in that kind to press an Injury against any Man but might come about to be Scann'd Little did a greater Man than the Duke the Emperor Ludovicus called the Holy Dream That he should be Persecuted so far by his Son Lotharius and Edo Bishop of Rhemes to set under his Hand an Acknowledgment of his Errors in forcing Judges to do unjustly Yet it was so as it is in Baron An. 833. Com. 17. Inter Ludovici crimina quae publicè agnouit Quod Judicantes ad falsum Judicium induxit Of two Evils the less was to be chosen by the Keeper rather to provoke one Man then all Men nay rather to provoke Man than GOD That some will be provok'd it cannot be avoided It is best to instance in a whole Nation to give no Offence Aristides in one of his Orations Censures the Old Romans and the Modern are no better They held all that were under them for Slaves and all that would be Freemen and not Slaves for Enemies The King heard the noise of these Crashes and was so pleas'd that he Thank'd God before many Witnesses that he had put the Keeper into that Place For says he He that will not wrest Justice for Buckingham 's Sake whom I know he Loves will never be corrupted with Money which he never Lov'd His Majesty would have a Judge to be such a one as Justinian aimed at Novel 17. Vir optimus purus his contentus quae à fisco dantur A good Man that took nothing of the People but was contented with such Wages as the King gave him He had found the Man And because the Lord Keeper had Husbanded that Stock Three years and half and lived fairly upon it and was not the Richer by the Sale of one Cursitors Place in all that time His Majesty Granted him a Suit by the Name of a New-Years-Gift after the size of the Liberality of that good Master which was enough to keep a Bountiful Christmas twice over The Giver did not repent him but thought himself repaid with a Conceit that this most useful Counsellor produc'd at that Season about the Children of the Prince Elector The Spanish Treaties were laid aside and new Ones from France rose up in their Room which being Examin'd it could not appear that they did portend any Comfort to the Recuperation of the Palatinate His Majesty bewailed that his Grand-Children then Young and Tender would be very Chargeable to England when they grew to be Men. It was their Sole Refuge They might Seek their Fortune in another place and come home by Spills-Bury Sir says the Lord Keeper Will you be pleased to listen to me taking in the Prince his Consent of which I make no doubt and I will shew how you shall furnish the Second and Third Brothers with Preferments sufficient to maintain them that shall cost you nothing Breed them up for Scholars in Academial Discipline keep them strictly to their Books with such Tutors as will Teach them not to abuse themselves with vain Hopes upon the Greatness of their Birth For it is a Folly to gape after the Fruit hanging upon a high Tree and not to know how to Climb it If they fall to their Studies design them to the Bishopricks of Durham and Winchester when they become void If that happen in their Nonnage which is probable appoint Commendatories to discharge the Duty for them for a laudable Allowance but gathering the Fruits for the support of your Grand-Children till they come to Virility to be Consecrated George Duke of Anhault having Ministerial Gifts was Ordain'd into that Holy Calling at Magdeburg and yet put to no Shifts as Melancthon is my Author and many more The Priestly Office was esteem'd from the beginning fittest for the best Gentlemen for the First-Born among them that serv'd the Truo God And the Romans who serv'd them that were no Gods learn'd it at Athens from Theseus Plut. in vità 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Citizens of the Noblest Blood should be train'd up in knowledge of Sacred Things and be made the Administrators of Divine Mysteries And I am at another Benefit wherein I praise God that I am assured Your Majesty will concur with me That the Office of a Bishop imprudently by many Mâ—lign'd I might charge them with a worse Crime will be the more Inviâ—lable when the Branches of Your Royal Stock have so great an Interest in it And such Provision is Needful against Schismatical Attempts both for Religious Sake and the Publick Weal For if such great Superstructions should fall all would come to Ruin that is round about them I will yet go further If Your Majesty think a Bishoprick though of the best kind too little for either of them you may please to annex to each of them one of your principal Offices of State as You find them Trusty and Discreet When he had ended As I Live says the King I will fellow this Direction I thank you heartily for it and I attend it that it will save me more then the worth of a Subsidy Thus far these Matters were well Chewed But because they were not followed when others bore the sway they never came to a second Concâ—ction 215. The Peaceable Period of King James's Reign drew on when the times were active about a Marriage between our Prince and a Daughter of France the youngest of Henry the Great 's Posterity for she was a Posthuma a Princess eminently adorn'd with many Rays of Honour celebrated far and wide for Beauty Wit and sweet Disclosures of Behaviour The Lord Keeper was not us'd in Counsel about it till after many sendings to and fro Yet what fell out at last for his part to the better Understanding of Conditions of Agreement is worthy to hang upon the File of Honourable Registry Viscount Kersâ—ngâ—â—â— Created of Holland in the pursuance of that Service was sent into France almost a Twelve-Month before to discover what Approbation was like to follow if this Match were offer'd The Earl had an Amorous Tongue and a Wise Head could Court it Smoothly as any Man with the French Ladies and made so Fortunate an account into England after Three Months of his Introductions that he saw no fear of denial in the Suit nor of Spinosity in the Articles But because he was 〈◊〉 put in Trust by the Lord Duke and our King would scarce acknowledge that he had given him Authority for all that he had done He sent the Earl of Carlile after him His Majesty much affying in that Lords Fidelity and put them both into the same Commission They were Peers of the best Lustre in our Court Elegant in their Persons Habit and Language and by their nearness to King 〈◊〉 apt Scholars to learn the Principles of Wisdom and the sitter to improve their Instructions to Honour and Safety While these Things went on the 〈◊〉 made it is Thought and Study what to do befitting a Counsellor and 〈…〉 upon the prospect of the
to worry him who had as much relation to the place as himself where these good Deeds were done But there is a Writer and not one year scapes him but that he publisheth somewhat to bespatter the Bishop of Lincoln's good Name Odimus accipitrem quia semper vivit in armis Ovid. Art Amand. he it is that would cover all the Monuments of his Bounty with one Blot if he could find Readers such as he wish't that would take all that he vents without examination Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Britain after he had given some unhandsome Scratches to this Bishop parts with him thus Envy it self could not deny but that whit hersoever he went he might be traced by the foot-steps of his Benefaction That he expended much in the repair of the Abby-Church of Westminster and that the Library was the effect of his Bounty This is truth and praise-worthy in the Historian and yet I say not the Bishop is beholding to him for it because it is truth That 's Politian's judgment in an Epistle to Baptista p. 197. Pro vâ—ris laudibus hoc est pro suis nemo cuiquam debet Quis enim pro suo debeat But what says one of the Swallows to it that built under the roof of the Abby Just like a Swallow carried all the filth he could pick up to his Nest But worse then a miry Swallow he resembles those obscene Birds that use to flutter about the Sepulchres of the Dead and insults extreamly over the Grave of the Deceased in his Animadversions upon the Church History p. 273. That Lincoln received so much out of the Rents of the Colledge in the time when he was Lord Keeper four years and more that the Surplusage of all that he paid out in several sums respectively amounted to more then he laid out upon the Church and Library 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Demost orat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the end The very Enemies of the dead cease to hate them when they are dead But as Anabaptists and Quakers say they are above Ordinances so it seems the Conscience of some Divines is above moral Niceties As to the Calumny squeeze it and in round Russian Language you shall wring out a great lye First before the Dean was Lord Keeper or dreamt of that honour that is before the Chapter had committed the Rents to his management he had repaired the great Ruins of the south side of the Church abutting upon the stately Chappel of Henry the Seventh If the Animadverter knew this why did he not separate it from that which was expended in those four years wherein he lays his Challengeâ— If he did not know it for it was done ten years before he was hatcht into a Prebend then when blind men throw stones whose head is not like to be broken For that which was laid out by the Lord Keeper to strengthen and beautifie the north side of the Abby to the end that the right Pay-master may be known and the mouth of all Detraction stopt the Chapter shall testifie in their Act as followeth Whereas there hath lately been divulged as we have heard an unjust report that the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God the Lord-Bishop of Lincoln our Dean should have repair'd and new-built our Church on the north side of the same and south side of the Chappels belonging to it out of the Diet and Bellies of the Prebendaries and Revenues of our said Church and not out of his own Revenues We therefore the Prebendaries of the same with one consent do affirm That we verily believe the same to be a false and injurious Report And for our selves we do testifie every man under his own Protestation that we are neither the Authors nor Abettors of any such injurious Report untruly uttered by any mean man with intention to reflect upon his Lordship And this we do voluntarily record and witness by our Chapter Act dated this present Chapter Decemb. 8. 1628. Theo. Price Sub-Deacon Christopher Sutton George Darrel Gabriel Grant Jo. King Rob. Newell John Hâ—lt Gr. Williams Whether will we believe eight men in their right minds or one in his rage To slight the Bishops erecting such a beautiful Pile the Library of St. John's Colledge and put that of Westminster with it he is as froward as a Child that hath worms in his Stomach and tells us that it possibly cost him more Wit than Money many Books being daily sent unto him Vis dicam tibi veriora veris Martial It was not only possible but very true For what Library no not the Bodleian the choicest of England but grew up and doth grow by contributory Oblations as Athenaeus says Lib. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Symbols or Portions that many Friends bring in to furnish a publick work have good influence into it but the Founder is the Lord of the Ascendant A great deal of the like the Author hath crowded into a few Leaves I do not accuse it for want of Salt it is a whole Hogshead of Brine Wisely and mildly Melanchthou was wont to say Answer not Slanders but let them vanish Et si quid adhuc in hujus saeculi levitate quasi innat at brevi interiturum est cum autorum nominibus Camer p. 79. The worthy Works of the Bishop's excessive cost at Westminster and in both Universities will stand when Pamphlets shall be consum'd with moths The liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand Isai 32.8 A fair Walnut-tree the more it bears the more it is beaten as it complains in the Greek Epigram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But such as yield the fruits of good works in this world shall become Trees of Life hereafter as I have read it from some good Pen He is well that is the better for others but he shall be happy for whom others are the better 91. Method hath digested the troubles about the Deanry altogether which is the reason why this Paragraph recoils five years back that is to 1630 to make a transition into the next disturbance A Commission was directed this year to very honourable and knowing persons the Lord Privy Seal Earl of Arundel Vicount Wimbleton Lord Wentworth Sir Hugh Middleton Sir W. Slingsby Sir Hen. Spelman Ed. Ascough Th. Brett Th. Bridgman to question the oppression of exacted Fees in all Courts and Offices Civil and Ecclesiastical throughout all England A noble Examination and full of Justice if due and convenient Fees thereupon had been straitned and appointed which was frustrated two ways First by indigent and craving Courtiers who enquired after such as were suspected for Delinquency and of great Wealth with whom they compounded to get them Indempnity though not a Doit of a Fee were abated Secondly By vexatious Prosecutions of abundance that were Innocent before Sub-committees where Promoters got a great livelyhood to themselves to redeem them from chargeable Attendance which deserves such a Complaint as Budaeus
〈…〉 unsel being present keeping my Intention from my Chancellor himself from whom I never kept any of my weightiest Business Because if I had made him of my Counsel in that purpose he had been blamed for putting the same into my Head which had not been his Duty For it becometh no Subject to give his Prince Advice in such Matters In this Story it appears that the Father-King trod the way to his Son to undergo such an Audacious Journey in the pursuance of his Love Quid non effraeno captus amore Audeat Ovid. Then that he Persisted in his Principles of Secrecy for a generous End that he might not draw his Chief and Best Servants whom he loved most into a Snare of Guiltiness 127. Let Provision be made to the most that could be for the safety of all others yet Sir Ant. W. in his Court and Character of K. James hath one Exception That the King set this Wheel on Running to destroy Buckingham for the hatred which he had long bore him and would not think it ill to loose his Son so Buckingham might be lost also Pag. 149. O Horrid But the best is the Foundation is Rotten For Buckingham as all Men about the King would Testifie was in as high Favour at that time as any Subject was ever with his Sovereign But when Sir A. to make out the Proof he lays it upon Sir H. Yelverton displaced from the Office of Attorney General to the King and committed to the Tower 't was he that assured the Marquess that the King hated him more than any man Living pag. 159. Sir Harry was Unfortunate but too honest a Man to sow Discord between the King and his principal Peer and Attendant Now mark upon what Bottom the Contriver of this Tale doth wind his Forgery Sir W. Balfore at the time of his Lieutenancy of the Tower brought the Marquess at Midnight to Sir H. Yelverton's Chamber being then his close Prisoner Where Sir William heard those Passages and a great deal more between them And by one or other who came to the knowledge of it but this Sir Anthony O Wicked Servant to thy good Master O fowl Bird that defilest the Nest wherein thâ—u wert hatch'd and well fledg'd Thou art catch'd in thine own Lime for thou never couldst have Conserence with Sir W. Balfore or Sir H. Yelverton about such a matter For Learned Yelverton was never Prisoner to Valiant Balfore Sir Allen Apsley was Lieutenant all the time of that worthy man's restraint And Sir W. Balfore was not preferr'd to that Office of great Trust in more than four years after Sir Harry had obtain'd his Liberty when Knaves will turn Fools it is not amiss to be merry with them And I will fit Sir Anthony with a Jest out of Illustrius the Pythagorean p. 23. One Daphidas came to the Pythian Deity to beseech his Oracleship to tell him when he should find a Gelding of his that was gone astray You shall find him very shortly says Apollo's Minister I thank you for your good News says Daphidas but I have neither lost a Horse nor have a Horse to loose So I turn Sir Anthony over to the Committee of Oracles and proceed After the Princes Out Leap the King lingred at New-market till the time was nigh that every day Tidings were expected of his safe Arrival in Spain that he might shew himself to the Lords at White-hall with better Confidence which he did March 30. being the first day that the Lord Keeper spake with the King about his dear Sons Planetary Absence No sooner had he made most humble sign of his Majesties Welcome by Kissing his Hand but the King Laugh'd out this Question to him Whether he thought this Knight-Errant Pilgrimage would be lucky to win the Spanish Lady and to convey her shortly into England Sir says the Lord Keeper If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares and Remember he is the Favourite of Spain Or if Olivares will shew Honourable Civility to my Lord Marquess Remembring he is a Favourite of England the Woing may be Prosperous But if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is and not stoop to Olivares or if Olivares forgetting what Guest he hath Received with the Prince bear himself haughtily and like a Castilian Grandee to my Lord Marquess the Provocation may be Dangerous to Cross your Majesties good Intentions And I pray God that either one or both of them do not run into that Errour The King drew a Smile at the Answer but bit his Lip at the presage Discourse being Enlarg'd between them the King perceiv'd that his Counsellor had other Fears and that his Brain teemed with Jealousies of very hard Encounters which he knock'd upon softly that his Majesty might discern them and not seem to apprehend them Only thus far the King proceeded to ask him If he had wrote to his Son and to the Lord Marquess clearly and upon what Guard they should stand Yes Sir says he for that purpose I have dispatch'd some Packets Then continue says the King to help me and themin those difficulties with your best Powers and Abilities and serve me faithfully in this motion which like the highest Orbe carries all my Raccolta's my Counsels at the present and my prospects upon the Future with it and I will never part with you The Cause which made His Majesty so solicitous made the Lord Keeper need no Provocation to diligence He was before hand And upon the 25 of February by a Currier that was at Madrid almost as soon as the Prince he wrote two Letters following to his Highness and to the Lord Marquess A Letter to the Prince May it please your Highness 128 ALthough Prayer is all the Service That at this time either I the most obliged or any other the wisest of your Servants can perform unto you yet I Humbly beseech your Higness to pardon true Affections that cannot stay there but will be expressing of it self though peradventure neither wisely nor discreetly The Comick Writer held these two scarce competent Amare sapere And to exclude all shew of discretion I presume to write this First Letter of mine to your Highness without so much as excribing or taking a Copy of the same this opportunity admitting no leisure at all to do the one or the other Your Journey is generally reputed the depth of your danger which in my Fears and Representations your Arrival should be You are in a strange State for ought we know uninvited business being scarce prepared subject to be staid upon many and contrary pretenses made a Plot for all the Wisdom of Spain and Rome for all the contemplations of that State and that Religion to work upon And peradventure the detaining of Your Highness his Person may serve their turn as amply as their Marriage at least wise for this time and the Exploits of the ensuing Summer I write not this to fright you who have Testified to all the
World your incapability of that Passion But to give Your Highness to understand that I hope if you discover any â—ndment to detein your Princely Person under any fair Colour or Pretence whatsoever You will endeavour by all means possible to make your departure as secret as your Arrival was I pray God this may prove but my Folly and Jealousie And I thank God heartily that you have in Your Company the Earl of Bristow who for Advice and Counsel upon the Place is in my poor Opinion inferior to none in His Majesties Dominions Here is no Course omitted to still the Noise and to take away the Affrightments caused by your sudden departure I am a little afraid that the person of the Earl of Carâ— whom His Majesty hath posted after you will not prove so acceptable in the Spanish Court which I wish might have no Provocation at all while your person is there If it prove so he is a most willing Lord to please Your Highness and you may 〈◊〉 so of â—im the sooner back again I have endeavour'd to smooth and sweeten all things at home in the best accommodation that lay in me I have stayed a Collection which went on for the Grisons though I bear them good will least the King of Spain might take Offence thereat I have restored the Priests and Jesuits that were restrained in the New Prison to their former Liberty I have given special Order to the Judges for Sweetness and Doulcure to the English Catholicks I have twice Visited the the Spanish Ambassador and do now deny him no Suit he makes And all this with a Reflection upon that inestimable Pearl of curs which God hath now put into their Hands On the other side if things prosper according to your Highness's desire you will not fail to write to some person that will Publish it that nothing hath been represented to you there adverse or contrary to your Profession and Religion And that you were much Offended when you heard of those Surmises of this people that you took this Journey out of an Yielding and Recklesness in the Constancy and Sincerity of the same This Course will quiet the sond Jealousies at home Your Highness will now give me leave to Remember mine own Calling and to call upon you to do that which you have never failed to do to call upon God Morning and Evening for his Gracious Assistance and continual Protection to whose preventing accompanying and pursuing Grace I do most humbly and Devoutly now upon my bended Knees recommend your Highness Dominus Custodiat introitum tuum exitum tuum ex Lòc nunc usque in seculum Ps 121.8 A Letter to the L. Buckingham My most Noble Lord 129 ALthough the Service I can now only perform to your Lordship is praying and not writing yet my Affection will not suffer me to conceal my Folly in this kind I have no time to recollect my Thoughts this Gentleman who steals away after you is in such haste I have utter'd most of my Dreams unto his Highness who I know will impart them to your Lordship unless they shall prove so wide as out of respect to my Credit he shall be pleas'd to burn them If things prove so ill which God forbid as that his Princely Person should under Colour of Friendship larger Treaty or any Device be then detained longer then his liking be you my sweet Lord drawn by no Means Counsel or Importunity to leave his Person and to return without him If you should do so as I know you will not beside the disgrace thereof it would prove your certain Ruin If things prove well you need no Counsel your Adventure will be Applauded and great Note cast upon your Wisdom and Resolution But if the Health Entertainment and the principal business of His Highness nay if any one of the Three should miscarry You cannot in your Wisdom and great Experience in this Court but certainly knew that the blame will be laid upon you And therefore for Gods sake prepare your self accordingly by Mature Deliberation to Encounter it My Lord for fear others will not I will tell you the Truth If I Offend you with my Trusty Care I am sure your good Nature will blow it over before we meet again But in sooth all the Court and the Rabble of people lay this Voyage upon your Lordship The King would seem sometimes as I hear to take it to himself and we have Advis'd him so to do by Proclamation yet he sticks at it and many times casts it upon you both Thus Sir J. Epsley told me within this hour whom I sent to the Court of purpose to learn it Nay Faces are more sowred and Rumors of Dangers more Encreased because you have defeated some great Lords who expected to be imployed for the Conduct of the Infant a hither And though things speed never so well this Quarrel will remain But I would that might prove the greatest Danger If Your Lordship will Command me what to do in Your Absence I hope you believe you have a faithful Servant and wise enough to follow Directions I will be as Vigilant in your Affairs as my distance from the Court will give me Leave Your Lady is well but unapproachable and invisible Your little Daughter is very Pleasant and as it seems bids us hope the best in her Infantile Presagements My Lady Your Mother is well and chides me that I could not Divine and Prophesie of your Journey I will make bold to remember me to your Host as we conceive it the Earl of Bristow and his good Lady my loving Country-woman My Noble Lord my Humble Suit unto you and my best Advice is that as all the Lords in England sought your Lordship with all Observance in this Court so you will seek and gain the great Lords of Spain with as much Observance in the Court of Spain I ended His Highness Letter with a Text of Scripture and I have another for your Lordship Genes 24. ver 48 49. And I bowed my Head and Worshipped the Lord and Blessed the Lord God of my Master Abraham who hath led me in the Right-way to take my Masters Brothers Daughter to his Son And now if you will deal kindly and truly with my Master tell me that I may turn to the Right Hand or to the Left I Leave your Lordship in this Meditation and in Gods Gracious Protection for ever 130. These in the Levitical Phrase were but the Green Ears of the First Fruits The Sheaves of his Wisdom will follow after For more is to be look'd for how he proceeded then how he began All things went well and unanimously on the part of our English Counsellors in those Foreign Juntoes from hence and so forth at least to the beginning of May. Thus far 't was easie to please them all But there is one skill requir'd in a Calm at Sea another in a Tempest Though the Pilots good Will and Fidelity be constantly the
the Letter for upon the Death of the late King of Spain being sent from his Master our Soveraign to the King of Spain that now is to understand his Mind upon the Treaty of Marriage he receiv'd this Chearful Answer That he was sorry he had not the Honour to begin it but now he would pursue it with all Alacrity The Earl of Bristol is another Witness Cab. p. 27. I insisted that Two Millions for the Portion were by the last King settled and agreed with me That this King had undertaken to pursue the Business as it was left by his Father and to make Good whatsoever he had promised Thereupon I desired that the Original Papers and Consultoes of the last King might be seen which very honestly by the Secretary Cirica were produced and appeared to be such that I dare say there was not any Man that saw them that doubteth of the last Kings real Intention of making the Match So I leave these Contradictions to blush at the sight of one another But to me Olivarez his Fidelity is the Leg that halts For as Tully said of Roscius the Comoedians Adversary Quod sibi probare non possit id persuadere alteri conatur he could never persuade that vigorously to another which he disbelieved himself It is a tedious thing to be tied to Treat with one that cares not for his own Honour nor regards his Modesty with whom he Treats I mean that same Person that Bashaw of King Philip the Conde Duke who entramel'd as many Devices as his Pate could bring together to raise a Dust and made Demands meerly to satisfie his own Pride that he might boast he had ask'd them though his discretion taught him that he could never obtain them When Sir Fr. Cottington return'd to Madrid with the great Article procur'd to suspend the Penal Statutes of England in favour of Recusants he presented it to the Conde and expected as the Casttlian Phrase is Las Albricias a reward for bringing of good News the Conde stoop'd not so low as to give Thanks but having perused the Paper told Sir Francis it would be expected the Prince should Negotiate a plain Toleration for the Protestants that endured that which was in his Hand would patiently endure more Sir Francis Answered him with the Old Simile That his Lordship was no good Musician for he would peg the Minikin so high till it crack'd Concerning his Attemptings upon the Prince my supply is out of private Letters that came from Friend to Friend The Conde had Oblig'd his Honour to his Highness when he came First to the Court of Spain never to meddle with him about his Religion He kept not his promise but solicited his Highness that as he lov'd his Soul he would return to England a Catholic in his Sense Well my Lord says the Prince You have broken your Word with me but I will not break my Faith with God Another time he besought his Highness to afford his Company at a Solemn Mass No Sir says the Prince I will do no ill nor the suspicion of it Once more this Idern told his Highness that he would accomplish all that he could desire from the Crown of Spain if he would profess himself a Son of the Roman Church he should not only carry home the bravest Lady for Beauty Birth and Vertue that was but be made as great a King in Riches and Power as was in Europe But as the Prophet says Isa 63.5 Excandiscentia mea fulcivit me my Fury it upheld me so the Prince was heated at the Offer and gave this provocation to him that had provok'd him that it was such a another Rhadomontade as the Devil made to Christ All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and Worship me Next to matters of Religion the stiffest thing that was tugg'd for in this Month was about the Restitution of the Palatinate The Secretary of the Elector came to Madrid with Letters to the Duke about it which were not first imparted to the King his Father-in-Law But all that shall be drawn up into one Process in the Transactions of August 155. But in all Disputes for Sacred or secular Matters the Ministers of our King were the more Naked and Unarm'd when they came to the push of the Spanish Subtleties because they kept not the correspondence with themselves If my Lord of Buckingham could have fashion'd his mind to draw the same yoke with the Earl of Bristol who was most conversant upon the place and best knew the Arts of that Nation success had been more Fortunate But those Civil Discords were the Cause of many disorders and incivilities Therefore the King imposed on the Lord Keeper to use his Pen once more to reconcile them which he did not fail to do the very next day which was his Majesties Remove to begin the Western Progress July 22. May it please your Grace I would not be troublesom with this Second Letter but chiefly to let your Grace know that you never stood in your Life more uprightly in his Majesties Favour then at this instant and that I shall need to pour out no other Prayers unto God but for the continuation of the same For Gods sake Write to my Lord Hamilton and acquaint his Lordship with some Passages of your Affairs For my self I shall be content to Rove and guess at them And I hope your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Excursion that is my running this second or third time into business which I am told but cannot by any means believe it hath already drawn your Grace's Offence against me It is a most Humble Zealous and earnest Petition to your Grace to Seal up and really confirm that agreement and reconciliation which to the great Contentment of all your Friends but the Regret of some among us you have made with the Earl of Bristol What I wrote formerly might be ill placed and offend your Grace but all proceeded from as true and sincere a Heart unto your Grace as you left behind you in all this Kingdom But the renewing of it now again hath a Root from a higher Power who hath observ'd your Grace his Favour so abounding towards me and my acknowledgments so far as my poor ability permitteth so returned to your Grace that he was pleased to say unto me this Morning upon this Theme That he knew you would regard any Representation that I should recommend unto you In good Faith his Majesty is more then Zealous not only of fair Terms of Friendship but of a near Alliance formerly spoken of between your Grace and that Earl Of whose Sufficiencies and Abilities I perceive His Majesty to retein an extraordinary good Opinion which in all Humility I thus leave to your Lordships Wisdom and Consideration The Earl of Bristol had heard how the Lord Keeper had ventur'd to make this Pacification and writes to him Cab. p. 20. That the Friendship of the Duke was a thing he did
Old Latium August and Sacred signified the same 'T were good if it would prove so now But it began with discontent on every side and never mended Our Wise King no longer smother'd his Passion but confess'd at sundry times a great fault in himself that he had been so improvident to send the Duke on this Errand with the Prince whose bearing in Spain was ill Reported by all that were not partial He put the bafful so affectedly upon the Earl of Bristol at every turn that those Propositions which his Majesty had long before approved with deep Wisdom and setled with the Word of Honour were struck out by my Lord of Buckingham only because Bristol had presented them Nay if the Prince began to qualifie the unreasonableness he would take the Tale out of his Highness's Mouth and over-rule it and with such youthful and capricious Gestures as became not the lowly Subjection due to so great a Person but least of all before Strangers It was an Eye-sore to the Spaniards above any people who speak not to their King and the Royal Stems of the Crown without the Complement of Reverence nor approach unto them without a kind of Adoration The more the Prince endur'd it the more was their judgment against it For every Mouth was fill'd with his Highness's Praise and nothing thought wanting in him to be absolutely good and Noble but to know his own Birth and Majesty better and to keep more distance from a Subject So the Earl of Bristol Writes Cab. p. 20. I protest as a Christian I never heard in all the time of his being here nor since any one Exception against him unless it were for being supposed to be too much guided by my Lord of Buckingham which was no Venial Sin in their censure For how much their gall Super-abounded against that Lord the same Earl could not hold to write it to the Lord Keeper bearing Date August 20. I know not how things may be Reconciled here before my Lord Duke's departure but at present they are in all Extremity ill betwixt this King his Ministers and the Duke And they stick not to profess that they will rather put the Infanta head-long into a Well then into his Hands One thing that fill'd up the Character of my Lord Duke before in this Work was that he had much of the brave Alcibiades in him In this they differ that Plutarch's Alcibiades suited himself so well to the Manners and Customs of all Courts where he came that he gave satisfaction to all Princes and they were best pleased with him that most enjoy'd him The great Lord Villiers was not so Fortunate for he thrived not in the Air of Madrid and he brook'd the Air of Paris as ill about two years after upon the like Occasion And no marvel For as Catulus said of Pompey in Paterculus Praeclarus vir Cn. Pompeius sed reipub liberae nimius So this Lord was a worthy Gentleman but too big to be one in a Free Treaty with other Ministers The Lord Keeper who was the Socrates to this Alcibiades had Noted his Lordships Errors and unbeseeming Pranks before For which he look'd for no better then he that rubs a Horse that is gaul'd Yet he resolv'd to shoot another Arrow the same way that the former went though the Duke had threatned to break his Bow as soon as he came Home But he was too prudent to be scared from doing Duty to so great a Friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle He is neither Wise nor Faithful but a Flatterer that denies his Spirit ingenious Freedom And it is a Speech worthy of Sir Ph. Sidney which the Lord Brooke ascribes to him Pag. 42. of his Life That he never found Wisdom where he found not Courage Therefore the Lord Keeper writes to the Duke Aug. 3. of which this is the Moral to him that reads it intelligently That no Man living can keep Favour who keeps not Conditions that merit to perpetuate Favour May it please your Grace I Have no more to trouble your Grace at this time withal than the Expression of that Service and those Prayers which as I do truly owe so shall I ever as faithfully perform to your Grace New Comers may make more large and ample Promises but will in the end be found to fall short of your old Servants in Reality and Performances If your Grace hath by this time thought that I have been too bold and too near your Secrets in those Counsels I presumed upon in my last Letters I beseech you to remember how easie it was for me to have held my Peace how little Thanks I am like to receive from any other beside your Grace for the same how far I am in these Courses from any end of mine own beside your Prosperity and Security If your Grace would give me leave to deliver my Opinion upon the main though no Hunter after Court-News it is this Your Grace stands this Day in as great Favour with his Majesty as your Heart can desire And if I have any Judgment in far more Security of Continuance than ever you did if you remain as for ought I can perceive you do in the same State with the Prince in the same Terms as your Pains have deserved with the Princess and out of Quarrels and Recriminations which will but weaken both Parties and make way for a third with the rest of his Majesties Agents in this Negotiation I cannot but presume once more to put your Grace in mind that the nearer you are drawn to his Highness in Title the more you are with all Care and Observance to humble your self unto him in Speech Gesture Behaviour and all other Circumstances yea although his Highness should seem to require the Contrary This cannot be any way offensive to your own and is expected to the utmost Punto by that other Nation I do presume of Pardon for all my Follies in this kind and that whatsoever is wanting in my Discretion your Grace will be pleased to make up out of my Sincerity and Affection However your Grace and the Earl of Bristol shall conclude I hope your Grace will pardon my Zeal though peradventure not according to Knowledge aiming only at your Grace's Service the Amplitude and Continuance of your Greatness For whatsoever your Grace shall determine and conclude I do and shall implicitly yield unto the same Yet am still of Opinion the way of Peace to be the broad way to enlarge and perpetuate your Grace's Greatness and Favour with his Majesty c. This was bold but faithful and ingenious Dealing The Duke's last Messenger whom he sent into England before he arrived Sir J. Hipsley gave him a touch of the same Cab. P. 316. For God's-sake carry the Business with Patience betwixt my Lord of Bristol and you And again in the same For God's-sake make what hast you may Home for fear of the worst For the King's Face began to gather Clouds upon the
Madrid Novemb. 12. says Sir Wal. Aston whom I believe though others say later The tenth day after the Dispensation made known in the Church let the Betrothing be Solemnized and the tenth day after it the Marriage Then the Prince may take his own Time to return when he will but the Lady could not make ready for the Seas considering her Train that must attend her till March. The Prince did not like the Arithmetick of this Counting-Table More time than the first Week of September he was resolved not to spend in that Land The Coming of the Dispensation he would not await which might be failing thither upon the idle Lake in the Fary Queen â—oth slow and swift alike did serve their turn To stay and Consummate the Marriage in his own Person he knew was unfit in two Respects He must take a Blessing from one of their Bishops in the Face of their Church and submit to their Trinckets and Ceremonies which he had rather hear than see Then if the Infanta had Conceived they would keep her it is likely till she was delivered The Child must stay till it was strong to endure the Seas so it might come to pass to be bred up and Naturalized a Spaniard in Religion and Affection When the Clock would not go right with those Plummets the Junto cast the i me out ino another Figure that his Highness would out of Courtship wherein he excelled and out of great Love to his Mistress which he professed perfect the Desponsation in his own Person and trust no other with it the Marriage and the Lady should follow after that is upon the Certificate of their Embassador out of England that Conditions were performed there to which the King of Great Briâ— ain had engaged To this his Highness was short That he would linger no longer and play at Cards in King Philip's Palace till the Messenger with the Port-mantick came from Rome Neither would he depend upon Embassadors and their Reports when the Illustrious Damosel should begin her Journey towards England Embassadors might certifie what they pleased and inform no more than their great Master's Counsel inspired them At last his Highness took upon him to deside the Wrangling and cast out the sacred Anchor from the Stern to keep their Counsels from further Floating that he would be burdensom to the K. of Spain no longer the magnetick Vertue of his own Country drew him to it Yet to confirm that he lest his Heart behind with his Beauteous and high born Mistress he would Sign a Proxy and Assign it to K. Philip or his Brother Don Carlo or either of them which should remain in the Custody of the Earl of Bristol that the Espousals between him and the Infanta might be ratified within ten days after the dispensation unstopt the way unto them and he would leave it to the Princessa to shew her Cordial and Amorcuolous Affections how soon she would prepare to follow after him 168. Which stood for a Decree agreed and obey'd The King of Spain would have been glad if the Prince might be perswaded to stay longer in his Court But since after Six Months continuance there his Highness defir'd to breath again in his Native Air King Philip caused preparation to be made for it for freedom is the Noblest part of Hospitality and was dismiss'd with as much Honour and Magnificence as he was Receiv'd The Earl of Briâ—ol who certainly knew the day when he took his Leave writes to the Lord Keeper Cab. p. 21. That he would begin his Journey for England the 9th of Sept. others set it three days back and adds the day before I Conceive the contract will be which is false Printed it should be That the Day before he would Sign and Seal his Procuration for the Contract which Intelligence is Authentick being so Corrected Now looking upon those that were the Magnificoes of Spain when the Prince took his farewel of them and how dear they held him how they Voiced him beyond the Skies for the most express Image they had seen of Vertue and Generosity methinks his Highness should have behold it with his Eyes open and have inferred out of it that he could not be more happy then to marry with that Blood and to keep Friendship with that Nation He was most Gracious in the Eyes of all Great and under Great Never Prince parted with such Universal Love of all Cab. p. 16. and Bristol to the Lord Keeper p. 21. The Love which is here born generally to the Prince is such as cannot be believ'd by those that daily hear not what passeth from the King and his chief Ministers The most concern'd was the rare Infanta of whom says one out of the Spanish Reports Sander p 552. That she seem'd to deliver up her own Heart at parting in as high Expressions as that Language and her Learning could with her Honour set out Let not this Essay of her sweetness be forgotten that when the Prince told her His Heart would never be out of Anxiety till she had pass'd the intended Voyage and were safe on British Land She Answered with a modest Blush That if she were in danger upon the Ocean or discompos'd in Health with the rowling brackish Waves she would chear up herself and remember all the way to whom she was going For which she deserves to be Honour'd with Theogena the Wife of Agathocles for that saying Se nubendo ci non prosperae tantùm sed omnis fortunae iniisse Societatem Just lib. 20. When it came to the King her Brothers turn to Act his part of Royal Civility he carried the Prince with him to his most gorgeous and spacious Structure of the Escurial There he began That his Highness had done him favour beyond all compass of requital that he had Trusted the safe-guard of his Person with him and given him such an occasion in it to shew his Honour and Justice to part with him with as much Fidelity as his Highness desir'd or expected that there he was ready to perfect the Alliance so long in Treaty that he might call him Brother whom above all in the World he loved as a Friend The Prince Answered He had a better Heart to conceive then a Tongue to signifie how much he owed to his Majesty He hop'd the incomparable Infanta would thank him for the unparallel'd Courtesie shewn to him And because a drop of true meaning was better then a River of Words his Highness being encircled with the Noblest Witnesses of that Kingdom produced and Read his Proxy interpreted by the Earl of Bristol and committed to his Charge but first Attested to by the Hand of Secretary Cirica as a Notary of the greatest Place That this much pass'd it is certain Much more is Reported but it is contentious This Obligation intending to the Contract was thus dispatch'd in the Escurial of which let me say hereupon as Valerius of the Senate House of Rome lib. 6. Illam Curiam
much I may Excuse it Or Secondly How I may Recompence it with some other Praise A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the Places of the LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL of England c. PART I. Paragraph 1. EDMOND WILLIAMS Esq of Aber. Conway in the County of Carnarvan was the Son of William Williams Esq of Coghwillanne near adjoyning and of Dorothy Daughter to Sir William Griffith Knight of Penrhyn This Edmond took to Wife Mary Daughter to Owen Wyn Esq and by her had five Sons and two Daughters Of the Male Children John was the youngest the Womb of his Mother ceasing to bear when it had done its best This John whose Memory deserves to be Dignified in a lasting Story was born at Aber-Conway a Sea-Town in Carnarvanshire about or upon the Feast-day of our Lady the Blessed Virgin March 25. 1582. The Shire wherein he drew his first Breath is notorious for the highest Hills of this Island Snoden Penmanmaur Creig-Eriri and others It is not unlikely that it hath much Riches under the Earth but it is Barren above Ground As Pliny speaks of the Orobii certain Mountainers in Italy Lib. 3. c. 17. Etiam nomine prodentes se al. tius quà m fortunatiùs sitos Their Situation was rather high than prosperous But what the Region wants in Fatness of Soil is requited by the Generous Spirits of the Inhabitants a far greater Honour than much Clay and Dirt. I light upon it in the Invention of a Masque Presented before King James at Whitehall An. 1619. that our Laureat-Poet Ben. Johnson hath let some weighty Words drop from him to the Honour of that Nation and I take them as a serious Passage and will own them That the Country is a Seed-Plot of honest Minds and Men. What Lights of Learning hath Wales sent forth for our Schools What Industrious Students of our Laws What Able Ministers of Justice Whence hath the Crown in all times better Servitors more Liberal of their Lives and Fortunes And I know I have their good Leave to say That the Honour of Wales shin'd forth abroad in the Lustre of such a Native as this and I add what Pliny writes to Sabinus of the Firmians among whom he was born Credibile est optimos esse inter quos tu talis extiteris Lib. 6. Epist 2. For Carnarvanshire in particular says Reverend Mr. Cambden the Ordovices lived there of old who held the Romans Play to preserve their Liberties the longest of all our Britains and forced the Roman General Suetonius Paulinus to fix his Head-Quarter there desiring to keep them his first and surest Friends who were his last subdued Enemies Afterward the Saxons had the longest and stoutest Repulses in North-Wales that they felt in all their Battels which made them bloody their Swords most barbarously in the Bodies of those resolute Defendants 3. Among the Champions of greatest Note and Valour that did the best Feats of Chivalry against the Saxons was a gallant Commander the Top of the House of Williams which is preserv'd in Memory to this day because the Family of that Name doth until this time bear in their Coat three Saxons Heads De tree pen Saix they call it in Welch I think a noble Testimony of the Valour of the Chief of that Stock that sought manfully for his Country and preserv'd it from the Invasion of the Saxons when their Armies had march'd over the Ground of England now so called with Slaughter and Conquests And since the best Men of the ancient Houses in Wales did manage War so valiantly in maintenance of Glory and Liberty it is no marvel if the Inhabitants are noted in the current Ages ever since to have almost a Religious Care in preserving the Pedigrees of their Gentry Who could excuse them from Ingratitude if they should not garnish Heraldry with the Genealogies of such Worthies 4. Among their copious Stems and far-fetch'd Descents the Pedigree of the House of Williams of Coghwillanne hath as many brave Strings in the Root and spreads as wide in the Branches as I have seen produced from the Store-house of their Cambrian Antiquities It grows up in the top Boughs to the Princes of North-Wales in King Stephen's days as it is deducted by Authentick Records which I have seen and are formalized into a comely shape by Evan Lloyd of Egloyvach in the County of Denbigh and Jacob Chaloner of London Gent. Men faithful and expert in such Monuments of elder Years The same Authors demonstrate that Williams of Coghwillanne hath continued his Coat of three Saxons Heads constantly and without any the léast alteration from Edneuet Vychan Lord-Steward of Wales an 1240. and of Hen. 3. his Reign an 25. to this day It hit right indeed for a Coat of Arms says the neat Wit of Mr. Hugh Hotland when one of that Lineage was advanced to be Lord-Keeper of the Great-Seal as he couched it in an elegant Distic engraven on his Lordship's Silver Standish as I found it there Qui sublime fori potuit consâ—â—ndere tignum Par suit hunc capitum robur habere trium Meaning it was a sign he had the Abilities and Brains of three Heads whose good Parts lifted him up to that Honour to set Chief Judge in the highest Court of the Kingdom But I need neither the light Air of Poetry much less the empty Wind of Vain-boasting to blow it about the World that he was Anciently and Nobly descended there are so many Proofs for it as there are Offsprings of Gentry in North-Wales being all of his Blood and Alliance to whom a Catalogue might be added of Great and Honourable Persons in England Which King James was aware of when he was sworn his Counsellor for He told him pleasantly that He thought not the worse of him nor suspected his Fidelity though He knew well enough that Sir William Stanley then living a great Traitor to his Prince and Country was his near Kinsman I could insist more upon this but it is the Rule of a wise Author that whosoever will search into a Man prudently and Philosophically Nunquam cunabula quaerit Et qualis non unde satus I close it up therefore that his Pedigree of Ancestors gave a good Lustre to his Birth but he gave a greater to them Howsoever I receive it for a Moral Truth as well as a Mathematical that the longest Line is the least of all quantitive Dimensions 5. Now to begin with my Subject from the first time that he was able to go without the hand His Education was like to be Prosperous for not only his Parents but his Grandmother the Lady Griffith his Grandmother Lois as well as his Mother Eunice contributed her Care to give him Godly and Learned Breeding It fell out well for their purpose that their Pious Country-man Gabriel Goodman Dean of Westminster had about that time founded a Publick School at Reuthen and had placed a good Grammarian in it under whom
5. to be wasted over into Italy in his Bark Thus he went on with other flatuous Disparagements One Copy of this and no more came to the Leiger Embassador of the Catholick King of which the Lord Keeper had the Use and would never deliver it again but wrote to my Lord Marquess April 20th to bid the Earl of Bristow to take care either to stifle it if it were not divulg'd or to cause it to be called in if it were published Such Scriblers should be informed against in the Ragguaglia's of Pernassus and amerced to pay for the the Loss of our Time 133. Aste the gaudy Days of the Royal Welcome were past over my Lord of Buckingham obliged the Lord Keeper greatly unto him with a Letter Dated March 26 and came about the Declining of April for the Comfort of the Contents which were these My good Lord HOwsoever I wrote so lately unto you that I have not since received any Letter from your Lordship yet because you shall see that I let slip no Opportunity I do it again by this Conveyance and must again tell you the good News of his Highness's being in perfect Health I cannot doubt but many idle and false Rumors will daily be there spread during the Absence of his Highness which I know your Lordship and the wiser sort will easily contemn and believe only that which you shall find avowedly advertised from hence And here let me thus far prevent with your Lordship any sinister Report that shall be made in the main Point which is the Prince's Religion assuring you that he is no way pressed nor shall be perswaded to change it for so is it clearly and freely professed unto him I hope I shall shortly be able to advertise your Lordship of the Arrival of the Dispensation which will be the Conclusion of our Business And thus wishing your Lordship all Honour and Happiness c. The Pearl which came in this Letter is that Satisfaction purchased of God with the Prayers of all devout Men that the Prince should not be inveigled in Conferences or unquieted with Disputes to strip himself of the Wedding-Garment of that incorrupt Faith in Christ which he had professed from a Child for that Wedding sake which he came to conclude How impudently have some Trash-Writers out-faced this Truth as if the Prince had been beset on all sides to make Shipwrack of his Religion in the Gulph of Rome Ar. Wilson of all others is the most forward Accuser and therefore the Falfest Tast him in these Parcels P. 230 that the Earl of Bristow insinuated it with this crafty Essay to his Highness That none of the King 's of England could do great things that were not of that Religion Yet he interfears in that same Page That Gondamar prest the Earl of Bristow not to hinder so pious a Work assuring him that they had Buckingham's Assistance in it Then belike Gondamar was jealous of Bristow that he was contrary to that which he called a pious Work the Prince's Perversion Certainly he knew Bristow as far as a Friend could know a Friend And as many Bow-shots wide is he from my Lord of Buckingham's Sincority in that Action as a Lyar is from Heaven Is not his Lordship's Hand-writing so solemn'y mention'd an uncontroulable Testimony The same Author slanders Conde d'Olivares and makes him utter that which never came from him That if the Prince would devote himself to their Church it would make him â—th way to the Infanta's Afflictions and if he seared the English would rebel he should be assisted with an Army to reduce them The Conâ—e Duke carried no such threatning Fire in one Hand nor at that time any of his Holy Water in the other For he committed nothing to offend his Highness's Ears in that â—ind till his Passions made him forget himself about three Months after Not contented with this he makes the Prince say that which he never thought as that when the Conde Duke propounded That if his Highness would not admit of a sudden Alteration and that publickly yet he would be so indulgent to litten to the Infanta in Matters of Religion when they both came into England Which the Prince promised to do But what says true hearted Spotswood P. 544. That the Prince was stedfast and would not change his Religion for any worldly Respect nor enter into Conference with any Divines for that purpose Utri credetis Is there any Choice which of these two should rather be believed I am careful to praemonish conscientious Readers against Serpentine Pens least their nibling should ranckle A Serpent you know from the beginning was a Lodging for the Devil Gen. 3. and so is a Slanderer The Manual of Romish Exorcisms says Instruct 2. that it is presumed for a sign that he is possest with a Devil Qui linguam extorquet miris modis eandem exerit ingenti oris hiatu I translate that to the Manners of the Mind which is meant there of the Body And let the Living learn the dead Man whom I speak of can take no Warning it is a divelish thing to loll out the Tongue of Contumely These being fore Times to out-face the Truth and willing to listen to Defamations no marvel if some take the Liberty to Lye and have the Confidence to be believed But that Sectaries that have quite overthrown the Church of England a right and pleasant Vineyard of Jesus Christ that these should be the Men who for the most part have challenged the Prince and the chief Ministers that laboured to effect the Spanish Match for being luke-warm at the best and unfastned from the Religion then profest is very audacious The Accused were Innocent and never gave ground to any pernicious Alteration but themselves the Accusers have trodden down that Religion of which in their deep Hypocrisy they would seem to be Champions The Prince and Buckingham were ever Protestants those their Opposites you know not what to term them unless Detestants of the Romish Idolatry As if all were well so they be not Popified though they have departed from the Church in which they were Baptized and a Church I will not say as sound as it was in its Cradle in the Apostles Times but as pure and Orthodox in Doctrine and Government as far as they were maintained to be of Divine Right and Constitution as it was in its Childhood in the time of their Disciples even that next succeeded them And are these the Declamers for Religion and the Temple of the Lord Ex isto ore Religionis verbum excidere an t clabi potest as Tully said of Clodius Orat. pro domo suâ ad Pontif. and so I give them no better Respect at parting 134. But what will be said when one that is greatly affected to our poor demolish'd Church doth concur with those Snarling Sectaries of his own accord That in the flagrant expectation of that Match some for hope of Favour began to Favour the Catholick
they of our part before you bring forth the whole Plump of your Articles No Fence could thrust by this Question but that it would stick fast in the Cause So we gained again that King Philip was restreined from making Faith for King James And although the Froathy Formality of promulging the Dispensation was kept back yet the Articles came into Play that the Commissioners on both sides might fall to a Session 142. But from Strife of Tongues from Fundamental Contradictions from Clashings every day what Fruit could be look'd for Do Men gather Grapes of Thorns If you will believe the Parties what this Lord objected against that Lord there was none that did Good no not one If you will believe their respective Defences to those Objections there was none that did amiss I cannot take up all the Blots they made with my Pen lest I make them bigger None of those Peers hath Justified himself so well in his Letters Apologies and Reports but that strong Inferences may be drawn from some Parts to disprove the rest What was spoken at the Conference of the Junto was within the Veil and under Covert but what is published out of it is most uncertain For the Lord Keeper after he had consulted with the Prince and searched all Papers to pass his Judgment what Countenance the Business should put on when the Parliament looked upon it but ten days before Feb. 2. 1623 He writes thus to the Duke Cabal P. 90. That all the Reckoning must not be cast up before the Parliament for fear they should fall to particular Dispatches wherein they cannot but find many Contradictions After whom I glean up this Handful He that writes upon this Subject what is reserved in the Memorials of those Days writes after the Canon of Integrity but when he is monished that there are Contradictions in those Memorials he can never be secure that he hath compiled an uncorrupt History Upon this Staff he may rest That when the Chief Counsellors fell out among themselves like the Midianites every Man's Hand against his Brother as worthy Actors as I count them to be yet every one was out in his Part. Nay He that will adjust the Course of any one in this high Transaction in all things will burn Truth in the Hand and spare the Guilty He that aspired to be Dioscorus the most preeminent in the Company let him be first considered That is Conde Olivarez the Abner in the Service of his Master Ishbosheth whose Humor would brook to be crost by no Man ingrained in Nature to be Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Opiniator a costive Counsellor that would hold the Ground where he stood and move for no Perswasion By the fortunate Gale of Court-Favour he had lived in continual Custom to carry all before him without being stopt As Velleiâ—s says of M. Agrippa Parendi sed uni scientissimus aliis sanè imperandi cupidus so he was very servile to please King Philip and look'd that all beside should be as servile to please him Such a Spirit is intolerable in Counsel and not to be coapt with that thinks it an indignity unless he speak for all and Vote for all Such a States-man is like to bring nothing to a good End but himself to an ill one Our Princes Reports may be held of all other to be most Authentical from whom take it thus His Highness representing the Treatise of Spain to the Lords of the Privy-Councel at St. James's Octob. 30. 1623. Begins that the first man that did give him great Profession of welcom into Spain was this Olivares and in the interview in the Garden assured him that all business should be dispatch'd as fast as his Highness wish'd That the Temporal Articles should straightway be Concluded and the Spiritual Articles about Religion should cause no delays but be remitted to the Wisdom of the King his Father and his Gracious Promises But says his Highness The longer I staid the less I found him my Friend and the oftner I spoke with him the less he kept his Word But our Duke of Buckingham after a little acquaintance found the Conde Duke a great deal worse to him They came in no place but with shews of disdain at one anothers Persons and like two great Caraques in a foul Sea they never met in Counsel but they stemmed one another In every Proposal if one said so the other said no if one lik'd it the other slighted it Could it be expected that the Counsels of the whole Table should not be at a Fault when the two Presidents appear'd in Hostility of Opinions When the Malady of disaffection lay not hid in the Veins but broke out in the Body When they never brought their Offers within compass of Probability One Observes for their parts that run Races Alex. lib. 2. c. 21. Quanto minor in corpore splen foret tanto perniciores homines esse He that hath the least Spleen will make the best Footman So in all Negotiations he that is most Calm will dispatch most work but put Wise-Heads together yet where there is much Spleen there will be little done There was no likelihood but the Northern and Southern Favourites as the Lord Keeper foretold would look proudly one upon another when they met in the same Cock-Pit Courtesie was quite out of fashion with them that he that receiv'd it might not seem the greater Emulation was all in Fashion to dim each others Light by casting Shadows of Opposition Only these Animosities between two high Spirits so ill Match'd were the Seed of the Quarrel which I press against a vulgar and a scandalous Error made Table Talk in all England that our Duke had Attempted the Chastity of the Condessa Olivares and was Cheated with a diseased Strumpet laid in his Bed c. This is grosly contumelious The Lady was never solicited by Buckingham to defile her Honour with him as Sir Wal. Aston will Testifie in a Postscript of a Letter to the Duke Cabal p. 33. The Condessa of Olivares bids me tell you that she Kisseth your Grace's Hands and does every Day Recommend you particularly by Name in her Prayers to God which Salutation she durst not have sent to his Lordship no not for her Life if the Duke had offer'd toward that Indignity to make her a Strumpet And for the Rest of this Obscene Tale the worthiest Gentlemen that waited upon his Person in that Journey have assur'd me that as well in Spain as when he came from thence into England his Body was Untainted from that Loathsomness not to be Named the just Recompence of Rotten Lust Yet perhaps more will Read these Reasons then believe them though they cannot Answer them Few have been so happy to be Redeemed from the Rumor of a common Slander For as the most Eloquent of Men says Orat. pro Plancio Nihil est tam volucre quà m Maledictum nihil facilius emittitur nihil citius excipitur nihil latius
he desired Leave from his Father that he might assay to depart from Madrid as secretly as he came thither Quando optima Dido Nesciat tantos rumpi non speret amores Aeneid 4. The Lord Keeper indeed had emboldned the Prince in February before to that Course but the King thought the Motion was not so seasonable at that time For his Highness was attended in Spain with a great Houshold of Followers and God knows whither the Sheep would be scattered or into what Pin-sold they should be thrust if the shepherd were gone And his Majesty still dreamt of of winning the Game and profest he saw no such Difficulties but that Patience after a while would overcome Perversness Howsoever it would be inglorious for the Prince of Wales to run away from the Frown of the Spaniards But least the Safety of so dear a Person should seem to be slighted or his Welcome Home retarded the Lord Keeper besought the King upon his Knees that his Majesty would write his Fatherly and Affectionate Letters to require his Son's Return giving them no Date but leaving that to be inserted when Business was crown'd with Opportunity This Counsel hit the Pin right and was followed and by God's Will who hath the Hearts of Kings and Princes in his Hand it pleased on this side and beyound the Seas 147. Great was the Expectation what the Month of July would bring forth as well in England as in Spain My Lord Duke had thrust himself into the greatest Employment that was in Europe when at first he had no Ground now no Mind to accomplish it A sorry Apprehension taken from Mr. Endi Porter carried him forth in all hast to make up the Match but there were others who desired his Grace to gratifie them with Concealment for their Good-will that sent Instructions into Spain to adjure him to do his utmost to prevent the Espousals Their Reasons were the two principal Places of Divine and Humane Wisdom God's Glory and his own Safety For God's Sake to keep our Orthodox Religion from the Admixture of that Superstition which threatned against the Soundness of it And no Corrosive so good to eat out the Corruption of Romish Rottenness creeping on as to give the Spaniard the Dodg and to leave the Daughter of Spain behind To his own Safety this Counsel was contributed These who made it their Study and were appointed to it to maintain the Grandeur of his Lordship met frequently at Wallingford-house to promote the Work Who had observed that some Impressions were gotten into the King's Mind and they knew by whom that his Majesty was resolved to be a Lover of Parliaments that he would close very graciously with the next that was called nor was there Likelihood that any private Man's Incolumity though it were his Grace himself should cause an unkind Breach between him and his People Therefore the Cabinet-men at Wallingford-House set upon it to consider what Exploit this Lord should commence to be the Darling of the Commons and as it were to re-publicate his Lordship and to be precious to those who had the Vogue to be the chief Lovers of their Country Between the Flint and the Steel this Spark was struck out that all other Attempts would be in vain unless the Treaty for the great Marriage were quasht and that the Breach of it should fall notoriously upon the Lord Buckingham's Industry For it was not to the Tast of the English if you will number them and not weigh them fearing some Incommodation to the Protestant Religion These Jonadabs 2 Sam. 13.3 the Subtle Friends of beauteous Absalom drew the Duke out of the King's High-way into the By-path of Popularity The Spaniards also stir'd up his Fire to struggle and appear against them For as the Earl of Bristol writes Cab. P. 20. He was very little beholding to them for their good Opinion Withal he was so head-strong that all the Ministers of our King that were joyned with him could not hold him in He had too much Superiority to think them his Fellow Servants that were so indeed And having nothing in his Tast but the Pickle of those new Counsels which his Governing Friends in England insus'd into him he pluckt down in a few Weeks which the other Part had been raising up in eight Years Centum doctúm hominum concilia sola devincit Dea Fortuna Plaut Pseud Act. 2. This unfortunate Accident did both contravene and over-match the Counsels of a hundred wise Men. A fatal thing it hath been always to Monarchs to be most deceived where they have trusted most Nay If they had all the Eyes of Argos their chiefest Confidents are able to abuse them on the blind Side Therefore the Observator is most injurious that puts a low Esteem upon King James's Wisdom P. 14. That he was over-witted and made use of to other Mens ends by almost all that undertook him So he may put the Fool upon Solomon who was cousen'd in Jeroboam whom he made Ruler over all the Charge of the House of Joseph 1 King 11.28 A Solomon may be mistaken in a Jeroboam and like his seeming Faithfulness and Sufficiency to the Undoing of his Posterity Little did the old King expect that the Man of his Right-hand whom he had made so strong for his own Service upon all Occasions would forget the Trust of his Gracious Master and listen to the Voice of Hirelings Which of the Members of my Partition will make the Duke excusable in point of Honour and Conscience Did he do it for the best to the King Did he think the Spanish Alliance would be fruitful in nothing but Miseries and that it would be a thankful Office to lurch the King in his Expectation of it Evil befall such double Diligence Perhaps it may be shifted off with the Name of a good Intent when it tampers with a Branch or Circumstance of an Injoyment but when it raiseth up the very Body of Instructions 't is no more competent with Obedience than Light with Darkness The Heathen would not brook it that had a grain of Philosophy in their Disposition that a Minister should alter the Mandates of his Superior upon Supposes to the better Ne benè consulta Religione mandati soluta corrumperentur Gell. lib. 1. c. 13. They thought that those Services which wanted the Religion of Obedience let their Aim be never so honest would prove improsperous Or did this great Lord do it for the best to himself I believe it If the Hope of the Match died away he lookt to get the Love of the most in England but if it were made up he lookt for many Enemies for he had lost the Love of the best in Spain Sir Wal. Aston foresaw wisely that there was no fear but that the Princely Lovers might joyn Hands in Sacred Wedlock if that Fear of the Duke could be removed So he writes Cab. P. 32. Would your Grace would commit it to my Charge to inform the
any prudent Man oblige himself to all those Errours which may be committed And if the Count Palatine had followed the Counsel of the most Excellent King of Great Britain many of those things which have succeeded had been prevented and the Grace of the Emperor had been better disposed than now it is Beside that much hath been spent and that they have seen him so obstinate stirring up against the Emperor both the Turk and Bethlem Gabor and as many others as he hath been able I say not this to the end that we should forbear to do whatsoever in this World we should be able to accommodate the Palatine and to do in this behalf that which the King of Great Britain doth shew that he desireth But to say that which is certain his Majesty of Great Britain doth by no means find himself in this Business any other ways engaged than he shall find that Engagement to be justifiable God keep you as I desire From Madrid 31 Octob. 1623. Postscript If my Lord the King did not mean to bring this Business to a final Conclusion with much Gust to the King of Great Britain we might sufficiently with that which my Lords the Ambassadors desire by offering and really interposing our Intercession with his Cesareal Majesty And we might also have excused the Writing of this long Letter which is full of Good will and of this I can assure you 163. This long riddling non-concluding Letter such another as Tiberius the Emperor wrote from Capree to the Senate for the Tryal of Sejanus is not endorsed I conceive it was sent to Mr. Edward Clerke who was sent from the Prince on Shipboard to the Earl of Bristol to stop the Powers he had for the dispatch of the expected Desposories this was put into his Hand against he return'd for England But what is it worth if it were to be sold Scarce two of their Maravedies and we requited them with that which came to as little as one of our Farthings We had look'd after the Re-possession of the Palatinate till our Eyes aked and to feed them with a taste of their own Provender a long-breath'd Delay we made their Ambassadors in London tarry for the Indulgences which their Clients in Religion hoped for till their Hearts aked It is opened sufficiently before that his Majesties End in subscribing to the Articles in favour of the Papists his Subjects was to second his Son in that which he had begun in Spain to bring him out of the Briars from thence The Ambassadors plied the Concession of the Articles very diligently that their Party might enjoy the sweetness of the Benefit For better is the sight of the Eyes than the wandring of the Desire Eccles 6.9 It fell out well that the King never intermitting a Summers Progress was out of the way So the Management of the Business fell upon the Lord Keeper not by Usurpation but by Merit and by Necessity too For whatsoever his Majesty pretended he gave the Keeper a secret Rule to go no faster than needs and to do no more prejudice than was unavoidable A Regiment of Plots would hardly be enough to be drawn up together to win that Enterprise though a good Sconce overcame all Propertius Mens bona si qua Dea es tua me in sacraria dona says a Heathen As all costly Oyntments have Oyl mixed with them so Wisdom persumes all Undertakings as this under the File will demonstrate The Ambassador used their Counsel Learned in our Laws to draw up the effect of that they had obtained as near as could be to his Majesties Mind Which was brought to the Lord Keeper who told them The Papers were unsatisfactory they had proceeded indeed by the Articles signed in the private Lodgings at Whitehal but the private Articles shew only the extent of his Majesties Grace and Favour in the substance not at all the Manner and Form how they shall be conveyed which must be chalked out by a new and immediate Warrant from his Majesty This held dispute till the 10th of August his Majesty being at Salisbury where Directions past to liquidate the Doubts how the Kings Grants should be applied call'd from that place the Articles of Salisbury For which the Agents of the Ambassadors were to resort to the Earl of Carlile and Mr. Secretary Conway attending in the Progress and the Patents to be filled up with them by the Discretion of the Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Mr. Secretary Calvert Sir Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Atturney-General Sir Th. Coventry attending who were to sit at Whitehal for the more easie Expedition Time is given to draw up Copies of new Draughts Interea aliquid fiet spero says the Comick In these Intervals who could tell but somewhat might fall out to cross all On the 18th of August the Lord Keeper sends the Form of the Pardon drawn up to the King at Beawlie to save the Recusants from all Advantages the Laws might take for the time past and a Dispensation to keep them indemnified from the same for the time to come But an Item was given to bring the Dispensation lame back that his Majesty should signifie his Royal Will That the Pardon should go under the Great Seal the Dispensation under the Privy Seal This from Beawlie Aug. 21. And there was a Colour for it out of the Agreements of Salisbury subtilly drawn up For the second Article says That a Legal Authentical Pardon shall be past under the Great Seal And in the seventh Article There shall be a present Suspension of his Majesties Laws under his Seal The word Great was wilfully omitted to puzzle the Transaction But after the Spanish part had debated with the Lord Keeper in Reason he writes to Secretary Conway at Tichburn Aug. 25. That he confest a Dispensation from the Poenal Statutes could not be pleaded but under the Great Seal The Business got off in that Point but it hung upon another Tentar He writes again to Mr. Secretary then at Broad-lands Aug. 27. That it troubled him much he was enforced to such often Replies but the Weight of the Business would excuse it He says He was not instructed from the Articles of Salisbury from what Day the Dispensation was to begin and how far it was to be limited in time to come from what time those are to be excluded that do not lay hold of it To which answer was given but always the Dial stood Once again he demurr'd upon the Dispensation which says That the Papists Convict shall not pay their Forfeiture for not coming to Church nor be Indicted for not taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance whether it was not fit to divide these in several Styles and Expressions It was return'd and dictated from the Kings Lips The first Breach of the Laws should be signified to be absolutely pardoned The latter should go in another Form that it should not be questioned and Mr. Atturney to provide accordingly
his Majesty Not take off his Hand id est He will employ without intermission his best Offices to procure Satisfaction to his Majesty And concerning Offices and Treatises we have had too many of them already Non tali auxilio c. But together with this written Letter I must acquaint your Lordships with an unwritten Tradition Which was delivered to the Earl of Bristol together with the Project of the Letter by Secretary Cirica but ill conceal'd by his Lordship in that Dispatch and sent afterward probably by Mr. Clâ—rke to my Lord Duke's Grace That whereas the King of Spain did find his Errour in going on with the Treaty of the Marriage before he had cleared the Treaty of the Palatinate he is now resolv'd to change his Method and to perfect this Treaty of the Restitution of the Palatinate before he will proceed any further in the accomplishing of the Marriage So that these Treatises as they are carried in Spain shall be quit one with another As formerly the Treaty of the Marriage did justle out the Treaty of the Palatinate so now the Treaty of the Palatinate hath quite excluded the Treaty of the Marriage And indeed in stead of Wedding Garments that King as you heard hath made a hasty Winter Journey to Andaluzia to provide his Navy But how they are to be employ'd we shall hear shortly if we will still be credulous by Padre Maestro who is on his way for this Kingdom My Lords to conclude As the Heathen say that the Golden Chain of Laws is tyed to the Chair of Jupiter so the future Proceedings upon all this long Narration is tyed to your Consultation Things past are exactly made known to you that things to come may be more wisely considered An Historian says Curtius Male humanis ingeniis Natura consuluit quod plaerumquè non futura sed transacta perpendimus Nature hath not well provided for Humane Wisdom that commonly we discuss upon things already done rather than what may be done for the future But my Lords you are not put to that streit But your Lordships speedy Advice is requir'd for that which is to follow specially concerning this last Dispatch that implieth the Education of the Prince Palatine's Son in the Emperor's Court and that the King of Spain will promise no Assistance to draw off the Emperor's Army from his Country much less Assistance by Arms to recover it This is it which his Majesty expects from your Lordships mature Advice Whether this being the Product of all the Trouble which I have opened to your Lordships it be sufficient for his Majesty to rest upon both for the Marriage of his only Son and the relieving of his only Daughter This Report it was so grateful for the Theme so gracefully handled for the manner so Clear so Elaborate so Judiciously manag'd that the Author had never more Praise in his Life for one days Work of that kind So acceptable it was even to the Duke though turn'd a Cold Friend That he said He knew not how to Thank him enough for it Yet this was but as the White of an Egg which gets some Tast with a little Salt of Eloquence but nothing in Comparison of the Yolk of his Worth But as Nazianzen said of St. Basil Quae ab illo velm obiter siâ—bant praestantiora crant quà m ea in quibus alii Elaborant Such an Orator was sure to have the Custom of the Parliament upon all the like Occasions Therefore when he had scarce taken Breath after the former Service he was Commanded to add the Supplement as it follows in another Conference Gentlemen THat are the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons I am directed by my Lords to open this Conference with acquainting the House of Commons with whom their Lordships desire to hold all fair and sincere Correspondence with a double Preface First with a Supplement to that Narration made by his Highness and my Lord the Duke of Buckingham his Grace to both the Houses and then with an Opinion of their Lordships super totam Materiam upon the whole Proceed of the great business Now because in this Consultation the Supplement did co-operate with the Narration for the producing of their Lordships Opinion I hold it the best Method to begin with that The Supplement is of a Threefold Nature The First Concerns the Treaty of the Marriage The Second the Restitution of the Palatinate The Third a most Heroical Act and Resolution of the Princes Highness which their Lordships held necessary to be imparted first to you the Universality and Body Representative and then by you to all the Kingdom That Supplement which concerns the Treaty of the Marriage is no more but this That by a Letter of the Earl of Bristols writen Nine Years ago 3 Novem. 1614. it appeared plainly unto their Lordships that this Treaty of the Marriage had the first beginning by a Motion from Spain and not from England even from the Duke of Lerma who promised all sincerity in the Match and as little pressing as might be in matters of Religion Yet though the Proposal began so soon and was follow'd so earnestly it is now like an untimely Birth for which the Mother endureth a painful Travail and it enjoyeth not the Fruit of Life That Supplement which Concerns the Restitution of the Palatinate is this That whereas in that Treaty a demand is pressed by his Majesty upon the King of Spain to promise us assistance by Arms in case Mediation should not prevail it hath appeared to their Lordships by the Papers of the Earl of Bristol preserved in the Councel-Chamber that the King of Spain hath formerly promised Assistance by Arms upon such a supposition which notwithstanding he now utterly refuseth and offers but bare Mediation But as Symmachus says in an Ep. to Ausonius Pa. vis nutriment is quanquam à morte defendimur nihil tamen ad Robustam valetudinem promovemur We may keep Life and scarce that with a poor Diet but we shall never grow strong with such a pittance If the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of that Honourable House desire a Sight of these Dispatches they shall be Read unto them Thirdly That Supplement which tends so much to the Honour of his Highness is this Sometime in July last when his Highness was in Spain a Rumor was scatter'd that his Highness had provided to steal away secretly insomuch that some of the King of Spain's Ministers were appointed as a Watch to detein him openly and avowedly as a Prisoner Hereupon my Lord's Grace was sent to the whole Committee with this Heroical Remonstrance that though he stole thither out of Love he scorn'd to steal away out of Fear neither was his Heart guilty of taking so poor and unworthy a Course A brave and magnanimous Resolution yet short of that which followeth For the Prince made a dispatch to his Father at that instant and sent this Message unto him by Mr. Grimes
Neither do I blame them for bestowing a generous and liberal Part of their own upon themselves I should rebuke the contrary Nonne est manifest a phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris egentis vivere fato But let them be thankful for their Store and not attempt by Murmerings and Outcries to make the Goverment odious under which they prosper as if the Chief Shepherd of the People had not shorn a Lock of Wooll from their Backs but devoured them But what if they had been diminished to a visible Share of their Substance No worse Man than a Pope Gregory the First hath given us that Counsel Lib. 3. Ep. 26. To Januarius Bishop of Calaris in Sardinia Si quis rusticus tantae fucrit perfidiae obstinationis inventus ut ad Dominum venire minimè consentiat tanto pensionis onere gravandus est ut ipsà exactionis sure poená compellatur ad reclitudinem festinare But we are guilty of none of Gregories Exactions And let not your Friends my Lord think they walk in a Mist as if the King and his Ministers of State did not know what Sums they effund by dangerous Conduit-Pipes both to the Impoverishing of their own Substance and the exhausting of the Kingdom First The Priests that jog about from Shire to Shire from House to House are great Grinders I know how costly they are to their Disciples who are like those in a facetious Author Hâ—minâ—â—s câ—itellarii magni sunt oneris quicquid impâ—niâ— vehunt Plautus Mâ—stella I know they pay the Charges of the Priests Journey to and fro to the utmost Penny their Fraught by Ship hither their Horses and Convoys by Land their Entertainment cut deep Obits Dirges Masses are not said for nothing Then in every Family where they are received they disperse Books for Meditations and Holy Exercises for which they are paid hee sold more than the Value And above all those indefinite Sums imposed for Satisfaction by the Will of the Confessor are the strongest Purgation My Lord the Priest's little Finger is thicker than the King's Loins What they pay by Virtue of our Laws so remiâ—sly exacted is but like an honorary Present to a Lord in Chief but what they pay to their Ghostly Fathers by their own Canonical Customs is above a Rent of Vassalage And all this while the over-flowing Tide of their Expences is but coming in I am not but now at the high Water-Mark King Philip the Second of Spain founded two Colledges for Jesuits of this Nation at Sevil and Valledolid and he gave a Competency to their maintainance but their Well-wishers in England reach forth such Liberality to them as makes them flourish above their Foundation Who but the same Benefactors supply the Seminaries of their Country-men in Artois and Flanders Gregory the Thirteenth gave little more than bare Walls to the English Colledge at Rome Yet they are able to keep Festival Days with Bounty and relieve Strangers wit Hospitality so long as their Treasurers receive plump Contributions from England let them be once stopt and their Kitchin Fire will go out And now be Judge your self Sir if these Men as you supposed were cut so low with the Sickle that their Lives were irksome and that they had scarce Stabble to maintain them 222. Hitherto I have proved that we have been just in our Duties towards Men as Men and as we are accountable to the second Table of the Law Your Pontificians though esloigned from us in the Way of God's Worship yet their Persons are our Neighbours therefore we do not forget them in the Debentures of our Love I grant it before a Challenge be made that I have performed little unless I can justifie our Piety in the Survey of the first Table And to make it perspicuous and intelligible I will fall into your Lordship's Method according to my best Remembrance Consider Sir that the Compâ—ainants for whose Sakes this Ball of Contention is tost to and fro are they that live among us yet profess Obedience to another Church This we reckon to be a Disease and a sore one The Care of their Souls belongs to the Supream Magistrate who is to provide for all that are under his Allegiance that they may lead Godly as well as quiet Lives He would cure the Ill Affected by his own Physicians The Patients very confident that they can choose best for themselvs will listen to none but such as the Magistrate no less strong in Confidence than they foredooms that by their Applications both such as are unsound will be past Hope of Recovery and some that are sound will fall away by Contagion Both of these being fixed upon the respective Perswasions of their Minds Which of them should yield with least Offence and most Reason I speak as to external Compliance Surely a publick Conscience ought to be more scrupulous than a private The Supream Ruler is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he permits that which his Heart condems his Sin is compleatly voluntary If the Inferior and the Subjected yearns for Instructions and Helps in Religion which under great Forfeiture are prohibited to them they cast their Burden upon Necessity and he is very rigorous that will not say they are excusable The loudest Bell of the Petitioners Grievances and that which is furthest hard is that they are Men in Danger of Shipwrack for want of Pâ—ots their own Priests to whose Oversight they commit the Care of their Souls are kept from them and cannot with Comfort and Confidence light their Knowledge from any other Lamps Conscience reclaims it and if they are blind yet blind Men must not be iâ— entreated for their Blindness but be led by the Hand My Noble Lord Villoclare This Complaint above all that can be said beside is apt to work upon Affections to compassionate the Breathings of a Soul which protests it languisheth for want of due Means to know God and to worship him But Affections and the most tender of them which is piâ—y have no Taste in them till they be seasoned with the Salt of Prudence The Simple believeth every Word but the Prudent looketh well to his going Prov. 14.15 Conscience is offered and set out as it were for a Lan horn upon the Pharos of this Motion But your Lordship so excellent a States-man knows none better that the greatest Cheats that are put upon the World are in the good Names of Love and Conscience Who hath the Power to hurt so soon as he that would be believed that he loves and doth not And who so dangerous to overthrow Peace as he that pleads that Conscience is the only Cause of his Discontents and Disobedience He that baits his Hook with Niceness of Conscience may catch What my Lord Gudgions but not a Salmon for the Delusion is stale I must enter further into the Closet of this Objection What Out-cries are these that if their own Priests be restrained from them their Souls shall perish for lack of Knowledge They
his Answers both because he limited them so warily in all his Concessions and because if he were left to himself he lov'd to keep his Word For he was observ'd in all his Reign that he seldom trod awry but by mistrusting his own Judgment and falling from it for their Perswasions that came short of him a great deal in Wit and Honesty It was an Error For a King should appear in that Magnitude that no Man should expect to deceive him or remove him from his Sentence If he be too passive he will be counted at the best but in the middle Rank of Men who should not be contented with mediocrity of Reputation For a Prince that is not valued for great and excellent will be contemn'd Yet blame not that which came not from Sin but from Softness And say of his Majesly as Eudaeus did of his Master Francis the first Vir ad omnia summa natus dignusque qui suâ—e naturae magis quà m hiantibus aliorum cupiditatibus indulgeret The forlorn Keeper felt the Heaviness of this Lightness who thought he had obtain'd much but excepting the four Advousons confirm'd to St. John's College he mist all that he sought for and expected After he had lest Salisbury which was the next day he could never receive a Farthing of his Pension nor bring it to an Audit to his dying day Was it not a Debt True But it must be forborn to be paid because he did not want it Must the Rich if they ask their own be sent empty away A Rule for none but the Conscience of a Leveller But I press it for him that he wanted it and more than it to do Works of Piety and Bravery to do Works of Splendor and Bounty which was all the Use that he knew to be made of Wealth As all is superfluous in a burning Candle but that which the Snuff sucks up to maintain the Light So the Life of every Man especially of a temperate Man is maintain'd with little What should he covet more than so much as will keep his Lamp in burning Nor was the King's Scepter after that day held out to becken to him to come towards his Majesty The Favour of a Prince is seldom found again when it is lost like Plautus his Captive Maid Semel fugiendi si data est occasiâ— nunquam post illam possis prendere if she take her to her Heels and be gone she will run away so far that she will never be taken The Attendants about a King are in the fault for this Who will grow Strangers and worse of a sudden to those that were lately in their Bosom if a King send them off with disgrace A cashiered Courtier is an Almanack of the last Year remembred by nothing but the great Eclipse Look for gentle Strains and Civilities among them from the Noâ—â—es to the Huishers but he that trusts to their Faith and Friendship may go seek That which this dismissed Lord did most pretend for was to be called again after some pause of time to the Council-board But he was utterly forgot and his grief must be the less because he was no Counsellor in the Management of those Contrivances which bred the Troubles as 't is thought wherein the Kingdom miscarried So he resolv'd not to offer his Presence where he should be checkt for appearing It is sagely noted by Symmachus Ep. p. 91. Qui excludi per improbos possimus abesse interim velut ex nostro arbitrio debemus Let it be my own act says he to refrain from the Imperial Palace and let not haughty and churlish Men have their Wills to exclude me But before five days were run out this relinquish'd Lord had intelligence how the Duke talk'd so minaciously and loudly that it made him throw all expectation of future Kindness over-board into the dead Sea of Despair Since this Disaster began he was never couragious and in good heart till then Now as Plato began he was never couragious and in good heart till then Now as Plato says of Socrates his Hemlock-Cup brought to him to drink it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not sip it but carouse it off So much doth it profit a Man towards a settled Mind to let no false Comfort in when he is in the darkness of Misery Hermolaus Barbarus had many Troubles rushing in upon him after he was made Patriarch of Aquileia Whereupon he writes Politia Ep. p. 405. I am surrounded with Terrors and Opposition and I look for no better Times hereafter which is the best and only true Valour Non est fortis qui fortis est in spe qui perfert mala etiam si duratura viderit fortis est He that looks for better times his Hope is his Compensation but without Question it is too slack for Fortitude 30. The Sun is now Setting Upon the 25th of October Sir John Suckling brought the Warrant from the King to receive the Seal and the good News came together very welcome to the Resignant that Sir Thomas Coventry should have that Honour From whom the Kingdom look'd for much good and found it Between both those two Worthies in that Office I may state the Comparison as Quintilian hath done between Livy and Salust Pares eos magis fuisse quà m similes rather Equals than altogether like in the Management of the Place The Warrant under the Signet went thus Charles R. TRusty and Well-beloved Counsellor we greet you well You are to deliver upon the Receipt hereof our Great-Seal of England whereof you are our Keeper unto our Trusty and Well-beloved Counsellor Sir John Suckling Controuler of our Houshold the Bearer hereof And this shall be a sufficient Warrant unto you so to do Given under Our Signet at our Court at Salisbury the 23 d. of October in the first Year of our Reign Which was instantly obey'd And the Seal being put into a costly Cabinet in Sir John Suckling's Presence the Key of the Cabinet was inclosed in a Letter closed with the Episcopal Seal of Lincoln The Copy whereof remains in these Words Most gracious and most dread Sovereign HAving now no other Meditations left than how to serve God and your Majesty in the Quality of a poor Bishop I do humbly crave your Majesty's Favour in this last Paper which I shall present to your Majesty in this kind that I may president my self by two grave Bishops St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom In the former I find myself dispos'd for this Civil as St. Ambrosewas for his natural Death Non ita vixi ut me vivere pudeat nee mori timeo quia bonum habemus Dominum That as I have not liv'd in my Place so altogether unworthily as to be asham'd to continue in the same so am I not now perturb'd in the quitting of the same because I know I have a good God and a gracious Sovereign For the other I present this my last and dying Request in the very last Words of St. Chrysostom
and give ear to nothing So you have the first and the last part of the Presbyterians Actings with the other Divines whom the Lords appointed for a Sub-committee There may well be a Suspicion when their Deeds do make a Confession that they would prevail by Force when they could not by Argument And thus began the downfal of Episcopacy which was never heard never suffer'd to plead at the Bar of the Parliament in its own Cause but as one says pertinently It was smother'd in a Crowd 141. Anatomists observe that the thinnest Membrane is that which covers the Brain that no weight might stop it from production of Notions and Phancies Certainly it was so in our Bishop's Head-piece who was consulted every day in weighty Affairs and had a Task at this time concurrent with all that went before to look to the Case of the noble but unfortunate Earl of Strafford A Charge of great Crimes was hastily drawn up against him that he had been a Tyrant in Ireland and stirred up His Majesty to raise an Army to oppress his Subjects in England and Scotland Haec passim Dea soeda virum diffudit in ora AEn 4. These were the Fictions of Fame and no more but made the People cast about distrustful and disloyal Doubts The Earl a man of great Wit and Courage knew not whether the King and all his Friends could save him In a rebellious nation wrath is set on fire Ecclus 16.6 And to the shame of Subjects bewitch'd with the new Spirit of that Bedlam rage neither the King nor his Justice could protect any man Too well do I remember that of Justin lib. 30. Nec quisquam in regno suo minùs quà m rex ipse poterat Some say of the French luke-warm in Religion that they kneel but with one Knee at Mass a great number in our rigid Parliament would not do so much the locking Joynt of their Knee was too stiff to bend at all Rebellion is a foul word yet they blush'd not at the deed who were ashamed of the Title Then the Scots were resolved not to disband till this brave Lord was headless Who hath seen a Hedge hog rouled up into a Ball The whole lump is Prickles do but touch it and you hurt your Hand Convolvuntur in modum pilae ne quid possit comprehendt praeter aculeos Plin l. 8. c. 37. So Lessly and his Tykes were bloody and imperious fastned with much confidence in one body Who could remove them Nay who could touch them or go about to mollitie them and get no harm Then the Tumults of Sectaries Corner-creepers and debauch'd Hang-by's that beset the dutiful Lord and Commons with Poniards and Clubbs were worse than an Army far off These call'd for Justice that is for the Life of the Earl What had they to do with Justice which if it might have fate upon the Bench and tryed them every Mothers Son of them had been condemned to the Gallows But it was safer to sit still with Prudence than to rush on with Courage Plus animi est inferenti periculum quà m propulsanti Liv. lib. 38. The Affailant that comes to do a Mischief puts on desperately and is fiercer than the Defendant And there is no equal temperature or counterpoise of Power against the strong Ingredient of a Multitude I will not say but many of this Scum invited themselves unbidden to do a Mischief but there was a Leader a Presbyter Pulpiteer that bespoke them into the Uproar from Shop to Shop Lucius Sergius signifer seditionis concitator tabernariorum Cic. pro dom ad Pont. I need not a Lime-hound to draw after him that was the chief Burgess of the Burrough who gathered this vain People to a head that had no Head Silly Mechanicks Horum simplicitas miserabilis his furor ipse Dat veniam Juven Sat. 2. But what will he answer that knew his Master's Will and ran headlong against it Now here 's the Streight of the Earl of Strafford expos'd to the greatest popular Rage that ever was known All that his good Angel could whisper into him in Prison was to trust to God and a righteous Defence But whereon should he bottom his Defence He could not upon the known Law which is the Merastone to limit and define all Causes for Life Limb Liberty or Living He must stand to a Tryal whether parcels of petty Offences will make an accumulative Felony and be arraigned upon a notion of Treason which could be wrested out of no Statute nor be parallel'd with any President The Treason was rather in them that call'd such things Treason to which no English Subject was liable by his Birth-right In populo scelus est abundant cuncta furore Man lib. 2. The Law was too much his Friend to bring him before the face of it Anocent man fears the Law an innocent man fears Malice and Envy O vitae tuta facultas Pauperis angustique laris O munera nondum Intellecla Luc. lib. 5. O the security and sound sleeps of a private Life If this Earl had not climb'd as high as the Weather-cock of Honours Spire he had not known the Horror of a Precipice Isocrates would never meddle with a publick Office says the Author of his Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Athenians were so spightful at their Magistrates that he would not trust them Demasthenes was employed in great Places and died untimely by a Poyson which he had confected for an evil time Says Pausan upon it in Atti. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is entrusted to govern the people when he hath serv'd their turn seldom dyes fortunately But this is the man whose Troubles gave the Bishop occasion to shew his Abilities in two points First About the circumstance of the examination of the Cause Secondly About the Judges of the Cause that is Whether Bishops might be such in causâ sanguinis There is much of it I confess but the Learning will recompence the length And I shall not blemish his Reputation to say of him what the Orator said of L. Aquilius Orat. pro Caecinnâ Cujus tantum est ingenium ita prompta fides ut quicquid haurias purum liquidúmque haurire censeas 142. Before I draw up to the Bishop's Reports there is more to be premised as That there was much ado to score out the Hearing of Strafford with a straight Line and a Form to give some satisfaction as a Child is often set upon its Legs before it can go His Adversaries toss'd it about many ways and manag'd it chiefly by two persons Mr. St. John the King's Sollicitor one that did very bad Service to the King his Master and the Church his Mother yet of able parts therefore I will write the Inscription of his Tomb-stone on the wrong side and turn it downward to the Earth The other was John Pym Homo ex argillâ luto factus Epicuraeo as Tully said of Piso that is in Christian English a painted Sepulchre
Garbage That is in plain English the Priest must no longer receive Obligations from either King or Lords but wholly depend upon his Holy Fathers the Pope of Rome and the Pope of Lambeth or at least wise pay him soundly for their Dispensations and Absolutions when they presume to do the contrary In the mean time here is not one word or shew of Reason to inform an understanding man that persons in Holy Orders ought not to terrisie the Bad and comfort the Good to repress Sin and chastise Sinners which is the summa totalis of the Civil Magistracy and consequently so far forth at the least to intermeddle with Secular Affairs And this is all that I shall say touching the Motive and Ground of this Bill and that persons in Holy Orders ought not to be inhibited from intermeddling in Secular Astairs either in point of Divinity or in point of Conveniency and Policy 163. The second Point consists of the Persons reflected upon in this Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders of which point I shall say little only finding these Names huddled up in an Heap made me conceive at first that it might have some relation to Mr. 〈◊〉 Reading in the Middle Temple which I ever esteem'd to have been very inoffentively deliver'd by that learned Gentleman and with little discretion question'd by a great Ecclesiastick then in Place for all that he said was this That when the Temporal â—ords are more in Voices than the Spiritual they may pass a Bill without consent of the Bishops Which is an Assertion so clear in Reason and so often practis'd upon the Records and Rolls of Parliament that no man any way vers'd in either of these can make any doubt of it nor do I though I humbly conceive no Preâ—ident will be ever sound that the Prelates were ever excluded otherwise than by their own Folly Fear or Headiness For the point of being Justices of Peace the Gentleman confesseth he never meddled with Archbishops nor Bishops nor with any Clergyman made a Justice by His Majesty's Commission In the Statute made 34 Edw. 3. c. 1. he finds Assignees for the keeping of the Peace one Lord three or four of the most valiant men of the County the troublesome times did then so require it And if God do not bless us with the riddance of these two Armies the like Provision will be now as necessary He finds these men included but he doth not find Churchmen excluded no not in the Statute 13 Rich. II. c. 7. that requires Justices of Peace to be made of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law of the most sufficient of each County In which words the Gentleman thinks Clerks were not included and I clearly say by his favour they are not excluded nor do the learned Sages of the Law conceive them to be excluded by that Statute If the King shall command the Lord Keeper to fill up the Commissions of each County with the most sufficient Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law shall the Lord Keeper thereupon exclude the Noblemen and the Prelates I have often in my days received this Command but never heard of this Interpretation before this time So that I cannot conceive from what ground this general Sweepstake of Archbishops Bithops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders should proceed I have heard since the beginning of my Sickness that it hath been alledg'd in this House that the Clergy in the Sixth of Edw. 3. did disavow that the Custody of the Peace did belong to them at all and I believe that such a thing is to be sound among the Notes of the Privileges of this House but first you must remember that it was in a great Storm and when the Waters were much troubled and the wild People unapt to be kept in order by Miters and Crosier-staves But yet if that noble Lord shall be pleased to cast his Eye upon the Roll it self he shall find that this poor Excuse did not serve the Prelates turns for they were compelled with a witness to defend the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom for their parts as well as the Noblemen and Gentry And you shall find the Ordinance to this effect set down upon that Roll. I conclude therefore with that noble Lord's favour that the sweeping of all the Clergy out of temporal Offices is a motion of the first impression and was never heard in the English Common-wealth before this Bill 164. I come in the third place to the main part of this Cause the things to be severed from all men in Holy Orders which are as I told you of three kinds 1. Matters of Free-hold as the Bishops Votes in Parliament and Legislative Power 2. Matters of Favour to be a Judge in Star-chamber to be a a Privy-Councillor to be a Justice of Peace or a Commissioner in any Temporal Affairs 3. Mixt Matters of Free-hold and Favour too as the Charters of some Bishops and many of the ancient Cathedrals of this Kingdom who allow them a Justice or two within themselves or their Close as they call it and exempt those grave and learned men from the Rudeness and Insolency of Tapsters Brewers Inn-keepers Taylors and Shoe-makers which do integrate and make up the Bodies of our Country-Cities and Incorporations And now is the Ax laid to the very Root of the Ecclesiastical Tree and without your Lordships Justice and Favour all the Branches are to be lopt off quite with those latter Clauses and the Stock and Root it self to be quite grubb'd and digged up by that first point of abolishing all Vote and Legislative Power in all Clergymen leaving them to be no longer any part of the People of Rome but meer Slaves and Bond-men to all intents and purposes and the Priests of England one degree interiour to the Priests of Jerâ—boam being to be accounted worse than the Tail of the People Now I hope no English-man will doubt but this Vote and Representation in Parliament is not only a Freehold but the greatest Freehold that any Subject in England or in all the Christian World can brag of at this day that we live under a King and are to be govern'd by his Laws that is not by his arbitrary Edicts or Rescripts but by such Laws confirmed by him and assented to by us either in our proper Persons or in our Assignees and Representations This is the very Soul and Genius of our Magna Charta and without this one Spirit that great Statute is little less than litera occidens a dead and useless piece of Paper You heard it most truly opened unto you by a wise and judicious Peer of this House that Legem patere quam ipse tuleris was a Motto wherein Alexander Severus had not more interest than every true-born Englishman No Forty-shillings-man in England but doth in person or representation enjoy his Freedom and Liberty The Prelates of this Kingdom as a Looking-glass
and Representation of the Clergy a third estate if we may speak either with Sir Edw. Coke or the ancient Acts of Parliament have been in possession hereof these Thousand years and upward The Princes of the Norman Race indeed for their own ends and to strengthen themselves with Men and Money erected the Bishopricks soon after the Conquest into Baronies and left them to sit in the House with their double Capacities about them the latter invented for the profit of the Prince not excluding the former remaining always from the beginning for the profit and concernment of the poor Clergy and the State Ecclesiastical which appears not only by the Saxon Laws set forth by Mr. Lambert and Sir H. Spelman but also by the Bishops Writs and Summons to Parliament in use to this very day We have many President upon the Rolls that in vacancy of Episcopal Sees the Guardian of the Spirituals though but a simple Priest hath been called to fit in this Honourable House by reason of the former Representation and such an Officer I was my self over that See whereof I am Bishop some 25 years ago and might then have been summoned by Writ to this Honourable House at that very time by reason of keeping the Spirituality of that Diocess which then as a simple Priest I did by vertue of the aforesaid Office represent And therefore most noble Lords look upon the Ark of God's Representative that at this time floats in great danger in this Deluge of Waters If there be any Cham or unclean Creature therein out with him and let every man bear his own Burden but save the Ark for God and Christ Jesus sake who hath built it in this Kingdom for saving of People And your Lordships are too wise to conceive that the Word and Sacraments the means of our Salvation will be ever effectually received from those Ministers whose Persons shall be so vilified and dejected as to be made no Parcels or Fragments of this Common-wealth No faith Gregory the last Trick the Devil had in this World was this that when he could not bring the Word and Sacraments into disgrace by Errors and Heretical Opintens he invented this Project and much applauded his Wit therein to cast Slight and Contempt upon the Preachers and Ministers And my noble Lords you are too wise to believe what the common people talk that we have a Vote in the election of Knights and Burgesses and consequently some Figure and Representation in the noble House of Commons They of the Ministry have no Vote in these Elections they have no Representation in that Honourable House and the contrary Assertions are so slight and groundless as I will not offer to give them any answer And therefore R. Hon. Lords have a special care of the Church of England your Mother in this point And as God hath made you the most noble of all the Peers of the Christian World so do not you give way that our Nobility shall be taught henceforth as the Romans were in the time of the first and second Punick Wars by their Slaves and Bond-men only and that the Church of God in this Island may come to be served by the most ignoble Ministers that have ever been seen in the Christian Church since the Passion of our Saviour And so much for the first thing which this Bill intends of sever from Persons in Holy Orders viz. Votes and Representations in Parliament The next thing to be severed from them by this Bill is of a meaner Mettal and Alloy sittings in Star-Chamber sittings at Council-Table sitting in the Commissions of Peace and other Commissions of Secular Affairs which are such Favours and Graces of Christian Princes as the Church may have a being and subsistence without them The Fartunes of our Greece do not depend upon these Spangles and the Soveraign Prince hath imparted and withdrawn these kind of Favours without the envy or regret of any wise Ecclesiaâ—ical Persons But my noble Lords this is the Case our King hath by the Statute restored unto him the Headship of the Church of England and by the Word of God he is Custos utriusque tabulae And will your Lordships allow this Ecclesiastical Head no Ecclesiastical Senses at all No Ecclesiastical Person to be consulted withal not in any circumstance of Time and Place If Cranmer had been thus dealt withal in the minority of our young King Josias King Edward the Sixth of pious memory what had become of the great Work of our Reformation in this flourishing Church of England But I know before whom I speak I do not mean to Dine your Lordships with Coleworts the harsh Consequents of this Point your Lordships do understand as well as I. The last Robe that some Persons in Holy Orders are to be stript of hath a kind of Mixture of Freehold and Favour of the proper Right and Graces of the King which are certain old Charters that some few Bishops and many Ancient and Cathedral Churches have purchased and procured from the ancient Kings before and since the Conquest to inable them to live quiet in their own Precincts and close as they call it under a Justice or two of their own Body without being abandoned upon every slight occasion to the Injuries and Vexations of Mechanical Tradesmen of which your Lordships best know those Country Incorporations do most consist Now whether these sew Charters have their Foundation by Favour or by Right I should conceive under your Lordships savour it is neither Favour nor Right to take them away without some just Crime objected and proved For if they be abused in any particular Mr. Attorney-General can find an ordinary Remedy to repair the same by a Writ of Ad quod damnum without troubling the two Houses of Parliament And this is all I shall speak to this Point 165. And now I am come to the fourth part of this Bill which is the manner of Inhibition heavy every way heavy in the Penalty heavier a great deal in the Incapacity For the weighing of the Penalty will you consider I beseech you the small Wyres that is poor Causes that are to induce the same and then the heavy Lead that hangs upon those Wyres It is thus If a natural Subject of England interessed in the Magna Charta and Petition of Right as well as any other yet being a Person in Holy Orders shall happen unfortunately to Vote in Parliament to obey his Prince by way of Counsel or by way of a Commissioner be required thereunto then he is presently to lose and forfeit for his first offence all his means and livelyhood for one year and for the second to forfeit his Freehold in that kind for ever and ever And I do not believe that your Lordships ever saw such an heavy weight of Censure hang upon such thin Wyres of Reason in an Act of Parliament made heretofore This peradventure may move others most but it does not me It is not the Penalty