Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true profession of the Gospel establiâ—hed in this Kingdom and agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient Customs of this Land The King answers I grant and promise to keep them Arch-Bishop Sir Will you keep Peace and godly agreement entirely according to your power both to God the holy Church the Clergy and the People Rex I will keep it Arch-Bishop Sir Will you to your power cause Iustice Law and discretion in Mercy and Truth to be executed in all your Iudgements Rex I will Arch-Bishop Sir Will you grant to hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this your Kingdom have and will you defend and uphold them to the Hâ—nor of God so much as in you lieth Rex I grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops reads this admonition to the King before the People with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech you to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in his Kingdom ought to be a Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government The King answereth With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge All Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King ought in his Kingdom in right to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government Then the King ariseth and is led to the Communion Table where he makes a solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe the premises and laying his hand upon the Book saith The things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the contents of this Book Such was the Oath taken by the King at his Coronation against which I finde these two Objections First That it was not the same Oath which anciently had been taken by his Predecessors and for the proof thereof an Antiquated Oath was found out and publisht in a Remonstrance of the Lords and Commons bearing date the twenty sixth of May 1642. And secondly It was objected in some of the Pamphlets of that time that the Oath was falsified by D. Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to make it more to the Kings advantage and less to the benefit of the Subject then it had been formerly For answer whereunto the King remits the Lords and Commons to the Records of the Exchequer by which it might be easily prov'd that the Oath was the very same verbatim which had before been taken by his Predecessors Kings and Queens of this Realm And to the Pamphleters it is answered by Mr. H. L. the Author of the former History That there was no variation from the old forms but the addition of a clause to a Prayer there mentioned and that this varâ—ation was not the solitary act of Laud alone but of a Committee And this saith he I positively assert as minding the reformation of a vulgar Error thrown abroad in loose Pamphlets that Bishop Laud altered the Coronation Oath whereas the Oath it self was precisely the same with former precedents More candidly in this then the Author of the present History how great a Royalist soever he desires to be reckoned Fol. 31. This necessary Message produced no other supply then this insolency from a Member Mr. Clement Cook It is better says he to dye by a foreign Enemy then to be destroyed at home And this seditious speech of his was as seditiously seconded by one Dr. Turner of whom the King complain'd to the House of Commons but could finde no remedy nor was it likely that he should He that devests himself of a Natural and Original power to right the injuries which are done him in hope to finde relief from others especially from such as are parcel-guilty of the wrong may put up all his gettings in a Semtress thimble and yet never fill it But thus King Iames had done before him one Piggot a Member of the House of Commons had spoken disgracefully of the Scots for their importunity in begging and no less scornfully of the King for his extream profuseness in giving adding withal that it would never be well with England till a Sicilian Vesper was made of the Scotish Nation For which seditious Speech when that King might have took the Law into his own hands and punisht him as severely by his own Authority as he had deserv'd yet he past it over and thought that he had done enough in giving a hint of it in a Speech made to both Houses at White-Hall on the last of March Anno 1607. I know saith he that there are many Pigots amongst them I mean a number of Seditious and discontented particular persons as must be in all Commonwealths that where they dare may peradventure talk lewdly enough but no Scotish man ever spoke dishonorably of England in Parliament It being the custom of those Parliaments that no man was to speak without leave from the Chancellor for the Lords and Commons made but one House in that Kingdom and if any man do propound or utter any seditious Speeches he is straightly interrupted and silenced by the Chancellors Authority This said there was an end of that business for ought I can learn and this gave a sufficient encouragement to the Commons in the time of King Charls to expect the like From whence they came at last to this resolution not to suffer one of theirs to be questioned till themselves had considered of his crimes Which as our Author truly notes kept them close together imboldned thus to preserve themselves to the last fol. 35. This Maxim as they made use of in this present Parliament in behalf of Cook Diggs and Eliot which two last had been Imprisoned by the Kings command so was it more violently and pertinaciously insisted on in the case of the five Members Impeacht of High Treason by the Kings Attorney on the fourth of Ianuary Anno 1641. the miserable effects whereof we still feel too sensibly Fol. 40 And though the matter of the Prologue may be spared being made up with Elegancy yet rather then it shall be lost you may please to read it at this length Our Author speaks this of the Eloquent Oration made by Sir Dudly Diggs to usher in the Impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham which being amplified and prest in six tedious Speeches by Glanvil Pim Selden Wansford Herbert and Sherland was Epilogued by Sir Iohn Eliot A vein of Oratory not to be found in the Body
men set on John Scot Director of the Chancery a busie person to inform against his Descent In the story of this Earl not only as to his Original and descent but as to his being Earl of Menteith our Authour is not to be faulted but on the other side not to be justified in making him to be Earl of Strathern by the power of Buckingham that Duke being dead some years before though by his power made Lord President of the Council for the Realm of Scotland Therefore to set this matter right and to adde something to our Authour that may not be unworthy of the Readers knowledge I am to let him understand that after the death of David Earl of Strathern second Son to King Robert the third this Title lay dormant in the Crown and was denied to the Lord Dromond created afterwards Earl of Perth when a Suitor for it But this Gentleman Sir William Graham Earl of Menteith descended from an Heir General of that David a man of sound abilities and approved affections was by the King made Lord President of the Councill of Scotland as before is said In which place he so behaved himself and stood so stoutly in behalf of the King his Master upon all occasions that nothing could be done for advance of Hamiltons designs till he was removed from that place In order whereunto it was put into his head by some of that Faction that he should sue unto the King to be created Earl of Strathern as the first and most honourable Title which belonged to his House that his merits were so great as to assure him not to meet with a deniall and that the King could do no lesse then to give him some nominall reward for his reall services On these suggestions he repaired unto the Court of England where without any great difficulty he obtained his Suit and waited on the King the most part of his Summers progresse no man being so openly honoured and courted by the Scottish Nation as he seemed to be But no sooner was he gone for Scotland but the Hamiltonians terrified the King with the dangers which he had run into by that Creation whereby he had revived in that proud and ambitious person the Rights which his Ancestors pretended to the Crown of Scotland as being derived from David Earl of Strathern before mentioned the second Son of Robert the Second by his lawfull Wife that the King could not chuse but see how generally the Scots slockt about him after this Creation when he was at the Court and would do so much more when he was in Scotland And finally that the proud man had already so farre declared himself as to give it ouâ— that the King held the Crown of him Hereupon a Commission was speedily posted into Scotland in which those of Hamiltons Faction made the greatest Number to enquire into his life and actions and to consider of the inconveniences which might redound unto the King by his affecting this New Title On the Return whereof the poor Gentleman is removed from his Office from being one of the Privy Council and not only deprived of the Title of Earl of Strathern but of that also of Menteith which for a long time had remained in his Ancestors And though he was not long after made Earl of Airth yet this great fall did so discourage him from all publike businesses that he retired to his own house and left the way open to the Hamiltonians to play their own game as they listed Faithfull for all this to the King in all changes of Fortune neither adhering to the Covenanters nor giving the least countenance to them when he might not only have done it with safety but with many personal advantages which were tendered to him Fol. 238. The Marquesse now findes this place too hot for him and removes to Dalkieth without any adventuring upon the English Divine Service formerly continuâ—lly used there for twenty years in audience of the Council Nobility and Iudges Compare this passage with another and we shall finde that our Authour hath mis-reckoned no lesse then fifteen years in twenty For in the year 1633. he puts this down after the Kings return from Scotland agreeable to the truth of story in that particular What care saith he King Iames took heretofore to rectifie Religious worship in Scotland when he returned from his last visiting of them the like does King Charles so soon as he came home The â—oul undecent Discipline he seeks to reform into sacred worship and sends Articles of order to be observed only by the Dean of his private Chappell there as in England That Prayers be performed twice a day in the English manner A monethly Communion to be received on their knees He that officiates on Sunday and Holydaies to do his duty in his Surplice No publick reading of the English Liturgy in Scotland since the year 1562. but only during the short time of King Iames his being there Anno 1617. therefore not read continually twenty years together as our Authour states it But twenty years is nothing in our Authours Arithmetick For telling us that the sufferers viz. Dr. Bastwick Mr. Prinne and M. Burton obtained an order for satisfaction to be made them out of the Estates of those who imposed their punishments that none of those Judges being left but Sir Henry Vane the Elder it was ordered that satisfaction should be given by him to one of their Widows and thereupon it was observed for a blessed time when a single Counsellour of State after twenty years opinion should be sentenced by Parliament to give satisâ—action for a mis-judgement acted by a body of Counsell fol. 867. But the punishment inflicted on those sufferers was in the year 1637. and this order made about eight years after Anno 1645. being but twelve years short of our Authours twenty which is no great matter Fol. 282. As for Sir John Finch Chief Iustice of the Common Pleas who succeeded him in the place of the Lord Keeper he could not hold out so many moneths as he did years from being in hazard to have forfeited his head But first this Gentleman was somewhat more then Sir Iohn Finch he being created Lord Finch of Forditch in the beginning of the April before Secondly If he were in any hazard it was not for any thing he had done in the place of Lord Keeper but only for his zeal to the Kings service in the case of Ship money or to his actings under the Earl of Holland in Forrest businesses before he came unâ—o that place neither of which could have extended to the losse of his head though he thought not fit to trust that head to such mercilesse Judges With like prudence did Sir Francis Windebank principal Secretary of Estate withdraw into France of whom our Author telleth us That he remained there to his death a profest Roman Catholick fol. 338. But first Sir Francis Windebank remained not there until his death for he came
to call it to minde or else if no such Oath was tendred by him as our Author is assur'd there was not that part of the Tragedy might be acted by Mr. Good the other Chaplain without communicating his Instructions to his fellow Visitor And therefore thirdly I would know why Mr. Good was not writ to also that having from him the like Certificate our Author might have had the better grounds for his unbelief before he had pronounc'd so positively against the Author of that Querela Fourthly and finally it is not easie to be thought that the Author of that Book should have vented sâ—ch a manifest falshood especially in a matter so derogatory to all Christian charity and that neither the Earl of Manchester nor either of his two Chaplains or any friend of theirs should in the space of ten years and more endeavour to wipe off such an odious imputation till our Author out of pure zeal to the Paramount power played the Advocate in it But to return again to Oxford one of the first effects which followed on the alteration before remembred though mentioned by our Author in another place was the risling of the Treasury in Magdalen Colledge of which he tells us lib. 9. fol. 234. That a considerable sum of gold being by Dr. Humphry who had been Master of that Colledge left in a Chest not to be opened except some great necessity urged thereunto was lately shar'd between Dr. Wilkinson who then held the place of President by the power of the Visitors and the Fellows there But first our Author is mistaken in Dr. Humphry though he be willing to entitle him whom he calls a moderate Non-conformist to some benefaction The sum there found amounted to above twelve hundred double Pistolets the old Doctor having no fewer then one hundred for his part of the spoil and every Fellow thirty a piece for theirs each Pistolet exchang'd at sixteen shillings six pence and yet the Exchanger got well by the bargain too Too great a sum for Dr. Humphry who had many children and no provident woman to his wife to leave behinde him to the Colledge had he been so minded The money as the Tradition went in that Colledge was left there by the Founder to remedy and repair such â—uines as either the casualty of fire or the ravages of a Civil war might bring upon it to which the nature of the Coin being all French pieces remember that the English at that time were Masters of a great part of France gives a further testimony Secondly I would have our Author observe that those whom he accuseth of this act of Rapine were neither high Royalists nor Covetous Conformists as we know who words it but men agreeable to the times and of the same temper and affections which himself is of the Conformists never being so covetous as to cast an eye towâ—râ—s it nor the high Royalists so ignoble in their greatest extremities as to lay hands on it And thirdly I must needs charge our Author with some partiality in aggravating this fact which indeed cannot be excused with so many circumstances and passing over the like at Cambridge as a thing incredible I cannot believe saith he Hist. Camb. fol. 38. what I have read in the Querela Cantabrigiensis That three or four hundred pounds worth of Timber brought to Clare-hall for the repair of that House was lately taken away that is to say inverted to the use of some private persons whom our Author hath beâ—riended with this incredulity Nay so extremely favourable he is to his friends in Cambridge as to proâ—ess that had he seen it he would nâ—t have believed his own eyes which is the highest point of partiality and most invincible unbelief that I ever met with There remains nothing now to conclude these Animadversions but some passages relating to Archbishop Williams in which I must confess my self not willing to meedle but that I think it is as much against the Rule of distributive Justice to give one man to much as to give another man too little Let us see therefore what he saith of this Prelate and how far he saith truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth And first saith he Fol. 227. He sueth to the Parliament for favour and obtained it whoseâ—General in a manner he becomes in laying siege to the Town and Castle of Abercon-way c. This is the truth but whether it be the whole truth oâ— not I do more then doubt His suing for and obtaining pardon from the Parliament precedeth in the order oâ— time his being their Gâ—neral and thereâ—ore it is not to be thought but that he had done some special service to the Parliament to prepare the way for such a favour Before his commitment to the Tower about the Bishops Protestation he was grown as odious to the Commons as before he had been honoured by them He had liv'd some time with the King at Oxford and is said to have done him good services in Wales and which is most he had a fair temporal Estate able to yeeld some thousands of pounds for Composition in Goldsmiths-hall So that there must be somewhat in it more then ordinary which occasioned that he neither came under Fine nor Ransom as the rest of the Kings Party did But what that was whether he serv'd them with intelligence when he was at Oxford or by inhibiting his Tenants and neighbours to pay their accustomed Taxes to the Kings Forces when he liv'd in Wales I determine not Certain it is that before his redintegration with them he had been in a manner besieged in his House of Penrin by the Lord Byron for the prohibiting of sending in such provisions as had been required and that observing with what carelesness the Kings Souldiers did attend that service he caus'd a sally to be made out of the House and slew many of them Upon the merit of which service and the promise of greater it is no wonder if such Ministers and Sollicitors of his as were imploy'd in that business compounded for him without fine though not without money That which our Author tells us of his being their General seems to have been fore-signified some five or six years before the siege of Conway Castle For I remember that about such time as he was Prisoner in the Tower with the rest of the Bishops his picture was sold commonly in black and white in his Episcopal Roabs with a square Cap on his head a Rest in his hand a Musket on his shoulder and a Bandeleir about his neck For which fancy at that time I could learn no reason though he came up to it at the last But he goes on Ibid. He was very chast in his Conversation And I hope so too notwithstanding the scandalous reports of Weldon the nameless Author aim'd at in the following words in his Pamphlet called the Court of King Iames and some vulgar fames or hear-says too much credited by a late Historian