and Concourse of People to those places Thirdly To the Poor who found there a constant relief from their Hospitality Fourthly To the King's Revenues for that besides their First-fruits Tenths c. no sort of Men did more readily grant Subsidies to his Majesty or were more willing at this time to contribute to the publick Charges of the Kingdom He trusted much he said in the Honour and Justice of this Honourable House in regard that though they were Accused of great and flagitious Crimes yet he could not hear of the least proof offered against them and therefore he hoped that they who professed so much sincerity in Religion would never have St. Paul's censure deservedly laid upon them Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Which he did not see how it could be avoided if they destroyed these Religious Foundations which were dedicated and set apart for the solemn Service and Honour of God Concluding That upon the Ruine of the Rewards of Industry and Learning no Structure could be raised but Ignorance and upon the Chaos of Ignorance nothing but Confusion Prophaneness Irreligion and Atheism But Alas All this was but Surdis Canere Upon this there arose a warm debate and the Episcopal Party in the House who were by far over-numbered urged That they took the late Protestation to be the meaning and intention of the House to defend the Protestant Religion and not to destroy it according to the first Clause of the said Protestation But they soon found themselves in Solomon's Snare who informs them that is a Snare to devour holy things and after vows to make Enquiry for whatever their intention was in taking it the imposers had one very far different and meant it as an Engine to pull down the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy as a Relique of Popery and therefore they now explained their meaning to be That Explanation of the Protestation by the True Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within the Realm contrary to the same Doctrine is meant only the Publick Doctrine professed in the said Church so far as it is opposite to Popery and Popish Innovations and that the said Words are not to extend to the maintaining of any Form of Worship Discipline or Government nor of any Rites or Ceremonies of the said Church of England So that upon the Matter hereby the Government of the Church by Arch-bishops Bishops c. together with the Liturgy were plainly designed for Extirpation which is the Presbyterian way of Reforming Thus by an unhappy Artifice were many worthy and sound men not only for the Doctrine but Government of the Church as it were drawn into a Confederacy to destroy her And if their too inconsiderate compliance drew them into this danger how deeply were they Guilty who designedly drew them into the making a solemn Protestation Vow and Promise in the presence of Almighty God to perform something which by their own Confession was so mysterious and doubtful as to need an Explication a Vow made without the knowledge or consent of their Supreme Lord and Sovereign and as they Explained it not only directly contrary to their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy but such a one as their Sovereign could not permit them to keep but he must violate his Coronation Oath by which he had obliged himself to defend the Church in all her Priviledges and Immunities as then by Law possessed and enjoyed A most impious affront to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven making him a Party to a Vow so rashly made that the very framers of it to their Eternal Infamy acknowledged by this Explanation carried so much Ambiguity as to render it not sufficiently understood to be taken with a safe Conscience nor by many of those who took it be kept without perjury and making shipwrack of their Consciences However this advantage Posterity will be able to make of it not to be again imposed upon by such wily stratagems of pretenders to Reformation but for the future will more easily be able to discover the design and meaning of such Protestations and Associations and in what sense they who diffent from the Church of England understand the True Protestant Religion of which they boast themselves such great Champions and Assertors and that though for a time to serve their Interest they may dissemble yet they esteem the Discipline Rites and Ceremonies of the present Established Church of England no better than Popery and Popish Innovations And that notwithstanding the Testimony of Antiquity long before either Popery or Presbytery came into the World recommends them to us as the Primitive Government and Usages of the Universal Church notwithstanding that the first Reformers set to their Testimony by Martyrdom which they suffered from the Papists an evident demonstration that they are not Popish Notwithstanding that they are agreeable to the Rule of Scripture enjoyned by those Laws and Legislators who detested abhorred and banished the Pope and Popery out of England yet if ever they can get the Power proportionable to their Wills they will endeavour to Extirpate Root and Branch the most truly Primitive and Apostolical Church in the whole Christian World A Message from the House of Commons by Mr. Arthur Goodwin Message from the Commons about the Bill to restrain Ecclesiastical persons from medling in Secular Affairs who delivered the Bill for the abbreviation of Michaelmas Term which the Commons had passed with the amendments And to desire their Lordships from the Commons to take into Consideration as soon as they can the Bill touching the Restraining of Bishops and Persons in Holy Orders from intermedling in Secular Affairs This day two Letters were read in the House of Commons one from Mr. Peter Heywood Thursday May 13. Fears of the French another from Thomas Smith of Dover to one James Buckhurst of the great fears of the French and their being about to Ship many thousands of men to be landed in England the Consideration of which were referred to the Committee of Seven Thus did they by continual Alarms of Fears and Dangers even upon the slightest and most trivial Grounds as it were to keep the People perpetually awake and force them into those dreadful State-Phrensies which were the deplorable Consequences of these Reports and Rumors His Majesty came this day into the House of Lords and having Seated himself in his Chair of State the Lords being in their Robes fitting uncovered the House of Commons were sent for the Royal Assent being to be given to three Bills viz. One for the Abbreviation of Michaelmas Term Another for Pressing and Levying of Marriners and others for the Service of the Kingdom and the third For the Remainder of the Six Subsidies Upon the presenting of which Mr. Speaker made this Speech as I find it in the Book of Speeches Pag. 204. May it please Your Most Excellent Majesty Mr. Speaker's Speech at the passing
his Majesty evidently saw that their Design was to render his Person Reputation and Government Cheap Contemptible and Odious to his Subjects and this put him upon Printing likewise his Answer to the Remonstrance and issuing out a Declaration to all his Loving Subjects for his own Vindication And here began the Paper-War between the King and Faction of the two Houses in which they were plainly the Aggressors of his Honor Dignity and Reputation His Majesty only standing upon the Defensive The Answer to the Petition and the Declaration were in these Terms WE having received from you The King's Answer to the Petition which accompanied the Remonstrance as also the Declaration concerning it Dec. 1641. soon ofter Our Return out of Scotland a long Petition consisting of many Desires of great Moment together with a Declaration of a very unusual Nature annexed thereunto We had taken some time to consider of it as befitted Vs in a matter of that Consequence being confident that your own reason and regard to Vs as well as Our express intimation by Our Comptroller to that purpose would have restrained you from the Publishing of it till such time as you should have received Our Answer to it But much against Our expectation finding the contrary that the said Declaration is already abroad in Print by Directions from your House as appears by the printed Copy We must let you know that We are very sensible of the disrespect Notwithstanding it is Our Intention that no failing on your part shall make Vs fail in Ours of giving all due Satisfaction to the Desires of Our People in a Parliamentary Way And therefore We send you this Answer to your Petition reserving Our self in Point of the Declaration which We think unparliamentary and shall take a Course to do that which We shall think fit in Prudence and Honor. To the Petition We say That although there are divers things in the Preamble of it which We are so far from admitting that We profess We cannot at all understand them as Of a wicked and malignant Party prevalent in the Government Of some of that Party admitted to Our Privy Council and to other Imployments of Trust and nearest to Us and Our Children Of Endeavors to sow amongst the People false Scandals and Imputations to blemish and disgrace the Proceedings of the Parliament All or any of which did We know of We should be as ready to remedy and Punish as you to Complain of That the Prayers of your Petition are grounded upon such Premisses as We must in no Wise admit yet notwithstanding We are pleased to give this Answer to you To the first concerning Religion consisting of several Branches We say that for the preserving the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom from the designs of the Popish Party We have and will still concur with all the just Desires of Our People in a Parliamentary Way That for the depriving of the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament We would have you consider that their Right is grounded upon the Fundamental Law of the Kingdom and constitution of Parliament This We would have have you consider but since you desire Our concurrence herein in a Parliamentary Way We will give no further Answer at this time As for the abridging of the inordinate Power of the Clergy We conceive that the taking away of the High Commission Court hath well moderated that but if there continue any Vsurpations or Excesses in their Jurisdictions We therein neither have nor will protect them Vnto that Clause which concerneth Corruptions as you style them in Religion in Church-Government and in Discipline and the removing of such unnecessary Ceremonies as weak Consciences might check at That for any illegal Innovations which may have crept in We shall willingly concur in the removal of them That if Our Parliament shall advise Vs to call a National Synod which may duly examine such Ceremonies as give just cause of Offence to any We shall take it into Consideration and apply Our Self to give due Satisfaction therein But We are very sorry to hear in such general Terms Corruption in Religion objected since We are perswaded in Our Conscience that no Church can be found upon the Earth that professeth the true Religion with more purity of Doctrine than the Church of England doth nor where the Government and Discipline are joyntly more beautified and free from Superstition then as they are here established by Law which by the grace of God We will with Constancy maintain while We live in their Purity and Glory not only against all Invasions of Popery but also from the irreverence of those many Schismaticks and Separatists wherewith of late this Kingdom and this City abounds to the great dishonor and hazard both of Church and State for the suppressing of whom We require your timely Aid and active Assistance To the second Prayer of the Petition concerning the removal and choice of Counsellors We know not any of Our Councel to whom the Character set forth in the Petition can belong That by those whom We had exposed to Trial We have already given you sufficient Testimony that there is no Man so near unto Vs in Place or Affection whom We will not leave to the Justice of the Law if you shall bring a particular Charge and sufficient Proofs against him and of this We do again assure you but in the mean time We wish you to forbear such general Aspersions as may reflect upon all Our Councel since you name none in particular That for the choice of Our Counsellors and Ministers of State it were to debar Vs that natural Liberty all Freemen have and it is the undoubted Right of the Crown of England to call such Persons to Our secret Councels to publick Imployment and Our particular Service as We shall think fit so We are and ever shall be very careful to make Election of such Persons in those Places of Trust as shall have given good Testimonies of their Abilities and Integrity and against whom there can be no just Cause of exception whereon reasonably to ground a diffidence and to choices of this Nature We assure you that the mediation of the nearest unto Vs hath always concurred To the third Prayer of your Petition concerning Ireland We understand your Desire of not alienating the forfeited Lands thereof to proceed from your much Care and Love And likewise that it may be a Resolution very fit for Vs to take but whether it be seasonable to declare Resolutions of that Nature before the Events of a War be seen that We much doubt of Howsoever We cannot but thank you for this Care and your chearful ingagement for the suppressing of that Rebellion upon the speedy effecting thereof the Glory of God in the Protestant Profession the safety of the British there Our Honor and that of the Nation so much depends all the Interests of this Kingdom being so involved in that Business We cannot but quicken your
Rules of Justice He hath taken away mens Inheritances And here My Lords is an offering of Rapine an offering of Injustice and Violence And will God accept such an Offering Must the Revenues of the Church be raised that way It is true it was the more in the way of his own Preferment He knew who sate at the Helme here the Archbishop of Canterbury and such services might win more credit with him It was not an Eye to God and Religion but an Eye to his own Preferment I shall speak no more of that 9. I come to the 9th head and that is the building of Churches Many Churches have been built since his Government Truly My Lords why he should have any Credit or Honour if other men builded Churches I know not I am sure we hear of no Churches he hath built himself If he would have been careful to have set up good Preachers that would have stirred up Devotion in men and made them desirous of the knowledg of God and by that means made more Churches it had been something But I hear nothing of Spiritual Edification nothing of the knowledg of God that by his means hath been dispersed in that Kingdom And certainly they that strive not to build up mens Souls in a Spiritual way of Edification let them build all the material Churches that can be they will do no good God is not worshipped with Walls but he is worshipped with Hearts 10. He saith in the 10th place That many Orthodox and Learned Preachers have been advanced by his means and the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England by his means Protected and Defended My Lords I shall give but two or three Patterns of the Clergy that he hath preferred If you will take Doctor Atherton he is not to be found now above Ground For he was hanged for many foul and unspeakable Offences Doctor Bramhill hath been preferred to a great Bishoprick but he is a man that now stands Charged with High Treason he hath been but few years in Ireland and yet hath laid out at least 30000 l. in Purchases I shall name but one Chaplain more and that is one Arthur Gwyn who about 1634. was an Vnder-Groom to the Earl of Corke in his Stable In the year after Dr. Bramhill preferred him to be a Clergy-man and a Parsonage and two Vicaridges Impropriate were taken from my Lord of Corke and given to this Arthur Gwyn I shall add no more Patterns of his Clergy 11. I go to the 11th and that is concerning the Army He hath many glorious Expressions of his Service concerning the Army That they are 1000 Horse and 2000 Foot And that there hath been very few Papists Soldiers or Officers and none preferred by himself Truly I think he says true or within one of true in this for there was but one preferred by himself and therefore I shall not stand upon that But he says this Army was paid out of the Revenue of the Crown which heretofore it was not wont to be To that I have spoken before and shewed that many years before his time all the Charges of Ireland were born within Ireland He says and I speak that as to the Army too That neither the Arms nor Wages have been burdensome to the People of Ireland but their Lodgings and Billettings have not been easie and not without discontent Why My Lords in Dublin it self where they have a Charter that Exempts them from Billetting of Soldiers they have been fain to pay for Billetting of Soldiers Nay those Soldiers that were Servants and Dwellers in his own houses and other places must have their Billetting moneys And of this there hath been Petitions and Complaints nay it hath been spoken of in Parliament there and yet he can tell you that the marching and laying of Soldiers is without burthen and grievance to the People that was the Eleventh 12. I go to the 12th and that is the great increase of Trade The increase of Shipping 100 to one Truly My Lords in a time of Peace and in a growing Kingdom as that was being formerly unhusbanded It is no wonder that when Land encreases in the Manurance and People increase in Number both Shipping and Trade increases But it is the advantage of the time not the advantage of his Government for My Lords his Government hath been destructive to Trade And that will manifestly appear by the multitude of Monopolies that he hath exercised in his own Person And that is all I shall speak to the 12th 13. The 13th is That Justice hath been administred without bribery without partiality without Corruption these are Glorious things But there will as much fall upon him of Corruption and Injustice as of any other Offence And that My Lords will appear to you through the whole Course of our Evidence I shall not now speak of the particulars And that we may not content our selves with particular witnesses only I shall humbly desire That the Remonstrance of the Parliament of Ireland both of the Lords and of the Commons may be read And they will give a sufficient Testimony of the quality of his Justice 14. The 14th My Lords is this That he hath been a Means to His Majesty for a Parliament in England It is true he was And it is as true that we count that as mischievous a part of his design as any thing else Into what a miserable Dilemma My Lords did he bring the Kingdom that we must surrender the Liberties of the Kingdom in Parliament or see them oppressed with Force and Violence out of Parliament The particulars of this I shall leave for the instant for there is an Article that concerns this I have now passed through all the material parts of the Apologetical Preamble He concludes with a desire that he may not be charged with Errors of his understanding or Judgment being not bred up in the Law or with weakness to which humane Nature is Subject Truly it would be far from us to charge him with any such mistakes No My Lords we shall charge him with nothing but what the Law in every man's breast condemns the Light of nature the Light of common reason the Rules of Common Society and that will appear in all the Articles my Colleagues will offer to you My Lords I have some few Witnesses which I shall desire may be heard to the points I have opened and I shall in the first place desire that Sir Pierce Crosby may be heard concerning the Breach of Priviledge in Parliament also Sir John Clotworthy Nich. Barnewell Nicholas Plunket and Sir James Montgomery I have some witnesses to the point of the Revenue Sir Robert Pye Sir Edward Warder and Sir Adam Loftus To all which bitter Invectives the Earl in his occasional replies answered with as much Temper and Moderation as the other spoke with Heat and Passion making his defence with that Vivacity of understanding clearness of Expression and with such a Decency both of
Protestation I hope Gentlemen you do think that neither the fear of Loss nor love of Reputation will suffer me to belye God and mine own Conscience at this time I am now in the very door going out and my next step must be from time to Eternity either of Peace or Pain To clear my self before you all I do here solemnly call God to witness I am not Guilty so far as I can understand of the great Crime laid to my Charge nor have ever had the least inclination or Intention to damnifie or prejudice the King the State the Laws or the Religion of this Kingdom but with my best endeavours to serve all and to support all So may God be merciful to my Soul Then rising up he said He desired to speak something to the People but was affraid he should be heard by few in regard of the Noise but having first fitted himself to the Block and rising again he thus addressed himself to the Spectators MY Lord Primate of Ireland and my Lords The Earl of Strafford's Speech upon the Scaffold May 12. and the rest of these Noble Gentlemen It is a great Comfort to me to have your Lordships by me this day because I have been known to you a long time and I now desire to be heard a few words I come here my Lords to pay my last Debt to Sin which is Death And through the Mercies of God to rise again to Eternal Glory My Lords If I may use a few words I shall take it as a great Courtesie from you I come here to submit to the Judgment that is passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented Mind I do freely forgive all the World a forgiveness not from the Teeth outward as they say but from my heart I speak in the presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not a displeasing thought that ariseth in me against any Man I thank God I say truly my Conscience bears me Witness that in all the Honour I had to serve His Majesty I had not any Intention in my heart but what did aim at the Joynt and Individual prosperity of the King and His People although it be my ill hap to be misconstrued I am not the first Man that hath suffered in this kind It is a Common Portion that befals men in this Life Righteous Judgment shall be hereafter here we are subject to Error and Misjudging one another One thing I desire to be heard in and do hope that for Christian Charities sake I shall be believed I was so far from being against Parliaments that I did always think Parliaments in England to be the happy Constitution of the Kingdom and Nation and the best means under God to make the King and his People happy As for my death I do here acquit all the World and beseech God to forgive them In particular I am very glad His Majesty conceives me not meriting so severe and heavy a punishment as the utmost Execution of this Sentence I do infinitely rejoyce in it and in that Mercy of His and do beseech God to Return Him the same that he may find Mercy when he hath most need of it I wish this Kingdom all prosperity and happiness in the World I did it Living and now Dying it is my Wish I profess heartily my apprehension and do humbly recommend it to you and wish that every Man would lay his hand on his heart and consider seriously Whether the beginning of the Peoples happiness should be written in Letters of Blood I fear they are in a Wrong Way I desire Almighty God that no one drop of my Blood rise up in Judgment against them I have but one word more and that is for my Religion My Lord of Armagh I do profess my self seriously faithfully and truly to be an obedient Son of the Church of England In that Church I was born and bred in that Religion I have lived and now in that I dye Prosperity and Happiness be ever to it It hath been said I was inclined to Popery if it be an Objection worth the answering let me say truly from my heart That since I was Twenty one years of age unto this day going on 49 years I never had thought or doubt of the truth of this Religion nor had ever any the boldness to suggest to me the contrary to my best remembrance And so being reconciled to the Mercies of Jesus Christ my Saviour into whose bosom I hope shortly to be gathered to enjoy Eternal Happiness which shall never have an end I desire heartily to be forgiven of every Man if any rash or unadvised Words or Deeds have passed from me and desire all your Prayers and so my Lord Farewel and farewel all things in this World The Lord strengthen my Faith and give me Confidence and Assurance in the Merits of Christ Jesus I trust in God we shall all meet to live Eternally in Heaven and receive the accomplishment of all Happiness where every Tear shall be wiped from our Eyes and sad thoughts from our Hearts and so God bless this Kingdom and Jesus have Mercy on my Soul Then turning himself about he saluted all the Noblemen and took a solemn leave of all considerable persons on the Scaffold giving them his Hand And after that he said Gentlemen I would say my Prayers and I intreat you all to pray with me and for me Then his Chaplain laid the Book of Common-Prayer upon the Chair before him as he kneeled down on which he prayed almost a quarter of an hour then he prayed as long or longer without a Book and ended with the Lords Prayer then standing up he spyed his Brother Sir George Wentworth and call'd him to him and said Brother We must part remember me to my Sister and to my Wife and carry my Blessing to my Eldest Son and charge him from me That he fear God and continue an Obedient Son of the Church of England and that he approve himself a Faithful Subject to the King and tell him That he should not have any private Grudge or Revenge towards any concerning Me and bid him beware to meddle not with Church Livings for that will prove a Moth and Canker to him in his Estate and wish him to content himself to be a Servant to his Countrey as a Justice of Peace in his County not aiming at higher Preferments Carry my Blessing also to my Daughter Ann and Arrabella charge them to fear and serve God and he will bless them not forgetting my little Infant that knows neither good nor evil and cannot speak for it self God speak for it and bless it Then said he I have nigh done One stroke will make my Wife Husbandless my dear Children Fatherless and my poor Servants Masterless and seperate me from my dear Brother and all my Friends but let God be to you and them all in all After that going to take off his Doublet and to make
held by Bishops the greatest Fires and Pests of Christendom the Old Heresies were by their Industry extinct Church Discipline and Pious Constitutions by them Established many Nations by them converted many Miracles done for the Confirmation of the Christian Faith one of the Gospels written by a Bishop St. Mark of Alexandria if we believe as authentick Records as any are extant Three of the Epistles of St. Paul written to Bishops seven Epistles by the Holy Ghost himself recorded in the Revelation and sent to the Seven Asian Bishops as all ancient Fathers accord * * Timotheus Titus Clemens Limus Marcus Dyonisius Onesimus Caius Epaphroditus Jacobus Hierosolimit Euodias Simeon the Names of twelve Men besides Apostles mentioned in Holy Scripture which all Antiquity reports to have been Bishops most of the Fathers whose Works all Posterity embraces with much Zeal and Admiration were Bishops these also in our Apprehensions advance that Holy Function to a high and unalterable Estimation 17. Very many of the fairest Churches and Colleges and Places of Religion were built by Bishops which are fair Characters to shew their prompiness to do Publick Acts of Piety and that Persons so well qualified as they were that is Governors and Clergy and fairly endowed is an excellent Composition to advance publick Designs for the Honor of God in the Promotion of Publick Piety 18. Since it hath pleased this Honorable Court of late to commend a Protestation to Vs which We by solemn Vow engaged our selves to Attest with our Lives and Fortunes the established Doctrine of the Church of England We consider that since the 36 Article hath approved and established the Book of Consecration of Bishops the Abolition of Bishops would nullifie that Article and should We not make humble Remonstrance to the contrary we should suddenly recede from our great and solemn Protestation for maintenance of our Church Doctrine But may it please this Honorable Assembly We consider on the other side 19. The introducing of Lay Elders must bring an insupportable Burthen to all Parishes by maintaining them at the Parish Charge for they must be maintained or else a Transgression is made against the Apostolical Rule Tim. 5. for the principal and indeed only colourable pretended Place for Lay-Elders injoyns their Maintenances so that either the People must be Oppressed with so great a Burthen or else St. Paul's Rule not obeyed or else there is no Authority for Lay Elders as indeed there is not 20. And also there can be no less fear of Vsurpation upon the Temporal Power by the Presbytery then is pretended from Episcopacy since that Presbytery challenges Cognisance of more Causes and Persons then the Episcopacy does so making a dangerous Entrenchment upon the Supremacy and derives its Pretence from Divine Institution with more Confidence and more immediate derivation then Episcopacy though indeed more vainly as We conceive 21. We crave leave also to add this That these two viz. Episcopacy and Presbytery being the only two in contestation if any new Design should justle Episcopacy we are confident that as it hitherto wants a Name so it will want a Face or Form of Reason in case of Conscience when it shall appear Signed by Knights Justices Gentry and Free-Holders about 800 By Ministers about the Number of 40. Though this Number seem but small yet the County is so too and certainly the Reasons which they offered were great and altogether unanswerable But the Word of the Faction was Delenda est Carthago Root and Branch must up though the 12 Apostles themselves had Petitioned them and remonstrated against this Violent and Anti-Christian Enterprize as in reality both they and all Apostolick Men as is well urged in this Petition did This day a Petition was read in the House of Lords Friday Novemb. 19. Officers of the late Army Petition for their Pay Presented by the Colonels and Chief Commanders in the late King's Army shewing That whereas there was a Trust desired by the Parliament of the said Officers for part of their Pay and thereupon an Act was made for their satisfaction to be given positively on the 10th of this Instant November They therefore desire That the Parliament may be moved to make good their Act. Whereupon it was Ordered to be propounded to the Commons at a Conference The Press breaks loose against Church and State The Press now began to break loose as indeed every thing that looked like Order seemed to be wholly Abandoned to Libertinisme both in Church and State for daily Complaints were made of abusive Pamphlets against both particular Persons and the Government Civil and Ecclesiastical Complaint had been some time before made to the House of a Libel against the Earl of Worcester another against the French Ambassador a third for Printing and Publishing a Book Intituled Leicester's Commonwealth upon all which the Honourable House of Lords who had not yet ejected the Bishops and others of the Loyal Nobility had animadverted and this Day it was Ordered That Lewis Hughs a Minister be sent for to attend this House to see if he will avow the making of a Book Intituled The Grievances and Errors of the Service-Book and that the Company of the Stationers do take Care to find out the Printer of the same Ordered Wall restored to his Place That Thomas Wall shall be restored to his former Imployment about the Vpper House of Parliament which although it is in the Gentleman Vshers disposure yet the Lords do presume that he will give way unto it by reason that his Dismission from the Imployment was by Order of this House for the reglect of his Duty to their Lordships only and the Business that concerned the House The Commons were still busy with the Declaration which having been the Work of many Daies and some Nights the Faction watching the opportunity of a thin House when most of the Loyal Party were tired and risen was at last brought to that perfection that it was Ordered to be Ingrossed A Motion was made for encouraging voluntary Contributions for the Relief of the poor English in the Kingdom of Ireland to which Sir John Packer presently gave 100 l. The Lord Brooks acquainted the Lord Thursday Novemb. 20. That he had informed the Venetian Ambassador with the Order of this House concerning Priests and Jesuits and the Ambassador saith he hath none that are the King 's Native Subjects if he had any such he would discharge them as for Father Jones and Father Andrews he saith he knows none such The Petition of Robert Philips the Priest was read Philips the Priest Petitions to be released from the Tower Craving Pardon for having presented formerly to their Lordships such Petitions as have not afforded expected Satisfaction which he humbly beseecheth may not be imputed to his backwardness but rather unto want of Experience in forming Petitions of that Nature And further he beseecheth their Lordships to believe that from his Heart he is
and doth get the Tongue of some men whose hearts are far from him For at one of your Committees I heard it publickly asserted by one of the Committee that some of our Articles do contain some things contrary to Holy Scripture Mr. Speaker Sunday is a Sabbath Sunday is no Sabbath Both true both untrue in several acceptations and the knot I think too hard for our Teeth Shall I give you an easier instance Some say it is lawful to kneel at receiving the Elements of our Holy Communion others Plead it as expedient Some do press it as necessary and there want not others who abhor it as Idolatrous And Sir I am confident you cannot so state this easie question to pass among us but that there will be many Contradicentes The Second Epistle of St. Peter is now newly denyed to be the Apostles Our Creed The Ministers in their Remonstrance do complain that the Creed is often rehearsed but they blotted out what they had put in that it is over-short and in one place dangerous obscure the Holy Apostles Creed is now disputed denyed inverted and exploded by some who would be thought the best Christians among us I started with wonder and with anger to hear a bold Mechanick tell me that my Creed is not my Creed He wondred at my wonder and said I hope your worship is too wise to believe that which you call your Creed O Deus bone in quae tempora reservasti nos Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One absurdity leads in a thousand and when you are down the Hill of Error there is no bottom but in Hell and that is bottomless too Shall I be bold to give you one and but one instance more much clamor now there is against our publick Lyturgy though hallowed with the Blood of some of the first Composers thereof And surely Sir some parts of it may be well corrected But the clamors now go very high Impudence or Ignorance is nown grown so frontless that it is lowdly expected by many that you should utterly abrogate all forms of publick worship a As for them who admit a form to be lawful yet do declaim against Authothority for commanding and imposing the use of it it is to me a wonder and absurdity that a just Authority may not bind that to be done by a Law which is as they confess lawful in it self both to have and use and at least if you have a short Form yet not to impose the use of it Extirpation of Episcopacy that hope is already wallowed and now the same Men are as greedy for abolition of the Lyturgy that so the Church of England in her publick Prayers b In a false Copy abroad instead of may hereafter the silly Transcriber put in Nay her afferture which hath been some displeasure unto me may hereafter turn a babler at all adventure A brainless stupid and an ignorant conceit of some Thus much for a taste of that whereof there is two much abroad for the divisions of Reuben there are great thoughts of heart abroad Sir Thus are we engaged into sad points of Divinity and with the favour of that Gentleman who did last time disgust it I must again propound my doubtful quaere to be resolved by the wisdom of this House whether we be Idonei competentes judices in doctrinal resolutions In my Opinion we are not Let us maintain the Doctrine Established in the Church of England it will be neither safety nor wisdom for us to determine new Sir I do again repeat and avow my former words and do confidently affirm That it was never seen nor known in any age in any Nation throughout the whole World that a Set of Lay-men Gentlemen Soldiers Lawyers of both Gowns Physicians Merchants Citizens all professions admitted or at least admittable but the Professors of Religion alone excluded that we should determine upon Doctrines in Divinity Shall the Clergy hold different Doctrines from us or shall our determinations bind them also They are a considerable body in this Kingdom they are herein surely concerned as much as we and ought not to be bound up unheard and unpartied Farther Sir If Clergy-men among us be thought fit for no other then for spiritual imployment How shall we answer it to God and to a good Conscience if we shut them out from that which we our selves pretend to be their only and their proper work Mr. Speaker We cannot brag of an unerring spirit infallibility is no more tyed to your Chair then it is unto the Popes And if I may speak truth as I love truth with clearness and with plainness I do here ingeniously profess unto you that I shall not acquiesce and sit down upon the doctrinal resolutions of this House unless it be where my own Genius doth lead and prompt me to the same conclusions Mr. Speaker We are Convened by his Majesties Writ to Treat Super arduis negotiis regni Ecclesiae I beseech you let us not turn negotia Ecclesiae into dogmata fidei There is a great difference in Objecto between the Agends and the Credends of a Christian Let us take care to settle the Government that we do not unsettle the Doctrines The short close of all with a motion is but this we are poysoned in many points of Doctrine And I know no Antidote no Recipe for cure but one a well chosen and well temper'd National Synod and God's Blessing thereon this may cure us without this in my poor opinion England is like to tuâ—â— itself into a great Amsterdam And unless this Council be very speedy the Disease will be above the Cure Therefore that we may have a full fruition of what is here but promised I do humbly move that you will command forth the Bill for a National Synod to be read the next morning I saw the Bill above five Months since in the hand of a worthy Member of this House If that Bill be not to be had then my humble Motion is as formerly that you would name a Committee to draw up another This being once resolved I would then desire that all Motions of Religion this about the Lyturgy especially may be transferred thither and you will find it to be the way of Peace and Unity amongst us here I might have added in due place above a mention of 1. Frequent Schismatical Conventicles 2. That Taylors Shoomakers Braziers Felt-makers do climb our publick Pulpits 3. That several odd irregular Fasts have been held for partial venting of private flatteries of some slanders of other Members of this House 4. That the distinction of the Clergy and Laity is Popish and Antichristian and ought no longer to remain 5. That the Lords Prayer was not taught us to be used 6. That no National Church can be a true Church of God 7. That the visible Church of Antichrist did make the King Head of the Church 8. That supreme power in Church Affairs is in every several Congregation
to the Custom of that Nation he told him that he had not deserved to be distrusted by him who could not but remember that when he was accused to him of High Treason yet he permitted him even then to lye in his Bed Chamber this made Hamilton outwardly appear much troubled for having given the King so just occasion of Displeasure but his great Interest in the Faction formerly mentioned out of the Earl of Manchester's Memoires notwithstanding all that hath been said by an able Pen in vindication of him seems not able to guard his Innocence from the common Fame which went of him that he betrayed the greatest Secrets of the King to the Junto which managed the two Houses of Parliament and that by the opportunity of being of the Bed-Chamber he took the Letters out of the King's Pockets and from them gave Informations of several things to the Party much to the disadvantage of the King's Affairs There is another thing which I cannot omit which is a Letter of His Majesties to Mr. Nicholas Clerk of the Council from Edinburgh which I found in the Paper Office which was as follows I Hear it is reported That at my Return The King's Letter to Mr. Nichols Clerk of the Council of his Resolution to maintain the Church of England I intend to alter the Government of the Church of England and to bring it to that Form as it is here Therefore I Command you To assure all my Servants that I will be constant to the Discipline and Doctrinâ— of the Church of England Established by Queen Elizabeth and my Father and that I resolve by the Grace of God to die in the maintenance of it Edinburgh Oct. 18. 1641. Charles R. Having made this little Holiday with the short gleam of Sun-shine in His Majesties Affairs we must now return to the old Trade again of diging the Quarries of Rebellion The King having sent for the Lord Keeper Friday Novemb. 26. the House gave him leave to attend upon his Majesty and appointed the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas to be Speaker of their House till he returned Upon his return he informed the House That his Majesty had Commanded him to let their Lordships know That whereas he intended this day to have come to this House his Majesty is diverted upon some important business at this time and withal he is very hoarse with a Cold but his Majesty intends very shortly to come to this House The Lord Chamberlain signified to this House E. of Essex delivers up his Commission of Cap. General on the South-side of Trent That the King being returned home his Lordship hath delivered up his Commission of Captain General of the South Parts of this Kingdom into his Majesties Hands so that his Lordship cannot now take any Order for the Guarding of the Parliament as was Ordered by the Parliament therefore he desired their Lordships to consider of what Course is fit to be taken herein he having now no Power to obey their Commands Hereupon it was Resolved to communicate the matter to the House of Commons at a Conference which was done accordingly The Lord Keeper declared A Message from the King concerning Guards of the Parliament That he had received a Command from the King that the Houses should be made acquainted That His Majesty hearing that the Parliament have appointed Guards for securing the Houses he presumes they did it upon some Reasons but his Majesty not knowing any Reasons It is his Majesties Pleasure That the said Guards be dissolved for now his Majesty hopes that his Presence will be a Protection to the Parliament But if there be Occasion and his Majesty sees Reasons for it he will be very forward to take Care there be sufficient Guards to secure the Parliament Which was also ordered to be added to the Conference which was to be with the Commons In the Commons Journal there is the same Message with this addition That if need be to have a Guard hereafter his Majesty will be as glad to have a Guard as any other A Message was also sent by George Goring Esq To let their Lordships know That the House of Commons desire their Lordships would be pleased to send some few Lords to Petition his Majesty in the name of both Houses That the Guards may be continued still and they will within a few dayes bring up some Reasons to satisfie his Majesty for the same For the debating of this the House was adjourned into a Committee during pleasure and the House being Resumed it was put to the Question Whether this Question should be put viz. Whether this House shall joyn with the House of Commons to Petition the King that the Guards may be continued for some few dayes within which time there may be some Reasons given for the further continuance of them And it was Resolved upon by the major part in the Negative Then the House agreed That the Message brought from the House of Commons should be the Question â—â—d be put in Terminis as it came up from them and the Lord Keeper was appointed to write as near as he could remember the very Words of the Message which his Lordship having read the House did conceive some words were Dubious for the satisfying whereof the Messengers of the House of Commons were called in and the Lord Keeper sitting in his place upon the Woolsack told them That there was some doubt of some Words in the Message which the House desired to be satisfied in and then the Lord Keeper going down to the Barr as Usually he does when he receives Messages the Messengers of the House of Commons repeated their Message again and the L. Keeper being returned to his place as Speaker reported the said Message in these Words viz. That the House of Commons desired that their Lordships would send some Lords to the King in the Names of both Houses To beseech his Majesty to continue the Guards till they may satisfie his Majesty of the Reasons why they conceive it necessary to have a Guard which they intend to do within a few dayes And then it was Resolved upon the Question by the Major part That this House doth joyn with the House of Commons in their desire And the Earl of Warwick and the Lord Digby were Ordered to attend his Majesty to move him in it according to the Message Saturday Novemb. 27. Reasons against single Troops for forming the Cavalry into Regiments The Lord Kimbolton Reported from the Committee for Irish Affairs a Paper containing the Reasons of the Assistants to the Committee for the Forming the Troops of Cavalry into Regiments under Colonels and Sergeant Majors 1. By reason of the continual Debate that would otherwise arise among the Officers and their want of Obedience of one to another 2. For the more speedy way as well in issuing as receiving the Orders for the better Executing of any Commands whatsoever 3. For the Exact
they want of the Innocence of the Dove by the Subtilty of the Serpent finding the Laws too Powerful to be opposed by open Violence betook themselves to their usual Crafts and Artifices of working under ground and Proselyting as many as they could especially of the Nobility and Gentry to their Perswasions in Religion and Politicks and by the Witch-craft of those fair Pretences which they constantly made to austerity of Life Zeal for the Purity of Religion the Liberty of the Subject and especially an Extreme horror and Detestation of Popery to which upon all occasions both Publick and Private they Insinuated the great inclinableness which the Soveraign Power in the Civil Government and the Church by reason of the too near Affinity of the Hierarchy and Liturgy to the Romish way had to be reconciled and reunited to that Church they Poisoned the minds not only of the Easy Vulgar but of many of the Principal Nobility and Gentry and by misrepresenting all the Occurences of State as having a Bias and Tendency towards Popery and Exalting the Prerogative beyond its Bounds and Limits they insensibly Stole their Loyal and Dutiful Affections from the Crown and their warm Zeal and Piety from the Church I shall not need to descend to particulars upon this Subject though I think it a matter of that Importance to the service of the Publick that is capable of excusing Tautology and a Theme which will bear Repetition without being censured as vain but I shall rather refer the Reader to what is said in the Introduction to the first Volume to this Purpose lest I might disgust some tender Palates by serving up a Cold Crambe and thereby give my self the disappointment of my chief Design which is at once to give the Readers pleasure and advantage It shall suffice therefore to say that the same Spirit of Faction Popularity Discontent and Ambition still increased during all the Blessed and Peaceable Reign of King James and the Commotions in Scotland having given the Faction a clear Discovery and Estimate of their Interest Strength and Numbers and of the Weakness of the Government the Revenue of the Crown being so Disproportionate to the Expences unavoidably necessary to maintain and support the Charge and Dignity of the Government the Faction laid hold of this opportunity to bring their long Designed and Endeavoured Work as they termed it of Reformation to a Period It may be remembred how the Scottish Rebellion instead of coming to the decision of the Sword according to the Opinion of the Wise Earl of Strafford had been ended by a Treaty which was succeeded by the calling of the Fatal Parliament of November 3 1640. The Commons House of this Parliament was composed of such Persons as had manifested their great aversion to the King and his Government and who finding the King Extremely pressed by the necessity of his Affairs and under the uneasie burden of great Debts contracted both formerly and by the two Expeditions against the Scots they now Resolved to make a Virtue for their own Affairs of His Majesties Necessity And most of the Principal and Leading Men of the Faction knowing their preceding Actions such as rendred them obnoxious to Justice according to the Observation of the Historian Paenâ calamitate publicâ sibi impunitatem spondent They sought their own private Security though at the Expence and even Ruine of the Publique Peace And certainly as the succeeding Revolution had been long under Deliberation the Difficulties which the Faction saw they were to Encounter in compassing the alteration of Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical made them extremely cautious in the Management of their Affairs and their opposition to the Government having made them great Masters in all the Arts of Popularity and understanding the Temper and Genius of the Times they proceeded by all the Regular steps of Cunning and Artifice towards the Accomplishment of their great Design And therefore before they came to Extremities they not only fortified themselves with the Power of a Numerous and Tumultuous Party but by the most Solemn Professions of Duty and Loyalty with which all their Petitions and Remonstrances were guilded over by promises to Establish and Augment the Royal Revenue and make his Majesty the most Glorious and Potent Prince of Europe they not only deceived many of the Real Friends of the King and Monarchy but perswaded His Majesty to such Compliances and Concessions as in conclusion they most wickedly mis-employed to his Ruin and Destruction Never did any of his Royal Predecessors bestow a favour of such dangerous Latitude upon their Subjects as the Bill for making the Parliament perpetual by putting it out of his Power to Dissolve them without their own consent and never did any Subjects stretch such an unpresidented Grace and Liberty more to the Prejudice and utter Ruine or a most Indulgent Prince And it is easily observable That after the Faction had got this Flower out of the Crown they drove on amain towards the great End of their Work which was as the Scots had done before to new Model the Government of the Church and by the Democratick Form of Presbytery in the Ecclesiastical to Level the Way towards the same in the Civil State for they were now already a Venetian Senate and resolved to clip the Wings of Monarchy to that degree as to bring down the Soveraignty into a little kind of Dukedom or Stat-holders Authority which they might either manage at their pleasure Arch-Bishop Lauds Sermon upon Psal 123. v. 3 4 5. or reject at their discretion And this Design was no more then what was long before observed to be in the Intentions of the Faction and too truly predicted by the incomparable Dr. Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in a Sermon Preached Feb. 6th 1625 at the opening of the Parliament And one thing more saith that judicious Prelate I 'le be bold to speak out of a like Duty to the Church of England and the House of David They whoever they be that would overthrow Sedes Ecclesiae the Seats of Ecclesiastical Judgment will not spare if ever they get Power to have a pluck at the Throne of David And there is not a Man that is for Parity all fellows in the Church but he is against Monarchy in the State And certainly either he is but half headed to his own Principles or he can be but half hearted to the House of David And how exactly he hit the Truth in his Conjecture the Event did most Tragically justifie But still the Power of the Sword the Militia of the Nation hung terribly as they thought by the single hair of the Kings Authority over their heads and their fears of a future account if ever their Soveraignty should come to a Period and the suspicion that this Gordian-knot which they had so strongly woven though it could be no other way untied might yet be loosed by Alexander's Method made them extremely Sollicitous to wrest that Power
out of the hands of the King And to effect this all those Plots and Contrivances which the Reader will meet with in the ensuing Collections some of which are manifestly detected to be False Forged and Ridiculous were with the utmost Industry improved and magnified to run the People headlong into Tumults Mutinies and Rebellion There was the Plot of the Army against the Parliament the Plot against Pym by sending him an infected Plaister in a Letter the Plot in Scotland against Hamilton and Arguile which was to beget another of the same Nature in England Beal the Taylor 's Plot of 104 Men who for 40 s. apiece for the Commons and 10 l. for Lords were to kill just so many of the Lords and Commons to a Man there was the Plot discovered in a Letter to Mr. Bridgman information of French Spanish and Danish Plots besides the great Plot of the Papists and Bishops to bring in Popery and the King and his Evil Councellors to destroy Priviledges and Parliaments and to fire the City and cut the Throats of the Citizens Now all these Plots Centred in this one Point that the Kingdom being in such extreme Danger not only from Foreign Enemies but Domestique the People could have no manner of Security for their Lives Liberties Estates or Religion unless the King would trust the Parliament with the Power of the Sword the Militia of the Kingdom the Navy Forts Garrisons Castles Magazines and Stores and more especially the Tower of London and the Towns of Portsmouth and Kingston upon Hull that so by their Order and Appointment such Persons as His Majesty thought fit to bestow those Trusts upon might be displaced and such as the Parliament could confide in the Creatures of the Faction might have those important Trusts and Charges conferred upon them Whilst the People continually amused and alarm'd with these apprehensions of Danger which the Faction perswaded them threatned them from every quarter of the Heavens were blown up into an Universal Ferment of desperate Fears and incurable Jealousies the Horrid Rebellion in Ireland broke out which gave such Countenance and Colour to all the former though never so fictitious Rumors of Plots and Conspiracies that the Nation was all in a Flame and under the most dreadful Apprehensions that the very same Design was laid for the Ruin and Destruction of England which gave the Faction all the Confidence and opportunity they could have wished or desired to seize upon the Militia by force which they could not by perswasions obtain from the King who now evidently saw where all their fine Pretensions to Loyalty and Duty would most certainly Terminate And so resolutely were they bent upon this Usurpation that they permitted the Rebellion in Ireland for want of timely Supplies of Men and Money to suppress it to grow to that formidable height as to put England to the vast Expence of Blood and Treasure which it did afterwards by the neglecting to extinguish this fire upon its first Eruption Nor was this the only Use which the Faction in the Two Houses in England made of this Rebellion in Ireland For when afterwards they came to break out into a Rebellion themselves certainly not less horrible and detestable since they pretended to be acted by a Religion which hitherto had decried Popery upon the very score of allowing Principles of Rebellion deposing and murthering Lawful Princes the Parliament in their Papers Answers and Declarations secretly reflected upon the King and by their impudent Agents and Emissaries and the allowed Scriblers and News-Printers the very Pests of the Age openly published that the Rebellion in Ireland began by his knowledge and connivance and by that means they laid all those Massacres and Murthers which were there most barbarously committed at His Majesties door and by heightning the Infamous actions of the Rebells there with the most aggravating Circumstances of Inhumanity and Cruelty whilst they secretly insinuated the King to be concerned in them they certainly robbed him of the Hearts and Hands the Allegiance and Affections of his Subjects I cannot therefore but esteem it a Duty which common humanity challenges from all mankind to indeavour the vindication of the injured and oppressed but I look upon my self as under the severest Obligations of Christianity Conscience Truth and Justice to clear the Reputation of this Royal Sufferer from the horrible Detractions Slanders and Calumnies with which those brutish Rebels did not only blemish his Life and Actions but have most barbarously persecuted his Innocent Memory indeavouring therefore to make him appear Criminal that their hands which were died in his Sacred Blood might appear less Guilty And I shall esteem it a very singular Honor and the greatest Glory of my life that Providence has given me the opportunity to be in some measure Instrumental toward the fulfilling of that prophetick Passage in his incomparable Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 15. where he hath these words concerning the Jealousies raised and Scandals cast upon him by his Enemies For Mine Honour I am well assured that as Mine Innocency is clear before God in point of any Calumnies they Object so My Reputation shall like the Sun after Owles and Bats have had their freedom in the Night and darker times rise and recover it self to such a Degree of Splendor as those Ferab Birds shall be grieved to behold and unable to bear for never were any Princes more Glorious then those whom God hath suffered to be tried in the Fornace of Afflictions by their injurious Subjects I am very sensible that in pursuing the Historical Account of the Irish Rebellion I shall have the management of a very difficult Province there being a sort of People who think there can be no Hyperbolies in aggravating the blackness of the Irish Rebellion though at the same time they think every little reflection too hard and sharp that touches upon the English Rebellion And if a Writer cannot devest himself not only of the Humanity of a just and generous Heathen but of the Charity of a good Christian he shall be pursued with the odious Reproaches of a Favourer of Popery and therefore I must avow my Resolution to be honestly to follow the Conduct of Truth without the least declining on any hand to the best of my Understanding and Information and in order to that Procedure though I think and upon all occasions shall indeavour to make it appear that the Rebellion of the Irish was a most Horrid and Treasonable Defection from their Duty and Loyalty and carried on with most barbarous and unexampled Cruelty yet I shall not exactly follow the steps of some other Pens who have undertaken to give an account of the Transaction of the Affairs of that time since to me it is evident that they have not dealt fairly neither with the King nor Loyal Party nor indeed with Truth her self but have concealed some things and palliated others which in Justice they ought not to have done and
my Lord of Corke remembers very well there being Letters of his That Sir Pierce Crosby his Regiment should be put off and the money for maintenance thereof should go to defray the Charge of the King's Ships for guard of the Coast And yet the Charge is much more now than it was for the Charge was then only two Whelps as my Lord Mountnorris said And now there be three Ships The Swallow a Ship of the Third Rank and two lesser Vessels so that I concieve my Answer in my sense was true For the matter of having money out of the Exchequer I conceive my Answer to contain no matter of Untruth for I had out of the Exchequer only 15000 l. and for that the King will be answered 2000 l. a year good Fee-farm Rent in lieu of it which he thought was no ill bargain It is true I say the money spoken of by Sir Adam Loftus was borrowed on my own and Sir George Ratcliff's Bond to be paid upon sight At that time I praise God I had Credit for 20000 l. and at this time I thank God for that too I have not Credit for 20 d. Gods Will be done I obey it But this money is honestly and justly paid Where is the Crime then might not I borrow of a Gentleman that would trust me with money but it must be an Offence Is it true it was of the King's money but the King had no use for it at that time Had not I made use of it it must otherwise have lain in the Exchequer and yeilded no profit and besides I borrowed it of one that was Accomptable for it But since I am put to it I will shew that which will clear it from being a Crime indeed which according to the Duty I owe unto His Majesty my Master his Command hitherto have I kept private to my self And that is the King's Warrant being all of His own Hand-writing Sir Adam Loftus being then Vice-Treasurer and now demanded the question Whether that Warrant was produced to him at the borrowing of the money confessed Witness that my Lord of Strafford never told him of the Warrant The Warrant was read Kings Warrant read containing a Licence to make use of 40000 l. of His Majesties Treasure now in the hands of His Majesties Vice-Treasurer for three years Provided that for Security there be always left in the hands of the Comptrollers a Stock of Tobacco amounting to 40000 l. at the least with a direction to conceal this particular favour to him that it might not be brought into precedent then his Lordship proceeded There was accordingly so much Tobacco left But by what Law I know not The Magazines are seized on by Order from the Commons House of Parliament my Goods possessed and given over to others to sell at their own prices my People imprisoned as if they had been Traytors Goods and as if an Inquisition had been found upon me as a Traytor And this is my Misfortune to be very hardly dealt withal by the Commons House there to say no more And whereas by the Kings Goodness I had liberty to take 40000 l. I took but 24000 l. And where I had liberty to take it for three years which expires not till Michaelmas next I paid it in long before the time And by this one particular I hope it will appear to Your Lordships and the Gentlemen of the House of Commons how Noble it will be to believe Charitably of me till they hear all can be said for I trust in the whole course of this Trial to appear an honest man And whereas I said I never had but 15000 l. out of the Exchequer and yet had 24000 l. borrowed as aforesaid The King Commanded me I should not take notice of His gracious Favour and therefore I conceive that in Duty to my Master I ought not to have taken notice of it otherwise my Answer should have clearly and plainly exprest it I never having Disobeyed his Majesty nor by the Grace of God never will For the 7000 l. for the Guard of the Irish Coast that was mentioned already and I shall not need to Answer it further To the point of restoring the Possessions of the Church in a great measure I say there was not only a Restitution but a Preservation by an Act of Parliament for preserving the Possessions of the Church from being mis-used by the present Incumbent to the prejudice of the Successors which Act I wish were in England But that I conceive not to be Controverted but granted me But it is said The Possessions of the Church were restored in an Illegal way to please my Lord of Canterbury To which I Answer The Gentleman indeed spake it but there is no proof of it neither hath he offered any proof and till it be proved I conceive it not fit to trouble Your Lordships with Answering it I have done nothing in Church or Common-wealth but Justly and Uprightly Albeit I conceive it a hard case that having the Honour to be the Kings Deputy sitting in Council where there be Twenty who Voted as well as my self That I should be noted to Answer for them all though I did constantly submit my self to the Major part And as to my Lord of Canterbury I beseech Your Lordships to think That what I have done for the Church of Ireland was out of a faithful Conscience to God Almighty out of a desire to increase the Religion I Profess and which I will witness with my Blood by the blessing of Almighty God if there should be occasion And when I have done it with respect to that Piety of His Gracious Majesty which I would faithfully pay Him I desire it may not be put upon me as done in an respect only to my Lord of Canterbury where no such thing is proved No I did it out of Conscience my Duty to God to the King and to the People that they might be instructed in the way to Eternal Life And I beseech Your Lordships to believe I have a Heart a little greater than to do any such thing to please any man living with Modesty be it spoken For the Building of Churches I confess I built not any and in my Answer I say no more but that Churches were built which the Worthy Gentleman acknowledged in some part I confess they were not Built by me or at my particular Charge nor do I say otherwise in my Answer And it had been a vain thing to have said it though I had done it my self But it is said the Answer is not right in saying there be divers Worthy Church-men preferred and three are instanced in Bishop Atherton the Bishop of D. and one Gwyn To this I beseech Your Lordships that I may be bold to let the Gentlemen know That Bishopricks not in the gift of the Deputy but of the King and that he is not Responsible for what the King doth But not desiring to deny any thing that is
true I confess I think Bishop Atherton was unknown to His Majesty and that I my self recommended him to the Bishoprick and at that time I thought the Bishop a Person fit for that Charge But suppose he had a secret fault of his own God knowes it was unknown to me may not a man be deceived in his Judgment of a man but this shall be turned against him It is a very easie thing for a man to cover his faults from the eye of the World I thought him not a Vicious man he proved so and he had his merit he suffered for it And unless I had the Inspection of Almighty God I suppose this cannot be laid to my Charge if any private End or Respect should appear in the doing of it I desire no more of Your Lordships Favour and I profess I had rather be out of the World than not have the Favour of Your Lordships and the Honourable House of Commons of whom I desire that they would hear me with that Equity that they hear every thing For the Bishop of D. all that is mentioned against him is That he is Impeached of High Treason by the Commons House of Parliament in Ireland And how the Bishop will acquit himself I know not but for that the Bishop must Answer for himself not I. This Bishop hath lived in my House a long time as my Chaplain and I humbly recommended him to that Bishoprick taking him and I hope he will so approve himself to be a very Learned man and that I think no body will deny certainly he hath the Elements to make him a very Worthy Church-man as most I know For that Gwyn I profess I never heard of him before nor do I know him But recollecting my thoughts I think he was recommended to me by my Lord of D. for in Matters of the Church I did use that Gentleman and if I were to begin the World again I would use him still holding him a very honest Worthy Man And I think there was some Rectory or Impropriation that the Earl of Corke had possession of which was restored to the Church and it was of so small and trivial a value that they knew not who to get to serve the Cure and on that occasion this man was recommended to it And I think that if it shall come to be examined Thirty pounds a Year will go far in his Preferment And if such a thing should happen and miscarry in his hands it is no such hainous Crime as is objected But I desire leave to shew what I have done in this kind instead of this Mr. Gwyn and Your Lordships may see a List of those I have preferred to the Church of Ireland and perhaps they may be known to some of Your Lordships and to many Gentlemen of the House of Commons And first I say I preferred Mr. Gray and have done for him according to the means I had by the Favour and Goodness of the King perhaps he hath that which is worth 3 or 4 or 500 l. a Year by my Gift And this Mr. Gray if I be not mistaken was sometimes Chaplain to a Noble Person that sits on the Earls Bench and if it were material further to enquire of him I might give satisfaction what he is I likewise brought into that Kingdom Mr. Tilson now Bishop of Elphin and sometimes Fellow of Vniversity Colledge of Oxford a most Worthy Honest Religious Person he is and those that know him I am sure will give him that Testimony I likewise preferred Dr. Margetson Dean of Christs Church he was of Cambridge and a Worthy man Mr. Forward Dean of Drummore an Oxford man who if he were known would appear worthy of that Preferment Mr. Dean Cressy an Oxford man Mr. Roade Dean of Derry a Cambridge man of Sydney Colledge Dr. Wentworth Dean of Armagh of Oxford Dr. Price Dean of Conaught of Christs Church in Oxford Mr. Thorpe a Cambridge man I preferred likewise one Mr. Parry whom I found in Ireland but all the rest I brought and sent for out of England Nay I sent for them and did those things for them before they did ask the Question or knew of it That being a means under Gods Blessing to conform that Kingdom to the Church of England And these and far greater numbers than these to my best Judgment and Understanding I made use of as Instruments to Gods Glory His true Service and the reducing of the People to the Profession of the same Religion that 's here in England and for no other end But concerning my Carriage of the Trust reposed in me by the King touching these Ecclesiastical Preferments I desire no other Testimony or Witness for me but the Lord Primate of Ireland who is sick and cannot come hither To whom I will appeal whether I have not in my preferring to the Church Preferments carried my self with all clearness and care I could possibly To the point of increasing of Protestants if Your Lordships please to hear any thing in that kind I shall call my Lord Dillon and Sir Adam Loftus who if they should be asked Whether there be more Protestants in Dublin now than when I first came thither I doubt not but they would give an account of a greater number My preferring of none but Protestant Officers if I mistook not E. of Strafford the Noble Gentleman did acknowledge meaning Mr. Pym. To the disposing of the Army without Grievance to the Subject I leave that Billetting of Soldiers in Dublin which was spoken with so much Advantage and Ability above any thing that from such a poor man as my self could be expected and proceed to that which was proved observing That one only Testimony was produced viz. Alderman J. who said they have a special Charter at Dublin to exempt them from Billetting of Soldiers But whether it be so or no it hath ever been denyed by the Deputies And by his own Confession the Foot-Companies of my Lord of Faulkland were Billetted in Dublin And whereas it was said they had Lodgings not Money That was altered upon a Composition with the Soldiers who can expect only Lodging but if for the Ease of the Town they will allow the Soldier Money and leave him to provide for himself it is all one For the Horse Troops My own is and ever since I was there hath been Billetted in Dublin And it is in the power of the Deputy to Garrison part of the King's Army where he pleases and without controversie hath been so at all times And I desire that my Lord Ranulagh may be asked Whether the Soldiers of the Company he hath be not Billetted in Athlone at least some part of it It is true my Lord of Faukland's Troop was not Billetted in Dublin but they were in the Counties round about which was more chargeable And besides here is produced but one single Witness and I hope my own Answer may stand equal and in as much Credit as a
deposed positively the Words in the Charge The Lord Gorminstone also deposed that he heard the Earl speak those words at another time in open parliament Lord Gorminstone and that the Commissioners who drew the Instructions for the Government of Ireland were a Company of narrow hearted Commissioners The Lord Kilmallock deposed the same Sir Pierce Crosby deposed the same Lord Kilmallock Sir Pierce Crosby My Lord of Strafford after a quarter of an hours respite made his Defence That he had observed the Natives of Ireland have not been Prepitious to their Governours he instanced in Sir John Perrot on their Testimonies attainted of Treason in a legal Ordinary way who lost his Estate though not his Life and yet after it was confest there was little truth in the Accusation My Lord Faulkland had the same treatment being informed against by the same Witnesses Sir Pierce Crosby and Lord Mount-Norris and yet it appeared he had dealt as Honourably Justly and Nobly to his Vnderstanding as any man could do That it was impossible but in the way of Justice a Governour must give Offence to many which he intreated their Lordships to consider He said That though the words were spoken yet were they not Treason and had they been Treason yet by Proviso of Stat. of Ed. 6. the Information ought to be within 30 dayes He instanced in the Lord Cook in Calvin's Case 20 H. 6.8 Dyer 360. to prove that the Laws and Customs of Ireland are diverse from the Lawes of England That he should do Extreamly ill to the Honour of the English Nation and to the memory of divers of their Lordships Ancestors if he should not say and think that Ireland is a Conquered Nation He instanced in the Stat. 11 Eliz. where at the Attainder of Shan Oneal the samous Rebel it is said that all the Clergy were assembled in Armagh at the time of the Conquest That King Henry the Second is in the Statute called the first Conqueror of Ireland That all Histories acknowledg it That he spoke the Words to magnifie the King's Grace and Goodness and that there was then no offence taken at them For the other words That the King might do with them what he pleased let them relate to the Conquest and there is no Offence in them As to the words spoken to the Recorder of Dublin he did with the greatest assevetarion utterly deny the speaking of them Mr. Slingsby his Secretary averred the same and that the first words were so well taken that he was thereupon invited to the Mayor's House at a publique Entertainment To their Charters being void he said it was Evident they were so in point of Law as he was informed by the King's Council for their Non-performance of the Trust reposed in them appealing to my Lord of Cork that the reason of it was that most of the Aldermen were Recusants and would Plead their Charters against the Orders of the Board by which means many great disorders were continued The Managers Urged That this justified a part of the Charge that Charters were judged by the Board whereas the Council-Table hath no such Power The Earl replyed It was not to judg their validity but whether ill Vsage and Extortion were not practised under colour of them and that they were complained of as grievances in Parliament Lord Dillon which the Lord Dillon averred to be true To which the Earl added That he did it in favour of the Protestants who were by these Charters depressed by the Roman-Catholicks and that he looked upon this which was objected as a Crime as a service to the Protestant Religion He said it would perhaps be well known hereafter when he was in his Grave that his great fault was his great zeal to bring them to conform to the Church of England That notwithstanding this they still enjoy their Charters and for his saying Ireland was a conquered Nation it was upon the Occasion of pressing them to supply the Crown for that if the Kingdom of England should still be put to the Charge and the whole Expence rest on the Conqueror you might very well think you are so dealt with as never any other Conquered Nation had been adding There were Copies of his Speech that would justifie what he said and that the Speech was in Ireland That my Lord Ormond told him it was ill resented To which he answered Truly my Lord you are a conquer'd Nation but you see how I speak it and no otherwise The Lord Dillon averred Lord Ranulagh Sir George Wentworth that he stood under the Cloth of State but did not hear the words That they should expect Laws as from a Conqueror The Lord Ranulagh remembred the first words but not their last Sir George Wentworth said That he brought the Speech to the King and in that there was no such word The Managers then Urged That though this was not in that Speech yet some thing was then spoken though in a milder sence but it was spoken after upon Occasion of a Petition delivered by the Commons after they had given the King the Subsidies concerning their Laws To this Mr. Fitzgarret deposed That there was such a Petition Fitzgarret and that there was an answer given either at the Board or in full Parliament from the House of Lords but he does not remember any part of it but afterwards the Earl affirming it was at the Board and not in Parliament he said he conceived there were two Petitions one to the Council another to the Parliament about redress of Grievances but remembers not the Answer But the Lord Gorminstone spoke positively then Lord Gorminston That it was in Parliament upon the Occasion of that Petition wherein as my Lord Strafford observed he contradicted himself having before fixed it on the Speech in the beginning of the Parliament upon Petition of the Commons desiring the benefit of some Graces his Majesty had been pleased to confer on them The Lord Killmallock deposed it was in Parliament Lord Killmallock 3 or 4 dayes after the delivery of that Petition Then the Statute of 28 H. 6. King James's Instructions 1622 and a Proclamation upon them were read dated November 1. 1625. whereby it was Ordered That no private Causes should come before the Board but be referred to their proper Courts Then the 4th Article was read being concerning the Lord of Cork's being disseized of an Impropriation and saying Lord Ranulagh That an Act of State should be as binding as an Act of Parliament The Lord Ranulagh deposed That the Cases of the Church and Plantations were in the times of former Deputies Resolved at the Board and that he never knew any other Titles determined there But the further Disquisition was put off till the next day Upon Friday the Earl of Cork was Examined and deposed Friday Mar. 26. Earl of Cork That the Lord Deputy presented one Arthur Gwyn formerly Groom to the said Earl of Cork to a
himself unready he said I thank God I am no more afraid of Death nor daunted with any discouragements arising from any fears but do as chearfully put off my Doublet at this time as ever I did when I went to Bed Then he put off his Doublet and wound up his Hair with his Hands and put on a white Cap. Then he called Where is the man that should do this last Office meaning the Executioner call him to me When he came and ask'd him forgiveness he told him he forgave him and all the World Then kneeling down by the Block he went to Prayer again himself the Bishop of Armagh kneeling on the one side and the Minister on the other to the which Minister after Prayer he turned himself and spoke some few words softly having his Hands lifted up the Minister closed his Hands with his then bowing himself to the Earth to lay down his Head on the Block he told the Executioner That he would first lay down his Head to try the fitness of the Block and take it up again before he laid it down for good and all and so he did and before he laid it down again he told the Executioner That he would give him warning when to strike by stretching forth his Hands and then laid down his Neck on the Block stretching out his Hands the Executioner struck off his Head at one blow then took the Head up in his Hand and shewed it to all the People and said God Save the King A Copy of the Paper containing the Heads of the Lord Strafford's last Speech written by his own Hand as it was left upon the Scaffold 1. I Come to pay the last Debt we owe to Sin 2. Rise to Righteousness 3. Dye willingly 4. Forgive all 5. Submit to what is Voted Justice but my intentions Innocent from Subverting c. 6. Wishing nothing more than great Prosperity to King and People 7. Acquit the King constrained 8. Beseech to Repent 9. Strange way to write the beginning of Reformation and Settlement of a Kingdom in Blood on themselves 10. Beseech that Demand may rest there 11. Call not Blood on themselves 12. Dye in the Faith of the Church 13. Pray for it and desire their Prayers with me His Body was afterwards Embalmed and Carried down into Yorkshire to be buried among his Ancestors Thus fell the Wonder of that Age and of all succeeding of whom I think a Greater Character cannot be given than those in short of the Archbishop of Canterbury who knew him best and the Primate of Ireland who saw him Dye The Archbishop discoursing with Dr. Whimberley concerning that Passage at their parting said That perhaps it was a softness unbecoming him but he hoped by Gods Assistance and his own Innocence that when he should come to his own Execution which he Expected the World should perceive that he had been more sensible of the Earl of Strafford's Loss than of his own and with good reason he said for that Gentleman was more Serviceable to the Church not to mention the State then either himself or all the Church-men of England had been And the Lord Primate of Ireland giving an account to the King of the manner of his Death told him That he had seen many Die but never saw so White a Soul return to its Maker At which Expression that Good and Compassionate Prince was so tenderly touched that turning himself aside he could not forbear paying the sad Tribute of some Tears to the Innocent Manes of the Illustrious Sufferer He left these Three Instructions to his Son in Writing First That he should continue still to be brought up under these Governors to whose Charge he had committed him as being the best he could chuse of all those within his Knowledg and that he should not change them unless they were weary of him that he should rather want himself than they should want any thing they could desire Secondly If his Prince should call him to Publique Service that he should carefully undertake it to testifie his Obedience and withal to be Faithful and Sincere to his Master though he should come to the same End that himself did Thirdly That he foresaw that Ruin was like to come upon the Revenues of the Church and that perhaps they might be shared among the Nobility and Gentry but charged him never to meddle with any of it for the Curse of God would follow all them that meddle with such a thing that tends to the destruction of the most Apostolical Church upon Earth Thus lay his Innocence asleep with his injured Ashes till together with Monarchy and Episcopacy it received a Resurrection at the Happy Restauration of his Most Serene Majestie King Charles the Second when by publique Act of Parliament publique Justice was done to his Memory and the Injustice of his Sufferings The Act was as follows WHereas Thomas late Earl of Strafford The Act for Reversing the Attainder of Thomas Earl of Strafford was impeached of High-Treason upon pretence of endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws and called to a publick and solemn Arraignment and Tryal before the Peers in Parliament where he made a particular Defence to every Article objected against him insomuch that the turbulent party then seéing no hopes to effect their unjust Designs by any ordinary way and method of Proceedings did at last resolve to attempt the Destruction and Attainder of the said Earl by an Act of Parliament to be therefore purposely made to condemn him upon accumulative Treason none of the pretended crimes being Treason apart and so could not be in the whole if they had been proved as they were not and also adjudged him guilty of Constructive â—reason that is of Levying War against the King though it was only the Order of the Council-Board in Ireland to be executed by a Sergeant at Arms and three or four Soldiers which was the conuant practise of the Deputies there for a long time To the which end they having first presented a Bill for this intent to the House of Commons and finding there more opposition than they expected they caused a multitude of tumultuous persons to come down to Westminster armed with Swords and Staves and to fill both the Palace-yards and all the approaches to both Houses of Parliament with Fury and Clamor and to require Justice speedy Justice against the Earl of Strafford and having by those and other undue practises obtained that Bill to pass the House of Commons they caused the Names of those resolute Gentlemen who in a Caâ—e of innocent Blood had freely discharged their Consciences being Fifty nine to be posted up in several places about the Cities of London and Westminster and shied them Straffordians and Enemies to their Countrey hoping thereby to deliver them up to the fury of the People whom they had endeavoured to incense against them and then procured the said Bill to be sent up to the House of Peers where it having some
and habit of a Priest and to read Prayers in a Church And not only so but became an Earnest Suitor to his Majesty for a Deanery viz. that of Canterbury notwithstanding his bringing in this Bill against Deans and Chapters and his bitter Invectives upon no other ground but report as he then confessed But being by the King justly denied this Preferment he again turned Apostate to his Royal Master to whom he had fled for Sanctuary indeavoured by mean submissions to reconcile himself to those whom he had called Rebels and Traytors but being by them rejected also he not long after Ended his Unfortunate Life in grief and contempt Neither was this rough procedure from the Abuses of the Function had they been real as most certainly they were false to go about utterly to Abolish the Office so well relished but that divers of those who had hitherto sailed by the Compass of the Faction began now to make a tack and stand off from those dangerous Rocks upon which they saw if they pursued that Course not only the Church but even all Religion and their own Consciences must inevitably suffer shipwrack as appears by a Speech of Sir Benjamin Rudyard's Book of Speeches pag. 103. which I find in the Book of Speeches and several others when the matter came to be debated at a Committee of the whole House Sir Benjamin Rudyard's Speech was as there I find it Printed as followeth Mr. Speaker I Do verily believe that there are many of the Clergy in our Church Sir Benjamin Rudyard's Speech about Episcopacy who do think the simplicity of the Gospel too mean a Vocation for them to serve in They must have a Specious Pompous Sumptuous Religion with additionals of Temporal Greatness Authority Negotiation Notwithstanding they all know better than I what Fathers Schoolmen Councels are against their mixing themselves in Secular Affairs This Roman Ambition will at length bring in the Roman Religion and at last a haughty Insolence even against supream Power it self if it be not Timely and Wisely prevented They have amongst them an Apothegm of their own making which is No Miter No Scepter when we know by dear experience that if the Miter be once in danger they care not to throw the Scepter after to confound the whole Kingdom for their Interest And Histories will tell us that whensoever the Clergy went High Monarchy still went Lower If they could not make the Monarch the Head of their own Faction they would be sure to make him less witness one Example for all The Popes working the Emperor out of Italy Some of ours as soon as they are Bishops adepto sine cessat Motus They will Preach no longer their Office then is to Govern But in my Opinion they Govern worse than they Preach though they Preach not at all for we see to what Pass their Government hath brought us In conformity to themselves They silence others also though Hierom in one of his Epistles saith that even a Bishop let him be of never so blameless a Life yet he doth more hurt by his Licence then he can do good by his Example Mr. Speaker It now behoves us to restrain the Bishops to the Duties of their Function as they may never moâ—â—hanker after heterogeneous extravagant Employments Not be so absolute so single and solitary in Actions of Moment as Excommunication Absolution Ordination and the like but to joyn some of the Ministry with them and further to regulate them according to the usage of Ancient Churches in the best Times that by a well-temper'd Government they may not have Power hereafter to corrupt the Church to undo the Kingdom When they are thus circumscribed and the Publick secur'd from their Eruptions then shall not I grudge them a liberal plentiful Subsistence else I am sure they can never be given to Hospitality Although the calling of the Clergy be all glorious within yet if they have not a Large Considerable outward Support they cannot be freed from Vulgar Contempt It will alwaies be fit that the flourishing of the Church should hold proportion with the flourishing of the Common-wealth wherein it is If we dwell in Houses of Cedar why should they dwell in Skins And I hope I shall never see a good Bishop left worse than a Parson without a Gleab Certainly Sir this superintendency of Eminent Men Bishops over divers Churches is the most Primitive the most spreading the most lasting Government of the Church Wherefore whilest we are earnest to take away Innovations Let us beware we bring not in the greatest Innovation that ever was in England I do very well know what very many do very fervently desire But let us well bethink our selves whether a popular Democratical Government of the Church though fit for other Places will be either sutable or acceptable to a Regal Monarchical Government of the State Every Man can say It is so common and known a Truth that suddain and great Changes both in Natural and Politick Bodies have dangerous Operations and give me leave to say that we cannot presently see to the end of such a consequence especially in so great a Kingdome as this and where Episcopacy is so wrap'd and involv'd in the Laws of it Wherefore Mr. Speaker my humble Motion is that we may punish the present Offenders reduce and preserve the Calling for better Men hereafter Let us remember with fresh thankfulness to God those glorious Martyr-Bishops who were burn'd for our Religion in the Times of Popery who by their Learning Zeal and Constancy upheld and convey'd it down to us We have some good Rishops still who do Preach every Lords-Day and are therefore worthy of double Honour they have suffered enough already in the Disease I shall be sorry we should make them suffer more in the Remedy Mr. Bagshaw reports the Case of Mr. George Walker a Factious Minister Walker the Eactious Ministers Case Reported upon which it was Resolved c. That Mr. George Walker 's Commitment from the Council Board for Preaching a Sermon Oct. 14. 1638. at St. John the Evangelists London and his detainment for the same 12 Weeks in Pecher the Messenger's hands is against Law and the Liberty of the Subject Resolved c. That the prosecution of the said Walker in the Star-Chamber for preaching the said Sermon and his Close Imprisonment thereupon for 10 Weeks in the Gatehouse and the payment of 20 l. Fees to the said Pecher is against Law and the Liberty of the Subject Resolved c. That the 5. passages marked out in the Sermon by Mr. Attorney and Sir John Banks contained no Crime nor deserved any Censure nor he any punishment for them Resolved c. That the Enforcing the said Walker to enter into the Bond of 1000 l. for Confinement to his Brother's house at Cheswick and his Imprisonment there is against Law Resolved c. That the Sequestration of the Parsonage of the said Walker by Sir John Lamb was
the Report The Limitations were That all those who had suffered damage by the Customers either in Goods or otherwise might notwithstanding this Composition take their remedy at Law for Reparation And that the petty Customers should also come in upon Composition and then have the benefit of the Act of Oblivion An Order was also sent to the Master and Wardens of the Company of Vintners to command that notice be given to the whole Company that the Patent of Abel and Kilvert being Voted Illegal they should sell their Wines as formerly viz. French Wines at Six-pence per Quart and Spanish Wines at Twelve-pence the Quart This day a Commission was presented to the House of Lords Several private Bills passed by Commission directed to the Lord Privy Seal Lord Great Chamberlain and to Earl Marshal or any two of them to give the Royal Assent to three private Bills viz. One Entituled An Act to enable the Marquess of Winton to grant Estates for three Lives or 21 years c. of Lands in the County of Southampton c. reserving the old Rents Another Entituled An Act for Naturalization of Dorothy Spencer Daughter of Henry Lord Spencer Baron of Wormleighton And the third Entituled An Act for the enabling a Sale and Leasing of Lands for payment of the Debts of Thomas late Earl of Winchelsea The Lords Commissioners in their Robes sitting upon a Form set across the House between the State and the Keeper's Woolsack the House of Commons being sent for came with their Speaker then the Clerk of the Parliament presented upon his knee the Commission unto the Lords Commissioners and the Lord Privy Seal after he had acquainted the Peers and the House of Commons with his Majesties pleasure herein he delivered the Commission to the Clerk of the Parliament who carried it to his Table and read it which being done the Clerk of the Crown read the Titles of each Bill severally after which the Clerk of the Parliament pronounced the Royal Assent severally and then the Commons returned to their own House The Commons being returned Mr. Taylor a Barrister Thursday May 27. Mr. Taylor Burgess for Windsor expelled the House and Burgess for the Burrough of Old Windsor was expelled the House and Voted uncapable of ever being a Member of Parliament to be committed Prisoner to the Tower during the pleasure of the House to be carried down to Windsor there to make publick Recantation of what he had spoken and from thence to be returned back to the House of Commons to receive further Sentence And it was Ordered That a Writ should be presently issued out for a new Election in his Room The words for which he was Expelled and thus severely treated were attested by John Hall Mayor of Windsor Mr. Broughton and Mr. Waller That Mr. Taylor should in discourse about the death of the Earl of Strafford say That the House of Commons had not his Vote to the Bill of Attainder against Thomas Earl of Strafford for that to do it before the Lords had finished the Trial upon the Articles of Impeachment Exhibited by the Commons against him was to commit murther with the Sword of Justice An Act for the utter abolishing and taking away of Arch-Bishops Bill for Root and Branch read twice Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Chanters and Canons and other Under-Officers out of the Church of England was read the first time and upon the debate of the House for a second reading the House was divided Yeas 139 Noes 108 so the Bill was read the second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House A Bill was also read the first time for granting to his Majesty the Duty of Tonnage and Poundage Bill for Tonnage Poundage read twice Holmer the Printer bailed and a second time in the Afternoon This day Holmer the Printer who was committed to the Gate-house for printing an Elegy upon the Earl of Strafford which then were called scandalous Verses was admitted to Bail An Estimate of the Debt of the Kingdom was this day brought into the House by the state of which Account it appeared Friday May 28. The state of the publick Debts Bill for raising mony and disbanding the Armies read a second time Bills against H. Commission Court and Pluralities engrossed Saturday May 29. That there was a Debt of seven hundred seventy three thousand nine hundred pounds due to the two Armies the City and several private persons who had lent mony upon Parliamentary Credit which brought on the Consideration of the Bill for Raising Mony and Disbanding the Armies which was read a second time Mr. Rigby Reports the Bills for taking away the High Commission Court and against Pluralities with the Amendments which were both Ordered to be engrossed Little of moment passed this day in the Commons House most of it being spent in debates about Raising Mony to defray the great Debt into which the Kingdom was plunged by the coming in of the Scottish Army to be assistant in the Glorious Reformation of Religion and Establishment of the Subjects Liberty for which guilded Words the Nation was to part with their real Treasure And it was but an untoward Omen how expensive these great Patriots were like to prove for the future who began so early to shew the People that little less than a Million of Mony must be laid down as the Earnest for this imaginary purchase It was this day Ordered Several Lords examined about the Conspiracy of the Army That the Earls of Newcastle and Carnarvan and the Lord Bishop of Chichester shall be attended with this Order and that their Lordships be desired to repair unto the Lords Committees appointed by this House to take the Examinations concerning certain late practises concerning the Army in the North at Two of the Clock this Afternoon at the Lord Keeper's Lodgings near the Parliament House to be examined by them A Case having been depending between Thomas Nash Nash and Kynnaston's Case determined in a Writ of Error and Charles Kynnaston about Errors in a Writ of Error and Council having been fully heard at the Bar of the Lords House on both sides their Lordships Voted the said Errors alledged by the Plaintiff Nash to be frivolous and thereupon awarded the following Order upon it In Suprema Curia Domini Regis Parliament ' Inter Thomam Nash Quer ' Carolum Kynnaston Defendentem in placito transgr ' ejectionis Firmae Super quo visis premissis per Cur ' Parliament ' Domini Regis nunc hic diligent ' Examinat ' plenius intellectis tum Record ' Process ' predict ac Judic ' predict ' super eisdem Reddit ' quam predict ' Causa pro Errore prodict ' predict ' Thom ' in Forma predict ' assignat ' allegat ' videtur predicta suprema Curia Parliament ' hic quoad Record predict in nullo vitiosum aut defectivum
Barcock George Ewer George Pitcher Tho. Low The Names of those that committed the Disorder in the Church of St. Olaves in Southwark in time of administring the Communion Robert Wainman _____ Bonace Hugh Evans John Moor. Ordered That the persons aforenamed be sent for to appear before this House as Delinquents to answer their several Offences The Commons fell this Day upon the Root and Branch Bill Friday June 11. Debate about the Bill for abolishing Episcopacy c. and the House being resolved into a Grand Committee of the whole House the Title of the Bill was first Voted and many Speeches and Arguments were on both sides Urged for and against it but it is my Misfortune as I must always complain as well as the Reader 's loss that he can hear little of the matter but Ex parte for such was then the prevalency of the Faction that what Ever was spoken in the behalf of Episcopacy was stifled discouraged and suppressed and in this small Tract of time since the Revolution utterly lost and forgotten whereas all the Speeches of the Leading Men of the Faction were either by their own or by the Order of the House Printed Published and Dispersed throughout the Kingdom by which Art they did not only then persuade the Nation who saw nothing in Answer to these Libellous Speeches that their Reasons were unanswerable but they came by falling into so many hands to be preserved I hope as Eternal Monuments of Infamy to their Authors and Excellent Cautions to future Ages who will Easily be able to Judge when they hear of the like Speeches what a kind of Reformation and what defences of Liberty and Property they are to Expect from such pretended Patriots and Speech-makers who pull up the very Foundations of the Government under the pretence that it is Unsound and Rotten And indeed were it not that these Collections are generally like to fall into such Judicious hands as will be able to separate the insinuating Malice and Poison from them and thereby make them Useful by framing Arguments against them and winnowing the Chaffy part of their reasoning from them I could not judge it Expedient to transmit these four Grapes to Posterity nor to revive them did I not believe they might serve as useful precautions to preserve their Teeth from being set on Edge Upon this subject Sir Henry Vane who was now become not only the Proselyte but Favourite of the Faction for the Famous Blow he had given the Earl of Strafford made this insuing Speech at the Committee of the whole House Mr. Hide being in the Chair Mr. Hide THE Debate we are now upon is Sir Henry Vane's Speech against Episcopal Government June 11. 1641. Whether the Government by Archbishops Bishops Chancellors c. should be taken away out of the Church and Kingdom of England For the right stating whereof we must remember the Vote which passed Yesterday not only by this Committee but the House which was to this Effect That this Government hath been found by long Experience to be a great impediment to the perfect Reformation and Growth of Religion and very Prejudicial to the Civil State So that then the Question will lie thus before us Whether a Government which long Experience hath set so ill a Character upon importing Danger not only to our Religion but the Civil State should be any longer continued amongst us or be utterly abolished For my own part I am of the Opinion of those who conceive that the strength of Reason already set down in the Preamble to this Bill by Yesterdays Vote is a necessary decision of this Question For one of the main Ends for which Church-Government is set up is to advance and further the perfect Reformation and Growth of Religion which we have already Voted this Government doth contradict so that it is destructive to the very end for which it should be and is most necessary and desireable in which respect certainly we have cause enough to lay it aside not onely as useless in that it attains not its end but as dangerous in that it destroyes and contradicts it In the second place we have Voted it prejudicial to the Civil State as having so powerful and ill an influence upon our Laws the Prerogative of the King and Liberties of the Subject that it is like a spreading Leprosie which leaves nothing untainted and uninfected which it comes near May we not therefore well say of this Government as our Saviour in the Fifth of Matthew speaks of Salt give me leave upon this occasion to make use of Scripture as well as others have done in this Debate where it is said that Salt is good But if the Salt hath lost its savour wherewith will you season it It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men So Church-Government in the general is good and that which is necessary and which we all desire but when any particular Form of it hath once lost its savour by being destructive to its own ends for which it is set up as by our Vote already passed we say this hath then surely Sir we have no more to do but to cast it out and endeavour the best we can to provide our selves a better But to this it hath been said That the Government now in question may be so amended and reformed that it needs not be pulled quite down or abolished because it is conceived it hath no original sin or evil in it or if it have it is said regeneration will take that away Unto which I answer I do consent that we should do with this Government as we are done by in regeneration in which all old things are to pass away and all things are to become new and this we must do if we desire a perfect Reformation and growth of our Religion or good to our Civil State For the whole Fabrick of this Building is so rotten and corrupt from the very Foundation of it to the top that if we pull it not down now it will fall about the Ears of all those that endeavour it within a very few years The universal rottenness or corruption of this Government will most evidently appear by a disquisition into these ensuing particulars First Let us consider in what Soil this root grows Is it not in the Pope's Paradise do not one and the same Principles and Grounds maintain the Papacy or universal Bishop as do our Diocesan or Metropolitan Bishops All those authorities which have been brought us out of the Fathers and Antiquity will they not as well if not better support the Popedome as the Order of our Bishops So likewise all these Arguments for its agreeableness to Monarchy and cure of Schisme do they not much more strongly hold for the acknowledgment of the Pope than for our Bishops And yet have Monarchies been ever a whit the more absolute for the Pope's universal Monarchy or their Kingdoms less
there were a General at New-Castle they were pleased to give report that I should be General of the Horse but I protest neither to the King nor any else did I ever so much as think of it my Lord of Holland was made General and so all things were laid aside And this is the truth and all the truth I knew of these proceedings and this I will and do protest unto you upon my Faith and Wilmot Ashburnham and Oneale have at several times confessed and Sworn I never said any thing in the business they did not every one agree unto and justify This Relation I sent you rather to inform you of the truth of the matter that you may the better know how to do me good but I should think my self very unhappy to be made a betrayer of any Body What concerned the Tower or any thing else I never medled withal nor ever spake with Goring but that night before them all and said nothing but what was consented unto by any Party I never spake one word with Suckling Carnarvan Davenant or any other Creature Me thinks if my Friends and Kindred knew the truth and justice of the matter it were no hard matter to serve me in some measure Upon the reading the Transcript of this Letter of Mr. Percy 's to the Earl of Northumberland in the House of Commons Commissary Wilmot Capt. Munday June 14. Commissary wilmot Col. Ashburnham Col. Pollard imprisoned upon suspition of H. Treason Ashburnham and Capt. Pollard being found to be concerned in this matter of the Army were sent Prisoners Wilmot to the Tower Ashburnham to the Kings-Bench and Pollard to the Gatehouse for suspition of High-Treason †Sir John Berkley Mr. Dan. Oneal sent for as Delinquents upon the same account Sir John Berkley and Mr. Daniel Oneal were ordered to be sent for as Delinquents upon the same account * Sir will Widdrington and Sir Herbert Price discharged from the Tower Sir William Widdrington and Mr. Herbert Price were this day Discharged from their Imprisonment in the Tower and restored to their Siting as Members in Parliament a Afternoon-Sermons Voted to be in Cathedrals A Vote passed this Day That in all Cathedral Churches there should be Sermons in the Afternoons b Report of the Conference about Disbanding the Armies The Earl of Bath Reports the Conference Yesterday with the House of Commons delivered by Sir John Hotham to this Effect That the House of Commons had taken into Consideration the Vast Charge that the Kingdom lyes under by maintaining the Two Armies that they have used their utmost Endeavours in providing Mony for Disbanding them That Necessity Enforceth them to Disband the King's Army by Parts as they shall be able to provide Money and the Scottish Army wholly and altogether That in Disbanding the Army they will first disband those that lye in the most Southern Parts That they intend to Disband Five Regiments whereof they intend that the Regiment of Hull shall be the first then the Earl of Nidesdale 's Company which is put under the Regiment of Sir Charles Vavasor and so other Regiments shall march first to give way for the rest to march and that they shall not march above 300 in a Company The Earl of Bristol Reported Heads which the Lords Committees drew up in the Morning to be propounded at a Conference touching the Disbanding of the Armies viz. That a Total Disbanding be propounded as that which is thought necessary in the first place to be desired if for doing this they are not provided for the present this House will be ready to give them all possible Assistance for perfecting this great Work And that if the Commons shall make an Estimate of what will be wanting to the Total Disbanding the House of Peers will joyn with them most readily for untill a full Disarming and Disbanding of the Armies be Resolved and Declared it is much to be doubted that there will be greater difficulty in raising Money or getting Credit and therefore it is desired to imploy all our Just Endeavours for a Total Disbanding of both Armies If there be not a possibility presently to Disband all the Five Regiments being to be disbanded it is held fit that it be propounded to the Scots That they at the same time retire at least from the River Tees homeward and Ship their Field Ordnance at Newcastle and that the English likewise retire their Ordnance and Train of Artillery Tuesday June 15. Mr. Blany to be brought before the Parliament for Preaching against the Protestation Mr. Allen Blany Curate of Newington in Surrey was this Day ordered to be Summoned to attend the House for Preaching against the Protestation Affirming That the Parliament is able to Confirm a Law but not to Make a Law to bind him against his Conscience and for offering a Protestation of his own to make good the 39th Article to which he subscribed his hand and left it with the Church-wardens The Debate concerning Deans and Chapiters was also Revived upon which occasion Mr. Pury an Alderman of Glocester made this following Speech the House being in a Grand Committee of the whole House Mr. Hide I Rise not up to answer the Argument of the Learned Gentleman of the Long-Robe that spake last the which were to prove some Incoherence of the Preamble Mr. Pury Alderman of Glocester his Speech agaiâ—st Deans and Chapters June 15. 1641. with the body of the Bill concerning the Abolishing of Deans and Chapiters in respect of their Government in the Church of England who have none at all as hath been argued but there are some Reasons stick with me whereby I do conceive that the Deans and Chapiters have been and are part of the Government of the Church of England and that the Preamble and body of this Bill therein may very well stand together for if you take the Deans and Chapiters in their Original who as it was said by a Learned Serjeant over against me were first founded in Superstition alike to your Regular and Secular Monks or if you consider them as an Institution to be Consilium Epis to assist Bishops in their Government and Discipline or if you look upon those Deans and Chapiters of the last Foundation by Henry the Eighth yet certainly they are in all these capacities a part of the Government of the Church of England and as well the Rural as the Cathedral Deans are numbred by our own Writers among Church-Governors and they are in and among themselves a part of the Church-Government and by the Book of Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws they are to govern them according to their Statutes of Foundation and to keep them pure and entire so far as they are not repugnant to the Word of God and our Constitutions of Religion And for the better satisfaction of this Committee and my self here is a Copy of the Statutes Grant and Foundation of the Dean and Chapter of the
Clergy-man no Dignitary whose Books have cost him a Thousand Pounds which when he dies may be worth to his Wife and Children about Two Hundred It will be a shameful reproach to so flourishing a Kingdom as this to have a poor beggarly Clergy For my part I think nothing too much nothing too good for a good Minister a good Clergy-man They ought least to want who best know how to abound Burning and shining Lights do well deserve to be set in good Candlesticks Mr. Hide I am as much for Reformation for purging and maintaining Religion as any man whatsoever but I profess I am not for Innovation Demolition nor Abolition Possibly the Reader will now be desirous to see this Bill which gave so much business to the Parliament and therefore I here present him with a Copy of it as I find it in the Paper-Office An Act for the Abolishing and taking away of all Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deacons and Chanters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries and Canons and all other their Under-Officers of the Church of England WHereas the Government of the Church of England by Arch-Bishops and Bishops The Bill against Episcopal Government and the Hierarchy of the Church their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Arch-Deacons and others their Cathedral Officers have been found by lang experience to be a great Impediment to the perfect Reformation and Growth of Religion prejudicial to the Civâ—l Government of this Kingdom Be it therefore Enacted by the King 's most excellent Majesty the Lords and Commons Assembled in this present Parliament by the Authority of the same That from henceforth there shall be no Arch-Bishops Chancellors or Commissaries of any Bishopricks Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Chanters Canons or Pety-Canons or any other of their Officers within this Church or Kingdom And every Parson that shall hereafter use or exercise any Power Iurisdiction Office or Authority Ecclesiastical or Civil by Collection of any such Name Title Dignity or Office or Iurisdiction to incur the Penalty and a Forfeiture contained in the Act of Premunires made in the 16 R. 2. That all which hereafter done by any Arch-Bishopricks their Chancellors Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prevendaries Canons Petty-Canons or any other Office by Collection of any of their Dignities or Officers aforesaid shall be meérly void in Law any Statute or Ordinance heretofore made to the contrary any wise notwithstanding And that all Mannors Lands Territories Impropriations Houses Rents Services and other Hereditaments whatsoever of the said Arch-Bishopricks Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Canons Petty-Canons which they or any of them have in Right of the said Churches or Dignities shall be disposed and ordered of in such manner sort and form as the King 's most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled shall appoint And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction fit to be exercised within this Church and Kingdom of England shall be committed to such a number of Persons and in such manner as by this present Parliament appointed Divers Papers were upon this occasion presented to the Consideration of the House of Commons and many even of the Presbyterians who were for altering some things yet were not for Extirpation of Root and Branch among the rest I find these two in the Paper-Office THe Agitation of change of Government in the Church A Proposition concerning Bishops and Ecclesiastical Affairs and Church Government in the House of Commons is a Business of so high a Consequence that it is necessary to prevent any Resolution by Voting their judgment alone lest that being brought up with prejudice to the Lords who are and ought to be equally interessed may also prejudice the Cause It is a doubtful Case in the heat of this dispute how farr the Commons may go in the Declaration of their Opinions in which if the Lords shall not concur it may prove a great Rock of offence between the two Houses Therefore 't is very requisite that the Lords of the Higher House do timely interest themselves in the discussion and before any Resolution in either House To this purpose the Lords may be pleased to make a Committee in their House for the Reformation of Church Affairs and Government and thereupon demand a Conference with the Committee of the House of Commons that the business may be handled by Consultation on both sides pari passu and gradu At this Conference the Lords may be pleased to propose these grounds 1. That neither by Example nor Reason in any Age or State Matters Ecclesiastical or Mutations in Church Affairs were ever alone determined by Lay-men 2. In the Primitive Church and most Ancient times matters of this nature were always debated in General Councils or National Synods in the blessed Reformation the business was agitated by a Choice number of Divines who communicated their proceeding with Reformed Divines abroad and admitted some Strangers into their Consultations for the satisfaction of their Brethren and Peace of the Church 3. The publick Enemy of our Religion will take infinite advantage at every Alteration and especially at any that shall be resolved above by Lay-men 4. It must of necessity produce a dangerous Schism in the Church if without all Respect of Edification and satisfaction to the Parties different in judgment any conclusion should be imposed upon both without their consent 5. It is impossible that any Resolution taken in Heat and Passion can be so permanent but that time will discover a Necessity of fresh alterations to the shame of the whole Reformation 6. It is necessary to proceed in such a way as may not be Scandalous to the Churches abroad and may give satisfaction to both Parties opposite and contending at Home and may be Honourable Durable Obliging and Fortified with the consent and agreement of the Ecclesiastick and the Authority of the Parliament To effect which it is most agreeable to true Wisdom and Policy that both Houses of Parliament determine and declare for the present that the Laws Established for Church Government shall be obeyed And because all things in the first Reformation could not be fore-seen or some things were necessarily for other respects overseen which Time and great Liberty and Light have discovered and which may now be more fitly taken into consideration That therefore both Houses may be pleased to move His Majesty for the calling of a National Synod I mean of a Select number of Divines of all three Nations subject to His Majesty equally and impartially chosen of Moderate and Learned Men of both sides in which may be discussed and resolved a setled and uniform Model of Government to be presented unto the Parliament of all the Kingdoms there to receive Strength and Approbation In which Assembly Godly Men and lovers of Peace assisted by the Spirit of God may doubtlessly be induced to receive satisfaction from one another in
Affection to My People as I desire My People should shew to Me and not only so but likewise in Eschewing all Occasions of Dispute and in seeking to remove Jealousies And for this particular Bill you cannot but know that I do Freely and Frankly give over that Right which My Predecessors have ever Esteemed their own though I confess disputed yet so as it was never Yielded by any of them Therefore you must understand this as a mark of My Confidence in you thus to put My Self wholly upon the Love and Affections of My People for My Subsistence and therefore I hope in the perfecting of this you have begun you will go on the more Cheerfully And as for those Rumors which have bred Suspitions concerning the Army though I have heard some loose Discourses touching it which I never understood otherwise than as having Relation to the Scottish Army or preventing Insurrections yet they were so slight of themselves that they vanished by their own lightness within few dayes after they were born And therefore having shewed you my Clearness in this I will leave you with the Assurance That I never had other Design but to win the Affections of my People by the Justice of my Government With this flattering Eloquence did they endeavour to impose upon the gracious Inclinations of his Majesty who did in all things apply himself to oblige them representing themselves as most tenderly concerned for the Support of his Royal Crown and Dignity by this small Supply which was in reality nothing more than raising mony by his Royal Authority towards defraying a Debt which they had drawn upon the Nation by the burdensome maintenance of the Army of their Brethren of Scotland Dr. Leighton another such Turbulent Presbyterian as Prin Wednesday June 23. Dr. Leighton inlarged from his Imprisonment in the Fleet. A Bill for punishing Scandalous Ministers read the first time Burton and Bastwick who for his affronting the Government was committed Prisoner to the Fleet was this day by order of the House of Commons inlarged from his Imprisonment A Bill was this Day read the first time for the punishing of Scandalous Ministers By which as it afterwards appeared they intended the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy for indeed to stand up for the Established Government of the Church to defend the Liturgy to maintain the Royal Prerogative or to speak any thing against the violent proceedings of the Parliament for Extirpation of Episcopacy were the greatest Crimes and Scandals in the World against which neither Learning nor Priety were the least Defence A Bill for taking away the Court of Requests read the first time A Bill was also read the first time for suppressing and abolishing the Court called the Court of Requests The King had now upon the pressing importunities of the Scottish Commissioners and in hopes by his presence there at the Parliament to Compose the Affairs of that Kingdom resolved upon a journey into Scotland This sudden turn put the Faction in England to a strange perplexity They were very jealous and fearful lest the King coming to a perfect accommodation with his Subjects of Scotland they might be defeated of the hopes of that Brotherly assistance which they expected from them and which they had purchased at so dear a Rate and that the want of their help might prove a mighty obstacle to the intended progress of their Reformation of the Church and State in England But Mr. Pym who never wanted a Letter of dangerous Consequence though of his own Contrivance to help them out at a dead lift Thursday June 24. Clerk of the Markets Bill passed the Commons Bill for punishment of Scandalous Ministers read a second time Bill to prevent vexatious sults for Knighthood read a second time produced one in the House which being read he moved that a Conference should be desired with the Lords concerning the King's going into Scotland The Bill for the regulating the Clerks of the Markets being read a third time was also this day passed the House of Commons Also the Bill for punishing Scandalous Ministers was read a second time A Bill for the preventing vexatious Suits for Knighthood had also this day a second Reading Then several heads for a Conference with the Lords and several Propositions to the King before he go into Scotland were read The Cessation was also prolonged for a fortnight longer if the Treaty shall so long continue It was Ordered Cessation prolonged Father Philips the Queens Confessor sent for about a Letter intercepted going to Mr. Montague in France That Father Phillips should be sent for to attend the Committee in the Asternoon about a Letter from one Father Philips to Mr. Mountague in France The Messenger coming to White-hall and finding him acquainted him therewith Philips told him He would only go in again and eat something and go along with him But he immediately went and acquainted the Queen with his sending for by the Commons after some stay he returned and told the Messenger That he had been with the Queen who had commanded him not to go till she had spoken with the King and that he would obey her Command before that of the House of Commons Which Message being related to the House it was Ordered That a Warrant should be sent to apprehend him and bring him before the House as a Delinquent A Warrant was also directed to the Serjeant at Arms to bring the Pope's Nuncio before the House but he was not to be found The Bishop of Lincoln Reports the Conference about the Ten Propositions had this morning with the House of Commons The 10 Propositions of the Commons to be presented to the King before he goes into Scotland June 24 1641 which was delivered by Mr. Pym who spake as followeth He told your Lordships that he was Commanded by the House of Commons to present unto your Lordships their continued Care and Endeavour for the good of the Kingdom that as your affections are Vnited with them in one great End to serve God the King and the Commonwealth so your Counsels might likewise jointly Co-operate thereunto There is but one End and one Foundation of all these Affections and Counsels howbeit they spread themselves to many and several Branches for they are so Vnited and Interweaved Duties which we owe to our God our King and our Common-wealth that we cannot duely and truely serve God but thereby we serve our King nor serve God and our King as we ought without our Service to the Common-wealth And as a way to this Common and General End he was to make unto your Lordships several Propositions Because they had lately found out very Malignant and Pestiferous Designs set on foot or plotted to trouble the Peace of the Kingdom The which though they were prevented yet were still pursued which is the Reason why the House of Commons do present your Lordships with these several Propositions in Ten several Heads which have their Branches
as it will Real or Counterfeit it served their Turn made a mighty Noise and furnished them with a fresh Supply of those Fears and Jealousies with which they intoxicated the People and gave them a Rise for the Wheel that was now upon Motion to stop the King 's intended Journey into Scotland of which they were not a little jealous and distrustful A Petition from several Ministers of Wales was Read and referred to the Committee for Scandalous Ministers Welch Petition Thus the Indulgent mother-Mother-Church of England had nursed up Undutiful and Unnatural Children to Rebel against Her a sort of Amphibious Hypocrites who could conform and swear Obedience to her Laws and Government while she was in Prosperity but Petition to pull her down when they saw her Entring into the Red Sea of Persecution they who had Sucked her Breasts and Eat of her Bread now lifting up their Heels against her and her Enemies being those of her own House This Day the House of Lords was adjourned during Pleasure The further Debate of the 10 Propositions in the House of Lords into a Committee to debate the rest of the Ten Heads brought up from the House of Commons And the House proceeded to the Fourth Head concerning the Queens Majesty And it was Ordered That for the present this Head and Branches be laid aside untill the Articles made at the Marriage be seen Then the Fifth Head and the Branches were debated and agreed to The Sixth Head the second Branch agreed to The third Branch Agreed to joyn with the House of Commons to Petition His Majesty to prevent it hereafter and to let the House of Commons know That there is but one English Lady about the Queen that is a Papist and to acquaint them with the quiet Condition of that Lady The 4th Branch agreed to The Fifth Branch concerning Active Papists Agreed to know of the House of Commons Who they mean by Active Papists and how far the Extent is to be The Eighth Head concerning the Security and Peace of the Kingdom the first Branch agreed to the second Branch to be treated of at the Committee The third Branch also left to the Committee The Fourth Branch Ordered That the Earls of Essex and Leicester and the Lord Kymbolton do acquaint the Lord Admiral with it The Ninth Head referred to the Committee and they to call the King's Counsel The Tenth Head agreed to concerning a Select Committee of Lords to joyn with a proportionable number of the House of Commons from time to time to confer about these particular Courses as shall be most Effectual for the Reducing of the Propositions to Effect for the Publique Good And these Lords following were appointed to be Committees for the same Viz. Lord Chamberlain E. Bath E. Essex E. Dorset E. Sarum E. Warwick E. March Their Lordships to meet when they please * Message from the King about Disbanding The Lords that were appointed to Wait on His Majesty returned this Answer That the King will give Order to his Attorney-General to issue forth and publish a Proclamation speedily and hath given Directions for Letters to be written to the Deputy-Lieutenants from the Lord Lieutenants to assist them with Power if occasion shall serve for the quiet Conveying the Soldiers through the several Counties which they pass And lastly That his Majesty is willing the Earls of Holland and Newport do go into the North to their several Charges in the Army at the time prefixed There was a Motion made from the Earl of Holland General of the Army Saturday June 26. who was going down in order to the Disbanding That he might have an Act to impower him to Exercise Martial Law if the Soldiers should prove Mutinous but it was rejected only they Resolved to procure a Proclamation to be sent down for the punishment of the Soldiers if they should be disorderly by the Justices of Peace and that the Justices and other Civil Officers should see the Soldiers orderly Conducted through their respective Counties to the places of their aboad There was also a Message from the Scots Commissioners Message from the Scots Commissioners about the Kings Journey into Scotland to acquaint the House That they were informed that they had Voted against his Majesties going into Scotland as he had graciously promised them which they said might be of great prejudice unto them for that they had sent Proclamations through the Kingdom of Scotland for his Majesties Entertainment within a certain limited time and therefore they desired the House would take it into Consideration Nevertheless they did not desire that his Majesty should go till Matters were well settled here provided it might not be prejudicial unto them by causing some Jealousies among the People there Sir William Savil this Day Petitioned the House Monday June 28. Sir William Savil released from the Tower upon which it was Ordered That he should be discharged from his Imprisonment in the Tower A Committee of 48 appointed to meet 24 Lords at a Conference in the Painted Chamber about the Propositions delivered by Mr. Pym on Thursday last concerning the King's going into Scotland c. In the House of Lords this day the Petition of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London The Lord Major and Aldermen of Londons Petition about chusing one of the Sheriffs lately presented to the King was by his Majesty's Command delivered to the House and referred to the determination of the Parliament The effect of the Petition was concerning the sole Election of one of the Sheriffs of London which the Lord Mayor claims to have by prescription of Three Hundred Years to which the Commons of the said City disassented unless it be with their Confirmation and Approbation Hereupon it was Ordered That the Lord Mayor Recorder and some of the Aldermen and some of the Commons of the City of London shall have notice to attend this House to morrow morning at Eight of the Clock at which time their Lordships will hear both sides what they can say in this business A Message was brought from the House of Commons by Mr. Pym Message by Mr. Pym about the Archbishops Charge and Trial. who was commanded to let their Lordships know That formerly they brought up an Impeachment of High Treason against the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which hath lain asleep ever since but now they intend to proceed and Examine divers Witnesses concerning that business therefore desired their Lordships that a select Committee may be appointed to Examine such Witnesses as the House of Commons shall desire and that to be in the presence of some Members of the House of Commons as they shall appoint and that the Examinations be kept secret as in the Case of the Earl of Strafford and as that they have made an Order in their House to Examine such Members of their House as are requisite so they desire their Lordships will be pleased to provide that such
Parochial Churches That in all Parochial Churches of England and Wales where there is on the Lords Day no Preaching in the Afternoon if the Ministers will maintain a Conformable Lecturer at their own Charge the Parson or Vicar shall give way to it unless he will Preach himself Ordered That this House doth Assent That the Speaker of the House of Lords shall present unto his Majesty in the Name of both Houses the humble Advice of both Houses concerning the Manifesto His Majesty having appointed both Houses to attend him at the Banquetting-House in Whitehall at Three of the Clock in the Afternoon they accordingly attended where the Manifesto and the Parliaments proceedings upon it were read which were as follows The King 's Manifesto about the Palatinate CHARLES By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all to whom this present Manifesto shall come Greeting TO the end that the Endeavours of Our late Dear Father King James of Blessed Memory and Our Own Proceedings since his Death in the Cause of Our Dear and Onely Sister Brother in Law and Nephews Electors and Princes Palatine of the Rhine may not be forgotten or pretendedly unknown wherein We have studied and laboured nothing more than Peace of Christendom and the avoiding the effusion of Innocent Blood by seeking the Restitution and Re-Establishment of the Electoral House Palatine in their Ancient Rights Dignities and Possessions within the Empire out of which they have been by Violence and Force of Arms and other undue Proceedings expelled and banished contrary to the Ancient Laws and Constitutions of the Sacred Empire We have thought fit for the Vindication of Our Own Honour to call to mind and to publish to all the World both a Summary Relation of Our Actions and Endeavours past and Our present Resolutions in the same Cause IT cannot be unknown to all the Princes and Estates of Europe and more particularly to those who have had any interest or relation to the Publick Affairs of Germany how both Our Self and Our Father have during these Twenty Years past by many and several Ambassages Treaties and other Negotiations to Our great Expence and Charges both with the late Emperour Ferdinand the King of Spain and other Princes and Estates of the Empire endeavoured by all Friendly and Treatable means to procure the Restitution and Re-Establishment of Our said Dear Sister Brother-in-Law and Nephews in their Ancient Rights and Possessions as the only and possible way to settle a good and firm Peace in the Empire and consequently with all Princes interessed therein without which it is impossible to expect or hope for a good durable and honest Pacification of those Troubles which have already almost rent and consumed and involved all the Princes of Christendome in a most Bloody and Destructive War And for a clear Demonstration of Our sincere Intentions not only Our own Pious Inclination and Care of the Publick Peace hath induced Us to omit divers Occasions whereby we might by such Power as God hath put into Our Hands have prevented the Violences and Oppressions used to Our said Sister and Nephews But We have been led on and invited thereunto by divers Promises Assurances and Reversal Letters both from the late Emperor and King of Spain and other Usurpers of the Inheritance of the Electoral House Palatine that they would at last in Contemplation of Our Mediation hearken and incline to a Just and Honest Peace by the Restitution of the Estates and Dignities of Our dear Sister and Nephews whereby we have been drawn not only to pass by Our own and the Publick Interest and to forbear to Engage Our Arms in so just a Cause but also have procured by Our Fathers and Our Authority the withdrawing and disbanding of the Forces of Count Mansfelt out of the Palatinate and advanced divers Truces and Cessations of Hostility or Defence only to prepare the Way of amiable Composition according to the Hopes and Promises to that end given Us and particularly have caused the Surrender and Deposition of some Places of Strength into the Hands of the late Infanta of Spain upon reciprocal Assurances of a final Pacification or Restitution But what Effects all these Our Peaceable and Christian Endeavours have produced and how all Our Pious Negotiations have been either delayed or deluded thereby and by process of Time to root and Establish the Usurpations of the House Palatine and Our Patience and Piety thereby abused is so manifest by the continual Oppression of Our said dear Sister and Nephews that We are forced to Protest that there hath nothing succeeded either to Our Desires or Hopes but a Resolution of Despair of ever obtaining by the Ways of Justice Treaty or Amity that which hath been so often promised to and expected of the Lovers of Christian Peace Notwithstanding We having lately received Advice from Our dear Uncle the King of Denmark that at last by his Mediation and Procurement the present Emperour and Duke of Bavaria have condescended to a Treaty to be held at the Diet at Ratisbone upon the sixth Day of May last past for the Reviewing and the Resetling of the Controversies of the House Palatine as a Preparation and Inducement to a General Peace and Amnestia through the whole Empire And that he with some of the Electors of the Empire is accepted as Mediator of the said Cause and hath received strong and pregnant Assurances of a better Inclination and Disposition toward the re-establishment of the Electoral Eamily in their Rights and Dignities And to that end hath procured convenient safe Conduct from the Emperor to Our Nephew and His Brethren freely to come in Person or to send their Deputies to that Diet at the Time and Place appointed with all other Clauses requisite for their Safeties Going Abiding or Coming from thence and there to plead the Justice of their own Cause and that in Prosecution thereof he hath Instructed and Dispatched His Ambassadors to assist either in Person or by the Deputies of Our Nephews at the said Treaty of Pacification and hath desired Us herein to Comply with him by sending Our Ambassadours Qualified and Instructed to the same Purpose of procuring a Good and Setled Peace within the Empire according to the Intimation of the Princes Electors signified to Him by their Letters thereby desiring Us to Assist in the present Assembly at Ratisbone To which end Our Nephew the Prince Elector Palatine having resolved by Our Counsell and Advice to send his Deputies according to the Invitation and Hopes intimated of a good Issue to be expected by the amiable way of Treaty and Composure We have also thought fit not to be wanting to so good a Design so concurrent to Our own and the Desires of so many Princes and in some Hope of better Fruits then hitherto all Our Endeavours have produced Have resolved to make this Our last Tryal by the way of Treaties and to send
who invaded England faithful and Loyal Subjects in all Churches and Chappels upon the Thanksgiving Day between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland it was desired by the Commissioners of Scotland that the Loyalty and Faithfulness of his Majesties Subjects might be made known at the time of the Publick Thanksgiving in all Places and particularly in all Parish Churches of his Majesties Dominions which Request was graciously condescended unto by his Majesty and confirmed by the aforesaid Act. It is now Ordered and Commanded by both Houses of Parliament that the same be effectually done in all Parish Churches throughout this Kingdom upon Tuesday the 7th day of September next coming at the time of Publick Thanksgiving by the several and respective Ministers of each Parish Church or by their Curates who are hereby required to read this present Order in the Church Thus did they resolve not only to conquer but to triumph and this was also to be a little kind of Shibboleth for the Clergy for who ever did either speak any thing against the Scots or declined this Declaration of their Loyalty and Fidelity to the King which it was very difficult for Men of sense to believe and therefore more hard for Men of Conscience to declare were certain to be esteemed Malignants and upon the least Complaint were sure to be sent for in the Custody as Delinquents It was also Ordered That Mr. Marshal and Dr. Marshal and Burgess to preach before the Commons upon the Thanksgiving Day A Petition of some Merchants to seize some Parts of America Burgess be desired to Preach before the House of Commons upon the Thanks-Giving Day at St. Margarets Church in Westminster A Petition was presented to the House by several Merchants about the Town consisting principally of three Heads 1 That there might be a certain number of Ships well appointed and stored with Ammunition and Provision for such a Service to be sent to America and some Part to Affrica whereby we might possess our Selves with the Riches of those Countries 2 That the Spanish Party is now grown weak which may induce us with greater alacrity to attempt it 3 That we may thereby become possessed of the Command of both the North and South Seas which will both increase Commerce Shipping Sea-Men and Trade at Home and render us Formidable and Powerful Abroad The Lord Keeper signified to the House that he had received a Letter from the King at Edenburgh by Mr. Anthony Nichols who was the Express sent from both Houses to His Majesty in Scotland The Letter was read in haec verba RIght Trusty and well Beloved We greet you well Whereas We have understood by the Petition of both Houses of Our Parliament in England The King's Letter to the L. Keeper about the Commission to the Committees of both Houses which Anthony Nichols Esquire hath been imployed to Vs from them that they are resolved to send down certain of their Members for to see the Ratification of the Treaty of Pacification by the Parliament here and to that end have desired a Commission under Our Great Seal We do not hold necessary to sign any such Commission but are hereby graciously pleased to give leave to the said Members to come and attend Vs here in Scotland to see the Ratification of the said Treaty and what else belongs thereunto and this We require you to signifie unto both Houses from Vs Given under Our Signet at Our Court of Edenburgh and the 25th Day of August in the 17 Year of Our Reign Such was the Ungovernable Insolence of the Rabble of those who called themselves the Well-Affected Party by their having been indulged because not severely Punished in the Case of the Earl of Strafford that upon every Occasion like a Fire ill quenched they broke out into Disorder and Outrages which was the Occasion of this following Order of the Lords UPon Information this Day to this House An Order of the Lords about the Tumults concerning the French Ambassador Aug. 30. 1641. that the French Ambassador and his Servants hath been lately Assaulted in his own House by a Company of Rude and Insolent People unto the great Dishonor of Our Nation and to his Lordships insufferable Wrong Injury and Dishonor whereof this House is very sensible and do intend that all possible Diligence be used for the finding out of the Malefactors for the Punishment of them to the Example and Terror of others that none may presume hereafter to commit the like Outrages to any Ambassadors of whom this House will always take regard It is therefore thought fit and Ordered by this House That Mr. Hooker Mr. Long Mr. Whittacre and Mr. Shepheard his Majesties Justices of the Peace or any two or more of them shall speedily take this Business into their Examination and by all Dilligence that may be used find out the said Malefactors and to Imprison them until they find out Sureties for their good Behavior and to appear in this House on Monday the 6th of September 1641. to undergo such Punishment as their Lordships shall think fit to inflict upon them for their said Offences and Misdemeanors so committed as aforesaid And that the said Justices of the Peace having throughly examined the Business shall make Certificate unto this House on the said sixth day of September next of all the whole Matter and how they find it that thereby their Lordships may proceed therein according to that which shall be Just And lastly That the aforesaid Justices shall give Order That there shall be Watch set according to Law for the better securing the Safety of the Ambassador and his House and for preventing Disorderly and Tumultuous Assemblies Ordered That the Lord Great Chamberlain Lord Chamberlain Earl Warwick Lord Kymbolton do acquaint the French Ambassador from this House that their Lordships have taken this Business into Consideration The House of Commons also took the Case of Sir John Corbet into debate whe for saying at a Quarter Sessions in the County of Salop That the Muster Masters Wages throughout England were illegal and against the Petition of Right c. had been Imprisoned and Fined by the High Commission Court and it was Ordered That the late Lord Keeper Coventry the Archbishop of Canterbury and others who were the Occasions of it shall make him Reparations for his Sufferings and Damages and a Conference was desired with the Lords upon it where the Managers of the Commons delivered to their Lordships a Transmission of an Impeachment concerning the Cause of Sir John Corbet a Member of the House of Commons against the Earl of Bridgwater the Lord Privy Seal the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Cottington the Lord Newburgh and the two Secretaries of State in which the House of Commons desire that the several Persons whom it concerns may be called to answer and that their Lordships would proceed therein according to Justice and that Sir John Corbet may have Reparation for his Imprisonment
c. Next the Bishop of Linclon reported that at the same Conference Mr. Nichols that was sent into Scotland to his Majesty from both Houses reported That he had delivered the Petition and the Draught of the Commission to his Majesty but his Majesty thought not fit to sign it for these Reasons which he commanded him to signify to the Parliament 1 That his Majesty conceives the Treaty of Pacification The King's Reasons for not signing the Commission sent into Scotland by Mr. Nichols from both Houses between the two Kingdoms is already ratified by the Parliament of Scotland 2 If this Commission should be granted it would beget new Matter 3 It would be a means to keep his Majesty longer there then he intended to stay 4 That the Scots Army is over the Tweed and that the Lord General hath almost Disbanded all Our Army and hath begun with the House A Letter from the Lord General was read declaring Contents of a Letter from the Lord General That he will pursue the Orders of Parliament in disbanding the Army but he understands that the Scots will keep 5000 Men undisbanded until our Army be all disbanded and our Fortifications at Barwick and Carlisle slighted and that to this purpose he had received Directions from his Majesty to demolish the Fortifications and remove the Ordnance and Munition from thence The Bishop of Lincoln Reported the Conference with the Commons concerning Disarming Recusants to this Effect THat the House of Commons had taken into consideration the Store of Arms in this Kingdom and they find The Conference about disarming Recusants Aug. 30. 1641. that there are many Arms in the hands of Popish Recusants for disarming of whom the House of Commons have frequently recommended to this House the disarming of them according to the Stat. of 3 Jac. but they have found that the good came not by this Statute as was intended for upon Indictments for Recusancy there were Certioraris's granted Therefore the House of Commons have taken these things into consideration again and the rather because of the Kings absence at this time in Scotland and that the time of the Recess draws nigh and considering the late Troubles of this Kingdom whch are not yet settled the House of Commons have considered of an Ordnance of Parliament and some Instructions to be given unto such Commissioners as they have named to see to the disarming of Popish Recusants according to the Statute of 3 Jacobi which Ordinance and Instruction they present to their Lordships desiring them to joyn with them herein Then the aforesaid Ordinance and Instructions were read in haec verba An Ordinance made and agreed by the Lords and Commons in Parliament for the speedy disarming of Popish Recusants and other dangerous Persons The Ordinance of Parliament for Disarming Recusants WHereas for the preventing and avoiding of dangers that might grow by Popish Recusants Provision hath been heretofore made by Act of Parliament for the disarming of all Popish Recusants convicted within this Realm which said Law hath not taken so good effect as was intended by Reason such Recusants and Persons Popishly affected have by subtle practices and indirect means kept themselves from being convicted or being outwardly conformable have caused or suffered their Children Grand-children and Servants to be bred up and maintained up in the Popish Religion and have otherways hindred the due Execution of the said Law to the great danger and grievance of the Common-wealth And for that it is too manifest that the said Popish Recusants have always had and still have and do practise most dangerous and pernicious designs against the Church and State and by the Laws of this Realm in times of imminent danger or of any forcible Attempts Designs or Practises against the Peace and Safety thereof all Armor Weapons and other Provisions that may tend or be imployed to the effecting of such mischievous Designs ought timely to be removed and taken away and all fit means used for the securing of the Peace and safety of the Realm And for the preventing of such further mischiefs as may happen by any Outrage or Violence to be offered It is therefore Ordained and Provided by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled That all such Arms Gun-powder and Munition of what kind soever as any Popish Recusant convicted or any Person or other which is or shall be Indicted for such Recusancy and such Indictments either are or shall be removed by Certiorari or being not removed shall not by Appearance and Traverse or otherwise be Legally discharged before this Ordinance be put in execution or which shall not have repaired to Church more then once in every Month or shall not have received the Holy Communion according to the Rites of the Church of England within one whole year next before the making hereof and which shall refuse to take the Oaths of Supremacy or Allegiance upon Lawful Tender thereof made or whose Children or Grand-children or any of them being at his or her dispose or living in the House with them is or shall be bred up in the Popish Religion or have not repaired to Church within one year next before the making of this Ordinance according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm or whose Houshold Servants or any two or more of them is or shall be of the Popish Religion hath or shall have in his and their House or Houses or elsewhere or in the hands and possession of any other to his or their use or at his or their disposition other then such necessary Weapons as shall be thought fit by the Persons Authorized to take and Seize the said Munition to remain and be allowed Arms for the defence of the Person or House of such Recusant or Person aforesaid shall forthwith be taken from every such Popish Recusant or Person as aforesaid and from all others which shall have the same to the use of any such Popish Recusant or Person by such Person and Persons as are and shall be by this Ordinance appointed and authorized in that behalf for every Shire County and Riding within this Realm and Dominion of Wales that is to say For the County of Bedford Sir Oliver Luke Sir Beuchamp St. John Sir Roger Burgoigne Knight For the County of Lancaster John Moor Alexander Rigby Esquire Members of the House of Commons and the two Knights that Serve for that County For Cheshire Sir William Brereton Baronet Peter Vennables Esquire For the City of Chester Francis Gamull Esquire the Major for the time being For the County of Stafford Sir Edward Littleton and Sir Richard Levison For the County of Derby Sir John Curson William Allestre Esquire For the County of Nottingham Sir Thomas Hutchinson Robert Sutton Esquire For the Town and County of Nottingham Sir Thomas Hutchinson Robert Sutton Esquire and the Major for the time being For the County of Lincoln Thomas Hatcher Thomas Grantham and John Broxholm Esquires
of the Peace of each several County Shire or Riding within England or Wales and also the Majors Bailiffs Justices of the Peace Jurats or other Head-Officers of or within any Town Corporate or Priviledged place respectively or any one or more of them together with some or one of the Persons nominated in the said Ordinance are to see the same forthwith put in Execution and shall have power to call the High Sheriff of every County and his Ministers all Constables and Tithing men and other Officers or any of them when and as oft as they shall think fit to be aiding and assisting to them from time to time within their several Limits and Jurisdictions in the due performance of this Service and to do and execute all and every such thing or things as shall be requisite and necessary in that behalf and the said Members of the said House of Commons are respectively required to see the said Ordinance forthwith put in execution II. The said Persons Authorized are to inform themselves by all convenient means and ways of all such Arms Gun-powder and Munition of what kind soever as any Popish Recusants convict or other Persons whatsoever either of the Nobility or others which is or shall be Indicted for Popish Recusants and such Indictments either removed by Certiorari or being not removed shall not by appearance and Traverse or otherwise be Legally discharged or which shall not have repaired to Church more then once in every month or shall not have received the Holy Communion according to the Rites of the Church of England within one whole year next before the making of the said Ordinance or which shall refuse to take the Oaths of Supremacy or Allegiance upon lawful tender thereof made or whose Children or Grand-children or any of them being at their dispose or in the House with them are bred up in the Popish Religion or have not repaired to Church within one whole year next before the making of the said Ordinance according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm or whose Houshold Servants or any numbers of them are of the Popish Religion hath or have in his or her House or Houses or elsewhere or in the Hands and Possession of any other to his or her use or at his or her disposition and are to search all such places where any such Arms Gun-powder or Munition of any such Popish Recusant or other Person whose Arms by the said Ordinance is to be taken away is placed or deposited or supposed to be placed or deposited III. They are to take and Seize all such Arms Gunpowder and Munition as aforeaid in whose hands or Custody or in what place the same shall be other then such Weapons as shall be by the said Persons so Authorized thought fit to remain and be allowed to the said Recusants or other Popish Persons as aforesaid for the defence of his or her Person or Houses and shall cause the same to be placed in some City or Town Corporate or other convenient Town of the same County and there safely kept at the costs and charges of the owners thereof and the Armorer to be admitted to dress and amend the same so oft as need shall require IV. And if any such Popish Recusants or other Persons as aforesaid or any other Person or Persons which have or hath or shall have any such Arms Gun-powder or Munition in his or their hands or Possession to the use of such Recusant or other Person as aforesaid or by his her or their appointment shall conceal the said Arms Gunpowder and Munition or any part thereof or shall refuse to discover the same to the said Persons so Authorized or otherwise wilfully oppose hinder or disobey the said Persons Authorized or any of them in the execution of the said Ordinance that then every such Popish Recusant and other Person so offending shall be held a contemptuous Person and be liable to such further punishment as by the Parliament upon certificate thereof made shall be thought fit and the Persons Authorized are to certify their names accordingly They are also to make Certificates to the Parliament of all such Arms Gunpowder and Ammunition as they shall take or seize by force and vertue of the said Ordinance as also the Person and Persons whose the same were and from whom they were so taken and in what places the same are found or taken and where and in what City Town or Place and in whose custody the same shall be left or deposited and what Order they shall take concerning the same and shall likewise certify what Arms and Munition they shall leave to such Recusants or Persons as aforesaid for the defence of his or her Person or House V. They are to inquire what Popish Recusants have lately had any Arms or Munition taken away by whom and by what means and where and in whose hands the same remain and to take care that the same be safely placed and kept in such manner as aforesaid and to make Certificates thereof to the Parliament VI. To take care that the said Arms and Munition so to be Seized and taken away by force of the said Ordinance may so be placed and disposed of as there may not be too great a quantity thereof at the same time in one and the same City Town or Place but that it may be distributed and placed in several Towns and Places in such manner and proportion as shall be most conveninet for the use and safety of the Kingdom After which it was Ordered Tuesday August 31. That this House agrees and Concurs with the House of Commons in the whole Ordinance and Instructions The foresaid Ordinance and Instructions were appointed to be delivered privately to the House of Commons to be Ingrossed A Message was sent by the Lords by Dr. Exceptions taken by the Commons for the Lords sending a Message by one Person only Bennet for a Conference to let them know the Lords desired the Ordinance for disarming Recusants might be Ingrossed but the House taking notice of it that the Message came by a single Person the Commons took Exceptions at it and Mr. Hollis was sent to signifie so much and to let them know that for this time they were willing to pass it over only desiring it might not be drawn into President hereafter as also to desire that the Ordinance signed by the Speakers of both Houses might be printed and published throughout the Kingdom which was done accordingly And the Lords by another Message signified to the Commons that the Reason why they sent but one Messenger was because they had no more Assistants then present A Vote was also passed for removing the Communion Table Resolved upon the Question That this House holds it fit that the Church-Wardens of every Parish Church or Chappel do forthwith remove the Communion Table Vote for Removing the Communion Table from the East end of the Church Chappel or Chancel where they stand
Altarwise and place them in some convenient place of the Church or Chancel and to take away the Rails and level the Chancels as heretofore they were before the late Innovations These high Pretences against Innovations Popery and Superstition were the Witchcrafts with which they insensibly drew on the undiscerning People into the most desperate and horrid Sin of Rebellion and amongst the rest of these frightful Crimes with which they blackned the Archbishop and the Clergy this horrible Sin of Innovation was one of the most terrible when the truth is this was so false and far from being an Innovation that whoever has travelled into the Early Regions of Antiquity will both find the Name and Thing of Alter very frequent among the Ecclesiastical Writers and the Holy Fathers of those Ages and that ever since Christianity came from under the Rod of Persecution and that Temples were erected for the Publick Worship of Almighty God they were built after the same Manner and Form with our Churches and the Holy Table was placed at the East end of them and the indeavor of the Archbishop and Regular Clergy to bring in this Piece of Uniformity into the Church of England was so far from being a Novelty or Innovation that the Design of it was to reduce them to this Primitive Custom and Usage of the Primitive Christians so Ancient and Primitive that Nicephorus and Socrates in the Ecclesiastical History make mention of two Altars placed in the West end of two Churches which was then accounted a strange Innovation Wednesday Septem 1 and directly contrary to the constant Custom of the Church The House being now shortly to be Adjourned for some time by Reason the Plague begun to encrease several Persons Petitioned the Commons to be admitted to Bail upon which It was Ordered That Alderman Abel Mr. Kilvert Thomas Powlet Diverse Persons Bailed Charles Cotton Edward Watkins Lewis Kirk shall be Bailed the Principals at 1000 l. and the Sureties each 500 l. Bail Ferris also who was in Custody for Breach of Priviledg for Arresting a Servant of one of the Members and the Post-Master of Ware who was committed to the Serjeant at the complaint of Mr. Rushworth Debate about Religion about Post-Horses were Ordered to be Bailed upon reasonable Bail The House also fell upon the Church-work again which was to be Swept with their beesom of Reformation by abolishing Order Decency and Government as Superstition and Innovation to this purpose it was moved that they might consider of what alterations and additions were to be made in the Book of Common-Prayer whereupon Sir John Culpeper stood up and moved that the Book of Common-Prayer might be continued and remain without alteration or addition and that it might be observed and used with all due Reverence throughout the Kingdom Upon which the Question being put whether they should proceed to the farther consideration of this matter the House was divided upon it with the Yeas were 55 with the Noes 60 so it was for the present laid by This was always one great Artifice of the Party That when there was a thin House and any thing was moved which they perceived they should not be able to Carry to get it put off till either the contrary Party being tired with long Sitting were gone out of the House or that they found their own Party strong enough to carry the Vote And this the Reader shall find verified in a few days and that they not only proceeded to Vote but Authoritatively to Enact this their pretended Abolition of Innovations without the consent of either the King or House of Lords The House being very thin many of the Members being gone into the Country by reason of the spreading of the Contagion It was Ordered That lest the House should fall for want of Forty of the Members to be present at the Adjournment that there should at least Sixty meet the next Week to agree about the Recess upon which the House was Adjourned till Monday next Upon hearing the matter concerning the affront put upon the French Ambassador It was this day Ordered by the Lords as follows WHereas it appears by the Certificate of the Justices of Peace and by Proof of Witnesses Viva voce this Day at the Barr The Order about those who assaulted the French Ambassadors House upon full Examination of the business That Christopher Cook John Symons Richard Clarke John Bird Gyles Philips and Roger Gardner were principal Actors in committing of the great Outrage and Assault upon the French Ambassadors House in Lincolns Inn Fields as flinging of Stones and Assaulting the said House to the great molestation and dishonor of the said Ambassador which this House is very tender of It is Ordered that the Delinquents aforesaid shall forthwith stand committed to New Bride-well there to remain until their Masters or some others shall be Sureties for their Good Behaviour and that they appear at the next Sessions for Middlesex furthermore that the aforesaid Offenders shall stand on Pillories on Wednesday next in the morning for an hours space before the said Ambassadors House without being Vailed and shall publickly ask forgiveness upon their Knees of the Ambassador after which they shall be whipped before the said Ambassadors Door and along the Fields and Streets thereabout And Lastly it is Ordered that Mr. Long Mr. Sheppard Mr. Whittaker and Mr. Hooker Justices of the Peace together with the Sheriff of Middlesex who is to put this Order in Execution shall take special Care that there be a sufficient Guard about the Ambassadors House to prevent such Tumults that so the Peace may be kept during the time of the Execution of this Order The Ambassador being acquainted with this Order did by the Lord Chamberlain return his humble Thanks to the House for the same but desired That the Execution of it might be spared Whereupon it was Ordered That the Whipping be spared and that it be signified to the Offenders that it is remitted at the request of the said Ambassador And afterwards upon his request the Sentence was wholly remitted they asking him Pardon upon their Knees and they were released from their Imprisonment The Bishop of Lincoln who had formerly been so great a Favourite of the Commons Monday Septem 6. yet was a Bishop still and therefore upon any little false step contrary to their Sense more liable than another person to fall under their displeasure which happened to be upon this Occasion The Commons it seems had a great mind to try the Extempore Talent of Marshal and Burgess being men of Renown in that way of treating God Almighty and their Auditors with Prayers that were not tied to any Set Form whereby the Spirit was stinted and the Candle of mens Parts put under a bushel as the phrase of the Times went Now my Lord of Lincoln had it seems compiled a set Office as had been Usual upon the like Occasions for the Service of the Day of
certainly by the informing Sectaries who were very diligent in springing Game for the Committee and Sub-Committees for Religion the Ministers Remonstrance and for Scandalous Ministers Mr. White 's Mr. Corbet's Sir Robert Harlow's and Sir Edward Deering's Committees And then these Godly Informers must be gratified for their Petitions Informations and such like good Service to the Common-Wealth by the Imprisonment Scorn and Contempt Charges and many times utter Ruine of the truly Loyal and Orthodox Clergy of the Church of England And whoever will take the pains to Rake in that Libel of Mr. White 's called The first Century of Scandalous Malignant Priests will find that the greatest Crimes which many of the Clergy were Accused for and turned they and their Families naked to the wide World were the disobeying this Order For Bowing at the Name of Jesus Examples 33 and 43. For setting up the Name of Jesus in the Church Ex. 72.83 Preaching against Sacriledge Ex. 22. Bowing the Body in God's House Ex. 7. But to return to the House of Commons after the Voting of this Declaration they fell upon the business of the Recess and preparing Instructions for the Committee which was to Sit during the time of the Adjournment And Mr. The standing Committee during the Recess of the Parliament Pym Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir John Franklin Sir John Culpeper Mr. Wheeler Sir Henry Mildmay Mr. Bridgman Sir Thomas Bowyer Sir Thomas Barrington Sir Edward Hales Sir William Litton Sir Richard Cave Mr. Robert Goodwin Sir Samuel Luke Mr. Wingate Sir Robert Pye Alderman Soams Alderman Pennington Captain Venn Mr. Vassal Lord Falkland Capt. Rainsborough Mr. Bence Sir Peter Wroth Sir John Holland Mr. Winwood Mr. John Goodwin Sir Thomas Dacres Mr. Morley Mr. Henry Martin Mr. Arthur Goodwin Sir John Clotworthy Mr. White Mr. Sollicitor Mr. Spurstow Mr. Laurence Whitacre Serjeant Wild Mr. Strode Sir Henry Vane Mr. Glyn Sir Symon D'Ewes Sir William Drake Mr. Beddingfield Sir Gilbert Pickering Mr. Blakston Mr. Waller were appointed to be a Committee during the Recess This Committee to meet on Saturday next in the Exchequer-Chamber at Nine of the Clock in the Fore-noon Directions for the Committee during the Recess and they are to meet every Tuesday and Saturday in every Week and at such other times as they think fit during the Recess and they or any Six of them have power to meet with the Commissioners of the Lords appointed during their Recess at such times as they shall appoint They have Power to receive open and answer such Letters as come from the Committee in Scotland according to former Instructions and Orders of this House To take Care that the Orders of this House be punctually observed concerning Disbanding the Army Train of Artillery and Garrisons and for the Issuing and sending down of Money to those purposes To Recall the Committee in Scotland if they see Cause To go on in preparation of Proceedings against the Principal of such Delinquents as are already Voted or Complained against and to report Vpon any Informations of Riots or Tumults to have Power to send to all Sheriffs Justices of Peace and other Officers to stir them unto their Duties in repressing them and to report To Examine the Entries of the Clerks Books and that the Committee may not mistake any past Actions of the House a Clerk to be left there with the Books To take Care of the Preparations for his Majesties Revenue and to take into Consideration any Accounts to his Majesty To go on in prosecution of the Consideration of a West-Indian Company To take into Consideration the Fishing upon the Coasts of England Scotland and Ireland To take into Consideration the Resolutions of the Abuses in Exchange and Transporting of Money and the Regulating of the Par between this and other Nations To prepare the Irish Laws depending to be either at the Access transmitted to the Lords or recommended to the Irish Parliament To consider about Sal Petre and Gunpowder To send for any Persons Writings and Records To prepare a Discharge for the Earl of Warwick according to those Acquittances he hath given concerning the Northern Counties After which the Speaker desired he might have leave to go into the Country during the Recess which being granted the House was Adjourned till October 20. at Eight of the Clock in the Morning Happy had it been for England had they never met again to be the Authors of the most Dismal Tragedy that ever was Acted upon the Theatre of England but Providence whose Wisdom is unsearchable had Ordained them to be a Scourge to a People Wanton with Long Peace Ease Plenty and Even Religion it self The day to which the Parliament was Adjourned being now come Wednesday Octob. 20. both Houses met And the Lords being sate in their House and divers of them observing the Palace Yard full of Armed Men it was moved That it might be known upon what Grounds and Reasons the Trained Bands of Westminster were in the Old and New Palaces assembled The Lord Chamberlain being Captain General of the South Parts of this Kingdom during the King's absence in Scotland by Command of the House signified That his Lordship received a Desire from the Committee of the House of Commons which sate during the time of the late Recess that there might be a Guard of Souldiers about the Parliament to prevent the Insolence and Affronts of Souldiers at this time about the Town and to secure the Houses against other Designs which they have reason to suspect untill the Parliament meets and gives further Order therein Hereupon it was Ordered The Parliament takes a Guard of the Trained Bands of Westminster That the Lord Chamberlain shall by virtue of this Order continue a Guard of Souldiers to guard the Parliament Houses until the further Pleasure of the Parliament be known and that the Number of the said Soldiers shall be wholly left unto the discretion and management of the said Lord Chamberlain Captain General After this the Lord Keeper informed the House That he had received a Letter from the Lord Howard in Scotland dated the 14th of October which was read The Conspiracy in Scotland declaring That upon Monday Night then last there fell out a great Interruption in the Business there by reason of an Information given to the Marquiss of Hamilton the Earl of Argyle and the Earl of Lannerick That there was a Design to seize upon their Persons that Night whereupon they removed their Lodgings and stayed in the City all Night and relation being made hereof the next day to the Parliament the Earl of Crawford Colonel Steward and Colonel Cockram were restrained and after a further Examination his Lordship will give this House a further Information The first thing that was done in the House of Commons Mr. Pym's Report of what was done during the Recess Mr. Pym Reports what was done during the Recess THE first thing we had in Charge was
of the Low-Countreys by Colonel O Neal who was sent after the Messenger sent by us formerly to the said Colonel was by him disappointed with his Answer to encourage us in our Resolution and to speedy Performance with assurance of Succour which he said would not fail of the Colonel's behalf and for the more certainty of help from him and to assure us that the Colonel had good hopes to procure Aid from others he said that it was he himself that was imployed from him to Cardinal Richelieu twice that some men who gave very fair promises to assure the Colonel's expectations with which he said that the said Colonel was really with himself assured of the Cardinal's Aid and that he was likewise commanded by the Colonel upon our Resolution of the day to give notice thereof to him and that he would be within 14 days over with them with Aid but he landed 9 or 10 days before and meeting with Captain Brian O Neal who made him acquainted with what was Resolved he did write all the matter to Colonel O Neal so as he was sure of his speedy coming And so that Evening he and I came to meet the other Gentlemen and there were met Mr. Moore Colonel Bourne Colonel Plunkett Captain Fox and other Lemster Gentlemen a Captain I think of the Bournes but I am not sure whether a Bourne or a Toole and Captain Brian O Neale and taking an account of those that should have been there it was found that Sir Phelim O Neale Mr. Collo mac Mahone did fail of sending their Men and Colonel Bourne did miss Sir Morgan Cavanagh that had promised him to be there but he said he was sure he would not fail to be that Night or the next Morning in Town And of the two hundred men that were appointed there were only eighty present yet notwithstanding they were resolved to go on in their Resolution and all the difference was at what time of the day they would set on the Castle and after some debate it was resolved in the Afternoon and the rather hoping to meet the Colonel there then for they said if they should take the Castle and be enforced by any extremity for not receiving timely succour out of the Country having them they could not want and so parted that Night but to meet in the Morning to see further what was to be done and immediately thereupon I came to my Chamber and about Nine of the Clock Mr. Moore and Captain Fox came to me and told me all was discovered and that the City was in Arms and the Gates were shut up and so departed from me And what became of them and of the rest I know not nor think that they escaped but how and at what time I do not know because I my self was taken that Morning But how long soever this Plot was contriving and how much soever the Parliament by their Papers Answers and Declarations indeavoured secretly to reflect upon the King and by the Mercenary Tongues and Pens of their Infamous Agents more openly that the Rebellion began by his Knowledge and Connivance and by that wicked Calumny laid all the Massacres and Murthers which they heightned to the utmost at His Majesties door thereby to dispossess him of the Allegiances and Affections of his Subjects yet it is more then probable the Rebellion would not have broke out then if ever had not the Committee of the Parliament of Ireland some of which were the Continuers of and Actors in it had too near a prospect of a Rupture between the King and the Two Houses and that it would inevitably and quickly come to a War for all other Circumstances in that Juncture threatned their unavoidable Ruine in the Attempt unless England and Scotland were Embroiled so as not to be able to suppress them as if it had not been for the succeeding Rebellion in England they could not but know would be very easily done and none but people mad and senseless would without such almost a certain prospect of the English Rebellion have been tempted to forfeit not only the Extraordinary Graces they had newly received from the King and the Indulgence afforded them in the Exercise of their Religion but their Lives and Fortunes also And for any hopes of Foreign Assistance the French and the Spaniard were at War and under all the Consequences of it necessity of Men and Money to supply their own Affairs and as the Reader may remember both the Ambassadors of those Princes were pressing both the King and Parliament for Men out of Ireland so far were they from supplying the Trish with any And for the Pope besides that he is never over liberal of the Temporal Treasure of the Church he was at a Distance too Remote and too impotent in Shipping to give them any Assistance indeed he might probably be very Prodigal of those cheap and useless Spiritual Treasures of the Church Indulgences Blessings Reliques and promises of Miracles in their Favour but had he imployed both the Swords and unlocked all the Treasures with St. Peter's Keys yet could he not without a real Miracle nay many have saved them from most unavoidable Ruine and Destruction had England and Scotland continued in Peace so that it will plainly appear that if not the Design yet the Execution of it at that time depended wholly upon the certain expectations of a Civil War and the Confusions that attend it which it was not difficult for the Irish Committees who were upon the Earl of Strafford's account very intimate with the Faction of the Parliament to discover and foresee And this is most certain that the Rebels of each side made great advantages of the Rebellion and as in probability the Irish had not then broke out but that they had the English Rebellion in view so the English Rebels made their first Levies of Men and Money with which they fought against the King under colour of suppressing the Irish Rebellion And this is most certain That had Ireland continued in Peace Scotland darest not have stirred as they did to give assistance to the English Rebels and indeed to give the Fatal Turn to the ballance of the War which then seemed to incline to the Royal Party and the great things Montross did there with a handful of Men easily shew what might have been done to the King's Assistance if Ireland had been in Peace So that if these Rebellions did not beget one another as 't is very probable they did 't is certain they fed and supported each others Flames and betwixt them burnt down both Church and State in these three miserable Kingdoms And that the Reader may see what the Irish Rebels said for themselves I have here subjoyned the Remonstrance which they published for their Vindication a Copy of which was procured from one Mr. Wentworth who had it from them while he was Prisoner among them and being Printed I find it among the Collection of the Prints of that
Reasons hereafter as they shall think fit The Lords Adjourned their House into a Committee during pleasure to Debate these Matters the Proposition concerning securing Recusants was deferred till the Commons brought up a List of the Particular Names of the Recusants they desired should be Secured When the other Proposition about the Isle of Wight came under Consideration the Earl of Portland affirmed That his Father lived and died a Protestant as he can make it appear by credible Witnesses that were with him when he died if his Wife be one it was against his Will and for himself his Lordship protested That his Father bred him a Protestant and he would ever live and die one Which giving good satisfaction to the House it was Ordered to be put in Writing and delivered at a Conference to the House of Commons Mr. William Crofts was Sworn and Ordered to be Examined before the Deputed Lords The Earl of Holland Reported Message from the Venetian Ambassador That the Venetian Ambassador had been with him and desired That the ill Expressions in his Paper may be Excused for he professes he meant nothing in derogation of any Member of this House but spoke it as what Reputation other States had of such an Action and that he further signified That he hath written a fair Letter to the State of Venice concerning the opening of his Letters which he hopes will satisfie them This day Wall upon his Petition was Released from the Fleet Wall released where he had been committed for neglecting to deliver the Order of the House to search for Priests and Jesuits but with this condition not to be admitted any more to the Service of the House Inquiry after the transporting of Horses It was Ordered in the Commons House That the Knights and Burgesses of the County of Kent and the Barons of the Cinque-Ports do forthwith send to the Officers that do register the Horses that are Transported beyond the Seas and to send up a List of the Number of them that have been Transported within these 12 Months and by what Warrant and by whom such Warrants were obtained Though Disloyalty to the King and Disobedience to the Church which rarely are seen asunder began now to be much in Fashion and Esteem and to depress the Prerogative and oppress the Church were accounted Great Recommendations for men to set up for Patriots of the Country and Reformers of Religion yet wanted there not some Brave Spirits who to their Eternal Reputation darest even in the face of the Breach indeavour to stop the Deluge of Schism and the Inundations of Errors which they apparently saw must overwhelm the Church upon throwing down the Banks of Episcopal Order and Government How Unwelcom these bold Truths were to the Faction appears by an Order of the House of Commons of this Day made purposely to discountenance Petitions of this Nature for maintaining the Church Government as by Law it was Established and to deterr others from attempting to give them any Interruption in their pretended Reformation Order to discourage Petitioners for Episcopacy Ordered That it be referred to the Committee for the Ministers Remonstrance to consider what indiscreet and irregular Wayes and Means have been Vsed to procure Hands to Petitions presented or to be presented for or against Episcopacy This latter clause or against was only for colour to make the other pass more fairly for it is Evident that they themselves were the Great Promoters of Petitions not only against that but for whatever they had a design to obtain as will hereafter upon occasion appear But upon this Occasion I cannot but present the Reader with a Petition which I find in a Collection of Petitions of the like Nature Printed by His Majesties particular Order which though it came from one of the smallest Counties of England yet had not the least Learning or Reason And if it received neither Countenance nor Answer it is not much to be wondred at being indeed Unanswerable The Petition was as follows To the High and Honorable Court of Parliament The Humble Petition of the Knights Esquires Gentlemen and Householders in the County of Rutland in behalf of our Selves and our Families And of the Parsons Vicars and Curates for the Clergy in behalf of themselves and their Families THat whereas there have been diverse Petitions exhibited to this Honorable Court The Rutland-Shire Petition for Episcopacy Nov. 18. 1641. by Persons disaffected to the present Government for the utter Extirpation of the Apostolical Government of the Church by Bishops they by Sedulity and Zeal supplying the want of fair Pretences for the Abolition of that which we hope no just Reason can Condemn And on the other side many Pious Persons true Sons of the Church of England have represented their just Desires of the continuance of it upon great and weighty Causes both in Divinity and true Policy We also lest We might seem unconcerned and for fear lest our Silence should be exacted as a Crime at our Hands if We be deficient to what We are persuaded is the Cause of God In pursuance of their pious Intendments and in allowance of their Reasons do also press to your great Tribunal to beg of you to do that which is the Honor of Kings to be Nutricii of the Church and her most Ancient and Successive Government We therefore humbly beg of you to leave us in that state the Apostles left the Church in That the Three Ages of Martyrs were governed by That the 13 Ages since them have always gloried in by their Succession of Bishops from the Apostles proving themselves members of the Catholique and Apostolick Church That our Laws have Established so many Kings and Parliaments have protected into which we were baptized as certainly Apostolical as the Observation of the Lords Day as the distinction of Books Apocryphal from Canonical as that such Books were written by such Evangelists and Apostles as the Consecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters as any thing which you will do by upholding the Government of the Church by Bishops which we again and again beg of you to do having Pity on our Consciences and not forcing us to seek Communion as yet we know not where So shall we be bound to pray with a Multiplyed Devotion for the increase of Publique and Personal Blessings to your Honorable Assembly to your Noble Persons We also do with all humility beg leave to represent these our Considerations subjoyned which we hope you will favourably Expound to be a well-meant Zeal and at least a Conscience of Duty and Charity to those our Fathers from whom we have received and daily hope to receive many issues of Spiritual Benedictions 1. We Consider That Christ either left his Church without a lasting Government or else Bishops and Presbyters under them are that Government the former we fear to say lest we might seem to accuse the Wisdom of the Father of Improvidence in the not providing
for his Family the Feeder and the Ruler in Scripture being all one in Office in Expression in Person So that if he left no Rulers he left no Feeders the later We are more confident of for that Christ did clearly institute a Disparity in the Clergy which is the main Stone of Offence appears in the Apostles and 72 Disciples to whom according to the Voice of Christendome and traditive Interpretation of the Church Bishops and Presbyters do respectively Succeed and also many Actually did succeed the Apostles in their Chairs being ordained Bishops by the Apostles themselves that did Survive And also beyond all Exception that Christ did institute a Government appears in those Evangelical Words Who then is that faithful and wise Steward whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold c. Luke 12.42 which Rulers are Bishops and Priests under them or else the Church hath been Apostate from her Lord She having clearly for 1500 Years had no other Rulers then such 2. We consider that Whether there can be a Church or no without Bishops is at least a Question of great Consideration and the Negative is maintained by Apostolical and Primitive Men and Martyrs and by the greatest part of Christendom and those few in respect of the whole that Dissent being most certainly not Infallible to be sure with Episcopacy it may be a Church Eatenùs therefore it is the surest Course to retain it for fear we separate from the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth 3. No Ordination was ever without a Bishop and if any Presbyter did impose Hands unless in Conjunction with a Bishop he was accounted an Vsurper and Anathematized by publick and unquestioned Authority and so without Bishops no Presbyters then no Absolution no Consecration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and for these Wants no Man can make a Recompence or Satisfaction 4. No Presbyter did ever impose Hands on a Bishop Viz. de jure nec idem de facto till 555 Years after Christ and then but once in the Case of Pope Pelagius and that irregularly and neversince unless by Papal Usurpation which if so famous a Resolve or publick Voice of all Christendom may have an Estimate shews their disparity and that a Bishop hath a Character which cannot be imprinted without at least an equal Hand 5. Without Bishops no Confirmation of Children and yet Confirmation called in Scripture imposition of Hands Saint Paul in his famous Catechism accounts a Fundamental Point and the Church hath always used it and it was appropriate to Bishops by the laudable Custom of Christendom and by the Example of the Apostles in the Case of the Samaritane Christians whom Philip the Evangelist had Converted and is charged upon the Parents of Children that they bring their Children to Bishops to be Confirmed And it was never otherwise but just as in the Case of Ordination videlicet by singularity and Vsurpation till of late that the Jesuits to inlarge their Phylacteries have striven to make Bishops not necessary by communicating Confirmation to Priests of their Order 6. To take away Bishops is against the Wisdom of the State of England ever since the Reformation and having been attempted by Clancular Practises was checked by the Princes respectively and their Council and constantly by the Wisdom of preceding Parliaments and this although the Bishops then were less learned and as much infamed 7. We are sure that Episcopal Government hath consisted with Monarchy ever since the English Monarchy was Christian and we are now to try whether any innovated Government can or will 8. We consider That if it could consist with Monarchy when it was byassed by the Popes prevalent Incroachment much more since the Reformation when the King hath the Reins in his own Hand and can give them Laws and ascertains them by their immediate Dependance both for their Baronies and Election and personal Jurisdiction on the Crown and by the Statute of Submission 9. We consider That St. Hierome pretended as the main Authentick Enemy against Episcopacy yet sayes in Comment in Epist ad Titum That Bishops were constituted as an Antidote and Deletory to disimprove the Issues of Schisme and that by the Apostles who best knew the Remedy And now that Schismes multiply there is more need of Bishops so that they cannot be taken away upon pretence their Regiment is not necessary for the taking them away must multiply Schisms 10. All Learning will be discountenanced if not extinguished upon the Demolition of Episcopacy the Bishops being Parties for the Advancement of Learning and on the other side if the Government should be in the Hands of Presbytery or Lay-Elders We know no Reason sufficient to stifle our Fears lest preferment be given to people unlearned and unfit to have the managing of Souls especially since a learned Clergy will be suspected by their Lay Elders as too knowing to be ruled by their Dictates which will not have so much Artifice and fineness as to command by Strength of Reason our Fears are also increased by considering that by the multiplication of Lay Elders or other Governors their personal Interest being increased partiality must be more frequent and all this is besides their incompetency of Judging the Abilities of Scholars 11. The removal of Bishops would be a Scandal not only to many weak Christians who fear all Innovations as guilty of some ill Intendments upon their Consciences but also to the strongest which shews it to be the fault of the Giver not the Weakness of the Receiver and if we must not Scandalize our weak Brethren much less our Strong since this will intrench upon us in a high measure they not being apt to be Scandalized upon Vmbrages and Impertinences 12 Where Bishops are not there is not an Honorable but fellow-like Clergy against the Apostolical Rule of double Honor. 13. By putting down Episcopacy We deprive our selves of those solemn Benedictions which the Faith of Christendom and the Profession of the Church of England enjoyning the Bishops rather to pronounce the Blessing at the end of the Communion appropriates to Episcopal Preheminence above Priestly Authority 14. Two Parts of Three of the Reformed Churches are governed by Bishops or Superintendents which is properly the Latin Word for Bishops and the other Part that wants them have often wished them as their own Doctors do profess 15. It is against the Liberties of the Clergy indulged to them by the Magna Charta Granted and Confirmed by so many Kings and about 30 Parliaments in express Act and the Violation of any Part of it by intrenchment upon the Right of the Lay Subject justly accounted a great Grievance the Charter it self being as Fundamental a Law as we conceive as any other and any of us may fear lest his Liberties may be next in Question 16. The four great General Councils in Estimation next the four Evangelists and by the Statutes of this Kingdom made the Rules of Judging Heresies were
sorry for having administred unto their Lordships any Occasion of so high an Offence by letting fall Words touching the Bible of the Church of England and protesteth that his Design was not to affront their Lordships or the professed Religion of this Kingdom and he did assure their Lordships That as all Catholick Subjects have ever done so he did neither refuse to swear upon the English Bible nor held himself disobliged to Answer truely whatsoever was Demanded He therefore humbly beseecheth their Lordships to Pardon his great Offonce upon this his humble Submission and Acknowledgment and to grant his Inlargement assuring their Lordships he is most willing and ready not only to depose the Truth as by his Oath he is bound in whatsoever shall be Interrogated in this particular Cause but also shall ever Pray c. Upon which their Lordships sent a Message to the Commons giving them an account of this Petition and to let them know that having given this Satisfaction they were inclined to Pardon him but will not release him out of his Imprisonment before they had acquainted them therewith according to their Lordships former Ingagement Sir Henry Vane brought up a List of the Names of such Papists as the House of Commons desired should be secured as also an Order for the Lord Admiral to set forth 4 Ships for the Service of Ireland in which they desired the Lords to joyn with them Then were read two Letters from the Lords Justices in Ireland Letters from Ireland dated Nov. 13th 1641. the one to the Lord Keeper the other to the Lord Lieutenant the Purport of which was That some Ships may be appointed to Guard the Coasts of Ireland That the Rebels have taken divers Houses and Castles That they have spoiled the County of Cavan and have made a Remonstrance of the Ground of their Revolt They desire that 10000 Foot and 1000 Horse with Arms and Munition and 100000 l. be presently sent them with a Supply of Victuals and Oats for Horses And lastly they presented an Examination of one William Shales taken the 10th of November upon Oath ministred by the Clerk of the Council of Ireland by Direction of the Board which Examination was read in the House as followeth WIlliam Shales Shales's Accusation of Sir Henry Beddingfield of Oxborough Hall in Norfolk Sergeant of the Foot Company under the Command of Sir Arthur Loftus Knight saith That about the latter End of April last he being then in Norfolk at Oxborough Hall in the House of Sir Henry Beddingfield the said Sir Henry hearing that this Examinant was lately come out of Ireland sent for him in to his Garden whither when he came he found the said Sir Henry walking with one Poole whom this Examinant supposeth was a Priest and saith That as soon as he came into the said Garden the said Sir Henry asked him whether he knew how the state of Ireland then stood To which the Examinant said That he thought that all things were quiet and at Peace there Why quoth Sir Henry doth the Army there do nothing To which the Examinant Replied That they carried themselves quietly and that any man might walk in Ireland with a Thousand pounds and a Wand only in his hand He saith also That the said Sir Henry told him That he was about to take a House in Kilkenny of one of the Butlers for that there was no safety in England for any of his Religion and asked of the Examinant Whether there were any good Hawking thereabouts To which the Examinant said That there was Then the said Sir Henry said That now his Mind was altered and that he meant to stay in England and added That he did believe that before Christmass Day next there should be seen such Combustions in England and Ireland as the like were never seen before and thereupon Cursed the Scots as Authors of these Troubles Jurat Coram nobis Ja. Ware Rob. Meredith William Shales Whereupon it was Ordered That Sir Henry Beddingfield should be sent for in safe Custody by the Gentleman Vsher of the House and none permitted to speak with him but in the presence of the Messengers and that his Study should be sealed up by the two next Justices of the Peace till the further Pleasure of the House be known Sir Thomas Barington brought up a Message from the Commons to desire that Phillips the Priest may not be released of his Imprisonment until they be first made acquainted with it To which the Lords assented and appointed the Earl of Dorset the Queens Chamberlain to give her Majesty an account of these proceedings The List of the Prime Papists who were desired to be secured by the House of Commons Next the List of Recusants Names were read which the House of Commons desire may be secured which were as follows In the County of Lancaster Mr. Preston of the Mannor Mr. Clifton of Litham Mr. Chorley Sir William Gerrard Mr. James Anderton of Clayton Sen. Mr. Blundel of Crosby Mr. Robert Cranfield of Robbs Hall Sir John Talbott Sir Cecil Trafford Mr. Hugh Anderton of Eurton Sir Alexander Barlow In the County of Stafford Sir Richard Fleetwood Baronet Mr. Jo. Wells of Horecross Mr. Dreycott of Painsley Mr. Peter Gifford of Chillington Mr. Tho. Leveson of Ashburn Mr. Francis Harcott In the County of Southampton Lord Stourton Mr. Gage of Bawbridge Mr. John Bishop of Pilewell Lord Baltimore Mr. William Owen of Abberston John Arundell Esquire In the County of Sussex Lord Viscount Mountague In the County of Warwick Robert Throgmorton Esquire Mr. Morgan of Weston Mr. William Sheldon of Weston Sir Charles Smith In the County of Montgomery Sir Piercy Herbert Knight In the County of Worcester The Earl of Shrewsbury Francis Hanford Esquire Mr. Walter Blunt Edward Sheldon Esquire Mr. William Abbington Jun. In the County of Chester Mr. Poole of Poole Mr. Starkey of Darley Mr. Stanley In the County of Monmouth The Earl of Worcester Sir Charles Sommersett Mr. Morgan of Llantern In the County of Pembroke Sir Nicholas Lewis In the County of Suffolk Sir Robert Rookwood In the County of Salop. Thomas Vnton Esquire In the County of Northumberland Roger Widdrington Esquire In the County of Northampton The Lord Brudnell Mr. Poulton Mr. Sanders In the County of Dorsett John Webb of Cansford In the County of Lincoln Sir John Thimbleby Knight Ralph Evers of Washingborough Mr. Townley of Norton Edmond Thorold of Hough Esq Anthony Mounson The Lord Harris Lord Arundel of Wardour Sir Kenelm Digby Sir John Symonds Sir John Winter Sir William Mounteth Lord Herbert Sir Robert Lyme Sir Basil Brook Sir Alexander Gordon Sir William Mounson Sir Henry Gifford After which it was Ordered That the Consideration of this List should be debated upon Munday following In the House of Commons they were still upon the great work of the Declaration of the State of the Kingdom which was not so smoothly carried but that it met with great Opposition even
from many who before they saw that this pretended Reformation must inevitably End in Anarchy and Confusion in the Church appeared Vigorously for it And here I cannot omit a very Remarkable Passage and Speech of Sir Edward Deering's Collection of his own Speeches which take in his own Words UPon occasion of the Remonstrance 19th Novemb. wherein divers passages then were concerning Religion and the Church Government and some in particular as I conceived very aspersive to our Religion in the solemn Practice of it by our publick Liturgie * This Charge upon this occasion was afterwards Expunged the Declaration charging it in Hypothesi with vain Repetitions and with savour of Superstitions I did humbly move That some of that Committee who framed up that Remonstrance for us would please to assign what those vain Repetitions are in our Liturgy and what passages of Superstition Nothing at all was said as I remember to that point of Superstition But at length a Gentleman did adventure to name that which he seemed to think to be vain Repetition He said That the Lords Prayer is 8 or 9 or 10 times repeated I did with the Leave of the House reply That such Repetition toties quoties how oft soever was if heart and words did go together far from vain That in my Book the Lords Prayer was but twice in the whole Morning Service unless the additionals of Baptisme Churching Communion Burial c. did occur That then in every several Act of Divine Service it was once and but once repeated as the high compleature of all our devout Expressions That this Repetition in it self was warrantable as by our Saviours Example who although he had not the Spirit by measure yet in the Garden he prayed three times using the same Words The further debate of this was put off till the next day and then it did grow toward a Question Whether all Exceptions against the Liturgie should be totally laid by or further debated I did not hold our selves the proper Judges of this point I did think that from hence occasion might again be taken inductive to renew my Motion for a free National Synod which I desired to enforce the best I could Especially there being now obtained a general promise of a Synod in this very part of that Declaration or Remonstrance Hereupon I thus adventured Mr. Speaker Sir Edward Deering's Speech about the Declaration of the State of the Kingdom Nov. 20. 1641. THe Question is whether these Clauses concerning some pretended Erroneous Passages in our Liturgy shall be laid by or not I am of Opinion to decline them here but not to bury them in a perpetual silence In this very Period you give us in general terms a promise of a National Synod I do still wish the presence thereof it being to my understanding the only proper Cure and Remedy for all our Church distractions and may be proved if proof be needful to have been practised in the Book of God This promised Synod is too far off let me have a better assurance then a promise which that I may obtain I will be bold to give you some reasons to introduce that Assembly is to speed it also Mr. Speaker much hath been said and something attempted to be done to regulate the Exterior Part of our Religion but Sir we bleed inwardly Much endeavour hath been to amend the deformed Forms we were in and to new Govern the Government Yet Sir this is but the leaves of good Religion fit I confess notwithstanding to be taken care of for Beauty and for Ornament Nay some leaves are fit and necessary to be preserved for shaddow and for shelter to the Blossoms and the Fruit. The Fruit of all is good life which you must never expect to see unless the Blossoms be pure and good that is unless your Doctrines be sound and true Sir Sir I speak it with full grief of heart whil'st we are thus long Pruning and Composing of the Leaves or rather whil'st some would pluck all Leaves away our Blossoms are blasted and whilst we sit here in Cure of Government and Ceremonials we are poysoned in our Doctrinals And at whose door will the Guilt and Sin of all this lye Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet It is true that this mischief grows not by our consent and yet I know not by what unhappy fate there is at present such an all-daring Liberty such a lewd licentiousness for all Mens venting their several Sences senceless Sences in matter of Religion as never was in any age in any Nation until this Parliament was met together Sir it belongs to us to take heed that our countenance the countenance of this Honourable House be not prostituted to sinister ends by bold Offenders If it be in our power to give a remedy a timely and a seasonable remedy to these great and growing Evils and that we being also put in mind shall neglect to do it we then do pluck their sins upon our own heads Alienum qui fert scelus facit suum Shall I be bold to give you a very few instances one for a hundred wherewith our Pulpits do groan Mr. Speaker There is a certain new-born unseen ignorant dangerous desperate way of Independency Are we Sir for this Independant way Nay Sir are we for the elder Brother of it the Presbyterial Form I have not yet heard any one Gentleman within these walls stand up and assert his thoughts here for either of these ways and yet Sir we are made the Patrons and Protectors of these so different so repugnant Innovations witness the several dedications to us Nay both these ways together with the Episcopal come all rushing in upon us every one pretending to a Fore-head of Divinity 1. Episcopacy says its by divine right and certainly Sir it comes much nearer to its claim then any other 2. Presbytery That says it 's by divine right 3. Nay this Illegitimate thing this New-born Independency that dares to say it 's by divine right also Thus the Church of England not long since the Glory of the Reformed Religion is miserably torn and distracted You can hardly now say which is the Church of England Whither shall we turn for Cure Another instance If I would deal with a Papist to reduce him He answers I have been answered so already To what Religion would you perswade me What is the Religion you profess Your 39 Articles they are contested against your publick solemn Lyturgy that is detested * * Protestation protested denies the Church of England to have the 3 Marks of a true Church And which is more then both these the 3. Essential proper and only Marks of a true Church they are protested against what Religion would you perswade me too where may I find and know and see and read the Religion you profess I beseech you Sir help me an answer to the Papist Nay Sir the Papist herein hath assistance even among our selves
Fifth and 6 Sixth 5 W. C. 6 Mr. S.S. That I go the way to spoyl all their work so I hope I do 7. A Seventh 7 Dr. B. from others That it is said I am fallen from Grace so some men seem desperately to look into the Ark of God 8. An Eighth 8 Dr. W. That I have contraried all that I said before let the Doctor shew me that now 9. A Ninth is told 9 R. L. B. That I am Apostated I doubt his Religion in quantum it differs from that of the Church of England is an Apostacy 10. A Tenth 10 Mr. F. That I am gone over to their Adversaries 11. An Eleventh and Twelfth 11 S. A. H. 12 T. W. That the Primate of Ireland and Dr. Brownrig have infected me I dare drink their poyson 13. That the two Learned and Painful Equals without match 13 G. H. Mr. Reading and Mr. Abbot abusing my trust in them and good opinion of them do mislead me a slander upon three at once 14. That Dr. Burges and I have conferred Notes 14 S. E. P. I wish we had 15. That I am for Bishops 15 Mr. K. for Crosses and for Images true and false 16. That if I had held where I was there had not been a Bishop in the Land before August last a false Wizard I did hold where I was and yet the Bishops are where they were 16 I. K. 17. That I have lost the prayers of many Thousands 17 Civis Ignotus 18. That I have lost the honour I had and that my Conscience is not so good as it was in the beginning of this Parliament 18 T. C. Good Mr. C. you who would have Bishops out of their Chairs come you out of the chair of the scornful You are one of them who jog our elbowes and boar our Parliament Ears with Babylon Antichrist and the Mystery of Iniquity which I dare say is grosly misunderstood by your self and many others of your Rooting Tribe Before this Parliament was convened you would have joyed upon that day when the sting of ill executed Episcopie the high Commission had been taken away and the pest of the Chair soleship of power retrenched One is done and both had been effected if you and such as you had not over-heated a Furnace that was burning hot before and with pressing for Ruine have betrayed the time of a blessed Reforming Take it unto you for upon you and the blind ignorant wilfulness of such as you I do here charge the sad account of the loss of such a glorious Reformation as being the revived image of the best and purest Ages would with its Beauty and Piety have drawn the Eye and Heart of all Christendom unto us The Horse-leaches daughters do cry Give give And you that might have had enough do still cry More more The greedy Vulture of an insatiate appetite is incurable To reform Episcopacy it is in your esteem too faint Prov 30.15 Mr. F. too cold a work it is labour ill bestowed and unthankfully accepted nay one of you said in my hearing It is a sin to labour in the dressing and proining of that Plant which say you is not of God and must be digged up And with Episcopacy away with the burden of our Liturgy a a S. M. If you take not off this burden also it will be girded upon us closer and stronger then ever Away with the thought of a National Church also b b Protestation protested p. 20. It hath no pattern in the Scripture c c Mich. Quintin p. 4. It is impossible for a National Church to be the true Church of Christ Let us have no Church but Congregations d d Eaton 's Sermon vouched by Sir Th. Aston p. 4. and let them be without all superintendency As much to say as let every Family be a Church and have Religion as they please Away with all e e Assertion of Scotrish Government p. 3. 5. distinction of Clergy and Laity it is Popish and Antichristian Let us then banish from us such Popish Names and send them home to Rome f f Quintin p. 9. The Church is a Body of parity whose members are all Kings and Priests g g Spincers Pamphlet And every man must exercise his Gifts in common So also the Learned but herein absurd and gross h h Thought to be Salmasius against Petavius p. 397 398. Walo Messalinus Omnes olim Presbyteri erant Laici And again Waldenses Lutherus crediderunt justos ac fideles Laicos posse omnes quae in Ecclesiâ Dei agi necesse est agere omnibus muneribus Ecclesiasticis defungi These things thus pressed and pursued I do not see but on that rise of the Kingship and Priestship of every particular man the wicked sweetness of a popular parity may hereafter labour to bring the King down to be but as the first among the Lords and then if as a Gentleman of the House professed his desire to me we can but bring the Lords down into our House among us again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All 's done No rather all 's undone by breaking asunder that well-ordered Chain of Government which from the Chair of Jupiter reacheth down by several golden even Links to the protection of the poorest creature that now lives among us What will the issue be when hopes grow still on hopes and one aim still riseth upon another as one wave follows another I cannot divine In the mean time you of that party have made the work of Reformation far more difficult than it was at the day of our meeting and the vulgar mind now fond with imaginary hopes is more greedy of new Atchievements then thankful for what they have received Satisfaction will not now be satisfactory They and you are just in a a De Benef. l. 2. c. 27. Seneca's description Non patitur aviditas quenquam esse gratum Nunquam enim improbae spei quod datur satis est Eo majora cupimus quo majora venerunt Aequè ambitio non patitur quenquam in eâ mensurâ conquiescere quae quondam fuit ejus impudens votum Vltra se cupiditas porrigit foelicitatem suam non intelligit Learn moderation Mr. C. unless as b. J. H. H. M. some of you Rooters do seem to hold you do think moderation it self a Vice The Stoick was in that point more Pious then such Christians Epictetus his Motto was and your Lesson is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bill for securing Papists Tuesday Novemb 23. being presented by the King's Council was read a first and second time this Day and committed to a Committee who with some few amendment of Names and little Alterations presented it again to the House it was read thrice and being approved was Ordered To be Ingrossed and receiving the last reading it was upon the Question Resolved to pass as a
conjunction can we expect there where the Bishops and Recusant Lords are so numerous and prevalent that they are able to Cross and Interrupt our best endeavours for Reformation and by that means give advantage to this malignant party to traduce our Proceedings They infuse into the People that we mean to abolish all Church-Government and leave every Man to his own Fancy for the Service and Worship of God absolving him of that obedience which he ows under God unto his Majesty whom we know to be intrusted with the Ecclesiastical Law as well as with the Temporal to regulate all the Members of the Church of England by such Rules of Order and Discipline as are established by Parliament which is his great Council in all Affairs both in Church and State We confess our Intention is and our Endeavors have been to reduce within Bounds that exorbitant Power which the Prelates have assumed unto themselves so contrary both to the Word of God and to the Laws of the Land to which end we past the Bill for the removing them from their Temporal Power and Imployments that so the better they might with Meekness apply themselves to the discharge of their Functions which Bill themselves opposed and were the principal Instruments of crossing it And we do here declare that it is far from our purpose or desire to let loose the golden Reins of Discipline and Government in the Church to leave private Persons or particular Congregations to take up what form of divine Service they please for we hold it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realm a Conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyn according to the Word of God and we desire to unburthen the Consciences of Men of needless and superstitious Ceremonies suppress Innovations and take away the Monuments of Idolatry And the better to effect the intended Reformation we desire there may be a general Synod of the most Grave Pious Learned and Judicious Divines of this Island assisted with some from foreign Parts Professing the same Religion with us who may consider of all things necessary for the Peace and good Government of the Church and represent the results of their Consultations unto the Parliament to be there allowed of and confirmed and receive the Stamp of Authority thereby to find Passage and Obedience throughout the Kingdom They have maliciously charged us that we intend to destroy and discourage Learning whereas it is our chiefest Care and Desire to advance it and to provide a competent Maintenance for conscionable and preaching Ministers throughout the Kingdom which will be a great Encouragement to Scholars and a certain means whereby the want meanness and ignorance to which a great part of the Clergy is now subject will be prevented And we intend likewise to reform and purge the Fountains of Learning the two Universities that the Streams flowing from thence may be clear and pure and an Honor and Comfort to the whole Land They have strained to blast our proceedings in Parliament by wresting the Interpretations of our Orders from their genuine Intention They tell the People that our medling with the power of Episcopacy hath caused Sectaries and Conventicles when Idolatry and Popish Ceremonies introduced into the Church by the command of the Bishops have not only debarred the people from thence but expelled them from the Kingdom Thus with Eliah we are called by this Malignant party the Troublers of the State and still while we endeavor to reform their Abuses they make us the Authors of those Mischiefs we study to prevent for the perfecting of the work begun and removing all future Impediments we conceive these Courses will be very effectual seeing the Religion of the Papists hath such Principles as do certainly tend to the Destruction and Extirpation of all Protestants when they shall have opportunity to effect it It is necessary in the first Place to keep them in such Condition as that they may not be able to do us any hurt and for avoiding of such connivence and favor as hath heretofore bin shewed unto them That his Majesty be pleased to grant a standing Commission to some choice Men named in Parliament who may take notice of their increase their Counsels and Proceedings and use all due means by execution of the Laws to prevent any mischievous designs against the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom That some good Course be taken to discover the counterfeit and false Conformity of Papists to the Church by color whereof Persons very much disaffected to the true Religion have been admitted into Place of greatest Authority and Trust in the Kingdom For the better preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that all illegal Grievances and Exactions be presented and punished at the Sessions and Assizes and that Judges and Justices be careful to give this in charge to the Grand-Jury and both the Sheriff and Justices to be sworn to the due execution of the Petition of Right and other Laws That his Majesty be humbly petitioned by both Houses to imploy such Counsellors Ambassadors and other Ministers in managing his Business at Home and Abroad as the Parliament may have Cause to confide in without which we cannot give his Majesty such Supplyes for support of his own Estate nor such Assistance to the Protestant party beyond the Sea as is desired It may often fall out that the Commons may have just Cause to take Exceptions at some Men for being Counsellors and yet not charge those Men with Crimes for there be grounds of Diffidence which lye not in Proof there are others which though they may be proved yet are not legally Criminal to be a known favorer of Papists or to have been very forward in defending or countenancing some great Offenders questioned in Parliament or to speak contemptuously of either Houses of Parliament or Parliamentary Proceedings or such as are Factors or Agents for any Foreign Prince of another Religion such as are justly suspected to get Counsellors Places or any other of Trust concerning publick Imployment for Money For all these and diverse others we may have great reason to be earnest with his Majesty not to put his great Affairs into such Hands though we may be unwilling to proceed against them in any Legal way of Charge or Impeachment that all Counsellors of State may be sworn to observe the Laws which concern the Subject in his Liberty that they may likewise take an Oath not to receive or give Reward or Pension from any Foreign Prince but such as they within some reasonable Time discover to the Lords of his Majesties Council And although they should wickedly forswear themselves yet it may herein do good to make them known to be False and Perjured to those who imploy them and thereby bring them into as little Credit with them as with us that his Majesty may have cause to be in love with good Council and good Men by shewing him in an humble and dutiful
enter into the hearts of this Wise and Honorable Assembly We will not presume to dispute the Right of Episcopacy whether it be Divine or not it sufficeth us to know That the Church Government by Bishops is ancient even near to the Apostles Days and that it hath pleased God from time to time to make them most Glorious Instruments for the Propagation and Preservation of Christian Religion which with their Blood they have frequently sealed to Posterity And how much this Kingdom in particular is indebted to them for their Piety their Wisdoms and Sufferings we trust shall never be forgotten Our Hearts desire therefore is That the Precious may be separated from the Vile that the Bad may be rejected and the Good retained Furthermore having heard that our Common Prayer hath been interrupted and despised of some mis-understanding or mis-led People to the Great Scandal of the Religion professed in our Church We humbly beseech you to take into your Care the Redress thereof as of an Impiety not to be endured as also to take Order for the severe punishment of those Men if they may be discovered who frequently publish Pamphlets under a Veil of Religion yet conducing to Confusion and Rebellion All which we humbly offer to your Wisdoms as the thoughts and desires of this County and as we are persuaded of multitudes of sound Members of the Church of England and his Sacred Majesties most Loyal Subjects Beseeching God to direct and prosper your Counsels and ye to pardon our Errors we rest At your Commands Knights Esquires Divines Gentlemen Free-holders Inhabitants of the County of Somerset none of them Papists but all Protestants of the Church of England and his Majesties Loyal Subjects 14350. Whereof Knights Esquires and Gentlemen 200 Divines 221 Jo. BrowneCler Parliament After which the Huntingtonshire Petition to the same Effect which had been tendred to the House upon Wednesday the 8th of December but then laid aside was also read This being done the High Constable The High Constable and Sheriff questioned concerning the Guards who was sent for to attend the House was brought in and asked by what Authority he gave Order for the Watchmen to Guard this House Who answered That he received Order from the Justices of the Peace Then the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex was called in and demanded by what Warrant the Watch-men are here he said he had received a Warrant from the Justices of Peace of Middlesex which they sent forth by virtue of the Kings Writ directed to them for preventing of Riots Routs and unlawful Assemblies according to the Statute of 2 H. 5. Whereupon the House appointed the Lord Chamberlain Lord Wharton Lord Brook and Lord Roberts to go into Westminster-Hall and other places near this House to see what Company there is whether any unlawful Assemblies or Routs there and these Lords Reported That there was no Face of any Routs or Assemblies nor any greater Number of People then Vsually Whereupon the House discharged the Guards in the King's Name And in regard it appeared that it was the precipitation of the Justices that Caused these Men to come by virtue of their Warrants It was Ordered That those Justices of the Peace for Middlesex and Westminster that subscribed the Warrant be sent for to attend the House to morrow to give a Reason why they sent forth those Warrants and what induced them to believe That there would be a Tumult this day in Westminster This day Inigo Jones Esq appeared before the Lords according to an Order of their Lordships to hear the Declaration read which was brought up against him from the House of Commons which was read in his presence in haec verba The Declaration of the Commons upon the Complaint and in thebehalf of the Parishioners of St. Gregories London against Inigo Jones Esquire THE Parish Church of St. Gregories The Declaration of the Commons against Inigo Jones concerning St. Gregories Church by St. Pauls adjoyning to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's in London aforesaid is and from the time whereof the Memory of Man is not to the contrary hath been the Parish Church for the Inhabitants of that Parish lately computed to be 3000 persons for the administration of Divine Service and Sacraments The said Inigo Jones being Surveyor of His Majesties Works and particularly those to be designed for the re-edifying of the said Church of St. Pauls would not undertake the Work unless he might be as he termed it the Sole Monarch or might have the Principality thereof conceiving that the Work would not well be done without pulling down the said Church of St. Gregories presented a Plott to his Majesty accordingly The said Inigo Jones having presented the said Plott his Majesty hereupon signified his Pleasure and in pursuance thereof several Orders also were made at the Council-Board That the said Church should be taken down by the Parishioners for the more convenient Repairing of the Cathedral Church of St. Pauls which the Parishioners refusing to obey as was lawful for them to do the said Inigo Jones in Execution of the Plot and Design by him presented as aforesaid and of his Majesties signification and the Orders at the Council-Board thereupon had in or about March 1639 did pull down and caused to be pulled down part of the said Church and did also threaten That if the Parishioners would not take down the rest of it then the Galleries should be sawed down and with Skrews the Materials of the said Church should be thrown down into the Street And the said Inigo Jones did further threaten the Parishioners That if they did not take down the said Church they should be laid by the Heels Whereby the Parishioners being thus affrighted and to save the Materials which not long before had cost them 1500 l. were inforced to take down some part of the said Church insomuch as it thereby was made altogether useless and the said Parishoners to that great number have been wholly destitute of any Place within their own Parish for the Publick exercising of Religion The Damages the Parishioners have hereby sustained is very great and the Charge of Re-edifying the said Church and restoring it to as good plight as it was in before it was so wrongfully taken down will amount at the least to 3000 l. all which the said Parishioners are ready to prove and Maintain For Remedy therefore and Redress herein and chiefly to the end that the said Church of St. Gregories may be fully repaired and restored to the Plight and Condition wherein it formerly was by and at the Charge of him and them by whose undue Means it was in part taken down or caused to be taken down as aforesaid It is desired That such Proceedings may be used and had against the Offenders herein as to Right and Justice doth appertain This being read the said Inigo Jones desired That he might have some time to answer by his Councel Whereupon It was Ordered That he
have a Copy of the Declaration against him and shall put in his Answer thereunto on Tuesday come seven Night The Commons were also in an extraordinary heat about the Halberdeers who were set to prevent Tumults and Riots Routs and unlawful Assemblies which now frequently resorted to Westminster to cry out against the Bishops and their Votes in Parliament some of the Halberdeers were called to the Bar and Examined and they giving the same Account as was before given to the Lords the Bailiff of Westminster the Constable of St. Clement Danes and the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex were ordered to be sent for to give an Account of the Reason of placing those Guards about the Parliament House And thereupon it was Voted Resolved c. That the setting of any Guards about this House Vote of the Commons concerning the Guard of Halberdeers set about the Parliament House without the Consent of the House is a breach of the Privilege of this House and that therefore such Guards ought to be dismissed And thereupon the Serjeant at Armes attending the House was appointed to Command them to depart which was done accordingly The House then sell into Debate concerning the treating with the Scottish Commissioners concerning raising Men for the relief of Ireland and upon the Question it was Resolved c. That this House doth Approve and Consent that his Majesties Commissioners named by the House and appointed to treat with the Scotch Commissioners shall treat with them for the raising of 10000 Scots for the Occasions of Ireland Sir Walter Earl then gave Information to the House of some dangerous Words spoken by several Persons but did not Name them whereupon it was Ordered That Mr. Speaker should issue out a Warrant to apprehend such Persons as Sir Walter Earl shall nominate to him for speaking Words of a dangerous Consequence This was one of the common Arts which they used to restrain those who were able from informing the People of the dangerous Consequences of their own Proceedings and Liberty of Speech seemed now to be wholly confined within the Walls of St. Stephen's Chappel or if any of that common Privilege of Mankind was indulged it was only to the Favourites of the Faction the Sectaries and Schismaticks who they were assured would be very serviceable to them in imploying that Liberty to traduce and Calumniate the King the Bishops the Government of the Church and whatever was either Orthodox or Loyal but for others if they once dared to Intrench upon the Privilege of the Pretended Sects or to correct those Liberties they took to defame the King and his Ministers the Church and her Governors or to arraign any of the violent Proceedings of the Faction these Religious Spies and Setters immediately gave Informations against them to some of the Members of the Commons and these Men had a certain devise to punish Men who had transgressed no known Law for Crimes which would not bear an Indictment or the Test of a Jury of their Peers by bringing them under the Rod of the Commons House for Words of dangerous Consequence for which constructive Offences their Persons were imprisoned and their Purses fleeced by the Serjeant and his Officers as if they had been the most notorious Malefactors Such precious beginnings had this Dawning of the glorious Day which they promised the People should be nothing but one continued Sun-shine of Liberty and Property without the least Cloud of Arbitrary or Exorbitant Government But as a great Man said upon another Occasion in this present Parliament Misera est servitus ubi jus est vagum et incertum Where known Law ends there Slavery begins And where our Law knows not how to lay an Indictment it must certainly be something Arbitrary that inflicts a Punishment But this was the Case of Loyalty Men were not only made Offenders for a Word but for such Words as were justifiable by the Laws of God and Man His Majesty whose Zeal for the Church was as Eminent as his Piety and Devotion were singular and most extraordinary observing what an Inundation of Schisme and Errors were flowing in upon the Church the Pretence of Reformation letting loose all the Schismaticks who pretended to be the great Reformers issued out a most Excellent Proclamation to prevent that Disorder Division and Separation which he too Prophetically foresaw would indanger the Subversion of the very Essence and Substance of Religion The Proclamation was as follows A Proclamation for Obedience to the Laws Ordained for Establishing of the True Religion in this Kingdom of England HIs Majesty considering that it is a Duty most beseeming A Proclamation for Obedience to the Laws for Establishing the true Religion in England Dec. 11. 1641. and that most obligeth Soveraign Authority in a Christian King to be careful above all other Things of preserving and advancing the Honor and Service of Almighty God and the peace and tranquility of the Church to which end His Majesty with his Parliament hath it under Consideration how all just Scruples might be removed And being in the mean time sensible that the present Division Separation and Disorder about the Worship and Service of God as it is Established by the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom in the Church of England tendeth to great Distraction and Confusion and may endanger the Subversion of the very Essence and Substance of true Religion hath resolved for the preservation of Vnity and Peace which is most necessary at this time for the Church of England to require Obedience to the Laws and Statutes Ordained for establishing of the True Religion in this Kingdom whereby the Honor of God may be advanced to the great Comfort and Happiness both of His Majesty and his good Subjects His Majesty doth therefore Charge and Command That Divine Service be performed in this His Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as is appointed by the Laws and Statutes Estadlished in this Realm and that Obedience be given by all His Subjects Ecclesiastical and Temporal to the said Laws and Statutes concerning the same And that all Iudges Officers and Ministers Ecclesiastical and Temporal according to Iustice and their respective Duties do put the said Acts of Parliament in due Execution against all willfull Contemners and Disturbers of Divine Service contrary to the said Laws and Statutes His Majesty doth further Command That no Parsons Vicars or Curates in their several Parishes shall presume to introduce any Rite or Ceremonies other then those which are Established by the Laws and Statutes of the Land Given at His Majesties Palace of White-Hall the tenth Day of December in the Seventeenth Year of His Majesties Reign God save the KING But the Root of the Schism lay too deep to be Cured by a Proclamation and the Separatists knew where to take Sanctuary not only for their Disobedience to the Laws made in favor of the Church but of the Crown too or otherwise they would not in such riotous and Tumultuous Manner
for the present being not very welcome These People notwithstanding the rebuke which Sir Thomas Aston had met with for a Petition of this Nature yet in the midst of these wicked Times durst be honest and publickly avow themselves so which was far more The Petition as I find it in a Collection of Petitions printed afterwards by his Majesties Command at York to let the World see that a very considerable Part of the Nation was utterly against the pretended Reformation was as follows To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty and to the Right Honorable the Lords and the Honorable the House of Commons Assembled in Parliament The Humble Petition of divers of the Nobility Justices Gentry Ministers Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the County Palatine of Chester whose Names are contained in the Schedule Annexed YOur Petitioners with all Cheerfulness and Contentation The Cheshire Petition for the Common Prayer and suppression of Schismaticks c. affying in the happy settlement of the Distractions both of Church and State by his Majesties pious Care and the prudent and religious Indeavors of this Honorable Assembly and with due Humility and Obedience submitting to the unanimous Conclusions thereof yet conceive themselves bound in Duty Humbly to represent to your mature Considerations That the present Disorders of many Turbulent and Ill-disposed Spirits are such as give not only Occasion of present discontent to your Petitioners but seem to import some ill event without early prevention The pure Seed of our Faith the Doctrine of the Reformed Protestant Religion Established by so many Acts of Parliament and so harmoniously concurring with the Confessions of all other Reformed Churches being tainted with the Tares of divers Sects and Schismes lately sprung up amongst Vs Our Pious Laudable and Ancient Form of Divine Service composed by the Holy Martyrs and worthy Instruments of Reformation Established by the prudent Sages of State your religious Predecessors honored by the Approbation of many learned Foreign Divines subscribed by the Ministry of the whole Kingdom and with such general Content received by all the Laity that scarce any Family or Person that can read but are furnished with the Books of Common Prayer in the conscionable Vse whereof many Christian Hearts have found unspeakable Joy and Comfort wherein the famous Church of England our dear Mother hath just Cause to Glory and may She long flourish in the Practise of so blessed a Liturgy * * This the Reader will see presently in a Petition by Dr. Burgess c. of this Day Yet it is now not only depraved by many of those who should teach Conformity to Established Laws but in Contempt thereof in many Places wholly neglected All these dayly practised with Confidence without Punishment to the great dejection of many sound Protestants and occasioning so great insultation and rejoycing in some Separatists * * The true temper of the Separatists and Schismaticks from their first original to this Day as they not only seem to portend but menace some great Alteration and not containing themselves within the Bounds of Civil-Government do commit many tumultuous if not Sacrilegious Violences both by Day and Night upon divers Churches Therefore your Petitioners being all very apprehensive of the dangerous Consequences of Innovation and much scandalized at the present Disorders Do all unanimously Pray That there be admitted no Innovation of Doctrine or Liturgy that Holy Publick Service being so fast rooted by a long setled continuance in this Church that in Our Opinion and Judgments it cannot be altered unless by the Advice and Consent of some National Synod without an universal Discontent and that some speedy Course be taken to suppress such Schismaticks and Separatists whose factious Spirits do evidently indanger the Peace both of Church and State And Your Petitioners shall ever Pray c. Signed by Lords Knights Justices of the Peace and Esquires 94 By Gentlemen of Quality 440 By Divines 86 By Free-holders and others in all 8936 In all 9556 And in regard their Piety and Loyalty deserves a place in the Records of time and that in these Petitions the Reader will see the Temper and Genius of these Seditious and Turbulent Sectaries and Schismaticks the very Pests of Church and State the main Occasioners Managers Promoters Contrivers Encouragers Supporters and Conductors of this most Execrable Rebellion from its first Original till its last fatal Period most accurately pointed out in the just and too modest complaints of these Petitions for the Times and Persons would not bear truth unless apparelled in the most submissive Garb and Posture I will here subjoyn Sir Thomas Ashton's Petition which was presented to the Lords and for which he received a smart rebuke and narrowly escaped a Prison which I should have done in its proper place had this Collection of Petitions then come to my hands The Petition was as follows To the High and Honorable Court of Parliament The Nobility Knights Gentry Minsters Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County Palatine of Chester whose Names are Subscribed in several Schedules hereunto Annexed Humbly Shew THat whereas divers Petitions have lately been carried about this County against the present Form of Church Government The Cheshire Petition delivered to the House of Lords by Sir Thomas Ashton and the hands of many Persons of ordinary Quality sollicited to the same with pretence to be presented to this Honourable Assembly which we conceive not so much to aim at Reformation as absolute Innovation of Government and such as must give a great advantage to the Adversaries of our Religion We held it our Duty to disavow them all and humbly pray That we incur no mis-censure if any such Clamours have without our privity assumed the Name of the County We as others are sensible of the common Grievances of the Kingdom and have just cause to rejoyce at and acknowledge with thankfulness the pious Care which is already taken for the suppressing of the Growth of Popery the better to supply able Ministers and the removing of all Innovation and we doubt not but in your great Wisdoms you will regulate the Rigor of the Ecclesiastical Courts to suit with the Temper of our Laws and the Nature of Free-men Yet when we consider That Bishops were instituted in the time of the Apostles that they were the great Lights of the Church in all the first General Councils that so many of them sowed the Seeds of Religion in their Bloods and rescued Christianity from utter Extirpation in the Primitive Heathen Persecutions That to them we ow the Redemption of the purity of the Gospel we now profess from Romish Corruption that many of them for the propagation of the Truth became such Glorious Martyrs that divers of them lately and yet living with us have been so great Assertors of our Religion against the Common Enemy of Rome and that their Government hath been so long approved so oft Established by the Common and Statute Laws of
Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament The Humble Petition of sundry Ministers intrusted to Sollicite the Petition and Remonstrance formerly Exhibited to this Honourable House and many of their Brethren Most Humbly Sheweth THat the Petitioners do most thankfully value The Petition of the Remonstrating Ministers Dec. 20. 1641. and heartily acknowledge the indefatigable Pains and Piety of this Honorable Assembly manifested in very many things of high Concernment for the Glory of God the Honor of the King the Purging of the Church and the Safety and Prosperity of this and the rest of His Majesties Kingdoms but more especially in procuring that publick Fast at your first Sitting which hath prevented many Mischiefs and drawn down many Blessings upon the Kingdom ever since in your Zeal and Courage for the True Religion professed among us against all Popish Idolatry and Superstitious Innovations expressed by your Religious Protestation and Vow * * And discountenancing the publick Liturgy and the most indispensible Duty of Praying to make room for this Seditious Preaching In countenancing the Sacred Ordinance of Preaching after long and deep contempt cast upon it by too many who had almost Exiled it from divers Parts of this Kingdom In incouraging painful and godly Ministers formerly set aside and now again profitably imployed in many Congregations greatly needing them In discountenancing bold and unmeet Men that without sufficient calling have presumptuously intruded into that Holy Office as also of all Vnworthy and Scandalous Ministers that have been Convented before you In accepting a former Petition and Remonstrance from the Petitioners taking the same into your grave Consideration and vigorously prosecuting some part thereof In freeing divers godly Ministers out of Prison and Exile and many others from heavy Censures unjustly inflicted In preventing the utter Ruin of the Petitioners and of many more by breaking that wicked Yoak of the late pernicious Oath and Canons justly branded by both Houses of Parliament and by taking away the late dreadful Tyranny of the High-Commission Court and other illegal heavy pressures of the rest of the Courts Ecclesiastical In your worthy Orders for removing of all Illegal Rites and Ceremonies superstitious and scandalous Images and Pictures and other Innovations out of all Churches and Chappels In your prudent happy and timely re-uniting without spilling of Christian Blood the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a firm and Religious Peace unhappily disturbed to the apparent endangering of both in your honourable endeavours to relieve and rescue our distressed Brethren in Ireland from the barbarous Outrages and Butcheries of the Popish Rebels there In your constant Vigilancy to discover and defeat the many desperate and devilish Conspiracies against the King Parliament and the Kingdom plotted by Papists and their Malignant adherents implacable Enemies to our Religion and Peace together with all your excellent Labours for Reforming and settling the Affairs of the Common-wealth whereof the Petitioners do also with others Enjoy the comfort and the large and blessed Hopes given to the Petitioners of your further indeavours for perfecting the Reformation of Religion and the Church according to the necessity thereof in a Way best becoming the Honour of such a Grave and Religious Body All of which do much Encourage them to pour out their Souls in all possible thankfulness to God for you and to put up more fervent Prayers publiquely and privately upon all occasions in your behalf at the Throne of Grace But so it is That whereas your Petitioners did in their former Petitions represent unto you divers unsufferable Grievances arising from sundry Invasions made upon the publick Doctrine of this Church from some mixtures and blemishes in the publick Worship of God by Law Established as well as from sundry gross Innovations and Superstitions iâ— Rites and Ceremonies without Law introduced from many Exorbitancies and unsupportable Vsurpations in Ecclesiastical Government and from the scandalous defect of Ministers maintenance in too many places All of which do yet remain in greatest part unremoved by reason of your many necessitated diversions from this great work for the preservation of the very Being of this Kingdom and by means hereof many distractions and disorders about matters of Religion and the Church have to the great scandal and grief of the Petitioners happen'd and are still continued which puts them upon a necessity of renewing their former Suit for redress of the aforesaid Evils and for removing whatever shall appear to your Wisdom to be the Root and Cause of them And whereas further the Petitioners and very many others in whose name and behalf they now humbly supplicate desirous in all things to submit to the Laws so far as possibly they may yet meerly out of tenderness and scruple of Conscience dare not continue as formerly they did the Vse and Exercise of some things as now they-stand injoyned not only because they have more seriously weighed the Nature and Scandal of them and that sundry Bishops and other grave Divines called to their assistance by Order of the House of Peers have as they are informed discovered divers particulars needing alteration in the Liturgy and the Vse thereof and that there is not as they humbly conceive at this day commonly extant any Book of Common Prayer without so many Variations Alterations and Additions as render it in many Parts another thing from that which was by Law Established but chiefly because you also have vouchsafed to be so far sensible of the Defects thereof and of the just Scruples of the Petitioners thereabout as to take the Reformation thereof under Consideration which they hoped would be some shelter against the strict pressing the Vse of it till your pleasure upon the full Debate thereof had been declared in a Parliamentary Way for that it seems most equal that the Consciences of Men should not be forced upon that which a Parliament it self holds needful to consider the Reformation of and give Order in till the same be accordingly done And the Petitioners having been comfortably assured of some ease therein do now to their great sorrow apprehend that the same things are anew reinforced which contrary to the blessed Inclination and Intention of His Gracious Majesty may occasion much trouble and vexation to sundry worthy and peaceable Ministers which the Petitioners have more cause to fear because sundry of their Brethren have since the beginning of this Parliament been Indicted upon the Statute of 1 Eliz. 2. And others threatned for bare omissions of some things complained of to this High Court and still depending before you whiles in divers places your Religious Orders necessarily made and published for removing of things illegal are not observed and in other places where superstitious Rites and Practices had by virtue thereof been laid aside the same are again called back and re-practised without any Check or Animadversion And because the Premisses are of extraordinary Consequence and cannot receive a perfect Cure
from his Parliament but from that Insolent and unruly Multitude who had already brought into so much hazard the Persons and the Liberty of this till then most happy Parliament and not staying there did so lowdly threaten Ruine even to the sacred Person of the King Advertise his Majesty I did of the Danger advise him I could not I had neither the Ability nor the Authority In my Letter to the Queen at her first coming into Holland it was observed that in that Expression of welcoming her from a Country not worthy of her I shewed much Venome and Rancour to my own Nation I meant it not and must appeal to those who are best acquainted with the Civility of Language whether the Address might not be comely to any Lady of Quality who should upon any not pleasing Occasion leave one Country for a while to reside in another And I hope e're long to welcome her Majesty back from a Place not so unworthy of her unto this Nation most worthy of her without either disparagement to Holland or complement to those to whom the unworthy of that Letter was intended For the charge and boldness and presumption in some Expressions of those Letters though I might be glad to compound my Treason for Incivility since Suspition of that depends upon the right Understanding of Language and connexion of Words it will be no disrespect to any through whose Hands they have passed to believe that as they were otherwise intended by me so that they are capable of other Interpretation However if in truth misunderstanding or ill breeding hath produced the other I hope the Conclusion will only be that I am an ill Courtier or an ill Secretary both which I do humbly confess not that I am no good English Man no good Subject if in any of those Letters there were any Expressions of Discontent or Bitterness I shall say little more then that they passed an Examination they were not prepared for and fell into Hands that they were not directed to and I am confident many honest Gentlemen who have had the happiness to preserve their Papers from such an inquisition and shall consider the Case they might be in if all their secret conferences and private Letters were exposed and produced to the publick view will cast up these Letters of mine in the number of my Misfortunes without making any Addition to my Faults and certainly whoever shall observe the measure of my Sufferings with any kind of indifference will easily forgive such Eruptions of Passion as were only vented by me to a Brother though they came within the reach of any other Ear. To draw now to a Period of my unfortunate story which I cannot promise my self from the generality so much Charity as to vouchsafe the reading further then more curiosity shall lead them I returned into England not with so much joy to see my Country as hope to be admitted upon my humble Petition to his Majesty to a fair regular impartial vindication of my innocency and I protest to God I look upon the time I may naturally hope to live with no other comfort then as it may make me still capable of that happiness I have follies and infirmities enough about me to make me ask the pardon of every wise and good man but for Treason or for any voluntary Crime either against my Sovereign or my Country I say it with all humility I will not accept a pardon from the King and Parliament By the Grace of God it shall never be said that either the Parliament hath brought me or his Majesty exposed me to a Tryal my own uprightness shall constantly sollicite it and without recourse in this to either of their favours I will either stand a justified man to the World or fall an innocent But in the mean time till it please God to bless this Nation with such a composure of the present distractions as that Government and Law may have their rightful and comfortable course I implore only so much charity from men as may seem due to one whose good intentions to his Country have been in some sort publickly manifested whose ill are yet obscurely and improbably suggested To conclude let the few years I have lived be examined and if there be found any rancour or venom in my nature even toward particular persoâ—â— which might in time contract it self to an enmity against the State if I have been a fomenter of Jealousies and debate or a secret conspirer against the honour and fame of any man If I have worn Religion as a Mask and Vizard for my hypocrisie and underhand cherished any opinions that I have not avowed If I have been lead by any hopes of preferment to flattery or by the miss of it to revenge If I have been transported with private Ambition and been inclined to sacrifice the least Branch of the publick Peace and happiness to my own ends and advantage let the complication of all these ills prepare a judgment of Treason it self upon me and let me looked upon as a Man who hath made a Progress in wickedness that a few years more added to that account would render me a prodigy to the World but if in truth my life hath been pleasant to me under no other notion then as I might make it useful to my Country and have made it my business to beget and continue a good intelligence amongst good men if I have been then most zealous and fervent for the Liberties of the Subject when the power of Court was most prevalent and for the rights of the Crown when popular Licence was most predominant if by my continual study and practice of Religion I have always been a true son of the Church of England and by my submission and application of my actions to the known rule of the Law I have always been a true Son of the State of England if my actions have been honest and my words only doubtful if my life only clouded with many imperfections I hope the world will believe I have been overtaken with too great a measuae of a happiness and every generous heart will ease me of some part of my burthen by giving the benefit of his good opinion After this the Lord Keeper Reported the Conference with the Commons concerning the Scots Propositions to this Effect That the English Commissioners Report of the Conference concerning the Scots Commissioners Propositions for the Relief of Ireland having received several Propositions from the Scots Commissioners dated the 27th of December last touching the sending of Men out of Scotland into Ireland the House of Commons having considered of them have given this Answer following to them which they offer to their Lordships Wisdom and Consideration being certain Votes of the House of Commons Die Jovis 30 December 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the House is of an Opinion Towns in Ireland to be put into the Scots hands and the Publick Faith of Scotland to
Whether he doth know or have heard who did Frame Contrive or advise the same or any of them To this he answered That he would deal clearly freely and Ingeniously and that he should say the same which he had before delivered to the Lords and should need no long time to answer this for that he had done none of these three that is neither Framed Advised these Articles or any of them and would be contented to die if he hid Secondly Being demanded whether he knew the truth of these Articles or any of them of his own knowledge or had it by Information To this he Answered He did know nothing of his own knowledge of the truth of these Artitles or any part of them nor hath heard it by Information All that ever he hath heard concerning this was from his Master Thirdly Being asked whether he will make good these Articles when he shall be thereunto called in due course of Law To this he Answered He cannot do it nor will not do it otherwise then as his Master shall Command him and shall Enable him no more then he that never heard of them can do it Fourthly Being asked from whom he received these Articles and by whose direction and advice he did Exhibit them He answered He did Exhibit them by his Masters Command and from his hands he did receive them Fifthly Being asked whether he had any Testimony or Proof of the Articles before the Exhibiting of them He gave this Answer That he received the Command of his Majesty but whether he had any proof then offered or intimation of Testimony to make good those Articles he desired time to consider of it he was pressed again to make answer to this but desired time to consider of it saying there was a secret trust between a Master and Servant much more in this Case The great Design of this Examination was to have got out who were the Witnesses of this Accusation that so they might have fallen upon them and worried them to death and though nothing was more justifiable then this Plea of Secrecy to which Mr. Attorney was obliged by his Oath from which they could have no power to Absolve him Yet it did so Exasperate the Faction that it was Ordered That some way be thought of for Charging Mr. Attorney by this House as Criminous for Exhibiting those Articles in the Lords House against Members of this House without any Information or proof that appears and that this House and the Gentlemen Charged by him may have Reparation from him and that he may put in good Security to stand to the Judgement of Parliament And it was Resolved Votes against the Attorney General c. That this Act of Mr. Attorney 's in this Impeachment against Members of this House is Illegal and a High Crime Resolved c. That the Lords shall be desired That Mr. Attorney may put in good Security to stand to the Judgement of Parliament And Mr. Whitlock Serjeant Wild Mr. Hill Mr. Glyn Mr. Brown Mr. Rigby and Mr. Buller were appointed a Committee they or any three of them to withdraw presently and prepare a Charge against Mr. Attorney upon the Votes of the House And that Posterity may see how Zealous these People after all their pretensions were for the Relief of Ireland Collonel Hill and Lieutenant Bowles Delinquents for raising Volunteers for Ireland It was Resolved c. and Ordered That Collonel Hill and Robert Bowles his Lieutenant shall be forthwith sent for as Delinquents by the Serjeant at Arms attending on this House for beating up Drums and raising of Men contrary to the Ordinance of Parliament And that all Constables and other Officers be assisting to the Serjeant in the Execution of his Warrant And that Mr. Whistler Mr. Pury Mr. Smith and Mr. Hill shall search in such Offices as they shall think fit to see if any Commissions or other Warrants have been granted to any Person or Persons for Levying of Men. A Paper was delivered by Mr. Hambden from the Scotch Commissioners which was read in these words OUr Treaty concerning the Irish Affairs being so oft interrupted by the Emergent Distractions A Paper of the Scotch Commissioners offering their Mediation to the King c. gives us occasion to desire your Lordships and those Noble Gentlemen of the House of Commons for to present to the Honourable Houses of Parliament that we having taken to our Consideration the manifold Obligations of the Kingdom of Scotland to our Native and Gracious Soveraign his Person and Government confirmed and multiplyed by the great and Recent Favours bestowed by his Majesty on that Kingdom at his last being there and settling the troubles thereof and considering the mutual Interest of the Kingdoms in Welfare and Prosperity of others acknowledged and Established in the late Treaty And finding our selves warranted and obliged by all means to labour to keep a right Understanding betwixt the Kings Majesty and his People to confirm that Brotherly affection begun between the two Nations to advance their Unity by all such ways as may tend to the Glory of God and Peace of the Church and State of both Kingdoms to render thanks to the Parliament of England for their assistance given to the Kingdom of Scotland in settling the late Troubles thereof wherein next to the Providence of God and the Kings Majesties Justice and Goodness they do acknowledge themselves most beholding to the Mediation and Brotherly kindness of the Kingdom of England and likewise to proffer our selves for removing all Jealousies and mistakings which may arise betwixt the Kings Majesty and this Kingdom and our best indeavours for the better Establishment of the Affairs and quiet of the same We do therefore in the name of the Parliament and Kingdom of Scotland acknowledge our selves next to the Providence of God and his Majesties Justice and Goodness most beholding to the Mediation and Brotherly kindness of the Kingdom of England in many respects especially in condescending to the Kings Majesties coming to Scotland in the midst of their great Affairs whereof we have tasted the sweet and comfortable Fruits and do heartily wish the like happiness to this Kingdom And as we are heartily sorry to find our Hopes thereof deferred by the present distractions growing daily here to a greater height and out of the sense thereof have taken the Boldness to send our humble and faithful advice to the Kings most Excellent Majesty for remedying of the same to the just satisfaction of his People so out of our duty to his Majesty and to testifie our Brotherly Affection to this Kingdom and acquit our selves of the Trust Imposed upon us We do most Earnestly beseech the most Honourable Houses in the deep of their Wisdoms to think timously upon the Fairest and Fittest Ways of Composing all present differences to the Glory of God the good of the Church and State of both Kingdoms and to his Majesties Honour and Contentment Wherein if our
Faithful endeavours may be any way useful we shall be most ready at all occasions to contribute the same 15th of Jan. 1641. Ja. Primrose The very same Paper Verbatim was 〈◊〉 their request presented to the Lords by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland After the reading of this Paper Sir Philip Stapleton Mr. Long and Mr. Arthur Goodwin were Ordered to return thanks from the House of Commons to the Scotch Commissioners for their good Affections Exprest to this State and Parliament and likewise to desire to know of them what it is that they have sent unto his Majesty by way of Advice To which Sir Philip Stapelton brought this answer That most of the Commissioners were gone from the place of Meeting not expecting any Message from this House besides they have not as yet sent the Paper to the King by reason they could not get Post-Horses and till such time as his Majesty hath first received the same they conceive it not so fit it should be made known But upon Monday morning they make no doubt to give this House full satisfaction I know no reason I have to make the Reader stay till Monday whose Expectation may be as willing to be gratified with a sight of this Paper as the House of Commons were and therefore I present him with it as followeth To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble desires of the Commissioners of his Majesties Kingdom of SCOTLAND WE your Majesties humble and faithful Subjects The Petition and advice of the Commissioners of Scotland to the King by way of Mediation considering that the Mutual Relation betwixt your Majesties Kingdoms of Scotland and England is such as they must stand or fall together and the disturbance of the one must needs disquiet and distemper the Peace of the other as has been often acknowledged by them both and especially in the late Treaty which is ratified in Parliament and confirmed by the publick Faith of the Estates of your Majesties ancient and Native Kingdom of Scotland so that they are bound to maintain the Peace and Liberties of one another being highly concerned therein as the assured means of the safety and preservation of their own And finding our selves Warranted and obliged by all means to labour to keep a right Vnderstanding betwixt your Majesty and your People to confirm that Brotherly Affection betwixt the two Nations to advance their Vnity by all such ways as may tend to the Glory of God and Peace of the Church and State of both Kingdoms and aykways to proffer our service for removing all Jealousies and mistakes which may arise betwixt your Majesty and this Kingdom and our best endeavours for the better Establishment of the Affairs and quiet of the same that both your Majesties Kingdoms of Scotland and England may be Vnited in the enjoying of their Liberties in Peace under your Majesties Scepter which is the most assured Foundation of your Majesties Honour and Greatness and of the security of your Royal Person Crown and Dignity We have taken the Boldness to shew your Majesty that we are heartily sorry and grieved to behold these Distractions which increase daily betwixt your Majesty and your People and which we conceive are entertained by the wicked Plots and Practices of Papists Prelates and their Adherents whose aim in all these Troubles has not been only to prevent all further Reformation but also to subvert the Purity and Truth of Religion within all your Majesties Kingdoms for which end their constant Endeavours have been to stir up Divisions betwixt your Majesty and your People by their Questioning the Authority of Parliaments the lawful Liberties of the Subjects and real Weakning your Majesties Power and Authority nay all upon pretence of Extending the same whereof by Gods Providence being disappointed in your Majesties Kingdom of Scotland these have now converted thir Mischievous Councels Conspiracies and Attempts to produce these distempers in your Majesties Kingdoms of England and Ireland And therefore according to our Duty to your Majesty to testifie our Brotherly Affection to this Kingdom and acquit our selves of the trust Imposed in us We do make offer of our humble Endeavours for composing of these differences And to that purpose do beseech your Majesty in these Extremities to have Recourse to the sound and faithful advice of the Honourable Houses of Parliament and to repose thereupon as the only assured and happy means to Establish the Prosperity and quiet of this Kingdom And in the depth of your Royal Wisdom to consider and prevent these Apprehensions of Fear which may possess the Hearts of your Majesties Subjects in your other Kingdoms if they shall conceive the Authority of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject to be here called in Question And we are confident that if your Majesty shall be graciously pleased to take in good part and give Eare to these our humble and faithful Desires that the success of your Majesties Affairs howsoever perplexed shall be happy to your Majesty and joyful to all your People over whom that your Majesty may long and prosperously Reign is the Fervent and Constant Prayer of us your Majesties Faithful Subjects and Servants It was likely to come to a hopeful issue for his Majesty and all his Loyal Friends when those who had by Rebellion wrested from him so great a share of his Sovereignity and Regal Authority undertook to be Umpires and Mediators in a difference to which they were Principal Parties and to compose those differences which the Faction following their Example were resolved should be determined by no other terms of Accommodation then his Majesties parting with the Sword which Guarded his Septer and which they were resolved either to have or to force it from him by the down-right strength of a most deep rooted and formidable Rebellion But what thanks soever they had for this officious diligence from the King they received many thanks from both Houses for the affection expressed to the Kingdom in the advice which they gave the King in this Paper which was mightily to the Grace of the Faction and Tuned to the humor of the Times which charged all the Miseries and Distractions upon the King 's refusing the sound advice of his great Council the Parliament This day an Order was made in the Lords House Munday January 17. The Lo. Nettervile's Son ordered to be brought before the Lords for the bringing up to the Lords in Parliament Mr. Thomas Netterville Son to the Lord Neterville who was stayed in Chester by the Mayor of the place upon Suspicion and the Lord Admiral was Ordered to write to the Mayor thanks from the House of Lords for his care in staying the said Mr. Netterville Then the Lord Duke of Richmond Reported the King's Answer to the Message delivered to him Jan. 15th The King's Answer to the Bill for adjournment Hull c. 1. Concerning his Majesties Assent to be given to the Bill for the Adjourning of the Parliament
Cohabit July 12. 1641. It was Resolved to pass as a Law Nemine Contradicente UPon Report this Day made unto the House from the Lords Committees for Petitions That William Walter was complained of by the Petition of Elizabeth Walter his Wife for refusing to Co-habit with her or allow her and her 3 Children Maintenance and Supportation for their Lively-hoods although he hath a Good and a Plentiful Estate It was thought fit and so ordered by the Lords in Parliament That the said William Walter shall settle Lands and Tenements cleared from all former Incumbrances other then Leases whereupon the usual Rent is reserved lying in the County of Pembroke upon such Trustees as the said Mrs. Walter shall Nominate to the use of her self and her said 3 Children during the time of her Life And Mr. Justice Foster and Mr Justice Heath's assistance to the said Lords Committees for Petitions are hereby desired by the Lords in Parliament to direct the Counsel of the said Mrs. Walter what security shall be taken in or out of the Premisses and how and in what manner an Estate of and in the Lands and Tenements or Tithes of the said William Walter shall be setled or charged and chargeable with the payment of sixty Pounds per An. to the use of the said Mrs. Walter and her 3 Children the first payment whereof to begin at Michaelmass next ensuing the Date hereof And in Case the said Mr. Walter 's Estate shall encrease by the Death of his Mother or Grandmother or otherwise it is their Lordships Pleasure that the Moiety of the same as it shall fall and accrew to him shall be settled and paid unto the said Feoffees to the use of the said Mrs. Walter and her 3 Children as aforesaid by the Advice of the Judges aforenamed And further that if the said William Walter shall refuse or delay by the space of a Month next ensuing to make such settlement in manner as aforesaid then it is their Lordships Pleasure that a Sequestration shall be awarded to such Person or Persons as the said Mrs. Walter shall nominate to take and receive so much of the Yearly Rent and Profits of the said Lands and Tenements of the said William Walter as shall amount to such proportions and allowances as aforesaid to be answered to the said Mrs. Walter or her Assigns half Yearly for the uses aforesaid UPon Report this Day made unto the House from the Lords Committees An Order of the Lords concerning a Vicaridge in Sir Peter Osborn's Case Plaintiff against Thomas Joyce Clerk July 12. 1641. for Petitions in the Cause of Sir Peter Osborn Knight Plaintiff and Thomas Joice Clerk it appeared unto their Lordships That Sir John Osborn Knight deceased Father of the said Sir Peter was seized in Fee of the Rectory of Hawnes in the County of Bedford to which the Advowson of the Vicaridge did consist only of eight Pounds per Ann. stipend That the said Sir John Osborn did in the 9th Year of King James convey the Inheritance of the said Rectory and Vicaridge together with a new House built upon his own Land to the now Bishop of Durham Sir Thomas Cheek and others for the Increase of Maintenance of such Vicar or Vicars as should be nominated by the said Sir John or his Heirs But before the Gift Sir John puts in Mr. Brightman and Mr. Wilson successively who injoyed the said House and Tythes and after the Gift nominated Mr. Sherley who was only Licensed by the Bishop but never Instituted or Inducted After the Death of the said Mr. Sherley the said Sir Peter Osborn nominated Mr. Buckley who was Licensed by the Bishop without being instituted or Inducted the Defendant Joyce obtains a Presentation by Lapse and gained a Decree in Chancery for the Rectory House and Tythes against which Decree Sir Peter Osborn objected that the Donor intended the said Rectory to him only that was to be nominated by himself or his Heirs and could not intend it to any that came in by Lapse it being then in Lapse when his Gift was made which was denied by the Defendant and affirmed that it was intended to the Incumbent whoever he was otherwise the Charity of the Donor would be overthrown Whereupon the Decree and Deed of the said Sir John Osborn was produced and read before the said Lords Committees who after long Debate by Councel on both Sides were fully satisfied That the Donor intended it to none but such as should come in by the Nomination of him or his Heirs Whereupon it is Ordered and Adjudged by the Lords in Parliament That the said Lay Fee Rectory and House together with all the said Donors Gift setled by the said Deed shall by virtue of this Order go to such Clergy-Man or Men as the said Sir Peter Osborne and his Heirs shall Nominate and Appoint according to the meaning of the said Donor and no other And that the Defendant Joyce that came into the vicaridge by Lapse shall have no Advantage of the Gift so made by Sir John Osborne but shall forthwith upon Notice hereof relinquish the same and shall also Answer to the Feoffees for all the Profits of the said House and Rectory by him taken ever since the said Decree and if the said Defendant Joyce conceives he hath any Right he is left to try the same at the Common Law without taking any advantage of the said Decree or of any thing done by Sir Peter Osborne in Obedience to the said Decree A Message was brought from the House of Commons by Sir Henry Vane Junior to desire that the Bill for Tonnage and Poundage may be delivered unto them to be brought up and presented by their Speaker with the Commission under the Great Seal annexed THeir Lordships taking this into Consideration Message from the Commons about the Bill of Tonage and Poundage and perusing the Commission found by the Tenor of the said Commission that the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage could not pass the Royal Assent by virtue of this Commission if they were separated therefore to avoid all Ambiguities Resolved to send some Lords to desire His Majesty would be pleased to come in Person to give the Royal Assent to the said Bill Hereupon the E. Bath E. Essex E. Cambridge E. Bristol Bill for Tonnage and Poundage passed the Royal Assent went presently to attend his Majesty therein who brought this Answer That the King will be here presently His Majesty being come and satt in the Chair of State the Commons were sent for who came and by their Speaker presented the Bill for Tonnage and Poundage then the Clerk of the Crown read the Title of the said Bill and the Clerk of the Parliament pronounced the Royal Assent thereunto in these words Le Roy remerciant ses bons Subjects accepte Leur Benevolence et ainsi le veult It was this day Ordered in the Commons House Munday July 12. Order for Aftornoon Sermons in all