Majesty and the just rights and liberties of his people which they saw like to perish together Farther a Knight of the Court seconds the report and by proclamation in the Kings Name now legall againe commands this herd to keepe the Kings peace under forfeiture of life and members from that houre The King now growne a Protectour againe of his Subjects sends his Letters protectory to the Abbot in these words RIchard c. To all our Lieges and Commons of Hartford c. We pray Charge Command streightly as we may c. by the faith and ligeances which to us yee owe that to our Beloved in God the Abbot of St. Albane nor to our House and Monastery of the said place of our Patronage nor to none of the People Monkes nor others nor to none of the goods of the said Monastery c Yee suffer to be done as much as in you lies any grievance dammage c. Given under our Great Seale at our City of London c. Though now these Carles were well cooled yet ere the zeale was quite slakened and the Clouds dispelled which hovered weakely and were likely to scatter with the next breath of winde they conclude to perfect their building which to the great nusance of this Monastery they had raised Besides the Lieutenants or Major Generalls of Tyler thought it a much unworthinesse to droope too soon before those whom they had summoned in to piece up their deformed insurrection with so much bravery and insolence They continue and pursue their requests to the Abbot but with lesse noise than formerly the Abbot was advised by Letters from Sir Hugh Segrave Lord Steward of the Houshold and Sir Thomas Percy created after Earle of Worcester to grant all things assuring him these grants being thus forced from him would be voide in Law and could not hurt his Monastery The Abbots Chamber the Chappell all places are full of them they give directions to the Abbots Clerke for their Charter of Liberties which now they were contented to accept but will have a Bond of one thousand pounds sterling for the delivering up the Charter unknowne before the annunciation of the blessed Virgin next if it can be found if not that the Abbot with his twelfth hand an antient Saxon manner of purging or clearing the offender where the offence was secret with twelve of his chiefe Monkes should sweare that he neither has nor detains any such Charter with his knowledge The Abbot agrees he and the Covent Seale But oh the miracle not to be believed nor understood without another upon our faith and understanding the Seale in which the glorious Protomartyr was figured three times together could not be pulled from the Wax no sleight no strength could doe it To passe by the pious frauds and dreames of Monkes from thence the black-bands depart to the Market place there at the Crosse they publish their new Acquisitions the Charters of the King and Abbot with the Kings protection of the Monastery which was but a counterfeit of their love On Munday and Tuesday following the villeins of the Patrimony of our Protomartyr as the others did in all places else imbroiled exact of the Abbot deeds of manumission and Liberty according to the effect of the Royall Charter before which Charter the Abbot recites and confirmes From villeins these now conceive themselves Gentlemen of Welsh pedegree descended of Princes nay as our Monk noble beyond the line and race of Kings they are meere free-holders hold onely of God and the Sunne rather of the Sun and club and will neither performe their customes and services nor pay Rent The common people who are neither swayed by Religion or Honesty stop and check themselves not that they were contented but because they could not nay they durst not goe on to more The plague of this distemper was not onely epidemicall but kept its dayes on the fatall Saturday fifty thousand Clownes out of Suffolke Essex Cambridgeshire the Isle of Elie places miserably harrassed according to the former presidents were incorporated by the jugling tricks of the Essexian impostors sent out by the Fathers of disobedience in the first conception of the ruffle to inveigle proselites to the Holy League This was but an indigested Masse without shape or forme Wraw not Straw as sometimes he is called a most lend Presbyter as Walsingham or Priest who came from London the day before with Orders from Tyler who according to his owne establishment had the executive power was imployed into those parts to lick and fashion the Monster He with Robert Westbrome King of this Congregation lead the tatter'd reformers from Mildenhall to St. Edmunds bury where then stood a most glorious Monastery and where their fellow scoundrells expected them Wraw findes these choperloches good disciples willing to learne and quick of apprehension so capable they understood his least signes The same frenâ—ies are againe acted by other Lunaticks the Lawyers or Apprentices of the Law as the Monke and their houses are the first objects of their spight they doe not onely cut off them but fire their nests Lâ—r John Cavendish chiefe Justice of the Kings Bench who had beene one of the most able Serjeants of this Kings Grand-fathers Reigne and was made chiefe Justice by him they intercept and behead Orpheus Tracie Nero the Romane Belgabred the Brittaine excellent in the sweetnesse of a voyce and skill of Song with John of Cambridge Prior of Saint Edmunds lose their lives in the same manner as they unluckily fell in to their hands The cause of the Priors death is made this He was discreet and managed the affaires of his Monastery faithfully and diligently he was taken neare Mildenhall a Towne then belonging to Saint Edmund of the demaine of the Abby the Vassalls Hindes Villeins and bond-men of the house sentenced him murthered him by Vote His body lay five dayes naked in the field unburied In Saint Edmunds bury these cut-throats compasse the Priors head round as in a procession after they carry it upon a Lance to the pillory where that and the chiefe Justices head are advanced Their next worke was the levelling a new house of the Priours After they enter the Monastery which they threaten to fire unlesse John Lakinhethe Gardian of the temporalities of the Barony in the vacancy then were delivered to them which the Towns-men mingled in the throng put them upon the Gardian stood amidst the croud unknown This man out of piety to preserve the Monastery it was piety then though it may be thought impiety now discovers himselfe he tells them he is the man they seeke and askes what it is the Commons would have with him They call him traitor it was capitall to be called so not to be so drag him to the Market-place and cut off his head which is set upon the Pillory to keepe company with the Priors and chiefe Justices Walter of Todington a Monke was sought for they
Barber and twelve more Condemned Drawne and Hanged VVallingford John Garleck VVilliam Berewill Thomas Putor and many more with eightie of the Countrey were Indicted by their Neighbours and Impriprisoned but forgiven by the Kings Mercie and discharged They were forgiven most by the Kings Mercie for hee had forbidden by Proclamation all men to sue or begge for them a command which the good Abbot sometimes disobeyed and hee shall bee well thanked for it No benefits can oblige some men A true rugged churle can never be made fast never bee tyed by any merit whatsoever Nothing can soften him See an unheard of shamelesness till then These lazie tender-hearted Clowns who could hardly be got to discover the guilty now runne with full speed to betray the innocent They indict the Abbot as the principall Raiser and contriver of these Tumults which struck at his own life and the being and safetie of his Monastery The Abbot as it is said sent to Tyler upon his ordinances some of the Town and Monastery but to temporize and secure himself This is now supposed by the very Traytors indeed Treason by Common Law and Statute against the King his naturall leige Lord This having not the feare of God in his heart c. but being seduced by the instigation of the Devill is compassing the death c. the deprivation and deposing of his Soveraign Lord from his Royal State c. as such Indictments use to run this must goe for levying VVar against our Lord the King adhering to comforting and aiding his enemies by open fact which are the words of the Statute of Treason declarative of the Common Law The Chief Justice abominating and cursing the treacherous malice and perfidiousness of these Bruits makes them tear the Indictment which themselves though urged are not wicked enough to swear to nay which publiquely they confess to bee false in the face of the Court Villeinage was not now abolished though so methink otherwise but by degrees extinguished since this reigne Besides the Letters of Revocation before restoring all things to their old course A Commission which the Abbot procured from the King out of the Chancery then kept in the Chapter house of this Monastery makes this manifest which speaks to this effect RIchard by the grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland c. To his beloved John Lodowick Jo Westwycomb c. We command you and every of you upon sight of these presents c. That on our part forthwith ye cause to be proclaimed That all and singular the Tenants of our beloved in Christ the Abbot of S. Albane as wâ—ll free as bond the Works Customes and Services which they to the foresaid Abbot ought to doe and of ancient time have been accustomed to performe without any contradiction murmur c. Doe as before they have been accustomed The disobedient are commanded to be taken and imprisoned as Rebels In the time of King Henry the seventh there were villains This I observe to make it appeare how little it is which the miserable common people without whom no famous mischiefe can be attained are gainers by any of their riots or seditions whatsoever the changes are their condition is still the same or worse if some few of them advance themselves by the spoiles of the publique shâ—pwrack the rest are no happier for it the insolent sight offends their eyes they see the dirt of their owne ditches Lord it over them and the body of them perhaps more deâ—pised than ever Tyler who could not but have known that nothing can be so destructive to Government as the licentiousnesse of the base Commons would doubtlesse when his owne work had been done quickly have chained up the Monster he would have perched in the Kings sacred Oake all the Forrest should have beene his Bishopricks Earledomes nay the Kingdomes had been swallowed by him instead of a just legall power by which the Kings acted an arbitrary boundlesse unlimited power must have beene set up instead of a fatherly royall Monarchy a Tyrannie after the Turkish mode a Monarchy seignioral and had he brought in upon the fall of the Christian Faith and Worship which must have followed his establishment Circumcision and the Creed of Mahomet as the spirits of men were then debased he must have been obeyed All the Kings right and more must have been his Sultan Tyler's Prerogative would have been found more grievous more heavy more killing than all the yokes and scorpions of our Kings no man when he went to sleep could assure himself that one Law would be left next morning the Ordinances of Tyler and his Council flew about in swarms killing and rooting up the Laws one Proclamation of this Tyrants was of force to blow up the ancient Foundation enough to have made men mad if ever they could wake and understand when the French had conquered Naples the people looked for a Golden World they thought their new Master would as the King of Mexico's Oath used to say do Justice to all men make the Sun to shine the Clouds to rain the Earth to be fruitfull They promise themselves Liberty and that the accustomed Imposts of their former Kings of the House of Arragon should not onely be taken off but the very word Gabelle driven out of the Kingdom theâ— should be no such thing in nature left but foolish dolts as they were they found an alteration quickly instead of a Court Cavalrie before the new Masters ill established and assured not daring to trust any thing standing Armies were continually to be kept on foot instead of one Tax intolerable of late they are oppressed with ten their backs and shoulders crack under the load Upon this fancy of these abused Italians sayes the Historian This is the custome for the most part of all people weary ever of the present condition and inconsiderately gaping after a change but they receive such wages of their fond and disorderly lightness The War undertaken against Lewis the 11 of France by the House of Burgundy Dukes of Berry Brittaineâ— and Burbon called the Weale publick was not made against the King say the Allies but against evill order injustice in the Government and for the publick good of the Realm In the Treaty for Peace these fine things are forgotten the wretched Peasants torn and ground with Taxes left to shift for themselves The Prince of the Burgaundies demands the Townes upon the Some for himselfe Normandy for the Duke of Berry and other places Offices and Pensions for the rest some overtures were made for the Weal publick sayes the History that is all the Weal publick was the least of the question the Weal publick was turned to Weal particular self seeking was the sum of the business This has been the fashion of all Rebels hitherto and will bee to the worlds end After these proceedings the Hartfordshire men betwixt the ages of 15 and 60 present themselves according to command and
Parricides will not finde when they shall pay the score of this and their other crimes However the flattery of successe may abuse our death bed represents things in their owne shape and as they are after this the rout of Wolves enter prophanely roaring where is the Traitour where is the Robber of the Common-people He answers not troubled at what he saw or heard Yee are welcome my Sonnes I am the Archbishop whom you seek neither Traitour nor Robber Presently these Limbes of the Devill griping him with their wicked clutches teare him out of the Chappell neither reverencing the Altar nor Crucifix figured on the top of his Crosier nor the Host these are the Monkes observations for which he condemnes them in the highest impiety and makes them worse than Divells and as Religion went then well he might condemne them so They dragge him by the Armes and hood to Tower hill without the Gates there they howle hideously which was the signe of a mischiefe to follow He askes them what it is they purpose what is his offence tells them he is their Archbishop this makes him guilty all his eloquence his Wisdome are now of no use he addes the murder of their Soveraigne Pastour will be severely punished some notorious vengeance will suddenly follow it These destroyers will not trouble themselves with the idle formality of a mock-trial or Court of their own erecting an abominable Ceremony which had made their impiety more ugly they proceed down right and plainly which must be instead of all things He is commanded to lay his neck upon the block as a false traitour to the Commonalty and Realm To deale roundly his life was forfeited and any particular charge or defence would not be necessary his enemies were his Accusers and Judges his enemies who had combined and sworne to abolish his order the Church and spoile the sacred patrimony and what innocency what defence could save Without any reply farther he forgives the Heads-man and bowes his Body to the Axe After the first hit he touches the wound with his hand and speakes thus It is the Hand of the Lord The next stroke falls upon his hand ere he could remove it and cuts off the tops of his fingers after which he fell but died not till the eight blow his body lay all that day unburied and no wonder all men were throughly scared under the tyranny of these Monsters all Humanity all Piety were most unsafe The Archbishop dyed a Martyr of loyalty to his King and has his * miracles Recorded an honour often bestowed by Monkes friends of Regicide and Regicides on Traitours seldome given to honest men In his Epitaph his riming Epitaph where is showne the pittifull ignorant rudenesse of those times he goes for no lesse he speakes thus Sudburiae natus Simon jacet hic tumulatus Martyrizatus nece pro republica stratus Sudburies Simon here intombed lies Who for the Commonwealth a Martyr dies It is fit sayes Plato that he who would appeare a just man become naked that his virtue be despoiled of all ornament that he be taken for a wicked man by others wicked indeed that he be mocked and hanged The wisest of men tell us †There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousnesse and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickednesse The Seas are often calme to Pirates and the scourges of God the executioners of his fury the Gothes Hunnes and Vandalls heretofore Tartars and Turkes now how happy are their Robberies how doe all things succeed with them beyond their wishes Our Saviours Passion the great mysterie of his Incarnation lost him to the Jewes his Murtherers Whereupon Grotius notes It is often permitted by God that pious men be not onely vexed by wicked men but murdered too He gives examples in Abel Isaiah and others the MESSIAH dyed for the sins of the world Ethelbert and Saint Edmund the East-Angles Saint Oswald the Northumbrian Saint Edward the Monarch c. Saxon Kings are examples at home Thucydides in his narration of the defeat and death of Nician the Athenian in Sycily speaks thus Being the man who of all the Grecians of my time had least deserved to be brought to so great a degree of misery It is too frequent to proclaim Gods Judgments in the misfortunes of others as if we were of the Celestiall Councell had seen all the Wheels or Orbs upon which Providence turns and knew all the reasons and ends which direct and govern its motions men love by a strange abstraction to separate Facts from their Crimes where the fact is beneficiall the advantage must canonize it it must be of heavenly off-spring a way to justifie Cain Abimelech Phocas our third Richard Ravilliac every lucky parricide whatsoever Alexander Severus that most excellent Emperour assassinated by the Militia or Souldiery by an ill fate of the Common-wealth for Maximinus a Thracian or Goth Lieutenant Generall of the Army a cruell Savage tyrant by force usurped the Empire after him Replyed to one who pretended to foretell his end That it troubled him not the most renowned persons in all ages die violently This gallant Prince condemned no death but a dishonest fearfull one Heaven it selfe declared on the Archbishops side and cleared his innocency Starling of Essex who challenged to himselfe the glory of being Heads man fell and suddenly after ran through the Villages with his Sword hanging naked upon his brest and his Dagger naked behinde him came up to London confest freely the fact and lost his head there As most of those did who had laid their hands upon this Archbishop comming up severally out of their Countries to that City and constantly accusing themselves for the Parricide of their spirituall Father Nothing was now unlawfull there could be no wickednesse after this They make more examples of barbarous cruelty under the name of Justice Robert Lord Prior of St. John and Lord Treasurer of England John Leg or Laige one of the Kings serjeants at Armes a Franciscan a Physitian belonging to the Duke of Lancaster whom perhaps they hated because they had wronged his Master a Frier Carmelite the Kings Confessour were murdered there in this fury Whose heads with the Archbishops were borne before them through London streets and advanced over the Bridge This while the King was softning the Rebells of Essex at Mile-end with the Earles of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford and other Lords Thither by Proclamation he had summoned them as presuming the Essexians to be the more civilized and by much the fairer enemies as indeed they were There he promises to grant them their desires Liberty pretious Liberty is the thing they aske this is given them by the King but on condition of good behaviour They are to cease their burning and destruction of Houses to returne quietly to their homes and offend no man in their way Two of every Village were to stay as Agents behinde for the
Christians are to submit to let the next Casuists judge The Septuagint translation of the Bible sayes of Abimelech who slew his seaventy Brethren murder ushers usurpation in He made himselfe King by Tyranny The Monk who writes the lives of the Offaâ—s speaking of Beormred the Mercian Usurper has these words In the same region of the Mercians a certaine Tyranne rather destroying and dissipating the Nobility of the Realm than ruling c. persecuting banishing c. Lest any one especially of the Royall Blood should be advanced in his place he vehemently feared The thirty Vsurpers in the time of Gallienus are every where called Tyrannes Paulus Diaconus writing of Valentine in the time of Valentinian sayes He was crushed in Britannie before he could invade the Tyrannie and of Maximus that he was stout and valiant and worthy of the Empire had he not against the faith of his oath raised himselfe per tyrannidem by tyrannie In other places Eugenius Gratian Constance Sebastian created Tyrannes The words Tyranne and Tyrannie and tyrannous partie being used often by him are ever opposed to just and Regall power never used in any other sense Widdrington to the example of Athalia urged by Bellarmine against Kings sayes she was no lawfull Queen she had seized the Kingdome as an Usurpresse by Tyrannie the Kingdome belonged to Joash in whose right and by whose power she was justly slaine Our most learned Prelate Bishop Abbot of Salisbury tells the Cubs of Loyola Athalia had snatched had grasped and held the kingdome with no right no title but by butchery robbery rapine and forcible entry and that she was thrown down and killed by the common bounden duty and faith of Subjects to their Prince Baronius a Cardinal that the Maccabees of Levi or house of the Assamoneans may not be made Usurpers matches them with the royall line of David else sayes he absque labe tyrannidis without the stain of Tyrannie they could not meddle with the Kingdome Rodolph Duke of Suâ—via or Suabenland set up for a false Emperour by that devilish Pope Hildebrand against the Emperour Hen. the IIII. is called by the Germanes a Tyranne upon this score A full Tyrannie sayes one of our Chiefe Justices speaking of the Papall power in Church causes here has two parts without right to usurp and inordinately to rule and the Statute 28 of King Henry the 8. against the Papall Authority calls it an usurped Tyranny and the exercise of it a Robbery and spoyling of the King and his people The Statute 31 Henry 6. adjudging John Cade another Impe of Hell and successour of Wat to be a traitour whcih are the words of the title and all his Indictments and Acts to be voide speakes thus The most abominable Tyrannie horrible odious and arrant false Traytour John Cade naming himselfe sometime Mortimer he and Tyler had two Names taking upon him Royall power c. by false subtile and imagined language c. Robbing Stealing and spoyling c. And that all his Tyranny Acts Feaâ—s and false opinions shall be voyded and that all things depending thereof c. under the power of Tyranny shall be likewise voide c. and that all Indictments in times comming in like case under power of Tyranny Rebellion c. shall be voide in Law and that all Petitions delivered to the King in his last Parliament c. against his minde by him not agreed shall be put in oblivion c. as against God and conscience c. To proceed The King because all thâ—se risings were by the Ring leaders protested to be made for him and his Rights and that the forces then raised were raised by his Authority and all their actions owned by him issues out a Proclamation from London to this effect RIchard c. To all and singular Sheriffes Majors Bayliffs c. of our County of N. c. Because we are given to understand That divers of our Subjects who against our Peace c. have raised and in diverse Conventicles and Assemblies c. Do affirme That they the said Assemblies and Levies have made and doe make by Our will and Authority c. We make knowne to all men That such Levies Assemblies and Mischiefes from Our Will and Authority have not proceeded He addes they were begun and continued much to His displeasure and disgrace to the prejudice of His Crowne and dammage of the Realm Wherefore he injoynes and commands c. To take the best care for the keeping of his Peace opposing of all such Levies with a strong hand Farther He commands every man to leave such Assemblies and return home to his own house under penalty of forfeiture of Life and Member and all things forfeitable to the King c. These Clowns charge not the King to be transported Furiously and Hostilely to the destruction of the whole people which can never happen where the King is in his wits But what is fully as mad they will suppose him to Arme against his own life and power against his own peace and the peace of all that love him This Proclamation put life into the Royalists into all honest hearts and dismayes as much the Rebels yet after this the Essex Traitors gather again at Byllericay near Hatfield Peverell and send to the King now at Waltham to know whether he intends to make good his Grants of Liberties and require to be made equal with their Lords without being bound to any Suits of Court view of Frank-pledge only excepted twice the year The King and his Counsell are startled at this impudence The King answers the Agents That if he did not look upon them as Messengers he would hang them up Return sayes he to your fellow Rebels and tell them Clowns they were and are and shall continue in their Bondage not as hitherto but far more basely trampled on While we live and rule this Kingdom by Gods Will we will imploy all our Means and Power to keep you under So that your misery shall frighten all villeins hereafter And your posterity shall curse your memory At the heels of the Messengers the King sends his Unkle Thomas of Woodstock Earl of Buckingham and Sir Thomas Piercy with a body of Horse to quell them The Rebels were intrenched according to the manner of Litsters Camp in the midst of Woods Ten Lances of the Avant Currours rout them the Lords when they were come up inclose the Woods round five hundred are killed eight hundred Horses for carriage taken the broken remainders of the defeat escape to Colchester a Town ever honest and faithfull to the Prince where the loyal Townsmen would not be gotten to stir they sollicite the Townsmen saies the Monk with much intreaty great threats and many arguments neither intreaties nor threats nor arguments would move them From thence they get to Sudbury making every where such Proclamations as of old they had used where the Lord Fitzwalter whose seat was at Woodham Walters in
Essex and Sir John Harlestone rush suddenly upon them kill and take them The King meaning to visite Essex in his own person comes to Havering at the bouâ—e a Mannour of his own domain of the sacred Patrimony and from thence to Chelmsford where he appoints Sir Robert Tresilian chief Justice of his Bench of Pleas of the Crown to sit and inquire of the Malefactours and Troublers of the Country and to punish the offendours according to the customs of the Realm known and visible Five hundred of these wretched peasants who had no mercy for others heretofore cast themselves down before the King bare footed and with heads uncovered implore his pardon which he grants them on condition They discover the great Conspiratours the Captain Rogues The Jurors are charged by the chief Justices to carry themselves indifferently and justly in their Verdicts neither swayed by love or hatred to favour or prosecute any man Many upon the Evidence given in and the finding of the Jury were condemned to be drawn and hanged nineteen of them were trussed upon one Gallowes Heading had formerly been the execution of others in Essex Kent and London because of the numbers of the guilty which was now thought a death short of the demerits of the most foul and heynous offenders Wherefore according to the custom of the Realm It was decreed sayes the Monk that the Captains should be hanged The like was done in other Countries by the Justices in Commission where the King was in person Here the King with the advice of his Counsell revokes his Letters Patents the Charters granted to the Clowns Although so he speaks we have have in the late detestable troubles c. manumised all the Commons our Liege Subjects of our Shires and them c. have freed from all bondage and service c. And also have pardoned the same our Liege men and Subjects all Insurrections by Riding Going c. And also all manner of Treasons Felonies Trespasses and Extortions c. Notwithstanding for that the said Charters were without mature deliberation and unduly procured c. To the prejudice of us and our Crown of the Prelates and great men of our Realm as also to the disherison of holy English Church and to the hurt and damage of the Common wealth the said Letters we revoke make void and annull c. Yet our intention is such Grace upon every of our said Subjects to confer though enormiously their Allegeance they have forfeited c. As shall be usefull to us and our Realm The close commands to bring in to the King and his Councell all Charters of manumission and pardon to be cancelled upon their faith and allegeance and under forfeiture of all things forfeitable c. Witnesse our selfe at Chelmsford the 2. of July and 5. year of our reign False for the 4. In the case of a Subject and no reason Kings shall be more bound every Act extorted by violence and awe upon the Agent is voyd In the time of Edward the third two Thieves which was the case here force a Traveller to swear that hee will at a day appointed bring them a thousand pound and threaten to kill him if he refuse their oath He swears and performs what he had sworn by advice of all the Justices these two were Indicted of Robbery and the Court maintaines that the party was not bound by this Oath Yet if this be denyed as unsafe Violence or Force which strikes a just fear into any man makes any Contract voyd say the Casuists Bishop Andrewes that most learned Prelate answers to the pretended resignation of King John urged by Bellarmine that what this King did if any such act was done was done by force and out of feare Widdrington the most loyall of all Roman-Catholick Priests who writ much against the Gun-powder Jesuits in defence of the right of Kings against those Jesuits who would have cut off the King the Royall Family the Bishops of the English Catholick Church the Nobility and Gentry as their Letter speaks with one blow sayes of this Resignation or Donation if we may so he call it so That it was not freely given The Jesuites challenge the perpetuall dictature or regency of the University of Pontamousson by Bull of Sixtus the fift contrary to the Statutes of the foundation by Gregory the thirteenth Were the Bull true sayes Barclaiâ— yet it ougt not to be of force because it was obtain'd presently after his Creation when things are presumed to be rather extorted than obtained Bodin denyes that a King deceived or forced can be bound by his grants The justice of Contracts is that alone which binds The distinction of Royall and Private acts is of more sound then strength and answers not the injustice of the impulsive violence which must be naturally vicious every where and corrupt and weaken the effects and cannot be good and bad by changes or as to this or that Grotius who loves this distinction in another place is positive There must be Equality in all Contracts He condemne all fear or awe upon the person purposely moved for the contracts sake and tels us out of Xenophon of those of Lacaedemon who annulled a sale of lands which the Elians had forced the owners to passe out of fear A Charter of King Henry the third imprisoned and forced is said by Aldenham to be voyd upon thâ—â— reason and I judge the justice of this revocation by the Law of England by which as our old Parliaments such force is Treason The fruits of wch were here more justly plucked up than they were planted He who gives up hiâ— money to Thieves according to his oath may lawfully take it away from them however they are bound to make restitution Nor can any prescription of time establish a right of possession in him who makes his seizure upon no other title but Plunder and Robbery The 5th of this King the Parliament declares these Grants to be forced and voyd Enough to clear the honour of King Richard as to this part At Chelmsford the King is informed of the whole History of mischiefs done at St. Albanes and resolved in person with all his Guards and Cavalry to ride thither and sentence the Malefactors with his own mouth but Sir Walter Leye of Hartfordshire fearing the much impoverishing theÌ„ Country if the King should make any long stay there with such numbers as then attended him beseeches him to make a tryal wehther things might not be composed without him and offers to reconcile the Abbot and Townsmen if the King would which was cnnsented to The King grants him a Commission and joyns with him Edward Benstude Geofrey Stukelyâ— and others of the Gently of that County The coming of these Commissioners was noysed at St. Albanes The fiâ—rcest of the Clowns knowing what they had done was condemned by the Law and not to be defended but by force which now they had not began to shake and
bee uselesse whatsoever else is They lay the blame of their obstinacy upon the Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford who threaten so they would have it believed to burn their Town if they deliver up their Liberties Which Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford had humbly surrendred theirs before and submitted to the Kings mercy Thus we find these Rebels of St. Albanes again swaggering in their old Rhodomontadoes An Esquire of the Abbots acquaints the King with these turnings who vows to sit personally in judgement upon these everlasting male-contents The Abbot full of pitty and charity who had saved some of these enemies of his House from the Axe by intercession at London continues his goodness still he sollicites Sir Hugh Segrave Steward of the Houshold and others of his friends to mitigate the Kings displeasure and hinder his journey thither which was not in their power Now again are the Townsmen dejected and seek by all means to keep off the tempest which threatned them They fee Sir William Croyser a Lawyer to make their defence and mediate with the Abbot where there was no danger an agreement is concluded the day of the King's entry by which they would bind the Abbot not to disclose them or inform against them He promises if they fail not in performance on their part not to make any complaints to the King of them that he would be a suiter for their peace if his prayers may be heard but that here he cannot assure them Pardons were Acts flowing meerly from the Kings Grace No man had any power or authoritie to pardon or remit treasons c. but the King and whether he could prevail for them he knew not This doubtfulness troubles them it seems to call their innocency too much into question They tell him his good will waâ— sufficient and that as to what belonged to the Royal Dignity they should satisfie the King After Vespers the King made his entry into the Town being met by the Abbot and Covent the Bels rang aloud and the Monks sang merrily his welcome He was followed by some thousands of Bowmen and Cavaliers In this train was Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who the next day being Saturday the 13. of July and first of the Dog-dayes sate in judgement at the Moot-hall saies Walsingham at the Town-house Greyndcob Cadindon and John the Barber are fetched from Hartford and laid fast till Munday against which time new Jury-men are chosen and charged to be ready with their Verdicts Prophet Baal the Sergius of the new Alcaran the Priest of the Idol and his Calves the Martin of the yoak of pure discipline of the Eldership was taken by the Townsmen of Coventry brought to St. Albanes the day before and this Saturday condemned by the Chief Justice to be Drawn Hanged Beheaded Imbowelled and Quartered which was done on the Munday following He confessed to the Bishop of London to whose Christian Piety he ought the two last dayes of his life which were begged for his repentance that certaine hot and powerfull Pastours of the Separation Brethren of simple hearts called by the Spirit he named six or seven had covenanted and engaged to compass England and Wales round as Itinerant Apostles to propagate the Gospel beat down all abomination of the outward Man Antichristian Hierarehy and Tyranny of the Nimrods of the Earth to cry up the great and holy Cause and to spread the Law Principles and Heresies of Baal which Disciples saies this Rabbi unlesse they be prevented and taken off wil destroy the Realm in two years Hee might have said two moneths and been believed as to the Civility Humanity Order and Honour never intermitted but in the confusion of a barbarous impious age which made England glorious they had been destroyed and torn up in a less time A few licentious ill Acts easily beget a custom and an hundred ill customes quicklier grow and prevaile than one single good one there is a proneness in unruly man to run into deboshments and no wonder that the arrogant missed silly multitude capable of any ill impressions should deprave and disorder things where all ties of restraint are loosened nay where disorders are not onely defended by the corrupt wits of hirelings but bidden strengthened by a Law and Villainies made legal Acts Had the Idol King Tyler with his Council not gone on too far in the way of extermination but endeavoured to repair the breaches of his entrance it would have been no small labour to have restored things to any mean and tolerable condition If Presbyter VVicklief and his Classes by their pernitious Doctrines as they are charged to this day did first pervert and corrupt the people and broach that vessell with which Father Baal and Straw poysoned them they must have ruined themselves by the change sure enough they had been no more comprehended in any of Tylers Toleration than the Prelatical or Papistical party In the turmoiles and outrages of this Tyrannie had it taken Innocence Virtue Ingenuity Honesty Faith Learning and Goodnesse had been odious and dangerous The profit and advantage of the new Usurpers had been the measure of Justice and right The noble and ignoble had dyed Streets and Scaffolds with their blood not by Laws and Judgement but out of malice to their height and worth out of fury and covetousness to inrich publicke Theeves and Murtherers The jealousies too and feares of Tyler had made all men unsafe Yet the repute the renowne of the Founders could not have been much The glory of successe cannot be greater then the honesty of the enterprise there must be Justice in the quarrell else there can be no true honour in the prosperity Cato will love the conquered Common-wealth Jugurtha's fame who is sayd to bee Illustrious for his Parricides and Rapines will not make all men fall down and worship On Munday the fifteenth of July not of October as VValsingham is mis-printed The Chiefe Justice Tresilian calls before him the Jury for Inquiry who faulter and shamelesly protest they cannot make any such discovery as is desired The Chiefe Justice puts them in minde of the Kings Words to them upon the way promising pardon if they will finde out the offendors else threatning them with the punishment they should have suffered who through such silence cannot be apprehended Out they goe againe and the Chiefe Justice follows them He shewes them a Roll of the principall Offendors names tells them they must not thinke to delude and blinde the Court with this impudence and advises them out of a care to preserve wicked mens lives not to hazard their own Hereupon they Indict many of the Towne and Country which Indictments are allowed by a second Inquest appointed to bring in the Verdict and againe affirmed by a third Jury of twelve charged onely for the fairenesse of the Tryall So no man was pronounced guilty but upon the finding of thirty sixe Jurors Then were the Lieutenants Greyndcob Cadingdon and