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
and Ceremonies being first abolished they should proceed to the Establishment of such a Form of Ministration in the Church of England as might be grounded on some express Authorities of the Word of God Which as he makes to be a work agreeable unto Grindals piety so Grindal after this and this bears date in Iuly 1568 appeared more favourable every day then other to those common Barretters who used their whole endeavours to embroyl the Church 30. Nor were these years less fatal to the Church of England by the defection of the Papists who till this time had kept themselves in her Communion and did in general as punctually attend all Divine Offices in the same as the vulgar Protestants And it is probable enough that they might have held out longer in their due obedience if first the scandal which was given by the other Faction and afterwards the separation which ensued upon it had not took them off The Liturgie of the Church had been exceedingly well fitted to their approbation by leaving out an offensive passage against the Pope restoring the old Form of words accustomably used in the participation of the holy Sacrament the total expunging of a Rubrick which seemed to make a Question of the Real presence the Scituation of the holy-Table in the place of the Altar the Reverend posture of kneeling at it or before it by all Communicants the retaining of so many of the ancient Festivals and finally by the Vestments used by the Priest or Minister in the Ministration And so long as all things continued in so good a posture they saw no causâ— of separating from the rest of their Brethren in the acts of Worship But when all decency and order was turned out of the Church by the heat and indiscretion of these new Reformers the holy-Table brought into the midst of the Church like a common-Table the Communicants in some places sitting at it with as little Reverence as at any ordinary Table the ancient Fasts and Feasts deserted and Church-Vestments thrown aside as the remainders of the Superstition of the Church of Rome they then began visibly to decline from their first conformity And yet they made no general separation nor defection neither till the Genevian brethren had first made the Schism and rather chose to meet in Barns and Woods yea and common Fields then to associate with their brethren as in former times For that they did so is affirmed by very good Authors who much bemoaned the sad condition of the Church in having her bowels torn in pieces by those very Children which she had cherished in her bosom By one of which who must needs be of years and judgement at the time of this Schism we are first told what great contentions had been raised in the first ten years of her Majesties Reign through the peevish frowardness the out-cryes of such as came from Geneva against the Vestments of the Church and such like matters And then he adds That being crossed in their desires touching those particulars they separated from the rest of their Congregations and meeting together in Houses Woods and common Fields kept there their most unlawful and disorderly Conventicles 31. Now at such time as Button Billingham and the rest of the Puritan Faction had first made the Schism Harding and Sanders and some others of the Popish Fugitives imployed themselves as busily in perswading those of that Religion to the like temptation For being licensed by the Pope to exercise Episcopal jurisdiction in the Realm of England they take upon them to absolve all such in the Court of Conscience who should return to the Communion of the Church of Rome as also to dispense in Causes of irregularity except it were incurred by wilful murther and finally from the like irregularities incurred by Heresie if the party who desired the benefit of the Absolution abstain'd from Ministring at the holy Altar for three years together By means whereof and the advantages before mentioned which were given them by the Puritan Faction they drew many to them from the Church both Priests and People their numbers every day increasing as the scandal did And finding how the Sectaries inlarged their numbers by erecting a French Church in London and that they were now upon the point of procuring another for the use and comfort of the Dutch they thought it no ill piece of Wisdom to attempt the like in some convenient place near England where they might train up their Disciples and fit them for imployment upon all occasions Upon which ground a Seminary is established for them at Doway in Flanders Anno 1568 and another not long after at Rhemes a City of Champaigne in the Realm of France Such was the benefit which redounded to the Church of England by the perversness of the Brethren of this first separation that it occasioned the like Schism betwixt her and the Papists who till that time had kept themselves in her Communion as before was said For that the Papists generally did frequent the Church in these first ten years is positively affirmed by Sir Edward Coke in his Speech at the Arraignment of Garnet the Jesuit and afterward at the Charge which was given by him at the general Assizes held in Norwich In both which he speaks on his own certain knowledge not on vulgar hearsay affirming more particularly that â—e had many times seen Bedenfield Cornwallis and some other of the Leading Romanists at the Divine Service of the Church who afterwards were the first that departed from it The like averred by the most Learned Bishop Andrews in his Book called Tortura Torti p. 130. and there asserted undeniably against all opposition And which may serve instead of all we finde the like affirmed also by the Queen her self in her Instructions given to Walsingham then being her Resident with the French King Anno 1570. In which Instructions bearing date on the 11 of August it is affirmed expresly of the Heads of that party and therefore we may judge the like of the Members also that they did ordinarily resort from the beginning of her Reign in all open places to the Churches and to Divine Service in the Church without any contradiction or shew of misliking 32. The parallel goes further yet For as the Puritans were encouraged to this separation by the Missals and Decretory Letters of Theodore Beza whom they beheld as the chief Patriarch of this Church So were the Papists animated to their defection by a Bull of Pope Pius the Fifth whom they acknowledged most undoubtedly for the Head of theirs For the Pope being thrust on by the importunity of the House of Guise in favour of the Queen of Scots whose Title they preferred before that of Elizabeth and by the Court of France in hatred to the Queen her self for aiding the French Hugonots against their King was drawn at last to issue out this Bull against her dated at Rome Feb. 24. 1569. In which Bull he doth not
less of Rome then before it had though nothing was meerly Romane and not Primitive also yet was it still as far off from the Rules of Geneva as it was at that time which gave a new Alarum to Calvin that he should take so much pains and trouble so many of his Friends to so little purpose And long it shall not be before he lets us know his resentment of it The English Protestants being scattered in the Reign of Queen Mary betake themselves to divers places in Germany at Geneva and amongst the Switzers In Germany some of them procure a Church in the City of Frankfort but they were such as had more minde to conform themselves to Calvins Models then to the Liturgie of England and such a deviation thereupon was made from the Rules of this Church as looked little better then an open Schism The business bad enough before but made much worse when Knox that great Incendiary of Scotland took that charge upon him when at his coming he found many not well pleased with those alterations which had been made by others from the Church of England which he resolved not to admit of how much soever the continuance of it had been recommended by such Divines as had retired to Strasburgh Zurick and elsewhere To over-ballance whose Authority which he found much valued he flees for succour unto Calvin sends him a Summary or Abstract of the English Book in the Latine Tongue and earnestly desires his opinion of it not doubting but all opponents would submit to his final sentence What Calvins judgement was in the present Point and what sentence he was like to give in the case before him Knox could not but have good assurance when he wrote that Letter having lived with Calvin at Geneva and published some Seditious Books from thence with his approbation before his coming unto Frankfort and it succeeded answerably to his expectation as may appear by Calvins answer to that Letter which in regard it was the ground of all those troubles which afterwards were raised against the Liturgy by the Puritan Faction I shall here subjoyn 17. It is no small affliction to me and in it self no less inconvenience that a contention should be raised between brethren professing the same Faith and living as banished men or exiles for the same Religion especially for such a Cause which in this time of your dispersion ought to have been the Bond of Peace to bind you the more finally to one another for what ought rather to be aimed at by you in this woful condition then that being torne away from the bowels of your native Country you should put your selves into a Church which might receive you in her bosom conjoyned together like the Children of the same Parent both in hearts and tongues But at this time in my opinion it is very unseasonable that troubles should be raised amongst you about Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer as happens commonly amongst those who live in wantonness and ease by means whereof you have been hindred hitherto from growing into one body I do not blame the constancy of those men who being unwillingly drawn into it do earnestly contend in an honest Cause but rather the stubbornness of those which hitherto hath hindred the holy purpose of forming and establishing a Church amongst you For as I use to shew my self both flexible and facile in things indifferent as all Rites and Ceremonies are yet I cannot always think it profitable to comply with the foolish waywardness of some few men who are resolved to remit nothing of their Ancient Customs I cannot but observe many tolerable fooleries in the English Liturgy such as you have described it to me By which two words those names of tolerable fooleries I mean onely this that there is not such Purity or Perfection as was to be desired in it which imperfections notwithstanding not being to be remedied at the first were to be born with for a time in regard that no manifest impiety was contained in them It was therefore so far lawful to begin with such beggerly Rudiments that the Learned Grave and Godly Ministers of Christ might be thereby encouraged for proceeding farther in setting out somewhat which might prove more pure and perfect If true Religion had flourished till this time in the Church of England it had been necessary that many things in that Book should have been omitted and others altered to the better But now that all such Principles are out of force and that you were to constitute a Church in another place and that you were at liberty to compose such a Form of Worship which might be useful to the Church and more conduce to Edification then the other did I know not what to think of those who are so much delighted in the dregs of Popery But commonly men love those things best to which they have been most accustomed Which though in the first place it may seem a vain and childish folly yeâ— in the next place it may be considered that such a new Model is much different from an alteration Howsoever as I would not have you too stiff and peremptory if the infirmity of some men suffer them not to come up unto your own desires so I must needs admonish others not to be too much pleased with their wants and ignorances nor to retard the course and progess of so good a work by their own perversness nor finally to be transported in the manner by such a foolish Emulation For what other ground have they for this contention but that they think it a disgrace to yeild unto better counsels But possibly I may address my words in vain to those who peradventure may not ascribe so much unto me as to vouchsafe to hearken unto any advice which doth proceed from such a despicable Author If any of them fear that any sinister report will be raised of them in England as if they had forsaken that Religion for which they put themselves into a voluntary exile they are much deceived For this ingenuous and sincere Profession will rather compel those godly men which are left behind seriously to consider what a deep Abyss they are fallen into whose dangerous estate will more grievously wound them when they shall see that you have travailed beyond the middle of that course from which they have been so unhappily retracted or brought back again Farewel my most dear Brethren the faithful servants of Jesus Christ and be you still under the governancce and protection of the Lord your God 18. This Letter bearing date on the fifteenth of the Calends of February and superscribed in general to the English which remained at Frankfort carried so great a stroke with the Knoxian party that there was no more talk of the English Liturgie the Order of Geneva being immediately entertained in the place thereof And when the matter was so handled by Dr. Cox first Tutor and then Almoner to King Edward
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
their Bishop to whom the planting of so many Dutch Churches in the principal City and other of the chief Towns of his Diocess had given trouble enough To the Petition of the Kentish Ministers which concerned himself he was required to answer at the Council-Table on the Sunday following Instead whereof he lays before them in the Letter That the Petitioners for the most part were ignorant and raw young men few of them licensed Preachers and generally disaffected to the present Government That he had spent the best part of two or three days in labouring to reduce them to a better understanding of the points in question but not being able to prevail he had no otherwise proceeded then the Law required That it was not for him to sit in that place if every Curate in his Diocess might be permitted so to use him nor possible for him to perform the Duty which the Queen expected at his hands if he might not proceed to the execution of that power by her Majesty committed to him without interruption That he could not be perswaded that their Lordships had any purpose to make him a party or to require him to come before them to defend those actions wherein he supposed that he had no other Iudge but the Queen her self and therefore in regard that he was called by God to that place and function wherein he was to be their Pastor he was the rather moved to desire their assistance in matters pertaining to his Office for the quietness of the Church the credit of Religion and the maintainance of the Laws in defence thereof without expecting any such attendance on them as they had required for fear of giving more advantage to those wayward persons then he conceived they did intend And thereunto he added this protestation That the three Articles whereunto they were moved to subscribe were such as he was ready by Learning to defend in manner and form as there set down against all opponents either in England or elsewhere 39. In reference to the paper of the Suffolk Ministers he returns this answer It seemeth something strange to me that the Ministers of Suffolk finding themselves agrieved with the doings of their Diocesans should leave the ordinary course of proceeding by the Law which is to appeal unto me and extraordinarily trouble your Lordships in a matter not so incident as I think to that honourable Board seeing it hath pleased her Majesty her own self in express words to commit these causes Ecclesiastical to me as to one who is to make answer unto God and her Majesty in this behalf my Office also and place requiring the same In answer unto their complaint touching their ordinary proceedings with them I have herewith sent your Lordships a Copy of a Letter lately received from his Lordship wherein I think that part of their Bill to be fully answered Touching the rest I know not what to judge of it but in some points it talketh as I think modestly and charitably They say they are no Iesuits sent from Rome to reconcile c. True it is neither are they charged to be so but notwithstanding they are contentious in the Church of England and by their contentions minister occasion of offence to those which are seduced by Jesuits and give the Sacraments against the form of publick Prayer used in this Church and by Law established and thereby increase the number of them and confirm them in their wilfulness They also make a Schism in the Church and draw many other of her Majesties Subjects to a misliking of her Laws and Government in Causes Ecclesiastical So far are they from perswading them to obedience or at the least if they perswade them to it in the one part of her Authority it is in Causes Civil they disswade them from it as much in the other that iâ— in Causes Ecclesiastical so that indeed they pluck down with the one hand that which they seem to build with the other 40. More of which Letter might be added were not this sufficient as well to shew how perfectly he understood both his place and power as with what courage and discretion he proceeded in the maintenance of it Which being observed by some great men about the Court who had ingaged themselves in the Puritan quarrels but were not willing to incur the Queens displeasure by their opposition it was thought best to stand a while behind the Curtain and set Beal upon him of whose impetuosity and edge against him they were well assured This Beal was in himself a most eager Puritan trained up by Walsingham to draw dry-foot after Priests and Jesuits his extream hatred to those men being looked on as the onely good quality which he could pretend to But being over-blinded by zeal and passion he was never able to distinguish rightly between truth and falshood between true Sanctity and the counterfeit appearance of it This made him first conceive that whatsoever was not Puritan must needs be Popish and that the Bishops were to be esteemed no otherwise then the sons of Antichrist because they were not looked upon as Fathers by the holy Brotherhood And so far was he hurried on by these dis-affections that though he was preferred to be one of the Clerks of the Council yet he preferred the interest of the Faction before that of the Queen Insomuch that he was noted to jeer and gibe at all such Sermons as did most commend Her Majesties Government and move the Auditory to obedience not sparing to accuse the Preachers upon such occasions to have broached false Doctrine and falsly to alledge the Scriptures in defence thereof This man had either writ or countenanced a sharp Discourse against Subscription inscribed to the Archbishop and presented to him and thereupon caused speeches to be cast abroad that the three Articles to which Subscription was required should shortly be revoked by an Act of the Council which much encreased the obstinacy of the self-willed Brethren But after fearing lest the Queen might have a sight of the Papers he resolved to get them out of his hands and thereupon went over to Lambeth where he behaved himself in such a rude and violent manner as forced the Archbishop to give an acconnt thereof by Letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh who hitherto had stood fair towards him in these following words 41. I have born saith he with Mr. Beals intemperate speeches unseemly for him to use though not in respect of my self yet in respect of Her Majestie whom he serveth and of the Laws established whereunto he ought to shâ—w some duty Yesterday he came to my house as it seems to demand the Book he delivered unto me I told him That the book was written unto me and therefore no reason why he should require it again especially seeing I was assured that he had a Copy thereof otherwise I would cause it to be written out for him Whereupon he fell into very great passions with me which I think
which I hold under Her Majesty the defence of the Religion and the Rites of the Church of England to appease the Schisms and Sects therein to reduce all the Ministers thereof to Uniformity and to due Obedience and not to waver with every wind which also my Place my Person the Laws Her Majesty and the goodness of the Cause do require of me and wherein the Lords of Her Highness Privy Council all things considered ought in duty to assist and countenance me But How is it possible that I should perform what I have undertaken after so long Liberty and lack of Discipline if a few persons so meanly qualified as most of these Factious Sectaries are should be countenanced against the whole state of the Clergy of greatest account both for Learning Years Stayedness Wisdom Religion and Honesty and open Breakers and Impugners of the Law young in Years proud in Conceit contentious in Disposition should be maintained against their Governours seeking to reduce them to Order and Obedience Haec sunt initia Haereticorum ortus atque conatus Schismaticorum male cogitantium ut sibi placeant ut praepositum superbo tumore contemnant sic de Ecclesiâ— receditur sic altare profanum foris collocatur sic contra Pacem Christi Ordinationem atque Veritatem Dei Rebellatur The first Fruits of Hereticks and the first Births and Endeavours of Schismaticks are To admire themselves and in their swelling-pride to contemn any that are set over them Thus do men fall from the Church of God thus is a Forreign Unhallowed Altar erected and thus is Christ's Peace and God's Ordination and Unity rebelled against 20. For my own part I neither have done nor do any thing in these matters which I do not think my self in Conscience and Duty bound to do and which Her Majesty hath not with earnest Charge committed unto me and which I am not well able to justifie to be most requisite for this Church and State whereof next to Her Majesty though most unworthy if not most unhappy the chief Care is committed to me which I will not by the Grace of God neglect whatsoever come upon me there-for Neither may I endure their notorious Contempts unless I will become Aesop's Block and undo all that which hitherto hath been done It is certain that if way be given unto them upon their unjust Surmises and Clamours it will be the cause of that confusion which hereafter the State will be sorry for I neither care for the honour of this Place I hold which is onus unto me nor the largeness of the Revenue neither any Worldly thing I thank God in respect of doing my duty neither do I fear the displeasure of man nor the evil Tongue of the uncharitable who call me Tyrant Pope Knave and lay to my charge things that I never did or thought Scio enim hoc esse opus Diaboli ut servos Dei mendaciis laceret opinionibus falsis gloriosum nomen infamet ut qui Conscientiae suae luce clarescunt alienis Rumoribus sordidentur For I know that this is the work of that Accuser the Devil that he may tear in pieces the Servants of God with Lyes that he may dishonour their glorious Name with false surmises that they who through the clearness of their own Consciences are shining bright may have the filth of other men's slanders cast upon them So was Cyprian himself used and other godly Bishops to whom I am not comparable But that which most of all grieveth me and is to be wondered at and lamented is That some of those who give countenance to these men and cry out for a Learned Ministry should watch their opportunity and be Instruments and Means to place most unlearned men in the chiefest Places and Livings of the Ministry thereby to make the state of the Bishops and Clergy contemptible and I fear salable This Hypocrisie and Dissembling with God and Man in pretending one thing and doing another goeth to my heart and maketh me think that God's Judgments are not far off The day will come when all mens hearts shall be opened In the mean time I will depend upon Him who never faileth those that put their trust in Him 21. It may be gathered from this Abstract what a hard Game that Reverend Prelate had to play when such great Masters in the Art held the Cards against him For at that time the Earls of Huntington and Leicester Walsingham Secretary of Estate and Knolls Comptroller of the Houshold a professed Genevian were his open Adversaries Burleigh a Neutral at the best and none but Hatton then Vicechamberlain and afterwards Lord Chancellor firmly for him And him he gained but lately neither but gained him at the last by the means of Dr. Richard Bancroft his Domestick Chaplain of whom we shall have cause to speak more hereafter By his procurement he was called to the Council-Table at such time as the Earl of Leicester was in Holland which put him into a capacity of going more confidently on without checks or crosses as before in the Church's Cause A thing which Leicester very much stomacked at his coming back but knowing it was the Queen's pleasure he disguised his trouble and appeared fair to him in the publick though otherwise he continued his former Favours to the Puritan Faction Sure of whose countenance upon the perfecting and publishing of the Book of Discipline they resolved to put the same in practise in most parts of the Realm as they did accordingly But it was no where better welcome than it was in London the Wealth and Pride of which City was never wanting to cherish and support those men which most apparently opposed themselves to the present Authority or practised the introducing of Innovations both in Church and State The several Churches or Conventicles rather which they had in that City they reduced into one great and general Classis of which Cartwright Egerton or Traverse were for the most part Moderators and whatsoever was there ordered was esteemed for current from thence the Brethren of other places did fetch their light and as doubts did arise thither they were sent to be resolved the Classical and Synodical Decrees of other places not being Authentical indeed till they were ratified in this which they held the Supreme Consistory and chief Tribunal of the Nation But in the Countrey none appeared more forward than they did in Northampton-shire which they divide into three Classes that is to say the Classis of Northampton Daventry and Kettring and the device forthwith is taken up in most parts of England but especially in Warwick-shire Suffolk Norfolk Essex c. In these Classes they determined in points of Doctrine interpreted hard places of Scripture delivered their Resolution in such Cases of Conscience as were brought before them decided Doubts and Difficulties touching Contracts of Marriage And whatsoever was concluded by such as were present but still with reference to the better judgment of the
Perjuries than amongst those Fanatical spirits he should meet withall 39. But on the contrary he tells us of the Church of England at his first coming thither That he found that Form of Religion which was established under Queen ELIZABETH of famous memory by the Laws of the Land to have been blessed with a most extraordinary Peace and of long continuance which he beheld as a strong evidence of God's being very well pleased with it He tells us also That he could find no cause at all on a full debate for any Alteration to be made in the Common-Prayer-Book though that most impugned that the Doctrines seemed to be sincere the Forms and Rites to have been justified out of the Practise of the Primitive Church And finally he tells us That there was nothing in the same which might not very well have been born withall if either the Adversaries would have made a reasonable construction of them or that his Majesty had not been so nice or rather jealous as himself confesseth for having all publick Forms in the Service of God not only to be free from all blame but from any suâ—spition For which consult his Proclamation of the fifth of March before the Book of Common-Prayer And herewith he declared himself so highly pleased that in the Conference at Hampton-Court he entred into a gratulation to Almighty God for bringing him into the Promised Land so he pleased to call it where Religion was purely profest the Government Ecclesiastical approved by manifold blessings from God himself as well in the encrease of the Gospel as in a glorious and happy Peace and where he had the happiness to sit amongst Grave and Learned men and not to be a King as elsewhere he had been without State without Honour without Order as before was said And this being said we shall proceed unto the rest of our Story casting into the following Book all the Successes of the Puritans or Presbyterians in his own Dominions during the whole time of his Peaceful Government and so much also of their Fortunes in France and Belgium as shall be necessary to the knowledg of their future Actings AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB XI Containing Their Successes whether good or bad in England Scotland Ireland and the Isle of Jersey from the Year 1602 to the Year 1623 with somewhat touching their Affairs as well in France and Sweden as the Belgick Provinces 1. THE Puritans and Presbyterians in both Kingdoms were brought so low when King IAMES first obtained the Crown of England that they might have been supprest for ever without any great danger if either that King had held the Rains with a constant hand or been more fortunate in the choice of his Ministers after the old Councellors were worn out than in fine he proved But having been kept to such hard meats when he lived in Scotland he was so taken with the Delicacies of the English Court that he abandoned the Severities and Cares of Government to enjoy the Pleasures of a Crown Which being perceived by such as were most near unto him it was not long before the Secret was discovered to the rest of the people who thereupon resolved to husband all occasions which the times should give them to their best advantage But none conceived more hopes of him than some Puritan Zealots who either presuming on his Education in the Kirk of Scotland or venturing on the easiness of his Disposition began to intermit the use of the Common-Prayer to lay aside the Surplice and neglect the Ceremonies and more than so to hold some Classical and Synodical Meetings as if the Laws themselves had dyed when the Queen expired But these Disorders he repressed by his Proclamation wherein he commanded all his Subjects of what sort soever not to innovate any thing either in Doctrine or Discipline till he upon mature deliberation should take order in it 2. But some more wary than the rest refused to joyn themselves to such forward Brethren whose Actions were interpreted to savour stronger of Sedition than they did of Zeal And by these men it was thought better to address themselves by a Petition to His Sacred Majesty which was to be presented to him in the name of certain Ministers of the Church of England desiring Reformation of sundry Ceremonies and Abuses Given out to be subscribed by a thousand hands and therefore called the Millenary Petition though there wanted some hundreds of that number to make up the sum In which Petition deprecating first the imputation of Schism and Faction they rank their whole Complaints under these four heads that is to say The Service of the Church Church-Ministers the Livings and Maintenance of the Church and the Discipline of it In reference to the first the Publick Service of the Church it was desired That the Cross in Baptism Interrogatories ministred to Infants and Confirmations as superfluous might be taken away That Baptism might not be administred by Women That the Cap and Surplice might not be urged That Examination might go before the Communion and that it be not administred without a Sermon That the terms of Priest and Absolution with the Ring in Marriage and some others might be corrected That the length of Service might be abridged Church-Songs and Musick moderated And that the Lord's Day be not prophaned nor Holy-days so strictly urged That there might be an Uniformity of Doctrine prescribed That no Popish Opinion be any more taught or defended That Ministers might not be charged to teach their people to bow at the Name of Iesus And that the Canonical Scriptures be only read in the Church 3. In reference to Church-Ministers it was propounded That none hereafter be admitted into the Ministry but Able and Sufficient men and those to preach diligently especially upon the Lord's Day but such as be already entred and cannot preach may either be removed and some charitable course taken with them for their Relief or else to be forced according to the value of their Livings to maintain Preachers That Non-residency be not permitted That K. Edward's Statute for the lawfulness of Ministers marriage might be revived That Ministers might not be urged to subscribe but according to the Law the Articles of Religion and the King's Supremacy It was desired also in relation to the Church's Maintenance That Bishops might leave their Commendams some holding Prebends some Parsonages some Vicaridges with their Bishopricks That double-beneficed men might not be suffered to hold some two some three Benefices and as many Dignities That Impropriations annexed to Bishopricks and Colledges be demised only to the Preachers Incumbents for the old Rent That the Impropriations of Lay-men's Fee may be charged with a sixth or seventh part of the worth to the maintenance of a Preaching-Minister And finally in reference to the execution of the Church's Discipline it was humbly craved That the Discipline and Excommunication might be administred according to Christ's own Institution or at the
oppositions to Monarchical and Episcopal Government in the Realm of Scotland their secret Practices and Conspiracies to advance their Discipline together with their frequent Treasons and Rebellions in the pursuance of the same from the year 1565 till the year 1585. 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. Lib. VII Containing A Relation of their secret and open Practices the Schism and Faction by them raised for advancing the Genevian Discipline in the Church of England from the year 1572 to the year 1584. Lib. VIII Containing The Seditious Practices and positions of the said English Puritans their Libelling Railing and Reviling in order to the setting up of the holy Discipline from the year 1584 to the year 1589. The undutiful carriage of the French and the horrible insolencies of the Scottish Presbyters from the year 1585 to the year 1592. Lib. IX Containing Their Disloyalties Treasons and Seditions in France the Country of East-Friesland and the Isles of Britain but more particularly in England together with the several Laws made against them and the several exceptions in pursuance of them from the year 1589 to the year 1595. Lib. X. Containing A relation of their Plots and Practices in the Realm of England their horrible Insolencies Treasons and Seditions in the Kingdom of Scotland from the year 1595 to year 1603. Lib. XI Containing Their successes either good or bad in England Scotland Ireland and the Isles of Jersey from the year 1602 to the year 1623 with somewhat touching their affairs as well in France and Sweden as the Belgick Provinces Lib. XII Containing Their tumultuating in the Belgick Provinces their Practices and Insurrections in the Higher-Germany the frustrating their designe on the Churches of Brandenberg the revolts of Transylvania Hungary Austria and Bohemia and the Rebellions of the French from the year 1610 to the year 1628. Lib. XIII Containing The Insurrection of the Presbyterian and Puritan Faction in the Realm of Scotland the Rebellions raised by them in England their horrid Sacriledges Murders Spoils and Rapines in pursuit thereof their Innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline and the great Alteration made in the Civil Government from the year 1536 to the year 1647 when they were stript of all Command by the Independants Advervisement of Books newly printed The History of the late Wars in Denmark comprizing all the Transactions both Military and Civil during the differences betwixt the two Northern Crowns in the years 1657 1658 1659 1660. Illustrated with several Maps By R. Manley To be sold by Tho. Basset at the George in Fleetstreet A Help to English History Containing a Succession of all the Kings of England the English Saxons and the Britains the Kings and Princes of Wales the Kings and Lords of Man the Isle of Wight As also of all the Dukes Marquesses Earls and Bishops thereof with the description of the places from whence they had their Titles continued and enlarged with the names and ranks of the Viscounts Barons and Baronets to the year 1669. By Peter Heylyn AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB I Containing The first institution of Presbyterie in the Town of Geneva the Arts and Practices by which it was imposed on the neck of that City and pressed upon all the Churches of the Reformation together with the dangerous Principles and Positions of the chief Countrivers in the pursuance of that project from the year 1536 to the year 1585. AT such time as it pleased God to raise up Martin Luther a Divine of Saxonie to write against the errours and corruptions of the Church of Rome Vlderick Zuinglius a Cannon of the Church of Zurick endeavoured the like Reformation amongst the Switzers but holding no intelligence with one another they travailed divers ways in pursuance of it which first produced some Animosities between themselves not to be reconciled by a personal Conference which by the Lantgrave of Hassia was procured between them but afterwards occasioned far more obstinate ruptures between the followers of the parties in their several stations The Zuinglian Reformation was begun in defacing Images decrying the established Fasts and appointed Festivals abolishing set forms of worship denying the old Catholick Doctrine of a real presence and consequently all external reverence in the participation of the blessed Sacrament which Luther seriously laboured to preserve in the same estate in which he found them at the present They differed also in the Doctrine of Predestination which Luther taught according to the current of the ancient Fathers who lived and flourished before the writings of St. Augustine so that the Romanists had not any thing to except against in that particular when it was canvassed by the School-men in the Council of Trent But Zuinglius taught as was collected from his writings That God was the total cause of all our Works both good and evil that the Adultery of David the cruelty of Manlius and the treason of Iudas were the works of God as well as the vocation of Saul that no man hath power to think well or ill but that all cometh of absolute necessity that man doth nothing towards his Predestination or Reprobation but all is in the Will of God that the Predestinate cannot be condemned nor the Reprobate saved that the Elect and Predestinate are truely justified that the justified are bound by Faith to believe they are in the number of the Predestinated that the justified cannot fall from Grace but is rather bound to believe that if he chance to fall from Grace he shall receive it again and finally that those who are not in the number of the Predestinate shall never receive Grace though offered to them Which difference being added unto that of the Sacrament and eagerly pursued on both sides occasioned such a mortal and implacable hatred between the parties that the Lutherans have solemnly vowed rather to fall off roundly to the Church of Rome then yeild to those Predestinarian and Sacramentary pestilences as they commonly called them But Zuinglius in the mean time carried it amongst the Switzers five of those thirteen Cantons entertain his Doctrine the like did also divers Towns and Seignories which lay nearest to them of which Geneva in a short time became most considerable 2. Geneva is a City of the Alpian Provinces belonging anciently to the Allobroges and from thence called Aurelia Allobrogum by some Latine writers scituated on the South-side of the Lake Lemane opposite to the City of Lozanne in the Canton of Berne from which it is distant six Dutch Miles the River Rhosâ—o having passed through the lake with so clear a colour that it seemeth not at all to mingle with the waters of it runeth
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
the Sixth brought thither by the noise of so great a Schism that the Liturgie of England was again restored Knox was so far from yeilding to the Gravity and Authority of that Learned man that he inveighed against him in the Pulpit without fear or wit But Cox not able to endure a baffle from so mean a fellow informs against him to the Senate touching some passages in one of his Seditious Pamphlets in which it is affirmed that Queen Mary whom elsewhere he calls by the odious name of Iesabel and a Traytoress to England ought not to joyn her self in Marriage with the Emperours Son because the Emperour himself maintained Idolatry and was a greater Enemy to Christ then ever was Nero. Knox hereupon departs by Moon-light but howsoever quits the Town and retires to Geneva leaving the Liturgie for the present in a better condition then he had found it at hiâ— first coming thither But Cox considering with himself how necessary Calvins favour might be to him salutes him with a civil Letter subscribed by himself and fourteen others all of them being men of Note in their several places In which they excused themselves for having set that Church in order without his advice not without some rejoycing that they had brought the greatest part of those who withstood their doings to be of the same Opinion with them Which how agreeable it was to Calvin may be seen by his return to Cox and his adherents Coxo Gregalibus suis as the Latine hath it bearing date Iune 14. 1555. 19. In which Letter having first craved pardon for not writing sooner he lets them know that he had freely signified to Dr. Sampson a very fit man to be acquainted with his secrets what he conceived of the Disputes which were raised at Frankfort as also that he had been certified by some Friends of his who complained much of it that they did stand so strictly on the English Ceremonies as shewed them to be too much wedded to the Rites of their Country And further certified that he had heard somewhat of those Reasons which they stood on most for not receding any thing from the Form established but they were such as might receive an easie Answer that he had writ to those of the opposite party to carry themselves with moderation in the present business though nothing was therein remitted by Cox and his and howsoever was now glad to hear that the difference was at last composed He speaks next touching their retaining of Crosses Tapers and such other trifles of that nature proceeding at the first from superstition and thereupon infers that they who so earnestly contended for them when it was in their choice not to do it did draw too neer upon the dregs He adds that he could see no Reason why they should charge the Church with frivolous and impertinent Ceremonies which he should no way wrong if he called them dangerous when they were left at liberty to compose an Order for themselves more pure and simple that in his judgement it was done with little Piety and less brotherly Love on any clancular informations to call Knox in question for so I understood him by his letter N and that they had done better to have stay'd at home then to have kindled the coals by such a piece of unjust cruelty in a Forreign Country by which others also were inflamed and finally that he had written howsoever unto some of the adverse party of whose intent to leave that place he had been advertised that they should continue where they were and not violate the League of their Friendship by their separations with other things to that effect But notwithstanding this advice many of the Schismatical party removed from Frankfort and put themselves into Geneva the principal of which were Whittingham Knox Goodman and he which afterwards was able to do more then all the rest Mr. Francis Knollis allyed by Marriage to the Caryes descended from a younger Sister of Queen Anne Bullen and consequently neer of Kin to Queen Elizabeth These men grew very great with Calvin with whose good leave they put themselves into the form of a Congregation chose Knox and Goodman for their Brethren and in all points conformed themselves to the Rules of that Church which afterwards they laboured to promore in England and actually did effect in Scotland to the no small disturbance of either Kingdom By the perswasion of these men he is resolved to try his Fortune once again on the Church of England before the resetling of the Liturgie under Queen Elizabeth might render the design impossible or at least unprosperous To which end he addresseth his desires to the Queen her self at her first coming to the Crown The like he doth to Mr. Secretary Cecil by his Letters bearing date the 17 of Ianuary 1558 in which he makes mention of the other in both he spurs them on to a Reformation complaining that they had not shewed such a forwardness in it as all good men expected and that cause required But above all things he desires that a pure and perfect Worship of God may be fully setled that the Church may be throughly purged of its former filth and that the Children of God in England might be left at liberty to use such purity in all Acts of publick Worship as to them seemed best And what else could he aim at by these expressions comparing them with the Contents of his two last Letters but that the former Liturgie should be abolished or brought unto a neerer conformity to the Rules of Geneva or at the least that liberty might be left to the godly party to use any other Form of Worship which they though more pure But finding no such good return to either Letter as he had promised to himself he leaves the cause to be pursued by such English Zealots as he had trained up at Geneva or otherwise had setled their abode amongst the Switzers where all set Forms of Worship were as much decryed as they were with him And that they might not slacken in the midst of their course he recommends the general Superintendents of the Church of England to the care of Beza who after his decease succeeded both in his place and power of whose pragmaticalness in pursuing this design against the Liturgie condemning all established Orders of this Church his interposing in behalf of such of his Followers as had heen silenced suspended or deprived for their inconformity we shall speak more large at when we come to England 20. There happened another quarrel in the Church of England and he must needs make himself a party in it Mr. Iohn Hooper having well deserved by his pains in preaching and publishing some Books which very much conduced to the peace of the Church is nominated by the King to the See of Glocester Willing enough he was to accept the charge but he had lived so long at Zurick in the Reign of King Henry where there
was no distinction of Apparel either Sacred or Civil that he refused to wear such Robes at his Consecration as by the Rules of the Church were required of him And by the Rules of the Church it was required that for his ordinary Habit he should wear the Rochet and Chimere with a square Cap upon his head and not officiate at the Altar without his Coap or perform any Ordination without his Crosier Incouraged by his refusal many of the inferiour Clergie take the like exceptions against Caps and Surplices as also against Gowns and Tippets the distinct Habits of their Order Upon this ground Archbishop Cranmer makes a stop of his Consecration and would not be perswaded to dispute with him in that particular though he much desired it He had fastned some dependance upon Dudley then Earl of Warwick and afterwards created Duke of Northumberland who did not onely write his own Letters but obtained the Kings that without pressing him any further to conform himself to those Robes and Habits the Bishop should proceed immediately to his Consecration But Cranmer weighing the importance of that ill Example held off his hand till he had satisfied the King and so cooled the Earl that Hooper was left unto himself and still continuing in his contumacy was committed Prisoner The news being brought to Calvin he must needs play the Bishop in another mans Diocess or rather the Archbishop in another mans Province But having little hope of prevailing with Cranmer who had before rejected his assistance in the Reformation he totally applies himself to the Duke of Sommerset And he writes to him to this purpose That the Papists would grow every day more insolent then other unless the differences about the Ceremonies were first composed But then they were to be composed in such a manner as rather might encourage the dissenters in their opposition then end in the reduction of them to a due conformity And to this end he is unseasonably instant with him to lend a helping hand to Hooper as the head of that Faction By which encouragement if not also by his setting on the like was done by Peter Martyr and by Iohn Alasco the first of which was made Divinity-Reader in Oxon and the other Preacher to the Dutch in London both ingaged in stickling for the unconformable party against the Vestments of the Church But they both gained as little by it as Calvin did who seeing how little he effected in the Church of England more then the getting of the name of a Polypragmon a medler in such matters as concerned him not gave over the affairs thereof to the charge of Beza who being younger then himself and of less discretion might live to see some good success of his Travails in it And he accordingly bestirred himself in this very quarrel as if the safety of the Church and the preservation of Religion had been brought in danger writing his Letters unto Grindal when Bishop of London not to insist so far on those matters of Ceremony as to deprive any of his Ministery upon that account He also signifies unto the Brethren his dislike of those Vestments and thereby strengthned and confirmed them in their former obstinacy And finally left no stone unmoved no kinde of practice unattempted by which this Church might be at last necessitated to a Reformation upon Calvins Principles whose counsels he pursued to the very last 21. But as for Calvin he had some other game to fly at and of greater nature then to dispute the lawfulness of Caps and Surplices and other Vestments of the Clergie or to content himself with altering the old Forms of Government and publick Worship The Doctrine was to be refined and all Idolatry removed whether it were Civil or Spiritual In point of Doctrine he came neerest unto that of Zuinglius as well in reference to the Sacrament as Predestination but pitched upon the last for the main concernment which was to difference his own Followers from all other Christians The straining of which string to so great a height hath made more discord in the harmony of the Church of Christ then any other whatsoever For not content to go the way of the Ancient Fathers or to rely upon the judgement of St. Augustine Fulgentius Prosper or any others which have moderated his excesses in it he must needs add so much unto those extravagancies which he found in Zuinglius as brought him under a suspition with some sober men for making God to be the Author of sin For by his Doctrine God is made to lay on our Father Adam an absolute and an unavoidable necessity of falling into sin and misery that so he might have opportunity to manifest his Mercy in Electing some few of his Posterity and his Justice in the remediless rejecting of all the rest In which as he could finde no countenance from the Ancient Fathers so he pretendeth not to any ground for it in the Holy Scripture For whereas some objected in Gods behalf De certis verbis non extare that the Decree of Adams Fall and consequently the involving of his whole Posterity in sin and misery was no where extant in the Word he makes no other answer to it then a quasi vero As if saith he God had made and created Man the most exact Piece of his Heavenly Workmanship without determining of his End either Heaven or Hell And on this point he was so resolutely bent that nothing but an absolute Decree for Adams Fall seconded by the like for the involving of all his Race in the same perdition would either serve his turn or preserve his credit If any man shall dare to opine the contrary as Castillo did he must be sure to be disgraced and censured by him as Castillo was and as all others since have been which presumed to question that determination for which himself can give us no better name than that of an Horrible Decree as indeed it is a cruel and Horrible Decree to pre-ordain so many millions to destruction and consequently unto sin that he might destroy them 22. I had not stood so long upon this particular but in regard of those confusions and distractions which by his Followers have been occasioned in the Church by their adhering to this Doctrine and labouring to obtrude it upon all mens consciences The Zuinglian Gospellers as Bishop Hooper rightly calls them began to scatter their predestinary Doctrines in the Reign of King Edward But they effected little in it till such of our Divines as had retired themselves to Basil Zurick and amongst the Switzers or otherwise had been brought up at the Feet of Calvin encouraged by his Authority and countenanced by his name commended them to all the people of this Realm for sound Catholick verities The like diligence was also used by his Disciples in all places else By means whereof it came to be generally received as a truth undoubted and one of the most necessary Doctrines of mans Salvation
in all the Churches of his Platform In which as his Doctrine in some other points had first prepared the way to bring in his Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support these Doctrines and crush all them that durst oppose them Onely it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat milder then the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself though in some passages of his Writings he may seem to look the same way also hath placed more judiciously in Massa corrupta in the corrupted mass of mankinde and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for Election or Reprobation of particular Persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election oâ— Reprobation of particular men the restoring of the benefit of our Saviours sufferings to those few particulars whom onely they had honoured with the glorious Name of Gods Elect the working on them by the irresistable power of Grace in the act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the said Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of their Deviation insomuch that they were scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main Foundation which they built upon but generally passed under the name of Calvinists as the other did Which Doctrines though I charge not wholly on the score of Presbytery in regard that many of our English Divines who abhorred that Government appeared in favour of the same yet I may truely father them on the two grand Patrons of the Presbyterians by whom they have been since exposed as their dearest darling and no less eagerly contended for then the holy Discipline 23. Another of Calvins great designs was to cry down that Civil Idolatry which he conceived had been committed unto Kings and Princes in making them Supreme and uncontrollable in their several Countries For pulling down of whose Authority even in Civil Matters he attributes such power to such popular Officers as are by them appointed for the ease of their Subjects that by his Doctrine they may call the Supreme Magistrate to a strict account whensoever they shall chance to exceed those bounds which they had prescribed unto themselves onely by which they may be circumscribed by others For having in the last Chapter of his Institutions first published in the year 1536 exceeding handsomely laid down the Doctrine of Obedience and the unlawfulness of resistance in what case soever he gives in the close such a qualification as utterly overthrows his former Doctrine and proved the sole ground of such Rebellions Treasons and Assassinates as have disfigured the otherwise undefiled beauty of the Church of Christ. Which passages I shall here lay down in the Authors words with a translation by their side that the Reader may perceive there is no wrong done him and afterwards proceed to the discovery of those sad effects which have ensued upon them in too many places wherein his Discipline hath either been received or contended for His Doctrine in which point is this that followeth 24. Neque enim si ultio Domini est â—ffraenaiae dominationis correctio ideo protinus demandatum nobis arbitremur quibus nullum aliud quam parendi patiendi datum est mandatum De privatis hominibus semper loquar Nam si qui nunc sint Populares Magistratus ad moderandum Regum libidinem constituti quales olim erant qui Lacedemoniis Regibus oppositi erant Ephori aut Romanis Consulibus Tribuni Plebis aut Atheniensium Senatui Demarchi qua etiam forte potestate ut nunc res habent funguntur in singuli Regnis tres Ordines cum primarios conventus peragunt adeo illos ferocienti Regum licentiae pro officio intercedere non veto ut si Regibus impotenter grassantibus humili plebeculae insultantibus conniverunt eorum dissimulationem nefaria nefaria perfidia non carere affirmem quia populi libertatem cujus se Dei ordinatione tutores positos norunt fraudulenter produnt 24. Nor may we think because the punishment of Licentious Princes belongs to God that presently this power is devolved on us to whom no other warrant hath been given by God but onely to obey and suffer But still I must be understood of private persons For if there be now any Popular Officers ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings such as were the Ephori set up of old against the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people against the Roman Consuls and the Demarchy against the Athenian Senate and with which power perhaps as the world goes the three States are seiz'd in each several Kingdom when they are solemnly assembled so far am I from hindring them to put restraints upon the exorbitant power of Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them rather to be guilty of a persidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the Common people in that they treacherously betray the Subjects liberties of which they knew they were made Guardians by Gods own Ordinance 25. Which dangerous Doctrine being thus breathed and broached by Calvin hath since been both professed and practised by all his Followers as either they had opportunity to declare themselves or strength enough to put the same in execution Some of whose words I shall here add as a tast to the rest and then refer the rest to their proper places And first we will begin with Beza who in his twenty fourth Epistle inscribed to the Outlandish Churches in England doth resolve it thus If any man saith he contrary to the Laws and Liberties of his native Country shall make himself a Lord or Supreme Magistrate over all the rest or being lawfully invested with the Supreme Magistracie should either unjustly spoil or deprive his Subjects of those Rights and Priviledges which he hath sworn to them to observe or otherwise oppress them by open Tyranny that then the ordinary and inferiour Officers are to oppose themselves against them who both by reason of their several Offices and by Gods appointment are bound in all such cases to protect the Subjects not onely against Forreign but Domestick Tyrants Which is as much as could be possibly contrained in so narrow a compass And if he were the Author as some say he was of the Book called Vindiciae contra Tyrannos published under the name of Stephanus Brutus there hath been no Rebellion raised since that Book was written or likely to be raised in the times ensuing which may not honestly be charged upon his account But because the Author of this Book is commonly reported to be meerly French and none of the Genevian Doctors we may possibly hear more of him in that part of our History which relateth to the Actings of the Presbyterians in the
Gospel did with Christ our Saviour adorned them in their Royal Robes with their Crowns and Scepters and then exposed them to the scorn of the common Souldiers the insolencies and reproaches of the raskal Rabble 28. Nor do they deal much better with them in reference to their power in Spiritual Matters which they make either none at all or such as is subservient onely to the use of the Church Calvin first leads the way in this as he did in the other and seems exceedingly displeased with King Henry the Eighth for taking to him the title of Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England Of this he makes complaint in his Commentary on the 7 of Amos not onely telling us what inconsiderate men they were who had conferred upon him any such Supremacie but that himself was very much disquieted and offended at it And though he be content to yeild him so much Authority as may enable him to make use of the Civil Sword to the protecting of the Church and the true Religion yet he condemns all those of the like inconsiderateness who make them more spiritual that is to say of greater power in Sacred Matters then indeed they are The Supreme power according to the Rules of Calvins Platform belongs unto the Consistory Classes or Synodical Meetings to which he hath ascribed the designation of all such as bear publick Office in the Church the appointing and proclaiming of all solemn Fasts the calling of all Councils or Synodical Meetings the censuring of all misdemeanors in the Ministers of holy Church in which last they have made the Supreme Magistrate an incompetent Judge and therefore his Authority and final Judgement in such cases of no force at all Beza treads close upon the heels of his Master Calvin and will allow no other power to the Civil Magistrate then to protect the Church and the Ministry of it in propagating and promoting the True Worship of God It is saith he the Office of the Civil Magistrate to use the Sword in maintenance and defence of Gods holy Church as it is the duty of the Ministers and Preachers of it to implore their aid as well against all such as refuse obedience to the Decrees and Constitutions of the Church as against Hereticks and Tyrants which endeavoured to subvert the same In which particulars if the Magistrate neglects to do his duty and shall not diligently labour in suppressing Heresie and executing the Decrees of the Church against all opponents what can the people do but follow the Example of the Mother-City in taking that power upon themselves though to the total alteration and subversion of the publick Government For from the Principles and practice of these great Reformers it hath ever since been taken up as a Ruled case amongst all their Followers that if Kings and Princes should refuse to reform Religion that then the inferiour Magistrates or the Common people by the direction of their Ministers both may and ought to proceed to a Reformation and that by force of Arms also if need so require 29. That by this Rule the Scots did generally walk in their Reformation under the Regencie of Mary of Lorreign Queen-Dowager to Iames the Fifth and after her decease in the Reign of her Daughter we shall show hereafter And we shall show hereafter also that it was published for good Genevian Doctrine by our English Puritans That if Princes hinder them that travail in the search of this holy Discipline they are Tyrants to the Church and the Ministers of it and being so may be deposed by their subjects Which though it be somewhat more then Calvin taught as to that particular yet the conclusion follows well enough on such faulty Premises which makes it seem the greater wonder in our English Puritans that following him so closely in pursuit of the Discipline their disaffection unto Kings and all Soveraign Princes their manifest contempt of all publick Liturgies and pertinaciously adhering to his Doctrine of Predestination they should so visibly dissent him in the point of the Sabbath For whereas some began to teach about these times that the keeping holy of one day in seven was to be reckoned for the Moral part of the fourth Commandment he could not let it pass without some reproof for what saith he can be intended by those men but in defiance of the Jews to change the day and then to add a greater Sanctity unto it then the Jews ever did First therefore he declares for his own Opinion that he made no such reckoning of a seventh-day-Sabbath as to inthral the Church to a necessity of conforming to it And secondly that he esteemed no otherwise of the Lords-day-Sabbath then of an Ecclesiastical Constitution appointed by our Ancestors in the place of the Jewish Sabbath and therefore alterable from one day to another at the Churches pleasure Followed therein by all the Churches of his party who thereupon permit all lawful Recreations and many works of necessary labour on the day it self provided that the people be not thereby hindred from giving their attendance in the Church at the times appointed Insomuch that in Geneva if self all manlike exercises as running vaulting leaping shooting and many others of that nature are as indifferently indulged on the Lords day as on any other How far the English Puritans departed from their Mother-Church both in Doctrine and Practice with reference to this particular we shall see hereafter when they could finde no other way to advance Presbytery and to decry the Reputation of the ancient Festivals then by erecting their new Sabbath in the hearts of the people 30. It is reportred by Iohn Barkley in his Book called Parenesâ—s ad Scotos that Calvin once held a Consultation at Geneva for transferring the Lords day from Sunday to Thursday Which though perhaps it may be true considering the inclination of the man to new devices yet I conceive that he had greater projects in his Head and could finde other ways to advance his Discipline then by falling upon any such ridiculous and odious Counsel He had many Irons in the fire but took more care in hammering his Discipline then all the rest First by entitling it to some express Warrant from the holy Scripture and afterwards by commending it to all the Churches of the Reformation In reference to the first he lets us know in his Epistle to Farellus Septemb. 16. 1543. that the Church could not otherwise subsist then under such a Form of Government as is prescribed in the Word and observed in old times by the Church And in relation to the other he was resolved to make his best use of that Authority which by his Commentaries on the Scriptures his Book of Institutions and some occasional Discourses against the Papists he had acquired in all the Protestant and reformed Churches Insomuch that Gasper Ligerus a Divine of Witteberge by his Letters bearing date Feb. 27. 1554
leisure to coâ—sult the same or otherwise may make a judgement of them by this small scantling as the wise Mathematician took the just measure of the body of Hercules by the impression which he made in the sand by one of his Feet And therefore I shall look no further then upon such specialities as have relation to the Doctrine Discipline or Forms of Worship which are most proper to the rest Some of the Brethren not fully setled in a Church had laid aside the singing of Psalms either for fear of being discovered or otherwise terrified and discouraged by the threats of the adversary For this he reprehends them in a tedious Letter dated Iuly 19. 1559. imputes it to their fearfulness or pasillanimity accuseth them of plain tergiversation and shutting up all passages against the entrance of the Graces of Almighty God The Brethren of Mont-Pelyard for I think the former lived in Mettz the chief City of Lorrein were required by the Guardians of their Prince that is to say the Palatine of Zuibrook and the Duke of Wirtenberge to hold conformity in some Ceremonies with the Lutheran Church as namely in the Form of their Catechising the manner of Administring the Holy Sacrament the Form of publick Prayers and Solemnizing of Marriages They were required also to imploy themselves in Preaching down the errours and corruptions of the Church of Rome in some small Signiories which were lately fallen unto their Prince and had not formerly been instructed in the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches But absolutely they refused the one and would do nothing in the other without Calvins leave to whose infallible judgement and determination they refer the points whereunto he returns such answer by his Letters bearing date September 25. 1562 as confirmed them in their first refusal excepting more particularly against suffering Midwives to Baptize and against praying for the joyful Resurrection of a man deceased at the time of his Burial But in the other he adviseth them to accept the charge as visibly conducing to the propagation of the true Religion and the inlarging of Christs Kingdom 37. So for the Discipline which seemed to be devised at first upon humane prudence accommodated to the present condition of Geneva onely the use of Excommunication had been discontinued in the Protestant Churches and no such creatures as Lay-Elders heard of in the Primitive times or glanced at in the holy Scriptures So that to trust them with the power of the Churches-censures could not pretend to any ground in the Word of God supposing that the use of Excommunication was to be every where received Calvin himself confesses in his Letter unto those of Zurick that in the judgement of most Learned and Religious men there was no need of Excommunication under Christian Princes Beza acknowledgeth the like in the Life of Calvin and what Ligerus saith for the Church of Saxonie hath been shewed already But by degrees it came to be intituled to Divine Authority at first commended as convenient and at last as necessary With the opinion of the Sacred and Divine Authority of the holy Discipline he had so far possessed Saligniar a man of Eminent power in the City of Paris and one that for thirty years before had declared himself in favour of the Reformation that he acknowledgeth it in the end to be Apostolical For in his Letter written unto Calvin on the Ides of December he lets him know how vehemently he did desire that they might have such a Form of Ecclesiastical Polity as Calvin seemed to breath and could not be denyed to be Apostolical From hence it was that he declared so positively in his Epistle to Poppius February 25. 1559 that the Magistrates were to be sollicited for the Exercise of Excommunication by publick Authority which if it could not be obtained the Ministers were to make this protestation that they durst not give the Sacrament to unworthy receivers for fear of coming under the censure of casting that which was holy before Dogs and Swine More fully in his answer to some questions about the Discipline in which we finde and that goes very high indeed that the safety of the Church cannot otherwise be provided for then by the free use of Excommunication for the purifying of the same from filth the restraint of licentiousness abolishing enormous crimes and the correcting of ill manners the moderate exercise whereof he that will not suffer doth plainly shew himself to be no sheep of our Saviours Pasture 38. And so far Calvin had proceeded but he went no further neither condemning the Estate of Bishops as Antichristian and unlawful nor thinking his Lay-elders so extreamly necessary that no Decree of Excommunication could be past without them But Beza who succeeded in the Chair of Calvin is resolved on both For Calvin having sate eight and twenty years in the Chair of Geneva ended his life in the year 1564. During which time he had attained to such an height of Reputation that even the Churches of the Switzers lost the name of Zuinglians and thought it no small honour to them as well as those of Germany France Pole or Scotland to be called Calvinian Onely the English held it out and neither had imbraced his Doctrines nor received his Discipline And though the Puritan party in it took the name of Calvinists our Divines commonly called Calvinists say the two Informers yet both Saravia stomached it to be so accounted Mountague in answer to the two Informers doth protest against it and all the true sons of the Church of England do as much disclaim it Beza endeavoured what he could to introduce his Discipline and Forms of Worship into all the Churches which did pretend to any Reformation of their ancient Errours In the pursuit whereof he drives on so furiously like Iehu in the holy Scriptures as if no Kings or Princes were to stand before him Scarce was he setled in his Chair when one of his professed Champions for Presbytery puts himself into Heidelberg which had not long before admitted the Calvinian Doctrines but not submitted to the Discipline as extrinsecal to them This Champion therefore challenges the Divines thereof to a disputation publickly holds forth this proposition which he then defended that is to say That to a Minister with his Elders there is power given by express warrant from Gods Word to Excommunicate all offenders even the greatest Prince From hence proceeded that dispute which afterwards Erastus of whom more hereafter maintained with Beza the point being put upon this issue Whether all Churches ought to have their Eldership invested with a power of Excommunication and that Lay-elders were so necessary in every Eldership that nothing could be done without them In which dispute as it is very well observed by judicious Hooker they seemed to divide the whole truth between them Beza most truely holding the necessity of Excommunication in a Church well constituted Erastus no less truely shewing
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
last were left at liberty by the Rules of the Church and used in some few places onely Of all which he not onely signified a plain dislike but endeavoured to shew the errours and absurdities contained in them for such they must contain if he pleased to think so And what could follow hereupon but an open Schism a separation from the Church a resort to Conventicles which he takes notice of in his last to Grindal but imputes it unto that severity which was used by the Bishops in pressing such a yoak of Ceremonies upon tender Consciences The breach not lessened but made wider by another Letter directed to the French and Dutch Churches at London in which he sets before them the whole Form of Worship which was established at Geneva insisteth upon many points neither agreeable to the Discipline or Doctrine of the Church of England and â—inally so restrains the power of the Supreme Magistrate that he is left to the correction and control of his under Officers Of which two Letters that which was writ for satisfaction of the English brethren bears date Octob. 24. 1567 the other Iune 21 in the year next following 43. With great Zeal he drives on in pursuit of the Discipline the Form and Power whereof we will first lay down out of his Epistles and then observe to what a height he doth endeavour to advance the same excluding the Episcopal Government as Antichristian if not Diabolical First then he tells us that to each Minister which officiates in the Country-Villages within the Signiory of Geneva two Over-seers are elected as Assistants to him and that to them it appertains to keep a watchful eye over all men in their several Parishes to convent such before them as they finde blame-worthy to admonish them of their misdeeds and finally if he cannot otherwise prevail upon them to turn them over to the censure of the Eldership which resides in the City This Eldership he compounds of the six ordinary Pastors and twelve Lay-elders the last continually chosen from amongst the Senators To whose charge and office it belongs to take notice of all scandals and offences of what sort soever within the bounds assigned unto them and every Thursday to report to the Court or Consistory what they have discovered The parties thereupon are to be convented fairly admonished of their faults sometimes suspended from the Sacrament if the case require it and excommunicated at the last if they prove impenitent To this Eldership also it belongs to judge in all cases and concernments of Matrimony according to the Word of God and the Laws of the City to repel such from the Communion as do not satisfie the Ministers by a full confession of their Faith and Knowledge And in the company of an Officer of each several Ward to make a diligent inquiry over them in every Family concerning their proficiencie in the Word of God and the ways of Godliness 44. We must next see to what a height he doth endeavour to advance this Discipline which if we take it on his word is not to be received onely as a matter necessary but to be had in equall Reverence with the Word of God Sarnixius had acquainted him with some news from Poland concerning the Divisions and subdivisions in the Churches there whereunto Beza makes his answer by his Letters of the first of November 1566 That unless some Form of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God were received among them he could not see by what means they were able to remedy their discords oâ— to prevent the like for the time to come that he had many times admired that being warned by the confusion of their Neighbours in Germany they had not considered before this time as well of the necessity to receive such Discipline as for the strict observing of it when it was received that there was onely one and the self-same Author both of Doctrine and Discipline and therefore that it must seem strange which I would have the Reader mark with his best attention to entertain one part of the Word of God and reject the other that it was most ridiculous to expect or think that either the Laws could be observed or the Peace maintained without Rules and Orders in which the very life of the Law did so much consist that for the avoiding of some new Tyranny which seemed to lye disguised under the Mask and Vizard of the present Discipline they should not run themselves into such Anarchy and discords as were not otherwise to be prevented and finally that no severity could be feared in the use of that Discipline as long as it was circumscribed within the bounds and limits assigned unto it by the Word of God and moderated by the Rules of Christian charity So that we are not to admire if the Discipline be from henceforth made a Note of the Church every way as essential to the nature of it as the Word and Sacraments which as it is the common Doctrine of the Presbyterians so we must look on Beza as the Author of it such Doctrine being never preached in the Church before 45. But because Beza seems to speak in that Epistle concerning the necessity of admitting some certain Form of Ecclesiastical Discipline without pointing punctually and precisely unto that of Geneva we must next see what Form of Discipline he means and whether a Church-Government by Bishops were intended in it And first he tells us in a Postscript of a Letter to Knox dated the third of Iuly 1569 wherein he much congratulates his good Fortune for joyning the Discipline in his Reformation with the truth of Doctrine beseeching him to go forward with it as he had begun lest it might happen to him as it did to others either to slacken in their speed or not be able to advance were they never so willing And we know well what Discipline what Form of Government and Worship had been by Knox established in the Kirk of Scotland But secondly many of the Scots being still unsatisfied in the point of Episcopacy and not well pleased with any other Government of a late invention it was thought fit to send to Beza for his judgement in it who was now looked upon as the Supreme Pastor Successor unto Calvin both in place and power Beza considers of the Business and by his Letters of the 12 of April 1572 returns this Answer viz. That he beheld it as an extraordinary blessing on the Church of Scotland That together with the true Religion they also had received the Discipline for the bond thereof Both which he earnestly conjures them so to hold together as to be sure that there is no hope to keep the one if they lose the other which being said in reference to the Holy Discipline he next proceeds to spend his judgement in the point of Episcopacy In reference to which he first tells them this that as the
Bishops were the first means to advance the Pope so the pretended Bishops would maintain the Relicks of Popery And then he adds that it concerns all those to avoid that plague by which he meanâ— undoubtedly the Episcopal Order who pretend to any care of the Churches safety And therefore since they had so happily discharged that calling in the Church of Scotland they never should again admit it though it might flatter them with some assurance of peace and unity 46. What followed thereupon in Scotland we shall see hereafter But his desires of propagating the Genevian Forms was not to be restrained to that part of the Island In his first Letter unto Grindal he doth not onely justifie the Genevian Discipline and the whole Order of that Church in Sacred Offices as grounded on the Word of God but findes great fault with the Episcopal Government in the Church of England and the great power which was ascribed unto the Queen in Spiritual Matters How so Because said he he found no warrant for it in the Word of God or any of the ancient Canons by which it might be lawful for the Civil Magistrate of his own Authority either to abrogate old Ceremonies or establish new or for the Bishops onely to ordain and determine any thing without the judgement and consent of their Presbyteries being first obtained And in his answer to the Queries of the English brethren he findes no less fault with the manner of proceedings in the Bishops Courts in regard that Excommunications were not therein passed by the common consent of a Presbytery but decreed onely by some Civil Lawyers or other Officers who faâ—e as Judges in the same But first the man was ignorant of the course of those Courts in which the sentence of Excommunication is never published or pronounced but by the mouth of a Minister ordained according to the Rules of the Church of England And secondly it is to be conceived in Reason that any Batchelor or Doctor of the Civil Law is far more fit to be imployed and trusted in the exercise of that part of Discipline then any Trades-man of Geneva though possibly of the number of the five and twenty For the redress of which great mischief and of many other he applies himself unto the Queen to whom he dedicates his Annotations on the New Testament published in the year 1572. In the Epistle whereunto though he acknowledgeth that she had restored unto this Kingdom the true Worship of God yet he insinuates that there was wanting a full Reformation of Ecclesiastical Discipline that our Temples were not fully purged that some high places still remained not yet abolished and therefore wisheth that those blemishes might be removed and those wants supplyed Finally understanding that a Parliament was then shortly to be held in England and that Cartwright had prepared an Admonition to present unto it he must needs interpose his credit with a Peer of the Realm to advance the service as appears plainly by his Letter of the same year and the Nones of Iuly In which though he approves the Doctrine yet he condemns the Government of the Church as most imperfect not onely destitute of many things which were good and profitable but also of some others which were plainly necessary 47. But here it is to be observed that in his Letter to this great person whosoever he was he seems more cautelous and reserved then in that to Grindal but far more modest then in those to Knox and the English Brethren The Government of England was so well setled as not to be ventured on too rashly And therefore he must first see what effect his counsels had produced in Scotland before he openly assaults the English Hierarchy But finding all things there agreeable to his hopes and wishes he published his Tract De Triplici Episcopatu calculated for the Meridian onely of the Kirk of Scotland as being writ at the desire of the Lord Chancellor Glammis but so that it might generally serve for all Great Britain In which Book he informs his Reader of three sorts of Bishops that is to say the Bishop by Divine Institution being no other then the Minister of a particular Church or Congregation the Bishop by humane appointment being the same onely with the President of a Convocation or the Moderator as they phrase it in some Church-assembly and finally the Devils Bishops such as presume to take upon them the whole charge of a Diocess together with a superiority and jurisdiction over other Ministers Which Book was afterwards translated into English by Feild of Wandsworth for the instruction and content of such of the Brethren as did not understand the Latine To serve as a Preface to which Work the Presbyterian Brethren publish their Seditious Pamphlets in defence of the Discipline some in the English Tongue some in the Latine but all of them Printed at Genâ—va For in the year 1570 comes out The plain and full Declaration of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God without the name of any Author to gain credit to it And Traverse a furious Zealot amongst the English had published at Geneva also in the Latine Tongue a discourse of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God as it was pretended with the declining of the Church of England from the same Anno 1574 which for the same reason must be turned into English also and Printed at Geneva with Beza's Book Anno 1580. What pains was took by some of the Divines of England but more particularly by Dr. Iohn Bridges Dean of Sarum and Dr. Adrian Saravia preferred upon the merit of this service in the Church of Westminster shall be remembred in a place more proper for it when we shall come to a review of those disturbances which were occasioned in this Church by the Puritan Faction Most of which did proceed from no other Fountain then the pragmaticalness of Beza the Doctrines of Calvin and the Example of Geneva which if they were so influential on the Realms of Britain though lying in a colder climate and so far remote it is to be presumed that they were far more powerful in France and Germany which lay nearer to them and in the last of which the people were of a more active and Mercurial Spirit 48. What influence Calvin had upon some of the Princes Cities and Divines of Germany hath been partly touched upon before and how his Doctrines did prevail in the Palatine Churches and his Discipline in many parts and Provinces of the Germane Empire may be shown hereafter In France he held intelligence with the King of Navar the Brethren of Rouen Aix Mont-Pelier and many leading men of the Hugonot party none of which can be thought to have asked his counsel about purchasing Lands the Marriages of their Children or the payment of Debts And when the Fortune of the Wars and the Kings just anger necessitated many of them to forsake their Country they
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
was the ruine of their Party and that they could not otherwise preserve their power then by open War The Prince of Conde seizeth on La Fere in Picardy and the King of Navar makes himself Master by strong hand on the City of Cahors which draws the King again from his Meditations under which must be covered his retirement from all publick business But La Fere being regained from the Prince of Conde the sacking of Cahors was connived at and the breach made up that so the Hugonots might be tempted to consume their Forces in the Wars of Flanders to which they were invited by their Brethren of the Belgick Provinces who had called in the Duke of Anjou against their King And so long France remained in quiet as that War continued But when the Duke returned after two or three years and that there was no hopes of his reverting to so great a charge the Hugonots wanting work abroad were furnished with this occasion to break out at home The Catholick League had now layn dormant for some years none seeming more Zealous then the King in the Cause of Rome But when it was considered by the Duke of Guise and the rest of the League that the Duke of Anjou being dead and the King without any hope of Issue the Crown must fall at last to the King of Navar it was resolved to try all means by which he might be totally excluded from the right of Succession For what hope could they give themselves to preserve Religion when the Crown should fall upon the head of an Heretick an Heretick relapsed and therefore made uncapable of the Royal Dignity by the Canon-Laws Of these Discourses and Designes of the Guisian Faction the King of Navar takes speedy notice and prepares accordingly thinking it best to be before-hand and not to be taken unprovided when they should come And to that end having first cleared himself by a Declaration from the crime of Heresie and now particularly from being a relapsed Heretick with many foul recriminations on the House of Guise he sends his Agents to sollicite the German Princes to come in to aid him against the oppressions of the League which seemed to aim at nothing but the ruine of the Realm of France which so exasperated those of the Guisian Faction that they prevailed by their Emissaries with Pope Sixtus the Fifth to Excommunicate the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde and to declare them both uncapable of the Royal Succession as relapsed Hereticks Which he performed in open Consistory on the ninth of September 1585 and published the sentence by a special Bull within three dayes after 41. The French King in the mean time findes himself so intangled in the Snares of the League and such a general defection from him in most parts of the Kingdom that he was forced by his Edict of the ninth of Iuly to revoke all former grants and capitulations which had been made in favour of the Hugonot party After which followed a new War in which the Switz and Germans raise great Levies for the aid of the Hugonots sollicited thereunto amongst many others by Theodore Beza who by his great Eloquence and extraordinary diligence did prevail so far that the Princes Palatine the Count Wirtemberge the Count of Montbelguard and the Protestant Cantons of the Switz agreed to give them their assistance Amongst whom with the helps which they received from the King of Denmark and the Duke of Saxony a mighty Army was advanced consisting of thirty two thousand Horse and Foot that is to say twelve thousand German Horse four thousand Foot and no fewer then sixteen thousand Switz For whose advance besides a general contribution made on all the Churches of France the sum of sixty thousand Crowns was levyed by the Queen of England and put into the hands of Prince Casimire before remembred who was to have the Chief Command of these Forreign Forces These Forreign Forces made much greater by the accession of eight thousand French which joyned unto them when they first shewed themselves upon the Borders Of which two hundred Horse and eight hundred Foot were raised by the Signory of Geneva But before this vast Army could come up to the King of Navar the Duke of Ioyeuse gives him battel near a place called Coutrasse at which time his whole Forces were reduced to four thousand Foot and about two thousand five hundred Horse with which small Army encountred a great power of the Duke of Ioyeuse and obtained a very signal Victory there being slain upon the place no fewer then three thousand men of which the Duke of Ioyeuse himself was one more then three thousand taken prisoners together with all the Baggage Arms and Ammunition which belonged to the Enemy After which followed the defeat of the Germans by the Duke of Guise and the violent proceedings of the Leaguers against the King which brought him to a necessity of joyning with the King of Navar and craving the assistance of his Hugonot Subjects whose Arms are now legitimated and made acts of Duty In which condition I shall leave them to their better Fortunes first taking a survey of the proceedings of the Calvinists in the neighbouring Germany passing from thence to the Low Countries and after crossing over to the Isles of Britain The end of the third Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB III. Containing Their Positions and Proceedings in the Higher Germany their dangerous Doctrines and Seditions their Innovations in the Church and alteration of the Civil Government of the Belgick Provinces from the year 1559 to the year 1585. 1. THe Doctrine of the Reformation begun by Luther and pursued by Zuinglius was entertained in many Provinces of the Higher Germany according as they stood affected to either party or were transported by the ends and passions of their several Princes But generally at the first they inclined to Luther whose way of Reformation seemed less odious to the Church of Rome and had the greatest approbation from the States of the Empire the Duke of Saxony adhered unto him at his first beginning as also did the Marquess of Brandenbourg the Dukes of Holsteine the two Northern Kings and by degrees the rest of the German Princes of most power and value except onely those of Austria and the Duke of Bavaria the three Elector Bishops the Duke of Cleve the Marquess of Baden and generally all the Ecclesiasticks which were not under the Command of the Lutheran States The Prince Electoâ— Palatine came not in to the party till the year 1546. At which time Frederick the Second though scarce warm in his own Estate on which he entred Anno 154â— took the advantage of the time to reform his Churches the Emperour being then brought low by the change of Fortune and forced not long after to abandon Germany Upon the 1â— of Ianuary he caused Divine Offices to be celebrated in the Mother-tongue in
Bishops of Leige some to the jurisdiction of the Archbishops of Rheims and Colen and others under the Authority of the Bishops of Munster Of which the first were in some sort under the Protection of the Dukes of Burgundy the three last absolute and independent not owing any suite or Service at all unto them By means whereof concernments of Religion were not looked into with so strict an eye as where the Bishops are accomptable to the Prince for their Administration or more united with and amongst themselves in the publick Government The inconvenience whereof being well observed by Charles the Fifth he practised with the Pope then being for increasing the number of the Bishopricks reducing them under Archbishops of their own and Modeling the Ecclesiastical Politie under such a Form as might enable them to exercise all manner of spiritual jurisdiction within themselves without recourse to any Forreign Power or Prelate but the Pope himself Which being first designed by him was afterwards effected by King Philip the Second though the event proved contrary to his expectation For this enlargement of the number of the Sees Episcopal being projected onely for the better keeping of the Peace and Unity of the Belgick Churches became unhappily the occasion of many Tumults and Disorders in the Civil State which drew on the defection of a great part of the Country from that Kings obedience 14. For so it was that the Reformed Religion being entertained in France and Germany did quickly finde an entrance also into such of the Provinces as lay nearest to them where it found people of all sorts sufficiently ready to receive it To the increase whereof the Emperor Charls himself gave no small advantage by bringing in so many of the Switz and German Souldiers to maintain his Power either in awing his own Subjects or against the French by which last he was frequently invaded in the bordering Provinces Nor was Queen Mary of England wanting though she meant it not to the increasing of their numbers For whereas many of the Natives of France and Germany who were affected zealously to the Reformation had put themselves for Sanctuary into England in the time of King Edward they were all banished by Proclamation in the first year of her Reign Many of which not daring to return to their several Countries dispersed themselves in most of the good Towns of the Belgick Provinces especially in such as lay most neer unto the Sâ—a where they could best provide themselves of a poor subsistance By means whereof the Doctrine of the Protestant and Reformed Churches began to get much ground upon them to which the continual intercourses which they had with England gave every day such great and manifest advantage that the Emperour was fain to bethink himself of some proper means for the suppressing of the inconveniences which might follow on it And means more proper he found none in the whole course of Government then to increase the number of the former Bishopricks to re-inforce some former Edicts which he made against them and to bring in the Spanish Inquisition which he established and confirmed by another Edict bearing date April 20. 1548. Which notwithstanding the Professors of that Doctrine though restrained a while could not be totally suppressed some Preachers out of Germany and others out of France and England promoting underhand those Tenents and introducing those opinions which openly they durst not own in those dangerous times But when the Emperour Charles had resigned the Government and that King Philip the Second upon some urgent Reasons of State had retired to Spain and left the Chief Command of his Belgick Provinces to the Dutchess of Parma they then began to shew themselves with the greater confidence and gained some great ones to their side whom discontent by reason of the disappointment of their several aims had made inclinable to innovation both in Church and State 15. Amongst the great ones of which time there was none more considerable for Power and Patrimony then William of Nassaw Prince of Orange invested by a long descent of Noble Ancestors in the County of Nassaw a fair and goodly Territory in the Higher Germany possest of many good Towns and ample Signories in Brabant and Holland derived upon him from Mary Daughter and Heir of Philip Lord of Breda c. his great Grand-fathers Grand-mother and finally enriched with the Principality of Orange in France accruing to him by the death of his Cozen Rene which gave him a precedencie before all other Belgick Lords in the Court of Brussels By which advantages but more by his abilities both for Camp and Counsel he became great in favour with the Emperour Charles by whom he was made Governour of Holland and Zealand Knight of the Order of the Fleece imployed in many Ambassies of weight and moment and trusted with his dearest and most secret purposes For Rivals in the Glory of Arms he had the Counts of Horne and Egmond men of great Prowess in the Field and alike able at all times to Command and Execute But they were men of open hearts not practised in the Arts of Subtilty and dissimulation and wanted much of that dexterity and cunning which the other had for working into the affections of all sorts of people Being advanced unto this eminencie in the Court and knowing his own strength as well amongst the Souldiers as the common people he promised to himself the Supreme Government of the Belgick Provinces on the Kings returning into Spain The disappointment of which hope obliterated the remembrance of all former favours and spurred him on to make himself the Head of the Protestant party by whose assistance he conceived no small possibility of raising the Nassovian Family to as great an height as his ambition could aspire to 16. The Protestants at that time were generally divided into two main bodies not to say any thing of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries who thrust in amongst them Such of the Provinces as lay toward Germany and had received their Preachers thence embraced the Forms and Doctrines of the Lutherâ—â— Câ—â—â—ches in which not onely Images had been still retained â—ogether with set-Forms of Prayer kneeling at the Communioâ— the Cross in Baptism and many other laudable Ceremonies of the Elder times but also most of the ancient Fasts and Fâ—â—tivals of the Catholick Church and such a Form of Eccleâ—â—tical Polity as was but little differing from that of Bishops which Forms and Doctrines being tolerated by the Edicts of Paussaw and Ausberg made them less apt to work disturbance in the Civil State and consequently the less obnoxious to the fears and jealousies of the Catholick party But on the other side such Provinces as lay toward France participated of the humour of that Reformation which was there begun modelled according unto Calvins Platform both in Doctrine and Discipline More stomacked then the other by all those who adhered to the Church of Rome or otherwise pretended to the peace
rest and with the rest released upon the Peace made between France and England at the delivering up of Bulloigne from whence he past over into England where he was first made Preacher at Barwick next at New-castle afterwards to some Church of London and finally in some other places of the South so that removing like our late Itinerants from one Church to another as he could meet with entertainment he kept himself within that Sanctuary till the death of King Edward and then betook himself to Geneva for his private Studies From hence he published his desperate Doctrine of Predestination which he makes not onely to be an impulsive to but the compulsive cause of mens sins and mens wickednesses From hence he published his trayterous and seditious Pamphlet entituled The first blast of the Trumpet in which he writes most bitterly amongst other things against the Regiment of Women aiming therein particularly at the two Mâ—ries Queens of Scotland Queen Mary of England and Mary Qâ—eâ—n Dowager of Hungary Governess of the Low-Countries for Charles the Fifth and finally from hence he published another of the like nature entituled An Admonition to Christians In which he makes the Emperour Charles to be worlâ— then Nero and Mary Queen of England nothing better then Iesabel According to which good beginning he calls her in his History but not published hence that Idolatrous and Mischievous Mary of the Spaniards bloud a cruel persecutrix of Gods people as the Acts of her unhappy Reign did sufficiently witness In which he comes as close to Calvin as could be desired 5. By this means he grew great with Calvin and the most leading men of the Consistorians who looked upon him as a proper Engine to advance their purposes But long he had not stayed amongst them when he received an invitation from some Friends of his of the same temper and affections as it after proved to take charge of the Church of Frankfort to which some learned men and others of the English Nation had retired themselves in the Reign of Queen Mary which call he first communicated unto Calvin by whose encouragement and perswasion he accepted of it and by his coming rather multiplyed then appeased the quarrels which he found amongst them But siding with the inconformable party and knowing so much of Calvins minde touching the Liturgie and Rites of the Church of England he would by no means be perswaded to officiate by it and for that cause was forced by Dr. Cox and others of the Learned men who remained there to forsake the place as hath been shewn at large in another place Outed at Frankfort he returns again to his Friends at Geneva and being furnished with instructions for his future carriage in the cause of his Ministry he prepares for his journey into Scotland passeth to Dieppe form thence to England and at last came a welcome man to his Native Country which he found miserably divided into sides and factions Mary their Infant Queen had been transported into France at six years of age the Regency taken from Iames Earl of Arran given to Mary of â—orraign the Queens Mother not well obeyed by many of the Nâ—bility and great men of the Country but openly opposed and reviled by those who seemed to be inclinable to the Reformation To these men Knox applyed himself with all caâ—e and cunning preaching from place to place and from house to house as opportunity was given him In which he gathered many Churches and set up many Congregations as if he had been the Apâ—stle-General of the Kirk of Scotland in all points holding a conformity unto Calvins Platform even to the singing of Davids Psalms in the English Meter the onely Musick he allowed of in Gods publick Service From Villages and private Houses he ventured into some of the great Towns and more eminent Cities and at the last appeared in Edenborough it self preaching in all and ministring the Communion in many places as he saw occasion This was sufficient to have raised a greater storm against him then he could have been able to indure but he must make it worse by a new provocation For at the perswasion of the Earl of Glencarne and some others of his principal followers he writes a long Letter to the Queen Regent in which he earnestly perswades her to give ear to the Word of God according as it was then preached by himself and others which Letter being communicated by the Queen to the Archbishop of Glasco and dispersed in several Copies by Knox himself gave such a hot Alarm to the Bishops and Clergy that he was cited to appear in Blackfryars Church in Edenborough on the 15 of May and though upon advertisement that he came accompanied with so great a train that it could not be safe for them to proceed against him he was not troubled at that time yet he perceived that having made the Queen his enemy he could not hope to remain longer in that Kingdom but first or last he must needs fall in their hands 6. But so it happened that when he was in the midst of these perplexities he received a Letter from the Schismatical English which repaired to Geneva when they had lost all hope of putting down the English Liturgie in the Church of Frankfort by which he was invited to return to his former charge this Letter he communicated to his principal Friends resolves to entertain the offer and prepares all things for his journey And to say truth it was but time that he should set forwards for the danger followed him so close that within few days after his departure he was condemned for not appearing and burnt in his Effigies at the Cross in Edenborough But first he walks his round visits all his Churches takes a more solemn farewel of his especial Friends and having left sufficient instructions with them for carrying on the Reformation in despite of Authority in the latter end of Iuly he sets sail for France His party was by this time grown strong and numerous resolved to follow such directions as he left behind him To which encouraged by the preaching of one Willock whom Knox had more especially recommended to them in the time of his absence they stole away the Images out of most of their Churches and were so venturous as to take down the great Image of St. Gyles in the chief Church of Edenborough which they drowned first in the Northlake and burnt it afterwards But this was but a Prologue to the following Comedy The Festival of St. Gyles draws near in which the Image of that Saint was to be carryed through the chief Streets of Edenborough in a solemn Procession attended by all the Priests Fryars and other Religious persons about that City another Image is borrowed from the Gray-Fryars to supply the place and for the honour of the day the Queen Regent her self was pleased to make one in the Pageant But no sooner was she retired to her private repose when a
confused Rabble of the Knoxian Brethren brake in upon them dismounted the Image brake off his head against the stones scattered all the Company pulled the Priests Surplices over their Ears beat down their Crosses and in a word so discomposed the Order of that mock-Solemnity that happy was the man who could first save himself in some House or other neither their Bag-pipes nor their Banners their Tabrets nor their Trumpets which made a Principal part in that days triumph though free enough from superstition in themselves could escape their fury but ran the same Fortune with the rest And though no diligence was wanting for finding out the principal actors in that Commotion yet as the story hath informed us the Brethren kept themselves together in such Companies singing of Psalms and openly encouraging one another that no body durst lay hands upon them 7. Finding by this experiment that they were strong enough to begin the work it was thought fit to call back Knox to their assistance to which end they dispatched their Letters to him in the March next following to be conveyed by one Iames Sym whom they had throughly instructed in all particulars touching their affairs In May the Letters are delivered the contents whereof he first communicateth to his own Congregation and afterwards to Calvin and the rest of the Brethren of that Consistory by whom it was unanimously declared unto him that he could not refuse that Vocation unless he would shew himself rebellious unto his God and unmerciful to his native Country He returned answer thereupon That he would visit them in Scotland with all convenient expedition and comes accordingly to Dieppe in October following where contrary to expectation he is advertised by Letters from some secret Friends that all affairs there seemed to be at a stand so that his coming to them at that time might be thought unnecessary Highly displeased with such a cooling Card as he did not look for he sends his Letters thence to the Nobility and principal Gentry in which he lets them know how much he was confounded for travailing so far in their Affairs by moving them to the most Godly and most Learned men by which he means Calvin and the Consistorians who at that time did live in Europe whose judgements and grave counsels he conceived expedient as well for the assurance of their own Consciences as of his own that it must needs redound both to his shame and theirs if nothing should succeed in such long consultations that he left his Flock and Family at Geneva to attend their service to whom he should be able to make but a weak account of his leaving them in that condiâ—ion if he were asked at his return concerning the impediment of his purposed Journey that he fore-saw with grief of spirit what grievous plagues what misery and bondage would most inevitably befal that miserable Realm and every Inhabitant thereof if the power of God with the liberty of his Gospel did not deliver them from the same that though his words might seem sharp and to be somewhat undiscreetly spoken yet wise men ought to understand that a true Friend can be no flatterer especially when the question is concerning the Salvation both of body and soul not onely of a few men but of States and Nations that if any perswade them for fear of dangers which might follow to faint in their intended purpose though otherwise he might seem to be wise and friendly yet was he to be accounted foolish and their mortal enemie in labouring to perswade them to prefer their worldly rest to Gods Praise and Glory and the friendship of the wicked before the salvation of their Brethren that they ought to hazard their own lives be it against Kings or Emperours for the deliverance of the people from spiritual bondage for which cause onely they received from their Brethren Tribute Honour and Homage at Gods Commandment Finally having laid before them many strong inducements to quicken them unto the work he ends with this most memorable Aphorism which is indeed the sum and substance of the whole Consistorian Doctrine in the present case that the Reformation of Religion and of publick enormities doth appertain to more then the Clergy or chief Rulers called Kings 8. On the receiving of these Letters they are resolved to proceed in their former purpose and would rather commit themselves and all theirs to the greatest dangers then suffer that Religion which they called Idolatry any longer to remain amongst them or the people to be so defrauded as they had been formerly of that which they esteemed to be the onely true preaching of Christ's Gospel And to this end they entred into a common Bond or Covenant in the name of themselves their Vassals Tenants and dependants dated upon the third of Decemb and subscribed by the Earls of Arguile Glencarne and Morton the Lords Lorne Ereskin of Dun c. the Tenour of which was as followeth viz. 9. We perceiving how Satan in his members the Antichrists of our time cruelly do rage seeking to overâ—hrow and destroy the Gospel of Christ and his Congregation ought according to our bounden duty to strive in our Masters cause even unto the death being certain of the victory in him The which one duty being well considerâ—d we do promise before the Majesty of God and his Congregation that we by his Grace shall with all diligence continualâ—y apply our whole power substance and our very lives to maintain set forward and establish the most blessed Word of God and his Congregation And shall labour according to our power to have faithful Ministers truely and purely to minister Christs Gospel and Sacraments to his people we shall maintain them nourish them and defend them the whole Congregation of Christ and every Member thereof according to our whole powers and waging of our lives against Sathan and all wicked power that doth intend tyranny or trouble against the aforesaid Congregation Vnto the which holy Word and Congregation we do joyn us and so do forsake and renounce the Congregation of Antichrist with all the Superstitious Abomination and Idolatry thereof And moreover shall declare our selves manifest enemies thereto by this our faithful promise before God testified to this Congregation by our subscription of these presents 10. Having subscribed unto this Bond their next care was to issue out these directions following for the promoting of the work which they were in hand with 1. That in all Parishes of that Realm the Common-prayer-book that is to say the Common-prayer book of the Church of England should be read upon the Sundays and Holydays in the Parish-Church together with the Lessons of the Old and New Testament by the same appointed 2. That preaching and interpretation of Scripture be had and used in private Houses without any great convention of the people at them till it should please God to put it into the heart of the Prince to allow thereof in publick Churches And
life at Edenborough on the 10 of Iune and none was nominated to succeed with like Authority The French Forces were imbarked on the 16 of Iuly except some few which were permitted to remain in the Castle of Dunbar and the Isle of Inchkeeth so few that they seemed rather to be left for keeping possession of the Kingdom in the name of the Queen then either to awe the Country or command obedience And that they might be free from the like fears for the times ensuing Francis the Second dyeth on the 5 of December leaving the Queen of Scots a desolate and friendless Widdow assisted onely by her Uncles of the House of Guise who though they were able to do much in France could do little out of it This put the Scots I mean the leading Scots of the Congregation into such a stomack that they resolved to steer their course by another compass and not to Sail onely by such Winds as should blow from England They knew full well that the breach between the two Queens was not reconcileable and that their own Queen would be always kept so low by the power of England that they might trample on her as they pleased now they had her under And though at first they had imbraced the Common-prayer-Book of the Church of England and afterwards confirmed the use of it by a solemn Subscription yet when they found themselves delivered from all fear of the French by the death of their King and the breach growing in that Kingdom upon that occasion they then began to tack about and to discover their affections to the Church of Geneva Knox had before devised a new book of Discipline contrived for the most part after Calvins platform and a new Form of Common-prayer was digested also more consonant to his infallible judgement then the English Liturgie But hitherto they had both lain dormant because they stood in need of such help from England as could not be presumed on with so great a confidence if they had openly declared any dissent or disaffection to the publick Forms which were established in that Church Now their estate is so much bettered by the death of the King the sad condition of their Queen and the assurances which they had from the Court of England from whence the Earls of Morton and Glencarne were returned with comfort that they resolve to perfect what they had begun to prosecute the desolation of Religious Houses and the spoyl of Churches to introduce their new Forms and suspend the old For compassing of which end they summoned a Convention of the Estates to be held in Ianuary 25. Now in this Book of Discipline they take upon them to innovate in most things formerly observed and practised in the Church of Christ and in some things which themselves had setled as the ground-work of the Reformation They take upon them to discharge the accustomed Fasts and abrogate all the ancient Festivals not sparing those which did relate particularly unto Christ our Saviour as his Nativity Passion Resurrection c. They condemned the use of the Cross in Baptism give way to the introduction of the New Order of Geneva for ministring the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and commend sitting for the most proper and convenient gesture to be used at it They require that all Churches not being Parochial should be forthwith demolished declare all Forms of Gods publick Worship which are not prescribed in his Word to be meer Idolatry and that none ought to administer the holy Sacraments but such as are qualified for preaching They appoint the Catechism of Geneva to be taught in their Schools Ordained three Universities to be made and continued in that Kingdom with Salaries proportioned to the Professors in all Arts and Sciences and time assigned for being graduated in the same They decree also in the same that Tythes should be no longer paid to the Romish Clergy but that they shall be taken up by Deacons and Treasurers by them to be imployed for maintainance of the poor the Ministers and the said Universities They complained very sensibly of the Tyranny of Lay-Patrons and Impropriators in exacting their Tythes in which they are said to be more cruel and unmerciful then the Popish Priests and therefore take upon them to determine as in point of Law what Commodities shall be Tythable what not and declare also that all Leases and Alienations which formerly had been made of Tythes should be utterly void 26. Touching the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments and the performance of other Divine Offices it is therein ordered That Common-prayers by which they mean the new Form of their own devising be said every day in the greater Towns except it be upon the days of publick Preaching but then to be forborn that the Preachers own Prayer before and after Sermon may not be despised or disrespected That Baptism be Administred onely upon the Sundays and other days of publick Preaching for the better beating down of that gross Opinion of the Papists so they pleas'd to call it concerning the necessity of it That the first Sundays of March Iune September and December should be from thenceforth set apart for the holy Communion the better to avoid the superstitious receiving of it at the Feast of Easter That all persons exercise themselves in singing Psalms to the end they may the better perform that service in the Congregation That no singing of Psalms no reading of Scriptures should be used at burials That no Funeral-Sermon shall be preached by which any difference may be made between the rich and the poor and that no dead body for the same cause shall be buried in Churches That Prophesyings and Interpreting of the holy Scriptures shall be used at certain times and places according to the custom of the Church of Corinth That in every Church there shall be one Bell to call the people together one Pulpit for the Word and a Bason for Baptism And that the Minister may the better attend these Duties it is ordered that he shall not haunt the Court nor be of the Council nor bear charge in any Civil Affairs except it be to assist the Parliament when the same is called 27. Concerning Ecclesiastical persons their Function Calling Maintainance and Authority it was ordered in the said Book of Discipline That Ministers shall from thenceforth be elected by the Congregation where they are to preach that having made tryal of their Gifts and being approved of by the Church where they are to Preach they shall be admitted to their charge but without any imposition of hands as in other Churches That some convenient pension be assigned to every Minister for the term of life except he deserve to be deprived with some provision to be made after his decease for his Wife and Children That the bounds of the former Diocesses being contracted or enlarged there shall be ten or twelve Superintendents appointed in the place of the former Bishops who are to have the
visitation of all the Ministers and Churches in their several bounds to fix their dwellings in the chief Towns or Cities within the same and to be chosen by the Burgesses of the said Towns or Cities together with the suffrages of the Ministers of their several Circuits and more particularly that the County or Province of Lothaine shall be abstracted from the Diocess of St. Andrews and have a Superintendent of its own who was to keep his Residence in the City of Edenborough which afterwards in the year 1633 was erected by King Charles into a Bishops See and Lothaine assigned him for his Diocess as was here devised That for the better maintainance of the Ministers and Superintendents as also for defraying of all other publick charges which concerned the Churches the lands belonging unto the Bishops as also to all Cathedral and Convenâ—â—al Churches and to the Houses of Monks and Fryars shall be set apart not otherwise to be imployed That in all Churches there be two Elders annually chosen to be associate with the Ministers in the Cognizance of all Ecclesiastical Causes and in the Censures of the Church That the said Elders shall have power not onely to admonish but correct their Ministers if occasion be but not to proceed to deprivation without the allowance and consent of the Superintendent and that the Deacons shall be joyned as Assistants in judgement with the Elders and Ministers That no man presume to eat or drink or otherwise to converse familiarly with excommunicate persons except those of his own Family onely That their Children should not be Baptised till they came unto the years of discretion And that all Murtherers and other Malefactors punishable by death according to the Laws of the Land though they be pardoned for the same by the supreme Magistrates shall notwithstanding be esteemed as excommunicate persons and not received into the Church without such satisfaction and submission as is required of other notorious offenders by the Rules of the Discipline It appears also by this Book that there was one standing Supreme Câ—uncil for ordering the Affairs of the Church and by which all publick grievances were to be redressed but of what persons it consisted and in what place it was held is not mentioned in it 28. This Book being tendered to the consideration of the Convention of Estates was by them rejected whether it were because they could not make such a manifest separation from the Polity of the Church of England or that it concerned them more particularly in their own proper interest in regard of the Church-lands Tythes which they had amongst them or perhaps for both Certain it is that some of them past it over by no better Title then that of some devout Imaginations which could not be reduced to practice This so offended Knox and others who had drawn it up if any other but Knox onely had a hand therein that they spared not bitterly to revile them for their coldness in it taxing them for their carnal liberty their love untâ—â— their worldly Commodities and their corrupt imaginations Some of them are affirmed to have been licentious some greedily to have griped the possessions of the Church and others to be so intent upon the getting of Christs Coat that they would not stay till he was crucified Of the Lord Erskin who refused to subscribe to the Book it is said particularly that he had a very evil woman to his Wife and that if the Schools the poor and the Ministry of the Church had their own his Kiâ—â—hâ—n would have lacked two parts of that which he then possessed Of all of them it was admired that for such a long continuance they could hear the threatnings of God against Thieves and Robbers and that knowing themselves to be guilty of those things which were most rebuked they should never have any remorse of Conscience nor intend the restoring of those things which they had so stolen For so it was if they may be believed that said it that none in all the Realm were more unmerciful to the poor Ministers then they that had invaded and possessed themselves of the greatest Rents of right belonging unto the Church and therein verified as well the old Proverb That the belly hath no ears at all as a new observation of their own devising That nothing would suffice a wretch Such were the discontents and evaporations of these zealous men when they were crossed in any thing which concerned them in their power or profit 30. But in another of their projects they had better Fortune They had sollicited the Convention of Estates for demolishing of all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry in which number they accounted all Cathedral Churches as well as Monasteries and other Religious Houses which they insisted on the rather because it was perceived and perhaps given out that the â—apists would again erect their old Idolatry and take upon them a command as before they did upon the Consciences of the people that so as well the great men of the Realm as such whom God of his Mercy so they tell us had subjected to them should be compelled to obey their lawless appetites In this some hopes were given them that they should be satisfied but nothing done in execution of the same till the May next following And possibly enough it might have been delayed to a longer time if the noise and expectation of the Queens return had not spurred it on For either fearing or not knowing what might happen to them if she should interpose her power to preserve those places whose demolishing they so much desired they introduce that Discipline by little and little which they could not settle all at once They begin first planting Churches and nominating Superintendents for their several Circuits they superinduce their own Ministers over the heads of the old incumbents establish their Presbyteries divide them into several Classes and hold their general Assemblies without any leave desired of the Queen or Council They proceed next to execute all sorts of Ecclesiastical Censures and arrogate Authority to their selves and their Elders to Excommunicate all such as they found unconformable to their new devices For the first tryal of their power they convent one Sanderson who had been accused to them for Adultery whom they condemned to be carted and publickly exposed unto the scorn of Boys and Children An uproar had been made in Edenborough about the chusing of a Robbinhood or a Whitson-Lord in which some few of the preciser sort opposed all the rest and for this crime they excommunicate the whole multitude wherein they shewed themselves to be very unskilful in the Canon-law in which they might have found that neither the Supreme Magistrate nor any great multitudes of people are to be subject to that Censure They proceed afterwards to the appointing of solemn Fasts and make choice of Sunday for the day which since that time hath been made use of for those Fasts more then any
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
a very sorry case when not her people onely must be poysoned with this dangerous Doctrine but that she must be baffled and affronted by each sawcy Presbyter who could pretend unto a Ministry in the Church Of which the dealing of thâ—s man gives us proof sufficient who did not onely revile her parson in the Pulpit and traduce her Government but openly pronounced her to be an Idolatress and therefore to be punished by her Subjects as the Law required Nothing more ordinary with him in his factious Sermons then to call her a Slave to Sathan and to tell the people that Gods vengeance hanged over the Realm by reason of her impiety which what else was it but to inflame the hearts of the people as well against the Queen as all them that served her For in his publick Prayers he commonly observed this Form viz. O Lord if it be thy good pleasure purge the Queens heart from the venom of Idolatry and deliver her from the bondage and thraldom of Sathan in the which she yet remains for lack of true Doctrine c. that in so doing she may avoid the eternal damnation which is ordained for all obstinate and impenitent to thee and that this Realm may also escape that plague and vengeance which inevitably follows Idolatry maintained in this Kingdom against thy manifest Word and the Light thereof set forth unto them Such in a word was the intemperancie of his spirit his hatred of her person or contempt of her Government that he opposed and crossed her openly in all her courses and for her sake fell foul upon all men of more moderate counsels 46. During the interval between the death of her Father and her own coming back from France there had been little shewn of a Court in Scotland as not much before But presently on her return a greater bravery in Apparel was taken up by the Lords and Ladies and such as waited near her person then in former times never more visibly then when they waited on her in a pompous manner as she went to the Parliament of this year This gives great scandal to the Preachers to none more then Knox. The Preachers boldly in their Pulpits that I say not malapertly declared against the superfluity of their Clothes and against the rest of their Vanities which they affirm'd should provoke Gods vengeance not onely against those foolish Women but the whole Realm and especially against those that maintained them in that odious abusing all things which might have better been bestowed A course is taken principally by their sollicitations that certain Articles were agreed on and proposed in Parliament for regulating all excess in Apparel as a great enormity the stinking pride of Women as Knox plainly calls it Who being sent for to the Court upon the like occasion could not but pass a scorn upon such of the Ladies whom he found more gorgeously attired then agreed with his liking by telling them what a pleasant life it was they lived if either it would always last or that they might go to Heaven in all that gear But sie on that knave death quoth he that will come whether we will or not and when he hath laid an arrest then foul worms will be busie with this â—â—esh be it never so fair and tender and the silly soul I fear â—iâ—l be so feeble that it can neither carry with it gold garnishing â—urbishing pearl nor precious stones So Zealous was be for a Purity both in Church and State as not to tolerate soft Raiment though in Princes Palaces The Queen had graced the Parliament with her presence three days together in one of which she entertains them with a Speech to the great satisfaction of all her good Subjects Knox calls it by the name of a painted Oration tells us in scorn that one might have heard amongst her flatterers that it was Vox Dianae the voice of a Goddess for it could not be Vox Dei and not of a woman â—thers as he pursues the Jeer crying out God save that sweet face was there ever Orator spake so properly and so sweetly c. And this as much displeased the Preachers as the pride of the Ladies 47. The Queen had gained the thirds of all Church-Rents by an Act of State for the more honourable support of her self and her Family upon condition of making some allowance out of it to defray the Ministers How Knox approved of this hath been shewn before We must now see how he had trained up Goodman if they were not both rather trained up by the same great Master to pursue the quarrel and how far he was seconded by the rest of the Brethren In a general Assembly held this year the business of the thirds was again resumed by some Commissioners of the Kirk To which no satâ—sfactory answer being given by the Queen and her Council it was said by those of the Assembly If the Queen will not we must for both second and third parts are rigorously taken from us and our tenants Knox added that if others would fellow his counsel the Guard and the Papists should complain as long as their Ministers Goodman takes fire upon this strain and starts a doubt about the Title which the Queen had unto the thirds or the Papists to the other two parts of the Church-Rents At which when he was put in minde by Ledington that he was a stranger and therefore was to be no medler he boldly answered that though he was a stranger in the Civil Policie of that Realm yet stranger he was none in the Church of God the care whereof did appertain to him no less in Scotland then if he were in the midst of England his own natâ—ve Country So little was there got by talking unto any of these powerful Zealots At whose exhorbitances when the Lord Iames Steward not long before made Earl of Murray seemed to be offended and otherwise had appeared more favourable to the Queen then agreed with their liking Knox who before adored him above all men living discharged himself by Letter in a churlish manner from any further intermedling in his affairs in which he commits him to his own wit so the Letter words it and to the conduct of those men who would better please him and in the end thereof upbraids him that his preferment never came by any complying with impiety nor by the maintaining of pestilent Papists 48. But to proceed to greater matters the Queen began her Summers Progress and left a Priest behinde in Halyrood-house to execute Divine-Offices in the Chappel to the rest of her Family Some of the Citizens of Edenborough were observed to repair thither at the time of Mass whereof the Preachers make complaint and stir the people in their Sermons to such a fury that they flock in great multitudes to the Palace violently force open the Chappel-doors seize upon such as they found there and commit them to Prison the Priest escaping with much difficulty by a
the cruel counsels of that Roman Beast tending to extermine and rase from the face of all Europe the true light of the blessed Word of Salvation For these causes and that God of his mercy would bless the Kings Highness and his Regiment and make him to have a happy and prosperous Government as also to put in his Highness heart and in the hearts of his Noble Estates of Parliament not onely to make and establish good politick Laws for the Weal and good Government of the Realm but also to set and establish such a Polity and Discipline in the Kirk as is craved in the Word of God and is contained and penned already to be presented to his Highness and Council that in the one and in the other God may have his due praise and the age to come an example of upright and Godly dealing Which Act of the Assembly pass'd on the 24 of April 1578. 34. The Discipline must be of most excellent use which could afford a present remedy to so many mischiefs and yet as excellent as it was it could obtain no Ratification at that time of the King or Parliament which therefore they resolve to put in practise by the strength of their party without insisting any further on the leave of either In which respect it will not be unnecessary to take a brief view of such particulars in which they differ from the Ancient Government of the Church of Christ or the Government of the Church of England then by Law established or finally from the former Book of Discipline which themselves had justified Now by this Book it is declared That none that bear Office in the Church of Christ ought to have Dominion over it or be called Lords That the Civil Magistrates are so far from having any power to Preach administer the Sacraments or execute the Censures of the Church that they ought not to prescribe any Rule how it should be done and that as Ministers are subject to the judgement and punishment of Magistrates in External things if they offend so ought the Magistrates submit themselves to the Discipline of the Church if they transgress in matter of Conscience and Religion That the Ministers of the Church ought to govern the same by mutual consent of Brethren and equality of power according to their several Functions That there are onely four ordinary Office bearers in the Church that is to say The Pastor Minister or Bishop the Doctor the Elder and the Deacon and that no more ought to be received in the Word of God and therefore that all ambitious Titles invented in the Kingdom of Antichrist and his usurped Hierarchy which are not of these four sorts-together with the Offices depending thereupon that is to say Archbishops Patriarchs Chancellours Deans Archdeacons c. ought in one word to be rejected That all which bear Office in the Church are to be elected by the Eldership and consent of the Congregation to whom the person presented is appointed and no otherwise That the Ordination of the person so elected is to be performed with Fasting Prayer and the Imposition of the hands of the Eldership Remember that Imposition of hands was totally rejected in the former Book That all Office-bearers in the Church should have their own particular flocks amongst whom they ought to exercise their charge and keep their residence 35. But more particularly it declares That it is the Office of the Pastor Bishop or Minister to preach the Word of God and to administer the Sacraments in that particular Congregation unto which he is called and it belongs unto them after lawful proceeding of the Eldership to pronounce the sentence of binding and loosing as also to solemnize Marriage between persons contracted being by the said Eldership thereunto required That it is the Office of the Doctor simply to open the mind of the Spirit of God in the Scriptures without making any such application as the Minister useth and that this Doctor being an Elder ought to assist the Pastor in the Government of the Church by reason that the Interpretation of the Word which is the onely Iudge in Ecclesiastical matters is to him committed That it is the Office of the Elder that is to say The Lay-Elder for so they mean both privately and publickly to watch with all diligence over the flock committed to them that no corruptions of Religion or manners grow amongst them as also to assist the Pastor or Minister in examining those that come to the Lords Table in visiting the sick in admonishing all men of their duties according to the Rule of the Word and in holding Assemblies with the Pastors and Doctors for establishing good order in the Church the Acts whereof he is to put in execution That it is the Office of the Deacon to collect and distribute the goods of the Church at the appointment of the Elders amongst which he is to have no voyce in the common Consistory contrary to the Rules of the former Book That all Ecclesiastical Assemblies have a power lawfully to convene together for that effect That it is in the power of the Eldership to appoint Visitors for their Churches within their bounds and that this power belongs not to any single person be he Bishop or otherwise That every three four or more Parishes may have an Eldership to themselves but so that the Elders be chosen out of each in a fit proportion That it is the Office of these Elderships to enquire of naughty and unruly Members and to bring them into the way again either by Admonition and threatning of Gods Iudgements or by Correction even to the very Censure of Excommunication as also to admonish censure and if the case require to depose their Pastor if he be found guilty of any of those grievous crimes among which Dancing goes for one which belongs to their cognizance The Errors committed by the Eldership to be corrected by Provincial Assemblies and those in the Provincials by the General The maintainance and assisting of which Discipline and the inflicting of Civil punishments upon such as do not obey the same without confounding one Iurisdiction with another is made to be the chief Office of Kings and Princes And that this Discipline might be executed without interruption it was required that the Name and Office of Bishops as it then was and had been formerly exercised in the Church of Scotland as also the Names and Offices of Commendators Abbots Priors Deans Deans and Chapters Chancellors Archdeacons c. should from thenceforth be utterly abolished and of no effect Which points and all the rest therein contained being granted to them all right of Patronages destroyed that popular Elections may proceed in all their Churches and finally the whole Patrimony of the Church in Lands Tythes or Houses permitted to the distribution of the Deacons in every Eldership they then conceive that such a right Reformation may be made as God requires 36. This Book of Discipline being presented to
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
to redound unto him by his Letter to the Lord Protector he sets upon the King himself and tells him plainly that there were many things amiss which required Reformation In his Letters unto the King and Council as he writes to Bullinger he had excited them to proceed in the good work which they had begun that is to say that they should so proceed as he had directed With Cranmer he is more particular and tells him in plain terms That in the Liturgie of this Church as then it stood there remained a whole mass of Popery which did not onely blemish but destroy Gods Publick Worship But fearing he might not edifie with the godly King assisted by so wise a Council and such Learned Prelates he hath his Emissaries in the Court and amongst the Clergie his Agents in the City and Countrey his Intelligencers one Monsieur Nicholas amongst the rest in the University All of them active and industrious to advance his purposes but none more mischievously practical then Iohn Alasco a Polonian born but a profest Calvian both in Doctrine and Forms of Worship who coming out of Poland with a mixed Congregation under pretence of being forced to fly their Countrey for professing the Reformed Religion were gratified with the Church of Augustine-Fryers in London for their publick use and therein suffered to enjoy their own way both in Worship and Government though in both exceeding different from the Rules of this Church In many Churches of this Realm the Altars were left standing as in former times and in the rest the holy Table was placed Altar-wiâ—e at the East-end of the Quire But by his party in the Court he procures an Order from the Lords of the Council for causing the said Table to be removed and to be placed in the middle of the Church or Chancel like a common Table It was the usage of this Church to give the holy Sacrament unto none but such as kneeled at the participation according to the pious order of the primitive times But Iohn Alasco coming out of Poland where the Arrians who deny the Divinity of Christ our Saviour had introduced the use of â—itting brought that irreverend custom into England with him And not content with giving scandal to this Church by the use thereof in his own Congregâ—tion he publisheth a Pamphlet in defence of that irreverend and sawey gesture because most proper for a Supper The Liturgie had appointed several Offices for many of the Festivals observed in the most regular times of Christianity Some of the Clergy in the Convocation must be set on work to question the conveniencie if not the lawfulness of those observations considering that all days are alike and therefore to be equally regarded in a Church Reformed And some there were which raised a scruple touching the words which were prescribed to be used in the delivery of the Bread and Wine to the Congregation 5. Not to proceed to more particulars let it suffice that these Emissaries did so ply their work by the continual solliciting of the King the Council and the Convocation that at the last the Book was brought to a review The product or result whereof was the second Liturgie confirmed in Parliament Anno 5 6 Edw. 6. By the tenour of which Act it may appear first that there was nothing contained in the said Book but what was agreeable to the Word of God and the Primitive Church very comfortable to all good people desiring to live in Christian conversation and most profitable to the Estate of this Realm And secondly That such doubts as had been raised in the use and exercise thereof proceeded rather from the curiosity of the Minister and Mistakers then of any other worthy cause And thereupon we may conclude that the first Liturgie was discontinued and the second superinduced upon it after this review to give satisfaction unto Calvins Cavils the curiosities of some and the mistakes of others of his Friends and Followers But yet this would nor serve the turn they must have all things modelled by the Form of Geneva or else no quiet to be had Which since they could not gain in England in the Reign of King Edward who did not long out-live the setling of the second Liturgie they are resolved more eagerly to pursue the project in a Foâ—reign Country during their exile and affliction in the Reign of Queen Mary Such of the English as retired to Embden Strasburg Basil or any other of the Free and Imperial Cities observed no Form of Worship in their Publick Meetings but this second Liturgie In contrary whereof such as approved not of that Liturgy when they were in England united themselves into a Church or Congregation in the City of Frankfort where they set up a mixt Form of their own devising but such as carried some resemblance to the Book of England Whittingham was the first who took upon himself the charge of this Congregation which after he resigned to Knox as the fitter man to carry on the work intended who having retired to Geneva on the death of King Edward and from thence published some tedious Pamphlets against the Regiment of Women and otherwise defamatory of the Emperour and the Queen of England was grown exceeding dear to Calvin and the rest of that Consistory By his indeavours and forwardness of too many of the Congregation that little which was used of the English Liturgie was quite laid aside and all things brought more near the Order which be found at Geneva though so much differing from that also as to intitle Knox for the Author of it 6. The noise of this great Innovation brings Gryndal and Chambers from the Church of Strasburg to set matters right By whom it was purposed that the substance of the English Book being still retained there might be a forbearance of some Ceremonies and Offices in it But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the Book as against any of the Circumstantials and Extrinsecals which belonged unto it So that no good effect following on this interposition the Agents of the Church of Strasburg return back to their brethren who by their Letters of the 13 of December expostulate in vain about it To put an end to these Disputes no better way could be devised by Knox and Whittingham then to require the countenance of Calvin which they thought would carry it To him they send an Abstract of the Book of England that by his positive and determinate Sentence which they presumed would be in favour of his own it might stand or fall And he returns this Answer to them That in the Book of England as by them described he had observed many tolerable Fooleries that though there was no manifest impiety yet it wanted much of that purity which was to be desired in it and that it contained many Relicts of the dregs of Popery and finally that though it was lawful to begin with such beggerly Rudiments yet it behooved
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
them without Rule or Order To give a check to whose forwardness the Queen sets out her Proclamation in the end of December but which she gave command That no Innovation should be made in the State of Religion and that all persons should conform themselves for the present to the practices of Her Majesties Chappel till it was otherwise appointed Another Proclamation was also issued by which all preaching was prohibited but by such onely as were licensed by her Authority which was not like to countenance any men of such turbulent spirits The news whereof much hastned the return of those Zealous Brethren who knew they might have better fishing in a troubled water then in a quiet and composed Calvin makes use also of the opportunity directs his Letters to the Queen and Mr. Secretary Cecil in hope that nothing should be done but by his advice The contrary whereof gave matter of cold comfort both to him and them when they were given to understand that the Liturgie had been revised and agreed upon That it was made more passable then before with the Roman Catholicks and that not any of their number was permitted to act any thing in it except Whitehead onely who was but half theirs neither and perhaps not that All they could do in that Conjuncture was to find fault with the Translation of the Bible which was then in use in hope that their Genevian Edition of it might be entertained and to except against the paucity of fit men to serve the Church and fill the vacant places of it on the like hopes that they themselves might be preferred to supply the same 13. And it is possible enough that either by the mediation of Calvin or by the intercession of Peter Martyr who wrote unto the Queen at the same time also the memory of their former Errors might have been obliterated if Knox had not pulled more back with one hand then Calvin Martyr and the rest could advance with both For in a Letter of his to Sir William Cecil dated April the 24 1559 he first upbraids him with consenting to the suppressing of Christs true Evangel to the erecting of Idolatry and to the shedding of the blood of Gods most dear children during the Reign of Mischievous Mary that professed Enemy of God as he plainly calls her Then he proceeds to justifie his treasonable and seditious book against the Regiment of Women Of the truth whereof he positively affirmeth that he no more doubteth then that he doubted that was the voyce of God which pronounced this sentence upon that Sex That in dolour they should bear their children Next he declares in reference to the Person of Queen Elizabeth That he could willingly acknowledge her to be raised by God for the manifestation of his glory although not Nature onely but Gods own Ordinance did oppugn such Regiment And thereupon he doth infer That if Queen Elizabeth would confess that the extraordinary Dispensations of Gods great mercy did make that lawful in her which both Nature and Gods Laws did deny in all women besides none in England should be more ready to maintain her lawful Authority then himself But on the other side he pronounceth this Sentence on her That if she built her Title upon Custom Laws and Ordinances of men such foolish presumption would grievously offend Gods Supreme Majestie and that her ingratitude in that kind should not long lack punishment To the same purpose he writes also to the Queen Herself reproaching her withal That for fear of her life she had declined from God bowed to Idolatry and gone to Mass during the persecution of Gods Saints in the time of her Sister In both his Letters he complains of some ill offices which had been done him by means whereof he was denyed the liberty of Preaching in England And in both Letters he endeavoured to excuse his flock of late assembled in the most godly Reformed Church and City of Geneva from being guilty of any offence by his publishing of the book the blame whereof he wholly takes upon himself But this was not the way to deal with Queens and their Privy Counsellors and did effect so little in relation to himself and his flock that he caused a more watchfull eye to be kept upon them then possibly might have been otherwise had he scribled less 14. Yet such was the necessity which the Church was under that it was hardly possible to supply all the vacant places in it but by admitting some of the Genevian Zealots to the Publick Ministery The Realm had been extreamly visited in the year foregoing with a dangerous and Contagious Sickness which took away almost half the Bishops and occasioned such Mortality amongst the rest of the Clergy that a great part of the Parochial Churches were without Incumbents The rest of the Bishops twelve Deans as many Archdeacons Fifteen Masters of Colledges and Halls Fifty Prebendaries of Cathedral Churches and about Eighty Beneficed-men were deprived at once for refusing to subâ—â—â—â— to the Queens Supremacy For the filling of which vacant places though as much care was taken as could be imagined to stock the Church with moderate and conformable men yet many â—ast amongst the rest who either had not hitherto discovered their dis-affections or were connived at in regard of their parts and learning Private opinions not regarded nothing was more considered in them then their zeal against Popery and their abilities in Divine and Humane studies to make good that zeal On which account we find the Queens-Professor in Oxford to pass amongst the Non-Conformists though somewhat more moderate then the rest and Cartwright the Lady Margarets in Cambridge to prove an unextinguished fire-brand to the Church of England Wittingham the chief Ring-leader of the Frankfort-Schismaticks preferred unto the Deanry of Durham from thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbyterie and sedition in the Kirk of Scotland Sampson advanced unto the Deanry of Christ-Church and not long after turn'd out again for an incorrigible Non-Conformist Hardiman one of the first twelve Prebends of Westminster deprived soon after for throwing down the Altar and defacing the Vestments of the Church And if so many of them were advanced to places of note and eminence there is no question to be made but that some numbers of them were admitted unto Countrey-Cures by means whereof they had as great an opportunity as they could desire not onely to dispute their Genevian Doctrines but to prepare the people committed to them for receiving of such Innovations both in Worship and Government as were resolved in time convenient to be put upon them 15. For a preparative whereunto they brought along with them the Genevian Bible with their Notes upon it together with Davids Psalms in English metre that by the one they might effect an Innovation in the points of Doctrine and by the other bring this Church more neer to the Rules of Geneva in some chief acts of Publick Worship For 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
chosen the Professor for the Lady Margaret that he might come as near to him as he could both in place and power But not content with that which he had done in the Colledge he puts up his Disciples into all the Pulpits in the University where he and they inveigh most bitterly against the Government of the Church and the Governours of it the Ordination of Priests and Deacons the Liturgie established and the Rites thereof And though Whitgift Preached them down as occasion served with great applause unto himself but greater satisfaction to all moderate and sober men yet Cartwright and his Followers were now grown unto such a head that they became more violent by the opposition 32. It hapneth commonly as a Learned man hath well observed That those fervent Reprehenders of things established by publick Authority are always confident and bold spirited men and such as will not easily be taken off from their prosecutions by any fair and gentle usage Which Whitgift found at last alter all his patience insomuch that having many times in vain endeavoured by gentle Admonitions and fair perswasions to gain the man unto himself or so to moderate and restrain him as that he should no longer trouble both that Colledge and the whole University with his dangerous Doctrines he was necessitated in the end to expel him out of the House and after to deprive him also of the Margaret-Lecture Which last he acted as Vice-chancellor upon this account that he had delivered divers errors in his Lectures which he had neither recanted as he was required nor so expounded as to free himself from that imputation and that withal he had exercised the Function of a Minister without being able to produce any Letters of Orders Hereupon Cartwright and his Followers began to mouth it complaining that the man had been mightily wronged in being deprived of his preferments in the University without being called unto his answer that Cartwright had made many offers of Disputation for tryal of the points in Question but could never be heard and therefore that Whitgift supplyed this by excess of power which he was not able to make good by defect of Arguments To stop which clamour Whitgift not onely offered him the opportunity of a Conference with him but offered it in the presence of sufficient witnesses and put the man so hard unto it that he not onely declined the Conference at the present but confest that Whitgift had made him the like offers formerly and that he had refused the same as he now did also All which appears by a Certificate subscribed by eight sufficient Witnesses and a publick Notary dated the 18 of March 1570. But this disgrace was followed by a greater much about that time for finding himself in a necessity to depart from Cambridge he would have taken the degree of Doctor along with him for his greater credit but was denyed by the major part of the Regent Masters and others which had votes therein which so displeased both him and all his adherents that from this time the Degrees of Doctors Batchellors and Masters were esteemed unlawful and those that took them reckoned for the Limbs of Antichrist as appears by the Genevian Notes on the Revelâ—tion But for this and all the other wrongs which he had suffered as was said in the University he will revenge himself upon the Church in convenient time and in convenient time we shall hear more of it 36. In the mean season we must make a step to Banstâ—ed in Surrey where we shall finde a knot of more Zealous Calvinists then in other places so Zealous and conceited of their own dear Sanctity that they separated themselves from the rest of their brethren under the name of the Anoynted The Bond of Peace was broken by the rest before and these men meant not to retain the unity of spirit with them as they had done formerly Their Leader was one Wright their Opinions these viz. That no man is to be accused of sin but he that did reject the truths by them professed That the whole New Testament contained nothing but predictions of things to come and therefore that Christ whom they grant to have appeared in the flesh before shall come before the Day of Iudgement and actually perform those things which are there related That he whose sins are once pardoned cannot sin again And that no credit was to be afforded to men of Learning but all things to be taught by the Spirit onely Of these men Sanders tells us in his Book De visibile Monarchia Fol. 707 and placeth them in this present year 1570. But what became of them I finde not there or in any others And therefore I conceive that either they were soon worn out for want of Company or lost themselves amongst the Anabaptists Familists or some other And this I look upon as one of the first Factions amongst the Puritans themselves after they had begun their separation from the Church of England Which separation so begun as before is said was closed again about this time by the hands of those who first had laboured in the breach 37. For so it was that either out of love to their own profit or the publick peace some of them had consulted Beza touching this particular that is to say Whether he thought it more expedient for the good of the Church That the Ministers should chuse rather to forsake their Flocks then to conform unto such Orders as were then prescribed Whereunto he returns this Answer That many things both may and ought to be obeyed which are not warrantably commanded That though the Garments in dispute were not imposed upon the Church by any warrant from the Word of God yet having nothing of impiety in them he conceived that it were fitter for the Ministers to conform themselves then either voluntarily to forsake their Churches or be deprived for their refusal That in like manner the people were to be advised to frequent the Churches and hear their Pastors so apparelled as the Church required rather then utterly to forsake that spiritual food by which their souls were to be nourished to eternal life But so that first the Ministers do discharge their Consciences by making a modest protestation against those Vestments as well before the Queens Majesty as their several Bishops and so apply themselves to suffer what they could not remedy This might have stopt the breach at the first beginning if either the English Puritans had not been too hot upon it to be cooled so suddenly or that he had not made his own good counsel ineffectual in the close of all In which he tells them in plain terms That if they could no otherwise preserve their standing in the Church then either by subscribing to the lawfulness of the Orders Rites and Ceremonies which were then required or by giving any countenance to them by a faulty silence they should then finally give way to that open violence which they were
not able to resist that is to say for so I understand his meaning that they should rather leave their Churches then submit themselves to such conditions But this direction being given toward the end of October Anno 1567 seems to be qualified in his Epistle to the Brethren of the Forreign Churches which were then in England bearing date Iune the fifth in the year next following in which he thus resolves the case proposed unto him That for avoiding all destructive ruptures in the body of Christ by dividing the members thereof from one another it was not lawful for any man of what Rank soever to separate himself upon any occasion from the Church of Christ in which the Doctrine is preserved whereby the people are instructed in the ways of God and the right use of the Sacraments ordained by Christ is maintained inviolable 38. This might I say have stopped the breach in the first beginning had not the English Puritans been resolved to try some conclusions before they hearkned to the Premises But finding that their party was not strong enough to bear them out or rich enough to maintain them on their private purses they thought it not amiss to follow the directions of their great Dictator And hereunto the breaking out of those in Surrey gave some further colour by which they say that nothing but confusion must needs fall upon them and that so many Factions Subdivisions and Schismatical Ruptures as would inevitably ensue on the first separation must in fine crumble them to nothing And on these grounds it was determined to unite themselves to the main body of the Church to reap the profit of the same and for their safer standing in it to take as well their Orders as their Institution from the hands of the Bishops But so that they would neither wear the Surplice oftner then meer necessity compelled them or read more of the Common-prayers then what they thought might save them harmless if they should be questioned and in the mean time by degrees to bring in that Discipline which could not be advanced at once in all parts of the Kingdom Which half Conformity they were brought to on the former grounds and partly by an Act of Parliament which came out this year 13 Eliz. cap. 12. for the reforming of disorders amongst the Ministers of the Church And they were brought unto no more then a half-Conformity by reason of some clashing which appeared unto them between the Canons of the Convocation and that Act of Parliament as also in regard of some interposings which are now made in their behalf by one of a greater Title though of no more power then Calvin Martyr Beza or the rest of the Advocates 39. The danger threatned to the Queen by the late sentence of Excommunication which was past against her occasioned her to call the Lords and Commons to assemble in Parliament the Bishops and Clergy to convene in their Convocation These last accordingly met together in the Church of St. Paul on the 5 of April 1571. At which time Dr. Whitgift Master of Trinity-Colledge in Gambridge preached the Latine Sermon In which he insisted most especially upon the Institution and Authority of Synodical Meetings on the necessary use of Ecclesiastical Vestments and other Ornaments of the Church the opposition made against all Orders formerly Established as well by Puritans as Papists touching in fine on many other particularities in rectifying whereof the care and diligence of the Synod was by him required And as it proved his counsel was not given in vain For the first thing which followed the Conforming of the Prolocutor was a command given by the Archbishop That all such of the lower House of Convocation who not had formerly subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon Anno 1562 should subscribe them now or on their absolute refusal or procrastinations be expelled the House Which wrought so well that the said Book of Articles being publickly read was universally approved and personally subscribed by every Member of both Houses as appears clearly by the Ratification at the end of those Articles In prosecution of which necessary and prudent course it was further ordered That the Book of Articles so approved should be put into Print by the appointment of the Right Reverend Dr. John Jewel then Bishop of Sarum and that every Bishop should take a competent number of them to be dispersed in their Visitations or Diocesan Synods and to be read four times in every year in all the Parishes of their several and respective Diocesses Which questionless might have settled a more perfect Conformity in all parts of the Kingdom somâ— Câ—nons of the Convocation running much that way if the Parliament had spoke as clearly in it as the Convocation or if some sinister practice had not been excogitated to pervert those Articles in making them to come out imperfect and consequently deprived of life and vigour which otherwise they would have carried 40. The Earl of Leicester at that time was of great Authority and had apparently made himself the head of the Puritan faction They also had the Earl of Huntingdon the Lord North and others in the House of Peers Sir Francis Knollis Walsingham and many more in the House of Commons To which if Zanchy be to be believed as perhaps he may be some of the Bishops may be added who were not willing to tye the Puritans too close to that Subscription by the Act of Parliament which was required of them by the Acts and Canons of the Convocation It had been ordered by the Bishops in their Convocation That all the Clergy then assembled should subscribe the Articles And it was ordered by the unanimous consent of the Bishops and Clergie That none should be admitted from thenceforth unto Holy-Orders till he had first subscribed the same and solemnly obliged himself to defend the things therein contained as consonant in all points to the Word of God Can. 1571. Cap. de Episcop But by the first Branch of the Act of Parliament Subscription seemed to be no otherwise required then to such Articles alone as contained the Confession of the trâ—e Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the holy Sacraments Whereby all Articles relating to the Book of Homilieâ— the Form of Consecrating Archbishops and Bishops the Churches power for the imposing of new Rites and Ceremonies and retaining those already made seemed to be purposely omitted as not within the compass of the said Subscription And although no such Restriction do occur in the following Branches by which Subscription is required indefinitely unto all the Articles yet did the first Branch seem to have such influence upon all the rest that it was made to serve the turn of the Puritan Faction whensoever they were called upon to subscribe to the Episcopal Government the Publick Liturgie of the Church or the Queens Supremacy But nothing did more visibly discover the designs of the Faction and the great power their Patrons had in
prosecution of which work he commends to Iewel that by the interposing of his Authority they might be brought to yield to the points proposed and thereby be continued in the exercise of their Vocation Which last clause could not chuse but be exceeding acceptable to that Reverend Prelate who had shewed himself so earnest for Conformity in a Sermon preached by him at the Cross that he incurred some censure for it amongst the brethren Which put him to this Protestation before his death That his last Sermon at S. Pauls Cross and Conference about the Ceremonies and state of the Church was not to please any man living nor to grieve his brethren of a contrary opinion but onely to this end that neither party might prejudice the other But he was able to act nothing in pursuance of Zanchy's motion by reason of his death within few days after if not some days before he received that Letter For on the 22 of the same Moneth it pleased God to take him to himself and thereby to deprive the Church of the greatest Ornament which she could boast of in that age The end of the sixth Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB VII Containing A Relation of their secret and open Practices the Schism and Faction by them raised for advancing the Genevian Discipline in the Church of England from the year 1572 to the year 1584. 1. THe English Puritans had hitherto maintained their Quarrel by the Authority of Calvin the sawciness of Knox the bold activities of Beza and the more moderate interposings of some Forreign Divines whose name was great in all the Churches of the Reformation But now they are resolved to try it out by their proper valour to fling away their Bulrushes and lay by their Crutches or at the best to make no other use of Out-landish Forces then as Auxiliaries and Reserves if the worst should happen And hitherto they had appeared onely against Caps and Surplices or questioned some Rites and Ceremonies in the publick Liturgie which might be thought to have been borrowed from the Church of Rome But now they are resolved to venture on the Episcopal Government and to endeavour the erecting of the Presbyterian as time and opportunity should make way unto it Amongst which undertakers none more eminent because none more violent then Cartwright formerly remembred Snape of Northampton a great stickler for the holy Discipline and Feild a Lecturer in London as ridiculously zealous to advance Presbytery as the most forward in the pack But Cartwright was the man upon whose Parts and Learning they did most depend and one who both by private Letters and some Printed Pamphlets had gained more credit to the side then all the rest And yet it was amongst his own onely that he gained such credit For when his Papers had been shewn unto Bishop Iewel and that the Judgement of that Reverend and Learned Prelate was demanded of them he is said to have returned this answer That the Arguments therein contained were too slight to build up and too weak to pull down And so it proved in the event when Cartwrights whole discourses against the Forms of Government and Publick Worship here by Law established came to be seriously debated 2. For having been long great with Childe of some new designe the Babe comes forth in the beginning of the Parliament which was held in the year 1572 intituled by the name of an Admonition in which complaint was made of their many grievances together with a Declaration of the onely way to redress the same which they conceived to be no other then the setling of the Genevian Platform in all parts of the Kingdom But the Parliament was so little pleased with the Title and so much displeased with the matter of the Admonition that the Authors and Preferrers of it were imprisoned by them But this imprisonment could lay no Fetters on their spirits which grew the more exasperated because so restrained For towards the end of the Parliament out comes the second Admonition far more importunate then the first and it comes out with such a flash of Lightning and such claps of Thunder as if Heaven and Earth were presently to have met together In the first he had amassed together all those several Arguments which either his reading could afford or his wit suggest or any of that party could excogitate for him against the Government of Bishops the whole body of the English Liturgie and almost all the particular Offices in the same contained And in the second he not onely justified whatsoever had been found in the first but challenged the Parliament for not giving it a more gratious welcome For there he tells them in plain terms That the State did not shew it self upright alledge the Parliament what it will That all honest men should finde lack of equity and all good Consciences condemn that Court That it should be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Iudgement then for such a Parliament That there is no other thing to be looked for then some speedy vengeance to light upon the whole Land let the Politick Mâ—chiavils of England provide as well as they can though God do his worst And finally that if they of that Assembly would not follow the advice of the first Admonition they would infallibly be thâ—ir own carvers in it the Church being bound to keep Gods Ordeâ— and nothing to be called Gods Order but their present Platform 3. About this time Clark Travers Gardiner Barber Cheston and lastly Crook and Egerton joyned themselves to the Brotherhood Amongst whom the handling of such points as concerned the Discipline became very frequent many motions being made and some conclusions setled in pursuance of it but more particularly it was resolved upon the question That for as much as divers Books had been written and sundry Petitions exhibited to her Majesty the Parliament and their Lordships to little purpose every man should therefore labour by all means possible to bring the Reformation into the Church It was also then and there resolved That for the better bringing in of the said holy Discipline they should not onely as well publickly as privately teach it but by little and little as well as possibly they might draw the same into practice According to which Resolution a Presbytery was erected on the 20 of November at a small Village in Surrey called Wandsworth where Field had the Incumbencie or cure of Souls a place conveniently scituate for the London-Brethren as standing near the bank of the Thames but four miles from the City and more retired and out of sight then any of their own Churches about the Town This first Establishment they indorsed by the name of the Orders of Wandsworth In which the Elders names are agreed on the manner of the Election declared the approvers of them mentioned their Offices agreed on also and described And though the Queen might have no notice of this first
Establishment yet she knew very well both by their Preachings and Writings that they had defamed the Church of England that many of them refused to be present at that Form of Worship which had the countenance of the Laws and had set up a new Form of their own devising Which moved the Queen to look upon them as men of an unquiet and seditious spirit greedy of change intent on the destruction of all things which they found established and ready once again to break out into open Schism For the preventing whereof she gave command That the severity of the Laws for keeping up the Vniformity of Gods Publick Worship should be forthwith put in execution And that all such scandalous Books and Pamphlets the first and second Admonition amongst the rest should either be immediately delivered to some Bishop in their several Diocesses or to some one or other of the Lords of the Council upon pain of imprisonment 4. This Proclamation much amazed the Disciplinarians who were not onely more sollicitous in searching into the true Cause and Originial of it then ready to execute their vengeance upon all such Councellors as they suspected for the Authors Sir Christopher Hatton was at that time in especial favour Vice-chamberlain Captain of the Guard and aftewards Lord-Chancellor also in the whole course of his preferments of a known aversness to the Earl of Leicester and consequently no friend to the Puritan Faction This obstacle must be removed one way or other according to that Principle of the ancient Donatists for murthering any man of what Rank soever which opposed their Practices This Office Burchet undertakes and undertakes the Office upon this Opinion that it was lawful to assassinate any man who opposed the Gospel But being blind with too much light he mistook the man and meeting in the Street with Hawkins one of the greatest Sea-Captains of the times he lived in he stabbed him desperately with a Ponyard conceiving that it had been Hatton their professed Enemy For which committed to the Tower he was there examined found to hold many dangerous and erronious Tenents and thereupon sent Prisoner to the Lollards-Tower From thence being called into the Consistory of St. Pauls before the Bishop of London and divers others and by them examined he still persisted in his errors till the sentence of death was ready on the 4 of November to be pronounced against him as an Heretick Through the perswasions of some men who took great pains with him he made a shew as if he had renounced and abjured those Opinions for erronious and damnable which formerly he had imbraced with so strong a passion From thence returned unto the Tower by the Lords of the Council he took an opportunity when one of his Keepers was withdrawn to murther the other intending the like also to his Fellow if he had not happily escaped it For which Fact he was arraigned and condemned at Westminster on the morrow after and the next day he was hanged up in the very place where he wounded Hawkins his Right hand being first cut off and nailed to the Gibbet a piece of Justice not more safe then seasonable the horridness of the Fact and the complexion of the times being well considered 5. The Regular Clergy slept not in so great a tempest as was then hanging over their heads but spent themselves in censuring and confuting Cartwrights Pamphlets which gave the first Animation to those bold attempts What censure Bishop Iewel past upon Cartwrights Papers hath been shewn before and he will give you his opinion of the Author also of whom it is reported that he gave this Character viz. Stultitia nata est in corde pueri sed virga Disciplinae fugabit eam That is to say That folly had been bred in the heart of the young man and nothing but a Rod of correction would remove it from him But Iewel had onely seen some scattered Papers intended for materials in the following Pamphlet which Whitaker both saw and censured when it was compleat For writing of it unto Whitgift he reports him thus Quem Cartwrightus nuper emisit libellum c. I have read over saith he a great part of the Book which Cartwright hath lately set forth Let me never live if I ever saw any thing more loose and almost more childish As for words indeed he hath store of them trim and fresh enough but as for matter none at all Besides which he not onely holds some peevish opinions derogatory to the Queens Authority in causes Ecclesiastical but had revolted also in that point to the Popish party from whom he would be thought to fly with such deadly hatred He adds in fine That he complied not with the Papists in that point alone but borrowed from them most of his other weapons wherewith he did assault the Church And in a word as Jerome did affirm of Ambrose that he was in words but a Triflâ—r and for his matter but a Dreamer and altogether unworthy to be refuted by a man of Learning But these were onely some preparatory drops to the following Tempest which fell upon him from the pen of the Learned Whitgift who punctually dissected the whole Admonition and solidly discoursed upon the Errors and Infirmities of it Which Book of his intituled An Answer to the Admonition followed so close upon the heels of the other that it was published in the same year with it 1572. To which Answer Cartwright sets out a Reply in the year next following and Whitgift presently rejoyns in his Defence of the Answer An. 1574. against which Cartwright never stirred but left him Master of the field possest of all the signs of an absolute Victory And not long after on the apprehension of his foil therein he withdraws to Guernsey first and to Antwerp afterwards erecting the Presbytery in those Forreign Nations which he could not compass in his own 7. For though the Brotherhood had attempted to advance their Discipline and set up their Presbyterie in the Church of Wandsworth yet partly by the terror of the Proclamation and partly by the seasonable execution of Burchet they were restrained from practising any further at the present on the Church of England But what they durst not do directly and in open sight they found a way to act obliquely and under the disguise of setting up another Church of strangers in the midst of London Many of the Low Countrey men both Merchants Gentlemen and others had fled their Countrey at the coming in of the Duke of Alva settled their dwellings in the Ports and Sea-Towns of England which lay nearest to them and in good numbers took up their abode in London Nor did they onely bring Families with them but their Factories also Their several Trades and Manufactures as the making of all sorts of Stuffs rich Tapistries and other Hangings of less worth and by their diligence therein not onely kept many poor English Families in continual work but taught the English
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
his last Book against Learned Whitgift That the want of the Elderships is the cause of all evil and that it is not to be hoped that any Commonwealth can flourish without it but also that it is no small part of the Gospel yea the substance of it 9. And if it proved to be a part of our Saviours Gospel what could the brethren do less then pretend some Miracles for Confirmation of the same and to what Miracles could they pretend with more shew of Sanctity and manifestation of the Spirit then to the casting out of Devils Cambden inform us in this year that the credulity of some London-Ministers had been abused by a young Wench who was pretended at that time to be possessed of the Devil But I rather think that the London-Ministers were confederate with this Wench then abused by her considering the subsequent practice in that kinde of casting out Devils by the Puritan Preachers to gain the greater credit to their Cause for in this very year they practised the casting of a Devil out of one Mildred the base Daughter of Alice Norrington of Westwell in Kent Which for all the godly pretences made by Roger Newman and Iohn Brainford two of the Ministers of that County who were parties to it was at the last confessed to be but a false imposture Dr. Harsnet who afterward dyed Archbishop of York informs us also in his Book against Darrel that there were at this time two Wenches in London that is to say Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder who publickly were given out to be so possessed and it is possible that one of them may be she whom Cambden speaks of Under which head may be also ranged the dispossessing of one Margaret Gooper at Ditchet in the County of Sommerset about ten years after 1584. But all inferiour to the Pranks which were played by Darrel with whom none of the Puritan Exorcists is to hold comparison of which we are to speak hereafter in its proper place The Papists have been frequently and justly blamed for their impostures in this thing and no terms are thought vile enough to express their falshoods But they were onely pious frauds in the Presbyterians because conducing to such godly and religious ends in the advancing of the Scepter and Throne of Christ by the holy Discipline And it is strange that none of all their Zealots have endeavoured to defend them in it as well as Cartwright laboureth to excuse their unlawful meetings from the name of Conventicles that being as he tells us too light a word to express the Gravity and Piety of those Assemblies in which Sacraments are Administred and the Gospel Preached If so all other Sectaries whatsoever may excuse themselves from the holding of Conventicles or being obnoxious to any penal Laws and Sanctions upon that account because they hold their Factious and Schismatical Meetings for the self-same ends And then the Queen must be condemned for executing some severity on a Knot of Anâ—baptists whom she found holding the like lawless Meetings in the year next following 10. For so it was that many of those Forreigners which resorted hither from the Belgick Provinces and were incorporated into a distinct Society or Congregation differing both in Government and Forms of Worship from the Church of England did by degrees withdraw themselves from her Communion and held their Conventicles a part from the rest of that body Of these some openly declared themselves for the Sect of the Anabaptists others would needs be Members of the Family of Henry Nicholas who had been once a Member of the Dutch Church under Iohn â—lasco called commonly the Family of Love Of which we have spoken in the History of the Belgick troubles Lib. 3. Numb 46. And not content to entertain those new Opinions and devices amongst themselves they must draw in the English also to participate with them who having deviated from the paths of the Church were like enough to fall into any other and to pursue those crooked ways in which the cunning Hereticks of those times did and had gone before them But such a diligent eye was had upon all their practices that they were crossed in the beginning For upon Easter-day about nine in the Morning was disclosed a Conventicle of these Anabaptists Dutch-men at an House without the Bars of Aldgate whereof twenty seven were taken and sent to prison and four of them bearing Fagots at St. Pauls Cross recanted in form following viz. Whereas I N N being seduced by the spirit of Error and by false Teachers his Ministers have fallen into many damnable and detestable Heresies viz. 1. That Christ took not flesh of the substance of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2. That Infants horn of faithful Parents ought to be Rebaptized 3. That no Christian man ought to be a Magistrate or bear the Sword or Office of Authority 4. And that it is not lawful for a Christian man to take an Oath Now by the Grace of God and through Conference with good and Learned Ministers of Christ his Church I do understand and acknowledge the same to be most damnable and detestable Heresies and do ask God here before his Church mercy for my said former Errors and do forsake them recant and renounce them and abjure them from the very bottom of my heart And further I confess that the whole Doctrine and Religion established in this Realm of England as also that which is received and practised in the Dutch Church here in this City is sound true and acording to the Word of God whereunto in all things I submit my self and will most gladly be a Member of the said Dutch Church from henceforth utterly abandoning and forsaking all and every Anabaptistical Error 11. This gave a stop to many of them at their first setting out But some there were who neither would be terrified with the fear of punishment or edified by the Retractation which those four had made continued in their former courses with great pertinacity insomuch that on the 21 of May being Whitson-Eve no fewer then eleven of that Sect all Dutch that is to say one man and ten Women were condemned in the Consistory at St. Pauls to be burned in Smithfield And though great pains was taken to reclaim them from those wicked Errors yet such was their obstinacie and perversness that one Woman onely was converted The râ—st had so much mercy shewed them as to be banished the Realm without further punishment which gave the greater resolution to the rest of their company to be more practical then before in promoting their Heresies Which put the State upon a just necessity of proceeding more severely against some of them then by Bonds and banishments Two of the same Nation and Opinions being burnt in Smithfield on the second of Iuly where they dyed with very great horror exprest by many roarings and cryings but without any signe or shew of true Repentance Before the executing of which sentence Iohn Fox the
English Martyrologist addrest his Letters to the Queen in which he supplicated for the lives of those wretched men and offered many pious and prudential reasons for the reversing of that sentence or at the least for staying it from execution By which he so prevailed upon her that she consented to a gratious sparing of their lives iâ— on a months Reprieve and Conference in the mean time with Learned men they could be gained unto a retractation of their damnable Heresies But that expedient being tryed and found ineffectual the forfeiture of their lives was taken and the sentence executed Nor had the Dutch Church of Norwich any better Fortune or could pretend to be more free from harbouring some Fanatical spirits then the Dutch Congregation in the Augustine Fryars From some of which it may be probably supposed that Matthew Hamant a poor Plow-wright of Featherset within three Miles of Norwich took his first impressions which afterwards appeared in more horrid blasphemies then any English ever had been acquainted with in the times preceding For being suspected to hold many dangerous and unsound Opinions he was convented before the Bishop of that City at what time it was charged upon him that he had publickly maintained these Heresies following that is to say That the new Testament or Gospel was but meer foolishness and a story of men or rather a meer Fable That he was restored to Grace of the free Mercy of God without the means of Christ his Blood and Passion That Christ is not God or the Saviour of the World but a sinful man a meer man and an abominable Idol and that all they that worship him are abominable Idolaters That Christ did not rise again from death to life by the power of his Godhead neither that he ascended into Heaven That the Holy Ghost is not God and that there is no such thing as an Holy Ghost That Baptism is not necessary in the Church of God nor the use of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. For which he was coâ—demned for an Heretick in the Bishops Consistory on the Fourteenth of April and being thereupon delivered to the Sheriff of the City he was burnt in the Castle-Ditch on the Twentieth of May 1579. As a preparative to which punishment his ears had been cut off on the Thirteenth of that Moneth for base and slanderous words against the Queen and Council 12. About the same time that the Anabaptists were first brought to Censure there spawned another Fry of Hereticks who had its first Original amongst the Dutch and from thence came for England with the rest of their brethren These called themselves the Family of Love as before is said and were so well conceited of their own great holiness that they thought none to be Elected to Eternal life but such as were admitted into their Society The particulars of their Opinions and the strange manner of Expressions have been insisted on before Let it suffice that by their seeming Sanctity and other the like deceitful arts of Dissimulation they had drawn some of the English to them who having broke the bond of peace could not long keep themselves to the Spirit of Unity Some of them being detected and convented for it were condemned to do Penance at S. Pauls Cross and there to make a Retractation of their former Errors According to which Sentence five of them are brought thither on the 12 of Iune who there confest themselves utterly to detest as well the Author of that Sect H. N. as all his damnable Heresies Which gentle punishment did rather serve to multiply then decrease the Sect which by the diligence of the Hereticks and the remisness of the new Archbishop came to such an height that course was taken at the last for thâ—ir apprehension and for the severe punishing of those which were so apprehended For the Queen seriously considering how much she was concerned both in honor and safety to preserve Religion from the danger threatned by such desperate Hereticks published her Proclamation on the ninth of October An. 1580 for bringing their persons unto Justice and causing their pestilent Pamphlets to be openly burnt And to that end she gave a strict Command to all Temporal Judges and other Ministers of Justice to be assistant to the Bishops and their under Officers in the severe punishing of those Sects and Sectaries by which the happiness of the Church was so much endangered By which severities and a Formal Abjuration prescribed unto them by the Lords of the Council these Sects were seasonably suppressed or had the reason to conceal themselves amongst such of the Brethren as did continue in their Separation from the Church of England 13. In the mean time there hapned a great alteration in the state of the Church by the death of one and the preferment of another of the greatest Prelates Archbishop Parker left this life on the 17 of May Anno 1575. To whom succeeded Dr. Edmond Grindal Translated from the See of York unto that of Canterbury on the 15 of February The first a Prelate of great parts and no less Eminent for his zeal in the Churches cause which prompted him to keep as hard a hand on all Sects and Sectaries and more particularly on those of the Genevian Platform as the temper of the times could bear But Grindal was a man of another spirit without much difficulty wrought upon by such as applied themselves to him And having maintained a correspondence when he lived in Exile with Calvin Beza and some others 〈◊〉 â—he Consistory he either could not shake off their acquaintâ—â—â—e at his coming home or was as willing to continue it as they câ—uld desire Being advanced unto the Bishoprick of London he condescends to Calvins motion touching the setling of a French Church in that City on Genevian Principles and received thanks from him for the same And unto whom but him must Beza make his Applications when any of the brethren were suspended deprived or sequestred for not conforming to the Vestments then by Law required Being Translated unto York which wâ—s upon the 22 of May 1370 he entertains a new Intelligence with Zanchy a Divine of Heidelburg somewhat more moderate then the other but no good Friend neither to the Church of England as appears by his interposings in behalf of the brethren when they were under any Censure for their inconformity To this man Grindal renders an account of his Preferment both to York and Canterbury To him he sends Advertisement how things went in Scotland at his Advancement to the first and of the present state of affairs in England when he came to the other The like Intelligence he maintained with Bullinger Gualter and some of the chief Divines amongst the Switzers taking great pride in being courted by the Leading-men of those several Churches though they had all their ends upon him for the advancing of Presbytery and Inconformity in the Church of England 14. Upon these grounds
the Presbyterians gave themselves good hopes of the new Archbishop and they soon found how plâ—ant he was like to prove to their expectation He entred on this great Charge in the Moneth of February 1575 at which time the Prelates and Clergie were assembled in a Convocation by whom a Book of Articles was agreed upon for the better Reiglement of the Church In the end whereof this Article was superadded by their procurement viz. That the Bishops should take order that it be published and declared in every Parish-Church within their Diocesses before the first day of May then next following That Marriages might be solemnized at all times in the year so that the Banes on their several Sundays or Holidays in the Service-time were openly asked in the Church and no impediment objected and so that also the said Marriages be publickly solemnized in the face of the Church at the aforesaid time of Morning-Prayer But when the Book was offered to the Queens peiusal she disliked this Article and would by no means suffer it to be printed amongst the rest as appears by a Marginal Note in the Publick Regâ—ster of that Convocation Which though it might sufficiently have discouraged them from the like Innovations yet the next year they ventured on a business of a higher nature which was the falsifying and corrupting of the Common-Prayer-Book In which being then published by Richard Iugge the Queens Majesties Printer and published Cum Privilegio Regiae Majestatis as the Title intimates the whole Order of Private Baptism and Confirmation of Children was quite omitted In the first of which it had been declared That Children being born in Original sin were by the Laver of Regeneration in Baptism ascribed unto the number of Gods Children and made the Heirs of Life Eternal and in the other Thâ—t by the Imposition of hands and Prayer they receive strength against sin the world and the Devil Which grand omissions were designed to no other purpose but by degrees to bring the Church of England into some Conformity to the desired Orders of Geneva This I find noted in the Preface of a book writ by William Reynolds a virulent Papist I confess but one that may be credited in a matter of Fact which might so easily have been refuted by the Book it self if he had any way belyed it 15. Nothing being done for punishing of this great abuse they enter upon another Project Which seemed to tend onely to the encrease of Piety in the Professors of the Gospel but was intended really for the furtherance of the Holy Discipline The design was that all the Ministers within such a Circuit should meet upon a day appointed to exercise their gifts and expound the Scriptures one being chosen at each meeting for the Moderator to govern and direct the Action the manner whereof was 〈◊〉 that followeth The Ministers of some certain Precinct did meet 〈◊〉 some week days in some principal Town of which Meeting some ancient grave Minister was President and an Auditory admitteâ— of Gentlemen and other persons of Leisure There every Minister successively the youngest still beginning did handle one and the same piece of Scripture spending severally some quarter of an hour and better but in the whole some two hours And the Exercise being begun and concluded with prayer the President giving them another Theam for the next Meeting which was every Fortnight the said Assembly was dissolved The Exercise they called by the name of Prophecying grounded upon those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.13 viz. For ye may all prophecy one by one that all may learn and all be comforted But finding that the Text was not able to bear it out they added thereunto such pious and prudential Reasons as the best wits amongst them could devise for the present And though this Project was extreamly magnified and doted on with no less passion by some Countrey-Gentlemen who were enamored of the beauty and appearance of it yet was it found upon a diligent enquiry that there was something else intended then their Edification For it was easie to be proved that under colour of those Meetings for Religious Exercises the Brethren met together and consuâ—ted of the common business and furiously declaimed against Church and State 16. These Meetings Grindal first connived at when he sate at York under pretence of training up a preaching Ministery for the Northern parts But afterwards he was so much possessed with the fancy of it that he drew many of the Bishops in the Province of Canterbury to allow them also By means whereof they came to be so frequent in most parts of the Kingdom that they began to look with a face of danger both on Prince and Prelate For having once settled themselves in these new Conventions with some shew of Authority the Leading-Members exercised the Jurisdiction over all the rest intrenching thereby on the power of their several Ordinaries And they incroached so far at last on the Queens Prerogative as to appoint days for solemn Fasts under pretence of Sanctifying those Religious Exercises to the good of the Nation as afterwards in their Classical and Synodical Meetings which took growth from hence Three years these Prophesyings had continued in the Province of Canterbury before the Queen took notice of them But then they were presented to her with so ill a complexion that she began to startle at the first sight of them And having seriously weighed all inconveniences which might thence ensue she sends for Grindal to come to her reproves him for permitting such an Innovation to be obtruded on the Church and gave him charge to see it suddenly suppressed She complained also that the Pulpit was grown too common invaded by unlicensed Preachers and such as preached sedition amongst the people requiring him to take some order that the Homilies might be read more frequently and such Sermons preached more sparingly then of late they had been 〈◊〉 this was hard meat not so easily chewed therefore not like to be digested by so weak a stomach Instead of acting any thing in order to the Queens Commands he writes unto her a most tedious and voluminous Letter In which he first presents her with a sad remembrance of the Discourse which past between them and the great sorrow which he had conceived on the sense thereof Which said he falls into a commendation of Sermonizing of the great benefit thereby redounding unto all her Subjects the manifold advantages which such preachings had above the Homilies of whâ—â— necessary use those Prophesyings were toward the training up of Preachers In fine he also lets her know that by the example of S. Ambrose and his proceedings toward Theodosius and Valentinian two most mighty Emperors he could not satisfie his conscience in the discharge of the great trust committed to him if he should not admonish her upon this occasion not to do any thing which might draw down Gods displeasure upon her and the Nation by stopping the
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
shall hereafter treat of them as they come before us with reference to the Practises and Proceedings of their English Brethren And first beginning with the Scots it is to be remembred that we left them at a very low ebb the Earl of Goury put to death many of the Nobility exiled into Forreign Countreys and the chief Zealots of the Faction amongst the Ministers putting themselves into a voluntary Banishment because they could not have their wills on the King and Council England as nearest hand was the common Sanctuary to which some Lords and almost all the Refractory Ministers had retired themselves Much countenanced by Mr. Secretary Walsingham who had set them on work and therefore was obliged to gratifie them in some fit proportion To such of the Nobility as had fled into England he assigned the Isle of Lindisfarm commonly called the Holy Island not far from Berwick with order to the Lord Hundsdon who was then Governour of that Town to give them the possession of it But Hundsdon though he had less Zeal had so much knowledg of his Duty as to disobey him considering the great consequence of the place and that there was no impossibility in it but that the Scots might make use of it to the common prejudice if they should prove Enemies to this Crown as perhaps they might A matter which the Secretary would not have passed over in so light a manner but that an Ambassador was sent at the same time from the King of Scots by whom it was desired that the Fugitives of that Nation whatsoever they were might either be remitted home or else commanded not to live so near the Borders where they had opportunity more than stood with the good of that Kingdom to pervert the Subjects Which Reasonable Desire being yeelded unto the Lords and Great men of that Nation were ordered to retire to Norwich and many of the Ministers permitted to prepare for London Oxon Cambridg and some other places where some of them procured more mischief to the Church of England than all of them could have done to their own Countrey had they staid at Berwick 2. At London they are suffered by some zealous Brethren to possess their Pulpits in which they rail without comptroll against their King the Council of that Kingdom and their natural Queen as if by the practises of the one and the connivence of the other the Reformed Religion was in danger to be rooted out Some Overtures had been made at that time by the Queen of Scots by which it was desired that she might be restored unto the Liberty of her person associating with the young King in the Government of the Realm of Scotland and be suffered to have the Mass said in her private Closet for her self and her Servants The news whereof being brought to London filled all the Pulpits which the Scots were suffered to invade with terrible Complaints and Exclamations none of them sparing to affirm That her Liberty was inconsistent with Queen Elizabeth's Safety That both Kingdoms were undone if she were admitted to the joynt-Government of the Realm of Scotland and That the Reformed Religion must needs breathe its last if the Popish were permitted within the Walls of the Court. Which points they pressed with so much vehemence and heat that many were thereby inflamed to join themselves in the Association against that Queen which soon after followed Against their King they railed so bitterly and with such reproach one Davinson more than any other that upon complaint made by the Scottish Ambassador the Bishop of London was commanded to silence all the Scots about the City and the like Order given to the rest of the Bishops by whom they were inhibited from preaching in all other places But the less noise they made in the Church the more closely and dangerously they practised on particular persons in whom they endeavoured to beget an ill opinion of the present Government and to engage them for advancing that of the Presbyterian in the place thereof But this they had followed more successfully at the Act in Oxon where they are liberally entertained by Genebrand and the rest of the Brethren amongst which Wilcox Hen and Ackton were of greatest note And at this time a question was propounded to them concerning the proceeding of the Minister in his duty without the assistance or tarrying for the Magistrate How they resolved this question may be easily guessed partly by that which they had done themselves when they were in Scotland and partly by the Actings of their English Brethren in pursuance of it 3. For presently after Gelibrand deals with divers Students in their several Colledges to put their hands unto a paper which seemed to contain somewhat in it of such dangerous nature that some did absolutely refuse and others required further time of deliberation of which Gelibrand thus writes to Field on the 12 th of Ian. then next following I have already saith he entred into the matters whereof you write and dealt with three or four several Colledges concerning those amongst whom they live I find that men are very dangerous in this point generally favouring Reformation but when it comes to the particular point some have not yet considered of the things for which others in the Church are so much troubled others are afraid to testifie any thing with their hands lest it breed danger before the time and many favour the Cause of the Reformation but they are not Ministers but young Students of whom there is good hope if they be not cut off by violent dealing before the time As I hear by you so I mean to go forward where there is any hope and to learn the number and certifie you thereof c. But that these secret practises might not be suspected they openly attend the Parliament of this year as at other times in hope of gaining some advantage against the Bishops and the received Orders of the Church For in the Parliament of this year which began on the Twenty third of November they petitioned amongst other things That a Restraint might be laid upon the Bishops for granting of Faculties conferring of Orders as also in the executing of Ecclesiastical Censure the Oath Ex Officio permitting Non-residence and the like But the Queen would not hearken to it partly because of the dislike she had of all Innovations which commonly tend unto the worse but chiefly in regard that all such Applications as they made to the Parliament were by her looked on as derogatory to her own Supremacy So that instead of gaining any of those points at the hands of the Parliament they gained nothing but displeasure from the Queen who is affirmed by Stow to have made a Speech at the end of their Session and therein to have told the Bishops That if they did not look more carefully to the discharge of their Duties she must take order to deprive them Sharp words and such as might necessitate the Bishops to
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
of the English Armies which served in the Low-Countreys to make sure of all He takes a course also to remove the Imprisoned Queen from the Earl of Shrewsbury and commits her to the custody of Paulet and Drury two notorious Puritans though neither of them were so base as to serve his turn when he practised on them to assassinate her in a private way I take no pleasure in recounting the particulars of that Horrid Act by which a Soveraign Queen lawfully Crowned and Anointed was brought to be arraigned before the Subjects of her nearest Kinswoman or how she was convicted by them what Artifices were devised to bring her to the fatal Block or what dissimulations practised to palliate and excuse that Murther 16. All I shall note particularly in this woful story is the behaviour of the Scots I mean the Presbyters who being required by the King to recommend her unto God in their publick Prayers refused most unchristianly so to do except only David Lindesay at Leith and the King 's own Chaplains And yet the Form of Prayer prescribed was no more than this That it might please God to illuminate her with the Light of his Truth and save her from the apparent danger wherein she was cast On which default the King appointed solemn Prayers to be made for her in Edenborough on the third of February and nominates the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews to perform that Office Which being understood by the Ministers they stirred up one Iohn Cooper a bold young man and not admitted into Orders of their own conferring to invade the Pulpit before the Bishop had an opportunity to take the place Which being noted by the King he commanded him to come down and leave the Pulpit to the Bishops as had been appointed or otherwise to perform the Service which the Day required To which the sawcy Fellow answered That he would do therein according as the Spirit of God should direct him in it And then perceiving that the Captain of the Guard was coming to remove him thence he told the King with the same impudence as before That this day should be a witness against him in the Great Day of the Lord And then denouncing a Wo to the Inhabitants of Edenborough he went down and the Bishop of St. Andrews entring the Pulpit did the Duty required For which intollerable Affront Cooper was presently commanded to appear before the Lords of the Council and he took with him Watson and Belcanqual two of the Preachers of Edenborough for his two Supporters Where they behaved themselves with so little reverence that the two Ministers were discharged from preaching in Edenborough and Cooper was sent Prisoner to the Castle of Blackness But so unable was the King to bear up against them that having a great desire that Montgomery Arch-bishop of Glasgow might be absolved from the Censures under which he lay he could no otherwise obtain it than by releasing this Cooper together with Gibson before-mentioned from their present Imprisonment which though it were yeelded to by the King upon condition that Gibson should make some acknowledgment of his Offence in the face of the Church yet after many triflings and much tergiversation he took his flight into England where he became a useful Instrument in the Holy Cause 17. For so it was that notwithstanding the Promise made to Arch-bishop Whitgift by Leicester Walsingham and the rest as before is said they gave such encouragements under-hand to the Presbyterians that they resolved to proceed toward the putting of the Discipline in execution though they received small countenance in it from the Queen and Parliament Nor were those great Persons altogether so unmindful of them as not to entertain their Clamours and promote their Petitions at the Council-Table crossing and thwarting the Arch-bishop whensoever any Cause which concerned the Brethren had been brought before them Which drew from him several Letters to the Lords of the Council each syllable whereof for the great Piety and Modesty which appears in them deserves to have been written in Letters of Gold Now the sum of these Letters as they are laid together by Sir George Paul is as followeth 18. God knows saith he how desirous I have been from time to time to have my doings approved by my ancient and honourable Friends for which cause since my coming to this place I have done nothing of importance against these Sectaries without good Advice I have risen up early and sate up late to yeeld Reasons and make Answer to their Contentions and their Seditious Objections And shall I now say I have lost my labour Or shall my just dealing with disobedient and irregular persons cause my former professed and ancient Friends to hinder my just proceedings and make them speak of my doings yea and of my self what they list Solomon saith An old Friend is better than a new I trust those that love me indeed will not so lightly cast off their old Friends for any of these new-fangled and factious Sectaries whose fruits are to make division and to separate old and assured Friends In my own private Affairs I know I shall stand in need of Friends but in these publick Actions I see no cause why I should seek any seeing they to whom the care of the Commonwealth is committed ought of duty therein to joyn with me And if my honourable Friends shall forsake me especially in so good a Cause and not put their helping-hand to the redress of these Enormities being indeed a matter of State and not of the least moment I shall think my coming unto this Place to have been for my punishment and my hap very hard that when I think to deserve best and in a manner consume my self to satisfie that which God Her Majesty and the Church requireth of me I should be evilly rewarded Sed meliora spero It is objected by some that my desire of Uniformity by way of Subscription is for the better maintenance of my Book They are mine Enemies that say so but I trust my Friends have a better opinion of me Why should I seek for any confirmation of my Book after twelve years approbation Or what shall I get thereby more than already I have Yet if Subscription may confirm it it is confirmed long ago by the Subscription of almost all the Clergy of England before my time Mine Enemies likewise and the slanderous Tongues of this uncharitable Sect report that I am revolted bâ—come a Papist and I know not what But it proceedeth from thâ—â—r Leudness and not from any desert of mine 19. I am further burthened with Wilfulness I hope my Friends are better perswaded of me to whose Consciences I appeal It is strange that a man of my place dealing by so good a warrant as I do should be so encountred and for not yeelding counted Wilful But I must be content Vincit qui patitur There is a difference betwixt Wilfulness and Constancy I have taken upon me by the Place
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
wretched Popish priests and the Convocation-House of Devils and Belzebub of Canterbury the chief of these Devils The like Reproaches they bestow on the Common-Prayer of which they say That it is full of Corruption and that many of the Contents thereof are against the Word of God the Sacraments wickedly mangled and prophaned therein the Lord's Supper not eaten but made a Pageant or Stage-play and that the Form of publick Baptism is full of Childish Superstitious Toys So that we are not to admire if the Brownists please themselves in their separation from a Church so polluted and unreformed from men so wicked and prophane from such a Cinque of Satan such a Den of Devils But much less can we wonder that the Papists should make use of these horrible Slanders not only to confirm but encrease their Party By shewing them from the Pens of their greatest Adversaries what ugly Monsters had the Government of the Church of England from what Impieties they were preserved by not joyning with them One I am sure that is Parsons in his Book of Three Conversions reports these Calumnies and Slanders for undoubted Truths That Martin Mar-Prelate is affirmed by Sir Edwine Sandys to pass in those times for unquestion'd Credit in the Court of Rome his Authority much insisted on to disgrace this Church and finally that Kellison one of later date doth build as much upon the Credit of these Libels to defame the Clergy as if they had been dictated by the same Infallible Spirit which the Pope pretends to Such excellent Advantages did these Saints give unto the Devil that all the Locusts in the Revelation which came out of the Pit never created so much scandal to the Primitive times 28. To still these Clamours or at the least to stop the mouths of these Railing Rabshecha's that so the abused people on all sides might be undeceived as good a course was took by Whitgift and the rest of the Prelates as Human Wisdom could devise For first A grave Discourse is published in the year next following entituled An Admonition to the People of England in answer to the slanderous Untruths of Martin the Libeller But neither this nor any other grave Refutal would ever put them unto silence till they were undertaken by Tom Nash a man of a Sarcastical and jeering Wit who by some Pamphlets written in the like loose way which he called Pasquill and Marsorius The Counter-Scuffle Pappe with a Hatchet and the like stopped their mouths for ever none of them daring to deal further in that Commodity when they saw what Coyn they should be paid in by so frank a Customer Mention was made before of a sorry Pamphlet entituled The Complaint of the Commons for a Preaching-Ministry which Penry seconded by another called by the Name of A Supplication for Preaching in Wales In both which it was intimated to all sorts of people That the Gospel had no free passage amongst us That there was no care taken for Preaching the Word of God for the instruction of the people for want whereof they still remained in darkness and the shadow of death For the decrying of which scandalous and leud suggestions Order was given unto the Bishops to take the Names and Number of the Preachers in their several Diocesses and to present a true and perfect Catalogue of them in the Convocation which was then at hand By which Returns it will appear That at this time when so much noise was made for want of Preaching there were within the Realm of England and the Dominion of Wales no fewer than Seven thousand four hundred sixty three Preachers and Catechisers which last may be accounted the best sort of Preachers for the instruction of the people Of which great Number there were found to be no fewer than One hundred forty five Doctors in Divinity Three hundred forty eight Batchellors of Divinity Thirty one Doctors of both Laws Twenty one Batchelors of the same Eighteen hundred Masters in Arts Nine hundred forty six Batchelors of Arts and Two thousand seven hundred forty six Catechisers So that neither the number of bare Reading-Ministers was so great nor the want of Preaching so deplorable in most parts of the Kingdom as those Pamphlets made it the Authors whereof ought rather to have magnified the Name of God for sending such a large Encrease of Labourers in his Heavenly Husbandry as could not any where be parallel'd in so short a time there passing no more than Thirty years between the first beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and the rendring of this Account to the Convocation 29. And that the Parliament might receive the same satisfaction a most excellent and judicious Sermon was Preached at St. Paul's Cross on Sunday the ninth of February being the first Sunday after their Assembling by Dr. Richard Bancroft being then Chaplain to the Lord Chancellor Hatton preferred within some few years after to the See of London and from thence to Canterbury In the performance of which Service he selected for the Theam or Subject of his Discourse 1 Iohn 4.1 viz. Dearly beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world In canvasing which Text he did so excellently set forth the false Teachers of those times in their proper colours their Railing against Bishops their Ambition their Self-love their Covetousness and all such Motives as had spurred them on to disturb this Church as satisfied the greatest part of that huge Congregation touching the Practises and Hypocrisies of these holy Brethren He also shewed on what a weak Foundation they had built their Discipline of which no tract or footsteps could be found in the Church of Christ from the Apostles days to Calvin and with what Infamy the Aerian Hereticks were reproached in the Primitive times for labouring to introduce that Parity which these men designed He further laid before them the great danger which must needs ensue if private men should take upon them to deny or dispute such matters as had been setled in the Church by so good Authority Against which troublesome Humour many Provisions had been made by the Canons of Councils and the Edicts of Godly and Religious Emperors To which he added the necessity of requiring Subscription in a Church well constituted by all the Ministers of the same which he justified by the example of Geneva and the Churches of Germauy to be the best way to try the spirits whether they be of God or not as his Text required Next he insisted on the excellency of the Common-Prayer-Book applauded by the Divines of Foreign Churches approved by Bucer Fox Alesius the Parliaments and Convocations of this Kingdom and after justified by Arch-bishop Cranmer against the Papists by Bishop Ridley against Knox and by divers others showing withall the many gross Absurdities found in extemporary Prayers to the great dishonour of God and the shame of Religion Hence he proceeds to justifie
as put a difference between the Rights of a Prophane and a Christian Magistrate Specanus a stiff Presbyterian in the Belgick Provinces makes a distinction between potestas Facti and potestas Iuris and then infers upon the same That the Authority of determining what is fit to be done belongs of right unto the Ministers of the Church though the execution of the Fact in Civil Causes doth properly appertain to the Supreme Magistrate And more than this the greatest Clerks amongst themselves would not give the Queen If she assume unto Her self the exercise of Her farther Power in ordering Matters of the Church according to the lawful Authority which is inherent in the Crown She shall presently be compared unto all the wicked Kings and others of whom we read in the Scriptures that took upon them unlawfully to intrude themselves into the Priest's Office as unto Saul for his offering of Sacrifice unto Osias for burning Incense upon the Altar unto Gideon for making of an Ephod and finally to Nadab and Abihu for offering with strange fire unto the Lord. 33. According to these Orthodox and sound Resolves they hold a Synod in St. Iohn's Colledg in Cambridg taking the opportunity of Sturbridg-Fayr to cloak their meeting for that purpose At which Synod Cartwright and Perkins being present amongst the rest the whole Book-Discipline reviewed by Traverse and formally approved of by the Brethren in their several Classes received a more Authentick approbation insomuch that first it was decreed amongst them That all which would might subscribe unto it without any necessity imposed upon them so to do But not long after it was made a matter necessary so necessary as it seems that no man could be chosen to any Ecclesiastical Office amongst them nor to be of any of their Assemblies either Classical Provincial or National till he had first subscribed to the Book of Discipline Another Synod was held at Ipswich not long after and the Results of both confirmed in a Provincial and National Synod held in London which gave the Book of Discipline a more sure establishment than an Act of State It is reported that the night before the great Battel in the Fields of Thessaly betwixt Caesar and Pompey the Pompeyan Party was so confident of their good success that they cast Dice amongst themselves for all the great Offices and Magistracies of the City of Rome even to the Office of the Chief-Priest-hood which then Caesar held And the like vanity or infatuation had possessed these men in the opinion which they had of their Strength and Numbers Insomuch that they entred into this consideration how Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors Deans Cannons Arch-Deacons Commissaries Registers Apparitors c. all which by their pretended Reformation must have been thrust out of their Livings should be provided for that the Commonwealth might not be thereby pestered with Beggars And this they did upon the confidence of some unlawful Assistance to effect their purposes if neither the Queen nor the Lords of the Council nor the Inferior Magistrates in their several Counties all which they now sollicited with more heat than ever should co-operate with them For about this time it was that Cartwright in his Prayer before his Sermon was noted to have used these words viz. Because they meaning the Bishops which ought to be Pillars in the Church combine themselves against Christ and his Truth therefore O Lord give us Grace and Power all as one man to set our selves against them Which words he used frequently to repeat and to repeat with such an earnestness of spirit as might sufficiently declare that he had a purpose to raise Sedition in the State for the imposing of that Discipline on the Church of England which was not likely to be countenanced by any lawful Authority which put the Queen to a necessity of calling him and all the rest of them to a better account to which they shall be brought in the years next following 33. In the mean time we must pass over into France where we find HENRY the Third the last King of the House of Valoise most miserably deprived of his Life and Kingdom driven out of Paris first by the Guisian Faction and afterwards assassinated by Iaques Clement a Dominican Fryar as he lay at St. Cloud attending the reduction of that stubborn City Upon whose death the Crown descended lineally on HENRY of Bourbon King of Navarre and Duke of Vendosme as the next Heir-male For the excluding of which Prince and the rest of that House the Holy League was first contrived as before is said There was at that time in the late King's Army a very strong Party of French Catholicks who had preferred their Loyalty to their Natural Prince before the private Interest and Designs of the House of Guise and now generally declare in favour of the true Successor By their Assistance and the concurring-Forces of the Hugonot-Faction it had been no hard matter for him to have Mastered the Duke of Maine who then had the Command of the Guisian Leagues But in the last he found himself deceived of his expectation The Hugonots which formerly had served with so much cheerfulness under his Command their King would not now serve him in his just and lawful Warrs against his Enemies Or if they did it shall be done upon Conditions so intolerable that he might better have pawned his Crown to a Forreign Prince than on such terms to buy the favour of his Subjects They looked upon him as reduced to a great necessity most of the Provinces and almost all the Principal Cities having before engaged against HENRY the Third and many others falling off when they heard of his death So that they thought the new King was not able to subsist without them and they resolved to work their own Ends out of that Necessity Instead of leading of their Armies and running cheerfully and couragiously towards his defence who had so oft defended them they sent Commissioners or Delegates to negotiate with him that they may know to what Conditions he would yeeld for their future advantage before they acted any thing in order to his preservation and their Conditions were so high so void of all Respects of Loyalty and even common Honesty that he conceived it safer for him and far more honourable in it self to cast himself upon the Favour of the Queen of England than condescend to their unreasonable and unjust demands So that in fine the Hugonots to a very great number forsook him most disloyally in the open Field drew off their Forces and retired to their several dwellings inforcing him to the necessity of imploring succours from the professed Enemies of his Crown and Nation Nor did he find the Queen unwilling to supply him both with Men and Money on his first desires For which She had better reason now than when She aided him and the rest of the French Hugonots in their former Quarrels And this She did with such a cheerful
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
horribly as he was drawn upon the Hurdle all the way he passed crying out in these words Iehovah the Messias Iehovah the Messias behold Heaven is opened behold the Son of the Most High is coming down to deliver me With the like ill spirit he was governed when he came to the Gallows at which he is affirmed to have made this Imprecation for I can by no means call it Prayer viz. Almighty Everlasting God Iehovah Alpha and Omega Lord of lords King of kings the Everlasting God thou knowest that I am the true Iehovah whom thou hast sent Shew some Miracle from the Clouds for the conversion of these Infidels and deliver me from my Enemies The rest too horrid and blasphemous to be imparted to the eyes of a sober Christian I forbear to add Let it suffice that after some strugling with the Hang-man and many fearful Execrations against God and man he was turned off the Ladder and presently cut down ript up and quartered according unto the Law in that behalf Unto such dangerous Precipices do men cast themselves when they forsake the Rule of the Church and will not be content with that sobriety in the things of God which makes men wise unto salvation But as for his two Prophets they found different ends though they had steered the same course with him Coppinger by a wilful abstinence starved himself in Prison within few days after But Arthington lived to see his Errors was pardoned upon his repentance and published a Retractation of his Follies as became a Christian. 10. Many Endeavours have been used for freeing Cartwright and the rest of the chief Presbyterians from having any hand in these damnable practises And it is true enough that many of them were so wise as neither to admit them to a personal Conference nor to return Answer to those Letters which were sent unto them from the Parties But then it is as true withall that Coppinger had communicated his first thoughts touching his Extraordinary Calling by several Letters writ to Cartwright Egerton Travers Chark Gardiner Cooper Philips and others not to say any thing of Penry or Wiggington who seemed to have been of Counsel with them in the whole Design And it is also true that when he descended to particulars in reference to the course which he meant to take in the present Exigent they would by no means entertain any Messages from him by which they might be made acquainted with the Plot in hand But then it cannot be denied that knowing them to be intent upon some course which they could not justifie they neither revealed it to the State nor laboured to disswade them from it but seemed content to let them run their full career and then to take such benefit of it as the issue and success thereof should afford unto them And in this case it may be said too justly in the Orator's language that there was little difference between the advising of a Fact and the rejoycing at it when it was once executed and how they then could take the benefit of such a mischief with which they had been pre-acquainted in the general notion aâ—d either not be joyful at it and consequently be in the same case with such as had advised unto it let them judg that list 11. The dangers growing to the State by these odious practises may be supposed to hasten the Arraignment of Vdal one of the four which had a hand in those scurrilous Libels which swarmed so numerously in all parts of the Kingdom Anno 1588 and the times since following But more particularly he stood charged for being the Author of a Book called The Demonstration of Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in his Word for the Government of his Church in all times and places until the Worlds end In the Preface whereof occureth these passages First He inscribes the same not to the Governours but to the supposed Governours of the Church of England And then he flyes upon them in these following words viz. Who can deny you without blushing to be the cause of all ungodliness seeing your Government is that which giveth leave to a man to be any thing saving a sound Christian. For certainly it is more free in these days to be a Papist Anabaptist of the Family of Love yea as any most wicked whatsoever than that which we should be And I could live these twenty years as well as any such in England yea in a Bishop's House it may be and never be molested for it So true is that which you are charged with in a Dialogue lately come forth against you and since burn'd by you That you care for nothing but the maintenance of your Dignities be it to the damnation of your own souls and infinite millions more For which whole Book but more especially for this passage in the Preface of it he was indicted at an Assizes held in Croydon for the County of Surrey on the 23 d of Iuly Anno 1590 and by sufficient Evidence found guilty of it The Prisoner pleaded for himself That his Indictment was upon the Statute of 23 Eliz. Cap. 2. for punishing Seditious words against the Queen but that the Book for which he stood accused contained no offensive passages against the Queen but the Bishops only and therefore could not come within the compass and intent of that Statute But it was answered by the Judges and resolved for Law That they who speak against Her Majesty's Government in Cases Ecclesiastical Her Laws Proceedings or Ecclesiastical Officers which ruled under Her did defame the Queen Which Resolution being given and the Evidence heard he had so much favour shewed him by consent of the Court as to be put unto this question that is to say Whether he would take it either on his Conscience or his Credit that he was not the Author of that Book Which if he would or could have done it was conceived that both the Judges and the Jurors would have rested satisfied But he not daring to deny it the Jurors could not otherwise do than pronounce him Guilty upon such evident Proofs and so many Witnesses as were brought against him But the Arch-bishop being then at his House in Croydon prevailed so far in his behalf that the Judges did suspend the Sentence of his Condemnation This Tryal hapned in the interval between the several Commitments of Snape and Cartwright before-mentioned when the State had taken up a resolution to proceed severely against the Disturbers of Her Peace which gave some occasion of offence to the Lord Chancellor Hatton that the Arch-bishop who seemed most concerned in the present case should show such favour to a man whom the Law condemned and by whose seasonable Execution a stop might possibly be made to all further Troubles 12. But Snape and Cartwright still continuing obstinate in refusing the Oath and the suspition growing strong of some new Designs he was brought again unto the Barr at Southwark in the March next
following and there received the Sentence of death in due form of Law But such was the exceeding Lenity of the good Arch-bishop that he looked more upon the Parts of the man than upon his Passions upon his Learning and Abilities though too much abused than the ill use that he made of them in those stirring-times And so far he engaged himself with his Royal Mistress who used to call him Her Black Husband that she gave way to a Reprieve though she could not easily be induced to grant a Pardon Which notwithstanding the Arch-bishop could not scape the lash of some virulent Tongues by whom he stood more accused for the Condemnation than he was magnified for the Reprieve of the man condemned And therefore it was after pleaded in his justification That Vdal's Book was clearly within the compass of the Statute 23 Eliz. cap. 2. for punishing Seditious words against the Queen according to the Resolution of the Judges before laid down That divers Seditious Sermons might have been objected against him as well as the making of that Book which would have rendred him more culpable in the sight of his Judges and that whereas one Catsfield could have spoken more materially against him than any of the rest of the Witnesses he was never called unto the Barr to give in his Evidence the Jurors being fully satisfied in the former Proofs So that the whole Indictment being rightly grounded the Prosecution favourable and the Evidence full the man remained a living-Monument of the Arch-bishop's extraordinary Goodness to him in the preserving of that Life which by the Law he had forfeited But how long he remained alive I am not able to say and therefore shall add only this That he left a Son behind called Ephraim who afterwards was Beneficed at the Church of St. Augustines near St. Paul's Church-yard and proved as great a Zealot for Conformity in the time of King CHARLES as his Father was reputed for his Non-conformity in the times we write of And he paid almost as deer for it as his Father did being sequestred about the year 1643 not submitting to some Oaths and Covenants then required of him his bed-rid Wife turned out of doors and left most unmercifully in the open Streets 13. Now whilst the State was taken up in these Criminal Processes the Learned men and others interessed on each side were no less busied in defence of their own Concernments Adrian Saravia born in the Lower-Germany but better studied in the Fathers than the most of his Rank had found by search into their Writings of what Antiquity and Necessity the Calling of Bishops had been reckoned in the Primitive times even in the days of the Apostles but finding no encouragement to maintain any such opinion in his Native Countrey where the Presbyteries governed all and Parity of Ministers was received as an Article of their publike Confession he put himself upon the Favour and Protection of the Church of England He had before fashioned his Reply to Beza's Book entituled De Triplici Episcopatu as before was said But the first Piece published by him on his coming hither was a right learned Work entituled De diversis gradibus Ministrorum Evangelii In which he proved by undeniable Arguments That Bishops were a different Order as well as by Degrees superior to all other Presbyters This Book he dedicates to the Ministers of the Belgick Churches as appears by his Epistle dated March 26 Anno 1590. Amongst whom though he could not hope for much approbation yet he received but little or no opposition But so it prov'd not at Geneva where Beza governed backed by Danaeus and the rest of the Consistorians who looked upon it as destructive to their whole Contrivements Beza had other Work in hand and therefore leaves him for the present to the lash of Danaeus who falls upon him with Reproaches instead of Arguments as Saravia complained in his Reply reckoning his Corpulency for a Crime calling him Swineherd Hog a man born only for the stuffing of a filthy paunch with many the like scurrilous strains of Genevian Rhetorick Beza comes slowly on but he comes at last not publishing his Answer to it till the third year after to which Saravia replies in the year next following Anno 1594. In which he made an exact parallel amongst other things betwixt the practises of Hacket and the Puritan Faction on the one side and those of Iohn of Leyden and the Anabaptists when they reigned in Munster In the end Beza gave him over which raised him to such eminent note with the English Prelates that he was made a Prebendary of the Church of Westminster and otherwise well provided for to his full contentment 14. In the mean time the Minister of the Italian Church in the City of London could not rest satisfied with the enjoying the same Priviledges which the French and Dutch Churches had before procured but published a Book in maintenance and commendation of the Holy Discipline which gave a just occasion to Dr. Matthew Suttliff then Dean of Exon to set out a judicious Work in Latin touching the nature of the truly Catholick and Christian Church wherein he grated somewhat hard on the point of Presbytery and was the first English man that did so in the Latin Tongue And though he named Beza only and no more than named him yet Beza thought his Name so sacred or himself so high that he conceived himself to be much dishonoured reproaches him by the name of a petulant Railer and complains of the affront in an Epistle to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury But he got nothing by the Bargain For as he was handsomely shaked up for it by Saravia in his Replication so the Arch-bishop in an Answer to the said Epistle dated in Ianuary 1593 severely reprehends him for his intermedling with the Church of England and plainly lays before him all those disturbances which by his means had been occasioned in the same so that being learnedly refuted by Saravia on the one side and gravely reprehended on the other by that Reverend Prelate he grows wise at last leaving the English Puritans to their own defences And more than so in his Reply to his last Letter he gives him his due Titles of the most Reverend Father in Christ and his honoured Lord assuring him That in all his writings touching Church-Government he impugned only the Romish Hierarchy but never intended to touch the Ecclesiastical Polity of this Church of England nor to exact of us to frame our selves or our Church to the pattern of their Presbyterian Discipline And thereunto he added this safe Conclusion That as long as the substance of Doctrine was uniform in the Church of Christ they may lawfully vary in other matters as the circumstance of time place and persons requires and as prescription of Antiquity may warrant And to that end he wished and hoped that the Sacred and Holy Colledges of Bishops for so he calls them would
for ever continue and maintain such their Right and Title in the Church's Government with all Equity and Christian Moderation 15. At this time grew the Heats also betwixt Hooker and Travers the first being Master of the Temple and the other Lecturer Hooker received his Education in Corpus Christi Colledg in Oxon from whence he came well stocked in all kind of Learning but most especially in Fathers Councils and other approved Monuments of Ecclesiastical Antiquity Travers was bred in Trinity Colledg in Cambridg well skilled in the Oriental Tongues and otherwise better studied in Words than Matter being Cotemporary with Cartwright and of his Affection He sets up his studies in Geneva and there acquaints himself with Beza and the rest of that Consistory of whom and their new Discipline he grew so enamoured that before his coming into England he was made Minister as well at least as such hands could make him by the Presbytery of Antwerp as appears by their Certificate for I dare not call them Letters of Orders dated May 14 1578. Thus qualified he associates himself with Cartwright whom he found there at his coming in preaching to the Factory of English Merchants and follows him not long after into England also By the commendation of some Friends he was taken into the House of William Lord Burleigh whom he served first in the nature of a Pedagogue to his younger Son and after as one of his Chaplains Preferments could not chuse but come in his way considering the Greatness of his Master whose eminent Offices of Lord Treasurer Chief Secretary and Master of the Wards could not but give him many opportunities to prefer a Servant to the best places in the Church But Travers knew his incapacity to receive such Favours as neither lawfully ordained according to the Form prescribed by the Church of England nor willing to subscribe to such Rites and Ceremonies as he found were used in the same But being a great Factor for promoting the Holy Discipline he gets himself into the Lecture of the Temple which could not easily be denyed when the Chaplain of so great a Councellor was a Suitor for it 16. In this place he insinuates himself by all means imaginable into the good affections of many young Students and some great Lawyers of both Houses on whom he gained exceedingly by his way of Preaching graced with a comely Gesture and a Rhetorical manner of Elocution By which advantages he possest many of the long Robe with a strong affection to the devices of Geneva and with as great a prejudice to the English Hierarchy the fruits whereof discovered themselves more or less in all following Parliaments when any thing concerning the Church came in agitation And by the opportunity of this Place he had the chief managing of the Affairs of the Disciplinarians presiding for the most part in their Classical Meetings and from hence issuing their Directions to the rest of the Churches And so it stood till Hooker's coming to be Master who being a man of other Principles and better able to defend them in a way of Argument endeavoured to instruct his Auditors in such Points of Doctrine as might keep them in a right perswasion of the Church of England as well in reference to her Government as her Forms of Worship This troubled Travers at the heart as it could not otherwise to see that the fine Web which he had been so long in weaving should be thus unravell'd Rather than so Hooker shall tell them nothing in the Morning but what he laboured to confute in the Afternoon not doubting but that a great part of the Auditors would pass Sentence for him though the truth might run most apparently on the other side Hooker endured it for some time but being weary at the last of the opposition he complains thereof to the Arch-bishop who had deservedly a very great opinion of him and this Complaint being seasonably made in that point of time when Cartwright Snape and other Leading-men of the Puritan Faction were brought into the High Commission it was no hard matter for him to procure an Order to suppress his Adversary silenced from preaching in the Temple and all places else Which Order was issued upon these grounds that is to say That he was no lawfully ordained Minister according to the Church of England That he took upon him to preach without being licensed and That he had presumed openly to confute such Doctrine as had been publickly delivered by another Preacher without any notice given thereof to the lawful Ordinary contrary to a Provision made in the Seventh year of the Queen for avoiding Disturbances in the Church 17. But Travers was too stiff and too well supported to sit down on the first Assault He makes his supplication therefore to the Lords of the Council where he conceived himself as strong and as highly favoured as Hooker was amongst the Bishops and the High Commissioners In this Petition he complains of some obliquity in the proceedings had against him for want of some Legalities in the conduct of it But when he came to answer to the Charges which were laid upon him his Defences appeared very weak and flat and could not much conduce to his justification when they were seriously examined in the scale of Judgment His exercising the Ministry without lawful Orders he justified no otherwise than that by the Communion of Saints all Ordinations were of like Authority in a Christian Church The Bishop of London had commended him by two Letters unto that Society to be chosen Lecturer and That he took for a sufficient License as might enable him to preach to that Congregation And as for his confuting in the Afternoon what had been preached by Mr. Hooker in the morning before he conceived that he had warrant for it from St. Paul's example in withstanding St. Peter to his face for fear lest otherwise God's Truth might receive some prejudice The weakness and insufficiency of which Defences was presently made known in Hooker's Answer to the Supplication Which wrought so much upon the Lords and was so strongly seconded by the Arch-bishop himself that all the Friends which Travers had amongst them could not do him good especially when it was represented to them how dangerous a thing it was that a man of such ill Principles and of worse Affections should be permitted to continue in his former Lecture which what else were it in effect but to retain almost half the Lawyers of England to be of Councel in all Causes which concerned the Church whensoever those of the Genevian or Puritan Faction should require it of them But so it hapned and it hapned very well for Travers that the Queen had erected an University at Dublin in the year fore-going 1591 Founding therein a Colledg dedicated to the Holy Trinity to the Provostship whereof he was invited by the Arch-bishop of Dublin who had been once a Fellow of the same House with him Glad of which opportunity
to go off with credit he prepares for Ireland But long he had not dwelt on his new Preferment when either he proved too hot for the Place or the Countrey by reason of the following Warrs grew too hot for him Which brought him back again to England where he lived to a very great age in a small Estate more comfortably than before because less troublesome to the Church than he had been formerly 18. Thus have we seen Travers taken off and Beza quieted nor was it long before Cartwright was reduced to a better temper But first it was resolved to try all means for his delivery both at home and abroad Abroad they held intelligence with their Brethren in the Kirk of Scotland by means of Penry here and of Gibson there two men as fit for their Designs as if they had been made of purpose to promote the Mischief Concerning which thus Gibson writes in one of his Letters to Coppinger before remembred whereby it seems that he was privy to his practices also The best of our Ministers saith he are most careful of your estate and had sent for that effect a Preacher of ours the last Summer of purpose to confer with the best affected of your Church to lay down a plot how our Church might best travel for your relief The Lord knows what care we have of you both in our publick and private Prayers c. For as feeling-members of one body we reckon the affliction of your Church to be our own This showed how great they were with child of some good Affections but there wanted strength to be delivered of the Burthen They were not able to raise Factions in the Court of England as Queen ELIZABETH had done frequently on their occasions in the Realm of Scotland All they could do was to engage the King in mediating with the Queen in behalf of Cartwright Vdal and some others of the principal Brethren then kept in Prison for their contumacy in refusing the Oath And they prevailed so far upon Him who was not then in a condition to deny them any thing as to direct some Lines unto Her in this tenour following 19. RIght Excellent High and Mighty Princess Our dearest Sister and Cousin in Our heartiest manner We recommend Us unto You. Hearing of the Apprehension of Master Vdal and Master Cartwright and certain other Ministers of the Evangel within Your Realm of whose good Erudition and Faithful Travels in the Church We hear a very credible commendation however that their diversity from the Bishops and other of Your Clergy in matters touching their Conscience hath been a mean by their delation to work them your misliking at this time We cannot weighing the Duty which We owe to such as are afflicted for their Conscience in that Profession but by Our most effectuous and earnest Letter interpone Us at Your Hands to stay any harder usage of them for that cause Requesting You most earnestly That for Our Cause and Intercession it may please You to let them be relieved of their present Strait and whatsoever further Accusation or Pursuit depending upon that ground respecting both their former Merit in setting forth the Evangel the simplicity of their Conscience in this Defence which cannot well be their Lett by Compulsion and the great slander which would not fail to fall out upon their further straitning for any such occasion Which We assure Us Your Zeal to Religion besides the expectation We have of Your good will to pleasure Us will willingly accord to Our Request having such proofs from time to time of Our like disposition to You in any matter which You recommend unto Us. And thus Right Excellent Right High and Mighty Princess Our dear Sister and Cousin We commit You to God's Protection Edenborough Iune 12. 1591. 20. This Letter was presented to the Queen by the hands of one Iohnson a Merchant of that Nation then remaining in London But it produced not the Effect which the Brethren hoped for For the Queen looked upon it as extorted rather by the importunity of some which were then about Him than as proceeding from Himself who had no reason to be too indulgent unto those of that Faction This Project therefore not succeeding they must try another and the next tryal shall be made on the High Commission by the Authority whereof Cartwright and Snape and divers others were committed Prisoners If this Commission could be weakned and the Power thereof reduced to a narrower compass the Brethren might proceed securely in the Holy Discipline the Prisoners be released and the Cause established And for the questioning thereof they took this occasion One Caudreys Parson of North-Luffengham in the County of Rutland had been informed against about four years since in the High Commission for preaching against the Book of Common-Prayer and refusing to celebrate Divine Service according to the Rules and Rubricks therein prescribed For which upon sufficient proof he was deprived of his Benefice by the Bishop of London and the rest of the Queen's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes Four years together he lay quiet without acting any thing against the Sentence of the Court But now it was thought by some of those Lawyers whom Travers had gained unto the side to question the Authority of that Commission and consequently the illegality of his Deprivation In Hillary Term Anno 1591 the Cause was argued in the Exchequer Chamber by all the Judges according to the usual custom in all cases of the like importance and it was argued with great Learning as appears by the sum and substance of their several Arguments drawn up by Coke then being the Queen's Sollicitor-General and extant amongst the rest of his Reports both in English and Latin inscribed De Iure Regis Ecclesiastico but known most commonly by the name of Cawdrey's Case In the debating of which Point the Result was â—his That the Statute of 10 of the Queen for restoring to the Crown the ancient Iurisdiction c. was not to be accounted introductory of a new Authority which was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old which naturally and originally did belong to all Christian Princes and amongst others also to the Kings of England For proof whereof there wanted not sufficient evidence in our English Histories as well as in some old Records of unquestioned Credit exemplifying the continual practise of the Kings of England before and since the Norman Conquest in ordering and directing matters which concerned the Church In which they ruled sometimes absolutely without any dispute and sometimes relatively in reference to such opposition as they were to make against the Pope and all Authority derived from the See of Rome 21. Against this Case so solidly debated and so judiciously drawn up when none of the Puritan Professors could make any Reply Parsons the Iesuit undertook it but spent more time in searching out some contrary Evidence which might make for the Pope than in disproving that
which had been brought in behalf of the Queen So that the strugling on both sides much confirmed the Power which they endeavoured to destroy the Power of that Commission being better fortified both by Law and Argument than it had been formerly For by the over-ruling of Cawdrey's Case in confirmation of the Sentence which was past against him and the great pains which Parsons took to so little purpose the Power of that Commission was so well established in the Courts of Judicature that it was afterwards never troubled with the like Disputes The Guides of the Faction therefore are resolved on another course To strike directly at the Root to question the Episcopal Power and the Queen's Authority the Jurisdiction of their Courts the exacting of the Oath called the Oath Ex Officio and their other proceedings in the same And to this purpose it was published in Print by some of their Lawyers or by their directions at the least That men were heavily oppressed in the Ecclesiastical Courts against the Laws of the Realm That the Queen could neither delegate that Authority which was vested in it nor the Commissioners to exercise the same by her delegation That the said Courts could not compel the taking of the Oath called the Oath Ex Officio since no man could be bound in Reason to accuse himself That the said Oath did either draw men into wilful Perjury to the destruction of their souls or to be guilty in a manner of their own condemnation to the loss both of their Fame and Fortunes And finally That the ordinary Episcopal Courts were not to meddle in any Causes whatsoever but only Testamentary and Matrimonial by consequence not in matter of Tythes all Mis-behaviours in the Church or punishing of Incontinency or Fornication Adultery Incest or any the like grievous or enormous Crimes but on the contrary it was affirmed by the Professors of the Civil Laws That to impugn the Authority which had been vested in the Queen by Act of Parliament was nothing in effect but a plain Invasion of the Royal Prerogative the opening of a way to the violation of the Oath of Allegiance and consequently to undermine the whole Frame of the present Government It was proved also That the ordinary Episcopal Courts had kept themselves within their bounds that they might lawfully deal in all such Causes as were then handled in those Courts that their proceedings in the same by the Oath Ex Officio was neither against Conscience Reason nor the Laws of the Land and therefore that the Clamours on the other side were unjust and scandalous In which as many both Divines and Civilians deserved exceeding well both of the Queen and the Church so none more eminently than Dr. Richard Cosins Dean of the Arches in a Learned and Laborious Treatise by him writ and published called An Apology for Proceedings in Courts Ecclesiastical c. Printed in the year 1593. 22. But notwithstanding the Legality of these Proceedings the punishing of some Ring-leaders of the Puritan Faction and the Imprisonment of others a Book comes out under the name of A Petition to Her Majesty The scope and drift whereof was this That the Ecclesiastical Government of the Church of England was to be changed That the Eldership or Presbyterial Discipline was to be established as being the Government which was used in the Primitive Church and commanded to be used in all Ages That the Disciplinarian Faction hath not offended against the Statute 23 Eliz. cap. 2. And That Iohn Vdal was unjustly condemned upon it That the Consistorial Patrons are unjustly slandered with desire of Innovation and their Doctrine with Disorder and Disloyalty And this being said the Author of the Pamphlet makes it his chief business by certain Questions and Articles therein propounded to bring the whole Ecclesiastical State into envy and hatred This gave the Queen a full assurance of the restless Spirit wherewith the Faction was possessed and that no quiet was to be expected from them till they were utterly supprest To which end She gives Order for a Parliament to begin in February for the Enacting of some Laws to restrain those Insolencies with which the Patience of the State had been so long exercised The Puritans on the other side are not out of hope to make some good use of it for themselves presuming more upon the strength of their Party by reason of the Pragmaticalness of some Lawyers in the House of Commons than they had any just ground for as it after proved To which end they prepared some Bills sufficiently destructive of the Royal Interest the Jurisdiction of the Bishops and the whole Form of their Proceedings in their several Courts With which the Queen being made acquainted before their meeting or otherwise suspecting by their former practises what they meant to do She thought it best to strangle those Conceptions in the very Womb. And to that purpose She gave Order for the signification of Her Pleasure to the Lords and Commons at the very first opening of the Parliament That they should not pass beyond their bounds That they should keep themselves to the redressing of such Popular Grievances as were complained of to them in their several Countreys but that they should leave all Matters of State to Her self and the Council and all Matters which concerned the Church unto Her and Her Bishops 23. Which Declaration notwithstanding the Factors for the Puritans are resolved to try their Fortune and to encroach upon the Queen and the Church at once The Queen was always sensible of the Inconveniences which might arise upon the nominating of the next Successor and knew particularly how much the Needle of the Puritans Compass pointed toward the North Which made Her more tender in that Point than She had been formerly But Mr. Peter Wentworth whom before we spake of a great Zealot in behalf of the Holy Discipline had brought one Bromley to his lure and they together deliver a Petition to the Lord Keeper Puckering desiring that the Lords would joyn with them of the Lower-House and become Suppliants to the Queen for entailing of the Succession of the Crown according to a Bill which they had prepared At this the Queen was much displeased as being directly contrary to her strict Command and charged the Lords of the Council to call the said Gentlemen before them and to proceed against them for their disobedience Upon which signification of Her Majesty's Pleasure Sir Thomas Hennage then Vice-Chamberlain and one of the Lords of the Privy-Council convents the Parties reprehends them for their Misdemeanor commands them to forbear the Parliament and not to go out of their several Lodgings until further Order Being afterwards called before the Lord Treasurer Burleigh the Lord Buckhurst and the said Sir Thomas Wentworth is sent unto the Tower Bromley committed unto the Fleet and with him Welsh and Stevens two other Members of that House were committed also as being privy to the Projects of
of the Way yet you think you are in the Right and walk according to that light which God hath given you But I cannot but complain of Mr. Cartwright and all others of his opinion from whom we have received the truth of these things and by whose Books we have been taught that your Calling is Antichristian And yet these men saith he forsake us in our Sufferings against their Consciences and rather chuse to save their lives than go out of Babylon To which when Dr. White objected That those Callings which he reproached as Antichristian had been embraced by Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and divers other godly persons who suffered Martyrdom for their Religion in Queen MARY's days Barrow thus gloriously replies Most true it is quoth he that they and others were Martyrs in Queen MARY's days but these holy Bands of mine and therewith shook his Fetters are much more glorious than any of theirs because they had the Mark of Antichrist in their hands Such was the Fortune of these men that these Learned Doctors could do as little good upon them as Cartwright and his Fellows had done before though to say the truth it had not been in Cartwright's power to have changed their minds unless he had first changed his own And thereupon it was very well said by Dr. Iohn Burges who had been once one of Cartwright's Followers That he was and ever had been of that opinion That no just confutation could be made of the Separatists by any of the Non-Conformists who had given them their Principles That though he had seen some endeavours that way yet did they never satisfie him in point of Conscience That the Arguments published in his time against Conformity were pretended for the grounds of the Separation That the Separatists did pretend their Pedigree from none but the Puritans which no man can deny saith he that hath any Modesty And finally that therefore the Puritans might well call them their dear Brethren of the Separation as Dighton and some others had began to do To bring this business to an end Barrow and Greenwood were brought to Tiburn in a Cart on the last of March and having been exposed for some time to the sight of the people were carried back again to Newgate But no repentance following on the sense of so great a mercy they were both hanged at Tiburn on the sixth of April The other three being reprieved with some hope of pardon as being only accessary to the Crimes of the other 31. In May next following Penry is brought upon his Tryal a man of most Seditious Malice and one of the chief Penners of those scurrilous Libels which had passed under the name of Martin Mar-Prelate But not content with having a hand in those Pestilent Pamphlets but must needs take upon him to be the Inter-Nuncio or common Agent between the Presbyters of Scotland and the English Puritans Having enflamed the Scots unto some Seditions he remained Leidger there till the beginning of Hacket's Treasons and thereupon writes to Arthington to this effect That Reformation must be shortly erected in England And thereupon he makes for London to have play'd his pranks if their Design had took effect it being his hope as possibly it was the hope of all the rest of that Faction That on the Proclamations which were made by Hacket's Prophets the people would have been inciâ—ed to an Insurrection But when he saw those hopes deluded and Hacket executed his guilty Conscience prompted him to fear the like cruel death which hurried him again to Scotland where he remained till the beginning of the Parliament before remembred At what time stealing privately back again towards London we was discovered at Stebunheth commonly called Stepny apprehended by the Vicar there committed Prisoner tryed at the King's-Bench-Barr at Westminster-Hall condemned of Felony on the Statute 23 Eliz. and executed not long after at St. Thomas of Waterings but executed with a very thin company attending on him for fear the Fellow might have raised some Tumult either in going to the Gallows or upon the Ladder But what he could not do when he was alive was put into a way of being effected when the Hang-man had done his office by publishing one of his Seditious Pamphlets entituled The History of Corah Dathan and Abiram applied to the Prelacy and Ministry of the Church of England by Mr. John Penry a Martyr of Iesus Christ as the Pamphlet calls him The Work not finished at the time of his Apprehension but was Printed however by some zealous Brother that he might poyson the Queen's Subjects as well dead as living 32. To which end we are told in the Preface of it by the zealous or rather Seditious Publisher That the Author Mr. Iohn Penry was a Godly man Learned Zealous and of a most Christian Carriage and Courage That he was born and bred in the Mountains of Wales and with all godly care and labour endeavoured to have the Gospel preached amongst his Countrey-men whose case he greatly seemed to pity wanting all the ordinary means for their salvation That being used by God for a special Instrument in the manifestation of his Truth he was hardly entreated imprisoned condemned and executed and so suffered Martyrdom for the Name of Christ. But more particularly That he was adjudged at the King's Bench by Sir Iohn Popham Lord Chief Justice and the rest of the Judges then assembled on the 25 th of the fifth Month and executed at St. Thomas of Waterings near London on the 29 th of the same in the year of our God 1593. And finally That he was not brought to execution the next second or third day as most men expected but that when men did least look for it he was taken while he was at dinner carried in a close manner to his Execution and hastily bereaved of his life without being suffered though he much desired to make a declaration of his Faith towards God or his Allegiance to the Queen And in a Postscript to the same he concludes it thus viz. That he was apprehended adjudged and executed for writing for the Truth of Christ whatsoever other things were pretended against him Let us no longer blame the Papists for making Martyrs of such Priests and Jesuits as suffered death according to the Law of the Land for their several Treasons the Puritans or Presbyterians have their Martyrs also Penry and Hacket and the rest condemned by the same Laws for their Treasons and Felonies And if these men with Barrow Greenwood and the rest who had gone before them must pass in our account for Martyrs because they suffered in pursuance of the Holy Discipline There is no question to be made but Cartwright Snape with such as suffered only by Imprisonment or the loss of their Benefices must be marked for Confessors in the next setting out of Gellibrand's Calender whensoever it be Which as it was the highest honour that any of Cartwright's Friends can pretend to for him
so in himself he seemed not very ambitious of those glorious Attributes which could not otherwise be purchased than at Penry's Price 33. For now perceiving when too late to what calamitous and miserable Ends he had brought his Followers what horrible Confusions had disturbed the whole Church by his obstinate Follies he was contented to knock off and to give way to those Prudential Considerations which the complexion of Affairs did suggest unto him He saw too clearly that there were no more Walsinghams or Leicesters at the Council-Table That the Arch-bishops little finger moved more powerfully there than those few Friends which durst speak for him being put together That the Chief Justice Popham was a man of a ridged nature not to be trifled with or took off from the prosecution if he should come within the compass of the Law And finally that though the Statute made in the last Session seemed chiefly to relate unto the Brethren of the Separation yet there might be some way or other to hook in all the Zealots for the Discipline also if they did any thing in derogation of the present Government Of these Relentings some intelligence had been given to Arch-bishop Whitgift who thereupon resolved to work some impression on him when he found him like a piece of Wax well warmed and thereby sitted to receive it In which Resolution he applies himself unto the Queen from whose Clemency he not only obtained for him a release from Prison but made it the more comfortable by a gracious Pardon for all Errors past He suffered him moreover to return to Warwick where he was Master of the Hospital founded by the Earl of Leicester as before is said and there permitted him to preach though with this condition That he should neither Write nor Preach nor act in any thing to the disturbance of the Church either in reference to her Government or Forms of Worship And though it be affirmed That Cartwright kept himself within those Restrictions yet when the Queen had notice of it she was much displeased and not a little blamed the Arch-bishop for it But he beheld not Cartwright as he had done Travers though both pretending to the Ordination of a Forreign Presbytery For Travers never had any other Hands imposed on him than those of the Presbytery of Antwerp which might stand for nothing But Cartwright was first lawfully ordained in the Church of England the Character whereof could not be obliterated though it might possibly be defaced either by the Rescinding of his Letters of Orders which some say he did or by the super-addition of such other Hands as were laid upon him after the fashion of Geneva Neither was Cartwright so insensible of the Obligation as not to know and to acknowledg by whose Favour he received that Freedom carrying himself from that time forwards to the Arch-bishop both in his Letters and Addresses with as much respect as any of the Regular and Conformable Clergy continuing in that peaceable disposition till the time of his death which hapned about ten years after his enlargement that is to say on the 27 th day of December Anno 1603. 34. But the Arch-bishop stayed not here he knew right well that Punishment without Instruction would not edifie much with men of common understandings and therefore carefully employed both himself and others in giving satisfaction to all doubting-judgments For his own part he wrote this year his long and learned Letter to Theodore Beza which before we spake of and therein calmly laid before him that deplorable Rupture which not without his privity had been made in the Church of England Which point he prest upon him with such Christian Modesty and did withall so clearly justifie this Church in her whole proceedings that Beza could not but confess himself to be conquered by his future carriage which from thenceforth breathed nothing else but Peace to the Church it self and dutiful respects to that Reverend Prelate And for the satisfaction of all Parties interested amongst our selves a Book was published this year also by Dr. Thomas Bilson then Warden of the Colledg near Winchester concerning The perpetual Government of the Church of Christ proving therein That from the time of Christ himself till these latter days neither the Universal Church nor any National or Provincial Church in what place soever had been governed otherwise than by Bishops and their Under-Officers True other Books were published at the same time also by Dr. Richard Bancroft so often mentioned the one for the undeceiving of the people who had been miserably abused by such counterfeit Wares entituled A Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline The other to inform them in the Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised in this Island of Britain under pretence of Reformation c. which was the Title of the Book The like course was also taken for the justification of the Bishops Courts by publishing the Apology of Dr. Cosens before remembred And because Hacket's Treasons had been built on no other Foundation than that the Holy Discipline might be raised upon them a Narrative thereof is penned by Dr. a Doctor of the Civil Laws collected for the most part out of the Letters and Confessions of some Disciplinarians which either had been intercepted or perswaded from them A course exceeding prosperous to all those whom it most concerned For the Arch-bishop by this means went in peace to his Grave Beza was gratified by him with a liberal Pension Bilson within a short while after made Bishop of Winchester Bancroft preferred about the same time to the See of London Cosens for his encouragement made Dean of the Arches 35. And though we find not any Preferment to be given to Cartwright yet was it a Preferment to him to enjoy his Ministry by means whereof he is affirmed to have grown very wealthy partly by the Revenues of his Place in the Hospital and partly by the Bounty and Munificence of his constant Auditors Only it is reported of him that towards his end he was afflicted with many infirmities insomuch that he could not otherwise apply himself unto his Studies than upon his knees which some were willing to impute as a judgment on him for having so bitterly inveighed against all such men as in that reverend and religious posture did receive the Sacrament Some also have informed us of him That notwithstanding all his Clamours and Tumultuous manner of proceedings against the Church he could not chuse but confess there was more Discipline exercised in the Church of England than in any of those Churches beyond Seas which himself had seen Which words as he is said to have spoken to one Mr. Woods then Parson of Freckenham in Norfolk during the time of his imprisonment in the Fleet so the said Woods reported them to Dr. Iohn Burges before-mentioned and from him I have them But I had brought the man to his Grave before and should not have disturbed his rest by these sad
remembrances if the Honour of the Church of England were not some way vindicated as well by the one as by the other Thus as before we brought the Presbyterians in Scotland to their greatest height in seeing their Discipline established by Laws and confirmed by Leagues so have we brought the English Puritans to their lowest fall by divers sharp Laws made against them some severe Executions done upon them for their transgressing of those Laws their principal Leaders humbled or cut off by the Sword of Justice and the whole Mackina of their Devices brought to utter ruine not the less active for all this to advance the Cause though after a more peaceful and more cunning way so much the more dangerous to this Church because less suspected but not so closely carried as to scape discovery And the first practise which they fell upon was this that followeth 36. It hath been an ancient Custom in the City of London to have three solemn Sermons preached on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday in the Easter-week at the place commonly called the Spittle being a dissolved Hospital not far from Bishops-Gate at which the Lord Mayor and Aldermen used to be present in their Robes besides a great concourse of Divines Gentlemen and other Citizens For the performance of which Work a decent Pulpit was erected in an open place which had been part of the Church-yard the ordinary Hearers sitting upon Forms before the Pulpit the Lord Mayor Aldermen and their Wives with other Persons of Quality in two handsome Galleries to which was added in the year 1594 a fair large House for the reception of the Governours and Children of the Hospital founded in the Grey-Fryers who from thenceforth were tyed to attend those Sermons At what time also the old Pulpit was taken down and a new set up with the Preachers face turned toward the South which had before been towards the West for so in former times the Pulpits were generally placed in all Churches of England to the end that the peoples faces in all acts of Worship might look toward the East according to the Custom of the Primitive times Which alteration seemed to be made upon design that without noise or any notice taken of it they might by little and little change the posture of Adoration from the East to the West or any other point of the Compass as their humour served In which first they were showed the way by Sir Walter Mildmay in his Foundation of the Chappel of Emmanuel Colledg 1585. Who being a great favourer of the Puritan Faction gave order for this Chappel to stand North and South and thereby gave example unto others to affect the like Which brings into my mind a Project of Tiberius Gracchus one of the most Seditious of the Roman Tribunes for transferring the Supreme Power of the Commonwealth from the Lords of the Senate to the People For whereas formerly all Orators in the Publick Assemblies used to address their Speeches to the Lords of the Senate as the Supreme Magistrates this Gracchus turned his face to the common people and by that Artifice saith Plutarch transferred unto them the Supreme Majesty of the Roman Empire without Noise or Tumult 37. But it is now time to look back towards Scotland where we left them at their highest and the poor King so fettered or intangled by his own Concessions that he was not able to act any thing in the Kirk and very little in the State He had not very well digested their Refusal to subscribe to His Articles mentioned in the close of the former Book when he held an Assembly at Dundee in the end of April 1593 at what time the King being well informed of the low condition of the English Puritans sent Sir Iames Melvin to them with these two Articles amongst many others In the first of which it was declared That He would not suffer the Priviledg and Honour of his Crown to be diminished and Assemblies to be made when and where they pleased therefore willed them before the dissolution of the present Assembly to send two or three of their number by whom they should know His mind touching the time and place of the next Meeting And in the second it was required That an Act should be made inhibiting Ministers to declaim in the Pulpit against the proceedings of His Majesty and the Lords of His Council which He conceived He had good reason to desire in regard that His Majesty's good intentions were well known to themselves for maintaining Religion and Justice and of the easie access that divers of the Ministry had unto Him by whom they might signifie their Complaints and Grievances To the first of which two Articles they returned this Answer That in their Meetings they would follow the Act of Parliament made by Him in the year preceding And to the second they replyed That they had made an Act prohibiting all Ministers to utter in the Pulpit any rash or irreverent speeches against His Majesty or His Council but to give their Admonitions upon just and necessary Causes in fear love and reverence Which seeming to the King to serve then rather for a colour to excuse their Factiousness than to lay any just restraint upon it He turned a deaf Ear to their Petitions as well concerning his proceeding with the Popish Lords as against the erecting of Tythes into Temporall Lordships In this Assembly also they passed an Act prohibiting all such as professed Religion to traffick in any part of the Dominions of the King of Spain where the Inquisition was in force And this to be observed under the pain of Excommunication till His Majesty could obtain a free Trade for them without fear of any danger to their Goods or Consciences Which being complained of to the King and by Him looked upon as an Intrenchment upon the Royal Prerogative the Merchants were encouraged to proceed as formerly In opposition whereunto the Ministers fulminate their Censures till the Merchants generally made offer to forbear that Trade as soon as their Accounts were made and that their Creditors in those parts had discharged their Debts They pass'd another Order also in the said Assembly for putting down the Monday's Market in the City of Edenborough under pretence that the Sabbath was thereby prophaned Which so displeased the Shoo-makers and other Artificers that they came tumultuously to the Ministers Houses and threatned to turn them out of the City without more ado if ever that Act were put into execution For fear whereof that Project was dashed for ever after and thereby an occasion given unto the Court to affirm this of them That Rascals and Sowters could obtain that at the Ministers hands which the King was not able to do in matters far more just and reasonable To such audaciousness were they grown upon the filly confidence of their own establishment as to put limits upon Trade dispose of Markets and prostitute both King and Council to the lust of their Preachers
About this time one of the Ministers named Rosse uttered divers Treasonable and Irreverent speeches against His Majesty in a Sermon of his preached at Perth for which the King craved Justice of the next Assembly and he required this also of them That to prevent the like for the times ensuing the Ministers should be inhibited by some Publick Order from uttering any irreverent speeches in the Pulpit against His Majesty's Person Council or Estate under the pain of Deprivation This had been often moved before and was now hearkned to with as little care as in former times All which the King got by it was no more but this that Rosse was only admonished to speak so reverently of His Majesty for the time to come as might give no just cause of complaint against him As ill success he had in the next Assembly to which he recommended some Conditions about the passing of the Sentence of Excommunication two of which were to this effect 1. That none should be excommunicated for Civil causes for any Crimes of leight importance or for particular wrongs offered to the Ministers lest the Censure should fall into contempt 2. That no summary Excommunication should be thenceforth used but that lawful citations of the Parties should go before in all manner of Causes whatsoever To both which he received no other Answer but That the Points were of too great weight to be determined on the sudden and should be therefore agitated in the next Assembly In the mean time it was provided That no Summary Excommunication should be used but in such occasions in which the Safety of the Church seemed to be in danger Which Exception much displeased the King knowing that they would serve their turn by it whensoever they pleased Nor sped he better with them when he treated severally than when they were in the Assembly The Queen of England was grown old and he desired to be in good terms with all his Subjects for bearing down all opposition which might be made against his Title after her decease To which end he deals with Robert Bruce a Preacher of Edenborough about the calling home the Popish Lords men of great Power and Credit in their several Countreys who had been banished the last year for holding some intelligence with the Catholick King Bruce excepts only against Huntley whom the King seemed to favour above all the rest and positively declared That the King must lose him if he called home Huntley for that it was impossible to keep them both And yet this Bruce was reckoned for a Moderate man one of the quietest and best-natur'd of all the Pack What was the issue of this business we shall see hereafter 42. In the mean time let us pass over into France and look upon the Actions of the Hugonots there of whose deserting their new King we have spoke of before And though they afterwards afforded him some Supplies both of Men and Money when they perceived him backed by the Queen of England and thereby able to maintain a defensive Warr without their assistance yet they did it in so poor a manner as made him utterly despair of getting his desired Peace by an absolute Victory In which perplexity he beholds his own sad condition his Kingdom wasted by a long and tedious Warr invaded and in part possessed by the Forces of Spain new Leagues encreasing every day both in strength and number and all upon the point of a new Election or otherwise to divide the Provinces amongst themselves To prevent which he reconciles himself to the Church of Rome goes personally to the Mass and in all other publick Offices which concerned Religion conformed himself unto the directions of the Pope And for so doing he gives this account to Wilks the Queen's Ambassador sent purposely to expostulate with him upon this occasion that is to say That Eight hundred of the Nobility and no fewer than Nine Regiments of the Protestant Party who had put themselves into the Service of his Predecessor returned unto their several homes and could not be induced to stay with him upon any perswasions That such of the Protestants as he had taken at the same time to his Privil-Council were so intent on their own business that they seldom vouchsafed their presence at the Council-Table so that being already forsaken by those on whom he relyed and fearing to be forsaken by the Papists also he was forced to run upon that course which unavoidable necessity had compelled him to and finally that being thus necessitated to a change of Religion he rather chose to make it look like his own free Act that he might thereby free the Doctrine of the Protestants from those Aspersions which he conceived must otherwise needs have fallen upon it if that Conversion had been wrought upon him by Dispute and Argument for hearkening whereunto he had bound himself when he first took the Crown upon him If by this means the Hugonots in France shall fall to as low an ebb as the Fortunes of their Brethren did in England at the same time they can lay the blame on nothing but their own Ingratitude their Disobedience to their King and the Genevian Principles that were rooted in them which made them Enemies to the Power and Guidance of all Soveraign Princes But the King being still in heart of his own Religion or at least exceeding favourable to all those that professed the same he willingly passed over all unkindness which had grown between them and by his countenance or connivence gave them such advantages as made them able to dispute the point with his Son and Successor whether they would continue Subjects to the Crown or not 43. In the Low-Countreys all things prospered with the Presbyterians who then thrive best when they involve whole Nations in Blood and Sacriledg By whose example the Calvinians take up Arms in the City of Embden renounce all obedience to their Prince and put themselves into the Form of a Commonwealth This Embden is the principal City of the Earl of East-Friesland situate on the mouth of the River Emns called Amasus by Latin Writers and from thence denominated Beautified with a Haven so deep and large that the greatest Ships with full sail are admitted into it The People rich the Buildings general fair both private and publick especially the Town-Hall and the stately Castle Which last being situate on a rising-ground near the mouth of the Haven and strongly fortified toward the Town had for long time been the Principal Seat of the Earls of that Province The second Earl hereof called Ezard when he had governed this Countrey for the space of sixty years or thereabouts did first begin to introduce the Doctrines of Luther into his Estates Anno 1525. But being old he left the Work to be accomplished by Enno his eldest Son who first succeeded in that Earldom and using the assistance of Hardimbergius a Moderate and Learned man established the Augustine Confession in the
Edctis of the two next Kings for tolerating lawful sports upon that Day and to confirm some of their Sabbatarian Rigors by Act of Parliament 5. From this Design let us proceed to the next which was briefly this When the Genevian-English resolved to erect their Discipline it was thought requisite to prepare the way unto it by introducing the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestinationn that so men's Judgments being formed and possessed by the one they might the more easily be enclined to embrace the other so long connived at by the Supream Governours of the Church and State to which they were exceeding serviceable against the Pope that in the end those Doctrines which at first were counted Aliens came by degrees to be received as Denizens and at last as Natives For being supposed to contain nothing in them contrary to Faith and Manners they were first commended to the Church as probable next imposed as necessary and finally obtruded on the people as her Natural Doctrines And possibly they might in time have found a general entertainment beyond all exception if the Calvinian-spirit being impatient of the least opposition could have permitted other men to enjoy that liberty which they had took unto themselves and not compelled them to Apologize in their own defences and thereby shew the Reasons of dissenting from them One of the first Examples whereof for I pass by the branglings between Champney and Crowley as long since forgotten was the complaint of Travers to the Lords of the Council against incomparable Hooker In whom he faulteth this amongst other things That he had taught another Doctrine of Predestination than what was laid down in the Word of God as it was understood by all the Churches which professed the Gospel To which it was replyed by that learned man That the matter was not uttered by him in a blind Alley where there was none to hear it who either had Judgment or Authority to comptrole the same or covertly insinuated by some gliding sentence but that it was publickly delivered at St. Paul's Cross not hudled in amongst other matters to the end it might pass without observation but that it was opened proved and for some reasonable time insisted on And therefore that he could not see how the Lord Bishop of London that was present at it could either excuse so great a fault or patiently hear without rebuke then and controlement afterwards that any man should preach doctrine contrary to the Word of God especially if the word of God be so understood not by the private interpretation of some as two or three men or by a special construction received in some few Books but as it is understood by all Churches professing the Gospel and therefore even by our own Church amongst the rest 6. This hapned in the year 1591 or thereabouts somewhat before the breakings out of the stirrs at Cambridg occasioned by a a Treatise published by William Perkins a well-known Divine but withall a professed Presbyterian entituled Armilla Aurea or The Golden Chain containing the Order of the Causes of Salvation and Damnation according to the Word of God Maintaining in this Book the Dostrine of the Supra-lapsarians and countenanced therein by Dr. Whitacres the Queen's Professor some opposition was soon made by Dr. Baroe Professor for the Lady Margaret in the same University Which Baroe being by birth a French-man but being very well studied in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers had constantly for the space of more than twenty years maintained a different Doctrine of Predestination from that which had been taught by Calvin and his Disciples but he was never quarrelled for it till the year 1595 and then not quarrelled for it but in the person of one Barret who in a Sermon at St. Maries Church had preached such Doctrines as were not pleasing unto Perkins Whitacre and the rest of that Party For which being questioned and condemned to a Recantation he rather chose to quit his place in the University than to betray his own Judgment and the Church of England by a Retractation The rest of Baroe's Followers not well pleased with these Haâ—sh proceedings begin to show themselves more publickly than before they did which made Baroe think himself obliged to appear more visibly in the head of his Company and to encounter openly with Dr. Whitacre whom he beheld as the Chief Leader of the opposite Forces And the Heats grew so high at last that the Calvinians thought it necessary in point of Prudence to effect that by Power and Favour which they could not obtain by force of Argument To which end they first addressed themselves to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh then being their Chancellor with the disturbances made by Barret thereby preparing him to hearken to such further motions as should be made by them in pursuit of that Quarrel 7. But finding little comfort there they resolved to steer their course by another Compass And having pre-possest the most Reverend Arch-bishop Whitgift with the turbulent carriage of those men the Affionts given to Dr. Whitacre whom for his learned and laborious Writings against Cardinal Bellarmine he most highly favoured and the great Inconveniences like to grow by that publick Discord they gave themselves good hope of composing those differences not by way of an Accommodation but an absolute Conquest And to this end they dispatched to him certain of their number in the name of the rest such as were interested in the Quarrels Dr. Whitacre himself for one and therefore like to stirr hard for obtaining their Ends The Articles to which they had reduced the whole state of the business being ready drawn and there wanting nothing to them but the Face of Authority wherewith as with Medusa's Head to confound their Enemies and turn their Adversaries into stones And that they might be sent back with the Face of Authority the most Reverend Arch-bishop calling unto him Dr. Flecher Bishop of Bristol then newly elected unto London and Dr. Richard Vaughan Lord Elect of Bangor together with Dr. Trindal Dean of Ely Dr. Whitacre and the rest of the Divines which came from Cambridg proposed the said Articles to their consideration at his House in Lambeth on the tenth of November by whom these Articles from thenceforth called the Nine Articles of Lambeth were presently agreed upon and sent down to Cambridg not as the Doctrines of the Church but as a necessary Expedient to compose those differences which had been raised amongst the Students of that University And so much was acknowledged by the Arch-bishop himself when he was questioned by the Queen for his actings in it For so it was that the Queen being made acquainted with all that passed became exceedingly offended at the Innovation and was upon the point of causing all of them to be attainted in a Praemunire but by the mediation of some Friends of Whitgift's and the high opinion which she had of his Parts and Person she was willing to admit him to
he did sends him to see the Boy and Burton that he might learn him to behave himself on the like occasions And finding him at last grown perfect sends him to Nottingham with intimation that he should make mention of him in his Fits Darrel is hereupon made Lecturer of the Town of Nottingham that being the Fish for which he angled as being thought a marvellous Bug to scare the Devil And though he had no lawful Calling in that behalf yet was this given out to be so comfortable a Vocation and so warrantable in the sight of God that very few Ministers have had the like there being no Preacher setled there as he gave it out since her Majesty's Reign as if neither Parsons nor Vicars nor any that bear such Popish Names might pass for Preachers 14. After this he pretends occasion for a journey to Lancashire where he finds seven women possest with Devils and out of every one of them was affirmed to have cast as many as had entred into Mary Magdalen Of this he published a Book Anno 1600 though the Exploit was done in this present year Anno 1597. These things being noised abroad by his Consederates this extraordinary Faculty of casting out Devils was most highly magnified and cryed up both in Sermons and Printed Pamphlets as a Candle lighted by God upon a Candlestick in the heart and Center of the Land And no small hopes were built upon it that it would prove a matter of as great consequence as ever did any such Work that the Lord gave extraordinarily since the time that he restored the Gospel and as profitable to all that profess the knowledg of Jesus Christ. Now what this Plot was may appear by this which is deposed by Mr. More one of Mr. Darrel's great Admirers and Companions viz. That when a Prayer was read out of the Common-Prayer-Book in the hearing of those which were possessed in Lancashire the Devils in them were little moved with it but afterwards when Mr. Darrel and one Mr. Dicon did severally use such Prayers as for the present occasion they had conceived then saith he the wicked Spirits were much more troubled or rather the wicked Spirits did much more torment the Parties So little do premeditated Prayers which are read out of a Book and so extreamly do extemporary and conceived Prayers torment the Devil 15. But Summers at the last grown weary of his frequent Counterfeitings tired out with his possessings dispossessings and repossessings and in that Fit discovers all to be but Forgeries and to have been acted by Confederacy Darrell deals with him to revoke his said Confession seeks to avoid it by some shifts discredits it by false Reports and finally procures a Commission from the Arch-bishop of York to whose Province Nottingham belongeth to examine the business A Commission is thereupon directed to Iohn Thorald Esq Sheriff of the County Sir Iohn Byron Knight Iohn Stanhop c. most of them being Darrell's Friends the Commission executed March 20 no fewer than seventeen Witnesses examined by it and the Return is made That he was no Counterfeit But the Boy stands to it for all that and on the last of the same Month confesseth before the Mayor of Nottingham and certain Justices of the Peace the whole contrivement of the Plot and within three days after acts all his Tricks before the Lord Chief Justice at the publick Assizes Upon this news the Boy of Burton also makes the like Confession Darrell thereupon is convented by the High Commissioners at Lambeth and by them committed his Friends and Partizens upon that Commitment are in no small Fury which notwithstanding he and one of his Associates receive their Censure little or nothing eased by the Exclamations of his Friends and Followers who bitterly inveighed against the Judgment and the Judges too To stiâ—â— whose Clamours so maliciously and unjustly raised the story of these leud Impostors is writ by Harsnet then being the Domestick Chaplain of Arch-bishop Whitgift by whom collected faithfully out of the Depositions of the Parties and Witnesses and published in the year next following Anno. 1599. 16. In the same year brake out the Controversie touching Christ's Descent maintained by the Church of England in the litteral sense that is to say That the Soul of Christ being separated from his Body did locally descend into the nethermost Hell to the end that he might manifest the clear light of his Power and Glory to the Kingdom of Darkness triumphing over Satan as before he did over Death and Sin For which consult the Book of Articles Art 4. the Homily of the Resurrection fol. 195. and Nowel's Paraphrase on that Article as it stands in the Creed published in his Authorized Catechism Anno 1572. But Calvin puts another sense upon that Article and the Genevian-English must do the same For Calvin understands by Christ's descending into Hell that he suffered in his Soul both in the Garden of Gethsemanie and upon the Cross all the Torments of Hell even to abjection from God's Presence and Despair it self Which horrid Blasphemy though balked by many of his Followers in the Forreign Churches was taken up and very zealously promoted by the English Puritans By these men generally it was taught in Catechisms and preached in Pulpits That true it was that the death of Christ Jesus on the Cross and his bloodshedding for the remission of our sins were the first cause of our Redemption But then it was as true withall That he must and did suffer the death of the Soul and those very pains which the damned do in Hell before we could be ransomed from the Wrath of God and that this only was the descent of Christ into Hell which we are taught by Christ to believe But more particularly it was taught by Banister That Christ being dead descended into the place of everlasting Torments where in his Soul he endured for a time the very Torments which the damned Spirits without intermission did abide By Paget in his Latin Catechism That Christ alive upon the Cross humbled himself usque ad Inferni tremenda tormenta even to the most dreadful Torments of Hell By Gifford and the Houshold-Catechism That Christ suffered the Torments of Hell the second death abjection from God and was made a Curse i. e. had the bitter anguish of God's Wrath in his Soul and Body which is the fire that shall never be quenched Carlisle more honestly not daring to avouch this Doctrine nor to run cross against the Dictates of his Master affirmed That Christ descended not into Hell at all and therefore that this Article might be thought no otherwise than as an Error and a Fable 17. The Doctrine of the Church being thus openly rejected upon some Conference that passed between Arch-bishop Whitgift and Dr. Thomas Bilson then Bishop of Winchester it was resolved That Bishop Bilson in some Sermons at St. Paul's Cross and other places should publickly deliver what the Scriptures teach touching our
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
Street cryed out so loud that he was heard by all the Lords and Gentlemen of his Retinue who thereupon prepared themselves for his assistance In the pursuit whereof the Earl himself is killed by Eveskin as he was making haste to help his Brother and Alexander is dispatched by Ramsey one of the King's Pages who being acquainted with the House came by the back-stairs time enough to preserve his Master Of this great Danger and Deliverance the King gives notice to all his Subjects desiring them to joyn with him in thanks to Almighty God for so great a Mercy which was accordingly performed by all honest men but the whole Story disbelieved discredited mis-reported by the Presbyterians whom it concerned to wash their hands of so foul a Treason And how far they were Parties in it or at least well-wishers to it may appear by this That when the Ministers of Edenborough were desired to convene their people and give God thanks for this deliverance of the King they excused themselves as not being well acquainted with all particulars And when it was replyed unto them That they were only required to make known to the people That the King had escaped a great Danger and to excite them to Thansgiving for his deliverance They answered That they were not very well satisfied in the truth of the matter That nothing was to be delivered in the Pulpit the truth whereof was not certainly known and that they were to utter nothing in that place but that which migh be spoke in Faith On which Refusal it was ordered by the Lords of the Council That the people should be drawn together into the Market-place That the Bishop of Ross should make a Declaration of the whole Design and therewithall conceive a Prayer of Thanksgiving for the King's Deliverance Which was performed on his part with a true affection and entertained by the people with great joy and gladness 37. But the whole Nation was not so besotted by the Presbyterians as either to dispute the Story or despise the Mercy Which wrought so far upon the Consciences of all honest men that in a Parliament held at Edenborough in November following the Estate of Goury was confiscate his Sons disherited the Name of Ruthen utterly abolished but the last dispenced with the bodies of the two Brothers brought to Edenborough there hanged and quartered the Heads of both being fixed upon the top of the Common Prison and finally The Fifth of August ordained by Act of Parliament for a Day of Thanksgiving in all times succeeding The like done also two years after at a General Assembly of the Ministers of the Church held in Haly-Rood-House as to the Day of Thanksgiving which they decreed to be kept solemnly from thenceforth in all the Churches of that Kingdom And it was well they did it then the King not venturing the Proposal to them in the year fore-going when they assembled at Burnt-Island whether in reference to some indisposition of Body which he found in himself or rather of some greater indisposition of Mind which he found in them But now it went clearly for him without contradiction as did some other things propounded to their consideration His Ey now looks unto the Crown of England and he resolved to bring the Churches of both Kingdoms to an Uniformity but so to do it as might make neither noise nor trouble The solemnizing of Marriage had been prohibited on Sundays by the Rules of the Discipline but by an Order made in the present Assembly it was indifferently permitted on all days alike Sundays as well as other days at the will of the Parties Before this time the Sacrament of Baptism was not administred but only at the times of Preaching on some opinion which they had of the indifferency or at the least the non-necessity thereof But now it was ordained with a joynt consent That the Ministers should not refuse the Sacrament of Baptism to Infants nor delay the same upon whatsoever pretext the same being required by the Parents or others in their name Which brought them two steps nearer to the Church of England than before they were 38. It was not long after the end of this Assembly when the King received Intelligence of Queen Elizabeth's death and of the general acknowledgment of his Succession both by Peers and People This puts him on a preparation for a Journey to England where he is joyfully received and found no small contentment in the change of his Fortunes here sitting amongst Grave Learned and Reverend men not as before a King without State without Honour without Order where Beardless Boys would every day brave him to his face where Jack and Tom and Will and Dick did at their pleasures cenâ—â—re the proceedings of him and his Council where Will stood up and said he would have it thus and Dick replied Nay marry but it shall be so as he describes their carriage in the Conference at Hampton-Court p. 4. and 80. So leaves he Scotland and the Puritans there with this Character of them recorded in the Preface of his Book called Basilicon Doron in which he paints them out as people which refusing to be called Anabaptists too much participated of their Humours not only agreeing with them in their General Rule the contempt of the Civil Magistrate and in leaning to their own Dreams Imaginations and Revelations but particularly in accounting all men prophane that agree not to their Fancies in making for every particular Question of the Polity of the Church as much Commotion as if the Article of the Trinity was called in question in making the Scripture to be ruled by their Conscience and not their Conscience by the Scripture in accounting every body Ethnicus Publicanus not worthy to enjoy the benefit of breathing much less to participate with them in the Sacraments that denies the least jot of their Grounds and in suffering King People Law and all to be trod under foot before the least jot of their Grounds be impugned in preferring such Holy Warrs to an Vngodly Peace not only in resisting Christian Princes but denying to pray for them for Prayer must come by Faith and it is not revealed that God will bear their Prayers for such a Prince To which He adds this Clause in the Book it self viz. That they used commonly to tell the people in their Sermons That all Kings and Princes were naturally Enemies to the Liberty of the Church and could never patiently bear the Yoak of Christ. And thereupon he gives this Counsel to the Prince To take heed all of such Puritans whom he calls the very Pests of the Church and Commonwealth whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations the square of their Conscience protesting before the Great God That he should never find in any Highlander baser Thieves greater Ingratitude and more Lyes and vile
least that Enormities might be redressed as namely That Excommunication might not come forth under the name of Lay-persons Chancellors Officials c. That men be not excommunicated for Trifles and Twelve-penny matters That none be excommunicated without consent of his Pastors That the Officers be not suffered to extort unreasonable Fees That none having Jurisdiction or a Register's Place put the same to Farm That divers Popish Canons as for restraint of Marriage at certain times be reversed That the length of Suits in Ecclesiastical Courts which hung sometimes two three four five six seven years may be restrained That the Oath Ex Officio whereby men are forced to accuse themselves be more sparingly used That Licenses for Marriages without being Asked may be more sparingly granted 4. And here it is to be observed that though there was not one word in this Petition either against Episcopal Government or Set-forms of Prayer yet the design thereof was against them both For if so many of the Branches had been lopped at once the Body of the Tree must needs have rotted and consumed in a short time after The two Universities on the contrary were no less zealous for keeping up the Discipline and Liturgy of the Church then by Law established And to that end it was proposed and passed at Cambridg on the ninth of Iune That whosoever should oppose by word or writing either the Doctrine or the Discipline of the Church of England or any part thereof whatsoever within the Verge and Limits of the same University otherwise than in the way of Disputation he should be actually suspended from all Degrees already taken and utterly disabled for taking any in the time to come They resolved also to return an Answer to the said Petition but understanding that the University of Oxon was in hand therewith and had made a good progress in the same they laid by that purpose congratulating with their Sister-University for her forwardness in it as appears plainly by their Letter of the 7 th of October All this was known unto the King but he resolved to answer them in another way and to that end designed a Conference between the Parties A Conference much desired by those of the Puritan Faction in Queen Elizabeth's time who could not be induced to grant it knowing full well how much it tended to the ruin of all publick Government that matters once established in due form of Law should be made subject to Disputes But K. IAMES either out of a desire of his own satisfaction or to shew his great Abilities in Judgment Oratory and Discourse resolved upon it and accordingly gave Order for it To which end certain Delegates of each Party were appointed to attend upon Him at His Royal Palace of Hampton-Court on the 14 th of Ianuary then next following there to debate the Heads of the said Petition and to abide his Majesty's Pleasure and Determination At what time there attended on behalf of the Church the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Bishop of London the Bishops of Durham Winchester Worcester St. Davids Chichester Carlisle and Peterborough The Dean of the Chappel Westminster Christ-Church Pauls Worcester Salisbury Chester and Windsor together with Dr. King Arch-Deacon of Nottingham and Dr. Feild who afterwards was Dean of Glocester Apparelled all of them in their Robes and Habits peculiar to their several Orders 5. There appeared also in the behalf of the Millenaries Dr. Iohn Reynolds and Dr. Thomas Spark of Oxford Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Knewstubs of Cambridg Apparelld neither in Priest's Gowns or Canonical Coats but in such Gowns as were then commonly worn in reference to the form and fashion of them by the Turkey Merchants as if they had subscribed to the Opinion of old T. C. That we ought rather to conform in all outward Ceremonies to the Turks than the Papists Great hopes they gave themselves for setling the Calvinian Doctrines in the Church of England and altering so much in the Polity and Forms of Worship as might bring it nearer by some steps to the Church of Geneva In reference to the first it was much prest by Dr. Reynolds in the name of the rest That the Nine Articles of Lambeth which he entituled by the name of Orthodoxal Assertions might be received amongst the Articles of the Church But this Request upon a true account of the state of that business was by that prudent King rejected with as great a constancy as formerly the Articles themselves had been suppressed under Queen ELIZABETH It was moved also That these words neither totally nor finally might be inserted in the Sixteenth Article of the publick Confession to the intent that the Article so explained might speak in favour of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Doctrine concerning the impossibility of falling from the state of Grace and Justification Which Proposition gave a just occasion to Bishop Bancroft to speak his sense of the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination which he called in plain terms a desperate Doctrine Upon whose interposings in that particular and a short Declaration made by the Dean of St. Pauls touching some Heats which had been raised in Cambridg in pursuit thereof this second Motion proved as fruitless as the first had done 6. Nor sped they better in relation to the Forms of Worship than they had done in reference unto points of Doctrine some pains they took in crying down the Surplice and the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage and the Interrogatories proposed to Infants And somewhat also was observed touching some Errors in the old Translation of the English Psalter as also in the Gospels and Epistles as they stood in the Liturgy But their Objections were so stale and so often answered that the Bishops and Conformable Party went away with an easie Victory not only the King's Majesty but the Lords of his Council being abundantly well satisfied in such former scruples as had been raised against the Church and the Orders of it The sum and substance of which Conference collected by the hand of Dr. Barlow then Dean of Chester can hardly be abbreviated to a lesser compass without great injury to the King and the Conferrees Let it suffice that this great Mountain which had raised so much expectation was delivered only of a Mouse The Millenary Plaintifs have gained nothing by their fruitless travel but the expounding of the word Absolution by Remission of sins the qualifying of the Rubrick about private Baptism the adding of some Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany and of some Questions and Answers in the close of the Catechism But on the other side the Brethren lost so much in their Reputation that the King was very well satisfied in the weakness of their Objections and the Injustice of their Cavils insomuch that turning his head towards some of the Lords If this be all quoth he which they have to say I will either make them conform themselves or hurry them out of the Land or
as the President of it By whose great industry and indefatigable pains a Body of Canons was collected to the number of One hundred forty one out of the Articles Injunctions and Synodical Acts during the Reigns of Queen ELIZABETH and K. EDWARD the sixth Which being methodically digested approved of in the Convocation and ratified by his Majesty's Letters Patents in due form of Law were stoutly put in execution by the said Dr. Bancroft translated to the See of Canterbury in the Month of December Anno 1604. 10. And to say truth it did concern him to be resolute in that prosecution considering how strict a Bond was made by many of the Brethren when they agreed unto the drawing of the former Petition by which they bound themselves not only to seek redress of those Particulars which are comprehended in the same but that the state of the Church might be reformed in all things needful according to the Rule of God's holy Word and agreeable to the example of other Reformed Churches which had restored both their Doctrine and Discipline as it was delivered by our Saviour Christ and his holy Apostles And how far that might reach none knew better than he who in his Note of Dangerous Positions and Proceedings and his Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline had founded the depth of their Designs and found that nothing could ensue upon their Positions but a most unavoidable ruin to the Church and State He had observed with what a peevish malice they had libelled against Arch-bishop Whitgift a Prelate of a meek and moderate spirit after his decease and could not but expect a worse dealing from them which he after found by how much he had handled them more coarsly than his Predecessor For though the Lords had showed their Zeal unto the memory of that famous Prelate by the severe punishment of Pickering who made the Libel yet well he knew that the terror of that Punishment would be quickly over if a hard hand were not also kept upon all the rest And for keeping a hard hand upon all the rest he was encouraged by the words of K. IAMES at the end of the Conference when he affirmed That he would either make the Puritans conform themselves or else would hurry them out of the Land or do that which was worse Upon which grounds he sets himself upon the Work requires a strict Conformity to the Rules of the Church according to the Laws and Canons in that behalf and without sparing Non-conformists or Half-Conformists at last reduced them to that point That they must either leave their Churches or obey the Church The Aultar of Damascus tells us if we may believe him That no fewer than Three hundred Preaching-Ministers were either silenced or deprived upon that account But the Authors of that Book whosoever they were who use sometimes to strain at Gnats and swallow a Camel at other times can make a Mountain of a Mole-hill if it stand in their way For it appears upon the Rolls brought in by Bishop Bancroft before his death that there had been but Forty nine deprived upon all occasions which in a Realm containing Nine thousand Parishes could be no great matter But so it was that by the punishment of some few of the Principals he struck such a general terror into all the rest that Inconformity grew out of fashion in a lesse time than could be easily imagined 11. Hereupon followed a great alteration in the Face of Religion more Churches beautified and repaired in this short time of his Government than had been in many years before The Liturgy more solemnly officiated by the Priests and more religiously attended by the common people the Fasts and Festivals more punctually observed by both than of later times Coaps brought again inâ—to the Service of the Church the Surplice generally worn without doubt or haesitancy and all things in a manner are reduced to the same estate in which they had been first setled under Queen ELIZABETH which though it much redounded to the Honour of the Church of England yet gave it no small trouble to some sticklers for the Puritan Faction exprest in many scandalous Libels and seditious railings in which this Reverend Prelate suffered both alive and dead Some who had formerly subscribed but not without some secret evasion or mental reservation which they kept to themselves are now required to testifie their Conformity by a new subscription in which it was to be declared that they did willingly ex animo subscribe to the three Articles formerly tendred to the Clergy under Arch-bishop Whitgift but now incorporated into the thirty six Canons and to all things in the same contained Which leaving them no starting-hole either for practising those Rites and Ceremonies which they did not approve or for approving that which they meant not to practise as they had done formerly occasioned many of them to forsake their Benefices rather than to subscribe according to the true intention of the Church in the said three Articles Amongst which none more eminent than Dr. Iohn Burges beneficed at that time in Lincoln Diocess who for some passages in a Sermon preached before the King on the 19 th of Iune 1604 was committed Prisoner and being then required by the Bishop of London to subscribe those Articles he absolutely made refusal of it and presently thereupon resigned his Benefice the reasons whereof he gives in a long Letter to Dr. William Chatterton then Bishop of Lincoln He applied himself also both by Letter and Petition to his Sacred Majesty clearing himself from all intention of preaching any thing in that Sermon which might give any just offence and humbly praying for a restitution not to his Church but only to his Majesty's Favour Which gained so far upon the King that he admitted him not long after to a personal Conference recovered him unto his station in the Church from which he was fallen and finally occasioned his preferring to the Rectory of Colshill in the County of Warwick After which he became a profest Champion of the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England both which he justified against all the Cavils of the Non-conformists as appears by a Learned Book of his entituled An Answer rejoyned to the applauded Pamphlet c. published in the year 1631. 12. But the gaining of this man did not still the rest For presently on the neck of this comes out a Factious Pamphlet published by the Lincoln-shire-Ministers which they call The Abridgment containing the sum and substance of all those Objections which either then were or formerly had been made against the Church in reference to Doctrine Government or Forms of Worship Concerning which it is observed by the said Dr. Burges That he found the state of the Questions to be very much altered in the same that Cartwright and the rest in the times fore-going though they had sharpned both their Wits and Pens against the Ceremonies opposed them as inconvenient only
but not unlawful That therefore they endeavoured to perswade the Ministers rather to conform themselves than to leave their Flocks the people rather to receive the Communion kneeling than not to receive the same at all but that the Authors of that Book and some other Pamphlets pronounced them to be simply unlawful neither to be imposed nor used some of them thinking it a great part of godliness to cast off the Surplice and commanded their Children so to do This made the Bishops far more earnest to reduce them to a present Conformity than otherwise they might have been though by so doing they encreased those discontentments the seeds whereof were sown at the end of the Conference All this the Papists well observed and rejoyced at it intending in the carrying on of the Gun-powder Treason to lay the guilt thereof on the Puritans only But the King and his Council mined with them and undermined them and by so doing blew them up in their own Invention the Traytors being discovered condemned and executed as they most justly had deserved But this Design which was intended for a ruin of the Puritan Faction proved in conclusion very advantagious to their Ends and Purposes For the King being throughly terrified with the apprehension of so great a danger turned all his thoughts upon the Papists and was content to let the Puritans take breath and regain some strength that they might serve him for a counterpoise against the other as afterwards he gave some countenance to the Popish Party when he perceived the opposite Faction to be grown too head-strong Nor were the Puritans wanting to themselves upon this occasion but entertained the Court and Countrey with continual fears of some new dangers from the Papists and by appearance of much zeal for the true Religion and no less care for the preserving of their common Liberty against the encroachments of the Court came by degrees to make a Party in the House of Commons And hereunto K. IAMES unwittingly contributed his assistance also who being intent upon uniting the two Kingdoms by Act of Parliament suffered the Commons to expatiate in Rhetorical Speeches to call in question the extent of his Royal Prerogative to embrue many Church-concernments and to dispute the Power of the High-Commission By means whereof they came at last to such an height that the King was able in the end to do nothing in Parliament but as he courted and applyed himself to this popular Faction 13. Worse fared it with the Brethren of the Separation who had retired themselves unto Amsterdam in the former Reign than with their first Founders and Fore-fathers in the Church of England For having broken in sunder the bond of peace they found no possibility of preserving the spirit of unity one Separation growing continually on the neck of another till they were crumbled into nothing The Brethren of the first Separation had found fault with the Church of England for reading Prayers and Homilies as they lay in the Book and not admitting the Presbytery to take place amongst them But the Brethren of the second Separation take as much distaste against retaining all set-forms of Hymns and Psalms committing their Conceptions both in Praying and Prophesying to the help of Memory and did as much abominate Presbytery as the other liked it For first They pre-suppose for granted as they safely might that there be three kinds of Spiritual Worship Praying Prophesying and Singing of Psalms and then subjoyn this Maxim in which all agreed that is to say That there is the same reason of Helps in all the parts of Spiritual Worship as is to be admitted in any one during the performing of that Worship Upon which ground they charge it home on their fellow-Separatists That as in Prayer the Book is to be laid aside by the confession of the ancient Brethren of the Separation so must it also be in Prophesying and Singing of Psalms and therefore whether we pray or sing or prophesie it is not to be from the Book but out of the heart For Prophesying next they tell us that the Spirit is quenched two manner of ways by Memory as well as Reading And to make known how little use there is of Memory in the Act of Prophesying or Preaching they tell us That the citing of Chapter and Verse as not being used by Christ and his Apostles in their Sermons or Writings is a mark of Antichrist And as for Psalms which make the Third part of Spiritual Worship they propose these Queries 1. Whether in a Psalm a man must be tyed to Meeter Rythme and Tune and Whether Voluntary be not as necessary in Tune and Words as well as Matter And 2. Whether Meeter Rythme and Tune be not quenching the Spirit 14. According to which Resolution of the New Separation every man when the Congregation shall be met together may first conceive his own Matter in the Act of Praising deliver it in Prose or Meeter as he lists himself and in the same instant chant out in what Tune soever that which comes first into his own head Which would be such a horrible confusion of Tongues and Voices that hardly any howling or gnashing of teeth can be like unto it And yet it follows so directly on the former Principles that if we banish all set-forms of Common-Prayer which is but only one part of God's Publick Worship from the use of the Church we cannot but in Justice and in Reason both banish all studied and premeditated Sermons from the House of God and utterly cast out all King David's Psalms whether in Prose or Meeter that comes all to one and all Divine Hymns also into the bargain Finally as to Forms of Government they declared thus or to this purpose at the least if my memory fail not That as they which live under the Tyranny of the Pope and Cardinals worship the very Beast it self and they which live under the Government of Arch-bishops and Bishops do worship the Image of the Beast so they which willingly obey the Reformed Presbytery of Pastors Elders and Deacons worship the shadow of that Image To such ridiculous Follies are men commonly brought when once presuming on some New Light to direct their Actions they suffer themselves to be mis-guided by the Ignis fatuus of their own Inventions And in this posture stood the Brethren of the Separation Anno 1606 when Smith first published his Book of the present differences between the Churches of the Separation as he honestly calls them But afterwards there grew another great dispute between Ainsworth and Broughton Whether the colour of Aaron's Linnen Ephod were of Blew or a Sea-water Green Which did not only trouble all the Dyers in Amsterdam but drew their several Followers into Sides and Factions and made good sport to all the World but themselves alone By reason of which Divisions and Sub-divisions they fell at last into so many Fractions that one of them in the end became a Church of himself and
having none to joyn in Opinion with him baptized himself and thereby got the name of a Se-baptist which never any Sectary or Heretick had obtained before 15. It fell not out much otherwise in the Belgick Provinces with those of the Calvinian Judgment who then began to find some diminution of that Power and Credit wherewith they carried all before them in the times preceding Iunius a very moderate and learned man and one of the Professors for Divinity in the Schools of Leyden departed out of this life in the same year also into whose Place the Overseers or Curators as they call them of that University made choice of Iacob Van Harmine a man of equal Learning and no less Piety He had for fifteen years before been Pastor as they love to phrase it to the great Church of Amsterdam the chief City of Holland during which time he published his Discourse against the Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Perkins who at that time had printed his Armilla Aurea and therein justified all the Rigours of the Supra-lapsarians Encouraged with his good success in this Adventure he undertakes a Conference on the same Argument with the Learned Iunius one of the Sub-lapsarian Judgment the sum whereof being spread abroad in several Papers was afterward set forth by the name of Amica Collatio By means whereof as he attained a great esteem with all moderate men so he exceedingly exasperated most of the Calvinian Ministers who thereupon opposed his coming to Leyden with their utmost power accusing him of Heterodoxies and unsound Opinions to the Council of Holland But the Curators being constant in their Resolutions and Harmin having purged himself from all Crimes objected before his Judges at the Hague he is dispatched for Leyden admitted by the University and confirmed by the Estate Towards which the Testimonial-Letters sent from Amsterdam did not help a little in which he stands commended for a man of an unblamable life sound Doctrine and fair behaviour as by their Letters may appear exemplified in an Oration which was made at his Funeral 16. By which Attractives he prevailed as much amongst the Students of Leyden as he had done amongst the Merchants at Amsterdam For during the short time of his sitting in the Chair of Leyden he drew unto him a great part of that University who by the Piety of the man his powerful Arguments his extream diligence in that place and the clear light of Reason which appeared in all his Discourses became so wedded at the last unto his Opinions that no time or trouble could divorce them from Harmin Dying in the year 1609 the Heats betwixt his Scholars and those of a contrary Perswasion were rather encreased than abated the more encreased for want of such prudent Moderators as had before preserved the Churches from a publick Rupture The breach between them growing wider and wider each side thought fit to seek the countenance of the State and they did accordingly For in the year 1610 the Followers of Arminius address their Remonstrance containing the Antiquity of their Doctrines and the substance of them to the States of Holland which was encountred presently by a Contra-Remonstrance exhibited by those of Calvin's Party from hence the Name of Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants so frequent in their Books and Writings Which though it brought some trouble for the present on the Churches of Holland conduced much more to the advantage of the Church of England whose Doctrine in those points had been so over-born if not quite suppressed by those of the Calvinian Party that it was almost reckoned for a Heresie to be sound and Orthodox according to the tenour of the Book of Articles and other publick Monuments of the Religion here by Law established For being awakened by the noise of the Belgick Troubles most men began to look about them to search more narrowly into the Doctrines of the Church and by degrees to propagate maintain and teach them against all Opposers as shall appear more largely and particularly in another place 17. At the same time more troubles were projected in the Realm of Sweden Prince Sigismund the eldest Son of Iohn and the Grand-child of Gustavus Ericus the first King of that Family was in his Father's life-time chosen King of Poland in reference to his Mother the Lady Catherine Sister to SIGISMVND the Second But either being better pleased with the Court of Poland or not permitted by that people to go out of the Kingdom he left the Government of Sweden to his Unkle CHARLES a Prince of no small Courage but of more Ambition At first he governed all Affairs as Lord Deputy only but practised by degrees the exercise of a greater Power than was belonging to a Vice-Roy Finding the Lutherans not so favourable unto his Designs as he conceived that he had merited by his Favours to them he raised up a Calvinian Party within the Realm according to whose Principles he began first to withdraw his obedience from his Natural Prince and after to assume the Government to himself But first he suffers all Affairs to fall into great Disorders the Realm to be invaded by the Muscovites on the one side by the Danes on the other that so the people might be cast on some necessity of putting themselves absolutely under his protection In which distractions he is earnestly solicited by all sorts of people except only those of his own Party to accept the Crown which he consents to at the last as if forced unto it by the necessities of his Countrey But he so play'd his Game withall that he would neither take the same nor protect the Subjects till a Law was made for entailing the Crown for ever unto his Posterity whether Male or Female as an Hereditary Kingdom In all which Plots and Purposes he thrived so luckily if to usurp another Prince's Realm may be called Good luck that after a long Warr and some Bloody Victories he forced his Nephew to desist from all further Enterprises and was Crowned King at Stockholm in the year 1607 But as he got this Kingdom by no better Title than of Force and Fraud so by the same the Daughter of his Son Gustavus Adolphus was divested of it partly compelled and partly cheated out of her Estate So soon expired the Race of this great Politician that many thousands of that people who saw the first beginning of it lived to see the end 18. Such Fortune also had the French Calvinians in their glorious Projects though afterwards it turned to their destruction For in the year 1603 they held a general Synod at Gappe in Daulphine anciently the chief City of the Apencenses and at this time a Bishop's-See Nothing more memorable in this Synod as to points of Doctrine than that it was determined for an Article of their Faith That the Pope was Antichrist But far more memorable was it for their Usurpations on the Civil Power For at this Meeting they gave Audience to
the Ambassadors of some Forreign States as if they had been a Common-wealth distinct from the Realm of France More than which they audaciously importuned the King of whose affection to them they presumed too far by their several Agents for liberty of going wheresoever they listed or sending whomsoever they pleased to the Councils and Assemblies of all Neighbouring-Estates and Nations which profest the same Religion with them This though it had not been the first was looked on as their greatest encroachment on the Royal Authority which in conclusion proved the ruin of their Cause and Party For what else could this aim at as was well observed by the King then reigning but to make themselves a State distinct and independent to raise up a new Commonwealth in the midst of a Kingdom and to make the Schism as great in Civil as in Sacred matters Which wrought so far upoa the Councils of his next Successor who had not been trained up amongst them as his Father was that he resolved to call them to a sober reckoning on the next occasion and to deprive them all at once of those Powers and Priviledges which they so wantonly abused unto his disturbance Of which we shall speak more hereafter in its proper place In the mean time let us cross over into Scotland where all Assairs moved retrograde and seemed to threaten a relapse to their old Confusions A general Assembly had been intimated to be held at Aberdeen in the Month of Iuly Anno 1604 which by reason that the King was wholly taken up with effecting the Union was adjourned to the same Month in the year next following In the mean season some of the more Factious Ministers hoping to raise no small advantage to themselves and their Party by the absence of so many persons of most Power and Credit began to entertain new Counsels for the unravelling of that Web which the King had lately wrought with such care and cunning The King hears of it and gives Order to suspend the Meeting till his further Pleasure were declared Wherein he was so far obeyed by the major part that of the fifty Presbyteries into which the whole Kingdom was divided Anno 1592 nine only sent Commissioners to attend at Aberdeen When the day came the Meeting was so thin and slender that there appeared not above one and twenty when they were at the fullest But they were such as were resolved to stand stoutly to it each man conceiving himself able in the Cause of God to make resistance to an Army The Laird of Lowreston commands them in the King's Name to return to their Houses to discontinue that unlawful Assembly and not to meet on any publick occasion which concerned the Church but by his Majesty's Appointment They answer That they were assembled at that time and place according to the word of God and the Laws of the Land and that they would not betray the Liberties of the Kirk of Scotland by obeying such unlawful Prohibitions Which said and having desired him to withdraw a while they made choice of one Forbes for their Moderator and so adjourned themselves to September following Lowreston thereupon denounced them Rebels and fearing that some new affront might be put upon him and consequently on the King in whose Name he acted he seeks for Remedy and Prevention to the Lords of the Council Forbes and Welch the two chief sticklers in the Cause are by them convented and not abating any thing of their former obstinacy are both sent Prisoners unto Blackness A day is given for the appearance of the rest which was the third day of October at what time thirteen of the number made acknowledgment of their offence and humbly supplicated that their Lordships would endeavour to procure their Pardon the rest remaining in their disobedience are by the Lords disposed of into several Prisons 19. But these proceedings did so little edifie with that stubborn Faction that the Lords of the Council were condemned for their just severity and all their Actings made to aim at no other end but by degrees to introduce the Rights and Ceremonies of the Church of England The King endeavours by a Declaration to undeceive his good people and reclaim these obstinate persons from the ways of ruin and intimates withall that a new Assembly should be held at Dundee in the Iuly following But this prevails as little as the former course Which puts the business on so far that either the King must be conformable to their present humour or they submit themselves to the King 's just Power The Lords resolve upon the last command them to appear at the Council-Table to receive their Sentence and nominated the 24 th of October for the Day of Doom Accordingly they came but they came prepared having subscribed a publick Instrument under all their hands by which they absolutely decline the Judgment of the King and Council as altogether incompetent and put themselves upon the tryal of the next Assembly as their lawful Judg. Before they were convented only for their Disobedience but by this Declinator they have made themselves Traytors The King is certified of all this and being resolved upon the maintenance of his own Authority gave order That the Law should pass upon them according to the Statute made in Parliament Anno 1584. Hereupon Forbes Welch Duncam Sharp Davie Straghan are removed from Blackness arraigned at an Assize held in Linlithgoe found guilty by the Jury and condemned to death but all of them returned to their several Prisons till the King's Pleasure should be known for their Execution The Melvins and some other of the principal Zealots caused Prayers and Supplications to be made in behalf of the Traytors though they had generally refused to perform that office when the King's Mother was upon the point of losing her life upon a more unwarrantable Sentence of Condemnation This brought forth first a Proclamation inhibiting all Ministers to recommend the condemned persons unto God in their Prayers or Sermons and afterwards a Letter to some Chiefs amongst them for waiting on His Majesty at the Court in England where they should be admitted to a publick Conference and have the King to be their Judg. 20. Upon this Summons there appear in behalf of the Church the Arch-bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow the Bishops of Orkney and Galloway together with Nicolson the designed Bishop of Dunkeeden And for the Kirk the two Melvins Colt Carmichall Scot Balfour and Watson The place appointed for the Conference was Hampton-Court at which they all attended on Septemb. 20. But the Kirk-Party came resolved neither to satisfie the King nor be satisfied by him though he endeavoured all fit ways for their information To which end he appointed four Eminent and Learned Prelates to preach before them in their turns the first of which was Dr. Barlow then Bishop of Rochester who learnedly asserted the Episcopal Power out of those words to the Elders at Ephesus recorded Acts 20.
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
esteem for his Parts and Piety and setled all things as they thought in so good a posture that some of them retired to their Countrey-houses and others slackned their attendance about the Court. Which opportunity being taken by the Earl of Dunbar he puts in for Abbot who had attended him in some of his Negotiations with the Kirk of Scotland Upon the merits of which Service he was preferred first to the See of Litchfield to which he received his Episcopal Consecration on the third of December 1609 and within the compass of the year was removed to London But Dunbar was resolved to advance him higher And he put in so powerfully on his behalf that at last he carried it to the great detriment of the Church as it after proved For as one very well observeth of him he seemed to be better qualified with merit to attain the Dignity than with a spirit answerable to so great a Function Which made him slack and negligent in the course of his Government and too indulgent to that Party which Bancroft had kept under with such just severity But take his Character in the words of the said Historian and we shall find that he was a man too facil and yeelding in the exercise of that great Office that by his extraordinary remisness in not exacting strict conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremony he seemed to resolve those Legal determinations to their first indifferency and finally That he brought in such a habiâ— of Nonconformity that the future reduction of those tender Conscienced-men to a long discontinued obedience was at the last interpreted for an Innovation 27. But to go forwards where we left Bancroft being dead the English Puritans began to put forth again not pushing at the Liturgy and Episcopal Government as in former times but in pursuance of the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigors Which having been advanced in the year 1595 as is there declared and afterward laid aside till a fitter season were now thought fit to be resumed as the most proper Mediums for inferring the desired Conclusion In both which they received some countenance from K. IAMES himself but more from the connivence if I may not call it the encouragement of the new Arch-bishop In reference to the first the King had published a Proclamation in the first year of his Reign prohibiting some rude and disorderly Pastimes as namely Ball Baitings Bear-baitings and common Interludes from being followed on the Sunday because they drew away much people from God's publick Service And he had caused the Morality of the Lord's-day-Sabbath to be confâ—â—â—ed amongst the rest of the Irish Articles Anno 1615 of which more anon Which Condescentions were so husbanded by the Puritan Faction that by the raising of the Sabbath they depressed the Festivals and with the Festivals all those ancient and Annual Fasts which had been kept upon the Eves And following close upon the Doctrines of Aerius before remembred they introduced by little and little a general neglect of the Weekly Fasts the holy time of Lent and the Embring-days reducing all the Acts of Humiliation to solemn and occasional Fasts as amongst the Scots and yet this was not all the mischief which ensued on their Sabbath-Doctrines By which and by the temper of the present Government they gave occasion to some Preachers and not a few publick Ministers of Justice in their several Countreys to interdict all lawful sports upon that Day By means whereof the people were perswaded by some Priests and Jesuits especially in Lancashire and some others of the Northern Counties that the Reformed Religion was incompetible with that Christian Liberty which God and Nature had indulged to the sons of men And having brought them to that point it was no hard matter to perswade them to fall off to Popery as a Religion more agreeable to human Society and such as would permit them all such lawful pleasures as by the Stoicism of the other had been interdicted Which brought the King to a necessity of publishing his Declaration about lawful sports dated at Greenwich on the 24 th day of May Anno 1620. Which as it put some Water into the Wine of the Sabbatarians so shewed he within few years after how little he affected the Calvinian Rigors 28. In reference to which last some of the Zealots in the Cause had took encouragement from his Declaration against Vorstus a Divine of the Netherlands in which he had bestowed some unhandsome Epethetes upon the Followers of Van Harmine in the Belgick Provinces This seemed sufficient to expose all those of the same Perswasions unto scorn and hatred and on the other side to animate all those who favoured Calvinism to act such things as drew upon them at the last the King 's high displeasure Calvin had published a blasphemous Fancy touching Christ's suffering of Hell-torments in the time of his Passion even to the horrors of Despair Which being touched upon by Corbet one of the Students of Christ-Church in a Passion-Sermon 1613 he was most sharply reprehended by the Repetitioner for so great a sauciness Dr. Iohn Houson one of the Canons of that Church who had most worthily discharged the Office of Vice-Chancellor twelve years before declared himself somewhat to the prejudice of the Annotations which were made on the Genevian Bibles and for so doing is condemned to a Recantation much about that time though the said Annotations had been censured for their partiality and seditiousness by the Tongue of K. IAMES And finally Dr. William Laud being then President of St. Iohn's Colledg had showed himself no Friend to Calvinism in Doctrine or Discipline and must be therefore branded for a Papist in a publick Sermon preached upon Easter Suâ—â—ay by Dr. Robert Abbot then Vice-Chancellor and Doctor of the Chair in that University Which passages so closely following upon one another ocsioned as most conceived the publishing of some Directions by His Majesty in the year next following In which it was injoyned among other things That young Students in Divinity should be directed to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and be excited to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators making them the grounds of those Sacred Studies Which as it was the first great blow which was given to Calvinism so was it followed not long after by the King's Instructions touching Preaching and Preachers In which it was precisely cautioned amongst other things That no Preacher of what Title soever under the Degree of a Bishop or Dean at the least should from thenceforth presume to preach in any popular Auditory the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Vniversality Efficacity Resistibility or Irresistibility of God's Grace but should rather leave those Theams to be handled by Learned men as being fitter for Schools and
Vniversities than for simple Auditories Which said Instructions bearing date at Windsor on the 10 th of August 1622 opened the way to the suppression of that heat and fierceness by which the Calvinists had been acted in some years fore-going 29. During which Heats and Agitations between the Parties a Plot was set on foot to subvert the Church in the undoing of the Clergy and there could be no readier way to undo the Clergy than to reduce them unto such a Beggerly Competency for by that name they love to call it as they had brought them to in all the rest of the Calvinian or Genevian Churches This the design of many hands by whom all passages had been scored in Cotton's Library which either did relate to the point of Tythes or the manner of payment But the Collections being brought together and the Work compleated there appeared no other Name before it than that of Selden then of great Credit in the World for his known Abilities in the retired Walks of Learning The History of Tythes writ by such an Author could not but raise much expectation amongst some of the Laity who for a long time had gaped after the Church's Patrimony and now conceived and hoped to swallow it down without any chewing The Author highly magnified the Book held unanswerable and all the Clergy looked on but as Pigmies to that great Goliah who in his Preface had reproached them with Ignorance and Laziness upbraided them with having nothing to keep up their Credit but Beard Title and Habit and that their studies reached no further than the Breviary the Postills and the Polyanthea Provoked wherewith he was so galled by Tillesly so gagged by Mountague and stung by Netles that he never came off in any of his Undertakings with more loss of Credit By which he found that some of the Ignorant and Lazy Clergy were of as retired Studies as himself and could not only match but over-match him too in his own Philology But the chief Governours of the Church went a shorter way and not expecting till the Book was answered by particular men resolved to seek for reparation of the wrong from the Author himself upon an Information to be brought against him in the High Commission Fearing the issue of the business and understanding what displeasures were conceived against him by the King and the Bishops he made his personal appearance in the open Court at Lambeth on the 28 th day of Ianuary 1618 where in a full Court he tendred his submission and acknowledgment all of his own hand-writing in these following words My Lords I most humbly acknowledg my Error which I have committed in publishing The History of Tythes and especially in that I have at all by shewing any Interpretations of Holy Scriptures by medling with Councils Fathers or Canons or by whatsoever occurrs in it offered any occasion of Argument against any Right of Maintenance â—ure Divino of the Ministers of the Gospel beseeching your Lordships to receive this ingenuous and humble acknowledgment together with the unfeigned Protestation of my grief for that through it I have so incurred both His Majesty's and your Lordships Displeasure conceived against me in behalf of the Church of England JOHN SELDEN This for the present was conceived to be the most likely Remedy for the preventing of the Mischief but left such smart Remembrances in the mind of the Author as put him on to act more vigorously for the Presbyterians of which more hereafter by whom he seemed to be engaged in the present Service 30. But it is now high time for us to cross over St. George's Channel and take a short view of the poor and weak Estate of the Church of Ireland where these Designs were carried on with better Fortune A Church which for the most part had been modelled by the Reformation which was made in England But lying at a greater distance and more out of sight it was more easily made a prey to all Invaders the Papists prevailing on the one side and the Puritans on the other getting so much ground that the poor Protestants seemed to be crucified in the midst between them Some Order had been taken for establishing the English Liturgy together with the Bible in the English Tongue in all the Churches of that Kingdom which not being understood by the natural Irish left them as much in Ignorance and Superstition as in the darkest times of the Papal Tyranny And for the Churches of the Pale which very well understood the English Language they suffered themselves to be seduced from the Rules of the Church and yeelded to the prevalency of those zealous Ministers who carried on the Calvinian Project with their utmost power In order whereunto it was held necessary to expose the Patrimony of the Bishops and Cathedral Churches to a publick Port-sale that being as much weakned in their Power as they were in Estate they might be rendred inconsiderable in the eyes of the people Hence-forward such a general devastation of the Lands of the Church that some Episcopal-Sees were never since able to maintain a Bishop but have been added to some others two or three for failing to make up somewhat like a Competency for an Irish Prelate The Bishoprick of Ardagh was thereupon united unto that of Kill more but the Cathedral of the one together with the Bishop's House adjoyning to it had been levelled with the very ground the other in some better repair but neither furnished with Bell Font or Chalice The like union had been also made between the Bishopricks of Clonfert and Killmare Ossery and Kilkenny Down and Connour Waterford and Lismore Cork and Rosse c. and was projected by the late Lord Primate between the See of Kilfanore and that of Killallow not to descend any more particulars of the like Conjunctions 31. Such also were the Fortunes of the Rural Clergy whose Churches in some places lay unrooted in others unrepaired and much out of order The Tythes annexed for the most part to Religions Houses fell by the ruin of those Houses to the Power of the Crown and by the Kings and Queens of England were aliened from the Church and by them became Lay-Fees The Vicaridges generally so ill provided that in the whole Province of Connaught most of the Vicars Pensions came but to forty shillings per annum and in some places but sixteen only And of such Vicaridges as appeared to be better endowed three four or five were many times ingrossed into one man's hands who neither understood the Language nor performed the Service In which respect it was no marvel if the people took up that Religion which came next to hand such as did either serve most fitly to continue them in their former Errors or to secure them in the quiet enjoyment of those Estates which they had ravished from the Church and still possessed by the Title of the first Usurpers In which estate we find the Church of Ireland at the death
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
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
the Dukes of Bouilâ—on That he was most disgracefully deprived of his Place and Function by those of the Calvinian Party because he had delivered in a Sermon on those words of St. â—ames c. 1. v. 13. God tempteth no man c. That God was not the Author of Sin 7. But possibly it may be said That these Oppressions Tyrannies and Partialities are not to be ascribed to the Sect of Calvin in the capacity of Presbyterians but of Predestinarians and therefore we will now see what they acted in behalf of Presbytery which was as dear to all the Members of that Synod but the English only as any of the Five Points whatsoever it was For in the Hundred forty fifth Session being held on the 20 th of April the Belgick Confession was brought in to be subscribed by the Provincials and publickly approved by the Forreign Divines In which Confession there occurred one Article which tended plainly to the derogation and dishonour of the Church of England For in the Thirty one Article it is said expresly That forasmuch as doth concern the Ministers of the Church of Christ in what place soever they are all of equal Power and Authority with one another as being all of them the Ministers of Iesus Christ who is the only Vniversal Bishop and sole Head of His Church Which Article being as agreeable to Calvin's Judgment in point of Discipline as their Determinations were to his Opinion in point of Doctrine was very cheerfully entertained by the Forreign Divines though found in few of the Confessions of the Forreign Churches But being found directly opposite to the Government of the Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops with which a parity of Ministers can have no consistence was cordially opposed by the Divines of the British Colledg but most especially by Dr. George Carlton then Lord Bishop of Landaff and afterwards translated to the See of Chichester who having too much debased himself beneath his Calling in being present in a Synod or Synodical Meeting in which an ordinary Presbyter was to take the Chair and have precedency before him thought it high time to vindicate himself and the Church of England to enter a Legal Protestation against those proceedings Which though it was admitted and perhaps recorded received no other Answer but neglect if not scorn withall Concerning which he published a Declaration after his return in these words ensuing 8. When we were to yeeld our consent to the Belgick Confession at Dort I made open protestation in the Synod That whereas in the Confession there was inserted a strange conceit of the Parity of Ministers to be instituted by Christ I declared our dissent utterly in that point I showed that by Christ a Parity was never instituted in the Church that he ordained Twelve Apostles as also Seventy Disciples that the Authority of the Twelve was above the other that the Church preserved this Order left by our Saviour And therefore when the extraordinary Power of the Apostles ceased yet this ordinary Authority continued in Bishops who succeeded them who were by the Apostles left in the Government of the Church to ordain Ministers and to see that they who were so ordained should preach no other Doctrine that in an inferior degree the Ministers were governed by Bishops who succeeded the Seventy Disciples that this Order hath been maintained in the Church from the times of the Apostles and herein I appealed to the Iudgment of Antiquity and to the Iudgment of any Learned man now living and craved herein to be satisfied if any man of Learning could speak to the contrary My Lord of Salisbury is my Witness and so are all the rest of our Company who speak also in the Cause To this there was no answer made by any whereupon we conceived that they yeelded to the truth of the Protestation But it was only he and his Associates which conceived so of it and so let it go 9. His Lordship adds that in a Conference which he had with some Divines of that Synod he told them That the cause of all their troubles was because they had no Bishops amongst them who by their Authority might repress turbulent spirits that broached Novelty every man having liberty to speak or write what they list and that as long as there were no Ecclesiastical men in Authority to repress and censure such contentious Spirits their Church could never be without trouble To which they answered That they did much honour and reverence the good Order and Discipline of the Church of England and with all their hearts would be glad to have it established amongst them but that could not be hoped for in their State that their hope was That seeing they could not do what they desired God would be merciful to them if they did what they could This was saith he the sum and substance of their Answer which he conceived to be enough to free that people from aiming at an Anarchy and open-Confusion adding withall that they groaned under the weight of that burden and would be eased of it if they could But by his Lordship's leave I take this to be nothing but a piece of dissimulation of such a sanctified Hypocrisie as some of the Calvinians do affirm to be in Almighty God For certainly they might have Bishops if they would as well as the Popish Cantons of the Switzers or the State of Venice of which the one is subject to an Aristocracy the other to a Government no less popular than that of the Netherlands In which respect it was conceived more lawful by the late Lord Primate for any English Protestant to communicate with the Reformed Churches in France who cannot have Bishops if they would than with the Dutch who will not have Bishops though they may there still remaining in their hands Seven Episcopal Sees with all the Honours and Revenues belonging to them that is to say the Bishoprick of Harlem in Holland of Middlebourgh in Zealand of Lewarden in Friesland of Groining in the Province so called of Deventer in the County of Overyssell and of Ruremond in the Dutchy of Gueldress all of them but the last subordinate to the Church of Vtrect which they keep also in their Power 10. Somewhat was also done in the present Synod in order to the better keeping of the Lord's Day than it had been formerly For till this time they had their Faires and Markets upon this day their Kirk-masses as they commonly called them Which as they constantly kept in most of the great Towns of Holland Zealand c. even in Dort it self so by the constant keeping of them they must needs draw away much people from the Morning-Service to attend the business of their Trades And in the Afternoon as before was noted all Divine Offices were interdicted by a Constitution which received life here Anno 1574 that time being wholly left to be disposed of as the people pleased either upon their profit or their recreation But their
acquaintance with the English brought them to more sense of Piety And now they took the opportunity to train the people to the Church in the Afternoon by the Authority and Reputation of the present Synod For having entertained the Palatine Catechism in their publick Schools it was resolved that it should be taught in all their Churches on Sunday in the After-noon That the Ministers should be bound to read and expound that Catechism though none were present at the Exercises but those of their own Families only in hope that others might be drawn after their example and that the Civil Magistrate should be employed by the Synod to restrain all Servile Works and other Prophanations of that day wherewith the Afternoons had commonly been spent that so the people might repair to the Catechisings And though some Reformation did ensue upon it in the greater Towns yet in their lesser Villages where men are more intent on their Worldly businesses it remains as formerly 11. As little of the Sabbatarian had the Palatine Churches which in all points adhered tenaciously unto Calvin's Doctrine For in those Churches it was ordinary for the Gentlemen to betake themselves in the After-noon of the Lord's Day unto Hawking and Hunting as the season of the year was fit for either or otherwise in taking the Air visiting their Friends or whatsoever else shall seem pleasing unto them As usual it was also with the Husband-man to spend the greatest part of the After-noon in looking over his Grounds ordering his Cattel and following of such Recreations as are most agreeable to his Nature and Education no publick Divine Offices being prescribed for any part of that Day but the Morning only And so it stood in the year 1612 At what time the Lady ELIZABETH Daughter to K. Iames and Wife to Frederick the fifth Prince Elector Palatine came first into that Countrey whose having Divine Service every After-noon in her Chappel or Closet officiated by her own Chaplains according to the Liturgy of the Church of England gave the first hint unto that Prince to cause the like Religious Offices to be celebrated in his part of the Family afterwards by degrees in all the Churches of Heldenbourgh and finally in most other Cities and Towns of his Dominions Had he adventured no further on the confidence of that Power and Greatness which accrued to him by contracting an Alliance with so great a Monarch it had been happy for himself and the Peace of Christendom But being tempted by Scultetus and some other of the Divines about him Not to neglect the opportunity of advancing the Gospel and making himself the principal Patton of it he fell on some Designs destructive to himself and his Who though he were a Prince of a Flegmatick nature and of small Activity yet being prest by the continual sollicitation of some eager Spirits he drew all the Provinces and Princes which profest the Calvinian Doctrines to enter into a strict League or Union amongst themselves under pretence of looking to the Peace and Happiness of the true Religion 12. It much advantaged the Design that the Calvinians in all parts of Germany had began to stir as men resolved to keep the Saddle or to lose the Horse In Aix the Latins call it Aquisgranum an Imperial City they first appeared considerable for their Power and Numbers Anno 1605 at what time they shrewdly shaked the Estate thereof But being thereupon debarred the exercise of their Religion and punished for the Misdemeanor they kept themselves quiet till the year 1614 when in a popular Tumult they surprise the City secure the principal Magistrates of it and eject the Jesuits And though by the Mediation of the French Agents and those of Iulier's a Peace was for the present clapt up between them yet neither Party was resolved to stand longer to it than might serve their turns But whosoever made the reckoning the Calvinists were at last compelled to pay the shot For the Town being proscribed by Matthias the Emperor and the execution of the Ban committed to Arch-Duke Albert he sends the Marquess of Spinola with an Army thither by whom the Town is brought to a surrender the ancient Magistrates restored and the Calvinians either forced to forsake the place or to submit themselves unto Fine and Ransome if they kept their dwellings Nor did they speed much better in the City of Colen where their Party was not strong enough to suppress the Catholicks and therefore they forsook the City and retired to Mulleime which they began to build and fortifie for their habitation But those of Colen fearing that this new Town might in short time overtop that City both in Wealth and Power addrest themselves unto the Emperor Matthias By whose Command the Duke of Newbourgh falls upon it destroys the greatest part thereof and leaves the finishing of that Work to the Marquess Spinola 13. In Hassia their Affairs succeeded with more prosperous Fortune where Lodowick of the second House of the Lantgraves who had the City of Marperge for his Seat and Residence declared himself in favour of their Forms and Doctrines at such time as the Calvinists of Aix before remembred first began to stirr followed therein by George his Brother commonly called the Lantgrave of Darmstad from the place of his dwelling half of which Town belonging to the Patrimony of the Prince Elector had easily made way for Calvinism into all the rest And though this Lodowick was disturbed in his Government or Possession by his Cousin Maurice commonly called the Lantgrave of Cassells from his principal City who seized upon the Town of Marperge Anno 1612 yet was he shortly after restored to his whole Estate by the Palatine-League which for the time carried a great sway in those parts of Germany But of greater consequence were the agitations about Cleve and Gulick occasioned by a difference between the Marquess of Brandenbourgh and the Duke of Newbourgh about the partage of the Patrimony and Estates of the Duke of Cleve For Iohn-William the last Duke of Cleve deceasing without Issue in the year 1610 left his Estates between the Children of his Sisters of which the eldest called Maria Leonora was married to Albert of Brandenbourgh Duke of Prussia whose Daughter Ann being married to Iohn Sigismund the Elector of Brandenbough was Mother of George-William the young Marquess of Brandenbourgh who in her Right pretended to the whole Estate The like pretence was made by Wolfgangus Guilielmus Duke of Newbourgh descended from the Electoral Family of the Princes Palatine whose Mother Magdalen was the second Sister of the said Iohn-William The first of these Pretenders was wholly of a Lutheran Stock and the other as inclinable to the Sect of Calvin though afterwards for the better carrying on of their Affairs they forsook their Parties 14. For so it hapned that the Duke of Newbourgh finding himself too weak for the House of Brandenbourgh put himself under the protection of the Catholick King who
having concluded a Truce of Twelve years with the States United wanted Employment for his Army and that he might engage that King with the greater confidence he reconciles himself to the Church of Rome and marries the Lady Magdalen Daughter to the Duke of Bavaria the most potent of the German Princes of that Religion which also he established in his own Dominions on the death of his Father This puts the young Marquess to new Counsels who thereupon calls in the Forces of the States Vnited the Warr continuing upon this occasion betwixt them and Spain though the Scene was shifted And that they might more cordially espouse his Quarrel he took to Wife the Sister of Frederick the fifth Prince Elector Palatine and Neece of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange by his youngest Daughter and consequently Cousin-German once removed to Count Maurice of Nassaw Commander-General of the Forces of the Sates Vnited both by Sea and Land This kept the Balance eeven between them the one possessing the Estates of Cleve and Mark and the other the greatest part of Berge and Gulick But so it was that the old Marquess of Brandenbourgh having setled his abode in the Dukedom of Prussia and left the management of the Marquissate to the Prince his Son left him withall unto the Plots and Practises of a subtil Lady Who being throughly instructed in all points of Calvinism and having gotten a great Empire in her Husband's Affections prevailed so far upon him in the first year of their Marriage Anno 1614 that he renounced his own Religion and declared for Her 's which he more cheerfully embraced in hope to arm all the Calvinians both of the Higher and the Lower Germany in defence of his Cause as his Competitor of Newbourgh had armed the Catholicks to preserve his Interest 15. Being thus resolved he publisheth an Edict in the Month of February Anno 1615 published in his Father's Name but only in his own Authority and sole Command under pretence of pacifying some distempers about Religion but tending in good earnest to the plain suppression of the Lutheran forms for having spent a tedious and impertinent Preamble touching the Animosities fomented in the Protestant Churches between the Lutherans and those of the Calvinian Party he first requires that all unnecessary Disputes be laid aside that so all grounds of strife and disaffection might be also buried Which said he next commands all Ministers within the Marquissate to preach the Word purely and sincerely according to the Writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles the Four Creeds commonly received amongst which the Te Deum is to go for one and the Confession of Ausberg of the last Correction and that omitting all new glosses and interpretations of idle and ambitious men affecting a Primacy in the Church and a Power in the State they aim at nothing in their Preachings but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mankind He commands also That they should abstain from all calumniating of those Churches which either were not subject to their Jurisdiction nor were not lawfully convicted of the Crime of Heresie which he resolved not to connive at for the time to come but to proceed unto the punishment of all those who wilfully should refuse to conform themselves to his Will and Pleasure After which giving them some good Counsel for following a more moderate course in their Preachings and Writings than they had been accustomed to in the times fore-going and in all points to be obedient to their principal Magistrate he pulls off the Disguise and speaks plainly thus 16. These are saith he the Heads of that Reformation which is to be observed in all the Churches of Brandenbourgh that is to say All Images Statua's and Crosses to be removed out of the place of publick Meetings all Altars as the Relicks of Popery and purposely erected for the Sacrifices of the Popish Mass to be taken away that in their room they should set up a Table of a long square Figure covered at all times with a Carpet of Black and at the time of the Communion with a Linnen Cloth That Wafers should be used instead of the former Hosts which being cut into long pieces should be received and broken by the hands of those who were admitted to communicate at the holy Table That ordinary Cups should be made use of for the future instead of the old Popish Chalice That the Vestments used in the Mass should be forborn no Candles lighted in any of their Churches at noon-day No Napkin to be held to those that received the Sacrament nor any of them to receive it upon their knees as if Christ were corporally present The sign of the Cross to be from thenceforth discontinued The Minister not to turn his back to the people at the Ministration The Prayers and Epistles before the Sermon to be from thenceforth read not sung and the said Prayers not to be muttered with a low voice in the Pulpit or Reading-Pew but pronounced audibly and distinctly Auricular Confession to be laid aside and the Communion not to be administred to sick persons in the time of any common Plague or Contagious Sickness No bowing of their knee at the Name of Iesus Nor Fonts of stone to be retained in their Churches the want whereof may be supplied by a common Bason The Decalogue to be repeated wholly without mutilation and the Catechism in some other points no less erroneous to be corrected and amended The Trinity to be adored but not exprest in any Images either carved or painted The words of Consecration in the holy Supper to be interpreted and understood according unto that Analogy which they held with the Sacrament and other Texts of holy Scripture And finally That the Ministers should not be so tyed to preach upon the Gospels and Epistles that were appointed for the day but that they might make choice of any other Text of Scriptures as best pleased themselves Such was the tenour of this Edict on which I have insisted the more at large to show the difference between the Lutheran and Genevian Churches and the great correspondence of the first with the Church of England But this Calvinian Pill did not work so kindly as not to stirr more Humours than it could remove For the Lutherans being in possession would not deliver up their Churches or desert those Usages to which they had been trained up and in which they were principled according to the Rules of their first Reformation And hereupon some Rupture was like to grow betwixt the young Marquess and his Subjects if by the intervention of some honest Patriots it had not been closed up in this manner or to this effect That the Lutheran Forms only should be used in all the Churches of the Marquissate for the contentation of the people and that the Marquess should have the exercise of his new Religion for Himself his Lady and those of his Opinion in their private Chappels 17. But the
fearing nor having cause to fear the least disturbance With those of the Catholick Party they were grown so intimate by reason of their frequent inter-marriages with one another that in few years they might have been incorporated with them and made of the same Family though of different Faiths The exercise of their Religion had been permitted to them since the passing of the Edict of Nants 1598 without interruption And that they might have satisfaction also in the Courts of Justice some Courts were purposely erected for their ease and benefit which they called Les Chambres d' l' Edict wherein there were as many Judges and other Officers of their own Perswasions as there were of the contrary In a word they lived so secure and happy that they wanted nothing to perpetuate their Felicities to succeeding Ages but Moderation in themselves Gratitude to Almighty God and good Affections towards their King 44. Such were the Fortunes and Successes of the Presbyterians in the rest of Christendom during the last ten years of the Reign of K. IAMES and the beginnings of K. CHARLES By which both Kings might see how unsafe they were if men of such Pragmatical Spirits and Seditious Principles should get ground upon them But K. IAMES had so far supported them in the Belgick Provinces that his own Calvinists presumed on the like Indulgence which prompted them to set nought by his Proclamations to vilifie his Instructions and despise his Messages Finally they made tryal of his patience also by setting up one Knight of Broadgates now called Pembroke Colledg to preach upon the Power of such popular Officers as Calvin thinks to be ordained by Almighty God for curbing and restraining the Power of Kings In which though Knight himself was censured the Doctrines solemnly condemned execution done upon a Book of Pareus which had misguided the unfortunate and ignorant man yet the Calvinians most tenaciously adhered to their Master's tendries with an intent to bring them into use and practise when occasion served So that K. IAMES with all his King-craft could find no better way to suppress their Insolencies than by turning Mountague upon them a man of mighty Parts and an undaunted Spirit and one who knew as well as any how to discriminate the Doctrines of the Church of England from those which were peculiar to the Sect of Calvin By which he galled and gagged them more than his Popish Adversary but raised thereby so many Pens against himself that he might seem to have succeeded in the state of Ismael 45. In this conjuncture of Affairs K. IAMES departs this life and K. CHARLES succeeds who to ingratiate himself with this powerful Faction had plunged his Father in a Warr with the House of Austria by which he was brought under the necessity of calling Parliaments and gave those Parliaments the courage to dispute his Actions For though they promised to stand to him with their Lives and Fortunes in prosecution of that Warr yet when they had engaged him in it they would not part with any money to defray that Charge till they had stripped him of the Richest Jewels in the Regal Diadem But he was much more punished in the consequence of his own Example in aiding those of Rochel against their King whereby he trained up his own Subjects in the School of Rebellion and taught them to confederate themselves with the Scots and Dutch to seize upon his Forts and Castles invade the Patrimony of the Church and to make use of his Revenue against himself To such Misfortunes many Princes do reduce themselves when either they engage themselves to maintain a Party or govern not their Actions by the Rules of Justice but are directed by self-ends or swayed by the corrupt Affections of untrusty Ministers These things I only touch at here which I reserve for the Materials of another History as I do also all the intermediate passages in the Reign of K. CHARLES before the breaking out of the Scottish Tumults and most of the preparatives to the Warr of England AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB XIII Containing The Insurrections of the Presbyterian or Puritan Faction in the Realm of Scotland The Rebellions raised by them in England Their horrid Sacriledges Murders Spoils and Rapines in pursuit thereof Their Innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline And the greatest Alteration made in the Civil Government from the year 1636 to the year 1647 when they were stript of all Command by the Independents 1. THE Presbyterian-Scots and the Puritan-English were not so much discouraged by the ill successes of their Brethren in France and Germany as animated by the prosperous Fortunes of their Friends in Holland Who by Rebellion were grown Powerful and by Rapine Wealthy and by the Reputation of their Wealth and Power were able to avenge themselves on the opposite Party To whose Felicities if those in England did aspire they were to entertain those Counsels and pursue those courses by which the others had attained them that is to say They were by secret practises to diminish the King's Power and Greatness to draw the people to depend upon their Directions to dissolve all the Ligaments of the former Government and either call in Forreign Forces or form an Army of their own to maintain their doings And this had been the business of the Puritan Faction since the death of Bancroft when by the retirements of K. IAMES from all cares of Government and the connivance or remisness of Arch-bishop Abbot the Reins were put into their hands Which gave them time and opportunity to grow strong in Parliaments under pretence of standing for the Subjects Property against the encroachments of the Court and for the preservation of the true Religion against the practises of the Papists By which two Artifices they first weakned the Prerogative Royal to advance their own and by the diminution of the King's Authority endeavoured to erect the People's whom they represented And then they practised to asperse with the Name of Papist all those who either join not with them in their Sabbath-Doctrines or would not captivate their Judgments unto Calvin's Dictates Their actings in all which particulars either as Zealots for the Gospel in maintaining Calvinism or Patriots for the Common-wealth in bringing down the Power and Reputation of the two last Kings shall be at large delivered in the Life of the late Arch-bishop and consequently may be thought unnecessary to be here related And therefore pretermitting all their former practises by which their Party was prepared and the Design made ready to appear in publick we will proceed to a Relation of the following passages when they had pulled off their Disguise and openly declared themselves to be ripe for Action 2. The Party in both Kingdoms being grown so strong that they were able to proceed from Counsel unto Execution there wanted nothing but a fair occasion for putting themselves into a posture of defence and from that posture breaking
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
which by an unexpected Tempest was blown down to the ground and looked on as a sad presage of his following Fortunes Passing thorough Staffordshire he gained some small encrease to his little Party but never could attain unto the reputation of an Army till he came to Shrewsbury to which great multitudes flocked unto him out of Wales and Cheshire and some of the adjoining Countreys Encouraged with which supplies and furnished as well by the Queen from Holland as by the Countrey-Magazins with Cannon Arms and Ammunition he resolves for London gives the first brush unto his Enemies at Poick near Worcester and routs them totally at Edg-hill in the County of Warwick This battel was fought on Sunday the 23 d of October Anno 1642 being a just Twelve-month from the breaking out of the Irish Rebellion this being more dangerous than that because the King's Person was here aimed at more than any other For so it was that by corrupting one Blake once an English Factor but afterwards employed as an Agent from the King of Morocco they were informed from time to time of the King's proceedings and more particularly in what part of the Army he resolved to be which made them aim with the greater diligence and fury at so fair a Mark But the King being Master of the Field possest of the dead Bodies and withall of the Spoil of some of the Carriages discovered by some Letters this most dangerous practise For which that wretched Fellow was condemned by a Court of Warr and afterwards hanged upon the Bough of an Oak not far from Abington 20. In the mean time the King goes forward takes Banbury both Town and Castle in the sight of the Enemy and enters triumphantly into Oxon which they had deserted to his hands with no fewer than Six-score Colours of the vanquished Party But either he stayed there too long or made so many halts in his way that Essex with his flying-Army had recovered London before the King was come to Colebrook There he received a Message for an Accommodation made ineffectual by the Fight at Brentford on the next day after Out of which Town he beat two of their choicest Regiments sunk many pieces of Cannon and much Ammunition put many of them to Sword in the heat of the Fight and took about Five hundred Prisoners for a taste of his Mercy For knowing well how miserably they had been mis-guided he spared their Lives and gave them liberty on no other Conditions but only the taking of their Oaths not to serve against him But the Houses of Parliament being loath to lose so many good men appointed Mr. Stephen Marshall a principal Zealot at that time in the Cause of Presbytery to call them together and to absolve them from that Oath Which he performed with so much Confidence and Authority that the Pope himself could scarce have done it with the like The next day being Sunday and the 13 th of November he prepares for London but is advertised of a stop at Turnham-Green two miles from Brentford where both the remainders of the Army under the Earl of Essex and the Auxiliaries of London under the Conduct of the Earl of Warwick were in a readiness to receive him On this Intelligence it was resolved on mature deliberation in the Council of Warr That he should not hazzard that Victorious Army by a fresh encounter in which if he should lose the day it would be utterly impossible for him to repair that Ruin Accordingly he leads his Army over Kingston-Bridg leaves a third part of it in the Town of Reading and with the rest takes up his Winter-Quarters in the City of Oxon. 21. But long he had not been at Oxon when he received some Propositions from the Houses of Parliament which by the temper and complexion of them might rather seem to have proceeded from a conquering than a losing-side One to be sure must be in favour of Presbytery or else Stephen Marshal's zeal had been ill regarded And in relation to Presbytery it was thus desired that is to say That his Majesty would give consent to a Bill for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their Vnder-officers out of the Church of England And that being done that he would consent to another Bill for consultation to be had with Godly Religious and Learned Divines and then to settle the Church-Government in such a way as upon consultation with the said Divines should be concluded and agreed on by both Houses of Parliament A Treaty howsoever did ensue upon these Propositions but it came to nothing the Commissioners for the Houses being so straitned in point of time and tyed up so precisely to the Instructions of their Masters that they could yeeld to nothing which conduced to the Publick peace Nor was the North or South more quiet than the rest of the Kingdom For in the North the Faction of the Houses was grown strong and prevalent commanded by Ferdinand Lord Fairfax who had possest himself of some strong Towns and Castles for maintenance whereof he had supplies from Hull upon all occasions The care of York had been committed by the King to the Earl of Cumberland and Newcastle was then newly Garrisoned by the Ecrl thereof whose Forces being joined to those of the Earl of Cumberland gave Fairfax so much work and came off so gallantly that in the end both Parties came to an accord and were resolved to stand as Neutrals in the Quarrel Which coming to the knowledg of the Houses of Parliament they found some Presbyterian Trick to dissolve that Contract though ratified by all the Obligations both of Honour and Conscience 22. But in the South the King's Affairs went generally from bad to worse Portsmouth in Hampshire declared for him when he was at York but being besieged and not supplied either with Men Arms or Victuals as had been promised and agreed on it was surrendred by Col. Goring the then Governour of it upon Capitulation Norton a Neighbouring Gentleman of a fair Estate was one of the first that shewed himself in Arms against it for the Houses of Parliament and one that held it out to the very last For which good Service he was afterward made a Collonel of Horse Governour of Southampton and one of the Committee for Portsmouth after the Government of that Town had been taken from Sir William Lewis on whom it was conferred at the first surrendry A Party of the King 's commanded by the Lord Viscount Grandison was followed so closely at the heels by Brown and Hurrey too mercenary Scots in the pay of the Houses that he was forced to put himself into Winchester-Castle where having neither Victuals for a day nor
Ammunition for an hour it was some favour to his Soldiers to be taken to Mercy But whatsoever Mercy was exprest to them the poor Town found but little and the Church much less the Town being miserably plundered for no other reason but that they were not able to keep Grandison out had they been so minded Which though it was sufficient to impoverish a more Wealthy City yet Waller had two pulls more at it in the course of the Warr to the undoing of some Families and the spoil of others But it was more defaced by Ogle about three years after in burning down some Houses about the Castle but most of all by pulling down the Bishop's Palace the Deanry and no fewer than eight Prebends Houses sold by the Presbyterians to make money of the Lead and Timber the Iron Glass and Stones which made up those Edifices 23. But for the Church though it was not the first Example of their Reformation according to the practise of the Hugonot-French the Scottish and the Belgick Zealots yet fared it worse in some respects than the other Cathedrals because it fell unto the Scots commanding some Scotizing English to do execution For they not only broke the Organs in pieces and defaced the Carved Work of the Quire containing the story of the Old and New Testament in most excellent Imagery but threw down the Communion-Table and broke down the Rails which they burnt afterwards in an Ale-house and strewed the Pavements of the Quire with the torn leaves and Fragments of the Common-prayer-Books Next they proceeded to the spoiling of the Tombs and Monuments erected to the memory of some eminent Prelates which had been formerly both an Ornament and an Honour to it as namely that of Cardinal Beaufort a principal Benefactor to the Church and Hospital of St. Cross neighbouring near unto the City and that of William Wainflet the Magnificent and sole Founder of Magdalen-Colledg in Oxon. And whereas the Remainders of the Bodies of some Saxon Kings and many Bishops of those times had been gathered into several Leaden Chests by Bishop Fox who lived and flourished in the last times of K. HENRY the 7th the barbarous Soldiers Sacrilegiously threw down those Chests scattered the dust remaining of their Bodies before the wind and threw their bones about the Pavements of the Church They break down as many of the Glass Windows as they could reach with Swords and Pikes and at the rest they threw the Bones of the dead Kings or shot them down with their Muskets the spoil of which Windows could not be repaired for one thousand pounds After all this they seize upon the Communion-Plate the Surplices of the Priests and Quire-men all the rich Hangings and large Cushions of Velvet and the costly Pulpit-clothes somes of which were of Cloath of Silver and others of Gold And finding two Brazen Statua's of K. IAMES and K. CHARLES at the first entrance of the Quire they brake off the two Swords which were placed by their sides and with their own mangled the Crown upon the head of K. CHARLES swearing in scorn That they would bring him back again to his Houses of Parliament 24. This hapned upon Thursday the fifteenth of December and the same Month proved as calamitous to the Church of Chichester which City had received some Soldiers of His Majesty's Party who either were too few to keep it or found it not tenable enough to make any resistance Waller presents himself before it and without any great dispute becomes Master of it by which the Town got little and the Church lost more For upon Innocents-day the Soldiers forcibly break into it where they seize upon the Vestments and Ornaments of the Church together with the Consecrated Plate serving for the Altar not leaving so much as a Cushion for the Pulpit or a Chalice for the blessed Sacrament But this rich spoil being committed by the Marshal and other Officers the rest was left unto the hands and weapons of the common Soldiers who with their Pole-axes did not only break down the Organs but cut in pieces the Communion-Table with the Rail before it They defaced the two Tables of the Law at the East end of the Quire for fear they should rise up against them in the Day of Judgment most miserably made havock of the History of that Churches Foundation which they found on the one side of the South-cross Isle pourtrayed in Artificial manner with the Statues of the Kings of England and coming to the Portraiture of K. EDWARD the sixth they picked out his eyes saying in scorn That all this Mischief came from him in establishing the Book of Common-prayer Which that it might not be officiated as in former times they break open all the Chests and Cupboards in which the Quire-men had laid up their Singing-Books Common-Prayer-Books Gowns and Surplices strewing the Pavements of the Church with the Leaves of the Books but turning the Gowns and Surplices into ready money To all which Acts of Sacrilegious Spoil and Rapine as Waller gave some countenance by his personal presence and in that somewhat worse than Nero as the story tells us So Haslerig gave much more by his Voice and Actions For forcing his way into the Chapter-House he did not only command the Soldiers to break down the Wainscot but seized on all the rich Plate which belonged to the Church And when it was desired that they would leave one Chalice only for the use of the Sacrament answer was most prophanely made by one of the Scots of which Nation the two Houses had employed too many That they might serve the turn with a Wooden Dish Nor were some Presbyterian Zealots in the City of Exeter more favourable to their own Cathedrals than the rude Soldiers were to this where being incensed by some of their Sediâ—ious Preachers they acted over all those outrages of Spoil and Rapine which have been formerly recited and added to them such prodigious and unheard Irreverences by turning the Church into a â—akes and leaving their filth on and about the holy Altar as fills me with Religious horror at the thinking of it 25. But their first Furies in this kind brake out in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury and that of Rochester under the conduct and command of Colonel Sandys one of the Natives of that County who taking some Forces with him to make sure of Canterbury came thiâ—her in the end of August and having got the Keys of the Cathedral into his possession gave a free entrance to the Rabbâ—e which attended on him forcing their way into the Quire they overthrew the Communion-Table tore the Velvet Cloath which they found about it defaced the goodly Screen or Tabernacle-work violated the Monuments of the dead spoiled the Organs brake down the ancient Rails and Seats with the brazen Eagle which did support the Bible forced open the Cupboards of the Singing-men rent some of their Surplices Gowns and Bibles and carried away others mangled all
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
Stephens Colemanstreet Stephens Walbrook Dr. Howel through vexation forced to forsake it sequestred out of all and fled divers since turned out Swithens Mr. Owen sequestred Thomas Apostle Mr. Cooper sequestred and plundred sent prisoner to Leeds-Castle in Kent Trinity Parish Mr. Harrison dead with grief In the 97 Parishes within the Walls besides St. Pauls outed 85 dead 16. Parishes without the Walls Andrew Holborn Dr. Hacket sequestred Bartholomew Great Dr. Westfield abused in the streets sequestred forced to flye and dead Bartholomew Less Brides Parish Mr. Palmer sequestred Bridewel Precinct Mr. Brown turned out Botolph Aldersgate Mr. Booth sequestred Botolph Aldgate Mr. Swadlin sequestred plundered imprisoned at Gresham-Colledg and Newgate his Wife and Children turned out of doors Botolph Bishopsgate Mr. Rogers sequestred Dunstans West Dr. March sequestred and dead in remote parts George Southwark Mr. Cook sequestred Giles Cripplegate Dr. Fuller sequestred plundred and imprisoned at Ely-House and Mr. Hatton his Curate assaulted in the Church and imprisoned Olaves Southwark Dr. Turner sequestred plundred fetched up Prisoner with a Troop of Soldiers and afterwards forced to flye Saviours Southwark Sepulchers Parish Mr. Pigot the Lecturer turned out Thomas Southwark Mr. Spencer sequestred and imprisoned Trinity Minories In the 16 Parishes without the Walls outed 14 and 2 dead In the Ten out-Parishes Clement Danes Dr. Dukeson sequestred and forced to flye Covent-Garden Mr. Hail sequestred and forced to flye Giles in the Fields Dr. Heywood sequestred imprisoned in the Counter Ely-House and the ships forced to flye his Wife and Children turned out of doors James Clerkenwell Katharine Tower Leonard Shoreditch Mr. Squire sequestred imprison'd in Gresham-Colledg Newgate and the King's Bench his Wife and Children plundred and turned out of doors Martins in the Fields Dr. Bray sequestred imprisoned plundred forced to flye and dead in remote parts Mary Whitechappel Dr. Iohnson sequestred Magdalen Bermondsey Dr. Paske sequestred Savoy Dr. Balcanqual sequestred plundered forced to flye and dead in remote parts and Mr. Fuller forced to flye In the ten out-Parishes outed 9 dead 2. In the adjacent Towns The Dean and Prebends of the Abby-Church of Westminster but only Mr. Lambert Osbaston sequestred Margarets Westminster Dr. Wimberly sequestred Lambeth Dr. Featly sequestred plundred imprisoned and dead a prisoner Newington Mr. Heath sequestred Hackney Mr. Moor sequestred Rederif Islington Divers turned out Stepney Dr. Stamp sequestred plundred and forced to flye In the adjacent Towns besides those of the Abby-Church and Islington outed 7 dead 1. The Total of the Ministers of London within this Bill of Mortality besides Pauls and Westminster turned out of their Livings 115. Whereof Doctors in Divinity above most of them plundred of their Goods their Wives and Children turned out of doors 40. Imprisoned in London and in the Ships and in several Gaols and Castles in the Countrey 20 Fled to prevent Imprisonment 25. Dead in remote parts and Prisons with grief 22. And at the same time about forty Churches void having no constant Minister in them Usque quo Domine Rev. 6.10 30. By this sad Bill confined within the Lines of Commuuication and some Villages adjoining we may conjecture at the greatness of that Mortality which fell amongst the Regular Clergy in all parts of the Kingdom by Plundring Sequestring and Ejecting or finally by vexing them into their Graves by so many Miseries as were inflicted on them in the Ships or their several Prisons In all which ways more men were outed of their Livings by the Presbyterians in the space of Three years than were deprived by the Papists in the Reign of Queen Mary or had been silenced suspended or deprived by all the Bishops from the first year of Queen ELIZABETH to these very times And that it might be done with some colour of Justice they instituted a Committee for Plundred Ministers under pretence of making some provision for such godly Preachers as had either suffered loss of Goods by His Majesty's Soldiers or loss of Livings for adhering to the Houses of Parliament Under which stiles they brought in a confused Rabble of their own perswasions or such at least as were most likely to be serviceable to their ends and purposes some of which had no Goods and most of them no Livings at all to lose But the truth was they durst not trust the Pulpits to the Regular Clergy who if they had offended against the Laws by the same Laws they ought to have been tryed condemned and deprived accordingly that so the Patrons might present more deserving persons to the vacant Churches But then this could not stand with the main Design For possibly the Patrons might present such Clarks as would go on in the old way and could not be admitted but by taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance to our Lord the King and by subscribing to the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church of England which they were then resolved to alter Or could they have prevailed so far with the several Patrons as to present those very men whom they had designed unto the Profits of the Sequestred Benefices yet then they were to have enjoyed them for term of life and might pretend a Legal Right and Title to them which would have cut off that dependance on the Houses of Parliament which this Design did chiefly aim at So that the best of this new Clergy were but Tenants at will and therefore must be servile and obsequious to their mighty Landlords upon whose pleasure they depended for their present Livelihood 31. Such were the Mischiefs of this year For remedy whereof His Majesty most graciously published two Proclamations one of them bearing date the 15 th of May and the other on the 9 th of October In the first of which His Majesty takes especial notice That many of the Clergy no less eminent for their Learning than their Zeal and Piety were either driven or forced from their habitations or silenced or discharged from attending on their Cures That they suffered these oppressions for no other reasons but because they published his legal and just Commands or had refused to pray against Him or to submit against their Consciences to illegal Taxes for the continuance of the Warr or were comformable to the Book of Common-Prayer or preacht God's Word according to the purity of it without any mixture of Sedition That being for these Crimes discharged of their several Cures others were put into their Places to sow Sedition and seduce His Majejesty's good Subjects from their due obedience contrary to the Word of God and the Laws of the Land His Majesty thereupon commandeth That all such courses be forborn for the time to come That all His good Subjects for the present set forth their Tythes and pay them to the lawful Incumbents or their Farmers only That the Church-Wardens Side-men and other Parishioners shall resist all such persons as have been or shall be intruded into any of the Cures aforesaid but that they should contribute their
brake down the Rails before the Table and burnt them in the very place in the heats of Iuly but wretchedly prophaned the very Table it self by setting about it with their Tobacco and Ale before them and not without the company of some of their zealous Lecturers to grace the Action What else they did in imitation of the Brethren of Exon in laying their filth and execrements about it also I abhor to mention And now I must crave leave to step into the Colledg the Government whereof was taken from the Dean and Prebendaries and given to a select Committee of fifty persons some Lords but Members for the most part of the Lower-House who found there a sufficient quantity of Plate and some other good Houshold-stuff to a very good value which was so Husbanded amongst them that it was either stoln or sold or otherwise imbezilled and inverted to the use of some private persons who best knew how to benefit themselves by the Church's Patrimony 35. But the main business of this year and the three next following was the calling sitting and proceedings of the new Assembly called the Assembly of Divines but made up also of so many of the Lords and Commons as might both serve as well to keep them under and comptroll their Actions as to add some countenance unto them in the eye of the people A Convocation had been appointed by the King when he called the Parliament the Members whereof being lawfvlly chosen and returned were so discountenanced and discouraged by the Votes of the Lower-House the frequent Tumults raised in Westminster by the Rascal Rabble and the preparatives for a Warr against the King that they retired unto their Houses but still continued undissolved and were in a capacity of acting as a Convocation whensoever they should be thereunto required and might do it with safety But being for the most part well affected to the Church of England they were not to be trusted by the Houses of Parliament who then designed the hammering of such a Reformation both in Doctrine and Discipline as might unite them in a perpetual Bond and Confederation with their Scottish Brethren And that they might be furnished with such men the Knights of every Shire must make choice of two to serve as Members for that County most of them Presbyterians some few Royallists four of the Independent Faction and two or three to represent the Kirk of Scotland Which ploughing with an Ox and an Ass as it was no other was anciently prohibited by the Law of Moses And yet these men associated with some Members of either House as before is said no ways impow'red or authorised by the rest of the Clergy must take upon them all the Powers and Priviledges of a Convocation to which they were invited by an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons bearing date Iune the 12 th His Majesty makes a start at this encroachment on His Royal Prerogative and countermands the same by His Proclamation of the 22 d. In which He takes notice amongst other things That the far greatest part of those who had been nominated to the present Service were men of neither Learning or Reputation eminently disaffected to the Government of the Church of England and such as had openly preached Rebellion by their exciting of the people to take Arms against Him and therefore were not like to be proper Instruments of Peace and Happiness either unto the Church or State For maintenance whereof and for the preservation of His own Authority he inhibits them from meeting at the time appointed declares their Acts to be illegal and threatens them with the punishments which they had incurred by the Laws of the Land 36. But they go forwards howsoever hold their first Meeting on the first of Iuly and elect Dr. Twisse of Newberry a rigid Sabbatarian but a professed Calvinian in all other points for their Prolocutor called to this Iourney-work by the Houses they were dispensed with for Non-residence upon their Livings against the Laws preferred to the best Benefices of the Sequestred Clergy some of them three or four together and had withall four shillings a man for their daily wages besides the honour of assisting in so great an action as the ruin of the Church and the subversion of the present Government of the Realm of England In reference whereunto they were to be employed from time to time as occasion was to stir up the people of the Counties for which they served to rise and arm themselves against the King under colour of their own defence as appears plainly by the Order of the tenth of August And that they might be looked upon with the greater reverence they maintain a constant intercourse by Letters with their Brethren of Scotland the Churches of the Netherlands the French and Switzers but chiefly with Geneva it self In which they laid such vile Reproaches on His Majesty and the Church of England the one for having a design to bring in Popery the other for a readiness to receive the same that His Majesty was necessitated to set out a Manifest in the Latin Tongue for laying open the Imposture to the Churches of all Forreign Nations Amongst the rest of this Assembly Dr. Dan. Featly not long before made Chaplain in Ordinary to the King must needs sit for one whether to shew his Parts or to head a Party or out of his old love to Calvinism may best be gathered from some Speeches which he made and printed But he was theirs in heart before and therefore might afford them his body now though possibly he may be excused from taking the Covenant as the others did An Exhortation whereunto was the first great work which was performed by these Masters in Israel after their assembling the Covenant taken by them in most solemn manner at St. Margarets in Westminster on the 25th of September the Exhortation voted to be published on the 9th of February 37. Now to begin the blessed Reformation which they had in hand the Houses were resolved upon exterminating all external Pomp and comely Order out of the Worship of Almighty God And to this end upon the humble motion of these Divines of the Assembly and the sollicitation of some zealous Lecturers who were grown very powerful with them or to ingratiate themselves with the Scottish Covenanters whose help they began to stand in need of or finally out of the perversness of their own cross humours they published an Ordinance on the 28 th of August For the utter demolishing removing and taking away all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry Under which notion it was ordered That before the last of November then next following all Altars and Tables of stone as if any such were then erected should be demolished in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom That the Communion-Tables should in all such places be removed from the East end of the Chancel unto some other part of the Church or Chappel That all such Rails as had been
placed before or about the same should be taken away and the ground levelled with the rest which had been raised for the standing of any such Table within the space of twenty years then last past That all Tapers Candlesticks and Basons which had of late been used on any of the said Tables should also be removed and taken away neither the same nor any such like to be from thenceforth used in God's Publick Service That all Crucifixes Crosses and all Images and Pictures of any one or more Persons of the Trinity or of the Virgin Mary and all other Images and Pictures of Saints should be also demolished and defaced whether they stood in any of the said Churches or Chappels or in any Church-yard or other open place whatsoever never to be erected or renewed again With a Proviso notwithstanding for preserving all Images Pictures and Coats of Arms belonging to any of their Ancestors or any of the Kings of this Realm or any other deceased persons which were not generally considered and beheld as Saints 38. But yet to make sure work of it this Ordinance was re-inforced and enlarged by another of the 9th of May in the year next following wherein besides the particulars before recited they descend to the taking away of all Coaps Surplices and other Superstitious Vestments as they pleased to call them as also to the taking away of all Organs and the Cases in which they stood and the defacing of the same requiring the same course to be also taken in the removing and defacing of Roods Rood-Lofts and Holy-water-water-Fonts as if any such things had been of late erected or permitted in the Church of England as indeed there were not whereupon followed the defacing of all Glass Windows and the demolishing of all Organs within the compass of their power the transposing of the holy Table from the place of the Altar into some other part of the Church or Chancel the tearing and defacing of all Coaps and Surplices or otherwise employing them to domestick uses and finally the breaking down and removing of the Sacred Fonts anciently used for the Ministration of holy Baptism the name of Holy-water-fonts being extended made use of to comprise them also hereupon followed also the defacing and demolishing of many Crosses erected as the Monuments of Christianity in Cities Towns and most of our Country-Villages none being spared which came within the compass of those Enemies of the Cross of Christ. Amongst which Crosses none more eminent for Cost and Workmanship than those of Cheapside in London and Abington in the County of Berks both of them famous for the excellencies of the Statua's which were placed in them more for the richness of the trimming which was used about them But the Divine Vengeance fell on some of the Executioners for a terror to others one of them being killed in pulling down the Cross of Cheapside and another hanged at Stow on the Wold within short time after he had pulled down the first Image of the Cross in Abington And because no Order had been made for the executing of this Order in His Majesty's Chappels as there was in all Cathedral and Parish-Churches a private Warrant was obtained by Harlow a Knight of Herefordshire for making the said Chappels equal to all the rest by depriving them of all such Ornaments of State and Beauty with which they had been constantly adorned in all times since the Reformation And all this done or at the least pretended to be done as the Ordinance tell us as being pleasing unto God and visibly conducing to the blessed Reformation so much desired but desired only as it seems by those Lords and Commons who had a hand in the Design 39. So far they went to show their hatred unto Superstition their dislike of Popery but then they must do somewhat also for expressing their great zeal to the glory of God by some Acts of Piety And nothing seemed more pious or more popular rather than to enjoin the more strict keeping of their Lords-day-Sabbath by some publick Ordinance With this they had begun already on the fifth of May on which it was ordered by no worse men than the Commons in Parliament the Lords being either not consulted or not concurring That His Majesty's Book for tolerating sports on the Lord's Day should be forthwith burned by the hands of the common Hangman in Cheapside and other usual places and that the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex should see the same put in execution which was done accordingly Than which an Act of a greater scorn an Act of greater Insolency and disloyal impudence was never offered to a Soveraign and Annointed Prince So as it was no marvel if the Lords joined with them in the Ordinance of the sixth of April 1644 for to expose all Books to the like disgrace which had been writ or should be writ hereafter by any person or persons against the Morality of the Sabbath By which Ordinance it was also signified That no manner of person whatsoever should publickly cry shew forth and expose to sale any Wares Merchandises Fruits Herbs or other Goods upon that day on pain of forfeiting the same or travel carry burthens or do any act of Labour on it on pain of forfeiting Ten shillings for the said offence That no person from thenceforth on the said day should use exercise keep maintain or be present at any wrestling shooting bowling ringing of Bells for pleasure or pastime Mask Wake otherwise called Feasts Church-Ale Games Dancing Sport or other pastimes whatsoever under the several penalties therein contained And that we may perceive with what weighty cares the heads of these good men were troubled when the whole Nation was involved in Blood and Ruin a Clause was added for the taking down of May-poles also with a Command unto all Constables and Tything-men to see it done under the penalty of forfeiting five shillings weekly till the said May-poles which they looked upon as an Heathenish Vanity should be quite removed Which Nail was driven so far at last that it was made unlawful for any Taylor to carry home a new Suit of Clothes or any Barber to trim the man that was to wear them for any Water-man to Ferry a passenger cross the Thames and finally to any person whatsoever though neither new trimmed or new apparelled to sit at his own door or to walk the streets or take a mouth-full of fresh air in the open Fields Most Rabinical Dotages 40. The day of publick Worship being thus new-molded they must have new Priests also and new Forms of Prayer a new Confession of the Faith new Catechisms and new Forms of Government Towards the first an Ordinance comes out from the Lords and Commons in October following Advice being first had with the Assembly of Divines by which a power was given to some chief men of the Assembly and certain Ministers of London or to any seven or more of them to impose hands upon such persons
whatsoever whom they found qualified and gifted for the holy Ministry a Clause being added thereunto That every person and persons which were so ordained should be reputed deemed and taken for a Minister of the Church of England sufficiently authorised for any Office or Employment in it and capable of receiving all advantages which appertained to the same To shew the nullity and invalidity of which Ordinations a learned Tractate was set out by Dr. Bohe Chaplain sometimes to the Right Reverend Dr. Houson Bishop of Oxford first and of Durham afterwards Never since answered by the Presbyterians either Scots or English Next after comes the Directory or new Form of Worship accompanied with an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons on the third of Ianuary for authorising the said Directory or Form of Worship as also for suppressing the publick Liturgy repealing all the Acts of Parliament which confirmed the same and abrogating all the ancient and established Festivals that so Saint Sabbath as sometimes they called it might be all in all The insufficiency of which Directory to the Ends proposed in the same pronounced the weakness of the Ordinance which authorised it and the excellency of the publick Liturgy in all the parts and offices of it was no less learnedly evinced by Dr. Hammond then newly made a Chaplain in ordinary to His Sacred Majesty Which though it might have satisfied all equal and unbyassed men yet neither Learning nor Reason could be heard in the new Assembly or if it were the voice thereof was drowned by the noise of the Ordinances 41. For on the 23 d of August Anno 1645 another Ordinance comes thundering from the Lords and Commons for the more effectual Execution of the Directory for publick Worship with several Clauses in the same not only for dispersing and use thereof but for calling in the Book of Common-prayer under several penalties Which coming to His Majesty's knowledg as soon as he returned to His Winter-Quarters He published His Proclamation of the 13th of November commanding in the same the use of the Common-Prayer notwithstanding any Ordinance to the contrary from the Houses of Parliament For taking notice first of those notable Benefits which had for Eighty years redounded to this Nation by the use of the Liturgy He next observes that by abolishing the said Book of Common-Prayer and imposing the Directory a way would be left open for all Ignorant Factious and Evil men to broach their Fancies and Conceits be they never so erroneous to mislead people into Sin and Rebellion against the King to raise Factions and Divisions in the Church and finally to utter those things for their Prayers in the Congregation to which no Conscientious can say Amen And thereupon He gives Commandment to all Ministers in their Parish-Churches to keep and use the said Book of Common-Prayer in all the Acts and Offices of God's Publick Worship according to the Laws made in that behalf and that the said Directory should in no sort be admitted received or used the said pretended Ordinances or any thing contained in them to the contrary notwithstanding But His Majesty sped no better by His Proclamation than the two Doctors did before by their Learned Arguments For if He had found little or no obedience to his Proclamations when he was strong and in the head of a victorious and successful Army He was not to expect it in a low condition when his Affairs were ruinated and reduced to nothing 42. For so it was that the Scots having raised an Army of Eighteen thousand Foot and Three thousand Horse taking the Dragoons into the reckoning break into England in the depth of Winter Anno 1643 and marched almost as far as the Banks of the River Tine without opposition There they received a stop by the coming of the Marquess of Newcastle with his Northern Army and entertain'd the time with some petit skirmishes till the sad news of the surprise of Selby by Sir Thomas Fairfax compelled him to return towards York with all his Forces for the preserving of that place on which the safety of the North did depend especially The Scots march after him amain and besiege that City in which they were assisted by the Forces of the Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester who by the Houses were commanded to attend that Service The issue whereof was briefly this that having worsted the great Army of Prince Rupert at Marston-moor on the second of Iuly York yeelded on Composition upon that day fortnight the Marquess of Newcastle with many Gentlemen of great Note and Quality shipt themselves for France and the strong Town of Newcastle took in by the Scots on the 19th of October then next following More fortunate was His Majesty with His Southern Army though at the first he was necessitated to retire from Oxon at such time as the Forces under Essex and Waller did appear before it The news whereof being brought unto them it was agreed that Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl's Army should march Westward to reduce those Countreys And here the Mystery of Iniquity began to show its self in its proper colours For whereas they pretended to have raised their Army for no other end but only to remove the King from his Evil Councellors those Evil Councellors as they call them were left at Oxon and the King only hunted by his insolent Enemies But the King having totally broken Waller in the end of Iune marched after Essex into Devonshire and having shut him up in Cornwall where he had neither room for forrage nor hope of succours he forced him to flye ingloriously in a Skiff or Cockboat and leave his Army in a manner to the Conqueror's Mercy But his Horse having the good fortune to save themselves the King gave quarter to the Foot reserving to Himself their Cannons Arms and Ammunition as a sign of His Victory And here again the Warr might possibly have been ended if the King had followed his good fortune and march'd to London before the Earl of Essex had united his scattered Forces and Manchester was returned from the Northern Service But setting down before Plymouth now as he did before Glocester the last year he lost the opportunity of effecting his purpose and was fought withall at Newberry in his coming back where neither side could boast of obtaining the Victory 43. But howsoever having gained some reputation by his Western Action the Houses seem inclinable to accept His offer of entring into Treaty with Him for an Accommodation This He had offered by His Message from Evesham on the 4th of Iuly immediately after the defeat of Waller and pressed it by another from Tavestock on the 8th of September as soon as he had broken the great Army of the Earl of Essex To these they hearkned not at first But being sensible of the out-cries of the common people they condescend at last appointing Vxbridg for the place and the thirtieth day of Ianuary for the
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-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
Government Amongst which no small care was taken for making twelve Classes of the Ministers of London only and after for dividing each particular County into several Classes with reference to the largeness and extent thereof Which Orders and Directions were after seconded by the Ordinance of October the twentieth containing certain Rules for the suspension of scandalous and ignorant persons from the holy Supper and giving power to certain persons therein named to sit as Judges and Tryers as well concerning the Election as the Integrity and Ability of all such men as are elected Elders within any of the Twelve Classes of the Province of London It is not to be thought but that the London-Elderships made sufficient haste to put themselves into the actual possession of their new Authority But in the Countrey most men were so cold and backward that the Lower-House was fain to quicken them with some fresh Resolves by which it was required on the twentieth of February That choice be forthwith made of Elders thoroughout the Kingdom according to such former Directions as had past both Houses and that all Classes and Parochial Congregations should be thereby authorised effectually to proceed therein And that the Church might be supplied with able Ministers in all times succeeding the Power of Ordination formerly restrained to certain persons residing in and about the City of London according to the Ordinance of the second of October 1644. is now communicated to the Ministers of each several Classes as men most like to know the wants of the parish-Parish-Churches under their Authority 53. But here it is to be observed that in the setling of the Presbyterian Government in the Realm of England as the Presbyteries were to be subordinate to the Classical Provincial and National Assemblies of the Church so were they all to be subordinate to the Power of the Parliament as appears plainly by the Ordinance of the fourteenth of March which makes it quite another thing from the Scottish Presbyteries and other Assemblies of that Kirk which held themselves to be supream and unaccountable in their actings without respect unto the King the Parliament and the Courts of Justice But the truth is that as the English generally were not willing to receive that yoak so neither did the Houses really intend to impose it on them though for a while to hold fair quarter with the Scots they seemed forward in it And this appears sufficiently by a Declaration of the House of Commons published on the seventeenth of April 1646 in which they signifie That they were not able to consent to the granting of an Arbitrary and unlimited Power and Iurisdiction to near Ten thousand Iudicatories to be erected in the Kingdom which could not be consistent with the Fundamental Laws and Government of it and which by necessary consequence did exclude the Parliament from having any thing to do in that Iurisdiction On such a doubtful bottom did Presbytery stand till the King had put himself into the Power of the Scots and that the Scots had posted him in all haste to the Town of Newcastle Which caused the Lords and Commons no less hastily to speed their Ordinance of the fifth of Iune For the present setling of the Presbyterial Government without further delay as in the Title is exprest And though it was declared in the end of that Ordinance That it was to be in force for three years only except the Houses should think fit to continue it longer yet were the London-Ministers so intent upon them that they resolve to live no longer in suspence but to proceed couragiously in the execution of those several Powers which both by Votes and Ordinances were intrusted to them And to make known to all the World what they meant to do they published a Paper with this Title that is to say Certain Considerations and Cautions agreed upon by the Ministers of London and Westminster and within the Lines of Communication Iune the nineteenth 1646. According to which they resolve to put the Presbyterial Government into execution upon the Ordinances of Parliament before published 54. In which conjuncture it was thought expedient by the Houses of Parliament to send Commissioners to Newcastle and by them to present such Propositions to his Sacred Majesty as they conceived to be agreeable to his present condition In the second of which it was desired That according to the laudable Example of his Royal Father of happy memory he would be pleased to swear and sign the Solemn League and Covenant and cause it to be taken by Acts of Parliament in all his Kingdoms and Estates And in the third it was proposed That a Bill should pass for the utter abolishing and taking away of Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors Commissaries Deans c. as they occur before in the Oxon Articles Num. 21. That the Assembly of Divines and Reformation of Religion according to the said Covenant should be forthwith setled and confirmed by Act of Parliament and that such unity and uniformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms should in like manner be confirmed by Act of Parliament as by the said Covenant was required after Advice first had with the Divines of the said Assembly It was required also in the said Propositions That he should utterly divest himself of all power to protect his people by putting the Militia into the hands of the Houses and that he should betray the greatest part of the Lords and Gentry which had adhered unto him in the course of the Warr to a certain ruin some of which were to be excluded from all hope of Pardon as to the saving of their Lives others to forfeit their Estates and to lose their Liberties the Clergy to remain under sequestration the Lawyers of both sorts to be disabled from the use of their Callings Demands of such unreasonable and horrid nature as would have rendred him inglorious and contemptible both at home and abroad if they had been granted 55. These Propositions were presented to him on the eleventh day of Iuly at Newcastle by the Earls of Pembroke and Suffolk of the House of Peers Erle Hipisly Robinson and Goodwin from the House of Commons Of whom his Majesty demanded Whether they came impowred to treat with him or not And when they answered That they had no Authority so to do He presently replied That then the Houses might as well have sent their Propositions by an honest Trumpeter and so parted with them for the present His Majesty had spent the greatest part of his time since he came to Newcastle in managing a dispute about Church-Government with Mr. Alexander Henderson the most considerable Champion for Presbytery in the Kirk of Scotland Henderson was possest of all advantages of Books and Helps which might enable him to carry on such a Disputation But His Majesty had the better Cause and the stronger Arguments Furnished with which though destitute of all other Helps than what he had within himself he prest his Adversary so hard
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
Practises the Sacriledges Spoils and Rapins the Tumults Murthers and Seditions the horrid Treasons and Rebellions which have been raised by the Presbyterians in most parts of Christendom for the time of One hundred years and upwards Which having seen we shall conclude this History in the words of that Censure which by the Doctors of the Sorbonne was once passed on the Jesuits that is to say Videtur haec Societas in negotio fidei periculosa pacis Ecclesiae perturbativa Religionis rectae eversiva magis ad destructionem quà m ad aedificationem FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and are to be sold by Thomas Basset at the George in Fleetstreet near Cliffords-Inn Folio's 1. COsmography in four Books containing the Chorography and History of the whole World and all the principal Kingdoms and Provinces Seas and Isles thereof By P. Heylin Printed 1669 in Columns much better than any of the former Editions Price 20 s. 2. Ecclesia Restaurata or the History of the Reformation of the Church of England containing the beginning progress and successes of it the Counsels by which it was conducted the Rules of Piety and Prudence upon which it was founded the several steps by which it was promoted or retarded in the change of times from the first preparations to it by King Henry the 8th until the legal setling and establishment of it under Queen Elizabeth together with the intermixture of such Civil Actions and Affairs of State as either were co-incident with it or related to it By P. Heylin The second Edition 3. The Voyages and Travels of the Duke of Holstein's Embassadours into Muscovy Tartary and Persia begun in the year 1633 and finisht in 1639 containing a compleat History of those Countreys Whereunto are added the Travels of Mandelso from Persia into the East-Indies begun in 1638 and finisht in 1640. The whole illustrated with divers accurate Maps and Figures Written originally by Adam Olearius Secretary to the Embassy The second Edition corrected Englished by I Davies of Kidwelly Price bound 18 s. 4. An Historical Display of the Romish State Court Interest Policies c. and the mighty influence of the Iesuits in that Church and many other Christian States not hitherto extant Being a full Account of all the Transactions both in France and at Rome concerning the five famous Propositions controverted between the Iansenists and the Molinists from the beginning of that Affair till the Pope's Decision Written originally by Mons. de St. Amour Doctor of Sorbonne Englished by G. Havirs Price bound 14. s. 5. The Compleat Body of the Art Military in three Books being perfect Directions for the right ordering and framing of an Army both of Horse and Foot Together with all the manner of Fortifications and the Art of Gunnery By Rich. Elton Lieutenant-Colonel Price bound 8 s. 1517. a Habebat jus gladii alias civilis jurisdictionis paâ—tes sed magistratui ereptas 1528. b Quae à Vireto Farello facta sunt suffragio meo comprobavi c Libertatis suae patrem c d Farellus cui se totos debent c. e Si quidem Excommunicationi in aliena Ecclesia nullus locus f Quibus sub Principibus Christianis non videtur esse necessaria Excommunicatio f Quod Doctrinam Disciplinam capitibus aliquot comprehensam admitterent Bez. in vit Calv. g Disciplinam qualem vetus habuit Ecclesia apud nos non esse dicis neque nos diffitemur 1537. 1538. h Nec quisquam aut expulsus est invidiosius nec receptus latius Paterc Hist. lib. 2. 1541. a Impudenteâ— Deo â—â—bis meuâ—â—â—â— sunt b Censui ut jurejurando ad veri confessionem adigerentur 1537. a Congressus publici Ecclesiae diebus Dominicis c. Bez. Epist. 241 a Testium seu concuratorum ad paedo-bapâ—esmum advoâ—at â—b 1547 a Si quis mei usus foret c. b Vt ritus illos qui superstitiâ—nis aliquid redolent tâ—llenter è medio c Illa omnia abscindi semel d In qua nihil non ad Dei verbum exegi â—as est e Vt vel moderemur vel reseâ—â—damus c. 1551. a Quae non obscuret modo sed propemodum obruat puâ—um geruinum Dei culium Epist. 1554. a In Liturgia Anglicana qualem mihi describitis multas video tolerabiles ineptias b Si hactenus in Anglia viguisset sincera Religio aliquid in melius correctum multaque detracta esse oportet a Quae sibi velint nescio quos 〈◊〉 Paposhâ—a rantopeâ—e delectant a Certâ—luâ— narta 〈◊〉 ejus facinae nugas ex supersâ—â—â— ne manasâ—e nemo sani judicii negabit unde Constituâ— qui eas in libera optione retineant â—imis â—uâ—ide fâ—ceâ— bauâ—â—â—â— a Vt vigeat purus integer Dei cultus Ecclesia à sâ—â—dibus repurgetur deinde ut filiis Dei apud vos liberum sit nomen ejus puâ—è invocaâ—e Institut lib 4. c 10.8 31. a Si quisquiâ— repugnanâ—bus legibus patriae privilegus sâ—se Dominum auc Magistratum constituit c. Epist 24. a 〈…〉 Amos cap 7 b Infeâ—sissinâ—us Evaâ—ge 〈…〉 Ad Altar Damasc Epist. c Natuâ—â—â—â—situm est 〈◊〉 omnibus 〈◊〉 Châ—isti â—diâ—m 〈◊〉 a 〈…〉 câ—nsiderati c. hoc tâ—e sâ—mper gâ—aviâ—er vexavit In Amos cap. 7. v. 13. b Officium magistratus est Ecclesiam Dei gladio tueri ac conservare c. Bez. Epist. 24. a Moralem esse uniuâ— dici observationem in hebdâ—madâ Instituâ— lib. 2. c. 8. Sect. 34. b Numerum Septenarium non ejus serviâ—uâ—e Ecclesias astringam Li. Ibid. c Quem veteres in eorum subbaâ—um subrogarunt De transferenda solenniâ—ate dominica in feriam quintum lib. 1. cap. ult a Nâ—n posse consisteâ—e Ecclesiam niâ—i câ—rtum Regimen constitueretur quale ex verbo Deâ— nobis presâ—râ—ptum est in veteri Ecclesia fuit observatuâ— Epist. ad Farâ—ll b Excommunicationem apud noâ— adhuc nullam esse c Sed non simul conjunctos esse Disciplinae nervos docendum est c. d Nunquam utile putaâ—i jus Excommunicandi permitti singulis pastoribus nam res odrosa est c. Alium usum Apostoli tradiderunt a De hâ—â—c â—upeâ—em abâ—te commonâ—â—fieri Eccâ—esiam Argentineâ—s c cujus Ecclesiae consideâ—aâ—uroâ— spero Sâ—ntoâ—â—s c. b De mâ— Concionaâ—ore Calvintana c. Ibid. c Legeâ— Coâ—â—â—stoâ—â—â— vâ—stâ—â— opâ—avt 〈◊〉 ad me traâ—smiâ—â—i â— d Ex quo â—ormam aliquam conciperes quam prescribere non debuâ— a Quanti nobis esse debeat sincer a Religio per quam Christo inter nos Tribunal eâ—igitur b In statu Regni nil movendum quod omnis novitas graves motus exitâ—ales minaâ—eretur a Ad quem nâ—stri 〈…〉 etiam sut quidem quos serum adduxii c. b Cum audio Disciplinam Evangelii profâ—ssione conjungi c Vt toti nobilâ—ati libeâ—a reformardiâ—e