c. Because we are given to understand that divers of our Subjects who against our Peace c. have raised and in divers Conventicles and Assemblys c. Do affirm that they the said Assemblys and Levies have made and do make by Our Will and Authority c. We make known to all Men That such Levies Assemblys and Mischiefs from Our Will and Authority have not proceeded He adds They were begun and continued much to his Displeasure and Disgrace to the Prejudice of His Crown and Damage of the Realm Wherefore he injoyns and commands c. To take the best Care for the keeping of his Peace and opposing of all such Levies with a strong Hand Further he commands every Man to leave such Assemblys 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 transsported furiously and hostily 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 arm 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 dismays as much the Rebels yet after this the Essex Traitors gather again at Byllericay near Hatfield Peverel 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 Council 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 says 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 Villains hereafter And your Posterity shall curse your Memory At the Heels of the Messenger 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 Liâ—…sters Camp in the midst of Woods ten Lances of the Avant Currors 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 faithful to the Prince where the Loyal Townsmen would not be gotten to stir they sollicite the Townsmen says 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 Iohn Harlestone rush suddenly upon them kill and take them the King meaning to visit Essex in his own Person comes to Havering at the Boure a Mannor of his own Demain 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 Malefactors and Troublers of the Country and to punish the Offendors according to the Customs of the Realm known and visible Five Hundred of these wretched Peasants who had no Mercy for others heretofore cast them selves down before the King bare-footed and with Heads uncovered implore his Pardon which he grants them on Condition they discover the great Conspirators 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 Gallows 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 heinous Offenders wherefore according to the Custom of the Realm it was decreed says the Monk that the Captains should be hanged The like was done in other Countrys by the Justices in Commission where the King was in Person Here the King with the Advice of his Council revokes his Letters Patents the Charters granted to the Clowns Although so he speaks we 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 annul c. Yet our Intention is such Grace upon every of our said Subjects to confer though enormously their Allegiance they have forfeited c. As shall be useful to us and our Realm The Close commands to bring in to the King and his Council all Charters of Manumission and Pardon to be cancelled upon their Faith and Allegiance and under Forfeiture of all things forfeitable c. Witness our self at Chelmsford the 2. of July and 5th Year of our Reign False for the 4th 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 void In the Time of Edward the Third two Thieves which was the Case here force a Traveller to swear that he 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 maintains 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 void say the Casuists Bishop Andrews that most learned Prelate answers to the pretended Resignation of King Iohn urged by Bellarmine that what this King did if any such Act was done was done by Force and out of Fear Widdrington the most Loyal of all Roman-Catholick Priests who writ much against the Gunpowder Jesuits in Defence of the Right of Kings
grow and prevail than one single good one There is a Proneness in unruly Man to run into Debauchments and no wonder that the arrogant misled silly Multitude capable of any ill Impressions should deprave and disorder things where all Ties of Restraint are loofened nay where Disorders are not only defended by the corrupt Wits of Hirelings but bidden strengthened by a Law and Villanies 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 Wickliff and his Classes by their pernicious Doctrines as they are charged to this Day did first pervert and corrupt the People and broach that Vessel 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 Turmoils and Outrages of this Tyranny had it taken Innocence Virtue Ingenuity Honesty Faith Learning and Goodness 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 died Streets and Scaffolds with their Blood not by Laws and Judgment but out of Malice to their Height and Worth out of Fury and Covetousness to enrich publich Thieves and Murtherers The Jealousies too and Fears of Tyler had made all Men unsafe Yet the Repute the Renown of the Founders could not have been much The Glory of Success cannot be greater than the Honesty of the Enterprise there must be Justice in the Quarrel else there can be no true Honour in the Prosperity Cato will love the conquered Common-wealth Iugurtha's Fame who is said to be Illustrious for his Parricides and Rapines will not make all Men fall down and worship On Munday the Fifteenth of Iuly not of October as Walsingham is mis-printed the Chief Justice Tresilian calls before him the Jury for Inquiry who faulter and shamelesly protest they cannot make any such Discovery as is desired The Chief Justice puts them in Mind of the Kings Words to them upon the Way promising Pardon if they will find out the Offenders else threatning them with the Punishment they should have suffered who through such Silence cannot be apprehended Out they go again and the Chief Justice follows them He shews them a Roll of the principal Offenders Names tells them they must not think to delude and blind 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 Town and Country which Indictments are allowed by a second Inquest appointed to bring in the Verdict and again affirmed by a third Jury of Twelve charged only for the Fairness of the Tryal So no Man was pronounced guilty but upon the finding of thirty six Jurors Then were the Lieutenants Greyndcob Cadindon and Barber and twelve more condemned Drawn and Hanged Wallingford Iohn Garleck William Berewill Thomas Putor and many more with Eighty of the Country were Indicted by their Neighbours and Imprisoned but forgiven by the King's Mercy and discharged They were forgiven most by the Kings Mercy for he had forbidden by Proclamation all Men to sue or beg for them a Command which the good Abbot sometimes disobeyed and he shall be well thanked for it No Benefits can oblige some Men A true rugged Churl can never be made fast never be 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 run with full Speed to betray the Innocent They indict the Abbot as the principal Raiser and Contriver of these Tumults which struck at his own Life and the Being and Safety 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 Traitors indeed Treason by Common Law and Statute against the King his Natural Liege Lord. This having not the Fear of God in his Heart c. but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil 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 War against the 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 Brutes makes them tear the Indictment which themselves though urged are not wicked enough to swear to nay which publickly they confess to be false in the Face of the Court. Villeinage was not now abolished though some think otherwise but by Degrees extinguished since this Reign 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 John 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. Albans as well free as bond the Works Customs and Services which they to the foresaid Abbot ought to do and of ancient Time have been accustomed to perform without any Contradiction murmur c. Do 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 appear how little it is which the miserable Common People without whom no famous Mischief 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 Spoils of the publick Shipwrack the rest are no happier for it the insolent Sight offends their Eyes they see the Dirt of their own Ditches lord it over them and the Body of them perhaps more despised than ever Tyler who could not but have known that nothing can be so Destructive to Government as the Licentiousness of the base Commons would doubtless when his own Work had been done quickly have chained up the Monster he would have perched in the Kings sacred Oak all the Forrest should have been his Bishopricks Earldoms nay the Kingdoms had been swallowed by him Instead of a
Ends and Lives too they could not hope better things about the Charter which was no where extant but in the Noddles of these Cluster-fists But Day and Comfort broke out together upon them suddenly this Overflow of Pride and Arrogancy abated their Loftiness fell and their Bristles were somewhat laid very unpleasing Rumours concerning the Army were spread and the Death of the Idol Tyrant Wat of stinking Memory was certainly known and divulged and what was as stabbing that the Citizens of London grown wise and resolute either out of Loyalty or which is the rather to be supposed Experience of their new Master began now to own their Prince their natural Lord unanimously and to side with him against all Seditious Opposers of his 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 legal again commands this Herd to keep the Kings Peace under forfeiture of Life and Members from that Hour The King now grown a Protector again 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 straightly as we may c. by the Faith and Liegances which to us ye owe that to our Beloved in God the Abbot of St. Albans nor to our House and Monastery of the said Place of our Patronage nor to none of the People Monks nor others nor to none of the Goods of the said Monastery c. Ye suffer to be done as much as in you lies any Grievance Dammage c. Given under our Great Seal at our City of London c. Though now these Carles were well cooled yet e'er the Zeal was quite slackened and the Clouds dispelled which hovered weakly and were likely to scatter with the next Breath of Wind they conclude to perfect their Building which to the great Nuisance of this Monastery they had raised Besides the Lieutenants or Major Generals of Tyler thought it a much unworthiness to droop 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 less Noise than formerly the Abbot was advised by Letters from Sir Hugh Segrave Lord Steward of the Houshold and Sir Thomas Percy created after Earl of Worcester to grant all things assuring him these Grants being thus forced from him would be void in Law and could not hurt his Monastery The Abbots Chamber the Chappel all Places are full of them they give Directions to the Abbot's Clerk 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 unknown before the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin next if it can be found if not that the Abbot with his twelfth Hand an ancient Saxon manner of purging or clearing the Offender where the Offence was secret with twelve of his chief Monks should swear that he neither has nor detains any such Charter with his Knowledge The Abbot agrees he and the Covent Seal but oh the Miracle not to be believed nor understood without another upon our Faith and Understanding the seal 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 pass by the pious Frauds and Dreams of Monks From thence the Black-bands depart to the Market-place there at the Cross 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 Villains 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 Royal Charter before which Charter the Abbot recites and confirms From Villains 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 meer Free-holders hold only of God and the Son rather of the Sun and Club and will neither perform their Customs 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 go on to more The Plague of this Distemper was not only epidemical but kept its Days on the fatal Saturday fifty thousand Clowns out of Suffolk Essex Cambridgeshire the Isle of Ely 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 Mass without Shape or Form Wraw not Straw as sometimes he is called aâ—…most lewd Presbyter as Walsingham or Priest who came from London the Day before with Orders from Tyler who according to his own 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 Scoundrels expected them Wraw finds these Choperloches good Disciples willing to learn and quick of Apprehension so capable they understood his least Signs The same Frenzies are again acted by other Lunaticks the Lawyers or Apprentices of the Law as the Monk and their Houses are the first Objects of their spight they do not only cut off them but fire their Nests Sir Iohn Cavendish Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who had been one of the most able Serjeants of this Kings Grand-fathers Reign and was made Chief Justice by him they intercept and behead Orpheus Tracie Nero the Roman Belgabred the Brittain excellent in the Sweetness of a Voice and Skill of Song with Iohn of Cambridge Prior of Saint Edmunds lose their Lives in the same manner as they unluckily fell into their Hands The Cause of the Priors Death is made this He was discreet and managed the Affairs of his Monastery faithfully and diligently he was taken near Mildenhall a Town then belonging to Saint Edmund of the Demain of the Abby the Vassals Hinds Villains and Bond-men of the House sentenced him murthered him by Vote His Body lay five Days Naked in the Field unburied In Saint Edmunds-bury these Cut-throats compass the Priors Head round as in a Procession after they carry it upon a Lance to the Pillory where that and the Chief Justices Head are advanced The next Work was the levelling a new House of the Priors After they enter the Monastery which they threaten
to fire unless Iohn Lakinhethe Guardian 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 Guardian stood amidst the Crowd unknown This Man out of Piety to preserve the Monastery it was Piety then though it may be thought Impiety now discovers himself he tells them he is the Man they seek and asks what it is the Commons would have with him They call him Traitor it was Capital 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 keep Company with the Priors and Chief Justices Walter of Todington a Monk was sought for they wanted his Head but he hid himself and escaped Our Hacksters Errant of the Round Table Knights of Industry would be thought General Redeemers to take Care of all men in Distress for the Burgesses Sake they command the Monks threatning them and their Walls if they obey not to deliver up the Obligations of the Townsmen for their good Behaviour all the ancient Charters from the time of King Knute the Founder any way concerning the Liberties of the Town besides they must grant and confirm by Charter the Liberties of the Town which could not be done in the Vacancy for so it was Edmund of Brumfield Abbot in Name by Provision of the Pope was a Prisoner at Nottingham nor had any Election been since the Death of Abbot Iohn Brivole and therefore the Jewels of the House are pawned to the Townsmen as a Gage that Edmund of Brumfield whom they would suppose Abbot and whom they intended to set free should seal which Jewels were a Cross and Chalice of Gold with other things exceeding in value One thousand Pounds these were restored again in time of Peace but with much Unwillingness Upon the Bruit of the Idols Mishap and the Suppression of his Legions at London these Caterpillers dissolve of themselves Wraw the Priest Westbrome and the rest of the Capital Villains in the General Audit or Doomesday for these Hurliburlies shall be called to a Reckoning for their Outrages Cambridge suffered not a little in these Uproars the Towns-men with the Country Peasants about confederated together break up the Treasury of the University tear and burns its Charters they compel the Chancellor and Scholars under their common Seals to release to the Mayor and Townsmen all Rights and Liberties all Actions and to be bound in 3000l not to molest the Burgesses by Suits of Law concerning these things for the time to come The Mayor and Bayliffs were fetched up by Writ to the next Parliament where the Deeds were delivered up and cancelled the Liberties of the Town seized into the Kings Hand as forfeited new ones granted by him to the University all which they owe yet to the Piety of this King and his Parliament a Court which the Idol never names Had he set up one of his own begetting it must have had nothing else but the Name it would have been as destroying as the Field Norfolk the Mother of the Kets would not loyter this while nor sit lazily and sluggishly looking on Iohn Litster a Dyer of Norwich King of the Commons there infuses Zeal and Daring into his Country-men he had composed out of his own Empire and the Borders an Army of fifty thousand Men. This Upstart Kingling would not wholly move by Example he makes Presidents of his own and tramples not like a dull Beast the Road beaten by others He had heard what was done by the London Congregations he had a Stock of Traditions from the Elders there which he was able to improve and although I know not how he could exceed the Idol with his Council yet so the Monk exceed them he did he presumed greater things Tyler lost his Life before things were ripe was watched and undermined by the King and Nobility he could not spread his full Sails else for his Presumption he far out-goes Litster Litster the Norfolk Devil begins with Plunder and Rapine the only Way to flesh a young Rebellion The Malignants of the Kings Party the rich and peaceable go under that Notion are made a Prey no place was safe or priviledged Plots were laid to get the Lord William of Ufford Earl of Suffolk at his Mannor of Ufford near Debenham in Suffolk into the Company out of Policy that if the Cause succeeded not then the Rebels might cover themselves under the Shadow of that Peer The Earl warned of their Intention rises from Supper and disguised as a Groom of Sir Roger of Bois with a Portmantue behind him riding By-ways and about ever avoiding the Routs comes to St. Albanes and from thence to the King The Commons failing here possess themselves of the places and Houses of the Knights near and compell the Owners to swear what they list and for greater Wariness to ride the Country over with them which they durst not deny Among those enthralled by this Compulsion were the Lords Scales and Morley Sir Iohn Brews Sir Stephen of Hales and Sir Robert of Salle which last was no Gentleman born but as full of Honour and Loyalty as any Man Knighted by the Kings Grand-father for his Valour he was says Froissart one of the biggest Knights in England a Man not supple enough who could not bend before the new Lords he had not the Solidity of Judgment as some more subtle than honest call it to accomodate himself to the times Like Messala he would be of the justest side let the Fortune be what it would he would not forsake Justice under Colour of following Prudence he thought it not in vain to prop up the falling Government perhaps his Judgment may be blamed he stayed not for a sit time had he not failed here he had not fought against Heaven against Providence whose Councils and Decrees are hid from us are in the Clouds not to be pierced our Understanding is as weak as foolish as Providence is certain and wise Our Hopes and Fears deceive us alike we cannot resolve our selves upon any Assurance to forsake our Duty for the time to come Gods Designs are known only to himself it is Despair not Piety Despair too far from that to leave our Country in her dangerous Diseases in her publick Calamities the Insolency of injust Men is a Prodigy of their Ruin and the Incertainty of things Humane may teach us That those we esteem most established most assured are not seldom soonest overthrown Plato would not have them refer all things to Fate there is somewhat in our selves says he not a little in Fortune Ours are but Cockfights the least Remainder of Force and Life may strike a necking Blow and by an unlooked for Victory raise what is fallen if Death cannot be kept off if our Country cannot he saved by our Attempts there is a Comliness in dying handsomly nor can any Man be unhappy but he who out-lives it We have heard of
by that time our publick Thieves had cast Lots for the Kings Churches Nobilities and Gentrys Revenues what Boars of other Countrys could have compared with the Riches of our Peasants and their Captain Tyler When there should have been so Straw goes on none left more great more strong or more wise than our selves then we had set up a Law of our own forging at our Pleasure by which our Subjects should have been regulated Necessary it was the old Law should be voted down it condemned them in every Line Then had we created us Kings Tyler for Kent a part too small for the Arch-tyrant and others for other Shires Here was to be Monarchy still not Evil in it self but where it ought to be of Right only the Family was to be changed the ancient Saxon Norman Stemm for an upstart Dunghil Brood of Vipers Tyler to be advanced upon the Ruins of Richard the Cedar to be torn up to make the Bramble Room enough while any of the Royal Off-spring had been in being to claim the Right to have involved the Miserable Perjured Foolish People in an Everlasting Civil War never to have ceased while there had been a Vein of Blood to run The Maintenance of Tylers Wrong his Usurpation not to look farther then the present World would have been more fatal than ten Plagues Iohn adds no Man thwarted these Ends of ours more than the Arch-bishop therefore we hated him to Death and made all the Haste possible to bring him to it In the Evening of that Saturday in which Wat perished because the poorer sort of the Londoners favoured us we intended to have fired the City in four Places and to have divided the Spoils So the faithful Citizens as forward as they were had at last paid for their Love he calls God to witness these Truths The Confessions of many others of the Ingagement agreed with this of Straw The Lawyers and those as one who sled from the Tyranny of the Time durst now shew their Faces Here is Tyranny of the Rout Tyranny of a Savage Clown their Boutefeu whose few Days of cruel Usurpation were more bloody more destroying than the Years of any Caligula any Nero any Domitian whatsoever A Civil War says a Noble Frenchman makes more Breaches as to a Country as to Manners Laws and Men in six Months then can be repaired in six Years What then can be thought or said of those Monsters who against all ties of Nature and Piety shall raise a desperate Civil War meerly with the Intent to overthrow Religion the Church the Government Laws and Humanity out of a cursed divelish Ambition to advance themselves Tylers and Sons of the Earth before to an Height which God as some love to speak never called them to For though Power is of God it is only so when the coming to it is by lawful Means He that ordains the Power allows not the Usurpation of it Tyler had the Power to do Mischief the Power of Rebellion the Power which must have ruined the Church and Common-wealth but whether this be the Power which Christians are to submit to let the next Casuists judge The Septuagint Translation of the Bible says of Abimelech who slew his Seventy Brethren Murder ushers Usurpation in He made himself King by Tyranny The Monk who writes the Lives of the Offa's speaking of Beormred the Mercian Usurper has these Words In the same Region of the Mercians a certain Tyranny rather destroying and dissipating the Nobility of the Realm then ruling c. persecuting banishing c. Lest any one especially of the Royal Blood should be advanced in his Place he vehemently 〈◊〉 The thirty Usurpers in the time of Gallieâ—… are every where called Tyrants Paulus Diacâ—…nus writing of Valentine in the time of Valentinian says He was crushed in Brittany before he could invade the Tyranny and of Maximus that he was Stoâ—… and Valiaâ—… and worthy of the Empire â—…ad he not against the Faith of his Oath raised himself per tyrannidem by Tyranny In other places Engeâ—… Gratian Constance Sebastian created Tyrannis The Words Tyranny and Tyranne and Tyraâ—…ous Party being used often by him are ever opposed to just and Regal Power never used in any other Sense Widdrington to the Example of Athalia urged by Bellarmine against Kings says she was no lawful Queen she had seized the Kingdom as an Usurpress by Tyranny the Kingdom belonged to Ioash in whose Right and by whose Power she was justly â—…lain Our most learned Prelate Bishop Abbot of Sâ—…lisbury tells the Cubs of Loyolaâ—… Athalia had snatched had grasped and held the Kingdom 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 Royal Line of David else says he absque labe Tyrannidis without the Stain of Tyranny they could not meddle with the Kingdom Rodolph Duke of Suevia or Suabenland set up for a false Emperor by that devilish Pope Hildebrand against the Emperor Henry the IV. is called by the Germans a Tyranne upon this Score A full Tyranny says one of our Chief Justices speaking of the Papal Power in Church-causes here has two Parts without Right to usurp and inordinately to rule and the Statute 28 of King Henry the 8th against the Papal 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 the 6th adjudging Iohn Cade another Imp of Hell and Successor of Wat to be a Traitor which are the Words of the Title and all his Indictments and Acts to be void speaks thus The most abominable Tyranny horrible odious and arrant false Traitor Iohn Cade naming himself sometime Mortimer he and Tyler had two Names taking upon him Royal Power c. by false subtile and imagined Language c. Robbing stealing and spoiling c. And that all his Tyranny Acts Feats and false Opinions shall be voided and that all things depending thereof c. under the Power of Tyranny shall be likewise void c. And that all Indictments in times coming in like Case under Power of Tyranny Rebellion c. shall be void in Law and that all Petitions delivered to the King in his last Parliament c. against his Mind by him not agreed shall be put in Oblivion c. as against God and Conscience c. To proceed The King because all these Risings were by the Ringleaders 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 Sheriffs Mayors Bayliffs c. of our County of N.
within which time they were either tyed to agree with the Abby or render up Greyndcob to the Justices again The Townsmen fierce enough still yet earnest to preserve their Worthy are content to part with the Charters but this Greyndcob more Fool-hardy than wise would not consent to Nor does he as knowing the Stifness of his Clowns whine in a Religious Tone never used by him He prays them to consider how Beautiful Liberty is how sweet how Honourable Dangerous Liberty says he is more valuable than safe and quiet Slavery let us live or dye with Liberty in so generous so honest a Contention it will be Glorious to be overcome whatsoever our Fears are worse we cannot be then now we are about to make our Selves Success too doth not so often fail Men as their own Industry and Boldness Fear not for me nor trouble your selves at my Dangers I shall think my self more happy than our Lords if they prosper or their King to dye a Martyr of the Cause with the Reputation of such a Gallantry Let such Courage as would have hurryed you forward to all brave and signal Mischiefs had I lost my Head at Hartford inflame your heavy Sprights Methinks I see the Hero Tylers Ghost chiding our sluggish Cowardice and by the Blazes of his Fire-brands kindled in Hell and waved by Fiends about his Head lead on to noble Villanies Let dreaming Monks and Priests tremble at the airy Sounds of God and Saints he who fears Thunder-bolts is a Religious heartless Coxcomb and shall never climb a Molehill Thus our buskin'd Martyr swaggers after the Raptures put upon him by Walsingham Greyndcob's Stubbornness hardens on the Clowns they now accuse themselves of Baseness that they did not cut off the Knights Head and nail it on the Pillory to the Terror say they of all Judges and false Justices Greyndcob had raised Spirits which he could not lay when he would Three days being expired he is again sent to Hartford Goal where he hears News from his Brother who mediated for him in the Court not very pleasing which he communicates to his Townsmen His Intelligence was to this Effect That Richard of Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Piercie with a thousand armed Men were appointed to visit S. Albans At this Report the Rebels startle they fall to new Treaties offer the Charters and Book in which the old Pleas betwixt the Abby and the Town were recorded with 200 l. for amends The Book is received the rest put off till the next Day The Earl of Warwick sends only Excuses he heard his own House was on Fire that the Clowns of his own Lordships were up and he leaves all things else to quell them This raises the fallen Courages of those of Saint Albans they now laugh at their late Fears If the Commons say they must quit their Right of Conquest and surrender their Charters yet will not we the Renowned Mechanicks of St. Albans be their President And as in all Tumults which can never be observed too often Lying is necessary and must not be useless 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. Albans again swaggering in their old Rhodomontadoes An Esquire of the Abbots acquaints the King with these Turnings who vows to sit personally in Judgment upon these Everlasting Malecontents The Abbot full of Pity 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 King's 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 wherethere was no Danger An Agreement is concluded the Day of the Kings 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 Authority 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 was 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 Bells 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 Iuly and first of the Dog-days sat in Judgment at the Moot-hall says Walsingham at the Town-house Greyndcob Cadindon and Iohn 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 Alcoran 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. Albans 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 Days of his Life which were begged for his Repentance that certain hot and powerful Pastors 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 Hierarchy 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 says this Rabbi unless they be prevented and taken off will destroy the Realm in two Years He might have said two Months 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 Customs quicklier