with Whitgift who when he might have been elected Chancellor of the University of Oxon on the death of Leicester chose rather to commend his dear Friend the Lord Chancellor Hatton to the place than to assume it on himself and after Hatton's death to nominate the Lord Buckburst to them who was also chosen The young Earl had an eye upon that great Office that he might be as powerful amongst men of the Gown as he was amongst Gentlemen of the Sword and took it for an high affront that the Arch-bishop should presume to commend any other to that Honour which he designed unto himself But the Queen easily took him off and made him so far Friends with Whitgift as not to make any open profession of displeasure toward him by which the opposite Faction might be animated to their former Insolencies which notwithstanding the Arch-bishop kept a vigilant eye upon all his actions as one that was not to be told of his private practises the secret intelligence which he had with the Heads of that Party and saw that most of his Allies and Kindred were engaged that way For though upon the reconciliation which was made between them the Earl had offered him to run a course in Clergy-Causes according to his directions and advice yet what he did therein proceeded rather from a fear of the Queen's displeasure than from any love to Whitgift or the Church it self as afterwards appeared most evidently in the course of his actions 2. But that which gave the Brethren their greatest blow was the death of Walsingham who dyed on the sixt of April 1590. The Queen had lately been more sensible of those manifold dangers which both the Principles and Practises of the Disciplinarians did most apparently threaten to her whole Estate more now than ever by the coming out of a Pamphlet called The humble Motion In which it was affirmed That thousands did sigh for the Discipline ten thousands had sought it and that the most worthy men of every Shire had consented to it That the Eldership was at hand That the people were inflamed with a zeal to have it and that it was hard dangerous and impossible to stand against it Incensed thereat and fearing the sad consequences of such pestilent Pamphlets She resolved upon some speedy course to prevent the mischief and therefore gave the greater countenance to the Arch-bishops Bishops and their subordinate Officers for proceeding with them On which encouragement the seeming-neutrality of the Earl of Essex and the sickness of Walsingham Snape and some others of their principal Leaders were called before the High-Commission at Lambeth in the first beginning of Easter-Term which though it seemed both strange and unwelcome to them yet there was no remedy Appear they did because they must but were resolved that their appearance should conduce as little as might be to their disadvantage For being required to take their Oaths according to the use of the Court to answer punctually to all such Interrogatories as were to be propounded to them the Oath is absolutely refused unless the Interrogatories might be shewed unto them First therefore they were made acquainted with the substance of them but that would not serve They were assured in the next place That they should be required to answer no further unto any of them than they were bound to do by the Laws of the Land But that served as little In fine it was resolved That the Interrogatories should be shewed unto them here contrary to the practise of all Courts in Criminal Causes which served least of all For now Snape finding what was like to be charged upon them gave notice of the same to the rest of the Brethren and did not only refuse the Oath as before he did but put the rest upon a course of premeditation both whether it were fit to answer upon Oath or not and then what Answer they would make if they were put to it But so it hapned that his Letters being intercepted were produced against him upon which he was clapped up in Prison and a great terror thereby struck into all the Brethren who now began to apprehend the dangers they were fallen into by their former Insolencies 3. It may be gathered by those Letters that no small diligence had been used by such as had employed themselves in it to search into the bottom of their deepest Counsels and most secret Purposes and that so perfect a discovery had been made thereof as might warrant the High Commissioners to proceed severely without the least fear of being foyled in their undertakings For Snape confesseth in those Letters That they had the knowledg not only of Generals but of Specials and Particulars also that is to say touching the places where they met Oxford London Cambridg c. the times of their accustomed Meetings as Sturbridg-Faire Acts Terms c. the persons which assembled at them as Cartwright Perkins Travers Chark c. and finally the very matters which they dealt in and agreed upon Much troubled the good man seemed to be in guessing at that false Brother who had made the discovery but that they were discovered he is sure enough for he affirmeth that their Actings neither were or could be any longer concealed and therefore that the Lord called upon them to be resolute in the present case And thereupon it was propounded Whether it were better and more safe that one man with the consent of the rest should boldly freely and wisely confess and lay open c or that some weak or wicked man should without consent and in evil sort acknowledg c. He tells them That the matter aimed at by High Commissioners was To bring them within danger of Law for holding Conventicles That in Causes of Murther and the like it was commonly asked Whether the Party fled upon it and therefore that they should do well to consider of it in reference to the present case and so advising That T. C. should be sent to with all speed he concludes his Letter 4. This Letter coming up so close to the former discoveries brings Cartwright into play in September following But first a consultation must be had amongst them at the House of one Gardiner Whether and if at all how far it might be fit for him to reveal all or any of the matters which had passed in conference or disputation in any of their former Assemblies And as it seems it was determined in the Negative according to the Doctrine of the old Priscilianists that he should not do it For when the Oath was offered to him he refused to take it The High-Commission-Court was at that time held in the Bishop of London's Consistory in the Church of St. Paul At which were present amongst others the Lord Bishop of London the two Chief Justices Serjeant Puckering afterwards Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Mr. Justice Gaudie and Popham then Attorney-General but afterwards Chief Justice of the common-Common-Pleas All which did severally and
his present assistance With these Auxiliaries he lays siege to the Castle battering it and reduceth it to such extremity that they were compelled to yield to mercy Of which though many of them tasted yet Grange himself who first or last had held the place against all the four Regents together with one of his Brothers and two Goldsmiths of Edenborough were hanged at the Market-Cross of that City By which surrender of the Castle the Queens Faction was so broke in pieces that it was never able to make head again all of them labouring to procure their own peace by some Composition For now the Regent being at leisure to enquire after the miscarriages of the years preceding he sends his Iustices in Eyre into all parts of the Countrey who exercised their Commissions with sufficient Rigour people of all sorts being forced to compound and redeem themselves by paying such sums of money as by these Justices were imposed Some of the Merchants also were called in question under colour of Transporting Coyn fined in great sums or else committed to the Castle of Blackness till they gave satisfaction By which proceedings he incurred the censure of a covetous man though he had other ends in it then his own enriching For by these rigorous exactions he did not onely punish such as had been most active in the late distempers but terrified them from the like attempts against the present Government for the times ensuing To such Confusions and Disorders such miserable Rapines Spoils and Devastations such horrible Murthers and Assassinates was this poor Realm exposed for seven years together by following the Genevian Doctrines of Disobedience which Knox had preached and Buchanan in his Seditious Pamphlets had dispersed amongst them Not to say any thing that indeleable reproach and infamy which the whole Nation had incurred in the eye of Christendom for their barbarous dealings towards a Queen who had so graciously indulged unto them the exercise of that Religion which she found amongst them without disturbance unto any 26. Which matters being thus laid together we must proceed to such affairs as concern the Kirk abstracted from the troubles and commotions in the Civil State In reference whereunto we may please to know that after divers Sollicitations made by former Assemblies for setling a Polity in the Church certain Commissioners were appointed to advise upon it The Earl of Marre then Regent nominated for the Lords of the Council the Earl of Morton Chancellor the Lord Ruthen Treasurer the Titular Abbot of Dumferling principal Secretary of Estate in the place of Ledington Mackgil chief Register Bullenden the then Justice Clerk and Colen Campbel of Glenarchy The Assembly then sitting at Leith named for the Kirk Iohn Ereskin of Dun Superintendent of Angus Iohn Winram Superintendent of Fife Andrew Hay Commissioner of Gladisdale David Lindesay Commissioner of the West Robert Pont Commissioner of Orknay and Mr. Iohn Craige one of the Ministers of Edenborough The Scots were then under some necessity of holding fair quarter with the English and therefore to conform as near as conveniently they might to the Government of it in the outward Polity of the Church Upon which reason and the prevalency of the Court Commissioners those of the Kirk did condescend unto these Conclusions and condescended the more easily because Knox was absent detained by sickness from attending any publick business Now these Conclusions were as followeth 1. That the Archbishopricks and Bishopricks presently void or should happen hereafter to be void should be disposed to the most qualified of the Ministry 2. That the Spiritual Iurisdictions should be exercised by the Bishops in their several Diocesses 3. That all Abboâ—s Pryors and other inferiour Prelates who should happen to be presented to Benefices should be tryed by the Bishop and Superintendent of the bounds concerning their qualification and aptness to give voice for the Church in Parliament and upon their Collation be admitted to the Benefice and not otherwise 4. That the nomination of fit persons for every Archbishoprick and Bishoprick should be made by the King or Regent and the Election by the Chapters of the Cathedrals And because divers persons were possessed of places in some of the said Chapters which did bear no Office in the Church It was ordered That a particular nomination of Ministers in every Diocess should be made to supply their rooms until their Benefices in the said Churches should fall void 5. That all Benefices of Cure under Prelacies should be disposed to actual Ministers and no others 6. That the Ministers should receive Ordination from the Bishop of the Diocess and where no Bishop was then placed from the Superintendent of the bounds 7. That the Bishops and Superintendents at the Ordination of the Ministers should exact of them an Oath for acknowledging his Majesties Authority and for obedience to their Ordinary in all things Lawful according to a Form then condescended Order was also taken for disposing of Provestries Colledge charges Chaplanaries and divers other particulars most profitable for the Church which were all ordained to stand in force until the Kings minority or till the States of the Realm should determine otherwise How happy had it been for the Isles of Britain if the Kirk had stood to these Conclusions and not unravelled all the Web to advance a Faction as they after did 27. For in the next general Assembly held in August at the Town of Perth where these conclusions were reported to the â—est of the Brethren some of them took offence at one thing some at another some took exception at the Title of Archbishop and Dean and others at the name of Archdeacon Chancellor and Chapter not found in the Genevian Bibles and otherwise Popish and offensive to the ears of good Christians To satisfie whose queazie stomacks some of the Lay-Commissioners had prepared this Lenitive that is to say That by using of these Titles they meant not to allow of any Popish Superstition in the least degree and were content they should be changed to others which might seem less scandalous And thereupon it was proposed that the name of Bishop should be used for Archbishop that the Chapter should be called the Bishops Assembly and the Dean the Moderator of it But as for the Titles of Archdeacon Chancellor Abbot and Pryor it was ordered that some should he appointed to consider how far these Functions did extend and give their opinion to the next Assembly for the changing of them with such others as should be thought most agreeable to the Word of God and the Polity of the best Reformed Churches Which brings into my minde the fancy of some people in the Desarts of Affrick who having been terribly wasted with Tygers and not able otherwise to destroy them passed a Decree that none should thenceforth call them Tygers and then all was well But notwithstanding all this care and these qualifications the conclusions could not be admitted but with this Protestation
and assigned unto them with this Proviso super-added That if any of the said persons so abjuring should either not depart the Realm at the time appointed or should come back again unto it without leave first granted that then every such person should suffer death as in case of Felony without the benefit of his Clergy And to say the truth there was no reason why any man should have the benefit of his Clergy who should so obstinately refuse to conform himself to the Rules and Dictates of the Church There also was a penalty of ten pounds by the Month imposed upon all those who harboured any of the said Puritan Recusants if the said Puritan Recusants not being of their near Relations or any of them should forbear coming to some Church or Chappel or other place of Common-prayer to hear the Divine Service of the Church for the space of a Month. Which Statute being made to continue no longer than till the end of the next Session of Parliament was afterwards kept in force from Session to Session till the death of the Queen to the great preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom the safety of Her Majesty's Person aad the tranquillity of the Church free from thenceforth from any such disturbances of the Puritan Faction as had before endangered the Foundations of it 28. And yet it cannot be denied but that the seasonable execution of the former Statute on Barrow Penry and some others of these common Barreters conduced as much to the promoting of this general Calm as the making of this It was in the Month of November 1587 that Henry Barrow Gentleman and Iohn Greenwood Clerk of whose commitment with some others we have spoke before were publickly convented by the High Commissioners for holding and dispersing many Schismatical Opinions and Seditious Doctrines of which the principal were these viz. That our Church is no true Church That the Worship of the English Church is flat Idolatry That we admit into our Church unsanctified persons That our Preachers have no lawful Calling That our Government is ungodly That no Bishop or Preacher preacheth Christ sincerely or truly That the people of every Parish ought to chuse their Bishop And That every Elder though he be no Doctor or Pastor is a Bishop That all of the Preciser sort who refuse the Ceremonies of the Church strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel and are close Hypocrites and walk in a left-handed Policy as Cartwright Wiggington c. That all which make teach or expound Printed or Written Catechisms are idle Shepherds as Calvin Vrsin Nowell c. That the Children of ungodly Parents ought not to be baptized as of Usurers Drunkards c. and finally that set-prayer is blasphemous On their Convention and some short restraint for so many dotages they promised to recant and were enlarged upon their Bonds But being set at liberty they brake out again into further Extremities and drew some others to the side almost as mischievous as themselves and no less Pragmatical the principal whereof not to take notice of the Rabble of besotted people who became their followers were Saxio Billet Gentleman Daniel Studley Girdler Robert Bouler Fish-monger committed Prisoners to the Fleet with their principal Leaders in the Iuly following 29. The times were dangerous in regard of the great Preparations of the King of Spain for the invading of this Kingdom which rendred the imprisonment of these furious Sectaries as necessary to the preservation of the publick safety as the shutting up of so many of the Leading Papists into Wisbich Castle But so it was that the State being totally taken up with the prosecution of that Warr on the Coasts of Spain and the quenching of the fire at home which had been raised by Cartwright Vdal and the rest of the Disciplinarians there was nothing done against them but that they were kept out of harm's way as the saying is by a close Imprisonment During which time Cartwright who was their fellow-Prisoner had a Conference with them the rather in regard it had been reported from Barrow's mouth That he had neither acted nor written any thing but what he was warranted to do by Cartwright's Principles The Conference was private and the result thereof not known to many but left to be conjectured at by this following story The Reverend Whitgift had a great desire to save the men from that destruction in which they had involved themselves by their own perversâ—ess and to that end sends Dr. Thomas Ravis then one of his Chaplains but afterwards Lord Bishop of London to confer with Barrow At whose request and some directions from the Arch-bishop in pursuance of it Cartwright is dealt with to proceed to another Conference but no perswasions would prevail with him for a second Meeting Which being signified to Barrow by the said Dr. Ravys in the presence of divers persons of good account the poor man fetched a great sigh saying Shall I be thus forsaken by him Was it not he that brought me first into these briars and will he now leave me in the same Was it not from him alone that I took my grounds Or did I not out of such Premises as he pleased to give me infer those Propositions and deduce those Conclusions for which I am now kept in Bonds Which said the company departed and left the Prisoners to prepare for their following Tryal By the Imprisonment of Cartwright the Condemnation of Vdal and the Execution of Hacket the times had been reduced to so good a temper that there could be no danger in proceeding to a publick Arraignment The Parliament was then also sitting and possible it is that the Queen might pitch upon that time for their condemnation to let them see that neither the sitting of a Parliament nor any Friends they had in both or either of the Houses could either stay the course of Justice or suspend the Laws Certain it is that on the 21 of March 1592 they were all indicted at the Sessions-Hall without Newgate before the Lord Mayor the two Chief Justices some of the Judges and divers other Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer for writing and publishing sundry Seditious Books tending to the slander of the Queen and State For which they were found guilty and had the Sentence of death pronounced upon them March 23. Till the Execution of which Sentence they were sent to Newgate 30. The fatal Sentence being thus passed Dr. Lancelot Andrews afterwards Lord Bishop of Ely Dr. Henry Parrey afterwards Lord Bishop of Worcester Dr. Philip Bisse Arch-Deacon of Taunton and Dr. Thomas White one of the Residentiaries of St. Pauls were sent to Barrow to advise him to recant those Errors which otherwise might be as dangerous to his soul as they had proved unto his body Who having spent some time to this purpose with him were accosted thus You are not saith he the men whom I most dislike in the present differences For though you be out
of the Way yet you think you are in the Right and walk according to that light which God hath given you But I cannot but complain of Mr. Cartwright and all others of his opinion from whom we have received the truth of these things and by whose Books we have been taught that your Calling is Antichristian And yet these men saith he forsake us in our Sufferings against their Consciences and rather chuse to save their lives than go out of Babylon To which when Dr. White objected That those Callings which he reproached as Antichristian had been embraced by Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and divers other godly persons who suffered Martyrdom for their Religion in Queen MARY's days Barrow thus gloriously replies Most true it is quoth he that they and others were Martyrs in Queen MARY's days but these holy Bands of mine and therewith shook his Fetters are much more glorious than any of theirs because they had the Mark of Antichrist in their hands Such was the Fortune of these men that these Learned Doctors could do as little good upon them as Cartwright and his Fellows had done before though to say the truth it had not been in Cartwright's power to have changed their minds unless he had first changed his own And thereupon it was very well said by Dr. Iohn Burges who had been once one of Cartwright's Followers That he was and ever had been of that opinion That no just confutation could be made of the Separatists by any of the Non-Conformists who had given them their Principles That though he had seen some endeavours that way yet did they never satisfie him in point of Conscience That the Arguments published in his time against Conformity were pretended for the grounds of the Separation That the Separatists did pretend their Pedigree from none but the Puritans which no man can deny saith he that hath any Modesty And finally that therefore the Puritans might well call them their dear Brethren of the Separation as Dighton and some others had began to do To bring this business to an end Barrow and Greenwood were brought to Tiburn in a Cart on the last of March and having been exposed for some time to the sight of the people were carried back again to Newgate But no repentance following on the sense of so great a mercy they were both hanged at Tiburn on the sixth of April The other three being reprieved with some hope of pardon as being only accessary to the Crimes of the other 31. In May next following Penry is brought upon his Tryal a man of most Seditious Malice and one of the chief Penners of those scurrilous Libels which had passed under the name of Martin Mar-Prelate But not content with having a hand in those Pestilent Pamphlets but must needs take upon him to be the Inter-Nuncio or common Agent between the Presbyters of Scotland and the English Puritans Having enflamed the Scots unto some Seditions he remained Leidger there till the beginning of Hacket's Treasons and thereupon writes to Arthington to this effect That Reformation must be shortly erected in England And thereupon he makes for London to have play'd his pranks if their Design had took effect it being his hope as possibly it was the hope of all the rest of that Faction That on the Proclamations which were made by Hacket's Prophets the people would have been inciâ—ed to an Insurrection But when he saw those hopes deluded and Hacket executed his guilty Conscience prompted him to fear the like cruel death which hurried him again to Scotland where he remained till the beginning of the Parliament before remembred At what time stealing privately back again towards London we was discovered at Stebunheth commonly called Stepny apprehended by the Vicar there committed Prisoner tryed at the King's-Bench-Barr at Westminster-Hall condemned of Felony on the Statute 23 Eliz. and executed not long after at St. Thomas of Waterings but executed with a very thin company attending on him for fear the Fellow might have raised some Tumult either in going to the Gallows or upon the Ladder But what he could not do when he was alive was put into a way of being effected when the Hang-man had done his office by publishing one of his Seditious Pamphlets entituled The History of Corah Dathan and Abiram applied to the Prelacy and Ministry of the Church of England by Mr. John Penry a Martyr of Iesus Christ as the Pamphlet calls him The Work not finished at the time of his Apprehension but was Printed however by some zealous Brother that he might poyson the Queen's Subjects as well dead as living 32. To which end we are told in the Preface of it by the zealous or rather Seditious Publisher That the Author Mr. Iohn Penry was a Godly man Learned Zealous and of a most Christian Carriage and Courage That he was born and bred in the Mountains of Wales and with all godly care and labour endeavoured to have the Gospel preached amongst his Countrey-men whose case he greatly seemed to pity wanting all the ordinary means for their salvation That being used by God for a special Instrument in the manifestation of his Truth he was hardly entreated imprisoned condemned and executed and so suffered Martyrdom for the Name of Christ. But more particularly That he was adjudged at the King's Bench by Sir Iohn Popham Lord Chief Justice and the rest of the Judges then assembled on the 25 th of the fifth Month and executed at St. Thomas of Waterings near London on the 29 th of the same in the year of our God 1593. And finally That he was not brought to execution the next second or third day as most men expected but that when men did least look for it he was taken while he was at dinner carried in a close manner to his Execution and hastily bereaved of his life without being suffered though he much desired to make a declaration of his Faith towards God or his Allegiance to the Queen And in a Postscript to the same he concludes it thus viz. That he was apprehended adjudged and executed for writing for the Truth of Christ whatsoever other things were pretended against him Let us no longer blame the Papists for making Martyrs of such Priests and Jesuits as suffered death according to the Law of the Land for their several Treasons the Puritans or Presbyterians have their Martyrs also Penry and Hacket and the rest condemned by the same Laws for their Treasons and Felonies And if these men with Barrow Greenwood and the rest who had gone before them must pass in our account for Martyrs because they suffered in pursuance of the Holy Discipline There is no question to be made but Cartwright Snape with such as suffered only by Imprisonment or the loss of their Benefices must be marked for Confessors in the next setting out of Gellibrand's Calender whensoever it be Which as it was the highest honour that any of Cartwright's Friends can pretend to for him
History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB X. Containing A Relation of their Plots and Practises in the Realm of England Their horrible Insolencies Treasons and Seditions in the Kingdom of Scotland from the Year 1595 to the Year 1603. THE English Puritans having sped so ill in a course of violence were grown so wise as to endeavour the subverting of that Fort by an undermining which they had no hope to take by storm or battery And the first course they fell upon besides the Artifices lately mentioned for altering the posture of the Preacher in the Spittle-Sermons and that which was intended as a consequent to it was the Design of Dr. Bound though rather carried under his Name than of his devising for lessening by degrees the Reputation of the ancient Festivals The Brethren had tryed many ways to suppress them formerly as having too much in them of the Superstitions of the Church of Rome but they had found no way succesful till they fell on this which was To set on foot some new Sabbath-Doctrine and by advancing the Authority of the Lord's-Day Sabbath to cry down the rest Some had been hammering on this Anvil ten years before and had procured the Mayor and Aldermen of London to present a Petition to the Queen for the suppressing of all Plays and Interludes on the Sabbath-day as they pleased to call it within the Liberties of their City The gaining of which point made them hope for more and secretly to retail those Speculations which afterward Bound sold in gross by publishing his Treatise of the Sabbath which came out this year 1595. And as this Book was published for other Reasons so more particularly for decrying the yearly-Festivals as appears by this passage in the same viz. That he seeth not where the Lord hath given any Authority to his Church ordinarily and perpetually to sanctifie any day except that which he hath sanctified himself And makes it an especial Argument Argument against the goodness of Religion in the Church of Rome That to the Seventh-day they had joyned so many other days and made them equal with the Seventh if not superior thereunto as well in the solemnity of Divine Offices as restraint from labour So that we may perceive by this what their intent was from the very beginning To cry down the Holy-days as superstitious Popish Ordinances that so their new-found Sabbath being left alone and Sabbath now it must be called might become more eminent Some other Ends they might have in it as The compelling of all persons of what rank soever to submit themselves unto the yoak of their Sabbath-rigors whom they despaired of bringing under their Presbyteries Of which more hereafter 2. Now for the Doctrine it was marshalled in these Positions that is to say That the Commandment of sanctifying every Seventh day as in the Mosaical Decalogue is Natural Moral and Perpetual That when all other things in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were clean taken away this stands the observation of the Sabbath And though Jewish and Rabinical this Doctrine was it carried a fair shew of Piety at the least in the opinion of the common people and such as did not stand to examine the true grounds thereof but took it up on the appearance such as did judg thereof not by the workmanship of the Stuff but the gloss and colour In which it is not strange to see how suddenly men were induced not only to give way unto it but without more 〈…〉 the same till in the end and that in very little time it grew the most bewitching error the most popular infatuation that ever wa◠infused into the people of England For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them It being preached at a Market-Town as my Author tells me That to do any servile work or business on the Lord's day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit Adultery In Somersetshire That to throw a Bowl on the Lord's day was as great a sin as to kill a man In Norfolk That to make a Feast or dress a Wedding-Dinner on the same was as great a sin as for a Father to take a Knife and cut his Child's throat And in Suffolk That to ring more Bells than one on the Lord's day was as great a sin as to commit a Murther Some of which Preachers being complained of occasioned a more strict enquiry into all the rest and not into their Persons only but their Books and Pamphlets insomuch that both Arch-bishop Whitgift and Chief Justice Popham commanded these Books to be called in and neither to be Printed nor made common for the time to come Which strict proceedings notwithstanding this Doctrine became more dispersed than can be imagined and possibly might encrease the more for the opposition no System of Divinity no Book of Catechetical Doctrine from thenceforth published in which these Sabbath-Speculations were not pressed on the People's Consciences 3. Endearing of which Doctrines as formerly to advance their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the Word Elder did occurre and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Iethro from Noah's Ark and from Adam finally So did these men proceed in their new Devices publishing out of Holy Writ both the Antiquity and the Authority of their Sabbath-day No passage of God's Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the Legal Sabbath charged upon the Iews or the Spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no lesse reason than Paveant illi non paveam Ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel And on the confidence of those Proofs they did presume exceedingly of their success by reason of the general entertainment which those Doctrines found with the common people who looked upon them with as much regard and no less reverence than if they had been sent immediately from the Heavens themselves for encrease of Piety Possest with which they greedily swallowed down the Hook which was baited for them 4. A Hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their Side and make good that Cause which till this trim Device was so thought of was almost grown desperate By means whereof they btought so great a bondage on all sorts of people that a greater never was imposed on the Iews themselves though they had pinned their Consciences on the Sleeves of the Scribes and Pharises But then withall by bringing all sorts of people into such a bondage they did so much improve their Power and encrease their Party that they were able at the last to oppose
he did sends him to see the Boy and Burton that he might learn him to behave himself on the like occasions And finding him at last grown perfect sends him to Nottingham with intimation that he should make mention of him in his Fits Darrel is hereupon made Lecturer of the Town of Nottingham that being the Fish for which he angled as being thought a marvellous Bug to scare the Devil And though he had no lawful Calling in that behalf yet was this given out to be so comfortable a Vocation and so warrantable in the sight of God that very few Ministers have had the like there being no Preacher setled there as he gave it out since her Majesty's Reign as if neither Parsons nor Vicars nor any that bear such Popish Names might pass for Preachers 14. After this he pretends occasion for a journey to Lancashire where he finds seven women possest with Devils and out of every one of them was affirmed to have cast as many as had entred into Mary Magdalen Of this he published a Book Anno 1600 though the Exploit was done in this present year Anno 1597. These things being noised abroad by his Consederates this extraordinary Faculty of casting out Devils was most highly magnified and cryed up both in Sermons and Printed Pamphlets as a Candle lighted by God upon a Candlestick in the heart and Center of the Land And no small hopes were built upon it that it would prove a matter of as great consequence as ever did any such Work that the Lord gave extraordinarily since the time that he restored the Gospel and as profitable to all that profess the knowledg of Jesus Christ. Now what this Plot was may appear by this which is deposed by Mr. More one of Mr. Darrel's great Admirers and Companions viz. That when a Prayer was read out of the Common-Prayer-Book in the hearing of those which were possessed in Lancashire the Devils in them were little moved with it but afterwards when Mr. Darrel and one Mr. Dicon did severally use such Prayers as for the present occasion they had conceived then saith he the wicked Spirits were much more troubled or rather the wicked Spirits did much more torment the Parties So little do premeditated Prayers which are read out of a Book and so extreamly do extemporary and conceived Prayers torment the Devil 15. But Summers at the last grown weary of his frequent Counterfeitings tired out with his possessings dispossessings and repossessings and in that Fit discovers all to be but Forgeries and to have been acted by Confederacy Darrell deals with him to revoke his said Confession seeks to avoid it by some shifts discredits it by false Reports and finally procures a Commission from the Arch-bishop of York to whose Province Nottingham belongeth to examine the business A Commission is thereupon directed to Iohn Thorald Esq Sheriff of the County Sir Iohn Byron Knight Iohn Stanhop c. most of them being Darrell's Friends the Commission executed March 20 no fewer than seventeen Witnesses examined by it and the Return is made That he was no Counterfeit But the Boy stands to it for all that and on the last of the same Month confesseth before the Mayor of Nottingham and certain Justices of the Peace the whole contrivement of the Plot and within three days after acts all his Tricks before the Lord Chief Justice at the publick Assizes Upon this news the Boy of Burton also makes the like Confession Darrell thereupon is convented by the High Commissioners at Lambeth and by them committed his Friends and Partizens upon that Commitment are in no small Fury which notwithstanding he and one of his Associates receive their Censure little or nothing eased by the Exclamations of his Friends and Followers who bitterly inveighed against the Judgment and the Judges too To stiâ—â— whose Clamours so maliciously and unjustly raised the story of these leud Impostors is writ by Harsnet then being the Domestick Chaplain of Arch-bishop Whitgift by whom collected faithfully out of the Depositions of the Parties and Witnesses and published in the year next following Anno. 1599. 16. In the same year brake out the Controversie touching Christ's Descent maintained by the Church of England in the litteral sense that is to say That the Soul of Christ being separated from his Body did locally descend into the nethermost Hell to the end that he might manifest the clear light of his Power and Glory to the Kingdom of Darkness triumphing over Satan as before he did over Death and Sin For which consult the Book of Articles Art 4. the Homily of the Resurrection fol. 195. and Nowel's Paraphrase on that Article as it stands in the Creed published in his Authorized Catechism Anno 1572. But Calvin puts another sense upon that Article and the Genevian-English must do the same For Calvin understands by Christ's descending into Hell that he suffered in his Soul both in the Garden of Gethsemanie and upon the Cross all the Torments of Hell even to abjection from God's Presence and Despair it self Which horrid Blasphemy though balked by many of his Followers in the Forreign Churches was taken up and very zealously promoted by the English Puritans By these men generally it was taught in Catechisms and preached in Pulpits That true it was that the death of Christ Jesus on the Cross and his bloodshedding for the remission of our sins were the first cause of our Redemption But then it was as true withall That he must and did suffer the death of the Soul and those very pains which the damned do in Hell before we could be ransomed from the Wrath of God and that this only was the descent of Christ into Hell which we are taught by Christ to believe But more particularly it was taught by Banister That Christ being dead descended into the place of everlasting Torments where in his Soul he endured for a time the very Torments which the damned Spirits without intermission did abide By Paget in his Latin Catechism That Christ alive upon the Cross humbled himself usque ad Inferni tremenda tormenta even to the most dreadful Torments of Hell By Gifford and the Houshold-Catechism That Christ suffered the Torments of Hell the second death abjection from God and was made a Curse i. e. had the bitter anguish of God's Wrath in his Soul and Body which is the fire that shall never be quenched Carlisle more honestly not daring to avouch this Doctrine nor to run cross against the Dictates of his Master affirmed That Christ descended not into Hell at all and therefore that this Article might be thought no otherwise than as an Error and a Fable 17. The Doctrine of the Church being thus openly rejected upon some Conference that passed between Arch-bishop Whitgift and Dr. Thomas Bilson then Bishop of Winchester it was resolved That Bishop Bilson in some Sermons at St. Paul's Cross and other places should publickly deliver what the Scriptures teach touching our
That all the Lords of his Majesty's Council all the great Officers both of Court and State the two Chief Iustices and the Chief Barons of the Exchequer should be from thenceforth nominated and approved by both Houses of Parliament That all the great Affairs of the Kingdom should be managed by them even unto the naming of a Governour for his Majesty's Children and for disposing them in Marriage at the will of the Houses That no Popisâ— Lord as long as he continued such should vote in Parliament And amongst many other things of like importance That he would give consent to such a Reformation of Church-Government and Liturgy as both the Houses should advise But he knew well enough that to grant all this was plainly to divest himself of all Regal-Power which God had put into his hands And therefore he returned such an Answer to them as the necessity of his Affairs coâ—pared with those impudent Demands did suggest unto him But as for their Demand about Reformation he had answered it in part before they made it by ordering a Collection of sundry Petitions presented to himself and both Houses of Parliament in behalf of Episcopacy and for the preservation of the Liturgy to be printed and published By which Petitions it appeared that there was no such general disaffection in the Subjects unto either of them whether they were within the power of the Houses or beyond their reach as by the Faction was pretended the total number of Subscribers unto seven of them only the rest not being calculated in the said Collection amounting to Four hundred eighty two Lords and Knights One thousand seven hundred and forty Esquires and Gentlemen of note Six hundred thirty one Doctors and Divines and no fewer than Forty four thousand five hundred fifty nine Free-holders of good name and note 18. And now the Warr begins to open The Gentlemen of Yorkshire being sensible of that great affront which had been offered to his Majesty at the Gates of Hull and no less sensible of those dangers which were threatned to him by so ill a Neighbourhood offered themselves to be a Guard unto his person The Houses of Parliament upon the apprehension of some fears and jealousies had took a Guard unto themselves in December last but they conceived the King had so much innocence that he needed none and therefore his accepting of this Guard of Gentlemen is voted for a levying of Warr against the Parliament and Forces must be raised in defence thereof It hapned also that some Members of the House of Commons many of his Domestick Servants and not a few of the Nobility and great men of the Realm repaired from several places to the King at York so far from being willing to involve themselves in other mens sins that they declared the constancy of their adhaesion to his Majesty's service These men they branded first by the Name of Malignants and after looked upon them in the notion of evil Councellors for whose removing from the King they pretend to arm but now the stale device must be taken up as well as in their own defence Towards the raising of which Army the Presbyterian Preachers so bestir themselves that the wealthy Citizens send in their Plate the zealous Sisters rob'd themselves of their Bodkins and Thimbles and some poor Wives cast in their Wedding-Rings like the Widow's Mite to advance the Service Besides which they set forth Instructions dispersed into all parts of the Realm for bringing in of Horses Arms Plate Money Jewels to be repayed agâ—in on the Publick Faith appoint their Treasurers for the Warr and nominate the Earl of Essex for their chief Commander whom some Disgraces from the Court had made wholly theirs Him they commissionate to bring the King from his Evil Councellors with power to kill and slay all such as opposed them in it And that he might perform the Service with a better Conscience they laid fast hold on an Advantage which the King had given them who in his Declaration of the 16 th of Iune either by some incogitancy or the slip of his Pen had put himself into the number of the Three Estates for thereupon it was inferred That the Two Houses were co-ordinate with him in the Publick Government and being co-ordinate might act any thing without his consent especially in case of his refusal to co-operate with them or to conform to their desires Upon which ground both to encrease their Party and abuse the people who still had held the Name of King in some veneration the Warr is managed in the Name of King and Parliament as if both equally concerned in the Fortunes of it It was also Preached and Printed by the Presbyterians to the same effect as Buchanan and Knox Calvin and some others of the Sect had before delivered That all Power was originally in the people of a State or Nation in Kings no otherwise than by Delegation or by way of Trust which Trust might be recalled when the People pleased That when the underived Majesty as they loved to phrase it of the Common People was by their voluntary act transferred on the Supreme Magistrate it rested on that Magistrate no otherwise than cumulativè but privativè by no means in reference unto them that gave it That though the King was Major singulis yet he was Minor universis Superior only unto any one but far inferior to the whole Body of the People That the King had no particular property in his Lands Rents Ships Arms Towers or Castles which being of a publike nature belonged as much to the people as they did to him That it was lawful for the Subjects to resist their Princes even by force of Arms and to raise Armies also if need required for the preservation of Religion and the common Liberties And finally for what else can follow such dangerous premises That Kings being only the sworn Officers of the Commonwealth they might be called to an account and punished in case of Male-administration even to Imprisonment Deposition and to Death it self if lawfully convicted of it But that which served their turns best was a new distinction which they had coined between the Personal and Political capacity of the Supreme Magistrate alledging that the King was present with the Houses of Parliament in his Political capacity though in his Personal at York That they might fight against the King in his Personal capacity though not in his Politick and consequently might destroy CHARLES STVART without hurting the King This was good Presbyterian Doctrine but not so edifying at York as it was at Westminster For his Majesty finding a necessity to defend CHARLES STVART if he desired to save the King began to entertain such Forces as repaired unto him and put himself into a posture of defence against all his Adversaries 19. In York-shire he was countermined and prevailed but little not having above Two thousand men when he left that County At Nottingham he sets up his Standard
the other two In whose behalf when it was moved by one Mr. Wroth That the House should be humble Suitors to Her Majesty for the releasing of such of their Members as were under restraint it was answered by such of the Privy-Councellors as were then Members of the House That Her Majesty had committed them for causes best known to Her self and that to press Her Highness with this Suit would but hinder those whose good it sought That the House must not call the Queen to an account for what she did of Her Royal Authority That the Causes for which they are restrained may be high and dangerous That Her Majesty liketh no such Questions neither did it become the House to deal in such matters Upon which words the House desisted from interposing any further in their behalf but left them wholly to the Queen by whom Wentworth was continued Prisoner for some years after 24. In the same Parliament one Morrise Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster proposed unto the House That some course might be taken by them against the hard courses of Bishops Ordinaries and other Ecclesiastical Judges in their several Courts towards sundry godly Ministers and painful Preachers who deserved more encouragement from them They also spake against Subscription and the Oath Ex Officio and offered a Bill unto the House against the imprisonment of such as refused the same Of this the Queen had present notice and thereupon sends for Coke then Speaker of the House of Commons but afterwards successively Chief Justice of either Bench to whom she gave command to deliver this Message to the House that is to say That it was wholly in Her Power to call to determine to assent or dissent to any thing done in Parliament That the calling of this was only that the Majesty of God might be more Religiously observed by compelling with some sharp Laws such as neglect that Service and that the safety of Her Majesty's Person and the Realm might be provided for That it was not meant they should meddle with matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical That She wondered that any should attempt a thing so contrary to Her Commandment and that She was highly offended at it and finally that it was Her pleasure That no Bill touching any matters of State or for the Reformation of Causes Ecclesiastical should be there exhibited On the delivery of which Message Morrise is said to have been seized on in the House by a Serjeant at Arms but howsoever seized on and committed Prisoner kept for some years in Tutbury Castle discharged from his Office in the Dutchy and disabled from any Practise in his Profession as a common Lawyer Some others had prepared a Bill to this effect That in lieu of Excommunication there should be given some ordinary Process with such sute and coertion as thereunto might appertain that so the dignity of so high a Sentence being retained and the necessity of mean Process supplied the Church might be restored to its ancient splendor Which Bill though recommended somewhat incogitantly by one of the Gravest Councellors of State which was then in the House was also dashed by Her Majesty's express Command upon a Resolution of not altering any thing the quality of the times considered which had been setled in the Church both by Law and Practise Which constancy of Hers in the preserving of Her own Prerogative and the Church's Power kept down that swelling humour of the Puritan Faction which was even then upon the point of overflowing the banks and bearing down all opposition which was made against them 25. And that they might be kept the better in their natural Channel she caused an Act to be prepared and passed in this present Parliament for retaining them and others of Her Subjects in their due obedience By which it was Enacted for the preventing and avoiding of such Inconveniencies and Perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous Practices of Seditious Sectaries and Disloyal persons That if any person or persons above the age of sixteen years should obstinately refuse to repair to some Church Chappel or usual place of Common-Prayer to hear Divine Service established or shall forbear to do the same by the space of a Month without lawful cause or should move or perswade any other person whatsoever to forbear and abstain from coming to the Church to hear Divine Service or to receive the Communion according to the Laws and Statutes aforesaid or to come or be present at any unlawful Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under pretence of Religious Exercise contrary to the Laws and Statutes made in that behalf or should at any time after forty days from the end of that Session by Printing Writing or express Words or Speeches advisedly and purposely go about to move or perswade any of Her Majesty's Subjects or any other within Her Highness Realms and Dominions to deny withstand or impugn Her Majesty's Power and Authority in causes Ecclesiastical united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm That then every person so offending and convicted of it should be committed unto Prison without Bail or Main-prise till he or they should testifie their Conformity by coming to some Church Chappel or other place of Common-prayer to hear Divine Service and to make open submission and declaration of the same in such form and manner as by the said Statute was provided Now that we may the better see what great care was taken as well by the two Houses of Parliament as by the Queen Her self for preserving the Honour of the Church the Jurisdiction of the Bishops and the Royal Prerogative in both it will not be amiss to represent that Form to the eye of the Reader in which the said Submission was to be delivered The tenour whereof was as followeth viz. 26. I A. B. do humbly confess and acknowledg That I have grievously offended God in contemning Her Majesty's godly and lawful Government and Authority by absenting my self from Church and from hearing Divine Service contrary to the godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm and in using and frequenting disordered and unlawful Conventicles and Assemblies under pretence and colour of exercise of Religion And I am heartily sorry for the same and do acknowledg and testifie in my Conscience That no person or persons hath or ought to have any Power or Authority over Her Majesty And I do promise and protest without any dissimulation or any colour of means of any Dispensation That from henceforth I will from time to time obey and perform Her Majesty's Laws and Statutes in repairing to the Church and hearing Divine Service and do mine utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same 27. This Declaration to be made in some Church or Chappel before the beginning of Divine Service within three Months after the conviction of the said Offenders who otherwise were to abjure the Realm and to depart the same at such time and place as should be limited
so in himself he seemed not very ambitious of those glorious Attributes which could not otherwise be purchased than at Penry's Price 33. For now perceiving when too late to what calamitous and miserable Ends he had brought his Followers what horrible Confusions had disturbed the whole Church by his obstinate Follies he was contented to knock off and to give way to those Prudential Considerations which the complexion of Affairs did suggest unto him He saw too clearly that there were no more Walsinghams or Leicesters at the Council-Table That the Arch-bishops little finger moved more powerfully there than those few Friends which durst speak for him being put together That the Chief Justice Popham was a man of a ridged nature not to be trifled with or took off from the prosecution if he should come within the compass of the Law And finally that though the Statute made in the last Session seemed chiefly to relate unto the Brethren of the Separation yet there might be some way or other to hook in all the Zealots for the Discipline also if they did any thing in derogation of the present Government Of these Relentings some intelligence had been given to Arch-bishop Whitgift who thereupon resolved to work some impression on him when he found him like a piece of Wax well warmed and thereby sitted to receive it In which Resolution he applies himself unto the Queen from whose Clemency he not only obtained for him a release from Prison but made it the more comfortable by a gracious Pardon for all Errors past He suffered him moreover to return to Warwick where he was Master of the Hospital founded by the Earl of Leicester as before is said and there permitted him to preach though with this condition That he should neither Write nor Preach nor act in any thing to the disturbance of the Church either in reference to her Government or Forms of Worship And though it be affirmed That Cartwright kept himself within those Restrictions yet when the Queen had notice of it she was much displeased and not a little blamed the Arch-bishop for it But he beheld not Cartwright as he had done Travers though both pretending to the Ordination of a Forreign Presbytery For Travers never had any other Hands imposed on him than those of the Presbytery of Antwerp which might stand for nothing But Cartwright was first lawfully ordained in the Church of England the Character whereof could not be obliterated though it might possibly be defaced either by the Rescinding of his Letters of Orders which some say he did or by the super-addition of such other Hands as were laid upon him after the fashion of Geneva Neither was Cartwright so insensible of the Obligation as not to know and to acknowledg by whose Favour he received that Freedom carrying himself from that time forwards to the Arch-bishop both in his Letters and Addresses with as much respect as any of the Regular and Conformable Clergy continuing in that peaceable disposition till the time of his death which hapned about ten years after his enlargement that is to say on the 27 th day of December Anno 1603. 34. But the Arch-bishop stayed not here he knew right well that Punishment without Instruction would not edifie much with men of common understandings and therefore carefully employed both himself and others in giving satisfaction to all doubting-judgments For his own part he wrote this year his long and learned Letter to Theodore Beza which before we spake of and therein calmly laid before him that deplorable Rupture which not without his privity had been made in the Church of England Which point he prest upon him with such Christian Modesty and did withall so clearly justifie this Church in her whole proceedings that Beza could not but confess himself to be conquered by his future carriage which from thenceforth breathed nothing else but Peace to the Church it self and dutiful respects to that Reverend Prelate And for the satisfaction of all Parties interested amongst our selves a Book was published this year also by Dr. Thomas Bilson then Warden of the Colledg near Winchester concerning The perpetual Government of the Church of Christ proving therein That from the time of Christ himself till these latter days neither the Universal Church nor any National or Provincial Church in what place soever had been governed otherwise than by Bishops and their Under-Officers True other Books were published at the same time also by Dr. Richard Bancroft so often mentioned the one for the undeceiving of the people who had been miserably abused by such counterfeit Wares entituled A Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline The other to inform them in the Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised in this Island of Britain under pretence of Reformation c. which was the Title of the Book The like course was also taken for the justification of the Bishops Courts by publishing the Apology of Dr. Cosens before remembred And because Hacket's Treasons had been built on no other Foundation than that the Holy Discipline might be raised upon them a Narrative thereof is penned by Dr. a Doctor of the Civil Laws collected for the most part out of the Letters and Confessions of some Disciplinarians which either had been intercepted or perswaded from them A course exceeding prosperous to all those whom it most concerned For the Arch-bishop by this means went in peace to his Grave Beza was gratified by him with a liberal Pension Bilson within a short while after made Bishop of Winchester Bancroft preferred about the same time to the See of London Cosens for his encouragement made Dean of the Arches 35. And though we find not any Preferment to be given to Cartwright yet was it a Preferment to him to enjoy his Ministry by means whereof he is affirmed to have grown very wealthy partly by the Revenues of his Place in the Hospital and partly by the Bounty and Munificence of his constant Auditors Only it is reported of him that towards his end he was afflicted with many infirmities insomuch that he could not otherwise apply himself unto his Studies than upon his knees which some were willing to impute as a judgment on him for having so bitterly inveighed against all such men as in that reverend and religious posture did receive the Sacrament Some also have informed us of him That notwithstanding all his Clamours and Tumultuous manner of proceedings against the Church he could not chuse but confess there was more Discipline exercised in the Church of England than in any of those Churches beyond Seas which himself had seen Which words as he is said to have spoken to one Mr. Woods then Parson of Freckenham in Norfolk during the time of his imprisonment in the Fleet so the said Woods reported them to Dr. Iohn Burges before-mentioned and from him I have them But I had brought the man to his Grave before and should not have disturbed his rest by these sad