A LETTER FROM Major General LUDLOW TO Sir E. S. Comparing the Tyranny of the first four Years of King Charles the Martyr with the Tyranny of the the four Years Reign of the Late Abdicated King Occasioned by the reading Doctor Pelling's Lewd Harangues upon the 30th of JANUARY being the Anniversary Or General Madding-Day Neque enim satis amarint Bonos Principes Qui Malos non Oderint Plin. Panegyr They can never love Good Princes as they ought who do not perfectly abhor wicked Tyrants Amsterdam printed Anno Domini 1691 A LETTER FROM Maj. Gen. LUDLOW To Sir E. S. SIR MY Love to Old England is such as can never be shaken no not by an Eternal Banishment but I must ever wish and heartily pray for its Prosperity And though 't is not permitted to me to breath my Native Air yet that it is now in a great measure freed from those Pestilential Vapours which poysoned it in the late Reigns and that my dear Country is at length delivered from that intolerable Oppression and Tyranny under which it has long groaned is to me a matter of great rejoycing 'T is with me beyond doubt that the late happy Settlement of the Kingdom is well-pleasing to God and consonant to the Laws of the Land for as Sir Robert Philips affirmed in his Speech in Parliament in the year 1628 it is undoubtedly true that the People of England are under no other Subjection than what they did voluntarily consent unto by the Original Contract between the King and the People And King James the first was greatly in the right when he told the Lords and Commons in the year 1609 That he is no King but a Tyrant that governs not by Law which by the way being true the late King James ceased to be King even before his Abdication And Now Sir you and I being agreed that the late King having broken the Original Stipulation and Contract and becoming a Tyrant by 〈◊〉 and annulling the established Laws the Crown is most rightfully placed upon the Heads of the most excellent Princes King William and Queen Mary I shall demonstrate to you That King Charles the First did equal I might justly say transcend his Son whom you have deservedly Abdicated in all his Acts of Tyranny to this Undertaking I am provoked by the reading the many Idle 〈◊〉 and Lewd Expressions and Extravagant Encomiums of the first in the Rants of one Edward Pelling who stiles himself Rector of S. Martins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Spight Falshood and Venome that the Cock being turned upon the thirtieth of January he spouts out a Sea of Calumnies Lyes and Poison He as you shall see paints forth King Charles the First more like a God than a Man talking of him at this rate viz. That great Monarch and Martyr of whom the World was not worthy and perhaps will hardly ever see the like of him again That Incomparable Prince That Mirrour of Princes the Noblest of Martyrs the Wonder of Ages and the Honour of Men That Innocent Vertuous Religious Matchless Prince The Lord 's anointed A Man according to God's own Heart No King could be ever better than this under the Shadow of his Wings we did rejoyce Peace and Plenty was our Portion Every Man was sure of his Right as long as this Religious Prince had his Just Authority every Man was easie in his Cottage as long as he sat at ease in the Throne our Liberties were secure our Laws had Life and Religion never flourished more in this Nation than under him He dyed a Martyr for Religion and a Victim for his People I am of Opinion that if the Blood of any Prince or Martyr could be so valuable as never to be atoned for in this World it would be that Royal that Sacred that Innocent Blood Now To shew the effronted Impudence of this little fawning lying Levite and to set your own with the Thoughts of the present Age right in reference to this Idolized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall endeavour to place him in his true and just Light and not to forget my proposed Method of doing it by way of Parallel I shall first recount the Miscarriages wherewith the last Tyrant was most justly charged and when I have so done I shall proceed to convince you and all the World my Doctor excepted to whom I pretend not to speak in regard I find him telling his kind and Noble Friend the late Bloody Monster Jeffryes in an Epistle Dedicatory to one of his Raving Tracts upon the the thirtieth of Janury 1683 that his Ears are past all feeling how much his Father out-stript him even in the first four Years of his Reign for to that Time I purpose to confine my self in this Letter To begin The late King by his Coronation Oath promised and solemnly swore to maintain his Subjects in the free Enjoyment of their Religion Laws and Liberties Nevertheless he overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and subjected all to a Despotick and Arbitrary Government and so broke his Oath to the Poople To come to particulars herein I. He assumed to himself a Power to suspend and Dispense with the execution of 〈◊〉 Laws enacted for the Security and Happiness of the Subjects and thereby rendred them of no effect And In order to the obtaining a Judgment in the Court of King's-Bench for declaring the Dispensing Power to be a Right belonging to the 〈◊〉 he turned out such Judges 〈◊〉 could not in Conscience 〈◊〉 in so Pernicious a Sentence and having pack'd Judges for his purpose he obtained the Judgment he required II. He against Express Laws to the contrary did set up 〈◊〉 Commission for Ecclesiastical Matters which was executed contrary to all Law III. None were raised to Ecclesiastical Dignities but such Persons that had no Zeal for the Protestant Religion He made Parker Bishop of Oxford and Cartwright Bishop of Chester and Watson Bishop of S. Davids who is most deservedly excepted in their Majesties Act of Indemnity IV. The Bishop of London was suspended only because he refused to obey an Order sent to him to suspend Dr. Sharp The President and Fellows of Magdalen College in Oxford were Arbitrarily and against Law turned out of their Freeholds and the College was put into the Hands of Papists V. Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants 〈◊〉 of the Peace and others in Publick Employments who would not comply with the Design of Repealing the Test and the Penal Laws were turned out VI. The Privileges of some Corporations were invaded and their Charters 〈◊〉 And Surrenders of the Charters of other Corporations were procured to be made VII He put Papists into Civil and Military Employments and Trusts VIII The Archbishop of Canterbury and six other Bishops were sent to the Tower for setting forth in a Petition their Reasons why they could not obey an Order requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience IX The Earl of Devonshire was
Nunneries c. were erected in Dublin and most of the great Towns and filled with Men and Women of several Orders The Men whom he preferred to Bishopricks generally speaking were unsound in their Principles they set up for a New Church of England and corrupted our Religion in Doctrin Worship and Discipline These laid new Paintings on the old Face of the Whore of Babylon to make her shew lovely These were ready to open the Gates to Romish Idolatry and Spanish Tyranny which you well know did in that day threaten our Nation to as high a Degree as that of France hath done of late These particularly Neal Bishop of Winchester and Laud of Bath and Wells were complained of by Remonstrance in Parliament for countenancing and cherishing Papists and Persons Popishly affected and depressing and discountenancing Pious painful and Orthodox Preachers how conformable soever And Bishop Laud being advanced to London was charged by a Petition of the Printers and Booksellers to the House of Commons that the Licensing of Books being wholly restrained to him and his Chaplains he allowed Books which favoured Popery but denied to license Books that were written against it Mountague one of this King's Chaplains published a Book intituled An Appeal to Caesar and another Book intituled A Treatise of the Invocation of Saints In these Books he asserted many things contrary to the Articles of Religion This being taken into consideration by the House of Commons in the King' s first Year They voted that Mountague endeavoured to reconcile England to Rome and instanced that he maintained these Positions 1. That the Church of Rome is and ever was a True Church 2. That Images might be used for the Instruction of the Ignorant and for Excitation of Devotion 3. That Saints have not only a Memory but a more peculiar Charge of their Friends and that it may be admitted that some Saints have a peculiar Patronage Custody Protection and Power as Angels also have over certain Persons and Countries by special Deputation That he impiously and prophanely scoff'd at Preaching Lectures Bibles and all shew of Religion c. That his Scope and End in his Books was to encourage Popery and to draw the King's Subjects to the Roman Superstition and consequently to be reconciled to the See of Rome The Commons prayed that Mountague might be punished and his Books suppress'd and burnt The Pious Archbishop Abbot had disallowed and sought to suppress the Appeal to Caesar but it was approved by Laud and his Set of Bishops and printed and dedicated to the King Laud solicited the King to shelter Mountague from the Prosecution of the Commons and upon the occasion of that Prosecution said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God for his Mercy dissipate it The King appeared incensed at the Prosecution and sent a 〈◊〉 to the Commons that Mountague 〈◊〉 his Chaplain and he had taken the business into his own hands He afterwards granted him a Pardon of all 〈◊〉 and made him Bishop of Chichester It sufficed not to introduce an Innovation and Change of Religion at home This King to the Dishonour of our Nation formerly the Sanctuary of oppressed Protestants the Scandal of our Religion and the high disadvantage of the Protestant Interest throughout Christendom did at this time his sirst Year also Lend Eight Ships which he equipped with the Subsidies given for the relief of his distressed Protestant Sister the Electress Palatine and the poor oppressed Protestants of the Palatinate to the French King to fight against the miserable Protestants of Rochel Of this Squadron Captain Pennington in the Vantguard went Admiral The Commanders and Mariners protested against the service though tempted with Chains of Gold and other Rewards and returned with the Ships into the Downs declaring they would sink rather than fight against those of their own Religion The Duke of Rohan and the French Protestants solicited the King not to let the Ships go again and had good words and hopes from him Nevertheless he wrote a Letter to Pennington Dated the Twenty Eighth of July 1625. Strictly requiring him without delay to consign the Vantguard into the hands of the Marquess D' Essiat for the French King's Service and to require the seven other Ships in his Name to put themselves into the Service of the French 〈◊〉 to his promise And commanding Pennington in Case of backwardness or refusal to use all forcible means to compel them even to sinking Pennington hereupon went back and put his Ship into the Absolute Power of the French King and commanded the rest so to do but the Mariners refused declaring they would rather be hanged at home than surrender their Ships or be Slaves to the French and fight against their own Religion And they were making away but Pennington shot and forced them all in again the Neptune excepted which in Detestation of the Action Sir Ferdinando Gorges to his Eternal Honour brought away All the English Men and Boys except one Gunner who at his Return which is somewhat remarkable was slain in Charging a Piece of Ordnance not well sponged declined the Service and quitted the Ships refusing to serve against the 〈◊〉 In September following these Ships were actually employed against the Rochellers almost to their utter Ruin The 〈◊〉 boasted that the Uantguard mowed the Hereticks down like Grass By these Means were these good Good People wholly lost They indeed held the Town till the Year 1628 but were reduced to incredible Misery having lived long upon Horse-slesh Hides and Leather Dogs and Cats There were at length but about four thousand left alive of fifteen thousand Souls many dyed with Famine and they usually carried their Coffins into the Church-yard and therelaid themselves in and dyed A sad Story never to be forgotten in the History of our Blessed Martyr's Reign SIR Having thus shewed you how Rome was found to eat into our Religion and fret into the Banks of it the Laws and Statutes of the Realm I shall now lead you to the Remembrance of this King's Administration in Civil Matters and how it fared then with the Subject in the Points of Liberty and Property and shall evince That he took our Goods from us against our Wills and our Liberties against the Laws That he plucked up the Root of all Property We were almost grown like the Turks who send their Janizaries and place the Halbard at the Door and then are Masters of all But not to hold you in Generals This King in the very beginning of his Reign levyed twelve thousand Soldiers and contrary to Law required the Countries to furnish the Charge of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conduct Money He appointed Commissioners to Try Condemn and Execute Delinquents by Martial Law against the known Laws of the Land and some were executed thereby He struck directly at the Property of the Subjects Goods and having dissolved the Parliament he contrary to many Laws issued Commissions for raising Money by
way of Loan and the Commissioners were ordered to certifie to the Council-Board the Names of all Rcfractory Persons particularly He demanded One hundred thousand Pounds of the City of London and the Magistrates representing the People's Excuses the Council commanded them to proceed therein threatning that upon their Failure His Majesty would frame his Counsels as appertained to a King in such extreme and important Occasions He also required the City to set forth Twenty Ships Manned and Victualled for three Months The Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council petitioned for Abatement of the Number of Ships demanded but were answered That Petitions and Pleadings were not to be received That as the Commanded was to all in general and every particular of the City so the King would require an Account both of the City in General and of every particular That the Precedents of former Times were Obedience not Direction and that Precedents were not wanting for the Punishment of those that disobey the King's Commands The Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of Dorsetshire being commanded to set forth Ships insisted That the Case was without Precedent but they were severely checked for that instead of Conformity they disputed and were told That State Occasions were not to be guided by ordinary Precedents The Persons of Quality who refused to subscribe to the Loan were put out of the Commissions of the Lieutenancy and Peace as they were who refused to comply with your King's Humour and were bound to appear at the Council-Table where as Refractory Persons they were committed to Prisons or put under 〈◊〉 these were Persons both of Note and Number as the Prisons in London demonstrated and as you must conclude when you read these following Names and know they were of that Number viz. Sir John Elliot Sir John Heveningham Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston Sir John Strangwayes Sir Walter Earle Sir Thomas Grantham Sir Thomas Wentworth Sir Harbottle Grimston Sir Edward Hambden Sir Thomas Darnel Sir John Corbet Sir William Armin Sir William Masham Sir William Wilmer Sir Erasmus Drayton Sir Edward Ayscough Sir Robert 〈◊〉 Sir Boauchamp Saint-John Sir Oliver Luke Sir Maurice Berkley Sir John Wray Sir William Constable Sir John Hotham Sir John Pickering Sir Francis Barrington Sir William Chancey George Ratclif Richard Knightly John 〈◊〉 William Anderson Terringham Norwood John Tregonwell Thomas Godfrey Thomas Nicholas John Dutton Henry Poole Nathaniel Coxwell Robert Hatley Thomas Elmes William Coriton and George Catesby Esquires besides above twenty Eminent Citizens of London and many other Gentlemen of good Note Sir Peter Hayman upon his refusal of the Loan was commanded to go upon the King's Service beyond the Seas others of a meaner Rank were either bound to appear before 〈◊〉 Lieutenant of the Tower to be enrolled for Soldiers to be sent for Denmark or were impress'd to serve in the King's Ships Now can it be imagined that there could be found a Man so hardened in Wickedness as to avow these unheard of Violences which trenched into all we had Yes there were in that as in every Age Pellings and 〈◊〉 amongst the Clergy Base Sycophants Aspiring Time-servers the Vile Descendents of Cambyses's Judges who being demanded Whether it were not lawful for him to do what in it self was unlawful they to please him answered That the Persian 〈◊〉 might do what they listed at that Rate those lying Prophets our slattering Gentlemen of the Cassock to scandalize the Laws and subvert Parliaments prated to this King They told him All we had was his JURE DIVINO and perswaded him who was most ready to believe it That the Right of Empires was to take away by strong Hand Of these Doctor Manwaring in two Sermons before the King printèd under the Title of Religion and Allegiance inculcated this Doctrin 1. That the King is not bound to observe the Laws concerning the Subjects Rights but that his Will in imposing Loans and Taxes without Consent in Parliament doth oblige the Subjects Conscience upon pain of Eternal Damnation 2. That they who refused the Loan did offend against the Law of God and against the King's Supreme Authority and thereby became Guilty of Impiety Disloyalty Rebellion c. 3. That Authority of Parliament is not necessary for the raising of Aids and Subsidies And Doctor Sibthorp Vicar of Brackley printed a Sermon which he preached at the Assizes at Northampton and dedicated to the King wherein he obliged his Country with these Positions 1. That it is the Princes Duty to direct and make Laws his Text by the way was Rom. 13. 7. Render therefore to all their dues he justified this by that apposite Proof Eccl. 8. 3 4. He doth whatsoever pleases him Who may say unto him What doest thou him I shall not be afraid of any Evil Tidings for my heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. But the Bishop of London appeared more plyable and gave Licence to this Sermon and it came out approved by my Lord of London as a Sermon learnedly and discreetly preached The King instantly suspended the Archbishop and also confined him and committed the Archtepiscopal Jurisdiction to five Bishops all of the New Church of England and Sibehorp's Patrons viz. London Durham 〈◊〉 Oxford and honest Laud of Bath and Wells The Commons Impeached Manwaring for his Sermons and by the Judgment of the House of Lords amongst other Penalties he was disabled from holding any future Ecclesiastical Preferment or Secular office The King granted him a Pardon of all 〈◊〉 and he was presented to the Rectory of Stamford Rivers in Essex and had a Dispensation to hold it together with the 〈◊〉 of S. Giles in the Fields I shall in this Place remember you That 〈◊〉 Bishop Doctor Williams of Lincoln as well as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heavy 〈◊〉 of this your 〈◊〉 King In the 〈◊〉 Year of his Reign the Bishop of Lincoln was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal but upon his appearing in Parliament against the Kingdom 's great Grievance the Duke of Buckingham he was Disgraced and Sequestred from the King's Presence and the 〈◊〉 Table In his Second Year he was 〈◊〉 for speaking publickly against the Loan and also for 〈◊〉 to give way to Proceedings in his Courts against the Puritans and Doctor 〈◊〉 charged him that he should say He was sure the Puritans would carry all at last The King now imprisoned him in the Tower and so the 〈◊〉 King was not without a Presidont when he sent seven Bishops thither Well this Good Bishop out-living his 〈◊〉 when upon the King's 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 we came to a Tryal of Skill for the Old English 〈◊〉 he resolutely said NOLUMUS LEGES ANGLIAE MUTARI and took a Command in our Army and bravely asserted his 〈◊〉 Liberties with his Sword Having thus Sir shewed you that the King which I Abdicated made no more Bones of Pious 〈◊〉 Bishops when he found them standing in the way of his Tyranny than he did to whose 〈◊〉 you lent your Hand I shall now proceed to