to that Treatise as follow Let the World take notice if it may concern any your Honour is be unto whom next unto His most Sacred Majesty my most Gracious Sovereign and Master I owe more then to all the World beside Professing unseignedly in the word of a Priest Fâ—cisti ut vivam moriar ingratus 81. The Lord-Keeper being so great a Dealer in the Golden Trade of Mercy and so successful he followed his Fortune and tried the King and the Lord Marquess further in the behalf of some whom their dear Friends had given over in Despair to the Destiny of Restraint And those were of the Nobles For he carried a great regard to their Birth and Honour and knew it was good for his own safety to deserve well of those high-born Families The East of Nerthumberland had been a Prisoner in the Tewer above 15 years His Confidents had not Considence and a good Heart I say not to Petition but to dispute with the King how ripe the Earl was for Clemency and Liberty 〈◊〉 Majesty was very merciful but must be rubb'd with a Fomentation of hi◠〈◊〉 Oyl to make him more supple This dextrous Statesman infuseth into 〈…〉 how to compass the Design with what Insinuations and Argum◠〈…〉 were improved with the Earl's demulcing and well-languag'd Phrases And when it came to strong Debate the Lord-Keeper got the better of the King in Reason So the Physic wrought as well as could be wish'd and on the 18th of July the Earl of Northumberland came out of the Tower the Great Ordnance going off to give him a joyful Valediction Who turned his Thoughts to consider the Work of God that a Stranger had wrought 〈◊〉 Comfort for him in his old Age whose Face he had ne 〈…〉 never purchased by any Benefit nor courted so much as by the meâ—age of a Salutation Which his Lordship compared to St. Peter's Deliverance by the Angel of God Acts 12. when Peter knew not who it was that came to help him Though not in order of Time yet in likeness of Condition the Earl of Oxford's Case is to be ranked in the same File It was in April in the year following that he was sent to the Tower betrayed by a false Brother for rash Words which heat of Wine cast up at a merry meeting His Lordship's Enemies were great and many whom he had provoked yet after he had acquainted the Lord-Keeper with the long Sadness of his Restraint in a large Letter which is preserved he wrought the Earl's Peace and Releasment conducted him to the King's Chamber to spend an hour in Conference with His Majesty from whence a good Liking was begot on both sides Whom thereupon that Earl took for his trusty and wisest Friend using his Counsel principally how to Husband his Estate and how to employ his Person in some Honourable Service at Sea that the Dissoluteness of his Hangers-on in the City might not sink him at Land The Lord-Keeper did as much for the Earl of Somerset in Christmas-time before bringing him by his mediation out of the House of Sorrow wherein he had continued above five years that he might take fresh Air and enjoy the comfort of a free Life which was affected by him to gratisie the splendid and spreading Family of the Howards And they were all well pleased with him as were the greatest part of the Grandees except the Earl of Arundel for a Distast taken of which the Lord-Keeper need not be ashamed 82. Within Six Weeks after he was settled in that Office the Earls Secretary brought two Patents to be Sealed the one to bestow a Pension of 2000 l. per annum upon his Lord out of the Exchequer which was low mow'n and not sit to bear such a Crop beside the Parliament which was to meet again in the Winter could not choose but take Notice what over-bountiful Issues were made out of the Royal Revenue to a Lord that was the best Landed of all his Peers Yet the Seal was put to with a dry assent because there was no stopping of a Free River With this Patent came another to confer the Honour of the Great Marshal of England upon the same Noble Personage The Contents of it had scarce any Limits of Power much exceeding the streit Boundaries of Law and Custom The Lord Keeper searching into the Precedents of former Patents when the same Honour was conser'd found a great inequality and doubted for good Cause that this was a device to lay his unfitness for his great place Naked to the World if he swallowed this Pill But nothing tended more to the praise of his great Judgment with His Majesty He writes to my Lord of Buckingham to acquaint the King that he thought His Majesty intended to give to greater Power than the Lords Commissioners had who dispatch'd Affairs belonging to that Office joyntly before him and that all Patents refer to the Copy of the immediate Predecessors who were the Earls of Essex Shrewsbury and Duke of Somerset but my Lord leap'd them over and claim'd as much as the Howards and Mowbries Dukes of Norfolk did hold which will enlarge his Authority beyond the former by many Dimensions There is much more than this in the Cabal of Letters p. 63. And much more than I meet there in his own private Papers The King was much satisfied with the Prudence and Courage of the Man that he had rather display these Errors than commit them for fear of a mighty Frown so the Earls Counsel were appointed to attend the Lord Keeper who joyning their hands together examin'd the Obliquities of the Patent and alter'd them What would have follow'd if it had pass'd entire in the first Draught For being so much corrected and Castrated yet the proceedings of the Court of Honour were a Grievance to the People not to be supported The Decrees of it were most uncertain most Arbitrary most Imperious Nor was there any Seat of Judgment in the Land wherein Justice was brought a bed with such hard Labour Now I invite the Reader if he please to turn to the 139 pag. of Sir An. Wel. Pamphlet and let him score a Mark for his Remembrance at these Lines That Williams was brought in for this Design to clap the Great Seal through his Ignorance in the Laws to such things that none that understood the danger by knowing the Laws would venter upon This Knight when he is in a Course of Malice is never out of his Way but like an egregious Bugiard here he is quite out of the Truth For the New Lord Keeper walk'd so Circumspectly that he seem'd to fear an Ambush from every Grant that was to pass for the use of encroaching Courtiers if any thing were Ambiguous or Dangerous he was not asham'd to call for Counsel If any thing were prest against Rule he was inexorable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. He kept constant to Justice in its Flat Square I could be Luxuriant in instances nothing is
hopeful Marriage When the Eyes of all our 〈◊〉 were set upon the Infanta of Spain he took into his House as it is formerly remembred a Spaniard by Birth and a Scholar John Taxeda by whose Conversation he grew expert in the Spanish Grammar in the Castilian Pronunciation and in the Knowledge of those Authors that in Ten Weeks he could not only understand the most difficult Writers of that Nation but was able to Entreat with the Ambassadors without an Interpreter How much will Fruit upon in one Mans Intellectuals before anothers who hath the advantage of so much Sun and Warmth in his Brains Now when the Glorious Nuptial Torch was in Election to be lighted from the Neighbour Kingdom of France he endeavour'd to make himself expert in that quaint and voluble Language and by parling often with a Servant whom he had listed into the Check of his House for that purpose a Frenchman that was continually at his Elbow in Three Months he was as ready at it to Read Write or Speak as he that had lyen Liegier Three years for it at Paris And to Evidence that he had a publick Soul in every thing where he put his Finger as he had caused a Translation of our Liturgy out of Latin into Spanish to be finish'd by Taxeda and Printed it at his own Costs so to go no less in his Preparations for this French Association he encourag'd a most able Divine Mr. Delaun Minister of the French Church in Norwich to turn that Excellent Liturgy into his Country Language which was effected and the accurate Translator greatly both Commended and Rewarded Hereupon how it hapned that our Liturgy now made legible to the French did clear the Church of England even to the Conscience of its Enemies especially from the gross Slanders of Fugitives that had gone out from us is a passage that may challenge Publication with the Attendance of its Circumstances 216. His Majesty having in the behalf of his Son begun the woing part to Madam Henrietta Maria with due Ceremony of State The Queen Mother Moderatrix of this and all other Solemn Negotiations in France at that time bethought seriously to have this Happiness and high Honour setled upon her Daughter And her First prudential forecast was not to loiter out time with a Spanish Pause nor to endanger the forfeiture of a Bond of such Royal Love for want of payment of Courtesie at the due day Therefore she dispatch'd Marquess Fiatte afterward the great Financer and Monsieur Villoclare one of the principal Secretaries Embassadors extraordinary into England to remove all Obstructions by their Commission and wise management of it and to entwine the Rose and Lilly upon one Matrimonial Stem When they Landed the King had removed himself from New-Market to Trinity College in Cambridge where he gave Audience to those Embassadors providing to their welcom this Grace more then ordinary That he receiv'd them where his choicest Darlings the liberal Arts were round about him Now that the Conferences about this Marriage were gone so far and seemed as it were to be over the last Fire and sit for Projection his Majesty would have the Lord Keeper taken into the Cabinet and to make him known by a Mark of some good Address to the French Gallants upon the return of the Embassadors to London he sent a Message to him to signifie that it was his pleasure that his Lordship should give an Entertainment to the Embassadors and their Train upon Wednesday following it being Christmass-Day with them according to the Gregorian Prae-occupation of ten days before our Account The King's Will signified the invitement at a Supper was given and taken Which was provided in the College of Westminster in the Room Named Hierusalem Chamber but for that Night it might have been call'd Lucullus his Apollo But the Ante-past was kept in the Abby as it it went before the Feast so it was beyond it being purely an Episcopal Collation The Embassadors with the Nobles and Gentletlemen in their Company were brought in at the North-Gate of the Abby which was stuck with Flambeaux every where both within and without the Quire that strangers might cast their Eyes upon the slateliness of the Church At the Door of the Quire the Lord Keeper besought their Lordships to go in and to take their Seats there for a while promising in the Word of a Bishop that nothing of ill Rellish should be offered before them which they accepted and at their Entrance the Organ was touch'd by the best Finger of that Age Mr. Orlando Gibbons While a Verse was plaid the Lord Keeper presented the Embassadors and the rest of the Noblest Quality of their Nation with our Liturgy as it spake to them in their own Language and in the Delivery of it used those few Words but pithy That their Lordships at Leisure might Read in that Book in what Form of Holiness our Prince Worshipp'd God wherein he durst say nothing savour'd of any Corruption of Doctrine much less of Heresie which he hoped would be so reported to the Lady Princess Henrietta The Lord Embassadors and their Great Train took up all the Stalls where they continued about half an Hour while the Quire-men Vested in their Rich Copes with their Choristers sung three several Anthems with most exquisite Voices before them The most honourable and the meanest persons of the French Attended all that time uncover'd with great Reverence except that Secretary Villoclare alone kept on his Hat And when all others carried away the Looks of Common Prayer commended to them he only lest his in the Stall of the Quire where he had sate which was not brought after him Ne Margarita c. as if had forgot it 217. At the same time among those Persons of Gallantry that came into England to make up the Splendor of the Embassage and were present at this Feast d'Amours as some of themselves call'd it there was an Abbat but a Gentleman that held his Abbacy â—lla mode de France in a lay Capacity He had receiv'd the Gift of our Service Book and to requite the Doner having much of a Scholar and of ingenuous Breeding he laid aside all other business to read it over Like a Vowed Person to another Profession he was not hasty to praise it but suspended his Sentence till he might come in Place to see the practice of it It was well thought of by him that the Tryal of the soundness in Religion consists not all together in the Draught of a Book but in the motion likewise and Exercise of it The Abbat made his mind known to the Lord Keeper by Sir George Goring now Earl of Norwich that he would gladly be present in the Abby of Westminster upon our Christmass Day in the morning to behold and hear how that great Feast was solemnized in our Congregations which heard very ill beyond the Seas for Profaneness Whereas the Book for Uniformity of Publick Prayer which he had receiv'd though
the most Guilty of their own Ruine that ever was heard of in any History And now let a Man of more Authority Judgment and Experience than the Observator speak upon the Wisdom of my Lord the King It is the most Reverend Spotswood in his last Page He was the Solomon of his Age admired for his wise Government and for his Knowledge of all manner of Learning for his Wisdom Moderation Love of Justice for his Patience and Piety which shined above all his other Vertues and is witnessed in his Learned Works he left to Posterity his Name shall never be forgotten but remain in Honour so long as the World indureth We that have had the Honour and Happiness many times to hear him discourse of the most weighty Matters as well of Policy as of Divinity now that he is gone must comfort our selves with the Remembrance of those Excellencies and reckon it not the least Part of our Happiness to have lived in his Days It is well that King James passeth for a Solomon with that Holy Bishop and wise Counsellor Now that I may decline an over-weening Opinion of any mortal Man Nazianzen minds me very well Orat. in laud. Athenas that among God's Worthies he commends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solomon in some things not in all No Man ruled the least Principality so well much less three Kingdoms with Isles adjacent and remote but the Modest and Impartial might have required somewhat to be amended in the Administration for it is true what Pliny says in his Paneg. Nemo extitit cujus virtutes nullo vitiorum confinio laederâ—mur If small Motes be discerned by piercing Eyes yet such Minutes are easily covered over with egregious and heroical Vertues And the hard Heart of Sir An. W. softned into this Confession at last Take him all together and not in pieces such a King I wish this Kingdom have never any worse on the Condition not any better 234. I have borrowed thus much Room to set up a little Obelisk for King James out of that which is only intended to the Memorials of his Lord Keeper which Servant of that King's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he had any Sense of it would be willing to lend that and more to his good Master With whose Death the Day of the Servant's Prosperity shut up and a Night of long and troublesome Adversity followed Which if I can compass in my Old Age and decay'd Health to bring into a Frame for the Reader to behold he may say as Socrates did of Antisthenes in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that two Athenians would not make up one so Noble as Antisthenes And two Men would never have discharged those two Parts so well as this one Man performed them Which Representation may meet with some perchance that will not be favourable to it whom I wish to take heed of the Character which Theophrastus gives of an impure Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will lengthen it thus he acts his own Part ill that Hisseth at him that deserves to be applauded FINIS A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the PLACES of LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL OF ENGLAND Lord Bishop of LINCOLN AND Lord Arch Bishop of YORK Written by JOHN HACKETT Late Lord Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield PART II. Isocrates ad Evagoram pag. 80. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salust de Caio Caesari In te praeter caeteras artem unam egregiè mirabilem comperi semper tibi majorem in adversis quà m in secundis rebus auimum esse pag. 171. LONDON Printed for Samuel Lowndes over-against the Exchange in the Strand MDCXCIII 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 II. CAmerarius Writing the Life of Melanchthon Paragraph 1. the Darling of the Champions of the Reformed Religion divided his Work into two Parts and gave no reason for it but because he would make his Web of a new piece after the Death of Luther It is the Pattern which I set before me to make a new Exordium as he did upon the Subject which I handle after the Death of King James Especially since I must take his Shadow whom my Pens draws forth no more by a Noon-tide Light but by an Evening declension Manilias His Prosperity or shall I say his Honours and Court-Favours were now in their Tropick Cum lucem vincere noctes incipiunt But Vertue is not Fortune's Servant He rose with great Light and he set with as great Brightness as he rose And as Paterculus writes of Mithridates I may refer it to him Aliâ—uando fortunâ semper animo maximus He was once high in Fortune but always strong in Courage and great in Worth 'T is common to see a Stock ingrafted with two forts of Fruits The Almighty Planter shews greater differences when he pleaseth in Moral than in Natural Plantations As he ordain'd the Noble Williams to become two contrary Parts as well as any Man had perform'd them in five Ages before him keeping the golden Mean in the Tryals of the Right-hand and of the Lest being neither corrupted with the Advancements nor the Persecutions of the Times As Paul and Barnabas were neither transported with the Honours which the Lycaonians did intend nor deterr'd with the Stones which they cast at them Acts 14. But the latter is most to be remarked For if this Lord-keeper had not drest himself with Vertue when he was clad in Honour nor rendred a sweet Air in every Close when the Diapason of Peace Wealth and the King's Love were all in tune he had abus'd Fortune which had given him his pay in hand Nec tam meruit gloriam quà m effugit flagitium as Pliny hath it But to stand upright when he was dismounted to cross his Crosses with Generosity and Patience to pass through a hot Furnace of Afflictions which was heated with all kind of Malice and no smell of Fire to remain upon him Dan. 3. v. 27. this deserves to be Canonized and will keep green in the Memory of more Ages than one From the Forty third Year of his Life to the full term of his Sixty eighth Year trouble upon trouble mischief after mischief had him in chase and yet the Huntsmen those Salvaggi could never blow the Death of this well-breath'd Hart. Fifteen Years the pursuit came from them that made use of the Frown of the King When they were a fault But when were they otherwise One Woe was past but there came two Woes or rather a thousand after it Apoc. 9.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Parliament of Destruction or of absolute Reprobation Sine praeviso peccato which spared none supprest him opprest him and he was under that Sufferance ten Years Was not the Ship well built Were not the Ribs of it heart of Oak which endured a Storm of twenty five Years and in that
new Chancellor and that His Majesty would constrain him to hold it whosoever it were that the Congregation agreed upon The Heads were yet in a Quandary and knew not well what to do because the King was not more Particular and seemed to be ill pleased with the Proctor that he had dived no further into His Majesties Meaning For they feared to fall upon a new Rock because His Majesty had pointed at no Person nor disclosed His Meaning by any Decipher or Intimation Nay says the Proctor I shall help this Mistake before you stir from hence Certainly there is one Clause in the Royal Letters which sets up the White at which all our Votes should aim For none hath declared a flat Refusal of this vacant Place but the Earl of Northampton therefore none else can be meant in this Passage That whomsoever we Choose the King will constrain him to hold It were not proper to think that any Grandee in the Realm beside that Lord should need to be constrained by the High Power and Prerogative of our Sovereign to be our Patron The Riddle being so luckily Unfolded by this Oedipus the Business was concordiously dispatch'd and then the King confess'd that they had hit upon the Interpretation of his secret Meaning Which abounded to the Praise of Mr. Williams's Solertiousness and indeed in an hundred Instances more he was as dextrous as in this to hunt upon a Fault and to recover upon a Loss But as Cicero says Orat. pro Cecinnâ cujus prudentiam pop Romanus in cavendo nunquam in decipiendo perspexit The Lord Privy-Seal soon after took his Oath with due Solemnity to be our Chancellor and gave civil Entreaty when the Esquire-Beadles or other Ministers of our Body came to him And we can boast of no more that came from him who went out of the World before his Sickness was suspected Jun. 15.16 14. The Golden Mountains we hoped for and promis'd to our selves from his Liberality came to nothing and the University was not the better for him by the worth of a Barly-Corn 29. There remains one Passage more justly devolved to be last and lowest for it had more of Success then of good Success in it in my judgment Dr. Clayton the Master of St. John's College died a good old Man about the beginning of June His Breath no sooner expired but the Fellows who have all Right of Election first began to Confer and then to Canvas for a Successor It was soon discovered that the swaying Men and that were fit for the bandy of such a Business meant to set up Mr. Owen Gwin one of the Senior Fellows Others look'd out for one that was Simplicitor optimus and they hit him It was the Darling of Divines Dr. Morton then Dean of Winton now Lord Bishop of Durham the Polycarpus of our Smyrna the Church of England whose Piety and Humility are Incomparable his Learning most Admirable and his long Age most Venerable Almost all the true Children of the Muses bless'd their Endeavours that acted for such a Man saying with the Psalmist We wish you good luck in the name of the Lord. But this Patriarch as I may call him was not like to carry the day by the Consent of the most Too few stood up for him too few by one especially and that one was Proctor Williams O how could one of his deep Reach and passing great Love to his Society prefer an obscure one scarce to be named before the Man that had all good Men's Applause Dr. Morton If there be any thing to be said to make it look fair on his part on one side it is this Mr. Gwin had been his Tutor A high Spirit of which he was guilty will rather Trespass then not repay the least Benefit it had receiv'd Nay a wise Man dare not incur such a Folly as to be Ingrateful Says Comines lib. 2. Mihi absurdum quiddam esse videtur hominem prudent em ingratum esse posse For great Ones before they will collate a Favour to make a Man and raise him up will desire to be satisfied how he hath carried himself to other Obligations What Fidelity hath he shewn to former Benefactors Ecclus. 3.34 He that requiteth good turns is mindful of that which may come hereafter The relation of Pupilship prick'd on Mr. Williams to do any thing that was in his power for him that had so much Interest in his Breeding But while he was struggling and wooing his Friends to advance that Choice he solicited Mr. Sen. house a very rare Preacher as Floury as the Spring-Garden afterward Bishop of Carlile who bespake him fairly again Sir if you desire my Voice to confer the Mâ—stership upon your self I will not deny you I know you though a young Man right worthy of it but your Tutor shall never have my Suffrage while I can say No. After he had prevailed to set Mr. Gwin over that great Society his Fortunes carried him away but he heard so much that he quickly dislik'd his own Work For there was another in that College whose Name is best conceal'd that was a robustious driver of Canvasses who took the whole Rule from Mr. Gwin a soft Man and given altogether to Ease into his own hand and was like the Major Domo by whom all Suits pass'd and every Student stoop'd to him for his Preferment To compare great Things with smaller such another as Victor says Mutianus proved after he had advanced Vespasian to the Empire by his Cohorts Fiduciâ meruorum factus insolens sawcy to meddle with all because he had deserv'd so much and nothing would content him unless nothing were denied him Mr. Williams heard of these Passages too late when he could not help the harm he had done But because he endured much compunction of Mind for it I will only commit him for this Fault to the castigation of the wise Poet Horace Qualem commendas etiam atque etiam aspice ne mox Incutiant aliena tibi peccata pudorem Horat. Lib. 1. Ep. 12. 30. It was time for him after the Settlement of these great Places upon others to look to his own Place in the ensuing Commencement which was even approaching The Inceptor-Masters by Prescription have the Right to choose out of the two Proctors whom they please to be the Father of the Act as we Cantabrigians call it It is a strange Aenigma that the Sons should beget their Father It lights commonly as if it were Postulatum Mathematicum upon the Senior But because he that now was the Elder if ever he had Polite Learning fit for such a Performance had out-grown it therefore because he was no Elder that could Rule well the Inceptors gave the Younger the double Honour This Commencement was as Gay and full of Pomp by the great Concourse of Nobles and Gentlemen as ever I saw The Acquaintance and Fame of the Proctor drew the most The Welch Gentry were enough to fill the Scaffolds Beside such as repair'd
working in the Must Every day this Sufficiency grew with him more and more till he became the only Jewel which the Lord Chancellor hung in his Ear. Yet in four months after he fell to this Trade his best Customer fail'd him the Court of the Prince being Dissolv'd by the Death of Prince Henry Nov. 6. 1612. with whom so much Light was extinguish'd that a thick Darkness next to that of Hell is upon our Land at this day O matchless Worthy live in everlasting Fame with the Elogy given by that quaint Historian Velleius to Pub. Rutilius Non seculi sui sed omnis aevi optimus The third Step of Felicity upon which he clim'd Eis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is Athanasius his Metaphor into the Bosom of his Master's Soul was That he had pick'd up in a short space some Gleanings in his own modest words in the knowledge of the Common Laws of the Realm but indeed full Sheaves if his Acquaintance may be believ'd He remitted not the Studies of his own Science and Profession but having read the Tenures the Doctor and Student and somewhat else like unto them at hours of Relaxation he furnish'd himself with no little quantity of that Learning by Discourse and Conference and enquiring after some cases how they sped in the Courts of Justice When he was at a non-plus he respited that Difficulty till he met with Sir John Walker afterward Lord Chief Baron whose Judgment was most agreeable to his Genius This was his Practise not now but all along to gather up more at the Interspaces of Leisure then others do at their Study Which was the Contrivance of Scipio Aemilianus the Sir Philip Sidney of the Old Romans Neque quisquam Scipione elegantius intervalla negotiorum otio dispunxit says the Character of the Author lately cited 35. Here I will provide a little to set my Shoulder against the Justle of an Objection Perhaps some will say What did the Study of our Laws belong to him The Dainties of the Scriptures were his daily Diet prescrib'd him by his Calling Why did he seed upon those coarse Coleworts And who could spare any of the Time of this short Life when the Work of a Divine is more then this Life can dispatch so that the Remainder must be learnt in Life Eternal Somewhat to that purpose is pithily express'd by Seneca Quae dementia est in tantâ temporis egestate supervacua discere Ep. 48. And what say you to the Judgment of Pope Honorius the Third who sat an 1216. who forbad all Clerks to study Physick or the Pandects of the Laws Or to the Emperor Justin the elder who lived 600 years before Honorius c. leg 41. Opprobrium est si Ecclesiastici peritos se velint ostendere legum forensium I say those Laws must be weighed with Grains of Temper and Charity Whom Nature hath made docile it is injurious to prohibit him from learning any thing that is docible Marie he that forsakes his holy Calling and lists himself in another Warfare that gives himself up wholly to scrape a Livelihood from curing Diseases or fogging in Secular Causes is a Renegado and must be brought back again to his Colours with the Infamy of a Fugitive But far is he from being guilty of this Fault who serves Christ Jesus faithfully in the Labour of the Gospel and can do it the better by poizing Humane Laws and trying how consonant they are to God's Justice and by searching the Virtue of Plants and other Creatures can find out how wonderful the Almighty is in all his Works The Collation between Moses and the Imperial Laws which Paulus Modestinus and others of his Robe have made why may not a Minister peruse it with as much profit as an Advocate It were a Tyranny more then barbarous to confine a Wit that hath a Plummet to found the depth of every Well that the Arts have digged or to clip his Wings that he may not fly into every Bush as freely as the Fowls of the Air. Padre Paulo the Frier the brightest Star in the Hemisphere of Italy was second to none in Divinity while he liv'd equal with the best Doctors in Rome or Siena in explicating Canon or Civil Laws and above all the Practisers of Padua or in the World in understanding the Aesculapian Art says Fulgentius Albericus Gentilis spoke it to do Honour to the Industry of Dr. Reynolds of Corpus-Christi College that he thought that great 〈◊〉 had read as much in the Civil Law as himself Wherein then consists the difference Why might not Mr. Williams examine the Cases Reports and Maxims of our Municipal Laws to be expert in them Both being egg'd on into it by the Happiness of his Attendance in the Pretorian Court where he might learn much and labour little for it and making it the Recreation not the Intermission of his proper Studies Therefore out of Charity give him leave to gather Stubble where he would since he fulfil'd his Task of Brick Exod. 5.18 The Lord Chancellor did highly countenance him in it and was so taken with his Pregnancy that at his leisure-times both for his own solace and his Chaplain's furtherance he would impart to him the Narration of some famous Causes that had been debated in Chancery or Star-Chamber What could not such a Master teach What could not such a Scholar learn Socrates says in Plato of Alcibiades that he Gloried in nothing so much as that he was Ward to Pericles and brought up under him Neither had this Chaplain a more graceful Ornament to shew in the Eyes of the World then that he was Disciple to the Lord Egerton That great Senator the most judicious Judge and Counsellor of his Age would not have disparaged himself to give a young Divine so great a Place in his Affections but that he had founded him and discover'd him to be a person of rare Abilities By this favour to which he had attained though he was not in the place of one of the Secretaries yet he became to be like a Master of Requests especially in weightier Petitions he could prevail more then any other Minister which was not to be presisted by the other Officers He had a Mind full of worth and full of warmth and no place became him so well as the foremost as Pliny says of Cocks lib. 10. c. 21. Imperitant suo generi regnum in quâcunque sunt domo exercent None of his Fellows had cause to repent that he rode upon the Fore-Horse For he was courteous and ready to mediate in any Cause and as bountiful as might be wish'd for he left all Fees and Veils of Profit to those to whom they did belong By this in a little while they that would have kept him back at first did their utmost to put him forward which did not need For the Lookers on did mark that his Lord did not only use him in his most principal Employments but delighted to confer with him
far as I may say for Ground-Ivy he had a plentiful Fortune But he must clasp upon this Tree or none to trail and climb Yet hitherto he had not come forward one step to gain him One time he made a Repetition of his former Life unto me being under a great Sickness at Buckden when he taught me two Reasons why he moved so slowly to the Protection of that great Lord with this solid and ingenious Confession First To whom a Man is obliged for his Raising it is expected he should run the same hazard with him Which is so far from Slavery or Weakness that it may well be called The height of Magnanimity no Virtue being more truly Heroical then Thankfulness by which the Spirit of a Man advances it self with confidence of Acceptation to the Love of God and Man This Consideration seriously taken he was afraid of that Lord's continuance the Title of a Favourite being so Inauspicious in almost all Examples For what is more likely but that a Sail will break when it is too much stretch'd with the sore Wind And whosoever builds unto a lofty height upon a new Foundation Envy will pull him down by insensible Demolishments For new Men when they become Plenipotentiaries all Suits at Court passing by their Assistance they please few who are the Gratified in comparison of the Swarms that must be repulsed so that if an Eddie and Mutation fall heavy they are lost without much Pity not because they were bad but because they were great And take all others into this Moral Compass who were unconcerned who is so upright in his Candor that gapes not for the removal of the greatest Actors in Promotion upon a Dream of better days to follow the Alteration And commonly they that are born to waft over the Sea of this Life in a Cock-boat are glad to see their Shipwreck that sail in the Argosie 48. Though he that did run this Descant was sick as I said when he uttered it yet certainly there was no Sickness in his judgment when he first conceived it I will produce a pair of the best Scholars that revived Learning in our Grandfather's days who foretel that Court-Minions are like to have no Favour but the King 's Thus Erasmus in his Epistle Ante scriptores Angustae historiae published by him An parum est suam quamque regionem habere Dominum nisi singulae rursus alium haberent Dominum conduplicatâ servitute As if he thought it no better then a doubling of Servitude to have a Privado like a Lord-Lieutenant under the sepreme Lord to ride upon the Backs of the People Budaeus is more churlish upon the Pandects p. 61. Howsoever says he the King gives Honours patient Spirits will accept it but when they are confer'd by one Qui majoribus fatis sub-princeps est they will be ill look'd upon And all whom he prefers are esteemed no better then Janizaries to be his Guard to protect him in violent Courses or rather suspected to debase Virtue under the power of Fortune He proceeds further That whosoever oversways in Favour with his Sovereign in effect doth all and yet is like to give no account of his Actions which is the worst mortifying of Justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plato Let no Man be a Judge unless he may be judged for his Judicature Let no Man bear an Office that grows too formidable to them that call his Behaviour to a Tryal These Fleeces pluck'd from the Judgments of such great Clerks assure us that not only Ahasuerus his Haman Tiberius his Seianus Edward the Second his Gaveston and such corrupt ones must needs decline faster then they got up but the most circumspect that possess such a Room as they did will prove to be May-Lords in Fortune's Enterlude For though their Honour be not swelled with Pride yet their Balast will certainly be Envy It would be a wonder therefore if a great Favourite could act his part to come off the Stage with Applause in whom this double Misery concurs the Favour that he takes from his Chief is odious the Favour that he gives to his Confidents is dangerous Hereupon some that had the estimation of discreet Men conceived of the Crimes and Clamours objected to the Lord of Buckingham that his Place was more guilty of them then his Person 49. Now the second Reason said this wise Man which kept him suspensive whether he should seek a Lift higher in the World by the courtesie of that Lord's Power was That he saw his Lordship was bred in a great Error he was so ready to cast a Cloud suddenly upon his Creatures and with much inconstancy to root up that which he had planted A fault too patent against all Apology He had chang'd the White Staves of the King's Houshold the Secretaries the Masters of the Court of Wards the Chancellors of the Exchequer and many others Partly it happen'd because fresh Undertakers came with Proffers and Forecasts which had not been made before Presently some must be discarded to make room for those who albeit in their Discharge they did less then their Predecessors yet they outbid them in Promises And partly which goes together his Lordship was of very desultorious Affections quickly weary of those whom he had gratified and apt to resume his Favours to make Trial upon others if they would obey his Commands upon undiscoursed Obedience A Prognosticator might have guess'd upon every Day of the Year while he was glorified in his Greatness somewhat variable Weather From whence it came to pass that his Lordship was often served by bad Instruments for they made too much haste to Rich because they knew their Turn was quickly coming to be shifted And it is a weak part to blast the good Turns which a Man hath done to lose his Thanks and the Fidelity of his Clients Mark what Sylla said to Bacchus In Salust amicorum neâ—ue nobis neque cuiquam hominum satis fuit Bel. Jugur No Man can have too many Friends but he that loses his Friends will have too many Enemies Such inconstant Revocations are prettily called Praefloratae Liberalitates Mildew'd Liberalities Or like a Tree that hath a cankerous Malignity to dry up and cast its own Blossoms And it is a weak part to think it a gawdy thing to be cringed unto with new Acquaintance Green Heads know not the Utility of old Friendships But none are so unestimable be they never so Potent as those sickle-fancy'd Men whose Friendships will hold no longer then Pliny's Peaches after they are gathered Longissima decerpto bidui mora est After they have been pluck'd and laid by two days they are rotten 50. These two so related to me were his intimate Consultations with himself A great Fruit of Philosophy says Antisthenes in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to confer much with a Man 's own Mind From both those Reasons he concluded to give way to others to seek the Lord Marquess who were bolder
a Corruption in Opinion Sir says the Doctor I obey Your Commands with all my heart and with belief of some Success But in case upon the first or second Conference I bring the young Madam to some Access towards the Church of England without a total Recess from the Church of Rome will Your Majeshy discomsit a good Beginning and stay the Marriage whose Consummation is every day desired because the Party is not brought to the perfection of an absolute Convert To which the King answered I know that commonly Grace proceeds by degrees in conception and building up its Features as well as Nature but though you walk slow walk sure I cannot abide to be cozen'd with a Church-Papist So the Doctor received his Commission chearfully from His Majesty the rather because though he cunningly concealed how far he had entred yet he had assayed before to bring the Lady Katherine into a good liking of our Church with many strong and plausible Arguments and found her Tractable and Attentive She easily perceived that Conjugal Love would be firmest and sweetest when Man and Wife served God with one Heart and in one way and were like the two Trumpets of Silver made of an whole Piece Num. 10.12 And quickly she was confirmed by divers and solid Representations to confess that our Cathechism was a plain Model of Saving Truth and the Form of Matrimony in our Liturgy pleased her abundantly being as pious and forcible as any Church could make to bind up a sanctified and indissoluble Union And after some Prayers made to God for his secret Breathings into her such easie Demonstrations were spread before her that she confess'd our Ministers were fit Dispensers of the Ordinances of God and all Gospel-Blessings from Christ Jesus So the second Obstruction was master'd by the good Spirit of God and this Doctor 's Industry The Remotion of two such Impediments is not commonly accompass'd by one Head-piece Sometimes it is seen as Macrobius says yet very seldom Ut idem pectus agendi disputandi facultate sublime sit Lib. 2. de Som-Scrip c. 17. Now all things being made smooth for Love and Concord on the 16th day of May 1620. the Nuptials were celebrated between the Lord Marquess and his Bride the Lady Katherine Manners at Lumly-House on Tower-Hill where the Earl of Rutland lay Dr. Williams joyned them together with the Office of our Liturgy all Things being transacted more like to Privacy then Solemnity to avoid the Envy of Pomp and Magnificence I have been no larger then there was cause in this Report for the Negotiation in this Marriage said the Negotiator often unto me was the last Key-Stone that made the Arch in his Preferment 52. It behoved him therefore to spare no Pains nor Study to season the new Marchioness with such a measure of Knowledge as might keep her found in the Integrity of Truth He needed not a Remembrancer to keep his Diligence waking Yet the King was so intent that the Lady should become an upright and sincere Protestant that he proposed to his Chaplain now her Ghostly Father to draw up a pretty Manual of the Elements of the Orthodox Religion with which she might every day consult in her Closet-Retirements for her better confirmation A Book was Compiled accordingly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put forth and not put forth Twenty Copies were printed and no more and without the Author's Name in a Notion common to many By an old Prebendary of the Church of Lincoln The Copies were sent to the Lord Marquess and being no more are no more to be found for I have searched for one but with lost Labour I can truly say I have seen one and read it about 30 Years since which being in a negligent Custody is miscarried It contents me better that I have a written Copy out of which it was printed by which the Author could set it in order for the Press surer then I can now If I should miss to digest the Expunctions Interlinings and Marginal References as they were intended I should make the Work differ from it self though quite against my will But because it is a Golden Medal and sit to be worn like an Amulet against Seducers when this Web is spun and woven which I have in hand I will try my best Skill though a weak Aristarchus to fashion it into Native Contexture And if I can truly affirm it to be the very Mantle which fell from Elijah it shall be forth-coming in a Wardrode in the end of the Book If I fail in that I do not despair let this Letter sent with the 20 Copies to the Lord Marquess discover what sappy Kernels were in that Pomegranate My most Noble Lord MY most humble Duty and all due Respects remembred I have at the last according to His Majesties Intimation and your Lordship's made up for my Ladies private Use a little Stock as it were in Divinity and divided the same into three small Treatises The first to furnish her how to speak unto God by Invocation The second how to speak unto her self by Meditation And the third how to speak unto those Romanists that shall oppose her by way of Answer and Satisfaction Prayers are the most necessary for the obtaining Principles for the augmenting and Resolutions in these days for the defending of her Faith and Profession I held these three in some sort and more I held not to have been necessary The Prayers I have Translated from ancient Writers that her Ladyship may see we have not coyned a new Worship or Service of God Of the rest I received my best Grounds from His Majesty and such as I protest faithfully I never could read the like in any Author for mine own satisfaction If I be out in my Descant upon them I hope your Lordship will the rather pardon it because the Book is but private whereof 20 Copies only are imprinted and as many of them to be suppressed as your Honour shall not command and use I make bold to send these Books to your Lordship because I hope they will be more welcom and acceptable to both the great Ladies coming immediately from your Honour I humbly thank your Honour for affording me this occasion to do your Lordship any little Service who am in all affectionate Prayers and best Devotion Your Honour 's true Creature and Beadsman JOHN WILLIAMS From Your College at Westminster this 28th of November 1620. 53. I perceive by the Date of this Letter that the Book was printed six months after it was bespoken which could not be help'd because the Author was taken up almost all that Summer in making a progress to survey the Lands of the College of Westminster whereof he was become Dean by the Lord Marquess's Favour and Installed July 12. 1620. Dr. Tolson who preceded a man of singular Piety Eloquence and Humility in the March before had the Approbation of the King and the Congratulation of good Men for the Bishoprick
is put up to that Effect to settle the Custodes Rotulorum and the Clerks of the Peace for Term of Life upon the Persons who now possess them which as it is inconvenient so it is very prejudicial and derogating from the next Lord Chancellor Finally the Under-Officers do also Petition unto the Lords not without Encouragement to have some Collops out of the Lord Chancellors Fees and New Devices will daily spring up if the disposing be delayed any longer Now I hope when your Lordship shall use this Information to let the King see it that you will excuse me for the boldness that I am put upon by your great Commands The Lord Marquess being not a little Ambitious to present the King with Works of the Brain strongly wrought and well carded offered this Paper to his Majesty from the Dean of Westminster when the Ink was scarce dry which caused this unlook'd for saying from the King You Name divers to me to be my Chancellor Queen Elizabeth after the Death of Sir Christopher Hatton was inclined in her own Judgment that the good man Arch-Bishop Whitgift should take the place who modestly refus'd it because of his great Age and the whole multitude of Ecclesiastical Affairs lying upon his Shoulders Yet Whitgift knew not the half that this Man doth in Reference to this Office The Lord Marquess the less he look'd for those Words the more he lik'd them and Replied extempore Sir I am a Suitor for none but for him that is so capable of the Place in your great judgment Be you satisfied then says the King I think I shall seek no further The Lord Marquess impotent to contain his Gladness sent a blind Message to the Dean immediately That the King had a Preferment in the Deck for him He nothing aware of what the King had spoken in design to the Dignity of keeping the Great-Seal mistook the Message to be meant of the Bishopric of London now wanting a sit Prelate by the Death of him that was most fit while he lived Dr. King whose Soul Heaven received Mar. 30. In prospect whereof the Dean was a Suitor before But it hapned to him as Velleius said of Scipio AEmilianus AEdilitatem petens Consul creatus est He sued for the Edileship and because that was too little he was made a Consul This is the very manner as faithfully digested as any History can be contexed how this Preeminency dropt upon him that never dreamt of it It is not like to some mistaken Report that then went about and may yet be believed by some But thus much is copiously disclosed for their sakes that had rather be Disciples of Truth then Masters of Error 63. Such a Reader is invited to a further Collation engaging upon peril of offending God not to clam his Taste with the smallest Collection of Flattery The Chancellorship or a Title equivalent to that Office is a Supreme Dignity in the Empire of Germany and in all Christian Kingdoms and States and further then Christendom executed by the Grand Visier of the Port at Constantinople Only the Chief Pontiff of the See of Rome styles the Prelate of his Palace who presides in that Employment his Vice-Chancellor and no more And why Because says Gomesius in his Proem to the Rules of that Court Vices agit Cancellarii Dei quia Papa est Dei Cancellarius He can be but a Vice for the Pope himself is God's Chancellor Let him be as Liberal as he will to himself by his own Assumption I am certain he is not such by God's Nomination Leaving the Pontifical Court to its own Platform elsewhere the Chancellor is the Chief Magistrate under the Supreme Power of the King that sets him up To which purpose Budaeus in his Notes upon the Pandects p. 325. Cancellariatus summum est hodie honorum fastigium quasi quoddam summa quaeque ambientis animi solstitium This was it then which was marvel'd and look'd upon as a Rarity that the King should prefer the Dean of Westminster though very richly qualified in a Churchman's condition to the Estival Solstice of Honour as Budaeus calls it at one step who had never pass'd through the lower Ascendant Signs of the Zodiac of the Law But that great Master of Wisdom did never repent him that He had trusted such a Servant so far never gave the least sign of Displeasure to the day of his Death that He would Remove him never tax'd him that he had gone awry in any thing either as a public or private Person Which good Opinion he kept so constantly that after two years Probation in his Office I find these Lines in a Letter which he send to the Lord of Buckingham to Madrid May 11. 1623. The King's Grace to me is such that I profess before God I never received ill Word or clouded Aspect from him since the first day I served him in this great Place His Majesty would many times speak of him that He never met with a better States-man for a clear and far-reaching Judgment His Knowledge was a Political Circle that comprehended all things in it Bring any Matter unto him his Reason was never shallow nor at Low-Water He studied Foreign Courts as much as this at home and cared not what he paid to expert Ministers Strangers or Native to be acquainted with the Secrets of their Masters The best to whom he may be similized herein is Frier Paul the Servite of whom it is written When any News were bruited he seldom was mistaken in his Opinion whether they were true or false and nothing could be propounded to him to which he did not suddenly give an Answer and with that Solidity as if he had meditated much upon those Answers which were conceived presently under the Question Such an Eminency of Intellectual Parts opened the broad Gate for this Dean to enter into the Royal Favour As among Plants it is the property of the Palm-Tree says Philo lib. 1. de Vit. Mos that the Vital Virtue thereof is not in the Root which is under the Earth but in the top of the Trunk as in the Head which is next to Heaven And Pliny lib. 13. c. 4. accords well unto it Dulci medulla earum in cacumine quod cerebrum vocant The sweet and succulent Marrow in the top is the Brain and Life of the Palm So to them that enquire how Dean Williams shot up so soon to this Palm of Honour I will point to the top of the Tree even to the Marrow of his Brain Dulcis medulla in cacumine quod cerebrum vocant 64. Withal he was most Industrious and that not by fits but every day did conclude its Work as if he were not to live till to morrow No Cammel did bear more burden then he did when he first entred to sit in the Seat of Lord-Keeper or travel'd further with so little Food and less rest which he suffer'd the better because he was weary of Ease and loved Labour
Excellent persons Among other passages of his Reviling Throat it was proved against him that he had said that our Bishops were no Bishops but were Lay-men and Usurpers of that Title Floud says the Lord Keeper Since I am no Bishop in your Opinion I will be no Bishop to you I concur with my Lords the like I never did before in your Corporal punishment Secondly in inflicting pecuniary Mulcts upon him that was found Guilty he was almost never heard but to concur with the smallest Sum. I would this had been imitated chiefly by them of the Hierarchy who managed the judgments of that Court after he retir'd I would that favour which was wont never to be denied to any had not been forgotten to take away such a part of an Offenders Estate by Fine that still he might have Honestum Continementum an Honest Provision to live upon according to his Place and Dignity It was never intended to prune away the Loppings and to cut down the Trunk too Nothing could be more harsh to tender Ears and Hearts then such a Torrent of censure as came from Q. Furius against Dolabella 11. Philip. of Tully he had loaded him with all the severity he could think of Dixit tamen si quis eorum qui post se rogati essent graviorem sententiam dixisset in eam se iturum But he may get a fall himself that in the undoing of a Man Gallops to Ride as fast as the Fore-Horse Thirdly the Lord Keeper's Indulgence was not satisfied to set the lowest Fine but labour'd for as much mitigation as could be granted at the end of the Term. The Officers that are yet alive will say as much and make me a true Man that the Fines of the Court were never shorn down so near before And after the Period of his Presidency it is too well known how far the Enhancements were stretch'd But the wringing of the Nose hringeth forth Blood Prov. 30.33 The Lord Treasurer Cranfeild a good Husband for the Entrates of the Exchequer complain'd against him to the King how Delinquents by his Abatements were so slightly punish'd in their Purse that the Fees that came to His Majesties Enrichment would not give the Lords a Dinner once a Week as the Custom had been nay hardly once a Term. Behold now a Man that was Lenissimus sine dispendio Disciplinae as Ausonius says of Gratian as full of Lenity as could be saving the Correction of evil Manners But it will be said he was liberal to spare men out of the King's Stock And no whit less as I will shew it out of his own Sir Francis Inglefeild a prisoner in the Fleet upon a contempt of a Decree in Chancery was much overseen not once nor twice in bitter Words against the Lord Keeper which he vented so rashly that they were certified home Well says the Lord Keeper Let him Bark on but he shall never bite his Chain asunder till he submit to mine Order But there came a Complaint by the Information of Sir J. Bennet that Sir Francis had not spared to say before sufficient Witness That he could prove this Holy Bishop Judge had been Bribed by some that far'd well in their Causes As the Old Adagy goes he might as easily have proved that Hercules was a Coward But this contumely could not be pass'd over There was a necessity to purge it or to fall under it in a public hearing After time given to Sir Francis to make good his Words in Star-Chamber the Lord Keeper withdrawing himself for that day he could prove nothing of Corruption against him no not to the Value of a Doit. So a Large Fine of many thousand pounds was inflicted on Sir Francis to be paid to the King and to his Minister whom he had Slander'd The Lord Keeper in a few days following sent for the woful Gentleman and told him he would refute his soul Aspersions and prove upon him that he scorn'd the Pelf of the World or to exact or make lucre of any man For for his own part he forgave him every peny of his Fine and would crave the same Mercy towards him from the King Sir Francis bless'd himself to find such Mercy from one whom he had so grievously provok'd acknowledg'd the Crime of his Defamation and was received afterward into some Degree of Acquaintance and Friendship Many have been undone by those whom they took to be their Friends But it is a rare chance to be seen as in this instance for a man to be preserv'd by him whom he had made his Enemy Let this suffice to declare that the Star-Chamber by this Lord's Prudence was the Court of Astraea 97. Being to take his Picture from Head to Foot it is pertinent to consider him in the Office of a Privy-Councellor It was his first Honour wherein the King call'd him to serve the Crown being Sworn to sit at that Board Three Weeks before he was entrusted with the Great Seal Many things and the best of his Abilities in that place I believe are un-publishable for the most of that Work is secret and done behind the Curtain He that sits in that Employment had need to have the whole Common-Wealth in his Head So says an exact Senator 2 De Orato Ad Consilum de Repub. dandum caput est nosse Rempublicam Many may spit Sentences upon such great matters and speak little as worthy Doctor Gauden says like sealed Pigeons The less they see the higher they Fly But blessed be his Name that gives all good Gifts he was furnish'd with strong intellectuals to discern into the means that concern the Honour Safety Defence and Profit of the Realm Yet it is not enough to have a piercing Eye unless there be an Heart to affect the public good Tully began well but Pontanus makes up the rest in Extolling the Venetian Government Senatoribus mira in consentiendo integritas atque erga patriam amor incredibilis And his Lordship was as true an Englishman as ever gave Counsel in the Royal Palace Therefore he was more employ'd by his Majesty then all the rest to negotiate with Embassadors being most Circumspect and tender to yield to nothing that was not advantagious to our own common Welfare Neither did the Courts of France and Spain and the States of Holland with whom we Acted most upon Tryal how he sisted their Leagues expect any other from him He had the most sudden Representation of Reason to confirm that which he defended of any Man alive None could abound above him in that Faculty which made his great Master value him at that weight that the thrice Noble Lodwick Duke of Richmond told him in my hearing That the King listned to his Judgment rather than to any Minister of State Which took the oftner because if his Majesty were moody and not inclin'd to his Propositions he would fetch him out of that Sullen with a pleasant Jeâ—t and turn him about with a Trick of Facetiousness I
Spur and Incentive to all the Students of the Law that they might more easily concoct those otherwise insupportable Difficulties and Harshness of their Studies in hope one Day to attein unto those Honours wherewith all of you by his Majesties Favour and your own Merits are now to be Invested Those outward Decorums of Magnificence which set forth your Exaltation this Day are very specious and sparkle so much in the Eyes of the young Fry that swim up after you that they cannot but make very sensible Impression in their Minds to follow your Industry that they may attein to your Dignity That Gold which you give away secundum Consuetudinem regni in hoc casu implies that by your faithful Labour and Gods Providence you have attein'd to the Wealth of a fair Estate And Wisdom is good with an Inheritance Eccles 7.11 Nay I wish heartily that all wise Men had plentiful Inheritances and that the Silly and Sottish were not so fortunate in gathering Treasure For a Rich ignorant Man is but a Sheep with a Golden Fleece Then your great and sumptuous Feast is like that at a Kings Coronation At which you entertain the Ambassadors of Foreign Kings now Resident about the City and the prime Officers and Nobility of this Realm But to ascend higher King Henry the Seventh in his own Person did Grace the Sergeants Feast held then at Ely-Palace in Holborn So estimable was your Order in those Days to that Mighty Monarch I should be too long if I should speak of the Ornament of your Head your pure Linen Coif which evidences that you are Candidates of higher Honour So likewise your Librata Magna your abundance of Cloth and Liveries your Purple Habits belonging antiently to great Senators yea to Emperors all these and more are but as so many Flags and Ensigns to call up those young Students that fight in the Valleys to those Hills and Mountains of Honour which you by your Merits have now atchieved Neque enim virtutem amplectimur ipsam Praemia si tollas 124. Gentlemen I have told you from the Explanation of your Title what you are by Denomination You must be dutiful and respect my Lords the Judges because you are but Servientes Servants And you must be Reverenced by all of your Robe but the Judges because you are Servientes ad Legem Journey-Men of the Law whereas the rest though call'd to the Bar are no more than Discipuli in Justinian's Phrase or as your own Books term Apprenticii mere Apprentices You serve in that Law which is of excellent Composure for the Relief of them that seek Redress in this Nation through all Cases And of rare Privilege it is above the Tryals of all other Kingdoms and States for the Tryal of those that are under Criminal Attainder by a Jury of their own Peers Which I find as one to have used in antient Polities but Cato major in his own Family Supplicium de Servo non sumsit nisi postquam damnatus est conservorum judicio He punish'd none of his Bondmen unless they were cast by the Verdict of their fellow Bondmen To be elected the prime Servants of our most wise and most equal Laws supposeth in you great Reading great Reason great Experience which deservedly casts Honour upon your Persons Emulous I may say Envious Censurers speak scornfully of your Learning and Knowledge that it is gainful to your at Home in your own Country but of no use or value abroad For what is a Sergeant or Counsellor of these Laws if he get Dover Cliffs at his back So I remember Tully in his Oration pro Murenâ being more angry than he had cause with Sâ—lpitius who was Vir juris consultissimus disdains his Skill with this Taunt Sapiens existimari nemo potest in eâ prudentiâ quae extra Romam nequicquam valet That was a wise Art indeed which was wise no further than the Praetors Courts in Râ—e Let Sulpitius answer for himself But in your behalf I have this to answer That beside your Judicious Insight into the Responsa Prudintum and the laudable Customs of this Kingdom which are proper with our Statute-Laws to our own People I say beside these the Marrow of the whole Wisdom of the Caesarcan Transmarine Law is digested into our Common and Statute-Laws as wiâ— easily appear to him that examines the Book of Entries or Original Writs Which makes you sufficient to know the Substance and Pith of the Civil Law in all Courts through Europe So that you would be to seek in their Text not in their Reason and in their Traverses and Formalities of Pleadings which are no prejudice to the Worthiness of your Function Now I have told you as a judge that you are Servants but Honourable Servants of the Law before I conâ— let me admonish you as a Bishop that you are in your highest Title the Servants of God Therefore keep a good Conscience in all things Serve that holy Law which bids you Not to pervert the Right and Cause of the Innocâ— I know it is very hard to discern the Right from the Wrong in many Suits till they come to be throughly sisted and examin'd So truly did Quimilian say Lib. 2. Cap. 8. Potest accidere ut ex utráque parte vir bonus dicat An honest Man in many Pleaâ— may be entertain'd on either side Therefore it is no discredit to your Profession that as the Aetolians in Greece of old and the Suitzers in the Cantâ—ns at this Day are often Auxiliaries of both sides in a pitcht Battail so you should be Feed to try your Skill either for Plaintiff or Defendant But when you discern a Clients Cause is rotten then to imploy your Cunning to give it Victory against Justice is intolerable The more vulgar that Iniquity is the more it is odious As Pliny said Lib. 8. Episto ad Russiuum Decipere pro meribus temporum prudentia est It was the great Blindness and Corruption of the Times when Cheating past for Wisdom He that labours by Witty Distortions to overthrow the Truth he serves Lucre and not God he serves Mammon and not the Law You know you cannot serve those two Masters for they are utterly opposite But to conclude three Masters you may nay you ought to serve which are subordinate Serve God Serve the King Serve the Law Ite alacres tantaeque precor confidite Causae I have ended The Fear of God go with you and his Blessing be upon you 125. All things upon this Festival Day of the new Sergeants were answerable to this Eloquent Speech Yet every Day look'd clowdy and the People were generally indisposed to Gawdy Solemnities because the Prince was in a far Country Others may undertake to write a just History of that Journey into Spain and a just History gives Eternity to Knowledge I fall upon no more than came under the dispatch of one Person upon whom I insist Yet some Passages upon the whole Matter will require their
mention the parts of the Narration needing as it were Sinews and Tendons without which they cannot grow together Two Years and little more were run out after the Death of Prince Hâ—nry so much miss'd so much bewailed when the principal Statesman then in Spain under King Philip the Third the Duke of Lerma opened the Motion first to Sir J. Digby our King's Embassador Resiant in the Court of Madrid for a Match between our Prince who was by this time every where renown'd for the Diligence he shew'd to that brave Education which was given him and the Infanta Maria the much praised Daughter of his Master the Mightiest Christian Potentate in Europe Our King was passing well pleas'd when his Servant Digby sent him word of it and encouraged him to bring it to as much ripeness as he could The Treatise went on very chearfully with the great Ones on both sides who were only or chiefly concern'd in it But no People meddle more or more impertinently with the discourse of great things which are above them than the paultriest of the English I mean Shop-keepers and Handycrafts-men These had some vain Fears which made them deaf to Reason and swift to murmur But the King was too wise to put his Honour and his greatest Actions under the Hazard of their Interpretation That some of our Nobles sided with the common Mans Opinion it weighed as little For they were such as loved it like their Life to be commended by open Fame and could not dissemble that their coldness to the Match was not without a Fever of Popularity No discreet Person thought that the Success would be the worse because a few gay Coats forbid the Bands with the Tryes and Dewces of Sedentary and Loitering Men. Pliny says of Miscellen Pulses sowed together in Italy in his time Nihil ocymo faecundius quod maledictis probris serendum praecipiunt ut laetius proveniat Lib. 19. N.H. C. 7. The Husbandmen had a Superstition to curse it or to give it all ill words when it was sown and thought it would grow the better With more Reason I may affirm it were Superstition to imagine that a good Design would the sooner go back because it was rashly malign'd by them that walk'd in Pauls or throng'd together in the Markets There was nothing like a halt in the Treaty of this Marriage between the two Kings till the Prince Elector our Kings Son-in-Law made his Excursion into Bohemia and left his own Country naked and undefensible behind him and lost it Though in fair dealing now the Nuptials should have hastned faster to a Conclusion than before because the young Parties were grown up to a mature Age for Marriage Yet the Spaniard could be brought on to no dispatch but took respite of time about three Years to resolve how the Bridal-Joy should be doubled with the Settlement of the Palsgrave in his own Principality For till that was done Peace between the two Kingdoms was but in a doubtful and a catching Condition 126. The Castilian Court is ever slow but to make it worse it was suspected as I incline to think uncharitably that in this great Business it would not be sure It is incident when one State offends another to impute the fault not to that one Errour but to a general and National Vice So the Spaniards were set out to the Prince in some busie Pamphlets and other Draughts put into his Hand for such as the Parthians are describ'd in Justin Lib. 41. Parthi Naturâ taciti ad faciendum quam ad dicendum promptiores sides diclis promissisque nuila nisi quatenus expedit Such as were given to suppress and conceal their Counsels Such as would sooner bite than bark Such as would keep no Faith but when it serv'd their turn The Prince both discountenanc'd and discarded those that in Zeal to his Affairs presum'd to write contumeliously of that Prepotent Wise and Grave Nation He had cast the Anchor of great Hopes and Joys upon that Shore Every Tongue gave loud Commendation to the Infanta his Mistress He loved the report of her Vertues and Beauty and he that is sick of Love will be more sick of Procrastination Thereupon as he did publickly before the ensuing Parliament take it upon himself 〈◊〉 Heroick Thought started out of his own Brain to visit the Court of 〈◊〉 as well to shew what Confidence he had in the Justice and Honour of that King committing the safety of his Person to him in a strange Land as to bring his Comforts to a sudden Consummation if his Catholick Majesty meant seriously 〈◊〉 bellow his Sister upon him But if he had plaid an ignoble part by counte â—ing Proâ—tions then resolutely to give King Philip no leisure to abuse him any longer And set the Discrediâ—e at his Door that had done the wrong for it is more honourable to suffer an injury than to do it The Lord Marquess of Buckingham then a great Graâ—o was put on by the Prince to ask the Kings liking to this Amour◠〈◊〉 â—enure Of whom he obtein'd both his Consent and his Secresie 〈…〉 â—ere over the Seas For this was the Pirithous that went with 〈…〉 his Love They left New Market on the 17th of 〈…〉 on the 18th from thence posted to Dover and were in France before they were miss'd But then upon the Bruit of the Prince's sudden departure so thinly Guarded for so long a Journey even the Wisest were troubled The Courtiers chiefly those that wanted their Master talk'd out their Discontents boldly The Lords of the Counsel look'd dejectedly that they were pretermitted in a Consultation of so great Importance but prayed heartily That since his Majesty was pleas'd to walk softly that he might not be heard his chance were not to tread away Among them all the Lord Keeper was the only Counsellor suspected to be of the Plot. Yet he knew as little as the rest and satisfied their Lordships that Ignorance was often a happy thing as in this instance For if the Prince had gone out of the Kingdom privily with their Lordships Knowledge and Counsel and some misfortune which God avert should prevent his safe return their Heads would be forfeited to Justice and their Names expos'd to perpetual Infamy Indeed this was but the second time that King James had baulk'd his whose Counsel upon a like Occasion Not out of Confidence that he knew enough without them but out of tenderness to their safety that they might not undergo the Anger exacted upon ill Events if God should cause them In the Year 1589. he caused some Ships to be Rigg'd that the Admiral of Scotland might fetch Queen Ann out of Denmark But when the Fleet was ready he went Aboard himself hoisted Sails and took his leave of no Man For which sudden Voyage not imparted to the Lords that fate close at Edinburgh he gives this Satisfaction to them in a Letter see it in worthy Spotswood pag. 377. I took this Resolution none of
they will loose much of their Thanks If they cloy us with new Articles upon Advantage that they have the Prince among them they have lost their Wits or Honesty and will loose their Purpose Of which yet I have but half a Doubt and his Majesty none at all I have also taken liberty in that Letter to speak of your Lordship I hope without Offence I leave the rest to Sir George Goring's Relation and your Lordship to God's Protection Now was the time now when my Lord of Buckingham was in this eminent Imployment that he did most need a Wife and a trusty Counsellor For an Error in so great a Eusiness would be worse interpreted than the wilful Comission of a Fault in a smaller thing As Tully says Lib. 4. de fin If a Ship be wreckt by Negligence Majus est peccatum in auro quam in palcâ Hereof the Lord Keeper was more sensible than any of his Lordship's Creatures and quite contrary to those that had private Ends to make use of the Lord Marquess at Home and called importunately for his Return he alone was bold to give him his sage Opinion not to stir from his Charge withal enheartning him with the Comfort of the King 's constant Favour that it was kept for him against his Return in as great or higher measure as he enjoy'd it when he took his Leave And to Count Gondamar he gave a Character of his Lordship which he desired the Count would make known to the greatest Counsellors of King Philip that none did exceed him in Generosity and Sweetness of Nature that he deserved extraordinary Civilities for his own Worth and according to the Favour with which his Master tendered him and that he would pawn his Life upon it that no Man should go before him in Honorable Acknowledgments for Noble Usage These good Offices were part of the Lord Keeper's Retribution to his Advancer which he deposited as fast as he could lay them out For perfect Thankfulness never leaves bearing never thinks it hath paid its utmost Debt 132. Now to follow the Chase As Counsel and Forecast were very busie at the Loom here so Tidings from Spain did promise that there was a good Thread spun there All Expresses related that the Entertainment was very pompous and Kingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Alexander in Plutarch I have said all when I said it was done like a King chiefly like a King of Spain But two Negatives were better than this Affirmative First That his Highness should not be attempted to recede from the Religion in which he was grounded Secondly That he should not be â—ned with unwelcome Prorogations Nay That a short time should 〈…〉 the Nuptials Truly In defiance to Emulation or Detract◠〈…〉 be granted that the first Stone was well laid His Highness's Welcome 〈◊〉 full of Cost and Honour which was Decorum for no Tree will bear Fruit in Autumn unless it blossom kindly in the Spring The Entertainment was compleat in all Points of Ceremony and Ceremony is a great part of Majesty It will suffice to set down a little that is published herein and never contradicted Cabal P. 14. The King of Spain and the State studied to do the Prince all the Honour that might be The first Decree that the Council of State made was That at all Occasions of Meeting he should have the Precedency of the King That he should make Entry into the Palace with that Solemnity which the Kings of Spain do on the first day of their Coronation That he should have one of the chief Quarters of the King's House for his Lodgings One hundred of the Guard to attend him All the Council to obey him as the King 's own Person And upon all these Particulars Mr. W. Sanderson is exactly copious in the Reign of King James P. 545 in laying the Relation with other high Civilities which were very true That a general Pardon was proclaimed of all Offences and all prisoners within the Continent of Spain released and all English Slaves in the Gallies for Piracy or other Crimes set at Liberty and this manifested to be done in Contemplation of the Prince's Welcome The Windows of the Streets were glorified with Torches three Nights together by Proclamation Most costly Presents and of diverse Garnishing brought to him were Testimonies of Heroick Hospitality such as were wont to be bestowed in Homer's Age yet far beyond them and whose like none could give but he that was Master of the West-Indies Abroad and of the best Artificers at Home That which weighed most of all was That infinite Debt of Love and Honour which the King profest to be due unto him with this long-wing'd Complement which flew highest That he had won his Sister with this brave Adventure and deserved to have her thrown into his Arms. This was the Cork and Quill above and I know of no Hook beneath the Water Some imagine it but turning over all Dispatches that came to my Hand I know of none and that which outgoes my Knowledge shall never undergo my Censure To speak out the Truth where could the Spanish Monarch have done better for his Sister or for himself that is for Love or Policy since it was a Business mixt of both There was not a Deturdigniori among the Sons of Kings in Europe to whom he could give the Golden Aple And in Conjunction with the Prince the next Planet under him the Lord Marquess had a Lustre of much Grace and Observance darted upon him At first he was much esteemed says the Intelligencer Cabal P. 16. and remembred with Presents from the bravest of both Sexes Says another He was a Person whose Like was not to be seen among the swarthy and low-growth'd Castilians For as Ammianus describes a well-shap'd Emperor Ab ipso capite usque ad unguium summitates reétâ erat lineamentorum compage From the Nails of his Fingers nay from the Sole of his Foot to the Crown of his Head there was no Blemish in him And yet his Carriage and every Stoop of his Deportment more than his excellent Form were the Beauty of his Beauty Another Sisinnius as Socrates the Ecclesiastick shews him out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Setting of his Looks every Motion every Bending of his Body was admirable No marvel if such a Gallant drew Affections to him at Home and Abroad especially at Madrid which was a Court of Princes But can that Nation pass over such a Triumph as this Entertainment without Pumpian Words and ruffling Grandiloquence 't is impossible Therefore one Andres de Mendoza wrote a Relation of all these Passages which he dedicated to Don Juan de Castilià wherein he pities us poor English that we had seen nothing but Country Wakes or Popit-Plays compared with these Rarities which were the seven Wonders of Bravery And that King Philip did vouchsafe to make King James happy with his Alliance as C. Caesar honoured Amiclas the Water-man called Pauper Amyclas Lucan Lib.
my power to advertise you of all Particulars though it would be very useful to me I end c. If one should say to this That young Heads hope for the best upon all Expectations because Experience hath not taught them to Distrust I take it up and Answer That there was nothing then in appearance to be distrusted no not the Remora of the Pontifical Dispensation when it should come with all its Trinkets about it The Prince had excellently prevented it For as it was Reported before the Lords and Commons in our ensuing Parliament 1624. his Highness did utterly refuse to Treat with the King of Spain or his Council until he was assured he might go on with the Marriage if he satisfied them to his Power and Conscience in all Particulars to be Debated without respect to any orders that should come from Rome This was granted to his Highness before he would sit in Consultation which caused the Lord Marquess unto that time to bear up with chearfulness 137. The month of May coming in with its Verdue his Lordship had a Garland sent him the most eminent Title of a Duke to shew says the Lord-Keeper in his Dispatch May 2. That His Majesty is most constant and in some degrees more enslamed in his Affections to your Grace than formerly and which is better than all unaffectedly to remunerate your Diligence in the great Negotiation and that being the Princes right hand by the Trust you are in your Honour might be no less than the Conde Duke Olivares the Great Privado of King Philip. It may be 't is so small a Circumstance that I have not searched about it that the Patent came with the Ships that carried the Prince's Servants into Spain to attend his Highness who went with the King's Order and their own great Desire a most specious Train of them to visit their dear Master and to serve him in all Offices of his Family Among these two were his Highness's Chaplains who were sent over to Officiate to him and his Court in the Worship of God These were Dr. Maw and Dr. Wrenn both of prime Note for Learning and Discretion very Learned to defend their own Religion and very Discreet to give no wilful Offence to the opposite part in a Foreign Dominion The Spanish liked not their company yet they took it not so ill for they could not but expect them as that there was not one Romish Catholic declared for such a one among all his Highness's Attendants Cabal p. 15. Tully states the Proverb in the Feminine Sex Lib. 5. ad Att. Ep. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As you would say Such as Diana her self such are her Nymphs about her But it is better paralell'd in King David's Person He that walketh with a perfect heart he shall serve me Psal 101.6 These were the Chorus of the Scene that sung in Tune with the chief Actor and seconded his Part with their Symplasma as it is called by ancient Musicians in their adherence to sincere Religion Yet some of these brought Instructions with them to the Duke of Buckingham from his secret Intelligencers which not only disturbed all posteriour Treaties but made the Prince return for England with the Willow Wreath Because the King and they that were faithful to his meaning knew not of it till July next after let it squat till then and it that order be started up In this place it sufficeth to glance at it that the Duke was cunningly dealt with and underhand by some whom he had lest behind to be as it were the Life-Guard of his Safety who were to send him notice of common Talk or secret Whispers that might concern him These perswaded him to set the Match back by degrees and in the end to overturn it That this was the desire of most Voices in England And his Grace must look to stand by the love of the People as well as of the King Or if he could not prevail in that let him be sure to joyn the Restitution of the Palatinate with the Marriage in the Capitulations or the Unsatisfaction which all would take that pitied the King's Daughter and her Children would undo him Upon these and their subtile Arts Sir W. Ashton Reflects in this Passage Cabal p. 32. I believe that your Grace hath represented to you many Reasons shewing how much it concerns you to break the Match with all the force you have This was the Junto at London that had done his Grace this Office and had guilded their Councils over with flourishing Reasons That these would procure him a stable continuance in Power and Sublimity with everlasting Applause Well every thing that is sweet is not wholsom Cael. Rhodoginus says lib. 23. c. 25. That at Trevisond in Pontus the Honey that Bees make in Box-Trees breeds Madness if it be eaten So I mean that the Urgencies of those Undertakes who pretended so far to the Duke's Prosperity were no better than Rhodoginus his Box-Tree Honey-Combs Yet after they had given the Qu now began the Duke to irritate the Spaniard to shut out or to slight the Earl of Bristow in all Councels to pour Vinegar into every Point of Debate to fling away abruptly and to threaten the Prince's Departure These boistrous Moods were not the way to succour the Prince's Cause for Favour cannot be forc'd from great Spirits by offering Indignities And the Temper of the Business in hand was utterly mistaken For they were not met at a Diet to make Articles of Peace and War but to Woo a fair Lady whose Consent is to be sought with no Language but that which runs sweet upon the Tongue As Q. Cicero wrote to his Brother de Peti Consul Opus est magnopere Blanditiâ Quae etiamsi vitiosa turpis sit in caeterâ vitá tam in Petitione est necessaria All Suitors are ty'd to be fair spoken but chiefly Lovers 138. No doubt but at this time in the Prime of May the Duke with such such others as the Prince did take into his Council sate close to consider upon the Overtures that came with the Dispensation For all thought that was the Furnace to make or to mar the Wedding-Ring and it asked Skill and Diligence to cast it well It is a Gibe which an Heathen puts upon an Amorose that wasts his whole time in Dalliance upon his Mistress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Love is an idle Man's Business But there was Business enough beside Courtship and Visits which came thick to keep this Love from being idle The Dispatches that were sent from Spain to employ those that were in Commission here to direct the great Negotiation were many First The Dispensation came to the King from the Prince his Son May 2. But it came to scanning a good while after as will appear by this Letter of the Lord Keepers to the Duke dated May 9. May it please your Grace IT is my Fortune and I thank God for it to be ever rendring
dissipatur Especially a contumely cleaves the faster when he that is clean from the Defamation in one Person hath deserv'd it in others for as Octa. Minutius says Oftentimes there is some likelihood in a Lye and not unseldom some unlikelihood in a Truth 143. Other Errors and many were charg'd upon the Duke and a broad back will not bear them all Yet casting not an Eye upon the Earl of Bristol's Papers which he produced in Parliament a Lap full of them and no less Their chief purpose was to cast an Odium upon him that he heightned the Spaniards at first to ask worse Conditions in Religion then were formerly Treated on These were Recriminations wherein no man no not the Wise Earl of Bristol is like to keep a Charitable Moderation Because his Miscarriages had been ript up by the Duke before what followed but that wawardness which St Austin confess'd to be sometime in himself Si deprehensus Arguerer saevire magis quà m caedere libebat Cofess lib. 1. c. ult But such as were no parties in Contestation with my Lord of Buckingham blame him that he was very rash in managing business turning about Councils in all haste upon the Wheel of Fancy but keeping no Motion of Order or Measure which none could endure worse then that Nation with whom he Treated who are the most Superstitious under Heaven to keep that Politick Rule Bona Consilia morâ valescere Tacit. Hist l. 4. They said also That he was Offensive to the Crown of Spain in taunting Comparisons and an open derider of their Magniloquent Phrases and Garb of stateliness which must be an intended provocation for he was as well studied in blandishments and the Art of Behaviour as any Courtier in Europe They repined that he thrust himself into such a Room at their Masks and Interludes as were proper to their King our Prince and the Train Royal and was not contented with that Honour which was given to the Major Domo or prime Subject of Spain as if he were not satisfied to be Received as a less Star but as a Parelius with his Highness And whatsoever the grudge was they vented it craftily in that Quarrel that he did many things against the Honour and Reverence due to the Prince as one hath pick'd up and offered it to King James Cab. p. 221. That he was over Familiar in Talk and in Terms with his Highness Yet David so near the Crown call'd himself a dead Dog or a Flea in respect of Saul Nor is it omitted that he was sometime cover'd when the Prince was bare sometime sitting when the Prince stood capering a lost in sudden Fits and Chirping the Ends of Sonnets which was not Unmannerliness he was better bred but inconsiderateness which will creep upon him who was too much dandled upon the Lap of Fortune Or as Budaeus better Expresseth it Sap. Pand. p. 331. Mirablandimenta genuit Aulici victus ratio quibus praestantissima virtus saepè consopita connivere visa est And truly his Breeding in Budaeus his own Country did him some prejudice in that kind For the French Mode is bold Light and Airy That which we call rudeness with them is freedom good Metal brave assurance And that which we and the Castilians call Gravity or Modesty with them is reputed Sneaking want of Spirit Sheepishness But between frets of Spight and Fits of Levity the Duke put the Treaty so far out of Tune that the Lovers were disappointed of their expected Epithalamium So that the Spaniards made it one of their Refranes or Proverbs If the Prince had come alone without the Duke he had never return'd alone without the brave Castilian Virgin they might say so freely for I heard himself say no less in the Banqueting House at a Conference with the Lords and Commons anno 1624. When he endear'd himself to the Hearers That the Stout and Resolute way wherein he went had overturn'd the Marriage and did Arrogate the Thanks of all things to himself that were acceptable and popular So be it yet that which Canoniz'd him with the people then was afterward made an Evidence against him Cab. p. 227. To lay a Dram of Excuse against a Pound of Error this is to be Alledged that Olivares and Count Montes-claros were ill Advis'd to spurn a young Lion as if he had been a Puppy-Whelp For as soon as they saw the Duke soare so high in his Opinions and when Bristol spake to mitigate him disaccount of him contemptibly as if he had nothing to do this Brace of Grandees call'd it in Question what Creature could have more Power in that Action then an Embassador that laid the first Stone of it that had ample Letters of Credence under the King's Broad-Seal with the Confirmation of the Privy-Council of England which was more then my Lord of Buckingham brought with him The Headship of the Treaty was in the Prince and they bended to it Extolling his Wisdom as Capitolinus doth Gordianus the Elder Moribus it a moderatus ut nihil possis dicere quod nimiè fecit The next place they deemed to the Earl of Bristol upon the Reason premised though he declin'd it And should Buckingham be degraded to be the third in Place who held the Highest Place in Honour and the Supremacy both in the King 's and the Princes Favour Ausonius in Paneg. ad Gratian. tells a Story That Alexander the Great Reading those Verses in Homer that Agamemnon was Nam'd by the Common Souldiers to Fight the Duel with Hector after Aiax and Diomedes clapt out an Oath saying Occiderem eum qui me tertium nominasset I would have cut his Throat that should have Named two before me Truly Buckingham had so much Bravery in him that he would take the third Place in as great Dudgeon as Alexander 144. The grave Earl of Bristol was passive in this Quarrel and sunk it in Silence with his best Dexterity So he did allay all other Heats which the Duke's Passion raised against him if his Letter to the Lord Keeper be of Canonical Faith Cab. P. 21. knowing how undecent and scandalous a thing it is for the Ministers of Princes to run different ways in a strange Court But the Envy of all Miscarriages was cast upon his Lordship by that mighty Adversary and by a greater than he That he was wholly Spaniolized which could not be unless he were a Pensioner to that State That he sided with Olivarez in all Consults That he professed a Neutrality and more in all Propositions for the Advancement of the Popish Religion That he never Pleaded for the Restitution of the Palatinate but only pitied it with the Spanish Shrug That he did not so timely unmask the Spanish Councils to the Kings Advantage as he might and ought to have done That he entangled the Prince in Delays to keep him from returning Home For these and other the like which will follow in the great Report made in the next Parliament a Noise was made
That if his Majesty should receive any intelligence that he was deteined in that State as a Prisoner he would be pleased for his sake never to think of him more as a Son but to reflect with all his Royal Thoughts upon the good of his Sister and upon the safety of his own Kingdoms Sic omnes unus amores vicit amor patriae And so far to the Supplements I must now explicate their Lordships Opinion who having by the Command of his Majesty taken into their Mature Considerations the whole Narration made by the Prince his Highness and my Lord Duke to both Houses in this place and all the Letters and Dispatches read unto them to corroborate the same And Lastly these Supplements and Additions recited before are of opinion upon the whole Bulk of the matter that his Majesty cannot rely upon or maintain any longer either of both these Treaties concerning the Match with Spain or the Restitution of the Palatinate with the safety of his Religion his Honour his Estate or the Weal and Estate of his Grand-Children And his Highness together with their Lordships are desirous to know whether you Gentlemen the Knights Burgesses and Citizens of the House of Commons do concur with their Lordships in this their Opinion which they ever referred to this further Conference with your Honourable House 192. As Plutarch said of the Laconick Apothegms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were Clean and Sound Timber with the Bark taken off So the Reader may observe in these Reports that the Matter is Heart of Oak the Style clear from Obscurity and disbark'd quite from superduity But regarding the Auditors and their Affections at that Season nothing could be more proper for he spake to their Content as if he had been within them with Sweet and Piercing Expressions resembled in the Harp and the Quiver of Arrows with which the Heathen Trimm'd up Apollo their Deity of Graceful Speech They that detract from such Worth would be glad it were their own as says our compleat Poet upon the like A good Man 's Envied by such as would For all their Spight be like him if they could But this beginning presaged good Luck to the ensuing Counsels debated in that Session This is called to this day the Blessed Parliament and so Posterity will take it from us Says Tully very well 3. Philip. Magna vis est magnum numen unum idem consentient is senatus A full Senate Head and Members consenting in one carries a Majestick and Oraculous Authority with it This is the Confirmation of it when the people brought before the King the Fruits of their Wisdom which they had Studied And the King did ratifie him chearfully with the Wisdom of his Power They opened their Purse to him and which was more beneficial to them then if they had spared a little Mony he let fall some Flowers off his Crown that they might gather them up which indeed was no more then desluvium pennarum the Molting of some Feathers after which the Eagle would Fly the better He opened his Ear to them in all their Petitions and they listned as much to him and gave their Ear-Rings to Jacob Gen. 35.4 So the King and the Subject became perfect Unisons And as God doth knit his own Glory and the Salvation of mankind together so the King did imitate God and Married his Honour with the welfare of the Kingdom Who is it that reads the Statutes 21 Jacobi and doth not admire them The Peers took it to be their greatest Nobility to look well to the Publick And the other House did light upon the True Companion of Wisdom Sâ—data Tranquillitas a Calm Tranquility as Rivers are deepest where they Foam least And all the Land had cause of rejoycing that the House of Commons was never better Replenish'd in Man's Memory with Knights and Burgesses of rare Parts and Tempers especially the Gown-men of the Inns of Courts who were extoli'd for Knowledge and political Prudence as no Age had afforded a better Pack And I give the Lord Keeper his Right and no more knowing his Traces perfectly at that time that he labour'd as for Life to keep an Harmony between the King and this Parliament to suck out his Majesties assent to all their Proceedings that he might shew himself as good as he was great Which I think was the greatest certainly the happiest part of Honour that ever the Lord Keeper Merited How he mitigated Discontents and softned refractoriness how he obliged the leading Voices with benefits how he kept the Prerogative of the Supreme Power and the Extravagancies of pretended Liberty on the other side from Encroachments the Wise only knew but they that knew it not were the better for it and that he was chiefly us'd in Consultation for compiling those wholesom Laws which had their double Resining and Clarifying from Lords and Commons In all likelihood prosperous success might be expected from this Parliament because it was Pious and Pious because it was a strict preserver of the Holy Patrimony Allotted to God Quae 〈…〉 erunt quam quibus Deus praestitit auxilium says Ansonius to the Emperor 〈◊〉 What Counsels are more compleat then those that are help'd by God Nay What Councels can be more compleat then theirs that defend the Right of God As worser times would let the Clergy keep nothing so those times by their good Will would let them part with nothing Let the Trial be observ'd as the Case follows 193. The Duke of Buckingham lack'd a dwelling according to the Port of his Title and to receive a very populous Family It must be near to Whitehal and it must be spacious None could be found so fit as the Arch-Bishop of York his House It was nigh to Charing-Cross and he came little to it The Duke us'd the Lord Keeper to move Arch-Bishop Mathew for his Consent and to make the Bargain between them causing him to make prosser of such Lands in the County of York as should be equivalent or better then the House Garden and Tenements belonging to the Arch-Bishop's Place For nothing was intended but Exchange with considerable Advantage to him and his Successors And that was sure as touch because the House was to be past by Act of Parliament to the Kings Majesty So the Duke had made it his humble Request and drew on the King hardly to make a Chop with those Demeasnes to which the Name of God and his Christ were made the Feoffees in the first Donation for the use of that Tribe which peculiarly serves him in Sacred Offices Yet with instance and much Suit the King was wrought to it for the Duke's sake As M. Antony said to his Confident Septimius Quod Concupiscas tu videris quod concupieris certè habebis Tul. 5. Philip. So this Beloved Minion should be Wise to see what he ask'd for his Master had no Power to say him nay His Majesty was most Nice and Cautious to make the Composition
Memory of our Saviours Birth I conceive the like for Geneva For when Calvin had retir'd to Basil some mutation about Holy Feasts was made in Geneva Upon his Return thither again Hallerius both in his own and in Musculus his Name complains that the Celebration of that Memorable Feast was Neglected Calvin Returns him Answer the Epistle is extant dat anno 1551. Jan. Sancte testari possum me inscio ac ne optante quidem hanc rem â—uisse transactam Ex quo sum revocatus hoc temperamentum quaesivi ut Christi Natalis celebraretur vestro more But will you have the Judgment of Protest out Divines when they were in a Globe and Collection together from all Quarters At the Synod of Dort convened about six years past all the Divines with the Assessors from the States intermitted their Sessions against the Feast of Christ's Nativity with 〈◊〉 Suffrages and the Reason is given in plain Words Sessio 36. Decem. 1â— Quia to tempore Festum Natalis D. N. Jesu Christi instabat propter cujus celebrationem c. It will be the harder for those of the Religion in France to Answer for this Omission Yet Judg more Charitably then to think they do it only out of Crossness to disconform to your Practise He that runs backward further then he need from his Adversary plays his Prize like a Coward And I use to say it often that there ought to be no secret Antipathies in Divinity or in Churches for which no Reason can be given But let every House sweep the Dust from their own Door We have done our endeavour God be Praised in England to Model a Churchway which is not afraid to be search'd into by the sharpest Criticks for Purity and Antiquity But as Pacat. said in his Paneg in another Case Parum est quando caeperit terminum non habebit Yet I am confident it began when Christ taught upon Earth and I hope it shall last till he comes again I will put my Attestation thus far to your Confidence says the Abbat that I think you are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven So with mutual Smiles and Embraces they parted 219. Paulo Majora The next was the greater grapple upon Terms Political and Scholastical between the Lord Keeper and Mounsieur Villoclare who is mention'd before The King was now at White-Hall and the French Agents plied it to concord Conditions for the Royal Marriage And who so busie to trouble the Scene with a new part not concern'd in the Plot of the Comedy as our Nimble-headed Recusants The Secretary Villoclare was accounted and not mistaken to be a servent Zealot in his own Religion which our English had learnt by resorting daily to Mass in the Embassadors House These found Access unto him and sighed out their Grievances before him that their Priests who adventur'd to come to them for their Souls Health were Executed for Traytors and themselves were set such Fines for their Conscience that they were utterly impoverish'd How happy should that Honourable Person be that would skreen them from the scorching of this Persecution That his Lordship had Opportunity for his Power and his Piety could not want will to enter into a Motion for a relaxation of their Miseries among such Articles as were to be Granted for the Honour and Happiness of the approaching Nuptials The Secretary heard them and condoled with them promis'd his Pains and to be an earnest Proctor in their Cause holding it most meritorious to go or run on such an Errand And he sell to his work in good earnest and ask'd such large concessions for his Clients or rather challeng'd such Grace with horrid Liberty then Petition'd for it that the King was observ'd to begin to be cooler in the Treaty for the Marriage then he had been The Lords that plied it beyond the Seas at the Lâ—â—r had not discouraged the Embassadors before they set forward but rather pleased them with hopes of English Courtesies and condescentions And I fear they were perswaded into too much confidence for I have heard it often from the Followers of the Earl of Carlile that after Articles had been drawn and Engross'd some things were Erazed some things Interlaced which never had his Lordships Approbation Our Courtiers at White-Hall through whose Counsels and Resolves the Grants of Monsieur Villoclare were to pass though directly they did dot yield to him yet his driving was so furious that they declin'd to deny him and shift for themselves that the first Storm of his Passion might not fall upon them Therefore they told him they could not assure him he had prevail'd till he had spoke with the Lord Keeper whose Duty it was to Examine such things upon his Peril what were sit or not sit for the King's Conscience Honour and Safety before the Great Seal were put to The Keeper heard of all this and sent to the Duke as he had wrote to him before Cab. p. 95. I shall be in a pitiful perplexity if his Majesty shall turn the Embassadors upon me altogether unprovided how to Answer But he cast it up into this short Sum that the disappointment of this Vexatious Solicitor so far engag'd must light upon himself and the displeasure of all the French that wish'd it good speed He was not to learn that a Magistrate in his Place must have a strong back to bear the Burthen of Envy So he Collected his thoughts into rational preparations and was provided for a Bickering which began on the Eighth of January and held long And it must be warned that the Report of it which follows extends the length above that which past between them on that occasion The Secretary Villâ—are after he had parted from the Lord Keeper and brought his business to a justifiable Maturity through the direction of some of our best Lawyers as the way was chalked to to him had Audience with the King and Entreated with his Majesty upon Terms of greater moderation then formerly he had done which he confest was brought about from a Conference with the Lord Keeper And told his Majesty That Counsellor had given him small content in a long Argument vext between them for he had Preach'd to him till he was weary to hear his Divinity tho' it was Learned and of more Acuteness then he expected in that Cause but unsatisfactory to Catholicks as could be fram'd Yet he made him amends with such Counsel in the end that now he knew upon what Ground he stood what Laws and Statutes were in force against that model of Mercy which he had urg'd and how the Clemency and Power of his Majesty was retrench'd by them Therefore as he hoped to find his Majesty Sweet and Gracious so his Majesty should find him tractable that the Thrice Noble and Primary design about which he came might not hover any longer in suspence Blessed be the Reduction of things to this good pass said the King And that Aequanimity might not slip the Knot his
long time never enjoy'd a calm Sea He was made for such a Tryal which was sanctified by Gospel-Promises giving unto just Men assurance of vigour to endure them Every one pittieth himself everyone covets Ease and Prosperity which is more Childish than Manly And a Design that is commonly mistaken Adversity out of doubt is best for us all because we would not carve it out to our selves but God chooseth it for us and he chooseth better for us than we can for ourselves By his Providence some Mens Sorrows are greater than others and few had a deeper Cup to drink than this Prelate But every Man's Calamity is fittest for himself trust the Divine appointment for that And if all Adversities of several Men were laid in several heaps a wise Man would take up his own and carry them home upon his Shoulders Hâ—rmolaus Barbarus in an Epistle to Maximilian King of the Romans Polit. Epis p. 447. distinguisheth between Happiness and Greatness Secundae res felicem Magnum faciunt adversae But if he that is beset round with distresses bear them to the Estimation of good Men to appear great in them then is he happy as well as great Which is to be demonstrated in the Subject that I write of as followeth 2. King Charles began his Reign Mart. 27. 1625. The next day he sent for the Lord-Keeper to his Court at St. James's who found his Majesty and the Lord-Duke busied in many Cares The King spake first of setling his Houshold among whom the Keeper commended two out of his own Family to be preserr'd but it was past over without an Answer only his Domestick Chaplain was taken into ordinary Service for whom he had made no suit But to begin the well-ordering of the new Court he was appointed to give the Oath to the Lords of the Privy-Council Sir Humphrey May taken into the Number a very wise States man and no more of a new Call Then likewise order was given for the Funerals of the deceased King and the Keeper chosen to Preach on the occasion of which enough is said already by a convenient Anticipation The Coronation was spoken of though the time was not determin'd Yet the King told the Keeper he must provide a Sermon for that likewise but he that bespoke him was of another mind before the Day of the Solemnization was ripe That which was much insisted upon at this Consult was a Parliament His Majesty being so forward to have it sit that he did both propound and dispute it to have no Writs go forth to call a new one but to continue the same which had met in one Session in his blessed Father's days and prorogued to another against that Spring The Lord-Keeper shewed That the old Parliament determined with his death that call'd it in his own Name and gave it Authority to meet Since necessity requir'd a new Choice the King's Will was That Writs should be dispatcht from the Chancery forthwith and not a day to be lost The Keeper craved to be heard and said it was usual in times before that the King's Servants and trustiest Friends did deal with the Countries Cities and Boroughs where they were known to procure a Promise for their Elections before the precise time of an insequent Parliament was publisht and that the same Forecast would be good at that time which would not speed if the Summons were divulged before they lookt about them The King answer'd It was high time to have Subsidies granted for the maintaining of a War with the King of Spain and the Fleet must go forth for that purpose in the Summer The Keeper said little again lest Fidelity should endanger a Suspicion of Malice and he little dreamt that the Almanack of the new Year or new Reign was so soon calculated for the Longitude of a War and the Latitude of vast Sums of Money to pay the Service Yet he replied in a few words but with so cold a consent that the King turned away and gave him leave to be gone He that was not chearful to say good Luck have you with that Expedition was not thought worthy to have an Oar in the great Barque which was launching out and making ready for the King's Marriage with the sweet Lady of France Yet who but he to treat with Embassadors of that Nation and on that Score in his old Master's time Among all the Cares that came into Consideration that day in the sulness of business this had the start and was hastned the same Morning with Posts and Pacquets Cupid's Wings could not possibly fly faster Yet his Majesty spake nothing of it to this able Counsellor although the Rumor of it in a Week was heard from Thames to Twede And the Duke began to hold no Conference with him neither from that day did he call for this Abiathar and say Bring hither the Ephod to ask Counsel of the Lord. Evident Tokens to make any Man see what would come after that was far less than a Prophet Which this wife Man past over and seem'd to observe nothing that was ominous or unfriendly But as Lord Mornay says in his Answer about the Conference at Fountain-bleau when Henry of France the 4th forbad him coming to the Louver Specto eclipsin expecto intrepidus securus quid illa secum vehat So the Lord-Keeper was better acquainted with Heaven than to be troubled at an Eclipse which is an accident prodigious to none but to a Fool but familiar to a Philosopher And he had learnt in the Morals by heart that the way to lose Honour is to be too careful to keep it 3. While the great Assairs did run thus the Keeper went close to his Book as much as publick business would allow to frame a Sermon against the Obsequies of blessed James He did not conceive that the Counsels which he gave to the King on the second day of his Reign were so ill taken as he heard not long after He that speaks with the trust of a Counsellor and which is more with the Tongue of a Bishop should be priviledged to be plain and faithful without offence As St. Ambrose mindeth Theodosius Ep. 29. Non est imperiale libertatem dicendi negare neque sacerdotale quid sentias non dicere But News knockt at his Study-door two days after that my Lord-Duke threatned before many that attended to turn him out of his Office And the French Ambassadors were not the last that gave him warning of it These Rumors he lookt upon with his Eyes open and saw the approaching of a Downfal and so little dissembled it that he warn'd some of his Followers secretly who were in best account with him to procure dependance upon some other Master for his Service e're long would not be worthy of them It were to small purpose to enquire why the Duke's Grace did so hastily press the Ruine of one that had been his old Friend and Creature It was his game and he lov'd it I
Script and Memory after the ransacking of his Papers Therefore as Tully writes lib. 3. de Orat. Majus quiddam de Socrate quà m quantum Platonis libri prae se ferunt cogâ—andum That Socrates was a braver man than Plato had made him in his Dialogues So I have not made Dr. Williams so compleat a Bishop as he was he was more than I have describ'd him and would have been far more than himself had attain'd to if the Messenger of Satan had not been sent to busset him in many Troubles and Trials lest he should have been exalted above measure 63. After much that hath been dilated in this Book pleasing for Peace and Honour Praise-worthy for Merit and Vertue I must make room for Grief it will thrust in into every Registry and Chronicle into the remembrance of any man's Life which is continued from the beginning to the end Says â—lato in his Phaedon after his way of a Fable-frame of Philosophy when Jupiter could not make Joy and Sorrow agree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He yoked their Heads together that they could never be parted Therefore those things which God's Providence hath joyn'd inseparably no Pen can put asunder so that the Current of this History hitherto clear must fall into a dead Sea-like Jordan The Good which this famous Bishop did must be continued with the Evil which he suffer'd As Polusiote writes of Jeremias that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most passive the most persecuted of all the Prophets So of all that this Church had preferr'd to the like Dignity except them that resisted to Blood none was wounded with so many Darts of Despight as this man or aviled with so many Censures or stood so long in chase before his Enemies Having delivered up the Great Seal from the first day that he removed to Bugden all Promises were broken which gave him Assurance of Countenance and Safety and the place to which he was bidden to go as to a Sanctuary assorded him no more shelter than an Arbour in the Winter against a Shower of Rain Therefore to keep off Mistakes be it noted as to the time it was the same wherein he lived so like a Bishop and wherein he suffer'd so like a Confessor But Method distinguisheth those Troubles by themselves like Tares gathered from the good Wheat and bound in their own Bundles Some are greater practis'd upon no Subject before nor fit to be done hereafter Some are lesser matters yet not unworthy my Hand When they are disposed Limb by Limb and in order as they were done there will be much of them I would they had been less and be known to be enforced without Shame of the World with so much Wrong and Rancour that an indifferent Reader will depose there needs no Fiction nor Colour to make them worse than they were Those that were outdone in the first place were outgone by them that came after Quid prima querar Quid summa gemam Pariter cuncla deslere juvat Sene. Her Oet What the last and greatest should have been is unknown because they came not to that Birth It was decreed by Men but undecreed by GOD who sent his Judgments upon all and brought both Actors and Sufferers to utter Ruin by that Parliament which held us as long as the issue of Blood held the Woman in the Gospel Twelve years Mat. 9.20 It was no thanks to his Foes to give over then It was strange they would not give over till then when one black day like a Dooms-day blended the whole Hierarchy and with their Lordships Leave the Nobility in one mass of Destruction Those underfatigable Enemies that pursued him knew that he could never fall so low while he was alive but that there was Worth which was like to get up and rise again He had never felt such Sorrow if he had been contemn'd It was his ill luck to be feared because of the great Powers of his Mind whom none had cause to fear since he never fought Revenge Then they saw he would stand upright and never stoop after they had loaded his Back with so many Burthens which made them obstinate to proceed and labour in vain to crush out that which was not Wind but Spirit The Mountainous Country of Wales wherein he was born breeds hardy men but sew his Equals which Courage is no more to be forgotten than the twelve Labours of Hercules Let Xenophon speak for Socrates so must I for this Hero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. in sine Observing the Wisdom and Generosity of the Man I cannot but remember him and when I remember him I cannot but praise him Neither were it useful I will subscribe to it to bring up his Sufferings from the Dead now he is gone unless the People that come after may be made the wiser and the stronger by them if they fall into the like But noble Examples are like the best Porcellan Dishes of China which are made in one Age laid up in the Earth and are brought forth to be used in another That 's the Goal I drive to And those Circuitions which are brought in for those Applications sake will make that which might be shut up in a little swell into a Volume Casaubon gives us this Warning of Polybius in his rare Preface before him Ita narrat ut moneat Personam historici cum assumpsit Polybius non in totum exuit philosophi Folybius was a Philosopher in his History so would I be and more a Teacher of Christ and the Laws of his Church as I am by Ordination 64. For an entrance I take my method from a wise Artist concerning the long and dangerous Adventures of his Aeneas to search into the Cause Quo numine laeso which way it came about since there was no man living whose Harm this Bishop wish'd that he could never find his Peace and Prosperity again when once he had lost them Why principally I cast it upon his Sins What Man is without them And his were not many but those some were great ones a lofty Spirit whose motion tended upward restless to climb to Fower and Honour And not one among an hundred of great Aspirers that live to see quiet days And this was joyn'd with too much Fire in the passion of his Anger in which Mood indeed which is strange he would reason excellently and continue it in the very Euro-clydon of his Choler as the Low Germans are most cunning at a Bargain when they are more than half tippled But in such an evil extasie of the Mind words would fall from him or from any which pleased not Men and were hateful to GOD Let these stand for the Fore-singer that points to the cause of his bitter Encounters Every man 's evil Genius that haunts him is his own Sin which wipes not out any paat of the Good which hath been written of him before The same man appears not the same but another in some miscarriages Polybius lib. 16. commends
Indictments four and forty times lib. 7. c. 21. Compare him with this Lord and he escaped well whose Suits hung upon him like Fruits on the Citron Tree as Servius says upon Virgil's Ecloges Omni tempore plena est pomis quae in eâ partim matura partim acerba partim in store sunt It bore some ripe ones and some sour ones some in the Knot and some in the Blossom altogether No matter though the Bishop came off without a Scratch in Credit it was enough that he was impoverish'd for Costs he could get none And it was held to be a Shred of Policy to make him spend away his Substance for by taking away as much Earth as they could about the Tree it would cool the Root The Bishop looking into the Throng and variety of such bad Humors and Dispositions was ashamed to see so many in holy Calling brought up in Faction and Flattery Qui pro hierophant is sycophantae esse decreverunt as Erasmus writes to Bovillus Ep. p. 61. Yet further he could let no Lease chiefly if it were devolved to him by expiration of Years or Lives but that the Tenants or their Heirs sought to enforce him to their own Conditions before His Majesty and Privy Council Who ever saw such a thing in the face of former times A Gentlewoman by the Interest of a Daughter match'd to one of a mean Place in the Presence-Chamber pursued him many years to enforce his agreement to her own asking and never prevailing had leave to take out her Penniworths in ill words Like the Poet's Frogs lib. 6. Metamor Quamvis sint sub aquâ sub aquâ maledicere tentant But of all Attempts those Suspicions plied him on the weak side that chased him upon the wrong scent of Corruption and taking Rewards He had undergone as strict an Inquisition as ever was of Thirteen Commissioners to search if he had taken but one Bribe while he kept the Seal and they broke up with a Non-inventus yet is now impeach'd for taking the Gratuity of a Saddle a piddling Trifle for all that the Enquiry about it cost more than a good Stable of Horses with all their Furniture and when all came to all it was found the Prosecutor importun'd the Steward of the House to receive it who laid it by and never presented it to his Lordship because it was too gaudy for his use The Complainant was a Doctor preferred by this Patron to a good Parsonage thro' the intercession of Sir W. Powel the Bishop's Brother-in-Law For the rest I leave the man in Obscurity without a Name as St. Hierom said to Heliodor Grown into note by defending an Heresie Quis te oro ante hanc blasphemiam noverat So let this Party sink in Forgetfulness that his Memory may not be preserv'd by the advantage of his Vice If Homer had spared a few Verses Thersites had never been known Any one may gather now out of the Premisses that when one single person was beset on every side it was not an ordinary Fortitude nor an ordinary Wisdom that broke all their Ranks But was it not a craven Spirit that turned loose so many Mirmydons against him Honour is least where Odds appear the most says our great Poet Spencer Lib. 2. Cant. 8. He had no Favour but Innocency to bear him out as those places under the Poles have no Light in Winter but from the whiteness of the Snow upon their own Ground not the least â—eam of the Sun shining upon them And which is eminent charitable and generous he never shew'd himself offended against any of these Adversaries when the Brunt was over An Observator as he calls himself the Wolf that howls against this Bishop both living and dead remembers what pleasant and courteous words he had with him anon after he came out of the Tower Upon which I will compare him once again with Melancthon according to Camerarius p. 57. Nullum dictum aut factum alicujus tam duriter unquam accepit ut ab illius benevolentia ac familiar itate recederet And my L. Bacon tells us well what a Gallantry it is For in taking Revenge a man is but even with his Enemies in passing them over he is superiour Had this Example been follow'd by Churchmen and by Theophilus Churchman our Foes had not enter'd in upon us at those Gaps which our selves did cause Bishops driving out Bishops was that which the Devil watch'd for says Euseb lib. 8. Praep. Evan. cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Jars and Jostlings and ambitious Contentions of the chief Fathers among themselves their Inheritance was given to Strangers 87. Our Bishop being Storm-beaten without intermission he requested the Lord Cottington to inform him what he should do to get his Peace and such ordinary Favours as other Bishops had from His Majesty this noble Lord returned him answer in two Points First the Lustre wherein he lived the great Company that resorted to him and his profuse Hospitality were objected that it was not the King 's Meaning that one whom he had pluck'd down should live so high Secondly His Majesty did not like that he should be so near a Neighbour to Whitehall but would be better contented if he would part with his Deanry In the first he took him out a Lesson which he would never learn to live in a dark and Miser-like fashion The Italians have had a meeting of Academicks at Rome called Compagna della Lesina the thrifty Congregation of which Profession he could never have been a Member Nor did he abate from living in Decorum and Liberality in the worst Times as Mr. A. Cowly writes to him in his Miscellanies p. 13. You put Ill Fortune in so good a Dress That it out-shines other mens Happiness Yet this was no ill Counsel if it had been follow'd for Princes will dislike it must not be call'd Envy if any live fortunately under their Punishment As both Dion lib. 58. and Tacitus An. lib. 6. have made it known in the Case of Junius Gallio that being banish'd he was brought back to Rome and confin'd Quia incusabatur facilè toleraturus exilium delectâ insulâ Lesbo nobili amaenâ As to the other touch to relinquish his Deanry he was utterly deaf unto it whosoever ask'd it was a hard Chapman but he did not stand so much in need of his Ware to grant him his Price St. Austin it may be would teach him otherwise out of a Punick Proverb which was used he says where he lived Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid And they tell us from the Caravans that travel in Arabia if they meet a Lion they leave him one living Creature for a Prey and then they may go on their Journey without Fear But this man thought otherwise of a most wakeful Eye and able Observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oduss w. Mnestorides that saw behind him and before him For says he what Health can come from such a Remedy
Am I like to be beholden to them for a setled Tranquility that practise upon the ruine of my Estate and the thrall of my Honour If I forfeit one Preferment for fear will it not encourage them to tear me piecemeal hereafter Memet ipse non deseram was well resolv'd of Philotus in Curtius Nor will I set so great a Mulct upon mine own Head What hurt can my Neighbourhood do to the Court and being so seldom in Town No greatness of Power when it would extreamly abuse it self which is not glad to think of Means how to avoid the note of Injustice In this there is not one syllable to accuse me much less to make me guilty It is not my case alone but every mans even his that is the prompter and puts it into the King's Head to ask it If the Law cannot maintain my Right it can maintain no mans This was his Constancy Nor did he let go his fast-hold in this Deanry till the King received it from him in Oxford anno 1644. As Livy says of Spain Hispania primò tentata est à Romanis sed postremò subacta It was the first Kingdom the Romans invaded and the last they conquered So this was the first of Lincoln's Preferment set upon and the last which he delivered up Since he would not be forced out of it it was carried with a Stratagem to keep him from it for in four years he was not admitted to preach a Sermon in Lent before the King the course for his Place being usually on Good-Friday and three years together when he came to the Chapters or to the Election to see it fairly carried for the choice of the best Scholars he could not rest above a day in the College but Secretary Coke either viva voce or by his Letters which are yet saved commanded him from the King to return to his Bishoprick As terrible a Prophet as Elisha was to the Noble-man of Samaria upon the Plenty of Corn predicted Thou shalt see it with thine eyes but thou shalt not eat of it 2 Kin. 7.2 This might fret the Bishop but not affright him And he ask'd the Secretary so stoutly what Law he brought with him to command him from his Freehold that the good old man was sensible that he had done an Injury In fine the chief Agitant saw that this Tryal upon so firm a Courage was uneffectual and ridiculous Neither was it a little Breath that could shake him from his Stalk like a Douny Blow-ball 88. Yet the more he did thrust off this Importunity the more it did follow him and a finer shift was thought of to esloign him from Westminster Archbishop Abbot had Directions from the King to press him to Residency upon his Bishoprick by the Statute the Archbishop of the Province having the oversight of the said Statute to see it put in execution And some words were dropt in the Archbishop's Letter to signifie that it was presumed that being in the Place of Lord Keeper he had pass'd a Dispensation under the Great Seal for himself to enjoy the Commenda of the Deanry for his better accommodation in that Office His Answer hereunto as followeth is his own in every word Most Reverend c. TO that Apostyle touching my Dispensation to reside upon the Deanry of Westminster the said Deanry being as all Commenda's are in the Eye of the Law united for the time of my Incumbency upon this poor Bishoprick I can say no more than what your Grace knoweth as well as I that I use the said Dispensation very modestly and sparingly and that I am resolved in this and every thing else to give His Majesty all Satisfaction in a due and reasonable order to his Royal Orders which no Bishop doth yield more exactly than myself He breaks no Law who pleads a Privilege nor doth that Subject transgress in Order who produceth a just and lawful Dispensation to exempt him from the same as your Grace by daily experience well knoweth For other matters that proceed from wrong and sinister Informations I do intend to procure one or other of my good Lords of the Council to let His Majesty understand how these things are misconcerved as soon as I can As first to represent unto His Majesty that no L. Keeper can issue forth a Dispensation of this nature nor any other person whosoever but either His Majesty immediately by his Regal Right and Eminency of Power or your Grace by the Act of Parliament So as my being Lord Keeper did contribute no more to this Patent than it did to all others that is to say Wax and Impression Your Grace may call to mind we were four Governours of several Colleges made Bishops at one time and two of these had their Colleges put into their Commenda's as well as myself And in your Graces Memory also in the most exact times of Ecclesiastical Government when those Promotions were manag'd with the Advice of that great and wise Prelate the Lord Bancroft a Bishop of Bristol kept the Deanry of York together and a Bishop of Rochester this of Westminster during his Incumbency with many others the like Neither did the then L. Keeper procure the Faculty to hold this Deanry for the late King my dear Master of Blessed Memory was not about London but at Rutford in Nottingham-shire when he granted me this gracious Favour Nor to deal ingenuously with your Grace was it gained by mine own Power or Interest with His Majesty but by the Mediation of His Majesty now reigning and by the Duke of Buck. together with some inducement of the deceased King not unknown to some yet living and howbeit my Faculty is without distinction of Time yet am I no chaser of mine own Time but do confine my self to those particular seasons which the local Statutes of the Colledge and my express Oath to perform the said Statutes do enjoyn me That is to say the two Chapters and the great Festivals All which space of time doth not being taken in the disjunct spaces make a Bishop a Non-resident by any Law I know of nor consequently infringe his Majesties Instructions though a man had no Dispensation which Instructions require only that Bishops should reside but we presume that it is no part of his Majesties gracious intention that they should be confined or as it were imprisoned in their Bishopricks I hope to procure a fair representation of these particulars to his Majesty and thereby to obtain his gracious approbation of as much residence as I intend to make in the Deanry Where as your Grace knoweth as well as I in regard of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and Temporal of preventing Ruins and Dilapidations of Hospitality of Suits in Law of the Church the School the Colledge and the like I have no less necessity of abiding sometimes then upon my Bishoprick and somewhat more because of my Oath So most humbly c. This was enough to satisfie both Statute and Reason Unto which it may
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
that prosecutes for the King and so it was appointed to be taken out When this expunging was confirm'd and the Attorney General had made his Replication upon the Demur the Bishop knowing not how to wear the Yoke of a base Spirit any longer and full of the Courage that God had inspired into him Appeals from these intolerable Grievances to the High Court of Parliament in this Rejoynder That the Defendant doth and will 〈◊〉 maintain and justifie his Answers and all the matters and things therein contained to be true and certain and sufficient in the Law And that nothing thereof ought to be expunged which is necessary and pertinent to his Defence And in case any part so pertinent and necessary for his Defence under colour of scandal to a third person who may clear his Credit if he be innocent and be repaired with Costs be expunged and he and all others in the like case be left remediless in the Law The Defendant having no other Remedy left in a Defence against a Suit commenced against him in the King's Name doth humbly Appeal unto the High Court of Parliament when it shall be next Assembled humbly protesting against any Sentence as void and null which shall pass against him in the mean time for and because of the want of his just and necessary defence so taken away and expunged Much was added in this Appeal to defie Kilvert who had boasted to prosecute the Bishop to his degradation and the Bishop in the said Appeal disavows that the Court of Star-chamber had ever degraded or appointed to be degraded or ever will degrade or appoint to be degraded any Bishop or other Lord and Peer of the Parliament or take away their Freehold in point of Means Profit or Honour c. This Appeal was filed in the Office enter'd in the Clerks Books and Copies thereof were signed by the usual Officer although Sir William Pennyman Clerk of the Star-chamber took it off the File and blotted it out of the Books Sir William was ever of a laudable behaviour but durst not say them nay that thrust him upon this Rashness Who did not gaze at this Appeal as if it had been a Blazing-star Who did not discourse of it How did they who club together for News and trial of their Wits spend their Judgments upon it Some thought that excess of Wrongs done to the Bishop had distemper'd him to fall upon a course of Confusion to himself In plain words being bitten by so many mad Dogs they thought he bit again as if he had been mad Whereas he never did any thing with a more sober mind Insanire me â—iunt ultro cum ipsi insaniant Plaut in Menaech Some replied Let the danger be what it will the President tended to a Publick Good Audendum est aliquid singulis aut pereundum universis For are we not all Passengers as well as he in the same bottom And may we not be swallowed up in the same Shipwrack if our Pilots look no better to their Duty They that were acquainted with the best Pleaders thought to have most Light from them and askt if the Act did not exceed the Duty of a Subject And would it not leave the Author to the fury of the Court to be torn in pieces with a Censure Nay surely said the Gown-men there is no violation of Duty to His Majesty in appealing to his Parliament for he submits to the King who is the Head of the Body Or at the most it is Provocatio à Philippo dormiente ad Philippum vigilantem from K. Charles misinformed in Star-chamber to K. Charles among his best Assistants the three States of the Nation And for the minacy of a Censure do if they dare A Parliament will repair him when it sits and canonize their own Martyr Both they that lik'd and dislik'd the Appeal confest that the corruption of his Judges compell'd him to it Should Kilvert notoriously detected be suffer'd to escape by cancelling all that brought his Conspiracies to light Infixo aculeo fugere in the Adagy Strike in his Sting and fly away like a Wasp Suffer this and at this one dealing of the Game the Bishop's whole state had been lost of Fortunes Liberty and Honour Neque enim levia aut ludicra petuntur Praemia sed Turni de vitâ sanguine certant Discretion was to give place to Courage in this case Baronius tells us of Theodoret. ann 446. n. 27. That being incensed at the Tyranny of a Shark in Office that had seized upon all he had Uranius Bishop of Emesa advised him to make no words of it but to sit still by the loss Theodoret answers him bravely Non solùm prudentia sed fortitudo virtus est Fortitude is a Virtue as well as Prudence and is as laudable in her own turn and occasion Put the case to a Physician when he thinks there is no hope of a Patient what will he do The ancient Rule was Nescio an in extremis aliquid tentare medicina sit certè nihil tentare perditio est To give the sick man Physic is against Art but to give him nothing is to cast him away wilfully Here is Lincoln's condition who being denied the Justice of that Court had nothing to fly to in that Extremity but this Appeal with which he did so hough the Sinews of the Bill that from that day forward it never hopt after him 128. Because some did not stick to say that the Bishop might thank himself for his incessant Troubles that he did not take Conditions of Peace that were offered to him it must be presented here that Conditions indeed were tender'd such as Naash offer'd the Israelites to thrust out their right Eyes 1 Sam. 11.2 or as the Samnites released Sp. Posthumious and a Roman Legion overthrown at Caudis with slavish Ignominy But these were worse Ultra Caudinas speravit vulnera furcas Luca. lib. 2. The Bishop lying in Prison and sustaining the heavy weight of the first Censure July 11. 1637. he press'd the L. Coventry to move His Majesty for some mitigation of the Fine and to stop the violent levying of it since it stood in no proportion with the Charges of the Bill or the Presidents of the Court. Hereupon His Majesty tells the L. Keeper he would admit of no such motion but by the Mediation of the Queen The Bishop is glad of the News and could call to mind that in greater matters than this Princely Ladies had the Honour to make the Accord which the greatest Statesmen had attempted in vain as Madam Lovise Mother of K. Francis the First and Madam Margaret Aunt to Charles the Fifth Regent of the Low Countries made up that Peace between the Emperor and the King which other Mediators had given over for desperate Our Queen endeavour'd a Message of Clemency but that Honour was denied her The Earl of Dorset writes in her Name to the Bishop That all she could obtain of the King
Parliament and in that Parliament to which he appealed he sits a Member and Peer and sees all Papers of Record against him torn and burnt to Ashes Ut advertas feliciter faclum reum quem sic videas absolutum Sym. Ep. 87. Be the Conclusion those words of Ezek. c. 17. v. 24. All the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree have exalted the low true have dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish Which the great Poet had rather ascribe to a blind Goddess in his Poetical License Aen. 12. Multos alterna revisens Lusit in solidum rursus fortuna locavit 131. A Prisoner whose Liberty I much long'd for is released but out of Limbo into Hell Can the worst word be had enough for those fatal days Now being come with him as far as the Door of the Parliament into which he entred upon the Call of the Lords I turned away for no little time and interrupted my self for above two years from writing any more not out of Sloth but Disdain To part with him till his last day was against my purpose and to keep him company in those boisterous times wherein a Senate of rigid men was dangerous I was at such a stay as Alexander in the dry Country of the Susitans Pigebat consistere progredi Curt. lib. 7. It was contrary to the Project of my Work to stop and as contrary to my Mind to go forward in the Hurricane of an intemperate Rebellion But it is resolved to look over somewhat of one of the most bloody Tragedies that ever was performed on the Earth rather than omit his part who was so loyal in his Actings and so magnanimous in his Sufferings And this may be done with the less unwillingness from one Passage that will recreate the Writer and the Reader that the chief Engineers that wrought the Thunderbolts at the Forge and laid the foundation of all ensuing Mischief lived to see themselves thrust out of their Den by a Brewers Drayman with his tatter'd Regiment a Passage to be kept for ever upon the Engravings of Memory and would not be pleasant but burdensome to know it and not to publish it As Archytas of Tarentum said If a man were lifted up among the Stars to know their order and motion the knowledge of it so admirable would be ingrate unto him unless he met with some to whom he might relate it So I am full of this to tell it to Posterity That the pittiful handful of Lords Temporal and now Temporary that adhered not to the King and cashiered the Lords Spiritual out of their Society for their immovable Fidelity were dismounted for ever from their own Privilege and Honour and might pawn their Parliament-Robes if they pleased And the remainder of the Commons after Pride's Purge was so despicable that every Tongue was so audacious to give them the nick-name of the Posteriors of a Beast and they put it up lest angry Wits should paste a greater Scorn upon them As Cas Severus satisfied himself with the Downfal of his Adversary Vivo quo vivere libeat Asprenatem reum video Quintil. lib. II. So this one Scene hath a good Catastrophe in the cruel Interlude That the small but most spightful part of this continuing Parliament held up their Tail though not their Hand at the Bar and went out it self in such a stink in the Snuff that all cry sie at it that have their Nostrils opened So my Mind is collected again and my Heart at some Peace in it self to see the Honour of Heavenly Justice settled so far 132. And to Preface no more and no less could be said A Parliament was sitting when our Bishop had his Liberty which held in its Fragments twelve years and six months Nay when the stub of the Members were baffled and spurn'd out of the House by the Russian Cromwell these Bankrupts opened their Shop once again and by a post limintum recover'd their places so that we reckon nineteen years from their first Call to their last Suppression Umbra serotina A shadow is longest at Evening when the Sun is ready to set And our Sun went down quickly when this shadow was so far extended But there is a better similitude for it in Pliny Nat. Hist lib. 2. cap. 14. A Serpent was taken at the River Bagrada of 120 foot long and the skin says he was hung up in the Capitol as long as such stuff could endure Mark this a Serpent the longest that ever was heard of the skin kept when it was mortified and preserved in the Senate-house Who can miss to apply it A Serpentine brood of Men none ever lasting so long in that High Court withered away to a skin or Skeleton all were right if they had been hung up in the Capitol This Serpent was young and the worst it could do was to hiss when Lincoln was brought in to sit with his fellow Bishops He had not been many hours there when he was amazed to see divers composed of new and strong Passions instigated to boldness by Scotch Confederacy heightned up by the Petitions and Mutinies of City and Country and preach't into disorder by Presbyterian Divines For a muffled Zeal for Religion hath a finger in all Combustions And as one says Multitudo vana superstitione capta meliùs vatibus quà m ducibus suis paret Curt. lib. 3. Church-men are the most dangerous Instruments to turn Male-contents into Sword-men who being prepossest with an ill opinion of the Times will quickly humble their Judgment under the Conscience of their Ministers But what Credit can it be to our Bishop for such Peers to take him into their number by their peremptory Vote None if he had answer'd their expectation Yet his chief Friends were as faithful and noble-hearted as ever sate upon the Benches of the House And it is no good thrist to cast out Gold-filings with the dust as if all were dust These must be sever'd from the rest to their immortal praise It is as true that he was sought for by some of the rest who had only an eye to the North-Star of their own Anti-monarchical Interest For he that was ordinarily read in man might know this able Prelate was to be left out that had so general an insight into all Affairs and Motions of State As Zeno prais'd Ismenias his Musick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he could play well upon all Instruments But when the disloyal Part hoped that a Man of a great Spirit and so much injur'd would revenge himself upon the Causes of his Troubles and Pipe after their Tune they were overshot to imagine it Though he is bound to be most true that is most trusted yet no man was bound to be true to them whom his Majesty as appears by his Writ trusted with his most concerning and weighty Counsels and were false to him that gave them Capacity to treat upon them
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
in the Records of the Tower can be produced to exclude the Lords Spiritual from sitting and voting in Causes of Blood Sometimes by the great Favour of the King Lords and Commons not otherwise they were permitted to absent themselves never before now commanded by the Lay-Lords to forbear their Votes in any Cause that was agitated in Parliament So our Law Books say That the Prelates by the Canon-Law may make a Procurator in Parliament when a Peer is to be tryed Which is enough to shew their Right thereunto This is to be seen 10 Edw. IV. f. 6. placit 17. And That it is only the Canon-Law that inhibits them to vote in Sanguinary Causes Stamford Pleas of the Crown f. 59. And saith Stamford the Canon-Law is a distinct and separated notion and not grown in his Age to any such Usance or Custom as made it Common-Law or the Law of the Land 152. Coming now to an end it moves me little what some object That many worthy Fathers of this Church-reformed and Bishop Andrews among the rest did forbear to vote in Causes of Blood and voluntarily retired out of the House if such things came in question nor did offer to enter any Protestation I do not doubt but they had pious Affections in it though they did not fully ponder what they did I have heard that a main Reason was that of the Record and Statute of 11 Rich. II. That it is the honesty of that Calling not to intermeddle in matters of Blood Now the French word Honesty signifies Decency and Comeliness As though it were a butcherly and a loathsom matter to be a Judge or to do Right upon a Malefactor to Death or loss of Members But this is an imaginary Decency never known in Nature or Scripture as I said before but begotten by Tradition in the dark Foggs and Mists of Popery Such an Honesty of the Clergy it was to have a shaven Crown to depend on the Pope to plead Exemptions and to resuse to answer for Felonies in the King's Courts All these were esteemed in those days the Honesty of the Clergy And such an Honesty it was in the Prelates of England in the loose Reign of Rich. II to absent themselves when they listed from the Aslembly of the Estate contrary to the King's Command in the Writ of Summons and to the Duties of their places as Peers of Parliament Yet they had more insight into what they did than some of our Bishops for they never offer'd to retire themselves in those days before their Protestation was benignly received and suffer'd to be enter'd upon the Parliament-Roll by the King the Lords and the House of Commons I know those excellent men that are with God proposed other Scruples to themselves they doubted not of the Legality or Comeliness for an Ecclesiastical Peer of the Kingdom of England to vote in a Judgment of Blood they did it continually in passing all Appeals and Attainders in Parliament but it startled them because it is not the practice of Prelates in other parts of the Christian Church so to do and thought it better to avoid Scandal and the Talk of other Nations That there being in the High Court of Parliament and Star-chamber Judges enough beside them they might without any prejudice to their King and Country forbear voting in those Judicatures somewhat the rather because all our Bishops in England are Divines and Preachers of the Gospel and consequently to be employ'd in Mercy rather than in Judgment who never touch upon the sharpness of the Law unless it be to prepare mens Hearts to relish and receive the comfort of the Gospel Let the Piety then and the Good-meaning of those grave Fathers be praised but I say they forgot their Duty to the Writ of the King's Summons and the use and weight of their Place And now to close I protest without vaunting I cannot perceive how this can be answer'd which I have digested together And if so many Bishops cannot obtain their Right which is so clear on their side God send the Earl of Strafford better Justice who is but a single Peer 153. Blame not my Book that there is so much of this Argument I hope the Ignorant will not read it at all but let a knowing man read it again and when he hath better observ'd it he will think it short Some History-spoilers have detracted from our Bishop that though he pleaded much in Parliament to his own Peril in the behalf of E. Strafford yet he wrought upon the King to consent to give way to his beheading Says our Arch-Poet Spencer lib. 3. Can. 1. st 10. Great hazard were it and Adventure fond To lose long-gotten Honour with one evil Hand But he shall lose no Honour in this for first as Nazian Or. 27 rejects them that had raised an ill Report of him whom he praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can you prove that they were sound in their mind that said so if any will believe it from such authors a good man hath lost his thanks Ego quod bené fec◠malè feci quia amor mutavit locum Plautus That which was well done is ill done because it is not lovingly requited Hear all and judge equally Both the Houses of Lords and Commons by most Voices found the Earl guilty of Treason they made the greater Quire but those few that absolved him sung better The King interceded by himself by the Prince his Son to save him craved it with Cap in Hand Being founder'd in his Power he could go no further the Subjects denied their Soveraign the Life of one Man so Strafford must be cast away Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Rom. non judicium fuit Cic. pro Plancio Whose Calamity is the shame of English Justice His Majesty for divers days could not find in his Heart to set his Hand to the Warrant for Execution for Conscience dresseth it self by its own light And I would he had been as constant to his own Judgment in other things that we might remember it to his Honour as Capitolinus testifies for Maximus Non aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit The fate of it was that the Parliament would not grant Mercy to the Earl and would have Justice from the King according to their Sentence whether he would or no They threaten and were as good as their Word to sit idle and do nothing for publick Safety and Settlement the whole Realm being in distraction till the Stroke was struck All the Palace-Yard and Hall were daily full of Mutineers and Outcries His Majesty's Person was in danger the roguy Off-scum in the Streets of Westminster talk'd so loud that there was cause to dread it Though there is nothing more formidable than to fear any thing more than God yet the most eminent Lords of the Council perswaded His Majesty to make no longer resistance Placeat quodcunque necesse est Lucan lib. 4. Not he but Necessity should be guilty of it If he did
brave Men as ever march't upon English Ground If there were somewhat of the Libertine among them there was nothing but the Hypocrite among the Enemy whose Sacriledges Robberies and Spoils I defer alittle to spread open and the Foxes skin shall never be able to cover all the Lion Few Soldiers in the heat of their Blood in their Hunger and Watchings in their Necessities and revengeful Executions make perfect Saints To have castra simillima regi as Statius hath it was to be wish't more than hoped for As for the Nobles Commanders Knights and Gentry and many Scholars that jeoparded their Lives in that Service I wish their due Honour may be set forth in a long-liv'd History to which I will lend that of Curtius lib. 4. Fatebimur regem talibus ministris illos tanto rege fuisse dignissimos His Majesty's Council the best Peerage of three Nations that could never leave him had more true Piety in their hearts than their Pharisees would dissemble To continue their Allegiance to death had more of Heaven in it than was in all their simpering Preciseness For Religion and Loyalty are like the Wax and Wiek making one Taper between them to shine before God and Man but for all that they would bring the King away from his evil Council and take him to themselves the very Pink of the faithful I must not say but it it is a mannerly Expression if any thing be wrong to remove it from the Soveraign and to charge them with it who did execute the Order David though he knew Saul's bitterness yet is willing to impute his Persecutions to Saul's Servants 1 Sam. 26.19 If they be the children of men that have stirred thee up against me cursed be they of the Lord. There will ever be such Sycophants in a Court that will whisper corrupt talk endeavouring that none should get the start of them in the Royal Favour but must all prudent Senators be cast off and supprest if some Ear-wiggs peradventure had got into credit Let the Shepherd put away his Dogs and the Wolf will ask no more Let the King once forfeit his Friends to an ignoble Trial and he shall never see days of Comfort and Security again Did he ever protect any Servant from the Trial of the Law That would not suffice our Judges in Parliament but he must leave them to the Votes of an Arbitrary Censure Then a wife man had better pay half his Estate for a Fine than be a Privadoe to the King in his nearest Employments And most miserable is he that must not choose those whom he will trust but have his Officers of greatest Dispatches thrust upon him by Compulsion King Richard the Second had Counsellers and Guardians empowered to retrench him in his Government whose Arrogancy when his great Spirit shook off it is known what it cost him Never think to see a King's House so purged of undeserving persons that none of them will creep into that trust they deserve not Budaeus gave over that hope Lib. 5. de Asse p. 110. Ita est reip nostrae status ut clitella generosis equis instrataque speciosa imponantur asinis The best Steeds sometimes shall carry the Panniers and Jades and Asses be covered with the Foot-cloth There was never man so wise that did not love some Simpletons whom you may call Fools Nor never Prince so absolute but did stamp some Honours upon base Mettal Non est nostrum aestimare quem supra caeteros quibus causis extollas says a good States-man in Tacitus And our excellent Camden shifts in this answer for Queen Elizabeths sake whose Affections were so strong to Robert Earl of Leicester that he knew not whether it were a Synastria a Star which reigned at both their Births that made him a Gratioso to so brave a Lady Make any unlikely answer rather than defie a King with an Army to pluck his best betrusted from him Thuamus is an Author to be delighted in whose observation it is Lib. 11. That Maurice of Saxony made his Apology for raising War against Charles the Fifth that he intended no offence to Caesar but to divorce him from Alva and Granval his evil Counsellors A Stale and thread-bear Cheat and yet the Devil to this day cannot find out a better Take away those whom they call Evil Counsellors place as good or better in their room it is not impossible it were a marvel if they did eat a bushel of Salt in Court and not be scowled upon with Envy as much as they that did forego them Let any Tree grow tall in favour and the Shrubs will complain that it drops upon the underwood A great disheartning it is to our Grandees to see so many of worth and clear integrity ruin'd by a publick hatred which made Pausanias pity Demosthenes and the chief Burgesses of Athens in Att. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A great Actor in the Affairs of the Commonwealth feldom goes to his Grave with Honour and Peace I am not of their Spirit then that would remove the King's Counsel from him but some are of my mind that in many great Dispatches they did heartily wish that the King himself had been removed from his Council For he was more happy when he took the way which he spun out of his own Brain than when he alter'd his Opinion to follow the Judgment of his Counsellors But it was his humble temper to like that wisdom in others which was greater in himself 183. It is not too late to unblind some of the People provided they beware of them that spit Holy Water as other Jugglers have a slight to spit fire The Pope's Cruciada drew thousands of Soldiers to adventure into the Holy War and our cunning Popelings made their Muster exceed by carrying the Figure of Religion in their Colours Therefore it is good to take off this great Charm that bewitcht the heedless into Rebellion Which Inchantment was a common cry That Religion lay a bleeding reform the Church either now or never This is the time to pull up Popery and Prelacy and Fortune is an Hand-maid to no Mistress but Occasion Therefore let the faithful live and die together for God's Cause and Christ's Kingdom Pack away Bishops Liturgy Courts Ecclesiastical Canons Crosses Organ Musick Ceremonies Change for every thing for any thing Seraque terrisici cecinerunt omnia vates Aen. 5. Survey all this calmly They that undertake to alter so much at once is it likely they will mend it all at once for the better A better Head-piece than theirs gives them a wiser Principle Synes de provid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things may admit a general change of a sudden for the worst but not for the better Then to clap Religion into a quarrel is a formal foolery that every Child can look through it Ex cupiditate quisque suorum religionem velut pedissequam habet Leo. Ep. 23. Now look back into King Edward the Sixth's days who those
the Fabricks into Coin Four hundred years will not restore their Woods and Timber-Trees so well preserv'd now not the Prelates but the Kingdoms damage What haste they made to rid these things out of the way and to purse up all and to barter presently with their Customers the Jews for fear was upon them lest what remained should return to the right Owners For no time not an Age can cross us in our just Claim hereafter Praescribere volentibus mala fides in aeternum obstat a Maxim of Law in Dr. Duck's Book p. 21. Long before him and in plainer words the Oratour in his best piece Phil. 2. speaking of and praising King Deiotarus Scivit homo sapiens jus semper hoc fuisse ut quae tyranni eripuissent tyrannis sublatis ii quibus ea erepta essent recuperarent God hath a Cyrus in store we hope to pluck away again that which was dedicated to him from prophane Belshazzars When the Phocians had spoiled the Temple of Delos the Grecks were so offended at that Sacriledge that they all resolved in their Pan-hellenium Quod totius orbis viribus expiari debet Lib. 8. Justin And when those Phocians were routed in a bloody Battel and ask't leave to bury their dead the Locrians answer'd them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diod. lib. 16. p. 427. That it was the Common Law of Greece to cast away the Carkasses of the Sacrilegious and not to allow them Burial Some of our Thieves who rob'd God are interr'd in Peace some of them among Princes and Nobles yet they and theirs cannot escape the Curse of an hundred Anathema's darted against them Now it is discernable that the Parliament and such as they raised to maintain their Cause got an East and West-Indies out of the Clergy and Laiety pulling a few Locks away at first at last the Fleece of all the Flock like Graecian Toss-pots that begin with small Cups and quaff off great ones when they are drunk Some little remains to be put to this nay no little but more than a thousand and a thousand drams of Gold to be cast into the Heap of their Gains wherein they suck't the Blood of the Rich and quite starved them who were poor already I mean they and their Horses lying upon the Charge of the Country Vetelliani per omnia Italiae municipia desides tantum hospitibus met uendi Tacit. lib. hist 3. like to like as the Devil to the Collier they were our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Casaubon puts it into one word upon Theophrastus we call it Free-quarter What a grief to be made servile to provide for such Guests when the Family knew it was Judas that dip't his hand with them in the Dish What an Expence it was to bring out all their Stores laid up for a year and to waste it in a week sometimes upon an hundred of their Orgoglioes It is an Arabian Proverb If thy Friend be Honey eat him not up all But these Horse-leaches seldom lest an House till they had thresht the Barn Empty and drunk the Cellar dry And had their mouth been a little widder They would have devoured bidder and shidder says Spencer in his Calendar There are greater wrongs to be complained of than this yet none more vexatious and he that is unlucky to be made an Host to lodge such Guests at Free-quarter let him set up a Cross for his Sign-post Now if the Reader carry in memory that Parliament Priviledges Religion Liberty the Peoples innate Power and the like were the Colour and Pretence to take up Arms against the King but the thing intended was Sacriledge goodly Lands Spoils of all forts a Mass of Riches will he not excuse an honest Vicar of Hampshire who changed one word in the last Verse of the Song Te Deum O Lord in thee have I trusted let me never be a Round-head 193. The Condemnation of an impious disloyal and sacrilegious Rebellion hath filled up many Pages of this Book Loqui multum non est nimium si tamen est necessarium which is St. Austin's by-word As for the Dependance it is not unartificial which the Subject designed in these Papers for that barbarous War running on through many years of the Archbishop of York's life and it being the saddest and most remarkable Passage of the Age it could not be lest out from the remembrance of any Occurrences made and traversed upon those infamous Times The Hatred and Horror of it struck as deep into this Prelate's Heart as into any mans I do not believe that of Cicero to Torquatus lib. 6. ep Nihil praecipuè cuiquam est dolendum in eo quod accidit universis A wise man full of Observation apt to make likely Presages from present Actions upon future Miseries could not pass them by with Slights and Carelesness as some others did Of two things for certain he was disappointed Three years at the most never pass'd over his Head since he had a good Purse but he expended a valuable Sum upon some Monumental Work of Charity His Mind was still the same for all Ground is not barren that lies sallow But being stript of those Revenues which suppeditated Oyl to the Lamp the Light of his Spirit was eclipsed in this obscurity to be unprofitable Another and no less Calamity was that his Papers of long study and much commentation with his choice Books were either rifled or it may be burnt with Cawood Castle and being eager if not ambitious to restore his Notes again by diligence and a mighty memory yet in the noise of Wars beating up of Quarters and shifting of Lodging to sly from Danger it was impossible to contrive it Arts did never profit in the distractions of Wars Chirurgery may get experience by daily searching into wounds Geometry may enhaunce its skill by crecting Bulwarks and drawing Lines for new forts of Fortifications But all Sciences beside will wither in the midst of Arms and Barbarism will over-spread till Learning recover Maintenance Rest and Peace Aptly to this Isocra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the concord and good management of things in Greece the Philosophers and their Studies would fare much the better Yet a man need not say his Life is under great Adversity for want of such Accessions which are but Notes of good direction in the Margent of the Book but belong not to the Text which the Reader cannot span whose Contents are the Church of Christ in its Doctrine Piety Regulation of Order kept inviolate the King's Crown and Honour supported the Laws maintain'd to us as our Ancestors enjoy'd them Liberty and Property defended from wrong and violence these are the Contents of the great Charter so precious to the pious and political man And all these Pillars which held up our Subsistence were battered by the Sons of Anak and ready to fall In this disasterous season who would not pity a great and aged Prelate driven into the remotest corner of the Land and least
â—â—â—dem sed quascunque reip status inclinatio temporum ratio concordiae postulant esse deferendas And it is noted in as great a Christian as he was a Heathen That exactness of Honour Justice and Decorum cannot be kept even at all times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes ep 67. So that the Counsels of the great Athanasius did give place to the variation of Times The Leaders of both sides have spoken but the negative did carry it Perhaps I may say with the old Proverb Chorus ejus major est meus meliùs eccinit yet I would rebuke him that should think the worse of those heroically resolved men from the fatal Accidents of succeeding Times Doubtless we had compounded for less blood less loss of Honour less confusion with the Presbyters then than with the Independent or Congregational Tyranny after The first pinnion'd our Arms the latter cut them off The first were like the Philistines which made the Children of Israel their Slaves the other were the Chaldaeans that murder'd our King pulled down every great Man's House and the House of the Lord. The one gave us Vinegar to drink and the other Gall. The one made us a miserable nation the other have made us execrable Parricides to God and Man 202. All being run over and disputed in this Argument the Archbishop controuled not the greater number and therein the better because the King was better satisfied to try his right by his Sword It is fit to serve Kings in things lawful with undiscoursed Obedience which Climachus calls Sepulchrum voluntatis For we deny When Kings do ask if we ask why says our Master Poet Johnson So the Archbishop took the Ball fairly not at the â—â—oly but at the first rebound It is a Motto of great sense and use which Mr. Gataker cites Lib. â— Anton. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good man is either right or rectified as some Plants grow straight some are help't by adminiculation to be straight and some are wise at the first sight some not until the second inspection into a Cause Now our Prelate leaves Oxford at the opening of the Spring with a Charge from his Majesty to look to North-Wales chiefly Conway-Castle with easie Journeys and the safe-guard of some Forces that march't the most of the way that he road he came to Conway and that was his last Journey in this World where some few years after like old Jacob Gen. 49.33 He gathered up his feet into his bed where he first set his feet upon the Ground Felix qui prepriis aevum transegit in arvis Ipsa domus pucrum quem videt ipsa senem Claudias One year and a tedious one run out in listning to things abroad how the King's Forces and his Garrisons did speed The bold Britains would believe them that reported the best and the best was that they were Cadmaean Wars Et semper praelia clade pari Propert. It molested them not alittle that they were jealous among themselves how to keep their own For we that live in the South slander them if their common men be not Filchers and Thieves And though it were piped by a Mouse It must needs come to Fame's House says noble Chaucer As many in those Counties as had Plate Coin Jewels Moveables that were precious besides their Writings and Evidences got favour of the Archbishop to slow them up in the Castle each Person having an Inventory of his own share And some suspected to be corrupt-hearted to the Royal Cause obtained that favour the ground of much ensuing mischief But it was the forecast of the wise Prelate to take Hostages as it were from such and to be secured against their Revolt being in possession of the best of their Substance A Twelve-month after Sir Jo. Owen a Colonel for the King that had gone out with a Regiment of Foot and returned after a year with a few of the shatter'd Remnant though he had been unfortunate against his Enemies would try his Valour upon his Friends and contrived how to recover his Debts and Damages with the Spoil of Conway-Castle slighting with the clack of his singers all sober Counsel That all North-Wales was concern'd to have their Wealth in the custody of so trusty a person as his Grace of York that their hearts were with their bag and baggage if he made a prey of it their whole Body would turn against him that nothing would prosper after it in the King's behalf that their Atlas in those parts the Archbishop had the custody under the Signet to remain quiet in it till his cost bestowed on it should be refunded to him which was not hitherto treated upon or offer'd that the Prince the General had corroborated his Majesty's pleasure therein and had commanded all Officers by Sea and Land to assist him in it What Conditions could be assured to any man by Royal Faith if these were broken A violent Man and a Furioso was deaf to all this and purchast the favour of Prince Rupert to be made under his Hand not equal to the King's Signet to be Commander of the Castle and by force he surprized it and entred it which in somewhat more than one year was taken from him by Colonel Milton who relieved the Archbishop and such as had Interest in it to carry away their Goods which remained All this fell into a hard Construction derogating much to the Archbishops credit and the infamy was not only hot when it was fresh but it cools not much to this time Though Love hath a soft hand to touch where it loves I will not so far defend the whole Process but I confess he was more earnest than advised in this unlucky action Camerarius penning the Life of Melanchthon casts in a few sweet words thus Out of my great opinion of him Quaedam fortè cariùs existimem quà m mereantur But I disdain to call bad good and darkness light Yet in justice I must patronize the noble Williams against Mr. Sanders Hist p. 889. in these Lines That he fortified his Garrison against the King and dissuaded the Country from contribution to the King Those were Times when he wrote to outface Truth and willing to listen to Slanders no wonder if many took the liberty and had the confidence to broach Fictions And it is a great advantage against the Truth when Lies and false Rumours have got the start to speak first chiefly when they have spread long Mensuraque ficti Crescit auditis semper novus addidit autor Ovid. Thus much I will undertake to inform all Readers with truth in the matter and satisfie the greatest part of many men with a clear Apology 203. He builds ill that lays not a sure Foundation therefore my Entrance shall be from the very words not a syllable varied wherein the Archbishop laid forth to his Majesty how he had suffered from Sir Jo. Owen which he sent to Oxford by Captain James Martin a faithful and undaunted Soldier and by his
Title and could prove it Let another take the Archbishop's room and discharge it better That which was lost the Castle could not be kept that which was saved helpt the King's Friends to subsist which his gracious goodness would allow Yes but Milton was a Rebel And may not a Rebel be used to do acts of Justice or Charity Licet uti alieno peccato is often allowed in most conscionable Divinity Make the case that one of the King's Ships at Sea piratically board a London Merchant and spoil him shall the Merchant be debarred from imploring an Algiers Captain to get him his own again if he could find that favour Here 's the case and all the case upon whose mis-report the Archbishop's good Name did suffer deeply For whose justification more may be said than they that love detraction are willing to hear Says Sanderson He fortified his Garrison against the King No such matter Mliton took the Garrison and kept it but his Grace retired to his dear Kinswoman's House the Lady Mostyn Yet says another He was forward in the action in his own person which was to fall away from the King It is replyed He was ever slow to revenge an unjust wrong but earnest to recover a just right which Salust commends in Jugurtha's Wars Non minus est turpe sua relinquere quà m aliena invadere injustum This made him thrust himself in among the Assailants which in my censure of his Carriage did not become him Else what harm was it to save his own stake and his Friends without prejudice to the King's interest whose Part could no longer hold any Garrison in England Non vires alias conversaque numinasentis Cede Deo Aen. 11. From his Fidelity to his Majesty he never went back an inch He suffered in the imputation to the contrary as innocently as the Prophet Jeremy did c. 37.13 who when he had separated himself from the People Irijah laid hold of him and said Thou fallest away to the Chaldaeans So Athanasius was banisht by the good Emperour Constantine being impeacht that he hindered the victualling of Alexandria which might have endanger'd the ruin of the City What did our Archbishop in this otherwise than his Excellency the noble Marquess of Ormond whom Sanderson justly praiseth That he thought it more honourable to surrender to the Parliament Forces what the King held in Ireland than to suffer the interest of the English Protestants to fall under the power of the Irish Papists Actions are not rigidly to be perpended into which one is thrust by necessity A mild man Nazianzen pleaded pardon for them who being shew'd the wrack set their hands to Athanasius's banishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. de laud. Athanasii Their Mind was true their Pen was forced Integrity must be more precious to a Man than his Life but in some things to be reduced to obey Rebels is no departure from Integrity He was a Lord Chancellour of France whose Decipher agrees exactly with this great Prelate sometimes Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Guido Rupifalcaudius citra ignaviam circumspectus generosè cautus tempori ita cedens ut consertis manibus integritatem fervaret Budaeus de As fol. 36. 205. The Historian Sanderson's Ink drops another Blot upon the Archbishop's Honour That he dissuaded the Country from Contribution to the King I must exclaim as Demosthenes did when Aeschines run into a great Absurdity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why do you not take Hellebore or Bears-foot as we call it in English to purge Melancholy So quite is every thing mistaken For the Welch in those Parts had now laid down their Arms the Enemy being six to one that was broke in upon them Omnes quorum in alterius manu vita posita est saepiùs cogitant quid potest is cujus in ditione potestate sunt quà m quid ipsi debent facere Cic. pro Quinctio It was no time for the Subdued to shew their Teeth when they could not bite Besides they paid no Contribution before but for their own defence neither carried Moneys out of their own Country The scarcity of Coin is well known in that remote corner of the Kingdom they have Meat and Drink good store for their Bellies and home-spun Frieze for their backs as the Modern Greeks have a Proverb in barbarous words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God provides thick Mantles for clothing where there are hard Frosts But the Silver of the Welch which they talk of is in the Mines of the Mountains not in their Purses or you may say their Sacks are full of Corn but they are not so lucky as Joseph's Brethren were to have money likewise in their Sacks mouths Gen. 42.27 Yet suppose they had been able now to make a bountiful Levy would Milton have suffered them to send it to the King Or might it be they could have done it by stealth their Friends at Oxford were block't up and could not come by it Collect then what unlikelyhood nay what impossibility there was to dissuade those Counties from Contribution to the King 'T is far better yet on the Archbishops side he might go bare-faced through the World and not be asham'd but rather admired for the good Service he did to his depressed Country-men in their greatest necessity Livy says of the Corinthians when they look't for hard bondage from the Romans and quite above their expectation a Praeco standing by the Commander of the Legions proclaimed Liberty to them and to all the vanquish't Graecians Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur So after the Archbishop had turn'd Milton up and down with fine Discourses and wrought him like Wax the People thought they were in a Dream when their League was made upon these Conditions That none of those Counties should compound for Delinquency nor be burthen'd with Free-quarter nor have the Covenant offer'd to them nor be charged with Taxes but only in Victual for Men and Horse in the Garrisons As Valerius says Lib. 7. of Anaximenes saving Lampsacum by turning Alexander's vow to destroy it to be the obligation to save it Salus urbis vasramenti beneficio constitit So these Cambro-Britains were conserved by the cunning and dexterity of a Master-wit and let Col. Milton come in for his share of easiness and lenity Oxford had tolerable Articles of Immunity upon the Surrender Exeter had better than it but North-Wales had the best of all and was never much opprest after but by Vavasor Powel he and his fellow Praedicants ransack't all that the poor Church had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph. Antig. Those New-light-men that thought they were near to be Prophets were very rapacious and covetous Let the Archbishop's carriage super totam materiam now be brought to the Touch-stone except some unadvisedness to venture personally upon the Castle and it was no worse had been I see nothing could make any noise which made the entrance to a wrong but a great suspicion Dr. Harmer hath flourish't it