heretofore and which Our Clergy generally have subscribed unto do contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods Word which We do therefore ratifie and confirm requiring all Our loving Subjects to continue in the Vniform Profession thereof and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles which to that end We command to be reprinted and this Our Declaration to be published therewith That We are Supreme Governour of the Church of England and that if any difference arise about the External Policie concerning Injunctions Canons or other Constitutions whatsoever thereunto belonging the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them having first obtained leave under Our Broad Seal so to do And We approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions providing that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land That out of Our Princely care that the Church-men may do the work which is proper unto them the Bishops and Clergie from time to time in Convocation upon their humble desire shall have licence under Our Broad Seal to deliberate of and to do all such things as being made plain by them and assented by Vs shall concern the settled continuance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England established from which We shall not endure any variation or departing in the least degree That for the present though some differences have been ill raised We take comfort in this that all Clergie-men within Our Realm have alwaies most willingly subscribed to the Articles established which is an Argument to Vs that they all agree in the true usual literal meaning of the said Articles and that even in those curious Points in which the present differences lye men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them which is an argument again that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differences which have for many hundred years in different times and places exercised the Church of Christ We will that all further curious search be laid aside and these disputes be shut up in Gods Promises as they be generally set forth unto Vs in holy Scriptures and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them And that no man hereafter shall either Print or Preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof And shall not put his own sense or Coment to be the meaning of the Article but shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense That if any Publick Reader in either Our Vniversities or any Head or Master of a Colledge or any other person respectively in either of them shall affix any new sense to any Article or shall publickly read determine or hold any publick Disputation or suffer any such to be held either way in either the Vniversities or Colledges respectively or if any Divine in the Vniversities shall Preach or Print any thing either way other than is established in Convocation with Our Royal Assent He or they the Offenders shall be liable to Our displeasure and the Churches Censure in Our Commission Ecclesiastical as well as any other and We will see there shall be due execution upon them No sooner were the Articles published with this Declaration but infinite were the clamours which were raised against it by those of the Calvinian Party Many exclaimed against it for the depths of Satan some for a Iesuitical Plot to subvert the Gospel For what else could it aim at as they gave it out but under colour of silencing the disputes on either side to give incouragement and opportunity to Arminians here to sow their tears and propagate their erroneous Doctrines And what effects could it produce but the suppressing of all Orthodox Books the discouraging of all godly and painful Ministers thereby deteâ—red from preaching the most comfortable Doctrines of mans election unto life The Arminians in the mean time gathering strength and going on securely to the end they aimed at And to give the better colour to these suspitions a Letter is dispersed abroad pretended to be written to the Rector of the Jesuites in Bruxells the chief City of Brabant In which the Writers lets him know with what care and cunning they had planted â—ere that Soveraign drug Arminianism which they hoped would purge the Protestants from their Heresies and that it begin to flourish and bear fruit already That for the better preventing of the Puritans the Arminians had lockt up the Dukes ears c. with much of the like impudent stuff which no sober man did otherwise look on than a piece of Gullery Upon which grounds a Petition was designed for his Sacred Majesty by some of the Calvinian Party in and about the City of London For the revoking of the said Declaration by which they were deterred as the matter was handled from preaching the saving Doctrines of Gods Free Grace in Election and Predestination And this say they had brought them into a very great straight either or incurring Gods heavy displeasure if they did not faithfully discharge their Embassage in declaring the whole Counsel of God or the danger of being censured as violaters of his Majesties said Act if they preacht those constant Doctrines of our Church and confuted the opposite Pelagian and Arminian Heresies both preached and Printed boldly without fear of censure And thereupon they pray on their bended knees that his gracious Majesty would take into his Princely consideration the forenamed Evils and Grievances under which they groaned and as a wise Physician prescribe and apply such speedy Remedies as may both cure the present Maladies and secure the peace of Church and Common-wealth from all those Plagues which their Neighbours had not a little felt and more may fear if the Council of his Majesties Father to the States of the United Provinces were not better followed But this Petition being stopt before it came to the King they found more countenance from the Commons in the next Parliamentary meeting than they were like to have found at the hands of his Majesty For the Commons conceiving they had power to declare Religion as well as Law and they had much alike in both they voted this Anti-Declaration to be published in the name of that House viz. We the Commons now assembled in Parliament do claim profess and avow for truth the sense of the Articles of Religion which were established in Parliament the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth which by the publick Acts of the Church of England and the general and currant exposition of the Writers of our Church have been delivered to us and we
Clergy Fourthly That they should double the yearly Rents which were reserved unto the Crown by their former Grants And finally That these Conditions being performed on their parts the King should settle their Estates by Act of Parliament Home went the Commissioners with joy for their good success expecting to be entertained with Bells and Bonfires but they found the contrary the proud Scots being generally resolved rather to put all to hazard than to quit that Power and Tyranny which they had over their poor Vassals by which name after the manner of the French they called their Tenants And hereunto they were encouraged under-hand by a Party in England who feared that by this Agreement the King would be so absolute in those Northern Regions that no Aid could be hoped from thence when the necessity of their designs might most require it Just as the Castilians were displeased with the Conquest of Portugal by King Philip the Second because thereby they had no place left to retire unto when either the Kings displeasure or their disobedience should make their own Country to hot for them Such was the face of Church and State when his Majesty began his Journey for Scotland to receive the Crown a Journey of great expence on both sides but of small profit unto either On the thirteenth day of May he advanced toward the North but by such leisurely Removes that he recovered not the City of York till the twenty fourth into which he made a Solemn and Magnificent Entrance attended by the Flower of the English Nobility the principal Officers of his Court and some of the Lords of his Privy Council He was received at his first entrance into Scotland with a gallant body of that Nation consisting for the most part of the like Ingredients and so conducted into Edenborough on the tenth of Iune Edenborough the chief City of the Realm of Scotland and indeed the Summa totalis of that Kingdom extended a whole mile in length from the Palace-Royal of Holy-Rood-House lying at the foot of the Hill to a fair and ancient Castle mounted on the top thereof From this Castle the King was to descend the Street in a Royal Pomp till he came to his Palace as the Kings of England commonly on the like occasion ride from the Tower thorow London to the Court of Whitehall where the Solemnities of the Coronation were to be perform'd The day designed for it was the eighteenth of Iune the concourse of People beyond expression and the expressions of their Joy in gallantry of Apparel sumptuous Feastings and Acclamations of all sorts nothing inferiour to that concourse But this was only the Hosanna of his first Reception they had a Crucifige for him when he came to his Parliament It was conceived at his Majesties first going toward the North that he would have settled the English Liturgie in that Church at his being there but he either carried no such thoughts with him or if he did he kept them to himself as no more than thoughts never discovering any such thing in his words or actions The Scots were of another temper than to be easily won to any thing which they had no mind to and a less mind they could have to nothing than the English Liturgie King Iames had taken order at his being in Scotland Anno 1617. That it should constantly be read twice every day in his Chappel-Royal for that City and gave command that the Lords of his Privy-Council and the Lords of Session should be present at it on the Sundays and there receive the Holy Communion according to the form prescribed in the Common-Prayer-Book And this he did unto this end That as well the Citizens of Edenborough as such as came thither upon Business might by degrees be made acquainted with the English Forms and consequently be prepared for the receiving of such a Liturgie as the King with the Advice of his Bishops and other Learned Men according to the Act of the Assembly at Aberdeen should commend unto them But these Directions being either discontinued or carelesly followed after his decease and the five Articles of Perth not press'd so diligently on the People as they might have been the Scots were generally as great Strangers to the Liturgie of the Church of England as when King Iames first came amongst us His Majesty could not be so ill served as not to be well enough informed how things went in Scotland and therefore was not to venture rashly upon such a business wherein he might receive a foil He thereupon resolves to proceed no further in Matters which concerned the Church than to pass an Act of Ratification an Act Confirmatory of such Laws and Statutes relating unto Church-concernments as by King Iames had been obtained with great charge and cunning And though he carried this Act at last yet was it not without a far greater opposition than he had reason to expect from that Convention But the Commission of Surrendry did so stick in their stomacks that they could not chuse but vent their disaffections on the first occasion Nor would they suffer him to enjoy the benefit of that Act so hardly gotten with Peace and Honour but followed him into England with a pestilent Libel in which they charged him to have carried that Act by corrupting some and a plain down-right buying of the Voices of others This was the first taste which they gave the King of their malevolency towards his Person and Government but it shall not prove to be the last His Majesty had another business to effect at his being there for which he needed not their Assistance and for that reason did not ask it This was the raising of the City of Edenborough to a See Episcopal which before was only a Borough Town belonging anciently to the Diocess and Jurisdiction of St. Andrews The Metropolitan of St. Andrews was willing for the common good to yield unto this diminution of his Power and Profit and that the whole County of Lothian extending from Edenborough-Fryth to the Town of Barwick should be dismembred from his own Diocess to serve as a Diocess to this Bishop of new Election And on the other side the Duke of Lenox whose Ancestors had long enjoyed the Priory of St. Andrews with a great part of the Lands belonging to it was willing to let his Majesty have a good penyworth of some part of those Lands to serve as a Patrimony to this new Episcopal See and the Bishop of it Which Provision being thus made and settled Forbesse a right grave and solid Divine is made the first Bishop of this City his Cathedral fixed in the Church of St. Giles being the fairest in the Town a Dean appointed for that Church some Ministers of Edenborough and the Parts adjoining being nominated for the Canons or Prebends of it A design pious in it self and purposely intended to inure the Edenburghers to the Fatherly Government of a Bishop who by tempering the exorbitancies of
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
having lived sometimes in one of our English Seminaries beyond the Seas declared himself as profest a Papist and as eager in the pursuit of that way as any other whatsoever But being regained unto this Church by his Brother William who lost himself in the encounter he thought he could not sufficiently express his detestation of the errors and corruptions in the Church of Rome but by running to the other extream and making himself considerable amongst the Puritans On which account as he became very gracious to Sir Francis Walsingham so was he quickly made the Spiritual Head of the Puritan Faction in which capacity he managed their business for them in the Conference at Hampton Court Anno 1603. where he appeared the principal if not only Speaker the other three that is to say Spark Chadderton and Knewstubs serving no otherwise than as Mutes and Cyphers to make up the mess. By the power and practices of these men the disposition of those times and the long continuance of the Earl of Leicester the principal Patron of that Faction in the place of Chancellor the face of that University was so much altered that there was little to be seen in it of the Church of England according to the Principles and Positions upon which it was at first Reformed All the Calvinian Rigors in matters of Predestination and the Points depending thereupon received as the Established Doctrines of the Church of England the necessity of the one Sacrament the eminent dignity of the other and the powerful efficacy of both unto mans salvation not only disputed but denyed the Article of Christs local descent into hell so positively asserted in two Convocations Anno 1552. and 1562. at first corrupted with false Glosses afterwards openly contradicted and at last totally disclaimed because repugnant to the Fancies of some Forreign Divines though they at odds amongst themselves in the meaning of it Episcopacy maintained by halves not as a distinct Order from that of the Presbyters but only a degree above them or perhaps not that for fear of giving scandal to the Churches of Calvins Platform the Church of Rome inveighed against as the Whore of Babylon or the Mother of Abominations the Pope as publickly maintained to be Antichrist or the Man of Sin and that as positively and magisterially as if it had been one of the chief Articles of the Christian Faith and then for fear of having any good thoughts for either the visibility of the Church must be no otherwise maintained than by looking for it in the scattered Conventicles of the Berengarians in Italy the Albigenses in France the Huffites in Bohemia and the Wickliffists among our selves Nor was there any greater care taken for the Forms and Orders of this Church than there had been for points of Doctrine the Surplice so disused in officiating the Divine Service of the Church and the Divine Service of the Church so slubbered over in most of the Colledges that the Prelates and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1603. were necessitated to frame two Canons that is to say Can. 16 17. to bring them back again to the ancient practise particularly the bowing at the Name of IESVS commanded by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1559. and used in most Churches of the Kingdom so much neglected and decryed that Airy Provost of Queens Colledge writ a Tract against it the Habits of the Priests by which they were to be distinguished from other men not only by the Queens Injunctions but also by some following Canons made in Convocation so much despised and laid aside that Doctor Reynolds had the confidence to appear in the Conference at Hampton Court in his Turky Gown and therefore may be thought to have worn no other in the University And in a word the Books of Calvin made the Rule by which all men were to square their Writings his only word like the ipse dixit of Pythagoras admitted for the sole Canon to which they were to frame and conform their Judgments and in comparison of whom the Ancient Fathers of the Church men of Renown and the Glories of their several Times must be held contemptible and to offend against this Canon or to break this Rule esteemed a more unpardonable Crime than to violate the Apostles Canons or dispute the Doctrines and Determinations of any of the four first general Councels so as it might have proved more safe for any man in such a general deviation from the Rules and Dictates of this Church to have been look'd upon as an Heathen or Publican than an Anti-Calvinist But Laud was of a stronger Metal than to give up himself so tamely and being forged and hammered on a better Anvil would not be wrought on by the times or captivate his Understanding to the Names of Men how great soever they appeared in the eyes of others Nor would he run precipitately into common Opinions for common Opinions many times are but common Errors as Calderinus is reported to have gone to Mass because he would not break company with the rest of his friends His Studies in Divinity he had founded on the Holy Scriptures according to the Glosses and Interpretations of the ancient Fathers for doing which he had the countenance and direction of a Canon made in Convocation Anno 1571. by which it was appointed That in interpreting the Scriptures they were to raise no other Doctrines from them than what had been collected thence from the ancient Fathers and other godly Bishops of the Primitive times And laying to this Line the establish'd Doctrines and Determinations of the Church of England it was no hard matter to him to discern how much the Church had deviated from her self or most men rather from the Church in those latter times how palpably the Articles had been wrested from the Literal and Gramatical sence to fit them to the sence of particular persons how a different construction had been put upon them from that which was the true and genuine meaning of the men that framed them and the Authority which confirmed them and finally that it would be a work of much glory but of much more merit to bring her back again to her native Principles But then withal it was as easie to discern how desperate an attempt it must needs appear for a single man unseconded and not well befriended to oppose himself against an Army how vain a thing to strive against so strong a stream and cross the current of the times that the disease by long neglect was grown so natural and habitual that more mischief might be feared from the Medicine than from the Malady that he must needs expose himself to many Censures and Reproaches and possibly to some danger also by the undertaking But these last considerations being weighed in the Scale of the Sanctuary appeared so light that he was resolved to try his fortune in the work and to leave the issue thereof unto God by whom Paul's planting
That there was no design in the King or Prince or in any of the Court or Court-Bishops of what name soever to alter the Religion here by Law established or that the Prince was posted into Spain of purpose that he might be perverted or debauched from it But the best is that he which gave the Wound hath made the Plaister and such a Plaister as may assuredly heal the Sore without troubling any other Chyrurgeon It is affirmed by him who published the Breviate of our Bishops Life That he was not only privy to this Journey of the Prince and Buckingham into Spain but that the Journey was purposely plotted to pervert him in his Religion and reconcile him to Rome And this he makes apparent by the following Prayer found amongst others in the Bishops Manual of Devotions than which there can be nothing more repugnant to the Propositions â—or proof of which it is so luckily produced Now the said Prayer 〈◊〉 thus verbatim viz. O Most merciful God and gracious Father the Prince hath put himself to a great Adventure I humbly beseech thee make clear the way before him give thine Angels charge over him be with him thy self in Mercy Power and Protection in every step of his Iourney in every moment of his Time in every Consultation and Address for Action till thou bring him back with Safety Honour and Contentment to do thee service in this place Bless his most truly and faithful Servant the Lord Duke of Buckingham that he may be diligent in Service provident in Business wise and happy in Counsel for the honour of thy Name the good of the Church the preservation of the Prince the contentment of the King the satisfaction of the State Preserve him I humbly beseech thee from all Envy that attends him and bless him that his eyes may see the Prince safely delivered to the King and State and after it to live long in happiness to do thee and them service through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen And with this Prayer so plainly destructive of the purpose for which it was published I shut up the Transactions of this present year We will begin the next with the dismission of the Archbishop of Spalato a man defamed by the Italians at his coming hither and as much reproached by the English at his going hence His name was Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Fact and Primate of Dalmatia in Title Such anciently and of right those Archbishops were till the Bishop of Venice being made a Patriarch by Pope Eugenius the Fourth Anno 1450. assumed that Title to himself together with a Superintendency over all the Churches of that Country as subordinate to him He had been long conversant with the Fathers and Ancient Councils By this Light he discerned the Darkness of the Church of Rome and the blind Title which the Popes had for their Supremacy Inclining to the Protestant Religion he began to fear that his own Country would prove too hot for him at the last and therefore after he had sate in the See of Spalato about fourteen years he quitted his Preferments there and betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England Anno 1616. Extremely honoured at his first coming by all sorts of people entertained in both Universities with solemn Speeches presented complemented feasted by the great Lords about the Court the Bishops and some principal Persons about the City Happy was he that could be honoured with his Company and satisfied with beholding his comely presence though they understood not his Discourses Commended by King Iames at first for a constant Sojourner and Guest to Archbishop Abbot in whose Chappel at Lambeth he assisted at the Consecration of some English Bishops Made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor and by himself made Rector of West-Illesby in the County of Berks A Revenue not so great as to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of Covetousness for the sake of filthy Lucre nor so contemptible but that he might have lived plentifully and contentedly on it During his stay here he published his learned and elaborate Book entituled De Republica Ecclesiastica never yet answered by the Papists and perhaps unanswerable He had given great trouble to the Pope by his defection from that Church and no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his coming over unto ours The foundring of so great a Pillar seemed to prognosticate that the Fabrick of that Church was not like to stand And yet he gave greater blows to them by his Pen than by the defection of his person the wound so given being conceived to be incurable In these respects those of that Church bestirred themselves to disgrace his person devising many other causes by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those parts wherein he durst no longer tarry but finding little credit given to their libellous Pamphlets they began to work upon him by more secret practises insinuating That he had neither that Respect nor those Advancements which might encourage him to stay That the new Pope Gregory the Fifteenth was his special Friend That he might chuse his own Preferments and make his own Conditions if he would return And on the other side they cunningly wrought him out of credit with King Iames by the Arts of Gundamore Embassadour at that time from the King of Spain and lessened his esteem amongst the Clergy by some other Artifices So that the poor man being in a manner lost on both sides was forced to a necessity of swallowing that accursed bait by which he was hooked over to his own destruction For having sollicited King Iames by several Letters the last of them bearing date on the third of February to licence his departure home he was by the King disdainfully turned over to the High-Commission or rather to a special Commission directed to Archbishop Abbot the Lord Keeper Lincoln the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester with certain of the Lords of the Privy Council These Lords assembling at Lambeth on the 30th of March and having first heard all his Excuses and Defences commanded him to depart the Realm within twenty days or otherwise to expect such punishment as by the Laws of the Land might be laid upon him for holding Intelligence by Letters Messages c. with the Popes of Rome To this Sentence he sorrowfully submitted protesting openly That he would never speak reproachfully of the Church of England the Articles whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable and none of them to be Heretical as appears by a Book entituled SPALATO's Shiftings in Religion published as it was conceived by Laud's especial Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham How well or rather how ill he performed this promise and what became of him after his return to Rome is not now my business The man is banished out of England and my History leads me next into Spain not Italy The
were weekly Fasts appointed to be kept by the Laws of the Land which if they did observe as they ought to do there would be no need of Solemn Fasts to begin their Parliaments The blame of which Answer in the Parliament immediately foregoing this was by the Puritan Faction cast upon the Bishops who at the same time had opposed some Proposition tending to some Restraints on the Lords day not imposed before as men whose Pride hindred all such Religious Humiliations and whose Profaneness made them Enemies to all Piety But the King having now cast himself into the arms of his People had brought himself to a necessity of yielding to their desire and thereby left a fair President both for them to crave and his Successor to grant the like So that from this time forward till the last of King Charles we shall see no Parliament nor Session of Parliament to begin without them though that King checked some times at the importunity So far his Majesty had gone along with them in yielding unto their desires but he must go a little further And therefore secondly They thought it not enough that his Majesty had made a Publick Declaration for the real and utter Dissolution of the said Treaties but it must be declared also by Act of Parliament That the said two Treaties were by his Majesty Dissolved Which gave them some colour of Pretence in the following Parliament to claim a share in managing the War which the Dissolving of these Treaties had occasioned and of being made acquainted with the Enterprize which was then in hand But for this time they were contented to have engaged the King for the future War toward the carrying on of which and more particularly as the Act expresseth for the Defence of this Realm of England the Securing of the Kingdom of Ireland the Assistance of his Majesties Neighbours the States of the Vnited Provinces and other his Majesties Friends and Allies and for the setting forth of his Royal Navy they granted to him three Subsidies together with three Fifteenths and Tenths to be paid before the tâ—nth of May which should be in the year 1625. Which though it be affirmed in the said Act to be the greatest Aid which ever was granted in Parliament to be levied in so short a time yet neither was the time so short as it was pretended there being almost fifteen Months between the dissolving of the Treaties and the last payment of the Monies Nor did the King get any thing by it how great soever the said Aid was supposed to be For thirdly before the King could obtain this Act he was fain to gratifie them with some others amongst which that entituled An Act for the general quiet of the Subject against all pretext of Concealments whatsoever was the most considerable An Act of such a grand Concernment to the Peace and Happiness of the Subject and of such Disprofit to the King in his Gifts and Graces to his Servants that it was affirmed by Justice Dodderidge at the Oxon. Assises next ensuing That his Majesty had bought those Fifteenths and Subsidies at ten years purchase Nor fourthly did one penny of this Money so dearly paid for accrew unto his Majesties particular use or was to come into his Coffers it being ordered in the Act aforesaid That the said Monies and every part and parcel of them should be paid to certain Commissioners therein nominated and that the said Commissioners should issue and dispose the same according as they should be warranted by George Lord Carew Foulk Lord Brooke and certain other Commissioners to the number of ten nominated and appointed for a Council of War by them to be expended in the Publick Service And albeit the Grant of the said Fifteenths Tenths and Subsidies might possibly be the greatest Aid which had been given in Parliament for so short a time yet did this greatness consist rather in tale than weight the Subsidy-Books being grown so low for those of the Fifteenths and Tenths do never vary that two entire Subsidies in the time of Queen Elizabeth came to more than all More nobly dealt the Clergy with him in their Convocation because it came into his own Coâ—lers and without Conditions For taking into consideration amongst other motives the great Expences at which his Majesty was then and was like to be hereafter as well for the support of his Royal Estate as for the necessary Defence of this Realm of England and other his Dominions whereby was like to grow the safety of Religion both at whom and abroad they granted to him four entire Subsidies after the rate of 4 s. in every Pound which was indeed the greatest Aid that was ever given by Convocation in so short a time the Subsidies of the Clergy being fixed and certain those of the Laity diminishing and decreasing daily A Burden which must needs fall exceeding heavy on many poor Vicars in the Country whose Benefices are for the most part of small yearly value and yet rated very high in the Kings Books according unto which they are to be Taxed Insomuch as I knew several Vicaridges not worth above 80 l. per Annum which were charged higher than the best Gentlemen in the Parish whose yearly Revenues have amounted unto many Hundreds Laud who had sometimes been Vicar of Stamford in Northamptonshire as before is said was very compassionate of the case of these poor men for whose case he devised a course in this present Session which being digested into form he communicated to the Duke of Buckingham who very readily promised to prepare both the King and Prince for the passing of it This done he imparted it also to the Lord Keeper Williams and the Bishop of Durham who look'd upon it as the best service which had been done for the Church many years before and advised him to acquaint the Archbishop with it But Abbot either disliking the Design for the Authors sake or being an enemy to all Counsels which had any Author but himself instead of favours returned him frowns asking him What he had to do to make any suit for the Church And telling him withall That never any Bishop attempted the like at any time and that no body would have done it but himself That he had given the Church such a wound in speaking to any Lord of the Layty about it as he could never make whole again And finally That if the Lord Duke did fully understand what he had done he would never endure him to come near him again St Davids replies very mildly That he thought he had done a very good office for the Church and so did his betters too That if his Grace thought otherwise he was sorry that he had offended But hoped that he had done it out of a good mind and for the support of many poor Vicars abroad in the Country who must needs sink under the payment of so many Subsidies and therefore that his error might be pardonable if
hereof being given to Laud he considered of the sad effects and consequents which might follow on it communicating those his fears to some other Bishops By whom it was thought fit that Mountagues case and not his only but the case of the Church it self should be commended to the care and power of the Duke of of Buckingham According unto which Advice and Resolution three of them framed and signed the ensuing Letter But before this Letter was delivered Mountague had taken so much care of himself as to prepare his way by a Letter of his own bearing date Iuly 29. In which Letter he first laid open the state of his case desiring that by his Majesties Power he might be absolutely freed from those who had neither any Authority over his person as being one of his Majesties Servants nor over his Book as being commanded by his Father and authorized by himself Which being said he makes this resolute declaration That if he could not really and throughly answer whatsoever was or could be imputed to him in any of his Books he would no further desire favour and protection of his Majesty or his Grace but willingly would be left unto the power of his Enemies Which Letter being sent before to prepare the way this of the said three Bishops followed within four daies after May it please your Grace WE are bold to be Suitors to you in the behalf of the Church of England and a poor Member of it Mr. Mountague at this time not a little distressed We are not strangers to his person but it is the Cause which we are bound to be tender of The cause we conceive under correction of better Iudgment concerns the Church of England nearly for that Church when it was reformed from the superstitious opinions broached or maintained by the Church of Rome refused the apparent and dangerous Errors and would not be too busie with every particular School-Point The Cause why she held this mederation was because she could not be able to preserve any unity among Christians if men were forced to subscribe to curious particulars disputed in Schools Now may it please your Grace the opinions which at this time trouble many men in the late Book of Mr. Mountague are some of them such as are expresly the resolved Doctrine of the Church of England and those he is bound to maintain Some of them are such as are fit only for Schools and to be left at more liberty for learned men to abound in their own sense so they keep themselves peaceable and distract not the Church And therefore to make any Man subscribe to School-opinions may justly seem hard in the Church of Christ and was one great fault of the Council of Trent And to affright them from those opinions in which they have as they are bound subscribed to the Church as it is worse in it self so may it be the Mother of greater danger May it please your Grace farther to consider That when the Clergie submitted themselves in the time of Henry the Eighth the submission was so made that if any difference Doctrinal or other fell in the Church the King and the Bishops were to be Iudges of it in the National Synod or Convâ—cation the King first giving leave under his Broad Seal to handle the Points in difference But the Church never submitted to aâ—y other Iudge neither indeed can she though she would And we humbly desire your Grace to consider and then to move his most Gracious Majesty if you shall think fit what dangerous consequences may follow upâ—n it For first if any other Iudge be allowed in matter of Doctrine we shall depart from the Ordinance of Christ and the continual Course and Practice of the Church Secondly If the Church be once brought down beneath her self we cannot but fear what may be the next stroke at it Thirdly It will some way touch the honour of his Majesties dear Father and our most Dread Soveraign of glorious and ever blessed memory King James who saw and approved all the opinions of this Book And he in his rare Wisdom and Iudgment would never have allowed them if they had crossed with truth and the Church of England Fourthly We must be bold to say that we cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Commonwealth or of Preaching or External Ministry in the Church if such fatall opinions as some which are opposite and contrary to these delivered by Mr. Mountague are shall be publikely taught and maintained Fifthly We are certain that all or most of the contrary opinions were treated of at Lambeth and ready to be published but then Queen Elizabeth of famous memory upon notice given how little they agreed with the Practice of Piety and obedience to all Government caused them to be suppressed and so they have continued ever since till of late some of them have received countenance at the Synod of Dort Now this was a Synod of that Nation and can be of no Authority in any other National Church till it be received there by publick Authority And our hope is That the Church of England will be well advised and more than once over before she admit a foraign Synod especially of such a Church as condemneth her Discipline and manner of Government to say no more And further we are bold to commend to yâ—ur graces Wisdom this one particular His Majesty as we have been informed hath already taken this business into his own care and most worthily referred it in a right course tâ— Church consideration And we well hoped that without further trouble to the State or breach of unity in the Church it might so have been well and orderly composed as we still pray it may These things considered we have little to say for Mr. Mountagues person only thus much we know He is a very good Scholar and a right honest man A man every way able to do God his Majesty and the Church of England great service We fear he may receive discouragement and which is far worse we have some cause to doubt this may breed a great backwardness in able men to write in defence of the Church of England against either home or foraign Adversaries if they shall see him sink in Fortunes Reputation or health upon occasion of his Book And this we most humbly submit to your Graces Iudgment and care of the Churches peace and welfare So commending your Grace to the Protection of Almighty God We shall ever rest at Your Graces Service Io. Rossens Io. Oxâ—n Guil. Meneven August 2. 1625. After this no more news of Montague in the present Parliament Adjourned by his Majesty on the eleventh of Iuly by reason of the Plague to Oxâ—n there to be reassembled on the first of August Which time being come his Majesty puts them again in mind of his pressing occasions acquaints them with the necessity of setting out the Fleet then ready for Service That the eyes of
towards it Him therefore he sequestreth from his Metropolitical Jurisdiction confines him to his house at Ford in Kent and by his Commission bearing date the ninth day of October 1627. transfers the exercise of that Jurisdiction to Mountaine Bishop of London Neile Bishop of Durham Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester Houson Bishop of Oxon and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells To whom or any two or more of them he gives authority to execute and perform all and every those Acts matters and things any way touching or concerning the Power Jurisdiction or Authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury in causes or matters Ecclesiastical as amply fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as the said Archbishop himself might have done And this his Majesty did to this end and purpose that the Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction being committed to such hands as were no favourers of that Faction there might some stop be given to that violent current which then began to bear all before it Nor did his Majesty fail of the end desired For though Abbot on good reasons of State was restored unto his Jurisdiction toward the latter end of the year next following Yet by this breathing time as short as it was the Church recovered strength again And the disgrace put upon the man did so disanimate and deject the opposite Party that the Ballance began visibly to turn on the Churches side During the time that this Commission was in force some Beneficed persons in the Country who in themselves were well affected to ancient orders and now in more assurance of Protections than before they were adventured on removing the Communion Table from the middle of the Church or Chancel and setting it according to the pattern of the Mother Churches where the Altar formerly had stood Amongst the rest one Titly Vicar of Grantham a â—oted Town upon the Road in the County of Lincoln having observed the situation of the holy Table as well in his Diocesans Chappel as in the Cathedral mother Church transposed the Table from the middest of the Chancel in his Parish Church and placed it Altar-wise at the East end of it Complaint hereof being made by some of that Town to the Bishop of Lincoln he presently takes hold of the opportunity to discourage the work not because he disliked it in point of judgment for then his judgment and his practice must have crost each other but because Titly had Relation to the Bishop of Durham And for the Bishop of Durham he had no good thoughts partly because he kept his stand in the Court out of which himself had been ejected and partly by reason of the intimacy betwixt him and Laud whom he looked on as his open and professed enemy And then how was it possible that he should approve of Titly or his action either conceiving that it might be done by their or one of their appointments or at the least in hope of better preferment from them Hereupon he betakes himself unto his Books and frames a Popular Discourse against placing the Communion Table Altar-wise digests it in the Form of a Letter to the Vicar of Grantham but sends it unto some Divines of the Lecture there by them to be dispersed and scattered over all the Country But of this Letter more hereafter when we shall find it taken up for a Buckler against Authority and laid in Bar against the proceedings of the Church and the Rules of it when such transposing of the Table became more general not alone practised but prescribed But the noise of this Letter not flying very far at the first hindred not the removing of the Table in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas in the Burrough of Abingdon the occasion this One Blucknall dwelling in that Parish bestowed upon it amongst other Legacies an annual Pension to be paid unto the Curate thereof for reading duly prayer in the said Church according to the Form prescribed in the English Liturgie For the establishing of which Gifts and Legacies to the proper use and uses intended by him a Commission was issued out of the High Court of Chancery according to the Statute 43 Eliz. Directed amongst others to Sir Ed. Clark Knight Sam. Fell Doctor in Divinity George Purefez and Richard Organ Esquires who by their joynt consent made this Order following viz. And that the Table given by Mr. Blucknall should not by the multitude of People coming to Service or otherwise by sitting or writing upon it or by any other unreverent usage be prophaned spoyled or hurt We do order and decree that the said Table shall continually stand at the upper end of the Chancell upon which a Carpet by him given should be laid where it shall continually stand close to the upper Skreen there being of old within that Skreen a kind of Vestry for keeping the Plate Books and Vestments which belong to the Church and there to be covered with the Carpet aforesaid and in no place else Which Order together with many others for settling and disposing the said Gifts and Legacies were made at Abingdon on the twenty fifth of April 1628. and afterwards confirmed under the Great Seal of England This being the only Table as I conceive whose posture in that place is ratified by Decree in Chancery Now as some private Beneficed persons during the Suspension of the said Archbishop did thus adventure on the one side so divers Commissaries Officials Surrogates and other Ecclesiastical Officers began to carry a more hard hand on the Puritan Party their great Friend and Patron being thus discountenanced than they had done formerly Amongst these none more active than Lamb Sibthorp Allen and Burden according to their Power and Places the three last having some relation to Lamb as Lamb had to the Episcopal Court at Peterborough and thereby a neer neighbourhood to the Bishop of Lincoln then keeping in his House at Buckden in the County of Huntingdon at whose Table being entertained as they had been many times before they found there Morison Chancellor to that Bishop and Prigeion one of the Officers of the Court at Lincoln Their Discourse growing hot against the Puritans the Bishop advised them to take off their heavy hand from them informing them That his Majesty hereafter intended to use them with more mildness as a considerable Party having great influence on the Parliament without whose concurrence the King could not comfortably supply his Necessities To which he added That his Majesty had communicated this unto him by his own mouth with his Resolutions hereafter of more gentleness to men of that Opinion Which words though unadvisedly spoken yet were not thought when first spoken by him to be of such a dangerous and malignant nature as to create to him all that charge and trouble which afterwards beâ—el him upon that occasion For some years after a breach being made betwixt him and Lamb about the Officials place of Leicester which the Bishop had designed to another person Lamb complains of him to some
against the like Instructions in the time of King Iames and the late Declaration published by the King reigning For what less could be aimed at in them than suppressing the Divine Ordinance of Preaching or at the least a dreadful diminution of the number of Sermons And what could follow thereupon but negligence in the Priests ignorance in the People Popery and Superstition in the mean time gaining ground on both Spending the afternoons in teaching the Catechism was a work fitter for a Pedagogue than a preaching Minister who rather were ordained to provide strong meats for men than milk for babes and yet such was the strictness of the said Instructions in looking to the observance of the late Declaration that they were not suffered to set strong meats before the people though men of ripe years and somewhat more than children in their understandings Preaching must be restrained hereafter to Gods Will revealed to Faith in Christ and Moral duties toward God and men but as for his secret Will and Purpose in the unfathomable depths of Predestination those must be kept sealed up under lock and key and none but the Arminians have the opening of them And yet the grief had been the less if Lecturers had been left to their former liberty and not tied up to Gown and Surplice or fettered with Parochial cures and consequently with Subscriptions and Canonical Oaths badges of Antichrist and professed enemies to the pure Freedom of the Gospel Where might a man repair with comfort to hear Gods Word preached in truth and simplicity the Sacraments administred in their original nakedness to hear Christ speaking in his Prophets and the Prophets speaking to the People if this world went on But notwithstanding these secret Murmurs on the one side and the open Clamours of the other Laud was resolved to do his duty who summoning all the Ministers and Lecturers about the City of London to appear before him made a solemn Speech in which he pressed the necessity of his Majesties said Instructions for the good of the Church and of their chearful obedience to them He directed Letters also to every Archdeacon in his Diocess requiring them to see them published to all the Clergy and to give him an exact account at the end of their Visitations how they were observed especially insisting on the third Instruction For keeping the Kings Declaration that so the differences and disputes in those prohibited points might be laid aside The like care taken also by the rest of the Bishops but slackning by degrees when the heat was over and possibly in short time after they had not been looked into at all if Abbot had continued longer in the See of Canterbury or that his Majesty had not enjoyned the Bishops to give him an exact account of their proceedings in the said particulars not once for all but Annually once in every year on the second of Ianuary Which care being taken for the peace and happiness of the Church of England we will lay hold upon this opportunity for crossing over into Ireland and taking a short view of the state of Religion in that Country which from henceforth shall be lookt into more than hath been formerly Concerning which we are to know that when the Reformation was advanced in the Church of England the first care was to let the people have the Bible the publick Liturgie and certain godly Homilies in the English tongue as appeareth by the Statutes 2 3. Edw. vi 5 6. Edw. vi and 1 Eliz. Secondly The like care was taken of the Welch For whose Instruction it was further ordered partly by the Queen and partly by Act of Parliament in the fifth of her Reign that as well the Bible as the Common-Prayer Book should be Translated Printed and Published in that Language one Book of each sort to be provided for every several Church at the Charge of the Parish Which being Printed at the first in the large Church-Volume was afterwards reduced to a more portable bulk for Domestical uses by the cost and charge of Rowland Heylyn Citizen and Alderman of London about the beginning of the Reign of this King But for Ireland no such care was taken The Acts of the Supremacy and of the Consecrations of Archbishops and Bishops were received there as before in England the English Liturgie imposed on them by order from hence and confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Which notwithstanding not only the Kernes or natural wild Irish but many of the better sort of the Nation either remain in their old barbarous ignorance or else adhere unto the Pope or finally to their own superstitious fancies as in former times And to say truth it is no wonder that they should there being no care taken to instruct them in the Protestant Religion either by translating the Bible or the English Liturgy into their own Language as was done in Wales but forcing them to come to the English Service which they understood no more than they did the Mass. By means whereof the Irish are not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrine and Devotions of the Church of England but those of Rome are furnished with an excellent argument for having the Service of the Church in a Language which the Common people understand not And though somewhat may be pleaded in excuse thereof during the unquietness of that Kingdom under Queen Elizabeth who had the least part of it in her possession yet no sufficient plea can be made in defence of it for the time succeeding when the whole Country was reduced and every part thereof lay open to the course of Justice So that I cannot look upon it without great amazâ—mâ—nt that none of the Bishops of that Church should take care herein or recommend the miserable condition of that people to tâ—e Court of England Now as Popery continued by this means in the Realm of Ireland so Calvinism was as strongly rooted in that part thereof which professed the Doctrine and Religion of the Church of England And touching this we are to know also that the Calvinian Doctrines being propagated in both Universities by such Divines as lived in exile in Queen Maries time one Peter Baroe a Frenchman obtained to be the Lady Margarets Professor in the Divinity Scâ—ools at Cambridge This man approving better the Melancthonian Doctriâ—â— of Predestination than that of Calvin publickly taught it in tâ—ose Schools and gained in short time very many followers Whitaker was at that time her Majesties Professor for Divinity there and Perkins at the same time was of no small note both Calvinists in these points of Doctrine and both of them supralapsarians also Betwixt these men and Baroe there grew some disputes which afterwards begat some heats and those heats brake out at last into open Factions Hereupon Whitaker Perkins Chaderton and others of the same opinion thought it expedient to effect that by power which they were not able to obtain by Argument And to that end
be his Parishioners or of his peculiar But Abbot being at that time infirm or otherwise of no desirable Company this Office was devolved on Laud as Dean of the Chappel and he accordingly performed it The Birth of this young Prince as it gave cause of great Rejoycings to all good Subjects so it gave no small matter of discouragement to the Puritan Faction who had laid their Line another way and desired not that this King should have had any Children Insomuch that at a Feast in Fryday-street when some of the Company shewed great joy at the news of the Queens first being with Child a leading man of that Faction whom I could name were it worth the while did not stick to say That he could see no such cause of joy as the others did Which said he gave this Reason for it That God had already better provided for us than we had deserved in giving such a hopeful Progeny by the Queen of Bohemia brought up in the Reformed Religion whereas it was uncertain what Religion the Kings Children would follow being to be brought up under a Mother so devoted to the Church of Rome And I remember that being at a Town in Glocestershire when the news came of the Princes Birth there was great Joy shewed by all the rest of the Parish in causing Bonfires to be made and the Bells to be rung and sending Victuals unto those of the younger sort who were most busily imployed in the publick Joy But so that from the rest of the Houses being of the Presbyterian or Puritan Party there came neither Man nor Child nor Wood nor Victuals their doors being shut close all the evening as in a time of general mourning and disconsolation It was not long after the Birth of this new Prince that the Feoffees for buying in Impropriations were called in question The Project took beginning about four years since when Preston Governed the Affairs of the Puritan Faction at what time it was resolved amongst them to set up stipendary Lectures in all or most Market-Towns where the People had commonly less to do and consequently were more apt to Faction and Innovation than in other places and of all Market-Towns to chuse such as were Priviledged for sending Burgesses to the High Court of Parliament Which that it might be done with the less charge to the People who commonly love that Religion best which comes cheapest to them it was agreed to raise a common Stock amongst them for buying in such Impropriations as were remaining in the hands of the Laity To this end they erected a kind of Corporation amongst themselves consisting of twelve Persons Clergymen Citizens and Lawyers enabling them to receive and expend such Monies as their Emissaries should bring in from their several Circuits Their names Gouge Offspring Sibbs and Davenport Ministers Eyre Brown White and Sherland Lawyers Geering Davis Harwood and Bridges Citizens to whom was afterwards added Rowland Heylyn Aldernian of the City of London by the name of Treasurer to the Company that there might be a casting Voice amongst them as occasion served Great were the Sums of Money which the Piety of the Design and the Diligence of their Limitaries brought in from their several Walks most men admiring all applauding the nobleness of such a Popular and Religious Act. But so it hapned that one of the Fellows of Magdalen Colledge resorting frequently to a Town in Glocestershire where one of these new Lectures had been founded by them observed these two things First That the Impropriation of that place remained in the same Lay-hands as before it did and therefore that the Lecturer must receive his Stipend from the Profits of some other Parish And secondly he observed That the man there planted in that Lecture was one of a notorious Inconformity found upon further search to have been hunted from one Diocess to another till at last he was Silenced upon that account by the High-Commission This gave him the first hint of making a more diligent Inquiry into that Design and the more he looked into it the worse he liked it He knew so much of some and heard so much of all the rest which were trusted in the Conduct of it that he could hope for no good to the Church of England from any thing of their projectment For if such publick mischiefs be presaged by Astrologers from the Conjunctions of Iupiter and Saturn though the first of them be a Planet of a most sweet and gentle Influence what Dangers what Calamities might not be feared from the Conjunction of twelve such Persons of which there was not one that wished well to the present Government Having gone thus far in the Discovery it pleased the President of his Colledge being then Vice-Chancellor to appoint him to Preach the Act Sermon at St. Maries on Sunday in the afternoon Iuly 11. 1630. To which appointment he submitted resolving to deliver something in that great concourse of People from all parts of the Kingdom which might serve to undeceive them in that Particular He had chosen for his Text those words in the thirteenth of St. Matthew viz. But while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares amongst the wheat and went his way Beginning to draw toward the end of his Sermon he thus began to unfold the Arras and shew the Portraicture thereof in as lively Colours as he could Planting saith he also many Pensionary Lecturers in so many places where it need not and upon days of common labour will at the best bringing forth of fruit appear to be a tare indeed though now no wheat be counted tares c. We will proceed a little on further in the proposal of some things to be considered The Corporation of Feoffees for buying in Impropriations to the Church Doth it not seem in the appearance to be an excellent piece of Wheat A noble and gracious point of piety Is not this Templum Domini Templum Domini But blessed God that men should thus draw near unto thee with their mouths and yet be far from thee in their hearts For what are those intrusted in the managing of this great business Are they not the most of them the most active and the best affected men in the whole cause and Magna Partium momenta Chief Patrons of the Faction And what are those whom they prefer Are they not most of them such as must be serviceable to their dangerous innovations And will they not in time have more preferments to bestow and therefore more dependencies than all the Prelates in the Kingdom c. Yet all this while we sleep and slumber and fold our hands in sloth and see perhaps but dare not note it No sooner were these words delivered but a general consternation shewed it self in the looks of his Auditors Some honest and well meaning men seemed much to pitty his misfortune in being put as it was then generally but falsly thought on that odious task by some higher power of
paid for that purpose all which amounted to three thousand two hundred forty seven pound sixteen shillings two pence half-peny The Clergy of England within the Province of Canterbury freely contributed the fortieth part of all such Church Livings as were charged with First-fruits and the thirtieth part of all their Benefices not so charged those of London only excepted who besides the thirtieth part of such as paid First-fruits gave the twentieth part of all the rest Which Contribution of the Clergy amounted to one thousand four hundred sixty one pound thirteen shillings and eleven pence whereunto was added by the benevolence of the Bishop of London at several times coming in all to nine hundred five pound one shilling and eleven pence By the Dean and Chapter one hundred thirty six pound thirteen shillings and four pence and made of the surplusage of Timber one hundred nineteen pound three shillings and nine pence Given by the Justices and Officers of the Common Pleas thirty four pound five shillings and by those of the Kings Bench seventeen pound sixteen shillings eight pence All which together made no more than six thousand seven hundred and two pound thirteen shillings and four pence And yet with this small Sum such was the cheapness of those Times the Work was carried on so prosperously that before the Month of April 1566. all the Roofs of Timber whereof those large ones of the East and West framed in Yorkshire and brought by Sea were perfectly finished and covered with Lead the adding of a new Steeple being thought unnecessary because too chargeable though divers Models have been made and presented of it The whole Roof being thus Repaired the Stone-work of it stood as before it did sensibly decaying day by day by reason of the corroding quality of the Sea-coal smoke which on every side annoyed it Which being observed by one Henry Farley about the middle of the Reign of King Iames he never left solliciting the King by several Petitions and Addresses to take the Ruinous Estate thereof into his Princely Consideration till at last it was resolved on by the King And to create the greater Veneration to so good a Work he bestowed that magnificent Visit on it described at large in the first Book of this History Anno 1620. The product and result whereof was the issuing out a Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the sixteenth day of November then next following directed to Sir Francis Iones Knight then Lord Mayor of London George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Francis Lord Verulam then Lord Chancellor of England and divers others to the number of sixty Persons and upwards Which Commission importing That this Church being the greatest and most eminent as also one of the principal Ornaments of the Realm and in much decay any six or more of these Commissioners whereof three to be of the said Kings Privy-Council should meet to make Particulars of the decay and likewise what Houses Cellars c. had been built near it either to the annoyance of it or the Church-yard And moreover to Inquire what Lands Rents c. had been given towards its Repair or Sums of Money collected to that purpose and not accordingly employed And further to consider of the most fit and proper means to raise money to carry on the said Repair And lastly to appoint Surveyors and other Officers of their Work and to make Certificate of their Proceedings therein into the Chancery Upon the Meeting of which Commissioners and diligent search made into the Particulars afore-mentioned it was acknowledged that the Bishop of London had the whole care of the Body of that Church and the Dean and Chapter of the Choires But that which each of them enjoyed to this purpose was so little that they yearly expended double as much upon the Roof and other parts decayed to preserve them from present ruine Which being made evident to the Commissioners as also that in former times even from the very first foundation thereof it had been supported partly out of the large Oblations of those that visited the Shrines and Oratories therein and partly from Publick Contributions in all parts of the Kingdom It was concluded to proceed in the same way now as had been done formerly And that it might proceed the better the King himself and many of the principal Nobility and Gentry declared by their Superscriptions for the encouragement of others to so good a Work what Sums they resolved to give in pursuance of it Doctor Iohn King then Bishop of London subscribing for 100 l. per Annum as long as he should continue in that See Mountain who succeeded not long after in that Bishoprick procured with great charge and trouble some huge massie Stones to be brought from Portland for the beginning of the Work But money coming slowly in and he being a man of small activity though of good affecâ—ions the heat of this great business cooled by little and little and so came to nothing But Laud succeeding him in the See of London and having deservedly attained unto great Authority with his Majesty no sooner saw his Office settled both at home and abroad but he possessed him with a Loyal and Religious Zeal to persue that Work which King Iames had so piously designed though it went not much further than the bare design Few words might serve to animate the King to a Work so pious who aimed at nothing more than the Glory of God in the Advancement of the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England And therefore following the example oâ— his Royal Father he bestowed the like Visit on St. Pauls whither he was attended with the like Magnificence and entertained at the first entrance into the Church with the like Solemnity The Divine Service being done and the Sermon ended which tended principally unto the promoting of a Work so honourable both to his Majesties Person and the English Nation his Majesty took a view of the Decays of that Church and there Religiously promised not to be wanting in the Piety of his best Endeavours to the Repair of those Ruines which Age the Casualties of Weather or any other Accidents had brought upon it In order whereunto in the beginning oâ— this year he issued out his Royal Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the tenth of April in the seventh year of his Reign directed to Sir Robert Ducy Lord Mayor of the City of Londan George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal c. William Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Winton Iohn Lord Bishop of Ely c. Nicholas Rainton Ralph Freeman Rowland Heylyn c. Aldermen of the City of London Edward Waymack and Robert Bateman Chamberlain of the said City of London In which Commission the said King taking notice of this Cathedral as the goodliest Monument and most ancient Church of his whole Dominions as also that it was the principal
Monument of the City of London the Imperial Seat of this his Realm and moreover That the Commissions issued out by his Royal Father as heretofore had been observed were slackned by reason of his death but he resolving to go on therewith effectually declared as followeth viz. 1. That all Money brought in for Repair thereof should be paid into the Chamber of London 2. That William Laud then Bishop of London offered to allow 100. l. per Annum out of the Revenues of that Bishoprick during his continuance therein 3. That a Register-Book should be made of all Subscriptions for Contributions thereunto as had been done in King James his time 4. That the Iudges of the Prerogative Court and all Officials throughout the several Bishopricks in England and Wales upon the Decease of any Person Intestate should be excited to remember this Church out of what was proper to be given to pious uses And lastly That Commissions should be issued throughout the whole Kingdom Which Commissions were executed in the Country with care and diligence and seconded so strongly by the power and sollicitation of this pious Prelate that the money came flowing in apace so much being raised by Legacies by money given to pious uses and other free and voluntary Contributions before the issuing out of those Commissions as enabled the grand Commissioners to begin the work Insomuch that on the sixteenth of December Anno 1632. they found that there had been brought into the Chamber of London the Sum of 5416 li. 13 s. 6 d. And in April next ensuing the Work was begun The houses adjoyning to and near the Church being compounded for and plucked down a great part of the Church-yard paled in for Masons to work in and an order given to Inigo Iones Surveyor general of his Majesties Works on the twenty sixth of Iune next following to prepare Scaffolding for the same Which Preparations being made the first stone of this new Work was solemnly laid by our Bishop himself the second by Sir Francis Windebanke his Majesties principal Secretary of State and the third by Sir Henry Martin Knight then Judge of the Prerogative Court and the fourth by the said Inigo Iones chief Surveyor of that Fabrick each of them giving money liberally amongst the Workmen the better to encourage them to proceed therein with all honest speed The Quire or Chancel being first finished the work was carried on to the North part of the Cross Isle and so unâ—o the Western part or main body of the Cross Isle and so unto the Western part or main body of the Church This worthy Prelate continuing the Piety of his endeavours towards the compleating of this stately and Magnificent Structure as well when he was Archbishop of Canterbury to which dignity he was promoted in September following as when he was Bishop of London and was more nearly concerned in the affairs of that Church And though it be affirmed by a late Historian that many had no fancy to the work because he promoted it yet on the contrary it is known that had not he promoted it there were not many would have had the fancy to a work of that nature Some men in hope of favour and preferment from him others to hold fair quarter with him and not a few for fear of incurring his displeasure contributing more largely to it than they had done otherwise if otherwise they had contributed at all Certain I am that the Regular Clergy were so forward in it that being called together by their several Ordinaries few of them gave so little as a single tenth many a double Subsidy most in the middle betwixt both to be paid in three four or five years as the work continued Which joyned together amounting to a liberal sum not reckoning in the Deans and Chapters whom it more nearly did concern to support that Fabrick than those of the Parochial Clergy And yet it cannot be denied but that it met with many rubs and mighty enemies The Puritan Ministers and their Adherents inveighed against it as the repairing and adorning of a Rotten Relique insinuating to the people as they found occasion that it was more agreeable to the Rules of Piety to demolish such old Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry than to keep them standing For remedy whereof order was given to such as preached at St. Pauls Cross and other publick places both in City and Country to represent unto their hearers all those several motives which might not only serve to justifie but endear the work nor wanted there some zealous Patriots or such as were desirous to be so accounted on the other side who gave it out to be a cheat a mear Court device to procure money for the King without help of Parliaments which project if it might succeed the King said they would grow too absolute and take unto himself an Arbitrary form of Government the People for want of Parliaments being left remediless which false report coming to his Majesties ears he was compelled to make this Declaration of himself in all such following Commissions as were dispatched into the Country that he had not only commanded That the work of Reparation should begin but had caused an entrance to be made into it and that he was constantly resolved to follow it till it was brought to perfection whereof he required the Commissioners to satisfie all his loving Subjects of the clearness of his Royal Intention therein and to assure them in his Name that all rumours and imaginations as of diverting the money to any other purpose was but the fancies of men either grosly malevolent or causelesly jealous and distrustful The Subject being thus assured the Clergy active and the Nobility giving good example unto all the rest the work was so followed by the care of this powerful Prelate that before the year 1640. the whole body of it was finished and the Tower or Steeple Scaffolded to the very top with an intent to take it down to the very Arches and raise it to a more stately height than it had at the present with four great Pinacles at each Corner one the Arches being thought unable to support the burthen of such a Steeple as before was fired And though the publick Contribution which was brought into the Chamber of London amounted to the Sum of 101330 li. 4 s. 8 d. yet there was something more done in it by the Munificence of the King and the bounty of the private Subject His Majesty to gâ—ve life to the Work had sent in first and last 10295 li. 5 s. 6 d. toward the said Sum with part whereof he caused a stately Portico to be erected at the West end of the Church raised on Corinthian Pillars where he placed the Statues of his Royal Father King Iames and himself for a lasting memorial of this their advancement of so glorious a work Which Portico was intended to be an Ambulatory for such as by usual walking in the body of the Church
the Archbishop thought it a more noble Act to remit the crime than to trouble the Court or any of his Majesties Ministers in the prosecution But herein Prynne sped better than some others who had before been snarling at him and laboured to expose him both to scorn and danger No sooner had he mounted the Chair of Canterbury but one Boyer who not long before had broke prison to which he had been committed for felony most grosly abused him to his face accusing him of no less than High Treason For which being brought into the Star-Chamber the next Michaelmas Term he was there censured by their Lordships as the Crime deserved And presently on the neck of this one Greene a poor decayed Printer for whom his Grace then Bishop of London had procured a Pension of five pound per Annum to be paid by the Company of Stationers yearly as long as he lived adventured into the Court of St. Iames's with a great Sword by his side desperately swearing That it the King did not do him Justice against the Archbishop he would take another course with him For this committed unto Newgate but how long he staid there and what other Punishment he suffered or whether he suffered any other or not let them seek that list And that the other Sex might whet their tongues upon him also the Lady Davies the Widow of Sir Iohn Davies Atturney-General for King Iames in the Realm of Ireland scatters a Prophesie against him This Lady had before spoken something unluckily of the Duke of Buckingham importing that he should not live till the end of August which raised her to the Reputation of a Cunning Woman amongst the ignorant people and now she Prophesies of the new Archbishop That he should live but few days after the fifth of November for which and other Prophesies of a more mischievous nature she was after brought into the Court of High-Commission the Woman being grown so mad that she phancied the Spirit of the Prophet Daniel to have been infused into her Body And this she grounded on an Anagram which she made of her Name viz. ELEANOR DAVIES REVEAL O DANIEL And though the Anagram had too much by an L and too little by an S yet she found Daniel and Reveal in it and that served her turn Much pains was taken by the Court to dispossess her of this Spirit but all would not do till Lamb then Dean of the Arches shot her through and through with an Arrow borrowed from her own Quiver For whilst the Bishops and Divines were reasoning the Point with her out of Holy Scripture he took a Pen into his hand and at last hit upon this excellent Anagram viz. DAME ELEANOR DAVIES NEVER SO MAD A LADIE Which having proved to be true by the Rules of Art Madam said he I see you build much on Anagrams and I have found out one which I hope will fit you This said and reading it aloud he put it into her â—ands in Writing which happy Phansie brought that grave Court into such a laughter and the poor Woman thereupon into such a confusion that afterwards she grew either wiser or was less regarded This ended as succesfully as he could desire but he sped worse with another of his Female Adversaries The Lady Purbeck Wiâ—e of Iohn Villers Viscount Purbeck the elder Brother by the same Venter to the Duke of Buckingham had been brought into the High-Commission Anno 1627. for living openly in Adultery with Sir Robert Howard one of the younger Sons of Thomas the first Earl of Suffolk of that Family Sentenced among other things to do Penance at St. Paul's Cross she â—scaped her Keepers took Sanctuary in the Savoy and was from thence conveyed away by the French Embassador The Duke being dead all further prosecution against her died also with him which notwithstanding the proud woman being more terrified with the fear of the Punishment than the sense of the Sin vented her malice and displeasure against the Archbishop who had been very severe against her at the time of her Trial when he was come unto his Greatness spending her tongue upon him in words so full of deep disgrace and reproach unto him that he could do no less than cause her to be laid in the Gatehouse But being not long after delivered thence by the Practise of Howard afore-mentioned Howard was seised upon and laid up in her place which Punishment though it was the least that could be looked for he so highly stomach'd that as soon as the Archbishop was impeach'd by the House of Commons and committed to Custody by the Lords which hapned on Fryday December 18. 1640. he petitioned for Relief against the Archbishop and some other of the High Commissioners by whom the Warrant had been signed The Lords upon the reading of it imposed a Fine of 500 l. on the Archbishop himself and 250 l. apiece upon Lamb and Duck and pressed it with such cruel rigour that they forced him to sell his Plate to make payment of it the Fine being set on Munday the 21. of December and ordered to be paid on the Wednesday after But these Particulars have carried me beyond my year I return therefore back again and having shewed what Actings had been set on foot both in England and Scotland must now cross over into Ireland where we find Wentworth made Lord Deputy in the place of Faulkland We told you formerly of some dearness which was growing between him and Laud then Bishop of London at his first Admission to the place of a Privy-Counsellor Toward the latter end of Ianuary Anno 1630. Wentworth being then Lord President of the Council established for the Northern Parts bestowed a Visit on him at London-House where they had some private Conference touching the better Settlement of Affairs both in England and Ireland of which Kingdom Wentworth not long after was Created Lord Deputy He staid somewhat longer from his Charge than he would have done to be present at the Censure of Williams Bishop of Lincoln informed against in the Star-Chamber by his Majesties Atturney-General for some dangerous and disgraceful words which he was reported to have spoken of his Majesties Government and revealing some Secrets which his Majesty had formerly committed to his Trust as a Privy-Counsellor But Williams found so many shifts to put off the Trial that the Deputy was fain to leave him in the same estate in which he found him and hoised Sail for Ireland Scarce was he setled in his Power but he began to reform some things which he beheld as blemishes in the face of that Church In the Chappel of the Castle of Dublin the chief Seat of his Residence he found a fair large Pue at the end of the Choire erected for the use of his Predecessors in that place the Communion-Table in the mean time being thrust out of doors This Pue he commands to be taken down and the Holy Table to be restored to its ancient
and not Absolved before he make a publick Revocation of his Error Such was the Canon passed in this Convocation for the approbation and reception of the Articles of the Church of England Which Canon was no sooner passed confirmed and published but the Primate and his Party saw the danger which they had cast themselves into by their inadvertency and found too late That by receiving and approving the English Articles they had abrogated and repealed the Irish. To salve this sore it concerned them to bestir themselves with their utmost diligence and so accordingly they did For first the Primate and some Bishops of his opinions required subscription to the Articles of both Churches of all such as came to be ordained at the next Ordination But it went no further than the next for if the Papists made it a matter of Derision to have three Confessions in the three Churches of his Majesties Kingdoms How much more matter must it give them of scorn and laughter that there should be two different Confessions in the same Church and both subscribed unto but as one and the same The Primate next applies himself to the Lord Deputy beseeching him that the former Articles might receive a new Ratification by Act of Parliament for preventing all innovations in the Religion there established But he found but little comfort there the Lord Deputy threatning to cause the said Confession to be burnt by the hand of the hangman if at the least the Scots Commissioners may be believed amongst whose Articles against him I find this for one Finding no better hopes on that side of the Sea he dispatcheth his Letters of Advice to his Friends in England one to an Honourable Person amongst the rest assuring them that though by a Canon passed in that Convocation they had received and approved the Articles of England yet that the Articlers of Ireland were ever called in might well be reckoned for a fancy The like affirmed in a Certificate made by Bernard and Pullen two Members of the Lower House in this Convocation where it is said That whosoever do aver that the said Articles were abolished are grosly mistaken and have abused the said Convocation in delivering so manifest an untruth And to back this another Certificate must be gained from one who comes commended to us under the Title of a most eminent judicious and learned person who having considered of the matter Conceives that both Confessions were consistent and that the Act of the Synod was not a Revocation of the Irish Articles but an approbation of the English as agreeing with them But all this would not serve the turn or save those Articles from being brought under a Repeal by the present Canon For first it appeareth by the Canon That they did not only approve but receive the Articles of the Church of England Their approbation of them had they gone no further had been a sufficient manifestation of their agreement with the Church of England in the Confession of the same Protestant Religion But their receiving of the same doth intimate a superinducing of them upon the other and is equivalent both in Fact and Law to the Repealing of the old For otherwise St. Paul must needs be out in the Rules of Logick when he proved the Abrogating of the old Covenant by the superinduction of a new For having affirmed that God by speaking of a New Covenant had antiquated and made void the first or made the first old as our English read it he adds immediatly That that which is old decayeth and is ready to vanish away that is to say as Diodati descants on it The old being disanulled by the new there must necessarily follow the abolishment of its use and practice Nor find they any other abrogation of the Iewish Sabbath then by the superinducing of the Lords day for the day of worship By means whereof the Sabbath was lessened in authority and reputation by little and little and in short time was absolutely laid aside in the Church of Christ the fourth Commandement by which it was at first ordained being still in force So then according to these grounds the Articles of Ireland were virtually though not formally abrogated or else it must be granted that there were two Confessions in the same one Church different both in form and matter and contrary in some points unto one another which would have been so far from creating an uniformity between the Churches in the concernments of Religion that it would have raised a greater disagreement within Ireland it self than was before between the Churches of both Kingdoms And certainly the gaining of this point did much advantage the Archbishop conducing visibly to the promotion of his ends and Counsels in making the Irish Clergy subject to the two Declarations and accountable for their breaking and neglect thereof that is to say his Majesties Declaration about Lawful Sports and that prefixt before the book of Articles for appeasing Controversies Take for a farewell this acknowledgment of a late Historian speaking as well the sense of others as his own A Convocation concurrent with a Parliament was called saith he and kept at Dublin in Ireland wherein the thirty nine Articles of the Church of England were received in Ireland for all to subscribe unto It was adjudged fit seeing that Kingdom complies with England in the Civil Government it should also conform thereunto in matters of Religion And thereupon he thus concludes That in the mean time the Irish Articles concluded formerly in a Synod 1616. mistaken for 1615. wherein Arminianism was condemned in terminis terminantibus and the observation of the Lords day resolved Iure divino were utterly excluded But leaving Ireland to the care of the Lord Deputy and the Bishop of Derry who under him had the chief managing of the affairs of that Church let us see how the new Archbishop proceeds in England where he had so many plows going at once too many as it after proved to work well together For not thinking he had done enough in order to the peace and uniformity of the Church of England by taking care for it here at home his thoughts transported him with the like affection to preserve it from neglect abroad To which end he had offered some considerations to the Lords of the Council as before was said Anno 1622. relating to the regulation of Gods publick Worship amongst the English Factories and Regiments beyond the Seas and the reducing of the French and Dutch Churches settled in divers parts of this Realm unto some conformity In reference to the first he had not sate long in the Chaire of Canterbury when he procured an Order from the Lords of the Council bearing date Octob. 1. 1633. By which their English Churches and Regiments in Holland and afterwards by degrees in all other Foreign parts and plantations were required strictly to observe the English Liturgie with all the Rites and Ceremonies prescribed in it
Which Order contained the sum and substance of those considerations which he had offered to the Board touching that particular With which the Merchant Adventurers being made acquainted with joynt consent they made choice of one Beaumont reputed for a learned sober and conformable man to be Preacher to their Factory residing at Delf Forbes a Scot by birth who formerly had been Preacher to the Society being either dead or other wise departed to avoid conformity And that this man might be received with the better welcome a Letter is sent with him to the Deputy Governour subscribed by the Archbishop himself in which he signifieth both to him and the rest in his Majesties name That they were to receive him with all decent and courteous usage fitting his person and calling allowing him the ancient Pension which formerly had been paid to his Predecessors Which said in reference to the man he lets them know that it was his Majesties express command that both he the Deputy and all and every other Merchant that is or shall be residing in those parts beyond the Seas do conform themselves to the Doctrine and Discipline settled in the Church of England and that they Frequent the Common-Prayer with all Religious duty and reverence at all times required as well as they do Sermons and that out of their company they should yearly about Easter as the Canons prescribe name two Church-Wardens and two Sides-men which may look to the Orders of the Church and give an account according to their office It was also required that these present Letters should be registred and kept by them that they which come after might take notice what care his Majesty had taken for the well ordering of the said Company in Church affairs and that a Copy of the same should be delivered to the said Beaumont and to every Successor of his respectively that he and they might know what his Majesty expected of them and be the more inexcusable if they disobey it With this Dispatch bearing date the seventeenth of Iune this present year 1634. away goes Beaumont into Holland taking with him these Instructions for his own proceedings that is to say That he should punctually keep and observe all the Orders of the Church of England as they are prescribed in the Canons and the Rubricks of the Liturgie and that if any person of that Company shall shew himself refractory to that Ordinance of his Majesty he should certifie the name of any such offender and his offence to the Lord Bishop of London for the time being who was to take order and give remedy accordingly Which Order and Instructions given to Beaumont in private were incorporated also in the Letter least otherwise he might be thought to act any thing in it without good Authority And he accordingly proceeded with such honest zeal and was so punctual in observing his Majesties pleasure and commands that for a reward of his good service he was preferred unto a Prebends place in the Church of Canterbury though by the unhappy change of times it brought more reputation than advantage with it And now at last we have the face of an English Church in Holland responsal to the Bishops of London for the time being as a part of their Diocess directly and immediately subject to their Jurisdiction The like course also was prescribed for our Factories in Hamborough and those further off that is to say in Turky in the Moguls Dominions the Indian Islands the Plantations in Virginia the Barbadoes and all other places where the English had any standing Residence in the way of trade The like done also for regulating the Divine Service in the Families of all Ambassadours residing in the Courts of Foreign Princes for his Majesties Service as also in the English Regiments serving under the States The superinspection of which last was referred to Boswel his Majesties Resident at the Hague and his Successors in that place as he and all the rest of the Embassadors in what place soever were to be ordered by the care of the Lords of the Council and they to be accountable therein to his Sacred Majesty as the Supream Ordinary The English Agents and Embassadours in the Courts of Foreign Princes had not been formerly so regardful of the honour of the Church of England as they might have been in designing a set Room for religious uses and keeping up the Vestments Rites and Ceremonies prescribed by Law in performance of them It was now hoped that there would be a Church of England in all Courts of Christendom in the chief Cities of the Turk and other great Mahometan Princes in all our Factories and Plantations in every known Part of the world by which it might be rendred as diffused and Catholick as the Church of Rome In reference to the regulating of the French and Dutch Churches here amongst our selves he conceived himself in a capacity of putting his own Counsels in execution either as Bishop of the Diocess or Archbishop of the Province of Canterbury He had considered of the dangers which those Foreign Churches drew on this by standing divided and dismembred from the rest of the body and of the countenance and encouragement which was given to the Puritan Faction in the promoting of Schism There was no Traverse to be made to this Dilemma but either they were or were not of the same Religion with the Church of England If they were not of the same Religion why should they being strangers borne in other Countries or descending from them expect more Liberty of Conscience than the Papists had being all Natives and descending from English Parents If of the same why should they not submit to the Government and Forms of Worship being the outward acts and exercises of the Religion here by Law established It was now as when they first fled into this Land from the Fire and Faggot from which their own Countries having felt no Persecution for forty or fifty years last past were at this time freed And therfore if they did not like the Terms of their staying here they might return from whence they came in peace and safety with thanks to God and the good English Nation for the long and comfortable Entertainment they had found amongst them Upon these grounds and such Considerations as had before been offered to the Lords of the Council before he had sate a whole year in the Chair of Canterbury he caused these three Articles to be tendred to the French Congregation in that City and the two Dutch Congregations in Sandwich and Maidston Apr. 14. 1634. 1. What Liturgie do you use or whether you have not the Dutch or French in use 2. Of how many Descents for the most part they were born Subjects 3. Whether such as are born Subjects will conform to the Church of England For Answer to the Articles after some fruitless Pleas touching their Exemptions they obtained time till the fifth of May against which time with the
in that expectation carrying himself with such an even and steady hand that every one applauded but none envied his preferment to it insomuch as the then Lord Faulkland in a bitter Speech against the Bishops about the beginning of the Long Parliament could not chuse but give him this faire Testimony viz. That in an unexpected place and power he expressed an equal moderation and humility being neither ambitious before nor proud after either of the Crozier or White Staff The Queen about these times began to grow into a greater prevalâ—nâ—y over his Majesties Affections than formerly she had made shew of But being too wise to make any open alteration of the conduct of aâ—â—airs she thought it best to take the Archbishop into such of her Counsels as might by him be carried on to her contentment and with no dishonour to himself of which he gives this intimation in the Breviate on the thirtieth of August 1634. viz. That the Queen sent for him to Oatlands and gave him thanks for a business which she had trusted him withall promising him to be his Friend and that he should have immediate access to her when he had occasion This seconded with the like intimation given us May 18. 1635. of which he writes that having brought his account to the Queen on May 18. Whitsunday the Court then at Greenwich it was put of till the Sunday after at which time he presented it to her and received from her an assurance of all that was desired by him Panzani's coming unto London in the Christmas holydaies makes it not improbable that the facilitating of his safe and favourable reception was the great business which the Queen had committed to the Archbishops trust and for his effecting of it with the King had given him those gracious promises of access unto her which the Breviate spake of For though Panzani was sent over from the Pope on no other pretence than to prevent a Schism which was then like to be made between the Regulars and the Secular Priests to the great scandall of that Church yet under that pretence were muffled many other designs which were not fit to be discovered unto Vulgar eyes By many secret Artifices he works himself into the fauour of Cottington Windebank and other great men about the Court and at last grew to such a confidence as to move this question to some Court-Bishops viz. Whether his Majesty would permit the residing of a Catholick Bishop of the English Nation to be nominated by his Majesty and not to exercise his Function but as his Majesty should limit Upon which Proposition when those Bishops had made this Quaere to him Whether the Pope would allow of such a Bishop of his Majesties nominating as held the Oath of Allegiance lawful and should permit the taking of it by the Catholick Subjects he puts it off by pleading that he had no Commission to declare therein one way or other And thereupon he found some way to move the King for the permission of an Agent from the Pope to be addressed to the Queen for the concernments of her Religion which the King with the Advice and Consent of his Council condescended to upon condition that the Party sent should be no Priest This possibly might be the sum of that account which the Archbishop tendred to the Queen at Greenwich on the Whitsontide after Panzani's coming which as it seems was only to make way for Con of whom more hereafter though for the better colour of doing somewhat else that might bring him hither he composed the Rupture between the Seculars and the Regulars above-mentioned I cannot tell whether I have hit right or not upon these particulars But sure I am that he resolved to serve the Queen no further in her desires than might consist both with the honour and safety of the Church of England which as it was his greatest charge so did he lay out the chief parts of his cares and thoughts upon it And yet he was not so unmindful of the Foreign Churches as not to do them all good offices when it came in his way especially when the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England was not concerned in the same For in the year 1634. having received Letters from the Queen of Bohemia with whom he held a constant course of Correspondence about the furtherance of a Collection for the exiled Ministers of the Palatinate he moved the King so effectually in it that his Majesty granted his Letters Patents for the said Collection to be made in all parts of the Kingdom which Letters Patents being sealed and brought unto him for his further Direction in prosecution of the same he found a passage in it which gave him no small cause of offence and was this that followeth viz. Whose cases are the more to be deplored for that this extremity is fallen upon them for their sincerity and constancy in the true Religion which we together with them professed and which we are all bound in conscience to maintain to the utmost of our powers whereas these Religious and Godly persons being involved amongst other their Country-men might have enjoyed their Estates and Fortunes if with other backsliders in the times of Trial they would have submitted themselves to the Antichristian Yoke and have renounced or dissembled the Profession of the true Religion Upon the reading of which passage he observed two things First That the Religion of the Palatine Churches was declared to be the same with ours And secondly That the Doctrine and Government of the Church of Rome is called an Antichristian Yoke neither of which could be approved of in the same terms in which they were presented to him For first he was not to be told that by the Religion of those Churches all the Calvinian Rigors in the point of Predestination and the rest depending thereupon were received as Orthodox that they maintain a Parity of Ministers directly contrary both to the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England and that Pareus Profesâ—or of Divinity in the University of Heydelberg who was not to be thought to have delivered his own sense only in that point ascribes a power to inferiour Magistrates to curb the power controule the persons and resist the Authority of Soveraign Princes for which his Comment on the Romans had been publickly burnt by the appointment of King Iames as before is said Which as it plainly proves that the Religion of those Churches is not altogether the same with that of ours so he conceived it very unsafe that his Majesty should declare under the Great Seal of England that both himself and all his Subjects were bound in conscience to maintain the Religion of those Churches with their utmost power And as unto the other point he lookt upon it as a great Controversie not only between some Protestant Divines and the Church of Rome but between the Protestant Divines themselves hitherto not determined in any Council nor
Right of that Dukedom to the Crown of England Iersey the bigger of the two more populous and of richer soil but of no great Trading Guernsey the lesser the more barren but nourishing a wealthier People Masters of many stout Barques and managing a rich Trade with the neighbouring Nations Attempted often by the French since they seised on Normandy but always with repulse and loss the People being very affectionate to the English Government under which they enjoy very ample Priviledges which from the French they could not hope for As parts of Normandy they were subject in Ecclesiastical Matters to the Bishops of Constance in that Dukedom and so continued till the Reformation of Religion here in England and were then added to the Diocess and Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Winchester But the Genevian Discipline being more agreeable to such Preachers as came to them from France they obtained the Exercise thereof in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1565. The whole Government distinguished into two Classes or Colonies that of Iersey of it self being one and that of Guernsey with the Islands of Sark and Alderney making up the other both Classes meeting in a Synod every second or third year according to the Order of their Book of Discipline digested by Snape and Cartwright the two great Ring-leaders of that Faction here in England in a Synod held at Guernsey Iune 28. 1576. And this manner they continued till the time of King Iames when the Churches in the Isle of Iersey falling into some disorder and being under an immediate Governour who was no great Friend to Calvin's Plat-form they were necessitated for avoiding of a greater mischief to cast themselves into the Arms of the Church of England The principal Ecclesiastical Officer whilst they were under the Bishops of Constance had the Title of Dean for each Island one the several Powers both of the Chancellor and Archdeacon being united in his Person This Office is restored again his Jurisdiction marked out his Fees appointed his Revenue settled but made accountable for his Administration to the Bishops of Winchester The English Liturgie is Translated also into French to be read in their Churches Instructions first and afterwards a Body of Canons framed for Regulating both the Ministers and People in their several Duties those Canons bearing date the last of Iune in the one and twentieth year of that King For the confirming of this Island in their Conformity to the Government and Forms of Worship there established and the reducing of the others to the like condition it was resolved That the Metropolitical Visitation should be held in each of them at the next opening of the Spring And that it might be carried on with the greater assurance the Archbishop had designed a Person for his Principal Visitor who had spent some time in either Island and was well acquainted with the Bayliffs Ministers and men of special note amongst them But the Affairs of Scotland growing from bad to worse this Counsel was discontinued for the present and at last laid by for all together But these Islands were not out of his mind though they were out of sight his care extending further than his Visitation The Islanders did use to breed such of their Sons as they designed for the Ministry either at Saumur or Geneva from whence they returned well seasoned with the Leaven of Calvinism No better way to purge that old Leaven out of the Islands than to allure the people to send their Children to Oxon or Cambridge nor any better expedient to effect the same than to provide some preferments for them in our Universities It hapned that while he was intent on these Considerations that one Hubbard the Heir of Sir Miles Hubbard Citizen and Alderman of London departed this Life to whom upon an inquisition taken after his death in due form of Law no Heir was found which could lay claim to his Estate Which falling to the Crown in such an unexpected manner and being a fair Estate withal it was no hard matter for the Archbishop to perswade his Majesty to bestow some small part thereof upon pious uses To which his Majesty consenting there was so much allotted out of it as for the present served sufficiently to endow three Fellowships for the perpetual Education of so many of the Natives of Guernsey and Iersey not without some probable â—ope of doubling the number as the old Leases of it â—â—ould expire These Fellowships to be founded in Exeter Iesus and Pembroke Colledges that being disperst in several Houses there might be an increase both of Fellows and Revenues of the said foundations By means whereof he did both piously and prudently provide for those Islands and the advancement of Conformity amongst them in the times to come For what could else ensue upon it but that the breeding of some Scholars out of those Islands in that University where they might throughly acquaint themselves with the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship establisht in the Church of England they might afterwards at their return to their native Countries reduce the Natives by degrees to conform unto it which doubtless in a short time would have done the work with as much honour to the King and content to himself as satisfaction to those People It is not to be thought that the Papists were all this while asleep and that neither the disquiets in England nor the tumults in Scotland were husbanded to the best advantage of the Catholick Cause Panzani as before is said had laid the foundation of an Agency or constant correspondence between the Queens Court and the Popes and having so done left the pursuit of the design to Con a Scot by birth but of a very busie and pragmatical head Arriving in England about the middle of Summer Anno 1636. he brought with him many pretended reliques of Saints Medals and Pieces of Gold with the Popes Picture stamped on them to be distributed amongst those of that Party but principally amongst the Ladies of the Court and Country to whom he made the greatest part of his applications He found the King and Queen at Holdenby House and by the Queen was very graciously entertained and took up his chief Lodgings in a house near the new Exchange As soon as the Court was returned to Whitehall he applied himself diligently to his work practising upon some of the principal Lords and making himself very plausible with the King himself who hoped he might make some use of him in the Court of Rome for facilitating the restitution of the Prince Elector And finding that the Kings Councils were much directed by the Archbishop of Canterbury he used his best endeavours to be brought into his acquaintance But Canterbury neither liked the man nor the Message which he came about and therefore kept himself at a distance neither admitting him to Complement nor Communication Howsoever by the Kings Connivence and the Queens Indulgence the Popish Faction gathered not only strength
same Month he gives Order for a General Assembly to be held at Glasco on November 21. next following in which he could not but be sure that after so many previous Condescensions on his part they would be able to do whatsoever they listed in defiance of him For before the Assembly was Indicted the Covenanters had so laid the Plot that none but those of their own Party should have Suffrage in it as afterwards by several Orders from their Tables they directed that no Chaplain nor Chapter-man nor any who have not subscribed the Covenant should be chosen to it not suffering the Archbishops or Bishops to sit as Moderators in their Presbyteries where the Elections were to pass and citing them to appear as Criminal Persons at the said Assembly by means of which Exclusions and Prelimitations the greatest part of the Assembly did consist of such as either were irregularly chosen by the over-ruling Voices of Lay-Elders which were thrust upon them or else not capable of being Elected some of them being under the Censures of the Kirk of Scotland others under the Censures of the Church of Ireland and some not having taken the Oath of Supremacy required by the Laws of the Land Upon which just and weighty Reasons as also the Admission of the Schismatical Clergy to sit as Judges over their Bishops the intrusion of so many Lay-Elders contrary to the Constitution of former General Assemblies the countenancing of a scandalous Libel against their Function and Persons and the prejudging of their Cause in their several Presbyteries by excluding them from having any Vote in the said Assembly when they were not present to interpose or speak any thing in their own behalf the Archbishops and Bishops in the name of themselves and all which did adhere unto them prepared their Declinator or Protestation against the said General Assembly and all the Acts and Conclusions of it as being void and null in Law to all intents and purposes whatsoever The day being come Hamilton marcheth to the place appointed for the Session in the equipage of a High-Commissioner the Sword and Seal being carried before him the Lords of the Council and all the Officers of State attending on him like a King indeed The reading of his Commission the putting in and rejecting of the Declinator the chusing of Henderson to be Moderator of the Assembly the constituting of the Members of it and some Debates touching the Votes and Suffrages challenged by Hamilton for such as were Assessors to him took up all the time between their first Meeting and their Dissolution which was by Proclamation solemnly declared on the twenty ninth of the same Month having â—ate only eight days by the Kings Authority For notwithstanding the said Dissolution the Members of the said Assembly continued and kept their Session and therein passed many Acts for the utter overthrow of the Polity and Government of the Church the infringing of his Majesties Prerogative Royal and violating the Authority of Parliaments For they not only Excommunicated the Bishops and their Adherents but condemned the very Function it self to be Antichristian and utterly to be abolished out of the Church notwithstanding that several Parliaments had confirmed the same The like Censure they also past on the Service Book and Canons with the five Articles of Perth though the two first received the Stamp of Royal Authority and the five last were confirmed in Parliament also They condemned in one breath all the Arminian Tenents in case of Predestination without examining the Arguments on which they were built and declared all men subject to Excommunication and other Censures of the Church who should refuse to yield obedience to all their unlawful Actings and Determinations And though his Majesty by the same Proclamation had commanded all his faithful Subjects not to yield any obedience to their Acts and Ordinances and bound himself in the Word of a King to defend them in it yet those of the Assembly were resolved to maintain their Authority For notwithstanding his Majesties late Declaration and Commands not only the Bishops and Clergy but also as many of the Layty as had refused to subscribe to the Acts thereof were deprived of their Offices and Preferments banished their Country and forced to fly into England oâ— other places the King not being able to protect them from the power and malice of their Adversaries For having lost the opportunity of suppressing them in their first Insurrection in the year precedent aâ—d afterwards of reducing them by force of Arms in the year next following he was forced to shuffle up such a Pacification in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms Anno 1641. as left his Party dâ—â—â—â—tute of all protection but what they found in England by his Majesties Favour in providing the Clergy of some small Benefices for their present subsistance which possibly might amount to more than formerly they enjoyed in their own Country And yet the Covenanters did not play all parts in this Assembly the King and his Commissioner had one part to act which was the presenting of a Declaration containing the sum and substance of all his Majesties gracious Condescensions exprest in the several Proclamations before remembred and a Command to have it registred in the Acts and Records thereof But upon what considerations and reasons of State his Majesty might be moved to commit that Paper to be registred amongst the Acts of Assembly is beyond my reach 〈◊〉 â—â—ough many times the wisest Princes have sent out Proclamations of Grace for redress of Grievances and pardoning of fore-past o 〈…〉 yet were those Proclamations and Acts of Grace beheld no otherwise than as temporary and occasional Remedies for the present mischiefs not to be drawn into Example and much less put upon Record for the times cusuing his Majesties Condescensions had been large enough and too much to the prejudice of his Crown and Dignity without this Enrolment Nor wants it somewhat of a â—iddle that at such time as Hamilton tendred the Paper of his Majâ—stiâ—s â—racious Concessions for discharging of the Service Book c. to be enrolled amongst the Acts of the Assembly he both declared and protested that his so doing should be no acknowledgment of the lawfulness and validity of that Convention which was instantly to be dissolved or that his Majestie should give order to have those Acts of Grace and Favour enrolled in the Records of the Assembly to stand full and sure to all his good Subjects for their assurance of and in the true Religion which Assembly at the same time â—e declared to be illegal and all the Acts thereof to be null and void I must confess I am not Oedipus enough for so dark a Sphinx and must therefore leave this depth of State-craft to more able heads Only I cannot chuse but note how little his Majesty got by those Condescensions the stubborn and rebellious Scots being so far unsatisfied with these Acts of Grace that they not only forced all
as forward in it as any other that their Contributions mounted higher than was expected The Benevolence of the Diocess of Norwich only aâ—ounting to 2016 l. 16 s. 5 d. The Archdâ—acorry of Winchester only to the sum of 1305 l. 5 s. 8 d. And though we may not conclude of all the rest by the greatness of thâ—se yet may it be very safely said that they did all exceeding bountifully in their several proportions with reference to the extent of their Diocesses and the ability of their Estates Nor were the Judges of the several Benches of the Courts at Westminster and the great Officers under them Protonotaries Secondaries and the like deficient in expressing their good aâ—â—ections to this general cause in which the safety of the Realm was as much concerned as his Majesties honour And for the Doctors of the Laws Chancellors Commissaries Officials and other Officers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Courts they were spurred on to follow the example of the Secular Judges as having a more particular concernment in it by a Letter sent from the Archbishop to the Dean of the Arches on February 11. and by him communicated to the rest By which Free-will offerings on the one side some commanded duties on the other and the well-husbanding of his Majesties Revenue by the Lord Treasurer Iuxon he was put into such a good condition that he was able both to raise and maintain an Army with no charge to the Common Subject but only a little Coat and Conduct money at their first setting out These preparations were sufficient to give notice of a War approaching without any further denouncing of it by a publick Herald and yet there was another accident which seemed as much to fore-signifie it as those preparations Mary de Medices the Widow of King Henry iâ— of France and Mother to the Queens of England and Spain arrived at Harwich on October 19. and on the last of the same was with great State conducted through the Streets of London to his Majesties Palace of St. Iames. A Lady which for many years had not lived out of the smell of Powder and a guard of Muskets at her door embroyled in wars and troubles when she lived in France and drew them after her into Flanders where they have ever since continued So that most men were able to presage a Tempest as Mariâ—eâ—s by the appearing of some Fish or the flying of some Birds about their ships can foresee a storm His Majesty had took great care to prevent her comming knowing â—ull well how chargeable a guest she would prove to him and how unwelcome to the Subject To which end â—eswel was commanded to use all his wits for perswading her to stay in Holland whither she had retired from Flanders in the year precedent But she was wedded to her will and possibly had received such invitations from her Daughter here that nothing but everlasting foul weather at Sea and a perpetual cross-wind could have kept her there All things provided for the War his Majesty thought sit to satisfie his good Subjects of both Kingdoms not only of the Justice which appeared in this Action but in the unavoydable necessity which enforced him to it To which end he acquaints them by his Proclamation of the 20 of February How traiterously some of the Scottish Nation had practiced to pervert his Loyal Subjects of this Realm by scattering abroad their Libellous and Seditious Pamphlets mingling themselves at their publick meetings and reproaching both his Person and Government That he had never any intention to alter their Religion or Laws but had condescended unto more for defence thereof than they had reason to expect That they had rejected the Band and Covenant which themselves had prest upon the people because it was commended to them by his Authority and having made a Covenant against God and him and made such Hostile preparations as if he were their sworn Enemy and not their King That many of them were men of broken Fortunes who because they could not well be worse hoped by engaging in this War to make themselves better That they had assumed unto themselves the power of the Press one of the chief markes of the Regal Authority prohibiting to Print what he commanded and commanding to Print what he prohibited and dismiâ—â—ng the Printer whom he had established in that Kingdom That they had raised Arms blockt up and besieged his Castles laid Impositions and Taxes upon his people threatned such as continued under Loyalty with force and violence That they had contemned the Authority of the Council Table and set up Tables of their own from which they send their Edâ—cts throughout all parts of the Kingdom contrary to the Laws therein established pretending in the mean time that the Laws were violated by himself That the question was not now whether the Service-Book should be received or not or whether Episcopacy should continue or not but whether he were King or not That many of them had denied the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance for which some of them had been committed as inconsistent and incompatible with their holy Covenant That being brought under a necessity of taking Arms he had been traduced in some of their writings for committing the Arms he had then raised into the hands of professed Papists a thing not only dishonourable to himself and the said noble persons but false and odious in it self That some of power in the Hierarchy had been defamed for being the cause of his taking Arms to invade that Kingdom who on the contrary had been only Counsellors of peace and the chief perswaders as much as in them lay of the undeserved moderation wherewith he had hitherto proceeded toward so great Offenders That he had no intent by commending the Service-Book unto them to innovate any thing at all in their Religion but only to create a conformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms and not to infringe any of their Liberties which were according to the Laws That therefore he required all his loving Subjects not to receive any more of the said seditious Pamphlets but to deliver such of them as they had received into the hands of the next Justice of the Peace by him to be sent to one of his Majesties principal Secretaries And finally That this his Proclamation and Declaration be read in time of Divine Service in every Church within the Kingdom that all his People to the meanest might see the notorious carriages of these men and likewise the Justice and Mercy of all his proceedings And now his Majesty is for Action beginning his Journey towards the North March 27. being the Anniversary day of his Inauguration His Army was advanced before the best for quality of the Persons compleatness of Arms number of serviceable Horse and necessary Provision of all sorts that ever waited on a King of England to a War with Scotland Most of the Nobility attended on him in their Persons and such as were to be
on the Earl of Argile who had declared himself for the Covenanters at the Assembly at Glasco resolved to stand to the Conclusion which he brought along with him though he found himself unable to make good the Premises so that some days being unprofitably spent in these debates the Archbishop and the rest of the Committee made a report of the whole business to the rest of the Council who upon full consideration of all particulars came to this Result That since the Scots could not be reclaimed to their obedience by other means they were to be reduced by Force This was no more then what the Scots could give themselves Reason to expect and therefore they bestirred themselves as much on the other side Part of the Walls of the Castle of Edenborough with all the Ordnance upon it had fallen down on the nineteenth of November last being the Anniversary day of his Majesties Birth not without some presage of that ill fortune which befel him in the course of this War for the Repair whereof they would neither suffer Timber nor any other Materials to be carried to it but on the contrary they began to raise Works and Fortifications against it with an intent to block it up and render it unuseful to his Majesties Service And to keep the Souldiers therein Garrisoned most of them English to hard meats they would not suffer them to come into the Market to recruit their Victuals They made Provisions of great quantity of Artillery Munition and Arms from Foreign Parts laid Taxes of ten Marks in the hundred upon all the Subjects according to their several Revenues which they Levied with all cursed Rigour though bruiting them abroad to be Free-will Offerings scattered abroad many Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlets for justifying themselves and seducing others some of which were burnt in England by the hand of the Hangman Fortified Inchgarvie and other places which they planted with Ordnance Imprisoned the Earl of Southesk and other Persons of Quality for their fidelity to the King took to themselves the Government of the City of Edenborough contrary to their Charters and Immunities by which the Citizens were disabled from serving his Majesty in any of his just Commands and finally employed their Emissaries in all Parts of England to disswade those who were too backward of themselves from contributing to the War against them and to sollicit from them such several Aids as might the better enable them to maintain the War against their Sovereign But their chief Correspondence was with France and Ireland In France they had made sure of Cardinal of Richelieu who Governed all Affairs in that Kingdom Following the Maxim of Queen Elizabeth in securing the Peace of his own Country by the Wars of his Neighbours he practised the Revolt of Portugal and put the Catalonians into Arms against their King to the end that he might waste the fiery Spirit of the French in a War on Flanders with the better fortune and success But knowing that it was the Interest of the Crown of England to hold the Balance even between France and Spain and that his Majesty by removing the Ships of Holland which lay before Duynkirk Anno 1635. had hindred the French from making such a Progress by Land as might have made them Masters of the Spanish Netherlands he held it a chief piece of State-Craft as indeed it was to excite the Scots against their King and to encourage them to stand it out unto the last being so excited Upon which ground he sent Chamberlain a Scot by Birth his Chaplain and Almoner to assist the Confederates in advancing the business and to attempt all ways for exasperating the first heat with Order not to depart from them till things succeeding as he wished he might return with good News And on the same appointed one of his Secretaries to reside in Scotland to march along with them into England to be present at all Councils of War and direct their business And on the other side Hamiltons Chaplains had free accesses unto Con the same Countryman also at such time as Chamberlain was Negotiating for the Cardinal to â—oment the Flames which had begun to rage already And by a Letter subscribed by the Earl of Rothes and others of chief note amongst the Covenanters they craved the Assistance of that King cast themselves upon his Protection beseeching him to give credit to Colvill the Bearer thereof whom they had instructed in all Particulars which concerned their Condition and Desires In Ireland they had a strong Party of Natural Scots planted in Vlster by King Iames upon the forfeited Estates of Tir-Owen Tir-Connel Odighirtie c. not Scots in Birth and Parentage only but Design and Faction But Wentworth was not to be told of their secret Practices he saw it in their general disposition to Schism and Faction and was not unacquainted with their old Rebellions It must be his care that they brake not into any new which he performed with such a diligent and watchful eye that he crushed them in the very beginning oâ— the Combination seising upon such Ships and Men as came thither from Scotland Imprisoning some Fining others and putting an Oath upon the rest By which Oath they were bound to abjure the Covenant not to be aiding to the Covenanters against the King nor to Protest against any of his Royal Edicts as their Brethren in Scotland used to do For the refusing of which Oath he Fined one Sir Henry Steward and his Wife Persons of no less Power than Disaffection at no less than 5000 l. apiece two of their Daughters and one Iames Gray of the same Confederacy at the Sum of 3000 l. apiece committing them to Prison for not paying the Fines imposed upon them All which he justified when he was brought unto his Trial on good Reasons of State There being at that time one hundred thousand Souls in Ireland of the Scottish Nation most of them passionately affected to the Cause of the Covenanters and some of them conspiring to betray the Town and Castle of Carickfergus to a Nobleman of that Country for which the Principal Conspirator had been justly Executed Nor staid he here but he gave finally a Power to the Bishop of Down and Connor and other Bishops of that Kingdom and their several Chancellors to attach the Bodies of all such of the meaner sort who either should refuse to appear before them upon Citation or to perform all Lawful Decrees and Orders made by the said Bishops and their Chancellors and to commit them to the next Gaol till they should conform or answer the Contempt at the Council-Table By means whereof he made the poorer sort so pliant and obedient to their several Bishops that there was good hopes of their Conformity to the Rules of the Church Having thus carried on the affairs of Scotland till the end of this year we must return to our Archbishop whom we shall find intent on the preservation of the
added in all those to the several Bishops to give notice to all Deans and Archdeacons to attend the Parliament in their own Persons all Chapters by one Proxie and the Diocesan Clergy by two for yielding their Consent and Obedience to such Laws and Ordinances as by the Common Council of the Kingdom shall be then Enacted Which Clause remains still in those Letters though not still in practice Writs are sent out also to the several Sheriffs acquainting them with his Majesties purpose of consulting in a Parliamentary way with the Peers and Prelates and other Great Men of the Realm the Judges and Officers of State c. and then requiring them to cause two Knights to be elected for every County two Citizens for every City or more Burgesses for every Burrough according as the place is priviledged in their several Shires All of them to attend in Parliament at the time appointed no otherwise Impowered than the Deans Archdeacons and the rest of the Clergy by their formal Writs But in the calling of a Convocation the form is otherwise for in this case the King directs his Writs to the two Archbishops requiring them for the great and weighty Reasons above-mentioned to cause a Convocation of the Clergy to be forthwith called leaving the nominating of the Time and Place to their discretion though for the ease of the Bishops and Clergy commanded to attend in Parliament as before was said the Archbishop used to nominate such Time and Place as might most sort with that Attendance On the receiving of which Writ the Archbishop of Canterbury sends his Mandate to the Bishop of London as Dean of the Episcopal Colledge requiring him to Cite and Summon all the Bishops Deans Archdeacons and Capitular Bodies with the whole Clergy of the Province according to the usual form to appear before him at such place and time as he therein nominated and that the Procurators for the Chapter and Clergy be furnished with sufficient powers by those that sent them not only to treat upon such points as should be propounded for the peace of the Church and defence of the Realm of England and to give their Counsel in the same but also to consent both in their own names and in the names of them that sent them unto all such things as by mature deliberation and consent should be there ordained Which Mandate being received by the Bishop of London he sends out his Citations to the several Bishops of that Province and they give intimation of it to the Clergy of their several Diocesses according whereunto the Chapters and Parochial Clergy do elect their Clerks binding themselves under the forfeiture of all their goods movable and immovable to stand to and perform whatsoever the said Clerks shall say or do in their behalf Both Bodies being thus assembled are to continue their attendance in the publick Service during the pleasure of the King the Acts of both to be invalid till confirmed by his Majesty the one most commonly by himself sitting upon his Royal Throne in open Parliament the other alwaies by Letters Patents under the Great Seal neither of the two to be dissolved but by several Writs That for the Parliament directed to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper as the case may vary That for the Convocation issued out to the Metropolitans of the several Provinces In this and this alone they diâ—fer as to matter of Form that the Peers and People assembled in Parliament may treat debate and conclude of any thing which is to be tendred to the King for his Royal Assent without any other power than the first Writ by vertue whereof they are assembled But the Bishops and Clergy are restrained in their Covocation by the Statute of the 25 Henry viii from treating debating forming and concluding of any Canons or Constitutions or doing any Ecclesiastical Acts tending to the determination of Controversies or decreeing Ceremonies till they are licenced thereunto by the Kings Commission All which particulars I have thought fit to touch at in this present place because we are to relate unto them in the course of our business At the opening of the Parliament the Sermon was preached before his Majesty the Peers and Prelates by the Bishop of Ely The Sermon being done they passed in the accustomed State to the Parliament House to which the Commons being called his Majesty acquainted them with the indignities and affronts even to the taking up of Arms against him which he had suffered from some of his Subjects in Scotland required their assistance to reduce them to their due obedience advising them to go together for chusing their Spâ—aker and so to proceed unto their business But all they did in order to his Commands was the admitting of Glanvile a right learned Lawyer whom his Majesty had commended to them to be the Speaker for their House Their Grievances must first be heard and the safety of Religion provided for before the matter of supply was to be considered This was enough to give aâ— hint to the Archbishop that an enquiry would be made into all his Actions to the disturbance of the work which he had begun and was in no small hope to perfect For remedy whereof he was resolved to make use of a friend in the House of Commons for offering this motion to the rest viz. That a certain number of that House would joyn in Conference with as many of the Clergy assembled in Convocation touching all doubts and differences which might happen to arise amongst them in matters which concerned the Church And this he did upon this reason that if the motion were accepted the Committee for the Clergie in Convocation might give satisfaction to that of the House of Commons in all such matters Doctrinal or points of Ceremony which should come before them But if the motion were rejected he should then get the start in point of Reputation amongst knowing men the refusing of so fair an offer bearing witness for him that their Proceedings were directed rather by power and interest than by truth and reason But the short life of this Parliament made that Counsel useless For the Commons doing nothing which the King desired and the King desiring nothing more than that they would speedily resolve one way or other the Lords agreed upon a Vote for desiring a Conference with the Commons the better to dispose them to this point that his Majesties supply should have precedency of the Subjects Grievances This voted by the Commons for a breach of their Priviledges and the Peers censured for it as having been transported beyond their bounds To calm which heat his Majesty made offer for twelve Subsidies to relinquish all his right to the Naval aide of late called Ship-money which had been anciently enjoyed by his Predecessors But the Proposition though it came but to three years purchase would not down amongst them At last they came unto a resolution of yielding somewhat toward his Majesties
supply but in the grant thereof blasted his Majesties Expedition against the Scots whose Cause they resolved to make their own and received thanks from them for that favour in their next Remonstrance Which coming to his Majesties ears on Munday the fourth of May he called his Council together on the next Morning betimes by whose unanimous consent he dissolved the Parliament On Tuesday April 14 the Convocation assembled in the Chapter-house of the Church of St. Paul from whence they waited on his Grace and the rest of the Bishops to hear the Sermon in the Quire The Sermon preacht by Turner Residentiary of the Church His Text was taken out of Mat. 10.16 Behold I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves which he followed home unto the Purpose In the close of the Sermon he had a passage in these words or to this effect that all the Bishops held not the Reins of Church Discipline with an even hand but that some of them were too easie and remiss in the ordering thereof Whereby though they sought to gain to themselves the popular plause of meekness and mildness they occasionally cast on other Bishops more severe than themselves the unjust imputation of Rigour and Tyranny and therefore he advised them withall with equal strictness to urge an universal Conformity The Sermon ended the Clergy fell to the electing of their Prolocutor as before commanded pitching unanimously on Dr. Richard Steward Clerk of his Majesties Closet and Dean of Chichester to be presented the next day to the Archbishop and the rest of the Prelates in the Chappel of King Henry vii at Westminster to which the Synod was adjourned The next day being come after a Protestation made in writing by the Sub-Dean and Prebendaries of that Church for not acknowledging the Archbishop of Canterbury or the rest of the Bishops to have any Jurisdiction in that place and the admitting of the same for good and valid they were permitted to proceed in their Convocation The business of that day was the presenting of the Prolocutor by Sheldon Warden of All-souls his Admission by the Archbishop and Stewards unwilling readiness to discharge the Office each of them delivering their conceptions in Elegant Latine Speeches as the custome is but the Archbishops longer than both the rest Which Ceremonies being performed his Grace produced a Commission under the Great Seal by which they were enabled according to the said Statute of King Henry viii to propose treat consult and agree upon the Exposition or Alteration of any Canon then in force and upon such new Canons Orders and Constitutions as the said Bishops and Clergy of which the Lord Archbishop to be alwaies one should think â—it necessary and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof to be performed and kept by the said Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Clergy in their several places as also by the Dean of the Arches and by all others having Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Province of Canterbury and by all other persons within this Realm so far as being Members of this Church they may be concerned Provided alwaies that no such Canons Orders or Constitutions so to be considered on as aforesaid be contrary or repugnant to the Liturgy established or the Rubricks in it or the 39 Articles or any Doctrinal Orders and Ceremonies of the Church of England already established as also that nothing should be done in execution of the same till being exhibited to his Majesty in writing to be allowed approved confirmed and ratified or otherwise disallowed annihilated and made void as he should think fit requisite and convenient and then to be allowed approved and confirmed by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England Also the said Commission to continue and remain in force during the present Session of Parliament and to expire together with it For the procuring of this Commission as the Archbishop had good reason as well for countenancing and confirming his former Actings as for rectifying many other things which required reformation so had his Majesty as good reasons for the granting of it the grounds whereof contained in his Commission of Iune 13. for confirming all the Acts of this Convocation are to this effect He had been given to understand that many of his Subjects being misled against the Rites and Ceremonies then used in the Church of England had taken offence at the same upon an unjust supposal That they were not only contrary to Law but also introductive unto Popish Superstitions whereas it well appeared unto him upon mature deliberation that the said Rites and Ceremonies which were then so much quarrelled at were not only approved of and used by those godly and learned Divines to whom at the time of the Reformation under King Edward vi the compiling of the Book of Common-Prayer was committed divers of which suffered Martyrdom in Queen Maries daies but also again taken up by this whole Church under Queen Elizabeth Which Rites so taken up had been so duly and ordinarily practiced for a great part of her Reign within the memory of divers living as that it could not then be imagined that there would need any Rule or Law for the observation of the same nor that they could be thought to savour of Popery He found too plainly that since those times for want of an express Rule therein and by the subtle practices of some men the said Rites and Ceremonies began to fall into disuse and in place thereof other Foreign and unfitting usages by little and little to creep in But being he found withal that in the Royal Chappels and in many other Churches most of them had been ever constantly used and observed his Majesty could not but be very sensible of the inconvenience And he had cause also to conceive that the Authors and Fomenters of those Jealousies though they coloured the same with a pretence of zeal and did seem to strike only at some supposed iniquity in the said Ceremonies yet aimed at his Royal Person and would have his good Subjects think that he himself was perverted and did worship God in a superstitious way and that he did intend to bring in some alteration in the Religion here established From which how far he was and how utterly he detested the very thought thereof he had by his many Declarations and upon sundry other occasions given such assurance to the World that no man of wisdom and discretion could ever be so beguiled as to give any serious entertainment to such brainsick Jealousies And as for the weaker sort who were prone to be misled by crafty seducers he alwaies assured himself that as many of them as had loyal or but charitable hearts would from thenceforth utterly banish all such causeless fears and surmises upon those his Sacred Professions so often made as a Defender of the Christian Faith their King and Sovereign He
perceived in the next place That the Ring-leaders of many well-minded people did make the more advantage for the nourishing of such distempers amongst them because the aforesaid Rites and Ceremonies or some of them were now insisted upon but only in some Diocesses and were not generally received in all places nor constantly nor uniformly practiced throughout all the Churches in the Kingdom and thereupon have been liable to be quarrelled and opposed by them who use them not In imitation therefore of the pious Examples of King Edward vi Queen Elizabeth and King Iames of Blessed Memories he thought it most agreeable to his own Honour and the good of his People to Licence the Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Clergie in their several Convocations to make such further Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as should be found necessary for the Advancing of Gods Glory the Edifying of the Holy Church and the due Reverence of his Blessed Mysteries and Sacraments And this he did to this end and purpose That as he had been ever careful and ready to cut off Superstition with the one hand so he might also expell Profaneness and Irreverence with the other By means whereof it might please Almighty God to bless him and this Church committed to his Government that it might at once return to the true former splendour of Uniformity Devotion and holy Order the last whereof for many years last past had been much obscured by the devices of some ill affected to it where it had long stood from the very beginning of the Reformation and through inadvertency of some in Authority in the Church under him Such were the Motives which induced his Majesty to grant this Commission which was exceeding acceptable to the greatest and best affected part of the whole Assembly as being an evident demonstration of the Trust and Confidence which his Majesty had reposed in them In a grateful acknowledgment whereof for the support of his Majesties Royal Estate and the effectual furtherance of his most Royal and Extraordinary Designs abroad they gave him six Subsidies after the rate of four shillings in the pound to be paid in the six years then next following by two equal parts or moyeties in every year appointing a Committee to put the Grant into form and make it ready for a Confirmation by Act of Parliament But the first thing in which they acted by this Commission was the tendring of a Canon to them by the Archbishop of Canterbury For suppressing the further growth of Popery and reducing Papists to the Church with Order to the Prolocutor and inferiour Clergy to enlarge and perfect it as to them seemed most conducible to the end desired But afterward considering how much it might redound to his estimation that the said Canon should proceed intirely from himself alone he recalled the Paper into his own hands and after some time of deliberation returned it back unto the Clergy in the very same words in which it passed By which so framed and enlarged it was Ordained That all and every Person or Persons of what Rank soever having and exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as also all Persons entrusted with Cure of Souls should use respectively all possible care and diligence by open Conferences with the Parties and by Censures of the Church in inferiour and higher Courts as also by Complâ—ints unto the Secular Power to reduce all such to the Church of England who were misled into Popish Superstition Those publick Conferences to be managed by the Bishop in person if his Occasion will permit it or by some one or more Learned Men of his especial appointment The time and place of such Conferences with the Names of the Persons to be admitted to the same to be of the Bishops nomination Such Papists as refuse to appear at any of the said Coâ—ferences to be counted obstinate and such Ministers as should refuse to act therein without a reasonable Cause approved by the Bishop to be Suspended for six Months Provided That the place appointed for the said Conferences be not distant above ten miles from their dwelling Houses That in case such Conferences produce not the effect desired all Ecclesiastical Persons shall then be careful to inform themselves of all Recusants above the age of 12 years in their several Parishes as well concerning their not coming to the Church as their resorting to other places to hear Mass of all such as be active in seducing the Subjects from coming to Church and disswading them from taking the Oath of Allegiance the Names of all such to be presented that being cited and found obstinate they might be publickly Excommunicated as well in the Cathedral as their Parish Churches The like course to be also taken by the Diocesans in places of exempt Jurisdiction and the Offenders to be turned over to the High-Commission That the Names of all such as are presented in any Inferiour Jurisdiction be transmitted within six Months to the Diocesans by them to be returned toâ—ether with the Names of such as have been presented in their own Visitations to his Majesties Justices of Assize in their several Circuits And the same course to be also taken in returning the Names of all such persons as have been either Married or Buried or have â—ave had their Children Christned in any other form than according to the Rules of the Church of England to the intent they may be punished according to the Statutes in that behalf That Information be given by all Churchwardens upon their Oaths what persons are imployed as Schoolmasters in Recusants Houses to the end that if they have not or will not subscribe they may be forbidden and discharged from teaching Children any longer And the Names of all Persons which entertain such Schoolmasters to be certified at the next Assizes Such Schoolmasters to incur the publick Censure of the Church as do not carefully instruct the Children committed to them in the publick Catechism and the Names of such Parents as either thereupon shall take away their said Children or otherwise send them to be educated beyond the Seas to be presented upon Oath at the Visitations and certified also to the said Justices as before is said that the said Parents may be punished according to Law The said Certificate to be presented to the Judges by the Bishops Registers immediately on the Reading of the Commission or at the end of the Charge upon pain of Suspension for three Months from their several Offices The said Judges and Justices being entreated and exhorted not to fail of putting the said Laws in execution and not to admit of any vexatious Suit or Suits against any Churchwardens or other sworn Officers for doing their duty in this kind That a Significavit be made in Chancery by all the several Bishops of the Names of all such persons as have stood Excommunicated beyond the time limited by the Laws desiring that the Writ De Excommunicato capiendo may be issued against them
come he was conveyed in Maxwell's Coach without any disturbance till he came to the end of Cheapside from whence he was followed by a railing Rabble of rude and uncivil People to the very Gates of the Tower Where having taken up his Lodging and settled his small Family in convenient Rooms he diligently resorted to the Publick Chappel of that place at all times of Worship being present at the Prayers and Sermons and some 〈…〉 â—earing himselâ— uncivilly reviled and pointed at as it were by 〈…〉 Preachers sent thither of purpose to disgrace and vex 〈◊〉 All which Indignities he endured with such Christian meekâ—â—ss as rendred him one of the great Examples both of Patience and 〈◊〉 these latter Times The principal things contained in the Charge of the Scots Commissioners were these that follow viz. That he had press'd upon that 〈◊〉 many Innovations in Religion contained in the Liturgie and 〈◊〉 of Canons contrary to the Liberties and Laws thereof That he had written many Letters to Ballentine Bishop of Dumblane and Dean of the Kings Chappel in Scotland in which he required him and the 〈◊〉 of the Bishops to be present at the Divine Service in their Whites 〈◊〉 blamed the said Bishop for his negligence and slackness in it and â—â—xing him for Preaching Orthodox Doctrine against Arminianism that he had caused the said Bishop to be reprehended for commanding a Solemn Fast to be kept in his Diocess on the Lords day as if they had offended in it against Christianity it self That he gave order for the â—aking down of Stone Walls and Galleries in the Churches of Edenborougâ— to no other end but for the setting up of Altars and Adoration 〈◊〉 the East That for their Supplicating against these Novations they were encountred by him with terrible Proclamations from his Maâ—â—â—â— declared Rebels in all the Parish-Churches of England and a 〈…〉 against them by his Arts and Practices That after the Pa 〈◊〉 made at Perwick he frequently spake against it as dishonou 〈◊〉 and unfit to be kept their Covenant by him called ungodly and 〈…〉 Oaths imposed upon their Countrymen to abjure the same That 〈…〉 nâ—t in the presence of the King and their Commissioners to 〈…〉 the General Assembly held at Glasco and put his Hand un 〈…〉 for Imprisoning some of those Commissioners sent from the Parliament of Scotland for the Peace of both Nations That when the late Parliament could not be moved to assist in the War against them he had caused the same to be dissolved and continued the Con 〈◊〉 to make Canons against them and their Doctrines to be punished four times in every year That he had caused six Subsidies to 〈…〉 on the Clergy for maintaining the War and Prayer to be made 〈◊〉 all Parish-Churches That shame might cover their faces as Enemies to God and the King And finally That he was so industrious in advancing Popery in all the three Kingdoms that the Pope himself could not have been more Popish had he been in his place Such was the Charge exhibited by the Scots Commissioners in which was nothing criminal enough to deserve Imprisonment much less to threaten him with Death And as for that brought up from the House of Commons it consisted of fourteen General Articles as before was said ushered in with a short Preamble made by Pym and shut up with a larger Aggravation of the Offences comprehended in the several Articles the substance of which Articles was to this effect 1. That he had Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Realm to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government and to perswade his Majesty That he might Lawfully raise Money of the Subject without their common Consent in Parliament 2. That to this end he had caused divers Sermons to be Preached and Books to be Printed against the Authority of Parliaments and for asserting an absolute and unlimited Power over the Persons and Goods of the Subjects to be not only in the King but also in himself and the rest of the Bishops and had been a great Promoter of such by whom the said Books and Sermons had been made and published 3. That by several Messages Letters Threatnings c. he had interrupted and perverted the Course of Iustice in Westminster-Hall whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects had been stopp'd in their just Suits and thereby made subject to his will 4. That he had traiterously and corruptly sold Iustice to such as had Causes depending before him and taken unlawful Gifts and Bribes of his Majesties Subjects and had advised and procured his Majesty to sell Places of Iudicature and other Offices 5. That he had caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published without lawful Authority in which were many things contained contrary to the Kings Prerogative the Fundamental Laws c. and had caused many of the same to surreptitiously passed and afterwards by fear and compulsion to be subscribed by the Prelates and Clerks there assembled notwithstanding they had never been Voted and Passed in the Convocation 6. That he hath assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Eccesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesties Subjects in this Realm and other places to the disherison of the Crown dishonour of his Majesty and derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters 7. That he had endeavoured to alter and subvert Gods true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end had maintained many Popish Doctrines enjoyned many Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies and cruelly vexed and persecuted such as refused to conform unto them 8. That 〈◊〉 order thereunto he had intruded into the Rights of many of his Majesties Officers and Subjects in procuring to himself the Nomination of divers Persons to Ecclesiastical Benefices and had taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King promoting and commending none but such as were Popishly affected or otherwise unsound in Doctrine or corrupt in Manners 9. That to the same intent he had chosen such men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion and had committed unto them or some of them the Licencing of Books to be Printed whereby many false and Superstitious Books had been Published to the great scandal of Religion and the seducing of many of his Majesties Subjects 10. That he had endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome confederating to that end with divers Popish Priests and Iesuits holding Intelligence with the Pope and permitting a Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be established in this Kingdom 11. That in his own Person and by others under his Command he had caused divers Godly and Orthodox Ministers of Gods Word to be Silenced Suspended and otherwise grieved without any lawful or just cause hindred the Proaching of Gods Word cherished Prophaneness and Ignorance amongst the People and compelled
point that he put himself into a Cock-boat with Stapleton and some others of his principal Friends and left his whole Army to his Majesties mercy His Horse taking the Advantage of a dark night made a shift to escape but the Commanders of the Foot came to this Capitulation with his Majesty that they should depart without their Arms which with their Cannon Baggage and Ammunition being of great Consideration were left wholly to his disposing Immediately after this success his Majesty dispatched a message from Tavestock to the two Houses of Parliament in which he laid before them the miserable Condition of the Kingdom remembring them of those many Messages which he had formerly sent unto them for an accommodation of the present differences and now desiring them to bethink themselves of some expedient by which this Issue of blood might be dried up the distraction of the Kingdom settled and the whole Nation put into an hope of Peace and Happiness To which message as to many others before they either gave no Answer or such an one as rather served to widen then close the breach falsly conceiving that all his Majesties offers of Grace and Favour proceeded either from an inability to hold out the War or from the weakness and irresolution of his Counsels But if instead of thâ—s Message from Tavestock his Majesty had gone on his own errand and marched directly toward London it was conceived in all probability that he might have made an end of the War secured the life of the Archbishop his most trusty Servant and put an end to those calamities which the continuance and conclusion of the War brought with it The Army of Essex being thus broken and that of Manchester not returned from the Northern Service He could not chuse but have observed in the course of that Action with what a Military Prudence Lesly had followed at the heels of the Marquis of Newcastle not stopping or diverting upon the by till he had brought his Army before York the gaining whereof as being the chief City of those parts brought in all the Rest. And certainly it hath been counted no dishonour in the greatest Souldiers to be instructed by their enemies in the feats of War But the King sitting down before Plymouth as before Glocester the last year and staying there to perfect an Association of the Western Counties he spent so much time that Essex was again in the head of his Army and being seconded by Manchester and Waller made a stand at Newbury where after a very sharp dispute the Enemy gained some of his Majesties Cannon which struck such a terrour into many of those about him that they advised him to withdraw his Person out of the danger of the Fight as he did accordingly But this he did so secretly and with so slender a Retinue that he was not mist His Army holding on the â—ight with a greater courage because they thought the safety of his Majesties Person did depend upon it whose departure if it had been known would questionless have created such a general dejection in the hearts of his Souldiers as would have rendred them to a cheap discomfiture But the Lost Cannon being regained and the fight continued with those of his Majesties party with greater advantage then before each Army drew of by degrees so that neither of them could find any great cause to boast of the victory This Summers Action being ended in which the Scots had done very good service to the Houses of Parliament it was thought necessary to proceed in the Tryal of the Archbishop of Canterbury which had taken up so much time already that it seemed ready for a sentence But there appeared more difficulty in it then at first was lookt for For being admitted to a Recapitulation of his whole defence before the Lords in the beginning of September it gave such a general satisfaction to all that heard it that the mustering up of all the evidence against him would not take it off To prove the first branch of the charge against him they had ript up the whole course of his Life from his first coming to Oxford till his Commitment to the Tower but could find no sufficient Proof of any design to bring in Popery or suppress the true Protestant Religion here by Law Established For want whereof they insisted upon such Reproches as were laid upon him when he lived in the University the beautifying of his Chappel Windows with Pictures and Images the Solemn Consecration of Churches and Chappels the Placing of the Communion Table Altar-wise and making Adoration in his Accesses to or Approches toward it Administring the Sacrament with some more Solemnities then in Ordinary Parochial Churches though constantly observed in his Majesties Chappels the care and diligence of his Chaplains in expunging some offensive passages out of such Books as were to be licenced for the Press and tâ—eir permitting of some passages to remain in others which were supposed to â—avor of Popery and Arminianism because they crost the sense of Calvin the preferring of many able men to his Majesties Service and to advancements in the Church who must the Stigmatized for Papists or Arminians because they had not sworn themselves into Calvins Faction his countenancing two or three Popish Priests for no more are named of whom good use was to be made in Order to the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England as had before been done by Bancroft and others of his Predeâ—â—ssors since the Reformation Such were the proofs of his designs to bring in Popery and yet his plots and purposes for suppressing tâ—e true Protestant Religion had less proofs then this Of which sort were His severe proceedings in the High Commission against some Factious Ministers and Seditious Lecturers the sentencing of Sherfield for defacing a Parish Church in Salisbury under colour of a Vestry-order in contempt of the Diocesan Bishop who then Lived in that City the pressing of his Majesties two Declarations the one for Lawful Sports the other for Silencing unnecessary though not unlawful Disputations His zeal in overthrowing the Corpoâ—ation of Feoffees which had no Legal Foundation to stand upon and seemed destructive to the Peace of the Church and State in the eyes of all that pierc'd into it and finally the Piety of his endeavours for uniting the French and Dutch Congregations to the Church of England in which he did nothing without Warrant or against the Law Such were the Crimes or Treasons rather which paint him out with such an ugly countenance in the Book called Canterburies Doom as if he were the Greatest Traytor and the most Execrable Person that ever had been bred in England And he is promised to be Painted out in such Lively Colours in the following Branches of his Charge as should for ever render him as Treasonable and as Arch a Malefactor as he was in the others and in both alike that promise never being performed in the space of a Dozen
the execution of such penal Laws as were made against them The People hereupon began to cry out generally of a Toleration and murmur in all places against the King as if he were resolved to grant it And that they might not seem to cry out for nothing a Letter is dispersed abroad under the name oâ— Archbishop Abbot In this Letter his Majesty is told That by granting any such Toleration he should set up the most damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the whore of Babylon That it would be both hateful to God grievous to his good Subjects and contradictory to his former Writings in which he had declared their Doctrines to be Superstitious Idolatrous and detestable That no such toleration could be granted but by Parliament only unless it were his purpose to shew his people that he would throw down the Laws at his pleasure That by granting such a Toleration there must needs follow a discontinuance of the true Profession of the Gospel and what could follow thereupon but Gods heavy wrath and indignation both on himself and all the Kingdom That the Prince was not only the Son of his Flesh but the Son of his People also and therefore leaves him to consider what an errour he had run into by sending him into Spain without the privity of his Council and consent of his Subjects And finally That though the Princes return might be safe and prosperous yet they that drew him into that dangerous and desperate Action would not scape unpunished This was the substance of the Letter whosoever was the Writer of it For Abbot could not be so ill a Statesman having been long a Privy Councellour as not to know that he who sitteth at the Helm must stear his course according unto wind and weather And that there was a very great difference betwixt such personal indulgencies as the King had granted in that case to his Popish Subjects and any such Publick Exercise of their Superstitions as the word Toleration doth import and howsoever that it was a known Maxime in the Arts of Government that necessity over-rules the Law and that Princes many times must act for the publick good in the infringing of some personal and particular rights which the Subjects claim unto themselves Nor could he be so ignorant of the Kings affections as to believe that the King did really intend any such toleration though possibly he might be content on good reason of State that the people should be generally perswaded of it For well he knew that the King loved his Soveraignty too well to quit any part thereof to the Pope of Rome and consequently to part with that Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters as needs he must have done by a Toleration which he esteemed the fairest Flower in the Royal Garland In which respect King Iames might seem to be made up of Caesar and Pompey as impatient of enduring an equal as of admitting a Superiour in his own Dominions Or had he been a greater stranger at the Court than can be imagined yet could he not be ignorant that it was the Kings chief interest to preserve Religion in the same state in which he found it and could not fear but that he would sufficiently provide for the safety of it Upon which Premises it may be rationally inferred that Abbot was only the reputed Author of this Bastard Letter and not the natural Parent of it Nor was the Toleration more feared by the English Protestants than hoped for by the Papists here and presumed by the Pope himself In confidence whereof he nominated certain Bishops to all the Episcopal Sees of England to exercise all manner of Jurisdiction in their several and respective Diocesses as his false and titular Bishops did in the Church of Ireland The intelligence whereof being given to the Jesuites here in England who feared nothing more than such a thing one of them who formerly had free access to the Lord Keeper Williams acquaints him with this mighty secret assuring him that he did it for no other reason but because he knew what a great exasperation it would give the King and consequently how much it would incense him against the Catholicks Away with this Intelligence goes the Lord Keeper to the King who took fire thereat as well as he and though it was somewhat late at night commanded to go to the Spanish Embassadour and to require him to send unto the King his Master to take some course that those proceedings might be stopt in the Court of Rome or otherwise that the Treaty of the Match should advance no further The Lord Keeper finds the Embassadour ready to send away his Pacquet who upon hearing of the news commanded his Currier to stay till he had represented the whole business in a Letter to the King his Master On the receiving of which Letter the King imparts the same to the Popes Nuncio in his Court Who presently sends his dispatches to the Pope acquainting him with the great inconveniences and unavoidable dangers of this new design which being stopt by this device and the Treaty of the Match ending in a rupture not long after the same Jesuite came again to the Lord Keepers Lodging and in a fair and facetious manner thanked him most humbly for the good office he had done for that Society for breaking and bearing off which blow all the friends they had in Rome could find no buckler Which Story as I heard from his Lordships own mouth with no small contentment so seemed he to be very well pleased with the handsomness of the trick which was put upon him Laud was not sleeping all this while It was not possible that a man of such an Active Spirit should be out of work and he had work enough to do in being the Dukes Agent at the Court The Marquiss was made Duke of Buckingham at his being in Spain to make him more considerable in the eye of that Court and this addition to his honours was an addition also to that envy which was borne against him Great Favourites have for the most part many enemies such as are carefully intent upon all occasions which may be made use of to supplant them Which point the Duke had so well studied that though he knew himself to be a very great Master of the Kings affections yet was he apprehensive of the disadvantages to which this long absence would expose him It therefoâ—e concerned him nearly to make choice of some intelligent and trusty friend whom he might confide in and he was grown more confident of Laud than of any other from whom he might receive advertisement of all occurrences and such advice as might be most agreeable to the complexion of affairs Nor did it happen otherwise than he expected for long he had not been in Spain when there were many fearings of him in the Court of England many strange whisperings into the ears of the King concerning the abuse of his Royal Favours the general
discontentments which appeared in the people for the Princes Journey into Spain the sad consequents which were feared to ensue upon it in reference to his Person and the true Religion that the blame of all was by the People laid on the Duke and that it was safest for his Majecty to let it rest where they had laid it But nothing could be thought more strange unto him than that the Lord Keeper Williams and the Lord Treasurer Cranfield should be of Counsel in the Plot both of them being of his raising and both in the stile of Court his Creatures Of all which practises and proceedings Laud gives intelligence to the Duke and receives back again Directions in his actings for him Pity it is that none of these reciprocal Letters have been found to make up the Cabala and to enrich the treasures in the Scrinea Sacra From hence proceeded the constancy of affection which the Duke carried to him for ever after the Animosity between Laud and Williams the fall of Cranfield first and of Williams afterwards Laud by his diligence and fidelity overtopping all The news of these practices in the Court made the Duke think of leaving Spain where he began to sink in his Estimation and hasting his return to England for fear of sinking lower here than he did in Spain Some clashings there had been betwixt him and the Conde d' Olivarez the Principal Favorite of that King and some Caresses were made to him by the Queen of Bohemia inviting him to be a God-father to one of her Children In these disquiets and distractions he puts the Prince in mind of the other Game he had to play namely the Restitution of the Palatinate which the Spaniard would not suffer to be brought under the Treaty of the Match reserving it as they pretended and perhaps really intended to be bestowed by the Infanta after the Marriage the better to ingratiate her self with the English Nation Which being a point of too great moment to depend upon no other assurance than a Court-Complement only it was concluded by the Prince That since he could not prevail in the one he would not proceed to the Consummation of the other But then it did concern him so to provide for his own saâ—ety that no intimation might be made of the intended Rupture till he had unwinded himself out of that Labyrinth into which he was cast For which cause having desired of his Father that some Ships might be sent to bring him some he shewed himself a more passionate Lover than ever formerly bestowed upon the Lady Infanta many rich Jewels of most inestimable value and made a Proxie to the Catholick King and Don Charles his Brother in his name to Espouse tâ—e Lady Which Proxie being made and executed in due form of Law on the Fourth of August 1623. was put into the Hands of Digby on the Fifteenth of September after made Earl of Bristol by him to be delivered to the King of Spain within ten days after the coming of the Dispensation from the new Pope Vrban which was then every day expected But no sooner had he took his leave and was out of danger but he dispatch'd a Post unto him commanding him not to deliver up the Proxie until further Order And having so done he hoised Sails for England Arriving at Portsmouth on Sunday the fifth of October he rides Post the next day to London and after Dinner on the same day to the Court at Royston his welcom home being celebrated in all Places with Bells and Bonfires and other accustomed Expressions of a Publick Joy Being come unto the Court they acquaint his Majesty with all that hapned informing him that no assurance of regaining the Palatinate could be had in Spain though the Match went forwards His Majesty thereupon dispatches Letters to the Earl of Bristol on the eighth of October requiring him not to deliver up the Proxie and so not to proceed to the Espousals till the Christmas Holy-days and in the mean time to press that King to a positive Answer touching the Palatinate The expectation whereof not being answered by success a Parliament is summoned to begin on the 17th of February then next following to the end that all things might be governed in this Great Affair by the publick Counsel of the Kingdom Not long after the beginning whereof the Duke declaâ—ed before both Houses more to the disadvantage of the Spaniard than there was just ground for how unhandsomly they had dealt with the Prince when he was in Spain how they had fed him with delays what indignities they had put upon him and finally had sent him back not only without the Palatinate but without a Wife leaving it to their prudent consideration what course to follow It was thereupon Voted by both Houses That his Majesty should be desired to break off all Treaties with the King of Spain and to engage himself in a War against him for the recovery of the Palatinate not otherwise to be obtained And that they might come the better to the end they aimed at they addressed themselves unto the Prince whom they assured That they would stand to him in that War to the very last expence of their Lives and Fortunes and he accordingly being further set on by the Duke became their instrument to perswade his Father to hearken to the Common Votes and Desires of his Subjects which the King press'd by their continual Importunities did at the last but with great unwillingness assent to Such was the conduct of this business on the part of the English Look we next what was done in Spain and we shall find in Letters from the Earl of Bristol That as soon as news was come to Spain that King Iames had sworn the Articles of the Treaty which was done on the 26th of Iuly the Lady Infanta by all the Court with the Approbation of that King and her own good-liking was called La Princessa d' Inglaterra That as such she gave her self the liberty of going publickly to such Comedies as were presented in the Court which before was not allowable in her That as such also not only he himself as the Kings Embassadour was commanded to serve her but the Duke and all the English were admitted to kiss her hands as her Servants and Vassals That after the Princes departure there was no thought of any thing but of providing Presents for the King and him the setling of the Princesses Family and making Preparations for the Journey on the first of March That the Princess also had begun to draw the Letters which she intended to have written the day of her disposories to the Prince her Husband and the King her Father in Law That besides such assurances as were given by the Count of Olivarez and other Ministers of that King the Princess had made the business of the Palatinate to be her own and had therein most expresly moved the King her Brother and written to the Conde
care as in the other And to that end he was not pleased that the Pope should be any longer stigmatized by the name of Antichrist and gave a strict Charge unto his Chaplains That all exasperating Passages which edifie nothing should be expunged out of such Books as by them were to be Licenced to the Press and that no Doctrines of that Church should be writ against but such as seemed to be inconsistent with the establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England Upon which ground it was that Baker Chaplain to the Bishop of London refused to Licence the Reprinting of a Book about the Gunpowder-Treason saying to him that brought the Book That we were not so angry with the Papists now as we were about twenty years since and that there was no need of any such Books to exasperate them there being now an endeavour to win them to us by fairness and mildness And on the same ground Bray Chaplain to the Archbishop refused the Licencing of another called The Advice of a Son unless he might expunge some unpleasing Expressions affirming That those Passages would offend the Papists whom we were now in a fair way of winning and therefore must not use any harsh Phrases against them The Chaplains not to be condemned for their honest care and much less their Lords though I find it very heavily charged as a Crime in all In the English Litany set out by King Henry viii and continued in both Liturgies of King Edward vi there was this Clause against the Pope viz. From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities Good Lord c. Which being considered as a means to affright those of the Romish Party from coming diligently to our Churches was prudently expunged by those who had the Revising of the Liturgie in the first year of the Queen In imitation of whose Piety and Christian Care it was thought fit by the Archbishop to change some Phrases which were found in the Books of Prayer appointed â—or the Fifth of November The first was this Root out the Babylonish and Antichristian Seâ—t which say of Jerusalem Down with it c. Which he changed only unto this Root out the Babylonish or Antichristian Sect of them which say c. The second was Cut off those Workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction which he changed no otherwise than thus Cut off those Workers of Iniquity who turn Religion into Rebellion c. The Alterations were but small but the clamour great which was raised about it The Puritans complaining That the Prayers so altered were intended to reflect on 〈◊〉 seemed to be conscious to themselves of turning Religion into Rebellion and saying of Jerusalem like the old Babylonish Sect Down with it down with it to the ground But he had better reason for it than they had against it For if the first Reformers were so careful of giving no offence to the Romish Party as to expunge a Passage out of the Publick Liturgie when the Queen was a Protestant much greater reason had the Archbishop to correct those Passages in a formal Prayer not confirmed by Law when the Queen was one of that Religion Nothing in this or any of the rest before which tends to the bringing in of Popery the prejudice of the true Protestant Religion or the suppressing of the Gospel Had his Designs tended to the Advancing of Popery he neither would have took such pains to confute their Doctrines nor they have entertained such secret practices to destroy his Person of which more hereafter Had he directed his endeavours to suppress the Protestants he would not have given so much countenance to Dury a Scot who entertained him with some hopes of working an Accord betwixt the Lutheran and Calvinian Churches In which Service as he wasted a great deal of time to little purpose so he received as much Encouragement from Canterbury as he had reason to expect Welcome at all times to his Table and speaking honourably of him upon all occasions till the Times were changed when either finding the impossibility of his Undertaking or wanting a Supply of that Oyl which maintained his Lamp he proved as true a Scot as the rest of that Nation laying the blame of his miscarriage in it on the want of Encouragement and speaking disgracefully of the man which had given him most Had he intended any prejudice to the Reformed Religion Reformed according to the Doctrine of Calvin and the Genevian Forms both of Worship and Government he would not have so cordially advanced the General Collection for the Palatine Churches or provided so heartily for the Rochellers and their Religion touching which last we find this Clause in a Prayer of his for the Duke of Buckingham when he went Commander of his Majesties Forces for the Isle of Rhe viz. Bless my dear Lord the Duke that is gone Admiral with them that Wisdom may attend all his Counsels and Courage and Success all his Enterprises That by his and their means thou wilt be pleased to bring Safety to this Kingdom Strength and Comfort to Religion Victory and Reputation to our Country Had he projected any such thing as the suppressing of the Gospel he would not have shewed himself so industrious in preventing Socinianism from poysoning those of riper years in turning afternoon Sermons into Catechising for the instruction of Children in prohibiting all Assemblies of Anabaptists Familists and other Sectaries which oppose the Common Principles of the Christian Faith For that his silencing of the Arminian Controversies should be a means to suppress the Gospel or his favouring of those Opinions designed for a back-door to bring in Popery no wise man can think The Points in Controversie between the Calvinists and Arminians in the Reformed Churches of Calvin's Plat-form are agitated no less fiercely by the Dominicans on the one side the Iesuits and Franciscans on the other side in the Church of Rome the Calvinists holding with the Dominicans as the Arminians do with the Iesuit and Franciscan Friars And therefore why any such compliance with the Dominicans the principal Sticklers and Promoters in the Inquisition should not be looked on as a Back-door to bring in Popery as well as a Compliance in the same Points with the other two Orders is beyond my reach With which I shut up my Discourse touching the Counsels and Designs which were then on foot and conclude this year The next begins with a Parliament and Convocation the one Assembled on the thirteenth the other on the fourteenth of April In Calling Parliaments the King directs his Writs or Letters severally to the Peers and Prelates requiring them to attend in Parliament to be holden by the Advice of his Privy Council at a certain Time and Place appointed and there to give their Counsel in some great and weighty Affairs touching himself the safety of the Realm and the defence of the Church of England A Clause being