prevent the recovery of the said Lordship as it is conceived in his own house After that came Bishop Deane and he vigorously prosecutes the recovery of the said Lordship and he had not done much more then begun but he dieth Then came Bishop Wheeler and he petitioneth to my Lord of Strafford for the said Lordship of Bishops Court and by the great care and desire of the now most Reverend Primate of all Ireland to benefit the Church of Christ Bishop Wheeler had the Lordship of Frenis-Town that was one of the pretended Fee-farms made by Tonery and formerly yielded the Bishop but 4 li. yearly and doth now yield 50 li. every year yielded up unto him so that Shea might still continue in the Bishops Court and when Wheeler died my gracious King and good Master Charles the First commended me to the Bishoprick of Ossory then came the Rebellion and I was driven to flee before I had received one Penny from my Bishoprick or had continued two Moneths therein but blessed be God for it I was restored by our now most gracious King and having an Order from the most Honourable House of Lords to be put into the possession of all the Houses and Lands of the Bishop of Ossory that the last Bishop died seized of the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny did put me among divers other places into the possession of the said Bishops Court and the Tenants attourned Tenants unto me and continued from the _____ dâ—y of April until the 8th day of October following 1662. at which time one Captain Burges and divers others Anabaptists and Sectaries the Tenants of Sir George Ayskue that never come into the Church yet came into the Bishops House and thence expelled the Bishop and his Tenants from his possession And I the Bishop hearing of it went thither my self with two men and my Chaplain Mr. Thomas Bulkley and finding the door open I and my Chaplain went in and one of them that kept the possession affronted and justled me at the door of the Loft to hinder my entrance in and yet I got in and then more and more came into the Room to the number of 9 or 10 persons And some of them especially Captain Burges vilified and threatned me to the fear of my Life and some did shut the Iron Grate and locked it as I conceived to keep me there for their Prisoner and to hinder my two servants that I had sent with my horses to Freshfoord to come in and when they demanded if they meant to murder their Lord and desired to come in one of them that had a Cudgel in his hand said that if he offered to come in there he would knock him in the head and my man answered him with the like menaces and I hearing of their high threats and fearing what mischief might fall out there sent a peremptory command to my men to go home and let what death soever pleased God come to me but after that I got liberty to go unto mine own house I called a private Sessions and Indicted Will. Portis Tho. Collins Jo. Rayman Josias Scot Will. Burges for their forcible entry but the Indictment being removed by a Certiorari to the Kings Bench though I had retained two Counsellors and gave them twenty shillings for their Fee to do things right and according to Law yet through the errour of the Clerke there were some faults found in the Indictment and so the same was quasht by the Judges of the Kings Bench Then I got the best Attourney that I thought was in Dublin and is so reputed by all my friends to draw me another Indictment against the foresaid forcible enterers and being drawn I carried it to Sir William Donvil the Kings Atturney and gave him his Fee to review it and mend it if any thing was amiss in it and make it so as it might stand good in Law the which thing he very carefully did and amended some things with his own hands And I knew not what I could or should do more to draw a good Indictment Then I desired the Justices of the Peace to send a precipe to the Sheriffe to summon a Jury to examine the force which they did upon the said place where the force was committed And though Sir George Ayskue had for his Atturney Mr. Smith the now High Sheriffe of the County of the City of Kilkenny and Mr. Johnson the Recorder of the City of Kilkenny for his Counsellour to plead against the finding of the Indictment true as much as ever they could and another Counsellour stood against it as much or more than either of them both and I had neither Atturney nor Counsellour to say any thing for it but what the Witnesses proved yet the Jury did presently find it Billa Vera. Then I desired the Justices of the Peace to restore me to my Possession but to prevent the same Mr. Smith Sir George Ayskues Atturney having a Certiorari ready in his Pocket did immediately as soon as ever the Jury had brought in their Verdict deliver the same into the hands of the Justices of the Peace and they delivered it to the Clerk of the Peace and the Justices said that now they could not restore me to my Possession because that their hands were stopt and all the proceedings must be transmitted to the Kings Bench by Octab. Hillarii And when I came to Kilkenny I went to the Clerk of the Peace and examined the same Indictment which the Jury found and which I had done before ad amussim very diligently with that Copy which the Kings Atturney had amended and averred to be sufficient and I prayed the Clerke of the Peace to give me a Copy of that Indictment which the Jury found the which he did under his hand and I examined all again and found them in all things to be verbatim word for word agreeable one to another Then by Octab. Hillarii the time set to return the proceedings to the Kings Bench I went to Dublin But there was no Indictment returned still I expected but still in vain At last I complained to the Lords Justices but they answered that they could not help it for they knew not whether the Certiorari was delivered or not At last seeing it was neither returned nor like to be returned I was advised to make Affidavit that I had seen it delivered into the hands of the Justices of the Peace and that I heard it read and then saw it delivered to the Clerke of the Peace and then upon the reading of my Affidavit and a motion made by my Counsel thereupon there was an Order set down that there should be 20 li. fine set upon the Clerke of the Peace if the proceedings and the Indictment came not in by such a day So at last it came in but it was the last day of the Term that it came into the Court and then the Kings Sergeant moved for my possession but the Counsel on the other side pleaded that there was an errour in the said Indictment and being somewhat long in alledging the Cases of A. and B. and of John an Oakes and John a Stile the Lord Chief Justice told
out of his hands and said this is a Sermon that I carried with me to preach where I should rest on the Lords day but that the Letters that were to the King and to the Bishop of York and others were in the Satchel and he for haste to see the Letters suffered me to put my Sermon and the Grand Rebellion into my Pocket which I feared would have been my death or utter ruine if the Commissioners had seen it Then Sir John having taken out the Letters asked me how I durst at those times carry Letters unto the King I answered they were Letters from those poor Bishops that therein shewed to his Majesty how they were pillaged and persecuted by the Popish Irish Rebels and I knew and had a Copy of what was in them before I would carry them then Sir John said I did wisely to do so and so he went in unto the rest of the Commissioners and left me lockt in the room yet very joyful for having gotten my Grand Rebellion out of his hands but behold still the malice of Satan and the subtilty of his Instruments while I was walking up and down the room and had torn the worst case that I had writ against the Parliament and chewed it in my mouth and threw it away an arrand knave was peeping at the key hole and went unto the Commissioners and told them that I had some desperate or treacherous Papers which he saw me tear then Sir John North comes to me again and aked what Papers those were that I was seen tearing I smilingly answered Alas Sir ever since I came from Sea I was troubled with a looseness and having by chance a loose leaf in my Pocket I pluckt it out and said this is the Paper that I had in my hand to go to the house of office and he looking upon it and finding it of no effect said Is this all And went his waies and then I remembred what our Saviour said When you are brought before Rulers Mark 13.11 take no thought what you shall speak for it shall be given you in illa hora in that very hour what to answer and God also wrought in the Commissioners such thoughts of me and my sufferings by the Irish that they gave me a Pass to go home and delivered me my horses which Captain Flaxon hoped to have had for his reward and the forty pounds which he found in my house and which I told the Commissioners was all that I had to keep me and my Family So graciously did God help me that I went home with joy contrary to the expectation of my Neighbours that informed the Rebels of my return to those parts And within a few daies after was the Battel at Edge-hill at which time I went to his Majesty and waited on him untill he came to Oxford And here in Oxford I printed fiâ—st my Grand Rebellion and afterwards my discovery of mysteries and last of all The rights of Kings where immediately I printed my Grand Rebellion and finding how well and how graciously his Majesty accepted of my endeavours therein I went to Wales and studied my discovery of mysteries or the plots of the Parliament to overthrow both Church and State and by the next Winter I came to Oxford to Print it and being printed Secretary Faukeland misliking a passage that I had set down of the Episcopal power in causa sanguinis would have had it called in but his Majesty would not suffer it to be supprest therefore I resolved by the next Winter to publish as I did my Book of the Rights of Kings both in Church and Commonwealth and the wickedness of the pretended Parliament and in the interim I was perswaded to go to London to see what I could work upon my Lord of Pembroke whom I had served so many years and tutored all his Children whereof two were now with his Majesty and when I came to London I took the opportunity to go unto him For I conceived that time to be the safest time while he was in bed and after much conference with him about the differences betwixt the King and his Parliament and their disloyalty to his Majesty and that I saw he began to be offended and very angry for fear he should deliver me to the Parliament that formerly had caused all that they found of my Grand Rebellion to be burnt I took my leave of him and presently highed me to go out of Town but was denied to pass untill I used my wit to the Maior of London to get a Pass by telling him that I was a poor pillaged Preacher of Ireland that came to London to see my friends and now having some other friends in North-hampton and thereabout And I have his Pass by me to this very day I humbly desired his Pass to go to see them and he pitying my case called for a cup of Wine and commanded his Clerk to write me a Pass without a Fee And then after I had passed a good way towards North-hampton I turned to Oxford and from thence within a while to Wales and from thence to Ireland and after Nasby fight being bound with my L. Taafe in a thousand Marks a peece unto his Majesty for the appearance of Collonel Vangary that returned at Edge-hill fight from the Parliament unto the King with Sir Faithful Fortescue at Beaumares Sizes for taking away a Drove of Cattle from the Drovers of Anglesey and he not appearing our Recognizans were forfeited and I was fain to return to his Majesty with Letters from my Lord of Ormond that Van-garie could not come out of Ireland and therefore his Majesty was humbly desired to remit the forfeiture of our Recognizance which his Majesty by his Letters to the Justices of Peace of Anglesey very graciously did and sent another Letter by me again to my Lord of Ormond but in my passage to his Majesty I was like to be carried to the Parliament by a knave that about ten miles from Aberystwith began to examine me and said that I was a Spy for the King and therefore I must be carried before some of the Parliament Officers to be examined and I had no other shift but to commend him for his care and to tell him that there were too many Spies abroad and I was but a poor pillaged man in Ireland that would very willingly go before any man and I still called for drink until he was perswaded that I was a very honest man and so he let me go in peace And before I could pass into Dublin General Mitton with his Army had entred into our Country and I preaching that Sunday that he came at Rhudhland had an Alarm about midnight and was fain to flee to Carnarvon shire and when he came to Carnarvon shire to slee too Anglesey And because Anglesey was an Island and could not be won if the Inhabitants would be true among themselves we that were true Royalists summoned the chiefest
say or do I could not prevail to have the Record amended according to the original Record And when I saw that I desired my Counsel to desire their Lordships either to grant that it might be amended or to quash it out of hand that I should not spend my self in Dublin but go to begin a fresh and to indict them again and then my Lord Chief Justice answered seeing we desired to quash it let it be quasht which in respect of the Kings fine I conceived should not be done if the original Indictment found by the Jury was good Then I got the Kings Sollicitor Mr. Temple and the Kings Sergeant Sergeant Griffith and Mr. Darcy to draw me an Indictment that would stand good in Law and presently I went to Kilkenny and required the Justices of the peace to send their preÌ„cipe to the Sheriff to summon 24 men to appear at Freshfoord the 23 of the instant which they did accordingly and the Deputy Sheriff appointed these Gentlemen to be summoned Nom. Jur. ad inquirend John Grace of Courtstowne Esq Jonas Wheeler Gent. Rich. Donvil Gent. William Davies Gent. Walter Bushop Gent. Walter Nosse Gent. John Pursel Gent. William Pay Gent. William White Gent. Ralph Hale Gent. Lewis Mathews Gent. Robert Grace Gent. George Lodge Gent. Edmund Butler Gent. Matthew White Gent. William Hunter Gent. Thomas Green Gent. Vincent Knatehbul Gent. Ric. Comerford of Degenmore G. Tho. Bowers of Knoctopher G. Emanuel Palmer Gent. Mathias Reilegh Gent. Chri. Auetstone of Thomastone Tho. Hussie of Gowrom Gent. Toby Boyle of Condonstown Gent. Tho. Tomlius of Lyniate Abby Joseph Wheeler of Killrush George Barton of Goslingstown G. But before the Bayliffs were gone to summon them the High Sheriff was come to the Town and seeing the List of the Subscribed and having conferred with Sir George Ayscue that lay in the next Room where the Sheriff lay he said those men should not serve in the Jury but he would choose a Jury for this business and he nominated such men Anabaptists Presbyterians and others of the most rigid Sectaries that were in all the whole County Yet because I knew two or three of them to be very honest men I was very well contented with them But as soon as ever I was gone from the Sheriff those men were put by and other Sectaries put into the List in their stead * A Jury as my friends that knew them said would hang all the Bishops in Ireland if they were their Jury to try them And the Bailiff coming to me for more money then I had given him for summoning those that the Deputy Sheriff had appointed because now the High Sheriff had appointed men that he had picked out over all the County of Kilkenny Then I suspected some evil determined against me and I desired the Bayliff to shew me the List of those that he was to summon and when I saw those honest men that I knew put our and others put in their room I put the Warrant in my Pocket and bad the Bayliff tell the Sheriff that my Witnesses for the King were not ready and after he told this to the Sheriff he câ—me to me again weeping and crying and desired me for Gods sake to give him his Warrant For the Sheriff was very angry with him and he was utterly undone for shewing me the Warrant but I kept it still in my Pocket And thus was I served with a great deal of travel and charge above 60 li. in seeking to recover the Church Lands which I resolved and vowed if I could recover it to bestow it wholly for the repairing and re-edifying of the flat-fallen Church of Kilkenny And now let the Judge of all the World and let all just and honest men judge whether this be a fair and just proceeding But quorsum haec To what purpose is all this pains of this Relation Is it to taxe and charge the Reverend Judges either of injustice or partiality No By no means I taxe no man but I set down rem gestam the whole matter a capite ad calcem and they the Judges and Counsellours being great Lawyers may find all this to be just and especially to make it seem so to be and though for all cheating Pettifoggers and covetous Counsellours that against the dictate of their own consciences and against their King and against the Church of God will for a Fee sell their souls unto the devil I hate their doings that are Sicutatri â—anua ditis Yet I do from my heart honour and reverence all the grave and just Judges and Learned Lawyers without whose help and Counsel and Judgment we could not live in this Common-wealth And though I failed at the Kings Bench to prevail to procure those Fines unto the King which I conceived should be imposed upon those five that I indicted whereof the chief of them that is Captain Burges is now sent Prisoner to Dublin by my Lord of Ossory which may be a just Judgement that he should be committed by my Lord of Ossory for his abuse done to the Bishop of Ossory yet I have had very fair Justice done me by the Judges of the Court of Claim and I am confident to find the like from them again and to be righted by the Judges of the Court of Exchequer * And so likewise from the Kings Bench and Common Pleas. for the wrongs and damages that I sustained by those that forcibly entered upon my Possessions and do still detain it from me when I shall bring the cause before them Therefore I have no reason for the biting of a mad Dog to hang all the good Dogs in the Countrey or for the abuse or injustice done me by some one man or few Lawyers to exclaim against all others when as the Poet adviseth us Parcere paucorum diffundere crimen in omnes But I do exceedingly tax my self and mine own understanding that understanding both Greek and Latine and having read what Lambert Bolton and Dalton have written of Forcible Entries I should be such a Dolt as not to understand this Proceeding of mine about the Indictment of those Forcible Enterers to be a just and a fair Proceeding Therefore mine apprehension conceiving such proceedings to be foul and very much amiss and that the justice which I had upon the whole matter had not what Pindarus such Justice useth to have that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thought good to set down the same not to accuse and complain against any one for being unjust or to seek any redress unto my self for I have born and can be contented still to bear more wrongs than this But I do it for these ends 1. To let poor men see how they may be wronged and oppressed and have their Land and Possessions taken from them by great and powerful men and what they are best to do in such a case and my counsel is to be patient because as I said before Levius fit patientia quicquid
I resolved once more to enter into the List to follow my alwaies very honourable Friend my Lord Chancellours Advice and try the Success with him by the Verdict of an honest Jury and Lindired 6 of the Tenants and Servants of Sir Geo. Ayskue for a forcible Entry and 5 of them now the third time and I had six Counsellours help to draw and compose the Indictment and so to review it and correct it if any thing was amiss therein that being found Billa Vera by the Jury it might so stand good and not be quashed as my two former Indictments were by the Judges of the Kings Bench. And the 6 forcible Enterers being indited for fear lest the Record should be falsified and corrupted as the former indirement of them had been I got the Clerke of the Peace to send it inclosed in a Letter sealed up by my man to his Agent in Dublin to be â—elivered into the Office which mine Adversaries presently told to my Lord of Santree and was objected as a Piaculum Meaning as I conceived by the Relation that I had printed of the former Proceedings and when the Record came to the Court my Lord Chief Justice said upon the Bench that my Lord Bishop had abused the Court to whom I replied that I had not abused the Court for that I had set down nothing but the Truth and was as Ioah as any man to offer the least Abuse to any of his Majesties Courts or Judges of his Courts And after my Lord Chief Justice and my self had conferred together I found him my very honourable Friend and I retained three of the Kings Counsel to follow the said Cause for his Majesty and the Counsellours of the Fanaticks failing to quash the Indictment my Lord Chief Justice told them they must either submit or be bound to prosecute their Traverse and they became bound in 200 l. to prosecute the same upon the 10th day of Easter Term which was the sixth day of May. And when upon that day the Jury were sworn That their children and their childrens children may understand from what I will not say Canaanites but Catharisâ—s they are sprung Who and what my Witnesses proved viz. William Baker of Ballytobin John Pursel of Lismore William Baxter of Earlstown Isaac Jackson of Kâ—lamery John Jones of Ri _____ Robert Hawford of Ballyneboly Nicholas Pharoe Thomas Tomlins of Lismoteag Chrystopher Render of Fadenarah John Nixon of Brawnebarn William Cheshire of _____ and Thomas Huswife of Gowran good men and true or neither good men nor true 1. I brought in evidence Mr. Sheriff Reigly who was the Sheriff that gave me possession and Mr. Connel and Hugh Linon that was thought needless to prove my possession given by the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny by vertue of an Order of the House of Lords of this Lordship of Bish Court the Lands thereto belonging and of the Tenements in Freshfoord as it was expressed in a Shedule annexed to the Order of the Lords upon the 29th day of April 1662. and that the Tenants did atturne Tenants and gave pieces of money in earnest of their rents and promised to keep the possession and to continue Tenants unto me during my pleasure 2. Mr. Thomas Bulkley Mr. William Williams Thomas Davies and my self proved the multitude of persons to the number of ten or twelve that upon the 8th day of October 1662. were entred into the said Bishops Court and there forcibly kept the possession against the Bishop and some one with a sword by his side and a staff or Cane in his hand and another with a long staff in his hand threatned that they would make him repent his doings and coming there and that Sir George Ayskue would spend 500 li. before he would leese this Bishops Court and that Captain Burges said he would keep and uphold the possession for Sir George Ayskue with his life and fortune and others having shut the Iron Grate to hinder the Bishop to go out or his Servants to come in when his Servants demanded what they meant to murder their Lord And desired to come in to wait upon their Master they threatned them and said that if they offered to come in there they would beat them down and knock out their Brains 3. Mr. Richard Marshal Mr. George Farre Mr. John Murphey and Ed. Dalton that proved how he was thrust out of the house by head and shoulders proved the forcible entry with arms and weapons a Gun and a Pike and Staves into some of the Tenements in Freshford and that for nine daies they kept the same with such a company of Fanaticks Anabaptists and other Sectaries that they seemed rather to be a Garrison than the keeping of the possession of any house And after nine daies they bound George Farre and others in a bond of a thousand pounds that they should continue true Tenants to Sir George Ayskue and keep the possession for him against the Bishop of Ossory And because the said George Farre proved this point so fully and so plain that nothing could be said against it one of the Fanaticks Counsellours said what I conceive was very unfit to be spoken in so publick a place and before such honourable Judges of any of the Kings Witnesses that this man the principal of the Witnesses was a parricide which I dare justifie to be most untrue 4. For impounding the Cattle and beating and wounding them that sought to hinder it the said George Farre proved the same so fully and that one of the women that was beaten lay long sick after her beating that Sir Audley Mervin and Serjeant Gruffith would not suffer three other Witnesses that I had there at the Bar that is John Duran Barbara Marshal and another Wench to be sworn and examined and so to trouble the Court any further because said they you see the Lords Justices and the whole Court are sufficiently satisfied that I had more than abundantly proved the forcible entry and detaining of this Bishops Court but they gave way to six of the Intruders Counsel to say what they could for their Clients And when each one of them had made his Oration and spent much time and my Lord Chief Justice heard them with a great deal of patience to prove what I never denied but was ready to confess all that they said touching the large Writings and Evidences that they produced to prove the Title and Interest of Mr. Robert Shea to this Bishops Court which at this time when the question was only of the forcible entry I had no reason to contradict and which perhaps might be good and perhaps not before he forfeited the same unto his Majesty But for Sir George Ayskue that for his Service How S. George Ayskue came to have this Bishops Court. you know to whom which makes me believe it will never prosper with him had a Commission from the Usurper Crummel that for 200 li. which was due unto him for
some Service that he had done as I am informed the Commissioners should allot him so much Lands as they thought worth 200 li. and they out of favour to him and getting Lands so cheap as they did gave him this Bishops Court and so much more other Lands as are now far better worth than 200 li. per annum his Counsel said never a word touching his Title and Interest for he injoyed it not peaceably and quietly but only during the time of the Rebellion and Usurpation which I conceive to be no true Possession for as soon as ever his Majesty was so happily restored before one year had gone about I sent to enter upon it and to distrain for my Rent and Captain Burges Sir George Ayskues prime Tenant gave me a Writing which I have to shew under his hand to become answerable unto me for the whole Rent of this Bishops Court and Freshfoord when I should be peaceably setled in it So when these six Counsellours had spent their spirits in tyring the worthy Judges and beating the soft air to no purpose but only like those Fanatick Preachers that read their Text and never touch it after to amaze the simple and Jury which I may justly term for that I am confident the most of them were resolved what to do before ever they heard the Evidence My Counsel that were Sir William Dunvil the Kings Atturney Sir Audley Mervin * The Speaker of the House of Commons Sir John Temple the Kings Sollicitor Sergeant Gruffith and Mr. Rian all very worthy men and worthy to be named thinking it no wisdom in them as one of themselves told me nor any waies beneficial either to the King for his Fine or to me for the Possession to follow those extravagant Counsellours in their devious waies and to answer their needless discourses so far from the point in question as being only about Sheas Title and no waies touching nor contradicting the forcible entry were very silent and said never a word to all that the adverse Counsellours had said but left the Evidence to be explained to the Jury by the Judges who had so exactly examined them and so patiently heard what both sides could say for which some of the adverse Counsellours and some of my friends blamed them very much for making no manner of replication at all to Sir George Ayskues Counsel But truly I do conceive that digitus dei erat hic that as he openeth the mouth of babes and sucklings to shew forth his praise so he shuts the mouths of the Wise and Learned when it pleaseth him as here he did for the trial of this Jury whether they would be true and honest that being found * Like Belshazzar weighed in the balance and found too light as I conceive they are they might be made an example which he knew I would do to the uttermost of my power for all other Juries to terrifie them from falshood and wrong to the great benefit of the whole Kingdom which without some severe censures upon such high Offenders would rather prove to be a Den of thieves than a seat of safety for honest men that were best if Juries may still do what they list to obey the voice which cried in the air at the Siege of Hierusalem Migremus hinc Then my Lord of Santry that is my Lord Chief Justice seeing my Counsel silent began most nobly rightly and truly as a most upright Judge and like himself in all his judgements told the Jury that for the title and matter of Law and the Interest of either in this Bishops Court it was not in their charge to inquire of it but they that were the Judges of the Law and of the right interest were to do it and would do the same when my Counsel should move for the possession but they were for the King to enquire only of the matter of fact and force whether after possession was given to the Bishop by the Sheriff by vertue of an Order of the house of Lords and the Bishop continued his possession from April to the eighth of October The which saâ—d he a Disscisor should not forcibly be put out though he should be a Disseisor yet was he not forcibly put out and kept out of the same This was their only charge to inquire after and for this said my Lord Chief Justice you see what is proved a multitude of persons ten or twelve at the least when as one may make a forcible entry you heard also said he what weapons they had Gun Pike Sword and Staves and you heard what threatning words they used that they would make the Bishop to repent his coming there that they would knock down his Servants and beat out their brains if they attempted to come in and you heard likewise how they had beaten and wounded those Servants that sought to hinder them to impound their Cattle and all this said my Lord Chief Justice makes the forcible entry plain so that you need not stand upon it So justly and so fairly did my Lord of Santry deal herein without either fearing or favouring the one or the other So the Jury was dismist and all that heard the evidence Sure if I had not been a Bishop they would never have given such a Verdict and what my Lord Chief Justice said would have laid some twenty to one some forty to one and some a hundred to one that the Jury would not stand upon it but presently find the Verdict for the King Yet they brought their Verdict for the Defendants And as I am informed all the Grave and Reverend Judges wondred and were discontented at their Verdict And who will prosecute for the King if Juries be suffered to do thus and whereas some would have the Jury fined and imprisoned for the wrong they had done to the King my Lord Chief Justice answered there was a fitter place to punish them meaning as I conceive the Star-Chamber And if such men that formerly most of them were against their King be thus permitted to drive men out of house and home and forcibly to enter into their possession though they should be Peeres of the Realm which is a violence offered unto the Law and a peâ—ty Rebellion the next degree and fore-runner of rebellion against their King himself and when any oppressed and expulsed man shall with a great deal of pains and labour and with a vast expence of money and an indictment upon indictment thrice over bring the same to a travers and they the Jury without any Conscience contrary to all justice and contrary to all their evidence and the plain Declaration and Judgement of the Lords the Judges of the Court and of the whole Court shall do what they please and say Quod volâ—â—us id sanctum est what we do is Law without any speedy remedy against them to the utter undoing of many poor oppressed men who had better suffer any the greatest wrong than
seek to be relieved And as the Poet saith Excessit medicina modum by such a way whereby usura superat sortem and the seeking of a Remedy shall so far exceed the Disease I know not with what safety either of Life State or Fortune which are all in the power of the Juries to determine of them any man can live in this Kingdom For here especially in the County of Kilkenny where that perfidious Rebell and Traytor Axtell planted his Colony such a multitude of Anabaptists Quakers and other worser Sectaries What I say against these I say not against the worthy Gentlemen and good Protestants that are also very many and my very good Friends in these parts Neither do I say it against those wel-bred Gentlemen that were Officers and Commanders in the Arâ—â— but of the generality of the Common â—ouldiers and some of the meaner Officers that for their small Arrears got large Territories and are now great Free-holders and the chiefest Jury-men and Judges of our Lives Lands and Fortunes that in the beginning of the English Rebellion were broken Citizens and Tradesmen Taylers and Tinkers Shoomakers and Coblers Plow-men and others the like men of no fortune thought to raise themselves by the Irish Wars and having some Arrears of Pay due unto them go Orders to set out Lands unto them for the same and the Kingdom being depopulated and wasted and made a Wilderness without Inhabitants the Lands were of nothing worth and they had what Lands they pleased and as much as they pleased for their Arrears for ten pounds as much as is now worth a hundred pounds a year and for a hundred pounds as much as I will give a hundred pounds per annum These men that followed Axtells Religion and were of his Plantation being mounted up on Cock-horse to be such great Eâ—â—eholders the Irish Proprietors being for the most part driven away and the Church Lands also taken into these Souldiers hands they must now be for the most part the principal Jury men and so the Judges of our Lives Lands and Fortunes And they considering their own interest to be alike in the Lands both of the Church of the Irish and of all from whomsoever they hold it do stick and cling together like sworn brethren or rather like forsworn wretches to defend and maintain each others Title and Interest in the Lands that each one holdeth both against Clergy and Laity God or the King be the same right or wrong they will not lose their lands And they do incourage each other thus to continue in their wickedness saying that they got their Lands with the loss of their bloud and the hazard of their lives and therefore to get the King some small fine whereof he shall have but the least part of it and be but very little the better for it and to dispossess their own fanatick Party and give the Lands unto their Enemies especially unto the Bishops whom of all others they hate most of all and Bishop Williams above all the rest as he that hates their former Rebellions and their now practices more than any man else they will never do it though they hazard the loss both of body and soul Indeed for the Bishop of Ossory he understands their malice towards him well enough I pray God forgive them so great that were it not for some honest and truly religious Irish Gentlemen and some of the Catholick Religion I profess that I durst not live amongst these that formerly warred against their King and if the truth were known do as I believe as little love their present King as they do much hate our Church and the Bishops of our Church when as they that hate their Bishops cannot be said to honour their King as I have most fully shewed in my Grand Rebellion And therefore I went unto his grace my Lord Lieutenant and related to his Grace the Verdict of the Jury plain contrary to their evidence and the Declaration of my Lord Chief Justice and the Judgement of the whole Court and therefore did most humbly desire his Grace to give me leave to go for England to dispatch some necessary occasions and to signifie unto his Majesty that if there were no Court of Star-Chamber here nor any other provision made to punish all perjured Juries and all high Transgressors of the Laws and hainous offendors that deprive his Majesty of the fines justly due unto him and his Subjects of their right we the true Protestants and his Mâ—jesties loyal Subjects were not in safety nor able to live among such Confederates of wickedness but must as King Boco said to the Senate of Rome depart thence lest the ire of the Gods or the rage and injustice of such men do utterly destroy us And his Grace very mildly and graciously answered my Lord the Bill for a Star-Chamber is already arawn and sent to his Majesty to be signed and will speedily come down to pass the Houses and then such Malefactors may be fully punished according to their offence And I protested and do protest that I would be with the first that would do my uttermost endeavour to punish this Jury and all false and forsworn perjured Juries and the like high Transgressours that concern me whatsoever For It is most certain that Impunitas peccati invitat homines ad malignandum And therefore I do believe that I am as equally bound in conscience to punish this Jury as I am to recover the Lands of the Church and as Solomon saith because the punishment is deferred the hearts of the children of men are altogether set to do evil and my Divinity assureth me that to punish a perjured person and a transcendent Transgressour of the Law is as acceptable unto God as the relieving of the Oppressed because that hereby we do our best that those which will not be perswaded by good Counsel to be honest and vertuous may be forced with stripes to do their duties or at least terrified from being so vicious for that as St. Bernard saith Qui non vult duci debet trahi And therefore with what means that God hath given me I will with his assistance do my best to repair Gods House to relieve the Distressed and to punish the Perjured and the Oppressors of Gods People and the rather because that here in the parts where I live I have seen in three or four years more forcible Entries Riots and Oppressions than I have seen in England or Wales that might be thought a little more wild than England in all my life so that a Stranger might rather think it a Country of Robbers Tyrants and Oppressours much like unto Albion when Brutus entred it than a Country where with safety he might dwell amongst them for I do profess were it not for some honest Irish that are not all of my Religion nor I of theirs that do further me incourage me and protect me in Gods servicâ— and the advancement of Gods
Church I had rather live a poor Curate in my own Country than a Bishop among such a company of Crumwellian Anabaptists Quakers and other worser Sectaries that do live in these parts and the wind of his Majesties happy Government and the prudent care of my Lord Lieutenant hath driven them As by their actions and hatred I do perfectly discern them like the Church Papists in Queen Elizabeths daies to come within the Pales of our Church and yet are as false-hearted if the same might be seen both to the King and the Church of Christ as ever they were in Crumwells daies as I conceive it to appear by the oath of one of my Witnesses that swore he heard the Captain of these forcible Enterers that I indicted incouraging his followers to keep the possession for Sir George Ayskue and to assure themselves things should never be quiet untill they returned and come again as they were before which was a strange saying as I understood it Yet I would not have my Reader here to think but that as the Scripture distinguisheth betwixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent the Children of God and the Sons of Belial so I do here in no waies prejudice nor think the least evil of the true-hearted English and true Protestants the worthy Gentlemen the Officers Captains and Commanders of the Army that are likewise many in these parts but I make a great deal of difference betwixt them so much as that I do as much love and honour the one as I do hate and abhor the doings and wickedness of the other So you may see what it is to live in Ireland For here now the Poet may well say that Terras Astraeâ— reliquit among Anabaptists and other Sectaries worse than Pagans and how it is my Fortune to feel the brunt and taste the poyson of their Malice to publish the same to all posterities God deliver his Servants from them Amen ANd now untill I shall see whether the Star-Chamber will think it Justice as I do that this Jury should bear all the damage that I sustain by their Verdict and which I should have recovered upon the forcible Enterers if they had gone according to their Evidence I thought good to prefer this Petition to His Majesty To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of Gruffith Lord Bishop of Ossory Sheweth THat Justice is a vertue and grace most acceptable with God yet your Petitioner hath been infinity injured and your Majesty likewise wronged 1. By forcible Enterers that drove your Petitioner out of his house of Bishops Court and Freshfoord 2. By a wicked forgerer of the Indictment of those persons that were indicted for that entry 3. By a packt Jury that when the forcible Enterers were three times indicted by three several Juries quitted them contrary to their evidence and the mind of all the Judges May it therefore please your Majesty to cause that Justice may be done to your Petitioner and that you would write to the Sheriff of the County of Kilkenny that as formerly he hath setled your Petitioner in this Bishops Court and Freshfoord by vertue of an Order of the House of Lords so he would now settle him in his right and possession of the same by vertue of an Order from your Majesty And your Petitioner doth here promise and ingage himself to God and to your Majesty that as he bestowed about four hundred pounds already so having the four hundred pounds per annum that your Majesty granted setled upon him according to the Act of settlement pag. 71 72. he will lay out a thousand pounds more to repair the flat fallen formerly fair Cathedral Church of St. Keny And shall ever pray for your Majesty c. The sad condition of the Church and Clergy in the Diocess of Ossory and I fear not much better in all Ireland THE Church of Ireland in former times was very famous and glorious for many things especially for Piety and neighbourly Charity and bounty of the people one towards another as it appeareth by the rare and many many Edifices of Churches and Monasteries endowed with ample means and revenues dedicated for the honour of God and the service of Jesus Christ all to be seen at this very day for which cause it was wont to be admired and applauded and by the bordering Nations that observed their sedulity in pious works and neglect of worldly pomp when as the holy Patriarchs lived in Tents so most of them were contented to lie in Booths and poor earthly Cabins or houses made of Earth that they might build to God houses of Marble most sumptuous and glorious and that they might be the better able to bestow the more to adorn and beautifie the houses and Temples of God it was called and not amiss Ecclesia Sanctorum the glorious Church of holy Saints that aimed only to go to heaven But now since the unhappy time of that potent K. H. 8. when Sacriledge through his discontent with the Pope about his divorce with Queen Katherine Ut fama vagatur began to get the upper hand and to throw away Piety from the Church and trample it under-foot and cover it over with the Cloak of hypocrisie and the vain shadow of no Religion instead of the true service of God you may see reliquias danaum the ruines of Troy and in all places the carkass of Religion lodged in the thrown down walls of all the Abbies and Monasteries and most of the Cathedrals and the other Churches of Ireland that are now as the Prophet saith defiled and made heaps of stones Psal 79.1 For if you walk through Ireland as I rode from Carlingford to Dublin and from Dublin to Kilkenny and in my Visitation thrice over the Diocess of Ossory I believe that throughout all your travel you shall find it as I found it in all the waies that I went scarce one Church standing and sufficiently repaired for seven I speak within compass that are ruined and have only walls without ornaments and most of them without roofs without doors without windows but the holes to receive the winds to entertain the Congregation And what a lamentable thing and a miserable-fight is this If you say that in the time of blindness the people were over zealous in building too many Churches and thinking to merit much thereby I say that now in the fulness of knowledge and the Sun-shine of the Gospel they are too riotous to pull them down and too negligent of Gods honour and of the Peoples good to waste and ruinate so many Churches and to let the people want them to meet together to serve God which will merit a worse reward for them than they shall have that built them You may remember that when Moses was to erect the Tabernacle in the wilderness within a desart place of no trade or traffick and therefore not easie to get any wealth in it Yet Moses requiring their
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other
of Genua who promised to deliver Constantinople into the Emperours hands so he would make him King of such a place that he desired And Mahomet yielded and assured him that he would do it and so he did Pet. Primanday c. 39. pag. 423. for as soone as ever the said Justinian had betrayed the City into his hands he presently made him King for that good service which he had done unto him but for a reward of his treachery to his Lord and Master Augustulus he cut off his head within three dayes after And so all the wise men that I have read of do conceive that no good service done to succeeding Kings can merit the blotting out of the perjury and perfidiousness of Traytors to their former Kings and Masters but that after they be rewarded for their good turns done to the latter they should likewise receive the merit of their perfidiousness to the former Theodorus in Collect. l. 2. The reasons why perfidiousness should not be pardoned And the reason is rendred by the foresaid Sages 1. Because that as Theodoric the Arian said when he cut off the head of an Orthodox Deacon whom he loved because he revolted to please Theodoric as he thought to Arianism they that keep not their oaths and faith to God can never be faithful to any mortal man Flav. Vopisc in vita Aurelian 2. Because that as Aurelian said when he suffered Heraclemon which had done him so good service to be slain he could not believe that he which would betray his Countrey and prove faithless to his own Prince could ever continue faithful unto him but that upon the like discontent or hope of a greater gain such Traytors as will turn the leaf and saile with every winde will become as treacherous to their latter benefactors as they have been unto their former Masters And therefore though we should forgive them as Christians yet it is neither wisdome nor pollicy to believe them as friends because not onely the Fable of the Snake but the Son of Syrach also teacheth us what little credit is to be given to reconciled friends Eccles 10.12 And the wise heathen bids us semper diffidere to suspect such faithless men continually Object But what if the Kings and Princes have promised Pardons unto the Traytors for some special service done unto them Can they afterward punish them for their precedent offences unto others I answer that as Cicero saith Sol. every man is bound and much more it is for the honour of a Prince to keep his word and promises inviolable though upon some exigent necessity he may be constrained to make the same to his prejudice and against his will and it was well said that the bare word of a Prince should be of as great force as the oath of a private man But though Kings and Princes should inviolably observe their words in their Pardon 's granted unto Rebels and Traytors and other Malefactors Not to countenance and favour those that have been Traytors and why yet as Philip King of Macedon answered Lasthenes that betrayed the City of Olynthum and Augustus Caesar said to Rymetalces King of Thracia that had forsaken Antonius to joyn with him that he loved the treason that did him good but he could not endure the Traytor that betrayed his Master And Alexander Severus was of the same minde but that he joyned cruelty with his hatred unto the Traytors for when he had inticed many Captains of Piscennius Niger his Competitor of the Empire to disclose their Masters secrets and had served his turn of them and settled his affairs he made all those Traytors Herod l. 3 and their children also to be put to death as Herodian writeth So the wisest men conceived that they ought not to countenance and favour those that had been Traytors unto other Princes though they had done good service unto them and that for these three reasons 1. For that he which hath turned one leaf can turn another and he that hath betrayed my Father may upon the like hopes and surmises betray me likewise and he that hath been a Rebel knows the way to become a Rebel 2. For that this honouring and magnifying of Rebels and Traytors to former Princes for their good service done to latter Masters may prove to be an encouragement for others to become Rebels and Traytors in like manner against their Kings For when amongst many thousands of Rebels they see but few punished the rest pardoned and many of them favoured and preferred why may not the seditions think that they shall either prevail or if miss of their enterprise they may escape the fortune of those few that shall be punished and be magnified like those that they do see thus rewarded 3. For that this favouring and countenancing of those that have been Rebels and false is a great offence and discouragement to those that have ever continued faithful and loyal especially if they see themselves postponed and neglected And therefore the Kings and Princes that I told you of thought it neither wisdom nor policy to regard and favour those whom they pardoned for their treachery to their former Princes though they had done never so good service unto themselves and if all Kings did so I believe fewer Traytors would spring up among the people And this appeareth plainly by our new Plotters of Rebellions and Treasons now amongst us in this Kingdom of Ireland for who and what are they that doe thus murmur and mutter against both God and his Anointed the King and his Lieutenant the Church and Common-wealth But those that have been members of the Beast and limbs of the great Anti-Christ the Rebels and Traytors that rose and warr'd and some no doubt but had their hands or fingers dipped deep in the bloud of that blessed Saint and glorious Martyr our late most gracious King Charles the First and having escaped their just deserved shame and death and being so highly rewarded by their Grand Masters for their great wickedness with the lands of the Irish without distinction whether they were bloudy Murderers and Rebels against their King or innocent Papists that were both loyal unto their King and succourers of the Protestants and now seeing the touchstone of truth and justice rendring to every one his own according to his merit either of nocency or innocency they stamp and stare and being moved with madness like boyes at blinde manbuâ—â— they let fly their Arrows even bitter words nay false scandalous rebellious and treacherous words against the King against his Lieutenant and against the peace and happiness of this whole Kingdom they care not whom they traduce so they may stir up the coals of contention and move the discontented to a new Rebellion And what wayes do they take for this but the very same which they had learned and practised before in England under the Long-Parliament 1. To tax and to traduce the good King for doing that they know
and rooted out his whole off spring And I could spend my whole hour in examples of this kinde but I will content my self with two or three As 1. Of Ferdinando the fourth King of Castiâ—e Ferdinando who did most unjustly condemn two Knights to death and one of them cryed O thou unjust Judge we do cite thee to appear within thirty dayes before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ to receive judgement for thine injustice and so upon the last of those days he dyed to receive his sentence according to his summons And one Lapparel a Provost of Paris Lapparel caused a poor man that was prisoner in the Chastilet to be executed by giving him the name of a rich man who being guilty and condemned was set at liberty in the place of the poor man but the just judgment of God discovered his injustice and being accused and condemned he was hanged for his labour and so Philip King of Macedon was killed by Pausanias a mean Gentleman Philip Macedo Demetrius because he denied to do him justice against Antipater that had wronged him and Demetrius for throwing the petitions of his subjects into the River and denying to do them justice they all forsook him and Pyrrhus took away his Kingdome And many other men I could name to you that their injustice hath undone them And therefore all men should take heed of committing this horrible sin of injustice either by doing wrong or denying right unto others The injustice of some Judges And yet I am ashamed to speak it though I shall not be affraid to write it how gravely some Judges have sate upon the seat of judgment to pronounce unrighteous judgments and think to cover all their iniquity with the fig-leaves of the formalities of their Lawes to overthrow the reality of justice Oh beloved Monstrum horrendum ingens est it is a most horrible thing to have injustice done from the seat and from the Ministers of justice when a man is apparently wronged oppressed and expulsed out of house and home and shall with a deale of travel and a great deale of expences come to a Court of justice to be righted and instead of being redressed he shall see there scelus sceleribus tectum his former wrongs finely handled and loaded with far greater wrongs Do you think that this is well pleasing unto God or that such injustice shall escape unpunished no no for they shall finde that there is a God which judgeth the earth and that his judgment will be according to truth without partiality either to Jew or Gentile which here among men I see is not so But as I read that Diogenes seeing some petty thieves led to the place of execution laughed exceedingly and being demanded why he laughed he answered to see the great thieves lead the little thieves to the Gallowes so if he should see men forcibly expelled out of their possessions and the forcible entrers legally acquitted or if he should see the poor Irish Catholicks driven out of house and home either because they were Irish rebels which justly deserved it or because they were Romish Catholicks which should not therefore be destroyed and should see the great English Sectaries that had been greater rebels countenanced and magnified and to injoy the others Lands and Livings would he not laugh at this justice which is just like that which we read of in l. 1. of Philip Commines when Charelois lost the Feild and his Captains and their Troopers fled away he gave the offices and places of them that fled ten leagues to those that had fled twenty leagues beyond them Therefore I say to you whom God and the King have made Judges of these things for the settlement of this Kingdome As you have done hitherto so still ride on with your honour and have no respect of Persons nor of Nation nor of Religion but do that which is just and righteous in the sight of God and as God hath blest you and preserved you hitherto so he will still bless you and preserve you for evermore And for the preservation of better justice then I see in many places I shall speak more of it in another place and after another manner for you may be sure that Kingdome shall never be happy where oppression is frequently used and iniquity protected by injustice and especially by the Courts of Justice And therefore to the end that true justice might be truly observed I could wish the Parliament would make some Acts Lawes against many abuses practised by some cunning Lawyers in the very Courts of Justice The abuse of some cunning Lawyers in quashing of Indictments and especially against the frequent and abusive quashing of Indictments which is a sin of no slender malignity â—or when a poor man far from the fountain is by violence oppressed and he indicts his oppressors then presently comes a Certiorari and removes it to the Kings Bench and there the Lawyers are so skilfull in the tricks and quiddities of the Law and the Cases of John A-Nokes and John A-Stiles that they say there can hardly be any indictment framed but they are able to finde a flaw to quash it which I was told by great Lawyers And what a wrong is this to his Majesty in his fines what an injury to the poor men that are oppressed and what incouragement to all those wicked men that are so ready to offer all violence unto their neighbours which are not able to indict the same offendors three or four times over till they shall finde a man able to draw a faultless indictment And if this be not a greivous greivance worthy to be redressed if you desire the preservation of justice judge you And therefore it were good that some better way were devised for the framing of Indictments or the not quashing of them so easily and so frequently as they are reported to be 4. Sacriledge 4. The last frequent sin that I shall at this time desire you to cast your eyes behinde you to behold Gods detestation of it and his punishments that he poureth out upon the offenders is sacriledge which is the taking away and with-holding of those Revenues which God hath appointed and godly men have dedicated for the maintenance of Gods service and the religion of Jesus Christ and so the robbing of God himself both of his honour and service a sin so general that the custome of it hath quite taken away the sense of it and men think it to be no sin at all But I know what some may here say that now I plead mine own cause 1 Sam. 12.3 I will briefly answer as Samuel did unto the people and I say that I sued indeed for the Church right but I testifie before the Lord and your Grace and you All that I did it not to inrich my self for I thank God I have enough both for my self and my relation wife children and friends but I did it for the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. Pay to every man that which you owe. And rather then himself would omit this duty though he never wrought any other miracle about money yet herein when he had never a peny he would create money in the mouth of a Fish as both S. Hierom and the Interlin gloss do think to pay for himself and his Apostle And therefore seeing the Kings occasions are so great and the Subsidies Imposts Customes Aids and Excises and the like Taxes are so due unto them by the Laws of God and man they can be neither just nor honest men nor be in the way to the kingdom of God that deny or defraud the king of these duties What shall we say then of those men that will rather wink at malefactours and transgressours of the Laws then justly bring their Fines into the King's Exchequer I will say nothing at this time but that I cannot conceive how they are either just or righteous men herein or in the way to the kingdom of God â—or whosoever doth any ways defraud the King of any right that is any ways due unto him is in the next degree to him that committeth sacriledge and robbeth God himself and I believe that if it were not for the tricks and quirks of some men to quit the offenders there would be more monies brought unto the King and fewer faults committed in the Common-wealth 3. The next branch of Justice The third branch of righteousness is to deal honestly with all our neighbours to deceive no man to oppress no man to wrong no man And as our Saviour saith all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets this is all that the Law requireth Math. 7.12 this is all that the Prophets harped upon and this is all that we need most especially to insist upon to perswade men to deal justly and honestly one with another and where men will not do so to have justice and judgment done unto them which is the onely way to continue peace amongst us and to bring a blessing upon the whole kingdom they will bring a plague upon it And because as I conceive there was never more need of Justice to be executed then now when of late we were all involved in such confusion that as yet could not be reduced to any just and perfect position I must humbly crave your patience to stay a while upon this point And whereas there are four sorts of men concerned to have justice done unto them 1. The Church-men 2. The Adventurers 3. The Souldiers 4. The Innocent Irish Papists 1. I have often shewed how ominous it is to weaken the hands of the Clergie by keeping away their means to disinable them to do the service of God 2. For Adventurers that bestowed their moneys to suppress the Rebels and reduce them to their due obedience to his Majesty 3. For the Souldiers that fought for the same ends they ought justly to be rewarded according to their merit but for those that for covetousness And of such I am sure there are too many to get the Lands either of the Church or of the Irish they cared not how nor how much nor from whom they got it I wish that their judgment may be according to their desert and the merit of their desire 4. For the innocent either Irish Papists or ejected Protestants I fear it may be with many of them as it was with the Gibilines who being at variance with the Guelphs in the City of Papia promised to Facinus Caius all the houses and goods of the Guelphes if he assisted them to get the Victory which he did and after he had subdued the Guelphs he seized upon the goods both of the Guel hs and Gibilines and when the Gibilines complained that he brake his covenant in taking their houses and pillaging their goods that were Gibilines the said Caius answered It was true indeed that they were Gibilines but their goods were the goods of Guelphes and so belonged unto them and so to him So perhaps the covetous Adventurers and the greedy Souldiers may say of them as they do of us of the Church that they are innocent and we faithfull to our king but ours and their lands and fair houses are the lands of Rebels and therefore as they do hold ours from us so they will keep theirs from them But this is no justice nor to do as you would be done unto for as Abraham said to God Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked Gen. 18.23 And as Abimelech said Lord wilt thou stay a righteous nation So I say God forbid that any innocent man be he of what Religion he will should lose either house or lands But you will say The Irish Papists are not so innocent for though their hands did act nothing for fear they could not prevail yet it may be their hearts did earnestly wish that all the Protestants should be rooted out and perhaps their Fathers or Grandfathers were as deep in rebellion as any other and therefore they may be as justly deprived of their estates as they would have deprived us I confess that as when Croesus sent to the Oracle to expostulate why he should be so hardly dealt withall that was so bountiful unto the Gods and so faithful a server of them The Oracle answered That for his bounty the Gods preserved his life but his Kingdom was translated and his other affliction happened for the iniquity of Gyges that was the death of Candaules So God may justly punish the present Innocents for the precedent faults of their fore-fathers as he did cut off ten Tribes from Rehoboam for the sins of Solomon and he that knows our hearts may justly whip us for our evil thoughts But we are not to judge of any man for his thoughts nor to punish him for his wishes until they do break forth either into words or acts because the other must be left alone for God And therefore seeing that he which condemneth the Innocent is as abominable to God as he that absolveth the wicked that justice should be observed that no innocent man should suffer yet I would not have those deemed Innocents that are more then apparently known to be very nocent There is another degree of justice which should be performed to the oppressed Protestants that have been ejected out of their estates and to our poor neighbours that are ready to starve in the streets For as Saint Ambrose saith Esurientium paenis est quem tu detines nudorum indumentum quod tu recludis miserorum pecunia quam tu in arca abscondis And therefore though we term it alms yet it is justice in us to do it and they that are able are unjust if they do it not 4. The last branch of justice concerns our selves The fourth branch of our righteousness for a man may be
Temples that belonged to these no Gods Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane donec templa refeceris Horat l. 3. Ode 6. Aedesque labentes deorum fada nigro Simulachra fumo The which Ode that worthy and learned Imitator of this best Lyrick Poet thus excellently translateth in this elegant Lyrick Verse Roman resolve thou shalt desertless tast Sins scourge for vice of Predecessors past Untill thou dost again repair Decayed Temples and make fair The falling houses of the gods disgrac'd And cleanse their Images with smoak defac'd To think thee less than gods thy power commends Hence take beginnings hither aime thy ends The gods neglected did impose On sad Hesperia many woes Twice Pacorus and twice Manaeses hand Our inanspicious forces did disband Who with a plentious prey made glad To little chains new links did add And if by the judgment of this learned man they shall suffer for all the sins and offences of their Fathers and Fore-fathers untill they re-edifie the Temples and raise the flat-fallen houses of these gods and beautifie the defiled Monuments and Sepulchres of their Heroes and other noble persons that were dead What shame and what punishment do we deserve for suffering the Tombs and Sepulchres of our heroick Fathers and the Temples Houses and Altars of our good God and our Redeemer Jesus Christ to lye so waste so ruined and so defiled as they are here in this Kingdom of Ireland for I do believe that of about 100 Churches that our fore-fathers built and sufficiently endowed in the Diocess of Ossory there are not 20 standing nor 10 well repaired at this day Truly I have done my best beyond my ability let Demas and the detractors say what they please to repair the Quire of St. Kenny and I have privately vowed and publickly protested often and engaged my self to God to His Majesty and to the People and I am contented to be bound in a bond of one thousand pounds that if the Bishops Court and Freshford that were given to the Church and dedicated to God for the service of Jesus Christ shall be restored to the Church there shall not one penny or penniworth of all the rents and profits thereof be retained or transferred to me or any of mine but it shall wholly and fully be imployed and laid out for the raising and reparation of that Cathedral Church which the Lord hath now committed to my charge But if I shall still see as I have seen hitherto that Rebels and Traytors that have been if such as have fought under the Standard of the beast and Great Antichrist against their own King to bring him to be murdered may be so stiled shall be countenanced furthered and upheld to carry away and enjoy the Lands and Houses of the Church and so little regard had of that justice we owe to render unto God what belongs to God and less respect to the servants of Jesus Christ than to the followers of the Antichrist then seeing as the Prophet saith in vacuum laboravi I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength my time my means and my money for nought in seeking to bring to God what is Gods and to the Church what of right belongs unto the Church Liberavi animam meam and I hope I may freely turn the leaf and as God said of the house of Eli I said indeed that the house of Eli 1 Sam. 2.30 and the house of his Fathers should walk before me for ever but now saith the Lord be it far from me And seeing they had so far dishonoured him and so much prophaned his service it was just with God so to do And so I said indeed I would do my best and I would bestow as much as I was able and perhaps more than many would imagine to repair the Cathedral Church of St. Kenny yet now being disappointed of my hope and finding men preferring flesh and bloud before the dictate of the Spirit of God favouring those that have been rebels before such as are religious Seeing I cannot build the Church of Christ I have resolved to the uttermost of my power to overthrow the Synagogue of Satan that is to punish perjurers and such others high transgressors of Gods Laws and to leave the houses of God as finding my self unable to prevail to do therein any good wasted and ruined as they are And if this I cannot do but that Scelera sceleribus tuebuntur one false and perjured Jury shall be defended and protected and justified by another false Jury and one wicked oppressor excused by another the like oppressor or that the fear of great men will not suffer poor spirited Lawyers to afford us Law for any money then ad te domine clamabo that we can have neither truth nor justice in the earth But to proceed to shew the miseries of the Church of Ireland though it be a very lamentable thing and an unanswerable argument of the decay of Piety and of small Religion in the noblest persons to suffer the houses of God to lie as they do for hogs and other beasts to dig up the bones of holy Saints it may be the Fathers or Mothers of the now great Lords and Ladies of the Kingdom Yet as the Lord said unto his Prophet Ezekiel Turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations Ezek. 8.6 so I say to my Reader For 2. The great want of able Ministers in this Kingdom and why they are so scant 2. As God is without Churches for his people to meet in to serve him so he is without servants enabled to do him service to praise his name and to teach his people and to have Churches and no Churchmen is to no purpose But why have we not such Churchmen as are able to instruct Gods people I say it is easily answered that it is not so easie to get able worthy and sufficient Churchmen unless there were sufficient means and livings to maintain them for as Seneca truly saith Sublatis studiorum premiis ipsa studia pereunt where there is no reward for learning there will be want of learned men as one demanding why there were no Physitians in Lacedemon answer was made because there was no stipend nor allowance set forth for the Professours of that faculty but as Martial saith to Flaccus Sint Maecenates non decrunt Flacce marones Virgiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt But here in Ireland since Hen. 8. Why we want learned and painful Preachers here in Ireland overthrew the Abbies and Monasteries that were as Universities to breed Schollars and to send them forth to feed the flock of Christ and gave the Revenues thereof which were the Ecclesiastical Livings of the Church unto his Nobility and lay Gentry that spend the same in many places in hawking and hunting and perhaps in some other worser employments the Church of Christ wanteth Schollars and which is worse wanteth means to maintain those Schollars that otherwise would supply