hereupon preferred against them to the Lords of the Council in which their Lordships were informed That the Inhabitants generally of the Isle were discontented with the present Discipline and guidance of the Church that most of them would be easily perswaded to submit to the English Goverment and that many of them did desire it 39. This brings both Parties to the Court the Governour and his Adherents to prosecute the Suit and make good their Intelligence the Ministers to answer to the Complaint and stand to the Pleasure of His Majesty in the final Judgment And at the first the Ministers stood fast together but as it always happeneth that there is no Confederacy so well jointed but one Member of it may be severed from the rest and thereby the whole Practise overthrown so was it also in this business For those who there sollicited some private business of the Governour 's had kindly wrought upon the weakness and ambition of De la Place one of the Ministers appointed to attend the Service perswading him That if the Government were altered and the Dean restored he was infallibly resolved on to be the man Being fashioned into this hope he speedily betrayed the Counsels of his Fellows and furnished their Opponents at all their Interviews with such Intelligence as might make most for their advantage At last the Ministers not well agreeing in their own demands and having little to say in defence of their proper Cause whereunto their Answers were not provided before-hand my Lord of Canterbury at the Council Table thus declared unto them the Pleasure of the King and Council viz. That for the speedy redress of their disorders it was reputed most convenient to establish amongst them the Authority and Office of the Dean That the Book of Common-Prayer being again Printed in the French should be received into their Churches but the Ministers not tyed to the strict observance of it in all particulars That Messervy should be admitted to his Benefice and that so they might return to their several Charges This said they were commanded to depart and to signifie to those from whom they came the full scope of His Majesty's Resolution and so they did But being somewhat backward in obeying this Decree the Council intimated to them by Sir Philip de Carteret chief Agent for the Governour and Estates of the Island That the Ministers from among themselves should make choice of three Learned and Grave persons whose Names they should return unto the Board out of which His Majesty should resolve on one to be their Dean 40. But this Proposal little edified amongst the Brethren not so much out of any dislike of the alteration with which they seemed all well enough contented but because every one of them gave himself some hopes of being the man And being that all of them could not be elected they were not willing to destroy their particular hopes by the appointment of another In the mean time Mr. David Bandinell an Italian born then being Minister of St. Mary's under pretence of other business of his own is dispatched for England and recommended by the Governour as the fittest person for that Place and Dignity And being well approved of by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury who found him answerable in all points to the Governour 's Character he was established in the Place by his Majesty's Letters Patents bearing date Anno 1619 and was accordingly invested in all such Rights as formerly had been inherent in that Office whether it were in point of Profit or of Jurisdiction And for the executing of this Office some Articles were drawn and ratified by His Sacred Majesty to be in force until a certain Body of Ecclesiastical Canons should be digested and confirmed Which Articles he was pleased to call the Interim a Name devised by CHARLES the fifth on the like occasion as appears by His Majesty's Letters Paters Patents for confirmation of the Canons not long after made And by this Interim it was permitted for the present that the Ministers should not be obliged to bid the Holy-days to use the Cross in Baptism or to wear the Surplice or not to give the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper unto any others but such as did receive it kneeling but in all other things it little differed from the Book of Canons which being first drawn up by the Dean and Ministers was afterwards carefully perused corrected and accommodated for the use of that Island by the Right Reverend Fathers in God George Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury Iohn Lord Bishop of Lincoln Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and Lancelot Lord Bishop of Winchester whose Diocess or Jurisdiction did extend over both the Islands In which respect it was appointed in the Letters Patents by which His Majesty confirmed these Canons Anno 1623 That the said Reverend Father in God the Bishop of Winchester should forthwith by his Commission under his Episcopal Seal as Ordinary of the place give Authority unto the said Dean to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the said Isle according to the Canons and Constitutions thus made and established Such were the Means and such the Counsels by which this Island was reduced to a full conformity with the Church of England 41. Guâ—rnsey had followed in the like if first the breach between K. IAMES and the King of Spain and afterwards between K. CHARLES and the Crown of France had not took off the edg of the prosecution During which time the Ministers were much heartned in their Inconformity by the Practises of De la Place before remembred Who stomacking his disappointment in the loss of the Deanry abandoned his Native Countrey and retired unto Guernsey where he breathed nothing but disgrace to the English Liturgy the Person of the new Dean and the change of the Government Against the first so perversly opposite that when some Forces were sent over by King CHARLES for defence of the Island he would not suffer them to have the use of the English Liturgy in the Church of St. Peter's being the principal of that Island but upon these Conditions that is to say That they should neither use the Liturgy therein nor receive the Sacrament And secondly Whereas there was a Lecture weekly every Thursday in the said Church of St. Peters when once the Feast of Christ's Nativity fell upon that day he rather chose to disappoint the Hearers and put off the Sermon than that the least honour should reflect on that ancient Festival An Opposition far more superstitious than any observation of a day though meerly Iewish By his Example others were encouraged to the like perversness insomuch that they refused to baptize any Child or Children though weak and in apparent danger of present death but such as were presented unto them on the day of Preaching And when some of them were compelled by the Civil Magistrate to perform their duty in this kind a great Complaint thereof was made to the Earl of
London-Brethren became forthwith bindiâ—g to the rest none being admitted into any of the aforesaid Classes before he hath promised under his hand That he would submit himself and be obedient unto all such Orders and Decrees as are set down by the Classis to be observed At these Classes they enquired into the Life and Doctrine of all that had subscribed unto them censuring some deposing others as they saw occasion in nothing more severe than in censuring those who had formerly used the Cross in Baptism or otherwise had been conâ—ormable to the Rules of the Church And unto every Classis there belonged a Register who took the Heads of all that passed and saw them carefully entred in a Book for that purpose that they might remain upon Record 22. It may seem strange that in a constituted Church backed by Authority of Law and countenanced by the Favour of the Supreme Magistrate a distinct Government or Discipline should be put in practise in contempt of both but more that they should deal in such weighty matters as were destructive of the Government by Law established Some Questions had before been started at a Meeting in Cambridg the final decision whereof was thought fit to be referred to the Classis of Warwick where Cartwright governed as the perpetual Moderator And they accordingly assembling on the tenth day of the fourth Month for so they phrased it did then and there determine in this manner follow That private Baptism is unlawful That it is not lawful to read Homilies in the Church and that the sign of the Cross is not to be used in Baptism That the Faithful ought not to communicate with unlearned Ministers although they may be present at their Service in case they come of purpose to hear a Sermon the reading of the Service being looked on as a Lay-man's Office That the Calling of Bishops c. is unlawful That as they deal in Causes Ecclesiastical there is no duty belonging to them nor any publickly to be given them That it is not lawful to be ordained by them into the Ministry or to denounce either Suspensions or Excommunications sent by their Authority that it is not lawful for any man to rest in the Bishop's deprivation of him from his Charge except upon consultation it seem good unto his Flock and the Neighbouring-Ministers but that he continue in the same until he be compelled to the contrary by Civil Force That it is not lawful to appear in a Bishop's Court but with a Protestation of their unlawfulness That Bishops are not to be acknowledged either for Doctors Elders or Deacons as having no ordinary Calling in the Church of Christ. That touching the restauration of the Ecclesiastical Discipline it ought to be taught to the people datâ occasione as occasion should serve and that as yet the people are not to be sollicited publickly to practise the Discipline till they be better instructed in the knowledg of it And finally That men of better understanding are to be allured privately to the present allowing the Discipline and the practise of it as far as they shall be well able with the Peace of the Church 23. But here we are to understand That this last Caution was subjoined in the close of all not that they had a care of the Church's Peace but that they were not of sufficient strength to disturb the same without drawing ruine on themselves which some of the more hot-headed Brethren were resolved to hazzard of which they had some loss this year by the Imprisonment of Barrow Greenwood Billet Boudler and Studley who building on their Principles and following the Example of Robert Brown before remembred had brake out into open Schism when their more cunning Brethren kept themselves within the Pale of the Church But these we only touch at now leaving the further prosecution of them to a fitter place Suffice it that their present sufferings did so little moderate the heats of some fiery spirits that they resolved to venture all for the Holy Discipline as appears by Pain 's Letter unto Feild Our zeal to Gods Glory saith he our love to his Church and the due planting of the same in this For-headed Age should be so warm and stirring in us as not to care what adventure we give or what censures we abide c. For otherwise the Diabolical boldness of the Iesuits and Seminaries will cover our faces with shame c. And then he adds It is verily more than time to register the Names of the fittest and hottest Brethren round about our several dwellings whereby to put the godly Counsel of Specanus in execution Note that Specanus was one of the first Presbyterian Ministers in the Belgick Churches that is to say Si quis objiciat c. If any man object That the setting up the lawful practise of the Discipline in the Church be hindred by the Civil Magistrate let the Magistrate be freely and modestly admonished of his duty in it and if he esteem to be accounted either a Godly or Christian Magistrate without doubt he will admit wholesome Counsels but if he do not yet let him be more exactly instructed that he may serve God in fear and lend his Authority in defence of God's Church and his Glory Marry if by this way there happen no good success then let the Ministers of the Church execute their Office according to the appointment of Christ for they must rather obey God than men In which last point saith Pain we have dolefully failed which now or never stands us in hand to prosecute with all celerity without lingring or staying so long for Parliaments But this Counsel of Paine being thought too rash in regard they could not find a sufficient number of Brethren to make good the Action it was thought fit to add the Caution above-mentioned The Hundred thousand Hands which they so much bragged of were not yet in readiness and therefore it was wisely ordered That as yet the whole multitude were not to be allured publickly to the practise of it until men were better instructed in the knowledg of so rare a Mystery Till when it could not be safe for them to advance their Discipline in the way of force 24. Now to prepare the people for the entertainment of so great a Change it was found necessary in the first place to return an Answer to some Books which had been written in defence of Episcopal Government and in the next to make the Bishops seem as odious and contemptible in the eyes of their Profelytes as Wit and Malice could devise Dr. Iohn Bridges Dean of Sarum and afterwards Bishop of Oxford published a Book in the year 1587 entâ—tuled A Defence of the Government of the Church of England intended chiefly against Beza but so that it might serve to satisfie all Doubts and Cavils which had been made against that Government by the English Puritans To which an Answer is returned by some zealous Brethren under the Name of A
of the Queen not much improved in case it were not made more miserable In the time of K. IAMES some Propositions had been offered by Him in the Conference at Hampton-Court about sending Preachers into Ireland of which he was but half King as himself complained their Bodies being subject unto his Authority but their Souls and Consciences to the Pope But I find nothing done in pursuance of it till after the year 1607 where the Earl of Ter-ownen Ter-connel Sir Iohn Odaghartie and other great Lords of the North together with their Wives and Families took their flight from Ireland and left their whole Estates to the King 's disposing Hereupon followed the Plantation of Vlster first undertaken by the City of London who fortified Colraine and built London-Derrie and purchased many thousand Acres of Lands in the parts adjoyning But it was carried on more vigorously as more unfortunately withall by some Adventurers of the Scottish Nation who poured themselves into this Countrey as the richer Soil And though they were sufficiently industrious in improving their own Fortunes there and set up Preaching in all Churches whersoever they fixed yet whether it happened for the better or for the worse the event hath showed For they brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism such a contempt of Bishops such a neglect of the publick Liturgy and other Divine Offices of this Church that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England 32. Nor did the Doctrine speed much better if it sped not worse For Calvinism by degrees had taken such deep root amongst them that at the last it was received and countenanced as the only Doctrine which was to be defended in the Church of Ireland For not contented with the Articles of the Church of England they were resolved to frame a Confession of their own the drawing up whereof was referred to Dr. Iames Vsher then Provost of the Colledg of Dublin and afterwards Arce-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland By whom the Book was so contrived that all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigors were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church For first the Articles of Lambeth rejected at the Conference at Hampton-Court must be inserted into this Confession as the chief parts of it And secondly An Article must be made of purpose to justifie the Morality of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and to require the spending of it wholly in Religious Exercises Besides which deviations from the Doctrine of the Church of England most grievous Torments immediately in His Soul are there affirmed to be endured by Christ our Saviour which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The Abstinencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be lawfully called who are called unto the work of the Ministry by those that have publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so they be authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed to the Church in making Canons or Censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same The Pope made Antichrist according to the like determination of the French Hugonots at Gappe in Daulphine And finally Such a silence concerning the Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if they were not a distinct Order from the common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own private Opinions were dispersed in several places of the Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in the Convocation of the year 1615 and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King IAMES 33. What might induce King IAMES to confirm these Articles differing in so many points from his own Opinion is not clearly known but it is probable that he might be drawn to it on these following grounds For first He was much governed at that time in all Church-concernments by Dr. George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Dr. Iames Mountague Bishop of Bath and Wells who having formerly engaged in maintenance of some or most of those Opinions as before is said might find it no hard matter to perswade the King to a like approbation of them And secondly The King had so far declared himself in the Cause against Vorstius and so affectionately had espoused the Quarrel of the Prince of Orange against those of the Remonstrant Party in the Belgick Churches that he could not handsomely refuse to confirm those Doctrines in the Church of Ireland which he had countenanced in Holland Thirdly The Irish Nation at that time were most tenaciously addicted to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and therefore must be bended to the other Extream before they could be straight and Orthodox in these points of Doctrine Fourthly and finally It was an usual practise with that King in the whole course of His Government to balance one Extream by the other countenancing the Papists against the Puritans and the Puritans against the Papists that betwixt both the true Religion and Professors of it might be kept in safety But whether I hit right or not certain it is that it proved a matter of sad consequence to the Church of England there being nothing more ordinary amongst those of the Puritan Party when they were pressed in any of the points aforesaid then to appeal unto the Articles of Ireland and the infallible Judgment of K. IAMES who confirmed the same And so it stood until the year 1634 when by the Power of the Lord Deputy Wentworth and the Dexterity of Dr. Iohn Bramhall then Lord Bishop of Derry the Irish Articles were repealed in a full Convocation and those of England authorised in the place thereof 34. Pass we next over to the Isles of Iersey and Guernsey where the Genevian Discipline had been setled under Queen ELIZABETH and being so setled by that Queen was confirmed by K. IAMES at his first coming to this Crown though at the same time he endeavoured a subversion of it in the Kirk of Scotland But being to do it by degrees and so to practise the restoring of the old Episcopacy as not to threaten a destruction to their new Presbyteries it was thought fit to tolerate that Form of Government in those petit Islands which could have no great influence upon either Kingdom Upon which ground he sends his Letter to them of the 8 th of August first writ in French and thus translated into English that is to say 35. JAMES by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Vnto all those whom these Presents shall concern greeting Whereas We Our selves and the Lords of Our Council have been given to understand that
of which two Prayers both for Words and Matter wholly left unto the building of the Preacher but the whole action to be sanctified by the singing of Psalms At all such Prayers the people to kneel reverently upon their knees In the Administration of Baptism a Declaration to be made in a certain Form not onely of the promises of the Grace of God but also of the Mysteries of that holy Sacrament Sureties or Witnesses to be required at the Baptizing of Infants The Lords Supper to be Ministred on the Lords day at the Morning-Sermon and that in sitting at the Table for no other gesture is allowed of the men sit first and the women after or below them which though it might pass well in the Gallick Churches would hardly down without much chewing by the Wives of England The publication of intended Marriages which we call the bidding of the Bains to be made openly in the Church and the said Marriages to be solemnized with Exhortation and Prayer No Holy-days at all allowed of nothing directed in relation unto Christian Burials or the visiting of the Sick or to the Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth all which were pretermitted as either superstitious or impertinent Actions 14. That naked Form of Worship which Calvin had devised for the Church of Geneva not beautified with any of those outward Ornaments which make Religion estimable in the sight of the people and by the which the mindes of men are raised to a contemplation of the glorious Majesty which they come together to adore All ancient Forms and Ceremonies which had been recommended to the use of the Church even from the times of the Apostles rejected totally as contracting some filth and rubbish in the times of Popery without being called to answer for themselves or defend their innocencie And as for the habit of the Ministry whether Sacred or Civil as there was no course taken by the Rules of their Discipline or by the Rubricks of the book of their publick Offices so did they by themselves and their Emissaries endeavour to discountenance and discredit all other Churches in which distinct Vestures were retained Whence came those manifold quarrels against Coaps and Surplices as also against the Caps Gowns and Tippets of the lower Clergie the Rochets and Chimeres of the Bishops wherewith for more then twenty years they exercised the patience of the Church of England But naked as it was and utterly void of all outward Ornaments this Form of Worship looked so lovely in the eyes of Calvin that he endeavoured to obtrude it on all Churches else Having first setled his new Discipline in the Town of Geneva Anno 1541 and crusht Perinus and the rest in the dancing business about five years after he thought himself to be of such confidence that no Church was to be reformed but by his advice Upon which ground of self-opinion he makes an offer of himself to Archbishop Cranmer as soon as he had heard of the Reformation which was here intended but Cranmer knew the man and refused the offer Which though it was enough to have kept him from venturing any further in the business and affairs of England yet he resoved to be of counsel in all matters whether called or not And therefore having taken Order with Martin Bucer on his first coming into England to give him some account of the English Liturgie he had no sooner satisfied himself in the sight thereof but he makes presently his exceptions and demurs upon it which afterwards became the sole ground of those many troubles those horrible disorders and confusions wherewith his Faction have involved the Church of England from that time to this 15. For presently on the account which he received of the English Liturgy he writes back to Bucer whom he requireth to be instant with the Lord Protector that all such Rites as savoured of superstition might be taken away and how far that might reach we may easily guess Next he dispatched a long Letter to the Protector himself in which he makes many exceptions against the Liturgie as namely against Commemoration of the dead which he acknowledgeth notwithstanding to be ancient also against Chrisme or Oyl in Baptism and the Apostolical Rite of Extream Vnction though the last be rather permitted then required by the Rules of that Book which said he wisheth that all these Ceremonies should be abrogated and that withal he should go forward to reform the Church without fear or wit without regard of peace at home or correspondencie abroad such considerations being onely to be had in Civil matters but not in matters of the Church wherein not any thing is to be exacted which is not warranted by the Word and in the managing whereof saith he there is not any thing more distasteful in the eyes of God then worldly Wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backward but meerly as we are directed by his will revealed In the next place he toucheth on the Book of Homilies which very faintly he permits for a season onely but not allows of and thereby gave the hint to many others who ever since almost have declaimed against them But finding nothing to be done by the Lord Protector he tryes his Fortune with the King and with the Lords of the Council and is resolved to venture once again on Archbishop Cranmer In his Letter to the King he lets him know that in the State of the Kingdom there were many things which required a present Reformation in that to the most Reverend Cranmer that in the Service of this Church there was remaining a whole Mass of Popery which seemed not onely to deface but in a manner to destroy Gods publick Worship and finally in those to the Lords of the Council that they needed some excitements to go forwards with the Work in hand in reference to the Alteration for that I take to be his aim of the publick Liturgie 16. But not content to tamper by his Letters with those Eminent Persons he had his Agents in the Court the City the Uversities the Country and the Convocation all of them practising in their distinct and proper Circuits to bring the people to dislike that Form of Worship which at the first was looked on by them as an Heavenly Treasure composed by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost Their Actings of this kinde for bringing down the Communion-Table decrying the Reverent use of Kneeling at the Participation inveighing against the sign of the Cross abolishing all distinction of days and times into Fasts and Festivals with many others of that nature I purposely omit till I come to England Let it suffice that by the eagerness of their sollicitations more then for any thing which could be faulted in the book it self it was brought under a review and thereby altered to a further distance then it had before from the Rituals of the Church of Rome But though it had much
that there was no necessity of Lay-elders to be Ministers of it 40. But his main business was to settle the Calvinian Forms in the Realms of Britain in which he aimed at the acquiring of as great a name as Calvin had obtained in France or Poland Knox had already so prevailed amongst the Scots that though they once subscribed to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England yet he had brought them to admit such a Form of Worship as came more neer to the Example of Geneva And he had brought the Discipline to so good a forwardness that Beza was rather wanting to confirm then to introduce it as shall appear at large when we come to Scotland But Knox had many opportunities to effect his business during the absence of their Queen the Regencie of Queen Mary of Lorreign and the unsettledness of affairs in the State of that Kingdom which the Brethren could not finde in England where the Fabrick of the State was joyned together with such Ligaments of Power and Wisdom that they were able to act little and effect much less Some opposition they had made after their coming back from Frankfort and Geneva their two chief Retreats against the Vestments of the Church and the distinction of Apparel betwixt Priests and Lay-men In which some of them did proceed with so vain an obstinacie that some of them were for a time suspended and others totally deprived of their Cures and Benefices some of them also had begun to take exception against some parts and Offices of the publick Liturgie refusing thereupon to conform unto it and thereupon likely to incur the very same penalties which were inflicted on the other In both these cases they consult the Oracle resolving to adhere to his determination in them whatsoever it was First therefore he applyes himself to Grindal then Bishop of London and very zealously affected to the name of Calvin to whom he signifies by his Letter of the 26 of Iune 1566 how much he was afflicted with the sad reports out of France and Germany by which he was advertised that many Ministers in England being otherwise unblamable both for Life and Doctrine had been exauctorated or deprived by the Queens Authority the Bishops giving their consent and approbation onely for not subscribing to some Rites and Ceremonies but more particularly that divers of them were deprived not onely for refusing to wear those Vestments which were peculiar to Baals Priests in the times of Popery but for not conforming to some Rites which had degenerated into most shameful superstitions such as the Cross in Baptism kneeling at the Communion and the like to these That Baptism was admitted sometimes by Midwives That power was left unto the Queen to Ordain other Rites and Ceremonies as she saw occasion and finally that the Bishops were invested with the sole Authority for ordering matters in the Church the other Ministers not advised with or consulted in them 41. Such is the substance of his charge against each particular point whereof he bends his forces as if he had a minde to batter down the Bulwarks of the Church of England and lay it open to Geneva I shall not note how much he blames the Ancient Fathers for bringing in so many Ceremonies into use and practice which either had been borrowed from the Iews or derived from the Gentiles or how he magnifieth the nakedness and simplicity of those Forreign Churches which abominate nothing more then such outward trappings But the result of all is this that whatsoever Rite or Ceremony was either brought into the Church from the Iews or Gentiles not warranted by the institution of Christ or by any Examples of the Apostles as also all significant Ceremonies which by no right were at first brought into the Church ought all at once to be prohibited and suppressed there being no hope that the Church would otherwise be restored to her native Beauty I onely note that he compares the Cross in Baptism to the Brazen Serpent abused as much to Superstition and Idolatry and therefore to be abrogated with as great a Zeal in a Church well ordered as that Image was destroyed by King Hezekiah He falls soul also on that manner of singing which was retained in the Queens Chappels all the Cathedrals and some Parish-Churches of this Kingdom because perhaps it was set forth with Organs and such Musical Instruments as made it sitter in his judgement to be used in Dancing then in Sacred actions and tended more to please the ears then to raise the affections Nor seems he better pleased with that Authority which was enjoyed and exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury in granting Licenses for Pluralities non-Residence contracting Marriages in the Church and eating Flesh on days prohibited with many other things of that nature which he accounts not onely for so many stains and blemishes in the Face of Christendom but for a manifest defection even from Christ himself in which respect they rather were to be commended then condemned and censured that openly opposed themselves against such corruptions 42. Yet notwithstanding these complaints he grants the matters in dispute and the Rites prescribed to be things indifferent not any way impious in themselves nor such as should necessitate any man to forsake his Flock rather then yeild obedience and conformity to them But then he adds that if they do offend who rather chuse to leave their Churches then to conform themselves to those Rites and Vestments against their Consciences a greater guilt must be contracted by those men before God and his Angels who rather chuse to spoil these Flocks of able Pastors then suffer those Pastors to make choice of their own Apparel or rather chuse to rob the people of the Food of their souls then suffer them to receive it otherwise then upon their knees But in his Letter of the next year he adventureth further and makes it his request unto all the Bishops that some fit Medicine be forthwith applyed to the present mischief which did not onely give great scandal to the weak and ignorant but even to many Learned and Religious Persons And this he seems to charge upon them as they will answer for the contrary at the Judgement-Seat of Almighty God to whom an account is to be given of the poorest Sheep which should be forced to wander upon this occasion from the rest of the Flock Between the writing of which Letters some of their brethren had propounded their doubts unto him touching the calling of the Ministers as it was then and still is used in the Church of England the wearing of the Cap and Surplice and other Vestments of the Clergy which was then required the Musick and melodious singing in Cathedral Churches the interrogatories proposed to Infants at the time of their Baptism the signing of them with the sign of the Cross kneeling at the Communion administring the same in unleavened Bread though the
found no place so open to them as the Town of Geneva and none more ready to befriend them then Calvin was whose Letters must be sent to all the Churches of the Switzers and the Neighbouring Germany for raising Contributions and Collections toward their relief which so exasperated the French King that he threatned to make War upon the Town as the fomenter of those discords which embroyled his Kingdom the Receptacle of his Rebels the Delphos as it were of that Sacred Oracle which Soveraignly directed all affairs of moment But of these things and how Beza did co-operate to the common troubles which did so miserably distract the peace of France shall be delivered more particularly in the following Book 49. As for the Town and Territory of Geneva it self it had so far submitted unto their Authority that Calvin wanted nothing of a Bishop in it but the name and title The City of Geneva had been anciently an Episcopal See consisting of many Parishes and Country Villages all subject by the Rules of the Discipline unto one Presbytery of which Calvin for the term of his life had the constant Precedency under the style of Moderator without whom nothing could done which concerned the Church And sitting as chief President in the Court or Consistory he had so great an influence on the Common-council as if he had been made perpetual Dictator also for ordering the affairs of the Common-wealth The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by Beza also for the space of ten years or thereabouts after his decease At what time Lambertus Danaeus one of the Ministers of that City thinking himself inferiour to him in no part of Scholarship procured the Presidency in that Church to go by turns that he and others might be capable of their courses in it By which means the Genevians being freed from those powerful Riders would never suffer themselves to be bridled as they had been formerly For thereupon it was concluded by a Decree of the Senate that the Presbytery should have no power to convent any man before them till the Warrant was first signed by one of the Syndicks Besides which curb as the Elders are named by the lesser Council and confirmed by the greater the Ministers advice being first had in the nomination so do they take an Oath at their admission to keep the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of the Civil Magistrate In which respect their Consistory doth not challenge an exorbitant and unlimited power as the Commissioners of Christ as they did afterwards in Scotland but as Commissioners of the State or Signiory by which they are restrained in the exercise of that Jurisdiction which otherwise they might and would have challenged by their first institution and seemed at first a yoke too insupportable for the necks of the people In reference to their Neighbouring Princes their City was so advantageously seaâ—ed that even their Popish Neighbours were more ready to support and aid them then suffer the Town to fall into the power of the Duke of Savoy And then it is not to be doubted but such States and Kingdoms as were Zealous in the Reformation did liberally contribute their assistance to them The conâ—â—uence of so many of the French as had retired thither in the heat of the Civil Wars had brought a miserable Plague upon them by which their numbers were so lessened and their strength so weakned that the Duke of Savoy took the oppornity to lay Siege unto it In which distress they supplicate by Letters to all their Friends or such as they conceived might wish well unto them in the cause of Religion and amongst others to some Bishops and Noble-men of the Church of England Anno 1582. But Beza having writ to Traverse a most Zealous Puritan to negotiate in it the business sped the worse for the Agents sake no great supply being sent unto them at that time But afterwards when they were distressed by the Savoyard Anno 1589 they were relieved with thirteen thousand Crowns from England twenty four thousand Crowns from the State of Venice from France and Florence with intelligence of the enemies purposes onely the Scots though otherwise most zealous in advancing the Discipline approved themselves to be true Scots or false Brethren to them For having raised great sums of mony under pretence of sending seasonable relief to their friends in Geneva the most part of it was assigned over to the Earl of Bothwel then being in Rebellion against their King and having many ways endeavoured to surprise his person and in fine to take away his life But this prank was not play'd until some years after and therefore falls beyond the time of my design which was and is to draw down the successes of the Presbyterians in their several Countries till the year 1585 and then to take them all together as they related unto England or were co-incident with the Actions and Affairs thereof But we must make our way by France as lying nearest to the practices of the Mother-City though Scotland at a greater distance first took fire upon it and England was as soon attempted as the French themselves The end of the first Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB II. Containing The manifold Seditions Conspiracies and Insurrections in the Realm of France their Libelling against the State and the Wars there raised by their procurement from the year 1559 to 1585. 1. THe Realm of France having long suffered under the corruptions of the Church of Rome was one of the first Western Kingdoms which openly declared against those abuses Beringarius in the Neighbouring Italy had formerly opposed the Gross and Carnal Doctrines of the Papists in the point of the Sacrament Whose opinions passing into France from one hand to another were at last publickly maintained by Peter Waldo one of the Citizens of Lyons who added thereunto many bitter invectives against the Supremacy of the Pope the Adoration of Images the Invocation of Saints and the Doctrine of Purgatory His Followers from the place of his Habitation were at first called in contempt The poor men of Lyons as afterwards from the name of their Leader they were by the Latines called Waldenses by the French Les Vandoise But Lyons proving no safe place for them they retired into the more desert parts of Languedock and spreading on the banks of the River Alby obtained the name of Albigenses in the Latine Writers and of Les Albigeoise in the French supported by Raymond the Fourth Earl of Tholouse they became so insolent that they murthered Trincanel their Viscount in the City Beziers and dasht out the teeth of their Bishop having taken Sanctuary in St. Magdalens Church one of the Churches of that City For which high outrages and many others of like nature which ensued upon them they were warred upon by Lewis the Ninth of France Sirnamed the Saint and many Noble adventurers who sacrificed many of them in the self-same Church wherein they had spilt the
other and in this point they shewed themselves directly contrary to the practice of the Primitive Church in which it was accounted a great impiety to keep any Fast upon that day either private or publick They Interdict the Bishops from exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdictâ—on in their several Diocesses and openly quarrel with their Queen for giving a Commission to the Archbishop of St. Andrews to perform some Acts which seemed to them to savour of Episcopal power Having attained unto this height they maintain an open correspondence with some Forreign Churches give audience to the Agents of Berne Basil and Geneva from whom they received the sum of their Confessions and signified their consent with them in all particulars except Festivals onely which they had universally abolished throughout the Kingdom and finally they take upon them to write unto the Bishops of England whom they admonished not to vex or suspend their Brethren for not conforming to the Rules of the Church especially in refusing the Cap and Surplice which they call frequently by the name of trifles vain trifles and the old badges of idolatry All which they did and more in pursuit of their Discipline though never authorized by Law or confirmed by the Queen nor justified by the Convenâ—ion of Estates though it consisted for the most part of their own Prosessors A Petition is directed to the Lords of secret Council from the Assemblies of the Church in which their Lordships are sollicited to dispatch the business But not content with that which they had formerly moved it was demanded also that some severe course might be taken against the Sayers and Hearers of Mass that fit provision should be made for their Superintendents Preachers and other Ministers and that they should not be compellable to pay their Tythes as formerly to the Popish Clegy with other particulars of that nature And that they might not trifle in it as they had done hitherto the Petition carried in it more threats and menaces then words of humble supplication as became Petitioners For therein it said expresly That before those Tyrants and dumb Dogs should have Empire over them and over such as God had subjected unto them they were fully determined to hazard both life and whatsoeever they had received of God in Temporal things that therefore they besought their Lordships to take such order that the Petitioners if they may be called so might have no occasion to take the Sword of just defence into their hands which they had so willingly resigned after the Victory obtained into those of their Lordships that so doing their Lordships should perceive they would not onely be obedient unto them in all things lawful but ready at all times to bring all such under their obedience as should at any time rebel against their Authority and finally that those enemies of God might assure themselves that they would no no longer suffer Pride and Idolatry and that if their Lordships would not take some order in the premises they would then proceed against them of their own Authority after such a manner that they should neither do what they list nor live upon the sweat of the brows of such as were in no sort debtors to them 31. On the receipt of this Petition an Order presently is made by the Lords of the Council for granting all which was desired and had more been desired they had granted more so formidable were the Brethren grown to the opposite party Nor was it granted in words onely which took no effect but execution caused to be done upon it and warrants to that purpose issued to the Earls of Arrane Arguile and Glencarne the Lord Iames Steward c. Whereupon followed a pitiful devastation of Churches and Church-buildings in all parts of the Realm no difference made but all Religious Edifices of what sort soever were either terribly defaced or utterly ruinated the holy Vessels and whatsoever else could be turned into money as Lead Bells Timber Glass c. was publickly exposed to sale the very Sepulchres of the dead not spared the Registers of the Church and the Libraries thereunto belonging defaced and thrown into the fire Whatsoever had escaped the former tumults is now made subject to destruction so much the worse because the violence and sacrilegious actings of these Church-robbers had now the countenance of Law And to this work of spoyl and rapine men of all Ranks and Orders were observed to put their helping hands mâ—n of most Note and Quality being forward in it in hope of getting to themselves the most part of the booty those of the poorer sort in hope of being gratified for their pains therein by their Lords and Patrons Both sorts encouraged to it by the Zealous madness of some of their sedirious Preachers who frequently cryed out that the places where Idols had been worshipped ought by the Law of God to be destroyed that the sparing of them was the reserving of things execrable and that the Commandment given to Israel for destroying the places where the Canaanites did worship their false Gods was a just warrant to the people for doing the like By which encouragements the madness of the people was transported beyond the bounds which they had first prescribed unto it In the beginning of the heats they designed onely the destruction of Religious Houses for fear the Monks and Fryars might otherwise be restored in time to their former dwellings But they proceeded to the demolition of Cathedral Churches and ended in the ruine of Parochial also the Chancels whereof were sure to be levelled in all places though the Isles and bodies of them might be spared in some 32. Such was the entertainment which the Scots prepared for their Queens coming over Who taking no delight in France where every thing renewed the memory of her great loss was easily intreated to return to her native Kingdom Her coming much desired by those of the Popish party in hope that by her power and presence they might be suffered at the least to enjoy the private Exercise of their Religion if not a publick approbation and allowance of it Sollicited as earnestly by those of the Knoxian interest upon a confidence that they should be better able to deal with her when she was in their power assisted onely by the Counsels of a broken Clergy then if she should remain in France from whence by her Alliances and powerful Kindred she might create more mischief to them then she could at home On the 19 day of August she arrives in Scotland accompanied by her Uncles the Duke of Aumales the Marquess of Elboeuf and the Lord grand Pryor with other Noble-men of France The time of her arrival was obscured with such Fogs and Mists that the Sun was not seen to shine in two days before nor in two days after Which though it made her passage safe from the Ships of England which were designed to intercept her yet was it looked upon by most men as a sad presage
his Majesty his Council and proceedings or to meddle in the Affairs of his Highness under pain of treason And lastly an Act was paâ—s'd for calling in of Buchanans History that Master-piece of Sedition intituled De jure Regni apud Sootos and that most infamous Libel which he called The Detection by which last Acts his Majesty did not onely take care for preventing the like scandalous and seditious practices for the time to come but satisfied himself by taking some revenge upon them in the times foregoing 63. The Ministers could not want intelligence of particulars before they were passed into Acts. And now or never was the time to bestir themselves when their dear Helena was in such apparent danger to be ravished from them And first it was thought necessary to send one of their number to the King to mediate either for the total dismissing of the Bills prepared or the suspending of them at the least for a longer time not doubting if they gained the last but that the first would easily follow of it self On this Errand they imploy Mr. David Lindsay Minister of the Church of Leith a man more moderate then the rest and therefore more esteemed by the King then any other of that body And how far he might have prevailed it is hard to say But Captain Iames Stewart commonly called the Earl of Arran who then governed the Affairs of that Kingdom having notice of it caused him to be arrested under colour of maintaining intelligence with the Fugitive Ministers in England imprisoned him for one night in Edenborough and sends him the next day to the Castle of Blackness where he remained almost a year Upon the news of his commitment Lawson and Belcanqual two of the Ministers of Edenborough forsake their Churchâ—s and joyn themselves unto their Brethren in England first leaving a Manifest behind them in which they published the Reasons of their sudden departure Iohn Dury so often before mentioned had lately been confined at Montross so that no Preacher was now left in Edenborough or the Port adjoyning to intercede for themselves and the Kirk in that present exigent By means whereof the Acts were passed without interruption But when they were to be proclaimed as the custom is Mr. Robert Pont Minister of St. Cutberts and one of the Senators of the Colledge of Justice for the good Ministers might act in Civil Matters though the Bishops might not took Instruments in the hands of a publick Notary and openly protested against those Acts never agreed to by the Kirk and therefore that neither the Kirk nor any of the Kirk-men were obliged to be obedient to them Which having done he fled also into England to the rest of his Brethren and being proclaimed Rebel lost his place in the Sessions 64 The flying of so many Ministers and the noise they made in England against those Acts encreased a scandalous opinion which themselves had raised of the Kings being inclined to Popery and it began to be so generally believed that the King found himself under a necessity of rectifying his reputation in the eye of the world by a publick Manifest In which he certified as well to his good subjects as to all others whatsoever whom it might concern as well the just occasion which had moved him to pass those Acts as the great Equity and Reason which appeared in them And amongst these occasions he reckoneth the justifying of the Fact at Ruthen by the publick suffrage of the Kirk Melvins declining of the judgement of the King and Council the Fast indicted at the entertainment of the French Ambassadors their frequent general Fasts proclaimed and kept in all parts of the Realm by their Authority without his privity and consent the usurping of the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction by a certain number of Ministers and unqualified Gentlemen in the Presbyteries and Assemblies the alteration of the Laws and making new ones at their pleasure which must binde the Subject the drawing to themselves of all such Causes though properly belonging to the Courts of Justice in which was any mixture of scandal On which account they forced all those also to submit to the Churches Censures who had been accused in those Courts for Murther Theft or any like enormous crimes though the party either were absolved by the Court it self or pardoned by the King after condemnation But all this could not stop the Mouthes and much less stay the Pens of that Waspish Sect some flying out against the King in their scurrilous Libels bald Pamphlets and defamatory Rythmes others with no less violence inveighing against him in their Pulpits but most especially in England where they were out of the Kings reach and consequently might rail on without fear of punishment By them it was given out to render the King odious both at home and abroad That the King endeavoured to extinguish the light of the Gospel and to that end had caused those Acts to pass against it That he had left nothing of the whole ancient Form of Justice and Polity in the Spiritual Estate but a naked shaddow That Popery was immediately to be established if God and all good men came not in to help them That for opposing these impieties they had been forced to flee their Country and sing the Lords Song in a strange Land with many other reproachful and calumnious passages of like odious nature 65. But loosers may have leave to talk as the saying is and by this barking they declared sufficiently that they could not bite I have now brought the Presbyterians to their lowest fall but we shall see them very shortly in their resurrections In the mean time it will be seasonable to pass into England that we may see how things were carried by their Brethren there till we have brought them also to this point of time and then we shall unite them all together in the course of their story The end of the fifth Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB VI. Containing The beginning progress and proceedings of the Puritan-Faction in the Realm of England in reference to their Innovations both in Doctrines and Forms of Worship their Opposition to the Church and the Rules thereof from the beginning of the Reign of King Edward VI. 1548 to the Fifteenth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1572. 1. THE Reformation of the Church of England was put into so good a way by King Henry the Eighth that it was no hard matter to proceed upon his beginnings He had once declared himself so much in favour of the Church of Rome by writing against Martin Luther that he was honored with the Title of Defensor Fidei or the Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X. Which Title he afterwards united by Act of Parliament to the Crown of this Realm not many years before his death But a breach hapning betwixt him and Pope Clement VII concerning his desired Divorce he first prohibits all appeals and other occasions of resort to
the See of Rome procures himself to be acknowledged by the Prelates and Clergie in their Convocation for Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England obtained a promise of them in verbo Sacerdotii which was then equal to an Oath neither to make promulge nor execute any Ecclesiastical Constitutions but as they should be authorized thereunto by his Letters-Patents and then proceedâ— unto an Act for extinguishing the usurped Authority of the Bishop of Rome But knowing what a strong party the Pope had in England by reason of that huge multitudes of Monks and Fryers which depended on him he first dissolves all Monasteries and Religious Houses which were not able to dispend Three hundred Marks of yearly Rent and after draws in all the rest upon Surrendries Resignations or some other Practices And having brought the work so far he caused the Bible to be published in the English Tongue indulged the private reading of it to all persons of quality and to such others also as were of known judgement and discretion commanded the Epistles and Gospels the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandment to be rehearsed openly to the people on every Sunday and Holy Day in the English Tongue and ordered the Letany also to be read in English upon Wednesdays and Fridays He had caused moreover many rich Shrines and Images to be defaced such as had most notoriously been abused by Oblations Pilgrimages and other the like acts of Idolatrous Worship and was upon the point also to abolish the Mass it self concerning which he had some secret communication with the French Ambassador if Fox speak him rightly 2. But what he did not live to do and perhaps never would have done had he lived much longer was brought to pass in the next Reign of King Edward VI. In the beginning whereof by the Authority of the Lord Protector the diligence of Archbishop Cranmer and the endeavours of many other Learned and Religious men a Book of Homilies was set out to instruct the people Injunctions published for the removing of all Images formerly abused to Superstition or false and counterfeit in themselves A Statute past in Parliament for receiving the Sacrament in both kinds and order given to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Some other Prelates to draw a Form for the Administration of it accordingly to the honor of God and the most Edification of all good people The news whereof no sooner came unto Geneva but Calvin must put in for a share and forthwith writes his Letters to Archbishop Cranmer in which he offereth his assistance to promote the service if he thought it necessary But neither Cranmer Kidley nor any of the rest of the English Bishops could see any such necessity of it but that they might be able to do well without him They knew the temper of the man how busie and pragmatical he had been in all those places in which he had been suffered to intermeddle that in some points of Christian Doctrine he differed from the general current of the Ancient Fathers and had devised such a way of Ecclesiastical Polity as was destructive in it self to the Sacred Hierarchy and never had been heard of in all Antiquity But because they would give him no offence it was resolved to carry on the work by none but English hands till they had perfected the composing of the Publick Liturgie with all the Rites and Ceremonies in the same contained And that being done it was conceived not to be improper if they made use of certain Learned men of the Protestant Churches for reading the Divinity-Lectures and moderating Disputations in both Universities to the end that the younger Students might be trained up in sound Orthodox Doctrine On which account they invited Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two men of eminent parts and Learning to come over to them the one of which they disposed in Oxon and the other at Cambridge This might have troubled Calvin more then his own repulse but that he thought himself sufficiently assured of Peter Martyr who by reason of his long living amongst the Switzers and his neaâ— Neighborhood to Geneva might possibly be governed by his Directions But because Bucer had no such dependance on him and had withal been very much conversant in the Lutheran Churches keeping himself in all his Reformations in a moderate course he practiseth to gain him also or at least to put him into such a way as might come nearest to his own Upon which grounds he posts away his Letters to him congratulates his invitation into England but above all adviseth him to have a care that he endeavoured not there as in other places either to be the Author or Approver of such moderate counsels by which the parties might be brought to a Reconcilement 3. For the satisfaction of these strangers but the last especially the Liturgie is translated into Latine by Alexander Alesius a right Learned Scot. A Copy of whose Translation or the sum thereof being sent to Calvin administred no small matter of offence unto him not so much because any thing in it could be judged offenâ—ive but because it so much differed from those of his own conception The people of England had received it as an heavenly treasure sent down by Gods great mercy to them all moderate men beyond the Seas applauded the felicity of the Church of England in fashioning such an excellent Form of Gods Publick Worship and by the Act of Parliament which confirmed the same it was declared to have been done by the special aid of the Holy Ghost But Calvin was resolved to think otherwise of it declaring his dislike thereof in a long Letter written to the Lord Protector In which he excepteth more particularly against Commemoration of the dead which he acknowledgeth notwithstanding to be very ancient as also against Chrism or Oyl in Baptism and the Form of Visiting the sick and then adviseth that as well these as all the rest of the Rites and Ceremonies be cut off at once And that this grave advice might not prove unwelcome he gives us such a Rule or Reason as afterwards raised more trouble to the Church of England then his bare advice His Rule is this That in carrying on the work of a Reformation there is not any thing to be exacted which is not warranted and required by the Word of God That in such cases there is no Rule left for worldly wisdom for moderation and compliance but all things to be ordered as they are directed by his will revealed What use his Followers made of their Masters Rule in crying down the Rites and Ceremonies of this Church as Superstitiouâ— Antichristian and what else they pleased because not found expresly and particularly in the Holy Scriptures we shall see hereafter In the mean time we must behold him in his Applications to the King and Council his tampering with Archbishop Canmer his practising on men of all conditions to encrease his party For finding little benefit
leaving the Reader for his further satisfaction to the History of the Reformation not long since published in which they are laid down at large in their times and places 9. Nor did they work less trouble to the Church in those early days by their endeavouring to advance some Zuinglian Doctrines by which the blame of all mens sins was either charged upon Gods will or his Divine Decree of Predestination These men are called in Bishop Hooper's Preface to the Ten Commandments by the name of Gospellers for making their new Doctrines such a necessary part of our Saviours Gospel as if men could not possibly be saved without it These Doctrines they began to propagate in the Reign of King Edward but never were so busie at it as when they lived at Geneva or came newly thence For first Knox publisheth a book against an Adversary of Gods Predestination wherein it is declared That whatsoever the Ethnicks and ignorant did attribute to Fortune by Christians is to be assigned to Gods heavenly Providence That we ought to judge nothing to come of Fortune but that all cometh by the determinate counsel of God And finally that it would be displeasing unto God if we esteem any thing to proceed from any other and that we do not onely behold him as the principal cause of all things but also the Author appointing all things to one or the other by his onely Counsel After came out a book first written in French and aâ—terwards by some of them translated into English which they called A brief Declaration of the Table of Predestination In which is put down for a principal Aphorism That in like manner as God hath appointed the end it is necessary that he should appoint the causes leading to the same end but more particularly That by virtue of Gods will all things are done yea even those things which are evil and execrable 10. At the same time came out another of their books pretended to be writ Against a privy Papist as the Title tells us wherein is maintained more agreeably to Calvins Doctrine That all evil springeth of Gods Ordinance and that Gods Predestination was the cause of Adams fall and of all wickedness And in a fourth book published by Robert Cowley who afterwards was Rector of the Church of S. Giles near Cripplegate intituled The confutation of Thirteen Articles it is said expresly That Adam being so perfect a creature that there was in him no lust to sin and yet so weak that of himself he was not able to resist the assault of the subtile Serpent that therefore there can be no remedy but that the onely cause of his fall must needs be the Predestination of God In which book it is also said That the most wicked persons that have been were of God appointed to be wicked even as they were That if God do predestinate a man to do things rashly and without any deliberation he shall not deliberate at all but run headlong upon it be it good or evil And in a word That we are compelled by Gods Predestination to do those things for which we are damned By which Defenders of the absolute Decree of Reprobation as God is made to be Author of sin either in plain terms or undeniable consequence so from the same men and the Genevian Pamphlets by them dispersed our English Calvinists have borrowed all their Grounds and Principles on which they build the absolute and irrespective Decree of Predestination contrary to the Doctrines publickly maintained and taught in the Church of England in the time of King Edward and afterwards more clearly explicated under Queen Elizabeth 11. Such was the posture of affairs at Queen Elizabeths first coming to the Crown of England when to the points before disputed both at home and abroad was raised another of more weight and consequence then all the rest and such as if it could be gained would bring on the other Such as had lived in exile amongst the Zwitzers or followed Knox at his return unto Geneva became exceedingly enamored of Calvins Platform by which they found so much Authority ascribed unto the Ministers in the several Churches as might make them absolute and independant without being called to an account by King or Bishop This Discipline they purposed to promote at their coming home and to that end leaving some few behind them to attend the finishing of the Bible with the Genevian Notes upon it which was then in the Press the rest return a main for England to pursue the Project But Cox had done their errand before they came and she had heard so much from others of their carriage at Frankfort and their untractableness in point of Decency and comely Order in the Reign of her brother as might sufficiently forewarn her not to hearken to them Besides she was not to be told with what reproaches Calvin had reviled her Sister nor how she had been persecuted by his followers in the time of her Reign some of them railing at her person in their scandalous Pamphlets some practising by false but dangerous allusions to subvert her Government and others openly praying to God That he would either turn her heart or put an end to her days And of these men she was to give her self no hope but that they would proceed with her in the self-same manner whensoever any thing should be done how necessary and just soever which might cross their humours The consideration whereof was of such prevalency with those of her Council who were then deliberating about the altering of Religion that amongst other remedies which were wisely thought of to prevent such dangers as probably might ensue upon it it was resolved to have an eye upon these men who were so hot in the pursuit of their flattering hopes that out of a desire of Innovation as my Author tells me they were busied at that very time in setting up a new Form of Ecclesiastical Polity and therefore were to be supprest with all care and diligence before they grew unto a head 12. But they were men of harder metal then to be broken at the first blow which was offered at them Queen Maries death being certified to those of Geneva they presently dispatched their Letters to their Brethren at Frankfort and Arrow to which Letters of theirs an answer is returned from Frankfort on the third from Arrow on the 16 of Ianuary And thereupon it is resolved to prepare for England before their party was so sunk that it could not without much difficulty be buoyed up again Some of their party which remained all the time in England being impatient of delay and chusing rather to anticipate then expect Authority had set themselves on work in defacing Images demolishing the Altars and might have made foul work if not stopped in time Others began as hastily to preach the Protestant Doctrine in private Houses first and afterwards as opportunity was offered in the open Churches Great multitudes of people resorting to
had begun to raise their thoughts unto higher matters then Caps and Tippets In order whereunto some of them take upon them in their private Parishes to ordain set Fasts and others to neglect the observation of the Annual Festivals which were appointed by the Church some to remove the holy Table from the place of the Altar and to transpose it to the middle of the Quire or Chancel that it might serve the more conveniently for the posture of sitting and others by the help of some silly Ordinaries to impose Books of Forreign Doctrine on their several Parishes that by such Doctrine they might countenance their Actings in the other particulars All which with many other innovations of the like condition were presently took notice of by the Bishops and the rest of the Queens Commissioners and remedies provided for them in a book of Orders published in the year 1561 or the Advertisements before mentioned about four years after Such as proceeded in their oppositions after these Advertisements had the name of Puritans as men that did profess a greater Purity in the Worship of God a greater detestation of the Ceremonies and Corruptions of the Church of Rome then the rest of their brethren under which name were comprehended not onely those which hitherto had opposed the Churches Vestments but also such as afterwards endeavoured to destroy the Liturgy and subvert the Goverment 18. In all this time they could obtain no countenance from the hands of this State though it was once endeavoured for them by the Earl of Leicester whom they had gained to their Patron But it was onely to make use of them as a counterpoise to the Popish party at such time as the Marriage was in agitation between the Lord Henry Stewart and the Queen of Scots if any thing should be attempted by them to disturb the Kingdom the fears whereof as they were onely taken up upon politick ends so the intended favours to the opposite Faction vanished also wiâ—h them But on the contrary we finde the State severe enough against their proceedings even to the deprivation of Dr. Thomas Sampson Dean of Christ-church To which dignity he had been unhappily preferred in the first year of the Queen and being looked upon as head of this Faction was worthily deprived thereof by the Queens Commissioners They found by this severity what they were to trust to if any thing were practised by them against the Liturgy the Doctrine of the Church or the publick Government It cannot be denyed but Goodman Gilbie Whittingham and the rest of the Genevian Conventicle were very much grieved at their return that they could not bear the like sway here in their several Consistories as did Calvin and Beza at Geneva so that they not onely repined and grudged at the Reformation which was made in this Church because not fitted to their Fancies and to Calvins Plat-form but have laboured to sow those Seeds of Heterodoxy and Disobedience which afterwards brought forth those troubles and disorders which ensued upon it But being too wise to put their own Fingers in the fire they presently fell upon a course which was sure to speed without producing any danger to themselues or their party They could not but remember those many advantages which Iohn Alasco and his Church of strangers afforded to the Zuinglian Gospellers in the time of King Edward and they despaired not of the like nor of greater neither if a French Church were setled upon Calvin's Principles in some part of London 19. For the advancement of this project Calvin directs his Letters unto Bishop Grindal newly preferred unto that See that by his countenance or connivance such of the French Nation as for their Conscience had been forced to flee into England might be permitted the Free Exercise of their Religion whose leave being easily obtained for the great reverence which he bares to the name of Calvin they made the like use of some Friends which they had in the Court. By whose sollicitation they procured the Church of St. Anthony not far from Merchant-taylors-Hall then being of no present use for Religious Offices to be assigned unto the French with liberty to erect the Genevian Discipline for ordering the Affairs of their Congregation and to set up a Form of Prayer which had no manner of conformity with the English Liturgy Which what else was it in effect but a plain giving up of the Cause at the first demand which afterwards was contended for with such opposition what else but a Foundation to that following Anarchy which was designed to be obtruded on the Civil Government For certainly the tolerating of Presbytery in a Church founded and established by the Rules of Episcopacie could end in nothing but the advancing of a Commonwealth in the midst of a Monarchy Calvin perceived this well enough and thereupon gave Grindal thanks for his favour in it of whom they after served themselves upon all occasions a Dutch-Church being after setled on the same Foundation in the Augustine Fryars where Iohn Alasco held his Congregation in the Reign of King Edward The inconveniences whereof were not seen at the first and when they were perceived were not easily remedied For the obtaining of which ends there was no man more like to serve them with the Queen then Sir Francis Knollis who having Married a Daughter of the Lord Cary of Hunsdon the Queens Cosin-German was made Comptroller of the Houshold continuing in good Credit and Authority with her upon that account And being also one of those who had retired from Frankfort to Geneva in the time of the Schism did there contract a great acquaintance with Calvin Beza and the rest of the Consistorians whose cause he managed at the Court upon all occasions though afterwards he gave place to the Earl of Leicester as their Principal Agent 20. But the Genevians will finde work enough to imploy them both and having gained their ends will put on for more The Isles of Guernsey and Iarsey the onely remainder of the Crown of England in the Dukedom of Normandy had entertained the Reformation in the Reign of King Edward by whose command the publick Liturgy had been turned into French that it might serve them in those Islands for their Edifications But the Reformed Religion being suppressed in the time of Queen Mary revived again immediately after her decease by the diligence of such French Ministers as had resorted thither for protection in the day of their troubles In former times these Islands belonged unto the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Constance who had in each of them a Subordinate Officer mixt of a Chancellor and Archâ— Deacon for the dispatch of all such business as concerned the Church which Officers intituled by the name of Deans had a particular Revenue in Tythes and Corn allotted to them besides the Perquisites of their Courts and the best Benefices in the Islands But these French Ministers desiring to have all things modelled by the Rules of Calvin
with the Pastors of particular flocks He was too well versed in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers as not to know that all the things which he complains of were approved and practiced in the best and happiest times of Christianity as might be otherwise made apparent out of the Writings of Tertullian Cyprian Hierome Chrysostome and indeed who not But Beza has a word for this For first he blames the Ancient Fathers for borrowing many of their Ceremonies from the Jews and Gentiles though done by them out of a good and honest purpose that being all things to all men they might gain the more And thereupon he gives this Rule That all such Rites as had been borrowed either from the Iew or Gentile without express Warrant from Christ or the holy Apostles as also all other significant Ceremonies which had been brought into the Church against right and reason should be immediately removed or otherwise the Church could never be restored to her Native Beauty Which Rule of his if once admitted there must be presently an end of all external Decency and Order in the Worship of God and every man might be left to serve him both for time and place and every particular circumstance in that Sacred action as to him seemed best And what a horrible confusion must needs grow thereby not onely in a whole National Church but in every particular Congregation be it never so small is no hard matter to conceive 25. At the Reforming of this Church not onely the Queens Chappel and all Cathedrals but many Parochial Churches also had preserved their Organs to which they used to sing the appointed Hymns that is to say the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat the Nunc Dimittis c. performed in an Artificial and Melodious manner with the addition of Cornets Sackbuts and the like on the Solemn Festivals For which as they had ground enough from the holy Scripture if the Practice and Authority of David be of any credit so were they warranted thereunto by the godly usage of the primitive times after the Church was once restored to her peace and freedom Certain I am that S. Augustine imputes no small part of his Conversion to that heavenly Melodie which he heard very frequently in the Church of Mâ—llaine professing that it did not onely draw tears from him though against his will but raised his soul unto a sacred Meditation on spiritual matters But Beza having turned so many of the Psalms into metre as had been left undone by Marot gave an example unto Sternhold and Hopkins to attempt the like Whos 's Version being left unfinished but brought unto an end by some of our English Exiles which remained at Geneva there was a purpose for imposing them upon the Church by little and little that they might come as close as might be in all points to their Mother-City At first they sung them onely in their private houses and afterwards as beforesaid adventured to sing them also in the Church as in the way of entertainment to take up the time till the beginning of the Service and afterwards to sing them as a part of the Service it self For so I understand that passage in the Church Historian in which he tells us That Dr. Gervis being then Warden of Merton Colledge had abolished certain Latine superstitious Hymns which had been used on some of the Festivals appointing the Psalms in English to be sung in their place and that as one Leech was ready to begin the Psalm another of the Fellows called Hall snatched the book out of his hands and told him That they could no more dance after his pipe But whatsoever Hall thought of them Beza and his Disciples were perswâ—ded otherwise And that he might the better cry down that Melodious Harmony which was retained in the Church of England and so make way for the Genevian fashion even in that point also he tells us in the same Letter to Bishop Gryndal That the Artificial Musick then retained in the Church of England was fitter to be used in Masks and Dancings then Religious Offices and rather served to please the ear then to move the affections Which censure being pass'd upon it by so great a Rabby most wonderful it was how suddenly some men of good note and quality who otherwise deserved well enough of the Church of England did bend their wits and pens against it and with what earnestness they laboured to have their own Tunes publickly introduced into all the Churches Whâ—ch that they might the better do they procured the Psalms in English metre to be bound in the same Volume with the Publick Liturgie and sometimes with the Bible also setting them forth as being allowed so the Title tells us to be sung in all Churches before and after Morning and Evening Prayer as also before and after Sermons but with what truth and honesty we have heard before 16. In finâ— he tells the Bishops how guilty they would seem to God and his hâ—ly Angels if they chuse rather to deprive the Ministers of their Cures and Benefices then suffer them to go apparelled otherwise then to them seemed good And rather to deprive many hungry souls of their heavenly food then give them leave to receive it otherwise then upon their knees And this being said he questions the Authority of the Supreme Magistrate as contrary to the Word of God and the Ancient Canons for ordaining any new Rites and Ceremonies in a Church established but much more the Authority ascribed to Bishops in ordering any thing which concerned the Church without calling the Presbytery to advise about it and having their approbation in it This was indeed the point most aimed at And to this point his followers take the courage to drive on amain the Copies of this Letter being presently dispersed for their greater comfort if not also printed Some of the brethren in their zeal to the name of Calvin preferred him once before S. Paul and Beza out of question would have took it ill if he had been esteemed of less Authority then any of those who claimed to be Successors to S. Peter And therefore it were worth the while to compare the Epistles of these men with those of Pope Leo and then to enter seriously into consideration whether of the two took more upon him either Pope Leo where he might pretend to some command or Beza where he had no authority to act at all How much more moderate and discreet were the most eminent men for Learning amongst the Zwitzers may appear by the example of Gualter and Bullinger no way inferior unto the other but in Pride and Arrogancy who being desired by some of the English Zealots to give their judgement in the point of the Churches Vestments returned their approbation of them but sent it in a Letter directed to Horn Sandys and Grindal to let them see that they would not intermeddle in the affairs of this Church without their
privity and advice Which whether it were done with greater Moderation or Discretion it is hard to say 27. So good a Foundation being laid the building could not chuse but go on apace But first they must prepare the matter and remove all doubts which otherwise might interrupt them in the course of their building And herein Beza is consulted as the Master-Workman To him they send their several scruples and he returns such answer to them as did not onely confirm them in their present obstinacy but fitted and prepared them for the following Schism To those before they add the calling of the Ministers and their ordaining by the Bishops neither the Presbyterie being consulted nor any particular place appointed for their Ministration Which he condemns as contrary to the Word of God and the ancient Canons but so that he conceives it better to have such a Ministery then none at all praying withal that God would give this Church a more lawful Ministery the Church was much beholding to him for his zeal the while in his own good time Concerning the Interrogatories proposed to Infants in their Baptism he declares it to be onely a corruption of the ancient Form which was used in the baptizing persons of riper years And thereupon desires as heartily as before That as the Church had laid aside the use of Oyl and the old Rite of Exorcising though retained at Rome so they would also abdicate those foolish and unnecessary Interrogations which are made to Infanâ—â— And yet he could not chuse but vaunt that there was somewhat in one of S. Augustines Epistles which might seem to favour it and that such questionâ— were proposed to Infants in the time of Origen who lived above Two hundred years before S. Augustine In some Churches and particularly in Westminster-Abbey they still retained the use of Wafers made of bread unleavened to which we can find nothing contrary in the Publik Rubricks This he acknowledgeth of it self for a thing indifferent but so that ordinary leavened bread is preferred before it as being more agreeable to the Institution of our Lord and Saviour And yet he could not chuse but grant that Christ administred the Sacrament in unleavened bread no other being to be used by the Law of Moses at the time of the Passover He dislikes also the deciding of Civil causes by which he means those of Tythes Marriages and the Last-Wills or Testaments of men deceased in the Bishops Courts but more that the Bishops Chancellors did take upon them to decree any Excommunication without the approbation and consent of the Presbyters Whose acts therein he Majestically pronounceth to be void and null not to oblige the Conscience of any man in the sight of God and otherwise to be a foul and shameful prophanation of the Churches Censures 28. To other of their Queries Touching the Musick in the Church Kneeling at the Communion The Cross in Baptism and the rest He answers as he did before without remitting any thing of his former censure Which Letter of his bearing date on the 24 of October 1567. was superscribed Ad quosdam Anglicanum Ecclesiarum fratres c. To certain of the brethren of the Churches in England touching some points of Ecclesiastical Order and concernment which were then under debate by the receiving whereof they found themselves so fully satisfied and encouraged that they fell into an open Schism in the year next following At which time Benson Button Hallingham Coleman and others taking upon them to be of a more Ardent zeal then others in professing the true Reformed Religion resolved to allow of nothing in Gods Publick Service according to the Rules laid down by Calvin and Beza but what was found expresly in the holy Scriptures And whether out of a desire of Reformation which pretence had gilded many a rotten post or for singularity sake and Innovation they openly questioned the received Discipline of the Church of England yea condemned the same together with the Publick Liturgie and the Calling of Bishops as savouring too much of the Religion of the Church of Rome Against which they frequently protested in their Pulpits affirming That it was an impious thing to hold any correspondency with the Church and labouring with all diligence to bring the Church of England to a Conformity in all points with the Rules of Geneva These although the Queen commanded to be laid by the heels yet it is incredible how upon a sudden their followers increased in all parts of the Kingdom distinguished from the rest by the name of Puritans by reason of their own perverseness and most obstinate refusal to give ear to more sound advice Their numbers much encreased on a double account first by the negligence of some and the connivance of other Bishops who should have looked more narrowly into their proceedings And partly by the secret favour of some great men in the Court who greedily gaped after the Remainder of the Churches Patrimony 29. It cannot be denied but that this Faction received much encouragement underhand from some great persons near the Queen from no man more then from the Earl of Leicester the Lord North Knollis and Walsingham who knew how mightily some numbers of the Scots both Lords and Gentlemen had in short time improved their fortune by humoring the Knoxian Brethren in their Reformation and could not but expect the like in their own particulars by a compliance with those men who aimed apparently at the ruine of the Bishops and Cathedral Churches But then it must be granted also that they received no smaâ—l encouragement from the negligence and remissness of some great Bishops whom Calvin and Beza â—ad cajoled to a plain connivance Of Calvins writing unto Grindal for setting up a French Church in the middle of London we have seen before And we have seen how Beza did address himself unto him in behalf of the Brethren who had suffered for their inconformity to established Orders But now he takes notice of the Schism a manifest defection of some members from the rest of the body but yet he cannot chuse but tamper with him to allow their doings or otherwise to mitigate the rigour of the Laws in force For having first besprinkled him with some commendation for his zeal to the Gospel and thanked him for his many favours to the new French Church he begins roundly in plain terms to work him to his own perswasions He lays before him first how great an obstacle was made in the course of Religion by those petite differences not onely amongst weak and ignorant but even Learned men And then adviseth that some speedy remedy be applied to so great a mischief by calling an Assembly of such Learned and Religious men as were least contentious of which he hoped to be the chief if that work went forwards With this Proviso notwithstanding That nothing should be ordered and determined by them with reference unto Ancient or Modern usages but that all Popish Rites
the same Arts which they brought hither with them Such welcome Guests must needs have some Encouragement to remain here always And what Encouragement could be greater and more welcome to them then to enjoy the liberty of their own Religion according to such Government and Forms of Worship as they had exercised at home King Edward had indulged the like priviledges to Iohn Alasco and Queen Elizabeth to the French neither of which were so considerable as the Flemish Inmates A suit is therefore made by their Friends in Court for granting them the Church of Augustine-Fryers where Iohn Alasco formerly held his Dutch Congregation and granting it with all such Priviledges and Immunitiâ—s as the Dutch enjoyed And that they might proceed in setting up their Presbyteries and new Forms of Worship they obtain not onely a Connivance or Toleration but a plain Approbation of their actings in it For in the Letters which confirmed this new Church unto them it is expresly signified by the Lords of the Council That they knew well that from the first beginning of the Christian Faith different Rites and Ceremonies had been used in some parts thereof which were not practised in the other That whilst some Christians worshipped God upon their knees others erect upon their feet and some again groveling on the ground there was amongst them all but one and the same Religion as long as the whole action tended to the honor of God and that there was no Superstition and Impiety in it That they contemned not the Rites which these Dutch brought with them nor purposed to compel them to the practice of those which were used in England but that they did approve and allow their Ceremonies as sitted and accommodated to the nature of the Countrey from whence they came Which priviledges they enlarged bâ— their Letter of the 29 of Iune in the year next following An. 1574 extending them to all such of the Belgick Provinces as reâ—orted hither and joyned themselves unto that Church thâ—ugh otherwise dispersed in several parts and Sea-Towns for their own conveniences which gave the first beginning to the nâ—w Dutch Churches in Canterbury Sandwich Yarmouth Norwich and some other places in the North to the great animation or the Presbyters and the discomfort of all such who were of judgement to foresee the sad consequents of it 8. With like felicity they drove on their designs in Iersey and Guernsey in the two principal Towns whereof the Discipline had been permitted by an Order of the Lords of the Council as before was said But not content with that allowance which the Lords had given them by His Majesties great grace and favour their Preachers being for the most part natural Frenchmen had introduced it by degrees into all the Villages furthered therein by the Sacrilegious Avarice of the several Governors out of a hope to have the spoil of the poor Deanries to ingross all the Tythes unto themselves and then put off the Ministers with some sorry stipends as in fine they did But first those Islands were to be dissevered by some Act of State from being 〈◊〉 longer Members of the Diocess or subject to the Juriâ—â—iction of the Bishops of Constance And that being easily obtained it was thought fit that Snape and Cartwright the great Supporters of the cause in England should be sent unto them to put their Churches in a posture and settle the Discipline amongst them in such form and manner as it was practised in Geneva and amongst the French Which fell out happily for Cartwright as his case stood who being worsted in the last Encounter betwixt him and Whitgift had now a handsome opportunity to go off with credit not as if worsted in the fight but rather called away to another tryal Upon thâ—s Invitation they set sail for the Islands and take the charge thereof upon them the one of them being made the titular Pastor of the Castle of Mount-Orgueil in the Isle of Iersey and the other of Castle-Cornet in the Rode of Guernsey Thus qualified they convene the Churches of each Island communicate unto them a rude Draught of the Holy Discipline which afterwards was polished and accommodated to the use of those Islands but not agreed upon and exercised until the year next following as appears by the Title of it which is this viz. The Ecclesiastical Discipline observed and practised by the Churches of Jersey and Guernsey after the Reformation of the same by the Ministers Elders and Deacons of the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Sark and Alderney confirmed by the Authority and in the presence of the Governors of the same Isles in a Synod holden in Guernsey the 28 of June 1576 and afterwards revived by the said Ministers and Elders and confirmed by the said Governors in a Synod holden in Jersey the 11 12 13 14 15 and 17 days of October 1577. 9. With worse success but less diligence did Travers labour in the cause who being one of the same spirit published a book in maintenance of the Holy Discipline which he caused to be printed at Geneva and was thus intituled viz. Ecclesiasticae Disciplinae Anglicanae Ecclesiae ab illa aberrationis plena e verbo Dei Dilucida Explicatio that is to say A full and perfect Explication of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word â—f God and of the Church of Englands departing from it In which book he advanced the Discipline to so great a height as made it necessary for all Christian Kings and Princes to submit unto it and lay down their Crowns and Scepters at the Churches feet even to the very licking up of the dust thereof if occasion were But Travers sojourned in Geneva when he wrote this book and was to frame it to the palate of Beza and the rest of that Confistory who had by this time made the Discipline as essenâ—ial to the true being of a Church as either the Preaching of the Word or the Administration of the holy Sacraments Beza had so declared it in a Letter to Knox An. 1572. In which he reckons it as a great and signal blessing from Almighty God that they had introduced in Scotland not onely the true Worship of God but the Discipline also which was the best Preservative of the truth of Doctrine Which therefore he desires him so to keep together as to be sure that if the one be lost that is laid aside the other is not like to continue long And Cartwright leading in the same path also heightned it above all which had gone before or that followed after him Some of the Brethren have extolled it to the very Skies as being the onely Bond of Peace the Bane of Heresie the Punisher of Sin and maintainer of Righteousness A Discipline full of all goodness for the peace and honour of Gods people ordained for the joy and happiness of all the Nations But Cartwright sets them such a leap as they durst not reach at not onely telling us in
the honor to themselves To which end Heywood Parsons and Campian first set foot in England and both by secret practices and printed Pamphlets endeavoured to withdraw the Subjects from their due obedience Nothing more ordinary in their mouths or upon their pens then that the Crown belonged of right to the Queen of Scots That Elizabeth was to be deprived That if the Pope commanded one thing and the Queen another the Popes commands were to be obeyed and not the Queens And in a word That all the Subjects were absolued from their Allegiance and might declare as much when they found it necessary Which that it might be done with the greater safety Pope Gregory the XIII is desired to make an Explication of the former Bull. By which it should be signified to the English Catholicks that the said former Bull of Pope Pius V should remain obligatory unto none but the Hereticks onely but that the Romish Catholicks should not be bound by it as the case then stood till they should find themselves in a fit capacity to put the same in execution without fear of danger And presently upon their first entrance a Book is published by one Howlet containing many reasons for deterring the Papists from joyning in any Act of Worship with the English Protestants the going or not going to Church being from henceforth made a sign distinctive as they commonly phrased it In this year also Beza published his Schismatical Pamphlet intituled De triplici Episcopatu of which see Lib. 1. numb 47. Lib. 5. numb 40. first written at the request of Knox and other of the Presbyterians of the Kirk of Scotland that they might have the better colour to destroy Episcopacy translated afterwards into English for the self-same reason by Field of Wandsworth Against this Book Dr. Iohn Bridges Dean of Sarum writ a large Discourse intituled A Defence of the Government established in the Church of England not published till the year 1587 when the Authority thereof was most highly stood on The like done afterward by Dr. Hadrian Savavia of which we shall speak more in its proper place 23. And now the waters are so troubled that Cartwright might presume of gainful fishing at his coming home Who having settled the Presbytery in Iersey and Guernsey first sends back Snape to his old Lecture at Northampton there to pursue such Orders and Directions as they had agreed on and afterwards put himself into the Factory of Antwerp and was soon chosen for their Preacher The news whereof brings Travers to him who receives Ordination if I may so call it by the Presbytery of that City and thereupon is made his Partner in that charge It was no hard matter for them to perswade the Merchants to admit that Discipline which in their turns might make them capable of voting in the Publick Consistory And they endeavoured it the rather that by their help they might effect the like in the City of London whensoever they should find the times to be ready for them The like they did also in the English Church at Middleborough the chief Town in Zealand in which many English Merchants had their constant residence To which two places they drew over many of the English Nation to receive admission to the Ministery in a different Form from that which was allowed in the Church of England Some of which following the example of Cartwright himself renounced the Orders which they had from the hands of the Bishops and took a new Vocation from these Presbyters as Fennor Arton c. and others there admitted to the rank of Ministers which never were ordained in England as Hart Guisin c. not to say any thing of such as were elected to be Elders or Deacons in those Forreign Consistories that they might serve the Churches in the same capacity at their coming home And now at last they are for England where Travers puts himself into the service of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh by whose Recommendation he is chosen Lecturer of the Temple Church which gave him opportunity for managing all affairs which concerned the Discipline with the London-Ministers Cartwright applies himself to the Earl of Leicester by whom he is sent down to Warwick and afterwards made Master of an Hospital of his Foundation In the chief Church of which Town he was pleased to preach as often as he could dispense with his other business At his admission to which place he faithfully promised if he might be but tolerated to Preach not to impugne the Laws Orders Policy Government nor Governours in this Church of England but to perswade and procure so much as he could both publickly and privately the estimation and peace of this Church 24. But scarce was he setled in the place when he made it manifest by all his actions how little care he took of his words and promises for so it was when any Minister either in private Conferences or by way of Letters required his advice in any thing which concerned the Church he plainly shewed his mislike of the Ecclesiastical Government then by Law Established and excepted against divers parts of the Publick Liturgie according to the Tenour of the two Admonitions by him formerly published By means whereof he prevailed with many who had before observed the Orders of the Common-prayer-book now plainly to neglect the same and to oppose themselves against the Government of Bishops as far as they might do it safely in relation to the present times And that he might not press those points to others which he durst not practice in himself he many times inveighed against them in his Prayers and Sermons The like he also did against many pâ—ssages in the Publick Liturgie as namely The use of the Surplice the Interrogatories to God-fathers in the name of Infants the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage the Thanksgiving after Child-birth Burials by Ministers the kneeling at Communions some points of the Litany certain Collects and Prayers the reading of Portions of Scripture for the Epistle and Gospel and the manner of singing in Cathedral Churches And for example unto others he procured his Wife not to give thanks for her Delivery from the peril of Childbirth after such Form and in such place and manner as the Church required Which as it drew on many other women to the like contempt so might he have prevailed upon many more if he had not once discoursed upon matters of Childbirth with such in discretion that some of the good Wives of Warwick were almost at the point to stone him as he walked the streets But that he might not seem to pull down more with one hand then he would be thought sufficiently able to build up with both he highly magnified in some of his Sermons the Government of the Church by Elderships in each Congregation and by more Publick Conferences in Classical and Synodical Meetings which he commended for the onely lawful Church-Government as being of Divine Institution and ordained by
the coming of the Duke a shot was made at him from a ship with which one of the Watermen was killed but the Ambassador therewith more amazed then hurt The Gunner afterwards was pardoned by the great power the Earl of Leicester had in Court it being pretended that the Piece was discharged upon meer accident and not upon malice or design After this follows a seditious Pamphlet writ by one Stubs of Lincolns Inn who had married one of the Sisters of Thomas Cartwright and therefore may be thought to have done nothing in it without his privity This Book he called The Gaping Gulf in which England was to have been swallowed the wealth thereof consumed and the Gospel irrecoverably drown'd writ with great bitterness of spirit and reproachful language to the disgrace of the French Nation the dishonor of the Dukes own person and not without some vile reflections on the Queen herself as if she had a purpose to betray her Kingdom to the power of Strangers 28. For publishing this book no such excuse could be pretended as was insisted on in defence of the former shot nor could the Queen do less in Justice to her self and her Government as the case then stood then to call the Authors and the Publishers of it to a strict account To which end the said Stubs together with Hugh Singleton and William Page were on the 13 day of October arraigned at Westminster for Writing Printing and dispersing that Seditious Pamphlet and were all then and there condemned to lose their right hands for the said offence Which Sentence was executed on the third of November upon Stubs and Page as the chief offenders but Singleton was pardoned as an Accessary and none of the Principals in the Crime Which execution gave great grief to the Disciplinarians because they saw by that Experiment that there was no dallying with the Queen when either the honor of her Government or the peace of her Dominions seemed to be concerned And they were most afflicted at it in regard of Cartwright whose inability to preserve so near a Friend from the severity and shame of so great a punishment was looked on as a strong presumption that he could be as little able to save himself whensoever it was thought expedient upon reason of State to proceed against him But now they are engaged in the same bottom with him they were resolved to steer their course by no other Compass then that which this grand Pilot had provided for them Not terrified from so doing by the open Schism which was the next year made by one Robert Brown once a Disciple of their own and one who built his Schism upon Cartwrights Principles nor by the hanging of those men who had dispersed his Factious and Schismatical Pamphlets For the better clearing of which matter we must fetch the story of this Brown a little higher and carry it a little lower then this present year 29. This Robert Brown was born at Tolâ—thorp in the County of Rutland the Grand-child of Francis Brown Esquire priviledged in the 18 year of King Henry VIII to wear his Cap in the presence of the King himself or any other Lords Spiritual or Temporal in the Land and not to put it off at any time but onely for his own ease and pleasure He was bred sometimes in Corpus Christi Colledge commonly called Bennet Colledge in the University of Cambridge Where though he was not known to take any degree yet he would many times venture into the Pulpit It was observed that in his preaching he was very vehement which Cartwrights Followers imputed onely to his zeal as being one of their own number But other men suspected him to have worse ends in it Amongst many whom rather curiosity then Devotion had brought to hear him Dr. Iohn Still though possibly not then a Doctor hapned to be one Who being afterwards Master of Trinity-Colledge and finally Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells was used to say That he discerned something extraordinary in him at the very first which he presaged would prove a disturbance to the Church if it were not seasonably prevented Being well verst and conversant in Cartwrights Books and other the like Pamphlets of that time he became more and more estranged from the Church of England Whose Goveâ—â—ment he found to be deâ—amed for Antichristian her Sacraments affirmed to be defiled with Superstition her Liturgie reproached for Popish and in some part Heathenish and finally her Ordination to be made no better then those of Baals Priests amongst the Jews Not able to abide longer in a Church so impure and filthy he puts himself over into Zealand and joyns with Cartwrights new Church in the City of Middleborough But finding there some few remainders of the old impiety he resolves to constitute a new Church of his own Projectment which should have nothing in it but what was most pure and holy The Draught whereof he comprehended in a Book which he printed at Middleborough An. 1582 intituled A Treatise of Reformation and having sent as many of them into England as might serve his turn he followed after in pursuit of his new Plantation 30. The Dutch had then a Church at Norwich as before was said more numerous then any other Church or Congregation within the Precincts of that City Many of which enclining of themselves to the Anabaptists were apt enough to entertain any new Opinions which held Conformity with that Sect. Amongst them he begins and first begins with such amongst them as were most likely to be ruled and governed by him he being of an imperious nature and much offended with the least dissent or contradiction when he had uttered any Paradox in his discourses Having gotten into some Authority amongst the Dutch whose Language he had learned when he lived in Middleborough and grown into a great opinion for his Zeal and Sanctity he began to practise with the English using therein the service and assistance of one Richard Harrison a Country School master whose ignorance made him apt enough to be seduced by so weak a Prophet Of each Nation he began to gather Churches to himself of the last especicially inculcating nothing more to his simple Auditors then that the Church of England had so much of Rome that there was no place left for Christ or his holy Gospel But more particularly he inveighed against the Government of the Bishops the Ordination of Ministers the Offices Rites and Ceremonies of the publick Liturgie according as it had been taught out of Cartwrights Books descending first to this Position That the Church of England was no true and lawful Church And afterwards to this conclusion That all true Christians were obliged to come out of Babylon to separate themselves from those impure and mixt Assemblies in which there was so little of Christs Institution and finally that they should joyn themselves to him and to his Disciples amongst whom there was nothing to be found which savoured not
directly of the Spirit of God nothing of those impurities and prophanations of the Church of England Hereupon followed a defection from the Church it self not as before amongst the Presbyterians from some Offices in it Browns Followers which from him took the name of Brownists refusing obstinately to joyn with any Congregation with the rest of the people for hearing the Word preached the Sacraments administred and any publick act of Religious Worship This was the first gathering of Churches which I finde in England and for the justifying hereof he caused his Books to be dispersed in most parts of the Realm Which tending as apparently to Sedition brought both the Dispersers of them within the compass of the Statute 23 Eliz. cap. 2. Of which we are informed by Stow that Elias Thasker was hanged at Bury on the fourth of Iune and Iohn Copping on the sixth of the same Month for spreading certain Books seditiously penned by Robert Brown against the Book of Common-prayer established by the Laws of this Realm as many of their Books as could be found being burnt before them 31. As for the Writer of the Books and the first Author of the Schism he was more favourably dealt with then these wretched instruments and many other of his Followers in the times succeeding Being convented before Dr. Edmond Freak then Bishop of Norwich and others of the Queens Commissioners in conjunction with him he was by them upon his refractory carriage committed to the custody of the Sheriff of Norwich But being a near kinsman by his Mother to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh he was at his request released from his imprisonment and sent to London where some course was taken to reclaim him if it might be possible totally or in part at least as God pleased to bless it Whitgift by this time had attained to the See of Canterbury a man of excellent patience and dexterity in dealing with such men as were so affected By whose fair usage powerful Reasons and exemplary piety he was prevailed upon so far as to be brought unto a tolerable compliance with the Church of England In which good humour he was favourably dismist by the Arch-bishop and by the Lord-Treasurer Burleigh to the care of his Father to the end that being under his eye and dealt with in a kinde and temperate manner he might in time be well recovered and finally withdrawn from all the Reliques of his fond opinions Which Letters of his bear date on the 8 of October 1585. But long he had not staid in his Fathers house when he returned unto his vomit and proving utterly incorrigible was dismist again the good old Gentleman being resolved upon this point that he would not own him for a Son who would not own the Church of England for his Mother But at the last though not till he had passed through two and thirty prisons as he used to brag by the perswasions of some Friends and his own necessities the more powerful Orators of the two he was prevailed with to accept of a place called A Church in Northamptonshire beneficed with cure of Souls to which he was presented by Thomas Lord Burleigh after Earl of Exon and thereunto admitted by the Bishop of Peterborough upon his promise not to make any more disturbances in the proceedings of the Church A Benefice of good value which might tempt him to it the rather in regard that he was excused as well from preaching as from performing any other part of the publick Ministry which Offices he discharged by an honest Curate and allowed him such a competent maintainance for it as gave content unto the Bishop who had named the man And on this Benefice he lived to a very great age not dying till the year 1630 and then dying in Northampton Gaol not on the old account of his inconformity but for breach of the Peace A most unhappy man to the Church of England in being the Author of a Schism which he could not close and most unfortunate to many of his Friends and Followers who suffered death for standing unto those conclusions from which he had withdrawn himself divers years before 32. But it is time that we go back again to Cartwright upon whose principles and positions he first raised this Schism Which falling out so soon upon the Execution which was done on Stubs could not but put a great rebuke upon his spirit and might perhaps have tended more to his discouragement had not his sorrows been allayed and sweetned by a Cordial which was sent from Beza sufficient to revive a half-dying brother Concerning which there is no more to be premised but that Geneva had of late been much wasted by a grievous pestilence and was somewhat distressed at this time by the Duke of Savoy Their peace not to be otherwise procured but by paying a good sum of money and money not to be obtained but by help of their Friends On this account he writes to Travers being then Domestick Chaplain to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh but so that Cartwright was to be acquainted with the Tenour of it that by the good which the one might do upon the Queen by the means of his Patron and the great influence which the other had on all his party the contribution might amount to the higher pitch But as for so much of the said Letter as concerns our business it is this that followeth viz. If as often dear Brother as I have remembred thee and our Cartwright so often I should have written unto thee you had been long since overwhelmed with my Letters no one day passing wherein I do not onely think of you and your matters which not onely our ancient Friendship but the greatness of those affairs wherein you take pains seems to require at my hands But in regard that you were fallen into such times wherein my silence might be safer far then my writing I have though most unwillingly been hitherto silent Since which time understanding that by Gods Grace the heats of some men are abated I could not suffer this my Friend to come unto you without particular Letters from me that I may testifie my self to be the same unto you as I have been formerly as also that at his return I may be certified of the true state of your affairs After which Preamble he acquaints him with the true cause of his writing the great extremities to which that City was reduced and the vast debts in which they were plunged whereby their necessities were grown so grievous that except they were relieved from other parts they could not be able to support them And then he addes I beseech thee my dear Brother not onely to go on in health with thy daily prayers but that if you have any power to prevail with some persons shew us by what honest means you can how much you love us in the Lord. Finally having certified him of other Letters which he had writ to certain Noblemen and to all the Bishops
of Blackross 7. Of the same temper were the rest who notwithstanding the late Acts of Parliament inhibiting all Assembly and Classical Conventions without leave from the King held a new Synod at St. Andrews in the April following consisting for the most part of Barons and Lay-Gentlemen Masters of Colledges and ignorant School-Masters Which Synod if it may be called so was purposely indicted by Andrew Melvin for censuring the Arch-bishop of that City whom they suspected and gave out to be the chief Contriver of the Acts of Parliament made in 1584 so prejudicial to the Kirk and to have penned the Declaration in defence thereof And hereunto he found the rest so ready to conform themselves that they were upon the point of passing the Sentence of Excommunication against him before he was cited to appear most of them crying out aloud It was the Cause of God and That there needed no citation where the iniquity was so manifest But being cited at the last he appears before them puts up his Protestation concerning the unlawfulness of that Convention and his disowning any Jurisdiction which they challenged over him and so demanded of them What they had to say His Accusation was That he had devised the Acts of Parliament in 84 to the subversion of the Kirk and the Liberties of it To which he answered That he only had approved and not devised the said Acts which having past the approbation of the Three Estates were of a nature too Supreme for such Assemblies and thereupon appealed unto the King the Council and the following Parliament But notwithstanding this Appeal the Sentence of Excommunication is decreed against him drawn into Writing and subscribed Which when neither the Moderator being a meer Layick nor any of the Ministers themselves had confidence enough to pronounce and publish one Hunter a Pedagogue in the House of Andrew Melvin professing that he had the Warrant of the Spirit for it took the charge upon him and with sufficient audacity pronounced the Sentence 8. The informality and perversness of these proceedings much displeased the King but more he feared what would be done in the next Assembly appointed to be held at Edenborough and then near at hand Melvin intended in the same not only to make good whatsoever had been done at the former Meeting but to dispute the nature and validity of all Appeals which should be made against them on the like occasions To break which blow the King could find no other way but to perswade the Arch-bishop to subscribe to these three points viz. That he never publickly professed or intended to claim any Superiority or to be judg over any other Pastors and Ministers or yet a vowed the same to have any warrant in Gods Word That he never challenged any Jurisdiction over the late Synod at St. Andrews and must have erred by his contempt of the said Meeting if he had so done And thirdly That he would behave himself better for the time to come desiring pardon for the oversight of his former Actions promising to be such a Bishop from thenceforth as was described by St. Paul And finally submitting both himself and Doctrine to the Judgment of the said Assembly without appealing from the same in the times to come To such unworthy Conditions was the poor man brought only to gain the King some peace and to reserve that little Power which was left unto Him though the King lost more by this Transaction than possibly He could have done by his standing out For notwithstanding the Submissions on the part of the Bishop the Assembly would descend no lower than to declare That they would hold the said Sentence for not pronounced and thereby leave the Bishop in the same estate in which they found him and not this neither but upon some hopes and assurance given them that the King would favourably concurr with them in the building of the House of God Which Agreement did so little satisfie the adverse party that they justified their former process and peremptorily confirmed the Sentence which had been pronounced Which when it could not be obtained from the greater part of the Assembly who were not willing to lose the glory of so great a Victory Hunter stands up by the advice of Andrew Melvin and publickly protested against it declaring further That notwithstanding any thing which had been done to the contrary the Bishop should be still reputed for an Excommunicated person and one delivered unto Satan It was moved in this Assembly also That some Censure should be laid upon the Ministers who had subscribed the Acts of Parliament made in 84. But their number proved so great that a Schism was feared and they were wise enough to keep all together that they might be the better able upon all occasions to oppose the King Somewhat was also done concerning the Establishment of their Presbyteries and the defining of their Power of which the King would take no notice reserving his disgust of so many Insolencies till he should find himself in a condition to do them Reason 9. In these Exorbitances they are followed by the English Puritans who had been bad enough before but henceforth showed themselves to have more of the Scot in them than in former times For presently upon the news of the good success which their Scottish Brethren had at Sterling a scandalous Libel in the nature of a Dialogue is published and dispersed in most parts of England in which the state of this Church is pretended to be laid open in a Conference between Diotrephes representing the person of a Bishop Tertullus a Papist brought in to plead for the Orders of our Church Demetrius an Usurer signifying such as live by unlawful Trades Pandocheus an Inn-keeper a receiver of all and a soother of every man for his Gain and Paul a Preacher of the Word of God sustaining the place and person of the Consistorians In the contrivance of which piece Paul falls directly on the Bishop whom he used most proudly spightfully and slanderously He condemneth both the Calling of Bishops as Antichristian and censureth their proceedings as Wicked Popish Unlawful and Cruel The Bishop is supposed to have been sent out of England into Scotland for suppressing the Presbyteries there and is made upon his return homewards to be the Reporter of the Scottish Affairs and withall to signifie his great fear lest he and the rest of the Bishops in England should be served shortly as the Bishops had lately been in Scotland viz. at Edenborough St. Andrews c. Tertullus the Papist is made the Bishop's only Counsellor in the whole course of the Government of the Church by whose Advice the Bishops are made to bear with the Popish Recusants and that so many ways are sought to suppress the Puritans And he together with Pandocheus the Host and Demetrius the Usurer relate unto the Bishop such Occurrences as had happened in England during his stay amongst the Scots At which when the Bishop seemed
to wonder and much more marvelled that the Bishops had not yet suppressed the Puritans some way or other Pandocheus is made to tell him That one of their Preachers had affirmed in the Pulpit That there were One hundred thousand of them in England and that their Number in all places did encrease continually 10. By this last brag about their Numbers and somewhat which escaped from the mouth of Paul touching his hopes of seeing the Consistorian Discipline erected shortly it may be gathered That they had a purpose to proceed in their Innovations out of a hope to terrifie the State to a compliance by the strength of their Party But if that failed they would then do as Penry had advised and threatned that is to say they would present themselves with a Petition to the Houses of Parliament to the delivering whereof One hundred thousand Hands should be drawn together In the mean time it was thought fit to dissemble their purposes and to make tryal of such other means as appeared less dangerous To which end they present with one Hand a Petition to the Convocation in which it was desired That they might be freed from all Subscriptions and with the other publish a seditious Pamphlet entituled A Complaint of the Commons for a Learned Ministry But for the putting of their Counsels in execution they were for the present at a stand The Book of Discipline upon a just examination was not found so perfect but that it needed a review and the review thereof is referred to Traverse By whom being finished after a tedious expectation it was commended to the Brethren and by them approved But the worst was it was not so well liked of in the Houses of Parliament as to pass for current which so incensed those meek-spirited men that they fell presently to threatning and reviling all who opposed them in it They had prepared their way to the Parliament then sitting Anno 1586 by telling them That if the Reformation they desired were not granted they should betray God his Truth and the whole Kingdom that they should declare themselves to be an Assembly wherein the Lords Cause could not be heard wherein the felicity of miserable men could not be respected wherein Truth Religion and Piety could bear no sway an Assembly that willingly called for the Judgments of God upon the whole Realm and finally that not a man of their seed should prosper be a Parliament-man or bear rule in England any more 11. This necessary preparation being thus premised they tender to the Parliament A Book of the form of Common-Prayer by them desired containing also in effect the whole pretended Discipline so revised by Traverse and their Petition in behalf thereof was in these words following viz. May it therefore please your Majesty c. that the Book hereunto annexed c. Entituled A Book of the Form of Common-Prayers and Administration of Sacraments c. and every thing therein contained c. may be from henceforth put in use and practised through all your Majesty's Dominions c. But this so little edified with the Queen or that Grave Assembly that in the drawing up of a General Pardon to be passed in Parliament there was an Exception of all those that committed any offence against the Act for the Uniformity of Common-Prayers or that were Publishers of Seditious Books or Disturbers of Divine Service And to say the truth the Queen had little reason to approve of that Form of Discipline in which there was so little consideration of the Supreme Magistrate in having either vote or place in any of their Synodical Meetings unless he be chosen for an Elder or indicting their Assemblies either Provincial or National or what else soever or insomuch as nominating the particular time or place when and where to hold them or finally in requiring his assent to any of their Constitutions All which they challenge to themselves with far greater arrogancy than ever was exercised by the Pope or any Bishop or inferior Minister under his Command during the times of greatest Darkness But the Brethren not considering what just Reason the Queen had to reject their Bill and yet fearing to fall foul upon her in regard of the danger they let flye at the Parliament in this manner that is to say That they should be in danger of the terrible Mass of God's Wrath both in this life and that to come and that for their not abrogating the Episcopal Government they might well hope for the Favour and Entertainment of Moses that is the Curse of the Law the Favour and loving-Countenance of Jesus Christ they should never see 12. It may seem strange that Queen ELIZABETH should carry such a hard hand on her English Puritans as well by severe Laws and terrible Executions as by excluding them from the benefit of a General Pardon and yet protect and countenance the Presbyterians in all places else But that great Monster in Nature called Reason of State is brought to plead in her defence by which she had been drawn to aid the French Hugonots against their King to supply the Rebel Scots with Men Money Arms and Ammunition upon all occasions and hitherto support those of the Belgick Provinces against the Spaniard Now she receives these last into her protection being reduced at that time unto great Extremities partly by reason of the death of the Prince of Orange and partly in regard of the great Successes of the Prince of Parma In which extremity they offered her the Soveraignty of Holland Zealand and West-Friesland to which they frame for her an unhandsom Title grounded on her descent from Philippa Wife of Edward the third Sister of William the third Earl of Heynalt Holland c. But she not harkning to that offer about the Soveraignty as a thing too invidious and of dangerous consequence cheerfully yeelded to receive them into her protection to raise an Army presently toward their defence consisting of Five thousand Foot and One thousand Horse with Money Ammunition Arms and all other necessaries and finally to put the same Arms so appointed under the Command of some Person of Honour who was to take the charge and trust of so great a Business The Confederates on the other side being very prodigal of that which was none of their own delivered into her hands the Keys of the Countrey that is to say the Towns of Brill and Flushing with the Fort of Ramekins And more then so as soon as the Earl of Leicester came amongst them in the Head of this Army which most ambitiously he affected for some other Ends they put into his hands the absolute Government of these Provinces gave him the Title of His Excellency and generally submitted to him with more outward cheerfulness than ever they had done to the King of Spain It is not to be thought but that the Presbyterian Discipline went on succesfully in those Provinces under this new Governor who having countenanced them in England
Defence of the godly Ministers against the Slanders of Dr. Bridges Bridges replies and his Reply produceth a Rejoynder An. 1588 bearing this Inscription viz. A Defence of the Ecclesiastical Discipline against the Reply of Mr. Bridges Dr. Some Master of Peter-House in Cambridg to check the sawciness of Penrie a most fiery Puritan published a Discourse at the same time to detect his Follies and presently comes out a Libel entituled Mr. Some laid open in his Colours The Brethren had been smart enough with Dr. Bridges and might be thought to have been malepert enough with Dr. Some if they had not carried themselves with far more irreverence towards the Arch-Bishop and the rest of the Sacred Hierarchy For now in prosecution of the other part of their Design which was To make the Bishops odious and contemptible in the eyes of their Proselytes four of the most seditious of all the Pack that is to say Penrie Throgmorton Vdal and Fenner lay their heads together From which conjunction there proceeded such a swarm of pestiferous Libels that the like mischief neither in nature nor in number did never exercise the Patience of a Christian State The Authors of them masked under the borrowed Name of Martin Mar-Prelate which Title they had taken on themselves not without good cause as may appear unto any which have looked into these particulars that is to say The Epistle to the Confocation-House The Epitome The Demonstration of Discipline The Supplication Diotrephes Martins Minerals Have you any work for a Cooper Penry 's Epistles sent from Scotland Theses Martinianae or Martin Iunior The Protestation of Martin Martin Senior More Work for the Cooper A DIALOGVE setting forth the Tyrannical dealing of the Bishops against God's Children Read over Dr. Bridges c. with many others of like strain of which it is hard to say whether their Malice or Uncharitableness had the most predominancy In all which doings Cartwright was either of the Council in the first Design or without doubt a great approver of them upon the post-fact and thereupon he is affirmed to have used these words That since the Bishops lives would not amend by grave Books and Advertisements it was fit they should be so dealt with to their further shame 25. For printing these pestiferous Libels they chiefly made use of Walgrave's Press which he removed from place to place for his greater safety that is to say at Moulsey near Kingston upon Thames thence to Fausly in Northampton-shire so to Norton afterwards to Coventry and so to Welstome in Warwick-shire and from thence finally to the Town of Manchester where both the Work-men and the Press were seized on by the Earl of Darby as they were Printing the bold Pamphlet called More Work for Cooper For the dispersing of these Libels they made use of one Newman a Cobler a Fellow fit for such a business and it had been great pity if they had employed any other Instrument But for their countenance and support especially as to the bearing of their Charges they had the Purse of Knightly of Fausley at whose House some of them were Printed being a Gentleman of good Note but of greater Zeal whom Snape and other Leading-men of that County had inveigled to them But he and all the rest might have payed deer for it if he whom they most wronged had not stood their Friend For being called into the Starr-Chamber and there deeply Censured they were upon submission at the humble and most earnest suit of the Arch-Bishop released from their Imprisonment and their Fines remitted And it is worth the observation That the Puritans were then most busie as well in setting up their Discipline as in publishing these Railing and Seditious Pamphlets when the Spaniards were hovering on the Seas with their terrible Navy At what time they conceived and that not improbably that the Queen and Council would be otherwise busied than to take notice of their Practises or suppress their doings or rather that they durst not call them into question for their Words or Actions for fear of alienating the Affections of so strong a Party as they had raised unto themselves The serious apprehension of which mischievous Counsels prevailed so far on Leicester and Walsingham that they did absolutely renounce any further intercession for them professing That they had been horribly abused with their Hypocrisie which possibly might happen better for themselves than it did for the Church the Earl of Leicester going to his own Place before the end of this Year and Walsingham being gathered to his Fathers within Two years after 26. I am ashamed to rake in these â—ilthy Puddles though it be necessary that the bottom of the Cinque be opened that notice may be taken of that stinch and putrefaction which proceeded from them In which respect I hope the Reader will excuse me if I let him know that they could find no other Title for the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury than Belzebub of Canterbury Pope of Lambeth the Canterbury-Caiaphas â—sau A Monstrous Antichristian Pope A most â—loody Opposer of God's Saints A very Antichristian Beast A most vile and cursed Tyrant They tell us further of this humble and meek-spirited man That no Bishop ever had such an aspiring and ambitious mind as he no not Cardinal Wolsey None so proud as he no not Stephen Gardiner of Winchester None so tyrannical as he no not Bonner the Butcher of London In general he tells us both of Him and the rest of the Bishops That they are Vnlawful Vnnatural False and Bastardly Governours of the Church the Ordinances of the Devil Petty Popes Petty Antichrists Incarnate Devils Bishops of the Devil Cogging Cozening Knaves and will lye like Dogs That they are Proud Popish Presumptuous Prophane Paltry Pestilent Pernicious Prelates and Vsurpers Enemies of God and the most pestilent Enemies of the State and That the worst Puritan in England is an Honester man than the best Lord Bishop in Christendom Nor do they speak any better of the Inferior Clergy than they do of the Bishops of whom they tell us in like manner That they are Popish Priests or Monks or Friars or Ale-haunters or Boys and Lads or Drunkards and Dolts That they will wear a Fool 's Hood for a Living-sake That they are Hogs Dogs Wolves Foxes Simoniaks Vsurpers Proctors of Antichrist's Inventions Popish Chap-men halting Neutrals greedy Dogs to fill their Paunches a multitude of desperate and forlorn Atheists a Cursed Vncircumcised Murthering Geration a Crew or Hoop of Bloody Soul-murtherers and Sacrilegious Church-Robbers and Followers of Antichrist 27. Behold the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation and we shall see them termed by one of the Captains of this Crew Right puissant poysoned persecuting and terrible Priests Clergie Masters of the Confocation-House the Holy-League of Subscription the Crew of monstrous and ungodly Wretches that mingle Heaven and Earth together Horned Monsters of the Conspiration-House An Antichristian Swinish Rabble Enemies of the Gospel most covetous
the Superiority of Bishops and the Supremacy of the Queen together with the dangerous Practises and Designs of the Disciplinarians exemplified by their Proceedings in Scotland and their Positions in England of which more anon All which particulars with many more upon the by he proved with such evidence of demonstration such great variety of Learning and strength of Arguments that none of all that Party could be found to take Arms against them in defence either of their leud Doctrine or more scandalous Vses And this being done he closed up all with a grave and serious Application in reference to the prevalency and malignity of the present Humours which wrought so much upon his Auditors of both Houses of Parliament that in the passing of a general Pardon at the end of the Sessions there was Exception of Seditious Books Disturbances of Divine Service and Offences against the Act of Vniformity in the Worship of God 30. And yet it is not altogether improbable but that this Exception was made rather at the Queen's Command or by some Caveat interposed by the House of Peers than by the sole Advice or any voluntary Motion of the House of Commons in which the Puritans at that time had a very strong Party By whose Endeavour a smart Petition is presented to the Lords in the Name of the Commons for rectifying of many things which they conceived to be amiss in the state of the Church The whole Petition did consist of Sixteen particulars of which the first Six did relate to a Preaching-Ministry the want of which was much complained of in a Supplication which had been lately Printed and presented to them but such a Supplication as had more in it of a Factious and Seditious Libel than of a Dutiful Remonstrance In the other Ten it was desired 1. That no Oath or Subscription might be tendred to any at their entrance into the Ministry but such as was prescribed by the Statutes of the Realm and the Oath against corrupt Entring 2. That they may not be troubled for omission of some Rites or Offices prescribed in the Book of Common-Prayer 3. That such as had been suspended or deprived for no other offence but only for not subscribing might be restored 4. That they may not be called and urged to answer before the Officials and Commissaries but before the Bishops themselves 5. That they might not be called into the High Commission or Moot of the Diocess where they lived except for some notable Offence 6. That it might be permitted to them in every Arch-Deaconry to have some common Exercises and Conferences amongst themselves to be limited and prescribed by the Ordinaries 7. That the high Censure of Excommunication may not be denounced or executed for small matters 8. Nor by Chancellors Commissioners or Officials but by the Bishops themselves with the assistance of grave persons 9. That Non-residency may be quite removed out of the Church Or 10. That at least according to the Queen's Injunctions Art 44. no Non-resident having already a License or Faculty may enjoy it unless he depute an able Curate that may weekly Preach and Catechise as was required by Her Majesty in the said Injunctions Against the violence of this Torrent Arch-bishop Whitgift interposed both his Power and Reason affirming with a sober confidence in the H. of Peers not only that England flourished more at that time with able Ministers than ever it had done before but that it had more able men of eminent Abilities in all parts of Learning than the rest of Christendom besides But finding that the Lord Gray and others of that House had been made of the Party he drew the rest of the Bishops to joyn with him in an humble Address to Her Sacred Majesty in which they represented to Her the true estate of the Business together with those many Inconveniences which must needs arise to the State present and to come to the Two Universities to all Cathedral Churches and the Queen Her Self if the Commons might have had their will though in no other Point than in that of Pluralities All which they prest with such a Dutiful and Religious Gravity that the Queen put an end to that Dispute not only for the present but all Parliaments following 31. Somewhat there must be in it which might make them so afraid of that Subscription which was required at their hands to the Queen's Supremacy as well as to the Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops to the Liturgy and to the Articles of Religion by Law established and therefore it will not be amiss as we have done already in all places else to touch upon the Principles and Positions of our English Puritans that we may see what Harmony and Consent there is betwixt them and their dear Brethren of the Discipline in other Nations For if we look into the Pamphlets which came out this Year we shall find these Doctrines taught for more Sacred Truths viz. That if Princes do hinder them that seek for this Discipline they are Tyrants both to the Church and Ministers and being so may be deposed by their Subjects That no Civil Magistrate hath pre-eminence by ordinary Authority either to determine of Church-Causes or to make Ecclesiastical Orders and Ceremonies That no Civil Magistrate hath such Authority as that without his consent it should not be lawful for Ecclesiastical persons to make and publish Church-Orders That they which are no Elders of the Church have nothing to do with the Government of it That if their Reformation be not hastned forward by the Magistrate the Subjects ought not any longer to tarry for it but must do it themselves That there were many thousands which desired the Discipline And That great Troubles would ensue if it were denied them That their Presbyteries must prevail And That if it be brought about by such ways and means as would make the Bishops hearts to ake let them blame themselves For explication of which last passage Martin Mar-Prelate in his first Book threatens only fists but in the second he adviseth the Parliament then assembled to put down Lord Bishops and bring in the Reformation which they looked for whether Her Majesty would or not 32. But these perhaps were only the Evaporations of some idle Heads the Freaks of Discontent and Passion when they were crossed in their Desires Let us see therefore what is taught by Thomas Cartwright the very Calvin of the English as highly magnified by Martin and the rest of that Faction as the other was amongst the French Dr. Harding in his Answer to Bishop Iewel assures us That the Office of a King is the same in all places not only amongst Christians but amongst the Heathen Upon which Premises he concludes That a Christian Prince hath no more to do in deciding of Church-matters or in making Ceremonies and Orders for the same than hath a Heathen Cartwright affirms himself to be of the same opinion professing seriously his dislike of all such Writers
thoughts of restoring Episcopacy by passing over the Church-Lands to the use of the Crown And to make as sure of it as they could because a three-fold Cord is not easily broken they had before called upon the King to reinforce the Band or National Covenant which had been made for their adhaesion to the true Religion and renouncing Popery For so it was that some suspitions had been raised by the Presbyterians That the King was miserably seduced and enclined to Popery and that the Earl of Lenox had been sent from France for no other purpose but to work Him to it And thereupon the King gave order unto Mr. I. Craige being then a Preacher in the Court to form a short Confession of Faith wherein not only all the Corruptions of the Church of Rome in point of Doctrine but even those also which related unto Discipline and Forms of Worship were to be solemnly abjured Which Confession for example to others the King Himself with all His Court and Council did publickly both subscribe and swear Anno 1580. And the next year He required the like Oath and Subscription from all His Subjects for the securing of those Fears and Jealousies which the Kirk had of Him But in regard this general Confession was not found sufficient to hinder the encrease of Popery for want of some strict Combination amongst the Subjects which professed the Reformed Religion it was desired that a Solemn League or Band might be authorized by which they should be bound to stand to one another in defence thereof that is to say both of their Covenant and Religion against all Opponents The Guisian Papists had projected the like League in France to suppress the Gospel and why should they in Scotland be less zealous for the true Religion than the Guisian Papists for the false Upon which ground the King was easily entreated to consent unto it and first subscribed the Band Himself with all His Family An. 1589 which the next year he caused to be subscribed by all sorts of people as the General Assembly had desired 48. Now in this Covenant and Confession they did not only bind themselves to renounce the Pope together with all the Superstitions and Corruptions of the Church of Rome but in particular to continue in obedience to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Kirk of Scotland and to defend the same according to their vocation and power all the days of their lives And though it cannot be conceived that under those general words of Doctrine and Discipline there could be any purpose to abjure the Episcopal Government which was in being when that Confession was first framed and for many years after yet being now received and subscribed unto and their Presbyteries established by Act of Parliament it was interpreted by the Covenanters of succeeding times Anno 1638 to contain in it an express renouncing of Episcopacy as also of such Rites and Ceremonies as had been introduced amongst them by the Synod of Perth Anno 1618. The sad Effects whereof the King foresaw not at the present but He took order to redress them in the time to come For now the Temporal Estates of Bishops being alienated and annexed to the Crown by Act of Parliament Anno 1587. Episcopacy tacitly abjured by Covenant and that Covenant strengthned by a Band or Association Anno 1590. And finally their Presbyteries setled by like Act of Parliament in this present year Anno 1592. it was not to be thought that ever Bishops or Episcopacy could revive again though it otherwise happened It cannot be denied but that K. IAMES did much despise this Covenant commonly called the Negative Confession when He came into England for taking occasion to speak of it in the Conference of Hampton-Court he lets us know That Mr. Craige the Compiler of it with his renouncings and abhorrings his detestations and abrenounciations did so amaze the simple people that few of them being able to remember all the said particulars some took occasion thereby to fall back to Popery and others to remain in their former ignorance To which he added this short note That if he had been bound to that Form of Craige 's the Confession of his Faith must have been in his Table-Book and not in his Head But what a mean opinion soever K. IAMES had of it the Puritans or Presbyterians of both Kingdoms made it serve their turns for raising a most dangerous Rebellion against his Son and altering the whole Frame of Government both in Church and State which they new-molded at their pleasure and sure I am that at the first entring into this Band the Presbyterians there grew so high and insolent that the King could get no Reason of them in his just demands The King had found by late experience how much they had encroached upon his Royal Prerogative defamed the present Government and reviled his Person And thereupon as he had gratified them in confirming their Discipline so he required them not long after to subscribe these Articles that is to say That the Preacher should yeeld due obedience unto the King's Majesty That they should not pretend any priviledg in their Allegiance That they should not meddle in matters of State That they should not publikely revile His Majesty That they should not draw the people from their due obedience to the King That when they are accused for their Factious Speeches or for refusing to do any thing they should not alledg the inspiration of the Spirit nor feed themselves with colour of Conscience but confess their faults like Men and crave pardon like Subjects But they were well enough they thanked him and were resolved to hold their own Power let Him look to His. AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB IX Containing Their Disloyalty Treasons and Seditions in France the Country of East-Friesland and the Isles of Brittain but more particularly in England Together with the severe Laws made against them and the several Executions in pursuance of them from the year 15â—9 to the year 1595. THus have we brought the Presbyterians to their highest pitch in the Kirk of Scotland when they were almost at their lowest fall in the Church of England these being at the very point of their Crucifixion when the others were chanting their Hosanna's for their good success The English Brethren had lost their principal Support by the death of Leicester though he was thought to have cooled much in his affections towards their Affairs But what they lost in him they studied to repair by the Earl of Essex whose Father's Widow he had married trained him up for the most part under Puritan Tutors and married him at the last to Walsingham's Daughter Upon these hopes they made their applications to him and were chearfully welcomed the Gentleman bâ—ing young ambitious and exceeding popular and therefore apt enough to advance their Interest and by theirs his own And he appeared the rather for them at the first to cry quits
Redemption by the death and blood-shedding â—f Christ Jesus the Son of God and his descending into Hell This he accordingly performed in several Sermons upon the words of the Apostle viz. God forbid that I should glory in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Gal. 6.14 In prosecuting of which Text he discoursed at large as well concerning the contents as the effects of Christ's Cross and brought the point unto this issue that is to say That no Scripture did teach the death of Christ's Soul or the Pains of the damned to be requisite in the Person of Christ before he could be our Ransomer and the Saviour of the World And because the proofs pretended for this point might be three Predictions that Christ should suffer those pains Causes why he must suffer them and Signs that he did suffer them He likewise insisted on all three and shewed there were no such Predictions Causes or Signs of the true pains of Hell to be suffered in the Soul of Christ before he could save us And next as touching Christ's descent into Hell it was declared That by the course of the Creed it ought not to be referred to Christ living but to Christ being dead showing thereby the Conquest which Christ's Manhood had after death over all the powers of darkness declared by his Resurrection when he arose Lord over all his Enemies in his own Person Death Hell and Satan not excepted and had the keys that is all Power of Death and Hell delivered to him by God that those in Heaven Earth and Hell should stoop unto him and be subject to the Strength and Glory of his Kingdom And this he proved to be the true and genuine meaning of that Article both from the Scriptures and the Fathers and justified it for the Doctrine of the Church of England by the Book of Homilies 18. But let the Scriptures and the Fathers and the Book of Homilies teach us what they please Calvin was otherwise resolved and his Determination must be valued above all the rest For no sooner were these Sermons Printed but they were presently impugned by a Humorous Treatise the Author whereof is said to have writ so loosly as if he neither had remembred what the Bishop uttered or cared much what he was to prove In answer whereunto the Bishop adds a short Conclusion to his Sermons and so lets him pass The Presbyterian Brethren take a new Alarum Muster their Forces compare their Notes and send them to the Author of the former Treatise that he might publish his Defence Which he did accordingly the Author being named Henry Iacob a well-known Separatist Which Controversie coming to the Queen's knowledg being then at Farnham a Castle belonging to the Bishop she signified Her Pleasure to him That he should neither desert the Doctrine nor suffer the Function which he exercised in the Church of England to be trodden and trampled under-foot by unquiet men who both abhorred the Truth and despised Authority On which Command the Bishop sets himself upon the writing of that Learned Treatise entituled A Survey of Christ's Sufferings c. although by reason of a sickness of two years continuance it was not published till the year 1604. The Controversie after this was plyed more hotly in both Universities where the Bishop's Doctrine was maintained but publickly opposed by many of our Zealots both at home and abroad At home opposed by Gabriel Powel a stiff Presbyterian Abroad by Broughton Parker and some other Brethren of the Separation After this justified and defended by Dr. Hill whom Aumes replyed unto in his Rejoynder as also by another Parker and many more till in the end the Brethren willingly surceased from the prosecution of their former Doctrines which they were not able to maintain And though the Church received some trouble upon this occasion yet by this means the Article of Christ's Descent became more rightly understood and more truly stated according to the Doctrine of the Church of England than either by the Church of Rome or any of the Protestant or Reformed Churches of what Name soever 19. But while the Prelates of the Church were busied upon these and the like Disputes the Presbyterians found themselves some better work in making Friends and fastning on some eminent Patron to support their Cause None fitter for their purpose than the Earl of Essex gracious amongst the Military men popular beyond measure and as ambitious of Command as he was of Applause He had his Education in the House of the Earl of Leicester and took to Wife a Daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham as before is said who fitted and prepared him for those Applications which hitherto he had neglected upon a just fear of incurring the Queen's Displeasure But the Queen being now grown old the King of Scots not much regarded by the English and very ill obeyed by his natural Subjects he began to look up towards the Crown to which a Title was drawn for him as the direct Heir of Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Glocester one of the younger Sons of K. EDWARD the third This man the Puritans cry up with most infinite Praises both in their Pulpits and in their Pamphlets telling him That he was not only great in Honour and the love of the people but temporis expectationâ— major far greater in the expectation which his Friends had of him And he accordingly applies himself to those of the Puritan Faction admits them to Places of most Trust and Credit about his Person keeps open House for men of those Opinions to resort unto under pretence of hearing Sermons and hearing no Sermons with more zeal and edification than those which seemed to attribute a Power to Inferior Magistrates for curbing and controlling their undoubted Soveraigns Which questionless must needs have ended in great disturbance to the Church and State if he had not been outwitted by Sir Robert Cicil Sir Walter Rawleigh and the rest of their Party in the Court by whom he was first shifted over into Ireland and at last brought upon the Scaffold not to receive a Crown but to lose his Head Which hapned very opportunely for K. IAMES of Scotland whose Entrance might have been opposed and his Title questioned if this Ambitious man had prospered in his undertakings which he conducted generally with more Heat than Judgment 20. This brings me back again to Scotland In which we left the King intent upon the expectation of a better Crown and to that end resolved upon the Restitution of the banished Lords who being advertised of his purpose returned as secretly as might be offering to give good Security to live conformable to the Laws in all peace and quietness The King seems willing to accept it and is confirmed by a Convention of Estates in those good Intentions The News whereof gave such offence to those of the Kirk that presently they assembled themselves at Edenborough
Acts being past Patterns were sent from London in a short time after for the Apparel of the Lords of the Session the Justice and other inferior Judges for the Advocates the Lawyers the Commissairs and all that lived by practise of the Law with a command given to every one whom the Statutes concerned to provide themselves of the Habits prescribed within a certain space under the pain of Rebellion But for the habit of the Bishops and other Church-men it was thought fit to respite the like appointment of them till the new Bishops had received their Consecration to which now we hasten 23. But by the way we must take notice of such preparations as were made towards it in the next General Assembly held at Glasgow Anno 1610 and managed by the Earl of Dunbar as the former was in which it was concluded That the King should have the indiction of all General Assemblies That the Bishops or their Deputies should be perpetual Moderators of the Diocesan Synods That no Excommunication or Absolution should be pronounced without their approbation That all presentations of Benefices should be made by them and that the deprivation or suspension of Ministers should belong to them That every Minister at his admission to a Benefice should take the Oath of Supremacy and Canonical Obedience That the Visitation of the Diocese shall be performed by the Bishop or his Deputy only And finally That the Bishop should be Moderator of all Conventions for Exercisings or Prophesyings call them which you will which should be held within their bounds All which Conclusions were confirmed by Act of Parliament in the year 1612 in which the Earl of Dumferling then being Lord Chancellor of that Kingdom sate as chief Commissioner who in the same Session also procured a Repeal of all such former Acts more patticularly of that which passed in favour of the Discipline 1592. as were supposed to be derogatory to the said Conclusions In the mean time the King being advertised of all which had been done at Glasgow calls to the Court by special Letters under his Sign-Manual Mr. Iohn Spotswood the designed Arch-bishop of Glasgow Mr. Gawen Hamilton nominated to the See of Galloway and Mr. Andrew Lamb appointed to the Church of Brechin to the intent that being consecrated Bishops in due Form and Order they might at their return give consecration to the rest of their Brethren They had before been authorized to vote in Parliament commended by the King unto their several Sees made the perpetual Moderators of Presbyteries and Diocesan Synods and finally by the Conclusions made at Glasgow they were restored to all considerable Acts of their Jurisdiction The Character was only wanting to compleat the Work which could not be imprinted but by Consecration according to the Rules and Canons of the Primitive times 24. And that this Character might be indelibly imprinted on them His Majesty issues a Commission under the Great Seal of England to the Bishops of London Ely Wells and Rochester whereby they were required to proceed to the Consecration of the said three Bishops according to the Rules of the English Ordination which was by them performed with all due solemnity in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's House near the Church of St. Pauls Octob. 21 1610. But first a scruple had been moved by the Bishop of Ely concerning the capacity of the persons nominated for receiving the Episcopal Consecration in regard that none of them had formally been ordained Priests which scruple was removed by Arch-bishop Bancroft alledging that there was no such necessity of receiving the Order of Priesthood but that Episcopal Consecrations might be given without it as might have been exemplified in the Cases of Ambrose and Nectarius of whichâ— the first was made Arch-bishop of Millain and the other Patriarch of Constantinople without receiving any intermediate Orders whether of Priest Deacon or any other if there were any other at that time in the Church And on the other side the Prelates of Scotland also had their Doubts and Scruples fearing lest by receiving Consecration of the English Bishops they might be brought to an acknowledgment of that Superiority which had been exercised and enjoyed by the Primates of England before the first breaking out of the Civil Warrs betwixt York and Lancaster Against which fear the King sufficiently provided by excluding the two Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York who only could pretend to that Superiority out of His Commission which Bancroft very cheerfully condescended to though he had chiefly laid the plot and brought on the work not caring who participated in the Honour of it as long as the Churches of both Kingdoms might receive the Benefit 25. This great Work being thus past over the King erects a Court of High Commission in the Realm of Scotland for ordering all matters which concerned that Church and could not safely be redressed in the Bishops Courts He also gave them some Directions for the better exercise of their Authority by them to be communicated to the Bishops and some principal Church-men whom he appointed to be called to Edenborough in the following February where they were generally well approved But as all general Rules have some Exceptions so some Exceptions were found out against these Commissions and the proceedings thereupon Not very pleasing to those great Persons who then sate at the Helm and looked upon it as a diminution to their own Authority and could not brook that any of the Clergy should be raised to so great a Power much more displeasing to the principal sticklers in the Cause of Presbytery who now beheld the downfall of their glorious Throne which they had erected for themselves in the Name of Christ. One thing perhaps might comfort them in the midst of their sorrows that is to say the death of the most Reverend Arch-bishop Bancroft who left this life upon the second of November not living above thirteen days after the Scottish Bishops had received Consecration For which great blessing to the Church he had scarce time to render his just acknowledgments unto God and the King when he is called on to prepare for his Nunc Dimittis And having seen so great a work accomplished for the glory of God the honour of his Majesty and the good of both Kingdoms beseecheth God to give him leave to depart in peace that with his eyes he might behold that great Salvation which was ordained to be a Light unto the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his people Israel 26. Bancroft being dead some Bishops of the Court held a Consultation touching the fittest Person to succeed him in that eminent Dignity The great Abilities and most exemplary Piety of Dr. Lancelot Andrews then Bishop of Ely pointed him out to be the man as one sufficiently able to discharge a Trust of such main importance and rather looked on as a Preferment to that See than preferred unto it Him they commended to King IAMES who had him in a high
it pleased God to put into the heart of the late Queen Our most dear Sister to permit and allow unto the Isles of Jersey and â—uernsey parcel of the Dutchy of Normandy the use of the â—â—â—â—ment of the Reformed Churches of the said Dutchy whereof they have stood possessed until Our coming to the Crown For this cause We desiring to follow the pious Example of Our said Sister in this behalf as well for the advancement of the Glory of Almighty God as for the edification of his Church do will and ordain That Our said Isles shall quietly enjoy their said Liberty in the use of Ecclesiastical Discipline there now established Forâ—idding any one to give them any trouble or impeachment so long as they contain themselves in Our obedience and attempt not any thing against the Power and Sacred Word of God Given at our Palace at Hampton-Court the 8th of August in the first year of Our Reign of England 1603. 36. This Letter was communicated unto all whom it might concern in a Synod of both Islands held in Iersey Anno 1605. But long they were not suffered to enjoy the benefit of this Dispensation For sir Iohn Peiton who succeeded Governour of Iersey in the place of Raleigh had of himself no good affections to that Platform and possibly might be furnished with some secret Instructions for altering it in the Island on the first conveniency The ground whereof was laid upon this occasion The Curate of St. Iohn's being lately dead it pleased the Colloquie of that Island according to their former method to appoint one Brevin to succeed him Against this course the Governour the King's Attorney and other the Officers of the Crown protested publickly as being prejudicial to the Rights and Profits of the King Howbeit the Case was over-ruled and the Colloquie for that time carried it Hereupon a Bill of Articles was exhibited to the Lords of the Council against the Ministers of that Island by Peiton the Governour Marret the Attorney and the rest as viz. That they had usurped the Patronage of all Benefices in the Island That thereby they admitted men to Livings without any Form or Presentation and by that means deprived his Majesty of Vacancies and First-fruits That by the connivance to say no worse of it of the former Governours they exercised a kind of Arbitrary Iurisdiction making and disannulling Laws at their own most uncertain pleasure In consideration whereof they humbly pray His Sacred Majesty to grant them such a Discipline as might be fittest to the nature of the Place and less derogatory to the Royal Prerogative 37. In the pursuance of this Project Sir Robert Gardiner once Chief Justice of Ireland and Iames Husley Dr. of the Laws are sent Commissioners unto that Island though not without the colour of some other business To these Commissioners the Ministers give in their Answer which may be generally reduced to these two heads First That their appointment of men into the Ministry and the exercise of Jurisdiction being principal parts of the Church-Discipline had been confirmed unto them by His Sacred Majesty And secondly That the payment of First-fruits and Tenths had never been exacted from them since they were freed from their subordination to the Bishops 〈◊〉 â—onstance to whom formerly they had been due But these Anâ—â—â—â— giving no just satisfaction unto the Council of England and nothing being done in order to a present Settlement a foul deformity both of Confusion and Distraction did suddenly overgrow the face of those wretched Churches For in the former times all such as took upon them any publick Charge either in Church or Common-wealth had bound themselves by Oath to cherish and maintain the Discipline That Oath is now disclaimed as dangerous and unwarrantable Before it was their custom to exact subscription to their Plat-form of all such as purposed to receive the Sacrament but now the King's Attorney and others of that Party chose rather to abstain from the Communion than to yeeld Subscription Nay even the very Elders silly souls that thought themselves as sacro sancti as a Roman Tribune were drawn with Process into the Civil Courts and there reputed with the Vulgar Nor was the Case much better in the Sacred Consistory the Jurates in their Cohu or Town-Hall relieving such by their Authority whom that once paramount Tribunal had condemned or censured And yet this was not all the Mischief which befel them neither Those of the lower rank seeing the Ministers begin to stagger in their Chairs refused to set out their Tythes and if the Curates mean to exact their Dues the Law is open to all comers to try their Title Their Benefices which before were accounted as exempt and priviledged are now brought to reckon for First-fruits and Tenths and that not according to the Book of Constance as they had been formerly but by the will and pleasure of the present Governour And to make up the total sum of their Mis-fortunes one of the Constables preferrs a Bill against them in the common Cohu in which they were accused of Hypocrisie in their Conversation and Tyranny in the Exercise of their Jurisdiction and finally of holding some secret practises against the Governour which consequentially did reflect on the King Himself 38. In this Confusion they address themselves to the Earl of Salisbury then being Lord Treasurer of England and in great credit with King IAMES who seeming very much pleased with their Application advised them to invite their Brethren of the Isle of Guernsey to joyn with them in a Petition to the King for a redress of those Grievances which they then complained of A Counsel which then seemed rational and of great respect but in it self of greater cunning than it seemed in the first appearance For by this means as certainly he was a man of a subtile Wit he gave the King more time to compass his Designs in Scotland before he should declare himself in the present business and by engaging those of Guernsey in the same desires intended to subject them also to the same conclusion But this Counsel taking no effect by reason of the death of the Councellor they fall into another trouble of their own creating The Parish of St. Peters falling void by the death of the Minister the Governour presents unto it one Aaron Messering one that had spent his time in Oxon and had received the Order of Priesthood from the Right Reverend Dr. Bridges then Bishop of that Diocess but of himself a Native of the Isle of Iersey A thing so infinitely stomacked by those of the Colloquy that they would by no means yeeld unto his admission not so much in regard of his presentation by the Power of the Governour as because he had taken Orders from the hands of a Bishop For now they thought that Popery began to break in upon them and therefore that it did concern them to oppose it to the very last A new Complaint is
out into open Warr. But finding no occasion they resolve to make one and to begin their first Embroilments upon the sending of the new Liturgy and Book of Canons to the Kirk of Scotland For though the Scots in a general Assembly held at Aberdeen had given consent unto the making of a Liturgy for the use of that Kirk and for drawing up a Book of Canons out of the Acts of their Assemblies and some Acts of Parliament yet when those Books were finished by the Care of King CHARLES and by his Piety recommended unto use and practise it must be looked on as a violation of their Rights and Liberties And though in another of their Assemblies which was held at Perth they had past five Articles for introducing private Baptism communicating of the sick kneeling at the Communion Episcopal Confirmation and the observing of such ancient Festivals as belonged immediately unto Christ yet when those Articles were incorporated in the Common-prayer-Book they were beheld as Innovations in the Worship of God and therefore not to be admitted in so pure and Reformed a Church as that of Scotland These were the Hooks by which they drew the people to them who never look on their Superiors with a greater reverence than when they see them active in the Cause of Religion and willing in appearance to lose all which was dear unto them whereby they might preserve the Gospel in its native purity But it was rather Gain than Godliness which brought the great men of the Realm to espouse this Quarrel who by the Commission of Surrendries of which more elsewhere began to fear the losing of their Tithes and Superiorities to which they could pretend no other title than plain Usurpation And on the other side it was Ambition and not Zeal which enflamed the Presbyters who had no other way to invade that Power which was conferred upon the Bishops by Divine Institution and countenanced by many Acts of Parliament in the Reign of K. IAMES than by embracing that occasion to incense the people to put the whole Nation into tumult and thereby to compel the Bishops and the Regular Clergy to forsake the Kingdom So the Genevians dealt before with their Bishop and Clergy when the Reforming-Humour came first upon them And what could they do less in Scotland than follow the Example of their Mother-City 3. These breakings-out in Scotland smoothed the way to the like in England from which they had received encouragement and presumed on Succours The English Puritaus had begun with Libelling against the Bishops as the Scots did against the King For which the Authors and Abettors had received some punishment but such as did rather reserve them for ensuing Mischiefs than make them sensible of their Crimes or reclaim them from it So that upon the coming of the Liturgy and Book of Canons the Scots were put into such heat that they disturbed the execution of the one by an open Tumult and refused obedience to the other by a wilful obstinacy The King had then a Fleet at Sea sufficiently powerful to have blockt up all the Havens of Scotland and by destroying that small Trade which they had amongst them to have reduced them absolutely to His Will and Pleasure But they had so many of their Party in the Council of Scotland and had so great a confidence in the Marquess of Hamilton and many Friends of both Nations in the Court of England that they feared nothing less than the Power of the King or to be enforced to their obedience in the way of Arms. In confidence whereof they despise all His Proclamations with which Weapons only He encountred them in their first Seditions and publickly protested against all Declarations which He sent unto them in the Streets of Edenborough Nothing else being done against them in the first year of their Tumults they cast themselves into four Tables for dispatch of business but chiefly for the cementing of their Combination For which they could not easily bethink themselves of a speedier course than to unite the people to them by a League or Covenant Which to effect it was thought necessary to renew the old Confession excogitated in the year 1580 for the abjuring of the Tyranny and Superstitions of the Church of Rome subscribed first by the King and His Houshold-Servants and the next year by all the Natives of the Kingdom as was said before And it was also said before that unto this Confession they adjoined a Band Anno 1592 for standing unto one another in defence thereof against all Papists and other professed Adversaries of their Religion This is now made to serve their turn against the King For by a strange interpretation which was put upon it it was declared That both the Government of the Church by Bishops and the Five Articles of Perth the Liturgy and the Book of Canons were all abjured by that Confession and the Band annexed though the three last had no existency or being in the Kirk of Scotland when that Confession was first formed or the Band subjoined 4. These Insolencies might have given the King a just cause to arm when they were utterly unprovided of all such necessaries as might enable them to make the least show of a weak resistance But the King deals more gently with them negotiates for some fair accord of the present differences and sends the Marquess of Hamilton as his chief Commissioner for the transacting of the same By whose sollicitation he revokes the Liturgy and the Book of Canons suspends the Articles of Perth and then rescinds all Acts of Parliament which confirmed the same submits the Bishops to the next General Assembly as their competent Judges and thereupon gives intimation of a General Assembly to be held at Glasgow in which the point of Church-Government was to be debated and all his Condescentions enrolled and registred And which made most to their advantage he caused the Solemn League or Covenant to he imposed on all the Subjects and subscribed by them Which in effect was to legitimate the Rebellion and countenance the Combination with the face of Authority But all this would not do his business though it might do theirs For they had so contrived the matter that none were chosen to have voices in that Assembly but such as were sure unto the side such as had formerly been under the Censures of the Church for their Inconformity and had refused to acknowledg the King's Supremacy or had declared their disaffections to Episcopal Government And that the Bishops might have no encouragement to sit amongst them they cite them to appear as Criminal persons Libel against them in a scandalous and unchristian manner and finally make choice of Henderson a Seditious Presbyter to sit as Moderator or chief President in it And though upon the sense of their disobedience the Assembly was again dissolved by the King's Proclamation yet they continued as before in contempt thereof In which Session they
of time in which the Commons were intent on the Warr of Ireland and the Puritans as much busied in blowing the Trumpet of Sedition in the Kingdom of England it only showed the King's good meaning with his want of Power In which conjuncture hapned the Impeachment and Imprisonment of Eleven of the Bishops Which made that Bench so thin and the King so weak that on the 6 th of February the Lords consented to the taking away of their Votes in Parliament The News whereof was solemnized in most places of London with Bells and Bouâ—â—res Nothing remained but that the King should pass it into Act by his Royal Assent by some unhappy Instrument extorted from Him when he was at Canterbury and signified by His Message to the Houses on the fourteenth of that Month. Which Condescention wrought so much unquietness to His Mind and Conscience and so much unsecureness to His Person for the rest of His Life that He could scarce truly boast of one day's Felicity till God was pleased to put a final period to His Grieâ—s and Sorrows For in relation to the last we find that the next Vote which passed in Parliament deprived Him of His Negative Voice and put the whole Militia of the Kingdom into the hands of the Houses Which was the first beginning of His following Miseries And looking on Him in the first He will not spare to let us know in one of his Prayers That the injury which he had done to the Bishops of England did as much grate upon his Conscience as either the permitting of a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotland or suffering innocent blood to be shed under colour of Iustice. 12. For so it was that some of the prevailing-Members in the House of Commons considering how faithfully and effectually the Scots had served them not only voted a Gratuity of Three hundred thousand pounds of good English Money to be freely given them but kept their Army in a constant and continual Pay for Nine Months together And by the terror of that Army they forced the King to pass the Bill for Trienial Parliaments and to perpetuate the present Session at the will of the Houses to give consent for Murthering the Earl of Strafford with the Sword of Justice and suffering the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be banished from him to fling away the Starr-Chamber and the High-Commission and the Coercive Power of Bishops to part with all his right to Tonnage and Poundage to Ship-money and the Act for Knighthood and by retrenching the Perambulation of His Forests and Chases to leave his Game to the destruction of each Bore or Peasant And by the terror of this Army they took upon them to engage all the Subjects of the Kingdom in a Protestation first hammered on the third of May in order to the condemnation of the Earl of Strafford for maintenance of the Priviledges and Rights of Parliament standing to one another in pursuance of it and bringing all persons to condign punishment who were suspected to oppose them Encouraged also by the same they took upon them an Authority of voting down the Church's Power in making of Canons condemning all the Members of the late Convocation calumniating many of the Bishops and Clergy in most odious manner and vexing some of them to the Grave And they would have done the like to the Church it self in pulling down the Bishops and Cathedral Churches and taking to themselves all their Lands and Houses if by the Constancy and Courage of the House of Peers they had not failed of their Design But at the last the King prevailed so far with the Scots Commissioners that they were willing to retire and withdraw their Forces upon His Promise to confirm the Acts of the Assembly at Glasgow and reach out such a Hand of Favour unto all that Nation as might estate them in a happiness above their hopes On this assurance they march homewards and He followeth after Where he consents to the abolishing of Bishops and alienating all their Lands by Act of Parliament suppresseth by like Acts the Liturgy and the Book of Canons and the five Articles of Perth rewards the chief Actors in the late Rebellion with Titles Offices and Honours and parts with so much of His Royal Prerogative to content the Subjects that He left Himself nothing of a King but the empty Name And to sum up the whole in brief In one hour He unravelled all that excellent Web the weaving whereof had took up more than Forty years and cost His Father and Himself so much Pains and Treasure 13. By this Indulgence to the Scots the Irish Papists are invited to expect the like and to expect it in the same way which the Scots had travelled that is to say by seizing on His Forts and Castles putting themselves into the Body of an Army and forcing many of His good Protestant-Subjects to forsake the Kingdom The Motives which induced them to it their opportunities for putting it in execution and the miscarriage of the Plot I might here relate but that I am to keep my self to the Presbyterians as dangerous Enemies to the King and the Church of England as the Irish Papists For so it hapned that His Majesty was informed at His being in Scotland That the Scots had neither took up Arms nor invaded England but that they were encouraged to it by some Members of the Houses of Parliament on a design to change the Government both of Church and State In which he was confirmed by the Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom presented to Him by the Commons at His first coming back the forcible attempt for breaking into the Abby of Westminster the concourse of seditious people to the Dores of the Parliament crying out that they would have no Bishops nor Popish Lords and their tumultuating in a fearful manner even at White-Hall Gates where they cryed out with far more horror to the Hearers That the King was not worthy to live that they would have no Porter's Lodg between Him and them and That the Prince would govern better Hereupon certain Members of both Houses that is to say the Lord Kimbolton of the Upper Hollis and Haslerig Hampden Pym and Stroud of the Lower-House are impeached of Treason a Serjeant sent to apprehend them and command given for sealing up their Trunks and Closets 14. But on the contrary the Commons did pretend and declared accordingly That no Member of theirs was to be impeached arrested or brought unto a Legal Trial but by the Order of that House and that the sealing up of their Trunks or Closets was a breach of Priviledg And thereupon it was resolved on Monday Ian. 3. being the day of the Impeachment That if any persons whatsoever should come to the Lodgings of any Member of the House or seize upon their persons that then such Members should require the aid of the Constable to keep such persons in safe custody till the House gave
the Service-Books and Books of Common-Prayer bestrewing the whole Pavement with the Leaves thereof They also exercised their madness on the Arras Hangings which adorned the Quire representing the whole story of our Saviour And meeting with some of his Figures amongst the rest some of them swore that they would stab him and others that they would rip up his bowels which they did accordingly so far forth at the least as those figures in the Arras Hanging could be capable of it And finding another Statua of Christ placed in the Frontispiece of the South-Gate there they discharged Forty Muskets at it exceedingly triumphing when they hit him in the Head or Face And it is thought they would have fallen upon the Fabrick if at the humble suit of the Mayor and Citizens they had not been restrained by their principal Officers Less spoil was made at Rochester though too much in that their Follies being chiefly exercised in tearing the Book of Common-Prayer and breaking down the Rails before the Altar Seaton a Scot and one of some command in the Army afterwards took some displeasure at the Organs but his hands were tyed whether it were that Sandys repented of the Outrages which were done at Canterbury or else afraid of giving more scandal and offence to the Kentish Gentry I am not able to determine But sure it is that he enjoyed but little eomfort in these first beginnings receiving his death's wound about three Weeks after in the fight near Powick of which within few Weeks more he dyed at Worcester 26. But I am weary of reciting such Spoils and Ravages as were not acted by the Goths in the sack of Rome And on that score I shall not take upon me to relate the Fortunes of the present Warr which changed and varied in the West as in other places till the Battel of Stratton in which Sir Ralph Hopton with an handful of his gallant Cornish raised by the reputation of Sir Bevil Greenvile and Sir Nicholas Slaining gave such a general defeat to the Western Rebels as opened him the way towards Oxon with small opposition Twice troubled in his March by Waller grown famous by his taking of Malmsbury and relieving Glocester but so defeated in a fight at Roundway-Down Run-away Down the Soldiers called it that he was forced to flye to London for a new Recruit Let it suffice that the King lost Reading in the Spring received the Queen triumphantly into Oxon within a few Weeks after by whom he was supplied with such a considerable stock of Arms aud other Necessaries as put him into a condition to pursue the Warr. This Summer makes him Master of the North and West the North being wholly cleared of the Enemy's Forces but such as seemed to be imprisoned in the Town of Hull And having lost the Cities of Bristol and Exon no Towns of consequence in the West remained firm unto them but Pool Lime and Plymouth so that the leading-members were upon the point of forsaking the Kingdom and had so done as it was generally reported and averred for certain if the King had not been diverted from his march to London upon a confidence of bringing the strong City of Glocester to the like submission This gave them time to breathe a little and to advise upon some course for their preservation and no course was found fitter for them than to invite the Scots to their aid and succour whose amity they had lately purchased at so deer a rate Hereupon Armin and some others are dispatched for Scotland where they applied themselves so dextrously to that proud and rebellious people that they consented at the last to all things which had been desired But they consented on such terms as gave them an assurance of One hundred thousand pound in ready money the Army to be kept both with Pay and Plunder the chief Promoters of the Service to be rewarded with the Lands and Houses of the English Bishops and their Commissioners to have as great an influence in all Counsels both of Peace and Warr as the Lords and Commons 27. But that which proved the strongest temptation to engage them in it was an assurance of reducing the Church of England to an exact conformity in Government and Forms of Worship to the Kirk of Scotland and gratifying their Revenge and Malice by prosecuting the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the end of his Tragedy For compassing which Ends a Solemn League and Covenant is agreed between them first taken and subscribed to by the Scots themselves and afterwards by all the Members in both Houses of Parliament as also by the principal Officers of the Army all the Divines of the Assembly almost all those which lived within the Lines of Communication and in the end by all the Subjects which either were within their power or made subject to it Now by this Covenant the Party was to bind himself amongst other things first That he would endeavour in his place and calling to preserve the Reformed Religion in Scotland in Doctrine Discipline and Government That he would endeavour in like manner the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches but more particularly to bring the Churches of God in all the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government and Directory for Worship and Catechising Secondly That without respect of persons they would endeavour to extirpate Popery and Prelacy that is to say Church-Government by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors Commissairs Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on it And thirdly That he would endeavour the discovery of such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants and evil Instruments either in hindering the Reformation of Religion or in dividing between the King and his people c. whom they should bring to condign punishment before the Supream Iudicatories of either Kingdom as their offences should deserve Of which three Articles the two first tended to the setting up of their dear Presbyteries the last unto the prosecution of the late Arch-bishop whom they considered as their greatest and most mortal Enemy 28. The terror of this Covenant and the severe penalty imposed on those which did refuse it compelled great numbers of the Clergy to forsake their Benefices and to betake themselves to such Towns and Garrisons as were kept under the command of his Majesty's Forces whose vacant places were in part supplied by such Presbyterians who formerly had lived as Lecturers or Trencer-Chaplains or else bestowed upon such Zealots as flocked from Scotland and New-England like Vultures and other Birds of Rapine to seek after the prey But finding the deserted Benefices not proportionable to so great a multitude they compelled many of the Clergy to forsake their Houses that so they might avoid imprisonment or some worse Calamity Others they sent to several Gaols or
49. Such being the issue of the Warr let us next look upon the Presbyterians in the acts of Peace in which they threatned more destruction to the Church than the Warr it self As soon as they had setled the strict keeping of the Lord's-day-Sabbath suppressed the publick Liturgy and imposed the Directory they gave command to their Divines of the Assembly to set themselves upon the making a new Confession The Nine and thirty Articles of the Church of England were either thought to have too much of the ancient Fathers or too little of Calvin and therefore fit to be reviewed or else laid aside And at the first their Journey-men began with a Review and fitted Fourteen of the Articles to their own conceptions but in the end despairing of the like success in all the rest they gave over that impertinent labour and found it a more easie task to conceive a new than to accommodate the old Confession to their private Fancies And in this new Confession they establish the Morality of their Lord's-day-Sabbath declare the Pope to be the Antichrist the Son of Perdition and the Man of Sin And therein also interweave the Calvinian Rigours in reference to the absolute Decree of Predestination Grace Free-will c. But knowing that they served such Masters as were resolved to part with no one Branch of their own Authority they attribute a Power to the Civil Magistrate not only of calling Synods and Church-Assemblies but also of being present at them and to provide that whatsoever is therein contracted be done agreebly to the Mind and Will of God But as to the matter of Church-Government the Divine Right of their Presbyteries the setting of Christ upon his Throne the Parity or Imparity of Ministers in the Church of Christ not a word delivered Their mighty Masters were not then resolved upon those particulars and it was fit the Holy Ghost should stay their leisure and not inspire their Journey-men with any other Instruction than what was sent them from the Houses 50. But this Confession though imperfect and performed by halves was offered in the way of an Humble Advice to the Lords and Commons that by the omnipotency of an Ordinance it might pass for currant and be received for the established Doctrine of the Church of England The like was done also in the tendry of their Larger Catechism which seems to be nothing in a manner but the setting out of their Confession in another dress and putting it into the form of Questions and Answers that so it might appear to be somewhat else than indeed it was But being somewhat of the largest to be taught in Schools and somewhat of the hardest to be learned by Children it was brought afterwards into an Epitome commonly called The lesser Catechism and by the Authors recommended to the use of the Church as far more Orthodox than Nowel's more clear than that contained in the Common-Prayer-Book and not inferior to the Palatine or Genevian Forms But in all three they held forth such a Doctrine touching God's Decrees that they gave occasion of reviving the old Blastian Heresie in making God to be the Author of Sin Which Doctrine being new published in a Pamphlet entituled Comfort for Believers in their Sins and Troubles gave such a hot Alarm to all the Calvinists in the new Assembly that they procured it to be burnt by the hands of the Hangman But first they thought it necessary to prepare the way to that execution by publishing in print their detestation of that abominable and blasphemous Opinion That God hath a hand in and is the Author of the sinfulness of his people as the Title tells us So that now Calvin's Followers may sleep supinely without regard to the reproaches of uncivil men who had upbraided them with maintaining such blasphemous Doctrine The Reverend Divines of the Assembly have absolved them from it and showed their Detestation of it and who dares charge it on them for the time to come 51. But these things possibly were acted as they were Calvinians and perhaps Sabbatarians also and no more than so And therefore we must next see what they do on the score of Presbytery for setting up whereof they had took the Covenant called in the Scots and more insisted on the abolition of the Episcopal Function than any other of the Propositions which more concern them To this they made their way in those Demands which they sent to Oxon the Ordinance for Ordination of Ministers and their advancing of the Directory in the fall of the Liturgy They had also voted down the Calling of Bishops in the House of Commons on Septemb. 8. 1642 and caused the passing of that Vote to be solemnized with Bells and Bonfires in the streets of London as if the whole City was as much concerned in it as some Factious Citizens But knowing that little was to be effected by the Propositions and much less by their Votes they put them both into a Bill which past the House of Peers on the third of February some two days after they had tendred their Proposals to the King at Oxon. And by that Bill it was desired to be Enacted That from the Fifth of November the day designed for the blowing up the Parliament by the Gun-powder-Traytors which should be in the year of our Lord 1643 there should be no Archbishops Bishops Commissaries c. with all their Train recited in the Oxon Article Numb 21. in the Church of England That from thenceforth the Name Title and Function of arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors c. or likewise the having using or exercising any Iurisdiction Office and Authority by reason or colour of any such Name Dignity or Function in the Realm of England should utterly and for ever cease And that the King might yeeld the sooner to the Alteration they tempt him to it with a Clause therein contained for putting him into the actual possession of all the Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and Hereditaments belonging to the said Arch-bishops or Bishops or to any of them And for the Lands of Deans and Chapters the Brethren had a hope to parcel them amongst themselves under the colour of encouraging and maintaining of a Preaching-Ministry some sorry pittance being allowed to the old Proprietaries and some short Pension during life to the several Bishops 52. Such was the tenour of the Bill which found no better entertainment than their Propositions So that despairing of obtaining the King's consent to advance Presbytery they resolved to do it of themselves but not till they had broken the King's Forces at the Battel of Naisby For on the nineteenth of August then next following they publish Directions in the name of the Lords and Commons after advice with their Divines of the Assembly for the chusing of RVLING-ELDERS in all the Congregations and in the Classical Assemblies for the Cities of London and Westminster and the several Counties of the Kingdom in order to the speedy setling of Presbyterial
and gave such satisfactory Answers unto all his Cavils that he remained Master of the Field as may sufficiently appear by the Printed Papers And it was credibly reported that Henderson was so confounded with grief and shame that he fell into a desparate sickness which in fine brought him to his Grave professing as some say that he dyed a Convert and frequently extolling those great Abilities which when it was too late he had found in his Majesty Of the particular passages of this Disputation the English Commissioners had received a full Information and therefore purposely declined all discourse with his Majesty by which the merit of their Propositions might be called in question All that they did was to insist upon the craving of a positive Answer that so they might return unto those that sent them and such an Answer they shall have as will little please them 56. For though his Fortunes were brought so low that it was not thought safe for him to deny them any thing yet he demurred upon the granting of such points as neither in Honour nor in Conscience could be yeelded to them Amongst which those Demands which concerned Religion and the abolishing of the ancient Government of the Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops may very justly be supposed to be none of the least But this delay being taken by the Houses for a plain denial and wanting money to corrupt the unfaithful Scots who could not otherwise be tempted to betray their Soveraign they past an Ordinance for abolishing the Episcopal Government and setling their Lands upon Trustees for the use of the State Which Ordinance being past on the ninth of October was to this effect that is to say That for the better raising of moneys for the just and necessary Debts of the Kingdom in which the same hath been drawn by a Warr mainly promoted in favour of Arch-bishops and Bishops and other their Adherents and Dependents it was ordained by the Authority of the Lords and Commons That the Name Title Stile and Dignity of Arch-bishop of Canterbury Arch-bishop of York Bishop of Winchester and Bishop of Durham and all other Bishops or Bishopricks within the Kingdom should from and after the fifth of September 1646 then last past be wholly abolished or taken away and that all persons should from thenceforth be disabled to hold that Place Function or Stile within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales or the Town of Berwick or exercise any Iurisdiction or Authority â—hereunto formerly belonging by vertue of any Letters Patents from the Crown or any other Authority whatsoever any Law or Statute to the contrary notwithstanding As for their Lands they were not to be vested now in the Kings possession as had been formerly intended but to be put into the power of some Trustees which are therein named to be disposed of to such uses intents and purposes as the two Houses should appoint 57. Amongst which uses none appeared so visible even to vulgar eyes as the raising of huge Sums of Money to content the Scots who from a Remedy were looked on as the Sickness of the Common-wealth The Scots Demands amounted to Five hundred thousand pounds of English money which they offered to make good on a just account but were content for quietness sake to take Two hundred thousand pounds in full satisfaction And yet they could not have that neither unless they would betray the King to the power of his Enemies At first they stood on terms of Honour and the Lord Chancellor Lowdon ranted to some tune as may be seen in divers of his Printed Speeches concerning the indelible Character of Disgrace and Infamy which must be for ever imprinted on them if they yeelded to it But in the end the Presbyterians on both sides did so play their parts that the sinful Contract was concluded by which the King was to be put into the hands of such Commissioners as the two Houses should appoint to receive his Person The Scots to have One hundred thousand pounds in ready money and the Publick Faith which the Houses very prodigally pawned upon all occasions to secure the other According unto which Agreement his Majesty is sold by his own Subjects and betrayed by his Servants by so much wiser as they thought than the Traytor Iudas by how much they had made a better Market and raised the price of the Commodity which they were to sell. And being thus sold he is delivered for the use of those that bought him into the custody of the Earl of Pembroke who must be one in all their Errands the Earl of Denbigh and the Lord Mountague of Boughton with twice as many Members of the Lower House with whom he takes his Journey towards Holdenby before remembred on the third of February And there so closely watcht and guarded that none of his own Servants are permitted to repair unto him Marshal and Caril two great sticklers in behalf of Presbytery but such as after warped to the Independents are by the Houses nominated to attend as Chaplains But he refused to hear them in their Prayers or Preachings unless they would officiate by the publick Liturgy and bind themselves unto the Rules of the Church of England Which not being able to obtain he moves the Houses by his Message of the 17th of that Month to have two Chaplains of his own Which most unchristianly and most barbarously they denyed to grant him 58. Having reduced him to this streight they press him once again with their Propositions which being the very same which was sent to Newcastle could not in probability receive any other Answer This made them keep a harder hand upon him than they did before presuming that they might be able to extort those Concessions from him by the severity and solitude of his restraint when their Perswasions were too weak and their Arguments not strong enough to induce him to it But Great God! How fallacious are the thoughts of men How wretchedly do we betray our selves to those sinful hopes which never shall be answerable to our expectation The Presbyterians had battered down Episcopacy by the force of an Ordinance outed the greatest part of the Regular Clergy of their Cures and Benefices advanced their new Form of Government by the Votes of the Houses and got the King into their power to make sure work of it But when they thought themselves secure they were most unsafe For being in the height of all their Glories and Projectments one Ioice a Cornet of the Army comes thither with a Party of Horse removes his Guards and takes him with them to their Head-Quarters which were then at Woburn a Town upon the North-west Road in the County of Bedford Followed not long after by such Lords and others as were commanded by the Houses to attend upon him Who not being very acceptable to the principal Officers were within very few weeks discharged of that Service By means whereof the Presbyterians lost all those great advantages